For all that the major role they play in so many scenarios and campaigns for Call of Cthulhu and other roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror, the cult is too often, never quite their focus. Whether it is the Hermetic Order of the Silver Twilight from Shadows of Yog-Sothoth, Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh and Cult of the Bloody Tongue from Masks of Nyarlathotep, or the Brotherhood of the Beast from Day of the Beast (Fungi from Yuggoth), the cult itself seems to get lost in the Mythos itself and its various so-called ‘gods’ and entities and ‘alien’ species. Where such ‘gods’ and entities and ‘alien’ species and their motives lie beyond mankind’s grasp and can never be truly understood, once its secrets are revealed, what the cult represents is an enemy that stalwart Investigators into the Mythos can understand and whose motives can be grasped. For in serving the Mythos and its forces a cult is likely betraying mankind and for whatever reason that may be, it reveals a true, all too human face of evil. In the return, the cult and its members are likely to understand the Investigators in ways that the things they serve do not, and so have ways and means of retaliating against the Investigators. Which makes for dangerous villains—and all the more so because of their lack of humanity.

Cults of Cthulhu is a supplement which at last explores the role of cults in Call of Cthulhu. Published by Chaosium, Inc., the supplement for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition explores a particular type of cult, the signature cult in both Call of Cthulhu and H.P. Lovecraft’s own fiction. That is the cult of Cthulhu, the cult dedicated to “That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die.”, the dread alien being which lies dreaming, trapped beneath the Pacific ocean in the strange city of R’lyeh, waiting for that time when the stars come right and he can be released to have dominion over the Earth once again. In doing so, it draws extensively upon H.P. Lovecraft’s seminal story, The Call of Cthulhu, as well as The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and The Whisperer in the Darkness, as well as delving back into the history of Call of Cthulhu, most notably Shadows of Yog-Sothoth and Masks of Nyarlathotep. From this, the authors develop a history of the Cthulhu cult, detail five individual cults, provide a means for the Keeper to create her own Cthulhu cults,* describe various new spells, monsters, and artefacts, and give three scenarios. The resulting volume is not just for use with Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, but also with Pulp Cthulhu: Two-fisted Action and Adventure Against the Mythos, and it also carries a ‘For Mature Readers’ advisory because, well, cultists are evil, and do evil things. Cults of Cthulhu is anything other than explicit when it comes presenting the evil of its cultists, but it does not shy from doing so either.

*In the game.

Cults of Cthulhu opens with a discussion of the ‘History of the Cthulhu Cult’. Initially, this is presented as the collected writings of the journalist, Mildred Schwartz, who comes into possession of Professor George Angell’s infamous box containing his papers concerning the Cthulhu cult and continues both his research and that of Francis Thurston. This begins in prehistory, but quickly comes up to date to detail the events surrounding the awakening of Cthulhu in 1925 (as told in Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu) and beyond. Besides describing the beliefs of the Cthulhu cult, the history presents a timeline of Cthulhu worship not year by year, but cult by cult, beginning with the Cult of Sumer in 2000 BC and going round the world from civilisation to civilisation. This includes the now lost city of Iram, as well as other familiar cults such as the Louisiana Swamp Cult and the Esoteric Order of Dagon, also drawn from Lovecraft’s fiction. Mildred Schwartz’s papers similarly discovered in the twenty-first century and continued by David Eberhart, who identifies and describes numerous post-war modern cults, such as the Church of Perfect Science. Cults are also identified as being behind events like the Paradise Massacre and the Oregon standoff. With the modern cults, and in some cases the events associated with them, it is easy to identify the parallels that the authors are drawing with certain organisations and cults.

Five of the cults identified in the ‘History of the Cthulhu Cult’ are greatly expanded upon—Elevated Order of Morpheus, the Louisiana Swamp Cult, the Society of the Angelic Ones, the Esoteric Order of Dagon, and the Church of Perfect Science. Together, these cover the Purple Age of Cthulhu by Gaslight, the Jazz Age of Call of Cthulhu, and the modern age too, with two of them, the Louisiana Swamp Cult, the Society of the Angelic Ones and the Esoteric Order of Dagon being drawn from Lovecraft’s fiction. These all come with extensive backgrounds, descriptions of their goals, structures, financing, and means of recruitment, along with full stats for their leading members, and suggestions as to where and when else the Keeper can shift the cult. Also included is a pair of scenario ideas for each cult, which along with the recruitment means provided further means of the Investigators getting involved, perhaps even getting recruited themselves. The first, Elevated Order of Morpheus, is a classic Victorian Age cult modelled on Freemasonry, whilst the second, the Society of the Angelic Ones, has all the feel of a Los Angeles evangelical church between the wars. Perhaps the one that players of Call of Cthulhu will have the most fun with is the Church of Perfect Science, mostly because it most readily parallels a modern religious organisation begun by a Science Fiction writer. The Louisiana Swamp Cult and the Esoteric Order of Dagon are ones that the Keeper and players have the most familiarity with from Lovecraft’s fiction, and the authors do as good a job of extrapolating from the fiction as they do developing the entirely new cults. Whether new or old, all five cults are well written and thus easy to use.

The five cults are not the only ones detailed in Cults of Cthulhu. Three others are developed as fully worked examples of ‘Creating a Cthulhu’. This guides the Keeper through the step-by-step process of creating an organisation devoted to Cthulhu, whether for a single scenario or for a campaign. At every stage, from the basic concept behind the cult and creating a leader to developing the enemies of the cult, the Keeper is constantly prompted with questions and given three examples. There are tables too, which the Keeper can roll on or pick from, but the end result is that the Keeper three fully detailed and worked out cults, even down to the filled in examples of the Cult Worksheet included in the supplement. Although the questions all relate to the Cthulhu cult, there is nothing to stop the Keeper going through the same process and asking the same questions, but substituting the ‘gods’ and entities and ‘alien’ species of her choice to create the desired cult.

The selection of ‘Cultists, Monsters, & Artifacts’ further supports the cult creation process. This includes numerous examples of Cthulhu’s Blessings, such as Throat tentacles or Give pain, which are as creepy as you would expect. Notable amongst the various cultists given here are the Deathless Masters. Cults of Cthulhu presents its subject matters as primarily being sperate and different. They all have their worship of Cthulhu in common, but how they worship him and to what end, differs. This need not be the case, the authors leaving it up to the Keeper to decide if she wants to keep them apart or if she wants to connect them up in a greater, conspiracy. One way of doing that is through Deathless Masters or Undying Ones, potentially the ultimate villains when it comes to Cthulhu cults, their being able to move from one cult to another and so have a greater idea—if anyone does—of what the various cults are doing and what Cthulhu himself, might want. Full guidelines are given for the Keeper to create her own, but included are stats for Carl Standford, the immortal sorcerer who first appeared in Shadows of Yog-Sothoth.

The three new cults in Cults of Cthulhu are further supported by a single scenario each. ‘Loki’s Gift’ is set in Victorian London in 1896 and has the Investigators as mostly Middle Class or Upper-Class characters asked to look into the apparent suicide of a young composer. The second scenario is ‘Angel’s Thirst’ and is set in Los Angeles in 1922 with the Investigators asked by a young woman to search for her missing father whom she thinks is still alive after seeing him in a dream. Unfortunately, he has been caught up in the activities of the Society of the Angelic Ones. The scenario has a slightly woozy and weird feel to it, but is infused with sense of noir. Lastly, ‘God’s Dream’ is set in modern-day Chicago and sees the Investigators being pulled to look into the strange events concerning a detective friend who suddenly finds himself in Antarctica. It all ties back to strange land grab in metropolitan Chicago. There is a common, physical thread which connects all three of the scenarios and they can be run as a loose trilogy or as standalone affairs. All are good strong horror scenarios which deal with mature themes, and all are well organised.

Rounding out the supplement is a pair of appendices. One provides an overview of the various tomes which might have content pertaining to Cthulhu and his worship, whilst the other is decent little bibliography which should provide entertaining further reading and viewing.
Physically, Cults of Cthulhu is up to the expected standard that Chaosium, Inc. currently sets for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition. The book is well written, the illustrations are excellent, and the cartography good.
The first reaction to Cults of Cthulhu is to wonder why it is has taken forty years for Call of Cthulhu to receive a book like this? The importance of the role of the cult and seminal nature of Cthulhu would suggest that such a book—other either aspect—would be very useful, and indeed, Cults of Cthulhu, very much proves the point in providing a much needed exploration of the nature of both together. Ultimately, Cults of Cthulhu takes the Keeper back to Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu to look at some of the roleplaying game’s fundamentals and inspirations with fresh eyes. The result is an excellent examination of both cults and Cthulhu, supporting the Keeper with advice and the means to create her own cults and cultists, as well as backing everything up with examples and scenarios.

The Anyworld Tabletop Roleplaying System is a generic system designed to handle any genre and any setting using quick, dicepool mechanics and handfuls of six-sided dice. Published by Netherborn following a successful Kickstarter campaign, the complete rules to play the game all the way up to mass battle rules and miniature skirmish rules, along with rules for generating unique magical items and creatures and enemies. The core rules also come with six introductory adventures, one each for the zombie apocalypse, post-apocalypse, superhero, fantasy, space opera, and modern horror genres, as well as an omniversal setting that allow for Player Characters to visit any world. All packed into a one-hundred-and-eighty-page book. It is designed as a toolkit and as written, to support both player-driven and Game Master-driven play.

The Anyworld Tabletop Roleplaying System very quickly gets down to explaining its rules. A Player Character has six attributes—Strength, Toughness, Agility, Precision, Mind, and Spirit—which are rated between one and ten. If a player wants his character to undertake an action, he rolls a number of six-sided dice equal to the attribute and each result of a four, five, or six is counted as a Success. Results of six explode and can be rolled again to possibly generate yet more Successes and even more sixes and more exploding dice… One of the dice is counted as the Fate die and is a different colour. If the result on the Fate die is a one, the outcome of the action is accompanied by a Setback, whilst if it is a six, it is a Critical Success. It is possible to succeed and still suffer a Setback or fail and roll a Critical result. A Critical Failure occurs when a Setback is rolled, and the result is failed. Advantage reduces the target number to be counted as a Success, whilst Disadvantage increases the target number. A player can also spend Edge to negate Disadvantage or gain Advantage, and also can expend Skill points to add a die to a roll. The number of Successes required for an action vary from a Target Number of one or Easy up to Epic or seven or more, with two being Routine and three being Challenging.

Combat—which Anyworld Tabletop Roleplaying System slides into without any demarcation—uses the same mechanics. The Target Number to hit an opponent is equal to his Evasion score, derived from his Agility attribute, a Player Character has a move action and an attack action per round, and initiative is determined with Agility tests. In Close Combat a defender can attempt a single Dodge and a single Counterattack. Strength or Precision is rolled depending upon the type of attack. Damage is a combination of the weapon’s base damage plus the extra Successes rolled beyond the Target Number. Armour reduces the Damage, and the remaining Damage value becomes a Target Number against which the defender’s player rolls his Toughness attribute. If successful, the defender shrugs off the damage, but if not, the defender’s player rolls three six-sided dice and deducts the Damage value from the result which is compared to the Damage Table. A critical hit reduces the roll of three six-sided dice to two six-sided dice, the results ranging from staggered or stunned all the way down to wounded or wounded. Wounds reduce a character’s Health Level (of which he has five) and injuries necessitate a roll on the Injury table for even greater effects. Rules also allow for stun damage, unarmed combat, two-weapon fighting, and more.

Madness is gained by failing Spirit checks following encounters with the horrific or the traumatic, including being in combat. Fail means gaining points of Madness and if a subsequent Spirit is failed against the points of Madness, the Player Character gains a mental trauma, rolled on the Trauma Table. Unless the Trauma is permanent, it can be overcome should the Player Character’s points of Madness are reduced to normal.

Character creation in Anyworld Tabletop Roleplaying System consists of choosing an array of values—Balanced, Mixed, or Specialist—to assign to attributes, and then selecting an Archetype. Each of the Archetypes—Gifted, Flexible, or Skilled—grants Experience Points to spend on Traits and Ability and Ability Upgrades, Gear Points (or GP) to spend on equipment, and both Skill and Edge points. A Player Character also has an ‘Essence’ which describes the core of the character, such as ‘Cybernetic Enforcer’ or ‘Wondering Swordsman’ (sic). Once per session, this can be used to gain Advantage on a check and is also used by the Game Master to award Experience Points. Similarly, a Player Character has a Flaw such as ‘Mean’ or ‘Outcast’, which can be triggered to add Disadvantage to a check once per session. This gains the Player Character an Experience Point.

Henry Brinded
Essence: Stalwart, But Nervous Classics Scholar
Flaw: Deafness
Archetype: Skilled
Strength 2 Toughness 3 Agility 3 Precision 3 Mind 5 Spirit 5
Traits: Expertise (Classics), Leadership, Skilled
Skill: 4
Edge: 3
Gear Points: 20

Traits are divided into Mental, Social, Speed, Brawn, Combat, Shooting, and Unique categories, and further divided into basic, advanced, and special traits in each category. For example, Insight is a basic Social Trait which grants a Player Character Advantage when his player rolls a Mind check to detect lies or read body language, whilst an Advanced Shooting Trait like Killshot grant all aimed attacks the Deadly quality which means that the attack deals a critical hit if the Fate die rolls a Success. Abilities push the Anyworld Tabletop Roleplaying System into the realms of the fantastic, with powers such as Bolt, Flight, Might, Morph, Phasing, and more, all the way up to Immortality and Impervious. In addition, each of the Abilities upgraded not once, but three times. Gear is purchased using Gear Points or ‘GP’. There is an emphasis in the Anyworld Tabletop Roleplaying System on arms and armour, and especially the qualities that either can have to give the wielder an advantage or extra bonus, all the way up to being sentient. There are a few limitations too, but not as many qualities. In general, there is the means here to create some individual weapons and armour, and so help make each Player Character different.
For example, Henry Brinded and his team have located a secret cult temple in Rome. As a result of the ensuing fight with the cultists, the temple is about to collapse, but Brinded knows he needs to study the invocation on the wall, an invocation to the abominable god the cultists worship. His player will be rolling five dice for his Mind attribute. The Game Master tells him that he needs to roll four Successes because the task is formidable due to the poor condition of the invocation. She also points out that the task is being done by torchlight and Brinded is in a hurry, so applies Disadvantage not once, but twice! So now Brinded’s player need to roll not four, five, or six to gain a Success, but a six only. However, Brinded has the Expertise Trait of Classics, so gains Advantage on translating the Latin of the invocation, reducing the number needed for a Success from six to five. His player spends a point of Edge to reduce it even further, back to four, five, and six, and then, because Brinded has the Skilled trait, adds two Skill dice to the roll instead of one. So now Brinded’s player is rolling seven dice and attempting to roll four, five, and six. He rolls two, three, five, five, five, and six, plus six on the Fate die. That is five Success, plus the critical result on the Fate die, which means that Brinded not only succeeds, but spots the intentional error in the invocation. Which means he will be better able to reverse the invocation and at the right time, cast it to dismiss the cult’s terrible mistress…For the Game Master there is advice on handling challenges and NPCs, and preparing a game. This includes both one-shot and campaign games, and it shows how the Game Master can create random adventures or collaborate with her players to create a campaign setting. The advice is decent and supported with several introductory adventures, each one in a different genre and each one suitable for a one-shot or even a convention game. Each comes with a background, some points of interest, and in some cases one or more alternate ways of play It begins with ‘Diner-Bite’ in which the Player Characters stop at a diner whilst the USA is caught in the middle of chaos. This arrives at the diner in the form of on-the-run, undercover crooks, with a dead policeman in the bus who will soon turn into a zombie as will the poor little boy who looks sick, but whose family is hiding the cause of his sickness. The optional way to play is have one group take the roles of the crooks and another be the diner patrons. Typically, each of these six introductory adventures is two or three or so pages in length, presenting a decent outline and possibly a campaign starter. ‘Rise from Ruin’ is a post-apocalypse setting much like the Mad Max films, whilst ‘Fallen Heroes’ is a stand-up-knockdown confrontation with a supervillain who has captured the city’s premier superhero team. Of course, the Player Characters can come to their rescue or even play villains who want to take kill the superheroes themselves, or there could be one group of players roleplaying the supervillains whilst the other plays the superheroes. ‘Ghosts in the Flesh’ is a bloody horror romp a la Hammer Horror, whilst ‘The Thing in the Woods’ is a straightforward monster hunt in a fantasy setting. ‘Red Colossus’, the last scenario in the Anyworld Tabletop Roleplaying System is the Space Opera genre and the longest in the book. After being attacked by pirates, the Player Characters and their space freighter take refuge at the nearest mining base only to find it also threatened by the pirates and terrible outbreaks of radiation sickness.

Penultimately, the Anyworld Tabletop Roleplaying System includes a description of ‘The Outer Realm’, an in between network of routes and places between multiple worlds. Certain persons, known as Travellers, can detect the routes between places, whilst others, Shapers, can modify the reality around them. There is the chance that the Player Characters can become Travellers or Shapers, the latter gaining abilities such as teleport or telekinesis. The downside to the latter is that can become a Reaver, lusting for ever greater power and ability. Several strange locations are also detailed, and there is overall a weirdness and an unreality to the whole of this in-between place. Rounding out the volume is a bestiary and a set of ready-to-play characters, for use as examples, Player Characters, or NPCs.

Physically, the Anyworld Tabletop Roleplaying System is decently presented and illustrated, all in black and white. However, its organisation does hamper ready play even as the system is relatively straightforward and easy to understand. There is no index or even a glossary, and for actual ease of play, many of the roleplaying game’s tables could have been reprinted at the rear of the book instead of multiple blank character sheets. Similarly, an example of character creation, as well of actual play and the rules would all have been useful. In fact, all of these are inexcusable omissions by any standard, let alone those of modern roleplaying book design.

Overall, the Anyworld Tabletop Roleplaying System, issues with organisation aside, is straightforward and easy to run and play. The result is that Anyworld Tabletop Roleplaying System provides cinematic and pulp action style roleplaying across a variety of genres without getting too complex and by keeping play fairly fast with handfuls of six-sided dice.

For fifteen years the Latterdyne estate has stood empty ever since the family, including two children, vanished without a trace. Behind its walls, the house has stood shuttered up against the elements whilst the surrounding grounds have been left unattended, long since overgrown and abandoned to grow wild, including extensive woods. To the locals, the estate and its mystery, the estate has become a looming presence down the lane as well as the source of much speculation. They say that the family suffered a great accident and subsequently vanished during a storm, but then no one really knows for certain, and so when the fate of the Latterdynes is discussed it is done in whispered speculation and rumour. Both are fuelled by stories of hikers and other travellers going missing on the estate. Some dismiss this as mere rumour or even embellishment to already idle speculation, but others will swear blind that such tales are true. True or not, the locals avoid the estate, though they all know of the broken wall which can be clambered over to gain easy access to the grounds. Now word of both ramblers having gone missing on the estate and the missing Latterdynes has reached the Society for Psychical Research, which has duly despatched a team to investigate the grounds of the Latterdyne estate.

This is the set-up for Sticks and Stones: A Story of Betrayal and Sorrow for the Locus Horror Tabletop Roleplaying Game. Published by CobblePath Games, this is the first scenario for Locus: A roleplaying game of personal horror, a horror roleplaying game in which the Player Characters bring as much horror to a location as they will encounter there. It is a roleplaying game about Broken Places, locations where the line between reality and the horror and emotional truth of a story has thinned to the point that they have become damaged or broken and transformed into something else. Each is or has a Genius Locus, that in becoming damaged or broken, is transformed into a Malus Locus, a bad place which feeds off negative energies and emotions. The Malus Locus draws in outsiders and residents alike, using reminders of their old wounds and bad memories to inflict fear, terror, and pain. It manifests Monsters which remind the victims trapped inside the Malus Locus of their dark secrets and feelings of guilt, and if the monster can kill them, they leave behind Echoes of their guilt that the Monster can feed off for years. Echoes are likely to be interpreted as ghosts, and when the Player Characters enter a Malus Locus, it may already be inhabited by Echoes.

A Malus Locus consists of a single location and is actually composed of layers. The location can be large or small, and might be a single house, a neighbourhood or housing block, an oil rig or space station, or even a whole town. The layers are Layers of Reality, each layer a reflection of the one above, the same but different, darker, weirder, scarier, and worse… The deeper the Player Characters venture into the Malus Locus, the further away from reality they move, the closer to the heart of the Malus Locus they get, the greater the manifestations and signs of the unreal and the Player Characters’ Haunts—or guilty secrets—appear, and the more openly the Monster will move against them. Each Layer is separate, but bleeds into the one above and the one below, though they become more and more distinct as the Player Character descends through them.

Sticks and Stones: A Story of Betrayal and Sorrow for the Locus Horror Tabletop Roleplaying Game presents one such Malus Locus, an area of woodland on the Latterdyne estate. Here the Society for Psychical Research investigators will find themselves caught between three locations in Latterdyne Dell, each connected by ever changing paths through the woods. As they explore these locations and are pulled down through the layers of the Malus Locus, the weather and the ground underfoot both worsen, the wind grows and carries strange voices, and something begins to stalk them… However, that something is not the only monster that the Player Characters will face in Sticks and Stones, as they bring their own monsters with them. Each of these four monsters is associated with the acts of betrayal committed by each of the pre-generated Player Characters, these acts and their associated monsters accentuating the horror in Sticks and Stones, making the horror all the more personal even as they confront the personification of the Malus Locus in the dell on the Latterdyne estate.

Although Sticks and Stones is intended to be played using pre-generated investigators, and to that end comes with its own quartet of partially pre-generated Player Characters. The four—the Custodian, the Dilettante, the Fabricator, and the Sleuth all have their own goals, base attributes, haunts, virtues, and more, including base backstories, virtues, and items. Each player is then free to assign further attribute points and answer some questions in order to customise the character to his liking. Notes are included should a player want to create a character of his own from scratch, but ideally, Sticks and Stones should be run and played using the given quartet.

As well as a starting script and a handout or two, Sticks and Stones comes with details of and clues for its primary mysteries—the fate of the Latterdynes and what is exactly going on in the Latterdyne Dell—and suggestions as to how the events of the scenario might play out… lastly, the scenario also includes the cards for its characters, items, and monsters. They are perhaps somewhat fuzzy and it would probably better for the Game Master to download and print them out. If there is perhaps an issue with the scenario, it is that the set-up of the scenario could have been stronger and easier to present to the players and their characters—essentially how they get involved. It is fine once they reach the Latterdyne estate, but the Game master will need to put something together herself.

Physically, Sticks and Stones is grey and dreary. That though is entirely keeping with the tone of the scenario and the terribly British weather that the Player Character will face as they delve deeper and deeper into the mysteries of what happened on the Latterdyne estate. Barring the cards for its characters, items, and monsters, Sticks and Stones is nicely illustrated with photographs that hint at the ombrophobic and the Xylophobic, imparting a sense of the unease which will grow and grow over the course of the scenario.

Sticks and Stones: A Story of Betrayal and Sorrow for the Locus Horror Tabletop Roleplaying Game contains everything necessary for the Player Characters to bring their own horrors to the woods and get lost in the horrors already there…

Paperback: A Novel Deckbuilding Game is a clash of the old and the new. It combines concept of classic word games like Scrabble with the very modern playstyle of the deckbuilding mechanic from games like Dominion and Star Realms. In Paperback, each player is novelist, desperately writing one novel after novel, jumping from one genre to another with titles such as The Chinatown Connection, Dead Planet, and The Angel of Death, all to satisfy the voracious demands of their editors. Pump out enough of this pulp fiction and perhaps the novelist will get a bestseller and make a mint! That though is the extent of the theme in Paperback, the game being more mechanical than thematic, since what each player will be doing is spelling out words using Letter cards and generating a score which can be used to buy both more Letter cards and Fame cards, which will be used to spell out more valuable words and so on and so on until the end of the game when the player with the most Fame points from his Fame cards wins the game. Paperback is published by Fowers Games, best known for the heist themed Burgle Bros. and Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers. It is designed to be played by two to five players, aged ten and up, and has a suggested playing time of forty-five minutes.

Each player begins play with a deck of ten cards—five Wild cards and the letters ‘T’, ‘R’, ‘S’, ‘L’, and ‘N’. On his turn a player will five cards from his deck and attempt to spell a word using both the cards drawn, whether letter cards or Wild cards and the current Common card, which anyone can use, typically a vowel. If it is a viable word—it cannot be a name, place, or proper noun—then it generates a score. Whilst Wild cards can substitute for any letter and so help spell a word, they do add to the Score value of the word. The value of this score be used to either purchase a new letter or letter combination card (such as ‘ST’ or ‘ER’) or a Fame card. Letters purchased will all generate a greater score than the base cards in a player’s deck, but they often have special abilities. For example, the letter ‘M’ costs seven cents to purchase and generates a score of two, but if the word is correctly spelled, it doubles the total score value of the word. It also has to be placed in the trash after use. The ‘V’ costs seven cents to purchase and generates a score of four, but if the word is correctly spelled, it allows a player to draw an extra card on his next and potentially spell out a bigger word. Some letters are Attack cards, which means that their special ability affects other players. For example, the ‘H’ letter costs six cents to purchase, and generates a score of four, but if the word is correctly spelled, its attack is that the other player cannot purchase anything with a value of greater than eight cents. The ‘Q’ letter costs eight cents to purchase and generates a score of five, but if the word is correctly spelled, its attack restricts another player to just using the ability on the one his next turn.

Alternatively, a player can purchase a Fame card, each of which has a cost and depicts the cover of a fairly pulpy book from various genres. For example, The Angel of Death is a pulp novel, whilst Dead Planet is Science fiction. These generate four, seven, ten, or fifteen fame points, so generating enough score from the correctly spelled words is the aim of the game. When added to a player’s deck, the fame cards work like Wild cards in that they can be used to substitute for any letter, but do not add to a player’s score.

Game play continues until either of two conditions are met. One is to exhaust two stacks of the fame cards, each being organised by price and adjusted according to the number of players. The other is when the last Common letter card is taken. Throughout play, the current Common letter card can be used by all of the players to help them spell their words, but if a player spells a word of sufficient length, he can add the current Common letter card to his deck. This will bring in a new Common letter card into play and if a player wants to add it to his deck, then he needs to spell an even longer word. There are only four Common letter cards available throughout the game and the length of word required to add them to a player’s decks goes from seven to eight to nine, and then ten letters long. Once the end of the game is reached, each player adds up his Fame points from both the Wild cards and the fame cards in his deck, and the player with highest total wins the game.

The play of Paperback is about increasing word length. Increase the length of the words that he can spell, and player has a greater Score with which to buy better or more letter cards and fame cards, and potentially more abilities to bring into play. It entirely possible that a player can spell a word and bring two, three, four, or more abilities into play. Balanced against keeping an eye out for letter cards with special abilities, a player needs to keep an eye on the letter cards available and what he thinks he can spell with them. He also needs to bear in mind that the higher the score a word will generate, the more difficult it will be to successfully spell a word with it is. He will also want to maintain a good mix of consonants and vowels too, along with the two-letter combinations on some letter cards. Favour one letter type over the other and a player will have difficulty finding words that he can spell. It is also possible to combine special abilities for enhanced effects, but these are not as common as in other deck-building games.

In comparison to other deckbuilding games, Paperback is not necessarily all about trying a way to find a way to get rid of the initial cards in a player’s deck. This is because there are special abilities which work with the Wild cards in a player’s deck and all of the cards in a player’s deck, whether Wild cards or starting letter cards, are useful throughout the game. Nor is Paperback as adversarial as other deckbuilding games. There are elements of it with the attack cards, but these impede player for a turn rather than directly attacking him. Rather it is competitive, not combative.

Beyond the base game, Paperback adds various options and extra rules. These include adding a reward if a player helps another who is stuck on what word he can spell out using his current hand, adding awards and themes as bonuses to towards a player’s final score, playing in simultaneous mode, and even a co-operative mode played against the game itself. These all change the game in various ways, but do not stray too far from the core mechanics of spelling words, purchasing further letters and Fame cards, and so on.

As clever a combination as Paperback is, it does suffer from the problems of both game types. As a word game, players with greater word knowledge and vocabularies will be at an advantage and often, players with lesser word knowledge and vocabularies will sometimes lead to slower play as they try and work out what they can spell. The deckbuilding means that it can be more adversarial and fiddlier with a lot of cards than a word game like Scrabble. Yet, Paperback does not rely on needing to know lots of short, high-scoring words or needing to have to put them on a board building from what is already there, and as deckbuilding games, the focus is on the letters rather than the special abilities per se. However, the use of the special abilities on the cards do go towards countering the spelling, so that a player who is more used to word games such as Scrabble can still play against players more used to deckbuilding games.

Physically, Paperback is well produced and well designed. The cards are colour-coded according to cost making them easy to tell them apart, the artwork on the Fame cards—each is done as a pulp novel—is excellent, and the cards are all easy to ready. The rulebook is also decently done. Lastly, it all fits into a neat little box which comes with dividers so that everything is neatly organised and easy to find.

Paperback: A Novel Deckbuilding Game is a novel clash of two game types that surprisingly, work well together and can be used to introduce the fan of one type to the other. So, a fan of word games can be introduced to a deckbuilding game (that fan of word games also likely to be used to family games too), and the fan of deckbuilding games to word games. As a word game Paperback forces a player to strategise beyond the spelling to gain extra abilities through latter cards’ special abilities and as a deckbuilding game, it forces a player to think about what he can do—rather spell—right now rather focus on the strategy. Paperback: A Novel Deckbuilding Game is a witty, wordy game, that as hybrid deserves a place on your shelf between the traditional and the modern game designs.

Dyson’s Book of Swords is exactly that, a book of swords from a writer best known for his cartography, especially his fantasy cartography. However, over the course of September and October 2021, he wrote and illustrated a series of entries on his blog under the labels ‘#Swordtember’ and ‘#Choptober’, each one describing and depicting a blade which could be added to the fantasy roleplaying game of your choice. Now following a successful Kickstarter campaign, all fifty entries in the series have been collated into the one volume and published as Dyson’s Book of Swords by Squarehex, better known as the publisher of The Black Hack. This little volume comes in an odd size—six inches square—and each sword is given a two-page spread consisting of a full-page illustration opposite its description. None of the descriptions run to more than two paragraphs each and the descriptions concentrate on telling the reader what the sword looks like, its history, and what its capabilities are. The numbers amount to no more than each blade’s to hit bonus, damage bonus, and against what, although some cases a special ability will also be referenced. In the main though, the language is not so much systems neutral as systems adjacent, meaning that any one of the fifty swords in Dyson’s Book of Swords will work with the fantasy roleplaying game of your choice.

Dyson’s Book of Swords is not arranged in alphabetical or indeed, nay kind of order, but flip through its pages and you find Spite, a gladius-style currently wielded by the Elven mercenary, Rhador. It is a Short Sword +1 which becomes a flaming blade upon command and when it is aflame is +2 versus trolls, pegasi, hippogriffs, and rocs, and +3 versus treants and the undead. It casts light and ignite things as a torch. Rhador wields this weapon until he regains his family blade from his nemesis. Flip to another and the illustration and description is of the Last Blade of the Lich Shogunate, the last ‘perfect’ blade to be forged by the master swordsmith of the final Shogun. It has no name of its own, but is a +2 sword which also grants a bonus on saving throws versus all effects, spells, and abilities of the dead. Of the two, Spite is the more difficult blade to include, in part because it is wielded by a particular NPC and in part because it has such a wide range of enemies which it can affect. However, it raises the questions, “Where did Spite come from?”, “Who is Rhador?”, “Who is his nemesis and how he did come into possession of Rhador’s family blade?”, and ‘What are the abilities of Rhador’s family blade?” All these point to story possibilities, as does the Last Blade of the Lich Shogunate, but they are perhaps a bit more straightforward. These include “What was the Lich Shogunate?”, “Who wielded the Last Blade of the Lich Shogunate?”, “Who was the Last Blade of the Lich Shogunate made for?”, and “Who wields it now and where did she find?”

Dyson’s Book of Swords harks to the noughties and the slew of books for the d20 System with its supplements dedicated to just rings, just spells, just monsters, just swords, and so on. Fortunately, with the advent of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, or even with the Old School Renaissance, there has not been the avalanche of books and supplements dedicated to singular aspects of Dungeons & Dragons-style gaming, and so Dyson’s Book of Swords does not fall into that. Fundamentally, Dyson’s Book of Swords just keeps everything simple—illustration, description, and minimal stats. This means that its contents are compatible with just about every Old School Renaissance roleplaying game and retroclone, including Old School Essentials, Mörk Borg, Whitehack, and more. They would also work with 13th Age and the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, and even Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition!

Physically, Dyson’s Book of Swords is clear, simple, and easy to read. It is a little book of weapons that the players will want their characters to wield, the Game Master to arm her NPCs with and inspire or scare her players and their characters, and lastly, Dyson’s Book of Swords is a little book of inspiration.

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

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

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Name: Pickman’s Action FigurePublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Todd Miller

Setting: Modern Upstate New YorkProduct: Scenario
What You Get: Thirty-Two page, 3.57 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: When his last action models failed, what else does an action model designer design instead?Plot Hook: Your brother disappeared years ago, so when you get a phone call from him in the night...
Plot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, three handouts, one set of  floorplans, two NPCs, and two Mythos creatures.Production Values: Decent.
Pros# Really great backstory and set-up# Decent pre-generated Investigators# Focused investigative one-shot# Interestingly Ghoulish twist upon the the Changeling myth# Solid convention scenario
Cons# Needs a slight edit# Confrontation needs careful handling# Few options for the Investigators to prepare for the confrontation
Conclusion# Great back story and set-up leads to a freaky family confrontation# Interestingly Ghoulish twist upon the the Changeling myth makes a creepy one-shot.

From Unaussprechlichen Kulten, Revelations of Gla’aki, De Vermis Mysteriis to the dread Necronomicon, the Mythos and its fiction is replete with awful tomes of all too inhuman, alien knowledge, spells or formulae whose invocation all too lead to the summoning of or contact with things and beings beyond understanding, and the ravings of madmen. Their treatment in Call of Cthulhu and other roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror has varied over the years. At worst they have been treated as treasures to be plundered from cultists as in some of the very early scenarios, but in more recent times they have been properly treated as horribly insidious works of true knowledge, with even their possession having a subtle effect upon the fragility of man, whether his mind or his very being. Perhaps their first expansive exploration in Call of Cthulhu would have been in The Keeper’s Companion Vol. 1 and The Keeper’s Companion Vol. 2, and the evocative exploration and presentation would have been in the almost mythical Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion. It is strange that given their place within the fiction and their use to both impart knowledge of the Mythos and enforce its corruptive influence, that there has never been a Call of Cthulhu supplement dedicated to just these great works within the fiction.

Tomes of Cthulhu, published by Azukail Games, is not that supplement, but it points towards such a supplement even if cannot be that supplement itself—primarily for copyright reasons, of course. It is instead a generic supplement for roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror which describes some twenty different tomes and their reprints inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft. Each entry follows a standard format. This includes both the name of the work and its author, a description of its format and its contents, plus size and weight, number of pages, primary language it is written in, the amount of knowledge it contains about the Mythos and the effect upon the reader once the book is read, and a suggested period of study time. This is followed by notes and perhaps discussion of copies or reprints. All of which apes the descriptions and formatting of details about the Mythos tomes in Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, but Tomes of Cthulhu shies away from supplying the Game Master with actual numbers. Thus, the suggested amount of knowledge it contains about the Mythos and the effect upon the reader once the book is read runs from Least through Lesser, Moderate, and Greater to Greatest, equating to much as 2% for the Least category to as much as 15% for the Greatest. Take any of the entries in Tomes of Cthulhu and the Game Master should be able to adapt them to the Lovecraftian investigative horror roleplaying game of her choice.

The entries range from ancient stone tablets to typed reports. A Translation and Interpretation of the Pre-Minoan Tablets Found in the Aegean is an example of the latter, supposedly written in a language belonging to a pre-Minoan civilisation and discovered by adventurer Jonathan Smedlock during a dive off the coast of Crete. The tablets were regarded as fakes and his claims ridiculed, and the tablets were either lost or are in a museum, and Smedlock was last seen in Africa. The translations in Smedlock’s own cheap hardback are based on several other works, none of them on the Minoan languages, and the Game Master is free to insert whichever Mythos she wants in here. An example of the latter is A Report of the Investigation into the Events in the Punjabi Himalayan Region in 1873 by Captain James Sutton is the typed report based on The Journal of Captain James Sutton, a soldier sent to investigate strange goings on in the Punjab in the shadow of Himalayas. The diary records weird, unearthly colours, and draining, grey effect that killed man, beast, plant, and the ground itself. The official report, not wholly written by Sutton, and since mimeographed, gives poisoning as the cause. Most of the other entries in Tomes of Cthulhu are books or reports, but Giants in the Earth by Private Tommy Atkins is a volume of horrifically grim poetry published after the Great War under an obvious pseudonym, the author consequently being confined to Bedlam where he committed suicide. The second, expurgated edition was published in 1959, its often lurid and disturbing replaced with more mundane depictions of the Western Front. The second edition is thus not of interest to book collectors or Mythos scholars, but either version reveals something about the Ghouls that prowled the Western Front.

Several famous figures are given as authors of Mythos tomes. Sir Isaac Newton wrote Philosophiæ Alchimia Principia Mathematica following a possible breakdown, a treatise on mathematics, the occult, alchemy, and chemistry which describes the true nature of the universe, particularly as they relate to time, space, or dimensional travel, even as far out as the Dreamlands. Suggested entities and races covered in the volume, which is written in Latin, include Yog-Sothoth, Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, and Great Race of Yith. Notes on an Expedition to the Antarctic by Charles Darwin is perhaps the most obvious entry in its inspiration. In 1831, during the second voyage of HMS Beagle, the expedition was given maps of a southern continent, and the book describes how it sailed south and discovered a cave entrance on the frozen land. Inside there were found pieces of green soapstone worked into rounded, five-pointed stars; carvings and murals on the walls, many damaged, depicted strange creatures and maps, perhaps of the Earth; and the strange, fossilised figure of barrel-shaped creature beyond understanding. Then there was the strange piping voice which shouted, “Tekeli-li!”. It is of course, all very At the Mountains of Madness.

Tomes of Cthulhu is relatively underwritten in terms of its ideas, because primarily, it is overwritten, repetitious, and very much in need of an edit. It also suffers from being for roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror rather a roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror, and so is not specific enough, which is not unexpected given the fact that the author must tiptoe around the facts that he cannot supply such numbers and he must be careful of what he can and cannot include. In combination though, the result is that any attempt to extract the information from this supplement is not as easy it should or could be. There are some potentially interesting tomes and titles which the Game Master or Keeper could extract from Tomes of Cthulhu, but it is perhaps best used to inspire the creation her own, as that might be easier.

Across the patchwork of city-states, dukedoms, baronies, and petty kingdoms that make up Brancalonia, great generals ride at the head of their armies into war. Elsewhere honourable knights face down ferocious dragons, save the princess, and win both her hand and her father’s seat. Mighty wizards study the greatest of magical tomes revealing fantastic secrets and learn spells capable of warping reality itself. Brave adventurers and treasure-seekers delve into the ruins and underground complexes of the ancient Kingdom of Plutonia, the collapse of which led to the Thousand Years’ War, returning with treasures and secrets of the long past. The Kingdom of Brancalonia is a land of opportunity and adventure—but fighting wars, killing dragons, saving princesses, studying hard, and exploring deep underground, they are not your adventures, and they are not your opportunities. You might see that brave knight, mighty army, or learned wizard ride by as you step out of the House of Mother Josephine’s Rest into the sunshine, a plate of ‘Extreme Unction’ macaroni* in one hand and a cup of Troglodyte of Panduria** in the other, before you go back inside and return to the revelry you were engaged in before you got distracted by the noise outside. Perhaps to throw your wine and breakfast aside and leap into the brawl which has broken out in the meantime. After all, it is a matter of principle to support the members of your fellow brotherhood. Or you want to discuss your next job, for the silver is running short, your gear is looking shoddy, and who knows when the next bowl of zuppa di topi Bianchi or bottle of Fil de Ferro will come along? You are a knave, a ne’er do well, a scoundrel, a swindler, or a layabout—if not all four, with a misdeed or misdemeanour to your name or two (or three or…) and minor bounty (or two) on your head. You are not a villain though, but just someone from the dregs of society who knows that life is cheap and anything but fair, and so you are going to make the best of it. Just like the fellow members of your brotherhood.

*Consume with care. Known to cause fits of tears and heart-attacks.

**One of the finest wines ever to come out of Ausonia. This is not a good vintage, but it is wine.

This is the world of Brancalonia – Spaghetti Fantasy, a bawdy, sun-drenched, low fantasy campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, inspired by Italian tradition, folklore, history, landscapes, literature, and pop culture. Published by Acheron Books following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is set in a ‘back-to-front’ version of Medieval Italy—even the gorgeous map is flipped from left to right—in which low life heroes, the Player Characters, form Bands and hopefully get hired by hopefully rich merchants, petty nobles, and desperate warlords to undertake the odd job or two, typically illicit, dangerous, and deniable. That is when they are not concocting their own schemes and running into curses, demons, witches, and angry, abandoned spouses. To a wider audience, the most well-known for Brancalonia – Spaghetti Fantasy will be the films Ladyhawke, Flesh + Blood, and The Princess Bride, along with Carl Collodi’s Pinnochio, but the Brancalonia – Spaghetti Fantasy Setting Book numerous others. All of which are likely to be less familiar to a wider audience. And that is a bit a problem because not all of the inspiration is easily available. However, if instead you think of Brancalonia – Spaghetti Fantasy as being distinctly European fantasy—so there is definitely going to be mud and worse underfoot, not unlike Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, but with better weather, better cooking, and definitely better wine, and then directed by Sergio Leone (with Terry Gilliam as second unit director), then you have the feel of the setting.

The Brancalonia – Spaghetti Fantasy Setting Book, which won the Gold Ennie for Best Electronic Book in 2021 (plus Silver Awards for Product of the Year, Best Writing, and Best Setting) keeps its fantasy low in a number of ways. First, Player Characters can only advance as high as Sixth Level. Second, whilst it provides five new Races, it does not provide any new Classes. Instead, it gives twelve new Subclasses, one each for the twelve Classes in the Player’s Handbook, along with new Feats and Backgrounds. Third, it gives rules for brawling, intentionally non-lethal combat, which typically takes place in a tavern or other dive before the Player Characters scarper after being accused of a Breach of the Peace and another bounty put on their heads. Fourth, their arms, armour, and other equipment is likely to be shoddy, poorly maintained, and will probably fall apart at the least opportune moment. It eschews the use of Alignment, and even if used, discourages any Player Character choosing to be evil, as Knaves are rogues rather than villains. The setting for the most part is humancentric and does not include the traditional Races of Dungeons & Dragons, although they are not unknown.

Besides Humans, the five new Races in the Brancalonia – Spaghetti Fantasy Setting Book are the Gifted, the Malebranches, the Marionettes, the Morgants, and the Sylvans. The Gifted are Humans who know a little bit more magic; Malebranche are Devils who proclaimed the Great Refusal and climbed out of the Inferno, typically via the Eternal Gate which stands in the great chasm into which Plutonia fell and now stands, and who still have diabolic features such as Hellwings and the Hellvoice; Marionettes are animated puppets, often in the form of Pinnochio or the Paladin-like Pupo, who can remove and use their limbs in a brawl; Morgants are tall ‘demi-giants’ with great strength and appetite, known as fearless brawlers and champions often stationed at the vanguard of an army; and Sylvans are rustics at home in the forest. In addition, each Race has its brawl feature which gives it an advantage in nonlethal fight. The first of the twelve new Classes in the Brancalonia – Spaghetti Fantasy Setting Book is the Pagan, a Barbarian subclass, inhabitants of the Pagan Plain who favour speed, anger, and violence; the Harlequin is a Bard as street entertainer; the Miraculist is a Cleric who follows the calendar and  favours the saints, and knows several defensive or helpful spells; the Benadante is a Druid as a forest sorcerer capable of interacting with and defending against the undead; the Swordfighter is a duelling archetype for the Fighter; the Friar is a Monk turned religious brawler; the Knight-Errant is the Paladin as rambling protector of the good, and likely the most courageous of any Knave; the Matador, a Ranger who hunts beasts and monsters in the wilds and fights them in the arena; the Brigand is a Rogue who steals from the wealthy and redistributes what he steals, and can always catch his targets by surprise; the Superstician is a very lucky Sorcerer who can also cast protective rituals; the Jinx is a Warlock who has the districting power of the Evil Eye and even cause misfortune; and the Guiscard is a Wizard who specialises in tomb robbing and treasure hunting.

To these Subclasses are added backgrounds such as the Brawler, the Finagler, and the Fugitive, as well as Feats like Ancient Culinary Art, Apothecary, Jibber-Jabber, and Peasant Soul. There are rules too for advancing beyond Sixth Level, but each new Level only grants an Emeriticence, such as Professional Brawler or Blessed Luck. In addition to creating their Player Characters, they come together to create their Bounty Brothers’ den, a comfortable place where they can rest up and hide. It might be an abandoned farmhouse occupied by brigands, matadors, and smugglers, or a tower in plain sight inhabited by knights-errant, swordsmen, and mercenaries, but all begin with one and can be improved with further Grand Luxuries such as Black Market or a Cantina. This though takes gold and Knaves typically only have silver, so there is a community improvement element to play as the Knaves pool their funds. The Den is also where they ‘Rollick’ and rest—the long rest in Brancalonia – Spaghetti Fantasy Setting Book is seven days long, too long to take place during actual play—and perhaps improve their Den, reflect on the Job just done (and note any misdeeds and misdemeanours that lead to further bounties being placed on their heads), and plan for the next Job. This will probably result in some kind of hazard as a result of their past activities, and it can be partially offset by going into hiding for a while.   And Knaves being who they are, can also engage in Revelry, a few days of good food, good wine, and good company, and so fritter away some of what they just earned…

Other activities the Knaves can engage in are brawls and dive games. Brawls are not like combat in that Hit Points are not lost. Instead, a Brawl attack inflicts Whacks, most Knaves being able to suffer five of them before being knocked unconscious. Brawlers can pick up props, essentially the things around them, and attack with them or use them to defend themselves with. These are divided between common props—pots, dishes, bottles, stools, and so on, and epic props—tables, barrels, chandeliers, suits of armour, and more. In general, a prop has a beneficial effect like gaining a bonus attack or increasing a Knave’s Armour Class, rather than increasing the whacks inflicted. Knaves also have Moves, which are divided into General Moves, Magic Moves, Class Brawl Features, and so. There are Stray Dangers, like ‘Rain of Stools’ or ‘It’s Raining ham’ which the Condottiero—as the Game Master is known in the Brancalonia – Spaghetti Fantasy Setting Book is called—can add to a brawl. The brawl rules are definitely designed to be cinematic in style and add a sense of action and comedy to play.

In addition to brawling in Dives, a Knave likes to play games and gamble—though that is illegal in the Bounty Kingdom. The Brancalonia – Spaghetti Fantasy Setting Book includes several different Dive games. These include the card game, Poppycock; Barrel Beating, a combined drinking-barrel smashing game in which the winner smashes the barrel and wins the wagers inside; Brancalonian Buffet, an eating contest. There are also rules for shoddy equipment, counterfeiting, equipment for the setting, like the Scudetto, a medium shield which bears the emblem of a city and is thus a symbol of pride for followers of the local Draconian Football Team, concoctions—tonics and the like for what ails you, and even some magical junk. Lastly, there is memorabilia, items of no ecumenic value, but perhaps personal value to their owning Knaves. A Knave begins play with one, but this is not obvious until much later in the book.

For the Game Master—or Condottiero—there is good advice on running Brancalonia – Spaghetti Fantasy. This is to keep the tone light-hearted, magic low, make the game one of tragicomedy and even ‘Grand Guignolesque’, so there is room here for horror too. There is in effect no budget for special effects, or little else, so a game of Brancalonia – Spaghetti Fantasy should be like a film done on the cheap—recycling character actors and redressing extras, natural backdrops and ruins, and so on. Plus, the brawls of ‘brawly’ fantasy to cut down on the bloodshed, but keep up the tension. There is advice as to what to avoid in play—unnecessary violence, sexual themes—though nature of Brancalonia – Spaghetti Fantasy does skirt the issue, and of course, any bigotry. This is the equivalent to safety tools. Plus, there is advice on handling bounties and the law, creating adventures, dives, random roads which may or may go somewhere, and more. There is also a good overall guide to the Bounty Kingdom, its history, its various regions, and even the kingdoms beyond its borders. Each is given a couple of pages, but each includes suggestions as to the types of Jobs that the Knaves might undertake there, and overall, there is just about enough to make each region different and provide the Condottiero with further inspiration.

Penultimately, Condottiero is given a six-part campaign, ‘In Search of Quatrins’ to run. It begins with ‘Little People of the Grand Mount’ and ‘Rugantino: Tales of Love and the Knife’, both of which are for First Level Player Characters, but the first is specifically written as an introductory adventure, one that younger players can roleplay, but also sets up the rest of the scenarios. To this end the Knaves are offered an easy job and the chance to join a company by Roughger of Punchrabbit. The Jobs include treasure hunts, monster hunts, missing marionettes, and more. All together ‘In Search of Quatrins’ should provide a group with several sessions’ worth of play and give them a thorough taste of life in the Bounty Kingdom. They do need some development in places, but the Condottiero should be able to do that as part of preparation. Lastly, Brancalonia – Spaghetti Fantasy Setting Book includes a bestiary of new monsters and a section of ready to use NPCs.

Physically, the Brancalonia – Spaghetti Fantasy Setting Book looks to be superbly presented, with really good artwork and excellent maps. However, it is a translation from Italian and the localisation and editing is not as good as it could have been. In addition, the index is anaemic, so finding anything in the book will be a challenge. The book could also have been done with a step-by-step guide to creating Player Characters for the setting, as there are several aspects of the process which do not appear until much later in the book. Similarly, a glossary would have been incredibly useful.

Ultimately, whether or not you like the Brancalonia – Spaghetti Fantasy Setting Book will depend on your feelings towards Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. The new rules presented here do add to Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, but at the same time, they add and enforce the setting and genre of Brancalonia—the brawling, the shoddy equipment, and much, much more. Whether you like it or not, the Bounty Kingdoms setting of Brancalonia – Spaghetti Fantasy jumps from every page into uproarious, tankard banging, wine quaffing, lustily voiced song and then at the end of the night, down in the cups mutterings, before another job presents itself the next day even as you are trying to get over a hangover. Brancalonia – Spaghetti Fantasy Setting Book presents a delightfully different take upon fantasy, for which even if you do not know the inspiration, the book is inspiring in itself, and you should be creating a cast list (for which Oliver Reed should be your number one choice) even as you read the book and prepare your first adventure. Once you have finished reading Brancalonia – Spaghetti Fantasy Setting Book and prepared your first adventure, you should be ready to bring an inglorious fantasy to the table.

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

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What is it?A Short Detour: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha is a scenario for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha in which the adventurers come to the aid of a mother and her son and become involved in a moral dilemma.

It is a forty-one page, full colour 3.74 MB PDF.

It is cleanly and tidily presented and some of the artwork is decent.

Where is it set?A Short Detour: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha is set in northern Sartar and could easily be take place near Apple Lane as detailed in the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack.
It is set during Sea Season, 1626.
Who do you play?
There are no specific roles necessary to play A Short Detour, but this can be an interesting scenario for a Lhankor Mhy. A Storm Bull may short circuit the scenario. Martial characters will be needed as combat is likely to be involved (in which case the Storm Bull will be useful).
What do you need?
A Short Detour: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, as well as RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary and The Book of Red Magic.

In addition, Cults of Terror will be useful for its background information. Depending upon how the scenario plays out, Holiday Dorastor: The Temple of Heads, may also be useful as a sequel.
What do you get?A Short Detour: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha is a short, simple, and straightforward adventure which as written takes place in northern Sartar, but can be adapted to other areas if necessary. The Player Characters encounter, Renuvela and Nemiast, a mother and her son trying to fend off a sounder of boars. After they come to their rescue, she asks the Player Characters to escort them her and her son to Runegate.

This sounds like a simple situation, but if the Player Characters agree, it quickly plunges them into a moral dilemma. Renuvela and Nemiast are being hunted by two different factions with an interest in his future. One group wishes him ill for what will be seen as the ‘right’ reasons, whilst the other wishes him well for the ‘wrong’ reasons. At the heart of the scenario is the agreement the Player Characters will have made with Renuvela and Nemiast and their honouring that agreement even as the truth about the pair is revealed. Ideally, this should lead to a clash between their Passions and their Honour for the Player Characters. In addition, in terms of roleplaying, the scenario challenges the differing viewpoints of the players and their characters within Gloranthan cultures.

A Short Detour requires good roleplaying upon the part of the Game Master in portraying both Renuvela and Nemiast, but she is given good advice to that end, and further supported with a set of highly detailed NPCs, each with well explained and clear motivations. Some of them are delightfully vile and Machiavellian, but others are simply cannon fodder that the Player Characters will enjoy putting to the sword.

The scenario discusses numerous possible options and outcomes, and this includes what can be seen as an optimum outcome, though getting to that is extremely challenging when faced with the rival demands of the others involved. The scenario is supported with an abridged version of the myth behind its plot, notes on the nature of tattoos, and an essay on the nature of the Chaos Rune and its effect in play. This falls into ‘Your Glorantha May Vary’.
Is it worth your time?Yes—A Short Detour: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha confronts the Player Characters with a moral dilemma and excellent opportunities for roleplaying supported with some fantastic NPCs.No—A Short Detour: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha confronts the Player Characters with a moral dilemma which may not fit the group’s play style and a discussion of Chaos which may not suit the Game Master’s campaign.Maybe—A Short Detour: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha confronts the Player Characters with a moral dilemma which may not fit the group’s play style and a discussion of Chaos which may not suit the Game Master’s campaign.

Ker-Splat! is a cartoon action roleplaying game inspired by Looney Toons and Tom & Jerry. Dynamite will get stuffed down trousers. Anvils will land on heads. Walls will be run into. Cheesegraters will be slide up and down. Stairs will be fallen down. Custard pies will be thrown and land in faces. And whether he has fallen down or is still standing, the cartoon character who suffers all or any one of these will be Bamboozled as a scattering of stars or a flight of tweeting birds orbit his head. Published by MacGuffin & Company, Ker-Splat! is a fast-playing silly roleplaying game for anyone who wants to play a chicken with a chainsaw, an otter on a skateboard, a goldfish in a bucket, a squirrel wiseguy, a mouse with a mallet, or anything else. It is ridiculous, it conforms to genre physics, not real physics, and it involves either Ordered Chaos or Pure Chaos, and true to the genre, it is played out in two-dimensional world.

A Player Character in Ker-Splat! is defined by his name, his Pitch, his Drive, his Quirk, his Look, and seven stats. His Pitch is whatever the character is, for example, a ‘Raccoon in a monocle and waistcoat who wants an easy life’ or ‘A Knight on a noble quest who was never told what the quest was and whose visor keeps jamming closed’. His Drive is his motivation, such as ‘Dining on freshly caught chicken’ or ‘Preventing the wolf from eating you and your fellow chickens’. His Quirk is whatever his special ability is, Ker-Splat! listing some nineteen, such as Pocket Dimension, Lucky Duck, Disguise, Wealth, and more.
A Player Character has seven stats. These are divided between the five Humours—Pow, Zip, Umm, Wow, and Pop, and Ouch! and HUH!, the latter measuring how long it is until he is either Ker-Splatted or Bambozzled. Pow is the character’s physical strength and size, Zip how fast and dextrous he is, Umm how brainy, Wow how charismatic, and Pop his ability to use tools and equipment, as well as his ability to order something from the ‘AKMEE™ PLC Catalog’. The Humours are rated between two and nineteen, and there are pluses and minuses to their high or low. For example, a Player Character with a high Zip will be fast and able to run away, but will often miss the little details, be impatient, and so on. With a low Zip, the character will take his time to understand things, not act rashly, trigger fewer traps, and so on. A Player Character with a high Umm will be good at making plans and spotting things, but in the two-dimensional cartoon world of Ker-Splat! will notice that tunnel entrance is just painted on the side of the mountain and so go around, whereas a Player Character with a low Umm would accept that tunnel as reality and race down it (and likely get run over by a train).

Player Character is simple. A player defines his character’s Pitch, Drive, Quirk, and Look, but he only sets the value for one of his character’s Humours. Each of the other players takes it in turn to set one stat before passing the character to the next player and so on round the table until all of the Humours are defined. In each case, a player is simply assigning a value, but in this way, the players collectively define the cast of the carton.

Chuffy the Chicken
Chicken with a Chainsaw, who isn’t going to let the wolf get her or her fellow chickens
Pow 5 Zip 12 Umm 9 Wow 12 Pop 10
Ouch! 3
HUH! 3
Quirk: Lucky Duck

Mechanically, Ker-Splat! is simple, but it does look a bit complex. It all depends if the Player Character is attempting to do something in keeping with his Humour or something that is not in keeping with his Humour. If the Player Character is attempting to do something in keeping with his Humour, his player must succeed or roll under his character’s Humour on a twenty-sided die. If the Player Character is attempting to do something that is not in keeping with his Humour, he must fail or roll over his character’s Humour. For example, if Chuffy the Chicken wants to use her chainsaw, her player rolls under her Pop Humour, but if she wants to break her chainsaw to prevent the wolf from using it, her player rolls over her Pop Humour. Simple enough, but where it gets slightly confusing is the fact that this can also change what a critical result is, depending upon whether the Player Character is trying to succeed or trying to fail. Thus, if trying to succeed, a ‘Good Crit’ is a roll of a one and a ‘Bad Crit’ is a roll of twenty, but if trying to fail, a ‘Good Crit’ is a roll of twenty and a ‘Bad Crit’ is a roll of one. Then if you throw in the usual mechanic for Advantage and Disadvantage…

When it comes to a Player Character’s Quirk, it always works. However, how it works and what the effect is when it does, is not always in the control of the Player Character using it. This is randomly determined by the roll of the die and half the time the player controls it and narrates the outcome, a quarter of the time another player controls it, and the other quarter, the GM controls it.

Player Character versus Player Character conflict is both simple and complex—complex that is in relation to the simple option. Which is de-escalation. Everyone involves keeps rolling a twenty-sided die until one player rolls a one and his character succeeds. Which is both simple and simply counterintuitive to the genre and simply an awkward means of preventing Player Character versus Player Character conflict. Especially given how the game goes out of its way to emulate the genre and give the players control of the outcome in other situations, such as the use of Quirks.

There are two options for combat—Ordered Chaos and Pure Chaos. The more complex of these is Ordered Chaos. In Ordered Chaos, the Player Characters are in order of their Humours depending upon the situation. For example, a martial arts contest would go in order of the highest to lowest Zip, but lowest Zip to highest Zip in a considered confrontation. NPCs, which are kept simple with a strength and a weakness, are slotted into the order as the GM decides. This is simple enough as long as the GM remembers which Humour applies to which situation. If an attack works, the target character’s player rolls a six-sided die against his Ouch! or HUH! depending on the nature of the attack. Roll under and the Player Character is fine, roll over and the Player Character is either Ker-Splatted or Bamboozled. When his character is Ker-Splatted or Bamboozled, his player keeps rolling a twenty-sided die until he rolls a one and comes to… A fight like this continues until either one side prevails or the GM gets bored…

The Pure Chaos variant—which is not recommended for online play—uses the same rules for de-escalation. Thus everyone rolls a twenty-sided die. When a player rolls a one, he can act. It is chaotic and unlike the de-escalation rules it fits the genre.

Ker-Splat! is primarily designed to be played as a one-shot. However, it does include rules for campaign, a Player Character YAY! at the end of each scenario which can subsequently be spent to buy a ‘Spree of Luck’, a temporary ‘Intern’, or even ‘Irritate the GM’. The latter lets a player pass a note to the GM with improv style play notes about how the scenario is being narrated which she must follow. Most of these options are quite fun and play around with the narrative rather than improve a Player Character. The GM also gets her on set of GM YAY options to purchase.

Ker-Splat! includes guidelines in inclusivity that take into account that most Player Characters will be animals—walking talking animals in a world where there are animals who are not! This cover gender and even sex, but also the appropriate use of stereotypes, noting that this is difficult to avoid given the genre. However, the advice is to be careful and considerate, and that includes not characters having a black face after explosions. There is also advice on the use of the Big Red Button as more immediate version of the X-card. There are more usual guidelines for NPC and scenario design and a couple of same scenarios.

Physically, Ker-Splat! is a bright and breezy affair. There is lots of bold, full colour artwork throughout and the book is well written. It does need a close read in places, primarily because it is organised into seemingly random boxes, so does not flow quite so easily.

Ker-Splat! is designed to be chaotic, bonkers fun and it will do that. Some of the rules arguably do not fit the genre and others do need everyone to adjust to them as they are counterintuitive because almost every other roleplaying game does not a player to roll to fail. However, make that adjustment and the ‘roll to succeed/roll to fail’ works and suits the genre. Overall, Ker-Splat! combines light, fast cartoon action with some fun narrative elements which add to the chaos with being quick and easy to bring to the table.

The Christmas Annual is a traditional thing—and all manner of things can receive a Christmas Annual. Those of our childhoods would have been tie-ins to the comic books we read, such as the Dandy or the Beano, or the television series that we enjoyed, for example, Doctor Who. Typically, here in the United Kingdom, they take the form of slim hardback books, full of extra stories and comic strips and puzzles and games, but annuals are found elsewhere too. In the USA, ongoing comic book series, like Batman or The X-Men, receive their own annuals, though these are simply longer stories or collections of stories rather than the combination of extra stories and comic strips and puzzles and games. In gaming, TSR, Inc.’s Dragon magazine received its own equivalent, the Dragon Annual, beginning in 1996, which would go from being a thick magazine to being a hardcover book of its own with the advent of Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. For the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022, the format is very much a British one—puzzles and games, yes, and all themed with the fantasy and mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons, along with content designed to get you into the world’s premier roleplaying game.

Published by Harper Collins Publishers, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 moves on from the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021. It is not so much an introduction to Dungeons & Dragons itself, but rather an introduction to Faerûn and the Forgotten Realms, the principal setting for the current iteration of the roleplaying game. The slim volume begins with the first of several entries in the ‘Peoples of the Realm’ series. This is ‘Exploring Elves’, which highlights the various different types of Elves to be found in the Forgotten Realms, noting their special skills and key Classes, as well as some background and some trivia. Included here are the Drow and the Eladrin as well as the High Elves and the Wood Elves. Also mentioned here are the various types of Gnomes, Dwarves, and Halflings, the latter with the comment, “Overlook these diminutive folk at your own risk!”, which the entry and the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 promptly does by consigning all three peoples to a sidebar rather than their own entry in the ‘Peoples of the Realm’ series. It is continued with ‘Think Big’ which suggests with Goliaths, Firbolgs, Orcs, and more as other character options, refencing Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. ‘Plane-Touched’ does a similar with races such as the Tritons, Genasi, Tabaxi, and more.

The first of the two ‘Campaign Spotlight’ entries in the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 is on Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, the 2020 campaign published by Wizards of the Coast. This covers the campaign’s key features—its entry points, secrets, new rules, locations, and of course, stats for ‘Three Kobolds in a Trenchcoat’. None of it in any detail, but enough to intrigue the reader. Further, this ‘Campaign Spotlight’ is supported by other articles in the annual. The first of the ‘Across Faerûn’ entries looks at Icewind Dale, which of course is the setting for the campaign, and provides more details such as typical monsters—snowy owlbears and frost giants being the most obvious, along with a gorgeous map of the region. The theme of Faerûn and Icewind Dale even continues in ‘Beyond the Tabletop’, the series which looks at Dungeons & Dragons beyond it being just a roleplaying game. The first of these gives attention to Dark Alliance, the Dungeons & Dragons computer in which the Drow Ranger, Drizzt Do’Urden leads his companions into Icewind Dale in search of the magical shard, the Crenshinibon. Drizzt Do’Urden himself is given the spotlight in the next two articles. First in ‘Heroes & Villains’ which introduces him, his companions, and enemies, and second, in ‘Talking D&D: R.A. Salvatore’, an interview with the author of The Crystal Shard and its many sequels which feature Drizzt Do’Urden. Of course, much of this will already be familiar to fans of Dungeons & Dragons—as is the case for the whole of the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022—but from the ‘Across Faerûn’ entry on Icewind Dale through the spotlight on Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden to the spotlight on Drizzt Do’Urden and interview with his creator, there is a lovely sense of a theme or thread running through the initial handful of articles in Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 and it feels much more thought out.

Whilst ‘Explaining the Planes’ takes the reader beyond the Forgotten Realms to look at the Elemental Planes and the Outer Planes, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 quickly returns to ‘Across Faerûn’ and ‘The Feywild’ in particular. There is a connection between the two in that the Feywild is a reflection of the Prime Material Plane and also back to the ‘Exploring Elves’ article for Eladrin who come from the Feywild. However, ‘Beyond the Tabletop’ continues the journey away from the Elemental Planes and the Outer Planes by looking at the computer game, Baldur’s Gate III, which mentions Avernus, the first layer of the Nine Hells. The other connection to Baldur’s Gate is a two-page spread dedicated to Minsc (and Boo) in ‘Heroes & Villains’ (his counterpart in the annual, is the villain ‘Xanathar’, whilst if not the Forgotten Realms, but still in the annual, is ‘Vecna’), but the connected ‘Campaign Spotlight’ is Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus. This does as good a job as that devoted to Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden.

The ‘Bestiary’ first highlights ‘Common Foes’, so the lowly Kobold at Challenge Rating of 1/8 up to the Manitcore at Challenge Rating of 3, and then ‘Boss Fights’, which includes the Lich, the Tarrasque, and the Kraken, all with a Challenge Rating of twenty or more. ‘Oddities’ add a mix of the different and the weird, like the Gelatinous Cube, the Flumph, and the Modron. Dragons’, the last of these is devoted to iconic monsters and their minions.

There is very little about the play or rules of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition in Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022, especially in comparison to the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022. ‘Roll for Inspiration’ though focuses on advice and help. First with ‘Combat 101’, which explains the basics of that aspect of the game, whilst ‘Where To Start?’ looks at ways of starting a campaign for the Dungeon Master and ‘Learn From The Dungeon Masters’ gives advice from several Dungeon Masters on how to run Dungeons & Dragons. It is solid, if basic advice. The last entry in ‘Roll for Inspiration’ is ‘Creating NPCs’, which like the others contains solid, if basic advice.

‘Podcasts’ gives time to just the two long running series—How We Roll and Adventure Zone. The former again has a nice callback to Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, but both are given good introductions here. Again, just the two are covered, High Rollers and Acquisitions Incorporated, but ‘Live Streams’ reflects the move from the podcast as a means of presenting actual play to Twitch streams, from audio to visual. The look at the hobby comes up to date with ‘Find Your People’, which give two community groups—No More Damsels and Three Black Halflings—which work to build communities which are more inclusive and welcome greater representation in the hobby. 

Elsewhere in Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022, ‘Where It Began: First Edition’ looks back at Dungeons & Dragons from 1974. It is a very basic examination, with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons given only a paragraph. ‘Classic Campaigns’ similarly looks older scenarios, again in thumbnail fashion, but the tie into Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition is definitely highlighted here.  ‘Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything’ looks at everything from character options, magic items, and spells, whilst ‘It Spells Trouble’ examines a variety of spells, from Magic Missile to Wish. Rounding out Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 is a quiz and a glossary.

Of course, Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 being a British annual, it is not without its puzzles. So there are mazes, word searches, spot the difference, and more. All themed around Dungeons & Dragons. The maze for example, has you attempt to escape from Count Strahd von Zarovich’s clutches, whilst ‘Volo’s (Scrambled) Guide to Monsters’ is an anagram

Physically, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 is snappily presented. There is plenty of full colour artwork drawn from Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, and the writing is clear and kept short, so is an easy read for its intended audience. It would have been nice to seen a little more artwork from the earlier versions of the roleplaying where they are mentioned.

Over the years, there have been plenty of introductions to Dungeons & Dragons, some of them decent, some them of utterly pointless and useless, such as the Dungeon Survival Guide and the ‘What exactly were you thinking, Wizards of the Coast?!’ Wizards Presents: Races and Classes and Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters books that heralded the arrival of the Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. Fortunately, like the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021, its predecessor, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 is far superior to any of those.

The Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 is not so much an introduction to Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, as Faerûn and the Forgotten Realms. There is much less of a focus on the rules and mechanics in the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022, but in terms of background and setting is genuinely an interesting and informative read. To be fair, this is not a book or supplement that a dedicated player or Dungeon Master is going to need, or even want, to read. After all, much of this will be familiar to either. The Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 is very much a step on from Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021, and that does mean that some of the introductory elements of the roleplaying game as it is played have been lost, but still as some to receive at Christmas (or not) in your Christmas stocking (or not), Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 is a good into Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, and especially, Faerûn and the Forgotten Realms.

Escape the Dark Sector: The Game of Deep Space Adventure brought the brutality of the Fighting Fantasy solo adventure books of the eighties to both Science Fiction and co-operative game play for up to four players in which their characters begin incarcerated in the detention block of a vast space station and must work together to ensure their escape. Published by Themeborne, with its multiple encounters, traps, aliens, robots, objects, and more as well as a different end of game Boss every time, Escape the Dark Sector offered a high replay value, especially as a game never lasted longer than thirty minutes. Now, like its predecessor, Escape the Dark Castle: The Game of Atmospheric Adventure, the game has not one, but three expansions! Funded via a Kickstarter campaign, each of the three expansions—Escape the Dark Sector – Mission Pack 1: Twisted Tech, Escape the Dark Sector – Mission Pack 2: Mutant Syndrome, and Escape the Dark Sector – Mission Pack 3: Quantum Rift—adds a new Boss, new Chapters, new Items, and more, taking the path of the escapees off in a new direction to face new encounters and new dangers. Each expansion can be played on its own with the base game, or mixed and matched to add one, two, or three mission packs that increase the replay value of the core game.
Escape the Dark Sector – Mission Pack 2: Mutant Syndrome exposes the escapees to the further secrets of the Dark Sector. Whether caused by cosmic radiation or proximity to toxic waste, the whole of the Dark Sector is plagued by a mutagen which alters and distorts the bodies of the inhabitants of the giant space station. Some the effects of the mutagen simply kills, but others it leaves with extra limbs and appendages, endowing them with abilities beyond the mere human. The result is that the Dark Sector has a growing population of mutants, which the escapees will likely encounter as well as the possibility that they too will be exposed to the mutagen and changed...

As with Escape the Dark Sector – Mission Pack 1: Twisted Tech before it, Escape the Dark Sector – Mission Pack 2: Mutant Syndrome includes twelve new Chapter cards which represent the encounters the escapees will have as they flee. They may run into raging mutant prisoners, dumping grounds for radioactive waste, hideously mutated guards, three-headed security dogs, gain medical assistance from a hologram, and even a mutant testing station! The single Boss card is for The Mutanoid, a mutant so twisted that his body consistently emit mutagenic spores that inflict damage on the escapees—or mutate them. It makes use of the new core mechanic in the expansion, the ‘Mutation Die’.

The ‘Mutation Die’ is not only rolled for The Mutanoid Boss at the end of the game but also for certain Chapter cards and Item cards—or rather Mutation cards which are added to the Item deck. When drawn, these can force an escapee to discard Item cards from his Inventory as they prevent him carrying anything, but their most immediate effect to prevent an escapee from using his Cybernetic Implant. However, a Mutation can have a greater effect. Depending upon the symbol rolled on the ‘Mutation Die’, an escapee might lose Hit Points, but he might suffer another effect all together. For example, a Mutation to the Arm can add a single Might result to an action or allow a Block in Close Combat, a Mutation to the Leg can add a single Cunning result to an action or prevent the loss of Hit Points from a single die roll, and so on. These are all one use mutations, but others change a roll of the Crew Die to a Wisdom result and reduce Hip Point loss by one, and are ongoing effects. Between Chapters, an escapee can excise a Mutation and permanently lose its effect, whether positive or negative. This is dangerous and painful and means that the escapee again loses Hit Points. Other items in the expansion include the ‘Stun Baton’ which on the successful inflicting of a wound, stuns the enemy and prevents them from attacking that round, whilst the ‘Life Serum’ either restores two Hit Points or removes a mutation.

Escape the Dark Sector – Mission Pack 2: Mutant Syndrome also adds three new escapees. Lieutenants Grib, Parvon, and Xaree are new alien crewmembers and each comes with their Crew die. This introduces the ‘Mixed Double’ consisting of two symbols within a shield, which even though they are different, they count as a double of either symbol as required. This gives the three new Lieutenants some flexibility in terms of their die results. 
Physically, Escape the Dark Sector – Mission Pack 2: Mutant Syndrome is as well produced as the core game. The new Chapter and Boss Cards are large and in general easy to read and understand. Each one is illustrated in Black and White, in a style which echoes that of the Fighting Fantasy series and Warhammer 40K last seen in the nineteen eighties. The Item and Drone cards are also easy to use and the dice are clear and simple. The rule book requires a careful read, if only to grasp how the different new mechanics work.

Escape the Dark Sector – Mission Pack 2: Mutant Syndrome adds new subsystems as well as new encounters with the Chapter and Boss Cards. They add both elements of complexity and luck, though more of the latter than the former. Design wise, this expansion is again thematically strong rather than narratively strong, but the Mutation is only strong when it comes to the Chapter cards and the encounters the escapees can have. In comparison, the potential mutations they might suffer during their escape attempt are underwhelming, in terms of both number in the expansion and theme. Anyone expecting a rioting of weird and wonderful powers and defects will be disappointed. Even so, Escape the Dark Sector – Mission Pack 2: Mutant Syndrome is still easy enough to add to the core game. Overall, Escape the Dark Sector – Mission Pack 2: Mutant Syndrome is not quite as interesting as it could have been, but still a decent expansion which adds more Sci-Fi theme to Escape the Dark Sector: The Game of Deep Space Adventure.

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

—oOo—

What is it?
The Lifethief is a scenario for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha in which the adventurers come to the aid of a shaman of the Impala tribe in a highly testing location.

It is a possible sequel to the earlier Stone and Bone and The Gifts of Prax scenarios.

It is a forty-seven page, full colour 112.04 MB PDF.

It is cleanly and tidily presented and some of the artwork is excellent.

Where is it set?The Lifethief: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha is set in the Dead Place in Prax, northeast of Pimper’s Block.
Who do you play?
There are no specific roles necessary to play The Lifethief, but martial characters will be needed as combat is involved. In addition, a Shaman should prove useful, though will be greatly challenged.
What do you need?
The Lifethief: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and the RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary will be useful for details of some of the encounters.
What do you get?The Lifethief: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha is a short, simple adventure which takes place in the barren, Chaos wastelands of the Dead Place where the dust itself forms angry spirits and is injurious to the health of anyone who breaths it in. Here, Maserelt, a shaman of the Impala tribe, has set up camp and been monitoring a thing of horror coming out of the Dead Place—something that lived and actually had a spirit, but twisted and warped by Chaos. She cannot face it alone and has reached out for help. In answer, Erhehta, her rival from the Bison Riders, the shaman previously met by the Player Characters in the scenarios, Stone and Bone and The Gifts of Prax, sends them out to render her the assistance she needs. (If the Player Characters have not met with Erhehta or played through either of the earlier scenarios, The Lifethief includes advice and plot hooks to involve them in this scenario.)
The most obvious challenge that the Player Characters will face in the Dead Place beyond the extremely barren nature of its environment is the fact that magic does not work. There is simply not the connection to the spirit world for it to work and the likelihood is that there is no connection to the gods either, so Rune magic may or may not work. Chaos features are another matter. The combination means that The Lifethief is a physically grueling affair which will force the Player Characters to rely upon their innate skills.
Fortunately, the Player Characters have a chance to learn about they are going and gain some skill bonuses in the process in a pleasing little social scene which contrasts with the desolation they will later face. The Lifethief is not the only encounter that the Player Characters will encounter in the Dead Place, being tested by a band of Broo—inventively and vilely designed as you would want with a band of Broo, but it is the main one. Its actions and abilities are decently described, but the illustration of it is bland and uninteresting, especially given the fantastic pieces of the Broo a few pages earlier.
Notes are included as what happens if the Player Characters fail or need to retreat and come back again, along with several plot hooks which can be run after it. Full stats are given for both Maserelt and Erhehta as well as of the latter’s Straw Weaver clan of the Bison riders, which is useful if the Game Master has not run either of the previous scenarios. Beyond the details of the adventure, The Lifethief includes two sets of encounters—Praxian and Dead Place encounters. These take up almost a third of the scenario and range from the mundane to the weird, but are all nicely done and never less than interesting. They include a trapped and angry rhino, an ancient ghost with a hatred of beast riders, Morokanth traders, lost spirits, and more. The Dead Place encounters can of course be used to supplement the scenario and the Praxian encounters used to supplement other adventures on the plains of Prax. Overall, they are a nice edition with the Praxian encounters otherwise could have formed the basis of a supplement of their own.
Is it worth your time?Yes—The Lifethief: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha is a useful and easy addition for any campaign set on the plains of Prax, especially if the Game Master has run Stone and Bone and The Gifts of Prax, and wants an extra set of encounters.No—The Lifethief: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha is setting specific to the plains of Prax and even if the Game Master is running a campaign there, it may be too challenging a scenario for some players as it takes away their characters’ magic.Maybe—The Lifethief: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha is a short but useful filler combat focused adventure, but not much more than that. The extra encounters are inventive and easy to add to a Prax set campaign.

The Big Crunch has begun. The constant expansion of the universe has halted and gone into reverse. The universe is shrinking, grinding down into an inevitable nothingness. It came at a point where civilisation neared a great revolution, but destroyed its potential in a flurry of greed and conflict. In the bleak and dreary Tenebris system, explorers had discovered gemstones which grew naturally cyst-like in the soils of the system’s barren moons and planets. The refractive qualities of these gemstones led to technological advancements such as the giant bridger ships which tore through the fabric of spacetime, as well as a Gem Rush. Individual prospectors and corporations raced into the system searching for gems to mine, the inevitable tensions and confrontations escalating into the Gem War which lasted decades, spread beyond the Tenebris system, disrupting central control and leading the isolation of system after system as the war ended. That was a decade ago. In the Tenebris system, survivors cling to life aboard the outposts and spacestations, aligned with one faction another, trying to get by even as technology breaks down and is recycled again and again… Static seems to emanate from any and all electronics. From the Void between the stars come strange and portentous whispers of things to come, even as it reaches out and corrupts and mutates those it touches.

This is the set-up to Death in Space, the blue-collar Science Fiction survival roleplaying game published through Free League Publishing following a successful Kickstarter campaign. It is from the same design team as Mörk Borg, the pitch-black pre-apocalyptic fantasy roleplaying game which brings a Nordic death metal sensibility to the Old School Renaissance. Inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Fistful of Dollars, Alien, Blade Runner, Escape from New York, The Expanse, Firefly, IO, Moon, Outland, Prospect, Sunshine, Total Recall, and The Warriors, it is a game of desperate survival and building and relying upon the your reputation, of creating a home or refuge in the face of an unknown future as the universe winds down…

A Player Character in Death in Space has four abilities—Body, Dexterity, Savvy, and Tech. He has an Origin, and details such as a Background, Trait, Drive, Looks, Past Allegiance, and Hit Points and Defence Rating. He also has some starting gear and starting bonus as well as a personal trinket. Each ability is determined by rolling a four-sided die and then subtracting the result of another four-sided die roll from the first. This gives a value between +3 and -3, which is used as the modifier for Player Character actions and dice rolls. The six Origins include four humans—Punk, SolPod, Velocity Cursed, and Void. The Punk is a rebellious non-conformist; the SolPod spends years in hibernation; Velocity Cursed, who have begun to lose their connection with reality and shift and flicker and glitch; and Void are berobed and mask-wearing nihility shamans who visions at the edge of the universe. The other two are artificial, the Carbon being short-lived exo-womb grown androids who prefer to live in an EVA suit, and the Chrome is an ancient A.I. turned cyborg. Each Origin has two benefits. To create a character, a player rolls the dice for his character’s abilities, chooses or rolls for an Origin, picks one of its benefits, and then rolls for Background, Trait, Drive, Looks, and Past Allegiance as well as starting gear and bonus plus the personal trinket. He also determines Hit Points and Defence Rating. He also has some starting gear, and possibly a starting bonus if the Player Character’s abilities are all negative, as well as a personal trinket.

Jameson
Body +2 Dexterity +1 Savvy+0 Tech +2
Origin: Punk
Benefit: Green Thumb
Background: Moon Outlaw
Trait: Cynical
Drive: To never show weakness
Looks: Trucker Cap with Patch
Past Allegiance: The Winning Side
Hit Points: 3
Defence Rating: 13
Holos: 16
Equipment: Nomad Starting Kit

Once the players have their characters, they jointly create a Hub, their home and base of operations which can be a small outpost on a moon, a module attached to a larger space station, or a small spacecraft. Each has a power source and a set of core functions, the latter consisting of a command centre, crew quarters, life support, and a mess. This Hub has a Background and a Quirk, both of which are rolled for. During play, the Player Characters can add further modules, but need to maintain both power and oxygen supplies, and this is a major drive within the game.

XR-3A-29 Hab Bloc
Defense Rating: 11
Max. Condition: 5
Fuel Capacity: 4
Power Source: Standard Industrial Generator (OP 3)
Background: Site of a Holy Pilgrimage. Pilgrims still show up.
Quirk: Interior is painted in luminous colours, charged by UV light.

Mechanically, Death in Space is simple. If a player wants his character to act, he rolls a twenty-sided die and applies the appropriate ability to the result. If the total is twelve or more, the character succeeds. If the situation is combat, the target number is the target’s Defence Rating. If the Player Character is at an Advantage or Disadvantage, his player rolls two twenty-sided dice and applies the higher or lower result respectively.

However, a failed roll grants a Player Character gains a Void Point, to a maximum of four. These can be expended to gain Advantage on an ability check or attack roll, or to activate a Cosmic Mutation. A Cosmic Mutation can be a ‘Code Generator’ which converts part of the brain into a computer that can write programs—encoded with the character’s DNA—and then be transferred by skin contact or ‘Feedback Loop’, which enables them to leap back in time ten seconds at the cost of an important memory. (A Cosmic Mutation can be gained at character creation, though this is unlikely, and instead is usually gained through advancement and then randomly.)

Further, if a Void Point is spent to gain Advantage on roll and that roll is still failed, there is the possibility of the Player Character gaining Void Corruption. This can include suffering daymares and nightmares about a suffocating darkness, a part of the body being surrounded by cloud of darkness, seeing through someone else’s eyes when you sleep, and so on… They are in the main weird or odd and personalise the strangeness of the Big Crunch.

One aspect missing from the rules in Death in Space is anything covering fear or sanity. This is because it is not a blue-collar Science Fiction horror roleplaying game. It is a blue-collar Science Fiction survival roleplaying game, its focus is so much on this that you barely notice the absence of any sanity or fear rules. Then when you do notice, it feels refreshing, to not have to roll for either, to leave that entirely in the hands of the players and their roleplaying as needed.

The technical aspects of Death in Space being a Science Fiction roleplaying game are kept relatively simple in keeping with the lightness of the mechanics. They highlight how everything is wearing out and that repairs are often a necessity. They also highlight how important it is to maintain or obtain supplies of both oxygen and power. Similarly, the rules for combat are kept short and brutal, even those for spacecraft combat.

In terms of a setting, Death in Space begins with a number of principles—that nothing is new, communication is limited, that the scars of the war remain and have not been forgotten, travel takes time and little is known about places or stations at the edge of or beyond the Tenebris System, and whilst it is possible to live beyond the normal human lifespan, typically through cryo-sleep, the result is often a life of loneliness and loss. The actual given setting is the Tenebris System, the focal point of the Gem War, home to seekers, scoundrels, and miners, as well as various cults, all doing their best (or perhaps their worst) to survive. Several planets and moons across the system are described, but the starting point is the Iron Ring, a dilapidated structure consisting of thousands of old space stations and spacecraft shackled together and surrounding the yellow moon, Inauro. The ramshackle structure is divided into numerous irregularly sized sectors, connected to each other, but not always easily accessible, some inhabited, some not. Life is harsh, the inhabitants typically needing to ally themselves with or join one faction or another to get by, often relying upon their word and their reputation as the ultimate currency.

The Iron Ring is the setting for the starting scenario, ‘Welcome to the Ring’. The Player Characters have arrived with their Hub, towed into place and attached at a convenient docking port at Aurum 80 in the Aurum sector. They are low on supplies, and they owe a debt for the docking fees. How they pay this off is up to them, but perhaps they can involve themselves in the growing feud between two gangs which between control the subsector’s main resources. Both the set-up and the areas of Aurum 80 are described in some detail, but there is no one solution to the situation given. How their characters become involved in the situation and how they resolve it is entirely open and up to the players. What is notable about this is that perhaps the most obvious solution—the application of violence—is not immediately available. Player Characters in Death in Space rarely enter play armed, and whilst it is certainly possible for them to obtain weapons, initially it will be down to their wits and their persuasiveness to make any progress. This is indicative of the roleplaying game’s genre, the blue-collar Science Fiction of space as a working environment.

Beyond ‘Welcome to the Ring’, Death in Space provides the Game Master with table after table of ideas and inspiration. These include tables for Iron Ring locations, but deep space nightmares, obstacles, and space encounters, as well lists of modules and spacecraft and more. The Game Master is free to refer to these, but also encouraged to accept player suggestions too. Notable amongst these table are the only mention of aliens in Death in Space. These are a mixture of tools and threats and oddities that add to the unknown of the end of the universe. Their inclusion here also moves them away from being the focus of the game, and they could even be ignored all together if the Game Master wants to keep her Tenebris System wholly humanocentric.

Physically, Death in Space is black, a lot of black. Or rather, rather it is primarily white text or line art on black, with the occasional spot of colour as contrast. It is stark and elegant, befitting the vast loneliness of space and the Tenebris System. At first glance, it does look like the layout of Mörk Borg, but it is far more subtle and less in your face upon further examination, and therefore, may be easier to read. At least visually, the only connection between the two might be the coloured cross motif used on the chapter pages. The artwork is excellent, and the book is well written and engaging.

Death in Space is a roleplaying game about survival in the face of nihilism and an uncaring universe. It is a roleplaying game about hope and co-operation in the face of nihilism and an uncaring universe. Where in Mörk Borg, the Player Characters can be darkly and often humorously adversarial, this is not the case in Death in Space. The Player Characters have come together and need to work together to survive what is a starkly brutal and often unknown future, a future which can see them radically altered, and ultimately, this is what sets Death in Space apart from other blue collar Science Fiction roleplaying games.

What We Give To Alien Gods starts in an odd fashion. It starts with advice as to how to use the module, introduces a new optional rule for Conviction—a Player Character’s belief in an idea or concept; discusses the nature of the Triathal language, its trifold glyphs which combine into layers to form sentences and concepts and used by an alien species which did not vocalise; the Xenoconstellations of star patterns used by a cosmic entity as a form of communication; and examples of both the Triathal language and the Xenoconstellations. Certainly, both are brilliantly alien and both will hopefully help the challenge of the Warden imparting the stellar strangeness of What We Give To Alien Gods to her players and their characters. Yet nearly a quarter of the way into the module and the Warden has no idea as what is going on, what the module is about, and what the significance of anything she has just read is.

Which means that What We Give To Alien Gods breaks one of the cardinal rules of a roleplaying scenario. Which is…

Tell the Game Master what the scenario is about upfront.

What We Give To Alien Gods is a scenario for the MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game, the roleplaying game of blue collar Science Fiction Horror, inspired by films such as Outland, Dark Star, Silent Running, and Event Horizon, as well as Alien and Aliens. Hyperspace anomalies, reports of an alien structure, a missing contact, a seemingly telepathic cry for help, or even an inexplicable urge all hook the Player Characters into travelling Gaelar XII, a distant magellanic nebula. Once inside, they must negotiate dense pockets of cosmic dust, ionised gas storms, ship debris, thermal spikes, and more before alighting before a strange structure. Consisting of three immense pillars with a massive cube suspended between the three, which all together rotate as one, this is Maerkithelth, an unfathomably ancient temple to alien god. The Crew can enter any one of the pillars and begin to explore, finding signs of an alien civilisation—tools and devices left lying about, as well as extensive patterns of glyphs. They will also find indications that someone has already beaten them to the temple.

Discovering both the temple and the existence of aliens can have a profound effect upon a MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game, depending on whether or not they exist in the Warden’s campaign. However, even if they already exist, the presence of the Triathals and what they have left behind—especially the Triathal language, will have a profound upon the members of the Crew. This is intentional since the Scientist in the Crew, in particular, one with the Xenoesotericism, Xenomysticism, and Xenolinguitsics, will be translating the Triathal language and learning more and more of just what Maerkithelth contains and is protecting the universe from. Or even protecting the universe from which the Triathal came. There is such an emphasis upon the Triathal language and upon the role of the Scientist in the scenario that it is not like other MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game scenarios, and whilst the author describes it as a “A dungeon-crawl through an alien temple”, it is not that either. Rather, What We Give To Alien Gods is a puzzle crawl, an exploration of an environment that requires elements of a language to be learned in combination with skill rolls and the clues left behind by other explorers. Which obviously places a great deal of emphasis upon the player with the Scientist role. This is not say that the other roles in MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game do not figure in the scenario—and What We Give To Alien Gods does advice to that end—but the Scientist predominates.

Much of What We Give To Alien Gods is devoted to describing the interior of the three pillars of Maerkithelth and the almighty cube which hangs between them. It is only after this that we read of a major threat to both the Crew and possibly the universe. Doctor Aislin Grahm has an obsession with the cosmos and Xenomysticism and is driven—or possibly pulled—by whatever Maerkithelth actually contains (or keeps contained). However much like the explanation of what the plot to What We Give To Alien Gods, this does not really become obvious to very later in the book, over two thirds of the book in the listing of the NPCs, and it applies to her as much as it does the other, often very alien NPCs the Crew is likely to encounter.

Which means that What We Give To Alien Gods breaks one of the cardinal rules of a roleplaying scenario. Again. Which is…

Tell the Game Master what the scenario is about upfront.

Yet these are not the only issues with What We Give To Alien Gods and to be fair, they can be overcome as part of the Warden’s preparation. The real issue is with the extra element of preparation. For not only does the Warden have to prepare the scenario, she also has to learn how its puzzles work and learn the Triathal language, enough to be able understand and if not teach it to her players, then guide them through their learning process. In effect, the Warden has to play through aspects of What We Give To Alien Gods in order to really grasp what is going on. Then once prepared, the scenario—as the author advises—requires a lot of buy in upon the part of the players and their characters.

Physically, What We Give To Alien Gods is a solid little book. It has a sense of the ineffable and the alien in its look and use of art, of a place that is not quite like ours, and it is lovely booklet to look at. However, the writing is often succinct and there are no maps of Maerkithelth which might make it easier for the Warden to visualise and then impart that to her players.

Inspired by films and television such as Event Horizon, The Expanse, Interstellar, and Arrival, there is no denying that What We Give To Alien Gods is an ambitious treatment of Cosmic Horror for the MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game. It is conceptually brilliant and the result is fantastically weird and creepy and unsettling, but the effort to get that to the table, that is where What We Give To Alien Gods does not quite deliver.

The Woodland is a world is one of strife and conflict in the wake of first the Grand Civil War between the avian factions of the Eyrie Dynasties, then the Interbellum, when an army led by the Marquise de Cat invaded, and lastly the return of the resurgent Eyrie Dynasties and the rise of the Woodland Alliance in response to the feline invaders. This has left Clearing after Clearing, or settlement, across the Woodland rife with factions wanting to ally with one side or the other, facing problems caused by conflicts across the forest, and their inhabitants at loggerheads with each other as to what solutions they should apply to one problem, situation, or another. Into the Clearings slip the outsiders and travellers known as Vagabonds, often outlaws who wander the Woodland without a home, and although no upstanding member of a Clearing’s community would trust a Vagabond, together a band of Vagabonds, might have the nous, the chutzpah, the slipperiness, and the skill, to solve the problems that beset a Clearing and tip it one way or another. Often this will mean that the Vagabonds will do so in favour of one faction, for they have their own biases, which means that there is even less reason to trust them! So bands of Vagabonds slip out of one Clearing and into another, sometimes changing the situation they discover, sometimes not, occasionally to the acclaim of one faction and the dismay of others, but rarely ever trusted even as they are barely tolerated.

This is the set-up Root: The Roleplaying Game, the game based on Root: A Game of Woodland Might And Right, the anthropomorphic asymmetrical boardgame from Leder Games, published by Magpie Games. The players take the roles of the Vagabonds, but it is up to the Game Master to create a network of Clearings, each 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. Root: The Roleplaying Game does come with an example Clearing called ‘Gelilah’s Grove’ which neatly shows off the concept. However, if the Game Master is short on inspiration or ideas and wants further examples or wants a Clearing which can be run as a one-shot, then there is a ready set of Clearings in the supplement, Root: The Roleplaying Game – Clearings Booklet.

Root: The Roleplaying Game – Clearings Booklet provides a quartet of Clearings ready for the Game Master to add to her Woodland. The format for each entry is the same. This includes a ‘Description’, ‘At First Sight’, ‘Conflicts’, details and stats for ‘Important Residents’, ‘Important Locations’, ‘Special Rules’, and ‘Introducing the Clearing’. The latter provides advice and guidance, whilst the ‘Conflicts’ starts off with a ‘Core Conflict’ and adds several more, all of whom come with a ‘How It Develops’ section which examines what happens if the Vagabonds never get involved. Each of the Clearings in the supplement comes with four such Conflicts, and though the listed playing is two to four hours for each Clearing, the likelihood is that it will take more than one session for a band of Vagabonds to deal with all of them. Either way, whether the Vagabonds involve themselves in a Conflict or not, there are consequences to their actions or their inaction respectively.

The first Clearing in Root: The Roleplaying Game – Clearings Booklet is ‘Hookfoot Bog’, the name of a swampy, smelly settlement best known as a source of peat which the local Hookfoot Clan of mice dig out using harvesting machines and which the Marquisate governs as an important resource. From the off, it is clear that the Marquisate is not necessarily the bad cat here. The local commander governs with a light paw, but its now monopoly on the digging out and sale of peat has led to increased prices and tension, as well as changes to the Clearing as the Cats and their allies have constructed wooden buildings and homes in the settlement centre. This has divided the settlement into the old town and the new town, between collaborators who welcome, if not a newfound wealth, then at least job security. However, some within the Hookfoot Clan resent the Marquisate’s presence and are finding ways to resist, including purchasing weapons from smugglers who in turn smuggle out Nip, a powerful narcotic regulated by the Marquisate, which requires peat to manufacture. The Conflicts are all nicely interconnected, and supported with details of the Clearing’s important NPCs, interesting locations, special rules—the latter covering the swampy, peat fuelled smoky environment and peat harvester operations, and guidance for the Game Master on how to get the Vagabonds involved in the Conflicts in Hookfoot Bog. The latter includes the governor asking the Vagabonds to infiltrate the resistance; a local merchant wants them to stop the vandalism on the peat harvesters, but others want to help it; they might be recruited by the resistance or tested by the smugglers to see if they support or oppose their operations; and more. Plus, there are tips on how to escalate the situation and keep the action going.

The other three Clearings follow the same pattern. ‘Sixtoe Stand’ is named for a hero who drove off a wolf attack many years ago, but a more recent wolf attack has left it ill-prepared to survive the winter. So, it needs an ally, but which faction will it side with? ‘Limmery Post’ details an ancient fortification on the edge of the Woodland occupied by the Marquisate much to the dismay of the inhabitants, who want the invaders gone, but camped outside the settlement is a contingent of the Woodland Alliance, ready to lay siege to Sixtoe Stand. Some in Sixtoe Stand want to keep the peace with the Marquisate, others would welcome their being driven out by the Woodland Alliance, but many want to remain in isolation as they have for many years. Which of course is not possible given the situation. Lastly, ‘Coolclaw Mine’ details an important iron mine under Marquisate occupation, but ill prepared to deal with the influx of soldiers and refugees and so the threat of starvation looms. Here the Marquisate Lord Scowl is much more of an openly oppressive presence and so is closer to the classic rebellion versus authority set-up, although it does throw a rival Vagabond group into the situation.

Physically, Root: The Roleplaying Game – Clearings Booklet is well presented, well written, and of course, illustrated with the same great art as with Root: The Roleplaying Game and Root: A Game of Woodland Might And Right. The worst that could be said of it is that there is not enough!

Root: The Roleplaying Game – Clearings Booklet is a solid supplement for Root: The Roleplaying Game. It complements a Game Master’s Woodland, whether of fully worked Clearings ready to add to her campaign or bring to the table as a one-shot. Or simply as a book of examples to take inspiration from and develop Clearings of her own.

The Silver Road is a rules light—a very rules light, minimalist storytelling. It is so light that it does not even have its own integral setting, although it does include a scenario and a set of sample Player Characters. Designed to be played by two or more players—though four is the perfect number, plus a Game Mediator, the types of stories The Silver Road is designed to tell should be ideally composed of discrete scenes, whether arrayed along a narrative or organised into a flowchart. Each scene should involve one or more problems with potential consequences. The example given in the book involves a child attempting to pick the lock of her bedroom, the consequences being that if she fails, she will get frustrated, stamp her feet, and so attract the attention of her stepmother downstairs. The story could be the exploration of a dungeon or an escape room, a fairy tale, a race across Europe to escape with information from behind the Iron Curtain, or the infiltration of the moon base home to a gang of space pirates! Whatever the story, the mechanics are designed so that ultimately a character will always succeed, but will have to suffer the consequences of their initial failure, and as a storytelling game, provides scope for a player to add elements to the scene beyond whatever their character is doing.

The Silver Road is published by Handiwork Games, best known for BEOWULF: Age of Heroes, and requires a single six-sided die each for both the players and the Game Mediator, and some pencils and paper. A character is simply defined. He has a name, an important fact about them—such as a job, role, or what he is, two things he is good at, two things he is bad at, and lastly, a Magic Number. The latter ranges between two and five, and is unique to the character. Character creation can be done as a group or separately, but ultimately, the players should have as a group a reason to stay together and face the hostile situations designed and presented to them by the Game Mediator.

Tiddles
I am a Cat Who Belongs to No-One

Things I am Good at
I am good at getting people to trust me
I am good at sneaking

Things I am Bad at
I am bad at meowing
I am bad at dealing with children

In terms of play, the Game Master will have ready a series of scenes containing obstacles and consequences, which when one is overcome will lead to the next and so on and so on. She will present the scene and then in turn, each player will narrate what his character will do (it need not be in turn order round the table, but that is the default). To have his character undertake an action, a player rolls his die. If it is something the Player Character is good at, he will nearly always succeed. If it is something the Player Character is bad at, he will nearly always fail. If he fails, there will be consequences, but if it is something the Player Character is good at and he fails, there will be consequences also, but he will succeed on his next turn.

There are no rules for combat in The Silver Road, the outcome of any direct conflict being already built into the rules through the effect of consequences. In conflicts, these can be that the character is hurt—or depending upon the story being narrated, actually killed. The former is more likely than the latter though, and even if killed, a character could return as a ghost—depending upon the story, of course.

In addition, if the result on any die roll is equal to a player’s magic Number, that player can ‘Butt-in’. This gives him the opportunity to add to the current scene or action within the scene—even if it is not that player’s turn—with his new narration having to begin, “But…” The Butt-in’ interjection can be used to bring in the player’s own character, or that of another player, to add something to the scene (even to warp it to make it even more challenging for the current or next player!), and so on. The narration thus switches from player to player to the Game Mediator and back again, with the interjections happening at random.

The Silver Road could be criticized for being too simple—and arguably, given the size of the book and the extent of its mechanics, it is. After all, they have been developed from one page of rules. Nevertheless, their simplicity makes them easy to learn, teach, and use—such that this roleplaying game could be run with children—and further, what that space allows is advice for the Game Mediator on organising and running the game, handling consequences, getting hurt and more. The roleplaying game also comes with a set of example Player Characters and Obstacles, as well as a scenario or story, a sort of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five affair which spirals into a fairy tale.

The Silver Road is well written, easy to read, and ready to run in five minutes. In addition, the simplicity of The Silver Road expanded into a booklet-sized roleplaying game has the advantage of allowing space for fantastic artwork on every page. This has an ethereality to it, suggesting something lost or over there on the edge where figures, often in odd or period garb, slide into the mists, doors stand closed in hedges, buildings crumble atop rises, and ghosts linger in the morning light. The implied nature of The Silver Road is liminal, somewhere between the modern and the past, a step or two’s way from somewhere further back or elsewhere.

Wizards are known for their eccentricity, none more so than Riblerim the Unsure, Master Diviner, for when he set out to create and build a theme park, it was not only wondrous and whimsical, but it was also actually constructed in an ultra-dimensional realm woven into his cloak. It consisted of several themed islands floating in a golden sky connected by a winding monoriver plied by cute animal-themed boats and Giant Flying Galapagos Turtles. It was both a private refuge and somewhere to receive guests, known to its creator as Riblerim’s Interesting Place, but then it became something else—a sanctuary! During the Great Needle Pusher Purge, all seamstresses and tailors, long suspected of sorcery, one and all, were persecuted and driven into exile, which of course, led to the Great Wearing of Nothing but Rags. That is, naturally, all forgotten now, but the question of what happened to all those fleeing needleworkers and clothcutters and more, remains one of much debate… What happened though, was that Riblerim the Unsure came to their aid. Refusing to watch the seamstresses and tailors be persecuted and driven out, he established ‘Costumiers with Latent Arcane Magicks Refuge Initiative & Motivation Scheme’—or CLAMRIMS, for short—and sought the exiled, freethinking clothiers and modistes, and offered them shelter in what had previously been wholly a sanctum for just himself and his guests. A sanctum that he drew about himself and thus carried with him everywhere he went. Then Riblerim the Unsure disappeared. That was fifty years ago…

In more recent times, Cambros, the sari-draped Warbot, has been seen wandering the land, wrapped in a great cloak, said to have belonged to his friend, Riblerim the Unsure. He wants to find his friend, whom he is sure can be found in the cloak. In return for the Player Characters’ aid, he offers adventure unlike any that they have been on before and great treasures to be found, and with his uttering of the Passcode, they are whisked into the cloak and the weird and wonderful world of Riblerim’s Interesting Place. They find themselves in the Welcominarium, an island complete with a wizard’s tower in classic style, a large orientation map marked with ‘You Are Here’ and an arrow, the Slips aYe Olde Gift Shop shaped like a wizard’s conical hat, and a dock on the monoriver, at which the animal themed boats—the horsey, the rocking pony, the seahorsey, the unpiggie, the pegaswan, and naturally, the teacup too, all sit ready to transport their passengers elsewhere. That elsewhere consists of several islands floating in the sky, around, above, and below the Player Characters. They include the feudal mini-kingdom of Avalon; the springiness of Bouncy Island, complete with white pellet rafting; the constant end of day Sunset Island; the benighted and lovelorn Adult Island; and the ostentatiously studious Island of Special Interests.

This is the set-up for Capes and Cloaks and Cowls and a Park, a highly detailed, but systemless sandbox scenario whose sense of wonder and whimsy combine the classic funhouse style of dungeon with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It is published by Mottokrosh Machinations, following a successful Kickstarter campaign, a publisher best known for Hypertellurians: Fantastic Thrills Through the Ultracosm, an Old School Renaissance adjacent roleplaying game of retro science fantasy. Numerous suggestions are given to get the Player Characters to and then inside the cloak—or rather into Riblerim’s Interesting Place. The default arrival point is the Welcominarium, but the Game Master is free to have them end up wherever seems the most appropriate, or fun. From there, the Player Characters are free to go wherever they want, or at least wherever the animal themed boats (or the teacup) will take—including up stream as well as down. Each island is a realm of its own, consisting of three or more adventure sites all following a particular theme. For example, Avalon is home to a fairy tale castle where tourneys and jousting are held to appease the self-appointed queen, Moronoe, nearly surrounded by dark forest lush with game and the domain of secretive druids. There is a seemingly endless cosplay closet at the dock where the Player Characters will alight, one which they can enter and select a suitable outfit for their time on the island. In comparison, Bouncy Island seems all but deserted, yet it does have its ruler, an Elfin figure whose cloak appears to mimic his moments and who can often be seen frolicking up and down the White Pellet Rafting route. Like many of the inhabitants, he knows many secrets of the Riblerim’s Interesting Place and might be persuaded to share one or more if the Player Characters are willing to brave the dangers of The Plastic Gauntlet—which like the rest of Bouncy Island, has definite springiness to it.

All of the adventure sites in Capes and Cloaks and Cowls and a Park are nicely detailed—its interior spaces more so. These include both the floorplans for locations such as the Museum of Divination, as well as dungeons like the Tomb of the Last Knight and The Plastic Gauntlet. These are also neatly arranged so that the maps and map keys are opposite each other.

Mechanically, Capes and Cloaks and Cowls and a Park is designed to be systemless. Or rather, written to be used with any roleplaying game, for it does actually have a system of its very own. This is the ‘HAWK’ structure, which stands for ‘Has’, ‘Acts’, ‘Wants’, and ‘Knows’, which is used to describe and define each of the major NPCs who appear in the scenario. The lack of numbers though, has its upsides and its downsides. Obviously, the Game Master can adapt Capes and Cloaks and Cowls and a Park to the roleplaying game of her choice, whether that is 13th Age, the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, Hypertellurians, or Old School Essentials. All would work. The downside is that all together there are a lot of NPCs and monsters to provide stats for, but that is offset by how succinct the design of the individual islands is. The Player Characters are likely to be exploring one island at a time, so the Game Master need not necessarily adapt the whole of Capes and Cloaks and Cowls and a Park in one go.

Given the nature of its setting and many of its inhabitants, it should be no surprise that most of the main treasures in Capes and Cloaks and Cowls and a Park consist of cloaks, mantles, shawls, stoles, and the like. For example, the Dwarven War Cloak is made of thumb-sized iron bars which can interlock to form a personal fortification whilst the Concordant Cowl of Teeth, consisting of an array of molars, incisors, and canines strung together with silver chains, is simply an intimidating—and sometimes—an enraging sight. The other treasures to be found in Riblerim’s Interesting Place are much less detailed and generally simpler in nature, like the Ruby Opera Gloves, enchanted by vampires to make the wearer unnoticeable to humans or the carved soap, a heavy cake of rainbow tulip and hope-scented soap into which has been artfully scratched a trigonometrical formula. Decipher the formula and the Player Character casts Venusian magics with greater power. As with the rest of the content in Capes and Cloaks and Cowls and a Park, none of these items have stats, but their simplicity makes them easy to adapt to the roleplaying game of the Game Master’s choice. Also included is a guide to making the studying and use of grimoires more interesting than mere spellbooks, which could also be adapted to the whatever rules the Game Master is using.

Physically, Capes and Cloaks and Cowls and a Park is beautifully presented, done in retro-lush colours that add to the sense of unreality of Riblerim’s Interesting Place. The cartography is also excellent. If there is an issue with the presentation, it is that the layout is too tight and the text a little too small in places, making the book slightly difficult to read. There is advice though for both Game Master and players on how to handle the tone and some of the scenario’s content, which is clearly marked for each location and includes spiders, demonic summonings—under mostly safe conditions, cannibalism, and more. This is through the use of lines and veils, and the X-card, although the self-contained nature of the scenario’s varying islands do help to separate this more adult content.

As a sandcrawl, Capes and Cloaks and Cowls and a Park differs in that its individual locations, its islands floating on the fabric of Riblerim’s cloak, are discrete and there is relatively little to connect them narratively. This is because this is not really a sandcrawl with factions and the power and influence of its NPCs do not extend beyond the confines of their respective islands. Here perhaps some advice or a table listing what each of the NPCs want and how those wants crossover could have been useful. However, there are threads which run right across the theme park that is Riblerim’s Interesting Place. In particular, a lot of the NPCs that the Player Characters will encounter are the equivalent of staff or actors. They look the part, and they play the part, but their lack of competence in comparison to the Player Characters adds to the sense of unreality of the already strange realm. Similarly, the fact that Riblerim’s Interesting Place has its own currency—Aesopian Rupees—exchanged for whispered secrets, also adds to the unreality as well as driving the players to come up with increasingly interesting confessions for their characters to pay for anything!
With Capes and Cloaks and Cowls and a Park, Mottokrosh Machinations does that ‘thing within a thing, within a…’ just as it did with Brutal Imperilment in the Bag of Infinite Holding. However, rather than being constrained by being in a bag upon a bag upon a bag, there is an openness to Capes and Cloaks and Cowls and a Park. The whole of its robed realm is presented to the Player Characters, and they are free to visit any one of its discrete, individual islands however they want, encountering something different on each one, whether that is a genre, a theme, or a tone—or a combination of all three. Capes and Cloaks and Cowls and a Park is sumptuously strange, ornately odd, and richly ridiculous, a campaign within campaign, a robed resort of wonders and whimsy.

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

—oOo—

What is it?
Bog Struggles: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha is a scenario for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha in which the adventurers come to the aid of the inhabitants of a nearby bog.

It is a twenty-five page, full colour 4.02 MB PDF.

It needs a slight edit in places, but layout is professional and the artwork is very good.
Where is it set?Bog Struggles: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha can be set anywhere where there is an area of wetlands.
Who do you play?
There are no specific roles necessary to play Bog Struggles, but martial characters will be needed as combat is involved. In addition, a Shaman and an Issaries merchant may prove useful, and Heler or Engizi worshippers may have an advantage.
What do you need?
Bog Struggles: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and the RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary will be useful for details of some of the encounters. Borderlands: A RuneQuest Campaign in Seven Scenarios may be useful as reference, but is not required to play Bog Struggles.
What do you get?Bog Struggles: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha is a short, simple adventure which takes places in a nearby piece of wetlands where a tribe of Newtlings have made their home. Unfortunately, the village and the object of the Newtlings’ veneration, a River Horse spirit, has been attacked physically and spiritually by an unwholesome creature. The Player Characters are asked or hired by the Newtlings to come to their aid, perhaps because the Newtlings have come to the Player Characters’ village, the Player Characters have stumbled into the wetlands and the Newtlings’ village—or for some other reason. The scenario gives several. Either way, the Player Characters have to slog and slosh their way into the bog, face down the threat faced by the Newtlings, and that is that… Which also sounds a bit simple, but the scenario has a nasty sting its, well not tail, but definitely tendrils, as the scenario takes a decidedly Lovecraftian turn into tentacular horror.
At the heart of Bog Struggles is a classic ‘village in peril’ set-up, which goes all the way back to T1 The Village of Hommlet, but it does give it a nasty Lovecraftian twist with a big muddy amphibious dollop of Gloranthan lore in finding an interesting way to use and encounter a pair of monsters from the RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary. The plot is also simple and straightforward, perhaps too much so, but it is very clearly explained and it is very clearly mapped and illustrated. The map is decent, but the illustrations of the Newtlings are bright, colourful, and very much full of character—they are quite delightful. The one gripe with them is that none of them is depicted wielding a trident.
In addition, Bog Struggles provides details of the River Horse spirit cult particular to the scenario’s Newtlings. This might be of interest to Engizi or Heler worshipers, but the Game Master could also create other River Horse spirit cults based on this one. Given the amount of combat involved in the scenario, Bog Struggles should provide two sessions’ worth of play at the very most. If there is anything lacking in the scenario it is suggestions as to where it might be located, but the Game Master should be able to do that without any difficulty. Lastly, if the Player Characters are successful, the Newtlings could easily reward them with something interesting, useful, or particular to the campaign.
Is it worth your time?Yes—Bog Struggles: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha is a useful and easy addition for any campaign where there is a river or area of wetland nearby, providing a delightfully strange and horrifying encounter with some wonderfully illustrated, oh so adorable, Newtlings.No—Bog Struggles: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha is set in wetlands, so may not suit all campaigns and it does not work as well without a Shaman either. The illustrations are still a joy though.Maybe—Bog Struggles: An Adventure for RuneQuest Glorantha is a useful filler adventure, but not much more than that. Have you seen the Newtlings, though? Sooo cute!

Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune is built on two key factors. One is that you begin playing as soon as you open the box. Two is an enormous, ‘What if?’. Subtitled a ‘Roleplaying Campaign Experience’, it is both a starter set and more than a starter set for Dune – Adventures in the Imperium, the roleplaying game from Modiphius Entertainment based on the novels by Frank Herbert, set in the far future of the year 10, 191 during the reign of Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV. This is an Imperium of great and noble houses—and some not so noble, that feud, jockey, and politic constantly for power, influence, and vengeance. It is a future where the Bene Gesserit, a mysterious sisterhood guides and advises the emperor and every house from the shadows, yet has a secret agenda of its own; where thinking machines have been outlawed and replaced by the human computers known as mentats; and where interstellar travel is monopolised by the Spacing Guild whose navigators, heavily mutated by the spice drug melange, fold space and enable instantaneous travel from one system to another. The spice drug melange is found on only one planet, Arrakis—or Dune—and since it is vital interstellar travel and commerce, control of the spice mining on Arrakis can make a house incredibly wealthy and it is within the power of the Padishah Emperors to both bestow and withdraw this gift. It is with this set-up that Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune begins.

Open up Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune and the first thing you see is a ‘Read This First’ pamphlet. This does five things. It addresses the players and their characters directly, first explaining to the Player Characters what is happening and what they are going to be doing, in the process giving them agency, before explaining what is going on to the players, essentially that this is not the Dune they might be expecting. It also details what is in the Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune box and what all of the components are—and there are a lot of components. This is a packed box. It also provides a rules reference on the back page. It is not the only rules reference in Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune, but to be honest, more is better. Lastly, it guides the Gamemaster about what steps to take getting ready to run the first of the scenarios in the Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune ‘Adventure Book’, which is immediately beneath the ‘Read This First’ pamphlet.

The next component consists of five, full colour, character folios. Each of these has been carefully designed in terms of its presentation. So on the front there is an illustration and description of the Player Character as well as a reason why a player might choose to roleplay that character. Inside is an introduction to the Known Universe in the year 10,191 which is standard to all five of the character folios, and then background and details for the Player Characters. They include two nobles, brother and sister, one a duellist, the other a diplomat; plus a Swordmaster, a Mentat, and a Bene Gesserit Spy. On the back of each, just like the ‘Read This First’ pamphlet, is a rules reference.

Below this is a Momentum and Threat Tracker (Momentum is spent by the players to gain certain advantages for their characters, whilst the Game Master spends Threat to give them to her NPCs), a Spice Harvesting Tracker, three handouts, a sheet of counters, a double-sided map for the campaign, a double-sided duelling and negotiation positioning map, a set of five twenty-sided dice, a pack of plastic stands, and a pack of cards. The latter contains images and stats of every item, NPC, and Player Character in Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune. The great thing about the NPC and Player Character cards is that as much as they are intended to be used as references, they can also be slotted into the plastic stands and then used as figure standees to show that NPC or Player Character is on a map or the position that he has taken up on the duelling and negotiation positioning maps when they enter play. Beyond the limits of Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune, most of these physical components—the Spice Harvesting Tracker, the counters, the duelling and negotiation positioning maps, the dice, the plastic stands, and most of the cards will prove useful in an ongoing Dune – Adventures in the Imperium campaign. The handouts are decent and done on sturdy paper, but the particular delight of the three is a pamphlet which the Player Characters are given as soon as they step off the shuttle onto the planet which gives them an introduction to Arrakis. It is pleasingly immersive. Lastly, there is one extra thing in Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune and that is a copy of Dune – Adventures in the Imperium. Or rather there is a code for the PDF. Either way it is fantastic extra, because what it does is enable the Game Master and her players to look up the rules if they want a further explanation or a more experienced group to create their Player Characters and play the campaign with those rather than the five included in Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune.

The ‘begin playing as soon as you open the box’ aspect of Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune instructs the Game Master to read the ‘Read This First’ pamphlet and give the character folios out for her players to choose. Once done, the Game Master reads the opening section of ‘Adventure Book’ which explains the basics of the Player Characters and the setting, plus the first decision that the players will take collectively, that is what type of house do their characters belong to. This is determined by a piece of advanced technology. A Maula Rifle and House Nagara is a military house, a Blight Scanner and it is farming house, and so on. There are five options. There is a fair bit to read out here, so a little bit of patience is required upon the part of the players, but on page, the action starts. The players are roleplaying. There is no explanation of the rules up until this point. Instead, these are explained as they come up as part of each scenario. There are details in the sidebars which in turn expand upon the rules, such as giving assistance to another Player Character; explain more about the setting, for example, why Lasguns are rarely used in the Known Universe; and to give direction advice to the Game Master, such as handing a particular card to the players.

What the ‘Adventure Book’ and thus Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune is thus providing programmed learning through play or learn as you play. This has the advantage of the rules coming into play only when the story needs it and it helps that the 2d20 System, the mechanics used for Dune – Adventures in the Imperium as well several other roleplaying games from Modiphius Entertainment are not that complex and that their iteration here are relatively simple in comparison to others. Yet there are downsides to this approach, none of them major, or indeed, insurmountable. The programmed learning and structure of the campaign means that it is linear and it is difficult to deviate away from its plot. It means that there is no one clear explanation of rules in Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune, although the various reference sheets on the back of the character folios and the free copy of the PDF of the core rules counter this issue. On the other hand, the player or Game Master who has played any of the other 2d20 System roleplaying games will adjust to the rules presented here with ease.

One potential issue of Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune is that its introduction is not sufficiently basic enough. Now its introduction to the setting of Dune, the 2d20 System, and Dune – Adventures in the Imperium are all fine, but it really does not have much in the way of an introduction to what roleplaying is. Both player and Game Master really need to have some idea of what roleplaying is before tackling Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune because it does not start from first principles. Of course, in the hands of an experienced Game Master, the programmed nature of learning makes it easier to teach the rules and mechanics.

Dune: Adventures in the Imperium and thus Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune employ the 2d20 System first used in the publisher’s Mutant Chronicles: Techno Fantasy Roleplaying Game and Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, and since developed into the publisher’s house system. To undertake an action, a character’s player rolls two twenty-sided dice, aiming to have both roll under the total of a Skill and a Drive. Each roll under this total counts as a success, an average task requiring two successes. Rolls of one count as two successes and if a character has an appropriate Focus, rolls under the value of the Skill also count as two successes.

In the main, because a typical difficulty will only be a Target Number of one, players will find themselves rolling excess Successes which becomes Momentum. This is a resource shared between all of the players which can be spent to create an Opportunity and so add more dice to a roll—typically needed because more than two successes are required to succeed, to create an advantage in a situation or remove a complication, create a problem for the opposition, and to obtain information. It is a finite ever-decreasing resource, so the players need to roll well and keep generating it, especially if they want to save for the big scene or climatic battle in an adventure.

Now where the players generate Momentum to spend on their characters, the Game Master has Threat which can be spent on similar things for the NPCs as well as to trigger their special abilities. She begins each session with a pool of Threat, but can gain more through various circumstances. These include a player purchasing extra dice to roll on a test, a player rolling a natural twenty and so adding two Threat (instead of the usual Complication), the situation itself being threatening, or NPCs rolling well and generating Momentum and so adding that to Threat pool. In return, the Gamemaster can spend it on minor inconveniences, complications, and serious complications to inflict upon the player characters, as well as triggering NPC special abilities, having NPCs seize the initiative, and bringing the environment dramatically into play.

Combat uses the same mechanics, but offers more options in terms of what Momentum can be spent on. This includes creating a Trait or an Asset, either of which can then be brought into the combat, and keeping the initiative—initiative works by alternating between the player characters and the NPCs and keeping it allows two player characters to act before an NPC does. Where Dune: Adventures in the Imperium differs from other 2d20 System roleplaying games is the lack of Challenge dice, and instead of inflicting damage directly via the loss of Hit Points, combatants are trying to defeat each through the removal of Assets and attempting to create—cumulatively—Successes equal to or greater than the Quality of the task or the opponent. Minor NPCs or situations are easily overcome, but difficult situations and major NPCs will be more challenging to defeat and will require extended tests.

The system is intended to cover the various types of situations which can occur in a story in Dune: Adventures in the Imperium. So, individual duels, skirmishes and open battles, espionage, and social intrigue. All these, as well as spice harvesting rules are presented in Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune as they appear in the story and thus come up in play. In general, anyone with experience of the 2d20 System will see that the iteration here involves more of a narrative, storytelling style of play.

In terms of setting and story, it is the big ‘What if?’ of Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune which comes into play. In the novel Dune, House Atreides is awarded the fiefdom of Arrakis by the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV as part of a conspiracy with former fief holder and enemy of House Atreides, House Harkonnen. A prequel to this is even explored in Dune: Adventures in the Imperium Wormsign Quick-start Guide. The ‘What if?’ though of Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune asks what if the Player Characters’ house was awarded the fiefdom instead of House Harkonnen? Further, what if the transfer of power on Arrakis from House Harkonnen to House Nagara—the Player Characters’ house—was peaceful, rather than as fractious as that depicted in the novel? And what if the reason for this is the fact that House Harkonnen and House Nagara are allies? What if, despite losing control of Aarrakis, it was in the best interests of House Harkonnen to help House Nagara gain and keep control of the fiefdom? The ‘Adventure Booklet’ gives several reasons for this, but there can be no doubt that this flies in the face of almost sixty years of storytelling and of House Harkonnen never being portrayed as anything less than the villain. This puts a different perspective on matters and forces anyone familiar with the story to roleplay against their player knowledge. The campaign itself begins on Giedi Prime, home planet of House Harkonnen, with the Player Characters being trained, going through a couple of simulations, assessed by House Harkonnen trainers, all in preparation for the great shift, getting involved in some intrigue and being exposed to the terrible conditions on the planet, before travelling to Aarrakis and taking control of the fiefdom.

Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune includes five full colour character folios, representing five members, including two heirs of House Nagara, and ideally, the campaign in the ‘Adventure Booklet’ is designed to be played by five players, plus the Game Master. It can be played with less, but this does limit the specialities available to the characters and their players as a whole. If the playing group decides to instead create their own characters using the rules inDune – Adventures in the Imperium, they should ideally create characters with similar roles to those presented in the given character folios to fit the campaign. The campaign consists of three acts with three or four scenes each, which all together should provide multiple sessions’ worth of play. There is a lot of boxed text to read out, which when combined with the programmed learning of the roleplaying game’s mechanics, means that it does require a little patience upon the part of the players. For the more experienced Game Master, there are notes at the start of each chapter which break its events down and enable her to bring to play as she would normally do in any other scenario.

Physically, Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune comes in a sturdy box and everything inside is superbly presented. All of the components are good quality and many of them will be useful in a Dune – Adventures in the Imperium campaign beyond the Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune boxed set.

There remains the question, of course, of just who the Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune boxed set is aimed at. That is not necessarily an easy question to answer. It is not quite suitable for anyone new to roleplaying as it does not explain what the basics of roleplaying are, but the programmed learning and structure of the campaign goes someway to offset that. For the experienced Game Master and group of players, the programmed learning and structure may instead be more of hindrance than a help, but with some effort and adjustment, there is nothing to prevent the Game Master from adapting it to her preferred style of running a game. For the Dune devotee though, and the player with a little experience of roleplaying and an interest in Dune, Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune, perhaps being run with the Game Master with some experience, is actually a really good introduction to both the setting and the roleplaying game. 

In the past five years, starter sets for roleplaying games have gotten better and better. It is not enough to put the basic rules, a scenario, some dice, and a link to another scenario online in a box and sell it as a starter set. A starter set has to offer longevity—it is no longer a ‘done and discard’ product. The starter set can no longer leave the Game Master and her players wondering what they should play next. The One Ring Starter Set, the RuneQuest Starter Set, and the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set are all proof of that—and so is Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune. It provides the means to learn the rules and play a mini-campaign, in the process teaching the rules and the mechanics, exploring different aspects of the setting, most notably Giedi Prime, and establishing the players and their characters, and their House on Dune, ready for further adventures and intrigues—whether they are of the Game Master’s own creation or available from Modiphius Entertainment.

If a Game Master and her players have any interest in exploring the Known Universe and Dune – Adventures in the Imperium, then Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune really is the starting point that they want. Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune provides a fantastically complete and superbly appointed introduction to both the Known Universe and Dune – Adventures in the Imperium—both the setting and the roleplaying game—and lives up to its subtitle of providing a ‘Roleplaying Campaign Experience’.