Fungi of the Far Realms is many things. First, it is a systemless sourcebook of mushrooms, toadstools, and other fungi, and where they might be found, suitable for use in almost any roleplaying game. Second, it is an in-world guide to mushrooms, toadstools, and other fungi, and where they might be found, one that could be in almost any fantasy roleplaying game setting. Third, it is an in-world artefact, a tome of mushrooms, toadstools, and other fungi, and where they might be found, one that could be in almost any fantasy roleplaying game setting. Fourth, it is it is a systemless sourcebook of mushrooms, toadstools, and other fungi, and where they might be found, that could be used as series of fungal prompts for situations and scenarios, that the Game Master can develop for her campaign in almost any fantasy roleplaying game setting. Sixth, it is guide to the mushrooms, toadstools, and other fungi of the Far Realms, wherever that may be found in the Game Master’s campaign in almost any fantasy roleplaying game setting. Seventh, it is a guide to fantasy mushrooms, toadstools, and other fungi rather than those of the real world. Eighth, and last, Fungi of the Far Realms is simply a beautiful book.

Fungi of the Far Realms is published by the Melsonian Arts Council, a publisher best known for Troika!, the Science Fantasy roleplaying game of baroque weirdness that lies beyond eldritch portals that open into non-Euclidean labyrinths which lie on the edge of creation under skies filled with innumerable crystal spheres and the golden-sailed barges that travel between them. Although Fungi of the Far Realms could be used with Troika!, it is not designed to be used with it, or indeed any specific roleplaying game. The mechanics in the supplement are there to determine what fungus the Player Characters might have come across and that is it, although an appendix does include a table of random effects that might best a Player Character should he decide to consume any of the entries in the book. Of course, one of the first things that the author makes clear in Fungi of the Far Realms is that it is not a guide to real world mushrooms—and thankfully not, because some are weird—and should definitely, definitely not be read as such. The other advice is that the contents of Fungi of the Far Realms should be used sparingly, so as to reward the Player Characters for exploring an area.

In game, Fungi of the Far Realms is a volume written by E.Q. Wintergarden. In particular, it is a new facsimile edition of the classic work on mycelium with an introduction by A.R. Clements and a new introduction to the second by S. Zhang. A.R. Clements is the ‘Chair of Mycology at the Imperial College of the Brass Spires’ and S. Zhang is the illustrator of the original edition who actually accompanied E.Q. Wintergarden on his research trips. Yet, one Alex Clements is the author of the Fungi of the Far Realms and Shuyi Zhang is the illustrator. So, there is a sense of world within a world, or rather a book within a book within a world with Fungi of the Far Realms.

Of course, the bulk of Fungi of the Far Realms is devoted to over two hundred entries, each a particular fungus. They run from ‘The Adversary’, ‘Agaric Rex’, and ‘Almost Invisible Trumpet’ to ‘The Wrack’, ‘Yellow-Spotted Creeper’, and ‘Zarafetti’s Eyelash Fungus’. Each entry is accorded a single page which includes a full illustration in water colours, a mini-map of the Far Realms where the fungus can be found, and a description of its habitat, appearance, flavour/mouthfeel, and aroma. So, ‘Flibbertygibbets’ can be found on river sidings and in reed beds, and has the appearance of, “Finger-like protuberance reaching upwards. Intensely pink at the base, colouring to deep royal purple at the tips. Covered in tiny hairs giving it a soft, almost velvet texture. ‘I’d rather suck a flibbertigibbet!’ – common peasant oath.” The flavour/mouthfeel is described as “bitter, unpleasant!” and the aroma as “sour lemon”.

There are no suggestions as to how entries might be used, but some entries are more suggestive. For example, the habitat for the ‘Church Black Bracket’ is the high branches of wild plum and has the appearance of, “Black top crust with a fluffy pore-bearing surfaces that drip an oily excretion. Processed into a paint used by religious artists. Hard to work with but produces a fine, glossy black pigment. The heretic sects in the far west make wonderful use of this paint, but as the bracket doesn’t grow in such hot climates, it has become a valuable trade good (if one can bear to trade with such barbarians).” It has the flavour and mouthfeel of being far too oily and the aroma of rotten cherry. This has much more of an immediate use as the prompts are stronger and suggest questions that the Game Master might want to answer.

Thus, the entries vary in how useful they are in terms of storytelling. Some tend towards being mundane, others are more interesting. It should be noted that many entries are of an adult nature. Not necessarily explicit, but definitely requiring an adult readership.

If Fungi of the Far Realms does not detail the effects or uses of its fungi in the induvial entries, the appendices do. The first appendix suggests various potential symptoms for consuming a fungus, such as ‘Cucco Aminata’ that causes a homunculus to grow and bud from the consumer, or ‘Pixie Yeast’, a puddle of which can produce a small loaf of bread each day or a flagon of beer in two weeks. ‘Pixie Yeast’ can be kept aside over and over, so that it can be grown again and again over time to provide more bread and perhaps, beer. The second examines poisons. This provides an overview of potential poisonous effects rather than specific rules since Fungi of the Far Realms is systemless and every roleplaying game has its own rules for poison. Simply, a poisonous fungus should not simply kill the consumer, but suggest symptoms and give time for a Player Character to react and seek help. There is a table of entries for hallucinogenic effects, plus details of some fungal infections and a quick word about fungiculture that it is hard work and probably done by a mycologist. A view of the Far Realms is included inside the front cover with a grided map inside the back cover to help locate the various entries in the book in the region.

Physically, Fungi of the Far Realms is a beautiful looking book. The artwork is excellent.

Fungi of the Far Realms is an attractive book, but not an immediately useful book and it makes clear that not all of its entries are going to be used and that they should be used sparingly. What this means is that Fungi of the Far Realms is a book that is likely to sit on a Game Master’s shelf far longer than other sourcebooks and only be pulled from said shelf when there is a need a fungus, a toadstool, or the like. The fact that it is systemless is both an advantage and a disadvantage. An advantage because it can be used with any roleplaying game and a disadvantage because the Game Master still needs to develop the entries in the book to give them a role in her campaign setting or world, with some entries more interesting in the prompts they provide. Fungi of the Far Realms is a lovely book to have and pretty to peruse, but of limited use and application.

Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

—oOo—
What is it?
Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit is the quick-start for Conspiracy X 2.0, the most recent edition of the roleplaying game of hidden alien invasion, conspiracies, and secrets. Conspiracy X 2.0 is very much a roleplaying game inspired by and published in the wake of The X-Files and in the nineties, was a very contemporary roleplaying game. Originally published by New Millennium Entertainment in 1996, it was published by Eden Studios, Inc. from 1997, receiving a second edition in 2006.

It is a thirty-four page, 15.96 MB full black and white PDF.

How long will it take to play?
Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit is designed to be played through in a single session, two at the very most.
What else do you need to play?
The Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit needs a a four-sided, six sided, eight-sided, and ten-sided per player.

Who do you play?
The Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit includes Aegis Cell of six operatives. They consist of a CDC scientist, the cell leader determined not to lose another agent again; an FBI agent recently recruited to Aegis for asking too many questions and who believes he was abducted as a child; an ICE investigator who really found himself investigating an illegal alien; an MKULRA psychic with limited powers; a US Army technician skilled with computers; and a DEA agent with an empathy for dogs.

The Cell has a base of operations in an abandoned building. It includes barracks, a field hospital, gym, communications suite, and medical, electronics, and computer workstations.
How is a Player Character defined?An Agent in the Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit has six attributes—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Perception, and Willpower. Life Points are the amount of physical damage a character can suffer; Endurance his fatigue; and Essence Pool, his spiritual energy. He will have a variety of Qualities and Drawbacks—advantages and disadvantages, a Profession that is his day job, and various skills. These typically range in value between one and five, but can go higher, though two and three represents general competence.

How do the mechanics work?
Mechanically, Conspiracy X 2.0 uses a ten-sided die to resolve actions, which can be a Test or a Task. For a Task, the player rolls the die and adds a value each for his agent’s appropriate Attribute and Skill. A result of nine or more (this target number can be higher) is a success and higher results can grant better outcomes. For a Test, where there is no skill that applies, the player only adds the value of the Attribute, doubled for a simple Test, but not for a standard Test. Modifiers can be applied to a Test or a Task, ranging from ‘+5’ for easy to ‘-10’ for Near-Impossible.

If a player rolls a natural ten, a bonus six-sided die is rolled and one deducted, the result added to the ten. The player can keep doing this as long as he keeps rolling a six on the bonus die. Similarly, if a natural one is rolled, six-sided die is rolled and the result subtracted from the roll, and this is also open-ended.
An ‘Outcome Table’ in the Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit gives the possible results of outcomes from nine to twenty-four. There are results given for rolls one and lower.
The rules cover vehicles and chases as both feature very heavily in the included scenario.
How does combat work?
Combat in the Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit is kept simple and starts with initiative being determined by the Chronicler—as the Game Master is known—and then narratively. A Player Character can undertake multiple actions, but the latter comes with penalties. Melee attacks can be parried or dodged, and range for missile or gun attacks modifies both the Task difficulty and the damage multiplier. The rules also allow for lighting, recoil on firing heavy weapons, the use of scopes, and actually being under gunfire. This forces a Willpower Test. If an attack is successful, the result on the ‘Outcome Table’ can add a modifier to increase the damage. Body armour has its own Armour Value, which is rolled for when the wearer is attacked, and the result subtracted from the damage rolled.
A Player Character or NPC reduced to five Life Points or less is badly hurt and suffers penalties to all actions. A Consciousness Test is required if the Life Points are reduced to zero or less, and a Survival Test if they are reduced to minus ten or less.
The rules also cover Endurance loss for exertion and Essence loss for mental stress and exhaustion.
How does ESP work?
All Player Characters in the Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit are capable of five basic ESP abilities—‘Hunch’, ‘Intuition’, ‘Ken’, ‘Read Aura’, and ‘Second Sight’. They require a Difficult Willpower Test and if successful, an individual ability cannot be used for a week.
This differs from the full Conspiracy X 2.0 rules where the players have the option to draw Zener Cards as in a real Rhine Test to test psychic ability.
One of the Player Characters in the Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit has the Clairvoyance Psychic power, and unfortunately, it is not clearly explained how this works in the rules given.
What do you play?
The scenario in the Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit is ‘Convoy’.In the wake of the Roswell Incident of 1947, the secret organisation whose brief during World War 2 has been to monitor Nazi occult activities, split over how it would handle the increasing activities of extraterrestrials on Earth. Both claim to want to protect the USA and the world from both alien and paranormal threats. They just differ in how they wanted to achieve this. Aegis works to monitor alien activities and study their physiology, technology, and psychology, whilst developing the means and methods to combat the aliens as a threat. The National Defence Directorate has made treaties with the aliens that has allowed the abduction of human subjects, genetic experimentation, sabotage, and espionage. In return, the National Defence Directorate has received advanced technology from the aliens. Unfortunately, the rivalry between Aegis and the National Defence Directorate has festered and developed to the point where encounters between the conspiracies are often lethal. ‘Convoy’ is one of these encounters.
In ‘Convoy’, the Player Characters’ Cell is activated to protect and transport a recovered alien spacecraft to the Groom Dry Lake Research Facility. Another Aegis Cell has already recovered the spacecraft from a National Defence Directorate team and the Player Characters are directed to meet the other Aegis Cell survivors. This is a challenging scenario. The National Defence Directorate agent assigned to track them down is ruthless and has access to extensive resources to bring to bear on what quickly turns into a manhunt in which the Player Characters may end being identified as wanted criminals. The scenario can start wherever the players have decided their characters’ Cell is based (or it can start anywhere on the continental USA). Expect state police chases, watchful toll booth operators and seemingly innocuous weighing stations, biker gangs paid to do the dirty, and even abductions by the Greys—depending upon how the players and their characters decide to transport the downed spaceship. The players and their characters have free as how they approach the problem, but they will definitely need guile and some luck as well as brute force to get their truck and its cargo to its destination.
Is there anything missing?
Yes. The Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit has everything the Game Master and her players will need to play, except for the full rules for use of the Clairvoyance by the Psychic Player Character. The Game Master will either need to access the full rules for Conspiracy X 2.0 or make up the rules on the spot.
Is it easy to prepare?
Yes. The Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit is easy to prepare, although an example of combat would have helped, as would clearer explanations of the Player Character Psychic’s ability.
Is it worth it?
Yes. Although there are elements missing from the Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit, this is a simple, but tough, action-packed challenge for any group of players and their characters. The bad guys of the National Defence Directorate are desperate to recover their lost alien spaceship and will go to almost length to get it back. The scenario sharply showcases the rivalry between the two agencies in what could be a desperate fight for survival.
The Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit is published by Eden Studios, Inc. and is available to download here.

The Player Characters awake, their minds fuzzy, but their bodies cold and damp, and in pain. They each hang by one arm fettered over stagnant water. The water sloshes and the air is rank with the smell of decay, but there is the sound of snoring too. Light flickers and bobs up and down from below, a candle all but burnt down to the nub floats on the water. In the cells around them, the Player Characters can see each other. They are dressed, but have neither arms or armour, or indeed any of the equipment they brought with them earlier that day. For it was only today that they reached the castle, its tall spire jutting from the landscape, having travelled at the behest of its count, a noble who pleaded for their help in lifting a curse. He promised a great reward in return, yet he did not welcome the visitors kindly. First proclaiming them to be the answer to curse that he could no longer bare to suffer alone, and then pouncing upon the Player Characters.

This is the set-up to The Count, the Castle, & the Curse. Published by Deficient Games, it is a scenario for ShadowDark, the retroclone inspired by both the Old School Renaissance and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition from The Arcane Library. It is designed for a party of Player Characters of First to Third Level, and is intended to be played through in roughly four or five hours. Thus, it is possible to play through the scenario in a single session, but definitely no more than two.
The Count, the Castle, & the Curse is not only a Gothic horror scenario, but very clearly a retelling of the myths around vampires and Dracula. Further, it is possible to see The Count, the Castle, & the Curse as the retelling of the story of Count Strahd von Zarovich and events in Castle Ravenloft as originally appeared in 1983 in I6 Ravenloft for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition, but reimagined for Old School Renaissance. It has a Count, who is unnamed, away at war who returns to his lonely wife to discover that she has been unfaithful with his brother and in his jealousy cuts a bloody swathe through the castle.
As the scenario opens, the Player Characters have already arrived at the castle and find themselves trapped within its confines. In a situation in roleplaying that goes all the way back to Escape from Astigar’s Lair from Judges Guild (and beyond), they begin play imprisoned, chained up, and stripped of their equipment. Freeing themselves and recovering their equipment is the first of their goals, for their true aim—set by the Count—is to escape the castle. To that end, he is going to give them every opportunity to do so, all whilst taunting them, stalking them, yet not attacking them. He will only do that when the clock strikes Midnight, and he comes for them. This does not apply to his minions within the castle who will haunt and haunt the halls of the castle in search of their prey, that is, the Player Characters. Until Midnight though, the Player Characters have free reign to explore the limits of the castle and in the process discover its secrets and its past, including how the Count came to be cursed with vampirism and how his wife and brother died, and the ways out. There are multiple ways out of the castle, none of them easy, of course. The simplest are probably the most physically challenging, whilst others require crisscrossing the castle and up and down its tower to obtain the right items to activate an exit. Effectively, The Count, the Castle, & the Curse is a puzzle dungeon, but pleasingly, one with multiple solutions.
The Count, the Castle, & the Curse includes a number of stylistic and mechanical changes to both handle and enforce its Gothic genre. The most obvious is not to map the castle. Or rather not map the castle in its entirety, floor by floor, corridor by corridor, room by room, in two dimensions. Instead, it focuses on the important rooms and showing the links between them, presenting the relationship between them in a side or cut away view of the castle. Combined with detailed descriptions presented as a series of bullet points and the scenario focuses on the individual locations rather than on the time spent between them, that space shrouded by shadow into between the bursts of candlelight found elsewhere. Narratively and mechanically, this makes the navigation of the castle relatively easy, and it is further eased for the Game Master by the clear presentation of the rooms at the top of the page above their descriptions.
Mechanically, the scenario does away with Armour Class and some cases, the traditional Saving Throws. Instead, it replaces both with a floating value called Stress Level. This ranges in value between eight and twenty-two, but begins at ten and can go up and down according to the actions of the Player Characters and environmental factors. Witnessing a horrifying event, becoming frightening or paralysed, a player rolling a natural one or a monster a natural twenty, and being in darkness or split apart—do not split the party—will all increase the Stress Level. Sharing a strong drink, a player rolling a natural twenty or a monster a natural one, finding a trinket from home and narrating it into the story, and more will reduce the Stress Level. Stress Level will rise hour by hour of real. The players are kept fully aware of the current Stress Level, so can work to manipulate it, but also react in despair as it rises.
Each Player Character also begins play under the same curse as the Count—or at least partially under the curse. Throughout the exploration of the castle, he will be tempted again and again by the curse. This is ‘Progressive Vampirism’. The temptation is to consume blood and doing so grants vampiric traits and weaknesses as well as increasing the Player Character’s Hit Points. On the plus side, this also decreases the current Stress Level, but the Player Character is also tempted to feed repeatedly, and if he feeds too much, he not only gains more vampiric traits and weaknesses, but imperils his soul. If the Player Characters have not escaped by then, at the climax of the scenario at Midnight, when the Count appears for the final time, any Player Character who has given into his desire for blood and fed once too often may end up joining the Count in fully embracing the curse and becoming one of his minions.

Physically, The Count, the Castle, & the Curse is clearly and simply presented with an excellent layout. Bar the cover, there are no illustrations in the scenario. That said, given the genre, it is easy for the Game Master to base her descriptions on any number of vampire stories and films. The scenario does need an edit in places.
The Count, the Castle, & the Curse is written for use with ShadowDark and the dark and gloomy halls of its Gothic castle setting chime perfectly with the torch and light mechanics of ShadowDark, with the Stress Level mechanics only adding to the fear and horror of the setting and its genre. (Of course, the scenario can be run with the retroclone of the Game Master’s choice.) Given its story and its genre, there is much that is familiar in The Count, the Castle, & the Curse, but that makes it easier for the players and their character and the Game Master to engage with it, whilst the Stress Level and vampirism mechanics enforce and encourage the engagement. The Count, the Castle, & the Curse is a well-done retelling of an old story that makes for a classic Gothic horror one-shot.

Now in its eighteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2025 took place on Saturday, June 21st. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally 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. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.
—oOo—
As its title suggests, the Exalted Funeral DOUBLE FEATURE! contains scenarios for two of the roleplaying games published by Exalted Funeral. These are for Land of Eem and for Monty Python’s Curricular Medieval Reenactment Programme. The ‘Land of Eem: Curse of the Chicken-Foot Witch – A Quickstart Adventure’, which is for the roleplaying game which describes itself as ‘The Lord of the Rings meets The Muppets’, is not quite a full quick-start in that the Game Master will need to download a set of Player Characters, whilst the content for the Monty Python’s Curricular Medieval Reenactment Programme is a scenario rather than a quick-start and again, the Game Master will need to download a set of Player Characters. The two scenarios are presented as a tête-bêche book, so that one book is upside-down relative to the other. Both scenarios can be played through in a single session or so.
—oOo—
The scenario for Monty Python’s Curricular Medieval Reenactment Programme is ‘The Brachet and the Black Heart’. This is actually the scenario from the quick-start, so essentially the Game Master is getting with Monty Python’s Curricular Medieval Reenactment Programme half of Exalted Funeral DOUBLE FEATURE! is a version of the scenario with better presentation and artwork. The scenario does have some requirements in terms of which of the pre-generated Player Characters should be used. The Troubadour and the Knight should definitely be included as well as a Lower-Class Player Character such as the Knave or the Churl. The Enchanter will likely also be useful. However, the scenario itself does not make this explicit.

The scenario opens with the Player Characters in the village of Lower Entrails, which is described as quaint, nice, has several chickens, and not too much shit on everyone. There is a festival going on and the Player Characters are encouraged to wander around, gossip,and shop. There are plenty of prompts here for the Game Master to portray various encounters here, but the scenario begins with the Knight being approached by a footman from the nearby manse of Lord Arthur Name who invites him to a grand banquet to celebrate the betrothal of his daughter, Lady Lucky. Once the Player Characters have got past the Gumbys who serve as gatekeepers, they are divided by social class and funnelled into different scenes and activities. The Knight is feted, the Troubadour is expected to work, and anyone lower class is sent to the kitchens to work. There is the chance to pick up some gossip before, in the middle of the banquet, Lady Lucky is abducted by a giant dog chased by a surprisingly large flying mouse! Of course, Lord Arthur Name looks to the Knight to go after his daughter and rescue her.

The second part of the scenario is more traditional, a trek or quest into the Forest Sauvage to locate Lady Lucky. However, this is Monty Python’s Curricular Medieval Reenactment Programme and so the encounters along the way include with French knights and a witch a la Monty Python and the Holy Grail before the confrontation with a dragon that is more Jabberwocky than Monty Python. There is an optional encounter which will reveal the villain behind the whole affair, but like the encounter with the Gumbys, the encounters with the French knights and the dragon are a chance for the Game Master to play up her knowledge of Monty Python and quote from its oeuvre in character. ‘The Brachet and the Black Heart’ is a decent adventure which treats its medievalism in fairly silly fashion. Where it fails is in telling the Game Master what is going on until the very end of the scenario, so she must read to find out rather than the scenario telling her as part of her preparation.

—oOo—
In comparison to ‘The Brachet and the Black Heart’ for Monty Python’s Curricular Medieval Reenactment Programme, the ‘Land of Eem: Curse of the Chicken-Foot Witch – A Quickstart Adventure’ does actually include an explanation of its rules. This starts with its core mechanic. To have his character undertake an action, a player rolls a twelve-sided die and adds a skill modifier. On a result of one and two, the attempt is a complete failure; a failure with a plus on three to five; a success with a twist on result of six to eight; a success on nine to eleven; and a complete success on a twelve. There is a lot of scope for interpretation in terms of what the twists and failures might be, but there are explanations of each along with the rules for advantage and disadvantage, proficiencies and deficiencies, and the attributes, stats, and skills for the Player Character.

The conflict rules are given an equally straightforward and simple explanation. Notably, conflicts are handled in four phases—‘Parley’, ‘Improvise’, ‘Run’, and ‘Combat’—with the emphasis being that fighting is not the only option. Both melee and ranged combat have their own outcomes similar to those for a standard ability or skill test. Notably for melee combat, instead of success with a twist on result of six to eight, the result is ‘Hit with a Counterattack’. This means that the defender can attack back when hit, but could then roll the result of ‘Hit with a Counterattack’. This could simulate a duel, but it could also lead to the serious inflicting of Dread. Dread is a measure of the mental and physical harm that an attack or effect can inflict, and it is deducted from Courage. Armour will reduce physical Dread. A Player Character reduced to zero Courage is not dead, but unconscious and can suffer wounds, but if Courage is reduced to zero again, a Defy Death check must be made.

The adventure, ‘Curse of the Chicken-Foot Witch’ is described as having the hijinks tone and being “A fun, goofy, and light-hearted Level 1+ adventure’, inspired by The Muppets, Labyrinth, and Adventure Time. A witch, Chara the Chicken-Foot Witch, is causing trouble in the Used T’Be Forest in the Mucklands, including cursing the powerful Gnome, L. Dorothy Sandwich and turning her into a muskrat. Unable to undo the curse as a muskrat and stuck at Wally’s Waffles and Weorgs, L. Dorothy Sandwich hires the Player Characters to enter Chara the Chicken-Foot Witch’s hovel and steal back her Wand of Decursification. The adventure begins with the Player Characters at the Crack, the fissure in Used T’Be Forest that is the entrance to Chara the Chicken-Foot Witch’s hovel. The hovel is presented as a one-page location consisting of seven individual rooms and caves detailed in a list of bullet points. The caves are full of monsters, but also victims of Chara the Chicken-Foot Witch’s ire and jealousy. Some will have to be fought, but in many cases, the Player Characters can parley with the inhabitants or even avoid them all together. Of course, Chara the Chicken-Foot Witch cannot be avoided, but again, she does not have to fought to be defeated and the scenario includes ways in which the Player Characters can successfully Parley with her.
The adventure is definitely goofy and there is a little bit of whimsy to it. A headless skeleton wanders the caves, a ghostly ballerina weeps for her lost career, and an anthropomorphic Wug bakes cookies for his mistress. Depending upon the route taken through the caves, the scenario could be played in less than a single session. It looks like a mini-dungeon, but whilst there are opportunities for combat, the ‘Curse of the Chicken-Foot Witch’ encourages other options than that and is all the better for it.
—oOo—
Physically, the Exalted Funeral DOUBLE FEATURE! is a colourful affair. The artwork is excellent, and both scenarios are well written, even if the ‘The Brachet and the Black Heart’ does leave it to the end to explain to the Game Master what is going on.
Unfortunately, there is a disjointed feel to Exalted Funeral DOUBLE FEATURE!. Not because of there being content for two roleplaying games within its pages or the tête-bêche format, but because of what is missing and what the Game Master has to do to run either scenario. Both require that the Game Master download the Player Characters rather than giving them to her up front and in the case of ‘The Brachet and the Black Heart’, the Game Master has to download the quick-start for Monty Python’s Curricular Medieval Reenactment Programme, which not only includes the rules to run ‘The Brachet and the Black Heart’, but also ‘The Brachet and the Black Heart’ itself. Which is weird, as in, “So, to get the rules I need to run the scenario you have given me, I need to download the quick-start which includes the scenario you have already given me?” Ideally, Exalted Funeral DOUBLE FEATURE! should have been two books and the Game Master would have had everything needed to play one or both as is her wont. Instead, what Exalted Funeral has provided is a weird, unsatisfying compromise.
Nevertheless, Exalted Funeral DOUBLE FEATURE! does include two very enjoyable scenarios. Although they require a bit more effort to prepare than they really should, both ‘The Brachet and the Black Heart’ and ‘Curse of the Chicken-Foot Witch’ nicely showcase the humour and tone of their respective roleplaying games and present the players with some entertaining challenges for a single session each.

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—
There is a balance to find between knowing enough to be able to fight evil, versus not knowing enough and having it kill your or send you mad or knowing too much and having it send you mad, and worse have you betray society. This is the dilemma at the heart of heart of the Impossible Chamber, a secret society that knows just enough to know that what it knows is probably not enough and yet knowing more will compromise its mission. The tomes that it has had access to go back millennia, perhaps even more, but it is likely that its origins are only a few hundreds of years old. In more recent times, it may be connected to the Luminary Brotherhood of St. Joan which was established in Paris in the wake of the Affair of the Poisons that beset the city in the late seventeenth century. The Impossible Chamber was founded a few short years after the dissolving of the Luminary Brotherhood, just prior to the French Revolution. It managed to survive the turbulence of the years following the revolution and was even funded by Napoleon Bonaparte before his defeat at Waterloo and exile to St. Helena. By then, chapters had been established in both England and the United States of America. To its agents it provides the means to inform them of what they need to know to face the true horror of the universe and the means to fight it. Of course, it is never enough, despite the agents being the best informed and the best equipped to do so.
The Impossible Chamber is a supplement for Regency Cthulhu: Dark Designs in Jane Austen’s England which presents the Impossible Chamber as an organisation and benefactor for its Agents. It details its history and gives a timeline as well as descriptions of its organisation, some of its facilities—from Paris to Ohio, the arms and equipment it gives its agents, how it communicates, and how its upper echelons decide what its members investigate. Several campaign set-ups are suggested, perhaps with one Investigator an agent of the Impossible Chamber or all of them. Either way, an agent needs to have the Mythos skill and may even know a spell. In an age when conspiracies are rife—or at least appear to be, it is of paramount importance that an agent keep his membership of the Impossible Chamber a secret lest he lose Reputation, though the Impossible Chamber can help an agent gain Reputation too. That said, the Impossible Chamber is egalitarian in that it recruits from all levels of society to ensure it has access to all strata. Several Mythos artefacts that the Impossible Chamber holds in its library are detailed, like the Balthazar Pistols, which fire bullets capable of affecting things that ordinarily cannot be harmed by the unnatural, but which also have a high chance of killing their wielder and Lady Ostend’s Parrot, a seemingly ancient Greek automaton capable of speaking in several languages, including ones unknown to most scholars. This is alongside numerous Mythos tomes and several new spells.
A ‘Agents of the Impossible Chamber Experience Package’ enables a player to create an Impossible Chamber. He automatically gains five points of Cthulhu Mythos knowledge, loses Sanity for it, has encountered one Mythos creature at least once and is thus partly inured to its appearance, is suffering from a phobia or mania consequently, and has reduced Reputation, Sanity, and or Power as well. If the players do not want to create their own Agents, then six pre-generated Agents are provided, although their mechanical details do need to be checked.
For the Keeper there is a handful of adventure seeds, each with multiple options that the Keeper can develop. These are set in Scotland and the United States as well as across Europe and ate back roughly fifty or so years. ‘The Catch Me Who Can Affair’ is a complete scenario involving the Impossible Chamber and which can be played using the earlier pre-generated Agents. It is set in London in 1808 and intended to be played by two to three players, though more may be added. The inventor and steam engineer Richard Trevithick opened his Steam Circus in Bloomsbury, in the St. Giles district of London in July of 1808, but within months it closed and reopened twice. Now it has closed a third time and the Impossible Chamber suspects that something strange is the cause. The Investigators quickly discover from the foul smell and the coffin being removed that someone ‘died’ at the venue, whereas the previous causes had been subsidence under the circular track layout. Research in the library of St. Giles-in-the-Fields reveals some of the history of the district, that it was once a site of regular executions before they were moved to Tyburn. As the investigation progress, it becomes clear that someone other the Impossible Chamber is interested in what has happened at the Steam Circus and the corpse removed from deep underneath it. The final scenes will take the Agents deep into the Rookery of Seven Dials, potentially chased in and perhaps beyond… The scenario is nicely detailed and there is a slightly grimy, seedy fell to it.
Physically, The Impossible Chamber is well presented. The artwork is decent as is the cartography. It does need an edit in places.The Impossible Chamber is a combination sourcebook and scenario that shifts how Regency Cthulhu: Dark Designs in Jane Austen’s England is played. In Regency Cthulhu, the Investigators are as much concerned with their Reputation as they investigating and thwarting the forces of the Mythos. As evidenced in the scenario, ‘The Catch Me Who Can Affair’, The Impossible Chamber moves the play back to a more traditional style of play—Call of Cthulhu rather than Regency Cthulhu—with less of an emphasis upon Reputation because the Agents are not actually as involved with the Bon Ton as they typically are with Regency Cthulhu scenarios. Without that emphasis, The Impossible Chamber is easier to run using standard Call of Cthulhu, while the organisation, the Impossible Chamber, lends itself to a campaign set-up where the Agents are more mobile and less concerned with their immediate neighbourhood.

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, The Companions of Arthur is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon. It enables creators to sell their own original content for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition. This can be original scenarios, background material, alternate Arthurian settings, and more, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Pendragon Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Pendragon campaigns.

—oOo—
What is the Nature of the Quest?The Strange Oak is a short encounter for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition.

It is a full colour, six page, 4.28 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy, though it does need a slight edit.
Where is the Quest Set?The Strange Oak is a scenario for Pendragon, Sixth Edition. It can be set in any year and is easily added to any rural or forest location.
Who should go on this Quest?
Any type Player-knight can go on this quest. The encounter is not recommended for a solo Player-knight as the situation could kill him.
What does the Quest require?
The Love and Labours of Sir Cauline requires the Pendragon, Sixth Edition Core Rulebook and the Pendragon: Gamemaster’s Handbook.

Where will the Quest take the Knights?
In The Strange Oak, the Player-knights come across an odd a situation. A great tree standing in the woods around which exudes an area of calm suggesting that it is a suitable place to camp. Yet there are no sounds of wildlife around and what look at first to be a profusion of stones upon the ground turn out to be bones, some of them animals and some of them clearly men, and by then, it is possibly too late. The tree has the Player-knight (or Player-knights) in its influence.
The Strange Oak presents a simple situation. Can the Player-knights deal with a benign threat before they fall prey to its influence? What is happening here is that the Player-knights have encountered a fae tree and if they stray too close, there is the chance they will fall asleep and not awaken, starving to death in their slumber, and their flesh feeding the tree. A young boy will warn the Player-knights as to the danger as he has already lost his family (what happens to the now orphan is left to the Player-knights to decide.)

The situation as written is an endurance test for the Player-knights until either they chop or burn the tree down. Encountering and destroying the tree will earn the Player-knights Glory.

However, The Strange Tree offers a number of encounters to flavour the whole affair. This includes a ghost for a supernatural element, a starving wolf-pack for a combat sequence, and even a magical encounter with a pupil of Nimue, the Lady of the Lake, who will issue further warnings. Ideally, the Game Master should one or two of these to add a little more detail to the encounter.
Should the Knights ride out on this Quest?The Strange Oak is a serviceable encounter easily added to any campaign. It can played through in a single session, very likely much less.

Mythic Bastionland – Before Into the Odd starts by committing a cardinal sin. It does not tell the reader what it is. It is clearly a roleplaying game and it does at least tell the reader that, but there is no explanation of what the players and their characters do in Mythic Bastionland. There is no explanation of what sets this apart from any other roleplaying game in its genre. Instead, it leaps straight into setting up a game and creating characters and more. Without this context, Mythic Bastionland leaves the reader and the Referee with more work to understand what the roleplaying game is and what it is trying to do. Now there is some commentary at the rear of book which through a combination of examples of play and commentary upon them does provide some of the context that Mythic Bastionland is missing at the very beginning of its book and throughout the presentation of the rules. Yet this comes in the ‘Oddpocrypha’, almost one-hundred-and-seventy pages after the end of the rules presentation, and since there is no introduction to the roleplaying game to tell the reader that it is there and what it does, there is every possibility that the reader is going to be mystified as what he has in hands and the Referee daunted at the prospect of running Mythic Bastionland.

And yet, check online, such as the DriveThruRPG page for Mythic Bastionland – Before Into the Odd and clear and simple explanations as to what this roleplaying game is and what it is trying to do, can be easily found and understood. The fact that such an explanation—or something similar to it—is not given in Mythic Bastionland is both mystifying and profoundly unhelpful.

So, what then is Mythic Bastionland – Before Into the Odd? Mythic Bastionland is an Arthurian roleplaying game inspired by British folklore, Arthurian legends, and more modern interpretations of both. This includes Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant comic strip, the films Excalibur and The Green Knight, the roleplaying game Pendragon, and the computer game, Elden Ring. It is published by BastionLand Press following a successful Kickstarter campaign and as its title suggests, it is a roleplaying game set sometime in the past of Into the Odd, an Old School Renaissance adjacent microclone of Dickensian horror and industrialisation. This also means that it is also set in the past of Electric Bastionland: Deeper into the Odd, the roleplaying game of incomparable debt and failed careers amidst a very modern and almost incomprehensible city. Mythic Bastionland even suggests ways in which Player Characters from one roleplaying game can go to another as well as several ways in which they are connected, all of which are true, and it even hints that it may not actually be in the past either…

In Mythic Bastionland – Before Into the Odd, the players take the role of Knights, each different and knighted by a different Seer, seeking Glory, exploring a Realm, and confronting Myths, all having sworn the same oath—‘Seek The Myths, Honour The Seers, Protect The Realm’. Theirs is a world of brutal and bloody medievalism, but by gaining Glory, whether through the resolution of Myths, public duelling or jousting, entering tournaments, and fighting battles that history will remember, they will prove themselves worthy of rank, first of taking a seat in Council or at Court, next of ruling a Holding, and then of ruling a Seat of Power. Ultimately, as a Knight-Radiant, a Knight will prove himself worthy of undertaking the final task, fulfilling the City Quest. This will likely bring a campaign to an end as the Knights confront and deal with a series of omens.

A Knight is very simply detailed. He has a type and a rank, three Virtues, Guard, some property, an Ability, and a Passion. The three Virtues are Vigour, Clarity, and Spirit and they range in between in value between seven and eighteen initially, but can never go above nineteen. Guard is a Knight’s ability to avoid Wounds, whilst property is what a Knight owns, an Ability is a talent unique to the Knight, and the Passion is his means of restoring his Spirit. Both Virtues and Guard are rolled for as standard for all knights, but the property, Ability, and Passion are all defined by what type of Knight he is. This can be chosen or rolled for from amongst the seventy-two knightly types that Mythic Bastionland gives. The process is quick and easy.

Sir Wedell
Type: The Salt Knight
Rank: Knight-Errant
Glory 0

VIRTUES
Vigour 12 Clarity 11 Spirit 10
Guard 4

Property: Spined mace (d8 hefty), javelin (d6), coraline mail (A1), Everflask (contains an endless supply of fresh water), Scaled steed (VIG 12, CLA 8, SPI 5, 3GD), dagger (d6), torches, rope, dry rations, camping gear
Ability: Inspire Ire
Passion: Mettle
Knighted by: The Bright Seer

Mechanically, Mythic Bastionland is simple, though more complex than either Into the Odd or Electric Bastionland. To have his Knight undertake an action, a player rolls a Save against the appropriate Virtue. Beyond that, combat adds some complexity. In a turn, a Knight can move and attack—in that strict order, and instead of rolling to attack, a player rolls the damage his Knight will inflict. Combatants can attack the same target and their players roll their dice together. The highest die result counts, while the remaining dice that have rolled four or higher, can be discarded to perform Gambits. These start with ‘Bolster’ to increase the damage inflicted by one, but also enable a combatant to move after the attack, repel a foe, stop a foe from moving, trap an opponent’s shield, dismount a foe, and so on. There are greater Gambits for rolling eight or more. All Knights have access to Feats—‘Smite’, ‘Focus’, and ‘Deny’, which they can use in combat. ‘Smite’ adds an extra, larger die to the combat roll; ‘Focus’ lets a Knight use a Gambit without sacrificing a die; and ‘Deny’ blocks or rebuffs the attack before it lands. All require a Save against a Virtue lest the Knight become fatigued.

Armour worn and shields carried will reduce incoming damage, whilst the ‘Deny’ Feat will enable a Knight to avoid damage all together. A Knight’s Guard is reduced first, and as long it is one or more, a Knight can evade attacks. If his Guard reduced to exactly zero, the Knight gains a scar, but if the damage exceeds a Knight’s Guard, it is deducted from his Vigour and he is Wounded. If a Knight’s Vigour is reduced by half, he is mortally wounded and will die in the hour, but can easily and quickly be given first aid to prevent this. If a Knight’s Vigour is reduced to zero, he is dead. The other Virtues can suffer similar damage, often from Scars, but whilst some are debilitating, other Scars can also increase a Knight’s Guard. The rules for combat also cover unarmed combat, ranged combat, and mounted combat, as well as duels, jousts, shieldwalls, and spearwalls. They scale up quickly to include running warbands, the use of artillery, and handling sieges.

Combat in Mythic Bastionland is thus brutal. However, Knights do have the advantage of having the initiative in combat—unless surprised—and they and their players have the time to plan accordingly. Tactical use of Feats and Gambits will keep a Company of Knights alive longer than if they simply charge into combat.

For the Referee, beyond the basic rules, there is simple guidance on how to set up the game and its scope—how many sessions everyone wants the game to last, goods and trade, descriptions of the people and the realms, and setting up a Realm. This involves creating and populating a hex map, typically a twelve-by-twelve grid, that will mostly consist of wilderness. To this is added four Holdings—castles, walled towns, fortresses, or towers, held by Knights or influential Vassals of the King—one of which is the Realm’s Seat of Power, and six Myth Hexes, each one clearly affected by the presence of their Myth. The details of the various hexes, excluding the Myth Hexes, can be generated using the ‘Spark’ or prompt tables presented later in the book.

In terms of advice, Mythic Bastionland emphasises the ‘Primacy of Action’, that past actions and their consequences supersede content generated by prompts of the Spark Tables (and the bottom of almost all of the pages in the book) and the rules, ensuring that the players and their Knights have enough information to act, and using a simple procedure to determine the outcome of any action. There are also guidelines for improvisation, using prompts, handling luck, and how to end a session. The latter is important because every session should end with a discussion of what the players and their Knights want to do next. This can be to pick up where the current session has ended, but the players can also decide to end the Season or the Age, allowing for months or years to pass or even enough time for a Knight to mature from a young Knight or a mature Knight to become an old knight. There are numerous activities that the Knights can undertake in between—effectively off camera—but the passing of an age forces a player to reroll his Knight’s Virtues and accept the new result, even if lower. The result of which might be that a Knight has learned from his experiences and matured, or he could have been wounded and suffered a debilitating injury or entered his dotage. Further rules cover travel, exploration, and ultimately, dominion and authority. In the case of dominion and authority, a Knight comes to rule a Holding—or even a Seat of Power. At either level, what Knight will be trying to do is maintain and improve his Holding, deal with crises from within his realm, and see to his succession, and also crises from beyond his realm should a Knight hold a Seat of Power. This though is more for long term play than short term play.

All of which runs to sixteen pages. In other words, the rules to Mythic Bastionland are concisely presented in sixteen pages for everything! Which begs the question what exactly does the rest of Mythic Bastionland consist of given that that rules take up three-fortieths of the book? Over two thirds of the book is dedicated to two things. One is the Knights and one is the Myths, equally divided, for a grand total of seventy-two entries each. The Knights are what the players choose from, or ideally, roll for, and they include The True Knight, The Trail Knight, The Story Knight, The Rune Knight, The Mask Knight, and The Silk Knight, and every single one of them is different and interesting and will present a different way of playing a Knight.

The Myths are what the Referee uses to populate the Realm. They include The Wurm, The Tower, The Spider, The Toad, The Hole, and The Rock, and every single one of them will present the players and their Knights with a different challenge. Each is simply presented with simple description, a set of omens that trigger as the Knights discover more signs of the Myth, a set of NPCs, and a table of random details that the Referee can use to detail parts of the Myth. For example, ‘The Wall’ is described as “Cutting through the land, a wonder two storms tall Guarding from invasion, or built to cage us all”. Its Omens begin with, “Crumbling outpost. A band of labourers sharing a meal on their way to begin work repairing the Wall. They think Knights are being sent to stop them.” and will escalate to, “Two giant magpies, stealing shiny things. They nest in the trees that root among the Wall’s oldest stones.” The cast includes stats for Wall Wardens, Brin, Catrona, and Elish, a Wall Knight, the giant magpies, and empowered refugees.

So how then, is Mythic Bastionland actually played and what do the Knights do? Quite simply, they explore the wilderness map that the Referee has created, looking for signs of Myths. When they have found them, the Knights will look for the source, root it out, and resolve it. There is no set way to resolve any of these Myths. Ultimately, whether or not a Myth is resolved comes down to whether or not it remains a threat to the Realm. The typical six Myths of a Realm is enough to support a mini-campaign at least, though more can be added to extend the campaign once one set of six is done, whilst the mix of seventy-two different Knights and seventy-two different Myths means that no two campaigns are going to be alike because whilst the Myths provide the adventures to play, they also give and flavour to a Realm. Once the Referee has set up her Realm, Mythic Bastionland is very definitely designed to be played from the page with a minimum of preparation.

The last part of Mythic Bastionland is devoted to the ‘Oddpocrypha’. This consists of thirty pages of examples of ‘Play’ and ‘Thoughts’ upon those examples of play. From ‘Start & Scope’, ‘Character Creation’, and ‘Teaching the Rules’ to ‘Council & Court’, ‘Crises’, and ‘Delving into Tomorrow’, the ‘Oddpocrypha’ explores and examines numerous examples of the rules and their ramifications. In many ways, actually providing much of the context that the rules section at the start of the book lacks. Consequently, it is a lot easier to read, but there is dichotomy to the writing. Essentially, the ‘Play’ examples are written in one tone and the ‘Thoughts’ on the examples are written in another. So, what you have is the author writing the examples of ‘Play’ and then commenting upon them as if he had not written them in the ‘Thoughts’. It is weird. That said, the examples of ‘Play’ really do help the reader and potential Referee understand the rules and how the game is intended to be played and the thoughts‘Thoughts’ do explore what the designer thinks of his game.

Physically,Mythic Bastionland – Before Into the Odd is a stunning looking book with every Myth and Knight fully illustrated, meaning that there is a profusion of artwork in the very big middle of the book. The tones are primarily earthy greens and oranges with splashes of red, blue, and purple and the whole look of the Knights and Myths section is as if Mythic Bastionland was not a roleplaying game, but a deck of Tarot cards. The layout of the book is tight in places and bar the ‘Oddpocrypha’ at the back of the book, the writing is very concise, the aim being to fit all of the rules for each aspect of the roleplaying game onto a single page each.

It is debateable how Arthurian a roleplaying game Mythic Bastionland – Before Into the Odd is. There is no doubt that it is inspired by Arthurian legend and it certainly lists numerous Arthurian inspirations. In play though, the Knights are not engaging in the Arthurian legend and they are not going on quests such as the Quest of the White Hart or the Quest for the Holy Grail. Instead, they are going on their own quests, perhaps hunting down ‘The Wyvern’ or delving into ‘The Forest’ in search of a lost, but beloved Seer, only to discover darker, primordial secrets. The Knights are questing knights, ultimately if they prove to be glorious enough worthy to undertake the ‘Quest of the City’, but they quest more for their Realm than a mythical figure such as King Arthur and theirs is a world that is more one of bloody brutalism rather than one of romance and chivalry.

Mythic Bastionland – Before Into the Odd is not an introductory roleplaying game. The rules are too concisely written, there is a lack of context to the roleplaying game, and play relies a great deal on improvisation, whether that is working from the prompts from the ‘Spark Tables’ or working the Myths and the Knights’ reactions to those Myths into the world of the Realm. However, armed with some context and Mythic Bastionland begins to hint at its possibilities with simple, clear rules that emphasise the brutality of the world that the Knights live in, before charging the reader and the Referee down with its gloriously fantastical Knights and Myths that demand their stories to be told. Mythic Bastionland – Before Into the Odd is the film Jabberwocky with a seventies Prog Rock soundtrack, built not so much on rules light mechanics, but rules intense mechanics.

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

—oOo—

Technically Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 3 is not a magazine. It collects some of the downloadable content made available for Cyberpunk RED, the fourth edition of R. Talsorian Games, Inc.’s Cyberpunk roleplaying game. So, its origins are not those of a magazine, but between 1990 and 1992, Prometheus Press published six issues of the magazine, Interface, which provided support for both Cyberpunk 2013 and Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. It this mantle that Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 1, Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 2, and future issues is picking up in providing support for the current edition of the roleplaying game. As a consequence of the issue collecting previously available downloadable content, there is a lot in the issue that is both immediately useful and can be prepared for play with relative ease. There is also some that is not, and may not make it into a Game Master’s campaign.

Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 3—as with the previous issue—is by James Hutt and/or J Gray and starts on a hard note, or rather, on a ‘hardened’ note. In the previous issue, two connected articles—‘Hardened Mooks: break glass in case of powergaming’ and ‘Hardened Lieutenants: break glass in case of powergaming’, provided tougher versions of the standard threats, mooks, and lieutenants. With ‘Hardened Mini Bosses’ the series with increased stats for Mini-Bosses in the core rulebook, including ‘Hardened Arasaka Assassin’, ‘Hardened Militech Veteran’, and ‘Hardened Pyro’. This is a mix of the old and the new, so should keep the Player Characters on their toes. Plus, they come with a little commentary on how to best use them.
If ‘Hardened Mini Bosses’ gives the Player Characters someone to fight, then ‘Digital Dating in the Dark Future’ gives them someone to love—and then, since almost nobody lives happily ever after, someone to fight. Romantic entanglements have always been part of Cyberpunk through its ‘Lifepath’ system of Player Character generation, and Cyberpunk RED is no different. However, what about now, because those relationships are likely to have been in the past and may be long over? To let a Player Character go dating now, the article gives a ‘Datepath’ system which enables the Game Master to determine how the match describes themselves in their dating profile, where the date will take place and what the significance of that location is—for example, if in the Watson Development, the date might have a connection with SovOil, what the date activity will be, how the date goes, and what the after date review will be. This can be rolled as is or played out, and if the latter, it means that a player gets a chance to roleplay another aspect of his character and explore another side of the game that is not necessarily all guns and combat. This is a fun addition if the playing group wants to expand the lives of their characters and would work every well for one-on-one sessions between a single player and the Game Master.
‘Salvaging Night City: A New Downtime Activity’ also gives the Player Characters more to do when away from typical adventures or missions. Although this is primarily for the Tech character type, but any character could engage in this, exploring Night City’s Hot Zone, Combat Zones, and scrapyards, not just for scrap to sell, but items to repair and use and sell. The article also goes through the possible dangers that a scavenger might face, including pollution, radiation, rival scavengers and gangs, unsafe structures, and more. This is an article that can be used to generate, with a bit of effort upon the part of the Game Master, encounters and even scenarios. Plus, like ‘Digital Dating in the Dark Future’, this activity works well for one-on-one sessions between a single player and the Game Master and also for sessions where there are only a very few Player Characters.
Cyberpunk RED is a roleplaying game that focuses on a lot of gear—equipment, weapons, cyberwear, and cyberware—and its use in play, and if there was a criticism of Cyberpunk RED, it was that it was genericised and therefore not interesting. Issues of Interface have been changing that with names and describes a wide variety of items, and Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 3 is no different. ‘Woodchipper’s Garage: Weapons That go Boom!’ is an interview with a Nomad who purchases weapons scavenged by Nomads in the Badlands and brought into Night City to fulfil the demand for the weapons that deliver a bang! This includes rocket launchers to suit all budgets and attitudes to safety standards, flare guns, flamethrowers, and odd weapons like an air cannon and harpoon launcher! ‘Midnight with the Upload: New Cyberdecks and Hardware’ provides a wide range of decks and new items of hardware, each with own benefits and effects. For example, the ‘Raven Microcyb Phoenix’ is an expensive deck that has six slots to install either Programs or Hardware and protects any programs the Netrunner uses, restoring any that were destroyed during a run, when the Netrunner jacks out. ‘Must Have Cyberware Deals’ details the new chrome that might be purchased from Mr. A-MAAAZE at Dock 13 in sunny South Night City. Want to keep that figure trim or low on rations, install an ‘Appetite Controller’, whilst ‘Lead’s Turn-On-Show-Off Nails’ is the perfect set of programmable, lighted fingernails, and if that shoe does not fit, then the ‘PerfectFit Cyberfoot’ adjusts perfectly (and if the user wants to run in heels, then these are even more perfect!). There is a certain superficiality to these entries, being as they are mostly fashion cyberware. All three of these articles come with no little flavour too. ‘Woodchipper’s Garage: Weapons That go Boom!’ is the most straightforward, primarily focusing on how the weapons that Woodchipper sells are got hold of in the interview, whilst the ‘Midnight with the Upload: New Cyberdecks and Hardware’ gives lots of commentary and feedback that suggests a certain lack of humanity with interacting with the seller and perhaps that they might be a cultist of some kind or a Netwatch Agent. Lastly, ‘Must Have Cyberware Deals’ is all about the slick sales pitch from Mr. A-MAAAZE.
‘Collecting the Random: Ideas, Thoughts, and Lists from the CP:R CREW’ is the second longest article in Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 3. It is a collection of new rules, such as complementary skill checks, and ideas that how Cyberpunk RED is played, fortunately without the need for any mechanical changes. Roles are a big focus for the article. It suggests ideas for reskinning them, like turning the Netrunner into the Thief or the Exec into the Mobster, all with simple adjustment of the flavour of the mechanics rather actually than changing the Roles. Multiclassing ideas suggest ways in which each of the Roles works with the other nine Roles. For example, the Rockerboy/Media becomes an Influencer, the Netrunner/Fixer the Information Broker, and the Lawman/Media the Psychic Detective. There are some great ideas here that again shift how a Role is played. Campaign ideas making the Player Characters ‘Guerilla Gardeners’, ‘Librarians’, and ‘Food Truck War’ participants and come with some very simple mission ideas. All of these set-ups require no little development, but they all change the focus of a campaign from a more standard set-up. ‘Cyberpunk RED Fashion’ suggests styes such as ‘Bag Lady Chic’(!) and ‘Asia Pop’. This is mostly flavour, of course, as are the article’s final ‘Twenty Random Kibble Flavors’—fizzy kibble anyone? This is just a plethora of fun ideas that a playing group can pick and choose from.
Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 3 takes an odd, even cynical turn with ‘Elflines Online the TCG: Battle for the Elflands’. Previous issues of Interface RED have explored the number virtual game world in Night City, ‘Elflines Online’. Effectively a game world within a game world, ‘Elflines Online is a hobby that a Player Character or NPC can play during his downtime, but it can become something that the players can roleplay their characters playing in the world of Cyberpunk RED, a fantasy roleplaying game in the cyberpunk roleplaying game. ‘Elflines Online the TCG: Battle for the Elflands’ does not expand to any great degree, but rather introduces a trading card game that the Player Characters can play offline and some of the cards will provide bonuses and benefits in the online game. Full rules are included so that the players can play it too, though using an ordinary deck of playing cards. Accompanying the article is a commentary that highlights the disappointment of some ‘Elflines Online’ players when ‘Elflines Online the TCG: Battle for the Elflands’ was launched and since. There is a brilliant cynicism to the whole exercise that feels as if it mirrors certain MMORPGs in the real world.
‘Spinning Your Wheels: A New Way to Ride the Edge’ adds an old technology to the streets of Night City and updates it. This is the bicycle, whose reintroduction is presented in an interview with the head of Yang’s Wheels, the city’s leading manufacturer of bicycles, skateboards, and inline skates. Their introduction brings a cheaper form of transport to both the city and Cyberpunk RED. Of course, they are cheaper to buy then a car, more manoeuvrable, and take up less space. They are all muscle-powered, so require the use of the user’s Athletics skill rather than Drive and, of course, they can be upgraded. Fit cycle armour or a gun mount to the handlebars, or even an enclosure to turn it into a trike. The article also details the type of tricks that can be performed on a bicycle, skateboard, or inline skate.
‘The 12 Days of Cybermas: A Cyberpunk RED Holiday Sequel’ returns with a Christmas carol suitable for the ‘Time of the Red’ and twelve classic pieces of cyberware from days of Cyberpunk past. Want to tear your enemies apart, then install the ChainRip, the original cyberweapon of mass destruction in your cyberarm or look really cool with one cyberoptic, then the Kiroshi MonoVision installs your cybereye in a single band. Whilst the stats update the descriptions, the illustrations feel intentionally dated.
The last and longest article in the issue is ‘Going Metal: full body conversions in Cyberpunk RED’. The article moves on from the fears from cyberpsychosis due to full body conversions to suggest that there is a culture all of its own around full body conversions. This does not stop the opening between someone who has undergone full body conversion to somebody who is about to from being just a little bit creepy. It is followed by complete guide to undergoing a full body conversion in game terms and keep as much Humanity possible, up to a maximum of fifty. Some thirteen standard full body conversions are detailed, like the ‘Cybermatrix Inc. Copernicus’ for work in space, the ‘Dynalar Brimstone’ fireproofed for fighting fire, the ‘Militech Dragoon Revised War Platform’ updated from the full body conversion so successful in 4th Corporate War, and even if the ‘Raven Microcybernetics Gemini’ if you do not want to look like a cyborg! Added to this are numerous pieces of cyberware and gear, which break down the numerous items that go into the design and construction of the earlier full body conversions. The full body conversions come with commentary from the interviewer at the start of the article. There are lots of options here, good for NPCs as well as the Player Characters who want to take a radical step and have the EuroBucks to spend! The article brings Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 3 to a close with big fully borged options.
Physically, Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 3 is cleanly, tidily laid out. The artwork is decent too and everything is easy to read.

Although much of it was originally available for free, with the publication of Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 3 it is nice to have it in print. All of it is useful in some ways, though ‘Elflines Online the TCG: Battle for the Elflands’ is very much less useful then the other content. Together, ‘Digital Dating in the Dark Future’ and ‘Salvaging Night City: A New Downtime Activity’ really do bring greater roleplaying opportunities to the play of Cyberpunk RED, whilst ‘Collecting the Random: Ideas, Thoughts, and Lists from the CP:R CREW’ brims with interesting ideas for both the player and the Game Master. Everything else is tech and cybergear-based, adding numerous options and greater choice to the world of Night City and beyond. Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 3 is the best issue to date and there is something for every Cyberpunk RED campaign in its pages.

You are not dead, but you could be. You hover somewhere between life and death, unable to take the bony grasp of the Grim Reaper and take the next step to the beyond. Perturbed at this state of affairs, it is possible that this has happened before for instead of leaving you, Death gives you a job. A job as well as your night job. A job you will do after your night job. Every night you perform on the stage, playing cool, cool tunes in set after set at the jazz club, and then, when the last of the audience has gone and the lights are up, you find a scrap of paper at the bottom of the tips jar. On it is a name. The name of someone who died at the wrong time and without permission. A name and a death that you have until sunrise to investigate to determine the cause and what happened. You are an agent of the Department of Unauthorized Deaths and in the dark of the night you become a sleuth for the supernatural, using Death-given spectral abilities to slip into the darkest of shadows, seeking the souls of the wrongly departed and bring harmony to them. To aid you in your investigations, the Department of Unauthorized Deaths grants certain supernatural gifts, each of which calls upon different notes in your repertoire, including being able to talk to with the spirits, passing through walls, and even glimpse echoes of the past or the future. Yet rely too much upon such Blue Notes and you may be pulled too close to death…

This is the set-up for Midnight Melodies, a solo roleplaying and journaling game in which you play a jazz pianist recruited by the Grim Reaper. It is inspired by Pixar’s Soul and DC Comic’s John Constantine, but this is a roleplaying game which could be inspired by series such as Tru Calling, Dead Like Me, and Johnny Staccato. It is published by Critical Kit Ltd, best known for Be Like A Crow – A Solo RPG and to play the game, a player requires a six-sided die, a twelve-sided die, a journal or notebook, a cool jazz playlist (the book suggests Ambient Soundscapes – Private Eye Moods: Smooth Film Noir Jazz Mix), and a piano. The latter can be an online piano and Midnight Melodies does not require the player to be able to play said piano.

A Player Character in Midnight Melodies has a name, a set of six Actions, unique Talents, and a Blue Note reserve. There are five Actions—Talk, Move, Force, Handle, and Discern—two of which Dominant, meaning that the Player Character is good at them, and one Diminished, which means he struggles with it. Creating a character is fast simple, rolling for a name and deciding which Actions are Dominant and which one is Diminished.

Skylar ‘Mist’ Monroe
Talk+ Move Force– Handle Discern+
Blue Notes 6

Mechanically, Midnight Melodies is simple. The player selects the appropriate Action, rolls a six-sided die, and adds one if the Action is Dominant and deducts one if it is Diminished. The result varies from one and ‘No, and…’ to six and ‘Yes, and…’, with ‘No, but…’ and ‘Yes, but…’ in between. These are clear simple prompts for the player intended to help him interpret and then write about the results of his character’s actions. Each of the Talents in Midnight Melodies is tied to a particular Action and their use involves a standard roll. One element not explored is what happens if the Player Character employs too many of his Blue Notes, which does undermine the threat at the heart of every investigation.

The actual play of Midnight Melodies is about conducting investigations. The Player Characters has an extra gift that will help him when it comes to investigating deaths. Each death leaves a series of Tones that the Player Character can hear and will help him find out what has happened. Each death consists of nine Tones divided into three Chords. Collect all nine Tones and give the Reaper the three Chords before sunrise and the night’s investigation is done. The victim is initially known by his or her name and occupation, but will also later be revealed to have had a secret too. The Tones set a pattern for an investigation and in turn reveal the victim’s identity, the death scene, the first clue, an unexpected twist, signs of the supernatural, hints of something stranger, the discovery of the entity responsible, what their motive was, and an insight into the death.

Midnight Melodies suggests three styles of play for any investigation—‘Freeform’, ‘Challenges’, or ‘Story Beats’. Freeform requires the random selection of six motifs for Drive, Descriptor, Role, Action, Mood, and Theme—for example, ‘Embrace’, ‘Rustic’, ‘Spectator’, ‘Risk’, ‘Melancholic’, and ‘Trust’—which then the player is encouraged to riff from to tell the story of the investigation. ‘Challenges’ makes use of the Action mechanics supported by a set of tables, one each for the five Actions, whilst ‘Story Beats’ is tied to the three Chords and the nine Tones, which actually follow the structure of a detective story, whether on television or not. Ultimately, the Player Character will confront a supernatural entity, such as ‘Vlokkriat’, “A patchwork of various materials—stone, cloth, metal, all moving in a sinuous manner.”, with the Trait of “Can drown victims in its embrace; reflects distorted versions of reality.” and Motivation of “Seeks to balance its own ancient debt, where each death offsets a life it once inadvertently saved.” Midnight Melodies is then a roleplaying game of monster hunting and saving the world against the supernatural.

Once how the victim was killed has been discovered and who or what committed the murder is determined and confronted, the Player Character can communicate the information to the Grim Reaper. This can be simple matter of the player writing down in the journal that his character has done it, but Midnight Melodies includes the pass this on through the motif of the Chords and Tones. The player does this by randomly rolling for the investigation’s nine Tones and playing them on a piano (on or offline). It brings each investigation to a discordant, mournful close as the sun seeps over the horizon and perhaps, gives the Player Character some respite in the normality of daylight… Before another jazz set and another name at the bottom of the tip jar.

Physically, Midnight Melodies is decently presented. It is well written, and the artwork is good too, combining a sense of music and noir in its stark tones.

Midnight Melodies is great for the player who wants to write tell stories of investigation and supernatural horror and it provides some great prompts to do that as its Tones sound and Chords play out. However, it really is only set up for single investigations. The continuation of story elements from one investigation to another is very much left to the player to do and there are tables to create story elements except the investigation itself. There is also no resolution to Midnight Melodies beyond the individual investigations, so now way to know if the Player Character will ever be free of his obligation to Department of Unauthorized Deaths? The only way in which Midnight Melodies ends is when the Player Character has dealt with all twelve Entities and that is not satisfying.

Midnight Melodies is a thematic delight, exploring a classic story and roleplaying game set-up in stylish fashion and giving the player scope to tell good stories. Yet the lack of long-term resolution means that Midnight Melodies feels like a cancelled television series.

The world stands on the brink of a turning point. The end of the Third Age of Man nears and the beginning of the Fourth Age of Man looms. In the First Age of Man, man was like unto the gods and ruled as titans upon the earth. Yet the titans were split between those sworn to Law and those sworn to Chaos, and when they clashed, their blood was spilled upon the ground the First Second of Man was brought to an end. From this spilled blood a new, lesser race sprang forth, lesser, yet still giants, given the gift of peerless intellect and ageless beauty, which went forth and erected many great temples in honour of the titans of the First Age of Man, even though they were but a shadow of their former divinity cast upon the wall of creation. Yet even the Ur-Lireans, as they were known, could not withstand the fall of the sands of time and as the waters of the Empyrean Ocean rose, city after city was inundated and washed away, the inhabitants drowned or forced to flee. In the Third Age of Man, the tribes of Ur-Lirea are all but forgotten, the divine spark of humanity that was the gift of the original titans, obscured by emotions, sullied by vice, and caked with the stinking flesh of the fallen. The Ages of Man are regarded by most as heresy, but many say that the temple-city of Stylos is a forgotten remnant of a bygone age, whilst some whisper that the city was home to the last Atlantean tribes of Ur-Lirea. If so, it has slumbered for untold eons, through the icy march back and forth of glaciers, the rise and fall of the seas, and the rise of man in the Third Age of Man.

If the Ages of Man are regarded as heresy and the legends of the temple-city of Stylos as no more than myth, what is in no doubt, lost Stylos has awakened from its deathless sleep and its hordes have arisen to sweep down on civilisation. A wizened crone babbles about the army of beautiful giants that swept through her village, she the only survivor; a gigantic statue stands at the city gate, white marble with its eyes aflame and announcing that the end of days have come and that the city will be razed on the new moon; and clerics and wizards cry out the terrible omens as lightning crashes down, on the spires of the city’s temple, strange stars appear in the sky and vanish again, sacrificial bulls are cut open only to discover pools of black bile in the place of entrails, and the seventh son of a seventh son is born with the mark of Cadixtat, the Champion of Chaos from the First Age of Man.

This is the set-up for Dungeon Crawl Classics #76: Colossus, Arise!, the ninth scenario to be published by Goodman Games for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. Designed by Harley Stroh, this is a rare scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, one designed for a group of six Eighth Level Player Characters. Most scenarios for line published to date are for low- and mid-Level Player Characters, no more than Sixth Level. So having a scenario for Eighth Level is a rarity. The resulting dungeon is as detailed as you would expect a dungeon for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game to be, but it is also deadly. Not just in terms of the foes that they will face, but also in the traps and puzzles they will face. In places, think S1, Tomb of Horrors, but Dungeon Crawl Classics #76: Colossus, Arise! is no deathtrap dungeon. Yes, there are moments where ‘total-party-kill’ is a possibility, perhaps more so than in other scenarios for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but rather, it is a dungeon designed—in just thirteen locations—to very much challenge the players and their characters.

Inspired by the legend of Atlantis and the occultism of Doctor John Dee and Madame Blavatsky, Dungeon Crawl Classics #76: Colossus, Arise! begins big and gets epic, all in keeping with the high Level of the Player Characters. Very quickly, the Player Characters find themselves at the doors to the Temple of Cadixtat, having sneaked through the ruins of lost Stylos past an army of hundreds of the Sons of the Second Age, ten-foot tall humanoids bound in service to the Daughters of Cadixtat, camped out, ready to sweep away the civilisations of the Third Age. There are some good hooks to get the Player Characters involved and to that point, especially given that by Eighth level, they should have ties to the very civilisation that the Sons of the Second Age wants to destroy to help trigger the beginning of the Fourth Age of Man, and thus reasons to stop this threat. There is scope for the Player Characters to explore the ruins, neatly handled with a roll on an encounter table.

Inside the temple itself there are weird ceremonies, a room with a cage in which human sacrifices are burned to fuel the divinations of prophetess of the Daughters of Cadixtat—and she will even divine the Player Characters’ future once they find her on the lower level, and even a trap worthy of Grimtooth. The lower level takes the Player Characters to the edge of Chaos and potentially even beyond. In the upper level, the Daughters of Cadixtat are transforming men into the Sons of the Second Age, bolstering the army it will unleash on the Third Age of Man, but in the lower level, the cult is incubating the Worm-Men that will help scour away the Fourth Age of Men, and so usher in a new beginning. The lower level actually takes the Player Characters through the four Ages of Man and into some truly epic encounters. Not just the incubation chamber of the Worm-Men, but also a ‘Chapel of Elemental Chaos’ where the very walls are melting upwards into raw elemental chaos—there is, of course, a chance that a Player Character can be drawn into the walls and upwards—and Player Character Wizards will suffer for the Corruptions they have accrued; a very nasty trap that should teach the players and their characters to leave well alone; and an almost final battle to prevent the Daughters of Cadixtat from summoning something from the First Age of Man! Which is, of course, the massive brain from the front cover of the scenario. Along the way the Player Characters have the opportunity to gain a divination and also find some incredible magical items that echo those of Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion. If the Player Characters succeed, they are very well rewarded, especially if they are Lawful. Chaotic Player Characters will also receive a reward, but only if they are very lucky...!

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics #76: Colossus, Arise! is very well presented. The scenario is decently written and the artwork is good, with several pieces that the Judge can show to her players. The Judge is given seven decent handouts that illustrate various locations above and below ground. The cartography is too tight in places and it is not as easy to read the map as it should be.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #76: Colossus, Arise! is a truly epic scenario that will test both the players and their characters the deeper they go into the depths of the Temple of Cadixtat. It calls for careful, considered play, and what that really means is that this scenario is better suited to play towards the end of a campaign, rather than being run as a one-shot. If played as a one-shot, the players are not going to care as much about their characters and so are going to take greater risks rather than if they had invested time and effort into the play of their characters. Dungeon Crawl Classics #76: Colossus, Arise! is a rarity, a scenario that effectively showcases what the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game can do at higher levels.

It is 1870. In Hofwasser Village in Styria, the eastern region of Austria that borders Hungary, a strange affliction has struck many young women, the symptoms mysterious and often fatal. One day they are bright, energetic, and full of life, then the next their skin pales as white as milk and they become lethargic, losing their appetites, and gaining a sensitivity to light such that they dare not venture out of doors. Already one young woman has died from this strange sickness and there are two more girls in the village showing symptoms. What is this dreadful illness which has struck the village? Many of the village’s older residents have begun to recall the folktales of the region they learned as children, of black beasts in the darkness, of forest demons that lure innocents to their doom, worse, of the much-feared Upir, a soulless monster that preys on the blood of its victims. Hofwasser Village is also home to Colonel Daniel Morton, a former British attaché to the Austrian service, who has retired and now lives in the schloss, Karnstein Hall. He too has grown concerned about the illness, fearing that it will come to infect both his teenage daughter, Laura, and the young charge, Carmilla, he is looking after.
If all this sounds familiar, then it probably means that you have read Carmilla, the Victorian-era novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Predating Bram Stoker’s Dracula by twenty-five years, this is a classic tale of Gothic romance and vampiric horror with a strong female antagonist, which is now the direct—very direct inspiration for Carmilla, a scenario published by Yeti Spaghetti and Friends. Part of the publisher’s ‘Frightshow Classics’ line, it is ostensibly written for use with Chill or Cryptworld: Chilling Adventures into the Unexplained, the percentile mechanics of the scenario mean that it could easily be adapted to run with Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and similar roleplaying games.

Carmilla opens with the Player Characters at Karnstein Hall. They are there with Colonel Daniel Morton to assist him in determining the cause of the malady that has beset the young women of Hofwasser and been cause of one death so far. After some tea—there is actually a lot of tea consumption in the scenario as Karnstein Hall is a bastion of the British Empire in ‘Mitteleuropa’—and the first of several listless encounters with Colonel Morten’s daughter and recent charge, Laura and Carmilla, he asks for the Player Characters’ help. The initial investigation takes place in the nearby village at the homes of the affected women, but later there is scope for research in the library at Karnstein Hall, which reveal some oddities that suggest that the mystery lies closer at home. The Player Characters’ suspicions will be confirmed following the funeral of one of the young women in the village and that will lead to a nasty confrontation in the confines of the Karnstein family mausoleum.
The advice for running Carmilla states that, “As an adaptation of a fairly popular story, players should be willing to suspend their knowledge of plot for the sake of playing their characters more accurately (offering Experience Points for roleplaying can help encourage this).” This is either a challenge or a problem depending upon your point of view, due because what the scenario is asking the players is to roleplay characters who do not know what a vampire is and unlike the players, are not steeped in over a century’s worth of vampiric lore. This is in the face of a situation where the players are fully aware that Laura is the victim of a vampire and that vampire is Carmilla. Literally, aware players could end the scenario in fifteen minutes by going to Carmilla’s bedroom, breaking down its door, and kill her. The scenario does not want the players to do that, but wants them to play through the investigation and experience the effects of the vampire’s predation and determine its cause. The scenario also admits that it proceeds in linear fashion and it does, very much keeping the players away from directly investigating either Laura or Carmilla.
As with other scenarios in the publisher’s ‘Frightshow Classics’ line, Carmilla includes eight pre-generated Player Characters. They are divided between visitors and staff at Karnstein Hall. The staff consist of Madame Raquel Perrodon, governess to Laura Morton; Mademoiselle Beatrix De Lafontaine, the French finishing governess to Laura; and Frau Franziska Pichler, the cook at Karnstein Hall. The visitors include General Gerhard Spielsdorf, a former colleague and new friend of Colonel Morton; Fraulein Johanna Bauer, a young hunter who lives in the nearby woods; Dr. Hans Hartog, a laudanum-addicted medical doctor with an interest in eastern mysticism; Father Augustus Koellerer, the local Catholic priest; and Baron Maximilian Vordenburg, a local noble with a fascination for folklore. Only one of the eight, Mademoiselle Beatrix De Lafontaine, has any Paranormal Abilities and so might give the Player Characters a slight advantage in certain situations.
The scenario is supported with two good maps, one of the village of Hofwasser and the other of the mausoleum where the final confrontation with Carmilla takes place. There is no map of Karnstein Hall, which is slightly disappointing, but its inclusion might have encouraged further exploration of the Morton family home which the scenario would prefer the players not to do. The back cover blurb for the scenario also serves as a handout and there is one handout in the book, which is plain.
Physically, Carmilla is well written and has excellent artwork. The combination of a linear structure and a clear layout means that the scenario is going to be easy to run.
As written, Carmilla is not a challenging scenario to run. As written, Carmilla is going to be a challenging scenario to play. This is because it demands that the players suspend their self-knowledge, locking it away for the length of the scenario, and roleplay characters who have no knowledge of the threat they face and have to learn about it, bit by bit. It does help that ‘Carmilla’ is not a wholly traditional vampire in the style of Dracula and it does help that it is intended to be played in a single session. As an adaptation of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s short story, Carmilla, the scenario is decently done, but as a scenario, Carmilla is making big demands of its players and keeping a straight face because of those demands and not being able to rush off and always investigate where a player might want to, makes it hard work. And this in a scenario designed for casual, one-shot play. If the players are able to do this—or they have not read the original short story, then Carmilla is a serviceable one-shot, easily prepared and run.

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s mythic universe of Glorantha. It enables creators to sell their own original content for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, 13th Age Glorantha, and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.

—oOo—

What is it?Old Owl Tower is a scenario for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha in which the Player Characters are asked to investigate the source of a horde of mythical creatures which are attacking a village.

It is sequel to The Gate of Dusk and a possible corollary to the scenarios, ‘The Pegasus Plateau’ and ‘Crimson Petals’, from The Pegasus Plateau & Other Stories: Seven Ready-to-Play Adventures for RuneQuest.

It is the second part of a series of scenarios which explores the future of the Locaem tribe.

It is a full colour, ninety-one page, 289.29 MB PDF.

The layout is clean and tidy, though a little tight in places, and it is decently illustrated, especially the NPCs.

The cartography is excellent.
Where is it set?Old Owl Tower takes place in Owlstead, the main settlement for the Owl clan, and nearby, but all with the lands belonging to the Locaem tribe.
It is set after the DragonRise in 1625 or early 1626.
Who do you play?
Old Owl Tower does not require any specific character type, but Player Characters who are capable warriors are highly recommended as is a Lankhor Mhy initiate, whilst a Shaman will potentially be overwhelmed. Knowledge of Dark Tongue could be useful.
What do you need?
Old Owl Tower requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and the RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary, whilst The Pegasus Plateau & Other Stories: Seven Ready-to-Play Adventures for RuneQuest might be useful, but is not required to run the scenario.
What do you get?Old Owl Tower is, initially, a straightforward and even old-fashioned scenario. A village in peril. Monsters attack. The Player Characters are asked to investigate and determine the source of the trouble. Numerous reasons are suggested as to why the Player Characters have come to Owlstead, but the primary one is they are visiting Owlstead as emissaries of the Wind Lord, Farinst of the Richberry Clan, who wishes to become the king of the Locaem Tribe, the previous one having been killed in the Dragonrise, and wants to know if he will have the support of Dringar, chieftain of the Owl Clan. Ideally, the Player Characters will have protected Farinst whilst he underwent a ritual to improve his chances of becoming king as detailed in The Gate of Dusk.
The initial steps in the investigation are quite easy, the monsters having left a trail that the Player Characters can follow. as they proceed along the trail, the landscape begins to change, becoming bright and vibrant, the air fresh and full of strange insects, life itself appearing to bloom in pleasing fashion. However, once the Player Characters reach and enter the ‘Old Owl Tower’ of the title that the dangers truly begin, or at least when they get to the end of the complex below. Between the entrance and the end of the complex below is a series of highly detailed rooms that will interest a Lankhor Mhy Player Characters, but not others. However, exploring does help, even though the characters and the players may not be aware of it.
Ultimately, what the Player Characters will find at the end of the complex is an artefact dating back to the time of the Empire of the Wyrms Friends which allows the user to peer into God Time! Unfortunately, the process is actually two way and the Player Characters are likely to find themselves facing interlopers who have got themselves lost in the present! This encounter is likely to begin with a fight and end with some challenging explanations.
In many ways, the most interesting part of Old Owl Tower is what happens after the situation in the complex has been resolved. A neighbouring clan gave a scholar permission to investigate the complex despite it not actually sitting on their lands. The scholar is aghast at the duplicity of the neighbouring clan, though its chief is unrepentant if confronted. Perhaps it will take the involvement of the ‘new king’ to resolve the matter? As a reward, the Player Characters could also be adopted into the clan, especially if they are willing to remain and guard the complex. This would also strengthen ties to the Owl Clan and the Locaem Tribe as a whole. The scenario provides a surprising number hooks, both long term and short term, which the Game Master could develop to support a campaign based in the lands of the Owl Clan and the complex itself. Ultimately, Old Owl Tower is very much a campaign scenario rather than a standalone affair.
Almost a third of Old Owl Tower is devoted to a lengthy bestiary, including many creatures past ages before time began. The maps are also provided separately.
Old Owl Tower has a solid set-up and an intriguing conclusion, plus a surprisingly thought through and supported aftermath. However, the middle section is not very exciting and it is not going to interest very many characters, let alone their players. If the players can abide the exploration middle part of the scenario, then they will have opportunity aplenty for roleplaying and good storytelling—and more so if they stick around long after the events of the scenario.
Is it worth your time?Yes—Old Owl Tower is a good campaign scenario and sequel to The Gate of Dusk, pulling the Player Characters into the ongoing story of the Locaem Tribe, and that is how it is best used.No—Old Owl Tower is much too tied to the Locaem Tribe and its future, and it really does not start to get interesting until the very end of the scenario and in its aftermath.Maybe—Old Owl Tower is easy to run and its strong ties to the Locaem Tribe could see the Player Characters attempting to forge stronger ties between the Locaem Tribe and their own.

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—
Name: Shadows in the TreesPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Jared Tallis

Setting: Modern day AustraliaProduct: Scenario
What You Get: Twelve-page, 10.25 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch:  Big cat horror on the Sunshine CoastPlot Hook: Big cat hunt for your YouTube channelPlot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, three handouts, three maps, two NPCs, and two Mythos creatures.Production Values: Good
Pros# First in the ‘Short Cosmic Horror Collection’ series# Short, intense encounter with the monsters you could become# Parallels to Viral# Can be adapted to other settings or time periods with cryptids# Flexible running time up to a single session# Good Keeper advice# Ailurophobia# Diokophobia# Scoleciphobia
Cons# Parallels to Viral# Needs a slight edit# Plain handouts# Pre-generated Investigator motivations could be stronger
Conclusion# Intense encounter with monsters and the Mythos on the Sunshine Coast# Solid advice for the Keeper on how to dial it up or down# Reviews from R’lyeh Recommends

The Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook is the second of the three core books for Pendragon, Sixth Edition, the latest edition of a roleplaying game considered by many to be a classic, and by its designer, Greg Stafford, nothing short of a masterpiece. It is a roleplaying of high adventure, high romance, and high fantasy set deep in the legends and stories of Britain’s golden age, the mythical period when the country had one true king. That king was Arthur Pendragon, his reign the mythical period of honour and chivalry, courtly love and romance, that arose from the unrest following the withdrawal of the Romans, withstood invasions from the Saxons, before falling to evil and the country to the Dark Ages. In the process it inspired great tales of medieval literature and great tales of literature, including the Welsh The Mabinogion, Sir Thomas Malory’s fifteenth century Le Morte D’Arthur, and T.H. White’s The Once and Future King. Pendragon is a roleplaying game in which the Player Characters are knights in service to their liege lord and then to King Arthur himself, managing their manor and serving in his army, but also going on quests and adventures and so dealing with threats and problems that beset the men and women of the land, including their fellow knights, attending court and tourneys and involving themselves in intrigues and romances, and finding a wife and raising a family. Raising a family is important because a knight may adventure for only so long before age catches up with him. Then his eldest son will take up his mantle and inherit his father’s good name and reputation, and not only uphold it, but follow his ideals and make a name for himself, perhaps even more glorious than that of his father. Like his father, he will aspire to take a seat alongside King Arthur and become one of the Knights of the Round Table, to serve alongside the greatest knights in the country. In turn, his son will follow in grandfather’s footsteps and aspire to the ideals of the age, to be a bastion of duty and honour until the kingdom falls. The play of Pendragon is generational, and ultimately, intended to play out over the course of the decades that comprise The Great Pendragon Campaign.

It is not unfair to say to that the Pendragon Core Rulebook does not cover absolutely everything necessary to play Pendragon, Sixth Edition. However, it would be unfair to say that you could not play Pendragon, Sixth Edition using its content and still get a very good feel for how the roleplaying game plays and still have a very enjoyable and exciting roleplaying experience. The Pendragon Core Rulebook is very much as its title suggests, the key title that presents the principles of play and the cornerstones of characters. Further, it is actually possible to run and play Pendragon, Sixth Edition using only the Pendragon Core Rulebook and the Pendragon Starter Set as the latter does include the rules for battles—although in a limited form. Indeed, many of the titles on The Companions of Arthur, the community content programme for Pendragon, Sixth Edition, can be run and played using the Pendragon Core Rulebook and/or the Pendragon Starter Set. Which begs the question, is the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook really necessary to run and play Pendragon, Sixth Edition? To which the answer is a simple yes, not just because it contains the complete rules for battles, but also because it expands on the rules and setting at the core of the Pendragon Starter Set, as well as the wider stage too. Not far, but far enough and more than ready for the next book.
The Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook begins by establishing and exploring where and when Pendragon, Sixth Edition is primarily set. There is an overview of Logres, the part of Britain where much of the Arthurian canon takes place; a good introduction to the primary source material for the roleplaying game—Le Morte D’Arthur, of course, T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, the film Excalibur, are all listed as worthy sources, but many others and their merits are discussed too; and there is a framing too of when the roleplaying game is set. A quick guide to the who’s who of the chronicle across its four periods—Boy King, Conquest, Romance, and Grail Quest—previews their full stats presented for many of the leading figures later in the book. Another element which previews later content is the campaign set-up example of the Holding of Underditch Hundred, the primary holding of the—as will be revealed later in the book—surprisingly young Count of Salisbury.
Advice on running the Game Master is solid, focusing in the main on how to use the different aspects of the rules, including characteristics and handling time in the game. The advice on encouraging player contribution and adding courtly play is good, but elsewhere the advice on campaign set-up is a little light, again, feeling as if it is a preview of something to come. Not though of a section later in the book, but rather of a supplement to come. The Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook really comes into its own with the discussion of Arthurian activities, in particular, the first rules addition that is feasting. A Player-knight gains a new stat, ‘Geniality’, representing his nobility in the eyes of his peers and a combination of his Appearance and his Courtly skills, which comes into play when Feasting. A Player-knight’s Glory will influence where he will be sat at the feast, the closer to the high table, the better the bonus to his Geniality, whilst his Appearance will determine how many Feast Event Cards his player will draw. Feast Event Cards work as mini-encounters much like Opportunities in Battles and the solo adventures that a Player-knight might have at the end of the year that will give him the chance to test a Personality Trait. Ultimately, as with other activities in Pendragon, Sixth Edition, the aim is to earn Glory. This is done by keeping a Player-knight’s Geniality as high as possible, but it gives him a chance to shine in a more civilised setting and use his Courtly skills. Of course, it is also a good opportunity for the players to roleplay. Other activities covered include ‘Fine Amour’ or romance, hunting, intoxication, seduction(!) at court and its consequences, tournaments, and visiting foreign courts. Of these, hunting and tournaments are more mechanically involving, but they are no less welcome for it.
If the section on ‘Feasting’ is entertaining, the chapter on religion in Arthur’s Britain is fascinating reading—and should be required reading for player and Game Master alike, since the Player-knights are classified according to both their cultural background and their faith. In turn, the chapter discusses the beliefs, the ethics and how they relate to a Player-knight’s Personality Traits, the worship, history, holy places, festivals, and notable places and figures in turn of Christianity, Paganism, Heathenism, and Wodinism. To these are added the requirements for religious knights of all of these faiths, details such as the differences between the churches of Britain and Rome, a list of Pagan deities, and more. There is a lot of useful information here that the Game Master can bring into play, especially for her players who have religious knights, but also for her NPCs. Plus, the inclusion of Heathenism opens up the possibility of bringing Pictish knights into play!
Previous versions of Pendragon have allowed for Player Characters who are not knights, but this is not the focus of Pendragon, Sixth Edition, and magic very much remains the province of the Game Master and her NPCs. However, magic plays a strong role in the Arthurian chronicle. Like religion, it is divided according to type. So, for Paganism, there is the four talents—Divination, Enchantment, Glamour, and Healing; for Wodinism there are sacrifices, talismans, controlling the weather, and carving runes; Heathensim employs the four Talents of Paganism, but through a shaman rather than a magician; and for Christianity, there are miracles and saints. They are able to perform Miracles like Divine Manifestation, Divine Intervention, and Divine Retribution. In addition to shaman, other magicians include witches, specialising in folk magic, and enchanters and enchantresses which can encompass druids as well as Pagan and Wodinic practitioners. They also include the Ladies of the Lake. More recently, they have been joined by magicians who have learned their magic from books—sorcerers and sorceresses. Covered here too is fairy magic and also protection from such magics. Religious, chivalrous, and romantic knights can all withstand the effects of magic, but this requires adherence to high ideals. Otherwise, a Player-knight has little innate protection against magic, so avoiding it is likely the best defence.
One issue with both religion and magic is that the examination is a preview for the mechanical treatment later in the book, so that the description and the rules for both are not given in their relevant chapter. Rather they are included in the stats and guidelines for their NPC types in the ‘Game Master Characters’ chapter. Mechanically, magic uses the four talents—Divination, Enchantment, Glamour, and Healing—as skills, adding the non-Knightly skill of ‘Clerk’ to represent book learning and accounting, and treats them as skills. Thus, under the ‘Pagan Religious Folk and Magicians’, an ‘Itinerant Bard’ can have ‘Enchantment 12’ for his Magical Talent, enabling him to immobilise a target with a song by making him fall asleep, weep, or laugh, whilst a ‘Druid’ has values in all four Magical Talents and thus be more capable and more flexible in terms of what he can perform. For the ‘Christian Religious Folk and Saints’, they will have values in the three Miracles—Divine Manifestation, Divine Intervention, and Divine Retribution—and again their mechanics are explained here. The rules are the loosest of those presented in the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook, allowing for more narrative input, whilst avoiding simple, if constant, Game Master fiat.
Perhaps one of the more complex aspects of Pendragon, Sixth Edition is handling battles. Previously presented in a cut-down version in the Pendragon Starter Set, here they are presented in full detail and explanation. The rules cover how to set up a battle and determine the numbers involved, establishing the Player-knights’ conroi (effectively, their cavalry squadron as they will be on horseback), how to fight the battle and face each encounter, through to what might happen after the battle. Oddly only the means of determining victory or defeat during the Boy King Period is given, which limits the utility of the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook. That said, numerous battlefield foes are detailed as well as a six opportunities, such as ‘Capture the Banner’ and ‘Clash of Champions’. This does feel like too few opportunities, essentially extra encounters in the battle where the Player-knights have an opportunity to shine, but in play they do not actually occur that often.
The earlier ‘Who’s Who’ of Arthurian legend is fully supported with stats and details of several figures, including King Arthur and Lady Guenever, and Merlin, alongside those from Pendragon itself, like Sir Robert, Count of Salisbury. Numerous NPC types are given stats—various types of knights, Saxon warriors, nobles, common folk, and practitioners of magic and miracles. The bestiary is nicely detailed, beginning with ordinary animals, amongst which it includes elephants and lions, but also covering a variety of supernatural creatures. This includes the cockatrice, dragons, unicorns (with details of how to employ the Virgin Ploy to put them at ease), giants, and more. Sidebars list the Dwarfs of Arthurian literature, Arthurian fairy knights and ladies, Arthurian fiends, and Arthurian giants, so that the Game Master can take more direct inspiration when using the accompany game stats. Many of the entries in the bestiary will be familiar from folklore or even other roleplaying games, but what makes the bestiary all the more useful is that every is put in an Arthurian context.
Lastly, the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook presents two scenarios. These take place in the years 508 and 509, before the events depicted in the Pendragon Starter Set and ‘The Sword Campaign’. They are both set at Sarum Castle and are designed to help set up the campaign and establish Salisbury as the starting point for the campaign and essentially a home for the Player-knights. Except that the Player-knights are not knights at the beginning of the first of these two scenarios, but squires. To that end, Sarum Castle is fully detailed and mapped and the players have the opportunity to roleplay their squires proving themselves worthy of being knights and beginning their life in service to the young Sir Robert. These are both good scenarios, both easily run in a session or two each. Although designed to be played prior to the Pendragon Starter Set, the problem with this set-up is that some groups may already past the point where these scenarios are of use to them, playing through the Pendragon Starter Set and even the campaign scenario, The Grey Knight. That said, if a playing group has not started playing Pendragon Starter Set, then both scenarios are solid additions as prequels.
The Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook comes to a close with appendices which give a detailed guide to Glory awards and a list of suggested reading. The latter is useful for the Game Master wanting further inspiration, especially in the context of the bestiary.
Physically, the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook is very well presented. The book is also a good read and profusely illustrated. Some of the artwork has a manically cartoonish feel to it in addition to the weirdness of the some of the illuminations.

To be clear, the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook is a very useful book and one that the Pendragon Game Master is definitely going to want and need. The new rules additions of feasting and tournaments are great, the guide to religion is very good, and the bestiary and the guide to magic are good. And yet… the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook, as comprehensive as it is, is not and does not feel complete. Rather, it feels incremental, as if building the next part of Pendragon, Sixth Edition in readiness for the next book in the line. This shows in both the omissions and the focus of the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook. One omission is the absence of the Feast Event Cards for the Feasting rules when the section on Battles has all of its foes and Opportunities given. The Feast Event Cards can be downloaded—and of course, since there are eighty of them, their inclusion would have greatly increased the book’s page count—but their absence is notable.

Also missing is detail about Logres and beyond in terms of setting and background, so that ultimately, the only location that is presented in any detail are the lands of Sir Robert, Count of Salisbury. Similarly, there are no details about running an estate and holding land. Together, this supports the focus of the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook, which whilst supporting long term play with the rules for feasting, tournaments, battles, magic, and the bestiary and guide to religion, concentrates the role of the Player-knights as household knights—ideally in the service of Sir Robert. This, combined with the emphasis on Salisbury as a starting point and the underwhelming advice on campaigns, means that the Game Master wanting to set up her own campaign and not wanting to run the content leading up to The Great Pendragon Campaign is not supported as well as she could have been and that she will have to wait for subsequent books which will support her. And to be clear, if this makes the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook sound as if it is a disappointing book, then it is very much not. Rather that it provides the Game Master with a lot that will support her campaign whilst leaving a few things for latter supplements.

The Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook is a mandatory purchase for the Game Master, expanding the world of Pendragon both mechanically and culturally in an interesting, informative, and entertaining fashion, whilst also proving a new introduction to the roleplaying game and setting that can lead into the Pendragon Starter Set. Whilst in the long term, it will require expansion with further supplements, there is nothing in the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook that is anything less than useful and the Game Master should have this to enhance her campaign.

Fairhaven is your typical American small town. Fairhaven is also utterly normal. There are no three-foot-tall bulbous heeded running around in loincloths in the woods near the quartz caves that have closed off since that kid disappeared in the fifties. Alien invaders are not planning to invade the town and replace everyone over eighteen with doppelgangers. The parking lot outside the 7-Eleven on route 67 out of town is not cursed. Fairhaven Mall, the town’s very first enclosed retail centre, is not going to be used as a summing circle for the ancient serpent demon Menevoth, with the very excited members of the town’s Chamber of Commerce definitely not going to use everyone who attends on the opening day at 3 pm as ritual sacrifices. Sherman Glimp, would be comic, prize-winning tap dancer, and owner of GlimpBytes, the most reliable computer repair shop in Fairhaven, did not die in strange circumstances. Swamp Eggs, the latest kids’ craze to hit Fairhaven, sold by local, advanced technology development company, X-Tec, definitely do contain something alive in them, but whatever it is, it is definitely safe (terms and conditions apply). The Fairhaven Aquarium Natural History Annex has definitely not lost the exhibit, ‘Our Cool Ancestor, The Iceman’, and Jed and Edna Hamburger were definitely not attacked by a prehistoric ape-creature with beady yellow eyes says a spokesman for Fairhaven Police Department. Rest assured, Fairhaven Police Department keeps everything normal.

Except, of course, the Rev. Joey Royale, the Station Manager at WHPA-TV13 Fairhaven knows different. He runs the town’s Public Access Television channel and he wants to ensure that the good folk of Fairhaven are kept safe from the weird, strange, horrifying, and unnatural things going on in the town that nobody talks about and the Fairhaven Police Department resolutely deny are happening. Of course, a figure of such ‘good standing’ in the community as Rev. Joey Royale cannot be seen to be involved in such abnormal activities as investigating the outré and the unconventional, but he can of course, call upon the skills, services, and gumption of numerous individuals already exposed to such doings—the hosts of the shows on WHPA-TV13 Fairhaven!

This is the set-up for Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game, published by Get Haunted Industries. Originally released as a series of fanzines—the Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game collates the first four and adds further content—this is an investigative roleplaying game into small town weirdness, horror, and mystery set in the eighties. Crptids, UFOs, disappearances, strange deaths, alien invasions, all too advanced technology, cults, monster sightings, psychic powers, and that old homeless guy muttering prophecies under his breath are all fair game. The player take the role of Hosts of programmes on WHPA-TV13 Fairhaven. They have ordinary, even dull day jobs, but once a week—or even nightly, depending upon the needs of the schedule and their popularity—they have their own show on WHPA-TV13 Fairhaven. They might be spiritualists or psychics, fitness fanatics, local talk show hosts, variety show hosts, hosts of special interest shows—whether that is fishing, cooking, religion, and so on, and of course, they might host late night horror movie marathons! They receive instructions from Rev. Joey Royale, kept anonymous via the use of a ventriloquist’s dummy or a Speak & Spell, and then they investigate, keeping sure to avoid the Fairhaven Police Department because WHPA-TV13 Fairhaven definitely does not want that kind of publicity!

A Host in Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game is simply defined. He has four core skills—Mind, Mouth, Body, and Soul. Every Host begins play with six points of Hope, which represents both his health and his determination. A Host also has a Programming Focus, which will define these skills, connections in the community, some props that he uses on his show, and a safety item which he can use in a fight. The latter cannot be a gun because that brings too much attention to WHPA-TV13 Fairhaven. The Host types include Spirituality, Fitness, Variety, Monster Movies, Local Talk, and Special Interest, which covers anything else that a player can think of. Each provides a bonus to a core skill and most also provide an extra connection and special abilities. For example, a Fitness Host simply receives a big bonus to his Body skill, but a Monster Movies is given a small bonus to his Mind skill, can receive vivid flashes of arcane, occult, and/or scientific knowledge, and can also perform acts of sleight of hand. Lastly, a Host has a Supernatural Ability, like X-ray Vision or Minor Pyromancy.

Host creation is a matter of distributing some points between the core skills, and choosing a Programming Focus, some props, and a supernatural ability. It is a simple process, but it is not as clearly worded as it could have been and an example would have helped.

Host: Frau Blücher
Programming Focus: Special Interest (Cleaning)
Show Name: The Marital Arts Show
Occupation: Small Business Owner (Spick-Und-Span – Murder Scenes a Speciality)

CORE SKILLS
Mind 1 Mouth 2 Body 1 Soul 0
Hope 6

Connection: Aldous Kesey (Deputy Chairman, Fairhaven Chamber of Commerce)
Props: Mop and bucket, bleach, thick rubber gloves
Safety Item: Urn with her mother’s ashes

Mechanically, Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game is very simple, using a dice pool of six-sided dice. When a player wants his host to undertake an action, he rolls one die plus dice equal to the appropriate core skill. Rolls of five or six are counted as a success and typically, only one success is required for the Host to carry out the action successfully. However, if all ones are rolled on the dice, the Host loses a point of Hope, but if all sixes are rolled, it triggers the Host’s Supernatural Ability temporarily.

Combat is equally as simple and fast. Initiative is a roll of a six-sided die and a successful Body check is required to see if an attacker is successful. Damage is also rolled on a single die. If the result is four or less, the defendant loses one point of Hope, but two points if five or six is rolled. If a Host loses all of his Hope points, he can be stablised and continue investigating with one point, but if not, he suffers Cancellation, or worse, a return to normality!

And that really is it to Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game. The players can help the Ref—as the Game Master is known—conduct some planning and zoning to create the town of Fairhaven, and there are detailed rules for psionic powers using Zener cards if the Ref wants to use them (though she should probably buy or create her own rather than cutting up the book) and for handling seances, which uses a standard deck of playing cards. Really though, but the rest of Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game is dedicated to defining the possible weirdness in Fairhaven, and if not defining then alluding to it. This includes scenario outlines such as the appearance of the horse-headed serpent, Sassy, in ‘Return of the Pond Beast’ and exploring ‘The Forgotten Canals of Amontillado’, the tunnels dug under the town to facilitate the bootlegging of its famous fig schnapps during Prohibition. Whilst there are stats for a few creatures and oddities, the Ref is left to define a lot the details of the various descriptions.

In between—and even in—the scenarios, Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game bombards the reader and the Ref with adverts and classified adverts. ‘Haunted Light Tours’? Call ‘Capt.’ Bob on 555-1366; examine the ‘Outer Space Time Manipulator’, ‘Happy Clown Bombs’, and ‘Ghost-Whispering Mask’ at the Fairhaven Funtime Museum on Fairground Lane; and call Ethel on 555-1947 if looking for ‘Rare Ventriloquist Dummies’, but no flimflammers as these dummies are special! All of these are just a bit off kilter, slightly odd, and could with some effort be developed in an investigation proper.

Physically, Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game can best be described as scrappy. It is underwritten in places and the layout, designed to look like a cheap community newspaper with everything crammed in alongside the adverts—as much as it evokes the rundown, sometimes seedy nature of its setting—is overwhelming in places. Nothing ever has the time to breath in Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game and the weirdness is suitably relentless.

Of course, the problem with Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game is that not everyone is going to be familiar with the concept of public access television and its often high aspiration, low achievement style of broadcasting on a wide of subjects. Whether talk shows, phone-ins, special interest shows, or movie marathons—complete with a host in a horror-themed costume, they provided cheap—in all senses of the word—late night ‘entertainment’ for the insomniac, the shift-worker, and the late-night party-goer who has just got home. Anyone outside of the USA may want to do some research to get a feel of what these shows are like, but Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game does get the tone across fairly well.
Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game is underwritten in terms of its mechanics and messily overwritten in terms of its setting, which sounds like a terrible combination, but it does actually work. There is lot of room for improvisation and player input during play and roleplaying a Host who wants to be something more than an ordinary jane or joe and who might have a modicum of talent, but is probably going nowhere except Public Access Television, is actually fun. Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game is The National Enquirer meets Eureka and Eerie, Indiana, managing to be both creepy and creaky with an extra couple of slices of cheese on top. American cheese, of course.

They Came From The Necropolis is supplement for Forbidden Psalm and Forbidden Psalm: End Times Edition is a miniatures game published by Space Penguin Ink. It is a 28 mm skirmish level miniatures game playable with just five miniatures per warband per player and as a systems-agnostic setting, those miniatures can be from any range and publisher. It is also notable for a number of things. First, its background means that it is compatible with Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance style roleplaying game designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing. That means that Player Characters from the roleplaying game can be converted for use with Forbidden Psalm and with a bit of effort, content for Forbidden Psalm, could be adapted to Mörk Borg if a more physical, combative game is desired. Or the Game Master and her players want to scale their game up to handle skirmish encounters on a battlefield rather than in the theatre of the mind.

They Came From The Necropolis is a short affair that provides further additions to the dark and dirty world of Forbidden Psalm. The danger of conflict is a constant threat and every incident of conflict is brutal and uncaring, with few surviving such occurrences unscathed. Yet for the right amount of coin there are some that will enter the employ of others. Mercenaries or sellswords, they can join a warband and serve until the task they have been hired for is complete. Their advantage is that they bring their own equipment, but they will jealously guard it as it represents their livelihood, their capacity to go from one job to another. In game terms, what this means is that a mercenary can be hired for 25 gp and will replace a member of a warband at least temporarily. The mercenary does not have to be outfitted, but will not share or drop his own gear.
The supplement describes and gives stats for twelve such mercenaries. Each not only comes with his equipment, but also details of a feat, a flaw, and a special aspect. They include Pigmen, a Duke, a warrior, Knights, a Falconer, the Wounded, an Alchemist, a Zealot, a Bombardist, Necropolis Priests, Village Heroes, and a Knight and Retainer. For example, the Feat for Warrior lets her player roll two dice and take the better result, but the Flaw of never leaving combat, and the Special of granting a bonus to Melee to other members of the warband, whilst the Wounded has the Feat of being hard to kill and takes less damage with each hit, and the Flaw that when he is downed and gets back up, his Toughness increases, and the Special that he is cheap to hire. What is really is that the combination of the Feat, the Flaw, and the Special builds character in each mercenary, adding a little story potential as well as making them different to play. For example, the Village Heroes have the Feat of ‘Defenders of the Innocent’ which gives them a bonus to damage to monsters and a Flaw of being ‘Untrained’ and suffer a penalty to attack rolls, but their Special is that if they kill a monster, they lose the flaw.
The supplement also includes a ready list of names to give the mercenaries and details one monster. This is the Horse Head Knights, which of course, have the head of a horse, are immune to darkness conditions, and are undying. There is a chance that when they are killed, that they will return to life with full Hit Points!
Physically, They Came From The Necropolis is decently presented, with only a hint of the artpunk styling of Mörk Borg. Most of the mercenaries are given a page each which includes their stats and an illustration, which is that of a fully painted miniature (drawn from the Black Crab Miniatures! range). These are very nicely done, the Pigmen having a beady-eyed porcine face, the Wounded limping along on a stick with his right leg capped at the knew, Necropolis Priests possessing a certain creepiness.
They Came From The Necropolis is a solid expansion for Forbidden Psalm. The stats and mercenaries are quick and easy to add to a warband and each one is interesting enough to make play just that little bit different for the single session or battle, they are hired for.

It is surprising that there is no companion to ShadowDark, the retroclone inspired by both the Old School Renaissance and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition from The Arcane Library. Or at least, an official companion. The GM Companion for ShadowDark is a third party supplement for the roleplaying game which is designed to expand on the content in the core rulebook. Although the book includes some content for player, it is primarily a book for the Game Master. Divided into four sections—‘The World Above’, ‘The World Below’, and ‘Treasure’, it includes a lot of tables, more than a few monsters not found in the core rulebook, and plenty of treasure, as well as some activities that the Player Characters can undertake away from the dungeon or wilderness.

The GM Companion for ShadowDark, published by Chubby Funster, first provides the Game Master with several sets of table for generating content both in and out of the dungeon. The ‘Hex Crawling’ section expands on the rules in the core rulebook by adding ‘Points of Interest’ for nine different terrain types, from artic and coast to river and swamp. Each table consists of two sets of entries, location and development, twenty options for each. For example, in the desert, there might be a ‘Castle Ruin’ that is ‘Frequented by desert caravans’ or has ‘Displayed banners of a defeated army’. To this are added tables for ‘Terrain Hazards’, again for the nine different terrain types, but with entries that can either hinder movement, inflict damage, or weaken or confuse. Some of the locations are marked as a ‘settlement result’, which means that the Game Master then rolls on the settlement tables. These begin with the type, from crossroads to capitals, before digging down into the detail with different districts, such as transient, craft, and spectacle, each of will have one or more points of interest. Further sections adds shops, broken up according to the income levels. There are some nice variations here, such as the predatory moneylender in the poor district, respectable moneylender in the standard district, and the exclusive moneylender in the wealthy district.

Since taverns can be found anywhere, they have their own set of tables. Together, these generate a name, what the tavern is known for, and what food and drink it serves. For example, ‘The Moist Wagon’ is known for its ‘Divisive political arguments’ and is a poor tavern that serves ‘Pigeon Jelly Tart’ and ‘Salted Fish Strips’ with ‘Juggler’s Gold’, a honey-flavoured beer and ‘Bacon Broth Beer’, which makes drinkers ravenously hungry.

For Player Characters, the GM Companion for ShadowDark gives rules for Farkle, a dice game that will complement the Thieves & Wizards card given in the core rulebook. It gives something else for them to do when they are carousing, but the supplement also gives alternative activities for the Player Characters other than carousing and learning. ‘Acts of Devotion’ gives devotional events that devout Player Characters can invest in and potentially gain a benefit. For example, ‘You violate local laws in an act of piety and are arrested. Your allies must pay 10 gp to release you.’ which earns two Experience Points or ‘Your celebration is attended by devotees from far away temples. They become convinced that you are the next great religious leader of your sect.’ which grants six Experience Points and up to thirty-two devoted acolytes! ‘Combat Training’ does a similar thing for martial Player Characters who practise their weapon skills and for Wizards conducting ‘Magic Study’, there is a table for the results of their research, and all in a similar level of detail.

For the ‘The World Below’, the second section, builds on the dice-drop method detailed in ShadowDark with more tables. These start by determining the danger level of the dungeon, its entrance, size, and type, followed by room type, encounters with NPCs and rival crawlers, and even how the room changes over time, such as ‘Filled with fragile objects that repair themselves when PCs leave.’ and ‘Slowly fills with water, slime, mud, sand, or similar material.’ Other tables add scenes of a combat’s aftermath, dead zones, unique objects to be found, and monsters, whether single, mobs, or bosses. Similar to ‘Terrain Hazards’ for the ‘Hex Crawling’ section, the ‘Dungeon Hazards’ adds dangers for caves, deep tunnels, ruins, and tombs. Further tables expand upon NPCs which can be used for encounters outside of the dungeons as well as in, but as can the tables for creating Rival Crawlers. This includes ancestry, alignment, Class and/or monster, party name, preferred tactics, and even party secrets.

What can be found in a dungeon starts with simple ‘Dungeon Dressing’, worth only a few coppers at most, rising in level to match the rough Level of the dungeon or encounter. So, Dungeon Dressing might be ‘Five inches of leather lacing from a corset’ worth a copper piece or ‘Three large cheese wheels, mouldy and decaying’ worth nothing, but later Levels might contain a ‘Set of carved ivory cutlery covered in halfling runes’ worth twelve gold pieces or ‘Playing cards featuring drawings of Elvish maidens’ worth twenty-eight. The higher the Level, the more likely there is to be treasure to be found and yes, there are tables for this. They include potion descriptions and effects, magic armour to which can be added features—appearance, scent, and quirks, as well as a possible bonus and benefits (and even curses). There are similar tables for weapons and utility items too. In addition, there are table for Boons to be earned from creatures, monsters, NPCs, and organisations, and secrets to be found and blessings to receive.

Further, beyond the tables that the Game Master can roll on, the GM Companion for ShadowDark describes over seventy magic items. For example, the Imposter’s Wand can be pointed at a spellcaster to spell a First Level from him and until the next sunrise, the user can cast the spell, and further, it can be used by non-spellcasters! The Potion of the Unicorn hardens the imbiber’s skin like a rhinoceros, improving his Armour Class, and also makes him grow a horn from his head which he can use as a magical dagger. The Promise Bow is an intricate ironwood longbow with Elvish runes and silver accents, which is a +2 longbow, and grants the benefit to the wielder of attacking at an advantage if fired after declaring his intention to kill a particular enemy, but until that enemy is killed, the promised enemy is slain, all other attacks are made with disadvantage. The bow has a personality and is convinced that there is a pattern to the wielder’s choice of targets and will speculate on it.

Lastly, the GM Companion for ShadowDark gives the stats for monsters and creatures ranging from First Level to Ninth Level. There are thirty-nine in total, from Aarakocra, Ant (Giant), and Assassin Vine to Troglodyte, Vegepygmy, and Werebear. Most fill in the missing entries in the ShadowDark core rulebook, but there are new ones too like Frost Maggots and Armitage.

Physically, even if it is not the official companion to ShadowDark, the GM Companion for ShadowDark looks like it should be. The layout is clean and tidy, the artwork is decent, and the book is well written.

To be fair, much of the GM Companion for ShadowDark does consist of tables, ones that compliment those in the core rulebook. They are though, tables filled with evocative content that are essentially prompts. They can be rolled on ahead of time as part of the Game Master’s preparation, to help her set up her world, but they are also simple and direct enough that the Game Master can use them in play to drive emergent world generation if that is her wont. If the table are pushing the Game Master to be inventive, then the rest of the book is already so, with a wide selection of new and interesting magical items and three great additions to downtime activities for the Player Characters that give both them and their players more options without overwhelming post-adventure activities. The GM Companion for ShadowDark is a solid set of tools for the Game Master to enhance her campaign and her game play.

Tacta, published by The Op Games, is a game of connecting cards and covering them up, of twisting them and flipping to make the right connections, and ultimately, trying to be the one with most dots visible. The game play is incredibly simple to play and teach, but it can get slightly complex when trying to find the right place to place the cards. The playing time is about twenty minutes, it can be played on any size surface—even odd ones if there is other stuff on the table, and it is designed to be played by two to six players, aged seven and over. Quite simply, Tacta is a great filler game with decent replay value because of its simplicity.

What really stands out about Tacta are its cards. There are one-hundred-and-eight of these, double-sided and matt black except for the neon markings that line the edge of the cards and the various shapes that appear to be cut into the blackness of the cards—triangles, squares, and rectangles. Some of these are marked with dots and some are simple outlines. The look of the cards is simple, but amazing, almost as if they have burst out of the film, Tron. The cards are divided into six decks—coloured blue, green, orange, pink, purple, and red—of eighteen cards each and each deck is identical.

The aim of the game is simple and that is to have the most dots visible from your colour cards. Do that and a player wins. To do that, each player will be placing one card on his turn. This can be from the top or bottom of the deck—the cards are double-sided, and the card drawn must be placed so that one of its features, whether a triangle, square, or rectangle, covers up a feature on a card belonging to another player. Ideally this should with the dots showing and if it covers up another player’s feature with dots, then all the better, but a blank feature will still cover another player’s feature with dots and prevent them from being adding to that player’s final score. A player will also be thinking about how he can protect the features with dots on his cards from being covered over by the other players, so that there is defensive element to placement as well. There are few limits on card placement, the primary being that a card cannot cover another card when played and cannot connect to features that do not perfectly match.

Set-up itself is simple. Each player receives a deck and shuffles it, holding it in hand so that card can be drawn from the top and bottom of the deck rather being fanned out. The starting card is placed in the middle of the table. It has a simple white grid on it that allows any shape to be played onto it. After that, the players take it in turns to draw and play cards, the play area quickly filling with the cards in a tightly packed and connected sprawl. At the end of the game, everyone counts up the number of dots that are visible on their cards and the player with the highest total wins.

The core game play of Tacta is simple and easy to explain. However, this is not the only way to play and the game includes five alternate ways. There is an option for shorter playing time by removing cards from each player’s deck, playing as teams—dividing each deck between two players, and even a real time version in which everyone tries to empty their deck first and trigger scoring before anyone else can. This works well for larger groups. There is also a version where players share decks, but only score from their own colour, so they are trying to sabotage the player holding the other half of their deck, whilst still trying to score with what they have their own. The team play, free play, and sabotage play are the most out of the alternatives given.

Physically, Tacta is very black, from the box to the rulebook, all highlighted in the game’s neon colours. The rulebook is very easy to read and the cards simple to use, each deck also being marked with a symbol for the colour blind.

Tacta is a great filler. It is simple and easy to learn and teach, so is family friendly, but it can get cutthroat too as players aggressively hunt for their opponents’ dots to cover. Lastly, its stark neon on black design really gives it a presence on the table.

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—
Name: Rryonn: The Room You Can’t Escape Without Eating TangerinesPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Choya

Setting: TonightProduct: Tangerine Dream
What You Get: Eight-page, 360.25 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch:  “I must not fear fruit. Fruit is the mind-killer. Fruit is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fruit. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fruit has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” – With apologies to Dune, Frank HerbertPlot Hook: An amber room with amber fruitPlot Support: Staging advice.Production Values: Orange
Pros# The first Korean scenario translated into English?# Could be run as a LARP# Thirty-minute filler (dream sequence?)# Very Korean# Esperidoeidiphobia# Fructophobia# Chrysophobia
Cons# Very Korean# No Mythos
Conclusion# Short and easy to run, but extremely Korean and extremely physical# Fruit is the only fear

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—
Name: Operation WerewolfPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: John Mack

Setting: Germany, May 1445Product: Scenario
What You Get: Sixty-three page, full colour, 10.20 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Broken dreams on the eve of peacePlot Hook: Werewolves at war, the Nazis strike back!Plot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, five handouts, two maps, twelve NPCs, one Mythos tomes, one Mythos artefact, three Mythos spells, and five Mythos monsters.Production Values: Serviceable
Pros# Plays on fears of Nazi resistance# Includes World War II espionage Experience Packages and NPC Screen Hangers! # Detailed description of a village after war# Detailed chase sequences included# Well done pre-generated Investigators# Oneirophobia# Lycanthrophobia# Pistanthrophobia
Cons# Could use a stronger, clearer briefing for the players and their Investigators# Some pre-generated Investigators are more complex than others
Conclusion# Growing sense of paranoia as the werewolves strike again and again!# Horrors of war versus the horrors of the night