The year is 2123. The first Leviathan Jumpships have been launched and contact has been made with the extrasolar colonies founded in the previous century using Aberrant technologies and then lost contact with in the subsequent Aberrant War. Some have survived, some have been lost, and some find themselves under attack by Aberrants and alien species. Aberrants remain a constant threat. They attacked Sydney, Australia in 2105 and in 2120, they dropped the Esperanza, the ailing European Union’s space station which it hoped would revitalise its future, on France, leaving both France and Belgium as devastated and corrupted landscapes. The mark of Aberrants can be seen in the Blight, the explosion of an Aberrant in Nebraska, which corrupted everything within 200 KM and spoiled soil fertility within 1,000 KM, ravaging the USA’s agricultural belt and in the resulting chaos, saw a military coup, the establishment of the Federated States of America, and the occupation of both Canada and Mexico. In the bombed-out city of Bahrain, the headquarters of the Aberrants until they were driven from Earth and the Solar System by the Earth Strike Ultimatum. This was issued in 2067 by the Chinese government and forced every Aberrant to leave lest it launch every nuclear missile from the satellite missile platforms under its control. This ended the Aberrant War and the Nova Age. For the Aberrants had not always been monsters. From the 2020s until the 2050s, they were Novas, powerful superhumans who transformed societies, technologies, and the planet, enabling exploration and settlement throughout the Solar System and beyond. Then they turned on Humanity, resulting in the Aberrant War. In the wake of the war, the worldwide aid and development organisation known as Æon Trinity has worked alongside the United Nations to help rebuild Earth and a force of individuals with the powers to control their own body and its form, to see into past, present, and future, manipulate technology and the electromagnetic spectrum, alter energy and mass, control kinetic energy, heal, contact and read the minds of others, and even teleportation. They are Psions.

Each Psion possesses a primary Aptitude. There are eight Aptitudes, each one associated with a psi order or organisation. When this latent Aptitude is detected, he is approached by its associated order and his psionic abilities transformed from latency into full use by being placed in a Prometheus Chamber, a device which will activate his psionic abilities. Each order possesses a single Prometheus Chamber. The eight orders are The Æsculapian Order, Chitra Bhanu, ISRA (the Interplanetary School of Research and Advancement), the Legions, the Ministry of Noetic Affairs, Orgotek, Nova Força Nacional, and Upeo Wa Macho. The Æsculapian Order focuses on Vitakinesis, biological healing and enhancement, and operates primarily as an international emergency response and aid organisation. Chitra Bhanu studied the relationship between energy and matter, Quantakinesis, including noetic and Quantam powers. Quantam powers are what lay behind the abilities of first the Novas and then the Aberrants, whereas the abilities of the Psions are connected at the subquantum level. It was the study of Quantam powers and rumoured connection to Aberrants which led to the eradication of Chitra Bhanu Order. Members of ISRA are Clairsentients whose study of the past, present, and future is put to use helping each other and humanity. The Legions is a military organisation which uses Psychokinesis to help protect humanity from Aberrant and extraterrestrial threats. The Ministry of Noetic Affairs is an Order of telepaths that is also an independent division of the Chinese government, which studies the mind and provides humanitarian aid and research, often in pursuit of utopian ideals. The Sudamerican-based Nova Força Nacional is an environmentalist order whose members employ Biokinesis to control and alter their body and form, often to radical effect. Orgotek is a corporation in the fascist Federated States of America, which specialises in electronics and biotech, but also Electrokinesis, the ability to control technology. Upeo Wa Macho—Swahili for ‘the horizon’ is an Order of teleporters, its members capable to travel vast, even interstellar distances. In the wake of the eradication of Chitra Bhanu, Upeo Wa Macho expected to be targeted next and its members vanished from the Solar System, only having returned in the last six months. They are often distrusted by the other orders.

This is the setting for Trinity Continuum: Æon. Published by Onyx Path Publishing, it is update of the Trinity, originally published by the White Wolf Game Studio in 2000, the first of the three roleplaying games set in the Trinity Universe. The others being Aberrant and Adventure!, both set earlier in its timeline. Trinity Continuum: Æon is not a standalone roleplaying game and requires the rules in the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook. Trinity Continuum: Æon takes the cinematic action of the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook and expands it fully into the realms of Science Fiction and psionic powers. On its own, the Player Characters in the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook are exceptionally skilled characters known as ‘Talents’. It is entirely possible to play a Talent in the setting of Trinity Continuum: Æon and such a Player Character would have certain advantages, being unexpectedly skilled when everyone’s focus is upon Psions. For the most part though, the Player Characters will be Psions.

A Player Character—or Psion—in Trinity Continuum: Æon has the same stats and the same creation process as in the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook. For his Society Path, a Psion will typically choose his Order, which will also allow Order specific Edges to be chosen, but there is a new Origin Path: Oceanian (for Player Character originating in subaquatic settlements and societies) and new Role Paths which include Off-Earth Colonist, Spacer, and Space Military. The penultimate step in character creation is the application of the Psion Template, which provides a Psion’s Aptitude, Psi Trait, and Modes. Psi Trait is a Psion’s psychic strength, representing both the dice to be added to the pool for activating the Psion’s abilities, the number of Psi points used to activate and power abilities, and more. The typical beginning Psi trait is two, or three for the Quantakinesis and Teleportation Aptitudes. This can be raised as high as six or seven during long term play, which would be equal to a very powerful Psion or a head of one of the orders, or Proxies as they are known. Each Aptitude has three Modes, the actual powers that the Psion will be using. For example, Translocation, Transmassion, and Transportal for Teleportation and Psychometry, Psychlocation, and Psychocognition for Clairsentience.

Activating a psionic ability requires a roll of a dice equal to the Psion’s Psi Trait and the Mode rating. The default Difficulty is one Success to activate an ability, but this can go up or down depending on the Mode rating. This even enables a Psion to use a higher Mode ability that he does not yet have, but at a greater difficulty, with abilities lower the Psion’s current Mode ability will be easier to activate. The Psi Trait determines the duration, range, and radius of an ability, but can be boosted with Psi points. Favouring one ability or Mode over another can lead to psionic dysfunction and odd quirks of personality. However, it does give an advantage with the favoured Mode whilst levying a penalty upon the use of the other Modes. Other rules cover connections with people and objects and co-operating in the use of psionic powers. The rules in Trinity Continuum: Æon also cover hacking as well as a wide range of technology, including hardtech and biotech, all the way up to spaceships and starships of various sizes.

The Science Fiction of Trinity Continuum: Æon is intended to be positive. It is inspired by Babylon 5 and The Tomorrow People, Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke and Julian May’s Galactic Milieu series, and the Mass Effect series of computer roleplaying games. It provides a wealth of detail in terms of its background, which takes in a hundred years’ worth of history, details of the major powers and nations of the early twenty-second century, the remaining seven Psion Orders, the various extra solar colonies, the threats faced by mankind both within the Solar System and beyond. Not only is the background and setting detail immensely readable, but it is also immensely playable because of the differences between its various locations and organisations. It is in these differences where the brilliance of the background comes to the fore. They provide numerous options in terms of the games and campaigns that can be run within the future of the Trinity Continuum: Æon. The fascist Federated States of America with economic underclass, high crime rate, and a police response based on the economic status is perfect for a campaign of Cyberpunk style espionage. The Lunar colony of Olympus is perfect for future crime stories. The extrasolar colonies are intended for Space Opera, whilst miliary Science Fiction is perfect for the Chinese colony of Khantze Lu Ge, where Aberrants have invaded. The remains of France and Belgium are suitable for post-apocalyptic scenarios. Campaigns involving The Æsculapian Order focus on search and rescue missions, emergency response, and the politics of non-governmental aid, ISRA on secret missions to protect humanity, the Legions on military operations, Ministry of Noetic Affairs on intrigue and politics, Nova Força Nacional on espionage and small-scale operations—criminal, guerilla, or military, Orgotek on engineering projects, conducting counterterrorism missions for the Federated States of America government, investigating Aberrant cults, and Upeo Wa Macho on exploration and travel. It is important to note that the membership of each order does not solely consist of Psions with just the order’s associated Aptitude. Those with other Aptitudes can belong too. It is also possible to have a campaign with freelancers or even with the Player Characters from a variety of Orders, but working for the humanitarian agency, Æon Trinity, and that would lend itself to a variety of different scenarios and campaigns.

For the Storyteller, there is a discussion of the various genres possible with Trinity Continuum: Æon, and how to create optimistic scenarios and evoke the themes of the Trinity Continuum universe. These are Hope, Sacrifice, and Unity—the latter in particular for Trinity Continuum: Æon. There is good advice on handling discipline and rank in military campaigns, for example, if tunning a campaign based around the Legions, either discuss it with players and embrace it, run campaigns based on covert operations, or simply keep it more cinematic in style. There is advice too on how to incorporate Talents into a campaign. The Storyteller is also given stats and details of a wide range of NPCs and threats, including aliens and Aberrants. Lastly, there is a section for her eyes only on the secrets of the Trinity Continuum: Æon. It includes a projected timeline too for the setting, enabling the Game Master to plot out scenarios and events as her campaign progresses. Including this information is both generous and useful, as it really helps the Game Master understand the setting and thus create better scenarios and campaigns.

Physically, Trinity Continuum: Æon is very well written and easy to read. It is decently illustrated throughout, and really the only issue might be that the book’s map could have been better produced.

Trinity Continuum: Æon is a great expansion for the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook. The Psionic abilities are not too complicated and are easy to use, but it is the background which really shines through. It is engaging and detailed, whilst at the same time offering a wealth of detail to bring into play and almost mini-settings in which to run the different genres of Science Fiction. Overall, Trinity Continuum: Æon is pleasingly optimistic in its outlook and generous in the types of Science Fiction games it can support.

Before the advent of the internet, the magazine was the focus of the hobby’s attention, a platform in whose pages could be news, reviews, and content for the roleplaying game of each reader’s choice, as well as a classified section and a letters page where the issues of day—or at least month—could be raised and discussed in chronically lengthy manner. In this way, such magazines as White Dwarf, Imagine, Dragon, and many others since, came to be our community’s focal point and sounding board, especially a magazine that was long running. Yet depending upon when you entered the hobby and picked up your first issue of a roleplaying magazine, you could have missed a mere handful of issues or many. Which would have left you wondering what was in those prior issues. Today, tracking down back issues to find out and complete a magazine’s run is much easier than it was then, but many publishers offered another solution—the ‘Best of…’ magazine. This was a compilation of curated articles and support, containing the best content to have appeared in the magazine’s pages.

1980 got the format off to a good start with both The Best of White Dwarf Scenarios and The Best of White Dwarf Articles from Games Workshop as well as the Best of Dragon from TSR, Inc. Both publishers would release further volumes of all three series, and TSR, Inc. would also reprint its volumes. Other publishers have published similar volumes and in more recent times, creators in the Old School Renaissance have begun to collate and collect content despite the relative youth of that movement. This includes The Gongfarmer’s Almanac which has collected community content for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game since 2015 and Populated Hexes Monthly Year One which collected the content from the Populated Hexes Monthly fanzine. The ‘Best of…’ series of reviews will look at these and many of the curated and compiled titles from the last four decades of roleplaying.

—oOo—

The 2015 Gongfarmer’s Almanac was published in 2016. It is the first of several annual compilations of the fanzine, the Gongfarmer’s Almanac, created by dedicated fans of Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game (and later Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, the spiritual successor to Gamma World) published by Gongfarmer’s Local #282. Both the creation of the individual issues and the compilations of Gongfarmer’s Almanac are volunteer-led and both the individual issues and the compilations are available in different formats. This includes being available for free as PDFs and then as inexpensive softbacks and paperbacks. So, in the case of the 2015 Gongfarmer’s Almanac, which was created and compiled by the members of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Google+ Community, that is over three hundred pages of content that the Judge can pick and choose from for her campaign. This includes new Classes, spells and rituals, monsters, treasure, Patrons, adventures, campaign material, and more. All of it optional, but all of it worth looking at given its obvious value for money.

However, the volunteer-led nature of the 2015 Gongfarmer’s Almanac is not without its consequences. Although the layout of the compilation is decent enough, the organisation is not as straightforward as it could be. The compilation is organised and numbered as individual issues, rather than as a whole, and the individual entries vary in length. The individual issues though, are organised thematically, so the first issue is dedicated to Classes and spells, the second to monsters, treasures, and Patrons, the third to scenarios, and so on. This, plus the repeated inclusion of the table of the contents does help the reader navigate her way around the compilation. It should also be noted that the physical quality of the compilations are not of the highest quality, which in part, is due to the low cost. Lastly, the 2015 Gongfarmer’s Almanac contains not five issues as stated in the initial individual sections, but a total of six.

The ‘PC Classes’ opens with Julian Bernick’s ‘Assassin’, which mixes the Thief’s stealth skills and backstab ability with the ‘Gift of Venom’, which forces the defendant to save versus Poison, but if failed, can have various effects, including being weakened, inflicting extra damage, and even death. In addition, the Assassin can also assassinate a totally surprised opponent! The ‘Dervish’ by Edgar Johnson is a holy warrior, Neutral by alignment, but highly religious, specialises in the use of one weapon, and mixes in a lot of different abilities taken from the Paladin, Ranger, and Thief Classes. This quite a focused and strong Class. ‘Gold and Glory Beyond the Grave Un-dead PC’s in DCC RPG’ by Taylor Frank gives options for playing undead characters such Ghost, Skeleton Warrior, and even a Vampire. These cross over in the Chaotic Alignment, even evil, and so are suited to some campaigns more than others. Reid ‘Reidzilla’ San Filippo’s ‘The Luchador’ is drawn from the author’s Umerica setting, blessed by the Bueno-god El Santo, patron of monster slaying wrestlers, channelling the hope Luchadores channel of their peoples and their indomitable will through outlandish mystical masks to empower their ancient, unarmed fighting techniques. They have Mighty Deeds of Wrestling including for acrobatic strikes, blinding attacks, choke out, demoralising taunts, and more. It is a fun all-action, brawling Class. Lastly, David Baity’s ‘The Sword Monger A DCC Optional Class’ is very clearly inspired by the film, Highlander, presenting sword-wielding warriors who can be killed by decapitation and when they kill one of their own, they gain a portion of his Hit Points and kill enough of them will improve stats. This makes them quite powerful. Overall, this is interesting mix of new Classes, some of which may well be too powerful or radical for some campaigns.
‘Rituals & Spells’ gives several spells such as Blood Splash, a First Level Wizard spell by Reece Carter, in which the caster cuts himself and sprays at opponents to inflict damage, whilst Terry Olson’s Temporary Creation is a First Level Cleric in which the caster draws upon his deity’s power to temporarily create semi-divine, though ordinary items. Vacuity by Chris Fassano is a Third Level Wizard spell which draws all of the air out of the target’s lungs and at its most powerful creates a black hole which leads to a different world. This is an interesting mix and spellcasters can have some fun with them.

The first of the items of treasure is ‘Items to Die For’ by Kyle Turner. These are a trio of interesting magical items, all nice and easy to use, like the Harrow, a bow of gnarled, polished bone that does no damage, but renders a particular body part broken and useless on a hit, but on a critical miss does the same to an ally, whilst Yi’ao, the Flame is a burning iron sword that never goes out, requires a marble scabbard(!), and burns its wielder. Jordan Smith’ ‘Objects of Wonder from the Ruins of Glittergus’ offers a handful of items like the Eye of Occultation and the Crown of the Ape King, whose background in the Swamp Kingdoms of Jersey and the scattered lands of Brokendyn, all suggest a post-apocalyptic origin, but they all still feel magical rather than technologically derived, but all are engaging described, whilst ‘Pelagian Equipment’ by Bruce Clark, describes two items that part of the domain of Pelagia, the Sea Goddess. One is Pelagia’s Holy Vestments, robes that grant faster swimming and an entanglement—in seaweed, of course—power that needs to be rolled for, the other a Portable Jellyfish which can be thrown like a grenade for electricity damage! ‘The Wall of Kovacs’ is a transient wall of various materials which can appear anywhere, again and again. Created by bygrinstow and inspired by the work of Goodman Games regular artist, Doug Kovacs, it causes Chaotic transformations in those who touch it, so the players and their characters are likely to come to fear and curse its presence.
The Patrons are all fully written up with spells patron gifts. Randall D. Bailey Jr.’s ‘Ghrelin’ is “The Demon Lord of Hunger and Starvation…” who “cares about nothing but consuming.”; bygrinstow’s ‘The Great Ebony Hand’ details as inscrutable a Patron as you could imagine, since you can talk to and invoke the Great Ebony Hand, but it never talks back. It can though provide a protective, ghostly hand, spells that allow communication via sign language, poke doom at a target, and so on; and ‘Patron: Hecate’ by Doyle Wayne Ramos-Tavener describes a patron of witches who sends nightmares, can raise the dead, and so on. This is a dark version of Hecate and witch-type characters, and highly suitable for NPCs and grimdark campaigns, but unfortunately feels incomplete with the inclusion of the one spell.
‘Volume 3: Adventures’ contains fives adventures of varying quality. They begin with Clint Bohaty’s First Level adventure, ‘Hemlock Bones Mystery Adventure #1: The Coal Snoot’. Inspired by the works of Sherlock Holmes, the Player Characters are hired by the brilliant and annoying wizard, Hemlock Bones, to help him solve a locked room murder. In other words, they do the work and he takes the credit. It is all set-up—quite detailed set-up—which the Player Characters have to solve. This is very much left open and so will take a fair bit of work for the Judge to run as is. The format, with a Sherlock Holmes-style NPC present, has the potential to overbear the efforts of the Player Characters, but the advice on handling him is decent, mostly keeping him offstage. Peter Mullen’s ‘The Marvelous Myriad Myconid Caverns’ is for Third and Fourth Level Player Characters is actually marvellous, a series of caves and tunnels off the River Yimmer in the Endless Dungeons of Acererak. There are touches of whimsy and strangeness to the encounters with Morse Trolls who tap out messages across the dungeon, gremlin dungeon punks, Sergeant Luggbodduggo, a Nail-head Hobgoblin on a fishing trip, a monstrous troglodyte chief armed with the Gorgosaurus Sword—a dinosaur in weapon form! Accompanying the scenario is a lovely map and this really is a charming dungeon which creates a world of its own, not only the best of the five dungeons in the 2015 Gongfarmer’s Almanac, but amongst the best of the content in the compilation.
‘May Flowers’ is a Zero Level Funnel by Daniel J. Bishop. The uncovering of an icon of the ancient Chaos goddess, Flos Tenebrarum, the Flower of Darkness, unleashes the sudden flowering of strange predatory plants. Essentially, it turns a farmer’s field into a garden-themed dungeon, a deadly one at that, and if it feels somewhat one-note in that theme, much of the joy of the adventure is going to come from Zero Level Player Characters live and die in the course of dealing with the newly grown problem. Just as with other Zero Level Funnels. Jon Hook’s ‘Tomb of the Thrice-Damned War Witch’ is a deadly, tomb-raiding adventure for Fourth Level Player Characters, built to contain the spirit of a powerful war witch in ages past. Relatively short, it is full of puzzles and traps and the sort of adventure in which things are best well left alone. The war witch’s treasures are powerful, especially if a Player Character is a Warrior of Chaotic alignment, but if not, there is a wand capable of creating portals large to transport soldiery and siege engines across vast distances which could be useful. Otherwise, even the author describes entering into the tomb as a fool’s errand.
Lastly, ‘The Worm Cult of Laserskull Mountain’ by Noah Stevens mixes a range of genres—Science Fiction, the post-apocalyptic, and fantasy—to create an adventure site ready to be scaled and adapted to the Player Characters. Laserskull Mountain is where the people of sector bring their dead to be interred by the Embalmers and eulogised by their dirge-singing Crystaloid Computer, but it has been recently invaded by Worm Cultists who are digging down in search of the Humming Egg and then occupied by the Android Enchantress as a forward operating base in her war against the Cyberlich, whose attack is imminent… It will require a fair degree of effort upon the part of the Judge to prepare, since she will need to provide all of the stats. Otherwise, this is nicely detailed and awaits the right spot in the Judge’s campaign to be placed.

The fourth, fifth, and subsequently, sixth part of the 2015 Gongfarmer’s Almanac all fall under the label of ‘Rules & Campaign Miscellany’. This consists of content that does not fit under any of the other categories given in the earlier volumes, which include setting content, general articles, and more. Roy Snyder’s ‘Black Blood Pass – A Mini-Gazetteer’ describes a nearly impassable pass through mountains, fallen to ruin since the Demi-Lich Rj’nimajneb~Yor’s forces to occupy the Fang, the fortress dominating the pass. The Demi-Lich is fully detailed, including its abilities and magical items, alongside location descriptions and hooks. It is a pity that it is a ‘Mini-Gazetteer’, since there is plenty of scope for expansion and more detailing. A map perhaps would have been useful to help the Judge develop the lengthy location further. ‘Chirumancy’ by James MacGeorge offers an alternative to healing magic of the Cleric, Chirurgeons, who as the masters of the arts of dark surgery, seal wounds with carcinomas, replace lost limbs with those taken from corpses, and worse. There are side effects though, beginning with a persistent cough or chronic incontinence and going all the way to seizures and tumours! Another problem is that the newly attached body parts may not match those lost, due to either Species or gender! This is delightfully grim, a bloody, inconsistent counterpart to the sterility of divine healing magic.
There is a set of tables by Tim Callahan to create non-traditional haunted and doomed locations with ‘Crawling Castle of Grumblethorn and Other Architectural Horrors’; an actual ‘The Gongfarmer’s Almanac’, a calendar by Doyle Wayne Ramos-Tavener to add omens, events, and Wizard and Cleric spell check modifiers day-by-day to a campaign or serve as a model for the Judge’s own; a table of events and encounters by Kane Cathainm ‘Tales of Travels, Trials, & Chance Meetings’, to role on between adventures to make the Player Characters’ lives interesting; and ‘The Virtual Funnel: Making Higher Level DCC RPG Characters with Real Class’, Paul Wolfe’s solution for creating the backstory to Player Characters created at higher Level. This starts with the Zero Level Character Funnel and takes them up Level by Level to the Player Character’s starting point. A very useful set of tables which could easily have found itself in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Companion if there were such a thing for the roleplaying game. There is even another scenario, ‘The Demon’s Conscripts’, a mid-Level affair in which the Player Characters encounter foreign soldiers who have been partially possessed by demons. Again by Paul Wolfe, these are Samurai, and includes stats for various Japanese monsters and martial weapons, alongside an interesting situation.
And then, the ‘Master Zine Index’ lists every adventure, gadget or gear, magical item, monster, NPC, Patron, ritual or spell, rules, rumours, and campaign seeds, and anything else to have appeared in the nine or so fanzines then in print! It was an amazing undertaking in 2015. It would be a daunting task almost a decade on in 2024!
Physically, the 2015 Gongfarmer’s Almanac is rough around the edges and has cheap, pulp quality to it. There is very much the feel of the fanzine to its pages, both in terms of presentation and quality of content. There is though, nothing wrong in this, for there is a wide variety of content and none of it is presented in a less than readable fashion. Rather that anyone expecting something more polished will be disappointed.
The likelihood is that the Judge is never going to use all of the content of the 2015 Gongfarmer’s Almanac, but there is very likely going to be something its pages that she will find useful or she can adapt or incorporate into her campaign. It is a medley of ideas, monsters, adventures, options, treasures, gods, and much more. The 2015 Gongfarmer’s Almanac was an impressive collation in 2016 and if it has been outclassed by the volumes in the series that followed, it was still an incredible, fan-driven undertaking that captured the imaginations of Dungeon Crawl Classics fans at the time.

One of the great things about The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings, the second edition of the acclaimed The One Ring: Adventures Over the Edge of the Wild published by Free League Publishing is The One Ring Starter Set. Why do you ask? Well, because it lets us roleplay members of the Hobbit community whom we not normally encounter. Drogo Baggins, Esmeralda Took, Lobelia Bracegirdle, Paladin Took II, Primula Brandybuck, and Rorimac Brandybuck, in many cases the parents or relations of three of the Hobbits who would form part of the Fellowship of the Ring decades later. Under the direction of the scandalous Bilbo Baggins, the quintet went off and had adventures of their own in the Shire, whilst at the same time The One Ring Starter Set presented the Shire for the roleplaying game itself. Sadly, the five adventures had to come to close and with it the chance to play those characters again. Fortunately, s available a number of sequel adventures, including Landmark Adventures, that can be run as part of, or after, the events of The One Ring Starter Set, or simply added to an ongoing campaign for The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings if it is being run in or around The Shire. The Ghost of Needlehole proved to be a sharp little ghost story, whilst the Mines of Brockenbores takes the Player-heroes to the far north of the Shire to inspect a mine!

The Mines of Brockenbores takes place in the northern part of the Shire’s Eastfarthing, in the hilly region of Scary. It is here that much of the ore that the Hobbits of the Shire need for their metal goods and implements is mined. Of course in the future, it is also from here that Fredegar Bolger will lead a band of Hobbit rebels when ‘Sharkey’ takes control of the Shire during the War of the Ring. That though, is in the future and many years before that happens, before even Fredegar Bolger and his friends were born, the mines were the source of a mystery! This is a strange sickness which is besetting the miners, which the owner of the mine, Erling Goldworthy, is keeping quiet until his profits are threatened and he puts out the call for any party of adventurous Hobbits (or outsiders) who are willing to explore the mines and eradicate what he describes as an “Infestation of Rats”.

The bulk of the adventure will see the Player-heroes exploring and skulking through the mine. There is relatively little for them to explore or discover, the main one being the cause of the strange sickness, being tunnels full of bioluminescent mushrooms, but the other being something dark and dangerous lurking in newly uncovered caves. There are plenty of opportunities to gain Shadow Points—if only temporary ones—in confronting the thing, a tough prospect for even a group of standard Player-heroes, let alone a group of Hobbits like those from the The One Ring Starter Set. However, ‘The Nameless Thing’ described in the adventure is not the only threat present in Mines of Brockenbores. This is other threat is slightly connected to Lobelia Bracegirdle and its involvement may have an effect on her outlook on life if she is a Player Character.
The Mines of Brockenbores is neatly presented and is well written and its short length means that it is quite easy to prepare for a session.

New scenarios for The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings and especially for use in conjunction with The One Ring Starter Set, are always going to be welcome. Yet the Mines of Brockenbores is not as good a Landmark adventure as the previous The Ghost of Needlehole. It is too straightforward, not quite enough mystery in comparison. Plus the Mines of Brockenbores is a tough little encounter for The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings. Potentially too tough for an ordinary band of Hobbits, forcing them as it does, to confront a nameless thing long out of Middle-earth’s past. Consequently, letting the Rangers of the North know about it might be the safer course of action, but of course, Hobbits are, famously, brave in pinch, and if they can defeat it, they should be well rewarded.

The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes is an anthology of four locations and scenarios, of which one is the eponymous ‘Haunted Hamlet’. Each location combines a fantastic mixture of whimsy and weirdness, menace and mystery, and distinct usefulness. The latter because each of the four locations is not just a single location, but also a single hex, complete and separate from the other three. The Game Master can take any one of the four hexes and not so much drop it into her campaign, but neatly and tidily pull out a hex from her own hexcrawl and slot one of the four back in its place. After that, all the Game Master has to do, is add a few rumours to arouse the interest of her players and their characters to get them to visit and investigate. For example, the hexes can be used in conjunction with other books by the publisher such as Woodfall, Willow, and The Toxic Wood, or any one of the four hexes or adventure locations in The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes would make for easy additions to Populated Hexes Monthly Year One or the Dolmenwood setting from Necrotic Gnome. Then again, any one of the four could be run on their as a separate scenario, each one offering sufficient play for two or three sessions or so. All are written for use with Old School Essentials, Necrotic Gnome’s very accessible update of the Moldvey/Cook and Marsh version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons, which means that not only is The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes equally as mechanically accessible, it is also easily adapted to the retroclone of the Game Master’s choice.
The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes is written by the Lazy Litch and was published following a successful Kickstarter campaign as part of ZineQuest #3. It begins in a slightly odd fashion with several sets of tables, one for ‘Random Treasure’—Basic, Advanced, and Rare—which can be rolled on as the Player Characters discover treasures during play; another for ‘Random Weather Conditions’—Basic Weather, Extreme Weather, and Natural Disasters; and then encounter seeds for both day and night, before the introduction. This sets the play style for all four hexes, that ideally play should be Player Character led according to their goals, that Player Characters gain Experience Points from finding treasures and making discoveries rather than simply killing monsters, that monsters are not balanced according to Player Character Level, and that in encouraging players to be clever and creative, that both roleplaying and meta-gaming is also encouraged. The latter is something of an oddity, a type of behaviour rarely encouraged in roleplaying in general since it can lead to players taking advantage of the situation. However, judicious application can lead to clever and interesting play. Then, The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes into its first hex, but it is not that of ‘The Haunted Hamlet’ of the title, adding to the oddness of the fanzine’s beginning. In addition, there is no table of contents which would tell the reader where it is, so it is disconcerting, at least initially.

‘The Gold Mine’ is the first hex in The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes. This details a great crack in the earth which has recently opened. It has been occupied by the forces of Lord Bleak of the Black Mountain, who are guarding it and forcing miners to extract the gold discovered below. The militia occupy a fort above where the ore is processed by alchemists, descending only to collect the ore and punish any delays in output. Below the fortress lies four quite different mining levels, each occupied by a different species. The upper mines by Mole people, the lower mines by subterranean Gnomes, the Antkin mines by the Antkin—the original dwellers of the mines and caves, and below that, the Overdark lies unoccupied except for strange pillars and fungal trees. The maps are presented in isometric fashion, the individual level descriptions coded in increasing darker shades of grey. At the end is a short timeline of events and a handful of hooks to get the Player Characters involved. These include them being incarcerated in the mine, being hired to break a criminal out or sabotage the mine, and so on. Even if the Player Characters do nothing, events will play out and the situation at the mine will be entirely different. There is a sense of oppression and things waiting to happen here.

Darker still though, is the second hex, ‘The Ladder Inn’. It describes a lakeside inn noted for the ladder descending into the waters of the lake. Treasure is rumoured to be found at the bottom of the ladder and the lake, and many an adventurer has passed through, expressing an interest in the mystery of lake and ladder, perhaps taking up the offer of potions of water breathing being sold by a stranger. Some pass on the offer, but others are never seen again. The inn, its owner and the stranger are all nicely detailed and there is lots going on at the inn over the course of the few days that the Player Characters stay there. The situation at the inn has a fairy tale-like quality to it, being a story of greed and oppression wrapped up in a mystery. A nice touch is that again, the areas underground—in this case, under the lake—on presented on a black background so that the Game Master is accorded the oppressive nature of the lake’s black waters… ‘The Ladder Inn’ is an enjoyably busy little location that intrigues with its odd situation—that of a ladder leading down into a lake—and then builds on that intrigue to deliver a dark little mystery with just a tinge of sadness.

Combine an overly ambitious wizard’s apprentice gone rogue, a strange fusion device, and a bale of hats, and what you have is ‘The Hat Cult’s Hideout’. The fusion device is used to combine one animal with another or a being with an animal, and all of the hats are magical. The wizard’s apprentice has formed a cult around him and its members not each get a magical hat, but have been gleefully experimenting with the fusion device, resulting in a rash of missing villagers and animals and then strange creatures lurking in the woods around the cave where the cult has its base. The cult itself is not evil, necessarily, just proud, misguided, and unaware of the dangers its research and its experiments might—and actually will—unleash on the surrounding area if left unchecked. It needs a few magical hats and the Game Master will need generate some magical creatures from the table given, such as an unstable giant snail with the head of a horse and 50% chance of exploding. As with the other hexes, there is a table of rumours, a list of reactions to the actions of the Player Characters, and timeline of events, which will drive the encounter. ‘The Hat Cult’s Hideout’ is also quite a tough little encounter, but this is not an encounter that need be solved with violence much in keeping with the introduction to The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes.

The last of the four entries in The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes is the eponymous ‘The Haunted Hamlet’. Where the motivations have been greed, loneliness, and pride for the situations in the other three hexes, here it is a combination of fear and evil. If the Player Characters descend into the valley of Wolvendale and its lonely town, they find themselves trapped and assailed by angry ghosts. The former leaders of the town committed a heinous act which condemned their lives and those of the villagers and the latter want their revenge. In order to escape the situation, the Player Characters must explore each of the few remaining buildings in the town, each one occupied by the ghosts of its former leaders and attempt to solve a puzzle that will force those ghosts to confront their action and its consequences. The problem is that the Player Characters are not necessarily going to know that they need to solve a problem. It is weird and creepy and there is an impending sense of doom and urgency as ghosts lurk and wounds fester, but lacks the hook to put the Player Characters onto the first step of the mystery. With an adjustment and perhaps a clue or two and the ‘The Haunted Hamlet’ will be a decent encounter.

Finally, the back cover of The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes details another location, the village of ‘Orgul’. This inverts the roles that evil monsters typically play in Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying game with the village being a refuge for reformed monsters who have pacifists after being forced to serve a dark lord. There is a table of random events to beset the village, but otherwise, this is hex ready to play with the players’ expectations and add characterisation to what are normally regarded as monsters to kill.

Between all of this, The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes includes a set of digest-sized cards. In turn, they depict and detail a band of adventurers in the service of the Spore Lord, stealing the treasures of other adventurers and attempting to raid dungeons before other adventurers get there; Heart String Knights are undead knights who died on their given quests, but are duty bound to complete before they can move and take great affront when others complete their quests; table of random NPCs and potions; a pair of hirelings; and the Sky Merchant, a floating vendor and emporium which can descend from the sky to sell goods and items at almost any time in the wilderness or on the road. There is a good mix of the whimsy and the usefulness to all of this, though it is actually independent of The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes just as the hexes in the fanzine are independent of each other and any particular setting.

Physically, The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes is mostly done in black and white, but there are touches of grey here and there, judiciously used to highlight certain sections. It is well written and organised, and the maps and artwork are all excellent. There are a couple of layout issues which have caused crashes with the text, so the PDF version may need to be referred to.

As in Woodfall, the author of The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes has already proven himself capable of combining the whimsical and the weird to great storytelling effect. With The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes, the author succeeds with the majority of the fanzine’s content. The first three of its hexes are easy to use and can just be slotted into the Game Master’s campaign with only minor adjustment. The fourth hex, though, requires development to work effectively. The three other hexes are excellent adventure locations, ‘The Ladder Inn’ and ‘The Hat Cult’s Hideout’ in particular. Overall, The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes is a good, but not quite great resource of ready-to-play content for any Game Master.

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

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

Senet Issue 8 was published in the summer of 2022. If the editorial in the previous issue talked about the reach of boardgames, the editorial in this issue looks at how they can be more welcoming and how we can all be more accepting of newcomers to the hobby. This is a theme that will be later explored in the issue in ‘The Storyteller’, an interview with designer Nikki Valens which includes a discussion of reflecting and accepting wider cultural diversity in board games in both terms of design and play, whilst in the regular column, ‘How to Play’, the Meeple Lady gives some direct advice on being more welcoming to newcomers. The latter is the more useful and immediate of the two articles, but both are good pieces and together with the editorial show where we can be better.

‘Behold’ is the regular preview of some of the then-forthcoming board game titles. As expected, ‘Behold’ showcases its previewed titles to intriguing effect, a combination of simple write-ups with artwork and depictions of the board games. There are some interesting titles here, such as Autobahn, a game about building the German motorway network both collectively and competitively, but as public servants rather than entrepreneurs and London Necropolis Railway, which explores the city of London’s funeral railway service to Brookwood Cemetery. This is a fascinating aspect of Victorian history and culture and its attitude to death which is here presented as something that can be explored in play.

‘Points’, the regular column of readers’ letters, covers a number of different topics, but in the main, they continue the issue’s inclusivity theme, highlighting the lack of diversity in terms of boardgame designers and the difference in focus given to major designers versus minor designers. There is scope here for future issues to cover more of the latter, so we shall see whether that idea is followed up on. In ‘For Love of the Game’, Tristian Hall continues his designer’s journey towards the completion and publication of his Gloom of Kilforth. In previous issues he explored how the game became a vehicle for roleplaying and storytelling, used the mechanics to bring the game and its background to life, marketing options, and dealing with feedback and criticism about a game’s design, world-building and immersion through text and art, and the benefits of historical research, but this time, he examines the use of music in boardgames. In the main, he discusses how music can be used to enhance a game through its thematic and immersive effects. In roleplaying, this is both well known and fairly well explored, but less so when it comes to playing boardgames. Certainly, it works for roleplaying games, which are by design intended to be immersive, whereas for boardgames the degree of immersion is arguably not as deep, primarily because of the immediacy of the rules and mechanics, but also perhaps because there is a greater need to be concentrating on the rules? Of course, he ties this into the fact that there is a soundtrack for Gloom of Kilforth, and this is only a light discussion, so the subject might well benefit from a more detailed article.

Senet follows a standard format of articles and article types and Senet Issue 8 is no exception. One explores a theme found in board games, its history, and the games that showcase it to best effect, whilst another looks at a particular mechanic. In addition there are two interviews, one with a designer, the other with an artist. The theme article in the issue is science and board games. In ‘The Appliance of Science’, Matt Thrower explores the difficulties and perils of designing a science-themed boardgame. The primary peril is that of being overly or obviously educational, which can be seen in the Victorian game designs which offer a lot of scientific trivia without much in the way of game play. Fortunately, as game play has improved hand-in-hand with game design, so that modern designs such as Wingspan and Terraforming Mars can include a high degree of scientific content alongside their engaging game play. The article draws some interesting parallels between the wargame and the science-themed boardgame, especially when it comes to designs based on biology and dealing with aspects such as biodiversity and evolution, with different species competing for space. The article does not solely focus on biologically-themed board games, but it would have been useful if it had showcased more boardgames.

The mechanic discussed in the issue is that of social deduction. ‘Trust No One Suspect Everyone’ by Alexandra Sonechkina explores the relatively short history of the social deduction game, beginning with its interesting origins in the Soviet Union, at the Moscow State University, as the game, Mafia. Of course, the idea has its own origins in the children’s game, ‘Murder in the Dark’, but in boardgames, they really became popular with The Resistance, but in coming more up to date, hits some classics such as BattleStar Galactica and Ultimate One Night Werewolf. It highlights the emotional involvement of the format since it sets up players to feel at first a sense of paranoia and suspicion, and then the even stronger feelings of vindication if the mole or spy or Cylon (in the case BattleStar Galactica) is uncovered or of betrayal if we have failed to unmask him and he has been successful in undermining our efforts. The most recent iteration of the format discussed is Psychobabble, a Lovecraft-inspired game of dream deduction that does not rely upon betrayal or lies, one of the criticisms of the genre. This perhaps points to the potential in the format, which often feels achingly familiar from one design to the next.

The artist interviewed in ‘The Sky is the Limit’ is Andrew Bosley. Illustrator on designs such as Everdell, Tapestry, and Vivid Memories, there is an otherworldliness, even a sense of whimsy, to his artwork, that pulls the viewer into vistas he depicts. Unlike previous interviews with artists, ‘The Sky is the Limit’ does not delve too deeply into Bosley’s background, instead concentrating more on the various projects he has worked on and how they developed. Nevertheless, this feels a much briefer interview than in previous issues, and there is no pullout of his artwork as in previous issues. Bosley’s artwork is beguiling and makes you want to look at the games where each appears and see the world they show in play. The designer interviewed in the issue is Nikki Valens in ‘The Storyteller’. The interview discusses the designer’s shift from creating expansions for Fantasy Flight Games’ H.P. Lovecraft-themed games to creating—in line with the theme of the issueIt has almost become a cliché to

something more welcoming of a diverse audience. So there is a distinct cultural difference to what they were doing before and what they are doing now, with designs like Artisans of Splendent Vales, the contrast being a fascinating read.

‘Unboxed’, Senet’s reviews includes a review of Origins: First Builders, a dice placement game, the engagingly thematic Caper: Europe, and the thoroughly strange Eyelet, which involves threading coloured shoelaces through holes in a double-sided board. Given the anticipation it was treated with in Senet Issue 7, it is no surprise that Crescent Moon is this issue’s top choice. It is an asymmetrical area-control game whose theme is the five factions and their differences of the Abbasid Caliphate. It is also a big game in that it needs four or five players and over two hours playing time. As in previous issues, the reviews section here is a good mix and the reviews are all useful and informative.

Rounding out Senet Issue 8 are the regular end columns, ‘How to Play’ and ‘Shelf of Shame’. For ‘How to Play’, Meeple Lady being the inclusive theme of the issue to a close with extremely good advice on how to ease and welcome new players into the hobby. Throughout, she makes good points and the advice is excellent. This includes actually saying hello, avoid using boardgame jargon, treating everyone the same as you would expect to be treated, and of course, being kind. This is article that really everyone should read and the roleplaying hobby certainly deserves its own version. In ‘Shelf of Shame’, Stella Jahja and Tarrant Falcke of Meeple University pull a game of their shelf that they own, but never played. Their choice is Cuba, a design from 2007, which they find surprisingly playable, simple, but brutal. The upshot is that the team plans to explore forgotten designs from the noughties. There is an enjoyable sense of a story being told here and is one of the most interesting ‘Shelf of Shame’ entries to date.

Physically, Senet Issue 8 is very professionally presented. It looks and feels as good as previous issues of the magazine.

It has almost become a cliché to state that as with previous issues, Senet Issue 8 offers a good mix of articles, interviews, and reviews, but it does. Its articles feel more expansive than in previous issues, with ‘Trust No One Suspect Everyone’ on social deduction games and ‘The Appliance of Science’ on science-themed boardgames, in particular, standing out. With Senet Issue 8, the boardgame magazine maintains its high standard of informative and interesting articles.

Manticore is a scenario for Traveller. It takes place on the world of Pysadi in the Aramis Subsector of the Spinward Marches Sector and involves an investigation into a runaway girl and her connection to a zealous religious cult on a nearby world. It ideally requires the Player Characters to have basic training in both weapons and vacc suit, and if they do possess a starship, that it should be capable of Jump-2. The scenario includes a set of eight pre-generated Player Characters, four of which between them have the skills necessary to operate a starship as well as one of them owning an S-Type Scout. However, one of the problems with this is that the Player Characters are expected to to own a merchant ship of some kind and certainly a vessel capable of carrying cargo. Both the mechanics and the plot of Manticore are straightforward enough that running it using Traveller, Classic Traveller, or Cepheus Deluxe Enhanced Edition are all easy enough to do.

Manticore is written by Carl Terence Vandal and is a sequel of sorts to The Phoenix Initiative, which ended with the Player Characters being recruited as agents in the service of Duke Norris and his family. It is not though, a direct sequel, but rather a thematic one as it deals with the misuse of advanced science. Alternatively, it can also be run as a standalone affair. It begins with the Player Characters on Aramis in the Spinward Marches Sector, spending a little of their recent profits on a night out when they approached by a girl asking for money. Soon after this, she is approached by two men who attempt to abduct her, but she seems able to deal with them in a smart fashion. Their encounter is timely, if not for the Player Characters, then for a local Imperial agent who recruits them with gentle threats of menace. The Imperial Agent informs the Player Characters that the girl, Maxine, has recently fled from the nearby world of Pysadi, an an agricultural world governed by the strict ‘Mother Church’. The two men who attempted to abduct her were zealots of the Mother Church. The Imperial Agent will also tell the Player Characters that the Mother Church has entered into an agreement with an independent military organisation called ‘Manticore’, to launch an invasion of Zila, a neighbouring world on religious grounds and so bring it into the fold of Mother Church. Maxine and her family was being held by Manticore. The Imperial Agent wants the Player Characters to confirm the existence of the invasion plan, the links between Mother Church and the military organisation, and whether or not the Imperial representative on Pysadi, Baron Sir Mikhail Lentreth, is supporting the plan or being held hostage by Mother Church.

Getting to Pysadi will prove easy and the Imperial Agent will even provide goods that merchants on the planet will want to buy. Pysadi is a TAS Amber Zone due to its theocratic government and high law levels, which bans firearms and blades—and worse, alcohol. (In fact, the given reason for the invasion of Zila is that some of the agricultural exports from Pysadi are being fermented into alcohol!). Other than that, the Player Characters have relatively easy freedom of movement on the planet and what they will quickly discover is that everyone on the world is aware of the invasion plan and fully supportive of it. They do not know the exact details, of course, but can point to the rocket being prepared on its launchpad at the starport with no little pride and expectation. In technological terms, the rocket is confirmation that Mother Church has outside help as it is incapable of constructing it using the means available on Pysadi.

The Player Characters have several avenues of investigation. These include locating the Manticore compound, getting a closer look at the rocket, discovering the plans for the invasion of Zila, and determining the degree to which Baron Sir Mikhail Lentreth is involved in the plan. Some information is relatively easy to find, especially given the openness of the members of the Mother Church about the forthcoming invasion, but the Player Character will still need to conform this. Much of this involves stealth and breaking into various buildings, although some paperwork can be obtained to gain access to certain areas. Ultimately, the Player Characters will want to stop the invasion. Which means stopping the rocket. This can be done from the ground, but the security around the rocket is very tight, or it can be done after the rocket has launched. This sets up an exciting chase from Pysadi to the Jump Point as the Player Characters attempt to rendezvous with the invasion rocket, which it turns out, is actually a Jump Rocket and is fitted with a Jump Drive. Once in close proximity, they are to board and capture the vessel and its crew, which leads to showdown with the villain of the piece and a firefight or brawl in the cramped quarters of the rocket.
There are a number of situations which the scenario does not address. What happens if the Player Characters simply decide to launch their starship and use its weapons to destroy or damage the rocket on its launchpad? What if they fire at the unarmed rocket during the chase? Can they sabotage it that way? What happens if the rocket makes it to the jump point and gets away? In the first case, this would also mean firing on the starport, which is Imperial territory—and this is before the number of possible casualties is considered, and in the second, firing on an unarmed vessel would be seen as an act of aggression. If the rocket gets away, the Game Master will have to develop this possibility herself.

The Game Master is given a decent amount of support to help her run the scenario. This includes details and map of the world, Pysadi, the Mother Church and its headquarters, the Manticore compound, and details and deckplans of the invasion rocket. There are a couple of items of new equipment, the Concealed Power Holster and the Hand Needler, which will enable the Player Characters to circumvent the high law level on Pysadi. The last part of the scenario includes a section of Library Data, which is decent enough, but not all of the information is useful and there is some information missing, such as that on Manticore.
The scenario is not without its issues. One is with the NPC, Maxine. She is underwritten, the Game Master needing a little more detail than is given about since her involvement underlies the whole scenario. What becomes clear over the course of the scenario is that she has been genetically enhanced and if the Player Characters do confront the Manticore contingent aboard the rocket ship as the scenario lays out, they will discover that its commander is too. He is a tough opponent and it is suggested that if the Player Characters cannot deal with him, then Maxine can. Which undermines the Player Characters’ agency in what is a climatic encounter. Another issue is that Manticore is underwritten as a presence in the scenario. It lurks in the background and the Player Characters never really have a chance to encounter it and its operatives until very late in the scenario. It does not help that the motivations and background to Manticore are left unexplained. Lastly, the connection between Manticore and The Phoenix Initiative is underplayed, both terms of the background to the scenario and the fact that the Player Characters may have Imperial connections already as a result of playing through the latter scenario.
Physically, Manticore is an improvement on the earlier, The Phoenix Initiative. It is tidier and the world map is better, but it does need another proofing pass. The artwork is decent though.
Manticore is a much better and more interesting scenario than the previous The Phoenix Initiative. It is also better written and organised and so easier to run, but it does leave the Game master with a number of unanswered questions which she will probably have to answer herself. Otherwise, Manticore is a decent scenario which explores what happens when pride goes too far and someone takes advantage of it.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #6: Cheating Death is a scenario for Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and the sixth scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. Scenarios for Dungeon Crawl Classics tend be darker, grimmer, and even pulpier than traditional Dungeons & Dragons scenarios, even veering close to the Swords & Sorcery subgenre. Scenarios for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set are set in and around the City of the Black Toga, Lankhmar, the home to the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, the creation of author Fritz Leiber. The city is described as an urban jungle, rife with cutpurses and corruption, guilds and graft, temples and trouble, whores and wonders, and more. Under the cover the frequent fogs and smogs, the streets of the city are home to thieves, pickpockets, burglars, cutpurses, muggers, and anyone else who would skulk in the night! Which includes the Player Characters. And it is these roles which the Player Characters get to be in Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #6: Cheating Death, small time crooks trying to make a living and a name for themselves, but without attracting the attention of either the city constabulary or worse, the Thieves’ Guild! However, it is not the city constabulary the Thieves’ Guild whose attention they attract in this scenario, but Death itself!
Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #6; Cheating Death is designed for two to three Player Characters of First Level, but can be expanded to between four and six Player Characters and there is advice for increasing the difficulty of the adventure should the Judge want to run it for a group of higher Level Player Characters. It could be played through in a single session, but will probably take two. The set-up has the Player Characters either entering Lankhmar for the first time, or returning to the city, after a failed expedition out in the marshes beyond its walls. With some rooms sorted, at least temporarily, they retire to a tavern, where they can drink, carouse, and in the smoky din, pick up a rumour or two that perhaps will lead to a job or two and the chance to put some rilks in their pockets. Unfortunately, as they are looking for work, something—or someone—is looking for them. Somehow, they have attracted the attention of Death, the servant of the Lords of Necessity and unless they die, their names will unbalance his ledger. He stalks them, looking for moments when he can take their lives with a succession of accidents—trips on loose cobblestones, stairs collapse on them, gargoyles topping from roofs, crowds jostling them causing them, and more. First on the ordinary passersby around them, then on the Player Characters. They, however, will be initially unware of this, and his attention shifts from early warnings to deadly catastrophes and fatal attention, the Player Characters will need to follow up on some of the rumours they gathered earlier.
Following up on the rumours will lead the Player Characters to several locations and encounters, those around them suffering mishaps at first, and then they themselves, suffering increasingly deadly mishaps. These mishaps and catastrophes are tailored, at least in terms of damage to the three Classes in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, but they are not designed to necessarily kill the Player Characters. Although deadly, the Player Characters have the advantage of Luck to keep them alive even as Death’s influence kills those around them. Not all of the encounters give much, or indeed any, information as to what is going on. Really, only one does, so it is entirely possible that the Player Characters could go straight to the last encounter, find out what is actually happening, and cut out the other scenes. What they will learn at this location, ‘The Leather Library’, from a sage is that Death is stalking them and that if they want to avoid Death, the best they can do is hunt down a local legend, the ‘Burned Man’, said to have escaped Death’s touch for years. If he can be found, then perhaps that would settle their account with Death?
The second part of Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #6: Cheating Death details ‘The Temple of the Burned Man’, which happens to be nearby and where the Burned Man has been lurking for decades—at the very least. His decrepit manse is laced with various traps and dangers, making getting to him difficult. The various locations around the manse are quite detailed and the Judge will need to pay close attention to how they work.
There is no denying that the premise of Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #6: Cheating Death, that of the Player Characters being stalked by Death, feels appropriate to the city of Lankhmar. Yet as executed, the scenario does not work as well as it could. To begin with, the scenario is too short and it feels just too random that the Player Characters could be targeted by Death. Further, the scenario can be even shorter than it is as written. If they go straight to the one location where they are can actually learn what is happening to them, they miss out on the other, admittedly small handful, of locations and encounters in which they have the opportunity to feel the effect of Death’s influence. This potential short-circuiting highlights the fact that scenario feels as if it should not be played out in one go, but its events eked out and inserted into other ongoing scenarios. This would enable the Player Characters to feel the effects of Death’s influence more readily as part of the story and have it upset their plans, to have it loom over them, and push them to investigate the cause. It would also enable the Judge to explore more fully a possibility suggested in the scenario, but left undeveloped, which is that the Player Characters might suspect something else to be the cause of their misfortune. The suggested cause—as came up in a playtest—was witchcraft, but others could also be added to enhance the paranoia of the players and their characters.
The other problem with Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #6: Cheating Death is the Level of the Player Characters it is designed for. As the sixth scenario released for Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, it feels like a return to the beginning of the campaign set in Lankhmar. Now there is advice on increasing the difficulty of the scenario, but as a scenario for First Level Player Characters, it feels as it should be run between ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #0: No Small Crimes in Lankhmar’ from the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set and the excellent Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #1: Gang Lords of Lankhmar rather than later in a campaign. After all, which gang leader would not want to recruit a bunch of criminals who have cheated Death once into his gang? Also, this allow the legend of the Burned Man to be added earlier in the campaign and thus foreshadowed in time for when the Judge runs this scenario.
Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #6: Cheating Death is as decently presented as you would expect from Goodman Games. It is well written and the cartography is  decent.

Ultimately, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #6: Cheating Death is too short to be a good scenario. It is not unplayable as written, but it wants to be pulled apart, developed that much bit further, and eased into an ongoing campaign rather than played all in one go, making its climax and potential reward just that bit more satisfying.

As the ideal suitor, if male, you should cut your hair in the chic bowl—or pudding bowl—style, and ideally have golden hair, and wear a houppelande, a long loose gown with flowing selves. Red is a good colour for men, indicating vitality, kingliness, and power. Blue is good for the ladies as it indicates expense. Should you ever suffer from cancer of the mouth, then you may be fortunate to receive a visit from the Virgin Mary, who will bestow upon you a kiss that will you heal of it. And should you want to press your ardour—perhaps as a show of thanks for her beneficence—there will be an angel on hand to prevent you from doing so. In order to launch a crusade, there are certain requirements which need to be fulfilled first, including equal measures of hardship and oppression, a pinch of famine, all of Europe’s collective sin and religious guilt, a helpless labouring class, a new and bordering anti-Christian empire, one Pope (never two), and an impending apocalypse. Preparation time is a single decade. Cooking time is three years. Serve with the death of thousands, including kings and princes, garnish with plunder, and four Crusader kingdoms with uncertain futures. In the event of an encounter with wolves—such as when the River Seine froze over in 1338, allowing them to race across the river and attack the citizens of Paris and dig up the city’s corpses—always remember to see the wolf before it sees you because it will lose its courage if it sees you first, plus if it sees you first, you will struck dumb, be unable to cry for help and the wolf will bite you. However, all is not lost, because if you strip down to your underwear, grab a pair of rocks and bang them together, the wolf will turn tail and run away. Lastly, if you happen to have a weapon to hand, at least a dagger, do take the time to kill the wolf. The wolf will not be happy about this and will not want you to feel happy about it either. This is a trick. Do not fall for it. Fortunately, wolves have no legal protection and you can definitely kill a wolf with that handy dagger. Which is all the sort of thing you will know because you are a weird medieval guy. Or rather, none of this is weird whatsoever, because you are a medieval guy, and all of this—and more—is the subject of Weird Medieval Guys.

Weird Medieval Guys: How to live, laugh, love (and die) in dark times is a guide to life and living in the Medieval era by Olivia W. Swarthout. Drawn from a swathe of period manuscripts on numerous visits to the British Library, and originally posted on the Weird Medieval Guys Twitter account, combines images from the manuscripts and facts from the history to present a punchy, easy to read book that takes the reader from the moment of creation itself to the end of the world with the coming of the Four Horsemen and the apocalypse, and in between, the reader from his birth to his death—and in between that there is a lot that can happen. The book is profusely illustrated, so no aspect of Medieval life goes undepicted in the rich colours of the manuscripts. Having begun with the creation of everything, Weird Medieval Guys gives you life and so lets you pick a name, learn some useful slang—such as ‘Merobia’ for a woman who likes strong wine or ‘Sterilis Amator’ for that lover who has no money, choose your astrological sign and patron saint, determine where you live in the first of the book’s several short quizzes—the options being Constantinople, London, Paris, and Venice, suggests several jobs you like, and more. It is not all hard work, as there are examinations too of play and romance, but the latter all too soon feels like hard work, what with the need to make a love potion, which whilst a lot quicker than mounting a crusade, involves a dog, some rope, a hunting horn, an ivory stake, and a mandrake, does not take into account the fact that dogs—as noted in the section on play—do not like the horn being played. Then there are possible causes of marital difficulties and if it really does not work out, the possibility of a divorce, which comes with a handy flow chart to determine if you can get a divorce, the answer of course, being mostly no, that is also the counterpart to the handy flow chart to determine if you can court the lady of your affections… Of course, it all has to come to an end and the question of your death is raised before Judgement Day is raised. Hopefully with dignity before you get caught up in a civil dispute. Perhaps here the weirdest means of settling such a dispute, in combat, between a man and a woman, is for the man to be placed in a pit up to his waist where he must fight from there with a club, whilst the woman is armed with a big rock in a clock bag and allowed to roam the ground around the man. The illustrations would not look out of place in a wrestling match.

A good half of Weird Medieval Guys: How to live, laugh, love (and die) in dark times is devoted to a bestiary. Divided into several subsections—‘Beasts’, ‘Birds’, ‘Fish’, and ‘Serpents’. Each entry is catalogued and categorised, with strengths and weaknesses, and even some Medieval stats in the form of ‘Virtue’, ‘Beauty’, and ‘Danger’. The creatures range from the ordinary, such as the lion, the wolf, and the hedgehog to the fantastic, like the manticore, the mermaid, and the amphisbaena, the latter a snake with two heads. These are all presented from the Medieval point of view, of course, such as the bat being classified as a bird and cats as being extremely dangerous. There is, of course, a section devoted to the snail and plenty of images of knights versus snails. Sadly, there is no similar section on rabbits, and that perhaps is really the only omission from Weird Medieval Guys.

What really stands out in Weird Medieval Guys is the artwork, which is of course, drawn from the source material, the manuscripts. It is fantastically colourful, profusely illustrated and all annotated in a wry tone.

Weird Medieval Guys joins a growing list of works interested in the minutiae of Medieval life and the Medieval outlook and the colourful marginalia of period manuscripts. For example, How to Slay a Dragon: A Fantasy Hero’s Guide to the Real Middle Ages by Cait Stevenson, any number of enamel pins, and the more recent The Medieval Margin-agerie – Volume 1 from Just Crunch Games, which turns those marginalia into gameable content. Of course, Weird Medieval Guys does not do that, but what it can do is influence the portrayal of the Medieval world by the Game Master, perhaps even inspire an encounter or scenario or two. Weird Medieval Guys is a wry look at the fantastically strange world of the Medieval man and woman, what they knew and what they thought, how they lived, brought to life in the artwork of the period. For anyone with a casual interest in the Medieval period, Weird Medieval Guys: How to live, laugh, love (and die) in dark times is a perfect, vividly visual introduction to its oddness and oddities.

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 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: The Bright Blue DemonPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Bryce Kelly

Setting: Modern Day NevadaProduct: Scenario
What You Get: Thirteen page, 3.45 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “In this darkness I see colors…” – Gamefreak
Plot Hook: Radiation tourism turns to ash... Plot Support: Staging advice, four NPCs, one handout, two maps, and five Mythos creatures.Production Values: Plain
Pros# One to two Investigator one-shot# Violent horror in the Nevada mountains# Pleasing sense of isolation and weird environment # Potential ghost hunt gone wrong scenario# Eremophobia# Phasmophobia# Radiophobia
Cons# Needs an edit# NPCs feel underwritten# No pre-generated Investigator(s)
Conclusion# Violet horror in the Nevada mountains# Unsettling sense of isolation and weird environment undermined by underwritten NPCs.

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 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: Banker’s FollyPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Nader Rabie

Setting: Jazz Age New EnglandProduct: Scenario
What You Get: Thirty-eight page, 19.29 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: The terminally ill can be desperate, but so can the conmen.Plot Hook: A terminally ill man goes missing. Is he dead? Is he searching for a miracle cure?Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, five NPCs, four handouts, two floorplans, and three Occult or Mythos tomes.Production Values: Decent
Pros# Detailed, location-based investigation# Simple, straightforward plot# Easy to adapt to other time periods# Interesting mix of pre-generated Investigators# Written as a one-shot, but can be adapted to a campaign# Potential addition to Lovecraft Country # Necrophobia# Hemoophobia# Tomophobia# Anthropophagusphobia
Cons# No map of Clifton# Background plot strands left undeveloped# Ends in a physical confrontation# Ignores Prohibition
Conclusion# Pleasingly detailed straightforward investigation# Could be developed into a longer scenario if the unworked background plot strands are expanded

Heart of Darkness brings to close the trilogy of scenarios for Alien: The Roleplaying Game begun with Chariot of the Gods—also available in the Alien: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set, and continued with Destroyer of Worlds. Like the other two, Heart of Darkness shares the same mode of play, but differs in terms of its campaign model. Thus, it is written for the roleplaying game’s Cinematic mode, and so is designed to emulate the drama of a film set within the Alien universe, emphasising high stakes situations, faster, more brutal play, and deadly encounters. However, where the campaign model for Chariot of the Gods is that of Space Truckers—star ship crews hauling goods and resources, as in Alien, and the campaign model for Destroyer of Worlds is that of Colonial Marines, essentially military missions like Aliens, the campaign model for Heart of Darkness is that of Scientists. This though, has no direct parallel with just the one film in the Alien franchise, but parallels in tone and setting can be made with both Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. Further, as with the other scenarios, Heart of Darkness can be run as a standalone adventure, as what connects the three is their overall backstory, that of the evolution and development of the Xenomorph and in particular, the 26 Draconis Strain, and the consequences of mankind’s encounters with it and its corporations’ willingness to investigate it and desire to weaponise it in pursuit of profit. Those threads come to a head in Heart of Darkness.
Heart of Darkness—published by Free League Publishing—begins with the arrival an international scientific team at Erebos, a plasma trawling rig and platform stationed in in the Draconis 26 system in orbit above Ablassen Black Hole. Here the few science staff of the appropriately named station has discovered what could be a Xeno-extremophile, a new form of proto-plasmic organism found living in the accretion disc of the singularity. As the members of the scientific team, the Player Characters are to analyse and catalogue the new life form and return it for study, with promises of great rewards and recognition and payment upon completion of the assignment—a book deal, a corporate department head position, promise of tenure, and more. Erebos is no science station though, but a penal workstation whose prisoners have had their sentences purchased by Weyland-Yutani and been made to work operating the energy collection systems which siphon off the power of the black’s whirling, gyrating discordance of plasma and store it in giant batteries for shipment elsewhere. The conditions are hellish, not least because working so close to a black hole not only triggers, but accelerates Neurological Distortion Disorder—or NDD—the condition caused by exposure to Faster Than Light travel when not in cryosleep. This can cause paranoia and loss of memory, and underlies some of the challenges that the Player Characters will discover aboard the Erebos and the challenges that they will have to overcome in dealing with the situation aboard the station. If exposure to and analysis of the Draconis 26 Strain and its effects aboard the station underlie the physical horror of Heart of Darkness, then the effects of NDD exacerbate both its mental horror and the likely tensions between the Player Characters, who of course, have their own Agendas and the Player Characters and the NPCs who have no reason to trust each other.

However, when the Player Characters do arrive at Erebos, aboard the USCSS Cetorhina, a commercial plasma harvester/tanker, it is clear that there is something wrong. The station has been hit by meteors and is severely damaged, as evidenced by much it being dark. Worse is to come as when the ship attempts to dock, sudden gravitational shear from the black hole forces it to crash into the station. It is going to need repairs if it is going to leave the system, but before that, the Player Characters must find out what is going on aboard the heavily damaged station. Erebos is in complete disarray. There are sections which are open to space, others infested with some kind of biomechanical encrustation, and the survivors have divided into factions led by the station commander and one of the prisoners. Plus strange creatures lurk and stalk the corridors and rooms of the station, especially those encrusted by the biomechanical infestation. Not least of which is Adrien, the station’s emotional support tuxedo cat, who can even become a replacement Player Character should one of them die during the events of the scenario.

The emphasis in Heart of Darkness is on interaction and exploration. The Player Characters will need to explore much of Erebos in order to discover what has happened to it as well as find what the Xeno-extremophile file and whether it represents a threat or not. They will need to interest with the factions aboard the station too, both of which have their agendas and will want to recruit the Player Characters to their cause—or at least persuade them not to ally with the other faction. In addition there is another faction aboard the Erebos, which has its own very radical agenda and which very much wants the help of the Player Characters. There are greater consequences for helping—and indeed, not helping—this faction, than for getting involved in the other two factions and what they want. Indeed, their agendas are almost parochial by nature.

Then there is the interaction between the Player Characters. The seven include a Synthetic Psychologist who understands but cannot feel emotions, a radiobiologist with a calming manner, a very methodical biochemist, a close protection operative, a space sciences specialist on long term cultural exchange from the Union of Progressive Peoples, a biotechnologist with a prison tattoo, and a the captain of the USCSS Cetorhina looking for a missing relative. Each has their own character sheet and a set of agenda cards which come into play as they arrive at the station and progress through the three acts of the scenario. As they are revealed to their respective characters and their players, they will begin to pull both apart as they attempt to fulfill competing objectives.

There is an undoubted fantastical scale to Heart of Darkness, its action and rivalries literally taking place under a baleful eye of destruction, but this is not an easy scenario to run. There is a lot going on, both in terms of the Player Characters’ agendas, but also the agendas of the other factions. The Player Characters have a lot of information to discover—and whilst it really is great that as scientists, the Player Characters will be making discoveries—a lot of that information could have been better presented, not just for the players, but also for the Game Mother to help her impart that information. A lot of the information—for example, the situation aboard the Erebos and its staff and penal-workers, some of the initially secret records which can be discovered later—could all have been presented as easy handouts to help the players and their characters more clearly understand the situation and react to it. Ideally, the Game Mother is going to have prepare these and similar handouts for her players, but they are not going to be as good as those included in the boxed set. Similarly, handouts with images of the NPCs, the aliens that the Player Characters will encounter, and even what they see when aboard the Erebos and elsewhere, all would have been useful. In fact, much of this is not illustrated in the book and exacerbates the difficulty of the Game Mother’s task in relaying what their characters can see to their players.

One aside to note is the inclusion of Adrien of the station’s cat. It adds a lightness of touch, even a comedic one, but his presence has the potential to become a distraction. Ultimately, the play of Heart of Darkness could become more about the damned cat and his survival rather than the resolution of the scenario.

Physically, Heart of Darkness comes in a well presented box. Inside is the scenario book, a large, thirty-four by twenty-two inches double-sided poster map of the Erebos plasma trawling space station, seven pre-generated Player Characters and their sheets, thirty-eight cards, deckplans of the USCSS Cetorhin and more, and four handouts. The thirty-eight cards consist of thirteen Story Cards, twenty-one Personal Agenda Cards, and four Equipment Cards. The Story cards are similar to the Personal Agenda cards, but reveal secret aspects of their particular Player Characters which again will affect their motivations and also drive the scenario’s plot further forward. The scenario book itself is organised into a set-up and explanation of the background, a description of 26 Draconis system, the various NPCs, and the Erebos station, the three acts of the scenario, and descriptions of the aliens infesting the station and pursuing their own objectives. Notably absent is the Xenomorph of Alien fame, instead the Player Characters in Heart of Darkness will be confronted with the squid-baby, the giant trilobite, and the deacon from Prometheus and an interesting evolution of the abominations from Chariot of the Gods, the first scenario in the trilogy. Of course, they are all dangerous, but with a great deal of care many of them can be skirted around. The second and third appendices of the book detail the new weapons, items of equipment, and spaceships which appear in the scenario.

Heart of Darkness is another fantastical scenario for Alien: The Roleplaying Game. Like the other scenarios in the trilogy—especially Destroyer of Worlds—it has a lot of moving parts, but fortunately it does not overwhelm the Game Mother with too many Xenomorphs. If the tone and scale of Destroyer of Worlds was an action horror film, Heart of Darkness is existential in nature, a story of scientific hubris and horror, played out against a fantastic background that literally looms over the Player Characters and threatens to send them mad. Although it requires more preparation than it really should, Heart of Darkness brings Free League Publishing’s trilogy of scenarios for Alien: The Roleplaying Game to a fantastically frightening conclusion.

You are dead. It was not a good death. It was not a good life, either. You sinned. You were condemned again and again for your sins, but those that condemned you were no better, just richer and better protected by their peers. You went to your grave a sinner. You went to Hell a sinner. Then you woke up. You are dead, but can die again. You have made a deal with a Demon Baron. You have been pulled from the charnel pit of corpses and souls and chosen by him. Do his bidding and you can walk the world again. He will even reward you with demonic gifts that will aid you in your work even as those gifts mark you out as some not quite human, not quite holy… Here then is your chance to live and breathe again, if only at the back and call of one of Hell’s Demon Barons. Then again, it is a chance to wreak your revenge upon the pious hypocrites, the sinners who cast that first stone, the rich and the corrupt… If that means you get redemption, then great. If not, and all it means is revenge, then get stuck in. This is your chance for payback from beyond the grave, to be the monster they always said you were. If their souls go to feed your Demon Baron master and not yours, then all the better. You are his Demon Dog now…

Demon Dog is a bloody horror game from Nightfall Games, best known for S.L.A. Industries, the roleplaying game set in a far future dystopia of corporate greed, commodification of ultraviolence, the mediatisation of murder, conspiracy, and urban horror, and serial killer sensationalism. Published following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is a tribute to and designed to be compatible with Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance retroclone designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing. This compatibility embraces both mechanics, so that the Demon Dog is player-facing and he makes all of the rolls in play rather than the Game Master, and the tone, one of grim, pre-apocalyptic times. The joint compatibility also means that whilst Demon Dog can easily be run as a standalone roleplaying game, it can also be smashed together with Mörk Borg. Thus, when a Player Character dies (or ideally when all of the Player Characters have died) in Mörk Borg, they could return as Demon Dogs. Alternatively, the Demon Dog could be a continuing threat in Mörk Borg, perhaps even a continuing threat which turns out to be the Player Characters’ future as well as a threat in the here and now!

A Demon Dog first has a life—how he lived, and a death—how he died. These can be as detailed or as brief as the player decides, and the Demon Dog may not even recall much of his life. He has a Sin, a Demon Baron to who he owes his new existence and a Demon Baron who hates both him and his master. He receives a Gift from his Demon Baron, a Mark that indicates his service to the Demon Baron, scavenges some starting equipment, and lastly has values for Agility, Strength, Toughness, and Prescence, plus a lot of Hit Points (or at least more than you usually get in Mörk Borg.

Bronson
Sin: Graveyard Scum (Grave Robber)
Demon Baron (Master): Rellvox
Demon Baron (Enemy): Fechanalt
Demonic Rite: Sacrifice at Rellvox’s at alter, kill and place a severed head on the alter for +2 damage to all rolls.
Demon Mark: Death Maw (teeth like rusty nails, 1d6 damage)
Demon Baron’s Boon: Shout, one per day. Scare someone (Tier One)
Equipment: Shoulder bag, hangman’s noose
Weapon: Ma Wee Hammer! (Maul, 1d12 damage)
Armour: Leather (Tier 1, -1d2 damage)

Agility 08 (-1) Strength 16 (+2) Toughness 15 (+2) Prescence 15 (+2)
Hit Points: 26

Mechanically, Demon Dog is simple. A player rolls a twenty-sided die, modifies the result by one of his Demon Dog’s abilities, and attempts to beat a Difficulty Rating of twelve. The Difficulty Rating may go up or down depending on the situation, but whatever the situation, the player always rolls, even in combat or as Mörk Borg terms it, violence. So, a player will roll for his character to hit in melee using his Strength and his Agility to avoid being hit. Armour is represented by a die value, from -d2 for light armour to -d6 for heavy armour, representing the amount of damage it stops. Medium and heavy armour each add a modifier to any Agility action by the character, including defending himself. Notably though, whilst a Demon Dog can and probably will die, he can be brought back to life, though at some cost in terms of abilities. These though are not permanently lost and a Demon Dog can work to restore them. However, do this too many times and especially if the Demon Dog has superior abilities, he is returned to life with the mark of an idiot tattooed in a prominent place! Where a traditional roleplaying game might have rest or spells as a means to recover lost Hit Points, in Demon Dog, the Player Characters drink ale—a lot of ale.

Demon Dog describes in detail the seven Demon Barons. This includes their purview and their desire plus a table of ‘Busy Work’, essentially tasks that each Demon Lord wants fulfilled. This actually gives plenty of objectives for the Demon Dogs to complete, since not all of the Demon Dogs are going to share the same Baron Demon as their respective masters. This can also cause some tension in play too, since a Demon Dog can be in the service of one Demon Baron whilst another Demon Dog is in the service of a Demon Baron who hates the first Demon Dog. The Demon Dogs have an Overseer who works as their link between the mortal realm and the demonic realm. He assigns tasks and in return for their completion and other activities—such as successfully raiding abbeys for their beer and killing monks, killing rogue or escaped demons, and even rivel bands of Demon Dogs, he will reward you. This can be money, because after all, a Demon Dog still has to eat and drink and equip himself with items other than ones he has scavenged, and it can also be a Demon Baron’s favour, a one-use ability. Add into all of this, the fact that the Demon Barons feud, fight, and squabble, and each has their own Overseers, and the Demon Dogs will be dealing with the fallout from Demon Baron politics as much as fulfilling tasks, dealing with mobs, and taking down witch hunters, exorcists, demonologists, bishops, and others.

A bestiary of demons and other horrible creatures, from Blighted Hounds and Parasitic Boils to Gobshites and Grave Tappers, and even a Sodding Great Dragon(!) are all detail in ‘’Orrible Sods’. ‘Surly Chaps’ describes mortal threats such as Kings Guard, Unbroken Zealots, Blessed Torturers, Tax Collectors, Filth Peddlers, and more, all described in some detail and with a sense of humour. ‘Them That Rules’ provides a broad overview of both those in power and with influence—including the Crown, the Church, the State, and so on. The setting is medieval, but very grim and very dark, and with a streak of black, sometimes puerile humour. This is confirmed with the actual setting for Demon Dog, a region known as Baneshire, one of the many battlegrounds for the Demon Barons. As well as providing thumbnail descriptions of the various cities, town, and hamlets, the poorest wretches of the setting, the ‘Filthy Bloody Beggar are set up as the most useful, as sources of information and rumour. All of which is rounded out with some extra tables, including one of possible missions for the Demon Dogs, but given by mere mortals rather than the Demon Barons. So essentially, the Demon Dogs can undertake jobs off the books and find further use for mere mortals rather than just killing them.

Physically, Demon Dog is more Splatterpunk than the Artpunk of Mörk Borg. In many ways, this makes it more accessible and easier to read, but in some cases, there is text whose heavy, Gothic fount precludes easy understanding. The artwork though is superb, full of hairy, scary monsters and demons, exactly as you would expect from Nightfall Games. The writing style is sparse—which is not without its consequences—and there is a lairy, schoolboy streak of humour that runs through it.

If there is an issue with Demon Dog, it is that it is not obvious what the Player Characters are doing. Nowhere does Demon Dog clearly explain what is going on and how to run it, either in terms of a scenario or a campaign. The lack of a scenario does not help in that regard, and in fact, the Game Master is very much left on her own to determine this. There is much that can be inferred though, but one aspect which is not really explored is how the setting reacts to the presence and activities of the Demon Dogs. Some means of tracking this which could trigger events could have helped and helped the setting become more dynamic. The lack of one, the lack of advice, and the lack of a scenario means that Demon Dog is underdeveloped in places and definitely not a roleplaying game for the inexperienced Game Master.

Demon Dog is a bleary, sweary punch-up of a game. The Demon Dogs of the title are not just the bastards of Mörk Borg, they are the bastards of Mörk Borg on steroids, bruisers and arseholes out to batter and bash the bruisers and arseholes they hated in life. Although the Game Master will need to develop the setting and the set-up a bit more, Demon Dog is ready to serve up a game or two of snarky, vulgar bastards who want to put the boot in from beyond the grave and make sure those who deserve it, get some.

The war is unending, against an enemy that threatens us all and seemingly cannot be stopped. The only things which can stand up to them are the colossal bipedal robots known the CHVLR—or ‘Chevalier’ units. Developed as part of experimental military programme, it was discovered that the pilots were the young pilots, the adolescents who could combine their brains with their reflexes. Now you have been selected as the newest recruit. You may have been a willing candidate and volunteered for the programme or you may have been drafted unwillingly even though your test scores proved you were capable. Your surgery is complete and you have been fitted with the SCS—or ‘Seiygo Control System’—implant which will keep you connected to your CHVLR and you are ready for basic training. Yet there will be no time for your training, basic or otherwise. You are needed on the battlefield and your only training will be real battles that you learn from or die. Perhaps you will. Perhaps you will survive to become the veteran of many fights. Perhaps you will die, your life cut short. What you have to rely on is hope. Is it powerful enough that you will survive or is its absence so powerful that you fear failure, let alone death?

In CHVLR you are that young pilot, cast onto that battlefield years too early, augmented and unready—perhaps unwilling, but without another choice. CHVLR is a solo journalling game published Black Cats Gaming, best known for The Spy Game: A Roleplaying Game of Action & Espionage. As its set-up suggests, it is inspired by mecha anima such as Neon Genesis Envangelion, Mobile Suit Gundam, and Robotech. For its mechanics it uses the rules and format of The Wretched, Science Fiction journalling game published by Loot the Room. Thus, the game requires an ordinary deck of playing cards without the Jokers, a six-sided die, a Jenga or similar tower block game, and a set of tokens. In addition, the player will require a means of recording the results of the game. It is suggested that audio or video longs work best, but a traditional journal will also work too. In terms of background, CHVLR offers very little—and intentionally so. Beyond the fact that the pilot of the CHVLR is young and inexperienced, and that there is desperate war being fought, nothing else is known and everything else is up to the player to define as he records his experiences and responses in his journal. Where the battle is fought? Up to the player to decide. Who is the enemy? Up to the player to decide. How will the pilot and his CHVLR react to the stresses of war? Up to the player to decide. What will the pilot and his CHVLR encounter? Up to the game to decide.

Play proceeds from one mission to the next. Each mission the player will draw a random number of cards and then turn them over one by one, following the instructions of each and recording the outcome before moving on to the next. The four suites correspond to different aspects of the mission. Hearts represent the pilot’s ‘Personal Files’, his physical health and mental state of mind; Clubs are his ‘CHVLR’ and the bond he has with it; Diamonds represent the ‘Battlefield’, the ruins of cities ravaged by war and beyond; and Spades are ‘The Enemy’, each a direct interaction with them or the aftermath of their actions. The cards correspond to particular prompts in CHVLR and it is these that the player is responding to and recording the consequences and thoughts of his character. As play progresses, there will be prompts too to draw from the tumbling tower. Sometimes, the pulled brick is actually removed from the game, sometimes the player is instructed to track tokens which if they run out will indicate that this is his pilot’s last mission. If at any time, the tower collapses, the game is over as the CHVLR is too damaged to continue operating and the catastrophic failure results in the player’s death. At this point, the player reflects upon his pilot’s career and record, and considers who might be receiving it.

Like all of journalling games based on The Wretched, the subject matters of CHVLR are dark and distressing. Here those subject matters are child soldiers, physical injury and psychological stress, and more. The game advises that the player stop playing should he have issues with the prompts that game gives him.

Physically, CHVLR is cleanly and tidily presented. There is no art bar that on the front and back cover.

CHVLR is a bleak and foreboding journalling game. This is in fact the bleakest and darkest of The Wretched clones given the subject matter and it is almost a relief that the play should no last no longer than a session (or two at most).

A lake from whose waters fishermen go missing. A lake from whose wooded shores fur trappers have disappeared. A lake from whose depths can be seen flashes of light. A local nobleman willing to pay for information about his missing son who was last seen travelling towards the lake. A local fisherman, renowned for being a drunk and condemned for having drowned his son, pleads for help in finding his son, who he claims was dragged overboard by weird tentacled creatures and into the depths of the lake. This sets up Temple of the Wurm, a scenario for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay. If the Player Characters investigate and dive to the bottom of the lake, they find the entrance to a crystal temple and from there access to a complex of rooms below occupied by beings which defy comprehension. Here, creatures fully flat and existing in two dimensions slide across ceilings marked with odd systemic notations and markings and slip through exacting cracks to access other areas, as energy crackles and fizzes up and down one strange device after another. The complex is not just a home, but a laboratory and a space in which they can explore the third dimension—height, and even the fourth dimension—time. Thus, they have the means, which may be science or it may be magic, to extend themselves into the third dimension and beyond, and to manipulate not just shadow, but the dimensionality of others. They add dimensions to other, pushing them into the fourth, fifth, and beyond dimensions… Or they can steal dimensions, pulling them into their dimension, and so making them flat. Lurking here too, if a creature feared by the inhabitants, one capable of freely shifting between two, three, or four dimensionalities, the Wurm of the title, ready to make the complex its own. All that stand in its way are the strange flatlandish inhabitants and the new arrived Player Characters who are about to experience their own adventures in relative dimensions in time and space.

This is the set-up for Temple of the Wurm, published by Lamentations of the Flame Princess, a scenario inspired by Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Although the scenario talks mechanically about magic and details the abilities of the strange inhabits of the complex, the Arcindians, like spells, for example, Add Dimension/Remove Dimension and Shadow to Flesh, its feel is not that of fantasy. It is more Science Fiction than fantasy, which together with the horrors of what this ‘magic’ or ‘science’ can do pushes into the realms of Science Fiction horror or comic horror. The scenario has a Lovecraftian feel, but very much the austerity of stories such as ‘From Beyond’, ‘The Whisperer in Darkness’, and especially, At the Mountains of Madness. The combination of this and the strange occupants of the complex is likely to confound the players, let alone their characters. What exactly they are expected to do in terms of the plot will be unclear initially, but the Arcindians are not a hostile species, merely a curious one and they are prepared, even want, to communicate if they can. Theirs is a threatened existence and perhaps if they can enlist the help of the Player Characters, they too can provide some assistance. However, getting to that point where communication is possible is probably going to involve a mix of exploration and examination—and that is where the fun starts. Or rather, the fun for both the Game Master and other players as that exploration and examination triggers strange effects. Not simply making a Player Character disappear and reappear again after time has passed, but also quite literally falling flat, his shadow literally substance, and so on.
This will have profound effect on game play, as some Player Characters will be in one state in two dimensions, some in another state in three dimensions, and some even in higher dimensions. Most of the action will take place in either two or three dimensions, which will undoubtedly confusing enough and challenging for the Game Master to corral when it comes to combat. However, it is likely to have its advantages in some situations, such as being able to interact many of the features of the complex and with the Arcindians themselves. Ultimately, this is necessary for the plot of Temple of the Wurm to proceed, otherwise the Player Characters will wander around, triggering weird effects and probably growing increasing frustrated and fascinated at the same time.
Temple of the Wurm is also different to other scenarios for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay in that it is not set in the roleplaying game’s default era of the Early Modern period. In fact, it is time and setting neutral other than the fact that it is a scenario for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay.

Physically, Temple of the Wurm is well presented and easy to use. Given the potential complexity of the situation the Player Characters will find themselves in, the book goes to great lengths to explain how everything works to that the Game Master can understand it all and bring it into play. Both cartography and artwork are good, but the cover, with its melting clocks echoes the works of Salvador Dalí, rather than what is actually going on in Temple of the Wurm. This is not to say that it is not a good painting, but rather it does not fit the scenario.

Temple of the Wurm brings a striking combination of austere surrealism and cosmic horror to Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay, making it not so much Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay as Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Science Roleplay.

—oOo—

DISCLAIMER: The author of this review is an editor who has both edited titles for Lamentations of the Flame Princess on a freelance basis. He was not involved in the production of this book and his connection to both publisher and author has no bearing on the resulting review.

To cut to the chase, Spirits of Manhattan is a scenario which lets you play in an alternate universe not dissimilar to that of the 1984 film, Ghostbusters, or indeed, the 1986 roleplaying game based on it and published by West End Games. In the scenario, the Player Characters are members of Ghostbreakers, who in a previous incarnation, in 1984, prevented the opening of dimensional gate to hell as an outbreak of ghosts, spirits, and other nasties haunted the streets of Manhattan. Once they get the call and are alerted to a supernatural occurrence, they will race from their headquarters in their Ghostmobile—actually a disused Range Rover Popemobile used for Pope John Paul II’s visit to the United Kingdom in 1982, so not only right-hand drive, but also blessed and holy—and confront the ghostly happening. They will be able to detect the ghosts and other apparitions with their ElectroMagnetic Field Detectors, see them with their Spirit-Spectacles Goggles, perhaps consult their copy of Tobias’ Guide to Ghosts, Spooks, and Specters, then blast them into immobility with their ‘Spirit Stopper’’ Anti-Plasm Particle Thrower, and capture them using an Anti-Plasm Binder, all before returning to their headquarters to safely store the captured ghost! Sound a whole lot like Ghostbusters? Well, it does and it actually isn’t the Ghostbusters roleplaying game either because that has long been out of print. Instead, Spirits of Manhattan will do the job just fine until you have either saved up enough money to buy a copy of the original roleplaying game—keep saving if you want the dice too, or someone with deeper pockets than you gets the rights and brings it back into print.

Spirits of Manhattan is a scenario for ACE!—or the Awfully Cheerful Engine!—the roleplaying game of fast, cinematic, action comedy. Published by EN Publishing, best known for the W.O.I.N. or What’s Old is New roleplaying System, as used in Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD and Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, the scenario is, of course, set in New York. With a few adjustments it could be set in the city of the Game Master’s choice. the background to the scenario is quite light, explaining a very little of the history of the Ghostbreakers, their equipment and how ideally it works, and the nature of ghosts and ghoulies. A ghost is measured by its EMF Class, from Class I and a nuisance all the way up to the dangerous Class VIII and the demons, demigods, and worse of Class X and beyond. The Class factor is a measure of its Power stat and the scenario includes a glossary of ghostly terms as well as sample entities, from the Class III Demonkin and Ghostly Creeps up the Class X Gozarr the Devourer. There is even a ghost called Slime Bucket, which, of course, likes to slime people. In addition, the basic equipment of the Ghostbreakers—the ElectroMagnetic Field Detectors, Spirit-Spectacles Goggles, ‘Spirit Stopper’ Anti-Plasm Particle Thrower, and Anti-Plasm Binder—are described in some detail as well as how they work. Users are warned that this equipment is often held together with duct tape and can be dangerous to use to both people and property. In terms of Player Character options, Spirits of Manhattan gives a list that includes Ghost, Demonologist, Exorcist, Inventor, Scientist, Student, and more, all with occupational abilities. For example, the Ghost cannot suffer any damage (apart from any weird gadgets), but cannot pick things up, the Demonologist knows how to hurt demons, and the Exorcist can hurt or hold off a ghost. Of course, the skills of parapsychology, cryptozoology, and parazoology will be useful too.

The bulk of Spirits of Manhattan is devoted to the scenario itself. The plot, which begins with the Player Characters as would be Ghostbreakers with access to the equipment, but none of the other set-up—so no disused former fire station as a base—and working at New York Columbia University Medical Center, has them receive their first call and go to a ghost emergency. This is at St. Peter’s Chapel, also on the university campus and involves an encounter with a minor ghost. It gives both the players and their characters a nice test run and successfully dealing with it also brings the Ghostbreakers to the attention of the university’s Dean, Richard Anderson (!). At first, the Dean is none too pleased with them, but after a second ghostly outbreak, the Ghostbreakers gain his support and he has the university sponsor their efforts. This is the chance for them to set up a base and begin working properly and for the scenario to really swing into action. This is with a series of tasks, including dealing with a ghostly creep at the fancy Glitzman Hotel, rescue crew trapped in a fire station by ghost gone health and safety mad, and capture a punk shrieker at a punk and new wave hotspot. These are nicely done encounters and really capture the feel of the scenario’s inspiration. Plus, there is plenty of room for the Game Master to add her own if she wants to expand the scenario into a longer scenario or even a mini-campaign.

Eventually, the main plot to Spirits of Manhattan kicks in and will drive the action to the scenario’s climax. This climax starts small, but ends big, with plenty of nods here to the source inspiration, but without copying it directly or exactly. So, no gigantic Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, but something similar. There can be no doubt that Spirits of Manhattan goes up to that line, but it does not cross it. One addition is that of ‘P.U.RE.’, the Protection of Undead Returned Entities, a rights organisation dedicated to the proper and humane treatment of the ghosts that the Ghostbreakers are capturing. ‘P.U.RE.’ can become a thorn in the Ghostbreakers’ side, especially in the long term if the Game Master develops the suggested sequels.

Rounding out Spirits of Manhattan is a quartet of four hooks for further adventures beyond its pages. These are thumbnail outlines only, but they ape the various sequels to scenario’s source material and although all four require a fair degree of input and development by the Game Master, they are still fun and engaging, and would make the basis of great sequels.

Physically, Spirits of Manhattan is a bright and breezy affair. The artwork is excellent, often done in a cartoon style, making the Spirits of Manhattan the equivalent of The Real Ghostbreakers. The maps are decent, but a bit too small to use with any ease. The worst aspect of Spirits of Manhattan is the flavour text, which is written in-character and means characters not mentioned elsewhere in the scenario. The Game Master will need to paraphrase a lot of it to really work.

There is no Ghostbusters roleplaying game anymore. Spirits of Manhattan is not the Ghostbusters roleplaying game, but rather a very knowing tribute to Ghostbusters. It captures the flavour and feel of its source material and this gives it a familiarity that is engaging and really easy to grasp, so that everyone knows what to expect and will be happy to play along. Above all, Spirits of Manhattan is a lot of fun and the Ghostbreakers will enjoy playing with its inspiration.

Since 2001, Reviews from R’lyeh have contributed to a series of Christmas lists at Ogrecave.com—and at RPGaction.com before that, suggesting not necessarily the best board and roleplaying games of the preceding year, but the titles from the last twelve months that you might like to receive and give. Continuing the break with tradition—in that the following is just the one list and in that for reasons beyond its control, OgreCave.com is not running its own lists—Reviews from R’lyeh would once again like present its own list. Further, as is also traditional, Reviews from R’lyeh has not devolved into the need to cast about ‘Baleful Blandishments’ to all concerned or otherwise based upon the arbitrary organisation of days. So as Reviews from R’lyeh presents its annual (Post-)Christmas Dozen, I can only hope that the following list includes one of your favourites, or even better still, includes a game that you did not have and someone was happy to hide in gaudy paper and place under that dead tree for you. If not, then this is a list of what would have been good under that tree and what you should purchase yourself to read and play in the months to come.

—oOo—
Dungeons & Dragons Adventurer Issue 1, Hachette Partworks Ltd. (£1.99)Definitely the cheapest entry on this list and likely the oddest, being the introduction to the world’s most popular roleplaying game that was also the first of some eighty issues of a Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition partwork. Later issues would rise in price (which is how a partwork works), but for your £1.99 you got an introduction to the game, four Player Characters, a mini-adventure, and a set of dice in an official Dungeons & Dragons tin! The adventure would provide two hours’ worth of play, set in the Forgotten Realms in the same region as the then recent campaign, Phandelver and Below – The Shattered Obelisk. It was the cheapest and simplest introduction to both roleplaying and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, that anyone could imagine. A perfectly sized and priced taster if you will. It marked two significant events in Dungeons & Dragons history. It marked the first official gaming product for Dungeons & Dragons from the United Kingdom in decades and it marked the return of Dungeons & Dragons to the shelves of shops and newsagents since the demise of Dragon magazine over a decade ago. Dungeons & Dragons Adventurer Issue 1 literally put Dungeons & Dragons back in front of the British public on the high street and it sold thousands.
Pendragon Starter SetChaosium, Inc. ($29.99/£24.99)
The Pendragon Starter Set marks the return of the best treatment of Arthurian legend in any roleplaying game and the return of one the best roleplaying games ever published. Designed to introduce players to the forthcoming Pendragon, Sixth Edition, it presents ‘The Sword Campaign’, which places their characters, each a knight of realm, at the start of the reign of King Arthur and even has them witness the young squire pull the sword from the stone and be acclaimed king! As young knights in his service, they become involved in the turbulent early years of his reign as king after king, lord after lord, has to be persuaded that Arthur is the true King of the Britons. This will see them participate in tournaments, diplomatic missions, great battles, and even the affairs of Merlin, all ready to participate in the next part of The Great Pendragon Campaign, one of the greatest campaigns ever published. The rules are clearly explained, including a solo adventure, and encourage the players to have their knights embrace knightly virtues and be the best that they can be by adhering to their personality traits, which can lead to great opportunities for roleplaying and interesting consequences when they fail or adhere to the poorly regarded personality traits. The Pendragon Starter Set is a solidly packed introduction to a classic roleplaying game with books, dice, and cards enough for a gaming group to get started and play through multiple sessions of Arthurian legend and adventure.
Threat Analysis 1: Collateral
Nightfall Games ($50/£40)
Threat Analysis 1: Collateral is simply put, the bestiary and monster book for S.L.A. Industries, the roleplaying game set in a far future dystopia of corporate greed, commodification of ultraviolence, the mediatisation of murder, conspiracy, and urban horror, and serial killer sensationalism. Its core setting of Mort City is beset by threats from within and without, and it is these threats that Threat Analysis 1: Collateral examines in turn. There are Dream Entities which grow to embody and enforce the fears of the neighbourhoods whose realities they endanger, Cannibals and Carrien Pigs, Serial Killers whose exploits and murders are idolised and feared at the same time and put on primetime TV and even got their own sensational, soaraway serial killer magazine, Ex-War Criminals, and even flora and fauna such as Ganggots and Sector Mutants. All of which is lavishly presented in glorious colour. Threat Analysis 1: Collateral is fantastic monster book that not only surprises in its strangeness and its vibrancy, but also in its ability to bring the horror and the hell of Mort City to life.
Dragonbane: Mirth & Mayhem Roleplaying
Free League Publishing ($55/£39.99)
2023 also saw the return of another classic fantasy roleplaying game, but this time, from Sweden rather than the USA. This is Drakar och Demoner, Scandinavia’s first and biggest tabletop RPG, originally launched in 1982, but in 2023, published in English as Dragonbane: Mirth & Mayhem Roleplaying. It is designed for fast and easy play, fast and easy set-up, and even as the world which the Player Characters explore—the Misty Vale, a hidden mountain valley until recently overrun by orcs and goblins—presents them with grim and brutal challenges, it has room for lighter moments round the table. The core boxed set comes packed with dice, cardboard standees, rulebooks, map, battle mat, and more. Not only does it include a solo adventure, ‘Alone in the Deepfall Breach’ (so the Game Master gets to play too) and not one, not two, but eleven adventures in the Dragonbane Adventures book! These can be played individually, but best work as a complete campaign in the Misty Vale. Plus, the artwork really is great. Lastly, let’s not discount the fact that one of the Player Character species is the Mallard and one of the Classes is the Knight, so the first fight round the table is going to be over who gets to play the Duck Knight!
Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game
Marvel ($59.99/£53.99)
Roleplaying returns to the Marvel Universe for the fifth time with this gorgeous treatment of the superheroes, supervillains, and super setting of the Marvel Universe. It includes over one hundred profiles of the heroes, villains, and minions (and sometimes in betweeen) of Universe 616, from Abomination, Agatha Harkness, and Agent Phil Coulson to Venom, Vulture, and the Winter Soldier, from America Chavez, Ant-Man, and Beast to Wasp, Wolverine (both Laura Kinney and Logan), and Wong. All with an eye to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but derived from the comics rather than what is seen on screen. It gives the players a wide choice of characters to play and the Narrator a wide choice of villains to use, but the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game does not simply restrict the players and Narrator to its impressive who’s who and villains gallery of characters, but allows them to create heroes and villains of their own so that they can play out their own adventures and stories. The ‘616’ System is not quite as simple as it could be, but it is not too complex and it is thematic, and overall, the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game is a very accessible and playable version of a fan favourite superhero universe.
Black Sword Hack: Ultimate Chaos Edition
The Merry Mushmen ($35/£25)
2023 was very much a year of the old returning, even if the old cannot exactly return due to licensing issues, for the Black Sword Hack: Ultimate Chaos Edition wears its influences on its sleeve—or is that on its vambraces?—being a Swords & Sorcery roleplaying game inspired by the works of Michael Moorcock, R.E. Howard, Karl Edward Wagner, Fritz Leiber, and Jack Vance, but especially Michael Moorcock and his Eternal Champion, most notably Elric of Melniboné and Stormbringer. Using the simple mechanics of The Black Hack, Second Edition, Black Sword Hack enables a group to play out adventures tales of the constant struggle between the primal forces of the universe, to visit kingdoms of age and youth, to go to the planes beyond, and of course, enter into great pacts of a demonic, spiritual, forbidden knowledge, faerie, and twisted science nature. Mechanically, hanging over every Player Character is his or her Doom Die, which is degraded by fumbled rolls and uses of the gifts granted by the pact he has made with the forces of the multiverse. If the Doom Die is degraded too far, the Player Character becomes doomed and the multiverse comes calling for him. Backed up with lots of detail and supporting content that captures the feel and flavour of Michael Moorcock’s classic fantasy stories, the Black Sword Hack: Ultimate Chaos Edition enables the Game Master to run a campaign in his style across the multiverse without infringing upon it.

Japan – Empire of Shadows: A Call of Cthulhu sourcebook for 1920s Imperial Japan
Chaosium, Inc. ($65/£51)
Japan – Empire of Shadows: A Call of Cthulhu sourcebook for 1920s Imperial Japan does something no supplement in forty years of Call of Cthulhu has ever done and that is to open up the Japan of the Jazz Age and make it somewhere to explore, roleplay, and investigate the activities and presence of not just the Cthulhu Mythos, but the mythos and folklore of the Japanese islands. It examines the reverence for modernity and antiquity Japan and explores how and why an investigation of Lovecraftian cosmic horror might be conducted, as well as looking at the role of numerous Occupations for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and how they differ from the USA and the United Kingdom. At its heart is a set of three detailed and lengthy gazetteers, first of Tokyo, capital of Japan, then cities and locations across Japan, followed by the territories held by the Japanese empire, some of them for the very first time in roleplaying, let alone Call of Cthulhu. This is all backed by a wealth of cultural and background detail, and then woven through the three gazetteers, are three narrative or scenario threads that will take the Investigators to Nan Modal on the island of Ponape, the island of Hokkaido, and occupied Korea to face Mythos threats old and new. Japan – Empire of Shadows: A Call of Cthulhu sourcebook for 1920s Imperial Japan is an incredible piece of work and research, and both the best release on the Miskatonic Repository in 2023 and the best release for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition in 2023.

Star Trek Adventures Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook
Modiphius Entertainment ($60/£45)
As a supplement for Star Trek Adventures, the Star Trek Adventures Utopia Planitia Starfleet Sourcebook does three things. First, it provides a history of Starfleet, second, it provides a means of creating starships for both Starfleet and civilian use, and third, it details over seventy Federation and Starfleet starship classes, space stations, and small craft. In the first part, it expands the basic three  eras of Enterprise, Star Trek: The Original Series, and Star Trek: The Next Generation to include Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Picard as well as Star Trek Online. In the second part, it lets the players design the starship that they want their Starfleet characters to crew and forge a legend with and the Game Master create ships as needed for her campaign. Lastly, in the third it brings to life the design and purpose of numerous classic starship models from the fifty years of Star Trek history, allowing the players to pick one off the shelf if they wish or adapt it, or simply letting the Star Trek read up about his or her favourite starship. This is a genuinely useful and interesting supplement, whether you play Star Trek Adventures or are just a Star Trek fan. Creating starships is really easy and the book is good read too. A definite must have sourcebook for the Star Trek Adventures Game Master.
Old Gods of Appalachia
Monte Cook Games ($69.99/£59.99)
2023 was also the year of the podcast in roleplaying as several publishers turned to podcasts as inspiration for roleplaying games and roleplaying game supplements. Old Gods of Appalachia is an eldritch horror fiction podcast set in an Alternate Appalachia where man was never meant to step foot in the mountains, where there are dark and bloody things in the deep of the hollers and presences beyond mortal understanding slumber under the ground. The roleplaying game adaptation uses the Cypher System bring the hard scrabble inhabitants of the mountains and their fears and superstitions to life as they encounter the secrets, the desires, and the monsters of the Appalachians that they know should be best left alone. Theirs is a world almost like the twenties and thirties of our, but driven by hardship, horror, hope, and heart they find on their very doorsteps, in the forests, and deep in the mountains. Old Gods of Appalachia draws the players and their characters into dark world of cosmic horror, but one that is very different to that normally seen in roleplaying and one very close to home. This is an excellent adaptation of the source material whose horror feels fresh and original.
Around the World in 80 Games: A mathematician unlocks the secrets of the greatest games
Fourth Estate ($30/£22)
2023 was a good year for books about board games, so it has been hard to just choose one. Around the World in 80 Games by mathematician Marcus du Sautoy explores games from his speciality to examine how they underpin a wide range of games, some we played as children, some we play today, ranging in both complexity and from far around the world. In the process, he looks at the history of games and their backgrounds, why we play, and asks if mathematics can help us be better players. In the process, it takes in Backgammon and the Royal Game of Ur as well as Scrabble, Cluedo, and The Game Life, before coming up to date with modern classics such as Ticket to Ride and Pandemic. It even explores Dungeons & Dragons and non-games such as Mornington Crescent (though that might be getting just a bit silly and very, very British!). The result is an interesting examination of our hobby from another angle that gives a fresh perspective upon it.


Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers
Chaosium, Inc. ($39.99/£33.99)
The ‘Cults of RuneQuest’ line lays the foundation for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, each entry focusing upon a particular pantheon of gods and goddesses and other beings and their associated cults. They are important because the worship of a god or goddess and membership is fundamental to the lives of almost everyone in the world of Greg Stafford’s Glorantha. It defines much of their outlook upon the world, who they ally with, who their enemies are—traditionally, whose values they embrace, and what magics and powers of the gods they can bring to any one situation and thus the play in the game. Essentially, the gods and the cults devoted to them and that the Player Characters worship and belong to, define much of who they are and what they can do, and so act in a fashion similar to the concept of character Classes in other roleplaying games. Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers is the first in the series to define the gods and their roles in society, focusing upon those that performed the famous Lightbringers Quest—Orlanth, Issaries, Lhankor Mhy, Chalana Arroy, Flesh Man, Ginna Jar, and Eurmal—as well as the other gods of the Air or storm pantheon. Each entry provides not just playable details to help create and player a character dedicated to that god and his cult, but further background, myths, and information that can be used to bring the role of the god, the cult, and the Player Character’s involvement into play. Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers provides a definitive and accessible treatment of the gods of the Air pantheon and the other supplements in the line, such as Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses, are equally as good.
Lore & Legends: A Visual Celebration of the Fifth Edition of the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game
Ten Speed Press ($50/£38)
You may not like the roleplaying game. You may not like the publisher. However, what you cannot deny is the influence and reach that Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition has had on the hobby and culture at large. As it turns ten, it is worth remembering that this edition has introduced millions of new players to the hobby, that it made the hobby an acceptable and even normal pastime when in the past it was sneered at and castigated, and that it was successful enough to get a Hollywood film made about it that respected the source material, was entertaining, and was anything other than dreadful. A sequel to the earlier and excellent Art & Arcana: A Visual History, Lore & Legends explores the development, history, and key points of the Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition in a very similar fashion, from its development via D&D Next—the in-between edition—to its release in 2014 and through to today. It is written by the same team and consequently is both a good read and a visual delight, providing perspective on the world’s most popular roleplaying game.

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, such as the Big Book of Battle Mats: Rooms, Vaults, & Chambers, but the publisher also offers its maps in a year long, one map per month package. In other words, a calendar! However, the calendar offers a lot more than just a map per month. Every month comes with an adventure of its very own.
The Calendar of Many Adventures 2024 is almost like any other calendar that you hang on the wall. Exactly twelve inches it folds out to reveal each month as you would expect and an illustration as you would expect. The calendar is mostly as you would expect. Days of the week, month after month. One thing to note is that the traditional days and festivals are not marked. So, no Good Friday or Easter Monday, no Spring Bank Holiday, no Halloween, no Christmas Day or Boxing Day. Consequently, the user will need to add them himself. Instead, there are less traditional days, such as ‘International GM’s Day’ on March 4th and ‘Talk Like a Pirate Day’ on September 19th. However, instead of some random fantasy picture, every month we are treated to a map. An ice cold, ruined village with a bridge over a frigid river for January, a tropical beach with a ruined boat on the shoreline and a fallen moai a la Easter Island, and a mine tunnel with tracks and trucks and a work and storage area. Each map is marked with two-inch squares and is nicely detailed, such as hats and documents on a table.
In addition, each month is accompanied by a QR code. This downloads two items. First is the map itself for that month. Of course, the physical copy of the map can be used at the table, whilst the digital copy can be used online. Of course, the maps can also be combined with maps found in other Loke BattleMats products, especially the Giant Book of Battle Mats series. The second is a single adventure for that month, a PDF for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, which is designed to be used with the map. They average as being suitable for Third Level Player Characters, but most can be played by Fourth Level Player Characters. Most f the adventures are eleven pages in length and come with ‘5E in 5 Minutes’, a quick primer (or remainder) of the rules, advice on running and balancing the adventure, hook to get the Player Characters involved, background for the Game Master, an introduction for the players, a description of the map and what the Player Characters will encounter, a suggestion as to what might happen next, and then the stats for both the monsters and the NPCs for the scenario. Names for monsters, NPCs, and special items are colour coded to indicate that they are given further detail at the end of the adventure.
For example, ‘Out in the Cold’ is the adventure for January, 2024. It is designed for a group of Third to Fifth Level Player Characters. The village of Derrow has fallen on hard times, its rich hunting grounds spoiled by heavy, icy winters and monsters that kill the stock and terrorise anyone who dares enter the surrounding forests. The local lord, Galfrin Albrent, hires the Player Characters to retrieve an artefact currently on display in an inn in the rundown village of Derrow. When they attempt to do so, a curse is activated throwing the Player Characters into the Winter Realm and a very snowy, ruined version of Derrow. It is here that the main events of the scenario take place on the given map. The Player Characters find themselves trapped here and as they try to find a way out—or a way back—they are attacked by wave after wave of wintery Derrow Wolves and it gets colder and colder. The Player Characters need to survive long enough to do so, and once done, the scenario ends. There are four suggestions as to what could happen next or in later adventures, and stats for an NPC who could accompany the Player Characters if they need help, another NPC, and the villain of the piece. Oddly the NPC, the bartender at the village inn, is given more detail than the villain, in terms of background.
‘Out in the Cold’ is a short adventure, offering no more than a single session’s worth of play, but it is serviceable and easy to drop into a campaign. It is followed by ‘Together We Stand’, a more complex affair for February in which the Player Characters are hired to investigate an alchemist’s lair under a tavern as part of dispute between rival guilds; ‘Fear Under the Sun’ for March opens with the Player Characters shipwrecked and washed ashore, coming to the rescue of cute creatures as the ground shakes; and for April, ‘How Green Your Garden Grows’, the Player Characters come to the aid of a local midwife and herbalist whose garden of prize-winning plants and flowers is under attack. This is important because the award for best garden is due to given very soon. Unfortunately, Granny Green, whose garden is under attack has under attack, has secrets of her own…

Physically, Calendar of Many Adventures 2024 is decently presented, bar of course, the traditional holidays on the calendar. The maps are as well done as you would expect and they are all compatible with the rest of the maps from Loke BattleMats. The adventures themselves are well written and easy to use, and short enough to drop into a Game Master’s campaign, perhaps a side quest or diversion. Plus, whilst the adventures might be written for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, they are easily adapted to the retroclone of the Game Master’s choice.

The Calendar of Many Adventures 2024 is a very nice product, providing the Game Master with a selection of easy to prepare scenarios that she can drop into her campaign. The format is fun and if the scenarios are not connected this year, then perhaps for next year, the Calendar of Many Adventures 2025 could contain a linked set of adventures to form a mini campaign throughout the year.

As the decade of the twenty-tens began, so too began a rise in the number of events and encounters that were strange and inexplicable except when using magic as the answer. Ghosts. Men and women acting in strange ways without their knowledge. Antiques and artefacts with strange provenances being stolen. Rivers seeming to come to life. People disappearing in strange ways. Foxes seeming to talk. If you are prepared to accept that magic real, then it is obvious that its power and occurrence is on the rise, causing the life of the Demi-monde, those persons and creatures who have been touched or changed by magic, to grow and interact with wider society. Of course, the police, even London’s Metropolitan Police Service, is unprepared for such a change in circumstances. Except, that is for the Folly. The Met’s ‘Special Assessment Unit’, its headquarters in a grand building on Russell Square, has long been on decline by the twenty-tens, its operational staff having dwindled to just one—Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale—its commanding officer and a registered practitioner of Newtonian magic. With the resurgence of magic, Nightingale’s own powers have grown again and he has recruited his first apprentice in many years, Constable Peter Grant. In the decade since, Constable Grant has investigated numerous strange cases, known as ‘Falcon’ cases, both inside London and outside it, and become a significant figure within the Demi-monde himself. Yet there has also been the growing need to hire outside consultants on a range of subjects and recruit and train more apprentices. The Folly, is, once again, playing an important role in police matters, even the police’s attitude towards it is not always a positive one. This is the background to the Rivers of London series of novels and graphic novels by Ben Aaronovitch and so too, to Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game.

Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game is published by Chaosium, Inc.. In it, players will take the roles of men and women newly recruited or attached to the Folly, a few able to learn and cast magic, most with other gifts and advantages. Under the aegis of the Metropolitan Police Service and its code of conduct and legal powers, they will investigate occurrences of magic and other strange phenomena, hopefully to learn more about its practice and the Demi-monde, but primary to protect the public at large and ensure that no laws have been broken. It is thus an investigative roleplaying game, one notably written for both those new to roleplaying and those not new to roleplaying. For those new to roleplaying, the Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game offers a solo case file or adventure—based on the short story, ‘The Domestic’ from Tales of the Folly—which will the player how to roleplay and how the rules work. This is much like the solo adventure Alone Against the Flames to be found in the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set , which also teaches a player the basics of the rules, how to create an Investigator, and the possible outcomes of various choices. This is no coincidence. Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game not only includes an introductory solo investigation, but it also employs the same mechanics as Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, although in a much cutdown, highly streamlined version. Consequently, anyone who has played Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition or even the Basic Roleplaying: Universal Game Engine, will be able to pick up and play Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game with ease.

It should also be noted that Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game comes with Ben Aaronovitch’s full endorsement. It uses the Basic Roleplaying: Universal Game Engine—which is always what he has wanted for a roleplaying game based on his book—and includes notes and asides throughout that add extra commentary to the setting of the roleplaying game. Here he even says that, “Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game could even be described as “Call of Cthulhu—now with added hope!” However, it should be made clear that although there are occasional elements of horror within the novels, their genre and that of Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game is Urban Fantasy. Much like novels themselves, the roleplaying game ties in with Aaronovitch’s own nerdiness and geeky knowledge of games, roleplaying games, and random Science Fiction and fantasy. It also be noted that Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game is set after the events of False Value, the eighth novel in the series. Consequently, there will be spoilers in the roleplaying game for anyone who has not read either the novels or the graphic novels up until then.

After the delightful opening fiction of Peter Grant explaining roleplaying to other members of the Folly by running a session of Call of Cthulhu, and ‘The Domestic’ solo case file, Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game begins explaining how to create a Player Character. An Investigator has five attributes—Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Power—which range in value between thirty and eighty. He will also have a Luck value, which ranges in value between fifty-two and seventy, but will go down as it is spent to modify and succeed at various rolls. He will have one or two Advantages, such as Connected, Fast Reactions, Silver-Tongued, or Magical. The Magical Advantage is a Major Advantage and if selected means that the Player Character can learn and cast spells, but also means that he cannot take another Advantage. He also has an Occupation—some marked as being typical of the Rivers of London setting, some not, such as Architect, Dilettante, Firefighter, Lawyer, Police Officer/Detective, or Social Worker. This Occupation lists the skills that the Player Character must have and the skills it is recommended that he have, plus contacts and possible equipment.

To create a Player Character divides a pool of points between the five attributes and selects both an Occupation and one or two Advantages. He then assigns a value of sixty points to a total of six skills and rolls for his Luck value. These six skills must include the required skills for his character’s Occupation, but he can choose as many or as few of the recommended skills as he likes. Some Occupations may list less than six skills in total, so the player is free to choose other to ensure his character has a total of six. Lastly, he creates a backstory for his character, ideally including an explanation of how he came to be associated with magic or the supernatural, and then equips him. The process is easy and well explained. Apart from the fact that a Player Character can learn magic and that they have all encountered magic or the supernatural, all Player Characters are ordinary human beings. There are, however, advanced options for veteran players who want to roleplay more experienced characters—with more skills, but also Disadvantages as well as Advantages—or characters who are Fae or Quiet People. (Sadly, there are no rules for creating Talking Fox Player Characters, because after all, who does not want to play a Talking Fox who knows he is a spy!)

Avtar Chakora is a London black cab driver who got involved in the Folly when his cab began taking fares and trips of its own across the city. It turns out that it was haunted by a previous driver, Dickie Stacy, who was giving fares to other ghosts, often to various locations in the Demi-monde across London. After several near accidents and an investigation by the Folly, Dickie and Avtar have come to an arrangement. Avtar will give rides to ghosts and more recently, other members of the Demi-monde, but Dickie would advise rather than drive. In return, Avtar, a fully trained accountant only because his mother wanted him to get a respectable job and he did not get the science grades at ‘A’ Level, provides the occasional fare for Folly and consults on accounts and financial records in cases. He finds this more interesting than normal accounting, though he does do the accounts and taxes of many other black cab drivers as well as his mother’s catering business. His cab is never without a box of snacks freshly cooked by his mother.

Name: Avtar Chakora
Gender: Male Age: 32
Occupation: London Taxi Driver
Strength 50 Constitution 50 Dexterity 60
Intelligence 60 Power 60 Luck 64
Advantages: The Knowledge, Silver-Tongued
Common Skills: Athletics 30%, Drive 60%, Navigate 60%, Observation 60%, Read Person 60%, Research 30%, Sense Vestigia 30%, Social 60%, Stealth 30%
Combat Skills: Fighting 30%, Firearms 30%
Language Skills: English 60%, Punjabi 60%
Expert Skills: Accounting 60%

Mechanically, Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game uses the system as Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, beginning with the skills. These have been divided between Common, Expert, and Combat skills. All Player Characters have the Common skills and may have one or more Expert skills depending upon their Occupations. It is possible to use an Expert skill, such as Astronomy, Locksmith, or Zoology, temporarily with the expenditure of Luck points. Combat skills are broad in their application and consist of just Fighting and Firearms. It is possible to take the Signature Weapon or Signature Firearm—bearing in mind that as the authors point out, Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game is a British roleplaying game set in the United Kingdom, and firearms are exceedingly rare—and this grants bonus dice for damage. Rolls under a skill or characteristic are a Regular success, under half the skill or characteristic value a Hard success, and rolls of one a Critical success. A roll of one hundred is a fumble, which will typically lead to an involuntary action such as freezing on the spot or becoming enraged. The circumstances of the skill or characteristic roll may also grant the player Bonus or Penalty dice, which work like Advantage and Disadvantage dice found in other roleplaying games.

Depending upon the situation, a failed roll does not mean that the Player Character has completely failed. He might succeed, but with consequences, or he might fail, but without consequences or perhaps learning something that will help him. If the roll is a failure, then the player has two options. He can expend Luck points to improve a roll, typically to turn a failure into a Regular success, or he can Push the roll. This allows him a second roll, but this raises the stakes. Not only does it take more time, but the player has to define how his character is undertaking this second attempt and the Game Moderator sets out consequences of failure. This is always worse than the consequences of failure for the first roll. All of the skills in Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game include suggestions for Pushed rolls and there are plenty of examples of the consequences if failed, as well.

Combat is designed to be fast and simple. It consists of a series of opposed rolls between the combatants, most commonly Fighting versus Fighting for mêlée, but a combatant can choose to dodge instead of fighting back, or even dive for cover or flee, both good options if the opponent is armed with a firearm. The results of the opposed rolls—Critical success, Hard success, Regular success, Weak success (more typically a failure in a non-combat situation), or Fumble—are compared and the combatant with the best result achieves his desired objective. Damage is determined by a Strength roll for mêlée or a Dexterity roll for firearms or spell combat. The number of points inflicted depends upon the quality of the roll—one for a Regular success, two for a Hard success, and three for a Critical success. Some weapons add to the result, such as a shotgun or rifle. This looks to be a very low level of damage in comparison to other Basic Roleplaying: Universal Game Engine roleplaying games, and it is. This is because a Player Character does not have Hot Points. Instead, he has a Damage Condition, either Bloodied, Hurt, Down, or Impaired. Each point of damage ticks off one of these conditions, and suffering four points of damage is a Mortal Wound and five points will kill a Player Character. Consequently, firearms are really dangerous in Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game, an assailant only requiring a Hard success to inflict a Mortal Wound and a Critical success to kill someone one. In general, once a fight gets to the damage stage, Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game can be brutal, but the Player Characters do have Luck on their side as well as careful play before then.

In general, the mechanics are very forgiving. Together with access to Luck points and Pushed rolls, and the possibility of failure not being absolute, but a chance of a Player Character being able to succeed, but with consequences or fail, but without consequences, there is a design choice here that focuses on the Player Characters succeeding and moving the story forward, getting to the next clue, and so on. This is not to say that there is no chance of failure in the Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game, but rather that it has been de-emphasised. As a result, the chances of absolute failure—the Fumble—are very low, but when it does happen, the consequences are likely to be woeful indeed.

Magic plays a big role in the Rivers of London setting and so it does in Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game. There is a discussion of Vestigia, the trace left behind by magic and of the Signare, the signature unique to every magic practitioner. To use magic, a Player Character must have the Magical Advantage. This grants him a Signare, the Magic skill, and three starting spellings. He will either be a Newtonian apprentice—studying under a master the school of magic laid down by Sir Isaac Newton, or a Hedge Wizard. Spells are organised into Orders, typically five. A practitioner must know a certain number of spells from one Order before learning spells of the next, plus higher order spells typically have their perquisites. A spell can also be mastered, meaning that the Magic skill roll is made with a bonus die, and once mastered, can be boosted with extra Magic Points to extend the duration, range, and other effects, beyond the base cost. Not quite forty spells are detailed in Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game, but this is enough. It takes time to learn and then master spells, matching the pace with which Peter Grant learned magic in the novels.

In addition, casting magic and using spells can be very dangerous—and not only to electronic components and devices, which it will turn to sand. Use too much magic, cast too many spells, and a practitioner can suffer from Hyperthaumaturgical Degradation (HTD), damage to the brain that makes it look like a cauliflower. This occurs if a Pushed roll for the Magic skill is a failure or a Fumble, or if practitioner casts magic after running out of Magic Points. To check against the effects of Hyperthaumaturgical Degradation, the player makes a Power roll. At the very least, it will result in the loss of all Magic Points, which happens whatever the result, but at the very worst, it will inflict a fatal wound on the practitioner. Consequently, magic in Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game will give a Player Character the edge in a situation, but it has to be used with care as the consequences are grave.

Police Detective Constable Winifred ‘Fred’ Messam was seconded to the Folly after investigating a case a series of forged antiques which led to an encounter with some very angry spirits which the forgeries were being used to imprison and transport the spirits. She managed to protect herself and her colleague, despite him being knocked out. When the Folly investigated, it was discovered that she had inadvertently cast her first spell—Shield. She was recruited after the case was further investigated and the culprits arrested. As yet, Winifred is unsure if she likes being a wizard. It just adds to her workload with more training and studying as well as bring up her two children as a divorced mother. Consequently, she feels tired a lot, but is trying her best, especially given that most of the recent recruits to the Folly are younger than she is.

Name: Winifred ‘Fred’ Messam
Gender: Female Age: 38
Occupation: Police Detective Constable/Apprentice Newtonian Wizard
Strength 40 Constitution 50 Dexterity 50
Intelligence 60 Power 80 Luck 62
Advantages: Magical
Disadvantages: Slow-footed
Common Skills: Athletics 30%, Drive 30%, Navigate 30%, Observation 60%, Read Person 60%, Research 30%, Social 60%, Sense Vestigia 60%, Stealth 30%
Combat Skills: Fighting 60%, Firearms 30%
Language Skills: English 60%
Expert Skills: Appraise 40%, History 20%, Law 60%, Magic 60%
Spells: First Order – Werelight (Mastered), Impello; Second Order – Shield
Signare: A clash of Indie band guitars accompanied by the smell of Belgian chocolate and the feeling of hands in a bowl of washing up

For the Game Moderator, there is a wealth of background and advice—and that in addition to advice dotted throughout the book on various rules and aspects of the roleplaying game, all give out by friendly Mister Punch. This covers law enforcement in London and the Metropolitan Police Service, including diversity, equipment, crimes and how they are investigated, police powers and how to handle them. There is advice on running the game, including handling consent and good gaming at the table, and more. It notes that the tone of Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game is not gritty realism. The setting has magic after all, and is optimistic in outlook. The background for the Game Moderator includes ‘A Rogue’s Gallery’ of the various characters from the novels, such as Peter Grant, Thomas Nightingale, Abigail, and Toby. Various members of the Demi-Monde are given too, including Molly, genius loci of London’s rivers such as Beverly Brook and Lady Tyburn, Talking Foxes, and Zachary Palmer. All come with an illustration and full stats and write-up, though they are written from the point of view of Peter Grant—even himself—so there is a certain bias. If there is any write-up missing from here, it is that of Lesley May, Peter Grant’s former colleague and now rogue practitioner. There is also a history of London and magic in London, as well as a guide to central London. The Folly itself is described and mapped in some detail. Scattered throughout are case seeds that the Game Moderator could develop into a fuller adventure. This is backed up with ‘The Bookshop’, an introductory adventure adapted from the short story, ‘The Cockpit’, from the anthology, Tales from the Folly. Having already had one story adapted from the anthology, it would have been nice to have seen something original here lest the roleplaying game give the impression that all of its scenarios are going to be directly adapted from Aaronovitch’s fiction. It is also a short affair, meaning that the players could create characters and run through this in a single session.

Beyond ‘The Bookshop’, numerous additional rules are supplied for more advanced play and options. These enable experienced Player Characters or even Fae or even Quiet Person Player Characters to be created, new Occupations to be designed, and discusses the possibility of using organisations other then the Folly or even creating a Folly elsewhere. Besides revisiting various aspects of the rules, such as magic and enchantments, there is advice too on writing case file or scenarios, lastly, along with a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated Player Characters.

Physically, Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game is very well presented. The artwork and the cartography are excellent, and the book is very well written, although in need of a slight edit in places. There are some amusing in-jokes dotted here and there throughout the book, and the tone is fairly light from start to finish. There are also a lot of good examples of the rules throughout the book as well.

There is only the one issue disappointing about Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game to date that is the lack of support for it and the lack further case files to investigate. Otherwise, Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game is absolutely the roleplaying adaptation that Ben Aaronovitch dreamed of for his novels. Not only does it use the rules he wanted, but it presents both rules and background in a simple, straightforward, easy-to-grasp fashion that will not overwhelm the fan of the novels coming to Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game as his first roleplaying game or the roleplayer coming to the setting of the novels through the roleplaying game. Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game is an excellent adaptation of the novels, capturing their lightness of tone and detail, and delivering it to the gaming table. The Rivers of London series have long defined the Urban Fantasy genre in the United Kingdom. Now Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game can do it in the roleplaying hobby.

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 be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry and Old School Essentials. However, other fanzines serve as a vehicle for direct support from the publisher.
The Chaos Crier: An Aperiodical Zine for Black Sword Hack and Other Swords & Sorcery Games, is like the name suggests, a supplement for Black Sword Hack. This is the adaptation of The Black Hack, designed and published by The Merry Mushmen, to emulate the fantasy tales and style of the Eternal Champion—Elric, Corum, et al, by Michael Moorcock.
The Chaos Crier, Issue #0 was published as part of the Kickstarter campaign for the Black Sword Hack. It is a dense, black and white affair, which really provides two items—a pair of scenarios. In the process though, it also details new monsters and a new threat, a dark and evil cult, and a complete city. There is here, enough content here for multiple sessions of gaming, all of which can easily be slotted into the Game Master’s campaign. It opens with Alexandre ‘Kobayashi’ Jeanette’s ‘A Sky Full of Swords’, the first of the two scenarios in the issue. It is a tale of greed and death, as the Player Characters come across the town of Pardesh, where a group of miners have gathered as meteorites crash to the ground in them. The meteorites contain cold iron, each enough to make a brittle weapon that inflicts maximum damage on ghosts, spirits, and the undead, but also enough to make plenty of coin if sold. There is tension in the town because a local astronomer did not warn the townsfolk, but she complains that they did not pay her for the information. If the Player Characters save her from a possible lynching, she might tell them where the next cold iron meteorite will land, but that has its own problems. ‘A Sky Full of Swords’ is a nicely balanced affair, offering a session or two’s worth of play, in which the Player Characters will need to tread carefully as throwing their weight around could get them into trouble.
The two articles that follow specifically support the issue’s second scenario, but can easily have a wider influence upon a Game Master’s campaign. All three are by Olivier ‘Nobboc’ Revenu and all three are of a Lovecraftian bent. ‘The Sons of Dagon’ (also known as The Deep Ones) is a treatment of H.P. Lovecraft’s amphibian fish-like creatures, which gives stats for the Hybrid, Deep One, and Deep old One, as well as detailing the horror of the life of the Hybrid. This is followed by ‘The Black Sun of the Deep’, a nihilistic or apocalyptic faction or cult which serves the forces of Chaos by proliferating the earlier detailed Sons of Dagon, and hiding behind a façade as a conventional cult dedicated to a sea god. It is favoured by sailors and fishermen, the latter benefiting from the bounteous catches of fish. The primary means of spreading its influence is by abducting healthy male Humans, using them as part of their effort to spread their Hybrids, and breeding and substituting them for ordinary Human babies. Full stats are provided for Black Sun cultists, Templars, Deep Infiltrators, Priests, and so on. All of which as the Sons of Dagon appear in the scenario that follows.
‘The Darkness over Nijmauwrgen’ presents a complete city and scenario for the Player Characters to explore. Sat in a cleft on the coast with a reef just off the shore, Nijmauwrgen is a port and fishing city that has fallen into the clutches of the Black Sun of the Deep cult. Designed for Player Characters of Second to Fifth Level, they may be drawn to Nijmauwrgen by a request for aid by Alcantor of Zysifus—who appeared in the scenario, ‘The Blood God’, in the Black Sword Hack—or they might even be hired to find him by the Black Sun of the Deep cult. Other hooks are provided, but for the most part, the scenario is plotted around Alcantor’s desperate need to find a lost weapon. What the Player Characters discover in the free-state city is a port known for its abundant fishing, the sullenness of its inhabitants with their bulbous eyes, scaly skin, and webbed hands, gloomy by day and worse by night, its streets bustling by day, but empty and haunted by night by ghastly fish-eyed creatures that come from the harbour and skulk in the long shadows. There is a distinct Dutch feel to the city, especially in the names used for possible NPCs, each of the various forty or locations being described in some detail, with the two places important to the overall plot being fully detailed. This is backed up with a big table of events and encounters and events during the day, and a smaller table for during the day. Then to push the plot along, the scenario adds an ‘Anonymity Die’, a Utility Die which is rolled whenever the Player Characters investigate and ask questions that might attract the attention of the Black Sun of the Deep cult. As it is rolled and stepped down, it brings the Player Characters ever closer to being hunted and it also triggers other events too. It is a clever timing mechanic. Overall, there is a lot for the Player Characters to do and explore in Nijmauwrgen even they do not engage in the actual plot. In preparation, the Game Master is advised to give ‘The Darkness over Nijmauwrgen’ the one single, thorough read through, and then run from the page as it goes along. However, she does decide to run it, the combination of the Eternal Champion meets H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’ is gloom-laden, fish breath delight.
Rounding out The Chaos Crier, Issue #0 is ‘Shanizar’s Bazaar’, also by Olivier ‘Nobboc’ Revenu, adds a strange establishment down a dead end street, where the voice of the proprietor can guides the shopper through his merchandise, weird and wonderful, like the Mantle of the Stars, a shimmer cloak of stars as good as any armour—under the night sky only, and a Ceramic Parrot capable of repeating everything said to it in the last hour. Shanizar offers other services too, but at a much, higher price. Then on the last page is Tales of the Dull Lotus #247, James V. West’s comic highlighting the worst that runic weapons have to offer…
Physically, The Chaos Crier, Issue #0 is ably presented. It is busy in places, but artwork is excellent.
The Chaos Crier, Issue #0 is a very good first issue of ‘An Aperiodical Zine for Black Sword Hack and Other Swords & Sorcery Games’. It provides excellent support for the Black Sword Hack and every Black Sword Hack Game Master should have this, and The Merry Mushmen should definitely publish more like this.

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 be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Then there is also Old School Essentials.

The Kalunga Plateau – Issue 1 is the beginning of a ‘Lost World’ setting, detailing a plateau only whispered of lying deep in the southern jungles, Classes for the tribesmen atop the plateau and the surrounding area, Invocations, and a scenario designed to get the Player Characters up onto the plateau itself. ‘The Kalunga Plateau’ opens with an overview of the plateau and some rumours with which the Game Master can seed her campaign. ‘The Setting’ explains a bit more, that the Plateau was once home to an alien civilisation whose presence was destroyed when an enormous sphere hit the planet. The sphere still remains, buried deep in the earth under the plateau that its impact threw up. What ruins remain are regarded by the current inhabitants of the Plateau as having been built by the gods. It then quickly settles down to present the first of three new Classes.
‘The Hunter’ specialises in the hunting and trapping of animals to feed the tribe. It gains points in the skills of Climb, Stealth, Bushcraft, Booby Trap, Sneak, and Tame. The latter is used to domesticate animals, whilst Bushcraft is used to handle survival in the jungle. The Hunter inflicts increased damage as the Class gains Levels, reflecting greater skill at killing creatures cleanly, and gains greater skill when working with fellow Hunters. ‘The Shaman’ can recognise the divine aura of another Shaman, makes for a poor combatant, and can conjure Invocations, such as Animal Spirit, Heal Wounds, Sleep, Feel the Evil, and so on. These are detailed separately in ‘Primal Invocations’. ‘The Combatant’ is the tribal warrior, which gains an attack bonus and can use all weapons. All three Classes are simple and straightforward, with the Hunter being the most complex. If there is an issue with the Classes, it is that they do not offer much in the way of choice to differentiate between one Player Character and the next. ‘Experience’ lists options for gaining Experience, such as killing dangerous enemies and creatures, surviving attacks, and exploration. ‘Gear, Weapons, and Coin’ gives a list of the prices for various items in the South Kingdoms, although without naming actual kingdoms. That and their details are promised for The Kalunga Plateau – Issue 2.
Almost half of The Kalunga Plateau – Issue 1 is dedicated to a single scenario, ‘Journey to an Unknown Land’. This is designed to get standard type Player Characters from their ‘civilised’ lands of the north to South Kingdoms and from there into the jungle and up onto the Plateau. It presents several hooks to get them interested and then details the journey south to the Last Sip Inn. With the help of a guide—who exacts a high price—they can then follow the Bone Road to the Plateau. Once atop the Plateau, they are first chased by a tyrannosaurus rex and then rescued by a tribesman. His tribe will offer refuge, but in return for gaining its trust, the Player Characters must perform a task for its shaman. They must recover an artefact from the nearby Cave of Pain. It is a fairly deadly dungeon, linear, but if the Player Characters succeed, they will gain the trust of the tribe and be released to explore the Plateau further. Likewise, the adventure is linear itself, without any room for the Player Characters to do anything other than follow the plot.
The Kalunga Plateau – Issue 1 does not really achieve what it wants to do. Essentially, there is not enough attention paid to the Plateau itself and too much attention is paid to getting Player Characters from elsewhere to the Plateau with the linear and limited adventure, ‘Journey to an Unknown Land’, whereas attention is paid to Classes, native to both the Plateau and the surrounding jungle, which cannot be used in conjunction with the rest of the content. It leaves the first issue unfocused. For example, only the one monster—the tyrannosaurus rex—is given for atop the Plateau, the rest either being in the cave of the adventure or on the route to the Plateau. Then the description of the Plateau never amounts to more than an overview, so that the Game Master is never really given a good feel for it.
Physically, The Kalunga Plateau – Issue 1 is well presented. The artwork and the cartography are both decent. The fanzine is overwritten and slightly heavy going.
As a first issue, The Kalunga Plateau – Issue 1 is disappointing. There is good content within its pages, such as the Classes—despite their limitations, and the Invocations for the Shaman, but the rest feels randomly chosen so as not support the other. Fundamentally, the inclusion of the adventure, ‘Journey to an Unknown Land’, was a mistake. It could and should, have been saved for a later issue, when perhaps the author can focus on getting the Player Characters from elsewhere to the Plateau. Instead, that space could have been better devoted to developing and presenting the Kalunga Plateau as a playable addition for the Game Master’s campaign. Perhaps this will change with The Kalunga Plateau – Issue 2.