Happy St. Patrick’s Day to those who celebrate. While the rest of Dallas focuses on excessive drinking (this incredibly NSFW piece, and I’m not kidding about it being NSFW, should be the city’s anthem today), my personal anthem is a … Continue reading →

If there was any doubt where Dr. Brian Young's true love lies in this series, the new second printing of the Codex Celtarum should dissolve those.   This new book brings the original Codex in line with the other codies in terms of style and feel.  This new book is also expanded to 256 pages, up from the previous 178 pages.  It is without a doubt also my favorite of the codies. 
Castles & Crusades Codex Celtarum, 2nd Printing

For this review, I am considering both he PDF and hardcover copies.  256 pages with color covers and black & white interior art. 
The Codex Celtarum is written by Brian Young.  He is a gamer and an academic in Celtic history and languages and an all-around nice guy.  Honestly, he is the kind of person I want writing this sort of thing.  You talk to him and get the feeling that he could immediately tell you a story from the Mabinogion and it would roll off his tongue like the bards of old.  This is the guy you want working on your Celtic game.
Introduction

The first thing I noticed in his introduction was his acknowledgement of the differences in legend and in history and where he was putting his cards.  For me, as someone that has had to have the same tug of war, the value of this book went up several degrees.   
Before moving on to the book itself I spent a lot of time with Castles & Crusades again, this time from the point of view of a Celtic-themed game.  Like the others in this series, it could be used with any D&D-like game.  Now at this point it should be noted that the design of this book is to play in a Faery realm, so it is something you can drop into any game world.  There are some game-based assumptions made, but nothing to keep you from making this your own.
This section also talks a bit about the changes from the 1st to 2nd printing.

Chapter 1: In Lands Far Away

This covers the lands of the Celts and how the Castles & Crusades player can drop their game into this world.  The advantage here is this 2nd Edition does talk about how you can use the Codex Germanica along with this.  This covers not just the expected British Isles, but all (mostly all) Celtic Europe. 

Chapter 2: Mythical Locations

This brief chapter discusses mythical locations like Hyberborea and the Hercynian Forest.  These lands were assumed to be real just "over there."

Chapter 3: Once Upon A Time 

This chapter covers the history of the Celtic real-world universe including the various wars that happened at the dawn of time and various involved countries/lands in Europe.  

Chapter 4: Otherworldly History

This is the "myth" part of the mytho-historical background of the Celts.  It overlays the stories of the gods and other powerful beings on top of the history of the Celts.  This chapter is rich in storytelling and follows a tale very familiar to me, but there are always new things to read and learn.

Splitting Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 into two separate and distinct chapters is good since for most books on the topic they are intertwined so much that it is hard to tease out the "myth" and the "history" from the mytho-historic events. Certainly one has had a profound effect on the other and I think Young demonstrates this well.  

Also while I am 100% behind his enthusiasm here (and I share it) we have yet to see anything game-related and we are 75 pages in.

Chapter 5: The Otherworld of Faery

This chapter covers the various "otherworlds" (yes plural) of the lands of Faery. Usually tied to a physical location in the real world.  It reads like an unreal Gazeteer of Europe to be honest, a mist-shrouded tour into a land that is similar but still very different. The faery lands don't have the same rules of nature as the mortal realms. So there are some tables about the odd passage of time or the nature of the land.  

Chapter 6: There Lived a People 

ALmost everything you want to know about the Faery races.  This includes traits faeries can have and their weaknesses.  This also includes a list of the giants of Wales.

Chapter 7: Great of Magic and Power 

This details, what else, magic.  If human wizards study magic and human priests pray for it then the Fae ARE magic. The distinction is not a subtle one.  The magical powers here are listed as spells. So they can be used by the fae as if they were spells, but that robs them of what makes them so interesting. Instead, go with the suggestion in the book that each member of the fae gets a number of special powers based on their intelligence.  And there are plenty of powers here!  If you are anything like me and love magic, spells, or powers for characters then this chapter alone is worth the price of the book.  

It is one of the largest chapters so far and has the most "game" material.

Chapter 8: With Great Gods and Lords 

This covers the gods, demigods, and named faeries of the lands. There are no stats for these gods or heroes.  Why? That is easy. They are not meant to be killed or even interacted with.  They are the legends of this land. If you have any familiarity with the gods of Celtic myth and legend you can find them here. 

Appendix A: The Druidic Order This covers the druid classes for Castles & Crusades within the Celtic world. There is the Druid (Wisdom), the Celtic Bard (Charisma), and the Druidic Seer (Wisdom).

Appendix B: The Secrets of the Druids This appendix covers the Ogham writing and runes.

Appendix C: Druidic Spells What is says, the spells the various druid classes can use. 

At this point, I wonder if all three could not have been combined into one Appendix. 

Appendix D: The Enchanted of Faerie Here we get a nice discussion on Faery Metals and how they can be used.  There is a list of divine items (artifacts in other games) listed by the owner; that's right the Gáe Bulga is not just lying around waiting for you to find it. No this +8 spear (!) is well in the hands of Cú Chulainn.

Appendix E: The Severed Head discusses the importance of taking the head of your enemy.

Appendix F: The Feast Hall details the Celtic hero's feast.

Appendix G: The Celtic Chariot. what it says on the tin.

Appendix H: The Celtic Warrior Society. Gives us a very brief overview of the importance of warriors and how they were organized.  I wish this one had been much longer. 

Appendix I: Accoutrements of War. Deals with the arms and armor of the celtic warrior. 

Appendix J: Strong Feats and Deeds. Covers the tales of the heroes of the Celtic myths and legends. 

Honestly, Appendices E to J should be combined into a chapter on Celtic Warriors. This is what the other Codices have done. 

Appendix K: Holidays & their Customs.

Appendix L Celtic Themed Adventures.

Appendix M: Monsters

Also, this should have been a chapter. There are 30 pages of monsters here. Many are very familiar to me, but again are closer to their "roots."

Ok. So what can say here?

The book is fantastic and I loved every bit of it.  BUT, I find the new organization of the 2nd Printing to be inferior to that of the 1st Printing.  I felt some of the material could have been organized and combined a bit better. I still find it a delight to read, but is that due to this book or the subject matter?

Again, there is no doubt that Brian Young is not only an expert in this field, he also loves it.  That enthusiasm shows and I am sure he could have written a book twice this size.  I do love the expanded history and the raised importance of the continental Celts over the typically well-trodden lands of the Irish and British Celts.  Looking over my review of the First Printing this is exactly one of the things I thought was missing from that version. Though some of the material from the first edition (some classes) are missing from this edition.  I guess I should keep both on hand.

Still, if you are a fan of Celtic myth, Faery lore, or Castles & Crusades then I highly recommend this book.  Even if you don't play C&C, I would get this book.

Coming up on some myths I know the least about and maybe the most excited to read.  There is a lot of great stories I have read and watched over the years.  What I like, so far, is that these are mostly new stories to me.  Well. Not entirely new. I have been using Baba Yaga for years and my first published Ghosts of Albion adventure deals with Chernbog (Czernobog in this book).  
So let's instead say I am less familiar with all of these.

Castles & Crusades Codex Slavorum

For this review, I am considering the PDF and hardcover book.  The book is 94 pages. Color covers, black & white art. Written once again by Brian Young.  He doesn't say it in the books, but it is Brian N. Young, Ph.D.  He worked hard and earned his degree and it should be recognized.  

Chapter 1: In Bygone Years

Like the previous volumes, this chapter covers both the real-world history and the myths of the area.  The area in question surrounds the Black Sea in Eastern Europe.  

We get some pre-history, but the people we call the Slavs will get their start in this volume with Byzantine Empire.  The time period here is parallel to both the Germanica and Nodica books.

The myths of the area are all new to me and while Young (the author) does a good job in his summary, it leaves me wanting to seek out more.  I suppose that is the point right?

Chapter 2: The Whole World & That Which is Beyond

This goes into detail about the lands of the Slavs and these myths.  I have now gone through five of these Codecies and I am thinking that a Castles & Crusades game in Mythic Earth is a great idea.  There is a nice map of the Slavic Kingdoms.  

The second half of this covers the mythic lands of the Slavs; the three worlds.  Like the Norse, these are placed on the World Tree, the Drugi Svet. Young even mentions that combination is possible but does not (correctly) tell you how since it would depend on YOUR world.  The three worlds are Parv (or Iriy or Vyrjy), the realms of light, the lands of summer, and the home of the Gods. Lav (or Yav) is the middle realm of men, and Nav the Underworld.  Here Czernobog becomes the Devil-like figure.  Indeed it might be hard to tease out what is Czernobog and what is "Lucifer" in modern depictions of "the Devil."  Svarog is our creator deity of light. 

In a case of supporting my "One Man's God" series, there is Peklo, the Abyss, which is the home of various demons.  Demons it seems very much in the AD&D mindset.

There are more lands and frankly, the more I read the more I want to use all of this in a game. 

Chapter 3: Did Dwell Many Peoples

Our monster chapter.  Monsters are "false creations" (my words, not so much Young's) of Czernobog.  And there are some GREAT monsters here. Nearly 50 monsters here. Some are familiar to any D&D players, but many are new to *D&D games or at least in this form.  

There are a couple new "races" that characters can be.  The Zmajevit, or the "Dragon born" are humans with dragon blood in them. The Zduhac, or the Elemenatal ones, are elemental influenced humans. 

There is also a new class here, the Vampirdzhija or the Vampire Hunter. This is a Wisdom-based class. Essentially the Vampire Slayer of the Slavic cultures. 

Chapter 4: Filled with Great Magic

Another favorite section this one covers magic and new magic-using classes.   The Kolduny is a new type of wizard that is Wisdom-based.   The Molfar is the Slavic shaman, also Wisdom-based.

There are a few names mentioned for other types of spell casters. These are just names for other types, but do not have their own class per se. 

Chapter 5: Of Mighty Gods and Spirits

This chapter takes the myths and reshapes them into something that can be used with Castles & Crusades but of course any other game.  And there are a lot of gods here! Some are familiar to me, but most are brand new.  

There is some text on the pagan religions of the Slavs and their practices. 

Chapter 6: Battle Strong and Heroic

This is typically the "fighters" chapter. This one covers the weapons used by the Slavs and mentions of the heroes and groups of heroes of their tales. 

Chapter 7: Castle Keeper Info

This is the GM's or Castle Keeper's information on running a game using these rules. Like the others in this series, this includes names and the various laws of the lands. 

More so than the other books this one left me wanting more.  This is a good thing and not a fault of the book. It is due to my own unfamiliarity with these myths and stories.  It would work well with the Germanic and Nordic books for greater world-building.  Now I want books like this for all the big myths of the world. 

Maybe one for Spain and Al-Andalus should be next?  What do you think Dr. Young?

Ah, March in Texas. As much as everyone wants to joke about Texas weather in general, the real fun is waiting for the week of St. Patrick’s Day/the vernal equinox, because just about anything can happen. Tornadoes, dust storms, snow…stick … Continue reading →

Today I am going further south and a little more back in time.   Related to the Nordic myths and tales are the older Germanic ones.  Given the connections between the two, I am going to have to point out the differences and commonalities. 

Castles & Crusades Codex Germania

For this book, I am reviewing the PDF and hardcover edition of this book.  This book has 110 pages, so slightly smaller than the other codices.  Like a lot of Castles & Crusades books, the art here is from Peter Bradley.  Once again Brian Young is our author and designer.  Young also spends some time comparing the Germanic and Nordic myths and tales.  

These myths come from central Europe and begin as early as the 1st century BCE right on up to the time of the Vikings.  

Chapter 1: In Ancient Tales

Like the previous books, this chapter covers the history of the Germanic peoples as well as a brief bit on their legends and stories.  Like the Nordic (or to the point the Nordic myths are like these) we get an origin story about Giants and three Gods.  Young takes pains to differentiate these myths from the Norse and talks about the shortcomings of the source material.  Here we see the first comparisons between Woden and Odin.

Chapter 2: Of Germania & Beyond

This chapter covers the Germanic lands.  Now to assume there is only one Germany is a huge mistake and one that Young deftly avoids. There are lots of lands here and lots of peoples dating back to the height of the Roman Empire to it's fall.  It is helpful to consult the map or hit up various maps online.  

Chapter 3: Magical Beings & Monsters Dwelled

Once again we have a chapter on monsters and it is a real collection of gems.  Here are 40+ monsters. All are a little bit familiar to any D&D players, but these harken back to their "original" forms so great for players that have "seen everything."  

The monsters are of course enough on their own, but there is a nice section here on the complexities of the Germanic dragons.  Essentially if you ever have read about the dragon Fafnir, then you have an idea of what this is about.   Honestly, this is something that all dragons should have or at least the really interesting ones.  Speaking of the interesting dragons, there are also tables to determine what a unique dragon's name would be.  

Chapter 4: In Wizardry & Enchantments

Here we get some new magic-using classes.  There is the Halirúna, or the Dark Witch (Intelligence-based) which I absolutely love, the Erilaz, or the Rune Master (Wisdom-based) which also has runic magic (like the Nordic book), and the Gudja. or People of the Gods, the clerics for this setting. 

Magic is not a "supernatural" force here, but rather a natural one; THE natural one to be honest.  This chapter uses magic as a means of connecting the people to the gods. Which are coming up next.

Chapter 5: To Serve the Gods

This chapter covers the gods and discusses the overlap between these cultures and the Nordic.  Young points out that due to the Roman Empire the gods and myths of the Germanic pagans are a bit better documented than that of the neighboring Celts. Among these gods it is likely that Woden (Odin) and Þūnor (Thor).  Again there are no stats for gods here (as it should be).  

The chapter also details Germanic pagan beliefs and practices. 

Chapter 6: Skilled in Battlecraft

Warriors are still one of the highest castes in the life of the Germanic peoples.  This chapter gives us information on arms and armor used. How retainers were used and honored, and other topics on warcraft, including special unique weapons. 

The new class, the Drachentöten (lit. "Dragon Killer") is a Dexterity-based class. 

Chapter 7: Castle Keeper Info

Like the other codices, this covers running a Castles & Crusades game with this worldview.   The importance of the king and lawgivers are established and explained. 

The common folk are not forgotten and details like the importance of names (and many tables of names) are detailed. 

Chapter 8: Sample Adventure Module

The sample adventure, "The Monster of the Fens," is given.  It reminds me, naturally enough, of Beowulf.  The adventure takes place in East Anglia so Young states that it can be integrated with the Codex Celtarum.  The adventure is for 2 to 4 characters of 3rd to 4th level. 

It is a fun little adventure and reminds GM/Castle Keepers that even a "simple" monster like a Troll would be a menace to the folks of pagan Germanic lands. Indeed, much like Beowulf shows.

The temptation is great to compare this to the Codex Nordica and also to find it lacking.  This temptation must be avoided!  The Codex Germanica is its own thing. While the myths and stories will feel familiar to the more popular Norse myths, they are their own, situated within their own time and place.   These myths feel older and darker in many respects.  In many ways, I like these myths and tales a little more than those of the Norse. 

Again, this book is light on actual rules details, save for the classes, so it is an excellent resource for any RPG.  Converting it over to AD&D, D&D 5, or your favorite OSR-Clone would be trivial at worst. Of course it is designed for Castles & Crusades which is fantastic in it's own right.

Fiends, Fiends, Fiends!

Today I delve into a dark subterranean world filled with long-forgotten creatures that have not seen the light of our sun for ages. Of course, by that, I mean the Usenet, and that age was the early 90s.  

What I think was one of the first big battles of the Edition Wars was the one concerning demons and devils.  Namely, where the hell were they for AD&D 2nd Edition?  They have not appeared in any of the Monstrous Compendiums so far and the official word was they were no longer needed.  Which everyone knew was a smokescreen for TSR caving into concerned, busy-body mothers and the religious right.  The discussions on Usenet had a LOT of opinions on why they were gone and then what to make of them when they finally came back.

Thankfully this did not last and by the start of 1991, we got demons and devils back, albeit in the names Tanar'ri and Baatezu. Ok, the names were changed but they were back.  In truth, I never minded the name change and it opened up the lower planes to have more than one type of demon or fiend. Something we are still benefiting from today.

MC14 Monstrous Compendium Fiend Folio Appendix

PDF 64 pages (70 with dividers and covers), Color cover art, black & white interior art, $4.99. 

While not full of fiend per se, the Fiend Folio has always had a place in the games of many 1st Ed AD&D players.  It was the second "Monster Manual" and it collected a number of creatures from various modules and the White Dwarf Fiend Factor column.  It was also either really loved or really hated, depending on who you asked.  Maybe that is the reason it did not get published until much later (1992) and was the 14th MC to be published.

This MC contains 65 monsters, Aballin to Zygraat, and is a fairly good representation of the monsters listed in the original Fiend Folio.  Some new (the aforementioned Aballin) but a few notable ones had appeared in other volumes already.  Drow appeared in the main Monstrous Compendium. Death Knights were moved to Dragonlance (a loosing their demonic heritage in the process) and Styx Devils had been published in the MC8 (see below).  The "oriental" Dragons are not here, but Gem Dragons are. There is no flumph here though. We don't see those again until Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Two. 

Also there are no explanatory notes here that many of the others also had.  I guess at this point you are expected to know how to read the stat blocks. Not a complaint at all, merely an observation.

It is a mostly generic compilation of monsters and I mean that is a positive way.  These monsters can be used anywhere.  For example, I pulled out the Penanggalan and put it in my Ravenloft collection.

MC8 Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix

PDF 96 pages (102 with dividers and covers), Color cover art, black & white interior art, $4.99.  

This collection has 90+ monsters (Aasimon to Zoveri) from the various outer planes.  There are good and evil ones here so plenty for DMs taking the characters out of the dungeon and into new worlds.  There are a lot of old familiar faces and some new ones.  The "named" Demon Princes or Dukes of Hell are not here. Many, like Orcus, will never even get AD&D 2nd Ed stats. Most of the 1st Ed converts feel buffed up in stats. Even the succubus, a demon with little desire for combat, feels tougher with all her powers defined.

Demons and creatures from the Outer Planes in general really feel like they benefit from these expanded monster entries. While the Planescape Setting is still a bit away, we get tidbits of information about the Blood War and more.  Reminding us that when it comes to settings, 2nd Ed really was quite superior. 

Monstrous Compendium Planescape Appendix III

PDF, 128 pages. Color art. $9.99

This book was one of the bound softcover Monstrous Compendium Appendices and it took on the trad dress and style of the Planescape line rather than the Monstrous Compendium line. The monsters inside conformed to the standard of the Monstrous Compendium stat blocks, but there was no doubt what line this belonged to.

This volume has 128 pages and 71 monsters from Animental to Xill.  Many of these monsters appear on both sides of the page, usually due to the larger art elements, and expanded details including a bit of fluff for each one.  This makes this book actually better for use in the three-ring binders.  Even though this one was never designed to be added!  Again another point for the PDFs.  That is if you don't mind printing out all the full-color pages this one has.

Interestingly enough the Xill appears here and the Fiend Folio MC 14.  In fact, many monsters from the AD&D 1st Fiend Folio also make it here. Cases in point the Quasi-elementals, the khargra (with much improved art), thoqqua, and trilloch.  The Khargra and the Xill appear in all three (1st ed and both 2nd Ed books).

This one does have explanatory notes and it also covers the ecology of the outer planes.  By this time the Planescape setting had been in pretty wide use so the "Planescape" view of the Outer Planes has superseded, for good or ill, the AD&D 1st Edition Manual of the Planes version.

AD&D 2nd Ed may not have started out with fiends (of any sort) but they ended with not just a few, but a whole new outlook on them that changed how D&D would use them for the next 30 years.

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 be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. As popular in the Old School Renaissance as the format is, not all fanzines are devoted to Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying games—and in the nineties, many fanzines appeared dedicated to roleplaying games other than Dungeons & Dragons.

The world of Glorantha has had any number of fanzines dedicated to it over its forty year or so history, most notably, Wyrm’s Footnotes and Tales of the Reaching Moon. Published by John Castellucci, RQ Adventures Fanzine ran for six issues between 1993 and 1998, each issue containing scenarios written around a particular theme or location. Published in 1993, the inaugural issue of RQ Adventures Fanzine contains just the one scenario, ‘Escape from Duckland’, which the author and publisher had previously released as a standalone title. The scenario is set in 1621 ST in the kingdom of Sartar and sees a band of adventurers tasked with locating a small band of outlaw Ducks which has been struck down with the Red-Feather plague, a disease which fortunately only seems to affect Ducks and seems to be directly related to the intensity of the Red Moon in the sky. The only healer known to be capable of curing this disease resides by the mouth of the Marzeel River where it flows into the Mirrorsea Bay, many days travel away in the Holy Country. The adventurers must make their way to Apple Lane where they can find a guide, the famed Quackjohn, and then travel south and west into the Delecti Marsh to locate the stricken ducks, and from there escort them south to the border between Sartar and Esrolia. They will need to take some care, as not only are the Ducks outlaws and have a price on their heads (or beaks), but the infamous proclamation issued by General Fazzur Wideread, blaming the Ducks for the 1613 ST rebellion led by Kallyr Starbrow and placing a bounty of one year’s Imperial taxes for every Duck head/bill turned over to the provincial Lunar government is still in effect.

The scenario proper begins in Apple Lane. After they have dealt with a would-be Lunar tax collector and his bully boys on the make, the adventurers can sneak their guide out of the village and west to Runegate, but to avoid Dragonewt entanglements they are diverted south along Starfire Ridge and then over into Greydog territory. There are a couple of nasty encounters along the way—a band of Broo and horde of the undead which comes swarming up out of Upland Marsh. After both locating and placating the refugee ducks, the adventurers can begin their long journey south. There are some more nasty encounters along the way, a band of mercenary Tusk Riders which has decided to go Duck hunting—and have some horrid plans for any they catch, and there is one last attack by a threat encountered earlier. Not all of the encounters are quite so confrontational, an old man on Starfire Ridge proves to be good company and potentially helpful in speeding their journey, and there are dinosaurs to be found along the way, who might prove to be nuisances, or they might actually be helpful.

Consisting of ten encounters, ‘Escape from Duckland’ is a linear scenario, but then it is designed to be a journey. In terms of framing, being set in 1621 ST and thus written around elements of the Lunar occupation, it would be challenging for the Game Master to set the scenario elsewhere—or else when. That said, it could be adjusted to a few years earlier, but only few as they have to be after the Lunar proclamation on Ducks. This does not mean that the scenario could not be run today despite its strict time period. Since it takes place following the destruction of Gringle’s Pawn Shop in Apple Lane, it could be run as a flashback for Player Characters being run in the current timeline of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, especially if they have played through the events of Apple Lane at the very start of their careers. If so, then the old man they encounter on the Starfire Ridge early in the scenario could easily be the shaman they would have run into at the beginning of ‘The Broken Tower’ from the RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha – QuickStart Rules and Adventure. Alternatively, it could be run as part of The Company of the Dragon campaign which takes place during this period.

Mechanically, ‘Escape from Duckland’ is written for use with Avalon Hill’s RuneQuest III—as would all six issues of RQ Adventures Fanzine would be. The differences between those rules and the previous and subsequent rules for RuneQuest are relatively minor, such that ‘Escape from Duckland’ can be run with relatively few changes. In terms of support it is suggested that the Game Master be familiar with Apple Lane, Snakepipe Hollow, King of Sartar, and Gods of Glorantha. Were ‘Escape from Duckland’ be run today, The RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack would be useful for information about Apple Lane, and the RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary and The Red Book of Magic will be useful for details on the various creatures and magics encountered as part of the scenario, but otherwise it is easy to set up and run. An experienced Game Master would have no problem running the scenario.

‘Escape from Duckland’ is supported with a total of eight pre-generated adventurers. Ranging from a young and headstrong Orlanthi and a cold, hard Tarsh Exile to a peaceful centaur from Beast Valley to a bachelor of the Newtling race, they run the gamut of the standard Gloranthan types to the slightly odd, even weird. The scenario suggests the type of player each is suitable for and each is given a full page, including stats and nicely done background briefing. It also includes a copy of the Lunar proclamation on Ducks, some reasonable maps, and an enjoyable write-up of both Hueymakt Deathdrake, Druulz God of Death & War and the Indroduck Greydog subcult. Plus there are full stats for all of the creatures and monsters encountered in the scenario.

Physically, RQ Adventures Fanzine Issue 1 is scrappily presented. It is very far from unreadable, but it does need another edit and the art is rough. The maps are decent though. Another issue is the tone, that taken with the Ducks, which involves more than a few puns. Of course, ‘Escape from Duckland’ is very much a case of ‘Your Glorantha May Vary’ and another Game Master will have a different approach. The scenario includes a lot of flavour and detail about the various locations it visits over the course of its journey and each of the NPCs is decently done as well.

RQ Adventures Fanzine Issue 1 is rough around the edges, but ‘Escape from Duckland’ is decently serviceable and playable, taking the Player Characters on a challenging and nicely described tour of southern Sartar. For a modern campaign and a scenario of its vintage, ‘Escape from Duckland’ is a far more flexible scenario than at first seems.

The Castles & Crusades Codecies series are great books to add some flavor and history to your game.  While overtly for the Castles & Crusades game they can be used by nearly any game.  The Codex Nordica is another I was looking forward to getting and it did not disappoint.  Norse myths are among my favorites, right behind the Greek and Celtic myths. 

Castles & Crusades Codex Nordica

For this book, I am reviewing the PDF and hardcover edition of this book.

The book is 146 pages with color covers and black & white interiors.  The art is up to the high standards you should expect from Troll Lords with plenty of evocative art from Peter Bradley.   Like the other books in this series, this one was written by Brian Young, who has the educational background to tackle these books.

Norse myths are some of my favorites and rarely have they been more in vogue.  Young makes it clear that this book is a game guide to myths, legends, and history of the Swedish, Danes, Norse, and the other peoples of Scandinavia and not a full recounting of history, myths, and/or legends.

Chapter 1: History & Cosmology

This chapter gives us both the real-world historical background of the lands and the people of the area.  This also covers the basic myths. It will not replace a history text or a book on Norse Mythology, but it is a great overview for a gamebook. This book is likely better researched than most game accessories you will find. 

Chapter 2: The Nine Worlds

This takes the material from the previous chapter and some more to build on a game world of the Nine Worlds of Norse myths and how they could work in Castles & Crusades.  Each world is covered, in as much detail as can be provided, which also includes what random creatures can be found.  My favorite bits are the two maps that include the Viking colonies and migrations across Europe. 

Chapter 3: Magical Beings & Monsters

I would be tempted to say that this chapter is worth the price of the book alone, but while this is true there is a lot of great stuff in this book. But seriously this chapter is a lot of fun. There are nearly 40 creatures of varying degrees of familiarity to D&D/C&C players. Some are new enough to be quite fun.   Since the format is for Castles & Crusades they can be easily converted to AD&D, D&D5, or any OSR game of your choice. 

Chapter 4: Wizardry & Enchantments

This chapter is the most "Norse" of all of the ones in the book if I may be so forward.  It covers magic in its Nordic version or Seiðr.   Since war is the realm of men, magic belongs to women. There are two new character classes, the Seiðkona, an Intelligence-based sorceress or more accurately, a "Magic-user" and the Völva or Vǫlva, a Charisma-based prophetess who is quite similar to the notions of a "Witch." 

The Seiðkona uses Intelligence as her primary ability and casts the same spells and magic as the Wizard does.  If she had used Charisma, I would naturally compare her to the Sorcerer of D&D3/5.   Though given her role, Intelligence (or maybe even Wisdom) is the proper choice here.  This is a class that is very much part of the mythology of the world she is in. She has access to the Wizard's spell list in C&C. 

There is also the Völva, which is the clerical counterpart to the Seiðkona.  This class also serves the role of a priestess and uses a distaff.  Her gift is divination and prophecy.  So by means of a rough comparison, she is more similar to the Oracle class in Pathfinder.  She uses the Cleric's spell list until 5th level and then can split between Divine and Arcane magic. 

Also, this chapter covers the runic magic system from this world.  The runes are used along with the traditional magic powers (aka Spells). 

Chapter 5: The Gods and Giants

This chapter covers the gods of the Nordic lands as well their primary adversaries the Giants.  Here are names that will be familiar to nearly everyone who has ever played D&D or even watched a "Thor" movie or A&E's/AAmazon's "Vikings."  There are similarities with the names found in the Deities & Demigods, but enough differences that readers should be sure to attend to the details.  

Here the tale is more on the side of myth and legend rather than history.  We learn of the Æsir and the Vanir; the gods and goddesses of the Nordic people.   Also covered here in more detail than other gamebooks are the Giants and "other evil beings" spelling out the role Giants have in this mythology.  They are more akin to the Titans of Greek or even the demons of other myths.   You will not find stat blocks here though.  Gods are not "epic-level monsters" to be fought; least of all by the likes of player characters. 

Chapter 6: Warriors & Battlecraft

Magic and gods are great, but the world is made of warriors.  This chapter covers the various warrior types and additions to the basic fighter of Castles & Crusades.  The "upgraded" fighter includes basic warriors, elite warriors, and shield maidens.  New classes include the Berserker, who is a Charisma-based fighter, and the Giant Killers (more traditionally Strength-based).

There are some details on fighting styles and weapons unique to this area as well.

Chapter 7: Castle Keeper Info

This chapter details running a Castles & Crusades game in the Nordic lands during the time of these myths and stories; aka the Viking Age. Here you can learn about society, laws, and the people that make it work.  Of course, sea voyages are covered and various types of boats were used.

There is a section on poets and Kennings.  It makes me wish they had included more for Bards here other than a brief mention that Skalds are Bards. But I guess this works.  Names and their importance is covered with examples. 

Most importantly there is a section on the Eddas (Prose and Poetic) and how they can be adapted to a game. 

Chapter 8: The Precious Works

"The dwarves of lore made mighty spells," Tolkien told us in The Hobbit, but the dwarves he was thinking about likely were the Sons of ĺvaldi rather than the Children of Durin.   Here we learn of the great magical artifacts of the Nordic myths including Gundnir, Skidbladnir, Draupnir, and Mjölnir.

Save for monsters and classes, the vast majority of this book is fairly neutral in terms of game rules.  What does that mean? It means that you could easily use this book with AD&D, D&D 3 or 5, or an OSR game of choice.  Of course, it works the best with Castles & Crusades, but the book is such a good resource I would hate to see it missed by people that do not play C&C.

Brian Young has a unique combination of Ph.D. level research and game design and writing credit to bring a series like this to life and make you want to play exclusively in the world he describes.  Many have tried over the years, but I feel he has achieved the rare success of balancing the needs of mythological research and game design. 

I highly recommend this book for anyone that wants to add a little bit of Norse myth to their games. And really who wouldn't?  

US, UK, Australian prints

I’m so excited to get to the first official module. The adventure modules are what I enjoy reading the most.

What’s New

• Its’ the first D&D module designed, produced and distributed by TSR – woohoo! (Lost Tsojcanth wasn’t distributed by TSR, Vampire Queen et al were written by others. Temple of the Frog was a scenario contained in a rulebook, not a standalone module).
• It’s the first AD&D product besides the Monster Manual (and the Players Handbook released just a touch later)
• This is the last product to use the Lizard logo (as far as I can tell). That’s on the first printing and the Australian print.
• Instigation of the module letter/number scheme
• Concept of a series of modules is introduced – “First of 3 modules” (basically as a consequence of the 3 part structure of how it was used at the Origins tournament)
• Instigation of the cover wrap around cover with map inside and separate module booklet
• Note – map style is not new – that style was introduced in the Geomorph products

Art

• Pretty cool cover and art throughout by DCSIII with the exception of a kitchen scene by Tramp
• I really like how the back cover is a high perspective shot of the Steading which matches the map
• Oddly, on the Australian edition, the back cover has no product info and is just the same picture of bugbears from the 3rd panel of the cover of D1. (Note, first US printing only lists the G modules, not the D modules.)

General

• What’s great about this module is that it’s actually coherent! The environment and layout makes logical sense. The “wandering monsters” are not just random monsters but various of the giants and other creatures moving from location to location. There’s also a hint at a guiding force behind the banding together of giants, to be revealed in later modules.
• Uhhhh, the chief hill giant, described as a sly, backstabbing, despicable creature, has the name Nosnra, which is suspiciously close to Arneson backwards…
• In being logically coherent, it means most of the rooms are empty of inhabitants because they’re almost all in the main hall – which makes for one enormous battle if the party takes that on – 29 giants, 8 ogres and a bear!
• It’s pretty darn short at 8 pages but it still crams a lot in – this is definitely still the era where the DM was meant to come up with a lot of stuff
• On to G2 next!

Image Information

From left to right in all pictures, US 3rd print, UK print, Australian print.

Date Information – July 1978

The dating of this one is fairly clear. The 3 G modules were used for the tournament which ran at Origins ’78 and put on sale immediately after the end of the tournament. So July it is. You can read a bit about it on DriveThruRPG. More info at The Acaeum.

Further timeline information:

• Ads in June and July Dragon mags for Origins (July) saying D&D tourney modules (and Gamma World) will be available at the booth and Players Handbook available at GenCon (August)
• G’s were played at Origins in July
• G’s have Lizard logo (1st print)
• Gamma World has Lizard logo (1st print)
• Judges Guild Journal Issue 10/S June/July lists the G’s and Gamma World for sale
• Players Handbook available in August with Wizard logo (1st print)
• Ad in August dragon mag saying PH is available
• D’s were played at Gencon in August
• D’s have Wizard logo
• second print of PH has date of September and Wizard logo
• the ad in the Oct Dragon for the G’s says they’re available and 3 more (the D’s) to be made available at GenCon (plainly should have been in an earlier issue – but then it’s always hard to figure out the lead times of the Dragon mags)

This last week, Dallas’s weather confirmed the general warning I give people about any kind of gardening, whether with carnivores or any other plant: don’t make plans to get anything in the ground until after St. Patrick’s Day, Sure, the … Continue reading →

I have been reading a lot of history over the last couple of years.  Mostly for my own enjoyment and education and partly to provide better Witch Tradition books and One Man's God posts.  So it has been with great enjoyment that I have been reading Brian Young's Codex series for Castles & Crusades.

While they are overtly Castles & Crusades books I have found they are usable and have useful information for just about every game; especially original D&D/AD&D games and the OSR clones they are based on (of which C&C is one of the biggest). 

I have been meaning to do a review of them forever, or at least since 2016.  With the release of the Codex Egyptium and the second printing of the Codex Celtarum, I thought what better time than now.

You can read my reviews of the first printing of the Codex Celtarum and the Codex Classicum.  Having already spent some time with them all I can say that Brian Young brings his Ph.D. level skills to the task of uncovering these myths, legends, and history and brings them to your game table.  That's not hyperbole by the way.  Dr. Brian Young does have a Ph.D. and he is working on a second one if I recall right.

On tap for this week are:

• Castles & Crusades Codex Nordica
• Castles & Crusades Codex Germania
• Castles & Crusades Codex Slavorum
• Castles & Crusades Codex Egyptium
• Castles & Crusades Codex Celtarum 2nd Printing

I am also going to give these a bit of One Man's God.  Or more to point I'll at least look at them through the same lens of my One Man's God posts.

Should be a fun romp through the history of our world.

New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley was published in 2008 by Miskatonic River Press. Under the aegis of the late Keith Herber, this anthology would breathe new life into the revered Miskatonic Valley setting for Call of Cthulhu and new life into Call of Cthulhu itself at a time when the venerable roleplaying game’s publisher was not able to fully support it. Both this anthology, and its sequel, More Adventures in Arkham Country, would provide a platform for a new generation of new authors for Call of Cthulhu, many of whose previous works had appeared in Chaosium, Inc.’s long-running series of Miskatonic University Library Association monographs. In terms of content and look, New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley was inspired by the original series of supplements dedicated to Lovecraft Country that Chaosium had published in the nineties, but it had its own look that was fresh and clean, and overall, it felt like the hobby had a publisher for Call of Cthulhu who actually liked Call of Cthulhu once again. Sadly, Miskatonic River Press closed in 2013, its fifth and last book released being Tales of the Sleepless City. All five of its Call of Cthulhu supplements would go on to become collectible.

Fortunately, New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley, Second Edition, was published in 2020, this time by Stygian Fox. The British publisher has updated the anthology to Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and upgraded it to be full colour, with new maps, handouts, and illustrations, and in hardback format. The new edition has also increased the scenario count from the original’s six to seven, with the inclusion of an all-new scenario from Seth Skorkowsky. This is a collection which will take a Keeper and her players up the Miskatonic Valley, from Arkham to Dunwich and back again via Foxfield to dream-spoiled Kingsport and sea-sodden Innsmouth—the latter the new addition—and so provide both with delicious slices of dark and dangerous horror.

New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley, Second Edition opens with a poignant forward from Tom Lynch, the head of Miskatonic River Press, before presenting his ‘The Reeling Midnight’. This is the first of two Arkham-set scenarios in the collection, a piece of louche detective legwork which emphasises interaction and investigation rather than academia. The Wilcoxes are worried that their son, Eugene, is hanging around with the wrong crowd and attending scandalous parties hosted by Hungarian nobility émigrés. They fear the daughter is a gold digger and hire the investigators to look into both their son’s activities and hers. The scenario opens up with a big set piece at one of the parties—the first problem being to get an invitation—which gives the players and their Investigators lots of attendees to interact with, and the Keeper a fun cast to portray. The investigation is nicely detailed and the scenario has a nasty sting in the tale, but ‘The Reeling Midnight’ is primarily a criminal investigation which the Mythos seems to slide into rather than necessarily be the driving force. It possesses a pleasing physicality and would work as an introduction to the Mythos along the Miskatonic Valley.

The second Arkham-set scenario is ‘Wasted Youth’ by Christopher Smith Adair. Again, this possesses both a physicality and a nasty, if not nastier, sting in the tale than ‘The Reeling Midnight’. The physicality here differs though, for it involves a ragged, often grueling chase across the countryside forcing the players to roll checks for skills that their Investigators are unlikely to possess given the typical intellectual, technical, or pugilistic bent of most. This forms the climax of the scenario which begins with Arkham being beset by a rash of dangerous juvenile delinquency, including acts of murderous violence and vandalism. The investigation is made all the more challenging by the fact that it involves children as both victims and protagonists, this also its sting in the tale, as it means directly confronting them. Children being involved may mean it is difficult to get the Investigators involved, but once they are, this is an effectively horrid affair.

Oscar Rios’ ‘Spirit of Industry’ takes the Investigators to Dunwich on a ghost hunt in the company of a journalist (who appeared in the earlier ‘The Reeling Midnight’) in search of a scoop—an old sawmill is reputed to be haunted and there is a reward for proof of the existence of ghosts. This is not necessarily a Mythos scenario in the classic sense, being more like the Stephen King story, ‘The Mangler’, in that the sawmill is possessed and malignly so. However, this is set against the pervading sense of bucolic unease which suffuses through Dunwich, whether from the town’s all too knowing inhabitants or the all too unknowing ones. The scenario is likely to involve two brutal, and potentially, bloody climaxes, but even offers the possibility of a happy ending.

A happy ending is unlikely in ‘Proof of Life’ by Keith Herber. This is set in the small town of Foxfield—introduced here in the pages of New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley—where a disagreement between local farmers and the town supervisor over whether or not to log nearby forests has escalated into blows and a death threat! Investigation reveals that the town supervisor is hiding something and even acting oddly, but the Investigators will need to navigate their way between the town’s factions and interview many of the townsfolk to get this far. This is a type of story which has been told before, that of a Mythos entity or race protecting its long-held presence in an area which annoying ape descendants are now encroaching upon. Fortunately, the scenario never quite tips into cliché, but the motivations of the Mythos threat feel underwhelming given the length to which they go to protect their interests and the monstrous effect this has on the town supervisor and his family.

Oscar Rios’ second contribution to the anthology is ‘Malice Everlasting’, which is the first of two scenarios set in Kingsport, City of Dreams. Like the earlier, this is a tale of possession and possession of a teenage antagonist, but it comes with a classic Lovecraftian ‘revenge from beyond the grave’ plot. There is nothing childish about this villain as he unleashes his revenge upon the descendants of those who hunted him down and executed him in the seventeenth century by striking them suddenly blind. As the Investigators get closer to making this connection, they come to the attention of the antagonist, who begins to hinder their progress to varying degrees—as both eager ally and vengeful villain. The weakest point of the scenario is when that connection is made, and it could have been better handled. Otherwise, this is an excellent combination of investigation and desperate action which climaxes with bang—a summoning of Y’golonac. Unlike ‘Wasted Youth’ where the Investigators are likely to have proof of the antagonists’ actions (or at least witnesses), here they do not, and ultimately, they will be faced by a dilemma which if they get wrong will land them in prison—or worse.

The second scenario set in Kingsport is ‘The Night War’ by Kevin A. Ross, which takes full advantage of the port’s reputation as the city of dreams. Inspired by the works of William Hope Hodgson, the Investigators begin experiencing seemingly realistic nightmares in which they fight in the trenches of the Western Front, night after night, men and women, quickly followed by the rest of Kingsport. The action switches back and forth over the course of several days and nights, the Investigators spending their nights surviving and hunting for clues in this unreal landscape haunted by monsters unknown on the battlefield, and their days following up on those clues in the hope that what they find out will help both them and the people of Kingsport back in the nightmare. A darker and grander depiction of a Dreamlands than that typically seen in Call of Cthulhu, its subject matter and its staging, imposing and perhaps heavy-going rather than delicate, may be off-putting for some players. Seen though as a desperate mission to save a man’s mind in somewhere the Investigators either never thought they would return to or even thought they would have experienced, and the scenario is an interesting take on what a Dreamlands scenario could be like.

New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley ended with ‘The Night War’, but New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley, Second Edition has one more scenario. This is ‘A Mother’s Love’ by Seth Skorkowsky, which brings crime to Innsmouth. The Frog Gang, led by Tobias ‘Frog’ Sisk, has robbed a local bank and hightailed it into his hometown of Innsmouth, with the local police and Federal agents on their tail. The officers of the town’s police department are prepared to help—to an extent—but their main motivation is avoiding bringing further attention to Innsmouth and its secrets. Not the first time that crime has come to Innsmouth—it did that in ‘The Innsmouth Connection’ from Before the Fall, but to much lesser effect. ‘A Mother’s Love’ is a short, slightly strange investigation that will quickly lead to a blazing shootout between the Innsmouth Police Department, the Federal Agents, and the survivors of the Frog Gang. Of course, if the Federal Agents learn too much, it could turn into a shootout and clawfest between them and the Innsmouth Police Department (as well as others). Unlike the other scenarios in the anthology, ‘A Mother’s Love’ is best suited as a one-shot, perhaps as a prequel to Escape from Innsmouth, as it works best with one Investigator being a member of the Bureau of Investigation and so is more difficult to work into a campaign. ‘A Mother’s Love’ is punchier than most scenarios set in Lovecraft Country, but it has a nice sense of tension to it though, whether that is between the Federal Agents and the Innsmouth Police Department, or between what the players are likely to know and their Investigators otherwise.

Physically, New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley, Second Edition is hit and miss, though more hit than miss. Behind the bland cover, the layout is clean and tidy. It needs a slight edit in places and the illustrations vary in quality, some of them bland and muddy, some of them decent, plus the internal cartography is more serviceable then characterful. Unfortunately, the colour artwork in this second edition does not have the charm of the pen and ink illustrations of the original. However, the regional cartography is decent, the handouts are excellent—especially the newspaper articles which are hidden in full page handouts, and town vistas of Arkham, Dunwich, Foxfield, Kingsport, and Innsmouth that preface their respective sections, are handsome indeed. Included in the new hardback is a set of six pre-generated Investigators (including one from my hometown) which again, are decently done and all on a new, alternate version of the Investigator sheet for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition.

New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley was the best supplement published for Call of Cthulhu in 2008. In fact, it was the best release for the roleplaying game since 2007’s Secrets of Kenya and 2006’s Tatters of the King. It gave a platform for new voices and new ideas for Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying and proved that the then new rash of third-party publishers could produce content that was mature and sophisticated. Not every scenario in New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley could be regarded as perfect in 2008, or indeed perfect with the publication of the second edition in 2020, but it was an audacious debut. New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley, Second Edition returns that audacity to print, bringing back support for Lovecraft Country just as it did in 2008.

Since 2018, the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG, beginning with the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG – Player’s Survival Guide has proved to be a popular choice when it comes to self-publishing. Numerous authors have written and published scenarios for the roleplaying game, many of them as part of Kickstarter’s annual ZineQuest event, of which The Drain was published following a successful Kickstarter campaign as part of ZineQuest 3. Written and published by Ian Yusem, this ashamedly steals the signature feature of Goodman Games’ highly popular Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and adapts it to the far future of the MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game. This feature is the concept of the Character Funnel in which initially, a player is expected to roll up three or four Level Zero characters and have them play through a generally nasty, deadly adventure, which surviving will prove a challenge. Those that do survive receive enough Experience Points to advance to First Level and gain all of the advantages of their Class. The result is a bloody, brutal scenario which can used as one-shot or as the means to create a set of ready-to-play Player Characters complete with shared backgrounds, histories, and relationships.
The Drain: A Funnel Adventure for use with MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror RPG sends the Player Characters into the hellish battlefield aboard the Within Wheels, a colony ship broadcasting the heresy of the 3rd Testament across the universe in order to retrieve a legendary religious relic—and this is not the grim and perilous future of Warhammer 40,000 and the Player Characters are not even soldiers or necessarily trained to fight. Instead they are prisoners, serving time for crimes they definitely did commit, their sentences being executed by corporate jailors, PrayCo. As the ship they are aboard, dodges its way through the ring of scavenging and salvage vessels, warships, and the wrecks of civilians which have already tried to get through, the Player Characters are given a choice—fight their way down through the four decks of the Within Wheels to its Command Centre and there recover whatever is broadcasting the 3rd Testament and return it to PrayCo. In return, the Player Characters will have their sentences commuted.
The digital version of The Drain comes with a set of pre-generated Player Characters, but the scenario includes quick and dirty rules for creating prisoner Player Characters. Being Level Zero, they have no Class, low stats, an absolute minimum of Hits, minimal responses to Stress Checks, and no skills. What a Player Character will have is a conviction for a crime, a single possession, and a piece of materiel which may or may not help him survive the assault. As with a Character Funnel for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, the latter is generated randomly, and if the crime is Android related, the Player Character is an Android. In addition, each prisoner is made to wear a PrayCo tinsel halo battle uniform and a Command Collar. The latter will explode if the Player Characters get too far away from each other! The players are expected to create three or four five of these characters.
Name: Bracket (Android)Crime: Domestic InsufficiencyClass: None Level: 0AttributesStrength: 20 Speed: 25 Intellect: 30 Combat: 25SavesSanity: 25 Fear: 50 Body: 25 Armour: 25Hit Points: 25
SkillsTrained (+10%): Theology
Loadout: Tinsel halo, flyswatter, flare gun 
NotesFear saves made in the presence of Androids have disadvantages.
The flight through the ring of scavenger and warships can be handled using Wrath of God, but either way, The Drain begins with the Prison Soldiers at the top of the Within Wheels, in a series of trenches, opposing forces of the farmer-martyrs occupying the other trenches. Thus the scenario begins in a scene out of the Great War, right down to poison gas rolling across the battlefield. But from here it can only get worse. There are signs of battle everywhere, including a church full of refugees hoping for an armistice, a military dropship still tethered to the colony ship, but trying to get away, signs of the overengineered environmental collapse that forced the colonists to turn to their strange faith, an amusement park adjusted to be full of fire and brimstone warning, and more… 
Along the way there are encounters to be had with other Prison Soldiers, who may be as bad as or even worse than the Player Characters, Corporate Operators with plans of their own, Pilgrim Irregulars determined to protect the 3rd Testament, and worse. The Warden is also provided with a standard set of random events and features tables, as well as tables for every location, and a pair of general tables searching the area or looting the body, discovering equipment caches. The latter will be very useful given the minimal amount equipment the Prison Soldiers are given at the start of their mission. Of course, they have to survive long to find these caches… Either way, the tables will drive a lot of the game play in The Drain, as will the interaction between the multiple Player Characters.
Physically, The Drain is decently presented and organised. It needs a slight edit in places, but every location is given a good half page at least, and the set-up is nicely explained. The artwork suits the raggedy feel of the hell aboard the Within Wheels.
If the Player Characters deliver on their mission, then PrayCo delivers on its promise and that makes for a refreshing change—inserting an inevitable betrayal would have been boring. There is potential for a sequel though, with Meat Grinder, which together with The Drain and Wrath of God forms The Inferno Trilogy. If there is an issue with The Drain, it is perhaps that the description of its McGuffin feels underwritten, so the Warden may want to develop that.

The Drain serves up exactly what a Character Funnel should—a brutal, bloody experience in which survival is an achievement in itself. It combines war-as-hell with the dark horror of heresy and creates Player Characters with memorable back stories for Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG in the process. 

—oOo—
An Unboxing in the Nook video of The Drain can be found here.

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

—oOo—

The inaugural issue of Parallel Worlds magazine was published in September 2019. It contains no gaming content as such, but rather discusses and aspects of not just the hobby, but different hobbies—board games, roleplaying games, computer games, and more. Unlike later issues, for example, Parallel Worlds #21 and Parallel Worlds #22, this first issue is very much about games, and that is not necessarily a bad thing if something interesting is said about them. Unfortunately, that is not always the case in Parallel Worlds #01, but the issue contains some interesting articles and they do possess a degree of brevity which makes the issue as a whole a quick read. Of course, Parallel Worlds #01 is readily available in print, but all of the issues of Parallel Worlds, published by Parallel Publishing can also be purchased in digital format, because it is very much not back in the day of classic White Dwarf, but here and now. 
Parallel Worlds #01 opens with an interview with Isaac Childres, the designer of Gloomhaven, one of biggest—quite literally—boardgames published in the last few years. It is quite a lengthy piece and nicely captures the designer’s enthusiasm for creating and playing games. What is interesting in the piece is the discussion of the influences upon the design, which include Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition, and it includes a range of illustrations which should intrigue the reader to take a closer look at Gloomhaven. The other board game-focused piece in the issue is ‘Tiny Epic Mechs’, part of the magazine’s ‘Tabletop Games’ series of articles. Christopher Jarvis’ article is actually a review of the arena-set game of ’mech combat published by Gamelyn Games as part of its Tiny Epic series, which packages big games in small boxes and thus delivers greater game play than their size readily suggests. In comparison to the other games in the line, and there are plenty of them, Tiny Epic Mechs, is short and punchy in its game play and does not necessarily lend itself to telling an epic story. Nevertheless, the review is informative and again, should point the reader in the direction of the line.
Unfortunately, these decent articles are followed by a pair of frustratingly bad and unhelpful articles, both by Connor Eddles. In ‘Box Full of Knives: Why Dungeons & Dragons needs to step away from its wargaming roots’ he complains that Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition is a ‘box full of knives’, that its mechanics are too focused on delivered the means to kill things and take their loot and not enough on providing the tools to provide stories. There is some validity to the argument, but the author completely ignores how far Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition has come in supporting both roleplaying and storytelling in its rules in comparison to the Dungeons & Dragons of 1974 and even the Dungeons & Dragons of the year 2000. Likewise, he complains that Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition has too many rules and not enough tools, and again, he ignores how far the game has come. Admittedly, in either case, it is not as far as other roleplaying games, but the shift is there. Further, he ignores the then reality of the situation with regard to Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and Wizards of the Coast, that in 2019, there was no real possibility of the world’s premier roleplaying game necessarily going in the direction he wants. Despite stating that a proper critique of the system that is Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition requires the reader to go back and look at where it all began, he completely fails to do so. Similarly, whilst stating that, “This article may look like yet another hit-piece on the 5th Edition of D&D (often referred to as ‘5e’) but accusation would only be half correct.”, never fully addresses the other half that is not a ‘hit-piece’, never really offers concrete or helpful solutions, and ultimately the piece reads like a wishful whinge that Dungeons & Dragons was different.
‘Call of Cthulhu – Intermediate Frustration: The Call of Cthulhu Starter Set’ is not so much a review of the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set, as a review of Connor Eddles’ experience of running it and his impression of it. The review is profoundly uninformative and unhelpful. It does not tell the reader what is in the starter set and it does not give any context to what is in the starter set and it ignores who the starter set is for, instead complaining that its cover is reminiscent of Scooby Doo, that one of the pre-generated Investigators has a silly name, and that adventures are written in what is to him a heavy style that he does not use. Of these three issues, he has a point about the silly name—Nevada Jones—for the pre-generated Investigator, but of the other two, they are dubious points upon which to base a whole review, and whilst the author is entitled to his opinion, the result, as in his previous article, is unbalanced and uninteresting.

The coverage of Lovecraft continues with ‘H.P. Lovecraft, 100 Years On’ by Ben Potts, but not before Allen Stroud fills up two pages with a ‘Mini of the Month’ which looks at a thirty-year old miniature of an elf from Grenadier. Despite needing an edit, Ben Potts’ article is balanced and interesting, serving as decent introduction to the author, his works and his failings, and gives both context to his writings and his influence. Especially if the reader knows nothing about H.P. Lovecraft.
Allen Stroud’s ‘UK Games Expo 2019’ takes the reader on a guided tour of the United Kingdom’s biggest gaming convention. It captures the scale of the event, highlighting the number of attendees, the breadth of stalls and exhibitors present, and the array of events staged across the weekend. Supported by numerous photographs, the article brings the event to life and really makes the reader want to attend. This of course, was pre-pandemic, and so they would have been unable to until UK Games Expo came back in a much-reduced capacity in 2021. Hopefully, it will return in 2022 and be as good as this article describes it was in 2019.
‘Call of Demons’ by Allen Stroud both continues the issue’s Lovecraftian theme and presages the issue’s coverage of video games. It brings the horror of the Mythos to a virtual world in a short and enjoyable piece of would-be military action. The first of the articles on video games is both the longest in the issue and the longest. Tom Grundy’s ‘Promising the Stars: The three biggest space games of the 2010s’ examines the promise and expectations of the three big, spacefaring computer games of the tweenies. These are Elite Dangerous, No Man’s Sky, and Star Citizen, and all three are explored in some depth and detail, looking at their high points and their low, and seeing whether they have delivered. The truth is that none of them quite have, and they remain in various states of playability, from the complete No Man’s Sky to the yet to be fulfilled Star Citizen. The author makes the case for each one and again makes the reader want to investigate more. Perhaps the article could have suggested the ways in which to do so, but otherwise, this is an enjoyable article.
The second article about video games in Parallel Worlds #01 is by Thomas Turnbull-Ross. ‘Two Knights & their Hollow Souls’ is a comparison of two games, Dark Souls and Hollow Knight, drawing together the similarities of their worlds, their lead characters, and their game play. It is not quite as interesting as the previous article, but nevertheless, a good read. Rounding out the issue is Allen Stroud’s ‘Review: Blood of an Exile’, a decent review of the first book in the fantasy trilogy by Brian Naslund.
Physically, Parallel Worlds #01 is printed in full colour, on very sturdy paper, which gives it a high-quality feel. It does suffer from a lot of white space and one or two of the articles do feel stretched out.
Apart from the misinformative misfires from Connor Eddles, Parallel Worlds #01 is a solid, first issue. It sets out what its aims are, that of the exploration of the parallel worlds of our imagination, and then takes the reader there in a range of mostly informative and interesting articles.

The weather may shift back and forth, but at least the Triffid Ranch has a warm and dry space indoors. The March open houses continue this Saturday, running from noon until 5:00 pm, with free admission and masks being highly … Continue reading →

A preamble on the enclosure backstories: With enough dedication, almost anything can become a source of energy. Gather enough dead flies and pile them up, and the options increase, depending upon the gatherer’s needs and resistance to revulsion. When that … Continue reading →

Jon Peterson begins his latest book, Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons at exactly the point where his previous book, The Elusive Shift: How Role-Playing Games Forged Their Identity, left off—that history repeats itself. The Elusive Shift explored the debate as to what a roleplaying game is and what roleplaying is, and not only how that debate was settled, but also how it has been repeated by successive generations of gamers since the first decade or so that we have had roleplaying as a hobby. In Game Wizards, Peterson examines the creation of Dungeons & Dragons and the first decade or so of how it became the foundation of the business that was TSR and how the feud between the game’s co-creators, E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, would ultimately lead to their ousting from TSR, and following a debt crisis, the company’s takeover by Lorraine Williams. This was not a dissimilar pattern that Charles S. Roberts had followed in his founding of the board wargaming company, Avalon Hill, and its subsequent sale to a creditor a decade before the founding of TSR. Neither Roberts, and certainly not Gygax and Arneson set out to make a great deal of money, but in the case of Gygax and TSR, as much as they were unprepared for it, they did. Dungeons & Dragons would become a cultural phenomenon and long after the death of its co-creators, in the hands of Wizards of the Coast, become a highly profitable intellectual property. Of course, the story of how Gygax and Arneson created Dungeons & Dragons has been told many times, but in that telling the story has become mythologised and what really happened coloured by the personalities and the feuds between them. Peterson goes back to the source documents—letters, agreements, share evaluations, and even court depositions—to get a first-hand, as it happened account and thus cast Legend Lore on the first decade of TSR.

Also published by The MIT Press, Game Wizards is not a book about the evolution of Dungeons & Dragons—the author’s Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures, from Chess to Role-Playing Games is a better book for that—it is where this book starts. Before that, it recounts how Gary Gygax and Don Kaye form Tactical Studies Rules to self-publish games, with Brian Blume providing capital and becoming an equal partner with the death of Kaye, and then Gygax develops Arneson’s concepts with his own and creates Dungeons & Dragons. The key document and really the starting point for the book, out of which would stem the feud between Gygax and Arneson over who created what and how much was owed to whom, is the copyright and royalties agreement they signed in early 1974. Like Gygax and Arneson, and eventually their lawyers, Game Wizards returns to this document as well as the issue of who owns what shares in TSR again and again in its pages.

Once TSR is founded, Peterson rolls through its history year-by-year, from 1974 until 1985, charting its rise and fortunes. At the end of each year he lists various indicators, such as revenue, number of employees, stock evaluation, and Gen Con versus origin attendance figures—the later being a particular bone of contention with Gygax. Listed here also are the sales rankings as presented by Howard Barasch of SPI in comparison with both SPI and Avalon Hill, tracking how the company went from ‘Other’ to first place, and then looked back. There are small moments of humour here as well, such as ‘Players Eliminated: Heritage’, referring to the miniatures and games company that was an early rival for TSR. These chapters also track the relationship between Arneson and Gygax as it goes from friendly to standoffish into outright adversarial with Gygax having TSR’s lawyers altering how Arneson can be referred to on projects from other publishers and Arneson even accepting the H.G. Wells Award for ‘All Time Best Role Playing Rules’ at the Origins convention in 1978 when it was clearly meant for Dungeons & Dragons and its publisher, TSR, Inc. Once the feud become litigious—and it does very quickly, Game Wizards brings in numerous court documents and begins to chart the effect of the litigation of both the case between Arneson and TSR (Gygax), and all too often, other employees at TSR. The year-by-year telling of the history, together with the figures at the end of each year, gives the story a game like feel, and that, together with the back and forth between Gygax and Arneson reads like a very personal game of Diplomacy, almost played out across the whole of the hobby, culminating in the infamous ‘The Ambush at Sherdian Springs’ in 1985.

Peterson makes the point that the infamous disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III and its widespread publicity—often at the hands of the private investigator, William Dear, would give Dungeons & Dragons and thus both TSR and Gygax press coverage like never before. It would fuel increased interest in the game and lead to a massive boost in sales. The ensuring Moral Panic surrounding the controversy of supposed Satanism in Dungeons & Dragons would do the same. The resulting sales would lead to the rapid expansion of TSR, not just in terms of turnover, but also growth, staff and corporate acquisition, and ambition. The company might have weathered the increase in the number of staff from less than thirty to several hundred, the purchase of Greenfield Needlewomen, and Gygax’s excursion to Hollywood on their, but all together? It is clear in Game Wizards that TSR was ill-equipped to manage that number of people, and the nepotism which run rampant did not help. Of course, in its early days, members of both the Blume and the Gygax families were employed out of necessity, but in the early eighties, the Blumes employed their in-laws too, often to disastrous effect and with no comeback. Purchases like that of Greenfield Needlewomen, would amount to nothing, and although the fondly remembered Dungeons Dragons Cartoon would result from Gygax’s time in Hollywood, little else did. Meanwhile, the raising of wrecks from Lake Geneva and the sponsorship of the US Winter Olympics team simply wasted money. Together though, it meant that TSR and its management, led by Gygax and the Blues were ill prepared to when the downturn in the economy in the early eighties hit…

Throughout, there are fascinating asides and missed opportunities. For example, the combination of TSR deciding to step out of the miniatures field and the proposed purchase of Games Workshop—the early distributor of Dungeons & Dragons in the United Kingdom before the establishment of TSR UK—by TSR, never coming to pass, would mean that the British company would be free to pursue its own path. If it had happened, the history of the British hobby would have been very different, there would probably have been no Warhammer or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and probably a much more polarised hobby in the United Kingdom as a result. There are indications too of just how small roleplaying companies were during this period, certainly in comparison to TSR, which is often something that we forget, enclosed as we were back then (and still are to an extent) in the closed bubble of the hobby.

Ultimately, what we have in Game Wizards is a clash of personalities unwilling to concede to each other. Gygax wants to protect what he has built and provide for his family, but cannot balance his desire to simply write and create against the desire to maintain control of a business that he co-founded but was ill-suited to run. His brilliance lay in proselytising Dungeons & Dragons and bringing people together just as he did in the early days of TSR—he was a facilitator, not necessarily a businessman. Arneson wants to be recognised and paid his dues, and though ultimately he would be, in Game Wizards he is often shown as his own worst enemy. A font of creative ideas who did not respond well to either editing or criticism, and who comes across as petulant and a poor team player. Whereas Gygax’s posturing and protectionism, which would often drive much of both the hobby and the industry to side with the insecure Arneson, feels petty and vindictive. Similarly his feuds with other creatives and even with the Origins convention over which was bigger—Origins or Gen Con, possess a pettiness which has been lost in the retelling of his legend. If both Arneson and Gygax are far from perfect, they are not the villains of the piece. The Blumes—Kevin and Brian—fill that role, especially with the extent of the nepotism that saw them employ their extended family and grant them often ridiculous privileges. The reputation of the Blume brothers has long suffered in the telling of the history of TSR, and despite their seeding the company with start-up capital back in 1974, Game Wizards does them no favours.

Surprisingly, the biggest villain of all in the history of TSR, is revealed in Game Wizards to be anything but that! The reputation of Lorraine Williams, admittedly never a gamer, has perhaps been poorer than that of the Blume Brothers. Here she steps in at the last minute as the saviour of TSR from bankruptcy, working with the Blumes to oust Gygax lest he remain in control and unfortunately inflict more damage upon the company.

Throughout, Peterson draws from numerous documents and sources, including fanzines, convention programmes, news articles, and court documents and financial reports. This often gives the telling an impersonal feel, which histories with more personal recollections would obviously lack, but he counters this numerous quotations from letters between Gygax and Arneson, and then Gygax and Arneson with others. This gives Game Wizards its personal touch and immediacy whilst at the same avoiding the issues that might arise through recollection and adherence to any orthodoxy or mythology attached to its subject matter.

Game Wizards ends in 1985, covering just the first twelve years of TSR’s history. It would have another twelve before being bought out by Wizards of the Coast in 1997. These years—and those after—are only treated briefly in Game Wizards and even though the author’s aim is tell the story of the relationship between Arneson and Gygax and the first twelve years of TSR, the book feels incomplete because of it. Fortunately, Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons by Ben Riggs will cover this period. Like the earlier The Elusive Shift, it would have been nice to have included some thumbnail bibliographies of the men and women whose story is told in Game Wizards. Without them, this is very much a book for those already knowledgeable about the leading figures of the hobby in its early days and what they did.

Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons is a fascinating read and anyone with an interest in the history of roleplaying should read it. The reader will come away with the impression that the original and premier roleplaying game still today, was created by two imperfect men, and whether because of their foibles, or in spite of them, their influence is still felt today. With Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons, Jon Peterson has slain the mythology and the orthodoxy by going back to source to give us a clearer, almost Shakepearian history of E. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, and TSR, Inc. than we were aware of.

Today's weekly KickstartCrowdfund Your Weekend looks at projects beyond Kickstarter. 

Mistletoe Massacre - Horror Comedy Slasher Film

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mistletoe-massacre-horror-comedy-slasher-film#/

I love Indie horror movies and this one looks like a lot of fun.  They are crowdfunding, which is also fun.  I have participated in crowdfunded projects like this before and it is cool to see your name on the screen under "thanks!"

Seriously though, check this out and give what you can.  I know a lot of you love horror films as much as I do. So help them out, get a fun new horror flick and some memorabilia too!  The signed poster looks nice. 

Bundle for Ukraine

https://itch.io/b/1316/bundle-for-ukraine

Another RPG Bundle from Itch.io.  This time they are raising $4M+ for aid to Ukraine.

For $10 you get $992 pdfs/games from 733 creators.  That's a hell of a deal.

Both of these are very worthy so check them out!

Some games have table presence. They simply look good out and set up—even before anyone sits down to play. For example, the Spiele des Jahres award winning Colt Express is a fun game to play, but with its slot-together Wild West train, great artwork, and individualised Meeples, it really looks great on the table. Similarly, Captain Sonar looks good when set up and ready to play, but its actual table presence is incredibly simple and is really down to a pair of large dividing screens and the number of players. Published by Editions du Matagot, Captain Sonar is a cat-and-mouse game of co-operative hidden movement and deduction played in real time by two teams. Each team is control of a state-of-the-art submarine-and as the Captain, the Chief Mate, the Radio Operator, and the Engineer, you work together to manoeuvre your boat, keep it from breaking down, determine where the enemy is, and then blow it out of the water by launching torpedoes and dropping depth charges. It can be an incredibly tense experience, quickly switching from barked orders to whispered responses and back again, and if a team wants to defeat their rival submarine, they must co-operate, listen to each other, and listen to their rivals to locate exactly where they are.

Captain Sonar is designed for two to eight players, aged fourteen and up, and can be played in less than an hour. The components consist of two sets role sheets, two transparent sheets, eight erasable marker pens, and two screens. The role sheets are divided between the game’s four roles, with the First Mate and Engineer receiving the same role sheet each game, and the Captain and Radio Operator using a different one depending which scenario is being played. There are five scenarios in the game. In addition, each role sheet is double-sided, the side used depending on the game’s mode. One mode is for real time play, the other is for turn-by-turn play. The two screens are large, four-panel affairs and are illustrated with a scene on the bridge aboard a submarine. They are intentionally difficult to see over and their artwork really gives the impression of being aboard a submarine. Their combination of artwork and size is one factor giving Captain Sonar its presence at the table. The other is the number of players and the number of chairs they need and a reasonably sized table. Captain Sonar can be played with just two players, each controlling their respective submarines, or played with teams of two, three, or four players. With one, two, or three players on either side, some of the game’s roles have to be combined, and with fewer players, the game played turn-by-turn rather than in real time. However many the number of players, Captain Sonar has a presence at the table—and that only increases the more players there are.

The four roles in Captain Sonar are Captain, Chief Mate, Radio Operator, and Engineer. The Captain begins each turn by announcing out loud the direction in which the submarine is going to move—north, east, south, or west—one space and plots that on the Captain’s sheet. He cannot announce another move until both the First Mate and the Engineer have given him a verbal ‘Okay’. The Radio Operator’s sheet is identical to that of the Captain—on both teams—and it is his job to listen into the directions given by the opposing Captain on the other side of the screen and map them on a transparent sheet which is placed over his role sheet. By successfully marking down the directions and adjusting this overlay so that it ignores obstacles such as islands and mines, the Radio Operator may be able to deduce where the enemy submarine is.The First Mate’s task is to monitor the submarine’s equipment—Mine, Drone, Silence, Torpedo, Sonar, and Scenario specific item—and alert the Captain when it is ready to activate or launch. Each piece of equipment has a gauge and when the Captain announces the submarine’s movement, the First Mate fills in one space on one of the gauges. When one is full, he announces it as ready. Again, this done out loud. At any time, the Captain can launch a Torpedo or drop a Mine, and then later detonate a Mine. If a Mine or Torpedo detonates adjacent to the enemy submarine, it inflicts a point of damage, two on a direct hit. He can also activate the Silence and send his submarine up to four spaces away in any direction in a straight line. This also erases the track which the Captain has been tracing on his sheet, which is important the submarine cannot cross its track. The First Mate can launch the Drone and ask the enemy Captain if his submarine is in particular sector, and he has to answer truthfully; he can activate Sonar, which will force the enemy Captain to provide him with two pieces of information about his submarine’s position (either row, column, or sector), though one of them is false; and the Scenario varies according to the map being played.

Lastly, the Engineer is in charge of keeping track of the breakdowns which occur as the Captain orders the submarine in different directions. His sheet consists of the submarine’s systems indicated by various symbols—‘Mine + Torpedo’, ‘Drone + Sonar’, and ‘Silence + Scenario’, plus ‘Radiation’—divided across four boxes corresponding to the cardinal directions in which the submarine can travel. When the Captain declares a move, the Engineer must mark off one of the symbols in the corresponding box. If any ‘Mine + Torpedo’, ‘Drone + Sonar’, or ‘Silence + Scenario’ is crossed out, then none of the corresponding systems work. If all of the symbols in a box are crossed out, the submarine suffers a point of damage, and likewise, if all of the ‘Radiation’ symbols are crossed out, the submarine suffers a point of damage. It is part of the Engineer’s role to communicate this damage back to the First Mate and Captain, since it limits the direction in which the submarine can move and what systems can be used.

Fortunately, a submarine can be repaired. When all of the symbols in a box or the ‘Radiation’ symbols are crossed out, repairs can be carried out, the damage is erased and the submarine can use all of the systems and movement directions again. The submarine still suffers a point of damage in either case. Alternatively, the Captain can command that the submarine will surface. This erases all damage, but to do that, the Captain, the Chief Mate, the Radio Operator, and the Engineer has to take in turn to draw around one of the four sections of the submarine marked on the Engineer’s role sheet, making sure to remain in the white border. Once done, the enemy Engineer must verify it has been done correctly, and if so, the damage is erased, the submarine can dive, and begin hunting for the enemy and start a new track. If not, everyone has to do it again until it is…

In the meantime, what is the enemy submarine doing? Since Captain Sonar is played in real time, the enemy submarine is steaming towards the very sector where your submarine is on the surface effecting repairs. So no hurry then… Or rather try not to panic, because that enemy submarine could be really, really close and have a mine or torpedo ready! This is when Captain Sonar gets really tense.

Play continues like this until one submarine has suffered four damage—whether from Mines, Torpedoes, or that inflicted on its various systems, and is destroyed. In which case, the other submarine and its crew (and thus the players) are the winners.

Captain Sonar can be played in two mode—turn-by-turn or real time. Both are fun, and turn-by-turn can be used as means of teaching the game if necessary, but the game comes alive when played in real time. For that, you need a minimum of five players, but really—really—Captain Sonar comes alive with the full crew complement of eight players. Not only that, it comes alive and you can really imagine yourself in a submarine, having turned the light down low and have some submarine noises playing in the background, not knowing where the enemy is, but hunting them, and knowing they are in exactly the same situation.

This though, is only the standard game, played on the basic map. Captain Sonar includes five maps of increasing complexity. Most open up the space between the islands, because having more islands restricts movement and makes it easier to track the enemy submarine, but the more advanced maps have the submarine hunt play out under the ice pack with only limited holes through which either submarine can surface, effectively restricting where a submarine can conduct repairs or lace the map with a network of mines ready to detonate.

Physically, Captain Sonar is comprised of relatively few components. All though are of good quality. The screens are sturdy, the maps and role sheets easy to use, and the rules are easy to read and come with plenty of examples to help understand the game. If there is a downside to Captain Sonar, it is that whilst both enjoyable and playable with fewer players, it really delivers its best playing experience at eight, the maximum number of players. For which of course a sizeable playing area is required.

Captain Sonar is on one level, a party game—especially given the number of players it is designed for, but that hides the sophistication of play behind its simple concept and rules. This does not mean that you could not take this game and introduce it at that level and then pull everyone into its taut little game play and the nervousness of the situations it sets up. It could also be described as a game of team Battleships and on one level it is, but it is much, much more than that. First, it is a clever development of that base idea, of hunting for enemy vessels (or vessel), but having them constantly moving and then turning it into an experience that can be shared. Second, it is a game of co-operation and in particular of communication, as the players need to listen to each other and work together in order to use their submarine effectively and find and destroy their enemy. Third, it is an amazing means of playing out and telling an incredibly tense story, just like the submarine films. Captain Sonar is a great game and a great playing experience, and short of joining the navy together, this is the closest you and your friends are going to go on a submarine hunt.

I am over on the Elf Lair Games blog today to talk about how you can use my OSR books The Witch and Eldritch Witchery to expand on your NIGHT SHIFT games. 

With this, you can add new spells, new Arcane Powers, and Traditions like The Aquarian Order, The Cult of the Magna Matter, The Hermetic Lodges, and the Masters of the Invisible College. 

https://elflairgames.blogspot.com/2022/03/guest-blog-using-witch-and-eldritch.html