The land and all of its good people face a threat. One that has lingered far from the farms and villages, towns and cities, plotting, waiting, slumbering, brooding, all for the time when it is right to rise again and send forth its agents and minions, even its armies and its magics to destroy all that it good, to bring under its yoke, and to cast a darkness everlasting upon the land. Yet land and all of its good people are not without hope and their hearts are strong, for even as the great hosts of the dark lord outnumber what armies the forces of good can muster, they have heroes. Mighty of sword, stout of character, strong in magic, and wily in cunning, perhaps it is they who will be able to step forth from their thresholds and make the great journey across the land, best done in secret, to strike at the lord of shadow. This sounds not unlike the plot of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings or Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series or Margaret Weis and Tracey Hickman’s Dragonlance Chronicles series—and it is. It is also the underlying plot to Against the Darkmaster: The Classic Game of Fantasy Adventure, which describes itself as an “Epic Fantasy roleplaying game of high adventure, heroic action, and heavy metal combat.” This is a roleplaying game of high fantasy and high stakes and a roleplaying game with a pedigree. Its mechanics derive ultimately from two games published by Iron Crown Enterprises. The first was RoleMaster, but the real inspiration for Against the Darkmaster is the simpler, more streamlined version of RoleMaster that was Middle-earth Role Playing: a complete system for adventuring in J.R.R. Tolkien’s World. That inspiration is both mechanical and thematic, but although veterans of both RoleMaster and Middle-earth Role Playing will find much that is familiar in the pages of Against the Darkmaster, they will not find their characters forming a fellowship and going on a great journey across the land to heroically confront the dark lord himself, Sauron, but instead a different great evil, either one of the Game Master’s own devising or one of the three provided as examples in the book. This is the roleplaying game with which to play campaigns of high fantasy and adventure, in the process, save the world.

Against the Darkmaster: The Classic Game of Fantasy Adventure is published by Open Ended Games, Inc. and in addition to providing the means for the Game Master to create her own Darkmaster, it explains the rules, provides the means to create a fellowship, covers travel, combat, and magic, details a bestiary, and supports the roleplaying game with a setting and scenario. It starts though, with a discussion of its principles. These include the fact that it is a tale of good versus evil, that the presence and influence of the Darkmaster looms over the world, that previous conflicts between nations and with the Darkmaster have left the landscape dotted with ruins and secrets, magic is dangerous and rare and that the gods watch from afar rather than being directly involved in the doings of the land, and that despite all of this, there is still room for heroism and hope. Along with a lengthy bibliography of the books, films, heavy metal music, and other roleplaying games that influenced Against the Darkmaster this neatly sums up what the roleplaying game is about.

A Player Character in Against the Darkmaster consists of six Stats—Brawn, Swiftness, Fortitude, Wits, Wisdom, and Bearing, and then a Kin and a Culture. He will also have a Vocation, Background Options, and Passions. The six Stats range in value between -20 and +35 and serve directly as bonuses to skill and action rolls. This is a change from roleplaying games such as RoleMaster, Middle-earth Role Playing, and HARP Fantasy where there are stats ranging in value from one to one hundred and bonuses are derived from them. There are thirteen different Kin: Dwarf, Halfling, Man, Wildfolk, High Man, Half-Elf, Dusk Elf, Silver Elf, Star Elf, Half-Orc, Orc, Stone Troll, and Firbolg. Each provides bonuses to a Player Character’s Stats, Hit Points, Magic Points, Toughness Save Roll, and Willpower Save Roll, as well as Maximum Hit Points, Background Points, and starting Wealth Level. Each Kin also suggests suitable Cultures. There are thirteen Cultures, including Arctic, City, Deep, Desert, Fey, Hill, Marauding, Noble, Pastoral, Plains, Seafaring, Weald, and Woad. A Culture provides Ranks in a Player Character’s skills and Spell Lores, typical outfit and equipment, Passions, and additional starting Wealth Level. The Vocations consist of Warrior, Rogue, Wizard, Animist, Dabbler, and Champion. The Animist is a druid or shaman, the Dabbler can do a mix of everything rather than specialising, and the Champion is a mystic warrior. A Vocation provides Development Points for the player to assign to his character as well as skill bonuses.

Skills are divided into seven categories—Armour, Combat, Adventuring, Roguery, Lore, Spells, and Body. The individual skills with each category are broad in nature, for example, Blunt, Blades, Ranged, Polearms, and Brawl for Combat, and Acrobatics, Stealth, Locks & Traps, Perception, and Deceive. Several Speciality Skills are suggested, such as ‘Assassination’, ‘Craftsmanship’, ‘Dual Weapons Training’, ‘Swashbuckling’, and more, but these are optional.

Background Options represent a Player Character’s Back Story and what he did before joining the Fellowship. They include ‘Ancient Heirloom’, ‘Burglar’, ‘Heroic Bloodline’, ‘Mundane’, ‘Strider’, and more, each providing a wide range of bonuses and benefits. They are either Minor or Major Tier, of which the player chooses one or the other. A Player Character will have between one and three Passions, typically either a Nature, Allegiance, or Motivation. Here is where the Heavy Metal aspect of Against the Darkmaster first comes to the fore, the book suggesting that a player select a Passion based on a Heavy Metal song along with providing numerous examples, such as ‘All men are equal when their memory fades’ inspired by Motorhead’s ‘Deaf Forever’ and ‘I was born under omens of greatness and doom’ inspired by Iron Maiden’s ‘Seventh Son of a Seventh Son’. By adhering to his Passions, a character can earn Drive, up to a total of five, and this can then be spent to gain various effects, such as gaining a +10 bonus to a Skill, Attack, or Save roll, reroll a failed Roll with a +10 bonus, reroll a Critical Strike just suffered to try and lower its effect, and so on. Five points of Drive can be spent to set the result of a roll to 100, add a +20 bonus to a Critical Strike Roll, and so on.

One interesting use of Drive is to track Milestones and Revelations. For every ten points of Drive spent, a Player Character gains a ‘Milestone’. This can then be used to unlock a ‘Revelation’ about themself, perhaps when they are resting after an adventure and have had time to reflect or at a moment of crisis. Mechanically, it is used to permanently improve a Stat, the number of Magic Points a Player Character has, or improve an item as they come to master its use. Narratively, this should make sense within the flow of play and it needs to be approved by all of the players.

Of the choices for character creation, the Dusk Elf is roughly the equivalent of the Wood Elf and the Star Elf the High Elf, and the Wildfolk the Woses and the High Man the Númenóreans or Dúnedain from Middle-earth. So, there are parallels between Against the Darkmaster and Middle-earth Role Playing in the options open to the players. Some of the options are not necessarily heroically Tolkienesque, such as the Orc and Half-Orc, but nevertheless, they could be in the Game Master’s own campaign or kept as servants of the Darkmaster. Of the Cultures, the Marauding Culture is not intended for the Player Characters, but for use by the Game Master to create servants of the Darkmaster.

To create a character, a player can either roll for his Stats or opt for a point-buy method. Similarly, he can roll for or choose his character’s Kin and Culture, but then selects a Vocation. He notes down the bonuses, skill Ranks, and traits gained, before spending Development Points and selecting Background Options and Passions. The process is not complex, but is a little lengthy. One issue perhaps is keeping track of the differences between the Skill bonuses from Kin and Vocation, the skill Ranks provided by a Vocation, and the Development Points also provided by a Vocation which the player spends to assign further skill Ranks. Ultimately, they all provide bonuses, but from slightly different sources.

Name: Jarbad Duskheart
Kin: Dwarf
Culture: Weald
Vocation: Animist

STATS
Brawn +05 Swiftness +05 Fortitude +30 Wits +15 Wisdom +15 Bearing +20

Hit Points: 80 Maximum Hit Points: 150
Magic Points: 04 Drive: 1
Toughness Save Roll: +55 Willpower Save Roll: +40
Wealth Level: 1
Movement: 15
Defence: +05

TRAITS
Dark Sight, Forgekin, Stoneborn, Superstitious

BACKGROUNDS
Dark Past (Minor), Shapechanger (Major)

PASSIONS
Nature: I will live by the Laws of Nature under the Silver Stars.
Allegiance: My tribe, freed of Darkmaster’s grasp
Motivation: I will free my tribe, I will free all

SKILLS
Skill / Stat / Rank & Bonus / Vocation / Kin / Special / Item / Total
Armour
Armour / +05 (SWI) / 01 & +05 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +05
Combat
Blunt / +05 (BRN) / 01 & +05 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +10
Blades / +05 (BRN) / 00 & +00 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +05
Ranged / +05 (SWI) / 01 & +05 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +10
Polearms / +05 (BRN) / 02 & +10 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +15
Brawl / +05 (BRN) / 02 & +10 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +15
Adventuring
Athletics / +05 (BRN) / 02 & +10 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +15
Ride / +05 (SWI) / 00 & +00 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +05
Hunting / +15 (WIT) / 04 & +20 / +05 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +40
Nature / +15 (WSD) / 04 & +20 / +15 / +20 / +00 / +00 / +70
Wandering / +15 (WSD) / 03 & +15 / +20 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +50
Roguery
Acrobatics / +05 (SWI) / 00 & +00 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +05
Stealth / +05 (SWI) / 02 & +10 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +15
Locks & Traps / +15 (WIT) / 00 & +00 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +15
Perception / +15 (WSD) / 02 & +10 / +05 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +30
Deceive WIT / +15 (WIT) / 00 & +00 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +15
Lore
Arcana / +15 (WIT) / 01 & +05 / +10 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +30
Charisma / +20 (BEA) / 01 & +05 / +05 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +30
Cultures / +15 (WIT) / 02 & +10 / +05 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +30
Healer / +15 (WSD) / 01 & +05 / +20 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +40
Songs & Tales / +20 (BEA) / 01 & +05 / +05 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +30
Spell Lores
Aspects of Nature / +15 (WSD) / 01 & +05 / +10 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +20
Master of Animals / +15 (WSD) / 01 & +05 / +10 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +20
Master of Plants / +15 (WSD) / 01 & +05 / +10 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +20
Healing / +15 (WSD) / 02 & +10 / +10 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +35
Body
Body / +30 (FOR) / 02 & +10 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +00 / +40

Mechanically, Against the Darkmaster is ‘Powered by Open00’. The core resolution involves rolling percentile dice and adding the value of a Stat or Skill total. The roll is open-ended, meaning that if the player rolls ninety-six or above, he rolls again and adds to the total. Similarly, if he rolls four or less, he rolls again and deducts from the total. A result of four or less is a critical failure, between five and seventy-four is a failure, between seventy-five and ninety-nine is a partial success, a result of one-hundred or more is a success, and anything over one-hundred-and-seventy-five is a critical success. Modifiers range from Challenging and ‘-10’ to Insane and ‘-70’. Once rolled, dice results are final. Save Rolls are made against a Player Character’s Toughness Save for physical effects and Willpower Save Roll against fear, illusion, and mind control. Either way, the roll is made against the Save Roll Difficulty. Either way, the roll is made against the Save Roll Difficulty which is determined by the Attack Level of the effect or the result of the spell rolled by the caster.

Combat in Against the Darkmaster breaks its action down into rounds consisting of several phases—Assessment, Action Declaration, Move, Spell A, Ranged A, Melee, Ranged B, Spell B, and Other Actions. Actions in combat consist of Full Actions, Half Actions, and Free Actions. Full Actions include making a melee or ranged attack, casting a non-instantaneous spell, and moving at full Move Rate, whilst Half Actions can be readying an item or drawing a weapon, casting an instantaneous spell, and taking a Half Movement to engage a foe in melee. During a Round, a Player Character can take a Full Action and a Free Action, two Half Actions, or a Full Action and a Half Action, but both with a penalty. Free Actions include talking, singing, or chanting, making an Assessment Roll, and dropping a wielded weapon or item. The rules also cover aiming, charging, improvised weapons, fighting with two weapons, and more, including parrying, which involves reducing an attacker’s Combat Bonus and increasing his Defence by the same amount.

The actual Attack Roll uses the same open-ended roll mechanic to which is added the attacker’s Combat Bonus—derived from the total skill bonus for the weapon used or attack type spell cast and any situational modifiers—whilst the defendant’s Defence value is deducted from it. The result is cross-referenced on the appropriate table for the attack type (notably weapons are either edged or blunt, there is no piercing damage table) against the type of armour worn—none, light, medium, or heavy—to determine the damage. The damage indicates how many Hit Points are lost by the defendant and may also indicate a Critical Strike. This can be Superficial, Light, Moderate, Grievous, or Lethal, the severity indicating the bonus to be added to roll on the appropriate Critical Strike Table. Here is where there is a Critical Strike Table for piercing weapons as well as cutting and impact weapons, plus Critical Strike Tables for beasts, area effects, and various types of spell damage. Damage can come from a variety of sources, including the darkest of magic and the touch of the undead which can scar a Player Character’s very own soul. This Soul Damage drains the life of the sufferer and typically takes magic or special herbs to heal.
For example, Jarbad is part of a band that has been ambushed by a band of Orcs in the service to the Darkmaster. He is not a skilled warrior, but aids where he can. His friend has been beaten back by a marauding Orc and Jarbad runs over to help him, hoping that he can be enough of a distraction for his friend to rally. Jarbad’s player declares that the Dwarf will charge the Orc and strike him from behind. This grants him a +20 bonus to his Combat Bonus, and since he is striking from behind, the Orc will not get his Defence bonus. So Jarbad’s player is rolling the dice and adding a total Combat Bonus of +35. He rolls 91 and adds the Combat Bonus to get a result of 126. The Game Master consults the Edged Attack Table and cross-references the result against the Orc’s lamellar armour, which counts as medium. The result is that the Orc suffers 14 points of damage and a Moderate Critical Strike, which grants a +20 bonus when rolling the Critical Strike. Jarbad’s player rolls the dice (the roll is not open-ended) and with the bonus, the total is 74 which gives the result of, “Direct shot the chest. If the target’s unarmoured, the strike pierces deep: +8 Damage, 4 Bleed, and Stunned. If the target’s wearing armour: +4 Damage and 2 Bleed.” However, Jarbad’s player decides that this is not enough and declares that he will spend a point of Drive to reroll the Critical Strike, declaring that this is in line with his Allegiance Passion of ‘My tribe, freed of Darkmaster’s grasp’. The Game Master allows it and Jarbad’s player rerolls. This time the total is 144, which gives the result, “Piercing strike to the chest. If the target’s wearing rigid armor: +5 Damage, 4 Bleed, Stunned, and -20 to all actions for a deep side cut. If not: lung pierced, +15 Damage, Stunned, and -50 activity, dies in 6 hours.” The Orc staggers as Jarbad shoves his spear under his armour, forcing him to one knee, unable to act… Magic in Against the Darkmaster includes the enchanted songs of the Elves sung under the stars, the eldritch might of wizardry, and the foul sorcery of the Darkmaster and his minions. It is divided into Spell Lores, which grant the practitioner knowledge of the ten Weaves within each branch of magic covered by the Spell Lore, from simple cantrips to major feats of world changing magic. The spells are divided into Common Spell Lores, Vocational Spell Lores, and Kin Spell Lores. The Common Spell Lores—Detections, Chanting, Cleansing, Eldritch Visions, Eldritch Might, Eldritch Wards, Lore of Nature, Movements of Nature, Nature’s Path, and Sounds & Lights—can be learnt by anyone, but only to a limited extent. Both the Silver Elf and Star Elf Kin have access to the Vocational Spell Lores of Elven Lore and Spell Songs, and can learn these whatever their Vocations. The Animist Vocation learns Spell Lores like Channelling, Earth Mould, and Master of Animals, whilst the Wizard learns Spell Lores such as Eldritch Fire, Eldritch Storm, Illusions, and Mind Control.

A Spell Lore has ten Ranks and each Rank grants knowledge of one Weave or spell. For example, as Jarbad Duskheart has only the one Rank in the Masters of Nature Spell Lore, the only spell he knows is Hinder, which turns the surrounding terrain into arduous for his enemies as roots and branches seem to grasp at them, whilst for the Healing Spell Lore, he has two Ranks and knows the Heal spell which hastens natural healing and the Clotting spell which reduces the blood loss from Bleeding Wounds.

Casting spells requires concentration and a caster can gain a bonus for concentrating for a single round and longer. A spell can also be cast without this concentration, but is done at a penalty. Some spells can be cast to greater effect, improving both their Weave and their Magic Point cost. This is called Warping. For example, Frostbite is a Rank Two spell from the Eldritch Frost Spell Lore. Its effect is to numb a target with cold, leaving them sluggish, inflicting a -20 penalty on all actions, but a caster could increase this penalty by another -20 up to a maximum of -100 for increase in the Weave of two each time. Spells can also be overcast for greater effect, typically from a magical ritual, self-sacrifice, and the correct celestial alignment. Overcasting a spell is more difficult, but does increase the Weave.

However, casting spells is not without its dangers within a land beset by the Darkmaster. If a player rolls doubles whilst his character casts a spell, the Game Master must make a ‘Magical Resonance Roll’. Depending on the location where the spell is cast and the type of spell, nothing might happen except for an inquisitive shadow fleetingly passing over, or the Darkmaster might be alerted to the caster’s presence or location and send his servants after him. A simple failure to cast a spell can also leave the caster stunned, the spell affecting someone other than the target, or worse.

Against the Darkmaster also provides detailed rules for movement—and specifically, extended travel, and the hazards and perils that a fellowship might face, complete with tables of possible hazards, terrain by terrain. The rules also cover campsites and the establishment, finding, and use of safe havens. These are intended to be exceptional locations, places where the Player Characters can rest and recuperate, but also train and mediate, study and conduct research, or simply relax, and eventually, even retire. Beyond the core rules, there is advice for the Game Master in terms of preparing and running the game, covering the principles of the role, how to pitch the game to the players, develop a scenario and a campaign, handling NPCs, running battles and war and how to involve the Player Characters, and more. There are options for generational play, play beyond Level Ten, and low magic campaigns, in which case, the Animist, Champion, Dabbler, and Wizard Vocations are replaced by the Sage Vocation. The bestiary, from Awakened Tree, Boggart, and Demon to Wild Best, Wight, and Wraith, is short with just thirty entries, but all feel appropriate to add to a Tolkienesque setting.

Against the Darkmaster does include magical items, but they are not intended to be common within a campaign, each item feeling special and unique, complete with a history. They include potions, items that grant skill or Stat bonuses or extra Magic Points, items that cast spells, weapons that have slaying ability woven into them that always ensure that any Critical Strike is lethal, and so on. There are notes on cursed items, enchanted materials, items of power that require attunement. The rules are supported with a treasury of various potencies.

Of course, the signature NPC in Against the Darkmaster is the Darkmaster itself. In Middle-earth and The Lord of the Rings, the Darkmaster is, of course, Sauron, the Dark Lord. In Against the Darkmaster, the Game Master gets to create her own. This includes creating a suitable epithet like ‘The Timeless Dark of Hate’ or ‘The Black Angel of Despair’, and a Covet Artefact, complete with power, drawback, bane, and prophecy. For example, the spear, which can be thrown at any foe in sight, slaying them, but there is one champion who will be able to catch it and throw it back at the wielder, killing him, whilst the spear will impale the heart of the Darkmaster, putting Him at rest. Should it ever be pulled out, the Darkmaster will be returned to life. To this, the Game Master can add servants, a dark place, and dark powers, including eldritch horror, life scourge, offering dark temptation, and heralding eternal winter. The mark of the Darkmaster upon a Player Character is measured by Taint, typically when a Dark Spell Lore is learned or a Tainted Magic Item is used. Taint corrupts a Player Character’s Passions, so that his Motivation becomes an Obsession, then his Allegiance a Dark Oath, and their Nature a Perversion. After this, the Player Character becomes an NPC. It is possible to find redemption from this, but only the one attempt can be made. There is good advice on exploring the how and why a Darkmaster came to be, and how to create his appearance and goals, and there are also three, ready-to-use examples, including ‘The Horned King of Annwn’, ‘The Witch Queen of Despair’, and ‘The Blood Lord of War’. These three and the details of the Dark Sorcery and Necromancy Spell Lores that follow, are presented on, thematically and appropriately, enough, black pages!

Rounding out Against the Darkmaster is ‘Shadows of the Northern Woods’, a complete mini-setting and campaign consisting of three scenarios, plus six pre-generated Player Characters and example Passions appropriate to the setting. That setting is the fortified settlement of Willow Lake and the surrounding vale. Whilst an ancient Darkmaster lurks on the other side of the mountains to the north, the scenarios involve hunting for a beast that stalks the surrounding area that has recently gone from killing livestock and stealing things to killing an inhabitant of Willow Lake, attempting to deal with the real threat to Willow Lake as the settlement is attacked by a scouting party from the Darkmaster’s army to the north, and preventing the destruction of Willow Lake, so saving everyone in the process. The region is nicely detailed and together the three scenarios should provide multiple session’s worth of playing, taking the Player Characters up to Level Three. If the tone of the campaign is suitably Tolkienesque, the setting still feels like a setting for a more generic fantasy roleplaying campaign. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but an indication that it is written to be played and concessions have had to be made.
Against the Darkmaster can be played as a traditional fantasy roleplaying game and the rules and content do support that. Where it shines though is in setting up and supporting a world imperilled by a great threat personified in the form of the Darkmaster, whilst at the same constraining some of the wider excesses of more traditional fantasy roleplaying games with a relatively limited bestiary and availability and choice of magical items. The lack of the latter makes them more interesting and important when they do appear and means that the Player Characters will be relying very much on their own skills and spells. In some ways this feels more like low rather than high fantasy, but the Player Characters do all have access to magic if they want it and they and their world are threatened by a great and powerful magic. In addition, within this framework, Against the Darkmaster provides plenty of options and advice on changing aspects of the rules, so that the Game Master and her players can play the game how they want.

Physically, Against the Darkmaster is a massive book, done in black and white. It is well written—though it does need an edit in places, it is easy to read, the artwork has a classic fantasy roleplaying feel to it, and its looks are deceptive. It is a big book, but the layout is quite open so that it never feels cramped or as if you can never find anything.

Against the Darkmaster: The Classic Game of Fantasy Adventure is not a direct retroclone of Middle-earth Role Playing: a complete system for adventuring in J.R.R. Tolkien’s World, but then it does not claim to be. Instead, it is heavily inspired by Middle-earth Role Playing, so much so that it does not so much wear that inspiration on its sleeve as wrap it around itself like a hooded elven cloak with an evil lord (who is definitely not Sauron) attached like an elven brooch. This it builds around a classic percentile system that is presented in an impressively clean, tidy, and accessible fashion with options and suggestions to adjust the game however the Game Master and her players want. The result is that for the group that wants to play classic roleplaying game in a Tolkienesque style, then Against the Darkmaster: The Classic Game of Fantasy Adventure is a great choice.

For many, their first expose to the world of Lovecraftian investigative horror and conspiracy that is Delta Green would have been the scenario, Puppet Shows and Shadow Plays, which appeared in the Delta Green sourcebook published for use with Call of Cthulhu by Pagan Publishing in 1997. However, it was not the first scenario for Delta Green. That was Convergence and if On the Trail of the Loathsome Slime is not only one of the most important scenarios ever to be published for Call of Cthulhu and certainly the one with the best ever title, then Convergence is certainly its equal, in importance, if not the humour of its title. On the Trail of the Loathsome Slime, published in 1983 by Games Workshop, based on the article, ‘Cthulhu Now! - Call of Cthulhu in the 1980s’ which appeared in White Dwarf #42 (June 1983), followed by ‘Cthulhu Now! - Part 2: Mini-Scenario outlines for Call of Cthulhu in the 1980s’ in the next issue, introduced the concept of roleplaying in the modern day for Call of Cthulhu. Up until that point, scenarios and campaigns had been set in the Jazz Age of the Roaring Twenties. With On the Trail of the Loathsome Slime, players could have their Investigators encounter the Cthulhu Mythos in the world that they were familiar with, that is, their then here and now. If On the Trail of the Loathsome Slime updated Call of Cthulhu, then Convergence not only updated it by another decade, but it also introduced both an entirely new way of playing it and an entirely new reason to play it. In introducing Delta Green, what Convergence did was give a reason as to why the Player Characters are investigating the Mythos, that they are both investigating and covering up evidence of the Mythos.

Convergence, though, was not widely available when first published. This was in the pages of The Unspeakable Oath, Issue 7, published in the Autumn of 1992 by Pagan Publishing. Originally published for Call of Cthulhu, Fifth Edition, Arc Dream Publishing [has since updated the scenario for use with Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game. The scenario begins in September 1996, after the FBI and Georgia state troopers arrest Billy Ray Spivey, a teenager who has been on a strangely reluctant rampage, robbing gas stations and killing an attendant with punch, in pain, and fleeing his family after killing his father. Medical analysis of the teenager reveals that the muscles in his arms and legs have been entirely replaced with a strange tissue that mimics human muscle, but possesses non-human characteristics, and his arms and legs are covered with microscopic scars. This occurred after he disappeared for two days some nine days ago. The contact for the Agents—as the Player Characters in Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game—assigns them to travel to Spivey’s hometown of Groversville, Tennessee, investigate what happened to him and find out who or what performed the surgery on him.

The Player Characters are Federal Agents, but for this operation go undercover conducting an investigation into Spivey’s drug connections. Their investigation should be as low key as the town is sleepy and quiet, there being an air of melancholy to the place. In the course of their investigation, the Agents will discover classic signs of UFO activity—signs of abductions, cattle mutilation, and more… Then, Convergence really puts the knife in. The Agents are given a means of detecting the cause of Spivey’s condition and it is everywhere… If that is not enough, Convergence takes a firm grip of the handle of the knife and gives it a hard twist or two. Not only are the Agents being monitored—not once, but thrice over, by agents human and inhuman, and cowboy media ready to put them under the spotlight. In both ways, Convergence quickly amplifies its horror and the horror in which the Agents find themselves in. It serves this up in a couple of really great set-pieces, one of which will put the players off from going into motel bathrooms for life! There really are some scenes in the scenario which are going to make the players go, “Oh shit!” This is an indication of the quality of the writing, combined with the quality of the ideas underlying Delta Green. Ultimately, the play of Convergence boils down to two things. One is surviving. The other is surviving and conducting a successful cover up of the investigation. Both are incredibly challenging and there is high chance of a total party kill in the scenario.
If there is an issue with Convergence it is the television series, The X-Files. Both the setting of Delta Green and The X-Files deal with similar subjects and feel similar. However, Delta Green predates The X-Files, but nevertheless, Convergence very feels like an episode of the television series. A very nasty episode. Any player who goes into the scenario thinking that it was going to be like the television series would have received a big shock.

Physically, Convergence is superbly presented in the standard style for Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game. The artwork is also great, as you would expect from Dennis Detwiller.

Convergence is short, no surprise given its original appearance as a scenario in a semi-professional magazine. But it packs a punch—quite literally. Convergence was a great introduction to the conspiratorial world of Delta Green in 1992, establishing the pattern for Delta Green operations and scenarios for decades to come. It is still a horrifyingly scary three decades on…

The Cave of Our People is a scenario for Primal Quest – Weird Stone & Sorcery Adventure Game. This roleplaying game of a Stone Age that never was, inspired by the fiction and films of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Thundarr the Barbarian, Horizon Zero Dawn, the Cavemaster RPG and Hollow Earth Expedition, and more. This is a world in which humanity survives alongside dinosaurs and other creatures and ancient secrets and aliens lurk, with the Player Characters as warriors and hunters, shamans and sorcerers, exploring an environment dominated by a nature untrammeled by mankind. The Cave of Our People is a short, one session—two at most—scenario designed to introduce players and their characters to the Stone Age world of Primal Quest. The Player Characters want to join the People of the Vale. This can be as children wanting to become adult members of the tribe or it can be as newcomers to the area wanting to join the tribe. The latter is the default for the scenario, but either way, the Player Characters will have to undergo an initiation, and it is this initiation that will take the Player Characters into ‘The Cave of Our People’. This cave is located in a stony hill just north of Lakit and it is here that the people of Lakit bury their ancestors. In this way, the cave also serves as a link between them and the wise spirits who reside inside, and this is why it is thus used to initiate newcomers to the customs of the People of the Vale.
The Cave of Our People begins with the Player Characters in a cave with no other exit than the one to the outside,, drinking tea made with rare herbs and magic mushrooms by Brikla, the village elder, shaman, and leader. Under the influence of the tea, the Player Characters undergo a series of challenges. They will fight the Ape King, harvest fruits from an ancient mother tree, be tested by the environment, come to the help of others—both dead and alive, and even make a leap into the unknown… Each encounter will both mystify and challenge the players and their characters in different ways. This will seem like a random series of encounters and for the most part it is. However, there are acts that may not be obvious, but if done, the Player Characters will earn more Experience Points and if they can make it to the end of the cave system (though there is scope for the Game Master to expand it if she wants), they may be able to learn about some of the particular tasks which will earn them these Experience Points, so tenacity and clever play will prevail.
At the end of the initiation, the Player Characters awaken to find themselves in the cave where they started. This brings the scenario to a close as well, but it also sets up what is the most fun part of the scenario. Each of the Player Characters gets to draw a cave painting to add to the wall based on their experiences in the cave, but the best bit is that the players get to draw this out themselves. Even better, is the fact is that given that these are cave paintings, the players do not have to be the best artists to draw them. The scenario even has a blank page of stone where the players could draw them.

Physically, The Cave of Our People is cleanly and simply laid out. The scenario is solidly written, whilst the artwork and the cartography are both excellent.

The Cave of Our People is simple and straightforward, an easy introduction to Primal Quest – Weird Stone & Sorcery Adventure Game. It is also simple to adapt so that a Game Master could run it for Paleomythic: A Stone and Sorcery Roleplaying Game and other Stone Age roleplaying games.

3D printing is almost certainly the future for high end figures of all types.  It is still fairly expensive to print the figures compared to mass production, but that may change in the coming years.  Below are the first 3D printed figures I purchased off of ebay.  The are a random assortment of super cool poses.  These are in 54mm scale.  It would be easy to spend a fortune on these figures.  I intend to be very particular about the ones I buy going forward.

On the night of Sunday, 21st August 1955 and the early morning of Monday, 22nd August 1955, five adults and seven children, residents near the communities of near the communities of Kelly and Hopkinsville in Christian County, Kentucky, were attacked in their farmhouse home. For four hours they held off an assault by small, dark alien creatures peering in their windows and doors. Were the strange creatures, nicknamed the ‘Hopkinsville Goblins’, actually extraterrestrials from outer space, having just landed in their UFO, something else, or as the United States Air Force officially classified the encounter for a Project Blue Book, a hoax? Although the event has passed into folklore and become a renowned close encounter case amongst UFOlogists, even celebrated as the Little Green Men Days Festival in Kelly community, most regard it as a hoax. Now, your players have an opportunity to find out for themselves as their characters investigate a similar case in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Published by Yeti Spaghetti and Friends, Horror in Hopkinsville is a short, one-night horror scenario, part of and first in the publisher’s ‘Frightshow Classics’ line. Ostensibly written for use with Chill or Cryptworld: Chilling Adventures into the Unexplained, the percentile mechanics of the scenario mean that it could easily be adapted to run with Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and similar roleplaying games, whilst its UFOlogical themes that it would very well with Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game.

Horror in Hopkinsville does not concern the infamous Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter directly. Rather it is a sequel in which the Player Characters investigate another incident and so might posit a cause for both. David and Julia Wright have been terrorised in recent weeks by strange and unusual occurrences in and around their house. Scratching sounds on the roof late at night, followed chittering or ‘clicking’ noises, loud thumps on the side of the house, the electricity in the house flickering, and the camera system that the Wrights installed to capture evidence of the culprits broke down, whilst the motion-sensor lights have proven ineffective, having detected nothing. The Wrights have been unable to find any cause and are almost at their wits’ end, so they want the matter investigated. The scenario suggests several ways in which the Player Characters might get involved—being a friend or relation of the Wrights, other inhabitants in the town having suffered similar incidences and indicate that the Wrights might have witnessed something, the Wrights revealed their story to a local paranormal or UFO study group of which the Player Characters are members, or the Player Characters are members of a secret organisation that investigates the paranormal or UFOs and are responding to a report made by the Wrights. However, the eight Player Characters provided in Horror in Hopkinsville are really only suited to the first three options rather than the fourth.

Prior to the start of the adventure proper, the Player Characters get to do some research, either using the Humanities/History, Journalism, or Paranormal/Folklore skills. Both the skills and their results reveal at the very least the details of the Kelly-Hopkinsville, and are also easily adapted to the roleplaying game of the Game Master’s choice. The scenario proper begins with the arrival of the Player Characters at the Wright family home on a quiet Wednesday evening. There they have the opportunity to both interview the family, including with some care, the Wright’s eight-year-old daughter, Tianna, and investigate the house. The inference is, of course, that whatever is plaguing the house, has some connection with Tianna, that, for example, she might be psychic. Investigation quickly reveals evidence that something is going on and this is confirmed as the action quickly heats up. The scenario neatly accounts for most of the options that the Player Characters might take, such as one of their number watching from outside whilst the rest investigate inside, but whatever the Player Characters do, it should lead up to a couple of jump scares and the revelation that there is something under the Wright family home—in the sewers!

If the scenario is fairly tightly plotted up until this point, the Player Characters have more freedom of action after they descend into the sewers under the street around the Wright family home and begin searching for the strange creatures that have been lurking near and scratching the house. Effectively, the scenario becomes a bug hunt in the dark, broken by the cold beam of their torches and the hissing of the white, pasty creatures. The scenario includes some encounter descriptions for when the Player Characters are down in the sewers, but does feel underwritten. Perhaps the possibility of the creatures having kidnapped the Wrights’ baby son might have provided some impetus for the Player Characters to act and it would have been interesting if the creatures’ lair were described so that the Player Characters could not only find it, but also find evidence that the activities of the creatures are connected to the Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter?

By the end of the scenario, the authorities will have arrived and the Player Characters will need to justify their actions, running around in the sewers, firing guns being frowned upon. This will take some persuasion, but will be easier if the Player Characters are members of a secret government agency. That agency might want to clean up the area and cover up the story even if they are not.

Physically, Horror in Hopkinsville is well presented, although the choice of font and artwork is a little heavy in style. This though, does not mean that it is bad. The scenario is not badly written, although it does need an edit in places and it is written for an American audience, so the Game Master may need to look up a term or two. The cartography of both the house and the sewers is decent, whilst the front cover is excellent, echoing the look and feel of the classic covers for the Chill roleplaying game and pulp horror paperback books.

Horror in Hopkinsville is designed to be a pulp horror scenario, one that is easy to run and quick to prepare—and that is the case, no matter which roleplaying rules the Game Master decides to use. However, it is not a sophisticated plot or story and the Game Master may want to develop it a bit further herself. However, for a single evening’s worth of straightforward, easy-to-prepare, pulp action horror, Horror in Hopkinsville is a decent choice.

 Welcome to my first proper Fantasy Fridays. For this first one I want to feature one of my favorite fantasy RPGs. It is Jeffrey Talanian's Hyperborea RPG, now in its 3rd Edition.

I keep coming back to this game time and time again for good reason, it is just a fantastic game.

This game has the feel of first Edition AD&D in a "Dying Earth" style setting. It is part Jack Vance's Dying Earth, but a greater part of Clark Ashton Smith's "Zothique." The world is old, cold, and dying.

The first edition was a boxed set of three books, and the second edition was a single massive tome. The third edition is now two separate books.

I have all three and have reviewed them all.  I'll throw some links below to the reviews and other characters, here is the the latest, the third edition, which sits nicely on my shelves with my AD&D books.

HYPERBOREA Player's Manual

PDF and Hardcover. 324 pages. Color cover, black & white art with full color art pages.

For my review, I am going to be considering the hardcover from the Kickstarter and the PDFs from DriveThruRPG.

The book starts with the credits, acknowledgments, and dedication to John Eric Holmes, the author/editor of the "Holmes" Basic edition. 

Chapter 1: Introduction this covers what this game is and what RPGs in general are. This is important and worth a read since it sets the stage for what sort of sub-genre this game covers, "swords, sorcery, and weird science-fantasy."  The classics of Swords and Sorcery are covered here briefly and how they add to the feeling of this game. This is pure Howard, Lovecraft, and Smith.

Chapter 2: Character Generation covers character creation. This chapter is brief covering of what you can do with the five chapters.  This also has a listing of the common "facts" known to every character. There is a section on leveling up. 

Chapter 3: Statistics or the "rolling up characters" chapter. The six recognizable methods are presented here. The most common of course is Method III; roll 4d6 drop the lowest.  We also have the same six attributes we have always had.

Each class has a "Fighting Ability" (FA) and a "Casting Ability" (CA) which relates to attacks. So yes, even magicians can get a little better in combat as they go up in level.  It's a great little shorthand and works great.  So a 4th level Fighter has a fighting ability of 4. A 4th level magician still only has a fighting ability of 1 and a cleric 3 and thief 3.  Subclasses can and do vary.

AC is descending (like old school games), BUT with the Fighting Ability stat it could be converted to an ascending AC easily.

Chapter 4: Classes We still have our Basic Four; Fighter, Magician, Cleric, and Thief.  Each also gets a number of subclasses.  Fighters get Barbarian, Berserker, Cataphract, Huntsman, Paladin, Ranger, and Warlock.  The Magician has Cryomancer, Illusionist, Necromancer, Pyromancer, and Witch. The Cleric has the Druid, Monk, Priest, Runegraver, and Shaman.  Finally, the Thief has the Assassin, Bard, Legerdemainist, Purloiner, and Scout.  

Each subclass is very much like its parent classes with some changes.  The classes look pretty well balanced.

Chapter 5: Background This covers all the things about the character that "happened" before they were characters.

Races are dealt with first. They include Amazons, Atlanteans, Esquimaux, Hyperboreans, Ixians, Kelts, Kimmerians, Lemurians, Picts, and Vikings along with the catch-all "Common" race of man.  No elves or dwarves here. Physique is also covered. 

Alignment is a simpler affair of Lawful Good, Lawful Evil, Chaotic Good, Chaotic Evil, and Neutral.

Along with race, there are various languages the characters can learn/know.  There are also gods here, an interesting mix of Greek, Lovecraftian, Norse, and Smith gods. 

There are background skills and weapon skills. Though I misread "charcoaler" as "chocolatier," and now I want a character with this background. 

Chapter 6: Equipment Or the "let's go shopping" chapter.  If you missed the "to hit modifiers vs. armor types/AC" in AD&D then I have a treat for you. Weapons here are more detailed than they were in previous editions of HYPERBOREA; or at least more detailed than my memory of the older editions.  Just checked, this one is much more detailed. 

Chapter 7: Sorcery This is our spell chapter but it also covers alchemy. Spells are split up by character class. Spells are limit to 6th level since classes are all limited to 12 levels. Spell descriptions are all alphabetical. This covers about 75 pages.  

Chapter 8: Adventure. This chapter improves over the previous editions. It covers all sorts of adventure topics like hirelings and henchmen, climbing, doors, nonstandard actions, time and movement.

Chapter 9: Combat. All sorts of combat topics are covered. Critical hits, unarmed combat, mounted combat and more. Damage and madness are also covered. The madness section is small and not really designed to mimic the real world. 

Appendix A: Name Generator. Pretty useful, really, to get the right feel of the game. Afterall "Bob the Barbarian" isn't going to cut it here. 

Appendix B: Lordship and Strongholds. What each class and subclass gains as a Lord or Lady of their chosen strongholds.  There is a great section on creating strongholds as well.

Appendix C: Cooperative Gaming. This covers how well to play in a group.

Appendix D: OGL Statement. This is our OGL statement.

These appendices (with the exception of D) are all new. 

There is also a great index.

So I will admit I was unsure about backing the 3rd Edition of HYPERBOREA.  I have the 1st and 2nd Editions and they have served me well over the last few years.  This edition brings enough new material to the table that it really is the definitive version of the game. 

The leatherette covers are really nice and I am happy I waited for it. Since the Player's and Ref's books are now separate, I could, if I wanted, pick up another Player's book.

The art is great. There are some reused pieces and still plenty of new ones. It uses the art well and helps set the tone of the game.

HYPERBOREA Referee's Manual

PDF and Hardcover. 308 pages. Color cover, black & white art with full-color art pages.

Chapter 10: Introduction Again, this is our introduction this time for the Game Master or Referee's point of view. What the Referee does for the game and more. 

Chapter 11: Refereeing This get's into the Game Mastering process in detail. This covers grant experience for the characters and setting up the campaign. 

Chapter 12: Bestiary Our monster section and truthfully one of my favorites. The expected ones are here, but there are also plenty of new ones.  This covers roughly 130 pages.  There are interesting new takes on some classic "D&D" monsters, plus many new ones like a bunch of new "lesser" and "sublunary" demons. The format is most similar to Basic or Labyrinth Lord, and it is full of the usual suspects with some Lovecraftian Horrors, and even remnants of alien and bygone ages. "Demons" are here, but no devils. 

Chapter 13: Treasure Covers treasure types and magical treasure. Among the magic items are things like Radium Pistols and other sc-fi artifacts. Very pulpy. It also includes some rules on scribing spell and protection scrolls. There is even a small section on Alchemy in Hyperborea. Very useful to have really.

Chapter 14: Gazetteer.  The lands are a pastiche of Howard, Vance, Lovecraft, and Smith.  If these names mean anything to you, then you know or have an idea, of what you are going to get here.  This section has been greatly expanded from the previous editions. Included here are the gods again and a little more on religion.  Basically, you get the idea that gods are either something you swear by (or to) or get sacrificed to by crazy cultists.  So yeah, you know I am a fan.

Appendix A: Weather in Hyperborea. Likely more important here than, say, other game worlds. Weather in Hyperborea is dangerous. 

Appendix B: Hazards of Hyperborea. There are horrible things waiting for you in Hyperborea and they are not all monsters or the weather. 

Appendix C: Waterborne Expeditions. Covers waterborne adventures and combat. 

Appendix D: Warfare and Siege. Your characters have built their strongholds. Now someone wants to know it down.  Here are the rules.

Appendix E: OGL Statement. The OGL statement for this book.

Since the 2nd edition, nearly every aspect of this game has been expanded, some sections more than others, but it is a great upgrade.

The art throughout is very evocative of the setting. Mighty thewed barbarians, shining knights, elderly and eldritch wizards. 

Larina Nix for Hyperborea 3rd Edition

A dedicated witch class? Yes please! That means I want to try out Larina here. Now I have tried other witch characters with the Hyperborea rules, but to build my iconic witch is something of a full test for me and a game. 

Larina Nix

Female Kelt Witch 12th level

Alignment: Neutral (Lawful)

ST 9 [+0 +0 2:6 4%]
DX 12 [+0 +0 3:6 4%]
CN 12 [+0 +0 75% 2:6 4%]
IN 18 [+3 95%, Bonus Spells 1, 2, 3, 4]
WS 18 [+2]
CH 18 [+3 12 +1]
Age: 30s
AC: 1 (Cloak of Darkness, Bracers of Defense)
HD: d4
hp: 27
FA: 5
CA: 12
#Attacks: 1/1
Damage: 1d4+3 (dagger+3), 1d6 (staff)
SV: 11 (+2 Transformation, +2 Sorcery)
ML: 12

Abilities
Alchemy, Brew Decoction, Familiar, Read Magic, Scroll Use, Scroll Writing, Sorcery, Dance of Beguilement, Effigy, Henchmen, Broom Enchantment, Ladyship, Witch's Apprentice

Spells
First level (5+1): Charm Person, Detect Magic, Mending, Shocking Grasp, Sleep, Write Spell (Charm Person in ring)
Second level (5+1): Bless, Extrasensory Perception, Hold Person, Identity, Ray of Enfeeblement, Shatter, (Ungovernable Hideous Laughter in ring)
Third level (4+1): Dispel Magic, Phantasm, Tongues, Witch Fire, Wind Wall, (Starlight in ring)
Fourth level (4+1): Gylph of Warding, Moonlight, Mirror Mirror, Sorcerer Eye, (Transfer Wounds in ring)
Fifth level (3): Anti-magic Shell, Control Winds, Shadow ConjurationSixth level (2): Control Weather, See
Languages: Common, Keltic (Goidelic), Hellenic (Greek), Old Norse, Speak with the Dead, Speak with Nature Spirits
Size: M (Height: 5'4", 125 lbs)
Move: 40
Saving Throw Modifiers: Transformation +2, Sorcery +2
Secondary Skill: Scribe
God: Lunaqqua

Flying Cat ("Cotton Ball"): AL N; SZ S; MV 10 (Fly 80); DX 15; AC 7; HD 1/4 (hp 5); #AT 3/1 (claw, claw, bite); D 1/1/1; SV 17; ML 5; XP 11

Normal Gear
Clothing, daggers (2), backpack, woolen blanket, chalk, ink and quill, polished steel mirror, incendiary oil, parchment (4), soft leather pouch (2), small sack (2), tinderbox, torches (2), wineskin (wine), writing stick, iron rations (one week), spellbook (contains all prepared spells), 5 gp, 15 sp, gems (100gp)

Magic Items
Bracers of Defense, Ring of Spell Storing (4 spells), Ring of Telekinesis (100 lbs), Wand of Magic Missiles, Wand of Lightning Bolts, Bonded Broom, Cloak of Shadows, Gem of Brightness, Horn of Blasting (Thor), Copper Skull Necklace 

I like this version. So who is this Larina? This is Larina at the End of Time. She has all the memories of her past lives and often gets lost in them. Not really remembering who, or when, she is. She lives alone in her witch's cottage with her, yet unnamed apprentice. This is not the Witch-Queen Larina, this is something lesser and far older.

She would make for a great NPC for the next time I run this game.

Who Should Play This Game?

Anyone that enjoyed First Edition AD&D but liked the level limits of B/X D&D. Humans abound here, so if you like playing anything other than a human, you might not have as much fun. Also, the world is bleak and dying. This is not a time of heroes to make for a better day; better days are past. This is a time to survive against brutal odds and in the face of an uncaring universe. 

Also, play this if you loved the works of Jack Vance, H.P. Lovecraft, and especially Clark Ashton Smith. 

There is also a pretty good online community for this game, so support and advice are often a click or two away.

This is one of the games that I play the least but want to play the most. I love everything about it. It combines so many of my favorite things in one game that I am hard pressed to think of something I would have done differently.  Well...maybe go to level 14 so I could map it onto my Basic-era games plans a bit better.  

Links

• NorthWind Adventures Page (Home of Hyperborea)
• DriveThruRPG page
• Discord
• Facebook
• Xitter
• Instagram
• Reviews
• Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, 1st Edition
• Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, 2nd Edition
• HYPERBOREA 3rd Edition Player's Manual
• HYPERBOREA 3rd Edition Referee's Manual
• Other Products
• Plays Well With Others
• 2nd Edition
• BASSH, Basic Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea
• Characters
• Miriam, The Witch-Queen of Yithorium
• Red Sonja
• Skylla
• Tanith, 2nd Edition
• Tanith, 3rd Edition
• Xaltana

There are days when its gets really dreary and boring, such as every late Sunday afternoon before you go back to school or that last week of the holidays before you back to school. When you are down in the dump or got lost in the doldrums, what is a kid to do? Well, when your friends come round to play and when your mother is not looking, why not summon demons? Which is exactly what the kids do in Let’s Summon Demons. This is a card and dice game published by Cryptozoic Entertainment following a successful Kickstarter campaign and based on the art of Steven Rhodes, noted for its sly, subversive dig at the social attitudes and fears of the seventies and eighties. The idea behind is simple. Collect and take advantage of the souls of boys and girls and animals, and when the right moment comes, sacrifice three of them to summon a demon. Summon a total of three demons and have enough souls and the player will win the game. Designed for two to five players, aged fourteen and up, Let’s Summon Demons can be played in about thirty minutes or so and is a fast-paced, fun experience. Of course, there is the problem of theme. It is silly and ridiculous, but its theme means that it is not going be to everyone’s taste, so they need not read this review, let alone play Let’s Summon Demons.

So… Still here?

Great.

I will carry on.

Let’s Summon Demons consists of one-hundred-and-twenty-five cards, forty Soul Tokens, and two six-sided dice, and a twelve-page mini-rulebook. The cards are broken down into five Candle Cards, twenty Demon Cards, and one hundred The Block Cards. There are two noticeable features of these cards. One is that they round rather than rectangular and some 5 cm in diameter, and the other is the vibrancy of their colour and artwork. They also have numbers on them. When these numbers are rolled in the game, they will trigger the action on the card. Sometimes even when it is not your turn and sometimes only when it is your turn. The Candle Cards are what each player starts the game with. Each is marked with a candle and a range of numbers between two and twelve which differs from one Candle Card to the next. When the numbers are rolled on the Candle Cards, even when it is not a player’s turn, let him collect a Soul Token, the currency in the game. The Candle Cards include the ‘Good Candle’, the ‘Kind Candle’, the ‘Beginner’s Candle’, ‘Rotten Candle’, and the ‘Evil Candle’, which add flavour rather than a mechanical benefit.

The Demon Cards include ‘Baphometal’, ‘Rosemary’s Egg’, ‘Re-Rollucifer’, ‘Dollargorgon’, and more. Their effects are either on-going or triggered when the player owning them rolls the number on them. For example, ‘Dice-Zuzzu’ lets a player Soul Tokens equal to the result of one of the dice when he rolls doubles and ‘The Serpent’ which automatically wins the game for the player when rolls a two.

The Block Cards consist of boys and girls and animals. Some of the boys and girls are described as ‘Sweet’, some as ‘Rotten’, others neither, and the animals are neither ‘Sweet’ or ‘Rotten’. For example, ‘Sweet Lisa’, ‘Sweet Chuck’, and ‘Sweet Pippi’ and ‘Rotten Regan’, ‘Rotten Donnie’, and ‘Rotten Carrie’. The Block Cards differ from the Candle Cards in two ways. One is that they only have a single number on them and the other is that each boy or girl or animal has a special ability that is activated when rolled. For example, ‘Sweet Marilyn’ gains the player a boy from The Block; ‘Rotten Delores’ forces every player to discard very ‘Sweet’ boy or girl they have in play and replace with a new card drawn from The Block whilst the owning player receives a new ‘Rotten’ boy or girl; and the ‘Rabid Dog’ lets a player collect two Soul Tokens if he has no boys or girls.

At the start of the game, each player receives a Candle Card, five Soul Tokens, and three Demon Cards. The latter he holds in his hand until each is summoned. Five cards from The Block are drawn and laid out face up. On his turn, a player can do three things in any order. The first is roll the dice, the second is to buy one of The Block Cards on the table, and the third is to summon a Demon from his hand. It costs three Soul Tokens to buy one of The Block cards on the table and it takes three of The Block Cards from in front of a player for him to summon a Demon in his hand. It is generally better to buy one of The Block Cards before the dice are rolled because this will increase the range of numbers that a player might roll and because each new The Block Card grants an extra effect when rolled. When the dice are rolled, the current player compares the result with the numbers on The Block Cards in front of him, and if any of them match, he activates their results in any order. Then the player next to him does the same and so on and son on round the table. If the current player has any Demons in play, can activate or use its action if it is an ongoing one or can compare the result with the number on the card to activate its effect. This happens only for the current player.

Play continues like this until one player has summoned all three Demons from his hand and is declared the winner. Which sounds simple enough—and it is. Let’s Summon Demons is a simple, straightforward ‘engine builder’, the type of game in which the player attempts to set up as efficient a system as he can to improve what he can do on later turns. Thus, a player wants to get as good a spread of numbers on The Block Cards he has so their actions are regularly activated when he rolls their numbers, but so do the other players. Ideally, this will generate more Soul Tokens with which to purchase more boys and girls and animals and with more boys and girls and animals he potentially has more actions and he can sacrifice them more quickly to summon Demons. However, Let’s Summon Demons is a game about summoning demons and demons are notoriously chaotic and so is Let’s Summon Demons. Further, summoning demons requires sacrifices and so does Let’s Summon Demons. What this means that whilst some of The Block Cards will give as player more Soul Tokens or let him draw a card from The Block, others will let him steal one from another player or force him to discard or replace one or more The Block Cards from in front of him. So, the play of the game is chaotic as The Block Cards a player has to roll on from one turn to the next can change, forcing him to adapt. Added to this chaos is the fact that to summon a Demon, a player must sacrifice three of The Block Cards he has in front him, which removes options in terms of rolling the dice and their outcome. Every time then, a player summons a Demon, he steps back a bit in terms of progress and has to build up the engine again by buying more boys and girls and animals.

There is a knowing sense of humour to the game. For example, ‘Rosemary’s Egg’, depicting a demonic egg on a pram, forces the player who summoned it to discard ‘Rosemary’s Egg’, but let the player summon three Demons, keep one, and discard the other two. From The Block Cards, ‘Sweet Lisa’ is based on Lisa Simpson from The Simpsons, ‘Sweet Pippi’ is Pippi Longstockings, ‘Rotten Regan’ is from The Exorcist, ‘Rotten Annie’ is from Misery, and the ‘Stray Cat’ is surrounded by a guitar and lots of records. Spotting these references—most of which are obvious—is part of the fun of playing Let’s Summon Demons.

Physically, Let’s Summon Demons is very nicely presented. The artwork is lot of fun and adds a great deal to the play of the game with its knowing references. The rulebook is simple and easy to understand, but the Soul Tokens are a bit plain given the decent production values of the rest of the game.

Whilst the theme might not be for everyone, for those have no issue with the theme, Let’s Summon Demons is probably the game with the most depth to its play from any of those based on Steve Rhodes’ artwork. That said, it is a very light game with plenty of luck and some take that elements, the relative depth of the game play coming from the players’ need to adapt to its constant chaotic and disruptive nature. Let’s Summon Demons is a disrupted engine builder with an easy theme to grasp and a quite literally artful sense of humour.

 I have had a burst of creativity over the last couple of months, and my desire to get things off my WIP plate has been strong.

You all may have noticed with the publications coming from me recently:

• The Swan Maiden Class (OSE)
• Volume #2 of Monstrous Maleficarum - Return of the Orcs (5e)
• Volume #3 of Monstrous Maleficarum - Nymphs, Daughters of the Gods (5e)

I have more of those series to come out. Plus I also want to get back to my Myths & Monsters series for 1e to cover more gods.

Also, I have been trying to finish a large project that has been taking all my time. No announcement yet, I want to see if I can hit my self-imposed deadline, but this one is pretty big.

So, posting will be a little sparse while I try to finish these all up.

OH! And if you are going to Gary Con, stop by the Elf Lair Games booth to say hi. 

 This came across my feed today. A new tartan pattern has been unveiled to memorialize those who suffered due to The Witchcraft Act 1563 to 1736 in Scotland. 

It looks like anyone can wear it, but you can only make things out of the pattern with the permission of the Witches of Scotland. 

I am currently reading "The History of Witchcraft" by Delores E. Wren, and I am reminded anew of the horrors people are willing to commit in the name of their religion. So seeing something like this and the group asking for an official apology is a good start.

Not sure if I'll get any art of witches wearing this, but that would be fun.

Links

• Witches of Scotland, https://www.witchesofscotland.com/
• Instagram page
• The Scottish Register of Tartans, https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tartanDetails?ref=14651
• See the New Tartan Pattern Created to Honor Women Accused of Witchcraft in Scotland Between 1563 and 1736, Smithsonian magazine. 

For today's Monstrous Monday I want to get back into exploring the Forgotten Realms. I was exploring the early AD&D 2nd edition books when I last left off.  Next on my list is one of the classic books for the Realms; so classic that we will get 3rd, 4th, and sort of a 5th edition versions of it.  I am talking about the Draconomicon. 

FOR1 Draconomicon

1990. by Nigel Findley, et al. Softcover, 128 pages. B&W art with magenta and some full color pages. 

For this review I am considering my original softcover book and the PDF from DriveThruRPG.

Obviously named after the Necronomicon and the more in-universe Demonomicon. I grabbed this one fairly late in my gaming life to be honest. I knew about it, of course, but I never bothered to grab it until my oldest began an interest in D&D at a very young age. He had a copy of the Draconomicon for 3rd Edition that he had carried with him everywhere (he was 5). It was so beat up and abused I thought it might be nice to get him the AD&D 2nd ed one as well, so I grabbed it at the local Games Plus Games Auction a few years ago.  He loved that one too, but took better care of it!

So I suppose, this book really isn't part of *my* collection. 

In any case this book feels more like the "Complete Handbooks" and "Dungeon Master Guides" books than it does an Forgotten Realms one. Thus the "FOR" code vs. the "FR" one. And yes, while there is a lot of Realms specific lore here, it reminds me enough of the old "Ecology of..." article from Dragon to be portable to any other world, save for maybe Krynn. That world has some very specific dragon lore already.

Chapter 1: Reference

This covers some history of how dragons first came into the world. There is an interesting piece on dragon evolution from the early Eodraco to "modern" dragons. Love the supposedly "extinct" line of dragons, perfect for an enterprising DM to come up with their own. We also see the return of the taxonomic nomenclature for dragons from the the 1st Ed. Monster Manual. 

The various "main" dragon species are described in detail, including a "racial preference" table common to the time. 

There are even Draconic Gods other than Bahamut and Tiamat listed. Note Bahamut and Tiamat are not listed here, but Zorquan is. I like the notion that dragons also worship "human" gods, they just appear draconic to them. This honestly makes a lot of sense and helped pave the way for Dragonborn in my mind. 

And to come full circle there is even some information on human who worship dragons. We will see more of this in future books.

Chapter 2: Geography

As expected, this covers the area where the dragons are found, listed by dragon type. Only slightly expands on what has been seen already in the AD&D 2nd Ed Monstrous Compendium/Manual.

Chapter 3: Dragon Psychology

A little more detail here, and this feels like the old Ecology of articles more. It discusses what motivates dragons, including their hoarding behaviors, and how to deal with such a long-lived creature. 

Chapter 4: Role-Playing Dragons

This chapter flows, concept-wise, from the previous. That is, how do dragons become (or be) "Dragons." How do they deal other species, how do they learn to fly, talk, do magic, what do they eat. All of these are discussed. There is even some discussion on how to raise a dragon. 

Need to know how long a dragon needs to incubate an egg? That information is here as well. Interestingly enough it mentions that chromatic dragons can interbreed. More on that later.

This chapter is good for an DM that uses dragons in their game and either wants to them be more fleshed out as a character or wants them to be a greater threat in combat. 

Chapter 5: Dragon Hall of Fame

Here we get some unique dragons. Bahamut and Tiamat seem "demoted" here to just special unique dragons. Others mentioned are Lareth, Aurus, Nexus, and Lux to name a few, I recognize. 

Chapter 6: New Dragon Species

We have some tables on dragon interbreeding. This section also has Monstrous Compendium style sheets for you to use. They are not numbered, so I wonder if the idea was you cut them out for use? No chance of that today! I'll just print mine from the PDF. These include the Mercury Dragon (with all of page 65's text on the back side!), Dracohydra, Steel Dragon, and Yellow Dragon. 

Chapter 7: Magic

Spells and magic items. I like the idea that some of these spells are so rare that only dragons know them. 

Chapter 8: Hunter's Guide

I mean, the game is called "Dungeons AND Dragons" so hunting dragons will come up. This chapter has some good advice and role-playing tips for both sides of the DM's Screen. 

Chapter 9: Miscellaneous Information

It covers everything else not touched on in the previous chapters, including details on the in-world Draconomicon itself. There is a bit on dragons and Spelljamming too. 

Adventures

The last 30 or so pages gives us three mini-adventures. 

Dragons should be awe-inspiring, or at least terror-inspiring, in the *D&D game and this book moves us a little closer to that. 

For a book about dragons, it is great. I would have eaten this one up back in 1990, but I would have chaffed under Bahamut (and Tiamat) getting such ill-treatment.  As a Forogtten Realms book tit dosen't push my understanding of the Realms any further save for the fact that there are colleges of scholars who spend a lot of time talking about dragons, but little time actually near dragons! (maybe they are smarter!)

It does help build a world where this is some mystery. What about that extinct line of dragons? Where are they? What were they? Can I learn new spells from dragons? What treasures do they hoard?

Great way to start adventuring in the world.

Catching up with Sinéad

Since I am using my character Sinéad as my discovery point of view of the Forgotten Realms, I think it is time I check in with her and her band of adventurers. When we last left them they had run into some trouble in Waterdeep ("Ill Met in Waterdeep" a year ago!). Since then they have been wandering the lands. With this book, my son and I decided that they see a yellow dragon flying overhead, ala, Ash Ketchum and his Ho-oh Pokémon. We thought that was funny given my son's love of dragons and Pokémon growing up. 

The party consists of Sinéad, the thief Nida, the barbarian Jaromir, Rhiannon the witch (not Grenda's Rhiannon), Arnell the cleric, and Argyle the dwarf fighter. Right now I am still using their 1st Edition AD&D sheets, but I will need to update them soon. There are no real barbarians in AD&D 2nd ed, so I think when I do update, Rhiannon and Jaromir will have moved on. Too bad really, I kinda liked Rhiannon. I will have them show up again when Sinéad and company get to Rashemen. We decided that while Nida and Rhiannon get along well, Sinéad and Arnell do not. Well. Sinéad want to know everything about elves from Arnell, but he is uncomfortable talking to a worshiper of Sehanine Moonbow. I am playing him as having a crisis of faith at this point; his faith vs his attraction to Rhiannon. 

Not sure who is making the cut to AD&D 2nd Edition yet, but I better figure it out soon.

The Cypher System was introduced in 2013 with Numenera, the Science Fantasy roleplaying game of exploration and adventure the very far future, published by Monte Cook Games. Numenera would go on to win the 2014 Origins Award for ‘Best New Roleplaying Game’, the 2014 Ennie Award for Best Writing, the 2014 Ennie Award for Best Setting, and 2014 Ennie Award for Product of the Year, be the basis of its own set of mechanics in the form of the Cypher System, and introduce new ideas in terms of roleplaying, such as player-facing mechanics and Game Master Intrusions, a new way of narratively increasing tension and awarding Experience Points. The Cypher System also offered numerous options in terms of Player Characters, expressed in a way that clearly described what each did and which was also exciting. Since the Cypher System first appeared, it has gone on to cover numerous different genres and even be used as the rules for roleplaying games based on a podcast or two. Whilst Numenera would receive its introduction to the game and setting in the form of the Numenera Starter Set in 2017, and even a starter campaign in 2024 with The Glimmering Valley, it is surprising to note that the Cypher System has not had its own starter set, its own introduction to the core game rules in all of that time. However, the Cypher System Starter Set, published in 2024, changes that.
The Cypher System Starter Set comes with two books, ten character sheets, a cheat sheet, a poster map, two mini-decks of cards, and two dice. The two books are the ‘Player’s Book’ and the ‘Game Master’s Book’, both thirty-two pages in length. The ten characters provide pre-generated Player Characters for the two scenarios included in the ‘Game Master’s Book’, one Science Fiction and one fantasy. The poster map provides maps of two locations, the cards—the XP cards and the GM Intrusion Cards—are for handling certain aspects of play, and the dice consist of one twenty-sided die and one six-sided die.
The ‘Player’s Book’ is marked ‘Read This First’. The starting point is an introduction to the Cypher System rather than roleplaying in general, but it provides an overview of what is in the box before leaping into an explanation of the rules. These begin with the eight basic rules, explaining in turn that there are four character types—Warrior, Adept, Explorer, and Speaker, there are three stats—Might, Speed, and Intellect that are pools of points which can be spend for various effects, that players make all the rolls, that the use of abilities can cost points, by spending points or ‘applying Effort’ an action can be made easier, damage suffered reduces the stat pools, but they can be recovered through rest, and any skill can be learned and both skills and assets can make actions easier. With this groundwork laid, the ‘Player’s Book’ expands on these so that in five pages, including how a GM Intrusion works on a roll of one, spending XP for rerolls, the benefits of high rolls, and the damage track, and the reader has a clear and simple explanation of how the rules work. This is followed by an example of play, which to be fair, is not a new example of play, but it works, illustrating how the game works for the reader after he has been told how it works. Having it this close to the rules is also more helpful than having it appear at the end of the book as in some rulebooks for the Cypher System.
This is followed by an explanation of the system’s namesake, the Cyphers, the one-use benefits or powers that can grant a Player Character in play, a list of arms, armour, and equipment for the fantasy and Science Fiction genres as well as the modern day.
Perhaps the biggest surprise in the Cypher System Starter Set is it includes rules for character generation. This is unheard of in any starter set which instead makes use of pre-generated Player Characters. It begins with explaining how the descriptive sentence at heart of every Player Character in the Cypher System works. This sentence has the structure of “I am a [adjective] [noun] who [verbs]”, where the noun is the character’s Type; the adjective a Descriptor, such as Clever or Swift, that defines the character and how he does things; and the verb is the Focus or what the character does that makes him unique. For example, “I am a Fast Warrior Who Needs No Weapons” or “I am a Clever Adept Who Command Mental Powers”. There is a guide for modifying characters, but the rules here, complete with explanations of what each character Type—Warrior, Adept, Explorer, and Speaker—can do along with options for both the Descriptor and Focus. This allows a player to create a wide range of characters, though they cannot advance beyond Tier 1 (the full rules take a Player Character up to Tier 6). Rounded out with a glossary, the ‘Player’s Book’ is a very good introduction to the Cypher System, which the players could refer to in play beyond the contents of the Cypher System Starter Set. It also provides a means of creating characters as well, one with limited options, but also one that does not threaten to overwhelm the prospective player like the Cypher System Rulebook might.
The longer ‘Game Master’s Book’ is marked ‘Read This Second’. It explains how to be a Game Master and handle the rules, including setting task difficulties, awarding XP, combat, and so on. There is an explanation of how Cyphers work in the game and a list of twenty or so Cyphers that can be used in either scenario contained in the ‘Game Master’s Book’. GM Instructions have been mentioned previously in both books, but here they are given a fuller explanation. They are designed to make a situation and the Player Character’s life more interesting or more complicated. For example, the Player Character might automatically set off a trap or an NPC important to the Player Character is imperilled. When this happens, the Game Master hands the character’s player two XP cards. He can keep one of these, but must give one to another player. The player can refuse the intrusion, but that means his character and someone else’s character do not earn any XP. Plus, it is not any fun. A GM Intrusion can also occur if a player rolls a one on any action. There is also a short bestiary in the ‘Game Master’s Book’, but the latter half of the book is taken up by two scenarios.
‘Creeping Ooze’ is the fantasy scenario. In it, the Player Characters are hunting for an Elf Necromancer when they are ambushed by a Necromantic Ooze (and the players’ first GM Intrusion) whose slime leads back to a vault known as the Shattered Seal. The scenario is short, but offers opportunities for combat, exploration, and interaction, including being able to deal with a threat without having to resort to combat. Notes and stats are given in the sidebars, including some inventive GM Intrusions. The Science Fiction scenario is ‘Xambit Station’. The Player Characters are accompanying their friend, Arbiter Jemsen, to Xambit Station where they are to act as his bodyguards and eyes and ears whilst he conducts some talks between the rival Crimson Conglomerate and Ranj Alliance factions. This adventure is more complex than ‘Creeping Ooze’, having a plot and requiring the players and their characters to be more proactive. Arbiter Jemsen directs the Player Characters to essentially snoop around and investigate the station and its personnel to determine if there is any plan or attempt to disrupt the talks. The relative complexity of the scenario means that the sidebars are much busier and there is much for the Player Characters to do, especially in technical and social terms. There is scope for combat in the scenario, but consists primarily of tavern brawls and fistfights in space. Overall, a decent little adventure. Of the two, the ‘Creeping Ooze’ will probably take a session to play through whilst ‘Xambit Station’ will probably take two.
Both scenarios are supported with a set of five pre-generated Player Characters each. The fantasy ones consist of a ‘Stealthy Explorer who Moves Like a Cat’, a ‘Learned Adept who Bears a Halo of Fire’, a ‘Clever Speaker who Works Miracles’, and an ‘Exiled Explorer who Masters Weaponry’, whilst the Science Fiction ones consist of a ‘Stealthy Explorer who Moves Like a Cat’, a ‘Sharp-Eyed Explorer who Pilots Starcraft’, a ‘Clever Adept who Talks to Machines’, an ‘Honourable Warrior who Fuses Flesh and Steel’. Effectively, there are only slight variations in terms of the Player Characters between the two scenarios and whilst that does showcase how very similar characters can work in different genres, it does mean that Player Characters do not make the fullest use of the options presented in the ‘Player’s Book’.
In addition, the poster map gives a map of the Sealed Vault in the ‘Creeping Ooze’ and a map for the scenario called ‘Entombed in Ice’. Which is odd, because that scenario does not appear in the Cypher System Starter Set. The cards in the Cypher System Starter Set consist of two types. The XP Deck is made up of just XP cards. These are nicely illustrated and come with tips for the players and Game Master. The Intrusion deck consists of ideas for GM Intrusions for combat, interaction, and miscellaneous situations that the Game Master can draw from for inspiration.
Physically, Cypher System Starter Set is very nicely produced. It is superbly illustrated and solidly written, so that anyone with some roleplaying experience can pick up the rules very easily.
However, the Cypher System Starter Set is far from perfect. The tuck-style box that it comes in is flimsy, more so given the current format for starter sets. There is probably too much similarity between the Player Characters for the different genres of the two scenarios and more than one Reference Card would have been useful. As would a map of the space station in ‘Xambit Station’, which is a major omission. And the players are definitely going to want more twenty-sided dice. One is not enough. Lastly, it would be nice to see further support for the content of Cypher System Starter Set, perhaps a book of scenarios that would allow the Player Characters in the two scenarios have further adventures.

Overall, the Cypher System Starter Set is a solid introduction to the Cypher System. It is well written and presented with character options aplenty to showcase some of the choices available, and if the scenarios are a little short, they do demonstrate some of the flexibility and possibilities of genre that the Cypher System is capable of supporting.

Your nation and your homeland is peaceful. You and your fellow citizens have known peace for a thousand years. You have prospered and gained great knowledge, but not in the arts of war. That lacking in the arts of war is both your undoing and that of your homeland. For it is under attack. The conquering armies of Styrovites have invaded Lannia and are now sweeping across its green and pleasant land, putting all to the sword and the flame. What hope have you, if not soldiers to field in battle and to protect the innocent, than to turn to that great knowledge—of science and of magic—and seek a remedy in that? As a member of the Council of Sages you have decided that if you cannot train and field an army in time to save Lannia, then you will create an army. Through ancient sorcery and desperate science, you will create soldiers that will serve Lannia and save Lannia, capable of standing up against the barbaric hordes of the Styrovites. In so doing, you have turned to ancient myths and legends for inspiration and named your creations after a spirit who killed the wicked. That spirit was called Orcus. Thus, your super soldiers will be called Orcs, and although you do not know it, they may well be your nation’s undoing and not the Styrovites!

This is the set-up for Dawn of the Orcs, a collective storytelling game played without a Game Master. Published by Lyme and Plasmophage, it can be played solo or it can be played by as many as eight players. It is designed to be played in about two hours or less and requires a six-sided and a ten-sided die to play. The rise of the orcs, the defeat of the Styrovites, and ultimately, the fall of Lannia is told over the course of eight chapters. In the first chapter, the players, as members of the Council of Sages create the Orcs, then in subsequent chapters, they send the Orcs to war and have a chance to modify the Orcs, either to improve their prowess or curb it if a trait is proving too difficult to handle. Whilst all of the members of the Council of Sages agree on the aims of creating the Orcs and using them to defend Lannia, there is scope for betrayal—at least in terms of what the Orcs are. Lastly, although the roleplaying game does not require a Game Master, the players do take it in turn to narrate the outcome of each chapter and break any ties if disagreements about what the council should do are deadlocked.

Each player in Dawn of the Orcs roleplays a member of the Council of Sages. He does not have any stats, but does have a descriptor, an area of expertise, and a title, as well as a motivation. These can be rolled for or created by the player and provide the basis for his roleplaying. The process is simple and fast.

Title: Assistant General of the West
Motivation: Wreak terrible vengeance for all that I have suffered

The Orcs are different. They have four stats—Numbers, Loyalty, Brute, and Clever. Their creation involves deciding how they are made and how they are bound in loyalty to the Lannia. So, if they are forged from sorcery and raw materials, they gain +1 Numbers, but +1 Loyalty if any Lannian can be turned into an Orc. Similarly, if they are bound in loyalty to one person, they gain +2 Loyalty, or bound in loyalty to nothing, they gain +1 to any other stat. In each, the players decide on the answer to a prompt, such as in the case of the being forged from sorcery and raw materials, what they are made from, and if they are bound in loyalty to one person, who that is.

Orcs
Numbers -1 Loyalty 2 Brute 1 Clever 0
Only children under five can be turned into Orcs
They are loyal to the Holy Mother

In subsequent chapters, the Orcs are sent into battle. For example, the first is ‘The Slaughter of Shrike Forest’ when the Orcs strike at an encampment of Styrovites in the middle of the night. To determine if the Orcs win, the Council of Sages decides on a stratagem. This is a value equal to the combination of any two of the Orcs’ stats, to which the roll of a six-sided die is added. If it beats the target set for the battle, the Orcs are victorious. At the end of the battle, the Orcs Warp and almost bodily learn from the conflict, as if in constant flux through the stress of combat. For example, the Orcs might learn to fly into a battle rage and gain +1 Brute or gain the ability to see at night and +1 Clever. The Orcs gain more of these Warps from victory than from defeat. In the aftermath of the battle, the Council of Sages can Shift the Orcs, each Shift granting a benefit as well as a penalty. For example, the Council of Sages could decide to educate the Orcs which means that they gain +1 Clever and suffer -1 Loyalty. The Council of Sages can choose as many or as few Shifts as it once, but they do balance each other out and they may also be cancelled if a Sage decides to betray the council to change a decision. Each Sage only gets to betray the council once.

The play of the game revolves around selecting the right stratagem—the combination of two stats—to add to the roll to defeat the enemy and win or lose each battle, and decide on what stats to improve afterwards. The catch is that once a combination has been used, whether that is Clever plus Numbers or Loyalty plus Brute, it cannot be used again. So, the players also need to improve as many stats as they can to defeat the invaders rather than focus on the one stat, since it can only be used a limited number of times. At the end of each chapter, the narrator will tell the story of what happened, whether the Orcs were defeated or triumphed.

After five chapters, which will see the Orcs fight the Styrovites again and again, eventually invading the Styrovite heartlands, the Orcs are no longer wanted in Lannia and no longer want to serve Lannia. They mutiny. The members of the Council of Sages can side with Lannia or with the Orcs and the outcome of the mutiny decided on the highest roll of the two factions. There are multiple outcomes for the result, depending upon whether the mutiny was successful and what the highest Orc stat is. For example, if the Orc mutiny is a success and Clever is their highest stat, they overthrow the government of Lannia, but if a failure and their highest stat is Clever, they form nomadic bands which serve as mercenaries. Each of the possible outcomes is accompanied by a narrative prompt.

Although there are eight different outcomes at the end of Dawn of the Orcs, there is limited variation in terms of the battles fought. To that end, Dawn of the Orcs includes four bonus chapters that can randomly replace the middle chapters of the campaign against the Styrovites. This adds further variety and replayability beyond the first few playthroughs of Dawn of the Orcs. The roleplaying game does include forms that the players can use in chapter, but they are not absolutely required to play.

Physically, Dawn of the Orcs is a short, clean and tidy book. It is easy to read and the artwork is decent. The forms for the game are slightly tight in their layout.

Dawn of the Orcs is a dark fantasy roleplaying game that tells the story of the desperate defence of a country and its possible victory and potential fall. The clarity of writing means that it is easy to pick up and play, and in fact, anyone with roleplaying experience will be able to play this from the page. The familiarity of the theme—a country in peril turning to desperate measures and the creation of Orcs as effectively, super soldiers—contributes to that ease of play, that theme almost being a twisted version of Saruman creating his army of Uruk-hai in The Lord of the Rings. To the point that the non-gamers will find it as easy to play as veteran gamers. Lastly, its size and brevity means that Dawn of the Orcs is easy to carry and play almost anywhere. Dawn of the Orcs is a very accessible and very easy to play storytelling game that needs no preparation and has a story that everyone can grasp.

Biplant is the corporate successor to Oritet.  They recently released these sets of elves with dragonriders including three colors of dragons.   They are about 60mm.

In the weird and otherworldly Bazaar of the Gods in Punjar, the City of a Thousand Gates, stand temples, chapels, and churches to gods, goddesses, and demi-gods of almost an unknown number. Cults and faiths have risen and fallen, been promoted and persecuted, banished and proselytised, yet still wide-eyed madmen stalk the streets pronouncing the end of days, heathens fall under mail-clad priests their skulls crushed underfoot, and pale, trembling virgins are offered up in sacrifice within soot-stained temples. Yet none of these cults and faiths have the power and will to challenge the greatest of mysteries and the last great step that every man will take—the terrifying finality of death! Death, though, has come to the company of Player Characters and perhaps they have the audacity to challenge that mystery and not only take that last great step, but come back to the land of the living. For this, they will need to approach the Witch of Saulim, for it is widely believed that this wretched crone, whose strange prophecies are often bewildering, but always unerringly true, holds the secret to stealing souls from death.

This is the set-up for Dungeon Crawl Classics #74: Blades Against Death, the seventh scenario to be published by Goodman Games for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. Designed by Harley Stroh for a group of six to ten Fourth Level Player Characters, this is a swords & sorcery-style city-based adventure that takes place in Punjar, a city in the land of Aéreth, which previously appeared in earlier iterations of Dungeon Crawl Classics scenarios, mostly recently, Dungeon Crawl Classics #70: Jewels of the Carnifex. Where that scenario dealt with one aspect death in the world of Aéreth, Dungeon Crawl Classics #74: Blades Against Death deals with the other, so in some ways, it might be seen as a companion piece to Dungeon Crawl Classics #70: Jewels of the Carnifex. Consequently, it does suffer from the same issue as Dungeon Crawl Classics #70: Jewels of the Carnifex, and that is that the lack of information about Punjar readily available. Fortunately, the scenario does include some knowledge—common and uncommon—that the Player Characters might know, ranging from what serfs, peasants, and common freemen know to what priests, the nobility, and sages know. This at least, should provide the players and their characters with the basics. Also provided is another hook to get the Player Characters if they have not lost a companion to death and want to see him returned to the land of the living. This is a job offer by a pampered son of a merchant lord for the Player Characters to steal back his lover. Now, of course, as the scenario makes clear, Dungeon Crawl Classics is not a roleplaying game that has much truck with the dead coming back to life and even lacks the equivalent of a Raise Dead spell. So, a scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game which does deal with the Player Characters bringing someone back from the dead has at least to be some different, if not something special, and definitely not to be taken lightly.

The quest consists of three acts. In the first, the Player Characters pay a visit to the Witch of Saulim, a seemingly mad old crone who will perform a reading for them using her tarot-like deck of cards, plaques of Thoth-Ruin. These predications both provide a course of action for the Player Characters and the direction of the scenario’s plot. The reading boils down to four cards—all nicely done as full-colour handouts that the Judge can lay out before her players—of which the Witch of Saulim informs them they must choose one. For the players there is no wrong choice. Whichever card they decide on, their characters gain an immediate blessing that lasts the whole of the adventure and also grants a permanent bonus if they survive. In the second act, the Player Characters undertakes the quest’s first task proper. This is to break or sneak into the Temple of the Moon and from there steal the cult’s most sacred relic, the Argent Falx. This is a legendary weapon said to be capable of cutting the chains of death. Stealing this is no easy task as the sword only manifests at the culmination of a ceremony held on the night of the full moon and so the players and their characters have to be both timely and clever if they are to carry of the heist. Staged in the great pyramid Temple of the Moon, this has an epic if sinister feel and once the Player Characters pull the heist off, they will have greatly enhanced their reputations in some quarters. If, however, the Player Characters are careless and leave clues behind as to their identities, the Temple of the Moon will send thief takers after them to capture them and bring them back to the temple for retribution!

The third is where the scenario crosses over with Dungeon Crawl Classics #70: Jewels of the Carnifex as the Player Characters descend into the Charnel Pits below Punjar’s streets. This is a place of foul unreality in which a combination of desire, madness, and revenge have gummed up the works, preventing hundreds of souls from crossing over into the lands of the dead, suffusing the house with ghosts and other undead. There is a tragedy at the heart of this act, one whose groundwork is laid at its start, that perceptive players and their characters can use to their advantage, but to do so, they must pick their way past a perverse bureaucracy and a Masque of the Red-like banquet for the undead. If the Temple of the Moon is ancient in its feel, then the Charnel Pits have a gothic tone of death and decay. Lastly, once the Player Characters have overcome the impasse prevents the dead from passing on, they can following in their footsteps and enter the Realms of the Dead. In gloriously classic fashion, here the Player Characters have to play a game of cards with Death’s concubine and vicereine (and if they dare it, even with Death himself), gambling with their souls for the return of their friend (or the mistress of the merchant lord’s son). The game makes use of the cards used earlier in the scenario in the Witch of Saulim’s reading. It is a great ending to the scenario.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #74: Blades Against Death is a tough adventure—well, the Player Characters are going up against Death—and it may be too tough for Third Level Player Characters. Like the earlier Dungeon Crawl Classics #70: Jewels of the Carnifex, it does feel as if it would be suitable addition to a campaign set in the city of Lankhmar as detailed in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, though unlike Dungeon Crawl Classics #70: Jewels of the Carnifex, it is not directly inspired by the tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Again though, being designed for Third Level Player Characters for standard Dungeon Crawl Classics play, it is probably too tough an adventure, given the comparitive lack of healing and magic in Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar, for similar Level Player Characters, but adjust that and the Judge will have a fine addition to her campaign. That aside, whether the Judge decides to set it in the city of Lankhmar or not, it is still a great Swords & Sorcery-style scenario.

In addition to the main adventure, Dungeon Crawl Classics #74: Blades Against Death also includes a second adventure, ‘The Abbot of the Woods’, also by Harley Stroh. This is a mini-adventure for a party of five to eight Player Characters of First to Third Level in which they follow the legend of the Abbott’s Hoard, which tells of a high priest who led his congregation into the wilderness in search of a life free of vice and sin and who took with him much in way of treasure and relics. There are also whispers of heresy and rumours of the priest’s true aims, so more than enough to attract the Player Characters. In fact, it turns out that both whispers and rumours are true, for like many a villain in fantasy roleplaying playing, he sought out a way to live beyond his years and stave off death. What the Player Characters discover is a giant reliquary which contains both the treasures that the priest brought with him and the various parts of the priest that live on immortal. As the Player Characters investigate and loot, they quickly unleash him enabling him to take control of the dungeon and turn it against them. It is a really entertaining twist on immortal evil and mad NPCs and dungeons as the enemy, though slightly too tough an adventure, especially for Player Characters of First Level. They are recommended as being accompanied by a ready supply of Zero Level NPCs ready to step in case of Player Characters death, which suggests that the scenario is not quite suitable for player Characters of First Level. Nevertheless, ‘The Abbot of the Woods’ is an entertaining dungeon, which with its theme of immortality could carry on the theme of death from the main scenario in the book.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics #74: Blades Against Death is well done. The scenario is decently written and the artwork is overall good as is the cartography.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #74: Blades Against Death takes what is almost a formality in some Dungeons & Dragons-style games and turns it into an adventure. In other words, instead of simply casting Resurrection to restore a Player Character to life, the other Player Characters have to go and rescue him from Death! And if they manage to do so, not only will they have had a memorable adventure, then they will also have cemented party comradeship. This is definitely a scenario that works better if the Player Characters have to rescue one of their own number, rather than doing it for an NPC because in the case the latter, the stakes are simply not as high. That said, what the player of the dead character who is being rescued is doing in the meantime is left for the Judge to address. In whatever way the scenario is run, it provides a great mix of combat, stealth, and roleplaying encounters.

 Yeah. Ok. I know last week I said I wasn't going to do these anymore. BUT both of these Kickstarters are prime examples of why I think Kickstarter is a good thing.

Let's get into them.

In Booty n' Lust

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/djinnintheshade/in-booty-n-lust?ref=theotherside

Djinn has long been a good friend and I love her art. Her newest art book features her central original witch character Solaine and her band of mischievous and amorous pirates. 

I featured her last book here and it was a huge success. 

This is the reason why Kickstarter works. It given smaller publishers and creatives the means to make their visions a reality. 

She is also doing a "crossover" with the comic Dawn of Time #1 - NSFW, Time Travel Adventure Series. So that is worth checking out as well.

Hero Forge: Custom Dice

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/heroforge/custom-dice?ref=theotherside

HeroForge owes its very existence to Kickstarter. Once the idea of DIY custom minis that can be 3D printed was a dream. Then they added color. Well, while this is not the next step in their evolution, it is certainly a big, bold step.

Custom dice to match your minis.

It is a wonderful idea and adds even more value to an already valuable service.

--

There. Djinn and HeroForge made a liar out of me, but both are for great products. 

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—

Most magazines for the roleplaying hobby give the gamer support for the game of his choice, or at the very least, support for the hobby’s more popular roleplaying games. Whether that is new monsters, spells, treasures, reviews of newly released titles, scenarios, discussions of how to play, painting guides, and the like… That is how it has been all the way back to the earliest days of The Dragon and White Dwarf magazines. Wyrd Science is different in that it is about gaming and the culture of gaming as well as the games themselves rather providing support for specific titles—and Wyrd Science Vol. 1/Issue 4 is different to the previous issues. Where both Wyrd Science Session Zero and Wyrd Science – Expert Rules adopted the ‘BECMI’ colour coding of the colours and the focus upon fantasy and the Old School Renaissance, and Wyrd Science – The Horror Issue (Wyrd Science Vol. 1/Issue 3) focused on the horror genre, Wyrd Science Vol. 1/Issue 4 comes with no announced theme. This does not mean that there are no themes with the issue, but rather that they are simply part of the issue rather than a feature. Thus, Wyrd Science Vol. 1/Issue 4 is very much more of an ordinary issue, setting the standard for future non-special issues to come.
Wyrd Science Vol. 1/Issue 4 was published in April, 2023 by Best in Show. It opens with a quartet of interviews. ‘PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED: SoulMuppet Publishing’ is with Zach Cox and explores how he co-founded the company and has developed it to the point where he began to experiment and begin to support authors from outside of the English-speaking hobby, such as with the ‘LATAM Breakout series’ for South American creators. Cox gives his views on the then changing nature of the hobby, how Kickstarter is being used by fewer and fewer would be publishers, who are then looking for other options. Nevertheless, he offers advice on how to run a successful Kickstarter project, but also highlights the difficulties in distribution that affect retail in particular. Although two years old, there is much within the interview that are still pertinent now. ‘CAST POD: What Am I Rolling?’ is part of the magazine’s regular series with podcasters, this time with Fiona Howat of the What I am Rolling? podcast, which hosts and runs one-shot games and in the process, showcases a wide variety of games. It is a nice introduction to the podcast and includes advice on trying new games and introducing new games to other players. ‘MAGIC GATHERINGS: Big Bad Con’ interviews the organisers of the California gaming convention which in recent years has shifted to offering a safer, more diverse, and inclusive space and encouraging the participation of persons from minority and LGBTQI+ groups. This showcases a fantastic effort to make the hobby a more welcoming place, one that should perhaps be looked to by other conventions.
Where the interviews are conducted by John Power Jr., Stuart Martyn kicks off the first of the issue’s themes with ‘The Game is Afoot’. As the title of the article suggests, that theme is investigative games, Martyn highlights roleplaying hobby’s fascination with mysteries and investigations. It pinpoints the issues with this type of scenario—their inherent logic puzzle nature which can frustrate some players and the capacity to miss clues. The primary solutions are twofold. First is to make the clues easy to find or automatically found, as in the GUMSHOE System, or have the solution to the mystery determined through play, as in Brindlewood Bay. Both feature heavily in the article and show how to date, the hobby has yet to come up with any better for the investigative style of scenario. ‘Scry Me a River’ by John Power Jr. neatly complements ‘The Game is Afoot’ and continues the investigative theme. This is a look at Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Game, which is based on the series of Urban Fantasy procedurals by Ben Aaronovitch and includes an interview with its creator, Lynn Hardy, exploring its genesis and development, made all the more interesting because the author has experience of gaming. There is even a list of tips from Hardy about running investigative games to go alongside it.
‘Bandes On The Run’ by Luke Frostick brings the investigative theme to a close with a look at and interview with Krister Sundelin, the creator of The Troubleshooters: An Action-Adventure Roleplaying Game, Swedish publisher Helmgast’s roleplaying game based on French and Belgian bande dessinée comics. This covers a wide range of inspirations from James Bond to the action-adventure television of the nineteen sixties and explores the heavier feeling mechanics. The Troubleshooters is a great little game that has not made the impact it deserved and it is nice to see it covered here. ‘Bad Moon Rising’, Mira Manga’s interview with Becky Annison, author of Werewolves of Britain for Liminal, continues the Urban Fantasy theme of Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Game, in exploring her inspirations for the supplement, some of it quite personal, in creating a very good expansion for the game and its setting.
‘Now is The Time of Monsters’ takes interviewer John Power Jr and Dave Allen, producer for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition in a then totally different direction, something that the roleplaying game had been waiting decades for, despite the wargame it is based upon, visiting it more than once across its numerous editions. This is the supplement, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Lustria, which details the mysterious continent far away from the Old World. It quickly catches up with the history of the current edition in publishing what is a director’s cut of the classic campaign, The Enemy Within, and then moves beyond that. It explores what an updated version of the Lustria looks like for the twenty-first century hobby and how it presents the players and their characters to engage in different, but no less deadly environment.
Walton Wood’s examination of the retroclone, Errant, and interview with its creator, Ava Islam, ‘Dragons Are Fucking Cool, Man’ starts off in slightly abstract fashion, explaining it pushes away from the classic design of Dungeons & Dragons-style play, attempting to be rules light, but ‘procedure heavy’ in terms of scope. The explanation is not really clear enough, but once the article begins telling you what you play—downtrodden outcasts ever wanting to improve their lifestyles and fund the lifestyles they have combined with Levelling requiring high expenditure of gold pieces in acts of ‘Conspicuous Consumption’—it does impart a sense of what the is about at the least. Ultimately, what is clear is that Errant is the designer’s commentary on the Old School Renaissance movement and it is far from a positive one. This combined with often obtuse explanations upon the part of the designer and the reader is left feeling dissatisfied.
‘Veni, Vidi, Ludo’ by Ciro Alessandro Sacco presents a fascinating history of the Italian gaming and roleplaying hobby, beginning with the importation of Avalon Hill and SPI wargames in the nineteen sixties and seventies and moving through bootleg versions of Dungeons & Dragons to early roleplaying games such as Signori del Caos—or The Lords of Chaos—published by Black Out Editrice in 1983 and then most spectacularly, the Mentzer version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons by Editrice Giochi in 1985. It is a great introduction and it is a pity that there is not scope for further examination of these early Italian roleplaying games. The breezy article comes to a close all too soon, leaving the reader with any interest in the history of roleplaying games wanting more. It is followed by a short overview of some of the Italian roleplaying games and settings then available in English, including Lex Arcana, Fabula Ultima, and Brancalonia.
The last few articles in the issue explore a handful of boardgames that are very close to the roleplaying hobby, whether that is because of their subject matter or because their publisher also publishes roleplaying games. Three of them combine to give the magazine its second theme—dungeon crawling and board games. The first, ‘Dungeon Crawling Classics’ by Matt Thrower is not, as the title might suggest about the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game from Goodman Games, but a history of the dungeon crawler board game, from Dungeon!, published by TSR, Inc. in 1975 to Descent: Journeys in the Dark published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2005 and its more recent 2021 update, Descent: Legends of the Dark. Also discussed here is HeroQuest, the boardgame from Milton Bradley and Games Workshop that introduced dungeon exploration-style play to a wider audience in the early nineteen nineties. It explores the enduring appeal of the format—its familiarity, excitement, and camaraderie—combined with a physical format that leans into the roleplaying style of Dungeons & Dragons, whilst providing a ready realisation of the action that Dungeons & Dragons does not (at least not without a lot of extra accessories). There are a lot of dungeon crawler board games that the article could have covered and it would have been interesting to look at those options, but overall, this is good introduction to the genre.
Matt Thrower follows this up with ‘The Big Chill’ in which he interviews Isaac Childres, the designer of the mammoth dungeon crawler and adventure game, Gloomhaven, discussing its development and that of its follow up, Frosthaven. There is some similarity between this and other interviews with the designer, such as that which has appeared in the pages of Senet magazine. What this means is that there is not much being said here that is new, but for anyone unaware of Gloomhaven and its heft and effect upon the hobby, this is worth reading. Andi Ewington returns to the classic HeroQuest with ‘Quest Drive’ and how he brought the new version of the board game from Avalon Hill into his home and got his family, some of them slightly reluctantly. It is a fun piece that brings the theme to a close with large dollop of nostalgia.
Finally, the issue comes to close with ‘Trading Places’. Here Emma Partlow talks to Max McCall from Wizards of the Coast to explore how Magic: the Gathering has with its ‘Universes Beyond’ line, produced expansions that draw on the intellectual properties of other publishers. For example, the television series, Stranger Things, and the miniatures wargame, Warhammer 40,000. It does point out that the response to these expansions have been mixed, some embracing them, others seeing them as a distraction from the more traditional fantasy releases for the collectible trading card game, but the point is made that the ‘Universes Beyond’ sets are attracting the interest of fans of the universes they are based on and thus attracting new players. The article is illustrated with some great artwork drawn from the series, but does not show how that artwork will be displayed on the cards, which would perhaps have sold the idea better.
‘LOOT DROP: Automatic Dice Roller’ and ‘LOOT DROP: More Random Treasure’ highlights some gaming knickknacks that might appeal to some gamers, the former also including an interview with the creator of the electronic dice roller from Critical Machine for those who want another means apart from rolling dice, whilst the latter includes a The Wicker Man-style effigy wax candle, complete with wax Sergeant Howe and the Win or Booze beer from breweryDeviant + Dandy which has a game on the back of the label. The best though is the Githyanki action figure from Super7 based on the Erol Otus’s classic cover image for the Fiend Folio. More interesting though, is ‘Hit Points’, the reviews section which takes in a good mix of board games, roleplaying games, and books. The board games include Undaunted Stalingrad from Osprey Games and the magazine’s ‘Game of the Month’ and Rebellion Games’ redone Judge Dredd: The Game of Crime-Fighting in Mega-City One, whilst the roleplaying games reviewed range from Cy_Borg and The Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game Starter Set to Out of the Ashes and A Folklore Bestiary. Of course, reviewing reviews is something of a busman’s holiday, so ultimately, although the reviews all both interesting and informative, the most interesting are those of the books, Alan Moore and Ian Gibson’s The Ballard of Halo Jones, and Michael Molcher’s I Am The Law about 2000 AD’s Judge Dredd and how it influenced modern policing, both from Rebellion, are the more intriguing.

Physically, Wyrd Science Vol. 1/Issue 4 is clean and tidy, neatly laid out and well written. The artwork is well judged too and overall, the magazine looks great.

Wyrd Science Vol. 1/Issue 4 is a good rather than great issue. It is at its best when exploring something lesser known like Big Bad Con in ‘MAGIC GATHERINGS: Big Bad Con’ and its diversity programme or the look at Italian roleplaying games in ‘Veni, Vidi, Ludo’, but also taking a sidestep to look at something familiar, the dungeon crawl style game, in a different format, the board game with ‘Dungeon Crawling Classics’ and ‘Quest Drive’.

I pulled a Dragon for today, started in on it, and got about a quarter through it before I realized it was one I had done already. I had a duplicate in my stack. Ah well. So instead, we go back to December 1989, the Eve of the 1990s. On the radio "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel and "Another Day in Paradise" by Phil Collins dominate. Gunge is still a little bit away for the mainstream. "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" and "Back to the Future II" dominate the box office. And on game tables and shelves everywhere is issue # 152 of This Old Dragon!

My copy lacks a cover, so I grabbed this image off of my Dragon Magazine CD-ROM. All these later and that purchase keeps paying off.

Our cover is by none other than the illustrious and late Jennell Jaquays. 

Letters discuss the issues of the day, namely more about the über-ridiculous character Waldorf and challenges to his title. Hopefully that is the last of that. Nitpicks on Hawks vs. Falcons and some bits on spells and dragon hunting. 

In his Editorial, Roger E. Moore discusses helping others in hard times, which was a novelty then and is talked about more and more now. In particular, he mentioned that gaming conventions rarely give to charity, whereas now that is much more commonplace. 

Forum has some discussions on using other game systems to aid D&D DMs (Marvel Super Heroes is given as the example), a thought that D&D in not really Medieval Europe, but 20th Century Earth where magic has prevented technology from advancing (neat idea really) and some ideas on various humanoids played intelligently. 

Sage Advice gives us some rule clarifications on the NEW AD&D 2nd Edition rules. 

Our Special Feature of this issue is all about the Underdark. Ok, this could be fun. Since I had to switch gears, I am discovering all of this issue as I write.

Up first, a nice surprise, Tony Jones (a name I don't recall) is up with The Ecology of the Umber Hulk. It's a rare (for the time) non-Ed Greenwood ecology article. Also I admit a certain fondness for the Umber Hulk. I think it was because when I first read about him in the Monster Manual, he was so different than other monsters I had seen before. Like all good Ecology of articles the details here can be used in any edition/version of the game. While the Umber Hulk growth table would need to be adjusted per game, the data is still good. There is even a good bibliography. 

Ads for Buck Rogers books and Activision video games. 

Thomas M. Kane is up with In a Cavern, In a Canyon. This covers metallurgy in fantasy games, though the emphasis is obviously AD&D here. It is still good and useful information and again, easily adaptable to new versions of the game. 

Another ad for the Science Fiction Book Club, which I am sad to report, has shut down after 70 years.

The Wanderers Below is a good set of random encounter tables from Buddy Pennington. The art is from module S4 by Jim Holloway and the list could be AD&D 2nd ed or 1st, I can't really tell to be honest. Likely works for both.

We break up our feature with Role-Playing Reviews from Jim Bambra. He covers Twilight: 2000, Top Secret S.I. and GURPS High Tech. 

Registration page for Gen Con 1990.

Eric Oppen is back with Servants of the Jeweled Dagger, a bit abotu the lives and habits of the duegar, the gray dwarves. It is a little like an Ecology of article, but less game stats. Not a bad piece at all. I read while thinking about the duegar you encounter in Baldur's Gate 3. It still works. 

None other than R.A. Salvatore is up for the fiction section The First Notch.

Greg Minter is next, is what is a loose interpretation on today's theme, In Quest of Adventure. It covers all sorts of quests, but for me the real treat is the Stephen Fabian art. 

My issue lacks the giant poster advertised. No idea what it was. 

The late Jim Ward waxes philosophical on "what do the simple folk do?" in The Game Wizards. He discusses well, I am not sure, it is a little rambling. 

The Lessers are all back with more video game reveiws in The Role of Computers. They loved DragonWars for the Apple II, and enjoyed The Kristal for the Amiga. They also got in a couple of MS-DOS games like Beyond the Black Hole and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. From what I can tell these are graphic (as in EGA) games and not text-based ones. An important distinction at this time that will soon no longer matter. 

TSR Previews gives us the new games and accessories for November and December 1989. A few novels to support the Top Secret, Dragonlance, and Buck Rogers lines.  Monstrous Compendium vol 3, the Bloodstone Lands, Pool of Radiance novel, and Kara-Tur trail maps leave no doubt that the Forgotten Realms is the darling of the time. 

Spider-Man to Wed Vanna White! from Fraser Sherman gives us the best article title of the issue. He discusses how to use real-world events in your Marvel Super Heroes games. I just watched the first two episodes of the Disney+ "Daredevil Born Again" and I can say Marvel does not have an issue using real world events in their tales.

Robert Bigelow has more new miniatures for us in Through the Looking Glass. I rather like the Joker and Batman minis from Grenadier Models. Very much in support of the Batman RPG. They have a real Neal Adams meet Jim Lee feel to them.

The Convention Calendar covers the last bit of 1989 and the winter of 1990. In general, I think there were more conventions back then. Am I wrong? I don't know. The Egyptian Campaign is listed. I can't recall if I went then or not. 

Not to be forgotten, we still have Make the Most of Your Missions from Merle and Jackie Rasmussen. This covers mission starters for the Top Secret SI game. 

Dragonmirth has our comics. Gamers Guide has our small ads. Among the ads is one to allow you edit your IBM versions of characters for Might and Magic and Pool of Radiance games. Just $15! Lots of ads produced on what look like AppleWriter printers.  Walter Moore will also draw your character, also just $15. Wonder if he is still in business?

Back page ads for the AD&D 2nd Edition Monstrous Compendiums and Spelljamer. 

So not a bad issue really. The special feature had a lot of material and nearly all of it is still useful today. The tone has shifted completely to AD&D 2nd edition and away from 1st Edition or Basic/BECMI. This will continue until all other games except those from TSR are shut out. Dragon was not unique with this, all game magazines were doing this. 

The underdark features were good and ones I can see myself using. I still love looking at all the old ads too.

 This past week, I finished a couple of newer witch-related TV shows. One was because we watched it all, and the other was because I just couldn't finish it. Both were based on popular books.

A Discovery of Witches

This was the treatment of Deborah Harkness's books. I read book 1 and book 2 some time back and had issues with them, enough that I avoided the series until now. But my wife wanted to watch it, and who am I to say no? 

Well. I am happy to report that the series was much better than the books. A lot of what annoyed me about the books was lessened or done differently when it hit the small screen. Diana Bishop was much more assertive in this, and any issues she had with being uncertain about the world of "creatures" were just that: uncertainty about a world she had chosen not to participate in not because she deflected to Matthew all the time. She even showed off some power which was nice. 

The casting was good, really, with Alex Kingston as a constant favorite. Matthew Goode performed well as the vampire Matthew Clairmont, making him much more interesting than he was on the page. Teresa Palmer was good as the witch Diana, though often I felt the script worked against the part she was trying to play. There were moments when the Diana I wanted to see came out. But maybe my expectations were out of line. Swedish actress Malin Buska was Finnish witch Satu Järvinen, who got a much larger role in television. Honestly, I wanted a lot more of her. Even Emily gets better treatment here, even though she still dies in the end of Season 2/Book 2. But it was not an empty, off stage death like it was in the books.

They made a little more sense of the time travel aspects, which is good, cause the book made zero sense. Still the rules of Diana's Time-Walking are a bit fuzzy.

I can't judge how well the story in Season 3 stuck to the events in Book 3, but it was much better than expected series. It also was nice to watch a series with a proper beginning, middle, and end. 

It was produced by Doctor Who's Bad Wolf Studio, which also gave us the televised version of "His Dark Materials" (for more great witch moments). Netflix described it as "Outlander meets Twilight," and that is fair. 

All in all, it was enjoyable and redeemed the books in my mind. I mean, I am not going back to re-read them, but the bad after-taste is gone.

Mayfair Witches

I really, really, REALLY wanted to enjoy this one. The AMC version of "Interview with a Vampire" has been great even with, or maybe because of, the changes. And I loved Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches books. Well...the first two anyway. And I adore Alexandra Daddario, who I still hope will get to play Zatanna one day soon.

But this show is a train wreck. Ok, the casting is great really. Harry Hamlin is brilliant as Cortland Mayfair, Beth Grant gave us a Carlotta Mayfair you both want to hate and understand at the same time. 

But there are just so many places where this show doesn't fall short; it falls right on its face.

Lasher is just annoying. Not the evil pervasive influence in the lives of the Mayfairs, but more like a stalker boyfriend or that ghost Beverly Crusher was having sex with in Star Trek: The Next Generation. 

And where the hell is Michael Curry? Some other characters are missing or seem to be merged with others. For example, Ciprien Grieve seems to be a combination between Aaron Lightner and Michael Curry. 

There is also a fair share of "idiot plot" here, the characters, who should be smarter than this, doing stupid things. 

I am not sure how far I am in this one, but I am ready to bail. I mean it has been 25+ years since I read these books, maybe my opinion of them could be less favorable now, but the series is just not great. 

Netflix still has a few more witch series I can check out, maybe one of the European ones I should check out.

Honorable (??) mention, Tidelands

Ok. I am slightly embarrassed to admit this one. 

Described as "beautiful garbage" by IMDB it is really an excuse to watch attractive Australian people run around without any clothes on. It deals with a group of people known as "Tidelanders" who are the offspring of sirens. They have a drug smuggling operation to fund their Queen's (Elsa Pataky) search for an ancient Sumerian (sure why not) clay horn that summons sirens (their mothers) and maybe destroys all the men in world? or Humans? Not clear. There is a rogue Tidelander, Cal aka Caliope (Charlotte Best), who spent 10 years in jail for a murder her human mother set her up for. She is really a powerful Tidelander and her brother (full human) sells all the drugs. 

Cal takes a lot of showers, a lot of baths, has sex with a lot of people and learns that the Queen wants her dead. 

The series ends on a cliffhanger and that was from 2018. Though given the lifespan of Tidelanders Season 2 could take place 10 from now. 

Why mention it? Well, it came up on my suggested watching and I was done with Mayfair Witches. My wife and binged watched the whole thing just to see how bad it would be. Spoiler it was bad. But like I said beautiful garbage. 

Maybe I should go back to watching questionable and dubious documentaries on Tubi.

Use in NIGHT SHIFT

I think I have done witches in NIGHT SHIFT, but the idea of Tidelanders, or more specifically the offspring of sirens or mermaids, has not been done by me.

Photo by Polina TankilevitchDaughters of Tiamat

I'll take the Sumerian horn seriously for a minute and say that these half-sirens are offspring of the ancient Goddess Tiamat. Back when she was spawning monsters to fight the new Gods, one of her creatures was the Siren. Their role was to seduce and kill Tiamat's enemies. They also worshipped Dagon, but their ancestry is from Tiamat.

Sirens (full or half) gain the following abilities.

Saving Throws: Sirens gain +3 to Toughness Saving throws. This increases by +1 per 3 levels (3, 6, 9, etc.)

Ability Bonus: Sirens gain +1 to Strength and +1 to Toughness. This may raise their abilities above 20.

Sea Adapted: Sirens can breathe air or water with equal ease. Full-blooded sirens adapt quickly, while half-sirens need one round to fully adapt to breathing the new element. Additionally, Sirens can see in darker depths and withstand the pressures of deep-sea life.

Charming Voice: Sirens can charm as per the spell. Once per day per the number of character levels the siren has.

Slow Aging: Sirens age slower than humans to age of about 300 years. Subject to their Feed (below).

The Feed: Sirens must return to the water, particularly the oceans or seas, or they will begin to lose their abilities and age like humans. Abilities are lost at random for each month, whether the half-siren is land-bound or each day, the full-blooded siren is.

Many sirens also believe that they must lure a human to the water to drown. In truth, they are compelled to do so, and they do derive pleasure from the act, but it is not required to keep their powers. 

 Nice little weekend mail call this past weekend for today. A game I backed due to interactions with the creators.

Nightbound is a Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) game from Creative Jam Games of modern urban horror. It was originally named "Nightshift" but we (Elf Lair Games that is) had to let them know that name was being used for our modern urban horror RPG already. They were super cool about it and changed their game to Nightbound. Because of that we all (ELG) promised to back their Kickstarter.  Well, the books are now coming in.

The game is great looking as you an see. While I am not a huge fan of Powered by the Apocalypse games, this one has a lot of potential. Plus they have a lot more titles than I knew about. 

I have a "Plays Well With Others" for this coming up, but I am waiting on one other thing first. 

Also, and I said this before, there is room on my shelves and table for more than one modern horror game, and I am certain that whatever version of "Night Shift" people choose to play, there are plenty of ideas from the other game to use as well. 

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. 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: Blackthorne Bridge Club: New TricksPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Gavin Bastiensz

Setting: New York, 1924Product: Scenario
What You Get: Fifty-five page, 4.39 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Madness in an asylum, who would have thought it?
Plot Hook: Will it take half the corpse to put the plot together, or the whole body?Plot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, thirteen NPCs, and one Mythos monster.Production Values: Plain
Pros# A sequel to Blackthorne Bridge Club# More of a standard investigation than its predecessor# Nicely detailed pre-generated Investigators, complete with secrets# Intriguing showdown# Pleasing sense of closure to one personal plot strand# Chronomentrophobia# Apotemnohobia# Chronophobia
Cons# Needs a slight edit# A timeline would have helped with the structure# What are the Investigators supposed to do with Theodore Roosevelt in 1923?
Conclusion# Disappointing sequel that just feels a bit woolly# Showdown has mammoth ramifications barely touched upon