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 Folly of Ponsonby-WildPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Iain Ross

Setting: Jazz Age Britain
Product: Hotel Horror Mystery Scenario
What You Get: Forty-two page, 7.98 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: West Country Weirdness.Plot Hook: A widow in need, a husband’s legacy shrouded...Plot Support: Plot outline, five decent handouts, five maps, five pre-generated Investigators, and a new servitor of a new Old One. Production Values: Decent.
Pros
# Part One of a Very British Horror# Introductory scenario # Very Green & Pleasant Land# Nicely illustrated with period photographs# Nice array of curios and details# Cosy Call of Cthulhu# Short, tightly plotted, one or two session scenario# “It’s in the trees, it’s coming!”
Cons
# Underwhelming maps
# Needs editing# Anachronisms ahoy# Overwhelming climax for an introductory scenario
Conclusion
# Underwhelming maps# Needs editing# Short, tightly plotted, one or two session scenario# Very Green & Pleasant Land

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

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Sometimes the choice of game to review is not yours to make. So, it is, once again, with this review. This review came as a surprise and was completely unplanned. But with the sad news of the death of Andrew Hackard at Steve Jackson Games, it seemed timely to review the card game which he was in charge of and would take out into the gaming hobby with versions like Munchkin Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Munchkin Pathfinder, and Munchkin Gloom. Then into the mainstream with editions which date have included Munchkin SpongeBob SquarePants, Munchkin: Disney, Munchkin: Disney Duck Tales, Munchkin Harry Potter, Munchkin Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Munchkin Shakespeare. Then when Reviews from R’lyeh checked when Munchkin was first published, the year 2001, it was obvious that a twentieth anniversary review was warranted, and when upon finding that the nearest copy to hand had never been opened, an Unboxing in the Nook, was also required. So this review is both a retrospective and an acknowledgement that the hobby has lost another who by all accounts was a good friend and will be much missed.

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Munchkin is many things. It is a fantasy roleplaying game without any roleplaying. It is a fantasy card game which parodies fantasy roleplaying. It is a silly fantasy card game with a clever design. It is a fantasy card game which parodies Dungeons & Dragons. It is a dungeon exploration game without a dungeon. It is a fantasy card game which parodies a particular play style of fantasy roleplaying. It is a fantasy card game which understands its genre. It is a fantasy card game with simple rules, but sophisticated interaction of its cards. It is a fantasy card game whose format has become a template for numerous variations, iterations, licences, and accessories. It is a fantasy card game which won the 2001 Origins Awards for Best Traditional Card Game. Above all, it is a fantasy card game which is not just fun to play, it can be laugh out loud fun to play.

So the first question is, what is a ‘Munchkin’? The most obvious answer is the race of little people from Frank L. Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, enslaved by the Wicked Witch of the East. In roleplaying parlance, a ‘Munchkin’ is the type of roleplayer—typically a roleplayer of Dungeons & Dragons (but it applies to any roleplaying game)—who will always try and maximise his character’s stats, kill anything in his path for the maximum Experience Points possible, find and optimise the best gear and/or magical items possible, and acquire as many Levels as he can, all the while ignoring the roleplaying aspects of the game, his character’s personality, and that of any other Player Character around the table to the detriment of everyone else’s fun. Unless of course, everyone else is also a Munchkin, in which case, all bets are off! Munchkins are not always fun to game with and to an extent this can be true of the Munchkin card game. It can outstay its welcome. However, Munchkin is both fun to play and funny.

So in Munchkin the card game you are attempting to be the most munch-kiny. To out-munchkin your fellow munchkins. To be the munchkin’s munchkin. To win, to be top Munchkin, you need to be the first to acquire Level Ten—and you start at Level One. To go up a Level, you need to kill monsters. Kill a monster, gain a Level. Monsters can be hard though, and you need better treasure and better gear which will improve your ability to kill Monsters. Better treasure and better gear comes from killing monsters. Sometimes you are never going to kill a monster on your own—you are just not enough of a munchkin. So you negotiate with your fellow munchkins for a share of the treasure, and together you might defeat that tough monster—but you gain the Level. Ultimately, when Level Ten is in sight and you have chance of being the uber-munchkin, negotiating and working together is not going to work. It is just you and the monster (and whatever monsters and perils your rival munchkins can throw into your path) and your bestest gear. Never fear though, YOU will get to Level Ten!

First published in 2001, Munchkin from Steve Jackson Games is designed for three to six players, aged twelve and up. It has a playing time of an hour, but games typically last half that time. It consists of two decks of cards—Dungeon cards and Treasure cards. Dungeon cards have a dungeon door on the back whilst Treasure cards have a pile of loot. Chief amongst the Dungeon cards are the monster cards, from the lowly Level 1 Potted Plant and Drooling Slime to the dread Level 20 Squidzilla and the Level 20 Plutonium Dragon. Defeat them and not only are your rewarded with Treasure cards, but also a Level or two, depending on the toughness of the monster. Fail to defeat them and a monster might kill you (it’s okay, you can start again back at Level One), make you lose a Level, or lose an item. Others includes Curses like ‘Curse! Income Tax’ or ‘Curse! Duck of Doom’ which force you to discard items; and Classes, Races, and Genders—Cleric, Thief, Warrior, and Wizard, Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling (Human is the default), and Male and Female. The Classes, Races, and Genders will often determine what gear you can and what magical items and weapons you can wield, and lose the wrong one or have it changed to another, perhaps because of a Curse! and you lose the associated items.

The Treasure cards include single use items like potions, like the ‘Polymorph Potion’, which turns a monster into a parrot which flies away, leaving behind its treasure, and spells, like ‘Magic Missile’ which adds a one-use bonus in combat. Then there are magic items—lots and lots of magic items. These include the ‘Kneepads of Allure’ which force another player to help you, and ‘Boots of Butt-Kicking’ and ‘Chainsaw of Bloody Dismemberment’, both of which add bonuses when you fight monsters. There is a limit to how many items you can carry—one item of footwear, one item of head gear, suit of armour, an item in each hand, or an item in both hands, just as you would in a fantasy roleplaying game. 

Munchkin is quite simple to play. At the start of the game, you and the other players receive four cards, receive two Dungeon cards and two Treasure cards, and equip yourself from them as best you can. On your turn, you ‘Open a Door’ and draw a card from the Dungeon deck. If a monster, you fight it or you run away. If not, the card goes into your hand or is equipped immediately, or if a Curse!, played immediately. If you did not encounter a monster, you can ‘Look for Trouble’ and play one from your hand. Either way, if you defeat the monster, go up a Level, and you can ‘Loot the Room’ and draw cards from the Treasure deck.

To defeat a monster, the total of your Level, plus bonuses from any items equipped and any one-shot items must be greater than that of the monster’s Level. However a rival can play cards which will hinder you and so prevent you from defeating the monster. Then you have two options. One is to run away, but doing so may have consequences depending on the monster faced, as well as losing any opportunity of gaining any treasure. Alternatively, you can ‘Ask for Help’. Essentially, bribe another player into helping you defeat a monster that you cannot defeat on your own, typically with the treasure, or the best of the treasure that you will find when you ‘Loot the Room’. This can become a negotiation and even if another player agrees to help you, it does not stop a rival from throwing in cards to further hinder you.

Play continues like this until a player reaches Level Nine and looks ready to get to Level Ten and win the game. Then all bets are off. Up until this point, players have been hindering each other because they can, because it is funny, because they do not want to see another player gain a hoard of treasure cards, but now… But now, they have to stop the player in the lead from winning. If there is another player in the lead, then give his opponent a potion which will increase its Level, send a Wandering Monster in his way and increase the number he has to fight, Backstab him (if you are a lowdown, sneaky Thief), or curse them with a Curse! card—it is all legal. Expect the same response though, if you are the one in the lead…

However, there are many criticisms levelled at Munchkin. That it is too luck-based, that it is too random, that it is unbalanced, that much of the game play is exception based, that it involves too much ‘take that’ style of play between the players, and that this is exacerbated as a game gets closer and closer to one player attaining Level Ten, and everyone else gangs up on the player about to win. All of those criticisms are true. Yet that does not mean that Munchkin is a terrible game—far from it. Yes, it is luck based in that you are drawing from two large decks—larger once any of the expansions are added—and you might draw a monster you cannot defeat or start off with a hand of cards you cannot use, but then so might the other players or if they have better hands of cards than you, they might have worse hands in another game. So game play can swing this way and that, but part of the play is getting the best out of the cards in your hands and going on to get better cards—or worse, and perhaps winning the game. And even if Munchkin ditches the roleplaying aspect that it draws so much inspiration, there is still a story to be told in those ups and downs, the good fortune and the bad.

Munchkin is also exception based in its game play and many of the cards will run counter to the core rules, but again, that is the point. Those exceptions are where much of the game’s flavour and humour come into play and enforce the many aspects of the genre it is parodying. As to Munchkin being too much a case of too much ‘take that’ in its game play, that is also true, just as it is true that the game play gets more and more back-stabby towards the end of the game and there is a chance that someone will win. And again, this is in the genre and the style of play that the game draws from and parodies. The clue is in the game’s subtitle—“Kill the Monsters • Steal the Treasure • Stab Your Buddy”.

Ultimately, the answer to the accusation that Munchkin is that too luck-based and too random is that it is not a Eurogame. It is not designed to be balanced or necessarily fair in its game play, and the fact that it is luck based, that it is simple to play, and that it is heavily, heavily thematic, actually makes it a fine example that the antithesis to the classic Eurogame. In other words, Munchkin is classic Ameritrash. Lots of luck, lots of theme, and lost of fun.

However, there are legitimate criticisms that can be levelled at Munchkin. It is designed for players aged ten and up and this leads to a several issues. One is that the artwork on the cards can be suggestive in one or two places, and the second is that jokes may well be lost on younger players because they are unlikely to be as familiar as the type of fantasy and play that Munchkin is parodying. The latter may be ignored at least if younger players are prepared to embrace the silliness and humour of the game, and the former can be addressed by older players or adults pruning the cards in play to ensure that some the more suggestive ones—and they are no worse than that—are removed. Another is that the ‘take that’ backing-stabbing element is not friendly and so not necessarily suited to younger players. Altogether, that may mean that Munchkin is not necessarily family-friendly, but of course, that may depend upon the family and the type of games that its likes to play. Lastly, as simple as the game play is, learning what card works with which other cards, can be a little daunting, especially if the players are not familiar with the genre. This is one of the problems with the exceptionalism built onto the game’s cards, but a play through or two and this should be less of an issue.

Issues aside—and to be fair, they are far from being either major or insurmountable issues—Munchkin is plain, simple silly fun. In fact, it can be laugh out loud round the table fun. This starts with the titles of the cards and the artwork on the cards. For example, on the ‘Magic Missile’ card, instead of whatever dweomer-driven dart the spell normally suggests, the caster is actually holding a rocket-powered missile; that on the ‘Curse! Change Race’ card, the victim’s pointy ears have popped off, as if he was losing his Elfiness; instead the Level 1 monster being a mall rat, it is a ‘Maul Rat’, an actual rat with a maul!; and the Level 16 ‘Wight Brothers’ are not a pair of undead brothers, but a pair of undead mechanic brothers! Game play, the back and forth of the cards can be as equally as funny. After all, it is undeniably funny when you are about to defeat the easily beatable Level 1 ‘Drooling Slime’ and a rival whammies you with the ‘Ancient’ card (illustrated with a bespectacled old dragon) which adds ten levels to the monster and makes it unbeatable.

Then, there are the in-jokes and the references. Munchkin is rife with them, each time taking the joke or the reference and poking fun at them, making us laugh at a memory or a story, and reminding us how silly they are. Whether that is the title of the game itself, Munchkin, or the ‘Gelatinous Octahedron’ or ‘Gazebo’ monsters, or ‘Bribe GM with Food’, ‘Whine at the GM’, and ‘Invoke Obscure Rules’ cards which grant you an extra Level, and which all invoke a certain style of play or occurred in a session of Dungeons & Dragons long ago that you were definitely not playing. Munchkin then is poking fun at us and it is funny.

Physically, Munchkin is well presented. Both rules and cards are easy to read, and the cards are fantastically illustrated by John Kovalic in sepia tones, with many of the characters from his long running Dork Tower comic strip making appearances. It is clear that a great deal of thought has gone into the look of the game and into getting the jokes, in-jokes, and the humour right. Even now, not have played it in a few years, just looking at the cards and their jokes are still funny. However, there is a lot of space in the box, so the owner will need to add dividers or means to stop the cards from sliding around, but that does mean that there is room for expansions! And what expansions there were! In the past twenty years Steve Jackson Games has taken the format of Munchkin and not parodied other genres, from pirates in Munchkin Booty!, vampires in Munchkin Bites!, and Science Fiction in Star Munchkin to facing cosmic horror in Munchkin Cthulhu, superheroes in Super Munchkin, and martial arts in Munchkin Fu—and a whole lot more. There can be no denying the success of the format and its adaptability, and it has remained Steve Jackson Games’ best seller for years.

Munchkin is not a great game and it is not a classic, and yes, ultimately, its humour can outstay its welcome, and if you prefer more balanced play, then it is probably too much of an Ameritrash game for you. It is instead a joke-filled, funny filler of a classic beer and pretzels game, that really can make you and your players laugh out loud round the table when playing it, and how many games can do that? Munchkin makes us laugh at ourselves and our hobby and that is what makes it fun to play.

The gaming magazine is dead. After all, when was the last time that you were able to purchase a gaming magazine at your nearest newsagent? Games Workshop’s White Dwarf is of course the exception, but it has been over a decade since Dragon appeared in print. However, in more recent times, the hobby has found other means to bring the magazine format to the market. Digitally, of course, but publishers have also created their own in-house titles and sold them direct or through distribution. Another vehicle has been Kickststarter.com, which has allowed amateurs to write, create, fund, and publish titles of their own, much like the fanzines of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest. The resulting titles are not fanzines though, being longer, tackling broader subject matters, and more professional in terms of their layout and design.

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Parallel Worlds feels a little old-fashioned. By which Reviews from R’lyeh means that it supports the gaming hobby with content for a variety of games. So an issue might include new monsters, spells, treasures, reviews of newly released titles, scenarios, discussions of how to play, painting guides, and the like… That is how it has been all the way back to the earliest days of The Dragon and White Dwarf magazines. By which Reviews from R’lyeh means that it can be purchased, if not from your local news agents, then from your local games store. Just like The Dragon and White Dwarf magazines could be back in the day. However, Parallel Worlds, published by Parallel Publishing can also be purchased in digital format, because it is very much not back in the day. By which Reviews from R’lyeh means that Parallel Worlds has reached the grand old age of twenty-one—and these days, that is no magazine achievement for a magazine, gaming or otherwise.
Parallel Worlds #21 promises ‘The Best in Escapism’. It offers a mix of scenarios and support for various roleplaying games as well as interviews with creators and reviews of various books and games. The issue opens with editor Chris Cunliffe’s editorial lamenting the challenging nature of differing opinions and expressing them online, but highlighting that actually, through differing opinions you can discover new things, and that to some extent, the magazine is a vehicle for that. The first content in the issue is ‘Farsight – An Interview with Dario Pesce and Francesco Lucenti’, the Venice-based designers of their new roleplaying game, Farsight, and their company, Lightfish Games. As entertaining as the interview is, it actually focuses very little upon Farsight, the Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition evolved roleplaying game, recently published following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Whether talking about themselves and their influences, this is still intriguing enough to make the reader want to check out the roleplaying game itself.
The actual gaming content in the issue begins with a scenario for Black Void, the roleplaying game of esoteric fantasy set in and around Llyhn the Eternal City, a dystopian cosmopolis and trading hub at the epicentre between the Cosmos and the Void. Here, Living in filthy alleys and shanties among beggars, slaves and the casteless, humanity is very much at the bottom of the social hierarchy in Llyhn, a city inhabited and ruled by eerie beings from faraway worlds, bizarre sapient entities and otherworldly Daimons from beyond the Veil. However, there are factions in the city who want this to change, for humanity to rise beyond its meagre existence, of which the latest is ‘The Cause’, a movement to unite humanity and work to improve its conditions. In Joel Lonergan’s ‘Offers Too Good’, the Player Characters are present at a recruitment drive for ‘The Cause’ and even if they decline to join, they get an offer of a job—join and find out exactly what the leaders of ‘The Cause’ want. The scenario is short and will pose a moral dilemma for the Player Characters, but really feels like a set-up to something bigger.
Stephen Turner, the designer and publisher of Chivalry & Sorcery, Fifth Edition, adds to the world of the Dragon Reaches with ‘Languages of the Dragon Reaches’. Again short, it explores the linguistic development of the setting and provides two scripts—Tadarn Runes and Bethrin Script, both of which Game Master can use to add flavour to her Chivalry & Sorcery campaign. The world’s most popular roleplaying game in the world comes under the spotlight, or at least an aspect of it, in ‘The Three Pillars of D&D Part 3: Exploration’ by Ben Potts. Previous entries in the series examined social interaction and combat, and if they were as decently done as this third and final part, then both are worth tracking down and reading. This article identifies the key elements of exploration in Dungeons & Dragons—travel and puzzles (and traps), and suggests ways in which they can be made both challenging and interesting to play. It also examines how Short Rests and Long Rests work in the game and points own how clunky they are and how they impede one character Class and not another. However, solutions are suggested as are ways in which both Short Rests and Long Rests—Short Rests in particular, can be made to be exciting and interesting without the Player Characters necessarily losing the benefits of either. In examining the way in which Dungeons & Dragons is played, this article feels old fashioned in that similar articles of its ilk have been written again and again over the years, but of course, looking at the various previous editions of the roleplaying game, rather than the current one. This does not in any way make it a poor article and any Dungeon Master running a Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition game will find this an interesting and informative article, full of suggestions and advice that will either help her run a better and more fun game, or perhaps confirm that she is already implementing both and making her game better and more fun.
Editor Chris Cunliffe’s ‘From Tabletop to Desktop’, part of Parallel Worlds’ ongoing ‘Games Master Class’ series treads ground much touched upon by Wyrd Science – Session Zero, that of the shift of play around the table to play online precipitated by COVID-19. He explores his own problems in making that shift, as well as those of his fellow players, plus the changes in terms of preparation, socialising, and interaction within the game itself. In particular, more preparation is required, conversation and interaction are more focused, but does not flow as well as they would around the table, and play time is not just much slower, but also more tiring. This does not mean that gaming online is impossible, in fact, mechanically, it is much, much easier than it was a decade ago… However, for many gamers, it is the only roleplaying possible, but it is possible and it is very much easier than it once was. What one advantage it does omit is that online gaming brings people together, not just from the next town or nearby big city, but from around the world. (For example, I regularly game and chat with players who are not just ten miles away, but hundreds and even thousands of miles away.) Another development that the author ignores is that of virtual conventions. Still the article is informative and warns the potential online player and Game Master of the issues he and she will face when taking the next step into the virtual world, though perhaps it could have highlighted the benefits a bit more and perhaps included the experiences of others who have made the jump.
The remainder of Parallel Worlds #21 is devoted to reviews. They include reviews of Sentinel Comics – The Roleplaying Game, Land of the Rising Sun—the historically inspired adaptation of Chivalry & Sorcerery, Fifth Edition, and The Dark Peaks: Deep Maw. The problem with the first two reviews—the review of Land of the Rising Sun in particular is definitely underwritten—is that they focus just a little too much on the artwork than the text, so that they are drawn out, perhaps taking up space for another review or even a series of thumbnail reviews which might have broadened the appeal of the magazine and made it more useful. In comparison, the review of The Dark Peaks: Deep Maw is more focused and more engaging. Similarly, the reviews of A Hole in the Sky, an audio book by Peter Hamilton and the Young Adult space opera novel, Kitara, by Gideon Marcus, do not suffer from that problem.
Perhaps the least interesting articles in Parallel Worlds #21 are saved to last. ‘Moving to Dystopia: Why an Established Crime Writer is Turning to Dystopian Fiction’ is an interview with Leigh Russell about why she is making the aforementioned shift, whilst ‘Rules of Succession: Appreciating Crusader Kings III’ is about Chris Cunliffe’s experiences with the computer games Crusader Kings II and Crusader Kings III. The latter is interesting from the roleplaying experiences it offers, but again feels too long, whereas the former is short, with extra artwork making it both longer and more of an infomercial than an actual interview.
Physically, Parallel Worlds #21 is professionally presented and written. The layout is clean, strong, and easy to look at, and in general is easy to read. In places, especially in the reviews, the artwork does overpower the text, but overall, this is a good-looking affair.
The problem with Parallel Worlds #21 is that it simply needs more content which will attract gamers and readers to come back to it and content that a Game Master can bring to her table. This is not to say that the issue lacks good content—for example, ‘The Three Pillars of D&D Part 3: Exploration’ and ‘From Tabletop to Desktop’ are both informative and useful, and the scenario, ‘Offers Too Good’, is a good introduction to Black Void. However, too many articles are strung out and the issue lacks content that would attract a wider audience, perhaps the addition of a scenario or article aimed at larger fanbases for different games who might pick up the issue and then appreciate the rest of the content might have helped. This is in addition to generic content too. Of course, it is difficult to take in the swathes of roleplaying titles being released from one month to the next, but there could have been more reviews too, which again, could have appealed to a wider audience.
There can be no doubt that roleplaying magazines have a hard time surviving in contemporary times, but Parallel Worlds #21 does not make it easy for itself by having too much content which does not support the hobby and which is too light. There are a few good articles within the issue and it needs to build on those to bring readers back to it on a regular basis rather than their simply checking out an issue to see if there might be something good in its pages.
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An Unboxing in the Nook video is available here.

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

The Level of the Lost is written by the designer of Stonehell Dungeon: Down Night-Haunted Halls and very much wears its inspiration on its sleeve. Well, actually it does not wear one inspiration on its sleeve, so much as have it roar above the jungle canopy and then stomp and chomp on the Player Characters with said inspiration. Then, with the second inspiration, just let the scenario and the Player Characters’ involvement in it get on with it. The first inspiration is Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton—who receives a big name check throughout the scenario, and what this means is that The Level of the Lost is a scenario in which the Player Characters will be confronted with big, roaring, stomping, chomping dinosaurs and because The Level of the Lost is a scenario for Metamorphosis Alpha, those big roaring, stomping, chomping dinosaurs have mutant powers too. The second inspiration, that of Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel, The Lost World, really sums up the whole of the scenario in being set on a lost world or ‘Level’ of the Starship Warden (or rather half-Level), which the Player Characters have limited access to. The result is that The Level of the Lost is big, bruising, and anything other than subtle, but mutant dinosaurs means mutant dinosaurs—and that can only mean one thing. Well two things actually—danger and over-the-top fun.  

The events of The Level of the Lost takes place behind a feature known as the ‘Impenetrable Wall’. Rumour has it that the fabled trader, Gurn the Far-Travelled, has found one of the fabled Command Rings, perhaps one of the most potent artifact of the original crew, since it grants the wearer  complete control over the Starship Warden and access to any Level and through any door—including the previously closed door in the ‘Impenetrable Wall’. So when his robot companion is found damaged outside the open door through the ‘Impenetrable Wall’, there has to be truth in the rumours. The question is, what happened to Gurn the Far-Travelled and wherever he is, does he still have the Command Ring?

What lies beyond the ‘Impenetrable Wall’ is a mini-sandbox comprised of increasingly difficult encounters with dinosaurs made all the more challenging by the fact that they, like many of the Player Characters, possess mutations and the fact that their larger metabolisms means that many of the mutations and devices will not be as effective upon them. There are other encounters too, including with a tribe of reptilian humanoids and a unit of highly trained Pure Strain Humans, but in the main, the Player Characters are free to wander where they will. The forests and mists will not necessarily help them in orienting themselves, but gaining access to one of the few remaining observation towers may give them the lay of the land. By the second of the scenario’s three acts, the Player Characters will ideally have discovered the ‘Crichton Initiative Cloning Lab’ at the heart of the preserve and begun to winkle out some of its secrets. This includes the recent comings and goings with the opening of the door in the ‘Impenetrable Wall’ which allow the Player Characters to tighten their search for Gurn the Far-Travelled. The scenario comes to a climax in the third act when, of course, the Player Characters face off against the ‘King of the Dinosaurs’! Naturally, this is a Metamorphosis Alpha version of the ‘King of the Dinosaurs’, so the Game Master should expect something strange—and the author certainly delivers.

The Level of the Lost is a tough adventure and is best suited for experienced Player Characters with plenty of equipment and weaponry to help protect themselves in the verdant habitat of the Dinosaur Preserve. Certainly, they and their players deserve to feel a sense of accomplishment in defeating some of the mighty beasts to be found within the enclosure—especially the last one. Plus, if they do, then they are amply rewarded. Even with that reward and that sense of accomplishment, this as the scenario outlines, is only the beginning of their troubles for the Player Characters. Not only have they come into possession of an artefact that everyone wants, they must learn to use it wisely and not run off into regions of the Starship Warden that they now have access to, but which they may well be unprepared for.

Physically, The Level of the Lost is cleanly presented. The maps are nicely done as are the illustrations, although not all of them match the text, which is actually much more thematic where there is a mismatch. As an actual adventure, it is a tough affair, primarily offering a mix of exploration and combat—the latter in particular. Any adventure for Metamorphosis Alpha is going to be challenging, but The Level of the Lost is tougher than most, which should be no surprising given the type of creatures faced. Plus, given the nature of the reward involved, it should be run later in a campaign when the Player Characters and their story are ready for a change and a push onwards to discover some of the Starship Warden’s bigger secrets…

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

The Captain’s Table is written by the designer of Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic and uses the spiritual beliefs of the Player Characters to draw them into adventure. Their spiritual belief system involves not just ancestor worship, but worship of the original officers who commanded the Starship Warden. Essentially, they have come to form a pantheon of their own for the tribe, so when the Player Characters come upon a holo-egg which unexpectedly projects a larger-than-life vision of Captain Jameson—one of the five original captains of the Warden—they are not only surprised, they almost struck down in religious awe! Further, when he asks for their aid in recovering a storage crate with materials essential to his plans, they realise that he is giving them a holy quest! Surely something that the Player Characters should undertake in order to prove their worthiness to both the ancients and the Great Officers? So begins the quest to The Captain’s Table.

The Captain’s Table is a relatively short scenario, consisting of three parts which should take a session or two to play through—if the Player Characters stick to their quest, that is. In the first part, they are given directions as to where to go and what they need to progress further, including an opening scene in which the Captain actually informs them where they are. That is, on a giant spaceship! Thus the Game Master may want to run this scenario a few sessions into her campaign after the characters have already learned this themselves rather it being revealed to them via a dose of exposition. Not only does the Captain give away information, he directs them to an armband which will allow access to certain parts of the ship. This includes the Cargo Deck, the scene for the second part of the scenario. Here is the main stage for the scenario, a single vast level thirty-our miles long and sixteen miles wide consisting of hundreds of mile-long cargo bays. One of these is the Player Characters’ destination, but they will need to make the trek there using the clues given by the hologram of Captain Jameson, negotiate (or possibly fight) with other scavengers for possession of what they have been sent to collect before taking it to Captain Jameson himself.

Despite its brevity, there is a lot of detail and flavour to the scenario. There are monsters and other creatures to be found, from Wolfoids and Felenoids—the latter with a penchant for fashion, to Space Weevils and intelligent Oozes, a whole Level of mostly unopened cargo crates to open, and of course, getting to have dinner literally at the Captain’s Table. Some of the encounters are designed to be combat encounters, but others involve roleplaying and the Game Master has some fun NPCs to roleplay. Although the scenario is relatively short, providing no more than a session or two’s worth of play, the Player Characters are free to go explore the whole of the Cargo Level, perhaps cracking open cargo bays and crates as they go, or the Cargo Level is somewhere that they can come back to again and again after the events of The Captain’s Table, looking for further supplies or devices that will help them in their exploration of the Starship Warden or just help their tribe survive. Either way, tables of encounters and cargo bay contents support both options.

If there is a problem with The Captain’s Table, it is the finale. As written, it is fine, it makes sense, and it is amusing, but some players may feel slightly cheated when they and their characters discover what has been going on. Consequently, players do need a sense humour when playing this scenario and not to be too po-faced about its revelations. Plus, ultimately, their characters are rewarded for their efforts and do learn more about the Starship Warden. For the Game Master there are some fun references too, most notably The Wizard of Oz, Red Dwarf, and Terminator 2, but these are handled with some subtlety. Plus in the long term, the Game Master can have the Player Characters return to the Cargo Deck as and when it suits the plot and ‘Captain Jameson’ hologram could become a recurring NPC. If there is an issue to the scenario, it is that the clues do need to be carefully presented if the players are to take advantage of them.

Physically, The Captain’s Table is engagingly written and nicely illustrated. The maps are well done, often illustrating events as much as locations within the adventure. The handouts are decent too, though the Game Master may need to be more direct in making their use by the players a little easier.

Both the plotting and the staging of The Captain’s Table are quite tightly tied to Metamorphosis Alpha and the Starship Warden. However, with a little bit of effort and teasing apart of its individual parts, both plot and the locations—especially the Cargo Deck, which could simply become an enormous warehouse—could be reworked into other post-apocalyptic settings. In general, the drier or less gonzo the setting, the more adaptation effort required, but the scenario would work with Mutant Crawl Classics, Gamma World, and even Mutant: Year Zero.

The Captain’s Table is a short, entertaining scenario which makes good use of its inspirations and provides content which the Game Master can return to. It is easy to add to any Metamorphosis Alpha campaign and should provide a session or two’s worth of play (and potentially more).

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: Tales From Ye Dusty Olde Crap Shoppe
Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: James Thompson

Setting: Modern Day
Product: Hunt & Chase Scenario
What You Get: Eighty page, 32.46 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Sometimes the shelves hold scares as well as books... and the book hunters become the hunted.Plot Hook: Lost books, lost customers, just how far back do these shelves go?Plot Support: Six plots or hooks, location description, two optional encounters, eleven maps, nineteen handouts, nine NPC statistics and illustrations, three monster statistics and illustrations, six pre-generated Investigators, and staging advice.Production Values: Good.
Pros
# Superbly disquieting book illustrations# Multiple, easy-to-combine plots and hooks# Straightforward plotting for all six plots# Potential introductory scenario or one-shot# Excellent artwork throughout# Delightfully dreary location# Entertainingly weird cast of NPCs for the Keeper to roleplay# Potential, unknowing entrance to the Great Library of Celaeno
# Potential introduction to The Yellow King # Could be adapted to The Yellow King Roleplaying Game# Could be adapted to Bookhounds of London
# Fourteen Weird Book Covers to Alarm Your Investigators# Squinty Crumpet
Cons
# Using some plots or hooks, may preclude a return visit to the location and scenario reuse
# Pre-generated Investigators not illustrated# Straightforward plotting for all six plots# Terrible title# Squinty Crumpet
Conclusion
# Superbly disquieting book illustrations# Multiple, easy-to-combine plots and hooks# Terrible title# Fourteen Weird Book Covers to Alarm Your Investigators# Squinty Crumpet

Destroyer of Worlds is a scenario for Alien: The Roleplaying Game. Like Chariot of the Gods—also available in the Alien: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set, it shares the same mode of play, but differs in terms of its campaign model. Thus, it is written for the roleplaying game’s Cinematic mode, and so is designed to emulate the drama of a film set within the Alien universe, emphasising high stakes situations, faster, more brutal play, and deadly encounters. However, where the campaign model for Chariot of the Gods is that of Space Truckers—star ship crews hauling goods and resources, as in Alien, the campaign model for Destroyer of Worlds is that of Colonial Marines, essentially military missions like Aliens. In Destroyer of Worlds then, the Player Characters get to face off against Xenomorphs as armed and dangerous marines, as they engage in a deadly manhunt on a near-abandoned colony world rife with intrigue and insurrection, just as war breaks out in orbit above. As the situation deteriorates around them, the Player Characters will find themselves the unfortunate victims of corporate, military, and interstellar politics, as something worse than their nightmares chases them off world…

The background for Destroyer of Worlds is the Oil Wars between the United Americas (UA), the Three World Empire, and the Union of Progressive Peoples (UPP), the race to locate fresh sources of petroleum which would keep their respective industries and militaries supplied. Thus, the strategic importance of petroleum-rich worlds has grown and grown over the years, with those close to national borders also creating severe tensions. One such world is the Ariarcus colony on Kruger 60 AEM. Located in the Outer Veil in United Americas space close to the border with the Union of Progressive Peoples, for decades the Ariarcus colony has proven its worth as a strategic source of oil, such that when the colonists were found selling oil to the UPP, the colony was seized as an asset and militarised, with units from both the United States Colonial Marine Corps and the Colonial Navy being stationed on and above the planet at Fort Nebraska. The colony has all but collapsed, with barely two thousand colonists left, most wanting to get off world, an insurrection which wants to be free of what its members see as the UA yoke and is ready to defect to the UPP, and as military forces are diverted to deal with a UPP attack on the neighbouring the Cygni 61 system and LV-038 colony, both the military and colonial administration declares an evacuation of the colony, the insurrection seizes the opportunity to reach out to the UPP. At the same time, a squad of Colonial Marines from Fort Nebraska’s Special Operations ‘Sin Eaters’ marine unit decide it is the moment to go AWOL…

Into this set-up are thrown a team of marines drawn from the forces left after the strike force has left for Cygni 61 system and LV-038 colony, including members of an assault team, a Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Defence Specialist, a Combat Technician/Hospital Corpsman Android, and two riflemen and drivers, led by a ‘Sin Eater’ commander. Their task is to locate the squad of Colonial Marines who have gone AWOL and prevent both them and any intelligence they possess from falling into the hands of the UPP. Each has his or her agenda—some have their own secrets too—that will come into play as their mission progresses, and over the course of a single few hours, they will track down the missing Colonial Marines, confront the Insurrectionists, get caught up in the outbreak of war, come under horrifying chemical attack, deal with rival factions desperate to make alliances, and as the order to evacuate is issued, face monster after monster the like of which they will have never encountered before, and ultimately, literally climb up out of Kruger 60 AEM’s gravity well. All of which takes place in the Antarctic environment of Ariarcus, a moon of the gas giant, Oblivion, under the never more than twilight gaze of the ever-watchful and oppressive Eye of Oblivion—an 11,000-kilometer-wide blue storm raging in the gas giant’s atmosphere.

Destroyer of Worlds is designed for three to five players, but includes a total of seven pre-generated Player Characters to form tthe ramshackle unit drawn together and assigned what will turn out to be a brutally nasty disaster of a mission. Essentially, those Colonial Marines initially appearing in the unit as NPCs are intended as replacement Player Characters, for make no mistake, this is a deadly scenario in which a ‘Total Party Kill’ is a distinct possibility. In fact, it might actually be worth the Game Mother preparing some of the other NPCs as replacement Player Characters, so deadly is the scenario in places. Potentially though, this would lead to a shift in the ‘party dynamics’ as NPCs from other factions become Player Characters and have their own agendas. Ultimately though, everyone’s agenda is to get off world, whatever the consequences.

Destroyer of Worlds is structured over three acts. In Act I, the Player Characters get their assignment and begin their investigation, tracking the missing Colonial Marines down across the Ariarcus colony, dealing with the last remnants of the colony infrastructure and administration, confronting the Insurrectionists, potentially encountering both corporate and UPP operatives with their own agendas, Xenomorphs, and more. As the Player Characters begin putting things together, Act II begins with a bang. Open conflict begins in orbit above between the UA and the UPP, the colony is hit with EMP attacks, bringing spacecraft and attack ships crashing down on the colony, and worse, an unknown ship showers the colony with the transformative Black Goo seen in Prometheus. The latter leads to some horrifying scenes as the remaining colonists are radically mutated or ripped apart. Combined with an order to evacuate the colony, this will drive the Player Characters to get off world, but the effect of the EMP attacks mean that the colony’s space elevator is not working. In Act III, this will force the Player Characters to delve into Fort Nebraska’s sublevels to get the power working again, and in the process, discover some of the darker secrets about just what has been going on at the base…

Destroyer of Worlds is big, bold, and brassy, an epic adventure from start to finish, and yet… As much as it captures the cinematic feel of Aliens and the later films, it is not an easy adventure to run and it is guilty of over-egging the pudding. The problems with the adventure are fourfold. First, there is a lot going on in the adventure, with multiple factions and multiple agendas, not including those of the Player Characters. Combined with events there is a lot for the Game Mother to keep to track off throughout the adventure, and this can be compounded later on in the second and third acts if the Player Characters are joined by NPCs—both innocent bystanders and members of other factions, who are equally as desperate to get off world. Second, the adventure does not just throw one Xenomorph element at the Player Characters, but all of them. So not just the Black Goo and the Anathema it creates, but also species Xenomorph XX121 from Alien and Aliens—from Egg to Queen, and subspecies. There is often little to no subtlety to this, and it is compounded by the third problem—the sheer number of Xenomorphs that the Player Characters will encounter throughout the adventure, especially in Act III. Consequently, their exploration of Fort Nebraska’s sublevels do take on a dungeon-like aspect, but with guns and grenades and Xenomorphs, instead of swords, spells, and Orcs, such that it feels as if everyone should be playing an Aliens boardgame rather than Alien: The Roleplaying Game. Fourth, because it is an adventure for Cinematic mode, Destroyer of Worlds is heavily plotted, in some cases for the Player Characters as much as the story itself, including one of the Player Characters beginning infected, their drive eventually being to locate a cure, which as the scenario plays out, they will hopefully discover exists. So it feels heavy-handed in places, but given that Destroyer of Worlds is a Cinematic one-shot, this is not as much of an issue as it could have been. Fifth, there is quite a lot going on off-camera in terms of the story that is never really explained, such as who exactly drops the Black Goo on the colony (it is intimated that this this is Engineers from Prometheus, just to further over-egg the pudding), why the Player Characters are selected, and so on. Yet, in the face of the unrelenting pace at which Destroyer of Worlds is telling its story, it almost does not matter. Certainly not for the Player Characters, but perhaps for the Game Mother?

Physically, Destroyer of Worlds comes as a boxed set, much like the Alien: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set—and almost as richly appointed. Open up the box and the purchaser is confronted with decks of cards, poster maps, character sheets, and the scenario book itself. The two decks of cards consist of twenty-one Personal Agendas, six Vehicle cards, two Weapon cards, nine NPC cards, and six Story cards. The Personal Agenda cards are given to the appropriate Player Characters at the beginning of each act and define their aims for that act, their being rewarded with Story Points based on how well their players roleplayed them. The Story cards are similar to the Personal Agenda cards, but reveal secret aspects of their particular Player Characters which again will affect their motivations. The other cards are a mix of the old and the new, some having appeared in the Alien: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set. These include a United States Colonial Marine Corps heavy tank (which the Player Characters can potentially commandeer), a pair of UUP vehicles, and the AK-4047, the UPP equivalent of the Pulse Rifle.

The main map is a thirty-four by twenty-two inches poster which depicts Ariaricus colony on one side and the interior of Fort Nebraska on the other. This is in addition to the two A3-sized maps which show individual locations. Of the three, the smaller maps are a lot easier to handle and sue at the table, but like all of the maps, they are done in the green-on-green blueprint style seen in the Alien universe. The seven Player Character sheets are easy to read, as is the scenario booklet, which is cleanly laid out in the style seen in Alien: The Roleplaying Game, the Alien: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set, and Chariot of the Gods. It is lightly illustrated with pieces taken from Alien: The Roleplaying Game, but the light layout makes up for that. Notably, the scenario book includes four appendices, one for all of the types of the Xenomorphs which appear in Destroyer of Worlds, one for the Talents which appear in the scenario, one for all of the stats for the gear and vehicles, and one for vehicle combat. The appendices of Talents and Xenomorphs do reprint material from Alien: The Roleplaying Game, but they are included for anyone running Destroyer of Worlds using just the  rather than Alien: The Roleplaying Game.

Destroyer of Worlds is a fantastic scenario, but not a perfect one. It has too many moving parts and too many Xenomorphs and too much going on that it needs careful handling and preparation upon the part of the Game Mother to run well. Yet it is big, it is bruising, it is over-the-top, and it delivers the pulsating combat action of Aliens and an eighties action movie. It has some great set pieces just like an eighties action movie and an Aliens horror movie should—the rain of Black Goo, assaulting the Insurrectionists’ compounds, getting back into Fort Nebraska, sneaking about in the sublevels of the base and the final confrontation on the space elevator… Ultimately, Destroyer of Worlds is a popcorn munching, shoot ‘em up horror movie of a scenario. Essentially, put on the Aliens soundtrack and expect the Player Characters to blast their way through it, get the bejuzus scared of them, get infected, confront Xenomorph after Xenomorph, probably die, and maybe, just maybe, survive.

When the party is confronted with bush with golden, sparkling leaves, seeming to dance to a rhythm only it can hear and it implores with a booming voice for one of their number to dance because it has lost its magic and needs to be once again enthused with the ‘power o’ dance’ to get his jive, and the Game Master turns to her players and says that one of them must dance a dance of her choice in complete silence, and the other must guess what it is, then you know that this is no ordinary adventure, and no ordinary roleplaying game. When a Dorse—a mutant hybrid of a Horse and a Dragon—demands that everyone play ‘Naughty Imitation’ and impersonate a famous film star doing something naughty, then you know that this is no ordinary adventure, and no ordinary roleplaying game. When the party must create and perform a song or rhyme to open an emotionally needy chest, then you know that this is no ordinary adventure, and no ordinary roleplaying game. All of these sound like party games, which they are, and not like a roleplaying game at all, but these really are challenges presented in a roleplaying game which combines a classic fantasy quest to save the world with the type of games which will be familiar to a wider audience. This, when combined with simple, light rules, a straightforward plot, accessible presentation, and sense of humour, makes this roleplaying game almost the perfect means to introduce those unfamiliar to the concepts of roleplaying to their first actual roleplaying game.
The roleplaying game in question is The Party RPG: The Rise of Burden Bluggerbuckle, published by The Party RPG. Designed to be played by between three and six players, including a Game Master, it presents a Dungeons & Dragons-style fantasy adventure, played as a one-shot over multiple sessions, but with very light rules, a physical component—the players are encouraged to dress up as their characters if they want and there are plenty of physical challenges and games throughout the quest, and a presentation intended for the scenario for the game to be played from the page. There is also scope for the players to share the role of Game Master, swapping from playing to refereeing for a scene, and then back again, so that in a game of five players, everyone could have a go at being a Game Master several times. Although it can be played round the table like a traditional roleplaying game—or these days over Zoom—it does not have to be and could easily be run in the lounge over the coffee table.

The setting for The Party RPG: The Rise of Burden Bluggerbuckle is the Great Plains. Phosphorian, known for both his great villainy and his glowing member, has died. Upon hearing this tragic news, Burden Bluggerbuckle, his Orc boyfriend waiting at home in a floral apron, swears a mighty vengeance and sets out to cast the Enchantment of Unrelenting Rage which will rent the Great Plains in twain—at the very least! To save the Great Plains, a Squad—as opposed to a party which would confuse everyone in and out of The Party RPG: The Rise of Burden Bluggerbuckle—of doughty adventurers who undertake Main Quests and Side Quests. Main Quests to acquire the six pieces of the Counter Enchantment which will break the Enchantment of Unrelenting Rage and Side Quests to enhance their abilities and gain gear that will help them on their grand quest. Over the course of sixteen scenes and locations, the Player Characters will encounter an exploding goat (he gets better), shout to reveal hidden items, find a way over a broken bridge, hunt for buried treasure, impersonate pigs, run into belligerent chickens, and a whole lot more.

In The Party RPG, the players are free to create characters that are whatever they want. A Unicorn with a sense of adventure? A brave warrior who rolls into battle in her wheelchair? A lizardry, wizardy gecko? A pilfering Chameleon? A middle-aged accountant fighting evil in his pipe and slippers? All possible and perfectly acceptable. A character is very simply defined. He has five Skills—Stealth, Awareness, Strength, Intelligence, and Speed—rated between one and ten. A player simply assigns five points between these, buys some basic equipment for his character, describes who and what he is, and thus he is ready to play. Fantastically, everything that a player needs is laid out on the character sheet. So on the front, there are the five skills, plus a tracker for the character’s Hit Points, Level, and Experience Points, and places to record his weapons and shield, plus items and armour. On the back is a step-by-step guide to character creation and an explanation of what all of the terms are in The Party RPG. The character sheet is very nicely done.

Frau Blücher is a no-nonsense housekeeper who has no truck with the end of the Great Plains. Otherwise, where else is her G.O.A.T. goat, Heidi, going to graze and headbutt anyone she does not like?

Name: Frau Blücher
Skills
Stealth 1
Awareness 2
Strength 0
Intelligence 1
Speed 1

Equipment: Simple Wand, Basic Leather Armour, Soap

Mechanically, The Party RPG is very simple, although it uses two resolution systems. The first is when the Player Characters are acting against the environment, such as climbing a tree or fording a fast-flowing stream, or when they are engaged in combat. This requires the player to roll three six-sided dice and add any bonuses from his character’s Skills and items of equipment. The aim is to roll high, with possible results including Pivotal Successes, Successes, Fails, and Epic Fails. For example, a task set at Moderate has a Pivotal Success threshold of fourteen or more, Success threshold of eleven and up, a Fail threshold of ten and below, and an Epic Fail threshold of seven or less. It is as simple as that. In general, Pivotal Successes, Successes, Fails, and Epic Fails will be set by the Game Master, though weapons and shields have their values, which will be better for the items purchased or found later in the quest. Damage is dependent on a Player Character’s Level—either one, two, or three six-sided dice, armour detracts from inflicted damage, and shields can totally deflect or partially block damage, and even break! A Pivotal Success result on an attack roll ignores the effects of armour.

The other resolution system, which is for Player Character versus NPCs, is dependent upon the Level of a Player Character or NPC—again one, two, or three six-sided dice. These are rolled and added together with the appropriate Skill Levels of both the Player Character and the NPC, and the highest result wins. Although simple enough, in fact, both mechanics are simple enough, it feels a little odd to have two separate, quite different systems for a game that is aiming to be as easy as it is.

The ease of play for The Party RPG is facilitated by its layout. Every location is broken down into a series of sections. The first section always sets out the objectives the Player Characters have to complete and instructions for the Game Master. This is followed by sections which set the scene, give handy tips, and always ends with one giving the suggested Experience Point awards depending on how well the Game Master thinks her players and their characters performed in the location. This ranges from ‘Abysmal’ and ‘10XP’ to ‘Terrific’ and ‘80XP’. A total of one hundred Experience Points are required for a Player Character to go up a Level—so will typically occur at every other location and grant a bonus Skill level, plus Hit Points, and enable a Player Character to use better equipment. Throughout the location, boxes in bold colours highlight what the Game Master needs to act upon—so red for combat or active actions like sneaking past some Goblins; blue for treasures to be rewarded to the Player Characters; purple for a physical out of game action, such as singing or dancing; green for ending a scene. The layout and these boxes further make The Party RPG easy to run from the page.

However, running The Party RPG does require some page flipping when it comes to combat and shopping—all of the stats for the NPCs and the equipment that the Player Characters can obtain through visiting shops or being rewarded are at the back of the book. A bookmark or two, should offset this issue to some extent.

Physically, The Party RPG is cleanly and tidily laid out. The writing varies depending upon the subject matter. It does tend towards bullet points in its style for a lot of the rules explanations. This is not an issue for the experienced Game Master, but anyone coming to the game anew will not find it as easy as it could have been. In comparison, the writing of the quest is more expansive and humorous and entertaining, so more engaging to read. The book’s artwork is excellent, but really too small for the Game Master to enjoy or use to add colour to the running of the game. It would have been great if the artwork had been larger and thus could have been shown to the players as their characters progressed onwards as part of their quest, and thus helped them envision the world their characters are exploring. One other effect of the writing and the simplicity is that The Party RPG is easy to prepare. An experienced Game Master will be able to read and grasp what is all going on the page from a simple readthrough. 
However, as clever and as fun and as silly as The Party RPG: The Rise of Burden Bluggerbuckle is, it is not without its issues. The first one is the tone, which is adult in nature—though not explicit—and as written, The Party RPG is not suited for play by younger audiences, which is a pity given the simplicity and physicality of the roleplaying game. Of course, the Game Master can tone down or remove the adult humour during play, but perhaps the inclusion of alternative text better suited for younger and family audiences would have widened the accessibility of The Party RPG Second, the rules are simply not as well explained as they could be. This is not a matter of discounting their simplicity, but rather that they are more clearly explained for the Game Master than her players. Now there are examples of the three types of mechanics—Player Character versus the environment, versus NPCs, and combat—in The Party RPG, and they help, but there is no clear explanation otherwise. Third, once play is underway, there is no guidance from situation to situation as to the suggested scores for Pivotal Successes, Successes, Fails, and Epic Fails for the challenges the Player Characters will face. For the experienced Game Master, setting these suggested scores is not really going to be all that difficult, but anyone new to this type of game, it will be challenging, and makes The Party RPG not quite as readily suited for new Game Masters as the designers intended.

So is The Party RPG: The Rise of Burden Bluggerbuckle actually a roleplaying game? The answer to that is both yes and no. Yes, because the players are rolling up and creating characters and having go away on adventures just like Dungeons & Dragons—or in the case of Dungeons & Dragons meets Toon or Dungeons & Dragons meets Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game. But no, because there are no means or advice to create anything other than a playthrough of ‘The Rise of Burden Bluggerbuckle’, and as a roleplaying game, The Party RPG is very much tied to that story line. So, it is more of a one-shot or a mini-campaign, but still a roleplaying game.
Throughout The Party RPG: The Rise of Burden Bluggerbuckle, both Game Master and players, but especially the players, are encouraged to be inventive and creative, not just in terms of creating their characters, but also in terms of how they approach different situations. In return, the Game Master is encouraged to take these ideas on merit, to give them a chance to work, no matter how preposterous, and so support an inventive, slightly over-the-top, even a little silly style of play. Throughout, The Party RPG: The Rise of Burden Bluggerbuckle never gets away from the fact that its play should be fun. Which also includes the physical elements that are likely to be more acceptable to a wider, more family audience than necessarily to a roleplaying audience, and that means that The Party RPG: The Rise of Burden Bluggerbuckle could actually work as an introduction to roleplaying games (though it is not quite as suitable for new Game Masters as it could have been). Although it might not be for everyone, but for anyone ready to embrace its silliness, its simplicity, its scope for inventiveness, and its physicality, The Party RPG: The Rise of Burden Bluggerbuckle has the potential to be huge fun.

Out on the borders of the far Northwest lies a forest without end. Here doughty Lumberjacks and Lumberjills leap from tree to tree, felling and cutting the mighty pines for shipping back to civilisation. In the deeper parts of the forest, the great hairy hulks known as Sasquatches roam freely, feared by some as monsters, simply misunderstood say others, but unknown to all. If the exact nature of the Sasquatches remains unknown, then the secrets of the Squirrels are kept hidden—and they like that. For within their secluded city republic of Baudekin, sapient Squirrels and other members of the Sciuridae family from across the dimensions protect it secrets, most notably the Secret Gnawledge those contained within the roots of the Library Trees. For anyone wanting to set out into the forest, the place to start is Squeamish, a ‘nice, clean, company town’. Squeamish is a boomtown, a frontier town built by the Red Bear Lumber Company, and the many Lumberjacks and Lumberjills that work the forest work for a felling gang employed by the Red Bear Lumber Company. They work for the Red Bear Lumber Company, they live on the Red Bear Lumber Company property, they eat Red Bear Lumber Company food, and they have a long line of credit with the Red Bear Lumber Company. Perhaps though, one of those many Lumberjacks and Lumberjills—whether a Lumber-Fighter, Lumber-Cleric, Lumber-Thief, or Lumber-Wizard—will strike it lucky on a side hustle or with an independent gang and bring back that one rare botanical specimen which will set them up for life—or at least ensure they can pay off their credit. There are always Wizards and Alchemists willing to pay for such items. Adventurers come to Squeamish too, perhaps for those same rare botanical specimens, or to hunt for Sasquatch or rescue innocents kidnapped by the brutish creatures, or to enter a Lumberjack competition, or… Whatever the reason, they will need a guide—and there are plenty of those to go around. Perhaps hire a Gunkey—a cross between a goat and a jackass, and twice as stupid/foppish/lecherous as you would expect, rent out a half-useful, only half-tested device from Half-Mad Leach MacCleod, or simply feast on tasty street food from Odd Jacob—the ‘Salty Weasel Bites’ are a best seller!

This is the set-up for Lumberlands – Wampus Country Travel Guide I, a systemless, rules-agnostic fantasy roleplaying setting by the creator of Wampus Country. Published by Lost Pages, best known for the entertaining Genial Jack and the Burgs & Baillifs series, this is a comedy-style setting based on the Pacific Northwest—although it could be Vermont too, although mostly the Pacific Northwest because Portland—which is easy to adapt to the setting of the Game Master’s choice, whether that is Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, Savage Worlds, or Old School Essentials. So as a setting, right from the start, it is full of flannel (shirts), axes, bearded men, axes, maple syrup, axes, and weirdness, which sort of has a Twins Peaks feel to it.

Lumberlands is offered as a place to visit, rather than as a place to be from. Numerous reasons are given why, such as questing for the legendary Squirrel City, engaging in logging company intrigues, or even attempting to hire a family of Giant Beavers to gnaw you that perfect home. Lumberjack and Lumberjill culture is highlighted, how they are plain-dealing, strong, self-reliant, egalitarian (mostly), and so on, before suggesting what Lumber-versions of the four core character Classes might look like. So Lumber-Fighters prefer axes, wear flannel and dungarees, possess stunning beards, big stompin’ boots, and enjoy public displays of prowess, whilst the Lumber-Thief sports a smaller, often oiled beard, wears flannel ironically (?), is agile as a weasel, has canvas boots with good luck symbols, lumbergang tattoos, and pirate-style earrings. Not really enough to equate to an actual Class in terms of Dungeons & Dragons, more a set of pointers in the right direction, whether the Game Master simply wants to use the use the classic Dungeons & Dragons Classes as written with Lumberlands flannel, or actually create Lumberlands versions of those Classes. Lumberjacks and Lumberjills can worship any gods, but have their own too, like Timmerton, the demigod of the Lumberlands, a bare-chested mountain of a man with maple syrup dripping from his mighty beard, and the Cult of the Beaver, whose members are very fond of hard work and clean teeth.

Lumberjack and Lumberjill equipment includes the Lucky Flannel, which when combined with dungarees, counts as leather armour, and axes of all sorts—and custom-fitted axes for all sorts of situations. The list of possible customisations is only the first of several tables in Lumberlands – Wampus Country Travel Guide I. The next gives options adding a personality to your Gunkey, whilst there are several subtitles to the supplement’s quite detailed encounter table. Once out of Squeamish, having detailed the Red Bear Lumber Company and several of the town’s peoples and places, the supplement runs off into the woods, with all of its gear strapped atop a Gunkey of course, and begins to expose some of the secrets of Lumberland. This includes just who and what the Sasquatches are and they really are not what you think; a discussion of Squirrel politics, which might or might not be a parody of US state politics, less members of the rodent family of course; and somewhere—since there are no maps of the Lumberlands, ‘Portal-Land’, a dimensionally unstable triangle where easy access to other worlds can be gained (and vice versa), and time and gravity can shift, and is inhabited by the False Ones, strange humanoids with perfectly smiling porcelain masks, hypnotically pleasant lines in banter, horribly matching sweaters, and a willingness to invite adventurers to dinner…

Rounding out Lumberlands – Wampus Country Travel Guide I is a lengthy set of encounter tables, which are broken down by type, so Deadly Plant, Things of Nightmare, and Natural Wonders, and more. Each of the categories includes six detailed entries. Penultimately, there is a list of Lumberland familiars, including an ‘Enchanted Salmon of Wisdom’, which looks good on a wooden plaque and dispenses wisdom in song, and an ‘Animated Tattered Flannel, which could have been a shirt or a baby’s blanket, but which will happily wrap around the owner’s shoulder, but leaps to cover his nose and eyes in the event of a gas or powder attack! Lastly, there is final list, this one of potential Henchbeings, including one eyebrow-raising Marmot!

Physically, Lumberlands – Wampus Country Travel Guide I is neatly presented, although the text is a little fuzzy in places. The artwork is of course cartoonish, which suits the supplement perfectly.

Lumberlands – Wampus Country Travel Guide I is funny and engaging and inventive, but for all that, its tongue-in-cheek tone and subject matter is unlikely to be for everyone or every campaign. Both tone and subject matter mean that Lumberlands – Wampus Country Travel Guide I needs a higher degree of buy-in from the players as much as the Referee for everyone to enjoy it. The other issue is where to use it, as there are likely to be few campaigns or settings in which are going to be natural fits for its content. It means that the Referee should really consider if this supplement is going to be suitable for her campaign even before thinking about the work necessary to adapt it to the rules being used. That aside, Lumberlands – Wampus Country Travel Guide I is a delightfully silly satire upon the Pacific Northwest (or Vermont or Canada), its peoples and its politics, and its wildlife, and let us hope that there will be a Wampus Country Travel Guide II.
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A full unboxing of Lumberlands – Wampus Country Travel Guide I is available to view on Unboxing in the Nook.

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: One for One – Old Man Tompkins
Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Sean Liddle

Setting: 1950s Massachusetts
Product: Introductory Scenario
What You Get: Six page, 387.14 KB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Sometimes the Old Man who lives at the end of the lane really is the monster...Plot Hook:  No town can be this perfect—and it takes teenagers to see it.Plot Support: Map, plot, and staging advice.Production Values: Rough.
Pros
# Decent introductory scenario# Solid, single-session horror scenario# Potential convention scenario# Keeper can design her own NPCs
# Different historical setting# Mythos-lite
# Simple, direct plot# Inexpensive
Cons
# Needs an edit
# Keeper needs to create her own NPCs# Does not name the books# Mythos-lite# Inconsistent Sanity losses
Conclusion
# Needs an edit
# Simple, single-session horror scenario# Requires some preparation

Jackals: The Fall of the Children of Bronze is something a little bit different. It a supplement—the first supplement—for a roleplaying game from Osprey Games. Over the past couple of years or so, the publisher has diversified into the roleplaying hobby to publish a number of well-presented titles, including Paleomythic: A Stone and Sorcery Roleplaying Game, Ruthless Blood, Ruthless Blades – Wuxia Roleplaying, and Those Dark Places: Industrial Science Fiction Roleplaying, as well as Jackals – Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying, but none them, however, have received supplements. That is, until now. Jackals: The Fall of the Children of Bronze is not just a supplement for Jackals, but a whole campaign. In Jackals, the Player Characters take the eponymous roles of mercenaries, accepted ‘outcasts’ who undertake tasks and missions up and down the War Road which connects the various towns, cities, and city-states of the Zaharets, the Land of Risings where four kingdoms and cultures meet. The Zaharets is only recently free of the yoke of the monstrous bestial folk known as the Takan and their great kingdom of Barak Barad, and there remain ruins to be explored and cleansed of Takan influence, secrets of the past to be uncovered, merchants to be protected, alliances to be forged, and more. Yet no good community would have truck with the Jackals. For who knows what evil, what chaos they might bring back with them? Nevertheless, Jackals face the dangers that the community cannot, Jackals keep the community safe when it cannot, and from amongst the Jackals come some of the mightiest heroes of the Zaharets, and perhaps in time, the community’s greatest leaders when the Jackals decide it is time to retire and let other Jackals face the dangers beyond the walls of the towns and cities of the Land of Risings.

Jackals: The Fall of the Children of Bronze provides a grand campaign for Jackals, encompassing some fourteen adventures across nine years. These fourteen adventures will take the Jackals up and down the War Road from Ameena Noani in the north to Sentem in the south, and back again, time and time again. They will search for new sources of tin—a vital resource in the manufacture of bronze, hunt for the rare ingredients needed in a ritual to save a potential patron, face the corruption creeping into the towns and the hearts of men and women across the Zaharets, discover histories and pacts made long before man’s subjugation at the claws of the Takan, reclaim lands long lost, strike at the heart of the Takan presence in the Zaharets, and even as they stand between Law and Chaos, become involved in the growing conflict along the War Road. It grows to become an epic campaign that not every Jackal will see to the end. Some will die. Others will find it too much and retire.

As is made clear, Jackals: The Fall of the Children of Bronze is not a traditional campaign in the sense that it is formed of a singular interconnected story a la an adventure path. Rather, it is formed of multiple stories that lead up to a more singular series of events. There is also much more going on around the Jackals, so the nature of the campaign is episodic, almost part of the hustle and bustle of their lives from one season to the next. For the first five years, the campaign consists of two adventures per year, essentially one in the dry season and one in the rainy season. There is scope here for the Jackals to undertake a couple of adventures at each end of the War Road at a time, one at the end of each season, and one at the beginning of the next, but more likely, the players and their Jackals could simply focus on missions at either end of the War Road and ignore the other. That though, would not be without its consequences, if the Jackals undertake more than one mission, they will be forced to choose sides as the campaign comes to a close. Either way, this leaves plenty of room for the Loremaster to add encounters and adventures of her own.

By the time that Jackals: The Fall of the Children of Bronze focuses on just the one scenario per year, the Jackals will have become ‘Regarded’ up and down the War Road for their deeds, some of their number may have retired or died—their replacement Jackals will gain several benefits, which vary depending upon how long it is into the campaign, upon joining such a well-known Pack, and they will have participated in a great raid upon the Takan which if successful, will undermine their activities in the Zaharets. This will see the Jackals in turn capturing and clearing out a strategically located fortress, undertaking a ritual which may lead to the mighty of a large number of Takan, and finally, participating in the battle which will bring about the end of the Wars of Unification.

Every chapter of the campaign is organised in the same fashion, with an introduction and explanation of that year’s theme—this varies from year to year, a list of the important NPCs, a list of events in both the North and the South, and retirement benefits if a Jackal decides to retire. Most adventures run to three acts, and offer a good mix of roleplaying, investigation, combat, and exploration, with the start of individual locations listing the sights, smells, and sounds that the Jackals will encounter there, all nicely placed for the Loremaster’s reference. Each chapter ends with a list of hooks and other events going on up and down the War Road. For the most part, the individual scenarios should provide between two and three sessions’ worth of solid play, with the final four adventures lasting longer each.

Jackals: The Fall of the Children of Bronze will need some effort upon the part of the Loremaster to prepare. She should least have a ready supply of monsters and NPCs—especially Takan who often menace the Jackals and she should apprise herself of the War Road’s geography, both sections on the Northern and Southern Reaches to be found in Jackals – Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying. Essentially this is to familiarise herself with the various NPCs and places that the Jackals will be visiting. Although the campaign is a sequel to the three adventures in Jackals – Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying, the Loremaster needs to supply her players and their Jackals with a Hook to pull them into the campaign. There is a table of these provided, such as ‘Terrors from the Night’ in which each night an Ukuku, one of the grey, horned owls who serve the lord of the dead, visits the Jackal in his dreams and attempts to deliver a message from beyond. Which is a harrowing experience, and throughout the campaign, events and encounters are tied into these hooks. In addition, the Loremaster may need to design other encounters and scenarios depending upon the outcome of the Jackals’ actions. There is a little advice to that end in the aftermath of every adventure.

Physically, Jackals: The Fall of the Children of Bronze is well presented, in the now standard, full colour format for all of the roleplaying titles from Osprey Games. The artwork is scarce, but excellent where it does occur and the maps in general are decent, all arguably many of the numbers implicating position on the map could have been moved off the actual maps in some cases as they obscure details. If the book has an issue, it is that its font size is not all that large and there is quite a lot of cramped text, meaning that it may not be easy to read for some of its target audience.

Unfortunately, the episodic nature of the campaign in Jackals: The Fall of the Children of Bronze does not make it easy to run as a campaign and thus build the links between the epsiodes. It does not really focus on anything until the last four adventures in the campaign, and whilst the hooks do serve to draw the Jackals further into the campaign, they feel underused. None of this is really helped by the lack of a strong overview of the campaign and its events, which leaves the Loremaster to often make the connections herself for her own benefit, let alone the players and their Jackals in play. Overall, Jackals: The Fall of the Children of Bronze is a solid campaign for Jackals – Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying—and exactly the support it needed. However the Loremaster will need to work hard to lift it above being simply solid and make it good.

The gaming magazine is dead. After all, when was the last time that you were able to purchase a gaming magazine at your nearest newsagent? Games Workshop’s White Dwarf is of course the exception, but it has been over a decade since Dragon appeared in print. However, in more recent times, the hobby has found other means to bring the magazine format to the market. Digitally, of course, but publishers have also created their own in-house titles and sold them direct or through distribution. Another vehicle has been Kickststarter.com, which has allowed amateurs to write, create, fund, and publish titles of their own, much like the fanzines of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest. The resulting titles are not fanzines though, being longer, tackling broader subject matters, and more professional in terms of their layout and design.

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Most magazines for the roleplaying hobby give the gamer support for the game of his choice, or at the very least, support for the hobby’s more popular roleplaying games. Whether that is new monsters, spells, treasures, reviews of newly released titles, scenarios, discussions of how to play, painting guides, and the like… That is how it has been all the way back to the earliest days of The Dragon and White Dwarf magazines. Wyrd Science is different—or at least, the very first issue is very different. Its bright and breezy, pastel-shaded pages features not a single monster, spell, treasure, review, scenario, or the like. Instead, its ninety odd pages contain some eighteen entries—divided between ‘Common Items’ and ‘Rare Items’—consisting of columns and retrospectives, along with a slew of interviews with just a handful of some of the hobby’s creators and commentators.

Wyrd Science Session Zero—actually the first issue, but misnomered to confuse everyone—was published by Best in Show in January, 2021 , following a successful Kickstarter campaign. The strand that runs throughout the issue is that the year 2020 has been terrible (which is certainly true), but what is interesting about 2020 is how we as gamers have adapted to the adversity and changed to deal with the challenge of not being able to game together. In the opening diary entry of ‘Quickstart – Manga’s Musings’, Mira notes our shift to online gaming, how there continued to be new content to support our hobby, and that despite the difficult conditions, publishers such as Wizards of the Coast and Games Workshop were even more successful. This is something that John Power, the editor of Wyrd Science, will return to later in the issue with ‘2020 Vision’ with his own appraisal of the year just gone, along with his note about the growing diversity amongst the creators and players of games of all types. Anna Maxwell looks at another trend from the last year ‘Quickstart – Alone In The Dark’, which is that of solo play. There has always been a solo aspect to the hobby with long running series of Fighting Fantasy books and Tunnels & Trolls solo adventures, but a newer trend has seen the rise of roleplaying games specifically written to be played solo, often in the journal format. The title which has got all of the attention is Tim Hutchings’ Thousand Year Old Vampire, an exploration of alienation and loss as with a few rolls of the dice the player determines events and charts his vampire’s responses to them from his transformation into the undead until his final death. It is the nearest that Wyrd Science Session Zero gets to a review, but it is clear that no what your experience of the last year was, Thousand Year Old Vampire is possibly one of the most thematically appropriate roleplaying games to be published in 2020.
Fans of the Old School—Renaissance or otherwise, will doubtless enjoy ‘Quickstart – Publish And  Be Damned’ and ‘Quickstart – Cast Pod!’. The former is an interview with Andre Novoa of Games Omnivorous, which released a surprising number of titles in 2020. As well as discussing some of those titles, including the well-received Mausritter and the Manifestus zines—Cabin Risotto Fever, The Feast on Titanhead, and The Seed, the interview discusses the production values which the publisher has become known for. What notable here is that the publisher does not use traditional roleplaying designers as part of its production, in fact, designers who do not roleplay at all. It is an enjoyable interview as is the latter. This is with Dirk the Dice of the Grognardfiles RPG Podcast. The interview covers the origins and history of the podcast, and for listeners of the podcast, there is much here that will be familiar, as much of this story has been told via episodes of the podcast. However, for anyone who has never listened, this is a good introduction. Only fifty episodes to catch up on, but enjoyable they are too. The Grognardfiles RPG Podcast is not the only British podcast given space in Wyrd Science Issue Zero. In ‘Zoom Of Horrors – The Smart Party On Gaming Online In 2020’, the hosts of What Would the Smart Party Do? explain how they adapted to playing online in 2020—quite easily it would seem—and how it came to dominate much of their social life and how they coped with so many roleplaying games competing for their attention.
“THE LIFEBLOOD OF OUR COMMUNITY, good gaming clubs are a home away from home.” is the opening line of ‘Quickstart – Roll Deep’, an interview with Sasha Bilton of H.A.T.E. (Hackney Area Tabletop Enthusiasts) about his ‘local’ gaming club. The role of clubs cannot be underestimated, but it is debatable as to whether their role is quite as important as the title of the article suggests, especially after the last year of almost everyone having moved online to play. In effect, the article straddles 2020 though and is far from relevant in a year when we were all playing online, and perhaps the issue should have focused more on that rather than on something which nobody knows if and when it will be possible again. Nevertheless, it throws a spotlight on what sounds to have been—and should be again, a well-run and vibrant gaming club.
Wyrd Science does not restrict its content to just roleplaying. In ‘Table For One – Matt Thrower Embraces Solo Gaming’ continues the issue’s theme about solo gaming, not roleplaying though, but board games. Of course, it mentions Pandemic, but it looks at other titles too and points out that solo options are becoming a regular design feature in the creation of boardgames. ‘Meeple Hold On – Dan Jolin Finds Solace In Board Games’ explores a similar vein, but extends the play of boardgames online as with the play of roleplaying games moving online. However, whilst the author can, “…[F]irmly believe that you can never be bored as long as you have board games in your house.”, he cannot escape regurgitating a cliché that was tired ten years ago and is dead, dead in 2020, let alone 2021. At what point will writers about boardgames stop trotting out something along the lines of, as the author does here, “Thanks to a recent resurgence of the board game hobby and industry, those shelves need no longer limit you to, say, the roll-and-move slog of Monopoly, or the dragged-out, dice-dependent conquesting of Risk.”? It shows a complete lack of awareness of both the hobby and the market, and to be clear, board games have been growing in popularity for the last two decades at least, and there is no such resurgence and if so, it is certainly not recent. What next, comics are no longer just for kids?
The status of wargaming and miniatures is featured in ‘A Miniature Renaissance – Chris Mcdowall Scouts Out The Future Of Wargames’, written by the designer of Into the Odd and Electric Bastionland, suggesting that even as the success of Games Workshop grows, there is a movement in the hobby towards simplicity combined with fewer restrictions in terms of miniatures  brought to the table. ‘Model Behaviour – Luke Shaw On Building Miniature Communities’ looks at the other side of the wargaming and miniatures hobby, and that is painting. This is no tutorial though, but instead discusses where to go online to discover more about painting your miniatures and the community which has built up around the hobby online. It nicely casts that hobby in a new light.
As well as reflecting the shift in the hobby from face-to-face to online gaming, Wyrd Science also reflects the shift in diversity with series of articles on Queer and disabled gaming, women in gaming, and non-Western gaming. Together, ‘Beyond Violence – Jay Dragon On The Queer Future Of TTRPG Design’, ‘Sisters Of Battle – Danie Ware On The Changing Face Of Fantasy’—with an emphasis on fiction slightly more than gaming, and ‘Making Waves – Pamela Punzalan On The Rise Of RPGSEA’ respectively give room for voices that might not otherwise be heard in a traditional gaming magazine. The latter article is particularly interesting in that it is rare to hear about gaming and gaming culture outside of the English-dominated market. All three are to be welcomed though, and hopefully future issues of the magazine will provide a platform for other voices and opinions too, as these are all good articles.
A similar shift in diversity in terms of subject matter in the hobby is echoed in two other interviews in the issue. One is ‘Phantoms Of Oppression’ is with Banana Chan, the co-designer and co-publisher of Wet Ink Games’ Jiangshi – Blood In The Banquet Hall. This roleplaying game combines Chinese food with unknown horrors against the backdrop of racism and oppression, the Player Characters running their family Chinese restaurant by day and stopping actual monsters terrorising their neighbourhood by night. The other is ‘Home On The Strange’, an interview with Chris Spivey of Darker Hue Studios about his award-winning Harlem Unbound—one of the best supplements of 2017—and   his forthcoming Haunted West, which presents a Weird West roleplaying game against the backdrop of continued post-American Civil War Reconstruction, rather than discontinued Reconstruction. Again, these are lengthy pieces which showcase how the hobby can explore some of history’s difficult issues. 
The continuing growth in the popularity of more traditional and Scandinavian roleplaying games is placed under the spotlight with another pair of interviews. Simon Stålenhag’s artwork has not only inspired two roleplaying games—Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood, but also captured our imaginations with his artbooks which juxtapose outré technology—rusting robots and hovering container ships—with the ordinary everyday life to be found in the Swedish suburbs. The artwork is fascinating, the viewer able to see the odd nature of each scene, know that the people within it accept this as the norm. He is interviewed in ‘Mazes & Monsters’, exploring his inspirations and how his cinematic visions have been adapted in both the televisual and roleplaying mediums. It only hints at what is to come in the next book, a more apocalyptic vision than has been seen to date, but the fans of his artwork will know that it will be worth the wait. Almost at the opposite to Simon Stålenhag’s clean visions is the Doom-laden Artpunk of the award-winning MÖRK BORG, the pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance roleplaying game. ‘The Apocalypse Meant Something’ is with its graphic designer, Johan Nohr, which examines how the look and feel of the roleplaying game does everything good graphic design should not and how that contributed to the game. Not only is this different, but it means that the interview is taking a different approach too, but still highlighting how the visual and the physical design has an impact on the design of the game itself.

The featured and longest interview in Wyrd Science Session Zero is ‘The Man With The 20-Sided Brain’. This is with the author of the comics The Wicked + the Divine and the Dungeons & Dragons-cartoon inspired DIE, roleplayer, ex-games journalist, and Warhammer 40,000 comics author, Kieron Gillen. It is an enjoyable and informative read and makes you wonder what the author might do with a roleplaying game, but at least should make the reader want to go out find a copy of DIE (of which there is a roleplaying game), if not The Wicked + the Divine.
The contrasting strands of old and new—or at least the relatively old and relatively new—that run through Wyrd Science Issue Zero are seen in two board games. The old is the Escape The Dark... series of games, such as Escape the Dark Castle and Escape the Dark Sector, the solo-style boardgames which can be played by one or more players. These are heavily inspired by classic fantasy and Science Fiction, as well as the Fighting Fantasy series of solo adventure books and consequently the interview with creator Thomas Pike in ‘The Dark Is Rising’ emphasises the stories created in playing either. The new is Root, one of the biggest boardgames of the last few years, which layers its political elements under woodland and anthropomorphic animals, explored in ‘If You Go Down To The Woods Today’ and examines the different ways which faction is played and how that affects the game. Again, these are excellent articles which highlight just two elements of the board game hobby.
Physically, Wyrd Science Session Zero is impressively bright and breezy. The layout is clean and tidy, with decent use of photographs against pieces of art as more like spot fillers. The issue does need another edit in places though.
Anyone coming to Wyrd Science Session Zero expecting content for his favourite game will definitely be disappointed. The inaugural issue of the magazine is very much about the hobby—interviews and retrospectives, and similar—rather than for the hobby (or a particular game). In particular, the issue highlights just how much our hobbies—roleplaying, boardgaming, and miniatures gaming, have been forced to change and adapt in the last year, and us along with them. In doing so, Wyrd Science Session Zero captures much of what our gaming has been like in 2020 with a series of entertaining and informative interviews. Just like all three of these hobbies covered in the issue, it will be just as interesting to see where Wyrd Science Session Two goes...
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The next issue of Wyrd Science—actually marked ‘Issue Two’—is currently being funded on Kickstarter.

In November, 2020, S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, the classic fantasy meets Science Fiction scenario by E. Gary Gygax for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition received of all things, its own rock album. When it comes to roleplaying, music has long been seen as something to add to the experience, to build the atmosphere, but rarely, the other way, the single by Sabbat, Blood For The Blood God, inspired by Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, which appeared in White Dwarf #95, the Traveller concept album by the band, The Lord Weird Slough Feg, and the work of the band, Gygax, being clearly inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, all being the odd exceptions. The Barrier Peaks Songbook, the resulting ten-track concept album from Loot the Body described itself as a psychedelic rock album, though it felt more Prog Rock than psychedelic rock, but to be fair, just as The Barrier Peaks Songbook is an exception in being a rock album inspired by roleplaying, Reviews from R’lyeh reviewing a rock album—or indeed, any music, is also an exception. Nevertheless, The Barrier Peaks Songbook turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable album, adding voice and sound to the weirdness and the contrast of genres at the heart of S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.
Fans of Dungeons & Dragons and music inspired by that roleplaying game will therefore be pleased to discover that Loot the Body has returned to that well for another album. Titled, Hex Volume 1, this is not another concept album like The Barrier Peaks Songbook, but rather a collection of songs inspired by classic scenarios for both Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition. There are six tracks in the album and they draw from from a diverse range of scenarios for Player Characters of all Levels. The collection opens with a crash of heavy guitar riffs that the chart the rise and fall of the great evil wizard, Keraptis, whose heinous acts drove the warlords of the north to rise up against him. Thirteen hundred years ago he descended into the volcanic mountain with a company of gnomes and disappeared, the mountain of course, being White Plume Mountain from the special scenario, S2 White Plume Mountain. The track, also called ‘White Plume Mountain’ really works as an introduction to the scenario, telling of Keraptis’ dark deeds and foreshadowing just some of the dangers to be encountered should the Player Characters venture into his lair. Perhaps a bit too heavy to be played in-game (but then a light, lute-based version would probably not be as entertaining), but as a precursor to the scenario of the same name, ‘White Plume Mountain’ is a solid introduction and a good start to the album.
It is followed by ‘Dwellers of the Forbidden City’, a more reflective piece of mystery and horror inspired by the pulpy I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City. It warns of the fearsome things to be found lurking within the depths of the jungle-bound city, the sacrificial pool, the alien voice of the Aboleth—in its first appearance for Dungeons & Dragons—inside the adventurers’ heads, the glint of evil in the snakemen’s eyes, and worst of all, “There’s something alive, Something alive in the ruins, There’s something alive, Something alive and it calls”. The tone is very much one of foreboding and brings to life the horror which pervades the scenario itself, but which is often slightly lost in the pulp overtones. The mystery and horror continues, but is joined by decadence and weirdness with ‘Castle Amber’. Based on the X2 Castle Amber, the scenario for Basic Dungeons & Dragons, this captures the listener in the slumber that strands them inside Chateau d’Amberville, home to the louche, the deadly, and merely insane members of the strange Amber family. There is some delightful wordplay here, such as “When you’re inside Castle Amber mingle with nobility, They like their magic like their coffee, Everything’s a little deadly everywhere there’s lunacy, But they try to keep it in the family” which highlights the insular weirdness of the castle’s inhabitants. From its shimmering start, ‘Castle Amber’ never more than hints at some of the secrets to be found inside Chateau d’Amberville, and whilst the lyrics prove to more than worthy of X2 Castle Amber, the music feels just little too upbeat, a little too much for the delicacy of its inspiration.

On the other hand, no delicacy is required for ‘Tomb of Horrors’, a track inspired by the scenario which set the standard for every ‘Deathtrap’ Dungeon which it inspired—S1 Tomb of Horrors. From the punchy opening “Step into the tunnel past the jackal headed man, Make it to the archway if you can, Into the mouth of the devil you lost another friend, Forsaken in a prison without end”, it is a doom-laden warning to any would be tomb raiders and grave robbers wanting to test their skills and satisfy their avarice against the last resting place of the demi-lich, Acererak. Where ‘Castle Amber’ felt it could have been lighter, ‘Tomb of Horrors’ could have perhaps been heavier, but again the lyrics certainly make up for that. Similarly, ‘Ravenloft’ carries some heft to it, a mournful goth-inspired lament based on what is often regarded as one of the best scenarios to be published for Dungeons & Dragons, which is of course, I6 Ravenloft. And yet, as Count Strahd von Zarovich stands on the balcony of his castle, surveying his domain before him, ruing his misfortunes and regretting the decisions he made in the pursuit of love, the lament is restrained from reaching its full impact. The vocals are simply too positive, too smooth to really reflect the regrets in the lyrics. Had ‘Ravenloft’ been sung by a voice like Trent Reznor* or Johnny Cash, its impact would have been stronger.

* Please note that this reference required the input of this household’s resident Goth.
Hex Volume 1 ends on a more upbeat note with ‘Keep on the Borderlands’, an ode to those guards who stand against villainy out on the frontier and the last refuge for travellers who want to journey beyond the civilised lands. Inspired by the classic B2 Keep on the Borderlands, probably the one module played more than any other, whether that is for Dungeons & Dragons or the Basic Dungeons & Dragons it was written for. There is a strong twang of Americana to this last track, drawing parallels between its fantasy frontier and that of the Old West and edging slightly towards being Country & Western.
Hex Volume 1 does not quite succeed in capturing the feel of every old-school hex map or scenario that it draws its inspiration from, and so is not quite as successful as the earlier The Barrier Peaks Songbook. Nevertheless, the album is still entertaining and will enjoyed by anyone who has played through any of the six scenarios it explores in song. In fact, some of the scenarios which inspire Hex Volume 1 could easily inspire Loot the Body to base songbooks of their own upon them—Reviews from R’lyeh awaits a song titled ‘Bree-Yark!’ for The Keep on the Borderlands Songbook. In the meantime, Dungeons & Dragons devotees and supporters of the Old School Renaissance will find much to enjoy in the lyrics and  references of Hex Volume 1.

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support. Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry.

Andjang: The Queen on Dog Mountain is a little different. Penned by Zedeck Siew—author of Lorn Song of the Bachelor—and drawn by Munkao, it is the fourth title published by the A Thousand Thousand Islands imprint, a Southeast Asian-themed fantasy visual world-building project, one which aims to draw from regional folklore and history to create a fantasy world truly rooted in the region’s myths, rather than a set of rules simply reskinned with a fantasy culture. The result of the project to date is eight fanzines, plus appendices, each slightly different, and each focusing on discrete settings which might be in the same world, but are just easily be separate places in separate worlds. What sets the series apart is the aesthetic sparseness of its combination of art and text. The latter describes the place, its peoples and personalities, its places, and its strangeness with a very simple economy of words. Which is paired with the utterly delightful artwork which captures the strangeness and exoticism of the particular setting and brings it alive. Barring a table of three (or more) for determining random aspects that the Player Characters might encounter each entry in the series is systemless, meaning that each can be using any manner of roleplaying games and systems, whether that is fantasy or Science Fiction, the Old School Renaissance or not.

The first, MR-KR-GR The Death-Rolled Kingdom, described the Death-Rolled Kingdom, built on the remains of great drowned city, now ruled by crocodiles in lazy, benign fashion, they police the river, and their decrees outlaw the exploration of the ruins of MR-KR-GR, and they sometimes hire adventurers. The second, Kraching, explored the life of a quiet, sleepy village alongside a great forest, dominated by cats of all sizes and known for its beautiful carvings of the wood taken from the forest. The third, Upper Heleng: The Forest Beloved by Time, takes the reader into a forest where its husband Time moves differently and the gods dictate the seasons, Leeches stalk you and steal from you that which you hold dear, and squirrels appear to chatter and gossip—if you listen. the fourth takes you into the mountains.

What rumours do you hear from Andjang: The Queen on Dog Mountain? That it is taboo to put down old racing dogs, but bad luck to keep them, so they are sent to the dog heaven that is the Mountain. That you will never see a graveyard there. Instead the dead are dumped in their rice paddies, one corpse per field. Which why their rice crops are so rich. That witchery runs in the people’s blood and they like to buy minor curses from you. Andjang is a place of mystery, but its wan and thin inhabitants want to trade. They want metal goods, wine, fabrics, livestock especially, even slaves, and in return, their meaty black rice is known for its capacity to boost energy and the circulation of the blood, the region’s strangely red loam soil always guarantees that the next crop is a bumper one, and the rattan puppets that bud fruit from the top of their heads when a certain spell is cast. The puppet will obey anyone who eats the fruit, and the locals use them as ‘beasts of burden’ instead of the animals they strangely lack. Perhaps, the Player Characters can sign on as guards on Risala’s cattle train?

If the Player Characters visit Andjang, they will find the kingdom to be stranger than the rumours. None of the villages, each nestled in a valley below the mountains has any animals. Weapons, some murderous, some gossipy, others cranky, have settled into retirement in Andjang, but perhaps they might be traded or stolen out of retirement? The villagers live by three laws. The first is a blood tithe paid in a monthly parade. The second is the recognition of the kingdom’s boundary, marked by megaliths bearing the dog sigil, part of treaties signed with the gods which invading armies lose their way, carnivorous beasts losing their senses, wild spirits freezing… The third is obeisance to Andjang’s prices and princesses, their wishes are law, and they are the only ones who will arrange audiences with the Queen, their mother. And they appreciate gifts.

Yet untold numbers of the kingdom’s Royalty are dumped into the forest to die. There they learn to work together, then hunt to survive, and then they hunt each other. When they leave the forest, they are scarred, but worthy of a name. They are marked though—some have eyes that shine at night, loud joints that constantly pop, a servant trailing behind constantly touching the gold paint which covers them, a detachable head which can reattach to any decapitated corpse, and more.

The palace stand high atop a crag above the valleys with their single villages. Seemingly ruined, it is home to the languorous Queen who spends each day stretched out on a throne that is as much day bed as it is throne, accepting visitors and petitioners who have trailed their way up the mountain and waited weeks to see, her nights stretched out in her boudoir in the mountain cave behind the palace, her open air bath containing two pools. One is full of water, the other is of blood. Below, the caves stretch into the mountain, beginning with a grotto containing a lake of blood… Elsewhere in the palace, the kitchen appears connected to the palace gaol, the treasure house is full of weapons clamped to their stands and pardons from the lowlander cities, and every guest room has a tap out which flows blood. Time may seem to pass differently from room to the next, breathing and knocking seems to come from the walls, and children marked with a tattoo of open eye wander from room to room…

Besides a poster map of the palace, the Game Master is accorded table upon table to add detail and flavour to the encounters, personalities, and things found in the valleys and the palace. These add to the atmosphere of the kingdom, which is one of the oppressive Gothic, heavy on the suggestion that the Queen might be a vampire, but never openly stated. There is a creepy weird feeling throughout, of being watched, of blood being vital to the kingdom, of paranoia, and more. However, much like the earlier Upper Heleng: The Forest Beloved by Time, the issue with Andjang: The Queen on Dog Mountain is not immediately easy to use. Again because of the remote nature of the kingdom and because it is difficult to engage the Player Characters until they climb up to Andjang. That is its biggest weakness. It has the hooks—both ethnographic and cosmological—but it is a matter of getting the Player Characters there, but once there, the kingdom oozes a creepy charm of its own.

Physically, Andjang: The Queen on Dog Mountain is a slim booklet which possesses the lovely simplicity of the Thousand Thousand Isles, both in terms of the words and the art. The illustrations are exquisite and the writing delightfully succinct and easy to grasp.

In terms of story, Andjang: The Queen on Dog Mountain is easy to use once the Player Characters get there. There are hooks and plots which the Game Master could develop and engage the players and their characters with, and the setting is easy to adapt to the world of the Game Master’s choice, whether that is a domain on the Demiplane of Dread that is Ravenloft for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition or a remote kingdom in Hollow Earth Expedition or Leagues of Adventure. However it is used, if the Game Master can get her Player Characters to its borders, Andjang: The Queen on Dog Mountain is creepy and weird, a beautifully and simply presented vampire kingdom off the beaten track.

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The great news is that is Upper Heleng: The Forest Beloved by Time, MR-KR-GR The Death-Rolled Kingdom, Kraching, Andjang: The Queen on Dog Mountain, and the others in the Thousand Thousand Isles setting are now available outside of Malaysia. Details can be found here.

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

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

Black Pudding is a fanzine that is nominally written for use with Labyrinth Lord and so is compatible with other Retroclones, but it is not a traditional Dungeons & Dragons-style  fanzine. For starters, it is all but drawn rather than written, with artwork that reflects a look that is cartoonish, a tone that is slightly tongue in cheek, and a gonzo feel. Its genre is avowedly Swords & Sorcery, as much Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser as Conan the Barbarian. Drawn from the author’s ‘Doomslakers!’ house rules and published by Random Order via Square Hex, Black Pudding’s fantasy roleplaying content that is anything other than the straight-laced fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons, but something a bit lighter, but still full of adventure and heroism. Issues one, two, and three have showcased the author’s ‘Doomslakers!’ house rules with a mix of new character Classes, spells, magic items, monsters, NPCs, and adventures. Black Pudding #4 included a similar mix of new Classes, NPCs, and an adventure, but also included the author’s ‘OSR Play book’, his reference for running an Old School Renaissance game, essentially showing how he runs his own campaign. Published in August 2018, Black Pudding #5 is more of a return to form, a mix of new character Classes, spells, magic items, monsters, NPCs, and adventures. It does, however, begin to suggest a campaign setting.
Black Pudding #5 opens with ‘Standing Stones of Marigold Hills’. This is a mini-sandbox consisting of a series of hills strewn with tombstones and graves, with many of the latter occupied with the undead and the region by the spirits of the dead. Some of these occupants are given thumbnail descriptions for easy portrayal by the Labyrinth Lord. The tombstones were once tended to by the Marigold Witch, but although she is long gone, it is said that she left her spellbook behind. Perhaps it is in one of the tombs? The Book of Marigold is also detailed as is the fact that it will avoid being ‘captured’ and the three spells it contains. These spells are cartoonishly inventive, such as Arrow Road, which creates path of arrows which the targets of the spell must follow, and Marigold Charm, which creates a sphere of pungent aroma that renders those inside immune to poison, gas, and insect attacks, but at the cost of a reaction penalty and inability to surprise anyone.
The second adventure is ‘The Rat Queen Dies Tonight’, designed for Player Characters of Fourth and Fifth Levels. It is a thirteen-location, fairly linear cavern complex, sparsely written, but nicely detailed. The Player Characters trail a band of marauding rats to this complex and discover what appears to be at first a scavenged tomb then hot and steamy caves. The secret is that the Rat Queen has entered a pact with a demon and according to that pact, she dies tonight! Are the Player Characters the means of fulfilling that pact or is there another solution? There is lots of treasure to be found, including Malefysto’s Grimoire of Nefarious Incantations, another book of spells. These are all fire-themed, such as Malefysto’s Hands of Fire, which gives the caster flaming fists that he can even throw them like mini-fireballs, and Malefysto’s Eyes of Doom which turns the caster’s eyes black and his gaze capable of vaporising anyone he looks upon! The spellbook will be a suitable reward for any Wizard, but there is plenty of treasure to go around and the scenario itself is fun.
 ‘Adventures in the North’. The details a small region taken from the land of Yria, the ‘Doomslakers’ campaign, dotted with independent villages and dwarf strongholds, the latter abandoned after the blue giants known as the Norg drove them out. Even now, the dwarves plan to take their lands back. It takes the traditional concept of the barbarian north and its frosty weather, adds big tables of encounters and rumours of the north, and new monsters and magical items. The new monsters include the Ice Witch, a twisted, cold-hearted woman who lives in an icy house or cloister with her sisters, can cast numerous cold and ice-themed spells, and can be healed from or even reflect cold attacks. When slain, they can rise again as Witch Wights which seek out the warmth of the living, and some Ice Witch matriarchs carry a Staff of the Ice Witch, which will might freeze anyone who grasps it, can cast further spells than those of the Witch Wight, and once a month, conjure a blizzard! There is a lot packed into the four pages of this and it is great to some setting content from the author’s own campaign. Hopefully this will be supported with an adventure or two and more support in future issues.
Black Budding is renowned for its one-page, slightly tongue-in-cheek new character Classes and Black Pudding #5 is no exception with a total of three. The first is the Ninja, which does everything you would expect. The Ninja cannot wear metal armour or wield two-handed weapons, but is good with ranged weapons, a better backstab attack than the Thief potentially inflicting a deathblow, is adept at stealth and can throw flash and smoke bombs. Each Ninja comes from one of eight Ninja Orders which sets certain requirements for being a Ninja, such as the Red Finger order requiring its members to wear red gloves and those of the Morbid Moons to honour the undead! The Ninja Class feels nicely done, but perhaps slightly overly potent in comparison to other Classes.
The Orbii is an ancient race of protectors, said to have served the Daughters of the Moon. They fight as Thieves, but each has a single special talent like being able to forge weapons and armour, including magical weapons and armour at Fifth Level or being able to track and forage. They can also pray to the Moon Goddess once per day to gain ‘Moon Luck’, such as a kiss which heals the supplicant or teleporting the character and his allies anywhere they like! The Boola is the buxom matron of wild places and mother to secrets, who fights as a Cleric, can listen to nature to learn its secrets, and is accompanied by one or more animal companions. Both are thematically strong, the Boola essentially a variant upon the Druid Class.
The monsters in the issue begin with a quartet of unconnected and a quartet of connected creatures. The former includes the Star Troll, wise in cosmic wisdom and with a penchant for Elf flesh; the Ipzee , a cave-dwelling many-toothed thing which cannot be pushed over, swallows its treasure, and whose teeth can be turned into wands; the Ninja Devil, packs of miniature devils which practice Ninjitsu and assassination; and the Angry Shell, a grumpy if multi-lingual sea beast with a great shell who hates to be disturbed, but which might be bribed to talk. The connected creatures are the Arqod Illuminara, the Arqod Champion, the Arqod Dreadling, and the Arqod Sauropod. The Arqod Illuminara are ancient mind-bending, hyper-intelligent humanoids from the time before, always accompanied by their fearsome zealot Arqod Champions, almost suicidal, perpetually hungry for live flesh (and brains and bones) Arqod Dreadlings, and perhaps riding a great Arqod Sauropod, whose ichor can be harvested for its magical properties, and when not serving as beast of burden, likes to play practical jokes by pretending to be small hills. There is something very much of the Alien Universe in these creatures, the Arqod Illuminara being a little like the Engineer for example. Each of these creatures is accompanied by thumbnail descriptions—sometimes a little more, illustrations, and stats, all enough to be both entertaining and playable.
One of the best on-going features in Black Pudding is ‘Meatshields of the Bleeding Ox’, a collection of NPCs ready for hire by the Player Characters (or in a pinch, replacement Player Characters). There is a decent range of NPCs given here, such as Iko Rain, a Fourth Level Ninja whose turn-ons are infiltration and turn-offs are yaks, turtles, and big fights, and The Beast of Bogl, a Four Hit Dice Beast who likes food and fighting, hates talking and not eating, and will not carry anything. Much like the monsters, they each come with full stats, thumbnail description and portrait, as well as a list of their abilities and how much they can be hired for. Unfortunately, seventeen is too many, just as they did in Black Pudding #4, and as inventive and as fun as these are, they do begin to like place fillers rather than actual gaming content.
‘They Come… But What Are They?’ is a one-page NPC/monster generator. With a roll of a handful of dice, the Labyrinth Lord can create the encounter’ looks, alignment, magic, special defences and attacks, toughness, and more. It is quick and dirty and useful. Rounding out The Black Pudding #5 is a quartet of detailed magical weapons. Zam is a +2 sword which can read magic and grant levitation once a day, but really wants to kill Dark Elves; Traumch, a Chaotic +2 battle axe which can smash armour and deals double damage against unarmoured opponents and the undead; and Riveredge and Moonbeam are +1 swords, the first granting water breathing, increased swimming speed, and the ability to walk on water, whilst the second inflicts double damage on lycanthropes and can capture moonlight and shine like a torch. All four are nicely themed and interesting enough that any character capable of wielding them would have fun with them. Lastly, on the back of the issue is a new character sheet for the retroclone, this time laid out as the face of the demon statue being plundered on the cover of the Player’s Handbook for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition. It is silly certainly, but a bit of fun, and a nice nod to the origins of the game.
Physically, Black Pudding #5 adheres to the same standards set by the previous issues. So plenty of good, if cartoonish artwork to give it a singular, consistent look and lots of quite short articles, that are in places are underwritten. The obvious issue with Black Pudding #5—and indeed, any of its issues, is that its tone may not be compatible with the style of Dungeons & Dragons that a Labyrinth Lord or Game Master is running. The tone of Black Pudding is lighter, weirder, and in places just sillier than the baseline Dungeons & Dragons game, so the Game Master should take this into account when using the content of the fanzine, but Black Pudding #5 does something that previous issues have to dated avoided. That is, showcase parts of the author’s ‘Doomslakers!’ campaign and that lifts Black Pudding out of just being a madcap medley of monsters, Classes, and NPCs.
Again, just as in previous issues, Black Pudding #5 has too many NPCs and whilst there is still room for ‘Meatshields of the Bleeding Ox’, it should ideally be reduced in size to make way for other content. Especially the author’s ‘Doomslakers!’ campaign which deserves more attention in the pages of the fanzine. Once again, Black Pudding #5 combines a slightly gonzo style and look in a professionally published package offering fun new content and the promise of more of the ‘Doomslakers!’ campaign setting.

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

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry.
Published since July 2014 by the Melsonian Arts Council, the frequency of issues of the fanzine, The Undercroft is no longer as regular as it once was. After a four-year gap between the publication of The Undercroft No. 10 and The Undercroft No. 11 in August, 2020, it was something of a surprise to see the publication of The Undercroft No. 12 the following October. In addition, although previous issues provided support for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay, the more recent issues have moved away from providing direct support to providing not only support for the Old School Renaissance in general, and thus any fantasy retroclone. The Undercroft No. 11 even went as far to provide support for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition! There is no support for that roleplaying game in The Undercroft No. 13, although there is advice for using one of the articles with it. Otherwise, the issue does feel as if it is moving away from its Old School Renaissance origins.
The Undercroft No. 13 contains but three articles. The first of these is Sándor Gebei’s ‘Familiars for Witches’. This is a list of six dark and disturbing alternatives to the familiars that you might find in other roleplaying games with witches. For example, a witch has three crows, out of whose eyes she can see and cast hexes. Each time she casts a hex via one of her crows, it is set free from the witch’s bidding. When the witch subsequently strangles someone with her own hands, the victim returns to the witch as one of her crows. The other five familiars are of a similar or worse nature.
The main article in The Undercroft No. 13 is ‘So, it’s the End of the World’ by Dennis Manning. This is an exploration of the post-apocalypse genre. It is a solid overview, beginning with asking the cause of the disaster, such as a new Ice Age or extreme flooding from Climate Change or a virus, a plague, or zombie outbreak unleashed as the result of ritual magics or super science, before emphasising that adventures in this genre are about survival and rebuilding rather than delving and plundering. It suggests the use of Resilience value to represent what is essentially a Player Character’s mental Hit Points. If through loss, tragedy, or danger, enough points of Resilience is lost to reduce it to zero, the player rerolls a new total on the next lower die type, potentially gains a Condition, such as ‘Sleeping less than usual’ or ‘Temper tantrums’, and continues playing. If the die type for a Player Character’s Resilience drops below a four-sided die, it is time for him to retire. A table of Conditions is provided as is one for Injury Conditions, although the rules for handling injuries in the same fashion as Resilience are barely discussed.
Other rules for the genre include item quality, barter economics, personal inventory and storage, and detailing and running the homebase. The Player Characters are expected to protect the inhabitants of their base, build and manage resources—represented by die types, and face the consequences of their actions if the inhabitants are upset at all, such as killing or exiling a resident or exposing them to danger. There is a table for this, as there is for individualising the home base, essentially the reason it was selected in the first place. The rules creating and running a homebase and the dangers to the well-being of the Player Characters and the residents are all serviceable. Serviceable and no more, because they are not really anything which has not been seen before, whether in fanzines or other roleplaying games. Of course, if the genre and the set-up is new to the reader, then fine, but if not, the rules feel somewhat out of place in the fanzine, too modern a subject or genre in comparison to the usual Old School Renaissance fantasy that is usual fare for The Undercroft. So it is debatable just much use a reader of the fanzine will get out of them. The lack of examples do not help with this either, and overall, ‘So, it’s the End of the World’ feels as if it is actually the prototype for ‘The Apocalypse Hack’ a la The Black Hack and perhaps might have been suited to a dedicated ‘post-apocalypse’ issue or even roleplaying game of its own rather than sandwiched between two fantasy articles.
Rounding out The Undercroft No. 13 is Alex Clements’ ‘You Have Been Cursed’, a list of mostly minor curses that can be inflicted in the Player Characters for fun and roleplaying potential. It suggests a change to the rules for curses and removing them in Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. In particular, needing a Remove Curse spell of a particular Level to remove a curse, either that or fulfilling the removal terms of the curse. A typical curse states that the Player Character has been cursed by Sainted Bartholomew and consequently badgers hate the Player Character. They will crawl from their cets in the dead of to seek him out, perhaps even take him whilst he is awake, though probably not as badgers are strong, but not foolish. They are patient and they are good tunnelers… As can be seen, not every curse has conditions which can be fulfilled in order to lift it, but all thirty-six are inventive and engaging and are really going to make a player curse his Dungeon Master.
The Undercroft No. 13 needs a slight edit in place, but is otherwise neat and tidy, and enjoyably illustrated. The cover, wraparound in full colour, is weird and creepy. 
The Undercroft No. 12 felt slight because of the long articles, and so does The Undercroft No. 13—for exactly the same reason. Further, as reasonable as they are, not all of the articles in The Undercroft No. 13 fit the fanzine and whilst the individual articles are in no way bad, together the end result is underwhelming rather than engaging.

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Another choice is the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game.

Published by Straycouches Press, Crawl! is one such fanzine dedicated to the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. Since Crawl! No. 1 was published in March, 2012 has not only provided ongoing support for the roleplaying game, but also been kept in print by Goodman Games. Now because of online printing sources like Lulu.com, it is no longer as difficult to keep fanzines from going out of print, so it is not that much of a surprise that issues of Crawl! remain in print. It is though, pleasing to see a publisher like Goodman Games support fan efforts like this fanzine by keeping them in print and selling them directly.

Where Crawl! No. 1 was something of a mixed bag, Crawl! #2 was a surprisingly focused, exploring the role of loot in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and describing various pieces of treasure and items of equipment that the Player Characters might find and use. Similarly, Crawl! #3 was just as focused, but the subject of its focus was magic rather than treasure. Unfortunately, the fact that a later printing of Crawl! No. 1 reprinted content from Crawl! #3 somewhat undermined the content and usefulness of Crawl! #3. Fortunately, Crawl! Issue Number Four was devoted to Yves Larochelle’s ‘The Tainted Forest Thorum’, a scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game for characters of Fifth Level. Crawl! Issue V continued the run of themed issues, focusing on monsters, but ultimately to not always impressive effect, whilst Crawl! No. 6: Classic Class Collection presented some interesting versions of classic Dungeons & Dragons-style Classes for Dungeon Crawl Classics, though not enough of them. Crawl! Issue No. 7: Tips! Tricks! Traps! was a bit of bit of a medley issue, addressing a number of different aspects of dungeoneering and fantasy roleplaying, Crawl! No. 8: Firearms! did a fine job of giving rules for guns and exploring how to use in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game.
Published in January, 2014, Crawl! No. 9: The Arwich Grinder continues the run of focused issues of the fanzine. In fact, the focus has got tighter and tighter with each subsequent issue such that Crawl! No. 9: The Arwich Grinder contains just the two articles—a scenario and an encounter, both of which are written by Daniel J. Bishop, who has written quite a lot for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. The scenario is ‘The Arwich Grinder’ of the title and it is designed as a ‘Character Funnel’. If there is a singular feature to the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, it is the ‘Character Funnel’. This takes Zero Level Player Characters—usually four per player—and pushes them through a Zero Level dungeon. Devoid of the abilities and Hit Points that a Class would grant them, a Class is what each of these Player Characters aspires to and can acquire if they survive the challenge each of them will face in the dungeon or adventure. Thus prepared by their terrible experiences they can go onto greater adventures of ever higher and higher Levels. In the meantime, there is the ‘Character Funnel’ in which there is death and danger aplenty, as well as a challenge for the designer, because every has to present the right mix of death and danger if any of the characters are to survive. This is because the characters lack the abilities, spells, and combat acumen that First Level adventurers possess, instead they have to rely upon their luck and their wits.
The scenario begins in almost traditional fashion for the Player Character—they begin in The Hound, the village tavern. Suddenly, a Very Large Man stumbles into the tavern and collapses. Short, but of enormous girth with short arms and legs, he is naked, and also dead. From no discernible cause. However, in his hands he clutches a bonnet belonging to the beautiful Bessie Curwen, one of the Curwen family which has lived up in the pine woods surrounding Arwich Village for long as anyone remembers. The Curwen family keep themselves to themselves, a little odd perhaps and rarely venturing down to the village, but it has always been kind to the inhabitants of Arwich Village. During the very hard winter two years ago, they helped keep many alive with freshly caught food. So the village owes at least a debt of gratitude to the Curwens, and thus somebody must venture up to their family home to find out what has happened and if everyone is all right. That someone will be the Player Characters.
Mention the name Curwen and all good gamers—and especially those with a penchant for Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying—will be thinking of H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Case of Charles Dexter Ward’ and they would be almost right to make that connection. ‘The Arwich Grinder’ is a Lovecraftian ‘Character Funnel’, but it has elements of ‘The Dunwich Horror’ too, and whilst the setting is the Curwen family home, it is in effect, a dungeon. The Player Characters will climb up into the woods and perhaps after an encounter, find the Curwen family home. It is damp and dilapidated, mould-ridden and malodorous, seemingly abandoned except for the senile and the unhinged. There are signs of slaughter almost everywhere—hooks and cleavers, preserved meats and curing meats, meat grinders, butcher’s knives and aprons, a coppery tang on the tongue, and more… There are pigs too, but seemingly all too few. The Curwen family must have done a great deal of hunting…
The Curwen family seat is described across two storeys, an attic, a cellar, and caves below that. There are some forty or so locations, each full of details—large and small, which constantly nag at the Player Characters. There are of course horrors to be encountered, and like any good ‘adventure’ for Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying, the best solution would be to run away, especially given the capabilities of Zero Level characters. That is, all but nothing. Eventually, whether through the nagging nature of the facts discovered at the Curwen home or direct confrontation, the Player Characters will realise what is going on. Amusingly, the best solution given to what is actually going on in the Curwen household is a cliché favoured by many a fan of Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying.
However, ‘The Arwich Grinder’ does come unstuck slightly when it comes to the explanation of exactly what is going on in the Curwen household. The problem is that author never tells the Judge what is going on and it is entirely up to the judge to read through the scenario and put two and two together. It is actually fairly easy, but effectively doubles the preparation time of what is actually a very easy scenario to prepare and run. In fact, the scenario could almost be run from the page with no preparation, it is that straightforward. There is a time limit in terms of when the Player Characters can explore the Curwen house and means to drive them to act if they decide not to, but it feels a bit forced and perhaps it would be easier to simply move the time frame so that the Player Characters get there when they need to. Another issue is that although ‘The Arwich Grinder’ is Lovecraftian themed, both it and the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game lack a Sanity mechanic. Which is fine, since the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game is a fantasy roleplaying game, but perhaps the Sanity mechanic could be adopted from Crawl-thulhu: A Two-Fisted ’Zine of Lovecraftian Horror Issue 1? Or indeed, ‘The Arwich Grinder’ run using the rules from that fanzine?

Overall, ‘The Arwich Grinder’ is a decent scenario, which although it does not actually explain what is going on, has it instead become apparent during play. All the whilst skirting around not one, but two short stories by H.P. Lovecraft. It is grimy and atmospheric, and like every ‘Character Funnel’ before it, deadly. The scenario does not necessarily set out to kill the Player Characters—except where it matters, and that gives both room and time for the players to build a rapport with and between their characters, and those of the other players. Which means that when they finally fed into the grinding climax, the deaths of Player Characters are going for just that little bit more.
The second entry in Crawl! No. 9: The Arwich Grinder is also by Daniel J. Bishop. ‘But He Sure Had Guts! A Short Encounter’ lives up to both its title and subtitle. It is short and it does involve guts, providing a nasty comeuppance for any Player Character who happened to have disemboweled an opponent in the last few days. The Player Character begins to dream about intestines, seemly alive, seemly wanting to crush? Are they real? Do they belong to someone, perhaps even the Player Character? This is really only suitable for a campaign involving body horror, and maybe even then, it might be better if it remained just a nightmare... ‘But He Sure Had Guts! A Short Encounter’ is weird and not a little creepy, but too short to really build up the atmosphere of ‘The Arwich Grinder’, so it feels very much like an afterthought.
Physically, Crawl! No. 9: The Arwich Grinder is decently presented. The writing and editing are good, and much of the artwork is certainly decent enough to be shown to the Player Characters. As to the content, ‘But He Sure Had Guts! A Short Encounter’ is very much an afterthought, whereas ‘The Arwich Grinder’ is intended as, and is, the main attraction. Sometimes it can feel as if there are too many ‘Character Funnel’ style adventures for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. This is no surprise as it is the signature feature of the roleplaying game and it almost a rite of passage for an designer to write one for it. ‘The Arwich Grinder’ stands out because of its Lovecraftian themes and atmosphere and potential adaptation, either for First Level Player Characters or to a modern iteration. Either way, the scenario is easy to prepare and should provide a session or two of grimy, creepy play. Crawl! No. 9: The Arwich Grinder provides an atmospheric ‘Character Funnel’ which players of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game who like horror will enjoy.

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

—oOo—

What is it?
Wenkarleos presents an NPC, his entourage, and associated cult for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.
It is a thirty-one page, full colour, 2.23 MB PDF.
The layout is clean and tidy, and its illustrations good.

Where is it set?
Wenkarleos is nominally set in Tarsh and Sartar, but the NPC and his entourage can be encountered almost anywhere the Game Master decides.

Who do you play?
No specific character types are required to encounter Wenkarleos. Lunar Tarshites, Old Tarshites, and adherents of the Seven Mothers can have interesting interactions with Wenkarleos.

What do you need?
Wenkarleos requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. In addition, A Rough Guide to Glamour may be useful as an introduction to Lunar culture and politics, The Glorantha Sourcebook for recent history, and potentially the sourcebooks on Lunar Tarsh and Old Tarsh available for previous versions of the roleplaying game.
What do you get?
The second volume of ‘Monster of the Month’ presents not monsters in the sense of creatures and spirits and gods that was the feature of the first volume. Instead, it focuses upon Rune Masters, those who have achieved affinity with their Runes and gained great magics, mastered skills, and accrued allies—corporeal and spiritual. They are powerful, influential, and potentially important in the Hero Wars to come that herald the end of the age and beginning of another. They can be allies, they can be enemies, and whether ally or enemy, some of them can still be monsters.
The fourth entry is Wenkarleos, which describes a Rune Lord of the Seven Mothers. The ‘Gold-Giving Son of Gartred’, Wenkarleos of Furtherest is the head of the Gartredi Clan in Lunar Tarsh, a fierce supporter of King Pharandros and stalwart opponent of the Fazzursons faction in the civil war in Tarsh. He dreams of building a ‘Greater Tarsh’, but has been tasked with finding allies to support his side in the civil war. A former hoplite file leader and captain serving under the famous General Fazzur Wideread, he is rarely without a small cohort of troops, whom he trains hard to fight together, and whilst a good swordsman himself—though it helps that one of his bound spirits is an ancient spirit of kopises, he a skilled tactician and magician. In addition, like all Rune Lords, he is accompanied by his own retinue who include a loyal soldier, his Orlanthi lover and spy, and a Lunar sorcerer, who serves as his war caster. All four are fully detailed, including their equipment, their spells, and any allied or bound spirits. Some of these will prove entertaining for the Game Master to roleplay, such as ‘Abeladrus’ Tankard’, occupied by the spirit of a former labourer who possesses defeated opponents and drives them to drink and the Mistress of Unconditional Desires drives her victims mad through visions and sensations as she reveals the unconditional love and acceptance of the Lunar Way.
As well as presenting Wenkarleos and his retinue, the supplement discusses his tactics—particularly the way in which he has drilled his soldiers with certain set manoeuvres, and his extensive use of magic, including the use of the Multispell Rune spell, spell matrix enchantments, and high storage of personal POW, often donated by his loyal followers, who are in turn handsomely rewarded. Both the use of the Multispell Rune spell and spell matrix enchantments are fairly complex, so will need careful study upon the part of the Game Master to use effectively in-game.
It also suggests how Wenkarleos can be used in-game, whether as an ally or an enemy, potentially serving as a source of conflict with Tarshites—Lunar or not, especially if like Vostor from The Broken Tower, has the Passion of Hate (King Pharandros). Thus he can be used to pull the Player Characters into the Tarshite Civil War, and thus later, events during the early years of the Hero Wars and the rise of Argrath Whitebull. There is potential here for a long-term campaign in which as allies or agents of Wenkarleos, the Player Characters will be facing agents of Argrath Whitebull’s allies in the Tarshite Civil War. Either way, Wenkarleos is best introduced early on in a campaign. Of course, an Orlanthi or Sartarite campaign would more likely to see Wenkarleos as the enemy, and that may preclude his use in some campaigns.
Lastly, two adventure seeds are included, though both use as an enemy rather than an ally. A new magical item, Philigos Medallions, is also described. These were made by King Phargentes of Tarsh and grant those attuned with them the Sense Assassin skill.
Is it worth your time?Yes—Wenkarleos presents a potentially interesting ally or enemy who can be used to draw a campaign into the politics of Tarsh and the early years of the Hero Wars, and so provide some time in the spotlight for any Tarshite or Seven Mothers-worshipping Player Characters.No—Wenkarleos presents connections to Tarsh which may draw a campaign set in Sartar too far north and as yet, the politics and situation in Tarsh in the period when RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is set, remain relatively unexplored.Maybe—Wenkarleos presents a potentially interesting ally or enemy, whose politics may radically differ from the Player Characters or the campaign, and who may just a little too complex in terms of his magic to use easily.

Since the publication of Call of Cthulhu in 1981, the Mythos has proliferated into numerous other genres and roleplaying games, including the fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons. For example, Wizards of the Coast published Call of Cthulhu d20 in 2001, whilst Realms of Crawling Chaos from Goblinoid Games explored the Mythos for the Old School Renaissance. More recently, Petersen Games presented the entities, races, gods, and spells of the Mythos for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, enabling the Dungeon Master to bring those elements of cosmic horror in her fantasy campaign. What though, about using Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition to run campaigns involving cosmic horror in the more modern periods normally associated with Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying—much like Wizards of the Coast did with Call of Cthulhu d20? For that, there is Whispers in the Dark from Saturday Morning Scenarios, also the publisher of Harper’s Tale: A Forest Adventure Path for 5e, a campaign for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, suitable for a younger or family audience. Whispers in the Dark is definitely not, being a horror setting in which stalwart Investigators confront the forces of the Mythos or ‘Yog-Sothothery’, and do not always succeed or come away unscathed—physically or mentally. The starting point is Whispers in the Dark: Quickstart Rules for 5e, and although there is not yet a full roleplaying rulebook for Whispers in the Dark, there is a combined setting and novel.

Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting and its novella, The Devil’s City, which explore the early history of the city of Chicago through its rise and explosive growth to prominence as an important trade and transport hub on the Great Lakes to the World’s Columbian Exposition, the most influential world’s fair in history in 1893 and the horrors which would be revealed within the walls of the World’s Fair Hotel at the hands of Herman Webster Mudgett, also known as H.H. Holmes, arguably America’s first and most notorious serial killer. Inspired by Eric Larson’s The Devil in the White City, the novella serves as a prequel ‘Welcome to my Parlour’, introducing the reader to the five pre-generated Investigators who one-by-one fall prey to Mudgett’s dark desires and those of his master, Atlach-Nacha. It is dark and ghoulish piece, which can be read on its own, but should really be read by each of the five players in readiness to roleplay through the scenario. And of course, the Game Master should also read it as part of her preparation to run it. Overall, it sets the tone for the scenario, which like the novella, combines elements of both survival and body horror. Neither the novella nor the supplement are for the faint-hearted.

Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting opens with ‘People of Color in Late 19th Century America’, an essay written by Doctor Robert Greene II, Assistant Professor of History at Claflin University to share the perspective of those African Americans who were resident in Chicago and helped to build the city. It is accompanied by biographies of the leading Black figures of the period, including Frederick Douglas, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Nancy Green. No character write-ups are provided of these figures by intention, but the essay encourages a Game Master to use them and the lives of Black Chicagoans to add veracity to her game. Unfortunately, as interesting as the essay is, the authors of the supplement do not support it with scenario hooks and advice, which is a missed opportunity and would have helped a Game Master develop the veracity that Doctor Greene II suggests is possible. One interesting involvement of the leading figures profiled here is that they and other African American activists protested at the lack of an African American pavilion at the World’s Columbian Exposition, but again, this is not something that the authors of the supplement support.

There are plenty of scenario hooks throughout the rest of Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting. As it progresses through the founding and history of the city, covering in turn the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the founding of Montgomery Ward, the first mail order catalogue in 1872, the Unsightly Beggar Law of 1881, and more. Of course, this includes the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. This is almost the centrepiece of the supplement, and so is explored in some detail. This includes write-ups for many of the figures involved in the event, including its architect, Daniel Burnham, Harry Houdini who performed there, William ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody and Annie Oakley of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West & Congress of Rough Riders of the World, which also performed there, but was not associated with the event. Numerous tents are placed along the Midway for Investigators attending the World’s Columbian Exposition to encounter and enter, experiencing bright, sometimes strange proprietors and incidences in an almost carnival-like atmosphere, including cockroach races and the Light of Ra. These are more odd than Mythos.

The various districts and places of the city are presented, including Lake Michigan and the Chicago River, the Yard which form its meatpacking district, Bubbly Creek, a foul, bubbling arm of the Chicago River, Cabbage Patch or Old Town with its St. Michael’s Church built as a haven for German immigrants, and Lincoln Park with its zoo, before expanding out to the surrounding states. However, as interesting as these descriptions are, they lack geographical context as the period maps are too small to use effectively. Numerous organisations—clubs, cults, and coteries are detailed, which can become allies, enemies, and even patrons. They include the Nightworms, dedicated to the preservation, protection, and provision of books of all kinds; the Whitechapel Club, the informal counterpart to the social club of the Chicago Press Club, fascinated with some of the ghoulish incidents its members have reported on; and the Black Star Society, dedicated to spreading the influence of the Yellow Sign. Some of these are aware of the strangeness going on in the city, most are not. The various gangs and organised crime is given a similar treatment, the Italian mob in particular.

Although several of the story hooks in Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting hint at the Mythos, the supplement is not a full treatment of its presence in the city and there is no overview of it in the city. Notable inclusions include the Grobowskis, a pack of Ghouls which police the Yard district with an iron for both mundane and Mythos incidents, and the Chicago Athletic Association, a private club whose inner circle worship Ithaqua and spread his worship through tonics of disreputable source that enhance the athleticism of other members. Its treatment gets fully underway with how parts of the city have influenced the Dreamlands—Abattoir Fields, an unsettling hunting ground overcast with rusty brown, bruised clouds and smelling of copper created by the slaughter of animals in the stockyards; the Conflagration—a land of smouldering rubble and whirling ash created by the Great Fire of 1871; and of course, the World’s Fair Hotel, its presence dedicated and reinforced to Atlach-Nacha by Mudgett. In return, the Dreamlands intrudes into the mundane world, especially in the World’s Fair Hotel.

Besides the main scenario, ‘Welcome to my Parlour’, Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting includes a story arc and a campaign jump-start. The story arc, ‘Hot Night in the Olde Town’ is a tale of gang revenge which begins with a bombing, whilst ‘Procurements & Acquisitions’ is the campaign jump-start. The Investigators are hired by a Chinese man to locate some artefacts that he cannot due to the difficulty of manoeuvring in American society and the racism he faces. The set-up can be tied into the organisations previously described as well as Mudgett and the World’s Fair Hotel, and gives the starting point from which the Game Master can develop further using the material in the supplement.

The main feature in Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting is the ‘World’s Fair Hotel’, its ‘Hotel Staff’—including Mudgett and his co-conspirators, and the scenario, ‘Welcome to my Parlour’. The hotel itself is extensively mapped and detailed, there being some eighty locations across three storeys and the basement. The ground floor consists of retail premises, a hotel on the first floor, and Mudgett’s rooms and other facilities on the third, whilst in the basement, nastier rooms can be found. Extensive descriptions are given of its ordinary rooms, strange locks, chutes, extensive secret doors, odd plumbing, locked rooms which cannot be opened from the inside—some airtight, others connected to pipes which pump gas into the room, surgical tables, acid vats, hanging rooms, and more. The descriptions are clearly marked in red, whilst throughout sidebars discuss other features and rules, such as the infamous lockable chute which delivers bodies from the top floor to the basement, gambling, and the intrusion of the Dreamlands into the hotel. It is its own little world, a murder hotel in which the supernaturally enhanced Mudgett sees all and controls much, and into which the authors want to drive the Investigators…

The scenario, ‘Welcome to my Parlour’, is best played using the given pre-generated Investigators whose backgrounds have been presented in the novella, The Devil’s City. They are Fourth Level Player Characters, each of whom has fallen prey to Mudgett’s predations and awake to find themselves trapped in the basement of their hotel. They must face their own nightmares as well as the horrors of the hotel, and perhaps may learn of their captor’s secrets before they can escape. Essentially, ‘Welcome to my Parlour’ presents another way of approaching the set-up of the hotel and its murderous proprietor, one that confronts the Investigators with the existence of the Mythos much earlier on and more directly than the options elsewhere in the supplement. The scenario is likely to take two or three sessions to play through at most, and leaves what comes next up to the Game Master.

The scenario, whose title references Mudgett’s arachnid master, includes and highlights a number of trigger warnings, including body horror, child ghosts, torture devices, forceful imprisonment, human experimentation, cannibalism, and emotional abuse. This is appropriate and there is no denying the number of strong subjects and themes entailed in ‘Welcome to My Parlour’, but there is potentially another issue with the scenario, that of using the Mythos in this fashion. In other words, using it to explain Mudgett’s monstrous crimes. This is not uncommon in Lovecraftian investigative horror set in the nineteenth century, especially when it comes to the use of Jack the Ripper (and also Sherlock Holmes), the use of which is simply trite. The use of Mudgett and the World’s Fair Hotel does not feel that, primarily because the subject matter is unfamiliar, but that still leaves the matter of using the Mythos in conjunction with both. Fortunately, Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting does not employ the Mythos to explain or provide a possible excuse for Mudgett’s crimes, but rather has the Mythos take advantage of someone who is already a monster and exacerbates his true nature. Of course, running and playing a campaign set in Chicago at the time of the World’s Columbian Exposition means it is difficult to avoid Mudgett and the World’s Fair Hotel, nevertheless,  both the Game Master and her players may want to be aware of the nature of the crimes before beginning play.

Rounding out Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting is a quartet of appendices. For the Game Master there is ‘Welcome to My Parlour Statblocks’; a ‘Gamemaster’s Toolbox’ of Hit Dice, Creature Size, and Challenge Ratings; a list of ‘Publications of the 19th Century’ and ‘Patent Medication Names’; and the ‘World’s Fair Hotel Maps’. For the players it includes ‘The Devil’s City Pre-gens’—the five pre-generated Investigators for the scenario, ‘Welcome to My Parlour’ and ‘New Investigator Options’, which adds a new Ancestry in form of Tcho-Tcho, new Backgrounds including Athlete, Explorer, Religious Scholar, and Teamster, new Feats, and a new Alignment system. The latter switches from the traditional ‘law versus chaos’ and ‘good versus evil’ axes to ‘good versus evil’, ‘order versus chaos’, and ‘selfless versus selfish’. A Player Character typically has one or two of these, and can add another as a result of a major, usually traumatic, life event. Each axis is a scale, designed to provide a player some flexibility in how his Investigator reacts and changes over time. A player is expected to write a narrative description of his Investigator’s Alignment, again providing a player with greater flexibility in how he portrays his Investigator. Although the five pre-generated Investigators are nicely presented, they could have done with clearer backgrounds for players who have not necessarily read The Devil’s City.

Physically, Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting is a well-presented book. The artwork is decent and the maps excellent. It could have done with an index, and in places the writing could have been clearer. The organisation does not always feel logical either, the Mythos sitting alongside the mundane at times when it feels it should have been placed later in the book. In places it feels as if the content has been developed in fits and starts, like Kickstarter stretch goals, and whilst everything seems to have good reason to be in the book, it feels fragmented in places.

Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting is not the definitive supplement for Chicago during the nineteenth century or the World’s Columbian Exposition, whether for Whispers in the Dark or Cthulhu by Gaslight. Which leaves the problem of quite identifying what it actually is, because its focus is ultimately not on the city itself and the great events of World’s Columbian Exposition, but rather on the World’s Fair Hotel, Herman Webster Mudgett, and the scenario, ‘Welcome to my Parlour’, as well as supporting it with encounters and campaign frameworks which lead back to the World’s Fair Hotel. So it feels like three books—one devoted to Chicago, one to the World’s Columbian Exposition, and very much the largest one to the World’s Fair Hotel, Herman Webster Mudgett, and the scenario, ‘Welcome to my Parlour’—rather than just a single, large book. It does not help that there is no real overview of Chicago in 1893—mundane or Mythos related, no clear, easy to use map of the city, and as well-intentioned as the opening essay ‘People of Color in Late 19th Century America’ is, it is disappointing that as upfront as it is, the supplement just does not bring that into play.

There is a lot to like about Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting. The authors provide plenty of information, scenario hooks, and playable content for Chicago, describe the World’s Fair Hotel and Herman Webster Mudgett in ghoulish detail, and present multiple means to bring the Investigators to his murder hotel, but the supplement only feels like a whole sourcebook when it focuses in on World’s Fair Hotel, Herman Webster Mudgett, and the scenario, ‘Welcome to my Parlour’. More of a scenario and a potential campaign set-up, Horror in the Windy City: A Whispers in the Dark Setting needs the hands of an experienced Game Master to develop it into something more than that.

As its title suggests Bayt al Azif – A magazine for Cthulhu Mythos roleplaying games is a magazine dedicated to roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror. Published by Bayt al Azif it includes content for both Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition from Chaosium, Inc. and Trail of Cthulhu from Pelgrane Press, which means that its content can also be used with Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game and The Fall of DELTA GREEN. Published in November, 2020, Bayt al Azif Issue #03 does not include any content for use with the latter two roleplaying games, but instead specifically includes three scenarios—stated for both Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and Trail of Cthulhu (and therefore would actually work with The Fall of DELTA GREEN if the Keeper made the adjustments necessary), discussion of various aspects of Lovecraftian investigative horror, interviews, an introduction to Call of Cthulhu in Japan, a review of a recently-rereleased classic campaign for Call of Cthulhu,an overview of Lovecraftian investigative horror roleplaying in 2019, and more. All of which, once again, comes packaged in a solid, full colour, Print On Demand book.

Bayt al Azif Issue #03 opens with editorial, ‘Houses of the Unholy’, which discusses how the Mythos was and is never one thing, but quite mutable and what we make it, and that in order to do that we should run it and play it, before diving into ‘Sacrifices’, the letters pages. The inclusion of a letters pages lifts Bayt al Azif above being just a supplement, and whilst the letters are most congratulatory, they marks the start of another role for the magazine. Which is to help build a community. The more fulsome content gets underway with ‘Cthulhu in 2019: A Retrospective’. Witten by Dean Engelhardt of CthulhuReborn.com—publisher of Convicts & Cthulhu: Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying in the Penal Colonies of 18th Century Australia and The Apocthulhu Roleplaying Game, this covers the releases, major and minor, through the year, from each of the various publishers, beginning with Chaosium, Inc., before moving on to Stygian Fox, Golden Goblin Press, and Sons of the Singularity. Amateur publications and magazines are not ignored, including Bayt al Azif, and the author also covers Trail of Cthulhu from Pelgrane Press and Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game from Arc Dream Publishing, plus numerous other Cthulhu horror-themed roleplaying games, such as Sandy Petersen Games’ Ghoul Island series and the Weird Frontiers RPG (previously known and identified here as Dark Trails: A Weird West RPG) from Stiff Whiskers Press. Notably, it touches upon just a handful of the entries available on the Miskatonic Repository, which in future is likely to become too unwieldy to cover effectively as the number of titles grow and grow. Lastly there is an examination of titles currently awaiting fulfilment on Kickstarter. Each of the various is accompanied by a thumbnail description, enough detail to spur the reader’s interest, but not really a review—although the author does offer an opinion in places. This update dispenses with the references to individual reviews on Reviews from R’lyeh included in previous entries in the series, which to be fair saves spaces as more and more titles are covered. As in previous issues, this is an extensive overview, which again nicely chronicles the year keeps us abreast of anything that the reader may have missed or forgotten.
Bayt al Azif Issue #03 continues the Germanic feel of Bayt al Azif Issue 02. This is because it reprints—in English—content drawn from the German Cthulhu magazine, Cthulhus Rus, which began with ‘False Friends’, a 1920s scenario set in the university town of Göttingen by Philipp Christophel and Ralf Sandfuchs. Its sequel, ‘The Murders of Mr. S’ moves the action to 1925 and Berlin, making it even more suitable to be run using Berlin: The Wicked City – Unveiling the Mythos in Weimar Berlin. When a number of scientists at a pharmaceutical plant in Berlin are inexplicably murdered and the letter ‘S’ written in their blood beside them, the lurid newspaper reporting dubs the killer ‘Mr. S’, the Investigators are hired by one of its owners (who previously hired them in ‘False Friends’) to find out who is responsible and whether there is an ongoing threat to his business. The scenario takes the investigators into Berlin’s industrial district, so has a different feel to it. Although given permission by their employer to investigate events at the plant, the Investigators will be received with a certain reluctance by his partner and a certain disregard by the victims’ fellow Bulgarian scientists, all three of whom are reluctant to talk about their research. With echoes of Fritz Lang’s M, ‘The Murders of Mr. S’ is a decent investigative story, but the Keeper may need to work that little bit harder to make sure that the players and their Investigators make connections with some of the NPCs and so push the scenario to a conclusion.
The second scenario in Bayt al Azif Issue #03 is ‘In the House of Glass’. Written by Gail Clendenin, this is a modern survival horror scenario, a ‘locked room’ one-shot set during the hours of daylight at an arts event. And it does not involve the Yellow King. The Pierce Botanical Conservatory is about to hold a stunning art exhibit by famed glassblowing artist Galen Tisselly, and whether connected to the conservatory staff, donors to the conservatory, or fellow artists, the Investigators are invited there to be present during the installation a few days before the exhibit opens. Played out over three different biomes—mountain, desert, and tropical—after they discover one of the staff dead, the Investigators’ visit quickly turns weird as glass sculptures seem to come to life and stalk them and the great sheets of glass that form the conservatory walls warp and show strange visions. The Investigators will need to avoid the strange things hunting them and locate their source if they are to bring their nightmare to an end. ‘In the House of Glass’ is an enjoyably inventive scenario which takes its inspiration—a pair of historical greenhouses—and combines it with the artwork of Dale Chihuly. The scenario is well written with decent staging advice and good handouts, and should deliver a weird and creepy session of roleplaying.
The third and final scenario in the issue is ‘Operation Ice Dragon: 1960s scenario’ by Rich McKee. This is a Cold War scenario set in a remote military base in the Artic in 1960. Part of United States’ Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line system intended to warn of imminent Soviet nuclear attack,  Ice Dragon Station has recently been subject to a series of strange signals which have interfered with the station’s radios. The government has already sent a team led by a radio expert, Doctor Kreuger, to the source of the signals, but when the Investigators arrive shortly after, the signals intensify and begin driving the staff at the base crazy. They quickly find themselves going after the Doctor and his team, but not before some scary moments in the base. Essentially, Ice Station Zebra meets the Mythos, this is nicely atmospheric piece with certain Pulp sensibilities that make it suitable for use with Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game and The Fall of DELTA GREEN.
In the Designers & Dragons series, Shannon Appelcline delivered a five-part history of the roleplaying industry. Of course, that history is ongoing, and as he charts further aspects of it at RPG.net, he continues to update previous histories. As the title suggests, ‘Designers & Dragons Next – Chaosium: 1997-Present’ updates the previous history begun in the series, bringing Chaosium up-to-date, examining its ups and downs of the last two decades or so, essentially spanning  the period between founder Greg Stafford leaving the company in 1997 to his returning and sad passing away in 2018. The history is tumultuous and difficult and most fans of Lovecraftian investigative horror will be aware of much it, but nevertheless, the article is informative and explains the reasons behind Chaosium’s actions over the years.
Although Call of Cthulhu has been published in numerous languages, little consideration is given to how it is played or perceived outside of the English language, so it was a surprise to learn that the roleplaying game is very popular in Japan. ‘Kuturufu No Yobi-Goe: How New Media and Indie Pirate Culture Elevated Call of Cthulhu to the Most Popular RPG in Japan’ by Andy Kitkowski, we get to see how and why. This is a fascinating look at the roleplaying culture in Japan and just how its fans play the game, organise events, and more. It highlights how the Japanese roleplaying hobby enjoy replays of adventures—both in the form of transcriptions and YouTube videos, how many women are playing, and how the Japanese understand H.P. Lovecraft’s racism. This is most interesting article in Bayt al Azif Issue #03, enabling the reader to look at the hobby from a very different perspective and way of playing.
In ‘The Mythos and Technology’ Tyler Omichinski explores how the Mythos might interest with modern technology, suggesting that to properly combine the two, a Keeper would need to research her ideas and be consistent. The author also gives a real-world example, that of the Necronomicon, published by Avon Books in 1977 and asks what would happen if it were actually a scanned version of the Necronomicon. The article is short and really does not do the subject justice, but the addition of a real-world example gives it a little more heft.
Sanity and losing it is a fundamental part of Call of Cthulhu, but it can be difficult to handle and roleplaying. Jared Smith, editor of Bayt al Azif suggests ways of handling the set-up, the roleplay, and the mechanics of Sanity in ‘The Best People Usually Are: Sanity in RPGs’. Paired with ‘Sanity Point Costs: Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition’, it offers good advice and is worth reading no matter how long you have been running Call of Cthulhu. 
Jared Smith offers just the single interview in this third issue, but it is with the most important person in the history of Call of Cthulhu in ‘Something Never Seen Before: An Interview with Sandy Petersen’. This is with the creator of the roleplaying game, Sandy Petersen, and covers his introduction to gaming, his creation and first playthroughs of Call of Cthulhu, creating for his own company and designing for the video games industry, and more. Like the interviews in the previous issues, is interesting and informative, and is likely one that all fans of Lovecraftian investigative horror would want to read. Evan Johnston continues his enjoyable comic strip, ‘Grave Spirits’, and Jason Smith contributes another entry in the ‘Sites of Antiquity’ series, this time ‘Cappadocia’ and suggests how this series of cave complexes in Turkey could be used with the Mythos.
Physically, with the third issue, Bayt al Azif keeps getting better and better in terms of production values and look. It is clean and tidy, and though it might need an edit in places, the main issue is that some of the artwork veers toward being cartoon-like.
Bayt al Azif Issue #03 is another decent issue of the magazine. It follows on from Bayt al Azif Issue #02 in containing longer articles and a more diverse range of voices. Again, the content from Cthulhus Rus opens up an aspect of the Call of Cthulhu community which would otherwise be inaccessible to the predominately English-speaking community, and of course, the scenarios are not only well done, but they also highlight Bayt al Azif as a vehicle for scenarios that whilst good, are not necessarily commercial enough to be published by Chaosium, Inc., Pelgrane Press, or a licensee.  In particular, ‘In the House of Glass’ and ‘Operation Ice Dragon: 1960s scenario’ stand out here. The former as a creepy, weird, craft-based one-shot, the latter as atmospheric, almost high adventure, but definitely peril on the ice mystery and chase that verges on the Pulp. The highlight though, is Andy Kitkowski’s ‘Kuturufu No Yobi-Goe: How New Media and Indie Pirate Culture Elevated Call of Cthulhu to the Most Popular RPG in Japan’, which is simply fascinating. 
Overall, Bayt al Azif Issue #03 provides solid support for, and about, Lovecraftian investigative horror roleplaying. With a good mix of decent scenarios and interesting articles, what more could you ask for?