1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

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The year 1991 gave the hobby two radical roleplaying games. Both focused on plots, intrigue, and story. One was Vampire: The Masquerade, which introduced us to the World of Darkness and playing monsters almost as a kind of unnatural superhero roleplaying game, and did so in a stunning looking book. It would go on to win the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Rules of 1991. The other was Amber Diceless Role-Playing, which as the title suggests, was radical in a wholly different way.
Amber Diceless Role-Playing is a licensed roleplaying game based on the Chronicles of Amber, the ten-book series by Roger Zelazny. The books are set in the one true reality that is the kingdom of  Amber with every other world or realm being a reflection or ‘Shadow’ of the kingdom—including Earth—all the way out to the Courts of Chaos. Amber is ruled by one family with many members who plot and scheme for the throne and who have mental and physical powers that are almost godlike. Not only that, but they also have the ability to walk through and manipulate the Shadows after having walked the Pattern, a symbol of the order of the universe, as well as use Trumps. These are playing card-sized decks illustrated with members of the family which can be used to contact each other, transport between their respective locations if they are willing, and even scry on each other—if they are careful. Given their long life and their ability to step out into a Shadow where time might run faster, an Amberite can also have almost any skill he wants, but ultimately that skill may not matter against the true mental and physical abilities of an Amberite.  There are seventeen or so brothers and sisters in the Amber royal family, all the children of Oberon, the first King of Amber who has disappeared at the time of the first book, Nine Princes in Amber. However, the players do not take the roles of these princes of Amber, but their children, and they can be as fractious as their parents and their aunts and uncles—and even towards their parents and their aunts and uncles. The fourth novel in the series, Hand of Oberon, asked, “What would have another generation have been like?” Amber Diceless Role-Playing sets out to answer that question.
A character or Amberite in Amber Diceless Role-Playing is defined by four attributes—Psyche, Strength, Endurance, and Warfare. Warfare covers fighting and strategy of any kind; Endurance is health, fortitude, and tenacity; Strength is raw physical power; and Psyche is mental strength and ability with a host of different magical powers. A Player Character begins play with all four attributes at Amberite level, which means that he is capable of defeating almost every person or creature that he might meet out in Shadow. At that level though, any Amberite with a higher value—even a slightly higher value—in an attribute will nearly always beat him. They can also be lower—Chaos or Human level. However, most Amberites will have attributes higher, much higher. Plus, there is no limit to how high an attribute can go. A Player Character can also have Powers. Pattern Imprint and Trump Artistry are common to most Amberites, whilst Logrus Mastery and Shapeshifting are found amongst the members of the Courts of Chaos. All are incredibly powerful and can be used with relative ease, often reflexively once known, whereas Magic takes time, effort, and study. Magic comes in three forms: Power Words are instantaneous effects primarily used defensively, Conjuration covers the creation and empowering of artefacts and creatures, and Sorcery details more complex, but inordinately more time-consuming spells. In addition, a Player Character can have allies, his own Shadow, and signature artefacts—arms and armour are common since swords are the most often wielded weapons in the setting.
Character creation in Amber Diceless Role-Playing is not only diceless, but co-operative and adversarial. Diceless because no dice are rolled, co-operative because it done together, and adversarial because the Player Characters will be better in one or more of the attributes than their cousins. This is because character creation is handled as an auction, the player bidding in each of the four attributes, if not to be the best, then at least be better than their potential rivals. This automatically sets up rivalries between the characters with the players outbidding each to see whose character is the best. Points bid are lost—or rather expended—to determine where each of the Player Characters ranked in terms of the four attributes, with a higher ranked character nearly always able to beat a lower ranked character. However, a player can decide to pass and buy up to just under another character’s in an attribute and do so in secret, adding a degree of uncertainty in deciding or knowing who is better. Then beyond the four attributes, a player is free to purchase the Powers, Shadows, allies, artefacts, and so that he wants his character to have. The problem here is that no player has enough points for all of this.
At the start of the attribute auction, each player has one hundred points on which to bid on his character’s attributes and purchase his powers. Each of the Powers is really good—and that is before a player considers the advanced versions, and the auction can get fiercely competitive, especially in the key Psyche and Warfare attributes. Options then might be for the player to decide to buy down at attribute, either to Chaos or even Human level. Then a player might opt to help the Game Master by contributing a diary or keeping a campaign log, or even writing poetry or stories, or he might opt for his character to have Bad Stuff. Essentially, Bad Stuff is bad luck and means that things invariably do not go the character’s way and that he suffers from a poor reputation. Should a player have points left over from character creation, they are converted to Good Stuff. Having Good Stuff means that the things invariably do go the character’s way and he benefits from a positive reputation. EdmundEdmund grew up an orphan out on a Shadow and only began to discover his heritage when he found Witherbrand, renowned for its cutting remarks, which began to teach him about the true nature of the universe. He has yet to discover which of the sons and daughters of Amber is his true parent and that is his primary goal.
PSYCHE: 5th [16 points]STRENGTH: 5th [5 points]ENDURANCE: 3rd [10 points]WARFARE: 3rd [24 points]
55 Total Points in AttributesPattern Imprint [50 points]WITHERBRAND – Sword [14 points]Deadly Damage [4 points]Able to Speak in Tongues and Voices [4 points]Sensitivity to Danger [2 points]Shadow Path [2 points]Alternate Forms, named and numbered [2 points]Bad Stuff [1 point]Personal Diary [+10 points]
Mechanically, in Amber Diceless Role-Playing—because it is diceless, a character can do almost anything as long he has the capability and can narrate it, and long as it is not challenging or he is not opposed. Further, Powers such as Pattern Imprint and Logrus enable a Player Character to literally manipulate the worlds around him. If a character is opposed, combat can ensue and whilst the character with the highest rank will likely win, there are circumstances when another attribute will influence the outcome. For example, in a contest of Warfare, the character with the higher Endurance might be able to outlast his opponent or laying his hands on his opponent with his higher Strength defeat him in a grapple. Like the rest of the game, combat is handled narratively, whether that is simple matter of affirming that a Player Character defeats an opponent out on a Shadow or when faced by one of his rival Amberite cousins or an agent from the Courts of Chaos, played out blow-by-blow, right down to the stances assumed and the manoeuvres made. If this sounds all too simple, then on one level it is. Yet, at the level of the blow-by-blow account of a duel—whether using swords, armies, magic, or even wits, it is far from simple. It takes narrative skill and judgement upon the part of the Game Master to unfold the outcome of such an encounter effectively and reasonably—though not necessarily fairly because stories are not always like that and a Player Character may just have some Bad Stuff which will probably influence the outcome too.
Fortunately, the handling of combat is liberally illustrated with not one, but eight examples of play, depending on the skill of the combatants. It is these examples where Amber Diceless Role-Playing begins to shine. There are not just examples of combat and of play, but a complete example of auctions for all four attributes, followed by examples of the Game Master working through the resulting characters with her players to get better more playable results that match their concepts. In addition, all of the Powers and the types of magic are explored in depth and detail, not just to understand how they work, but also how they can be brought into a campaign in interesting ways to challenge the Player Characters. To be fair, the advanced versions are not explored in as great depth as the standard versions, but the likelihood is that few of the Player Characters are going access to those at the start of a campaign. This is followed by an examination of twenty of the Elder Amberites, including different versions built with differing number of points, suggesting their roles in a campaign, and what each would be like as a parent. Plus allies and artefacts. Any fan of the Chronicles of Amber will enjoy both the examinations of the various powers and the Amberites in particular, especially the latter where the designer begins to diverge away from the baseline narrative and point of view that is Corwin’s in the first five books of the series. 
For the Game Master there is advice on running the game, which though may look obvious today, at the time of roleplaying game’s release would have been perhaps not quite as widely accepted. Much of this caps the advice throughout Amber Diceless Role-Playing, covering character backgrounds, outline hints for the rules of engagement for character information, choices, and other narrative elements. It even goes one step further into the radical by suggesting that “The best kind of roleplaying is pure role-playing. No rules, no points, and no mechanics.” and the playing group best ditch everything from character creation, points, magic, rules, and even the Game Master! This though may be step too far though given how much of a step change even the diceless, narrative style of play in Amber Diceless Role-Playing would have been at the time of its publication.
Rounding out Amber Diceless Role-Playing is a set of three scenarios, each of a differing nature. ‘The Throne War’ is an experimental way to play, intentionally designed as the opposite of an atypical game of Amber Diceless Role-Playing. In this, everything from attributes to Powers is up for bid in the auction and the Player Characters are actively campaigning—and thus the players playing—against each other in a bid to become King of Amber. As the first scenario in the book it is literally a swerve away from the way the game is typically played and is not really suitable as a first scenario. It is followed by ‘Battleground on Shadow Earth’ which is framework for a battle between Law and Chaos which the Player Characters need to cleave through to get to the source of the problem. The third scenario, ‘Opening the Abyess’ which does open with a deus ex machina, but is otherwise a better plotted and more interesting set-up at the very least, which the Game Master can extend into a campaign.
Physically, Amber Diceless Role-Playing is clearly written and laid out with some excellent black and white artwork. In terms of tone and style, it is clear that the author loves the Chronicles of Amber and is thoroughly engaged with the series and wants the reader to love it just as much. This infectious pervades the pages of Amber Diceless Role-Playing from start to finish and the book is an immensely enjoyable read.
If perhaps there is a downside to Amber Diceless Role-Playing, the most obvious is that the roleplaying game is a step too far into the radical and away from the accepted notions of what a roleplaying is and how a roleplaying game is actually played and run. They should have dice and a resolution mechanic, and the players should not have to compete for aspects of their characters like their attributes. Yet make that a hurdle to overcome and is it really a downside rather than an adjustment to be made, even if one that is not for everyone? Perhaps then the downside is the evangelising tone which the author of Amber Diceless Role-Playing takes in places, such as when it pushes the aforementioned radical step of ditching the rules or describes Amber as the grandest of settings or when it states that it is the Game Master’s job to encourage and teach good roleplaying and is accompanied by advice on how to deal with players who prefer bashing monsters, are indifferent, or rules lawyers. Perhaps it does go too far, but is it any worse than any other roleplaying game designer espousing ‘the one true way’? Certainly there have been plenty of tomes of advice on being a good Game Master and a good player, and the differences between them and Amber Diceless Role-Playing look negligible in hindsight. Lastly, there may be an issue with just how much detail there is in Amber Diceless Role-Playing and that it does not cover everything in the Chronicles of Amber in sufficient detail. Fair enough, but it is just the one book. There is Shadow Knight, a second supplement which explores the Courts of Chaos in more detail, as well issues of the fanzine, Amberzine.
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Dirk DeJong reviewed Amber Diceless Role-Playing in Challenge Issue 65 (October 1992) as a fan of the novels. He identified that, “The biggest problem with this endeavor, and its downfall, is the nature of the conflict systems. First, they are diceless, and don’t involve any sort of random factors at all, aside from those that you can introduce by roleplaying them out.” …although he countered with “Admitted, this does force more cautious play, as most fights are simply to test your opponent’s prowess, rather than for your blood.” He also said, “In Amber’s favor, I have to say the gamemaster help sections, the sections for players on how to be better roleplayer, and the amount of time spent on how to really create a flesh-out character were excellent. If more RPGs had this quality of work and obvious love of roleplaying put into them, the entire industry would benefit.” In his Evaluation, he said, “As to whether or not you should buy “Amber,” I have to profess that it is really up to you. If you love Zelazny and the Amber series, jump on it, as this is the premier sourcebook for the running an Amber campaign. Just don’t expect miracles from the game system itself. Personally, I just can’t get tuned on by a system that expects me to either be content with a simple subtraction of numbers to find out who won, or to describe an entire combat blow by blow, just so that I can attempt some trick to win. In my final estimation, the good and the bad pretty much balance out, leaving me with “Zero Stuff.””
Amber Diceless Role-Playing was given a feature review in White Wolf Magazine #31 (May/June 1992) which included opinions from multiple contributors. The lead reviewer, Steve Crow readily identified flaws in its auction attribute system, the combat rules and firearms, and the fact that “Amber is not a game for beginning gamemasters or players. Understandably, it is impossible to deal with every permutation of Zelazny's concepts in 256 pages. The gamemaster must have a good grasp of the material. If nothing else, he’ll need to know the material so he can explain it to theplayers and interpret their actions.” He concluded though with “Amber is, overall, an appealing game. It encourages the use of imagination, character development, and problem solving. Its main flaw is that it is, more often than not inaccessible to novice gamers and individuals unfamiliar with Zelazny’s work. It is undoubtedly a game for experienced gamers. While I would not recommend Amber to novices, it is a must buy for experienced gamemasters and players looking for new challenges.” He gave it a rating of four.
Sam Chupp also gave Amber Diceless Role-Playing a rating of four and said that, “This is a game for expert roleplayers, people who have outgrown Monty Haul and killer-dungeon style games and who are looking for something challenging.” Mark Rein-Hagen increased the rating to five and said, “Amber is an extraordinary game. Not so much because it is well put together and fun to play  (though it is), but because it is something entirely new.” describing Amber as “…[A] revolutionary work in roleplaying, deserving the highest accolades, but it is pioneering work and is not all it should be. I can hardly wait to see what is coming next. Whatever it is, it will owe a great deal to Amber.” before concluding that, “If you want to see what roleplaying might someday become, read Amber.”
However Robert Hatch only gave Amber Diceless Role-Playing a rating of three, saying that “As a sourcebook for Zelazny’s world, this product is unparalleled. As an actual game - well, it's not one, really, any more than a Choose Your Own Adventure book is. While Amber could work in  the hands of a very talented GM, I think all too many other campaigns will fail.” Lastly, Stewart Wieck was more positive and also gave it a rating of four. He said, “The game is certainly most valuable and understandable to those who read and enjoyed Zelazny’s exciting books, but the roleplaying conventions employed and introduced make this a game that really needs to be investigated by anyone interested in seeing this hobby develop. Additionally, the game would be less with dice.” He finished by saying, “In the end, Amber can be approached one of two ways. Either read it merely as an experience in “mature” roleplaying, or prepare to dig in and enjoy a long and complicated campaign.”
Amber Diceless Role-Playing was reviewed not once, but twice in Dragon Magazine #182 (June 1992). First by Lester Smith, who wrote, “As impressed as I am with the game, do I think it is the “end-all” of role-playing games, or that diceless systems are the wave of the future? I’ll give a firm “No” on both counts. First, the AMBER game is pretty much Amber-specific.” and “Second, as fun as the AMBER game can be, there are certainly times when I’m not up to such intense role-playing and would rather take part in a dungeon crawl.” He concluded that, “…[T]he AMBER DICELESS ROLE-PLAYING game is destined for great popularity and a niche among the most respected of role-playing game designs.” 
This was followed by a second opinion from Allen Varney. He was clear that, “The “attribute auction” in character generation is brilliant and elegant.”, but criticised it because, “Advancement comes slowly, perhaps too slowly. Players have little idea how their own characters improve, let alone other players’ characters.” He also advised that, “…AMBER game clearly targets the most experienced GMs (and players!). But it’s tough work. Proceed with caution.” Overall, he commented that Amber’s “…[B]old approach unsettles me. Politically, I must applaud the dominance of story values over rules. The text offers copious advice, including scripts that advise GMs how to stage a fight at varying levels of detail. But I betray my upbringing. I keep looking for a way to sequence combat, hit points, and all those training wheels I grew up with.”, before concluding that, “Yet the intensity of the AMBER game indicates Wujcik is on to something. When success in every action depends on the role and not the roll, players develop a sense of both control and urgency, along with creativity that borders on mania.”
Loyd Blankenship reviewed Amber Diceless Role-Playing in Pyramid #2 (July/Aug., 1993). He stated that “Amber is a valuable resource to a GM - even if he isn't running an Amber game. For gamers who have an aspiring actor or actress lurking within their breast, or for someone running a campaign via electronic mail or message base, Amber should be given serious consideration.”
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Amber Diceless Role-Playing is a fantastic sourcebook for any devotee of the Amber Chronicles, presenting the setting and its very many characters in an accessible fashion and exploring every facet of both them and their powers. However, when it came to the gaming, Amber Diceless Role-Playing broke every conceived notion of designing a roleplaying game, for although it had rules, it had no mechanics in terms of a resolution system, no means of randomly generating the outcome of an action. Instead, its resolution system consisted of the roleplaying skill and storytelling ability of both the player and the Game Master, as well as the capacity of the Game Master to interpret and narrate the rules and narrative as fairly as possible. In doing so, it not only emphasised storytelling capacity and skills, but demanded a high level of trust between player and Game Master that they both be the best roleplayers that they could. This is perhaps as demanding and as pure a roleplaying game as ever there was in making such demands. 
As a roleplaying game based upon the Chronicles of Amber, there can be no doubt that AAmber Diceless Role-Playing is a superb adaptation, and a satisfying examination of the setting and characters of Amber. As a roleplaying game or book just to read, it is an engaging, even enthralling joy to read from start to finish, whether in the rules examples and ideas or its exploration of the setting. Few roleplaying games are quite as much fun. 
In 1991, Amber Diceless Role-Playing was a ground-breaking design and it looks as radical now as was upon its release. Many of conventions ideas have been disseminated into designs since, but Amber Diceless Role-Playing was the pioneer. 

After many years I finally treated myself to a game I have wanted for years.  Avalon Hill's "Magic Realm."
The game looks like a board game, but there are a lot of RPG elements as well.  And the game is notoriously difficult to learn. 

I have no experience with this game. At all. But I just knew I wanted it.   So instead of a review here are some other reviews.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Realm
• https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/22/magic-realm
• https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1323202/critical-look-magic-realm-and-roleplaying
• https://therewillbe.games/articles-analysis/5389-one-mechanic-review-magic-realm

So it looks like I have some learning ahead of me!

I also have no idea if my game is complete or not. I like what I have seen so far.

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showcased how another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry.

One of the trends in ZineQuest—the annual drive on Kickstarter to create fanzines, fan-created magazines supporting their favourite game—has been away from the more traditional format to the more focused. Traditionally, the fanzine consists of a collection of articles, covering a wide array of subjects. For example, in a fanzine devoted to Dungeons & Dragons or one of its many retroclones, such articles might provide new character Classes, spells, monsters, magical items, a scenario or dungeon, and so on. Although ZineQuest in 2021–ZineQuest #3–certainly included fanzines of that type, there were fanzines that were not so much fanzines as complete roleplaying games in themselves or complete supplements for existing roleplaying games. Desert Moon of Karth is a perfect example of the latter.

Desert Moon of Karth is a complete scenario for the MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game. Designed and published by Joel Hines following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is also quite a different scenario in tone and flavour and set-up for the MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game. The genre for the MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game is Blue Collar Sci-Fi horror, most obviously inspired by the films Alien and Outland, and the majority of the scenarios for the roleplaying game are horror one-shots. Not so, Desert Moon of Karth. Instead, Desert Moon of Karth is a sandbox scenario whose genre is that of the Space Western and whose inspirations include Dune, Firefly, Alien, John Carter of Mars, Cowboy Bebop, and The Dark Tower as well as A Pound of Flesh, Ultraviolet Grasslands, and Slumbering Ursine Dunes.

The setting for Desert Moon of Karth is a desert moon on the far edge of the galaxy. It is perhaps best known as being a source of Coral Dust, the addictive blue-grey powder harvested and ground from the bones of the ancient, almost mythic species known as the Wigoy, which have ossified into coral and when ingested stills the aging process and sharpens the mind. There has been a ‘gold rush’ to Karth, a ready flow of would be prospectors willing to brave the harsh environment and the attacks by the infamous Sandsquids attracted by their searches deep into the sand. Access to Karth is limited though via a rickety orbital elevator fiercely controlled by the colonial marines of the Manian Expeditionary Force, as a network of relic orbital satellites shoot down all ships or flying objects—incoming or outgoing. This combination of distance from the centre of the galaxy and inaccessibility means that Karth has gained another reputation—that of a haven for criminals and the galaxy’s most wanted. So the lawless desert moon attracts not just prospectors, but bounty hunters too.

Like any good sandbox—and Desert Moon of Karth really is set on a sandbox—Desert Moon of Karth is a toolkit of different elements. These start with ten highly detailed locations, beginning with the frontier boomtown, Larstown, and then continuing with the Shattered Visage of an angelic man, the Seahorse Mine, the played out location of the first Wigoy prospecting operation on Karth, the Silver Spire, home to a trio of immortal Old People known as the Dawnseekers who research and harvest organs to ensure their longevity, a Ship Graveyard of vessels brought down by the orbital defences, and the Krieg Ranch where the best though-flea-bitten camels for travel across the deserts of Karth can be hired, run by a cranky old woman who keeps her husband on ice in case he can be taken off world for treatment to a grievous injury. Around these locations, four factions dominate Karth. One consists of the Dawnseekers, another the Manian Expeditionary Force, but these are joined by the Valley Rangers, a cargo cult formed around the Lunar Park Service’s bureaucracy and conservationists who abhor technology and seek to maintain the world’s ecology, and the Wigoy themselves, aliens hiding from the other factions with long term aims for the whole of Karth and beyond…

All four factions and the majority of the locations include NPCs with often opposing aims and jobs—both known and secret—that the Player Characters might be employed to fulfil. These, though, are just the start in Desert Moon of Karth, because they are richly supported with table after table of random encounters, motivations, NPCs, rumours, and more! That ‘more’ includes tables of reasons why the Player Characters might have come to Karth, gifts that the Wigoy might grant, worn space hulks, bounty hunters and their possible quarries, oldtech artefacts, what happens when the Player Characters go Wigoy prospecting, and things to be found on bodies, and more.

Although there is potential future mapped out in Desert Moon of Karth, it really only plays out if the Player Characters do nothing. Ultimately then, the Player Characters have a huge opportunity to involve themselves in and influence events on the moon, but this is very much player driven. Once their characters have their motivations—either selected ahead of time or generated using the table in the book, it is very much up to the players to involve themselves in both life and the events going on across Karth.

Mechanically, Desert Moon of Karth is very light, and thus much in keeping with the MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game. There are various stats for the NPCs of course, but they are percentile and easily adaptable, whilst the specific rules cover things such as travel across Karth and prospecting for Wigoy coral—and that is it. What this means is that Desert Moon of Karth is not only very light, but easily adapted to the mechanics of the roleplaying game of the Warden’s choice. Any version of the Star Wars roleplaying games, Cepheus Deluxe, Stars Without Number, Firefly, HOSTILE, and others would work with this supplement with a minimum of preparation, as would many a generic system too.

However, the tone of Desert Moon of Karth may not necessarily match the campaign being run by the Warden if for the MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game, and that likelihood increases if adapted to another Science Fiction roleplaying game. There is horror as you would expect for something written for the MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game, but there is also a weirdness too in the presence of the Wigoy and their secrets, and they might have a profound effect upon a Game Master’s campaign if certain events happen. Nevertheless, the self-contained nature of Karth itself and of Desert Moon of Karth makes it very easy to use. Nor need that be as an addition to an existing campaign. It could be a one-shot adventure, a mini-campaign of its own, or as a source of ideas and tables from which the Game Master can pick and choose elements to add to her own game.

Physically, Desert Moon of Karth is a compact fifty-two page supplement—perhaps a little too big to be really called a supplement. It is well written, it is easy to read, the illustrations are excellent, and the maps, whether of the moon itself, or Larstown or the interior of a Sandsquid are all great.

As a sandbox, and a sandbox space western at that, Desert Moon of Karth pushes MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game in a new direction and opens up the scope of gaming possible for those rules—especially with the new edition available. Whatever the system used, Desert Moon of Karth is crammed full of gaming content adding a weird world to the Science fiction roleplaying game of your choice, but really offering a fantastic mini-campaign. Not just a good fanzine, Desert Moon of Karth is really good good Science Fiction supplement.

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

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In the beginning there was Dungeons & Dragons. This made a lot of people happy, but it also made some people unhappy, and it even made some people both happy and unhappy. The happy people played it, the unhappy people refused to play it and campaigned to stop the people playing it because their sense of fun was entirely devoted to doing something else which they felt the people playing it should be doing, and the people it made both happy and unhappy, thought they could do better, including the very people who were happy with Dungeons & Dragons because they had made it. And the people who thought they could do better than Dungeons & Dragons either tried to make new, better versions of Dungeons & Dragons, or they tried to create versions of their own which were better, faster, more fun, more realistic, and well, just not Dungeons & Dragons. Some would be very close to Dungeons & Dragons, others far away, and others…? Well however close these fantasy heartbreakers were, most would remain the province of the Game Master and his gaming group, but others would come to market and some would succeed, some fail… and some would achieve legendary, even cult status. None more so than The Spawn of Fashan.
Self-published by Kirby Lee Davis in 1981, The Spawn of Fashan would sell only a handful of copies, but gave rise to an infamous review in Dragon #60 by Lawrence Schick who could not believe that anyone would create a roleplaying game as dreadful as The Spawn of Fashan and very quickly concluded that, “The Spawn of Fashan is a great parody of role-playing rules!” That issue of Dragon was published in April, 1982, and a combination of an incredulous review and the possibility that the whole review was not about an actual roleplaying, but one entirely made up, and was thus an April Fool’s joke upon the part of Schick and Dragon magazine, meant that The Spawn of Fashan passed into legend. That legend would be kept alive by its inclusion on the ‘REAL MEN, REAL RÔLE-PLAYERS, LOONIES AND MUNCHKINS’ lists which parodied early gamer archetypes and stereotypes, as in Loonies “play a variant Spawn of Fashan” as their favourite SFRPG and as their Favourite King Arthurian RPG, “play a variant of Spawn of Fashan so variant it shouldn't be called Spawn of Fashan anymore”. However, The Spawn of Fashan is real, and due to actual demand, a number of reprints were published in 1998, followed by a fortieth anniversary edition in 2021. It is the latter version, which is being reviewed here, notably because, getting hold of any other version, is hideously expensive.

So what is The Spawn of Fashan and what is The Spawn of Fashan about? It is a Class and Level roleplaying game written in response to the lack of individuality in any one character in Dungeons & Dragons. As to what it is about, The Spawn of Fashan is not really a setting as such, more—definitely much more—a set of rules for character creation and combat. What background there is suggests that Fashan is a world reduced to the level of a mediaeval economy by a nuclear war and in addition to leaving high tech artefacts to be found, the nuclear war also resulted in areas of radiation and a background radiation high enough that minor psionic abilities are common amongst the all-Human descendants of the survivors. So technically, The Spawn of Fashan is not so much a fantasy roleplaying game as a post-apocalyptic one. Either way, it is actually based on The Annals of Fashan, a series of fantasy novels by the designer, the setting and background for which did not make it into the final draft of The Spawn of Fashan. Had it done so, the roleplaying game would have been longer, but it might actually have been more interesting in terms of setting, storytelling, and roleplaying potential. The designer though wanted to avoid giving away the plots of the novels. Nevertheless, any Referee and group of players roleplaying The Spawn of Fashan would still be roleplaying a version of Fahsan—though not the designer’s Fashan—hence every other campaign being a ‘spawn’ of Fashan. Which begs the question, ‘When are you playing The Spawn of Fashan, but not playing The Spawn of Fashan?’, since it is almost impossible to play in Fashan because there is so little of the setting in The Spawn of Fashan such that any campaign of The Spawn of Fashan cannot actually be set on Fashan…

That said, what do you play in The Spawn of Fashan? Well, all Player Characters The Spawn of Fashan are human. A character has eight statistics—Strength, Dexterity, Reflexes, Constitution, Intelligence, Charisma, Courage, and Senses. Actually, there ten statistics, as a Player Character can also have Courage and Courage as well as Courage, but only if he has extra special fighting abilities. Anyway, all but Senses are rolled on five six-sided dice (or as The Spawn of Fashan puts it, “five 1-6 dice”) and the lowest one dropped, except if a character is female, in which case, “The number of dice rolled at any time for strength, constitution, and hit points is halved.” This is despite the fact that in the book’s introduction the designer states that neither he nor his team are sexist in terms of the pronouns used in the book. Which is fine except he is sexist in terms of game design. Anyway, female characters are fine, because they gained increased Charisma and Intuition. Unfortunately, the designer ultimately never actually defines what Intuition is… and actually getting find that out involves following the instruction, “[see the ‘Destiny’ listing on the Mental Illness table].” which leaves to wonder why it is defined on a Mental Illness table and if that means that all female characters—because they have Intuition—on Fashan are mentally ill? Once you have found the Mental Illness table in the fifty-one pages of Section VII which both contains all of the charts for The Spawn of Fashan and take up more than half of The Spawn of Fashan, a section supposedly for the Referee’s eye’s only, the actual entry on that table reads, “Destinied. Character is destinied. Referee should roll on the Destiny Table for the character.” However this immediately followed by a note which states, “Due to the necessity of having the Destiny Table interlock with the Referee's cultures and history, it is not given here.” So essentially, not only are female characters impaired in The Spawn of Fashan, as written in The Spawn of Fashan, they cannot be created using its rules unless the Referee has already defined a world or campaign setting where intrinsically, they are not equal to men. The good news is that for The Spawn of Fashan, this is only the start.

First though, a character needs not one, but two character-types. These are occupations and include Bandits, Barbers, Beggars, Carpenters, Construction Workers, Creepers, Farmers, Healers, Mercenaries, Merchants, Metal Forgers, Miners, Misfits, Occultists, Priests, Sailors, Specialists, Stone Cutters, Swayers, Teachers, Thieves, Traders, Trappers, and Wood Cutters. Once the relevant table is found—and this is a phrase which could be repeated again and again with The Spawn of Fashan—the Referee rolls on the table according to area the Player Character is from to determine his Parents’ Choice of character-type and the player choses his character’s Childhood Choice character-type. This does not seem to have any effect except if the Parents’ Choice of character-type is Misfit, in which case, the Player Character’s character-type is also Misfit. The actual explanation of the character-types are listed in the dreaded section of Section VII and for the most part are fairly obvious and straightforward, sometimes giving statistic increases, equipment, and the like. The less obvious character-types include the Creeper, men of darkness known as Shadowers, the Occultist, renowned and hated for exerting control over the societies of Fashan with their mind control, and the Swayer, the dreaded masters of persuasion. In particular, Creepers can exude a black, inky cloud that most cannot see through; the Occultist can enter into a trance and cause anyone nearby to stutter and be indecisive or to suffer seizure, depending his Intelligence; and Swayers are so persuasive that their words can require a Saving Roll to withstand.

Some character-types, like, can have Senses, the ability to detect life and also food and provisions. There is, however, no magic in The Spawn of Fashan and no religion or gods in The Spawn of Fashan, the latter more because in The Spawn of Fashan there is no real setting. Which means that the Priest character-type has no role until the Referee has defined her own ‘spawn’ of Fashan. In addition to rolling for Statistics, a player rolls on fourteen tables for eyesight, sense of smell, hearing, taste, body (to give advantages and disadvantages rather than a body type), insight, intellect, mental illness, phobia, compulsion, hand usage, height and weight, learned abilities, and language. Some of these require Saving Rolls on a twenty-sided die, but for the most part they generate a completely random selection of abilities and facts. For example, the character has Independent Eye Movement, is allergic to particular type of animal which the Referee will determine, has Heavy Sound Good Hearing (bonus to initiative versus heavy plodders), can tell poison in the water and drink, is double-jointed and has superhuman strength, has Sense of Life, is a Gambler and gets bonuses the riskier the situation, is Destinied (see above for how that is left up to the Referee to determine), fortunately has no phobias, has the compulsions of being a Coward, suffers from Daydreams, and Practices every action, is 5’ 6” and 139 lbs, and because he has an Intelligence of twenty or more, is an ‘Expert on Subterrainian Passages’.

Without a doubt, character generation in The Spawn of Fashan is inaccessible, obtuse, overwritten and unnecessarily complex—and that is just the six or so steps of creating a character, including rolling for Luck Factor and starting Bank Notes, and does not take into account the numerous secondary and derived values the roleplaying game employs. Nor does it take into account the time needed. In fact, no matter how long that time is, it is simply too long. As much as the means and the rules do provide the degree of individuality that the designer wants, whether or not that degree of individuality is either wanted or warranted, they are simply not presented in a manner to help either the player or the Referee through the process.

Then there are the mechanics to The Spawn of Fashan. The core mechanic is the Saving Roll on a twenty-sided die and roll high, but for a roleplaying game of its vintage, it should be no surprise that the bulk of the mechanics in The Spawn of Fashan focus on combat. However, there is a sense of combat being a static affair with neither side involved actually moving, so just an exchange of blows, though movement is covered in surprise and initiative (including when neither party can detect the other because they are both dead—including the Player Characters). Combat involves yet another splurge of terms and terminology and factors that Referee and player has to take into account before either has to roll, including how hard the attacker wants to hit, where he wants to hit, then if the defender parries or dodges (rolled on a percentile dice rather than the standard twenty-sided die), consulting tables as necessary, and making a Saving Throw if the level of damage suffered is equal to or greater than the Serious Injury Tolerance Level. If the attack is successful, rolls are made to see if the armour itself is damaged, point by point, and… if the defender is not actually dead by this point, it is difficult not to believe that anyone—in the game or out—still has the will to live, let alone continue playing… Thankfully though, the people of Fashan are so insecure that they do not congregate in groups of more than thirty, so there are no armies on Fashan, and so need for rules handling army combat.

Surprisingly, the advice on ‘The Makings of a Campaign’ is a decent read and avoids much of the incoherency found throughout the rules. They are backed up by tables for random encounters and generating locations, including ruins and dungeons, and two examples. One is a setting, the other is of actual play. Whilst the monsters have absurd names such as Arl-Grats, Bactrolo, Bartaln, Bull Makl, Cronalk, Filcornect, Larnex, Lorsenfolo, Purtorfalm, Rolmtrokl, and Transgrusan, the setting is equally as silly, which describes the land of Boosboodle in the ‘Boosboodle Inner Human Habitation Zone’ (Bihhz) through which flows The River Mazoo, travel to the towns of Jugble and Crumbudz, and when all else fails, tells the Player Characters that they can go ‘North, where Melvin is Standing Now.’ It is both silly and intentionally humorous upon the part of the designer, but mostly comes across as just plain silly. The other is the example of play. It is without a doubt, the worst example of play in any roleplaying game before Hackmaster Basic. It recounts how a Player Character Thief, Sook, enters a general store in Biddles, the capital of Boosboodle and attempts to buy first some armour, then a religious artefact, followed by a hoe, and lastly, a metal chest. When that succeeds, the player has Sook throw it at the merchant and kill him. It is clear from the writing that boredom has set in on either side, with the Referee resorting to sarcasm and the player to random acts purely to get a response. It is a truly terrible, but funny piece of writing because it is at such odds with the po-faced tone to the rest of The Spawn of Fashan.

Where The Spawn of Fashan, 40th Anniversary Edition is actually interesting is in the essays which appear at the front of the reprint. Here the author talks how he brought the roleplaying game to fruition not once but three times! First at its conception and its subsequence appearance at Denvention II in 1981, followed by renewed interest from roleplayers in both the late eighties and the late nineties, the latter leading to a reprint and inclusion of the first essay. Third, and more recently, its publication upon its fortieth anniversary. Both retrospectives are interesting in highlighting how challenging it was to bring something like The Spawn of Fashan to print then, and how ambitious the author was in doing so. They also allow him time to reflect upon his creation and the hobby’s response to it, and it is clear that he readily accepts rather than resents the latter—especially with regard to the lack of a table of contents or index for example. There can be no doubt that a roleplaying game with as legendary a reputation as The Spawn of Fashan is deserving of both essays where other roleplaying games of such ilk may not be.

Physically, The Spawn of Fashan is as bad as you possibly imagine. It is laid out in the style of a newspaper rather than a book and its text is dense, and notoriously unedited, being riddled with spelling mistakes and inconsistencies and cross references which lead the reader down a blind alley. There are few illustrations and to be fair, they add very little to the overall tone or feel of the book. The Spawn of Fashan, 40th Anniversary Edition at least does come with an index and a table of contents—the original version and its reprint did not and one can only imagine how daunting it must have been to find anything—anything at all—in the book.

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The Spawn of Fashan was reviewed three times following its initial publication, first by Charles Dale Martin in Different Worlds Issue 19 (February 1982). Amongst the many elements he criticised of the roleplaying game were the combat system, writing that, “The combat system is both complex and unwieldy. It imposes too great a strain on the players and the referee - using these rules is rather like playing Gladiator, Traveller and Arduin Grimoire simultaneously. Bunetluest, Bushido and Chivalry & Sorcery provide more realism for less effort.” He was equally critical of the game’s treatment of female characters and of the publisher wrote, “The Fashan co-op seems to be out of touch with the adventure gaming community. The game was released at a science fiction convention. The only other role-playing systems mentioned are D&D, AD&D, The Fantasy Trip and Magic Realm. I am familiar with fifteen fantasy role-playing systems and I must conclude that, despite honest effort, Spawn of Fashan is several years behind the state of the art.” However, concluded that, “…[I]t may still be worth buying. The referee’s notes are excellent guidelines for any fantasy campaign. Game masters of an eclectic bent may wish to use some of the new character classes and the many tables in their own game systems. And some adventurous souls might play the game and enjoy it.”

Then there was the infamous review in Dragon #60 (April 1982) by Lawrence Schick, titled ‘Don’t take Spawn of Fashan seriously’. His initial impression was of it being “…[O]ne more mediocre rewrite of the D&D® rules.” but then, “As I read the 96-page rulebook (list price $8.95), my initial boredom was gradually replaced by confusion, amazement, and finally delight. At first glance, the rules seem badly organized and poorly written. The opening sections are deluged with pages of ill-defined jargon and numerous confusing references to tables apparently placed elsewhere. By the time I reached the rules quagmire entitled “Combat,” I could only wonder in amazement that any set of rules could be this bad.” He continued, “Then the light started to dawn. Plowing through the monstrous Tables and Charts section, I began to grin, and by the end of the book, I was laughing loudly. The Spawn of Fashan is a great parody of role-playing rules!”.
Lastly, Ronald Pehr reviewed The Spawn of Fashan in The Space Gamer Number 49 (March 1982). He described The Spawn of Fashan as “…[A] fascinating set of fantasy combat rules which are trying to become a full role-playing game.” and that “…[I]ts current value seems limited to experienced FRPG players who want something novel. Beginners will be baffled, and gamers happy with their current rules will find little reason to journey to the far planet of Fashan.”

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There have been some notoriously bad roleplaying games published over the course of the hobby’s history. Efforts like F.A.T.A.L., Myfarog, and Racial Holy War are justly reviled for their inherent offensiveness and the ignorance of the values espoused by the authors. Make no mistake, The Spawn of Fashan does not deserve to be placed alongside that excrescent trinity and it would be insulting to the author to think otherwise. However, that does not mean that The Spawn of Fashan is not a bad game—far from it. The Spawn of Fashan is terrible game. Dense, overwritten, and incomprehensible with a formidable learning curve  hampered by poor, oh so poor cross referencing and interminable page flipping, all accompanied by a hilariously awful example of play. Even trying to explain the rules in The Spawn of Fashan is akin to rewriting and not just simplifying them, but translating them. Yet there are flashes of potential here, for the notes for the Referee’s notes and philosophies on worldbuilding are not without merit, which leads the reader to wonder quite what a subsequent edition of The Spawn of Fashan could have been like in the hands of a more experienced production and development team. And wonder quite that because lurking within the game’s stodgy writing, there is a game which by the standards of the time could have been made better and more accessible and more playable. Of course, the appearance of any such subsequent edition might well have done much to negate the reputation of the first edition (at least partially). As the essays in the front of The Spawn of Fashan, 40th Anniversary Edition make clear, it was not to be. Despite its legendary reputation, The Spawn of Fashan is real, it is not a parody, and with the availability of The Spawn of Fashan, 40th Anniversary Edition, you too can find out just how bad it really is, what optimism and faith in your own vision can create, and how sometimes, even if you really do not like Dungeons & Dragons, you really cannot do better. As bad as it is, and because it is as bad as it is, Kirby Lee Davis is to be commended for reassessing it again and letting us reassess it with the release of The Spawn of Fashan, 40th Anniversary Edition.

It's Christmas Eve in my part of the world!

While I am not a Christian I do love the secular holiday aspects of Christmas. Getting together with family. Relaxing at the end of the year. Making some great food (homemade pizzas tonight) and yes giving presents.

So let's get this Christmas going with some of my favorite Christmas songs!

Here are some of my all-time favorites.

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.
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On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showcased how another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. As new fanzines have appeared, there has been an interest in the fanzines of the past, and as that interest has grown, they have become highly collectible, and consequently more difficult to obtain and write about. However, in writing about them, the reader should be aware that these fanzines were written and published between thirty and forty years ago, typically by roleplayers in their teens and twenties. What this means is that sometimes the language and terminology used reflects this and though the language and terminology is not socially acceptable today, that use should not be held against the authors and publishers.

The Beholder was a British fanzine first published in April, 1979. Dedicated to Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, it ran to twenty-seven issues, the last being published in July, 1981. It was popular and would be awarded ‘Best Games Fanzine’ at the Games Day convention in 1980. After the final issue of The Beholder, the editors would go on to release a number of anthologies which collected content from the complete run of the fanzine. A total of five were planned and at least two were published. The first was Beholder Supplement Glossary of Magic, which collected many of the magical items which appeared in the fanzine and collated them into a series of tables for easy use by the Dungeon Master. The second, third, and fourth volumes would have collected the scenarios which appeared in the fanzine, whilst the fifth would have been a bestiary of monsters.

Fantasie Scenarios – The Fanzine Supplement No. 2 is the first anthology of scenarios taken from the pages of The Beholder. It contains “4 highly detailed, exciting and original scenarios” all written for use with Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. The collection  opens with ‘The Ring of Fire’, originally published in The Beholder Issue #11 and subsequently voted by its readership as the best scenario to appear in the fanzine. Designed for four to seven Player Characters of ‘moderate adventuring experience’, ‘The Ring of Fire’ is set entirely within the crater of an extinct volcano, rumoured to be the home of a dragon below the crater’s mists and fumes. Several miles distant from the nearest settlement, once the Player Characters have ascended to the lip the crater, the adventure proper begins and they begin the descent. This is along a path which spirals around the steep sides of the crater and it is along this path that most of the scenario will play out. As they follow the path down, the Player Characters encounter obstacles and lairs and fortresses, and more. These special encounter areas start off with almost a nod to Shelbob’s lair with the lair of the Giant Spider, Castra, followed by a wooden plank bridge past the lair of Minor the Harpy, through a vanquished outpost of Hobgoblins, through a maze, and yes, even into the lair of the Red Dragon, Faughon.

All of these encounters really are special. Essentially excerpts pulled from the main map of the volcano, they are beautifully drawn in detail and supported with engaging descriptions. Any one of these encounters could be pulled from the scenario and it would stand up if added to another location, perhaps an enormous dungeon cavern. The scenario is obviously linear as the Player Characters make their descent, but opens out into a swampy area on the crater floor. This is less interesting perhaps than the earlier encounters, but there is a sense of decay here that feels all the more constrictive in the fog-shrouded crater. There are no plot hooks as such to ‘The Ring of Fire’ as such, but it would be easy for the Dungeon Master to add them. Perhaps the Player Characters want something from the Red Dragon or the ancient, evil sorcerer whose remains are buried here, or simply be after the treasure which is said to have been left there by the ancient inhabitants. Essentially, the bottom of the crater is a blank canvas upon which the Dungeon Master can write elements from her campaign and so add ‘The Ring of Fire’ to her campaign. Whatever the Player Characters might find in the base of the crater, getting there is very much the play and the fun of the scenario.

The second scenario is ‘The Gorge of the Afterlife’. Designed for three to six Player Characters of ‘low to moderate adventuring experience’, it appeared in The Beholder Issue #14 and was a close runner up to ‘The Ring of Fire’ in the poll. The Player Characters should at least possess one magical weapon between them—if not more, and there should be a Cleric amongst their number. Again the scenario has a great sense of environment and geography, being set in a long narrow gorge once the burial ground to the local dignitaries. Water drains into the gorge and flows out via a series of waterfalls, which the Player Characters will need to ascend as they venture into the gorge. The outer section of the gorge is swampy and home to a band of brigands, whilst the inner section consists of a lake surrounded by individual tombs, mausolea, and barrows. Here the authors repeat the format of ‘The Ring of Fire’ with individually mapped areas for greater detail, offering a range of different challenges to any Player Characters wanting to raid them. Some are still intact, some have been broken into, others are occupied. 

The third part of ‘The Gorge of the Afterlife’ consists of a dungeon proper, a tomb complex, which oddly, is laid out in the shape of a gargoyle, though statues of gargoyles appear at the entrance to the gorge where their prevents entry of any devils or demons. The tomb complex contains just six tombs, each of them a great leader in their time, in their way representatives of Dungeons & Dragons’ Classes. Some were good, others bad, but are now the target of a band of evil Elves (not Drow) amidst the roving undead which infests the complex. Much like ‘The Ring of Fire’, ‘The Gorge of the Afterlife’ is a not a scenario with any sense of a plot, the gorge and its tombs being there to plunder by the Player Characters and nothing more. Again though, they are open to interpretation and development upon the part of the Dungeon Master, perhaps more so because the adventure is designed to be inserted into a campaign. Again, perhaps the Player Characters are searching for something which can only be found in the tombs or perhaps they have been employed to deal with the brigands, but discover that they have a secret paymaster, that is, the evil Elves in the tomb complex? This is much more of a traditional Dungeons & Dragons-style adventure, but again, nicely detailed and potentially more flexible than ‘The Ring of Fire’.

‘UGGISH and the GRIMBNAK’ is the third scenario in Fantasie Scenarios – The Fanzine Supplement No. 2 and originally published in The Beholder Issue #19, and appears to have been part of an ongoing feature in the fanzine. Where the previous two scenarios have been quite confined in their environment, this one opens up a bit by being set in a forest and its surrounding wilderness. Designed for a party of four to six Player Characters of moderate Level, the scenario is set in the forest surrounding the Ravine of the Oozewater where legend has it that two ancient creatures fled in ages past when disturbed by the first settlers in the region. More recently, they have been revealed to be Uggish and the Grimbnak, now said to be in league with the Orcs of the Black Hand, scimitar-wielding humanoids with ebon skin and red eyes, who have been attacking settlers, foresters, and hunters throughout the forest, forcing them to flee. The scenario is thus a strike mission—investigate the activities of the Orcs and put a stop to them.

The scenario details the forest wilderness and the paths to the cliffside stockade which the Orcs have had time to build and make a home in. Thus there is advice and a table to make it a living place with events going on despite the presence of the Player Characters and perhaps that they can take advantage of in their raid. The stockade and its inhabitants, as well as the caves built into the cliffside are as decently detailed as the other scenarios in the anthology, however, the Orcs are described as being black-skinned and resolutely evil. To be fair, this would have been typical of the time and the depiction of Orcs has always been contentious, but the language used here, though unlikely to have been intentionally so at the time, would be socially unacceptable today and even potentially, cause for offence. Whilst there is some element of story here and it would be an easy scenario to add to a campaign because of the simplicity of its set-up, of the four scenarios in the anthology, ‘UGGISH and the GRIMBNAK’ would be the most difficult to run or adapt because of the language used when describing its antagonists and their outlook. 

The last scenario in the anthology is ‘The Dripping Chasm’. Taken from The Beholder Issue #18—voted the best issue by the fanzine’s readers—it is designed for six low Level Player Characters and has a simple set-up which makes it easy to add to a campaign or run as a one-shot. That set-up is one of bandits raiding the area, frequently enough to amass no little wealth, and so there is treasure to be found and a threat to civilisation to be thwarted. The bandits are thought to operating from somewhere up the River Underpine, and when the Player Characters follow it along its course, they discover its source, the Dripping Chasm, and a series of buildings along the chasm wall and a cave network beyond them. The caverns though, are not just home to the bandits, there being older occupants who just unhappy with their presence, they are prepared to do something about it. Which is when the Player Characters turn up. 

‘The Dripping Chasm’ is a small locale and a small adventure, but it packs in a lot, including factions, nuance, and the level of detail found in the anthology’s other scenarios. There are the three factions—the bandits, a grumpy bear, a really unhappy hermit driven to recruit some unpleasant allies, and the complex of caverns is described in some detail. The factions bring in the element of a living dungeon and this is enforced by the nuance. The caverns and the Dripping Chasm are not just bases of operation where the factions work from, but homes too. So the bear and the hermit make their homes in the caverns and tunnels, and resent being invaded by the bandits, but they have made their home in some of the caverns as well as along the river, and down so with their families. The bandits have their wives and children here too, so this is not a scenario necessarily set up so that the Player Characters go in and slaughter anyone and everyone as in ‘UGGISH and the GRIMBNAK’, but do have choices to make here. Potentially, these choices—which faction to side with, what to do about the families, and discovering why they are here and why they have turned to banditry—are all good story hooks and good roleplaying hooks, though the Dungeon Master will have to develop the details herself. 

If there is an oddity to ‘The Dripping Chasm’, it is in the organisation which details the locations furthest from the starting point of the scenario first and nearest, last. Given the advice that the Dungeon Master read through the scenario thoroughly, it only enforces the need to. Otherwise, ‘The Dripping Chasm’ is a decently done scenario easily adapted to the Dungeon Master’s campaign and a really engaging piece of writing. In terms of storytelling potential, ‘The Dripping Chasm’ has the most of the quartet in Fantasie Scenarios – The Fanzine Supplement No. 2.

Physically, Fantasie Scenarios – The Fanzine Supplement No. 2 is decently done. Like any fanzine title, it has its rough edges and the layout could be cleaner. The cartography though is quite lovely, clear and detailed, giving the anthology its singular look. There are few illustrations in the supplement, but some of them are really nice. It should be noted that except where a new monster is introduced, the actual stats for Dungeons & Dragons monsters and items in the four scenarios are kept to a minimum, meaning that the Dungeon Master will ned to refer to the ruleset of her choice.

Fantasie Scenarios – The Fanzine Supplement No. 2 is a piece of history. Its writing is representative of a creative drive four decades ago, and whilst some of that writing reflects that age, there is no denying that each of the scenarios is still playable today. Whether that is using Dungeons & Dragons or Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game or The Black Hack or Old School Essentials, all four scenario could be with relatively little adjustment—at least mechanically. Tonally perhaps and in some of the language warrants adjustment, and would certainly benefit from such attention in the unlikely event that these scenarios were republished today. Overall, Fantasie Scenarios – The Fanzine Supplement No. 2 is a lovely snapshot of yesterday’s creativity, showcasing how it was done forty years ago just as it is today.

Been working a lot on NIGHT SHIFT lately so I see everything through this lens.  So when one of my friends on Facebook posted this idea, you know I had to run with it. 

Not too far-fetched, as the images of Santa and Father Christmas come to us from the legends of Odin wandering the land in disguise, giving gifts to children.

So for NIGHT SHIFT imagine this.  It is December 13, but it is also Friday the 13th (the next time this happens is December 2024).  A group of kids are back from college and getting ready for Christmas.  They all get together and talk about how they all nearly died at Camp Crystal Lake one summer.  The memories and the date summon Jason Voorhees to start killing again.

I imagine a sad and angry Santa Claus (I mean if Jason is real, why not Santa).  

"I knew those children Freya!" he tells Mrs. Claus. "Billy. Susie. Ann. They were on the Nice List most of the time. They were all good kids!"    

Mrs. Claus watched him for a moment, she then reaches into her dress and pulls out a large iron key on a silver chain.  Santa stands, takes the offered key.  He goes and unlocks a cabinet. Inside is a large golden spear.  "Ah, Gungnir old friend. It is time again." He removes his jolly red coat to reveal his muscled frame donned in fine mail. 

Mrs. Claus hands him his shield saying "Remind him who you were, Grímnir. Who you are."

He walks out of his workshop in the driving snow (in slow motion no less) as two ravens fly into the scene to fly in front of him.

Santa Claus
20th Level Chosen One
Supernatural

Strength: 20 (+4) s
Dexterity: 17 (+2) 
Constitution: 14 (+1)
Intelligence: 16 (+2) 
Wisdom: 18 (+3) P
Charisma: 20 (+4) s

HP: 110 (20d8+20)
AC: 2
Fate Points: 1d10

Check Bonus (P/S/T): +8/+6/+4
Melee bonus: +10  Ranged bonus: +6
Saves: +6 to all

Special Abilities: Increased Ability (Str), Brutal Warrior, Stunning Blow, Killing Blow, Supernatural Attacks, Difficult to Surprise, Improved Initiative, Improved Defense, Survival Skills  (13th level), Mental Resistance, Regeneration.

Supernatural Ability: Body Control

For a game I would have the PCs being hunted by Jason and the only one that can save them is Santa.  That is of course if they can remind him that he had once been Odin.

--

Joe and Becky were running for their lives. 

The monster in the hockey mask had killed Gary and it was now after them.  Becky was hurt and limping.  Joe was trying to hold her up while they ran. Both were terrified. Joe was looking behind and he no longer saw the monster and he didn't notice the limb and he tripped, bringing him and Becky down.   They looked up and saw the monster. The monster raised his machete to bring down on the teens. Joe heard a scream that he thought was Becky's, but he soon realized it was his own.   Instead of the sound of metal on flesh, the sound was metal on steel.

Joe looked up and saw, to his complete astonishment, he saw.

"Santa?" Joe asked, surprised.

"Ho. Ho. Ho." Santa said, but there was no mirth in it. His spear held back the machete. "Now, foul draugr. Not these children."  Santa knocked the undead slasher back with his spear. "Not during MY season!" 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Now in its fourteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2021, after a little delay due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, took place on Saturday, 16th October. As per usual, it came with an array of new and interesting little releases, which traditionally would have been tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Of course, in 2021, Free RPG Day took place after GenCon despite it also taking place later than its traditional start of August dates, but Reviews from R’lyeh was able to gain access to the titles released on the day due to a friendly local gaming shop and both Keith Mageau and David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3 in together sourcing and providing copies of the Free RPG Day 2020 titles. Reviews from R’lyeh would like to thank all three for their help.

—oOo—
For Free RPG Day 2021, EDGE Studio offered Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power. This is a quick-start for Embers of the Imperium, the roleplaying game based on Twilight Imperium, the classic ‘4x’ (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate) board game. It uses the Genesys Narrative Dice System—first seen in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Third Edition—but ultimately derived from the original Doom and Descent board games. Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power comes with everything necessary to play—an explanation of the rules, four pregenerated characters, and an exciting, action-packed scenario for the Game Master to run. What it does not come with is dice and the fact that both the Genesys Narrative Dice System and Embers of the Imperium—and therefore Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power—use propriety dice is a small problem. Not an insurmountable one, but a small problem, nonetheless. Fortunately, EDGE Studio has made available a Genesys Dice App free to download which will alleviate that problem unless one or of the players lacks a mobile device.
Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power opens with a rules summary. The core mechanic requires a player to roll a pool of dice to generate successes and should the roll generate enough successes, his character succeeds in the action being attempted. The complexity comes in the number of dice types and the number of symbols that the players need to keep track of. On the plus side, a player will be rolling Ability dice to represent his character’s innate ability and characteristics, Proficiency dice to represent his skill, and Boost dice to represent situational advantages such as time, assistance, and equipment. On the negative side, a player will be rolling Difficulty dice to represent the complexity of the task being undertaken, Challenge dice if it is a particularly difficult task, and Setback dice to represent hindrances such as poor lighting, difficult terrain, and lack of resources. Ability and Difficulty dice are eight-sided, Proficiency and Challenge dice are twelve-sided, and Boost and Setback dice are six-sided.

When rolling, a player wants to generate certain symbols, whilst generating as few as possible of certain others. Success symbols will go towards completing or carrying out the task involved, Advantage symbols grant a positive side effect, and Triumph symbols not only add Successes to the outcome, but indicate a spectacularly positive outcome or result. Failure symbols indicate that the character has not completed or carried out the task, and also cancel out Success symbols; Despair symbols count as Failure symbols indicate a spectacularly negative outcome or result, and cancel out Triumph symbols; and Threat symbols grant a negative side effect and cancel out Advantage symbols. Only Success and Failure results indicate whether or not a character has succeeded at an action—the effects of the Advantage, Triumph, Despair, and Threat symbols come into play regardless of whether the task was a success or not. Task difficulties range from one Difficulty die for easy tasks up to five for Formidable tasks, and in addition, certain abilities enable dice to be upgraded or downgrade, so an Ability die to a Proficiency die or a Challenge die down to a Difficulty die.

In general, the dice mechanics in the Genesys Narrative Dice System—and thus, Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power—are straightforward enough despite their complexity. They are perhaps a little fiddly to assemble and may well require a little adjusting to, especially when it comes to narrating the outcome of each dice roll.

Combat is more complex. Initiative is handled by a skill roll—using Cool or Vigilance, and attack difficulties by range and whether or not the combatants are engaged in melee combat. Damage is inflicted as either Strain, Wounds, or Critical Injuries. Strain represents mental and emotional stress, Wounds are physical damage, as are Critical Injuries, but they have a long effect that lasts until a Player Character receives medical treatment. When a Player Character suffers more Wounds than his Wound Threshold, he suffers a Critical Injury, and when he suffers Strain greater than his Strain Threshold, he is incapacitated. The various symbols on the dice can be spent in numerous ways in combat to achieve an array of effects. So a Triumph symbol or enough Advantage symbols could inflict a Critical Injury, allow a Player Character to perform an extra manoeuvre that round, and so on, whilst Threat and Failure symbols inflict Strain on a Player Character, three Threat symbols could be spent to knock a Player Character prone, and so on. Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power includes a table of options for spending Advantage, Triumph, Threat, and Despair in combat, as well as a table of critical Injury results. It does not, however, include a table for spending Advantage, Triumph, Threat, and Despair out of combat—a disappointing omission for anyone wanting to do a bit more with their character’s skills. That said, the Game Master should be able to adjust some of the options on the table to non-combat situations.

Lastly, the rules in Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power cover NPCs and Story points. Apart from nemesis-type NPCs, most NPCs treat any Strain they suffer as equal to Wounds, and Minions work together as a group. In Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power, there are two pools of Story Points—one for the Player Characters, one for the GM. They can be used to upgrade a character’s dice pool or the difficulty of a skill check targeting a character—NPC or Player Character in either case, or to add an element or aspect to the ongoing story. The clever bit is that when a Story Point is spent, it does not leave the game, but is shifted over to the pool of Story Points. So if the Game Master spends a Story Point to increase the difficulty of a Player Character’s Perception check to determine the motives of an NPC, she withdraws it from her own Game Master pool of Story Points and adds it to the players’ pool of Story Points. As a game proceeds and Story Points are spent and move back and forth, it adds an elegant narrative flow to the mechanics and will often force the players to agonise whether they should spend a Story Point or not as they know it is going to benefit the Game Master and her NPCs before it comes back to them.

A character in Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power has six characteristics—Agility, Brawn, Cunning, Intellect, Presence, and Willpower, plus a range of skills from Charm, Computers, and Cool to Ranged (attacks), Skulduggery, and Vigilance, as well as range of special abilities. The four pre-generated Player Characters include a reptilian Xxcha, an overly optimistic liaison who carries an antique Lazax grav-mace; a Human Orbital Drop Soldier with a dislike of the L1Z1X; a curious Hylar Field Scholar who travels in an exosuit which enables him to survive out of water; and a Hacan Wayfarer merchant captain looking to restore her family fortune and is an expert negotiator with word and gun. All four Player Characters are nicely presented in a busy, but easy to access character sheet which gives a clear explanation of the character background, roleplaying notes, skills, equipment, abilities, and so on—plus each comes with a decent illustration of the character. Of note, each Player Character has an agenda, for example, the Hylar Field Scholar’s requirement to record and gather all data and samples they can of new or archaic technologies. There are boxes throughout the scenario which inform the Game Master when each of the Player Characters has an opportunity to fulfil their agenda, and notably, it is not up to the player to remember to bring it into play, but rather that the Game Master should remind the player. As such, there is no benefit in game to fulfilling an agenda, but it does provide roleplaying opportunities and motivation, and provides a chance for each player to showcase his character.
The setting for Twilight Imperium and thus for Embers of the Imperium and Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power, is a space opera in a vast, sprawling galaxy. For twenty thousand years, the galaxy prospered under the Lazax Empire, governed by a Galactic Council which gave everyone a voice. Both the Lazax and the empire would be destroyed in a series of wars that would culminate in the bombardment of Mecatol Rex, glittering throne world of the Lazax and the seat of Council, by the reviled Mahact Kings. The subsequent Twilight Wars lasted for millennia, but more recently, the great galactic powers have come together—warily, and established a Galactic Council amidst the ruins of Mecatol City. There is peace, measured diplomacy, and careful co-operation, but in a new age when the members of the councils do not yet fully trust each other, there remain threats which would return the galaxy to chaos once more—the L1Z1X Mindnet, Vuil’Raith Cabal, Mahact Gene-Sorcerers, and Nekro Virus. In response, the Galactic Council established the Keleres, an agency dedicated to dealing with threats larger than any one faction can effectively deal with. Though dedicated to the safety of the galaxy, the Keleres is dependent on the factions for support and resources, as well as for its members—also known as Keleres—and most of them have to answer to their sponsors as well as the agency. The Player Characters are of course, members of the Keleres.
The scenario in the quick-start, ‘Ashes of Power’, sends the Keleres to Herool’s Truce, a tidally locked world which has only regained contact with the rest of galaxy in recent years and from where a Keleres informant has reported the possible discovery of unknown, Imperial-era technology and the presence of unsanctioned L1Z1X agents. There they are to investigate the possible disappearance of the informant, confirm the discovery of the ancient technology, and if they do, prevent it from falling into the hands of the L1Z1X agents. It sounds a simple enough mission, but the Player Characters will need to find the ship they have been assigned, get to the planet, deal with it bureaucracy, follow up on a rumour or two, all before facing off against the cybernetically enhanced L1Z1X agents. Divided into three acts, in the first act, the Player Characters will be briefed about their mission and find their ship; in the second, they will conduct their investigation on Herool’s Truce; whilst in the third, they will confront the L1Z1X team and discover whether or not the rumours of ancient technology are true. The scenario takes its time to help the Game Master, clearly indicating skills necessary and their possible outcomes, as well as presenting numerous ways in which the Keleres can approach the mission. They can be open about it with the local authorities, they can try and avoid getting the authorities involved, and although there are numerous opportunities for combat and conflict, with many of them, the scenario also suggests other ways of dealing with the situations. Along the way, there are opportunities for each of the Player Characters to fulfil their personal agendas and explore an interesting world which has been cut off from the rest of the galaxy for centuries and consequently has an interesting society and geography. There are lots of chances to roleplay too, which is helped by the succinctly done backgrounds for each of the Player Characters. 
The scenario concludes with notes as to what happens next. This takes into account the fact that the Player Characters might not succeed or might even side with the L1Z1X agents! There are consequences to both outcomes as well as their being successful, and these could play out should the Game Master continue with an Embers of the Imperium campaign. In addition, the PDF version of Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power comes with support that includes two extra Player Characters, their agendas, and extra encounters for the scenario’s third act. Also included is a map—which was not in the Free RPG Day release. The extras increase the number of players possible or character choices available.
Physically, Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power is as nicely done as you would expect from the publisher. It is well written, the full artwork is good, and the sample Player Characters are excellent. If there is a downside perhaps it is that few of the NPCs are illustrated, and there are no maps or illustrations of the world of Herool’s Truce, both of which would have helped the Game Master portray the world for her players.
Ultimately, if there is an issue with Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power, it is that it uses the Genesys Narrative Dice System and that does take some adjusting to. Get past that though, and Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power offers up not just a solid introduction to the system, but a thoroughly entertaining and exciting introduction to Embers of the Imperium with a really good scenario and some nicely done pre-generated Player Characters. 

What’s new?

A wraparound cover image! So normally I really like Dave Trampier’s art, but I’m gonna say, this cover is not his finest work. I mean, everything’s fine, it’s just the faces are kind of creepy.

Also the centrefold of the magazine is a backgammon table drawn by Tramp. You can’t see it in the pdfs on archive.org but there’s a picture of it here on Dungeoneers Syndicate: https://dungeonsyn.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-dragon-magazine-15-1978-david.html

The editorial mentions that Quag Keep is out. Also that a “Best of” Dragon should be out in time for Gencon in August.

An ad announcing the AD&D Players Handbook will be available at Gencon! And on the same page the announcement of Gamma World at Origins has it in the logo typeface.

Articles

• James Ward talks about wandering monsters and how, as a DM, you can prepare things ahead of time – he provides an example table of monsters with pre-rolled hit points etc
• Gygax talking about the origins of using feet in dungeons vs yards outdoors – most of the article is pretty tedious but the first couple of paragraphs are some great history about the Castle & Crusades Society and the progression from that through to Chainmail and then D&D

Variant articles

• dragon magic – a bunch of special spells just for dragons
• randomised tables for determining what’s in a pit – if you’re lucky, you may find a hatmaker or beer merchant! What the?
• randomised tables for settlements – perhaps there was recently a flood or an uprising in the town your PCs are travelling through – can add a lot of flavour
• randomised tables for weather and possible outcomes like flu – yep, we’re all about the randomised tables in this issue!
• notes from another barely successful D&D player – a very small list of dubious ideas

Today is the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and last night I got my PDF copies of the new Hyperborea RPG, formerly Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.  

Hyperborea has long been part of my "older, colder" version of D&D. And winter is a great time for it. This new version has a lot going for it and I can't wait to dig into it.  There is so much to like here.

It also is a good time to revisit the witch family, The Winters, and my favorite member Tanith.

I detailed Tanith for the 2nd Edition of the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea RPG. 

Tanith Winters
Female Hyperborean Witch 12th levelAlignment: Neutral (but it is likely she will move towards Evil at some point)

ST 10 [+0 +0 2:6 2%]
DX 14 [+1 +0 3:6 8%]
CN 13 [+1 +0 80% 3:6 8%]
IN 16 [+1 75%]
WS 12 [+0]
CH 16 [+1 8 +1]
Age: 30
AC: 4
HD: 9+3
hp: 38
FA: 5
CA: 12
#Attacks: 1/1
Damage: 1d4 (dagger), 1d4 (sling)
SV: 11 (+2 Transformation, +2 Sorcery)
ML: 12

Abilities
Alchemy, Brew Decoction, Familiar, Read Magic, Scroll Use, Scroll Writing, Sorcery, Dance of Beguilement, Effigy, Henchmen, Broom Enchantment, LAdyship

Spells
First level (5+1): Charm Person, Light, Scare, Shocking Grasp, Sleep, Write Spell
Second level (5+1): Darkness, Extrasensory Perception, Identity, Ray of Enfeeblement, Ungovernable Hideous Laughter
Third level (4+1): Continous Darkness, Slow, Phantasm, Wind Wall, Starlight
Fourth level (4): Freeze Surface, Moonlight, Mirror Mirror, Transfer Wounds
Fifth level (3): Cause Lycanthropy, Control Winds, Transform to Winter WolfSixth level (2): Control Lycanthrope, Freezing Sphere
Languages: Common, Hellenic (Hyperborean), Old Norse, Speak with the Dead, Speak with Nature Spirits
Size: M (Height: 5'2", 114lbs)
Move: 40
Saving Throw Modifiers: Transformation +2, Sorcery +2
Secondary Skill: Weaver (almost all Winters women begin as weavers)
God: Lunaqqua

Snowy Owl Familiar ("Beira"): AL N; SZ S; MV 10 (Fly 80); DX 15; AC 7; HD 1/4 (hp 5); #AT 3/1 (claw, claw, bite); D 1/1/1; SV 17; ML 5; XP 11

Normal Gear
Winter robes, winter cloak, clothing, daggers (2), backpack, woolen blanket, chalk, ink and quill, polished steel mirror, incendiary oil, parchment (4), soft leather pouch (2), small sack (2), tinderbox, torches (2), wineskin (mead), writing stick, iron rations (one week), spellbook (contains all prepared spells), 1 gp, 5 sp

--

Tanith has been an interesting character so far.  In the few games, I have run her she has become surprisingly power-hungry.  She seeks to control the Winters family which is going to bring her is direct conflict with Grandmother Winter.

With this new Hyperboria RPG out I am also going to explore her relationship with her god Lunaqqua.

Now in its fourteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2021, after a little delay due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, took place on Saturday, 16th October. As per usual, it came with an array of new and interesting little releases, which traditionally would have been tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Of course, in 2021, Free RPG Day took place after GenCon despite it also taking place later than its traditional start of August dates, but Reviews from R’lyeh was able to gain access to the titles released on the day due to a friendly local gaming shop and both Keith Mageau and David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3 in together sourcing and providing copies of the Free RPG Day 2020 titles. Reviews from R’lyeh would like to thank all three for their help.

—oOo—

The Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy is Green Ronin Publishing contribution to Free RPG Day in 2021. This is an introduction to Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy which provides Game Master and players alike with everything necessary to play. This includes an explanation of its genre, the rules, a complete scenario, and a nonet of pre-generated Player Characters, all of which comes packaged in a handsome, not to say sturdy—especially in comparison to other releases for Free RPG Day, booklet done in full colour. It very quickly gets down to explaining what it is, what roleplaying is, and what everyone needs to play before providing an explanation of what ‘Romantic Fantasy’ is. Traditional fantasy is not necessarily romantic, although it can have great romances, its focus is more on great sagas and battles and magic and great evils and the like, but inspired by authors such as Mercedes Lackey, Diane Duane, Tamora Pierce, and others, Romantic Fantasy and thus Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy, emphasises love and relationships between a diversity of healthy sexualities, genders, and identities, often through deep, meaningful romantic relationships and consent. In the Kingdom of Aldis, the key setting for Blue Rose, preference for more than the single gender is widespread, and although in the minority, preference for a single gender is equally as accepted. The tone is also positive, rather than grim and gritty, so the characters—and thus the Player Characters—are motivated by sincerity and heroism. Magic is also different to that of standard fantasy, tending to be psychic in nature rather than necessarily arcane, although that too, as arcana, also exists. Lastly, there is a sense of sense of environmental consciousness to be found in the genre, and reverence for the natural world often drives stories in which the antagonists have none.

A quick overview of Kingdom of Aldis—the ‘Kingdom of the Blue Rose’—is also provided as is a description of the Aldinfolk. The kingdom is a beacon of Light having arisen from the darkness that was the Empire of Thorns, whose cabal of wicked Sorcerer Kings had previously overthrown the Old Kingdom. It is also home a diverse range of peoples. Not just Humans of all colours, but also aquatic Sea-folk, the mystical Vata (divided between the chalk-skinned Vata’an and the ebonskinned Vata’sha), and also the Night People, the creations of the Sorcerer Kings and their terrible sorcery, who eventually freed themselves from their servitude. Lastly, there are the Rhydan, various species of animal who Awaken to sapience and psychic ability, and are equal citizens in Aldis. This mix is reflected in the range of Player Characters presented in the appendix at the end of the Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy. Nine pre-generated First Level Blue Rose Player Characters make up the Family Nightsong, a collection of misfits and outcasts who have come together to form a family. The appendix includes an explanation of who they and what the relationships are between the nine, as well as their history. Each of the nine comes with a complete background and descriptions of their personality, goal, calling, destiny, and fate, plus their important relationships. This is in addition to their actual character sheets, so every one of the nine pre-generated Player Characters is given a two-page spread. The mix includes Sea-folk, a Night Person, Humans, Vata’sha, Vata’an, and a Rhy-Badger, and they can either be used intended with the scenario included in the quick-start, or as a ready supply of replacement Player Characters, or even NPCs if the Game Master is running a Blue Rose campaign.

The Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy and thus Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy uses the AGE System, or Adventure Game Engine System. Originally seen in Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying Set 1: For Characters Level 1 to 5. It is fast, simple, but cinematic in its play style. At the core of each character in Blue Rose are eight abilities—Accuracy, Communication, Constitution, Dexterity, Fighting, Intelligence, Perception, Strength, and Willpower. Each attribute is rated between -2 and 4, with 1 being the average. They will have ability focuses, areas of expertise such as Perception (Searching) or Intelligence (Natural Lore), each of which adds +2 bonus to appropriate rolls. Characters can also know Weapon Groups, Talents, and Specialisations and these are worked into and explained in the nine pre-generated characters. The AGE System and Blue Rose has three Classes—Adept, who use arcana, Experts, who can be anything from stealthy scouts to suave diplomats, and Warriors, who can use a variety of weapon styles.

Mechanically, the AGE System requires the use of just six-sided dice, both to handle actions as well as effect—such as damage, time taken, or to generate Stunt Points. To undertake an action, a player rolls three six-sided dice to beat a target, the average being eleven. To the roll a player also adds the appropriate Ability and if one applies, a +2 bonus for any Focus. For example, Chaya the Rhy-Badger wants to understand what a wolf that she and her family has just encountered is doing. Her player would roll the dice, add two for her Intelligence Attribute and two for her Natural Lore Focus. The roll is two, two, and six, which together with the bonuses for the Intelligence Attribute Natural Lore Focus, means that Chaya’s player has rolled a fourteen. This is more than the Target Number of the twelve required to understand the wolf.

Now of the three six-sided dice, one is a different colour to the other two. This is called the Stunt Die. Typically, it acts as an effect die, measuring how well a character does or how quickly an action takes, but in the basic rules, particularly in combat, the Stunt Die does much, much more. Whenever a player rolls doubles on two of the three six-sided dice and succeeds, he gets a number of points equal to the result of the Stunt Die to spend on Stunts, which come in four types—Combat, Exploration, Social, and Power. Thus, Knock Prone or Mighty Blow are Combat Stunts for use in melee or missile combat, Arcane Shield or Effortless Arcana are Arcane Stunts when casting magic, Speedy Search or With a Flourish are Exploration Stunts for general actions, and Passionate Inspiration or Flirt! are Roleplaying Stunts. In the case of Chaya above, her player rolled doubles, generating two Stunt Points to spend from the Exploration Stunts. The list of stunts is not exhaustive in the quick-start, but enough at last for the scenario, and there are more in Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy.

The Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy explains the rules clearly and simply in just a few pages. Tables are included covering the Actions that the Player Characters and NPCs can take, as well as Talents and Arcana. Four tables list Combat Stunts, Exploration Stunts, Roleplaying Stunts, and Arcane Stunts. Lastly, and particularly to the Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy, the Player Characters can be driven to greater feats and achievements when the people and things they care about are in danger, and mechanically, this is reflected in the Relationship value which each Player Character has with particular members of their family. Once per scene, if an action would support the emotion and context of the Relationship which the Player Character has with another, then the player can add the Relationship value to any Stunt Points generated, or even be used to generate Stunt Points when the roll actually does not. Lastly, there is advice throughout the quick-start, especially on handling the potential interplay of Stunts and Emotions and how to portray them, in a way which is responsible and mature.

The scenario in the Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy is ‘The Rhy-Wolf’s Woe’. Consisting of eight scenes, the adventure can be easily scaled to any number of players, though four or five should be a reasonable number. The Player Characters are traveling through the Pavin Weald, a vast forest, when they encounter a Rhy-wolf who wants their help. One of his friends, another Rhy-wolf, has gone missing and he believes that she may have gone off with a boy with whom she has formed a rhy-bond. He wants the Player Characters to find her and make sure that she is safe. Of course, being heroes, the Player Characters agree and go in search of the missing Rhy-wolf. He directs them to the village where the boy can be found, but once they discover that he too is missing. Now in search of both, they must trek deep into the wilderness, facing increasingly difficult encounters along the way.

‘The Rhy-Wolf’s Woe’ is nicely built around a burgeoning relationship between the boy and the Rhy-wolf, and comes with plenty of detail. However, the scenario is short—really intended to be played in a single four-hour session—and it is linear. So in terms of storytelling it is not particularly sophisticated and beyond perhaps using it as an introduction or a side quest in a campaign, it is perhaps a little too basic an adventure for experienced players. This does not mean that they will not enjoy it necessarily, but its structure is likely to be obvious. Less experienced players or those new to roleplaying will have less of an issue, and if this is one of the first things that the Game Master has run, then the structure makes it easier for her to run and concentrate on roleplaying and portraying the setting.

Physically, the Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy is cleanly and tidily laid out. The full colour artwork is excellent and as a physical product, it feels nicely solid in the hands.

Overall, as an introduction to the Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy, the Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy is better aimed at players and Game Masters new to the hobby rather than experienced roleplayers. However, as an introduction, the Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy is well done and a more than serviceable entry point.

This creature began with a picture posted to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Facebook group, and I thought it might be fun to stat up.  The original posters asked, "in game terms, what is this?"

Here is what I posted in response. 

It is a "Confessor." It appears in areas of profound sadness. It feeds on the professed guilt of those who sit next to it. You have to confess your worst guilt to it. If you do, it leaves. If you don't or lie to it then it attacks as a specter.

It seemed to go over well, so here are some full stats.

What struck me about it was the white "robes" it is wearing, the bench seems to have room for someone else to sit next to it, and it is out in the daylight.

This is an undead creature, but a special one.

CONFESSOR
FREQUENCY: Very Rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 3
MOVE:  0" (special)
HIT DICE:  10+10 (55 hp)
% IN  LAIR:  100%
TREASURE  TYPE:  Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS:  1
DAMAGE/ATTACK:  1d10 + Energy Drain
SPECIAL  ATTACKS:  Compell, Energy Drain
SPECIAL  DEFENSES:  +1 or better weapon to hit
MAGIC  RESISTANCE:  25%
INTELLIGENCE:  Average
ALIGNMENT:  Chaotic  Evil (Chaotic Neutral)
SIZE:  M  (6' tall)
PSIONIC ABILITY:  Nil

The confessor is a special undead appearing in places of great sorrow.  They are found sitting alone waiting for someone to sit down next to them.  Humanoids are compelled to do so unless they make a saving throw vs. spells.   If a victim fails the save they sit down next to the confessor. This is all the magic does, what the victim does next is up to them.  If they make the save the confessor still will beckon any living humanoid to come to sit next to it. 

Once someone sits next to the confessor it will then ask them to confess their deepest guilt. The character then has to confess their worst guilt to it. If they do and are honest, it leaves. If they don't or lie to it then it attacks as a 10 HD undead creature.  Its touch does 1d10 hp of damage and drains one energy level as per a specter.  They can and do move about in the daylight and are not harmed by it.  

They can be turned by a cleric as a Lich.  Unless the confessor hears a confession they will return on on the next sunset.  Anyone killed by a confessor will remain as a spirit helplessly haunting the area around the confessor; wordlessly screaming out their warnings to others. 

--

Have to admit, I thought of this.

Lots of Sci-Fi and not a lot of D&D in this one.

Of note: an ad for Origins 78, July 14-16 – “Be sure to visit the TSR Booth for … new Gamma World RPG … and D&D tourney modules” – ie the G series of modules.

Winners announced for the “Name that Monster” contest from issue #8 – illustration was by Erol Otus.

Comments on the state of D&D by Gary Gygax – oh yeah, this is the really good stuff! He clarifies the intended audiences for the original D&D, the new Basic set, and the forthcoming AD&D. He’s drafting the final manuscript of the Player’s Handbook and has a rough outline of the “referee’s” volume (ie Dungeon Masters Guide), both supposedly out in 78 (ha! DMG came out around Oct 79). Also Kuntz & Ward are working on a revised Gods, Demi-gods and Heroes, supposedly coming in late 78 or early 79. (It didn’t actually come out till 1980 and was re-titled Deities and Demigods).

Interview with a Rust Monster – basically a long piece of fiction based off a play session – I skipped it.

The Adventures of Monty Haul and His Friends at Play – this was some sort of over-the-top re-telling of some fictional play sessions of TSR staff. It sounds better than it was. It was not funny.

A letter that seeks to clarify inaccuracies in the Cthulhu Mythos article.

D&D variant – a lengthy article about lycanthropy and playing it as a character – this was too tedious – I skimmed it. But it had some nice images by DAT! Dammit, I’m sure I’ve seen this horse one somewhere else but I couldn’t figure it out. Anyone know where it’s from? Ping me on twitter.

As with the second one, the first page describing how to use it, in addition to the examples, are a verbatim copy from the first M&T Assortment. And the second page is the same as M&TA2, even with the same drawing.

I’m not sure I understand why this came out so long after the first two.

Otherwise it’s much the same as the others – a bunch of random monster and treasure tables.

Illustrations

Honestly, the most interesting thing about all of these is actually the pictures. There are some cool ones in here including one by Bill Willingham!

Not sure if his stuff had appeared in anything before this… As far as I can tell, this is the first bit of D&D art by Willingham. Who of course, went on to do a bunch more for D&D and then went on to create the legendary Fables comic series. Love his art.

The cover is by Tramp. The other internal pictures don’t have signatures – I suspect most are by DCS, and the Harpy is most likely a Trampier.

Date Information

As a lower bound, The Basic Set 2nd print, which came out in Jan 78, says that it’s forthcoming. Enworld says May. White Dwarf #8 Aug/Sep 78 has a Game Workshop ad that lists it for sale (previous issues didn’t have as extensive lists so it’s unclear if they had it before then). The Judges Guild issue 12, U, Dec 1978/Jan 1979, lists it for sale. I’m happy to go with May until any further evidence shows up.

You know what?

I think this is the first really good cover on The Dragon magazine. It was done by Tom Canty (who also did the cover for Dragon #2).

He went on to do all sorts of book covers. See here: http://art.ofearna.us/canty.html

What’s New

It’s the first monthly issue.

Articles

• Oh boy, here’s one of those tedious ones where we calculate the dimensions and weight of giants and how far they’d sink in to various substances. I mean, really?
• Dragon sees how many ways they can misspell Tolkien – cover has Toklein, contents page has Tolkein and article title has Tolkein. At least the actual article uses Tolkien. And basically just says D&D != Lord of the Rings (Err, != means not equals)
• Monster drinking songs – really scraping the bottom of the barrel
• Notes from a semi-successful D&D player – a bunch of tips like clever uses of spells

Variants

• A random demon generator
• Japanese mythos

Date Information

Although this is the April issue, there’s an ad by TSR for the Spring Revel in Lake Geneva on April 1 & 2, which also gets a mention in the editorial. So they’d have to assume most people would get the magazine before that time, ie in March. I’m going to continue putting The Dragon dates as the month of issue but I’ll be aware that the contents are usually a month behind if it’s talking about other material.

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.
—oOo—
As much as the noughties was a decade dominated by the d20 System and the rise and fall of the third-party Dungeons & Dragons publisher, it was also the decade of two genres. One was pirates, the other was World War 2. The former was certainly given a big push by the release in 2003 of Pirates of the Caribbean, and would see titles such as Swashbuckling Pirates, Pirates of the Spanish Main, and Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies being published. The latter was spurred on by the anniversary of the USA’s entry into World War 2 with the attack on Pearl Harbour, and indeed, in that sixtieth anniversary three World War 2 roleplaying games would be published—Gear Krieg The Roleplaying Game from Dream Pod 9, GURPS WWII from Steve Jackson Games, and Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946. Over the course of the next decade, numerous World War 2 themed roleplaying games, from the small such as Battleforce Bravo from Deep7 Press to Weird War Two D20: Blood on the Rhine from Pinnacle Entertainment. These five represent the differing approaches taken to what is a defining period in twentieth century history. Both Battleforce Bravo and GURPS WWII played it straight and kept it to the history (that is, until GURPS WWII Classic: Weird War II), but the others would go in a different direction, adding another genre. Weird War Two D20: Blood on the Rhine added horror, Gear Krieg The Roleplaying Game added combat walkers, and Godlike added superheroes.
Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 did superhero roleplaying and superheroes in World War 2 like no other. In supplements like Glory Days for Brave New World and scenarios like All This and World War II for Marvel Super Heroes, the focus is traditionally on the superhero first, not the soldier. Although Godlike was a superhero roleplaying and an alternate history game in which superheroes existed and influenced the course of the war—and beyond, they would not change the outcome of the war. The World War 2 of Godlike would still be won by men and machinery, by grit and determination, and when the Talents—those blessed with the superpowers or miracles which set them apart from ordinary men—of the Allies met the Übermensch of the Axis powers, they were soldiers first, superheroes second. Godlike is not a superhero setting in which the superheroes, the Talents, wear spandex. Instead, they wear a uniform and they serve their country. It is also not a Four Colour setting, but gritty. Despite their amazing abilities, Talents do die, whether that is due to combat with an Übermensch or an artillery barrage.

The alternate history of Godlike begins in 1936 when Der Flieger—‘The Airman’—appeared in the skies over the Berlin Olympics. He was the first Talent, and as Europe moved towards war, more would appear. Pevnost, a Czechoslovakian resistance fighter who could step through one door and out of any door he had previously stepped through, enabling him to traverse hundreds of miles in an instance. He would support the underground resistance throughout the war. As Der Flieger destroyed the Polish airforce, a Polish Talent, Cien appeared, who was capable of manipulating objects touched by his shadow, the Finnish Viljo, became one with the arctic snow and fought the Soviet invaders, and the Danish schoolboy, Vogel, found himself invulnerable to any attack he was aware of. As the Nazis occupied more and more of Europe, more Talents appeared amongst the local populations, many of whom would become heroes of their nations. The first British Talent was Jumping Johnny, capable of leaping twenty-seven miles in a single bound and land with a destructive bang, whilst The Indestructible Man, the USA’s first Talent, immune to any damage he was aware of, up to and including as was tested after the war, a ten-megaton nuclear bomb. More and more Talents would manifest throughout the war and around the world, as men and women were subject to the stresses and strains of the war. Despite the Soviet attempts to ‘biologically re-educate’ subjects into manifesting as Talents, the resulting Baba Yaga escaped, mad and willing to attack Soviet and Nazi forces alike. The Nazis conscripted its Übermensch into special SS brigades, whilst the Allies transferred its Talents into Talent Operations Command and trained them as commandos before organising them into Talent Operation Groups, or squads, which would typically be attached to standard forces or used on special missions.

In Godlike, player take the roles of Talents, soldiers with superpowers or miracles who serve in Talent Operation Groups. A character has six stats, Body, Brains, Command, Cool, Coordination, and Sense, rated between one and five, with two being average. Similarly, skills are rated between one and five. Beyond this, stats and skills can have Hyperstats and Hyperskills, so a Talent can have Hyper-Body and be super strong, or Hyper-Intimidation, and be incredibly imposing! Then there are Miracles. Certain traditional superpowers are unknown in the world of Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946—mind control or reading, absorption or imitation of other Talents, the ability to create Talents, time travel, unlimited healing powers, and actual super-science—though Goldberg Science and the creation of gadgets is possible. A wide array of cafeteria-style Miracles is given. This ranges from Aces, which makes the Talent incredibly lucky, Break, which enables a Talent to puncture or smash objects beyond Human capability, and Dampen, which allows him to reduce or negate a physical effect of a Talent to Side Step, with which a Talent can avoid a disaster or attack, Time Fugue, which enables a Talent to stop time for a single object or creature, and Zed, which can be used to negate the ability of another Talent. All of the Miracles come with Power Stunts, Extras, and Flaws, which all adjust the cost of the Talents, and there are also prebuilt, ready-to-play, Cafeteria Power-Sets—though only a handful of them. They include The Blaster, The Brain, The Bruiser, The Flyer, and so on.

There is also the option for a player to build his Talent’s Miracles as per other point-buy systems in other superhero roleplaying games. Fundamentally though, the tone and power level of Godlike means that certain superhero archetypes are challenging, even impossible to build. To build a Talent with the powers of flight and blast rays is possible, but expensive, but add in invulnerability, and it becomes prohibitively expensive. This is because Miracles—and also Hyperstats and Hyperskills—are bought as die types. Standard dice are the least expensive, Wiggle dice the most expensive, and Hard dice in between. Figure in Qualities—Attacks, Defends, Useful out of Combat, and Robust—and the cost also goes up, although a player could remove them to reduce the cost, but with the loss of utility. Miracles can also be modified by Extra, Flaws, and Power Stunts, which in turn adjusted the cost. Another limiting factor is the number of Will Points a Talent is built on. Godlike gives the stats for the first ten Talents to appear, their costs ranging from twenty-five to one-hundred-and-fifty Will Points, but the majority have Miracles way out of the league of beginning Talents. In the default campaign setting of the Talent Operations Group, a player is given twenty-five Will Points with which to purchase Hyperstats, Hyperskills, and Miracles. It is not a lot and it makes it challenging to create Talents without resorting to Hyperstats or Hyperskills. Nevertheless, it is possible to create interesting Talents, not all of them necessarily designed for combat.

To create a Talent, a player assigns six points to his Talent’s stats—which already begin at one, assigns twenty points to skills, and if playing in the Talent Operations Group campaign, receives training in another eighteen points’ worth of skills. Lastly, he has twenty-five Will Points to spend on Hyperstats, Hyperskills, and Miracles. As well this, a player should determine his Talent’s background, nationality, age, family, education, motivations, and so on, to flesh out the character.

Our sample Talent is Technician Third Grade Theodore Huffman, who was studying piano at the Juilliard School of Music in New York when his draft number came up 1943. After basic training he was assigned to Special Services and performed piano concerts in the USA, and then England and North Africa. In early 1944, the convoy he was in, was ambushed by the Germans and the truck he was driving blown up. He was thrown from the vehicle and knocked unconscious. It was then that his Talent manifested—Billy Bones. Whilst Theodore was unconscious, his skeleton got up, grabbed a machine gun and proceeded to fight the ambushers, killing most of them, and driving the rest off. When relief arrived, they discovered Huffman asleep and Billy Bones brashly playing jazz on the piano and smoking a cigar. As a Talent, Billy Bones fights when Huffman cannot, and is stronger and faster than Huffman. He also smokes when Huffman does not, and whilst Huffman is a classical pianist, Billy Bones plays music more popular with his fellow soldiers.

Technician Third Grade Theodore Huffman, ‘Billy Bones’, TOG-242
Body 2 Coordination 2 Sense 2
Brains 2 Command 3 Cool 1
Base Will 4
Current Will 4
Motivations: Survive the war; Become a better musician
Skills: Brawling 1 (3d), Climb 1 (3d), Cryptography 2 (4d), Dodge 1 (3d), Drive (Automobile) 1 (3d), Education 2 (4d), Endurance 1 (3d), Explosives 1 (3d), Grenade 1 (3d), Hearing 2 (4d), Knife Fighting 1 (3d), Language (French) 2 (4d), Machine Gun 1 (3d), Map Reading 1 (3d), Navigation (Land) 1 (3d), Perform (Piano) 3 (6d), Perform (Sing) 1 (4d), Pistol 1 (3d), Radio Operation 1 (3d), Rifle 1 (3d), Sailing (Sailboat) 1 (3d), Stealth 1 (3d), Submachine Gun 1 (3d), Survival 1 (3d), Swim 1 (3d), Tactics 1 (3d)

Talents (25 Will Points)
Alternate Form 2hd (Qualities: Attacks, Defends, Robust, Useful Outside of Combat. Base Cost: 5/10/20. Extra: Endless +1/+2/+4, Extra: Unconscious +1/+2/+4; Flaw: Peace of Mind (Asleep) -2/-4/-8; Flaw: Mental Strain -2/-4/-8; Final Cost 3/6/12; 12 points).
Hyperstat: Body +3d (Base Cost: 2/5/10. Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/3/6; 3 points).
Hyperstat: Coordination +3d (Base Cost: 2/5/10. Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/3/6; 3 points).
Hyperstat: Cool +3d (Base Cost: 2/5/10. Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/3/6; 3 points).
Hyperskill: Submachine Gun +2hd (Base Cost: 1/3/7. Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/1/3; 2 points).
Hyperskill: Perform (Piano) +2hd (Base Cost: 1/3/7. Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/1/3; 2 points).

Although there is a wide range of Miracles listed in Godlike, the list is not extensive, and it would not be until the supplement, Will to Power when the roleplaying game received Miracles such as Size Shift and Unconventional Move. (The supplement also added a range of aircraft which were not included in the core rules—an issue potentially if one of the player Talents could fly.) Nevertheless, between the Godlike and Will to Power, both Game Master and player had access to a decent range of Miracles, enabling both to create interesting Talents. (The following example Talent was created using the extra content from Will to Power.)

Dorothy Murray was fourteen when she was evacuated from London. Unhappy with life away from her parents she ran away and returned to life in the capital. When the family house was bombed, and she found herself buried under rubble, her Talent manifested—she was able to tunnel her way out. At first she thought it was luck, but during later raids, she could hear the cries of those trapped and knew where they were. She began to experiment her powers and by the height of the Blitz, was going out nightly to tunnel into the rubble of bombed houses to rescue the survivors. Anyone pulled free always remembered the glow of the girl who came to rescue them and carry them to safety. The newspapers nicknamed her the ‘Angel of the Blitz’.

Dorothy Murray ‘Angel of the Blitz’
Body 2 Coordination 2 Sense 2
Brains 2 Command 2 Cool 2
Base Will 4
Current Will 4
Motivations: Help people with her Talent; Finish school
Skills: Athletics 1 (3d), Education 1 (3d), First Aid 1 (3d), Health 1 (3d), Hearing 1 (3d), Inspire 1 (3d), Language (Latin) 1 (1d), Mental Stability 1 (3d), Perform (Violin) 1 (3d), Run 1 (3d)
Talents (25 Will Points)
Unconventional Move: Tunnelling 4d+2wd (Qualities: Attacks, Defends, Robust, Useful Outside of Combat. Base Cost: 5/10/20. Extra: Endless +1/+2/+4, Extra: Passenger +1/+2/+4. Flaw: Beacon -4/-8/-16, Flaw: Glows -1/-2/-4, Flaw: Specific Material (Rubble) -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/2/4; 12 points).
Hyperstat: Body +8d (Base Cost: 2/5/10. Flaw: Attached to Unconventional Move -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/3/6; 8 points).
Detection: Humans 4d (Qualities: Defends, Robust, Useful Outside of Combat. Base Cost: 4/8/16. Flaw: Human Trapped in Rubble/Underground -1/-2/-4; Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 2/4/8; 4 points).

Mechanically, Godlike uses what would become known as ‘Ore’ or the ‘One-Roll Engine’. This is a dice pool system, usually formed of the appropriate Stat plus Skill, for example, Coordination plus Rifle or Command plus Perform (Piano), the aim being not to roll success, but get matches—pairs, triples, and so on. Neither player nor Game Master roll more than ten dice—although actually rolling that many dice is not common. If any of the dice match, then the character has succeeded. However, the more successes rolled, the wider the result is and the faster it is, and the higher the set of matches, the more effective it is. Carried over into combat, the width of the roll will determine the speed of the attack and how much damage is inflicted, whilst its height will determine exactly where the hit was made. Taking damage is not only physically injurious, but will negate dice in an attacker’s pool, so going first is almost a must, but dodging can ‘gobble’ up dice if successful, potentially breaking up matching sets. Although damage inflicted can be stunning, killing, or stunning and killing, combat can be brutal in Godlike, so players had better be warned ahead of play. Leaping into a game and expecting bullets to bounce off your hero’s chest just because is a sure-fire way to get him killed. Overall, the system is elegant, easily handles multiple actions, and plays fast, although it does take some adjustment from the traditional rote of rolling for initiative, rolling to hit, rolling for damage, and so on.

However, there are a couple interesting wrinkles which comes into play once Hyperstats, Hyperskills, and Miracles are figured. There are two other die types beyond the standard type. The medium cost die type is the Hard die. When this is in a pool and rolled, it is always set at a ten. This means that with a pair of Hard dice, a Talent will not always succeed, he will always do so with the maximum effect possible. The most expensive die type is also the most flexible. The Wiggle die can be set to any number, either to create a set or widen a set. Effectively, both give a player more control over his Talent’s ability to bring his Hyerstats, Hyerskills, and Miracles into play, especially as the dice pools for these increase in size—and it is generally easier to improve an already existing Talent rather than select a completely new one.

Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of Godlike is the extensive timeline which covers the ten years from the Berlin Olympics of 1936 to the beginning the Cold War in 1946. It is richly detailed, mixing in both the actual history with the alternate history of Godlike, but keeping the two sperate. The entries which involve Talents are clearly marked with a bullet hole. This is supported by an equally interesting exploration of the wider background to Godlike and the appearance of Talents, especially how society at large reacted to them. The racism and sexism rampant throughout societies in the period is also acknowledged, but notes that despite that the targets of both played major roles in the global conflict. In the main, the role of Talents in Godlike—at least in Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946—is focused upon military and special operations style campaigns. This is understandable given that it is the major role of Talents throughout the war, and perhaps other types of campaigns, perhaps with a more diverse range of characters might have come had the publisher had the opportunity. Nevertheless, there is nothing to stop the Game Master using the content in Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 and backed up with research of her own from running other types of campaigns set within the Godlike universe.

Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 is further supported with a wide arsenal of equipment used by both the Allied and Axis powers, from small arms to armoured vehicles. The Game Master is given good advice on running a Godlike campaign, and the following details of the Talent Operations Group campaign is accompanied by a complete write-up of a sample TOG squad. This nicely showcases some of the possibilities using the Miracle creation rules earlier in the book. Alternatives and options suggest ways in which a campaign can be adjusted to allow Talents to be even more ‘godlike’, right up to a Four Colour-style campaign, but these do push the setting away from its gritty and very much soldier-first feel. Rounding out the book are the aforementioned write-ups of the first ten Talents to appear and since the book was published in 2001, rules for running a Godlike campaign under the d20 System. These are decently done, but feel superfluous now.

Physically, Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 is sturdy black and white hardback. It perhaps feels a little odd in its ordering of its content, with explanations of the rules, mechanics, and character creation coming before the roleplaying game’s detailed background. Without the latter, the rules do lack context, but with perseverance the reader will get to the richly detailed background and begin to put everything together. The book is well written and illustrated throughout with black and photographs manipulated to add in the presence of the Talents in each and everyone. There is something quite odd about many of them, their slightly off kilter perspective giving them a sense of the unearthly.

Godlike is lacking a number of elements. Mostly obviously a scenario, but World War 2 is such a familiar setting that a Game Master should be able to develop something of her own with relative ease. It is lacking details of the aircraft—of either side, but that would be addressed in Will to Power. Perhaps its major omissions are the lack of perspectives from either a female point of view or a non-American point of view—and to be fair, there is some truth to both omissions. Yet the focus of Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 is on the soldier on the front lines and beyond them, and not necessarily on the home front, and the role might very well have been more fully explored in subsequent supplements—for example, if a supplement devoted to the Russian Front had been published. The authors did publish scenarios in which women played a significant role, and to be fair, there is only just so much that can be covered in a book, even a core book like Godlike. Plus again, there is nothing to stop the Game Master, backed up with some research from running a campaign where women can play a major role. The other emphasis, that of the US soldier and the role of the USA in World War 2 is present in Godlike, but again to be fair, the roleplaying game was published in a year which was the anniversary of the entry of the USA into World War 2 and that emphasis could be found across all media. However, throughout the alternate history of Godlike, the roles of non-US Talents and their stories and contributions are highlighted again and again, each time working as potential inspiration for stories and scenarios which do not necessarily involve the USA. So ultimately, that emphasis is not strong as it could have been.

Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 would go on to spawn a number of supplements and scenarios, including Will to Power and the campaign, Black Devils Brigade: The First Special Service Force and the Italian Campaign, 1943–1944. Its mechanics would have a wider influence, the One-Roll Engine appearing eventually on its own in Wild Talents, a sequel of sorts to Godlike, but which also stood alone and enabled a Game Master to run a more traditional style of superhero campaign. It in turn would give rise to some wildly imaginative campaign settings, including Wild Talents: Progenitor, Wild Talents: The Kerberos Club, and Wild Talents: This Favored Land.

Then published by Hawthorn Hobgoblynn Press, but later Arc Dream Publishing, Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 would be one of the first roleplaying games I reviewed and certainly the first I reviewed after being contacted directly by the publisher and asked to review. I can remember the surprise when it happened, even when it happens today, I am still surprised and even humbled by the trust that publishers place in me in asking me to review their books. Godlike was worth that trust, because it was a great game in 2001 and it still is in 2021. The combination of Greg Stolze’s elegant mechanics with Dennis Detwiller’s richly developed background is a grim and gritty take upon the superhero genre, something that still stands out today as being different and stood out even more in 2001 against the backdrop of the d20 System boom and the tone taken by the other World War 2 roleplaying games then being released. Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 is an amazing piece of writing and design which shows how even as miraculous powers change the world, the soldier—even the soldier Talent, not only has to survive that world, but stand up and still be a hero in that world.

One of the most fun features of both the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic is how they handle magic and spells. Or in the case of Mutant Crawl Classics, wetware programs granted by an A.I. patron as opposed to an actual deity as in Dungeon Crawl Classics. In each case, every spell or program is given a page which details how it works, what its effects are, and what can go wrong with said spell; in other words, an effect chart. For example, the classic standby of First Level Wizards everywhere, Magic Missile, might manifest as a meteor, a screaming, clawing eagle, a ray of frost, a force axe, and so on. When cast, a Wizard might throw a single Magic Missile that only does a single point of damage; one that might normal damage; multiple missiles or a single powerful one; and so on. Alternatively, the Wizard’s casting might result in a Misfire, which for Magic Missile might cause the caster’s allies or himself to be hit by multiple Magic Missiles, or to blow a hole under the caster’s feet! Worse, the casting of the spell might have a Corrupting influence upon the caster, which for Magic Missile might cause the skin of the caster’s hands and forearms to change colour to acid green or become translucent or to become invisible every time he casts Magic Missile! This is in addition to the chances of the Wizard suffering from Major or even Greater Corruption… Although this does add an extra mechanical element to play, it also adds a degree of danger and uncertainty to magic. Plus it is huge fun to play—and yet…

The Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game is well served with its lengthy list of spells for both the Cleric and the Wizard, which all together takes up a good third of the rulebook. Not so, the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. This is due another major aspect of the roleplaying game—mutations. Active mutations—as well as defects, such as Holographic and Pyrokinesis, have their own tables which work in the same fashion as spells, and since they are a major aspect of the roleplaying game, they take up a fair amount of the book. Consequently, this means that there is relatively little space to detail the wetware programs cast—or run—by the Shaman Class. With eight Patron A.I.s and just the Invoke Patron A.I. program and three programs per Patron A.I., the Shaman Class is woefully underserved in terms of capability in comparison to the Wizard or the Cleric and their extensive spell lists in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. As much as the wetware programs use the spell mechanics of Dungeon Crawl Classics, in Mutant Crawl Classics they are still pieces of software and thus technological rather than divine in nature. What Mutant Crawl Classics really needs is a list—at least—of more wetware programs, and that is something provided by the Enchiridion of the Computarchs.

Enchiridion of the Computarchs is a supplement designed to support the Judge and her players in settings where the Player Characters and the NPCs cast spells in high-tech settings. This includes not just the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but also third-party settings such as Cyber Sprawl Classics, Crawljammer, Umerica, Terror of the Stratosfiend, and Star Crawl Classics. Published by Horseshark Games following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Enchiridion of the Computarchs includes a long list of some forty or so new spells or programs, a new Spellburn table, new mechanics for spell failure, and a new corruption table written using high-technobabble, all of which supports the aforementioned settings and other post-apocalyptic, far-future, and dystopian-future campaigns.

In the past, before the Great Disaster, the cabalistic and powerful Computarchs built and established the laws and conventions of the WorldNet. It reached everywhere, but like the rest of civilisation, the network was shattered by the Great Disaster, scattering their tools and programs to be found by subsequent generations across Terra A.D. by the Seekers, especially the Shaman. If ever those tools and pieces of software were to be brought together, they would be collectively known as Enchiridion of the Computarchs. It includes a glossary that explains its terminology in terms of Dungeon Crawl Classics and Mutant Crawl Classics, so ‘source vault’, ‘repository’, and ‘source code’ rather than ‘spellbook’, ‘grimoire’, or ‘scroll’, and ‘encode’, ‘create’, ‘deploy’, ‘run’, and ‘inject’ rather than ‘enchant’, ‘recite’, ‘summon’, ‘place’, or ‘hex’. All of which supports the cross compatibility of the supplement.

Enchiridion of the Computarchs starts with adding mishaps—Faults, Bugs, and Critical Errors which can occur when a user rolls a natural one when executing a program. Once which of these has occurred—based on the user’s Luck modifier, Patron A.I. taint, and so on—the user makes a roll on the appropriate table. A Fault causes a program to stop running and must be fixed, a Bug means that the program runs to completion but with altered or unexpected results, and a Critical Error not only forces the program to stop, but directly affects the user too, including increasing the chance of his rolling a natural one when it is run again. Mechanically, the Faults are flavour rather than effect, whilst both Bugs and Critical Errors more effect than flavour. Less divine and more computational, a mishap simply does not vanish once it occurs, but any time the program is run again, it can also occur again, and even escalate from a Fault to a Bug, and if the roll is bad enough to a Critical Error. However, rest and time spent performing hardware and software maintenance can fix them. Critical Errors require a program like Quarantine to be run to fix.

As with Dungeon Crawl Classics and the ability of the Wizard to ‘Spellburn’ points in his Abilities to gain temporary bonuses to regain lost spells, in Enchiridion of the Computarchs, a Shaman or Techno-caster can do the same with ‘Burndown’. This uses the same mechanics as ‘Spellburn’, but replaces the table for the latter with one for the technological effects of ‘Burndown’. The table requires the use of a twenty-four-sided die and gives entries such as, “The user’s hands are scorched by electrical feedback. Until the ability score damage is healed, the user suffers -1 to tasks requiring the use of his hands.” However, not all of the entries are appropriate, such as “The user must donate an organ, skin, or other body part to a representative from a collection service.”, which will not apply in all settings. Perhaps a table per genre—Science Fiction or Cyberpunk, Post-Apocalyptic, and so on, might have been useful?

When it comes to the actual programs and executing programs, Enchiridion of the Computarchs provides rules for running program teams which although their involvement increases the running time, increases the program check bonus and enables the lead programmer to make multiple rolls on the program check. Computing power also allows for the effect of running programs at points of enhanced processing power, such as within or with the help of a central mainframe or via an orbital communications super router. Particularly rare program components, like proprietary algorithms or encryption keys can grant further bonuses, as can spending extra time activating a program, but rushing a program—essentially ignoring quality assurance—can introduce Bugs, and require fixing later on if a program is to be run more than once. Lastly, a big table gives one hundred options for program provenance, enabling the Judge to individualise programs with quirks, meaning that the version cast by one user might be different from that of another. It leads to the possibility of there being whole batches of a program which have the same quirk and a Player Character actually searching for a better version of a program he already has, or even just a version which lacks the deleterious quirk the version he has right possesses.

Much like the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and its extensive list of spells, Enchiridion of the Computarchs contains a lot of spells. In fact, over two thirds of the supplement is devoted to its spells. The forty-eight run from First Level to Fifth Level, widening the choices available at the lower Levels and actually providing choices at the higher Levels. The spells are designed primarily as adventuring spells rather than utility spells, and so will suit most adventuring Shaman and ‘techno-casters’. Some of the spells listed are actually detailed in Dungeon Crawl Classics and in Mutant Crawl Classics, such as Force Manipulation and Lightning Bolt, but there are plenty of new ones. For example, Close Access enables the user prevent access to entryways—both real and virtual, with Glitch the user transmit code or commands to cause robots, A.I.s, and other computer-driven technology to pause temporarily, Daemon summons an autonomous processing agent to do the user’s bidding, and Technorganic Virus, which infects the user’s enemies with effects ranging from suddenly being deafened to striking them down with a techno-plague. Some of the programs are directly computer-related, such as Create Deck, which enables the user to create a computer deck that will grant a bonus for later rolls involving computers, but for the most part, the programs in Enchiridion of the Computarchs interact with the biological, the computational, and the mechanical.

Rounding out Enchiridion of the Computarchs is a trilogy of appendices. These in turn, introduce malicious code which can implanted using the Exploit program, provide a pair of tables to generate program faults and their associated acronyms, and add and generate ICE—or Intrusion Countermeasures Electronic—to the game. These do feel underwritten in comparison to the ret of the book and will require the Judge to flesh them out a bit, but once she has, they will add more flavour and detail to a campaign.

Physically, Enchiridion of the Computarchs is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is decent and the supplement is well written. Many of the spell descriptions and their effects are engaging and any Shaman or user will want to bring them into play.

There is a split in the focus behind Enchiridion of the Computarchs born of having to cover multiple genres—or rather subgenres of Science Fiction. Whilst it covers the ‘techno-caster’ in general, that means that it has to encompass the computer hacker of the Cyberpunk genre and the Shaman of the post-apocalyptic genre, so there are programs—or spells as the Shaman call them—which will work in the one genre and be hard to work in the other. Much of this will depend upon the computational and electronic architecture of the world, where it is more prevalent, programs affecting computers will play a bigger role, such as Cyber Sprawl Classics, Crawljammer, or Star Crawl Classics, but less so in settings like that of Mutant Crawl Classics and the like. This means that some adjustment will be needed by the Judge in determining which of the programs she wants in her campaign.

In addition, if there is an issue with Enchiridion of the Computarchs, it is that it does not directly address the lack of programs to be found in the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game nor does it tie any of its programs to any of the eight Patron A.I.s given in the rules. Not that it necessarily has to have done, but it would have been useful. Still, that does not stop the Judge from doing so if she wishes.

Overall, Enchiridion of the Computarchs presents a fantastic set of new options, rules, programs, and/or spells that supports not just the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but any number of Science Fiction roleplaying games based on Dungeon Crawl Classics. Pleasingly, it provides much needed support and resources for the otherwise underdeveloped Shaman Character Class from Mutant Crawl Classics. If you play any roleplaying game from Goodman Games, or based on a Goodman Games roleplaying game, and you need programming support, Enchiridion of the Computarchs is exactly what you need.

Not everything I post here is game-related.

Friday Night Videos is a prime example.  And in truth, there might not be a Friday Night Videos (or even an MTV as we used to know it) without the pioneering work of Mike Nesmith.

Nesmith, who passed away on December 10 at the age of 78 was one of the members of the fake rock band, The Monkees.  LAter he created the show PopClips that was later sold to Time Warner and gave us MTV.  This is not a surprise since the Monkees show was essentially a surreal sitcom with music video sensibilities.  It played in reruns to kids like me that would grow up into teens with MTV.

Mike Nesmith is the Godfather of Music Videos.  Yes, there were music videos before, some WAY before, but he turned them into entertainment for the masses.

So here's Nes and some of my favorite songs he has written.

He also was featured on songs written by others. 

His best though, is one he wrote and performed and became something of a signature song.

Weren't they good, they made me happy.  Miss yeah Nes.

The Book of Gaub is a book of power whispered of by those fear it—and those lust after its secrets, a book of terrible knowledge that is never found whole, a book of vile things unleashed when its dark spells are miscast by the unready or the desperate, the reaching into our world of a being unknowable except by his hand which stretches out, his fingers—all seven of them, together and independently scratching at the walls and behind the cobwebs in the forgotten places. In mouldering dusty libraries, beyond the edges of maps, on the inside of the flesh of patients at a hospital underbudget, under the floorboards where rats and other things run, in that pie leftover from Christmas at the back of the icebox, nowhere because it never existed, and in that moment of lost love when a tear rolls down the cheek… Here the seven fingers—detached from the Hand of Gaub—incise their spells, perhaps to last for years and years, perhaps to disappear moments after discovery… Seven spells and seven instances for seven fingers, a catalogue of catastrophes to befall the foolish and the ambitious caster, details the many known things—or paraphernalia—left behind by the Shards of Gaub, a score of things that may come about because of Gaub, and descriptions of the situations that have wound themselves around the appearance of Gaub—in any form, all may be found within the pages of The Book of Gaub.

The Book of Gaub is a book of spells, a book of minor magical artefacts, a book of magical disasters, a book of magical monsters, a book of adventure or encounter hooks, and a book—a very short book—of rules for running sorcerer-type characters. All themed around Gaub, The Book of Gaub, Gaub’s spells and more. The Book of Gaub is a book of magic and spells from Lost Pages, a small press publisher best known for Genial Jack and Into the Odd. The publisher is no stranger to spell books, having previously published Wonder & Wickedness and Marvels & Malisons, but whilst The Book of Gaub follows the format of the latter, it is an altogether stranger tome. Not just stranger, but darker too. There are spells in The Book of Gaub that embrace medical violence, eating disorders, body horror, pregnancy, decay, bugs and spiders, stalking and gaslighting, self-harm and addition, and much more. This is not a book for an immature audience, but definitely a book that requires roleplaying safety tools and consent at the table.

The Book of Gaub is a book of spells for the Old School Renaissance and the retroclone of your choice. However, mechanically, The Book of Gaub is incredibly light with barely a handful of stats—and then only for its monsters. This makes it incredibly easier to adapt and not just to the Game Master’s preferred retroclone, but almost any roleplaying game in which spells, dark magic, and horror play a role. In addition, as much as the spell book is traditionally written with fantasy roleplaying games in mind, much of the colour or ‘micro fictions’ which accompany each spell have a very modern feel and tone. In fact, very twentieth century… What this means is that the contents of The Book of Gaub are easily transposed to roleplaying games such as Dying Stylishly Games’ EsotericEnterprises: Old School Adventures in the Occult Underground, Just Crunch Games’ The Dee Sanction, or even Liminal.

The forty-nine spells in The Book of Gaub are divided and themed darkly into seven. Thus the Finger That Trails Letters, working itself into dusty tomes and the written word, its spells related to the spells and written word; the Finger That Points The Way takes the caster and sometimes the victim of its spells on journeys; the Finger On The Pulse whose spells slice at the flesh, perhaps to heal, perhaps to bring suffering; the Finger That Scratches Beneath The Floorboards and in the hidden places of your house, its spells hiding and losing its victims there; the Finger Chewed Down To A White Bone, its spells inducing hunger and purges; the finger that is not there that you have already forgotten about by the time you reach the end of this clause; and the Finger That Catches A Shed Tear and slides it into a bottle, its spells playing upon and manipulating emotions.  Thus for example—at random, Eicastise, incised by the Finger Under The Floorboards, hides the caster in a painting—although he can be seen if it is examined—and even allows him to move freely in it or to another painting, to speak or hear from the painting, and appear appropriately dressed in the painting. The Finger On The Pulse leaves the Hypochondria spell behind, which requires the caster to fill a pouch marked with his sigil with rusty nails and the unwashed clothes of the victim, and then hide it in the victim’s house. Should the victim fail his Saving Throw, then he is cursed to have every injury amplified—cuts widen, blood does not clot, shortness of breath becomes stifling, and worse… Whilst under the curse, the victim cannot heal and for as long as the curse remains, only he and caster are aware of the worsening symptoms.

Not only are the spells often vile, but so is what they leave behind. Wherever the spells from The Book of Gaub are cast, they can corrupt the area and this corruption often manifests as a bauble or trinket, known as the Paraphernalia of Gaub, again each tied to one of the seven Fingers of Gaub. For example, the Finger That Trails Letters might discard a bibliography of non-existent books or an inkwell always filled with ill-appropriately coloured ink, whilst that left behind by the Finger Chewed Down To A White Bone could be a black photograph of a child standing in an empty house, the position of the child changing each time the photograph is viewed, the child also weeping when something invisible is near, or an exquisitely fractally carved scrimshaw which can be studied to aid concentration or the study of small things, but leaves the user open to hypnotism. In many cases, a Paraphernalia of Gaub requires the user to empower it, which means a spell has to be cast upon it.

The vile nature of The Book of Gaub and its spells are only exacerbated by the Catastrophes, misfortunes which will befall the caster such as the sorcerer’s joints creaking and moaning whenever he moves, potentially becoming too stiff for him to move, if he miscasts a spell learned via the Finger On The Pulse , but there are general Catastrophes too, like all children born within the region for the next seven days having seven fingers on each hand and upon reaching puberty will know a single spell of Gaub. Under certain conditions Monsters of Gaub can manifest too, though fortunately there are not quite so many of those are there of either the spells or the Catastrophes. They also range vastly in size from the Pinmate, a white paste goblinoid thing which seeps into a house and possesses its fabric, turning every edge or potential point of friction into features which scratch and scrape, feeding upon the blood they draw, whilst the Tide of Turmoil is a swirling mass of chaos and unresolved collective trauma that always closer to the nearest source of suffering…

As well as some twenty or so manifestations of the Grip of Gaub, each a hook that pulls the Player Characters into a story which hints at the effect Gaub has upon the world, The Book of Gaub includes suggestions of how to use them in a game with rules for Sorcerers hunting for The Book of Gaub. Fundamentally, this is a Class and Level system in which the spells themselves do not have Levels and so can be learned in any order as long as a searching Sorcerer can find them and has the time. They can be learned and cast via rote memorisation or off the cuff, but if a spell is cast without learning it first, more spells are cast beyond a Sorcerer’s usual allotment, the spellcasting is interrupted, or other misjudged events occur, then a Catastrophe can occur!

Physically, The Book of Gaub is a beautiful little book in its own right. Cloth bound, it feels delightful in the hand, such that you wish that it was an actual artefact within the game world itself. The artwork is decent for the most part, whilst the writing is also good, although perhaps it does veer into the ponderous in places.

The adult tone of The Book of Gaub means that this book is not for everyone nor every campaign, and its contents will need to be carefully judged to determine whether it is suitable for a campaign or not. If it is, The Book of Gaub is a fantastically nasty book of ideas, encounters, and mysteries whose impact upon a campaign will not be obvious initially. Instead, The Book of Gauband its contents should creep into a campaign, turning it darker and weirder, whether that is in a frantic race to prevent yet one more spell from the tome fall into the wrong hands or a desperate search to find yet one more spell incised by one of the Fingers before a rival does. Whether a fantasy campaign or an urban fantasy campaign, The Book of Gaub is waiting to reach into your campaign and creep through its shadows, and show just how a little knowledge can spread darkness and chaos…

Been crazy busy at work. That time of year.  But one big project is done and I am down to the last few courses in this contact hour audit I have been doing for weeks.  

I have been neglecting things here so here is a quick one.  I got some art made of a scene crucial to the "War of the Witch Queens"  back story.  The scene is called "Tea With the Witches" and it takes place in The Simbul's castle in the Forgotten Realms.

I want to send out a hearty thank you to Brian Brinlee for doing such a great job with this. Here are the witches pictured. Left to right (clockwise, never widdershins when dealing with witches):

Sagarassi the Sea Witch (Krynn/Dragonlance), Iggwilv the Witch Queen (Oerth/Greyhawk), The Simbul, Witch Queen of Aglarond (Toril/The Forgotten Realms and where this is taking place), Larina (my OC), Feiya the Pathfinder iconic witch (Golarion/Pathfinder).

They are playing Pentacles, a game played with five people using Tarroka cards.

Hopefully regular posting will resume next week!