Galgenbeck is the last refuge of humanity and the last refuge of all in the land of Tveland. As the seas rise, the crops fail, wars continue without reason, the dead walk, plague runs rampant, the burden of taxes weighs heavier on all, and the peasantry seek help and succour within the walls of the city. Perhaps from the Shadow King, King Sigfúm, perhaps from the church of the Two-Headed Basilisks, its cathedral in Galgenbeck dedicated to the god Nechrubel and headed by the arch-priestess Josilfa. Both king and priestess heed the prophecies of the Two-Headed Basilisks that the herald the end of the world and are slowly becoming true. What happens though if the city itself is cursed, or worse, infested? What will authorities do to prevent the spread of the infestation beyond its walls? How will those trapped inside cope with increasingly limited supplies of food and water survive? Will law and order hold, or will the city descend into mob rule? When arch-priestess Josilfa declares Galgenbeck to be infested with the Mind Parasites, the city is closed and ringed by the implacable soldiery of the king’s Shadow Guard, and the city’s thousands of inhabitants, rich and poor, are trapped within its walls—the Player Characters amongst them. How will the Player Characters survive Three Weeks In The Streets?

Three Weeks In The Streets describes itself as a city-prison scenario for use with Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance style roleplaying game designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and also published by Free League Publishing. Published following a successful Kickstarter campaign,it even comes with its own official playlist to provide a soundtrack and begins with an encounter or two on the way to the city. It kicks off with the official announment made by the town crier, that the mind parasite is spreading and the arch-priestess has ordered the city closed. What do the Player Characters do? Do they try to fight or sneak their own way past the king’s Shadow Guard, the chance of being successful being very doubtful? They must try to find ready supplies of food and water, and every day the mob grows—and may even absorb the Player Characters—fuelled by truths and rumours that spread as surely and as quickly as the mind parasites. They are likely to encounter some of the worst and the best of Galgenbeck’s citizenry, those not wealthy enough to lock themselves up in their fortified and guarded mansions. One day after another takes on a regular pattern, of dread as yet another day dawns, of doom as night falls. As the rumours swirl and food and water supplies dwindle, the inhabitants of the city grow desperate and the tension rises, the collective stress and anxiety threatens to explode into mass hysteria. And then…
Only the first week of Three Weeks In The Streets is meant to be played out in this fashion and then it is meant to jump two weeks to the conclusion of the quarantine. By this time, the Player Characters, as well as everyone else in the city, is starving and dehydrated, but it is now that the arch-priestess Josilfa decides to step out of the Cathedral of the Twin Basilisks and deliver her judgement upon the people of Galgenbeck. It is as monstrous as you would expect.
The process is handled through an array of tables that explain survival and foraging, the waxing and waning of the mob and its mentality—gloriously depicted above a depiction of a mob a la Les Misérables, rumours and truths, events by day and by night, cover ‘Red-Eyed Rowdiness’ and ‘Drunken Debauchery’, and more. The events by day—the ‘Daily Dread’—may be as simple as the Church distributing food (with a chance of violence) or as horrible as citizens being dragged by their hair, screaming, to the town circle for execution, whilst those for the night—the ‘Daily Doom’—might see the mob breaking into the city stores for food or younglings being sold for food or labour, and a malaise sets over the city. ‘Mass Hysteria’, when it breaks out, is worse and ranges from the town burning for five days to the mob scouring entire city for personal items that it is sure is infested with the Mind Parasites.
The advice for the process is explained at the end of the scenario. This notes the fact that NPCs are likely to fall victim to group-think and that there are various factions that the Player Characters can take advantage of or ally with. The mob is described as a looming threat, one that the Player Characters can only avoid for so long. Similarly, there is advice too on what to do if the Player Characters simply decide to hunker down and try to wait it out with the supplies they have. Also detailed are various NPCs and creatures that threaten the city under lockdown, including the Shadow King’s Guard and Clerics of Josilfa Migol, plus the Galbeckian Pale Ones that do not understand why they might be blamed for the Mind Parasite infestation, Nerhrubel’s Rats that steal items (including those of the Player Characters), Wolves that specifically gather to prey on the weak, and more. Above it all are the bells of the cathedral, rung daily by Josilfa Migol, as she curses the city!

Three Weeks In The Streets is a toolkit that turns all of Galgenbeck into a prison in which the guards are as much inmates as the Player Characters and the rest of the city’s inhabitants. It has an incredible sense of uncertain, but still escalating calamity and probable rather than potential doom as the mob swirls in and out of the rumours and truths that ripple back and forth. It requires an experienced Game Master since it is not quite as tightly procedural as it could have been. That said, because it is not as as tightly procedural as it could have been, there is room for the Game Master to add her own content. Some of the scenarios or content which could be used in conjunction with Three Weeks In The Streets includes The God of Many Faces mini-hexcrawl and the various NPCs from Strange Citizens of the City, which could be woven in and around the events already outlined.

Physically, Three Weeks In The Streets apes the Artpunk style of Mörk Borg, but without overwhelming the look or legibility. The choice of artwork is appropriate and the result is that Three Weeks In The Streets is a decent looking scenario.
Three Weeks In The Streets is executed in a slightly chaotic fashion, so it is not quite as easy to run from the page as it could be. Nevertheless, Three Weeks In The Streets is a genuinely original and clever idea for Mörk Borg, giving the Game Master everything necessary to run a city-wide prison riot and have the Player Characters try to survive starvation, paranoia, and mass hysteria!

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.

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What is the Nature of the Quest?The Unlikely Hero is a short encounter for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition.

It is a full colour, eight page, 5.68 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy, though it does need an edit.
Where is the Quest Set?The Unlikely Hero is a scenario for Pendragon, Sixth Edition. It can be set in any year and is easily added to any root with a relatively isolated bridge over a river near a forest.
Who should go on this Quest?
Any type Player-knight can go on this quest. It could be run with just a single Player-knight. The encounter will test each Player-knight’s Trusting and Suspicious Traits. Any dog-living Player-knight will also be tested and potentially rewarded. The Chirurgery skill will be useful, or if not, a seasoned squire will do.
What does the Quest require?
The Unlikely Hero requires the Pendragon, Sixth Edition Core Rulebook and the Pendragon: Gamemaster’s Handbook.

Where will the Quest take the Knights?
In The Unlikely Hero, the Player-knights come across a strange situation. A damsel blocks their way across a bridge. Her clothes are ragged and dirty, she holds her hands to her face, and she is weeping. Yet there is no sign of where she came from, nor any horse or carriage, and no indications as to how she ended up in this situation.
The encounter hinges how trusting the Player-knights are, although the arrival of a large mastiff dog may further arouse their suspicions or it set them on an entirely new direction, depending on how their players roll. The encounter will quickly come to head either way and the truth of the situation revealed. The situation is very simple, and really what the Game Master has to do is to play up the distress of the damsel until either the suspicions of the Player-knights have been allayed or proven. At which point, the Player-knights will have the opportunity to gain a little glory and extend some chivalrous courtesy.

Some players may find it annoying and even frustrating that the damsel is less than forthcoming in her answers, but this perfectly in keeping with the situation. It might also have been useful if there had been a romance and marriage option explored for after the scenario. 
Should the Knights ride out on this Quest?The Unlikely Hero is a serviceable encounter that pushes the Trusting and Suspicious Traits of the Player-knights just a little too hard. That said, it is short and easily added as an encounter along the road in any campaign. It can played through in a single session, very likely much less.

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.

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Name: The Son of NyxPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: NekoMimi

Setting: Kuiper Belt, 2098Product: Scenario
What You Get: Eighteen page, 3.62 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: A ‘nightmare’ of crisis management at the end of the worlds…Plot Hook: “Reality is merely an interpretation of our senses.” – Neil deGrasse TysonPlot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, and some Mythos aliensProduction Values: Plain
Pros# One hour Science Fiction horror one-shot
# Inspired by the ‘Flash Cthulhu’ series# Originally a submission for the Japanese ‘Call of Cthulhu TRPG Scenario Contest 2024’# Thematic prequel to Flash Cthulhu – Christmas on Charon
# Derealisation Disorder# Oneirophobia# Depersonalization-Derealisation Disorder
Cons# Keeper may need to adjust to make sure the Investigators are divided to play out all of the scenario# Needs an edit

Conclusion# A clash of realities at the end of the worlds# An escape room-style horror scenario

Okay. Let us start with the pitch. The Borellus Connection is The Statement of Randolph Carter meets The French Connection with the journalistic attention to detail of Frederick Forsyth writing a Suppressed Transmission. And if that fails to get your gaming juices roiling, then there is definitely something missing from your essential saltes since your last resurrection. It is crime meets Cthulhu, the Age of Aquarius shot up on smack, DELTA GREEN versus the drug trade, when the cowboys could protect the USA—and the world—with a bit of swagger, and evil was still easy to identify, sometimes because they were still your allies despite what happened in World War 2. It is a campaign of Lovecraftian investigative horror that will take you places rarely visited in the genre in an age that remains all but unexplored in roleplaying.
The Borellus Connection is a campaign for The Fall of DELTA GREEN, the winner of the 2019 Gold ENNIE Award for Best Setting. Published by Pelgrane Press and using the GUMSHOE System, what The Fall of DELTA GREEN does is turn the clock back on DELTA GREEN—and its modern iteration, DELTA GREEN: The Roleplaying Game from Arc Dream Publishing—to take a ride through its last hurrah, the decade of the swinging sixties in which the USA would land men on the Moon, but get mired in conflict in Southeast Asia, in which the optimism of hippism and free love would be marred by murder, and in which DELTA GREEN would be overwhelmed by threats domestic and foreign—and its own hubris. The campaign will take the Agents from the sweltering heat of the jungles of the Vietnam War and into the sweaty morass of money and misfeasance that is Saigon, before swinging into the weird reality of burgeoning international air travel, and then to Turkey and Lebanon. From there it races back across Europe to the cutting edge of the Cold War and the dark aftermath of the previous war, and at last, brings the campaign home and into the wake for the death of the counterculture, as the dark romantism of the previous century torments the next. This is a campaign designed by Ken Hite—the author of The Fall of DELTA GREEN—but actually developed and written by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan.
The campaign does not stipulate what types of Agents it requires the players to roleplay. Both military veterans and former members of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics will be useful, but members of the FBI will be good as will any Agent with good surveillance skills. Similarly, there are no skills stipulated as being necessary to complete the campaign, but slots left open for languages may prove to be useful.

The campaign begins in 1968 just prior to the establishment of the BNDD, or Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, by the Justice Department. As the precursor of the DEA, it is assigned to investigate and disrupt the flow of drugs into the United States, in particular, the heroin coming out of the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia and Turkey. The Agents are assigned to the new agency, but investigating and stopping the worldwide trade in narcotics is only half of their job and their least important one. The global nature of the trade means that the Agents can be assigned to any number of exotic, faraway places with legitimate reasons to be there. Which is perfect cover for their other job—investigating and thwarting the forces of the Unnatural before they become a threat to American interests and the world. What this means is that there is a constant duality to The Borellus Connection. The Agents’ investigations are always twofold—the drugs and the Unnatural—and there is always a constant pull back and forth between. Fortunately, or unfortunately, as the campaign progresses, it becomes clear that the Unnatural has coiled its ways around the drug trade, so making it potentially easier to investigate both at the same time, but potentially making the investigation of the drug trade Unnaturally dangerous, as opposed to just dangerous.

The campaign provides a good overview of the BNDD, who the Agents’ DELTA GREEN handler is, and of the linked twin networks that entwine their way through the campaign. One is the drug trade itself, running out of the Golden Triangle, east to the USA and also out of Turkey, and both west through Marseille to the USA. This network is dominated by the Union Corse—and closer to home in the USA by the Mafia. The other network is headed by an immortal sorcerer, an associate of Joseph Curwen of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward fame, who hides within the Union Corse as its chief chemist and who uses its network to secrete his own agents around the world to protect his own interests and to work towards his plans for domination beyond his mortal immortality. This includes moving a lot the necessary materials via the same routes as the heroin. The campaign constantly hints that there is a lot more going than it outwardly appears and there is a shadowy figure behind it all, but the Agents do not learn his identity or get the chance to confront him until the very last mission.
The campaign begins with ‘Operation JADE PHOENIX’. Following a briefing at the CIA headquarters at Langley, the Agents are sent into Laos to confirm that a Kuomintang-backed Shan warlord is funding his operations through opium smuggling, but in reality, their mission is to help conduct a double assassination. The CIA wants the warlord dead, whilst DELTA GREEN’s target is a Kuen-Yuin sorcerer. They will have a military escort, but the assassinations are to be carried out by a United States Marine Corps sniper, one Sergeant Adolph Lepus, already just a few shots away from being the stone-cold killer feared by every DELTA GREEN agent in the future. The scenario is perhaps the most straightforward, certainly the simplest, of the missions in the campaign, even if it is complicated by an inexperienced commanding officer of the escort, the limited time frame set by Tiger Transit, and the Mythos machinations of the second target. It is otherwise a twisted military or mercenary style scenario, one in which some of the Agents are likely to be out of their depth—or out of their comfort zone, that should introduce the players and their Agents to the core of the campaign.
That core comes to the fore in ‘Operation ALONSO’, the most complex scenario in the campaign. The Agents are turned around in Hong Kong on their way home and sent back to Vietnam as newly minted recruits for the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Once there, their cover operation is to run surveillance on a narcotics summit at the Continental Palace hotel in Saigon between Unione Corse bosses and emissaries from Marseille with local operations, whilst their actual mission is to ferret out signs of a resurgent Cthulhu cult that DELTA GREEN targeted a decade before. The challenge for the Agents is not only to navigate an unfamiliar city and equally unfamiliar military and espionage operations all on a war footing, but navigate a city where virtually everyone is on the take and their actions have a chance of alerting not only the heroin operation they are investigating, but also the Viet Cong that have infiltrated the city. Arouse the suspicions of either and the Agents will find themselves becoming the targets. In addition to infiltrating the hotel where the summit is being held, the Agents have to look for the activities of the Cthulhu cult in Saigon and beyond into the swamps outside the city where they might get a chance to conduct their own defoliation operation. They will also discover for the first time how weird and twisted some of the operatives connected to Union Corse really are. This as opposed to ‘Operation JADE PHOENIX’, where the weirdness seems local.
The scenario is made also the more complex by being set at the height of the Vietnam War and so amidst a morass of strange names and abbreviations. Add in a lot of organisations with different aims and sometimes overlapping areas of responsibility, and there is a lot for both the Handler and her players, let alone the Agents, to keep track off. It also makes it more challenging in comparison to prepare. Otherwise, this is a quagmire of a scenario, hot and sticky, that will take multiple sessions to complete.
The campaign narrows—quite literally—to the width and length of a Boeing 707. In ‘Operation HORUS HOURS’, the Agents are given another pair of assignments to conduct during their return to the USA. The BNDD wants the Agents to track some smugglers into the USA and DELTA GREEN wants the Agents to identify the purchaser in the USA of an Unnatural relic being transported aboard the aeroplane by a courier. The scenario takes place at the very dawn of the golden age of international air travel, but before the arrival of the Boeing 747 and similar large passenger jets, so the journey back from Hong Kong is via Sydney, Australia, Tahiti and Easter Island, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Panama City, and Los Angeles, and takes over one hundred hours in total! Since this is 1968, the Agents and other passengers aboard the flight have a lot of freedom of movement and face much lower security compared to modern flights, so the Agents have scope to move around, identify the smugglers, and spot the courier—and similarly, the smugglers and the courier have the opportunity to realise they are being watched and who by.
This tense, enclosed environment is exacerbated by the release of a nasty chemical that gets into the ventilation system and unleashes some of the Unnatural contraband being smuggled as well as tipping passengers and crew alike over into series of trippy dreams. And the dreams get weirder and weirder the closer the aeroplane gets to the site of sunken R’lyeh, a lovely contrivance of a flypast that brings another aspect of the Unnatural into play and requires intervention on Easter Island. ‘Operation HORUS HOURS’ has a submarine feel to it, of the Agents lost as if underwater, drowning in dreams and drugs.
The arrival of the Agents in the USA at the end of ‘Operation HORUS HOURS’ brings the first half of The Borellus Connection to close. The second half moves to the Middle East and Europe where the Agents investigate the drug trafficking running through Marseille for the BNDD and what looks like the activities—past and present—of an occultist somehow connected to the Union Corse for DELTA GREEN. ‘Operation DE PROFUNDIS’ takes place in eastern Turkey where the BNDD wants the Agents to investigate how the heroin is being transported through the country and DELTA GREEN wants them to investigate the death of Charles Whiteman, a British archaeologist at a dig site after his body vanished on the way back to England. Since this is set at an archaeological dig site, this has the feel of a more traditional scenario for almost any other roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror, but all more creepier because of the appearance and behaviour of the man who arrives to take control of the dig site with the permission of the dead and missing man! Clumsy and awkward, with a raspy voice and his hands always covered in gloves. He is very obviously suspicious and hiding something… This is likely the Agents’ first encounter with one of the servants of the shadowy figure at the heart of the conspiracy. All of these servants are monstrous in their way, but surprisingly, there is something sad about this man.
The location for ‘Operation SECOND LOOK’ is Beirut, Lebanon where the BNDD wants a drug deal investigated, and DELTA GREEN wants know why François Genoud, a Swiss Nazi sympathiser and intelligence broker, stopped informing for them and ‘gently’ reminded who he owes his continued existence to what he thinks are members of the CIA. Getting to the Genoud takes a bit of work and if they lean on him too hard, he goes running to his actual CIA masters, headed by retired agent, Miles Copeland, Jr., which will likely lead to the Agents earning a rebuke. The Agents can also discover the smuggling operation is shipping something big through the city, something guarded by a contingent of soldiers from the Egyptian army! The city has a post-colonial, seedy opulence to it and members of the Union Corse have a legitimacy that enables them to operate in the open, leading to scenes where the Agents have the opportunity to rub shoulders with them and even receive an offer that exposes the friction within the Union Corse and between the campaign’s two strands.
By now it should be clear that the use the Union Corse’s smuggling routes is twofold. One—and most obviously—to traffic drugs into the USA, and the other, hiding within that operation, to transport occult materials around the world. DELTA GREEN has the Agents follow the latter track, following the route of Charles Whiteman’s body into Germany in ‘Operation PURITAN’. Unfortunately, the Agents get sidetracked by another DELTA GREEN investigation meaning that it is no longer a duality, but a triality! Another DELTA GREEN briefing officer in Munich tasks the Agent with investigating what appears to be Unnatural prayers being broadcast via Radio Liberty into the Soviet Union. This forces the Agents into a more challenging balancing act, but as their investigation into the broadcasts takes them into Munich’s Turkish diaspora, it becomes apparent that all three are connected and lead back to the past activities in central Europe of the sorcerer at the heart of conspiracy. To confirm this, the Agents must cross the Iron Curtain on a quick excursion to Prague in the Prague Spring and almost back in time to dark house warped by monstrous sorceries. The mission comes to an end with a chance to save the world, but potentially end history in another twenty years, although the Agents are unlikely to be aware of either.
The penultimate mission is ‘Operation MISTRAL’ set in Marseille. By this point, the Agents know that they are on the trail of Jaques Vènice, the scar-faced chemist responsible for ensuring the quality of the heroin coming out of Turkey and the Golden Triangle and very probably using the Union Corse’s smuggling network as a cover for his own sorcerous activities. They may also have learnt his true identity. In ‘Operation MISTRAL’ they have chance to track him down in Marseille, the heart of the Union Corse’s smuggling operation. Another Mythos element comes into play here as the sorcerer uses a cult dedicated to another entity and the student protests that began in Paris and have spread to ‘La Cité Phocéenne’ as cover for his activities, as well as links to the authorities for both the Union Corse and the cult. The Agents may have an ally here and may also be able to take advantage of the friction within the Union Corse which will see one faction give up Jaques Vènice and potentially reveal his true identity. Either way, the Agents are definitely on his trail now and the operation will likely end with them chasing him across France and perhaps through another reality, all the way to the campaign’s finale.
‘Operation NEPENTHE’—named for the drug capable of banishing grief or trouble from a person’s mind described in Homer’s Odyssey—brings the campaign home to ‘Mob-town’, the city of Baltimore infamous for its riots, of which the latest it is trying to recover from with a national guard presence on the streets. The Agents are ostensibly here to follow up on Union Corse links to the city, but their DELTA GREEN handler all but gives them carte blanche to do what takes to stop the sorcerer’s plans. The latter has deep historical rather than modern ties to the city and as his gathered energies and plans coalesce, thorn bushes sprout from the strangest of places, the eyes of the city’s junkies turn towards the Agents, and time slips… The Agents need to slip too, back into city’s past and that of sorcerer, perhaps as far back as the last days of Baltimore’s most famous son. Of course, there is also the chance of the Agents getting lost in time and of failure, of the eastern seaboard getting lost in a bubble of time, but if they succeed, knowing that they saved millions is the only reward, and that they alone, are the only ones to know, are the only reward.

The Borellus Connection is a big sprawling campaign in the mode of the globetrotting campaigns of classic Lovecraftian investigative horror. Yet it owes some of its structure and tone to the conspiratorial structure of campaign in the designer’s other roleplaying game, Night’s Black Agents, whilst at the same time being loose enough that many of the individual scenarios could be run on their own. In addition to duality of the campaign’s entwined threads, its secrets are heavily obfuscated behind layers of obligation and history, and is only in the very later parts of the campaign that the players and their Agents begin to realise who or what they are facing. Since the Agents are sent hither and thither, they and their players do not have overall agency as they might in other globetrotting campaigns of classic Lovecraftian investigative horror and so it is not easy for them to step back from the overall campaign and work out what the overall picture is. The intricacy and connections within the campaign mean that the players are probably going to need their own corkboard, let alone their Agents. In terms of tone, the campaign veers towards Pulp, but there is often a brutality to it, hulking in the shadows until forced to act. The best and most unnerving of that brutality may occur after one or more of the Agents has been killed.

For the Handler there is not much advice on setting up the campaign and the advice throughout is not always as strong as it could be. Hence, this really is a campaign for the experienced Handler in terms of its structure and detail, but the balance between the Mythos and the mundane is well handled and the campaign is rich in historical detail. The Agents really get to get to meet some real and genuinely interesting historical figures and the Handler who wants more detail, there is a decent bibliography at the end. In terms of the Mythos, there is no one central threat in terms of the other, although the campaign does bounce between several differing Mythos traditions. Rather the threat faced is arguably all too human, but one who has fully embraced the inhuman in an attempt to realise his ambitions.
Physically, The Borellus Connection is a dense affair and as a whole, heavy going. Individual missions are well organised and explained with details of the mission spine and the key characters at the start before diving into the detail. The cartography is decent, but the artwork is intentionally obfuscatory, hinting and suggesting rather than clarifying.

The Borellus Connection is a big demanding campaign that is going to take no little commitment upon the part of the Handler, her players, and their Agents to run, play, and complete. There is a fantastic sense of energy and grime to this campaign, of the Agents constantly wading through the seedy underbelly of both humanity and alchemy, caught between the mundane and the Mythos, and ultimately, out of game, how far and what strange places, The Borellus Connection takes one of H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous stories.

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.

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What is it?The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever is a sourcebook and first part of a campaign for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha in which the Player Characters come to the city of Pavis and attempt to make a life and reputation for themselves.

It is the first part of The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut campaign.

It is an update of a campaign previously available in the nineties and includes commentary from the author on both the original and current version of the campaign.

It is a full colour, two-hundred-and-twenty-four-page, 105.55 MB PDF.

It is a full colour, two-hundred-and-twenty-page hardback.

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

The cartography is decent for the most part.
Where is it set?The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever takes place in the city of Pavis and its surrounds (but not the Big Rubble).
It is set in ST 1619.
Who do you play?
The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever suggests and even provides a wide range of character types. What it mandates is that the Player Characters are all new to the city of Pavis.
What do you need?
The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, the RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary, and the Red Book of Magic. It also requires The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 02: New Pavis: The City that Time Forgot, Pavis: Threshold to Danger, and Big Rubble: The Deadly City.

In addition, Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers, Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses, Cults of RuneQuest: The Gods of Fire and Sky, and Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way will all be useful. Sun County: RuneQuest Adventures in the Land of the Sun may also be useful.
What do you get?The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever is the archetypal release made available on the Jonstown Compendium. It is written by fans for fans. It is messy. It requires a high number of other sourcebooks to fully work. It requires a high degree of knowledge about Glorantha. It contains a lot of information that is extraneous. It is overwritten. It is incomplete. It is set outside the current time frame for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. Of course, this will not be a problem if the Game Master has access to all of the supporting material that she needs to set up and run the campaign, but if not, this is a campaign that the Game Master might want to wait to run or perhaps play it before she does so. Nevertheless, there is the start of an interesting campaign here which is designed for beginning characters and to some extent beginning players. However, whether the players are new to Glorantha or not, an experienced Game Master is needed.
The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever is the reconstruction of old campaign created in the nineties that was influenced by conversations with the late Greg Stafford. It does rely upon the Game Master having access to both Pavis: Threshold to Danger, and Big Rubble: Threshold to Danger, as the author did when he first ran it. He puts this in context a historical backdrop to the campaign, both in game and out, the in-game backdrop providing a history of the original Pavis City, its destruction, the founding of New Pavis, and the invasion of the Lunar Empire. This is supported by an introduction to the city, overviews of the region, a discussion of its local languages, and then... Well, then it takes hard turn into a lot of background about Pavis in ST 1619 that is potentially going to confuse the reader and leave him wondering what he has got himself into.

The problem is that The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever really opens with a lot of background material that is useful, just not necessarily useful in this first part of the campaign, and content that the players and their characters are very unlikely to interact with starting out. This includes the full details of the New Pavis Knowledge Temple—run jointly by the cults of Lhankor Mhy and Irrippi Ontor—and their various subcults and factions; full details of the Lunar military presence in and around Pavis and their regimental magic and spirits; a history of Pavis, the founder of old Pavis and his cult, as well as the Flintnail the Dwarf Father subcult of the Pavis cult; details of Old Pavic magic and alternative means of a Praxian shaman gaining his magic as well as the Raven as a Praxian spirit cult; the Flintnail Dwarves in Pavis; the Cult of Donandar as full cult rather than a subcult; and details of the the criminal underworld in Pavis. The latter very much expands upon the information given in Pavis: Threshold to Danger, suggesting new criminal occupations such as the Confidence Merchant, Pick-Pocket, Roofer, Strong-Arm Specialist, and even Assassin! Plus, it details various gangs in the city, including details of The Hidden One, a Lanbril subcult worshipped by the Hole Lords Gang. In addition to the various gangs, Jorjar’s Trollkin Nightwatch, almost as criminal as the gangs and all of its members open to bribes, is detailed. There is a section on the general knowledge that any local will have of the Big Rubble and a gazetteer of Pavis County, plus full stats for the numerous NPCs to accompany the descriptions of the various factions and organisations. This includes the notable members of the Knowledge Temple, soldiery of the Lunar regiments present in the city, the auxiliaries and mercenaries found outside the city in Pavis County, the members of the criminal gangs, and Jorjar’s Trollkin Nightwatch.
It is a lot to take in, and none of the information is actually bad or uninteresting. Rather, it is not easy to tell what is relevant and what is not. Or rather, what is relevant right now and what is not. There is a lot here that the Player Characters are more likely to interact with later in the campaign, including the Knowledge Temple, the Cult of Pavis and the Flintnail Dwarves, and the Cult of Donandar. Initially, it is possible to play a character who worships Lhankor Mhy and wants to join one of the subcults or an entertainer who wants to join the Cult of Donandar—and this is seen in some of the pre-generated Player Characters that the campaign provides. Later in the campaign it will a different matter, as it will be very likely that the Player Characters will have interacted with these various groups and factions and learned more about them. To that end, the campaign makes two suggestions. One is that if Player Character dies, then his replacement can have stronger ties to or even be a native and a member of one of these cults, whilst the other is that each player create a second character who is native to Pavis and be member of one of these cults. Again though, this is for later in the campaign.

The second half of the book focuses on the campaign and its set-up. It is thus more direct and there are elements during the set-up and in the opening stages of the campaign that make use of the content previously presented and so begin to provide some much-needed context. In terms of character creation, beyond requiring that they be new to Pavis, The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever does actually suggest a lot of options. Suggestions in terms of Race include Baboons, Crested Dragonewts, Ducks, Dark Trolls, Dwarves, Elves, Morokanth, Newtlings, and more. The creation process is streamlined, there not being available the family history tables for this period as there are for ST 1625 in RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and to this it adds two new skills, Streetwise and Pavic Philosophy, both of which will factor in the campaign. Included here too, are the game details of the local Lhankor Mhy subcults discussed earlier—Cobrin the Reseracher and Marlogh the Investigator,* plus Mercario the Street Entertainer, a subcult of Pavis and Donandar, and Thandros the Trader, a subcult of Pavis and Issaries. This is followed by information about the Zola Fel Riverfolk and their Cult of Zola Fel, the Aldryami of Old Pavis out in the Big Rubble, the Yelmalions of Pavis and Sun County, their associated cults, and if the Game Master and her players wants to cut to the chase, six pre-generated Player Characters. These are very nicely detailed and ready to play as well as offering a diverse range of characters.
* Yes, really.

The campaign proper begins with ‘New Faces in Town’. For whatever reason, the Player Characters have come to Pavis to start afresh and so they arrive with only the barest of knowledge of both the city and the Big Rubble it abuts, unsure of where to start and what to do. The campaign strongly recommends that the very last thing that the Player Characters do at this stage is run off and look for adventure or treasure in the Big Rubble, since their ignorance and lack of skill is likely to get them killed. So instead, the opening sequences all about the mundane steps of settling into a new place—finding food, looking for somewhere to live, and getting a job or two. Several infamous establishments are described here, including Gimpy’s Tavern, Geo’s Inn, and Rowdy Djo Lo’s, as possible places to eat and stay. Here the campaign is grounding the Player Characters in the city, beginning to make it their home, and backs this up with small encounters and small job opportunities that the Game Master will need to tailor to her players and their characters, giving them a slice of life in Pavis.
The first full scenario in The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever is ‘Ghost In The Darkness’. It is a classic set-up in that the newcomers to the city get got up in fracas, picked upon by one of Pavis’ many criminal gangs, and find themselves under arrest by the city watch for a breach of the peace. Since they are new here, the judges are surprisingly lenient, sentencing the Player Characters to civic duties befitting their talents and temperament for at least one season. Which is why, with intervention of a priest of the Pavis Cult, they find themselves attached to Captain Draximedes, a Yelmalion officer posted to the city as part of the treaty with Sun County. Draximedes is a solider through and through, but takes the Player Characters in hand and gives them time and money to prepare for their first assignment. This is to ride out into the contested eastern borderlands between Pavis County and the Sun Dome lands where independent settlers have their home in the rough, frontier country. Out towards Vulture Country some of the settlers have organised the building of a sturdier bridge over the White Rock River to facilitate both travel and trade, but there has been a series of deaths at construction site and the work crew have called for aid.
This is primarily a travelogue scenario in which they accompany Captain Draximedes out into the countryside and onto the frontier, interacting with fellow travellers, stopping off at various settlements, solving some of their problems, and so on. The last part of the scenario takes place at the bridge construction site where they can learn what has happened so far and perhaps begin their investigation, but what the Player Characters cannot do at this point is resolve the scenario. This is because the finale is actually contained in the next part of the campaign, The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 02: New Pavis: The City that Time Forgot. There is no denying that this is disappointing, because what it means is that there is no closure to The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever and that it is not a complete chapter. And arguably, there is content in The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever which could have been saved for the next or a subsequent volume in the series and the resulting space been devoted to enabling the Game Master, her players, and their characters to complete the introductory chapter to the campaign.

The scenario, what there is of it, is a solid affair with opportunities for roleplaying and even some combat. Ultimately, what it is providing several sessions of tempering, both in game and out, as the characters learn to work together under the watchful eye of Captain Draximedes, the players learn about their characters and the rules, and both learn a bit more about the setting.
What this all means is that The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever presents the prospective Game Master with not so much problems, as impediments to play: the requirement for a large number of source books, the amount of setting material presented in the first half of the book, and the anti-climactic scenario. Some of these are less of an issue for some Game Masters than others, and get past at least the first two, and what Game Master has in her hands is a very enjoyable introduction to roleplaying in and around the city of Pavis, accompanied by advice and lots of options and help in creating Player Characters and getting them involved in the street life of Pavis. If the rest of the campaign is as decently done as the actual start in The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever, then the campaign will be worth investing in.
Is it worth your time?Yes—The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever is a good start to the campaign that will ultimately reward its high buy-in and investment.No—The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever requires too much of an investment and buy-in, falls too much under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’, and it is probably set too far away from where the Game Master’s own campaign is set.Maybe—The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever does not make its set-up easy to get to and really get going, but the Game Master willing to make the investment and who wants a campaign away from the roleplaying game’s current focus might want to take a look at it.

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—Senet is a print magazine about the craft, creativity, and community of board gaming. Bearing the tagline of “Board games are beautiful”, it is about the play and the experience of board games, it is about the creative thoughts and processes which go into each and every board game, and it is about board games as both artistry and art form. Published by Senet Magazine Limited, each issue promises previews of forthcoming, interesting titles, features which explore how and why we play, interviews with those involved in the process of creating a game, and reviews of the latest and most interesting releases. Senet is also one of the very few magazines about games to actually be available for sale on the high street.

Senet Issue 16 was published in the winter of 2024 and what the covers hints at—if, that is, the reader recognises the style of illustrator Kyle Ferrin—what the focus of the issue is, and that is, a big interview with Cole Wehrle, the designer of several popular, and critically acclaimed board games, including Root, Oath, and Arcs. If not, then the cover is not giving away very much, but then that is what the editorial is there for, and indeed it explains all. As well as the interview with Cole Wehrle, the editorial highlights the issue’s game play and theme articles. The former is that of solo play, once that the editor admits having enjoyed with a series of games, whilst the latter is all about witches and witchcraft. Not only appropriate for the time of year when the issue was published, but coincidentally, appropriate for the time of year when this review is being written (even if, unfortunately, a year late!).

As expected, ‘Behold’ begins the issue proper, highlighting some of the then forthcoming games with a preview and a hint or two of what to expect. The notable titles include Ada’s Dream and Tenby. The first is a complex game about Ada Lovelace and her program designs for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, involving as it does dice, character cards, and a rondel. The preview is clear about the complexity of Ada’s Dream, but the subject is fascinating enough to warrant a closer look. The second is simpler, a tableau game about laying out the fronts of houses in the Welsh coastal resort of the same name, in part based on their colour, a common feature of Welsh towns with their pastel-coloured buildings. ‘Points’, the regular column of readers’ letters, contains a mix of praise for the magazine and a discussion of gaming culture. It still feels limited at just a single page and it is clear from the letters that the magazine is well liked, so it seems a shame that it cannot be expanded to build a community around the magazine via the letters page. Hopefully, this will change in the future when the page count for the magazine is increased. Similarly, ‘For Love of the Game’ continues the journey of the designer Tristian Hall towards the completion and publication of his Gloom of Kilforth—and beyond. By now, very beyond. In ‘Time to Play’ he explores what he does in in downtime away from designing and publishing games, which surprisingly, is playing games, running counter to the idea that you should never take your day job home with you by working on other projects. This though is a variety of games, including roleplaying games and games from other designers. Much of it is to spur his creativity, but he cannot avoid doing a little market research too. By this point though, the column has left its remit way behind, and it would be interesting to see another designer share his diary.

The sixteenth issue of the magazine keeps to its tried and tested format of two interviews, one with a designer and one with an artist, and two articles about games, one about specific type or game or mechanic and the other about a theme. As mentioned previously, the interview with the designer is with Cole Wehrle in Dan Thurot’s dubiously titled ‘Give It A Wehrle’. Wehrle is the designer of some very high profile titles, mostly from Leder Games, including Root, Oath, and Arcs, but also some more controversial, but arguably more interesting titles like John Company and Molly House from the company he shares with his brother, Wehrlegig Games. Here he discusses the development of Root, and then Arcs, in particular how it differs from typical Science Fiction civilisation board games that adhere to the 4X format—eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. Surprisingly, the focus is less on Arcs, at the time his latest game, than still on Root. Nevertheless, this is a fascinating interview, one which also examines the differences between how Wehrle designs for Leder Games and his own company. It does feel as if it could have been a longer interview looking at his other designs in greater depth. Perhaps in a later issue?

The other interview is with the artist, Joan Guardiet. In ‘The Explorer’, Dan Jolin talks to him about the games he has illustrated and the varied approach he takes to each. Senet always gives the space to showcase an artist’s work and this is no exception, enabling the reader to look at the different styles across several games. For example, Mazescape series of solo map exploration titles from Devir, are inspired by MC Escher and the computer game, Monument Valley, and have an angular look, whilst La Viña, also from Devir, has a delicate, intentionally ethereal look in its depiction of its various grapes and vines. Across the six games depicted it is almost a surprise to see they are all illustrated by the same artist.

In between the interviews, ‘Game of Crones’ by Alexandra Sonechkina explores the role of the witch has in board games, tracking her role as villain from early titles like Hexenhaus from 1952 and Milton Bradley Games’ Which Witch? from the seventies to more positive depictions in games such as the 2015 Kennerspiel des Jahres Winner Broom Service from Alea and KOSMOS’ Techno Witches from 2005. Common themes in witch-based games include broom races, potion making, and spell casting, but the most common is that of witches on trial, which of course, has a strong historical precedent. The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 figure strongly, as in games like Façade Games’ social deduction game, Salem 1692, but Septima from Mindclash Games counters this by having the players working to solve the problem that the witches are accused of and are on trial for. Lastly, the article points out that the subject is controversial because perceptions of witchcraft differ, but suggests that more positive depictions might counter this controversy.

Matt Thrower’s ‘Party of One’ examines a style of play that has become increasingly common over the last few years as an increasing number of publishers offer extra rules for their games that allow them to be played solo. The article lists the Mage Knight Board Game, Wingspan, Dune: Imperium, Cascadia, and the Imperium series as all possessing good solo variants to what are well regarded games, but notes that the origins of solo play in board games lies in card games and puzzles which do not offer the narrative possibility that a solo board game can. Even playing board games solo can offer this as well as the means to learn the rules, and that is before you get to games that are deigned to be played solo. Here there is possibility to tell stories and have play experiences that other board games with more players would not. Overall, this is an interesting article, but it could have better highlighted games designed to be played solo rather than games with solo variants.

‘Unboxed’, Senet’s reviews section covers a wide range of games, top of which is Arcs, designed by the issue’s star interviewee, Cole Wehrle, and here awarded ‘Senet’s Top Choice’. The game is given a very good review, and it does look like a terrific game. Elsewhere there is courtly theme to the reviews with a look at both For the Queen from Darrington Press and Courtesans from Catch Up Games, but one of the more interesting titles reviewed is Hollandspiele’s Striking Flint, a game about the General Motors strike of 1936 to 1937 in Flint. Michigan. The game involves placing workers to stop actions being done and so resist the police and other strike breakers, so is described as an ‘anti-worker placement game’. The issue does not ignore more commercial fare with a review of Disney Lorcana: Gateway from Ravensburger.

As is traditional, Senet Issue 16 comes to a close with the regular end columns, ‘How to Play’ and ‘Shelf of Shame’. For ‘How to Play’, ‘How to be a Games Guru’ by Will Brasher, talks about his role as a games guru working at the games café, Chance & Counters, in Birmingham. This provides the reader with an interesting and quite detailed perspective of actually providing recommendations and helping people play games. Lastly, Banzainator of Board Games Anonymous, pulls Everdell for her ‘Shelf of Shame’. The reason why she has not played is because it was too light for her and this proves to be the case with some caveats. She would only play it again with two players rather than more.

Physically, Senet Issue 16 is shows off the board games it previews and reviews to great effect, just as you would expect. The highlight of the issue is the interview with Cole Wehrle, which definitely feels as if should be longer, but the article on witches and witchcraft as a theme is also good. This is another good issue providing solid and informative discussion of board games and their culture.

If there has to be a GM Companion for ShadowDark—and the honest truth is that there does actually have to be, since there is no official companion to ShadowDark, the retroclone inspired by both the Old School Renaissance and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition from The Arcane Library—then there surely has to be the equivalent for the player. Well, similarly, there is, and that book is the Player Companion for ShadowDark. Like the GM Companion for ShadowDark, this is a third-party supplement for the roleplaying game which is designed to expand on the content in the core rulebook. It includes new Backgrounds, over twenty Ancestries, over thirty new Classes, plus new gemstones and metals, weapons, armour types and materials, adventuring gear galore, and plants, poisons, and traps, as well as catalysts to give spells that little bit more oomph when needed. Of course, a great deal of this volume is aimed at the player, but like the GM Companion for ShadowDark, which was aimed at the Game Master, yet still contained elements that the player could use, the Player Companion for ShadowDark contains content that the Game Master can also use. Probably more so, since the Game Master will be using the content of the Player Companion for ShadowDark to help create her world and her campaign.
The Player Companion for ShadowDark is—like the GM Companion for ShadowDark—published by Chubby Funster. The ‘Alternative Background Table’ lists twenty options, from Agitator, Artist, and Athlete to Trader, Translator, and Wanderlust, all of which are intended to not conflict with the Classes that follow after the Ancestries. Each of the twenty-four Ancestries is given a simple description and a simple ability. For example, the Proudfoot Halfling is ‘Stealthy’ can effectively turn invisible for three Rounds once per day, whilst the Stoutheart Halfling is ‘Quick’ and gains a +3 bonus to Initiative. The Changeling is ‘Mercurial’ and can use innate illusion magic to change their facial features; the Dragonborn has ‘Fire Breath’ and can do so instead of a standard attack; and a Goblin can simply never be surprised in combat. Some, such as the Dark Elf, Deep Gnome, Dragonborn, Gray Elf, Proudfoot Halfling, Stoutheart Halfling, and Wood Elf, are all inspired by both classic fantasy and classic Dungeons & Dragons, enabling a player to select an Ancestry for his character that he might be familiar with from those sources. Others are less obviously inspired, like the Changeling and Gold Dwarf, whilst others still, including the Goblin, Hobgoblin, and Kobold, open up the possibility of roleplaying the Humanoid races of Dungeons & Dragons as Player Characters.
The primary selling point of Player Companion for ShadowDark is its thirty-six new Classes. The full thirty-six consists of Archer, Assassin, Beastmaster, Berserker, Brigand, Buccaneer, Burglar, Charlatan, Conjurer, Druid, Elementalist, Enchanter, Explorer, Gladiator, Mage, Mariner, Monk, Mystic, Necromancer, Noble, Oracle, Pugilist, Ranger, Rogue, Savage, Scholar, Scout, Shaman, Soldier, Sorcerer, Spy, Squire, Thug, Urchin, Valkyrie, and Witch. Some, like the Assassin, Druid, Ranger, and Sorcerer, draw upon classic Classes from Dungeons & Dragons for their inspiration, but in some cases, there is not a great deal of variation between these new Classes. For example, the Brigand, the Burglar, and the Rogue all have ‘Shadowed’ and ‘Thievery’. ‘Shadowed’ grants advantage on Stealth checks and a bonus when motionless, and with ‘Thievery’ on checks to disguise himself, shadow someone, find and disable traps, pickpocket, and pick locks. The main difference—mechanically—is that the Brigand has ‘Knockout’, being able to knock an unsuspecting victim unconscious with a sap; the Burglar can easily grab objects at close distance with ‘Palm’; and the Rogue has ‘Backstab’ and ‘Taking Cover’. There is the same element with the Priest and Wizard type Classes too, all sharing the same core abilities with one or maybe two other abilities.

What this highlights is that many of the Classes in the Player Companion for ShadowDark are variations upon a theme. Which may or not be a problem. Used all together, it is a case of there not being enough to differentiate between the Class types, but used judiciously, any of the Classes would work well. For example, all of the Wizard-type Classes would work together if a campaign was set around a magic college and all of the Rogue Classes would work in a big urban environment, but in another campaign, the Game Master might decide that only certain Classes within the various types work within her campaign world, suggesting perhaps, that magic works or that the gods are worshipped in a particular way.

If many of the Classes in the Player Companion for ShadowDark are variations upon a theme, this is not to say that the Class designs are bad. The Archer is simple and straightforward, good with a bow and arrow, able to target specific body parts for various effects and gains better benefits from cover; the Assassin can ‘Backstab’, is ‘Shadowed’ like the Thief-type Classes, but can use ‘Venom’ instead of ‘Thievery’; the Druid has ‘Nature Affinity’, can cast ‘Priest Spells’, and ‘Shapeshift’; and the Necromancer can ‘Command Undead’ as well as do ‘Scroll Study’ and cast ‘Wizard Spells’. In other designs, there is more originality. For example, the Noble knows extra ‘Languages’, gives Advantage on morale for his NPC allies as well as a bonus to attack rolls and initiative with his ‘Leadership’, mind-affecting spells and powers are rolled against him are made at Disadvantage due to his ‘Nobility’, and he gains greater ‘Wealth’. Otherwise, the Noble is a Fighter type, but the abilities of the Class do lend itself to some interesting roleplaying. Similarly, the Valkyrie is a Cleric type Class and can cast ‘Priest Spells’, but added to that, she is ‘Favoured’ and if she uses a luck token to deliver a killing blow, she gets it back, and she has ‘Raven’, meaning she has an unkindness of raven familiars.
Beyond the Ancestries and Classes, the Player Companion for ShadowDark focuses on equipment. ‘Gemstones and Metals’ describes thirty gemstones and metallic trade bars that can be found as treasure and/or traded, whilst the twenty-five weapons gives more choices in combat, many of them of with their unique features. For example, the bastard does more damage if wielded two-handed, the bearded axe and the javelin can be thrown and inflicts different damage if thrown, whilst the dagger can also be thrown, but the wielder can choose whether to use his Strength or Dexterity depending on the bonus. Conversely, ‘Armour’ does not give its various types of protection unique features. The exceptions are the helmet, which grants the wearer Advantage when resisting concussion, blasts, sonic attacks, falling debris, or similar dangers, and the large shield kite, which improve Armour Class when wielded on horseback. There are guidelines for the effects of adamantine, bronze, and mithril armour though.
This is followed by a huge section on ‘Adventuring Gear’ which describes one hundred items that a Player Character might have in his backpack, from acid, an air bladder, and alcohol to a whistle, wooden stakes, and writing ink. It is an exhaustive and quite detailed list. Similarly, ‘Plants and Poisons’ describes twenty-five beans, compounds, flowers, fungi, herbs, roots, and venoms that have a variety of effects, not just poisoning. From arsenic and belladonna to tamarind and wolfsbane, the entries are even more detailed than those given in the ‘Adventuring Gear’ section. This is all useful information, whether for the Assassin or Druid Classes, for alchemists, and of course, for evil NPCs. ‘Traps’ describes six devices that a Player Character could buy and set, such as a flash trap that blinds or a sticky trap that hinders. It gives a cost, which suggests that they can be purchased off the shelf, which might be case in a Game Master’s campaign world. For another Game Master’s campaign world, guidelines on building such traps would have been more useful.
Lastly, the Player Companion for ShadowDark describes something completely different—‘Spell Catalysts’. These are things—seeds, berries, resins, petals, roots, bark, flowers, metals, wood, spices, glass, honey, bone, leaves, and more—that when used in conjunction with a particular spell, enhances its effects. For example, a handful of leaves from the mint plant when held casting Levitate enables the caster to move horizontally without needing to push himself off another surface or if the caster holds an olive when casting Magic Missile, the missiles inflict extra damage and can knock a target to the ground! All eighty-five of these, from achiote and anise to wool and wormwood, empower the spellcaster in some way, though limited in each case. The Player Character can buy multiple catalysts at a time, but on the downside, each catalyst takes up a gear slot and can be expensive. For example, it might only cost five silver pieces to purchase the olives for the Magic Missile catalyst, but the silk for the Passwall catalyst is eighty-five gold! Thus this option is not necessarily going to overpower a game, especially if the cost and encumbrance rules are applied, but when it counts, it will give the caster that little bit more of an edge.
Physically, like its forebear, the GM Companion for ShadowDark, the Player Companion for ShadowDark is a decent looking book. The layout is clean and tidy, the artwork is decent, and the book is well written.
Where the GM Companion for ShadowDark is a really useful book for ShadowDark and definitely a book that the Game Master for ShadowDark should have, the Player Companion for ShadowDark is not. This is not to say that none of its content is useful, but rather to say that its content can be useful. The Player Companion for ShadowDark is very much a book that the Game Master will need to pack and choose from, rather than simply use wholesale. She needs to ask herself if she wants every one of its Ancestries and Classes in her game, especially since some of the Classes are really variations rather than whole new Classes. Of course, she can simply decide what she wants for her own setting, but including all of them can lead to too much choice. The rest of the book—the adventuring gear, the arms and armour, the poisons, and the spell catalysts—all add a lot of detail, and whilst well done, again, the Game Master has to ask herself if she wants that degree of detail in her game. There is some useful and interesting content in its pages, but ultimately, the Player Companion for ShadowDark is about choice and giving options, more so for the Game Master than its title suggests.

The skies darken as the storm clouds gather and the winds begin to whirl. The Tarrantula is caught in a hurricane and as her pirate crew tries to ride out the worst of the storm, up and down the swells as tall as her masts, a wicked galleon bears down upon her. A ship with hull of bones and torn black sails, flames roaring from the eyes of the skulls mounted on her aft, and then there is her crew. Black skeletons. They leap upon the crew of The Tarrantula and as battle swirls across her deck, one of the crew screams out, “Land!”. This is the beginning of Buried in the Bahamas: An Introductory Adventure for Pirate Borg. Specifically, it is designed to serve as an introductory adventure for not just for the players, but also the Game Master, one that can be run as the beginning of an ongoing campaign or as one-shot scenario that can be shortened to run as a one-shot, suitable for convention play. It begins with a linear introduction that will introduce the players and their characters to the setting and the rules—including how combat and the Devil’s Luck work—before throwing ashore and into a situation where they have more freedom of action. With this agency, they can sail the seas of the Dark Caribbean, fight zombies and sharks, and go in search of treasure!

Buried in the Bahamas: An Introductory Adventure for Pirate Borg is published by Limithron. As an adventure for Pirate Borg, it takes place in the Dark Caribbean, a sea of tropical islands marked with European towns and fortresses and ruins of civilisations long gone, of shipwrecks with rich cargoes and even richer treasures, and of the Scourge. The Scourge made the dead walk once again, ghosts return to haunt the living, and monsters lurk ready to smash the foothold that the Europeans have established in the region. The governors and the viceroys, representatives of kings and queens, have forced to adapt and rule with no contact from home following the Scourge and even take advantage of the situation, especially since the discovery of abilities and addictive nature of ASH, the ash of the burned and ground undead.

Buried in the Bahamas: An Introductory Adventure for Pirate Borg is based upon Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance style roleplaying game designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and also published by Free League Publishing. As an introductory scenario, it presents the Game Master and her players with a simple set-up and outlines the step-by-step process that will take everyone from an introduction to Pirate Borg and the Dark Caribbean through character creation and into the game and the scenario. This is intentionally tight at the beginning, with a battle scene that begins en media res and so throws them into the action, enables the players to establish their characters and get used to the rules, but as the scenario progresses, it opens up and the players and their characters have greater freedom of action.

The layout of Buried in the Bahamas is also designed with this in mind. The initial battle scene is all presented on a double page spread, including its set-up, guidance for the Game Master, what the players and their characters have to do, and the monsters and NPCs detailed the margins. The next scene is laid out in similar fashion, but presents more options in terms of what the Player Characters can do on the island they have been shipwrecked on. The island is tiny, but there is still room to explore and direct the other survivors, whether that is to build shelter or a raft to get off the island. What will drive the Player Characters to leave the island is not just survival, but the treasure map they were handed by the late captain of The Tarantula.

It is possession of this treasure map that will drive the second half of the scenario, pushing the Player Characters to sail to the other two islands nearby where the entrance to the cave where the treasure is hidden may be found. These islands are larger and far more detailed, enabling the Player Characters to spend time in a shanty town, dive on a wreck, and explore zombie-infested ruins. Ultimately, the Player Characters will discover the entrance to the Cave of Seven Skulls where the treasure has been hidden. The cave leads to a tomb complex, one that the Player Characters will have an advantage in exploring if their backgrounds are academic, archaeological, or linguistic in nature, but even so, this is a potentially deadly complex, but the rewards are high in terms of both coin and magic.

The Game Master can run Buried in the Bahamas as written and it will provide multiple sessions’ worth of play and potentially, lead into a longer campaign. Alternatively, the middle section of the scenario, where the Player Characters explore the larger of three islands in the scenario as a mini-hexcrawl, can be cut and the scenario run in fewer sessions, or even a single session. Throughout the scenario, there is advice for the Game Master and references to the core rules for Pirate Borg. The advice for the Game Master is stronger at the start of the scenario and that is appropriate, since this start is designed to ease both her and her players and their characters into the setting and the game.

Physically, Buried in the Bahamas is very well laid out. Almost everything is clearly presented and easy to read. The thing that is not, is the actual advice for the Game Master as it is given in a pale grey text on a white background making it difficult to read. Otherwise, the maps for the scenario are all nicely done and the artwork is reasonable.

Experienced players will enjoy it and get into its set-up and play faster, but Buried in the Bahamas: An Introductory Adventure for Pirate Borg is a really good beginning scenario for Pirate Borg. It is not only flexible in how it is used, but it effectively helps the Game Master guide her players into the world of the Dark Caribbean and the play of Pirate Borg.

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?An Arthurian Gaggle of NPCs is a supplement for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition.

It is a full colour, eighteen page, 1.23 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy.
Where is the Quest Set?An Arthurian Gaggle of NPCs is a supplement for Pendragon, Sixth Edition. It is a collection of NPCs complete with between three and six adventure hooks that the Game Master can develop into full blown encounters and longer term content for for her campaign.
Who should go on this Quest?
Any type of Player-knight can go on this quest.
What does the Quest require?
An Arthurian Gaggle of NPCs requires the Pendragon, Sixth Edition Core Rulebook and the Pendragon: Gamemaster’s Handbook.
Where will the Quest take the Knights?
An Arthurian Gaggle of NPCs presents fourteen NPCs for Pendragon, Sixth Edition, each of whom can be used in a variety of ways and developed from a single encounter into a longer storyline. Each is simply presented on a single page with their background, anywhere between three and six story hooks, and a stat block. Some are name, others are presented as generic figures that the Game Master can easily adapt to her campaign. For example, ‘The Vengeful Squire’ is unnamed and can be former or current squire who could be spreading rumours about the Player-knight, accuses him of crimes—whether true or not, sowing discontent amongst his fellow squires, or even attempting to seduce the Player-knight’s spouse! Whereas ‘Sir Malcolm de Deux Visages’ is a knight well known and popular because he supports good causes, the church, and sponsors the knighthood of worthy squires. In private though, he is an entirely different character, cruel, greedy, and ambitious. He might persuade the Player-knights to do his bidding based on his reputation, plot to discredit a Player-knight to take possession of his land, and so on. As the entry notes, Sir Malcom’s reputation makes him a good recurring villain.
Many of the entries are magical in nature. For example, ‘Glutoniére, the Knight Giant’ details a French giant who after facing and defeating so many knights sent to kill him has developed a fascination with chivalry and comes to England to investigate and attempt to become a knight! The hooks suggest that he might develop an ardour for a young lady—much to the family’s dismay, actually ask to serve a Play-knight as his lord or squire, and more. The gender-flexible ‘The Knight of the White Hare’ might taunt and trick the Player-knights and ‘Pegleg, the Wooden Horse’ really is a wooden horse, but one who will serve the worthiest of the Player-knights until he returns to the fairy land of Gwneuthurwr Ceffylau!
Should the Knights ride out on this Quest?An Arthurian Gaggle of NPCs is both a useful and an enjoyable supplement, providing the Game Master with a range of interesting NPCs that will add colour and flavour to her campaign. Many of their accompanying hooks are simple enough that the Game Master can easily prepare a quick encounter, whether to foreshadow later events or simply run something in the here and now when there are fewer players available or between longer scenarios.

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: Plus UltraPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Michał Pietrzak

Setting: Hispaniola, 1665Product: Scenario
What You Get: Twelve page, 499.59 KB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Zombies of the CaribbeanPlot Hook: “This town (Town)Is coming like a ghost town”– ‘Ghost Town’, The SpecialsPlot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, five NPCs, and some zombiesProduction Values: Plain
Pros# Unwinnable war against a warlock can turn into a time chase
# Decent pre-generated Investigators# Kinemortophobia# Necrophobia# Chronophobia
Cons# Unwinnable war against a warlock can turn into a time chase

Conclusion# An experience in horror before the Investigators have the chance to put the knife in# Can be the end of the world if the Investigators do not get the hint

Your rival killed your favourite pet when all you wanted was a quiet life. Your daughter—or even the President’s daughter—has been kidnapped. Terrorists have occupied the New York Stock Exchange and are threatening to blow it up when in reality they are raiding the markets. A train has to keep going because if it drops below a certain speed, bombs will detonate the dangerous chemicals it is transporting. A secret cabal plot against you as you try to uncover hidden truths that will reveal the real history of your nation. A team of superspecialists sets out to pull off the heist of a century by stealing from the wealthiest casino in Macau. A madman holds Chicago hostage with a nuclear bomb. A supervillain threatens world domination with an array of space lasers, supposedly put in orbit to protect against asteroids, but now turned inwards. Any of these hooks could be and possibly have been the plot of an action movie, a film that focuses on fast storylines, furious action, astounding stunts, and incredible tension to deliver a great cinematic experience with a tub of popcorn and a bucket of soda thrown in. They could also be the storylines for any scenario for Outgunned, the cinematic action roleplaying game inspired by the classic action films of the past sixty years—Die Hard, John Wick, Goldfinger, Kingsman, Ocean’s Eleven, Hot Fuzz, Lethal Weapon, and John Wick.

Outgunned: Cinematic Action Roleplaying Game continues the wave of Italian roleplaying games reaching the English-speaking market and is now reaching a wider audience thanks to being published by Free League Publishing. Originally published by Two Little Mice following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Outgunned is the roleplaying game of eighties action films which won the Silver Ennie for Best Game and Silver Ennie for Product of the Year in 2024. It is designed to do three things. First, to handle a variety of different action films, from chases and heists to Spy-Fi and hostage situations. Second, to help deliver short action-packed sessions, tending towards one-shots or ‘Shots’, and in keeping with the genre, sequels. Third, to play fast and easy—Outgunned only uses six-sided dice—and to encourage action, so that whilst the Heroes will constantly face terrible odds and be hounded by enemies from start to finish, the game mechanics favour success, with failure only a setback, a chance for the Heroes to take a breath, and come back to put the villain’s chief lieutenant down, the villain himself in handcuffs, and save the day, if not the world.

In keeping with the genre, there is a certain snappiness to Outgunned. It wants to get the players and the Director to the play as quickly as possible, so it quickly defines what its themes are, where and when the roleplaying game is set, and what its core tenets are. The themes are ‘Doing the right thing’, ‘Alone against all’, ‘Spirit of sacrifice’, ‘Revenge and forgiveness’, ‘Friends as your real family’, and ‘The broken system’, and whilst Outgunned takes its inspiration from a wide variety of action films, it is set somewhen between the eighties and the early noughties, in a world that looks exactly like own, but a whole lot cooler and in surround sound. The roleplaying game’s pillars of action are that ‘Action never stops’, ‘Like at the movies’, and ‘You don’t know everything’, whilst as a Real Hero, a Player Character is ‘Someone with a mission’, will ‘Live dangerously’, and is ‘One of the good guys’. If the Director and the players are fans of action films—and obviously, for Outgunned, they should be—most of this will be familiar, but the roleplaying game distils it all down into the core essence of the genre and makes it easy to grasp.

A Player Character or Hero in Outgunned is defined by a Role and a Trope, Attributes, Skills, and Feats. The Role of which there are ten—the Commando, Fighter, Ace, Agent, Face, Nobody, Brain, Sleuth, Criminal, and Spy—defines what the Hero’s job is or was, gives him a choice of Catchphrases (the use of which can earn a Hero points of ‘Spotlight’) and Flaws, set points to assign to Attributes and Skills, and some Feats and Gear to choose from. Every Role is given a two-page spread that includes a list of the films where that Role has appeared. Tropes represent an archetype, such as ‘Bad to the Bone’, ‘Jerk with a Heart of Gold’, or ‘Vigilante’, and provide more points to assign to Attributes and Skills, plus a Feat to choose. The five Attributes are Brawn, Nerves, Smooth, Focus, and Crime and they are rated between one and three as the roleplaying game’s skills. Lastly, Feats typically allow a player to reroll his dice under a certain situation, but can have other effects such as giving a Hero more Cash or having useful Contacts, and some may take effect immediately or require a whole turn of game play. Some also require a player to expend Adrenaline.

To create a Hero, a player simply selects a Role and a Trope. From these, he assigns the points to Attributes and Skills as directed, and chooses Feats, Catchphrases, Gear, and so on. He also receives two extra points to assign to Skills. The process is quick and easy, and adjustments can also be made for age too.

Name: Ottilie Harsholm
Role: The Brain Trope: Neurotic Geek
Age: Adult
Catchphrase: “Have I ever been wrong before?”
Flaw: “Without my glasses, I am nearly blind.”
Brawn 2: Endure 1 Fight 3 Force 1 Stunt 1
Nerves 2: Cool 2 Drive 3 Shoot 1 Survival 1
Smooth 2: Flirt 1 Leadership 2 Speech 3 Style 1
Focus 3: Detect 3 Fix 3 Heal 2 Know 3
Crime 3: Awareness 2 Dexterity 3 Stealth 3 Streetwise 1

Feats: Hacker, Intuition, Outsmart
Gear: Portable Computer, notebook, pencil

Mechanically, Outgunned is player-facing, so the Director never has to roll and uses what it calls the ‘Director’s Cut’. At its core, it plays a little like Yahtzee, but from there it very quickly escalates both the action and the urgency. What a player is trying to roll is matches on a pool of six-sided dice, which can be numbers if standard dice or symbols if using the Outgunned dice. The base number of dice is equal to an Attribute plus a Skill, but can be modified by gear and any Conditions that a Hero might have suffered. Most rolls will be Action Rolls, made when a player wants his Hero to act, whilst Reaction rolls are made to avoid a bad situation. A player is free to choose the Attribute and Skill he wants to combine for an Action roll, but the Director dictates them for a Reaction roll.

The difficulty for any task is the number of matches required. ‘Basic’ difficulty requires two matches, ‘Critical’ difficulty requires three matches, ‘Extreme’ difficulty requires four matches, and ‘Impossible’ difficulty requires five matches. Better results than those required can give better outcomes, primarily in gaining extra actions, but if a player rolls six or more matches, then his Hero has hit the ‘Jackpot!’ and he gets to be the Director and narrate how amazing his Hero is. A player only needs to roll the dice when it matters and, in most situations, the difficulty is ‘Critical’. This is the standard roll, but beyond this, the ‘Director’s Cut’ escalates the difficulty that a player and his Hero has to overcome mechanically to reflect the challenge that the Hero has to overcome in the story. It also escalates the consequences.

In Outgunned there is no failure, only the consequences of a temporary setback. In general, a Hero should fail with style, whether that is to ‘Roll with the Punches’, ‘Pay the Price’, or ‘Take the Hard Road’. In the next step up, the difficulty can be doubled, requiring the player to roll two sets of matches to fully succeed. If he manages to roll only one of the matches, he will be unable to avoid one of the consequences. However, if the situation and the roll is classed as ‘Dangerous’, then the consequences are that the Hero loses points of Grit, the equivalent of Hit Points in Outgunned. The greater the difficulty of the failed roll, the greater the loss of Grit. It is possible to do Damage Control to reduce the loss of Grit, but every Hero has twelve boxes for Grit on his character sheet. When the eighth box—the ‘Bad Box’—is filled in, the Hero gains a Condition and when the ‘Hot Box’, the last box, is filled in, Hero gains two Adrenaline. Losing all of his Grit puts a Hero on the Death Roulette, ‘spinning’ and rolling against it, on a failure causing him to be ‘Left for Dead’ and on a success, getting back up, but loading up the Death Roulette with another lethal round and making it difficult to survive next time. A Hero can come back after being ‘Left for Dead’, but with a scar and a preposterous story of his survival, and then only at the appropriate point in the storyline. Grit is recovered through rest or when the Hero is allowed to ‘Catch a Break’ or ‘After a Shot’.

Beyond Dangerous rolls, when a Hero’s life or the situation is on the line, a roll can be a ‘Gamble’. For each one rolled after the last roll, the Hero loses a point of Grit.

Of course, the audience of an action film really wants to see the Hero succeed and so does Outgunned. If a player rolls at least one Basic match and needs more, he can reroll any dice that did not match. If this fails, one of the previously rolled matches is lost. Many Feats grant a free reroll which does not carry this penalty. Either way, the player is encouraged to reroll because it increases the chances of his Hero succeeding. Lastly, if a player still does not have enough matches or the right sort of matches, he can go ‘All In’ and reroll any other dice not part of a match. However, this carries with it the risk of losing all of the matches rolled if the result does not improve the player’s roll and this is discouraged as an act of desperation.

A Hero also has Adrenalin. For one Adrenalin, a player can add a single die to a roll or activate a particular Feat, and for a total of six Adrenalin, gain the Spotlight. Adrenaline can be regained for essentially good play. A Hero can hold three Spotlights, which can be spent to gain an Extreme Success, to save a friend who is on the Death Roulette, remove a Condition, save a Ride—a vehicle of any kind, about to be destroyed, and so on. A Hero can gain a Spotlight with the appropriate use of his Catchphrase or Flaw, and can keep a spent Spotlight with the flip of a coin.

Combat uses these mechanics, but since the Director never rolls in Outgunned, alternates back and forth between the Heroes’ Action Turn and the Heroes’ Reaction Turn. In an Action Turn, the Hero takes a full Action Roll and a Quick Action, such as reloading, whilst in the Reaction Turn all rolls are ‘Dangerous’ rolls. Extra successes work as a counter and inflict Grit loss on the Enemy. Brawls and gunfights are covered in a surprisingly speedy fashion, as is Gear and Cash which are kept simple, and in the case of Cash, abstract.

Enemies are divided into three types—Goons, Bad Guys, and Bosses, to which a Director can add a Template and Feats. Enemies are simply defined. Goons require a ‘Basic’ success to hit and defend against; Bad Guys require a ‘Critical’ success to hit and defend against; and Bosses require a ‘Critical’ or an ‘Extreme’ success to hit and defend against. All just have Grit and not the Death Roulette that each Hero has. Each Enemy Type is given five Templates to apply, so Template 1 for the Bad Guys might be armed hooligans, two well-trained agents, or a large guard dog, whilst Template 5 is a team of ninja, the perfect shot assassin, or a pair of big bruisers. Goons might have only a single Feat, but Bad Guys and Bosses get a lot more. Feats might be ‘Automatic Weapons’, ‘Mob’, ‘Armoured’, ‘Shotguns’, ‘Flamethrower’, ‘Rage’, and more. In addition, some Enemies can have a Weak Spot, and can also be the environment as much as the actual Enemy. For example, an unsafe structure nearby that a Hero can knock over on an Enemy to inflict damage or the Enemy can be drawn into a trap, enabling all of the Heroes to skip their next Reaction Turn.

Chases use the same alternating Action Turn and Reaction Turn as combat. This plays out over a Need Track, between six and eighteen boxes in length, and represents what the Heroes want to get out of the Chase, whether to flee from an Enemy or to chase after them. The Heroes’ Ride will have a Speed of between zero and three, but it can be increased through the Heroes’ actions and decreased by the Enemies actions. At the end of the Action Turn, the Need Track is filled in with the current Speed, but if it is not yet completely filled in, the Reaction Turn occurs, and so on. As with combat, the ‘Director’s Cut’ includes plenty of ways in which the Director can make a chase more challenging.

For the Director, there is advice on running Outgunned and creating content to run. This focuses on the structure around an ‘Establishing Shot’, a ‘Turning Point’, and a ‘Showdown’, and what aspects of the game are triggered within each. For example, the Villain cannot be defeated until the ‘Showdown’ and prior to that, rolls against the Villain carry a penalty and Spotlight cannot be used to thwart a Villain. There is decent advice on how to define both the villain, including his weak spot, and supporting characters, and there is also a tool given for the Director to track the tension over the course of a mission. This is Heat, which starts at a level equal to the number of Heroes and can rise as high as twelve. It will go up at the ‘Turning Point’ and the ‘Showdown’, when a Hero is ‘Left for Dead’, the Heroes suffer a stinging defeat, and so on. As it rises, it complicates the Heroes’ progress by adding a Lethal Bullet to their Death Roulettes, giving Enemies another Feat, and then adding another Lethal Bullet to their Death Roulettes as well as granting them a point of Adrenalin. The Director can also use the Heat Track to trigger events in her campaign.

It is in the middle of this advice that the players and their Heroes are given another resource beyond Adrenalin and Spotlight—and it is the most powerful. ‘Plan B’ is a group resource and comes in three types. These are ‘Bullet’, ‘Backup’, and ‘Bluff’. Each can only be used once in the whole of a campaign and only one can be used per session. Each is really powerful and gives the Heroes an immediate advantage that will get them out of the dire situation they find themselves in. It seems odd to have this at the back of the book where the players are not going to find it and the Director definitely has to tell them about it. In addition, there is advice on running heists, the Heroes creating a Master Plan that they can attempt to follow, and the Director can react to. This is the most specific advice that Outgunned gives about a type of plot.

However, the advice is broad, and it talks about campaigns rather than individual missions. The advice can be applied to individual missions, but a Director looking for advice on how to create her own missions is going to be disappointed. There is not any real analysis of the genre that she can take and adapt to create her own content, the assumption being that both Director and players will have watched and studied a lot of eighties and nineties action films. Some plot breakdowns and some analysis would really have bolstered the advice the Director and overall, what is given, especially with its focus on campaign, is underwhelming.

As well as a filmography and all of the roleplaying game’s forms, the section for the Director ends with a sample scenario. This is ‘Race Against Time’ is the ‘Introductory Shot’ involving a hunt for a MacGuffin which involves lots of fights, a chase, and an exploding aeroplane! It is an entertaining affair that can be played through in a single session and there is actually some good advice, suggesting manoeuvres that the Heroes might take in the various situations they find themselves in throughout the scenario, given in the margins alongside the main plot. The scenario is intended as a lead into Project Medusa, which is fine, but what is not fine is that the scenario is included in Outgunned – Hero to Zero, which might leave the Director without anything to run from the core book for the roleplaying game if she has run the quick-start.

Physically, Outgunned is a good looking book. The artwork is excellent and the layout clean and tidy, and easy to read.

Outgunned is a book and roleplaying game that makes you want to play or run an action movie by presenting easy to grasp character archetypes and at its core, a very basic dice mechanic that is backed up by ways to avoid having the Heroes fail. In this way, it emulates its genre. However, it complicates things by making rolls more complex as the stakes grow higher—not too more complex, but just that bit more complex—so that it ratchets up the mechanical demands in time with the tension. This too, emulates its genre, but does slow game play down, if only a little, at that time of tension. Where Outgunned truly disappoints is in the lack of analysis of the genre which would have helped inform the Director and the underwhelming advice for the Director which could have been better in helping her create and run Shots rather than focusing on campaigns.

For the Director and her players who know their eighties and nineties action movies, Outgunned: Cinematic Action Roleplaying Game delivers on what it promises—the means to run intense and action-packed stories of cinematic thrills and spills.

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—Autoduel Quarterly was Steve Jackson Games’ quarterly magazine dedicated to Car Wars, the publisher’s game of vehicular combat in a future America. Specifically, fifty years into the future after fossil fuels had been severely depleted forcing a switch to electric engines and a worldwide grain blight triggered a limited nuclear exchange that the world survived, but in the USA forced a partial collapse and fortification of towns and cities due to raiders and bandits. The USA’s armed society went from personal arms to vehicular arms as protection on the road and autoduelling is not only legalised, but organised into a sport of its own. Car Wars was a skirmish wargame in which each player could control one or more cars, pickups, vans, and motorcycles, and battle each other in arenas or on the road. Every vehicle was detailed with a chassis, suspension, wheels, engine, armour, armament, and other devices. Common weapons include machine guns, flamethrowers, and minedroppers. The appeal was not only the fact that every player was effectively driving a car armed with a machine gun, but that they could design the vehicles themselves and test them out as well as use the standard designs in the game. Inspired by Alan Dean Foster’s short story, ‘Why Johnny Can't Speed’, and Harlan Ellison’s short story, ‘Along the Scenic Route’, as well as the films Death Race 2000 and later Mad Max 2, Car Wars proved to be popular and award-winning, receiving the Charles S. Roberts Award (Origins Award) for Best Science Fiction Boardgame of 1981 and being included in the Games Magazine Games 100 list in 1985. Initial support for Car Wars appeared in the pages of The Space Gamer, also published by Steve Jackson Games, adding further vehicle designs, new rules, scenarios, and expanded background.

Autoduel Quarterly Vol. 1, No. 1 was published in March, 1983. The conceit was that it was also ‘The Journal of the American Autoduel Association’ and was actually the Spring, 2033 issue. What this meant was there was a duality to the magazine, one that continued throughout its forty issues, in that the authors were writing about a game being published in the eighties, but writing for a game set in the thirties of the next century. This was particularly obvious in the adverts, most notably for ‘Uncle Albert’s Auto Stop & Gunnery Shop’ which combined advertising pitches for the latest arms, armour, ammunition, and equipment which would sell the product to the reader with Car Wars stats underneath. ‘Uncle Albert’s Auto Stop & Gunnery Shop’ was a regular feature of the magazine and its content would be collected in six ‘Uncle Albert’s Auto Stop & Gunnery Shop’ yearly catalogues. The same was done with new vehicle designs, providing in-game advertising from the manufacturer and then the game stats. For Autoduel Quarterly Vol. 1, No. 1, these vehicles are The Morningstar from Rothschild Auto Works, a luxury automobile with turreted laser and rear minedropper as well as patented Velvet Glove trimmings, and the Conquistador Flamenco, a Mexican compact with a forward-firing machine gun and a rear Artful Dodger flaming oil jet. (Even miniatures manufacturer, Grenadier Models, Incorporated gets in on the act, if just a little, with an advert for its line of licensed Car Wars miniatures as coming from Grenadier Motors.)
The issue opens with an introduction from publisher Steve Jackson, promising that the Autoduel Quarterly would be as much a quarterly supplement for Car Wars as it would be a magazine, but that elements of the latter, such as editorials, (real-world) adverts, columns, and so on, would be kept to minimum versus the actual support for the game. This the issue manages, and it would be something that Autoduel Quarterly continued to manage fairly effectively throughout its run. ‘The Driver’s Seat’, David Ladyman’s editorial has a tentative quality, highlighting some of the content for the issue, but as much looking back to some of the support for Car Wars in the pages of The Space Gamer and forward in a request for submissions and ideas that would develop the setting of Car Wars in the twenty-thirties.
‘Newswatch’ provides a snapshot of some of the history of the future that is Car Wars, in the first issue quite broad, but in later issues it would focus on particular aspects of the setting. ‘50 Years Today’ presented snippets of news stories from 1983 as if they were being viewed from 2033 and include reports from Army magazine that the U.S. Army is purchasing fast attack vehicles from the Emerson Electric Company and a report from the Austin American-Statesman that fights, assaults, and shootings on Houston’s freeways were up 400% in under a year!
‘Excerpts from NORTH AMERICAN ROAD ATLAS AND SURVIVAL GUIDE, 3rd Edition’ describes various locations around the USA in the 2030s, giving their history and current state, describing various facilities, organisations, and hazards. In this first issue, written by Aaron Allston, the location is Midville, Ohio. This small town is the default setting for Car Wars, highlighted in the first expansion for the game, Sunday Drivers, which pitched the pedestrians, law enforcement, and autoduellists of Midville against attacking motorcycle gangs. This neatly summarises the town and the immediate region, giving an area in which to set Car Wars sessions, especially in conjunction with Sunday Drivers, and add background details that can set up storylines and reasons to duel.
The big feature in Autoduel Quarterly Vol. 1, No. 1, taking up almost half of its content at over fifteen pages long, is ‘Convoy’ by Steve Jackson and David Ladyman. This is a scenario, subsequently published on its own as Convoy which sees a team of duellists hired to guard a tanker carrying disease-resistant algae from Lexington, Kentucky to Memphis, Tennessee whose algae farms have been infected by a mutant bacterium, leaving the city on the verge of starvation. ConTexCo is providing the truck and paying well, but the duellists only have thirteen hours to get their charge to Memphis, and they will lose part of their fee if they are late, or the truck is damaged. ConTexCo also want the situation kept secret as it does not want it widely known that Memphis has come this close to starvation. ‘Convoy’ can be played by between one and eight players, plus a Referee, though between three and six players are recommended and each is given a budget in which to buy or build a vehicle. (It could even be played solo without a Referee, an option given in the published book.) In addition to Car Wars, a group will need a copy of Car Wars and ideally, a copy of the then newly published Truck Stop, which added trucks to the game and was only the game’s second supplement. That said, Truck Stop is not required to play and a counter for the ConTexCo truck is given on the back cover of the magazine for the Game Master to copy. However, using Truck Stop adds a lot of detail and mechanical options to the play of the scenario.
‘Convoy’ is a programmed scenario, the players’ duellists driving from Lexington down the Bluegrass Parkway and onto I65 and I40 to get to Memphis. Along the way, they will need to stop at truck stops—points of safety and respite along the way—to recharge their engines, and whilst this happening they have the opportunity to interact with the locals and other travellers and perhaps pick up some rumours about the route ahead. The main play will be with the ten encounters along the route, one after the other, some benign, others aggressive, which the players can get through with a mixture of good roleplaying and combat. In fact, the players are advised that fighting at every turn will slow them down and thus reduce their fee. The encounters do escalate in hostility, including a nasty driving challenge against a clever paint spray trap.
‘Convoy’ is a detailed, but very enjoyable scenario. It challenges the players’ judgement—as is in what is and is not a threat—and skill and luck in combat, but there is potential for roleplaying too. Of course, it also serves as an advert and showcase for Truck Stop, but it is nice touch that the scenario can be run without the supplement.
‘Creating a New Character’, also by David Ladyman and Steve Jackson expands on the roleplaying aspects of Car Wars, which are very light. It looks at the five skills of the game for characters—Driver, Cyclist, Gunner, Trucker, and Mechanic—and explains their levels and what they mean. In particular, it expands on the Mechanic skill can do and the difficulty of repair jobs. Overall, a generally useful article.
Rounding out Autoduel Quarterly Vol. 1, No. 1 are two regular columns. One is ‘ADQ&A’, a questions and answers forum for players to ask and receive rules clarifications, whilst the other is ‘Backfire’, the letters column. The former would have been useful at the time and the latter is interesting enough.
Physically, Autoduel Quarterly Vol. 1, No. 1 is well presented. The artwork is good and the writing clear. The cartography is simple, but the vehicle layouts are slightly rough.
In 1983, Autoduel Quarterly Vol. 1, No. 1 would have provided welcome support for Car Wars, at a time when the game only had two supplements—Sunday Drivers and Truck Stop. The issue really is packed with useful content. The background to Midville, new equipment and vehicles, questions answered, so on. There is no fiction in this first issue, something that Autoduel Quarterly would become known for later (and has been since collected into a single volume, Autoduel Tales: The Fiction of Car Wars), but instead has the terrific scenario, ‘Convoy’. This is certainly a scenario that many, many Car Wars fans will have played over the years, and it appeared here first in the pages of Autoduel Quarterly Vol. 1, No. 1. Were it not for the fact that Convoy is available separately, Autoduel Quarterly Vol. 1, No. 1 would be worth revisiting for that alone, but this is a still good issue with a good mix of content that set a blueprint for the issues to come that it would stick to.

A monster lurks somewhere… Perhaps in the fetid, green mist-enshrouded Miasmarsh or on the stoney shoreline of the Shore of Lost Souls where tormented souls linger. A Hag, who may have captured a friend or whose domain needs to be mapped out for someone else. These might be the only reasons that the unwary, or the foolish, descend into the Domain of the Night Hag, search for her and face her minions before being unlucky enough to confront her or her sisters and face certain death. Perhaps it is better to flee, knowing that you are as wise as you are cowardly, but alive, or attempt to defeat her, foolishly and bravely. This is the story of the protagonist, the would-be hero, who delves deep in desperation into the realm of the Night Hag in Escape the Domain of the Night Hag.

Escape the Domain of the Night Hag is published by Uknite the Realm, best known for Samurai Goths of the Apocalypse. It is a solo roleplaying game, but it can also be played by up to three players without the need of a Game Master. It is a dark, grim roleplaying game of monster hunting and survival horror that uses what it calls the ‘Decksplorer System’ which requires a standard deck of playing cards, a token to represent the location of the characters, two six-sided dice, and as the roleplaying game puts it, “Misplaced hope that your efforts shall not be in vain…” Only the Spades suit and all of the Jacks and Kings from the other three suits are required to play. The numbered cards will represent the regions within the Hag’s Domain, the Ace card the start and exit point for the Player Character, whilst the Court cards will form the Encounter Deck, consisting of the Jacks and Kings, her Basic and Elite Minions respectively, and the Queen of Spades, the Hag herself.
A Player Character in Escape the Domain of the Night Hag is simply defined. He will have some Hit Points, a weapon, and an ability. The Ability can be either Evasion (better at escaping combat), Veteran (better at inflicting damage), and Blessed (better at withstanding damage inflicted by the Hag). He may also be wearing some armour and carrying some equipment. To create a character, a player rolls for all of these, but could also roll on the ‘Quickstart Characters’ table which gives more detailed—but not too detailed options.

Jerome
Hit Points: 6
Weapon: Hand Axe
Ability: Evasion
Armour: Mail (3)
Equipment: Torch

Mechanically, the dice are rolled when a player wants his character to undertake an action and then to generate an Encounter entering a new Region, and to search for Loot. Two six-sided dice are rolled, and each dice is counted. Rolls of three or less are Failures and rolls of four or more are Successes. Rolling two Failures will have bad consequences, which can be taking full damage in fight; failing to flee and taking half damage when fleeing to a neighbouring region; and drawing two Encounter cards when entering a Region. Rolling a Mixed Outcome—one Success and one Failure, would mean suffering and inflicting half damage in a fight; successfully fleeing, but having to roll on the Consequences table; and drawing one Encounter card. Two Successes means dealing full damage; fleeing without taking any damage; and drawing no Encounter cards, but rolling on the Loot table instead.

In addition, in a fight, armour does not protect absolutely. There is a chance that it will stop every point of damage, but there is also a chance that it will not or that it will not, plus the armour is also damaged itself to the point where it is useless. This is rolled for on a point-for-point basis. Typical attacks inflict either one-two, or three points of damage, so the rolling for armour protection is not too cumbersome.

The set-up for the play of Escape the Domain of the Night Hag involves shuffling the Region deck and laying out its cards in any connected fashion that the players want and then the Encounter Deck from which the players will draw the monsters that their characters will face. The players should also decide or roll for an objective. Four such objectives are suggested, meaning that the replay value of this admittedly small roleplaying game is limited.

In play, the Player Character (or Player Characters) starts on the Ace card and moves from one card to the next. The new Region card is turned over and its location noted (though it does not affect game play) and then a check is made to determine how many Domain cards are drawn from the Encounter deck. If the Player Character defeats the minions of the Hag or enters a Region without any of her minions, he can search for Loot. Most of the items found will be useful—weapons, healing elixirs, armour, and a Holy Symbol or a Clock that will grant the Player Character an ability like Blessed or Evasion.
The ultimate aim, of course, is to locate the Hag and defeat her. The effort to do so is gruelling, the mechanics rarely letting up or offering any respite, the player hoping that he is going to get lucky on the dice rolls, whether that is to defeat the minions, have his character’s armour withstand the blows, and perhaps find something useful when looking for loot.

Escape the Domain of the Night Hag is not about entering her domain as such, but about when to decide to run away, whether that is because the Player Character has been successful, or more likely, he is so hurt that he cannot continue. Unfortunately, it is all a bit mechanical and lacking. The nine Regions of the Hag’s Domain are named and described, but never come alive and have no effect on game play, so just remain spaces in which the Hag’s minions lurk, waiting for the arrival of the Player Character. There are no encounters with anything other than Hag or her minions, and so there is no variation in play except what type of minion the Player Character will be fighting. If a player was keeping a journal of his play through of Escape the Domain of the Night Hag, he would likely have to work a little harder to give it that bit more of a story. If played as a group, then the players might want to take it in turns to add some narration to give their play through some substance. That said, Escape the Domain of the Night Hag is not designed for extended play or multiple plays. It can be played through in an hour or so, and thus quickly set up again if the previous attempt failed.

Physically, Escape the Domain of the Night Hag is white and green text on a dark, almost black background in which things lurk and writhe in green. It is concisely written, so the player will need to read through it with a little care.
Escape the Domain of the Night Hag is more serviceable than engaging. Mechanically, it plays well, presenting a daunting challenge, but the world of the Night Hag is underwritten, and a player will need to work hard to bring it to life and imagine a story.

Bobugbubilz was not always Demon Lord of Amphibians. In aeons past, Schaphigroadaz was the Lord of Evil Amphibians, but when his followers, the Salientian Knot, grew fat and complacent on the sacrifices them made to him and the riches they gathered, part of the Croaking Despot’s congregation rebelled and rose up against the Salientian Knot, and even Schaphigroadaz himself. Instead, they worshipped the toadfiend, Bobugbubilz, one of Schaphigroadaz’s own spawn, and in one bloody year, they marched on the Croaking Despot’s temples and drowned anyone who refused to renounce Schaphigroadaz in his Spawning Pools and saturated his altars in their blood. Thus, the Toad War, little known outside of the obscure scrolls held by eccentric scholars and the most ancient of libraries, come to an end. Schaphigroadaz was forgotten and the Salientian Knot no more. Yet there were survivors, and they did go quietly into the swamps and marshes where they could hide their faith from the outside world and bide that time. Now that time has come, the stars are right, and the Salientian Knot is almost ready to strike at the followers of Bobugbubilz and take its revenge. The cultists of the Salientian Knot have immersed themselves in their Spawning Pools to bathe in the waning vestiges of Schaphigroadaz’s divinity and so emerge, transformed and powerful enough to be a threat not only to the worshippers of Bobugbubilz, but the world!

This is the set-up for Dungeon Crawl Classics #77: The Croaking Fane, the tenth scenario to be published by Goodman Games for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. Designed by Michael Curtis, this is designed for a group of six to eight Third Level Player Characters and is a highly thematic scenario. Designed by Michael Curtis, this is designed for a group of six to eight Third Level Player Characters and is a highly thematic scenario. The Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game draws heavily on the fiction listed as inspiration for E. Gary Gygax in the Appendix N of the Dungeon Master’s Guide for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, and this is no exception. In its batrachian theming, Dungeon Crawl Classics #77: The Croaking Fane draws on works of cosmic horror by authors such as H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, but it also draws upon Dungeons & Dragons itself. Such inspirations include the original scenario Temple of the Frog by Dave Arneson, but also Dave Cook’s I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City with its Bullywugs and even E. Gary Gygax’s D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Tuo with its fishmen. So, there is plenty of precedence for this scenario, but the author fully embraces it theme as everything seems to ooze, flop, croak, and slime in presenting a temple to a lost, anuran god!

The scenario requires some set-up. The simplest set-up is a trash and grab raid on the fane dedicated to Schaphigroadaz whilst his followers are weakened in their preparations, but there is a strong religious aspect to the scenario that if brought to the fore, casts the Player Characters as a theological strike team! Whatever the set-up, the Player Characters need to become aware of the Salientian Knot and their disappearance and dig around for more details of the obscure Toad War. A more direct way of learning about the situation is from the Player Characters’ Patrons who wish to end the threat of the Salientian Knot and its plans. The scenario suggests that is the case if any Player Character has Bobugbubilz as patron, which is possible since he is detailed in Dungeon Crawl Classics. Bobugbubilz will certainly direct such a Player Character to undertake such a mission for him or otherwise face grave consequences.

The dungeon is split into two levels. The upper level, the main temple, is really one big area, a church or temple area dedicated to Schaphigroadaz, built within a great rock that has been carved like a toad. It is full of so many details and elements that it has been broken down into multiple areas and descriptions. The first transept is dominated by a trickling fountain of scummy water that hides a rippling mass of ravenous flesh-eating tadpoles that will strip the flesh of any hand or limb dipped foolishly dipped into it. There is even a table for when this happens and what effects it will have. Drain the fountain—and this is possible—and the Player Characters might find a magical ring which offers some protection against the toads elsewhere in the temple. Moldering frescos depict the worship and the history of the worship of Schaphigroadaz; winged toad-goyles lurk in the walls, ready to vomit choking swamp water on any intruders; a triptych depicts the three earthly aspects of Schaphigroadaz—the Great Winged Toad, K’Tehe, the Destroyer, and Kroagguah, the Mother of Multitudes; and even a great toad statue with gems in each of its four eyes that echoes the cover of the original Player’s Handbook. There is a lot here for the Player Characters to explore and examine, even in this one giant space.

The lower area, the Undercroft is no less detailed, but it is different in tone and feel. It is split in two, one part the quarters for the priest and his staff, members of the Salientian Knot, who have since thrown themselves into the Spawning Pools of their Croaking Despot master, the other part the toad caverns, the breeding pool, and the spawning pool. If the focus in the Main Temple above is on exploration and examination, the focus in the Undercroft is on exploration and combat, apart that is, from an encounter with a member of the Salientian Knot, the scenario’s only roleplaying scene. He is loathsome and toadyishly unpleasant, wheedling with the Player Characters to follow him to the Spawning Pool where he happily throws himself in even though his fellow cultists considered him underserving of joining them in welcoming waters of Schaphigroadaz. The scenario will come to climax in the Undercroft, first against the mutated cultists, and then in a big fight against one of Schaphigroadaz’s servants who is very, very hungry. If the Player Characters manage to defeat this creature, and it is a tough fight, they will be rewarded with plenty of treasure.

However, the scenario does have a nasty afterbite—or rather three. One is immediate, in that the giant statue in the Main Temple will come to life and attack the Player Characters on their way out, whilst the other two have longer lasting effects. One is a curse, Schaphigroadaz’s Spoilation, which a Player Character might suffer from after touching the wrong thing and in need of a cure, turn to Bobugbubilz for help. This means that the Player Character will owe the Demon Lord of Amphibians a big favour. A version of Schaphigroadaz’s Spoilation is given at the back of the book as the spell, Plague of Toads, for the mutated Salientian Knot high priest to cast. The other is that any remnants of the Salientian Knot are going to be extremely angry with the Player Characters after they have sacked the fane.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics #77: The Croaking Fane is very well presented. The scenario is very nicely written, especially descriptive text intended to be read out to the players, whilst the artwork is good, with several pieces that the Judge can show to her players. There is only one handout, a depiction of the Spawning Pool. The scenario feels, though, as if it should have had more. The cartography is excellent.

If there is anything missing from Dungeon Crawl Classics #77: The Croaking Fane, it is more handouts showing off the great artwork in the scenario and perhaps details of Schaphigroadaz as a patron. The scenario is rife with details and objects which when the Player Characters touch and interact with, a Cleric will probably earn the disapproval of his patron. It would be interesting to explore the possibility of the Cleric falling from the worship of Bobugbubilz and into the alternative batrachian embrace of Schaphigroadaz.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #77: The Croaking Fane is a pulp fantasy adventure with a tinge of horror, one that will reward the players and their characters for careful, thoughtful play. It is not a big adventure, but it makes great use of its theme with its clammy and cloying, mucilaginous and moist atmosphere.

Flip 7 is a simple, push your luck card game. It is easy to learn and easy to teach and it plays fast. It also suitable for families, and if truth be told, it is really simple. Yet there is a tension to the game play that really can keep the players on the edge of their seat from one turn to the next. Published by The Op Games—responsible for the highly pleasurable Tacta—it is a designed for play by three to seven players, aged eight and up, and a game can be played though in roughly fifteen to twenty-five minutes. The aim of the game is to be the first person to score two hundred points. Points are scored based on the total value of the cards a player has in front of him. Each turn, a player receives a card from the Dealer and turns it over, adding it to the cards he has in front of him. If he receives a card with the same value as a card he already has, he is bust and out of the round, scoring nothing, but if a player receives seven cards that do not match, he scores a ‘Flip 7’, and is awarded bonus points.

Flip 7 comes in a bright and breezy box which contains just ninety-four cards and a rules leaflet. Eighty-one of these cards consist of numbers ranging from zero to twelve. The number of cards with each value is equal to value on the cards. Thus, there are ten cards marked with ten, seven cards marked with seven, three cards marked with three, and so on. The exception to this is, of course, the card marked with zero, of which there is just the one.

The other cards are Action cards and Modifier cards. There are three types of Action card. ‘Flip Three!’ forces a player accept and flip three more cards, whilst ‘Freeze!’ forces a player to end his participation in the round and bank the total score. When he receives a ‘Flip Three!’ or ‘Freeze!’ Action card, a player can play them on himself, but he can also play them on another player. A ‘Second Chance!’ Action card must be kept by the player who receives it and comes into play when he receives a duplicate value card, in which case both the ‘Second Chance!’ card and the duplicate value are discarded. A player can only use one ‘Second Chance!’ per round and if he receives a second, must give it to another player. The Modifier cards range in value from ‘+2’ to ‘+10’ and also include a ‘×2’ card. These do not count to the ‘Flip 7’ bonus, but will alter a player’s score for the round.

Set-up and play are simple. The cards are shuffled, and one person is designated the dealer, who in turn deals out a single card to each player and they place the cards in front of them or resolve any Action card. Each turn a player can decide to ‘Hit’ and receive another card or ‘Stay’ and not receive any further cards, ending his participation in the round. If a player receives a card whose value is equal to a card that he already he has, he is ‘bust’, which ends the round for him with no score. Play continues until all of the players have either gone ‘bust’ or decided to ‘Stay’, which ends the round. A round will end if a player achieves a ‘Flip 7’. The game continues until a player has scored two hundred points.

The risk and the push-your-luck aspect of Flip 7 lies in both the value of the cards and the number of them in the deck. Higher value cards score more points, of course, but there are more of them the higher the value, and thus there is a greater chance of a player receiving a duplicate card and being forced to go ‘bust’. So, a player wants the higher value cards for their scoring value, but is constantly wary of receiving duplicate cards and scoring no points at all. Conversely, the lower value cards will score fewer points, but there are fewer of them and the chance of a duplicate is lower. From the start of a round the player is aware of the number and values of the cards in the deck and as a round progresses, the cards his rival players have in front of them will also indicate how many cards there are left in the deck and what their values are going to be.

The tension between the desire to score points and the increasing possibility of going ‘bust’ and scoring no points is made that much more sharper because everyone can see what cards everyone else has in play. So, they can see how close they are to going ‘bust’ and feel that tension too. Is that player going to go ‘bust’ or is he going to be lucky and receive another card that pushes him one step further closer to a ‘Flip 7’? The luck of the draw can go the other way, of course, and a player might find himself going ‘bust’ after receiving just two or three cards! Further, as the rounds progress and the total scores rise, the tension also goes up as players attempt to catch up with their rivals—and the thing is, with the right cards and perhaps a Modifier card to two, it is entirely possible.

Physically, Flip 7 is nicely put together. The cards are big, bright, and easy to understand, whatever the age of the player. The rules are also clearly written and include scoring examples for the Modifier cards as well.

Flip 7 is really no more complex than Vingt-et-un or Blackjack, though of course, without the gambling aspect. It is a really simple game to play and understand, one that constantly asks a player to push his luck and wonder if another card is worth the risk. Flip 7 is a real filler of a game that just sometimes can be a real thriller of a game.

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.

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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.
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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.
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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.

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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.
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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.

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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.