I just got back home from GenCon 2021.  We had a great time.  We stayed in masks a lot and we spent a little more time playing games in our room and outside, but all in all, we took a lot of precautions, washed hands a lot, and of course got vaccinated a while back.  

For this Con, I did not continue the Order of the Platinum Dragon campaign.  I have been building something cool for it and taking it to Gen Con would have been a pain in the ass.  Instead, we continued on with the War of the Witch Queens campaign.  Everyone really took to Basic Ear D&D well and my son even bought his own copies of Old-School Essentials.

We picked up our Old-School Essentials at the Games Plus booth. They had a bunch on Day 1 and were completely sold out by Day 3!

Oh. And despite some claims to the contrary, Gen Con was still full and there were plenty of people here.  We spoke to a few of the restaurant workers and a few owners and they were thrilled that Gen Con was back, even in this limited fashion.

People stayed in masks, for the most part. Though we are still going to quarantine for a bit just to be safe. 

We picked up some great games too.  The kids both work now so they were able to spend their own money. Which is great, cause I bought a lot for me.

So far our favorite has been The Red Dragon Inn by Slugfest Games.  We had a blast with it. I have been wanting it for a bit now and I am glad we got it.

We played some NIGHT SHIFT and that was great.  While we were playing this guy stopped to see what we were playing. He mentioned he wanted to introduce his 10-year-old daughter to D&D.  Long story short, the drummer of the band Shinedown watched our game. I gave him a copy of NIGHT SHIFT, which he loved. 

Not sure what our plans are for next year, but we had a great time this year.  Glad to be back at Gen Con.

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

—oOo—

With the publication of the novella, The Dreaming City’ and the first appearance of Elric of Melniboné in 1961, Michael Moorcock upended the Swords & Sorcery genre. The appearance of the frail and anaemic last emperor of the Dreaming Isle freed the genre of its muscled, mighty thewed barbarians cutting swathes through their enemies and sent it in a different direction. Elric’s fate was to destroy his home, become a pawn in the conflict between Law and Chaos, and wield the horrid demon sword Stormbringer throughout his exile in the Young Kingdoms until he would be the one to blow the Horn of Fate and so bring about the end of reality. As more and more of Elric’s stories were written, Moorcock joined J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert Howard in being an author whose works would influence the fantasy of the first roleplaying games, and subsequently, even roleplaying games directly adapted from their fiction. Of course, Elric would make his first appearance in gaming, if only partially authorised, in Deities & Demigods, the 1980 supplement for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, before receiving his own roleplaying game in 1981.
Designed by Steve Perrin and Ken St. Andre, and published by Chaosium, Inc., Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing in the Young Kingdoms introduces the players to roleplaying in the eponymous Young Kingdoms. The island and peoples of Melniboné have dominated and ruled these surrounding lands for millennia, but have been in decline for four centuries and in their stead haved arisen the Young Kingdoms. They include the Island of Pan Tang and its scheming sorcerer-priests who worship the Lords of Chaos, Tarkesh and its hardy sailors, the Lords of Law-worshipping, but poor Vilmir, Tanelorn which stands truly neutral between the forces of Law and Chaos, and the Island of Purple Towns made rich by its merchants and its worship of Goldar, Lord of Profit. The city of Imrryr and Melniboné have long been sacked as part of the revenge that took Elric VIII, 428th Emperor of Melniboné, upon his cousin, Yyrkoon, for his perfidy, and now he is doomed to wander the Young Kingdoms, wielding the dread demon-bound sword, Stormbringer until the end of time…
Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game enables players to take the roles of denizens of the Young Kingdoms. They may be some of the few surviving exiles from Melniboné, they may be from the many other lands of the Young Kingdoms. The Young Kingdoms are theirs to explore, and they can do this using Player Characters of their own, who may or may not encounter Elric of Melniboné and his companions. Alternatively, the players can take the role of Elric of Melniboné and his companions and play out their further adventures beyond those described in Moorcock’s novels. All this can take place in the decade between the sack of Melniboné and the End of Time, but alternatively the Game Master could set a campaign before the fall of the Dragon Isle or take off in a wholly new direction in lands beyond the Young Kingdoms. All of these options are suggested options given for the Game Master in Stormbringer.
The roleplaying game begins with introductions to roleplaying and roleplaying in the Young Kingdoms and Michael Moorcock and a synopsis of Elric’s saga, all before presenting an overview of the Young Kingdoms. This covers its size, customs, economics, and so on, done in fairly broad detail, whilst the background on each of the Young Kingdoms is much more detailed. Including some advice regarding dice and game characters, as well as miniatures, it sets the Game Master and players up for playing in the Young Kingdoms.
A character—whether Player Character or NPC—will look familiar to anyone who has played a Basic RolePlay roleplaying game, whether that is RuneQuest or RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha or Call of Cthulhu up until Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition. A character has seven attributes—Strength, Constitution, Size, Intelligence, Power, Dexterity, and Charisma, and from these are derived bonuses to skills, Hit Points, and so on. They range, as in other Basic RolePlay roleplaying games, between three and eighteen, but can go much higher depending upon the origins of the character and then through play.
Character generation is random. A player rolls three six-sided dice for each of his character’s attributes, then percentile dice for both his character’s Nationality and Class. Nationality can involve various species, including of course, Melnibonéans, but also the winged men of Myrrhyn and the degenerate dwarfs that are the Org. Most however, will be Human, whether from Pan Pang or Vilmir or the Weeping Waste. Some Nationalities dictate what Class a character is. Thus for a Melnibonéan, he or she will be a Warrior and a Noble, those from Pan Tang are either Sorcerer-Priests or Warriors, whilst any from Nadsokor, the City of Beggars, always follow that ‘noble’ tradition. Otherwise, a character might be a merchant, sailor, hunter, farmer, thief, or craftsman. In addition to skills gained from a Class, a character also receives between three and eight other skills. Oddly, these extra skills are supposedly the character’s best skills rather than those of his Class and their values are determined randomly, such that sometimes, they can be better than the starting skills of the Class. Now it should be made clear that none of this is balanced. Attributes can vary wildly; a character can have more than one Class if his player rolls well enough. It is all down to the vicissitudes of fortune, if not Chaos.
Our sample character is Fenschon the Juggler, a Hunter of Filkhar with all of the famed dexterity, but little else. He is barely competent as a hunter and despite his unpleasant looks and personality, at times he makes a little money as a street entertainer, juggling everyday items.
Fenschon the Juggler, a Hunter of Filkhar
STR 11 CON 11 SIZ 09 INT 08 POW 07 DEX 20 CHA 07
Frame: Light, 5’2”, 85 lbs.
Age: 19Hit Points: 11Major Wound Level: 6Armour: Leather (1d6-1)Combat Bonuses: Attack +05%, Parry +06%, Damage –
WeaponDagger 30% Attack, 30% Parry, 1d4+2Self Bow 35% Attack, Parry 11%, Damage 1d8+1
AGILITY SKILL (+06% bonus): Balance 16%, Dodge 52%, Climb 16%, Jump 29%, Swim 38%MANIPULATION SKILL (+05% bonus): Juggle 50%, Set Trap 55%PERCEPTION SKILL (-03% bonus): Scent 18%, Track 47%STEALTH SKILL (+07% bonus): Ambush 57%, Hide 32%, Move Quietly 29% KNOWLEDGE SKILL (+00% bonus): Craft: Blacksmith 20%COMMUNICATION SKILL (-05% bonus): 
Mechanically, Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game uses a variation upon the Basic RolePlay system, as designed by Steve Perrin, and used elsewhere in RuneQuest, Call of Cthulhu, and others. In design and execution it is not a complex game, certainly not as complex as the then contemporary version of RuneQuest. The base roll is a percentile one against a skill, with the tenth of the value of the skill counting as a critical success. Thus, for Fenschon the Juggler, a roll of 5% or less would be a critical success. Critical fumbles are usually rolls of 100% exactly.
Combat is only slightly more complex. Order is based on Dexterity, damage is deducted directly from a character’s Hit Points rather than having hit locations as per RuneQuest, a character has both an Attack skill and a Parry skill in each weapon, and armour provides protection, but rather than a set number as per other roleplaying games, the amount of protection granted is rolled. So, Leather provides 1d6-1 points of protection, whilst plate provides 1d10-1. Lastly, if a character suffers damage equal to, or greater than his Major Wound level, in one blow, he is severely injured, and might suffer a scar, lose an eye, break a jaw, and worse.For example, Fenschon the Juggler is out hunting boar when the Game Master asks his player to make a Scent check. He only rolls 19% and fails to note a sudden shift in the smell here deep in the woods that would indicate he is not only one hunting the boar. It means that he is surprised when a pair of the beaked and clawed Hunting Dogs of the Dharzi burst out of the bushes. It must mean that someone nearby has engaged the services of the Dharzi lords in temporarily obtaining the use of one of their packs of hunting dogs, and that perhaps this pair has got away from the pack. So he manages to only fire the one arrow before they attack rather than two. The creatures are fast, but not quite as fast as Fenschon, who manages to lose the one arrow he had nocked. His player rolls 10% and the arrow strikes the flank of the lead creature. This inflicts seven points of damage. Then the beasts attack, each having two claw attacks at 20% and a beak attack at 25%. The Game Master rolls 67%, 56%, and 98% for the two claw and beak attacks for the first Hunting Dog of the Dharzi, and then 77%, 73%, and 81% for the second.
In the next round, Fenschon realises that he has the wrong weapon for what is now a close engagement and so has to change his weapon. This costs him the equivalent of five points of Dexterity, so for this round it is reduced to the equivalent of 15. Since the Hunting Dogs have a Dexterity of 19, they attack first. Only the first Hunting Dog successfully attacks Fenschon, snapping at him with its beak with a roll of 21%. Fenschon cannot parry as he does not have his dagger out, but he can dodge, but with a roll of 57% fails. The Hunting Dog’s beak attack inflicts 1d6+1 damage, the Game Master rolling a five. Fenschon’s leather armour might protect him and his player rolls 1d6-1 for the effect. Unfortunately the result is a one, which is reduced to a zero, and the hunter suffers the whole five points! This is not enough to inflict a Major Wound, but that is half of his Hit Points. Finally, with his dagger in hand, Fenschon stabs at the first beast and rolls 02%—not just a successful strike, but a critical hit. The Game Master rolls 19% for the Hunting Dog and fails its parry roll, so Fenschon inflicts double damage for the critical hit. Fenschon rolls a five, which is doubled to ten. This reduces its Hit Points from fifteen to five. The situation looks dire for Fenschon. Perhaps a career as a hunter is not for him?In comparison with other fantasy roleplaying games, Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game does not have wizards wandering around lobbing off spells at will. Magic is available, but is the opposite of Law, and in Elric’s time as the Balance between Law and Chaos tips in favour of Chaos, magic is available to study to anyone should they possess sufficient intelligence and force of will. What this means is that a character needs to have a combined Intelligence and Power of thirty-two or more to even summon and control Elementals. Typically, Melnibonéan, Pan Tangan, and Priests with such stats are trained in sorcery, whilst Nobles and Merchants may also have been trained. Instead of casting spells, Sorcerers and Sorcerer-Priests summon and bind Elementals and Demons. Once successfully summoned and bound, an Elemental or Demon can be directed to use its abilities and powers to benefit the summoner. Thus Demons can be summoned to fight for the summoner, be bound into weapons and armour, provide protection or wards, teach knowledge, and even provide the means to travel to other Planes of Existence. 
Successful summoning can increase a Sorcerer’s Power, whilst unsuccessful summoning may result in a loss. In general, summoning and binding involves lengthy rituals, but it can also be done on the fly with the Sorcerer’s skill being halved. A summoned Demon will typically have a total in attribute values equal to that of its summoner, minus a randomly determined Power stat. 
Our second sample character is Princess Kragulan, a Fourth Rank Sorcerer-Priestess of Arioch of Pan Tang. She is fourth in line to the throne of Pan Tang, but eschews the conniving and scheming of her brothers and sisters. Instead, her interest is in serving her cult and investigating the older ruins of Melniboné.
Princess Kragulan, a Sorcerer-Priestess of Arioch of Pan Tang
Cult: AriochElan: 9
STR 10 CON 10 SIZ 12 INT 24 POW 22 DEX 10 CHA 13
Frame: Heavy, 5’5”, 232 lbs.
Age: 23Hit Points: 10Major Wound Level: 5Armour: Leather (1d6-1)Combat Bonuses: Attack +22%, Parry +10%, Damage –
WeaponDagger 52% Attack, 41% Parry, 1d4+2Broadsword 62% Attack, 51% Parry, 1d8+1Self Bow 42% Attack, Parry 16%, Damage 1d8+1
AGILITY SKILL (+10% bonus): Balance 20%, Climb 20%, Dodge 56%, Jump 20%, Swim 65%MANIPULATION SKILL (+22% bonus): PERCEPTION SKILL (+22% bonus): Listen 32%STEALTH SKILL (+12% bonus): Hide 22%KNOWLEDGE SKILL (+24% bonus): Evaluate Treasure 29%, First Aid 24%, Make Map 47%, Memorise 56%, Navigate 25%, Plant Lore 54%, Read/Write Common Tongue 104%, Read/Write Low Melnibonéan 84%, Read/Write High Melnibonéan 64%COMMUNICATION SKILL (+23% bonus): Credit 64%, Persuade 48%SORCERY SKILL: Summon Air Elemental 80%, Summon Earth Elemental 91%, Summon Fire Elemental 59%, Summon Water Elemental 92%; Summon Combat Demon 73%, Summon Desire Demon 60%, Summon Knowledge Demon 95%, Summon Possession Demon 55%, Summon Protection Demon 76%, Summon Travel Demon 95%For example, Princess Kragulan is researching ancient Melnibonéan history and wants to summon a Lesser Demon of Knowledge who might know more. She selects the demon, having researched its name, purchases both a finely wrought ring into which she plans to bind the demon, the necessary sacrifice, and prepares the necessary ritual circles. After the necessary purification processes, Princess Kragulan spends several hours chanting and so formulating the summoning, and upon excising the heart of the sacrifice, attempts the summoning. Princess Kragulan’s player rolls her Summon Knowledge Demon 95% and with a result of 23% brings forth the Lesser Demon, who appears in the circle and crises out, “Who disturbs the deep studies of Brerin the Knower?” Princess Kragulan states, “I am Princess Kragulan and in the name of the Lord of Chaos, Arioch, you will make your knowledge mine!” Having summoned the Demon, she attempts to Bind him. This is a Power versus Power using the Resistance Table. Princess Kragulan has a Power of 22 and it was previously determined that the Lesser Demon’s Power is 12. This gives her a 95% chance of successfully Binding Brerin. The Lesser Demon reluctantly agrees and is drawn into the ring that Princess Kragulan had prepared. Had her player failed, Brerin may have fled or even agreed to stay and lie about what he knows when asked a question…The summoning and binding rules are actually the most complex part of Stormbringer. In comparison to the core mechanics, they are actually not that much more complex, but they do add a level or two of extra detail and record keeping to the game, especially if one or more players has a character capable of sorcery. Further, once a Player Character—or two—has access to sorcery, it adds to the power creep in Stormbringer and it adds to the imbalance between Player Characters. Again, this is in keeping with the source material. Nevertheless, the rules for summoning and binding both Elementals and Demons are nice and clear, and relatively easy to use. They are also supported with some entreatingly detailed examples which greatly aid their learning.
As an aside, it is interesting to note that at the time of Stormbringer’s publication—and its subsequent editions—that Dungeons & Dragons was subject to negative attention for alleged or perceived promotion for Satanism, witchcraft, and other practices. Subject to the then moral panic, Dungeons & Dragons was accused of encouraging sorcery and the veneration of demons. This was not the case, of course, and nor was it the case with Stormbringer, but then in Stormbringer it does have the players roleplaying sorcerers, summoning and venerating demons. Obviously, Stormbringer was never going to receive the attention that the world’s most popular roleplaying game was and of course, it was not drawing upon the Christian mythology that Dungeons & Dragons was. However, it should be noted that Stormbringer does not shy away from the subject, the examples given actually involving the sacrifice of human slaves!
In addition to learning sorcery, another avenue for progress in Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game and the Young Kingdoms is membership of a cult. There are three primary churches during the time of Elric—the Church of Law, the Church of Chaos, and the Church of the Elementals, but each consists of multiple different and even competing cults. Most members of a cult are lay members, but priests always belong to a cult and each cult has its Agents. An Agent has promised his soul to his chosen deity and acts to further the aims of that deity in the Young Kingdoms—and sometimes beyond. To become an Agent, a Player Character must sacrifice points of Power and that gives him a percentage chance of being accepted by a particular deity. All Agents-as can Priests—can call upon their deity for divine intervention, the chance equal to their Elan rating, which reflects their standing in the cult. Agents are also granted other advantages, such as a lesser elemental as a servant for an Agent of an Elemental, whilst Champions of Law and Champions of Chaos are granted great abilities and virtues, which places them above mere mortals. 
Mechanically, becoming an Agent is quite simple and actually, with a good roll, a Player Character could very quickly find himself an Agent. The bonuses gained do represent another step up in power for a Player Character, whether he is a sorcerer or not. Since an Agent is expected to serve his cult, this and other cults also become roleplaying tools for the Game Master to help drive stories and adventures and bring into the play the ongoing struggle between Law and Chaos. The discussion of Law and Chaos, their nature and the balance between them, is discussed throughout and in some ways is the most important section in the book since it underpins the nature and the future of the Young Kingdoms.
There is advice for the Game Master too, whether that is on running a campaign before the time of Elric or after, preparing a game, and more. This includes taking a campaign beyond the confines of the Young Kingdoms and onto other Planes of Existence—and other times, suggesting a crossover with the Norman Invasion or even with the Cthulhu Mythos! The appendices include full stats for the cast from the novels, which of course includes Elric and Stormbringer, as well as Arioch, Lord of the Seven Darks, Lord of Chaos, Jagreen Lern of Pan Tang, Moonglum, and more. Stormbringer is almost a character of its own! Sample summonings taken from the novels should provide the budding sorcerer with inspiration, and numerous tables reprinted from rules.
The sample scenario in Stormbringer  is ‘Tower of Yrkath Florn’ which the designers used as part of the roleplaying game. It details the ruins of an eight-sided tower standing on a remote stretch of the Argimilar coast said to date back to the Melnibonéan occupation of the region. The Player Characters are hired to explore the building by a merchant prince and so brave its dangers on his behalf. Running to just two floors and the roof, described over some seven pages, the scenario is short, focused, and nicely detailed. It serves as a reasonable, if limited introduction to Stormbringer, if not necessarily the Young Kingdoms, and should provide a session or two’s worth of play.
Physically, Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game has the look and feel of a Chaosium period piece. It is clean and tidy, and organised section by section, much like a slimmed down set of wargames rules. The organisation is perhaps a little odd, with price lists coming before the rules for character generation, skills explained after combat, and so on. Throughout, the rules are liberally supported with fully worked examples, and solidly illustrated by the fantastic artwork of Frank Brunner. There is an index, but it refers to the sections of the rules rather than to page numbers which makes it rather awkward to use.
—oO0—
Murray Writtle reviewed Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game in White Dwarf No. 29Stormbringer will give you them, but to get a continuing campaign underway will take a certain amount of rewriting and careful thought.”
In Different Worlds Issue 38 (January/February 1985), Keith Herber gave Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game four stars out of five, and said, “I don’t think that the authors of Stormbringer intended the game as a first-time experience for gamers and the brief treatment of role-playing in general would support this theory. Instead, the effort has been directed toward describing and quantifying a specific world unique to fantasy literature. The authors have taken the time to dig out all sorts of small facts that lend color to the Young Kingdoms and detail many aspects of a campaign-world glossed over in other games. I thought Stormbringer not only an excellent adaptation of the Elric series but also found it an extremely enjoyable game. If you have ever read an Elric book (or one of Moorcock’s related novels) and wished it could be a game, this is it. If you haven’t read one yet do so and then consider the game. You may not find the “doomed” atmosphere to your liking, but around this neighborhood there is a growing movement for a permanent Stormbringer campaign.”
Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game was placed at position number twenty-five in ‘Arcane Presents the Top 50 Roleplaying Games 1996’ in Arcane Issue Fourteen (Christmas 1996). Paul Pettengale described it as, “Stormbringer is, as all Moorcock fans should know, the name of Elric’s sword, a weapon that draws the very lifeforce from anyone it even scratches. It doesn’t take a genius, therefore, to work out that Stormbringer is the Elric/Young Kingdoms roleplaying game (which was in fact renamed as Elric! for its 1993 re-release, for clarity’s sake).” before that saying that it was actually like, “A simplified RuneQuest, only set in Elric’s world. It captures the spirit of the books, but to play it properly you really need to be familiar with the novels, and they are of the type of fantasy that you either love or loathe.”
—oO0—
By modern standards, Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game is far from a balanced roleplaying game, players often ending up with widely divergent characters in terms of capabilities and thus power levels, placing them on more varying paths towards becoming Agents of Law or Chaos, and on progression within one of the cults. (This can be seen in the differences between the two sample characters.) Yet that is in keeping with the source material, and similarly, exploring the final years of the Young Kingdoms is also in keeping with the source material. Some may see this as a limitation in terms of the scope of the roleplaying game, playing in a pre-apocalypse, yet arguably, the more recent Mörk Borg, did exactly the same—and is more explicit about it. In the short term, beyond the included scenario, Stormbringer will need development in terms of plot and scope by the Game Master, but there is the whole of the Young Kingdoms—and beyond—to explore and the novels to draw from.

Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game is old fashioned in its design and presentation, and of course, it is unbalanced. That lack of balance and that style means that Stormbringer may not really be suitable for anyone new to roleplaying, but yet… The setting of the Young Kingdoms is immensely playable and rich with roleplaying potential, the mechanics simple and elegant, and the imbalance of Stormbringer: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game should almost be embraced because it reflects the source material and as power levels grow. After all, this is Swords & Sorcery at its most doom laden, pulp infused grandeur, and there is something glorious in being able to participate in the great conflict between Law and Chaos until the End of Time. 

One of the best things about running this series for so long is I get some great tips via email from people with the same obsessions as me. 

That is the case today.  Though to take advantage of it I am going to need an extra $1000.00.  New from XM Studios is a 21" tall Zatanna statue.

Absolutely gorgeous and utterly frivolous. Wish I could justify it. 

Maybe I'll put it on my Christmas list and hope Santa thinks I was a good boy this year.

According to XM Studios, each statue has:

• 2 headsculpt switch-outs: 1 with top hat, 1 without top hat.
• 2 right hand switch-outs: 1 holding a spellbook, 1 holding a top hat with Detective Chimp!
• Crafted in cold cast porcelain.
• Each handcrafted statue is individually hand-painted with a high-quality finish.

Still...looks fantastic.

Since 2013, Goodman Games, the publisher of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic has released a book especially for Gen Con, the largest tabletop hobby gaming event in the world. That book is the Goodman Games Gen Con Program Book, a look back at the previous year, a preview of the year to come, staff biographies, and a whole lot more, including adventures and lots tidbits and silliness. The first was the Goodman Games Gen Con 2013 Program Book, but not being able to pick up a copy from Goodman Games when they first attended UK Games Expo in 2019, the first to be reviewed was the Goodman Games Gen Con 2014 Program Book. Fortunately, a little patience and a copy of the Goodman Games Gen Con 2013 Program Book was located and reviewed, so now in 2021, normal order is resumed with the Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book.
The Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book is a double anniversary and warrants a double cover. In fact, it is a double fortieth anniversary. The Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book celebrates not just forty years since the publication of Metamorphosis Alpha, but also forty years since the founding of Judges Guild. To celebrate, it includes not just content dedicated to Metamorphosis Alpha and Judges Guild, but sports a handsome double cover—one for Metamorphosis Alpha and one for Judges Guild. In addition to the celebrations, the anthology includes support for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, the Appendix N, and more, along with the usual fripperies and fancies to be found in each volume of the Goodman Games Gen Con Program Book. Which means scenarios, articles, histories, quizzes, and more. After all, Goodman Games Gen Con Program Book is not just for Christmas, it is for Gen Con!
The Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book celebrates not just forty years since the publication of Metamorphosis Alpha, but also forty years since the founding of Judges Guild. To celebrate, it includes not just content dedicated to Metamorphosis Alpha and Judges Guild, but sports a handsome double—one for Metamorphosis Alpha and one for Judges Guild. In addition to the celebrations, the anthology includes support for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, the Appendix N, and more, along with the usual fripperies and fancies to be found in each volume of the Goodman Games Gen Con Program Book. Which means scenarios, articles, histories, quizzes, and more. After all, a Goodman Games Gen Con Program Book is not just for Christmas, it is for Gen Con!
The Metamorphosis Alpha support begins with ‘Forty Years of Metamorphosis Alpha: A Legacy of Innovation’ by Craig Brain. This charts the history of the roleplaying game across numerous and not always successful editions, and is a nice accompaniment to the anniversary edition of Metamorphosis Alpha. If there is a major omission to the article it that it should have included images of the covers of these editions. That would have given the article some context and tied it more into the individual editions. It is followed by ‘Metamorphosis Alpha: 4 Tables 40’, a quartet of tables by the roleplaying game’s designer, James M. Ward. The tables, each with forty entries, cover ‘GEL Nanobots’, ‘Surprisingly Good Things’, ‘Traps for the Unwary’, and ‘Unusual Things’, and all provide good inspiration. For all that Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book celebrates the fortieth anniversary of Metamorphosis Alpha, the actual gaming content for it is thin. A scenario or an area aboard the Starship Warden fully detailed, would perhaps have served as a better selling point for Metamorphosis Alpha.
The fantasy gaming content begins with more letters for The Dungeon Alphabet: An A-Z Reference for Classic Dungeon Design by Michael Curtis. These are ‘G is also for Guardians’ and ‘H is also for Hazard’ and just like the supplement they are inspired by and written for, they consist of tables devoted to their subjects. Both are generic fantasy, but easily adapted to the retroclone—or even not of the Game Master’s choice. This is as entertaining and as inspirational as the original book, and perhaps Goodman Games should think about returning to original supplement, if not in a reprint then in a full sequel with another twenty-six entries.
As expected for a volume in the Goodman Games Gen Con Program Book series, the majority of the gaming content is designed for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. It begins with Michael Curtis’ ‘The Return of the Wild’, which gives a new Patron god for his Shudder Mountains setting from The Chained Coffin campaign. This is Nengal the Wild One, a primal force of raw nature, and comes complete with tables for Invoke Patron checks and Patron Taint. The Patron spells feel somewhat underwritten, but the unfettered and raw nature of the god and his faith should provide some fun roleplaying opportunities.
Dieter Zimmerman contributes the first scenario in the anthology, a wholly new, and weirder introduction to the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. The scenario is a Character Funnel, one of the signature features of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game in which initially, a player is expected to roll up three or four Level Zero characters and have them play through a generally nasty, deadly adventure, which surviving will prove a challenge. Those that do survive receive enough Experience Points to advance to First Level and gain all of the advantages of their Class. Typically, such Player Characters are peasants and the like from the average fantasy world, but here Zimmerman takes the idea of the ordinary person from Earth being transported to a fantasy world where he or she becomes a great hero the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. 
So first, in ‘1970’s Earth Characters for DCC’, Zimmerman gives tables for Occupations, Personal Items, and Astrology so that the players can create some funky characters ready for their strange encounter in the accompanying scenario. This is ‘Not in Kansas Anymore’, co-authored with Matt Spengler, a reverse dungeon up through Ezaurack’s Volcano Fortress in which the would-be heroes not only have to save the day against a viscous dragon cult, but do so whilst avoiding rising lava! The scenario is as over the top as you would expect and best played as if the Player Characters—let alone the players—have no idea as to what is going on. Indeed, the scenario is intended as an introduction to the roleplaying game. It is as fun and as gonzo as you would expect, and all it needs is a dose of Doug McClure.
Another then new would-be licence comes under the spotlight with Michael Curtis, not once but twice. First with ‘Rat-Snake: A Lankhmar Wagering Game with Dice’ provides the full rules for a gambling game set in Fritz Leiber’s Nehwon and the tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Prefiguring the release of Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar the year  following the Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book, this is an immersive addition to the setting and should find its way into the Player Characters’ adventures in the city of thieves. Second, with ‘The Hand of St. Heveskin’, which details an artefact sacred to the Rat God, but which anyone can use—though there is some danger in doing so. Although presented for Lankhmar, this would work in almost any fantasy setting and is a very well done and themed item. The adjacent list of publication dates for the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories is also welcome.
Gen Con is of course, a very big event, and Goodman Games supports it with a tournament adventure that both fans of the publisher and attendees in general can join in and play. Instead of the typical adventure, in 2015, Goodman games offered ‘The Way of the Dagon’, a spell duelling tourney. Instead of a party of adventurers delving into deep, dark hole, this has wizards and sorcerers throwing spells at each other for the pleasure of Father Dagon. Spelling duelling is part of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and this module gives the full rules for such arcane battling in the realm of Father Dagon. It works a little different to standard spell duelling, adjusting counterspell power and adding the Wrath of Dagon, plus a little bit of randomness to play. This would be fun to play at the table with a normal group as change, but really comes into its own as a big event. The notes on how the event’s origins and the report on some of the game play are entertaining also.
However, the Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book includes a Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game Tournament Funnel too. Written by Jim Wampler, Stephen Newton, Daniel J. Bishop, Jeffrey Tadlock, Jon Marr, and Bob Brinkman, ‘Death by Nexus’, which as the title suggests, is another Character Funnel. However, instead of three or four Level Zero Player Characters per player, each only has one, and when a character dies, his player is out and replaced by another player and his character, and this goes on until the end of the scenario. In ‘Death by Nexus’ nine such characters, three each for the three Alignments—Law, Neutrality, and Chaos—are thrown into six different and increasingly challenging arenas for the entertainment of the Primal Ones. Each written by a different author, the arenas vary wildly, from a combination of ice, wind, and fire to a giant sandbox via the end times. Combat focused instead of the spelling-slinging focus of the earlier ‘The Way of the Dagon’, this Tournament Funnel is again fun and silly and over-the-top.
Harley Stroh expands on his ‘Glossography of Ythoth’ from the campaign, Perils on the Purple Planet (now sadly out of print), with ‘Appendix D: Ythothian Liche Kings’ with a guide to the corpse kings who prey on dimensional travellers and possess various psychic powers. This is a nasty monster which no player would his character to encounter, but the dimensional originals means that one of these could turn up anywhere.
Appendix N is an important facet of the Old School Renaissance since its original list of books in the back in the Dungeon Master’s Guide for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition showcased the inspiration for original roleplaying game. The Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book shows how the authors of various titles for Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game have delved into its equivalent of Appendix N in search of their own inspiration. It opens though with ‘The Way of Serpents’, a short story by Howard Andrew Jones which is also inspired by Appendix N fiction. This is nicely enjoyable piece in the Swords & Sorcery vein, which tells of a priestess and a veteran soldier forced to seek aid from a dragon to save a kingdom not his own. The short story is accompanied by some game content, in particular stats for the creatures encountered in the story.
In ‘Appendix N Inspiration’, sources are in turn discussed for Peril on the Puppet Planet, DCC #87 Against the Atomic Overlord, The Chained Coffin, The 998th Wizards’ Conclave, and Doom of the Savage Kings. All provide insights as to the creative process and suggest authors and their works that would be worth reading prior to running any one of them. Those for DCC #87 Against the Atomic Overlord and The Chained Coffin are longer, more detailed, and more interesting for it. In hindsight, the inspiration for The 998th Wizards’ Conclave is the most interesting because it prefigures the recent development of Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game.
Perhaps the highlight of the Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book is ‘An illustrated interview with Errol Otus’. This runs to almost forty pages and covers the classic fantasy gaming artist’s time at TSR, his time after, and his return to the hobby industry with both the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and then the Old School Renaissance. It is an entertaining read and is profusely illustrated with paintings and drawings from across his career, serving as a showcase for both. The only disappointment is that the covers that Otus did for Goodman Games have not been reproduced in colour. All it would have taken is another two pages of colour and it would have pleasingly rounded off his contributions up to 2016.
The other half of the fortieth anniversary celebrations in the Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book is dedicated to Judges Guild and this is celebrated by another pair of articles. It is an unfortunate truth that the reputation of the publisher has been greatly damaged in the years since the publication of these two articles, but this should not mean that the contributions to the hobby by Judges Guild should be ignored. ‘Forty Years Judges Guild: A Legacy of Awesome’ by Jeff Rients—author of Broodmother Skyfortress—presents a history of the publisher from founding to closure, along with a look at a few of the releases over that history... It is informative, but this is very much written from a personal rather than an objective point of view, accompanied with a discussion of the author’s favourite titles. There are of course, more objective histories of Judges Guild available, such as the Judges Guild Deluxe Oversized Collector’s Edition and Designers & Dragons: the ‘70s. Ultimately, what lets this article down is the lack of captions for its various photographs taken from Judges Guild history.
It is followed by ‘Unknown Gods: Revised and Expanded’, by Robert Bledsaw, Sr. and Robert Bledsaw, Jr. This presents an expansion to The Unknown Gods, the 1980 supplement supplement of grandiose gods and deities which would have been particular to the Wilderlands of High Fantasy setting. From Grunchak, Markab God of Technology to Margonne, God of Evil Plans, the Devious Ones, they are all quite detailed and quite different to the gods seen elsewhere in fantasy, as well as each possessing a certain weirdness. That weirdness applies to the statistics given for each god, which use a different system singular to the original supplement rather than any variant of Dungeons & Dragons. It would be fascinating to see the whole of the supplement updated with this content for a game system that was more accessible.
Rounding out the Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book is the usual collection of fripperies and fancies. The silliness includes the advice column, ‘Dear Archmage Abby’, in which the eponymous agony aunt gives guidance on life, love, and the d20 mechanics in an entertaining fashion—this time what t do about rules lawyers, whilst the fripperies includes artwork for the ‘2015 to 2016 Mailing Labels’, which capture a bit more of Goodman Games in 2015. Elsewhere there is a quiz or two, interviews with several of the Judges who work as the Goodman Games Road crew, a photographic recap of Gen Con 2015, and more.
Physically, the Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book is a thick softback book. It is decently laid out, easy to read, lavishly illustrated throughout, and a good-looking book both in black and white, and in colour.
On one level, the Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book, as with other entries in the annual series, is an anthology of magazine articles, but in this day and age of course—as well as 2016—there is no such thing as the roleplaying magazine. So what you have instead is the equivalent of a comic book’s Christmas annual—but published in the summer rather than in the winter—for fans of Goodman Games’ roleplaying games. The Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book follows closely the format of the previous entries in the series, so there is bit of everything in its pages—gaming history, adventures, previews, catch-ups, and more. Its celebrations of the two fortieth anniversaries—Metamorphosis Alpha and Judges Guild—are underwhelming, but everything else in the Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book is either fun or entertaining, sometimes even both. As ever the Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book is a must for devotees of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, but there is plenty in the annual supplement for fantasy gamers to enjoy or be inspired by.

No events at the gallery this weekend (it’s time to clean up everything after Texas Frightmare Weekend), but you can see all of Caroline’s jewelry at her booth at FenCon. After that, though…

The winner of the 2021 Spiel des Jahres award is MicroMacro: Crime City. Published by Edition Spielwiese, it combines crime and detection with elements of storytelling and even a little bit of time travel, all played out co-operatively on a massive map of a city that the players have to search for clues. At its heart the game is Where’s Wally? (or Where’s Waldo?) meets the crime-riddled streets and alleys of downtown Crime City. Designed for one to four players, aged twelve and up, the game has the players searching a big poster map of Crime City, first locating crime scenes and then backtracking the victims as they went about their day and interacted with the other citizens of Crime City.

Open up the box for MicroMacro: Crime City and the first thing that a player finds is a ‘Spoiler Warning’. Given in multiple languages, it warns him not to look at the reverse of the cards, not to open the card packets before instructed to do so, and be sure to read the instructions first. The second is the instructions, and they just run to just four pages. Below that is the City Map, some one-hundred-and-twenty Case Cards, sixteen envelopes, and a magnifying glass. Bar touches of red to highlight text and elements of the game, everything is done in black and white. The City Map is huge. It measures thirty-by-forty-three inches and depicts a European city, bustling with men, women, and anthropomorphic animals going about their very busy lives. This enormous map is drawn in meticulous cartoon detail, but it is not a city that is static. Its citizens can be seen again and again moving about the city and everywhere a player looks he will find someone doing something interesting—being shocked by a painting at an exhibition, buying something from a dodgy street dealer (his trench coat held open to best display his wares), a women shocked by another man opening his trenchcoat, and more. There is so much going on in this map that it is easy to get lost in the details and start imagining who these people are and what their lives are like.


The cards represent the sixteen cases the players have to investigate and solve in MicroMacro: Crime City. These grow in complexity and length and need to be divided into their respective cases and stored in one of the envelopes which comes with the game. Starting with ‘The Top Hat’—the game’s introductory case, each case, whether ‘The Car Accident’, ‘Dead Cat’, ‘Hairy Tales’, or ‘Carnival’, begins with a start card which asks the players to search for the crime scene. Once the victim has been found, the players begin looking for where the victim appears elsewhere nearby on the map, and prompted by the cards, then backtrack through the victim’s day, looking for who he might have encountered and thus might be perpetrator of the crime. Along the way, the players will see the city around their crime victim and the criminal, in the process discovering lives both ordinary and criminal, the latter perhaps, hinting at crimes that the players might have to solve in a future case.

The initial cases in MicroMacro: Crime City are small, but others stretch across the city, forcing the players to extend their search for clues and the perpetrator. Some of the inhabitants of Crime City have nothing to do with the cases in MicroMacro: Crime City, but may appear in MicroMacro: Full House, which together with MicroMacro: Crime City form part of the four titles in the series. Each entry represents a different district and ultimately, there will be cases which can be solved by following the clues across the four districts. It should also be noted that as funny and an anthropomorphic as the artwork is in MicroMacro: Crime City, it does depict a moderately adult world and that means that some of the crime cases and some of the things going on in Crime City may not be suitable for some younger players.

MicroMacro: Crime City requires a big table for its map of Crime City and plenty of good light. This is not a game which can be played without either plenty of light or plenty of space. Although the game comes with one magnifying glass, the addition of another will probably help play too.

Physically, MicroMacro: Crime City is decently produced. The map is done on sturdy paper, though its size does mean it requires careful handling. The fact that it is a paper rather than a mounted map means that having any drinks nearby is inadvisable. The rules are clearly written and easy to understand and the cards are done on decent stock. A nice touch is that there is an extra mini-case on the game’s front cover. This neatly gives the potential purchaser a taste of the game inside.

However, once played, MicroMacro: Crime City has little to no replay value. It does not have the Legacy option of the game being changed through play, but rather each case is essentially a puzzle and once solved is difficult to play again with the same level of anticipation and interest. Finding the crime scene, investigating the clues, and following the lives of both victims and criminals is definitely fun, but once solved… At that point, the best thing to do with MicroMacro: Crime City is either to put it away for the next expansion and wait to see if its crime cases tie in, or really, to let someone else play it who is completely new to the game.

Ultimately there is one question which has to be asked about MicroMacro: Crime City, and that is, “Is it a game?” And the answer is both yes, and no. MicroMacro: Crime City is a game in the sense that it is played, has multiple players, and they are all trying to achieve an objective. In this, it is very much like other detective or crime games, such as Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game or Chronicles of Crime, but on a much simpler level, or the games based on Escape Rooms. Yet MicroMacro: Crime City is not a game so much as a puzzle intended to be solved collectively, and once solved, it cannot be solved again. Further, where a detective or crime novel can be reread to enjoy the story and the deduction again, the simplicity of the game’s design works against any possibility of a replay being enjoyed.

MicroMacro: Crime City is a very simple, but clever design, with its cases built around cartoonish artwork that is witty and engages the players in the lives of the citizens of Crime City. Best played with two or three players, MicroMacro: Crime City is perfect for fans of hidden object games, puzzles, and detective fiction.

A taster of how MicroMacro: Crime City plays can be found here.

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It was a monumental effort by everyone involved with the show, but 2 1/2 years after the last one, the 2021 Texas Frightmare Weekend happened. After repeated cancellations and reschedulings, after understandable concerns about further lockdowns and insufficient social distancing … Continue reading →

Isle of the Damned is as straightforward a fantasy roleplaying scenario as a Game Master might want. Designed and published by Scott Malthouse—responsible for Romance of the Perilous Land published by Osprey Games and Merry Outlaws from his Trollish Delver Games—it is a one-page, First Level adventure for Heartseeker and other Old School Renaissance Roleplaying games. Heartseeker is a very simple retroclone, just two pages in length, but its name echoes that of the term, ‘Fantasy Heartbreaker’, which back in the Golden Age of the hobby would have been a designer’s answer to everything that he wanted to change about Dungeons & Dragons. Without Heartseeker, a Game Master could easily run Isle of the Damned using Old School Essentials, Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying, or Labyrinth Lord, for example, or even adapt it to the rules and setting of her choice. One such might be Symbaroum, but other fantasy roleplaying games would work too. Whichever rules set the Game Master decides to use, she can pick up a copy of Isle of the Damned, read through it in five minutes—or less, and bring it to the table. In fact, an experienced Game Master could even run it with no preparation!

The setting for the scenario is the eponymous Isle of the Damned, rumoured to be a former Elven colony forsaken by their gods. The Player Characters are tasked with travelling to the isle and recovering three Sacred Chalices. These, it has been determined, will together save the life of Prince Markus, who is dying. With their instructions, the Player Characters must journey over the Grey Sea and once on the island, search its six locations to locate the three Sacred Chalices. These include a Dead Courtyard and the Broken Shrine, venture into the depths of Moaning Forest, and perhaps out of the other side.

Isle of the Damned is a simple, straightforward seven point crawl. It comes as a four page, full colour pamphlet. The inside shows the point crawl and provides two tables, one of rumours and one of encounters in the Moaning Forest, all against an atmospheric painting by Arnold Böcklin. The back page lists all of the encounters and the stats, all of which are non-standard monsters, so that Isle of the Damned is very much a standalone scenario. Each of the seven locations is given a simple paragraph-long entry that is just sufficient for the Game Master to work from and develop further in terms of details if she wishes.

Of course, finding the three chalices is not simple. There are riddles to be answered, aid to be sought and tasks to be fulfilled, and puzzles to be solved. None of it too complex or lengthy, but all enough to provide a session of play, perhaps two at the very most. The empty nature of the isle and ruins and the strangeness of the encounters gives it a slightly eerie feel, which a good Game Master could easily develop and expand with other encounters and locations should she want to.

Overall, Isle of the Damned is quick and easy to prepare and then run. It would easily slot into many fantasy settings or campaigns, especially ones with a sense of the weird and the lost, or perhaps it could just be run as a one-shot.

The AMC-222 Report is a scenario for Those Dark Places: Industrial Science Fiction Roleplaying, the roleplaying game of Blue-Collar Science Fiction horror published by Osprey Games. It is written by the roleplaying game’s designer and presents a short scenario which combines strong elements of action, investigation, and roleplaying and which could be played in a single session—two at the very most. It takes a traditional type of Science Fiction setting and gives it a horror twist which echoes that of the slasher film subgenre. It can be played as a training simulation to determine the suitability of the Player Characters for working between Earth and the frontier of space as part of the application process as described in Those Dark Places, or it can be run straight as an assignment during their years of employment. This also means that it can be run with new Player Characters or more experienced ones, but if played as a training simulation or early in their careers, its horror elements may foreshadow their eventual fate if the Player Characters spend too much time in space… However it is used, The AMC-222 Report will take relatively little time for the Game Monitor to prepare for play.

The setting for The AMC-222 Report is Asteroid Mining Catch 222 in the Peller System, a facility operated by Cambridge-Wallace, Inc. The head of facility has recently sent an emergency request for help. Two of its mining crew have been killed and a member of staff is missing, and worse, as far as the company is concerned, the deep space mining facility is not currently operating at full capacity, and that means it is losing money… The Player Characters—the crew of the DSRV Grahams, a light and fast Deep Space Reconnaissance Vessel typically used by many Duster and Arbiter crews for fast dispatch and first responder missions. They receive an emergency briefing and are reassigned to investigate and resolve the emergency. Cambridge-Wallace, Inc. wants Asteroid Mining Catch 222 back operating at full capacity as soon as possible.

The players and their characters should realise that there is something different about this mission from the off. Each member of the team is assigned a Dazer pistol and a medkit. When they arrive, the Player Characters find the station to be a bleak, dark, and depressing place. It seems to be in a constant state of power saving and this has affected the personnel assigned there. The staff are weary and worn out, even uncaring in the face of the current situation. This presents the Game Monitor with some entertaining NPCs to roleplay and some frustrated and frustrating NPCs for the Player Characters to interact with—or not!

The AMC-222 Report is divided into two acts, with each act being set on a different level of Asteroid Mining Catch 222. In the first act, the Player Characters arrive at the habitable level and investigate recent events and interrogate the base personnel as to recent events. In the second act, the Player Characters descend to the mine workings on the lower level. Here they encounter malfunctioning machinery, a less than ideal working environment, and worse…

Support for the Game Master for The AMC-222 Report includes deck plans of the DSRV Grahams and floor plans of Asteroid Mining Catch 222, the deck plans also being useful as a sample ship for the Player Characters in the long term. All of the scenario’s NPCs are given detailed backgrounds to accompany their often moody responses and explanations as to what is going on in the facility in the scenario’s first act. In addition to details of the Deep Space Reconnaissance Vessel, the other new item of equipment given is the Armoured Space Suit.

Physically, The AMC-222 Report is reasonably well presented. The deck plans and floor plans are simple, but clear, whilst the artwork is at best described as rough. If there is anything missing, it is perhaps a set of ready-to-play Player Characters which would both speed up the scenario’s already quick preparation time and make it suitable as a convention scenario.

The AMC-222 Report is more obvious in its plotting and in its inspiration as a horror scenario than the earlier The Ana-Sin-Emid Report. It might even be termed simple, but that should not necessarily be held against it. The AMC-222 Report is straightforward, but that does not mean it is not atmospheric and does not mean it cannot deliver a short, sharp shock of horror.

Artwork found at SMK Open.

Locus: A roleplaying game of personal horror which explores themes of guilt, morality, and mystery. It asks each Player Character what it was that he did wrong and how he feels about it, what is wrong—or right and who says so, and presents him and his companions with a strangeness and mystery around them, that somehow, they must survive. It is a game of ordinary men and women, protagonists thrust into unsettling situations and nightmares, and exposed to mysteries that perhaps will push them to confront their own secrets. Published by Cobble Path Games following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it comes in two volumes—Player Guide and Director’s Guide*—and is inspired by psychological horror films such as The Descent, Triangle, Shutter Island, and others, rather than classic slashers like Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Friday the 13th.

* Note: Neither the Player Guide nor the Director’s Guide are sold separately.

The Player Guide presents everything—well, almost everything—that a player needs to create and roleplay a character in Locus. It covers character creation, equipment, and mechanics, as well as providing examples in terms of both rules and Player Characters. The Director’s Guide re-examines various aspects of each before beginning to really explore and explain what Locus: A roleplaying game of personal horror is about. Outside of the Player Characters, Locus is about Broken Places, locations where the line between reality and the horror and emotional truth of a story has thinned to the point that they have become damaged or broken, and transformed into something else. Each is or has a Genius Locus, that in becoming damaged or broken, is transformed into a Malus Locus, a bad place which feeds off negative energies and emotions. The Malus Locus draws in outsiders and residents alike, using reminders of their old wounds and bad memories to inflict fear, terror, and pain. It manifests Monsters which remind the victims trapped inside the Malus Locus of their dark secrets and feelings of guilt, and if the monster can kill them, they leave behind Echoes of their guilt that the Monster can feed off for years. Echoes are likely to be interpreted as ghosts, and when the Player Characters enter a Malus Locus, it may already be inhabited by Echoes.
A Malus Locus consists of a single location and is actually composed of layers. The location can be large or small, and might be a single house, a neighbourhood or housing block, an oil rig or space station, or even a whole town. The layers are Layers of Reality, each layer a reflection of the one above, the same but different, darker, weirder, scarier, and worse… The deeper the Player Characters venture into the Malus Locus, the further away from reality they move, the closer to the heart of the Malus Locus they get, the greater the manifestations and signs of the unreal and the Player Characters’ Haunts—or guilty secrets—appear, and the more openly the Monster will move against them. Each Layer is separate, but bleeds into the one above and the one below, though they become more and more distinct as the Player Character descends.
There is a certain fluidity between Layers, but what determines which Layer of Reality the party is on is the number of cards they hold in their Hands. The more cards they have in their Hands, the deeper the Layer of Reality they are on or can access. This, it turns out, is the primary mechanic effect of the cards in play. In the Player Guide, the player is told that having too many cards in his Hand is not a good thing, but not why. The Director’s Guide explains that each player’s Hand of cards represents the crushing weight of the world and guilt from his secret, which whilst merely oppressive in the real world, in the Malus Locus serves to pull him further in and down… 
In play, this means that the Director will need to keep track of how many cards the players hold in their Hands, so that she can tell when they transition between Layers, whether that is without their knowing or with a set piece scene. So they may need to be open about that during play. Also, as much as the players need to be rid of their cards, they also want to have a certain number of cards in their Hands in order to access the lower Layers, especially if they want to confront the Monster. It also brings in an element of Hand management into the play of Locus as each player works to reduce the number of cards in his Hand. This comes about through both roleplaying and mechanical means.
At the beginning of the scenario, a player has two cards in his Hand. He will acquire more at each hour of play; when his character experiences a jarring vision or hallucination; and when he roleplays his character acting in accordance with his Vice—which is associated with his Haunt, and thus his Secret and his Guilt. Fortunately there are more ways of discarding cards than acquiring them. For non-Haunt cards, this is a player roleplaying his character in accordance with a Virtue not his own or rolling a critical success on an Outcome Check. For both non-Haunt cards and Haunt cards, this is a player roleplaying or having his character act in accordance with his Virtue, having his character resisting the urge to act in accordance with his Haunt, and roleplaying his character actively opposing his Haunt.
Throughout, the onus is on the player to not just roleplay his character in accordance the Virtues—Temperance, Motivation, Community, and Compassion, and roleplay avoiding giving into the Vices—Temptation, Apathy, Discord, and Malice, but to be seen to do it, to signal to the Director that he is doing so, and therefore, can discard a card. Meanwhile, the Director will be presenting situations where a character can gain cards, whether they are fraught or jarring scenes or incidents where the character gives into his Vice.
What there is not though in Locus is a path to redemption. There is no real way in which a character can assuage his guilt for his Haunt, at least not in the long term. Thus it will always remain part of the character. In the short term, that is, in the limits of the scenario or campaign and its Malus Locus, there are always opportunities to act against it through the means of discarding the cards and thus reducing the potential for confrontation with the Monster. This again emphasises the brutal nature of play in Locus, which is already present in the Death Clock measuring a Player Character’s physical health and the limited degrees of Stress a Player Character can suffer and limit his drive to succeed in dangerous and horrific situations.
Throughout the Director’s Guide, the Director is supported by tools and advice to create and run a game of Locus. For the players, this includes managing their expectations and respecting their limits in what is by design a roleplaying game which has the Player Characters confronted by regrets over past events and circumstances. There is a complete guide to creating and running Monsters from the concept and the keywords—the latter tied into Locus’ four Vices, to applying the mechanics and balancing those against the Player Characters. It advises that Monsters which are too weak or too strong be avoided since one represents no challenge, and the latter too much of a challenge. It is backed up with not just a fully worked through example, but a quartet tied to the four suits of the Haunts and Vices.
Similar advice and guidance is given for setting up a game of Locus, scenarios being constructed as mysteries which first hint that something is supernaturally wrong and then second, draw the Player Characters into the Malus Locus to determine what exactly is wrong. The third and final mystery involves finding out the cause and hopefully coming up with a solution. However, the exploration of the Malus Locus may not necessarily result in identifying and repairing the issue at its heart, although that is the ideal outcome. Instead, the Player Characters might flee the Malus Locus having failed to identify or deal with its horror, plumb its depths to reach its heart and confront the Monster—hopefully to defeat the Monster, or get caught with its confines, becoming denizens who might be encountered by others later on… At the core of the Mysteries should be clues that the Player Characters can find without rolling Outcome Checks, the aim being to give them information necessary to solve them were it not for stress and their own insecurities.
Beyond some decent advice on handling Outcome Checks, conflicts, spot effects (which affect a single Player Character) and set pieces (which are primarily location-based), and how a Locus Malus reacts to the presence of the Player Characters and their actions, Locus gives the Director a lengthy—almost a third of the Director’s Guide, ready-to-play scenario. This is ‘The MFV Mulligan’. This takes place in 1995 in the North Sea with the Player Characters cast as members of the crew of the MTS Gannet, which picks up a distress call from and goes to the rescue of the fishing trawler, the MFV Mulligan. Instead of four read-to-play characters, the scenario includes detailed templates which the players are expected to customise. All four should be interesting to roleplay.
Of course, the rescue attempt takes place in the middle of a storm and on first coming aboard the trawler, it seems that the crew are missing. The trawler, initially adrift, provides the scenario with the closed environment necessary for a good Malus Locus and the descriptions of the various locations aboard the MFV Mulligan are given in general as well as Layer by Layer. Various items aboard are detailed as are the Spot Effects and Set Pieces which the Director can throw at her Player Characters. The scenario is rounded out with an introduction for the players and their characters, and cards for its Monsters, equipment, and more. The deck plans for the trawler are a little small, but easy to read still.
‘The MFV Mulligan’ is a really engaging scenario, providing what is effectively a haunted house (at sea) style Mystery and showcasing how a typical scenario is constructed for Locus with its layering of clues, mysteries, and the Malus Locus. It should engender a strong sense of atmosphere too, although it does note that the fishing industry operating out of Scotland in the nineteen nineties is not as diverse as a modern gaming audience might prefer. The scenario overall, should provide two good sessions at a minimum, and hopefully will not just serve as an example for the Director to create her own, but also as the basis for the publisher to release more
Like the Player Guide for Locus: A roleplaying game of personal horror, the Director’s Guide is a slim hardback, but roughly double the length. It is again done in deep blacks and shades of grey with slashes and splashes of red and white. There is a greater use of photographs too, but not always exactly appropriate, and some of the artwork is not quite as good a quality as in the Player Guide. The layout is perhaps slightly rough in places, and although it can be difficult to find things occasionally, there is a solid index. The game and its play is nicely supported with several examples of play and the mechanics, plus a decent summary and glossary at the end of the book.
The Director’s Guide for Locus: A roleplaying game of personal horror brings to life its world of Malus Loci, Haunts, and Monsters feeding off the guilt of others far more than the Player Guide does. Of course, that is the point of the Director’s Guide, but there is no real hint of this in the Player Guide and that is an omission which would have given the play of Locus context for the players. Nevertheless, the Director’s Guide does a fine job of exploring and showcasing its exploration of guilt and morality in the face of reality warping, if localised horror, and then its potentially quite nasty, brutal mechanics coupled with strong roleplaying potential in the Virtues and Vices. All backing them up with satisfying examples, a decent scenario, and solid advice for the Director to help her create her own Monsters and Malus Loci and tailor them to her players’ protagonists.
The combination of the brutal nature of its mechanics and its focus upon the Player Characters’ guilt and secrets means that Locus is best suited to a playing group with some roleplaying experience under its collective belt and mature players. Further, that combination, together with the fact that the guilt and secrets never truly go away and the highly localised nature of its Malus Loci means that it is also best suited to one-shot scenarios or short campaigns. For a gaming group that wants to explore the personal horror of the fallible and even the failed, Locus: A roleplaying game of personal horror pulls the players and their characters deeper and deeper into a confrontation with their characters’ guilt and its manifestation, and presents them with a fraught roleplaying challenge and experience.

Locus: A roleplaying game of personal horror which explores themes of guilt, morality, and mystery. It asks each Player Character what it was that he did wrong and how he feels about it, what is wrong—or right and who says so, and presents him and his companions with a strangeness and mystery around them, that somehow, they must survive. It is a game of ordinary men and women, protagonists thrust into unsettling situations and nightmares, and exposed to mysteries that perhaps will push them to confront their own secrets. Published by Cobble Path Games following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it comes in two volumes—Player Guide and Director’s Guide*—and is inspired by psychological horror films such as The Descent, Triangle, Shutter Island, and others, rather than classic slashers like Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Friday the 13th.

* Note: Neither the Player Guide nor the Director’s Guide are sold separately.

A Player Character in Locus is defined by eight Attributes, a Haunt, a Virtue, an Attitude, and skills. The eight Attributes are Frailty, Clumsiness, Carelessness, Impatience, Cowardice, Ignorance, Repulsion, and Temper. What is interesting about this octet is that they are negative, almost anti-Attributes. They represent the worst features of a Player Character, such that the higher value they possess, the greater difficulty a Player Character has in overcoming them and the greater the possibility, the Player Character will be let down by his weakness. For example, Repulsion represents how uncharismatic the Player Character is, so the higher it is, the more likely the Player Character is to be unpersuasive or unpleasant in terms of personality. Rated between one and five, they do require a player to invert how he thinks about the role of attributes in a roleplaying game.

A Player Character’s Haunt represents a significant event in his past when he did something wrong, or caused harm, whether that is morally or legally wrong, or simply through negligence. Initially a known only to the Player Character, Haunts are classified into four categories—Temptation, Apathy, Discord, or Malice. A Player Character’s Virtue is his predominant redeeming feature, and like Haunts, are classified into four categories—Temperance, Motivation, Community, and Compassion. The four Haunts and the four Virtues are also associated with a suit from a standard deck of playing cards. A Player Character’s Attitude is how he views his Haunt.

To create a character, a player first assigns sixteen points to his character’s Attributes, which already start with a value of one. He then selects a Haunt, a Virtue, an Attitude, and skills. A Player Character starts play with two of these, either Trained, Knowledge, Speciality, or Expertise. Throughout the creation process there is decent advice, especially in detailing the Haunt, and what that might be. Particularly good are the descriptions of the eight types of Attitudes, whether Pessimistic or Optimistic, that otherwise might have been difficult for a player to really express. The Virtues are given a similar treatment. Player Character creation is simple enough mechanically, but the choices involved are not necessarily as simple, especially when it comes to the character’s Haunt, Virtue, and Attitude, as they all strongly influence who the character is and how he will be roleplayed.

Our sample character is Chantelle Lowder. As a teenager she rebelled against her middle-class background and became part of a gang. The gang got involved first in petty crime and then more serious activities. This led to rivalries with other gangs and ultimately a feud which would lead to outright fights and the death of a rival gang member. Chantelle did not strike the killing blow, she was a witness and when she did not co-operate, she was convicted as a participant. She was sentenced to a term in prison, but was paroled for good behaviour. Since then she has tried to build a life different to her time as a gang member. She works in a software development studio and tries to not think about what she did and the fact that she attempted to cover for the murder, but is still wracked with guilt and occasionally drinks too much as a result. She tries to make up for it with kindness, but derives no real happiness from such acts.

Name: Chantelle Lowder
Attitude: The Conflicted Pessimist
Haunt: Apathy (Spades)
Virtue: Compassion – Kindness (Heart)

Attributes
Frailty 4 Clumsiness 3 Carelessness 3 Impatience 2
Cowardice 4 Ignorance 3 Repulsion 3 Temper 2

Skills: Computer Coding (Trained), Lockpicking (Speciality)

Stress: Unaware/Tense/Stressed

Locus uses two sets of mechanics. The first involves dice. Locus uses four different types of dice rolls to determine how a Player Character overcomes a challenge, all involving the roll of three six-sided dice. The standard or Outcome Check is rolled against one of a Player Character’s Attributes, attempting to roll higher than the Attribute, essentially trying to overcome one of his worst features, at least temporarily. Only one die is counted. The lowest die if the difficulty of the task is Hard, the middle die if the difficulty is Medium, and the highest die if the task is Easy. A roll of six on all three dice counts as a critical success, but even if the roll is a failure, then the Player Character still succeeds, but at cost. So, “Yes, but…” Contested Checks are also rolled against an Attribute, with each participant attempting to roll higher than the Attribute on more dice than the others. If a Player Character has a skill, it either allows him to attempt an Outcome Check because he is Trained or because his Expertise reduces the Attribute being rolled against. Untrained Checks cover situations in which a Player Character has no training, and require a Hard Ignorance Outcome Check to work out what to do, followed by a Hard Outcome Check with the appropriate Attribute.

Conflicts are handled via Opposed Checks and cover movement, hiding, attacking and defending, and the like. Damage—or rather injury types—when suffered, is brutal. Each Player Character has the same Death Clock, which is filled in whenever he suffers an injury, either Minor, Major, or Grievous. If the Death Clock is filled in, the Player Character dies. Major and Grievous Injuries make successful Checks harder to achieve. Injuries can be treated, not to reduce the segments filled in on the Death Clock, but to negate their effects on Checks that a Player Character might attempt. In addition, a Player Character can suffer a Condition, such as Blind or Entangled, their effects interpreted by the Director and roleplayed by the player. In addition, the brutalism of the setting is extended to equipment as many items also have a durability value.

The second mechanic in Locus involves one ordinary deck of playing cards, Jokers removed, per every four players. Each player begins play with a Hand of three cards. Further cards are drawn every hour of actual game play, when a player’s character experiences jarring visions or hallucinations, or acts in accordance with his Vice. When the card drawn matches the Character’s Vice (or suit)—a Haunt card, it is discarded and the Player Character gains three Willpower Points. Otherwise, a non-Haunt card, which does not match the suit of the Player Character’s Vice, is retained in the player’s Hand. Cards can be discarded from a player’s Hand through certain actions, for example, when a Player Character acts in accordance with a Virtue not his own, when he resists the urge to act in accordance with his Vice, when his player rolls a critical on the dice, and so on. One of the mechanical aims in Locus is for a player to reduce the size of hand through play, as the rules state that having a larger Hand size is a bad thing. The rules advise the player to be proactive about this, to not actively pursue it in play, but with the Director, who confirm whether or not the cards can be discarded.

Like any good horror roleplaying game, Locus has a mechanic for handling scares and the deleterious effect upon the mental well-being when confronted with the unknown, fraught situations, and other dangers. This is Stress, rated Uneasy, Tense, and then Stressed. A Player Character’s degree of Stress can be raised as a result of a failed Stress Check, seeing a monster, taking damage from an Injury, and other situations at the Director’s discretion. Instead of a set stat being rolled against for a Stress Check, a player rolls a check against the appropriate Attribute, for example, Cowardice when his character confronted is by a monster or Impatience when his character is being chased and is slowed by an obstacle.

Locus also uses Willpower Points, representing a Player Character’s drive to succeed. Its only use is to purchase rerolls, which cost one Willpower Point each time, the number of dice which can be rerolled varying according to the degree of Stress a Player Character is suffering. So all three dice if the Player Character is Uneasy, just two if he is Tense, and only one if he is Stressed. Willpower Points are gained when a critical result is rolled on the dice, when a card matching the suite of Character’s Vice is drawn, when Stress is lowered, and others. A Player Character begins play with five Willpower Points.

There are two interesting aspects to the Stress mechanic. The first is that there is no mechanical effect upon a Player Character except to reduce the number of dice that can be rerolled with the expenditure of Willpower Points. Thus mechanically, Stress does not have an effect on what a Player Character can do, but instead has an effect on the purchasing power of his Willpower Points and thus on his drive to overcome difficult or dire situations. Plus of course, it should ideally influence how the Player Character is roleplayed. The second is that Locus has no insanity or madness mechanic, so that in terms of its rules, a Player Character cannot go mad or insane. That possibility is best left to the player roleplaying his character. Further, the combination of the no insanity mechanic and the brutal Death Clock gives Locus much more of an immediacy in its play, rather than the long effects of confronting the unknown as seen in other horror roleplaying games.

Physically, the Player Guide for Locus: A roleplaying game of personal horror is a slim hardback, done in deep blacks and shades of grey with slashes and splashes of red and white. The artwork tends towards the blocky, but is generally fairly decent. The layout is perhaps slightly rough in places, and although it can be difficult to find things occasionally, there is a solid index. The game and its play is nicely supported with several examples of play and the mechanics, including a trio of sample Player Characters, plus a decent summary and glossary at the end of the book.

However, there is the one thing that the Player Guide for Locus: A roleplaying game of personal horror does not do, and that is, tell the players and their Director what the Cards do in play. Fundamentally all that player knows is that having too many cards is bad and that they are keyed to his Virtue and his Vice. He can roleplay to the cards and the Virtues and Vices they link to, to an extent—and is encouraged to do so, since it is not the Director’s remit to keep track of such things—in order to get rid of them. Yet he does not know what they do otherwise nor what their effect is in the game, or the effect of having too many or too few. That is left up to the Director’s Guide to explain, but surely some explanation could have been included in the Player Guide?

The Player Guide for Locus: A roleplaying game of personal horror does, in general, give a good explanation to the majority of the roleplaying game’s core rules. It does feel fussy in places, as if there are too many mechanics for what it is trying to do, and the lack of any explanation as to the use of the playing cards is a major omission. Of course, the Player Guide is going to need the Director’s Guide, but there is the basis here for what Locus sets out to be, ‘a roleplaying game of personal horror’ with a set of potentially quite nasty, brutal mechanics coupled with strong roleplaying potential in the Virtues and Vices. To bring those out fully though, along with the elements of guilt and morality at the heart of each Player Character, the Director’s Guide is a definite must.

—oOo—
A review of Director’s Guide for Locus: A roleplaying game of personal horror appears tomorrow.

No events at the gallery this weekend, because as you read this, the whole kit and caboodle is at Texas Frightmare Weekend at DFW Airport. No events the next weekend, either, partly because Caroline has her own show at FenCon … Continue reading →

Macdeath is an adventure for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Published by Critical Kit, it is designed for a party of four to five Player Characters of low- to mid-Level and is intended to be played in a single session, either as a one-shot or as part of an ongoing campaign. It involves a theatre troupe, a fairy circle, a performance, and a murder! Whilst self-contained, it would be easy to adapt Macdeath to the setting of the Dungeon Master’s choice, so long as the setting involves the fae and fairy-kind. Most fantasy roleplaying settings—especially for Dungeons & Dragons—feature this, but the Ravenloft setting would be particularly appropriate, as would any with a Renaissance feel. However it is used, Macdeath is fairly straightforward and involves a mix of investigation and interaction, with almost no combat.

The adventure revolves around the Orb Theatre Troupe, which in recent years has become renowned for its highly entertaining theatrical productions. This is due to the prolific output of the troupe’s founder and bard, Willard Rattlesword. Both his fame and that of the troupe have even spread beyond the Material Plane and so Titania, Queen of the Summer Court has commissioned Rattlesward to write a play and have the troupe give her and her entourage a command performance. This is due to take place in Whimsel Grove, a demiplane half way between the Material Plane and the Emerald Plane. Unfortunately, things do not go as planned. The Queen and her companions arrive, but are disappointed to find not the troupe’s lead actor, Penrod Peppin, performing the lead role in that evening’s performance, but his understudy, Ned Hackett! Worse, not only is Ned’s performance wooden and stilted, when they are directed to find out where Penrod Peppin has got to between acts in the hope that he can come back and save the play, the Player Characters discover him dead in his trailer! Even worse than that, Penrod Peppin has been murdered!! And even worse than that, when the faerie queene discovers that the performance is going to be cancelled, she still demands an entertainment—find out who killed Penrod Peppin, find how Penrod Peppin was killed, and why Penrod Peppin was killed. Then present her with a trial at her court!

Macdeath is thus a murdery mystery play set at that most classic of locations—it could only be more classic if it was set at a country mansion—a theatre. The Player Characters must search the locations, question the witnesses and suspects, gather the evidence, and form a hypothesis, and present it to Queen Titania. With just a cast of just six suspects, eight locations, and a handful of clues, this is not a very difficult mystery to solve, and to be fair it is not meant to be. This scenario is meant to be played in a single session or evening, which means that everything, including the murder should be wrapped up within that time. Short though, does not mean that it is not entertaining. The cast are sufficiently detailed and along with the members of the troupe, the Dungeon Master is given a handful of pixies, rarebits, will-o’-wisps, and dryads to play, the latter able to give clues and nudges as necessary. These veer very much into the whimsical and should be fun to roleplay.

Much like a Shakespearian play that Macdeath is a ‘play’ upon, the scenario is a three act play and the Player Characters are very much doing different things in each one. In the first, they are performing the first of act of the play, which itself is called Macdeath; in the second, they are investigating the murder; and in the third, they are presenting the evidence at the trial. It is also both a locked room murder—the victim’s trailer is locked, and a locked room investigation and trial. Or rather, a locked Whimsel Grove murder and a locked Whimsel Grove investigation and trial. The Player Characters have to perform the play, investigate, and litigate all within the limits of the Emerald Plane.

The scenario is supported with full NPC descriptions, though not necessarily with full stats as they are not intended for combat, details of the Emerald Plane and its various fairie denizens, as well as fae gifts that Queen Titania can hand out, the best being a Bag o’ Cats, from which a cat can be drawn at random and to stay, it must tell a secret. There are several good handouts too, including the full four-page script for the first act of the play.

Physically, Macdeath is decently done. It needs an edit here and there, but the artwork is excellent. The handouts are decent too.

Macdeath—and to be clear, it has nothing to do with The Tragedy of McDeath for Warhammer Fantasy Battle—does have a problem, and that is in its set-up. It requires the Player Characters to be actors and performers, part of the Orb Theatre Troupe. This may not sit well with every player or indeed every Class, and it also means that it might be harder to set up and use, especially in an existing campaign. This may make it difficult to run. That said, there are Classes which would work well with this set-up. The Bard obviously, but also any Class which relies on Charisma. Unfortunately, Macdeath does not support either set-up, so no real advice on using existing Player Characters or pre-generated Player Characters for use when it is run as a one-shot. A good Dungeon Master should be able to come up with either though.

The short length of Macdeath means that it does not outstay its welcome, keeping its plot fairly simple and mixing in plenty of whimsy along the way, so that it has the feel of a television series murder mystery, though of course with magic and fantasy flavour. Overall, Macdeath is an enjoyable different scenario, emphasising and showcasing the interaction and investigation aspects of Dungeons & Dragons, and in the process, the roleplaying too.

How small can a hex crawl be? The Isle of Glaslyn manages to fit a seven-hex hex crawl onto the equivalent of four pages and then present it on a pamphlet which folds down to roughly four-by-six inches. Yet when it folds out (and is folded over, slightly), it can sit on the table between the players and the Game Master, with all of the player-facing content—the hex map of the island and the town map—on the one side, and the Game Master content—random monster tables, NPC details, and more, on the other. It is the very definition of a clever little design.
The Isle of Glaslyn lies off the coast, its hills and forests enshrouded in mists, covering rich veins of a metal found nowhere else—strands of woven copper entwined with gold. These unique formations have brought men and women to the island hoping to strike it rich and so set themselves up for life. Yet few who have ventured beyond the walls of Caer Emyrys, the small fort on the south side of the island, have returned, and fewer with the desired wealth. Those walls are a frontier and on the other side lies a rough wilderness, full of dangers yet to be encountered and secrets to be discovered. There are rumours of an ancient guardian watching over the mines, of islanders who eat men, and a magical sword swathed in golden ichor which sleeps in the many barrows to be found on the island. Lady Morgan, commander of Caer Emyrys and representative of the Emperor, has been directed with securing the mine and making it safe, then opening it back up. To that end, she has decided to employ adventurers bold who will explore the island, deal with its dangers, and ensure that its riches can be mined.

The Isle of Glaslyn is thus a classic set-up for an adventure. Caer Emyrys and the Isle of Glaslyn—the island barely eighteen miles across—are described succinctly, the maps nice and clear, and accompanied by tables of rumours, wilderness encounters, an evening at the ‘Itchy Hole’ tavern in Caer Emyrys, and more. Beyond the fort, each of the hexes is fully detailed with several specific adventure sites across the island, such as an abandoned tower and the village of bones. These are scaled down to fit the size of the island, but accompanied by the tables of rumours and encounters, and so on, and The Isle of Glaslyn has the potential for multiple sessions of play as the Player Characters explore the island. Ultimately, the secret to the island echoes that of scenarios like ‘The Lichway’ from White Dwarf #9 or Death, Frost, Doom for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay.

Physically, The Isle of Glaslyn is neatly, if perhaps a little too tightly in places, presented—but then that is down to the format. It needs an edit in places too, but the artwork is really rather charming. Physically too—and despite the cleverness of its design—it is not always easy to use because sometimes it is not merely a matter of content being on the other side of the page, but a matter of being on the other side, and flipping back and forth can be cumbersome. It is printed on fairly stiff paper, so it will withstand some handling though.

Inspired by Welsh folklore and Arthurian myth about the lake below Snowdon, The Isle of Glaslyn, is published by Leyline Press and designed for a party of low-Level adventurers using Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy. Which means it is very easy to adapt to the retroclone of the Game Master’s choice. The limited amount of space means that the designers have to pack a lot of information into its pages and folds, but much of that is concisely presented, leaving room for the Game Master to add or develop detail and flavour as is her wont, although there is plenty of flavour implied. Literally as presented, the adventure is not a large one, but roughly a hex or two should be explored per session, and that with a fairly minimal degree of preparation upon the part of the Game Master. Plus, the size and self-contained nature of the island means that The Isle of Glaslyn is easy to drop off the coast of almost any fantasy roleplaying campaign. That self-same scope and size means that The Isle of Glaslyn could work as a low-Level party’s first wilderness adventure or hex crawl.

Overall, The Isle of Glaslyn is not necessarily a great scenario, but its small size contains plenty of adventure and its concision and format afford it a charm not always found in other scenarios.