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Miskatonic Monday #294: The Assignment

Reviews from R'lyeh -

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

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

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Name: The AssignmentPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Marco Carrer

Setting: Cthulhu InvictusProduct: One-on-One Scenario
What You Get: Ten page, 310.87 KB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Sometimes a femme fatale lives up to her namePlot Hook: A Finder doesn’t always want to find what he’s looking for
Plot Support: Staging advice, one pre-generated Investigator, four NPCs, one handout, floorplans, and one Mythos creature.Production Values: Plain
Pros# Scenario for The 7th Edition Guide to Cthulhu Invictus: Cosmic Horror Roleplaying in Ancient Rome# One Keeper, one Investigator one-shot# Short, one session noir-style investigation# Plot could be adapted to a Noir-style setting# Strigiformophobia# Necrophobia# Teraphobia
Cons# Needs a good edit# Familiar noir-style plot
Conclusion# Short and bloody noir-style investigation# Serviceable and easy to use

Numenera’s Destiny

Reviews from R'lyeh -

Numenera Destiny changes the way in which Numenera Discovery is played and the why it is played. Set billions of years into the future after multiple, highly technological and advanced civilisations have risen and fallen, Numenera is a Science Fantasy roleplaying game of exploration and adventure in the very far future of the Ninth World. In the course of this adventure and exploration, the Player Characters discover secrets, protect communities, and recover and make use of the technologies of the past—Artifacts, Cyphers, and Oddities—to continue to learn and explore. Numenera Destiny, the companion volume to Numenera Discovery, provides a core motivation for the Player Characters, the means to support that motivation with new Character Types and mechanics, new Foci and Descriptors, rules for creating, supporting, and developing Communities, breaking down Cyphers and rebuilding them to new purposes, plus new organisations and creatures, and lastly four scenarios. This motivation centres on the Community. Where in Numenera Discovery it might be a place that the Player Characters simply pass through or come to rescue of, with Numenera Destiny, the Player Characters become part of that community. They protect it. They lead it. They develop it. They build a better future for themselves and the other members of the community, and in the process, they create rather than just scavenge.

Numenera Destiny begins with the new character options. The three new Character Types are the Arkus, the Wright, and the Delve. The Arkus is a natural leader, potentially head of a community, an army, or even a faith, but ultimately a charismatic and social Character Type. The Wright builds and crafts, able to interpret plans and devices found in the ruins of the past, and using ‘Iotum’, scavenged components, design and create cyphers, artifacts, and installations. They are more than mere scholars—they are doers. The Delve is the ultimate explorer of the ruins, but also highly skilled in extracting the ‘Iotum’ that the Wright needs to build. The Arkus begins play with ‘Demeanour of Command’ which forces others to listen to him when not in combat and is naturally a ‘Community Leader’, which increases a community’s rank when he is present. He has precepts which grant him an advantage when dealing with others, such as telling an uplifting ‘Anecdote’ or having a ‘Connection With an Organisation’. Later on, an Arkus can gain followers. The Wright is Trained in Crafting Numenera, and when actively working as a ‘Community Builder’, it improves a community’s infrastructure, is ‘Always Tinkering’ and can create new random Cyphers. He has Inspired Techniques like ‘Right Tool for the Job’, crafting temporary tools from Iotum, gain ‘Extra use’ from an installation or artifact without triggering a depletion roll, and ‘Scramble Machine’ for devices nearby. The Delve spends less time in a community than the other Character Types, and is Trained in ‘Salvaging Numenera’ and as a ‘Community Explorer’, improves its capacity to find resources, open new trade routes, and so on. He has ‘Delve Lore’, which includes ‘Find the Way’ when he is lost and ‘Familiarise’ which enables him to study a region and gain temporary benefits whilst there. Of the three new Character Types, Delve is actually the least interesting, especially at Tier One. Fortunately, the Type gets more interesting at higher Tiers.

It is notable that all three new Character Types have core Community abilities that get better as they improve in Tier. However, Numenera Destiny goes further by providing Community abilities for the three core Character Types from Numenera Discovery. Thus, the Glaive has ‘Community Defender’, the Jack has ‘Community Fixer’ which improves a community’s health or infrastructure Ranks, and the Nano has ‘Community Scholar’, which also improves a community’s health or infrastructure Ranks. Together this balances the old Character Types with the new, though the additions are not as interesting as those for the new Character Types, especially as the Community abilities for the Jack and the Nano are identical.

Numenera Destiny adds thirty-five new Descriptors. The majority of these are designed to support the three new Character Types. Thus, the ‘Articulate’ aids the Arkus who emphasises speech, ‘Beneficent’ is for the Arkus who wants to help, and ‘Civic’ is about working with the community. ‘Curious’ is for the Delve who wants to know more and ‘Risk-Taking’ if he pushes his luck. ‘Imaginative’ and ‘Industrious’ both suit the Wright. Of them all, it does feel as more of them support the Arkus rather than the other Character Types. Similarly, there are over thirty new Foci, and again many support the community and leadership aspect of Numenera Destiny, like ‘Imparts Wisdom’, ‘Shepherds the Community’, and ‘Wields Words Like Weapons’. There are fewer which specifically support the roles of the Wright and the Delve, though ‘Builds Tomorrow’ is exception for the Wright, whilst others such as ‘Adjures The Leviathan’, giving a character control over one of the horrors to be found in the ruins, ‘Dances With Dark Matter’ which grants substance and control of shadows, and ‘Emerged From The Obelisk’ which changes the character’s body structure from flesh to crystalline all support the strangeness to be found beyond the walls of the community in the Ninth World.

Not all of these character options presented in Numenera Destiny are necessarily new. For example, the Arkus and the Delve are similar to the Glint and Seeker Character Types respectively from Character Options 2, whilst several of the Foci and Descriptors originally appeared in Gods of the Fall and Expanded Worlds and other supplements. However, they have been adjusted and redesigned to fit the new edition of Numenera Discovery and the companion volume, Numenera Destiny. It is still possible to play using the earlier iterations or concepts of these Character Types and Foci and Descriptors, but the updated and redesigned versions are more interesting and supportive of the emphasis in Numenera Destiny.

Specifically for the Wright, Numenera Destiny provides detailed, but surprisingly simple salvaging and crafting rules. Anyone can engage in salvaging as they explore the Ninth World, but in the main, the Wright will be at an advantage over other Character Types when he does so. In addition to gaining Cyphers and shin (the catch-all currency of the Ninth World), a successful Salvage Task check will yield ‘Iotum’. This is the catch-all term for scavenged parts, which might be, “silvery canisters filled with colourless goo, or bubbling fluid contained within etched stronglass canisters the size of small houses.” Iotum are then used to construct all manner of devices and installations. ‘Iotum’ can be random items—and there is a table for that accompanied by descriptions of each ‘Iotum’ type—or they might be something that the Wright is looking for. This is particularly likely if the Wright is attempting to construct something from a specific plan. Determining if the scavenger has found the ‘Iotum’ he wants requires a second Salvage Task check. That then is all there is to the salvage rules with more detail devoted to the salvage found than the mechanics of finding it.

The crafting rules are more complex, but not by much. Whether an object or structure is commonplace or numenera, the latter meaning it will have abilities like a cypher or an Artifact, it has as an Assessed Difficulty representing how difficult it is to construct and how long it will take to complete. However, if a numenera object or structure, the Assessed Difficulty is higher. To actually craft an object or structure requires multiple Crafting Task checks, that is, one subtask for each level of the Assessed Difficulty. So, for a Level 3 Cypher, the player has to roll a Crafting Task at difficulty one, then difficulty two, and so on. This can be reduced by a Wright’s Training and abilities, but not Effort as that has an immediate rather than a prolonged use. The same mechanics are used for repairing items, making modifications, and more. The rules are backed with numerous plans, from wooden walls and stone keeps to waterskimmer and windrider vehicles. (Rules for vehicle combat are included in the appendix.) The new Cyphers include several that will help a Wright when crafting, such as ‘Crafter’s Eyes’, thick lenses that when worn provide informative diagrams that help with a construction task or helps the community like the ‘Hiding Alarm Nodule’ that when attached to a building sends it out of phase if it is struck by sufficient force, such as that which might occur during a siege.

A community itself has a Rank and several statistics. These are Government, its leadership and organisational structure; Health, representing the number of able-bodied occupants; Infrastructure, its buildings, roads, and so on; Damage Inflicted, the damage it can do against another community or a horde—either NPCs or beasts; Armour, which protects attacks by other communities or hordes; Modifications are abilities particular to the community which might be a unique building, NPC, or skill; and Combat, which consists of abilities similar to Modifications, but combat-related. It is possible that the values for all will change over time due to circumstances internal and external, and once it is large enough, it can conduct Community Actions. This might be to open up trade with another community, send the militia to the walls to defend against a horde, dealing with disasters, and so on. Here again, Numenera Destiny keeps things simple. A community with a higher Rank wins, whether that is in negotiating a trade agreement, withstanding an attack by a horde, or surviving an earthquake. That though is if there are no Player Characters involved. If there are, the different Character Types enhance the various stats for a community, the Player Characters can undertake some of the community actions, and the Player Characters can invest themselves in the community’s future. The Arkus can lead and speak for it, the Wright can improve and repair it, the Glaive can protect it, whilst the Delve, the Jack, and the Nano can support everyone’s endeavours.

The advice for both Game Master and players is that a community—whether is one that the characters have adopted or founded—is not simply there for the characters’ benefit. (If it is, it more likely to be based occupied and run by the Player Characters.) Whilst the Player Characters do gain from living in a community, the other inhabitants will gain also, and the interaction with the inhabitants will not be all one way, even if the Player Characters’ fostering of community places them in positions where it can direct its future. There are suggestions too on the types of adventures that can be run based around the adoption or founding of a community, as well as how a community might be laid out, and a lengthy list of long-term tasks that the Player Characters can undertake. Some are general like building up food or water stores, enhancing a community’s happiness, or even raising a child, whilst many others are specific to a Character Type. An Arkus could ‘Demonstrate Grace Under Pressure’ or ‘Cultivate Followers’, whilst a Delve would ‘Prospect for Iotum’ or ‘Find Specific Iotum’. Add in the table of random events and Numenera Destiny provides the means to run a campaign grounded in a community which could last years, both in terms of play and in the setting itself. The advice to that end is excellent.

As well as rules for creating and running communities, Numenera Destiny describes several actual communities of varying sizes that the Player Characters might encounter in and around the Steadfast, the starting area for Numenera, and then in the Beyond. They include a nomadic community that rarely stays in one place for more than a few years as the inhabitants follow the shambling mountain-like Dream Titans; an arcology that migrates up and down the Sea of Secrets off the coast of Steadfast; and a mountain city over which floats an enormous artifact called the ‘Changing Moon’, the façade and interior of which constantly changes and is the subject of study by scholars. There are several descriptions of smaller communities too, less detailed and intended to be used as ‘Starter Communities’ that the Player Characters can adopt, protect, and develop. All come with their own stats and they can just as easily be used as locations to be added to the Game Master’s campaign. Added to this are details of various organisations, including notable members, facilities, and benefits of membership. They include the Amber Gleaners, a network of scholars, explorers, delves, and other travellers who share knowledge of the routes and locations they discover with each other; the Order of Healing, a relatively new offshoot of the Order of Truth, whose members travel the Steadfast and the Beyond, offering healing and medical aid; and the League, an organisation of envoys that foster communication between communities and the benefits of civilisation, though some wonder if it has an ulterior motive…

Besides providing an array of new Cyphers and beasts and NPCs, again all of which are designed to support stories and adventures around communities—whether as allies, enemies, or hordes, Numenera Destiny includes four scenarios. ‘The Door Beneath the Ocean’ is a community-starter scenario as the Player Characters come to the rescue of refugees fleeing both an active volcano and a cruel slave keeper, and then decide where to establish a new home for them. ‘Trefoil’ gives the Player Characters the opportunity to go and hunt for a particular type of iotum, but the situation where it can be found is more complex than the rumours say it is. In ‘Red Plague’, the player Characters come to the aid of the village of Glaww whose inhabitants are suffering from a deadly disease, but to save them, they will benefit from the skills of a Delve and then a Wright. Lastly, ‘Terminus’ scales up, being designed for higher Tier Player Characters with plenty of playing background behind them and the time to build up a stock of resources. These are necessary when they discover a dangerous threat that is first a problem for their community and then the world. This fourth scenario is the least immediately useful, as its requirements are much higher, but the others work as good set-up for a community-based campaign.

Physically, Numenera Destiny is very well presented and put together. Although it needs a slight edit in places, the book is well written, and everything is easy to grasp. Above all, the artwork is excellent and this is a great looking book.

Numenera Destiny is not absolutely necessary to play Numenera Discovery. Yet Numenera Destiny offers so many great options in terms of what you play and how you play, taking a campaign in a different, more involved direction, and giving scope for the players and their characters to become more invested in the Ninth World, that ultimately, it really does feel as if it is definitely going to be wanted.

Dune Dénouement

Reviews from R'lyeh -

If a licensed roleplaying game is based around a big story, the question is, how does its publisher address that story? Does it ignore it in favour focusing upon the setting instead? Does it incorporate it into the roleplaying game and make it a feature? The problem being that the events of the big story are inviolate and no matter what the players and their characters do, they cannot change them. Does this then undermine character agency? The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings from Free League Publishing sets its stories between the two pillars of the intellectual property it is based upon, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, giving it a sixty-year window in which a campaign can be set. Similarly, Green Ronin’s A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying: A Game of Thrones Edition, based on George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy series is set a century before the events of the books. Victory Games published multiple scenarios for James Bond 007: Role-Playing In Her Majesty’s Secret Service, most of them quite tightly based on a particular film, but written in such a way that if the players followed the actions of James Bond in the films, their characters would fail. Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Game, published by Modiphius Entertainment, does all of these—and more, for it has a more difficult path to tread.

Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Game enables the players to create characters who are members of a noble house and roleplay them as they work to improve the fortunes of their house. Those fortunes are bound up in Arrakis, the desert world that is the source of the Spice Melange that underpins the economy and structure of the Known Universe. Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune began their story with a big ‘what-if?’. What if the Player Characters’ was appointed control of Arrakis instead of House Atreides and so supplanted House Harkonnen? The consequences and ongoing story were explored in Masters of Dune, but with the Fall of the Imperium Campaign Sourcebook, the players, their characters, and the campaign collide head on with the events of Dune—as depicted in the book and on screen—and ride that sandstorm all the way through to the unleashing of a great change. Their story will weave in and around the secret compact between the Emperor and House Harkonnen to unseat House Atreides, the rise of Muad’Dib, the fall of the Imperium, and the Jihad that followed. The Player Characters cannot change any of these events through their actions, but what they can do is explore some of the consequences to what happens on Arrakis that would otherwise take place in the background, participate in them, in the process tell their own story. That is their agency.

The Fall of the Imperium Campaign Sourcebook requires some set-up if run as a sequel to Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune and Masters of Dune. The Herald of Change will come to the Player Character’s house and announce that the Emperor has awarded stewardship of Arrakis to House Atreides. This still sets up the events of Dune since House Harkonnen hates House Atreides and the Emperor can use that hatred to destroy a rival. The Player Characters will also maintain a presence on Arrakis, though no longer a major one, and will likely have formed a relationship with House Harkonnen—whether as allies or enemies—especially if their house replaced the Harkonnens in Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune. The relationship between the Player Characters and House Harkonnen, and possibly with the Emperor himself, is important throughout the plot of the Fall of the Imperium Campaign Sourcebook. This is because it is one way in which the characters—and more importantly, the players—are forced to make choices that do not adhere to the plot of the novel as the characters are only aware of the obvious events rather than the secret events. So, what the Player Characters are aware of is that House Atreides has lost and House Harkonnen has won, and thus the question is—even though they as players know that Paul Atreides has survived—who does their house ally itself with? And then in the aftermath of the fall of House Corrino, how closely and openly do they ally with the new Emperor?

Fall of the Imperium consists of four parts which will take the Player Characters and their House from the Imperium through to the Ascension of Paul Muad’Dib. It opens with ‘The Gathering Storm’ with the replacement of House Harkonnen as the siridar governor of Arrakis by House Atreides and with the perceived weakening of the Harkonnens, House Ecaz seeks the Player Characters’ aid in taking its revenge for a past feud. Here, for the first time, there appears a theme that runs throughout the campaign—making alliances. There is always a choice of choosing between an alliance with or against House Harkonnen, but this like so many of the other choices throughout the campaign is never morally black or white. There are always advantages and disadvantages to any choice that the Player Characters have to make, which will extend from their dealings with House Harkonnen in the opening and middle parts of the campaign to their interaction with Emperor Shaddam IV in its climax and Emperor Paul Muad’Dib in the aftermath. Either way, the Player Characters will initially discover evidence of House Harkonnen’s stashing away Spice, but there is little that they can do with the information before events get out of control as the Player Characters trace a killer in the desert—with the unexpected help of the Spacing Guild—all the way to Kaitain. Yet before the Player Character can do anything with information they have gained, they return to Arrakis and get embroiled in the swirling mass of Harkonnen troops, backed up by the Emperor’s dread Sardaukar, as they assault House Atreides on Arrakis.

If ‘The Gathering Storm’ funnels the Player Characters down onto Arrakis in a maelstrom of death and destruction, ‘Muad’Dib’ opens up both the campaign and the Known Universe. As House Harkonnen takes control and then ever tighter control of Arrakis, the flow of Spice lessens and house after house is forced to look to other sources. In their hunt for a secure source, the Player Characters will find themselves visiting a variety of locations, such as a ski lodge, where when assassins strike, they will have to escape via ski bikes in James Bond style! The other way in which the campaign opens up is strategically, as play switches to Architect mode, the Player Characters directing house agents on a variety of missions. Although not discussed, these are easily expanded so that the players could roleplay these missions rather than handling them as straightforward dice rolls. After the Player Characters gain proof of how extensive House Harkonnen’s coverup of its Spice mining and reportage, they find themselves the subject of Imperial interest. This is nasty fraught situation and there is no option in terms of what to do with it, as the Player Characters find themselves entertaining the Emperor’s most dangerous representatives—Count Fenring and Lady Margot—and even negotiating with Baron Vladimir Harkonnen!

Events hurtle towards a climax as the flow of Spice from Arrakis dwindles and the Landsraad Council is divided over what to do about House Harkonnen’s growing mismanagement of Arrakis. The failure forces everyone to act, the Emperor coming directly to Arrakis and the Player Characters manoeuvred into intervening on their own. ‘Fall of the Imperium’ will culminate in the scenes in the Imperial throne room as Paul Maud’Dib confronts Emperor Shaddam IV and reveals himself as Duke Paul Atreides. The campaign takes an interesting change of tone as a regime change institutes a degree of uncertainty in how the Imperium works. Loyalties old and new are tested again and again as the old order faces a whirlwind of change, part of its fuelled by the new Emperor’s desire for revenge. In turn, the Player Characters are ordered to enact that revenge on an ally, scour the old Imperial capital in search of art, secrets, or people—or a combination of all three before the jihad falls upon it, even clear their names. If the Player Characters have more choice in this last part of the campaign, then their actions have more consequences, potentially leading to their own deaths or even the destruction of their house.

Rounding out Fall of the Imperium is ‘Adventures in the Era of Muad’Dib’. This is guidance on running and playing Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Game in the era of the new Emperor. This includes advice on portraying Paul in this period, on what the altered priorities are of the Bene Gesserit and the Spacing Guild, and the role of Paul’s new faith. This is represented mechanically by a faction template for the Qizarate and a number of associated Talents. The advice for the Game Master highlights the dangers of the Jihad, the autocracy of Paul’s reign as Emperor, and the possibilities of conspiracy and counter-revolution. The advice short, but solid, and doubtless, a whole supplement could be devoted to this. There are also some scenario hooks for the Game Master to develop.

The is very much a book of two halves, one half consisting of acts one and three—‘The Gathering Storm’ and ‘Fall of the Imperium’—and other half acts two and four—‘Muad’Dib’ and ‘War Across a Million Worlds’. In ‘The Gathering Storm’, the Player Characters are being pushed towards history and then in ‘Fall of the Imperium’, they are riding its waves, whereas in both —‘Muad’Dib’ and ‘War Across a Million Worlds’, they have far more freedom to act. The consequences are greater, especially in ‘War Across a Million Worlds’, but they do have more freedom to act. Similarly, in ‘War Across a Million Worlds’ the writers have greater freedom in their writing, no longer quite hemmed in by the plot of the novel. Whereas in ‘The Gathering Storm’ and ‘Fall of the Imperium’, the Player Characters are constantly coming up against that plot, encountering events portrayed in Dune, but at a distance or being involved in events that take place offscreen. The latter are more effective then the former, but in places it feels as if the Player Characters are there to witness what was not explicitly written down. The worst example of this is the attack on the sietch by the Sardaukar in which Paul’s first son, Leto, is killed, which the Player Characters are forced to accompany. There is almost nothing that the Player Characters can do to change the outcome, effectively meaning their agency is undone by plot immunity. Fans of Dune may well enjoy having their characters present at many of these scenes, but too often they feel like exposition that only serves to highlight the difficulties of writing a campaign set in and around the events of a great novel.

Physically, the Fall of the Imperium Campaign Sourcebook is very well presented. The layout is clean and tidy and the artwork is excellent.

The Fall of the Imperium Campaign Sourcebook is an ambitious attempt to do the impossible—write a roleplaying campaign based on the events of the seminal novel that the roleplaying game is based upon. Fortunately, that ambition is fulfilled and the result is a campaign, that at its best, is often morally difficult and full of challenging situations, which takes the Player Characters through the events of Dune and beyond. At its worst though, are the situations with a lack of agency which relegates the characters and their players to the role of spectators. Nevertheless, if the Player Characters and their House survive the events covered in the Fall of the Imperium Campaign Sourcebook, then they really will have awoken.

[Free RPG Day 2024] Second Contact

Reviews from R'lyeh -

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

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In 2017, Paizo, Inc. published Starfinder: First Contact, a preview of and teaser for its then forthcoming Starfinder, the Science Fantasy roleplaying game which takes the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game forward thousands and thousands of years and to the stars. So it is most appropriate that as a preview of and teaser for the forthcoming Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Second Edition, Paizo, Inc. has released Starfinder: Second Contact for Free RPG 2024. Where the task of Starfinder: First contact was to introduce the new roleplaying game and highlight some of the differences between it and the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, the task of Starfinder: Second Contact is to reintroduce us to the Starfinder Roleplaying Game and highlight some of the differences between it and the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Second Edition as seen in the Starfinder Playtest Rulebook.

The introduction highlights how the Starfinder Roleplaying Game is going to evolve to be in line with Pathfinder, Second Edition, before jumping straight into ‘What’s New?’. These start with elements and skills that appear in the monster descriptions given in the booklet’s following pages. For example, the ‘Integrated Weapons’ appears in the entry for robots and new skills include Computers and Piloting used by both the Asteray and the Glitch Gremlin. Similarly, several of the spells are used by those creatures. They include Delete, a spell used to remove a limited amount of data, whilst the cantrip, Recharge Weapon, reloads a weapon with a round’s worth of ammunition upon a touch. The new weapons are a couple of laser guns, whilst the rest of the Starfinder: Second Contact is really all about the monsters. These start with the Asteray, Fey Tricksters born where the void and the First World overlap, they wander space looking for distractions and starship crews to consume, and end with the Cybernetic Zombie, which might have an arm cannon or a shriek module or repair nanites! In between, there are Security Robots, Glitch Gremlins—which of course, want to cause mayhem, Laser Wolves, and Ferrofluid Oozes, sentient puddles of ferromagnetic fluids that interfere with technological devices of all sorts. Every creature is given a full page description, stats, and an illustration.

Like the earlier Starfinder: First Contact, there is little to the background of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game to Starfinder: Second Contact. There is mention that Golarion, the setting for Pathfinder, is missing, that rumours arose during the Drift Crisis of super-size versions of Ferrofluid Ooze, capable of consuming whole ships, and that the AbadarCorp is responsible for the manufacture of most robots in the Pact Worlds, becoming a byword for guaranteed quality, but making their weakness commonly known so that criminals and spies can take advantage of them.
Being a release from Paizo, Inc., it should be no surprise that Starfinder: Second Contact is a slickly produced and well-presented booklet. Much like with Starfinder: First Contact for Free RPG Day 2017, Starfinder: Second Contact is very technical in nature in comparison to the other releases for Free RPG 2024. Nevertheless, Starfinder: Second Contact is a solid introduction to the technical elements of the roleplaying game, one aimed more at fans of the roleplaying game rather than the general roleplayer.

[Free RPG Day 2024] Death Out of the Stars

Reviews from R'lyeh -

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

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Death Out of the Stars is a scenario for Plague Bearer: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying. This is the fantasy version of Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game. Published by CoolMiniOrNot and Guillotine Games, Plague Bearer: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying is the roleplaying adaptation of Zombicide: Black Plague, the medieval adaptation of the board game of Zombicide, 2nd Edition, which of course, is given its own roleplaying game with Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game. The scenario is short, playable in a single session, and can be played using the Plague Bearer Quickstart Rules, which also has the six pre-generated adventurers needed to play. Death Out of the Stars can also be run as a sequel to ‘Blood and Wine’, the scenario in the Plague Bearer Quickstart Rules or simply be inserted into the Game Master’s campaign.
Death Out of the Stars begins en media res. The Player Characters—or Survivors—are on the run, being chased by a large horde of the undead, their only route forward being to cross a wooden bridge to Nahum Island. Fortunately, the wood of the bridge is rotten and collapses under the weight of the charging corpses, dashing them onto the rocks below. Unfortunately, the wood of the bridge is rotten and collapses under the weight of the charging corpses, trapping the Survivors on the island. The island is heavily wooded and with its steep cliffs and rocky shores, would be to be ideal holdout against the cadaver cavalcade which has arisen elsewhere in Wulfsburg. Unfortunately, the island too seems bereft of the living, although its undead strangely bloodless when compared to those of the mainland—grey of pallor as if drained of colour and wasting away to dust. Similarly, buildings are rapidly deteriorating and collapsing into piles of dust. Consequently, it looks like Nahum Island is not the refuge that the Player Characters might have hoped that it would be. They must face more zombies—even if they are different to the ones across the water—and discover what is happening on Nahum Island before making their escape, ideally after having dealt with the problem.
Horror fans may well recognise the reference in the scenario’s title and Death Out of the Stars certainly has a Lovecraftian feel to it. If one half of the scenario is the cosmic horror of H.P. Lovecraft, the other half is the corruptive influence of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, as if a lump of Warpstone had fallen from the sky. This gives the scenario an unsurprisingly grim tone, far less cartoonish than that of Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game. Still, as befits a scenario set within a Zombicide setting, there is still scope for bloody—or in this case, dusty—action.
Physically, Death Out of the Stars is very well presented. The scenario is decently written and both the artwork and the maps are excellent.
Death Out of the Stars is a weird and creepy scenario in between the blasts of sword swinging, mace bashing action as the Survivors hold back the members of the cadaver cavalcade and try and work out what is going on on Nahum Island. It is a pleasing shift of tone from the often-cartoonish style of Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game and is a solid addition to any Plague Bearer: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying campaign.

[Free RPG Day 2024] A Journey in Eana -1

Reviews from R'lyeh -

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—
Fateforge: A Journey in Eana -1 is an introduction to Fateforge: Epic tales in the World of Eana, the epic, swords & sorcery, high magic setting for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Published by Studio Agate—best known for Shadows of Esteren, the award-winning dark, horrific, and low fantasy roleplaying game—this introduction looks at the game line itself and what it offers, each of the four core books, the setting and its cosmology, and a scenario, ‘Super Digger 12000’. It opens though, with an introduction to the line and what marks it out as different, in particular its modularity in terms of atmosphere, the Game Master and her players having choices such as ‘Action’, ‘Dark’, ‘Gritty’, ‘Intrigue’, and ‘Mystery’, so that they get the type of game that they want to play. There are new archetypes keyed to the twelve base classes of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, optional rules such as sparing and wounding, background creation, geomagic where the flow of magic can vary from location to location, and more. Noted also is how Wizards of the Coast’s decision to end the OGL in 2023, since retracted, affected the future of Fateforge: Epic tales in the world of Eana as an ongoing series, however, the first four books—Fateforge: Epic tales in the World of Eana 1. Characters, Fateforge: Epic tales in the World of Eana 2. Grimoire, Fateforge: Epic tales in the World of Eana 3. Creatures, and Fateforge: Epic tales in the World of Eana 4. Encyclopaedia—are still published under the terms of the OGL and Studio Agate has made all four ‘Pay What You Want’.
The description of the world of Eana focuses on the Fateforge, integral to the mythology of Eana. Said to be hidden in the depths of the world and at the centre of a massive maze, its most renowned ability is that of birthing gods of those that find it and use, though it is also said to grant wishes. Those that search for it are the ‘Fate-Chosen’, though not all ‘Fate-Chosen’ do go in search of it. The ‘Fate-Chosen’ are different from ordinary men and women, whether they have been chosen by the gods, are the descendants of the ancients known as the Travellers, driven by their own will, or simply lucky, they posses great powers and great skill. They are in turn looked upon with admiration, envy, or fear. The Player Characters are, of course, ‘Fate-Chosen’. In addition, there flavour and detail about the world of Eana, including a slight description of Geomagic, how magic can vary in intensity from one place to another and Canker, a corruptive force whose origins and nature are as much feared and discussed as the location of the Fateforge and the origins of the ‘Fate-Chosen’ are debated. Altogether, it feels like a series of snapshots and very much a potted overview of the setting rather than a coherent write-up. In fact, the descriptions of the four books and the differences in terms of mechanics are more accessible.
The scenario in Fateforge: A Journey in Eana -1 is ‘Super Digger 12000’. This highlights another aspect of the setting not covered elsewhere in the introduction—technology. The mercadin—or merchant—Nevrec, has hired craftsmen to create a revolutionary digging machine that he hopes will open up shorter trade routes underground! The Player Characters are hired to aid and protect the drill’s maiden voyage with its crew of Drow, Duergar, and Svirfneblin. As the unique magic and steam-driven vehicle drives down into the bowels of Eana, the Player Characters should begin to feel that it the journey is not going quite as planned. First, it pierces a kheg nest full of eggs and is then ambushed by a Duergar force! There are some other fun encounters along the way, including having to hunt rust monsters for enough chitin to repair the underground drill. The scenario is linear and short, and as written looks to be fairly combat heavy. Combat is not the only solution to every situation, though, and the Player Characters will also have to interact with the vehicle’s crew and leader. It is a decent enough scenario, although it feels rushed in places. The main issue is the lack of suggestion as to the Level of the Player Characters it is written for. From the monsters included, it should be for Player Characters of Seventh and Eighth Level.
Rounding out Fateforge: A Journey in Eana -1 is a bestiary of all of the NPCs and creatures that appear in the scenario. The NPCs are given as archetypes rather than named NPCs, which does mean that they feel underwritten. That said, the descriptions of their personalities and motives are given in the text of the scenario. The monsters are all decently done, many of them decently illustrated, such as the Rust Monster Matriarch.
Physically, Fateforge: A Journey in Eana -1 is very well presented and the artwork is fantastic. Yet as written, it is intriguing rather than informative, the details about the world given a very broad treatment. As a result, Fateforge: A Journey in Eana -1 is underwhelming as an introduction to the world of Eana and the reader may simply want to bypass this and download Fateforge: Epic tales in the World of Eana 1. Characters.

Home Front Horror

Reviews from R'lyeh -

Achtung! Cthulhu is the roleplaying game of fast-paced pulp action and Mythos magic published by Modiphius Entertainment. It is pitches the Allied Agents of the Britain’s Section M, the United States’ Majestic, and the brave Resistance into a secret war against those Nazi Agents and organisations which would command and entreat with the occult and forces beyond the understanding of mankind. They are willing to risk their lives and their sanity against malicious Nazi villains and the unfathomable gods and monsters of the Mythos themselves, each striving for supremacy in mankind’s darkest yet finest hour! Yet even the darkest of drives to take advantage of the Mythos is riven by differing ideologies and approaches pandering to Hitler’s whims. The Black Sun consists of Nazi warrior-sorcerers supreme who use foul magic and summoned creatures from nameless dimensions to dominate the battlefields of men, whilst Nachtwölfe, the Night Wolves utilise technology, biological enhancements, and wunderwaffen (wonder weapons) to win the war for Germany. Ultimately, both utilise and fall under the malign influence of the Mythos, the forces of which have their own unknowable designs…

Achtung! Cthulhu Mission: Seventh-Inning Slaughter! is a short, but very different adventure for the roleplaying game. It takes place on the fourth of July, 1943—America’s Independence Day!—and far away from the war in Europe. Inspired by films such as A League of Their Own, Bull Durham, and Field of Dreams, it takes place at a baseball match at Beyer Stadium in Rockford, Illinois, between the Rockford Peaches, one of the four original professional teams making up the new All-American Girls Baseball League, and the Kinosha Comets. Not only that, but the president, Franklin Roosevelt, is there to watch the game as well! Unfortunately, so is Jörg Becker, a Nazi sorcerer, determined to prove both himself a capable agent to his Black Sun masters and thus get promoted, and that no-one is safe from the reach of Nazi Germany, not even thousands of miles away on American home soil. In addition to a period flyer for the baseball game itself, the scenario does come with four pre-generated Player Characters. Two of these are baseball players on the Rockford Peaches roster, so that they can be involved in the game as it is played and the scenario progresses. This enables some of the Player Characters to be involved in on-field events whilst the others can get involved in off-field events. That said, the progress of the game is given from one innings to the next so that it can be tracked even as the Player Characters investigate elsewhere in the stadium. What it does mean though, is that Achtung! Cthulhu Mission: Seventh-Inning Slaughter! can either be played as a one-shot or as an introduction to Achtung! Cthulhu with its events serving as the Player Characters’ first encounter with the Mythos, in addition to being played as part of an ongoing campaign. The latter is the most difficult option to work, primarily because the Game Master will need to explain why agents of Section M, Majestic, and the Resistance are in the USA in 1942 rather then in Europe. Members of Majestic would be easier to explain, but several options are suggested, such as being debriefed by Majestic or undergoing training close by.
The scenario is staged over the course of the game’s seven innings, with stranger and stranger and deadlier things happening as the game progresses from one innings to the next. Food turns rotten and writing with worms, a foul ball inflicts an injury on someone in the crowd, a lightning storm gathers and a dog turns insane, a player suddenly begins to vomit, and more… The events get nastier and bloodier as the scenario progresses. In response, the Player Characters are likely to finds themselves chasing strange occurrences and horrible events back and forth across the stadium, the one constant being that the same man—or someone like him—keeps appearing again and again. Of course, this is no coincidence, Jörg Becker, using versions of himself to spread uncertainty and horror around the stadium until he is ready to bring his plan to fruition. This is to summon up something ghastly and take Nazi Germany’s revenge upon the USA for entering the war by striking directly at the president! Preventing this, though, will be a challenge for the Player Characters. This will either because they have little to no experience with the Mythos or they have come for a relaxing day out and so are not as fully equipped as they would be if they were on a mission to fight the Secret War against the enemy’s occult agents. That said, the pre-generated Player Characters do have access to some weapons—if not immediately to hand, then close by—and they do include an occult scholar capable of casting a spell or two.
Physically, Achtung! Cthulhu Mission: Seventh-Inning Slaughter! is cleanly and tidily laid out, and comes with a map of a baseball stadium. It does not have any artwork beyond the flyer for the baseball game.
Achtung! Cthulhu Mission: Seventh-Inning Slaughter! is different, an initially unassuming and undemanding affair that grows increasingly fraught and frightful as the full powers of its antagonist are realised. There is not much that the Player Characters can really do to stop Jörg Becker’s plans until it is almost too late, but they will be kept busy until then doing a lot of clean-ups of the ‘little’ horrors he sows into the stadium, and hopefully by then, they will armed and ready. Overall, Achtung! Cthulhu Mission: Seventh-Inning Slaughter! is an entertaining change of locale and circumstances combined with a swirling morass of Mythos events leading to the big finale as you would expect.

[Free RPG Day 2024] Red Tundra

Reviews from R'lyeh -

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

Red Tundra is a homecoming scenario for Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5th Edition, the roleplaying game of lycanthropic rage and action against the ecological damage inflicted upon Gaia by the Wyrm and its human agents. Published by Renegade Game Studios, it is the publisher’s second contribution to Free RPG Day 2024, the other being the scenario, Unnatural Disaster. It can be played in a single session or two, comes complete with six pre-generated characters, and requires the Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5th Edition core rules to play. There is mention of the roleplaying game’s dice pool system—familiar from either the Storyteller or Storypath systems—but it is very basic. This is preceded by a more detailed overview of Werewolf: The Apocalypse, of who and what the Garou, or werewolves are, and how they see it as their sacred duty to protect the Earth.
The setting for the scenario is the town of Winter Creek in the Canadian Northwest Territories. This is where the Player Characters grew up and went to school, underwent their First Change and became werewolves, joined the local werewolf pack called the Lunabombers, and ultimately left. In the mundane world, they left because the employment opportunities were better in the nearest big city, but in the world of the garou, they left because they disagreed with the tactics and actions of the Lunabomber pack leader, Marcus Oakheart. Now, after several years away, they have returned home. Or at least most of them have. One of the Player Characters remained in Winter Creek. Having decided to return, they have all decided to meet back up with the one person who was a stable, listening presence in their lives growing up, their high school coach, Gordie Mackenzie. Or least he was for most of them. One of the Player Characters is a Wolf when he went through the First Change and so never had that experience. The problem with these inconsistencies is not that they are present in Red Tundra, but rather that Red Tundra never addresses them. Why was Coach Mackenzie important to the Player Characters? Why does the Player Character who remained behind not know what is going on in Winter Creek? Above all, why have the Player Characters returned to Winter Creek at all? There is some fleshing out of personal details and motivations lacking here that really would have made the playing of Red Tundra much, much easier.
The six pre-generated characters consist of Shelley ‘Moonshadow’ Le Borgne, human-born Shadow Lord Galliard, a local ice hockey player who spends time with the werewolves of the city; Darius Van Detta, wolf-born Black Fury Theurge who studies the spirits; Ida ‘Ratbrain’ Fong, human-born Bone Gnawer Ragabash, a journalist with an addiction problem; Ashley ‘Fernfur’ Greeneyes, wolf-born Hart Warden Ahroun, a gardener who stayed behind in Winter Creek; Jonas ‘Sparks’ Beaulieu, human-born Glass Walkers Philodox who is fascinated by machines and after studying the laws of Canada and the Garou has become an arbitrator; and Jared Tierney, human-born Galestalkers Ahroun, who killed his family upon his First Change and bears a constant guilt. There are descriptions of all six in Red Tundra as well as full character sheets.
The scenario opens with the Player Characters on their way to meet Coach Mackenzie at a local bar, the Silver Saloon. They are waylaid by an encounter with their former pack leader, Marcus Oakheart, now lost to the ‘Hauglosk’ and highly aggressive. When he attacks them, they are forced to defend themselves, but before long, Jana Oakheart, another member of the Lunabombers pack arrives to calm him down. This is the scene to showcase the mechanics of Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5th Edition and foreshadow some of the difficulties that the Player Characters will face when dealing with the scenario’s real problem. This, as they learn from Jana Oakheart, is that a new company, called FOMO Hunting Company, has moved into the area and is running hunting trips for rich tourists, shooting wolves from helicopters. Jana Oakheart will also ask if the Player Characters have come back to help, and being werewolves, they should very much want to do so. However, they also quickly discover a complication. When they reunite with Coach Mackenzie at the Silver Saloon, he tells them that his is no longer a high school coach. Due to cuts in funding, he was made redundant and had to look for another job. Recently he found one—with FOMO Hunting Company.
The rest of Red Tundra is all about what the Player Characters decide to do about FOMO Hunting Company and how they do it. The most obvious one is to investigate the offices FOMO Hunting Company, but the Player Characters may want to contact the wolf pack that is going to be the target of the company’s next hunting trip. Lots of options are covered in terms of how the Player Characters go about investigating the local offices of FOMO Hunting Company—sneaking in, overpowering the guards, sabotaging the helicopters to be used for the hunting trip, and so on. Once inside, the Player Characters have the opportunity to find out more about the company. There are even notes on what happens if the Player Characters call the police, though in terms of game play, this is the least interesting option. There is even guidance on what happens if things go wrong and the Player characters get captured. The encounter with the target wolfpack is more straightforward, although the Player Characters may make contact with a wolf about to undergo her First Change.
The outcome of the climax is very much dependent on what the Player Characters did previously. If they did nothing, there is a complete timeline of what Marcus Oakheart and the Lunabombers do. This will result in a lot of bloodshed and the deaths of both Coach Mackenzie and many members of the wolfpack that the FOMO Hunting Company is planning to attack. Hopefully, much or at least some of this can be avoided, and the scenario lists numerous possible options and outcomes depending upon the actions of the Player Characters in the previous scenes. For example, if the Player Characters if have dealt with the head of FOMO Hunting Company, she is replaced by an assistant; if the helicopters have been sabotaged, then Coach Mackenzie might be killed or injured; and so on. Ultimately, the aim of the Player Characters is to stop FOMO Hunting Company, but ideally without Coach Mackenzie getting hurt or killed—though lack of a job will be a problem for him, without getting into too much conflict with Marcus Oakheart, and of course, without breaking the Veil and the Player Characters revealing their true nature to the mundane world. There are options, fairly open-ended, discussed as to what might happen next if the Game Master and her players want to continue the story or the Game Master has adapted the scenario to fit her campaign.
Physically, Red Tundra is decently presented. The artwork is excellent, but it does need a slight edit.
Red Tundra is a fair scenario, providing a good mix of investigation, interaction, and action, as well as, more importantly, presenting some moral decisions for the players and their characters to address. It is not a quick-start though, and a gaming group will need access to a copy of the rules to play. So, whilst it introduces the setting, it is not a good introduction to the rules. The most disappointing aspect to the scenario is the lack of Player Character motivations. These would have helped drive the Player Character action and given reasons for their involvement from the start. Although she should not have had to, if the Game Master takes the time to add these, Red Tundra becomes a decent scenario.

Old West Wonder

Reviews from R'lyeh -

The year is 1860 and the War for Southern Independence has been over for three years. The Confederate States of America won, capturing the thirtieth state, the island of Cuba, and Maryland, forcing the United States of America to move its capital to New York. Yet it could not hold much of Louisiana, which seceded the Republic of Texas, itself an independent bulwark between United States of America and United States of America and the Confederate States of America. The price of a negotiated peace was the gift of New Orleans to France. Mexico is embroiled in another civil war and remains nominally in control of the west and southwest of the North American continent. In the west, California, the thirty-first state, is the only state on the Pacific coast, with large, yet to be admitted territories between it and the rest of the United States of America; the Mormons retained their state of Deseret; and the five ‘civilised’ tribes of American Indians founded their own state, Sequoyah, establishing their independence, but remaining an ally of the United States of America. This is the setting for Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier, an alternate Old West roleplaying game originally published by Kenzer & Company in 2007. What is notable about Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier was not necessarily the alternate, though highly historical, setting, but rather that in all other ways it was a straight treatment of the genre. Thus, no undead or horror or steampunk or other outré elements. In fact, Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier could be shifted to our own history after the American Civil War and you would be none the wiser that its was an alternate history roleplaying, because the rules were that good. Further its treatment of the Old West was not that of the pulp novels or Hollywood per se. You could run a traditional Wild West roleplaying game of ‘white hats’ and ‘black hats’ with it, but in the main, what you roleplayed in Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier were men and women who have to the frontier to find a new life and establish their own futures. It was refreshingly simple in its set-up, although its mechanics were anything but nevertheless, Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier would win the Origins Award Roleplaying Game of the Year 2007 and be nominated for the ENnie Award for Best Production Values, Best Rules, Best Game, and Product of the Year. It would win the 2008 Silver ENnie Award for Best Game.
Aces & Eights: Reloaded is the second edition, tidied up and reorganised for better access and ease of play. The main changes involved the removal of four rules subsets—covering in turn cattle drives, chases, frontier justice, and prospecting—and replacing them with expanded rules for horses and skills, and a whole new town with which to start play. Plus, numerous NPCs created via the Kickstarter for the new edition.

Aces & Eights: Reloaded, though, begins just as Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier did with its Shot Clock. This is a clear plastic overlay, marked with a circular grid divided into four quarters. This is laid over a target silhouette and the attacker’s player rolls a twenty-sided die to hit. If the result of the roll is twenty-five or more—possible if a twenty is rolled, to which the player can add the result of an open-ended six-sided die, the attacker hits that exact spot. If the attack did not hit the targeted spot, and is fourteen or more, a card is drawn from a standard deck of Poker cards. This indicates the direction away from the targeted spot that the attacker fired at, whilst the number rolled determines how far. This can be off the silhouette and indicate a miss or be somewhere else on the target’s body, indicated that the shot still hit. Damage is then rolled. Add in a continuous ‘Count’ up in which the initiative constantly increases as gunfighters move, shoot, and take other actions, and what you have is smooth playing, highly thematic Old West gunfights. Aces & Eights: Reloaded includes Shot Clock overlays for both rifles and revolvers and for shotguns. All this is covered in the basic rules for ‘Scrapes’ which showcase the basic rules and provide a mini-skirmish system should a group want to try before the main game. A Player Character at this stage has Hit Points and two stats. One is Speed for determining how fast the Player Character can act and the other is Accuracy, how good a natural shot he is. In fact, Aces & Eights: Reloaded could actually work as an Old West skirmish rules set.

A Player Character in Aces & Eights: Reloaded has nine abilities—Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, Looks, Charisma, Reputation, and Fame. The first seven are rolled for on three six-sided dice and then amended with a percentile roll. Rolls are also made for a character’s background and family and quirks and flaws. The abilities provide various starting modifiers to other abilities, such as Looks to Charisma and Fame or modifiers to Accuracy and Speed—both important in combat. At each stage, a player can decide to spend Build Points. This can be to adjust Ability scores, allow rerolls when roll for background details, and for quirks and flaws, and so on. Or a player can simply keep the rolls made and, in some cases, receive bonus Build Points. Some Abilities also grant extra Build Points, but the points of those must be spent on skills that are related to the Ability. Thus, any gained from the Intelligence Ability must be spent on Intelligence-related skills. The Talents are mostly combat related, such as Hip Shooter or Quick Aim. The character creation process is not difficult, but it is a lengthy one.

Name: Esperanza Martinez
Age: 15
Place of Origin: Cuba (Rural)
Circumstances of Birth: Legitimate
Parental Status: Mother Deceased
Siblings: 6 (Older sister, died from typhoid fever; older sister, died in infancy; older brother, died in an accident; older sister, died from diarrhoea; younger sister, very close; younger sister, very close)
Upbringing: Abusive (Hardcase)
Social Class: Lower Lower Class (Freed Slave, Farmhand)
Reason To Go West: Establish a Farm
Handedness: Right
Height: 5’ 1” Weight: 122 lbs.

Strength 11/87 (Lift 210 lbs., Carry 52 lbs., Drag 525 lbs.)
Intelligence 14/37 (+1 Accuracy)
Wisdom 8/25 (+3 Speed)
Dexterity 16/98 (-2 Speed, +3 Accuracy, +9 Feat of Agility)
Constitution 8/23
Looks 16/38 (+2 Charisma Modifier, +3 Starting Fame Modifier)
Charisma 16/90 (Max. Compatriots 4, +3 Starting Reputation Modifier)
Reputation 16/28
Fame 3

Hit Points: 20

Quirks: Loco (Royalty – and acts like it), Lusty, Clean Freak
Talents: Dodge

Skills: Agriculture 35%, Animal Husbandry (Chickens) 64%, Art of Seduction 34%, Artistry (Performance) 32%, Baking & Cook 54%, English 34%, Fast Talking 54%, Glean Information 17%, Graceful Entrance/Exit 61%, Idle Gossip 59%, Joke Telling 57%, Listening 42%, Lock Picking 30%, Nursing 28%, Observation 16%, Persuasion 54%, Resist Persuasion 38%, Skilled Liar 36%, Social Etiquette 26%, Slick Talker 55%, Sneaking 37%, Spanish 78%

Reputation is a measure of a character’s standing and the degree of respect in which he is held. It can be gained for actions such as being in a gunfight, taking prisoners, keeping a difficult promise, or paying the funeral expenses of someone you killed. It can be lost by being banished by your family, fleeing a fight with an equal foe, rash or improper social behaviour, and more. Reputation can be spent to reroll combat, skill, or ability rolls. Through play, it is possible for a character’s Reputation to go into negative figures, in which case it becomes Notoriety. Fame, in comparison, is a measure of how widely known a Player Character is known.

Mechanically, Aces & Eights: Reloaded is a percentile system, a player needing to roll under a skill to succeed. The difficulty acts as a modifier to the actual die roll. Only a ‘Difficult’ applies a zero modifier, whilst a ‘Very Difficult’ task adds a positive modifier. Quite a bit of detail is provided as to what a skill can be used at each mastery level.

In terms of progression, Aces & Eights: Reloaded lists numerous Profession Paths. They include the mundane and the extraordinary, ranging from Apothecary, Artist, and Assassin to Wainwright, Weaver, and Whore! Each lists tasks that a Player Character can undertake and when achieved, will earn more him Build Points. For example, a Gun For Hire earns one Build Point for acquiring a signature weapon, five for getting involved in two or more gunfights, two for buying a speed rig, another five for winning a fair gunfight, and two for getting hired for a job, whereas an Undertaker gains one for burying a body, two for acquiring a lot to use as a graveyard, three for opening a parlour, two for operating it for a month, one for holding a wake, three for making an extraordinary coffin, and another three for making an extraordinary marker or headstone. These are in addition to any personal goals that a Player Character might have and there is good advice for the Game Master on giving out awards, both professional and personal.

The full combat rules in Aces & Eights: Reloaded expands greatly upon the basic rules at the beginning of the book. This expands the number of options in terms of actions that combatants can take and how long, the effect of both Fame and Reputation on a fight, the number of gunfights that a combatant has survived, the flinch effect of being shot, the use of the shotgun Shot Clock, and more. The rules also cover tactical and mounted tactical movement, shifting the play of Aces & Eights: Reloaded to more like a Wild West skirmish game. There are even more advanced rules which cover double-action weapons, the use of la reata or lariat, artillery, explosives, and so on. It really does look quite complex, but patience and careful reading proves otherwise. Further, there is an incredibly good example of a gunfight which shows how the rules are supposed to work. Unfortunately, as much fun as the gunfight rules are in Aces & Eights: Reloaded, getting shot is not. There is a chance of infection, there is a chance of bleeding, and there is the physical effect of the wound such that depending upon its Severity, bones will be broken, attributes will be lost, and worse. Then, without access to medical attention, it takes days and days for a Player Character to recover from a wound, and that is even before the possibility of infection is taken into account. Consequently, there is a difference in the way that the players approach gunfights in Aces & Eights: Reloaded. If it is being played as a skirmish wargame, they need not worry about the lethality of the gunfight rules, whereas in a roleplaying game, the players do need to worry about both the lethality and the deleterious effects of being shot. Thus, gunfights are not a casual choice in play.

Unfortunately, if the gunfight rules in Aces & Eights: Reloaded are slick and fun, the same cannot be said of the brawling rules. It requires three types of coloured poker chips. These are red, blue, and white, and correspond to a character’s Strength and the amount of damage he inflict, to his Dexterity and ability to land blows, and to his Constitution and his endurance during a fist fight. Essentially, what each brawler is doing is betting the coloured poker chips in order to act and have an effect. Despite there being another good example of play to accompany the rules for brawling, in comparison to the gunfight rules, the brawling system is ungainly and demanding.

In terms of support and setting content, there are two good chapters on firearms and horses, the latter including rules for creating and individualising horses. The two settings provided in Aces & Eights: Reloaded are a pair of towns, Black Horse and Lazurus. In the ‘Shattered Frontier’ of Aces & Eights: Reloaded, they are located in Alta California, in northern Mexico, close to the borders with the Colorado Territory and the Arapahoe Territory. This is in the San Juan Mountains, in what is today, the state of Colorado. Of these, Black Horse is a backwater settlement, its gold mines on the verge of being played out, intended as a blank slate for the Game Master to develop, whilst Lazurus is a boom town and more fully detailed. This includes a lot of NPCs, many of which are based on the Kickstarter backers for Aces & Eights: Reloaded. Either setting is intended for the Player Characters to settle in and begin playing a role in events and making themselves part of the setting and the town. The actual setting description for the whole of the Shattered Frontier and the history that lead up to the War for Southern Independence and its consequences are detailed at the back of the book along with profiles of the major governments and nations of North America. There are also seven beginning scenarios, such as ‘Showdown!’ and ‘Bank Robbery!’, but these are more skirmish scenarios than roleplaying scenarios. That said, there are lots of adventure hooks that the Game Master can develop into roleplaying scenarios. These are accompanied by excellent advice as to what types of games to run—skirmish, one-shot, or campaign—and how to get the Player Characters involved. There are also stats for some of the most famous and infamous gunfighters and duellists of the period, such as Sam Bass, the Clantons and the Earps, Patt Garrett, the Daltons, and others. These are the bare stats only, best suited to skirmish play and the basic rules for combat given at the front of the book.

The one disappointment in the new edition that is Aces & Eights: Reloaded, is the rules for brawling. They are still cumbersome and do not flow as well as the rules for gunfights. The one thing that perhaps Aces & Eights: Reloaded could have addressed more directly is the playing and portrayal of Indigenous peoples in the setting. There is an absence of reference to safety tools that a more modern audience is likely to find problematic. However, mature players should be able to take these issues into account and be aware of them even when playing an alternate version of the Old West, especially given that slavery still exists in the setting, though not where the focus of play is taking place.

Physically, Aces & Eights: Reloaded is a fantastic looking book, from its faux-leather embossed cover to its use of classic Old West paintings. The cartography is also very good. However, the book could have better organised. The setting material could have been better placed together and the gambling chapter seems to wander in as an afterthought almost at the end of the book.

Aces & Eights: Reloaded is not just a fantastic looking book, it is also a fantastic roleplaying game, a historical treatment—even if an alternate historical treatment—of the Old West genre. Its focus on the ordinary occupations of the Player Characters grounds the setting and helps bring it to life, whilst still allowing room for excitement of the gunfights, the bank robberies, and the jail breakouts that the genre is known for. Yet it counters that excitement with the deadly sobriety of the gunfight rules, making shootouts the last resort in any action. Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier was good enough to win an Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Game, and Aces & Eights: Reloaded is still very good today. In fact, Aces & Eights: Reloaded is the definitive treatment of the Old West in roleplaying. If you wanted an Old West roleplaying game, Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier was the best to get in 2007 and Aces & Eights: Reloaded remains the best to get in 2024.

Fear in the Fairelands

Reviews from R'lyeh -

The year is 1907. The Last Great War, fought between Hale and Otherwhere after the extreme cold weather of The Shiver gripped the northern nations, was ended when Halen deployed a secret experimental weapon that leashed a ferocious electrical storm in what became known as the ‘Electrical Event’. In the years since, Hale has embraced electrification and steam power and railways, steam powered vehicles, and dirigibles are commonplace, including in the fertile valley of the Fairelands and its capital, Newfaire. Newfaire stands on the ruins of its ancient, alchemical predecessor Oldfaire. With an influx of immigrants following the Last Great War and the increasing mechanisation, Newfaire is rich and prosperous city, its citizens adhering to strict, moralistic values under the governance of the Triumvirate. The Triumvirate consists of the Primacy, the Ascendancy, and the Periphery. The Ascendancy is the official faith of Hale, the Primacy is the regional government whose Premier also serves on the Halen Assembly, the legislative body for the whole country, and the Periphery is its police force, which has adopted the military technology used in the Last Great War and gained a much-deserved reputation for being overly zealous, violent, and militarized.
Yet as the world seems to advance, it has not totally left magick behind. Between this realm and the Beyond stands a barrier, the Flare, and where the Flare is weak, there are ‘thinnings’ through which magick seeps. To the average citizen of the Fairelands, the myths, legends, and folktales of old explain what real magickal phenomena they might have seen. If a thinning is opened wide enough, creatures from the Beyond steal into our realm, whilst powerful magick can result in corruptive Bleed that can twist and kill. Whilst The Office of Unexplained Phenomena of the Periphery will go to any lengths to keep knowledge of magickal occurrences from the public, the Exoteric Order Of New Sciences would seek to harness it as new technology, and the Pyre of the Ascendancy put all knowledge and occurrences of it to the flame, the Candela Obscura investigates such supernatural happenings, studying them, and seeks to protect the world from them. It even has a facility within the Flare itself, the Fourth Pharos, where it stores the most terrible tomes, awful artefacts, and other powerful phenomena, away from prying and greedy eyes. It is organised in circles, each of which has a Lightkeeper, a veteran Candela Obscura investigator who has retired from active investigation and is appointed to advise those who can conduct investigations in the field. The latter, of course, are the Player Characters.

This is the set-up for Candela Obscura, the roleplaying game of paranormal investigative horror published by Darrington Press, part of and showcased by Critical Role. It is an alternate Edwardian era, intentionally so because it avoids the institutionalized racism, homophobia, transphobia, or other forms of prejudice rife in the period of our own history. Players take the roles of members of the Candela Obscura, investigating magical phenomena and horrors, containing them, and keeping the greater world around them safe from their corruptive influence.

A Player Character in Candela Obscura is first defined by a Role and then by nine Actions. The nine Actions are divided into three thematic Drives. Nerve includes the Move, Strike, and Control Actions; Cunning the Sway, Read, and Hide Action; and Intuition the Survey, Focus, and Sense Actions. Each Action is rated between one and three, indicating how many dice a player will roll to have his character an action. Each Drive has its pool of points which can be expended to add more dice to roll for Action under its theme. Then for every three points of Drive, a Player Character has a Resistance, which can be spent in order to gain rerolls on a task. He carries with him three pieces of Gear, although these do not have to be declared until in play. An item of Gear might increase the effectiveness of a task or allow a Player Character to actually attempt a task.

There are five different roles—Face, Muscle, Scholar, Slink, and Weird—each of has two Specialties. The Specialties for the Face Role are Journalist and Magician (as in stage magician); for Muscle, Explorer and Soldier; for Scholar, Doctor and Professor; for Slink, Criminal and Detective; and for Weird, Medium and Occultist. Each Speciality and Role provides the base Action values for a Player Character, whilst each Speciality gives three abilities to choose from and each Role a choice of six to choose from. Abilities give out bonus dice or enable a particular action. For example, the Face Ability of ‘I Know a Guy’ enables a player to ask the Game Master once per assignment if there is someone nearby who can help his character, whilst the Sharpshooter Role Ability for the Soldier grants the Player Character two bonus dice if the player expends a point of his Nerve Drive.

To create a character, a player selects a Role and a Speciality, and then assigns the base Action values. He raises another from zero to one and then another three points to anyway he would like, and then he does the same for his character’s Drives. Penultimately, he selects an Ability for his character’s Role and Speciality. Lastly, he has a set of prompts to answer to help flesh out his character and form relationships with the fellow members of his Circle in the Candela Obscura.

Name: Tabitha Blythe
Role: Weird
Speciality: Medium
Role Ability: Let Them In
Speciality Ability: Cold Read
Nerve: Drive 2 Resistance 0
– Move 1 Strike 0 Control 0
Cunning: Drive 3 Resistance 1
– Sway 1 Read 2 Hide 0
Intuition: Drive 4 Resistance 1
– Survey 1 Focus 1 Sense 2 (Gilded)

In addition, the players, as a group, create their characters’ Circle in the Candela Obscura. There are a series of questions that they need to answer about their Circle, name it, decide on the location of its chapter house, choose a Circle Ability, and assign Resource Points. For example, ‘Stamina Training’ provides three bonus dice during an assignment and ‘Nobody Left Behind’ grants a bonus die on any attempt to help another Player Character who has too many Marks (or damage). There are only six Circle Abilities to choose from, and they include ‘One Last Run’, indicating that the next assignment is the Player Character’s last and they will retire afterwards. This grants the other Player Characters advantages when they next advance, whilst also suggesting that the play of Candela Obscura is intended to be long term. The Resource Points are Stitch, used to reduce the Marks a Player Character has suffered; Refresh, used to regain Drives and Resistances for a Player Character; and Train, used to grant bonus dice.

Mechanically, Candela Obscura uses what it calls the Illuminated Worlds system, a stripped-down version of the mechanics from the Blades in the Dark roleplaying game. When a player wants his character to attempt a task, he rolls a number of six-sided equal to the Action being used. Drive can be expended to add more dice, though loss of Drive is permanent, and the maximum number of dice that can be rolled is six. The highest die is counted. Any result of a six indicates a complete success, whereas a result of four or five is a partial success, and three or under is a failure—essentially, a ‘yes’, ‘yes, but’, or ‘no’ result. If more than a single six is rolled, the result is a critical success. In addition, some Actions may be ‘Gilded’. This means that one of the dice rolled for an Action must be of a different colour. If a player rolls a Gilded die as part of a task, then he can choose between the highest result or the result of the Gilded die. If a player chooses the result of the Gilded die, he gains the benefit of the number rolled and an extra benefit. This is to recover a point of Drive. So, in effect, what a player might do is ignore the complete success he rolled in favour of the four or five he rolled, a partial success, in order to recover a point of Drive. Lastly, Resistance can be expended to gain a reroll.

Conversely, failure can narrative, such as adding a complication or losing an opportunity, but at its worst, it can mean damage. The latter is suffered in the form of Marks to either Body, Brain, or Bleed, representing physical harm, mental strain, or magickal corruption, respectively. A Player Character cannot suffer more than three Marks in any one of the three categories, lest he drops to the ground incapacitated and suffering from a Scar. A Scar both indicates permanent damage suffered by the Player Character and changes how he approaches the world. The latter is reflected mechanically, by the player having shift a point in one Action to another. There is a lot of advice here on how to handle this, especially how to handle Brain and Bleed Scars, Candela Obscura wanting to avoid harmful mental health representation in the horror genre.

In all of this, it is the Game Master who sets the stakes and expectations, explaining what a Player Character has to gain from attempting the task or lose from attempting the task. The Game Master also sets the Action to be rolled for the task that a player wants his character to attempt. This comes back to the ‘fiction first’ ethos of Candela Obscura, that is, the Game Master fitting the right Action to what the player describes his character doing. However, the play of Candela Obscura is still a conversation and the player is always given a chance to adjust, decide on using Drive, and so on.

Candela Obscura provides some details of the supernatural world and of the organisation itself, as well as its enemies. This is where Candela Obscura begins to underwhelm as a horror game. There is more of a focus on the Candela Obscura organisation and its enemies, and an overall description of Newfaire and the Fairelands. The latter is particularly rich and detailed, and accompanied by scenario hooks. Similarly, there is excellent advice for the Game Master on running Candela Obscura, beginning with some core principles, such as ‘Paint the world in darkness and in light. Show the humanity in the horror and the horror in humanity.’, ‘Make the world grounded, dangerous, and terrifying’, and ‘Say “yes,” unless you must say “no.”’. There is also a good guide to how an assignment is constructed, from hook, arrival, and exploration to escalation, climax, and epilogue. Even better is the fact that each of the four example assignments in Candela Obscura, all four of them very good, is accompanied by an example session of what each might look like when played. This is a fantastic extra, really helping the Game Master who is less experienced, whether in running a roleplaying game in general or investigative horror scenarios in particular, to visual the play of an assignment. It also nicely complements the lengthy example of play given earlier in the book.

Physically, Candela Obscura is a lovely looking book. The artwork is suitably art nouveau in style and that very much fits the period setting of the roleplaying game. Plus, the rulebook is lavishly illustrated with documents, letters, diagrams, and the like. It really is a nice-looking book.

Unfortunately, where Candela Obscura underwhelms is in the treatment of its genre—horror. Where there is plenty of support in terms of setting and factions ordinary, there is just not enough of the outré in Candela Obscura, whether that is details of the threats and monsters that the Agents might meet or advice for the Game Master on running a horror game. Consequently, it is nowhere near as easy as t should be for Game Master to create her own threats and in fact, it feels as if there is more advice on avoiding the dangers of running a horror game than there is on actually running one. Consequently, whilst that advice is far from unwelcome and certainly pertinent, the overall result is that the horror aspect of Candela Obscura is actually its weakest.

Ultimately, even if Candela Obscura does keep its horror a little too veiled, there is still a good roleplaying game here. The setting of the Fairelands and Newfaire and the factions present are nicely detailed, the mechanics are geared towards storytelling and the narrative consequences of confronting magick and the supernatural, and there are four good Assignments for a game to get started. Candela Obscura is a very modern horror roleplaying game, despite being set in an alternative Edwardian period, one that the Game Master will need to work a little harder with to bring the horror into play.

[Free RPG Day 2024] Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness

Reviews from R'lyeh -

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

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Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness is the ‘Easy Mode’ for Shadowscar, a new setting from R. Talsorian Games, Inc., much like The Witcher: Easy Mode – An Introductory Booklet to the Witcher TRPG for The Witcher and Cyberpunk Red: Easy Mode – An Introduction to the Dark Future for Cyberpunk RED. It is a world/parallel Earth hopping setting across what Shadow Scar calls the Mosaic in which modern day Ninja, armed with high tech tools and magical artefacts, leap from one world to the next to defeat the Yokai and other minions of the corrupted Great Mother Spirit Izanami. The Player Characters—or Agents—are these Ninjas, members of the Shadow Scar Agency, a secret organisation dedicated to keeping reality safe. The Ninja must conduct their assignments in secrecy and ‘Maintain the Veil’, both to keep the civilian population safe and prevent any mystical monsters from learning of their presence and activities until they absolutely have to reveal both to the targets of their operations. Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness mixes magic, action, and stealth, including not just an introduction to the setting, but also the rules, six pre-generated Agents, and a complete scenario.
The setting is Nakatsukuni, a peaceful land created by the Kotoamatsukami, the First Great Spirits of the Land. When the Great Mother Spirit Izanami died giving birth to the Spirit of Fire, her husband, Izanagi, attempted to retrieve her spirit from Yomi No Kuni, the Afterlife, and appeared to have succeeded when given permission to return her by the Ruler of the Dead. Unfortunately, Izanami has been corrupted by the Ruler of the Dead, and she brought with her an army of twisted souls and horrible monsters and after corrupting the minds of the Yokai, Izanami set out to destroy reality. The war was won by the combined effort of Izanagi and the Kami, but at great cost. Izanami was cast into the Void via a Shadow Scar, but her monstrous minions were scattered across the Mosaic. To counter the Yokai threat, the Kami established the Shadow Scar Agency, an order of Shinobi—or ninja clans—trained by the Six Great Clans of Shadow. The Shadow Scar Agency still fights the Veil War today.
Nakatsukuni remains an archipelago of islands—many floating—shattered by the war against Izanami and her minions. Other worlds of the Mosaic include ‘Steel Court’, a Grand Victorian Empire in which the Stewart Steam Turbine Engine has powered fantastical industrialisation and inventions even as revolt foments the Empire’s ‘Protectorates’; ‘5th Street’, an early twentieth century world recovering from the Great War that would seem to be utterly mundane except the masked vigilantes on the rooftops and the racial inventors working in their workshops; and ‘Refuge’, a world so blighted by the Yokai that humanity has been forced to retreat to a Lunar Colony and massive station orbiting the moon. All three locations will be visited as part of the scenario included in Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness. Thumbnail descriptions are given for the three worlds as well as the Shadow Scar Agency and the six Shinobi clans.
An Agent in Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness—and thus Shadow Scar—has three stats. These are Mind, Body, and Spirit, and these are rated between one and five. Each attribute has six associated skills, each of which is rated between one and three. He has Techniques, Mikkyo, and Quirks. Techniques are special abilities, such as ‘Nimble & Quick’, which increases an Agent’s speed, whilst Mikkyo are secret techniques taught by the shinobi clans which require an Agent to expend Ki to trigger, such as ‘Duplicates’ which enables the caster to create silent duplicates himself that he can control. All six pre-generated Agents come with background and illustration.
Mechanically, Shadow Scar is a dice pool system that uses six-sided dice. Every roll of a three or more is a success, whilst a roll of six is equal to six successes. If the number of successes is equal to or greater than the Difficulty Value, the task is successful. An average task has a Task Difficulty of two, Challenging has a Task Difficulty of three, Difficult has a Task Difficulty of four, and so on. Bonuses and penalties adjust the number of dice a player has to roll. To reflect that the world of Shadow Scar is pulled in two directions by different forces of nature, an Agent has access to ‘Inyo’—Japanese for Yingyang. If an Agent fails a task by a single Success, he can call upon the power of ‘Inyo’ to gain that much-needed Success. Or he can use to inflict an additional three points of damage upon a target. However, when the Agent draws upon the power of Inyo, he draws only upon one side. In response, the other side draws back and the Storyteller can draws upon the Agent’s Inyo to make him fail a task by one Success or have an enemy inflict three extra damage on the Agent. Once that has happened, the Agent has access to Inyo again. Essentially, the fortunes of each Agent swings back and forth quite literally.
Combat is an extension of the rules, with Initiative Order being determined by an Awareness Check. During a turn, each Agent can conduct two actions. Some fifteen possible actions are detailed as are the conditions and hazards that they might suffer. The hazards covered include environmental, mechanical, and magical. When an Agent is reduced to three points of Vitality or less, he suffers the Grievously Wounded Condition, and when his Vitality is reduced to zero, in combat, he can either be killed or knocked out. The latter reduces his Vitality to one rather than zero. If an Agent’s Vitality is reduced to zero or less, it is possible to become a Wandering Spirit, but an Agent equipped with a Spirit Lantern can collect and protect a Wandering Spirit. At the end of a mission, if the other Agents return with a dead Agent’s body and his Wandering Spirit in a Spirit Lantern, the Agent can be resurrected. Otherwise, a new body has to be created.

In terms of setting, Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness covers the means of travel between worlds, the invisible and magical tattoos which enable communication and understanding, arms and armour and other equipment, before leaping into the scenario, ‘Eyes in Darkness’. The Shadow Scar Agency assigns the Agents to investigate a Dodomeki named Kagura, a lieutenant to a powerful smuggler known as the ‘Green Demon’, who runs operations at the ground level of the Green Demon’s Mountain Branch. Two of the Yokai working for Kagura are attending a black-market auction in a makeshift space station called the Scattery in the Refuge. Whatever the Agents do, the Yokai are likely to cause trouble at the auction, meaning that the Agents will have to work hard to protect the Veil. Following the Yokai—or following the clues they leave behind—the Agents jump through a gate or Rift Dive to find themselves at Easy Ray’s Gas Station outside of New Orleans on 5th Street, and when they or their contact make a run for it, it leads to a car chase through the streets of the city. A pair of tables providing random events both outside and inside the city nicely enliven the car chase.
Although this turns out to be a dead end, the Agent’s Handler suggests that a renegade Agent, currently in ‘Steel Court’ might have some information. The renegade Agent is selfish and immoral, but will trade for information—at a price. Which can be money or some entertainment. The information he provides gives the location of Kagura’s hideout in an isolated village in the mountains which she is beginning to fortify. The climax of the scenario is an assault on the village, initially by stealth, helped and then hindered by two of the Kami of the sky having a violent argument over the borders of their territory and causing a severe snowstorm. Success leads provides clues as to the whereabouts of Kagura’s boss, the Green Demon. Locating the Green Demon will be the Agents’ next mission, the details of which are given in Shadow Scar Jumpstart Kit: The Mask of the Green Demon!, the sequel to Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness. The bestiary or ‘Rogues Galley’ at the end of Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness provides all of the stats and details of the Yokai and other NPCs that the Agents will encounter over the course of the mission.
Although ‘Eyes in Darkness’ does have a sequel in the form of Shadow Scar Jumpstart Kit: The Mask of the Green Demon!, it is complete and can be played on its own without the need to run the sequel. Thus, the Storyteller and her players can get a full taste of what Shadow Scar is like to play and what a mission feels like. ‘Eyes in Darkness’ is a decent scenario, with lots of action and plenty of stealth and combat. It is accompanied by some decent maps as well.
Physically, Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness is decently put together. Much of the artwork is anime in style and bright and colourful. The cartography is excellent. Whilst well-written, it does need an edit in places.
Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness is a solid introduction to the Shadow Scar setting and roleplaying game. There is good advice for the Storyteller on running the game and everything is clearly explained and easy to understand, and all supporting an exciting, action-packed scenario which can played through in a single session or two.

Awful Artefacts

Reviews from R'lyeh -

Delta Green: ARCHINT is a supplement, for Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game. Published by Arc Dream Publishing, this is the modern roleplaying game of conspiratorial and Lovecraftian investigative horror with its conspiratorial agencies within the United States government investigating, confronting, and covering up the Unnatural. Delta Green: ARCHINT details some of the the conspiratorial agency’s worst, vilest, deadliest, and most insidious of objects its investigating Agents have discovered, recovered, examined, and in some cases, hidden away lest exposure to or experience of, drive others to kill, simply disappear, and ultimately lose their minds. The world of modern law enforcement and espionage both rely upon intelligence. Some analysts develop signals intelligence or SIGINT. Some develop human intelligence, HUMINT. Delta Green deals in both, as well as a third type of intelligence—archaeological intelligence. Delta Green: ARCHINT is a supplement for the conspiratorial agency’s worst, vilest, deadliest, and most insidious of objects its investigating Agents have discovered, recovered, examined, and in most cases, hidden away lest exposure to or experience of, drive others to kill, simply disappear, and ultimately lose their minds. These are objects which seem to run counter the laws of physics—let alone mathematics, come from beyond history, and defy ordinary classification.

Delta Green: ARCHINT details eleven items, some new to print, others drawn from previous scenarios. Some are modern, some are not. The collection opens with ‘The Amulet of the Ai-Apa’, one of the two items in the collection seen in an actual scenario for Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game, in this case, Delta Green: A Victim of the Art. Depicting the twin figures of a man and an intertwined flying beast, this is a meso-American artefact that willingly or unwillingly summons a deadly servant. The other is ‘The Stone of Yos’, from Delta Green: Sweetness, a large blob of obsidian which lets the user connected to it to ‘summon’ a shadowy figure. These are not the only commonalities that run throughout the supplement. ‘The Hunahpú Mask’ is also of South American origins, Mayan this time, and shaped like an over-size human skull, which of course, is deadly to anyone who spends tie wearing it. Like ‘The Stone of Yos’, another item which seems to take the user inside itself is ‘The Gowdie Shape’, a green, metal dodecahedron with connections to seventeenth century Scottish witchcraft, that defies mathematical and spatial analysis. Once inside, the user is sorely tested. Similarly, ‘The Mironov Object’ defies analysis, a four hundred pound of unknowable metal that dangerously enhances and energises the user’s mathematical visualisation skills to the point where they begin to resemble reality. Two entries are more modern, one with a shockingly hidden purpose, the other a hidden purpose. Both are constructs of a kind. ‘The Kurville Executable’ is the former, an email-delivered virus that when seen on the screen inflicts what appears to be epileptic seizures so traumatic, that they physically injure the viewer. Their effect is so deadly, the files are physically stored under lock and key with numerous warnings on them. Several artefacts are stored like this by Delta Green, though in some cases the methods of secure storage are laughingly quaint by modern standards. The other constructed item is ‘The Reneteur Device’, an oddly anachronistic computer that tracks the activities of the Great Race of Yith throughout time and space. If only the Agents could decipher the device’s purpose, it could track the Great Race of Yith operatives down and discover what it is they are up to.

Of course, not all of the objects detailed in Delta Green: ARCHINT share such commonalities and where they do, it does not means that they are connected. In fact, as written they are not connected at all. What they do have in common though, is a high level of detail and description that will help the Handler describe them and how they work—or at least what happened when an Agent begins poking around in and about them. The detail and the description includes the known history of each device and how each came into possession of Delta Green. There is more than enough description here to help the Handler bring each and everyone of them into life, whilst also leaving some room for the Handler to add details to the history of each item as she wants. Many of the descriptions, though, will have the Handler repressing a feeling of shock or disgust, whilst also being amazed at how bizarrely inventive they are in detailing each item.

Physically, Delta Green: ARCHINT is well done, although it does need an edit in places. The artwork is as excellent as you would expect for a supplement for Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game.

Delta Green: ARCHINT is a good collection of thoroughly nasty objects and artefacts with histories both fearsome and foul. Yet that is all it is. Despite the rich detail accorded to every one of the eleven entries in the supplement, that is all that Delta Green: ARCHINT is. Of course, a Handler is going to be able to use that detail to create cases for her players and their Agents to investigate, but there are no scenario hooks given that might have helped. Equally, there is no broader background to how Delta Green as an organisation handles objects such as those detailed in the pages of Delta Green: ARCHINT or how its experts go about investigating them. For although the title of the supplement is Delta Green: ARCHINT, there is no discussion of the ‘ARCHINT’—the archaeological intelligence—of the title. That is a bigger missed opportunity than the lack of scenario hooks. Ultimately, though, the Handler is not going to be disappointed with the horrible objets d’art on show in Delta Green: ARCHINT—vile, murderous, tempting, and worse.

[Free RPG Day 2024] Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed

Reviews from R'lyeh -

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

Initially it is difficult to work out whether Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed is a comic book or something actually RPG-related. It is in fact, an adventure for the Terror Target Gemini RPG, an anthropomorphic anime Wild West-Noir action roleplaying game. Published by Need! Games, best known for the Fabula Ultima TTRPG, this is game in which the Player Characters—or Runners, professional adventurers—undertake dangerous missions in the savage lands known as the Maju. It is designed to be hyperviolent, anachronistic, and wacky, a setting which demonic gunslingers, martial arts witches, and more. The scenario itself comes with six pre-generated Player Characters and each of these comes the ‘Quick Rulez for Terror Target Gemini’ on the back. In fact, these six inclusions of the ‘Quick Rulez for Terror Target Gemini’ are the only explanation of the rules for the Terror Target Gemini RPG, even if only in a much-shortened form. So the Narrator will have to copy one for herself as reference during to play.

The scenario itself, ‘Rojo’, is based upon Akira Kurosawa’s film, Yojimbo, in which a rōnin wanders into a town and gets himself involved in a feud between two rival yakuza gangs over control of the local gambling den. In ‘Rojo’, the town of Dorobnōno Machi is dominated by the Rojo, a family of mobsters which controls liquor in town, and the rival Mengusu, a Yakuza clan which wants to destroy the Rojo. Add into this, rumours of an Imperial convoy having been hijacked and a powerful weapon stolen, bounties having been placed on the heads of both the Rojo and the Mengusu, and the Mengusu not only hoarding gold, but planning to make a big action movie, and what you have is a febrile situation in Dorobnōno Machi. With the sheriff dead and the town run down, there seems to be no hope for Dorobnōno Machi. Even without the intervention of the Runners, the situation is going to escalate. There are even more dire rumours! One is that Dziga Rojo, the son of the Rojo boss who everyone thinks is an arsehole, is missing and has been kidnapped by the Mengusu Clan. The other is that Pa-Lach, the hired killer known as ‘The Hangman of Menaparavda’, reputably unkillable, will be arriving today, sent from the Capital to recover the missing weapon.
The Runners will arrive in Dorobnōno Machi and get the lay of the land in the bar before exploring what remains of the town. This includes getting involved in the film being shot in the streets by the Mengusu Clan, hanging out at the gambling den, and even searching for the location of the stolen weapon. And that really is it to the plot of Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed. This is all set-up rather than a scenario with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The action will be primarily player-driven with the Narrator adding events here and there in response.
Mechanically, Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed is straightforward. To have his Runner undertake an action, a player rolls a twenty-sided die and adds his Runner’s Stat and Skill to roll higher than a Target Number. This is either twelve or Simple, fourteen or Standard, eighteen or Tough, and twenty-two or Gruelling. An Edge allows a reroll and the highest value kept, whilst a Snag forces a reroll and the lowest value kept. If the Runner is responding to unexpected event—such as a trap or ambush—then the player only adds his Runner’s Stat. Combat uses the same mechanic, with a Runner having two different actions per Round. Attack rolls are made versus an Enemy’s Defence, whilst rolls to evade are made versus the Enemy’s Attack. Armour reduces damage suffered, a Runner fainting when his Hit Points are reduced to zero, and then dying if more damage is suffered. Magic and the casting of spells requires the expenditure of Ki points.
A Runner in the Terror Target Gemini RPG and thus Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed has four Stats and four Skills. The Stats are Power, Co-ordination, Intellect, and Charisma, whilst the Skills are Training, Handcraft, Arcane, and Communication. In Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed, these range between zero and three. They also have a Bloodline and a Class and Feats. The six Runners in Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed consist of a Felid Hare who is a good Pilot or driver, a Human Hunter who has a Falcon Hunting Partner, an Elf Merchant who is good at Bargaining, a Kru Berserk who can protect others and can attack with his beak, an Imp Martial Artist who is also lucky, and a Human Witch who can drawn an eye on an object to see through it and has a Charm spell.
Physically, Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed is very bright and colourful. The comic book look is carried out from start to finish, which means that it does look busy and its content is not an easy to grasp as if the layout was more traditional. The style is definitely anime-like, with just a little bit of a nod to the ‘cel-shading’ style of the Borderlands computer games.
Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed is bright and colourful, but it is deceptive. It is not a fully fleshed out quick-start or explanation of the Terror Target Gemini RPG, and anyone expecting that will be disappointed. It is also not really suitable for anyone who has not run a roleplaying game before—it is just too underwritten for that. However, an experienced Narrator can pick up Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed, read through in ten minutes and so quickly bring it to the table for single session of hyperviolent action in a Wild West action-fantasy.

Quests from the Infinite Staircase

The Other Side -

 I picked up the new D&D 5 adventure omnibus, Stairway to HeavenQuests from the Infinite Staircase yesterday. It looks like it was well done.

Quests from the Infinite Staircase
Quests from the Infinite Staircase

The back cover has a "50" logo on the back which is nice, but damn, Wizards is really dropping the ball on this 50th Anniversary.

The adventures are some classics.

The Lost City
The Lost City
I have not looked to see how well this new version of the Lost City compares tot he Goodman Games version out a few years ago. I know there are a lot of tweaks to the older adventures in this new version.

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
The Expedition to the Barrier Peaks looks down right scary, which is great as far as I am concerned. 

The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth is an old favorite of mine and this new version looks like a lot of fun. 
Drelnza
It even has stats (as it should) for my old girl-friend Drelnza.
Beyond the Crystal Cave

Of all of these , Beyond the Crystal Cave is the only one I have not run or played in. As you can see, my old copy is a bit worse for the wear. 

Infinite Staircse and 13th Doctor

I also picked up the Thirteenth Doctor sourcebook for the Doctor Who RPG. It also looks great.

Larina Nix and Malcear for Quest of the Ancients

The Other Side -

 The other night my oldest son Liam and I were going to continue our AD&D 2nd Ed game in the Forgotten Realms. I got to talking about about some of the NPCs of the Realms and mentioned the strangest one I knew was Raven of Raven's Bluff.  Which got me on the topic of Quest of the Ancients in general and what a Fantasy Heartbreaker was. He asked if I had stated up Larina for it already, and too my utter shock I saw I had not.

Instead of playing some AD&D 2nd Ed, we rolled up characters for Quest of the Ancients. I built Larina and he did his human/demon-hybrid assassin Malcear. 

Quest of the Ancients


I do want to extend my public thanks to Vince Garcia. I told my wife there was a game developer out there who was as obsessed with witches and Stevie Nicks as me, and she didn't believe it.

Larina NixLarina Nix
13th level Human Witch
Female

Armor rating: 0 / 0
Tactical move: 10'
Stamina points: 36
Body points: 10

Stats
St 9 (Dmg. +0, L/N/H/VH Load 18/45/63/90, Max lift 180)
Ag 12 (AR att +0)
Cn 12 (Rest 7, Stamina/Body recovery 1/1)
IQ 20 (memorization time 1)
Ch 19 (Reaction +15%)
Ap 18
Lk 7

Attack 1
Combat phase: 4
Dmg: 1D4+1 (dagger) or by spell
Ethics: I
Size: 5'4", 125#

Witch Abilities
A: Create Focus (wand)
B: Additional Combat Skill Slot (2 for 4 total)
C: Create Potions and Elixirs
D: Form Coven

Skills (200 pts)
Language: 50 (read/write 10)
Courtliness: 15%
Danger Sense: 4%
Herbalism: 60%
Music: 10%
Nature Lore: 10%

Spells

Rank 1: Beguile, Control Fire, Disenchantment, Evil Eye, Magic Dart, Read Magic Script, Skull of Flame, Slumber, Trick, Whisper, Witch Warrior
Rank 2: Cure Wounds, Enchant Bracers, Fire Darts, Jack-o-lantern, Moon Sigils, Witch Wand, Witch Wind
Rank 3: Babble, Charm, Charm, Electric Arc, Energy Blast, Hand of Glory, Sheet Lightning, Starburst, Witch Mark
Rank 4: Bat Swarm, Death's Eye, Hex, Shooting Stars, Time Vision, Witch's Eye
Rank 5: Candle Magic, Cauldron of Magic, Moon Web, Witchfire
Rank 6: Aura of Fear, Enflame, Pentagram of Protection, Starfire
Rank 7: Ethereal Whirlwind, Witch Ward


Malcear
1st level Human (demonic) Assassin
Male

Armor rating: 1 / 1
Tactical move: 10'
Stamina points: 36
Body points: 10

Stats
St 17 (Dmg. +1, L/N/H/VH Load 34/85/119/170, Max lift 340)
Ag 20 (AR att -5)
Cn 15 (Rest 6, Stamina/Body recovery 1/1)
IQ 15 
Ch 12 (Reaction +0%)
Ap 13
Lk 10

Attack 1
Combat phase: 1
Dmg: 1D6+1 x (short sword) 
Ethics: I
Size: 5'8", 175#

Assassin Abilities
Disguise: 40%
Information Gathering: 37%
Stealth: 45%
Climb: 67%
Concealment: 40%
Detrap: 40%
Lock Pick: 40%

Skills (150 pts)
Blindsight: 30 pts
Danger Sense: 24%

Larina and Malcear in Islay

--

Ok. Not bad. The system was not really enough to keep Liam's attention, so we did not try to play it. I am thinking I have extracted pretty much everything out of this game I can get. I think this one is moving to the lower shelves now.

Unlike some other games I have tried out over the last couple of years, I do not recommend this one as a D&D 5 replacement. 

Mail Call: More Mayhem from Dark Wizard Games

The Other Side -

 Nice little surprise in the mail today.  Two new adventures from Mark Taormino's Maximum Mayhem adventures from Dark Wizard Games.

Adventures from Dark Wizards Games

Again there are 5e versions (for my kids) and classic OSR versions for me.

The OSR maps are in classic blue and the 5e are in full color.

Seven Golden Demons
Slime Pits of the Sewer Witch

Legend of the Seven Golden Demons is his highest-level adventure to date at levels 14-18.  This will stretch my ability to use these for OSE-Advanced, but I am sure I can do it.

Maximum Mayhem Adventures

Slime Pits of the Sewer Witch is a low-level mini-adventure that honestly looks like a lot of fun. Normally I would put this one in with the others in my Maximum Mayhem box to run as a gonzo campaign. But my box is getting full, and I can add it to my War of the Witch Queens adventures instead. 

War of the Witch Queens

 Right now I have WAY too many adventures to run, so I should maybe be more selective on what I get.

Dracula, The Hunters' Journals: 8 July Dr. Seward's Diary (kept on phonograph)

The Other Side -

Dr. Seward keeps us apprised of his patient.

Dracula - The Hunters' Journals


8 July.—There is a method in his madness, and the rudimentary idea in my mind is growing. It will be a whole idea soon, and then, oh, unconscious cerebration! you will have to give the wall to your conscious brother. I kept away from my friend for a few days, so that I might notice if there were any change. Things remain as they were except that he has parted with some of his pets and got a new one. He has managed to get a sparrow, and has already partially tamed it. His means of taming is simple, for already the spiders have diminished. Those that do remain, however, are well fed, for he still brings in the flies by tempting them with his food.


Notes

Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous

Stoker was reading up on popular theories of the new and growing field of psychology. Sometimes I wonder if my reading Dracula at an early age was not some seed that later put me on the path of a psychologist. 

I wonder what will happen to the sparrow?

#RPGaDAY2024 for August

The Other Side -

 I know I have been really quiet here for a bit, trying to wrap up everything for Thirteen Parsecs. But I am taking a break to let you know I will be participating in Dave Champman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. I have done it in years past and this looks like a good list of prompts.

#RPGaDay2024

Here are the text prompts.

  1. First RPG bought this year
  2. Most recently played
  3.  Most often played RPG
  4. RPG with great art
  5. RPG with great writing
  6. RPG that is easy to use
  7. RPG with 'good form'
  8. An accessory you appreciate
  9. An accessory you'd like to see
  10. RPG you'd like to see on TV
  11. RPG with well-supported one-shots
  12. RPG with well-supported campaigns
  13. Evocative environments
  14. Compelling characters
  15. Great character gear
  16. Quick to learn
  17. An engaging RPG community
  18. Memorable moment of play
  19. Sensational session
  20. Amazing adventure
  21. Classic campaign
  22. Notable non-player character
  23. Peerless player
  24. Acclaimed advice
  25. Desirable dice
  26. Superb screen
  27. Marvelous miniature
  28. Great gamer gadget
  29. Awesome app
  30. Person you'd like to game with
  31. Game or gamer you miss
  32. Alternative - Amazing anecdote

There is also an alternate version from Skala Wyzwania. who I do not know but seems to be a name in the Polish RPG scene. Here are her prompts.

Skala RPGaDay

Text version of the alternative campaign:

  1. Runes
  2. Forest
  3. Demonology
  4. Cosmos
  5. Fairies
  6. Portal
  7. Forgotten City
  8. Experiment
  9. Heroes
  10. Steampunk
  11. Invasion
  12. Parallel Worlds
  13. Zombie
  14. Awakening
  15. Genetics
  16. Dungeon
  17. AI
  18. Curse
  19. Hologram
  20. Battle 
  21. Disaster
  22. Interdimensional Space
  23. Ritual
  24. Antique
  25. Mutant
  26. Tattoo
  27. Shapeshifting
  28. Mimic
  29. Knight
  30. Trap 
  31. Dragons

Each day roll d10 to go with the prompt:

  1. Describe a Monster
  2. Create an NPC
  3. Write a Bulletin Board Quest
  4. Invent an Item
  5. Write a legend or rumour 
  6. Create a random table
  7. Create a simple mechanic
  8. Present an idea for a Random Encounter
  9. Write an Eavesdroppable Dialogue
  10. Draw!

I am not sure if I'll do just Dave's, both, or a combination.

In any case, it should be fun.

[Free RPG Day 2024] X-Men Expansion Preview

Reviews from R'lyeh -

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

Of all the items published for Free RPG Day 2024, the X-Men Expansion Preview is not the shortest—that honour goes to the Lost Tome of Monsters: Free RPG Day Edition from Foambrain Games which consists of a Pinature and an encounter—but it is the release with the lightest of gaming content. It is a preview for the forthcoming Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: X-Men Expansion, which explores and presents the X-Men, their origins, rosters, members, associated teams, events, and threats for the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game. The Marvel Multiverse X-Men Expansion Preview provides a snapshot of what is going to be contained in the supplement and a bit more. The more begins with its opening section, a ‘Rules Primer’, which explains the Marvel 616 System used in the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game. It is quick and simple, but it does not include any examples.

The bulk of the Marvel Multiverse X-Men Expansion Preview is dedicated not to the X-Men, but a team which it always preferred to keep secret—X-Force. As explained in this potted history, X-Force carried out the tasks which the X-Men could not. As the leading protectors of Mutants in the Marvel Universe, the X-men had to be heroic and be seen to be heroic—in all senses of the word. Not so the X-Force. Its members could use force, subterfuge, and militant means to carry out its mission of dealing with threats to Mutant-kind. They could even kill if necessary. A cross between spies, vigilantes, and special forces operatives, they did the dirty work that the X-Men could never do and never sanction. In game terms, this means that members of X-Force are not always heroic and their operations often stray into morally grey areas. The history of the X-Force includes seven different line-ups and details locations important to the team, such as the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier Pericles, and Cavern-X. Floor plans for the latter, a case base in Arizona, are also included.
There are notes on playing as members of X-Force, noting its darker themes of clandestine action and secrecy, as well as its proactive approach. Joining the team is done by invitation only, based on what the current leader wants. In the case of Cable, frequent leader of X-Force, this means combat skills, discipline, and the ability to undertake dangerous missions. Potential members must be Mutants and they should ideally have some military or espionage background. It also notes that there is sometimes a commonality in terms of powers between team members, such as the health regenerating abilities of Deadpool, Wolverine, and X-23. Rounding out the description of X-Force is a couple of sets of adventure hooks, five suitable for any X-Force roster and five for the Krakaon X-Force, the most recent roster. These are no more than a paragraph in length and will need a fair bit of development upon the part of the Game Master.
Rounding out the Marvel Multiverse X-Men Expansion Preview are stats for the Mutants Bishop, Dazzler, and Gambit. Although nice to see these, only one of them, Bishop, has been a member of X-Force.
Physically, the Marvel Multiverse X-Men Expansion Preview is clean and tidy, and very readable. And that is really the best that can be said about it, since it would actually take quite a bit of effort to really turn any of its content into something playable and ready to be played at the table. Many of the characters across the different rosters are not here or given in the core rulebook for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game, such that it would be difficult to assemble a full team. A team of all-stars—sans Cable—would be possible. Then the Game Master would need to develop one of the adventure hooks included in its pages. Of course, a preview like this, is only designed to give you a snapshot of what in the forthcoming game book and the Marvel Multiverse X-Men Expansion Preview does a good job of that—and actually it is not a bad read either.

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