The Christmas Annual is a traditional thing—and all manner of things can receive a Christmas Annual. Those of our childhoods would have been tie-ins to the comic books we read, such as the Dandy or the Beano, or the television series that we enjoyed, for example, Doctor Who. Typically, here in the United Kingdom, they take the form of slim hardback books, full of extra stories and comic strips and puzzles and games, but annuals are found elsewhere too. In the USA, ongoing comic book series, like Batman or The X-Men, receive their own annuals, though these are simply longer stories or collections of stories rather than the combination of extra stories and comic strips and puzzles and games. In gaming, TSR, Inc.’s Dragon magazine received its own equivalent, the Dragon Annual, beginning in 1996, which would go from being a thick magazine to being a hardcover book of its own with the advent of Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. For the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024—as with the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022, and the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2023—the format is very much a British one. This means puzzles and games, and all themed with the fantasy and mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons, along with content designed to get you into the world’s premier roleplaying game.

Despite what it says in the introduction, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 is not quite a book for everyone. This is because its content is really geared to towards players new to roleplaying and Dungeons & Dragons, with lots of advice on how to get started and what choices to make, and overviews of many different aspects of the roleplaying game, its settings, and history. This is not the only content in the book though and there is some of it that will be of interest to more experienced players, especially the community creators content. As usual the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 is replete with excellent artwork drawn from the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons, a handful of puzzles, and spotlights thrown on some of the baddest villains in Dungeons & Dragons.

Published by Harper Collins Publishers, Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 opens with a ‘Quick Start Guide’, a flow chart that takes the reader step-by-step how to get into the hobby and start playing. This begins with finding your people and deciding who will be the Dungeon Master before moving on through character creation, session zero, and all the way to the first session and afterwards. It is simple and it is clear, and it begins a guide that runs through the pages of this annual. It continues with ‘A History of D&D’, a fairly broad timeline that brings the roleplaying game up to today, when its future remains unknown as we await the arrival of a new edition later this year. ‘Finding a Game’ under ‘Roll for Inspiration’ suggests options for finding other players, such as playing by post, playing at a games store, or playing online, again giving each option a thumbnail description, a starting point rather than full advice. ‘Roll for Inspiration’ also suggests ‘Playing in Alternative Settings’, including Science Fiction, Steampunk, Noir, and more. Some of these suggestions point to actual Dungeons & Dragons books such as Curse of Strahd for a Gothic setting. Other entries under ‘Roll for Inspiration’ give a guide to combat, creating your own campaign settings, and more.

The guide to playing and getting ready to play, really begins with ‘Character Creation’, which breaks down the character sheet for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and details the very basics of the process, whilst the ‘Classified’ feature examines the various Classes in the roleplaying game, explaining what they do, their skills, why they are so good, and so on. Thus ‘Casters’ does this for Arcane spellcasters, ‘Tanks’ for fighting types, and ‘Utility’ does it for the Bard, the Rogue, the Ranger, and the Cleric. The descriptions are basic, but their aim is to sell what playing a member of each Class is like and in that it succeeds.

The ‘Heroes & Villains’ section begins big with ‘Vecna and Kas’, the first look at some the signature figures in Dungeons & Dragons. The descriptions are short, but to the point, and richly illustrated, but each comes with his or her own story, a fact file, pertinent points, and so on. In the case of ‘Vecna and Kas’, this includes both the Eye of Vecna and the Hand of Vecna, and his cult. What is really great about the description of Vecna is that it includes a sidebar about the ‘Head of Vecna’, a non-magical item that would lend itself to a great gaming story and gaming legend. It is a great story, but it is not necessarily a familiar one. So, what it shows about Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 is that its author knows or understands the world of Dungeons & Dragons—or at least, has done his homework. Of course, ‘Vecna and Kas’ is also looking forward to the now recently released Vecna – Eve of Ruin. ‘Tasha’ does the same for the Witch Queen, famed for her spells like Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, as does ‘The Raven Queen’ for the divine interloper from the Shadowfell.

‘Mapping the Multiverse’ explores some of the major locations and settings for Dungeons & Dragons. The first location is ‘Candlekeep’ in the Forgotten Realms, presented in rich colour and nicely annotated. It does seem an odd place to start, just a single location, as none of the other entries copy this. Thus, ‘Eberon’ includes a full map of the continent, again nicely marked up, whilst ‘The Sword Coast’ returns to the Forgotten Realms in similar fashion. The world of ‘Krynn’ is treated in similar fashion. ‘Anthologies’ looks back at the last decade of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition by highlighting some of the scenario collections that Wizards of the Coast has published, such as Keys from the Golden Vault or Tales from the Yawning Portal, whilst ‘Shadow of the Dragon Queen’ in ‘Campaign Spotlight’ looks at the return of Dungeons & Dragons to the world of Krynn and Dragonlance. The other entry in the ‘Campaign Spotlight’ sort of brings the numerous settings together with ‘Spelljammer: Adventures in Space’ which takes Dungeons & Dragons into deep space, and potentially to anyone of the settings presented in Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024.

The ‘Bestiary’ feature looks at numerous types of monsters in Dungeons & Dragons. Every entry tells the reader how dangerous the monster is, where it is found, what to watch out for, and their battle plan. The monsters covered include the undead, Illithids—Mind Flayers and the like, giants, and what it terms ‘The Classics’. These consist of the signature creatures of the Dungeons & Dragons game, the Gelatinous Cube, the Mimic, and the like.

The biggest features in the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 are ‘Meet the Creators’. These profile and interview players and creators who have taken their hobby and brought into the public sphere with a podcast. They include Shamini Bundell of RPGeeks, a podcast which combines Dungeons & Dragons with science and Science Fiction; Daniel Kwan from The Asians Represent Podcast is interviewed about Asian creators, representation, and what an Asian perspective brings to Dungeons & Dragons games that he runs; and Connie Chang, of the all-transgender, Person-of-Colour-led podcast, Transplanar, talks about running a campaign about love, yet set in a dark, apocalyptic world. All three of these podcasts have lasted more than the one season and the interviewees have a chance to reflect on how they started, the Player Characters, games played, and their opinions on Dungeons & Dragons. At four pages each, these interviews are the longest features in the annual—and easily its highlight, providing a different and far from unwelcome aspect on playing and creating for Dungeons & Dragons.

Elsewhere, ‘Beyond the Tabletop’ does what it says and look at the hobby away from the table. So ‘Conventions’ gives a very quick guide to the hobby’s big events like Pax and Gen Con, and though it is nice to see Dragonmeet, a convention in the UK, it seems curious not to include UK Games Expo, and ‘More Than a Game’ looks at aspects of the hobby in a similar fashion—cosplay, listening to actual play, miniatures, and more. Perhaps one of the most entertaining entries is ‘D&D in a Castle’, which looks at the event which takes places three times a year at Lumley Castle, a fourteenth century, hosting a long weekend of playing Dungeons & Dragons. It looks a lot of fun and perhaps the apogee of the progress made by the reader of Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 from his reading the first few pages, starting with ‘Quick Start Guide’. ‘Level Up Your Table’ suggests ways to enhance play, such as including ‘The Deck of Many Things’, though it does come with a warning about the derailing effect of its cards. It also ties into The Deck of Many Things release from Wizards of the Coast.

Like all British annuals, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 has puzzles. In previous editions, such puzzles—or ‘Activities’ as they are titled here—have been the simplest of retheming of perennial standbys, such as having to move the minimum number of matchsticks around to solve a puzzle or a maze or… To be blunt, they did not look much different to the puzzles found in other annuals for other intellectual properties. The puzzles in the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 are better and more strongly themed. They begin with ‘What Type of Player Are You?’, a classic quiz which determines what type of person you are, or this case what sort of roleplayer you are. It is a bit broad in its definitions, but that is the nature of such quizzes. There is also a maze, which is not easy, the wordsearch is done as a ‘Hex Crawl’ in which spell names have been hidden, the Sudoku-style puzzle substitutes symbols rather than numbers and comes in two levels, ‘Cryptograms’ provides a Dungeons & Dragons code-breaking task, and there is an ‘Intelligence Check’, a quiz about the roleplaying game’s lore, much of which is previously detailed in the book. In comparison to previous editions of the Dungeons & Dragons Annual, there are fewer puzzles and not only are they of higher quality, but they are also better themed. In the past the puzzles have always felt like a waste of space, but that is not the case here.

Physically, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 is solidly presented. There is plenty of full colour artwork drawn from Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, and the writing is clear and kept short, so is an easy read for its intended audience.

In past years, entries in the Dungeons & Dragons Annual series have proven to be decent enough introductions to Dungeons & Dragons, but did not always feel as if they were not written by authors who knew the world of Dungeons & Dragons very well. Fortunately, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 feels different. There is a strong focus on the worlds and worlds of Dungeons & Dragons, its settings and its villains, but coupled with a decent guide to getting started and taking the first steps. The interviews with the podcast creators really standout as showing how the hobby embraces and has the space for such a diverse range of creators, which means that players of different backgrounds can see themselves reflected in the hobby. Of course, for the veteran there is less in the pages of the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 that will be new and unless they are a collector of all things Dungeons & Dragons, this is not a book that they need on their bookshelves. As something to receive at Christmas (or not) in your Christmas stocking (or not), the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 is the best yet to be published by Harper Collins Publishers. It is informative and it is engaging, providing more and more useful details about the world of Dungeons & Dragons before the reader takes his first steps into actual play. It will be very difficult for the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2025 to improve on the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024.

 Ever since the Great OGL Debacle of 2022-2023, I have been looking for something to replace D&D on my table and in my development space. I have not always been successful on either front, but I have found many great contenders, including Castles & Crusades, Pathfinder 2nd Edition, and Wasted Lands. I have another one I wish to add to that list. Blue Rose 2nd Edition.

I love Blue Rose. I love the game, the idea, the setting, the mechanics, everything. 

I spent a lot of time reviewing this game when it was released.

• Review, Part 1
• Review, Part 2
• Review, Part 3 
• Fantasy AGE

The game is an absolute joy, and I hope to continue it for a long time.

Unlike the three games I mentioned above, Blue Rose 2nd Edition's AGE system is not d20-based. It does have some d20 DNA via Blue Rose 1st Edition's True20 system. It is fairly trivial to convert D&D material over to Pathfinder, Castles & Crusades, and Wasted Lands. Blue Rose takes a little more work. However, the scaling is very similar with all of these games.

The Characters

For this, I will do conversions of my main witch character, Larina, and two of my Forgotten Realms characters. Why these three? I want to play around with how adepts work. Plus, these are the three characters (well, them and Johan) that are most on my mind right now. Sinéad and Nida are part of my 2nd Ed AD&D Forgotten Realms game, so exploring who they are in this Blue Rose/AGE set-up is useful for both Blue Rose and the Forgotten Realms. And Larina, well, she is never far from my mind. 

Plus, it is the Summer Solstice, one of the pagan celebration days, so witches seem appropriate. 

Also, lately, I have been comparing and contrasting Larina and Sinéad. If Larina is my go-to witch, Sinéad is becoming my go-to sorceress or wild magic wielder. Though I am noticing I am playing Sinéad a bit like Larina so I need to find ways to make her (Sinéad) her own character. 

I have already explored a lot of characters for this game. Especially a lot of adepts and how they can feel different from each other. 

• Duchess and Candella
• Seren
• Nyctasia r'n Edonaris brenn Rhostshyl and Corson brenn Torisk
• Helyg and Brynn
• Bethan Hâf
• Xena and Gabrielle

I have spent quite a bit of time with this over the years and I really love the characters you can make and play with this game.

Sinéad
Female Human/Vata'an Adept, Level 5

Accuracy: 5 (Primary) Focus: Bows
Communication: 3 Focuses: Persuasion, Performance, Deception
Constitution: 3 Focus: Swimming
Dexterity: 3 Focus: Artisan
Fighting: 2 
Intelligence: (Primary) 3 Focus: Arcane Lore
Perception: 3 (Primary) 
Strength: 2
Willpower: 2 (Primary)

Speed: 13
Defense: 13
Armor: 3
Penalty: 0

Health: 56
Conviction: 5

Powers, Talents, and Specializations

Starting Talents: Lore (N), Performance (N)

Arcane Talents: Healing (J), Wild Arcane (J)
Skillful Channeling
Arcane Training: Shaping (N)

Specialization: Bard (N)

Arcana

Wild: Fire Shaping, Sense Minds, Visions
Shaping: Psychic Shield, Move Object, Second Sight
Healing: Cure, Sleep

Arms and Armor

Dagger, Melee (Accuracy) 1d6+1
Dagger, Ranged (Accuracy) 1d6 6/12 Minor

Leather (Light Armor)

Persona

Calling: The Moon: Discovery and Learning Secrets
Destiny: Queen of Rods, Curious
Fate: Jaded
Corruption: 0 

Goals: To discover the secrets and source of her magic

Relationships

Taryn (3), "She is my adopted sister. We will do anything for each other."
Larina (2), "She is Taryn's mother. I am not sure what their deal is, but I will respect her."
Nida (2), "I have never had a friend like her, and so unlike everyone I have met before."

--

Nida
Female Human Expert, Level 5

Accuracy: 2 (Primary) Focus: Arcane
Communication: 4 (Primary) Focuses: Deception, Disguise
Constitution: 3 Focus: Swimming
Dexterity: 3 (Primary) 
Fighting: 2 
Intelligence: 4 Focused: Arcane Lore, Shaping
Perception: 4 (Primary) Focus: Empathy
Strength: 1
Willpower: 2 (Primary) Focus: Courage

Speed: 13
Defense: 13
Armor: 3
Penalty: 0

Health: 58
Conviction: 5

Powers, Talents, and Specializations

Starting Talents: Light Armor Training, Pinpoint Attack

Arcane Potential (N), Thievery (N)
Specialization: Shaper (Fire), (N)

Arcana

Fire Shaping

Arms and Armor

Dagger, Melee (Accuracy) 1d6+1
Dagger, Ranged (Accuracy) 1d6 6/12 Minor

Leather (Light Armor)

Persona

Calling: The Sun: Championing the Everyday
Destiny: Eight of Chalices, Daring
Fate: Stubborn
Corruption: 0 

Goals: To find her true path

Relationships

Sinéad (3), "Sinéad is a naive kid with her head in the clouds. And I love her for that. She reminds me of what I was."
Larina (2), "She honestly kind of scares me, but I know she has the answers I seek."

--

Larina Nix
Female Human Adept, Level 20

Accuracy: 2 (Primary) Focus: Arcane
Communication: 5 Focuses: Persuasion, Performance +2, Investigation
Constitution: 3 Focuses: Swimming, Stamina
Dexterity: 3 Focused: Artisan +2, Calligraphy +2
Fighting: 2 
Intelligence: (Primary) 5 Focuses: Arcane Lore +2, Research, Sorcerery Lore, Historical Lore, Healing
Perception: 3 (Primary) Focuses: Empathy, Visionary
Strength: 1 Focus: Intimidation
Willpower: 5 (Primary) Focus: Faith

Speed: 11
Defense: 11
Armor: 5
Penalty: 0

Health: 114
Conviction: 11

Powers, Talents, and Specializations

Arcane Talents: Arcane Training (M), Healing (M), Witchcraft (M), Psychic (M)

Linguistics (M), Performance (N), Contacts (J)

Specialization: Seer (M), Shaper (Fire) (M)

Stunts: Skillful Channeling (1), Disrupt Arcana (4), Lasting Aracan
Epic Stunt: Effortless Arcana

Add Willpower to Damage, Familiarity mod -2

Arcana

Fire Shaping
Enhancement, Heart Reading, Light Shaping, Ward, Second Sight
Cure, Sleep, Draw Vitality, Flesh Shaping, Body Control, Psychic Shield
Psychic Weapon, Psychic Contact, Calm, Illusion, Mind Shaping, Mind Reading
Visions, Scrying, Object Reading, Nature Reading

Arms and Armor

Dagger, Melee (Accuracy) 1d6+1
Dagger, Ranged (Accuracy) 1d6 6/12 Minor

Persona

Calling: The Priestess: Oneness with Spirit
Destiny: Queen of Rods, Curious
Fate: Jaded
Corruption: 1

Goals: To become a powerful witch

Relationships

Taryn (3), "My daughter. We lost so much time together in my service to Baba Yaga."
Sinéad (2), "Taryn's adopted 'sister.' I have watched this one from afar and subtly guided her on her path."
Nida (3), "It's...complicated."

--

Ok. Three different approaches to magic (arcana) in Blue Rose. The Wild Talent (Sinéad), the dabbler (Nida), and the Witch Queen (Larina).

Frankly, I am pleased with all three. Larina is scary powerful, and that is what I was aiming for. She has some corruption. I was also going to do Larina's daughter and Sinéad's best friend, Taryn, but I want to work some details on her first. 

I like that this world and this system allow me to bring out different aspects of these characters. 

In some ways I like to think of these as "parallel universe" versions. What these characters could be if the world they lived in was less horrible and had more light.  BUT...I don't even play Blue Rose as all "sunshine and kittens." The bright spots in this world are bright because there is still a lot of darkness out there.  I mean, even (especially) Larina has some corruption because she dabbles in Sorcery, or at least "Forbidden Knowledge." 

These characters compare very, very well to their Wasted Lands counterparts (Larina, Nida, Sinéad). They are not 100% the same, nor should they be, but I can see each (D&D, Blue Rose, Wasted Lands) are an aspect of the other. Given this I really should do Johan for Blue Rose. He would fit in rather nicely, really. 

Dr. Seward keeps us apprised of his patient.

18 June.—He has turned his mind now to spiders, and has got several very big fellows in a box. He keeps feeding them with his flies, and the number of the latter is becoming sensibly diminished, although he has used half his food in attracting more flies from outside to his room.

Notes

Moon Phase: Waning Crescent

"He," of course, means Renfield. We, and Seward, will discover there is a method to his madness. 

 It's Tuesday, and that means mail around here. It also means UPS, which delivers late in my neighborhood. It is also the release date of Wizards of the Coast's new 50th anniversary book.

The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons, 1970-1977 is a really great book. I can't wait to get into it more.

Original Character sheet.

I also spent some cash on a bunch of AD&D 2nd Edition Forgotten Realms adventures and sourcebooks.

I'll get to each one in turn. Looking forward to using these in my AD&D 2nd Ed game. This will be a lot of fun.

 Johnathan keeps himself busy for two to three weeks watching Dracula's minions.

17 June.—This morning, as I was sitting on the edge of my bed cudgelling my brains, I heard without a cracking of whips and pounding and scraping of horses’ feet up the rocky path beyond the courtyard. With joy I hurried to the window, and saw drive into the yard two great leiter-wagons, each drawn by eight sturdy horses, and at the head of each pair a Slovak, with his wide hat, great nail-studded belt, dirty sheepskin, and high boots. They had also their long staves in hand. I ran to the door, intending to descend and try and join them through the main hall, as I thought that way might be opened for them. Again a shock: my door was fastened on the outside.

Then I ran to the window and cried to them. They looked up at me stupidly and pointed, but just then the “hetman” of the Szgany came out, and seeing them pointing to my window, said something, at which they laughed. Henceforth no effort of mine, no piteous cry or agonised entreaty, would make them even look at me. They resolutely turned away. The leiter-wagons contained great, square boxes, with handles of thick rope; these were evidently empty by the ease with which the Slovaks handled them, and by their resonance as they were roughly moved. When they were all unloaded and packed in a great heap in one corner of the yard, the Slovaks were given some money by the Szgany, and spitting on it for luck, lazily went each to his horse’s head. Shortly afterwards, I heard the cracking of their whips die away in the distance.

Notes

Moon Phase: Last Quarter

What has Jonathan been doing for the last two-three weeks? Has Dracula been feeding him still?

We also get our first glance at the boxes the count will fill with earth for his trip to London. Are the square boxes shaped this way to avoid detection? I think so; coffins are a bit too obvious. 

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

—oOo—

What is it?Skull Ruins: Tusk Riders Need Blood! is a scenario for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha which details an escort mission in which the Player Characters are tasked with guiding a Tusk Rider ‘ally’—or intelligence asset—of Queen Leika, along with his unruly boar tusker deep into unfriendly territory along the new border between Sartar and the Lunar Empire, where a blood sacrifice can be made.

It is a possible sequel to the scenario, ‘Defending Apple Lane’, from the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack.

It is also a guide to the Boarsbeard Clan, a clan whose members have either been kidnapped by Tusk Riders and instead of being sacrificed, were offered to the Dark Spirit of the Bloody Tusk cult, or whose ancestors were. Many of them are not simply Pig-Hsunchen, but Tusk Brother Wereboars! Plus, the Cult of Sawtooth, dedicated to a legendary renegade guardian of the Stinking Forest, whose members consist of a weird mix of Aldryami, Trolls, and Tusk Riders, many of whom serve as scouts.

It is a full colour, seventy-six page, 59.91 PDF.

The layout is tidy and it is very nicely illsutrated illustrated.
It needs a slight edit.
Where is it set?Skull Ruins: Tusk Riders Need Blood! begins in Clearwine, but will take the Player Characters north to cross The Creek and from there make their way to Skull Ruin in the Bone Hills near the boundary of the territory between Alda-Chur and Herongreen.
Who do you play?
Skull Ruins: Tusk Riders Need Blood! does not require any specific character type, but Player Characters who are capable warriors and a skilled negotiator are recommended, as is an Earth priestess.
What do you need?
Skull Ruins: Tusk Riders Need Blood! requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack, and the RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary.
What do you get?Skull Ruins: Tusk Riders Need Blood! sets up an interesting moral quandary for the Player Characters. They are chosen by Queen Leika Blackspear of Colymar to escort a very strange ‘intelligence asset’ deep into the territories between liberated Northern Sartar and pro-Imperial Alda-Chur, newly disputed as a result of the Dragonrise. This ‘intelligence asset’ is Penjurlhi, a Tusk Rider, an ‘Aramite’ held captive by the Queen. (One option here is for Penjurlhi to have been captured by the Player Characters as a result of playing through ‘Defending Apple Lane’ from the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack.) Penjurlhi has knowledge of the secret routes that the Tusk Riders use to conduct their raids which he is willing to share with the Queen. Unfortunately, Penjurlhi is losing the connection he has with his Tusker and the giant boar is growing increasingly erratic and dangerous. The connection can be reforged, but this requires a sacrificial rite—including a blood sacrifice—at a secret location known as Skull Ruin. This is a series of caves in a snake-like hill and it is in possession of an infamous bandit called Gornorix.
The Player Characters have a chance to discuss the mission with the queen and her advisors before they leave as well as Penjurlhi. They must then travel their way north, arrange means of crossing The Creek, and from there make their way to Skull Ruin. Along the way, an encounter with a Troll warband reveals that the Player Characters are not the only ones interested in Skull Ruin, as Gornorix is holding one of their number captive. It is this Troll captive who will be the unwilling victim sacrificed as part of the ritual to reforge the connection between Penjurlhi and his Tusker.
The quandary for the Player Characters depends upon their views on blood sacrifice. Many cults practice it, but not necessarily with a sentient being. So do the Player Characters follow through with Queen Leika’s orders and let the Troll captive be sacrificed? Do they instead side with the Troll warband and antagonise first Gornorix and then Queen Laika? Or do they find another way of resolving the situation? Numerous options and their possible outcomes are discussed in some detail, helped by the clearly presented motivations of the various NPCs. Full stats are provided for all of the inhabitants of Skull Ruin and the Troll Warband, along with a guide to running the assault/defence of the Skull Mountain, depending upon whom the Player Characters side with. There is also a full list of random things to be found in the caves if the Player Characters have the opportunity and more importantly time—searching some locations can take hours!—to comb through every location. That said, there is a lot of treasure held at Skull Mountain and the adventure includes some nicely done magical items, such as the Plinth Stone Club, made from a piece of a shattered Dragonewt plinth stone, that either drains or transfers Magic Points or drains Rune Points!
The scenario is rounded off with a set of scenario hooks that the Game Master can develop as sequels. In addition, the scenario details the Boarsbeard Clan, whose members are tolerated by both Heortlings and Tusk Riders and are often used as intermediaries between both. The strange Cult of Sawtooth, based in the Stinking Forest, is also fully detailed. Both Boarsbeard Clan and the Cult of Sawtooth should provide a ready source of interesting, often powerful NPCs. The very full Cult of Sawtooth write-up is accompanied with some advice on how to use it and some adventure ideas as well.
Is it worth your time?Yes—Skull Ruins: Tusk Riders Need Blood! is an excellent scenario which requires careful roleplaying and negotiation upon the part of the Player Characters, whilst still having plenty of scope for combat and action, as well as a moral dilemma at its heart. (The extra background is a bonus.)No—Skull Ruins: Tusk Riders Need Blood! is a challenging scenario morally and the Player Characters may not want to have to deal with blood sacrifice. Plus the Game Master may not be running a campaign in Sartar.Maybe—Skull Ruins: Tusk Riders Need Blood! is a challenging scenario morally and one reason it may not be easy to set up because the Player Characters did not capture a Tusk Rider in ‘Defending Apple Lane’ from RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack, and instead killed them all!

I have a bunch of projects I need to get done this week including my edits to Thirteen Parsecs. So post will be a touch sporadic.

I do have a bunch of draft posts that just need a bit of editing and polish, so maybe I'll get a few of those off as well.

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

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

—oOo—
Name: Flash Cthulhu – Fruit from the DustPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Michael Reid

Setting: Oklahoma, 1936Product: One-Location, One-Hour Scenario
What You Get: Eight page, 1.61 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “Cherry trees will blossom every year; But I'll disappear for good, One of these days.” – Philip WhalenPlot Hook: Is the tree growing in the Dustbowl a miracle?Plot Support: Staging advice, three NPCs, and four pre-generated Investigators.Production Values: Decent
Pros# Short, sharp confrontation# Fructopobia# Dendrophobia# Kerasiphobia
Cons# Needs a slight edit# Feels like the culmination of a fuller investigation# Violence the likely outcome
Conclusion# Short, sharp bloody hour of horror over hope# Not effective as other Flash Cthulhu titles because the Investigators start from outside the situation rather than from within and are less emotionally invested

The fortunes of the Empire have always ebbed and flowed with rebellion and repression and restoration. An Imperial Governor deciding to throw off the shackles of Imperial control and declaring independence, only for his rebellion to be crushed and he be replaced by a political opponent. Always on the Periphery of the Empire and always following this pattern until a cascade of rebellions began The Session Wars. The Imperials had industrial and economic might manifested in superior training and technology, the Periphery had numbers and zeal. The August Throne also had time and it picked and pecked at the alliances between the rebellious new states, defeating each in turn until years later, the last free Kingdom of the West, Orinost, stood alone, the engineering geniuses at the Engineering school at the University of Alsdolan, the so-called Circle of Iron, used their advances in technology, especially Cog Science, to withstand the Imperial assault. This, combined with the efforts of the Clever Folk of the Far West and the Grand Masters and Legends of the Dust Road, to harry and undermine the efforts of the Imperial forces, enabled Orinost to hold out for three more years and so create its own legend along those of many of its great defenders. Ultimately, the two sides would clash at the battle of Ash Ford which would see men and women capable of shattering mountainsides with their bare hands battle each other, thousands killed, and Orinost defeated, yet the Emperor, in his wisdom, came to terms. The rebels were allowed to enter exile on the condition that they never took up arms against the Emperor again. So they fled West as far as they could from the Empire back East. They took the Dust Road over the border beyond the Periphery and the Last Horizon, and so into the Far West.

Yet the Far West is not quite as wild and barbarous as Imperial propaganda might say it is. The trains of the Chartered Houses, each led by a great Steam Baron, run far to fortified towns within territory, bringing goods and people to the new land; the people value their honour and courteous to a fault lest they insult one another; and the Marshals, empowered by the Chartered Houses to bring Imperial Law and ‘justice’, are known for the masks they wear which keep their faces hidden as much as for hunting down and executing the bandits which infest the region, though their reputation for ruthlessness has made them equally as feared. Then there is ‘The Dust Road’, a path rather than a road, walked by the Clever Folk, those whose knowledge and skill, whether in the arts, engineering, or sciences, and especially in the martial arts of kung-fu, transcend that of ordinary men. They can manipulate ink to blind their opponents, stand upon one spot unmoving no matter how much force is brought upon them for they will shatter first, make any object as sharp as a sword or as strong as steel to withstand a blow from a sword, target the humours of an opponent and so upset his equilibrium, shoot opposing bullets out of the air, and so on. Heroes or villains, they upset the natural order of things and so are not to be trusted, as thirty years since the battle of Ash Ford, the Empire eyes the lands beyond the Periphery with greed, the Chartered Houses plot to expand their economic grasp, and bandit armies strike fear into settlements large and small in the Far West.

This is the set-up for Far West: Western Wuxia Mash Up Adventure Game. Published by Adamant Entertainment, it is undeniably one of the most notorious roleplaying games of the modern age. Not because it is bad or its subject matter is contentious or its designer has expressed himself or done anything that could be regarded as inappropriate. No, it is notorious because it is late—and not just late, very late. In fact, to fair, very, very late. A decade late. In the past this would not have been an issue, but Far West was among the first roleplaying games to be funded via Kickstarter and to raise what was then a lot of money in doing so. In other words, its supporters put their money into the project and did not receive the much-promised book—until now, that is. Funded via Kickstarter on August 25th, 2011, it has taken almost thirteen years to bring the book to fruition. In that time, the designer, Gareth-Michael Skarka, has suffered illness and difficulties, least of which is the damage to his reputation, the roleplaying game has undergone a drastic redesign, and there have been numerous delays. Finally, with the assistance of Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Far West has seen print. To say all of this is not to attack the designer, but rather to give context and an understanding of the history of Far West. Yet the author barely addresses the issue in the book and certainly does not go so far as to apologise or offer a mea culpa for those delays, though his introduction to Far West would certainly have been the place to put that on record.

If anyone has had the patience to wait the thirteen years for the book, then they certainly owe Pinnacle Entertainment a debt of gratitude for helping the designer get Far West into the hands of the remaining Kickstarter backers and to T.S. Luikart, for working with the designer to complete the roleplaying game. Then with the book now out, the designer can at least put the project behind him, and those who waited for it, discover whether that wait has been worth the final product.

As the title suggests, Far West: Western Wuxia Mash Up Adventure Game combines two genres. One is the Old West of the post-Civil War United States, the other the Jianghu, the world of martial artists and the Wuxia genre of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Warring States period of Chinese history. More specifically for the first genre, it draws upon the Spaghetti Western rather than the Wild West, with stories set along the border between Mexico and the United States of America. This brings what is called a Castalan—in other words, a Hispanic—aspect to the setting. The combination of the Spaghetti Western and Wuxia genres also means that the traditional displaced native peoples typically found in the latter do not appear in Far West. In some ways Far West feels tonally very much like the television series Firefly, although without the Science Fiction elements. However, with the addition of Cog Science, Far West is also a Steampunk roleplaying game.

A Hero or Player Character, one of the Clever Folk, in Far West is defined by his Rank, Attributes, Background, Occupation, Skills, Spirit and Aspects, Edges and Flaws, and Allegiance. Rank, from Novice to Legend determines how many dice a player has to assign to Attributes and Skills, the number of Kung Fu Forms he knows and how much Spirit he can have. The seven Attributes are Reflexes, Strength, Wits, Toughness, Presence, Knack, and Kung Fu. Of these, Knack is a measure of aptitude with tools and technology, whilst Kung Fu represents how good he is in the special forms of martial arts. Background, such as ‘Back East—The Empire’ or ‘The Rolling Steppes’, and Occupations like ‘Artist’, ‘Gambler’, ‘Hired Gun’, ‘Lotus Girl/Willing Lad’, and ‘Wrangler’ all provide bonuses to skills.
Aspects are descriptive elements of a character. They can include relationships, beliefs, descriptions, catchphrases, distinctive possessions, tied to Advantages and Disadvantages. In play, a player can spend Spirit to Tag an Aspect, bring it into play and gain two bonus Wild Dice to a roll, whereas the Narrator can compel an Aspect, bring it into play, forcing the Player Character to act against his best interests or simply earn a penalty to roll. In return, the Player Character is rewarded with Spirit. It is possible for one Player Character to Tag another and so gain the Wild Dice bonus. One advantage of tagging an Aspect is if the roll is successful. If so, the Spirit spent to Tag the Aspect is refunded, but if the roll is a failure, the Spirit is lost. A player can refuse an attempt to Compel an Aspect, but this will cost Spirit to do so. Aspects can also be built into scenes to be Tagged or Compelled. An Aspect can also be Tagged after a roll, but this does not gain the two extra Wild Dice, instead allowing a reroll.

Spirit is a Hero’s inner power or life force. It is based on the value of his Attributes and Kung Fu dice. Divided into Permanent Spirit and Temporary Spirit. Permanent Spirit is reduced to learn Kung Fu styles, whilst Temporary Spirit is used to add dice to rolls, Tag Aspects, and so on. A Hero has an Aspect each from his Background, Occupation, highest and lowest Attributes, and Rank. The Background and Occupation Aspects must be selected from virtues of the Dust Road. These are altruism, justice, individualism, loyalty, courage, truthfulness, disregard for wealth, and desire for glory, and one must be negative and one positive. Edges, such as ‘Blinding Speed’, ‘Deadly Aim’, and ‘Fortune Of The Celestial Monkey’, are purchased by spending Skill dice, whilst a Hero can add to his Skill dice by choosing Flaws like ‘Addlepated’, ‘Debt’, and ‘Thick As A Stump’.

Kung Fu is different in that its four skills are determined by the Kung Fu Attribute. The four Skills are External Kung Fu, which focuses on physical power and agility with direct, explosive attacks; Gateways Kung Fu is about the flow of Spirit along meridians within the human body to the points where they intersect at gateways or pressure points, which can be disrupted to cause paralysis or even death; Internal Kung Fu is about the flow of Spirit within the practitioner’s own body to harden the flesh against attacks, expel Spirit as attacks, and master balance and leverage; and Lightness Kung Fu is about the manipulation of the practitioner’s own body weight to be able to walk along walls, leap over roofs, and move swiftly and lightly.

Allegiance can be to an organisation, a belief system, nation, or a philosophy, and in play, mechanically, it can be Tagged or Compelled like any other Aspect. The default Allegiance is to a Clan, but a Hero can also be a Drifter in which case he suffers interaction penalties when dealing with any Clan. Some Clans are secret like the ‘lotus girls’ and ‘willing boys’ of the Foxglove Society, a clan of assassins, or secretive, such as the ‘Brotherhood of Steel and Song’, the solitary Mariachi. Others are more obvious, such as the Iron Dragons, which work the rails back and forth across the Far West, whilst the Jade Family are nomadic con artists, beggars, thieves, entertainers, and fortune-tellers who take ‘Jade’ as their surname to indicate membership. Every Clan is described in some detail, including its background, philosophy, fighting styles used, organisation, symbol, and benefits.

The actual process of creating a Hero is a matter of assigning dice to both Attributes and Skills, and making choices. It is not a difficult process, but it is a daunting one because of the array of choices possible and the lack of advice when it comes to those choices. There are templates at the back of the book, but they are bare bones and there is no complete example of the Hero creation process—there are lots of little examples—and then the player has the problem of tying his Hero into the setting. This is compounded by the sheer number of Kung Fu styles to choose from—there are over eighty! The question is, which Kung Fu style goes with what concept or background? Which Kung Fu styles can be used with melee weapons or firearms? Perhaps it would have been helpful if some archetypes had been given, complete with Aspects, Kung Fu styles, and origins to tie them to the roleplaying game’s setting, both to illustrate and sell the setting?

Name: Mathias Pouke
Rank: Initiate
Background: Back East—The Empire
Occupation: Artist (Journalist)
Allegiance: The Wandering Stars
Spirit: 16 Permanent, 9 Temporary
Aspects: Individualism (Not From Around These Parts), Desire For Glory (Something to Prove), Fingers & Thumbs, A Way With Words, The Cat’s With Me
Edges & Flaws: Animal Ally (Cat, her name is Fence), Famous (Chronicler of the Far West), Debt
Kung Fu Styles: Brushless Sight Stroke, Fluttering Fist, Quivering Palm)
Reflexes 4D (Dodge 1D)
Strength 2D (Running 1D)
Wits 4D+2 (Artist 2D+2, Bureaucracy 1D, Gambling 1D, Investigation 2D, Scholar 1D+1, Streetwise 1D)
Toughness 3D
Presence 4D+2 (Animal Handling 1D+1, Bargain 1D+1, Charm 1D+1, Persuasion 1D)
Knack 2D (Lockpicking 1D)
Kung Fu 4D (External 1D, Gateway 1D, Internal 2D)

In terms of rules, Far West: Western Wuxia Mash Up Adventure Game is also a combination of two mechanics. The core rules are the D6Plus system, which uses pools of six-sided dice and which is a development of the mechanics first seen in Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, published by West End Games in 1987. The other is the storytelling or narrative Tagging and Compelling of Aspects as seen in FATE. The D6Plus system measures everything in terms of how many six-sided dice it has, primarily attributes and skills. It can have a bonus of +1 or +2, but never +3 or more. If an attribute or skill has a bonus increased to +3, it is instead increased by a whole extra die. A player will be typically rolling a number of dice equal to the rating of the attribute or skill, adding the results of all the dice, aiming to beat a Difficulty Number. An Easy Difficulty Number is roughly five or more, Easy ten, Moderate fifteen, Difficult twenty, and so on. Bonuses and penalties can apply from the situation, equipment used, or other factors.

When the dice are rolled, one die must be of a different colour. This is the Wild Die. If the result on the Wild Die is a one, it indicates a Critical Failure, whilst a roll of six on the Wild Die is a Critical Success and the player can roll the Wild Die again and keep adding as long as the Wild Die result is a six. If a Critical Success is rolled and a roll of one occurs, it does not mean that a Critical Failure has been rolled. A Critical Failure either negates the result of the highest die rolled or a complication occurs, the severity of which is determined by the Narrator, the suggestion being to make it lean into comic relief rather than necessarily being deadly. There are some suggestions for complications for the Narrator to use, such as “One of the characters kills a bandit. Unfortunately, the bandit was preparing to throw a stick of dynamite. The characters have only a few seconds to act before the dynamite explodes...” and it is suggested that the Narrator also write possible Complications into scenes and encounters in her scenarios. Additional Wild Dice can be added to a dice pool by spending Spirit.

An optional rule allows for ‘Joss’ or extra luck in a dice roll, but after the roll has been made. This counts doubles in the roll. If the doubles are low, the Hero suffers ‘Bad Joss’ and the situation does not turn out in his favour, whilst if they are high, the Hero has ‘Good Joss’ and the situation does turn out in favour. Where the ‘Joss’ rule is interesting is that it is possible to fail a roll and still have ‘Good Joss’ or a roll to succeed and suffer ‘Bad Joss’. This is the equivalent narratively of ‘Yes, but’ and ‘No, but…’.

If a roll is a success, the amount by which the roll succeeded is called ‘Result Points’. These are used to add bonuses to future rolls, like damage and defensive rolls, sets the length of time for an effect or the complexity of later tasks. In some cases, the whole value of the Result Points is not used. For example, it is halved as a bonus for the Hero’s next roll and divided by five for the damage bonus.

For all the simplicity of the D6Plus system, combat in Far West is comparatively complex. Ranged combat is straightforward enough, a simple skill roll versus range, but close combat is not. Skills rolls are made against the difficulty of wielding the weapon used, brawling attacks are always very easy, whilst each Kung Fu style has its own Difficulty value. However, all of these Difficulty values can be replaced if a defendant decides to use the Dodge skill to avoid the blow, the Melee or Brawling skill to parry, or a Kung Fu style with a defensive element. This turns combats into a series of opposed rolls. Modifiers adjust the number dice to be rolled due to range, cover, protection, the type of manoeuvre, and hit location. There are also penalties for multiple actions, these being very likely if a defendant wants to avoid or stop an attack. Add into this the some eighty of so Kung Fu styles and that is a lot to take into consideration. Obviously, not all eighty Kung Fu styles are going to be used in single combat, but with four Heroes, which is twelve that the Narrator needs to be aware of before she even considers those for the NPCs.

Duels—which work for both the Western and the Wuxia side of Far West—are actually neatly done with ‘The Showdown’ rules. This is divided into two phases. In the ‘Stare-Down’ phase, in which the participants make opposed Intimidation (or Prescence) rolls. The ‘Stare-Down’ can last multiple rounds during which the participants attempt to roll higher than the other. The loser always chooses when the ‘Stare-Down’ ends and the winner then uses the Result Points from his total rolls to modify his initiative roll in the ‘Quickdraw’ phase. This gives the winner an advantage as otherwise he would have to use dice from his weapon skill to modify his initiative.

Damage comes the weapon used, plus the Strength Attribute if a melee weapon, and Kung Fu style if appropriate. This is opposed by the defending combatant’s Toughness, with Result Points determining the effect of the damage done. A stunned combatant suffers a die penalty to all actions, a wounded one is knocked to the floor, and if the Result Points are sufficient, the defender can be killed. Damage options include substituting severe injuries instead of outright killing someone and there are descriptions given for narrative damage. Combat is surprisingly deadly, and a player may want to spend Spirit Points to temporarily increase his Hero’s Toughness or he can reduce damage on a one-for-one basis.

The setting itself is supported with a solid section of arms, equipment, goods, and services, and it is here that the Cog Science is covered. Each device has a Scale ranging from Character to Huge, plus the various dice bonuses it provides, bonuses and limitations, skill required for its use, and so on. This can include adding Aspects to the Cog device. The Cog Science skill is required to build any device and a player works with the Narrator to determine what it does and what its total value is. The value indicates how many days the device will take to complete, whilst the Narrator works out how much it will cost based on the cost of other devices given in the book. To compare, a Pocket Tracker has a value of twenty-three versus the fifty-one of a Repeating Rifle. Numerous example devices are given, but the few pages here—just eight—barely scratches the surface of this aspect of Far West. The guidelines are serviceable, but not spectacular. Arguably, Cog Science could have done with a chapter all of its very own.

A fifth of the book is dedicated to the setting of Far West, its history, geography, culture, common means of travel and communication, and more. This includes how the peace is kept, how business is done, what entertainments and medicines are available, what faiths are followed, festivals celebrated, and so on. There is quite a lot here and it also includes a Far West lexicon. It is, however, all quite broad in its detail, as there is a lot to cover. The Narrator is given a chapter of her own which really introduces the two genres of the roleplaying game properly and gives some pointers as to the elements of both. The advice highlights the parallels between the Wuxia and the Spaghetti Western genres and it is these parallels which bring the two genres together. There is decent advice on what types of adventures can be run in the setting as well as campaign ideas, and some suggestions on legendary weapons and Kung Fu manuals—the latter being one of the primary ways in which to learn more Kung Fu styles, the creation of other Clans, and a random adventure generator as well as some hooks throughout the Narrator section. Add in the random settlement generator and the Narrator is given the tools to create the bare bones of her own scenarios. That said, a starting adventure would not have gone amiss.

Overall, the rules for Far West are at best serviceable, rather than exciting. The D6Plus system is generic and leaves the Tagging and Compelling of Aspects to do a lot of work in terms of bringing the setting to life mechanically. In fact, the combination of a nearly forty-year-old game system with a more modern one—and even that is a decade old—feels creaky. It does not help that Critical Successes are undeveloped, doing no more than allowing extra dice rolls, in comparison to the attention paid to Critical Failures. The Hero creation process is hindered by a lack of a fuller example and archetypes which could have showcased what was possible in terms of character types. Similarly, whilst there are lots of little examples of the rules and combat, there is no one big example of play or combat which would have showcased everything in action, which in the case of the latter would have helped the Narrator understand the complexities of the combat system.

Physically, Far West is, in general, well presented, being vibrant and exciting in terms of much of its art. Yet the editing could have been tighter and the artwork is not without its problems. Notably, one of the pieces that illustrates Cog Science is directly inspired by Lego Technic. Then there is the issue of representation, of which Far West is a victim of its own Kickstarter campaign. One of the pledges, ‘Grand Master of the Dust Road’, enabled backers to submit a photograph which would be turned into a portrait in the setting and book. Consequently, the resulting artwork reflects the backers and reflects the gaming hobby as it was in 2011, so there are a lot of Caucasian faces and there are a lot of stocky, bespectacled male faces* within the book. This does not mean that Persons of Colour, whether Black or Chinese, or as well as women, are not represented in the artwork. They are. However, whether they are represented enough is another matter. What is clear is that a lot of the better artwork—and there is a marked divide in quality—does depict male Caucasian faces. Again, this is not intentional, but rather the consequences of the Kickstarter campaign.
* To be fair, I am one of them.

Ultimately, it is great to have Far West: Western Wuxia Mash Up Adventure Game in the backers’ hands. They have waited a long time. Has the wait been worth it? With regard to what they may have pledged for on the Kickstarter campaign, probably not, since the book itself does not feel very special. Mechanically, arguably not, since Far West underwhelms and simply does not do enough in terms of its rules to bring the setting and game to life, and against that, there are a lot of little aspects of the game, primarily the many styles of Kung Fu, which complicate play and make it just a bit more fiddly. In terms of look, debatable, but then to be fair, there are mitigating circumstances. In terms of setting, arguably, yes. The concept of a Western/Wuxia mash-up is still an intriguing, even enthralling combination, a great vehicle for action and storytelling even thirteen years on. That is perhaps where Far West: Western Wuxia Mash Up Adventure Game shines, in its core concepts and parallel genres rather than its execution. Overall, Far West: Western Wuxia Mash Up Adventure Game is not a disaster ten years in the making and it is playable with some effort upon the part of both the Narrator and her players, but it does show its age in very many ways.

The Religious Crimes Task Force is a shitshow, a dead end for any federal agent with ambitions or hopes of a better career. Established by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to investigate and prosecute fraud and abuse in tax-exempt religious institutions, in effect it does no such thing. Instead, it alerts religious organisations that they are running foul of the law and might be in danger of having charges brought against them by the Federal authorities. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the head of the taskforce would not have it any other way as it prevents the government’s ‘persecution’ of white Evangelical Christians. For its investigators, it means rolling into small towns across the USA, investigating some small church and its congregation, and discovering that yet one more fringe, possibly cult-like organisation is effectively harmless. The Religious Crimes Task Force is effectively a smokescreen, but it is a smokescreen that Delta Green can take advantage of. It can flag up reports that suggest a religious organisation might be breaking the tax laws, but which to its analysts’ eyes might be connected to an Unnatural threat, and then have Federal agents wholly unconnected to the Delta Green program investigate, and if they uncover anything worthy of Delta Green’s attention, then it can send in its own experienced agents to deal with the issue. If the investigating agents survive the experience and are judicious in their reporting of it, then they may be suitable for recruitment. It is thus a smokescreen not once, but twice.

This is the set-up for Meridian, a scenario published by Arc Dream Publishing for Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game. This is the modern roleplaying game of conspiratorial and Lovecraftian investigative horror with its conspiratorial agencies within the United States government investigating, confronting, and covering up the Unnatural. It is ideally used as an introductory investigation with perhaps two or three Player Characters. To that end it includes three pre-generated Player Characters—two Agents and an optional character. The Two Agents consist of an FBI agent and an IRS investigator, whilst the optional character is a local social worker, who can either be a Player Character or an NPC. All three are possible recruits to Delta Green, the social worker as a Delta Green friendly. This set-up is not dissimilar to Control Group, the anthology of scenarios designed to create a pool of diverse Delta Green agents with varied origins and introductions to the Unnatural who can then go on to conduct investigations in secret for the conspiratorial organisation. So, Meridian can be used as an addition to that supplement or as a means to explain the addition of new agents to a campaign. To that end, the Unnatural element to the scenario is surprisingly low key.
The scenario is nominally set in the summer of 2018 as the Agents roll into Joplin, Missouri where the Kansas-Missouri-Oklahoma borders meet. They have been assigned to investigate Holy Light Ministries, which files taxes as both a church and shelter for troubled youth, but does not own any property, has just the one officer, the church leader, Daniel Boone Keeler, and uses a mailing address that is actually that of Keeler’s mother. Keeler himself has a criminal record of petty offences going back years, but that halted in 2011. The question is, is Keeler just some small-time preacher and hustler on the make or is there actual legitimacy to his church. The answer to that is yes, there is actual legitimacy to his church, but this being a scenario for Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game, not in any way that you would think was anything other than Unnatural.
Just as the three states of Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma seem to overlap, so do the jurisdictions that the Agents have to work. So not just Federal law enforcement, but also local and possibly state, and then Missouri Department of Social Services, because not only does Keeler have a long record with both, but his Holy Light Ministries seems to be primarily concerned with ‘troubled’ youths—teenagers and young adults. A malaise lingers over Joplin, a miasma of economic deprivation, hopelessness, improvidence, and drug addiction which the Agents must navigate in the course of their investigation, but as they make progress, they discover that Holy Light Ministries does offer something. Possibly hope, possibly respite, and a sense of joy in god that transcends earthly, pharmaceutical addiction. Not necessarily though a Christian joy in god, since Keeler does not proselytise in the traditional fashion. Even the run down and dilapidated church he operates out of is more a refuge than a place of worship. As the Agents conduct interview after interview, what also comes up is the mention of the ‘Ghostlight’, a local legend which dates back to the 1940s, red-orange ball of light that appears in the skies at night over the woods on the Oklahoma-Missouri border. Is this what Delta Green wanted investigating? Is the ‘light’ of Holy Light Ministries one and the same as the ‘light’ of ‘Ghostlight’?
The underplayed nature of the investigation in Meridian also means that there is a passivity which runs throughout the scenario. In part, this includes the authorities, but it definitely includes Keeler and the Holy Light Ministries as well as the nature of the Unnatural in Meridian. Unlike in other scenarios for Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game, the Unnatural in Meridian is not an active force, but rather one that welcomes you to it and embraces you in hope. This makes it no less dangerous and frightening.
Physically, Meridian is well done. The artwork is excellent, though unfortunately the maps, done on aerial photographs with swathes of green forest are difficult to read.
Meridian is an easy scenario to run, though more so as an introduction to the conspiratorial world of Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game rather than as a campaign addition. It is run through with a meek malleability and horrific hopelessness, both in the Agents’ current assignment and the teenagers of Joplin, that will ultimately lead the Agents coming to realise that any sense of hope is hideously tied to the Unnatural.

How do you like your GM Screen?

The GM Screen is a essentially a reference sheet, comprised of several card sheets that fold out and can be stood up to serve another purpose, that is, to hide the GM's notes and dice rolls. On the inside, the side facing the GM are listed all of the tables that the GM might want or need at a glance without the need to have to leaf quickly through the core rulebook. On the outside, facing the players, can be found either more tables for their benefit or representative artwork for the game itself. This is both the basic function and the basic format of the screen, neither of which has changed all that much over the years. Beyond the basic format, much has changed though.

To begin with the general format has split, between portrait and landscape formats. The result of the landscape format is a lower screen, and if not a sturdier screen, than at least one that is less prone to being knocked over. Another change has been in the weight of card used to construct the screen. Exile Studios pioneered a new sturdier and durable screen when its printers took two covers from the Hollow Earth Expedition core rule book and literally turned them into the game’s screen. This marked a change from the earlier and flimsier screens that had been done in too light a cardstock, and several publishers have followed suit.

Once you have decided upon your screen format, the next question is what you have put with it. Do you include a poster or poster map, such as Chaosium, Inc.’s last screen for Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition or Margaret Weis Productions’ Serenity and BattleStar Galactica Roleplaying Games? Or a reference work like that included with Chessex Games’ Sholari Reference Pack for SkyRealms of Jorune or the GM Resource Book for Pelgrane Press’ Trail of Cthulhu? Perhaps scenarios such as ‘Blackwater Creek’ and ‘Missed Dues’ from the Call of Cthulhu Keeper Screen for use with Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition? Or even better, a book of background and scenarios as well as the screen, maps, and forms, like that of the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack also published by Chaosium, Inc. In the past, the heavier and sturdier the screen, the more likely it is that the screen will be sold unaccompanied, such as those published by Cubicle Seven Entertainment for the Starblazer Adventures: The Rock & Roll Space Opera Adventure Game and Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space RPG. That though is no longer the case and stronger and sturdier GM Screens are the norm today.

So how do I like my GM Screen?

I like my Screen to come with something. Not a poster or poster map, but a scenario, which is one reason why I like ‘Descent into Darkness’ from the Game Master’s Screen and Adventure for Legends of the Five Rings Fourth Edition and ‘A Bann Too Many’, the scenario that comes in the Dragon Age Game Master's Kit for Green Ronin Publishing’s Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying Set 1: For Characters Level 1 to 5. I also like my screen to come with some reference material, something that adds to the game. Which is why I am fond of both the Sholari Reference Pack for SkyRealms of Jorune as well as the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack. It is also why I like the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Gamemaster’s Screen + Toolkit published by by Modiphius Entertainment for use with Achtung! Cthulhu, the roleplaying game of fast-paced pulp action and Mythos magic in a secret war against the Nazis in World War 2.
Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Gamemaster’s Screen + Toolkit—heralded as ‘Issue No. 3’ in a series on the cover—comes with a four-panel screen and a Gamemaster’s Toolkit booklet that contains tools and advice on running a campaign that enables the Game Master to prepare a scenario or create elements as play proceeds. The Gamemaster’s Screen itself is a handsome four panel affair, sturdy as is standard for the hobby today, but in portrait format rather than landscape. This is not as easy a format to use, plus it does have a much imposing presence at the table. One part of the front replicates the cover to the  Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Gamemaster’s Guide, but expands left and right to depict the signature characters from Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 escaping from a German schloss as Lovecraftian nasties attempt to impede their progress! It is an exciting, action-packed illustration.

On the inside, working from left to right, tables summarise task Difficulty, Enemy Level, Attribute Bonuses, Complication Range, and Weapon Range. This is followed by narrative-related tables for the Conventional German Forces, Nazi Occult Forces, Ahhorrent Creatures and Monstrosities, Mythos Gods, and Elite Nemeses in the middle. On the right-hand side the tables for both Weapon Effects and Weapon Qualities are listed, followed by Conflict Momentum Spends and Item Restrictions. It is all clearly laid out and easy to read and use. However, none of the tables have page references to either the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Gamemaster’s Guide or the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Player’s Guide, which have made things just a little easier for the Game Master. Then there is the issue of the narrative-related tables for the Conventional German Forces, Nazi Occult Forces, Ahhorrent Creatures and Monstrosities, Mythos Gods, and Elite Nemeses in the middle. Was this the best use of the one-and-a-half panels that these tables take up? Well, no and more so because these tables are reprinted from the Gamemaster’s Toolkit. So no tables for the ‘Challenge Dice Result’, weapons tables, ‘ Spell Complication Range’, ‘Bonus Power’, and ‘Magical Momentum Spends’ from the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Player’s Guide or the ‘Secret Weapons of the Secret War’ and ‘Guide to Hazard Stress & Threat Costs’ tables from the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Gamemaster’s Guide. Although there is probably not the space for all of these tables on the screen, the inclusion of some of them would have been more use than the ones actually included.
On the inside, working from left to right, tables sumarise task Difficulty, Enemy Level, Attribute Bonuses, Complication Range, and Weapon Range. This is followed by narrative-related tables for the Conventional German Forces, Nazi Occult Forces, Ahhorrent Creatures and Monstrosities, Mythos Gods, and Elite Nemeses in the middle. On the right-hand side the tables for both Weapon Effects and Weapon Qualities are listed, followed by Conflict Momentum Spends and Item Restrictions. It is all clearly laid out and easy to read and use. However, none of the tables have page references to either the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Gamemaster’s Guide or the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Player’s Guide, which have made things just a little easier for the Game Master. Then there is the issue of the narrative-related tables for the Conventional German Forces, Nazi Occult Forces, Ahhorrent Creatures and Monstrosities, Mythos Gods, and Elite Nemeses in the middle. Was this the best use of the one-and-a-half panels that these tables take up? Well, no and morse so because these tables are reprinted from the Gamemaster’s Toolkit. So no tables for the ‘Challenge Dice Result’, weapons tables, ‘ Spell Complication Range’, ‘Bonus Power’, and ‘Magical Momentum Spends’ from the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Player’s Guide or the ‘Secret Weapons of the Secret War’ and ‘Guide to Hazard Stress & Threat Costs’ tables from the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Gamemaster’s Guide. Any one of these tables could have been more useful than the ones included.
The Gamemaster’s Toolkit builds on the advice given in the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Gamemaster’s Guide, focusing on the creation of scenarios and campaigns. This begins with possible inspirations, suggestions being as diverse as Band of Brothers and ’Allo! ’Allo!, before looking at possible titles for the Game Master’s scenario and giving prompts aplenty in terms of background, battles, starting parameters and overarching plot concepts, and then options in terms of antagonists and other NPCs. So the rolls begin with a ‘Story Frame’ and an ‘Overarching Plot Concept’. So the Plot Hook and the Draw might be ‘A passing acquaintance’ who ‘Sends a threat’ and the Plot Concept is to ‘Recover or destroy a long lost tome’ to ‘Save the world’. To this, the Game Master can add requirements to fulfil the plot and location, detail NPCs, before setting up the opening scene and developing the plot with further scenes. The ‘Classified’ section goes goals and aims to draw the Player Characters in and then the tables for villains and heroes, and more. There are tables too for Spells and Manuscripts, Rituals, Book and Tomes, and Artefacts. All of this is drawn from the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Gamemaster’s Guide, which the Game Master will need to refer to in order flesh with further details. The tables throughout are accompanied by advice on how to use them, all of decent, if basic advice.
Physically, the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Gamemaster’s Screen + Toolkit is well presented. The screen itself is sturdy and easy to use, whilst the Gamemaster’s Toolkit is clean and tidy and easy to read. If there is an issue, it is that the Game Master will need a bag in which to store its various parts and not lose them!
The Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Gamemaster’s Screen + Toolkit is useful, but it simply is not as useful as it could be. The advice and the tables in the Gamemaster’s Toolkit are undeniably useful, but what makes the supplement as a whole less useful is the inclusion of the tables from the Gamemaster’s Toolkit book on the screen. They can be used in play to add narrative, but there are mechanical and rules tables which could have been included and the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Gamemaster’s Screen + Toolkit would have been far more useful.

One of the richest silver mines in the known world stands dormant, its workers having downed tools and gone on strike. The miners refuse to work because they say that the mine turned on them after they dug a shaft too deep, killing several of their number, and trapping others. The owner of the mine has ordered the guards to force the miners back to work, and may even hire outside muscle—that is, the Player Characters—to assist. This, though, is only one of the reasons why the Player Characters might want to visit one of the richest silver mines in the known world. Others might be that they simply want to take advantage of the standoff to mine some silver for themselves, a child needs rescuing from the mine, the local justice of the peace has posted a bounty on outlaws said to hiding in the mine, a rival to the mine owner wants the mine shut down, going into find the trapped miners, and so on. All of these can be combined, mixed, or matched to motivate the Player Characters into investigating the mine at the heart of Meanderings of the Mine Mind. This is an introductory scenario for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying published by Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Designed for low Level Player Characters, it is not as necessarily lethal as other titles from the publisher, but it is no less weird.

Meanderings of the Mine Mind is, like other releases for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying, set in the roleplaying game’s default period of the seventeenth century, the early modern era. This makes it easy to adapt Meanderings of the Mine Mind to other retroclones, but there are historical elements in the scenario—the appearance of Neanderthals, Romans, and Nazis—which are unlikely to fit every Game Master’s campaign world. Once past the standoff between the guards and the striking miners, the mine itself is actually quite small, just eight caves and tunnels. Each is decently described with the details of any NPCs and particular points within each area, either an item or particular location. Where there is a particular location in a cave or tunnel, they are not marked on the map, despite the organisation of cave and tunnel suggesting that they should be. This is not helpful, especially given that the scenario is designed to be an introduction to Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying. Plus, it means that the maps feel empty and bland.

In exploring the mine, the Player Characters will discover the missing miners often in strange situations and also a series of strange tableaus, one from the deep past, one from the more recent past, and one from the point of view of the Player Characters, the future. These consist of a band of Neanderthal hunters trapped by a cave bear, a surprisingly mundane Roman orgy, and a band of World War 2 German soldiers led by a member of the SS. What connects them are location of mine itself and its caves, and its true nature as well as the source of rich seams of silver that run through it. The shafts that have been dug into the bedrock of the mine and rich seams of silver that have been mined from that rock turn out to be tunnels bored into the fossilised remains of a great ancient spawn from the stars and the silver the highly conductive nerves that thread through the creature’s brain in its last dying moments. Moments that last aeons… As the miners smashed their picks into the sliver nerve-seams, their blows reverberated up and down their length, triggering synapses, and causing the alien star mind to pulsate and in its death throes bring memories past and future into their weird realities.

As an adventure, Meanderings of the Mine Mind is quite small, consisting of just eight locations, so whilst it is a very rich mine, it is also a small one. There is mention of a second level to the mine, but this left up to the Game Master to develop. One issue with there being a second level is how it is possible for the upper level to flood as the text suggests. It may well be better that there is a chance of the Player Characters being swept by the waters towards the lower level or simply the whole adventure being shifted to the lower level. One big feature of the adventure is the ‘What Happens When A Silver Vein Is Tapped?’ table, which provides numerous random and weird effects such as a Player Character becoming irrevocably attracted to another alien god after an erotic vision or losing a spell or e memory. Another feature is more traditional to Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying, and that is, ‘meddle at your peril’. The Player Characters are likely to blunder into situations, attempt to resolve them, and discover that their meddling has only made them worse… There is the chance that this will happen more than once and potentially shorten the scenario. Similarly, blundering about is not necessarily going to resolve the whole situation in the mine, though it is likely to be more entertaining.

Apart from the issue with the maps, where Meanderings of the Mine Mind has a problem is in addressing one of the motivations for exploring the mine—mining for silver. There is no suggested value for the amount of silver that the Player Characters could dig out and no suggested value for how much they might raise from selling it. This is compounded by the inclusion of a ‘diamond encrusted pickaxe’ which enables a miner to dig out ore without triggering the weird effects that would otherwise happen if using normal mining tools. It serves an obvious purpose in terms of the Player Characters’ exploration of the mine, that is, countering the effects of mining the silver with ordinary tools, but otherwise it sticks out in truly anomalous fashion.

Physically, Meanderings of the Mine Mind is cleanly and tidily laid out on notably silver, grey paper. Even the illustrations have an eerie metallic quality to them. That said, the book does need another edit.

Meanderings of the Mine Mind is an interesting twist upon the ‘giant body as dungeon’ adventure in which the Player Characters penetrate and explore the body of some gigantic beast or even a god. The twist being the brain being explored rather than the body and the brain still twitching and convulsing with sufficient life to make its memories a reality. Which all fits the tone and style of a Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying, but whilst there is some inventiveness to the adventure, in places Meanderings of the Mine Mind is underdeveloped and not as fully realised as it could have been. Which means that the Game Master will definitely want to make some adjustments before running it.

—oOo—
DISCLAIMER: The author of this review is an editor who has edited titles for Lamentations of the Flame Princess on a freelance basis. He was not involved in the production of this book and his connection to both publisher and thus the author has no bearing on the resulting review.

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

—oOo—
Senet—named for the Ancient Egyptian board game, Senet—is a print magazine about the craft, creativity, and community of board gaming. Bearing the tagline of “Board games are beautiful”, it is about the play and the experience of board games, it is about the creative thoughts and processes which go into each and every board game, and it is about board games as both artistry and art form. Published by Senet Magazine Limited, each issue promises previews of forthcoming, interesting titles, features which explore how and why we play, interviews with those involved in the process of creating a game, and reviews of the latest and most interesting releases.

Senet Issue 10 was published in the spring of 2023. Where the Senet Issue 9 diverged from the magazine’s usual coverage of board and card games to touch a little upon the roleplaying hobby—and by doing so, leave the reader wishing that the roleplaying hobby had a magazine as good as Senet, this issue is definite return to the fold. Nary a mention of the roleplaying hobby in sight! Instead it is all board games with the usual mix of previews, reviews, articles, interviews, and regular departments. For the most part, it is another clean, tidy, and easy to read issue.

Aside from the mention in the editorial that the magazine’s co-founder, James Hunter, was named Art Director of the Year at the British Society of Magazine Editor’s Awards, Senet Issue 10 quickly gets down to business with ‘Behold’. This is the regular preview of some of the then-forthcoming board game titles. The most intriguing entry here is Cosmoctopus, a tentacle-gathering game from Paper Fort Games about attempting to summon ‘The Great Inky One’ that seems slightly tongue-in-cheek in its treatment of the cultists controlled by the players. ‘Points’, the regular column of readers’ letters contains some feedback on previous issues as well as the growing interest in the hobby. There is scope here for expansion of this letters page to give space to more voices and readers of Senet. One way of doing that is perhaps to expand it when ‘For Love of the Game’ comes to end. This regular column continues the journey of the designer Tristian Hall towards the completion and publication of his Gloom of Kilforth. In this entry in the series, he looks at the next step in the process in bringing the game to market by showing it off at conventions and encountering some of the advantages and pitfalls. As a regular convention attendee, this is an interesting look at attending conventions from the other side.

Senet follows a standard format of articles and article types and Senet Issue 10 is no exception. One explores a theme found in board games, its history, and the games that showcase it to best effect, whilst another looks at a particular mechanic. In addition, there are two interviews, one with a designer, the other with an artist. In this issue, the thematic article is ‘Roll and Movie’, an exploration of the relationship between films and board games by Alexandra Sonechkina. In the 2020s, we are spoiled by the number of board games based on films that strongly adhere to their themes through their mechanics. It goes back to one of the earliest of major filmic board game adaptations, Escape from the Death Star from 1977, pointing out that games of the period were based on tried and tested mechanics, before coming up to date with the output of design teams like that of Prospero Hall with games like Jaws and Rear Window, which are highly thematic and whose mechanics model the film sources. It notes how some films are difficult to adapt, like Rear Window, due to the age and the lack of familiarity for a younger audience and themes of the source material, but also how such adaptations can appeal to a wider audience and even to board game players who have not seen the source material. Having explored how board games have drawn from films for their source material and themes, the article switches around to look at some board games that have inspired films, such as Clue and Battleships. The author also looks at the theme of film making in board games and the challenges of adapting the look of a film and its cast to a board game. Here Alexandra Sonechkina runs out of space, as effectively, this is really three articles in one—one on film adaptations, one on board games about filmmaking, and one about the physical adaptation. Ideally, Senet will revisit these subjects—and they are multiple subjects—in future articles. One last issue with ‘Roll and Movie’ is that the images used are presented in too small a fashion so that the detail and look of these games is lost.

Dan Thurot’s ‘Tricks and Treats’ looks at the mechanic of the trick-taking game and its history, grounded as it is in the origins of the ordinary deck of playing cards and the games played with it, associating the mechanic with gambling! An interesting history in hand, the article comes to the contemporary era to look at obvious trick-taking card games like the well-received Scout and then moves onto designs where the track-taking mechanic is less obvious and more readily themed. Examples like this include the Kennerspiel des Jahres-winning The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine in which the players work together to keep their spaceship functioning, whilst Brian Boru: High King of Ireland which almost hides its trick-taking mechanics, combining the mechanic with an action per card. It also looks at designs to come, Cat in the Box: Deluxe Edition which adds the element of guessing, which thematically, has the players wondering if their Schrödinger’s cats are alive or dead. It is a good overview of the mechanic and a more rounded piece when compared to the preceding ‘Roll and Movie’.

The first of the issue’s two interviews is with the designer of one the influential board games of the last two decades—Matt Leacock. In ‘Legacy Builder’, he looks back to the origins of Pandemic and how it became success, driving the popularity of the co-operative game and how it became a cultural touchstone during the COVID-19 pandemic, before coming up to date with his latest design, Daybreak, recently nominated for the 2024 Kennerspiel des Jahres. It is an informative and engaging interview and Daybreak sounds a fascinating design dealing as it does with climate change and the attempts to ameliorate its effects. The second interview is with Naïade, illustrator of Tokaido and Namiji. In ‘Eastern Promise’, he guides us through some of his artistic highlights, starting with Tokaido and including the weirdness of One Key—Gandalf facing a toast demon, anyone?—alongside other titles. The artwork is excellent and once again, Senet does a good job of showcasing it.

The film adaptation theme of ‘Roll and Movie’ continues in the ‘Unboxed’, Senet’s reviews section with a review of Star Wars Villainous: Power of the Dark Side, plus there is some nostalgia with a review of Return to The Dark Tower. It does feel as if there are fewer reviews in this issue, but alongside the issue’s ‘Senet’s Top Choice’ of Undaunted: Stalingrad, there are interesting titles reviewed such as Spire’s End: Hildegard, a storytelling game and prequel to Spire’s End with fantastic artwork that is card driven rather than paragraph driven. It is rounded out with ‘The Best of 2022’, the magazine’s top ten from the previous year, of which Return to The Dark Tower and Undaunted: Stalingrad make the list.

Bringing Senet Issue 10 to a close are the regular end columns, ‘How to Play’ and ‘Shelf of Shame’. For ‘How to Play’, Andrew Brassleay explains ‘How being diagnosed as autistic helped me embrace my love of board games’, putting behind him the supposed adult aim of outgrowing them, and enabling him to navigate social situations because the the rules to games are more obvious and adhered to all of the players. It nicely paints a picture of board games being a force for good and a social enabling tool. Lastly, Black Orchestra is the board game taken off their ‘Shelf of Shame’ by Rachel Kremer and Heinze Havinga of Semi Co-op, a webcomic about games. The couple make it clear from the start that the game, with its theme of conspirators attempting to kill Hitler is not their taste, as they prefer games that are relaxing, but their version has a bit history, having been previously owned and amended by an older, avid gamer. Despite the theme, neither player had ‘fun’, but they learn more about the plots to assassinate Hitler and what it took to do that, so the experience is more interesting they would otherwise have thought. It shows the value of trying new things even if they have been stuck on a shelf for a while.

Physically, Senet Issue 10 is very professionally presented. It looks and feels as good as previous issues of the magazine.

Senet Issue 10 does feel slightly lighter in terms of the number of games covered, the number of smaller games previewed or reviewed having been severely reduced. However, that does not mean that the issue does not offer a good mix of articles, interviews, and reviews—it does. The only real disappointment is ‘Roll and Movie’ and only then in the fact that it could have been much, much longer, a series of its own. After the aberration of the content devoted to roleplaying in the previous issue, Senet Issue 10 returns to the fold with a solid set of reviews, previews, and discussions of board games.

Witch by T Leish with minor edits

 I swear. People are losing their damn minds.

I mentioned this all briefly in my Satanic Panic post back in April about how there are a bunch of Right Wing Evangelicals making the claim that Taylor Swift is a witch, or satanic, or both. Some have even gone as far as to "conclude" she must be a clone of Zeena Schreck, daughter of Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey.  Ignoring the fact that cloning tech is nowhere near this good now, let alone when Taylor was born.  I think they watched the movie "The Boys from Brazil" and thought it was a documentary. No. I don't give them the benefit of the doubt for having read the book instead.

I mean, I could go on and on; there is so much stupid shit out there. Just Google "Taylor Swift Witch" and read in horror how gullible (and stupid) some people are. 

Honestly, it boils down to three things.

• She is a successful woman.
• She says what she wants, when, and how she wants.
• They can't control her, and they find that galling.

Plus, she is smart (as evidenced by her taking control of her own record deals) and knows how to have fun with her public persona (see "No, Its Becky").

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)

It's Me. I'm Witches.

So what do they do? They take a page from their favorite playbook, and I honestly think this is Page 1, and they try to demonize her—somewhat literally. 

Parents, know what your kids are listening to!! Here are a few samples of the lyrics from Taylor Swift's new...

Posted by Caring Love Foundation Uganda - CLFUG on Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Though some do have fun with it. 

so proud of taylor swift for finally admitting that she’s the devil pic.twitter.com/Tba4K0YgZ4

— regina george (@meanlore) May 27, 2023

And of course, if someone mentions witches online, it has my attention.

from Imgflip Meme Generator

It has been decided. 

She is a witch in my games, specifically a Pumpkin Spice Witch. But since no PSL is complete without a dash of cinnamon, she has a dash of Mara Witch in her, too. Why? Because she thinks it is funny. 

Sailor Taylor by Delaney ShultzTaylor Quick
Human Female, Chaotic Good
19th Level Witch, Pumpkin Spice Witch Tradition.

Strength 10
Intelligence 17
Wisdom 15
Dexterity 14
Constitution 12
Charisma 19

Saving Throws (Base)
Death Ray/Poison 7
Magic Wands 8
Paralysis, Polymorph 7
Dragon Breath 10
Rods, Staffs, Spells 9 

Hit Points: 34
AC: 1 (Bracers of Defence) 
Base THAC0: 14
(I know, THAC0 was not used in Basic D&D. You know what this means)

Occult Powers

1st level: Familiar, three cats
6th level: Things Man Was Not Meant To Know Are Fine for Women
13th level: Resting Witch Face
19th level: I Want to See Your Boss

Spells (new spells in italics)

1st Level: Allure, Bad Luck, Call Out, Delicate, Glamour, Greenery Light, Oh My God Becky!, Veritas (Truth Spell), BFFs (Ritual)

2nd Level: Bad Blood, Change Appearance, Light as a Feather Stiff as a Board, Invisible Strings, Sister to the Dark Ones, Witch Slap, You Can't Sit With Us

3rd Level: Bewitch III, Enchanted, Live Laugh Love, Love Attraction Candle, Lover’s Vengeance, Witch Fire, Shake it Off

4th Level: Dream Shield, Ethereal Projection, Intangible Cloak of Shadows, Rain of Spite, Starlight, Bring on the Night (Ritual) 

5th Level: Better than Revenge, Cardigan of Comfort, Overlook, Tripping the Light Fantastic (Ritual)

6th Level: Banshee Blast, Cloak of Dreams, True Seeing

7th Level: Breath of the Goddess, Peace Aura, Hell Hath No Fury (Ritual)

8th Level: Bewitch VIII, Frightful Aspect

New Spells

Like any witch worth her cauldron, Taylor has written many spells herself. She also altered versions of classic witch spells, which she refers to as "Taylor's Versions."

Bad Blood
Level: Witch 2
Duration: Permanent
Range: All targets within 60'

This spell is like a friendship spell, only in reverse. Once cast, humanoids and intelligent creatures (INT greater than 7) who had previously had good relations will begin to dislike each other and begin to fight amongst each other. 

A successful saving throw redirects these feelings of ill-will back to the witch who cast it. 

Better than Revenge
Level: Witch 5
Duration: Instantaneous 
Range: One target

This spell can only be targeted by someone who has personally hurt the witch. When triggered, usually by damage or some other hurt, the damage is returned back double. So, double damage or other effect.  How that damage or effect is delivered to the victim is up to the witch herself. 
There is no saving throw for this spell. 

Cardigan of Comfort
Level: Witch 3
Duration: One hour
Range: One willing creature

This spell weaves magic like the threads of a well-worn cardigan, granting a sense of security and comfort to the target. Choose a creature you touch. The target gains resistance to cold damage and fey charm effects for the duration. Additionally, if the target falls unconscious while the spell is active, they regain consciousness with 1d8 bonus hit point.

Material Components: Verbal (soothing whispers), Somatic (knitting needles and yarn that vanish at the end of the spell), Material (a small token imbued with a memory of comfort, worth at least 25 gp).

Delicate
Level: Witch 1
Duration: 10 min
Range: Within 15 feet

The witch casts a subtle charm that makes the target more receptive to her words. The witch is treated as having as having a +4 to her Charisma score. This spell can't be used in combat.

Enchanted
Level: Witch 3
Duration: 1 hour
Range: 60 feet

With this spell the witch sings a haunting melody that enchants creatures of her choice within range. Each affected creature must succeed on a saving throw or be charmed by her for the duration. While charmed, the creature regards you as a trusted friend to be heeded and protected.

The witch can use this spell again on the same creature. Once enchanted any future use of this spell is at a -2 penalty for saves.

Invisible Strings
Level: Witch 2
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Range: Self

The witch can create invisible magical strings they can manipulate with her will. These strings can lift and manipulate objects weighing up to 10 pounds within 30 feet of of the witch. She can use these strings to perform simple tasks or remotely interact with objects.

Shake it Off
Level: Witch 3
Duration: Instantaneous 
Range: All within hearing range

This spell, once uttered, will remove any one condition affecting those listening. This can include a Bewitch, Charm, Hold, Paralyze, Petrified, or Poisoned. Those hearing can also choose to regain half of their lost hit points instead of losing some condition. The only thing that is not affected is Sleep.

Starlight
Level: Witch 4
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Range: 120 feet

The witch calls down shimmering starlight in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on a point within range. Each creature in the area must make a saving throw, taking 4d8 holy or radiant damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. In addition, any area affected by this spell is brightly lit as per the daylight spell for the duration.

Material Components: A small crystal or gemstone.

--

Taylor is a lover, not a fighter. But still, don't piss her off. Or break-up with her. 

Selected Links of Insanity

• The Witchcraft of Taylor Swift Exposed (YouTube)
• Taylor Swift’s Dangerous Descent into Witchcraft Sorcery & Casting Spells
• Taylor Swift, Satan's Witch (Twitter/X) 
• Taylor Swift is a full blown witch… pure evil and demonic (Facebook)
• Why Taylor Swift practices Witchcraft? (Medium)
• Taylor Swift is 'attracting demonic forces' to her concerts, warns exorcist. (The Economic Times)
• Taylor Swift Promotes Witchcraft On Tour In ‘Willow’ Performance (Movieguide)
• Taylor Swift’s ‘witchy’ new album fuels speculation about her interest in the craft (Religion News)

Other, more important links

• Taylor Swift's site.

I love monsters. Monsters and mythology is what got me into Dungeons & Dragons to start with. Well, that and the fact that everyone in my school seemed to be playing it all at once. So, today's Enchanted World volume, 1985's Magical Beasts, is a rather nice treat for me. In a way, it was a major publisher that paid tribute to my hobby's roots.  While I have no concrete evidence that the Enchanted World series came about due to D&D's popularity, I am not ruling it out either. 

Magical Beasts

by Editors of Time-LIFE Books, 1985 (144 pages)
ISBN 0809452294, 0809452308 (US Editions)

This book is divided into the standard three sections, as with Wizards and Witches it is divided into larger chronological sections. 

Chapter One: Vestiges of the Elder Days

We begin back 40 centuries ago when humans were still primitive hunter-gatherers and how the monsters of our lives, the cave bear, the wolf, the large cat, were just animals that we were barely equal to. Monsters, it seems, go back as least as far as magic. This is not the first or last parallel this volume will have with the W&W book.

This chapter largely covers the creatures of ancient Greece and their mythology. We begin with the minotaur, though its conception is glossed over. The greek myths have quite a number of animal-human hybrids like the minotaur. Also discussed are the centaurs, both noble and savage, satyrs, and stranger creatures like the chimera. Thrown in are the maenads, who look human (are human), but can be as savage as any other monster. From Greece, we head to Egypt to discuss Set, Hours, Tawret, and other animal-hybrid gods. From here, we go on to Ireland and the Fomorians, described as animal-like, though they interact and inter-marry with the more noble Tuatha Dé Danann. The Tuatha defeat the Fomorians and their great ruler Balor of the Evil Eye. 

We make quick stops to talk about various dog headed humans, like the inhabitants of the islands of Andaman and Macumeran, whose locations are lost to time. 

In the sub-section, The Tale of the Monkey-God, we go to India and recount the tale of Hanuman, the Monkey King, and Ravana, the many-headed king of demons (Rakshasa). Humans and Monkeys joined forces to defeat the evil king.

Chapter Two: Riders of the Wind

Humankind has always looked to the sky and marveled at the flight of birds. So it is natural that there are so many flying creatures. From the legendary Pegasus, to China's Feng-huang, Japan's tengu, to the Roc, Griffins,  and the Harpies. This chapter hops (flys?) around the globe to give us tales and creatures from all over. Even the hubris of man is discussed in the tale of Daedalus and Icarus. 

An Enchanted Bestiary gives us a brief overview of some "lesser-known" creatures—lesser known if you weren't playing fantasy games in 1985, that is. 

Chapter Three: Paragon of Purity

Lastly, we get to the unicorn. Following the format of the other books in this series, they equate the death of the last unicorn with the death of magic in the world. But before we get to that the unicorn is discussed at great length. We even get coverage of related creatures like the Yale and the Japanese Ki-rin. And more distantly related creatures like the Mi'raj and Shadhavar.

A Peerless Mount for World-Conquering Alexander ends our talk on unicorns with a tale of the Macedonian King and his quest for a unicorn mount.

Reading this, I think they maybe could have made a book of Unicorns like they did for Dragons. 

This particular volume feels like an extended "Ecology Of..." article. Indeed, of all the ones I covered so far, this one might have the most actionable content for your Fantasy RPG. Especially if you want to add more details to some tried and true monsters.

There are only a few monsters here that will be new to anyone who has ever played D&D; this is still a great resource.  I *do* have more than a few of these new ones ready to go for Basic Bestiary, but I was still happy to see one or two that were still new to me.

 Getting back to my Realms reviews I am still in that strange liminal times of 1988-1989 when both AD&D 1st Edition and 2nd Edition were still being supported. I have two books today from the "FR" series that ride that line. 

Both books have very similar trade dress, if not identical. I am reviewing the PoD and PDFs from DriveThruRPG. 

FR6 Dreams of the Red Wizards (1e)

By Steve Perrin (1988)
64 pages. Full-color covers and maps, monochrome interior.

Even with my comparative lack of Realms knowledge I knew about the Red Wizards of Thay. I guess I didn't realize how quickly they had been introduced as the big bads. 

This book reminds me a lot of the old D&D BECMI Gazeteer series in that we we get some history and geography of the lands with some NPCs.

The book teases that it is compatible with the BATTLESYSTEM  rules, but you have to build all of those armies on your own. Too bad, I wanted to do a big battle with the armies of the undead from Thay. Though I still might do that.

The Introduction tells us what this book is about and who and what the Red Wizards of Thay are.

History of Thay. This section gives us a brief overview of Thay's foundation. There is a brief timeline, but it works well here. Some of this information is also found in the later Spellbound boxed set, but that is a way off yet. 

We cover the People and Society of Thay next. Perrin does give us a good explanation of how a whole country can, in fact, be evil, from the Zulkirs to the middle class to the masses of slaves. Honestly, the place sounds like a powder keg waiting to explode, and it is the will and fear of the Zulkirs that keeps everything in check.

Geography of Thay is next and it is good read, though I think it could have been combined with the History of Thay chapter since much of Thay's history has been shaped by its neighbors. This is also a good chapter for me, the newbie, to have a map handy.  I think I am going to need a big wall map of the Forgotten Realms like I do for Victorian London. 

We get get two chapters that cover the Current Economy and Politics of Thay, respectively. This includes a helpful glossary and a player's guide to Thay.

Magic in Thay, as expected, is one of the larger sections. It has what seems to be a Realms staple; lots of new spells. 

Religions in Thay, is actually an interesting chapter. The Red Wizards themselves seem to be areligious, but not atheists. They acknowledge the gods and do their best not to piss them off. I imagine there are big "media circuses" for when a Zulkir visits a local temple to Mystra for example. 

This has given me an idea. So, according to this book, the slaves of Thay mostly worship Ilmater, who we know from Ed Greenwood's "Down to Earth Divinity," that Ilmater is derived from Issek of the Jug. What if there were some events like "Lean Times in Lankhmar" where Ilmater, via a new follower, took on a role like that Fafhrd did for Issek, but instead of a religious conversion/resurgence, it became the basis for a full-scale slave revolt. Now that is a BATTLESYSTEM game I'd enjoy running. 

Personalities of Thay cover the expected cast of neer-do-wells. OF note here The Simbul does not have a personal name here, yet.

Adventures in Thay give the reader some ideas of things to do in and around Thay. But let us be honest. It is an evil filled with Nazi-like evil wizards who keep slaves. The ideas abound already. 

FR7 Hall of Heroes (1e/2e)

Many authors (1989)
128 pages. Full-color covers, monochrome interior.

This book looks like a 2nd Ed book on the cover, but 1st Ed inside. 

This is a "robust" rogues gallery of early Realms characters, and frankly, I am happy to have it since so many of these names are new to me. The stats are an odd mix of AD&D 2nd Ed and 1st Ed, but mostly 1st Edition. So yeah, there are Neutral Good Druids and lots of classes from Unearthed Arcana and Oriental Adventures. 

It also has something that is not entirely a Realms-specific problem, but one I associated most often with the Realms. There are lot of characters here that straight up break the AD&D rules. Yes I get that some (many) are here because of the Forgotten Realms novels. So people like Shandril Shessair is a "Spellfire Wielder," and Dragonbait is a Lizardfolk Paladin. This used to bother me. Not anymore. I am more irritated by the fact that most of the women NPCs all have Charisma 16 or 17 (11 out of 15). Where are my hags? 

There are some personal spells and again The Simbul makes an appearance sans proper name. 

Still, this is a good resource for me to have. I like to have it on hand as I am going through other books to double-check who I am reading about. 

The POD versions are nice. The text has a bit of fuzziness, but far less than other PODs I have seen. They are not perfect for, say, collectors but perfect for what I need them for, and that is used at my game table. 

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

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

—oOo—
Name: One for One – Bathory’s ChildrenPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author Sean Liddle

Setting: Eighties BerlinProduct: Scenario
What You Get: Four-page page, 291.07 KB PDFElevator Pitch: A battle of the bands isn’t a battle when you’re playing against a bastard Plot Hook: A band on the skids looks for way back and discovers this isn’t it
Plot Support: Staging advice and one Mythos monster.Production Values: Plain
Pros# Inexpensive# Short, easy to prepare scenario# Grungy heavy metal madness# Easy to adapt to other musical genres# Potential convention scenario# Rokkuphobia# Dendrophobia# Proditiophobia
Cons# Needs an edit# Whither part 4?# No cultist stats# No pre-generated Investigators
Conclusion# Heavy metal mayhem turns to madness# Cheap

It's June! As an academic there is still something not wholly tangible in me when June hits; it is just something I feel. Starting in the 1980s, June also meant days at the library, riding my bike, rolling skating (yes, I used to be really, really good), and nights playing D&D. For seven years straight that meant Basic and Advanced D&D.  So these days I try to focus on Basic D&D in June, but this year is different. 

I am celebrating 50 years of Dungeons & Dragons AND I am also doing my deep dive into the Forgotten Realmsthe Forgotten Realms. Plus in addition to the weekly 5e games, my oldest son and I are starting a new 2nd edition AD&D game set in the Forgotten Realms. This works very well for me since I am already shifting my Realms focus to AD&D 2nd Edition.  

To this end I have been buying a lot of Forgotten Realms PDFs from DriveThruRPG. This has also given me many new monsters from the AD&D 2nd ed era in "ready to print" Monstrous Compendium format. 

Forgotten Realms Monstrous Compendiums

I have talked about the AD&D 2nd Monstrous Compendiums at length before. I have even talked about the Forgotten Realms ones in detail.  So when I began printing out the various Monstrous Compendium sheets from the various PDFs I have bought it became very obvious to me I would need a binder just for them.

This was sealed for me when I remembered that the Forgotten Realms MC Appendix had been labeled "Vol. 3" on the cover. My choice had been made for me. Turns out is was a good choice, because there are TONS of Forgotten Realms Monsters.

I grabbed some alphabetical tabs and began loading this up. I concentrated on monsters from the MCs I already had that were Realm-Specific. Then, I went through the pages of monsters I rescued from my This Old Dragon copies, unless they were too far gone due to water or mold. In these cases, I printed them out from my Dragon Magazine CD-ROM. But my "rule" was I had to have had a physical copy first. There is some 1st Ed monster material here, but that is fine, really.

Then, every time I bought a Forgotten Realms PDF, I printed the monsters.

Campaign Setting boxed set

Dragon Mountain
Oh, look at that. Lawful Good orcs from 1995.

In the cases where I had loose Forgotten Realms pages, like from the AD&D 2nd Ed Campaign Setting boxed set, I made copies to keep the set intact. 

It has been a great experience to discover all the unique creatures I have found in the Realms versus Greyhawk or other worlds.

Currently, I do not have monsters for I, J, and Y. I could mine my other compendium for these, but I am also waiting to see what creatures I might find in other PDFs of Realms material. I still have a few I bought before I started this project, and they might have a few treasures for me. There are also more monsters in my Dragon magazines. Ones written by Ed Greenwood go to the top of the list. 

Right now my Forgotten Realms campaign has no focus. This is on purpose. I have so many campaigns with Big IdeasTM and Lofty GoalsTM. I don't need another one. Maybe I'll just do an old-fashioned monster hunt to mirror my real-life monster hunt.

This has, though, given me another realization. I had planned to get through all of my Realms books this year, but that was before I started buying more. Now, I think this year will just be about AD&D 2nd Edition. Who knows, really? 

BUT I will say this. I am having a lot of fun with this.

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

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

—oOo—
Name: Signal to Noise – A 1980s Analog Horror ScenarioPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author Colin Richards

Setting: Eighties PennsylvaniaProduct: Scenario
What You Get: Eighty-page page, 45.46 MB PDFElevator Pitch: Who watches the watchers?Plot Hook: A hijacked signal has consequences political, horrific, and televisual
Plot Support: Staging advice, seven pre-generated Investigators, thirteen handouts, four maps, thirteen NPCs, and five Mythos monsters.Production Values: Engagingly analogue and televisual
Pros# Television is reality. Reality is television.# Highly thematic one-shot which plays on the fears of television# Eighties sense of unreality# Includes QR code for the video handouts# Potential convention scenario# Technophobia# Mazeophobia# Televisiophobia
Cons# Needs a slight edit# Aethir Institute plot strand underdeveloped
Conclusion# Videodrome meets Ring in highly thematic eighties horror
# Possesses pleasingly developed televisual sense of unreality# Reviews from R’lyeh Recommends

It seems surprising to realise that The Walking Dead is over two decades old. The comic by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore first appeared in 2003 and the resulting television series from AMC first aired in 2010 and has been followed with numerous spin-off series since. Both revitalised the zombie horror subgenre and the television series in particular, made zombies and horror acceptable to mainstream broadcasting like never before. Both comic book and television series tell the story of Rick Grimes, a sheriff’s deputy from Cynthiana, Kentucky, who after being wounded in the line of duty, awakes to find his wife and family missing and the world very much changed. Society has collapsed, the dead walk and hunger after our flesh, a virus means that everyone will rise as a walker after death, and the survivors huddle together, co-operate and scavenge for supplies, and somehow make choices that will keep them alive. The walkers are everywhere, a menace that cannot be vanquished, but they are not the only threat. Some survivors are prepared to kill and steal from other survivors—and worse. It is into this post-apocalyptic world where the dead walk—there are no such things as zombies—that the Player Characters are thrust in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Core Rules and The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set.
The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set is published by Free League Publishing and provides an introduction to roleplaying in The Walking Dead Universe, with a simplified version of the rules, a complete scenario in the Survival Mode, and everything necessary to play that scenario. This includes two sets of dice, four maps, ten pre-generated Player Characters, and the Threat Meter. Everything is presented in full colour, though no photographs are used from The Walking Dead television series, so fans may be disappointed. That said, the artwork, done in the house style for Free Publishing is very good and fits the world very well.

So opening up the box, the first things to be found in the box are the dice and the Threat Meter. The dice consist of two different sets. The black Base Dice are marked with a ‘target’ symbol on their six faces to indicate a Success when rolled, as are the red Stress Dice. However, Stress Dice also have a ‘hand’ symbol on their one faces. When these are rolled after a Pushed dice check, they indicate that the Player Character has ‘messed up’ and attracted the attention of the Walkers. This, of course, is a bad thing. The Threat Meter is a simple dial that goes from one to six—it should actually go from zero to six—that is used to indicate how active the Walkers are and how many are present. The higher the number on the Threat Meter and the greater the number of Walkers and the more active they are. Below this are the pre-generated Player Characters. Six of these are standard Player Characters as you would create using The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Core Rules. Each has full stats, skills, a Talent, an Issue and a Secret which could get them into trouble, as well as some background. These six—plus one for an NPC—are designed to be used with ‘The Wolves’ Den’, the scenario in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set, and are given both male and female names to give the players the choice. The other four are characters from the television show, and they consist of Carol Peletier, Glenn Rhee, Michonne, and Gabriel Stokes. These four are done in full colour as opposed to tan tones of the other six. The four maps are done in full colour on very sturdy paper. One is double-sided and depicts north-east Georgia on one side and south-west Virginia on the other. The other three depict locations for ‘The Wolves’ Den’ scenario.

The ’Rules’ booklet explains everything about characters, combat, and Walkers. Anyone who played a year Zero Engine roleplaying game will be familiar with most of its contents. A Player Character has four attributes—Strength, Agility, Wits, and Empathy—rated between one and five, and each attribute has three associated skills, for a total of twelve in the game. These are rated between one and six. In addition, a Player Character has a Talent, such as ‘Eye on the Ball’ which enables a Player Character to relieve a point of Stress when a threat or enemy is defeated or overcome or Scavenger, which enables the Player Character to find more rations or food when scavenging. Health Points represent a Player Character’s physical health and cannot be higher then three. A Player Character also has an Anchor, an Issue, and a Drive. An Anchor is another person—Player Character or NPC—that the Player Character cares about and who is used narratively to ‘Handle Your Fear’ and when attempting to relieve Stress. The Issue is a roleplaying hook, such as ‘You think you are better than them’ or ‘Unable to sit down and shut up’ that the Game Master can use to create interesting, typically challenging situations. Drive is what pushes a Player Character to grit his teeth and withstand the pain, like ‘You love your mother’ and ‘God put me here to save their souls’. Once a session, a Drive can be invoked to gain extra dice on a test.

Mechanically, as with other Year Zero Engine roleplaying games, whenever a Player Character wants to undertake an action in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Core Rules, his player roles a number of Base Dice equal to the attribute plus skill plus any modifiers from gear, Talents, help, or the situation. If a single six, a Success, is rolled on the Base Dice, the Player Character succeeds, although extra Success will add bonus effects. However, if no Successes are rolled and the action is failed, or he wants to roll more Successes, the player has the choice to Push the roll. In which case, the Player Character suffers a point of Stress and gains a Stress Die. The player must also explain what the character is doing differently in order to Push the roll. For the pushed roll, the player will roll all of the Base Dice which did not roll success and the Stress Die. In fact, until the Player Character finds a way to reduce his Stress points, his player will continue to add Stress Dice equal to his character’s Stress Points on every roll. Only one pushed roll can be made per action, but the danger of having Stress Dice is if their results should be a one or ‘Walker’ symbol. It means two things. First, if the player has not yet pushed the roll, he cannot do so. Second, whether or not he has pushed the roll, it means that the Player Character has ‘Messed Up’. Typically, this means that he increased the numbers of Walkers nearby and attracted their attention, turning up the dial on the Threat Meter. In other situations, a ‘Messed Up’ might mean the Player Character has got lost, lost his footing, said the wrong thing in a tense standoff, and so on. Other sources of Stress include being short on food and water, getting shot at, seeing someone in the group get bitten by a Walker, killing someone in cold blood, and so on.

There are several means of getting rid of Stress. Primarily, these consist of a Player Character connecting and interacting with his Anchor, and at the end of the day, simply getting a good night’s sleep and plenty of rest. Whilst interacting with an Anchor can be during play, at the end of each session, a Player Character has to deal with the dreadful things that he has seen and done that session. This is done via the ‘Handle Your Fear’ mechanic and is triggered if the Player Character has suffered a Breaking Point like his Anchor being killed or disappearing, brutally killing or beating someone who is defenceless, is Broken by damage, suffers five Stress Points, and so on. At this point, the player rolls Base Dice equal to either his character’s Wits or Empathy, with a bonus for any Anchors who are still alive. This roll cannot be pushed, needs only one Success to succeed, but if failed, causes the Player Character to become Overwhelmed, meaning that he loses his Drive, becomes mentally Shattered, or his Issue is changed or added to.

Combat scales in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Core Rules and The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set depending upon who or what the Player Characters are facing. Duels are one-on-one attacks handled via opposed rolls, each combatant hoping to gain more Successes than the other. Brawls handle combat between multiple participants in which the Leadership skill can be used to hand out bonuses to allies in the fight. Combat is deadly though, a Player Character only possessing three points of Health and once they are lost, the Player Character is Broken, gains a point of Stress, and his player must roll on the Critical Injuries table. The lack of Health in comparison to other roleplaying games is compounded by the limited access to medical care. Make no mistake, The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Core Rules and The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set is deadly.

A setting which is already deadly due to low health and lack of healing, is compounded by the presence of the Walkers. They are a constant, lurking presence in The Walking Dead Universe, in game terms that presence is typically written into a scenario at a particular location or encounter, as you would expect, but also brought into play randomly whenever a player rolls a ‘Walker’ symbol on a Stress Die. Narratively, this could be as simple as the Player Characters opening a door to discover a room full of Walkers or a Walker bursting out of a bush to attack the Player Characters. The presence of the Walkers is tracked by the Threat Meter, which ranges from zero and ‘You are in a cleared area and safe. For now.’ to six and ‘The dead are in your face, surrounding you.’ The Threat Level is raised by rolling a ‘Walker’ on a Stress Die, failing a skill roll to avoid Walkers, doing something in the game to attract their attention, and so on. Ideally, the Player Characters will sneak around them as they scavenge buildings and search locations, but of course, that is unlikely. At low levels on the Threat Meter, it is possible for the Player Characters to go quiet and wait it out until the Walkers have either wandered off or gone quiet themselves. At higher levels, the Player Characters will need to find a way to distract the Walkers and make them go elsewhere or fight them. Encounters with a few Walkers are possible and these can be engaged in ‘Single Walker Attacks’, but Walkers congregate and then they fight as Swarms. Fights against Swarms are group endeavours, the aim being to roll more Successes than a Swarm to first reduce its size and then escape it. If a Player Character or Player Characters lose against a Walker attack, there is a table of very nasty and brutal ‘Walker Attack’ effects which will have the players wincing when they hear the results. The rules cover sacrificing another, brawling amidst a Swarm, clearing out an area, and lastly, amputation, the latter the last desperate result to resolve after a Walker bite…

There is good advice for the Game Master including how to make it scary and how to include the characters from the television series as NPCs, and to not cheapen the lives of the Player Characters and the NPCs. All this complements the Principles of the Game given at the start for both players and the Game Master. These are to do whatever it takes to survive; death is inescapable, the Player Characters are never truly safe or alone, and that in terms of game play, everyone is telling a story and fiction comes first. There is advice too on running the game mode for the scenario in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set. This is Survival Mode, typically a scenario with pre-written events and locations which can be played in a session or two, as opposed to Campaign Mode, played in multiple sessions with a more open storyline.

The scenario in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set is ‘The Wolves’ Den’. This is written around two other aspects of The Walking Dead Universe—that the stories are not about the Walkers, but about the survivors and often, other survivors are more of a danger than the Walkers. It is written around the six pre-generated Player Characters included in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set and opens with them searching for two of their number who have eloped, breaking up a relationship in the process and taking some valuable equipment, including a vehicle and weapons, with them in the process. The scenario gets nastier and nastier as it progresses, building from creepy to in-your-face horror, culminating in a confrontation with a band of The Wolves, the violent group of survivors encountered in the fifth and sixth seasons of The Walking Dead television series.

Physically, The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set is very well presented. Everything is of a very high quality, especially the maps which can be used beyond the play of ‘The Wolves’ Den’, as can the Threat Meter. However, the books need a slight edit in places and not everything is quite as clearly explained as it should, such as handling NPC skills.

If there is a problem with The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set, it is that it only has the one scenario, ‘The Wolves’ Den’. Essentially, once the scenario has been played through, the obvious value and utility of The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set is not as great as it should be. However, look at The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set instead as a toolkit and it is actually more useful than it first appears. It has official dice for The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Core Rules and the Threat Meter is a useful tool to have sat on the table, the maps are great, and the pre-generated Player Characters are useful for when running The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Core Rules. It is disappointing that there is only one scenario in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set, but there is a lot that is useful too.

The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set is a very good introduction to The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Core Rules and roleplaying in the brutal world of The Walking Dead.