The Delta Quadrant Sourcebook is the fourth setting supplement for Modiphius Entertainment’s Star Trek Adventures roleplaying game following on from the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook, the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook, and The Gamma Quadrant. It completes the quadrant sourcebooks for the roleplaying game and does a whole lot more. Where the Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook updated the timeline for Star Trek Adventures from 2372 to 2375 to encompass the whole of the Dominion War and its aftermath, the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook advances it another four years to 2379 and the return of the USS Voyager after its long journey home from the Delta Quadrant, some seventy thousand light years from Federation space as told in Star Trek: Voyager. It encompasses details of the species and worlds that the crew of the Voyager encountered and suggests ways in which another starship and its crew might find itself flung across the galaxy, isolated and alone, with only their wits and training to rely upon in surviving and then travelling the long way home. One of the major species that U.S.S. Voyager encountered were the Borg Collective, not once, but many times, and this included crossing the vastness of Borg space. The prominence of the Borg in Star Trek: Voyager, not least because a liberated Borg drone, Seven of Nine, would join her crew, is reflected in the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook, which is as much a sourcebook for the Borg for Star Trek Adventures as it is the Delta Quadrant.

The Delta Quadrant Sourcebook begins with a map like the three books in the series, but not an actual map of the Delta Quadrant, or even of the territory encompassed by the Borg Collective. Where the other supplements in the series have maps of their quadrants, the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook begins with a series of maps showing the flightpath that the U.S.S. Voyager took to get home. It shows an incredibly narrow slice of the Delta Quadrant, but so it should, and so too, does the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook. What this reflect is the fact that although U.S.S. Voyager undertook exploration during its journey home, it was never its primary objective. In fact, exploration was secondary, or even tertiary to its prime objective. Consequently, its encounters with cultures and species and worlds and spatial phenomena was fleeting, lacking the time that scientific rigour would otherwise demand. Thus its reports and analysis can only be seen in most cases as the initial cursory examination of a probe exploring a new region. This is highlighted in one of the pieces of colour fiction in the book and what it means is that once a Game Master has got her Player Characters and their ship to the Delta Quadrant, there is huge scope for her to develop her own content and even change details about a species or culture or a world because Star Fleet knows so little about the Delta Quadrant.

Unlike the earlier Beta Quadrant Sourcebook and Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook, the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook is not as easy a supplement to use in chronological terms. As it depicts an area of space between 2371 and 2379 and given its distance from Federation space, it is difficult to use in the Star Trek: The Original Series or Enterprise eras of play. Options are suggested, but there are far more of them set in the Star Trek: The Next Generation era. The overview of the various species, from the Devore Imperium and the Haakonian Order to the Vidiian Sodality and the Voth, taking in the Hirogen, the Kazon Order, and Species 8472 along the way varies from entry to entry. The length of entry is determined by how many times the U.S.S. Voyager encountered them, thus the Devore Imperium is given a mere half page, but the Hirogen, the Kazon Order, and Species 8472 over a page each. There is good, solid detail here, but it is let down by the lack of art. Only the Hirogen and Species 8472 are illustrated, whilst the rest are given a physiological description and given that they come from a visual medium, this is not really enough. There are descriptions of some of the worlds visited by the U.S.S. Voyager encountered as well.

Over a fifth of the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook is dedicated to the Borg. This includes an examination of who and what the Borg are, how they and their Queen function, how a species in danger of being assimilated might react, and so on. There are some interesting ideas here, such as the potentially immoral option of treating the Borg as invasive vermin, a threat to flee from, and as a viral infection. Another is restricted to worlds with cultures or resources which the Borg has deemed suitable for assimilation. If not yet technologically developed, a culture might regard the Borg as gods who will make the worthy immortal or demons who will steal the unworthy away... Types of drone are detailed, including maintenance, medical, tactical, and adjuncts. Throughout, there are in-game reports from the various governments and polities of the Star Trek universe. For example, the Cardassians are interested in making contact with the Borg Queen, the Dominion is wary of them, and Section 31 of Starfleet are still concerned about how much of a threat Juan-Luc Picard represents following his liberation from the Borg as Locutus. All of these add flavour and opinion that can help the Game Master portray these interested parties in her campaign. In this way, the use of the in-game fiction in this way is far better than has been in other supplements for Star Trek Adventures. In terms of worlds, the supplement is really rather clever. Instead of naming specific worlds, it examines the types of worlds that the Borg Collective is interested in. This enables the Game Master to create some interesting settings for encounters with the Borg, such as aboard their technologically advance floating platforms in gas giants or in the forcefield-protected facilities of demon worlds.

Under Lifepath Options, the most notable addition is that of the Liberated Borg. This is given as being for the Star Trek: The Next Generation era only, representing when they are a more frequent occurrence. This is not to say that they cannot appear in the other eras, but this is not really explored in the supplement. For the player Character, the Liberated Borg is a treated as a Mixed Species character and must have the Borg Implants Talent. This gives the Player Character three implants such as a Critical Array (interlink Node), Cybernetic Arm, or Ocular Sensory Enhancer. Their presence hampers social interaction as much as they grant technological advantages, but they can be removed. This takes a story milestone for each implant and only once all three have been removed, can the Talent itself swapped out.

Other species for the Delta Quadrant presented as fully playable characters include the Ankari, who use the energy from a nucleogenic lifeform to power their starships, the administrative specialist Jye, the Monean who live on a massive waterworld and are good swimmers and as former star nomads, also good navigators, the Occampa, and more. The guidelines suggest how the character generation process of Star Trek Adventures can be used, adjusted, or simply renamed to suit the Player Character.

For starships, the Borg feature again, with write-ups of Borg Octahedron, the command and control vessel for the Borg Queen and the Bog Torus which handles construction, along with the Borg Probe Ship and the Borg Tactical Cube. The Delta Flyer built by Tom Paris is detailed again, but more specific Delta Quadrant starships include the Kazon Raider, Hirogen warship, the Krenim Timeship with its time manipulating technology, Species 8472 Bioship, and many more. Stats for numerous NPCs are also given. Most of these are generic and unnamed, such as the Talaxian Smuggler, Occampa Explorer, or Hirogen Hunter, but there are named NPCs given too. These include Annorax, the Krenim officer and temporal scientist who turned the manipulation of the timeline into a weapon of war; Hugh, the Borg drone rescued by Starfleet; Commander Elizabeth Shelby, who became a tactical expert on the Borg following the battle of Wolf 359; and the Borg Queen. Perhaps the only NPC missing here is Rudolph Ransom, the captain of the U.S.S. Equinox, who used Ankari technology which drew power from nucleogenic lifeforms, to fuel his ship. Given that the Ankari are included, it seems odd that he is not.

The last part of the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook is dedicated to encounters, both the Borg and with other species in the quadrant. These all make good use of the details presented throughout the supplement. They including being caught at an outpost when a captured member of Species 8472 escapes and begins picking off victims one-by-one; Annorax, the Krenim officer and temporal scientist, seeking asylum with the Player Characters’ vessel; helping with a mass planetary evacuation ahead of the Borg arrival; attending an auction for the means to hack into the command structure of the Borg Collective, but the means turns out to liberated drones; and several more. There is discussion of possible ideas for Delta Quadrant-set campaigns, including a more swashbuckling style with non-Starfleet Player Characters, and also of the dangers of running a Borg-focused campaign. This is primarily because the Borg remain one of the most dangerous threats that Starfleet has encountered and going toe-to-toe with them is likely to end in death, disaster, and assimilation. Instead other means of defeating them are explored, typically involving either reprogramming the Borg systems or hacking into them.

Physically, the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook is a decent looking book. It is generally well-written and decently illustrated—though not always effectively—with a fully painted images. With so many species to illustrate, this is definitely a supplement which needed more artwork—and needed more artwork with good reason. It does need a slight edit in places. The layout is done in the style of the LCARS—Library Computer Access/Retrieval System—operating system used by Starfleet. So, everything is laid out over a rich black background with the text done in soft colours. This is very in keeping with the theme and period setting of Star Trek Adventures, but it is imposing, even intimidating in its look, and it is not always easy to find things on the page because of the book’s look. The other issue is that the none-more black pages are easy to mark with fingerprints.

Throughout the supplement, the descriptions and game content are supported by a series of in-game documents, reports, diary excerpts, and the like. Some of these feel a bit too long, but their focus, as with the book as a whole, on the Borg and the Delta Quadrant, means they too are focused and better for it. 

If the Gamma Quadrant Sourcebook was three books in one, covering the Dominion, the worlds in and around Dominion space, and the Dominion War, then the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook is two books in one. One of them focuses on the Delta Quadrant and the other on the Borg, and with such two narrow foci, the supplement feels all the better for it. The supplement presents only a narrow strip of the Delta Quadrant, leaving vast swathes of space for Game Master to develop of her own, and that is even before considering adding the Borg. The Borg content will, of course, be useful throughout the Star Trek: The Next Generation era of play, but whenever or wherever she decides to bring the Collective into play, it should done with care lest the Player Characters be overwhelmed and outmatched. Overall, the Delta Quadrant Sourcebook nicely brings a slice of Delta Quadrant space to life and launches the Borg Collective as a formidable foe for Star Trek Adventures.

The signal arrived six decades ago. Directed from the Tau Ceti star system, it was proof that humanity was not alone in the universe. There was other intelligent life out there and it wanted to say hello. Not just say hello, but invite us to make contact, to journey to Tau Ceti where five great mega-constructs were being built. This of course, would have been impossible, had it not been for the information encoded within the signal. It advanced the study of mathematics and physics beyond the limits of human understanding, and with it, the means to create a technological and scientific revolution that enabled mankind to colonise the furthest reaches of the Solar System and give it a purpose—contact. Contained within the information was the means to construct engines that would enable a spaceship to become a starship and cut the journey from one star system to the next by a factor of ten. Where the trip to Tau Ceti would have taken thousands of years, now it would take hundreds. It took the whole of humanity over sixty years to build the fleet that would take the journey and carry the hundreds of thousands of crew and passengers to another star system and realise a dream. It was a one-way trip, for those chosen to travel aboard the Generation Fleet would never see their home again, let alone their destination. The selection process would split humanity, nations, and families, as would the journey.

It is this divide that is explored in Signal to Noise, an interstellar epistolary roleplaying game—that is, played out as a series of letters, for two players, published by LunarShadow Designs. It is the prelude to the Dyson Eclipse, a setting which explores the voyage of humanity and its subsequent exploration of mega-structures around a distant star. One player takes the role of the Explorer, one of the lucky few chosen to join Generation Fleet, whilst the other player is the Earther, forced to stay behind as their companion departs the solar system. Via a series of prompts—much like the journalling roleplaying games that include Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure and Numb3r Stations – A Solo RPG, the players will exchange short letters with each other, looking back over their relationship and recent events—either aboard the Generation Fleet or at home—all with a wistfulness that comes from knowing that contact will be lost with each other forever and all they will have is their memories of each other and their pasts. As the game progresses and the Generation Fleet gets ever further from Earth, the ever-increasing time lag and distortion of the signal between ship and planet disrupts the messages, rendering communication and understanding increasingly difficult. How it does this is clever, enabling Signal To Noise to explore loss and regret whilst also putting Communications Theory into practice.

Signal To Noise requires an ordinary deck of playing cards for each player and a text editor, such as Word or Google Docs, which has the ‘Find and Replace’ function. Initially, the Explorer and the Earther establish their relationship and the Explorer the how and the why he is aboard the Generation Fleet and how he feels about it, and the Earther the how and the why he is not aboard the Generation Fleet and how he feels about that. The initial scene takes place before the Generation Fleet and for the Explorer and the Earther it is their last face-to-face meeting before the former leaves. Next, the Explorer sends a message to the Earther saying how much he will miss him, but also how much he is looking forward to the journey. Then the game proper begins. From his hand of cards, each player will draw a single card. The card suit determines which Event Track the event for this exchange of messages is drawn from, whilst its number determines two factors. First, is a personal event, the second is the letters to be replaced in the message that will eventually reach the recipient. As the exchange of messages progresses, the storyline for the Event Track will progress as well as be joined by the storylines from the other Event Tracks, more letters will be replaced in the messages going back and force between Explorer and Earther—representing ever greater communication degradation, and time will increase between messages, growing from a week to several, a month to months, and from one year to ten…
—oOo—
For example, after three turns the Explorer player has drawn the seven of Clubs, the three of Hearts, and on his latest turn, the nine of Clubs. This is the second Clubs card to be drawn and continues its Story Track, which starts with a weak and distorted directional signal being detected coming from an empty region of space. In the second part of the story, the signal is decoded and the shipboard systems begin building a Faster-Than-Light drive, which is only discovered when the drive is completed. The personal event is “You’ve finally read that classic book you always said you would. Did you enjoy it?” The Explorer player sends the following message:David,

Already a month out. We can hardly see the Sun now. In a week or two it will be gone and your messages will be my connection to home. I have spectacular news to tell you and I have amazing news to tell you. You remember I mentioned that the fleet received a signal that we could not understand from a nearby region of empty space? The shipboard systems deciphered it and not only that, but directed the manufacturing systems to build a device. Our engineers are currently analysing it and they reckon it’s some kind of FTL drive. We’re just beginning to work the possibilities. If it is, it could mean we can cut years off the journey to Tau Ceti. It could even mean we can get there and get back again. Who knows? Course, we have to ask ourselves who sent us the instructions for the drive and what they might want in return, but until we switch the thing on or get another message, who knows?

And the amazing news? I finally read Three Men in a Boat. All these years of you saying I should read it and I have to get billions of miles from you to finally do so. Seems appropriate to the journey we are on. Instead of passing villages, we are passing astronomical objects, which have become the topic of conversation when not speculating about the star drive as everyone has taken to calling it. Anyway, it was very amusing and I am glad that I finally listened to you. Your turn next, you should read that Philip K. Dick novel I told you about. I know it is going to be a month before you get this, so happy birthday for seventh. By the time you get my next message, I hope I will have extra news about the star drive. We may even have turned it on and gone somewhere fantastic!

Hear from you as soon as we can.The message is sent, but due to the distance and the signal degradation, Dave receives the following version of the message:
David,

Already a mopth out. We oap hardly see the Sup pow. Ip a week or two it will ke gope apd your messages will ke my ooppeotiop to home. I have speotaoular pews to tell you apd I have amazipg pews to tell you. You rememker I meptioped that the fleet reoeived a sigpal that we oould pot upderstapd from a pearky regiop of empty spaoe? The shipkoard systems deoiphered it apd pot oply that, kut direoted the mapufaoturipg systems to kuild a devioe. Our epgipeers are ourreptly apalysipg it apd they reokop it’s some kipd of FTL drive. We’re just kegippipg to work the possikilities. If it is, it oould meap we oap out years off the jourpey to Tau Oeti. It oould evep meap we oap get there apd get kaok agaip. Who kpows? Oourse, we have to ask ourselves who sept us the ipstruotiops for the drive apd what they might wapt ip returp, kut uptil we switoh the thipg op or get apother message, who kpows?

Apd the amazipg pews? I fipally read Three Mep ip a Koat. All these years of you sayipg I should read it apd I have to get killiops of miles from you to fipally do so. Seems appropriate to the jourpey we are op. Ipstead of passipg villages, we are passipg astropomioal okjeots, whioh have keoome the topio of oopversatiop whep pot speoulatipg akout the star drive as everyope has takep to oallipg it. Apyway, it was very amusipg apd I am glad that I fipally listeped to you. Your turp pext, you should read that Philip K. Diok povel I told you akout. I kpow it is goipg to ke a mopth kefore you get this, so happy kirthday for sevepth. Ky the time you get my pext message, I hope I will have extra pews akout the star drive. We may evep have turped it op apd gope somewhere faptastio!

Hear from you as soop as we oap.—oOo—
Ultimately, Signal To Noise will play out to between seven and ten exchanges of messages at which point time will have passed and the signal will have degraded to the point of incomprehensibility. It will take between two and even five years for messages to travel between Earth and the Generation Fleet. The game will end with the players first reflecting upon the exchange of messages and the story they have told of two lives, far apart, before a debrief together.

It should be no surprise that Signal To Noise was written during lockdown, a roleplaying game entirely built for the exchange of messages via electronic mail. There are alternative rules which suggest it could be done via exchanged and later exchanged and edited video messages, as well as rules for extending play. The format means that it can be played at any distance and only one copy of the roleplaying game is needed as the author has given permission to share the PDF between the two players. As play progresses the game becomes about what we can understand, what meaning we can deduce from the increasingly garbled text from the context of the words and letters we receive at increasingly long intervals. Ultimately, the ‘noise’ of the signal will intrude to the point of incomprehensibility and loss of meaning accompanied by a loss of contact between Explorer and Earther. (As a side note, parallels could be drawn between the loss of communication and eventually, the loss of emotional connection in Signal To Noise and between a couple one of whom is suffering from onset dementia, though obviously it is not designed with that in mind.)

Physically, Signal To Noise is nicely presented. Its play is easy to read and grasp, made all the easier with the example of play included. The artwork is excellent.

Signal To Noise is about the long goodbye. Saying the long goodbye to a loved one or friend, one who is going away never to return, the other one who is staying behind. Within that long goodbye, Signal To Noise combines wistfulness and wonder, about that relationship that is to be lost and the future that is to be reached, and tells a story that will eventually be lost to the void between the stars.

For every Ptolus: City by the Spire or Zweihander: Grim & Perilous Roleplaying or World’s Largest Dungeon or Invisible Sun—the desire to make the biggest or most compressive roleplaying game, campaign, or adventure, there is the opposite desire—to make the smallest roleplaying game or adventure. Reindeer Games’ TWERPS (The World's Easiest Role-Playing System) is perhaps one of the earliest examples of this, but more recent examples might include the Micro Chapbook series or the Tiny D6 series. Yet even these are not small enough and there is the drive to make roleplaying games smaller, often in order to answer the question, “Can I fit a roleplaying game on a postcard?” or “Can I fit a roleplaying game on a business card?” And just as with roleplaying games, this ever-shrinking format has been used for scenarios as well, to see just how much adventure can be packed into as little space as possible. Recent examples of these include The Isle of Glaslyn, The God With No Name, and Bastard King of Thraxford Castle, all published by Leyline Press.

The Pocket Sized Perils series uses the same A4 sheet folded down to A6 as the titles from Leyline Press, or rather the titles from Leyline Press use the same A4 sheet folded down to A6 sheet as Pocket Sized Perils series. Funded via a Kickstarter campaign as part of the inaugural ZineQuest—although it debatable whether the one sheet of paper folded down counts as an actual fanzine—this is a series of six mini-scenarios designed for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, but actually rules light enough to be used with any retroclone, whether that is the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game or Old School Essentials. Just because it says ‘5e’ on the cover, do not let that dissuade you from taking a look at this series and see whether individual entries can be added to your game. The mechanics are kept to a minimum, the emphasis is on the Player Characters and their decisions, and the actual adventures are fully drawn and sketched out rather than being all text and maps.
Call of the Catacombs is the third entry in the Pocket Sized Perils series following on from An Ambush in Avenwood and The Beast of Bleakmarsh. Designed for Third Level Player Characters, the scenario is a classic dungeon crawl, or rather a classic sewer crawl in the style of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, though still very much in the realm of Dungeons & Dragons. This because the scenario involves a particular monster—the humble kobold. The scenario is set in a city with extensive sewers, which the city authorities have contracted out the maintenance and operation of to a tribe of kobolds. Which is a little odd, if nevertheless, very forward and trusting of them. Unfortunately, the city’s wells of late have been unfit to drink from and when the inspectors sent to find out why have not returned, the city in desperation turns to freelancers—that is, the Player Characters—to investigate. Accompanying them is a guide to the sewers, a kobold called Scrip, who at certain chance of exploding and inflicting damage on everyone nearby. If there is a problem with Call of the Catacombs, it is this exploding kobold. Why? Why waste a perfectly good NPC that the Dungeon Master will have fun playing?

Call of the Catacombs is a linear adventure. It will take the Player Characters and their guide into the sewers, to the pumping station, and beyond. There are a few clues to be found along the way, such as kobolds emptying barrels of a strange liquid into the water flow and a set-up involving rats being milked! There is a diversion into some tunnels if the Player Characters want, these very nicely presented as a wheel that the Dungeon Master could almost spin to determine the random encounter were it not for the fact that the it is simply printed on heavy paper stock. The final two encounters of the scenario are on the back of all of the pages of the fold-out Pocket-Sized Peril. Here the Player Characters will discover what has been going on and who the culprit is, and face off against the creature in a big confrontation. For the Dungeon Master, there is an explanation, stats for all of the adventure’s monsters—including two new ones, and a random encounter table. The latter is not located in the place to run the scenario, the Dungeon Master needing to flip back and forth between the current location where the Player Characters and the last page. Ordinarily, this would not be an issue in a straightforward book, but the folded format of this scenario means that it is just that more awkward.

Physically, Call of the Catacombs is very nicely presented, being more drawn than actually written. It has a cartoonish sensibility to it which partially obscures the degree of peril to be found within the sewers and nearby tunnels. There is a sense of humour too in the details of the drawings, obviously more for the benefit of the Dungeon Master than her players. The combination of having been drawn and the cartoonish artwork with the high quality of the paper stock also gives Call of the Catacombs a physical feel which feels genuinely good in the hand. Its small size means that it is very easy to transport.

Call of the Catacombs presents a simple little mystery, that is ultimately, too simple. The adventure really only consists of six locations, so the exploration of it is never going to be a challenge. There is scope to expand it if the Dungeon Master wants, but it is not really necessary unless she wants to add more clues. Ultimately, the simplicity of the adventure design and the lack of exploratory, if not combat, challenge means that Call of the Catacombs is a filler dungeon, one that can easily be prepared with minimum time and effort, and then added to a town or city in the Dungeon Master’s campaign. Once done, it can also be played in a single session as well. Unsophisticated, if well presented, unlike the previous The Beast of Bleakmarsh , which was sophisticated given the size and format, but underdeveloped, Call of the Catacombs presents a very straightforward, but very easy to use, scenario. Call of the Catacombs has the same charming physicality of the other entries in the Pocket Sized Perils series, but will need more effort—though not too much effort—than those others to get the fullest out of the scenario.

The Golden Age of Industry has dawned. As skyscrapers—and profits—soar to new heights, now is the time to build your fortune . Launch companies and invest in new industries to earn capital. Buy shares of burgeoning businesses and reap the rewards of lucrative mergers. If you play your cards right, you’ll forge a legacy worthy of the title Big Boss. Big Boss is a radical departure for Funko Games. The publisher is best known for its generally family friendly, more mainstream titles that provide a combination of intellectual property and thematic game play which is attractively packaged and designed. Big Boss is a classic Euro-style board game about setting up companies, expanding them, purchasing shares and increasing their value, and occasionally, merging companies. It also has a bit of history attached to it. Big Boss is designed by Wolfgang Kramer, best known—along with Michael Kiesling—for the Spiel des Jahres-winning board games, Tikal and Torres. It is specifically based on Acquire, the classic board game of multi-player mergers and acquisitions, designed by Sid Sackson and published by 3M in 1964, and so highly regarded that it has been republished multiple times. Unlike Acquire, which has been available in English numerous times over its near sixty-year history, Big Boss was previously only available in German, having been published in 1994. Now available in English for the first time, Big Boss is designed for two to six players, aged ten and over, and plays in about an hour to about an hour-and-a-half.
Big Boss consists of a square board, plain and austere, but marked with a track which snakes around in a loop, running from one to seventy-two. Each number has a corresponding card in the Industry Card deck. In play, these numbers indicate where a player can found a company, and if the company occupies the right numbers where a player can expand the company along the track. The other cards in Big consist of the Level cards, the Share Cards, and Player Cards. There are eleven Share cards in each of the game’s eight companies—these are colour coded and have fantastically aspirational names such as Kingdom, Lunar, and Oasis, as well as a matching counter for the Share price Mat. The Level cards are used to expand any company on the board. The Player Cards are marked with two Radio Towers, which each player has two of at game’s start. The Radio Towers are added to a company headquarters to give a player a bonus of three shares. The Share Price Mat is numbered from one to fifty and is used to track each company’s share value over the course of the game. There is also a big stack of money tokens, ranging in value from one million to five hundred million, a big pile of building pieces, and eight headquarter pieces. The building pieces are black and not only fit into the track on the board, but stack on top of each other. The eight headquarter pieces correspond to the eight companies, sit atop the building pieces in play, and each have a slot for a Radio Tower.

At the beginning of the game, each player receives a hand of ten Industry Cards, two Radio Towers, and forty million in money tokens. Game play is simple. On a turn, a player has two options—buy a card or play a card. He can buy an Industry Card—either from the face up Industry Cards or from the Industry Card deck, or he can buy a Level card. He can play an Industry Card or a Level Card. The Industry Card is played to found a company or expand a company corresponding to the number on the Industry Card. The Level Card is used to expand a company by adding a building piece on top of an existing building piece in any company. When they are played to expand a company, both Industry Card and Level Card will also increase a company’s Share Price. Increasing the level of a Company will increase the Share Price by a greater amount than expanding the Company along the track. A Level Card also gives a player choice in which Company he chooses to expand, whereas an Industry Card does not. Consequently, a Level Card is more expensive than an Industry Card.

Once a player has expanded or founded a Company, its Share Price increases and the player earns money based on the new Share Price. He has then has two optional actions. One is to buy two shares, either from the same company or two different ones, and the other is to add a Radio Tower to the company that he just founded or expanded. He has two Radio Towers, with the second being more expensive to place than the first. Lastly, if a player cannot buy or play a card, he can either sell Shares at their current value or simply pass and take no action.

Initially, companies must be three spaces apart, but as they expand, they grow closer together and then, if they are connected, they merge. The larger company—the one with greater presence on the board and greater Share Price—will take over the smaller one. Anyone who has shares in the smaller company will receive a pay-out, the smaller company is eliminated from the game, and the share price of the larger company is increased by the share price of the smaller, now eliminated company. Eliminated along with the company are its shares, so although there is an immediate pay out, there will be none at the end of the game because neither shares nor company are in the game. So, mergers have a long-term effect as well as a short term one. They are also inevitable since there are seventy-two locations on the board and seventy-two corresponding Industry Cards, and whilst not every Industry card will necessarily be played, most will be and they can only be played the once.

Big Boss ends either when every player has decided to pass or more likely, all of the building pieces have been placed. Everyone receives money according to their shares, their Radio Towers, and the Industry and Level Cards they have their hands. The player with the highest value is the winner.

A notable feature of Big Boss is that the Share Price for any company always goes up, never down. Another aspect is that whilst share and profit games can be dry in tone and feel, but the addition of the building pieces gives Big Boss a physical presence on the table and in play. Although the Share Price of a company is tracked on the Share Price Mat, the players can see it grow, literally physically as the game progresses. Consequently, whilst the use of the building pieces is used as an abstract representation of the company’s Share Price, that use actually does the reverse. Play of Big Boss is quick and easy, the rules being easy to grasp and understand, but once the initial flurry of Industry Cards have been played from the players’ hands to first found and then expand companies, the game can become quite intense as players decide whether they want to expand out along the track in the hope of merging, focus on adding Levels to a Company to increase its Share Price and make it stronger should it face a merger, or perhaps a mixture of the two. The more expensive Level Cards will a player more options, but the cheaper Industry Cards restrict and focus a player’s choice. Equally important are the Share Cards, which enable a player to invest in a company even if he has been unable to directly expand the company.

One strong feature of Big Boss is the rulebook. It is well written, explaining how to play in simple fashion, enabling play to begin quickly even after opening the box for the first time. It also includes clear examples of play and play tips. In addition, the rulebook includes a history of Big Boss, rules for playing the original version of the game as published in 1994, and a section of ‘Frequently Asked Questions’. The original version of Big Boss is slightly more complex and less forgiving in its set-up and play.

Physically, Big Boss is has decent production values beyond the rulebook. The Industry Cards are nicely illustrated even though the number on them is the only thing that actually matters in play and everything has an art deco feel to it, including the eight headquarter pieces, so that you feel like you are building the skyscrapers across the skyline of nineteen thirties New York. One issue is the bulk of the components, especially the building pieces, which come in their own bag. They take up a lot of room in the box and since there is no tray inert, they can knock everything about in the box and that is despite the fact that they do not quite fit.

The game is explicitly based on the Sid Sackson classic Acquire and shares many similarities to that game though mergers are not as prevalent or as necessarily crucial in Big Boss. The main differences between the two games include the more visually satisfying three-dimensional aspect of Big Boss, and the existence of a strong monetary incentive to expand companies that you do not control.

Big Boss is a chance to own a Wolfgang Kramer that has never been seen in English before. The question is, is it worth it. The answer is yes, as Big Boss has a great pedigree, being an alternate, streamlined, and more forgiving version of Acquire. As a competitive game of shares and company growth Big Boss is a good introduction to the financial them in board games which does not get too complex, nor too dry, and with the physical presence of the company buildings, looks just about right.

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

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What is it?
Caravanserai is a mini-campaign and supplement for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha in which the Player Characters establish operate a Caravanserai, a combined inn and rest stop on a trade route, the likes of which they will have probably stayed at during their adventures.

It is a sixty-one page, full colour 3.50 MB PDF.

The layout is mostly tidy and the artwork excellent.
Where is it set?Caravanserai is set at Two Top village, home to the Red Hand clan in southern Sartar, just south of Wilmskirk near the Heortland road. However, notes and suggestions are given if the Game Master wants to set it elsewhere.

It is set after the events of the Dragonrise.
Who do you play?
Caravanserai is designed for a group of adventurers looking to settle down, or at least establish a base of operations. Ideally, one of the Player Characters should be an Issaries merchant, who should possess or have access to 2,500 Lunars.
What do you need?
Caravanserai requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, the Glorantha Bestiary, and The Book of Red Magic. RuneQuest: Weapons & Equipment is a necessity. Plunder may also be useful as will Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers and Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses.
What do you get?Caravanserai begins with the Player Characters on the road, stopping for the night at a caravanserai, that one of their number, ideally an Issaries merchant, has fond memories of as a busy, but pleasant place to stay. Unfortunately, in the wake of the Dragonrise, the fleeing Lunars burned the place to the ground and killed its owner, Korister. When Korister’s ghost comes the Issaries merchant in a dream, begging him to rebuild it, the Player Character should have an inkling of what a money-making opportunity he is being given should he and his companions decide to agree to the ghost’s demands. This sets up a mundane, but nevertheless interesting campaign framework as the Player Characters negotiate with the local clan for permission, arrange for the building of the new caravanserai, hire staff—old and new, furnish the caravanserai, and more. The fun bit of the more is deciding what to do with the ghost of Korister. One option would be to exorcise the ghost, but the fun option would be to bind Korister as the caravanserai’s wyter, keeping him as a permanent, but incorporeal presence at the inn. Essentially, what this sets up is the Gloranthan equivalent of the BBC and CBS television series, Ghosts. It also shifts the way in which the Player Characters can become involved in adventures. They will come to the Player Characters rather than the Player Characters going out to find them, the equivalent of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine versus Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The first part of Caravanserai guides the Game Master through the set-up process of the Player Characters having to make decisions of getting the buildings designed and built, who to hire, and what to outfit the place with. There are consequences if the Player Characters get it wrong, but in the long term these are minor and being located near a major trade route helps. This also requires some accounting, and Caravanserai actually comes with its own Excel sheet to help the Game Master and players alike track their characters’ monies. Fortunately, double-entry bookkeeping is not required, but the third end of the supplement consists of a guide to building and outfitting the caravanserai, what it consists of, how to make a profit and where that profit comes from, along with a guide to using the included ‘Caravanserai Annual Profit Worksheet’. The fact that it includes the latter may be more than enough for some players to want to avoid this supplement, but the degree of detail enforces the aim of Caravanserai in wanting to give the Player Characters the opportunity to have real lives and closer ties to Gloranthan society and economy.
In between the set-up and the guide are two scenarios. The first, ‘Epidemic’ deals with an outbreak of wasting disease which threatens both the Red Hand clan and the operation of the caravanserai. As the outbreak threatens the caravanserai’s staff, the Player Characters are pulled into clan affairs in a desperate attempt to stop both the disease and word of it from spreading, locate its source, and thus preventing the closure of the caravanserai. Like the set-up, this will require some decent roleplaying upon the part of the players if their characters are to solve the mystery and resolve the situation. The second scenario is ‘The Bad Guest’. It is a classic set-up for an inn. A guest dies at the inn, but lacks sufficient funds to pay for his stay. He did behind, though, a treasure map! If it is accurate, its contents could pay for the man’s stay and probably have funds leftover. Since this adventure is inspired by Treasure Island, it involves pirates—in this case Wolf Pirates—and betrayal, but the treasure is worth it.
Although ‘The Bad Guest’ is a decent scenario, it does take the Player Characters away from their newly built base of operations, which partly undermines the point of the scenario. It would have been nice to have been given further scenarios, or at least adventures hooks, which take place in the environments of the inn and Red Hand Clan land, or come to the inn, thus pulling the Player Characters further into the community. Similarly, whilst a lot of the NPCs are given stats for and if not, at least a good thumbnail description, there are not many in the way of stats or details of visiting customers. Also lacking are any floorplans for the caravanserai. The supplement does suggest allowing the players to draw what they want as long as it is too not unreasonable and allow that, but some sample floorplans would have been useful. As would some sample visitors and patrons. In the long term, some more adventures would also help to keep the adventurers at their inn. Another issue not fully explored is what roles the Player Characters might take at the inn when not adventuring.
Is it worth your time?Yes—Caravanserai is an interesting supplement which showcases another side of Glorantha and makes it both playable and interesting—especially for an Issaries merchant.No—Caravanserai is just too mundane, plus it involves accounting, and who needs that when we are wanderers and adventurers?Maybe—Caravanserai is perhaps a bit too ordinary an idea for some players and their characters, but the adventures can easily be repurposed and the Player Characters could be working for a money man, instead of one of their number being the money man.

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.

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Name: The StrawmanPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: A Keith Applegarth

Setting: Modern day PennsylvaniaProduct: Scenario
What You Get: Fifteen page, 4.68 MB Full Colour PDF (plus extras)
Elevator Pitch: The scarecrow doesn’t just scare crowsPlot Hook: A serial killer lose in one valley?
Plot Support: Five pre-generated Investigators, seven maps, thirteen NPCs, and one Mythos monster.Production Values: Plain
Pros# Can be adapted to other time periods# Huge scope for development by the Keeper# Homichlophobia# Formidokophobia# Fundophobia
Cons# Needs a good edit# Uninteresting maps# No handouts# No narrative structure# No clues
Conclusion# Potential for classic Americana Scarecrow horror# Severe lack of development in terms of investigation and narrative leaves the Keeper literally ‘Clueless’

With Everyday Heroes, publisher Evil Genius Games did for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition in 2202 what d20 Modern did for Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition in 2002. That is, facilitate and handle roleplaying in the here and now, in the world we see outside our windows, on our television screens, and at the cinema. It went even further though by doing something not actually included in the rulebook. This is providing access to a number of source and scenario supplements all based upon a surprising range of films. In fact, a range of films which nobody expected to see turned into roleplaying material despite their popularity in the hobby. These consist of The Crow™ Cinematic Adventure, Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure, Highlander Cinematic Adventure, Kong: Skull Island Cinematic Adventure, Pacific Rim Cinematic Adventure, and Total Recall Cinematic Adventure. These showcase at least, what Everyday Heroes can do and are, equally, six good reasons to play Everyday Heroes. Each entry in this Cinematic Adventure series draws on the core film it is based upon as well as extra source material, to provide background material for the setting, new options for Player Characters, advice for the Game Master, and a full-length adventure, ready to play.
Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure is the second cinematic adventure sourcebook for Everyday Heroes. It is based on the 1981 film directed by John Carpenter, in which a convicted criminal has to rescue the president of the USA from the maximum security prison that the prisoner is about to be incarcerated in and get out again in order to save the world. The prison is the whole of Manhattan Island, the convicted criminal is decorated war hero turned cynical criminal Snake Plissken, and once you go into New York Max, you never come out again. The film combines fantastic world-building, radical anti-authoritarian themes, and hard-bitten cynicism in a post-apocalyptical setting of a late seventies style New York left to fend for itself. Plus, it has to be said, a really rather good soundtrack. However, the film leaves the Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure with a problem. This is that there simply is not enough information in the film to build a world, so the authors have, for example, created a timeline that fits both the world and Snake Plissken’s background. In this, the supplement does draw upon the sequel, Escape from L.A., but that is extent to which the sequel is referenced. Thankfully.
Although the focus of the Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure is on the Manhattan of New York Max, it extrapolates a world in which successive Republican presidents intervene heavily in the Middle East, pushing the USA and the USSR into direct conflict with each other, though not a war. War is declared in 1987 when a disguised Soviet tanker explodes and unleashes the Reagent 18 nerve agent. It will kill millions, but many more are turned into psychopathic ‘crazies’ after exposure. There is no cure and when martial law is declared due to the subsequent unrest and the United States Police Force founded to deal with it, both the crazies and criminals beyond rehabilitation from across the USA are incarcerated in the newly established and blockaded New York Maximum Security Prison. This takes place a decade before the events of the film and the Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure fills in details here and there, pushing the timeline all the way to 2013 and the end of Escape from L.A. This gives plenty of room still for the Game Master add her own stories and details to the broadly drawn background.
This is supported by details of the US government, the United States Police Force (USPF), and the US military, plus two revolutionary groups—the Guiding Star Family and the National Liberation Front of America (it is the latter that triggers the events of Escape from New York), before moves on to describing New York Max. This covers everything from the levels of security around it and the economy—mostly barter, to the crazies and organisations in the prison. ‘A Number One’, of course, is The Duke, but there are numerous street gangs in the old city too. These are given thumbnail descriptions, as well as their colours and territories. Some of the gangs are more than the traditional idea of gangs—like those depicted in The Warriors—in New York. For example, the Hippies, of course, manufacture recreational drugs, the Flying Dragons are renowned as skilled tailors, the Broadway Boys promote the arts and culture, and the Nightshades have cleared parts of Central Park and its soil of Reagent 18 to grow food. There is good range and variety of gangs given here. A map of Manhattan is marked with their respective turfs along with notable locations of the island, including Broadway, the Empire State Building, and the World Trade Centre. Overall, it is not a huge amount of detail, but it is enough for the Game Master to work with and again, leaves room for her to add her own details.
The new Hero options in the Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure include a number of new Backgrounds and Professions. The former consists of Convict, Legend (such as Snake Plissken, despite the fact that everyone thinks he is dead), New York Native (like Cabbie in the film), and War Veteran like Bob Hauk in the film), whilst the latter consists of Nightshade Druid, Drug Cook, Fixer, Gang Soldier, Prison Gladiator, and Rat Catcher. Most suggest roles, like Nightshade Druid, a member of the Nightshades gang, on New York Max or why the character is there in terms of the crimes he committed. The Revolutionary Soldier and the USPGF Soldier lend themselves to other origins and explanations for why they are involved with the prison. Three Classes are given. The are the Gutter Rat, Motorhead, and Street Warrior. The Gutter Rat is an Agile Hero who uses a mixture of tricks, charm, lies, a certain slipperiness, and vicious attacks to get what he wants. For example, he has Play the Fool to distract others and Slippery which gives Advantage on checks to escape bonds and grapples, as well as Tricks such as Gloat and Hobbling Strike. The character of Romero, the lieutenant of The Duke, would be a Gutter Rat. The Motorhead is also an Agile Hero, but modeled on the character of Cabbie—as played by Ernest Borgnine. So the Class specialises in driving and piloting, in and out of combat, and his Motor Pool abilities include Daredevil Driver, Quick Fix, and Repo Man. His suggested equipment includes Molotov Cocktails! the Street Warrior is a Strong Hero and is essentially good at fighting, but not more than that. All three Classes are quite specialised, the Street Fighter in particular, but all fit the feel of the film.

As a then alternate future, the technology of Escape from New York looks and is clunky and this is embraced in the Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure. It notes the fact that firearms are rare in New York Max and many weapons are improvised or constructed from what was available, such as crossbows and spiked clubs. One notable inclusion is the Fun Gun, tranquiliser pistols firing darts loaded with designer drugs that cause confusion and euphoria in a target. Despite the lack of petrol, vehicles feature heavily in Escape from New York, leading to the possibility of vehicular combat using the rules from Everyday Heroes. The supplement gives a list of modifications such as body spikes, oil slick devices, and spike droppers which lend themselves to Car Wars or Mad Max style combat, for which the Motorhead Class would be very useful. And course, the list of modifications includes Decorations, so yes, you too, can mount chandeliers on your 1977 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham if you want to. Which you do—and not just because they give the owner advantage on the first Charisma check in an encounter. Other equipment in the Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure includes details of Reagent 18, the Survival Pod used by President Harker to escape Airforce One, and the Vascular Explosive Shot implanted in Snake Plissken to force him to complete the mission.

The new rules are limited to adding Street Cred as a means of handling reputation and trade and the effects of Reagent 18 on the poor unfortunates who would become the crazies. For the Game Master there is advice and discussion of the themes to Escape from New York—the authoritarianism, anarchy versus freedom, street gangs, Science Fiction, and of course, New York itself. This is not in great depth, but it makes the point clear for each theme and it is supported by a series of scenario hooks and a three-act adventure. This is ‘Liberty lost’, a prequel to the film set in 1993 in which a team of five convicted criminals are about to be incarcerated onto New York Max, when they are pulled aside and given a mission which if completed successfully will grant them a presidential pardon each for their crimes. The mission is of course, against the clock. Revolutionaries of the National Liberation Front of America have infiltrated Liberty Island—the base for the USPF’s operations in maintaining the blockade of New York Max—and stolen the arming device for the nuclear bomb planted in the Statue of Liberty that is only meant to be detonated if the walls of the prison completely fail. The revolutionaries have fled on Manhattan Island and are threatening to detonate the bomb in twenty-four hours unless their demands are met. They are shot onto the island via a submarine and once on New York Max, must find their find and fight their way through crazies and gangs, assault the Empire State Building (because), and engage in a street race that is mostly to the death. It is a fairly tightly plotted scenario, but it is attempting to emulate the style of the film and it is to the sound of ticking clock, the countdown to the detonation of the nuclear bomb. The scenario makes use of the various elements and rules presented in the supplement, though only Romero from the film makes an appearance in the scenario. Thematically, the potential destruction of the Statue of Liberty illustrates the limits to which the authorities will go… There are notes too on running a shorter version of the scenario, possibly for a convention, but that would be to miss out on a lot of the fun of the action-packed adventure.
Lastly, ‘The Cast’ chapter provides stats and details of a variety of NPCs and more. They start off with the antagonists from the film including The Duke, President Harker, and Romero, though there are no stats for The Duke’s champion Slag, who is killed by Snake Plissken in a deathmatch. Although there are details for Bob Hauk, USPF commissioner and Rehme, the USPF captain, the Game Master is advised to use stats taken from the Everyday Heroes core rulebook. These are followed by the stats for various NPCs from the scenario, ‘Liberty lost’, then those from the cast of the film—Plissken, Cabbie, the Brain, and Maggie—and lastly, five pre-generated Player Characters for use with ‘Liberty lost’.
Physically, Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure is cleanly, tidily presented. Unfortunately, the sourcebook is not illustrated with images from the films and does not illustrate all of the characters from the film. Whilst the artwork instead of using photographs is serviceable enough, they are only approximations of the characters in the film.
The Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure is about as a close to a sourcebook for the film as is possible. That it is not more than this, is down to the lack of wider information and background about the setting than the fault of the authors. In fact, the authors have squeezed as much potential out of Escape from New York as they possibly could in the presenting the great world-building of the film and adding to it in order to make it gameable. This is definitely a gaming supplement for fans of Escape from New York and of eighties action and Science Fiction cinema.

The world of Fyera is divided. Once it spun upon its axis like any other, but that stopped centuries ago. Known as ‘The Ruination’ it divided the world into three. One side of the world would always face the sun, the ‘Lands of the Old Days’, their waters and rivers long gone, the red soil dried into endless swathes of sand and heat. The other will never know the sun, ‘The Darklands’, frozen and diseased withered, but within its permanent shadow lurk beasts and beings of the dark unknown before The Ruination. Between them is the band known as the ‘Penumbra’ which runs right around the world, where the survivors of The Ruination have learned to adapt to a world with no diurnal cycle, no night and day, at the mercy of attacks from deep within The Darklands. In response, the peoples of Fyera constructed the Cressets of Vigil, great towering portable beacons of light, and placed them further into The Darklands, bringing a light that reveals both the lands and their secrets lost to the dark and advanced warnings of attacks upon Penumbra. These attacks seem endless as if the very darkness would reach out and swallow the last of the light. The Ruination would also have an effect upon the survivors’ souls, for they would be granted ‘The Gifts of Fyera’, abilities that none of the peoples of Fyera had possessed before The Ruination. These gifts can help in holding back the darkness, but there is the ever-present danger of the valiant defenders of the Penumbra falling into the Darkness as a result of committing or witnessing sins done in the name of the Light, of their souls being scarred by both the Light and the Dark.
This is the setting for Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light, a dark fantasy setting compatible with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Published by Black Lantern following a successful Kickstarter campaign, this is the first roleplaying game and setting to be published by a Greek publisher and reach the English-speaking market. It is designed primarily for the player, with details given on creating five new Races, eight new Classes, between three and five Sub-Class per Class, new Feats, spells, and magics, and more. The core rulebook for Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light is not quite standalone, the Player’s Handbook needed for the full list of spells at the very least.

The Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light core book begins with an examination of the three subsystems that measure a Player Character’s relationship between the Light and the Dark. These are ‘Erebos’, ‘Sparks of Light and Darkness’, and ‘The Scales of Nebula’. They derive from and feed into the ‘Soulmist’, the Nebula of Souls that surrounds the world of Fyera and reflects back onto it. The more that Dark souls pass into the Soulmist and the more the world is given over to cold, fear, and despair, whilst more Light souls increases the light, warmth, and innocence of the world. Erebos—‘darkness’ or ‘gloom’, named for the primordial Greek God of Darkness—is measured between zero and ten. At zero, a Player Character is a ‘Torchbearer’ who embodies the Light and has empathy for both the beings of the Light and those in the shadows; at three and four, he is ‘Wavering’, able to feel the touch of the dark, but all the better for seeing the Light; and at eight and nine, he is ‘Tarnished’, his sense of self lost even as he is concerned with self-preservation. At ten, he is an ‘Apostate’ of the dark and all but lost. When a Player Character is in a situation where an act—witnessed or his own—his player has to make an Erebos Roll. Depending upon the situation, the Player Character can lose or gain levels of Erebos, and this can lead him to acquiring a Soulscar. For example, at levels one to three, the Lesser effects of a Soulscar might be that the Player Character suffers from Separation anxiety, Panic attacks, Insomnia, and worse. At levels seven and eight, the Greater effects are either mania or illusions. In many cases, a Light Spark can be spent to negate these effects, at least temporarily. The only way to negate these effects in the long term is to work back down to being with the Light.

Through his connection with the Soulmist, a Player Character possesses a Light Spark. Once spent, it can be recovered with a Long Rest. What it is spent on varies from Sub-Class to Sub-Class. For example, the Pyromancer Sub-Class can spend a Light Spark to target a particular area to set alight with a bomb and at later Levels, empower his bomb with a Light Spark to infuse it with the essence of a Star-Dust Devil, a moving inferno with the form of an animal. The Oracle Sub-Class has the ‘Spin the Hourglass’ ability, which lets him take two turns, one after the other, but he chooses which one to use. With the expenditure of a Light Spark, he can empower ‘Spin the Hourglass’ to negate a single target’s action. All of the Sub-Classes have abilities which work with Light Sparks, although not at First Level. The Game Master uses Dark Sparks to power the abilities of the monsters and dark creatures under her control.

If the ‘Erebos’ mechanic tracks a Player Character’s internal struggle—not unlike, but more nuanced than the alignment system of Dungeons & Dragons—then ‘The Scales of Nebula’ externalises the struggle between the Light and the Dark within the Soulmist. It is specifically used in battles between the Light, that is, the Player Characters, and the monsters of the Dark. At the start of a battle, two pools of sparks are created, a pool of Light Sparks shared between the players and their characters, and a pool of Dark Sparks for the Game Master. These can be used over the course of the battle, but at the end, if there are more Light Sparks than Dark Sparks left over, there is a chance that the Player Characters’ Erebos level will fall, but a chance it will rise if there are more Dark Sparks left over. The tension here is whether or not the Player Characters use all of the power of the Light they can to defeat their foes, or retain some of it to maintain their hope.

Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light details five Player Character Races. These are Avernians, Lumens, Primus, and Draesyr, the latter split between the Eldrasyr and the Yildrasyr. Avernians are in touch with their animal spirits and can harmonise with them to transform into their animal forms, either partially or fully. Lumens can peer into the past or the future at the cost of their age. The Primus are vampires, highly militarised and embrace the intricacies of high society, and can be powered by their blood to inflict more damage, move faster, and resist physical and necrotic damage. The Draesyr embrace nature, the Eldrasyr more than the Yildrasyr, who partially embrace the Darkness in order to protect the Penumbra and are scorned for it. All of the Race are given details about their cultural background and ethics, places and cities, and so on, helping to develop the background further.

The eight Classes are Fighter, Barbarian, Rogue, Monk, Seeker, Scholar, Spiritualist, and Mistweaver. The Fighter, the Barbarian, the Monk, and the Rogue are standard as per Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, but the others are new. The Seeker is a hunter and tracker akin to the Ranger, always looking for something or exploring; the Scholar is an educated Class, whose knowledge can benefit others with a Cognition die for an ability check or saving throw or use it as a reaction to penalise another, and knowledge of Insider Trading gives a bonus on barter and bargain checks. The Scholar is intended to replace the Bard Class as an inspiring Class. The Spiritualist is the link between the material world and the Soulmist, able to perceive Light Sparks and Dark Sparks, and can actually channel the Soulmist to power spell effects. The Mistweaver is the equivalent of the Wizard. The core Classes are in places quite basic, but Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light adds flavour and detail with some twenty-eight Sub-Classes.

Thus, for the Fighter, there is the Warrior, the Dark Knight, the Blood Prince, the Templar, and the Pack Alpha; for the Rogue there is the Trickster, the Assassin, and the Pyromancer; the Diplomat, the Engineer, and the Herbalist for the Scholar; the Healer, the Necromancer, the Shaman, and the Witch Doctor for the Spiritualist; and the Elementalist, the Blood Mage, and Oracle for the Mistweaver. Many of these are specific to the particular Races, are essentially, Racial Archetypes. For example, the Blood Prince and the Blood Mage are for the Primus only, the Ashen Berserker and the Witch Doctor are for the Yildrasyr, and the Oracle and the Templar for the Lumens. These are interesting and add further flavour and detail to the base Classes. For example, the Ashen Barbarian manufactures and consumes toxins that grant him better natural armour, extra attacks, bone spikes that increase natural damage, and even poison fangs! Using them can leave him poisoned, but this lessens as he acquires higher Levels. Later on, he can craft toxins using materials from the Darklands. These Dark Toxins can cause Foul Bloody, which turns the Ashen Barbarian’s blood acidic, and Dragontongue, which gives him a venomous bite. Lastly, the Ashen Barbarian can be ‘Embraced by the Dark’, drawing Dark Sparks into his body, increasing his Erebos to maximum level, his skin cracked and grey, eyes black, and his body smokes… The Blood Mage can substitute Hit Points for spell components, spill his blood to add necromantic damage to a spell, take damage in order to cast a spell without expending a slot, maximise a spell’s damage, and cast a spell without the need for line of sight, have the target save against the spell at Disadvantage, change the damage to necrotic, and even if the spell requires a to hit roll, it automatically succeeds!

The roleplaying game also adds three types of feat—general, racial, and then Class, as well as Backgrounds, all suitable for the Soulmist setting. Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light discusses the nature of magic in the setting as well, noting that Spiritualists and Mistweavers are based on the Cleric and Wizard Classes, that Schools of Magic are replaced by spells tailored to the spellcasting archetypes, and adds Prohibited Magic too. This is practised by witches and sorcerers who delve into the darkest of secrets of the Darklands, drawing upon their own life force and those of others to cast spells such as Inner Offer, the consumption of a creature’s organs to gain benefits to saving throws or damage, and Black Mass to control all of the Dark Sparks in the vicinity, which gives the caster an advantage in situations where ‘The Scales of Nebula’ come into play. To properly study Prohibited Magic, a Spiritualist, Mistweaver, or Witch Doctor needs a Feat such as Dark Acolyte’s Indoctrination or Tarnished Petitioner’s Sacrilege, but both need knowledge of a Prohibited Spell. Knowledge of Prohibited Spells is not widely known, and they must be found or learned from a Dark Acolyte, an existing practitioner. However, when found, Prohibited Spells can be learned by non-spell casters. The use of Prohibited Magic will literally Taint the caster’s soul, force Erebos rolls, and drive up his Erebos level. Although the practice of Prohibited Magic is reviled, the Witch Doctor will sometimes do so in order to turn the power of the Dark back at his enemies.

Rounding out Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light is a list of scenario hooks. There is a decent range here, organised by each of the five Races in the Soulmist setting. This is followed by some notes on how to use the content of SSoulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light in a standard Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition game. This requires some major decisions, including whether or not to include the use of the Erebos system and Light Sparks and Dark Sparks as the former replaces the Alignment system and the latter empowers numerous abilities.

Physically, Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light is generally well presented and the artwork decent throughout. However, the map of the single area of Fyera given is bland. It does lie within the Penumbra, so falls in part under the shadow, but some variation and some colour, even if muted, would have made it stand out. The main issue is that the book does need further editing as spelling errors and missing text can be found here and there. The index, more a table of contents, is also difficult to use.

The core rulebook for Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light introduces an interesting setting, array of character archetypes with the new Races, Classes, and Sub-Classes, and a potentially engaging set of mechanics with the ‘Erebos’, ‘Sparks of Light and Darkness’, and ‘The Scales of Nebula’ systems that help enforce the back and forth between Light and Dark. However, the setting itself is never really brought to life, its introduction all too brief before the book begins discussing its core new mechanics. There is setting and cultural background for each of the five Races, but this is placed after each of the mechanical details of the Races have been given, so not immediately accessible. Consequently, you get more of a broad overview of the setting rather than one that necessarily draws the reader in and intrigues him. Conversely, the combination of the mechanics—the ‘Erebos’, ‘Sparks of Light and Darkness’, and ‘The Scales of Nebula’ systems—and the new Classes and Sub-Classes do draw the reader in as they present new and interesting options for play. Yet even the mechanics are problematic. The ‘Erebos’ system works fine, but the options for the ‘Sparks of Light and Darkness’ and ‘The Scales of Nebula’ systems are limited. A Player Character only gets two abilities that he can empower with a Spark of Light and only at Second or Third Level and then at Fourteenth Level. There are never going to be a large number of Light Sparks in play at any one time, but it definitely feels as there should be more options that a player can choose from in order to use them. This could be gaining or granting temporary Hit Points, a temporary bonus to hit or Armour Class, and so on. Part of the aim with the ‘The Scales of Nebula’ system is to give the players and their characters the choice to use them or not. Use too many and they risk increasing their Erebos level, use too few and they might not survive the encounter unscathed. With too few options, that intent is not as obviously present as it should be.

The other main issue with Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light is what to do with it. There are scenario hooks at the back of the book, but with a limited sense of the world of Fyera and no discussion at all as to the nature of the forces of the Dark, the Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light is the equivalent of the Player’s Handbook. The Game Master will really need the Darklands supplement to provide that threat. Hopefully, a scenario will follow to showcase what Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light adventure looks like.

Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light introduces a game and setting that has a lot of potential. The conflict between light and dark feels both desperate and epic, and is supported by mechanics and an array of Player Character options to engage in that conflict. Yet the mechanics in particular feel underdeveloped in places and do not quite support the core conflict as well as they should. Despite this, there is a lot in Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light that will intrigue and interest the Game Master who is looking for a different grim dark fantasy 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.
A Loke BattleMats book comes as a spiral-bound book. Every page is a map and every page actually light card with a plastic covering. The fact that it is spiral-bound means that the book lies completely flat and because there is a map on every page, every map can be used on its own or combined with the map on the opposite page to work as one big, double-page spread map. The fact that the book is spiral bound means that it can be folded back on itself and thus just one map used with ease or the book unfolded to reveal the other half of the map as necessary. The fact that every page has a plastic covering means that every page can be drawn on using a write-on/wipe-off pen. It is a brilliantly simple concept which has already garnered the publisher the UK Games Expo 2019 People’s Choice Awards for Best Accessory for the Big Book of Battlemats and both the UK Games Expo 2019 Best Accessory and UK Games Expo 2019 People’s Choice Awards Best Accessory for Giant Book of Battle Mats.
The newest release from Loke Battle Mats is the Big Book of Battle Mats: Rooms, Vaults, & Chambers, which presents “Battle maps for Tabletop Roleplaying Ideal for Heists and Other Exciting Encounters!”, marked in either one-inch squares. Unlike other map books from Loke Battle Mats, the plain maps, simple floors without any detail or furnishings, are left until the end, so the volume gets straight to presenting interesting locations that a Game Master can add to her game. It starts with a tavern, all wood flooring and trestle tables on one page, but a stone-floored cellar, connected by a set of stairs on the opposite page. Next, there is some kind of office, which could be town hall or a minor guild hall, but next to that is a gaol with several cells, so together the two maps become a watch house or town guard station complete with its set of cells in which hold suspects or prisoners. Similarly, there are work desks and an office on the next map, but a room with shelves containing books or papers on the other, turning the location into a records office or a library, a plain series of tunnels snake around the map only to connect to room via a hole in the wall (either dug open or blown open with magic of even explosives), whilst an unremarkable work area is turned into something interesting—the backstage of a theatre—because it connects to a stage and auditorium on the opposite page, and an innocent-looking restaurant hides a gambling den complete with dueling room should satisfaction be demanded on the opposite page. Other maps depict warehouses and sections of a sewer system—the latter easy to line up with the sewer maps in other map volumes from the publisher, a sauna complex, a museum foyer complete with triceratops skeleton on display, an abandoned house complete with cobwebs, and even a banqueting hall and kitchen.
The maps are also nicely detailed in places. Food in particular features throughout, whether that is the lonely plate on the desk in the room backstage or sumptuous choice of dishes laid out on the banqueting table, but there are also numerous tools, weapons, and pieces of armour dotting the various locations as appropriate. Another feature is that the maps do not always specifically work for the fantasy genre. They will work in others too. For example, the inn and gambling den would be perfect for the nineteen twenties and thirties, the sauna complex feels very modern, and the museum foyer with its triceratops skeleton would work in numerous genres.
The main feature of the maps in the Big Book of Battle Mats: Rooms, Vaults, & Chambers is their capacity to tell stories. Want the Player Characters to tunnel into the vault of a bank? There is a tunnel and map with a broken wall for that, as well as vault on another map. Or, for a bank robbery, take the office and gaol and make the cells individual vaults. The gambling den is perfect for a raid by the police or a rival gang. The stage is ripe for an interrupted performance. All the Game Master or her players and their characters have to do is supply the details of the interruption. Essentially, depending upon the story being played out, the multiple maps can be used as the Player Characters move from one location to another as events unfold. In addition, because the maps in the Big Book of Battle Mats: Rooms, Vaults, & Chambers depict urban locations, they can often be used again and again, especially in a campaign which takes place in one town or city.
Physically, Big Book of Battle Mats: Rooms, Vaults, & Chambers is very nicely produced. The maps are clear, easy to use, fully painted, and vibrant with colour. One issue may well be with binding and the user might want to be a little careful folding the pages back and forth lest the pages crease or break around the spiral comb of the binding.
It is clear that a lot of thought of has been put into the design of the Big Book of Battle Mats: Rooms, Vaults, & Chambers. Although not every room or map in the collection is either exciting or inspirational, they can all be useful. The best of them are and many of the maps will inspire a gaming group to use them as locations and more, using them to help create the stories they roleplay. The Big Book of Battle Mats: Rooms, Vaults, & Chambers is a really useful sourcebook for city campaigns and its capacity to help tell stories is very nicely thought out.

As well as contributing to Free RPG Day every year Goodman Games also has its own ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day’, which sadly, can be a very North American event. The day is notable not only for the events and the range of adventures being played for Goodman Games’ roleplaying games, but also for the scenarios it releases specifically to be played on the day. For ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2020’, which took place on Saturday, May 16th, 2020, the publisher released two items. The first was DCC Day #1: Shadow of the Beakmen, a single scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. The second was the DCC Day 2020 Adventure Pack, which not only provided support for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, but also for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, with a scenario for each. This format has been has been followed for each subsequent DCC Day, that is, a single scenario and an anthology containing two or three scenarios, all of them short, relatively easy to run and add to an ongoing campaign, or even use as a one-shot of convention game.

DCC Day #1: Shadow of the Beakmen is short and it is designed to be played within a four-hour slot, whether that is at a convention or on DCC Day itself. The scenario is designed for a party of four to eight First Level Player Characters. They are travelling between locations when they come across a small village standing on a lake. From the settlement echo screams and cries of terror, smoke hangs over its rooftops from the buildings already set ablaze, and strange figures move in the shimmering light, some riding crocodiles and wielding a lance of stone tipped with a weird green light in a perversion of the knights of old. Yet this is not what catches the eyes of the adventurers, for a blazing emerald light emanates from beside the lake. There is something dangerous happening there, more dangerous than the marauders roving the streets of the village. As befits a one-shot or convention-style scenario, such as DCC Day #1: Shadow of the Beakmen is that it leaps straight into the situation, presenting the players and their characters with a choice—do they rush to the villagers’ aid or do they ride away? Now to be fair, the Player Characters will be pulled into the adventure whatever choice they make, but DCC Day #1: Shadow of the Beakmen will be all the more interesting if the players decide that the best course of action is to intervene.
Intervention then, sets up what is actually the best scene in the scenario. This is the running battle across the village, down its streets and into the marketplace to the docks and the edge of the lake. It is handled as a series of random encounters, with villagers begging for help, buildings collapsing into flames, and encounters with the strange beaked humanoids, some of whom are riding crocodiles and wielding green-tipped lances, that are attacking the village and attempting to capture the villagers. It feels brutal and desperate. Once at the lakeside, the Player Characters can discover the cause of the light, something strange is summoning something even worse than that attacking the village. More of the beak-faced men! This sets a big battle, but defeating them gives the Player Characters the chance to discover more about the invaders.
The second part of the scenario takes place in the Malachite Stele, a giant stone tower that has erupted from the lake as a result of the summoning. It is a traditional dungeon, although limited to just nine locations and is thus linear in nature. Fortunately, its brevity is made up by its atmosphere, which is muddy and murky, squelchy and slimy, the damp meaning it is also cold. It is thoroughly unpleasant. There is also a good mix of encounters throughout the dungeon. There are pools where the Player Characters can gain great boons or suffer terrible banes in classically random chances, there are chambers with egg sacs incubating more beakmen much like those of Aliens, and there is a challenging big boss encounter at the end, but in between there is the second-best scene in the scenario. This is with the Weaver, a corpulent woman with long silver hair and eight segmented limbs, who spinning the silk that each egg sac is made from. She wants to escape and in the main bit of roleplaying in the scenario, will negotiate for her release. Of course, she cannot be exactly trusted, and it is suggested that if freed, she will want to play a role in the future lives of the Player Characters. Further, if her web is plucked, it enables a Player Character to scry another location in the Malachite Stele complex. This can be random, but it can also be used to hint that the complex contains more rooms than at first seems. Several are behind a secret door—though there is another, more dangerous means of access—and the foresight granted by the web should help the Player Characters to progress further.
Finally, at the top of the Malachite Stele, the Player Characters will face the villain of the scenario, the Master of Shadows. This is a challenging fight, both for the Player Characters to fight and the Judge to run.
Physically, DCC Day #1: Shadow of the Beakmen is decently done. It is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is decent. If there is an issue with the artwork, it is that the Weaver is not illustrated and considering that she has the possibility of her playing a role in the future lives of the Player Characters, not illustrating her was a missed opportunity. Both maps are well done though, and the monsters stats being placed on their stat cards at the back of the adventure makes them easy to use.

DCC Day #1: Shadow of the Beakmen starts with the cliché of a village in peril and gives it an immediacy rarely embraced by that cliché, throwing the Player Characters straight into the action and facing some very strange creatures! The scenario has a couple of really good scenes and plenty of action and really makes for a good low-Level one-shot or convention scenario.

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.
Carcass Crawler is ‘The Official Fanzine Old-School Essentials zine’. Published by Necrotic Gnome, Old School Essentials is the retroclone based upon the version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons designed by Tom Moldvay and published in 1981, and Carcass Crawler provides content and options for it. It is pleasingly ‘old school’ in its sensibilities, being a medley of things in its content rather than just the one thing or the one roleplaying game as has been the trend in gaming fanzines, especially with ZineQuest. Carcass Crawler #1 focused on Classes and Races alongside its other support for Old School Essentials, whereas although Carcass Crawler Issue #2 does provide new Races and Classes, it instead focuses on general support for the Player Character and playing Old School Essentials.
The two new classes in Carcass Crawler Issue #2 follow standard Old School Essentials rules in that it allows for ‘Race as Class’ as well as supporting the separation of Race and Class as per Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy. ‘Phase Elf & Wood Elf’ are the two in question and interestingly, the latter is inspired by both Moldvay’s Basic Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, whilst the former is inspired by Original Dungeons & Dragons. The Elf of Original Dungeons & Dragons could switch between the Fighter and Magic-User Classes and do so in between adventures. As a Demihuman Class for Old School Essentials, the Phase Elf can also switch between the two Classes, but can only do so from one day to the next. As well as switching Classes, the Player Character can also switch personalities, whilst still retaining the same body and memories. Where the Phase Elf does not so much mix and match the abilities of the Fighter and Magic-User Classes as alternate between the two, the Wood Elf eschews both. Instead, the Wood Elf is more naturalistic, good at foraging and hunting and hiding in the woods. The Wood Elf is good with missile weapons, but can only wear leather armour. Instead of arcane magic, the Wood Elf can pray for and cast divine magic. If using Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy, this can be Druidic magic, but Clerical if not.

The Phase Elf and the Wood Elf are also presented as Races in their own right. As a Race, the Phase Elf has two Classes and these need not be the Fighter and Magic-User Classes. The Wood Elf is more straightforward.
‘Town Services’ covers all of the services an adventurer might need and find in a town. Inns, money changers, and traders and provisioners are all detailed, along with optional rules for haggling and noting that jewelers and moneychangers will hire guards. One of the features of early Dungeons & Dragons is the need for the Player Characters to hire retainers. ‘Town Services’ covers options for this, including townsfolk as porters and torch-bearers as well as actual adventurers. Wages are suggested, as is an optional rule for Treasure-Share-XP. Both articles provide simple, workable means of handling these rules aspects. Ease is the aim of ‘Quick Equipment’, which sets out to provide a quick method of a player equipping his character. This begins with standard basic equipment before making rolls—or choosing—for Class-specific items such as armour, weapons, and extra bits of equipment. Most Classes use the standard Weapons table, but Classes like Acrobat, Bard, Cleric, Druid, and Knight have their own. ‘Item-Based Encumbrance’ offers a new and third option for handling encumbrance in Old School Essentials. This is done on an item-by-item basis, so weapons and armour, bulkier adventuring equipment, and magical items count as a single items. Others, such as torches and rations, can be bundled together to make up single items. After a Player Character is equipped, his player counts up the number of items he is carrying and that determines his movement rate. It is a simple enough system and quick and easy to use. This quartet of articles are not the most interesting content in the fanzine, reflecting the utilitarian side of playing Dungeons & Dragons-style games, but it makes them no less useful.
‘Snake Cult Monsters’ and ‘The Tomb of Aum-Pharath’ are a pair of articles that involve a snake cult. The first lists eight monsters themed around a snake-worshipping cult. They include snakes bred by the cult, like the Alabaster Serpent, placed in suspended animation in treasure chests and urns as traps, and whose bite inflict Dexterity debilitating spasms. Hydral Statues are five-headed stone or bronze constructs that are typically used to guard gates in tombs and temples, whilst the Zombie Snake-Guard are snake-cultists who were ritually sacrificed to serve as tomb and shrine guards. As well as being undead, their bite is poisonous. The eight are nicely thematic and the Player Characters get to face them in ‘The Tomb of Aum-Pharath’. This details a tomb complex consisting of twelve locations detailed over a two-page spread. The Game Master will need to provide the stats, but these are based on the previous ‘Snake Cult Monsters’ article and so easy to create. She will also need to create a hook or two to get the Player Characters to the tomb complex’s doors, or drop it into a sandbox, but otherwise, the location is ready to play. If the Game Master has them, a snake-themed magical item would be a good addition too.
‘Black Powder Weapons’ in Carcass Crawler Issue #2 gave rules for early firearms such as matchlocks, wheellocks, and flintlocks in Old School Essentials. ‘Energy Weapons’ details energy blades such as daggers, staves, and swords, and pistols, carbines, and rifles for energy guns. The energy types consist of ion, plasma, and laser weapons, and besides describing them and detailing their use, suggests Class restrictions, depending whether they are martial, semi-martial, or non-martial Classes—with Clerics a special case, and how to handle their use as unknown technology is in Gamma World or S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. The Energy Weapon Technician is added as a Specialist if energy weapons are common the campaign world.

Finally, ‘Adjudicating Traps’ is a discursive piece, examining the role of traps in the game and how to make them interesting for both the players and the Game Master. It suggests the benefits and negatives of rolling dice as a means to find and disarm traps and of taking a more narrative approach, with the players describing the actions of their characters. The options for making traps fun include placing clues and telegraphing the presence of traps, having traps fail to activate, and including non-lethal traps. Although short, this is a thoughtful piece that neatly ends by pointing out that the traps are part of play and the players should learn to enjoy the tragic, comedic, or gruesome ways in which traps might kill their characters.
Physically, Carcass Crawler Issue #2 is well written and well presented. The artwork is excellent.
Carcass Crawler Issue #2 is not as fun or as exciting as Carcass Crawler Issue #1. This is due to the fact that four of its articles deal with the mundane aspects of Dungeons & Dragons-style play—services, retainers, equipment, and encumbrance—and they are simply unexciting. However, that does not mean that they are not useful or well thought out, as they are. The other articles in the issue are also well done and perhaps more exciting, though not necessarily too much. Overall, Carcass Crawler Issue #2 is an enjoyably old school-style issue of a fanzine for Old School Essentials, but one that is more serviceable than surprising.

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

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

The Phylactery Issue #1, published by Planet X Games in November, 2020, following a successful Kickstarter campaign, is a fanzine for the Old School Renaissance rather than any specific fantasy retroclone. Thus, it works for Old School Essentials or The King of Dungeons or Labyrinth Lord. It is a collection of magical items—mostly, NPCs, monsters, and a scenario or two. It presents the Game Master with a relentless barrage of choice and options, some of which is ready to use, some of which is not, and so will require the Game Master to develop and add some stats. Everything comes with background elements—some specifically so to make them interesting—enabling the Game Master to flesh out her campaign setting as well as introduce an item of magical power. All of it is written by Levi Combs, the publisher, and his words are backed up with some decent artwork and excellent maps.

The issue’s monsters do not really start with ‘The Gibbering Thing In The Cellar And Other Slobbering, Gelatinous Horrors’, or at least start in the traditional sense of Dungeons & Dragons. For the table here is just of descriptions and no stats, leaving those for the Game Master. Instead, the monsters do not come until the end of the fanzine, ‘Here There Be Monsters!’. This includes the Anzu, servants of the goddess of bad fortune and ill-luck, the Death Tortle, a Chaotic Evil turtle, the Nexus Lurker, a scuttling thing that lurks near dimensional portals and the use of Teleport and Gate spells to pounce on their users, and the Thunder Chicken, known for its paralysing squawk and its lightning attack. Not all of these really have much use, as neither the Death Tortle or Thunder Chicken really have a role and the Thunder Chicken, in particular, is included for its chicken nature rather than anything else.

More interesting are the issue’s many magical items, which begin with ‘The Chaos Throne’, which describes a mighty throne designed to seeds of randomness, chance, and chaos into the lives of those who sit upon it. Both of its arm rests are inlaid with a line of ten gems, each different. Each gem can be pushed once to gain a magic effect. For example, depressing the beryl means that the incumbent’s soul is marked for annihilation, forcing a simple dice off between player and Game Master, whilst the yellow sapphire raises the incumbent’s lowest attribute to eighteen! Only a limited number of gems can be pressed before the throne disappears. Essentially, The Deck of Many Things, with fewer, but no less random or fun options, built into a chair.

Whilst there is no background to ‘The Chaos Throne’, ‘The Furious Faithful – Priests And Holy Men Of Renown’ is a good example of the issue’s magical item article with extras. In this case, they are magical items with the history of the first person to wield them. For example, Lathidus “the Lord of Secrets”, was priest of Chaos, adept at spreading lies and distrust through rumours, blackmail, and more. The Sliver of Secrets is a shard of Lathidius’ shinbone, a relic of his church which when carried by a believer, enables him to lie with impunity, gaining a +2 bonus to any deception check and such lies cannot be revealed as such by low-Level divination spells. From the simple description, the Game Master can not only add the Sliver of Secrets and the legend of Lathidius to her game, also his church of Chaos, the temple to the god justice he corrupted, and the god of thieves whose assassins killed Lathidius. The author presents six such items and thumbnail descriptions of their wielders.

‘Magic Weapons and Sorcerous Blades!’ continues the issue’s combination of item and background, though this time appended by local lore. The Dragonsbreath Bow is wielded by The Sons of the Crimson Scale, agent-assassins for the Cult of the Demon Dragon. It is a longbow +1, which once per day can fire a special attack which varies according to the type of dragon to which it is attuned. For example, the Dragonsbreath Bow attuned to Black Dragons unleashes a stream of acid and a cone of frost is released by the bow attuned to White Dragons. There is also said to be a bow attuned to each of the evil dragons. Local lore tells of a close-helmed warlord in blue-scaled armour said to be riding the edge of the hinterlands hunting for something or someone. He has already incinerated several of the king’s men with just a single arrow, so could he be wielding one of the infamous Dragonsbreath Bows? Other weapons include Conjuredoom, a sword created to wield against wizards, magic-using, and enchanted creatures, and Doomgiver, a magical footman’s mace sacred to a dread goddess of the sea.

‘Magic Gee-Gaws, Sorcerous Jim-Jams, And What-Not’ details general magical items, such as Weird Seeds, strange, armoured pods from a twisted dimension that when planted instantly blooms into a plant with bizarre flowers of an unearthly colour. The plant withers and dies within a day, but turns its immediate area into a wild magic zone. ‘They Look Good, but.... Gaaaaaaaah! 1d10 Fiendish Potions You’ll Wish You Hadn’t Drank!’ provides ten concoctions and elixirs that the imbiber will regret drinking. For example, one potion smells of mint and medicinal herbs and works as a Potion of Extra Healing, but triples the chance of random monster encounters for the next four hours! The idea of the cursed weapon or armour is almost a cliché, but this article does something interesting in creating cursed potions. It is common for potions to be actually poisonous, but to be cursed? The Player Characters will never look at those bottles of coloured liquids in quite the same way again.

‘Forbidden Spellbooks and Fell Prayers of the Ancients’—inspired in part by the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft—is a trio of highly detailed magical works. These are Seven Veils, Seven Voids, The Testament of Nammul, and The Three Faces of Yrgaath. The Seven Veils, Seven Voids, for example, is a treatise on nature of undeath, not so much penned as carved, by Huldath ‘the Black Vizier’, on the inside of a large marble sarcophagus lid—and then in the secret tongue of necromancers. It also includes a number of spells, as does The Three Faces of Yrgaath. Written by the hag-sorceress Beltrugald for her seven horrible daughters on the subject matter of demon summoning and similar matters, it includes potion recipes to, and the new spell, Ravenous Wound, which inflicts a wound that eats itself on the caster’s target.

The Phylactery Issue #1 the lean into cosmic horror with ‘Forbidden Demon Cults from the Outer Void’. This gives a trio of demonic cults for the Game Master to add to her campaign such as Yugg, the massive god-beast of dinosaurs and great lizard-beasts, which eats anything it likes and despises anything or anyone smaller or weaker than itself. Its cults are vile cannibal, regularly and ritually devouring the weakest of their own, no matter their age or gender.

‘Black Bess, Scourge of the High Seas!’ is the first of several NPCs in the issue. She is a Seventh Level Fighter and an infamous pirate, captain of The Sea Wyvern’s Kiss, a heartless, evil kill who still adheres to the pirate’s code and the ancient laws of the sea. ‘Once Upon a Time in the Grim Hinterlands: 3 Antagonists to Set Your Players on the Road to Adventure’ continues with three NPCs, such as Orloc, the Black Friar and Morgun Blackfeather, who are intended to plague and bother the Player Characters. All three come with a trio of actions they might do upon encountering the Player Characters, but in comparison to the earlier description of Blacks Bess, they feel underwritten and in need of more of the Game Master’s input. In comparison, ‘1d10 Tough SOBs, Roadhouse Hoodlums, Bored Adventurers, and Mean Ole Bastards You Might Meet in a Tavern’ does not feel so underwritten since they are both throwaway encounters the Player Characters might have in a tavern and hooks that a Game Master could develop into something. These are entertaining and even as a throwaway encounter should add colour to any night out or tavern crawl at the end of the information. Barring the stats, they do draw comparison with the ‘Meatshields of the Bleeding Ox’, the regular collection of NPCs from the Black Pudding fanzine, and they are just as useful.

The Phylactery Issue #1 contains not one, not two, but three scenarios. In ‘Corpse Garden of the Myconid King’, the inhabitants of Hog’s Chapel have been acting strangely, listlessly, or simply falling asleep where they stand. Mossbeard, a local druid, claimed that, “the King Beneath the Roots has awoken and is calling for his due.” and that the source of the problem lay below Gilly’s Gap, a nearby sinkhole. He disappeared into the sinkhole and has not returned. Following in his wake, the Player Characters will discover a kingdom of mushroom men infected by a blight. Consisting of five locations in a cavern system, the adventure is an engaging, if small, treatment of a Dungeons & Dragons classic setting—a fungal kingdom. The scenario does not have many interesting items for the Player Characters to find or be rewarded with and it lacks an indication of what Level it is intended for, an issue that runs through The Phylactery Issue #1 and all three of its scenarios.

‘Utos, the Isle of the Shattered Moon’ is a crescent-shaped island, a cursed place occupied in its long history by the pirate captain Brego ‘the Bitter-Heart’, a sacred covenant of druids and benign wizards, and practitioners of ancient magics. From a fortified tower magically woven from plants and trees to a ruin atop the Lonely Spire, the island has long fallen into disuse. In comparison to the previous ‘Corpse Garden of the Myconid King’, there is plenty of treasure to be found ‘Utos, the Isle of the Shattered Moon’ if the Player Characters want to put the effort in. Unlike ‘Corpse Garden of the Myconid King’, ‘Utos, the Isle of the Shattered Moon’ will need a motivating factor or two to drive the Player Characters to explore this mini-sandcrawl.

‘Grindhouse Hexcrawl #1’ gives an even bigger area for the Player Characters to explore, a hexcrawl rather than a sandcrawl. It contains an outpost of The Stoneswords, Dwarf mercenaries intent on killing the feral ettin called Kurr ‘the Dwarf Eater’ in revenge for eating one of their number; is bisected by the Black Crags, home to warrens of Goblins and flocks of Harpies, as well as The Crimson Wind, a mysteriously landlocked pirate ship said to contain a king’s ransom in riches; and Mag-Nachtur, the Screaming Tower, home to cultist torturers and demon worshipers of Thuul the Racked One (detailed in the earlier ‘Forbidden Demon Cults from the Outer Void’), working to rebuild the tower. The eight locations across the hexcrawl are fairly detailed, but again, there is no indication of what Level it is designed for, rewards will need to be developed by the Game Master, and hooks to drive the Player Characters to explore the region. This aside, ‘Grindhouse Hexcrawl #1’ has an enjoyably bleak feel and can easily be dropped into a wilderness area or on the edge of a kingdom.

Physically, The Phylactery Issue #1 is very nicely presented. It is well written, the artwork is excellent, and Skullfungus’ cartography is as good as you would expect it to be.

The Phylactery Issue #1 never seems to let up in its presentation of its information and its content. There is so much in the pages of the fanzine’s first issue, probably too much for the Game Master to use everything in her campaign, but lots and lots to pick and chose from, and in many cases, develop and so add extra detail to that campaign. Suitable for any Old School Renaissance retroclone, The Phylactery Issue #1 is a good first issue, giving the Game Master a wealth of choice and content to work with.

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

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Another popular choice of system for fanzines, is Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, such as Crawl! and Crawling Under a Broken Moon. Some of these fanzines provide fantasy support for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but others explore other genres for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. One such fanzine is the aforementioned Crawling Under A Broken Moon.

Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 2 was published in in August, 2014 by Shield of Faith Studios. It followed on from Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 1 which introduced the post-apocalyptic setting of Umerica and Urth, which would go on to be presented in more detail in The Umerican Survival Guide – Core Setting Guide, now distributed by Goodman Games. The setting is a world brought about after a rogue object from deep space passed between the Earth and the Moon and ripped apart time and space, leaving behind a planet which would recover and it inhabitants ruled by savagery, cruel sorcery, and twisted science. It wastes no time in getting down to business with the issue’s single Character Class. This is ‘The Mutant’, a Racial Character Class, genetically ‘gifted’ due to exposure to a nanovirus, cosmic radiation, or dimensional rift. The Class has two features. One is the Survival Die. This works much like the Action Die in Dungeon Crawl Classics, but it is used only for non-combat tasks when attempting to survive in the wastelands. The other is the Mutation. This can be Hybridisation, which means that the Mutant is more than human, Physiological, which means that the Mutant’s body is twisted and different, or it can be both. This is rolled for, followed by subsequent rolls to determine the details. For example, the first roll is for Hybridisation, to see if it is animal, mineral, or vegetable. Further tables get to the exact details, which if the Mutant is a Vegetable Hybrid, and if flower-like, there is a chance of being very beautiful and having increased Presence, having a pollen attack that causes sneeze, a fragrance that attracts the wandering monsters, and a probability of falling immediately asleep at night or in darkness. The tables give some fun results, but once past that, the Class is not quite as interesting in play. In comparison to Technologist Class given in Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 1, the Mutant does not have quite so much to do.

The Mutant theme in the issue continues with ‘Cirque de Bizarre’, which is all about making mutants out of ‘normal’ monsters. It uses the tables from ‘The Mutant’ Racial Character Class and applies the results of the chosen animal. It then applies the results to two sample creations, the Falcon Wolf and the Mighty Tarasqu-Ape. These are decent mutated creatures and nicely show off the versatility of the ‘The Mutant’ Racial Character Class’ creation tables.

‘Weapons of the Wastelands’ continues the article which appeared in Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 1. It gives rules for grenades, breaking them down into four eras—primitive, Western-era, Modern-era, and Futuristic—as the previous article did for guns in general. This covers clay pot bombs and Molotov cocktails as well as modern and fusion grenades, plus various different things which can be put into a grenade, such as Greek fire, mustard gas, and even a MicroNuke! This is a decent expansion to the previous article.

The last two articles in Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 2 are connected and together present a massive alien cyberintelligence and its minions. ‘Twisted Menagerie’ details the servants, beginning with the Zombie Monks of the Cyberhive, which travel between communities, singing hymns in machine code, distributing small, but useful technological devices, and collecting corpses for conversion. Once converted, they are used to serve in the Floating Tower of the Cyberhive or to spread the Cyberhive’s influence and monitor those its servants come into contact with. The other servants are the Robo-Lich, capable of casting certain spells and used to monitor Zombie Monk operations, and the truly monstrous Mutitan, a writing mass of body parts from humans, animals, and mutants, which can spawn Mutitanling and warp the effects of spells. The Floating Tower of the Cyberhive is detailed in ‘An Interesting Place to Die’. It stands suspended over a crater of boiling mud and caustic vapours, and contains zombification chambers, organ chambers where wizards are converted in Robo-Liches, a Fabrication Chamber where Zombie Monks manufacture the various technological devices given out as gifts, and more. Oddly, neither the Zombie Monks or the Robo-Lichs will attack the Player Characters unless they are aggressive, but there are weird trap-like rooms scattered throughout the facility. It turns out that the Cyberhive is actually testing them and if they succeed, they are given actual missions, perhaps building towards a Patron relationship. The Cyberhive is presented as neither benign or evil, but an interesting faction in Umerica and Urth that the Player Characters can interact with.

Physically, Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 2 is serviceably presented. It is a little rough around the edges, but overall, it is a decent affair.

The problem with Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 2 is that much of its contents have been represented to a more professional standard in the pages of The Umerican Survival Guide – Core Setting Guide, so it has been superseded and superseded by a cleaner, slicker presentation of the material. Yet there is still much to like about Crawling Under A Broken Moon Fanzine Issue No. 2, full of interesting details and aspects about the setting and there is a certain charm to reading about the world of Umerica in serial format.

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 Thing in the PinesPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Ted Hart

Setting: Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, November of 1927Product: Scenario
What You Get: Twenty-two page, 4.14 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.” ─ Ernest HemingwayPlot Hook: A missing man, a missing girl, will the Investigators join them?
Plot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, four handouts, one map, one NPC, and one Mythos monster.Production Values: Plain
Pros# Detailed, single location encounter with the Mythos# Nicely detailed pre-generated Investigators# Easy to adjust to other times and settings# Suitable for novice Keepers# Xylophobia# Diokophobia# Chionophobia
Cons# Could be better structured for the novice Keeper # Maps needs work
Conclusion# Classic, trapped in the woods with a ravenous monster scenario# Nicely done pre-generated Investigators, but maps needs work

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: We Dream of FlyingPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Jim Phillips

Setting: Overnight Flight to TokyoProduct: Scenario
What You Get: Thirty page, 2.47 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “Fly me to the moonLet me play among the starsAnd let me see what spring is like onA-Jupiter and Mars”– Count Basie and Frank SinatraPlot Hook: Flying really can be a nightmare.
Plot Support: Staging advice, six Pre-generated Investigators, three deckplans/handouts, one handout, one NPC, six Investigator/NPC hybrids, and one Mythos monster.Production Values: Decent
Pros# Weird in-between state aerial nightmare # Excellent use of rarely used Malleus Monstrorum entry# Nice cover# Good handouts# Solid convention one-shot# Could be developed to run with two groups?# Oneirophobia# Aerophobia# Basophobia
Cons# Investigator/NPC hybrids need development# Underpowered Sanity rewards# Waking world underdeveloped
Conclusion# Memorable and inventive liminal nightmare over the Pacific that works as a one-shot or convention scenario# Underdeveloped in places, but still very playable

The aim of Cthulhu Confidential is to take a player and a Game Master “down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honour—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.” And it is specifically a player and a Game Master, for Cthulhu Confidential is designed to be played head-to-head, with the player and his Investigator delving into a mystery, the Game Master helping to facilitate this and tell the story of the Investigator’s efforts. Published by Pelgrane Press, Cthulhu Confidential is set in the same world as the publisher’s Trail of Cthulhu, the roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror, but with major changes—most of them mechanical. This is to facilitate the change from the clue-orientated nature of Trail of Cthulhu using the GUMSHOE System and for several Investigators to the single player and single Game Master and the GUMSHOE One-2-One System. In addition to including the new rules, Cthulhu Confidential includes a guide for the Game Master to create her own GUMSHOE One-2-One System scenarios, a guide to Cthulhu Mythos and Cosmic Horror for beginners, and three scenarios. These are the highlight of Cthulhu Confidential, each with a different protagonist and by a different author, and each bringing noir horror and a different code of honour to another city in the thirties and forties.

Cthulhu Confidential assumes that the Game Master and player alike are familiar with both roleplaying and the cosmic horror of H.P. Lovecraft’s fiction. There are introductions to both in the book, but they are not its starting point. Similarly, there is a set of Starter Notes for the experienced GUMSHOE System Game Master in the appendix, but again this is not the starting point in Cthulhu Confidential. This the nature of the Investigator and the investigative process for one. Just like Trail of Cthulhu and the GUMSHOE System, an Investigator in Cthulhu Confidential and the GUMSHOE One-2-One System has two types of Abilities—Investigative Abilities and General Abilities. Investigative Abilities, such as Assess Honesty and Research, are used to gain information. If the Investigator has the Investigative Ability, he receives the information or the clue. General Abilities, like Driving and Shadowing, are more traditional in that their use requires dice to be rolled and a test passed to determine success or failure. Cthulhu Confidential then deviates from this in order to account for the fact that there is only the one Investigator rather than many as in Trail of Cthulhu. With multiple players, all of the Investigative Abilities would be accounted across the Investigators. Not so in Cthulhu Confidential. So, when an Investigator lacks an Investigative Ability, he can instead turn to an NPC or source for help. In Trail of Cthulhu, Investigative Abilities have pools of points which can be spent to gain extra clues about a situation, but in Cthulhu Confidential, the Investigator has Pushes, which the player can spend to gain the extra information or a benefit. This applies to any Investigative Ability and could be used to spring the Investigator from jail on a bogus arrest using the Law Investigative Ability, persuade the doorman at a suspect’s office that you have not been asking about his whereabouts, and so on. An Investigator begins a scenario with four Pushes and can earn more through play.

In Trail of Cthulhu, General Abilities also have pools of points, which are then expended to modify dice rolls for tests. In Cthulhu Confidential, General Abilities have one or two six-sided dice, which are also rolled on Tests. Tests are rolled when there is the possibility of failure in a situation, such as getting past a doorman to break into a suspect’s office or fleeing from the inhuman monster found in said suspect’s office, and are divided into two types. In either case, the player rolls the dice—if his Investigator has more than one—one at a time and totals their values. This is important because some Tests can be overcome with the roll of the one die rather than two dice. The Challenge is the more complex and more interesting of the two.

A Challenge gives three results—‘Advance’, ‘Hold’, and ‘Setback’. The ‘Advance’ is the equivalent of ‘Yes, and…’ and indicates a successful attempt with an extra benefit. This benefit is called an Edge and can prove useful later in the investigation. In addition, if the Challenge was overcome with the roll of a single die, then the Investigator is rewarded with an additional Push. The ‘Setback’ is the equivalent of ‘No, and…’ and indicates a failed attempt with an added Problem that will hamper the investigation. The ‘Hold’ lies somewhere in between with the Investigator no better or worse off, and also without an Edge or a Problem. It is also possible for the Investigator to suffer an Extra Problem in order to gain an additional die to roll in the hope of gaining an ‘Advance’.

For example, Dexter ‘Dex’ Raymond, the Private Investigator presented as the first protagonist in Cthulhu Confidential has been hired by the wife of Lorenzo Calderone, nightclub owner and suspected mob associate. She wants a divorce and suspects her husband of cooking the books to reduce her settlement and alimony. She does not think that the real account books are kept at home or the nightclub, but at the office of her husband’s lawyer, Crispin Grimes. To get those books, Raymond needs to get past the doorman and into the office. So, the Challenge could look like this:

COOKED BOOKS
Stealth
Advance 6+: You get past the doorman and into Grimes’ office where you find the account books. No one knows the books are missing and when they find out, who took them. Earn Edge: ‘Crooked Books.’
Hold 3-5: The doorman does his rounds just as you are about to break in and you are not going to get past him now.
Setback 2 or less: You initially get past the doorman, but just as you are about to get into Grimes’ office, he spots on his rounds. Triggers Challenge ‘Flee the Building.’
Extra Problem: ‘There was this one guy poking around…’

EDGE: ‘Crooked Books.’ You got the account books Mrs Calderone wanted, so case settled. But if you keep a copy yourself, it could keep her husband or his lawyer off your back.
PROBLEM: ‘There was this one guy poking around…’ The theft puts Lorenzo Calderone and Crispin Grimes on edge. A Push is needed to successfully use any Interpersonal skill with both.

In comparison, a Quick Test requires to simple roll to gain an ‘Advance’ result. The structure of Cthulhu Confidential and its scenarios presents Challenges as clear, black boxes of test and both Edges and Problems as essentially cards that are given to the player to add to his Investigator. Fights and both Horror and Madness, key elements of the two genres for Cthulhu Confidential—noir detective stories and Cosmic Horror—are handled as Challenges, typically using the Fighting General Ability for combat and the Stability General Ability when confronted with something horrifying. This is another place where Cthulhu Confidential differs from the multiplayer Trail of Cthulhu, because in Trail of Cthulhu, the Investigators can afford to lose one of their number, whether from a fight or madness, and such a loss is easily replaced. Not so in Cthulhu Confidential. Here a loss means the end of the investigation and the scenario, so whilst fights are dangerous, they are not lethal—and that applies to the NPCs or monsters as much as the Investigator. The investigator can suffer debilitating injury or loss, but can recover through the ‘Take Time to Recover’ action. Similarly, the antagonist, whether mundane or monstrous, is not killed, but suffers a loss that will benefit the Investigator in some way, represented by an Edge. Encounters or confrontations with horror work in the same fashion, although a ‘Setback’ will penalise the Investigator with a ‘Mythos Shock’ Problem. These cannot always be countered with the ‘Take Time to Recover’ action and instead require an Edge capable of countering a ‘Mythos Shock’ Problem. This is not to say that the Investigator cannot die or be sent mad, but this does not happen mid-story. Instead, it can become all too much at the end. This is especially so if the Investigator is left with a ‘Mythos Shock’ Problem or two or more that he has been unable to deal with in the course of the investigation. The remaining Problem cards will affect the narration of the investigation’s outcome and ending, typically in downbeat fashion to fit the twin genres of Cthulhu Confidential. If the Investigator survives, his player can retain these Problems to carry over into the next scenario—some he has to and some he can choose—and they will continue to influence the Investigator’s efforts until addressed. Even at the start of the first scenario, an Investigator has an ongoing problem, although the player is typically given a choice as to what that problem is.

For the Game Master there is advice on running the GUMSHOE One-2-One System. This covers guiding the player (gently) and avoiding the sticking points common to mystery and investigation scenarios, taking into account the nature of its single player and Investigator play style. This includes advice on running both sources and challenges and there is similar treatment on creating scenarios, building Challenges, and designing Edges. This is backed up with numerous examples which the Game Master can use for inspiration as well as model for her own scenarios. The appendix for Cthulhu Confidential includes a Rules Quick Reference, a Handout for New Roleplayers, lists of sources for all three protagonists, a guide to solving cases, sample Player Characters from other GUMSHOE System roleplaying games in the GUMSHOE One-2-One System format, such as an Ordo Veritas Agent from The Esoterrorists and a Mutant Cop from Mutant City Blues, and a set of generic Edges.

Two thirds of Cthulhu Confidential is dedicated to its three investigations and their protagonists, settings, and Problems and Edges. The three Investigators are Dexter ‘Dex’ Raymond, a Private Investigator in Los Angeles, 1937, obviously inspired by works of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammet; Vivian Sinclair, an investigative journalist and lady detective in thirties New York, inspired by Kerry Greenwood and Dorothy L. Sayers; and Langston Montgomery Wright, an African American invalided veteran Private Investigator in Washington D.C. towards the end of World War II, inspired by Walter Mosely and Chester Himes. Each Investigator is accompanied by detailed descriptions of his or her sources and exceptionally good write-ups of their respective cities—Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C. The write-ups are so good, they are better than the actual supplements dedicated to those cities previously published for Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying, and in the case of Washington, D.C., the definitive guide Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying, since no sourcebook has been published for the city, let alone an actual scenario. In addition, all three authors—Robin D. Laws for Dexter ‘Dex’ Raymond, Ruth Tillman for Vivian Sinclair, and Chris Spivey for Langston Montgomery Wright—address the social and cultural aspects of their settings. So, there are discussions of whether Dexter ‘Dex’ Raymond should be a ‘straight white guy’ or not; of Vivian Sinclair’s bisexuality and how to handle violence against women; of handling the racist attitudes that Langston Montgomery Wright will face. The advice is excellent throughout, being inclusive and helpful.

Then each Investigator has his or her own scenario. As Dexter ‘Dex’ Raymond, the player will investigate ‘The Fathomless Sleep’. Fast-living society girl Helen Deakin has fallen into catatonia and her smouldering sister wants to know how this happened in this classic, hardboiled tale of blackmail and dirty money with a dollop of weird mysticism. In ‘Fatal Frequencies’, Vivian Sinclair helps out Sadie Cane, whose fiancé, George Preston, disappeared three days after a murder in his apartment block. What has George got himself messed up in? Langston Montgomery Wright investigates another disappearance, that of Lynette Miller, a riveter, in ‘Capitol Colour’. Last time her father saw her, she had a new job, secret, but highly paid. Where has she gone and what does her disappearance have to do with the war effort? All three scenarios are excellent, detailed and involving, and should keep the player and his Investigator intrigued and enthralled to the end.

Physically, Cthulhu Confidential is a crisply presented black and white book. It needs a slight edit in places, but is well written and engaging. It is not extensively illustrated, but what artwork there is, is not only good, but also captures the shades of grey in the three North American cities and both the protagonists and antagonists the supplement depicts. The use of period maps and other illustrations also enforces each setting’s sense of place.

Cthulhu Confidential provides an intense roleplaying experience. It has elements of classic solo play because of its set-up, especially in the structure of its Challenge mechanics and the Edges and Problems gained through play, but the intensity comes from working with the Game Master and interacting with the NPCs she depicts and doing so alone, pushing the player to rely upon himself and his Investigator’s Abilities rather than having to work with other players and their Investigators. Of course, the involvement of the Game Master means there is more flexibility and scope to adapt when investigating a mystery than there would be in a solo adventure. The end result is that Cthulhu Confidential provides an enthralling and engaging means of play and a one-on-one experience that pushes Lovecraftian investigative roleplay closer to its cinematic and literary influences and models.

Now in its sixteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2023 took place on Saturday, June 24th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Fil Baldowski at All Rolled Up, and others, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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Piercing the Demon’s Eye is Goodman Games’ only contribution to Free RPG Day 2023. It is a scenario for use with the publisher’s highly popular Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. Designed for a party of six to eight Second Level Player Characters, it is both designed and intended to be played in four hours and in-game explored in four hours. What this means is that once the four-hour playing time ends, the game is not only over for the players, but also for the Player Characters. Piercing the Demon’s Eye is set in the Demon’s Eye, the vault of the ancient wizard, Monath Ot. Said to contain great treasures and secrets, the entrance to the vault unseals and grants access for exactly four hours, once every ten years. Then the entrance will reseal itself again, only to open again in another ten years and again exactly for four hours. Whilst the game is over for the players, for their characters, trapped inside the Demon’s Eye, their fates are sealed just as much as the entrance is. Ideally, the Player Characters should at least be armed with one or two magical weapons. The scenario does not involve a great many fights, but those it does are challenging. Lastly, Piercing the Demon’s Eye does contain links to Tomb of the Savage Kings, the scenario published by Goodman Games for Free RPG Day 2021. However, the links are insubstantial and the Judge does not need to have run or have access to Tomb of the Savage Kings in order to run Piercing the Demon’s Eye.

As a tomb adventure, Piercing the Demon’s Eye contains more traps than fights. There is an interesting counterweight puzzle from the start, but others like a corridor with a pivoting floor and a room with spikes that extend out of the floors and walls and a room of skeletons that reanimate and self-replicate upon death a la the film Jason and the Argonauts, are all classics and clichés of the genre. This does not mean that they feel out of place. Similarly, neither does the inclusion of false vaults. With care though, the Player Characters should not only be able to find their way around the tomb, but also locate two major treasure vaults, one of scrolls and one of coin and magical items. What will hamper the Player Characters progress is a rival team also looking to loot the tomb complex. Consisting of three NPCs, these can be used to taunt the Player Characters, act as replacement Player Characters as necessary, or simply show the characters and their players how the scenario’s traps work.

There is also a hidden element to Piercing the Demon’s Eye. Use of Spell Burn can trigger an even bigger event. This is the release of the being trapped within the tomb. It is not the ancient wizard, Monath Ot, but something else. In true tomb in the Pulp genre, this triggers an immediate effect and a long-term effect. The long-term effect is left up to the Judge to determine and then only if the scenario is being run as part of a campaign. In the short term, the Player Characters will find they have very little time left before the tomb collapses…
If there is a problem with Piercing the Demon’s Eye, it is the connections to Tomb of the Savage Kings and the lack of connections to Tomb of the Savage Kings. To suggest that there are connections and not develop them is a missed opportunity. The lack of them makes it difficult to connect the scenarios and to build them into a setting, whether a published one or one devised by the Judge. So this scenario is more of standalone adventure than not.
Physically, Piercing the Demon’s Eye is very well presented. It is easy to read and the map is easy to use. The scenario is lightly illustrated, but the pieces of art are very good, capturing the mishaps and misadventures of a band of adventurers.
Piercing the Demon’s Eye is easy to set up and run, and works better as a convention scenario rather than an addition to a campaign, although with some effort upon the part of the Judge, this should be an issue. Piercing the Demon’s Eye is a short, but fun one-shot that neatly fits a four-hour convention game slot too. All the Judge has to do is add Player Characters.

Arrakis is the most important planet in the Known Universe. From it flows the Spice Melange, and thus the power to control the Imperium. Spacing Guild navigators consume it in vast quantities to be able to fold space and thus ensure the interstellar travel and trade that underpins the Landsraad, the alliance of Houses Great and Minor, and CHOAM—or Combine Honnette Ober Advancer Mercantiles—which controls all trade and contracts across the Imperium, including that of Spice. The Bene Gesserit uses give their Sisters the gift of foresight and so pursue its own program even as it is advises Houses Major and Minor. To those that can afford it, Spice is a means to prolong life and delay aging, and for the noble houses, which means being able to plan and bring to fruition plots that take generations to bring about. The Emperor holds the key to extracting Spice, for it is within his gift to grant Arrakis and the right to extract Spice to the House of his choosing. It is both a gift and a curse, for although it will make the House occupying Arrakis rich, the House must ensure the Spice continues to flow even as rival Houses plot to undermine their efforts, smugglers shift Spice from under its nose, and very environment of Arrakis—endless dessert, high temperatures, and sandworms hundreds of meters long which can swallow a spice harvester whole—threaten to disrupt and undermine their operations. Then there are the Fremen, the mysterious inhabitants of the deep desert, secretive and insular, who have their plans for their world, ones which do not involve the Emperor or the governing House, and for which they only await the right sign.

Sand and Dust – The Arrakis Sourcebook is, as the title suggests the sourcebook for the world known as Dune for Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Game, the roleplaying game based on both the recent films and the fictional universe and novels originally created by Frank Herbert. The supplement provides an overview and details of the world of Arrakis, its history and geography; the Fremen and their history and culture, as well as new character Archetypes and Talents; the ecology of the Sandworm and how to ride them; and the secrets of Spice, how it is harvested, and its effect upon the Known Universe, plus Spice-related Talents. This is all supported by new campaign ideas and frameworks and a scenario.

Sand and Dust – The Arrakis Sourcebook starts with the planet itself and its history, which given the secrecy of the Fremen is little known and consequently there are few details here and the supplement is more about Arrakis as is, rather than as was. That said, there are suggestions for using Arrakis as a setting in the different Eras of Play for Dune – Adventures in the Imperium, though again, these are only briefly touched upon. More detail is given to the various locations in the cities of Carthag and Arrakeen and the roles they play in the setting. For example, the Conservatory Garden at the Residency in Arrakeen is initially presented as a gift to Lady Jessica, even though it is a sacrilegious waste of water, but it actually becomes a blueprint for the greening of Arrakis. All of the various locations are accorded plot hooks, rumours, and a suggested encounter or hazard for the Game Master to develop. Primarily intended for The Imperium, The Ascension of Muad’dib, and Era of the God Emperor Eras of Play, these locations are neatly done whilst leaving plenty of space in both cities for the Game Master to add her own content. The nature of the desert and how it changes as Muad’dib’s reign and that of his heirs progress, and beyond, is explored in detail. This broadens the options for the earlier discussion of the different Eras of Play.

Sand and Dust – The Arrakis Sourcebook is not just a sourcebook for the planet of Dune. It is also the sourcebook for Fremen, revealing further details of their history, culture, and outlook after that given in Dune – Adventures in the Imperium. This covers their oral history, their attitudes to live and death, plus of course, the importance they attach to water. Interesting here is the inclusion of the Jacurutu, a tribe massacred for stealing water and reviled ever since, such that their sietch is a taboo place. Descendants of the Jacurutu are included as an option for Player Character Fremen, which would have to be kept secret otherwise they would be an outcast. This inclusion adds a wrinkle in the otherwise uniform nature of the Fremen and perhaps the supplement could done with more of this to add a little more variety here and there. Fremen technology is examined in detail, noting the high degree of its craftsmanship and including Fremen Stillsuits, the feared Crysknife, and the Deathstill which is used to extract the water from the dead, as well as the Distrans Bat, domesticated bats used to record and send messages over long distances. Rules also cover worm riding, whilst the section on ‘Fremen and Outsiders’ covers their attitudes and dealings with various factions on and off world. This is useful whether the Player Characters are Fremen themselves or outsiders to make contact or deal with the Fremen, so helpful for the Game Master and her players. The section on playing through the period of the reign of Muad’dib, more tightly focuses on The Ascension of Muad’dib Era of Play and the changes that the Fremen undergo, both culturally and spiritually.

For Fremen Player Characters and NPCs, Sand and Dust – The Arrakis Sourcebook adds a table of life Events, new Foci—such as Desert Navigation, Fremen Culture, Pottery, and Stillness, new Fremen Templates including Naib, Fedaykin, Sayadina, and Ecologist. Bolstered with new Talents, many of which are Fremen specific, ranging from Chosen of Shai-Hulud (skilled worm rider), Crysknife Master, and Desert Walker to Tooth Crafter (craftsmen who make the crysknives), Water Wisdom, and Ways of Ichwan Bedwine (Fremen oral history), this is where there is some variation between Fremen. A set of tables allow the creation of sietch, including size, influence, and reputation. There is advice here on the roles they can have in a campaign.

Sand and Dust – The Arrakis Sourcebook is not just a sourcebook for the planet of Dune and Fremen. It is also the sourcebook for the Spice itself and this even includes Spice-related Talents like Spice Refinement, Enhanced Lifespan, Shortening the Way, and Voice of the Inner dark. Many of these require the consumption of Spice. The focus though, is on the physical nature of Spice and effects, where it comes from and how it is extracted, and the ramifications of all of this. In particular the need to balance the time spent extracting Spice and the inevitable arrival of a sandworm which threatens the loss of equipment and workers and extracting and smuggling Spice without attracting the attention of the planet’s governing House or any Imperial oversight. It should be noted that all of the factions on Arrakis, and not just the actual Smugglers, smuggle Spice, for there are always willing purchasers. Suggested roles are given for a harvesting crew which lends itself to what would literally be a very dirty campaign, the Player Characters having to deal with the stress of harvesting as well as the difficulties and intrigues of rival harvesters, criminal and smuggling gangs, and the all too ready to take a bribe authorities.

Campaign support covers the culture life and communities of Arrakis, including artists, mercenaries, and engineering, as well as locations where they might be found, and numerous NPCs. These include Bounty Hunter, Craftsperson, Fremen Craftsperson, Fremen Sayyadina, Market Seller, Mystic, Ornithopter Pilot, Spice Manager, Spice Worker, and others, plus factions such as Bankers, Courtesans, Criminals, Importers, and Manufacturers. Campaigns specific to Arrakis include Spice Smugglers, Imperial Agents, Fremen, Bene Gesserit, Guerrillas and Revolutionaries, and Explorers of the Old Empire. Each of these is supports the Game Master in their own way. The NPCs include named examples that the Game Master can bring to her campaign and a scenario hook; each faction includes a campaign inspiration; and each of the more detailed campaign frameworks on Arrakis includes suitability for the different Eras of Play, suitable Archetypes, and notable Assets, Factions, and Antagonists. In the case of the campaign inspirations and the frameworks, the Game Master will need to develop these further, but she is given two far more detailed campaign outlines as well. ‘Shadows on the Sand’ sees a group of smugglers, descendants of House Richese, the former governors of Arrakis which had all but bankrupted itself in extracting Spice before the fiefdom was taken away from them and given to the Harkonnens, attempting to survive and smuggle spice whilst keeping its true identity a secret. There are some interesting ideas here that the players and characters to see the story of Dune from a different viewpoint. ‘The House of Heslin’ is about a House Minor attempting to establish and run a merchant operation in Carthag and so establish itself on Arrakis. This will probably involve more intrigue and interaction within the city than the other campaign set-up. It would have been interesting to add a similarly developed third campaign idea here, one focusing on the Fremen rather than outsiders as the other two do.

Rounding out Sand and Dust – The Arrakis Sourcebook is the scenario, ‘The Water Must Flow’. Set during the governorship of House Harkonnen, a drought triggers riots and leaves the Player Characters’ House with insufficient water to pay the Water Tax to the Harkonnens. As rioters swirl around the city, they are forced to attend a feast hosted by another House Minor, this one allied to House Harkonnen. There, they may be able to find a way of negotiating a solution to their own House’s situation. What they do find is a friendly face—although how far that can be trusted is another matter—which suggests investigating the recent hijacking of a carryall with a delivery of water. The trail will lead into deadly plot in in Carthag’s many shadows and then out into the nearby desert. It is a solid scenario that can easily be run as a sequel to ‘Harvesters of Dune’, the scenario from the Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Game core rulebook.

Physically, Sand and Dust – The Arrakis Sourcebook is a nice-looking supplement. It is well written, and it includes some decent artwork, although sadly, not every Archetype is illustrated. One issue with Sand and Dust – The Arrakis Sourcebook is that there are no maps. So, no maps of Carthag and Arrakeen, the only cities on the planet, and even no maps of the planet itself. All would have been useful, although there are no maps of either city upon which the writers can draw upon within the canon itself. The lack of a map of Arrakis is even odder, since they do exist and this is a world sourcebook.

Sand and Dust – The Arrakis Sourcebook is not lacking in content, but it does leave the reader wanting more in places. Primarily this is in the history and future history of Arrakis and its importance in the Known Universe, their descriptions underwritten in comparison to the default period of Dune – Adventures in the Imperium—the decades before the accession of House Atreides to the fiefdom. Here is where Sand and Dust – The Arrakis Sourcebook comes alive and gets interesting, providing support and ideas for campaigns involving Spice harvesting and smuggling in particular, and the Fremen to a lesser extent. The background and details, as well as the Player Character and NPC options, for the Fremen, are good support for player and Game Master alike. Sand and Dust – The Arrakis Sourcebook is solid support for Dune – Adventures in the Imperium opens up and develops options for campaigns set on Arrakis.

Now in its sixteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2023 took place on Saturday, June 24th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Fil Baldowski at All Rolled Up, and others, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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Adventures in Rokugan: Storm Eel’s Rest is a scenario for Adventures in Rokugan, the Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition compatible version of Legends of the Five Rings. Originally published by Alderac Entertainment Group in 1997, but now published by EDGE Studio, Legends of the Five Rings and thus Adventures in Rokugan is set in Rokugan, a setting similar to feudal Japan, but with influences and elements of other Asian cultures, as well as magic and mythical beasts. The setting for Legend of the Five Rings, Fifth Edition is Rokugan. It is Known as the Emerald Empire and has been ruled for a thousand years by the Hantei emperors—the current emperor is Hantei XXXVIII—who have divided it between seven Great Clans. These are the Crab, Crane, Dragon, Lion, Phoenix, Scorpion, and Unicorn clans. Although each is comprised of Samurai—the bushi warriors, mannered courtiers, and shugenja, priests who pray to the kami, or spirits, for aid, each is different in character. The Crab Clan use its strength to man the wall that protects the Empire from the Shadowlands, but its members are regarded as uncouth and ill mannered; the Crane Clan is known as the Left Hand of the Emperor and has many wealthy and influential politicians; the Dragon Clan remains aloof from most affairs in its mountain fast, but has sallied forth to aid the empire several times; the Lion Clan is the Right Hand of the Emperor, being devoted bushi; the Phoenix Clan is known for its shugenja and primarily concerns itself with spiritual matters; the Scorpion Clan is the Emperor’s Underhand and revels in its villainous status and reputation; and lastly, the Unicorn Clan is Rokugan’s cavalry, having spent several centuries in the Gaijin lands to the West. The Mantis are a minor clan of seafarers and traders, most notable having travelled far beyond Rokugan by sea.
Adventures in Rokugan: Storm Eel’s Rest requires the Adventures in Rokugan rules and includes six pre-generated Player Characters. These consist of a Crane bushi and bodyguard, a Crab infiltrator, a Crane ritualist or shugenja, a Mantis clan duellist, a Crab clan courtier/bushi, and a Ningyo Ritualist. These are very detailed Player Characters, and notably, not all of the Player Characters are Human as is the norm in Legends of the Five Rings. This includes a Spectre, a Mazoku or demon, and a Ningyo or ‘human-fish’. All six have detailed backgrounds and motivations.
Adventures in Rokugan: Storm Eel’s Rest is designed to be played in a single four-hour session and is set on Earthquake Fish Bay, which is known for its storms and being administered by the Yasuki, the Crab Clan courtiers and merchants who once part of the Crane Clan. Consequently, the Crane still view both the land and its administrators as belonging to it. The main village in the region, Storm Eel’s Rest, also supports a monastery on Unnamed Island, an island wracked by storms. The tension between the Crab and the Crane Clans is what drives much of the scenario.
The scenario begins en media res. The Player Characters are aboard the Spider Lily, sailing across Earthquake Fish Bay in search of a missing vessel. After the Game Master reads out the general introduction and the introduction for each of the Player Character—which oddly, does give away some of the secrets about each Player Character—they set out across the bay. After a random encounter, they locate the missing vessel, driven onto Unnamed Island by the storms. The Player Characters will quickly discover that the ship is under attack as is the monastery by various aquatic monsters—crab horrors, amphibious horrors, and stinging horrors. The monastery is under assault because it hides a secret. They are Stormkeepers, protectors of the bay from the spirit of the great beast which centuries before stalked the bay bringing down storms and lightning from its body and the sky. Its skull is kept warded, but spirits are assaulting the monastery as well as many aquatic minions!
Adventures in Rokugan: Storm Eel’s Rest is short and it is combat focused. There is a lot of flavour to it and there is some interesting detail to the pre-generated Player Characters. However, there is relatively little scope for these details to come out in play rather than be read out at the start of the scenario by the Game Master. The latter is odd and it feels only necessary because the scenario is intended to be played in a four-hour slot. If the scenario is run beyond that time limit, then the introductions for the Player Characters could be kept for the players to reveal through play and roleplaying and perhaps a better and simpler introduction be created in order to speed up play and the beginning of the scenario.
Physically, Adventures in Rokugan: Storm Eel’s Rest is well presented. The map is excellent and artwork superb. The scenario is well written.
Adventures in Rokugan: Storm Eel’s Rest is a solid scenario that fits within a single session and nicely showcases the setting of Rokugan, such as the tensions between the Crab and the Crane Clans. It is playable in the intended four-hour slot, but to really bring out the Player Character backgrounds through roleplaying, it needs more time and to shift the Player Character introductions to under their control and better introductions supplied.

Academies of the Arcane has a problem. Or rather, the subject matter of Academies of the Arcane has problem. Academies of the Arcane is a roleplaying supplement about creating and playing in your own school of wizardry. Which means that it draws comparisons with the series of novels starring Harry Potter and set at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and by association, the contentious views of the series’ author, J.K. Rowling. Academies of the Arcane and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are about academic institutions modelled on British boarding schools with their own peculiar practices and traditions where magic is researched and taught. That though, is where the comparisons end. For although there is nothing to stop a Game Master and her players using Academies of the Arcane to create and roleplay a game similar to that of the Harry Potter, should they so desire, that is not its raison d’etre. In fact, doing so would actually be to ignore the possibilities and options that the book presents that enable the Game Master and her players to create their school of magic and everything associated with it—school uniforms, school houses, teachers, locations, events, classes, and more—and roleplay their students’ time at the school.
Academies of the Arcane is a supplement for Troika! Numinous Edition. Published by the Melsonian Arts Council following a successful Kickstarter campaign, presents some forty or so tables, over a third of the supplement, for creating numerous different aspects of an institution dedicated to the teaching of magic. Academies of the Arcane does not start there though. It begins with advice and suggestions for the Game Master on how to use the book and the types of campaign frameworks and framework elements it can be used for. These include using the magical school as a place of intrigue, betrayal, and treachery; as a base of operations from which the students can set out to undertake the very dangerous process of learning magic—at the school and beyond; to explore the pride and factionalism of the board school model and its houses, but with wizards and magic; and play not as young students, but as graduate students or members of the faculty, or interlopers at the school with a mission of their own. None of these concepts are explored in any great detail, but they are solid starting points from which Game Masters and players can develop their own frameworks, aided of course, by the familiarity of Academies of the Arcane’s subject matters and settings.

Academies of the Arcane provides some thirty-six student Backgrounds. These begin with the Prodigal Magus—who just happens to have an interesting birthmark or scar that glows when he casts spells, and the Warlock of the Withered Ouroboros, who is trying to avoid the fate of being consumed by his own magic. All have several possessions and several advanced skills, including spells, as well as a special ability. Others include odder creations such as Tiger Conceptual, Worm Troll, Printer’s Devil, and Precocious Ooze. These is a fantastic mix of the ordinary and the outré, and whilst a player can choose one from the thirty-six available, rolling for his character’s Background as intended adds to the challenge. Added to this are some ninety or so spells, from Acumen, Alignment Language, and Astral Parasite to Window-Weald, Word Feaster, and Wormcast. The spells are as weird and wonderful as the Backgrounds, such as the Word Feaster which enables the caster to eat the vocabulary of another wizard and effective silence them temporarily; Discordance which disrupts time with the terrible singing of the cosmos and upends the initiative stack in combat; and Manifest Doubt, which reveals a flaw in a personal philosophy, forcing the victim to collapse into painful introspection or double down on his belief. The spell notes that no philosophy is truly pure and so there is always a flaw to take advantage of.

Then Academies of the Arcane presents the tables needed to create an academy. This starts with the name such as ‘Father Ankou’s Cage of Arcane Triumph’ or ‘Drimcliff University of the Torment Eternal’. After this, rolls are made for campus appearance, interior and exterior, nearby notable locations, school uniform, history, recent troubles, and rumours. There are tables for creating houses and their mascots and mottos, notoriety and troubles, and for the classes and subjects that the Player Characters can take and study. As well as tables for creating members of the faculty, there is guidance for running classes and the school itself, and even a wizarding competition. Rounding out the book is a wild selection of interesting magical items such as familiars, The Adder-Skin Book of New Fate, Ancient Indelible Foods of the Gods, and more, all of which be used to drive stories at the wizarding school.

Although Academies of the Arcane is designed to be played used Troika!, a Science Fantasy roleplaying game of baroque weirdness, it need not be. Both Academies of the Arcane and Troika! are Old School Renaissance adjacent, in addition to being British Old School Renaissance in its inspiration. The simplicity of the mechanics Troika! and Academies of the Arcane—the latter’s spells in particular, combined with the lack of mechanics in its numerous tables and the prompts they contain, mean that the supplement is easy to use as a framework in another roleplaying game. This could be generic like the Cypher System or Savage Worlds or a retroclone like Old School Essentials. Either way, Academies of the Arcane is sufficiently generic to make adapting to another set of rules or a setting relatively easy.

Physically, Academies of the Arcane is cleanly and tidily presented. The artwork is excellent whether of the inclusive nature of the student body, the wonder of the arcane, or the exquisite nature of the magical items. The clarity of the design to Academies of the Arcane means that it has few problems and even then, they are minor at best. One is the size of the book, larger than that typical of supplements for Troika! Then again, getting all of the supplement’s tables into a digest-sized book and making them useable would have been challenging. The other is perhaps the brevity of the content, but then that content is designed as an extensive series of prompts to push the Game Master and her players to create their own arcane academy. However, that leaves one element of the genre unaddressed and likely intentionally so. Academies of the Arcane focuses on the fantasy of the magic and learning the magic and ignores the ordinary aspects of living in the equivalent of boarding school (for magic). So, there is no contrast between the ordinary and extraordinary, no push and between the two. The problem with doing so of course returns Academies of the Arcane to the problem of its subject matter and comparisons with Harry Potter, which could have been contentious. Thus, the aspect of the setting is left unmentioned and unexplored and in the hands of the Game Master and her players should they decide to include it in their game.

Ultimately, Academies of the Arcane provides everything the Game Master and her players need to run a game set at a sorcerous school, but not just any institute of invocation. Instead, an academy of the arcane that they create and make their own, telling the stories of their students, their studies, their rivalries, and adventures, and that is what makes Academies of the Arcane the toolkit of choice for its genre.