The Woodland is a vast stretch of thick, deep forest, rich with resources and cut with paths which connect the clearings scattered across its far reaches. Here are found the town, cities, and villages where the denizens of the Woodland live on the edge of the dangerous wilds that stretch deep into the forest. In recent times, the Woodland has been controlled by the Eyrie Dynasties, consecutive conservative regimes led by the birds of the region, but their power was disrupted by the Grand Civil War. This left the Woodland in ruins, but freed many of its denizens from the control of their avian overlords as much as it left much work to do in terms of rebuilding. However, this period, known as the Interbellum, left the Woodlands ripe for invasion, and it was a noble from the Le Monde de cat, the Marquise de Cat, who took advantage of its fractured state. First the Marquise de Cat’s forces helped restore the Woodlands and then industrialise it, building sawmills, workshops, and irrigation. Then it became occupation with the imposition of taxes and stationing cat soldiery. In response some denizens fled to the recovering Eyrie Dynasties, which returned to stop the invaders, but others joined the Woodland Alliance. This arose as hostilities broke out between the Eyrie Dynasties and the Marquisate of the Marquise de Cat, wanting to be free of either occupation. Even as war swirls back and forth through the Woodlands, other denizens slip from clearing to clearing, taking on the odd, dangerous job that inhabitants of the clearings will not do, serving one faction or another, sometimes doing good, other times, causing trouble. They are miscreants, outcasts, rebels, mercenaries, vigilantes, and more. All though are known as Vagabonds, regarded as occasionally useful, but all too often a nuisance.

This is the setting for Root: The Roleplaying Game. Published by Magpie Games following a successful Kickstartercampaign,it is based on Root: A Game of Woodland Might And Right, the anthropomorphic asymmetrical boardgame from Leder Games, lauded for both its design and its game play as well as its fantastic artwork. In the board game, the Eyrie Dynasties, Marquise de Cat, and the Woodland Alliance are the primary factions, whilst the fourth, the Vagabond, either disrupted or aided the efforts of the others. In the board game, there was just the one Vagabond, but in the roleplaying game there are many, and they are the Player Characters in Root: The Roleplaying Game. They may be diplomatic Adventurers, stalwart Arbiters, slippery Harriers, Woodland-wise Rangers, wilful Ronin, dangerous but lucky Scoundrels, cunning Thieves, clever Tinkers, and charming Vagrants, but all are Vagabonds. They have bonded together in a band, but for how long?

Root: The Roleplaying Game is not a traditional roleplaying game, since it employs the Powered by the Apocalypse framework, first see in2010’s Apocalypse World, around which its Player Character or Vagabond types, called Playbooks, and the Moves—or actions—they can undertake. Both Player Character types and Moves enforce both the setting and genre of Root: The Roleplaying Game, and the narratives or stories which can be told. In terms of Vagabond types and thus Playbooks, this is primarily done via a Vagabond’s Nature and Drives. Fulfilling either of the Nature and Drives rewards the player and his character, pushing the player to roleplay in particular ways. For example, with the Dutiful Nature, the Arbiter will clear his Exhaustion Track when he takes on a dangerous or difficult task for someone else, whilst he will gain an Advancement (the chance to improve the character) with the Discovery Dive when he encounters a new wonder or ruin in the forest. In terms of Moves, when the Harrier uses the ‘Smuggler’s Path’ Move, he will always find a secret path or door if the location should have one, but depending upon the roll made, he will not only find the secret path, but he will also find something useful to him along the path or even find it being used by someone else. This develops and pushes the narrative along, because throughout, a player is rolling the dice to determine what happens, rather than if it does or does not happen.

There are eight Basic Moves available to all Vagabonds—‘Attempt Roguish Feat’, ‘Figure Someone Out’, ’Persuade an NPC’, ‘Read a Tense Situation’, ‘Trick an NPC’, ‘Trust Fate’, Wreck Something’, and ‘Help or Interfere’. There are other types of Moves, such as Weapon Moves for combat and Session Moves for end of play actions, but for the most part, the Vagabonds will be making the Basic Moves. These are in the main, self-explanatory, but two stand out as different to the others. ‘Attempt a Roguish Feat’ actually consists of eight separate Feats, Acrobatics, Blindside, Counterfeit, Disable Device, Hide, Pick Lock, Pickpocket, Sleight of Hand, and Sneak. Typically, a Vagabond will have two of them, but again they roguish nature of the Vagabonds and thus the genre of Root: The Roleplaying Game. The other is ‘Trust Fate’, which covers anything a Vagabond might do when all else fails or he has no other option or the situation is just too desperate. However, this always comes at accost or complication because it is always a last resort, and ideally the player should be making one of the Basic Moves or one of their Vagabond’s in order to avoid that definite complication.

Mechanically, Root: The Roleplaying Game is designed to be player facing. When a player has his Vagabond make a Move, he selects a Move and rolls two six-sided dice, adding the appropriate stat to the result. If the player rolls seven or more, it is a ‘Hit’ and the Vagabond gets the desired result, but with a complication. If he rolls ten or more, it is a ‘strong hit ‘and the Vagabond gets everything he wants and potentially an extra bonus. However, if he rolls six or less, it is a ‘Miss’ and the Game Master instead gets to decide what happens. Some Moves add one-off bonuses to a Vagabond’s stats, whilst others generate continuing effects. For example, the Ronin’s ‘Well-Mannered ‘Move which is made when the Ronin enters a social situation where manners and etiquette matter, and generates points which a player can hold. Called Hold, these can be used to cover up a social faux pas made by the Vagabond or an ally, to call out someone else’s social faux, to charm someone, and to demonstrate his value. If the result is a Miss, the rules of etiquette are so different that you commit a grave breach of manners! All of these come with mechanical effects too. Any Move though, requires a trigger, essentially the player roleplaying his Vagabond’s actions or response, after which it happens.

The mechanics of Root: The Roleplaying Game handle the effects of danger and damage through Harm. Harm is divided into several tracks—Depletion, Exhaustion, Injury, Morale, and Wear—which are filled up as a Vagabond suffers Harm, ultimately leading to an unfortunate outcome if any of them are all filled in. Depletion represents a Vagabond’s general funds and assorted goods and supplies, and its track is filled in as a Vagabond pulls piece of useful equipment from one of his many pouches and pockets, which can be done retrospectively rather the player noting everything down that his Vagabond has on the sheet. In other words, Root: The Roleplaying Game is not a roleplaying game about shopping. Exhaustion represents a Vagabond’s energy and inner strength, and its track is filled in when he gets tired or he suffers a social slight. Depletion, Exhaustion, and Injury are the primary tracks a player will fill in for his Vagabond. Wear is a track for the durability of a piece of equipment and the equipment belonging to an NPC, whilst Morale is the track for an NPC’s commitment to his drives and beliefs.

A Vagabond also has another set of tracks. These are Reputation tracks, representing how well he is known by each of the factions in the Woodland, either his Notoriety or his Prestige. It is easier to gain Notoriety than it is Prestige, which works up to a point. However, its implementation is not clearly handled as the track really only tracks the positive gain when a Vagabond has Prestige and the negative loss when he has Notoriety, and effectively not when he loses either. This is made that little bit more complex because the Woodland has more than the four factions in the core rulebook. These are detailed in the supplement, Travelers & Outsiders, and if they come into play, they exacerbate the complexity of what the player has to keep track of, because this system is not intuitive.

Character or Vagabond creation in Root: The Roleplaying Game a matter of choosing one of its nine Playbooks. These are highly defined, in terms of species, demeanour, details, Nature, Drives, Connections, Weapons kills, and Background Questions. Species, demeanour, and details do not have any mechanical benefit whereas Drives and Nature, of which the Vagabond has to choose two and one respectively. When a Vagabond fulfils the terms of his Nature, he can clear his Exhaustion track, and gains an Advancement when he fulfils terms of his Drive. A Vagabond has a connection to a partner and a friend, both of which are with fellow Vagabonds, and five stats—Charm, Cunning, Finesse, Luck, and Might. These range in value between -1 and +3, but initially between -1 and +2. A Playbook has six Moves of which a player initially selects three. Each Playbook contains notes further explaining how the Moves work.

From the outset, the process of creating a Vagabond is intended to be collaborative. The players can only have one of each Playbook in play, that is, a band of Vagabonds cannot consist of two Rangers. The collaborative nature continues and is enforced with the players choosing the Connections between their Vagabonds. It continues in play as well, first and foremost because everyone—including the Game Master—is playing to find out what happens, and to facilitate this, the Game Master is advised not codify ahead of play. Instead, she creates Clearings with interesting NPC denizens and general conflicts and issues rather than ready-to-play plots. Root: The Roleplaying Game includes a set of tables to help her design her first set of twelve Clearings, including their denizens, the paths between the Clearings (which themselves can often be difficult and dangerous to travel), and which faction controls each Clearing. Since this is done randomly, the resulting Woodland will differ from that created by another Game Master and had there been a pre-written set of twelve Clearings proscribed by the authors of Root: The Roleplaying Game, it would have differed from that too. This also explains the general nature of the background given to the Woodland in Root: The Roleplaying Game—this is the Game Master’s Woodland, not the publisher’s, but it does come with an example Clearing called ‘Gelilah’s Grove’. This showcases the concept of the Clearing in practice and consists of a description, its conflicts and issues, and a few NPCs. Notably, at the end of the description for each conflict or issue, it states what happens if the Vagabonds do not get involved. So either way, if the Vagabonds get involved or not, the situation in Gelilah’s Grove will change, leading to a sense of things and events developing and changing across the Woodland.

For the Game Master, there is a fair amount to learn in order to run Root: The Roleplaying Game. Primarily, this consists of really learning how the game’s many Moves work. The likelihood is that on initial play, the Game Master will find herself flipping and forth to remind herself how each Move works as it comes upon play. Once past that, the advice for the Game Master is decent and the bookies rife with detailed and useful examples and explanations.

One of the moments of brilliance in Root: The Roleplaying Game is not necessarily the rules or the setting—though there is no denying that they are good, but the introduction to roleplaying. This eschews the traditional method which often has barely moved on from describing roleplaying as being like playing cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians when you were acid, to instead talk about what it calls ‘The Fundamentals’. This takes right back to basics in describing it as a conversation between the players and the players and the Game Master before building on this. So framing scenes and answering that age old question of “What do you do?” to handling the roleplaying game’s Moves and the uncertainty that involves, and beyond to Root: The Roleplaying Game being a shared experience and explaining what to expect and focus on in play. It ends by giving multiple answers to the question, “Why Play?”. There is such a core simplicity to the advice and guidance that it puts just every other roleplaying game to shame. This is one of the clearest, most elegant introductions to roleplaying in almost fifty years of the hobby and not only should the authors be commended for it, but the publisher should also make a generic version available to everyone. Otherwise, ‘The Fundamentals’ chapter is particularly helpful for players of Root: A Game of Woodland Might And Right wanting to make the shift to roleplaying and continue exploring the Woodland.

Physically, Root: The Roleplaying Game is a charming digest-sized book illustrated with the bright autumnal colours seen in Root: A Game of Woodland Might And Right. The book is well written and an engaging read. Theatre is of course fantastic, although there is arguably not enough of it.

Root: The Roleplaying Game is not a roleplaying game about heroes in a time of war, although it could be. If not heroes though, the Vagabonds are still protagonists, mercenaries, ne’er-do-wells, rogues, and more (until they decide to leave the band and retire, becoming an NPC) who in slipping from one Clearing to another and between one faction and another, perhaps taking advantage of the chaos and uncertainty, have the opportunity to influence and change the Woodland. Sometimes for good, sometimes for ill. This mood and sense of uncertainty, as well as the less than heroic nature of the Vagabonds, very much makes Root: The Roleplaying Game feel different to the traditional and often twee and quaint anthropomorphic depiction of woodland creatures.

Root: The Roleplaying Game is an engaging and attractive book whose rules encourage strong collaborative storytelling and roleplaying, and to not only explore the Woodland, its dangers and its issues, but also to change it and make it something shared between the players and the Game Master.
—oOo—


Magpie Games will be at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, June 3rd to Sunday, June 5th, 2022.

Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury is a supplement designed for Metamorphosis Alpha: Fantastic Role-Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventures on a Lost Starship. The first Science Fiction roleplaying game and the first post-apocalypse roleplaying game, Metamorphosis Alpha is set aboard the Starship Warden, a generation spaceship which has suffered an unknown catastrophic event which killed the crew and most of the million or so colonists and left the ship irradiated and many of the survivors and the flora and fauna aboard mutated. Some three centuries later, as Humans, Mutated Humans, Mutated Animals, and Mutated Plants, the Player Characters, knowing nothing of their captive universe, would leave their village to explore strange realm around them, wielding fantastic mutant powers and discovering how to wield fantastic devices of the gods and the ancients that is technology, ultimately learn of their enclosed world. Originally published in 1976, it would go on to influence a whole genre of roleplaying games, starting with Gamma World, right down to Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic from Goodman Games. And it would be Goodman Games which brought the roleplaying game back with the stunning Metamorphosis Alpha Collector’s Edition in 2016, and support the forty-year old roleplaying game with a number of supplements, many which would be collected in the ‘Metamorphosis Alpha Treasure Chest’.

Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury is written by James M. Ward, the designer of Metamorphosis Alpha and simply gives descriptions of over one hundred and fifty weapons and armour. It also reveals a minor secret—or three—about the Starship Warden and the way it was stocked prior to it leaving the Earth. It is well known that as well as stocking the vast generational ship with assorted supplies and devices to ensure that the crew and their passengers would survive the long interstellar journey, the Starship Warden had whole cargo holds filled with everything necessary to help the colonists set up their new home on the destination planet. The colonisation was entirely peaceful and civilian-led, but what is not known is that a pair of secret holds were filled with powerful military weapons by Earth’s military. The locations of these secret caches are known only to the military command back on Earth and to the military commanders assigned to the Starship Warden. Like other high-ranking members of the ship’s crew, they remain in hibernation, their cryrogenic pods also hidden. Yet despite the locations of these caches remaining hidden, this does not mean that they cannot be found, and what happens if others find either cache before the Player Characters? What if a rival band of mutants found them and start attacking the Player Characters and their allies in their powerful suits of armour, wielding deadly weapons they have never seen before? Or robotic dogs and serpents that rampage across a deck? Well, either the Player Characters have to stop them, find their source, or steal them all for themselves—if not all three!

Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury details the content of both caches. In the Secret Military Armoury Cache can be found four types of weapons. These are Bio-Heavy guns, Gamma guns, Kinetic guns, and Plasma guns. They all include grenades, pistols, rifles, throwers, blasters, and artillery. The Bio-Heavy guns fire spheres of bio-material, which when it explodes paralyses and then kills anyone who breaths it in or is touched by it; Gamma guns fire spheres of radiation; Kinetic weapons fire pellets at high velocity; and the Plasma guns, balls of well, plasma. This is a somewhat underwhelming start to the supplement, the weapons being deadly if not all that inspiring and possessing a similar feel. How some of them are fired is slightly more interesting, such as the helmet which has to be worn to fire the Gamma Blaster. Similarly, the suits of mobile armour are not that interesting, although the inclusion of various types of drone provides more of a contemporary feel.

Fortunately, the contents of the Colonisation Weapons & Armour Cache is where Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury gets interesting. Especially with the list of non-lethal weapons, because here the designer really has to get inventive. For example, the ‘Anti-Energy Sparkle Dust’ is thrown in the air and negates energy rays and blasts; ‘Battle Gloves’ let the wearer handle energy, radiation, and poison safely, and even provides a pressure-based force field for protection in space or the deepest of oceans; ‘Electric Bolos’ stun targets; ‘Slippery Marbles’ create uneven surfaces; the Blind Pistol’ fires pellets of manganese which explode blind targets; and ‘Tagging Pistols’ fire darts which can be tracked from a thousand miles away. There are lethal weapons, such as lasers and slug throwers, and even caltrops, but again not all that interesting. More fun perhaps will be had with the Player Characters attempting to figure out what the various types of grenades, from Slippery Grenades to Sticky Mist Grenades, and various types of claymore mines, from Freeze to Nano-Cutter versions, can be found in the cache. The Colonisation Weapons & Armour Cache also contains explosives and battle armour, as well as a selection of droids, such as the battering Droid, used for well, battering, and vehicles all the way up to a Force Sphere, which can transport forty troopers into space or the deep ocean whilst providing plenty of protection.  The Special Colonisation Equipment includes a very useful Emergency Hip Container, essentially a survival kit, and a bit with a robot dog.
All of the entries in Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury include a short description and ratings for damage, Armour Class, and Weapon Class as necessary. They also include an ICR or Item Complexity Rating to indicate how difficult an item is to understand. The tables explaining these ratings are reprinted from Metamorphosis Alpha, whilst the tables at the back of the supplement combine their rating with an index. All nicely done in one.

Physically, Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury is cleanly presented. The illustrations are decent, but the writing is sparse in places.

In a roleplaying game like Metamorphosis Alpha where there no Classes or Levels, and the only way in which the Player Characters get more powerful is through acquiring more mutant abilities or bigger and better weapons and armour, there is always going to be a call for a supplement such as Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury. So there is no denying that the supplement is useful, although it does mean that the Player Characters may be capable of dealing out huge amounts of damage whilst wearing armour cable withstanding similar amounts, ultimately upping the scale at which combat takes place. So this may well be a supplement for later in a campaign when the Player Characters are ready to face bigger and deadlier threats.

—oOo—


Goodman Games will be at Gen Con 20220 which takes place from Thursday, August 4th to Sunday, August 7th, 2022.

There have always been encounters in roleplaying because fundamentally, roleplaying is built on encounters, and the most fun has come from great encounters and their outcome and the roleplaying which comes from them. Yet coming up with interesting, involving, or even challenging encounters can hinder the most creative of Game Masters. So it is no surprise that the industry has fulfilled this need all the way back to books such as Dungeons & Dragons Monster & Treasure Assortment Set One: Levels One-Three, published by TSR, Inc. in 1977 and Traveller Supplement 6: 76 Patrons, published in in 1980 by GDW. This need has never gone away, with roleplaying genres such as fantasy, horror, and fantasy, along with specific roleplaying games and settings all being treated to their supplements of encounters, personalities, and places. In each book, each of their encounters can obviously be run as written, but each can also be adapted to fit the Game Master’s campaign, or even simply serve as inspiration. One of the latest entries to join this long list of supplements is Untold Encounters of the Random Kind.

Untold Encounters of the Random Kind is published by Loke BattleMats, a publisher best known for its maps for roleplaying games, such as The Towns & Taverns Books of Battle Mats, The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats, and The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats. Untold Encounters of the Random Kind promises over a thousand random encounters, much like the ‘Books of Battle Mats’ series across towns, wildernesses, and dungeons, as well as adventure generators, random tables, and more. The latter includes six sample adventures.

Untold Encounters of the Random Kind is designed to be compatible with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. However, it is not actually a Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition supplement and there are no Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition stats or content in the supplement. Instead it uses Keywords across seven categories—Mechanics, Damage, Difficulty, Challenge, Enemy Types, Group Sizes, and NPC Types. So for example, Damage which can be inflicted by an attack, a trap, a spell, an environmental effect, and so on, is listed as Minor, Light, Major, and Lethal, whilst the Difficulty of a task is listed as Simple, Routine, Difficult, Very Difficult, or Near Impossible. All of these are easily adapted to the fantasy roleplaying game of the Game Master’s choice, whilst the ‘5E Mechanics’ section suggests how the supplement’s Keywords can be translated into Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. This is via Keywords, primarily the Keywords for Damage, Difficulty, and Challenge—the latter to Challenge Rating, and together it amounts to just two pages. In a supplement which is over three hundred pages long… The point is that Untold Encounters of the Random Kind is just as easy to use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition as it is with the retroclone of the Game Master’s choice, be it Old School Essentials, Swords & Wizardry, or Labyrinth Lord. In other words, Untold Encounters of the Random Kind is very much Old School Renaissance compatible.

Untold Encounters of the Random Kind is tidily organised into its three sections covering town, wilderness, and dungeon encounters. Each section begins with an overview of the nature of the location type, terrain, district, or encounter types (so cemeteries, docks, and noble quarters for towns, arctic, forests, and sea and shore for wildernesses, and dungeon doors, enemies, and intrigue for dungeons), advice on using the encounters, as well as information particular to the section. Thus for Town Encounters there notes on town dignitaries, wilderness and dungeon crossovers, townsfolk, types of town, and how to create non-human towns. For the different types of wilderness, there is guidance on the weather, visibility, geography, and travel and survival, whilst for dungeons there is advice on traps, denizens, building dungeons, crossovers, and more. None of these entries is accorded more than a few short paragraphs, and arguably, any one of them is likely worth an essay or two of their very own. As a starting point though, the advice in Untold Encounters of the Random Kind is solid throughout.

None of the advice in each section is more than three pages in length before Untold Encounters of the Random Kind delves into its encounters. There are more than fifty entries in each of these tables and each one is expanded upon with a full description. These are given alphabetically following all of the tables. There is a degree of repetition here, for example, the ‘Abandoned Cart’ encounter, found with signs of something heavy having been dragged from it, can be found in the Castle Ward, Guild Quarter, High Street, Lanes, and Noble Quarter, but for most part the encounters are confined to one area or district. For example, the ‘Jury’ is only found in the Noble Quarter and a ‘Hollow Tree’ is found in the Forest. Some entries add flavour and feel, such as ‘Fantastic Music’, the wind whistling through past them sounds so happy as they trek across the Arctic region that the spirits of the Player Characters are uplifted, whilst on the Sea & Shore, the heavy salt content in the water and the air matts hair giving the Player Characters odd hairdos. It also affects fur coats. Boons may also be found in be the wilderness and dungeons, such as a ‘Coin Stash’ or ‘Mechanical Oddity’ with an as yet unfathomable purpose, and a dungeon or ‘Ring of the Lost’ which provides protection and a strange effect on compasses and ‘Salvage Onshore’ of valuable trade goods, similarly both found, though in the wilderness. Wilderness boons consist of coins and valuables, survival and supply caches, and even ores and gems. Similarly, dungeon boons consist of coins and other valuables, but also can be clues and of course, magical items. In both cases of wilderness and dungeon boons there is advice on how to include them and their potential story ramifications.

In comparison to the earlier sections of town and wilderness encounters, the dungeon encounter section goes into a bit more detail. There are tables here for location and back story, plus sample monster suggestions and building particular encounters. Again whole essays or even supplements have been written about dungeon design, so the advice is solid, but not deep.

Included at the end of the three sections—town, wilderness, and dungeon—is a pair of scenarios. These are designed for either Second, Fourth, or Eighth Level Players and each consists of a two-page spread. These have been constructed using the tables and encounters in Untold Encounters of the Random Kind with differently formatted text used to refer to encounter types and also Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition monster types. This is by name only, so again no stats. The six include ‘Wanted’ in which a local watch captain wants a shady relative brought in before the con artist’s enemies catch up with him; ‘Parched’, which opens with the Player Characters shipwrecked on the shores of a desert and a five-day trek to the nearest oasis with little water between them; and in ‘The Cursed Folly’, the Player Characters have been paid well to clear out a folly by a somewhat dotty member of the owning noble family who wants to live in it. Each of the six comes with a decent map of the adventure location, but each will require the Game Master to provide the stats for the various monsters. All six are all decent adventures, each offering little more than a session’s worth of play, and potentially the publisher could take the format and do a whole supplement of full encounters like it.

Physically, Untold Encounters of the Random Kind is decently presented. It does need an edit in places, but the artwork is excellent. Overall, the supplement is a clean and attractive book.

Untold Encounters of the Random Kind is not necessarily a book that as a Game Master you need to own. However, as a book of prompts, ideas, and inspiration, Untold Encounters of the Random Kind is a useful tome to have on the shelf—whichever version of Dungeons & Dragons or retroclone that the Game Master prefers because this supplement will work with them all.

—oOo—


Loke BattleMats will be at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, June 3rd to Sunday, June 5th, 2022.

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

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

—oOo—
Name: Death is the Final EscapePublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Bryan Rudolf

Setting: Jazz Age BostonProduct: Scenario
What You Get: Fifty Nine page, 8.58 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Can an escape artist escape his end?Plot Hook: Murder-suicide lifts lid on vaudevillian villainy.
Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, eight handouts, one map and three sets of  floorplans, thirteen NPCs, three spells, two Mythos tomes, and Mythos creatures.Production Values: Professional.
Pros# Great cover and artwork# Could be adapted to other time periods# Detailed meaty investigative scenario# Potential addition to a Lovecraft Country campaign# Delightfully vile cult ceremony description# Nuanced depiction of a cult that is more than just evil# Clearly staged chase resolution# Interesting, but serviceable way of getting (too) close to the villain

Cons# Needs a slight edit# Vaudevillian villain
Conclusion# Classic investigative Call of Cthulhu scenario set in New England# Well developed professional scenario in which the Investigators encounter a cult that is much more than just evil for the sake of it.

Today you graduated from Meny. Today you graduated as a SLA Operative. A SLA Op. A Slop. Tomorrow you and your squad will take your first job, your first BPN or Blue Print New file, given to you by a BPN Officer at your nearest BPN Hall. You’re pretty sure it’ll be in Downtown, literally down town in the great metropolis of Mort City. It could be a Blue, and you could be exterminating a nest of rats or sewer pigs, doing a gang sweep, or breaking up some upstart soft company. It could be a White and you’ll find yourself monitoring strange activity in a neighbourhood or investigating a murder or even the activities of one of those serial killers that plague the reaches of Downtown. Or it could be Green and you’ll find yourself assigned to one of the bridgeheads out in Cannibal Sector 1, alongside the Shiver who enforce the law in Downtown, or even off planet, though being a greenhorn, that seems unlikely. Perhaps it will be Red, an emergency like a riot or a terrorist attack by DarkNight or Thresher and then you’ll get TV coverage and your chance to look good on camera, catch the eye of sponsor? Maybe. You got your BOSH SLA Blade. You got your FEN 603 Auto-Pistol. You got your ITB Mutilator Fist. You got your PP664.2 Body Blocker armour. It ain’t much, but it’s a start. You got your SLA Ops badge and Security Clearance 10. You paid your Bullet Tax. You’re ready. You’re an Operative for SLA Industries.

However, there are greater dangers which threaten Mort City, home to SLA Industries, the planet of Mort, and The World of Progress which encompasses the whole of the universe and the company’s industrial worlds, home worlds, resource worlds, labour worlds, war worlds, and more. The Grosh, the Krell, and the Momic—previously forgotten and thought lost Conflict Races from the dawn of SLA Industries’ founding, nine centuries ago—have returned from Conflict Space and begun to war against The World of Progress. SLA Industries faces a ‘Great Enemy’, said to be imprisoned on a world known as ‘White Earth’ from where twisted and bitter secret knowledge has leaked. Some of this was learned by an amateur scholar deep in Lower Downtown, the knowledge driving him to first make blood sacrifices to White Earth, and then found the Shi’An Cult dedicated to White Earth. In the decade since its founding, the Shi’An Cult is Downtown’s largest growing religion, its members dedicated to summoning horrifying monsters from White Earth, and whilst probably killing themselves in the process, sowing fear and terror amongst the downtrodden citizens of Mort. However some threats come within. In a company as large as SLA Industries, it is easy to hide corruption; the newly formed Moral Right Division sends out patrols to educate civilians on the virtues of morality, dignity, and civility, but mostly consist of bully boys out to have a good time and repress the populace; and then there is Mr. Slayer, the head of SLA Industries, an undeniably evil megacorporation and government. He has his own secrets. Who he is. Where he is from. What he knows and what he has done to ensure the growth and survival of his company. These secrets and knowing the Truth about The World of Progress? That is the ultimate danger as The World of Progress stands on the precipice of the World of Change.

This is the set-up for SLA Industries, a roleplaying game originally published in 1993 by Nightfall Games. Since its initial release, it has suffered a somewhat peripatetic existence, finding home with publisher after publisher, but receiving relatively light attention from each. However, the roleplaying game finally got attention it deserved in 2016 with the release of the excellent SLA Industries: Cannibal Sector 1, before releasing SLA Industries, Second Edition following a successful Kickstarter campaign. With the publication of the second edition, SLA Industries has been given a major overhaul. This includes an entirely new set of mechanics, the ‘S5S’ System; an updating of the setting from its original year of 901sd to 915sd; and a makeover. Like Cannibal Sector 1 before it, SLA Industries, Second Edition is generously illustrated with gloriously gorgeous and gory artwork. The artwork in the first edition was good, but here, in rich, full colour, we get to see The World of Progress and its splatterpunk, noir horror dystopia like never before.
In SLA Industries, players take the roles of Operatives for the company. A Player Character in SLA Industries, Second Edition is defined by his Species, stats, Ratings Points, skills, and traits. SLA Industries, Second Edition has nine Species. Three are Human-like. These are Humans; Frothers, drug-fuelled and tolerant who go berserk and fight with a power claymore; and Ebonites, who use the mystic power of the Ebb to alter the fabric of reality. They are divided between Ebon and Eban, who embody the positive and negative versions of the Ebb. SLA Industries also bioengineer SLA Operatives, the Stormer 313 ‘Malice’ and the Stormer 711 ‘Xeno’, designed for their speed, ferocity, and their presence in combat and thus on camera. Shaktar and Wraithen, are aliens, Shaktar being honourable warriors with fleshy dreadlocks and a prehensile tail, and Wraithen, feline and reptilian hunters known for their acute senses and response times. Advanced Carrien and Neophron are new additions to SLA Industries and thus as Operatives. Advanced Carrien or ADV Carrien are Carrien Pigs which have survived their litter and raised by SLA Industries to work as SLA Operatives because they are highly adapted to life on the polluted World of Progress. The Neophron are bird-like aliens, known for their grace, charm, and inquisitiveness, who prefer methods other than violence.

An Operative has six stats—Strength, Dexterity, Knowledge, Concentration, and Cool. The sixth is Luck, except for the Ebonite, who have the Flux stat instead. Stats are rated between zero and six, whilst the skills are rated between one and four. Ratings Points represent an Operative’s ratings in various areas, such as televised action, corporate sponsorship, or faith in his own abilities. They are expended to overcome obstacles, perform cinematic feats, or avoid certain death or defeat. They are divided between three categories—Body, Brains, and Bravado. To create an Operative, a player selects a Species, assigns twelve points to his stats, thirty points to skills, chooses traits—positive and negative, and purchases equipment beyond the standard assigned to all Operatives. Skill points also come from the Operative’s Species and choice of Training Package, which include Strike & Sweep, Close Assault, Heavy Support, Scout, Medic, Investigation & Interrogation, Technical, and Bureaucrat.

Tanktop – Stormer 313 ‘Malice’
Close Assault Operative, SCL 10
Strength 6 Dexterity 5 Knowledge 1 Concentration 1 Charisma 1 Cool 3 Luck 2
Hit Points: 28
Rating Points
Body 4 Brains 0 Bravado 2
Initiative Bonus: 6
Species Abilities: Regeneration (2), Physical Favourite
Traits: – 
Skills
Strength – Climbing 2, Melee Weapons 3, Throw 1, Unarmed Combat (Brawling) 3
Dexterity – Acrobatics 2, Athletics 2, Pistol 1, Rifle 2, Stealth 2
Knowledge –
Concentration – Detect 1
Charisma –
Cool – Intimidate 3, Survival 1
Luck –
Money: 100c, 100u
Equipment – Boopa CASDIS, Finance Chip, Headset Communicator, Klippo Lighter, Operative organiser & admin kit, Pack of Contraceptives, SLA Industries ID Card, SLL Badge, Two Sets of Cloths and Boots
Armour – PP664.2 Body Blocker armour
Weapons – Stormer Chucklerduster (2), FEN 603 Auto-Pistol (4 clips), SLA Blade, SLA 10-05 Bully Boy Shotgun (4 clips)

Mechanically, SLA Industries, Second Edition uses the ‘S5S’ System. This is a dice pool system which uses ten-sided dice. The dice pool consists of one ten-sided die, called the Success Die, and Skill Dice equal to the skill being used, plus one. The Success Die should be of a different colour from the Skill Dice. For example, if Tanktop needed to make a Stealth check, his player rolls a total of four dice—the Success Die plus two Skill Dice for Tanktop’s Stealth skill of two, plus one. The results of the dice roll are not added, but counted separately. Thus to each roll is added the value of the Skill being rolled, plus its associated stat. If the result on the Success Die is equal to or greater than the Target Number, ranging from seven and Challenging to sixteen and Insane, then the Operative has succeeded. If the results of the Skill Dice also equal or exceed the Target Number, this improves the quality of the successful skill attempt. However, if the roll on the Success Die does not equal or exceed the Target Number, the attempt fails, even if multiple rolls on the Success Dice do. Except that is where there are four or more results which equal or exceed the Target Number on the Success Dice. This is counted as a minimum success though.
Luck can also be spent to reroll dice. This is either a point to reroll the Success Die or any of the Skill Dice, but can also spend them on a one for one basis to improve the result of the Success Die.For example, Tanktop has captured Angus Ablanko, a suspected Dark Night sympathiser. He has clammed up and refuses to talk. Tanktop looks him over, gives him the once over and promises to drag him down the street and into every single fight by rope with his hands tied… “Think of it like a fight on the telly, but really, really close up.” And then he grins. Tanktop has Intimidate of three, so his player rolls the Success Die and three Skill Dice plus one, for a total of five. He will be adding a total of six—three each for the Intimidate skill and the Cool stat—to each of the dice. The Game Master has set the Target Number at Complex or ten, because Angus is showing a bit of bravado. However, Tanktop’s player rolls five on the Success Die, and then five, six, eight, and ten on the Skill Dice. This an unbelievable success, and Angus literally collapses blubbing and begging the Stormer not to drag him into any fights. Between sobs, he tells Tanktop’s squad—because he cannot even bring himself to look at the Stormer—who his contact is, where he hangs out, where he lives, and what he thinks he is planning.Combat uses the same ‘S5S’ System and is in the main relatively simple and straightforward. It can, however, be nasty, brutal, and short. The standard Target Number for combat is ten or Complex and if the attack roll is successful, that is the result of the Success Die is sufficient, any successful results on the Skill Dice either add extra damage or a specific body area being hit. If an Operative’s player rolls four or more successful Skill Dice, the Operative both inflicts extra damage and hits the target’s head. If an Operative’s or target’s Hit Points are reduced to zero, they are dead. They are at critical condition if they have six or less Hit Points left and suffer a wound if they suffer damage which reduces their Hit Points by half.
Against incoming damage or attacks, an Operative has three options—defensive manoeuvres, cover, and armour. In melee, an Operative can assign one or more levels of his skill to defence to reduce his attacker’s roll or actively and solely dodge using Acrobatic Defence to do the same. Similarly, cover makes the target harder to hit, whilst armour reduces damage taken, but at the same time, can damage the armour itself. Different ammunition types inflict different amounts of damage, but SLA Industries impose a Bullet Tax on all ammunition. This is simply because close combat looks better on television and garners higher ratings.

Operatives can look good on camera through the use of Ratings Points, which lend themselves to a cinematic style of play. Ratings Points fall into three categories—Body, Brain, and Bravado, as do their associated Feats. For example, ‘How Did You Hit That?’ and ‘Tear Right Through Them’ are Body Feats, ‘I Just read About That Yesterday!’ and ‘Lucky Guess’ are Brain Feats, and ‘Charming Smile’ and ‘Pure Grit’ are Bravado Feats. They either cost one or two Ratings Points and add a bit more colour and dynamism to what an Operative can do.

Ebonites—and some threats faced by SLA Industries—have access to the mystic power of the Ebb to alter the fabric of reality. Not quite spells, not quite psionics, the study of the Ebb is divided between ten disciplines, ranging from Awareness, Blast, and Communicate to Senses, Telekinesis, and Thermal (Blue/Red). Like skills, each discipline has four ranks, but each rank grants access to a pair of abilities. For example, at Rank 2, the discipline Reality Fold grants ‘Jump Port 2’ and ‘Shared Port’, the ability itself being akin to teleportation. Points of Flux have to be expended to use disciplines, an Ebonite calculating the formulae for each discipline via their Deathsuits, which takes concentration.
The mediatisation of violence within The World of Progress is in part represented by a lengthy list of arms and armour, and other equipment. All of which is very nicely illustrated. This adds to elements of game play as not only do the stats of a weapon or suit of armour matter, but so does their name and look. After all, they are designed to look good on television and if an Operative can get good coverage on camera, then he might gain sponsorship from a manufacturer. The equipment list also includes a lengthy list of combat drugs, one reason the roleplaying game carries a mature warning.
Rounding out SLA Industries, Second Edition is ‘Threat Analysis’ and ‘Web of Lies’. The former presents a wide range of dangers that the Operative might face on the streets of Mort and beyond. These threats range from Carnivorous Pigs, Carrien, and things that seep in from White Earth to rival soft companies such as Dark Knight, Thresher, and Tek Trex, Dream Entities, serial killers, and the freelancer mercenaries and vigilantes known as Props. These are all decently detailed and superbly illustrated.
‘Web of Lies’ is a chapter of advice for the Game Master. It is ultimately where the problems with SLA Industries, Second Edition come to head. What it covers is advice on running the game, in particular, the Blueprint News file types, what they entail, their importance, and what the rewards they pay out to the Operatives. Added to this are Hunter Sheets, essentially bounties on particular targets or persons of interest, which are suggested as being suitable for single sessions or one-shots. The advice also covers handling the game’s mechanics, sponsorship deals for the Operatives, what they might do on their downtime, and more.

The issue with ‘Web of Lies’ is that it suggests something more than it covers, and that feeling pervades SLA Industries, Second Edition throughout. The focus in the roleplaying game is on beginning Player Characters and Operatives, and their taking on Blueprint News file mission after Blueprint News file mission, in order to increase their Security Clearance, climb the corporate ladder, gain sponsorship, and fame and fortune. It does a very good job of explaining what an Operative does in SLA Industries, Second Edition and The World of Progress. From the outset, a player and his Operative knows what he is expected to do… and yet. SLA Industries is roleplaying game and a setting which has secrets—deep secrets. These are hidden behind layers of bureaucracy and conspiracy within The World of Progress, and ultimately, playing the roleplaying game is about discovering or being exposed to them and the consequences of that happening. Yet despite the colour fiction in the pages of SLA Industries, Second Edition hinting at those secrets and conspiracies, none of them are actually explored in its pages or supported with advice on how to include them in play. Which is exactly what a chapter entitled ‘Web of Lies’ suggests it might do, but does not. For the player who has been a fan of SLA Industries since original publication, this is very much less of an issue, but for anyone new to the roleplaying game and its rich setting, they are going to be left mystified as to what the significance of the colour fiction is and likely wondering quite what SLA Industries is ultimately about. This is despite the fact that SLA Industries, Second Edition goes out of the way in places to make itself and The World of Progress accessible, especially with the guide to Operative life which clearly explains what an Operative does on a daily basis.

SLA Industries is a roleplaying game from the nineteen nineties and ultimately, it does something that is so typically nineteen nineties. It hides its meta-plot. Or rather, its backstory. As typified by the superhero roleplaying game, Brave New World, it keeps what is really going hidden from both players and Game Master, even though Brave New World revealed some of its secrets, SLA Industries, Second Edition does not even do that. However, this does not mean that as written, SLA Industries, Second Edition is unplayable, as it still provides the means to explore a very dark corporate dystopia. Perhaps though, a scenario or two would have helped.

Physically, SLA Industries, Second Edition is superbly presented. The layout is clean and tidy, and though it needs a slight edit in places, it is engagingly written with lots of colour fiction. The artwork though, is amazing, and really does a fantastic job of bringing The World of Progress and its rain sodden, polluted, and horror haunted streets (and beyond) to life like never before.

SLA Industries, Second Edition is a great update to the original nineties darkest of dark dystopian roleplaying games. The designers have revisited the setting of The World of Progress and clearly worked hard to update it, to make it more accessible, and represent it in gloriously gorgeous colour. For the most part, they have succeeded, yet so much of The World of Progress is only hinted at and left inaccessible and that can only hamper the Game Master in the long run.

The true nature and secrets of The World of Progress will have to wait for revelations in future supplements, but as an exploration of what Mr Slayer wants you to know, SLA Industries, Second Edition is the ultimate in dark dystopian splatter punk and corporate horror roleplaying. 
—oOo—

Nightfall Games is at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, June 3rd to Sunday, June 5th, 2022.

Luna-1 is a supplement for Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD. Like The Robot Wars before it, it is as different a supplement as there has been for any of the four roleplaying games based on the Judge Dredd comic strip from the pages of 2000 AD, and that is all down to its focus. Traditionally, supplements for a Judge Dredd roleplaying game have concentrated on particular aspects of the setting—criminal organisations, crazes, psi-talents, block wars, and more—but Luna-1 focuses upon the one storyline, examining its episodes or Progs, and exploring their ramifications in detail. In Luna-1, this is the six months in which Judge Dredd is assigned to serve as Judge Marshall of Luna-1, a colony on Earth’s moon governed by judges from all three Mega-Cities. Told in Progs 42-59, this storyline thus takes Judge Dredd off Earth and onto the oxygen-short, crowded, and lawless and often wild frontier of the Moon. Here gangs and perps can escape the Mega-Cities to hide out and continue their criminal activities; corporations shorn of the scrutiny and regulations of Earth, build and hold more power and influence; resources are poor—especially oxygen, which needs to be paid for; even though they might hate each other, the Mega-Cities of North America and the Soviet East-Meg cities, will come together to participate in the Lunar Olympics; and criminal conspiracies work behind the scenes to take over the Moon! The supplement includes a Prog by Prog guide to the storyline with story hooks which the Game Master can develop as part of her campaign; descriptions of the Moon’s most notable locations and events, as well as what it like to both live and enforce the law there; new Exploits and Careers for Judges, Perps, and Civilians; an examination of a Moon-set campaign inspired by the ‘Luna-1’ storyline; stats and write ups for numerous NPCs; and more. 
LUNA-1 opens with a description of the Moon and a history of its settlement, including its important locations, such as the famous Armstrong Monument or Moonie’s Ranch, home to the reclusive corporate boss, C.W. Moonie, where he has ranchers raise genuine protein cake-fed, bio-engineered cattle on actual grass, their meat being highly prized by gourmets. The inhabitants of the Moon reside in domed settlements, ranging in size from urban sprawls to classic frontier towns. The maintenance of these domes is vital to everyone’s survival, as is a supply of oxygen, which of course, the inhabitants of the Moon have to pay for! The Oxygen Board has a monopoly on the supply. So it can be expensive! The Mega-Cities’ Justice Departments sometimes use Safe Houses on the Moon to keep witnesses safe. The Moon is also home to colonies from the other Mega-Cities beyond North America, including Shi-Shen Territories and Sov-Cities Territory, the closest they get to territories of the Mega-Cities. Locations important to the Moon, but back on Earth are detailed too, such as Moonray Tower and Temple of Lunar Light, a cult often described as being full of ‘loonies’. Events, like the Land Race—a race to grab new opened up territory, and the Lunar Olympiad are covered as well. They are all accompanied by adventure seeds.
In terms of mechanics, LUNA-1 provides numerous new options for Player Characters and NPCs of all types. New Judge Careers include Luna Judge, Zero Squad Judge (trained to work in zero gravity), Customs Judge, and more. STAR Judges or ‘Special Target Attack Retaliation’ Judges are drawn from all three North American Mega-Cities and their allies and assigned to police Earth’s off-world colonies, so the Player Characters could actually be a mixed group from various cities, not just Mega-City One. New Civilian Careers include Xenodiplomat, Corporate Executive, and Settler, whilst Perp ones include Luna Raider, Gunslinger, and Smuggler. They all include their own Exploits which can be gained by choosing them as Careers during character creation, and all provide interesting options for both Player Characters and NPCs. As expected, all of the characters from the ‘LUNA-1’ storyline are included in LUNA-1, from simple Badlands Gang Member and Futsie to Deputy Luna Marshal Tex, Judge Mex (complete with lasso for reigning in Perps), Elvis the Killer Car, and Judge Dredd himself. These can be used as is, if the Game Master wants to run the ‘LUNA-1’ storyline for her players and their characters, or simply used as inspiration for a campaign set on the Moon.
The campaign advice for the Game Master examines the how and the why of setting and running stories for Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD. This should not just be because the setting itself is cool, but rather because there are particular types of stories which can be set there, which in this case might involve the Lunar Olympics or the looser regulations applied to corporations. It also highlights the differences between Mega-City One and the Moon—as well as colony frontiers, and how that will change game play. Smaller communities means fewer places to hide and everyone knows everyone’s business, including that of Perps, plus colonies like the Moon rely much more on technology for everyone’s survival. Only light synopsises are given for the fourteen Progs which make up the ‘LUNA-1’ storyline, more attention being paid to the whole storyline as a roleplaying campaign with a beginning, middle, and end. There is advice here on how to use Dredd, for it might be that the Player Character Judges are actually seconded to the unrelenting lawkeeper as his deputies.
The full adventure in LUNA-1 is ‘Sundance Rising’, an unashamed space western. It is set further on the frontier of the Moon in the isolated toon of Grey Rock. Inspired by the film High Noon, the town’s Judge, William Kane, is gunned down by the Sundance Gang, led by the vicious Preacher Jackson and the Judges are sent into restore order. The scenario and setting of Grey Rock is nicely detailed and there are notes too to run with Civilians as inhabitants of the town taking the law into their own hands and fighting back and also as Perps attempting to impress Preacher Jackson enough to become members of the Sundance Gang. Either way, this is a good scenario with lots going on that should provide multiple sessions of play.
LUNA-1 does not just cover Judge Dredd’s six-month secondment to the Moon, although that is its primary focus. That is told in Progs 42-59, but there were stories which took place between this and the events of ‘The Robot Wars’—as detailed in the supplement of the same name, and these are detailed in LUNA-1, again Prog by Prog. Each includes a synopsis, settings and locations, villains and bystanders, how the story can be used ‘Outside the Law’ (that is, used with Perp and Civilian Player Characters rather than Judges), and suggested further adventures. Some of these can be used as part of a Moon-set campaign, some not, but either way, the Game Master is given another eleven story hooks! Lastly, an appendix takes the Game Master—and potentially, her player’s characters to Titan. This includes a complete description and history of the penal colony where corrupt Judges are sentenced and again hooks and for the Game Master’s campaign.
Unlike ‘The Robot Wars’ storyline there is perhaps less satire and less social commentary in LUNA-1. Obviously, there is the rampant commercialism, but the Moon-set storyline is more of a means to tell stories away from Mega-City One and on the frontier in the style of the Wild West than anything else. The writing style has settled down a bit and there is more of the comic strip’s humour coming through than there was in The Robot Wars.

Physically, LUNA-1 is a slim, but nicely presented book. It is an engaging read and it is liberally illustrated with artwork from the ‘LUNA-1’ story and the other Progs it details in its pages. This is all black and white artwork and it is drawn from the very early issues of 2000 AD so there is certain quaintness to it since it dates from before the character of Judge Dredd evolved into the way he looks today.
Luna-1 picks up where The Robot Wars left off, continuing its fantastic approach to turning episodic source material into gameable content. The humour is stronger, even if the satire is not, but this is thoroughly excellent sourcebook on ‘LUNA-1’ story, for the stories which can be told in and around it, and of course on the Moon (and other frontier settings) for Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD (or in fact, any roleplaying game based on Judge Dredd).
—oOo—


En Publishing will be at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, June 3rd to Sunday, June 5th, 2022.

Lâminas & Feitiços or Blades & Spells is a minimalist fantasy roleplaying game from South America. In fact, Blades & Spells is another Bronze Age, Swords & Sorcery minimalist fantasy roleplaying game done in pamphlet form from Brazil. In actuality, Blades & Spells is a series of pamphlets, building from the core rules pamphlet to add optional rules, character archetypes, spells, a setting and its gods, and more, giving it the feel of a ‘plug and play’ toolkit. The Storyteller and her players can play using just the core rules, but beyond that, they are free to choose the pamphlets they want to use and just game with those, ignoring the others. So what is Blades & Spells? It describes itself as “…[A] simple, objective and dynamic minimalist RPG game where the Storyteller challenges the Player and not the character sheet.” It is written to pay homage to the classic Sword & Sorcery literature, uses the Basic Universal System—or ‘B.U.S.’—a simple set of mechanics using two six-sided dice, and in play is intended to challenge the player and his decisions rather than have the player rely upon what is written upon his character sheet. Which, being a minimalist roleplaying game, is not much. So although it eschews what the designer describes as the ‘classic restrictions’ of Class, Race, and Level, and it is very much not a Retroclone, there is no denying that Blades & Spells leans into the Old School Renaissance sensibilities.
Blades & Spells: An agile, objective and dynamic minimalist RPG defines a Player Character in simple terms. He is Human and he has a Name, Focus, Background, and Equipment. His Focus is either Fighter, Mystic, Intellectual, Support, or Specialist, whilst his Background includes goals, skills, knowledge, adjectives, and at least one flaw. He also has ten Hit Points. Character creation is a five-minute job and everything can be recorded on an index card.

Ublaf the Unbelievable
Focus: Fighter
Background: Ublaf is a blond, blue-eyed warrior from the frigid north, who has come far south to make his fortune and prove himself to the girl he wants to marry, but who has so far spurned his advances. He is a good hunter, and capable with both axe and spear, but has no tongue for languages. So often others think him a fool—or ‘Unbelievable!’. He is often impulsive, but invariably tries to be helpful and friendly.Hit Points: 10

Mechanically, the Basic Universal System of Blades & Spells uses two six-sided dice. To undertake an action for his character, a player rolls the dice attempting to equal or beat a difficulty number set by the Storyteller, ranging from Easy at three all the way up to Epic at twelve. Any roll less than this is a failure and also adds a new complication to the plot. If a Player Character can gain an Advantage from either his Background or Focus, the difficulty number is reduced by two, but increased by two if his Background or Focus would impose a Disadvantage (though this would not increase the difficulty number beyond twelve). Ideally, elements of a Player Character’s Background should work as both Advantage and Disadvantage, depending on the situation. For example, Ublaf’s Impulsiveness would be a Disadvantage if there was trap he could have spotted before he acted, but an Advantage in attempting a foil an assassination attempt on a merchant.

Combat in Blades & Spells is deadly, with attacks, whether by a weapon, magic, or a creature, being either light, strong, or fatal. A Player Character could be killed with a couple of strong blows or even one fatal blow as he only has ten Hit Points (monsters can have more), and once they are gone, that is it. Although monsters have a Challenge Rating equal to the standard difficulty numbers, Player Characters do not, so the default is probably Normal or six. However, shields and armour, in whatever form they take, reduces damage and the Storyteller can allow a Player Character to make a defensive or dodge manoeuvre.

Magic and spells are available to all Player Characters. No spells are described in the base rules for Blades & Spells, but instead, the player decides what the aim of the spell is. Is it to Attack, Defend, Create an advantage, or Overcome an obstacle? The Storyteller sets the difficulty number and the player rolls. If successful, the spell is cast and has the desired effect. Failure though means that the Player Character has suffered Arcane Corruption, which might be that the spell effects turn on the caster rather than the intended target or a second grotesque head grows from the caster’s shoulder, which stays for a few days before withering away, in the meantime annoying everyone with its different opinions and ideas.

So that really is it to Blades & Spells: An agile, objective and dynamic minimalist RPG. Or at least the core rules. It fits on two sides of a single sheet of paper. It is cleanly laid out, although it does need an edit in places to account for the translation from Portuguese to English. It has a decent piece of artwork on the front. It is also perfectly playable barring a couple of issues. One is that it does leave the Storyteller to wonder what sort of complications a failure of a dice roll might add to the plot and it does not state what the difficulty number is for hitting a Player Character in combat.

Blades & Spells is a simple, straightforward set of mechanics, but there are numerous optional pamphlets which expand upon its core rules and turn Blades & Spells into a fully rounded roleplaying game rather than just a core set of mechanics. Nevertheless, Blades & Spells: An agile, objective and dynamic minimalist RPG is a solid, serviceable, easy to learn and play, minimalist roleplaying game.

The Sight: A True & Faithful Relation of Acts of Supernatural Foresight, Uncanny Vision, divers Readings of Occult Tokens: shewing the Particulars of SOME SPIRITS is a supplement of magic for The Dee Sanction: Adventures in Covert Enochian Intelligence. Or rather The Sight is a supplement of alternative and deeper magic for The Dee Sanction. For in The Dee Sanction, all Agents of Dee have magic. For under the terms of the Act Against Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts, it permitted those with heretical knowledge to work off their sentence in service to, and in protection of, Her Majesty, Queen Elisabeth. This includes the one Favour, the very low key magical, Angelic means of influence that the Agent can bear upon the world, learnt through study of a corrupting tome or tutelage at the hands of a secret society. Theirs is a minor magic, but amongst their number, since after all, the authorities are on the constant lookout for any capable of even minor magics, there will be those capable of more—much more.

The Sight is a short supplement which introduces to four new talents—Aura Reading, Prophecy, Scrying, and Token Reading—to The Dee Sanction. It also provides guidance on visions, communing with spirits, possession, hypnosis, and the miraculous intervention of the Divine Chorus. Potentially, it increases the magical potency of the Player Characters or Agents, as well as adding a degree of uncertainty when using their magic. To determine if an Agent or indeed, an NPC, has the Sight, the supplement uses an expanded table over that given in The Dee Sanction. When a player uses the table, he either rolls larger dice types or draws from a full deck of playing cards to account for the increased number of entries. Standard rolls or number playing cards indicate that the Agent has a Favour, as in the core rules for The Dee Sanction, but here every entry has a list of three options, which the player can choose from or take all three, depending how much magic the Game Master wants her player to know.

Rolls of elven or twelve, or draws of either a Jack, Queen, or King, if using cards, determines whether has the Sight. Aura Reading enables an Agent to view and interpret someone’s supernatural aspects, Prophecy to see the future, Scrying to see things that are unseen, and Token reading to examine the lore and history bound up in objects. They are further divided into three, the die result or card determining which particular one an Agent has. For example, Prophecy includes Danger Sense, Things to Come, and Fortune Telling, whilst Scrying includes Visions, Divinations, and Summoned Advisor. There is some overlap to these, but there is every effort to make them different and feel different in play. Divination, for example, allows an Agent to experience the environment around a specific person, place, or event once a significant connection is established with them, which would require the blood or hair of the person, or an object from the location. Whereas Things to Come gives brief visions or warnings of threat, perhaps upon meeting someone, and is always involuntary.

Use of the Sight requires a player to succeed at a Supernatural Challenge. However, unlike the angelic nature of Favours, the Sight is supernatural in nature and therefore fickle. Which means that even in a player facing roleplaying such as The Dee Sanction, the Game Master gets to roll as well as the player. This elevates what would be a Supernatural Challenge in an Uncertain Challenge. The results of the use of the Sight range from Untruthful to Truthful depending upon whether the player and the Game Master both falter, one succeeds and one falters, and both succeed. The result, especially if the Agent is attempting to see the future, is only a possible future and it need not be easy to understand. In fact, it should be cryptic, and further, it should only told to the player of the Agent with the Sight, and done so in private. Further, the player should not write it down. This accentuates the uncertainty of the Sight. Inspiration for such foretellings is provided in a pair of tables.

The Sight also covers communing with spirits and talking with angels, the former answering a few questions, the latter even performing a miracle. There are rules here as well for possession and exorcism, and for both major and minor miracles. Both lend themselves to story possibilities, and of course, Enochian is the language of the angels, so it seems obvious to have talking with angels included here.

Physically, The Sight is cleanly and tidily laid out. It is lightly illustrated and consequently less obtrusive in comparison to the core rulebook.

The Sight is an excellent expansion to The Dee Sanction: Adventures in Covert Enochian Intelligence. Its rules are all entirely optional, and even if the Game Master decides not to add them to her campaign of The Dee Sanction or does not necessarily want her players’ Agents to possess them, they can remain the province of the NPCs or simply a source of ideas. However it is used, The Sight: A True & Faithful Relation of Acts of Supernatural Foresight, Uncanny Vision, divers Readings of Occult Tokens: shewing the Particulars of SOME SPIRITS still open up further story avenues and ideas as well as making the use of magic uncertain.

—oOo—


Just Crunch Games will be at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, June 3rd to Sunday, June 5th, 2022.

Some games have a table presence as soon as you have them unboxed and everything is out on the table. Others have table presence as soon as you look at them, and that presence follows through from the moment you hold them in your hand to point where you are actually playing them. Colt Express, the 2015 Spiel des Jahres Winner from Ludonaute is an example of the former, taking place aboard a card board train which you set up and attempt to rob. Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers is an example of the latter. It comes in a block-shaped box which when you stand it up, looks a cartoonish rendering of a Las Vegas casino. Open—or rather unfold—the box and everything inside comes stored in plastic trays and once these have been removed, a leg is inserted into the receivers in each of the four corners of the box and the box itself is then flipped over to stand on those legs. A playmat, showing a four-by-four playing grid, is placed both on top of the box and under the box. Together these two playmats, when laid out with the rooms and locations of the casino, form the playing surface for Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers and the target of the players and their characters and their heists. Add wall sections and playing pieces or meeples illustrated with yet more themed artwork and what you have in Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers is a board game with table presence. And yet… Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers looks a little rickety. The top of the box is not quite flat. Plus playing under the box is a little fiddly. Which is all a bit of a shame, because Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers really does look like a great game, with great artwork that supports its theme. However, Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers does not have to be played using this three-dimensional set-up, as clever as it is. It can be played using just the playmats, and it works just as well.

Published by Fowers Games, Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers is a sequel to Burgle Bros. and both are co-operative games. In Burgle Bros., between one and four players perform a heist on an office or bank, attempting to locate a safe whilst dodging patrolling guards, all done in the style of a sixties heist. In Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers, between one and four players attempt to break into a Las Vegas casino, locate and open a safe, and get away with the loot. However, Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers is much more of a challenge than Burgle Bros. This is no night-time burglary—it must be performed during the day. Security is tighter and the safes are tougher, plus there are Bouncers who will follow patrol routes, but who are always on the lookout for any Commotion which they will want to break up. And since this takes place during the day, the casino is thronging with guests. Some are customers, some are not. Some are helpful, most are not. A player might be forced to make a detour to avoid a drunk or get caught up with a saleswoman who never stops talking, be spotted by an undercover member of the casino’s staff or hide from a Bouncer in a crowd. On the plus side, the players are skilled and have gear too, but both only have a limited use. And when the crew manage to get to the safe and crack it open, they have to take the loot and get it out of the casino in an exciting finale!

At the start of the game, the game’s tiles are randomly placed on both floors of the casino, face down. Each floor must have an ‘Escalator’ and a ‘Monorail’ tile. The ‘Safe’ tile is placed on the second floor, whilst the ‘Owner’s Office’ tile is on the first floor. The Patrol Cards for each floor are shuffled and one drawn for each floor to determine where the Bouncer on each floor starts from and where the guests are placed. Guests are represented by poker chips, and these are also placed face down. A second Patrol Card is drawn to indicate where the Bouncer is going to move to, at least initially. Each time a Bouncer reaches his destination, a new Patrol Card is drawn to determine the new destination location, and so on and so on, until the Patrol Card deck is empty. In which case, the Bouncer will start hunting for the nearest player. Eight walls are placed randomly on each floor. These block movement and sight between locations. Then the first—or the next, if Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers is being played a campaign—Finale card is drawn out of its envelope, and its text read out. This adds flavour and detail to the heist. The rules on the back will only be revealed and come into play after the players have emptied the safe.

A player receives a character and the character’s three pieces of Gear, either by choice or at random. There are a total of nine in the game. With a maximum number of four players, this adds variety and replay value to the game. For example, Rook is an Elvis impersonator who has an ‘Earpiece’ which enables him to move any player to an adjacent tile, but not through a wall; a set of ‘Facemasks’ which enable two players to swop places; and can ‘Impersonate’ another player to use one of their already prepared items of gear. All great takes an action to prepare, but no actions to use. All have a limited number of uses before they are flipped over granting a last one-shot bonus action before being discarded, and for the most part, an item of Gear affects another player rather than the one using it.

The aim of Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers is for the players to enter the casino, locate both the Owner’s Office and the escalator on the first floor and then go up to the second floor. They must find the safe and open it. Not only do the players get the loot, but they also get to turn over the Finale Card and bring its rules into play. The Finale Card also details the players’ means of exit. There nine heists in Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers and thus nine different Finale Cards. Initially, Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers is designed to played in order, but once they have been played through once, the Finale Cards can still be played again, but in a random order.

A player’s turn consists of two phases—the player phase and the Bouncer phase. On the player phase, a player can take up to four actions from a choice of four. These are ‘Move’, ‘Peek’, ‘Use While Here’, and ‘Prep’. ‘Move’ is to an adjacent tile, revealing any face down poker chip and resolving it, and then resolve any ‘When You Enter’ effect if the tile has one. ‘Peek means to look at an adjacent tile, whilst ‘Use While Here’ is an optional action on a tile, again if it has one. Lastly, ‘Prep’ means to ready a piece of Gear for use.

In the Bouncer phase, the Bouncer on the same floor as the player moves three spaces towards the destination on the current Patrol Card. If the Bouncer moves through any tile occupied by a player, that player gains two Heat. If a player gains six Heat, either from encountering a Bouncer or from particular locations, not only does that player lose, but every player loses! If a Bouncer is hunting after running out of Patrol Cards and their routes to follow, he moves directly towards the nearest player. So it is very much in the best interests of the players to avoid the Bouncers on both floors. Out of the Bouncer phase, a Bouncer will also move towards a Commotion when it is created in a particular tile. When a Bouncer is hunting the players, a Commotion can actually be used as a distraction, which is both helpful and thematically brilliant.

Each of the tile types has particular effects. For example, in the ‘Buffet’ a cube is added to the tile each time a player enters it. When there are three cubes, a Commotion is caused, the cubes are removed, and the Bouncer moves three rather than the standard one space towards it. If a Bouncer enters the ‘Crow’s Nest’, he surveys the adjacent tiles and if there are players on them, they each gain one Heat. At the ‘Table Games’, a player rolls two dice and if he rolls either seven or eleven, he loses one Heat, but causes a Commotion on any other roll. Both the ‘Lounge’ and ‘Pool’ tiles have their own decks of cards for even more random events.

Locating and opening the safe is a multi-stage action. First, the players need to locate both the ‘Owner’s Office’ tile on the first floor and the ‘Safe’ tile on the second floor. They also need to reveal all of the tiles in the same row and column as the ‘Safe’ tile. Second, they need to locate the ‘Moles’ they already planted in the casino ahead of time. There are four of them in the casino and when a player finds one, he can be exchanged for a single die at a cost of two actions. This die is stored on the ‘Owner’s Office’ tile. Third, when a player is on the ‘Owner’s Office’ tile, he can transfer it to the ‘Safe’ tile. A player on ‘Safe’ tile can expend an action to roll the dice. If any of the numbers match those tiles in the same row and column as the ‘Safe’ tile, they are covered up, including multiple numbers. One die is returned to the ‘Owner’s Office’ tile, but a player can continue expending actions to roll the dice as long as one remains on the ‘Safe’ tile. Completely covering all six numbers in the same row and column as the ‘Safe’ tile means that the players have cracked the safe’s combination and triggered the effects of the Finale Card. If the players fulfil the victory conditions on the Finale Card, they have won the game.

At the end of the game, it can all be put away, or alternatively, the players can fill out the Heist Log if Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers is being played as a campaign. Successfully pulling off a heist increases their Suspicion value, ranging between one and ten, but failing decreases it. If they were successful they get a sticker to add to the Trophy Case in the bottom of the game’s box, and whether or not they win or lose, they do get an alternative piece of Gear which can be used in future heists. The rulebook also include a variant rules for ‘Dead Drops’, representing randomly distributed pieces of ‘Gear’ that the players must find rather than being assigned everything at game’s start. This makes the game more challenging, whilst the separate ‘Casing the Joint’ makes it less so by reducing the element of randomness in terms both set-up and game play.

Physically, Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers is very well produced and it is a great looking game. The rulebook is simple and straightforward to understand, though a lot of the game’s nuances are expected to come out in play rather than be explained in the rules. Some of the Gear cards could have done with clearer explanations though.

Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers is a fantastic combination of both theme and random events. The theme is instantly recognisable and playable, the casino heist a la the film Ocean’s 11, only the sixties version rather than the noughties update. It is very much get into the casino, case the joint, avoid the bouncers, dodge the guests, luck out on the Craps table, and slip into the safe room to crack the combination, but it is also another theme present too. One which Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers constantly threatens to tip over into—farce! The possibility of running into the wrong guest or Bouncer one too many times or entering the wrong room, and more, all threaten to endanger the heist attempt, and perhaps tip the attempt over into farce and then failure. Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers is an easy game to teach and play, but difficult to beat because of random events, and whilst that can be both great and frustrating—it can be a little too random in places, where the game really scores is theme and story. Theme because everyone loves a heist and story because all that randomness can set up great stories as the players run into that drunk one too many times or find a spot to pause whilst the Bouncer moves past or an item of Gear gets a player a out of a tight spot. Plus the Finale Cards simply add more theme, not just with the narrative at the start of the game, but also with the extra rules for the getaway at the end of a heist.

Ultimately, you do need to be lucky to pull of a heist in Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers. However, the theme is sheer brilliance, the game is fun to play, and together, everything in the game helps build a great stories.

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

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

—oOo—
Name: Into the UnknownPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Sean Johnston

Setting: Near Future Antarctica & BeyondProduct: Scenario
What You Get: Thirty-Four page, 1.02 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Atlantis: The Lost Empire meets Pitch BlackPlot Hook: An elevator straight to a hell offers ‘the experience of a lifetime’. 
Plot Support: Staging advice, seven handouts, one map and two sets of  floorplans, no NPCs, and nine monsters and Mythos creatures.Production Values: Underwhelming.
Pros# Science Fiction horror one-shot# Could be adapted to earlier modern time periods# Hints at interesting future setting# Decent descriptions# Potential for Investigator versus Investigator action
Cons# Needs a strong edit# Linear and light plot# No pre-generated Investigators# More exposition heavy travel log than adventure# Potential for Investigator versus Investigator action
Conclusion# Serviceable set-up leads somewhere interesting with a plot that is more story than interactive.# Into an unknown of what the Investigators are supposed to do.

The Spy Game: A Roleplaying Game of Action & Espionage takes the mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition into the very modern world of international espionage and intrigue, of stealth and superscience, and of maladjusted masterminds and doomsday devices in which spies, hackers, assassins, femme fatales, and suave secret agents set out to save the world in the name of freedom and democracy! Published by Black Cats Gaming following a successful Kickstarter campaign, The Spy Game casts the Player Characters as Agents, members of a spy agency, whether a real-world agency like the USA’s CIA, the United Kingdom’s MI6, or India’s RAW, or a fictional one included in its pages or of the Game Master’s own creation, and undertake assassination, capture, obtain, sabotage, or surveillance missions—or a combination of any five of them. They will attend briefings, gather intelligence, and conduct fieldwork, all before attending mission debriefings. The rules in The Spy Game allows the players to create interesting characters from a diverse range of backgrounds who engage in a range of espionage activities including infiltration and hacking, equipped with a wide array of equipment, and the Game Master to create agencies, missions, enemies and threats. In bringing espionage and modern action to Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition’s mechanics, The Spy Game notes that anyone who comes from that roleplaying game will find a lot of familiarity, but also that it adds Infiltration to combat to expand upon the element of surprise and detection, gadgets which replace magic items—and which have to requisitioned, and hacking which works like magic, but only on computer technology.
Like any good, modern roleplaying game, The Spy Game includes advice on the use of safety tools. Not just on the use of the X-card and lines and veils, but also advice appropriate to The Spy Game and its genre. This includes advice on taking care when involving real world events and politics in the game, and be careful when involving torture as a means of acquiring information. Ideally, if it is used, it would only be a grittier type of game and even then a veil be drawn over it. The Spy Game also notes that whilst sex and seduction have always played a role in espionage, whether fact or fiction, there is no Seduction skill in the roleplaying game and again, all of the players will need to agree to its inclusion in a game.
The Spy Game: A Roleplaying Game of Action & Espionage is a Class and Level game. It has eight Classes—Face, Hacker, Infiltrator, Martial Artist, Medic, Ranger, Soldier, and Technician, each one of which has its own three archetypes, Proficiencies, abilities, and more. Backgrounds such as Academic, Athlete, Civil Servant, Con Artist, Criminal, Diplomat, Motorist, Outdoorsman, and Scientist, all add bonuses in terms of attributes, languages, and equipment, as well as special advantages, proficiencies, and a Feature. Each also gives options for an Agent’s Double Life, Secret—which is initially kept just between the player and the Game Master , Ideal, and Bond, all of which can be used in play to gain Inspiration as per the roleplaying mechanic introduced in Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. For example, the Motorist increases an Agent’s Dexterity and Wisdom by one, grants Mechanics as a skill proficiency, grants him Advantage on Dexterity Saving Throws when driving or piloting a vehicle, gives special proficiency on motorcycles, cars, heavy goods vehicles, and mechanic’s tools, and provides the ‘Home Behind the Wheel’ Feature, which lets him regain control of a vehicle if he loses control of it as a Bonus Action. This can only be done once before requiring a short or long rest to use again.

To create a character, a player selects a Class and a Background, generates his character attributes—either by rolling or using the point buy option, and adds all of the finishing details you would expect. Multiple dice rolling options are given, but The Spy Game suggests that a player choose his character’s Class and Background first before rolling, or preferably, using the point-buy option. This varies from the ten points of a Gritty campaign to the twenty-five of one involving Super-Spies, but the standard is fifteen.

Rachel Rosen
Nationality: British
First Level Hacker

Str 10 (+0) Dex 12 (+1) 1 Con 10 (+0)
Int 15 (+2) Wis 10 (+0) Chr 16 (+3)

Hit Points: 6
Hit Dice: 1
Armour Class: 13

Class Abilities: Hacking, Personal OS
Skills: Acrobatics (+1), Athletics (+0), Deception (+5), Espionage (+4), Infiltration (+2), Infotech (+4), Insight (+0), Intimidation (+3), Mechanics (+2), Medicine (+0), Perception (+0), Persuasion (+5), Slight of Hand (+4), Stealth (+1), Survival (+0), Tactics (+2)

Proficiency Bonus: +2
Proficiencies: Charisma Saving Throws, Deception, Espionage, Hacking Tools, Infiltration, Infotech, Intelligence Saving Throws, Languages—Spanish and Russian, Light Armour, Motorcycles, Persuasion, Simple Melee Weapons, Simple Ranged Weapons, Sleight of Hand, Thieves’ Tools

Advantage: Dexterity Saving Throws
Feature: Escape Notice
Equipment
Laptop, taser, padded armour, investigation pack

Background: Criminal
I steal as a form of activism, targeting the ruling classes and the corporate machine (Double Life); My plans for a heist could bring down all the major banks (Secret); I only steal to help the poor, with 50% of the world’s wealth in the hands of the top 3% of people – it’s time to there was some redistribution (ideal); I have a unique relationship with the detective who wants to take me down (Bond)

Mechanically, The Spy Game uses the same ones as Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, although there are changes. The first major addition is that of infiltration to combat. This expands upon the rules for surprise and detection, accounting for the Agents’ actions round by round whilst they remain hidden from the view of any enemy NPCs. This adds a degree of tension to play prior to combat itself breaking out. The rules for vehicles also cover chases—treated as contests, but complete with manoeuvres like ramming or weaving, and combat, including targeting parts of a vehicle.

One of the major additions to The Spy Game consist of rules for Hacking. Primarily the purview of the Hacker Class who can Bypass protected operating systems or password protected software, Modify software, or Attack. The Hacker can use hacking tools which he can install as executable slots in his operating system, which like physical tools and gadgets have a Calibre rating. Operating Systems have their own Calibre rating, Armour Class, and Hit Points, and thus their own executable slots, and when a Hacker attempts to infiltrate an operating system, his aim is reduce its Hit Points to zero and so corrupt its programming and security features. Although the rules for hacking do feel like another combat subsystem, they are not intrusive in the sense that they do not impede play in the way that they do in other roleplaying games which have rules for them at their core, plus not all of the hacking tools are designed to just do damage. Others map or copy a network, deny access, and so on.

A fifth of The Spy Game is dedicated to equipment. It includes just about every item, device, or gadget that the players and their characters can imagine—and probably more beside. If not given , then the Technician Class can actually build more as gadgets as well as boosting those already in the Agents’ possession. The equipment list also includes Equipment Packs, like a Diplomatic Pack, Investigation Pack, and Wetwork Pack, as well as individual items. Unlike some of the source fiction, The Spy Game does not use brand names, makes, marks, and manufacturers in its descriptions, for example, genericising its weapons. It avoids the designers and the roleplaying game getting bogged down in real world detail, but on the other hand, it does mean that the game loses a degree of verisimilitude.

The list of equipment also encompasses the gadgets beloved of the genre. So it includes Exploding Gum, Palm Flamethrower, Bladed Boots, Garotte Watch, and more, all the way up to close air support! Vehicles are added too, such as drones and buses, all the way up to tanks and ground attack aircraft. Gadgets themselves have a Calibre rating, from one to five, and do need to be requisitioned. The maximum Calibre of the gadgets available is determined by the Mission Calibre, a factor itself based on the average Level of the NPCs the Agents will face and the number an Agent can carry is determined by his Level.

The Spy Game’s ‘World of Spies’ focuses on spying in the early twenty-first century and how espionage has changed from the late twentieth century. Several real-world agencies are detailed, but it really gives space to new and fictional agencies, including their primary locations, agents and activities, and signature devices. These are the Operations Executive, a ‘deep state’ international organisation committed to global co-operation, co-ordination, and contentment; Taga Bunot, a Philippines-based agency which specialises in date recovery and prevention of blackmail, extortion, and smear activities; Streetworks, an agency whose agents consist of those who have been fired or forced into early retirement from other agencies due to injury, incompetence, or office politics, and operate on a lower budget; the Caledonian Spy Group or CSG, the spy agency established in Scotland following a successful bid for Scottish independence; Zodiac, an agency which responds to threats detected by data sifting by artificial intelligence; and the Hive, an organisation of highly distributed digital mercenaries. Some of these agencies do wear their influences on their sleeves, almost literally in the case of the Operations Executive, a very Kingsman-like organisation, whilst Streetworks feels like Mick Herron’s Slow Horses series of novels. My favourite though is the Caledonian Spy Group, a delightfully parochial agency whose creation feels all prescient.

For the Game Master there is solid advice on creating missions and mission types, and running not just the game, but also portraying and roleplaying the Handler, the Agents’ case handler or control. Campaign themes—technology, cyber warfare, and the effects of globalised economies—are discussed and options are given for running The Spy Game during earlier periods, from the Great War and World War II to the Cold War and the War on Terror. However, the roleplaying game does not go into too much detail about those here. Safety tools are again discussed, but backed up here with examples, which are useful inclusions, but a favourite section is ‘The Moscow Rules of Game Mastery’ inspired by The Moscow Rules said to be followed by spies in the Moscow of the Cold War. These are very nicely done and would apply to almost any roleplaying game. There is good advice too on designing traps and encounters, especially to highlight the particular roles of the different Classes, so the Hacker, Medic, and Technician will want to face technical challenges, combat Classes like the Soldier and the Martial Artists combative challenges, and so on. This also gives them time in the spotlight. When it comes to traps, the advice is also to build in vulnerabilities.

Along with really big vehicles like aircraft carriers and space shuttles, The Spy Game includes rules for creating villains and masterminds. These are backed up with both standard NPCs, including stats for the Head of State(!) and Survivalists along with their bunker, and fully detailed villains and masterminds. These include a pair of sisterly assassin, each of whom uses different methods; ‘The Con’, an incredibly lucky conman who fomented war between Andorra and Lichtenstein for profit, though thankfully no shots were fired; and ‘The Count’, a classic European supervillain! Both ‘The Con’ and ‘The Count’ have their own Legendary Actions with which they are likely to thwart any Agents’ attempts to stop them.

Physically, The Spy Game is for the most part, cleanly and tidily laid out, and the artwork excellent. If there is an issue with the layout it is that the section on equipment and gadgets is simply in the wrong place. It comes after the descriptions of the roleplaying game’s eight Classes and how to create a Player Character, but before the roleplaying game’s rules. So there are sixty pages of gear between an explanation of the ability scores and their modifiers, the Proficiency Bonus, skill explanations, and more. Which impedes Player Character creation. And surely the rules for vehicle combat should be in the combat section?

The Spy Game is very much an espionage roleplaying game which focuses on the here and now as well the tomorrow of the spying world in which its Agents are really designed to be capable or super cable. Although it can do campaigns set in the past or ones which are gritty in tone and mechanics, these are really asides and switches which the Game Master will have to make and research and develop on her own. Perhaps for either option, gadgets and equipment could have been listed along with indications as which type of campaign they would be suitable for. Similarly, a bibliography could have included for reference and inspiration—the equivalent of The Spy Game’s Appendix N. That said, the rules of The Spy Game could easily be used to run a game in the style of Leverage or Hustle.

The Spy Game: A Roleplaying Game of Action & Espionage takes the mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and adeptly adapts to an entirely different genre, successfully providing new character types and Classes and unobtrusive genre mechanics. The result is a pleasing slick and modern approach to the high action, Spy-Fi genre.

Conan the Thief is a supplement for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of published by Modiphius Entertainment. It is the first in the ‘Conan the…’ series of supplements which focus on and take their inspiration from Conan himself at various stages of his life and what he was doing. Over this series, the supplements will track our titular character’s growth and progress as he gains in skills and abilities and talents. Thus this second supplement, following on from Conan the Barbarian, looks at Conan as a young man and his life what he did after he left his homeland, at the beginning of his career which will take him from barbarian to king, essentially the equivalent of a Player Character having taken the first steps in his adventuring career. Yet whilst the stats for Conan himself at this stage of his life do appear in the pages of Conan the Thief, they are more a side note than a feature, for the supplement is an examination of the countries of the centre, where East meets West in the Hyperborean Age—Brythunia, Corinthia, Nemedia, and Zamora. It includes new archetypes, talents, backgrounds, and equipment to help players create more varied Thief characters and Game Masters more varied Thief NPCs; a gazetteer and guide to the waning lands where the rule of law and civilisation force the poor and the needy, the greedy and the driven to steal and trade in what is not theirs; an array of detailed NPCs and monsters, including unique nemeses; and mechanics to help bring thievery and other activities and attitudes to your game, including burglaries, heists, assassinations, and more.

Conan the Thief opens by introducing new options for the Thief type character, building upon the content in  the core rulebook for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of. This includes the Outlaw, a new Caste, which gives numerous reasons why a Player Character turned to thievery, such as ‘Nobility in All But Name’, ‘A Victim of Justice’, and ‘An Example Must Be Made’, and presents seven new Thief Archetypes: the Assassin, the Bloody Right Hand, the Fence, the Highwayman, the Master Thief, the Relic Hunter, and the Spy. In addition, there are Thief Educations, like Burglar, Rustler, Lock Breaker, Quack Physician, and Thug, enabling a Player Character Thief to specialise or to add thiefly elements to another character type. To these are added themed War Stories, Thief Talents, and kits and weapons. The latter includes the punching dagger, the katar, the duelling sword, and the garrote, along with the typical tools of the trade such as marbles, tripwires, smoke bombs, and more. Augmenting the core rulebook, this enables a player to create an interesting character or the Game Master interesting NPCs.
Supporting these new character options is a gazetteer of the lands between the East and the West—Brythunia, Corinthia, Nemedia, and Zamora. Zamora is famed for its thieves and for the city of Shadizar the Wicked is infamously home to the most notorious of all assassins’ guild, The Black Hand; Corinithia for its merchants and economic power, as well as its fractious cities cannot agree anything more than mutual self-defence, paying for their mercenary armies; Nemedia for being dominated by the Church of Mitra and being obsessed with the ancient cultures and ruins it is built upon; and Brythunia for being a backwater with its fractious clans, one of which could easily turn on the other at a moment’s notice or slight. The fortunes of all four have fluctuated over the centuries, being both conquers and the conquered. In the main it focuses upon the cities in each of these lands, typically the site of Conan’s adventures. So ‘The Tower of the Elephant’ in the city of Zamora in the land of Zamora and ‘Rogues in the House’ between Zamora and Corinthia (here given as Magyar, the Red City), for example. In each case, the content of Conan the Thief is set before the events of Conan’s stories, enabling the Game Master to run them as adventure for her Player Characters, but there are notes for adjusting them to be used after their events too. The emphasis is firmly on the cities in detailing Zamora, Nemedia, and Corinthia, if not least for the fact that the city is the natural home of the thief, and also because they are on major trade routes which the cities’ thieves can prey upon. However, Brythunia is different, suggesting that the fractiousness between its four kingdoms can be scaled down to the village level, and using ‘Brythunian Village Design’ table, to create a rural campaign which might build into something more political.
If the gazetteer explores the cultures and places where thievery is rife, ‘Events’ goes into the types of occurrences that might beset the Thief or that the Thief might instigate. These include Personal, City and Town, and Kingdom-level events, so go from Rivalries, Framed or Set, and Debt, to Wars and Rumours of War, Steal the Heir, and Plague and Other Such Chaos via Gang War, Watch Crackdown, and The Prince of Thieves is Dead! These joined by Unnatural Events like Just Another Snake Cult or Obtainer of Rare Antiquities, and there are notes on combining them too. Effectively all of them work as potential story hooks.
‘Myth & Magic’ discusses the myth of the thief and thievery, in particular, the myth that all thieves hold to, and that is ‘Honour Among Thieves’. It quickly dispels the notion that it is actually practised, thieves typically owing loyalty and friendship, but being fundamentally selfish. It makes clear that thieves do not necessarily worship a thief deity, but rather their local gods, although several gods of thievery and darkness are given, including Bel, the God of Thieves, and the Cult of the Spider God. Potential boons are given for worshipping both, for example, Bel grants a thief who takes him a patron an extra Talent, but expects the thief to leave stolen goods somewhere where they may be easily stolen on a regular basis, whilst the Cult of the Spider God gifts its followers tokens that will poison any non-believer who touches it, a ghastly object used as a means of assassination. There suggestions here too, for the purposes to which the body parts of thief can be put once he is dead, like the Hand of Glory or rope woven from the hair of dead women. A few examples would have been useful here.
‘Encounters’ details a good mix of generic NPCs, like the assassin or the watchman, and named individuals. Several of these come from Howard’s stories as you would expect, thus Yara from ‘The Tower of the Elephant’ or Demetrio, the Chief of the Inquisitorial Council of Numalia from ‘The God in the Bowl’. There are a lot of nemeses here. They are joined by fearsome creatures like the Giant Rat and the Giant Skeleton Warrior, and worse, Yag-Kosha, from ‘The Tower of the Elephant’. These again enable the Game Master to have her Player Characters encounter then if running her campaign before the events of Conan’s stories.
Rounding out Conan the Thief is ‘Hither Came Conan…’ which places our titular hero in the context of the supplement and provides a playable version of him early in his long career. Thieving and criminal campaigns are explored in ‘The Way of Thieves’, which examines how campaigns built around thieves will be different to other campaigns for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of. It notes that Conan himself was a thief for just two or three years, that thief campaigns should avoid descending into farce as thieving is serious business, and whether the city authorities or the head of the guild, there will be checks and balances on the activities of any Player Character thief. There is solid advice here and it is supported by guidelines and rules for joining and running a thieves’ guild, along with descriptions of the guilds of note in the cities described earlier in the supplement. The ‘Heists’ chapter presents a chapter of tables with which the Game Master can generate potential jobs and targets and then develop to run for her players and their characters. It comes with a fully worked example. Lastly, ‘Heroes of the Age’ add a trio of potential Player Characters NPCs developed by backers for the Kickstarter campaign for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of. Of the three, ‘Jamil the Thieftaker’ is a great addition to any campaign set in Zamora, whilst the boastful ‘Inarus’ feels out of place, being more pirate than thief.
Physically, Conan the Thief is a slim hardback, presented in full colour, illustrated with an excellent range of fully painted artwork. It is well written, is accessible, and comes with a reasonable index.
Conan the Thief switches in emphasis and feel from Conan the Barbarian, exploring thievery and civilisation at the heart of the Hyperborean Age in lands which though often rich—for some, at least—are in decline. Both depict worlds of cruelty, one of the rough, frontier lands, the other of inequality and poverty in great cities. The advice for running a thief-based campaign is excellent, though perhaps a campaign outline for taking a band of thieves from their lives on the street into the guilds and onwards, encompassing a similar two or three-year period to that spent by Conan himself, would have been useful. Similarly, the advice on adapting the stories which the supplement directly draws upon, such as ‘The Tower of the Elephant’, could have been stronger and done with an outline or something similar to help the Game Master, especially given how pivotal these stories are in the Conan oeuvre.
Conan the Thief opens up whole new possibilities for running and playing Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of. It expands upon the options in the core rules for the player who wants to create a Thief character, and thus also for the Game Master to create interesting NPCs  for the Player Characters to encounter in a city, perhaps if they are just passing through on the way to somewhere else, However, what the content of Conan the Thief really lends itself to is entirely city-based campaigns built around thieves and thieving, where the Player Characters can all be different types of thieves and have different roles in the campaign. Such that a whole Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of campaign could almost be run without ever leaving that city or even going anywhere near the background and information presented in its other supplements. It is actually a pity that such a campaign does not exist for the roleplaying game.
Conan the Thief is a solid supplement for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, which really comes alive as a campaign supplement. In fact, Conan the Thief would make a good supplement for any Game Master wanting to run a Swords & Thievery style campaign. It is an excellent sourcebook.

—oOo—


Modiphius Entertainment will be at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, June 3rd to Sunday, June 5th, 2022.

After coming to comics with You Are Deadpool, the solo adventures of the ‘Merc with a Mouth’ switches to the traditional format of text paragraphs with You Are (Not) Deadpool. This is the first entry in the ‘A Marvel: Multiverse Missions Adventure Gamebook’ series published by Aconyte Books and unlike almost every other Solo Adventure book it promises not to put you at the centre of the action. As the title suggests, you do not play as Deadpool in You Are (Not) Deadpool. Instead you are an innocent bystander approached by Deadpool who identifies you as ‘Six’ and asks you to help him. In effect, whereas you are not Deadpool, the character you play could actually be YOU THE READER if you were in New York when Deadpool bounds over to you like a happy puppy. With no mention of what happened to One, Two, Three, or Four, let alone Five, you find yourself accompanying Deadpool on his mission. For the most part he follows your suggestions, where to go, what to do, acting as both sidekick and conscience, much like his best friend, Weasel, or Dopinder the taxi driver from the film. However, there are moments where you shine and Deadpool definitely handles the fights—with relish, often his own—whilst you huddle in the corner, having rolled the dice to determine the outcome.

The plot in Deadpool in You Are (Not) Deadpool is this. Daredevil gives a Deadpool a mission. Alien guns—Chitauri guns—are flooding the city and Deadpool has to find the source and stop them. The investigation will take the pair of Deadpool and Six above, below, and across New York, meeting Bob the Hydra Agent along the way, up and down the USA’s eastern seaboard because the budget does not extend as far away as Hawaii, although it does take them somewhere else… As Six, you and Deadpool will also play the worst game of Jenga in the Marvel Universe, fight a Psychic Octopus, lie about having found a sledgehammer, and a lot more besides. They might even jump book to the next entry in the series—She-Hulk goes to Murderworld!

Mechanically, You Are (Not) Deadpool is more sophisticated than the average solo adventure book. Standard six-sided dice are required, no more than three. Deadpool has three stats—MERC, MOUTH, and FOCUS, which are to do with physical, social, and mental stuff respectively. Initially, they are rated two each with the reader increasing the value of one of them by on, but they do change over the course of the adventure. They come into play whenever you want Deadpool to take an action. This typically involves rolling a single six-sided die and adding a stat to beat a target equal to five or six. This varies though. Sometimes, the reader will need to roll two or three six-sided dice and beat a higher target to see if Deadpool succeeds, and even then, this may not be enough. In certain challenging situations, the reader will need to roll another round or two other rounds to succeed. In addition, Deadpool can acquire Qualities such as GUARDS, GUARDS, RESOURCEFUL, and CHAOS, but never, ever KUMQUAT. Really. Not KUMQUAT. Not once. Each enters play with a value of one, and again, can fluctuate in play. Deadpool can also carry up to five objects, some of which, occasionally, can be used to improve his stats. Along the way, there games and puzzles too, such as decoding a lock in an underground base or playing the slot at a crummy casino in Atlantic City, and both Six and Deadpool can pick a wide array of achievements. 

You Are (Not) Deadpool is well written, with lots of in jokes and nods to Geek culture (especially Lovecraftian Geek culture), but beyond the cover, it does lack illustrations bar entry ending silhouette clipart. As a consequence of being all text, You Are (Not) Deadpool lacks that dual sense of wondering what situation a piece of artwork illustrates and how to get there via the numbered paragraphs, but on the other hand, it does retain much more of sense of mystery.

In the comics and the films, Deadpool is known for breaking the fourth wall (and the Marvel Universe if truth be told), but in You Are (Not) Deadpool he never does that. There is the interaction between Deadpool and Six throughout, but since you as Six are directing Deadpool’s actions, there is a gap between the two, as if you are directing or roleplaying the actions of someone who is directing or roleplaying the actions of someone else. In this case, Deadpool. It might not be breaking the fourth wall, but it is breaking the immediacy of the roleplaying if you think about it. So do not do that. It would spoil the fun.

You Are (Not) Deadpool has three hundred entries, so there is lot to explore and multiple plot threads to follow and investigate, plus some tough challenges, puzzles, and fights to overcome. Deadpool is definitely going to need more than the one run at this—unless he/you/Six are really lucky, and if all three of you fail, then at least Deadpool can come heal and comeback. As for Six? Just cross out his name wherever it appears in the quest and write Seven (or Eight or Nine or…) instead. No one will notice. 

Not quite the traditional Solo Adventure Book—but than what did you expect, this is Deadpool, after all, You Are (Not) Deadpool is an entertaining often ridiculous romp alongside the infamous ‘Merc with the Mouth’.

Conall Yellowclaw is on an urgent quest. The son of King Erin has been kidnapped and the king laid the blame firmly on Conall’s three adult children and locked them up in the royal dungeons. King Erin has also granted one chance to prove their innocence and buy their freedom: venture beyond the kingdom’s borders and acquire the famed brown horse belonging to the mysterious King Lochlann. Now he has heard of this King Lochlann—and hopes that most, if not all of the terrible stories he has heard about him are untrue, but he has no idea where he can be found and certainly no idea that he even had a horse—brown or otherwise. Worse, Conall is just a simple tenant farmer, getting on a bit and probably past the age when he should be going off on adventures—even if it is to fulfil a quest given to him by his king. Fortunately, he is persuasive and he is pretty sure that he can talk someone, or rather more than someone, preferably a party of younger, more capable adventurers, into accompanying him and fulfilling the quest on behalf of King Erin. Since time is short, he approaches them directly and asks for the Player Characters’ help.

Conall Yellowclaw’s Quest: A folkloric adventure for Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons is an adventure designed for play with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition using roughly five Player Characters of Fourth Level and should offer between two and three good sessions’ worth of play. Inspired by the tale ‘Conall Yellowclaw’ from the 1892 collection, Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs, Conall Yellowclaw’s Quest is intended to be a fast-paced and light-hearted adventure, one which can easily be run as a one-shot or added to a campaign—the latter especially if the fey play a significant role in the Dungeon Master’s campaign. It will require access to the Elemental Evil Player’s Companion, Volo’s Guide to Monsters, and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything as well as the core rulebooks for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition.

If the Player Characters agree to help Conall, they have a few hours or so to conduct a little investigation in the Kingdom of Erin—a very minor kingdom, so easily added to the Dungeon Master’s own setting if necessary—and learn not only the route to Lochlann, but also possibly a clue or two which suggests that not all is as it seems. Then they are ready to set out, the road to Lochlann twisty, overgrown, and little used. Nevertheless, there are encounters to be had on the way, some pre-written, others requiring a little development once rolled on the encounter table. Some of these encounters have the potential to be quite fun—an agitated blink dog who appears and wants help because there are children stuck down a well, two fey arguing about who is the best dancer and are about to come to blows, and a young man planting beans in a field—although he does not know it, they are of course, magical beans. In fact, it would have been nice to have seen these developed and used as a means to give the Player Characters clues as what the might be found at Castle Lochlann, a boon perhaps, or if the encounter goes wrong a bane. Further, some of these encounters have more potential for roleplaying and interaction than the written ones—first with a Band of Bandit Cat Bards who all known the ‘Song of the Empty Food Bowl’ and a Hill Giant Goatherder, who is very hungry. These feel much more confrontational than the others and do not lend themselves quite as well to roleplaying as the others do.

Finally, the Player Characters arrive at the forbidding Castle Lochlann. The adventure suggests two means of gaining entry—through the front gates or sneaking in. If they try the direct approach, King Lochlann will be welcoming, but eventually and effectively show them the door to both castle and kingdom. Ultimately, the Player Characters will probably try the latter and get into the stables. Most of the castle itself seems abandoned and is given little description—here the Dungeon Master will need to improvise. When they find the famed brown horse (and perhaps something else, because after all, the scenario was never going to be just that and just that easy), King Lochlann gets to reveal his true self, give a monologue, and shout, “Stop them!” in true villainous fashion. A showdown ensues, which should be a challenging given that King Lochlann is a high-Level Sorcerer. If the Player Characters fail, the Dungeon Master will need to improvise a suitable. If they succeed, then they get to return to King Erin, with the mysterious Brown Horse (and more), and helped release Conall’s children. The scenario suggests several treasures which might be found in Castle Lochlann should the Player Characters go looking.

Conall Yellowclaw’s Quest is intended to be light-hearted adventure with a dark edge. It probably tends towards the latter than the former, in part because there is relatively little scope for levity as the scenario is written. There are humorous possibilities in some of the encounters and the Dungeon Master may want to develop those a bit more than the encounters already given. This is not the only possible scope for expansion in the scenario. There is the whole of Castle Lochlann to detail and there is the distinct possibility that in true villainous fashion, King Lochlann, will himself escape. So he could return in a sequel seeking his revenge!

Rounding out Conall Yellowclaw’s Quest is a full set of stats and maps for the adventure. Physically, Conall Yellowclaw’s Quest does require another edit, but the adventure is decently written and easy to understand. The publicly sourced castle map could perhaps be clearer, but the artwork, also publicly sourced, is much better handled and adds a certain charm to the whole adventure.

With its fey charm, Conall Yellowclaw’s Quest may not be suitable for every Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition campaign, but that fey charm means that it could be adapted to settings where that element is strong. Perhaps in King Arthur Pendragon or even Liminal for the modern day. Would be interesting to know why he is called Conall Yellowclaw though.

Conall Yellowclaw’s Quest: A folkloric adventure for Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons is a charming little scenario easy to drop into a campaign and easy to expand.

Far to the north of the continent of Ghelspad lies the frozen lands of Fenrilik, accessible just once per year. Its separation means that in comparison it was little touched by the Titanswar which beset the southern continents of Scarn, but refugees from the Divine War made their way north in its aftermath and continued trade between Ghelspad and Fenrilik means that certain practices have been imported, but not widely spread. The indigenous peoples of the frozen north, primarily the ice fey called the Eschek, are tribal, worship spirits rather than gods, rarely war with each other, and barter for goods and services rather trade away precious resources. Rent in two by the massive Torbor Gorge, the Roof of the World is not only dangerous due to the artic winds and temperature, ice and snow, there are many native species which are also highly dangerous to the unwary. These include the titanspawn known as Blood Gardners, whose haunting song lures victims into its clutches who are then kept alive to feed the Bloodfruit which the creature relies upon for survival; Frost Maidens, former Dryads whose trees were frozen and themselves turned into an icily undead version of its former self; and Crawling Glaciers, gargantuan oozes of solid ice which slowly scour the continent. There is another threat, as yet unknown, which lurks beneath the continent—the scorpion-men known as Skerrai, which surge up onto the surface to attack and capture victims they can implant with their larvae. Welcome to the Frostlands of Fenrilik.

Frostlands of Fenrilik is a supplement for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, which describes the northernmost continent on the world of Scarn, the setting for the Scarred Lands setting published by Onyx Path Publishing. Previously described in Strange Lands: Lost Tribes of the Scarred Lands, this supplement is available via the Slarecian Vault, the community content programme for the setting. It expands upon the history, geography, civilisations, and religions of Fenrilik, supported with rules for travel and survival in the arctic wastes, new races, subclasses, and spells, new monsters, and an introductory adventure designed for Player Characters of First to Third Level.

Frostlands of Fenrilik introduces the continent via the journal of Yenei Koneru, Vera-Tre researcher and adjunct of the Ganjus Vigil, who like the Player Characters has made the long, only once-a-year open journey to Fenrilik, first to continent’s ‘major’ port of Stasiam and from there to its only city of Kovokimru—and beyond. Yenei Koneru and her companions will also appear in the supplement’s scenario. It opens with descriptions and a table of Fenrilik’s weather, its major settlements, and tables for both encounters and environmental hazards. The latter in particular highlights how deadly Fenrilik actually is, from avalanches and thin ice to fissures and geothermal vents, whilst it is suggested that the encounters be used to imperil the Player Characters’ survival rather than being used as combat encounters. The culture and attitudes of Fenrilik’s tribes are described in quite broad detail, leaving the Dungeon Master to develop further specifics. If the opening chapter is missing something, it is a map of Fenrilik, although one is given at the end of Frostlands of Fenrilik. Unfortunately, the map is not all that interesting and should really have had a few more landmarks indicated.




Definitely detailed though, is the continent’s one city, Kovokimru. It receives a full chapter to itself compared to the thumbnail descriptions of the towns and villages detailed earlier. Mostly built using a mix of wood and the famed hardened icework of the Eschek over geothermal vents which keep the city warm, Kovokimru is inhabited by several tribes and includes a large market and trade hall, as well as a Mage’s Guild, which grew out of a personal lending library into a school and guild. Numerous NPCs and locations are described as well as the holidays and festivals which take place over the course of a year. The fact that Fenrilik is only accessible once a year means that the Player Characters will probably be spending that year in and around the city bas their base of operations, so these festivals are something that the Dungeon Master can develop plots and adventures around, helping to bring the setting further to life. This is in addition to the quartet of adventure seeds included at the end of the chapter, which although involving an entertaining range of combat, diplomatic, investigative, and magical challenges, will need a fair of development upon the part of the Dungeon Master. Three locations are also described and mapped—an inn, a tavern, and a flophouse. However, it is disappointing that no map of Kovokimru itself is provided.

One big cultural difference between Fenrilik and Ghelspad is the use of money. The tribes of Fenrilik value metal of its practical use rather than any monetary value. Consequently, any money the Player Characters arrive with will not be as valuable as it might be back home. Instead, they will find themselves bartering for goods and services—and being paid in kind! However, the peoples of Kovokimru accept most visitors as long as they contribute to city’s welfare, which can include menial jobs if anyone is down on his luck. Given how important this aspect of the city is, it is a pity that a few examples are not included in the supplement’s discussion of it. Nevertheless, this will force both the players and their characters to think differently when it comes trading and bartering, and the roleplaying possibilities that this lends itself to.

The other location described in detail in Frostlands of Fenrilik is Tobor Gorge, which divides Fenrilik in two and is hundreds of miles long and a mile deep. It has only one crossing point opposite Kovokimru and only one easy means of getting down—a rickety lift-and-pully system, which you need to be hooked into lest you be blown into the gorge. Alternatively, it can be climbed down, but that is perilous. The sides of the cavern are doted with caverns, most of which have yet to be explored, leaving the Dungeon Master to detail them and turn them into adventure sites. There are a couple of adventure seeds, although these are not as inventive or as interesting as those for Kovokimru.

Frostlands of Fenrilik also adds a number of new character options and new spells. The Eschek, inaccurately described as ‘winter gnomes’ are actually creatures of ice renowned for crafting ice into tools, furniture, and buildings. Those few who travel beyond Fenrilik require a frost ring to enable to withstand the high temperatures of the south. The Krampek are satyr-like, but their horns are antenna actually used as part their communication, with a disarming appearance which often gives them an advantage when attacking first. They are highly suited to living underground and most of them are slaves of the dreaded Skerrai. The third new race is the oddest and the most recent to appear. They are Taslenh, again creatures of ice, but created when an ooze known as an ‘ice warden’ imprints on a humanoid. They remain both humanoid and ooze, so a bit odd!

Although there are no new Classes in Frostlands of Fenrilik, it does detail four new sub-classes. These are the College of Hope for the Bard, who boosts morale and brings comfort across the frigid lands of the north; the Way of the Winter Soul as a Monk Tradition, who can direct cold or heat damage through his hands, become one with fog, steam, and snow, and so on; the Ice Walker Ranger Archetypes who can survive in the frozen north and even fashion arms and armour from ice; and the Ushada Marked is a Sorcerous Origin which draws from Fenrilik’s primal spirits. They also serve as spiritual leaders for some communities, often replacing Clerics, which opens up roleplaying possibilities for any Player Character. Overall, this a good mix of options.

Frostlands of Fenrilik includes a list of the spells used on the continent, and adds new ones too. Some have a cold theme, such as the Cold Snap cantrip which casts cold deep into the victim’s bones and Ice Shards which creates shards that float around caster, which can be used as an Armour Class bonus or expended to shoot at opponents and do damage. Particularly cruel are the Fracture and Rupture spells, the former snapping one of a target’s bones, the latter fracturing his skull. Most of the spells have been crafted by the Titans. For example, in response to an attack by his fellow Titans, Golthain the Faceless crafted Empathy of the Faceless One to ensure that his attackers felt the same damage they inflicted upon him. A Bard and Druid spell, it affects five attackers and if any are reduced to zero Hit Points or are killed, this rebounds on the caster as his player has to making saving throws to avoid being stunned for a Round. The spells are a good strong mix of interesting theme and flavour, though of course, specific to the Fenrilik and the Scarred Lands setting.

The bestiary, ‘Creatures of Fenrilik’, adds monsters particular to the frozen continent and its frigid environs. There is a slight predilection for the gargantuan in the dozen or so given, such as the aforementioned Crawling Glacier; the Fell Deer, great shaggy beasts whose tusk-like antlers curve down and are used to break up the tundra to get at the lichen and moss it feeds on, and which are used as beasts of burden, travel, and rarely war; and the Gelidiceph—an ice kraken! Perhaps more an immediate threat is the scorpionmen-like Skerrai, who may or may not be the artic version of the Sandmaskers from the far southern deserts, and who lurk in the tunnels beneath Fenrilik, allegedly for something… Even the immature Skerrai are deadly, perhaps too deadly for low-Level Player Characters and the Dungeon Master may want to use them with care lest they overwhelm her players and their characters. Their desire to implant their larvae in their victims adds an element of horror to any encounters with them. Also included here is the Ice Warden, flowing globs of dark blue water which imprints itself on hosts and creates the new player Race, the Taslenh.

Rounding out Frostlands of Fenrilik is ‘Into the Gorge’, a short introductory which takes the Player Characters into the caverns found in the wall of Tobor Gorge. It starts with them on the way to Kovokimru where they are offered employment—a matter of a certain missing anthropologist, one Yenei Koneru. Another job sees them explore some of the caverns in Tobor Gorge. Could the two be connected? This is primarily an exploration scenario in which the Player Characters will discover some of the secrets that lie below Fenrilik and encounter some of its strange inhabitants. Player Characters who rush in first, leaving questions for later, will be at a disadvantage and will likely have to do much to make up for earlier mistakes. However, their style of play will be rewarded with some tough—perhaps too tough—challenges towards the end of the scenario. Potentially, ‘Into the Gorge’ is a challenging scenario for First Level Player Characters, so the Dungeon Master may want to make some adjustments, but otherwise, the scenario does a decent job of introducing the setting and some of its secrets.

Physically, Frostlands of Fenrilik is generally well written and well presented. The artwork varies in style and quality, but some of it is very good. The maps though, are disappointingly bland, and again, the city of Kovokimru could have done with a map.

One aspect of Fenrilik that the supplement does not explore fully is that of survival and travel. Although the table for weather, encounters, and environmental hazards are useful, but there is no advice how travel is handled, important given that many of the tribes of Fenrilik are nomadic and that the Player Characters will definitely have to travel from Stasiam to Kovokimru. Some survival rules would have been useful.

Frostlands of Fenrilik does have some minor issues, but there is a lot to like in its pages. There are fearsome monsters and some nicely detailed locations in both Kovokimru and Tobor Gorge for the Dungeon Master; challenges for the players and their characters in terms of survival and interacting with the indigenous peoples, let alone those monsters; and then also for the players, there are interesting new subclass options and spells (which can also be used by NPCs to, of course). With a time limited means of access, Frostlands of Fenrilik is an excellent introduction to the continent of Fenrilik and a one-year campaign set in the frozen north.

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

—oOo—

What is it?
The Six Paths is a supplement for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha which describes and discusses the six main Heortling genders and their roles in society and the cults of Heler, Nandan, and Vinga.

Notes are provided to enable the content to be used with QuestWorlds (HeroQuest).

It is a twenty-nine page, full colour 4.89 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy and the artwork excellent.

Where is it set?The content of The Six Paths is set primarily wherever Heortlings may be found.
Who do you play?
The content of The Six Paths is intended is designed to be used with the multiple genders and sexes recognised by Heortling culture and members of the Heler, Nandan, and Vinga cults.
What do you need?
The Six Paths requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha  and The Book of Red Magic.
What do you get?The Six Paths explores how Heortling society recognises and accepts four sexes—female, male, neuter, and both, and at least six genders—female, male, vingan, nandan, helering, and none. It presents the myth of how Orlanth came to recognise these and explores the stereotypical identities and roles associated with them. For example, a vingan uses the female pronouns, keeps her hair short and dyed red, wears trews and skirt with tunic and arm rings, has the personality traits of passionate, violent, and proud, and is associated with the tasks of ploughing, carpentry, hunting, and smithing. Whereas a helering uses both male and female pronouns and neither, keeps their beard long or is cleanshaven, wears a skirt, and is adaptable, mercurial, and changeable. There are no specific tasks associated with helerings as they can turn their hands to anything. Whilst the patron gods are given for each of the genders, for example, Vinga for vingans and Heler for helerings, they do not necessarily join their actual cults, but their cults are given in The Six Paths (in which case, their worshippers are Vingans and Helerings.) As stereotypes, these are essentially the baseline to work from rather than play to.

Three cults—not presented so far for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha—are detailed in The Six Paths. These are Heler the Rainmaker, Nandan the Housekeeper, and Vinga the Defender Storm. These are fully written up in the same format as in RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha including mythos and history, the cult’s beliefs on life after death, likes and dislikes, organisation, centre of power and holy places, and much more. Details are also provided for using the three cults in QuestWorlds (HeroQuest). Each cult is fully playable, adding interesting options in terms of character types, whether that is as a fierce follower of Ereltharol, the  Black Ram, Heler’s brutal warrior child; a loyal Nandan housekeeper; or a fierce Vingan warrior. All three cults come with nicely done associated myths which context to each cult. The Vinga cult details also adds the Weather Lore skill.

In addition to four new spells listed in the appendix—Change Sex, Impregnate, Summon Cloud Spirit, and Summon Nephelae—The Six Paths presents six sample characters which the variety of genders and sexes to be found in Heortling society. They include Leikan, a vingan Initiate of Yelmalio, Frithorf, a neuter Initiate of Orlanth and assistant shaman with their gloriously blue dyed hair and beard, and Esarios, a helering initiate of Humakt. All six do showcase the range of possibilities that the mix of genders and sexes in Heortling society encourages, and they can be easily used as NPCs or sample Player Characters.
There is a wealth of detail and a great deal to like in The Six Paths. The cults are particularly well done, and the supplement in general is very written and full of flavour and detail that is easy to bring into a campaign. 

However, The Six Paths is not without its potential controversaries. Obviously, there is its subject matter, but there are difficulties with its language too. The former is less of an issue because the fluidity of both gender and sex written already written into the background of Glorantha and RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, but not every player or Game Master will necessarily want to deal with or address this subject matter within their game. In which case, their game will fall under the caveat that ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’, and so The Six Paths will not be for them. Nevertheless, the language is problematic with the title of the spell, Impregnate, which carries with it the implication, if not of force necessarily, then of a masculine act rather than the feminine act of conception and its association with Ernalda, thereby negating her role and purview. The spell Change Sex also has its own issues, not least of which is that its use feels arbitrary rather than something special which might be achieved through a lengthy and purposeful hero quest rather than just having a spell cast. The power of both spells is implied by the number of Rune points which need to be expended to cast them—three in either case, but both spells feel underwritten in comparison to the two other spells listed alongside them in the appendix.

When it comes to answering the question, “Are vingans and nandai transgender?”, the phrasing in The Six Paths is potentially much more contentious. Its answer is that, “It would be easy to assume that vingans are trans men, and nandani are trans women. However, as gender and sex are separated in Heort’s Laws, there would be no reason for this to be the case. The Heortlings are perfectly capable of understanding someone who was born in a male body, but with a female gender identity. This means that vingans and nandani are a separate gender identity, seen as possessing different societal roles.” Now whilst vingans and nandai have the benefit of growing up in Heort society which accepts them as equals, by suggesting that vingans and nandai are not transgender (or might not be), The Six Paths is excluding the fact that they could be and in doing so excluding those who are. In effect, denying transgender players the characters and role models within the setting of Glorantha with which they can self-identify. This may not have been the authors’ intention and it may not be the case for every individual who identifies as or is transgender, but there is very much scope here for others of the transgender community to feel excluded.

Is it worth your time?Yes—The Six Paths is an excellent exploration of gender, sex, and associated cults and spells for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, but some of its language may not be considered approriate.No—The Six Paths is an exploration of a subject matter which not everyone is comfortable with as well as some of the language and terminology used in the supplement being contentious for others. Maybe—The Six Paths is a potentially excellent exploration of gender, sex, and associated cults and spells for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, but arguably, its use of language and terminology may not be as inclusive as the authors intended. Address that and it becoms a much less difficult supplement.

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

—oOo—

What is it?
Lost in the Dark is a scenario and supplement for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha in which the adventurers are tormented by a mischievous Darkness spirit and literally get lost in the dark.

It is an eleven page, full colour 27.46 MB PDF.

The layout is scrappy and the scenario requires development and editing, but the artwork is engaging and the cover excellent.

Where is it set?
The sidetrek in Lost in the Dark is specifically set along in the Nymie Valley on the route between Apple Lane and Clearwine Fort. It could easily be set elsewhere.

Who do you play?Any type of Player Character could play through Lost in the Dark, although a shaman or assistant shaman may be useful. Uz will have a specific advantage when encountering the Lost in the Dark spirit and are not suitable for the side trek adventure seed given in Lost in the Dark. The Player Characters do require a reason to be travelling from Apple Lane to Clearwine Fort, especially at night.
What do you need?
Lost in the Dark requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha as well as The RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack for wider information about the region around Apple Lane. The RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary will be useful for details of some of the encounters.

What do you get?
Lost in the Dark plays on the Orlanthi fear of the dark instilled in him in ages past in the Greater Darkness. Whilst travelling at night, the Player Characters unknowingly encounter a Lost in the Dark, a darkness spirit who delights in playing tricks on travellers, making it difficult for them to navigate their way by dimming both torches and the stars in the skydome, and forcing them to become lost. Mischievous rather than malicious, the Lost in the Dark literally forces the Player Characters into a series of side treks from dusk to dawn.

Full stats are provided for the Lost in the Dark, a child of Dehore, although no description is given. There are two illustrations, so the Game Master can choose from either. Notably, the Lost in the Dark is chased away when Yelm ascends out of the Underwrold at dawn, so the Player Characters will not be plagued by it longer than one night, and it can be negotiated with if it is spotted or sensed. Unless a Player Character has Spirit Sense, this is understandably difficult.
 The adventure seed in Lost in the Dark sees the Player Characters start the day-long journey from Apple Lane south to Clearwine Fort—and do so at night. The Game Master is expected to provide a reason for the Player Characters to do this, but given the fear that Orlanthi have of travelling at night, this is an issue. It really, really has to be a good reason, and Lost in the Dark really, really should have included some suggestions, especially how specific it is in terms of setting. Lost in the Dark also includes rules for ‘Navigating in the Dark’ which are workable enough, along with a fully worked out example. The adventure seed itself is supported with a number of encounter suggestions. Like the adventure seed itself, these can easily be extracted from Lost in the Dark and run elsewhere, although the Game Master will need to provide any stats necessary and may want to develop them a little further to fit into her campaign. The best use of Lost in the Dark is as an interlude between longer scenarios. Its brevity makes it easy to prepare and run, but for some players, the mischievous and hidden in the dark nature of the encounter could be an exercise in frustration.

Is it worth your time?Yes—Lost in the Dark presents an easy to run interlude that can be adapted to elsewhere, but which requires some development input upon the part of the Game Master.No—Lost in the Dark presents an annoying encounter with a mischievous spirit at a time when the Player Characters know better than to be out and which the Game Master really has to provide a reason to explain that. Plus the campaign may not be set in the lands of the Colymar Tribe.Maybe—Lost in the Dark presents an an annoying encounter with a mischievous spirit at a time when the Player Characters know better than to be out and which the Game Master really has to provide a reason to explain that.

Book of the Underworld is a sourcebook for 13th Age, the roleplaying game from Pelgrane Press which combines the best elements of both Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition and Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition to give high action combat, strong narrative ties, and exciting play. It is a guide to the realms below the Dragon Empire. Not the dungeons, but further below, in the realms known as the Underworld, riddled with twisting tunnels and networks of caverns; home to lost seas, lost races, and lost gods; rife with dark secrets and darker kingdoms; and below that? Here can be found the Gnomish school of wizardry, the Arcane Academy in the Burrowdeep Warrens where the graduates swear to never reveal its location upon pain of a curse that changes from graduation year to graduation year and where all sorts of magic is studied away from the eye of the Archmage—even necromancy! Forge, the Dwarven City of Memorials to the lost ancient civilisation of Underhome which stretched across the Underworld and which the Dwarven King still claims as his—along with much of the Underworld. Drowfort, a magnificently dark fortress sphere suspended by webs amidst a circular cavern, where factions of the Drow dedicated to the Elf Queen, She Who Spins, and both without ever revealing their allegiances co-operate to impose martial law on the Underworld. The Caverns of Lost Time in the Hollow Realm where whole regions of both the Overworld of the Dragon Empire and the Underworld, as well those of previous and lost Ages have been swallowed and preserved. Below that, glimpses of Underkrakens might be caught, seas of chaos writhe and surge, gods repose in their great catacombs, and something stranger still might be found—possibly the great architect of the Living Dungeons which burrow up the Underworld to the Overworld… And he has a beard, wears glasses and Hawaiian shirts, and speaks with a Midwestern accent, that would not be the strangest thing in Book of the Underworld.

The Book of the Underworld is a slim volume of ideas, places, monsters, advice, lists of thirteen things, and more, all designed to take a Game Master’s campaign even deeper underground. It is by no means a definitive guide to the Underworld, but it contains more than enough content and ideas to fuel multiple campaigns. Some locations its fleshes out in detail, such as Forge, Dwarven City of Memorials with its multiple districts and NPCs, or Web City, the stalactite city home to two cults—the Cult of She Who Spins in Darkness and the Cult of He Who Weaves With Joy—and innumerable spiders and drow, a fantasy ’noir setting strung across the ceiling of a great cavern, whereas locations such as the Dark Temples where the darkest of gods hide from the light and the Salt Mines of the Manticore, a sprawling salt mine used in ages past as a prison with one entrance pit in manticores were free to feed on the salty inmates, get just a paragraph or two. Whilst the former are more ready to play and easier for the Game Master to bring to the table, the other locations are more ready for her input and development of her own ideas and content.

The Book of the Underworld does require access to a number of supplements for 13th Age. In addition to the core rulebook, the Game Master will need the 13th Age Bestiary, 13th Age Bestiary 2, and 13 True Ways, whilst 13th Age Glorantha, Book of Ages, Book of Demons, and others will all be useful. It divides the Underworld into three layers. These are in descending order of depth, the Underland, the Hollow Realm, and the Deeps, which correspond roughly to the three tiers of play in 13th Age—Adventurer, Champion, and Epic. As with other supplements for 13th Age, it ties in the thirteen Icons and their relationships with the Underworld, which of course can be used to spur the Player Characters into descending below either on their behalf or to stop their plans. It throws in too, several fallen, vanished, and refused Icons, such as the Explorer from the Book of Ages or the Gold King—a former Dwarf King turned undead from 13th Age Bestiary 2. It introduces the Calling, the alien desire which subverts an existing icon relationship and compels an adventurer to travel further into the Underworld…

The supplement also discusses the roles which the underworld can take in a campaign, from a source of evil or monsters to a realm which is either hidden, prosaic, or weird, if not a mixture of all three, as well as using as the setting for a quick delve or a longer sojourn across an entire tier of play. Rather than suggesting that the Game Master map out each and every tunnel or cavern, it gives guidelines on how to use travel montages and include the players’ input and descriptions to detail and enhance the various locations their characters come across to make it interesting and involving, but shies away from focusing upon the day-to-day tracking of resources such as food, water, and sources of light. It adds a few treasures, such as the Drow Poesy, made of flowers plucked from Hell and the Bezoar of the Caves, former magical items belonging to adventurers chewed up and spat out by carnivorous caves, as well as numerous new monsters, but the latter tend to be specific to their locations.

The two races to receive the most attention in Book of the Underworld are the Dwarves and the Drow. Both are well handled and nuanced, but the interpretations of the Drow are the more interesting, if only because they are not portrayed as the out and out villains they often are in other settings, but rather accorded multiple interpretations which the Game Master can pick and choose from. Also known as the Silver Folk, they are primarily divided between those loyal to the Elf Queen and those loyal to the Cult of She Who Spins in Darkness. The realm of the Silverfolk lies below and extends beyond the Queen’s Wood. Numerous options for obtaining access are given, such as via ancient fairy mounds or sigils spun by spiders, and the Silver Folk might be divided into family clans of extreme specialists, whether that is of duellists, torturers, mushroom farmers, spider herders, artists who paint living portraits, and more; operate as the Elf Queen’s secret police; be exiles from the Queen’s Wood above; or reside in cavern dens as drug-addled fiends and hedonists, or laboratories where alchemy is practised as an art. The other Drow locations detailed in the Book of the Underworld, Drowfort and Web City, are located below in the Hollow Realm and are likewise accorded options of their own from which the Game Master can choose—as with much of the supplement.

Elsewhere, the Book of the Underworld provides lists of ways to get into the Underworld—including via the Abyss for Player Characters who want to make their delvings all the more challenging and for the Game Master who wants to make use of the Book of Demons, an explanation of how druidic earthworks work—above and below ground, the Grand Dismal Swamp—complete with Troglodytes and Fungaloid monsters, and not one, but four kingdoms of the Mechanical Sun! There really is a lot for the Game Master to play with in the pages of the Book of the Underworld. Plus it need not be just for 13th Age. The ideas and settings in this supplement would work equally as well in a lot of other fantasy roleplaying games too.

Physically, the Book of the Underworld is well written, but not always well illustrated as the artwork varies widely. It presents a wealth of ideas and options as well as particular locations, some already developed, others awaiting development upon the part of the Game Master, that she can bring to her campaign. Or indeed, actually turn into a campaign! The Book of the Underworld literally adds depth to 13th Age and content that a Game Master can mine for scenario after scenario and campaign after campaign.

Hostile is a gritty, near future roleplaying game inspired by the Blue-Collar Science Fiction of films such as Alien, Bladerunner, and Outland. It is a future in which space exploration and colonisation is difficult, harsh, and dangerous, but in which there are asteroid systems and worlds to be exploited and great profits to be made. Conflict is not unknown—between colonies, between colonies and corporations, between corporations, and when that gets too much the Interstellar Commerce Organisation steps in or peacekeepers such as the United States Marine Corps are sent in, but in the main, space is a working environment. One with numerous hazards—the vacuum of space, radiation, adversely high and low temperatures, poisonous planetary atmospheres, potential insanity from being exposed to hyperspace, and strange alien creatures which see you as intruder, food, or incubation for its brood—which humanity must cope with in addition to the stresses of space travel and working away from Earth.

Published by Zozer Games, Hostile is derived from Samardan Press’ Cepheus Engine System Reference Document, the Classic Era Science Fiction 2D6-Based Open Gaming System based on Traveller. It is a standalone game system and setting which is divided into two volumes, Hostile Rules and Hostile Setting. To encompass the military Science Fiction aspect the setting—obviously inspired by Aliens—Hostile encompasses the squad level combat rules from Modern War, but that is only one option of play explored in Hostile Rules. In total, Hostile Rules covers the task resolution mechanics, character creation, survival rules, stress and panic rules, starship and ground combat, starship operations, creating worlds, trade and salvage, encounter tables, and more. What Hostile Rules does not do is provide an actual setting, although that is either referred to or inferred to throughout its pages, for typical wages and costs of items and services in 2250, as well as the licences and qualifications associated with the roleplaying game’s skills, both in the military and out.

Hostile Rules is itself not entirely complete and is not a standalone rulebook. Most obviously, there are no weapon stats given in the combat sections of Hostile Rules—that is saved for Hostile Setting.

The fundamentals of Hostile will be familiar to Referees and players of Traveller. The core mechanic consists of two-sided dice rolled against a target of eight or more, to which are added stat-derived modifiers; characters tend to be older, having gone through several four-year terms of service in a career and may suffer the effects of aging; in combat, damage is taken directly by a character’s three physical attributes—Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance; and starship travel is measured in the number of parsecs travelled. In flavour and feel though, Hostile Rules is very different to Traveller, being grim and gritty near future Science Fiction as opposed to the far future Imperial Science Fiction of Traveller.

Hostile Rules begins by explaining its core mechanic. To the standard skill role, it explains the perception roll and the characteristic roll, all done in a couple of pages, or so. It also discusses the types of campaigns which it can be used to run. These are typically built around particular crew types, including colony work crews, corporate investigation teams, roughneck crews, commercial starship crews, marine corps squads, private military contractors, and more. Then it explains character creation, with options for designed rather than random creation. Although the setting of Hostile is humanocentric, it includes options for the genetically engineered Android and Prole, but neither are intended as options for Player Characters. Proles are needy and introverted with a four-year lifespan, whilst Androids are passive and non-aggressive, and the designers advise the Referee to be careful before allowing an Android with ‘broken programming’ in play.

A character in Hostile is defined by six characteristics—Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intellect, Education, and Social Standing—each rolled on two six-sided dice and expressed as line of numbers and letters called UPP or Universal Personality Profile. A Player Character’s homeworld provides some base skills at level zero, with career options including Corporate Agent, Corporate Executive, Colonist, Commercial Spacer, Marine, Marshal, Military Spacer, Physician, Ranger, Roughneck, Scientist, Survey Scout, and Technician. The Android Career is included for NPCs. Then a player rolls for the character’s Career, term by term, with mustering benefits at the end. In addition, Hostile Rules adds tables for his appearance, height, weight, psych evaluation, reason for leaving Earth, suit badges, and more. This nicely adds flavour and detail. All of the details for each Career is neatly contained on the single page.

Chandra Pham is from Singapore on Earth and signed on with Kuorox Interplanetary as a crewhand and for the last two decades has risen through the ranks, qualifying as a senior broker before being appointed captain of the Blue Hildegard. Two years ago, the Blue Hildegard was hijacked following a gun battle in which numerous members of the crew and hijackers were killed. Captain Pham managed to lead an escape attempt and overpower the hijacker, but was badly injured during the incident, losing her right eye. Although an ICO Court of Inquiry exonerated her, it pointed to lax Kuorox Interplanetary operating procedures which enabled the hijacking. Chandra Pham was let go by Chandra Pham, but received Star Envoy Club Membership as a reward and is currently looking for an independent berth or opportunities to trade.

Senior Captain Chandra Pham, Age 38
Homeworld: Earth
Height: 159 cm Weight: 64 kg
Psych Evaluation: Selfish (Concerned with reward and compensation)
Reason for Leaving Earth: Caught up in political turmoil
Distinctive Feature: Shades
Qualifications: Commercial Brokerage Licence, ICO Sensor & Signals Licence, ICO Cargo Loader Licence, ICO Space Transportation Licence, UASL Pressure Suit Handling Licence

578C86
Commercial Spacer (5 Terms)
Brawling-0, Broker-4, Carousing-0, Comms-1, Computer-1, Ground Vehicle-0, Gun Combat-1, Loader-1, Navigation-1, Pilot-2, Streetwise-0, Vacc Suit-1
Cr. 20,000
Star Envoy Club Membership

As well as providing rules for a multitude of environmental hazards, from acid, hiking, and diseases to arctic and desert, pressure loss, and hunger, Hostile Rules includes rules for stress and panic. This can occur when a starship or vacc suit takes damage for the first time, suffering damage to reduce an attribute to half or more, losing control during a spacewalk, and more. This is a standard Intelligence roll and if failed, the Player Character temporarily loses a point of Intelligence, potentially making further Stress checks harder to pass. If a Player Character’s Intelligence is reduced to half or zero in this way, a Panic Check is made and if failed, he will act accordingly to a roll on the Panic Effects table. In general, this favours Player Characters who have a high Intelligence, but there is a spiral loss, at least temporarily, to Stress checks from any lost Intelligence and of course, scope to roleplay a character’s response.

The combat rules cover everything from personal combat all the up to vehicular combat. This includes blind, area, and frenzy fire, calling for fire support, handling NPCs, the scale between man portable and vehicular weapons, and more. Space combat is also covered, but in some ways, the chapter on starship is actually more interesting, getting right down into the nitty gritty of details such refueling, loading and unloading, fight and hyperspace, landing, and more. What this impresses upon the reader is that Hostile is not setting in which a starship necessarily takes off, travels, and lands somewhere. This all takes effort and work upon the part of the crew, and whilst it need not be played out each and every time, it should be done at least once, if not twice, to reinforce the nature of space travel. One aspect which is like Traveller in the Hostile Rules is that travel in hyperspace is done outside of star systems and two aspects in which it is not, is that hyperspace travel is done in hypersleep and that starships can travel for more than week. Which means that a starship capable of travelling three parsecs per week would cover that distance in a week, a shop capable of only traveling one per week, would take three. One pleasing genre enforcing element is that commercial starship crews make most of their money through bonuses, not base pay, so Player Characters get to gripe about their bonus!

Hostile Rules also goes in quite details about worlds and world data, especially its physical characteristics. There are rules here for creating worlds, adding trade classifications and bases, and more, although there is no checklist, so it does look as if they are not actually there! As with the small arms, actual world data for individual colonies and settlements within the setting are saved for Hostile Setting. There are rules for trade though, and salvage.

Hostile Rules is rounded off with a lengthy set of encounter tables and advice for the Referee. The encounter tables handle everything from Space Encounters and Starport Encounters to Colony Encounters and Patron Encounters, as rules for handling interaction between the Player Characters and the NPCs. It also includes tables and guidance for Animal Encounters, including creating them, though this does not extend as far as Exomorphs—or Alien Horrors! There is a nice little essay here on making them interesting and different to that of the Xenomorphs, the obvious inspiration for Hostile. It only runs to a couple of pages, so it is a pity that it could not be longer, but unlike the other animals, there are no tables to help the Referee create her own, though there are plenty of ideas included to make encounters with them different and challenging.

The advice for the Referee is excellent, covering campaign types—the fact that the different crew types allow for a range of Player Character types, adjudicating the rules, how to create scenarios, including a example inspired by a horror film, how to prepare so that you can improvise better, and finally, run campaigns. The latter feels shorter and less useful than the rest, but overall, this is all helpful advice.

Physically, Hostile Rules is serviceably done. The artwork is excellent, capturing very much the grim and gritty feel of space being a working environment. One noticeable design feature is the text size, which although sans serif, is large. Hostile Rules could have easily been a shorter book with a smaller sized typeface, but the larger size is very easy to read.

The absence of weapons is the biggest issue with Hostile Rules. It is obvious why it lack them—Hostile Rules and Hostile Setting are designed to complement each other. However, with the addition of weapons stats, Hostile Rules would all be a standalone set of roleplaying rules.

The contents of Hostile Rules will feel familiar to anyone who played or read either Traveller or Cepheus, but very much filtered through not one, but three different Science Fiction subgenres—Blue Collar Science Fiction, Horror Science Fiction, and Military Science Fiction—and combined into one heavily implied setting with obvious inspirations. Bar the absence of weapons, Hostile Rules does very much feel like a Cepheus Engine version of Alien and Aliens, minus the Xenomorphs. This is not to say that this is a bad thing, but like the Aliens Universe, and even more so with Hostile there are numerous tales to be told which do involve conflict and exploration and strangeness without encountering a Xenomorph, or in this case, an Exomorph. Although Hostile Rules includes rules for Exomorphs and a Referee can run games involving them, they are not its focus as they are in Free League Publishing’s Alien: The Roleplaying Game. Plus, of course, Hostile already has enough elements within it that are trying to kill the Player Characters.

Although not complete, Hostile Rules is an engagingly accessible set of rules and mechanics which serve to make space and the frontier a dangerous place to be, let alone work. In combination with Hostile Setting it will provided a solid, detailed design, both in terms of the rules and the grim and gritty future.

Metamorphosis Alpha: The Mutation Manual is a supplement designed for Metamorphosis Alpha: Fantastic Role-Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventures on a Lost Starship. The first Science Fiction roleplaying game and the first post-apocalypse roleplaying game, Metamorphosis Alpha is set aboard the Starship Warden, a generation spaceship which has suffered an unknown catastrophic event which killed the crew and most of the million or so colonists and left the ship irradiated and many of the survivors and the flora and fauna aboard mutated. Some three centuries later, as Humans, Mutated Humans, Mutated Animals, and Mutated Plants, the Player Characters, knowing nothing of their captive universe, would leave their village to explore strange realm around them, wielding fantastic mutant powers and discovering how to wield fantastic devices of the gods and the ancients that is technology, ultimately learn of their enclosed world. Originally published in 1976, it would go on to influence a whole genre of roleplaying games, starting with Gamma World, right down to Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic from Goodman Games. And it would be Goodman Games which brought the roleplaying game back with the stunning Metamorphosis Alpha Collector’s Edition in 2016, and support the forty-year old roleplaying game with a number of supplements, many which would be collected in the ‘Metamorphosis Alpha Treasure Chest’.
Metamorphosis Alpha: The Mutation Manual is written by a variety of authors, including James M. Ward, the designer of Metamorphosis Alpha and simply gives descriptions of over two hundred mutations. Metamorphosis Alpha: The Mutation Manual is a character sourcebook divided between lists and descriptions. Both lists and descriptions are divided into six categories—physical mutations, physical defects, mental mutations, mental defects, plant mutations, and plant defects. There are more of the mutations than the defects in each category. So typically, there are eighty to ninety entries for the mutation categories and between two and twelve entries for the defects. They are joined by a full complete mutation list at the end of The Mutation Manual, which lists all of the mutations in the roleplaying. Neatly, this list references not just the entries in this supplement, but also all of the mutations and defects listed in Metamorphosis Alpha—both the original version published by TSR, Inc. in 1976 and the more recent edition published by Goodman Games in 2016. One of the features of Metamorphosis Alpha is that Player Characters do not intrinsically get better. They do not acquire Levels, improve their attributes, or increase their Hit Points through being rewarded Experience Points. Which begs the question, how does a Player Character improve himself? There are two main ways. One is to find better and often deadlier arms, armour, and equipment, the other is gain new mutations. Both are relatively easy to come across in play. There are always stores of forgotten or dropped gear to be found, and across the various decks of the Starship Warden are to be found sources of radiation and other mutagenic agents. So the former will equip a Player Character, whilst the latter will alter him, granting wondrous new powers and abilities. Of course, there comes a point when the equipment and mutation lists in Metamorphosis Alpha begins to feel a bit stale and over used. Fortunately, the contents of the ‘Metamorphosis Alpha Treasure Chest’ provide plenty of source material in terms of both—and thus plenty of other source material for other Post-Apocalyptic roleplaying games. Of course, Metamorphosis Alpha: The Mutation Manual adds the new and needed mutations.

So for the physical mutations, there is ‘Anaerobic’ which enables a mutant to breathe any gas bar oxygen, ‘Detonating Fingers’ with which a mutant can generate and miniature bomb blasts from his fingers, ‘Holographic Skin’ grants a low Armour Class and near invisibility when he is partially dressed, and ‘Physical Flinging Back’ which throws the effect of an attack back at the attacker. Some of the Physical Mutations have a superhero power feel to them, like ‘Duralloy Skeleton’ or ‘Metallic Skin’, but others odd, even bonkers, such as ‘Edible’ which makes the mutant’s body produce edible fruit or nuts which have special effects, such as pistachios which temporarily increase radiation resistance for imbiber or makes him a scientific genius for anything up to day. The mental muations include ‘Aerokinesis’ for control of the air currents all the way up to tornados and ‘Technology  Amnesia’ for making a victim forget how to use a piece of technology, whilst ‘Total Healing’  enables to heal all damage once per every two days. Plant mutations include ‘Control Sap’ which renders anyone who touches the sap of the plant with this mutation suggestible and ‘Insect Monarch’ which marks the mutated plant out as both home and food source for a group of insects which the mutated plant can direct to do its bidding.

However, what is not immediately obvious is that Metamorphosis Alpha: The Mutation Manual does not contain any new defects. Instead, their inclusion—or at least mention—is confined to tables listing those available in Metamorphosis Alpha itself. Which is a shame as they are far and few between, and given the fact that any Player Character with mutations will also have defects, it means that whilst there will be a high degree of variation between mutations possessed by the Player Characters and NPCs, there will far less variation in terms of defects.

Physically, Metamorphosis Alpha: The Mutation Manual is cleanly presented. The illustrations are quirky—especially the one of E. Gary Gygax alongside that of his much-desired mental mutation of ‘Total Healing’—and in general, the entries are well written and easy to read. This is a supplement which will may of use to a lot of other Post-Apocalyptic settings or roleplaying games, such as Mutant Crawl Classics or Gamma World. Though for the former, the Judge will need to develop the respective mutation tables for each mutation incorporated from this supplement into her campaign. Overall, despite the lack of new defects, Metamorphosis Alpha: The Mutation Manual is a serviceable supplement for Metamorphosis Alpha: Fantastic Role-Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventures on a Lost Starship or the PostApocalyptic setting or roleplaying game of your choice.