Reviews from R'lyeh

1981: The Spawn of Fashan

Sat, 12/25/2021 - 09:00

In the beginning there was Dungeons & Dragons. This made a lot of people happy, but it also made some people unhappy, and it even made some people both happy and unhappy. The happy people played it, the unhappy people refused to play it and campaigned to stop the people playing it because their sense of fun was entirely devoted to doing something else which they felt the people playing it should be doing, and the people it made both happy and unhappy, thought they could do better, including the very people who were happy with Dungeons & Dragons because they had made it. And the people who thought they could do better than Dungeons & Dragons either tried to make new, better versions of Dungeons & Dragons, or they tried to create versions of their own which were better, faster, more fun, more realistic, and well, just not Dungeons & Dragons. Some would be very close to Dungeons & Dragons, others far away, and others…? Well however close these fantasy heartbreakers were, most would remain the province of the Game Master and his gaming group, but others would come to market and some would succeed, some fail… and some would achieve legendary, even cult status. None more so than The Spawn of Fashan.
Self-published by Kirby Lee Davis in 1981, The Spawn of Fashan would sell only a handful of copies, but gave rise to an infamous review in Dragon #60 by Lawrence Schick who could not believe that anyone would create a roleplaying game as dreadful as The Spawn of Fashan and very quickly concluded that, “The Spawn of Fashan is a great parody of role-playing rules!” That issue of Dragon was published in April, 1982, and a combination of an incredulous review and the possibility that the whole review was not about an actual roleplaying, but one entirely made up, and was thus an April Fool’s joke upon the part of Schick and Dragon magazine, meant that The Spawn of Fashan passed into legend. That legend would be kept alive by its inclusion on the ‘REAL MEN, REAL RÔLE-PLAYERS, LOONIES AND MUNCHKINS’ lists which parodied early gamer archetypes and stereotypes, as in Loonies “play a variant Spawn of Fashan” as their favourite SFRPG and as their Favourite King Arthurian RPG, “play a variant of Spawn of Fashan so variant it shouldn't be called Spawn of Fashan anymore”. However, The Spawn of Fashan is real, and due to actual demand, a number of reprints were published in 1998, followed by a fortieth anniversary edition in 2021. It is the latter version, which is being reviewed here, notably because, getting hold of any other version, is hideously expensive.

So what is The Spawn of Fashan and what is The Spawn of Fashan about? It is a Class and Level roleplaying game written in response to the lack of individuality in any one character in Dungeons & Dragons. As to what it is about, The Spawn of Fashan is not really a setting as such, more—definitely much more—a set of rules for character creation and combat. What background there is suggests that Fashan is a world reduced to the level of a mediaeval economy by a nuclear war and in addition to leaving high tech artefacts to be found, the nuclear war also resulted in areas of radiation and a background radiation high enough that minor psionic abilities are common amongst the all-Human descendants of the survivors. So technically, The Spawn of Fashan is not so much a fantasy roleplaying game as a post-apocalyptic one. Either way, it is actually based on The Annals of Fashan, a series of fantasy novels by the designer, the setting and background for which did not make it into the final draft of The Spawn of Fashan. Had it done so, the roleplaying game would have been longer, but it might actually have been more interesting in terms of setting, storytelling, and roleplaying potential. The designer though wanted to avoid giving away the plots of the novels. Nevertheless, any Referee and group of players roleplaying The Spawn of Fashan would still be roleplaying a version of Fahsan—though not the designer’s Fashan—hence every other campaign being a ‘spawn’ of Fashan. Which begs the question, ‘When are you playing The Spawn of Fashan, but not playing The Spawn of Fashan?’, since it is almost impossible to play in Fashan because there is so little of the setting in The Spawn of Fashan such that any campaign of The Spawn of Fashan cannot actually be set on Fashan…

That said, what do you play in The Spawn of Fashan? Well, all Player Characters The Spawn of Fashan are human. A character has eight statistics—Strength, Dexterity, Reflexes, Constitution, Intelligence, Charisma, Courage, and Senses. Actually, there ten statistics, as a Player Character can also have Courage and Courage as well as Courage, but only if he has extra special fighting abilities. Anyway, all but Senses are rolled on five six-sided dice (or as The Spawn of Fashan puts it, “five 1-6 dice”) and the lowest one dropped, except if a character is female, in which case, “The number of dice rolled at any time for strength, constitution, and hit points is halved.” This is despite the fact that in the book’s introduction the designer states that neither he nor his team are sexist in terms of the pronouns used in the book. Which is fine except he is sexist in terms of game design. Anyway, female characters are fine, because they gained increased Charisma and Intuition. Unfortunately, the designer ultimately never actually defines what Intuition is… and actually getting find that out involves following the instruction, “[see the ‘Destiny’ listing on the Mental Illness table].” which leaves to wonder why it is defined on a Mental Illness table and if that means that all female characters—because they have Intuition—on Fashan are mentally ill? Once you have found the Mental Illness table in the fifty-one pages of Section VII which both contains all of the charts for The Spawn of Fashan and take up more than half of The Spawn of Fashan, a section supposedly for the Referee’s eye’s only, the actual entry on that table reads, “Destinied. Character is destinied. Referee should roll on the Destiny Table for the character.” However this immediately followed by a note which states, “Due to the necessity of having the Destiny Table interlock with the Referee's cultures and history, it is not given here.” So essentially, not only are female characters impaired in The Spawn of Fashan, as written in The Spawn of Fashan, they cannot be created using its rules unless the Referee has already defined a world or campaign setting where intrinsically, they are not equal to men. The good news is that for The Spawn of Fashan, this is only the start.

First though, a character needs not one, but two character-types. These are occupations and include Bandits, Barbers, Beggars, Carpenters, Construction Workers, Creepers, Farmers, Healers, Mercenaries, Merchants, Metal Forgers, Miners, Misfits, Occultists, Priests, Sailors, Specialists, Stone Cutters, Swayers, Teachers, Thieves, Traders, Trappers, and Wood Cutters. Once the relevant table is found—and this is a phrase which could be repeated again and again with The Spawn of Fashan—the Referee rolls on the table according to area the Player Character is from to determine his Parents’ Choice of character-type and the player choses his character’s Childhood Choice character-type. This does not seem to have any effect except if the Parents’ Choice of character-type is Misfit, in which case, the Player Character’s character-type is also Misfit. The actual explanation of the character-types are listed in the dreaded section of Section VII and for the most part are fairly obvious and straightforward, sometimes giving statistic increases, equipment, and the like. The less obvious character-types include the Creeper, men of darkness known as Shadowers, the Occultist, renowned and hated for exerting control over the societies of Fashan with their mind control, and the Swayer, the dreaded masters of persuasion. In particular, Creepers can exude a black, inky cloud that most cannot see through; the Occultist can enter into a trance and cause anyone nearby to stutter and be indecisive or to suffer seizure, depending his Intelligence; and Swayers are so persuasive that their words can require a Saving Roll to withstand.

Some character-types, like, can have Senses, the ability to detect life and also food and provisions. There is, however, no magic in The Spawn of Fashan and no religion or gods in The Spawn of Fashan, the latter more because in The Spawn of Fashan there is no real setting. Which means that the Priest character-type has no role until the Referee has defined her own ‘spawn’ of Fashan. In addition to rolling for Statistics, a player rolls on fourteen tables for eyesight, sense of smell, hearing, taste, body (to give advantages and disadvantages rather than a body type), insight, intellect, mental illness, phobia, compulsion, hand usage, height and weight, learned abilities, and language. Some of these require Saving Rolls on a twenty-sided die, but for the most part they generate a completely random selection of abilities and facts. For example, the character has Independent Eye Movement, is allergic to particular type of animal which the Referee will determine, has Heavy Sound Good Hearing (bonus to initiative versus heavy plodders), can tell poison in the water and drink, is double-jointed and has superhuman strength, has Sense of Life, is a Gambler and gets bonuses the riskier the situation, is Destinied (see above for how that is left up to the Referee to determine), fortunately has no phobias, has the compulsions of being a Coward, suffers from Daydreams, and Practices every action, is 5’ 6” and 139 lbs, and because he has an Intelligence of twenty or more, is an ‘Expert on Subterrainian Passages’.

Without a doubt, character generation in The Spawn of Fashan is inaccessible, obtuse, overwritten and unnecessarily complex—and that is just the six or so steps of creating a character, including rolling for Luck Factor and starting Bank Notes, and does not take into account the numerous secondary and derived values the roleplaying game employs. Nor does it take into account the time needed. In fact, no matter how long that time is, it is simply too long. As much as the means and the rules do provide the degree of individuality that the designer wants, whether or not that degree of individuality is either wanted or warranted, they are simply not presented in a manner to help either the player or the Referee through the process.

Then there are the mechanics to The Spawn of Fashan. The core mechanic is the Saving Roll on a twenty-sided die and roll high, but for a roleplaying game of its vintage, it should be no surprise that the bulk of the mechanics in The Spawn of Fashan focus on combat. However, there is a sense of combat being a static affair with neither side involved actually moving, so just an exchange of blows, though movement is covered in surprise and initiative (including when neither party can detect the other because they are both dead—including the Player Characters). Combat involves yet another splurge of terms and terminology and factors that Referee and player has to take into account before either has to roll, including how hard the attacker wants to hit, where he wants to hit, then if the defender parries or dodges (rolled on a percentile dice rather than the standard twenty-sided die), consulting tables as necessary, and making a Saving Throw if the level of damage suffered is equal to or greater than the Serious Injury Tolerance Level. If the attack is successful, rolls are made to see if the armour itself is damaged, point by point, and… if the defender is not actually dead by this point, it is difficult not to believe that anyone—in the game or out—still has the will to live, let alone continue playing… Thankfully though, the people of Fashan are so insecure that they do not congregate in groups of more than thirty, so there are no armies on Fashan, and so need for rules handling army combat.

Surprisingly, the advice on ‘The Makings of a Campaign’ is a decent read and avoids much of the incoherency found throughout the rules. They are backed up by tables for random encounters and generating locations, including ruins and dungeons, and two examples. One is a setting, the other is of actual play. Whilst the monsters have absurd names such as Arl-Grats, Bactrolo, Bartaln, Bull Makl, Cronalk, Filcornect, Larnex, Lorsenfolo, Purtorfalm, Rolmtrokl, and Transgrusan, the setting is equally as silly, which describes the land of Boosboodle in the ‘Boosboodle Inner Human Habitation Zone’ (Bihhz) through which flows The River Mazoo, travel to the towns of Jugble and Crumbudz, and when all else fails, tells the Player Characters that they can go ‘North, where Melvin is Standing Now.’ It is both silly and intentionally humorous upon the part of the designer, but mostly comes across as just plain silly. The other is the example of play. It is without a doubt, the worst example of play in any roleplaying game before Hackmaster Basic. It recounts how a Player Character Thief, Sook, enters a general store in Biddles, the capital of Boosboodle and attempts to buy first some armour, then a religious artefact, followed by a hoe, and lastly, a metal chest. When that succeeds, the player has Sook throw it at the merchant and kill him. It is clear from the writing that boredom has set in on either side, with the Referee resorting to sarcasm and the player to random acts purely to get a response. It is a truly terrible, but funny piece of writing because it is at such odds with the po-faced tone to the rest of The Spawn of Fashan.

Where The Spawn of Fashan, 40th Anniversary Edition is actually interesting is in the essays which appear at the front of the reprint. Here the author talks how he brought the roleplaying game to fruition not once but three times! First at its conception and its subsequence appearance at Denvention II in 1981, followed by renewed interest from roleplayers in both the late eighties and the late nineties, the latter leading to a reprint and inclusion of the first essay. Third, and more recently, its publication upon its fortieth anniversary. Both retrospectives are interesting in highlighting how challenging it was to bring something like The Spawn of Fashan to print then, and how ambitious the author was in doing so. They also allow him time to reflect upon his creation and the hobby’s response to it, and it is clear that he readily accepts rather than resents the latter—especially with regard to the lack of a table of contents or index for example. There can be no doubt that a roleplaying game with as legendary a reputation as The Spawn of Fashan is deserving of both essays where other roleplaying games of such ilk may not be.

Physically, The Spawn of Fashan is as bad as you possibly imagine. It is laid out in the style of a newspaper rather than a book and its text is dense, and notoriously unedited, being riddled with spelling mistakes and inconsistencies and cross references which lead the reader down a blind alley. There are few illustrations and to be fair, they add very little to the overall tone or feel of the book. The Spawn of Fashan, 40th Anniversary Edition at least does come with an index and a table of contents—the original version and its reprint did not and one can only imagine how daunting it must have been to find anything—anything at all—in the book.

—oOo—
The Spawn of Fashan was reviewed three times following its initial publication, first by Charles Dale Martin in Different Worlds Issue 19 (February 1982). Amongst the many elements he criticised of the roleplaying game were the combat system, writing that, “The combat system is both complex and unwieldy. It imposes too great a strain on the players and the referee - using these rules is rather like playing Gladiator, Traveller and Arduin Grimoire simultaneously. Bunetluest, Bushido and Chivalry & Sorcery provide more realism for less effort.” He was equally critical of the game’s treatment of female characters and of the publisher wrote, “The Fashan co-op seems to be out of touch with the adventure gaming community. The game was released at a science fiction convention. The only other role-playing systems mentioned are D&D, AD&D, The Fantasy Trip and Magic Realm. I am familiar with fifteen fantasy role-playing systems and I must conclude that, despite honest effort, Spawn of Fashan is several years behind the state of the art.” However, concluded that, “…[I]t may still be worth buying. The referee’s notes are excellent guidelines for any fantasy campaign. Game masters of an eclectic bent may wish to use some of the new character classes and the many tables in their own game systems. And some adventurous souls might play the game and enjoy it.”

Then there was the infamous review in Dragon #60 (April 1982) by Lawrence Schick, titled ‘Don’t take Spawn of Fashan seriously’. His initial impression was of it being “…[O]ne more mediocre rewrite of the D&D® rules.” but then, “As I read the 96-page rulebook (list price $8.95), my initial boredom was gradually replaced by confusion, amazement, and finally delight. At first glance, the rules seem badly organized and poorly written. The opening sections are deluged with pages of ill-defined jargon and numerous confusing references to tables apparently placed elsewhere. By the time I reached the rules quagmire entitled “Combat,” I could only wonder in amazement that any set of rules could be this bad.” He continued, “Then the light started to dawn. Plowing through the monstrous Tables and Charts section, I began to grin, and by the end of the book, I was laughing loudly. The Spawn of Fashan is a great parody of role-playing rules!”.
Lastly, Ronald Pehr reviewed The Spawn of Fashan in The Space Gamer Number 49 (March 1982). He described The Spawn of Fashan as “…[A] fascinating set of fantasy combat rules which are trying to become a full role-playing game.” and that “…[I]ts current value seems limited to experienced FRPG players who want something novel. Beginners will be baffled, and gamers happy with their current rules will find little reason to journey to the far planet of Fashan.”

—oOo—
There have been some notoriously bad roleplaying games published over the course of the hobby’s history. Efforts like F.A.T.A.L., Myfarog, and Racial Holy War are justly reviled for their inherent offensiveness and the ignorance of the values espoused by the authors. Make no mistake, The Spawn of Fashan does not deserve to be placed alongside that excrescent trinity and it would be insulting to the author to think otherwise. However, that does not mean that The Spawn of Fashan is not a bad game—far from it. The Spawn of Fashan is terrible game. Dense, overwritten, and incomprehensible with a formidable learning curve hampered by poor, oh so poor cross referencing and interminable page flipping, all accompanied by a hilariously awful example of play. Even trying to explain the rules in The Spawn of Fashan is akin to rewriting and not just simplifying them, but translating them. Yet there are flashes of potential here, for the notes for the Referee’s notes and philosophies on worldbuilding are not without merit, which leads the reader to wonder quite what a subsequent edition of The Spawn of Fashan could have been like in the hands of a more experienced production and development team. And wonder quite that because lurking within the game’s stodgy writing, there is a game which by the standards of the time could have been made better and more accessible and more playable. Of course, the appearance of any such subsequent edition might well have done much to negate the reputation of the first edition (at least partially). As the essays in the front of The Spawn of Fashan, 40th Anniversary Edition make clear, it was not to be. Despite its legendary reputation, The Spawn of Fashan is real, it is not a parody, and with the availability of The Spawn of Fashan, 40th Anniversary Edition, you too can find out just how bad it really is, what optimism and faith in your own vision can create, and how sometimes, even if you really do not like Dungeons & Dragons, you really cannot do better. As bad as it is, and because it is as bad as it is, Kirby Lee Davis is to be commended for reassessing it again and letting us reassess it with the release of The Spawn of Fashan, 40th Anniversary Edition.

1981: Fantasie Scenarios

Fri, 12/24/2021 - 09:00

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.
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On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showcased how 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 new fanzines have appeared, there has been an interest in the fanzines of the past, and as that interest has grown, they have become highly collectible, and consequently more difficult to obtain and write about. However, in writing about them, the reader should be aware that these fanzines were written and published between thirty and forty years ago, typically by roleplayers in their teens and twenties. What this means is that sometimes the language and terminology used reflects this and though the language and terminology is not socially acceptable today, that use should not be held against the authors and publishers.

The Beholder was a British fanzine first published in April, 1979. Dedicated to Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, it ran to twenty-seven issues, the last being published in July, 1981. It was popular and would be awarded ‘Best Games Fanzine’ at the Games Day convention in 1980. After the final issue of The Beholder, the editors would go on to release a number of anthologies which collected content from the complete run of the fanzine. A total of five were planned and at least two were published. The first was Beholder Supplement Glossary of Magic, which collected many of the magical items which appeared in the fanzine and collated them into a series of tables for easy use by the Dungeon Master. The second, third, and fourth volumes would have collected the scenarios which appeared in the fanzine, whilst the fifth would have been a bestiary of monsters.

Fantasie Scenarios – The Fanzine Supplement No. 2 is the first anthology of scenarios taken from the pages of The Beholder. It contains “4 highly detailed, exciting and original scenarios” all written for use with Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. The collection opens with ‘The Ring of Fire’, originally published in The Beholder Issue #11 and subsequently voted by its readership as the best scenario to appear in the fanzine. Designed for four to seven Player Characters of ‘moderate adventuring experience’, ‘The Ring of Fire’ is set entirely within the crater of an extinct volcano, rumoured to be the home of a dragon below the crater’s mists and fumes. Several miles distant from the nearest settlement, once the Player Characters have ascended to the lip the crater, the adventure proper begins and they begin the descent. This is along a path which spirals around the steep sides of the crater and it is along this path that most of the scenario will play out. As they follow the path down, the Player Characters encounter obstacles and lairs and fortresses, and more. These special encounter areas start off with almost a nod to Shelbob’s lair with the lair of the Giant Spider, Castra, followed by a wooden plank bridge past the lair of Minor the Harpy, through a vanquished outpost of Hobgoblins, through a maze, and yes, even into the lair of the Red Dragon, Faughon.

All of these encounters really are special. Essentially excerpts pulled from the main map of the volcano, they are beautifully drawn in detail and supported with engaging descriptions. Any one of these encounters could be pulled from the scenario and it would stand up if added to another location, perhaps an enormous dungeon cavern. The scenario is obviously linear as the Player Characters make their descent, but opens out into a swampy area on the crater floor. This is less interesting perhaps than the earlier encounters, but there is a sense of decay here that feels all the more constrictive in the fog-shrouded crater. There are no plot hooks as such to ‘The Ring of Fire’ as such, but it would be easy for the Dungeon Master to add them. Perhaps the Player Characters want something from the Red Dragon or the ancient, evil sorcerer whose remains are buried here, or simply be after the treasure which is said to have been left there by the ancient inhabitants. Essentially, the bottom of the crater is a blank canvas upon which the Dungeon Master can write elements from her campaign and so add ‘The Ring of Fire’ to her campaign. Whatever the Player Characters might find in the base of the crater, getting there is very much the play and the fun of the scenario.

The second scenario is ‘The Gorge of the Afterlife’. Designed for three to six Player Characters of ‘low to moderate adventuring experience’, it appeared in The Beholder Issue #14 and was a close runner up to ‘The Ring of Fire’ in the poll. The Player Characters should at least possess one magical weapon between them—if not more, and there should be a Cleric amongst their number. Again the scenario has a great sense of environment and geography, being set in a long narrow gorge once the burial ground to the local dignitaries. Water drains into the gorge and flows out via a series of waterfalls, which the Player Characters will need to ascend as they venture into the gorge. The outer section of the gorge is swampy and home to a band of brigands, whilst the inner section consists of a lake surrounded by individual tombs, mausolea, and barrows. Here the authors repeat the format of ‘The Ring of Fire’ with individually mapped areas for greater detail, offering a range of different challenges to any Player Characters wanting to raid them. Some are still intact, some have been broken into, others are occupied.

The third part of ‘The Gorge of the Afterlife’ consists of a dungeon proper, a tomb complex, which oddly, is laid out in the shape of a gargoyle, though statues of gargoyles appear at the entrance to the gorge where their prevents entry of any devils or demons. The tomb complex contains just six tombs, each of them a great leader in their time, in their way representatives of Dungeons & Dragons’ Classes. Some were good, others bad, but are now the target of a band of evil Elves (not Drow) amidst the roving undead which infests the complex. Much like ‘The Ring of Fire’, ‘The Gorge of the Afterlife’ is a not a scenario with any sense of a plot, the gorge and its tombs being there to plunder by the Player Characters and nothing more. Again though, they are open to interpretation and development upon the part of the Dungeon Master, perhaps more so because the adventure is designed to be inserted into a campaign. Again, perhaps the Player Characters are searching for something which can only be found in the tombs or perhaps they have been employed to deal with the brigands, but discover that they have a secret paymaster, that is, the evil Elves in the tomb complex? This is much more of a traditional Dungeons & Dragons-style adventure, but again, nicely detailed and potentially more flexible than ‘The Ring of Fire’.

‘UGGISH and the GRIMBNAK’ is the third scenario in Fantasie Scenarios – The Fanzine Supplement No. 2 and originally published in The Beholder Issue #19, and appears to have been part of an ongoing feature in the fanzine. Where the previous two scenarios have been quite confined in their environment, this one opens up a bit by being set in a forest and its surrounding wilderness. Designed for a party of four to six Player Characters of moderate Level, the scenario is set in the forest surrounding the Ravine of the Oozewater where legend has it that two ancient creatures fled in ages past when disturbed by the first settlers in the region. More recently, they have been revealed to be Uggish and the Grimbnak, now said to be in league with the Orcs of the Black Hand, scimitar-wielding humanoids with ebon skin and red eyes, who have been attacking settlers, foresters, and hunters throughout the forest, forcing them to flee. The scenario is thus a strike mission—investigate the activities of the Orcs and put a stop to them.

The scenario details the forest wilderness and the paths to the cliffside stockade which the Orcs have had time to build and make a home in. Thus there is advice and a table to make it a living place with events going on despite the presence of the Player Characters and perhaps that they can take advantage of in their raid. The stockade and its inhabitants, as well as the caves built into the cliffside are as decently detailed as the other scenarios in the anthology, however, the Orcs are described as being black-skinned and resolutely evil. To be fair, this would have been typical of the time and the depiction of Orcs has always been contentious, but the language used here, though unlikely to have been intentionally so at the time, would be socially unacceptable today and even potentially, cause for offence. Whilst there is some element of story here and it would be an easy scenario to add to a campaign because of the simplicity of its set-up, of the four scenarios in the anthology, ‘UGGISH and the GRIMBNAK’ would be the most difficult to run or adapt because of the language used when describing its antagonists and their outlook.

The last scenario in the anthology is ‘The Dripping Chasm’. Taken from The Beholder Issue #18—voted the best issue by the fanzine’s readers—it is designed for six low Level Player Characters and has a simple set-up which makes it easy to add to a campaign or run as a one-shot. That set-up is one of bandits raiding the area, frequently enough to amass no little wealth, and so there is treasure to be found and a threat to civilisation to be thwarted. The bandits are thought to operating from somewhere up the River Underpine, and when the Player Characters follow it along its course, they discover its source, the Dripping Chasm, and a series of buildings along the chasm wall and a cave network beyond them. The caverns though, are not just home to the bandits, there being older occupants who just unhappy with their presence, they are prepared to do something about it. Which is when the Player Characters turn up.

‘The Dripping Chasm’ is a small locale and a small adventure, but it packs in a lot, including factions, nuance, and the level of detail found in the anthology’s other scenarios. There are the three factions—the bandits, a grumpy bear, a really unhappy hermit driven to recruit some unpleasant allies, and the complex of caverns is described in some detail. The factions bring in the element of a living dungeon and this is enforced by the nuance. The caverns and the Dripping Chasm are not just bases of operation where the factions work from, but homes too. So the bear and the hermit make their homes in the caverns and tunnels, and resent being invaded by the bandits, but they have made their home in some of the caverns as well as along the river, and down so with their families. The bandits have their wives and children here too, so this is not a scenario necessarily set up so that the Player Characters go in and slaughter anyone and everyone as in ‘UGGISH and the GRIMBNAK’, but do have choices to make here. Potentially, these choices—which faction to side with, what to do about the families, and discovering why they are here and why they have turned to banditry—are all good story hooks and good roleplaying hooks, though the Dungeon Master will have to develop the details herself.

If there is an oddity to ‘The Dripping Chasm’, it is in the organisation which details the locations furthest from the starting point of the scenario first and nearest, last. Given the advice that the Dungeon Master read through the scenario thoroughly, it only enforces the need to. Otherwise, ‘The Dripping Chasm’ is a decently done scenario easily adapted to the Dungeon Master’s campaign and a really engaging piece of writing. In terms of storytelling potential, ‘The Dripping Chasm’ has the most of the quartet in Fantasie Scenarios – The Fanzine Supplement No. 2.

Physically, Fantasie Scenarios – The Fanzine Supplement No. 2 is decently done. Like any fanzine title, it has its rough edges and the layout could be cleaner. The cartography though is quite lovely, clear and detailed, giving the anthology its singular look. There are few illustrations in the supplement, but some of them are really nice. It should be noted that except where a new monster is introduced, the actual stats for Dungeons & Dragons monsters and items in the four scenarios are kept to a minimum, meaning that the Dungeon Master will ned to refer to the ruleset of her choice.

Fantasie Scenarios – The Fanzine Supplement No. 2 is a piece of history. Its writing is representative of a creative drive four decades ago, and whilst some of that writing reflects that age, there is no denying that each of the scenarios is still playable today. Whether that is using Dungeons & Dragons or Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game or The Black Hack or Old School Essentials, all four scenario could be with relatively little adjustment—at least mechanically. Tonally perhaps and in some of the language warrants adjustment, and would certainly benefit from such attention in the unlikely event that these scenarios were republished today. Overall, Fantasie Scenarios – The Fanzine Supplement No. 2 is a lovely snapshot of yesterday’s creativity, showcasing how it was done forty years ago just as it is today.

[Free RPG Day 2021] Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power

Fri, 12/24/2021 - 03:00

For Free RPG Day 2021, EDGE Studio offered Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power. This is a quick-start for Embers of the Imperium, the roleplaying game based on Twilight Imperium, the classic ‘4x’ (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate) board game. It uses the Genesys Narrative Dice System—first seen in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Third Edition—but ultimately derived from the original Doom and Descent board games. Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power comes with everything necessary to play—an explanation of the rules, four pregenerated characters, and an exciting, action-packed scenario for the Game Master to run. What it does not come with is dice and the fact that both the Genesys Narrative Dice System and Embers of the Imperium—and therefore Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power—use propriety dice is a small problem. Not an insurmountable one, but a small problem, nonetheless. Fortunately, EDGE Studio has made available a Genesys Dice App free to download which will alleviate that problem unless one or of the players lacks a mobile device.
Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power opens with a rules summary. The core mechanic requires a player to roll a pool of dice to generate successes and should the roll generate enough successes, his character succeeds in the action being attempted. The complexity comes in the number of dice types and the number of symbols that the players need to keep track of. On the plus side, a player will be rolling Ability dice to represent his character’s innate ability and characteristics, Proficiency dice to represent his skill, and Boost dice to represent situational advantages such as time, assistance, and equipment. On the negative side, a player will be rolling Difficulty dice to represent the complexity of the task being undertaken, Challenge dice if it is a particularly difficult task, and Setback dice to represent hindrances such as poor lighting, difficult terrain, and lack of resources. Ability and Difficulty dice are eight-sided, Proficiency and Challenge dice are twelve-sided, and Boost and Setback dice are six-sided.

When rolling, a player wants to generate certain symbols, whilst generating as few as possible of certain others. Success symbols will go towards completing or carrying out the task involved, Advantage symbols grant a positive side effect, and Triumph symbols not only add Successes to the outcome, but indicate a spectacularly positive outcome or result. Failure symbols indicate that the character has not completed or carried out the task, and also cancel out Success symbols; Despair symbols count as Failure symbols indicate a spectacularly negative outcome or result, and cancel out Triumph symbols; and Threat symbols grant a negative side effect and cancel out Advantage symbols. Only Success and Failure results indicate whether or not a character has succeeded at an action—the effects of the Advantage, Triumph, Despair, and Threat symbols come into play regardless of whether the task was a success or not. Task difficulties range from one Difficulty die for easy tasks up to five for Formidable tasks, and in addition, certain abilities enable dice to be upgraded or downgrade, so an Ability die to a Proficiency die or a Challenge die down to a Difficulty die.

In general, the dice mechanics in the Genesys Narrative Dice System—and thus, Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power—are straightforward enough despite their complexity. They are perhaps a little fiddly to assemble and may well require a little adjusting to, especially when it comes to narrating the outcome of each dice roll.

Combat is more complex. Initiative is handled by a skill roll—using Cool or Vigilance, and attack difficulties by range and whether or not the combatants are engaged in melee combat. Damage is inflicted as either Strain, Wounds, or Critical Injuries. Strain represents mental and emotional stress, Wounds are physical damage, as are Critical Injuries, but they have a long effect that lasts until a Player Character receives medical treatment. When a Player Character suffers more Wounds than his Wound Threshold, he suffers a Critical Injury, and when he suffers Strain greater than his Strain Threshold, he is incapacitated. The various symbols on the dice can be spent in numerous ways in combat to achieve an array of effects. So a Triumph symbol or enough Advantage symbols could inflict a Critical Injury, allow a Player Character to perform an extra manoeuvre that round, and so on, whilst Threat and Failure symbols inflict Strain on a Player Character, three Threat symbols could be spent to knock a Player Character prone, and so on. Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power includes a table of options for spending Advantage, Triumph, Threat, and Despair in combat, as well as a table of critical Injury results. It does not, however, include a table for spending Advantage, Triumph, Threat, and Despair out of combat—a disappointing omission for anyone wanting to do a bit more with their character’s skills. That said, the Game Master should be able to adjust some of the options on the table to non-combat situations.

Lastly, the rules in Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power cover NPCs and Story points. Apart from nemesis-type NPCs, most NPCs treat any Strain they suffer as equal to Wounds, and Minions work together as a group. In Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power, there are two pools of Story Points—one for the Player Characters, one for the GM. They can be used to upgrade a character’s dice pool or the difficulty of a skill check targeting a character—NPC or Player Character in either case, or to add an element or aspect to the ongoing story. The clever bit is that when a Story Point is spent, it does not leave the game, but is shifted over to the pool of Story Points. So if the Game Master spends a Story Point to increase the difficulty of a Player Character’s Perception check to determine the motives of an NPC, she withdraws it from her own Game Master pool of Story Points and adds it to the players’ pool of Story Points. As a game proceeds and Story Points are spent and move back and forth, it adds an elegant narrative flow to the mechanics and will often force the players to agonise whether they should spend a Story Point or not as they know it is going to benefit the Game Master and her NPCs before it comes back to them.

A character in Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power has six characteristics—Agility, Brawn, Cunning, Intellect, Presence, and Willpower, plus a range of skills from Charm, Computers, and Cool to Ranged (attacks), Skulduggery, and Vigilance, as well as range of special abilities. The four pre-generated Player Characters include a reptilian Xxcha, an overly optimistic liaison who carries an antique Lazax grav-mace; a Human Orbital Drop Soldier with a dislike of the L1Z1X; a curious Hylar Field Scholar who travels in an exosuit which enables him to survive out of water; and a Hacan Wayfarer merchant captain looking to restore her family fortune and is an expert negotiator with word and gun. All four Player Characters are nicely presented in a busy, but easy to access character sheet which gives a clear explanation of the character background, roleplaying notes, skills, equipment, abilities, and so on—plus each comes with a decent illustration of the character. Of note, each Player Character has an agenda, for example, the Hylar Field Scholar’s requirement to record and gather all data and samples they can of new or archaic technologies. There are boxes throughout the scenario which inform the Game Master when each of the Player Characters has an opportunity to fulfil their agenda, and notably, it is not up to the player to remember to bring it into play, but rather that the Game Master should remind the player. As such, there is no benefit in game to fulfilling an agenda, but it does provide roleplaying opportunities and motivation, and provides a chance for each player to showcase his character.
The setting for Twilight Imperium and thus for Embers of the Imperium and Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power, is a space opera in a vast, sprawling galaxy. For twenty thousand years, the galaxy prospered under the Lazax Empire, governed by a Galactic Council which gave everyone a voice. Both the Lazax and the empire would be destroyed in a series of wars that would culminate in the bombardment of Mecatol Rex, glittering throne world of the Lazax and the seat of Council, by the reviled Mahact Kings. The subsequent Twilight Wars lasted for millennia, but more recently, the great galactic powers have come together—warily, and established a Galactic Council amidst the ruins of Mecatol City. There is peace, measured diplomacy, and careful co-operation, but in a new age when the members of the councils do not yet fully trust each other, there remain threats which would return the galaxy to chaos once more—the L1Z1X Mindnet, Vuil’Raith Cabal, Mahact Gene-Sorcerers, and Nekro Virus. In response, the Galactic Council established the Keleres, an agency dedicated to dealing with threats larger than any one faction can effectively deal with. Though dedicated to the safety of the galaxy, the Keleres is dependent on the factions for support and resources, as well as for its members—also known as Keleres—and most of them have to answer to their sponsors as well as the agency. The Player Characters are of course, members of the Keleres.
The scenario in the quick-start, ‘Ashes of Power’, sends the Keleres to Herool’s Truce, a tidally locked world which has only regained contact with the rest of galaxy in recent years and from where a Keleres informant has reported the possible discovery of unknown, Imperial-era technology and the presence of unsanctioned L1Z1X agents. There they are to investigate the possible disappearance of the informant, confirm the discovery of the ancient technology, and if they do, prevent it from falling into the hands of the L1Z1X agents. It sounds a simple enough mission, but the Player Characters will need to find the ship they have been assigned, get to the planet, deal with it bureaucracy, follow up on a rumour or two, all before facing off against the cybernetically enhanced L1Z1X agents. Divided into three acts, in the first act, the Player Characters will be briefed about their mission and find their ship; in the second, they will conduct their investigation on Herool’s Truce; whilst in the third, they will confront the L1Z1X team and discover whether or not the rumours of ancient technology are true. The scenario takes its time to help the Game Master, clearly indicating skills necessary and their possible outcomes, as well as presenting numerous ways in which the Keleres can approach the mission. They can be open about it with the local authorities, they can try and avoid getting the authorities involved, and although there are numerous opportunities for combat and conflict, with many of them, the scenario also suggests other ways of dealing with the situations. Along the way, there are opportunities for each of the Player Characters to fulfil their personal agendas and explore an interesting world which has been cut off from the rest of the galaxy for centuries and consequently has an interesting society and geography. There are lots of chances to roleplay too, which is helped by the succinctly done backgrounds for each of the Player Characters.
The scenario concludes with notes as to what happens next. This takes into account the fact that the Player Characters might not succeed or might even side with the L1Z1X agents! There are consequences to both outcomes as well as their being successful, and these could play out should the Game Master continue with an Embers of the Imperium campaign. In addition, the PDF version of Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power comes with support that includes two extra Player Characters, their agendas, and extra encounters for the scenario’s third act. Also included is a map—which was not in the Free RPG Day release. The extras increase the number of players possible or character choices available.
Physically, Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power is as nicely done as you would expect from the publisher. It is well written, the full artwork is good, and the sample Player Characters are excellent. If there is a downside perhaps it is that few of the NPCs are illustrated, and there are no maps or illustrations of the world of Herool’s Truce, both of which would have helped the Game Master portray the world for her players.
Ultimately, if there is an issue with Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power, it is that it uses the Genesys Narrative Dice System and that does take some adjusting to. Get past that though, and Twilight Imperium: Ashes of Power offers up not just a solid introduction to the system, but a thoroughly entertaining and exciting introduction to Embers of the Imperium with a really good scenario and some nicely done pre-generated Player Characters.

[Free RPG Day 2021] Blue Rose Quick-Start

Mon, 12/20/2021 - 09:00

—oOo—

The Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy is Green Ronin Publishing contribution to Free RPG Day in 2021. This is an introduction to Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy which provides Game Master and players alike with everything necessary to play. This includes an explanation of its genre, the rules, a complete scenario, and a nonet of pre-generated Player Characters, all of which comes packaged in a handsome, not to say sturdy—especially in comparison to other releases for Free RPG Day, booklet done in full colour. It very quickly gets down to explaining what it is, what roleplaying is, and what everyone needs to play before providing an explanation of what ‘Romantic Fantasy’ is. Traditional fantasy is not necessarily romantic, although it can have great romances, its focus is more on great sagas and battles and magic and great evils and the like, but inspired by authors such as Mercedes Lackey, Diane Duane, Tamora Pierce, and others, Romantic Fantasy and thus Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy, emphasises love and relationships between a diversity of healthy sexualities, genders, and identities, often through deep, meaningful romantic relationships and consent. In the Kingdom of Aldis, the key setting for Blue Rose, preference for more than the single gender is widespread, and although in the minority, preference for a single gender is equally as accepted. The tone is also positive, rather than grim and gritty, so the characters—and thus the Player Characters—are motivated by sincerity and heroism. Magic is also different to that of standard fantasy, tending to be psychic in nature rather than necessarily arcane, although that too, as arcana, also exists. Lastly, there is a sense of sense of environmental consciousness to be found in the genre, and reverence for the natural world often drives stories in which the antagonists have none.

A quick overview of Kingdom of Aldis—the ‘Kingdom of the Blue Rose’—is also provided as is a description of the Aldinfolk. The kingdom is a beacon of Light having arisen from the darkness that was the Empire of Thorns, whose cabal of wicked Sorcerer Kings had previously overthrown the Old Kingdom. It is also home a diverse range of peoples. Not just Humans of all colours, but also aquatic Sea-folk, the mystical Vata (divided between the chalk-skinned Vata’an and the ebonskinned Vata’sha), and also the Night People, the creations of the Sorcerer Kings and their terrible sorcery, who eventually freed themselves from their servitude. Lastly, there are the Rhydan, various species of animal who Awaken to sapience and psychic ability, and are equal citizens in Aldis. This mix is reflected in the range of Player Characters presented in the appendix at the end of the Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy. Nine pre-generated First Level Blue Rose Player Characters make up the Family Nightsong, a collection of misfits and outcasts who have come together to form a family. The appendix includes an explanation of who they and what the relationships are between the nine, as well as their history. Each of the nine comes with a complete background and descriptions of their personality, goal, calling, destiny, and fate, plus their important relationships. This is in addition to their actual character sheets, so every one of the nine pre-generated Player Characters is given a two-page spread. The mix includes Sea-folk, a Night Person, Humans, Vata’sha, Vata’an, and a Rhy-Badger, and they can either be used intended with the scenario included in the quick-start, or as a ready supply of replacement Player Characters, or even NPCs if the Game Master is running a Blue Rose campaign.

The Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy and thus Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy uses the AGE System, or Adventure Game Engine System. Originally seen in Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying Set 1: For Characters Level 1 to 5. It is fast, simple, but cinematic in its play style. At the core of each character in Blue Rose are eight abilities—Accuracy, Communication, Constitution, Dexterity, Fighting, Intelligence, Perception, Strength, and Willpower. Each attribute is rated between -2 and 4, with 1 being the average. They will have ability focuses, areas of expertise such as Perception (Searching) or Intelligence (Natural Lore), each of which adds +2 bonus to appropriate rolls. Characters can also know Weapon Groups, Talents, and Specialisations and these are worked into and explained in the nine pre-generated characters. The AGE System and Blue Rose has three Classes—Adept, who use arcana, Experts, who can be anything from stealthy scouts to suave diplomats, and Warriors, who can use a variety of weapon styles.

Mechanically, the AGE System requires the use of just six-sided dice, both to handle actions as well as effect—such as damage, time taken, or to generate Stunt Points. To undertake an action, a player rolls three six-sided dice to beat a target, the average being eleven. To the roll a player also adds the appropriate Ability and if one applies, a +2 bonus for any Focus. For example, Chaya the Rhy-Badger wants to understand what a wolf that she and her family has just encountered is doing. Her player would roll the dice, add two for her Intelligence Attribute and two for her Natural Lore Focus. The roll is two, two, and six, which together with the bonuses for the Intelligence Attribute Natural Lore Focus, means that Chaya’s player has rolled a fourteen. This is more than the Target Number of the twelve required to understand the wolf.

Now of the three six-sided dice, one is a different colour to the other two. This is called the Stunt Die. Typically, it acts as an effect die, measuring how well a character does or how quickly an action takes, but in the basic rules, particularly in combat, the Stunt Die does much, much more. Whenever a player rolls doubles on two of the three six-sided dice and succeeds, he gets a number of points equal to the result of the Stunt Die to spend on Stunts, which come in four types—Combat, Exploration, Social, and Power. Thus, Knock Prone or Mighty Blow are Combat Stunts for use in melee or missile combat, Arcane Shield or Effortless Arcana are Arcane Stunts when casting magic, Speedy Search or With a Flourish are Exploration Stunts for general actions, and Passionate Inspiration or Flirt! are Roleplaying Stunts. In the case of Chaya above, her player rolled doubles, generating two Stunt Points to spend from the Exploration Stunts. The list of stunts is not exhaustive in the quick-start, but enough at last for the scenario, and there are more in Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy.

The Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy explains the rules clearly and simply in just a few pages. Tables are included covering the Actions that the Player Characters and NPCs can take, as well as Talents and Arcana. Four tables list Combat Stunts, Exploration Stunts, Roleplaying Stunts, and Arcane Stunts. Lastly, and particularly to the Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy, the Player Characters can be driven to greater feats and achievements when the people and things they care about are in danger, and mechanically, this is reflected in the Relationship value which each Player Character has with particular members of their family. Once per scene, if an action would support the emotion and context of the Relationship which the Player Character has with another, then the player can add the Relationship value to any Stunt Points generated, or even be used to generate Stunt Points when the roll actually does not. Lastly, there is advice throughout the quick-start, especially on handling the potential interplay of Stunts and Emotions and how to portray them, in a way which is responsible and mature.

The scenario in the Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy is ‘The Rhy-Wolf’s Woe’. Consisting of eight scenes, the adventure can be easily scaled to any number of players, though four or five should be a reasonable number. The Player Characters are traveling through the Pavin Weald, a vast forest, when they encounter a Rhy-wolf who wants their help. One of his friends, another Rhy-wolf, has gone missing and he believes that she may have gone off with a boy with whom she has formed a rhy-bond. He wants the Player Characters to find her and make sure that she is safe. Of course, being heroes, the Player Characters agree and go in search of the missing Rhy-wolf. He directs them to the village where the boy can be found, but once they discover that he too is missing. Now in search of both, they must trek deep into the wilderness, facing increasingly difficult encounters along the way.

‘The Rhy-Wolf’s Woe’ is nicely built around a burgeoning relationship between the boy and the Rhy-wolf, and comes with plenty of detail. However, the scenario is short—really intended to be played in a single four-hour session—and it is linear. So in terms of storytelling it is not particularly sophisticated and beyond perhaps using it as an introduction or a side quest in a campaign, it is perhaps a little too basic an adventure for experienced players. This does not mean that they will not enjoy it necessarily, but its structure is likely to be obvious. Less experienced players or those new to roleplaying will have less of an issue, and if this is one of the first things that the Game Master has run, then the structure makes it easier for her to run and concentrate on roleplaying and portraying the setting.

Physically, the Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy is cleanly and tidily laid out. The full colour artwork is excellent and as a physical product, it feels nicely solid in the hands.

Overall, as an introduction to the Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy, the Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy is better aimed at players and Game Masters new to the hobby rather than experienced roleplayers. However, as an introduction, the Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy is well done and a more than serviceable entry point.

2001: Godlike

Sun, 12/19/2021 - 09:00

As much as the noughties was a decade dominated by the d20 System and the rise and fall of the third-party Dungeons & Dragons publisher, it was also the decade of two genres. One was pirates, the other was World War 2. The former was certainly given a big push by the release in 2003 of Pirates of the Caribbean, and would see titles such as Swashbuckling Pirates, Pirates of the Spanish Main, and Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies being published. The latter was spurred on by the anniversary of the USA’s entry into World War 2 with the attack on Pearl Harbour, and indeed, in that sixtieth anniversary three World War 2 roleplaying games would be published—Gear Krieg The Roleplaying Game from Dream Pod 9, GURPS WWII from Steve Jackson Games, and Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946. Over the course of the next decade, numerous World War 2 themed roleplaying games, from the small such as Battleforce Bravo from Deep7 Press to Weird War Two D20: Blood on the Rhine from Pinnacle Entertainment. These five represent the differing approaches taken to what is a defining period in twentieth century history. Both Battleforce Bravo and GURPS WWII played it straight and kept it to the history (that is, until GURPS WWII Classic: Weird War II), but the others would go in a different direction, adding another genre. Weird War Two D20: Blood on the Rhine added horror, Gear Krieg The Roleplaying Game added combat walkers, and Godlike added superheroes.
Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 did superhero roleplaying and superheroes in World War 2 like no other. In supplements like Glory Days for Brave New World and scenarios like All This and World War II for Marvel Super Heroes, the focus is traditionally on the superhero first, not the soldier. Although Godlike was a superhero roleplaying and an alternate history game in which superheroes existed and influenced the course of the war—and beyond, they would not change the outcome of the war. The World War 2 of Godlike would still be won by men and machinery, by grit and determination, and when the Talents—those blessed with the superpowers or miracles which set them apart from ordinary men—of the Allies met the Übermensch of the Axis powers, they were soldiers first, superheroes second. Godlike is not a superhero setting in which the superheroes, the Talents, wear spandex. Instead, they wear a uniform and they serve their country. It is also not a Four Colour setting, but gritty. Despite their amazing abilities, Talents do die, whether that is due to combat with an Übermensch or an artillery barrage.

The alternate history of Godlike begins in 1936 when Der Flieger—‘The Airman’—appeared in the skies over the Berlin Olympics. He was the first Talent, and as Europe moved towards war, more would appear. Pevnost, a Czechoslovakian resistance fighter who could step through one door and out of any door he had previously stepped through, enabling him to traverse hundreds of miles in an instance. He would support the underground resistance throughout the war. As Der Flieger destroyed the Polish airforce, a Polish Talent, Cien appeared, who was capable of manipulating objects touched by his shadow, the Finnish Viljo, became one with the arctic snow and fought the Soviet invaders, and the Danish schoolboy, Vogel, found himself invulnerable to any attack he was aware of. As the Nazis occupied more and more of Europe, more Talents appeared amongst the local populations, many of whom would become heroes of their nations. The first British Talent was Jumping Johnny, capable of leaping twenty-seven miles in a single bound and land with a destructive bang, whilst The Indestructible Man, the USA’s first Talent, immune to any damage he was aware of, up to and including as was tested after the war, a ten-megaton nuclear bomb. More and more Talents would manifest throughout the war and around the world, as men and women were subject to the stresses and strains of the war. Despite the Soviet attempts to ‘biologically re-educate’ subjects into manifesting as Talents, the resulting Baba Yaga escaped, mad and willing to attack Soviet and Nazi forces alike. The Nazis conscripted its Übermensch into special SS brigades, whilst the Allies transferred its Talents into Talent Operations Command and trained them as commandos before organising them into Talent Operation Groups, or squads, which would typically be attached to standard forces or used on special missions.

In Godlike, player take the roles of Talents, soldiers with superpowers or miracles who serve in Talent Operation Groups. A character has six stats, Body, Brains, Command, Cool, Coordination, and Sense, rated between one and five, with two being average. Similarly, skills are rated between one and five. Beyond this, stats and skills can have Hyperstats and Hyperskills, so a Talent can have Hyper-Body and be super strong, or Hyper-Intimidation, and be incredibly imposing! Then there are Miracles. Certain traditional superpowers are unknown in the world of Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946—mind control or reading, absorption or imitation of other Talents, the ability to create Talents, time travel, unlimited healing powers, and actual super-science—though Goldberg Science and the creation of gadgets is possible. A wide array of cafeteria-style Miracles is given. This ranges from Aces, which makes the Talent incredibly lucky, Break, which enables a Talent to puncture or smash objects beyond Human capability, and Dampen, which allows him to reduce or negate a physical effect of a Talent to Side Step, with which a Talent can avoid a disaster or attack, Time Fugue, which enables a Talent to stop time for a single object or creature, and Zed, which can be used to negate the ability of another Talent. All of the Miracles come with Power Stunts, Extras, and Flaws, which all adjust the cost of the Talents, and there are also prebuilt, ready-to-play, Cafeteria Power-Sets—though only a handful of them. They include The Blaster, The Brain, The Bruiser, The Flyer, and so on.

There is also the option for a player to build his Talent’s Miracles as per other point-buy systems in other superhero roleplaying games. Fundamentally though, the tone and power level of Godlike means that certain superhero archetypes are challenging, even impossible to build. To build a Talent with the powers of flight and blast rays is possible, but expensive, but add in invulnerability, and it becomes prohibitively expensive. This is because Miracles—and also Hyperstats and Hyperskills—are bought as die types. Standard dice are the least expensive, Wiggle dice the most expensive, and Hard dice in between. Figure in Qualities—Attacks, Defends, Useful out of Combat, and Robust—and the cost also goes up, although a player could remove them to reduce the cost, but with the loss of utility. Miracles can also be modified by Extra, Flaws, and Power Stunts, which in turn adjusted the cost. Another limiting factor is the number of Will Points a Talent is built on. Godlike gives the stats for the first ten Talents to appear, their costs ranging from twenty-five to one-hundred-and-fifty Will Points, but the majority have Miracles way out of the league of beginning Talents. In the default campaign setting of the Talent Operations Group, a player is given twenty-five Will Points with which to purchase Hyperstats, Hyperskills, and Miracles. It is not a lot and it makes it challenging to create Talents without resorting to Hyperstats or Hyperskills. Nevertheless, it is possible to create interesting Talents, not all of them necessarily designed for combat.

To create a Talent, a player assigns six points to his Talent’s stats—which already begin at one, assigns twenty points to skills, and if playing in the Talent Operations Group campaign, receives training in another eighteen points’ worth of skills. Lastly, he has twenty-five Will Points to spend on Hyperstats, Hyperskills, and Miracles. As well this, a player should determine his Talent’s background, nationality, age, family, education, motivations, and so on, to flesh out the character.

Our sample Talent is Technician Third Grade Theodore Huffman, who was studying piano at the Juilliard School of Music in New York when his draft number came up 1943. After basic training he was assigned to Special Services and performed piano concerts in the USA, and then England and North Africa. In early 1944, the convoy he was in, was ambushed by the Germans and the truck he was driving blown up. He was thrown from the vehicle and knocked unconscious. It was then that his Talent manifested—Billy Bones. Whilst Theodore was unconscious, his skeleton got up, grabbed a machine gun and proceeded to fight the ambushers, killing most of them, and driving the rest off. When relief arrived, they discovered Huffman asleep and Billy Bones brashly playing jazz on the piano and smoking a cigar. As a Talent, Billy Bones fights when Huffman cannot, and is stronger and faster than Huffman. He also smokes when Huffman does not, and whilst Huffman is a classical pianist, Billy Bones plays music more popular with his fellow soldiers.

Technician Third Grade Theodore Huffman, ‘Billy Bones’, TOG-242
Body 2 Coordination 2 Sense 2
Brains 2 Command 3 Cool 1
Base Will 4
Current Will 4
Motivations: Survive the war; Become a better musician
Skills: Brawling 1 (3d), Climb 1 (3d), Cryptography 2 (4d), Dodge 1 (3d), Drive (Automobile) 1 (3d), Education 2 (4d), Endurance 1 (3d), Explosives 1 (3d), Grenade 1 (3d), Hearing 2 (4d), Knife Fighting 1 (3d), Language (French) 2 (4d), Machine Gun 1 (3d), Map Reading 1 (3d), Navigation (Land) 1 (3d), Perform (Piano) 3 (6d), Perform (Sing) 1 (4d), Pistol 1 (3d), Radio Operation 1 (3d), Rifle 1 (3d), Sailing (Sailboat) 1 (3d), Stealth 1 (3d), Submachine Gun 1 (3d), Survival 1 (3d), Swim 1 (3d), Tactics 1 (3d)

Talents (25 Will Points)
Alternate Form 2hd (Qualities: Attacks, Defends, Robust, Useful Outside of Combat. Base Cost: 5/10/20. Extra: Endless +1/+2/+4, Extra: Unconscious +1/+2/+4; Flaw: Peace of Mind (Asleep) -2/-4/-8; Flaw: Mental Strain -2/-4/-8; Final Cost 3/6/12; 12 points).
Hyperstat: Body +3d (Base Cost: 2/5/10. Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/3/6; 3 points).
Hyperstat: Coordination +3d (Base Cost: 2/5/10. Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/3/6; 3 points).
Hyperstat: Cool +3d (Base Cost: 2/5/10. Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/3/6; 3 points).
Hyperskill: Submachine Gun +2hd (Base Cost: 1/3/7. Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/1/3; 2 points).
Hyperskill: Perform (Piano) +2hd (Base Cost: 1/3/7. Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/1/3; 2 points).

Although there is a wide range of Miracles listed in Godlike, the list is not extensive, and it would not be until the supplement, Will to Power when the roleplaying game received Miracles such as Size Shift and Unconventional Move. (The supplement also added a range of aircraft which were not included in the core rules—an issue potentially if one of the player Talents could fly.) Nevertheless, between the Godlike and Will to Power, both Game Master and player had access to a decent range of Miracles, enabling both to create interesting Talents. (The following example Talent was created using the extra content from Will to Power.)

Dorothy Murray was fourteen when she was evacuated from London. Unhappy with life away from her parents she ran away and returned to life in the capital. When the family house was bombed, and she found herself buried under rubble, her Talent manifested—she was able to tunnel her way out. At first she thought it was luck, but during later raids, she could hear the cries of those trapped and knew where they were. She began to experiment her powers and by the height of the Blitz, was going out nightly to tunnel into the rubble of bombed houses to rescue the survivors. Anyone pulled free always remembered the glow of the girl who came to rescue them and carry them to safety. The newspapers nicknamed her the ‘Angel of the Blitz’.

Dorothy Murray ‘Angel of the Blitz’
Body 2 Coordination 2 Sense 2
Brains 2 Command 2 Cool 2
Base Will 4
Current Will 4
Motivations: Help people with her Talent; Finish school
Skills: Athletics 1 (3d), Education 1 (3d), First Aid 1 (3d), Health 1 (3d), Hearing 1 (3d), Inspire 1 (3d), Language (Latin) 1 (1d), Mental Stability 1 (3d), Perform (Violin) 1 (3d), Run 1 (3d)
Talents (25 Will Points)
Unconventional Move: Tunnelling 4d+2wd (Qualities: Attacks, Defends, Robust, Useful Outside of Combat. Base Cost: 5/10/20. Extra: Endless +1/+2/+4, Extra: Passenger +1/+2/+4. Flaw: Beacon -4/-8/-16, Flaw: Glows -1/-2/-4, Flaw: Specific Material (Rubble) -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/2/4; 12 points).
Hyperstat: Body +8d (Base Cost: 2/5/10. Flaw: Attached to Unconventional Move -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/3/6; 8 points).
Detection: Humans 4d (Qualities: Defends, Robust, Useful Outside of Combat. Base Cost: 4/8/16. Flaw: Human Trapped in Rubble/Underground -1/-2/-4; Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 2/4/8; 4 points).

Mechanically, Godlike uses what would become known as ‘Ore’ or the ‘One-Roll Engine’. This is a dice pool system, usually formed of the appropriate Stat plus Skill, for example, Coordination plus Rifle or Command plus Perform (Piano), the aim being not to roll success, but get matches—pairs, triples, and so on. Neither player nor Game Master roll more than ten dice—although actually rolling that many dice is not common. If any of the dice match, then the character has succeeded. However, the more successes rolled, the wider the result is and the faster it is, and the higher the set of matches, the more effective it is. Carried over into combat, the width of the roll will determine the speed of the attack and how much damage is inflicted, whilst its height will determine exactly where the hit was made. Taking damage is not only physically injurious, but will negate dice in an attacker’s pool, so going first is almost a must, but dodging can ‘gobble’ up dice if successful, potentially breaking up matching sets. Although damage inflicted can be stunning, killing, or stunning and killing, combat can be brutal in Godlike, so players had better be warned ahead of play. Leaping into a game and expecting bullets to bounce off your hero’s chest just because is a sure-fire way to get him killed. Overall, the system is elegant, easily handles multiple actions, and plays fast, although it does take some adjustment from the traditional rote of rolling for initiative, rolling to hit, rolling for damage, and so on.

However, there are a couple interesting wrinkles which comes into play once Hyperstats, Hyperskills, and Miracles are figured. There are two other die types beyond the standard type. The medium cost die type is the Hard die. When this is in a pool and rolled, it is always set at a ten. This means that with a pair of Hard dice, a Talent will not always succeed, he will always do so with the maximum effect possible. The most expensive die type is also the most flexible. The Wiggle die can be set to any number, either to create a set or widen a set. Effectively, both give a player more control over his Talent’s ability to bring his Hyerstats, Hyerskills, and Miracles into play, especially as the dice pools for these increase in size—and it is generally easier to improve an already existing Talent rather than select a completely new one.

Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of Godlike is the extensive timeline which covers the ten years from the Berlin Olympics of 1936 to the beginning the Cold War in 1946. It is richly detailed, mixing in both the actual history with the alternate history of Godlike, but keeping the two sperate. The entries which involve Talents are clearly marked with a bullet hole. This is supported by an equally interesting exploration of the wider background to Godlike and the appearance of Talents, especially how society at large reacted to them. The racism and sexism rampant throughout societies in the period is also acknowledged, but notes that despite that the targets of both played major roles in the global conflict. In the main, the role of Talents in Godlike—at least in Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946—is focused upon military and special operations style campaigns. This is understandable given that it is the major role of Talents throughout the war, and perhaps other types of campaigns, perhaps with a more diverse range of characters might have come had the publisher had the opportunity. Nevertheless, there is nothing to stop the Game Master using the content in Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 and backed up with research of her own from running other types of campaigns set within the Godlike universe.

Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 is further supported with a wide arsenal of equipment used by both the Allied and Axis powers, from small arms to armoured vehicles. The Game Master is given good advice on running a Godlike campaign, and the following details of the Talent Operations Group campaign is accompanied by a complete write-up of a sample TOG squad. This nicely showcases some of the possibilities using the Miracle creation rules earlier in the book. Alternatives and options suggest ways in which a campaign can be adjusted to allow Talents to be even more ‘godlike’, right up to a Four Colour-style campaign, but these do push the setting away from its gritty and very much soldier-first feel. Rounding out the book are the aforementioned write-ups of the first ten Talents to appear and since the book was published in 2001, rules for running a Godlike campaign under the d20 System. These are decently done, but feel superfluous now.

Physically, Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 is sturdy black and white hardback. It perhaps feels a little odd in its ordering of its content, with explanations of the rules, mechanics, and character creation coming before the roleplaying game’s detailed background. Without the latter, the rules do lack context, but with perseverance the reader will get to the richly detailed background and begin to put everything together. The book is well written and illustrated throughout with black and photographs manipulated to add in the presence of the Talents in each and everyone. There is something quite odd about many of them, their slightly off kilter perspective giving them a sense of the unearthly.

Godlike is lacking a number of elements. Mostly obviously a scenario, but World War 2 is such a familiar setting that a Game Master should be able to develop something of her own with relative ease. It is lacking details of the aircraft—of either side, but that would be addressed in Will to Power. Perhaps its major omissions are the lack of perspectives from either a female point of view or a non-American point of view—and to be fair, there is some truth to both omissions. Yet the focus of Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 is on the soldier on the front lines and beyond them, and not necessarily on the home front, and the role might very well have been more fully explored in subsequent supplements—for example, if a supplement devoted to the Russian Front had been published. The authors did publish scenarios in which women played a significant role, and to be fair, there is only just so much that can be covered in a book, even a core book like Godlike. Plus again, there is nothing to stop the Game Master, backed up with some research from running a campaign where women can play a major role. The other emphasis, that of the US soldier and the role of the USA in World War 2 is present in Godlike, but again to be fair, the roleplaying game was published in a year which was the anniversary of the entry of the USA into World War 2 and that emphasis could be found across all media. However, throughout the alternate history of Godlike, the roles of non-US Talents and their stories and contributions are highlighted again and again, each time working as potential inspiration for stories and scenarios which do not necessarily involve the USA. So ultimately, that emphasis is not strong as it could have been.

Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 would go on to spawn a number of supplements and scenarios, including Will to Power and the campaign, Black Devils Brigade: The First Special Service Force and the Italian Campaign, 1943–1944. Its mechanics would have a wider influence, the One-Roll Engine appearing eventually on its own in Wild Talents, a sequel of sorts to Godlike, but which also stood alone and enabled a Game Master to run a more traditional style of superhero campaign. It in turn would give rise to some wildly imaginative campaign settings, including Wild Talents: Progenitor, Wild Talents: The Kerberos Club, and Wild Talents: This Favored Land.

Then published by Hawthorn Hobgoblynn Press, but later Arc Dream Publishing, Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 would be one of the first roleplaying games I reviewed and certainly the first I reviewed after being contacted directly by the publisher and asked to review. I can remember the surprise when it happened, even when it happens today, I am still surprised and even humbled by the trust that publishers place in me in asking me to review their books. Godlike was worth that trust, because it was a great game in 2001 and it still is in 2021. The combination of Greg Stolze’s elegant mechanics with Dennis Detwiller’s richly developed background is a grim and gritty take upon the superhero genre, something that still stands out today as being different and stood out even more in 2001 against the backdrop of the d20 System boom and the tone taken by the other World War 2 roleplaying games then being released. Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 is an amazing piece of writing and design which shows how even as miraculous powers change the world, the soldier—even the soldier Talent, not only has to survive that world, but stand up and still be a hero in that world.

Programming Spells

Sat, 12/18/2021 - 09:00

One of the most fun features of both the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic is how they handle magic and spells. Or in the case of Mutant Crawl Classics, wetware programs granted by an A.I. patron as opposed to an actual deity as in Dungeon Crawl Classics. In each case, every spell or program is given a page which details how it works, what its effects are, and what can go wrong with said spell; in other words, an effect chart. For example, the classic standby of First Level Wizards everywhere, Magic Missile, might manifest as a meteor, a screaming, clawing eagle, a ray of frost, a force axe, and so on. When cast, a Wizard might throw a single Magic Missile that only does a single point of damage; one that might normal damage; multiple missiles or a single powerful one; and so on. Alternatively, the Wizard’s casting might result in a Misfire, which for Magic Missile might cause the caster’s allies or himself to be hit by multiple Magic Missiles, or to blow a hole under the caster’s feet! Worse, the casting of the spell might have a Corrupting influence upon the caster, which for Magic Missile might cause the skin of the caster’s hands and forearms to change colour to acid green or become translucent or to become invisible every time he casts Magic Missile! This is in addition to the chances of the Wizard suffering from Major or even Greater Corruption… Although this does add an extra mechanical element to play, it also adds a degree of danger and uncertainty to magic. Plus it is huge fun to play—and yet…

The Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game is well served with its lengthy list of spells for both the Cleric and the Wizard, which all together takes up a good third of the rulebook. Not so, the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. This is due another major aspect of the roleplaying game—mutations. Active mutations—as well as defects, such as Holographic and Pyrokinesis, have their own tables which work in the same fashion as spells, and since they are a major aspect of the roleplaying game, they take up a fair amount of the book. Consequently, this means that there is relatively little space to detail the wetware programs cast—or run—by the Shaman Class. With eight Patron A.I.s and just the Invoke Patron A.I. program and three programs per Patron A.I., the Shaman Class is woefully underserved in terms of capability in comparison to the Wizard or the Cleric and their extensive spell lists in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. As much as the wetware programs use the spell mechanics of Dungeon Crawl Classics, in Mutant Crawl Classics they are still pieces of software and thus technological rather than divine in nature. What Mutant Crawl Classics really needs is a list—at least—of more wetware programs, and that is something provided by the Enchiridion of the Computarchs.

Enchiridion of the Computarchs is a supplement designed to support the Judge and her players in settings where the Player Characters and the NPCs cast spells in high-tech settings. This includes not just the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but also third-party settings such as Cyber Sprawl Classics, Crawljammer, Umerica, Terror of the Stratosfiend, and Star Crawl Classics. Published by Horseshark Games following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Enchiridion of the Computarchs includes a long list of some forty or so new spells or programs, a new Spellburn table, new mechanics for spell failure, and a new corruption table written using high-technobabble, all of which supports the aforementioned settings and other post-apocalyptic, far-future, and dystopian-future campaigns.

In the past, before the Great Disaster, the cabalistic and powerful Computarchs built and established the laws and conventions of the WorldNet. It reached everywhere, but like the rest of civilisation, the network was shattered by the Great Disaster, scattering their tools and programs to be found by subsequent generations across Terra A.D. by the Seekers, especially the Shaman. If ever those tools and pieces of software were to be brought together, they would be collectively known as Enchiridion of the Computarchs. It includes a glossary that explains its terminology in terms of Dungeon Crawl Classics and Mutant Crawl Classics, so ‘source vault’, ‘repository’, and ‘source code’ rather than ‘spellbook’, ‘grimoire’, or ‘scroll’, and ‘encode’, ‘create’, ‘deploy’, ‘run’, and ‘inject’ rather than ‘enchant’, ‘recite’, ‘summon’, ‘place’, or ‘hex’. All of which supports the cross compatibility of the supplement.

Enchiridion of the Computarchs starts with adding mishaps—Faults, Bugs, and Critical Errors which can occur when a user rolls a natural one when executing a program. Once which of these has occurred—based on the user’s Luck modifier, Patron A.I. taint, and so on—the user makes a roll on the appropriate table. A Fault causes a program to stop running and must be fixed, a Bug means that the program runs to completion but with altered or unexpected results, and a Critical Error not only forces the program to stop, but directly affects the user too, including increasing the chance of his rolling a natural one when it is run again. Mechanically, the Faults are flavour rather than effect, whilst both Bugs and Critical Errors more effect than flavour. Less divine and more computational, a mishap simply does not vanish once it occurs, but any time the program is run again, it can also occur again, and even escalate from a Fault to a Bug, and if the roll is bad enough to a Critical Error. However, rest and time spent performing hardware and software maintenance can fix them. Critical Errors require a program like Quarantine to be run to fix.

As with Dungeon Crawl Classics and the ability of the Wizard to ‘Spellburn’ points in his Abilities to gain temporary bonuses to regain lost spells, in Enchiridion of the Computarchs, a Shaman or Techno-caster can do the same with ‘Burndown’. This uses the same mechanics as ‘Spellburn’, but replaces the table for the latter with one for the technological effects of ‘Burndown’. The table requires the use of a twenty-four-sided die and gives entries such as, “The user’s hands are scorched by electrical feedback. Until the ability score damage is healed, the user suffers -1 to tasks requiring the use of his hands.” However, not all of the entries are appropriate, such as “The user must donate an organ, skin, or other body part to a representative from a collection service.”, which will not apply in all settings. Perhaps a table per genre—Science Fiction or Cyberpunk, Post-Apocalyptic, and so on, might have been useful?

When it comes to the actual programs and executing programs, Enchiridion of the Computarchs provides rules for running program teams which although their involvement increases the running time, increases the program check bonus and enables the lead programmer to make multiple rolls on the program check. Computing power also allows for the effect of running programs at points of enhanced processing power, such as within or with the help of a central mainframe or via an orbital communications super router. Particularly rare program components, like proprietary algorithms or encryption keys can grant further bonuses, as can spending extra time activating a program, but rushing a program—essentially ignoring quality assurance—can introduce Bugs, and require fixing later on if a program is to be run more than once. Lastly, a big table gives one hundred options for program provenance, enabling the Judge to individualise programs with quirks, meaning that the version cast by one user might be different from that of another. It leads to the possibility of there being whole batches of a program which have the same quirk and a Player Character actually searching for a better version of a program he already has, or even just a version which lacks the deleterious quirk the version he has right possesses.

Much like the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and its extensive list of spells, Enchiridion of the Computarchs contains a lot of spells. In fact, over two thirds of the supplement is devoted to its spells. The forty-eight run from First Level to Fifth Level, widening the choices available at the lower Levels and actually providing choices at the higher Levels. The spells are designed primarily as adventuring spells rather than utility spells, and so will suit most adventuring Shaman and ‘techno-casters’. Some of the spells listed are actually detailed in Dungeon Crawl Classics and in Mutant Crawl Classics, such as Force Manipulation and Lightning Bolt, but there are plenty of new ones. For example, Close Access enables the user prevent access to entryways—both real and virtual, with Glitch the user transmit code or commands to cause robots, A.I.s, and other computer-driven technology to pause temporarily, Daemon summons an autonomous processing agent to do the user’s bidding, and Technorganic Virus, which infects the user’s enemies with effects ranging from suddenly being deafened to striking them down with a techno-plague. Some of the programs are directly computer-related, such as Create Deck, which enables the user to create a computer deck that will grant a bonus for later rolls involving computers, but for the most part, the programs in Enchiridion of the Computarchs interact with the biological, the computational, and the mechanical.

Rounding out Enchiridion of the Computarchs is a trilogy of appendices. These in turn, introduce malicious code which can implanted using the Exploit program, provide a pair of tables to generate program faults and their associated acronyms, and add and generate ICE—or Intrusion Countermeasures Electronic—to the game. These do feel underwritten in comparison to the ret of the book and will require the Judge to flesh them out a bit, but once she has, they will add more flavour and detail to a campaign.

Physically, Enchiridion of the Computarchs is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is decent and the supplement is well written. Many of the spell descriptions and their effects are engaging and any Shaman or user will want to bring them into play.

There is a split in the focus behind Enchiridion of the Computarchs born of having to cover multiple genres—or rather subgenres of Science Fiction. Whilst it covers the ‘techno-caster’ in general, that means that it has to encompass the computer hacker of the Cyberpunk genre and the Shaman of the post-apocalyptic genre, so there are programs—or spells as the Shaman call them—which will work in the one genre and be hard to work in the other. Much of this will depend upon the computational and electronic architecture of the world, where it is more prevalent, programs affecting computers will play a bigger role, such as Cyber Sprawl Classics, Crawljammer, or Star Crawl Classics, but less so in settings like that of Mutant Crawl Classics and the like. This means that some adjustment will be needed by the Judge in determining which of the programs she wants in her campaign.

In addition, if there is an issue with Enchiridion of the Computarchs, it is that it does not directly address the lack of programs to be found in the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game nor does it tie any of its programs to any of the eight Patron A.I.s given in the rules. Not that it necessarily has to have done, but it would have been useful. Still, that does not stop the Judge from doing so if she wishes.

Overall, Enchiridion of the Computarchs presents a fantastic set of new options, rules, programs, and/or spells that supports not just the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but any number of Science Fiction roleplaying games based on Dungeon Crawl Classics. Pleasingly, it provides much needed support and resources for the otherwise underdeveloped Shaman Character Class from Mutant Crawl Classics. If you play any roleplaying game from Goodman Games, or based on a Goodman Games roleplaying game, and you need programming support, Enchiridion of the Computarchs is exactly what you need.

Friday Fantasy: The Book of Gaub

Fri, 12/17/2021 - 03:00

The Book of Gaub is a book of power whispered of by those fear it—and those lust after its secrets, a book of terrible knowledge that is never found whole, a book of vile things unleashed when its dark spells are miscast by the unready or the desperate, the reaching into our world of a being unknowable except by his hand which stretches out, his fingers—all seven of them, together and independently scratching at the walls and behind the cobwebs in the forgotten places. In mouldering dusty libraries, beyond the edges of maps, on the inside of the flesh of patients at a hospital underbudget, under the floorboards where rats and other things run, in that pie leftover from Christmas at the back of the icebox, nowhere because it never existed, and in that moment of lost love when a tear rolls down the cheek… Here the seven fingers—detached from the Hand of Gaub—incise their spells, perhaps to last for years and years, perhaps to disappear moments after discovery… Seven spells and seven instances for seven fingers, a catalogue of catastrophes to befall the foolish and the ambitious caster, details the many known things—or paraphernalia—left behind by the Shards of Gaub, a score of things that may come about because of Gaub, and descriptions of the situations that have wound themselves around the appearance of Gaub—in any form, all may be found within the pages of The Book of Gaub.

The Book of Gaub is a book of spells, a book of minor magical artefacts, a book of magical disasters, a book of magical monsters, a book of adventure or encounter hooks, and a book—a very short book—of rules for running sorcerer-type characters. All themed around Gaub, The Book of Gaub, Gaub’s spells and more. The Book of Gaub is a book of magic and spells from Lost Pages, a small press publisher best known for Genial Jack and Into the Odd. The publisher is no stranger to spell books, having previously published Wonder & Wickedness and Marvels & Malisons, but whilst The Book of Gaub follows the format of the latter, it is an altogether stranger tome. Not just stranger, but darker too. There are spells in The Book of Gaub that embrace medical violence, eating disorders, body horror, pregnancy, decay, bugs and spiders, stalking and gaslighting, self-harm and addition, and much more. This is not a book for an immature audience, but definitely a book that requires roleplaying safety tools and consent at the table.

The Book of Gaub is a book of spells for the Old School Renaissance and the retroclone of your choice. However, mechanically, The Book of Gaub is incredibly light with barely a handful of stats—and then only for its monsters. This makes it incredibly easier to adapt and not just to the Game Master’s preferred retroclone, but almost any roleplaying game in which spells, dark magic, and horror play a role. In addition, as much as the spell book is traditionally written with fantasy roleplaying games in mind, much of the colour or ‘micro fictions’ which accompany each spell have a very modern feel and tone. In fact, very twentieth century… What this means is that the contents of The Book of Gaub are easily transposed to roleplaying games such as Dying Stylishly Games’ EsotericEnterprises: Old School Adventures in the Occult Underground, Just Crunch Games’ The Dee Sanction, or even Liminal.

The forty-nine spells in The Book of Gaub are divided and themed darkly into seven. Thus the Finger That Trails Letters, working itself into dusty tomes and the written word, its spells related to the spells and written word; the Finger That Points The Way takes the caster and sometimes the victim of its spells on journeys; the Finger On The Pulse whose spells slice at the flesh, perhaps to heal, perhaps to bring suffering; the Finger That Scratches Beneath The Floorboards and in the hidden places of your house, its spells hiding and losing its victims there; the Finger Chewed Down To A White Bone, its spells inducing hunger and purges; the finger that is not there that you have already forgotten about by the time you reach the end of this clause; and the Finger That Catches A Shed Tear and slides it into a bottle, its spells playing upon and manipulating emotions. Thus for example—at random, Eicastise, incised by the Finger Under The Floorboards, hides the caster in a painting—although he can be seen if it is examined—and even allows him to move freely in it or to another painting, to speak or hear from the painting, and appear appropriately dressed in the painting. The Finger On The Pulse leaves the Hypochondria spell behind, which requires the caster to fill a pouch marked with his sigil with rusty nails and the unwashed clothes of the victim, and then hide it in the victim’s house. Should the victim fail his Saving Throw, then he is cursed to have every injury amplified—cuts widen, blood does not clot, shortness of breath becomes stifling, and worse… Whilst under the curse, the victim cannot heal and for as long as the curse remains, only he and caster are aware of the worsening symptoms.

Not only are the spells often vile, but so is what they leave behind. Wherever the spells from The Book of Gaub are cast, they can corrupt the area and this corruption often manifests as a bauble or trinket, known as the Paraphernalia of Gaub, again each tied to one of the seven Fingers of Gaub. For example, the Finger That Trails Letters might discard a bibliography of non-existent books or an inkwell always filled with ill-appropriately coloured ink, whilst that left behind by the Finger Chewed Down To A White Bone could be a black photograph of a child standing in an empty house, the position of the child changing each time the photograph is viewed, the child also weeping when something invisible is near, or an exquisitely fractally carved scrimshaw which can be studied to aid concentration or the study of small things, but leaves the user open to hypnotism. In many cases, a Paraphernalia of Gaub requires the user to empower it, which means a spell has to be cast upon it.

The vile nature of The Book of Gaub and its spells are only exacerbated by the Catastrophes, misfortunes which will befall the caster such as the sorcerer’s joints creaking and moaning whenever he moves, potentially becoming too stiff for him to move, if he miscasts a spell learned via the Finger On The Pulse , but there are general Catastrophes too, like all children born within the region for the next seven days having seven fingers on each hand and upon reaching puberty will know a single spell of Gaub. Under certain conditions Monsters of Gaub can manifest too, though fortunately there are not quite so many of those are there of either the spells or the Catastrophes. They also range vastly in size from the Pinmate, a white paste goblinoid thing which seeps into a house and possesses its fabric, turning every edge or potential point of friction into features which scratch and scrape, feeding upon the blood they draw, whilst the Tide of Turmoil is a swirling mass of chaos and unresolved collective trauma that always closer to the nearest source of suffering…

As well as some twenty or so manifestations of the Grip of Gaub, each a hook that pulls the Player Characters into a story which hints at the effect Gaub has upon the world, The Book of Gaub includes suggestions of how to use them in a game with rules for Sorcerers hunting for The Book of Gaub. Fundamentally, this is a Class and Level system in which the spells themselves do not have Levels and so can be learned in any order as long as a searching Sorcerer can find them and has the time. They can be learned and cast via rote memorisation or off the cuff, but if a spell is cast without learning it first, more spells are cast beyond a Sorcerer’s usual allotment, the spellcasting is interrupted, or other misjudged events occur, then a Catastrophe can occur!

Physically, The Book of Gaub is a beautiful little book in its own right. Cloth bound, it feels delightful in the hand, such that you wish that it was an actual artefact within the game world itself. The artwork is decent for the most part, whilst the writing is also good, although perhaps it does veer into the ponderous in places.

The adult tone of The Book of Gaub means that this book is not for everyone nor every campaign, and its contents will need to be carefully judged to determine whether it is suitable for a campaign or not. If it is, The Book of Gaub is a fantastically nasty book of ideas, encounters, and mysteries whose impact upon a campaign will not be obvious initially. Instead, The Book of Gauband its contents should creep into a campaign, turning it darker and weirder, whether that is in a frantic race to prevent yet one more spell from the tome fall into the wrong hands or a desperate search to find yet one more spell incised by one of the Fingers before a rival does. Whether a fantasy campaign or an urban fantasy campaign, The Book of Gaub is waiting to reach into your campaign and creep through its shadows, and show just how a little knowledge can spread darkness and chaos…

Miskatonic Monday #90: Secret Santa

Mon, 12/13/2021 - 09:00

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

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

—oOo—

Name: Secret SantaPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Thomas Newman

Setting: Jazz Age Devon

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Fifty-eight page, 25.75 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Coal for Christmas! How naughty were you?Plot Hook: A black tie soirée becomes a loathsome lockdown!

Plot Support: Twenty NPCs, eleven good handouts, two plain maps, and six pre-generated Investigators.
Production Values: Good.
Pros
# Second Albion’s Ruin title# Locked room monster hunt# Linear plot
# Self-contained scenario# Good artwork
# Excellent handouts# Can be run as a Christmas-themed convention scenario# Can be run as a Christmas-themed one-shot

Cons
# Linear plot# Too many NPCs# Needs an edit# Locked room monster hunt
# Locked room solution hunt
Conclusion
# Self-contained, linear scenario# Locked room monster hunt# Christmas-themed one-shot or convention scenario# Excellent artwork and handouts

Miskatonic Monday #89: Border Town

Mon, 12/13/2021 - 03:00

—oOo—

Name: Border TownPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Michael Bertolini

Setting: Jazz Age Idaho

Product: Scenario Outline
What You Get: Ten page, 337.85 KB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “Sometimes, you’re closer to the border than you think...”Plot Hook: “The mystery isn’t how you got here, it’s how you get out.”

Plot Support: One NPC and five pre-generated Investigators.

Production Values: Plain.
Pros
# Self-contained outline# Begins en media res
# Huge scope for Keeper input
# Easy to relocate to other times and places

Cons
# Asks for skill rolls the pre-generated Investigators lack# Pre-generated Investigators more modern than Jazz Age# NPCs undeveloped
# Leaves it up to the Keeper to add the horror and the monsters
# Requires the Keeper to develop and write the middle of the scenario
Conclusion
# An escape room with effectively one key# Underwritten plot and villain motivations
# Overwhelmingly underdeveloped# Requires the Keeper to develop and write the scenario’s middle
# Nothing to customise, everything to write

1980: X1 The Isle of Dread

Sun, 12/12/2021 - 09:00

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In 1981, Basic Dungeons & Dragons moved out of the dungeon and up a Level. X1 The Isle of Dread was the first wilderness adventure for Basic Dungeons & Dragons, published the year before, and so focused on exploration across a wider geographical area—though not too wide—and discovering individual locations within that area. It was available separately, but was also packaged as the standard module for the Dungeons & Dragons Expert Set, which in addition to being designed to cover character Levels between three and seven, also focused on rules for wilderness travel, exploration, and encounters. If, due to their inclusion in the Basic Dungeons & Dragons boxed set, B1 In Search of the Unknown and B2 Keep on the Borderlands were a Dungeon Master and her players’ first experience of delving into dungeons and cave complexes, then X1 The Isle of Dread would be their first journey to a far off place in Dungeon & Dragons and their first taste of a world outside of the rock and stone walls underground…
X1 The Isle of Dread is designed for a large party of Player Characters, roughly between six and ten, who should be between Third and Sixth Level, averaging thirty Levels between them. The spur for their involvement in X1 The Isle of Dread will be the discovery of a sheaf of scrolls which are revealed to be letters and map describing an expedition by the pirate and explorer, Rory Barbarosa, to the Thanegioth Archipelago, a thousand-mile sea voyage south of the main continent. He relates how he and his crew reached one island with a small peninsula at its south western tip with access between the peninsula and the rest of the island to the north blacked by a massive stone wall. Standing before the wall is the village of Tanoroa, whose inhabitants stand guard on the wall against incursions and attacks from the creatures on what they call the ‘Isle of Dread’ to the north. Friendly and open to the possibility of trade, the inhabitants told Barbarosa that the wall was built by the gods who also built an ancient city in the Isle of Dread’s central highlands and that the inland city was rumoured to hold unimaginable treasures, including a great black pearl of ‘the gods’! Unfortunately storms and attacks by tribes of cannibals meant that Barbarosa was unable to explore the island fully and was planning an expedition when he died. Now of course, it is up to the Player Characters to hire a ship, set sail for the far islands, and explore them themselves, and perhaps make the discoveries that Rory Barbarosa was never able to!
Rather than leaving it there, X1 The Isle of Dread also includes several suggestions as to how the Player Characters might get involved rather than simply discovering Barbarosa’s letters and then get them to the island. These include being hired by a merchant to investigate and explore the island, purchasing an old ship and hoping that it can get them to the Thanegioth Archipelago, having a Player Character inherit a ship, or simply letting them borrow the money to purchase the ship. Whatever the option, the Player Characters set sail and make the week or more long journey south with the Dungeon Master rolling for encounters on the Ocean Sea Encounter Tables in the Dungeons & Dragons Expert Set and rolling for weather.
Landing on the island, most likely at the village of Tanoroa, the Player Characters will find the inhabitants friendly and helpful. Their society is an interesting mix of the South Seas and the Caribbean, each village being led by a matriarch who is advised by a male war chief and a Zombie Master, who raises the ‘Walking Ancestors’ as labourers and sometimes warriors. Whilst the villagers are welcoming and open to trade, they will not join the Player Characters on any expedition north of the wall, which means that unless they have brought hirelings with them, the Player Characters are very much of their own. Overall, the village of Tanoroa has a slightly creepy feel to it, what with the zombie work force and the question of just what the giant wall is protecting the village from. However, unless the Player Characters commit some faux pas, Tanoroa should serve as a safe base of operations from which they can mount their expeditions.
Beyond the wall itself is the ‘Isle of Dread’, a mix of jungle, low lying coastal swamps and swampy lakes, marked by mountains and the occasional volcano. Some twenty-four locations on and around the island, including the village of Tanorora, are described. They include sharks basking off beautiful beaches, camps of pirates, a deranged ankylosaurus (!), a sea dragon, and more. There are caves infested with troglodytes, rock baboons, ogres, and even a green dragon. Notably, all of these cave encounters use either one of the two cave maps provided, though the Dungeon Master would be free to design her own. There are encounters with new monsters too, such as the nomadic Rakasta, anthropomorphic felines which ride sabre-tooth tigers; the Phanaton, monkey-raccoon-like creatures which dwell in tree villages and can glide from tree to tree; and the Aranea, a large, pony-sized species of intelligent spider, capable of using magic. Some of the marked encounters are not pre-written, but left up to the Dungeon Master to roll on the three Wilderness Wandering Monster tables included with the scenario, this in addition to rolls she will be making regularly on the tables as the Player Characters explore the island.
Eventually, the Player Characters will reach the ancient city where the black pearl can be found. This is on an island—Taboo Island—in the middle of a lake in the crater of a hopefully extinct volcano which stands at the centre of a thirty-mile-wide plateau, some three thousand feet high. The plateau is so high it has its own climate—temperate rather than tropical of the rest of the Isle of Dread—and thus its own wandering monster table, which includes mastodons, pterodactyls, sabre-tooth tigers, and occasional tremor. Having gotten atop the plateau, it will take an eight-hour climb to get over the lip of the volcano on and descend to its base. Here the Player Characters will eventually be welcomed by villagers who live on the lakeshore and who are being attacked by head-hunters. In fact, they will be so welcoming that in return, they will want the Player Characters to deal with the rogue tribespeople.
Taboo Island turns out not to be so much an island, as a temple complex partially occupied by the head-hunters with the lower levels. This actually the nearest that X1 The Isle of Dread comes to including an actual dungeon. The highly detailed complex has three quite detailed and very different levels. The temple itself is ruin, occupied by the cannibals, whilst the second level is partially flooded and infested with traps, and the third consists of a cavern filled with steam and super-hot mud pools and the true villains of the scenario, the Kopru, evil amphibious, fluke-tailed humanoids with the ability to charm others into serving them. This is their first appearance in Dungeons & Dragons, as well as in X1 The Isle of Dread, and the Player Characters’ encounter with them is going to be made all the more challenging by the hot, hot steamy environment and the ability to charm of the Kopru top charm the Player Characters into doing their bidding.
Rounding out X1 The Isle of Dread is half a dozen suggestions for further play on the Isle of Dread, including destroying a Zombie Master in Tanaroa after the village has been attacked by undead creatures, mapping the island, hunting for dinosaurs and harvesting their parts, exterminating the pirates, capturing animals and creatures to bring them back to the mainland, and searching for sunken treasure. These are all fun ideas and could easily be developed by the Dungeon Master. Lastly, there are stats for typical NPCs and write-ups of all of the new monsters given in X1 The Isle of Dread of which there are a lot.
In terms of advice for the Dungeon Master, as a training scenario for running a wilderness scenario, X1 The Isle of Dread is perhaps underwhelming, especially in comparison to the earlier, B1 In Search of the Unknown, which was specifically designed to help the novice Dungeon Master populate and design her first dungeon. Nevertheless, despite being short, the advice is to the point that, “The DM should be careful to give the player characters a reasonable chance for survival. The emphasis is on ‘reasonable.’ Try to be impartial and fair, but give the party the benefit of the doubt in conditions of extreme danger. However, sometimes the players insist on taking unreasonable risks; charging a tyrannosaur bare-handed, for example. If bravery turns to foolhardiness, the DM should make it clear that the characters will die unless the players act more intelligently.” What this makes clear to the Dungeon Master is that the environment of the Isle of the Dread is dangerous, potentially deadly to the Player Characters, especially given that some of the creatures—particularly the dinosaurs—they will encounter will have a high number of Hit Dice and lots of Hit Points. This is further emphasised with, “When describing monster encounters, the DM should rely not only on sight – there are four other senses – smell, sound, taste, and feelings of hot, cold, wet and so forth!” Further, the Dungeon Master should use this as, “…[A] good way to “signal” a party that an encounter may be too difficult for them to handle.” and lastly, “The DM should also try to avoid letting unplanned wandering monsters disrupt the balance of the adventure.”
Further, in addition to X1 The Isle of Dread being the first wilderness adventure for Basic Dungeons & Dragons and subsequently Expert Dungeons & Dragons, the module is interesting because it introduced the lands of the ‘Known World’, what would become Mystara, with a large map of an area identified as the ‘Continent’. Smaller maps of Karameikos and its wider environs would later be included in the Dungeons & Dragons Expert Set, but here there is a full and large-scale map of the Continent accompanied by thumbnail descriptions of its sixteen or so countries and regions and a pronunciation guide for each of their names. Many of these go on to be more fully detailed with a series of setting supplements for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition, but even here the descriptions capture the odd mix of cultures and geographies mashed together. Many of the cultures are based on Earth cultures, including Huns, Mongols, Icelanders, medieval Italy, Byzantium, and more, all alongside the fantasy elements of Dwarven and Elven kingdoms, magocracies, and Halfling shires. Further, these are all mixed and pushed together, so famously, the Vikings of the Nordic Soderfjord Jarls sit immediately to the north of the Arabic Emirate of Ylarum, a giant desert. Of course, it feels unrealistic, even nonsensical, but perhaps taken in the context of the Pulp sensibilities of X1 The Isle of Dread, that lack of realism will not be so much of an issue and can even be a feature.
Physically, X1 The Isle of Dread is really very well presented. The maps are excellent, whether wilderness or other location—and there are a lot of them. The map of Continent and its relationship to the Thanegioth Archipelago, as well as that of the Isle of Dread itself, are fantastic. The module is also well written and solidly supported with the new monsters, a rather plain handout of Barbarosa’s letter, and the outline of the Isle of Dread he mapped before he died.
—oOo— X1 The Isle of Dread was reviewed in The Space Gamer Number 38 (April 1981) by Aaron Allston. He laid out the groundwork for his capsule review with, “An introductory scenario must, first and foremost, be an enjoyable adventure. It must also provide a “working model,” so that beginning DMs can see how to construct and organize an adventure. And it must be easily read, that the novice referee not become lost and confused with travelling from Crypt 1 to Village 3.” He made clear that, “This adventure goes a long way towards accomplishing those goals. The scenario itself, set on an island whose simple human culture bears tinges of Polynesian and Amerind societies, is relatively tame, but provides some tense moments. Enough variable situations are presented to keep the whole thing from becoming static. More important, in this instance, is the module’s organization as a prototype. It does well here, too; almost all the maps can be removed and the appropriate text descriptions are clearly keyed to the proper maps. This scenario cannot be played cold, which is also a necessary experience for a novice DM; it must first by read through and assessed.” However, he was not wholly positive, adding, “No real problems evidence themselves. As noted, this adventure will not appeal to experienced players; there is a certain lack of color or sweep to the whole thing.” before concluding that the module was, “Recommended to beginners only – but it says so on the cover.”
Anders Swenson reviewed X1 The Isle of Dread in Different Worlds Issue 12 (July 1981). He liked the, “…[C]oncept, design, and execution of this dungeon module. There have been only a few campaign/adventure books among the scores of products published for the hobby, but this is one of the best yet available. The map is flexible in that many sorts of adventures could be worked into the terrain as it is shown. There are many different types and patterns of landforms depicted. Many of the encounters specified for the Isle of Dread could be dropped intact onto other parts of the map.”
More recently, X1 The Isle of Dread was included in ‘The 30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time’ in the ‘Dungeon Design Panel’ in Dungeon #116 (November 2004). The founder of GREYtalk, the World of GREYHAWK discussion list, Gary Holian, described it as, “The first true module to introduce players to a ‘wider world’ beyond the castle, forest, and cave, Dread tore them from their medieval moorings and sent them careening across the waves to collide with a prehistoric lost world.” Mike Mearls, Co-Lead Designer for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, asked, “Who doesn’t like hopping on a longship and sailing for days across the open sea to battle dinosaurs, pirates, cannibals, and the horrid kopru? It’s hard to believe that all that material is crammed into 32 pages.”
—oOo—
X1 The Isle of Dread is a great set of tools to run a hex crawl wilderness campaign. With its new monsters and distance from the civilisations of the Continent, the Dungeon Master has the scope to just not run a very different kind of adventure, but also scope to develop areas of her own. After all, there are whole other islands in the Thanegioth Archipelago which are left devoid of detail in the module. Plus with its mix of Zombie Masters, dinosaurs, pirates, and strange mind-controlling amphibians, it has a lush, Pulp sensibility, taking in King Kong, The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, and H.P. Lovecraft. And yet…
In so many places, X1 The Isle of Dread feels flat. To start with, whilst the hook of great treasure is enough to get the Player Characters to the Thanegioth Archipelago, it does not feel enough to quite keep them going. For example, there are no hooks or NPCs with motivations to be found at the village of Tanoroa, although the suggestions for further adventures on the Isle of Dread do suggest one. In addition, although there is a great wall across the narrow isthmus connecting the peninsula to the Isle of Dread, there is no mention of quite what the wall is guarding against. Given the Pulp sensibilities of the adventure and the wall’s obvious nod to King Kong, its very existence is begging for a night-time attack against it to be staged by some great beast. Then there is Taboo Island, barely described bar the old temple, which as dungeon complex is open to expansion, but incredibly difficult to traverse from one level to the next such that the Player Characters may never discover the true secrets of the island. The fact that the Player Characters may never discover the true secrets of the island is the ultimate problem with X1 The Isle of Dread.
X1 The Isle of Dread does not really explain what the true secrets of the Isle of Dread are until two thirds of the way through the module. This is that the Kopru once controlled a great empire which spanned the whole of the Thanegioth Archipelago, thriving in the islands’ hot geysers and mud springs and enslaving native human population with their mind-controlling powers. The temple on Taboo Island was where they were worshipped as gods, but eventually they were overthrown. This is why the villagers on the peninsula fear the Isle of Dread, but cannot say why. Yet there is no sign of the Kopru on the Isle of Dread or any of the encounters on the island, until the Player Characters descend into the temple on Taboo Island—no ruins or hints, or even indications that Koru have charmed anyone on the island and so might be in their service. Literally, the Kopru are simply locked away until the Player Characters arrive and that is a huge, missed opportunity in terms of storytelling to the point where even if the Player Characters do encounter them, they may not realise the true nature of the Kopru and their secrets.
Ultimately, X1 The Isle of Dread needs the Dungeon Master to really work at it to drop some hints and develop some hooks which will draw her players and their characters into wanting to explore more, and it fails to really help the Dungeon Master do that when it really should. However, as a first wilderness module, X1 The Isle of Dread is a fantastically pulpy, fun hex-crawl, rife with potential for some great adventures and stories.

[Free RPG Day 2021] The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe

Sat, 12/11/2021 - 09:00

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For Free RPG Day 2021, Hit Point Press released not one, but two things. However, the publisher, best known for its Humblewood anthropomorphic setting for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, actually put the two things in the one booklet and gave them a cover each, much like a Doubleday cover. So look at the one cover, turn the book over and upside down, and you have the other. Both contributions are for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, but each provides the Dungeon Master with something different, one is more generic than other, whilst that other is setting specific. T provides an NPC designed to be dropped into almost any fantasy setting and a new Humblewood adventure.

The BIG BADS series presents a range of booklets, each detailing a villainous NPC which the Dungeon Master can drop into her campaign at short notice. The idea is that they be used when the Player Characters have wandered away from the centre of the action or the plot, and the Dungeon Master does not have anything ready for such an eventuality. Each entry comes complete with a description of the villainous NPC, his tactics and traits (Ideal, Bond, and Flaw), his allies, some background, and some adventure hooks. In the case of The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe release for Free RPG Day 2021, the ‘BIG BAD’ is Zara Harlowe, who can be inserted into major town or city which has a city guard and a single thieves’ guild dominating the criminal underworld. Zara Harlowe is the chief of the watch or city guard, and has managed to wage a major campaign against organised crime, breaking up gangs and intimidation rackets, foiling heists just in the nick of time, and filled the nearby gaols with innumerable crooks. However, one major criminal, the local Thieves’ Guild Guildmaster, known as Nix, eludes her, and it continues to frustrate the chief of the guard. Except, of course, it does nothing of the sort, for the simple reason that Zara Harlowe and Nix are one of the same. Zara Harlowe has long been corrupt, and her growing ties to the local criminal underworld put her in a position, eventually, to eliminate all of the local competition and install someone else on charge. Namely, herself—or rather Nix. By day, she commands the city guard to crack down on crime, invariably directing them away from her activities by night as the city’s crime boss. It is all a case of one big misdirection—through double agents, bureaucracy, ruthlessness, and disguise.
The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe also details her two allies in the know, both as evil as she is, one a Dragonborn shapechanger and wereboar, the other a Half-Elf Necromancer! There are good notes on roleplay on each of these villains, but especially Zara Harlowe, as well as details of what might be found should the trio be encounter at the Guard Station or the Thieves’ Guild Headquarters. Neither is mapped, which is pity, but the Dungeon Master should be able to find or draw something. Should the Dungeon Master want to use Zara Harlowe and her compatriots, the mini-supplement comes three adventure hooks, one a closed room mystery, one a heist in the city where Zara commands the guard, and the last a rambling letter which hints at the truth of her activities. All three will need no little development upon the part of the Dungeon Master, but they represent a good start. Lastly, there are the stats for each of the three NPCs, each given their own page and all accompanied by decent illustrations. In terms of Challenge Rating, all together they have a rating of ten or eleven, depending upon the situation, so the Dungeon Master will need to adjust according or choose when to run these NPCs.
The BIG BADS section of The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe runs to just twelve or so pages of content, but provides the background and stats necessary for the Dungeon Master to run this villainess and her allies with relative ease. She will need to make adjustments and development the content a little to fit her campaign or scenario, but no more than usual.
—oOo—

The other half of The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe is ‘The Heart of Dako’. This is a scenario for the Humblewood campaign setting in which you play anthropomorphic Birdfolk and other woodland creatures. It does not take place in the Humblewood region though, but in the Tanglewilds, a vast jungle far south of the Humblewood on the western continent of Wesden. Here Tanglewilds Guides are stationed at the guide outpost of Wayfare, from where they can be hired to lead expeditions through the jungles of Sania’s Paradise. The four pre-generated Player Characters, all of Fifth Level, are Tanglewilds Guides. They include Zenja Brightfeather, a Seeta Luma (or Parrot) Druid, a Sun Eluran (big cat) Cleric, a Sandscale Tilia (lizard or gecko) Rogue, and an Arma Hedge (armadillo?) Ranger. All four are given two pages each containing all of the necessary stats, features, and traits, plus an explanation of each character’s role, backstory, and equipment. These are all easy to read and understand, and thus far from difficult to ready to play.
‘The Heart of Dako’ opens with the four Player Character Tanglewilds Guides being hired by the Companions of the Blue Rose, a stalwart company of adventurers, to lead them on their way to the coastal city of Espinorra, where a ship awaits to ferry them to their northern homelands. They boast of great find, a precious magical relic they believe to be the fabled Heart of Dako, which they took from the Temple of Naba, and plan to take home with them. Thus they want to get home without any fuss or difficulty. Not long after they set out, the Player Characters and their employers are disturbed in their journey. It might be that they see a strange, apocalyptic vision, be suddenly warned by Companion of the Blue Rose about the Heart of Dako his companions are carrying, or they recall or hear a story about the dreadful outcome should the Heart of Dako be removed from the Temple of Naba. Essentially, the Dungeon Master is free to use these as necessary to persuade the Player Characters that taking the Heart of Dako from the Temple of Naba was not a good idea, each serving as a hook for the adventure proper. Making this decision though will come after the scenario’s opening scene when the Player Characters have an opportunity to interreact with the Companions of the Blue Rose, learn of some of the dangers they faced in finding and plundering the Temple of Naba, and more. This is no mere exposition, but essential in completing the adventure, because the Player Characters will not only have to retrace the steps of the Companions of the Blue Rose, but do so with hot on their heels after stealing the Heart of Dako!
‘The Heart of Dako’ perhaps suggests a nod towards Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, but the scenario is more Indiana Jones—right down to one of the NPCs exclaiming, “ It belongs in a museum!”, than exploring the nature of European colonialism! After a race across a rope bridge, the Player Characters enter the Temple of Naba and must navigate the various traps and puzzles located in its various chambers. These include the classic spike traps and walls closing in trap, all before the Companions of the Blue Rose confront again and hopefully, the Player Characters can save the day.
In addition to the scenario, ‘The Heart of Dako’, the first appendix gives full stats for all four members of the Companions of the Blue Rose, as well as other NPCs and a handful of jungle monsters. The second appendix describes the Wilderness Explorer, a new Background, and the third, details the actual Heart of Dako.
‘The Heart of Dako’ is a short and linear and presumes that the Player Characters will do the right thing in returning the artefact to the temple. If not, the scenario ends badly… In fact, the scenario feels all too short and could have done with interaction and opportunities for roleplay as it does emphasise exploration, puzzles, and combat rather than roleplaying. This does not mean that there are no opportunities, but they feel sparse in comparison. The adventure itself can be completed in a single session or so, certainly no more than two sessions. The players are provided with some decent characters to roleplay, and the Dungeon Master likewise has a good selection of NPCs to portray. The Companions of the Blue Rose will need careful study as they are the equal of the Player Characters and just as detailed and capable.
—oOo—
Physically, The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe decently presented. The artwork is decent enough in ‘Zara Harlowe’, but fully painted in ‘The Heart of Dako’, and full of lush colours that help bring the various characters (Player Characters and NPCs) to life and the jungle too. A fair bit of the artwork gets used more than once, but it is really good artwork. Otherwise, the writing is good, though perhaps a better explanation of the scenario’s plot could have been included at the beginning.
Of the two pieces of content in The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe, ‘Zara Harlowe’ is undoubtedly the more useful, being generic in nature and easily transposed to any setting. Being more specific in its setting, ‘The Heart of Dako’ is less useful to the Dungeon Master unless she wants to run a jungle-set scenario and/or run an anthropomorphic scenario, and less useful to the Humblewood Dungeon Master it takes place far away from the core setting. That said, ‘The Heart of Dako’ is a preview of Humeblewood 2, which opens up the southern tropical continent for the Humblewood setting. As a preview though, it still feels all too short and perhaps wondering if ‘Zara Harlowe’ had been omitted, there might have been room for a bit more adventure and bit more of the Humeblewood 2 to be showcased. Plus, as an adventure for Fifth Level Player Characters, ‘The Heart of Dako’ is not necessarily going to be useful to run when Humeblewood 2 is released.
Overall, The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe as a combination does not quite work. The latter is more useful than the former, but detracts from the former which feels as if it could have done with a bit more adventure as a result. Both are available separately on the Hit Point Press website.

A Narrative Mecha Quick-Start

Sat, 12/11/2021 - 03:00

The Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide is an introduction to the new mecha roleplaying game from Leyline Press, best known for its post-apocalypse, post-BREXIT roleplaying game, Shadow of Mogg. Traditionally mecha roleplaying games and mecha games in general are very technical and tactical, of which BattleTech and its roleplaying game, MechWarrior, are perhaps the best known. Not so Salvage Union, which forgoes the tactical and the technical elements of the game play typically found in the genre, in favour of more narrative play. There are different mech types and different weapons and pieces of equipment, as well as different types of mech Pilots in Salvage Union—and in the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide, but there are no points of armour to scour off in a firefight and keep track off and there is not a detailed resolution system, or even an initiative mechanic! The Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide comes with six Pilots and their mechs, the core mechanics, advice for the Mediator—as the Game Master is known, rules for scrap and salvage, and a sample scenario. All of this in a digest-sided booklet, nearly ninety pages long.

Salvage Union and the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide takes place on a colony world in the far future which has been heavily scarred by the effects of global warming, deforestation, pollution, nuclear fallout, and several conflicts. The luckiest and the wealthiest live in Corporate Arcologies—each one run by a different corporation, but most are Wastelanders, living in scattered settlements or in the case of a relative few, as members of self-sufficient communities living in gigantic mechs called Union Crawlers. From these roam bands known as Salvage Unions, made up of workers, salvagers, Pilots, and free spirits, each Piloting their scrap-built or former corporate mech, in search of scrap and salvage to keep their machines and the Union Crawler running, and even upgrade their machines. To some the Salvage Unions are folk heroes, to the corporations they are greedy opportunists and recalcitrant rebels, part of the growing Resistance against the corporations taking control of the planet. In Salvage Union and the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide, the Player Characters are part of one such Salvage Union.

At the core of Salvage Union is a Pilot and his Mech. Each Pilot has a Profile, three Stats, three pieces of equipment, and three Abilities. The Profile includes a callsign, background, ideal, flaw, keepsake, and motto, whilst the three Stats are Health, Ability Points, and Stress. Health is how much physical damage a mech Pilot can suffer, Ability Points are expended on Abilities, and Stress is how much mental damage he can take, which can be generated via a player Pushing his Pilot, using certain Abilities and items of equipment. Health, Ability Points, and Stress are the same for each of the six pre-generated Pilot in the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide. For example, the Engineer archetype has the Callsign of Twitch, the Freelancer Background, her Ideal is Pragmatism and her Flaw is Judgemental, her Keepsake is a Red Toy Car, and her Motto is ‘Call me, or screw it up yourself’. Her three pieces of equipment are Riveting Gun, which when the safety is switched off, can inflict damage, a Wrench that can be used as a melee weapon, and a Portable Arc Welder. Her three Abilities are ‘If I cut this wire…’, ‘Field Repair’, and ‘Talk Shop’. ‘If I cut this wire…’ allows her to pinpoint a System or Module on a Mech and disable it. This can be done in person and requires her player to expend two Action Points, or aboard her Mech with a Welding Laser, in which case it costs two Energy Points to use. Similarly, ‘Field Repair’, which enables her to repair a damaged Module or System, and costs either two Action Points or two Energy Points depending whether she is conducting the repairs in person or in her Mech. Lastly, ‘Talk Shop’ just costs one Action Point to use and means she can engage in conversations other Mechanics, Salvagers, workers, and the like, and they will share information with her.

A Mech has several Systems, its hardware and weapons, and Modules, its software, electronic warfare systems, and the like, as well as three ratings for its Spec—Structure Points, Energy Points, and Heat Capacity. Structure Points are how much damage it can take, Energy Points are expended to power a Mech’s Systems and Modules, and Heat Capacity is how much Heat it can generate before a Reactor Overload Check is required and the Mech either shuts down, loses Systems or Modules, or simply blows up! For example, the Engineer’s Mech is a Type 43 ‘Magpie’, a Medium Class worker Mech developed by the Stefanus Corporation. It features Hot Swap Universal Mounts for easy change of Systems and Modules, and its Systems include a Rigging Arm, Locomotion System, and Welding Laser, which when at Engaged range, can be used a weapon. Other Systems include ‘Repair’, allowing the Pilot to repair a Mech or Structure for two Structure Points—even in combat, and ‘Mass Field Repair’, an out-of-combat which enables the Pilot to repair up to ten Structure Points across any number of Mechs. Both ‘Repair’ and ‘Mass Field Repair’ cost two Energy Points to use. The Type 43 ‘Magpie’ also has a Mini Mortar, an Emergency Hatch, and a Transport Hold. Its Modules include a Comms Module and an EM Shield Projector, which can be projected around itself or another Mech and provides protection against lasers and ballistics. It costs two Energy Points to use and requires a roll on its own table to determine its effectiveness.

There are six pre-generated Pilots and their Mechs in the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide. They include Hauler, who can intimidate her enemies or make a deal with them and her Mk8 ‘Atlas’, a heavy supply Mech which can also lay a minefield; Scout, a tracker and sniper, whose agile ‘TC40’ Gopher can track and survey targets; Soldier Pilots a GCC21 ‘Brawler’, a combat Mech; Hacker, whose MCS-1337 ‘Mantis’ Mech is designed for stealth and hacking into enemy Mechs; Engineer and her Type 43 ‘Magpie’ repair Mech; and Salvager with his BG-288 ‘Jackhammer’, a sturdy mining Mech intended to survey deep underground, excavate rock, and survive a cave-in! Together, these six are all different and they nicely showcase the range of characters and Mechs possible in Salvage Union.

Mechanically, the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide and thus, Salvage Union, is built around a small set of tables, upon which a player will roll a twenty-sided die. There are no bonuses applied to the roll, but simply an outcome. On a one, the Player Character suffers a ‘Cascade Failure’, meaning that not only has he failed, but has done so spectacularly, or something else has gone wrong. A result of a two to five means a simple ‘Failure’, whilst that of six to ten, means the Player Character has succeeded, but with a consequence. A roll of eleven to nineteen is a ‘Success’ and means that he has succeeded without any penalties, and a roll of a twenty means he has ‘Nailed it’ and succeeded beyond his expectations.

A Pilot can push both himself and his Mech. Pushing his Mech generates Heat and too much can result in a roll on the Reactor Overload Table to see what happens, but it also allows a player to re-roll any check involved with his Pilot’s Mech. Venting Heat is possible, but requires the Mech to be completely shutdown for ten minutes and is therefore vulnerable. If a Pilot pushes himself, he generates Stress and can result in a roll needing to be made on the Stress Overload Table. Similarly, resting for ten minutes will get rid of all of a Pilot’s Stress.
Other tables cover Critical Damage to a Mech and Critical Injury to a Pilot, and there are Modules and Systems which have their own tables, but Salvage Union is not much more complex than this. This is because it is actually a resource management roleplaying game—not a complex one, but a resource management roleplaying game nonetheless, with players keeping track of Energy Points and Action Points for their Mechs and Pilots respectively, and deciding where and when to use them. Although both Stress and Heat can be reduced during play, Action Points and Energy Points cannot, Pilots and Mechs needing to speed a week back in their Union Crawler to recover both. This shifts play in Salvage Union to more of a narrative structure, with even combat initiative being handled narratively rather than via random dice rolls, and makes knowing when to use a System, Module, or Action much more important. Similarly, knowing when to Push a Pilot or a Mech for that all important reroll is also important, and is effectively the nearest thing to a skill system that Salvage Union has.

The Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide also includes rules for salvaging and what can be done with salvage, whether that is paying for Downtime aboard the Union Crawler, making repairs to Mechs, or even building new Modules and Systems and upgrading a Mech. There is good advice for the Mediator too, especially on game structure and handling consequences—especially since this is a quick-start. The Mediator is also provided with sample enemy Mechs, a glossary of terms, and several table of salvage. With a bit of care, the Mediator could even design a few Mechs of her own to field against those of the Player Character Pilots.

Lastly in the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide, there is a short scenario. This is ‘The Downing Of The Atychos’ and sees the Player Characters tracking down a corporation air transport ship which has crashed. It belongs to Evantis Industries, which manufactures experimental heavy mechs and weaponry, and that means potentially good salvage. Unfortunately, the transport has crashed in the city ruins of Hope Falls, thought to be home to outlaws, and there are going to be rival Salvage Unions interested. The Pilots will need to fight and possibly negotiate their way across the area and conduct a survey in order to locate the downed transport, facing some interesting threats and situations along the way. Several fun NPCs are provided too, as well as some different Mechs. It is a decently done adventure which should take a couple of sessions to play, but could easily be developed by the Mediator to run a mini-campaign if the players and their Pilots wanted to explore the area further and scour it empty of salvage.

Physically, the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide is a decently presented digest-sized book, whose cover is reminiscent of a Haynes manual. Inside, the artwork varies in style, from fully painted vistas to line art drawings of the Mechs with cartoon-like illustrations of the pre-generated Pilots in-between. The layout is clean and tidy, and the quick-start is easy to read through.

The Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide does an excellent job of introducing Salvage Union and how it is played. It not only comes with everything necessary to play its scenario, but a bit extra with which the Mediator can expand play beyond the scope of the scenario, providing a broader look at the core game. Some adjustment is necessary in terms of play since although this is a Mecha-style game, as it emphasises narrative play rather than tactical, for both the roleplaying and the Mech combat. Overall, the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide is an impressive introduction to Mecha-style games and settings, but without resorting to a lot of stats and wargames style play.

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Salvage Union is currently being funded via Kickstarter.

[Free RPG Day 2021] Talisman Adventures – Quick Start Guide: Curse of the Rat Queen

Fri, 12/10/2021 - 09:00

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Talisman Adventures – Quick Start Guide: Curse of the Rat Queen is the introduction to the Talisman Adventures Fantasy Roleplaying Game. Published by Pegasus Press, this is actually the roleplaying adaptation of Talisman: The Magical Quest Game, the classic fantasy board game originally published by Games Workshop in 1983. Like the board game, the Talisman Adventures Fantasy Roleplaying Game and thus Talisman Adventures – Quick Start Guide: Curse of the Rat Queen takes place in the in the Realm, a land of deadly creatures and ancient dragons and wondrous magic and fell curses, born in ages past after the Great Wizard cleansed the land of its many threats. Yet the Great Wizard did not stay, leaving behind the Crown of Command, talismans of great power, and perturbed peoples. Without the presence of the Great Wizard, vile monsters and other evil servants of Oblivion have begun to regain their power across the Realm, and now it is up to Heroes to step up and make a name for themselves.

The Talisman Adventures – Quick Start Guide: Curse of the Rat Queen comes with everything necessary to play. This includes an explanation of the setting, the core mechanics—including combat and spellcasting, four pre-generated Player Characters, and a short three-act scenario. To play, each player, including the Game Master, will need four six-sided dice, one of which must be a different colour to the others. This die of a different is the Kismet Die. Each player will also need five or six tokens, whilst the Game Master will also need five or six of her own, but of a different colour. These represent tokens Fate—Light Fate for the Player Characters, but Dark Fate for the Game Master.

The Talisman Adventures – Quick Start Guide: Curse of the Rat Queen quickly leaps into an explanation of the mechanics—the 3D6 Adventures System—and how tests work. However, to understand how they work, both Game Master and her players need to know what makes up a Player Character. Each Player Character has two Attributes, Strength and Craft. The former represents a character’s physical capability, and has three Aspects—Brawn, Agility, and Mettle, whilst the latter represents a character’s mental capability, and also has three Aspects—Insight, Wits, and Resolve. For the pre-generated Player Characters provided with the Talisman Adventures – Quick Start Guide: Curse of the Rat Queen, both Attributes and Aspects range between one and five. A Player Character can also have Skills, for example, Decipher, Entertain, Melee, or Psychic, and some Skills can have Specialisations, such as Mystic for Spellcasting, Axe for Melee, or Forest for Survival.

When a Player Character wants to undertake an action, his player rolls three six-sided dice, one of which must be a different colour, and thus the Kismet die, hoping to beat a given Difficulty, for example, an Average Difficulty might be eleven. If the Player Character has an appropriate Skill, then an associated Attribute or Aspect can be added to the total. More than the one Attribute or Aspect can be associated with the Skill, for example, Entertain Skill is associated with Wits, Insight, and Agility. Obviously, Agility for physical performances such as dancing or juggling, Insight for singing and playing a musical instrument, and Wits for reciting a saga or performing in a play. Further, if the Player Character has a Focus for the Skill, the player receives a flat +2 bonus to the roll. The outcome of the roll generates a Degree of Success. If the combined result—including the dice roll plus appropriate Attribute, Aspect, and Focus—is equal to, or greater than the Difficulty, then that is a Standard Success. If doubles are rolled on any of the three dice, and the combined result is equal to, or greater than the Difficulty, then that is a Great Success. If triples are rolled on any of the three dice, and the combined result is equal to, or greater than the Difficulty, then that is an Extraordinary Success.

A result is less than the Difficulty, then the Player Character has failed. In combat this means that not only has the Player Character failed to strike his opponent, that opponent has struck back and inflicted full damage. A Standard Success means that the Player Character has succeeded in the Test, but at a cost or with a complication. This then, is a classic, ‘Yes, but…’ result. In combat, this means that a Player Character has managed to attack an opponent, but said opponent strikes back and inflicts half damage. A Great Success means that the Player Character has succeeded without any beneficial or detrimental effect. This is complete success. An Extraordinary Success means that the Player Character has succeeded and done so with great effect. In combat, that might be to inflict extra damage or another effect. This is a classic ‘Yes and…’ result.

Further, if a one is rolled on the Kismet Die, the Game Master gains one Dark Fate, whilst if a six is rolled, the Player Character gains one Light Fate. Rolling a one on the Kismet Die, can also trigger the Special Ability for an NPC or Enemy, whilst rolling a six can trigger a Player Character’s Special Ability. Light Fate points can be spent to add a bonus six-sided die to a Test, reroll a single die after a Test roll has been made, activate a Special Ability or an item’s Special Quality, and to avoid dying following a failed death test. The Game Master can spend Dark Fate to increase an Enemy, activate an Enemy’s Special Ability, activate effects in special areas, and activate an item’s curse effects. Both the Player Characters and the Game Master have a limited supply of their respective Fate, but more is generated throughout play.

Combat in Talisman Adventures is player facing, with each player making a Test with a Difficulty equal to the Threat of the Enemy faced by his Player Character. What this means is that the Player Characters act first and the Degrees of Success their players generate determine exactly how the Enemy react. So if an attack fails, the Opponent will attack, inflicting full damage or a Special Attack, whilst with a Success, the Player Character inflicts full damage, but suffers half damage from his Opponent in return. Only with a Great Success will full damage be inflicted without any comeback, whilst an Extraordinary Success does that and more. Numerous options are given for what that ‘more’ might be, depending whether the Player Character’s action is a Melee or Ranged Attack, a Psychic Attack, a Spell being cast, and so on… Once the Player Characters have acted, any Enemy who have not been engaged in combat, are free to act. In this case, any Player Character attacked must make a Defence Test, again against the Enemy’s Threat, and again, the Degree of Success determines the outcome, even to potentially stopping the attack and riposting with half damage on an Extraordinary Success.

Armour in Talisman Adventures is ablative, but can be repaired between encounters. However, armour always suffers a single permanent point of damage in combat which requires repair with a full set of tools. What this means is that the effectiveness of armour degrades over the course of an adventure, from encounter to encounter. When armour has been rendered useless in an encounter, any further damage is inflicted as Wounds. Successive Wounds also inflict increasing penalties to Tests and if a Player Characters suffers too many Wounds, his player must begin making Death Tests—or die!

The Talisman Adventures – Quick Start Guide: Curse of the Rat Queen comes with four pre-generated Player Characters. They include a brawny, axe-wielding Troll Warrior; an unarmed and unarmoured Dwarf Priest who can heal and bless, plus banish spirits; an Elf Scout, good with a bow and moving in the forest; and a Ghoul Assassin (!) who is incredibly sneaky and can even turn a dead Enemy temporarily against his former companions. In general, the Player Characters are clearly laid out and easy to read, though players should note that the Dwarf Priest has no armour and the Ghoul Assassin has the Soul Drinker Special Ability, but not the Psychic Assault Special Ability necessary to initiate a psychic attack.

The adventure, ‘Curse of the Rat Queen’, in the Talisman Adventures – Quick Start Guide: Curse of the Rat Queen runs to ten pages. A three-act affair, it sees the Player Characters travelling to the village of Jellico which requires their help. After the cliché of a barroom brawl to get the players used to the dice mechanics, the village elders summon the Player Characters and explain the problem besetting the village. It has been beset by a plague of rats, and naturally, the elders hired a Pied Piper and his tunes drew all of the rats out of the village. However, now they are returning, and the elders cannot not find the piper, so they want the Player Characters to find him, get their money back, and hopefully put an end to the rat menace. This will take them out of the village and into the surrounding wilderness to the Whispering Woods where the piper led the rats… Even if the start is a cliché, ‘Curse of the Rat Queen’ is a decent adventure, supported with good advice and optional content that the Game Master can add if she wants to. It adds a couple of rules of play along the way, so the Game Master will need to the adventure through thoroughly as part of the preparation. The adventure is not necessarily straightforward, but should be fun to play and adds several extra monsters which the Game Master could use to expand upon the adventure. Overall, a decent adventure which should provide two or so sessions’ worth of play.

Physically, the is decently presented. The artwork varies a little in quality, but the writing is clear and easy to understand. The Game Master will need to conduct a careful read through as it does leap straight into the rules and there are extra rules explained later in the scenario. This does mean that The Talisman Adventures – Quick Start Guide: Curse of the Rat Queen is not quite suited to the novice Game Master as intended, but anyone with a little experience will pick the rules up fairly quickly. Also, the phrasing of the Degrees of Success feels slightly odd in that a Standard success is one with an element of failure. Adjust to that—and of course, the player facing mechanics which do make the Game Master’s task much easier, and Talisman Adventures serves up a mix of the traditional and the slightly lesser than traditional fantasy. Overall, the Talisman Adventures – Quick Start Guide: Curse of the Rat Queen is a solid introduction to Talisman Adventures combined with fairly simple mechanics and a fun adventure.

[Free RPG Day 2021] Victoriana: Going Underground

Mon, 12/06/2021 - 03:00

Now in its fourteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2021, after a little delay due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, took place on Saturday, 16th October. As per usual, it came with an array of new and interesting little releases, which traditionally would have been tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Of course, in 2021, Free RPG Day took place after GenCon despite it also taking place later than its traditional start of August dates, but Reviews from R’lyeh was able to gain access to the titles released on the day due to a friendly local gaming shop and both Keith Mageau and David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3 in together sourcing and providing copies of the Free RPG Day 2020 titles. Reviews from R’lyeh would like to thank all three for their help.
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Cubicle7 Entertainment Ltd. offered two titles for Free RPG Day 2021. One is Reap and Sow, a scenario and quick-start for Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound. The other is Going Underground, an adventure for the forthcoming version of Victoriana, the roleplaying game of intrigue, sorcery, and steam for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. This is the roleplaying game of gothic fantasy magic and steampunk engineering set at the height of the reign of Queen Victoria and the British Empire. Magic is commonplace and even powers many of the new technological advances, such as the clockwork automata and prosthetic limbs, the latter often replacing those lost through industrial accidents or war. However, there is tension between maintaining the old ways of magic and embracing the optimism which comes with the new technology and the speed of change. The world of Victorianais also inhabited by different species too. The Duine are much like Humanity, but there are also Púca—humans with animal traits; Muirlochs—nocturnal Humans with batlike ears and an affinity for technology; Khald—short, stout, and stubborn professionals known for their craftsmanship; Gruagach—tall, muscled, and honestly direct of opinion; and Elderen—elegant psychics said to have connections to the fae. There are numerous sources of magic too. These include the Aluminat faith which the Luminous Host and works to keep Humanity from becoming embroiled in the dangers of Entropy—which is thought to have lead to the apocalyptic magical event known as the Great Cataclysm in the past; the Thaumturge’s Guild which has legitimised and industrialised magic; Animism is drawn from the Otherworld which is home to the fae and harnesses the quintessence of nature to create talismans; and Maleficium is dark magic—necromancy and diabolism—taught by the Pallid Ones, fallen Archons. Magic is also another source of tension since it was once the sole purview of the nobility, but this is no longer the case as it has been industrialised and democratised.

Victoriana: Going Underground is a preview of the forthcoming new edition of Victoriana, effectively the fourth edition, which is designed for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. It moves the setting on two decades from just after the Crimean War to the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 1877. After a solid introduction which explains the setting, it quickly throws both players and Game Master into the adventure itself, ‘Going Underground’. Designed for four players—the quick-start includes four pre-generated Player Characters—it is a short, direct, and linear adventure. They include Adelaide Finch, a Muirloch Sleuth, Theodore Gatesly, a Noble Gruagach Confidante, Sam Urmacher, a Púca gadgeteer, and Charalata Rathmore, an Elderen Animist. Each of the four comes with a full colour portrait and a clearly presented set of stats and abilities. All four are attending the opening and inaugural running of the deepest and newest underground train line built and run by the City & South London Subway. As detailed in the opening explanation for the players and their characters, Adelaide Finch has learned that someone is planning to sabotage the opening of the line, Theodore Gatesly used his connections to get the quartet tickets to the event, Sam Urmacher is along to investigate and write an article for periodical about trains, and Charalata Rathmore may help soothe the proletariat’s objections to the newly dug line.

The adventure itself is direct. The Player Characters alight from their carriage, descend into the London Underground, interact with the other guests and the staff, before boarding the train, and making the journey from Cannon Street to Stockwell and back (the alternate history of Victoriana means that the two are connected via the same line, when at the time they would have completely separate, unconnected lines). On the way something strange happens and it appears to be pulling the train through a portal. The question is, what caused this, and how do the Player Characters and everyone aboard the tube train get back? Throughout there are moments when the adventure puts each of the Player Characters in the spotlight, mostly to learn new information rather than act, and it is not until the strange event occurs that they really have the chance to do anything and be more proactive. Up until this point it does feel as if the Player Characters are in the background of the adventure, often reacting to the sometimes-clichéd actions and utterances of the NPCs. Once the train is thrown into the portal, the Player Characters have more opportunities to act—mostly combat and making repairs, but definitely more than the initial parts of the adventure.

Mechanically, there are relatively few changes between Victoriana and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition—at least in Victoriana: Going Underground. The most notable is the list changes to various skills, of which the Social Class skill, with its specialisations of Noble, Bourgeoisie, and Proletariat, figure prominently in the play of the scenario. The other is the addition of Quintessence, which is used to power spells, special abilities, and devices. This replaces the traditional Vancian spell slots of Dungeons & Dragons with what is in effect, a spell point system.

Physically, Victoriana: Going Underground is decently presented and written, with decent artwork—especially those of the Player Characters. It is a pity that none of the NPCs are illustrated.

Victoriana: Going Underground is short and direct and playable in a single session. As an example adventure, it is not that engaging, often relying upon clichés for its presentation of its NPCs and having a tightly plotted script. The latter though, is primarily due to the length of the scenario—a little over six pages in a fourteen-page booklet—and the fact that it is set in a tube train! Nevertheless, there are opportunities for the Player Characters to interact with the NPCs, shine a little, and the scenario does go out of its way to spotlight each of the four pre-generated Player Characters, and there is also scope for players to roleplay as well. However, as an introduction to the new edition of Victoriana, the scenario in Victoriana: Going Underground is too limited and too linear—certainly to stand on its own as a memorable adventure. As the opening chapter or prequel to a fuller, deeper, and proper scenario, Victoriana: Going Underground is serviceable enough, but not much more.

Hexagonal Horror

Sun, 12/05/2021 - 09:00

Best Left Buried is a fantasy horror roleplaying game in which characters venture into the crypts and caves below the earth in search of secrets and treasures and there face unnameable monsters, weird environments, eldritch magic, and more… Whilst deep underground, they will be under constant stress, face fears hitherto unknown, and the likelihood is that they will return from the depths physically and mentally scarred, the strangeness they have seen and the wounds they have suffered separating them from those not so foolish as to descend into the dark. Published by Soul Muppet Publishing, one of the more accessible versions of the roleplaying game is Best Left Buried: The ZiniEdition or A Doom to Speak – The Crypt Collection 1: Rules because it presents its contents in discrete, self-contained chapters or ‘Zinis’. This includes an anthology too of fifteen mini-dungeons and mini-locales reduced to the ‘Zini’ format, just four pages per entry, many of which can be found in this A Doom To Speak Megabundle.

Released at DragonMeet 2021, A Garden Most Foul: A rot-choked fever-nightmare adventure for Best Left Buriedis the newest zini, another four-page pamphlet scenario. This takes the Player Characters into the Garden of the Demon Postulix, deep in the wilderness, part of an expedition led by Lord Amador Gregory to discover the Tree of Life and its miraculous fruit. It begins with the Player Characters, having been told that the Demon Postulix grants eternal life, standing at the entrance to a low tunnel which runs through the high hedge of thick thorns surrounding the garden. The inside consists of a mini-hexcrawl of a single hex containing seven smaller hexes. The terrain under foot and the general conditions is mostly foul—as the title promises—ranging from thick, boot-sucking mud to fields of jagged boulders which almost seem to want to bite passers-by. In between are landscapes which resemble acres of rolling slabs of muscle and fat, copses of trees from which hang strange pods, a fungus infested cave, abscesses containing hives of rotten insects, and freshly tilled fields sown with fragments of bone…

A Garden Most Foul is a relatively light mini-adventure and there is a sparseness to it—no surprise given its length. Nevertheless, it possesses a weird and disturbing atmosphere, which comes of its disparately themed hexes being mashed up against each other. The location is also sparsely populated, with just the one NPC, two singular monsters, and the one monster type. There is room too for the Game Master to expand the fungus infested cave, perhaps connecting it into any one of the fungal-themed and Mushroom Men populated adventures written for the Old School Renaissance. There are moments too when the Cryptdiggers will find themselves being hunted, likely leading to clash between a great abomination and the unwholesome beast it rides. The story though suffers from a paucity of plot and what there is perhaps a little too obvious. Plus the personalities involved are underwritten. On the plus side, this does mean that there is plenty of scope in the zini for the Game Master to expand and develop A Garden Most Foul where necessary, whether that is expanding the plot or adding an NPC or two—with there being room aplenty for both.

Physically, A Garden Most Foul is also fairly unpossessing. The only illustration is on the front cover and is that of the two singular monsters—an abomination and the beast it rides. It nicely captures the utterly unwholesome nature of both. The zini is well written and easy to grasp, so that the Game Master could prepare with very minimal preparation.

A Garden Most Foul is short, weird, and self-contained. All features which make it easy to run, with very little preparation time—though perhaps in terms of plot and personalities, if the Game Master has some time, then she should develop both. The minimal preparation time and the self-contained nature means that for Best Left Buried, it is incredibly easy to pick up and get to the table. It also means that it is easily dropped into any distant wilderness location and it can be just as easily adapted to the fantasy roleplaying game of the Game Master’s choice, especially ones which embrace the weird and the horrifying—for example, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay or Shadow of the Demon Lord. Simple and sparse, A Garden Most Foul: A rot-choked fever-nightmare adventure for Best Left Buried is ready to fill in a space when the Game Master needs it, or waiting for development to bring out little more personality and plot.

Bearfaced Horror

Sat, 12/04/2021 - 03:00

For fans of Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, the roleplaying game of investigative folklore horror set in nineteenth century Scandinavia, based on Vaesen: Spirits and Monsters of Scandinavian Folklore as collected and illustrated by Johan Egerkrans, there is just the one supplement supporting it—for the moment. However, for Vaesen and other titles from Free League Publishing, there is the Free League Workshop. Much like the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons, this is a platform for creators to publish and distribute their own original content, which means that they also have a space to showcase their creativity and their inventiveness, to do something different, but ultimately provide something which the Game Master can bring to the table and engage her players with. Such is the case with Unbearable.

Unbearable is written by one half of the hosts of the podcast, What Would Smart Party Do?—the other half designed King of Dungeons and presents an engaging and entertaining mystery with lots of Mats and puppies, plus a dilemma or two. It could easily be played in a single session, perhaps two at most, and would make a good option for a convention scenario just as it would for the Game Master’s own campaign.

In Vasen, the Player Chaarcters are members of the Society, which is based in Castle Gyllencreutz in the city of Upsala and which is dedicated to the study and understanding of the vaesen. Thus its members look for opportunities to investigative signs of Vaesen activity and so at the start of Unbearable, they find an interesting article in an issue of Fortean Times. This is a report about Alsen, described as the unluckiest village in Sweden, having recently been beset by a rash of inexplicable events. These include bear attacks, mystery fires, and disappearances to the point that it has gained a certain notoriety amongst tourists looking for a different sort of attraction. Notably though, the journalist for the Fortean Times who was reporting on the village has also gone missing. For the members of the Society, the question is, what exactly going on in Alsen and where is the missing journalist?

Unbearable is a classic ‘village in peril’ scenario and as such brings together some of its classic clichés. Thus we have a gossipy innkeeper’s wife who leaves him to do all the work, a drunken priest who is losing his faith and does not understand what is going on, and a useless mayoral figure, and nature itself which seems to be attacking anyone and everyone in Alsen, let alone the village itself. However, just because the scenario has an almost identikit structure, it does not mean that it is either a bad scenario or a poorly put together scenario. In fact, it is really quite an enjoyable scenario, with the Player Characters having to sort through or interact with the clichés in order to get to the truth of the matter—and the Game Master hamming up the old standards for she is worth! However, there is more to Unbearable than that, and diligent investigation will reward the Player Characters with a wealth of clues as to just not what is going on, but also how to stop it. This includes a great scene involving one or more Player Characters having to work the smithy at midnight under very ghostly light and all of them getting to the home of the local bear trapper who happens to have set all his traps out roundabout. All this is against a background of growing strangeness—fungus blooming the wooden foundations of buildings, bear attacks, wooden objects throughout the village sprouting leaves, the local vicar going off in a drunken fury, and more.

Ultimately, the Player Characters will have a showdown with the supernatural cause of the problems and deaths in Alsen, hopefully having gained an advantage or two from their enquiries in the village. The primary one presented in Unbearable is physical, and although options are discussed, the emphasis is firmly on the physical resolution. The options discussed cover more peaceful means of solving the scenario, but they are not explored in terms of game play, and that is a shame. The reasoning here is that the inhabitants of Alsen are going to want an end to the situation in the village and direct confrontation is the obvious means of achieving that, and it is a perfectly understandable motivation. However, players being players, they may not necessarily want to resort to a combative resolution, and so a more detailed discussion of the other options would have been useful for the Game Master.

Physically, Unbearable is cleanly laid out and easy to read. It comes with maps of Alsen and the surround area, as well as floor plans of the inn and the article from the Fortean Times as a handout. Both maps and handout are decently done. Also well done are the thumbnail portraits for the scenario’s eleven NPCs, such that it is a pity that the PDF does not come with a sheet with their names and portraits to show to the players. The artwork is also very nicely done and chosen.

There is a lot to recommend Unbearable. It is nicely presented, accessible, and self-contained scenario with a decent nature versus man plot and plenty of NPCs to interact with and clues to find. It is also easy to move to another location—though that location should have bears!—and easy to add to an ongoing campaign. Unfortunately, the lack of detail for other options for resolving the situation in Alsen means that it cannot be described as unbearably good. Which is disappointing, because if it did support those options it would have been worthy of that terrible pun. Nevertheless, Unbearable is solid scenario, offering a good mix of investigation and action.

Dee's Occult Half-Dozen

Fri, 12/03/2021 - 09:00

The Dee Sanction Adventures: A True & Faithful Transcription of Matters Concerning Lost Books, Strange Sorceries, Befouled Poppets, Accusations of Witchcraft, and Assorted HELLSCAPES is an anthology of adventures for The Dee Sanction, the roleplaying game of ‘Covert Enochian Intelligence’ in which the Player Characters—or Agents of Dee—are drawn into adventures in magick and politics across supernatural Tudor Europe. It collects a half-dozen adventures released as PDF titles for the original Kickstarter and subsequently funded by a second Kickstarter campaign for a print edition. All of these scenarios are set during the reign of Elizabeth I, beginning in the year 1570, when Pope Pius V excommunicates her for her heresy and her persecution of the Catholics In England and the Catholic conspiracies against her seem to run rampant. All six can be run in more or less any order, or alternatively, run as a six-part campaign. The Dee Sanction Adventures starts with advice to that end, but nevertheless, it does require some effort upon the part of the Game Master to make the connections and links between them and so have them form a whole campaign.

The anthology—and potentially the campaign—opens with ‘Window of the Soul’ and the agents out on the town for an evening’s entertainment in the drinking holes, brothels, and bear-baiting pits of Southwark. However, their revelries are interrupted when they come upon a cart driver, his wife, and their child under assault by a group of ruffians, hellbent on doing them harm. This could be a simple robbery, but they detect something arcane about the attackers. Are they cursed? Bewitched? Or something else? Clues lead them into the comings and doings of Southwark and ultimately to the highest echelons the conspiracy against good Queen Bess. This is solid start to the anthology with a strange piece of investigation and incidences of mania which seem to affect the Londoners and the Player Characters.

It is followed by ‘The Gong Scourer’s Baby’ in which Doctor Dee—or Mister Garland—asks his Agents to investigate the birth of a Miracle Baby to a Gong Farmer in Southwark. With both the Queen and Doctor Dee away for her health, the Agents make the strange discovery that there is something more to the baby than mere miracle. Tracking down the source of the child will take them along the Thames and into a maze of industry and perhaps hints as to a conspiracy against Her Majesty. ‘The Gong Scourer’s Baby’ requires some input upon the part of the Game Master to set up and a bit more complex, with multiple options to choose from and timeline which the Player Characters will initially be unaware of.

The set-up to the third scenario harks back to the Player Characters’ own recruitment working as Agents for Doctor Dee. ‘In Fertile Soil’ takes the Agents out of London to investigate a possible Witch—accused of witchcraft and murder, and perhaps recruit her as a fellow member of the Sanction (and if not that, then help administer justice). The village of Soulgrave is a hotbed of gossip, and hides plenty of secrets, all under the eye of a puritanical parson. There is potential here for one or two creepy encounters out in the woods, and for Game Master an intriguing nod to future history and perhaps a roleplaying game like the FLAMES OF FREEDOM Grim & Perilous RPG.

A larger, more obvious monstrous threat has been harrowing travellers passing through Waltham Forest and so represents a potential threat to one of the Queen’s favourite hunting grounds, which means it requires urgent investigation upon the part of the Agents. After all, who would want to arouse the ire of the Queen? In ‘In The Monk’s Cowl’, the Agents are again sent out of London, this time to the market town of Waltham Abbey where they discover strange activities around the ruins of the abbey. This is perhaps the most complex investigation in the anthology, mixed in with some Hammer Horror, with no quite clear path to finding a solution to the problem and potential for disaster.

‘The Harrowing of Harlow Hall’ is a bit of an oddity in The Dee Sanction Adventures. It is a single location of adventure, set within the grounds and rooms of Harlow Hall, the home to one of the few individuals to have earned his freedom from the Dee Sanction. Thus it feels much more like a dungeon than any other adventure. It is also a much darker adventure in terms of its tone and content, and so does come with a warning for its horrifying content. It feels initially little like Hammer Horror film, but ramps up the nastiness as the Agents explore the house. ‘The Harrowing of Harlow Hall’ comes fifth in the anthology, but could easily be shifted to earlier or later if The Dee Sanction Adventures are being run as a campaign. However, its darker, perhaps even apocalyptically oppressive atmosphere means it is better suited for later in the campaign, and even perhaps as the climax to such a campaign.

Lastly, the feel of the dungeon continues in ‘Ex Libris’, which takes place in Deptford village where Doctor Dee sends the Agents to recover a copy of The Book of Dead Names. However, as they investigate the house and its cellars, the Agents discover that they are not the only ones after the book. This sets up a direct confrontation with the cultists and adds an element of time to the scenario as the Agents and their adversaries race to find the book. Plus, depending upon when the Game Master runs the scenario, it can lead into further adventures if the Agents fail to obtain the book—which is a serious possibility.

Physically, The Dee Adventures is a short, full colour digest book. The anthology is well written and benefits from some decent handouts and maps. The artwork is variable in quality, at best decent rather than outstanding. All of the adventures are quite short and should take no more than two or three sessions to play through—some much shorter than that.

The Dee Sanction Adventures: A True & Faithful Transcription of Matters Concerning Lost Books, Strange Sorceries, Befouled Poppets, Accusations of Witchcraft, and Assorted HELLSCAPES delivers on all that its title states. This is a solid and diverse collection of adventures that will see the Agents of Dee facing a variety of threats and dangers, whether used separately, together as a campaign, or woven into the Game Master’s own campaign.

Alimentary Now

Fri, 12/03/2021 - 03:00

There is no dungeon as queasy, bilious, or tumorous than Genial Jack Vol. 2. It also throws in swollen tongued pestiferous thrushspawn, toxically affectionate amoeboids, a true vampire squid, and Dog-Nymph Skulla, the Swallowed Sea-Devil, along with Gutreavers, Tapeworm swarms, shivers of Septic Sharks, lost and swallowed cities, wrecks aplenty, and more—all in the longest, most linear dungeon possible and all in the strangest location possible. The location is ‘Genial Jack’, the Godwhale, a levianthine Blue Whale which for centuries has been home to the teeming town of Jackburg built across his thick skin and in his stomachs and deep into his intestines, much of it made up of the ships he has swallowed and those that have sailed into his maw and permanently moored inside of him. Jackburg is home to peoples and islands that the whale—the ‘Genial Jack’ of the title—has swallowed, from the Draugr to the Fomorians, and today it serves as a roaming free port, from which merchants sell the strange and exotic goods they have acquired in distant lands as well as the ambergris constantly formed deep in his gut. Yet beyond—or rather behind—the public spaces of Jackburg, lie ancient wonders of swollen cities and partially digested Jackburgs past, the Ambergris Consortia and its tight control of perhaps the most precious substance found within the Godwhale, Gutreavers ready to attack vessels travelling deep into Genial Jack—plundering cargo and enslaving passengers and crew, and a refuge for its outcasts, such as criminals who have fled the reach of the Whaleguard and Jacksblood-Addicts who find a way to slice at the intestinal walls and feed their addiction to the whale’s blood. All this whilst the Gutgardeners, combining druidic magic and ancient technoscience, labour to keep Genial Jack’s digestive microbiome as healthy as they can. Essentially, in presenting the ‘Entrails’, Genial Jack Vol. 2explores the Godwhale’s outback and hinterland...

Genial Jack Vol. 2, published by Lost Pages, continues the description of the Godwhale begun in Genial Jack Vol. I, a serialised setting of nautical weirdness and whimsy written for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, but with an Old School Renaissance sensibility and tone combined with elements of steampunk and grotpunk. Where the first issue introduced the setting of the Godwhale from its city of Jackburg to The Gutgardens at the bottom of the whale’s main stomach, and its varied inhabitants such as the drowned Draugar, the shapeshifting Finfolk, the crafters that are the Formorians, Jackburg’s literal underclass the Urchins, the mercantile Octopoids, the vicious shark-men Selachians, and more.

Genial Jack Vol. 2 begins with reasons for entering the Entrails—Jackburg University being willing to pay for artifacts found there, mounting an ambergris mining expedition, investigating the loss of workers for the Ambergris Consortia, collecting a bounty on Ericius, the Urchin assassin, and more. The Dungeon Master can easily mix and match—or mismatch—these or keep them separate to provide motivations for multiple expeditions into the back end of the Godwhale. Since the Player Characters will be mounting an expedition, they will need equipment, so the next stop is shopping, and so a fully illustrated list of items particular to expeditions into the Entrails is also given, like the Fumehound, a tiny dog with a superb sense of smell which will bark in the presence of ambergris, or Anglerfish Lanterns, consisting of glass globes containing an ugly fish which will provide a light if fed. The circle of Guntgardeners is also described, an alternative organisation of Druids dedicated keeping the Godwhale’s guts contracting and relaxing, along with its commonly taught spells. Then the natural perils of the Entrails are detailed—the stench, the slipperiness, miasmas, and a whole lot more. Make no mistake, the Entrails are literally a stomach churning, pulsating, pustulent environment and not for the faint hearted.

As well as a decent table of random encounters, Genial Jack Vol. 2 details some fourteen magical items and artifacts to be found in the Entrails, many of which form the basis of quests and sidequests once the Player Characters have begun interacting with the denizens of Genial Jack’s bowels. Some of them are highly entertaining, such as the skulk-marked Thanometer or Scavenger’s Compass, which detects the nearest dead humanoid; The Rude Shield, which has leering grotesque features and maintains an insulting running commentary on anything and everything it sees, and whilst it hinders attempts at stealth, it can cast Vicious Mockery; and The Bristling Blade, a boar-headed heavy scimitar which inflicts savage wounds out of which sprouts greasy bristles!

And then it is into the Entrails themselves, a tangled, colonic mass of the Small Intestine and the Large Intestine separated by Herniaheim. From the Duodenum Docks, the Player Characters will set out on a journey into darkness, their senses assaulted by musky, feculent, effluent, rotten, acrid, and bilious smells, and queasy sucking, whispering, rustling, and susurrating sounds. Every location begins by telling the Dungeon Master what her players can see, smell, and hear before presenting the people to be found and the perils faced. So at the Filthfalls, the Player Characters will hear the rushing sound of debris and effluence, smell a combination of raw sewage, rotten fish, and ripe flesh, and whilst they will not encounter anyone, the Player Characters must work to avoid the foul falls, though if they can lower themselves into the pool below, they may find some plunder! Halfway down, they will find Hernaheim, a protrusion of the intestinal walls in which sits a cannibal fortess-town, ruled over the for the moment, by the Corsair Queen, Amaranth ‘Falsebeard’ Leech’, until such times as she is killed a pretender to the throne in the annual battle to the death in the Orifice. This is a fighting pit with a central pool filled with septic sharks and other intestinal creatures, which can be crossed using the flimsy rope bridges. In Hernaheim, septic sharks are farmed for food by Canness Sharpnose and her heretical order of Sawtail Nuns dedicated to the Sharkfather, all manner of ghastly fun can be found in Slimeside, Hernaheim’s ‘oozing’ pleasure district, and a previous version of Jackburg, long swallowed by Genial Jack hides secrets amidst its infestation of Jacksblood addicts.

Beyond Hernaheim stretches the Large Intestine, home to a Narwhal Skeleton, the Swallowed Sea-Devil Shrine, and the Elder Ruins. These are perhaps the final destinations for any venture this far deep into Genial Jack, and will likely require the Player Characters to have made multiple journeys into the depths. Many of the locations come with encounters and NPCs which will often spur the Player Characters to travel further. This is all backed up with a Colonic Bestiary containing sixteen entries, like the Corsair Queen, Gutreavers, Jacksblood-Addicts, Septic Sharks, Skulla, the Swallowed Sea-Devil, and even a True Vampire Squid, the latter of which takes a two whole pages!

Physically, Genial Jack Vol. 2 is a content-packed, well-written A5-sized fanzine style publication. The dungeon is fantastically illustrated and mapped out in thematically squidgy and convoluted detail.

Unfortunately, Genial Jack Vol. 2 has a problem—or rather a perceived problems, and this is that the fact that it is written for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Which is not to everyone’s taste and further, they may reject Genial Jack Vol. 2 out of hand because of it. Now not only is that their problem rather than one with Genial Jack Vol. 2, but they would also be completely and utterly in the wrong and it would be their complete and utter loss were they to do so. Whether or not you dislike Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, the fact is, the tone and style of Genial Jack Vol. 2 is such that it feels an Old School Renaissance scenario. It places an emphasis on exploration and dungeoneering, and does so on an unforgiving environment with lots of nasty features and creatures lurking about. It also has a great sense of the unknown and of being far from acceptable society, with even the few outposts of civilisation being strange and alien. In terms of tone and content then, it would be relatively easy to the adapt the content of Genial Jack Vol. 2 to the retroclone of the Game Master’s choice, and to be honest, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition shares a lot of terminology with other roleplaying games. Further, Genial Jack Vol. 2 also has a ‘Grim & perilous’ feel to it, so a Game Master could run its scenario using Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay or even ZWEIHÄNDER, Grim & Perilous, although it would require a lot more adaptation than a mere retroclone of Dungeons & Dragons would.

Genial Jack Vol. 2 is a wonderfully thematic dungeon, but it really fully works as a counterpart to Genial Jack Vol. 1. Essentially, they complement each other. If you want a wholly original, but foul and fetid, tumorous and peristaltic, desperate and dangerous dungeon, then Genial Jack Vol. 2certainly delivers that, but together, Genial Jack Vol. 1 and Genial Jack Vol. 2 make up a fantastic grim and grimy ‘Whalepunk’ campaign.

Miskatonic Monday #88: The Orphanage

Mon, 11/29/2021 - 03:00

—oOo—

Name: The OrphanagePublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Rudy Peverada

Setting: Jazz Age Arkham

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Seventeen page, 3.28 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “Ohhh, won’t somebody please think of the children!”Plot Hook: Children are going missing from the Arkham State Orphanage, so why won’t the authorities take an interest?
Plot Support: Detailed location, four maps, twelve NPCs, and two Mythos creatures.
Production Values: Uneven.
Pros
# Self-contained investigation# Decent maps
# Possible addition to a Lovecraft Country campaign
# Easy to relocate to other times and places

Cons
# Challenging to involve the investigators
# Underwritten plot
# Requires a good edit
# Villain motivations underwritten

Conclusion
# Self-contained investigation# Underwritten plot and villain motivations
# Requires a good edit

A RuneQuest Starter

Sat, 11/27/2021 - 09:00

The starter set for any roleplaying game is always designed as an entry point into that game. It has to do three things. First, it has to introduce the game—its settings and its rules to both players and Game Master. Second, it has to showcase the setting, the rules, and how the game is played to both players and Game Master. Third, it has to intrigue and entice both players and Game Master to want to play more and explore the setting further. A good starter set, whether City of Mist: All-Seeing Eye Investigations Starter Set, the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set, or the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set will always do that, whereas a bad starter set, or even a mediocre starter set, such as the Sixth World Beginner Box for Shadowrun, Sixth Edition, will not. Whilst a starter set is always designed to introduce a roleplaying game, it has another function, depending upon when it is published. A starter set published as a roleplaying game’s first—or one of its first—releases introduces the game and setting to everyone. A starter set published later or deep into a line’s run, when there are multiple supplements and scenarios available as well as the core rulebook, is designed to introduce the game, but not to those who are already playing it. If there is content in its box that veteran players of the game and fans of the setting will enjoy and can bring to their game, then that is an added bonus. Ideally though, it is intended to introduce the game and setting to new players, at the time of its publication providing a means of getting into both when the range and number of books and supplements available might be daunting and there might not be an obvious point of entry to the propective player and purchaser. This is exactly what the RuneQuest Starter Set does for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha from Chaosium, Inc.

The RuneQuest Starter Set comes in a dense sturdy box which weighs two-and-a-half pounds! It designed to introduce new players and new Game Masters to RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha to that end includes all of the rules necessary to play the content in the RuneQuest Starter Set, provides an introduction to Glorantha and the area where the three scenarios it comes with are set, fourteen pre-generated adventurers, a sheaf of handouts and play aids, and a set of polyhedral dice. The latter come in an appropriately bronze colour since RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is a Broze Age roleplaying game, but whilst they both fetching and obvious as soon as you open the box, they are not the starting point for the RuneQuest Starter Set. No, that would be the cover sheet, which in turn yells out ‘Read Me First!’ and ‘What’s In This Box’ and ‘What’s Not In This Box’. The cover sheet—as with any good roleplaying box set of old, including a great many from Chaosium, Inc.—introduces the RuneQuest Starter Set, explains what it is and what its contents are. Less importantly, it does not cover character creation, equipment, advanced combat rules, becoming a Rune Master, Shamanism, Sorcery, or Sacred Time, and that is fine, since all of that can wait until the core rules for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. Instead, it contains the sixty-page Book 1: Rules, fifty-eight-page Book 2: The World of Glorantha, fifty-seven-page Book 3: SoloQuest, and eighty-one-page Book 4: Adventures, plus the aforementioned fourteen pre-generated Player Characters, two blank Adventurer Sheets, the Map of the Jonstown Area, the Map of Jonstown, and the Map of the Rainbow Mounds (all maps measure twenty-two by seventeen inches in size), two four-page RuneQuest Starter Set References handouts, Gloranthan Runes sheet, and a Strike Rank Tracker. This may seem like a lot—and it is, but this is a starter set and is designed to ease the player and the prospective Game Master into both Glorantha and RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha without overwhelming them as they delve deeper and deeper into the box.

Book 1: Rules does exactly what it says, explaining the core rules for RuneQuest: Roleplaying Game in an easy to understand fashion. In turn, it covers the dice and dice rolls, the core mechanics, the Resistance Table, time and movement, skills, experience, passions, Runes and how they work, combat, magic—both Rune and Spirit magic, and so on. Much of this will be obvious to veteran players, but this is a streamlined version, for example, the Fumble Table for very bad results in combat, is much shorter than that given in the core rules. Which makes sense since the variety is not really needed within the limits of the scenarios given. As well as explaining how magic works, Book 1: Rules also lists all of the spells—both Spirit magic and Rune magic—which appear in the adventures that appear in the RuneQuest Starter Set. Useful boxouts explain the difference between RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, how to survive combat, how Strike Ranks work, when you need healing, and more. One useful addition here, sadly missing from The Red Book of Magic, is made to each of the Rune spell entries, that of the cults which use that particular Rune spell. There are also two examples of play—one of roleplaying and one of combat—that help show how the game is played, both done as two-page spreads and both of which are drawn from scenes in the scenarios in Book 4: Adventures. Rounding out Book 1: Rules is a list of spot rules for easy access, whilst the centrefold of Book 1: Rules provides an ‘Adventurer Sheet Overview’, not just of one of the pre-generated Player Characters, but of Vasana, Farnan’s Daughter, the Player Character used in Book 3: SoloQuest. In effect this, like the two examples of play and the rest of Book 1: Rules, is preparing the player and Game Master alike to play and adventure in Glorantha.

Book 2: The World of Glorantha is the proper introduction to the setting of Glorantha. Of the four booklets in the RuneQuest Starter Set, it has the most dynamic cover illustration, depicting as it does Sartarites reacting in fear and shock to the rising of a dragon into the sky and coiling itself around the Red Moon. It is a fantastic image, depicting the very moment and reaction to the Earth and Moon-shaking event that prefigures the events which play out not just in the RuneQuest Starter Set, but also RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. Inside, Book 2: The World of Glorantha explains the nature of its setting, that it is an Age of Bronze in which magic is part of everyday life, kinship ties and temples play important roles in society, that everyone has loyalties and passions that will drive their actions, and that the influence of the Gods is felt through their associated Runes. It details all of the Runes and the cults which have a role in the RuneQuest Starter Set—whether in one of the scenarios or because one of the pre-generated Player Characters belongs to one of them, and it also explains what is sets Glorantha apart from other settings. This covers Heroes and Heroquesting (although further detail on this left for the core rulebook to explain), the importance of community and kinship, what drives and motivates characters to act—the Rune affinities and Passions, the lethal nature of combat, and more, before exploring the nature of the world. As with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, the emphasis is upon Dragon Pass and its immediate surrounds, and is accompanied by what is an incredibly attractive and readable map of Northern Sartar, essentially the region where the Player Characters will be adventuring, at least in the RuneQuest Starter Set. A short history given too, essentially to bring the reader up to date and ready to play the adventures.

The second half of Book 2: The World of Glorantha—in fact, more than half—focuses in on one setting, that of the City of Jonstown. This will be the base of operations for the adventurers and the central location for Book 4: Adventures. In comparison to the first half, this section is much more detailed and details the history of its founding by Sartar in ST 1480 and the establishment of its famous Jonstown Library in 1535, surrender to the Lunar Empire in 1602, through to 1625 and the Dragonrise, its besieging by the Sartar Free Army under Kallyr Starbrow, and the reestablishment of a free City Ring and thus local government in the wake of its capture. The city is described in some detail, including architecture, distribution of food, prominent religions, politics, along with write-ups and stats for the city’s notable figures and descriptions of the city’s various quarters. Jonstown itself is divided into an Upper City, built on the site of an old hill fort with the Lower City spread before and the two connected by a set of wide steps and a spiraling tunnel for carts and wagons. Again, there is a very nicely done three-dimensional map provided for the city, but the booklet goes a step in making use of that map. For the Upper City and each of the four quarters, the particular section of the map is blown up and included alongside the descriptions to make it easier for the Game Master to navigate her way around Jonstown. Lastly, there is a set of generic stats for the typical inhabitants of the city and each the notable locations around the city—which appear on the map of Northern Sartar is given a thumbnail description.

Book 3: SoloQuest is where the fun starts in the RuneQuest Starter Set. To play through the adventure in Book 3: SoloQuest, the player will also need to refer to Book 1: Rules and have two of the pre-generated Player Character folios to hand. One is that of Vasana, the character whom the player will be roleplaying, and that of Vostor, the Lunar Tashite warrior, who where necessary will stand in for the other Lunar warriors she will face in the course of the adventure. As the title suggests, the adventure takes the form of a SoloQuest (something which RuneQuest has not had since the publication of SoloQuest 1, SoloQuest 2: Scorpion Hall, and SoloQuest 3: The Snow King’s Bride, all in 1982, and available collectively, here) in which Vasana takes part in the Battle of Dangerford, at which Sartarite and allied forces mount a defence of the village against an incursion by Lunar forces. The adventure gives her time to prepare before the battle, take part in multiple sorties, and more. The adventure makes great use of not just Vasana’s martial skills, but also her Passions, and often they will drive her to act in unexpected ways. As well as the Experience Checks gained through successful skill or Passion use, the player gains points towards Vasana’s Battle Result Total, which at the end of the battle is used to determine both the outcome of the battle and her role in it. With two hundred entries, it is likely that the adventure can be played through more than once, to explore all of the options, and although the scenario is specifically written with the character Vasana in mind, it should be possible to play using the other martial characters from the fourteen given in the RuneQuest Starter Set.

The fun continues with Book 4: Adventures. This contains three adventures, each of differing nature and complexity, and designed to ease the Game Master into running RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. Its cover sets the tone, depicting the Player Characters arriving at the walled city of Jonstown (described in Book 2: The World of Glorantha) after surviving the Battle of Dangerford (as adventured in Book 3: SoloQuest). The three adventures are ‘A Rough Landing’, ‘A Fire in the Darkness’, and ‘The Rainbow Mounds’, and they can be played in any order, but ‘A Rough Landing’ is designed to bring the adventurers into the city and get them involved in its affairs, so should ideally played first. It is also intended to be played after the adventure in Book 3: SoloQuest, so any number of players could have run their characters through that before coming to the table to roleplay together. None of them are overly challenging to run, each of them having quite straightforward plots, which whilst different in each case, means that they should not overwhelm either the first time Game Master or players. This does not mean that veteran players will find them simplistic as they do make good use of the background—especially recent events in the case of ‘A Fire in the Darkness’ and they are genuinely fun to play. The first scenario, ‘A Rough Landing’ is the most straightforward, the adventurers arriving in Jonstown and finding themselves quickly involved in a brawl that will bring them to the notice of the city authorities. It sounds almost like a cliché, but it does not take place in a bar and there are lots of ways in which it can go, which the authors take the time to discuss. Once they have come to the attention of the authorities, the adventurers will be called upon to perform the first of several tasks and missions, which is to check on a settlement to the west which has not been heard from in a few days. It is a nasty twist upon the ‘village in peril’ set-up and primarily involves action and combat, but there are opportunities for the Game Master to make the situation a little creepy too.

If ‘A Rough Landing’ involved combat and action, then ‘A Fire in the Darkness’ is an investigation scenario. A rash of fires has broken out across Jonstown and everyone is on edge because they fear both arson and the possibility that any future fire cannot be contained and might spread across the city, raising parts of it to the ground. Like any investigation, this is quite detailed, involves a fair number of NPCs, and some clues to sort through and try and work out what is going on. Of course, there is more to mystery and the fires than meets the eye, but with care, some stealth in places, and even some diplomacy, the adventurers should be able to learn what is going on. This is a nicely done investigation which should take several sessions to play out and which should prove interesting to play depending upon the Player Characters’ Passions and the cults they belong to.

The third and longest scenario is ‘The Rainbow Mounds’ and is a throwback to the scenario of the same name which appeared in the supplement, Apple Lane. Originally published in 1978, the two scenarios in Apple Lane would for very many years be the first scenarios that many RuneQuest groups played and it is lovely to see it updated here. Recently, the hamlet of Apple Lane has been beset by raids by bandits of the Troll and Newtling kind, and one of the local farmers recognises the Troll attackers at least as similar to those who abducted him when he was a child. The Player Characters are hired as mercenaries to investigate and if possible, put an end to the attacks. What follows is the equivalent of a dungeon, Gloranthan style, but a network of caves rather than a worked network of corridors and rooms, and with a strong emphasis upon its different factions and their loyalties. As a ‘dungeon’ there is plenty of opportunity for exploration and there are some quite nasty encounters—even those not necessarily attached to the adventure’s main plot, but players who approach it as a dungeon are likely to come away disappointed. There are plots and plots in motion in the Rainbow Mounds, and whilst there are plenty of opportunities to fight, including some really quite big fights, approaching the cave complex and its inhabitants in a combative stance may not always be the best approach.

As the longest and most complex scenario in the RuneQuest Starter Set, ‘The Rainbow Mounds’ will provide multiple sessions’ worth of play. However the fact that it involves the Rainbow Mounds throws up a couple of wrinkles which will not necessarily be obvious to anyone new to RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. It is noted that the scenario is an updated version with some major changes and it does not follow the same plot as the previous version, although in places there are lots of similarities. So players whose characters have adventured here before will still enjoy it. The other issue is that as written in the introduction, the hamlet of Apple Lane does not have a Thane. If that is the case, then if the Player Characters are successful in dealing with the problems of the bandits from the caves, the situation is ripe for the Game Master to make the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack her next purchase and run the adventures contained within. However, what if the Game Master has already run the adventures in the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack and one of the Player Characters is Thane? The Game Master may need to make some adjustments to the beginning of the scenario as it is not addressed here. Those issues aside, the scenarios in Book 4: Adventures and thus the RuneQuest Starter Set are really very good, engaging and fun, whilst drawing the players and their characters into the setting.

And penultimately, the RuneQuest Starter Set comes with not six as you would expect and as appeared in The Broken Tower—the quick-start for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha—but fourteen pre-generated adventurers. All of them come in folio form, with a full-page illustration of the Player Character on the front—including mount or other animal or elemental companion, and the character’s Rune affinities, background, and guide on how to play them on the back. The back splits open to show the character sheet, with statistics and attacks on the left-hand panel, skills and passions in the middle, and magic on the right-hand panel. Spread across an A3-size sheet rather than both sides of an A4-size sheet, the format is very readable. There are a couple of blank sheets in the box too, but hopefully they will be available in general as well. The given pregenerated adventurers include Vasana, of course, ready to play the solo adventure in Book 3: SoloQuest, but also Yanioth, the Assistant Priestess of Ernalda, Harmast the merchant, Vishi Dunn the shaman, Vostor the Lunar Tarshite soldier and Seven Mothers initiate, Sorala, the Lhankor Mhy initiate, and Nathem, the hunter and Odayla initiate. Together, these seven will be familiar from The Broken Tower and the RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha rulebook. However, they are joined by initiates of Babeester Gor, Yelmalio, Maran Gor, Storm Bull, Chalana Arroy, Eurmal, and Humakt, essentially giving the players a wider choice what they play for the scenarios in the RuneQuest Starter Set, as well as providing replacement characters as necessary.

Lastly, the RuneQuest Starter Set includes two map sheets, two four-page RuneQuest Starter Set References handouts, and a Strike Rank Tracker. The map sheets are double-sided. One depicts the Rainbow Mounds from the scenario in Book 4: Adventures, one side marked up with location names, the other without, whilst the other sheet has a map of Jonstown on one side and a map of Northern Sartar on the other. Both of the latter are exceptional pieces of cartography. Plus the actual backs of the four booklets in the RuneQuest Starter Set form the map of Northern Sartar, which again, is another nice touch. The RuneQuest Starter Set References handouts—two of them, so one for the Game Master and one for the players, collates the most useful tables in the game. The Gloranthan Runes sheet simply lists all of the common Runes which appear in the game and the Strike Rank Tracker shows the twelve Strike Ranks of a round on the outside of the sheet with the modifiers in the middle. Clear and easy to read, it is so obviously useful that it will have groups playing RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha wishing they had had it from the start.

Physically, there is no denying the impact and physical presence of the RuneQuest Starter Set. There is a lot in the box, but there are a couple of issues with it. One is that it does need a slight edit in places, but the other is that parts of it feel fragile. None of the set’s four booklets have card covers. And whilst the maps and the Strike Rank Tracker are done on stiff paper stock or card, the RuneQuest Starter Set References handouts are not. So even as you hold them in your hand, there is the feeling that they will not withstand a great deal of handling. This though, is the most—and the only—disappointing aspect to the RuneQuest Starter Set. Otherwise, the contents of the RuneQuest Starter Set are well written, engagingly presented, and supported with some great artwork and some superb cartography. Even physically, the RuneQuest Starter Set is simply good value, let alone the amount of play a gaming group is likely to get out of it.

Now of course, veteran players and Game Masters of RuneQuest and of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha are going to find much that is familiar in the RuneQuest Starter Set, especially in terms of the rules and the background. What is in it for them though, is the background on Jonstown and the opportunity to expand the details of northern Sartar in the wake of the Dragonrise, the opportunity to play a solo adventure which throws them into recent events, for the Game Master to play rather than run with the solo adventure, and then for everyone to play the three new adventures, and make use of the maps and references. The ‘Rainbow Mounds’ adventure will probably bring back memories for veterans of a certain age anyway and the chance to revisit something again is always fun.

If there was any danger of being overwhelmed by the RuneQuest Starter Set, it would be by the amount of things in the box, not the actual content. The RuneQuest Starter Set really does give the prospective Game Master and her players everything they need to start playing RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha—background, rules, dice, a solo adventure with which to learn to play, multiple, lengthy, and engaging adventures, and gorgeous, gorgeous maps that just make want to look at them and have your character want to visit each and every location just because it is on these maps. Yet by breaking everything down into the four books, the RuneQuest Starter Set never threatens to overwhelm, easing them into the world and the game step-by-step, deeper and deeper they go into the box until they have learned about the world and are involved in the solo adventure and wanting more with the proper adventures. And the three adventures will deliver that and multiple sessions of play. The RuneQuest Starter Set is the perfect introduction to RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha that both the roleplaying game and setting have long deserved and it really does set a standard by which other starter sets are going to be measured. Chaosium did that already with the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set, now it has done it again with the RuneQuest Starter Set.

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A full Unboxing in the Nook video of the RuneQuest Starter Set can be found here.