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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Setting: Jazz Age Devon

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

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

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

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

Setting: Jazz Age Idaho

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

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

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

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

 1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

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

Now in its fourteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2021, after a little delay due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, took place on Saturday, 16th October. As per usual, it came with an array of new and interesting little releases, which traditionally would have been tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Of course, in 2021, Free RPG Day took place after GenCon despite it also taking place later than its traditional start of August dates, but Reviews from R’lyeh was able to gain access to the titles released on the day due to a friendly local gaming shop and both Keith Mageau and David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3 in together sourcing and providing copies of the Free RPG Day 2020 titles. Reviews from R’lyeh would like to thank all three for their help.

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

The BIG BADS series presents a range of booklets, each detailing a villainous NPC which the Dungeon Master can drop into her campaign at short notice. The idea is that they be used when the Player Characters have wandered away from the centre of the action or the plot, and the Dungeon Master does not have anything ready for such an eventuality. Each entry comes complete with a description of the villainous NPC, his tactics and traits (Ideal, Bond, and Flaw), his allies, some background, and some adventure hooks. In the case of The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe release for Free RPG Day 2021, the ‘BIG BAD’ is Zara Harlowe, who can be inserted into major town or city which has a city guard and a single thieves’ guild dominating the criminal underworld. Zara Harlowe is the chief of the watch or city guard, and has managed to wage a major campaign against organised crime, breaking up gangs and intimidation rackets, foiling heists just in the nick of time, and filled the nearby gaols with innumerable crooks. However, one major criminal, the local Thieves’ Guild Guildmaster, known as Nix, eludes her, and it continues to frustrate the chief of the guard. Except, of course, it does nothing of the sort, for the simple reason that Zara Harlowe and Nix are one of the same. Zara Harlowe has long been corrupt, and her growing ties to the local criminal underworld put her in a position, eventually, to eliminate all of the local competition and install someone else on charge. Namely, herself—or rather Nix. By day, she commands the city guard to crack down on crime, invariably directing them away from her activities by night as the city’s crime boss. It is all a case of one big misdirection—through double agents, bureaucracy, ruthlessness, and disguise.
The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe also details her two allies in the know, both as evil as she is, one a Dragonborn shapechanger and wereboar, the other a Half-Elf Necromancer! There are good notes on roleplay on each of these villains, but especially Zara Harlowe, as well as details of what might be found should the trio be encounter at the Guard Station or the Thieves’ Guild Headquarters. Neither is mapped, which is pity, but the Dungeon Master should be able to find or draw something. Should the Dungeon Master want to use Zara Harlowe and her compatriots, the mini-supplement comes three adventure hooks, one a closed room mystery, one a heist in the city where Zara commands the guard, and the last a rambling letter which hints at the truth of her activities. All three will need no little development upon the part of the Dungeon Master, but they represent a good start. Lastly, there are the stats for each of the three NPCs, each given their own page and all accompanied by decent illustrations. In terms of Challenge Rating, all together they have a rating of ten or eleven, depending upon the situation, so the Dungeon Master will need to adjust according or choose when to run these NPCs.
The BIG BADS section of The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe runs to just twelve or so pages of content, but provides the background and stats necessary for the Dungeon Master to run this villainess and her allies with relative ease. She will need to make adjustments and development the content a little to fit her campaign or scenario, but no more than usual.
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The other half of The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe is ‘The Heart of Dako’. This is a scenario for the Humblewood campaign setting in which you play anthropomorphic Birdfolk and other woodland creatures. It does not take place in the Humblewood region though, but in the Tanglewilds, a vast jungle far south of the Humblewood on the western continent of Wesden. Here Tanglewilds Guides are stationed at the guide outpost of Wayfare, from where they can be hired to lead expeditions through the jungles of Sania’s Paradise. The four pre-generated Player Characters, all of Fifth Level, are Tanglewilds Guides. They include Zenja Brightfeather, a Seeta Luma (or Parrot) Druid, a Sun Eluran (big cat) Cleric, a Sandscale Tilia (lizard or gecko) Rogue, and an Arma Hedge (armadillo?) Ranger. All four are given two pages each containing all of the necessary stats, features, and traits, plus an explanation of each character’s role, backstory, and equipment. These are all easy to read and understand, and thus far from difficult to ready to play.
‘The Heart of Dako’ opens with the four Player Character Tanglewilds Guides being hired by the Companions of the Blue Rose, a stalwart company of adventurers, to lead them on their way to the coastal city of Espinorra, where a ship awaits to ferry them to their northern homelands. They boast of great find, a precious magical relic they believe to be the fabled Heart of Dako, which they took from the Temple of Naba, and plan to take home with them. Thus they want to get home without any fuss or difficulty. Not long after they set out, the Player Characters and their employers are disturbed in their journey. It might be that they see a strange, apocalyptic vision, be suddenly warned by Companion of the Blue Rose about the Heart of Dako his companions are carrying, or they recall or hear a story about the dreadful outcome should the Heart of Dako be removed from the Temple of Naba. Essentially, the Dungeon Master is free to use these as necessary to persuade the Player Characters that taking the Heart of Dako from the Temple of Naba was not a good idea, each serving as a hook for the adventure proper. Making this decision though will come after the scenario’s opening scene when the Player Characters have an opportunity to interreact with the Companions of the Blue Rose, learn of some of the dangers they faced in finding and plundering the Temple of Naba, and more. This is no mere exposition, but essential in completing the adventure, because the Player Characters will not only have to retrace the steps of the Companions of the Blue Rose, but do so with hot on their heels after stealing the Heart of Dako!
‘The Heart of Dako’ perhaps suggests a nod towards Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, but the scenario is more Indiana Jones—right down to one of the NPCs exclaiming, “ It belongs in a museum!”, than exploring the nature of European colonialism! After a race across a rope bridge, the Player Characters enter the Temple of Naba and must navigate the various traps and puzzles located in its various chambers. These include the classic spike traps and walls closing in trap, all before the Companions of the Blue Rose confront again and hopefully, the Player Characters can save the day.
In addition to the scenario, ‘The Heart of Dako’, the first appendix gives full stats for all four members of the Companions of the Blue Rose, as well as other NPCs and a handful of jungle monsters. The second appendix describes the Wilderness Explorer, a new Background, and the third, details the actual Heart of Dako.
‘The Heart of Dako’ is a short and linear and presumes that the Player Characters will do the right thing in returning the artefact to the temple. If not, the scenario ends badly… In fact, the scenario feels all too short and could have done with interaction and opportunities for roleplay as it does emphasise exploration, puzzles, and combat rather than roleplaying. This does not mean that there are no opportunities, but they feel sparse in comparison. The adventure itself can be completed in a single session or so, certainly no more than two sessions. The players are provided with some decent characters to roleplay, and the Dungeon Master likewise has a good selection of NPCs to portray. The Companions of the Blue Rose will need careful study as they are the equal of the Player Characters and just as detailed and capable.
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Physically, The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe decently presented. The artwork is decent enough in ‘Zara Harlowe’, but fully painted in ‘The Heart of Dako’, and full of lush colours that help bring the various characters (Player Characters and NPCs) to life and the jungle too. A fair bit of the artwork gets used more than once, but it is really good artwork. Otherwise, the writing is good, though perhaps a better explanation of the scenario’s plot could have been included at the beginning.
Of the two pieces of content in The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe, ‘Zara Harlowe’ is undoubtedly the more useful, being generic in nature and easily transposed to any setting. Being more specific in its setting, ‘The Heart of Dako’ is less useful to the Dungeon Master unless she wants to run a jungle-set scenario and/or run an anthropomorphic scenario, and less useful to the Humblewood Dungeon Master it takes place far away from the core setting. That said, ‘The Heart of Dako’ is a preview of Humeblewood 2, which opens up the southern tropical continent for the Humblewood setting. As a preview though, it still feels all too short and perhaps wondering if ‘Zara Harlowe’ had been omitted, there might have been room for a bit more adventure and bit more of the Humeblewood 2 to be showcased. Plus, as an adventure for Fifth Level Player Characters, ‘The Heart of Dako’ is not necessarily going to be useful to run when Humeblewood 2 is released.
Overall, The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe as a combination does not quite work. The latter is more useful than the former, but detracts from the former which feels as if it could have done with a bit more adventure as a result. Both are available separately on the Hit Point Press website.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Salvage Union is currently being funded via Kickstarter.

Now in its fourteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2021, after a little delay due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, took place on Saturday, 16th October. As per usual, it came with an array of new and interesting little releases, which traditionally would have been tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Of course, in 2021, Free RPG Day took place after GenCon despite it also taking place later than its traditional start of August dates, but Reviews from R’lyeh was able to gain access to the titles released on the day due to a friendly local gaming shop and both Keith Mageau and David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3 in together sourcing and providing copies of the Free RPG Day 2020 titles. Reviews from R’lyeh would like to thank all three for their help.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 OrphanagePublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Rudy Peverada

Setting: Jazz Age Arkham

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One of the issues with HARP SF is that beyond the necessary piloting skills, it does not detail the vehicles—starships, aircars, gravbikes, and the like—which all have a role to play in a Science Fiction roleplaying game like HARP SF. Especially a Science Fiction roleplaying game in which star travel and different worlds and systems all play a role. Now this is not due to any oversight on the part of the publisher, Iron Crown Enterprises, but rather an issue with space—or page count. The addition of the rules for vehicles (and a whole lot more) would have added greatly to the page count of HARP SF, which is why they have been split into a second book, HARP SF Extreme. Half the length of HARP SF, HARP SF Extreme covers vehicle rules for slower-than-light and faster-than-light travel, a long list of land, marine, air, space and hybrid vehicles, combat between starfighters and capital ships, and more. The more gets a little more personal in taking HARP SF and its characters into the far future of Transhumanism—upgrading the mind with nanoware implants and the body with cybernetic replacements, and uploading your mind into the virtual world of cyberspace and downloading it into a robot body, and even going beyond as an Artificial Intelligence.

HARP SF Extreme can be divided into two parts. The first part is entirely vehicular in nature, covering space and vehicle travel, and space and vehicle combat. It goes into some detail how the Lagrange Drive—the means by which Faster-Than-Light travel is achieved in the Tintamar setting, the default background for HARP SF—and highlights how it can only be used at certain points within a star system, at the Lagrange points of its largest bodies. This adds certain wrinkles to starship travel, limiting its free use, but making its use more interesting in term of storytelling. Distances are listed for within the Solar System and far beyond in the Nexus Sector of the Tintamar setting, but the SysOp is also given various formulae for working distances should she prefer that to ‘Moving at the Speed of Plot’.

Numerous vehicles are listed, including Ground Effect Machine, or GEM, vehicles, gravitic vehicles, motorboats and submarines, aeroplanes and gravplanes, aircars and seacars, and more. Spaceships range from maintenance pods, mini-shuttles, and starfighters all the up to corvettes, freighters, and scoutships. Some of the larger starships include decent and serviceable deckplans too, all done in colour, although there are a couple of issues with all of these means of transport. One is that they are generic, so if there are differences between the various species of the Tintamar setting, they are not discussed, and the other is that it is not obvious in some places which illustrations refer to which vehicle or starship.

The rules for combat cover ground combat and space combat, but HARP SF being a Science Fiction game, focus on the latter. The rules are an extension of those for personal combat found in the first HARP SF rulebook, with the combatants making supporting Manoeuvre rolls to benefit (or hinder, depending on the quality of the roll) the actual attacks. Combat between vehicles is designed to be co-operative, the player of the character at the controls making the rolls for initiative and Manoeuvre rolls to better place their vehicle or spaceship to make an attack or avoid one, the player of the engineer either making repair rolls or rolls to boost manoeuvring power or shields, and the player of the communications officer making rolls to jam signalling or targeting by the enemy with Electronic Countermeasures with a Signalling Manoeuvre roll. Ultimately, this will generate a set of modifiers that the player whose character is in charge of the weapons will apply to his Offensive Bonus and die roll, whilst the SysOp will be doing the same with the enemy’s Defensive Bonus, which is deducted from the total and the appropriate Critical Table consulted if the attack is a success. The weapons include autocannons, laser cannons, particle beam cannons, and plasma cannons of various sizes, as well as missiles, the latter taking several rounds to reach their target once launched giving time for a defending vessel to try and jam them on their way in.

The rules for spaceship and vehicle combat in HARP SF Extreme are not necessarily as complex as they look, as they do not require the arithmetic and mathematical formulae that spaceship travel might. Nevertheless, they require a careful read through upon the part of the SysOp, if not her players. Fortunately, they are supported by two lengthy examples of play, which should help alleviate any difficulty in learning to use them.

In the second part of HARP SF Extreme, the supplement takes a more personal tone, shifting its Science Fiction ever closer to Transhumanism with three options—Cyberware, Artificial Intelligences and Electronic Characters, and Robots. Although a Player Character can have any Cyberware, he requires the Cyber Compatibility Talent to possess them. Thus Cyber Compatibility (Lesser) for basic cyber augmentation, such as cosmetic modifications, datajacks, and neuralware implants, and Cyber Compatibility (Greater) for anything beyond in terms of augmentation and replacement. HARP SF Extreme presents a long list of cybernetic augmentations, from Datajack, Fibre Hair, and Bloodstopper to Taste Enhancer, Vision Enhancer, and Subdermal Pouch, as well as Cyberarms and Cyberlegs. There are even options for the Cybertorso and Cyberhead, although that pushes a character towards being a robot rather than a Cyborg. Further options can be installed in the cyberlimbs, like an Agile Limb or Built-in Weapon. In traditional roleplaying treatments of cyberware, the replacement of the biological with the mechanical typically comes with a loss of empathy or humanity. Not so in HARP SF Extreme. Instead, Cyberware takes investment in terms of time, money, and development upon the part of the Player Character. First, it takes weeks to install and recuperate from, as well as costing thousands in terms of credits. Second, the biological is not accustomed to using the mechanical and so a character requires the Cyber Control skill, which requires specialisation in either Arms, Implants, Legs, Miscellaneous, or Senses. Thus every use of a piece of Cyberware requires a standard Cyber Control skill manoeuvre roll. Further, the number of skill ranks a Player Character has in a Cyber Control specialisation limits the complexity of the device that he can control. For example, controlling a Cyberarm requires three ranks of Cyber Control (Arms), a Built-in Weapon another one, Agile Arm one per bonus, and so on. In the long term, as a Player Character acquires new Levels and thus new Development Points which his player can spend on him, his Cyberware can be upgraded with new features and his skill in operating the various devices, effectively keeping pace with the other Player Characters and avoiding the power creep that adding Cyberware has the potential to bring to a game.

Electronic Characters covers not just rules for creating A.I. characters, but also virtual copies of a character—creating the latter taking time as money to create, and more time depending upon the age of the character. In general, virtual copies are kept as backup versions of a Player Character in the event of his death, but this comes with a penalty, since it can mean the loss of experience and memories accumulated since the last copy was made. Which actually means a potential loss of character Levels, and thus loss in terms of skills and talents purchased since! In the main, the primary difference between biological and electronic characters is the lack of physical statistics, although that may be offset in the long term if the electronic or virtual character decides that being downloaded into a physical form, whether that is robotic or biological, is an option. An A.I. character could remain in cyberspace though, or become part of a spaceship, for example, but if downloaded, there are plenty of options given in terms of robot types and bodies, which need not even be humanoid. Several full examples of robots are given, including explorer, medical, and repair types, as well as companion models, and these are all designed with remaining Development Points with which a player could modify the design. Alternatively, a player could design his robot’s form and chassis from scratch using the numerous options included. One issue which a gaming group may want to decide upon—and this applies to Cyberware and vehicles too—is whether or not power matters. That is, whether a robot or a piece of Cyberware will run out of energy and power down. This does complicate play, but it all depends on how technical the gaming group wants to get or if the matter power at this level is left up to SysOp to decide as a storytelling option.

Throughout, the SysOp is not just given choices in terms of the rules that she wants, but also additions to the Tintamar Knowledge Base, the state of any particular technology in the defiant setting for HARP SF. The SysOp can decide whether to combine supporting actions and attacks in vehicle combat for slightly faster play, include weapons placement and facing, being able to dodge missiles, and more. In the Tintamar setting, no Manoeuvre rolls are made for travel in hyperspace, only for entering hyperspace; background is given as to how the Portals which make long distance interstellar travel possible; the inability to transfer psionic abilities from the biological to the virtual; and the status of an A.I. controlled robot as property. Overall, the SysOp has an array of options to consider in bringing the contents of HARP SF Extreme, and is supported in terms of background if running a Tintamar-set campaign.

Physically, HARP SF Extreme is generally well presented. It uses a lot of colour digital artwork of its vehicles, which does mean that they are somewhat characterless, which is not the case with the later pencil artwork which appears in the rest of the book as well as HARP SF, and thus is far more engaging. Certainly, it is fun to spot the influences on the robot illustrations. Otherwise, the book is well written and examples of the rules, if unfortunately done in a light grey and thus harder to read, help the reader a great deal in terms of grasping the rules.

Putting HARP SF and HARP SF Extreme together very much means that HARP SF begins to feel complete in terms of being a Science Fiction roleplaying game. Characters, action and combat, vehicles, starships, robots, and the virtual are all covered. That does mean that the rules still lack a means for creating new worlds, new alien species, and sentients, though hopefully that is covered in another volume. HARP SF Extreme does an excellent job of detailing the technological aspects of HARP SF and its Tintamar setting, and even if not using the default setting, brings a grittier edge to the Space Opera and Imperial Science Fiction leanings of HARP SF. For playing groups who prefer their Science Fiction with a little harder edge, then together HARP SF and HARP SF Extreme is a good option.

Now in its fourteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2021, after a little delay due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, took place on Saturday, 16th October. As per usual, it came with an array of new and interesting little releases, which traditionally would have been tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Of course, in 2021, Free RPG Day took place after GenCon despite it also taking place later than its traditional start of August dates, but Reviews from R’lyeh was able to gain access to the titles released on the day due to a friendly local gaming shop and both Keith Mageau and David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3 in together sourcing and providing copies of the Free RPG Day 2020 titles. Reviews from R’lyeh would like to thank all three for their help.

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Fabula Ultima TTRPG: Press Start is something a little different for Free RPG Day 2021. Published by Need Games!, it is a quick-start for the Fabula Ultima TTRPG—or Fabula Ultima Table Top Roleplaying Game—and is based on Japanese console roleplaying games such as the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series. As a quick-start, it is of course designed to introduce and teach the game to both players and the Game Master, but it does it in an interesting way. It models the learning process upon that of a computer roleplaying game. In a computer roleplaying game, the player is taken through the process of playing the game step-by-step—so movement, looking, attacking, defending, inventory, and so on. And until the player gets to the particular step in that process, he cannot tell his character to do the new part of the play of the computer game. Fabula Ultima TTRPG: Press Start does exactly the same, locking each part of the character until the players reach a particular scene in the adventure in the quick-stat. So in Scene #1, the Game Master introduces the game and its setting, and the attributes and status effects, whilst Traits and Bonds are explained and come into play in Scene #2, how to use Fabula Points in Scene #3, and so forth all the way up to skills, actions, inventory, and abilities.

Fabula Ultima TTRPG: Press Start takes place the near the city of Dunova in the surrounding forests. In the forest can be found the Crater of Megido, the ruins of a once-great city renowned for its magic, but destroyed in a magical cataclysm in ages past. The ruins are rumoured to still contain many of its secrets and the forces of neighbouring Empire of Elonia have been spotted in the area. The exact reasons why the Player Characters are headed there are left up to the players to determine, but as the scenario begins, they are aboard an airship bound for the crater.

Fabula Ultima TTRPG: Press Start is designed to be played by a group of four to five players, including the Game Master. It comes with four pre-generated Player Characters. They include Blair Clarimonde, the heir to the throne of Donovan, who can support her friends in battle and unleash the power elemental light upon her enemies; Cassandra, a former camp again of the Skyriders who wields a spear and can weaken enemies and strike at flying targets with her elemental powers; Edgar, a young inventors armed with a custom-made pistol which can target multiple foes and inflict negative status effects; and Lavigne Fallbright, the princess of the Kingdom of Armorica which was conquered by the Empire of Elonia, who wields a mighty greatsword. Each of the character sheet for these four is presented on a double-page spread and is easy to read, though there is no background for any of the four given on them.

A character in Fabula Ultima TTRPG: Press Start has four attributes—Dexterity, Insight, Might, and Willpower, Traits—an Identity, Theme, and Origin, Bonds (with the other Player Characters and NPCs), Fabula Points, Actions, and Skills. The attributes are rated by die size, from six-sided up to twelve-sided die, whilst of the Traits, the Identity is who the character sees himself as, Theme the dominating narrative force driving the character, and Origin is where he is from. Bonds are emotions towards others and are paired as Admiration or Inferiority, Loyalty or Mistrust, and Affection or Hatred. A character’s Bond to another character—Player Character or NPC, can consist of up to three emotions he feels about the character, one from each pairing.

Fabula Points are gained when a Villain enters the scene or when a player rolls a fumble, but can be spent by invoking a Trait to reroll dice or invoking a Bond to add the number of emotions tied to that Bond. Invoking either, requires a bit of roleplaying upon the part of the player. Actions include Attack and Guard, and depending upon the character, can include spells and Skills too. For example, a spell might be Flash of Insight to ask the Game Master about a single investigation and whatever answer the Game Master gives, it becomes the truth and a Skill could be a Bone Crusher, an attack which does no damage, but instead inflicts a Status Effect like Dazed or Weak, or reduces the target’s Mind Points (used to power spells).

Mechanically, in Fabula Ultima TTRPG: Press Start, and thus Fabula Ultima TTRPG, a player always rolls two of his character’s attribute dice and adds the results together. Typical Difficulty Levels are seven for Easy, ten for Average, and thirteen for Hard. Results of six higher than the Difficulty Level are a critical success, but rolls of one on both dice are a critical fumble. Status effects, suffered due to the environment, attacks, and spells, such as Dazed, Slow, and so on, which temporarily reduce the die types for a character’s attributes.

Combat uses the same core mechanic with the sides involved acting in alternate order, one by one. Initiative is slightly different in that it requires a Group Roll. In a Group Roll, one player, designated the Leader, makes the actual roll, but everyone else makes a separate taste against the same number. Each successful roll grants a +1 bonus towards the Group Roll.

All of this is explained scene by scene over the course of Fabula Ultima TTRPG: Press Start, as well as combat, interacting with NPCs, and descending into the Crater of Megido. There are some nicely done scenes which very much match the feel of the computer game, including a cutscene where the scenario’s villain enters stage left, but this actually comes with mechanical benefits in that the Player Characters gain more Fabula Points. Another is interacting with a merchant NPC, from whom the Player Characters can purchase Inventory Points. These are a resource which a player can use to purchase Remedies (which heal Hit Points), Elixirs (which restore Mana Points), and Tonics (which enable a character to recover from a Status effect). Although this abstracts the process somewhat, it still feels appropriate to the setting.

For the most part, Fabula Ultima TTRPG: Press Start is linear, but it offers a reasonable mix of scenes and challenges along its learning path—interaction, exploration, and of course, combat. It ends as it should with a Big Boss final battle which is intended as a big fight, but includes other options too, since unlike in a console game, the Player Characters have a wider choice when it comes to their actions. This is the most complex scene in the quick-start, and of all them, requires the most preparation upon the part of the Game Master.

Physically, Fabula Ultima TTRPG: Press Start is well presented. The writing is decent and the artwork has an anime style throughout. In addition to telling the Game Master the mechanics of each and every scene and how to run them, Fabula Ultima TTRPG: Press Start includes advice on running each scene too, whether that is enemy tactics in the final battle, advising that the Player Characters take a moment to heal, and so on.

Initially, Fabula Ultima TTRPG: Press Start is a disconcerting read because it is doing something in a way that not normally found in roleplaying games. It is teaching both the Game Master to referee and the players to play the Fabula Ultima TTRPG. Most roleplaying games, and certainly most quick-starts, expect the Game Master to learn and understand the rules and then impart them and everything else to her players, although exceptions abound where sometimes the learning by the player is done through play—such as in Alone Against the Flames, the solo adventure for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition. Fabula Ultima TTRPG: Press Start is different because of its programmed, step-by-step learning for both the Game Master and the players. The former is still expected to learn ahead of time, but both learning and teaching is focused because of its compartmentalisation, enhanced of course by a deft piece of design and layout. The result is that Fabula Ultima TTRPG: Press Start does have the feel of an introduction to a Japanese console roleplaying game, its anime storytelling backed up by the art used throughout. Overall, Fabula Ultima TTRPG: Press Start is an impressive introduction to the Fabula Ultima TTRPG and learning path to its play which will have players humming the Final Fantasy victory music after every battle.

Now in its fourteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2021, after a little delay due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, took place on Saturday, 16th October. As per usual, it came with an array of new and interesting little releases, which traditionally would have been tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Of course, in 2021, Free RPG Day took place after GenCon despite it also taking place later than its traditional start of August dates, but Reviews from R’lyeh was able to gain access to the titles released on the day due to a friendly local gaming shop and both Keith Mageau and David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3 in together sourcing and providing copies of the Free RPG Day 2020 titles. Reviews from R’lyeh would like to thank all three for their help.

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One of the perennial contributors to Free RPG Day is Paizo, Inc., a publisher whose titles for both the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Starfinder Roleplaying Game have proved popular and often in demand long after the event. For Free RPG Day 2021, the publisher again provides a title for each of the two roleplaying games, one of them being Threshold of Knowledge for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, whereas the one for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game is a change of tone and pace.In past years, the releases for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game have been adventures involving four of the cheerfully manic, gleefully helpful, vibrantly coloured, six-armed and furry creatures known as Skittermanders—Dakoyo, Gazigaz, Nako, and Quonx. However, they do not appear in the Starfinder Roleplaying Game release for Free RPG Day in 2021, which instead features a new, and altogether more diverse cast, as well as kicking off a brand-new series of adventures. The adventure can be run as is, using nothing more than the Starfinder Roleplaying Game core rules, although the Game Master and players alike may find access to the supplements, Alien Archive 2 and Alien Archive 3, to be useful.  
Starfinder Four Vs. The Hardlight Harlequin is designed to be played by four Player Characters of Fourth Level and to that end comes with four pre-generated Player Characters. They include Chox, a Bolida Gladiator Soldier; Err0r, an Android Outlaw Technomancer; Gliko, a Raxilite Icon Operative; and Ritta Aufenren, a Vlaka Solar Disciple Solarian. This is a good mix of species and identities, and come with some fun abilities, such as Gliko’s biotech augmentation which gives them a cluster of prehensile vines or Chox’s ability to roll into a defensive ball and then make a rolling charge! Each of the four comes with a little background and a full illustration. All four are recent graduates of the Starfinder Society.

As the scenario opens, the Starfinder Four are on their way to HACTexpo, an event put on by HACTech, a small publisher of VR technology and games. Unfortunately, as they fly their into the destination to take a little time off, they receive a distress call which appears to rattle throughout the ship’s hull. Everything is going haywire down on the moon where HACTech has its headquarters, and of course, the members of the Starfinder Four are the nearest members of the Starfinder Society who can respond. If the players and their characters decide to demur and look for help else there is advice for the Game Master to keep everything on track, and very quickly the Player Characters will find themselves hurtling down towards the moon as all-too perfect asteroids seem to be flung at them! This sets the tone for the adventure as once they land, the Player Characters find them facing computer game demo after computer game demo come alive and challenge or attack them. The Player Characters will find themselves attacked by digitised Carrion Bats, digital Jack-in-the-Boxes made real and weaponised with giant scissors, soldiers taken from a first-person shooter, and more. Much of this takes place in a giant convention hall where there stands and demonstrations for all of the VR games they appear in.

Each of these encounters is self-contained, so that there is time for the four Player Characters to rest and perhaps recuperate between each of them. However, it may seem like the Player Characters are wasting their time in investigating each of the various displays and booths rather than proceeding deeper into the complex and investigating the cause of the emergency, but this is not necessarily the case. In many case, there are survivors—both event staff and attendees—to rescue from these booths and displays, and the Player Characters may also gain extra items which will help them in later encounters in the adventure.

Once the Player Characters have dealt with the displays—or most of the displays—dangerously in disarray, they will want to proceed behind the public areas of HACTexpo. This begins the climax to the adventure as the Player Characters explore the limits of a giant server room, a maze-like complex of server towers and computer consoles, strewn with thick bundles of cables and clouds of low-lying computer coolant. Again, the temptation for the Player Characters may be to rush through here to get the final confrontation, but a little patience, which gives time for exploration and examination, will pay off and gain them a slight advantage by the time they get to face the true villain of the adventure. What is essentially an ‘end of level fight is challenging and calls for more than a stand-up fight. In this the pre-generated Player Character, Err0r, with his advanced computer skills—along with his Technomancer spells—will play a major role in this final confrontation as he does throughout the adventure.

Physically, Starfinder Four Vs. The Hardlight Harlequin is as decently presented as you would expect for a title from Paizo, Inc. The artwork is excellent, the writing decent, and the cartography a blaze of bright colours. There is a lot going on in the scenario, though mostly in quite self-contained scenes despite the fact that they take place in the same enormous convention hall, so the Game Master will need to take a little care in preparing it for play.

Running throughout Starfinder Four Vs. The Hardlight Harlequin are references to Champion Squad, a superhero comic book series in the future of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game which has been adapted to other media and which certain aspects of the threats faced by the Player Characters comes to see them as members of the superhero team. It would have been fun if this had been played up a little further, but there are hooks included for each of the Player Characters to motivate them to attend the HACTexpo. There is plenty of fun though to be had with the computer games included at the HACTexpo, all of course, inspired by the games of today, so in more than a few places it feels not a little tongue-in-cheek, and if everyone joins in with that, Starfinder Four Vs. The Hardlight Harlequin should be fun to play.

Overall, Starfinder Four Vs. The Hardlight Harlequin should provide one, perhaps two good sessions’ worth of play and an exciting, action-packed adventure.

Now in its fourteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2021, after a little delay due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, took place on Saturday, 16th October. As per usual, it came with an array of new and interesting little releases, which traditionally would have been tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Of course, in 2021, Free RPG Day took place after GenCon despite it also taking place later than its traditional start of August dates, but Reviews from R’lyeh was able to gain access to the titles released on the day due to a friendly local gaming shop and both Keith Mageau and David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3 in together sourcing and providing copies of the Free RPG Day 2020 titles. Reviews from R’lyeh would like to thank all three for their help.

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Epic Encounters: The Hills Have Legs is designed as an introduction to Epic Encounters. Published by Steamforged Games for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, the Epic Encounters line is a series of boxed adventure sets which include a scenario and both floor plans and miniatures for use with the scenario. Steamforged Games divides its Epic Encounters series in three Tiers of Play—Lower, Middle, and Higher—which determine the standard Difficulty Check value that a Player Characters has to roll and Damage Level (or die type) suffered by a Player Character throughout the scenario. For The Hills Have Legs, the Tier of Play is the Middle, which means the scenario is designed for Player Characters of Fifth to Tenth Levels and has a standard Difficulty Check for the players to roll of fourteen, whilst the standard Damage Level rolled throughout the adventure will be an eight-sided die. As with other titles in the Epic Encounters line, an experienced Dungeon Master should be able to adjust the scenario up or down to a different Tier of Play to make it suitable for Player Characters of higher or lower Levels respectively.

The set-up for The Hills Have Legs is that a foolish friend of the Player Characters was last seen entering the desert burrow of a spider-tyrant, and whilst there is every possibility that he will have got caught up in the giant arachnid’s web, there is an even greater chance that he will have been captured by the group of Goblins who make the burrow its home, picking over the leftovers and detritus dropped by the spider-tyrant. Well, the scenario says friend, but that ‘friend’ could just as easily be a criminal that the Player Characters are escorting across the desert or the merchant whose caravan they are guarding. Either way, the last thing that the Player Characters will want to do is leave him to his fate. Whatever the exact set-up, the authors do warn the Dungeon Master that The Hills Have Legs is a tough adventure—and that she should warn the players at the start of play.

As the Player Characters lower themselves down into the caves, they can hear the cries of their missing friend, but his cries have also alerted his captors and they are fully prepared for his would-be rescuers. The goblin denizens are smart and tricksy, and are very much written as such. They know their environment and have adapted to it, such that they can manoeuvre around the webbings left by the spider-tyrant, the clouds of poison that waft around certain chambers, and the dark… The scenario consists of just five locations, four of which come with maps. All four are quite dark and although marked with a grid, the squares are a little small for use with miniatures. The encounters, all of them challenging—whether fighting across a giant web or dodging in and out between giant poison spewing cauldrons—are action and combat focused and the use of the maps reflect that. Some are a little weird and creepy too, such as the fungus-infested caves where the Witch-Queen Goblins have their lair, who will use fungus to inflict confusion upon the intruders. Plus of course, spiders have a reputation for being creepy too.

Rounding out The Hills Have Legs is a short bestiary which presents the creatures that the Player Characters will encounter in the scenario. These include the Funnel Goblin Warrior—the standard Goblins found in the complex and capable of disengaging with a foe or hide with ease; Spider Weblings—essentially tiny spiders; and the one, not two, but five NPC Goblin threats, representing Papa Io, the Goblin chief, as well as his henchgoblins. These are slightly different from each and so pose a variety of threats when encountered.

Ultimately, the Player Characters will locate their missing friend and are free to climb back into the desert above. Or, because of course, The Hills Have Legs is a prequel to a forthcoming Epic Encounters title, Web of the Spider Tyrant, carry on adventuring and face the real danger at the bottom of the burrow—the spider-tyrant itself! The Hills Have Legs ends on a dramatic note and sets up a confrontation in the next part, should the Dungeon Master and her players want to carry on. Alternatively, The Hills Have Legs is just as easy to keep as a self-contained side trek on a journey to elsewhere which is easily slotted into a campaign.

Physically, The Hills Have Legs is a slim, but glossily presented scenario. It needs a slight edit in places, but is generally well written and easy to set up. If it is missing anything, it is an overall map which would have better shown the relationship between the scenario’s five locations and four maps. Further, given the verticality of the scenario, of descending into the burrow and of some of the encounters, a cutaway view of the burrow would also have been useful.

Epic Encounters: The Hills Have Legs is a short, one session scenario, heavy on combat and action, made all the better with its creepy, web-strewn atmosphere. Overall serviceable, whether as a one-shot, a side-trek inserted into a campaign, or as the prequel to Epic Encounters: Web of the Spider Tyrant.

If HARP Fantasy—first published by Iron Crown Enterprises in 2003 as High Adventure Role Playing or HARP—can be seen as a lighter, more streamlined version of the publisher’s original roleplaying game, Rolemaster, published in 1980, then HARP SF can be seen as the publisher’s Science Fiction equivalent of Space Master: The Roleplaying Game. All are percentile driven, Profession, Level, and Skills systems, but as with HARP Fantasy, what HARP SF is a fair degree of flexibility in terms of choices for both the player and the Game Master or SysOp—or Systems Operator as he is known in HARP SF. A player is free to decide what Race his character is, what Professions his character follows, and what Skills his character knows, whereas the SysOp is free to decide whether or not to include psionics, cybernetics, and whether or not she wants to run HARP SF in the setting included in the core book or one of her own devising. And even if she decides on the former, the SysOp has choices as to where she sets her campaign.

The default setting for HARP SF is the twenty-fifth century. Mankind has built a Ring City around the Earth connected to the planet by a series of space elevators, and not only populated the Moon, Mars, and Venus—both Mars and Venus have been extensively terraformed, but also the outer system. Although the Lunar Alliance, the Martian Republic, the Protectorate of Venus, the Belter League, and the Jovian Confederacy all remain independent governments, along with the Parliament of Earth, they have signed the Declaration of Man, forming the Terran Federation and binding them to pact of mutual assistance, defence, and governance beyond their own borders. Almost three centuries later this still holds sway, every new colony expected to become a signatory. Since the discovery of the Lagrange Drive at almost the same time as the Declaration of Man was first signed, over a hundred colonies have been established within a fifty-light year sphere of Earth, but more have been founded since with the discovery a portal device which was capable of transporting a starship across the galaxy at a speed equal to one light year per minute—as opposed to the one light year per day speed of the Lagrange Drive. The other side of the portal lies some four hundred light years away from the Terran sphere of influence and it was here, in what became known as the Nexus sector (named after the first portal found), in the year 2454 that mankind made first contact. This was initially peaceful with various alien species, but raids by the aggressive reptilian Silth would escalate into an inadvertent raid in the solar system and the retaliatory Silth War by the Terran Federation in the Nexus sector which would curb the Silth activities. More recently, in 2464 a larger portal was found in the asteroid belt and a space station, Tintamar, established nearby to handle travel through and from the portal. It is this space station from which the default setting in HARP SF takes its name.

The Tintamar setting is not hard Science Fiction per se, but harder than straight Space Opera. Technology is important, including Faster-Then-Light travel, anti-gravity technology, cyberware, and more, but not super-advanced technology like transporter devices capable of beaming people down to a planet and back again. Although the setting has cyberware, it is fundamentally positive in feel and tone, though far from a utopia. At the federal level, that of the Terran Federation, it leans towards being so, but the fact that planets and colonies retain their autonomy means that governments can vary from democracies and republics to theocracies and autocracies and unless the activities of a Terran Federation member spill over to another, the federal forces rarely intervene. Further pirates could be hiding out anywhere and the Silth still have designs for expanding their territory. Although the Tintamar setting is sketched out in relatively broad details, there are plenty of options as what the Game Master does with the setting. A humancentric campaign could be confined to the solar system and the sphere of human colonies, perhaps before first contact was made, whereas a broader setting that includes the presence of aliens would be set in the Nexus sector. Military campaigns could be fought against the Silth, an investigative campaign might be against the Terran Federation-wide crime Syndicate, and of course, the Player Characters could explore beyond the limits of human space. On the whole, the style and feel of HARP SF, and of its Tintamar setting, is one of Imperial style Science Fiction even if there is no Imperium or empire present. Alternatively, the Player Characters could adventure in an alternative future of the SysOp’s own design.

A character in HARP SF is defined by his Statistics, a Profession, Race, Culture, Skills, and Talents. A character has eight statistics—Strength, Constitution, Agility, Quickness, Self-Discipline, Reasoning, Insight, and Presence, which each has a value between one and one-hundred-and-five. There are eleven possible professions—Adept, Dilettante, Entertainer, Fusion, Merchant, Pilot, Researcher, Scout, Soldier, Spy, and Tech. Of these, the less obvious Adept studies and is capable of using psionics, and the Fusion combines the training of the Adept with another Profession. A Profession consists of Favoured Categories—the categories into which skills are grouped, such as Combat or Influence; Key Stats—those statistics favoured by the Profession; and one or more Professional Abilities unique to the Profession. For example, the key Statistics for the Pilot Profession are Agility, Insight, and Quickness, whilst its favoured skill category is vehicular, and its starting Professional Abilities a player can select from are Instinctive Evasion, Lightning Reflexes, Natural Astronaut, and Natural Gunner. At First Level, and then again at each Fifth Level, a Pilot also gains a +10% bonus to Vehicular skill.

In terms of Race, a player can choose from Human as well as five alien species. These include the inquisitive Krakur, amphibious, hexapodal, and tentacular, capable of changing their skin pigment and even separating a tentacle to perform a simple task; the short, pudgy Madji who have three eyes and multiple fingers on their hands, and who favour industrious co-operation; and the Runcori, intelligent, motile plants who can change shape slowly and have distributed senses all about their limbs, and who are brilliant scientists and technologists. The Cerans are large, muscular, but warm-blooded reptiles who have strong sense of territory—personal, intellectual, and social, whilst the Gorsivans are an avian-like species, intensely curious and often arrogant, capable of flight and possessing of telescopic vision. A sixth species, the cold-blooded, reptilian Silth are also given, but are only available as a Player Character species with the SysOp’s permission. Now what each Race provides are modifiers to a character’s Statistics, bonuses to his Endurance, Power Points, Resistances, Stamina, Will, and Magic, plus special abilities unique to each Race.

Also with a permission, a player can have his character possess genetic adaptations, represented by Genetic Talents, which model the character having adapted to the harsher conditions on which he was born. The Genetic Talents can be rated at major or minor, and a character needs to have the minor version before he can have the major, for example, High Gravity Adaptation would represent a character having grown up in a high gravity environment. If minor, High Gravity Adaptation would allow him to live under a gravity of up to 2g, whereas with the major version, it is up to 3g. Both grant bonuses to the character’s Strength, Quickness, and Constitution, but to have High Gravity Adaptation (Major), the character must also have High Gravity Adaptation (Minor). Typically, these are bought during character creation—and sometimes later during development when the character acquires a new Level—using Development Points.

HARP SF gives several Cultures—Aristocratic, Belter, Corporate, Cosmopolitan, Exotic, Frontier, Militaristic, and Scientific—each of which provides a basic language plus Skill Ranks gained as an adolescent. Skills come in nine categories—Artistic, Athletic, Combat, Concentration, General, Influence, Outdoor, Physical, Scientific, Subterfuge, Technical, and Vehicular—and are purchased in Ranks. There are some eighty or so skills, covering the sciences, technology and engineering, the arts, piloting, combat styles and manoeuvres, and so much more. Some of the slightly odder skills include Armour (training in to move and fight in armour to negate its lack of flexibility and its bulk), the Two Gun Combo Combat Style, Cyber Control (required to use particular types of cyberware, such as cybersenses or cyberlegs), Frenzy (essentially, going berserk), and Rope Mastery, but otherwise, the skills included are all appropriate to the genre! Lastly, a character can have Talents, such Biosculpted Body, Fast Fixer, Increased Lung Capacity, or Radiation Resistance.
To create a character, a player generates the Statistics, either by rolling dice or purchasing them with points, and then selecting a Race and Culture. Each character receives a pool of Development Points, modified by their Statistics, with which to purchase Skills and Talents. A limited number of Development Points can be spent to improve a character’s Statistics. There are oddities in the system which require the player to spend Development Points if he is to improve certain aspects of his character. One is that despite HARP SF being a Profession (Class) and Level system, a player does not simply roll his character’s Hit Points, but purchases the Endurance skill and its final value is how damage a character can have. A player will also need to put Development Points into Psi Energy Development if he wants his character to be able to use psionics, this in addition to purchasing active and latent psionic abilities. Even odder though, is the fact that the character’s Resistance Rolls—Stamina, Will, and Magic—are also skills and again can be improved by a player spending Development Points on them. Both Endurance and the Resistances have base values derived from a character’s Race, so there is a minimum value built into the mechanics. What this points to though, is how little a character’s Level has on the character—primarily it places a cap on how many Ranks a character has in any one skill and when and how many Development Points a character gains—and the degree of freedom a player has to build and modify his character.
Each time a character gains a Level—through earning Experience Points—the player acquires further Development Points with which to improve his character. He also gets the bonus Development Points as the character had at First Level and because these are derived from a character’s Statistics, it does mean that characters with better Statistics will develop faster and better in the long term.

Our sample character is Hurik, who grew up on Earth’s Ring City where life was easy. Having no real plans for a career, he attended for the Colony Resettlement Programme and attended Colony College, deciding that he wanted to do something different and see more than what home offered. He discovered that he like animals and growing things, and if he cannot have his own farm out on the frontier, then he wants to work on one.

Hurik
Race: Human
Gender: Male Age: 20
Height: 5’ 6” Weight: 136 lbs.
Culture: Cosmopolitan

Level 1 Scout

Strength 79 (+6) Constitution 90 (+8) Agility 56 (+2)
Quickness 44 (-2) Self-Discipline 60 (+2) Reasoning 52 (+1)
Insight 75 (+5) Presence 46 (+0)
Resistances
Stamina 0 (+10), Will 0 (+10), and Magic 0 (+10)

Endurance 80
Defence Bonus -4

Skills
Artistic: Painting 6 (+40)
Athletic: Climbing 1 (+13), Wrestling 1 (+15)
Combat: Brawling 2 (+18), Modern Ranged 2 (+18)
General: Appraisal 1 (+11), Computer Operation 2 (+16), Linguistics Anglic (Spoken) 6 (+36), Linguistics Anglic (Written) 6 (+36), Linguistics Other Species – Madji (Spoken) 4 (+00), Linguistics Other Species – Madji (Written) 3 (+16), Machine Operation 1 (+08), Mundane Lore: Own Culture 1 (+07), Mundane Lore: Cosmography 2 (+12), Mundane Lore: Geography 1 (+07), Perception 5 (+32), Resistance – Stamina 1 (+21), Rope Mastery 5 (+28), Vocation (Administration) 2 (+16)
Influence: Charm 1 (+10)
Outdoors: Animal Handling 6 (+35), Beast Mastery 6 (+35), Foraging/Survival 6 (+36), Horticulture 11 (+58), Navigation 6 (+36), Tracking 6 (+37)
Scientific: Biology 1 (+11)
Physical: Endurance 6 (+50), Jumping 1 (+13), Swimming 1 (+13)
Subterfuge: Camouflage 5 (+32), Sniping 5 (+29), Stalking & Hiding 5 (+29), Streetwise 1 (+10)
Technical: Engineering 1 (+11)
Vehicular: Driving (Conventional) 3 (+22)

Special Abilities
Bonus Skill Ranks (+5 Ranks), Profession Adaptation

Professional Abilities
Toughness (+10% Endurance)

Equipment (1005 credits)
Hunting Rifle with Scope, Handheld Computer, Personal Communicator, Backpack, All-Weather Bag, All-Weather Tent, Inertial Compass, Firelighter, Rope, Spade

Much like HARP Fantasy, the character creation process in HARP SF is neither fast nor easy, and in comparison to contemporary roleplaying games, it is actually cumbersome, especially once you figure adding psionics, which everyone can have access to. Finding everything in the book is also something of a struggle to the point where it hampers the process. Nevertheless, the process is comprehensive and a player will be able to produce the desired character at the end of it—just one of the benefits of HARP SF—plenty of options and no little flexibility in what sort of character a player could create. This is further enhanced with the use of Training Packages, limited groups of skills that represent a profession, guild apprenticeship, and so on. So, it might be Entrepreneur, Netrunner, Starsoldier, or Xenoarchaeologist, for example. Such packages are available at a discount, can be taken only the once per Level, and a player is free to design his own, with of course, the Game Master’s consent. Now the Game Master could also design his own and use those to help provide a place and occupation in his world for player characters and NPCs alike.

Being a Science Fiction roleplaying game, HARP SF encompasses a wide range of technology. It grades its technology levels at Unavailable, Prototype, Early, Mature, Advanced, and Obsolescent, rather than a numerical rating, which is actually easier to grasp on a case-by-case basis, and more obviously offers roleplaying and storytelling tags than just the plain numbers. The range of technology available covers neurowhips, vibroknives, blasters, lasers, needle guns, electrostunners, DNA scanners, poison sniffers, arterial fixers, skeletal healers, infrared contact lenses, laser listeners, inertial compasses, environment tents, and much, much more. All of this is rated at the Mature grade in HARP SF’s default Tintamar setting. Rules cover miniaturising and combining equipment too, although doing either will cost more.

Adventuring in HARP SF of course has to cover a wide variety of situations and conditions, since after all, it is a Science Fiction game. Computer issues, diseases and poisons, equipment—uses and limits, sensors, scanners, and countermeasures, occupational hazards and environments, and more are covered in sufficient detail in the likely event that they arise in play, although the rules do get more complex than you might expect when having to determine terminal velocity, sensor ranges, and the like. Here a bit more arithmetic creeps in than perhaps it should since working out the results of an equation at the table is not going to appeal to everyone. Nevertheless, the core mechanic in HARP SF is straightforward enough. When he wants his character to undertake an action or Manoeuvre, a player rolls the percentile dice and adds the character’s appropriate skill, whether that is Rope Mastery, Machine Operation, Ranged Weapon, and so on, and if the result is over one hundred, then the action or task has been done with complete success. Modifiers can apply, whether from the situation or equipment, as well as the difficulty. If the roll is open-ended, any roll of ninety-six and above on the dice, means that the player roll again and add the result. Even if a Manoeuvre attempt does not completely succeed, the result can also determine to partial degree of success—measured as a percentage on the Manoeuvre Table, which is useful if a Manoeuvre involves a time factor. In addition, the Manoeuvre Table can also determine whether the outcome of a Manoeuvre is a fumble—generally a roll of ten or less on the percentile dice, and depending upon the nature of the action, the Fumble table covers everything from grenade fumbles, melee combat fumbles, and ranged combat fumbles to physical fumbles, psionics fumbles, and vehicular fumbles.

Combat uses the same mechanics, and is generally more complex than the standard rules—and understandably so, since it has to encompass a greater number of variables, including multiple differing weapon and armour types. Initiative is rolled a single ten-sided die plus modifiers from Statistics, encumbrance, and the situation, rolled at the beginning of each two-second turn during which a character will perform one action, whether that be draw a weapon, attack, stand up, or move, or a combat action. All attack rolls are open-ended, to which the attacker adds his Offensive Bonus—determined by skill, statistic, talents, weapon, and positional bonuses, plus range and situational modifiers for range, and then subtracting the defender’s Defensive Bonus—determined by the Quickness statistic and armour, shield, talents, cover, Manoeuvre, equipment quality, and situational bonuses. If the result—the Total Attack Roll—is equal to one or more, then the attacker has hit the defender. It can be further modified by weapon size to give an Adjusted Attack Roll and it is this result which is compared to the Critical Table for the weapon type used. In HARP SF, there are Critical Tables for Crush, Puncture, Slash, Martial Arts Strikes, Martial Arts Sweeps/Unbalancing, Grapple, Cold, Heat, Electrical, Impact, External Poison, Internal Poison, Large, Huge, Ballistic Impact, Ballistic Puncture, Blaster, Laser, Neuro, Plasma, Radiation, Shrapnel, and Vacuum attacks. Essentially what HARP SF does is combine the attack roll with the critical results tables of the much earlier Rolemaster or Space Master, effectively streamlining them. Overall, the combat rules are comprehensive, but despite being supported by numerous examples, do require a close study. Certainly, the SysOp should work through several examples of her own before attempting to run them at the table.

Penultimately, HARP SF covers psionics, which come in variety of disciplines whose effects can be observed, but not adequately explained by science. They are divided into various fields—Biokinesis, Electrokinesis, Extrasensory Perception, Psychokinesis, and Telepathy. These are further broken down into disciplines, with characters possessing Latent Psionic Fields before Active Psionic Fields. The Adept and Fusion Professions have greater access to Psionics, though any character can have them by expending Development Points. The more Psionic Fields—Latent or Active—a character has, the more expensive they are to purchase. Each Psionic Discipline requires two things to activate. First, Psionic Energy Points, the number of which can be increased with the Psi Energy Development skill, and second the related Psionic Discipline skill. It is fair to say that much like magic in HARP Fantasy, psionics in HARP SF really require their own discipline to study and understand how they work and how they play in game.
Lastly, there are guidelines for the SysOp too, starting with ‘Have Fun!’ and ‘Know the rules!’. There is good advice here, though ‘Know the rules!’ is most obviously pertinent primarily because of their relative complexity in parts and the challenge of the imparting an understanding to the players despite that complexity. Similarly, the advice to ‘Work out the math in advance’, specifically when dealing with space-based combat, highlights the complexity of HARP SF. There is advice too on customising the SysOp’s game and some suggestions as possible campaign ideas and adventure seeds. Some of the roleplaying game’s more useful tables are printed at the back of the book.

However, there are elements missing from HARP SF and it is not complete in its treatment of the genre. It does not cover vehicles or vehicular combat in space or on the ground, and there is little in the way of cyberware or coverage of advanced computing. For that, the HARP SF Xtreme is required and is very much the companion or other half to HARP SF. That said, the contents of HARP SF would stand on their own to an extent, depending on how the gaming group wants to handle vehicles. It would result in a very planetary-based campaign, with travel between systems done as story rather than action, or even done via portals. Even then, what HARP SF does not have is rules or guidelines for creating worlds and systems, or indeed alien species, and again, the SysOp will likely need to create those without referring to rules or guidelines. What that means is HARP SF is not the toolkit that it could have been for the SysOp to create of her own, and that HARP SF Xtreme is a must buy purchase.

Physically, HARP SF is a plain, simple, greyscale book. The artwork is decent and the writing is clear and easy to read—for the most part. The game’s many examples of the rules are presented using light grey rather than black. This makes the examples difficult to read. In addition, the book’s numerous tables are often also too small to read. Another issue is the organisation of those tables. They are not repeated for easy access at the back of the book, for example, the Critical Tables for the various attack types, so the SysOp will need to bookmark the tables that get referenced a great deal during play, if not purchase or create his own reference screen. The book could have been slightly better organised in that the need to purchase Endurance, Power Point Development, and the Resistances as skills could been made more obvious, if not explicit. They are essentially buried in the skills section when they needed to be highlighted as part of the character creation process.

In comparison to the much earlier Space Master, it is clear that a great deal of effort has been put into making HARP SF a much more streamlined and simpler Science Fiction roleplaying game. However it cannot avoid a degree of complexity in places, especially the psionics rules which feel like a subsystem of their own, and so this does mean that HARP SF is still a challenge to really teach the players even once the SysOp has grasped how it works. In comparison to HARP Fantasy, which felt somewhat generic in its treatment of the fantasy genre, HARP SF does not, the Tintamar setting suggested a low Space Opera setting in which technology plays an important role rather than high Space Opera where the Player Characters push buttons and the spaceship just goes. The mechanics to HARP SF do suggest a harder edge to its Science Fiction though, which is slightly at odds with the setting. Nevertheless, its setting of Tintamar offers plenty of scope for gaming and expansion, and if a gaming group can pick the rules up, HARP SF offers a solid range of options and flexibility in terms of characters, combat, and even campaign frameworks.