Reviews from R'lyeh

Friday Filler: Kingdomino

Kingdomino is notable for both for the word play of its clever title and being the 2017 Spiel des Jahres award. Published by Blue Orange, the game combines the matching game play of traditional Dominoes with a tile drafting mechanic in a bright, attractive, and tactile package that can played and enjoyed by the family, whilst also offering just enough complexity to keep the experienced games player interested. It is designed to be played by between two and four players, aged eight and above, and can played in fifteen minutes. In the game, players will take it in turn to draft and play tiles to create the different terrain of their kingdoms. Some of the terrain is marked with crowns. Each player will score points for the areas of terrain that he creates, the bigger the area and the more crowns he has in an area, the more points he will score. The player at the end of the game with the most points wins the game.

The game consists of four starting tiles, eight King meeples, and four castles, all in four colours. The meat of the game consists of its tiles. There are forty-eight of these, eight centimetres by four centimetres in size, numbered from one to forty-eight on the back, and divided into two squares on the front. The front of the tiles are marked with six different terrain types—Field, , Forest, Lake, Meadow, Mine, and Swamp. Some have two different terrain types on the front, others have the same terrain on the whole of the tile.

At the start of the game, the forty-eight tiles are mixed up and a number randomly selected, adjusted for the number of players. These are mixed up again and placed face down in a draw pile. Four tiles are drawn and placed face up in ascending order. Each player places a King meeple on a tile that he wants, the order on the first turn, determined randomly. Then a second set of four tiles are drawn and placed alongside the first, again in ascending order. Then the player who selected the last tile, takes that tile and adds it to his kingdom, and with his spare King meeple, places it on the tile of his choice in the other row of tiles. Then the next player does the same, until the player who chose first gets to take the tile of his choice, adds it to his kingdom, and places his spare King meeple on the remaining tile which has not be selected. In later turns, the order in which a player takes a tile, places it in his kingdom, and then picks a new tile to place next turn, is determined by the tile number. Tiles with lower numbers are taken first and the players who chose them, get to pick a new tile before the players who selected a tile with a higher value. Thus, from one round to the next, the order of play will change and fluctuate.

Tiles with higher numbers tend to have crowns on them which are necessary to score points—if an area of terrain in a kingdom has no crowns, it scores no points! Conversely, lower numbered tiles, whilst not having crowns on them, do tend to have the same terrain on both squares. So, they have value in increasing the size of areas of terrain in a player’s kingdom. This essentially, is the flow of the game play.

When a player adds a tile to his kingdom, the terrain on one square must be placed adjacent to a tile which matches. The only limit on tile placement, is that the total kingdom size of any one player cannot exceed a five-by-five grid of squares. Tiles which do not fit into this grid are discarded and do not score any points.

Play continues until all of the tiles in play, have been drawn and placed. Then each player adds up the value of his kingdom. This is done for each area of terrain. The value is determined by the number of tiles being multiplied by the number of crowns on the terrain.

The luck of Kingdomino lies in the draw of the tiles. The skill lies in the getting the best tile available in what choice remains to a player and then placing it to get the best use out of it that will increase a player’s score. There is also a balance between taking a tile with crowns on it and then connecting terrain to it to increase its score, and perhaps building areas of terrain in the hope of being able to pick a tile with matching terrain and crowns on it. In general, there is a greater chance of scoring points with the former than the latter, but there is still the possibility of getting the right tile at the right time towards the end of the game.

Physically, Kingdomino is very nicely presented. The tiles are big and feel good in the hand and the rules are easier to read. The tiles would be easier to track if there were numbers on the front as well as the back. The rules cover play with two, three, and four players, and also include several extra options beyond the base game.

If there is a criticism of Kingdomino, it is that play order is sometimes determined by whomever is sat closed to the box containing the tiles when it is placed on the table. It feels oddly arbitrary and not random at all.

Kingdomino is a thoroughly attractive and pleasing game. It has a lovely flow back and forth so that no player has constant access the tiles with crowns and dominate the game, and this flow lies at the heart of the game, balancing it all the way to the finish.

Miskatonic Monday #319: Stage Fright at the Playhouse

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

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Name: Stage Fright at the Playhouse
Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: John Hedge with The Miskatonic Playhouse

Setting: Arkham, 1923
Product: Scenario
What You Get: Thirty-Nine page, 36.38 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: It’s a sequel to ‘Edge of Darkness’
Plot Hook: Arcane marks add to the mystery of the theatre
Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, six NPCs, six handouts, one map, seven Mythos artefacts, and three Mythos monsters.
Production Values: Excellent

Pros
# Sequel to ‘Edge of Darkness’
# Can be played using the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set# Part of ‘The Next Adventure’ series
# Part of the Call of Cthulhu – Ongoing Horror BUNDLE# Seedy feel of small town theatre with big dreams# Suitably overwrought# Kinemortophobia# Theatrophobia# Achondroplasiaphobia

Cons
# Needs a slight edit# Alternative hook stronger than the sequel hook# Pre-generated Investigators an odd Miskatonic Repository medley
Conclusion
# Once it gets going, turns into a frothy Mythos farce
# Underwhelming sequel, but an entertaining scenario

Miskatonic Monday #318: Beyond the Edge of Darkness

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

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Name: Beyond the Edge of Darkness
Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Matthew Tansek

Setting: Egypt, 1923
Product: Scenario
What You Get: Thirty-Seven page, 36.38 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: It’s a sequel to ‘Edge of Darkness’
Plot Hook: If the father cannot be saved, then at least the son can be.
Plot Support: Staging advice, five NPCs, two handouts, one map, seven Mythos artefacts, and one Mythos monster.
Production Values: Decent

Pros
# Sequel to ‘Edge of Darkness’
# Can be played using the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set
# Part of ‘The Next Adventure’ series
# Part of the Call of Cthulhu – Ongoing Horror BUNDLE# Alternative hooks provided# Solid set-up for a sequel to ‘Edge of Darkness’# Heliophobia
# Pyrophobia# Achondroplasiaphobia

Cons
# Needs a slight edit# ‘Speakeasies’ [sic] of Cairo?# Clues to the finale location could have been stronger
Conclusion
# Investigation loses momentum
# Suitably straightforward sequel to ‘Edge of Darkness’

Miskatonic Monday #317: One Step Further

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

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Name: One Step Further
Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Quico Vicens-Picatto

Setting: Boston, New England, 1920
Product: Scenario
What You Get: Thirteen page, 3.62 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: It’s a sequel to ‘Paper Chase’
Plot Hook: None
Plot Support: No staging advice, three NPCs, two Mythos spells, and one Mythos monster
Production Values: Reasonable

Pros
# Sequel to ‘Paper Chase’ from the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set and the Cthulhu Companion – Ghastly adventures & Erudite Lore
# Can be played using the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set
# Part of ‘The Next Adventure’ series # Part of the Call of Cthulhu – Ongoing Horror BUNDLE# Nice artwork# ‘Hauntophobia’
# Ostraconophobia

Cons
# No plot# Who are Keiko and Jessie?# No plot hook or Investigator motivation
Conclusion
# A sequel to ‘Paper Chase’ in name only
# A stream of consciousness does not a scenario make # Reviews from R’lyeh Discommends

Miskatonic Monday #316: The Echoing Whispers

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

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Name: The Echoing Whispers
Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Ekin Ergün

Setting: Boston, New England, 1920
Product: Scenario
What You Get: Thirteen page, 3.76 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: It’s a sequel to ‘The Haunting’
Plot Hook: The Chapel of Contemplation is congregating again
Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, one NPC, two Mythos spells, and six Mythos monsters
Production Values: Reasonable

Pros
# Sequel to ‘The Haunting’
# Part of ‘The Next Adventure’ series# Part of the Call of Cthulhu – Ongoing Horror BUNDLE# Can be played using the Call of Cthulhu Quick-Start
# ‘Hauntophobia’
# Oneirophobia
# Blennophobia

Cons
# Needs an edit
# Not all of the information is where it is needed
# Too many unnecessary skill checks
# Needs to tell the Keeper the plot, not have her discover it
# Minimalist background

Conclusion
# Overwritten and underdeveloped, the Keeper will need to prepare this hard
# A sequel worthy of ‘The Haunting’ is yet to come

Miskatonic Monday #315: Night of the Frizzi-Nocs

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

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Name: Night of the Frizzi-NocsPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Andy Miller

Setting: Dark Forest of Gloon, the DreamlandsProduct: Scenario for Down Darker Trails: Terrors of the Mythos
What You Get: Sixty-Two page, 32.64 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “If you go down in the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise” – Teddy Bears Picnic, Henry HallPlot Hook: The besieged are not always the victimsPlot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, one handout and twelve portraits, twenty-two NPCs, three maps, one Mythos artefact, one Mythos tome, and one Mythos monsterProduction Values: Decent
Pros# ‘Oyster’# Excellent overview of the Dreamlands and Call of Cthulhu# Extensive notes to adjust for Dreamers to have come from any Call of Cthulhu setting, including waking world parallels# Highly detailed scenario, but a simple situation# Cute monsters# Potential sequel to The Schoolmarm’s Ghost# Hylophobia# Oneirophobia# Scelerophobia
Cons# ‘Twinkletown’# Overly detailed in places
Conclusion# Highly detailed investigation of the enemy within and the monster without# A rustic horror side quest for The Dreamlands

Miskatonic Monday #314: The Arkham Witch Trials of 1693

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

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Name: The Arkham Witch Trials of 1693
Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Duncan Heystek

Setting: Arkham, New England
Product: Scenario
What You Get: Twenty-one page, 1.37 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Suffer the children to come unto the hands of Keziah Mason
Plot Hook: “How do you know she is a Witch?” – Sir Bedevere, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, four NPCs, one Mythos tome, three Mythos spells, and five Mythos monsters
Production Values: Execrable

Pros
# Perfect for the Keeper who likes to modify (or rewrite) her scenarios
# Potentially interesting setting
# Wiccaphobia
# Hylophobia
# Autophobia

Cons
# Claims to have been edited
# Needs a clear explanation for the Keeper to understand
# Does involve the slave status
# Wanders into a random discussion of a 19th century detective agency
# Minimalist background

Conclusion
# Almost unreadable, let alone playable
# Difficult to tell if the witch or the Keeper is on trial
# Reviews from R’lyeh Discommends

Miskatonic Monday #313: Starport Helios

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

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Name: Starport HeliosPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Geoff Bridges

Setting: Edge of the Milky Way, 2370Product: Scenario
What You Get: Ten page, 1.43 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Moon in deep spaaace…!Plot Hook: Déjà vu in, yes, deep spaaace…!Plot Support: Staging advice.Production Values: Plain
Pros# One Investigator, one Keeper Science Fiction Future Era horror scenario# Easy to run# Can be played in an hour (or a lot less if the Keeper provides a pre-generated Investigator) # Thanatophobia# Trypophobia# Autophobia
Cons# If the aim is evolution, what is the aim of the evolution?# Very, very short# Science Fiction rather than Mythos horror# No real Investigator agency

Conclusion# Leaves player and Keeper with the question, “Yes, and?”# Serviceable in all senses of the word, except a positive one

Miskatonic Monday #312: Snake Oil Salesman

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

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Name: Snake Oil SalesmanPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Chris Tatum

Setting: Florida 1929Product: Scenario
What You Get: Forty-four page, 51.46 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Sometimes the cure is worse than the causePlot Hook: A snake in the grass turns out to be a snake in the sanatorium.Plot Support: Staging advice, six paired pre-generated Investigators, one map, two NPCs, and three Mythos monsters.Production Values: Good
Pros# Paired Investigators with differing paired objectives# Classic ‘something’s weird at the sanatorium’ Call of Cthulhu scenario# Nice detailed investigation# Can be run as a tournament scenario# Ophidiophobia# Tomophobia# Metathesiophobia
Cons# Potentially a lot to fit into a single session# Needs a slight edit

Conclusion# Healthy living horror# Well done, ‘staff are the insane ones’ scenario for Call of Cthulhu
# Reviews from R’lyeh Recommends

Miskatonic Monday #311: Lights in the Trees

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

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Name: Lights in the TreesPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Matt ‘Doc’ Tracey

Setting: New York, 1975Product: Scenario
What You Get: Forty-three page, 19.46 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: War is hell and so are the memoriesPlot Hook: A war buddy is dead. Was it natural causes or...?Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Veterans, four handouts, one map, seven NPCs, and one Mythos monsters.Production Values: Decent
Pros# Archetypal memory & Mythos scenario for Call of Cthulhu# Solid period feel# Classic atmosphere of seventies paranoia# Xylophobia# Mnemophobia# Mycophobia
Cons# Obvious inspiration may be too obvious# Needs a slight edit
Conclusion# Decently done period feel# Archetypal Call of Cthulhu scenario of paranoia and uncertain memory set in the most paranoid decade

Miskatonic Monday #310: For Whom The Bells Toll No More

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

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Name: For Whom The Bells Toll No MorePublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Borja Morrow

Setting: Spain 1924Product: Scenario
What You Get: Twenty-four page, 3.07 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: History never dies. It just comes back to haunt us.Plot Hook: A culture of cilence could be a culture of secretsPlot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, six handouts, two maps, four NPCs, and one Mythos monster.Production Values: Plain
Pros# Interesting setting# Engaging sense of history# Ypositismosphobia# Blennophobia# Catholophobia
Cons# Needs a good edit# No floor plans# Needs a timeline on which to hang the plot# Needs development to clarify the plot

Conclusion# Too densely presented to use with any ease# Decent setting and idea undermined by lack of clarity

Miskatonic Monday #309: Temple of the Crawling Chaos

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

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Name: Temple of the Crawling ChaosPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Man Of Thousand Hobbies

Setting: Egypt 1923Product: Scenario
What You Get: Ten page, 287.19 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Is there more to the tomb of Tutankhamun?Plot Hook: Something has been stolen from the tomb of Tutankhamun... possibly.Plot Support: Staging advice, one map, three NPCs, and two Mythos monsters.Production Values: Slapdash
Pros# Intended to be a starter scenario# Something of a ‘Doer-Upper’ for the Keeper# Taphephobia# Claustrophobia# Egyptophobia
Cons# Not a starter scenario# Does not clearly state the plot# Needs a slight edit

Conclusion# Too bare bones and not enough clarity# Underdeveloped and ‘Pay What You Want’ is still underdeveloped
# Reviews from R’lyeh Discommends

Miskatonic Monday #308: The Game is Rigged

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

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Name: The Game is RiggedPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Ryan Graham Theobalds

Setting: Gulf of MexicoProduct: Scenario
What You Get: Twenty-seven page, 2.63 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: The Thing, but on an oil rigPlot Hook: Some diversions are just not worth the dangerPlot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, two handouts, four maps, eleven NPCs, one Mythos tome, and six Mythos monsters.Production Values: Good
Pros# Tightly plotted scenario # Dramatic set-up# Nice build up of tension# Cinematic style# Myxophobia# Oleophobia# Hoplophobia
Cons# More maps of the oil rig would have been useful# Tightly plotted
# Not every NPC has stats
# Could have been a shoggoth
Conclusion# Tensely plotted, paranoid disaster versus Mythos film# The Thing, but on another platform

Miskatonic Monday #307: No Witness

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

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Name: No Witness: a 1940s Film Noir MysteryPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Brendan Lahey

Setting: Montreal, 1943Product: Scenario
What You Get: Fifty-one page, 10.18 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Serial killer, murder Mythos mysteryPlot Hook: A suicide is murder by any other name... Unless it’s an actual murderPlot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, twelve handouts, one map, eleven NPCs, two Mythos tomes, one Mythos spell, and six Mythos monsters.Production Values: Good
Pros# Clue rich, delightfully investigative scenario# Suitably plotted like a Film Noir# Good use of period photographs# Could be the start of a series# Hemophobia# Wiccanophobia# Foniasophobia
Cons# A would be singer with no Sing skill?# Needs a slight edit
# Many photographs could be handouts if organised better
# A floorplan or two would have been useful
Conclusion# Enjoyably muscular investigative mystery# “Down these Mythos streets, a man must go who is not himself Mythos, and who is neither insane nor afraid.” (with apologies to) – Raymond Chandler

Miskatonic Monday #306: Chaos in Chiapas

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

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Name: Chaos in Chiapas: A Modern Call of Cthulhu AdventurePublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: David Waldron

Setting: Modern Day MexicoProduct: Scenario
What You Get: Sixty-one page, 29.06 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Tourist Terror in Mythos MeltdownPlot Hook: Some diversions are just not worth the dangerPlot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, one handout, four maps, six NPCs, and three Mythos monsters.Production Values: Shaky
Pros# Scenario for Pulp Cthulhu: Two-fisted Action and Adventure Against the Mythos# Solid set-up# Brawling, gunfest of a scenario# One night, one session scenario
# Decent use of setting photographs# Feels like it needs miniatures for the showdown# Megalophobia# Xylophobia# Hoplophobia
Cons# Needs a good edit# More action than investigation
# Feels like it needs miniatures for the showdown
Conclusion# Low budget horror shoot ’em up in the jungle# More miniatures and the Mythos than classic investigation

A Positive Apocalypse II

Dreams and Machines is a post-apocalyptic future set on another planet. One that has suffered not one, but two calamitous events. The world is Evera Prime, settled as one of Earth’s colonies following the establishment of the Gateway that enabled relatively fast travel between the Earth and Evera Prime. The first disaster the colonists faced was when the Gateway stopped functioning, cutting off contact with Earth, forcing them to adapt and survive on their own. The second would come centuries later, after the colony had prospered and developed, establishing Project Builder, a programme to develop resource and power control that was so successful that it would usher in a golden age of post-scarcity and rapid scientific advancement. Then the Builder and its connected systems began to glitch. It stopped anticipating the needs of the people of Evera Prime, and worse, when scientist tried to fix the problem, it turned on them, unleashing its Mech servants and its armoury in a conflagration in which cities would be destroyed, the landscape pockmarked with craters, populations atomised, and worse. Two centuries have passed, and the people of Evera Prime survived and then thrived, hoping one day that a way would be found to make contact with the Earth again. The broad background to the setting are detailed in the Dreams and Machines: Player’s Guide, which also includes the rules for character creation and action, as well as some of the technology of the setting, a mix of high-tech nanotechnology and low-tech scrap, the former almost having magic-like properties.

The Dreams And Machines: Gamemaster’s Guide expands upon the Dreams and Machines: Player’s Guide, both in terms of setting and rules, as well as guidance for running the game. Published by Modiphius Entertainment, this is a post-apocalyptic roleplaying game of exploration and hope, in which the Player Characters delve into the ruins of the past, examine old technology, and protect the many surviving communities against attacks by the Wakers, the robots still working after the events of the apocalypse, and waiting for the moment they detect survivors and the use of advanced technology, to activate and stalk and attack as the last fragments of their programming dictate, the creatures mutated by the affects of the apocalypse, and the Thralls, humans wrapped in loops of wire and marked with ash and paint, who boil up out of the ground to aggressively raid and steal food and technology from the communities.

The Dreams And Machines: Gamemaster’s Guide begins with an exploration of the setting, its history and timeline, its geography, and its factions. There is an overview of technology in the setting, the stats and details of individual devices given in the Dreams and Machines: Player’s Guide. Overall, this expands upon the material given in the Dreams and Machines: Player’s Guide, most notably in developing and detailing more of the factions’ backgrounds. This covers their origins, views on technology, what others think of them, and so on. The various views on technology vary widely from faction to faction, such as the Everans accepting, but not developing technology, the Archivists actively searching for new old technology, and the Dreamers loathing technology. The one faction that is in effect, new here, are the Conduits and the Thralls, barely mentioned in the Dreams and Machines: Player’s Guide. Here they are greatly expanded upon. ‘Thralls’ are the name that the surface dwellers, that is, the Player Characters and others, give to the Conduits. The Conduits are a highly religious group who worship and embrace technology and believe that the Builder saved them from the worst of the war, their fanaticism driving them to raid the surface. They work in secret to restore the technology of the past and the Builder’s network, working from their secret base in the Dark City. Only a very little is known about the Dark City, the Archivists having some knowledge as to why the Builder’s War started, but not necessarily knowing if that is connected to the Dark City and the Conduits.

These are only some of the secrets explored in Dreams And Machines: Gamemaster’s Guide. Also detailed is the history of the Builder and why it was built, and what its current status is now. This is as fragmented and widely dispersed pieces of code, attempting to make contact with each other and rebuild. For most people on Evera Prime, the Builder was intrinsic in triggering the war, and whilst the environmental effects of the war can be found everywhere, the most obvious holdover from the Builder War are the innumerable robots which litter many parts of the landscape, nothing more than mouldering heaps of junk until they receive the right signal, activate, and go on murderous rampages. Such occurrences are rare, but this does not stop most people on Evera Prima fearing the Wakers, as such robots are known. Dreams And Machines: Gamemaster’s Guide also reveals two further hidden aspects of the setting. One is the human involvement in the Builder’s War, whilst the other is the involvement of another ‘agency’. Although the book talks about this ‘agency’ and its involvement in events leading up to the war, it does not actually reveal the identity of what the ‘agency’ is, and nor does it examine how the Player Characters might eventually discover that and other secrets of the setting.

In terms of running the game, the Dreams And Machines: Gamemaster’s Guide provides the Game Master with some excellent advice. It not only covers her responsibilities, but also examines the uses of Truths in play, how to frame scenes and action, handling Threat and how to spend it, and more. In particular, it notes that Threat—the means by which the Game Master can enhance the actions of her NPCs, monsters, and villains—can be used to cajole characters into action when their players are dithering, such as when coming up with a plan, and that it is in the interest of players to give the Game Master points of Theat. This is done when the players have run out of Momentum to give their characters an advantage, and whilst it obviously benefits any opposition that they might face, what the Dreams And Machines: Gamemaster’s Guide makes clear is that it benefits the story too, building tension and making confrontations dramatic. There is advice too on the use of Safety Tools and of Spirit, a Player Character’s inner reserves of concentration and stamina, typically only used in desperate situations.

The advice for the Game Master is both slick and helpful, even well practised. Which should be no surprise given the number of 2d20 System roleplaying games that Modiphius Entertainment has published. Where it disappoints though, is in the lack of advice in terms of what stories the Game Master will tell, what type of scenarios she should be creating for her players. Obviously, the Game Master can draw heavily from the post-apocalyptic genre, but the Dreams And Machines: Gamemaster’s Guide does not explore what makes a Dream and Machines post-apocalyptic story different from that of any other post-apocalyptic story.

The Dreams And Machines: Gamemaster’s Guide does provide a range of NPCs, creatures, adversaries, and other threats. This includes flora and fauna native to both Earth and Evera Prime, as well as mutants. Only the one Earth creature, the Horse, is given stats, though others like the Tiger are mentioned, whilst native fauna includes the Akriti, a nomadic tree that migrates in herds. The arachnid Cryptid, the Prowlcat with its overlapping plates instead of fur, and the wolf-like Snarlback with its extendible mouth, are examples of the Mutant creatures found on Evera Prime. Technology comes in the form of the Nano-Geist, a nanogram capable of interacting with the world as part of its programming, and the Locus, a nanogram tied to an individual location or building. There are random tables for nanogram actions, as there are for Waker functions, which are also detailed in the book. Lastly, there are stats and details for NPCs, including Thralls.

The Dreams And Machines: Gamemaster’s Guide provides a broad overview of the continent of Nedrestia, but goes further in describing a region where the Game Master and her players can begin play. It focuses on New Mossgrove, a trade and exploration hub located in the Regid-Kasteel region, near Kasteel city ruins. Both the ruins of Kasteel and of the mini-city, Sanktejo, provides environments to explore, whilst New Mossgrove serves as a base and source of rumours and possible tasks. It is also the starting point for the included adventure, ‘Secrets in Lost Rios’. This is a sequel to the scenario in the Dreams and Machines Starter Set, but ‘Secrets in Lost Rios’ can be adjusted so that the Game Master need not have had to run the scenario in the Dreams and Machines Starter Set. It opens with New Mossgrove having suffered a Waker attack, a rare occurrence that puts everyone on edge. (This attack is actually the climax to the scenario in the Dreams and Machines Starter Set.) The Player Characters are hired by an Archivist to search for a friend who led an expedition into the wilderness who is missing and is presumed dead. The only known survivor of the expedition was killed in the Waker attack on the town. The expedition was investigating a laboratory in the former resort town of Los Rios, once standing between two rivers, but now between two ravines. There is scope for some decent encounters between New Mossgrove and Los Rios, but when they get there, they discover that someone has already got there before them—a band of scavenging Thralls! The Player Characters will need to drive them off in order to investigate the laboratory fully and confirm that the missing friend is there. The scenario includes some rather ideas as to what happens next and also some ideas for some further adventures. Overall, it is a decent adventure, but probably better as a payoff for the scenario Dreams and Machines Starter Set.

Physically, Dreams And Machines: Gamemaster’s Guide is well presented, the artwork is good, and the writing is really easy to read. Like the Dreams and Machines: Player’s Guide, it has been scribbled on as if it was a child’s journal or diary.

The Dreams And Machines: Gamemaster’s Guide, as intended, completes the core of the roleplaying game with the Dreams and Machines: Player’s Guide. It decently expands upon the information given in the Dreams and Machines: Player’s Guide, coupled with well-practised advice, but the extra information only goes so far. There are still secrets to the setting to be revealed, and there is a lack of advice for creating adventures specific to the setting of Evera Prime that would have been helpful too. That though will have to wait for the Dreams And Machines: GM’s Toolkit. In the meantime, if the Game Master wants to create her own content, Dreams And Machines is probably best suited to someone who already has experience of writing her own adventures. Overall, the Dreams And Machines: Gamemaster’s Guide is a nicely accessible and solid book for the Dreams And Machines Games Master.

Gloombusters

In the aftermath of a post-apocalyptic event, there is only one thing standing between the fate of the survivors and the ever-encroaching, ever-hungry, evil known as The Gloom, and that is the Samurai Goths! Which is about as much background as there is in Samurai Goths of the Apocalypse, a roleplaying of gonzo survival horror inspired by the Gothic musical culture that grew out of the Punk movement in the late nineteen seventies. All that matters is that the Samurai Goths look good and know where their tessen, tanto, shuriken, and katanas are. Published by Uknite the Realm, this is a straight-to-DVD action movie of a roleplaying game in which the Samurai Goth face the Gloom and fight creatures like the ‘Danger Louse’, the ‘Tornacrow’, and the ‘Eyelasher’, all before coming home with their shopping for a nice hot cup of tea or a glass of absinthe or a snakebite and black.

A Samurai Goth in Samurai Goths of the Apocalypse has a Goth dynasty, a Samurai weapon, three attributes—‘Samurai’, ‘Goth’, and ‘Apocalypse’, and then a Name, Nature, and Band. The latter is the name for the Samurai Goths’ group as a whole. The seven Goth Dynasties are the Corporate Goth, the Cybergoth, the Gothabilly, the Pastel Goth, the Romantic Goth, the Traditional Goth, and the Western Goth. Each Dynasty provides a Free Ability and an Action Point Ability, the latter needing the expenditure of Action Points to use. For example, the Traditional Goth has the Free Ability of ‘Levitate’, simply floating in the air, and the Action Point Ability of ‘Trailblazer’, which lets them give an ally an extra ally and add a bonus to their own next attack, whilst the Cybergoth has the Free Ability of ‘Neon Night’, a temporary light, and the Action Point Ability of ‘Sonic Rave Blast’, which lets them let out a sonic blast of industrial goth rave music which knocks prone all enemies close by. Similarly, each Samurai weapon has its own Action Point Ability, such as the ‘Counterstrike’ of the katana and the ‘Pinning’ of the Yari.

The three attributes—‘Samurai’, ‘Goth’, and ‘Apocalypse’—correspond to ‘Combat’, ‘Persona’, and ‘Survival’ respectively, and are rated one, two, or three. The Samurai Goth will also have Talents, such as Truck Driver, Accordionist, Charming, and Medicine, but these are selected during play rather than during the creation process. Overall, the process is very quick and easy, a player having only to make a handful of choices.

Name: Buffy Hayes
Nature: Perky
Band Name: Resist The Bitter Cabaret
Goth Dynasty: Traditional Goth
Samurai 2 Goth 3 Apocalypse 1
Feathers: 1
Willpower: 6
Goth Dynasty Abilities: Levitate (Free), Trailblazer (Action Point)
Samurai Weapon: Tessen (Deflect)

Mechanically, Samurai Goths of the Apocalypse used the CONSUMED6 game system. This uses six-sided dice that the players roll, rather than the Gloom Weaver, as the Game Master is known in Samurai Goths of the Apocalypse. To have his Samurai Goth undertake an action, a player rolls a number of dice equal to the appropriate attribute. A Talent, if appropriate, can add an extra die, as can an ability from a Dynasty. The highest die result counts, and if the result is four, five, or six, the action is a success, but a failure if the highest result is a one, two, or three.

Combat in Samurai Goths of the Apocalypse expands on this quite a bit. Initiative is a simple roll of a single die, a success indicating that the Samurai Goths act first, a failure indicating that they act second. When in combat against the Gloom, it has two effects upon the mechanics. The first is that rolls of six explode and enable a player to roll another die, whilst the second is that rolls of one consume the highest success. If any successes are left over, the number of successes indicates the amount of damage inflicted on the enemy, whilst if there only failures left over, the number indicates the amount of damage suffered by the Samurai Goth.

In addition to standard actions, Weapon Abilities and Goth Dynasty Abilities can be activated by expending Action Points. Weapon Abilities cost two Action Points to activate and Goth Dynasty Abilities cost one. A Samurai Goth has a maximum of three Action Points and is earned by inflicting damage and as a Gloom Weaver reward during play. A Samurai Goth also has ‘Feathers’. He starts play with one and earns more by completing missions, up to a maximum of six. They can then be spent to alter a single die rolled by an ally by a single pip, but more feathers will alter it by more. Once earned, ‘Feathers’ reset between adventures.

When a Samurai Goth suffers damage, it is deducted from his Willpower. He can only suffer a total of six damage, but if he suffers a seventh, the corruptive influence of the Gloom, he will fall unconscious and suffer a ‘Gloomagen’. This means that the Gloom has infected and mutated him. For example, ‘Stygian Sight’ means that one of the Samurai Goth’s eyes has swollen and becomes with a swirling pool of complete blackness, meaning that he can see in the dark and even great distances. The Samurai Goth’s Willpower then resets to six. However, a Samurai Goth can only possess two Gloomagens. If a third would be suffered, the Gloom consumes him and he becomes one of its servants!

For the Gloom Weaver, there is a set of tables for creating Gloom monsters, some sample Gloom monsters, a table of prompts, and that is it. Which is underwhelming to say the least. For a roleplaying game designed for quick play, it does leave a lot for the Gloom Weaver to do in terms of setting and missions for her Samurai Goths to play through. Worse, there are a couple of pages devoted to just art—and as nice as that is—they could have been better used to support the Gloom Weaver. So yes, this is disappointing, but in terms of setting, the simplest thing that the Gloom Weaver could do is actually set her Samurai Goths of the Apocalypse campaign in a twisted, post-apocalyptic version of her own neighbourhood or somewhere that is familiar to most of her players. Then take that community and have it changed and twisted by the Gloom-laden apocalypse and use it to drive plots.

Physically, Samurai Goths of the Apocalypse is a black and neon affair. The book is easy to read and the artwork is suitably scrappy and cartoonish.

Samurai Goths of the Apocalypse is a quick-to-learn, throw down and play kind of roleplaying game. It is a cheesy combination of stereotypes and action that reeks of high-concept, low budget films and offers a few sessions worth stand against the Gloom storytelling once the Gloom Weaver has her setting and a scenario or two in hand.

Friday Fantasy: The Veiled Dungeon

Given the origins of the roleplaying hobby—in wargaming and in the drawing of dungeons that the first player characters, and a great many since, explored and plundered—it should be no surprise just how important maps are to the hobby. They serve as a means to show a tactical situation when using miniatures or tokens and to track the progress of the player characters through the dungeon—by both the players and the Dungeon Master. And since the publication of Dungeon Geomorphs, Set One: Basic Dungeon by TSR, Inc. in 1976, the hobby has found different ways in which to provide us with maps. Games Workshop published several Dungeon Floor Sets in the 1980s, culminating in Dungeon Planner Set 1: Caverns of the Dead and Dungeon Planner Set 2: Nightmare in Blackmarsh; Dwarven Forge has supplied dungeon enthusiasts with highly detailed, three-dimensional modular terrain since 1996; and any number of publishers have sold maps as PDFs via Drivethrurpg.com. Loke BattleMats does something a little different with its maps. It publishes them as books. To date, this has included the Big Book of Battle Mats: Rooms, Vaults, & Chambers, the Big Book of Cyberpunk Battle Mats, The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats, The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats, The Towns & Taverns Books of Battle Mats, and Castles, Crypts, & Caverns Books of Battle Mats. However, The Veiled Dungeon is something a little different, something more like Dungeon Planner Set 1: Caverns of the Dead and Dungeon Planner Set 2: Nightmare in Blackmarsh.
The Veiled Dungeon is a boxed set containing a set of maps, encounter cards, and a book of encounters and monsters, all of which can be used in the adventure in the book or used by the Dungeon Master to create her own encounters. It is designed as both toolkit and ready-to-play adventure and comes decently appointed in whatever way the Dungeon Master wants to use it. The adventure itself, ‘The Raiders of the Cerulean Ruins’, is designed for Player Characters of between Third and Fifth Level for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. It comes as a boxed set containing twenty separate maps, forty monster cards, and a reference book.

The maps are done on double-sided seventeen by eleven light card sheets, in full colour and marked with a grid of one-inch squares. All are suitable for use with both wet and dry markers. They include hallways, corridors, dormitories, storerooms, workrooms, crumbling bridges over yawning magical chasms, grand staircases, magical circles, ziggurats, shattered rooms, courtyards and entrances, and more. They are bright and colourful and done in the style recognisable from maps from Loke BattleMats. They are also compatible with them, meaning that they can be used alongside all of the publisher’s maps to expand the playing area and add variety.
The monster cards are also double-sided and done in full colour. On the front is an illustration of the creature, which of course, can be shown to the players when their characters encounter them, whilst on the back is its full stats for easy reference by the Dungeon Master. There are one or two NPCs, such as the Veteran Scholar, but the rest are all monsters. Many of them are animated objects—animated objects to be found in the scenario—and it is clear that the author has had a lot of fun naming and designing them. There is the ‘Animated Scroll Storm’, which acts like a swarm of paper that inflicts paper cuts and on a critical can cast a random cantrip; ‘Bad Dreams’ is animated bed that inflicts ‘Things that go bump’ damage and if a target is prone makes them fall asleep ‘Night, Night!’; and ‘Belligerent Bookcase’, a ‘Vindictive Teacher’ that makes attacks against targets with an Intelligence of twelve or less at Advantage and will then ‘Throw the Book’ at them! The most fun, at least in terms of names, is the ‘Chest of Jaws’, that likes to grapple its targets and steal small items with ‘’That’s Mine’ and then hangs on with ‘Lockjaw’ for both Advantage and extra damage. The animated furniture is especially fun and all of the pieces could easily be used elsewhere—as could many of the monsters.
The Reference Book for The Veiled Dungeon is initially somewhat confusing. Is it, or is it not, a scenario called ‘The Veiled Dungeon’? Well, sort of, but first what the Reference Book does is actually break down the elements of the dungeon, not necessarily to help the Dungeon Master run the pre-written version which follows later in the book, but to help the Dungeon Master create something of her own, but still similar. The elements common to both the adventure contained in the box and the one that the Dungeon Master might create include the myth of the Veiled Dungeon and its invasive fog that shifts and walls that move. How scholars keep discovering it and as they dig deeper, becoming obsessed with exploring further, arousing the interest of a deity of madness and obsession, until they make one terrible discovery, and the fog is unleashed, wreathing its way through the complex, changing and twisting the walls and rooms and letting deadly new monsters in!
The Reference Book then takes the Dungeon Master through the different elements of the adventure. This begins with the maps and then provides tables for creating motivations, persons and organisations that might employ the Player Characters, the size of the dungeon and variations upon it, and then multiple different encounters. It breaks these encounters down area by area rather than by individual locations. The last part of Reference Book consists of the bestiary for ‘The Veiled Dungeon’. From ‘Activated Rope’, ‘Animated Scroll Storm’, and ‘Arcane Golem’ to ‘Veteran Scholar’, ‘Unwelcome Rug’, and ‘Wyrmspawn’, every monster gets a decent write-up, typically a paragraph in length. The more major monsters, like the ‘Malevolent Veil Fiend’ and the ‘Sentinel Statue’, get much longer write-ups, as befitting the threats they represent.

The tools are there for the Dungeon Master to create her own version of ‘The Veiled Dungeon’, but the Reference Book also includes its own pre-written adventure, essentially the designer’s own version of ‘The Veiled Dungeon’. This is ‘The Raiders of the Cerulean Ruins’. The Cerulean Ruins are an important ‘Site of Special Arcane Interest’—or ‘SSAI’—currently being excavated by the Yore Institute. The latter hires the Player Characters to investigate the complex after contact has been lost with its staff and students. It is part-scholar, part-archaeological dig, that gets increasingly darker and weirder. The Player Characters will initially gain some information about the status of the complex from a former employee who has turned ‘ruin raider’, but it does not quite prepare them for what they find. Much of the fittings and furniture have been twisted into malevolent monstrosities and there is a growing sense of madness and chaos, the deeper the Player Characters go. Progress through the dungeon is intentionally compartmenalised. This is done by making the Player Characters need to find keys to unlock particular sections of the dungeon. This is not only a device to have the Player Characters explore every section, but also to prevent them from haring through the dungeon, so forcing the Dungeon Master to clear the table of one set of maps and then set up another.

In the epilogue to the adventure there is an interesting line: “One of the scholars also points out that they have uncovered rumours that might lead to another set of ruins similar to this one!” Which, should the players and their characters follow up on, would enable the Dungeon Master to use the tools to create a new version of ‘The Veiled Dungeon’ of her own, which almost exactly, but not like The Cerulean Ruins. What happens if the Player Characters do follow up on this lead is not explored in the Reference Book, sadly, since some overarching plot could have provided more motivation and storytelling possibilities than simple repetition. Nevertheless, ‘The Raiders of the Cerulean Ruins’ is a good scenario with a decent mix of exploration and combat and a few clues to help the players and their characters work out what is going on.

Physically, The Veiled Dungeon is a handsome boxed set. Everything is well presented. The artwork is excellent and the cartography is as good as you would expect.

The Veiled Dungeon is a slightly odd product, both an adventure and a toolkit to create similarly themed adventures. It perhaps could have done with advice to connect the adventures or provide a bigger plot perhaps, so that the Dungeon Master would have found it easier to create and link, if that is what she desires, the variants upon ‘The Veiled Dungeon’. Nevertheless, whether she is running the included ‘The Raiders of the Cerulean Ruins’ or a version of ‘The Veiled Dungeon’ of her own devising, the contents of The Veiled Dungeon are going to look good on the table.

The Other OSR: HOWL

Sailing in search of work—the ruler of a distant port is said to be offering a generous reward for investigating a great dungeon under the city—the Player Characters find themselves aboard The Erebus, when it is caught in a sudden storm that brews in ferocity until it and its crew, as well as the Player Characters are dashed onto a desolate shore marked only by cliffs! When they awake, cold and sodden, half the crew are dead and half the crew are missing, drag marks in the rough sand the only indication of their fate. As the Player Characters stare up at the cliffs a pair of glowing red eyes appear over the lip and a brutally bulky creature stares down at them before letting out a thunderous howl that shakes their very souls! This is the start of HOWL: A Horror Adventure of Dark Folklore for Cairn. Published by By Odin’s Beard, best known for Runecairn Wardensaga and We Deal in Lead, it was previously available as The Howling Caverns, written for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, but has now been adapted to the micro-clone, Cairn. The name of the ship, The Erebus, the high cliffs, and the howling beast all lend themselves to certain inspirations and HOWL is upfront about them. This is a scenario inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the Yorkshire port of Whitby where Dracula came ashore after travelling aboard The Erebus, English folklore, and Ravenloft, the classic horror setting for Dungeons & Dragons.

HOWL: A Horror Adventure of Dark Folklore for Cairn begins with the Player Characters aboard The Erebus and have the opportunity to help the ship’s crew and so perhaps help save the ship. Of course, that does not happen, but they may be able to keep some of the crew alive who will help them later ashore. What they also discover once they wake up from the shipwreck, they find a number of skeletons that rise to attack and once defeated, they learn from a note carried by one of the skeletons that they have been cursed! A Barghest—perhaps the beast on the cliff—is abroad and is stalking them. The only solution seems to lie up the narrow cliff path and onwards to the nearby village of Krasnaloz. What is quickly apparent is that the village is run down and its inhabitants disaffected, but they are forthcoming about the Barghest and its legend. This is, that last night, after three days of violent storms, lightning struck a tree and when it fell, it opened up a cave out of which it is said that the Barghest exited and let out its first howl!

The Player Characters have the opportunity to gather more background and clues, many of them freely given by the few staff patrons of the amusingly named ‘The Slaughtered Lamb’. This includes too, the possible means of lifting the cure that they are under and even an offer of help from a bard who recently lost her partner to the Barghest. Other clues can be gathered at a ruined temple, long fallen into disuse, before the Player Characters set out to investigate the caves located in the countryside to the north of the village. Bar a possible encounter or two in the wintery surrounds, the Player Characters will quickly arrive at the cave and begin to explore its depths. The first few chambers in the network show signs of occupation, but have clearly been abandoned, whilst the later ones show signs of exploration and hide secrets. Only in the last chamber will the Barghest be found and in confronting the creature, some secrets will be revealed.

The adventure is linear, but well designed and atmospheric. In the first part, there is a definite feeling of the cold and isolation on a bleak coast, whilst the dungeon itself is a contrasting split between a lair and a magical retreat. The former having abandoned, whilst the latter is being explored, a mixture of puzzles and traps with a dose of the weirdness of the deep thrown in. Altogether, the scenario should provide three or so sessions to play through, a single taking the Player Characters from the shipwreck to the village and the second two sessions into the cave system. At the end though, HOWL may leave the players and their characters unsatisfied. There is resolution, but not one likely to leave them happy. In part, this is due to the fact that HOWL is the first part of an extended campaign, and as yet, the sequel, Colossus Wake, has not been adapted from Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. In part, because the Player Characters are going to feel manipulated by the end of the scenario and without that sequel, there is no way in which they can address the issue themselves.

Physically, HOWL is very cleanly and tidily presented. The layout is excellent and although the location descriptions for the cave do not include individual excerpts from the main dungeon map, there is a relationship diagram showing the links between one room and another. The artwork is decent and the maps are good too. The NPC and monster stats are listed at the back, so the Game Master will need to flip back and forth.

As a scenario for the Old School Renaissance, HOWL is easy to adapt to other retroclones, but as a scenario for Cairn, with a little effort, it could easily be adapted to Into the Odd and run more like a scenario for Masque of the Red Death and Other Tales. Overall, HOWL: A Horror Adventure of Dark Folklore for Cairn pleasingly combines Gothic horror with fantasy horror in a very easy-to-use format.

Companion Chronicles #1: The Tree Hazardous

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

—oOo—

What is the Nature of the Quest?The Tree Hazardous – Three Mini Adventures for Pendragon 6th Edition is a scenario for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition which details a minor quest deep into the forest that can be used as side quest or adventure and played through in a single session.

It is a full colour, twenty page, 2.54 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy and it is nicely illustrated.
Where is the Quest Set?The Tree Hazardous is set northeast of Hertford, deep in the Quinqueroi Forest in Logres. It can very easily be shifted to the forest of the Game Master’s choice.
Who should go on this Quest?
The Tree Hazardous does not require any specific type of knight. However, a good range of skills is required, and each the three mini-quests tests not only tests a range of skills including combat skills, Singing, and Play (Instrument), but also features one or more sets of Personality Traits in the course of their encounters.
It is best suited for play by one, two, or three Player-knights, each of whom will undertake an individual quest when encountering the ‘Tree Hazardous’ of the title.
What does the Quest require?
The Tree Hazardous requires the Pendragon, Sixth Edition rules or the Pendragon Starter Set.
Where will the Quest take the Knights?The Tree Hazardous opens with the Player-knights already having learned of the local legend of the Tree hazardous, which tells of the unusually large yew tree deep within the forest and the supposedly strangeness high up in its branches. With a little time searching, they will be able to locate this tree and as daylight ebbs away and the Tree Hazardous is found, the Player-knights each hear voices from high up in the branches. In climbing the tree and going to investigate the voices will lead the Player-knights to one of the three mini-quests that make up the meat of the scenario.
The three mini-quests are ‘The Ivy Knight’, ‘The Bird Chorus’, and ‘The Devil Squirrel’. In ‘The Ivy Knight’, the Player-knight will have his ‘Valorous/Cowardly’ Traits tested when he is faced by a knight who wishes to escape a curse. ‘Honest/Deceitful’ and ‘Modest/Proud’ are the Traits tested in ‘The Bird Chorus’ as the Player-knight gets to sing or play and engage with some musical birds, whilst ‘Merciful/Cruel’, ‘Trusting/Suspicious’, and ‘Valorous/Cowardly’ are tested in ‘The Devil Squirrel’ as the Player-knight attempts to save both a young boy from the clutches a squirrelly sinister threat and themselves from a similar fate. Each of the three is quite different in tone. Thus, ‘The Ivy Knight’ is quite mournful; ‘The Bird Chorus’ veers between joyous and ever so slightly menacing, and ‘The Devil Squirrel’ is dark and dangerous. All end not only with their possible Glory awards, but also several loose ends that the Game Master and the Player-knights can follow up.
All three mini-quests are clearly presented, so that the Game Master could run them together with a group of three Player-knights, each tackling a different mini-quest. Alternatively, the Gamemaster can take any one of the three mini-quests and present it on its own in a one-on-one session with the player and his knight. All three also make clear which personality Traits and which skills are involved so that not only is each mini-quest easy to run, but easy to tailor to a Player-knight and his personality Traits and skills if the Game Master chooses to do so.
Should the Knights ride out on this Quest?Although there is an element of utilitarianism to collection in that its contents can be run in a single session for a handful of Player-knights or extracted so each of its mini-quests can be run for a single player, The Tree Hazardous – Three Mini Adventures for Pendragon 6th Edition presents three nicely written and engaging little quests that will test both the knights and their players. Their format and their length mean that whether as a single mini-quest or all three, The Tree Hazardous – Three Mini Adventures for Pendragon 6th Edition is quick and easy to prepare and slot into a campaign.

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