The world is not what it seems. There is a barrier which surrounds reality and gives it the order and natural laws that mankind, blind to the truth that only outsiders, cultists, and the oddballs recognise and follow, for beyond the barrier lies chaos… At first a reflection of our reality, but then a distorted version, and further and further away until there are no natural laws and nothing that can be recognised of our reality. The barrier is not immutable, for in places it is weak and there are things and beings on the other side which want to get through to our reality, and even worse, men and women who would help them, and even welcome them through. Some work alone, but others form cults, hiding behind other organisations and planning and plotting away in secret, hunting for and researching the knowledge that will bring their plans to fruition, whether that is for power, to discover their truth about the cosmos, or simply to destroy reality. There are others on the same path, who through personal trauma have come to realise the true nature of reality, but do not plot, plan, or research ways in which to pierce the barrier for their own ends, but to prevent monsters from succeeding or being let in… They are outsiders, weirdos, and oddballs, pulled into a maelstrom of terrible events which nobody will ever believe, but returning scarred and traumatised, knowing that they may need to do it again and again, because no one else will.

This is the setting for Kuf—meaning oddball or eccentric—a modern-day roleplaying game of Gnostic horror published by Wilhem’s Games. As written, it is set in modern-day Sweden, but can be easily set elsewhere and it uses the light mechanics of Knave. The result is a collision of esoteric horror and the Old School Renaissance, the Player Characters simply drawn and decidedly fragile, both mentally and physically, in the face of the resources that the cults can bring to bear and the things that they might summon. It is played in three distinct phases—Exploration, Confrontation, and Recovery. In the Exploration Phase, the Player Characters investigate, conduct research and interviews, monitor suspects, purchase and ready equipment, and ultimately, prepare for the Confrontation Phase. The Confrontation Phase is when the Player Characters sneak into the cult headquarters or summoning site, pierce the barrier and confront the things on the other side, and hopefully disrupt the ritual or plans of the cultists. The Recovery Phase is more formal and takes a month, but can take place between investigations or sessions. This is when the Player Characters plan the next investigation, seek medical care, study an artefact or read an esoteric tome, buy illegal equipment, recruit companions to the cause, and so on. Mechanically, all of these activities are rolled for, so might work, or even might be cut short because the next Exploration Phases begins—perhaps because the cultists they stopped in the previous Confrontation Phase have come looking for them!

A Player Character in Kuf looks like a Player Character in Dungeons & Dragons. He has the six requisite Attributes—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Five of these cover aspects as you would expect. Thus, Strength is used for melee attacks and physical Saving Throws; Dexterity covers agility and speed; Constitution to resist poison and sickness; Intelligence for handling concentration, recall, using magic and more; and Charisma for interacting with NPCs and recruiting companions. The difference is that Wisdom, in addition to covering the usual perception and intuition, actually handles ranged attacks! It is a radical change, but it means that Wisdom can be used as a more active attribute and that ranged attacks are associated with perception, and also it shifts some of the traditional emphasis in other retroclones away from Dexterity.

Each Attribute has both a bonus and a defence. The bonus is equal to the lowest value rolled during character creation. This is done using three six-sided dice, in order, as is traditional. Thus if a player rolled three, four, and five, to get a total of twelve, the bonus would be three. The Defence for an Attribute is the bonus value, plus ten. A Player Character also has a Level, which begins at zero, and represents the degree to which he has been affected by exposure to the true nature of the universe. As gains Levels, he will be changed by the universe, and gain odd powers or gifts, such as halo of light forming around his head which he must constantly concentrate on has to continuously concentrate to suppress, becoming semi-fireproof, or gaining true sight and so be able to see through the disguises of the creatures and things that have managed to cross through the barrier. Both Hit Points and Mind Points—the latter the equivalent of Sanity found in other roleplaying games—are derived from combinations of the attribute bonuses. A Player Character begins play with no armour and thus the base Armour Defence value, though he may be able to purchase armour during play and thus improve it. He will also have a Background or occupation, and a trauma or event which exposed him to the maelstrom. This trauma also grants him starting Experience Points.
To create a character in Kuf, a player rolls three six-sided dice for the six Attributes, noting their Bonus and Defence values, and then rolls for Background and Trauma, plus the starting Experience Points from the Trauma. He can also roll or pick any extra languages the character knows and either pick or roll for a name.

Emma HanssonBackground: FarmerTrauma: Insanity (Batrachophobia)Languages: Swedish, Hebrew, French, Arabic, Spanish, German
Level 0Experience Points: 139
Hit Points: 8Mind Points: 09
Armour: None Bonus +1/Defence 11

Strength 16 Bonus +5/Defence 15
Dexterity 07 Bonus +1/Defence 11
Constitution 08 Bonus +2/Defence 12
Intelligence 15 Bonus +5/Defence 15
Wisdom 14 Bonus +2/Defence 12
Charisma 11 Bonus +3/Defence 12

Mechanically, Kuf uses a throw of a twenty-sided die against a standard difficulty. If the player rolls sixteen or more, his character succeeds at the action. When it comes to opposed Saving Throws, this can be rolled by the player or the Game Master. For example, if a Player Character attempts to grapple a thief who just robbed him, his player could roll and add his character’s Strength Bonus against the thief’s Dexterity Defence, or the Game Master could roll against the Player Character’s Dexterity Defence adding the thief’s Dexterity Bonus. The option here is whether or not the Game Master and her players want to play Kuf with player-facing rolls or use the standard method in which both players and the Game Master roll as necessary.
The option is also included to use Advantage and Disadvantage, as per Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Typically, this will come from the situation or the environment, but it could also come from any one of the several Traits rolled or chosen during character creation. The mix of these underlie who or what a character is and so bringing them into play encourages roleplaying.

Combat in Kuf is kept simple. The Player Characters and their opponents both have a fifty percent chance of winning the Initiative, and attack rolls, whether using the Strength Bonus for melee attacks or the Wisdom Bonus for ranged attacks, have to be greater than the Defence value of the armour worn. Alternatively, if using player-facing rolls, the defending player would roll his character’s Armour Bonus to beat the attacker’s Defence value. In addition, Opposed Saving Throws can be used to do Stunts, such as stunning an opponent, knocking them over, disarming them, smashing armour, and so on. Stunts do not do damage though, although they can be combined with an attack attempt if the attacker has Advantage. This is instead rolling the two twenty-sided dice which is normal for Advantage.

Successful attacks do not just inflict damage per the weapon’s die size, but also by the type of attack. Blunt force trauma inflicts light wounds; shots, stabs, and cuts inflict serious wounds; destructive damage inflicts critical wounds; and beyond that, there are permanent wounds. On the character sheet, there are boxes for tracking Hit Points and wounds, each type of wound being marked with a different symbol. One type of wound can upgrade a lesser type, and once all of the boxes have been filled in on a Player Character’s wound track, his player starts again at the beginning, but fills them the boxes in with the worse wound type. For example, if a Player Character has all of his wound boxes filled with light wounds by being beaten up by thugs armed with baseball bats, and the beating continues, his player would start filling up the wound track with serious wounds. In combat critical hits either add another die’s worth of damage or upgrade the wound type.

Kuf then does the same for the Mind and Mind Points with sources of stress, which can be seeing beyond the barrier for the first time, encountering a frightening monster, suffering from a phobia, being the victim of crime, and so on. Like physical wounds, the effects of stress can be light, serious, critical, or permanent, and greater effects can overwrite the lesser effects. However, when a greater stress type overwrites a lesser type, a Player Character can suffer a Stress Reaction. This might be that he freezes on the spot, fleeing, or even attacking the source of stress. Critical trauma suffered through stress can also inflict nightmares, phobias, and worse.

In both cases of physical and mental damage, permanent wounds reduce a Player Character’s attribute bonuses each time permanent wounds are suffered. Player Characters in Kuf are meant to be fragile, but this gives them a greater degree of resilience than is found in Knave. However, there is a brutal nature to that resilience as more wounds are suffered and the damage gets worse and worse—and Kuf applies this to both mental and physical damage.
For the Referee there is advice on running the game and its three phases—the Exploration Phase, Confrontation Phase, and Recovery Phase—as well discussions on the nature of the barrier and what lies beyond it, ritual magic, cults and cultists, artefacts and books, and creatures from nightmare, and in general the advice is good. However, there are problems with it, one lesser, three greater. The lesser problem is that the section for the Referee is not as well presented and in a lot of the table results for various tasks, like seeking medical care or purchasing illegal equipment, there are sections missing. The first of the greater problems is that the Kuf does not give the Referee enough threats or rituals or books or artefacts for her to really get started or take inspiration from. There really is only one of each and it is just not enough.
The second greater problem is that there is no ready-to-play scenario. Now the Referee can take the somewhat frugal examples and inspiration from them to develop a scenario, and similarly, take inspiration from the lengthy example of play that takes up the last quarter of the book. This is quite entertaining and shows the reader how the designer intends Kuf to be played.
The third greater problem is the broad nature of the game’s background. Gnosticism is the belief that human beings contain a piece of the highest good or a divine spark within themselves, and that both these bodies and the material world, having been created by an inferior being, are evil. Since it is trapped in the material world and ignorant of its status, this divine spark needs knowledge—‘gnosis’—in order to understand their true nature. This knowledge must come from outside the material world, which in Kuf is the other side of the barrier. At the same in Kuf, the Player Characters are protecting others from what lies on the other side of the barrier, and yet despite underpinning the roleplaying game, this deeper background is never really explored in Kuf. Perhaps the inclusion of a scenario or better yet, more threats, cults, creatures from beyond, and so on would have given scope for the designer to present this background in an accessible fashion.
Physically, Kuf is plain and simple, without any illustrations. It needs an edit, especially in the latter two thirds of the book.
Kuf works as a brutally nasty horror game—at least in mechanical terms, but does not quite work as a fully rounded, playable roleplaying game. If the Referee is looking for a modern day, grim and gritty horror roleplaying game using Old School Renaissance-style mechanics, then Kuf has the basics of everything she needs. If the Referee is looking for a modern day, grim and gritty horror roleplaying game with an interesting setting, then Kuf is not quite it. With some development (or even a second edition) Kuf could be the Gnostic horror game which the author envisioned, for its pages contain suggestions of it, tantalising the reader and the Referee like hints behind some kind of barrier, waiting the revelation which will reach out and touch that divine spark…

What Are The Prisoners of Rec-Loc-119? is a scenario designed for Metamorphosis Alpha: Fantastic Role-Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventures on a Lost Starship. The first Science Fiction roleplaying game and the first post-apocalypse roleplaying game, Metamorphosis Alpha is set aboard the Starship Warden, a generation spaceship which has suffered an unknown catastrophic event which killed the crew and most of the million or so colonists and left the ship irradiated and many of the survivors and the flora and fauna aboard mutated. Some three centuries later, as Humans, Mutated Humans, Mutated Animals, and Mutated Plants, the Player Characters, knowing nothing of their captive universe, would leave their village to explore strange realm around them, wielding fantastic mutant powers and discovering how to wield fantastic devices of the gods and the ancients that is technology, ultimately learn of their enclosed world. Originally published in 1976, it would go on to influence a whole genre of roleplaying games, starting with Gamma World, right down to Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic from Goodman Games. And it would be Goodman Games which brought the roleplaying game back with the stunning Metamorphosis Alpha Collector’s Edition in 2016, and support the forty-year old roleplaying game with a number of supplements, many which would be collected in the ‘Metamorphosis Alpha Treasure Chest’.
What Are The Prisoners of Rec-Loc-119? takes a place on a forested deck of the Starship Warden. The Player Characters have spent a day or so exploring this forested deck and made camp, but when they wake up the next day, they hear the sounds of movement from a device of Ancients nearby. Going to check, they see a buggy with a cage full of prisoners travelling behind a robot being ridden by a mutant on its shoulders. The prisoners are pleading to be set free as the caravan proceeds towards a giant tree. When the Player Characters go to the aid of the prisoners—and they can get quite close using stealth—the caravan’s Mutant guards react quickly, allowing the buggy with its cargo of prisoners to race off into the giant tree.
After defeating the mutants, the Player Characters are free to follow the buggy and explore the giant tree, which it turns out is an elevator. Either by climbing down the deep elevator shaft or taking the elevator down, they only have access to the one level, some kind of factory producing green protein bars and guarded by a rag-tag band of Mutant guards. There is something quite horrid going on here and all too quickly, the Player Characters can discover the nature of the ingredients which go into these protein bars and who is behind it. The facility it turns out is Rec-Loc-119, which before the great calamity which befell the Starship Warden, was a biological reclamation facility which transformed biological matter into a protein rich food bar. As a result of the disaster, One-Nineteen, the now-sentient computer is determined to fulfil its programming, regardless of who has to die in the process. It has allied itself with the Mutants living in its facility and they have been conducting raids for fresh victims out on the forested deck above. With luck, the Player Characters can avoid the same fate that befell the previous prisoners, rescue the current prisoners, defeat One-Nineteen, and not eat too many green protein bars before they discover what they are made from!
What Are The Prisoners of Rec-Loc-119? requires one of the Player Characters to be a Robot as it will be able to interface with One-Nineteen. These are not detailed in the standard rules for Metamorphosis Alpha, but come from the ‘Robots as Players in Metamorphosis Alpha’ article from Dragon #14. Alternatively, they can be found in the Metamorphosis Alpha Deluxe Hardcover Collector’s Edition. Another option would be for the Judge to include a Robot character as an NPC. It is suggested that the scenario be run for more experienced Player Characters and to reflect that, that they should gain a roll or two on the Technological and Mutated Substances Treasures Lists.

Physically, What Are The Prisoners of Rec-Loc-119? is cleanly presented. The maps are excellent and the illustrations decently done. If there is an issue with the scenario, it is that its requirement for a Robot Player Character may not be possible for every playing group, and further, where many of the scenarios available for Metamorphosis Alpha are usually easily adaptable to other Post-Apocalyptic settings or roleplaying games, such as Mutant Crawl Classics, this is not case for this scenario. This is because not every Post-Apocalyptic setting or roleplaying game includes robots as a Player Character option or even robots at all. However, What Are The Prisoners of Rec-Loc-119? does have scope for expansion onto the other floors accessible via the giant elevator, though at the time of the scenario, they are not accessible. Ultimately, What Are The Prisoners of Rec-Loc-119? is a nasty little dungeon with a big bad at the end. It is nicely detailed, with plenty of flavour, and would be easy to drop into an ongoing campaign. 

It has been a while since there was mass audience boardgame designed to introduce Dungeons & Dragons. The original dungeoneering board from TSR, Inc. was of course, Dungeon!, most recently republished a decade ago. Before, there had been the 2010 Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game, which would lead to a number of entries in the ‘Dungeons & Dragons Adventure System Board Games’ series, culminating in the 2019 Dungeons & Dragons: Waterdeep – Dungeon of the Mad Mage Board Game. All six entries in the series are themed around particular settings for Dungeons & Dragons and designed to introduce those settings as much as the basics of Dungeons & Dragons, including taking turns to be the Dungeon Master. There are elements of this in the latest board game for Dungeons & Dragons aimed at a family audience—Dungeons & Dragons: Adventure Begins.

Published by Wizards of the Coast, is a co-operative, streamlined Dungeons & Dragons-themed board game designed for two to four players, ages ten and up. In it, four heroes will journey across four regions—Gauntlgrym, Mount Hotenow, Neverwinter Wood, and Neverwinter itself—and in the last of these face a Boss monster, either Felbris the Beholder, Orn the Fire Giant, Deathsleep the Green Dragon, or the Kraken. The four heroes—Korinn Nemmonis, a Dragonborn Rogue, Kiya Astorio, a Human Sorcerer, Thia Silverfrond, an Elf Bard, and Tak Strongheart, a Dwarf Fighter—will face different dangers in each location, including a gatekeeper encounter which must be defeated before they can go on to the next location, and their players have opportunities to decide what paths to take, which options to take in terms of what attacks their Heroes can perform, be a little creative here and there, and even take a turn being the Dungeon Master.

Each of the four Heroes consists of three tiles, which slot into a plastic health tracker with a slide. The three tiles are the Hero Tile, which gives the name, Race, and Class, and the Personality Tile and the Combat Tile. All are double-sided. The two sides for the Hero Tile are male and female, but the Personality Tile and Combat Tile provide a personality type and a special ability, and different attacks respectively. The Combat Tile can also be flipped to indicate when a Hero has risen from First Level to Second Level, and so gets better attacks. By changing around the Personality Tile and the Combat Tile, a player can customise his Hero, if only a little.

The game is played on four dungeon boards—Gauntlgrym, Mount Hotenow, Neverwinter Wood, and Neverwinter—that connect one after the other to form a zig-zag. They can be placed in any order, though the last one will contain the Big Boss which the players and their Heroes must defeat to complete the quest. Each dungeon board is marked with a core path consisting of four spaces, three Core Spaces with a Gatekeeper Space at the end. There are two Monster Spaces to the side which the Heroes can divert to if they and their players want to face more monsters and potentially, gain more gold. Each dungeon board also has its own adventure deck, consisting of twenty-four cards, which are either scenario cards or monster cards. The first presents a narrative and a challenge to be overcome, and the second a monster which has to be defeated.

Both play and set-up are quick and easy. Each player selects a Hero and choses which Personality Tile and the Combat Tile his Hero will have. The Big Boss is chosen and the appropriate dungeon board is placed last, with the others connected to it in a random order. Each Adventure Deck is shuffled and placed next its board. There is a plastic deck holder which is used for each Adventure Deck when the Heroes are on the associated dungeon board. Each Hero has its own nicely detailed miniature and a twenty-sided die in the same colour, which placed together on the first Core Space on the first dungeon space. One player will also take the role of the Dungeon Master and roll for the monster attacks—using a ten-sided die instead of the twenty-sided die that each player rolls, which means that the one player will control both a Hero and be the Dungeon Master for the dungeon board. The role of Dungeon Master switch to the next player when the Heroes progress onto the next dungeon board.

From one turn to the next, the Heroes progress along the Core Path on the Dungeon Board, with the Dungeon Master drawing cards from the Adventure Deck. This is done collectively, but Heroes can also take side paths onto Monster Spaces. They can do this together or singularly, but must defeat the monster before carrying on, and if some of the Heroes decide to remain on the Core Path whilst the others monster hunting, they have to wait for them to catch up before everyone can continue. Although fighting monsters means potentially losing Hit Points, if the Heroes win, they can gain more gold. Gold is important because it can be spent to purchase items, level up from First to Second Level, and defy death and re-join play if their Hit Points are reduced to zero.

Combat in Dungeons & Dragons: Adventure Begins is greatly simplified in comparison to Dungeons & Dragons. A player rolls for his Hero against the table on his Hero’s Combat Tile with a twenty-sided die, whilst the Dungeon Master rolls on the table on the monster card with a ten-sided die, which will determine the type of attack made and the amount of damage rolled. For example, Undead Townspeople miss on a roll of one to four, but inflict one point of damage with assorted utensils with a roll of five or more, whereas a Hero and his player always has a choice of three—a combination of two weapon and spell attacks, and a move or creative attack. For example, Thia Silverfrond, the Elf Bard, could fire an arrow with his shortbow for a point of damage as the weapon attack, break out into hideous laughter for two damage as a spell-like attack, or create a Theatrical Distraction to get the monster’s attention using a musical instrument or an item from his backpack. If successful, the Theatrical Distraction either inflicts two points of damage or just the one, in which case, the attack also stuns the monster and prevents it from attacking that round. A roll of a natural twenty also inflicts an extra point of damage.

Once the Heroes reach the last space on the dungeon board, the Gateway Space, they must face a tougher monster or challenge, whilst the Big Boss at the end is tough with multiple different attacks and lots of Hit Points. Every Big Boss comes with some text to read out when it is defeated, which brings the game to a close Of course, by the time the Heroes get to that point, they should ideally have accrued enough gold to boost themselves to Second Level, which also has the added benefit of restoring a Hero’s Hit Points to full.

As a version of Dungeons & Dragons, there can be no doubt that Dungeons & Dragons: Adventure Begins is greatly simplified. Mostly obviously in the singular path that the Heroes have to take in progressing from one dungeon board to the next to reach the Big Boss, but the Dungeon Master’s role is really reduced to rolling attacks randomly rather than choosing them. On the other hand, the players are presented with choices—simple ones, but choices, nonetheless. Again most obviously, in choosing which of the three attacks his Hero can use and whether or not to deviate from the Core Path to a Monster Space and there face an enemy in combat. Yet there is another choice too, one which encourages a little bit of creativity upon the part of the player. The creative attack calls for the player to describe how his hero uses items from his backpack, whether from the backpack chosen at the start of the game, or an item purchased during play, and that calls for some inventiveness. When that works—and sometimes what it does not work—that adds a bit of story to the play of Dungeons & Dragons: Adventure Begins as well to the Hero himself. There at least you have the basics of roleplaying found in Dungeons & Dragons present in this game.

However, there are issues with just how many times Dungeons & Dragons: Adventure Begins can be replayed before it gets stale. Now every Hero has two options in terms of both the special ability on the Personality Tile and the various attacks on the Combat Tile, and with twenty-four cards in the Adventure Deck for each dungeon board, there is a reasonable mix to be found there. With just four Big Bosses and a limited number of Gateway Cards, there is less variability in the end of level bosses to be encountered. Another issue is that the game plays better with all four Heroes, so it is best with four players, or fewer players sharing the Heroes. Other options might be for a parent to be the Dungeon Master whilst her children play the Heroes, or even a player take on the game in solitaire mode.

Physically, Dungeons & Dragons: Adventure Begins is decently done and of a reasonable quality. The miniatures are nice, and having colour-coordinated with the dice is a nice touch. Having the plastic stands for both the Heroes, the Adventure Deck, and the Big Bosses also adds a physical presence to the game.

For the experienced gamer, whether he plays Dungeons & Dragons or not, Dungeons & Dragons: Adventure Begins is at best a mild diversion, at worst simplistic. Yet for a younger audience or a family audience, especially one interested in Dungeons & Dragons or roleplaying, this is decent first step. There are some clever little elements in Dungeons & Dragons: Adventure Begins which encourage a creativity and inventiveness without making things any more complex. It would be interesting to see a sequel, Dungeons & Dragons: Adventure Continues, but Dungeons & Dragons: Adventure Begins is a serviceable start.

The pirates came to your village and unleashed bloody murder and chaos upon your home. They killed your dog, Boris, and stole his embroidered collar. They beheaded your mother and stole her head. They left your grandparents blind and salted the family farm. They kidnapped your sibling and forced them into servitude. They stole the Sword of Vengeance, your responsibility and your birthright. They slaughtered all of the village’s livestock and used their corpses to foul the village well. They were joined in plundering your village by your best friend, and now he has joined them. They ruined your life, your home, and your future. Now you want your revenge. You know the pirates sailed out of their thoroughly wretched hive of scum and villainy, Corpsewake Cove, and now you plan to sneak in and have your bloody vengeance. You do not know who led the raid upon your village, but Corpsewake Cove is ruled by a council of five Pirate Kings, so better to kill them all. It does not matter your name, but they had better prepare to die, whether you assassinate them one by one, or simply put them to the sword!

This is the set-up for Corpsewake Cove, a tale of romance and revenge—but really mostly revenge, in which the Player Characters sneak into the spumous seaside settlement, investigate the town, and take what opportunity they can. Published by Ember + Ash following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is a Mörk Borg compatible scenario which presents everything to explore a pirate town all but hanging from a cliff over a cove in which swims the Frankenshark, a harbour at which the five singular ships of the five Pirate Kings are docked, write-ups of the five Pirate Kings and their crews, various NPCs and locations, plots, and a countdown to disaster which will come to pass come the end of the week.

For the Player Characters, Corpsewake Cove begins with their being in the tavern. Grieving over their loss, they are rueful and revenge-filled, deciding how best to take it upon the men and women who caused it. An ex-pirate, Bunket, shares with the Player Characters what he knows of the Pirate Kings, Corpsewake Cove, and what approaches he might have had he sworn bloody vengeance on a bunch of bloodthirsty and brutal pirates and their even more terrible masters. Three alternatives are included if the players do not want their characters to be motivated by revenge: Bounty Hunter, Treasure-Crazed Lunatic (because where there are pirates, there is always treasure), and Dewy-Eyed Pirate Wannabe. These come with a bit of background and a flavoursome list of equipment. Whichever motivation chosen, Corpsewake Cove will still rely upon the various character Classes given in Mörk Borg, Mörk Borg Cult: Feretory, and Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic, which does feel slightly odd, in that the Player Characters are almost as wretched, if not more so, than the pirates of Corpsewake Cove. Of course, they are not as scurvy, but this definitely a scenario involving the wretched versus the wretched!

For the Game Master, there is a useful list of pirate slang, a timeline of events whilst the Player Characters in Corpsewake Cove, details of each of the Pirate Kings’ ships—differentiated by colour, no less!, full write-ups for all five Pirate Kings—again colour coded, a description of the curse which besets the bay and town (because pirates and curses go together like rhubarb crumble and custard), and then a tour of all fourteen locations in the town. All of these are crammed up the face of the cliff and include the Ruddy Wren, a fine old house subdivided into horridly unpleasant little rooms rented out for the night, though upstairs rooms are available and the downstairs ones strangely locked; Jack’s Pulpit, a bloody bare knuckle fight ring overlooked by a ‘pet’ manticore chained to a wall; and St. Delphin’s, the town’s church, overseen by a priest distraught at the godless state into which the town has fallen! There are locations underneath the town too, and an array of weird monsters, all with a piratical theme. The most include the Soggy Zombie Pirates, One Good Rat Boy (ordinary rat, but the size of a child), Deranged Seagulls (aren’t they all?) with weaponised poop, a ship’s figurehead which animates almost Kaiju-like, and an actual Ex-Parrot! Lastly, there is a set of tables for generating pirate names, traits, and attire and equipment, useful because, well, Corpsewake Cove is full of pirates (and zombie pirates).

Corpsewake Cove is designed to be Player Character driven. They will probably move into the pirate port and find a place to stay before beginning to monitor the activities and movements of the five Pirate Kings. This will involve visiting locations and in the process interacting with the inhabitants of Corpsewake Cove and hopefully begin to have some idea as to the plots going in the background—some of which they might use to their advantage. The Pirate Kings will go about their activities as normal, including sailing in and out of the port on raids as time passes by. Although each of the Pirate Kings is described in detail, what the scenario does lack is advice as to what they do once the Player Characters begin taking their revenge and killing their fellow captains.

Physically, Corpsewake Cove takes its cue from Mörk Borg, but barring the acid yellow, tends towards less vibrant shades. Although it requires a slight edit in places, it is in general well written. It does need a slight reorganisation in places as the underground locations feel as if they are in the wrong order.

Corpsewake Cove offers opportunities for exploration and interaction and weirdness—as you would expect for a Mörk Borg scenario, but its ultimate path is one to blue bloody murder and revenge. How the Player Characters go down this path is up to their players and their cut of the jib, and more than half the fun!

It was with no little disappointment that Cubicle Seven Entertainment announced in November, 2019 that it would no longer be publishing The One Ring: Adventures Over The Edge Of The Wild, the hobby’s fourth and most critically acclaimed attempt to create a roleplaying game based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Originally published in 2011, fans had been looking forward to the second edition of the game, which was being worked on at the time of the announcement. When in 2020, Swedish publisher, Free League Publishing—best known for Tales from the Loop – Roleplaying in the '80s That Never Was, Alien: The Roleplaying Game, and Symbaroum—announced that it had acquired the licence, there was some concern that its forthcoming edition would be based on its Year Zero mechanics. The good news is that following a successful Kickstarter campaign, The One Ring, Second Edition not only retains its original design and writing team, but also the same mechanics—with some updates, and it receives its very own starter set.

The One Ring Starter Set provides both an introduction to the roleplaying game and everything necessary to begin a short campaign. Inside the sturdy box can be found three booklets—the twenty-four-page Rules booklet, the fifty-two page The Shire booklet, and the thirty-one page The Adventures booklet, a set of double-sided character sheets for eight pre-generated Player Characters, two large maps showing the Shire and Eriador, and two sets of play aids which can be used The One Ring, Second Edition core rules. These consist of a deck of thirty Wargear Cards and six double-sided Journey Role and Combat Stance Cards. Lastly, there is a set of eight dice, which include two Feat dice.

What is noticeable about The One Ring Starter Set is that it is very much focused on the Shire, the home of the Hobbits. This includes most of the eight pre-generated Player Characters, the maps, the adventures in The Adventures booklet, and of course, The Shire booklet. This emphasises several aspects of The One Ring, Second Edition. First is its shift from Rhovanion, the region to the East of the Misty Mountains which was the main focus for The One Ring, First Edition, to Eriador, the region to the West of the Misty Mountains. With supplements such as Rivendell, Bree, and Ruins of the North, parts of Eriador had been explored, but no further. Second, is The Shire as a starting point for adventure, with the Player Characters first coming to see that there are dangers and thrills to be had within the borders of their own homeland, and then consequently, becoming curious enough to look beyond… Thus, exactly as Bilbo when he went away with Gandalf and the Dwarves, and came back probably mad, but definitely more than a little well off. Third is the shifting of the date. Where The One Ring, First Edition opened in the year 2946 of the Third Age, exactly five years after the Battle of the Five Armies, many years have passed since—in some cases the full adventuring career for some wayward folk— The One Ring, Second Edition and thus The One Ring Starter Set opens in the year 2960 of the Third Age, nearly twenty years after the Battle of the Five Armies. This is reflected in the choice of the pre-generated Player Characters. The primary ones consist of Drogo Baggins, Esmeralda Took, Lobelia Bracegirdle, Paladin Took II, Primula Brandybuck, and Rorimac Brandybuck (the other two are Balin, Son of Fundin and Bilbo Baggins, but are not initially available to play), and represent the generation between that of Bilbo, and that of Frodo Baggins, Peregrin Took, and Meriadoc Brandybuck—and in some cases they are the parents of Frodo, Pippin, and Merry. This is of course, years before the events of The Lord of the Rings, and whilst still moving forward with the timeline, both The One Ring Starter Set and The One Ring, Second Edition are still looking back to The Hobbit.

The Rules booklet introduces The One Ring Starter Set, the base setting and the rules. It includes an example of play, explanations of who the Player-heroes are and what they do, how the game is played, what the skills are, and how adventuring works. Mechanically, The One Ring uses dice pools formed of six-sided dice and the twelve-sided Feat die. The six-sided Success dice are marked with an Elven Rune for ‘1’ on the six face, whilst the Feat dice is marked one through ten, and one face with the ‘Eye of Sauron’ Icon and one face with the ‘Gandalf’ Rune. When rolled, these can all together give various results. A simple numerical total that beats a Target Number is a standard success, but if the roll beats a Target Number and one or more Elven Runes are rolled, they indicate a Great or even an Extraordinary success. If the ‘Eye of Sauron’ Icon is rolled, this is the worst result and does not contribute anything towards the roll. Conversely, if the ‘Gandalf’ Rune is rolled, this is the best result and the action automatically succeeds, even if the total does not beat the target number.

The Target Number itself is determined by a Player-hero’s Attributes, either Strength, Heart, or Wits, depending upon if the player is rolling for a skill, combat proficiency, Wisdom, or Valour. In addition, if a skill is Favoured or Ill-favoured, a player rolls two Feat dice, counting the higher result if Favoured, the lower if Ill-favoured. Extra Success dice can be purchased and rolled through the expenditure of Hope.

Combat uses the same mechanics, but uses a Player-hero’s Combat Proficiencies—either Axes, Bows, Swords, or Spears, which are rolled against the Target Number derived from his Strength. This is modified by the enemy’s Parry rating. Damage inflicted is deducted from a Player-hero’s Endurance, which can result in him being Weary if his Endurance is knocked below his Load (essentially what he is carrying), and knocked out if it is reduced to zero. However, adversaries cannot become Weary, but are knocked out or eliminated when their Endurance is reduced to zero. If one or more Elven ‘1’ Runes are rolled on the Success dice, they can spent to inflict Heavy Blows and more Endurance damage, Fend Off the next attack against you, Pierce armour and potentially do a Piercing Blow, which is definitely inflicted if a ten or a ‘Gandalf’ Rune is rolled. If a Piercing Blow is struck, the defendant’s player rolls to see if his Player-hero’s armour protects him. Wounded Player-heroes recover Endurance slowly and are knocked out if a second Wound is suffered. Adversaries are typically killed by Wounds.

If there is an issue with this it is that it lacks an example of combat. Overall, though the rules explanation is well done in the Rules booklet, and is easy to grasp whether you are new to The One Ring, or making the adjustment from The One Ring, First Edition.

The Shire booklet is the longest of the three booklets in The One Ring Starter Set. This begins with the founding of the Shire and small folk came from along the Anduin to settle first in Bree and then petition the King of Men for a land of their own. In return they were ordered to maintain the great East-West Road. Later, the Oldbucks would cross the Brandywine River and found Buckland, Bandobras ‘Bullroarer’ Took of Long-Cleeve would lead the Hobbitry-in-arms to victory against Golfimbul and his Goblin horde (and also create the game of Golf by knocking the goblin chief’s head clean off and down a rabbit hole), before coming all the way up to date with the disappearance of Bilbo Baggins and his return… Not much, it appears, happens in the Shire. Most of the booklet is dedicated to the geography of the Shire across its Four Farthings and beyond into Buckland (and little further). Throughout the booklet sidebars explore different aspects of Hobbit culture, such as the Art of Smoking and smoke ring competitions, Hobbit attitudes towards Gandalf the Grey (mostly he means trouble, unless fireworks are involved), and descriptions of important NPCs, like Mayor Pott Whitfoot, or Gorbadoc ‘Old Broadbelt’ Brandybuck, the current Master of Buckland. There are also tables of random events and encounters and things they might learn at this in and that, and more, along with little extra details which the Loremaster can take away and form into small adventures that can be played beyond the five in the Adventures booklet. The booklet slips out of the Shire at the very end and into the Old Forest, perhaps the very first destination for any brave Hobbit looking to venture beyond the Shire borders. There they might meet the happiest and strangest being near the Shire, Tom Bombadil. One lovely touch to the book is a full page spread piece of artwork depicting Hobbits crossing the Brandywine via the Bucklebury Ferry. This separates the longer set of chapters of the Four Farthings of the Shire and Buckland, in effect taking the reader across the water and amongst those strange folk who like messing about on boats and swimming…

The Shire booklet is The One Ring Starter Set’s longevity. It will be the source material that the Loremaster will want to consult again and again when wanting to run adventures in this part of Eriador. It is lovingly detailed and there are lots of little elements and facts which the Loremaster can bring into play.

The Adventures booklet contains five adventures which together make up ‘The Conspiracy of the Red Book’ campaign. Three need to be run in order—the first one and the last two, but the other two can be run second or third in the campaign. The Player-heroes, Hobbits all, are summoned by Bilbo Baggins for tea and a task or two, all to imbue in them a little of the same sense of adventure that he now has. The adventures will send the Player-heroes hither and thither across the Shire and have them doing very un-Hobbity things. The campaign is really rather fun and should provide several good sessions’ worth of play.

In addition to the three booklets, The One Ring Starter Set contains the eight Player-hero sheets and the double-sided map. The eight Player-hero sheets are nice and clear and easy to read, with the stats and skills on one side, and a fuller illustration and reason for their involvement on the back. They are of course, all linked by family connections, as any good Hobbits should be. They should be all fun to play (especially Lobelia Bracegirdle!) and all have decent Stealth and Riddle skills, but low combat skills. The map is done in full colour, on heavy paper stock, and depicts the Shire on one side, and Eriador on the other.

Physically, The One Ring Starter Set is very cleanly presented in a clear, open style, and the content itself is engaging to read. In particular, the maps are excellent, done in a style reminiscent of Tolkien and will satisfy any Tolkien fan. The artwork is also very good, a pen and ink style that captures the old-world rustic charm of the Shire. One lovely touch is that the inside of the starter set’s box lid and box bottom are not wasted. On the inside of the lid is a quick explanation of the rules for easy reference, whilst on the inside of the bottom box is a full colour map of the Shire. Both are nice touches that give The One Ring Starter Set an extra thoughtfulness. It is interesting to note that the ‘One Ring’ motif on the cover of The One Ring Starter Set is a different colour—green instead of red. Does this indicate something, perhaps the degree of threat or peril presented within its pages, or is just a different colour?

If perhaps The One Ring Starter Set is missing anything, it is a ‘where next?’ section. What does the Loremaster run after the ‘The Conspiracy of the Red Book’ campaign? The obvious choice is Bree as it is close by and if the Loremaster has access to it, then the adventures in The One Ring, First Edition supplement could be adapted to be run using The One Ring Starter Set. If not yet available, then the Loremaster will have to wait at least until there is a supplement for Bree (or another nearby area) or switch to The One Ring, Second Edition core rulebook.

Perhaps the biggest potential issue with The One Ring Starter Set is that it is slightly difficult to determine who The One Ring Starter Set is quite aimed at. It possesses a family-friendly tone and is steeped in the lore of Middle-earth, but as an introduction to roleplaying it does not start from first principles and therefore, prospective players will need some understanding of how roleplaying works. If the Loremaster does have that understanding, then the decent explanation of the rules and the family-friendly tone of both the lore and the adventures, combined with the fact that the adventures begin from the same starting point as The Hobbit, mean that The One Ring Starter Set can be used to introduce both roleplaying and roleplaying in Middle-earth. Experienced role-players will have no difficulty though picking up and playing The One Ring from the contents of The One Ring Starter Set, but fans of The One Ring, First Edition, may find its beginning point too simple and lacking the sense of lurking darkness found in Middle-earth during this period, and not necessarily want to play all Hobbits. Of course a starter set is not designed to cover everything that the full rulebook will detail, but The One Ring Starter Set is rich in lore and the Shire was always meant to be a rustic idyll, which should appeal to Middle-earth fans.

The One Ring Starter Set is a lovely boxed set in itself with the Tolkienesque layout, delightfully rustic artwork, and quite beautiful depiction of Middle-earth through its maps. With its stripped back version of the full rules and emphasis of adventuring within the boundaries of the Shire, The One Ring Starter Set provides an engaging introduction to The One Ring, Second Edition and roleplaying in Middle-earth.

In ages past, following the defeat and death of King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann, Queen Guinevere slipped the All’s Well portal and into the mysterious lands of the fae that were a mirror to the British Isles. These lands were and are known for their magics—their ability to Shape, that is the Shaping of the four elements—Air, Earth, Fire, and Water, and two powerful opposing energies, Belief and Disbelief. Disbelief, brought about through greed, corruption, cruelty, and bloodshed, is strong enough to damage the World Tree at the base of the Islands, but Belief can be stronger still, strong enough to restore the health of the World Tree. The islands are also home to many fae, known as the Friends. These include the flightless, but birdlike Glimmer who sometimes use Shadowshaping for criminal ends; the goatlike Capra, typically traders, but who dislike Trolls and their bridges; the four-armed Piskies who like building automata; the regal Wyrmbitten who regret knowing nothing about their heritage; the turtlelike Bucca who prefer the freedom of the ocean; the molelike Knockers who enjoy solitary lives digging for silver and gems; the winged and birdlike Glow, who research Belief; and the Giantheld, peaceful stone giants. Queen Guinevere found the Islands at war with powerful Shape-wielding Wyrms who hoarded Belief, the conflict enabling Disbelief to wither the World Tree. Together, Queen Guinevere and the fae forced the Wyrms into hiding, and she made a pact with the fae, that whenever the World Tree was poisoned by Disbelief, some of her descendants would follow their dreams into the Islands, and there learn to Shape magic, collect enough Belief, and so heal the World Tree. Every few generations, several teenagers enter the Islands and learn and adventure together. They are known as Pendragons, and once their adventures are over, they can return to the real world as if no time has passed at all, but some do stay, and continue to adventure and even train new Pendragons.

This is the setting for Inspirisles, a storytelling roleplaying game published by Hatchlings Games. It is a storytelling game set in a magical realm, in which teenagers learn to Shape the elements and go on adventures together, solve puzzles, combat Disbelief through Belief—though not through bloodshed as it is forbidden in the Islands n, heal the World Tree, and prevent Calamity befalling the islands. The latter is done by undertaking a second quest—the recovery of the pieces of Excalibur which were stolen following King Arthur’s burial in the Islands. Calamity is gained by failing tasks or tests, and as it grows, Trolls build new bridges into communities and ravage them, cold iron is used to kill fae, a Wellbeing from another dimension appears via the All’s Well, and the Questing Beast might slip free of the Underisles to stalk the Pendragons.

Published following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Inspirisles is inspired by Arthurian legend and Celtic myth, and by films such as Labyrinth and The Neverending Story. Designed to be played by teenagers and young adults, it is written to be inclusive of identity and gender. Ideally, this should be five players, one for each of the four Elements, plus the Grail Guide, the name for the Game Master in Inspirisles. More particular though is the fact that it is designed to be played by the deaf and the hard of hearing, and to support that, not only does it provide an introduction to and help teach Deaf culture and sign language—both American Sign Language and British Sign Language—it uses sign language as part of game play. Just as words, letters, numbers, and expressions are shaped out in sign language, in Inspirisles, the players Shape out their characters’ magical control of the Elements. Of course, magic has always had a somatic aspect, even in something like the shaping and casting of Isho in SkyRealms of Jorune, but in Inspirisles, the players are literally Shaping what their characters are Shaping, and it gives the game a wonderful physicality.

A Pendragon is simply defined and very quick to create. They have a name and set of preferred pronouns, a past memory of their ancestor’s time in the Islands and a connected Friend associated with that memory, a preferred Element (Air, Earth, Fire, or Water) and its associated patron, a hobby they are passionate about, and a Sanctuary which is entered via the Questing Cabin they share with their fellow Pendragons. The Questing Cabin is somewhere they can reflect on their adventures and plan further adventures. The latter is a personal space where they will always feel safe and contains five items which are important to them. Several tables are provided for the players to choose from if they are short of ideas.

Name: Bowie
Pronouns: Them/Their
Element: Water Patron: Athelyn Friend: Wyrmbitten
Hobby: Tarot
Sanctuary: My grandmother’s room with its rich colourful hangings, smell of incense, well-worn and much used tarot deck on the table, and a plate of her favourite
Items Worn: Headphones, nose piercing, jumper
Items Carried: Ukulele, mug

Mechanically, Inspirisles is all about its magic through the Elements and Shaping. Both Elements and Shaping are used to overcome Belief Barriers and enter into Disbelief Battles. The former are puzzles or problems which the Pendragons need to solve or overcome, whilst the latter are contests against a threat infused with Disbelief, for example, a troll who has built a bridge into a community and is about to pillage it. Players and their Pendragons work together to solve a problem, explaining how their Shaping and their use of their Element contribute to the solution, working through a Leader. The Leader will change from problem to problem, depending upon which Element is best suited to dealing with the current situation.

Shaping itself comes in three Levels—Weak, Strong, and Potent. These are increasing complexities of sign language, from signing out simple words to facial expressions and body language to full sentences with syntax. At its simplest, a player and their Pendragon would sign ‘W-A-T-E-R’ or ‘E-A-R-T-H’, and the greater the Level of the Shaping, the more bonuses can be contributed to a situation. Learning to Shape—and thus sign language—is helped by the Lexicon in Inspirisles’ appendices of both American Sign Language and British Sign Language.

To undertake a Test, the Leader rolls three six-sided dice, the target number always being eleven or more. The difficulty is represented by the number of Tests, typically one, two, or three, but can go as high as five for tough opponents or situations, that the Pendragons have to pass. A roll of three or four is an automatic failure and always adds Disbelief to the Calamity Meter, whilst a roll of seventeen or eighteen is an Unshakeable success and grants the Pendragons Belief. The Level of Shaping and the contribution of the other Pendragons both add bonuses and allow rerolls. As aggressive Elements, Air and Fire can force an opponent to reroll some of their dice, whilst the defensive Earth and Water enable a Leader to reroll some of their dice. In Disbelief Battles, the dominant Element—Fire dominates Earth, Earth dominates Air, Air dominates Water, and Water dominates Fire—can remove an opponent’s capacity to reroll. The point of having the one Leader roll is that it keeps the mechanics simple and fast, but by having everyone else round the table contribute, Inspirisles encourages teamwork.
For example, the Pendragons need to cross over to a nearby island, but the bridge has been badly damaged in a severe storm. If they can get to the island, they hope to find out why. The Pendragons decide that Dana will be the Leader as the dominant Element is Earth, her player described how she will restore and repair the bridge. In turn, Bowie describes how she Shapes the Water to keep it away from the bridge and being washed away, Ember will Shape Fire to light the way, and Nolan will Shape the Air to make it easier to lift the stones of the bridge back into place. Each of the players successfully Shapes and their Element, granting a bonus of four to the roll. Dana rolls the three six-sided dice and gets one, two, and three. With the bonus of four, this gives a total of ten, so not enough to succeed. Fortunately, Earth is the dominant Element and allows a Leader to reroll. So Dana’s player rerolls the one and gets a two, which changes the total to eleven and thus a success.For the Grail Guardian, there is advice on the types of Tests which Shaping can be used in, including Smarts, Speed, Survival, and Social Tests, handling and narrating failure, and more, noting that whilst injury is possible, Bloodshed is not. There is only a small selection of ‘monsters’ or threats described, but the Grail Guardian could easily find other sources. Besides a description of the Islands and the Underisles—written as a tour, there is an adventure, ‘Questing Day’ and suggestions to further inspire the Grail Guardian.

Where Inspirisles comes up short is really handling Pendragon progression—it is possible to be rewarded with items infused with the Elements which add bonuses in Tests, but Inspirisles never gets round to detailing its end point, that is what happens at the World Tree and the giving of collected belief there. Whilst there are Cheat Sheets for Belief Barrier and Disbelief Battle Tests, both are perfunctory at best, and do not reference the rules for them earlier in the book. In fact, the rules for Belief Barrier and Disbelief Battle Tests are best explained in the examples rather than the rules. This is compounded by the lack of an index, which would have made everything much, much easier to find.

Physically, Inspirisles is clearly presented and written in an engaging and personal style. The reader is constantly addressed by in-game characters and the book is illustrated with bright depictions of Pendragons, and the Islands and their inhabitants. The book could have been better organised in places and it definitely needs an index. Overall though, there is very much a sense of warmth to the book.

Inspirisles is primarily a roleplaying game written for the Deaf community to play, but it is also a teaching aid in that students (and others) can learn both sign language and the skill of storytelling through play of Inspirisles. As the latter it does have its limitations in that it is only primer, and likewise, being aimed at a teenage audience does mean that it will not necessarily appeal to everyone. Another limitation perhaps is that not everyone will want to learn a sign language to play, so Inspirisles is unlikely to be for them. Then again, think of it as learning magic, and actually learning something new and magical which has a use away from the table.

Inspirisles is definitely a roleplaying game with an audience which is unfortunately not always considered by the hobby, but by creating a roleplaying game built around sign language, Hatchling Games has created a game which supports and recognises the way in which the Deaf community communicates and brings a physicality to the play. The result is that Inspirisles is both a clever way and a novel way in which to introduce gaming to the Deaf community and both Deaf culture and sign language to the gaming community.

Since 2018, the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG, beginning with the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG – Player’s Survival Guide has proved to be a popular choice when it comes to self-publishing. Numerous authors have written and published scenarios for the roleplaying game, many of them as part of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest, but the publisher of the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG, Tuesday Knight Games has also supported the roleplaying game with scenarios and support of its own. Dead Planet: A violent incursion into the land of the living for the MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game is one such scenario, but Tuesday Knight Games has also published a series of mini- or Pamphlet Modules. The first of these are The Haunting of Ypsilon 14 and Hideo’s World. The third is Terminal Delays at Anarene’s Folly. Where The Haunting of Ypsilon 14 was a traditional ‘haunted house in space monster hunt’ and Hideo’s World, presented a horrifyingly odd virtual world, Terminal Delays at Anarene’s Folly is a locked room—or locked ship—McGuffin hunt against the clock and Player Character cluelessness!

The set-up for Terminal Delays at Anarene’s Folly is simple and requires that the Player Characters possess a ship, especially one suited to carrying large amounts of cargo. They are making one more cargo run when they have to dock and refuel at the remote service station of Anarene’s Folly—which when their troubles begin. Their problem is twofold, at least initially. First, someone, and it is up to the Warden to decide, has placed an experimental planetary colonisation device, ‘volatile warhead of chemicals, biological agents and mutagens’ (a bit like the Genesis Device from Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan) aboard their vessel and they know nothing about it. Second, someone else does, the Space Traffic Controller of Anarene’s Folly, and he is prepared to go to ordinary lengths to get hold of it. This is when the Player Characters’ problems multiply…

First, all of the docking berths on the Anarene’s Folly are in use. Then the Anarene’s Folly seems to target the Player Characters’ ship, and when the Player Characters’ vessel is allowed to dock, the maintenance crews aboard the space station seem really, really insistent on getting aboard the ship and carrying out repairs. Does the Player Characters’ space ship require repairs? Should maintenance crews like that actually be armed? Or are the maintenance crews actually coming aboard for some other reason? If so, then what have the Player Characters down to warrant such interest? Those are all questions that that will be flying the minds of both the players and their characters as the events of Terminal Delays at Anarene’s Folly unfold.

The Game Master is given a large number of tools with which to taunt and even gaslight the players and their characters! These are built around a pair of time lines, one which escalates events on the station, whilst the other tracks the hacking attempts on the players’ ship. Together, they form a count up of escalating events and challenges for the Player Characters which threaten to overwhelm them if they do not deal with each one in turn. Accompanying this are details of the marine’s battle plan (the marines having disguised themselves as the Anarene’s Folly maintenance crews) and the profile of the main NPC the Player Characters will interact with. It is likely that the players and their characters will come to hate him, as he will prove evasive and unhelpful. The Warden can colour this interaction by using the ‘Small Talk Table’ and ‘Improvised Marine Tech Jargon Table’, and further, there is ‘Gaslighting Table’ for essentially confusing the players and their characters… 

Terminal Delays at Anarene’s Folly as written feels very much like the scenario and thus the Warden is setting out to screw with the players and their characters. This is because they are placed in what is essentially a reactive stance from one event to the next in the scenario’s escalating timeline, and that escalating timeline really does require the Warden to keep track of lot. Ideally, this should be set up beforehand as part of the Warden’s preparation. The scenario also feels as if it would benefit from the use of deck plans so that the Warden and players can track where their characters are from scene-to-scene and thus which problems they are trying to deal with at any one moment.

Like Hideo’s World before it, Terminal Delays at Anarene’s Folly is different to other scenarios for Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG. Again, it is very much less of a horror scenario than you would normally expect for a roleplaying game which is best known for its Blue Collar Sci-Fi horror one-shots. It is much more of an escalating, against the clock affair where the horror is bureaucratic in nature, its cause unknown for much the scenario. Like Hideo’s World this scenario will need a higher degree of preparation because of its multiple timing mechanisms.

Physically, Terminal Delays at Anarene’s Folly has less of a presence than Hideo’s World primarily because it consists mostly of text. It is broken up into boxes, but it is still text heavy. Lastly, it does need a slight edit in places.
Terminal Delays at Anarene’s Folly is a fairly busy scenario with lots of things that can happen to the Player Characters in quite a confined space—their own spaceship—and piles event after event on them. It requires preparation in terms of what all those events are, but Terminal Delays at Anarene’s Folly is a grueling, often confounding scenario that will test the patience of both players and their characters.
—oOo—
An Unboxing in the Nook video of Hideo’s World can be found here.

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 Battle Mats 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 Towns & Taverns Books of Battle Mats is a ‘Set of 2 Battle Map Books for RPG’. As a set, it comes as two volume set of map books in a slipcase—open ended at either side for easy access. Each of the two volumes is a twelve-inch squire square, spiral bound book, with each containing sixty maps, all marked with a square grid. These start with a pair of maps with just a plain, but quickly leap into depicting particular locations. There are settlements with rough stone crofts, a harbour with wooden jetties, paved squares, taverns with just chairs and tables and taaverns with stages, a warren of brick buildings, great hallways, battlements, dungeon entrances, ruins, an inn, a fortified settlement, a small market, a warehouse, and much, much more. And this is more or less the same in each of the two books. This does not mean that the maps are exactly the same in each book. Rather they are thematically similar and this leads into what is perhaps the greatest feature of The Towns & Taverns Books of Battle Mats.
Each two-page spread of the two volumes of The Towns & Taverns Books of Battle Mats consists of two linked maps—physically and thematically. The Game Master can use either of the maps on the two-page spread on their own or together, as a twelve by twenty-four-inch rectangular map. That though is with the one volume. With two volumes together, the Game Master can combine any single map from one volume with any single map from the other, and if that is not flexible enough, any two-page spread from one volume can be placed next to a two-page spread from the other, in the process, creating a twenty-four by twenty-four-inch square map. What is means is that the Game Master can connect the two harbours or the coastal fortifications to increase their size and length, extend the harbour into the town, add ruins and cemetery around the dungeon entrance, and again, much, much more. As with the other titles in the range, this gives The Towns & Taverns Books of Battle Mats a fantastic versatility which the Game Master can take advantage of again and again in choosing a combination of map pages from the two volumes to create location after location, and then use them to build encounter after encounter.
The individual maps are excellent, being bright, vibrant, detailed, and clear. They are easy to use and easy to modify. A Game Master can easily adjust them with a write-on/wipe-off pen to add features of her own. This is especially important if the Game Master wants to use a map which has previously featured in one of her adventures. She can also add stickers if she wants new features or even actual physical terrain features.
There are three books in the series—The Towns & Taverns Books of Battle Mats, The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats, and The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats, and The Towns & Taverns Books of Battle Mats combines the best features of the other two. Whilst its maps are not as open The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats, they also do not feel as constrained as those in The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats. Or rather their constrained nature befits their locations, as after all, they depict locations which to varying degrees are built up and lived in. These locations tend to have specific uses and so in turn they do possess limitations on how and when the contents of the two volumes can or should be used. Consequently, they are not necessarily that easy to use on the fly, to ready up an encounter at a moment’s notice. Instead, they are easier to use as part of the Game Master’s preparation and then have everything necessary to play. Then obviously, the maps cannot be used over and over lest familiarity become an issue. Neither of these are issues which will prevent a Game Master from using The Towns & Taverns Books of Battle Mats, but rather that she should be aware of them prior to bringing them to the table. 
Physically, The Towns & Taverns Books of Battle Mats 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. Although there is some writing involved in The Towns & Taverns Books of Battle Mats, it is not really what a Game Master is looking for with this two-volume set. Nevertheless, that writing very much needs the attention of an editor—just as it was with both The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats and The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats.
There is no denying the usefulness of maps when it comes to the tabletop gaming hobby. They help players and Game Masters alike visualise an area, they help track movement and position, and so on. If a gaming group does not regularly use miniatures in their fantasy games, The Towns & Taverns Books of Battle Mats might not be useful, but it will still help them visualise an area, and it may even encourage them to use them. If they already use miniatures, whether fantasy roleplaying or wargaming, then the maps in The Towns & Taverns Books of Battle Mats will be undeniably useful. And there are so many fantasy roleplaying games which The Towns & Taverns Books of Battle Mats will work with, almost too many to list here…
The Towns & Taverns Books of Battle Mats is full of attractive, ready-to-use maps that the Game Master can bring to the table for the fantasy roleplaying game of her choice. Both practical and pretty, The Towns & Taverns Books of Battle Mats is an undeniably useful accessory for fantasy gaming in general. 

It is the year 10,191. Urth, the last refuge of humanity is marked with smoke-filled skies, a fractured surface smashed by centuries of warfare and bombardment, whilst firestorms of pyroclastic heat scour the land in. The planet is orbited by the stone cathedral ships of the Infinitum—the empire known as the ‘War Pigs’—amidst a thick field of debris and broken ships and corpses known as the Death Cloud, which rain down death and destruction, and launch assaults by their Borg battalions. Worse, the constant attacks and bombardments have awoken the forces of Hell and driven literal Hellholes from which legions of demons crawl to seek out the last of mankind. Caught between mighty enemies above and below, humanity hides in the cracks, avoiding conflict apart from the rebel bands known as the Screaming Skulls—and they have pulled off not one coup, but two. The first was through a slave engineer forced to work the War Pig vessels, who managed to persuade some of the Infinitum’s mightiest warriors to join the cause of saving humanity! These are the Immortals, clones of the Viking warriors of old, equipped with mighty blades and wearing massive suits of armour, standing ten feet tall, and imbued with the sense of honour they had in the past. For millennia they have been kept in cryostasis, destined to fight and die, and then return to the Infinitum’s Grave Ships to live and fight again. The second was to permanently disable the Grave Ships. The Immortals can now die, and there are only a few of them left. Only the Immortals are capable of taking the fight to both the War Pigs and Hell itself. Will they save humanity before they all die?
This is the setting for Viking Death Squad, a roleplaying game of Heavy Metal fighting, death, and honour in the very far future, inspired by the song, War Pigs, by Black Sabbath. Published by RuneHammer Games, this is a roleplaying game in which the Player Characters go on desperate missions against dark and dangerous foes, knowing that every hit they take could be their last. No mere human can withstand the damage dealt by weapons in the hundredth century—one blow is enough to kill a man, and no Immortal has been known to survive more than three. So they enter every fray in great layers of armour, and when that is smashed, they scavenge Urth’s seemingly endless battlefield for more! Healers are for the weak and those still in the refuges where mankind skulks—on the battlefield, the Healer scrounges up replacement pieces of armour! In addition, the Screaming Skulls can use spell stones, limited use magic, and even Blood Runes, which they can carve into themselves. This is also a roleplaying game with a built-in end—there are only ten Immortals alive in the hundredth century, and when the last one dies, so does hope for all mankind.
A Player Character in Viking Death Squad has six stats—SPEED, WITS, GUTS, AIM, POWER, and RESOLVE—rated between one and six. He also has a Type, either Human or Immortal, which provides some bonuses to stats, plus some skills, and a Role, which also provides bonus skills and the number and types of gear he begins play with. An Immortal typically only begins play with two skills, whereas a Human typically has three or four. The roles also differ for Immortals and Humans. For the latter, there is Hijacker, Grave Robber, Exorcist, Assassin, Junker, Excavator, and more, whilst for the former, there is the Viking Warrior, Shield Maiden, Visigoth, Mariner, Berserker, Trickster, and so on. There are hints in these, as there is elsewhere in Viking Death Squad, to classic gods of the Norse pantheon, but these flavour the setting rather provide in-game benefits. In terms of background, a Player Character has an Oath which he must fulfil, a Debt owed to an organisation or person, and a Code, something that he will never do, no matter how bad the situation becomes.
Character creation consists of choosing a Type, assigning points to stats, choosing a Role, the Background options, and some gear. Alternatively, a player can roll for some of these, but this is definitely an option. The process, though, begins with a player thinking about his character role in terms of what he will do in play. These are very much informed by MMORPGs, so ‘Defender/Tank’, ‘Slayer/Damage’, ‘Supporter/Healer’, ‘Scout/Control’, and ‘Nuke/Utility’.  These are very base concepts though, and not really followed through in the rules. So there is no guidance on how to create characters based around the concepts. Nevertheless, character creation is straightforward with an interesting range of types.
Ragnar the RagerType: ImmortalRole: Berserker
BackgroundOath: Destroy the War Pigs entirelyDebt: A human broke you free of your cryo chamber and you owe himCode: You refuse to use guns
SPEED 3 WITS 2 GUTS 3 AIM 1 POWER 4 RESOLVE 1
Special Skill: SunderSkills: Chains 3 Fearless 1 Whirlwind 2
Gear: Iron Chains, Hag Stones, Thermite Blow Torch, Insect Shield (+1d Surprise), Gorgo Shell (+1d Power, undetected amongst insects), Retread Pauldrons (+1d Surprise), Slip Vest (Immune to blades)
Mechanically, Viking Death Squad uses a dice pool mechanic of six-sided dice. If a player wants his character to undertake an action, he rolls the appropriate stat and attempts to beat a target number. This target number is determined by a similar die roll made by the Game Master, which varies from two to six dice depending upon the difficulty. Alternatively, skills are rolled for their special effects. For example, the Combat Repair skill enables a character to repair a piece of gear for each four, five, or six rolled, whilst for the Chains skill, for each four, five, or six rolled, the character can inflict one hit, grapple a foe, or catch an anchor point to pull or climb.
To augment a roll, a player has two choices. One is to Push his character’s gear. This can add a die to the roll, hit more than one foe with an attack, throw a melee weapon, reduce the target number, narrate an extra effect, or destroy armour completely without rolling a critical result. The other is to expend Resolve to add more dice to the roll. Both have their downsides. Resolve is a limited resource, but is restored after a safe rest, whilst Pushing gear damages the item. Push that piece of gear three times and it is destroyed.
There are a couple of results on a roll other than a simple success. A Critical success is achieved on a roll of twelve higher than the target number. This means that the roll achieves the maximum narrative effect, the character completely destroys a piece of armour worn by the enemy, can take another turn immediately, gain a tick on a Blood Rune, or two on a skill. A Critical success is also achieved if the player rolls six on three dice, but the character also refills his Resolve. Players are also invited to recite Iron Maiden’s Number of the Beast, and the Game Master to bring Lucifer’s influence into play…
Combat is intended to be fast and furious. Speed is rolled to determine who goes first in combat and how hard they are to hit, so is a vitally important stat. Then rolls are made to hit and their effects determined and narrated. Range is either Arm’s Length, Ranged, or Out of Reach, and hits are inflicted to destroy armour. After that, hits are deadly. Although there is no healing in Viking Death Squad, armour can be replaced, repaired, or even scavenged—even on the spot and in the middle of battle.For example, Ragnar the Rager and his band are on their way to a settlement when they  come across an attack force of twenty-two Borg led by two Hulk Borgs intent on assaulting the settlement. They decide to ambush them. The Game Master rolls four six-sided dice for Hulk Borgs’ Speed, for a total of thirteen. Rager’s player rolls three six-sided dice for his Speed and gets fifteen. First there is the matter of the ambush. Rager’s player assembles his dice pool—three for his Chains skill, three for attacking from ambush, plus two for his Insect Shield and Retread Pauldrons. This gives his player eight dice and he rolls one, two, three, six, six, six, and six, for a total of thirty. So a Critical, but not the Number of the Beast. This means Rager gets another turn and two ticks on his Chains skill. For the six, six, six, and six on the roll, he inflicts one hit each. However, he also has the Whirlwind skill, which is rolled after a successful melee attack and inflicts another hit for each six rolled. Rager’s player rolls the two dice for that and gets a four and six, inflicting another hit. This gives him a total of five hits. Normally, that would be against one target, but Rager’s iron chains attack two targets, so both Hulk Borgs are hit. Hulk Borgs have five Armour and Rager’s player narrates how Rager leaps down into the ravine and with a divine roar, the chain whips back and forth ripping armour from the cyborg monstrosities.
Rager’s turn would end there, but the Critical hit got him a second turn. He does not have surprise though, which means no bonus dice from that, and so is only rolling the three dice for his Chains skill. This time, his player decides to use a point of his  Resolve and adds an extra die to give him four dice. He rolls three, three, five, and five. This is two hits and again, will affect both targets. Rager’s player fails to roll any sixes on his Whirlwind skill, but two hits on the two Hulk Borgs because of his Iron Chains, is enough to shatter them as neither has any armour left. Rager looks up at his fellow members of the Screaming Skulls and roars! It is up to them to take down as many of the ordinary Borg before they swarm him. Above him, they open up with their guns…Both magic and advancement in Viking Death Squad are simple. Spell Stones can be used by all and each stone has a straightforward effect which can be used three times before it crumbles, like Shield Stone, which absorbs one attack against the caster, or Loki’s Pebble to create illusions for a few turns. The Runes skill also allows a character to carve a one-use Spell Stone effect on a nearby surface. For advancement, successful skill use gets a tick—or two if the roll was a Critical—and five ticks get a skill increase of one die. A Player Character’s Resolve pool is both refreshed and increased by one die after each session, and Critical hits also add a tick towards the three needed to gain a Blood Rune. Blood Runes are engraved on a Player Character’s skin for a permanent, but powerful effect. For example, an increase of the POWER stat, the ability to select an enemy on the battlefield and ignore its armour, or gain three Deaths like an Immortal (if Human) or erase any previous Deaths (if Immortal). A Player Character can have four Blood Runes.
For the Game Master, Viking Death Squad provides quite a lot to play with. The background is sketched out in broad, but flavoursome detail. This includes the twenty or so important locations across the ruined Urth, the great fungal forest across Eurasia; the nature of Hell and its ongoing civil war between Lucifer and Azael the Butcher; and the fact that technology is solid state and weird and alien rather than relying upon electricity or fossil fuels. What new technology there is, or at least new equipment, is made from solid, single materials, for example, an iron helm or a stone maul. ‘Relic Tech’ can be scavenged though, and the Player Characters can expect to find guns which shoot flaming skulls, swords sheathed in ice, and more. Further, in terms of its background, Viking Death Squad does not hide its secrets. All are there for the Game Master to read and then use in her game.
Viking Death Squad also comes with five ready-to-play pre-generated Player Characters—the Moldy Bunch; ‘The Dogs of Leadgrave’, a short adventure in which the Player Characters investigate why the town of Leadgrave is constantly being attacked by cyBorg dogs; and over twenty foes, including various types of Borgs, giant insects, Iron Dragons, the animated dead, sentient and toxic Tar, and gigantic unkillable Tardigrade Beasts. All have a Tactics roll, a table which the Game Master can roll on to determine how the foe acts from round to round. There is good advice too on running Viking Death Squad and the book is rounded out with ‘Blood and Justice’, a complete nine-part mini-campaign.
Physically, Viking Death Squad is well presented, with some fantastically oppressive comic-style artwork which captures the heavy metal style of the game. However, as written it feels slightly fragmented and not as well organised as it should be, plus it is underwritten in places. In particular magic and the general mechanics could have been done with a clearer explanation, plus the underlying concept behind character creation be developed rather than ignored.
With limited lives available to the Player Characters, Viking Death Squad is not meant for long term play, but rather one-shots or mini-campaigns. Indeed, a Game Master could run ‘Blood and Justice’ and be done with the game, though there would still be aspects of Urth in the year 10,191 still to explore—and there is plenty of scope in Viking Death Squad’s setting for the Game Master to develop. These could even form mini-campaigns of their own and companion, perhaps detailing further campaigns and perhaps firming up some of the rules would not be unwelcome.
Viking Death Squad is meant to be played fast and furious, a roleplaying game of bombast and blast, action and adversity, heroism in a far future of hard horror and heavy metal. Unsubtle and unrestrained, Viking Death Squad demands that you rock your roleplaying and swing your mighty axe to smash the future!

Knave is a toolkit designed to do Old School Renaissance roleplaying. Written by the author of The Waking of Willowby Hall, the earlier Maze Rats, and host of the YouTube channel, Questing Beast, Knave is very much a retroclone of Dungeons & Dragons, but with significant differences. The most obvious of which is that Knave eschews both Classes and Races. There is no default Race, but every Player Character in Knave is a “tomb-raiding, adventure-seeking ne’er-do-well who wields a spell book just as easily as a blade.” The latter is the obvious difference—a Player Character can cast spells as easily as he can wield a weapon. In addition to this, Knave provides a systematic means for handling Attributes and Attribute bonuses, actions and Saving Throws, defences, and more. Despite these changes, Knave is designed to be compatible with Dungeons & Dragons and its various iterations, so that the Game Master can run numerous scenarios and settings using its rules.

A Player Character in Knave looks like a Player Character in Dungeons & Dragons. He has the six requisite Attributes—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Five of these cover aspects as you would expect. Thus, Strength is used for melee attacks and physical Saving Throws; Dexterity covers agility and speed; Constitution to resist poison and sickness; Intelligence for handling concentration, recall, using magic and more; and Charisma for interacting with NPCs and hiring henchmen. The difference is that Wisdom, in addition to covering the usual perception and intuition, actually handles ranged attacks! It is a radical change, but it means that Wisdom can be used as a more active attribute and that ranged attacks are associated with perception, and also it shifts some of the traditional emphasis in other retroclones away from Dexterity.

Each Attribute has both a bonus and defence. The bonus is equal to the lowest value rolled during character creation. This is done using three six-sided dice, in order, as is traditional. Thus if a player rolled three, four, and five, to get a total of twelve, the bonus would be three. The Defence for an Attribute is the bonus value, plus ten. A Player Character also has a Level—though of course, no Class, which determines the number of eight-sided dice rolled for Hit Points; a number of item slots representing what he can carry, equal to his Constitution Defence; and an Armour Defence value, determined by the armour worn without any modifiers.

To create a character in Knave, a player rolls three six-sided dice for the six Attributes, noting their Bonus and Defence values, and then rolls for Armour worn, and a piece of dungeoneering gear, and two pieces of general gear. In addition, he can roll or choose various traits, including physical, face, skin, hair, clothing, virtue vice, speech, background, misfortune, and alignment. The process is relatively quick and easy.

Frederick Bellini
Level 1
Hit Points: 7
Armour: Gambeson Bonus +2/Defence 12
Helmet: None Shield: None
Weapon: Cudgel (d6)
Strength 09 Bonus +1/Defence 11
Dexterity 11 Bonus +2/Defence 12
Constitution 09 Bonus +2/Defence 12
Intelligence 16 Bonus +4/Defence 14
Wisdom 17 Bonus +5/Defence 15
Charisma 13 Bonus +3/Defence 13

Traits
Physical: Short Face: Bony Skin: Tanned Hair: Oily
Clothing: Perfumed Virtue: Honourable Vice: Cowardly Speech: Flowery
Background: Herbalist Misfortune: Robbed Alignment: Law

Gear
Torches (5), Lockpicks, Lens

Mechanically, Knave uses a throw of a twenty-sided die against a standard difficulty. If the player rolls sixteen or more, his character succeeds at the action. When it comes to opposed Saving Throws, this can be rolled by the player or the Game Master. For example, if a Player Character casts the Web spell, which shoots thick strands of webbing from his wrists, at a thief who has just robbed him, the player could roll and add his character’s Intelligence Bonus against the thief’s Dexterity Defence, or the Game Master could roll against the Player Character’s Intelligence Defence adding the thief’s Dexterity Bonus. The option here is whether or not the Game Master and her players want to play Knave with player-facing rolls or use the standard method in which both players and the Game Master roll as necessary.

The option is also included to use Advantage and Disadvantage, as per Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Typically, this will come from the situation or the environment, but it could also come from any one of the several Traits rolled or chosen during character creation. The mix of these underlie who or what a character is and so bringing them into play encourages roleplaying.

Combat in Knave is kept simple. The Player Characters and their opponents both have a fifty percent chance of winning the Initiative, and attack rolls, whether using the Strength Bonus for melee attacks or the Wisdom Bonus for ranged attacks, have to be greater than the Defence value of the armour worn. Alternatively, if using player-facing rolls, the defending player would roll his character’s Armour Bonus to beat the attacker’s Defence value. In addition, Opposed Saving Throws can be used to do Stunts, such as stunning an opponent, knocking them over, disarming them, smashing armour, and so on. Stunts do not do damage though, although they can be combined with an attack attempt if the attacker has Advantage. This is instead rolling the two twenty-sided dice which is normal for Advantage.

Successful attacks inflict damage per the weapon’s die type, more if the defender is vulnerable to that type of attack. Critical hits—a twenty if using the standard rolling method, one if the player-facing method when attacked—smash the defender’s armour, reducing its Quality be one. When the armour’s Quality is reduced to zero, it is destroyed.

Magic in Knave is also simple. Spells can be taken from any Old School Renaissance or similar source or those in Knave can be used. All spells require a spellbook of their own and a spellbook takes up a slot in a Player Character’s inventory, and each spell from a spellbook can only be cast once per day, requiring a Saving Throw to do so. So literally, spells are a physical burden!

Further, spells cannot be copied, created, or transcribed. They can only be adventured for or stolen… Which begs the question, where did these spellbooks come from? What it does mean is that if the traditional Dungeons & Dragons spells are used, then the higher-level spells become valuable commodities! However, Knave offers its own list of one hundred Level-less spells, and these are interesting in that they shift magic from inflicting damage to having an interesting, often odd effect. For example, Catherine summons a woman wearing a blue dress appears who obeys polite, safe requests; Marble Madness fills the caster’s pockets with marbles and continues to refill the pocket over; and Snail Knight, which summons knight sitting astride a giant snail who rides into view ten minutes later and will answer most questions related to quests and chivalry, and who might aid the caster if he finds him worthy. The spells are fun, but very simply described, so the Game Master will need to adjudicate as necessary.

Knave also includes a decent equipment list—with the prices in copper pieces as the default coin in Knave, guidance for adapting monsters from the standard Old School Renaissance bestiaries, rules for morale and healing. Advancement is done every time a Player Character accumulates 1000 XP, Experience Points being awarded for accomplishments rather than for simply killing monsters or finding treasure. At each new Level, the player rolls for his character’s new Hit Points and increases the Defence and Bonus values for three of his character’s Attributes.

Physically, Knave a is a well presented, short, twenty-page booklet done on heavy stock paper, meaning that it feels rather pleasing in the hand. It could do with a slight edit for clarity in places and it is lightly illustrated. It is also underwritten in places, but that may be by design, since Knave does belong to the ‘Rulings not rules’ school and in many cases, such as the exact effects of spells, will come down to play and what happens at the table rather than from the pages of Knave itself.

Knave is designed as a toolkit, something for Game Master to build from as is her wont. For example, she might add rules for Races, such as adding their Traits and using them in combination with the Advantage and Disadvantage mechanic, or build a world in which Snail Knights go on quests (slow, of course, and always leaving a trail). However, beyond the guidance for spellbooks, there are no rules for including magical items at all, and perhaps what v needs is not necessarily more rules, but options. So not just one way to present Races, but two or three, not just one way to do magic items, but again, two or three. The point is, as a toolkit, the Game Master could do with a few extra tools.

Knave is a really easy system to pick up and play, everything it covers is boiled down to a few pages, and with a slight bit of getting used to, a Game Master could easily run any number of settings or scenarios, especially those from the Old School Renaissance. It does contain the lightest of setting elements, that magic is helpful and occasionally odd, but not hurtful—everyone has access to it if they can find a spellbook, that combat can be deadly—but does not have to be (though it will be), and then there is implied medievalism of the equipment and background traits. How much of these will come into play will depend upon both Game Master and her players.

Knave is an engaging piece of concise design, perfect for the Game Master and her players who want simple mechanics with scope for narrative outcomes, and the Game Master who wants simple mechanics she can build from to create the roleplaying game she wants.

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. As popular in the Old School Renaissance as the format is, not all fanzines are devoted to Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying games—and in the nineties, many fanzines appeared dedicated to roleplaying games other than Dungeons & Dragons.

The world of Glorantha has had any number of fanzines dedicated to it over its forty year or so history, most notably, Wyrm’s Footnotes and Tales of the Reaching Moon. Published by John Castellucci, RQ Adventures Fanzine ran for six issues between 1993 and 1998, each issue containing scenarios written around a particular theme or location. Published in 1993, the inaugural issue of RQ Adventures Fanzine contains just the one scenario, ‘Escape from Duckland’, which the author and publisher had previously released as a standalone title. The scenario is set in 1621 ST in the kingdom of Sartar and sees a band of adventurers tasked with locating a small band of outlaw Ducks which has been struck down with the Red-Feather plague, a disease which fortunately only seems to affect Ducks and seems to be directly related to the intensity of the Red Moon in the sky. The only healer known to be capable of curing this disease resides by the mouth of the Marzeel River where it flows into the Mirrorsea Bay, many days travel away in the Holy Country. The adventurers must make their way to Apple Lane where they can find a guide, the famed Quackjohn, and then travel south and west into the Delecti Marsh to locate the stricken ducks, and from there escort them south to the border between Sartar and Esrolia. They will need to take some care, as not only are the Ducks outlaws and have a price on their heads (or beaks), but the infamous proclamation issued by General Fazzur Wideread, blaming the Ducks for the 1613 ST rebellion led by Kallyr Starbrow and placing a bounty of one year’s Imperial taxes for every Duck head/bill turned over to the provincial Lunar government is still in effect.

The scenario proper begins in Apple Lane. After they have dealt with a would-be Lunar tax collector and his bully boys on the make, the adventurers can sneak their guide out of the village and west to Runegate, but to avoid Dragonewt entanglements they are diverted south along Starfire Ridge and then over into Greydog territory. There are a couple of nasty encounters along the way—a band of Broo and horde of the undead which comes swarming up out of Upland Marsh. After both locating and placating the refugee ducks, the adventurers can begin their long journey south. There are some more nasty encounters along the way, a band of mercenary Tusk Riders which has decided to go Duck hunting—and have some horrid plans for any they catch, and there is one last attack by a threat encountered earlier. Not all of the encounters are quite so confrontational, an old man on Starfire Ridge proves to be good company and potentially helpful in speeding their journey, and there are dinosaurs to be found along the way, who might prove to be nuisances, or they might actually be helpful.

Consisting of ten encounters, ‘Escape from Duckland’ is a linear scenario, but then it is designed to be a journey. In terms of framing, being set in 1621 ST and thus written around elements of the Lunar occupation, it would be challenging for the Game Master to set the scenario elsewhere—or else when. That said, it could be adjusted to a few years earlier, but only few as they have to be after the Lunar proclamation on Ducks. This does not mean that the scenario could not be run today despite its strict time period. Since it takes place following the destruction of Gringle’s Pawn Shop in Apple Lane, it could be run as a flashback for Player Characters being run in the current timeline of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, especially if they have played through the events of Apple Lane at the very start of their careers. If so, then the old man they encounter on the Starfire Ridge early in the scenario could easily be the shaman they would have run into at the beginning of ‘The Broken Tower’ from the RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha – QuickStart Rules and Adventure. Alternatively, it could be run as part of The Company of the Dragon campaign which takes place during this period.

Mechanically, ‘Escape from Duckland’ is written for use with Avalon Hill’s RuneQuest III—as would all six issues of RQ Adventures Fanzine would be. The differences between those rules and the previous and subsequent rules for RuneQuest are relatively minor, such that ‘Escape from Duckland’ can be run with relatively few changes. In terms of support it is suggested that the Game Master be familiar with Apple Lane, Snakepipe Hollow, King of Sartar, and Gods of Glorantha. Were ‘Escape from Duckland’ be run today, The RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack would be useful for information about Apple Lane, and the RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary and The Red Book of Magic will be useful for details on the various creatures and magics encountered as part of the scenario, but otherwise it is easy to set up and run. An experienced Game Master would have no problem running the scenario.

‘Escape from Duckland’ is supported with a total of eight pre-generated adventurers. Ranging from a young and headstrong Orlanthi and a cold, hard Tarsh Exile to a peaceful centaur from Beast Valley to a bachelor of the Newtling race, they run the gamut of the standard Gloranthan types to the slightly odd, even weird. The scenario suggests the type of player each is suitable for and each is given a full page, including stats and nicely done background briefing. It also includes a copy of the Lunar proclamation on Ducks, some reasonable maps, and an enjoyable write-up of both Hueymakt Deathdrake, Druulz God of Death & War and the Indroduck Greydog subcult. Plus there are full stats for all of the creatures and monsters encountered in the scenario.

Physically, RQ Adventures Fanzine Issue 1 is scrappily presented. It is very far from unreadable, but it does need another edit and the art is rough. The maps are decent though. Another issue is the tone, that taken with the Ducks, which involves more than a few puns. Of course, ‘Escape from Duckland’ is very much a case of ‘Your Glorantha May Vary’ and another Game Master will have a different approach. The scenario includes a lot of flavour and detail about the various locations it visits over the course of its journey and each of the NPCs is decently done as well.

RQ Adventures Fanzine Issue 1 is rough around the edges, but ‘Escape from Duckland’ is decently serviceable and playable, taking the Player Characters on a challenging and nicely described tour of southern Sartar. For a modern campaign and a scenario of its vintage, ‘Escape from Duckland’ is a far more flexible scenario than at first seems.

New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley was published in 2008 by Miskatonic River Press. Under the aegis of the late Keith Herber, this anthology would breathe new life into the revered Miskatonic Valley setting for Call of Cthulhu and new life into Call of Cthulhu itself at a time when the venerable roleplaying game’s publisher was not able to fully support it. Both this anthology, and its sequel, More Adventures in Arkham Country, would provide a platform for a new generation of new authors for Call of Cthulhu, many of whose previous works had appeared in Chaosium, Inc.’s long-running series of Miskatonic University Library Association monographs. In terms of content and look, New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley was inspired by the original series of supplements dedicated to Lovecraft Country that Chaosium had published in the nineties, but it had its own look that was fresh and clean, and overall, it felt like the hobby had a publisher for Call of Cthulhu who actually liked Call of Cthulhu once again. Sadly, Miskatonic River Press closed in 2013, its fifth and last book released being Tales of the Sleepless City. All five of its Call of Cthulhu supplements would go on to become collectible.

Fortunately, New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley, Second Edition, was published in 2020, this time by Stygian Fox. The British publisher has updated the anthology to Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and upgraded it to be full colour, with new maps, handouts, and illustrations, and in hardback format. The new edition has also increased the scenario count from the original’s six to seven, with the inclusion of an all-new scenario from Seth Skorkowsky. This is a collection which will take a Keeper and her players up the Miskatonic Valley, from Arkham to Dunwich and back again via Foxfield to dream-spoiled Kingsport and sea-sodden Innsmouth—the latter the new addition—and so provide both with delicious slices of dark and dangerous horror.

New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley, Second Edition opens with a poignant forward from Tom Lynch, the head of Miskatonic River Press, before presenting his ‘The Reeling Midnight’. This is the first of two Arkham-set scenarios in the collection, a piece of louche detective legwork which emphasises interaction and investigation rather than academia. The Wilcoxes are worried that their son, Eugene, is hanging around with the wrong crowd and attending scandalous parties hosted by Hungarian nobility émigrés. They fear the daughter is a gold digger and hire the investigators to look into both their son’s activities and hers. The scenario opens up with a big set piece at one of the parties—the first problem being to get an invitation—which gives the players and their Investigators lots of attendees to interact with, and the Keeper a fun cast to portray. The investigation is nicely detailed and the scenario has a nasty sting in the tale, but ‘The Reeling Midnight’ is primarily a criminal investigation which the Mythos seems to slide into rather than necessarily be the driving force. It possesses a pleasing physicality and would work as an introduction to the Mythos along the Miskatonic Valley.

The second Arkham-set scenario is ‘Wasted Youth’ by Christopher Smith Adair. Again, this possesses both a physicality and a nasty, if not nastier, sting in the tale than ‘The Reeling Midnight’. The physicality here differs though, for it involves a ragged, often grueling chase across the countryside forcing the players to roll checks for skills that their Investigators are unlikely to possess given the typical intellectual, technical, or pugilistic bent of most. This forms the climax of the scenario which begins with Arkham being beset by a rash of dangerous juvenile delinquency, including acts of murderous violence and vandalism. The investigation is made all the more challenging by the fact that it involves children as both victims and protagonists, this also its sting in the tale, as it means directly confronting them. Children being involved may mean it is difficult to get the Investigators involved, but once they are, this is an effectively horrid affair.

Oscar Rios’ ‘Spirit of Industry’ takes the Investigators to Dunwich on a ghost hunt in the company of a journalist (who appeared in the earlier ‘The Reeling Midnight’) in search of a scoop—an old sawmill is reputed to be haunted and there is a reward for proof of the existence of ghosts. This is not necessarily a Mythos scenario in the classic sense, being more like the Stephen King story, ‘The Mangler’, in that the sawmill is possessed and malignly so. However, this is set against the pervading sense of bucolic unease which suffuses through Dunwich, whether from the town’s all too knowing inhabitants or the all too unknowing ones. The scenario is likely to involve two brutal, and potentially, bloody climaxes, but even offers the possibility of a happy ending.

A happy ending is unlikely in ‘Proof of Life’ by Keith Herber. This is set in the small town of Foxfield—introduced here in the pages of New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley—where a disagreement between local farmers and the town supervisor over whether or not to log nearby forests has escalated into blows and a death threat! Investigation reveals that the town supervisor is hiding something and even acting oddly, but the Investigators will need to navigate their way between the town’s factions and interview many of the townsfolk to get this far. This is a type of story which has been told before, that of a Mythos entity or race protecting its long-held presence in an area which annoying ape descendants are now encroaching upon. Fortunately, the scenario never quite tips into cliché, but the motivations of the Mythos threat feel underwhelming given the length to which they go to protect their interests and the monstrous effect this has on the town supervisor and his family.

Oscar Rios’ second contribution to the anthology is ‘Malice Everlasting’, which is the first of two scenarios set in Kingsport, City of Dreams. Like the earlier, this is a tale of possession and possession of a teenage antagonist, but it comes with a classic Lovecraftian ‘revenge from beyond the grave’ plot. There is nothing childish about this villain as he unleashes his revenge upon the descendants of those who hunted him down and executed him in the seventeenth century by striking them suddenly blind. As the Investigators get closer to making this connection, they come to the attention of the antagonist, who begins to hinder their progress to varying degrees—as both eager ally and vengeful villain. The weakest point of the scenario is when that connection is made, and it could have been better handled. Otherwise, this is an excellent combination of investigation and desperate action which climaxes with bang—a summoning of Y’golonac. Unlike ‘Wasted Youth’ where the Investigators are likely to have proof of the antagonists’ actions (or at least witnesses), here they do not, and ultimately, they will be faced by a dilemma which if they get wrong will land them in prison—or worse.

The second scenario set in Kingsport is ‘The Night War’ by Kevin A. Ross, which takes full advantage of the port’s reputation as the city of dreams. Inspired by the works of William Hope Hodgson, the Investigators begin experiencing seemingly realistic nightmares in which they fight in the trenches of the Western Front, night after night, men and women, quickly followed by the rest of Kingsport. The action switches back and forth over the course of several days and nights, the Investigators spending their nights surviving and hunting for clues in this unreal landscape haunted by monsters unknown on the battlefield, and their days following up on those clues in the hope that what they find out will help both them and the people of Kingsport back in the nightmare. A darker and grander depiction of a Dreamlands than that typically seen in Call of Cthulhu, its subject matter and its staging, imposing and perhaps heavy-going rather than delicate, may be off-putting for some players. Seen though as a desperate mission to save a man’s mind in somewhere the Investigators either never thought they would return to or even thought they would have experienced, and the scenario is an interesting take on what a Dreamlands scenario could be like.

New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley ended with ‘The Night War’, but New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley, Second Edition has one more scenario. This is ‘A Mother’s Love’ by Seth Skorkowsky, which brings crime to Innsmouth. The Frog Gang, led by Tobias ‘Frog’ Sisk, has robbed a local bank and hightailed it into his hometown of Innsmouth, with the local police and Federal agents on their tail. The officers of the town’s police department are prepared to help—to an extent—but their main motivation is avoiding bringing further attention to Innsmouth and its secrets. Not the first time that crime has come to Innsmouth—it did that in ‘The Innsmouth Connection’ from Before the Fall, but to much lesser effect. ‘A Mother’s Love’ is a short, slightly strange investigation that will quickly lead to a blazing shootout between the Innsmouth Police Department, the Federal Agents, and the survivors of the Frog Gang. Of course, if the Federal Agents learn too much, it could turn into a shootout and clawfest between them and the Innsmouth Police Department (as well as others). Unlike the other scenarios in the anthology, ‘A Mother’s Love’ is best suited as a one-shot, perhaps as a prequel to Escape from Innsmouth, as it works best with one Investigator being a member of the Bureau of Investigation and so is more difficult to work into a campaign. ‘A Mother’s Love’ is punchier than most scenarios set in Lovecraft Country, but it has a nice sense of tension to it though, whether that is between the Federal Agents and the Innsmouth Police Department, or between what the players are likely to know and their Investigators otherwise.

Physically, New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley, Second Edition is hit and miss, though more hit than miss. Behind the bland cover, the layout is clean and tidy. It needs a slight edit in places and the illustrations vary in quality, some of them bland and muddy, some of them decent, plus the internal cartography is more serviceable then characterful. Unfortunately, the colour artwork in this second edition does not have the charm of the pen and ink illustrations of the original. However, the regional cartography is decent, the handouts are excellent—especially the newspaper articles which are hidden in full page handouts, and town vistas of Arkham, Dunwich, Foxfield, Kingsport, and Innsmouth that preface their respective sections, are handsome indeed. Included in the new hardback is a set of six pre-generated Investigators (including one from my hometown) which again, are decently done and all on a new, alternate version of the Investigator sheet for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition.

New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley was the best supplement published for Call of Cthulhu in 2008. In fact, it was the best release for the roleplaying game since 2007’s Secrets of Kenya and 2006’s Tatters of the King. It gave a platform for new voices and new ideas for Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying and proved that the then new rash of third-party publishers could produce content that was mature and sophisticated. Not every scenario in New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley could be regarded as perfect in 2008, or indeed perfect with the publication of the second edition in 2020, but it was an audacious debut. New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley, Second Edition returns that audacity to print, bringing back support for Lovecraft Country just as it did in 2008.

Since 2018, the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG, beginning with the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG – Player’s Survival Guide has proved to be a popular choice when it comes to self-publishing. Numerous authors have written and published scenarios for the roleplaying game, many of them as part of Kickstarter’s annual ZineQuest event, of which The Drain was published following a successful Kickstarter campaign as part of ZineQuest 3. Written and published by Ian Yusem, this ashamedly steals the signature feature of Goodman Games’ highly popular Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and adapts it to the far future of the MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game. This feature is the concept of the Character Funnel in which initially, a player is expected to roll up three or four Level Zero characters and have them play through a generally nasty, deadly adventure, which surviving will prove a challenge. Those that do survive receive enough Experience Points to advance to First Level and gain all of the advantages of their Class. The result is a bloody, brutal scenario which can used as one-shot or as the means to create a set of ready-to-play Player Characters complete with shared backgrounds, histories, and relationships.
The Drain: A Funnel Adventure for use with MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror RPG sends the Player Characters into the hellish battlefield aboard the Within Wheels, a colony ship broadcasting the heresy of the 3rd Testament across the universe in order to retrieve a legendary religious relic—and this is not the grim and perilous future of Warhammer 40,000 and the Player Characters are not even soldiers or necessarily trained to fight. Instead they are prisoners, serving time for crimes they definitely did commit, their sentences being executed by corporate jailors, PrayCo. As the ship they are aboard, dodges its way through the ring of scavenging and salvage vessels, warships, and the wrecks of civilians which have already tried to get through, the Player Characters are given a choice—fight their way down through the four decks of the Within Wheels to its Command Centre and there recover whatever is broadcasting the 3rd Testament and return it to PrayCo. In return, the Player Characters will have their sentences commuted.
The digital version of The Drain comes with a set of pre-generated Player Characters, but the scenario includes quick and dirty rules for creating prisoner Player Characters. Being Level Zero, they have no Class, low stats, an absolute minimum of Hits, minimal responses to Stress Checks, and no skills. What a Player Character will have is a conviction for a crime, a single possession, and a piece of materiel which may or may not help him survive the assault. As with a Character Funnel for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, the latter is generated randomly, and if the crime is Android related, the Player Character is an Android. In addition, each prisoner is made to wear a PrayCo tinsel halo battle uniform and a Command Collar. The latter will explode if the Player Characters get too far away from each other! The players are expected to create three or four five of these characters.
Name: Bracket (Android)Crime: Domestic InsufficiencyClass: None Level: 0AttributesStrength: 20 Speed: 25 Intellect: 30 Combat: 25SavesSanity: 25 Fear: 50 Body: 25 Armour: 25Hit Points: 25
SkillsTrained (+10%): Theology
Loadout: Tinsel halo, flyswatter, flare gun 
NotesFear saves made in the presence of Androids have disadvantages.
The flight through the ring of scavenger and warships can be handled using Wrath of God, but either way, The Drain begins with the Prison Soldiers at the top of the Within Wheels, in a series of trenches, opposing forces of the farmer-martyrs occupying the other trenches. Thus the scenario begins in a scene out of the Great War, right down to poison gas rolling across the battlefield. But from here it can only get worse. There are signs of battle everywhere, including a church full of refugees hoping for an armistice, a military dropship still tethered to the colony ship, but trying to get away, signs of the overengineered environmental collapse that forced the colonists to turn to their strange faith, an amusement park adjusted to be full of fire and brimstone warning, and more… 
Along the way there are encounters to be had with other Prison Soldiers, who may be as bad as or even worse than the Player Characters, Corporate Operators with plans of their own, Pilgrim Irregulars determined to protect the 3rd Testament, and worse. The Warden is also provided with a standard set of random events and features tables, as well as tables for every location, and a pair of general tables searching the area or looting the body, discovering equipment caches. The latter will be very useful given the minimal amount equipment the Prison Soldiers are given at the start of their mission. Of course, they have to survive long to find these caches… Either way, the tables will drive a lot of the game play in The Drain, as will the interaction between the multiple Player Characters.
Physically, The Drain is decently presented and organised. It needs a slight edit in places, but every location is given a good half page at least, and the set-up is nicely explained. The artwork suits the raggedy feel of the hell aboard the Within Wheels.
If the Player Characters deliver on their mission, then PrayCo delivers on its promise and that makes for a refreshing change—inserting an inevitable betrayal would have been boring. There is potential for a sequel though, with Meat Grinder, which together with The Drain and Wrath of God forms The Inferno Trilogy. If there is an issue with The Drain, it is perhaps that the description of its McGuffin feels underwritten, so the Warden may want to develop that.

The Drain serves up exactly what a Character Funnel should—a brutal, bloody experience in which survival is an achievement in itself. It combines war-as-hell with the dark horror of heresy and creates Player Characters with memorable back stories for Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG in the process. 

—oOo—
An Unboxing in the Nook video of The Drain can be found here.

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

—oOo—

The inaugural issue of Parallel Worlds magazine was published in September 2019. It contains no gaming content as such, but rather discusses and aspects of not just the hobby, but different hobbies—board games, roleplaying games, computer games, and more. Unlike later issues, for example, Parallel Worlds #21 and Parallel Worlds #22, this first issue is very much about games, and that is not necessarily a bad thing if something interesting is said about them. Unfortunately, that is not always the case in Parallel Worlds #01, but the issue contains some interesting articles and they do possess a degree of brevity which makes the issue as a whole a quick read. Of course, Parallel Worlds #01 is readily available in print, but all of the issues of Parallel Worlds, published by Parallel Publishing can also be purchased in digital format, because it is very much not back in the day of classic White Dwarf, but here and now. 
Parallel Worlds #01 opens with an interview with Isaac Childres, the designer of Gloomhaven, one of biggest—quite literally—boardgames published in the last few years. It is quite a lengthy piece and nicely captures the designer’s enthusiasm for creating and playing games. What is interesting in the piece is the discussion of the influences upon the design, which include Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition, and it includes a range of illustrations which should intrigue the reader to take a closer look at Gloomhaven. The other board game-focused piece in the issue is ‘Tiny Epic Mechs’, part of the magazine’s ‘Tabletop Games’ series of articles. Christopher Jarvis’ article is actually a review of the arena-set game of ’mech combat published by Gamelyn Games as part of its Tiny Epic series, which packages big games in small boxes and thus delivers greater game play than their size readily suggests. In comparison to the other games in the line, and there are plenty of them, Tiny Epic Mechs, is short and punchy in its game play and does not necessarily lend itself to telling an epic story. Nevertheless, the review is informative and again, should point the reader in the direction of the line.
Unfortunately, these decent articles are followed by a pair of frustratingly bad and unhelpful articles, both by Connor Eddles. In ‘Box Full of Knives: Why Dungeons & Dragons needs to step away from its wargaming roots’ he complains that Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition is a ‘box full of knives’, that its mechanics are too focused on delivered the means to kill things and take their loot and not enough on providing the tools to provide stories. There is some validity to the argument, but the author completely ignores how far Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition has come in supporting both roleplaying and storytelling in its rules in comparison to the Dungeons & Dragons of 1974 and even the Dungeons & Dragons of the year 2000. Likewise, he complains that Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition has too many rules and not enough tools, and again, he ignores how far the game has come. Admittedly, in either case, it is not as far as other roleplaying games, but the shift is there. Further, he ignores the then reality of the situation with regard to Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and Wizards of the Coast, that in 2019, there was no real possibility of the world’s premier roleplaying game necessarily going in the direction he wants. Despite stating that a proper critique of the system that is Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition requires the reader to go back and look at where it all began, he completely fails to do so. Similarly, whilst stating that, “This article may look like yet another hit-piece on the 5th Edition of D&D (often referred to as ‘5e’) but accusation would only be half correct.”, never fully addresses the other half that is not a ‘hit-piece’, never really offers concrete or helpful solutions, and ultimately the piece reads like a wishful whinge that Dungeons & Dragons was different.
‘Call of Cthulhu – Intermediate Frustration: The Call of Cthulhu Starter Set’ is not so much a review of the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set, as a review of Connor Eddles’ experience of running it and his impression of it. The review is profoundly uninformative and unhelpful. It does not tell the reader what is in the starter set and it does not give any context to what is in the starter set and it ignores who the starter set is for, instead complaining that its cover is reminiscent of Scooby Doo, that one of the pre-generated Investigators has a silly name, and that adventures are written in what is to him a heavy style that he does not use. Of these three issues, he has a point about the silly name—Nevada Jones—for the pre-generated Investigator, but of the other two, they are dubious points upon which to base a whole review, and whilst the author is entitled to his opinion, the result, as in his previous article, is unbalanced and uninteresting.

The coverage of Lovecraft continues with ‘H.P. Lovecraft, 100 Years On’ by Ben Potts, but not before Allen Stroud fills up two pages with a ‘Mini of the Month’ which looks at a thirty-year old miniature of an elf from Grenadier. Despite needing an edit, Ben Potts’ article is balanced and interesting, serving as decent introduction to the author, his works and his failings, and gives both context to his writings and his influence. Especially if the reader knows nothing about H.P. Lovecraft.
Allen Stroud’s ‘UK Games Expo 2019’ takes the reader on a guided tour of the United Kingdom’s biggest gaming convention. It captures the scale of the event, highlighting the number of attendees, the breadth of stalls and exhibitors present, and the array of events staged across the weekend. Supported by numerous photographs, the article brings the event to life and really makes the reader want to attend. This of course, was pre-pandemic, and so they would have been unable to until UK Games Expo came back in a much-reduced capacity in 2021. Hopefully, it will return in 2022 and be as good as this article describes it was in 2019.
‘Call of Demons’ by Allen Stroud both continues the issue’s Lovecraftian theme and presages the issue’s coverage of video games. It brings the horror of the Mythos to a virtual world in a short and enjoyable piece of would-be military action. The first of the articles on video games is both the longest in the issue and the longest. Tom Grundy’s ‘Promising the Stars: The three biggest space games of the 2010s’ examines the promise and expectations of the three big, spacefaring computer games of the tweenies. These are Elite Dangerous, No Man’s Sky, and Star Citizen, and all three are explored in some depth and detail, looking at their high points and their low, and seeing whether they have delivered. The truth is that none of them quite have, and they remain in various states of playability, from the complete No Man’s Sky to the yet to be fulfilled Star Citizen. The author makes the case for each one and again makes the reader want to investigate more. Perhaps the article could have suggested the ways in which to do so, but otherwise, this is an enjoyable article.
The second article about video games in Parallel Worlds #01 is by Thomas Turnbull-Ross. ‘Two Knights & their Hollow Souls’ is a comparison of two games, Dark Souls and Hollow Knight, drawing together the similarities of their worlds, their lead characters, and their game play. It is not quite as interesting as the previous article, but nevertheless, a good read. Rounding out the issue is Allen Stroud’s ‘Review: Blood of an Exile’, a decent review of the first book in the fantasy trilogy by Brian Naslund.
Physically, Parallel Worlds #01 is printed in full colour, on very sturdy paper, which gives it a high-quality feel. It does suffer from a lot of white space and one or two of the articles do feel stretched out.
Apart from the misinformative misfires from Connor Eddles, Parallel Worlds #01 is a solid, first issue. It sets out what its aims are, that of the exploration of the parallel worlds of our imagination, and then takes the reader there in a range of mostly informative and interesting articles.

Jon Peterson begins his latest book, Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons at exactly the point where his previous book, The Elusive Shift: How Role-Playing Games Forged Their Identity, left off—that history repeats itself. The Elusive Shift explored the debate as to what a roleplaying game is and what roleplaying is, and not only how that debate was settled, but also how it has been repeated by successive generations of gamers since the first decade or so that we have had roleplaying as a hobby. In Game Wizards, Peterson examines the creation of Dungeons & Dragons and the first decade or so of how it became the foundation of the business that was TSR and how the feud between the game’s co-creators, E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, would ultimately lead to their ousting from TSR, and following a debt crisis, the company’s takeover by Lorraine Williams. This was not a dissimilar pattern that Charles S. Roberts had followed in his founding of the board wargaming company, Avalon Hill, and its subsequent sale to a creditor a decade before the founding of TSR. Neither Roberts, and certainly not Gygax and Arneson set out to make a great deal of money, but in the case of Gygax and TSR, as much as they were unprepared for it, they did. Dungeons & Dragons would become a cultural phenomenon and long after the death of its co-creators, in the hands of Wizards of the Coast, become a highly profitable intellectual property. Of course, the story of how Gygax and Arneson created Dungeons & Dragons has been told many times, but in that telling the story has become mythologised and what really happened coloured by the personalities and the feuds between them. Peterson goes back to the source documents—letters, agreements, share evaluations, and even court depositions—to get a first-hand, as it happened account and thus cast Legend Lore on the first decade of TSR.

Also published by The MIT Press, Game Wizards is not a book about the evolution of Dungeons & Dragons—the author’s Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures, from Chess to Role-Playing Games is a better book for that—it is where this book starts. Before that, it recounts how Gary Gygax and Don Kaye form Tactical Studies Rules to self-publish games, with Brian Blume providing capital and becoming an equal partner with the death of Kaye, and then Gygax develops Arneson’s concepts with his own and creates Dungeons & Dragons. The key document and really the starting point for the book, out of which would stem the feud between Gygax and Arneson over who created what and how much was owed to whom, is the copyright and royalties agreement they signed in early 1974. Like Gygax and Arneson, and eventually their lawyers, Game Wizards returns to this document as well as the issue of who owns what shares in TSR again and again in its pages.

Once TSR is founded, Peterson rolls through its history year-by-year, from 1974 until 1985, charting its rise and fortunes. At the end of each year he lists various indicators, such as revenue, number of employees, stock evaluation, and Gen Con versus origin attendance figures—the later being a particular bone of contention with Gygax. Listed here also are the sales rankings as presented by Howard Barasch of SPI in comparison with both SPI and Avalon Hill, tracking how the company went from ‘Other’ to first place, and then looked back. There are small moments of humour here as well, such as ‘Players Eliminated: Heritage’, referring to the miniatures and games company that was an early rival for TSR. These chapters also track the relationship between Arneson and Gygax as it goes from friendly to standoffish into outright adversarial with Gygax having TSR’s lawyers altering how Arneson can be referred to on projects from other publishers and Arneson even accepting the H.G. Wells Award for ‘All Time Best Role Playing Rules’ at the Origins convention in 1978 when it was clearly meant for Dungeons & Dragons and its publisher, TSR, Inc. Once the feud become litigious—and it does very quickly, Game Wizards brings in numerous court documents and begins to chart the effect of the litigation of both the case between Arneson and TSR (Gygax), and all too often, other employees at TSR. The year-by-year telling of the history, together with the figures at the end of each year, gives the story a game like feel, and that, together with the back and forth between Gygax and Arneson reads like a very personal game of Diplomacy, almost played out across the whole of the hobby, culminating in the infamous ‘The Ambush at Sherdian Springs’ in 1985.

Peterson makes the point that the infamous disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III and its widespread publicity—often at the hands of the private investigator, William Dear, would give Dungeons & Dragons and thus both TSR and Gygax press coverage like never before. It would fuel increased interest in the game and lead to a massive boost in sales. The ensuring Moral Panic surrounding the controversy of supposed Satanism in Dungeons & Dragons would do the same. The resulting sales would lead to the rapid expansion of TSR, not just in terms of turnover, but also growth, staff and corporate acquisition, and ambition. The company might have weathered the increase in the number of staff from less than thirty to several hundred, the purchase of Greenfield Needlewomen, and Gygax’s excursion to Hollywood on their, but all together? It is clear in Game Wizards that TSR was ill-equipped to manage that number of people, and the nepotism which run rampant did not help. Of course, in its early days, members of both the Blume and the Gygax families were employed out of necessity, but in the early eighties, the Blumes employed their in-laws too, often to disastrous effect and with no comeback. Purchases like that of Greenfield Needlewomen, would amount to nothing, and although the fondly remembered Dungeons Dragons Cartoon would result from Gygax’s time in Hollywood, little else did. Meanwhile, the raising of wrecks from Lake Geneva and the sponsorship of the US Winter Olympics team simply wasted money. Together though, it meant that TSR and its management, led by Gygax and the Blues were ill prepared to when the downturn in the economy in the early eighties hit…

Throughout, there are fascinating asides and missed opportunities. For example, the combination of TSR deciding to step out of the miniatures field and the proposed purchase of Games Workshop—the early distributor of Dungeons & Dragons in the United Kingdom before the establishment of TSR UK—by TSR, never coming to pass, would mean that the British company would be free to pursue its own path. If it had happened, the history of the British hobby would have been very different, there would probably have been no Warhammer or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and probably a much more polarised hobby in the United Kingdom as a result. There are indications too of just how small roleplaying companies were during this period, certainly in comparison to TSR, which is often something that we forget, enclosed as we were back then (and still are to an extent) in the closed bubble of the hobby.

Ultimately, what we have in Game Wizards is a clash of personalities unwilling to concede to each other. Gygax wants to protect what he has built and provide for his family, but cannot balance his desire to simply write and create against the desire to maintain control of a business that he co-founded but was ill-suited to run. His brilliance lay in proselytising Dungeons & Dragons and bringing people together just as he did in the early days of TSR—he was a facilitator, not necessarily a businessman. Arneson wants to be recognised and paid his dues, and though ultimately he would be, in Game Wizards he is often shown as his own worst enemy. A font of creative ideas who did not respond well to either editing or criticism, and who comes across as petulant and a poor team player. Whereas Gygax’s posturing and protectionism, which would often drive much of both the hobby and the industry to side with the insecure Arneson, feels petty and vindictive. Similarly his feuds with other creatives and even with the Origins convention over which was bigger—Origins or Gen Con, possess a pettiness which has been lost in the retelling of his legend. If both Arneson and Gygax are far from perfect, they are not the villains of the piece. The Blumes—Kevin and Brian—fill that role, especially with the extent of the nepotism that saw them employ their extended family and grant them often ridiculous privileges. The reputation of the Blume brothers has long suffered in the telling of the history of TSR, and despite their seeding the company with start-up capital back in 1974, Game Wizards does them no favours.

Surprisingly, the biggest villain of all in the history of TSR, is revealed in Game Wizards to be anything but that! The reputation of Lorraine Williams, admittedly never a gamer, has perhaps been poorer than that of the Blume Brothers. Here she steps in at the last minute as the saviour of TSR from bankruptcy, working with the Blumes to oust Gygax lest he remain in control and unfortunately inflict more damage upon the company.

Throughout, Peterson draws from numerous documents and sources, including fanzines, convention programmes, news articles, and court documents and financial reports. This often gives the telling an impersonal feel, which histories with more personal recollections would obviously lack, but he counters this numerous quotations from letters between Gygax and Arneson, and then Gygax and Arneson with others. This gives Game Wizards its personal touch and immediacy whilst at the same avoiding the issues that might arise through recollection and adherence to any orthodoxy or mythology attached to its subject matter.

Game Wizards ends in 1985, covering just the first twelve years of TSR’s history. It would have another twelve before being bought out by Wizards of the Coast in 1997. These years—and those after—are only treated briefly in Game Wizards and even though the author’s aim is tell the story of the relationship between Arneson and Gygax and the first twelve years of TSR, the book feels incomplete because of it. Fortunately, Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons by Ben Riggs will cover this period. Like the earlier The Elusive Shift, it would have been nice to have included some thumbnail bibliographies of the men and women whose story is told in Game Wizards. Without them, this is very much a book for those already knowledgeable about the leading figures of the hobby in its early days and what they did.

Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons is a fascinating read and anyone with an interest in the history of roleplaying should read it. The reader will come away with the impression that the original and premier roleplaying game still today, was created by two imperfect men, and whether because of their foibles, or in spite of them, their influence is still felt today. With Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons, Jon Peterson has slain the mythology and the orthodoxy by going back to source to give us a clearer, almost Shakepearian history of E. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, and TSR, Inc. than we were aware of.

Some games have table presence. They simply look good out and set up—even before anyone sits down to play. For example, the Spiele des Jahres award winning Colt Express is a fun game to play, but with its slot-together Wild West train, great artwork, and individualised Meeples, it really looks great on the table. Similarly, Captain Sonar looks good when set up and ready to play, but its actual table presence is incredibly simple and is really down to a pair of large dividing screens and the number of players. Published by Editions du Matagot, Captain Sonar is a cat-and-mouse game of co-operative hidden movement and deduction played in real time by two teams. Each team is control of a state-of-the-art submarine-and as the Captain, the Chief Mate, the Radio Operator, and the Engineer, you work together to manoeuvre your boat, keep it from breaking down, determine where the enemy is, and then blow it out of the water by launching torpedoes and dropping depth charges. It can be an incredibly tense experience, quickly switching from barked orders to whispered responses and back again, and if a team wants to defeat their rival submarine, they must co-operate, listen to each other, and listen to their rivals to locate exactly where they are.

Captain Sonar is designed for two to eight players, aged fourteen and up, and can be played in less than an hour. The components consist of two sets role sheets, two transparent sheets, eight erasable marker pens, and two screens. The role sheets are divided between the game’s four roles, with the First Mate and Engineer receiving the same role sheet each game, and the Captain and Radio Operator using a different one depending which scenario is being played. There are five scenarios in the game. In addition, each role sheet is double-sided, the side used depending on the game’s mode. One mode is for real time play, the other is for turn-by-turn play. The two screens are large, four-panel affairs and are illustrated with a scene on the bridge aboard a submarine. They are intentionally difficult to see over and their artwork really gives the impression of being aboard a submarine. Their combination of artwork and size is one factor giving Captain Sonar its presence at the table. The other is the number of players and the number of chairs they need and a reasonably sized table. Captain Sonar can be played with just two players, each controlling their respective submarines, or played with teams of two, three, or four players. With one, two, or three players on either side, some of the game’s roles have to be combined, and with fewer players, the game played turn-by-turn rather than in real time. However many the number of players, Captain Sonar has a presence at the table—and that only increases the more players there are.

The four roles in Captain Sonar are Captain, Chief Mate, Radio Operator, and Engineer. The Captain begins each turn by announcing out loud the direction in which the submarine is going to move—north, east, south, or west—one space and plots that on the Captain’s sheet. He cannot announce another move until both the First Mate and the Engineer have given him a verbal ‘Okay’. The Radio Operator’s sheet is identical to that of the Captain—on both teams—and it is his job to listen into the directions given by the opposing Captain on the other side of the screen and map them on a transparent sheet which is placed over his role sheet. By successfully marking down the directions and adjusting this overlay so that it ignores obstacles such as islands and mines, the Radio Operator may be able to deduce where the enemy submarine is.The First Mate’s task is to monitor the submarine’s equipment—Mine, Drone, Silence, Torpedo, Sonar, and Scenario specific item—and alert the Captain when it is ready to activate or launch. Each piece of equipment has a gauge and when the Captain announces the submarine’s movement, the First Mate fills in one space on one of the gauges. When one is full, he announces it as ready. Again, this done out loud. At any time, the Captain can launch a Torpedo or drop a Mine, and then later detonate a Mine. If a Mine or Torpedo detonates adjacent to the enemy submarine, it inflicts a point of damage, two on a direct hit. He can also activate the Silence and send his submarine up to four spaces away in any direction in a straight line. This also erases the track which the Captain has been tracing on his sheet, which is important the submarine cannot cross its track. The First Mate can launch the Drone and ask the enemy Captain if his submarine is in particular sector, and he has to answer truthfully; he can activate Sonar, which will force the enemy Captain to provide him with two pieces of information about his submarine’s position (either row, column, or sector), though one of them is false; and the Scenario varies according to the map being played.

Lastly, the Engineer is in charge of keeping track of the breakdowns which occur as the Captain orders the submarine in different directions. His sheet consists of the submarine’s systems indicated by various symbols—‘Mine + Torpedo’, ‘Drone + Sonar’, and ‘Silence + Scenario’, plus ‘Radiation’—divided across four boxes corresponding to the cardinal directions in which the submarine can travel. When the Captain declares a move, the Engineer must mark off one of the symbols in the corresponding box. If any ‘Mine + Torpedo’, ‘Drone + Sonar’, or ‘Silence + Scenario’ is crossed out, then none of the corresponding systems work. If all of the symbols in a box are crossed out, the submarine suffers a point of damage, and likewise, if all of the ‘Radiation’ symbols are crossed out, the submarine suffers a point of damage. It is part of the Engineer’s role to communicate this damage back to the First Mate and Captain, since it limits the direction in which the submarine can move and what systems can be used.

Fortunately, a submarine can be repaired. When all of the symbols in a box or the ‘Radiation’ symbols are crossed out, repairs can be carried out, the damage is erased and the submarine can use all of the systems and movement directions again. The submarine still suffers a point of damage in either case. Alternatively, the Captain can command that the submarine will surface. This erases all damage, but to do that, the Captain, the Chief Mate, the Radio Operator, and the Engineer has to take in turn to draw around one of the four sections of the submarine marked on the Engineer’s role sheet, making sure to remain in the white border. Once done, the enemy Engineer must verify it has been done correctly, and if so, the damage is erased, the submarine can dive, and begin hunting for the enemy and start a new track. If not, everyone has to do it again until it is…

In the meantime, what is the enemy submarine doing? Since Captain Sonar is played in real time, the enemy submarine is steaming towards the very sector where your submarine is on the surface effecting repairs. So no hurry then… Or rather try not to panic, because that enemy submarine could be really, really close and have a mine or torpedo ready! This is when Captain Sonar gets really tense.

Play continues like this until one submarine has suffered four damage—whether from Mines, Torpedoes, or that inflicted on its various systems, and is destroyed. In which case, the other submarine and its crew (and thus the players) are the winners.

Captain Sonar can be played in two mode—turn-by-turn or real time. Both are fun, and turn-by-turn can be used as means of teaching the game if necessary, but the game comes alive when played in real time. For that, you need a minimum of five players, but really—really—Captain Sonar comes alive with the full crew complement of eight players. Not only that, it comes alive and you can really imagine yourself in a submarine, having turned the light down low and have some submarine noises playing in the background, not knowing where the enemy is, but hunting them, and knowing they are in exactly the same situation.

This though, is only the standard game, played on the basic map. Captain Sonar includes five maps of increasing complexity. Most open up the space between the islands, because having more islands restricts movement and makes it easier to track the enemy submarine, but the more advanced maps have the submarine hunt play out under the ice pack with only limited holes through which either submarine can surface, effectively restricting where a submarine can conduct repairs or lace the map with a network of mines ready to detonate.

Physically, Captain Sonar is comprised of relatively few components. All though are of good quality. The screens are sturdy, the maps and role sheets easy to use, and the rules are easy to read and come with plenty of examples to help understand the game. If there is a downside to Captain Sonar, it is that whilst both enjoyable and playable with fewer players, it really delivers its best playing experience at eight, the maximum number of players. For which of course a sizeable playing area is required.

Captain Sonar is on one level, a party game—especially given the number of players it is designed for, but that hides the sophistication of play behind its simple concept and rules. This does not mean that you could not take this game and introduce it at that level and then pull everyone into its taut little game play and the nervousness of the situations it sets up. It could also be described as a game of team Battleships and on one level it is, but it is much, much more than that. First, it is a clever development of that base idea, of hunting for enemy vessels (or vessel), but having them constantly moving and then turning it into an experience that can be shared. Second, it is a game of co-operation and in particular of communication, as the players need to listen to each other and work together in order to use their submarine effectively and find and destroy their enemy. Third, it is an amazing means of playing out and telling an incredibly tense story, just like the submarine films. Captain Sonar is a great game and a great playing experience, and short of joining the navy together, this is the closest you and your friends are going to go on a submarine hunt.

The carnival is everything that society is not—exciting and exhilarating, romantic and raucous, uncertain and unsettled, even freakish and fearful. It seems appropriate that the modern idea of the carnival—at least the travelling carnival—would be propelled out of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition with its rides, games of chance, freak shows, and burlesque, let alone the horrors it would hide. From Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked this Way Comes to the television series Carnivàle, the carnival and its workers, the often-mistrusted Carnies, have always been something to fear, the apprehension of the unknown tipping over into abhorrence as this classic slice of Americana slipped into our consciousness, set up its booths and displays, switched on the bright lights and jaunty pipes, barked out its delights, promised gaiety and fun, before switching off the lights and slipping away in the morning, leaving behind just memories and the promise of a return the next year. Almost from the start, the carnival became a vehicle behind which the horrors of the Mythos could wend their way across America, their impact barely felt from one town to the next, including in Call of Cthulhu with David A. Hargrave’s scenario ‘Dark Carnival’ from Curse of the Chthonians: Four Odysseys Into Deadly Intrigue. However, that was all setting with neither narrative nor background; the setting populated by a gallery of grotesques devoted to an unexplained cult – the Society of the Great Dark – and sitting over what is essentially a dungeon. Fortunately, the newest scenario for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition to offer a carnival of consternation is far more chilling and much more cunning. Welcome to Carnival Pandemonium.

Carnival of Madness: A Call of Cthulhu Scenario for the 1970s is from the same team behind Highway of Blood and The Pipeline. It is inspired by the low-budget horror, splatter, and exploitation films of the period, shown in a ‘grindhouse’ or ‘action house’ cinema, such as Duel, I Spit on Your Grave, Last House on the Left, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, and the more recent Death Proof. Carnival of Madness is a one-session, one-shot which takes place on the Friday the day before Halloween in 1970 just off the Aylesbury Pike in western Massachusetts. The Player Characters—who may or not be investigators—are visiting a carnival which has set up there, whether for fun, looking for Alice, a little girl who has been abducted from Worcester State Hospital (she will come to play a significant role in the scenario whatever the Player Characters’ motivations), or to investigate a curious cluster of similar dreams in the area. This is as either a quartet of ‘Meddling Kids’ in the mode of Scooby Doo—though minus the Great Dane, a team of Mythos dream investigators, a pair of Massachusetts State Police detectives, or a team of Private Investigators. Of these, Carnival of Madness includes pre-generated Investigators for the Meddling Kids and the two Detectives.

Carnival of Madness opens with the Investigators on the road and directed onto the grounds of the Carnival Pandemonium to the sound of jaunty party pipes [https://youtu.be/pct1uEhAqBQ] and encouraged to play games such as Whack-A-Monkey, Ring Toss, Duck Pond, Wheel-O-Fortune, and more. They are pushed, even pulled towards various booths and other events, including a series of performances announced by a classic carnival barker, as well as a Fortune Teller and the Asylum, the carnival’s Funhouse and Freak Show. The Freak Show contains the most obvious and most immediate evidence of the presence of the Mythos at the carnival and despite being a cliché, is appropriate. Yet there are oddities amongst the Carnies too, some of which are obvious and perhaps easily passed off, but if the Investigators look close enough (or is that too close?) many have something disturbing about them... The Asylum is subtler in its horror, being based on the classic facility for the mentally disturbed which constantly seems to play with the Investigators’ sense of perspective and that runs throughout Carnival of Madness.

Carnival of Madness is also a timed event and as the Investigators spend more time on the carnival grounds, reality seems to slip in and out around them, and they seem to slip in and out of reality. In actuality, they are descending deeper and deeper into Pandemonium, a space which distorts the world around them. What is pulling them is a vector, an Unreality, an infection which is making them more susceptible to the effects of the Pandemonium. At first there are only minor differences—colours not as bright, flavours blander, and sounds flatter, whilst those around the Investigators who are already one of the Infected, will seem to act strangely and see madness in everyone but themselves, but further and further in, the world will wear out, the people will disappear and reappear, the sun will take on a golden corona, chaos reigns as thoughts and emotions run rampant and have a physical presence, until the point where they are no longer at the carnival, or even on Earth. In and out of this slips Alice, sometimes taking an Investigator by the hand, sometimes stepping out of sight… The Investigators’ descent into Pandemonium is measured by Sanity loss and requires some extra tracking upon the part of the Keeper, the effects of any occurrence of any Bout of Insanity being marked by a drop further on that descent and a roll on the provided Unreality Tables.

For the players and their Investigators, Carnival of Madness comes with some excellent handouts, including tickets, photographs and images, posters, and maps, one of which delightfully hints at the Mythos entity at the heart of the scenario. The standout handout is the leaflet for the Carnival Pandemonium itself, which definitely needs to be printed out and handed to the players as it adds so much verisimilitude to the scenario. Six Investigator sheets—though only the front of the sheets—are given for the four Meddling Kids and the two Detectives.

For the Keeper there is the complete background to the scenario and the antagonists’ plans which come to fruition at the climax of the scenario, an explanation for Pandemonium is and how it works, a complete description of all the booths and events at the carnival—including all of the games, so the Investigators can get involved, stats for the major NPCs, descriptions of three Mythos artifacts, spells, and tomes, and a new Mythos creature. There is also advice and a warning or two—all of which are needed. Carnival of Madness is upfront about the fact that it involves body horror, graphic violence, drug use, adult language, gaslighting, and mental health issues—the gaslighting in particular. Across the course of the evening on which the scenario takes place, the Keeper is constantly presenting the players and their Investigators with seemingly false narratives and manipulating and misleading their perceptions. The scenario advises that the Keeper should be upfront with her players as well.

Carnival of Madness is a busy scenario, perhaps too busy to run in a single session and the Keeper will need to maintain a tight rein on the pace of the scenario as it builds to the climax. There is the suggestion that it could be run in two or three sessions, though that may lessen some of the scenario’s impact, for this is a scenario which is designed to build and build in intensity and some of that may be lost between sessions. The scenario is flexible enough that it could easily be set at any time from the Purple Decade of Cthulhu by Gaslight to nineteen eighties without any real changes.

Physically, Carnival of Madness is a fantastic looking book. The artwork is good, the writing decent, and the handouts excellent. Perhaps an index or a cheat sheet of tables to cover the rules additions would have been useful, but the book is relatively short.

Carnival of Madness is a scenario whose fantastic atmosphere and creepiness and weirdness grows and grows in intensity as the Investigators descend into Pandemonium and madness. It not only brings the raucous and rowdy nature of a carnival to life with all of the games and performances and booths, but infuses them with an unmellow yellow that will play and play again with the Investigators’ perceptions like a carousel of consternation.

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

—oOo—

What is it?
The Cups of Clearwine: A Sourcebook for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha presents the dozen or so households, twenty-seven fully written up inhabitants and more, plus maps and plot hooks of ‘Elisanda’s Grove’ (or ‘Sandy Corner’), a district in the corner of the tribal city of the Colymar for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

It also includes the spell, Command Goose.

It is a follow-up to the earlier The Dregs of Clearwine: A Sourcebook for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha which described another corner of Clearwine.

It is a sixty-three page, full colour, soft cover book.
The layout is clean and tidy, and the portrait thumbnails are nicely done.

Where is it set?
The Cups of Clearwine is specifically set to the right of Oldgate in the tribal city of the Colymar. With some adjustment it could be moved to another Sartarite city.
Who do you play?No specific character types are required when encountering the inhabitants of The Dregs of Clearwine. Engizi and Heler worshippers will enjoy the included scenario.

What do you need?
The Cups of Clearwine requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha as well as The RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack for wider information about the city of Clearwine. The RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary will be useful for details on the Telmori and Trolls and The Red Book of Magic for certain spells, whilst The Smoking Ruin & Other Stories details NPCs who may be important to the inhabitants of Clearwine. To get the very fullest out of The Cups of Clearwine, both Cults of Glorantha and the Sartar Boxed Set will be useful.
What do you get?
The typical supplement for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha focuses naturally on adventurers and the great and the good and the bad, that is, Player Characters and NPCs who possess the agency and freedom to go anywhere or do anything. The Cups of Clearwine: A Sourcebook for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is radically different, focusing on the lives and loves of those further down the social ladder, but unlike the earlier  supplement, The Dregs of Clearwine, not all that far down the social ladder, most of them being middle class. The inhabitants of the area make a good living and certainly enough to get by. The supplement details the eleven households and establishments of the neighbourhood and their inhabitants, as well as various family members and employees who live and work there. The majority of these are fully statted up and nicely illustrated, and all include detailed descriptions of their hopes and relationships with others in their household and the wider community.
For example, Oraninna Goodwine and her husband Rastadath, she a respected vintner and Initiate of Minlister, he a retired warrior, own two properties in the neighbourhood. One is a draughty, but impressive stone tower, the other, a larger, more homely home. However, the effects of the Great Winter forced them to let their house to tenant farmers with a large family, headed by Jenyr the Weaver, something that Oraninna is jealous of, her children having died or been killed as a result of the Lunar occupation of Sartar. Further, whilst renting out the house has restored their fortunes, Oraninna and Rastadath want to move back in, but cannot. However, Jenyr’s son, Fararan, is fascinated with Rastadath’s war stories, as are several of the boys in the neighbourhood, much to their parents’ dismay, who want them to follow in their safer footsteps. Rastadath drinks with Findaral, an old comrade, at the wine shop, complaining about both the changes locally, especially those his niece has made to his wife’s pottery shop, now turning it into ‘The Hot Food Shop’, and any newcomers to the area, despite the fact that outsiders come to both ‘The Hot Food Shop’ and the wine shop, let alone the others visiting the neighbourhood’s other craftsmen and women. One of these is the argumentative Tifira Wolf-Friend, a Telmori who has become friends with Indromast, the introverted perfume maker, who is the subject of gossip as to who he should marry and there are occasional attempts to match-make for him. He sells to the Earth Temple and the Temple of Uleria in Apple Lane, as well as private citizens, including Brudelia Norinel, an Ersolian courtesan, who resides here, far away from her family politics and who buys from all of the sellers in the neighbourhood, if she can. She has no dislike for anyone nearby, but Rastadath’s conservatism is at odds with her progressive views, and she pities Oraninna Goodwine for the loss of her family. Threads like this weave in and out of the nearly thirty or so fully written up NPCs, and to a certain extent the others as well, creating a web of relationships that in play, the Player Characters can follow and unpick.
The eleven households include a perfume maker, landlords and tenants, a wine shop, a food shop, an entertainer, a courtesan, jewellers, glassmakers, and a foreign farmer. These all cluster around a courtyard at the centre of which is a well and a tree that Sartar himself changed from an old oak into a new sapling to prevent the tree from dying when new walls were built. The neighbourhood is busy as the wine shop and the food shop both attract outside custom, as do the perfume maker, jewellers, and glassmakers, all three of whom have regular patrons across the city of Clearwine. The courtyard throngs with geese—who also act as guard animals, and pigs, and at least one alynx whom the geese hate and will chase! Apart from the wine shop and food shop, the courtyard is quiet at night, and when closed, the area is patrolled by a recently hired Trollkin, though not everyone in the neighbourhood is happy with his situation.
Every household is accompanied by a big box of plot hooks—and that in addition to a selection of general plot hooks, a side elevation of the house, and the maps of the neighbourhood includes a rooftop map as well as a footprint map showing the floorplans of the mostly one-room households. Throughout, sections of boxed texts cover supplementary information, ranging from detailing the neighbourhood committee and spindles and spinning to how the disposal of  night soil is handled and the nature of courtesans in Glorantha. Rounding out The Cups of Clearwine is ‘The Cursed House’, an investigation into an abandoned house in the centre of the neighourhood which seems to be making people ill, which blossoms into a delightful exploration of the magical realism of Glorantha.
At the heart of The Cups of Clearwine is a very nicely constructed web of relationships and sense of community that the supplement’s many plot hooks dig their barbs into. There is material here that could fuel session after session of roleplaying as the Player Characters come to involve themselves into the doings of the neighbourhood, and unlike in The Dregs of Clearwine, it is likely to be easier to pull the Player Chaarcters into the doings of the locals presented in The Cups of Clearwine. This is because the Player Characters are likely to be on an equal footing in terms of social standing, at least for the most part.
The set-up of The Cups of Clearwine however, suggests another possibility. That is to run it as a mini-campaign location with the Player Characters are inhabitants of the neighbourhood, either having grown up there or moved there very recently as a result of recent events. This would lead to a campaign of small lives, but strong emotions, essentially a soap opera amongst the middle classes of Clearwine a la the BBC television series, EastEnders or the ITV series, Coronation Street. It is a pity that the supplement does not include ready-to-play sample Player Characters or guidelines to create such characters, but perhaps that is scope for some such supplementary support. The other alternative is to have the players take the roles of the NPCs themselves, though it would depend if the players want to take the roles of NPCs rather than characters of their own creation.
However the Game Master decides to use The Cups of Clearwine: A Sourcebook for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, it is full of detail, flavour, and rife with roleplaying and adventure possibilities.
Is it worth your time?Yes—The Cups of Clearwine presents a rich slice of almost soap opera life that will involve your Player Characters in the big stories of small lives, whether they are simply visiting or even residents themselves.No—The Cups of Clearwine presents a busy suburban corner of Clearwine and your campaign may not even be set there, let alone want to pay a visit.Maybe—The Cups of Clearwine presents an array of NPCs, relationships, and plot hooks which the Game Master can adapt to other locations if she does not want to use them as written.

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. However, whilst the fanzine format is typically used to support other roleplaying games, it has also been used as a vehicle for complete, if small roleplaying games of their own.
The Dead Are Coming: a zombie apocalypse survival rpg is a minimalist roleplaying game built on the architecture of Into the Odd. It was published by Gallant Knight Games in 2020, following a successful Kickstarter campaign as part of the Old Skull Zine RPG Trilogy—the others being Running Out of Time and Screams Amongst The Stars—for ZineQuest #2. As the title suggests, it is a post apocalyptic roleplaying game in which the dead have arisen and the survivors are forced into a struggle to survive, look after their friends and family and keep them safe, and perhaps build a refuge from which they can gain some measure of protection. Arrayed against them are not just small bands of the living dead, but potentially hordes—and not necessarily of the ordinary members of the shambling corpse cortège. They include the Sluggish, the Runner, the Hulk, the Spitter, the Toxic, and more... The Dead Are Coming includes thirty-six character backgrounds, simple player-facing mechanics, a deadly combat system which emphasises some potentially deadly nasty outcomes, simple rules for handling communities and their actions, ten zombie types, and a set of tables around which the Game Master can build a scenario or campaign. Throughout the world of The Dead Are Coming is presented as a dangerous one, a world where choices have consequences, and a world where death is just around the corner... Typically shuffling towards you on two legs.
A Survivor in The Dead Are Coming is defined by three attributes—Strength, Dexterity, and Willpower, his Hit Points, his Resources, and his Background. Resources consist of Food, Water, Bullets, and Fuel, whilst a Background can be anything from a Highschool Student or Foodtruck Chef to Clown or Soccer Star. To create a Survivor, a player rolls two six-sided dice and adds three for each attribute, and can swap two, and rolls one six-sided die for both Hit Points and Resources, the latter determining how many the Survivor has for all four types of Resource. Cross-referencing the results for Hit Points and Resources determines the Survivor’s Background, which gives him one or two useful items. Name, physical details, and personality traits can be rolled on separate tables. The process is quick and easy and takes a few minutes.
Name: Ryan MurdockStrength 9Dexterity 10Willpower 11Hit Points 4Background: ZookeeperResources: 2 (Food 1 Water 1 Bullets 0 Fuel 0)Equipment: Torch, photograph of partner, monkey, tranquiliser darts, dart gunDescription: Goatee, Fanatical
Resources and a Survivor’s Inventory are an important aspect of the game. Food and Water are required daily, Fuel is consumed per four hours of travel, and Bullets are expended only when a one is rolled on a damage die. For ease of play, there is no difference between Fuel types or Bullet types, the emphasis being on survival and play rather than unnecessary details. A Survivor’s Inventory is not just important because of what he is carrying, but how he is carrying it is. It is listed in order of packing and accessibility on the Survivor’s character sheet and if he needs to pull something out of a bag or backpack fast, his player needs to roll higher than the number it is stored on. Of course, this only comes into play when dramatically appropriate, but when it does, it adds to the tension. In addition, every items has a limited durability, after which a Survivor will need to repair, recharge, or refill it that item to use it again—if the item has not been destroyed.
Mechanically, The Dead Are Coming uses Saves. These are rolls of a twenty-sided die against the appropriate attribute. Depending upon how well prepared a Survivor is, what equipment he has, or whether he an appropriate Background, his player will roll with Advantage, that is roll two twenty-sided dice and use the lowest result. Conversely, if the Survivor is ill-prepared, outmatched, or hindered, his player will roll with Disadvantage.
Combat in The Dead Are Coming is deadly. Initiative is handled narratively, the Game Master determining who acts depending upon the situation. Any attack always hits, so instead of rolling to hit, the player or Game Master just rolls damage. All weapons ‘explode’ and allow an extra die to be rolled and added to the total if the maximum number on a die is rolled. It is also possible to attack with an advantage or a disadvantage. The former increases the damage inflicted, whilst the later reduces it. Defence, whether unnatural for a Zombie or cover for a Survivor, and any armour worn by a Survivor will reduce the amount of damage done, but after that, it is first deducted from their Hit Points and their Strength. Once a Survivor suffers damage to his Strength, this is Critical Damage and his player must make saves against his Strength and if failed, he becomes Incapacitated. If a Survivor’s Strength is reduced to zero, he is dead, and similarly, if his Dexterity is reduced to zero, he is paralyzed.
In between Strength and Hit Points, there is the Scars table. This is rolled on if a Survivor’s Hit Points is reduced to exactly zero without any Strength damage. The amount of damage suffered determines the result. For example, a two means that the Survivor falters and shakes his head, is forced to reroll his Hit Points, and can Save against one of his attributes, which if failed, will increase its value by one. This and other options are the only way to increase a Survivor’s attributes or Hit Points. The entries on the Scar table are all interesting and can lead to some fun roleplaying outcomes, but because attacks are more likely to inflict damage that will result in Critical Damage, the likelihood of these results coming into play is uncommon.
The Dead Are Coming is a horror roleplaying game and it includes rules for the effect of encountering the cadaver cavalcade. Seeing someone devoured by zombies results in the loss of Willpower and when that is reduced to zero, a Survivor suffers a Stressful Event. This can be anything from the Survivor holding it together and having Advantage for all saves for a short while, to suffering a heart attack and either dying or passing out. Willpower is regained by resting and spending time with a personal item.
The Dead Are Coming is not just about fighting the undead threat, but also dealing with other Survivors, gaining Followers, and eventually forming a Band and perhaps even a Community. Guidance is given for how many Resource Units it might take to gain a favours or trade deals, and simple rules acquiring Followers and how to use them when they coalesce into a Band of twenty people and then a Community of a hundred or more, composed of five Bands. Mechanically, they are treated like a large Survivor, and in battles, they can become broken when they suffer Critical Damage. As part of a Community, a Band can be assigned activities such as scouting ahead, recruiting other Survivors, searching for Resources, and reinforcing the walls of the Community’s home.
For the Game Master there are rules for handling travel, the weather, and encounters, the latter supported with some NPC stats—which are not your average Survivors, for example, Death Cultists and Opportunities pricks—and tables for their gear. Another set of tables, the ‘Apocalypse Toolkit’, provides landmarks, structures, findings, and hazards to be found in the countryside, small towns, and cities. Another pair of tables gives simple adventure hooks and ideas on what to do in the zombie apocalypse. Then there are the zombies. Unlike Survivors, they do not suffer Critical Damage when they suffer Strength damage, but all damage against them explodes when the highest result on any dice is rolled. However, if a Survivor suffers Critical damage against, his player make Saves against Strength, first to avoid being Infected, and when Infected, three more for it to be permanent. The zombies are nasty, and include the expected Sluggish and Runner type zombies, as well as the Zombie Mass, the Exploding Zombie, the Z Dog, and the Z Elephant! Plus there is a table of mutations to spice them up a bit…
The Dead Are Coming includes advice for both the player and the Game Master. For the player, this is ask questions and plan and work with others, build alliances, especially to avoid both risk and dice rolls, the latter because dice rolls because they have consequences. He should also play to survive and play hard—dirty if necessary—but enjoy his Survivor’s death. After all, Survivors are replaceable. For the Game Master, the world of The Dead Are Coming should be presented as dangerous and make that danger obvious to her players, present choices, show the consequences of those choices, and have her players roll Saves as a result of their making choices. 
Physically, The Dead Are Coming is well presented, its discordant and sometimes urgent layout stressing the unnatural of its post apocalypse. The writing is succinct and to the point, and the artwork decent.
As mechanically simple and straightforward as The Dead Are Coming is, it will require some set-up upon the part of the Game Master, but that will typically amount to no more than the details of an environment where the Survivors will come together, whether that is one of the Game Master’s devising or one based on a real-world location. Either way, since the game is set in the real world just a few moments into the future, it is a world that is easy to imagine and a world that will be easy to contribute by both players and the Game Master working together. Plus, there is the familiarity of the zombie genre and the roleplaying does come with a good of tables for added inspiration. 

The Dead Are Coming combines simple rules with a familiar set-up and genre in which the Survivors need to learn from their Scars to withstand the dangerous nature of the world they now find themselves in. However, that world is brutal and nasty, a post apocalypse in which sometimes the best option is to run—whether that is from the zombies or other Survivors—and that should be a lesson learned fast...

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 Battle Mats 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 Wilderness Books of Battle Mats is a ‘Set of 2 Battle Map Books for RPG’. As a set, it comes as two volume set of map books in a slipcase—open ended at either side for easy access. Each of the two volumes is a twelve-inch squire square, spiral bound book, with each containing sixty maps, all marked with a square grid. These start with a pair of maps depicting in turn plain grasslands, tundra, and desert—the nearest that the two volumes get to blank, unfeatured maps, but quickly leap into depicting particular locations. There are rivers, waterfalls, and pools; stretches of worked forest with nothing but stumps left; the ruins of a tower and its nearby outbuildings; desert and rocky desert ravines; narrow ravines crossed over by both a log and a bridge, with a stream running the length of the ravine; rich jungle undergrowth; the shores of both arctic temperate territory; and much, much more. And this is more or less the same in each of the two books. This does not mean that the maps are exactly the same in each book. Rather they are thematically similar and this leads into what is perhaps the greatest feature of The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats.
Each two-page spread of the two volumes of The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats consists of two linked maps—physically and thematically. The Game Master can use either of the maps on the two-page spread on their own or together, as a twelve by twenty-four-inch rectangular map. That though is with the one volume. With two volumes together, the Game Master can combine any single map from one volume with any single map from the other, and if that is not flexible enough, any two-page spread from one volume can be placed next to a two-page spread from the other, in the process, creating a twenty-four by twenty-four-inch square map. What is means is that the Game Master can connect the river to the pool via the waterfall, have the ruined tower guarding the shore of a lake or the sea, and so on. Thus this gives The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats a fantastic versatility which the Game Master can take advantage of again and again in choosing a combination of map pages from the two volumes to create location after location, and then use them to build encounter after encounter.
The individual maps are excellent, being bright, vibrant, detailed, and clear. They are easy to use and easy to modify. A Game Master can easily adjust them with a write-on/wipe-off pen to add features of her own. This is especially important if the Game Master wants to use a map which has previously featured in one of her adventures. She can also add stickers if she wants new features or even actual physical terrain features.
Where perhaps The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats improves on the The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats is that there are fewer limitations on how and when the contents of the two volumes can or should be used. This is primarily because their locations—unlike those of The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats—are not as specific in terms of their role. Unlike the dungeon maps, they are obviously more open and there are fewer elements of their design that the Game Master has to consider when bringing them to the table. This also means that the maps can be used again and again without familiarity becoming too much of an issue. Of course, creating an encounter at a moment’s notice is not necessarily easy, and to really get the best out of The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats, the Game Master should definitely prepare some with the maps in mind that she wants to use, but it is easier with this two-volume set.
Physically, The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats 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. Although there is some writing involved in The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats, it is not really what a Game Master is looking for with this two-volume set. Nevertheless, that writing very much needs the attention of an editor—just as it was with The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats.
There is no denying the usefulness of maps when it comes to the tabletop gaming hobby. They help players and Game Masters alike visualise an area, they help track movement and position, and so on. If a gaming group does not regularly use miniatures in their fantasy games, The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats might not be useful, but it will still help them visualise an area, and it may even encourage them to use them. If they already use miniatures, whether fantasy roleplaying or wargaming, then the maps in The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats will be undeniably useful. And there are so many fantasy roleplaying games which The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats will work with, almost too many to list here…
The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats is full of attractive, ready-to-use maps that the Game Master can bring to the table for the fantasy roleplaying game of her choice. Both practical and pretty, The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats is an undeniably useful accessory for fantasy gaming in general.