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

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

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Name: The Yellow DeathPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Batu Bozoglu

Setting: Waverly Hills Sanatorium, Kentucky
Product: Scenario
What You Get: Fifty-two page, 30.37 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: What if the terror of tuberculosis could be infected by something more terrible? Plot Hook: A brother dies too early and too crazy. The Investigators will have to follow in his footsteps to find out what happened.Plot Support: Detailed plot, staging advice for the Keeper, twelve handouts, one map, fifteen NPCs, and four pre-generated Investigators.Production Values: Decent.
Pros# Interesting historical setting# Self-contained hospital hell# Detailed plot# An expectorantly vile one-shot# Could be adapted to Cthulhu by Gaslight or any time up to the 1950s# Getting in is easy, getting out (and in what condition) is another matter
Cons# Needs a good edit# Illustrations do not always match the period# Potentially overly plotted?# No Sanity rewards?
Conclusion
# Interesting historical setting# Detailed period one-shot# Presents a vile vehicle for the King in Yellow in an expectorantly horrible hospital horror

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

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

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Name: Field of ScreamsPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Al Smith

Setting: Jazz Age Iowa for Pulp Cthulhu: Two-fisted Action and Adventure Against the Mythos
Product: Scenario
What You Get: Thirty-one page, 9.76 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Sometimes the field of dreams is the end of them. Plot Hook: Ghosts on the field of play means the Investigators are going to dig deep.Plot Support: Detailed plot, staging advice for the Keeper, three chase worksheets for the Keeper, two NPCs, one Mythos Entity/Mob, one Mythos device, and six pre-generated Investigators.Production Values: Reasonable.
Pros# Interesting historical set-up# Engaging baseball-themed scenario# Uses the chase mechanics for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition# Low investigation scenario# Nicely designed Investigators# Potential campaign set-up# Underground city cruelly described
Cons# Uses the chase mechanics for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition# Underwritten NPCs (especially for campaign play)# Underwritten penultimate rescue scene# Focuses too much on the chase over the penultimate rescue scene# What if the Investigators fail?# No Sanity rewards
Conclusion
# Interesting historical set-up# Uses the chase mechanics for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition# Physical, low-investigation one-shot into the cruel Earth

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

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What is it?
Black Spear: A Hero Wars Saga for RuneQuest is a campaign for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

It is a one-hundred-and-seventy-two page, full colour hardback.

It needs a slight edit in places.

Maps and illustrations are done in full, glorious technicolour.

Where is it set?
Black Spear: A Hero Wars Saga for RuneQuest begins in Apple Lane (as written), but is primarily set along the length of the Zola Fel River in the Valley of Cradles, as well as beyond.

Who do you play?Player Characters of all types could play this scenario as it involves a mix of social interaction, investigation, and action. Ideally (as written), they should have played through the scenarios in the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack and thus hold a position of power and trust. Player Characters who worship Orlanth or Yelm will find parts of the campaign entertaining, whilst Helerings will have a high old time of it.
Black Spear: A Hero Wars Saga for RuneQuest is set in 1627 ST after the death of Kallyr Starbrow.
What do you need?
Black Spear: A Hero Wars Saga for RuneQuest requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, the RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary, and the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack.
Access to the campaigns and supplements, Borderlands, Pavis, Sun County, River of Cradles, and/or Pavis: Gateway to Adventure may also be useful, but are not necessary to run Black Spear: A Hero Wars Saga for RuneQuest.

What do you get?Imagine if you will that upon his retirement, Professor JRR Tolkien was chosen to adapt and direct Heart of Darkness rather than Francis Ford Coppola, but do so as a Bronze Age myth and do it for the small screen as a Saturday morning cartoon—a Saturday morning cartoon with all of the mythology and the naughty bits left in. If you can imagine that, then you have a pretty good idea quite what Black Spear: A Hero Wars Saga for RuneQuest is like. Black Spear is a truly epic campaign which connects the Dragonrise and the Hero Wars, and does so in two ways. Materially, it will see the Player Characters sent to Pavis to inform Argrath White Bull that now is the right time to return to Sartar. Mystically, it will see the Player Characters involved in the reverberating consequences of the Dragonrise, the ongoing confrontation between Orlanth and Yelm, chart Argrath’s ascent to power and prominence, and rescue him from Darkness—and more. Along the way, the Player Characters will have the wildest ride of their lives, get insulted by Baboons, go to the weirdest and wettest disco they could ever imagine, get involved in Sun Dome politics and heresies, confront themselves, attack and protect a dragon… and much, much more.

Which is not to say that the author of Black Spear: A Hero Wars Saga for RuneQuest is Tolkien in this analogy. Definitely not. Most obviously because in no way is his ego in need of such polishing, but also if we have to have a Tolkien figure, it would be Greg Stafford. Which would probably make the author of Black Spear: A Hero Wars Saga for RuneQuest here Christopher Tolkien. Which is enough of an ego buff. Anyway, let us put an end to this Tolkien talk.
As written, Black Spear: A Hero Wars Saga for RuneQuest is initially tied into the storyline established in the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack, in which the Player Characters defend Apple Lane and one of their number becomes its Thane. As trusted subjects with a reputation for being able to get things done, Queen Leika, leader of the Colymar Tribe, requests that they travel as quickly as they can to the far city of Pavis, and there call its King, Argrath White Bull, back to Sartar. So begins a rip-roaring ride that will take them by air, by river, and ultimately, by means mystical upon their very own journey into Darkness, as well as that of Argrath White Bull himself. In the process, the Player Characters—the majority of them likely to be loyal Sartarites—will be pulled far out of their comfort zone and up the Zola Fel river, as well as deep into the myths of Glorantha. Make no mistake, this is a deep dive into the mysticism of Glorantha.
Throughout, Black Spear is heavily annotated by the author. Here he adds both side notes and asides, references much of his personal library devoted to Glorantha (thankfully the Game Master does not need access to this to run the campaign), gives staging advice for particular scenes, tells you how his players tackled this situation and that, provides references to appropriate illustrations, and occasionally admonishes bad and/or reluctant players. The latter can come across as patronising, but this is a campaign which needs fully embracing by both Game Master and players if they are going to get the most of it and its weirdness. Accompanying this are pieces of poetry, sermons, music suggestions to be played at the appropriate time—everything from O Fortuna! from Carmin Burana and Sunrise from Also Sprach Zarathustra to Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood to Football Fight by Queen from the film, Flash Gordon, and more. There is even alternative staging advice for each of the campaign’s seven acts if the Game Master prefers not to use some or all of the author’s version of its events.
For the most part, Black Spear is relatively light in terms of stat blocks. They are there as is necessary, but in the main, the mechanics emphasise the Player Characters’ Runes and Passions and how they influence and interact with the story told through the campaign. In fact, Black Spear is fairly light in terms of combat too, mainly keeping it for the big set scenes. (If the players relish their combat, a corollary comes with the PDF version of the campaign, ‘Violence is Always an Option!’, which suggests possible combat encounters in each of its seven acts.)
After all that, if Black Spear is lacking anything, it is advice as to what to reward the Player Characters with. They have just gone on an epic journey, if only inadvertently, and if Queen Leika has no reason to reward them for actually completing a simple task that went awry, arguably, Argrath White Bull does because the Player Characters do much more than simply deliver a message. Another issue with Black Spear is the sheer amount of information and myth which the author splurges on the Game Master. In the author’s defence, he does his very best to make it accessible and entertaining. So whilst there are innumerable references to out-of-print books, these are asides and he always sticks to core sources that are in print or readily available. Further, when the inevitable wodges of exposition need to be delivered in order to impart the degree of detail and depth behind the events in Black Spear from the Game Master to her players, the author provides both staging advice and the means to break it up and make the delivery that much more palatable. 
Mention should also be made of the fantastic artwork in Black Spear. It matches and enhances the cartoonishly epic nature of the campaign, giving it much of its character.
Is it worth your time?Yes—Black Spear: A Hero Wars Saga for RuneQuest is an unforgettably epic fabulation of  Gloranthan myth which takes a RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha campaign into the Heart of Darkness prior to the Hero Wars. No—Black Spear: A Hero Wars Saga for RuneQuest is too fantastic a campaign, too much a case of ‘Your Glorantha May Vary’, and perhaps too much information for some, and not every campaign will be running a campaign which runs up to the Hero Wars.Maybe—Black Spear: A Hero Wars Saga for RuneQuest contains much that is ‘Your Glorantha May Vary’ and whilst the Game Master may not want to run it as a whole or a campaign set in Sartar, there are scenes and ideas here which can be explored or adapted as is her wont.

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

The Pocket Sized Perils series uses the same A4 sheet folded down to A6 as the titles from Leyline Press, or rather the titles from Leyline Press use the same A4 sheet folded down to A6 sheet as Pocket Sized Perils series. Funded via a Kickstarter campaign as part of the inaugural ZineQuest—although it debatable whether the one sheet of paper folded down counts as an actual fanzine—this is a series of six mini-scenarios designed for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, but actually rules light enough to be used with any retroclone, whether that is the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game or Old School Essentials. Just because it says ‘5e’ on the cover, do not let that dissuade you from taking a look at this series and see whether individual entries can be added to your game. The mechanics are kept to a minimum, the emphasis is on the Player Characters and their decisions, and the actual adventures are fully drawn and sketched out rather than being all text and maps.

An Ambush in Avenwood is the inaugural entry in the Pocket Sized Perils series. Designed for First Level Player Characters, the scenario has a simple set-up, plot progression, and denouement. It can be played through in a single session and will present the Player Characters with plenty of challenge for that session—perhaps too much challenge in the final scene?—whilst also allowing sufficient scope for the Dungeon Master to work the scenario into her campaign or just flesh out a few details as necessary if run as a one-shot. The set-up begins with the Player Characters about to ambush a prison cart. Inside the prison cart will be Lady Briarthorn, the leader of the resistance who has been captured by the Baron’s soldiers and is being transported to a secret location. As fellow members of the resistance, the Player Characters have this one last chance to rescue her! However, all is not what it seems.

The ambush itself is detailed on the first few pages of the fanzine, including a map and stats for the guards. Once the Player Characters defeat the guards they discover that Lady Briarthorn is not being transported in the prison cart, but rather a local healer, Bernard. Fortunately, he has overheard that Lady Briarthorn is being held in a nearby ruined tower which stands atop a flat-topped rocky outcropping. The tower itself is detailed—or rather drawn in full cross section—on the reverse of the first six pages of An Ambush in Avenwood, so essentially, the second part of the scenario needs to be unfolded and the sheet itself turned over. Here the designer has outdone himself with an entertaining illustration of the tower, its four storeys, and the camp outside, as well as in the rocky outcropping itself. The Dungeon Master can easily run the encounters in these few locations off the one page and barring the need to flip over for the stats for the guards, is given everything she needs to run the second part of An Ambush in Avenwood all the way up to the scenario’s climax.

The final scene for the adventure is quite tough. The Player Characters will need to contend with another, much more dangerous surprise—and no, it is not that Lady Briarthorn is the villain, though she does become a problem for the Player Characters—and perhaps the Dungeon Master might want to reduce or change the number of offensive spells wielded by the true villain of the piece, as a he is a tough customer. The scenario also takes a weird turn here as well, so the Dungeon Master may want to decide whether or not to include those elements if planning to use An Ambush in Avenwood as the basis of a campaign. If she does, then the Dungeon Master will also need to decide on the identity of the villain as this is left intentionally open.

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

An Ambush in Avenwood is by no means a sophisticated scenario. It is simple, it is straightforward, and that means it is easy to run with very little preparation time. As the first entry in the Pocket Sized Perils series, An Ambush in Avenwood is an easy to prepare and run one-shot or campaign addition which has a charming physicality.

A missing U-boat! A lost painting! A kidnapped journalist! Ex-Nazi villains! All classic ingredients for a mystery and an adventure set during the nineteen sixties, perhaps done as a film or an episode of an action television series made by ITC Entertainment. Or written and drawn as the plot of a French or Belgian comic, one of those bande dessinée or bédé titles starring Tintin, Spirou et Fantasio, Blake & Mortimer, or Yoko Tsuno. Or they could be the ingredients of a scenario for a roleplaying game inspired by those very same bande dessinée titles. The scenario is The U-Boat Mystery and the roleplaying game is The Troubleshooters. Published by Helmgast and Modiphius Entertainment, The Troubleshooters is the roleplaying game of action, adventure, and mystery set in an alternate nineteen sixties. This is an age of international travel, optimism, and co-operation, in which the Player Characters will solve mysteries, investigate crime, and thwart the evil plans for world domination by the secret organisation known as The Octopus. The U-Boat Mystery is the first scenario to be released for The Troubleshooters.

The U-Boat Mystery is designed to be played by between three and five Troubleshooters. Between them, they should have some decent combat skills and one of them at least, should have the Diver ability, if not the Divemaster ability, as the scenario does end in a dive on a submarine. One option might be to let the Troubleshooters have the opportunity to train before the dive itself and spend any Experience Points at that stage of the adventure rather than afterwards.

The U-Boat Mystery opens with a discussion of the Plot Hooks which will get the Troubleshooters involved in the scenario’s mystery. The four are Arch-Enemy: The Octopus, Do-Gooder, Looking for a Case, and Media Darling, and one or more of the Troubleshooters have these as one of their two Plot Hooks, enabling them to get pulled in from the start. This is a feature of The Troubleshooters and each of the Plot Hooks can be used in two ways. Either as a handout which relates the events of the Plot Hook and can be easily shared with the other Troubleshooters, or as a scene in their own right which can be played out as a prequel for each of these Player Characters, ideally before the opening credits roll… For the Troubleshooter with Arch-Enemy: The Octopus, a widow, Mrs Wallhaus gives him a map of the Sitomeyang archipelago in Southeast Asia, before she is suddenly shot and injured; for the Do-Gooder, he helps evacuate the tenants of a burning apartment block and learns that someone heard shots before the fire and that the only person missing is a widow; the Troubleshooter Looking for a Case receives an anonymous bundle of clues, all seemingly unconnected; for the Media Darling, the journalist—Pierre Martin—mentions that he is off to New York and then the Far East to cover a German marine expedition, but is then kidnapped. The Game Master does not use all four, but picks two to tie in two of the Troubleshooters cast and then their players should do their best to pull in the others into the mystery. Of the four Plot Hooks for The U-Boat Mystery, all of which are set in Paris, one of them should definitely involve Pierre Martin.
Once the Troubleshooters are on the trail of Pierre Martin, a journalist for La République, they will find further clues. These include a u-boat lost at the end of World War 2 on a long journey from Germany to Japan, a painting influenced by Wagner and said to be liked by Hitler on display as part of an exhibition in New York, a marine biology expedition being mounted by the University of Hamburg to South East Asia, and more… It should be relatively easy for the Troubleshooters to put these clues together and follow them to the island kingdom of Sitomeyang. There are side clues which though not key to solving the mystery, will help the Troubleshooters and better prepare them for events later on. These will take the Troubleshooters to Hamburg and possibly Berlin, but whether they travel to either city, or indeed to New York, their ultimate destination is Sitomeyang.

In Sitomeyang the Troubleshooters will need to track down the final resting place of the missing u-boat and then make the dive. The final scenes of The U-Boat Mystery involve them diving down to, gaining access to the submarine, and exploring it, perhaps after having sneaked aboard the marine biology (or not) vessel for further clues and probably during a confrontation with the rival dive crew. The dive and the exploration of the submarine is described in some detail and will require some careful planning upon the part of the Troubleshooters as it is technically challenging and could get them into serious trouble if it went wrong. The confrontation is excitingly staged and makes for a great climax in the mode of the underwater scenes from the James Bond film, Thunderball. Throughout the whole of the adventure, the Troubleshooters will find themselves watched, harried, and even attacked, only adding to the tension and excitement of the adventure.

In terms of support for the Game Master, The U-Boat Mystery comes with eleven NPCs and sixteen enemies—one of whom is weird indeed! Besides the four start-up handouts, The U-Boat Mystery includes seven clues and handouts, as well as deck plans for both the enemy ship and the submarine. Details of the city of New York—including such information as Fiddler on the Roof having just opened, and the fictional kingdom of Sitomeyang are provided in the same format as the city descriptions in the core rulebook, meaning that they can be revisited again and again. Similarly, the new gear kits can also be used elsewhere.

Physically, The U-Boat Mystery comes as a handsome hardback, presented in full colour, with some fantastic artwork done in the bande dessinée style. The handouts are very nicely done—the book actually comes with a handful of tourist visas for Sitomeyang!—though the deck plans of the submarine and the boat belonging to the rival marine biology could have been clearer. However, the scenario does feel as it could have been better organised to be a clearer read for the Game Master, certainly in the opening stages when explaining the various clues. One aspect of The U-Boat Mystery which is optional is its Science Fiction elements. The mystery does involve Nazi fringe science and its side effects as written, although neither is crucial to the plot, and they do send the scenario off in a slightly wacky direction.
The U-Boat Mystery is overall, a very nicely done scenario. Neither its mystery nor its clues are particularly complex, meaning that the players and their Troubleshooters can concentrate on the action and the roleplaying as they round them up and put them together. Every Game Master of The Troubleshooters will want to grab The U-Boat Mystery for her campaign because the scenario is exciting and fun, and the players and their Troubleshooters will thoroughly enjoy themselves.

Party Beach Creature Feature! A Jumpstart for They Came From Beneath the Sea! is a quick-start for They Came From Beneath the Sea!, the roleplaying game by the B-movies of the fifties and sixties in which the small-town beaches of America are imperiled by Communist crustaceans, aquatic agitators, and tentacular terrors. This is a roleplaying game of bad acting, no-budget budget breaking special effects, inspired by The Creature from the Black Lagoon, It Came From Outer Space, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, Them!, Monster From the Ocean Floor, and many, many others! Published by Onyx Path Publishing, Party Beach Creature Feature! A Jumpstart for They Came From Beneath the Sea! provides everything necessary for a gaming group to give the roleplaying game a try and perhaps even use it as the starter scenario to a campaign set on the cheapest, schlockiest film sets of the nineteen fifties. This includes a basic explanation of the rules, a nine-scene scenario—the ‘Party Beach Creature Feature!’ of the title, and six pre-generated Player Characters or Survivors, plus Trademarks for all of the Player Characters, Quip Cards, and Cinematic Cards.

Party Beach Creature Feature! A Jumpstart for They Came From Beneath the Sea! employs the Storypath system. A distillation of the earlier Storyteller system, it is simpler and streamlined, designed for slightly cinematic, effect driven play. The core mechanic uses dice pools of ten-sided dice, typically formed from the combination of a skill and an attribute, for example Pilot and Dexterity to sail a boat, Survival and Stamina to cross a wilderness, and Persuasion and Manipulation to unobtrusively get someone to do what a character wants. These skill and attribute combinations are designed to be flexible, with a character’s preferred method being described as a character’s Favoured Approach. So a character whose Favoured Approach is Force, would use Close Combat and Might in a melee fight; if Finesse, Close Combat and Dexterity; and if Resilience, then Close Combat and Stamina.

The aim when rolling, is to score Successes, a Success being a result of eight or more. Rolls of ten count as two in They Came From Beneath the Sea!, rather than the capacity for the player to roll again for further Successes. Typically, a player only needs to roll one Success for a character to succeed at a task, though it can be as many as three, and ideally, he will want to roll more. Not only because Successes can be used to buy off Complications—ranging between one and five—but also because they can be used to buy Stunts which will impose Complications for others, create an Enhancement for another action, or one that makes it difficult to act against a character. Stunts cost at least one Success and a range of stunts is given in the pages of Party Beach Creature Feature! A Jumpstart for They Came From Beneath the Sea! These include ‘Government Trained Sharpshooters’, which for one Success lowers the Degree of Difficulty when attacking a specific target; ‘Always Another Way’, which enables a Survivor to get out of a tight spot or around difficult situation for two Successes; and ‘Forensic Eye’, which grants clues about the aliens involved in the mystery for two Successes. Instead of adding to the number of dice rolled, equipment used adds Enhancements or further Successes for a player to expend, but the player needs to roll at least one Success for equipment and thus the Enhancement to be effective.

Under the Storypath system, and thus in They Came From Beneath the Sea!, failure is never complete. Either a player can spend a Rewrite to reroll; accept the failure, accept its consequences and a Consolation; or if the roll was a failure and a one was rolled on the die, suffer the consequences of a Botch and earn two Rewrites for the Writer’s Pool.

Party Beach Creature Feature! and They Came From Beneath the Sea! uses a number of mechanics which help enforce the genre. Every Survivor has access to a number of Trademarks, each tied to a particular skill, for example, ‘Big Stick’ for the Persuasion skill or ‘Subaquatica’ for Athletics, which can be used once per story. These typically grant the player two extra dice on a related roll per Trademark, but when activated and there are some Successes left over from the completed task, a player can actually gain Directorial Control of the film. In this case, the player can add or remove one detail from a scene for each Success spent in this fashion. A Survivor also has Quips, like ‘I’ve seen some aquatic nightmares before, but this takes the caviar…’ or ‘Not to be nosy, but… do those eyes belong to you?’ When used, they require everyone around the table to vote whether or not their use is appropriate, but if a Quip is successful, it earns a player another die to roll. Further uses of it can gain a player more dice. If the roll resulting from a Quip consists of three or more Successes, that Quip is considered Award-Winning and gains the player an additional Quip and the immediate use of a Cinematic without using Rewrites.

Rewrites are another genre-enforcing mechanic and are drawn from the Writers’ Pool, which is a group resource. They require all players to agree to their use, but with that agreement, a Rewrite can be used to make rerolls or add dice to a roll, as well as to active Cinematics. Five such Cinematics are included in Party Beach Creature Feature!—there are more in They Came From Beneath the Sea!—and these are ‘Call the Understudy’, ‘Cheap Set’, ‘Deleted Scene’, ‘Scene Missing’, and ‘Summon the Stuntman’. One last genre-enforcing mechanic is the Death Scene in which a Survivor gets to make one last chance to impart wisdom, make a request, give a soliloquy, and so on…

The rules in Party Beach Creature Feature! A Jumpstart for They Came From Beneath the Sea! are in general clearly explained and all easy to use in play. They are specifically designed to encourage and support cinematic play, even badly cinematic play, and whilst they are genre-enforcing, there are quite a few of them. So as much as the players need to lean into the genre and their Survivors, they also need to lean into the genre-enforcing mechanics—the Rewrites, the Cinematics, the Trademarks, and more—to get their full effect. This is not an impediment to play as such, but more of a requirement than players might expect of the roleplaying game.

A Survivor in Party Beach Creature Feature! and They Came From Beneath the Sea! has nine Attributes—Intellect, Cunning, Resolving, Might, Dexterity, Stamina, Presence, Manipulation, and Composure; a range a skills, some with associated Trademarks; and Connections, Quips, Tropes, and Favoured Stunts. Attributes and skills range in value between one and five dots, each dot adding a die to a dice pool. Trademarks are equivalent of advantages and Quips wisecracks, both of which grant a player extra dice, whilst Tropes are more personal advantages, such as ‘Hand-to-Hand Fighting’, which grants an extra die when in melee combat or ‘Eureka!’, which means the Survivor is good at putting clues together and can gain an in-depth understanding of a clue once per session. A Survivor also has a Path each for his Archetype, Origin, and Ambition, but these do not play a role in the jump-start, whilst of his three Aspirations, or goals, only the two short term Aspirations really count in Party Beach Creature Feature! A Jumpstart for They Came From Beneath the Sea!

The five characters included in Party Beach Creature Feature! A Jumpstart for They Came From Beneath the Sea! consist of an Everyman Department Store Clerk, an Adventuring Psychologist, a Disgraced Cop from the local police force, an Everyman Beach Bunny, an Investigative Girl Next Door Journalist, and a Preparation Enthusiast. Each is presented in full colour over two pages with the character sheet on one and an illustration and background on the other. The character sheets are easy to read and the background easy to pick up.

The scenario, ‘Party Beach Creature Feature!’, is set on a hot summer’s night in Darien, Connecticut. The Director will need to decide if the budget of the movie is low, big, or art, and to what degree Exploitation plays a role in its filming. Involving nine scenes over three acts, the scenario begins with everyone on Weed Beach before several fearsome fishmen rise from the waves and attack! The Survivors must not only hold off the attack but discover why the fishmen are so interested in the ‘jazz cigarettes’ which local small-time dealer, Sonny McGee, has been selling. This will lead the Survivors in a most unexpected direction. ‘Party Beach Creature Feature!’ is a short mystery, though with decent opportunities for inaction and investigation, combat and stealth, and it is supported with staging advice for the Director throughout. Each of the nine scenes is very clearly organised with explanations of how the Survivors got there, what they need to accomplish, the opposition they face, and the goal of the scene all laid out for the Director, making them easy to run. The plot is linear, but that is not really an issue in a Jump-start which is intended to introduce both setting and mechanics of They Came From Beneath the Sea! It should take a session or so to play through, which will mean that each player is only likely to get to use one or two Quips or Trademarks at the most. The short length means that, barring the adult element of ‘jazz cigarettes’, ‘Party Beach Creature Feature!’ could also be run as a convention scenario.

Physically, Party Beach Creature Feature! A Jumpstart for They Came From Beneath the Sea! is a slim softback, done in black and white bar the Survivor backgrounds and illustrations. The artwork is decent and captures a little of that beach party giddiness before something walks from the waves and wreaks havoc! It could have benefited from a little better organisation so that all of the content for the players and their Survivors could have been placed together, but if there is a real issue with Party Beach Creature Feature! A Jumpstart for They Came From Beneath the Sea!, it is that above and beyond the Storypath system, the rules in the Jump-start do add a handful of new moving parts. As good as those new rules are, and as much as they help enforce the genre, what the Jump-start could have done with is a cheat sheet explaining all of them for the benefit of the players, rather than having to explain them more than is necessary.

Although it needs a little more preparation than perhaps is necessary to ready the players for the rules, Party Beach Creature Feature! A Jumpstart for They Came From Beneath the Sea! has everything the Director and her players need for one night’s session of seaside scares, aquatic agitation, and B-movie budget beastliness. Anyone looking for chills on the cheap and scenery scrunching stagecraft should get ready to ham it up to the horror that comes ashore in Party Beach Creature Feature! A Jumpstart for They Came From Beneath the Sea!

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

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

—oOo—
Name: The Haunted GrovePublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Andy Miller

Setting: Cthulhu Dark Ages England
Product: Scenario
What You Get: Twenty-two page, 15.63 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: When your only refuge is a lonely house in the woods, sometimes it is better to stay lost. Plot Hook: Lost in the woods, and at least some of the family are welcoming...Plot Support: Detailed plot, staging advice for the Keeper, one floorplan, three (one) NPC(s) and their associated photographs, and two pre-generated Investigators.Production Values: Reasonable.
Pros# Mythos Folkloric horror scenario# Short, one-session scenario# Three strong archetypes for the Keeper to enjoy roleplaying# Suited to smaller groups of Investigators# Easy to adapt to elsewhere or for Cthulhu Invictus# Includes advice for adapting it to Cthulhu by Gaslight, Down Darker Trails, or modern day Call of Cthulhu# Potential addition to the scenario, ‘The Dragon and the Wolf’, from The Bride of Halloween Horror Monograph
Cons# Women (woman) as monster(s)# Includes mature, thematically appropriate scenes# Keeper needs to know her Mythos magic
Conclusion
# Isolated, Mythos Folkloric horror scenario# Includes mature, thematically appropriate scenes# Classic Mythos interpretation of a classic occult trinity

As a darkness falls over a Europe under the heel of the Nazi jackboot, a secret war has begun against the invader, one which at the direction of Winston Churchill, Prime Minster of Great Britain, would “…[S]et Europe ablaze.” This would be led by the Special Operations Executive or SOE, whose operatives, often working with local resistance forces, would carry out acts of sabotage against the Axis war effort, as well as work to establish secret armies which ultimately act in conjunction with Allied invading forces. However, there is a darker, more secret war, this against those Nazi agents and organisations which would command and entreat with the occult and forces beyond the understanding of mankind. Yet even this dark drive is riven by differing ideologies and approaches pandering to Hitler’s whims. The Black Sun consists of Nazi warrior-sorcerers supreme who use foul magic and summoned creatures from nameless dimensions to dominate the battlefields of men, whilst Nachtwölfe, the Night Wolves utilise technology, biological enhancements, and wunderwaffen (wonder weapons) to win the war for Germany. Ultimately, both utilise and fall under the malign influence of the Mythos… Standing against them, ready to thwart their malign efforts are the audacious Allied agents of Britain’s Section M, the United States’ Majestic, and the brave Resistance, willing to risk their lives and their sanity against malicious Nazi villains and the unfathomable gods and monsters of the Mythos themselves, each striving for supremacy in mankind’s darkest yet finest hour!

This is the set-up for Achtung! Cthulhu, the roleplaying game of fast-paced pulp action and Mythos magic published by Modiphius Entertainment. Originally published using Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition and Savage Worlds in 2013, and later FATE Core, almost a decade on, it returns in brand new edition. Not though written for use with Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, but rather for use with the publisher’s 2d20 System house mechanics, first seen in Mutant Chronicles and Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of. The result is a roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative action in which the Player Characters can take the fight to the enemy, punch out the Nazis, and wield powerful sorcery or psychic powers against their agents and their Mythos allies, against the backdrop of World War II and the Nazi war machine.

The Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Player’s Guide—heralded as ‘Issue No. 1’ in a series on the cover—starts with a basic introduction to the roleplaying game and its setting, the latter underpinned by a handful of in-game rumours and eyewitness accounts that just hint at some of the horrors to come. It sets the scene before the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Player’s Guide dives into the details of the 2d20 System and Achtung! Cthulhu. Whenever a player wants his Agent to overcome a Test, he rolls two twenty-sided dice, aiming to roll under a target number. The target number is the value of an Attribute plus a Skill, with Difficulty of a task—ranging from zero to five, from researching the latest news in a newspaper morgue to maintaining your composure when confronted by dread Cthulhu on the once sunken island of R’lyeh—determines the number of successes necessary. Rolls under the target number generate successes. Rolls of one or if the Agent has a Focus in the skill, for example, Fighting (Threat Awareness) or Stealth (Rural Stealth), and rolls equal to or under the value of the skill, all count as Critical successes and are worth two successes rather than one. Any successes generated beyond those needed to beat a Difficulty generate Momentum, but any roll of twenty generates a Complication.

Momentum is a group resource shared by all of the players. It can be spent before a roll is made to purchase extra twenty-sided dice—up to three dice can be purchased this way, but the cost goes up the more dice are purchased; to create a Truth about a situation—Truth can make a situation less complicated or more complicated; obtain information by asking the Game Master; or to reduce the time it takes to perform a test. The players are encouraged to use Momentum, a point being lost at the end of each scene. If there is no Momentum, it can be gained by granting the Game master points of Threat, on a one-for-one basis. The Game master expends Threat to alter scenes, empower her NPCs, and add Complications. Threat can also be generated by a player buying off a Complication or even gaining access to exotic or deadly equipment or knowledge.

In addition all Agents possess Fortune Points. These can be spent to automatically gain a Critical Success, reroll the dice, take an additional major action in combat, to avoid defeat, or to make it happen and immediately add a new Truth to a situation. Fortune Points are regained at the start of each adventure, but can also be gained by voluntarily failing a Skill Test or invoking a scar and having an Agent’s past trauma or an injury inhibit his action.
For example, a team of agents is searching Colonel Köhler’s office for documents to photograph. Whilst another agent sneaks in, Eddie Chapman, posing as a German officer, will distract his secretary. The Game Master sets the Difficulty at two, as she is busy and wants to leave for lunch. Eddie combines his Insight Attribute of 11 with his Persuasion skill of 4. Eddie also has the Charm Focus. So Eddie’s player is rolling under a target number of 15 and any roll under the Charm skill’s value will generate Critical successes. Eddie’s player uses a point of Momentum to purchase a third twenty-sided die, so his player has three to roll rather than two. He rolls fourteen, five, and four. This generates a total of five successes—two each for the four and five as Critical successes, and one for the fourteen. Eddie succeeds in distracting the secretary and generates three Momentum. His player adds one to the Momentum pool, but spends two to add a Truth to the game, which is that the secretary is enamoured of Eddie and will accept his dinner invitation.The Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Player’s Guide goes into some detail for its combat mechanics. It uses the same core mechanics, but adds further uses for Momentum. This starts with the Keep Initiative option. In combat, the Game Master chooses who acts first, typically a Player Character. Then turn proceeds back and forth in turn between the Player Character Agents and the Game Master’s NPCs, but Momentum can be spent to enable an Agent to act straight after another Agent rather than an NPC. In a turn, a character can take a Minor Action—Aim, Draw Item, Movement, or Prepare, and a Major Action—Assist, Attack, Cast a Spell, Catch Breath, Create Truth, Pass, Ready, Rush, Stabilise, or make a Skill Test. Of these, Aim grants an extra twenty-sided die to an attack; Prepare readies a Major Action, typically Cast a Spell; Catch Breath can remove stress or a damage condition; Create Truth adds, alters, or removes a Truth in a situation; and Stabilise is an attempt to give medical attention to someone who is dying.
Skill Tests in combat are made using the appropriate Attribute and Skill, with Melee attacks being opposed rolls and Ranged attacks not. Damage rolls are made with Challenge Dice. Extra Challenge Dice can be added to an attack for high Attributes—a high Brawn for melee attacks and a high Insight for ranged attacks. Each Challenge Die is marked with a ‘1’, ‘2’, two faces left blank, and two marked with the ‘Achtung! Cthulhu’ symbol, which is equal to ‘1 plus effect’. The Effect results on the Challenge Dice come into play with weapon effects. These can be ‘Area’, ‘Piercing X’, ‘Stun’, ‘Vicious’, and so on. For example, a Bat has a ‘Stun’ Condition, firearms have the ‘Vicious’ Condition, and a Lifebuoy Portable Flamethrower, No. 2 Mk. II has the ‘Persistent’ Condition.

The numbers are added up and that indicates the amount of Stress inflicted on the opponent. Resistance will reduce the amount of Stress inflicted, from Armour and Cover for physical Stress, and Courage and Morale for mental Stress. Stress can be mental or physical, so physical might be from getting shot or punched, but mental might be from a spell or having a knife held to the throat! An Agent only has the one Stress track for handling both, and if an Agent suffers five Stress from a single attack or has his Stress track completely filled in, he suffers an Injury. Multiple types of Injury are listed, for example, Amputee or Lingering Shrapnel for a Physical Injury or Compulsive/Obsessive Rituals or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for a Mental Injury. An Injury serves as a Truth which will impede him under certain circumstances, whether mental or physical. If an Agent suffers three Injuries, he is defeated and if he suffers another, he is dead. An Injury, of either type can be healed, but that comes with the possibility of leaving a Scar, a permanent sign of the Injury. An Injury or a Scar can impede an Agent in play and earn him a Fortune Point if either of them causes the Agent to voluntarily fail.

An Agent in Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 is defined by his Attributes, Skills, associated Skill Focuses, Talents, Truths, Belongings, and Contacts. He has six Attributes—Agility, Brawn, Coordination, Insight, Reason, and Will—rated between eight and twelve, with eight being average, whilst his Skills are rated between one and five. To create an Agent, a player chooses an Archetype, for example, Boffin, Con Artist, or Occultist; Nationality; a Background such as Air Force, Labourer, or Spiritual Leader; and a distinct Characteristic, like Bookworm, Owned an Occult Artefact, or Young at Heart. At each stage, an Agent receives bonuses to his Attributes and Skills, as well as Skill Focuses, Talents, Truths, Belongings, and Contacts. The exception is Nationality, which provides a Nationality and Languages as Truths. The process consists of a player making choices at each stage, and the range of Archetype, Nationality, Background, and Characteristic options enable him to create a wide range of character types.

Eddie Chapman
Nationality: British
Archetype: Con Artist
Background: Criminal
Characteristic: Criminal Mindset

ATTRIBUTES
Agility 09 Brawn 07 Coordination 07 Insight 11 Reason 08 Will 09

STRESS TRACK – 10

RESISTANCE
Armour Resistance: 0
Courage Resistance: 1

BONUS DICE
Melee Attacks: 0
Ranged Attacks: +2
Magical/Mental Attacks: +1

SKILLS
Academia 1, Engineering 1, Observation 3 (Instincts), Persuasion 4 (Charm), Resilience 1 (Discipline), Stealth 4 (Urban Stealth), Tactics 1, Vehicles 1

TALENTS
A Way With Words, Subtle Cues, Perfect Timing

TRUTHS
English, Black Market Dealer, Criminal Mindset

LANGUAGES
English, German

BELONGINGS
Disguise Kit

Unlike other roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror, Player Characters—or Agents—can begin play knowing magic. This requires the Occultist Archetype and a Talent with the spellcaster keyword. Magic is either learnt through a Tradition—Runeweaving (draws on the power of Runes to channel the power of the Viking gods), Druidism (animistic and natural beliefs), or Psychic; Dabbling—typically by amateurs who initially learn flawed spells; or Research—through rigorous study. Spells include battlefield magic like Spear of Lug or Curse of Loki, and rituals such as Commune with Deity or Baldur’s Shield, which requires time and the caster to inflict Stress against the ritual’s Stress Track to successfully cast it. Psychic abilities include Combat Perception and Telepathy. A spellcaster has the base Power rating of one, indicating the number of Challenge Dice his player rolls to inflict Stress—both on the target or ritual, or the spellcaster himself as a consequence of casting the spell. Spell types include attack, banishment, blessing, control, curse, discharged, divination, manifestation, and summoning.

Spells can be miscast, indicated by a roll of a Complication on any die, the Complication widening the greater the Difficulty of casting the spell, and they can also be flawed, which means that the spell automatically generates a Complication, extra twenty-sided dice can only be bought using Threat, and there are no Momentum expenditures associated with that version of the spell. Spellcasters can also engage in magical duels. Overall, there are only a handful of spells for each Tradition, and only two Rituals. There are no Mythos spells, although Agents can learn them.

Henry Brinded
Nationality: American
Archetype: Occultist
Background: Academic
Characteristic: Veteran of the Great War

ATTRIBUTES
Agility 06 Brawn 08 Coordination 09 Insight 08 Reason 10 Will 10

STRESS TRACK – 12

RESISTANCE
Armour Resistance: 0
Courage Resistance: 2

BONUS DICE
Melee Attacks: 0
Ranged Attacks: 0
Magical/Mental Attacks: +2

BASE POWER: 2

SPELLS
Wisdom of Frigg, Balm of Belenus

SKILLS
Academia 4 (Linguistics, Occultism), Fighting 1, Observation 2, Persuasion 3 (Invocation), Resilience 2 (Discipline), Stealth 1, Survival 2


TALENTS
Occult Scholar, Library Dweller, Sharpshooter

TRUTHS
English, Professor of Classics

LANGUAGES
English, Latin

Beyond the rules, character creation, and magic, most of the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Player’s Guide is devoted to the arms, armour, equipment and forces of the Allied and Axis powers. This includes guns, tanks, and more, primarily for the American, British, and German forces. There are rules here too for vehicular combat. The coverage of the armed forces is broad, focusing mainly on the special forces and intelligence agencies, and on actual historical agencies rather than the ones operating in the world of Achtung! Cthulhu. Stats are given for various Allied troop types and there is a discussion of the Home Front too.

So the question is, what is missing from the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Player’s Guide? Primarily the Mythos. This is understandable, given that actual knowledge should be for the Game Master to know and the players and their Agents to find out. However, what this also means is that there are no Mythos spells despite some Occultist Agents being allowed to learn them, and perhaps worse, no rules for handling Sanity when encountering the Mythos as per other roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror. Well, okay, perhaps the players and their Agents do not need to know how Sanity is lost—yet, but it is not difficult to surmise as a being a Skill Test using Will and Resilience against a Difficulty which will vary according to the unnatural nature of the Mythos entity encountered or spell cast, with failures leading to Challenge Dice rolls which inflict Stress and mental Injuries. Oddly, whilst there are stats for Allied forces, there are none for the enemy, despite there being stats for German vehicles and tanks.

Physically, the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Player’s Guide is well presented. It does need an edit in places, but it is well written, and there are some excellent examples of play which explain how the roleplaying game is intended to be played. However, the book’s full colour artwork is fantastic. Much of it has been seen in the previous iteration of Achtung! Cthulhu, but the new artwork in the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Player’s Guide is really good, capturing the action, excitement, and horror of the war against the darkest forces of the Axis powers.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 is not a roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror for the player who prefers the Purist style of play. It is too action orientated with guns aplenty and Agents who can cast magic, and thus too Pulpy in tone and style. In fact, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 is not a roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror at all. Rather Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 is instead a roleplaying game of Lovecraftian action horror in which the Player Characters fight evil as well as confront the unknowable—and the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Player’s Guide is a great start to the action and the horror.

Given the origins of the roleplaying hobby—in wargaming and in the drawing of dungeons that the first player characters, and a great many since, explored and plundered—it should be no surprise just how important maps are to the hobby. They serve as a means to show a tactical situation when using miniatures or tokens and to track the progress of the player characters through the dungeon—by both the players and the Dungeon Master. And since the publication of Dungeon Geomorphs, Set One: Basic Dungeon by TSR, Inc. in 1976, the hobby has found different ways in which to provide us with maps. Games Workshop published several Dungeon Floor Sets in the 1980s, culminating in Dungeon Planner Set 1: Caverns of the Dead and Dungeon Planner Set 2: Nightmare in Blackmarsh; Dwarven Forge has supplied dungeon enthusiasts with highly detailed, three-dimensional modular terrain since 1996; and any number of publishers have sold maps as PDFs via Drivethrurpg.com. Loke Battle Mats does something a little different with its maps. It publishes them as books.

A Loke BattleMats book comes as a spiral-bound book. Every page is a map and every page actually light card with a plastic covering. The fact that it is spiral-bound means that the book lies completely flat and because there is a map on every page, every map can be used on its own or combined with the map on the opposite page to work as one big, double-page spread map. The fact that the book is spiral bound means that it can be folded back on itself and thus just one map used with ease or the book unfolded to reveal the other half of the map as necessary. The fact that every page has a plastic covering means that every page can be drawn on using a write-on/wipe-off pen. It is a brilliantly simple concept which has already garnered the publisher the UK Games Expo 2019 People’s Choice Awards for Best Accessory for the Big Book of Battlemats and both the UK Games Expo 2019 Best Accessory and UK Games Expo 2019 People’s Choice Awards Best Accessory for Giant Book of Battle Mats.
The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats is a ‘Set of 2 Battle Map Books for RPG’. As a set, it comes as two volume set of map books in a slipcase—open ended at either side for easy access. Each of the two volumes is a twelve-inch squire square, spiral bound book, with each containing sixty maps, all marked with a square grid. These start with a pair of blank maps, but quickly leap into depicting particular locations. There are ruined courtyards verging on rough cave areas or overgrown grassed areas, before delving underground. Stairways leading down, a large room with a circular pool or fountain, eating or meeting areas around an open fire, a complex of rooms either partially flooded with either water or a gas or a magical field, a gaol area, a series of rough caves, a library and wizard’s work area, a puzzle trap over a roiling flame pit, a series of rooms accessed by a set of gear traps, sewer areas, and lastly, a demonic villain’s lair… And this is the same in each of the two books. This does not mean that the maps are exactly the same in each book. Rather they are thematically similar and this leads into what is perhaps the greatest feature of The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats.
Each two-page spread of the two volumes of The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats consists of two linked maps—physically and thematically. The Game Master can use either of the maps on the two-page spread on their own or together, as a twelve by twenty-four-inch rectangular map. That though is with the one volume. With two volumes together, the Game Master can combine any single map from one volume with any single map from the other, and if that is not flexible enough, any two-page spread from one volume can be placed next to a two-page spread from the other, in the process, creating a twenty-four by twenty-four-inch square map. This gives The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats a fantastic versatility which the Game Master can take advantage of again and again in choosing a combination of map pages from the two volumes to create location after location, and then use them to build encounter after encounter.
The individual maps are excellent, being bright, vibrant, detailed, and clear. They are easy to use and easy to modify. A Game Master can easily adjust them with a write-on/wipe-off pen to add features of her own. This is especially important if the Game Master wants to use a map which has previously featured in one of her adventures. She can also add stickers if she wants new features or even actual physical terrain features.
However, there is a limitation on how and when the two volumes in The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats can or should be used. To begin with, they are not necessarily that easy to use on the fly, to ready up an encounter at a moment’s notice. Instead, they are easier to use as part of the Game Master’s preparation and then have everything necessary to play. Then obviously, the maps cannot be used over and over lest familiarity become an issue. Lastly, there are the maps themselves, which are constrained by the square and rectangular formats, whether combining the two volumes or not. It means that the layouts are often too regular, too compact, and lacking in that sense of black, empty space in between locations within a dungeon. Now this is not obviously an issue in other collections such as The Towns & Taverns of Battle Mats or The Towns & Taverns of Battle Mats, where there is an expected sense of regularity and compact size, or a more open sense of space. Neither of these are issues which will prevent a Game Master from using The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats, but rather that she should be aware of them prior to bringing them to the table.
Physically, The Dungeon Books of Battle Mat is very nicely produced. The maps are clear, easy to use, fully painted, and vibrant with colour. One issue may well be with binding and the user might want to be a little careful folding the pages back and forth lest the pages crease or break around the spiral comb of the binding. Although there is some writing involved in The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats, it is not really what a Game Master is looking for with this two-volume set. Nevertheless, that writing very much needs the attention of an editor.
There is no denying the usefulness of maps when it comes to the tabletop gaming hobby. They help players and Game Masters alike visualise an area, they help track movement and position, and so on. If a gaming group does not regularly use miniatures in their Science Fiction games, The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats might not be useful, but it will still help them visualise an area, and it may even encourage them to use them. If they already use miniatures, whether fantasy roleplaying or wargaming, then the maps in The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats will be undeniably useful. And there are so many fantasy roleplaying games which The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats will work with, almost too many to list here…
The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats is full of attractive, ready-to-use maps that the Game Master can bring to the table for the fantasy roleplaying game of her choice. Both practical and pretty, The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats is an undeniably useful accessory for fantasy gaming in general. 

The Slave Mines of Vindicus the Terrible is a scenario for Barbarians of the Ruined Earth which wears its influences clearly on its sleeves. These are Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and the Dungeon Crawl Classics roleplaying game—and they both align with each other. The influence of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom shows in the setting for the scenario and who the players roleplay and the influence of the Dungeon Crawl Classics roleplaying game shows in who and how the players roleplay. The setting for The Slave Mines of Vindicus the Terrible is, like Barbarians of the Ruined Earth, the far future that is the Ruined Erath, long after an alien planet crashed into the Moon and caused it to rain down on the Earth. In the wake of this disaster, the Earth has been radically changed, a world of Stupendous Science, of subjugation by vile Sorcerers, of scavengers searching the ruins for lost technology, of Robots with new found free will searching for a purpose, and of  fearless, mightily thewed barbarians saving the day with savage beastmen as their companions by their side. One of these Sorcerers is Vindicus, who has risen to power and sent out his Mooks to abduct children from nearby villages and make them work in his mine a la Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. 

Now in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, these children escape due to the intervention of Indiana Jones, and in the typical adventure, it is the Player Characters who will take the Indiana Jones role. Not so in The Slave Mines of Vindicus the Terrible. Instead, the players take the roles of these children—four of them apiece—who take advantage of the disruption caused by the intervention of adventurers—who remain completely off camera for the entire scenario—to sneak out of the mines. As children, they do not yet have a Class or a Level, and are in fact, Level 0 Player Characters. If they survive long enough to escape the confines of the cave, then they may acquire sufficient Experience Points to step up to First Level. Here then is the influence of the Dungeon Crawl Classics roleplaying game and its infamous Character Funnel which pitches Zero Level Player Characters into a dangerous environment best suited to at least First Level characters. 

Surviving long enough is the issue though, particularly as the Player Character Children are both fragile and unskilled. Mechanically, this modelled with each only having four Hit Points and instead of having the standard set of Attributes—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma—which the player rolls against for any action as per The Black Hack rules used in Barbarians of the Ruined Earth, a Player Character has ‘Kid’s Luck’. This is a fifty percent chance of any action succeeding, although a player can roll with Advantage under certain circumstances, for example when his Child character is sneaking. Conversely, he will roll with disadvantage under other circumstances, such as his Child character attacking a creature larger than he is. Lastly, except at key points during their escape attempt, none of the Children will actually be killed. Instead, they will be simply recaptured and dragged back into the mine by the evil sorcerer Vindicus’ robo minions and miners. 

The adventure begins with a sudden break in the power throughout the mine and the halogen bulbs which provide the various areas going out and the doors to the cells where the Player Characters are incarcerated swinging open… On the one of the many television screens which hang on the walls of the mine, Vindicus the Terrible himself appears and rages at the temerity of the intruders come to steal his Battle Staff of Disruption! With the cage doors open, the Player Characters have an opportunity escape—if they can avoid Vindicus the Terrible’s miner-bots, robo-drones, robo-guardians, robo-warriors, and Overseer Glog. Let alone what horrid creatures might have crept into the abandoned parts of the mine—such as the dread Toxic Hipposludgeopus!! For the most, this is a stealth and exploration scenario, combat is to be avoided, but there are plenty of places to investigate and more than a few interesting things to find.

The Slave Mines of Vindicus the Terrible provides a lot of support for the Game Master. This includes stats for all of its monsters and NPCs—though not Vindicus the Terrible himself, so hopefully he will return in a future scenario—plus rules for handling swarms. It goes further with very good staging advice for the Game Master. Each entry in the mine is broken into a series of boxes as appropriate. Thus ‘White’ for general description, ‘Grey’ for random Events or Sorcerer’s TV—the latter broadcasting what happens to the scenario’s on-screen/off-screen villain, ‘Yellow’ for further details when the Player Characters investigate the area, and ‘Orange’ for elements or things which will only be revealed if searched for or interacted with, or are hidden. It makes the scenario incredibly easy to run, virtually straight off the page. 

Physically, The Slave Mines of Vindicus the Terrible is vibrantly presented in the big bold colours of the Saturday Morning Cartoons that inspire both the scenario and Barbarians of the Ruined Earth. The scenario is also clearly written and easy to grasp, and can be prepared with a minimum of fuss. 

The Slave Mines of Vindicus the Terrible is by no means a terrible scenario, but in some ways, it is a bad scenario for Barbarians of the Ruined Earth. The problem with the scenario is that it is as fun as it is, it does not showcase either the rules or what players can play in Barbarians of the Ruined Earth. The core rules in the scenario are different and none of the Classes are used. Further, unlike  Character Funnels for the Dungeon Crawl Classics roleplaying game, this scenario is different. The Slave Mines of Vindicus the Terrible is not a Zero Level done and then First Level scenario. That is, the Player Characters are not automatically First Level, but rather the experience in the mines becomes an event in their childhoods and one that forms the basis of the Bond between them. As much as it is an introduction to the setting, it is not an introduction to the actual roleplaying game, it does not provide the mechanical elements that they would normally expect. So much so that The Slave Mines of Vindicus the Terrible could all be run without any reference to Barbarians of the Ruined Earth! What this means is that at this point, Barbarians of the Ruined Earth really needs a scenario which does that, and when it does, it should be sequel to The Slave Mines of Vindicus the Terrible.

The Slave Mines of Vindicus the Terrible is a big, fun scenario for Barbarians of the Ruined Earth. It is easy to grasp and easy to run, and everyone, the players, their multiple characters, and the  Game Master should throw themselves into making their escape from The Slave Mines of Vindicus the Terrible!

A year ago, in the small town of Milo, Maine, thirty-year-old Alicia Thorne left Redd’s Bar and Grille after a few quiet drinks with casual friends. She never got home. The local police department investigated, but neither found her body or signs of a struggle. The number one suspect was, and remains today, her partner, Ben Facet. Public opinion then—and now—was that he kidnapped and murdered her. After all, he is known to be a recluse who collects strange books and manuscripts, who dresses in strange costumes, and practices all manner of sorcery and witchcraft. Who knows what goes on in the basement of the house that he shared with the missing woman? This is the background against which the Player Characters return to the town of Milo to celebrate their ten-year high school reunion. Everyone has an opinion upon what happened to Alicia, especially many of the women who attended high school with her and so will be at the reunion. The question is, what happened to Alicia, and did her partner, Ben, have anything to do with it?

This is the set-up for Whatever Happened to AliciaThorne?, a short scenario set in the modern day just north of Lovecraft Country for Callof Cthulhu, Seven Edition. Published by Stygian Fox, it can be played as a one-shot or as a campaign starter, and although there is advice on running the scenario as part of a campaign with more traditional Call of Cthulhu Investigators, Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? is not really suitable for use in such a campaign. Ideally, the players will create new characters, in general with relatively ordinary Occupations and develop some background as to who they knew at high school and what they have been doing for the decade since they graduated. This will come into play during the first part of the scenario. 

Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? is divided into two parts with an interlude in between. The first sees the Player Characters attend the reunion, an enthusiastic, if slightly down-at-heel affair. There is lots of scope here for interaction and roleplaying here—all to the music of the Player Characters’ youth, played very loud—with their former classmates, all of whom have their own backstories and post-school histories for the Player Characters to catch up with, as well as opinions of what happened to their former classmate, Alicia. With drinks flowing, the conversation is easy and the other guests share their histories and opinions freely, without the need for the players and their characters to roll Charm or Persuade skill checks. As the event winds down, the Player Characters have a chance to reflect and consider what they have learned over the course of the evening over a nightcap. This forms the scenario’s interlude between the two parts of the scenario.

The Player Characters become Investigators in the second half when they begin making enquiries into the disappearance of Alicia Thorne, themselves. Milo is a small town and Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? is a small scenario, so there are only a few places for the Investigators to look for clues—her family, her workplace, her last known sighting, and of course, her home. This also means investigating her partner, Ben. Whatever the police might say, both clues and local opinion point towards his involvement in his partner’s disappearance. 

When the Investigators do discover what has happened to Alicia, it is doubly shocking. Being a Call of Cthulhu scenario, Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? does involve the Mythos and being set in New England may suggest possibilities to veteran players of the roleplaying game and devotees of Mythos fiction. However, the other reason for its shock value is that the scenario does involve suicide. The scenario does carry a content warning, so a Keeper should be aware of this beforehand, and she should be aware of whether this would be a difficult issue for her players. An alternative option is included if neither the Keeper nor her players want to include this aspect in the scenario. 

Physically, Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? is a short—just eighteen pages long—scenario. The thirteenth entry in Stygian Fox’s series of Patreon releases, it is well presented and well written. In fact, it is a huge improvement upon other entries in the series in terms of its presentation, and hopefully future releases will maintain this standard. 

Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? is a surprisingly flexible scenario. It could easily be adapted to the Jazz Age of classic Call of Cthulhu or even the Purple Age of Cthulhu by Gaslight, but as written it would be easier to run at any time after World War II. Similarly, it is easy to shift in terms of location, with  somewhere near the coast being ideal. Designed to be played by between two and six Investigators, it can also be used as a campaign starter, a one-shot, a one-on-one scenario for a Keeper and single Investigator, and even as a convention scenario given its length. That said, if running it as a convention scenario, the Keeper will need to be up front about its themes. Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? would also work as a first scenario to introduce players to the Mythos and Call of Cthulhu, Seven Edition, again taking its mature aspects into account. 

As written there are no issues or problems with Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? It could though, have supported its flexibility with advice and suggestions for the Keeper. Whether that is moving it to a different time frame, running it for one player, or as a convention scenario. Some hooks to get each of the players and their characters involved would also have been useful too, not necessarily to Milo where their characters grew up, but to Alicia and her partner, Ben. This would not necessarily replace whatever details and background the players are encouraged to create and roleplay, but at least help if a player is short on ideas or the Keeper is preparing some pre-generated Player Characters. 

Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? is a solid, straightforward investigative one-shot with plenty of scope for roleplaying and interaction. Plotted more like a movie mystery with a horrifying revelation and shock ending, Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? is an excellent scenario to run for those new to the Mythos and Call of Cthulhu. Veteran players may well be just a little too jaded.

 

Lock-in at the Blind Raven is an adventure for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Published by Critical Kit, it is designed for a party of four to five Player Characters of Third Level and is intended to be played in a single session, either as a one-shot or as part of an ongoing campaign. It involves a strange night of gothic horror and mystery in a tavern on one dark night. The scenario may involve combat and interaction, but primarily emphasises investigation and exploration.

Lock-in at the Blind Raven begins with the Player Characters in Sercana, the grim and grimy industrial town best known for the boompowder which is dug out of the surrounding hills and refined in the boompowder factory. The smoke pouring from factory’s chimneys obscures the sun and covers the town in a layer of soot. The town is also home to a notorious gaol and smuggling is rife—primarily of boompowder to a neighbouring power, but also of escaped inmates from the gaol. Here the Player Characters are hired by Judge Solomon Lazaric, recently appointed justice after the untimely death of the previous incumbent. Only recently arrived in the town, he is staying at the Blind Raven Inn, not far out of town, and found a note slipped under the door of his room. The note promised that he would be murdered that very night! He wants to hire the Player Characters to wait in the room and ambush whomever plans to kill him.

Several suggestions are given as to why the Player Characters are in Sercana, including smuggling or picking over a scrapyard for artefacts, but either way, Judge Solomon Lazaric approaches them and offers an evening’s work. As soon as they reach the Blind Raven Inn, things begin to take a strange turn. The inn stands atop a hill amidst a graveyard; there is only the one member of staff, a surly Orc too busy to serve them instead of a bar full of unseen customers who seem to be drinking the cellar dry; a sense of being watched, and more… The lock-in of the title is not the traditional lock-in of being able to drink at the bar beyond opening hours, but of being locked in and trapped, of examining the puzzle they find themselves in, and searching for a way out…

Lock-in at the Blind Raven is a horror scenario, but a mild one. Perhaps too mild a horror scenario. The author advises the Dungeon Master to be aware of the players’ boundaries and if necessary, discuss the nature of the scenario with them, and also that the scenario’s horror elements can be dialed up (or down) as necessary. Yet what he does not do is advise the Dungeon Master on how to do either. It would have been useful if tips and advice had been included to help her in doing so.

Physically, Lock-in at the Blind Raven is decently presented, everything is easy to grasp, and it makes good use of Dyson Logos’ cartography. Lock-in at the Blind Raven is an easy scenario to use and an easy scenario to use in any number of settings, whether that be Ravenloft or the Iron Kingdoms of Privateer Press’ Iron Kingdoms: Requiem setting, both for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. It could be adapted to other settings or roleplaying games, especially ones which mix elements of industrialisation with their fantasy or have elements of horror in their settings. For example, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and Symbaroum would work for either.

Lock-in at the Blind Raven is designed to be played in a single session and would make for a decent interlude of horror and mystery between longer adventures. Unless the players dislike horror or the Dungeon Master is running it for a younger group, its horror will be too mild for most players. The likelihood is that the Dungeon Master will need to dial this aspect of the adventure up and unfortunately there is no advice given to that end. Slightly creepy and a little bit weird at best, Lock-in at the Blind Raven has the potential to even more so, but will need the input of the Dungeon Master to really amp it up.

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

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What is it?
High Rock Hill is a scenario for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

It is a sixteen page, full colour, 1.17 MB PDF.

It does need an edit and is primarily art free. No maps are provided, but a link is given to one.

Where is it set?
High Rock Hill is set just outside the city of Clearwine in the lands of the Colymar Tribe, but events may take the Player Characters to the city of Wilmskirk. It takes place after the death of Queen Kallyr Starbrow, thus in the year 1626 ST and later.

Who do you play?Player Characters of all types could play this scenario as it involves a mix of social interaction, investigation, and action. Player Characters with Passions involving the Aldryami will be challenged, whilst an Ernalda Priestess will likely be of use.
What do you need?
High Rock Hill requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and the RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary to play. The RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack may also prove useful.

What do you get?High Rock Hill is a murder mystery, but not a ‘whodunnit’, even though it begins in the most traditional of fashion with all of the Player Characters at a party. This is a Harvest Celebration at the vineyard on High Rock Hill outside of Clearwine, renowned for the quality of its wines. Whether as guests if they are prominent enough, or accompanying guests if not, their host—who purchased the vineyard only relatively recently—is amiable and the wine lives up to the vineyard’s reputation. However,  the evening is disrupted first by a drunken Storm Bull and then by an attack by members of the Sambari tribe. These are only minor distractions on what is otherwise a pleasant evening.
The Player Characters may choose to investigate the attack further, but whatever they do next, difficulties arise when a fellow guest, a member of the ring advising Queen Leika and an Ernalda Priestess, falls grievously ill and learns that she had been poisoned. Divination determines that the solution lies on High Rock Hill. Returning to the vineyard reveals that events are already afoot and there is more going on than in its grounds than meets the eye.
High Rock Hill is a short, two-session scenario designed for relatively inexperienced Player Characters. Initially it looks like a standard murder mystery, but pleasingly it does not bog play down in a detailed ‘whodunnit’ or burden the players and their characters with a deluge of clues. Instead it weaves its relatively story in and out of events before drawing the Player Characters back to the vineyard for a dénouement with the culprit. Other events from the region’s past will complicate matters though.
High Rock Hill is a detailed and relatively complex scenario, and it does suffer from a handful of problems which mean that it is not as easy to run as it could be. It could be clearer in its plotting and explanation and thus require a little more development. The culprit’s motivations seem extreme, but since they trigger the events of the scenario, that can be forgiven. Lastly, the possible outcomes and consequences to the scenario are underdeveloped and they would have been useful to explore what happens to both the culprit and the vineyard. There are interesting elements here which could have been explored and potentially involved the Player Characters, as well as drawing them further into local events.
Is it worth your time?Yes—High Rock Hill contains a good mix of social interaction, investigation, and action and should tie the Player Characters into further events and politics in Clearwine.No—High Rock Hill is a serviceable scenario which will need extra effort to adjust to settings other than Clearwine and ‘Your Glorantha May Vary’ when it comes to the motivations of the culprit.Maybe—High Rock Hill contains a good mix of social interaction, investigation, and action, but does some further development to fully explore the motivations of the culprit and the consequences of his actions, which are not as fully explored in the scenario as they could be.

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

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

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Name: What Rough Beast?Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Andy Miller

Setting: Deep South Alabama
Product: Scenario
What You Get: Ninety-two page, 38.65 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Southern SalemPlot Hook: What sickness causes those in Sanguis to suffer?Plot Support: Detailed plot, staging advice for the Keeper, eight maps, six elevations and floorplans, six handouts, thirty-two (including a dog and two turtles) NPCs and their associated photographs, and six pre-generated Investigators.Production Values: Reasonable.
Pros# Non-Mythos Folkloric horror scenario# Teenage Southern Gothic# Good staging advice for the Keeper
# Highly detailed scenario# Horror comes close to home# Strong sense of rural isolation# Interesting cultural and religious challenges# Epic several session one-shot
Cons# Non-Mythos Folkloric horror scenario# Obvious threat# Requires a slight edit# Floor plans difficult to use# Challenging player versus Investigator knowledge # Pre-generated Investigators punchy and underskilled 
Conclusion
# Isolated, non-Mythos Folkloric horror one-shot# Epic several session one-shot# Different take and setting for a confrontation with a classic monster

The Robot Wars is a supplement for Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD. It is as different a supplement as there has been for any of the four roleplaying games based on the Judge Dredd comic strip from the pages of 2000 AD, and that is all down to its focus. Traditionally, supplements for Judge Dredd roleplaying game have concentrated on particular aspects of the setting—criminal organisations, crazes, psi-talents, block wars, and more—but The Robot Wars focuses upon the one storyline, examining its episodes or Progs, and their ramifications in detail. This includes the nature, role, and creation of robots in 2000 AD and thus Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD, new Careers for Human characters, a complete summary of ‘The Robot Wars’ storyline and guide on how to run it as a campaign, a complete self-contained campaign for non-Judge Player Characters, other campaign concepts, further Case Files, and then personalities and robots of The Robot Wars. This comprehensive examination sets the format for future supplements Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD which will go on to explore some of the eminent lawman of the twenty-first century’s most amazing cases!

‘The Robot Wars’ is the first big storyline for Judge Dredd, consisting of nine Progs, running from 2000 AD Progs #9 to #17. It first recounts how robots are sold, showcased, and treated at the Robot of the Year Show before a newly built carpentry robot, Call-Me-Kenneth, runs amok killing people until it is destroyed by Judge Dredd. However, before he could be reprogrammed, he reactivates and calls upon the robots of the city to rise up against their masters. This sparks a war across Mega-City One, the deaths of thousands of Humans and destruction of thousands of Robots, and a civil war between the robots loyal to Call-Me-Kenneth and the robots loyal to Humanity. Many of the robots loyal to Call-Me-Kenneth find that their conditions are no better, and even worse, under his rule. Judge Dredd is able to work with the robot resistance against Call-Me-Kenneth and ultimately defeat the mechanical tyrant.

The Robot Wars opens with a deep examination of the place and role of the robot in the societies of the twenty-first century. ‘We Who Serve’ is a systems agnostic essay which highlights how robots are ubiquitous in Mega-City One, performing all manner of tasks and roles, often to varying degrees of hostility and Robophobia, how they are limited by their programming—in a good way by the Asimov Circuits and the Three Laws of Robotics and a bad way because it means they can be literal and single-minded, their construction, and their various types. The latter includes service robots, heavy labour robots, social robots, professional robots, expert robots, and more. It includes pleasure robots—fewer than you would think, and illegal robots—which can perform criminal tasks doggedly, but not necessarily be able to adapt to changing circumstances once a crime goes wrong, or if actually programmed for crime, decide that Human criminals are not as good and simply take over. An interesting aspect of robot society is that they do have emotions, most of which they suppress when around humans as part of their subservience, but in private they do share them with other robots and they do so as a form of therapy.

The supplement provides options for both Robot characters and Human characters—the ‘Fleshy Ones’, both expanding upon the character design rules in Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD. Robot characters start with six intrinsic Exploits (the equivalent of abilities, talents, and flaws) of Asimov Circuits, Automation, Augmented, Deterministic, Electronic Vulnerability, and Mindless. The Robot Careers fall into the same types discussed earlier and it is suggested that to best reflect robot design in the twenty-first century, each Player Character Robot should be relatively specialised. A player has plenty of options when it comes to form and design of his Robot and these will be expanded and developed through Careers such as Administrator, Bounty Hunter, Delivery Robot, Domestic, Host/Hostess, and more. In conjunction with the core rules in Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD, what the Game Master is given here is a means to create detailed robot NPCs as well as players to create Robot characters. In the main, Humans are just given new Careers and Exploits which relate to robots in the twenty-first century. Thus, Robo-Tech, Robot Rights Agitator, and Robot Hate Activist, with both of the latter including lists of groups campaigning for and against robot rights respectively. There are lots of roleplaying opportunities in both of these, as there is in the Resurrection Man—named after the body snatchers of the Victorian Era, who specialises in the theft and reprogramming of robots. Rules are also provided for both cybernetics and Robophobia, the latter designed to model the fear and ultimately the hatred of robots. This is primarily intended for use with NPCs, but guidance is included for its use by a Player Character.

A good half of The Robot Wars is dedicated to playing through ‘The Robot Wars’. The first of these is as Judges, sometimes serving alongside Judge Dredd himself and sometimes not. Each of the series’ nine Progs is given a detailed breakdown and guidance on getting the Player Characters involved. They vary in complexity, but each should provide a good session’s worth of play each. This is contrasted by the mini-campaign, ‘Saving Matt Damon Block’ which is set in a high-security block of the same name where the Player Characters are residents who are caught up in the robot rebellion. This is for Civilian, Perp, or Robot Player Characters—or a mixture of all three—and is more of a detailed outline than necessarily a full campaign. It even discusses an alternative campaign in which the Player Characters, probably Robots, actually decide that Call-Me-Kenneth is right and side with the robot rebellion! Of the campaign options in The Robot Wars, this has the greater roleplaying potential and is the more personal, even intimate, and consequently more interesting of the two, even though it is the shorter of the two.

Besides the two campaigns, The Robot Wars also gives advice for running campaigns structured around ‘The Robot Wars’ and it also provides a breakdown of the Cases setting during the same period, that is, from the early Judge Dredd stories from the pages of 2000 AD. There are six of these, and they all include a synopsis, a guide to running the Prog as an adventure with Judge and non-Judge Player Characters, further suggestions for expanding upon the Prog, and descriptions of the settings, locations, villains, and bystanders they involve. These are all very nicely done, gameable summaries which the Game Master can again use to provide a session’s worth of play, if not more. Like the two campaigns earlier in the book, they will all need some development upon the part of the Game Master, but they do include much more than the basic outline. Lastly, the ‘Nuts and Bolts’ chapter is a robotic bestiary giving all the stats of the important robots involved in ‘The Robot Wars’, starting with Walter the Wobot, Call-Me-Kenneth, and the Heavy Metal Kids, which the Game Master will need.

Where The Robot Wars disappoints is that it never takes a moment to step back from the story itself and examine what the story is about. As exciting as the action is in Judge Dredd—and it always is—the character and its setting has always been a satire too, and in ‘The Robot Wars’ the satire is upon racism and slavery, and the treatment and the liberation of slaves. A commentary upon the story and its satire, as well as how to highlight those elements in play, would have been a welcome inclusion in The Robot Wars. The other issue is that The Robot Wars does not always bring the humour of the comic into its pages. There are moments certainly, like the naming of the criminal gangs in the Matt Damon Block in the scenario, ‘Saving Matt Damon Block’, which are genuinely humorous, but it feels as if there should have been more. To be fair, translating the humour of the comic to the supplement was always going to be challenging.

Physically, The Robot Wars is a slim, but nicely presented book. It is an engaging read and it is liberally illustrated with artwork from the ‘The Robot Wars’ story and the other Progs it details in its pages. This is all black and white artwork and it is drawn from the very early issues of 2000 AD so there is certain quaintness to it since it dates from before the character of Judge Dredd evolved into the way he looks today.

The Robot Wars showcases a fantastic approach to turning episodic source material into gameable content. Whilst it does not develop that approach fully in terms of what the source material or Progs, are really about or their satire, it is a good start and hopefully, more of that will come in the future supplements which in turn focus on the some of the epic Judge Dredd storylines which appeared in the early 2000 AD Progs. Nevertheless, The Robot Wars is a great start for Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD. It is a good sourcebook on ‘The Robot Wars’ story, for the stories which can be told in and around it, and for creating robot characters in Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD (or in fact, any roleplaying game based on Judge Dredd).

Two thousand years ago the Earth was irrevocably changed by the Great Calamity. An alien planet crashed into our Moon, smashing it apart to rain debris down upon our world. The moon’s rock almost broke our planet apart and almost drove Humanity to extinction, but we survived—though not unscathed. Alien DNA that fell with the collision would change mankind, just as alien matter that fell with the collision would change the world, and out the chaos and the destruction that ensued arose new societies and new tyrants, new flora and fauna never seen before—at least not on this world, and new science and new powers, including one long forgotten (if it had ever existed that is). The world of today is one of astounding super science, of marvellous magic, of fearless, mightily thewed barbarians saving the day, of savage beastmen by their side, of tenacious scavengers scouring the ruins for precious trinkets, of Robots armed with new found free will searching for a purpose, of Death Priest who power their arcane abilities by channelling the dead, of Urchins sneaking around underfoot and unseen, of the raptor-like Vek with their hatred of sorcery, and of the more-than human Sorcerers capable of casting great magics. Many have thrown off the shackles of slavery and oppression, been exiled from their village, survived attacks by raiders, escaped servitude with a Sorcerer, or worse, and have decided to explore the harsh new world, to see what lies beyond the horizon of the Ruined Earth.

This is the setting for Barbarians of the Ruined Earth, a weird post-apocalyptic fantasy setting inspired by Thundarr the Barbarian, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Pirates of Dark Water and best fuelled by a bowl of your favourite cereal in front a television showing the greatest Saturday Morning Cartoons ever. Published by DIY RPG Productions, Barbarians of the Ruined Earth uses the mechanics of the retroclone, The Black Hack, so is a Class and Level roleplaying game with player-facing mechanics—the latter meaning that the players do all of the dice rolling rather than the Game Master. Consequently, Barbarians of the Ruined Earth will play fast and easy, with the Game Master free to get on with portraying the world that the Player Characters will explore.

A Player Character in Barbarians of the Ruined Earth has the six attributes of traditional retroclones—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. He also has a Class, which determines the character’s Hit Points, arms, armour, and weapon damage, Special Features, as well as starting equipment, a trinket or two in their possession, and an important Life Event. There are eight Classes, but Barbarians of the Ruined Earth does use ‘Race as Class’ for four of them. Humans can be Barbarians, Death Priests, Scavenger, or Urchins, whilst Beastmen, Robots, Sorcerers, and Vek are all Races in their own right. the Barbarians is a fierce warrior, often battling against the vile oppression of Sorcery, either local heroes or mercenaries, who gains extra attacks, inflict greater damage, deflect attacks against him, give a mighty shout that boosts his confidence, withstand the effects of poison and fear, and always get the best out of his armour—even if it only amounts to nothing more than a loincloth or bikini! The Death Priest can channel the knowledge of the dead, withstand disease and mind-altering effects, has a Guardian Spirit which often protects him, and can cast Miracles, such as Curse, Ethereal Form, Harming Touch, or Spirit Whip. The Scavenger is agile and good at avoiding traps and getting into locked areas, and searching for and repairing technology. The Urchin is a child lurker, small, always an unexpected adversary, but bossy and able to get his way—sometimes, and good at surviving in the environment where he grew up.

The Beastman has animal features—often the features of more than one animal, has claws and is impossibly strong, and often in battle, can turn his thick hide to withstand damage of all kinds, including magic! The Robot has a metal body and is so tough, but needs Robot Repair Kits to effectively heal itself, is immune to diseases, poisons, mind-altering effects, and the like, and can salvage other robots , though the parts can corrupt the Robot. A Robot also has a Model, which can be a Combat, Diplomatic, Medical, or Tracker, each of which has its own Special Features. The Vek—or Raptorfolk—are a collective race fascinated with the Stupendous Science and Ancient Earth technology of the Ruined Earth and a hatred of magic and sorcery due to their enslavement by evil sorcerers. Each Vek is highly intelligent, able to withstand mind-altering effects, can see in allow light, have the thick hide, claws, and leaping ability of being a Dinosaur!, and can always get More Juice out of advanced technology. The Sorcerer, transformed in the womb, often becomes a megalomaniac, but others do serve the good, but all can detect magic, Stupendous Science, and evil, can resist magic, channel arcane power through his Sorcerer’s Staff, and sling spells. Sorcerers have access to ten ‘schools’ of magic, ranging from Arcane and Blight spells to Stupendous Science and Transformation spells, with each school having three spells.

As with other retroclones, a Player Character is created by rolling three six-sided dice for the attributes and selecting a Class. As per The Black Hack, if fifteen or more is rolled for one attribute, then two six-sided dice are rolled for the next one and two added to the total. Alternatively, for a more ‘Saturday Morning Cartoon’ style of game, two six-sided dice are rolled for each attribute and five added to the total. Then the player rolls on the Trinket and Life Event tables for his character’s Class. The process is quick and easy, although not as quick and easy for the Sorcerer Class, as the player has to make more choices and roll on a few more tables.

Eye of the Tiger
Level 1 Beastman (Hulyth)
Strength 16
Dexterity 11
Constitution 13
Intelligence 11
Wisdom 12
Charisma 14
Hit Points: 13
Special Features: Animal Features (claws, see in the dark), Super Strong, Impossibly Strong, Thick Hide
Damage: 1d8 (Weapon)/1d6 (Improvised)
Weapons: Short Bow, Spear
Armour: Cloth Armour (1 RP)
Equipment: Arrows, Rations (d6), Waterskin (d6), bedroll, torches ×6 (d6), healing salve
Interesting Trinket: Flute
Life Event: father was the tribal leader until he and your family were forced into exile

Mechanically, Barbarians of the Ruined Earth is powered by The Black Hack and thus player-facing. A player rolls a Test for his character to attack in combat, but rather than the Game Master roll for an NPC to attack an NPC, the player rolls a Test for his character to avoid the attack. A Test is made directly against the character’s attributes, the player attempting to roll under the value of the attribute. The only time the Game Master rolls is for damage inflicted when a player fails the Test for his character to avoid an attack. Tests can be made with Advantage or Disadvantage, and in combat, a roll of a one is a critical success, whilst a roll of twenty is a fumble. Armour reduces damage and shields can stop attacks, but may sometimes need to be repaired. Weapon damage is determined by Class rather than weapon type. One fun side effect of the weapon damage being determined by Class rather than type is that weapons can take lots of different forms which add flavour and feel rather than mechanical benefit.

The rules also allow for wielding a two-handed weapon or dual wielding, auto-fire (since guns and lazer weapons abound), and fighting mooks, hordes, and powerful opponents. Barbarians of the Ruined Earth uses the Usage Die and event-based Level-advancement as per The Black Hack, but adds a handful of tweaks that help enforce the genre. One is that the Usage Die applies to technology as much as food or torches, so that laz gun can run out of power and that hot rod out of fuel. Another is that Player Characters cannot die, but when reduced to zero Hit Points is taken ‘Out of the Action’ and can recover with a terrible scar or mental injury—the latter due to a heavy blow to the head. One noticeable difference between Barbarians of the Ruined Earth and other post-apocalyptic roleplaying games is that although there are Mutants in Barbarians of the Ruined Earth, they are primarily NPCs or monsters, rather than Player Characters. It is possible for a Player Character to acquire a mutation, but the effecting is mind-shattering—he loses points of Wisdom! Then there are the optional rules for Destiny Points which allow a player to reroll a Test, roll a Test with Advantage, reroll an Out of Action result, and even gain a Second Wind, and recover some Hit Points. Each Player Character has a single Destiny Point per session.

Mechanically then—and even with the minor additions—Barbarians of the Ruined Earth is simple and easy to pick up. Certainly, anyone who has played The Black Hack will have no issue. The game also plays quickly, with the emphasis on the Player Characters doing all of the action and their players rolling for it.

Further flavour and weirdness of the Ruined Earth is presented in first the equipment, where you can find weaponised animals—Acid Squids, Flaming Lizards, Mutant Hamsters with corkscrew teeth flung from a sling or a Slug Shooter which squirts stunning mucous from its eyes until it is dehydrated and dead, anyone?—and rules for vehicles and awesome chassis, such as a Stupendous Science Mobile with spider’s legs so it can climb walls. Then for the Game Master there is an explanation of the state of the Ruined Earth, irrevocably changed by the alien matter that fell to the Earth, strange plants and creatures appearing, native life—including Humanity, mutating and changing, and rifts in time and space being torn open in the fabric of reality, enabling dangers unknown to come explore our future world, whilst allowing the Player Characters to visit the realms on the other side. There are strange technologies to be found too, some wholly new, others seemingly familiar, but with a strange new twist. There is advice on devising both this technology and Stupendous Science devices, as well as how to handle NPC Sorcerers as recurring villains in true comic book style.

The tools for the Game Master are simply table-tastic! They start with a set of tables for generating adventures, followed tables for generating Ruined Earth NPCs, villages (complete with troubles and particular punishments), and then concoctions, books, weird religions, weird mounts, interesting locations , and weird weather. Put this all together and what you have is the means to generate not adventures, but episodes of the Barbarians of the Ruined Earth cartoon, if you will. A lengthy bestiary provides the Game Master with a great range of creatures, threats, and NPCs to put in the way of her players and their characters. They include the almost mundane—at least in comparison to the rest of the Ruined Earth—Aliens, Antmen, Ghosts, Giant Praying Lizards, Killer Clowns, Mummies, Mutants (supported by a table of Mutations earlier in the book), Raiders, Robots, Warlocks, and Zombies, and the bonkers, such as the Alien Vampire Spider Lizard, Animated Trash Man, Car Golem, and Car Serpent. Perhaps the most fun entry is the Tele-path, which has a television screen for a head and can repeat time in Reruns, freeze opponents with Static Existence, bolster allies and minions with Sports Commercials, entrance enemies with Infomercials, blast them with Hypersonic Static, or charm them with projections of Beloved Cartoon Characters! There are some highly entertaining monsters here, all of which are given some fantastic illustrations.

Lastly, the Game Master for Barbarians of the Ruined Earth is given not a scenario, but an area known as ‘The Western Lands’. This is the post-apocalyptic version of Los Angeles and Santa Monica, and is marked with thirteen important locations, from the Nukatomi Plaza, The Last Human Kingdom, and the Ruins of Los Angel to the Village of Route 66, Shopping Mall Fortress of the Witch Grenzel, and the Imperceptible Bluffs of the Winged Mutant People. Nukatomi Plaza, once the headquarters of the Nukatomi Corporation is actually a giant arcology, two hundred storeys high, with every ten storeys an independent block whose head, whether president, queen, gang leader, dictator, or anarcho-syndicalist commune, reports and pays tribute to the head of Nukatomi Plaza, Lightning Jack. Eight sample Blocks are included, all different, but all hating Sorcery, but there is plenty of scope for the Game Master to create more, and plenty of room to develop the lands beyond, which are of course, filled with cultists, monsters, mutants, nomads, raiders, Sorcerers, Stupendous Science, and more!

Physically, Barbarians of the Ruined Earth is nicely presented with effective use of orange and yellow to highlight the text. The writing is engaging, but what really catches the eye is the artwork. It depicts the strangeness and the action of the Ruined Earth in great blasts of gonzo and over-the-top colour that captures the look and feel of Saturday morning cartoons.

Barbarians of the Ruined Earth has a great pick-up-and-play quality that from the moment you start reading, you will want to play it. The roleplaying game combines a simple and easy style with fast-playing mechanics and the author’s clear love of the post apocalypse genre and Saturday morning cartoons. Barbarians of the Ruined Earth comes ready to broadcast some technicolour cartoon action into your brains and get you striding across the ravaged landscape of California, fearlessly defending the good, stalwartly battling vile Sorcerers, and delving into the secrets of the future! Bowls of cereal and pyjamas are definitely not optional.

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

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

Like Mörk Borg Cult: Feretory before it, Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic is a fanzine of a different stripe, both in terms of content and style. It is and it is not a fanzine, but it is for Mörk Borg, the pitch-black pre-apocalyptic fantasy roleplaying game which brings a Nordic death metal sensibility to the Old School Renaissance. The format is that of a fanzine, A5-sized, on matte paper rather than the gloss of the Mörk Borg rulebook, but sharing the same riotous assault of electrically vibrant yellow and pink highlights on swathes of black, abrupt font changes, and metallic embellishments. Essentially, production values higher than that typically found in most fanzines, but influential nevertheless, as seen in the recent Knock! #1 An Adventure Gaming Bric-à-Brac and Knock! #2 An Old School Gaming Bric-à-Brac. This is because although the origins of the content in Mörk Borg Cult: Feretory are amateur in origin, they have been curated from submissions to the Mörk Borg Cult, the community content programme for Mörk Borg by the designers of the roleplaying game and collated into a fanzine format. And unlike most fanzines, is available through distribution. It is essentially, a cross between a fanzine with gorgeous production values and a supplement with fanzine sensibilities.

Funded via a successful Kickstarter campaign, Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic is also longer than most fanzines. Most of its articles are fairly short though and written and presented in a sparse, often bullet-point style which makes their content easy to digest. It can be boiled down to a variegated array of tables, scenarios, and character Classes, and in true Mörk Borg style, Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic does not waste any time in getting down to its trademark doom and gloom with the first of its tables. ‘Seeds of a CVLT’ is the first of four entries in Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic by Mörk Borg co-creator by Pelle Nilsson. Its six tables provide the means for the Game Master to determine a cult’s forbidden name, status, key leadership, headquarters, cult tasks necessary to reach the Shimmering Fields, and what its members hate. For example, The Pipes of the Black Gates continues to thrive today, led by an Unseen Executor who is Loved by All, based amongst the oldest and most obscure Grift temples, where its members give all the silver to the deep well of the underworlds and despise the carers of children… Thus the Game Master has an enemy, a patron, or simply a background element to add to her game with a roll of a few dice.

Johnny Carhat adds the means to indiviualise further Mörk Borg’s standard character Classes with ‘Unheroic Feats’. For example, with ‘Butcher’, the Player Character knows to hack livestock and poultry apart and Humans are no different. In effect, the Player Character can perform rough emergency surgery on an ally who dies—to either render him broken rather than dead or into rations if they still die! There are some thirty-six of them and they can be selected or rolled randomly, and they can be selected to create certain character builds, although there is only the one suggested such build, so the Game Master and his players will need to work what Feat works with what Feat.

The first of two new Classes in Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic is the ‘Sacrilegious Songbird’ by Karl Druid. This is a Bard Class whose voice was all wrack and ruin until he did a deal with the devil and now he has immense charm and been gifted with an accursed instrument like a Hurty Gurdy or a Lute of the Acute Brute. The other is Cameron James’ ‘Shedding Vicar’, a far viler option who believes that armour is for the weak, clothes are a sin, and even his very skin an abhorrent vanity. Consequently, he peels it so that he can walk clean and glistening wet under the night sky. That skin can be used a skin whip, is marked with glyphs of power, and even traded to a higher power for temporary bonuses… One is fouler than the other, but both are in keeping with the tone of Mörk Borg.

Mörk Borg’s other co-creator, Johan Nohr, contributes ‘You Are Cursed’, a set of tables of for creating and inflicting curses on the Player Characters—twenty or so curses, who might be able to help the victim, the cost of that help, and the solution. The cause of any one of these curses is not given, but whether from a witch or the breaking of sorcerer’s wards or the setting off of a trap, the trigger is the easy bit to set up. It the nature of curse itself, which is a bit harder to detail, which is where this article is so useful. Thus this is another adventure or story generator, the results of which can be applied to a Player Character or NPC, and so push them further towards their ill-fated Doom…

With ‘The Merchant’, Johnny Carht describes not just an NPC, but also his wares, which means another table, this time fully illustrated to roll on. Whatever Mikhael the Merchant has for sale, the price is always very personal to the Player Character—quite literally, costing him actual points in terms of stats! His wares, whether a Galgenbeck Deathmask (place on the face of a corpse to discover how it died, but its theft was heretical) in Iveland or a Jar of Troll Piss (spill on the ground to prevent no beast will walk on it, though a territorial troll might) in the Wästland, vary depending upon the region where he is found. There are plenty of temptations here and Mikhael the Merchant could become a recurring NPC, if the Player Characters are willing to pay the price. Ian McClung’s ‘Blackpowder Weapons for the Rich and Foolhardy’ adds firearms as an option to Mörk Borg, but whilst they are deadly, they are very expensive, and they are slow, not to say loud. Whether their advantage of possibly inflicting a lot of damage outweighs their disadvantages will be down to the players and their characters. That is, if the Game Master agrees, for they are very much optional.

Just three monsters are described in Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic. One is Matthew Bottiglieri’s ‘The Bone Bowyer’, a vile fey which sneaks out of the Sarkash and abducts children to fashion their bones into bows and their flesh into blood-dyed cloaks. The obvious use is as a thing to hunt and possibly, rescue missing children from its callous clutches, but the option given as to what a wicked Player Character (or NPC) would have to pay in order to have such a bow as that wielded by the Bone Bowyer. Even if the first target is missed, an arrow fired from the Bone Bow will try to hit another and then another and another until it hits a target—any target! The second is ‘Borg Bitor’, a centipede-grub which feeds on stone, mortar, and wood, with acidic-venom dripping mandibles and the ability to excrete ‘Devil’s Glue’ with which to capture its prey. Worse though is the fact that the females find surrogates for their eggs in nurseries and none are any the wiser the parents are forced to hide the child from the world. The third and last is the ‘Rotten Nurse’ by Pelle Nilsson, a description of those infamous nurses who helped perform terrible experiments in Mikol’s Infirmary and who harshly punished with burial alive after being dunked in acid… When their graves were opened,  their coffins were empty. These creatures will be found in the scenario, ‘Nurse the Rot’, which follows immediately on.

The centre-piece for Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic is Karl Druid’s ‘Graves Left Wanting’. This is a large cemetery crawl, set in Graven-Tosk in Sarkash in the shadow of the Shadow Kimg’s manse, long abandoned, but with bodies still finding their way in even as the living and unliving attempt to claw their way out. Which includes the Player Characters. ‘Graves Left Wanting’ is intended as a one-shot, a campaign-starter, or even a post-campaign starter after a Total Party Kill! The Player Characters awaken in coffins and once free have the bounds of the graveyard to explore and ultimately escape… as you would expect, this is a foul, fetid, wretched place, fog-shrouded and full of the dead, the not-dead, and those in between. This is a great, doom-laden, way to kick off a campaign, or even better restart a campaign. In fact, even if the Player Characters die in Graven-Tosk they can easily wake up again in the grave and attempt to find their way out again, so there is a little bit of Groundhog Day to ‘Graves Left Wanting’…

‘Graves Left Wanting’ is followed by three scenarios, the first of which is Greg Saunders’ ‘Bloat’. This is a short, two-page mini-dungeon, home to a bacchanalian cult of excess and consumption, and as vile and rotten as you would expect. Where ‘Bloat’ is a one-session affair, Christian Sahlén’s ‘Sepulchre of the Swamp Witch’ is longer, but also details a cave complex home to a strange cult. It is said that if certain words are chanted before the witch’s altar of glyph-covered roots, any wish will be fulfilled—even powerful enough to stop the encroaching Doom! Depending on the actions of the Player Characters, fully exploring this cave complex may become an exercise in frustration, but it contains some fun twists which they can take advantage of, and if they can make it to the altar, where they can make their wishes, but this being Mörk Borg, there is a catch… Lastly, at the bequest of one of their aunts, Mother Marathuk, the Player Characters must enter the Chapel Olundan and recover the Staff of Awful Light lest the village of Tünstal sink into darkness. Placed inside rear fold, this is the last entry in Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic and the last and fourth by Pelle Nilsson. The chapel is partially populated by the Borg Bitor and the Rotten Nurse described earlier, and the more the Player Characters explore the more likely they come to their attention. Once that happens, it adds a sense of urgency to the situation as the Player Characters attempt to get away from their clutches and fulfil their aunt’s last request!

Slipped inside the front cover, ‘The Monster Approaches’ is a quick and dirty random monster generator which with a roll of a handful of dice, the Game Master can create something vile and unnerving to throw at her Player Characters—who are of course, just as likely to be almost, if not equally as vile and unnerving. It is quickly followed by Svante Landgraf’s ‘Roads to Damnation: Travel Across a Dying World’ which provides rules and randomness for travelling across the large island which is all that remains of the Dying Lands. It covers distances as well as events on and off the road, but like all tables has only a limited number of entries, so may be exhausted fairly soon. For a roleplaying game like Mörk Borg, which is designed for short campaigns, this is not so much of an issue.

In addition, Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic comes with a minimalistic dungeon crawl which is part-comic/part-poster. Drawn by Łukasz Kowalczuk, ‘The Hero Gauntlet of Hagelsecht’  shows how three brave/foolish adventurers ventured into the depths of the dungeon and did not make it out again. It is fun to see a Mörk Borg dungeon bash done as a cartoon and being accompanied by the monster stats and a mini-map could easily worked up into a mini-adventure inspired by the trio’s fate.

Physically, Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic adheres to the artpunk aesthetic as you would expect for a Mörk Borg supplement. There is a definite contrast between its dark gloomy content—and often its pages—and the bold splashes of colour, even on the matte paper stock. It is well written and the layout., perhaps a little busy in places, is easy to read.

As with any Mörk Borg release Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic can add so much to your fantasy game—especially if it is dark and grim. Its content would work in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous, Shadow of the Demon Lord, and others—with a little bit of adaptation. As a supplement for Mörk Borg, the fanzine adds more content to make the experience of playing Mörk Borg even grislier, grottier, and grubbier for all concerned, the Game Master, her players, and their characters. ‘Graves Left Wanting’ in particular is a great starting (or restarting) point, but there is so much dark and nasty content in Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic that any Mörk Borg Game Master will want to inflict it on her players.

Since 2018, the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG, beginning with the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG – Player’s Survival Guide has proved to be a popular choice when it comes to self-publishing. Numerous authors have written and published scenarios for the roleplaying game, many of them as part of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest, but the publisher of the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG, Tuesday Knight Games has also supported the roleplaying game with scenarios and support of its own. Dead Planet: A violent incursion into the land of the living for the MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game is one such scenario, but Tuesday Knight Games has also published a series of mini- or Pamphlet Modules. The first of these is The Haunting of Ypsilon 14, the second Hideo’s World. The world of the title is virtual, a slickware slickworld game world which has become the last refuge of its designer, Hideo Kieslowski, the Hideo. Originally designed as a console called HypnoDD running slickware and a slickworld intended to be both played whilst sleeping and replace the user’s dreams, the project was a failure and despite attempts to salvage it, Hideo retreated into his creation and has remained there in a drug-induced come for a decade. Now, the slickware running the virtual world is deteriorating, degrading, and in danger of destroying it—and taking Hideo’s mind with it. In order to find that mind, the Player Characters will have to plug directly into the interface, and once inside the HypnoDD’s slickworld, move as quickly as they can.

The first thing that strikes the reader about Hideo’s World is the format. It is done as a double-sided tri-fold brochure on pale pink card. In fact, the card is stiff enough for the scenario to stand up right on its own, but open up the folder and the second thing that reader about Hideo’s World is the graphic design. The beginning location, the Plaza, is a virtual menu placed around a Communications Tower takes centre stage in the middle panel. The four options—or doors—on the menu are presented on the left-hand and right-hand panels consists of Settings, Game, Shop, and Home, and each of these has further options, as does the Communications Tower. A separate lists the things that the Player Characters might encounter in Hideo’s World, including Bugs (in the system), and Raiders—hackers, fans of Hideo’s come to see his world one last time, and so on, and Mister Goodnight™, an internal program and moon-headed mascot of PacyGen Pharmaceuticals & Soft Drinks Company which has a love-hate relationship with Hideo... Mister Goodnight™ is the primary NPC in Hideo’s World and ideally the Warden should really go to town in portraying him. On the back of the pamphlet, the Warden is provided with tables of Glitches, Textures, and Adverts with which to colour the world around the Player Characters as they explore and examine its limits.
The scenario begins with the Player Characters arriving in the Plaza and beginning to explore the Options available to them via the four virtual menus. Of the four options, Home is the one that the Player Characters need to access, as it should lead to the short where Hideo’s mind resides. However, a stretch of the Glitch Sea lies between the Plaza and Hideo’s Home. The players and their characters must then work out a way to get over there and explore the tower. It is primarily a puzzle scenario into which the Warden can throw the occasional spanner into the works with an NPC or a strange effect or a Glitch. The latter are important because the more of them there are, the greater the stress caused to the sleeping Hideo, the more likely he is to panic and so cause parts of his Slickworld to collapse around him... This gives Hideo’s World its countdown mechanism, though the players and their characters will initially be unaware of it.
Hideo’s World is different to other scenarios for Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG. To begin with, it is a puzzle adventure and then it very much less of a horror scenario than you would normally expect for a roleplaying game which is best known for its Blue Collar Sci-Fi horror one-shots. It is instead a puzzle scenario, not quite in the vein of the text adventures, but certainly giving a nod to them. The scenario is also more of a funhouse adventure with a lot of randomly generated elements for the Warden to pitch at her players. As a consequence, Hideo’s World is simply not as dangerous a scenario as the more obviously horror-based scenarios for Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG.
The second thing which strikes you about Hideo’s World is that just like The Haunting of Ypsilon 14 before, the Warden will need to undertake a high degree of preparation in order to run it. The brevity of the format means that none of the NPCs have stats, but they can be provided. The major omission is the lack of motivations or reasons for the Player Characters to get involved, and the difficulty for the Warden in devising any such reason or motivation is compounded by the different nature of the scenario. It is not a traditional Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG scenario and so the traditional types of set-up found in Blue Collar Sci-Fi will be challenging to use. Perhaps a family member wants to rescue him or a corporation wants the knowledge that might be hidden in his Sliceworld?
Physically, Hideo’s World is definitely a scenario with physical presence, despite its relative slightness. If the cover illustration is underwhelming, the map-illustration of the Plaza is good and the cross section of the Tower that is Hideo’s Home is serviceable. It is actually a pity that the map-illustration of the Plaza is numbered because unnumbered it could be shown to the players. Lastly, it does need a slight edit in places.
Hideo’s World is a fairly busy scenario with lots of things that can happen to the Player Characters in quite a confined space and not all of them of any consequence. So it requires preparation in terms of what everything does and detailing NPCs and motivations, and so on. Wacky more than weird, hare-brained than horrifying, Hideo’s World is a funhouse puzzle adventure that pushes Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG in an unexpected and not as easy to use direction.
—oOo—
An Unboxing in the Nook video of Hideo’s World can be found here.

Pacts and Blades: Moorcockian Fantasy – A Minimalist Sword and Witchcraft RPG for Short Campaigns and Quick Sessions is a Swords & Sorcery roleplaying game—of a sort—inspired by the tales by Michael Moorcock in which the Eternal Champion enters into bargains and agreements with great demons, elementals, and gods and in return receives great power, whether that is the power of the blade or the power of the spell. Written and published by Lucas Rolim, Pacts and Blades: Moorcockian Fantasy effectively takes the interesting ideas of Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing in the Young Kingdoms, slims them down to their basics and presents them as a set of mechanics which just about work on their own, but really demand a setting of their own, and if necessary, a setting of their own whose combat and magic system Pacts and Blades: Moorcockian Fantasy can easily replace with its own. It is a set of mechanics in which swordsmen follows the Path of the Blade and studies treatises and with weapon masters to increase their skill with a weapon and sorcerers the Path of the Pact, studying tomes and making pacts with spirits, demons, and the like, and so gain access to magics.

From the outset, Pacts and Blades: Moorcockian Fantasy is clear that it eschews the standard elements of the roleplaying game—initiative, movement, time, equipment prices, and the like. All of that is down to the Judge—as the Game Master is known in Pacts and Blades: Moorcockian Fantasy—to determine. Instead, its emphasis is upon its simple resolution mechanic and the two Paths, the Path of the Blade and the Path of the Pact. As a consequence, there is a huge narrative element to the roleplaying, not only with the Judge deciding upon how initiative, movement, time, equipment prices, and the like all play out, but also with the players deciding what Path Advancements their characters are going to learn and what their effects are. Which of course, is in addition to the roleplaying possibilities.

A Player Character is simply defined. He has a number of Health Points divided into three types of Wounds—Light Wounds, Moderate Wounds, and Heavy Wounds, and his Path Advancements. A Player Character starts play with a randomly determined number of wounds and one Path Advancement, either in the Path of the Blade or the Path of the Pact.

Esshian of Toorcaas
Path Advancements:
Path of the Pact: The Draft of Durasthakaraṇaya
Light Wounds 1 Moderate Wounds 1 Heavy Wounds 1

Mechanically, Pacts and Blades: Moorcockian Fantasy has a player roll two six-sided dice and attempt to equal or exceed a Reference Value when he wants his character to succeed at a Task. Tasks are divided into four Difficulty tiers each of which has a default Reference Value which is three times the number of the Difficulty tier. The Difficulty tiers and their Reference Values are Easy (six), Average (nine), Hard (twelve), and Impossible (fifteen). The Reference Value can be modified by a Player Character’s Path Advancements and Narrative Advantages—the latter determined by the environment and situation, typically reducing the Reference Value by one for each. This will give the player and his character a new Reference Value to roll against on the given table. The result can either be a Total Success, Partial Success, or Failure, essentially the equivalent of ‘Yes’, ‘Yes, but…’, and ‘No’. For example, in combat, a Partial Success results in the Player Character striking his opponent, but leaves him open to a counter attack, whereas a Total Success would mean pulling a randomly selected Feat in addition to the damage inflicted.

Feats come into play when a player rolls a Total Success using a Path Advancement. For example, in combat using the Path of the Blade, a Feat might grant the Player Character a second action due to his speed or so weaken his opponent that the damage he would inflict on his next attack is reduced. Similarly, when a Player Character adheres to the Path of the Pact and invokes his patron spirit or demon, a Feat might be that the spiritual connection is perfect and the spell is cast with maximum effect or so deep that the Player Character is rendered ethereal! Actual damage in combat is determined by the result on the highest die and be a Light Wound, Moderate Wound, or Severe Wound. When a Player Character or NPC runs out of Severe Wounds, they are dead, but armour adds to the number of wounds that either of them can suffer. As a Player Character gains more Path Advancements and thus more Path Advancements, he will also gain more wounds of all three types.

Path Advancements are gained when it is narratively appropriate and Pacts and Blades: Moorcockian Fantasy suggests that it occur two or three times per session. A Path Advancement for the Path of the Blade is by weapon type, for example dagger, broad sword, or darts, reducing the Reference Value by one up to a maximum of three times per weapon type. Like the source material, a Path Advancement for the Path of the Pact is comparatively more complex, and is done per Patron Spirit, again reducing the Reference Value by one up to a maximum of three times per Patron Spirit. Each Patron Spirit has a Domain, for example, Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Protection, Mind, Teleportation, and so on. A Player Character invoking a Spirit Patron effectively casts a spell related to its Domain, but that ‘spell’ or its effects, can only be used once per day. Depending on the Spirit Patron, this might be to inflict or heal damage, grant an enhancement which reduces the Reference Value of another Task, inflict a Curse, and so on. Of the two Paths, there is far more scope for roleplaying with the Path of the Pact.

Pacts and Blades: Moorcockian Fantasy rounds itself off with a selection of monsters and it is here its problems begin. There are just the six monsters, including Goblin, Orc, Spider, and Dragon, all drawn from traditional fantasy and thus uninspiring in comparison to any Moorcockian influenced creations. Only the one, the Orc Shaman, possesses a Pact, that of the Domain of Death with Mortus the Decrepit, and there is no advice on handling that or NPCs in relationship to the Player Characters. Similarly, there is no world building or advice for creating worlds with a Moorcockian fantasy influence, or even discussion of what Moorcockian Fantasy is or what the differences are between it and traditional fantasy. Unless the Judge and her players know that difference because they know the source material, the context of Pacts and Blades: Moorcockian Fantasy is very much going to be a mystery to them.

Another issue is the terminology of having a Difficulty tier and a Reference Value derived from that which is what the player is rolling against. Now the point of the narrative and Pact advantages is to reduce the Reference Value the player is rolling against, but arguably is there any need to have both terms? Would it not be simpler and less confusing to have a Difficulty Value and adjust that with narrative and Pact advantages, rather than what in effect is two differing terms for the same thing?

Physically, Pacts and Blades: Moorcockian Fantasy is beautifully laid out in full colour with a well-chosen selection of public domain artwork which give an unsettling and intense baroque feel. Barring the omissions, it is well written.

Although its terminology does complicate what is a straightforward and simple system, the mechanics of Pacts and Blades: Moorcockian Fantasy very much lend themselves to roleplaying in the style of the Eternal Champion. After all, the Player Characters are studying with their weapons and they are entering into pacts with otherworldly creatures for great power, and there are great roleplaying opportunities in that, but beyond that system though, Pacts and Blades: Moorcockian Fantasy is far from inspiring in terms of its genre and its influences. It is simply, a set of mechanics awaiting a world or multiverse of worlds and the input of the Judge to really bring it alive, but leaves the Judge very much on her own when it comes to the nature of that multiverse and the inspiration behind Pacts and Blades: Moorcockian Fantasy – A Minimalist Sword and Witchcraft RPG for Short Campaigns and Quick Sessions.

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

—oOo—
What is it?
GLORANTHA: Underwater Quest is a scenario for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

It is a four page, full colour, 1.45 MB PDF.

The layout is clean and tidy. It is art free, but the cartography is excellent.

Where is it set?
GLORANTHA: Underwater Quest is set in the swampy area area in southern Dragon Pass, near the sea, between the city of Nochet and the ruins of Lylket. Unless the scenario begins en media res, the events which lead into the scenario take place in Sartar. Ideally this should be near the Delecti Marsh.
Who do you play?Player Characters of all types could play this scenario, but a worshipper or priest of Heler or other Water god might be useful.
What do you need?
GLORANTHA: Underwater Quest requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Gateway Bestiary.
What do you get?GLORANTHA: Underwater Quest details a partially flooded complex consisting of several rooms, five of which are detailed. Here hidden behind a quadruple-locked door can be found Daliath’s Well of Wisdom, a source of his sacred water. The complex is inhabited by several randomly selected water-themed monsters, including Deep Ones, Kelpies, Shark-Men, and Water-Leapers. Notably, the Deep Ones are at odds with the Shark-Men, but that is the only real dynamic element in the complex.
The reason why the Player Characters are searching for the Well of Daliath is because several undead spies have unmasked at the various tribal courts of Sartar, each magically disguised in a way never seen before. Although they were defeated, they had done untold underhand and disruptive deeds. It is suspected that Delecti, the Necromancer at the heart of the Upland Marsh, is behind these attempts, and the tribes fear his spies may even have gone as far as impersonating kings and chieftains. If someone can find the Well of Daliath and drink its waters, they will gain the wisdom sufficient to be able to identify these spies.
As with other titles from this author, GLORANTHA: Underwater Quest is all about the destination. The background is flexible in terms of timeframe, but is underdeveloped with little explanation as to what the Well of Deliath is, what its waters do, and what Orlanth did within the Well. The complex itself is anything other than interesting and does not offer anything beyond combat challenges. This is not to say that there not an interesting story or scenario in the all too few pages of GLORANTHA: Underwater Quest, but they consist of the backstory and the legend, which of course the author effectively ignores. The nearest the author gets to this is suggesting that GLORANTHA: Underwater Quest be used as a sequel to GLORANTHA: A Trek in the Marsh. 
GLORANTHA: Underwater Quest is not badly written for what it is, but very much like the earlier GLORANTHA: The search for the Throne of Colymar, GLORANTHA: A Trek in the Marsh, and GLORANTHA: The Avengers of Earth Temple, it is underwritten and leaves plenty of development work for the Game Master to do before she brings GLORANTHA: Underwater Quest to the gaming table. Probably more than it warrants, since if the Game Master is going to have to do that development work, she might as well grab the map and start from scratch.
Is it worth your time?Yes—GLORANTHA: Underwater Quest contains the germ of an interesting scenario if the Game Master is willing to completely develop the set-up, add the flavour, and the detail, which of course the author failed to do. Then of course, the Game Master can do something about making the dungeon interesting.No—GLORANTHA: Underwater Quest is a self-contained dungeon bash which the author kindly leaves all of the interesting detail, stats, and flavour to be found in the back story for the Game Master to develop herself. Cheap, cheerless, characterless, and charmless.Maybe—GLORANTHA: Underwater Quest is yet a perfect showcase of how to take an interesting idea, all but ignore it, or at least leave it up to the Game Master to do anything with, and instead write an uninteresting dungeon bash for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, so if the Game Master wanted to know how not to do it, she should start here.