Tournaments of Madness and Death is a scenario anthology for Crypts & Things: A Swords & Sorcery Roleplaying Game. Published by D101 Games, this is a grim and dark, Old School Renaissance retroclone which draws its inspiration from Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser by Fritz Leiber, and L. Sprague de Camp’s Swords and Sorcery anthology. Tournaments of Madness and Death presents two scenarios—almost an ‘A’ and a ‘B’ side, almost because you cannot turn the book over to run either—and more. Both scenarios are designed for a party of between three and six characters of between Fourth and Fifth Levels; both are self-contained, but can be added to a Game Master’s own Crypts & Things campaign, whether one of her design or the default setting of The Continent of Terror; and notably, also designed to be run at conventions.

In fact, this is an important aspect of the two scenarios in Tournaments of Madness and Death. As written, both ‘The Furnace’ and ‘The Tomb of the Evil Emperor’ are designed to be run—and have been run—within a four-hour convention game slot and both include information to that end as part of their advice on how to stage them. In addition, the ‘more’ to Tournaments of Madness and Death includes the equivalent of an insert, slipped between the two scenarios. This is ‘Dark, Delicious and Deadly’, which explains how the author runs Crypts & Things at conventions. This focuses on what makes Crypts & Things different, keeping up the pace—as necessary, rewarding exploration and interaction, how to handle the flow of monsters in the game (primarily, do not over do it), and how to structure the game over the four-hour convention window. It is really good advice for anyone running this style of game and so could be applied to any number of retroclones. If there is an issue with the advice, it is that the author does not quite completely adhere to it himself. The advice states that the Game Master should use pre-generated characters to give out to the players rather than have them create them at the table, which just takes time. So why are there none given for either scenario?

The ‘A’ side or ‘The Furnace’ takes the player characters to the City of Eternal Shadow under Iron Moon chained above and onto the Iron Moon itself. In ages past, the powerful ancient immortals known as the Nine pulled the moon from the heavens and used it to imprison for the evil tyrant, The Mad Tzar. Now, chunks are falling from the Iron Moon onto the city below and everyone is fleeing the city of the dead for fear that the demonic Mad Tzar is about to break free. Can he be prevented from escaping? Will the adventurers come to the aid of the White Wizard Arksal, the last of the Nine? The adventurers have scope for a little investigation in the city before finding their way onto the Iron Moon, though the scenario is very much not investigative in nature. There are secrets to be found in the city below however—and the scenario highlights these as one of the features of Crypts & Things—and these hint that there is something more to this straightforward prevention of The Mad Tzar’s rebirth.

Once on the Iron Moon, the adventurers find themselves in the prison crypt of The Mad Tzar. Like most tombs in most fantasy roleplaying games, it is essentially linear and full of traps and the odd puzzle. There are more secrets to be found, but the dungeon design is itself not terribly interesting. In fact, run as a standard adventure it might even be a bit dull, but run at the suggested pace of a convention game and the players are unlikely to notice. It works to throw a challenge or three into the path of the adventurers to get them to the scenario’s denouement. This is a whole lot more excitement and escalates the danger that the player characters will face as the climax builds and builds. It is a challenging, big knockdown of a fight ending to the scenario and exactly what you want in a convention scenario.

The ‘B’ Side, ‘The Tomb of the Evil Emperor’ brings the adventurers to the tomb of an emperor so vile his name has been intentionally forgotten from the history of the Continent of Terror. He and his city—now known as the Grand Debris—were smashed when a meteor was pulled down onto his palace, which then became his tomb. Now a cult dedicated to his worship, the Scarlet Riders, has smashed its way through the town of Zonos, the City of the Exiles which immediately abuts the walls surrounding the Grand Debris, and into the ruins beyond. There they plan to awaken the Evil Emperor to once again cast his vile rule over the land as in ages past.

This is a much stronger adventure. Although it is still direct in its structure, there is more for the player characters to explore, the encounters are varied, and there is greater scope for roleplaying and exploration. The locations, whether a dissolute court of a governor’s palace or the remains of the Evil Emperor’s Palace under a meteorite, are simply more interesting and the Game Master has a few more NPCs to portray. There is also a ghoulish sensibility to ‘The Tomb of the Evil Emperor’ and if played as part of a campaign, there are more elements to bring into the Game Master’s campaign.

The two scenarios in Tournaments of Madness and Death are similarly structured. Each consists of an introduction or hook, a small urban area for the player characters to explore and perhaps investigate, a connecting adventure section—either an actual dungeon or a dungeon-like area, and finally, a big battle at the end. These elements fit into the suggested timings for running as convention scenarios. They also each deal with the two subjects of the title. Madness in two ways. First in the madness of the locations, the Iron Moon chained over the City of Eternal Shadow of ‘Furnace’ and the palace and city smashed under a meteorite in ‘The Tomb of the Evil Emperor’, as well as in the madness of unleashing unrivalled evil upon the Continent of Terror. Then there is the death that will be unleashed should the player characters fail. That said, there is a sense of familiarity to the locations in both scenarios—a city under a moon and then a smaller city abutting the walls of a much larger, smashed and broken city—that echo elements and locations in Greg Stafford’s Glorantha.

Physically, Tournaments of Madness and Death is slightly disappointing. It definitely needs an edit. However, it is easy enough to read and the maps are quite lovely. The artwork is really rather good and has a weird, often creepy, feel to it, and so fits the grim dark tone of Crypts & Things.

Tournaments of Madness and Death is a solid pair of convention scenarios, accompanied by good advice for running them at such events. In fact, the advice is worth reading by anyone who wants to run a fantasy roleplaying scenario at a convention. Of the two scenarios, ‘The Tomb of the Evil Emperor’ is the better and one that would make a good addition to a campaign. 

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

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

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Name: The World of Necronomicon

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Marek Golonka
Setting: Any 

Product: Campaign set-up
What You Get: 5.82 MB twelve-page, full-colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Sometimes what you read sets you apart. 
Plot Hook: What if encounters with the strange confirmed what you read in The Necronomicon rather than The Necronomicon confirming what you encountered?
Plot Development: Like Lovecraft’s protagonists, investigators know the content of the forbidden The Necronomicon from the start, their studies altering their perception of reality to be able to see what the blasphemous tome alludes to, emphasising its dread influence, and bringing Lovecraftian investigative roleplay closer to Lovecraft’s narrative.
Plot Support: Discussions of Investigator back stories, locations of The Necronomicons, first revelations, adventure seeds, and some mistranslations.

Pros
# Sixth release in English for the ‘Zgrozy’ line
# Works in any period which has The Necronomicon 
# The horror comes pre-loaded
# Closer to Lovecraft’s narrative structure
# Player knowledge becomes investigator knowledge?
# Ties into The Necronomicon description in the Keeper Rulebook
# For both player and Keeper
# Good roleplaying potential# Prequel potential?
# Makes the Investigators themselves weird and ‘special’
# Possible Investigator organisation?

Cons# Sets players and Investigators up with too much information?
# Needs a better edit
# No specific example of it being used with a published scenario
# Increases the Keeper’s workload at the table

Conclusion
# Interesting alternative campaign framework
# Possible Investigator organisation

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

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Over the years, Dungeons & Dragons has returned again and again to face its tallest foe—the giants! Most recently Wizards of the Coast pitted adventurers against them in 2016’s Storm King’s Thunder, the sixth campaign for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, but their first appearance was in a trilogy of scenarios which began with G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief and continued with G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl and G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King. The three would subsequently be collected as G1-2-3 Against the Giants, which itself would form the first three parts of the campaign that would be collected in 1986 as GDQ1–7 Queen of the Spiders. In 1999, these three modules would be reprinted as part of the Dungeons & Dragons Silver Anniversary Collector’s Edition boxed set and more properly revisited in Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff. It would be followed in 2009 by Revenge of the Giants, the first ‘mega-adventure’ for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition, and then of course, in 2016 with Wizards of the Coast’s Storm King’s Thunder. For anyone interested in reading or running the series for themselves, G1-3 Against the Giants is available as a surprisingly inexpensive reprint.
Much of this history as well as critical response to both the individual dungeons and the collected G1-2-3 Against the Giants is detailed on Wikipedia. This is worth taking the time to read, so Reviews from R’lyeh recommends doing so before returning to this series of reviews. The ‘Giants Review’ series began with G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief and continues with G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl.
G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl is a direct sequel to G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief. In G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, the Player Characters were directed to investigate the recent attacks upon the  lands of the humans—nominally in the World of Greyhawk—by attacks by giants of various types. Against this unheard of occurrence the rulers of these lands hired the Player Characters to deal a lesson to the Hill Giants. In the course of the adventure, the party carried out a strike—and ‘strike’ is the right term—on the Hill Giant steading, because G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief is nothing more than a commando raid upon a ‘military’ base. As well as discovering the presence of other giants at a feast held in their honour, what the Player Characters also discover is the scenario’s singular link to G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl. It is both figuratively and actually a link, capable of transporting the party to the Glacial Rift of said second scenario. It is at this point that G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl begins.
Whether they have arrived via the device found at the end of G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief or via a map if coming to the adventure separate from the campaign, they find themselves standing at a rift which descends into a glacier. Beyond lies what is almost a mini-world of its own, an arctic, icy-fog-bound cavern round which an icy ledge runs off of which are openings after openings to smaller caverns. Of course, these caverns—nearly all of them ‘ice’ caverns—are still large, many of them either the workplace or quarters of, well, Frost Giants. So the Player Characters will encounter ice cavern after ice cave, seemingly many of them full of Frost Giants ready to grab rocks and lumps of ice and throw them at the intruding Player Characters. These are not the only occupants of the cavern complex. The Frost Giants are being visited by Hill Giants, Stone Giants, and Fire Giants as well as Ogre Magi. They also have a variety of servants, such as Ogres and Yetis, whilst in the lower level, there is a large, ancient White Dragon and his mate, which infamously is kept behind a boulder blocking a ten-foot wide tunnel! This is the ‘Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl’, home to a tribe of Frost Giants, who like Hill Giants, have been conducting raids upon the lands of the Humans.
The ‘Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl’ consists of just two levels, just like the Steading of the Hill Giant chief before it. The first level is funnel-like, initially directing the progress of the Player Characters down one side of the enormous central cavern and into the caverns and caves leading off, and perhaps into the depths of the cavern below. Eventually the Player Characters will be funneled into the second, lower level beyond the first. This is more linear in nature, taking the Player Characters into the quarters of tribe’s nobility as well as those of ‘Grugnur’, the Frost Giant Jarl himself—plus his “lady”, Grugni. Here the Player Characters will also encounter many of Jarl’s guests, mostly giants of other species, their presence building on the hints suggested at the banquet in the fortress of Hill Giant chief in G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief to suggest a wider conspiracy. As with G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, the Player Characters by the end of G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl will find clues and links that will point them towards or get them to King Snurre’s hall, as detailed in G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King.
G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl packs a lot of information and play into its eight pages—well, six pages really given that the equivalent of one page is devoted to a single illustration. Yet there is very much a sense of it being a second album, the difficult middle part of a trilogy, brilliant in parts, but for the most part, imperfect. On the plus side, there is a sense of scale and grandeur to the glacial rift. Not only is the glacial rift up a mountain, but is itself cavernous, with an enormous central cave off which high passages and caves lead, marking it all home to the all-too tall Frost Giants and others. There is also a rich atmosphere to the scenario, both meteorologically and tonally. Ice and snow is everywhere, light being chillingly cast through fog and snow, reflecting the light from the Player Characters’ torches, lanterns, and magic in a shimmering glow. Constant wind blows throughout, threatening to whip the Player Characters from the icy ledges and preventing them from using spells like Fly and Levitate. There is always an exploratory aspect to dungeon delving, but in G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl this is made Himalayan or Antarctic in nature, making the scenario a test of the Player Characters’ physical endurance as much a test of their logistical use of magic and spells.
In terms of tone, the scenario is written with the sense of Gygaxian naturalism as G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief—all of the monsters fit the environment (even the Remorhaz, which although capable of producing heat, is actually a Polar Worm) and the caves are rich with small details that add flavour and verisimilitude to the environment. Cave larders full of dead bodies hung as frozen food, great carvings worked into cavern walls depicting great battles, and the wealth of detail describing the richness of Grugnur’s quarters. There are also interesting treasures for the Player Characters to find, such as a +2 Giant Slayer bastard sword, a Ring of Wishes, and a Box of Holding. Curiously, the +2 Giant Slayer sword is given an Alignment, by default, Lawful Good, but lacks the Intelligence and Ego that such special swords would have in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition. The difference being explained by the fact that G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, like G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief and G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King before and after it, were written during the earliest days of the development of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition. The Ring of Wishes of course, gives the Player Characters an incredibly powerful magical item, whilst the Box of Holding seems overly presented, a trick box whose operation is given in precise details.
However, G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl is not without its problems. These stem, just as with G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, from its age and it being originally designed as a tournament adventure run at a convention. In this case, as part of the Origins Tournament in 1978. This explains its brevity and its emphasis on combat. Whilst there is a much greater exploratory aspect to the play through of G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl than there is to G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, the two share a similar lack of roleplaying opportunities for either the Dungeon Master or her players. These consist of a Storm Giantess who might enter an alliance with the Player Characters and four Human captives currently held ready for Frost Giant cooking pot. None of these NPCs are detailed and it is left up to the Dungeon Master to develop them herself, though any of the Humans could be developed into potential replacement Player Characters.
Another issue is the power level of the scenario. This is shown in the potency of the magical items to be found in the scenario, such as the Ring of Wishes and the +2 Giant Slayer bastard sword. It is also shown in the toughness of the opponents that the Player Characters will face—the numerous Frost Giants, their allies, and their ‘pets’, the White Dragons. It is recommended that the minimum Level of the Player Characters should be Sixth or Seventh, but ideally the optimum party should consist of nine characters who should average Ninth Level and be equipped with several magic items each. Even with Player Characters of such lofty Levels, there is a high chance that they will wander into the wrong section and get caught between two or more groups of the Frost Giants on guard and driven back under a hail of thrown rocks and chunks of ice. That said, the scenario does provide a safe point, a cave outside of the Glacial Rift to which the Player Characters can retreat and heal, rest up, and regain their spells. Of course, if the Player Characters are forced to retreat, the Frost Giants will undoubtedly be on their guard, even more prepared to withstand further invaders.
Of course, one stand-up fight after one stand-up is not necessarily how a playthrough of G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl will proceed. The Player Characters might work their way in so far, strike or be rebuffed, then retreat to the cave refuge outside of the Glacial Rift, and then reenter to attack again and again, until such times as they have made their way to its end. Alternatively, a particularly stealthy and careful party of Player Characters could actually make its way as far as the dungeon’s second level before encountering any meaningful opposition. 
Physically, G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl is a slim booklet, just eight pages with the loose card cover on the inside of which are the maps of the Jarl’s holdings. The booklet is cramped, but E. Gary Gygax again packs in a lot of detail. There are just a few illustrations and they do vary in quality. The maps though, are done in a light blue on white, so they do not leap out as being very clear or easy to read. However, the layout and the presentation of individual encounters is often, Gygax often focusing on elements which interest him rather than are of immediate use to the Game Master running the module. Of course, G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl was one of the first adventure modules to be published and forty years on, the standard of information presentation and handling has much improved.
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G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl was published at a time when there were few magazines in which they could be reviewed. In many cases, G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl would be reviewed when it was published in the collected G1-2-3 Against the Giants in 1981. For example, this is the version that Anders Swenson reviewed in Different Worlds Issue 20 (March 1982). He wrote, “First of all, the standards for adventure length have expanded considerably, so that a single product now contains the material previously considered adequate for three booklets. The text has problems which the later books have avoided - the individual have no consistent format, and important monsters can be literally lost in the middle of a paragraph between descriptions of loot and room contents. As noted, the flaw of making the scale of the maps much too small is made again by the publisher, along with the bad habit of letting the lower levels degenerate into a random monster mix.” He concluded though, “However, this series of adventures has many strong points which outweigh the flaws noted above. First is the theme of a plot which must be followed step by step back to its source. Second is the attempt at a realistic treatment of the giants' living places - except for the problems I have already mentioned, the plans for the various giant forts are realistic and reasonable. Finally, the text is well-written and pleasing to read.”
White Dwarf was the exception and managed to review the trilogy of G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, and G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King together in Open Box in White Dwarf Issue No. 9. However, this did not mean that they were reviewing independently of each other, the late Don Turnbull concluding, “In summary, there are three D&D scenarios which have been very carefully planned in considerable detail, both individually and collectively; they have been presented in exemplary fashion and are fit to grace the collection of the most discerning. They require skill in play (which is right) but also require a party of high-level characters, and my one regret is that they were not aimed at parties more likely to be readily available to players (though, in fairness, you can't expect a weak party to take on gangs of Giants). No DM should be without them, for even if he never gets a chance to run them, they are a source of much excellent design advice.”
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Thematically, G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl is the fitting next step in the Giants trilogy, but it feels too much like the connecting scenario between G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief and G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King. Whilst there is a fantastic atmosphere to G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, its play emphasises combat over either roleplaying or plot. Indeed, there is very little plot to the scenario—it amounts to ‘start at the entrance and make your way to the exit’—and there are very few clues for the Player Characters to find and learn more about the greater conspiracy, about whomever is actually directing the Giants’ attacks on the lands of the Humans. Another issue  is that despite the naturalism of the design to G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, it feels static, for unlike G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief where there was a feast going on, there is nothing happening like that in G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl.
Lastly G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl is a dungeon crawl and a challenging one. However, it needs greater input upon the part of the Dungeon Master to be made more interesting than it really is. 
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It should be noted that Wizards of the Coast collected and published G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, and G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King as part of Tales from the Yawning Portal for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. It is a pity that Goodman Games would not have a chance to revisit, develop, and update the series as it did for B1 In Search of the Unknown and B2 Keep on the Borderlands with Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands. Certainly there is some archival material in the early issues of Dragon magazine, such as the examination of these modules as tournament adventures in Dragon 19. In the meantime, the next review in the series will be of G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King.

As its title suggests, The Tomb of Dreams An Exalted Third Edition Jumpstart, is a ‘jump-start’—or quick-start’—for Exalted Third Edition, the high fantasy anime-inspired roleplaying game published by Onyx Path Publishing. It is set in a forgotten age when the world lay flat atop a sea of chaos, when the elements were sharply defined culturally and geographically. The gods made war upon the monsters that forged this world and give their human champions the gift of Exaltation, their divine power which granted them amazing gifts and fortitude. Led by the Solar Exalted, mankind would defeat the monsters and inaugurate the First Age of Man, but the Dragon-Blooded Exalted grew jealous, threw down the realm that the Solar Exalted had built, slew them one-by-one, and locked away their powers of Solar Exaltation. The Dragon-Blooded empire has ruled over a Second Age—an age of sorrows, warfare, and strife—for centuries. Now as lesser nations chafe at the Dragon-Blooded empire’s grip and the Dragon-Blooded empire has been wounded by the less of its immortal empress, Solar Exaltation has returned from its long banishment and death, its champions unleashing the powers of the Unconquered Sun upon the world anew. Will they bring light to the world or set it alight?

In The Tomb of Dreams An Exalted Third Edition Jumpstart, five Solar Exalted will follow their dreams into mystery from ages past. It provides five pre-generated Solar Exalted player characters, an explanation of the core rules for Exalted Third Edition, and ‘The Tomb of Dreams’, a short scenario. It is designed to introduce the Game Master and her players to both the setting and mechanics, as well as proving a starting point for an ongoing Exalted Third Edition campaign using the full rules. Besides The Tomb of Dreams An Exalted Third Edition Jumpstart, the Game Master and her players will need between ten and fifteen ten-sided dice—preferably per player, and copies of the character sheets and their explanation.

In Exalted Third Edition, a character or ‘Exalted’, ise defined by various traits. These include nine attributes—Strength, Dexterity, Stamina, Charisma, Manipulation, Appearance, Perception, Intelligence, and Wits; Skills such as Archery or Socialise; Merits such as wealth and political power, and traits of a singular nature; Willpower—representing mental fortitude as well as being spent for various things; Essence—magical potency, consisting of personal and peripheral motes which fuel mystical powers and can be committed to power ongoing effects; and Limit and Limit Trigger, representing the curse twisting an Exalted’s soul, levied when they kill the enemies of the gods. He will have Intimacies, what be believes and cares about, used in social interaction. Health and Defence cover static values such as Parry, Evasion, Defense, Resolve, and Guile. Now some of these elements are not used in The Tomb of Dreams An Exalted Third Edition Jumpstart. These include the Merits, Limit and Limit Trigger, Experience, amongst others. 

Mechanically, a player will be rolling a pool of ten-sided dice, typically formed by adding an Attribute and a Skill together—each being rated between one and five. Each die result of seven or more counts as a success with ‘double tens’, or rolls of ten, counting as double. A character may need to beat a given Difficulty, again rated between one and five. One notable way of increasing the number of dice a character rolls is a stunt, earned by a player giving an evocative description of what his character is going to do. Stunts range in value from one to three, and can simply add dice to a pool, raise a Static value, or grant an automatic success. The point of stunts is to make situations and their outcome exciting and grant players a greater degree of narrative control.

The Tomb of Dreams An Exalted Third Edition Jumpstart focuses on three aspects of the Exalted Third Edition rules—combat, battle groups, and social influence. Combat can be divided into two types of attacks which are rolled against the opponent’s Defence static value. These are ‘Withering Attacks’ which seize the flow of battle and steal an opponent’s initiative and enable to the attacker to use it as his own. Decisive attacks inflict damage directly on the opponents, and are typically used after a few Withering attacks have been made. An opponent reduced to an Initiative of zero is forced into Initiative Crash and is limited in his actions. The combat rules also cover rushing into a fight, withdrawing, and taking cover, as well as aiming, making flurry attacks, full defence, and more. Flurry attacks enable a character to act more than once in a round. There is a sense of escalation to combat, of attacks and high action going back and forth between the opponents, until one side or another manages to make enough Withering attacks to follow them up with a Decisive attack.

Battle Groups are designed to handle anything from a squad or a band to a mob or a formation. They have their own values—Size, Drill (training), Might (supernatural power, if any), and Magnitude (health). A Battle Group inflicts Withering attacks, does not gain the benefits of ‘Double Tens’, and only gets one attack per round. Essentially, the rules for Battle Groups treat them as Mooks, making them dangerous, but not as dangerous or powerful as the NPCs who lead them and whom the Exalted player characters are likely to face on the battlefield. The rules for Social Influence work with the Intimacies which are divided between Ties, attachments to people, places, and organisations, and Principles, beliefs and ideals. For example, ‘My Mentor (Grudging Respect)’ or ‘I am the greatest swordsman who ever lived.’ They can be used increase a target’s Resolve against efforts to influence him, change a target’s feelings and beliefs, and threaten, inspire, and more. 

Lastly, an Exalted can tap into the real power of Creation, which expresses through his Anima Banner. This exhibits first in the caste mark on his forehead and then grows into raging glow around him, becoming more and more as an Exalted uses motes of the Essence that underlies all of creation—either his Personal Essence or Peripheral Essence drawn from around him. These motes are used to fuel various Charms and Spells, for example, ‘Excellent Strike’ ensures an automatic success and lets a player reroll any ones, which requires three motes, whilst ‘Death of Obsidian Butterflies’ costs fifteen sorcerous motes and one Willpower to a create a torrent of razor-edged black butterflies which can inflict a Decisive attack!

The five pre-generated Exalted all come with character sheets and a couple of pages of description and explanation, which includes an illustration and some background. They include Volfer, a pit-fighter; Karal Fire Orchid, a retired general who once served the Dragon-Blooded; Iay Selak-Amu, a witch from the Windward Isle; Faka Kun, a desert pygmy acrobat-thief; and Mirror Flag, a revolutionary actor. They are a reasonable mix, though they do lack personal motivations as to their involvement in the scenario.

‘The Tomb of Dreams’ scenario in The Tomb of Dreams An Exalted Third Edition Jumpstart begins with the player characters arriving on a strange island, seemingly walking out of the ocean along a reef. They are drawn here by dreams of their legacy of their recent Solar Exaltation, and must find their way between the ongoing, ancient struggle between a god, an elemental, and a demon. Their ultimate goal is to locate a cache of ancient weapons and more, but to do that, they will need to determine the motives of the three antagonists. This is key to uncovering quite what is going on the island, but the likelihood is that they will need to enter into a few battles too. The adventure is not quite linear, a couple of options being given which vary according to which of the NPCs the Exalted meet first. Overall, this is a decent scenario which hints at the long history before the Third Age, though it could have done with stronger hooks for the given player character Exalted.

Physically, The Tomb of Dreams An Exalted Third Edition Jumpstart is well presented and well written. The artwork is good, some of it excellent, though some of it is slightly cartoony. The four characters are given some fantastic abilities to bring to the game and often the battlefield, both high action and high fantasy.

What The Tomb of Dreams An Exalted Third Edition Jumpstart is not, is a quick-start. Although it drops various elements of the full Exalted Third Edition, there is still a complexity to the mechanics of the roleplaying game which requires a careful read-through upon the part of the Storyteller. In fact, the Storyteller would be advised to sit down and run an example of the various mechanics herself prior to bringing it to the table for her players. Otherwise, The Tomb of Dreams An Exalted Third Edition Jumpstart is a serviceable introduction to Exalted Third Edition, which though requires a bit of preparation, enables the Game Master to bring anime style high action, high fantasy to her gaming table.

Almost twenty years after Games Workshop gave us Judge Dredd: The Role-Playing Game, another British publisher gave us its take upon the infamous lawman of the future from the pages of the long-running Science Fiction comic, 2000AD. The year was 2002, publisher was Mongoose Publishing, and the rules employed the then system de jour—the d20 System. The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game (notice the subtle shift of the determiner to differentiate between the two games) was the first of several roleplaying games that the publisher would bring out based on the 2000AD licence, the other most notable one being Sláine, The Roleplaying Game of Celtic Fantasy. Like that roleplaying game, The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game was published as a full colour hardback which contained the means to play in its milieu. This is the year 2124 and just like the earlier Judge Dredd: The Role-Playing Game, this roleplaying game is set after a nuclear war which irradiated much of the Earth and forced most of the world’s population to live in a number of megalopolises—or supercities. Each is home to millions and millions living in great city-blocks, most of whom are unemployed and turn to hobbies, brand new trends or crazes, or even crime to keep themselves sane. The teeming masses are difficult to police and it takes a special dedicated individual, one who has trained for nearly all of his or her childhood to patrol and enforce the law in these great cities. These are the Judges, trained to be the best, armed with the best equipment, and ready to patrol the streets as combined policeman, judge, jury, and executioner. They enforce the law and do so fairly—and none no more fairly than Judge Dredd himself, a figure who is both authoritarian and an anti-hero, the most well known and feared Judge in Mega-City One on the eastern seaboard of what was once the United States of America. On a daily basis, Judge Dredd has to deal with litterers and jaywalkers, slowsters and sponts, robbers and murderers, smokers and boingers, illegal comic book dealers and gangster apes, and even Judge Death from a parallel earth. Over the years, the Judge Dredd comic has presented a carnival of crazy crimes and criminals, certainly more than enough to provide a rich, bonkers background, just as it did for Judge Dredd: The Role-Playing Game when it was published in 1985 and then again for The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game when it was published in 2002.

From the start, there is a hurdle to playing The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game. This is the fact that it uses the d20 System and so requires access to the Player’s Handbook for Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition. In fact, The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game is a Class and Level, Feat and Skill roleplaying game. Now in 2002 this was not unusual and mechanically, several roleplaying games of the period were essentially supplements for the Player’s Handbook with extra rules and a background. That said, anyone familiar with the d20 System would be able to pick up The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game, roll up a character, and get playing relatively quickly and without any great difficulties. 

As per Judge Dredd: The Role-Playing Game, what the players can roleplay in The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game are Judges, the lawmen of the twenty-second century. Two are presented as standard character Classes—the Street Judge and the Psi-Judge—with the Med-Judge, the Tek-Judge, the SJS Judge, and Wally Squad Judge presented as Prestige Classes. There are two major changes in comparison to standard Player Characters. One is that both the Street Judge and the Psi-Judge start at Third Level rather than First Level, the other is that the Street Judge rolls a twelve-sided die for Hit Points, whilst the Psi-Judge rolls an eight-sided die. As Human characters, Judges, both Street Judge and Psi-Judge, receive a bonus Feat at character creation, and they are given more Feats as they acquire Levels. They also gain more skill points in a similar fashion. These can be the Feats standard to the Player’s Handbook or those particular to The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game.

Character creation is a straightforward process. A matter of rolling dice for attributes and Hit Points, then selecting skills and feats. These are a mix of standard skills and feats from the Player’s Handbook and those new in The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game.

Judge Muller
Third Level Street Judge
STR 14 (+2) DEX 09 (-1) CON 10 (+0)
INT 15 (+2) WIS 11 (+0) CHR 13 (+1)

Defence Value: 10
Hit Points: 24
Base Attack Bonus: +3 (Melee: +5/Ranged: +3)

Fort Save: +3 Ref Save:+3 Will Save: +3 

Skills: Balance 1, Bluff 1, Climb 3, Computer Use 4, Concentration 2, Drive 2, Intimidate 4, Jump 3, Knowledge (Law) 4, Listen 1, Medical 1, Pilot 1, Ride 1, Search 4, Sense Motive 3, Spot 2, Swim 3, Technical 4

Feats: Improved Interrogation, Lightning Reflexes, Luck of Grud

Weapon Proficiencies: All

The Psionics mechanics used for Psi-Judges can be best described as being a non-Vancian spell system. Instead of ‘fire-and-forget’ spells—or Psionic abilities—Psi-Judges possess Psi-Powers and receive several Power Points per day. This is in addition to Zero-Level Psi-Powers which a character can use several times per day. A Zero-Level Psi-Power like ‘Daze’ forces the target to lose his next action and costs a single Power Point to cost, whilst ‘Augury’, a Second-Level Psi-Power enables the Psionicist to cast his mind into the future to determine the outcome of an action. It costs two Power Points to cast. The Psionic Powers are a mix of new powers, such as ‘Psi-Lash’ or ‘Detect Thoughts’, and powers which feel familiar to spells from Dungeons & Dragons, like ‘Augury’ and ‘Clairvoyance’. The Psionicist also has access to Psionic Feats such as ‘Quicken Powers’, which enables a practitioner to manifest his psionic talents with a thought; normally it takes a Round to manifest a power. A psionic power can be saved against in a fashion similar to the spells cast by a Sorcerer.

Judge Garcia
Third Level Psi-Judge
STR 09 (-1) DEX 13 (+1) CON 12 (+1)
INT 16 (+2) WIS 15 (+2) CHR 18 (+4)

Defence Value: 11
Hit Points: 15
Base Attack Bonus: +3 (Melee: +4/Ranged: +2)

Fort Save: +4 Ref Save:+4 Will Save: +5

Power Points: 5
Psionic Talents: Zero-Level—Empathy, Missive; First-Level—Demoralise, Psychometry
Psionic Save: 14+Power Level

Skills: Balance 3, Bluff 6, Climb 0, Computer Use 3, Concentration 5, Drive 2, Intimidate 5, Jump 2, Knowledge (Law) 3, Listen 3, Medical 3, Pilot 2, Ride 2, Search 4, Sense Motive 4, Spot 4, Swim 0, Technical 3

Feats: Inner Strength, Psychoanalyst, Psychic Inquisitor

Weapon Proficiencies: All

Unfortunately, the mechanics for psionics are not very interesting, primarily because they are mapped onto the spell mechanics of the d20 System. This does not mean that they are unworkable, but rather that the results do not feel quite in keeping with that portrayed in the comic. The choice of Judges to play is also a potential issue, in that because Psi-Judge is a starting option, a team of Judges could conceivably consist of too many of them, their being weaker than Street Judges and less suited to street investigations. That said, an all Psi-Judge option is explored in the Game Master’s section. Another issue with the Judges as a play option is that a player cannot be a Med-Judge or a Tek-Judge right from the start rather than having to take a Prestige Class later on.

As well as presenting Judges as a play option, The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game also offers another Class, not as a play option, but rather a campaign option. This is the Citizen Class, which notably lacks the training or abilities of the Street Judge or Psi-Judge, and starts at First Level rather than Third Level. To counter this, the Citizen is given a Prior-Life, such as Agitator, Cit-Def Soldier, Failed Cadet, Goon, Jetball Player, Juve, Mo-Pad Driver, Neo-Luddite, Punk, and more. The choices all neatly fit under the umbrella of the Citizen Class, whilst characters can aim for Prestige Classes such as the Assassin, the Bodyguard, the Citi-Def Officer, the Hunters Club Member, and more. This is potentially a fun idea and would make for a very different campaign to that of playing Judges.

Norma Trang
First Level Street Citizen
Prior Life: Agitator
STR 08 (-01) DEX 14 (+2) CON 08 (-1)
INT 12 (+1) WIS 12 (+1) CHR 16 (+3)

Defence Value: 12
Hit Points: 4
Base Attack Bonus: +0 (Melee: -1/Ranged: +2)

Fort Save: -1 Ref Save:+2 Will Save: +1 

Skills: Bluff 6, Craze (Compulsive Eating) 6, Intimidate 6, Knowledge (Law) 6, Sense Motive 5

Feats: Iron Will, Fool Birdie

Weapon Proficiencies: Grenades, Pistols, Melee Weapons

The two character types—the Judges and the Citizens—lend themselves to very different campaign types. A Judge focused campaign will be about patrolling the streets, investigating crimes and mysteries, and apprehending perpetrators, and so on. It does not matter which roleplaying game you are playing based upon the ‘Judge Dredd’ comic strip, this is the default option. The option to play Citizens enables a campaign to become involved in Mega-City One daily life, for the Player Characters to get involved in and enjoy the rash Crazes which sweep the megalopolis, and then to go get involved in and commit crime! Initially though, this has to be on a small scale, to not come to the attention of any Judge, at least until they have acquired a few Levels, given the fact that even a basic Judge will be at least Third Level.

Another reason that Citizen characters will be at a disadvantage when facing any Judge is that the Judge will be superbly equipped, most obviously with the Lawgiver pistol and its wide range of ammunition types, and the Lawmaster motorcycle. To this are added further Judge equipment, such as the Birdie Lie Detector, Override Card, and Pollution Meter. A Citizen, or a Perp, might have a Double-Barrelled Stump Gun, General Arms Sg-1 XX, smoke bombs, lock hacker, and more, though unlike a Judge, a Citizen will have to pay for his equipment.

As with Judge Dredd: The Role-Playing Game, in terms of roleplaying, the Judges in The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game are a bit one note, but then they are meant to be. That said, they are more skilled and capable, and focusing on different skills and choosing different Feats allows for some customisation and ensuring there are differences between Player Characters. That said, although they are neither as well equipped or as capable, Citizens can be anything and allow a player to roleplay free from the constraints placed upon a Judge.

Mechanically, The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game uses the d20 System. So roll a twenty-sided die for any action and roll high to beat a particular Difficulty Class or Armour Class, that really is about it. The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game of course includes rules for firearms combat and vehicle chases, and so on. Really, the only new mechanic in The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game is that for a Judge making an arrest attempt and a perpetrator resisting the attempt with opposed Charisma rolls.

In terms of background, The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game provides details about the Justice Department, which includes the resources and back-up a Judge can call upon, sentencing guidelines, stats and descriptions of Justice Department equipment and robots, and stats for sample Judges. Similarly, the ‘Life on the Streets’ chapter gives support for campaigns involving just Citizens, to be fair, primarily a number of Prestige Classes, but there are rules too for running street gangs, useful for a crime campaign. Both are supported by a guide to Mega-City One which covers its geography, government, habitats, infrastructure, sports, hobbies, crazes, and organisations, as well as regions beyond its walls. It is decent enough, though the selection of NPCs and perps is intentionally generic, so none of the Angel Gang,  the mobster Uggie Apelino and the Ape Gang, the vigilante Blanche Tatum, the infamous Judge murderer, Whitey, or Judge Death. Such characters and criminals would of course be saved for the supplement, Mega-City One’s Most Wanted. On the plus side, this does mean that the Player Character Judges will be investigating and arresting perps of the Game Master’s own devising and building their own legends instead of emulating that of Judge Dredd himself, but on the downside, The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game loses some of the flavour of the setting without them. A nice touch is that it is possible to play Ape characters, although they do not necessarily have to be gangsters.

Unfortunately, there is no beginning scenario for The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game in the core rule book. That said, there is advice for the Game Master on running both Judge and Citizen campaigns, along with scenario ideas and campaign variants. This is decent enough and the Citizen campaign is certainly supported with supplements such as Rookie’s Guide to Criminal Organisations, Rookie’s Guide to the Block Wars, and The Rookie’s Guide to the Crazes.

Physically, The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game is reasonably well written and comes as a full colour hardback, though calling it that is a slight stretch. Yes, colour is used throughout, literally just on the header, footer, and outside margin of nearly every page. And whilst there is artwork throughout taken from the comic strip, it is all black and white, all taken from the classic strips of the seventies and eighties, and much of it presented in too small a fashion to read with any ease and just so ever so slightly fuzzy. In all too many cases, when the artwork should pop out from the page, it simply fails to do so. That said, there are fantastically good full colour full page pieces in the book, though being towards the back of the book, do not really do a lot to support the game. For example, why are full colour illustrations of Justice Department equipment over a hundred pages away from their descriptions in the text?

So the question is, is The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game any good? Well, simply put, no, it is not any good, but then neither is it any bad either. It could have been better facing towards the players and their characters by having the details about the Justice Department more upfront for the Judges, giving their players access to information about the back-up they could request and what sort of sentences they can hand out. It does give an alternative to Judge campaigns, the Citizen campaign, which could be a lot of fun. It does produce Judge characters who are at least competent and have skills and abilities, and the roleplaying game would go on to be supported by numerous supplements and scenarios. And yet, there are the mechanics. The problem is simply that The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game uses the d20 System and whilst that works, it is just not that interesting. It definitely feels more as if the Judge Dredd setting has been shoehorned on to the d20 System and it does not feel quite like a natural fit.

There is no denying that a good game could be got out of The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game, but in comparison to Games Workshop’s Judge Dredd: The Role-Playing Game, it lacks character—even though the Judge Dredd: The Role-Playing Game is not a great design mechanically—and feels as it demands more effort upon both player and Game Master. Overall, The Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game is solid, serviceable, and supported, but its inherent blandness means it lacks that certain something which makes you want to play it.

Now it might seem inappropriate for a new version of Pandemic—the 2008 game of fighting and finding a cure to four outbreaks of different diseases—to be published in the midst of an actual pandemic. It might also seem inappropriate that its subject focuses entirely on North America given the high number of deaths from the Covid-19 virus in the USA. If you believe that to be so, then this review is not for you. However, you would be wrong in your thinking. To start with, the publication date of the new game is entirely coincidental. Second, the subject matter of the new game—just like the original—is about researching, teaching and finding a cure for multiple diseases, which is exactly what scientists are doing right now. So both Pandemic and the new game are about providing medical aid and saving people, undeniably positive rather than negative in both their subject matter and what the players are doing. If you still find the subject matter distasteful, then this review is not for you.

The original Pandemic was published in 2008 to much acclaim. In the game, between one and four players take the role of members of the Center for Disease Control working against four global epidemics—red, blue, yellow, and black—in a race to save humanity. The game was one of the first titles to really distill the concept of the co-operative game, a game in which the players played not against each other, but against the board and the game itself, into something that was simple, elegant, and ultimately, very popular.  In Pandemic, the players race around the world, travelling from city to city in an effort to treat diseases and find a cure for them whilst staving off the effects of outbreaks that will spread these diseases from one city to every adjacent city. Too many outbreaks and the players will fail and humanity is doomed. Fail to find cures to all four diseases and the players will fail and humanity is doomed. Like all cooperative games, Pandemic is designed to be difficult to beat and can be made even more challenging through the various expansions.

The latest addition to the Pandemic family of boardgames is Pandemic Hot Zone: North America. Published by Z-Man Games, this again is designed for between one and four players, has players cooperating to treat and find a cure to several diseases, and is played against the game rather than the players against each other. It is however, not the same game as Pandemic, for whilst there are many similarities, there are also several differences. The first of these is that there are only three diseases to find a cure for and the second is that it is set entirely in North America, as opposed to the four diseases and global scope of Pandemic. The third is the playing time. Pandemic Hot Zone: North America can be played in thirty minutes as opposed to the sixty minutes of standard Pandemic.

Those are the most obvious differences, but there are others. These include only needing four cards of the same colour to cure a disease instead of four, and there being only one Research Station, rather than multiple Research Stations. This is of course in Atlanta at the Center for Disease Control headquarters. This negates the need for the ‘Operations Expert’ from Pandemic, who can establish Research Stations around the world and the ability of the players to shuttle back and forth between them. The Researcher and Dispatcher roles in Pandemic Hot Zone: North America are slightly different from Pandemic, but these differences are relatively minor. Pandemic Hot Zone: North America has only three Epidemic cards, which are always used in the game, whereas standard Pandemic has three, four, and five, the number used to vary the difficulty of beating the game. Diseases cannot be eradicated in Pandemic Hot Zone: North America, whereas in standard Pandemic, they can, preventing their appearance during the game. Lastly, rather than alter the number of Epidemic cards to vary the difficulty of beating the game, Pandemic Hot Zone: North America provides Crisis cards. During game set-up, the number of Crisis cards can be varied to set the game’s difficulty, plus each Crisis card is different, so adding an extra random element to game play.

Nevertheless, game play in Pandemic Hot Zone: North America is similar to that of Pandemic. Each turn, a player will move round the map treating diseases to prevent there being too many on the board, visiting cities for which they have a card to give to another player, and when a player has the requisite four cards of one colour, rushing back to Atlanta to find cure for the disease of that colour. Designed for two to four players, aged eight and up, Pandemic Hot Zone: North America is won by finding a cure for all three diseases. This is the only winning condition, whereas there are several losing conditions. Pandemic Hot Zone: North America is lost if four Outbreaks occur, the players run out of disease cubes of any colour to add to the board, or when the Player Deck is depleted.

As its title suggests, Pandemic Hot Zone: North America is played on a map of North America. This depicts twenty-four cities across the USA, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. These are divided into three zones—the blue zone covering the north-east, eastern seaboard, and midwest; the red zone covering the south, south-west, and west; and the yellow zone covering Mexico, Louisiana, Florida, Cuba, and the Dominican Republican. These cities are connected by various routes along which both the players will travel as they move around the continent and the game’s three diseases will travel whenever there is Outbreak in one city. This happens whenever a city with three disease cubes has more cubes of the ame colour added to it. In which case the disease spreads to directly connected cities.

The game offers four different roles. These are the Dispatcher which can move any player’s pawn to another city where is already another player’s pawn or move another player’s pawn to a connected city; the Generalist, which can do five actions each turn rather than the standard four; the Medic, which can remove all of the disease cubes of one colour in a city rather than just the one when he takes the Treat Disease action or remove all of the cubes for a cured disease for free; and the Researcher, who can give cards to another player whose pawn is in the same city and the cards do not need to match the city they are in.

As well as the board, there are two decks of cards, both of which contain a card for each of the twenty-four cities on the board. The Infection deck is used to determine where incidences of the game’s three diseases will occur. Over the course of the game, Infection cards drawn will be reshuffled and added back to the top of the Infection deck to represent the populations of cities being constantly prone to the game’s three diseases. The cards in the Player deck are used in several ways. Each represents a single city and can be used to travel to or from a particular city, so to or from Boston. Once a player has four cards of a single colour—red, blue, or yellow—then he can travel to Atlanta and use them to find a cure. To acquire four cards of a single colour, a player can either draw them from the Player deck at the end of his turn or take them from or be given them by a fellow player.

In addition, the Player deck contains three other types of card. When an Epidemic card is drawn it increases the rate of infection—the number of cards drawn from from the Infection deck at the end of a a player’s turn, determines the city where a new occurrence of a disease happens, and shuffles the Infection cards in the discard pile back onto the Infection deck to reinfect cities that have already suffered disease already. The Event cards each provide a one-time bonus, such as ‘One Quiet Night’ which allows the current player to skip the ‘Draw Infection Cards’ phase of his turn or ‘Borrowed Time’ which enables the current player to take two additional actions.

Crisis Cards make the game’s play more challenging and are played immediately when drawn. So ‘Logistics Failure’ forces the current player  ‘Draw Infection Cards’ phase of his turn, whilst ‘Limited Options’ forces each player to reduce the size of his hand from six to five. This is temporary, but does last until another Crisis card is drawn. These Crisis cards are really the new mechanic to the Pandemic family, not only can they be used as a means to adjust the game’s difficulty rather than using the Epidemic cards, they can also add an ongoing, if temporary, effect that will hinder the players’ progress. There are just seven of them in the game, but because only three or six of them are used in the game—depending upon the difficulty of the game desired—there is always a degree of randomness and uncertainty as to which Crisis cards the players will face.

Game set-up is simple enough. Each player is given a role and two randomly drawn Player cards whilst the remainder of the Player deck is seeded with the three Epidemic cards. Six cards are drawn from the Infection deck to determine where the three diseases first occur on the board and to form the discard pile. Then on his turn, a player will move round the map, treating diseases, taking or giving Player cards, and so on. At the end of his turn, he draws two more cards from the Player deck, adding them to his hand or immediately resolving them if they are Crisis cards or Epidemic cards. Lastly, he draws Infection cards from the Infection deck—starting at two and rising to four—and adds disease cubes to the cities indicated on the cards drawn. Play continues like this until the game is won by all three diseases being cured or lost by having four Outbreaks occur, running out of disease cubes, or depleting the Player deck.

Pandemic Hot Zone: North America is easy to lose, but challenging to win. Plus winning does feel good. Like any Pandemic game, there is a real sense of achievement in working together, discovering curses to the diseases, and so winning the game.

Time is tight. With a four player game, the number of cards in the Player deck will range between twenty-three and twenty-nine, giving the players between eleven and fourteen turns between them before the game ends. So players need to plan and coordinate their actions from turn to turn, and this is not taking into account the effects of Epidemic and Crisis cards. So the players are constantly thinking, planning, and having to adjust to unexpected events (well, they are not unexpected, their being built into the game and its set-up, so think unexpected timing of events), so game play is both thoughtful and tense. However, since it is a cooperative game, there is the opportunity to discuss what your actions are going to be and that alleviates some of the tension—a little.

Physically, Pandemic Hot Zone: North America is very nicely presented. Everything is in full colour, all of the cards are easy to read, and the rulebook quickly guides you through set-up and answers your questions. It even has a list of the differences between Pandemic Hot Zone: North America and Pandemic. Lastly, the playing pieces are all done in solid plastic. Everything then, is of a high quality.

So the first question is, is Pandemic Hot Zone: North America a good game? To which the answer is, yes, yes it is a good game. However, it might just be a slightly too difficult or challenging for its minimum age range of eight and older.

So the second question is, should you add Pandemic Hot Zone: North America to the Pandemic family of games you already own. Well, that depends, because the real question is, who is Pandemic Hot Zone: North America really aimed at? For fundamentally, Pandemic Hot Zone: North America is really just a shorter, more tense version of Pandemic, and if you own Pandemic, it may well not be sufficiently different from Pandemic to warrant adding it to your collection. Though that will probably not stop you if we are honest. Yes, the playing area is different, but really the major difference is the addition of the Crisis cards. Otherwise, the gameplay is just like the original Pandemic. 

The clue as to what Pandemic Hot Zone: North America is lies in the size of the game and two other games—Ticket to Ride: London and Ticket to Ride: New York. Both of these are smaller, shorter implementations of the 2004 classic Ticket to Ride. They offer minor variations upon the standard Ticket to Ride rules and a reduction in both playing time, actual size, and price of the game, as well as providing the designer with a new format in which to explore the Ticket to Ride concept. Similarly, Pandemic Hot Zone: North America offers its designer a new format in which to explore the Pandemic concept as well as reduced size, playing time, and price. Which means that in the future there will be other entries in the Pandemic Hot Zone series.

Overall, Pandemic Hot Zone: North America does not actually have a great deal of new game play to offer the dedicated Pandemic fan, who will probably view the game as essentially ‘Pocket Pandemic’. However, Pandemic Hot Zone: North America’s combination reduced playing time, size, and price make it a less daunting introduction to the Pandemic family of games.

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

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

—oOo—
Name: A Lark in the Cage

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Noah Lloyd
Setting: London, 1895

Product: Scenario
What You Get: 10.70 MB fifty-eight-page, full-colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: A cuckoo in the nest reveals monsters and a monstrous plot, but which is the greater evil? 
Plot Hook: When the investigators are attacked by a monstrous man after a neighbour claims that her recently-born baby is not hers, could there be truth in her hysteria?
Plot Development: A missing lover and dead men in the Thames takes the investigators back and forth across the river whilst a feat of engineering—their final destination—goes on below.
Plot Support: Six pre-generated investigators, eleven NPCs and entities, two maps, and seven handouts.

Pros
# A scenario for Cthulhu by Gaslight
# A family affair
# Full play-through available here
# Acknowledges the attitudes of the period
# Includes ‘Bulwark of the Hudson’, a one-page prequel scenario
# Nice handouts
# Excellent use of an engineering marvel 
# Avoids clichéd investigators
# Good production values
# Decent investigative plot
# Mired in dirt and ordure

Cons# Acknowledges the attitudes of the period
# Wide margins
# Plot connections could be slightly clearer
# High potential for disaster
# Very specific in terms of time and place

Conclusion
# A good scenario for Cthulhu by Gaslight
# Avoids clichéd investigators
# Good production values
# Mired in dirt and ordure

One of the interesting aspects of the treatment given Star Trek as a roleplaying game by Modiphius Entertainment is that it examines directly the role of crew and positions aboard ships and at postings in Starfleet. No other Star Trek roleplaying game has done this, but to date, there are three supplements for the Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game which focus on the six departments of Starfleet. These are organised division by division, so The Command Division supplement focuses on the Command and Conn departments, The Sciences Division supplement on the Science and Medical departments, and The Operations Division supplement focuses on the Security and Engineering departments. Each supplement details the various branches and departments within each division, their role in Starfleet, an expanded list of Talents and Focuses for characters within each division, plots and campaigns which focus on characters within each division, supporting characters from within each division—including canonical NPCs, and more.

As with much of the Star Trek Adventures line, The Operations Division supplement is presented as an in-game—and in-world—briefing to members of both the Engineering and Operations departments. It quickly sets out the roles of members of both departments, so that the Engineering officer is responsible for running and maintaining the ship’s engines and much of the technology aboard ship, as well as fixing anything which breaks down, goes wrong, or is damaged, whilst the Operations officer is responsible for handling day-to-day tasks aboard ship, plus roles such in security and at tactical stations. So at their most basic, the Engineering officer fixes the ship whilst the Operations officer runs the ship and protects it. In comparison to the roles defined for the other departments in The Command Division and The Sciences Division, those in The Operations Division are not quite as obviously flashy or as prestigious, and if the supplement were to keep to that remit, then it would not be very interesting. Fortunately, The Operations Division goes beyond that.

The supplement begins by highlighting the differences for the roles it covers between the three series that fall under the remit of Star Trek Adventures—Enterprise, Star Trek: The Original Series, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. This is because the divisions undergo the most changes between the three, most obviously the shift in roles and shirt colours for Engineering and Security officers between Star Trek: The Original Series, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Then it begins by examining the different agencies within Starfleet which make up the Operations Division—Fleet Operations, Starfleet Intelligence, Starfleet Corps of Engineers, and Section 31. Both are examined from two sides, what each agency’s mission is and what it actually does before discussing how it can be brought into a game. So Fleet Operations oversees the deployment and disposition of Starfleet personnel and resources throughout Federation space and oversees Mission Operations, Science Operations, Tactical operations, Shipyard Operations, and Starbase Operations. The section on Starfleet Intelligence highlights how it conducts enlightened operations in comparison the agencies of other galactic powers, such as Cardassia’s Obsidian Order, this in reaction not only to the practices of those other agencies, but also some of the morally grey operations run by Starfleet Intelligence in the past. Accompanying this section is ‘Recruited to Starfleet Intelligence’, a new career event for use during character generation, and some ideas as to how to involve plain Starfleet Player Characters in Starfleet Intelligence missions.

Of course, the Starfleet Corps of Engineers has a reputation as being made up of miracle workers, but that reputation often only extends as far as building, fixing, and maintaining starships. What its description makes clear is that it does a lot more, ranging from the investigation of alien technologies and disaster relief to distress call response to terraforming support. It also highlights how it works hand-in-hand with civilian agencies also, and together these all lend themselves to scenario ideas which can bring a Starfleet Engineering officer into the spotlight. A nice touch is the inclusion of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers Safety Regulations for ‘Investigation of Technological Elements of Indeterminate Origin’ which would add flavour and verisimilitude when running that type of episode. Lastly, there is Section 31. Now this is supposed to be the agency which handles threats which jeopardise the continued existence of the Federation by any means necessary, believing that the ends justify the means. What is not given here is a definite description of Section 31, but rather what it might be, so it might be a rogue agency, a complete fantasy, a story spun by one man—Luther Sloan, a plot by the Tal Shiar, and so on. This enables the Game Master to tailor Section 31 to fit her campaign and what she thinks the agency wants to be. In general though, Section 31 should operate through layers of intermediaries and obfuscation.

As per the other volumes in this series, the chapter on Operations Division characters present guides to creating Player Characters who have attended either Security School or Engineering School. For both there are guides to creating effective—or at least focused—Engineering and Security officers, along with  a range of new Focuses and Talents. So for Security officers, there are the Criminal Organisations and Forensics Focuses and the Combat medic and Lead Investigator Talents, and the Advanced Holograms and Reverse Engineering Focuses and Maintenance Specialist and Miracle Worker Talents for Engineering officers. For the Security officers there are possible roles a Player Character or NPC might have on a combat squad such as Explosive Ordnance Expert or Field Medic, and if the game is set during Enterprise, a guide to creating MACO or Military Assault Command Operations officers. 

Unfortunately, the Engineering officer does not really have any more options like the Security officer, although both his player and the Game Master are likely to get fun out of the Technobabble Table. Similarly, they are likely to get a lot of use out of the Advanced Technologies chapter, which covers the tools and technologies to be found aboard a starship or starbase, and elsewhere. So micro-optic drills, engineering tricorders, hperspanner, sonic driver(!), and so on, along with starship systems like artificial gravity and inertial compensators, replicators and transporters, and more. Experimental technology covers some of the more dangerous technologies which Federation has explored, for example, Doctor Richard Daystrom’s M-5 multitronic unit and Synaptic Scanning Technique for transferring human minds into android bodies, or perhaps even into computers. In addition, rules cover jury-rigging devices, something that Engineers are probably going to find themselves doing a lot.

One of the best sections in both The Command Division and The Sciences Division is for the Game Master, suggesting how they might be used in storylines. It divides the possible plot components into red, gold and blue—diplomacy, combat, or science components respectively—and expands upon them. So red plot components can include conspiracies, diplomacy, first contact, and more, whilst blue components can include deep space exploration, evacuation, research, and so on. For The Operations Division, this does exactly the same for Security officers and Engineering officers. Again, this is a really good section for both roles, but bolstering it with details such as Starfleet Regulations for Away Missions, handling criminal investigations, recovering derelicts, diagnostics, and alien technologies. Just as with The Command Division and The Sciences Division, this is one of the best sections in The Operations Division.

In comparison to The Command Division and The Sciences Division, the ‘Operations Personnel’ chapter feels much shorter. It provides various NPCs, like the Starfleet Security Officer, the Engineer’s Mate, and the MACO Soldier Supporting NPCs and the Informant and the Engineering Specialist Minor NPCs. It includes three Major NPCs, notably Luther Sloan of Section 31 and Doctor Leah Brahms of the Daystrom Institute. She was only listed in The Sciences Division despite its coverage of the Daystrom Institute, so it is good to see her included here.

Rounding out The Operations Division is ‘Red Alert’. This is a set of skirmish rules intended to use Modiphius Entertainment’s miniatures and tile sets in order to handle small unit engagements. Although they could be run as a straight Star Trek miniatures combat game—and the rules are available to download for free to that end—they really are designed as an extension of the roleplaying combat rules. What this means that whole engagements can be handled more tactically with more detail. The rules cover squad creation, combat actions, and terrain particular to Star Trek such as Jefferies Tubes and Turbolifts. The support for the rules is not extensive, really only covering Federation, Klingon, and Romulan warriors and their weapons, so a Game Master may want to create her own content beyond the rules and support given. The rules come with a complete six-mission mini-campaign in which the crew of the Enterprise-D have to withstand a Klingon assault on the ship in the middle of a diplomatic summit. The rules are decent enough and they do give scope for Operations officers—Security officers in particular—to do more and bring their training to the tabletop.

Physically, The Operations Division supplement is again a decent looking book. Notably though, whilst the artwork is decent, it often feels bland and not really relevant to content it is placed alongside. There are fewer in-game reports, diary entries, and so on, and in many cases, they are not all that interesting or inspiring for the Game Master. The reduced in-game content also means the layout does not feel as busy and has a bit more room for its contents to breath. The layout is done in the style of the LCARS—Library Computer Access/Retrieval System—operating system used by Starfleet. So everything is laid out over a rich black with the text done in soft colours. This is very in keeping with the theme and period setting of Star Trek Adventures, but it is imposing, even intimidating in its look, and whilst it is not always easy to find things on the page because of the book’s look, it is easier in The Operations Division supplement because it is less cluttered than in other supplements for the line. Lastly, in comparison to the other books in this series, this feels less busy, better organised, and therefore a little more accessible.

In comparison to other supplements for Star Trek Adventures, what is missing from The Operations Division is more starships. This might have felt like an omission in any other supplement, but to be blunt, the treatment of starships has not always felt well-handled in those supplements, so the lack of them here is not really an omission. That said, what might have been useful here is the inclusion of some starbases since engineers are responsible for building and maintaining them as much as they are starships.

If there is an issue with The Operations Division, it is perhaps that it does not delve into the day-to-day aspects of running and maintaining Starfleet which Operations is responsible for. In places, it touches upon some of the approaches and procedures that Security and Engineering officers follow, such as for Away missions, but more would have added verisimilitude to running Star Trek Adventures. Not necessarily all of the time, but occasionally, at the very least, and what it would allow is to make the breaking or sidestepping of such procedures more dynamic. Which is, after all, what the Player Characters are going to do. 

Like the other two books, The Operations Divisions is at its best when dealing with specific elements of the Star Trek setting, but unlike the other two books, its treatment of Security officers and Engineering officers is better balanced, although it definitely feels as if Security officers get slightly better treatment. This is not counting the ‘Red Alert’ rules, the inclusion of which does favour Security officers, because the ‘Red Alert’ rules do feel a bit much like filler in The Operations Division since they are available elsewhere. This is not to say that a group would not get any play out of ‘Red Alert’, but of all the content in The Operations Division, ‘Red Alert’ is very much an option.

Overall, The Operations Division is a solid supplement for Star Trek Adventures. Fundamentally, what The Operations Division does is take the less glamorous roles in Star Trek—Security officers and Engineering officers—and makes what they do both interesting and challenging.

One of the great features—amongst many—of 13th Age is how it handles characters, making each Player Character unique, emphasising narrative gameplay elements, and upping the action. Published by Pelgrane Press, a wide range of character Classes were presented in both 13th Age and 13 True Ways, but one of the aspects of 13th Age is that Player Characters can only advance to Tenth Level. What this means is that campaigns are relatively short and new campaigns can be begun relatively easily and relatively regularly, so having a wider range in terms of character choice is always useful. Now whilst presenting new Player Character Classes has not been the focus of titles from Pelgrane Press, it does mean that there is scope for other publishers to provide a Game Master and her players with such options. This is exactly what Kinoko Games has done with Dark Pacts & Ancient Secrets.

Dark Pacts & Ancient Secrets presents six new Classes—the monstrous Abomination, the destiny-shaping Fateweaver, the mind-bending Psion, the berserking Savage, the dashing Swordmage and the dark-souled Warlock. All come with the Class Features and Talents, plus features specific to the Class just as you would expect for a Class for 13th Age. In addition, each is accompanied with notes on the Play Style for the Class, ideas for Backgrounds, the Icons associated with the Class, which of the Dungeons & Dragons-style Races it works with, options for Multi-Class versions, and ‘Riffs and Variations’, essentially extra ideas on how each Class would play. This is not all though, for Dark Pacts & Ancient Secrets also includes notes how some of the Classes from the 13th Age core book and 13 True Ways would work with the new half dozen it provides, as well as various new magic items. These are also designed to work with the six Classes in Dark Pacts & Ancient Secrets.

The first new Class is the Abomination. This takes the transformed monster of Gothic fiction, horror films, superhero comics, and the like, and brings it into 13th Age as a combat monster! So that could be the Beast of Beauty and the Beast, the Wolf Man of The Wolf Man, and the Incredible Hulk of Marvel comics. Now by default, the Abomination cannot transform, although with the right Talent it is possible, but it could be a failed experiment, a thing which crept out of hell, and so on. It relies upon its natural weapons in combat, which it then augments with an element such as poison or fire which it can spit. As an intimidating, raging combat beast, it can be made dragon-, snake-, and troll-like amongst other flavours, make it harder, and so on, all depending upon the Talents chosen. The Abomination has Maneuvres like a Fighter which trigger on a flexible basis, so the player rolls to attack and then selects the Maneuvre which the roll has triggered rather than selecting the Maneuvre beforehand. The Abomination can be played as a raging, rampaging beast of a monster, but with the appropriate selection, the player gets to do that as well as roleplay out the tragedy of the Abomination’s existence.

In comparison to the Abomination, the Fateweaver is a step up or two in terms of complexity. Fundamentally, the Fateweaver breaks the Fourth Wall in order to manipulate the dice and the narrative. Naturally the Icons take an interest in the Fateweaver, perhaps a wandering fortuneteller or disgraced court jester, because of his ability to manipulate and shape destinies—which is their job after all! To model this, the Fateweaver receives Talents such as ‘Astrologer’, which enables the character to predict the future and if correct, regain a spell or recovery, or increase the Escalation by one; ‘Stage Performer’, which allows the Fateweaver to reroll an attack or action in a scene or battle as long as he has an audience; if the Fateweaver thinks life to be a joke, then ‘Harlequin’ lets him add an extra effect to a spell—as long as the other players (and not the other characters) think it is funny. A Fateweaver can also cast two types of spells, standard spells and Meditations. To use the Fateweaver meditates to enter a state known as Focus to connect to threads of reality, once he has Focus, a Fateweaver expends to both cast a spell and gain the spell’s Focus effect. For example, Reveal What Was Hidden shows the Fateweaver something on the battlefield or nearby that the rest of the party had not seen, or Mantra of Cleansing, which allows the Fateweaver to make a saving throw against an ongoing effect.

Potentially, the Fateweaver is a dynamic support character, but the intricacies of its design mean it is not easy to learn and harder to master. The disruptive nature of the style of play may also mean that the Class may not fit with every single campaign. That though, will come down to what sort of campaign the Game Master wants to run.

Then there is the Psion. Again, this is more complex, but where the Fateweaver feels all new, the Psion is familiar in what it does and how it works. Psions specialise in three of six disciplines—Blaster, Egotist (body alteration), Nomad (teleportation), Seer (clairsentience), Shaper (object creation, including arms, armour, and constructs), and Telepath (including mental control of others). These are fuelled by Psionic Power Points, which are recovered by resting. Every Psion has the base at-will minor powers for all six disciplines, but over time, can learn the greater powers of their selected disciplines. They can also offset the set cost of their powers by selecting certain Talents, but for the more potent powers a player will still need to husband his character’s Power Points throughout a scenario. Whether it is powers like ‘Withering Limbs’ or ‘Stretchable Forms’, there is the feel of superhero or Jedi powers to the Psion’s abilities. In other words, these powers are more obvious in what they are and how they work, but at the same there is a wider range of them, allowing a player to better tailor his character. Some extra notes suggest how the powers might be tied to other sources and mapping them onto the various schools of magic in Dungeons & Dragons. For the setting of 13th Age, the Dragon Empire, there are some interesting suggestions as who or what might be a Psion’s patron, since psionics do not actually quite fit the setting.

The Savage though is a front rank combatant, able to use Frenzy dice to fuel their powers, heal themselves, or increase damage. These dice increase in size and number as the Savage gains Level. Gained through successful hits, they can be spent on Frenzy Powers. Some of these expend Frenzy dice in return for their effect, such as ‘Frenzied Leap’ which enables the Savage to leap across the battlefield, or ‘Iron Determination’ which grants a reroll on a failed save or death save. Others though, such as ‘Cry for Blood’, which inflicts damage on multiple nearby enemies, and since it is a melee attack, the Savage gains a Frenzy die. The Talents for the Savage add colour as much as a mechanical effect, so ‘Born to the Saddle’ makes the character a skilled rider, especially in combat, whilst ‘Full Metal Berserk’ allows him to wear heavy armour without penalty rather than the standard leather and hides. The background for the Savage in the Dragon Empire, the setting of the 13th Age is also interesting, placing it outside of the empire, their being from beyond civilised lands. The Savage Class is slightly problematic in that it is not dissimilar to the Barbarian Class. This is more thematic than mechanical though.

Where the Psion feels familiar to longtime players of Dungeons & Dragons-style games, the last two Classes will be familiar to more recent players. The first of these is the Swordmage, which as the title suggests combines swordplay and arcane magic. The Swordmage is primarily a defensive Class, placing Sigils on their opponents using the Mark with Sigil spell. What this does is force the enemy so marked to focus on the Swordmage and then punish them when they attack an ally. So a Sigil of Vengeance lets the Swordmage teleport immediately to the marked opponent and attack him if the opponent is attacking someone else. Other Sigils inflict damage or force rerolls on the opponent, and so on. A Swordmage starts off with one Sigil and gains more as he gains Levels. In addition, a Swordmage automatically has Mage Armour and can redirect it with his off hand to increase his Armour Class. Most Swordmage Talents alter how the Swordmage fights and casts spells and sigils, again adding flavour as much as mechanics. Thus ‘Skull Blade’ gives access to Necromancer spells and ‘Twin Blade Style’ grants the ability to fight with two weapons and apply its effects to all spells which deal weapon damage. Most Swordmage spells are colourful blade attacks which do arcane damage. For example, Keen Blade enables a Swordmage player to reroll dice on an attack and take the best, whilst Freezing Strike inflicts cold damage and immoblises the target! Overall, the Swordmage here has a Manga or Martial Arts feel to it.

The sixth and last Class is the Warlock. This will be familiar to various versions of Dungeons & Dragons, but here specialise in blasting spells which inflict damage, curses which have harmful effects, and hexes which have a range of  mostly protective effects. Thus Hungry Shadows blasts a target with negative energy—even more if the target is cursed, Burning Retribution both burns and curses the target, and Demon Tongue grants rerolls on Charisma-based rolls. As with versions elsewhere, the Warlock presented here has a Warlock Pact, but being for 13th Age, it is with an Icon rather than something nebulous. So a Divine Pact is with the Priestess, a Knightly Pact is with the Crusader, and so on. This grants the Warlock a minor effect, typically triggered by the Escalation Die, and then essentially provides the flavour for how the Warlock casts his magic.  All of the Warlock spells can be cast at-will, so they are not quite as powerful, but they are flashy and fun. Further, the Warlock can have any of the spells and adjust their flavour to his Pact.

Beyond the six Classes it details, Dark Pacts & Ancient Secrets gives various Talents for the Classes from 13th Age core book and 13 True Ways. So ‘Lycanthrope’ for the Barbarian will transform the character into the Abomination when the Barbarian rages, and the Eldritch Knight can use the ‘Mark with Sigil’ feature of the Swordmage. Again, these flavour the various Classes slightly, but do not push a Class over into the other. Lastly, Magic Items adds items specific to the six Classes in Dark Pacts & Ancient Secrets, and more. Abominations can take severed body parts—poison glands, slappy tails, troll hearts, and more—and add them to his body as Grafts, whilst Crystals, such as Jewel of Storing or Reflecting Bead, are designed to work with the Psion Class. There are lots of magic items given here, all useful for adding a little more flavour and feel to playing 13th Age.

Physically, Dark Pacts & Ancient Secrets is tidily presented. The book is decently written, whilst the artwork in the main consists of full colour pieces for each of the six Classes. If there is an issue with the art, it is perhaps that veers too far towards the ‘Chainmail Bikini’ school of art. The art overall, is done in a Manga style.

Fundamentally in coming to Dark Pacts & Ancient Secrets, both players and the Game Master has to ask themselves if they want or need extra character Classes for their campaign. None of the half dozen in the supplement are necessary to play 13th Age, but of course they expand the range of options available and in some ways what sort of stories can be told. Obviously the tragedy of the Abomination and the Warlock eventually having to come to terms with the Pact made to gain his powers. Some Classes may be too close to others to have them at the table together, for example the Savage and the Barbarian, so a gaming group may want to be careful in its choice of Classes available. Some of the Classes make you wonder whether the ‘Archmage Engine’ of 13th Age could be used for other genres. For example, take the Abomination Class and do a superhero character like Hulk, and whilst that might be the most obvious, there are Talents scattered throughout Dark Pacts & Ancient Secrets which lend themselves to other superheroes or genres.

Dark Pacts & Ancient Secrets is solid support for 13th Age. If as a 13th Age Game Master you want more Classes, the Dark Pacts & Ancient Secrets provides a decent range of new Classes and more to bring into her campaign.

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 and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.


—oOo—What is it?
Heortlings of Sartar is a short supplment for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, part of the author’s ‘Monsters of the Month’ series.

It is a twenty-five page, full colour, 2.05 MB PDF.

Heortlings of Sartar is well presented and organised. It is not illustrated and needs a slight edit.

Where is it set?
Dragon Pass, specifically Sartar, but its contents can be used wherever Heortlings and Sartarites might be encountered.

Who do you play?
Heortlings of Sartar is primarily for the Game Master who will portray its very many NPCs.

What do you need?
RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

What do you get?
Stat blocks.

Forty-two of them.

One is issue with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is the complexity of its stat blocks, especially in the time it takes to create them for NPCs. RuneQuest II—or RuneQuest Classic—solved this issue with a number of supplements such as Fangs, RuneQuest Source Pack Alpha: Trolls and Trollkin, RuneQuest Source Pack Beta: Creatures of Chaos 1: Scorpion Men and Broos, and RuneQuest Source Pack Gamma: Militia & Mercenaries. Heortlings of Sartar is essentially the equivalent of those supplements, but with a bit more context and written for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

Heortlings of Sartar provides the stats for the types of NPCs that the adventurers are likely to encounter throughout Sartar. They fall into four categories—the nobility, free folk, unfree folk, and outlaws. So the nobility includes the notables to be found in Sartarite villages and settlements, such as a Lhankor Mhy Lawspeaker, Priestess of Ernalda, Storm Voice, Thane, and Village Chieftain. The free folk covers Landholders, Merchants, Crafters, Militia Warriors, Healers, Herders, and so on, whilst the unfree folk gives stats for Stickpickers, Tenant Farmers, Thralls, and the like. Lastly, Bandits, Lunar Deserters, and Tricksters are listed under outlaws.

Each NPC is presented on its own page and clearly laid out, both for ease of reading and printing. Where NPCs have an allied spirit—such as the Lhankor Mhy Lawspeaker the Priestess of Ernalda—these are given their own stat blocks, although this does mean that the pages for these NPCs are slightly more cramped in comparison to the other NPCs. Where the Player Characters might encounter more than one of a type of NPC, for example, the bandits or the Lunar deserters, they are given more generic stat blocks with four to a page. It should also be noted that none of these NPCs have every skill they might have listed, but rather just the ones which are pertinent to to their roles. This obviously cuts down on probable clutter and anyway, the supplement suggests standard values for the skills they do not have.

One notable omission from Heortlings of Sartar is the inclusion of stats for either a Clan Chief or a Tribal King. Again, this is by design since both should be unique individuals rather than simple stat blocks.

Although every NPC comes with a thumbnail description, they do feel underwritten in places, leaving the Game Master wanting a little more explanation. For example, the fact that there is a difference between the hunting styles of Odayla and Yinkin worshippers is mentioned, but not explained. In addition, the none of hunter characters have pets.

Lastly, for a supplement intended to be as utilitarian as it is, it is lacking one last, very useful feature—a list of names. The inclusion of this would have made Heortlings of Sartar just that little bit easier and faster to use. 

Is it worth your time?
Yes. Heortlings of Sartar is as utilitarian a supplement as the Game Master might imagine, but utilitarian means useful and practical—and Heortlings of Sartar is certainly that. Perfect for when the Game Master needs the off-the-shelf stats for a local NPC.
a list of names. 
No. Heortlings of Sartar will be of little use to you if your campaign is not set anywhere near Sartar or you like to create your own NPC stats.
Maybe. Heortlings and Sartarites get everywhere, so eventually the Player Characters might run into them, so then Heortlings of Sartar might be useful.

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

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

—oOo—
Name: Unremembered

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Heinrich D. Moore

Setting: 1990s New Orleans

Product: Scenario
What You Get: 11.13 MB forty-three-page, full colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: When no-one remembers the father, can the missing son be found before he too is forgotten? 
Plot Hook: New Orleans police detectives are assigned to find a teenager missing after he receives a letter from the father his mother denies knowing. Just who was the father and what is the denial of his existence masking?
Plot Development: Difficult investigation in a wretched city, high school breakdown, and a town lost from the bayou.
Plot Support: Six pre-generated investigators, eight NPCs and entities, and ten handouts.

Pros
# Based on the James Blish short story,‘More Light’
# Murky investigation
# Creepy use of masks
# Nice handouts
# Two or three session one-shot
# Could be adapted to Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game
# Solid slice of Southern Gothic

Cons# One pre-generated investigator needs stronger ties
# Maps would have been useful
# Sanity rewards and losses too high
# Climax needs careful handling
# Very specific in terms of time and place

Conclusion
# Missing person case masks a creepy plot
# Solid slice of Southern Gothic

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 and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.


—oOo—What is it?
Six Seasons in Sartar: A Campaign for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is a short campaign for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. It is based on a campaign presented on the author’s blog.

Six Seasons in Sartar: A Campaign for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is a commentary upon Six Seasons in Sartar, an epic poem by Usuphus of Jonstown, which tells of the tragic fall of the Haraborn, the Clan of the Black Stag, the 13th Colymar clan.

It is a one-hundred-and-forty-four page, full colour, 79.61 MB PDF.

Six Seasons in Sartar: A Campaign for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is well presented, decently written, though it needs an edit in places, and includes a decent range of artwork. The front cover is good.

Where is it set?
Dragon Pass in Glorantha, specifically in ‘Black Stage Vale’, a narrow, vee-shaped valley high in the mountains between Mounts Quivin and Kagradus in the lands of the Colymar tribe, specifically between Sea Season 1619 ST and Sea Season 1620 ST. 

Who do you play?
Members of the Haraborn, the Clan of the Black Stag, the 13th Colymar clan, not yet initiated, typically Orlanth and Ernalda worshippers.

What do you need?
RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and RuneQuest – Glorantha Bestiary.

What do you get?
Six Seasons in Sartar is not just one thing. Well, actually it is just one thing—a campaign, but it also is more than the sum of its parts, for each and every one of those parts stands out on its own. Not necessarily because they are gameable, but together they contribute to the campaign as a very satisfactory whole.

First—and most obviously, Six Seasons in Sartar is a campaign. Much like the vale in which the Haraborn make their home and the events of the campaign play, its focus is very narrow, taking the Player Characters through the travails and tribulations of the last year of the Haraborn, the Clan of the Black Stag, the 13th Colymar clan. It begins with their initiation and takes them season by season through 1619 ST and into 1620 ST. These individual adventures will involve the Player Characters in a mystery concerning the sudden appearance of a ghost, the activities of the rebels holding out against the Lunar Empire’s occupation of Sartar, and the abduction of a guest. Ultimately, the campaign will reveal secrets about the history of the vale which bring it to the attention of Kallyr Starbrow and following a confrontation with an agent of the Lunar Empire, lead to a sundering of the clan at the hands of the empire’s indigent servants. 

In between the six parts which make up the campaign, the Game Master can weave various secondary plots and events—here called ‘episodes’—such as a birth or funeral, a romance or a cattle raid, and so on. Many of these episodes are optional, and whilst including them does lengthen the play of the campaign, they also add depth to its play and serve to involve the players and their characters in the community that is the Haraborn clan. Although their use is given as optional, the campaign will be all the better not just because of the extra added depth, but also because their use gives scope for the Game Master to focus on each of the characters in play, to give them time in the spotlight. 

Second, Six Seasons in Sartar is a description of a complete clan, the Haraborn. This includes the complete history and mythology of the clan, as well as its wyter, the chieftain and his Ring—the clan council, plus the geography of the vale that is the clan’s home. It explains who they are and what their outlook is—that of deeply conservative mountain folk who value tradition, have limited contact with the outside world, and are devoted to the Storm Tribe. It explains their Runic ties, predominately Air/Storm and Earth, though some may be ‘Troll-touched’ and tied to the Darkness Rune. Members of the Haraborn clan are also members of the White Hart ‘spirit cult’, and expected to be useful to the clan—that is, to not go off seeking adventure. This cult is entirely local and provides interesting cervine spells such as Stag’s Crown which enables the user to sprout a twelve-point rack of antlers or Deerbrother which creates a Mind Link with the nearest deer and allow the caster to see and hear what the deer sees and hears, as well as cast spells through the deer.

This description and background support both the campaign and explains the constraints placed on character generation. This is as per the normal process, but the characters have to be of the Haraborn clan, have either the Air, Earth, or Darkness Rune, and instead of having an Occupation, have what is really their parents' Occupation. Occupations such as Bandit, Chariot Driver, Fisher, Philosopher, or Thief are all unlikely, but this still offers plenty of choice. As to cult, no starting characters for the campaign yet belongs to a cult, for their choice of, and their joining a cult will come about through play. All characters are Lay members of Ernalda if female, Orlanth if male. Lastly, each character’s family history will end with their parents in 1618 and none of them will receive the standard skill bonuses. The end result is a youth between fifteen and sixteen years of age, ready to be initiated.

Third, Six Seasons in Sartar is an initiation into the mysteries of Glorantha. This can be seen in various elements of the campaign. Most obviously in two ways. The first of these is the essay on the nature of heroquests, supported by the rules for them later in the book. This includes the three types of heroquest—‘This World Heroquest’, the ritual re-enactment of Myth; the ‘Hero Planes Heroquest’, in which the heroquesters temporarily become gods to gain a boon or blessing, in particular for their community; and the ‘Otherworld Heroquest’, in which the heroquesters travel deeper into the God Plane to create a new of their own! It also suggests rewards for each and the means to begin them. The other form of initiation is the actual complete presentation of two initiation rites, one for Orlanth lay worshippers and one for Ernalda lay worshippers. They each form the two starting parts of the campaign, one for male characters, one for female characters. Mechanically, the process serves as part of the characters’ personal history, but they also work to point each character towards the cult they will ultimately become initiates of. For example, a Lay member of the Ernalda cult might lean towards Babestor Gor as a cult if she favours the Death Rune over the Fertility Rune during her initiation. Playing out the initiation also gets the player and his character involved from the start, forcing him to make choices in play rather than at the start and so make those choices significant.

Later events in the scenario might also be said to further initiate the Game Master into the greater mysteries of Glorantha, notably an encounter with Kallyr Starbrow. Pleasingly, despite her role in the forthcoming hero wars and past events, she never overshadows the efforts of the player characters and interestingly, she never quite comes across as wholly heroic. As to the initiations, these are absolutely fantastic tools for the Game Master to enforce Glorantha’s mysteries from the start, and it would be absolutely fantastic to see further initiations similar to this but for other cults on the Jonstown Compendium.

Fourth, Six Seasons in Sartar is a toolkit. Take the various bits of the campaign and what you have is a set of tools and elements which the Game Master can obviously use as part of running Six Seasons in Sartar, but can also take them and use them in her own campaign. So this is not just the advice and discussion as to the nature of heroquests and how to run them, as well as the initiation scenarios, but also the rules for creating and running streamlined NPCs, the streamlined rules for handling battles, cattle raids, and heroquests, events such as funerals and births, romance, and more. All of these can be separated from Six Seasons in Sartar and the Game Master bring them into her own game.

Fifth, Six Seasons in Sartar is a conceit. Throughout the campaign, commentary is provided by a number of notable Gloranthan scholars and experts in Third Age literature, not necessarily upon the campaign itself, but upon Usuphus of Jonstown’s epic, Six Seasons in Sartar. These often offer contradictory opinions and so mirror that of Gloranthaphiles about various topics on Glorantha. They include excerpts from works such as ‘Usuphus: A Feminist Perspective’ by Adhira Chatterjee and Noah Webber’s lecture, ‘The Symbolism of the Star Heart and Predark in Six Seasons in Sartar.’, and what they do is enables the author himself to step out of the campaign itself and add further commentary, not just from his own point of view, but from opposing views. Beyond that, the conceit pushes Six Seasons in Sartar as a campaign from being a mere campaign into being an epic, because essentially, it is what a heroic poem does.

Of course, Six Seasons in Sartar comes to an end. The climax manages to be both sad and satisfying, but it leaves the Game Master wanting more, the players and the characters wondering what comes next. Possibilities are discussed and suggested, most obviously about reuniting the scattered Haraborn, the aim being for the Game Master to write the next episodes of the campaign (and thus the poem, or perhaps a new one). Nevertheless, it would be interesting to see an official sequel, both in terms of the campaign and the clan, plus of course, to the epic poem, Six Seasons in Sartar. This could easily fit in the period between the end of the Six Seasons in Sartar campaign 1620 ST and the jumping off point for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha in 1625 ST.

Is it worth your time?
Yes. Six Seasons in Sartar: A Campaign for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is a superb treatment of community, myth, and tragedy in Glorantha, grounding the players and their characters in the community, pulling them into the myth, and having them play out the tragedy. Whilst the tools and the discussion are undeniably useful, as a campaign starter it has no equal—it should be one of the first titles a prospective Game Master of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha should purchase from the Jonstown Compendium.
No. Six Seasons in Sartar: A Campaign for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha presents an alternative campaign set-up, one which takes place prior to the default starting date for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, and you may already have begun your campaign. Six Seasons in Sartar: A Campaign for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha also places limits upon character choice and your players may want to play characters who do not fit within its remit.
Maybe. Six Seasons in Sartar: A Campaign for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha includes content which is useful beyond the limits of its campaign—the initiation rites, the notes on heroquests, rules for streamlined NPCs, quick resolution rules for battles, and more. All useful in an ongoing campaign. 

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 and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.


—oOo—What is it?
Vinga’s Ford is a short scenario for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

It is a nineteen page, full colour, 12.27 MB PDF.

Vinga’s Ford is well presented and decently written, and is illustrated with simple artwork.

Where is it set?
Dragon Pass, specifically between Oakton and Apple Lane in Sartar. Alternatively, it can be set on any river which feeds into the Upland Marsh.

Who do you play?
Vinga’s Ford works well if the Player Characters include a Vinga worshipper amongst their number, but an Orlanthi works just as well. A Humakti and a shaman may also prove useful.

With some alterations, an experienced Game Master could adjust Vinga’s Ford to be played by Troll Player Characters.

What do you need?
RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and RuneQuest – Glorantha Bestiary for its information on Trolls and Ducks at the very least. If run at its default location, then the Game Master will also need the information on Apple Lane found in the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack.

Alternatively, Vinga’s Ford could easily be adapted to be run using 13th Age and 13th Age Glorantha. This will require some effort upon the part of the 13th Age Glorantha Game Master.

What do you get?
The Player Characters are the road travelling between Oakton and Apple Lane in the northern territories of the Colymar Tribe when they have to cross the Swan River at Vinga’s Ford. However, their crossing is impeded by zombies, a strange occurrence this far from the Upland Marsh. When an unexpected ally comes to their aid, they are alerted to a greater danger—a vampire, one of Delecti the Necromancer’s feared ‘Dancers in Darkness’. The question is, what is that vile creature’s interest in Vinga’s Ford?

After some investigation—at either Apple Lane or Oakton—the Player Characters will learn of an annual occurrence at the ford. This is the ghostly appearance of a battle between a Vingan and some Trolls. Of course, this is happening that very evening, so the Player Characters have the opportunity to investigate further, foil the plans of the ‘Dancer in Darkness’, and join the battle themselves!

Vinga’s Ford is an ‘on-the-road’ adventure, which whilst built around a pair of connected battles, further involves the Player Characters in the mystical elements of Glorantha and how that can physically alter the world around them. It can also be used to introduce them to some of the elements of horror—essentially the doings of Delecti the Necromancer and the doings of his servants—though at some remove, found in Glorantha and also to Ducks.

As an ‘on-the-road’ adventure, it can easily added to a campaign to liven up a journey. If run at its default location, then it could be run as part as a journey to or from Runegate, Jonstown, and even Dangerford. This would make it suitable adventure to be run before or after adventures such as The Duel at Dangerford, Arrows of War, and ‘Darkness at Runegate’. It could also be used to help expand upon the scenarios to be found in the RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha – Starter Set.

One issue with Vinga’s Ford is the attitude of the villagers—in either Apple Lane or Oakton—towards Ducks. Amongst some members of either community it is suggested that it is not positive, and whilst Ducks are not held in the highest of regards in many parts of Sartar and beyond, this is not the case in Apple Lane as portrayed in the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack. Here the village has a prominent Duck resident, so the attitudes do not sit well with the descriptions given of the village. That said, not every inhabitant of Apple Lane is detailed and there is scope for them to hold such prejudices. 

Is it worth your time?
Yes. Vinga’s Ford is a solid side quest scenario, easily added to any journey to involve the Player Characters in ancient battles and the doings of both Ducks and Delecti the Necromancer. 
No. Vinga’s Ford will be of little use to you if you have issues with Ducks or are not running a campaign set in Sartar.
Maybe. The ongoing battle at the heart of Vinga’s Ford could be adapted to be between combatants other than a Vingan and some Trolls with some effort and changes to the mythology as necessary.

Brutal Imperilment in the Bag of Infinite Holding is a short and clever, if slightly silly scenario for the fantasy roleplaying game of your choice. Published by Mottokrosh Machinations, it is nominally written for use with Hypertellurians: Fantastic Thrills Through the Ultracosm, but in terms of mechanics, it is all but systemless. Certainly, it would work with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and any number of Old School Renaissance retroclones or roleplaying games which involve high magic. The set-up is very simple. The Queen has lost her prized possessions—the crown jewels and her beloved poodle, Duchess—and she charges the Player Characters with their retrieval. She may even accompany them! That sounds simple enough, but nothing about this situation is so, for the Queen happened to lose both of them into her magical Bag of Infinite Holding!

Players and Dungeon Masters of a certain again will remember a certain adventure from Imagine Issue Number 15 (June, 1984)—‘Round the Bend’, in which the player characters, all Half-Orcs in the employ of a wizard, are shrunk down into miniaturised size and sent down the drain in order to retrieve various items on his behalf. Brutal Imperilment in the Bag of Infinite Holding is not dissimilar in that in climbing into the bag of holding, the player characters are shrunk down. What they discover is that the reason it is a Bag of Infinite Holding is because one Bag of Holding has been put inside another Bag of Holding or lost in another Bag of Holding, and then again—and then again. Thus once shrunk, the player characters find themselves inside a Bag of Holding big enough to be room connected to a series of Bags of Holding, each also the size of room. What you have then with Brutal Imperilment in the Bag of Infinite Holding is a dungeon, but not just any dungeon. Rather a dungeon made up of bags containing a completely random assortment of things, persons, monsters, traps, treasures, and more. As long as it could end up in a bag, or rather a Bag of Infinite Holding, it can end up being in this ‘dungeon’.

Barring the first three bags—or rooms—none of the actual locations in Brutal Imperilment in the Bag of Infinite Holding is described, although they are mapped. Even as mapped, they are simply a series of connected boxes, each box representing a bag or room across three levels—the Early Bags, The Weird Middle Belt, and The Far Depths. It also suggests how the Game Master can set up and map the adventure herself to create a different layout. Primarily though, what the Game Master will be doing is populating the dungeon herself and to do this, the scenario provides tables of random room or bag descriptions, for the Early Bags, The Weird Middle Belt, and The Far Depths. These are backed up with a Random Finds table in the first appendix.

What this set-up means is that Brutal Imperilment in the Bag of Infinite Holding could be run with a minimum of preparation—indeed barely any preparation at all. Especially if she has a handy book of ready-to-run monsters just in case the player characters run into them. As to particular system, only is Hypertellurians: Fantastic Thrills Through the Ultracosm is referenced, but no stats are given, for either the NPCs and monsters or the pre-generated player characters given in the second appendix. They include a fop, a Dwarven weremole spymaster, a merfolk skeleton necromancer, an avaricious purple octopus wearing a diving helmet, the queen’s highly sceptical maid, a Dark Elf cleric, and the Queen herself. None have any stats or skills, but all have strengths and weaknesses, a drive, a secret, and some gear, such that the Game Master could easily create them using the system of her choice. Or alternatively, the players could simply roleplay them as written and roll dice as necessary.

Of course, a Bag of Infinite Holding is a very Dungeons & Dragons thing, but the set-up need not involve that signature magical item at all. The third appendix suggests various alternatives, such as Fae Door Portals and Wells, even gives one or two ideas as to how the adventure could be used in different ways. The book also includes notes on roleplaying the various inhabitants of the labyrinth of bags as well as possible epilogues, including one suggestion that the complex of Bag of Holding upon Bag of Holding is actually not unlike a certain Christopher Nolan film. 

Physically, Brutal Imperilment in the Bag of Infinite Holding is a slim book. Whether cartoony or realistic, the illustrations are excellent, and the writing decent, if perhaps succinct. Overall, the adventure should provide a session or two’s worth of slightly silly, tongue-in-cheek fantasy roleplay, with very low preparation time. If you wanted to adventure to find out what is at the bottom of the bag, then Brutal Imperilment in the Bag of Infinite Holding lets you fall in and go beyond its limits.

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

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

The world of Glorantha has had any number of fanzines dedicated to it over its forty year or so history, most notably, Wyrm’s Footnotes and Tales of the Reaching Moon. Published by D101 Games, Hearts in Glorantha is a more recent fanzine, having been published on an irregular basis since 2008. A total of seven issues have been published to date, with the first five collated as Hearts in Glorantha Vol 1 Collected. The inaugural issue, Hearts in Glorantha Issue 1 Summer 2008 was subtitled ‘Mythology & Glorantha’ and its focus is very much on the mythology and bringing it to your game. As well as the ‘Mythology & Glorantha’, it comes with two region guides, duck tales, an interview, and more.

The issue opens with John Ossoway’s ‘God Fall’. This details a location in north-eastern Prax, at least a week’s waterless journey from anywhere, a location where a century ago, a new star blazed across the sky and fell to earth. Hailed as a fallen god, its worshippers are known to receive prophetic visions and healing from him whilst they wait until the time he awakens, reveals his identity, and rewards them for their devotion. Both location and cult are described, and there are also notes for shifting God Fall to the Second Age. What is missing here is a scenario seed or two, something to give the description some application to help the Game Master include it in her game.

Publisher and editor of Hearts in Glorantha, Newt Newport, contributes several pieces to this first issue of the fanzine. The first is ‘Prologue Method For Character Generation’, which breaks the character creation process in HeroQuest into three steps—Childhood, Rites of Passage, and Early Experience, and has player and Game Master together explore what happened at each stage. This rewards both with enhanced character creation and background and experience of how the character works in play. He also details a frontier country in the Eastern Wilds of Ralios in two articles—‘Karia’ and ‘Karia Mythology and History’. The first is a gazetteer for Karia, a rough land and only separated from Dorastor Land of Doom by the Kartolin Pass, barely populated by settlers from the Kingdom of Delela, exiles from the Dukedom of Naskorion, and Trolls from the Queendom of Halikiv. The second provides context and background, not just from one point of view, but multiple points. This includes the Orlanthis, the Trolls, and more, before bringing the region up to date at the dawn of the Hero Wars.

‘Homeland: Kralori’ by Mark Galeotti explores Kralorela, the Kingdom of Splendor in Eastern Genertela. It details this very traditional, caste-bound culture, their common faiths, and the Kralori pantheon. This is supported with particular Keywords for use with HeroQuest and nicely captures the conservative nature of the society. Elsewhere Stuart Mousir-Harrison describes Aweke, a low-growing ground herb found across Pralorela and elsewhere for ‘Flora of Glorantha’. It details how although difficult to cultivate, it has stimulating and endurance-enhancing properties.

The ‘Mythology & Glorantha’ focus gets underway with David Dunham’s ‘The Tale Theft’. This is a ‘do-it-yourself’ means of creating heroquests, using words and ideas on cards as elements which players can tribute towards both creation and play of a heroquest. By implication, it is written for use with HeroQuest and supported by a full example or two. This emphasises the storytelling aspects of HeroQuest and would actually work with the next article, ‘Location Mythlets’. Here Jane Williams looks at how to take the two-line myths from the Dragon Pass Gazetteer and by answering a few questions—what the Game Masters wants, how to build the myth, how it might differ from the myth’s norm, and how it might all go together. Again, it comes several examples. How a heroquest might differ from the norm is entertainingly illustrated in the first of third pieces of fiction in the issue. This is in James Williams’ second contribution to the issue, ‘Lookout Hill’, telling how a heroquest to ensure that the Thunder Brothers burned off the darkness at the foot of the Quivini Mountains became something more. The second piece of fiction, Jeff Richards’ ‘The Seduction of Tarahelera’ tells of what is perhaps a more straightforward heroquest, but is no less entertaining. The third is ‘Using a Charm’, an instructive piece on the nature of dealing with spirits by Greg Stafford.

Perhaps the most fun piece in Hearts in Glorantha Issue 1 is ‘Rymes & Ribbolds Royall – The Kings and Queens of the Durulz’. Written by Stewart Stansfield with Keith Nellist, this presents idea that a chronicle of the kings and queens of the wereducks of Dragon Pass was written as a series of comedic poems, most notably by the skald known as Waddlewit. This is supported by three sample excerpts and histories for a particular monarch, as well as the full stats in HeroQuest for the artefacts associated with them. So for example, Holgreema the Rotbane, Queen Starbolt, wanton despot who wooed the river god, performed the Cutting of the Zombie Chain, and cast her left eye into the swamp to watch its borders is accompanied by a write-up of the Chariot of the Gods, Spirits, and Essences of the Creek-Stream River, a water-chariot made from a giant Dragonsnail shell. Typical spirits associated with the chariot are also described. All together a highly entertaining piece of lore.

The interview in Hearts in Glorantha Issue 1 is with Jeff Richard. ‘Newt Talks to Jeff Richard’ is a fairly lengthy piece covering a number of subjects, including the then development of HeroQuest 2, as well as Pavis: Gateway to Glorantha, Cults of Sartar, and more. It highlights in the main the intended ease of play of HeroQuest 2 in comparison to the first edition of HeroQuest. As interesting as the interview is in capturing the then state of roleplaying Glorantha—after all, 2008 was a very different time with different publishers—it is not particularly interesting in itself.

The single scenario in Hearts in Glorantha Issue 1 is Newt Newport’s ‘Fixing the Wrong’. Set in Dragon Pass, it casts the player characters as either Lunars or Heortlings. Since published in Gloranthan Adventures 1: New Beginnings, it takes place in the former lands of the Hazel Owl clan, which was all but obliterated by the Lunar Empire following an uprising. The Lunar Empire was not without compassion and established a mission house to attend to the refugees who survived, including the then beautiful daughter of Hazel Owl chieftain, Jalhena the Gentle. Driven mad by the experience, in the years since, Jalhena the Gentle has become Jalhena the Hag and a Lunar convert, so when she approaches the neighbouring Birch Shaper clan in order to claim the hand of the chief’s son in marriage, mediators are required. Which is where the Player Characters become involved. The scenario comes with a full cast list, location descriptions, and scenes, including a heroquest. Of course, timewise, this is now a slightly difficult scenario to run, but it could certainly be run as a flashback.

Physically, Hearts in Glorantha Issue 1 Summer 2008 is decently presented. It needs a slight edit in places, but is in the main, very readable. It is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is good—or even excellent in the case of the ducks! Hearts in Glorantha Issue 1 Summer 2008 is twelve years old and it shows very much in the choice of gaming systems referenced—though this is generally down with a little touch—and of course, the time frame. Nevertheless, this does not mean that the contents are invalid or useless, the discussion on the nature and construction of heroquests is thoughtful, the fiction entertaining, and the background interesting if not immediately useful. Overall, Hearts in Glorantha Issue 1 Summer 2008 is a solidly thoughtful first issue.

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

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

Gamma Zine carries the subtitle, ‘A Fanzine supporting early post-apocalyptic, science-fantasy RPGs – specifically First Edition Gamma World by TSR.’ This then, is a fanzine dedicated to the very first post-apocalyptic roleplaying game, Gamma World, First Edition, published by TSR, Inc. in 1978. Gamma Zine #1 was published in April, 2019, following a successful Kickstarter campaign as part of Zine Quest 1. Published by ThrowiGames!, it came as a black and white booklet, packed with content, including adventures, equipment, monsters, and more. Published as part of Zine Quest 2, Gamma Zine #2 was published in February, 2020 and promised more of the same—adventures, equipment, monsters, fiction, and so on.

Where Gamma Zine #1 began with a short interview with James M. Ward, the designer of both Gamma World and its predecessor, Metamorphosis Alpha, Gamma Zine #2 starts with ‘An Interview with Luke Gygax’. This is not just because his father is E. Gary Gygax, but also because he is listed as the co-author of GW1 Legion of Gold, the very first scenario for Gamma World. What is interesting about the development of the module is that Luke Gygax was just nine or ten years old at the time the adventure was written. Thus we we read about his influence over the design of the module as well as the time he spent as a child with his father. Which adds a more personal touch to our views of the man who co-created Dungeons & Dragons and began the hobby.

‘New Horrors from the Wasteland’ provides two new monsters. One is the Chog, a canine creature which seems to adsorb radiation and expell it in its bite. The bad news for the Player Characters is that the stronger the intensity of the radiation it has adsorbed, the worse its bite! The other creature is the Dizard, a lizard-type known for its tenaciousness when attacking—it likes to get a grip and keep hold, forcing a Player Character to try and break that grip! Leather taken from the Dizard is also known to be sturdy and all but fire proof.

Gamma Zine #2 also continues adding something not found in Gamma World—a Class. Classes are not a feature of Gamma World, but ‘Class Option — The Wasteland Blacksmith’ shows how they could be added to added. Following on from Artificer from Gamma Zine #1, in Gamma Zine #2, this is the Wasteland Blacksmith who makes and repairs things from the wasteland junk, earning Experience Points for doing so, but does not gain as many Experience Points from mere combat. The rules are fairly basic, but it adds flavour and enables a player to add a skill and round out his character a bit more. ‘Artifacts of the Ancients’ in Gamma Zine #1 concentrated on weapons, but ‘Artifacts of the Ancients’ in Gamma Zine #2 focuses on tools and survival aids. So the Stimpack Drone is designed to be used to deliver doses of a healing agent by remote, but others have adapted it to deliver poisons and radiation and more! The Hop-Pack provides the wearer with short jumps, the collapsible axe is a handy tool, and the Survivor Armband is perfect for anyone wanting their Gamma World adventures to be a bit more like the computer game, Fallout!

Gamma Zine #2 comes with three adventures. The first is ‘Adventure #1 — The Millionaire’s Vault’ describes the vault where a millionaire from before the apocalypse hoarded his most valuable possessions. Unless the Player Characters are looking for the reputed  ‘Cure All’ said to be hidden in its depths, there is little reason for them to visit what is actually a converted missile silo. It is more of an adventure location and as an adventure location, would work well with ‘Adventure #2 — Paradise Island’. The island of the title is home to farmers and fishermen and is known to trade in foodstuffs, but when the Player Characters arrive they discover that the island has been attacked by pirates and their mercenary island. In comparison to ‘Adventure #1 — The Millionaire’s Vault’, and even though it is quite simple, there is a whole lot more plot in ‘Adventure #2 — Paradise Island’. The vault from ‘Adventure #1 — The Millionaire’s Vault’ could easily be moved onto Paradise Island, and ‘Adventure #2 — Paradise Island’ enlarged and expanded, perhaps to form a hexcrawl of its very own also using the three adventures in Gamma Zine #1. 

‘Adventure #3 — Rescue!’ likewise includes a bit more of a plot. It describes a pre-apocalypse, advanced detention facility and the idea in the scenario is that the Player Characters need to rescue someone held in one of its cells. It is quite detailed and should present a challenge to any Player Characters attempting to break or con their way into the facility. The map is a little cramped and difficult to read, and it does feel as it could have been better orientated on the page.

The issue also includes two pieces of fiction. The first is  ‘The Hunted, Chapter Two’ which picks up from the cliffhanger that ended in ‘The Hunted, Chapter One’. In the first part, Whyla and her faithful cybernetic hound, Arnold, were ambushed by bandits and this gives the payoff. Again it is nicely written and with the resolution of the first cliffhanger sets up another. Unfortunately, the other piece of fiction, though again decently written, is not just as engaging. ‘Opportunity of Lifetime, Prologue’ really sets everything up for the next part, detailing how a student is selected for an important scientific mission. Set before the apocalypse, not a great happens and at three pages in length, it is too long a read. Hopefully the next chapter provide a better payoff.

Lastly, Gamma Zine #2 gives the Game Master another ‘Artifact Use (Solution) Flowcharts’. The focus of this set is guns and ammunition. So there are flowcharts for identifying revolvers and semi-automatics, along with standard and advanced ammunition types. It splits ammunition types because they are easy to get mixed up. Of course, some groups will find them fiddly and annoying, but they are part of the mechanics to Gamma World, so having more of them is fun.

Physically, Gamma Zine #2 is neat and tidy. It is decently written and nicely illustrated with good art throughout. Each of the scenarios is accompanied by excellent maps.

If you enjoyed Gamma Zine #1, then the likelihood is that you will enjoy Gamma Zine #2. It provides excellent support for the first edition of Gamma World, as well as for post-apocalyptic roleplaying games with a drier, slightly less fantastic tone, such as Free League Publishing’s Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days. It is not perfect though, there being a bit too much fiction and the adventures being more encounter locations than actual scenarios. This does not mean that they are not useful and the Referee can easily pick and choose how she uses the content. Certainly the adventures could be used to populate a hexcrawl of the Referee’s own devising. Overall, Gamma Zine #2 is continued solid support for Gamma World.

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

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

The Wormskin fanzine, published by Necrotic Gnome is written for use with Labyrinth Lord and issue by issue, details an area known as Dolmenwood, a mythical wood, an ancient place of tall trees and thick soil, rich in fungi and festooned with moss and brambles and rife with dark whimsy. Wormskin No. 1 was published in December, 2015, and was followed by Wormskin No. 2 in March, 2016. Both issues introduced the setting with a set of articles rich in flavour and atmosphere, but lacking a certain focus in that the region itself, Dolmenwood, was not detailed. Fortunately, in March, 2017, Necrotic Gnome Productions released Welcome to Dolmenwood, a free introduction to the setting. Further, Wormskin No. 3 and Wormskin No. 4, published in July, 2016 and Winter 2016 respectively, improved hugely upon the first and second issues, together providing a better introduction to Dolmenwood, giving some excellent answers to some very good questions about the setting before delving into what is the biggest secret of Dolmenwood. Published in the winter of 2017, Wormskin No. 5 looked at how the region might be explored, whilst also presenting the region around ‘Hag’s Addle’. Wormskin No. 6 focused on the area around Prigwort, as well as detailing ‘The Fairy Lords of Dolmenwood’ and the ‘Unseasons’ that beset the region.

Wormskin No. 7 was published in the autumn of 2017. The issue opens with two almost mundane, but actually very useful articles. The first, ‘Common Names in Dolmenwood’ lists thirty names each for men and women, Elves, Moss Dwarfs, Woodgrues, and Grimalkin—all given as Classes in earlier editions of the fanzine, plus liturgical names for Clerics, and then Honourifics for Clerics, Fighters, Thieves, and Magic-Users. The second, ‘Henchmen of Dolmenwood’ gives rules for locating and creating henchmen and then equipping them according to Class and Race. These obviously work together, but whether in combination or apart, they fill another part of Dolmenwood’s jigsaw puzzle. Especially the ‘Common Names in Dolmenwood’ which allows the Referee to easily name common NPCs.
The bulk of the issue though is dedicated to detailing another twenty-one hexes of Dolmenwood. These include seven hexes in the north around the hamlet of Drigbolton, seven hexes in central Dolmenwood to the east of the town of Prigwort, and in the south, seven hexes around the road from Lankshorn to Dreg. So ‘Drigbolton and Surrounds’ opens with the description of ‘The Hall of the Formorian’, a domed hall atop a marble slab which is home to a blue-skinned immortal giant bound by duty to await the arrival of an unknown man named Jack, a cottage of full of ghosts ready to trade secrets, whilst near the ghost town of Midgewarrow lies the manor home Lady Mariejay Haeroth, local noble and reclusive witch. The town of Drigbolton is mentioned, but not detailed, a full description being given in the scenario, The Weird that Befell Drigbolton.
Near Prigwort is the Ravine of the Stag Lord, a lonely natural amphitheatre where the Stag Lord manifests from the Otherworld to receive homage, though sadly without his head which has been stolen! What boons might he and his stag allies bestow should someone return the lost head to him? South of the ravine on the road is the Refuge of St. Keye, a stopping point on the old pilgrimage to the abandoned Abbey of St. Clewd. Here travellers can find a night’s rest and food if they are willing to listen to a sermon or two. Before that stands the Wenchgate—from the local name for Dryads, an arch of living trees and branches carved with faces that said to welcome travellers to Dolmenwood. Northeast of Lankshorn, not far from the Ditchway is a curiously formed hillock, which will radiate strongly should any magic that detects undead be cast upon it. This is because it is actually the skull of giant of a prodigious size no longer seen in these ages. With a skull that big, what could be inside it? Travellers looking for entertainment might want to visit the Port of Dreg and Shantywood Isle, the former a seedy haunt of thieves, smugglers, charlatans, and more, the latter a cliff-sided island upon which sits Chateau Shantywood. This is a ‘manor of ill repute’, but one which is an independent state of its own! The owner, Madame Shantywood is as much a repository of rumours and pillowtalk as she is ambitious to increase her influence.
The last part of Wormskin Issue Number 7 is devoted to ‘Monsters of Dolmenwood’. This presents some nine creatures native to the Eldritch region. The format for the monster entries has been shortened into a more concise fashion by excising the lair and encounter details which were included in previous entries in the series. This is disappointing because these added detail and examples which made the monster entries easier for use by the Referee. Nevertheless, these are good monsters, many of which have appeared in this and previous issues of the fanzine, either as known denizens of Dolmenwood or as playable character types and Races. They include the Drunewife, the womenfolk of the Drune known for their enchanting songs, and their herbalism and pottery, who are often accompanied by Kilnlings, the clay figurines that serve them. The Giant Psionic Snails are gargantuan denizens of the Otherworld who feed on the energy of Dolmenwood’s Ley Lines, who are often sort out for their knowledge of the Otherworld. One is thought to reside near Lankshorn, where its thoughts manifest as a tea tent that serves the mostly refreshing of brews.
Physically, Wormskin Issue Number 7 is as well presented as previous issues. The layout is clean and unfussy, the tables of ‘Common Names in Dolmenwood’ and ‘Henchmen of Dolmenwood’ make subtle use of colour and are so easy to read. As per usual, the issue uses a mix of publicly available artwork and commissioned pieces, the latter capturing the quirky nature of Dolmenwood. The issue’s use of colour is judicious and so stands out where it appears.
Wormskin Issue Number 7 is a solid issue, detailing yet more of Dolmenwood’s weird locations and inhabitants. Of course the issue suffers from the ‘Part Work’ format of Wormskin so putting it all together is all a bit daunting. It gives Dolmenwood a patchwork feel, the issue lending itself more to parts which a Referee can pull out and add to her game rather than Dolmenwood. 

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

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

Published by Straycouches Press, Crawl! is one such fanzine dedicated to the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. Since Crawl! No. 1 was published in March, 2012 has not only provided ongoing support for the roleplaying game, but also been kept in print by Goodman Games. Now because of online printing sources like Lulu.com, it is no longer as difficult to keep fanzines from going out of print, so it is not that much of a surprise that issues of Crawl! remain in print. It is though, pleasing to see a publisher like Goodman Games support fan efforts like this fanzine by keeping them in print and selling them directly.

Where Crawl! No. 1 was something of a mixed bag, Crawl! #2 was a surprisingly focused, exploring the role of loot in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and describing various pieces of treasure and items of equipment that the Player Characters might find and use. Similarly Crawl! #3 was just as focused, but the subject of its focus was magic rather than treasure. Unfortunately, the fact that a later printing of Crawl! No. 1 reprinted content from Crawl! #3 somewhat undermined the content and usefulness of Crawl! #3. Now Crawl! Issue Number Four is just as focused as the second and third issues, but the good news is that its contents remains its own. It also differs in content from earlier in presenting the one thing—and that is a scenario.

Published in September, 2013, the whole of Crawl! Issue Number Four is devoted to Yves Larochelle’s ‘The Tainted Forest Thorum’, a scenario for Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game for characters of Fifth Level. From the start, you can tell that Crawl! Issue Number Four is an Old School Renaissance scenario, since it comes with a loose cover on the inside of which the scenario’s area map is printed. The village of Thorum has recently suffered a rash of strange occurrences—the holy symbols of the Goddess of Justice have been stolen, damaged, and destroyed; bodies have been stolen from the village graveyard and been found disfigured in the nearby river; the brother of the local head cleric has been kidnapped; and a group of bandits is known to operate near the village. The question is, are these facts and events all connected? The Player Characters are asked to investigate and determine exactly what is going on.

Essentially ‘The Tainted Forest Thorum’ does the traditional ‘Village in Peril’ set-up, but for mid-Level characters rather than low-Level characters. It presents numerous avenues of  investigation for the Player Characters to look into and follow up. The Player Characters should be able to grab a lead or two and perhaps gain an ally or two whilst in Thorum. The village itself is lightly detailed, so the Judge might want to develop it some more herself. Certainly, the Judge may want to provide floor plans of the local Church of the Goddess of Justice, but for the most part, she can make it up as the Player Characters conduct their investigation. Ideally, they should find the leads pointing towards the perpetrator of all of this, though there is the possibility that they circumvent much of the investigation and cut to the chase—the dungeon!

Consisting of just fifteen locations, ‘Macrobius’ Dungeon’ is fairly linear and for the most part, fairly uninteresting. The maze in its midst is really superfluous and some of the locations really deserved  more description. There is a nasty deathtrap though—well, what would be the point of a deathtrap if it is not nasty?—which the Judge will have fun with, as she will with the scenario’s antagonist, Macrobius, a wizard whose ambition and greed has led him to turn to evil. As is traditional.

‘The Tainted Forest Thorum’ is slightly oddly organised in that the scenario’s major NPCs are kept separate from the locations and potential scenes where they are encountered. What this means is that the Judge will need to flip back and forth from locations to NPCs, and although that may not slow the running of the adventure down too, it is slight awkward. In addition, the scenario includes its own ‘Appendix H’ and ‘Appendix N’. The first details a river dragon which the Player Characters may encounter and is likely to be more of a hindrance for them if they engage with it, whilst the latter details a couple of magical items both of which play an important role in the scenario.

Physically, ‘The Tainted Forest Thorum’ and thus Crawl! Issue Number Four, is neat and tidy. It is light on artwork, but the few pieces are rather nice, and the writing is generally clear and easy to read. The two maps feel a bit heavy in their style and the dungeon map feels rather cramped, especially given how little information it has to convey. The format with separate is a very knowing, lovely touch.

‘The Tainted Forest Thorum’ is reasonable enough adventure, with some good investigative links and some accompanying NPCs who should be fun to portray. However, the scenario feels underwritten and underwhelming in places—the dungeon in particular—and the Judge may want to develop just a little bit further. Even without that development, ‘The Tainted Forest Thorum’ should provide a session or two’s worth of play, but with that development, the scenario may be a little more flavoursome and a little more engaging. Overall, ‘The Tainted Forest Thorum’ is an okay dungeon, which means that Crawl! Issue Number Four is an okay issue of the fanzine.

In a recent conversation on Twitter, a poster asked the question, “What’s a good retroclone based on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons?” Various answers were given, most notably OSRIC™ System (Old School Reference and Index Compilation) and Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea: A Roleplaying Game of Swords, Sorcery, and Weird Fantasy. My response was that in most cases, retroclones start with a version of Dungeons & Dragons or Basic Dungeons & Dragons and then build up from there to emulate Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Certainly, this is the case with Labyrinth Lord and Advanced Labyrinth Lord. It is also the case with Old School Essentials: Classic Fantasy, Necrotic Gnome’s interpretation and redesign of the 1981 revision of Basic Dungeons & Dragons by Tom Moldvay and its accompanying Expert Set by Dave Cook and Steve Marsh. With Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy presents options which emulate Advanced Dungeons & Dragons whilst restraining them in order to avoid the complexities of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.


Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy actually consists of two separate books. These are Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells. Now the two books complement each other, but also work on their own—though only to an extent. This is because some of the Classes from Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules use some of the spells from Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells, but simply the Magic-User from Old School Essentials: Classic Fantasy could use the Illusionist spells from Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells and a game of Old School Essentials using Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules could be run without using the spells from Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells or without using the Classes that use those spells. However, Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells really work together and ideally the Referee should combine both if she wants to run Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy.

Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules provides Referee and her players with some fifteen new Classes. In keeping with Old School Essentials, nine of these Classes are Human-only Classes. These are Acrobat, Assassin, Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Illusionist, Knight, Paladin, and Ranger. What is interesting here is the inspiration for these Classes. Not just Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, but with the inclusion of the Acrobat, Barbarian, and Knight—as nods to the Thief-Acrobat, Barbarian, and Cavalier respectively—Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules actually draws upon that most contentious of supplements for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, that is, Unearthed Arcana. The other six Classes are Demihuman Classes and in keeping with Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy with ‘Race as Class’ rather than Player Characters possessing both Race and Class. The six are Drow, Duergar, Gnome, Half-Elf, Half-Orc, and Svirfneblin, and again, in bringing these to Old School Essentials, the supplement draws heavily upon the Unearthed Urcana. The inclusion of the Drow, Duergar, and Svirfneblin also draws from the Underworld of Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying games, which Old Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules also add to Old School Essentials as an adventuring environment. What is clearly missing from these fifteen new Classes is the inclusion of the Monk as a new Class, but the publisher aims to include that in a supplement to mythical Asian adventures, what will likely be the equivalent of Oriental Adventures for Old School Essentials.

For the most part, the Classes in Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules will be familiar. So the Acrobat and the Assassin are like the Thief Class, but lack skills such as Pick Pocket, Find Trap, and so on. Instead, the Acrobat focuses on jumping, tumbling, and evading, whilst the Assassin focusses on kills by stealth. Similarly, the Barbarian has some stealth skills in the wilderness, fears all use of magic, and can eventually strike otherwise invulnerable foes. The Knight adheres to a chivalric code, always attempts to wear the best armour and wield the best weapons, is a good horseman, and is immune to fear. The Paladin casts divine magic, can lay on hands to heal and turn or destroy undead. The Ranger is rarely surprised, casts Druidic spells, can track, and also perform surprise attacks in the wilderness. The Bard is different in that it can cast Druidic spells from the Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells, charm and fascinate an audience with his music and singing and learns languages and lore. Druids are of Neutral Alignment, also cast Druidic spells, can Pass Without Trace in the wilderness, rarely get lost in the woods, and can eventually shape change into animals. The Illusionist is like the Magic-User, but casts spells from Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells.

Of the six ‘Race as Class’ Classes, the Drow are like Elves, but know Divine rather than Arcane spells, suffer light sensitivity, and have an affinity for spiders. Duergar are like Dwarves, but suffer from light insensitivity and notably have mental powers like Invisibility and Enlargement that can be used daily. Gnomes cast Illusionist spells, but can wear armour and also speak with burrowing animals. Half-Elves can all use all weapons and armour and can also cast arcane spells, though not as many as an Elf or a Magic-User. The Half-Orc can use all weapons and light armour and has a number of Thief skills, whilst the Svifneblin can blend into stone, has illusion resistance, can speak with Earth Elementals, can understand the murmurs of stone, and also suffer from light sensitivity.

What is notable with all of these Classes is that the designer has tried to keep them unique, to keep their abilities from encroaching on those of Classes, and to keep them from being too powerful. The likelihood is that he has almost succeeded with the fifteen new Classes. There is some overlap of skills, for example, the Move Silently skill being shared by several different Classes. Plus Classes like the Knight and the Paladin do feel powerful in comparison to the standard Classes. That said, all of the Classes feel reined in when comparing them to their original versions from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

In addition to the supplement’s dozen or so Classes, Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules also provides a number of Advanced Character Options. These include rules for making Old School Essentials a Race and Class roleplaying game, separating the two. So all three ‘Race as Class’ Classes from Old School Essentials— Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling—as well as Humans are presented as Races, as are the Drow, Duergar, Gnome, Half-Elf, Half-Orc, and Svirfneblin. All bar Humans have Level limits on the Classes available to them, though if this is lifted, options are given to account for the lack of Human innate abilities. Further rules cover the use of poison, extra rules for combat including two-weapon fighting and parrying, multi-classing, as well as secondary skills and weapon proficiencies. Of course these add complexity in play, but they also add depth and they move Old School Essentials towards, but not to the level of complexities of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. And again, these rules are all optional.


Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells is the companion volume and very much contains what it says on the tin. It presents thirty-four Druid spells, from First to Fifth Level, and seventy-two Illusionist spells, from First to Sixth Level. Druid spells focus on survival, healing, and offence, so Predict Weather, Cure Light Wounds, and Call Lightning. Illusion spells focus on deception, mind control, and warping reality, so Dancing Lights, Fascinate, and Mirror Image. The selection and range have been kept in line with the Cleric and Magic-User spells of Old School Essentials, so the numbers for the Druid are the same as the Cleric, just as the numbers for the Illusionist are the same as the Magic-User. What is fantastic about Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells is how well the book is organised. It has an index for the spells plus the inside of the front and back covers are effectively used, not just with spell lists, but spot rules too. It makes Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells highly accessible and useable at the table.

Physically, both Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells are nattily presented little hardbacks. In particular, Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules follows the format of Old School Essentials by keeping its various elements particularly succinct. So every Class is kept to a single two-page spread, each individual Race to a single page, and so on. Both books are illustrated in black and white and for the most part, the artwork is good.

If there is an issue with Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells it is really that not all of either book works without referring to the other. If the Druid and Illusionist Classes are in play, then really, Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells is really necessary to effectively play because not only the Druid and Illusionist use these spells, but so do the Bard, the Gnome, and the Ranger. If there is another issue with either book, it is that they pull Old School Essentials away from its origins in the 1981 revision of Basic Dungeons & Dragons and its accompanying Expert Set. The inclusion of elements from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons may not sit well with some players and Referees of Old School Essentials, but fundamentally, both Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells are optional. Which means that they are not integral to playing or running Old School Essentials and neither Referee nor player have to purchase them to play the roleplaying game.

Ultimately, if you are playing Old School Essentials using Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells, then you are not playing the Basic Dungeons & Dragons of 1981. However, neither are you playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Instead, Old School Essentials using Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells presents the means to incorporate elements of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, but in a restrained fashion, adhering to the simplicity of Old School Essentials throughout.

An Inner Darkness: Fighting for Justice Against Eldritch Horrors and Our Own Inhumanity is a Call of Cthulhu book with a difference. Published by Golden Goblin Press following a successful Kickstarter campaign, An Inner Darkness is an anthology of six scenarios for use with Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition which explores where the all too human horrors of the Jazz Age and Desperate Decade intersect with the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. In six scenarios it deals with issues not normally explored or addressed in Call of Cthulhu—child labour and exploitation, the poor treatment suffered by veterans of the Great War in the subsequent decade, sexual assault, mob violence, and nativism and religious persecution and racial discrimination. None of these are easy subjects to deal with and for this reason An Inner Darkness comes with a Reader Advisory warning the reader that it contains Mature Content. What this also means is that An Inner Darkness is not necessarily a book for every Call of Cthulhu devotee or group—and that is fine. Just like the superlative Harlem Unbound from 2017, An Inner Darkness deserves to have a place on our gaming shelves, for if it is not to your tastes, then it is to someone else’s.

From the start it should be made clear that being an anthology of scenarios for a roleplaying game, the Reader Advisory on An Inner Darkness is all the more pertinent and all the more potent. This is entirely because of the nature of roleplaying itself. Neither the Keeper nor her players will be sat comfortably watching, reading, or listening to the content subject to the Reader Advisory. Instead, as players they will be roleplaying characters interacting with horrible situations and persons with points of view and opinion which though regarded as reprehensible today, would have been seen as the norm in the period in which the six scenarios in An Inner Darkness are set. Further, the Keeper has the unpleasant task of describing these situations and roleplaying the men and women who hold to such outlooks and opinions. Here is perhaps the one major issue with An Inner Darkness, that there is little in the way of advice for the Keeper in portraying these NPCs.

To get the very fullest of these scenarios the Keeper may want to have access to several other supplements. These include H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands, Secrets of New York, H.P. Lovecraft’s Arkham, and Secrets of Los Angeles. Note that none of these supplements are necessary to run the scenarios in An Inner Darkness, but they may be useful.

An Inner Darkness opens with ‘Dreams of Silk’ by Christopher Smith Adair. This takes place in Brights Mill, Pennsylvania in 1922 and explores the darker side of child labour during the period, including unsafe conditions, dangerous materials, and a lack of concern for worker safety. Children of poor and working-class families were often expected to work as it brought much needed income for their families and there were fewer regulations and protections governing their working conditions. The investigators are asked by a representative of the Women’s Trade Union League to help investigate Hempstead Chemicals, a local manufacturer of cosmetics. Several of the child employees have fallen sick or even died after terrible accidents. Ultimately, the factory becomes the focus of the investigators’ attention, a nicely creepy environment, listless during the day, weird at night. The scenario also dovetails into The Dreamlands, though only in minor way. Here the Mythos is used to exacerbate the situation, though Humans are ultimately responsible for the situation. Pleasingly, the scenario also directly addresses the problems which occur should the investigators decide to burn the factory down, as well as possible consequences.

Brian M. Sammons’ ‘When This Lousy War is Over’ is about the conditions and experience of veterans, in particular, severely injured veterans—mentally and physically, returning from the Great War. Without easily available medical and psychiatric treatment or veterans’ services, the veterans have to rely on each other. Despite this, some are unable to cope back in ordinary society, and this lies at the heart of the scenario. Set in Arkham, Massachusetts, it begins with the investigators learning that a friend of theirs, a veteran of the Great War, has been found murdered. It quickly becomes apparent that the victim had no enemies and beyond his membership of the local outpost of the Veterans of Foreign Wars association, was an ordinary member of society. So who killed him? This feels very much like a traditional investigative scenario, but it examines the tensions between the members of Veterans of Foreign Wars and local society, how they are tolerated, but only up to a point. Of all the scenarios in the anthology, this is perhaps the most muscular in tone and likely to end in a stand-up fight.

The third scenario, Jeffrey Moeller’s ‘A Fresh Coat of White Paint’ is the first one where the Reader Advisory for An Inner Darkness is really applicable and the first one to really make the Keeper and her players uncomfortable. It is set outside Los Angeles in 1931 and is the first of two scenarios in the anthology to deal with nativism—the promotion and protection of the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants. During the nineteen twenties and thirties the target of nativism in California were Mexican immigrants, which was only exacerbated by the onset of the Great Depression. ‘A Fresh Coat of White Paint’ takes place in an actual location, the Elysian Park tramp stockade where ethnic Mexicans—whether immigrants or actual American citizens—are forcibly held until they agree to be extradited. The conditions are appalling as more and more Mexicans are rounded up and incarcerated, the guards openly racist, and the charity providing aid and food to the stockade barely so. As journalists, social activists, police officers, and so on, the investigators get called into the stockade when a young girl goes missing from within its confines. Now of course the Mythos is involved in her disappearance, but the real horror of the scenario is in dealing with the ghastly attitudes of the guards which has the implicit support of Los Angeles society. Investigating the disappearance will challenging enough, but stomaching the attitudes of the guards and the conditions the Mexicans are kept in is likely to be more challenging, worse because they may have to stomach it in order to get into the stockade. What is interesting about how the author of the scenario—an immigration lawyer—draws parallels between ‘A Fresh Coat of White Paint’ and the contemporary situation with immigration and migrants.

‘A Family Way’ switches to New York and confronts an issue at the heart of the Mythos, which has been alluded to over and over in Call of Cthulhu and Lovecraftian fiction—specifically the sexual assault on men and women by Deep Ones. When a young lady of the investigators’ acquaintance attempts to seduce one of them, it is quickly revealed that she is pregnant. Not only that, but pregnant through rape. The horror of this situation is compounded by the then attitudes towards women with unwanted pregnancies, rape, and the solutions to the problem. This includes abortion. Which will lead to some interesting—probably demanding—roleplaying as the players navigate their investigators through the situation and the Keeper portrays the victim. It almost seems superfluous that the scenario compounds the situation with the return of the Deep Ones responsible and whilst this leads to a memorable confrontation in New York harbour, hopefully in the long term the Keeper and players alike will remember ‘A Family Way’ for the nature of its origins and the roleplaying required.

Helen Gould’s ‘Fire Without Light’ confronts rampant racism and mob violence in the aftermath of the Tulsa Race Riots of 1921 in Oklahoma. It is a year later and tensions between the black and white communities in the town are still high—and set to get even higher as the scenario progresses. Whether as survivors of the riots, journalists or activists come to the town a year later, preachers come to provide succour, the investigators will find themselves faced with three challenges. The first is defusing the rising tensions to prevent any further outbreaks of violence, whilst the second is trying to find out what is causing tensions to escalate once again. The third though, is probably the most difficult, and again is having to deal with both the racism of the period and the then society’s acceptance of it.  The consequences of the investigators’ actions are nicely explored and there are potential links in the scenario’s set-up to Harlem Unbound.

The last scenario in the anthology takes the investigators to Maine and another period of intolerance and racism. ‘They Are From Away’ by Charles Gerard is set in the Pine Tree State in 1923 at a time when the Ku Klux Klan was highly active in the state’s politics. The targets of the Klan’s racism in this scenario are not African Americans, but rather French-Canadian immigrants who work the state’s lumber camps. The migrant workers are also vilified for their Roman Catholicism, which is decried as being unamerican. The investigators—professionals within the city’s Catholic community, church officials, activists rallying against the Klan’s activities, dissatisfied members of local law enforcement, and so on—are called to Bangor where a local church and the French-Canadian immigrants have both been subject to a rash of strange sanguinary occurrences. The investigation takes place against a backdrop of growing Klan activity, French-Canadian obstinance, and rumours of a curse, but help will come from a surprising source. For the most part, this is a straightforward enough investigative scenario, though one which literally has a bloody ending.

Rounding out An Inner Darkness is a trio of Investigator Organisations, a feature of Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition which helps explain and support the Investigators’ motivations for looking into the Mythos again and again. They start off strongly with ‘The Caldwell Book Mobile Service’ by Oscar Rios, a mobile library service which not only provides communities without a library access to books to borrow, but also fights the Mythos! The other two are both by Jeff Moeller and are not as strong. ‘A Bunch of Troublemakers’ describes a suffragette who infiltrates activist groups and spurs them into investigating the Mythos, whilst ‘Friends from Boston’ broadly details a protest group which funds efforts to expose governmental abuse, highlight injustice, and support reform. In comparison to ‘The Caldwell Book Mobile Service’ neither feel immediately compelling.

Physically, An Inner Darkness is a step up in quality from previous books from Golden Goblin Press. Colour is used throughout, and whilst the book is liberally illustrated, the use of colour marrs some of the artwork, making it look cartoonish and detracting from its intended impact. Photographs are used occasionally too, and these are sharp and well presented. The writing though, does feel rushed in places, and perhaps could have done with a closer edit.

An Inner Darkness presents a sextet of well researched, heavily historical scenarios which confront the reader, the player, the Keeper, and the investigator with the injustices, the awful attitudes, and accepted practices of the period. This makes them difficult to run—as does the specific time periods for many of the scenarios—and to play. As they should. Playing these scenarios should make player and Keeper alike uncomfortable, for they highlight how horror can be found in mankind’s darkest nature—and that is even before the Mythos exploits that nature. An Inner Darkness: Fighting for Justice Against Eldritch Horrors and Our Own Inhumanity deserves its ‘Mature Content’ advisory not just because of the subject matter, but also because despite its distasteful nature, it is handled in a mature fashion.