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 Posse

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Andy Miller

Setting: Down Darker TrailsProduct: Scenario
What You Get: thirty-four page, 29.29 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Cowboys and dinosaurs, oh my! (Again)
Plot Hook: The Boyd Gang has robbed the 11:10 to Santaquin! Let’s ride out and round ‘em up.Plot Support: Introduction to train robberies, five NPCs, six detailed pregenerated Investigators, NPC and Investigator portraits.Production Values: Decent.
Pros
# Cowboys and dinosaurs, oh my!# Sequel to The Last Valley
# Potential convention scenario
# Potential one-shot# Well done pregenerated Investigators
# Enjoyable introduction to the Lost Worlds genre# Straightforward plot
# Multiple set-ups# Classic Wild West set-up# Action driven scenario
Cons
# Linear plot
# Utah background underused# Requires The Last Valley# No Sanity losses for failure?
Conclusion
# Cowboys and dinosaurs, oh my!
# Classic Wild West set-up# Linear plot

Out of Time is the first campaign for Tales from the Loop – Roleplaying in the ’80s That Never Was –and quite possibly the last. With Out of Time, Free League Publishing brings the award-winning roleplaying game based on the paintings of Simon Stålenhag to a close. Throughout this alternate childhood of the 1980s, young teenagers have explored rural small-town Sweden, but a rural small-town Sweden in which its streets, woods and fields, and skies and seas are populated by robots, gravitic tractors and freighters, strange sensor devices, and even creatures from the long past. To the inhabitants of this landscape, this is all perfectly normal—at least to the adults. To the children of this landscape, this technology is a thing of fascination, of wonderment, and of the strangeness that often only they can see. In Tales from the Loop, it is often this technology that is the cause of the adventures that the children—the Player Characters—will have away from their mundane, often difficult lives at home and at school. Taking place at the end of the decade, Out of Time takes place over the course of year, but has potential to be something more—and all because the campaign involves time travel…

Out of Time begins with a rash of pets and farm animals going missing, followed by flyers asking for information about lost pets going up across the neighbourhood, then rumours of a mechanical contraption seen roaming the fields outside the small communities of the Mälaren Islands. When the Player Characters investigate, they discover the first of many strange experiments taking place, experiments which get stranger and stranger as the campaign progresses. Later, their summer takes a decidedly strange, literally ‘Out of the Body’ turn, which reveals more of the Mystery, before the weather gets randomly worse and storms threaten to shut the region down. Ultimately, to solve the Mystery and even save the world, the Player Characters must sneak out during a lockdown and break into the Facility for Research in High Energy Physics—or ‘The Loop’—the world’s largest particle accelerator, constructed and run by the government agency, Riksenergi. There at last they can discover what links the storms out of nowhere which bring strange mud and sand, the repeated crashes of the magnetrine ship Susi Talvi, the weird flashbacks at their summer camp, and the 1969 moon landing.

The campaigns consists of a trilogy of scenarios—‘The Animal Ark’, ‘Summer Camp’, and ‘The Storm in the Hourglass’. The first takes place just before Christmas, 1988, which only serves to heighten the fractious state of their home lives, but at the same time, there are reports of missing animals, strange devices can be found scattered throughout the area, and a magnetrine ship appears out of a rip in the sky to crash again and again. ‘The Animal Ark’ is quite a short scenario, but does a good job of setting up the campaign, whilst giving the players scope to develop their characters’ home lives. There is advice for the Game Master and suggestions as to what can be added to reflect the heightened anxiety and emotions which seem to occur at Christmas, but many players will have had experiences of their own and can make suggestions of their own too. Essentially setting the scenario at Christmas serves to strengthen the two contrasting strands of a Tales from the Loop game, one being the Game Master presenting the weirdness of its alternative setting and the Mysteries of The Loop, the other being the players exploring the emotional, but mundane complexities of their characters’ home lives.

‘Summer Camp’ moves the time on to the summer of 1989 and the tradition of children being sent to summer camp. Here the Player Characters and other local children are kept busy with a range of outdoor activities, from hut building and gymnastics to orienteering and telling ghost stories round the fire. Things get strange though, when each of the Player Characters wakes up to find that not only is he not in his own body, but he is not in his own time—it is 1969! This presents a challenge for both character and player, as he must negotiate life in an unfamiliar period and negotiate unfamiliar relationships. This is in addition to the ups and downs of life at the summer camp, a strange old man in the woods, and weird dreams… Although replacement characters are provided for the players to roleplay in 1969, one of the options is for the Game Master to create the parents of the Player Characters from back in 1989. Here is a fantastic opportunity for the players to roleplay their characters’ parents and what they were like as children. However, this will take some extra effort upon the part of the Game Master to set up and develop, but the emotional payoff, as the Player Characters realise that their parents had Mysteries of their own to solve and weirdness going on around them just as their children do in 1989, is a great piece of storytelling…

‘The Storm in the Hourglass’ brings the campaign and the 1980s to a close. Set in the autumn of 1989, the storms back in ‘The Animal Ark’ appear again and begin to escalate, forcing the authorities to declare an emergency as the weather worsens. ‘Men in Black’ are seen around the Mälaren Islands as ‘time bubbles’, which when the Player Characters investigate, turn out to be unstable, appear across the region. There are indications too that the technology which has been a fixture of the Player Characters’ childhood is malfunctioning, including the Loop itself. The climax of the campaign will see the Player Characters hopping from time bubble to time bubble and breaking into the Graviton at the heart of the Loop, there to confront their antagonist and the threat she has created.

Of the three scenarios in Out of Time, ‘Summer Camp’ is the longest, mainly because there is a large number of camp activities and events to involve the Player Characters in before anything strange happens. Potentially, this may unbalance the tension between the ordinary and outré strands of a typical Tales from the Loop scenario. Probably the best solution would be for the Game Master to tailor the camp activities and events to the Player Characters to avoid this. As the campaign progresses though, it does grow in complexity, especially in the finale with all of the hopping from time bubble to time bubble.

As a campaign, Out of Time introduces an aspect intrinsically excluded from TTales from the Loop, and that is the potential death of a Player Character. In 1969, the Player Characters are threatened by the campaign’s antagonist with a gun—and she is not afraid to use it. Now in this sequence, it is not as much of an issue, since the Player Characters are not in their bodies, but it highlights the greater peril they face in the campaign. Of course, if the Game Master has decided to port the Player Characters back into their parents, it amplifies the peril, even threatening a Grandfather Paradox should one of the parents be shot and die… Back in 1989, there is the possibility that the Player Characters will fail and unlike in previous scenarios for Tales from the Loop, that has world-ending consequences…

The possibility of the Player Characters facing their death in Out of Time foreshadows another possible option for the campaign, which is to run it as a link between Tales from the Loop and its nineties sequel, Things from the Flood, where death for the Player Characters is a possibility. The authors suggest that the final part, ‘The Storm in the Hourglass’ be shifted forward to 1994 when the ‘Mälarö Leak’ occurred, hot, brown liquid bubbling up out of the ground, forcing an evacuation that would last for years, flooding the Loop, and precipitating to a scandal that would force the Swedish government to shut down Riksenergi and sell the Loop. The advice on this is perhaps somewhat underwritten and it does mean that there is a much longer gap between the events of ‘Summer School’ and ‘The Storm in the Hourglass’, during which time events will have moved out of the framework for Tales from the Loop. However, Out of Time does provide options which would bridge this gap.

The first option is a nonet of ‘Secret Places’, a Mystery Landscape which fits both the 1980s of Tales from the Loop and the 1990s of Things from the Flood. These range from the strange platforms, mechanical marvels, and scrap ships being seen throughout the area of ‘Castle in the Sky’ to the lone concrete foundation with a single hatch which appears having thrust up from the ground in ‘Extra Life’. All of the Mysteries come with an explanation as to the Truth, Hooks, Countdown, and the Antagonist, and can be easily slotted into a Game Master’s campaign or expanded as necessary. The second option is ‘The Mystery Machine’, a set of tables for inspiring and generating Mysteries of the Game Master’s own design, whilst the third, ‘The Mix-CD of Mysteries’ presents an octuple of Mysteries based on eight classic CD tracks from the nineties, such as Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit and Pulp’s Common People. Again, these come with an explanation as to the Truth, Hooks, Countdown, and the Antagonist, and can be easily slotted into a Game Master’s campaign or expanded as necessary. Again, just like the Mystery Landscape of ‘Secret Places’, they will need some development upon the part of the Game Master. However, most of the tracks listed come from the mid to late nineties and so thematically, do not quite bridge the gap between Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood as well as a wider selection might do. In many cases, the mature nature of the lyrics and the Mysteries they inspire better suit the nineties and thus Things from the Flood than they do Tales from the Loop. Nevertheless, thematically they can be used to foreshadow the nineties and events of Things from the Flood and of course, inspire the Game Master to write her own using other lyrics.

Physically, Out of Time is as well presented as you would expect for a Tales from the Loop title. Of course, it highlights Simon Stålenhag’s fantastic artwork, but the writing is also good and the layout is clean, tidy, and accessible. All three scenarios follow the same format, making them easy to access and relatively easy to run.

It is great to finally have a campaign for Tales from the Loop, even if it is bringing the decade and the roleplaying game to a close. It should be no surprise that the campaign is challenging given it involves time travel, and although the plot is given a clear diagram for the Game Master to follow, it is complex and will require her to read through the plot with some care. With that preparation, Out of Time is a fantastic campaign, presenting the Player Characters with a challenging and enjoyably complex mystery, a mystery which brings Tales from the Loop to the conclusion it deserves.

The Dark Forest – A Call of Cthulhu Scenario Set in the Modern Day is a scenario for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition. Published by Stygian Fox Publishing, it is the second release from the publisher as part of its Patreon programme. The scenario is a missing persons case—that of a child at a detention and rehabilitation centre for youth offenders—which takes the Investigators to Michigan state’s Upper Peninsula and deep into the Hiawatha National Forest where they will confront ancient gods and the pernicious influence of the Mythos, all hiding behind a façade of corporate greed and child rehabilitation. The set-up of the scenario means that The Dark Forest could easily be run using Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game as it can Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, although it introduces an agency of its own, The Advocacy, an independent consultancy which takes U.S. government contracts and investigates unusual events. However, the scenario does carry a ‘Contains Explicit Content’ warning and the advice that some players might find its mature themes disturbing, dealing as it does rape, molestation, and institutional violence against defenceless teenagers. 

The Dark Forest – A Call of Cthulhu Scenario Set in the Modern Day begins with the Investigators being contacted by Martina Love. Her son, Donte, is nearing the end of his sentence at the P.J. Nelson Training School for Boys in Michigan state’s Upper Peninsula, but she has not heard anything from him, the staff say that he is at an external facility, and she is becoming increasingly worried. She asks the Investigators to find her son for her, but when the Investigators begin to make enquiries, they quickly learn that the youth correctional facility is currently in lockdown because several of the boys have absconded. All this and more will need to be determined before the Investigators arrive in northern Michigan, where the mobile phone network is unpredictable and connection to the Internet even worse. Beyond this however, there is relatively little to be learned through the research methods traditional to Lovecraftian investigative roleplay and consequently, the scenario has just the single handout. An alternative set-up for The Dark Forest is to have the Investigators be teachers at the P.J. Nelson Training School for Boys. This is a stronger set-up if the Keeper wants to run the scenario as a one-shot, but does require the Keeper to prepare and present a lot of information that the teachers would know upfront because they work at the facility, rather than delivering them piece by piece as Investigators coming from the outside conduct their enquiries. 

Once the Investigators get to Hiawatha Township and the P.J. Nelson Training School for Boys, the investigation takes place in three stages—interviews at the prison, at the prison’s work camps where the boys undergo vocational training for life beyond their sentence, and with the prison’s de facto warden, Bill Nelson. The Investigators are likely discover that the staff and inmates have grown used to the oddities of life in and around the Hiawatha National Forest, and are not necessarily hiding anything sinister, but simply corrupt. (Well, the scenario is set in a privatised prison system after all.) A radically transformative and horrid encounter with one of the missing boys definitely points to the former though, that is, if the Investigators survive the encounter, as it comes at a moment when they are unaware of what is to come and thus unprepared. The scenario does not deal with the fallout from this, but it will point towards something going on deep in the forest. 

Initially, there is an ethereal feel to the Investigators’ incursions into the forest, but as their search for answers continues and takes them it deeper and deeper, the feel becomes darker and darker, as well as literally as the foliage and canopy thickens, and the light fades… Ultimately, the Investigators will confront the evil at the heart of the scenario, a confrontation which will take them into the Finnish equivalent of the ‘Upside Down’. The change from the here to the ‘Upside Down’ is nicely handled, but the confrontation itself, although climatic, is one note—a fight. No other means of defeating the threat are suggested and the likelihood is that the antagonist will defeat the Investigators unless they are forewarned and thus well-armed. Unfortunately, that is not necessarily likely since Investigators do not have the opportunity to learn very much about what it is that they are facing, and less so if the Investigators are teachers at the P.J. Nelson Training School for Boys. The advice is that the Keeper should allow the Investigators to retreat and make a plan, before coming back to face the threat. Notably, at the end of the scenario, there is a Sanity reward for retreating from the threat, which is only slightly less than for defeating it. 

Physically, The Dark Forest – A Call of Cthulhu Scenario Set in the Modern Day needs an editor. 

Yet in other ways, The Dark Forest is a superbly presented book. It is done in quite a rich palette of earthy colours and the artwork is, for the most part, excellent. Besides the absence of editing, the book could have been better organised in places, but that is something that the Keeper can easily adjust to. 

As interesting as The Dark Forest is in reinterpreting the forces and influence of the Mythos through another mythology and pantheon, that of Finnish myths of the Kalevala, the execution is ultimately underwhelming. The Investigators are never quite able to prepare for, or understand, what they will face in the Finnish equivalent of the ‘Upside Down’, and the singular solution of violence is disappointing. The Dark Forest – A Call of Cthulhu Scenario Set in the Modern Day starts strong with an intriguing mystery and its presentation of mature themes is well-handled and there are some creepy scenes, but its dénouement leaves much to be desired.

It has been almost thirty-five years since the publisher of Britain’s longest running Science Fiction comic, 2000 AD, dabbled in the field of roleplaying. Both times, it was with solo adventure books, first with the Diceman comic, and then with You are Maggie Thatcher: a dole-playing game, but that changes with the initial release of a new publication from Rebellion. This is Adventure Presents, essentially a complete roleplaying game and scenario in a magazine format. The first issue is Tartarus Gate – A Roleplaying Game of Sci-Fi Horror, from the designers of Spire: The City Must Fall. This consists of a simple roleplaying game and a full, three-session scenario designed for up to six players and the Game Master for which everyone will need three six-sided dice and some pencils. The Game Master will need to do some careful preparation, but Tartarus Gate – A Roleplaying Game of Sci-Fi Horror comes with everything necessary to play—six ready-to-play pregenerated Player Characters, a handful of NPCs, and some absolutely gorgeous cartography and art.

The setting for Tartarus Gate is the year 2130. For years, Earth has been dominated by the OBOL Corporation and in search of a better future—or at least proper employment, the Player Characters have taken positions as unpaid interns aboard the transport ship Charon, entrusted with shepherding cargo from Earth to the Tartarus Gate Waystation. Six months into the journey, they are awoken from their Deep Sleep Pods and after recovering from the process, they are given their first task. Visual feeds from the lower decks have gone down, but before they did, the computers registered that something was moving. All the interns have to do is descend to the lower decks, restore the visual feeds, and ensure that there is nothing moving down there that there should not be… The Charon is six months’ travel from the nearest help, so it is down to the interns. With luck, they can impress their employer and make their temporary employment permanent.

The format of Tartarus Gate is important. The centre twenty-two pages are intended to be pulled out. They start with the six four-page character sheets, each of which includes a briefing, the character description, equipment list, and deck plans of the Charon. Then they followed by the various map handouts, all done in three dimensions and full colour, the four-page explanation of the rules for Tartarus Gate, and the eight-page GM Reference Book. This leaves the other twenty-two pages of Tartarus Gate devoted to the actual scenario.

A character or intern in Tartarus Gate is simply defined. He has four Abilities—Toughness, Agility, Smarts, and Wits—each ranging in value between one and four. He has a value for his Health and his Resolve—his willpower, the former as high as twenty, the latter as high as twelve. He also has three Drives, for example, Hasty, Selfless, and Haunted. Each character has a background and a given role, such as Veteran or True Believer, and an excellent illustration. It is left up to the player to name the character.

Mechanically, Tartarus Gate is simple and straightforward, its key mechanic, known as the ‘Adventure system’, best described as ‘roll three and keep two’—mostly. For his character to undertake an action, a player rolls three six-sided dice and removes one die. Which die depends upon the rating of the Ability being tested. If the Ability has a value of one, the highest die value is removed; if two, the die with the middle value is removed; if three, the lowest die value is removed; and if four, no die is removed, and all are counted. Either way, the total value of the remaining dice needs to equal or exceed the value of a Target Number to succeed, the Target Numbers ranging from six or doable to twelve or extremely difficult. The Game Master can adjust the difficulty of a task by temporarily increasing or lowering the Player Character’s Ability value. A supporting Player Character can help another and so temporarily increase the supported Player Character’s Ability, whilst the acting Player Character can spend Resolve to also increase his Ability value. Resolve can be regained by a Player Character pursuing one or more of his Drives and in Tartarus Gate, and may be reset at the beginning of some chapters, as can Health.

Combat in Tartarus Gate consists of opposed rolls. The lower roll is subtracted from the higher roll and the remaining value deducted from the losing combatant’s Toughness. Combat is designed—much like the rules in general—to be fast and in the case of combat, potentially deadly.

Tarsus Gate as a scenario is broken down into three chapters. In the first chapter, the Player Characters will waken from their Deep Sleep Pods and put through their paces as a ‘recovery process’, much like the first though steps of a video game as a player is taught the controls and what each button does. Given their assignment by Assisti, the ship’s AI, they make their way to the engine room and there they have their first and then second strange encounter—the former with a bloodless, mangled corpse, the latter with a figure from Earth’s recent and wrought past… This figure will come to dominate the mystery which lies in the bowels of the Charon and will be revealed as the Player Characters moves from one chapter to the next.

It should be no surprise that the plot and structure to Tartarus Gate is linear. After all, the Player Characters have been tasked with going from one end of a spaceship to another and the scenario is quite short. However, there is still plenty for them to do and explore, and interact with the handful of NPCs the Game Master has to portray. As well as the detailed NPCs to run, the Game Master also has events to throw at the Player Characters in every location.

The chapter breaks are also used as moments of reflection, for the players to check how the game is going and perhaps a chance for them to change their characters’ Drives if necessary. Tartarus Gate also makes clear that its play is meant to be fun—for everyone, and that if anyone is made uncomfortable, then he should raise his hand and say so. 

Physically, Tartarus Gate is very nicely presented. It is well written, but what really stands out is the artwork—which is as good as you would expect from a publisher which puts out 2000 AD each week. If the illustrations are good, then the maps are even better. Overall, the production values, for what is just a ‘magazine roleplaying game’ are stunning.

Adventure Presents Tartarus Gate – A Roleplaying Game of Sci-Fi Horror is intended as a first roleplaying game and for the most part succeeds. Its combination of a simple, straightforward plot, set-up, and quick mechanics certainly supports that, as does the vibrantly exciting presentation. However, whilst it works as a first roleplaying game for those new to roleplaying, it is a slightly different matter for the prospective Game Master. If the Game Master has played a roleplaying game or two before, then not as much of an issue, but if the Game Master is coming to this totally anew, it will be more difficult for her. For the experienced Game Master, readying and running Tartarus Gate is relatively easy.

Adventure Presents Tartarus Gate – A Roleplaying Game of Sci-Fi Horror is an impressive first issue, an attractive package that is easy to pick up, prepare, and run—it could be done in thirty minutes!

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

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What is it?The Quacken presents a leviathan monster and associated scenario for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.
It is forty-five page, full colour, 3.29 MB PDF.
The layout is clean and tidy, and many of the illustrations good. It needs an edit.

Where is it set?
The Quacken is set in any coastal area or sea area around Genertela, although the default location for the associated scenario, ‘Clash with the Quacken’, is Mirrorsea Bay, off the coast of Esrolia.

If the Game Master really wants to play up the inspiration for ‘Clash with the Quacken’, it could easily be moved to the coast of Prax and involve the members of the Sun County Militia from Tales of the Sun County Militia: Sandheart Volume 1 and its sequels.

Who do you play?No specific Player Character types are required to play ‘Clash with the Quacken’, although sailors, fishermen, and anyone with the Darkness or Water Runes may have an advantage. A Shaman or anyone with Spirit Sight will also be useful and any good Orlanthi should relish the opportunity to confront the sea again.
What do you need?
The Quacken requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. The RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary may be useful for details of Ducks.
What do you get?
The last in the ‘Monster of the Month’ series, The Quacken presents a terrible creature, one which brings the land and the sea together, created during the War of the Gods when the Sea Tribe invaded the Earth, Magasta and an unnamed goddess. Essentially, giant squid with the beak and head of a duck, including feathers, and potentially, the bad temper of each. They notoriously aggressive, especially the females after they have come onto land to lay their eggs. Such females enter a state called ‘stupmi’ and vigorously drive off or consume anyone or anything which they see as a threat. Where females die after suffering through ‘stupmi’, males do not and may undergo bouts of it again and again. Males under its effects have been known to attack ships. However, the dead body of a Quacken can be harvested, its flesh sweet and best fried, the beak as a mild stimulant for Newtlings, the eyes for their oils, and their teeth as Death talismans!
In addition to fully detailing what is, really, a weird leviathan, The Quacken includes a scenario ‘Clash with the Quacken’. This is coastal set scenario in which the Player Characters are hired to come to the help of Stone Dock Village. The village chieftain has been having terrible dreams of the ocean depths, merfolk, and a crimson, and this comes at time when the fishermen of the village are bringing in reduced catches. He fears that worse is to come and wants the Player Characters to discover the cause of what has beset the village. This will see the Player Characters going to sea, dealing with a very grumpy and direct shaman, and protecting Stone Dock, the huge slab of primordial rock  that is the village wyter.
The inspiration for the scenario is obvious, and whilst it does draw from Clash of the Titans, ‘Clash with the Quacken’ is very much its own, making it an epic confrontation between the land and the sea. It does need some careful staging in certain scenes—especially in the spirit world, but the scenario is well supported with some solid NPCs for the Game Master to roleplay. Although, multiple versions of the Quacken are provided in order to scale the final confrontation to the power levels of the Player Characters, ‘Clash with the Quacken’ is still a challenging scenario.
Is it worth your time?Yes—The Quacken is a ridiculous idea. I mean, whoever would have thought of combining a Duck and a Squid? And yet... and yet, you know you are just waiting for someone to yell, “Unleash the Quacken!”
No—The Quacken is a ridiculous idea, like the ‘surf and turf’ equivalent of a Turducken. I mean, no. Really no. Let’s not even go there.Maybe—The Quacken definitely falls under ‘Your Glorantha May Vary’. In fact, it probably strays into your ‘Your Glorantha DOES Vary’, but Glorantha has Ducks, so why not Duck-Squids (or Squid-Ducks)?

Neverland is that faraway land where Peter Pan and the Lost Boys frolic and play, fairies gather in revelries, Captain James Hook connives and seeks vengeance against Peter Pan for cutting off his hand, the mermaids croon and scheme—and of course, children never grow up. As told in J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, it is also the island and land to which Peter Pan brought the Darling children—Wendy, John, and Michael—to be the family that he never had. It is a story of growing up and accepting the responsibilities of becoming an adult, and putting childish things behind you, that is, part from Peter Pan himself. In the process, they lose the way to Neverland. In other tellings of the tale, Peter Pan becomes a story about what is lost—which of course, is childhood—and then reclaiming it. Yet what if the adults could find their way to Neverland, three adults in particular, and grow old? What if Wendy, John, and Michael Darling found their back to Neverland? What would they become? Would their presence change the island? Would Peter Pan notice? These are some of the themes explored in Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting, a hexcrawl designed for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition.

Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting is published by Andrew McMeels Publishing—best known for publishing ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG—and features a roleplaying interpretation of Neverland, richly detailed across twenty-four hexes, over one hundred monsters, creatures, and NPCs, fourteen or factions, and numerous locations. The latter includes coral caves, Gnome hamlets, the Home Underground where Peter Pan and his Lost Boys have made their hideout, an inverted home to a lich, an amphitheatre dedicated to mermaid performances, Captain Hook’s ship the Jolly Roger, and the very Crocodile who hunts for the rest of Captain Hook, which can actually be explored as if it was an actual dungeon!

From the outset, Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting is very much a book for the Dungeon Master, beginning with a very clear explanation of who’s who on Neverland and the various factions on the island. They include all three of the Darlings—all grown up, Peter Pan and his Lost Boys, Captain Hook and his crew, and much more. There is a wide array of factions on the island, all of them drawn from Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, but many of them unlikely to be unfamiliar to the players since they are more likely to be familiar with works based on the play rather than the play itself. It should be noted that in drawing from the original source, Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting also updates one or two of them, since attitudes towards certain groups and words have changed in the century or so since the original play was performed.

Rules also cover travelling and exploring across the island—including, if the Player Characters can get sufficient fairy dust, the ability to fly, and using the Mermaids’ secret whirlpools and the Lost Boys’ hollow trees, the island’s daily cycle and movement of the Crocodile. Fun and recreation includes games of Hurling, Gnome Fairs, and Pirate Parties, whilst advanced rules cover chase sequences, and the dangers of harvesting from the dead—also pointing to a scarcity of resources on the island, and of harnessing the powers of a star, which can be used by non-spellcasters to cast spells appropriate to their personality. The huge Cast covers numerous monsters and creatures, as well as the various characters from Peter Pan, including the eponymous hero, the Darlings, Captain Hook and his crew, and more…

In comparison, the section devoted to the island of Neverland feels a little short, with just the one page devoted to each of its twenty-four hexes. Each page includes a larger view of the hex in question—taken from the larger isometric map of Neverland, a short description, a note of the timed events which occur twice daily, and a quintet of tables which can be used to generate encounters. These can occur every hour, and since it takes four hours—or a Clock in ‘island time’—to cross a hex, every hex can be very busy. Many of the hexes are also the locations of key places on the island, and whilst these are mentioned, they are not cross-referenced, making the flipping between the two in the book that little bit awkward. The various locations, whether a dungeon or a ship or an inverted tower or a mine, and so forth, are each given a page each, so feel a little more expansive than the pages devoted to individual hexes.

Besides various tables which provide adventure hooks, animals, fairy trades and tricks, locations, loot, Lost Boy traps, Mermaid games, objects, trinkets and trophies, and more, the book comes with ‘Tales from Neverland’, a set of eight short stories presented as extra chapters to the original Peter Pan story. They are each a very quick read, and can serve as inspiration, hooks, clues, and the like. They do add some flavour and perhaps a little context for the Dungeon Master, but nothing more. Rounding out Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting is not only a bibliography, but also a sketchbook. This collection of sketches, finished pieces, and notes nicely charts the development of the look of the book and its art. Its inclusion undoubtedly adds to the charm of Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting.

However, as rich and as well-presented as Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting actually is, there is a handful questions that it does not effectively address. These include, “What do I do with this?”, “How do I get there?”, and “What do I play?”. There is some initial discussion of the book’s themes, but it is all too brief. Then, at the end of the book, the author provides six ready-to-play pre-generated Player Characters, ranging from a Big Game Hunter or Ranger and Child Pickpocket or Thief to Holy Orphan or Cleric and Stranded Pirate or Fighter. All of these are done as Humans and all have reasons for being on the island, and together the hextet feel just a very little like the adventurers from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon in being from the ordinary world and cast into the land of dreams that is Neverland. They also suggest reasons why Player Characters might end up in Neverland, but beyond this, there is a lack of advice for Dungeon Master on what Classes and types of characters the players might play, how they might get to Neverland, and what they do when they get there. To some degree this is offset with tables of random and specific adventure ideas, plot hooks, and rumours, but whilst the author states that they are there if the Dungeon Master is stuck as to what to do next, what if the Dungeon Master is stuck at the start?

Another issue is with the monsters. Including variations, there are over one hundred of them, and whilst that gives Neverland and the Dungeon Master variety aplenty, it does feel like a lot for a twenty-four hex hexcrawl and the likelihood is that many of them the Dungeon Master may never bring into play. Now that is not necessarily a bad thing, but with that many entries in the bestiary or cast list as Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting terms it, not all of them are given the descriptions that they deserve, forcing the Dungeon Master to rely upon their illustrations to describe them. Which is disappointing.

Physically, Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting is a beautiful book, done in rich blocks of greys and blacks, reds and green. The layout is crisp and clean and the book itself is an easy read. The cartography is also good. However, the book could have been better organised, especially when it comes to cross referencing the locations in the text and the placement of the random tables which come in the middle of the book rather than at the end where again they might be easier to find.

Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting is a rich and detailed setting, one which takes the whimsy and wonder of the source material, Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, and makes it somewhere that the Player Characters can explore and perhaps discover the darker secrets of the island. It is beautifully presented, but ultimately, it needs more effort upon the part of the Dungeon Master to bring to the table and to draw her players in than perhaps it should.

The Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook is the second setting supplement for Modiphius Entertainment’s Star Trek Adventures roleplaying game following on from the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook. It is home to Federation member worlds such as Betazed and Tellar Prime, but its dominant powers are the Klingon Empire and Romulan Star Empire. However, these are not the focus of the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook, which pushes out to the frontier where fractious borders exist between the Federation and the Cardassian Union, the Breen Confederacy, and the Tholian Assembly, whilst the Ferengi Alliance pursues between them all. Further, the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook pushes out to the nexus of the conflict in the region—the planet Bajor, Deep Space 9, and the Wormhole (although the supplement is not a Deep Space 9 sourcebook)—and on a further year into 2372 from the 2371 of Star Trek Adventures and the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook. Although there are mentions of them here and there, the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook is not a sourcebook for a campaign setting during the periods of Star Trek: The Original Series or Star Trek: Enterprise.

The slimmest book to date for Star Trek Adventures, the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook is essentially a series of briefings given by Benjamin Sisko, the commander of Deep Space 9, to a Starfleet starship captain assigned to the quadrant. In turn, it covers the recent history of the quadrant with the recent liberation of Bajor from Cardassian occupation by the Bajoran Resistance, the discovery of the Wormhole through to the Gamma Quadrant, incursions by the strange forces of the Dominion from the other side of the Wormhole, and the Klingon Empire’s withdrawal from the Khitomer Accords which have maintained peace between the Klingons and the Federation for decades. Three worlds of the Federation are covered in some detail, Betazed, Denobula—probably the prime section of information for a Star Trek: Enterprise campaign in the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook, and Tellar Prime, the latter completing coverage of the founding members of the United Federation of Planets. These are presented in some detail, not just Betazoid physiology, but also their political structure, legal system, culture, important locations, and more. There is a lot of nice background here, such as the Temple of the Great Houses where information about the no longer existing Great Betazoid Houses is kept, but which can be restored if descendants can be found; Quok’lox Trash Island on Denobula where everything on planet that cannot be recycled is kept and is rumoured to be home to Denobulans living apart from the rest of the planet; and the difficulties of Tellarite-Andorian relations, the former with their love of antagonistic debate, the latter with their propensity for martial action. Bajor, the Cardassian Union, the Ferengi Alliance, the Tzenkethi Coalition, the Breen Confederacy, and the Tholian Assembly are all given similar treatment, so for Bajor it looks at the effects of the Cardassian Occupation, the Provisional Government, Bajoran spirituality, whilst Deep Space 9 and the Wormhole are detailed under Places of interest. Full stats are given for Starbase Deep Space 9 as well. Included in the background to the Cardassian Union are details of Maquis, the resistance movement that resulted from the Federation-Cardassian treaty of 2370 which created the DMZ and saw some colony worlds transferred to the Cardassian Union, whilst the Rules of Acquisition are discussed in the section on the Ferengi Alliance. Various worlds of the Cardassian Union and the Ferengi Alliance are also described.

From the Arbazan and the flight-cable, bewinged Aurelians—complete with rules for flight—to the Ktarians and the Zaranites, the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook introduces eleven new species available as playable options, including the Ferengi, whilst the inclusion of the feline Caitains and the tripedal Edosians are sure to please fans of the Star Trek: The Animated Series. Some ten starships are detailed for the Cardassians, the Ferengi, the Breen, the Talarians, and the Tholians. These range from the Cardassion Hideki-Class Corvette and Keldon-Class Heavy Cruiser to the Spinner and Weaver vessels of the Tholian Assembly. As in other supplements for Star Trek Adventures, these are poorly illustrated, or not all, and as with the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook, there are no starships given for the Federation, but again, this is less of an issue.

Rounding out the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook, its ‘Encounters and Adversaries’ explore some campaign ideas and present various NPCs across the Demilitarized Zone, the Badlands, and the Federation Border. As well as background they come with encounter seeds and campaign ideas, such as a Maquis-themed campaign and a Federation Border campaign, and write-ups of major NPCs such as Gul Dukat, Ro Laren, Michael Eddington, and Thomas Riker. These are all useful and the campaign ideas point towards the potential of the Alpha Quadrant and the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook.

There is a wealth of detail in the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook, especially when it focuses upon the various polities at the far reaches of the quadrant and their particular worlds. The write-ups of the Betazed, Denobula, and Tellar Prime are all decent, as are those of the Cardassian Union and Ferengi Alliance, and the campaign ideas and adversaries all support the material in the supplement. Yet, the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook is far from perfect. Its problems are fivefold. First, it is not the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook, but the ‘Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook in 2372’, so there is no timeline and no sense of history to the region as if nothing really happened until recently. Second, it covers just a handful of worlds and third, whilst it gives numerous new species to play or use as NPCs, it does not give them a great deal of background or details of their worlds. In many cases, they are not illustrated either, leaving the Game Master to work with some really underwritten descriptions—for example, the reader is left with no idea what the Tzenkethi look like. Fourth, there is an avoidance of the technical elements that a Science Fiction setting and roleplaying game would seem to want. So, in addition to the lack of a timeline and the lack of illustrations for certain species, starships are not illustrated when detailed, worlds are pictured, but not mapped, and so on. Fifth, the writing is often unengaging, especially in the case of the sidebars, which all too often add flavour but not substance.

Physically, the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook is a decent looking book. There are some inconsistencies in the layout, but otherwise the book is generally well-written and decently illustrated—though not always effectively—with a fully painted images. The layout is done in the style of the LCARS—Library Computer Access/Retrieval System—operating system used by Starfleet. So everything is laid out over a rich black background with the text done in soft colours. This is very in keeping with the theme and period setting of Star Trek Adventures, but it is imposing, even intimidating in its look, and it is not always easy to find things on the page because of the book’s look. The other issue is that the none-more black pages are easy to mark with fingerprints.

Ultimately, just like the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook, the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook has much to cover—and it is a lot—but it is not quite up to the job. Again, there are whole sections, like the Cardassian Union and the Ferengi Alliance, the Badlands and the Demilitarised Zone, which could have had whole sourcebooks and campaigns of their own devoted to them, and as good as the information is on say, the Cardassian Union and the Ferengi Alliance, the Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook does not feel comprehensive. Further, the focus on the one period of Deep Space 9 and relations with the Cardassian Union and Bajor, do leave the treatment of both the rest of the Alpha Quadrant and its history lacking by comparison. The Alpha Quadrant Sourcebook is interesting and informative, but it never gets away from feeling like an introduction to a sourcebook on Deep Space 9 or the Cardassian Union, and again, the Game Master is left wanting more.

The abandoned wizard’s tower is almost as much a cliché for Dungeons & Dragons as the dungeon below ground is, but the joy of coming to an abandoned wizard’s tower (or indeed, a dungeon) in Dungeons & Dragons is seeing what the author has done with it to make it is own, to make it stand out, and to make it different. The Coral Tower of Naaman al-Raman is an adventure designed for Player Characters of Fifth Level by Louis Counter for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition which involves an abandoned wizard’s tower. It scores points for originality by not being just another run-of-the-mill abandoned wizard’s tower ready to be dropped into the cod-medieval setting of the Dungeon Master’s choice, but by being set in Zakhara, the Land of Fate, from TSR, Inc.’s setting inspired by One Thousand and One Nights and the Hollywood cinema which drew from it, as detailed in Al-Qadim: Arabian Adventures and Al-Qadim: Land of Fate. This places it to the southeast of Faerûn, the Forgotten Realms, with the Coral Tower of the title being specifically in the foothills of the Furrowed Mountains southwest of the village of Talv, some days travel to the southeast of Muluk, ‘The City Of Kings’. Of course, the scenario can be moved elsewhere in Al-Qadim, and even elsewhere bearing in mind that the scenario involves Djinn, Efreet, Dao, and Marid—as well as their rivalries, relationships, and politics, which firmly place the scenario in Al-Qadim, or at least settings with similar Arabic elements.

The Coral Tower of Naaman al-Raman is designed for Player Characters of Fifth Level and does not require any characters of specific Classes. That said, The Coral Tower of Naaman al-Raman is an abandoned wizard’s tower, so arcane spellcasters will be useful and since the scenario involves Djinn, Efreet, Dao, and Marid—as well as their rivalries, relationships, and politics, a Sha’ir will be useful. Three adventure hooks are given to get the Player Characters involved. Two involve the Player Characters being hired to recover a gem known as The Liquid Heart, one by a Marid, Oshaba Abu Zobaah, the other by a Dao, Ynadin. The third suggests that the Player Characters are attracted by the possibility of the treasures to be found in the Coral Tower of Naaman al-Raman. These do feel underwhelming, especially the third, and especially given that the hook does not suggest or hint as to what treasures might be found within.

The Coral Tower of Naaman al-Raman of course stands alone. Its lower floors have been occupied by an evil shepherd and his guard ‘dogs’ and both they and one or two middle floors have suffered from being exposed to the elements. The lower floors because the shepherd and his guard ‘dogs’ do not care and the middle floors appear to have suffered some kind of explosion. Could that have been the cause of Naaman al-Raman’s disappearance? The explosion has also caused a break in the tower—which is still standing despite the break—and this likely to initially impede the Player Characters’ progress until they can find a way up. Fortunately, the means is provided for them to bridge the gap. It is worth the effort, for this is where the tower gets interesting and more detailed. There is a strong sense of the elements and the elemental races native to Al-Qadim to the descriptions given of various rooms and locations, with paintings which appear to give off the natural light of the elemental regions they depict. It has a slightly weird, almost ethereal feel to it in one or two of the rooms, and whilst there are monsters, the Player Characters will find themselves being faced with puzzles just as much fights. There is also plenty of treasure to be had, though none of it comes in the form of coins and indeed, very little of it in the form of traditional magical items. That may be disappointing to some players and their characters. It would have been nice if a few more the books to be found within the tower had been given titles.

Ultimately, The Coral Tower of Naaman al-Raman is lacking a climax. Not necessarily a final boss battle, but at least the option for the Dungeon Master to stage one. With a Marid and a Dao both wanting The Liquid Heart, a standoff between the two seems like a great way to end the Player Characters’ explorations. Plus, The Liquid Heart is also underwhelming in the sense that it is at best a MacGuffin—but it could have been more, perhaps with its own power and then the opportunity for the  Player Characters to wield some of that power (or even The Liquid Heart to wield one of them!). 

Physically, the layout for The Coral Tower of Naaman al-Raman is basic, but tidily presented. It does need an edit and behind its decent cover, the scenario is unillustrated. Instead, it is left up to the floor plans of the tower to break up the text. These are drawn by the ever-dependable Dyson Logos and so are good as you would expect. However, the floor plans for his ‘shattered wizard tower’ are released under a free, royalty-free, commercial licence which does mean that they are not original and they will be used elsewhere (such as ‘The Tower of Jayúritlal’ in The Excellent Travelling Volume Issue No. 11). There is thus, a certain familiarity to them, a chance—a slim one, but a chance that they might be recognised. However, what is interesting about their use here and elsewhere, is just like the very nature of the abandoned wizard’s tower, seeing how another author approaches them and details them.

Where The Coral Tower of Naaman al-Raman really works is its use of themes and setting, the elements and the elemental races native to Al-Qadim, to detail the various rooms and locations of the Coral Tower. It enforces that setting as does the author’s tying in of Dao and Marid rivalries, relationships, and politics, and suggested link to the the Ruined Kingdoms campaign. It suffers though in terms of Player Character motivations and potential storytelling elements, but a good Dungeon Master can address those. Overall, The Coral Tower of Naaman al-Raman is a thematically enjoyable take upon the traditional abandoned wizard’s tower that needs a little more development in places.

 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: Too Close to Home

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Benjamin Schäfer

Setting: Modern
Product: Scenario
What You Get: Twelve page, 31.04 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “It isn't hard at all to make a wish. The difficultly lies in how to make what you wish for a reality.”
Plot Hook: A strangely impervious corpse, a missing funeral director, could they be connected?Plot Support: Simple and straightforward plot, detailed location descriptions, four maps, four NPCs, and a single ‘monster’.Production Values: Clean and tidy, well organised, and reasonable maps.
Pros
# Easy to adapt to other time periods
# Short one to two session scenario
# Nicely detailed locations# Monster light# Mythic mystery
Cons
# Mythic mystery
# Mythos light# Monster light# Potential for handouts, but no handouts# Mystery might not be revealed
Conclusion
# Mythic mystery, which might not be revealed# Short and ineffable

It is somewhen in the nineteenth century… It is the dawning of a new age, yet the relationships of the past age linger… For centuries, the peoples of Scandinavia have lived side by side with the Vaesen, supernatural creatures who helped out on the farms, gave a hand when it came to calving, ensured that lost children would find their way home, and kept everyone alive during the harsh winters of Northern Europe, and in return would receive milk and grain from the farms. As Scandinavia is changed by war and industrialisation and revolution and urbanisation and migration and sciences, the once symbiotic relationship between the people and the vaesen has been driven asunder. The ways of the country have been forgotten, few knowing how to appease the vaesen, and in turn the vaesen have turned aggressive, bloodthirsty, and wicked—snatching children where they once would have kept a watch over them, wrecking houses when once they would have swept them clean, and burning barns when once they would have driven out the vermin. In their wrath, they grow stronger and volatile, and the supernatural seems to spread as streams run with blood, calves are born with two heads, children are lost in the forests, and faeries skip into villages to lure the young maid and the handsome man away with them. The vaesen—Mermaids and Wood Wives, Werewolves and Witches, Revenants and Mylings, Sea Serpents and Kraken, and more, have become a threat and for the good of all, a solution must be found to their pernicious activities!

Yet there are those who have not forgotten the vaesen. In fact, it was an encounter with vaesen, perhaps a werewolf under the full moon or a troll under that bridge, which gave them the gift of the Sight, the ability to see vaesen, and made them each a Thursday’s Child. Some of those with the Sight have gathered at the headquarters of the Society, the old and decaying Castle Gyllencreutz by the Fyris River in Upsala, a city noted for the size of its Gothic cathedral and power of the Church, its large university, and recent which devastated much of the city. The Society was a body of men and women which for centuries had dedicated itself to the study and understanding of the vaesen, whose last members have been missing or resigned for at least a decade. As members of the newly re-established Society, they will travel across Scandinavia, seeking out vaesen, not to hunt them or take them as trophies, but to understand them and to help them, so that they will stop preying upon the peoples of Scandinavia. It is not a matter of taking force of arms to stop the vaesen, but to research them, to identify their weakness, and to use it against them. And despite their courage, conviction, and ability to see the supernatural, this is not without its dangers for members of the Society. Exposure to and confrontation with the vaesen and their strange abilities and the secrets of Scandinavia, will scar members of the Society, perhaps even permanently. However, duty and the lure of understanding will drive members of the Society to confront the vaesen for as long as they are able…

This is the set-up for Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, a roleplaying game of investigative folklore horror set in nineteenth century Scandinavia, based on Vaesen: Spirits and Monsters of Scandinavian Folklore as collected and illustrated by Johan Egerkrans, and published by Free League Publishing. It is an investigative horror game set in Scandinavia during the nineteenth century, using the Year Zero engine first seen in Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days, and subsequently a wide array of roleplaying games from Tales from the Loop – Roleplaying in the '80s That Never Was to Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World. Although suitable for oneshot scenarios, Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying is designed for campaign, the Player Characters expected to return from their investigations into the vaesen to Castle Gyllencreutz where they have the chance to recover from and ruminate on their encounters and discoveries, explore the castle and perhaps uncover its secrets and facilities, make friends and allies in the community at large, and hopefully ward off the unwanted attention and intrusion of the curious, the superstitious, and the sceptical… To that end, Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying provides the means to create characters, investigate and confront the vaesen, develop and explore Castle Gyllencreutz, details of the various types of vaesen with some twenty or so fully described, advice for the Game Master, and ‘The Dance of Dreams’, a complete introductory mystery.

A Player Character in Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying is defined by his age; Attributes and Skills; a Motivation, a Trauma, and a Dark Secret; a Talent and a relationship with another Player Character, a memento, and some equipment. Age sets the balance between Attributes and Skills, the Attributes of Physique, Precision, Logic, and Empathy being rated between two and five, Skills between one and five; Motivation explains why the Player Character is prepared to hunt down and confront vaesen, whilst Trauma explains why or how the Player Character gained the Sight; and the Dark Secret is something that the Player Character wants to keep. Each Talent is a trick or trait, such as Bookworm which provides a bonus to the Learning Skill or Nine Lives, which enables a player to switch the dice when rolling to determine what critical injury his character suffers. Talents are either tied to a particular Archetype or general, in which case, any character can select them later on in the game. A Memento is a possession which the Player Character holds dear, such as a dried red rose or a golden box from a distant land, and by interacting with it, help him overcome a Condition.

To create a character, a player has two options. The first is to choose an Archetype of which there are ten—Academic, Doctor, Hunter, Occultist, Officer, Priest, Private Detective, Servant, Vagabond,  and Writer. Each provides options for the player to choose from in terms of Names, Motivation, Trauma, Dark Secret, and Relationships, and lists the Archetype’s main Attribute and Skill, and suggested Talents and Equipment. The player also assigns points to his Attributes and Skills.

Our first sample character is Selma Nilsson, a middle-aged women who always wanted to be a writer, but her ambitions were thwarted by having to look after her sick mother, who also frowned on her desire to tell stories. Unable to complete any stories due to her mother’s influence, it was a great shock to discover upon her mother’s death that her mother had written stories herself. Not long after Selma published the first few of them, she was visited by a strange creature who cursed her for stealing its stories… And now she cannot complete any stories!

Name: Selma Nilsson
Age: Middle-Aged
Motivation: Revenge
Trauma: Cursed by a homeless vaettir to write a book in your own blood
Dark Secret: My life’s work is a lie
Relationship: Tries to win your appreciation (Doctor)

Physique 2
Precision 3
Logic 4
Empathy 5

Talent: Automatic Writing

Skills
Agility 0, Close Combat 0, Force 0, Inspiration 3, Investigation 0, Learning 2, Manipulation 1, Medicine 2, Observation 2, Ranged Combat 0, Stealth 0, Vigilance 2

Equipment: Writing utensils and paper, camera, pet dog
Memento: Gold jewellery worn by your mother

The other option is to create a character using the Background tables at the rear of the book. This covers everything from a Player Character’s Class, Upbringing, Profession—which determines his Archetype, to life events which can be rolled numerous times, aging the Player Character in the process. Both options are quick, but the Background tables add flavour and detail lacking in the simple method of picking an Archetype.

Our second sample character then is Oskar Dolk, a Vagabond whose strange capture and subsequent escape from a troll bag ultimately led him to the doors of Castle Gyllencreutz. Oskar Dolk is not his real name, but that of a fellow prisoner who Rolf served part of his sentence with. Rolf’s family were servants to the nobility, much put upon and unhappy in their lot, and after one too many beatings, he ran away and was captured by the troll. When he escaped and made his way home, his masters beat him some more and banished him from his former home. Forced to live on the road, he was first arrested for vagrancy, and then accused and imprisoned for theft. He later escaped, finding refuge with a former cellmate, Oskar Dolk, and when he died the next winter taking his identity.

Name: Oskar Dolk (Rolf Krabbe)
Age: Young
Class: Poor
Upbringing: Servant
Profession: Day Labourer
Motivation: Being liked
Trauma: Survived a week inside a troll bag
Dark Secret: Stolen identity

Relationship: Feigned gratitude (Hunter)
Life Events: Prison

Resources: 1

Physique 5
Precision 4
Logic 3
Empathy 3

Talent: Hobo Tricks

Skills
Agility 1, Close Combat 1, Force 1, Inspiration 0, Investigation 0, Learning 0, Manipulation 3, Medicine 0, Observation 2, Ranged Combat 0, Stealth 1, Vigilance 1

Equipment: Walking stick, knife, liquor, lockpicks
Memento: A scruffy cat

Mechanically, Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying uses the Year Zero engine, Free League Publishing’s house rules, which uses pools of six-sided dice. Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying uses a simpler version than first seen in Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days—so not Base (or Attribute) dice, Skill dice, and Gear dice, but simply Attribute and Skill dice, plus whatever bonus or penalty dice the Game Master awards, such as from the situation or a Talent. For a character to undertake an action, his player rolls dice equal to the character’s Attribute and Skill appropriate for that action. To succeed, all he needs to roll is typically one Success or six—though sometimes it may be more—on any of the dice. Extra Successes can be expended to gain various effects, such as gaining bonuses to further skill tests where the information will be useful in Observation tests or increase damage or inflict stress upon an enemy with Ranged Combat.

Where the Year Zero engine and Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying gets interesting is that if a player fails a roll, he can reroll or Push the test. A player rerolls everything bar the Successes already rolled to get more. In other iterations of the Year Zero engine, such as Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days and Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World, rolls of one in both the original roll and the pushed roll are kept and have negative effects upon the character, typically reducing temporarily, the Attribute used in the roll or damaging the item of equipment used. Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying does not use that mechanic and so there is not the degradation of Attributes or equipment as there are in those games. Instead, the character suffers a Condition if forced to Push a roll, the nature of the Condition depending upon if the action was physical or mental. So Exhausted, Battered, and Wounded are physical Conditions, whilst Angry, Frightened, and Hopeless are mental Conditions. The Condition only comes into effect after the dice roll has been made and its success or failure been determined. Each Condition of the same type reduces the number of dice rolled for the associated type of action and if a character acquires four Conditions of the same type, then he is Broken and cannot undertake any actions of that type.

For example, Oskar Dolk believes that the flop house he is staying in is haunted and the landlady knows what is causing it—he has determined that she is meeting something down in the cellar. He decides to creep down the stairs and spy on what is going on—this is what Oskar’s player states that his aim will be. The landlady has locked the cellar door behind her, but fortunately, Oskar has the late Rolf’s set of lockpicks. The Game Master sets the difficulty at one and Oskar’s player assembles the dice pool of five dice from his Precision Attribute and Stealth Skill. He rolls one, two, four, five, and five—so no Successes. His player decides to Push and pick up all of the dice again and rerolls them, this time rolling one, two four, five, and six, for one Success! However, Oskar also suffers a Condition, which will be a Physical one because Precision is a Physical Attribute. The Game Master selects Exhausted for him and suggests that he has not getting enough sleep and until Oskar addresses the Condition, his player will roll one less die on all physical tests.

Combat in Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying uses the same core mechanics, but adds tweaks to both initiative and actions. Initiative is handled by both players and Game Master drawing from a ten-card deck, numbered one to ten. Initiative then proceeds in ascending order, though some Talent allow Initiative to be changed and players can swap initiative cards if one character needs to act before another. Otherwise it remains the same throughout a fight. In combat itself, a character can perform two actions—a Fast Action and a Slow Action. The first might be a dodge, a parry, a swing of a heavy weapon before an actual attack with a heavy weapon, run, aim, and so on, whereas the second might be a slash with an edged weapon, stab with a pointed weapon, a taunt or persuade attempt, and so on. Fast Actions typically do not require dice rolls, whereas Slow Actions typically do.

One major change to the Year Zero engine is that damage suffered in combat does not directly degrade a character’s Attributes. Instead, it inflicts further Conditions, and once a character has suffered four Conditions of one type—Physical or Mental—and is Broken, he also suffers a Critical Injury, which is rolled randomly. Tables are provided for both Mental and Physical Critical Injuries, and can be defects or insights, as well as potentially fatal. So for example, a Physical Critical Injury might be a Knee injury, a defect which causes a skewed walk and reduces the character’s Agility skill by one, whereas a Coma grants the insight of Prophetic Vision for up to six days and a bonus to the Investigation skill. When the character returns to his headquarters, he has the choice to heal both defects and insights suffered or make them permanent.

Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying is a horror game and so has a Fear mechanic. This is either an Empathy or Logic test rolled against the Fear value of the Vaesen or the situation being faced. For example, a terrible situation such as encountering a werewolf or discovering the corpse of a child, has a Fear value of two and this is the number of a Successes a player must roll to avoid becoming Terrified. If this happens, a character suffers Conditions equal to the Fear value and must either flee, freeze, faint, or attack—the player’s choice. Like the rest of the mechanics in Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, the Fear mechanic is simple, fast, and effective, as well as enforcing the fact investigating the vaesen is a collective endeavour—bonus dice are awarded for the number of characters present when a Fear test has to be made.

There is also a sense of the collective when it comes to the most immediate element of the setting for the Player Characters, the crumbling Castle Gyllencreutz, the headquarters of the Society in the city of Upsala. There a sense of mystery to the place, with doors locked and keys missing and sections closed up, but the Player Characters have the opportunity to improve the castle each time they return home from solving a mystery. Here there is a marked difference between Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days and Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying. At the end of each session or scenario in both roleplaying games, the Game Master asks questions of his players, such as “Did you play in the session?”, “Did you go somewhere new?”, and so on, and for each positive answer, a Player Character earns a Development Point. In Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days, the Player Characters invest their time and skill in improving their community—their ark—but in Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, the Player Characters invest Development Points, which might otherwise be expended to improve Skills and Talents. As a consequence, there are more questions to be asked and potentially, the Player Characters can earn more of them. Upgrades to Castle Gyllencreutz come in the form of facilities, such as Butterfly House and Séance Parlour, Contacts, from Banker to Psychiatrist, and Personnel, from the Butler Algot Frisk (he more or less comes with the castle though) and Stable Boy.

There is a delightful scope for roleplaying in this aspect of Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying. The connections to the Contacts and Personnel can of course be roleplayed, but so can the Facilities. Essentially, the Player Characters do not so much simply purchase them, but they might find them behind a hidden door or find the key to a locked door, and so be restoring them rather than simply building them. There is a potential downside to every upgrade though, in that the growing Society can be faced with Threat, which is rolled for, such as a Journalist intent on exposing the Player Characters’ secrets at any cost or a bank clerk who comes to collect on an old debt connected to the castle’s previous owner, providing further opportunities for roleplaying.

The history of the Society is given in some detail, from the involvement of the young scientist Carl Linnaeus through to its relatively recent dissipation and refounding by the Player Characters. Beyond the Society, Upsala is explored in some detail, taking in its high points and low points, from Upsala University Hospital—the most modern in Sweden, and Upsala Botanical Garden of Upsala University to the Poorhouse and Wellspring Street 59 ( a highly disreputable brothel). In comparison, the Mythic North is explored in broader detail, taking in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark, the social upheavals which wrack the region throughout the nineteenth century, such as between country and city, science and faith, and so on. There is very much an ahistorical feel to the background, which lets the Game Master set her campaign at any time throughout the nineteenth century.

At the centre of Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying are the vaesen themselves. This covers their nature in general, but not necessarily defining ‘exactly’ what they are, simply categorising them into five broad types—nature spirits, familiars, shapeshifters, spirits of the dead, and monsters. Their magic is also presented—Enchantments (animals being born with defects or terrible storms), Curses (inflicting a sense of self-loathing or making someone lame), and Trollcraft (altering age or transforming victims into animals), all powerful, but clearly stated as being story tools rather than means of eliminating the Player Characters. It is possible for Player Characters to learn magic, but each spell or cure is treated as an individual skill and cannot be simply studied. Vaesen are simply defined, and mechanically, their actions are decided by the Game Master to suit the narrative rather than her rolling the dice. Similarly, the Player Characters do not test their skills defeat or banish any one vaesen. Instead their players describe what they do. If it matches the criteria, then the attempt to banish the vaesen automatically succeeds. The conflict here lies in discovering what the means of banishment actually is, protecting or defeating those persons who have fallen under the vaesen’s sway, making the preparations, keeping the vaesen from attacking them, and so on.

Each of the twenty-one vaesen in Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, from the Ash Tree Wife, Brook Horse, and Church Grim to the Werewolf, Will-o’-the-Wisp, and Wood Wife, is given a two-page spread. Along with some flavour text and a description, this lists its magical powers, the Conditions it suffers if the Player Characters do manage to hurt it, the ritual required to banish it, and a trio of example conflicts, essentially each one a scenario hook the Game Master can develop into a fuller mystery. This is in addition to hooks scattered throughout the book. As a side note, Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying looks at vaesen around the world, so that although no stats are given, a Game Master could set her campaign elsewhere other than the Mythic North with some effort. The write-ups of the vaesen are accompanied by an excellent guide to what makes up a mystery—atmosphere, clues, locations, the conflicts at the heart of the mystery, and so on, plus its structure and advice for the Game Master. The structure is broken down into a series of eight steps, from the prologue where the Player Characters can have a scene each in Upsala and an Invitation which gives them the reason to go to the country location where a vaesen is proving to be a problem, to the confrontation with the vaesen and its aftermath. Along with the good advice for Game Master, this is a solid chapter, and it even comes with suggestions as to how to make each mystery and a campaign, more like traditional fairy tales.

Rounding out Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying is ‘The Dance of Dreams’, a short mystery designed to start a campaign. It is a nice little haunting tale tied back into the history of the Society and its secrets, whilst also laying the foundation for scenarios and content to come.

Physically, Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying is simply lovely. It is richly illustrated by Johan Egerkrans, drawing on his Vaesen: Spirits and Monsters of Scandinavian Folklore, and gives the roleplaying game a consistently singular look throughout. The book is very well written, being engaging and easy to read throughout. The book also feels good in the hand, with a tactile cover and off-white pages which give it the look of a period tome.

There can be no doubt that Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying is a beautiful book, there being something mythical, almost lyrical and fairy tale-like in Johan Egerkrans’ artwork. It sets the tone and style for the roleplaying game, whose tried and trusted Year Zero mechanics have been tweaked to support its ‘monster-mystery’ style of play—a style of play that ultimately emphasises brains over brawn. Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying is a superb horror roleplaying game, one which takes a different take upon the genre and a different take upon the period, and one which begs to be played.

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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It is often forgotten that in its first swashbuckling few years, that much of the background that we know of today as the Third Imperium in GDW’s first roleplaying game, Traveller, was developed in conjunction with other parties. Whole sectors would be parcelled out to third parties to develop and publish content about. For example, Judges Guild developed the Ley Sector, FASA the Far Frontiers Sector, and Paranoia Press both The Beyond and the Vanguard Reaches Sectors. Much of this content would subsequently be declared non-canonical, but in the case of FASA, it was where the publisher got its start in gaming before developing roleplaying games based on licences, such as Star Trek: The Role Playing Game and The Doctor Who Role Playing Game, and its own properties, such as BattleTech, Shadowrun, and Earthdawn. However, Traveller is where the publisher got its start and many of FASA’s titles for Traveller are still highly regarded—especially those written by the prolific J. Andrew Keith and William H. Keith, Jr. Perhaps none more so than the ‘Sky Raiders’ trilogy—The Legend of the Sky Raiders, The Trail of the Sky Raiders, and Fate of the Sky Raiders.

Published in 1981, the back-cover blurb for The Legend of the Sky Raiders reads, “The Sky Raiders... They pillaged a dozen worlds sometime in the distant past, then vanished. Who were they? A beautiful archaeologist leads a band of adventurers into the swamps of the planet Mirayn, searching for their secrets ... and their lost treasure hoard. Join the search ... the expedition seeking the truth behind ... The Legend of the Sky Raiders.” Then inside the front cover, the dedication reads, “To Indiana Jones, who would feel right at home here.” Raiders of the Lost Ark, the obvious inspiration for The Legend of the Sky Raiders came out the same year and it clearly put the Keith brothers in ‘Pulp Adventure’ frame of mind, for the adventure—and this is very much an adventure rather than a scenario—combines archaeological mystery with scurvy artefact smugglers and hot, sweaty environments. Another inspiration might well have been Chariots of the Gods? Unsolved Mysteries of the Past by Erich von Däniken which hypothesised that early human cultures were contacted by alien astronauts, for that is exactly what is hypothesised by archaeologists on the world of Mirayn in The Legend of the Sky Raiders.

The Legend of the Sky Raiders takes place on Mirayn, a non-aligned world in the Jungleblet subsector of the Far Frontiers Sector. This is a Tech Level 7 world, perpetually enshrouded in clouds, and ruled by a council of landowners who through its antiquity laws maintain a tight control on the planet’s two primary sources of income—tourism and archaeological finds. Extensive ruins left by an indigenous culture have attracted the interest of both tourists and scientists and with the right permits, parties of both have begun making trips into ‘The Outback’. Interest has grown recently with the publication of Hoard of the Sky Raiders by Jothan Messandi, Professor of History at the Institute for System Studies on nearby Alzenei. This suggested that the Sky Raiders, a semi-mythical band of raiders said to have pillaged planets across the Far Frontiers Sector may have originated on Mirayn and may have left a treasure hoard in the lost city of Tlaynsilak, when they disappeared some five millennia ago.

The set-up for The Legend of the Sky Raiders is simple enough. The Player Characters are down on their luck and find themselves stranded temporarily on Mirayn. With competition for work amongst freelancers tough, the Player Characters take the first job they can. This is to outfit and crew an archaeological expedition led by Lorain Messandi, the young daughter of Jothan Messandi who has followed in father’s footsteps and become an archaeologist, and wants to follow up on some of theories presented in her father’s book, Hoard of the Sky Raiders. The outfitting process is essentially a big shopping and hiring process, something that many roleplayers seem to enjoy, but is hampered by the Player Characters being on a budget—a budget out of which they also need to pay themselves, hire vehicles and drivers—the vehicles in this case being hovercraft, hire guides, and purchase supplies and equipment, and obtain the permits necessary to mount such an expedition; government interest in the expedition—such as bureaucrats checking their permits and soliciting bribes; and the potential interest of other smugglers and the criminal underworld. The Game Master has various NPCs, rumours, and encounters to put into the path of the Player Characters and so make their stay in the frontier town of Val Preszar, the primary jumping off point for expeditions into The Outback, interesting and challenging.

If the outfitting process and various encounters in the frontier form The Legend of the Sky Raiders’ first act, the second takes the expedition into The Outback following information provided by the expedition’s leader, perhaps backed up with clues discovered earlier in Val Preszar. Here the Player Characters have freedom to more or less wander looking for locations of note. There is chance here for the expedition to run into various forms of the local wildlife, but by the time the Player Characters have completed their explorations, they will have gained further clues which lead them into the third act and a strange encounter or three with another archaeological party, their capture—not once, but twice, and ultimately, revelations that hint as to who the Sky Raiders might have been.

Structurally, The Legend of the Sky Raiders feels like not one, but two sandboxes—one in Val Preszar, the other in The Outback. The first sandbox is very well supported with lists of equipment and supplies to purchase and hire, NPCs to hire, and rumours and antagonists to throw into the path of the Player Characters. The Game Master will need to judge where and when the Player Characters will run into them, but they serve to foreshadow much will occur later. The second sandbox is more open and for the most part player-driven as they decide where to go in The Outback, leavened with random encounters. It is difficult to describe the final revelation as being particularly astounding, it is at least interesting and it does serve to drive the plot onto the scenario’s epilogue and then into Trail of the Sky Raiders.

The Legend of the Sky Raiders is very well supported, both from a Game Master and a player point of view. There is the ubiquitous Library Data, which covers the world of Mirayn, its history, Sky Raiders themselves, the Hoard of the Sky Raiders, and more. This is supported by further details about Hoard of the Sky Raiders, essentially a handout. There is also an extensive equipment list, including various types of hovercraft and a portable, backpack computer which weighs twenty-five kilograms! A set of eight pregenerated Player Characters are provided should the players not necessarily want to create their own. For the Game Master, there is a wide cast of NPCs—potentially too many for her to handle effectively, and rumours and encounters to use.

The Legend of the Sky Raiders is richly appointed, certainly in comparison to the austerity of GDW’s ‘Little Black Books’ for Traveller. There is extensive artwork throughout, all of it by William H. Keith, Jr., and all of it good. Similarly, his full colour, pull-out map is also good, depicting the town of Val Preszar, the region of The Outback around the town, and the smaller area where the finale of the adventure takes place. Disappointingly, the lost city of Tlaynsilak is not given a map. Barring some minor issues, The Legend of the Sky Raiders is also well written.

When The Legend of the Sky Raiders was published in 1981, it was a terrific adventure and it still is. It presents a Pulp-style—though not a cinematic-style—romp from a frontier town into the wilderness of The Outback, dealing with shenanigans and mystery, whilst also giving the Game Master plenty of NPCs to roleplay and some fun encounters to present. Now whilst its contents could have been better organised, the real issue with The Legend of the Sky Raiders is the poor handling of some the NPCs. There are a lot of them, and some are simply there to annoy the Player Characters and get killed as part of the plot, whilst the Game Master is advised to keep a number of them alive for Trail of the Sky Raiders, also part of the part. This may mean that the Game Master will have to force events if she is to keep them alive, which in terms of storytelling is clumsy.

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The Legend of the Sky Raiders was well received at the time of its publication. In reviewing The Legend of the Sky Raiders in Different Worlds Issue 21 (June 1982), Tony Watson said of the scenario, “Suffice it to say that the adventure is interesting, with plenty of twists and turns, and the travelers should find it very challenging. The elements opposing the party are formidable, and the secret of the Sky Raiders, as much as is revealed in this adventure (FASA is apparently planning a sequel), is fascinating. Perhaps the only criticism this reviewer can level at the book is the fact that to retain the integrity of the scenario, the referee may have to be a little heavy-handed in his guidance of the course of the action. Still, it is an excellent adventure, well worth the time and effort.”

William A. Barton said  in The Space Gamer Number 50 (April 1982) that, “The details in LEGEND OF THE SKY RAIDERS are extraordinary – nearly everything a referee could conceivably need is provided.” before concluding that, “LEGEND OF THE SKY RAIDERS is definitely worth adding to your Traveller collection and, when run, should prove one of the more exciting adventures your players have yet experienced.”

Bob McWilliams reviewed not just The Legend of the Sky Raiders in White Dwarf No 31 (June/July 1982), but also Ordeal by Eshaar, Action Aboard, and Uragyad’n of the Seven, which together comprised the first four releases from FASA. He described all four as, “Well produced and with plenty going on, the designers have provided referees with as much help as can be fitted in booklets of this size, gone into details at points in the adventure where it’s necessary and not filled out with ‘chrome’. These comments apply particularly to the last two booklets [Uragyad’n of the Seven and The Legend of the Sky Raiders] – being so involved with Traveller on a day-to-day basis, it takes something above the average to get you interested, and these two certainly did that.” He awarded all four scenarios two scores each, based on their suitability for use by novice and expert referees. For The Legend of the Sky Raiders, this was eight out of ten for each.

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At the time of publication, all that was needed to run The Legend of the Sky Raiders is the core Traveller rules, plus Supplement 4: Citizens of the Imperium, although Book 4: Mercenary, Book 5: High Guard, Supplement 1: 1001 Characters, and Supplement 2: Animal Encounters could all be used in conjunction with the scenario. Information on the Far Frontiers Sector was not necessary to play, but was not readily available then, and certainly is not today. There is certainly no doubt that The Legend of the Sky Raiders could be run using Mongoose Publishing’s version of Traveller, and it would be certainly helped by the inclusion of the expanded career options such as Scholar and Colonist, and expanded skills as the Archaeology speciality for the Science skill. Tracking down information on the Far Frontiers Sector would be problematic. In fact, it might be easier to simply shift the ‘legend of the Sky Raiders’ and the Sky Raiders trilogy to another Sector of space entirely, but then again, The Legend of the Sky Raiders would probably be easier to adapt to another Science Fiction setting or roleplaying game.

Forty years since its publication and there are other issues with The Legend of the Sky Raiders. One is the colonial/post-colonial aspects of the scenario, it being suggested that the description of Val Preszar be based on the coastal towns of the nineteenth century Africa, such as Casablanca or Stanleyville. Further, the indigenous species of Mirayn, a bipedal, hexapodid Tech Level 1—but previous Tech Level 3—race are called ‘Gogs’ by offworlders. Unintended at the time, in 2020, there can be no doubt that the term has the potential to offend, but it would be easy to change.

The Legend of the Sky Raiders always had the reputation as being a good adventure, and forty years on, it still is. It has a sweaty, jungle hot Pulp Sci-Fi feel to it, but without being over the top and with wearing its influences in the hatband of its fedora. The Legend of the Sky Raiders is an entertaining and nicely detailed classic.

The Warlock! Compendium is the first supplement for Warlock!, the Old School Rennaisance-like Career and skills roleplaying game whose inspiration is a hybrid of Fighting Fantasy a la The Warlock of Firetop Mountain and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Published by Fire Ruby Designs, it complies the first four expansions for Warlock!, each of which adds flavour and detail to the core rules, particularly when it comes to Careers and magic. In turn, adds new Careers for the non-human races of the Kingdom—or wherever the Game Master’s campaign is set, new magic, rules for magic from old body parts, and rules for what happens if you entreat the unholy powers.

The Warlock! Compendium opens with ‘Part 1: Different Paths’, in particular, ‘Community Careers’. One of major omissions in Warlock! was a lack of Careers for Dwarves, Elves, and Halflings. ‘Community Careers’ amends that with an expansion of the Career table in the core rules, which a player rolls on to determine his character’s first Career. This table extension adds six more, such as Dwarf Inventor, Elf Kin Guard, and Halfling Gong Farmer, which when rolled determine both a character’s first Career, but also his Community. This does not necessarily replace a player’s option to choose his character’s Community, but rather means that the character will definitely be a member of one if the right roll is made. Some of the Careers, such as Dwarf Tunnel Fighter and the Advanced Careers of Dwarf Slayer, Elf Champion, and Halfling Burglar, all feel very much inspired by a certain British fantasy roleplaying game. Warlock! however, is not a fantasy roleplaying game in which one Community is mechanically any different from any other, but ‘Community Careers’ adds potential flavour without adding any undue mechanical complexity or advantage.

‘Part 2: The Grimoire’ is all about magic. It starts by adding advice for discovering spells—essentially research, research, research—and copying scrolls. The latter is particularly trying, costing a wizard stamina which cannot otherwise be recovered. Now whilst this can be done, it definitely feels as if the author is persuading the wizard against such a rash action, suggesting instead that he concentrate upon exploration and the search already completed scrolls rather than create his own. This is followed by some forty spells, from Beam, Bleed, and Curse to Tremor, Whisper, and Yearn. These all fantastically gritty and down-to-earth, such as Dry, which protects the caster and anyone nearby from the rain, but makes all incredibly thirsty, or Glamour, which grants a bonus to the target for all actions where beauty is involved, but makes the target ugly and repulsive for several hours after the spell’s effects have worn off! ‘Rods, Staves, and Wands’ cover a wizard storing spells in them, whilst ‘Rare and Wondrous Artefacts’ adds a handful of magical items, typically with a sting the tail, such as the ‘Boots of Striding’ which enable the wearer to leap great distances, but with the chance that one boot will be left behind, the other at the destination, and the wear equally as split! ‘Lost Relics’ provides rumours of a handful of missing items, whilst ‘Community Spellcasters’ adds Advanced Careers for Dwarves, Elves, and Halflings capable of using magic, such as the Dwarf Runeforger, Halfling Conjurer—street magicians who use illusion and beguilement, and Elf Druid—who can sacrifice of the blood of sentient species for a much darker version of the Druid typically seen in fantasy roleplaying. 

‘Part 3: Necromancy’ presents the dark arts of dealing with the dead and the undead, practitioners often beginning with contacting the spirits of the departed to learn their secrets and then it is a slippery slope to degradation and terrible power. Of course, in the Kingdom, the art is forbidden and outlawed. From Bind Spirit and Create Guardian to Spirit Speak and Summon Dead, some eight necromantic spells are given as well as detailing the dangers of necromantic miscasts and some necromantic artefacts.

‘Part 4: Corrupted’ covers the effects and consequences of the dark arts, another slippery slope to power for ambitious—or foolish!—wizard, but does actually detail how a wizard might take such a path. With the inclusion of the Cultist and the Death Knight—a sorcerer who has fallen under the influence of a demon, demonic marks and gifts bestowed upon such Death Knights, along with  demon swords, demon goblins, and descriptions of such demon masters as the Cthulhu-like Delock, Lord of the Depths and the demon lord of war, Pazaali, the Warlock! Compendium strays ever closer to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay in emulating its inspiration.

Physically, the Warlock! Compendium is a handy, digest-sized hardback. It is decently illustrated throughout, the occasional roughness of the artwork contributing much to the British Old School style and look that Warlock! seeks to evoke. The book is well written and an engaging read, and everything within its pages is easy to grasp and pull out into a game.

Although it offers a little more than that, the Warlock! Compendium is very much the magic supplement for Warlock!, adding new spells, magical Careers, necromancy, the dark arts, magical monsters, and so on. As useful a set of additions and expansions as they are, it is the six Careers—the Community Careers for Dwarves, Elves, and Halflings which feel the most useful addition in the Warlock! Compendium, for in giving them something that is intrinsically theirs, they flesh out the core game rather than just adding to it. Plus, they do it without adding to the rules or mechanics—just the setting. The Warlock! Compendium is overall, a solidly sorcerous expansion for Warlock!

For devotees of TSR Inc.’s Empire of the Petal Throne: The World of Tékumel, 2020 is notable for the release of not one, two issues of The Excellent Travelling Volume, James Maliszewski’s fanzine dedicated to Professor M.A.R. Barker’s baroque creation. The Excellent Travelling Volume Issue No. 11 was published in April, 2020—available direct from the author or the Melsonian Arts Council—and continues his exploration of one of oldest of roleplaying settings heavily influenced by the campaigns he has been running, the primary being his House of Worms campaign, originally based in, around, and under Sokátis, the City of Roofs before travelling across the southern ocean to ‘Linyaró, Outpost of the Petal Throne’, a small city located on the Achgé Peninsula, as detailed in The Excellent Travelling Volume Issue No. 8.

As per usual, The Excellent Travelling Volume Issue No. 12 opens an editorial from James Maliszewski. This highlights the gap between this issue and The Excellent Travelling Volume Issue No. 11–or rather the lack of a gap, one facilitated by the periods of enforced isolation that beset many of us in 2020, as well as the continuing influence of the author’s ongoing House of Worms campaign. That can be seen in the first entry in the issue, part of the ‘Additions and Changes’ series which examines the various non-human races on Tékumel and makes them playable. ‘Hláka Characters’ adds the three-eyed, bewinged, and sharp-tailed species capable of actual flight. Like many non-human races, they do not acknowledge the Gods of Stability and Change, but when living amongst human civilisations, may adopt one or more faiths to fit in! However, they make for poor worshippers at any temple. Notably, they have a reputation for being skittish and cowardly, but this does not stop the militaries of the Five Empires recruiting them as scouts and even into legions, many of which are listed, solely comprised of Hláka and occasionally as aerial artillery. In terms of Profession, there is no limit in terms of their options, but they make better Warriors than they do Magic-Users or Priests. Alongside notes on Hláka names and homelands, the article includes discussion of Hláka clans—there are none. That is, except for the Blue Clouds of Joy Clan in Béy Sü, an extremely notable exception. Rounding out the article are rules for Hláka flight. This is another fine addition to the series, which with the inclusion of names, makes them both reasonably playable.
The second entry in the ‘Additions and Changes’ series is ‘Psychic Ability and Spells (Additions and Changes) which presents an adjusted table for rolling the Psychic Ability, and discusses the dangers of wearing metal—almost any metal, when casting spells and gives a table of results should a Magic-User attempt to cast a spell whilst wearing metal. Having discussed and presented the dangers of combining metal and magic, the article is rounded off with a discussion of what a sorcerer might actually wear instead of metal, pleasingly adding some colour.
‘The Warrior (Proposal)’ is the author’s suggestion to develop and add context to the Warrior Profession in Empire of the Petal Throne: The World of Tékumel. It does this by dividing the skills in General and Soldier skills, so Spearman and Bowman are General skills and Drills and Logistics are Soldier skills. The aim here is to have General skills that any Warrior can learn, whilst the Soldier skills can only be learned by serving in the legions. Accompanied by the definitions of various skills, it nicely serves to individualise the Warrior Profession and a Player Character’s previous history.
The centre piece in The Excellent Travelling Volume Issue No. 12 is ‘Sa’á Allaqiyár, the Many-Towered City’, a detailed description of the capital of the northern empire of Sa’á Allaqi. It is accompanied by an excellent map, and covers the history of the city, an examination of its major clans—several of which have been adopted from the other four members of the Five Empires, and its notable features. These range from a sizeable Foreigners’ Quarter and an extensive number of brothels to the Pyramid of Néngetl, the long looted tomb of the first Engsvanyáli governor and the Ancient Sealed Gate, the former entry to the city on its eastern wall which was bricked up upon the advice of the priests of the One of Light, who stated that it would bring their god’s blessing and ensure that ‘Sa’á Allaqiyár would never fall. Of course, this is not canon, but this is another excellent article, one which is more than serviceable until such times as there is an official version of the city.
‘The Roads of Avanthár (Part 2)’ completes the short story by David A. Lemire begun in The Excellent Travelling Volume Issue No. 11. The story describes the discovery of a great book and the efforts by members of the military faction to get it to the emperor in Avanthár, and their own rivalries. Ultimately, the concluding part leaves questions unanswered and adds mysteries of its own, but is enjoyable nonetheless.
‘The Hollows of Gyánu’ is the adventure location given in The Excellent Travelling Volume Issue No. 12, the hideout for a group of Kilalammuyáni bandits in the mountains of Tsolyánu’s Chaigári Protectorate, who have been raiding local caravans. The local governor has posted a reward for their capture or their demise, but unfortunately, something already has happened to them by the time the Player Characters arrive to investigate their cave hideout. There are riches to be found in the caves and the sinkhole they are clustered around, but also terrible secrets of the Five Empires’ religious past. It is a nicely done encounter, a mixture of horror and exploration, which is easily transferred to a location of Referee’s choice.
The third entry in the ‘Additions’ series is ‘Bestiary (Addition)’ and presents two creatures as an accompaniment to ‘The Hollows of Gyánu’. The two creatures are the Achayá, ‘The Blood of Gyánu’ and the Chagrúo, ‘The Frozen Dead’, two nasty monsters emanating from the Expanse of the Cold Dark, also detailed here. Rounding out The Excellent Travelling Volume Issue No. 12 is ‘Initial Encounters (Additions and Changes)’, the third entry in the issue’s ‘Additions and Changes’, which presents a replacement table of visitors who might be encountered in the city of Jakálla and the nature of their task in hand. Again, both tables are easy to adapt to other civilised settings and so have a wider use.
Physically, The Excellent Travelling Volume Issue No. 12 is nicely produced, a sturdy little booklet in a thick card cover, pleasingly illustrated and tidily presented throughout. Both the illustrations and the maps are good too.
The Excellent Travelling Volume Issue No. 12 continues the author’s excellent support for Empire of the Petal Throne: The World of Tékumel. It is a solid issue, packed with content and background that the Referee can readily bring to her campaign.

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.
Beyond the Borderlands Issue #1 is a fanzine of a different stripe. Published by Swordfish Islands LLC (but also available in PDF from the author), best known for publishing Swordfish Islands: Hexcrawl Adventures on Hot Springs Island, it is a systems neutral regional hexcrawl inspired by B2 Keep on the Borderlands, most recently implemented by Goodman Games’ Original Adventures Reincarnated #1: Into the Borderlands. It is the first part of a trilogy which will explore the overland region in this the initial issue, then the underground areas in the second issue, and lastly provide the bestiary for the previous two issues. The setting for the Beyond the Borderlands, like B2 Keep on the Borderlands before it, is the edge—or just beyond it—of the civilised lands, the frontier outside of which lies untrammeled wilderness, barbaric tribes, and Chaos run rampant. Here a solid fortress has been established as the last outpost of civilisation, to provide a degree of protection to travellers making the journey beyond and against the possibility of an incursion from the ghastly Goblins, horrible Hobgoblins, obnoxious Orcs, grim Gnolls, and more, which lurk just out of sight, ready to strike…
The setting for Beyond the Borderlands is the Wicked Palovalley. Here Stronglaw Keep defends the Western Kingdoms against invasions from the monstrous forces of the Wicked Palovalley. It is presented as a six-by-six, thirty-six hex hexcrawl, divided into six different regions, each one with its own theme, content, rumours, and random encounters. The issue begins though with a description of Stronglaw Keep, which stands at the mouth of the Wicked Palovalley. Stronglaw Keep is an independent outpost, a last settlement of civilisation, the law—rigidly enforced upon pain of death or banishment, and the Church of the Holy Sun. Stronglaw Keep itself is delightfully presented in a vibrantly colourful isometric style, easy to read and use, and accompanied by two sets of thumbnail write-ups. The first provides simple descriptions of each of Stronglaw Keep’s eleven locations—though there are twelve, whilst the second lists the ‘Loot and Stuff’ to be found at each of the first eleven locations. This provides a little more detail, whether the Player Characters are looking for tools, to make a purchase—whether of goods or services, or purloin an item of vale or two. The possibility of the guards reacting to any theft is covered in a short table. Lastly, the Notice Board lists twenty rumours, events, and employment opportunities which can serve as a spur to the Player Characters to adventure and the Dungeon Master to create adventures.
Supported by a simple set-up—the Player Characters come to Stronglaw Keep, introduce themselves, pick up a job or two, and then go explore, and some simple travel, weather, and encounter rules, the bulk of Beyond the Borderlands Issue #1 presents the six six-hex mini-regions of the Wicked Palovalley. From the Keep’s Domain to the Scarlet Forest, each is presented in a two-page spread. An isometric map of the mini region is presented on the left-hand page, along with a table of rumours and a table of encounters, whilst write-ups of each the six hexes are presented on the right-hand page. Each write-up includes a short description, plus two or three bullet points which provide further details. So in the Sludgy Bog, there are rumours of a carriage full of supplies which never reached the hunting camp and the bog is said to be inhabited by a monstrous people, and any brave adventurers which put foot into the squelchy swamp, they might run into Slug-Leeches or Frogmen, and perhaps follow a trail of shells to a reclusive Sea Witch or find a former keep, flooded, but still with stairs leading down into the water…
All of the maps in Beyond the Borderlands Issue #1 are presented in isometric format, which when combined with their bright, vibrant colours, make them leap off the page. The writing needs an edit in places, but everything is well organised and packs a lot of information into relatively limited amounts of space. The format of the two-page spread used for each location and mini-region makes the contents of Beyond the Borderlands Issue #1 very easy to run from the page. If there is an issue with Beyond the Borderlands Issue #1 as a physical object, it is that it lacks a sturdy card cover.
The twelfth location in the write-up of Stronglaw Keep is a ‘Mysterious Cave’. It is simply left as that, awaiting the publication of Beyond the Borderlands Issue #2 to be fully detailed. This is not the only such location left undetailed the next issue of the fanzine. These include the Bloody Ravine where the infamous Caves of Chaos are located, the Flooded Shrine, and the Caves of the Unknown, a randomly generated, mythic underworld. Now of course, the descriptions of these underground locations were always going to be in the second issue of the fanzine, and then the bestiary in the third issue, but that cannot prevent a sense of deprivation in the reader and potential Dungeon Master, not in the sense of not having that information, but in not having that information and in not being able to bring it to the table and run it right now.
So Beyond the Borderlands Issue #1 is not complete, but it will be with the publication of first Beyond the Borderlands Issue #2—when the Dungeon Master could supply the stats of the monsters and NPCs herself and thus run both the region and its dungeons—and then Beyond the Borderlands Issue #3, when the Dungeon Master will have the official stats. In a sense, Beyond the Borderlands Issue #1 is delivering the promise of a full scenario, one that is inspired by B2 Keep on the Borderlands, but richer and despite the lack of dungeons or stats, has much more going on than B2 Keep on the Borderlands ever did. The vibrancy of the colours used in Beyond the Borderlands Issue #1 evokes a Saturday morning cartoon sensibility to this take upon B2 Keep on the Borderlands, as if it was an adventure written with the Dungeons & Dragons television series in mind. Beyond the Borderlands Issue #1 is the beginning of a charming and engaging take upon the classic B2 Keep on the Borderlands, but will definitely leave the Dungeon Master wanting the second and third issues to be complete.

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.

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. Although previous issues provided support for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay, the new issue continues the move by the fanzine away from that retroclone towards a neutral position with regard to any one retroclone, such that its contents can be used with Old School Renaissance fantasy roleplaying game. Unlike the previous issue, The Undercroft No. 12 does not include any content for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. It does though, include four articles which are interesting and easy to adapt to the setting or retroclone of your choice.
The Undercroft No. 12 opens with ‘The Mountain That is a Man and Also God’ by Chance Philips. This really stands out in being in verse form, a format rarely employed in gaming. It describes a mountain that is between slumber and death, worked over and within by machine men, copper-wire brained and regimented into a strict hierarchy, who send out agents to walk among normal mortals, dressed in Halfling skin and hefty wigs, claiming to be Dwarves. It is a weird, ultimately creepy piece of verse, suggesting that all Dwarves might not be what they seem or at least, some of them, from this one single living mountain, are not what they seem.
Luke Le Moignan’s ‘The Legacy of Vazimak the Thanaturge’ introduces a new type of spellbook—the ‘Mnemocrypt’. This is a device or artefact which predates the use of spellbooks, an externalised memory palace which encodes and encrypts spells in a highly personalised fashion and dates from an ancient age of powerful arcane warlords. The Mnemocrypt of Vazimak the Thanaturge takes the form of a finely etched black sphere which can be studied. As the student learns more and more of its secrets, it increasingly becomes a burden and his mind becomes paranoid and he comes to see patterns in everything. The spells that the Mnemocrypt of Vazimak the Thanaturge grants all of a necromantic nature, such as Dreadful Osseous Vitality which animates and awakens the skeletons of the living, forcing the target to make a Consitution check lest his skeleton tear itself free and Bone Grenado which makes a nearby skeleton explode and potentially other skeletons explode in a chain reaction. Some nine spells are included along with notes on the Mnemocrypt of Vazimak the Thanaturge and others. The spells are all enjoyably inventive and nasty, especially for a villainous necromancer, and so could easily be added to his spellbook even if the Dungeon Master is not using Mnemocrypts. However, they are a clever idea in themselves, adding elements of longevity and research to an artefact. Hopefully, there will be more of them detailed in future issues of The Undercroft, or even more collected in a supplement from the publisher.
Daniel Sell’s ‘Dwarfen Trinkets and Artifacts’ is a table of one hundred items that might be found in a Dwarven home or purchased from a deal in such things. They include a lock of your mother’s beard, a Dwarven novel, a nest of copper and steel wires that is in fact a Dwarven map of the region, a bar of extra strong hair wax, and more. It is all rather mundane and intentionally so. These are a hundred mundane and ordinary items, diverse and engaging in nature, good for adding colour to a campaign with Dwarves, but at the same time, it does feel like filler—a bit.
‘Gallowsport’ by Sándor Gebei describes a dark and unforgiving harbour area beset by poverty, squalor, and organised crime, but contrasted by oddities that have come from abroad. Beginning with the features—sights, sounds, smells, buildings, and activity day and night—of the neighbourhood, it is detailed in table and bullet point fashions. There are tables for ‘Curios From Dark Seas and Distant Shores’, ‘Encounters’, ‘Rumours’, and more, as well as thumbnail descriptions of various landmarks and interesting places. So a curio might be a stiletto used in thirteen successful royal assassinations, an encounter with two beggars brawling whilst sailors look on and place bets, a rumour that a nearby abandoned lighthouse holds cursed treasure protected by giant crabs, and a ship in port might be the Venus, an infamous pleasure boat decorated in bawdy style. Together, the format and the fact that it is systems-neutral, make ‘Gallowsport’ very easy to use. A Dungeon Master can easily take this as is and drop it into the port city or town of his choice, using the roleplaying system of his choice.
The Undercroft No. 12 needs an edit in place, but is otherwise neat and tidy, and enjoyably illustrated. The cover, wraparound in full colour, is weird and creepy, full of eyes and eye-people as a thief looks on. 
The Undercroft No. 12 feels slighter because of the long list of gewgaws and knickknacks to be found in the centre of its pages. This is not to say that this list is not useful, but it is not necessarily as interesting or as immediately useful alongside the rest of the issue. The other entries in the issue are more engaging and will likely support play in a long term. Overall, The Undercroft No. 12 is a solid, serviceable issue.
The return of The Undercroft No. 11 is certainly welcome, and despite the shift to support for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition for some of its content, it still presents oddities and weirdness just as the previous issues did. Thus Dungeon Masters can use the oddities and weirdness just as much as Referees can for the Retroclone of their choice. 

Since 2001, Reviews from R’lyeh have contributed to a series of Christmas lists at Ogrecave.com—and at RPGaction.com before that, suggesting not necessarily the best board and roleplaying games of the preceding year, but the titles from the last twelve months that you might like to receive and give. Continuing the break with tradition—in that the following is just the one list and in that for reasons beyond its control, OgreCave.com is not running its own lists—Reviews from R’lyeh would once again like present its own list. Further, as is also traditional, Reviews from R’lyeh has not devolved into the need to cast about ‘Baleful Blandishments’ to all concerned or otherwise based upon the arbitrary organisation of days. So as Reviews from R’lyeh presents its annual (Post-)Christmas Dozen, I can only hope that the following list includes one of your favourites, or even better still, includes a game that you did not have and someone was happy to hide in gaudy paper and place under that dead tree for you. If not, then this is a list of what would have been good under that tree and what you should purchase yourself to read and play in the months to come.

—oOo—
Ancestry & Culture: An Alternative to Race in 5eArcanist Press ($24.95/£18.50)There can be no doubt that 2020 has been a fractious year and a year in which no subject matter has been more contentious than that of Race. So it was inevitable that questions about ‘Race’ and the stereotypes that the concept of ‘Race’ in roleplaying games such as Dungeons & Dragons enforces would be asked. Does a Gnome always live the forest and have an affinity for illusion magic? Does a Dwarf always have a beard, hate Goblins, and be trained as a smith, stonemason, or brewer? Why are there only Half-Orcs and Half-Elves? On the one hand, the answer is ‘yes’, because that is the way that it has always been—and in your Dungeons & Dragons campaign, there is nothing wrong in keeping it that way. On the other hand, the answer is a firm ‘no’. If you want your half-Orc to grow up amongst Halflings and have led a gentler life, or your character to have an Elf father and a Tielfling mother, than that is equally as acceptable. Ancestry & Culture: An Alternative to Race in 5e is a supplement which explores and addresses the issue of ‘Race’ in Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, providing options for you to create and play the types of characters that not only break the mold set by almost fifty years of Dungeons & Dragons history, but are the types of character you want to play.
Alien The Roleplaying Game – Starter SetFree League Publishing ($54.50/£39.99)Few starter sets for any roleplaying game come as packed as that for Alien The Roleplaying Game, the ‘Blue Collar’ Science Fiction-Horror roleplaying based on the films Alien, Aliens, and more. A rulebook, a complete scenario in ‘Chariot of the Gods’, a full-colour double-sided map showing charted space and starship plans, plus reference cards and counters, everything necessary to play a game of existential dread and horror in the isolation of deep space, all complicated by the personal agendas of the crew. Not only is the Alien The Roleplaying Game – Starter Set well appointed, it is superbly illustrated, in turns creepy and horrifying, and its mechanics—a variant of Free League Publishing’s Year Zero system—are designed to drive Player Character Stress up and up, first into hypercompetence, and then into panic and dread. Panic and dread that can spread and escalate… Lastly, the Alien The Roleplaying Game – Starter Set can be used to run Destroyer of Worlds, a scenario involving the Colonial Marines.
Six Seasons in Sartar: A Campaign for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in GloranthaChaoisum, Inc. ($39.95/£29.99)2020 was a great for the Jonstown Compendium, Chaosium, Inc.’s community content programme for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and other roleplaying games set in Glorantha. One of the best is Six Seasons in Sartar: A Campaign for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, a complete introductory campaign set in Glorantha designed to take characters from children through initiation and into their first few seasons as adults among an isolated clan in Sartar. It is also a complete description of this clan and the Player Characters’ place in it, an initiation for the Player Characters, their players, and the Game Master into the mysteries of Glorantha, and more. Fundamentally though, it is a campaign which takes the players and their characters step-by-step into the setting of Glorantha before forcing them into a confrontation with events from wider world beyond their vale. Six Seasons in Sartar: A Campaign for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is a fantastic introduction to a fantastic world, one of the first titles a prospective Game Master of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha should purchase from the Jonstown Compendium.
FATE of CthulhuEvil Hat Games ($39.99/£29.99)The influence of the Cthulhu mythos continues to ripple through the gaming hobby to spread and warp the options available when it comes to Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying. When it reached FATE Core, it did something completely different. It combined the Cthulhu Mythos with a ‘going back in time to save the world’ plot a la The Terminator not once, not twice, but five times! In FATE of Cthulhu, the End Times have come about and the survivors have made sacrifices to Yog-Sothoth to be able to go back before the disaster which befell humanity and perhaps foil its most twisted members in their attempt to welcome their inhuman masters back into the world. Whether it is Cthulhu, Dagon, Shub-Nigggurath, Nyarlathotep, or the King in Yellow, FATE of Cthulhu includes five timelines—or campaigns—which the investigators must go back to and disrupt the five events of which lead up to each of the Old One’s calamitous appearance, in the process facing not just the sanity-draining revelations of the true nature of the cosmos and mankind’s place in it, but also the potentially, physically corruptive effect of being exposed to it. FATE of Cthulhu is a more action-orientated, more direct, and more upfront about its confrontation with the forces of the Mythos and all the more refreshing for it.
Cyberpunk REDR. Talsorian Games Inc. ($60/£45)Forty years after the publication of Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0., the classic Cyberpunk roleplaying game returns in the form of Cyberpunk RED, set three decades before the computer roleplaying game, Cyberpunk 2077, also released this year. As well as improving and streamlining the mechanics—still familiar from the previous editions of the game—Cyberpunk RED pushes the timeline on two decades, into a post-mega-corp future where nation states are pushing back against rampant corporate influence, but the world, and the punk on the street, still has to deal with the fallout (sometimes literally)  from the Fourth Corporate War. Solos still provide jacked up, cybered muscle and cyber-eye targeting handguns to bring force and leverage to a situation, Media reports and now ‘makes’ the (fake) news, Execs represent cooperate interests, and Netrunners jack in and hack the post-NET world to steal data, sabotage, monitor, and more. Cyberpunk RED provides background, cyberware, streamlined and updated rules, solid advice on running the game and game types, and more to run a campaign on the edge, in a book which will look as good on the coffee table as on your shelf.
MÖRK BORG Artpunk RPGFree League Publishing ($39.99/£27.99)Stripped back to a stark brutalism, MÖRK BORG is a pitch-black pre-apocalyptic fantasy roleplaying game which brings a Nordic death metal sensibility to the Old School Renaissance. At the end of the world, there is one last dark age before all of the miseries come to pass as predicted by The Two-Headed Basilisks in which Fanged Deserters, Gutterborn Scum, Esoteric Hermits, Heretical Priests, Occult Herbmasters, and Wretched Royalty pick over the last remnants of civilisation on an island surrounded by an icy sea and as rotten as they are, make last grasps at heroism and their humanity, undertaking strange missions and tasks from the high and mighty, from The Two-Headed Basilisks’ gothic cathedral in Galgenbeck and Blood-countess Anthelia’s limestone palace, to the fields of death in Graven-Tosk and the barren wastes of Kergüs. From the doomed setting to the ultra-light mechanics, all of MÖRK BORG is wrapped up in vibrant washes of neon colour, splashes of sticky red blood, and stabs of polished silver, in what is an anguished scream of a game.
An Inner Darkness: Fighting for Justice Against Eldritch Horrors and Our Own Inhumanity is a Call of CthulhuGolden Goblin Press ($35/£25.99)Like the superlative Harlem Unbound: A Sourcebook for the Call of Cthulhu and Gumshoe Roleplaying Games—arguably the best supplement of 2017—before it, An Inner Darkness is a supplement for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition which explores the darker side human history during the Jazz Age. Thus, the anthology’s subject matters include child exploitation, sexual assault, mob violence, nativism, religious persecution, and racial discrimination, which is why it carries a Reader Advisory and that despite the fact that it also deals with cosmic horror which can drive the Investigators mad. This is an undeniably an adult, or at least a mature, gamer’s book and is unflinching in its treatment of its subject matters. Never more so that in ‘A Fresh Coat of White Paint’ which draws parallels between the treatment of immigrants now and then, ‘A Family Way’ which forces the investigators to confront the terrible consequences of sexual assault, and in ‘Fire Without Light’ that explores the aftermath of the Tulsa Race Riots of 1921. All six scenarios are uncomfortable to both run and play, forcing Keeper and player alike to confront the horror of our actual history as well as the horror of the Mythos. They should be no less memorable for either the history or the horror.
Mausritter*Games Omnivorous ($25/£20)Mausritter is a little game about little heroes in a big world. In this rules-light fantasy adventure role-playing game, each player character is a brave mouse adventurer, faced with a dangerous world in which there is threat to mouse-kind under every log and in every bush. Rush nose-first into every situation, and a mouse is sure to come to a short, but nasty end. By being clever and brave and lucky, a mouse can overcome the dangers the world presents to him, find a solution to the problem threatening his community, and perhaps become a hero in doing so. Mausritter is fast to set-up and fast to play—all too fast if a mouse is foolish, or just plain unlucky—and presents a world we recognise from above, which become a big challenge from below when faced at mouse scale. As well as simple mechanics, Mausritter employs an innovative inventory system which streamlines what and how many things a mouse is carrying and brings a clever mechanical effect into play when a mouse suffers from conditions such as Hungry or Injured. The Mausritter book also includes an adventure location to explore and a mouse kingdom base a campaign in. All wrapped up in a totally charming little book.
* (In the interests of transparency, I did edit the new edition of Mausritter.)
Valley of PlentyChaosium, Inc./Troupe Games ($35/£25.99)2020 was a great for the Jonstown Compendium, Chaosium, Inc.’s community content programme for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and other roleplaying games set in Glorantha. One of the best is Six Seasons in Sartar: A Campaign for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, a complete introductory campaign set in Glorantha designed to take characters from children through initiation and into their first few seasons as adults among an isolated clan in Sartar. However, the Jonstown Compendium was so good that it did it all over again with Valley of Plenty, a starter campaign not for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, but for QuestWorlds (previously known as  and compatible with HeroQuest: Glorantha), but very much still set in Sartar. The first part of The Jaldonkillers Saga, which will take the player characters from the idyll of their childhood through the sundering of their tribe and beyond to its reconstitution in exile and then the efforts made to retake both their tribe’s lands and glory. Use of the QuestWorlds mechanics enables the campaign to narratively scaled to the characters and the campaign is very well supported in terms of its background and setting. This is another great introduction to roleplaying in Glorantha, which takes both players and their characters step-by-step into the setting, its mythology, and drama.
Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the CorpsGale Fore Nine, LLC ($60/£44.99)Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps—or just another bug hunt—puts the players in command of Vasquez, Hicks, Ripley, and others, colonial marines or civilians as they land on and then investigate the strangely empty facility of Hadley’s Hope, looking for survivors, and answers… All too quickly they find out what happened as swarms of relentless monsters from hell which capture you for who knows what reason, have acid for blood, and if not capturing you, then ripping you apart, erupt from the walls and swarm towards you. The colonial marines are trained for anything, but not this and they had better keep their cool and stay frosty in this tense, co-operative, tactical standoff against an implacable, alien foe. The players work together against the board, whether on a bug hunt, or one of several missions which form a campaign. Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps is richly appointed with reversable maps, character cards for members of the Aliens cast, equipment, and more, including miniatures for Ripley, Newt, five of the colonial marines, and xenomorphs. Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps brings the science fiction-horror of Aliens to the table and lets you play out the tense standoff and cat and mouse action horror of the film.
Vaesen – Nordic Horror RoleplayingFree League Publishing ($55/£39.99)Based on the work of Swedish illustrator and author Johan Egerkrans, Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying takes you into a dark Gothic setting of the nineteenth century, one steeped in Nordic folklore and old myths of Scandinavia. Long have the vaesen—familiars, nature spirits, shapeshifters, spirits of the dead, and other monsters lived quietly alongside mankind, for mankind knew their ways and the vaesen understood ours, but as the century wanes, the Mythic North is changing. The young are moving to the cities, the cities are industrialising, and the old ways are being forgotten, but not by the vaesen—and they are becoming unruly and dangerous. As members of the newly refounded The Society, the player characters have the gift of the Sight, able to see the vaesen and despite all possessing their own dark secrets have decided to band together and protect mankind against the threat posed by the vaesen. Whatever mystery presents itself to them, whatever horror or suspense they must suffer, the player characters must find a solution to the disruption caused by the vaesen, a solution that requires means other than brute force. Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying is a beautiful game, oozing atmosphere and hiding secrets for the player characters to discover, secrets forgotten in this very modern, industrial age.
Dissident WhispersThe Whisper Collective/Tuesday Night Games ($30/£25)Dissident Whispers is an anthology of fifty-eight two-page adventures for roleplaying games as diverse as Basic/Expert Dungeons & Dragons, The Black Hack, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, Electric Bastionland, Mausritter, MÖRK BORG, Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG, Trophy Gold, Troika!, The Ultraviolet Grasslands, and more, including many systems neutral adventures. It has been put together by an international and diverse range of authors, designers, editors, and illustrators. So it includes ‘Graktil – The Citadel that Crawls’,  a hallowed scorpion corpse turned mobile goblin fortress; ‘Snake Temple Abduction’, the partly flooded dungeon home to a medusa queen; and ‘Necropolis of Pashtep’, an Aztec-themed puzzle dungeon. For the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG, ‘Hideo’s World’ turns the player characters virtual, whilst ‘Flails Akimbo’ for MÖRK BORG has the player character wake up with their weapons nailed to their hands, and… There is so much to dig into in Dissident Whispers, in truth not all of it necessarily the best quality. However, there are plenty of adventures here that are worth the price of admission and of the adventures that are not worth that, there are many here that are worth rescuing or plundering for ideas. Last and best of all, every purchase of Dissident Whispers goes towards the support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

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.
As the title suggests, Crawl! Issue No. 6: Classic Class Collection is all about Classes in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. One of the interesting aspects of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game is that Goodman Games has supported it with scenarios and campaign settings, but not with expansions to the core rules. So no new volumes of monsters, character Classes, spells, and magical items, thus giving scope for the community to create this content, for example in fanzines such as Crawl! and the Gongfarmer’s Almanac. However, this does mean that in coming to Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game there are fewer Classes to choose from, certainly in comparison to classic Dungeons & Dragons. The choices include Cleric, Thief, Warrior, and Wizard, plus because Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game does ‘Race as Class’, then Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling each as a Class. Which means that there are some classic Dungeons & Dragons Classes omitted, and these omissions are what set Crawl! No. 6: Classic Class Collection sets out , if not to rectify, then at least, give the options if a playing group wants to rectify them. Crawl! No. 6: Classic Class Collection does not provide the playing group with all of the ‘missing’ character Classes, but just four of them, plus options for a standard Class in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game.
The first Class in Crawl! No. 6: Classic Class Collection is the first of two by Jose Lira and is the ‘Bard’, possibly one of the most contentious Classes in Dungeons & Dragons. Like the Cleric, Thief, Warrior, and Wizard, it is a Human-only Class, this version of the Bard being a knowledgeable performer, able to cast limited magic spells, and has a number of Bardic Talents. How the Bard performs depends on his Alignment. So the Lawful Bard is typically found as a village or town entertainer or historian, perhaps even a heard for royalty; the Neutral Bard is common, a travelling entertainer, collecting tales and songs, sometimes in a troupe; and the Chaotic Bard puts on challenging performances, such as walking on a tightrope over a waterfall or dancing around swords, and they might even be spies or con-men. The Bard’s spells are randomly gained from a limited list which changes and grows smaller as the Bard gains Levels from a limited list. The Bardic Talents are Call to Arms, Challenge, and Calm, and can be used in and out of combat, but all require a roll on the Bardic Talent Checks Table with the Bard’s Talent Die plus Personality modifier to give results ranging from ‘Failure’ and ‘Boo, Hiss’ to ‘A Noble Performance’ and ‘A King’s Show’. Overall, it is nicely playable, but stripped back version of the Class which retains its major features.
Jose Lira follows the bard with a version of the ‘Paladin’, the classic, holy warrior. Key to the Class is his Alignment. So Lawful Paladins follow gods of good, harvest, light, and protection, Chaotic Paladins worship dark gods of war and destruction, and Neutral Paladins adhere to a balance between the two. A Paladin has access to divine magic, use Smite to add a bonus or Smite die to his attack and damage rolls made against his god’s enemies, and can do Holy Deeds, such as Lay on Hands, Instil Bravery, and Cause Fear. These require a roll on the Paladin Holy Deeds Table, with a chance of failure. When that happens, the Paladin gains his deity’s disapproval and his Disapproval rating is raised by one. The greater a Paladin’s Disapproval rating, the greater the likelihood of his Holy Deed failing and the greater the act of attrition necessary. Lira’s version of the Paladin follows that of the Bard not feeling overly complex, but retaining the Class’ notable features and their potential for roleplaying.
The only non-Human Class in Crawl! No. 6: Classic Class Collection is the ‘Gnome’ by Yves Larochelle. Consisting of just five Levels, the Gnome is generally a Neutral Class and although a spellcaster, has access to a limited number of spells. Most of the Class’ spells consist of illusion, deception, and trickery magic, such as Charm person, Colour Spray, ESP, Mirror Image, and the like. The Gnome also has the Trick die, added to the roll to determine the outcome of a spell check, instead of the Gnome’s Level. The Gnome is also resistant to magic and can detect gems and precious stones, but more importantly, a Gnome can create sturdy illusions that can cause damage or even instil fear. It is accompanied by a new spell, Scripted Illusion, which enables the caster to build a programmed response into the illusion. This enables the caster to be inventive in setting up traps and effects, adding another engaging element to the Gnome Class. 
The last Class in Crawl! No. 6: Classic Class Collection is the ‘Ranger’ by Raskal. Another Human-only Class, it is again flavoured by a Player Character’s Alignment. A Chaotic Rangers is a fearless raider, dedicated protector of nature, or obsessive trophy hunter and a Lawful Ranger is likely to be an army scout, frontiers patrolman, or bounty hunter tracking down criminals, but most Rangers are Neutral, lone wanderers in the wilderness. Mechanically, the Ranger receives a Deed die instead of a fixed bonus to attack, can either become an Archery or a Two-weapon Expert, and gains various wilderness skills. It is a decent adaptation of the Class to Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, but does not feel as inventive or as interesting to roleplay as the other Classes in Crawl! No. 6: Classic Class Collection. 
Lastly, Colin Chapman offers ‘My Thief, My Way! Custom Thief Skills in the DCC RPG’. It decouples Thieves’ Skills from the core tables in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and thus Alignment. It instead offers the player with a Thief character more options in how his character’s skills progress. It is a small change, but gives reasons to look at the most skill-focused Class in the roleplaying game.
Physically, Crawl! No. 6: Classic Class Collection is neat and tidy. The few pieces of artwork are decent and the issue decently written. All four Classes basically do a good job taking traditional Classes from Dungeons & Dragons and mapping them onto the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. In many cases, there is an element or two of inventiveness that will encourage interesting roleplaying, such that Classes such as the ‘Gnome’ and the ‘Bard’ look interesting and fun to play. In fact, the four ‘new’ Classes feel lonely, as if there should be more of them to round out those missing from the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, as if Crawl! No. 6: Classic Class Collection should have been either longer or actually a supplement in its own right rather than just an issue of a fanzine. However, as an issue of a fanzine, Crawl! No. 6: Classic Class Collection is a solid edition, its contents easy enough to add to a Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game campaign and hopefully to be further explored in future issues.

When it comes to horror, you can have two things which are haunted—houses and lighthouses, obviously, but in the modern age, there is the third. This is the railway train, and when it comes to haunted trains—or trains best by horror in Call of Cthulhu, it seems like there is only one train which matters, and that is the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, as in Horror on the Orient Express. Yet there is another train which deserves to be haunted—in fact, it deserves to be haunted or best by horror infinitely more than the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. This is the London Necropolis Railway, which between 1854 and 1941, ran from Waterloo in the heart of London to the Brookwood Cemetery in Brookwood, Surrey, ferrying the capital’s dead for burial. Given the London Necropolis Railway’s obvious connection to the dead and to cemeteries, it seems surprising that in the thirty-five years since the publication of Cthulhu by Gaslight, there has been no scenario for the roleplaying game set aboard the London Necropolis Railway.

Nightmare on the Necropolis Express is a scenario for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition published by Stygian Fox Publishing. It is set during the last years of the nineteenth century, so is suitable for use in the Cthulhu by Gaslight setting, or the publisher’s own Hudson & Brand, Inquiry Agents of the Obscure campaign setting. It is short, playable in a single session—two at most, and could be played with a single Investigator and the Keeper, though it would probably work better with a few more. The scenario does not require any of the Investigators to possess a particular Occupation to complete, though perhaps a Priest might be of use.

Nightmare on the Necropolis Express begins with the Investigators being hired by a number of workers on the London Necropolis Railway to investigate a number of unholy apparitions and unsettling occurrences aboard night runnings of the train. The London Necropolis Railway does not normally run at night, but is currently ferrying bodies exhumed from the West Norwood Cemetery in Lambeth in south London to the more capacious Brookwood Cemetery. That is when the incidents began and the train crew, led by the lugubrious Tommy Thompson are worried about them continuing and spooking everyone.

The investigation process in Nightmare on the Necropolis Express is simple, a mere matter of finding out more about the London Necropolis Railway and potentially visiting the West Norwood Cemetery. Armed with a few clues then, the Investigators are expected to join Tommy Thompson and friends aboard the late running of the London Necropolis Railway. Very little happens until the return when quite literally an Abomination appears at the rear of the train—in one of the hearse carriages—and begins to rampage back up the train, moving towards the locomotive in what is a timed event. Can the Investigators stop it and can they discover what is really going on?

Nightmare on the Necropolis Express is a short scenario, ultimately built around an ‘unstoppable’ monster and involving quite slight investigation. The four handouts, detailing various newspaper reports about the London Necropolis Railway and the London Burial Crisis are interesting, but ultimately have little impact upon the events of the scenario. In fact, there is really only the one clue which is pertinent, but it does not really matter if the Investigators discover it or not, because the clue does not really help them or provide a means to deal with the final confrontation. Either way, the events of the scenario will play out and the Investigators will still face the problem on the train.

However, Nightmare on the Necropolis Express does present the Keeper with some fun NPCs to portray—including samples of dialogue which will help her portray them immensely. The floor plans of the London Necropolis Railway are decent and the unique nature of the setting very much stands out.

Physically, Nightmare on the Necropolis Express is a neat, nice little digest-size hardback done in full colour. The illustrations are decent and the inclusion of photographs of Brookwood Cemetery a nice touch. The handouts are disappointingly plain.

Ultimately, the shortness of the scenario and the relative lack of meaningful investigation makes it debatable as to whether or not Nightmare on the Necropolis Express was quite worth publishing as a standalone product. Further, the fact that the scenario and its primary solution comes down to a single skill check—although one that all of the Investigators can make—means that in terms of the story, Nightmare on the Necropolis Express does feel as if the Investigators are along for the ride.

Out beyond the reach of the Emperor is a world of martial arts practitioners, bandits, criminals, and gangs, prostitutes and brothels, secret sects and societies, inns and teahouses, tales of heroism and notoriety, and more. It is a place of corruption and lawlessness and unbridled consumption of alcohol despite the best efforts of the Emperor and his officials, but it is also a place of wandering ‘knights errant’, martial artists, court officials, pursuivant detectives, and the ‘greatest’ swordsmen of the age who right wrongs, feud with rivals and lovers, dedicate themselves to their arts and their crafts, engage in fierce, determined battles with their enemies, compete in tournaments for great prizes and reputation, enter into duels for reputation and face, and more… This is the Jianghu, not so much a place as a culture, and also the setting for Ruthless Blood, Ruthless Blades – Wuxia Roleplaying, published by Osprey Games—the imprint of Osprey Publishing best known for its highly illustrated military history books. It is the fourth roleplaying game from the publisher after Paleomythic, Romance of the Perilous Land, and Those Dark Places.

Ruthless Blood, Ruthless Blades – Wuxia Roleplaying is not designed as a sourcebook on historical China, but rather presents a romanticised, even ahistorical version ancient China, one drawn from the Wuxia novels of Gu Long and the darker films of the Shaw Brothers Studio of the 1970s and 1980s to create a grimmer, more brutal, and more dangerous take upon the Wuxia genre. It comes complete with rules for both martial arts and character creation, a discussion of the genre, a lengthy reading and watching list, notes aplenty on Chinese culture for the Game Master and player who is new to it, and an extensive sample Jianghu, a sandbox with tens of NPCs, organisations, locations, and potential plots, as well as a scenario. The focus is entirely upon Wuxia and martial artists. There is no magic—except for astrology and similar forms of divination and an option allowing the Magical Arts skill to launch attacks, which requires Game Master approval, and there are no supernatural creatures—so there is scope for the Game Master to create her own or for the authors to write a supplement. Instead, players take roles such as Brave Archer, Daoist priest, Master Swordsman, Palm Master, Unarmed Boxer, and others, who all study and practice some form of martial arts.

A character in Ruthless Blood, Ruthless Blades – Wuxia Roleplaying is defined by his Signature Abilities, Counters, Special Resources, skills, eccentricities, and an occupation. A Signature Ability represents martial arts styles or talents, for example, ‘Butterfly Sword Expert I’, which means that the martial artist fights with grace and skill to easily deflect blows and slide in strikes to improve his Evade ability, or ‘Breath of Fire’, with which the martial artist can channel the fire element to scorch all of enemies around him. A Counter is a means of defence against a particular type of attack, such as ‘Bending Reed Defence’, with which a martial artist can lean out of the way when his head is targeted, and then snap back to deliver a sharp blow, or ‘Water Torrent’ with which the martial artist splashes water onto the floor and uses it to slide behind an opponent to attack with a bonus on the next round. Special Resources can be wealth and property or social resources. So an illicit business, landed gentry, or a manor, or a loyal friend, devoted ex-lovers (who feud and bicker when they meet—brilliant for roleplaying potential and comedy there), or an official post and title—though sometimes this prevents the martial artist from leaving the post, so he can send a loyal servant instead, in which case, the servant transmits the Experience Points earned to his master in his reports! Skills fall into five categories. These are Defences, Martial Arts Skills, Specialist Skills—such as Medicine and Alchemy or a particular talent like painting or poetry, Unorthodox skills such as Disguise and Drinking, and Mental Skills such as Command and Reasoning. Eccentricities are quirks and flaws, from Absent-Minded and Beautiful to Persistent Smile and Scars. They can also include Deep Eccentricities, which represent recurring problems for the Martial Artist, such as Bad Breath, In Love, or Social Climber. 

A martial artist also has a Max Wounds value—typically three for a starting martial artist, representing the amount of damage a martial artist can take before rolls on the quite nasty ‘Death and maiming’ Table, a Resist Value—the ability to absorb wounds before taking damage, and Fire Deviation and Killing Aura. Fire Deviation represents an internal imbalance in the martial artist’s Qi energy and is gained by failed meditation rolls or can even be selected to gain an extra Signature Move. However, suffering from Fire Deviation also means gaining a Fire Deviation Eccentricity, such as suffering from delusions of grandeur or your hair or eye colour changing. Killing Aura is measure of how powerful or capable a martial artist is and is equal to his Level. It can easily be detected by other martial artists. In addition, for each NPC or Player Character a martial artist kills, he increases his Killing Aura Darkness, which hangs over the martial artist like a cloud and again, is an indication of how powerful he is and to an extent, his reputation.

To create a martial artist a player chooses a Signature Ability, a Counter, a Special Resource, assigns points skills—this is done by skill type and is standard for all martial artists, an eccentricity, and an occupation, before defining a backstory and filling out secondary details. If the martial artist qualifies for it, he can also select an occupation. This primarily determines his income. The process primarily involves making a fair number of choices and is simple enough, and notably, the deadliness of the setting and rules is foreshadowed in the suggestion that a player create a backup martial artist! However, the process is hindered by the wealth of choices and everything that a player needs being spread out over eight chapters—almost half of the book—and not necessarily in the order that the checklist gives.

Wang Yimu, the Widow of the Needle is the daughter of a wealthy merchant who was forced to marry beneath her status when her father’s business collapsed. Her husband was a tailor and his mother taught and scolded her over her lack of skill as an embroiderer and seamstress. She did not love her husband, but when he was killed by bandits, she first escaped their ambush and then set out to kill them one by one, tracking them down and enticing them in her company before sewing them up and leaving them behind her… When she returned, she told her mother-in-law that she was in charge now and would be taking over the business. Free of the scolding, she flourished and her skill grew and grew until she is one of most talented women in the Jianghu with a needle.

Wang Yimu, the Widow of the Needle
Signature Ability: Needle and Thread Expert
Counter: Steel-Shattering Finger
Eccentricity: Beautiful
Special Resource: Prosperous Business
Occupation: Artisan

Max Wounds: 3
Resist: 1
Fire Deviation: 0
Killing Aura: 1
Killing Aura Darkness: 0
Drinking Limit: 1

Skills
Defences: Evade 2 (7), Hardiness 1 (6), Wits 2 (7)
Martial Arts: External 0, Internal 3, Lightness 1
Specialist Skills: Medicine and Alchemy 1, Meditation, Survival, Talent (Seamstress) 3, Trade 2
Unorthodox Skills: Disguise, Drinking 2, Gambling 2, Magical Arts 2, Theft
Mental Skills: Command, Detect, Empathy 2, Persuade 2, Reasoning 2
Physical Skills: Athletics 2, Endurance, Muscle, Ride 1, Speed 3
Knowledge Skills: Institutions 2, Jianghu 2, Peoples and Places 2, Religion, Scholarly Arts

Ruthless Blood, Ruthless Blades – Wuxia Roleplaying is a Level and skills roleplaying game. A martial artist will start play with one Signature Ability and one Counter, but will gain more, plus increases to his skill as he goes up in Level. The rate at which he rises is determined by the length of the campaign—the shorter the campaign, the faster the improvement rate, up to maximum of Level Nine, whatever the campaign length.

Mechanically, Ruthless Blood, Ruthless Blades – Wuxia Roleplaying uses pools of ten-sided dice. Typically, this will be one, two, or three ten-sided dice, depending upon the level of the skill. Rolls are made again a target number—typically six—and the single highest die is counted. If it equals or succeeds the target number, the martial artist has been successful. A Roll of ten counts as total success and gives a more specular result. In opposed rolls, the single highest die rolled is compared to the opponent’s roll, the highest roll succeeding. Penalties and bonuses subtract or add dice respectively, as do many Signatures Moves, although there is a soft skill cap of a maximum of seven being rolled for any one action.

For example, Wang Yimu, the Widow of the Needle has tracked down one of the bandits who killed her husband and attempts to seduce him. Her player declares that she will not actually seduce him, but lull him into a false sense of security and to do that, Wang Yimu will use her Persuade  skill, which gives her two dice. The Game Master gives her a bonus die because the bandit is drunk. This gives her player three dice to roll and he rolls two, six, and seven. The latter is the highest result and is definitely higher than the bandit’s Wits of six. Wang Yimu, the Widow of the Needle has him where she wants him.

Combat revolves around six skills. The three Martial Arts—External, Internal, and Lightness, and the three Defences—Evade, Hardiness, and Wits. Evade is the ability to avoid being hit, Hardiness to withstand damage, and Wits a martial artist’s mental strength. They are not rolled, but provide the target numbers when a martial artist is attacked. External Martial Arts combines physical force and explosive damage, employing a martial artist’s bodily might with either weapons or unarmed; Internal Martial Arts is fighting with internal energy or inner force, to be able to emit energy blasts, fight with energy-based weapons-play or unarmed combat; and Lightness Martial Arts is about a martial artist’s control of his body weight and speed to be able to do all of the signature man oeuvres that the Wuxia genre is famous for—running up walls, hopping over rooftops, and balancing on treetops.

Combat involves three phases. In the ‘Talking and Analysis Phase’, opponents attempt to bluff or out talk their way out of the fight, psych them out to impose a penalty, assess them to gain bonus, or learn about a Signature Ability or Counter. In the ‘Roll Turn Order Phase’, the players roll their martial artist’s Speed to determine who goes first, and in the ‘Move and Perform Skill Action Phase’, the martial artists attack each other using a combination of Martial Arts skills, Signature Abilities, and possibly weapons. If appropriate, a Counter can be used in response to an attack. Notably though, the mechanics are deadly, so the Game Master will want to be careful as to what level of opposition she wants to pitch against the martial artists.

Continuing the example, Wang Yimu, the Widow of the Needle has tracked down one of the bandits who killed her husband and has him in her sights—she is ready to strike. . In the ‘Talking and Analysis Phase’, she definitely wants to analyse the bandit for the bonus. Her player two dice for her Empathy, getting a nine and five, the nine again being higher than the Bandit’s Wits of six. This grants her a bonus dice to the attack roll and bonus to the damage done if any wounds are inflicted on a Total Success or roll of ten. In the ‘Roll Turn Order Phase’, the player rolls three dice for Wang Yimu’s Speed, getting a one, three, and seven, the latter higher than the Bandit’s four and five. Wang Yimu, the Widow of the Needle will now use her Signature Ability of Needle and Thread Expert, making an Internal Martial Arts roll against the bandit’s Evade of six. Wang Yimu’s player has four dice to roll, three for the skill and one as a result of  the successful assessment. His roll of three, seven, eight, and eight indicates that the needles hit and Bandit is snapped out of his lascivious designs upon her by the sharp points imbedding themselves in his skin. Wang Yimu’s player rolls for damage, inflicting a single wound. The bandit responds by pulling out a knife and throwing it at her. The Game Master rolls two dice for the bandit’s External Martial Arts of two, attempting to beat Wang Yimu’s Evade of seven. He rolls ten and ten, which if successful is going to hurt her. Her player declares that Wang Yimu will Counter with Steel-Shattering Finger, which requires her player to roll a success and with a five, six, and seven, she gets her fingers in the way and stops the blade dead. At the end of the round, Wang Yimu has the bandit impaled on the needles and thread and the bandit needs to find another weapon.

In the second round, the bandit attempts to Psych Wang Yimu out, telling what he has planned for if he catches her. This is a Command roll, but with a score of one, the Game Master rolls the one die and on a five, does not best her Wits. Wang Yimu responds by telling the bandit what she did his comrades and with a roll of four and eight on her Persuade, it works—the bandit will be a penalty of one die to attack. However, the bandit first has to get a weapon, so the Game Master states that this will become a bonus die on the damage roll as he moves away from the pull of Wang Yimu’s needle and thread. This is automatic since the needles are embedded and the bandit is moving. Wang Yimu’s player rolls a seven and a ten. The latter inflicts two wounds, reducing the Bandit’s wounds to zero and necessitating a roll on the ‘Death and Maiming Table I: External Injuries’. A roll of ten indicates that the Game Master needs to roll on the ‘Death and Maiming II: Internal Injuries’ and the result of four is an intestinal injury which levies an Endurance penalty. The needles are free though and the bandit is armed, but is badly torn up by the said needles…

Beyond the rules, Ruthless Blood, Ruthless Blades – Wuxia Roleplaying provides the Game Master with swathes of information, ranging from overland travel, poisons and antidotes, rare and prized objects and weapons, rules for handling alcohol—it is possible play a drunken master with some effort, and more, even before she gets to the second half of the book, which is solely for the Game Master. This covers how to referee the Jianghu and run the roleplaying game, it includes an introduction to the Wuxia genre and a good bibliography, and a discussion of various scenarios and campaign types. There are also rules for handling fated destinies, calamities, secret histories and the like for martial artists in campaigns with bigger, bolder fates.

Aspects of Chinese culture in the Jianghu are also covered, including Face—earned, lost, given, or taken, various religions, philosophies, and beliefs, the drinking culture—inhabitants of the Jianghu, especially martial artists, are renowned for capacity to drink alcohol, the imperial bureaucracy, and more. As well as suggesting ways for Game Master to create her own Jianghu, Ruthless Blood, Ruthless Blades – Wuxia Roleplaying comes with its own. From the Top Ten Fighters and Top ten Weapons to the twenty locations and organisations and ninety-five NPCs—all nicely detailed and given stats and relationships with each other, this is a rich, Soap Opera Wuzia-style sandbox of a setting with a huge wealth of information for the Game Master to delve into and draw out ideas for scenarios and encounters from. This Jianghu could keep a campaign playing for a few months, there is so much information there. To help get a playing group started, ‘The Obsidian Bat’, a short scenario is also included, which has plenty of action and doublecrosses to keep the martial artists happy. Details of another scenario, free to download from the Osprey Games website, is also included.

Physically, Ruthless Blood, Ruthless Blades – Wuxia Roleplaying is a sturdy, glossy little hardback, done in the simple style seen in other titles from Osprey Games. It is well written and both illustrations and maps are excellent. However, Ruthless Blood, Ruthless Blades – Wuxia Roleplaying is simply not as well organised as it could be. Essentially chapters feel like they are out of order and they present the reader with such a deluge of information that it is at first difficult to take in and then it is difficult to work with. The index is decent, but finding things is not easy in the book and for example, creating a character takes a lot of flipping back and forth through its first half. 

Ruthless Blood, Ruthless Blades – Wuxia Roleplaying really is a simple, straightforward Wuxia roleplaying game, one that is easy to learn and easy to play. However, its organisation hampers both that and learning the game, there being nothing wrong with the organisation of individual chapters and their content, but rather the order in which the chapters are arranged. It also does not introduce the genre and what to watch or read for the player at all, let alone before leaping into the rules and the generation of martial artists. And for that, it presents the player with such a wealth of options, it is difficult to know where to start, such that it might have been useful if some ready-to-play archetypes had been included. There are pointers to that end, but they are just that.

Ultimately just hindered by its odd organisation, Ruthless Blood, Ruthless Blades – Wuxia Roleplaying is a gritty martial arts fantasy roleplaying game which plays fast and light, if not more than a little deadly, all backed up with plenty of well written background and advice for the Game Master and a fantastic Jianghu, or sandbox, of its very own. With a little bit effort to get past its organisational issues and Ruthless Blood, Ruthless Blades – Wuxia Roleplaying is a great introduction to roleplaying in the Wuxia genre.

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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Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game was published in 1980—and published by SPI or Simulations Publications, Inc., a publisher better known for its many, many wargames. Indeed, it was designed by James F. Dunnigan, the founder of SPI himself and a noted designer of wargames such as Jutland and PanzerBlitz, both for Avalon Hill. Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game is significant because not only was it the first licensed roleplaying game, it was the first licensed roleplaying based on an intellectual property that was not based on a genre such as fantasy, science fiction, or horror. It was also a flop, and infamously, would contribute to SPI’s financial woes and ultimate takeover in 1982 by TSR, Inc. Fellow designer at SPI, Redmond A. Simonsen, later explained in Why Did SPI Die?, “As to DALLAS: we didn’t print 250,000 of them. More like 80,000 (in two runs). That was about 79,999 more than anyone wanted. DALLAS didn’t kill SPI, but it didn’t save it either (as some had vainly hoped). Essentially, anyone who is wired on DALLAS (the TV show) is not also wired on games.” However, there are some interesting elements to Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game that would prefigure later roleplaying game designs.

Of course, Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game is based on the Soap Opera, Dallas, which ran from 1978 until 1991, and at the time of the roleplaying game’s publication was hugely popular around the world. It revolved around the affluent and feuding Texas family, the Ewings, who own the independent oil company Ewing Oil and the cattle-ranching land of Southfork. Its most notorious character is the Ewings’ oldest son, oil tycoon J.R. Ewing, who was renowned for schemes and dirty business practices in his effort to control the family business. In Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game, players take the roles of members of the cast from the television series, including J.R. Ewing, his wife Sue Ellen (Sheppard) Ewing, his younger brother Bobby Ewing and his wife, Pamela (Barnes) Ewing, J.R. and Bobby’s parents, Jock Ewing and Ellie (Southworth) Ewing, Jock Ewing and Ellie Ewing’s granddaughter, Lucy Ewing, Ray Krebbs, the foreman of the Southfork Ranch, and Pamela (Barnes) Ewing’s brother, Cliff Barnes. In each Episode, nine members—nine!—of the cast have their own objectives and over the course of five acts, they will negotiate with each other to achieve them, before persuading, coercing, or seducing their rivals to get what they want, or even investigating them to bring the law down upon them. At the end the five acts, the character who achieves his or her given aims, will have won the Episode, or alternatively the character with the most Victory Points wins, the latter coming into play if more than one character has achieved his or her given aims.

Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game comes a slim box containing three booklets, fifty-six cards, and two six-sided dice. The three books consist of the Rules of Play—just sixteen pages in length, barely five of which cover the rules, the rest being devoted to the three ready-to-play Original Episode scripts, ‘The Great Claim’, ‘Sweet Oil’, and ‘Down along the Coast’; the Scriptwriter’s Guide, also sixteen pages in length, with notes on running and teaching the game for the Director, writing scripts or Episodes, plus background on the cards and Texas, and a sample of play; and the Major Characters booklet. This consists of twenty perforated sheets, one a cheat sheet for the Director, and then a character sheet for each member of the cast. Each character sheet includes full stats for all of the cast, some background, and an explanation of how Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game is played. Each character includes some minor modifiers for affecting or resisting certain other members of the cast. The fifty-six cards consist of minor characters, organisations, and objects—the latter typically Plot Devices in the hands of members of the cast, such as Alexis Blancher, an employee of Ewing Oil, the Texas Railroad Commission, and a Saddlebag of Krugerrands. Many of these will come into play during an Episode and are essentially what the characters will be feuding for control over. The minor characters have the same stats as the members of the cast. 

Each character has four Abilities, and Power and Luck attributes. The four Abilities are Persuasion, Coercion, Seduction, and Investigation, and are divided into pairs, one to Affect another character, the other to Resist another character’s attempt to Affect them with that Ability. Power is a general measure of a character’s strength, whilst Luck is their good fortune—or lack of it—and is generally used as a last resort. The Abilities range in value between eleven and twenty-four, depending upon the cast member, and tend to be less for NPCs and organisations. Power ranges from one to nine for the cast members, or from Lucy Ewing to J.R. Ewing. Luck ranges between one and eight.

To play Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game, the Director—as the Game Master is known—selects or writes an Episode and the players select their characters. They also receive the Plot Devices they start with at the beginning of the Episode. An Episode consists of five Acts and each Act consists of three phases—the Director Phase, the Negotiation Phase, and the Conflict Phase. In the Director Phase, the Director provides the players with new information and plot devices, and then in the Negotiation Phase, the players trade cards, information, and promises to support each other in preparation for the Conflict Phase. The Conflict Phase is the meat of the mechanics.

The core mechanic involves the Affecting (attacking?) character using the active value for an Ability, modified by the Affecting character’s Power and any relevant factors for their relationship against the Resisting character’s defending value for the Attribute, plus modifiers. The Resisting value is subtracted from the Affecting value and if the result is twelve or more, the Affecting character succeeds. If the result, or spread, is between two and eleven, the player of the Affecting character rolls the two six-sided dice and if the result is less than the spread, the Affecting character succeeds. If the Affecting character has succeeded, then the Resisting character can make a Luck check and if his player rolls under the Resisting character’s Luck, he successfully resists the Affecting character’s attempt at Persuasion, Coercion, Seduction, or Investigation.

A successful attempt at Persuasion or Seduction will provide the Affecting character with information from the Resisting character, force the Resisting character to relinquish control of an NPC or Plot Device, control of an NPC if they are uncontrolled. Seduction attempts can only be made against members of the opposite gender who are not related to the Affecting character. Instead of providing the Affecting character with control of an NPC if they are uncontrolled, a successful attempt at Coercion can force another character to make his Affect attempt immediately. If against an NPC and unsuccessful, there is the possibility of Revenge, in which every other member of the cast can make a Persuasion attempt to control the NPC, with the players rolling to see who makes the attempt first. Lastly, a successful Investigation attempt forces the Affected character to reveal information, including the identity of NPCs and Plot Devices which are face down on the table. If a character has committed an Illegal act, another character who controls a legal authority, such as the FBI or Texas Rangers, can use Investigation to identify the suspect officially, and subsequently, use Persuasion combined with control of a legal authority to obtain an arrest, an indictment, and lastly, a conviction. Each of these steps scores a player an increasing number of Victory Points. A convicted character loses all of his Power, but is still in the game, as his conviction is, of course, being appealed.

Physically, Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game is cleanly and tidily presented. It is clearly written, but written in the style of a set of rules for a wargame with numbered and sub-numbered sections—just as SPI would do for its other roleplaying games, DragonQuest and Universe. Internally, none of the roleplaying game’s three booklets are illustrated. All of the illustrations appear on the cover of the box—in colour, and then in black and white on the front cover of the Rules of Play. So none of the character sheets are illustrated. Overall, the black and white production values—some spot colour is used on the cards—are underwhelming and lack the glossy sheen that a product or game based on a television series like Dallas really calls for.

The rules to Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game are decently explained and they do come with an example of play. The three pre-written episodes are also decent and the advice on creating scripts and other characters is workable. The advice on creating scripts is backed up by a list of Plot Devices and biographies of the various NPCs, all of which can be used by the Director to write her own scripts. There is also a lengthy, and quite detailed history of Texas. However, there is no background or information to the television series of Dallas itself, beyond that of the little information given on each of the character sheets. Essentially, to play a game of Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game, the designers expect the participants to rely upon their own knowledge of the series and its characters.

As a design, Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game is not a traditional roleplaying game and nor does it feel like one. There are no rules for creating new members of the cast, no rules for gaining experience, or improving a character as you would find in almost any other roleplaying game. And despite the fact that infamously, a big storyline revolved around the identity of who it was who shot J.R. Ewing, there are no rules for physical conflict or combat—the roleplaying game is all about verbal conflict. Then although it has a Game Master or a Director and everyone sits round the table just as in a traditional roleplaying game, the fact that a game can involve nine players and the Director, makes it feel more like a party or social game. Of course, party or social games were not a category of games as they are today, so the nearest equivalent at the time of Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game publication would be the ‘How to Host a Murder’ type games which were popular then.

As clearly and as simply as the rules are explained, anyone coming to them without a background in wargames or roleplaying—essentially the fan of Dallas picking up Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game on a whim or because it is clearly connected to the soap opera, is likely to feel intimidated by the procedural nature of its play and the stolid nature of the mechanics. Nor is this helped by the grey, even boring production values that might have made the roleplaying that much more enticing , something that another publisher of the time, Yaquinto Publications got right with its own TV’s Dallas: A Game of the Ewing Family board game, part of its Album series.

As much as it states that it is a roleplaying game—and a ‘family’ roleplaying game at that, Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game lacks an explanation of what roleplaying is and an explanation of how the Director narrates the beginning of each act. Nor is there a sense of the NPCs, the minor cast members, being characters in themselves, merely pawns for the main cast to control. There is also a sense of misogyny to the roleplaying game, one that admittedly it inherits from the television show, in that the male members of the cast are more powerful than the female ones. The character sheets though advise that the male characters should not necessarily throw their weight around and that they generally have more challenging victory conditions than the female characters who instead should be working together.

—oOo—

Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game was not well received at the time. The single notable review appeared in The Space Gamer Number 42 (August, 1981). Reviewer David Ladyman asked, “Is DALLAS a useful bridge between gaming and your “real world” friends? That might depend on how many DALLAS freaks you know that you would want to introduce to gaming. Hard core RPGers will probably want to add the game to their collection; characters' attributes and the conflict resolution system are novel enough, even if you have no interest in the television series. I wouldn’t suggest it, though, if you buy your games for long-term playability – DALLAS just doesn't have lasting entertainment value.”

—oOo—

However, as underwhelming as Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game is in terms of presentation, theme, and rules, it is in its own way innovative. As the first licensed roleplaying game, it showed the possibility of obtaining licences based on mainstream intellectual properties and the potential of drawing the fans of those properties into gaming. Within a matter of years, for example, FASA would produce The Doctor Who Role Playing Game and Star Trek: The Role Playing Game, both well received. Most licensed roleplaying games continue to be based on fantasy, horror, or science fiction properties rather than mainstream ones—Leverage: The Roleplaying Game being a rare and more recent example, as well as a good example of how to design a roleplaying game around a television show. Which of course, Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game was not, but it also prefigured adversarial roleplaying, that is a roleplaying game in which the Player Characters are against each other as often as not, and that there can be a clear winner in playing the game. This would really come to the fore in Phage Press’ 1991 Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game and would subsequently be seen in any number of indie roleplaying games.

Another aspect to Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game is that in hindsight, as perhaps as underwhelming as the design is, there is huge potential for roleplaying in the game. It is not the mechanics which entice, but the opportunity to dig into the members of Dallas’ cast, a great many of them signature characters that are familiar even decades on and roleplay them around the table. Although, whether you would roleplay all nine at the same time is is another matter. Of course, Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game does not support this, and it is only with hindsight and the experience of roleplaying that the potential can be seen. Anyone coming to Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game without that experience or that hindsight, will ultimately be daunted by what they find in the box. 

Forty years since the publication of Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game and the hobby is better served by roleplaying games which would emulate its genre. Dog Eared Designs’ Primetime Adventures: a game of television melodrama is an obvious choice, but Fiasco could also do it, as could Pasión de las Pasiones, the telenovela tabletop roleplaying game Powered by the Apocalypse published by Magpie Games. Further, all three of those roleplaying games would have the advice and guidance that Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game lacks.

Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game is significant as the first licensed roleplaying game, but not necessarily as a design. It can be seen as a venture or experiment, that in 1980, would have made commercial sense for SPI to pursue and publish because the crossover potential between fans of Dallas the television series and the roleplaying hobby could have been significant. Certainly, within a family it could have served as a means for a roleplayer to show his parents or other family members who were fans of Dallas, but likely mystified by his hobby, what roleplaying was like and how it could be fun.  Of course, it was not to be. Few in the roleplaying hobby would have been interested in a roleplaying game based on Dallas and anyone outside of the hobby would be daunted by the design of Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game, which is more of a card game than a roleplaying game.

Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game is an interesting, even important, curio from the dawn of the commercialisation of the roleplaying hobby. Its design though, is a hangover from the dusk of another hobby—wargaming, and that meant that Dallas: The Television Role-Playing Game was not the family-friendly—even if its cast of characters were anything but—introduction to roleplaying games it was intended to be.