Call of Cthulhu is the preeminent roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror and has been for over four decades now. The roleplaying game gives the chance for the players and their Investigators to explore a world in which the latter are exposed, initially often indirectly, but as the story or investigation progresses, increasingly directly, to alien forces beyond their comprehension. So, beyond that what they encounter is often interpreted as indescribable, yet supernatural monsters or gods wielding magic, but in reality is something more, a confrontation with the true nature of the universe and the realisation as to the terrible insignificance of mankind with it and an understanding that despite, there are those that would embrace and worship the powers that be for their own ends. Such a realisation and such an understanding often leave those so foolish as to investigate the unknown clutching at, or even, losing their sanity, and condemned to a life knowing truths to which they wish they were never exposed. This blueprint has set the way in which other games—roleplaying games, board games, card games, and more—have presented Lovecraftian investigative horror, but as many as there that do follow that blueprint, there are others have explored the Mythos in different ways.

Cthulhoid Choices is a strand of reviews that examine other roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror and of Cosmic, but not necessarily Horror. Previous reviews which can be considered part of this strand include Cthulhu Hack, Realms of Crawling Chaos, and the Apocthulhu Roleplaying Game.

—oOo—
The North East Unified Containment & Sylvan Exclusion Zone 502-H is a densely forested area that the government deemed to be a danger to the country and quarantined. All access and egress are denied. Inside the 103 km2 area, the forest continues to grow, but not only grow for its flora mutates and anything, or indeed, anyone, who enters and stays for too long also mutates. Yet the government deems that the North East Unified Containment & Sylvan Exclusion Zone 502-H, or just ‘Exclusion Zone’, is monitored inside and out. It thus orders the bureau to regularly send operatives into the ‘Exclusion Zone’ to monitor and catalogue the new species of plant to be found within its confines. This is not without its dangers. Some of the previous botanists sent into the ‘Exclusion Zone’ have never returned via the ‘Infiltration/Exfiltration Portal’ and rumours says that some who did return were radically changed by their experiences and discoveries within the Exclusion Zone. Operation within the Exclusion Zone is hampered by the inability of all and any electronic or electrical equipment to function within the Exclusion Zone. Operatives are equipped with standard camping and survival gear, a standard handgun, and the means to sketch and record the new plants found within its confines. You are the next operative, the next ‘Exclusion Zone Botanist’.
This is the set-up for Exclusion Zone Botanist: New Agent Handbook – A Solo Drawing & Sketching Game. It is a solo drawing and journalling game in which the player will record both the plants discovered and the experiences of his character, within the ‘Exclusion Zone Botanist’. Published by Exeunt Press, it is very obviously inspired by Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer and The Colour Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft and so is a horror game involving primarily isolation, but also the danger of body horror and gore. It requires a map of the Exclusion Zone—included in the book, a token to mark the Botanist’s position on the map, a journal or means to record the incursion, and two six-sided dice. As a ‘Drawing & Sketching Game’, Exclusion Zone Botanist also requires pens, pencils, paints, or another means of drawing and colouring. As well as a quiet space, the rulebook suggests that lights be dimmed when the game is being played.
Exclusion Zone Botanist is intended to be played hour-by-hour, hex-by-hex, and has a simple play loop. The Botanist spends one hour in each hex on the map, there being a total of twenty-eight hexes on the map divided into six numbered zones. In each hour and thus each hex, the player as the Botanist will do three things. First, he rolls to see if he has discovered a new plant; second, he rolls to see if the Exclusion Zone has corrupted him; and third, he moves on to a new hex. If he does discover a new plant, he rolls for its details. This includes its size, leaf shape, and leaf arrangement, followed by its unusual plant feature. There are four groups of increasingly weird features, from a plant with black leaves that reflect no light that the Botanist has an urge to touch and which uses some other means to survive than green chlorophyll to a plant with shiny, reflective metal skin under thick bark around which rocks and dirt floats, and then so does the Botanist. Other plants unleash corrupting spores, have caustic berries that kill flora and fauna nearby, and a trunk that appears to be marked by twisted human faces, that the Botanist thinks he might recognise… Whether or not the Botanist discovers a new plant, he determines whether he is corrupted by rolling both dice. If the result of both dice is less than the current ‘Risk Value’, which goes up over the course of a day, that is, the longer he spends in the Exclusion Zone, he becomes corrupted. This shows by the Botanist beginning to itch, and then corrupted again, to have small lumps form under his skin, and then again, followed by tiny sprouts erupting from the lumps… Lastly, the Botanist moves on to a new hex.
Ultimately, there will come a point in the day when the Botanist feels that he has done or found enough or pushed as far into the Exclusion Zone as he can. Then it is case of returning to the ‘Infiltration/Exfiltration Portal’, either by the route he took through the Exclusion Zone or via new route. The latter is more likely if he has discovered some of the weirder, perhaps deadlier, plants to be found in the Exclusion Zone. However, it still takes an hour to move each hex and the Botanist still risks suffering Corruption each and every hour…
Physically, Exclusion Zone Botanist: New Agent Handbook – A Solo Drawing & Sketching Game is well presented. The layout is stark and clean, strange plants lurking, ready to corrupt the Botanist. It is also well written and an easy read.
Exclusion Zone Botanist: New Agent Handbook – A Solo Drawing & Sketching Game reveals itself to have been a drawing game first and a journalling game second. It can be both or one or the other, but as a drawing and sketching game, the Botanist does not need to be a skilled artist to explore the Exclusion Zone. The Botanist can though, approach the drawing and sketching aspect however he wants, use whatever materials he wants, and produce as rough or as finished an illustration of each plant as he wants. There is nothing to stop the Botanist from creating simple drawings or fully realised pieces, and he can even treat the process of playing through Exclusion Zone Botanist as an artistic exercise. And of course, drawing and sketching game, Exclusion Zone Botanist is not only forcing the Botanist to contemplate the fantastic and often frightful flora in the Exclusion Zone, but to visualise and realise them too, to create an image of the source of his horror!
On one level, Exclusion Zone Botanist: New Agent Handbook – A Solo Drawing & Sketching Game is disappointing as there are no revelations or discoveries to be made that explain what the North East Unified Containment & Sylvan Exclusion Zone 502-H is. No secrets or signs, and certainly no indication that any other scientist or botanist has entered the Exclusion Zone before the Botanist. Perhaps the Exclusion Zone corrupts everything brought into its limits or its resets itself every time the Botanist enters or the Botanist is caught in a time loop? Such speculation lies outside the scope of the roleplaying game as written, whilst the lack of answers and revelation only serves to enhance the survival horror and body horror, and of course, the sense of isolation, which lie at the heart of this journalling game. Exclusion Zone Botanist: New Agent Handbook – A Solo Drawing & Sketching Game has the capacity to be truly creepy and unnerving and in asking the player to both visualise and realise that, truly horrifying.

Doom comes once again to the village of Riverside! Sixty years ago, Terrapocalypse the Great Green Wyrm—‘The Green Death’—descended upon the tower of the Coterie of the Way Wizards that had traditionally protected the trading port that stands at the confluence of the Cranen and Iron Wash Rivers. It ravaged the tower with green flame and spread its poison across the surrounding the land with its toxic breath and then fell on the village. It took prisoners and turned the region into a wasteland. Then it disappeared and the people returned and re-established the village, building it once again into a rough, but profitable town. Were it not for the prophetic words of an old crone who begs in Riverside, ‘The Green Death’ would have been passed into legend, but now green flames have been seen erupting from atop of the old tower of Coterie of the Way Wizards. The villagers fear that the dragon has returned and worry what it will do next. The village guild masters have paid a tribute to Terrapocalypse’s emissary, though some whisper that if this continues, it will bankrupt Riverside. Worse, the Festival of the Harvest Moon, Riverside’s autumn trade moot occurs in six days and the guild masters fear that word of the return of the ‘The Green Death’ will dissuade people from attending, damaging the village’s reputation and portending a poor winter. Thus, with less than a week to go, the guild masters resort to desperate measures—they will hire adventurers to investigate the old tower of Coterie of the Way Wizards, find out if Terrapocalypse the Great Green Wyrm has truly returned, and drive away his emissary.

This is the set-up for Return of the Green Death, a scenario for ShadowDark, the retroclone inspired by both the Old School Renaissance and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition from The Arcane Library. The scenario is written and published by John White and designed to be played by four First Level Player Characters. And as a set-up, it is a scam. The players are likely to realise this fairly quickly, if not their characters. Terrapocalypse’s emissary, Renlo Lullsen the Enchanter—much like the titular Wizard of Oz—has charmed the inhabitants of Riverside with a lot of green-coloured special effects and is now exhorting them. He also has other agents in the village and they will do their best to persuade the Player Characters not to get involved if they learn that the Guild Masters have hired them to investigate the tower of the Coterie of the Way Wizards. The NPC whom the Game Master will have the most fun roleplaying is the Old Crone, the beggar who is the last remaining worshipper of the Green Death and can impart some useful information in between her mad utterances and pleas for a copper or two. However, bar rumours about there being a vampire in the village, the Player Characters will not linger long in Riverside.
The Player Characters can find multiple ways into the tower of the Coterie of the Way Wizards, including via an underground lake and lift into the tower, where they will encounter some Mist Dwarfs. They are noted as being notorious slavers, but quickly disappear from the scenario, their appearance left unexplored and undeveloped. The tower itself is infested with Kobolds, who for the most part are either working or playing. Player Characters who employ stealth and even a little charm can make relatively easy progress through the tower. There are some fun encounters such as playing a gambling game with the Kobolds using animal bones, saving a Halfling from a deathmatch with giant lizards being prodded to attack by Kobolds, and coming across a Half-Ogre harem! There are secrets to be uncovered too, some left over from when the tower was occupied by wizards and some to do with Renlo Lullsen’s activities.
However, there are elements in Return of the Green Death which are left are unexplained. For example, why exactly the Kobolds are excavating parts of the tower? How are the Mist Dwarves involved? What is nature of the dragon atop the tower that the Player Characters need to get past? Lastly, Renlo Lullsen remains an opaque figure. The author never fully explains who he is and what he wants and the Player Characters never have an opportunity to interact with him beyond the physical fight in the final confrontation atop the tower. There are no suggestions as to what he might say, so that he remains a flat, two-dimensional villain to fight, and nothing more.
Rounding out Return of the Green Death are some suggestions as to what might happen next, previewing the sequel, Fates of Doom. Appendices detail several new spells, a handful of new magic items, and the monster stats as well as all of the maps for the scenario. These maps are intended to be used with the Player Characters.
Physically, Return of the Green Death is tidily presented and the artwork is decent throughout. The maps are all good and those for the Game Master are marked with the monster locations. However, the scenario could have done with more maps and illustrations. These include maps of the wider region showing the relationship between Riverside and the tower of the Coterie of the Way Wizards. There are also no illustrations of the tower, so that it is only depicted on the inside by the maps, and the overall effect is a lack of context and feel for the region as a whole.
Return of the Green Death is a decent enough adventure, but at points, whether it is more maps or illustrations, or unfortunately, more NPC character development, it is lacking. Meaning that the Game Master is going to have flesh out parts of the scenario for it to be a fully realised affair.

I have been very remiss at keeping up with my Fantasy Fridays. My plan was to get through a lot more games than I did. But in my defense, I have a new job.

In terms of fantasy gaming, my AD&D game with my oldest is going quite well really. In fact, one of my witch characters is taking her Secret Journey, and it has been a fantastic experience. I am not 100% sure how I can convert this into something others can use, but the first step would be to make more "generic" so any character could do it. So far I have only tried it with clerics (the original version), wizards (later on), and now witches. 

My other obsession of late has been playing D&D, BECMI and BX flavors, in Spanish.

"Playing" is too strong of a word. I have been doing a lot of (really slow) reading of materials translated by the Spanish-language D&D players online. And there is a lot. 

I had put a request out a while back for materials I can buy, which was great, but I also got a lot of links for La Marca del Este. Who have a ton of free PDFs they release of new adventures. On the bad side, many of the Spanish-language, mostly Spain-based, webstores won't ship to the United States anymore due to our tariff policies. Which, honestly, I can't argue with them about. 

My desire is to find a way to play some BECMI in Spanish. I live in the Chicago-burbs, it can't be that difficult really. Great way to learn and practice I think!

Troika! is both a setting and a roleplaying game. As the latter, it provides simple, clear mechanics inspired by the Fighting Fantasy series of solo adventure books, but combined with a wonderfully weird cast of character types, all ready to play the constantly odd introductory adventure, ‘The Blancmange and Thistle’. As the former, it takes the Player Characters on adventures through the multiverse, from one strange sphere to another, to visit twin towers which in their dying are spreading a blight that are turning a world to dust, investigate murder on the Nantucket Sleigh Ride on an ice planet, and investigate hard boiled murder and economic malfeasance following the collapse of the Scarf-Worm investment bubble. At the heart of Troika! stands the city itself, large, undefined, existing somewhere in the cosmos with easy access from one dimension after another, visited by tourists from across the universe and next door, and in game terms, possessing room aplenty for further additions, details, and locations. One such location is Eye of the Aeons.
Eye of the Aeons is the third entry in a new series of scenarios for Troika! from the Melsonian Arts Council begun with Whalgravaak’s Warehouse and continued with The Hand of God. This is the ‘1:5 Troika Adventures’ series, which places an emphasis on shorter, location-based adventures, typically hexcrawls or dungeoncrawls, set within the city of Troika, but which do not provide new Backgrounds for Player Characters or ‘Hack’ how Troika! is played. Eye of the Aeons lives up to these tenets, in that it is a dungeoncrawl that takes place in a single castle location, but arguably fails to live up to these tenets by not actually being set in the city of Troika, but in the rubbish and detritus strewn wastes beyond the city’s extensive walls. The location is the Manse of Mirrors, a walled castle consisting of seven domes and three towers that is home to Queen Yanwa of the Cyclopes. It is of particular interest to the Wizards of the College Illuminate, a minor school of magic in the city of Troika, because it also houses the Eye of the Aeons, a mysterious prism of immense power said to be cause of the Red Eye Curse that afflicts some of the college’s members. ;Victims of this curse randomly shoot a fire bolt that pierces armour, which makes them a danger to others. ;Queen Yanwa of the Cyclopes also suffers from the Red Eye Curse, but is rumoured to dole out an elixir that cures or at least alleviates the ailment, attracting many sufferers, known as ‘Burning Eye Pilgrims’ to the manse in the hope of relief. Unfortunately, Queen Yanwa has been beset by rebellion, not once, but twice. The Cyclopes’ former servants, the Anthropophagi, which have four arms and hands and no legs, so always walk on their hands, a single eye and a mouth in their stomach, and no head, have rebelled and set up their own kingdom in the manse, where they squabble and fight, and regularly hold elections to see who the new Jub-Jub will be. Worse, Yorg the Usurper has dethroned Queen Yanwa, and studies the Eye of the Aeons in hopes that it will repower his golden barge and enable him and his compatriots to escape to the Outer Spheres where he hopes they will be safe from the fate ordained for him. Add in rumours of a Chaos Godling at the heart of the manse, a missing wizard’s apprentice, and treasures said to be hidden within its walls, and the Manse of Mirrors sounds like an intriguing place to visit and explore.
Getting the Player Characters to the Manse of Mirrors requires some set-up. Several hooks are given, ranging from shattering the mirrors in the manse to prevent something terrible from approaching this sphere to finding a cure to the Red Eye Curse by asking Yorg the Usurper. One or more of these can be used to drive the Player Characters to explore the manse and interact with its factions, who though opposed to each other maintain a rough truce between themselves, barring the odd raid or Queen Yanwa’s Cyclopes deciding to turn the mighty weapon atop the Gun Tower on somewhere in the Manse. That said, the ; obvious starting point and entrance into the Manse is not as clearly signposted as it could be and the factions, the relationships between them. and what they want are not as clearly explained as they could be. Which is a pity because it hinders the set-up process and getting the Player Characters involved in Eye of the Aeons.
The likelihood is that the Player Characters will begin at the Burning Eye Pilgrims’ Camp in one of the ruined tower, though there are other options as how they might enter the Manse. Here they can pick up rumours, interact with the members of the various factions, and begin to learn more about the situation within the Manse. Beyond this the grounds of the manse are split between a very large pond and an equally large, but overgrown garden. The pond is dominated by the boathouse, home to the rowdy Anthropophagi, and the blind boatwoman who sees beauty in ugliness and ugliness in beauty and cleanliness, and who prefers to be paid in trinkets and eyes. The garden is an oasis of calm by comparison. The Manse, though, is dominated by its nineteen towers, many of them in ruins, some of them containing mounds of rubbish and rubble, and some home to the rival factions of the Cyclopes. Others though house sets of mirrors, set up in differing fashions, sometimes to hold an object in place between them, sometimes to hold something or someone within. The mirrors form the major magical element of the scenario and finding the way to operate them will grant access to some of the secrets in the Manse of Mirrors.
There are some nasty surprises to be found and dangers to be encountered in the walls of the Manse of Mirrors, but Eye of the Aeons is not a scenario that drips with menace or suffers a sense of impending doom. Rather, the Manse of Mirrors feels forlorn, run down, and forgotten, the last refuge of a fallen Queen, that the Player Characters can explore and pick over, perhaps siding with one faction or another as they attempt to fulfil their objectives within the manse. This will expose them to the weirdness and wonder to be found in the Manse of Mirrors.
The scenario is supported by stats the various faction members in the Manse of Mirrors, as well as the enemies that the Player Characters might face. There is a list of new equipment too, but many of the items to be found within the manse’s walls are drawn from the Troika! rulebook.
Physically, Eye of the Aeons is very well presented. The layout is tidy and the artwork is excellent.
Eye of the Aeons is far from a bad adventure, but in comparison to other scenarios for Troika! and its ‘1:5 Troika Adventures’ series, it does not grab the reader and make him want to run it. Unlike the first two entries in the series, it lacks the enthrallment of a good elevator pitch and its set-up needs development itself to motivate the players and their characters to want to explore the Manse of the Mirrors. None of that is beyond the ability of a good Game Master to fix, and if that is done, Eye of the Aeons is a quiet, eerie manse meander punctuated by hullabaloo and horror.

"He sees the good in everyone. I see the truth."

  I admit it, I love Superman. But if you were around here over the summer you know that. And I LOVE Supergirl. I enjoyed the 1984 movie, I loved Melissa Benoist as the CW/DCTV Supergirl. I even liked Sasha Calle as Supergirl in the Flash and Laura Vandervoort in Smallville.

But Milly Alcock? This looks like the Kara Zor-El that would have attracted a Red Lantern ring.

Based on the comic "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow" this is going to be a Supergirl dealing with the grief of loosing everyone and everything she loved.

She looks fantastic in this. Plus, Jason Momoa was born to play Lobo. There is a scene from the comic that I hope will make it into the movie. But I'll have to wait and see.

I am really looking forward to this. June feels so far away.

Aaron J Riley - WarduchessShe called herself Warduchess, and she claimed the legacy of her father without apology.

This is a bit of a different "In Search Of" since the topic, while related to the past of the D&D game, it is not actually part of it. Indeed, the furthest back this topic goes in terms of researchable material is only a scant seven years. But that doesn't mean it isn't worth some digging...and a little fun.

Today I go In Search Of...the Warduchess!

In Search Of...the Warduchess

Who is "Warduchess?" Well, the most straightforward answer to that question is she is a genderbent version of Warduke from the classic LJN toyline, and appears in the D&D BECMI product AC1 The Shady Dragon Inn.

Before we can answer who is Warduchess, maybe we should start with who is Warduke?

Who is Warduke?

As I mentioned already Warduke was/is a very popular character from the old D&D LJN toy line. He would also later have his stats printed out in The Shady Dragon Inn and more recently as a member of The League of Malevolence in "The Wild Beyond The Witchlight" for D&D 5e. Just as I am obsessed with Skylla, there are those out there just as obsessed with Warduke. The two NPCs also share a history. This will be important later. 

I described Warduke as a minor D&D celebrity. He has stats for Basic (BECMI), 3rd Edition, and 5th Edition. I bet if I dug deeper, I could find 2nd and 4th Edition stats as well. He is chaotic (BECMI) evil (3,5) and always described as a powerful fighter. The D&D Companion "Avenger" class was either made for him in mind or he was made for it. In 1984's XL-1 Quest for the Heartstone he appears again with some more backstory. He even appears on the cover with the D&D "Paladin" Strongheart. The biggest revelation is that Warduke used to be good (or at least less evil) and was friends with Strongheart!

I was introduced to the Anti-Paladin in Best of Dragon Vol. II, and I briefly considered Warduke to be an anti-paladin, but he seemed more of a brutish thug to me. I never got the appeal of the guy back then, but like I have said before, his fans look at my 40+ Skylla posts and scratch their heads.

Warduke has had, beyond a doubt, a successful D&D career over the last 42 years. Or more.

More? Yes. While the image of Warduke with his half-chain armor is cemented in everyone's mind, it wasn't his first appearance. That honor actually belongs to The Dragon Magazine #17.

That is our old pal Warduke with whom I assume to be Elvira. It looks like he has all his armor, and maybe some of hers as well. Eh, it was 1978. The Forgotten Realms wiki claims the cover artist is David Sutherland. I have no reason to doubt this.  Who ever the woman is we can gather she is some sort of spell caster. I am also putting her into the running of "the mother of Warduchess."

Naturally the question now is. Who is her mother?

Who is the Mother of Warduchess?

Much like my investigation on who the father of Drelnza was, there are some interesting choices. Lets see what we can figure out based on Warduke's published histories. 

For this thought experiment, I am only considering consensual pairings. Why? I want a Warduchess, who while very evil, looks up to her father as someone to emulate. I want a Warduke who looks at his daughter as someone worthy to control of what every domain he set up for himself, that is as long as she proves herself worthy. 

Skylla

She is my favorite choice mostly because I love the character and I can totally see her giving up a child for magical power/advantage. Plus, the Dragon #17 cover reminds me a bit of her, at least in the face. And once she got over her "Ziggy Stardust" phase.

Warduke and Skylla both have similar demon motifs on their outfits. Skyll's demon headdress is very similar to one Warduke has on his shield. So there is a connection here. Would Skylla give up her child? Sure, she is evil and if there was magical gain in it then sure. 

Raven

If I had a dime for every "Raven" I have run into...anyway. Why Raven? She is an evil cleric and she has the distinction of being in love with Warduke. Though it is often said he really doesn't want anything to do with her. Is she Warduchess' mother? Maybe. Maybe Warduke took her to wife, or consort, and she stayed at his keep and raised little Warduchess. It would explain why we never saw her again in any other product or toyline. Or she was killed. In truth, I don't see Warduchess having a maternal figure in her life. She would be (again in my mind) too dedicated to her father. I also like the idea that he raised her.

Helayne

Another woman from Warduke's past. Helayne is an evil illusionist. so she would also work fine with the Dragon #17 art. She has all the pros and cons of Raven to be honest. Other than class, there is not a lot to differentiate them, save that Raven is explicitly said to be in love with him.

Aleena

Ah, my long shot. Does every woman go through a "bad boy" phase? No. But Aleena did, and that bad boy was Warduke. One night of forbidden passion, fast forward to a couple of years and then Bargle. Warduke, learning Aleena had died, kidnaps (he says reclaims) his daughter from the temple Aleena belonged to and raised her.

Morgan Ironwolf

While not a part of Warduke's past, I don't put it past her. She is not really "good" so his evil would not be an issue. I can see her getting pregnant and leaving the child in the care of a relative, but that seems less likely. 

The only thing in her favor is that there is a mini of her with red hair, Morgan's color.

I admit, I kinda want a Warduchess who doesn't know who her mother is and is ok with that. Part of her anger stems from her sense of abandonment by her mother and her "rescue" by her father. This is one of the reasons she chooses to emulate him.

Who do you think it is? Vote below.

In Search Of...Warduchess!Warduke is her father. Who is her mother?

— Timothy S. Brannan (@timsbrannan) December 10, 2025

Who is Warduchess?

Art, custom minis, produced minis, and kitbash figures of Warduchess have been around the Internet for a while. The first ones I can find date back to at least 2018 and I am certain there are other, earlier ones. The most famous, or at least the most widely reposted, art belongs to the talented Aaron J. Riley who has done work of D&D and Magic. So that puts a veneer of authenticity to her existence in a D&D universe.  

What is my personal involvement with this character? While a few years ago (2020) I had accidentally ordered an extra set of Willow & Tara minis from HeroForge. I thought it might be a good idea to send them to a friend. In the package I mentioned, I was also putting in an extra Warduke mini I had "to protect them." My friend was a big Warduke fan. Though in my typing, I instead typed "Wardyke." To which my friend responded, "Warduke, protector of lesbians." And I responded back, "Warduchess." It kinda stuck. I am NOT claiming to made up Warduchess here, I already knew of the kitbash figure from a couple of years prior while trying to kitbash my own Skylla (didn't manage to make my own, so I just bought one).  In any case, Warduchess stuck with me.

As far as the character goes. I always assumed she was raised by her father who still had some "good" left in him to raise a daughter that idolized him. Not saying he was up for Father of the Year, mind you. He taught her to be a killer. 

Warduchess

For nearly a generation after the fall of Lord Warduke, the borderlands began to breathe again.

His fortress still brooded over the black crags like a broken tooth, but no banners flew from its towers. The warbands that once hunted beneath his sigil scattered into brigands and ghosts. Merchants dared the old roads again, first with armed caravans, then with laughter, then with children born who learned his name only as a curse muttered by grandparents.

Some whispered that Warduke had grown old.

Others claimed he had turned inward, brooding in iron solitude.

A few even dared to say he had found regret.

For a time, it seemed the age of terror had passed.

Then the Warduchess came.

They say the first village to fall thought her a masquerader. A young woman in battle-scarred armor, half-chain and demon helm, bearing the same skull sigil the old tyrant once bore. They laughed at her from the palisade. They died screaming beneath it.

Warduchess
13th level Fighter (Avenger) Female

Alignment: Chaotic

Strength: 18 (+3)
Intelligence: 11 (-)
Wisdom: 13 (+1)
Dexterity: 13 (+1)
Constitution: 16 (+2)
Charisma: 11 (-)

Poison or Death Ray: 4
Magic Wand: 5
Turn to Stone or Paralysis: 6
Dragon Breath: 7
Spells or Magic Staff: 8

AC: 1 (Chainmail +2, Demonshield +1)
HP: 77
To Hit AC 0: 11 (+3 melee, +1 ranged)

+10% xp
Detect Evil 1/round
Turn as Cleric 4
Spells as Cleric 4
  First level: Cure Light Wounds, Resist Cold
  Second level: Hold Person

Gear
Sword +2 flaming
Chainmail +2
Demonshield +1 to AC (+2 total), +1 to fire-based saves
Battle Axe +2

She wears her father's armor, and bears his shield and sword. But her new preferred weapon is a large double-bladed axe she wields in both hands. 

I wanted her to be an Avenger, to make good on the idea that Warduke had been an anti-paladin and this is the BECMI version of that. It also lends some evidence (maybe??) that her mother was Raven and she had gotten at least some clerical instruction from her at some point.

Looking forward to seeing what else I can do with her!

Links

Warduchess

• Aaron J Riley's Art
• Artstation
• Instagram
• Minis
• Effincool
• Painted
• Kitbashed Action figure

Warduke

• XL1 Quest for the Heartstone
• AC1 The Shady Dragon Inn
• Toyarchive: LJN Figure
• Wizards of the Coast: A Brief History of Warduke (Archived)
• The Other Side: Warduke

Dungeons & Dragons Fandom Wiki

• Warduke
• Raven
• Helayne
• Skylla

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

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Name: Strange CarolPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Konstantinos Kotsaridis

Setting: Arkham, 1926Product: Scenario
What You Get: Forty-one page, 12.35 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: The circus is evil, because circuses are evil…Plot Hook: What are a mistrusted academic’s ties to the circus?Plot Support: Staging advice, six pre-generated Investigators, twenty-two NPCs, five handouts, one map, and one Mythos monster.Production Values: Decent
Pros# Can be tied with a Miskatonic University campaign# Easy to adapt to other university cities and time frames# Twists the classic circus as you would expect
# Cacophobia# Algophobia# Anomalophobia
Cons# Muddled background & set-up
# Needs a slight edit
Conclusion# The circus is a show, the scenario is a show# Leads the Investigators on a clue trail without much agency

I have been working on monsters since the earliest days of this blog. I still intend to complete my Basic Bestiary someday. Art is the biggest issue. Editing is the other big hurdle. 

But in the meantime, here are all, as far as I can tell, the monsters I have created here, and the system I created them for.

.tg {border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:0;} .tg td{border-color:black;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px; overflow:hidden;padding:10px 5px;word-break:normal;} .tg th{border-color:black;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px; font-weight:normal;overflow:hidden;padding:10px 5px;word-break:normal;} .tg .tg-73oq{border-color:#000000;text-align:left;vertical-align:top} Monster Basic AD&D D&D3/d20 D&D5 NightShift Unisystem Other Aglæc-wif 1 Aglæca 1 Ahrimanes, Demon Lord 1 Álfar, Dökkálfar 1 Álfar, Ljósálfar 1 Álfar, Skald 1 Allip 1 Almas 1 Alp 1 Alraune 1 Amphicyon 1 Angel, Dirae 1 Angel, Lunar 1 Ankou 1 Ape, Gargantuan 1 Apple Sprite 1 Apple Tree Man 1 Archangel, Michael 1 Astaroth 1 Astral Spider, Greater 1 Astral Spiders 1 Aswang 1 Bagman 1 Bánánach 1 Barghest 1 Basajaun 1 Bat, Olitiau 1 Berbalang 1 Bionic Bigfoot 1 Blink Bunnies 1 Blood Goblin (Hæmogoblin) 1 1 Blood Trees of Yule 1 Bluff Creek Woodwose (Bigfoot) 1 Bonnacon 1 Boo Hag 1 Brindlekin 1 1 1 Brownie, Boggart 1 Caliban 1 Camazotz 1 Cat-sìth 1 Chenoo 1 Chupacabra 1 Cimeris 1 Confessor 1 Corn Goblins 1 Cù Sìth 1 Dearg-Due 1 Death Dog 1 Demogorgon (The Creature) 1 Demon Lord Camazotz 1 Demon, Fohat 1 Demon, Gargantua 1 Demon, Leviathan 1 Demon, Prince Akelarre 1 Derro 1 Devil, Aamon 1 Devil, Buer 1 Devil, Malarea 1 Devil, Valac 1 Dird 1 Doppelgänger, Pod 1 Doppelsauger 1 Dragon, Anantanatha 1 Dragon, Bahamūt 1 Dragon, Faerie Dragon 1 Dragon, Hell Drake 1 Dragon, Lóngzihua 1 Dragon, Pseudo Dragon 1 Dragon, Purple 1 Dragon, Purple 1 Dragon, Sea 1 Dragon, Tiâmat 1 Dragon, Vritraxion 1 Dragon, Wood 1 Dragon, Zinc 1 Draugr 1 Drude 1 Duke Bartzabel 1 Dúlachán 1 Dybbuk 1 Elf, Shadow 1 Elves, Shadow 1 Estrie 1 Farkaskoldus 1 Faun 1 Fenodyree 1 Fire Nymph 1 Five Spirits of the Grimorium Verum 1 Frost Maiden 1 Galley Beggar 1 Gargantua Demons 1 Geryon 1 Ghost Lights 1 Ghost Spiders 1 Ghoul, Sand 1 Giant, Frost Undead 1 Giant, Mist 1 1 Gierach 1 Gladyolus 1 Glaistig 1 Glory Hound 1 Gnomi 1 Golem, Awakened 1 Golem, Brass 1 Golem, Snow 1 Green Martians 1 Greys (Zeta Reticulians) 1 1 1 Grimlock 1 Groundling 1 Grýla the Christmas Witch 1 Guardians of the Library 1 Gwragedd Annwn (Swan Maidens) 1 Gwragedd Annwn (swan-maidens) 1 Hag, Chaos 1 Hag, Hyrrokkin 1 Hag, Urban 1 Halfling, Trow 1 Hamingja 1 Haunted Dolls 1 Hautveränderer 1 Hell Hound 1 1 1 Heuler 1 Hippalektryon 1 Hodag 1 1 1 Horned Women 1 Hsi-Hsue-Kue 1 Iblis 1 Illinois Hominds (Bigfoot) 1 Imp of the Perverse 1 Impundulu 1 Incubus 1 Inguma 1 Initiate 1 Jack O'Lantern 1 Jackalope 1 1 Jann 1 Jigarkhwar 1 Jötunn, Inferno 1 Jötunn, Rime 1 Kelpie 1 Killer Rabbits 1 Kobold, Knockers 1 Kôkabîêl 1 Lamassu 1 Leviathan 1 Lilith 1 Lilith 1 Lilith 1 Lithobolia 1 LordʾIblīs 1 Lycanthrope, Were-Amphicyonidae 1 Mammon 1 Mastodon, Undead 1 Melinoë (Moon Nymph) 1 Melonheads 1 Memento Mori 1 Meowl 1 Merrow 1 Monster of Lake Fagua 1 Nauga Beast 1 Neh-thalggu (Brain Collector) 1 Nekojin (Catgirl) 1 Nergal 1 Nicnevin, Faerie Queen of Witches 1 Noidan Tytär (Daughters of the Crone) 1 Nøkk 1 Nosferatu 1 Nuckelavee 1 Nymph, Fire 1 Nymph, Keres 1 Ophidian 1 Ophidian, Abomination 1 Ophidian, Emissary 1 Ophidian, Lesser 1 Ophidian, Noble 1 Ophidian, Progenitor 1 Opinicus 1 Orc, Desert 1 Ördög 1 Ovegua 1 Paimon 1 Pĕnanggalan 1 Philosopher Lich 1 Philosopher Lich, Notion 1 Piasa Bird 1 Piasa Bird 1 Piasa Bird 1 Piasa Bird 1 Piasa Bird 1 Poludnitsa, Lady Midday 1 Púca 1 Pumpkin Golem 1 Pumpkin Headed Demon 1 1 Pyewacket 1 Qliphoth, Gamaliel 1 Rakshasa 1 Red Lizards 1 1 Rolang 1 Rübezahl 1 Rusalka 1 Rust Monster, Magiphagous 1 1 1 Sasquatch 1 Satan 1 Saurian (Worker, Scientist, Noble) 1 Saurian, Psionist 1 Saurian, Warrior 1 Scarecrow 1 Scarecrows 1 Schreckengeist 1 Scorpion Men 1 1 Sennentuntschi 1 Serpent Men of Lemuria 1 Shadowcat 1 Shattered Knights 1 Shattered Knights, Commander 1 Shedu 1 Skeleton, Electric 1 Soucouyant 1 Spider, Unlight 1 Star Jelly 1 Starchild 1 Street Faerie 1 Street Faeries 1 Strix 1 Tabonga 1 1 Tartalo 1 Tenatz 1 The Cailleach Bheur 1 The Monster 1 The Yule Cat 1 Thunderbird 1 Titania, Queen of Faerie 1 Troll, Cave 1 Troll, Demonic 1 1 Troll, Jötunn 1 Troll, Swamp 1 Troll, Wood 1 Trolla 1 Trollkönig (Troll King) 1 Typhon, the Thanatonic Titan 1 Ulmenfrau 1 Umbral 1 Umu 1 1 Undine 1 Upierczi 1 Utukku 1 Vampire, Children of Darkness 1 Vampire, Children of Twilight 1 1 Vampire, Eretica 1 Vrykolakas 1 Wendigo 1 1 Wendigo 1 Wendigo Matron 1 Wight, Barrow 1 Wind Wraith 1 Wine Nymphs 1 Wolf-Witch 1 Woodwose 1 Wurdalak 1 Wyrdcat 1 1 1 Xana 1 Xiāng-shī (殭屍) 1 Xing-tian 1 Yaksha 1 Yaoguai, Hóu Yaoguai 1 Yaoguai, Hǔ Yaoguai 1 Yaoguai, Niú Yaoguai 1 Yaoguai, Shé Yaoguai 1 Yaoguai, Shǔ Yaoguai 1 Yara-ma-yha-who 1 Yeti, Almas 1 Yog, The Monster from Space 1 Zburător 1 Zombie Witch 1 1 Zombie, Alchemical 1 Zombie, Drowned 1 Zsusr 1 Zugarramurdi Brujas 1 1 Zugarramurdi Brujas 1 1

I'll have to make sure I keep this updated. Maybe add it as a page.

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, The Companions of Arthur is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon. It enables creators to sell their own original content for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition. This can be original scenarios, background material, alternate Arthurian settings, and more, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Pendragon Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Pendragon campaigns.

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What is the Nature of the Quest?A Guide to Arthurian Britain is a supplement for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition. It describes itself as ‘A Resource Supplement for Pendragon’.

It is a full colour, fourteen page, 65.38 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy, but it does need an edit in places.
Where is the Quest Set?A Guide to Arthurian Britain is a supplement for Pendragon, Sixth Edition that provides an introduction to, and an overview of, Britain in the Anarchy, the period of chaos between the death of Uther Pendragon and Arthur pulling the sword from the stone and being proclaimed king and before the chronicles of King Arthur begin.
Who should go on this Quest?
Any type of Player-knight can go on this quest.
What does the Quest require?
A Guide to Arthurian Britain requires the Pendragon, Sixth Edition Core Rulebook and the Pendragon: Gamemaster’s Handbook in the long term, but also works with the Pendragon Starter Set.
Where will the Quest take the Knights?
A Guide to Arthurian Britain can be divided into three parts. The first, ‘Britain, Your Home’ is ‘A Handout for New Knights’ that summarises the history and geography of the land at the end of Anarchy. This is one-page primer that focuses upon the history of Britain after the Romans have left and the resulting conflicts between the Britons and the Picts and Saxons as well as an overview of the country’s geography and politics. Particular attention here is paid to Logres as the main kingdom of Britain and Salisbury, the default starting point for The Great Pendragon Campaign. It is short and snappy and provides a decent introduction without miring the prospective player in detail.
The main part of A Guide to Arthurian Britain is for the Game Master and presents a guide to the ‘Lands of the Cymri’, from Cambria in the west, Essex in the east, from Cumbria in the north to Cornwall in the south. In each it gives a breakdown of each region politics and history, lists its significance during Arthur’s reign, suggests some story themes and hooks, and recommends further ‘Reading and Viewing’. For example, it explains that Cornwall was split between the Duchy of Cornwall and Kingdom of Cornwall, but following the death of King Uther, King Idres of the Kingdom of Cornwall conquered the Duchy of Cornwall and given his support in battle to the Saxons. Thematically, Cornwall remains a thorn in King Arthur’s side even when openly resisting his rule for much of his reign. King Idres also rules Britanny, which many Bretons are opposed to, and so there are seeds for rebellion there as well as the suggestion that an adventure in Cornwall might involve Wreckers—a very Cornish theme—and giants, many civilised, and fairies may be found in the region. In terms of ‘Reading and Viewing’, it suggests the classic film Excalibur, since Cornwall is Arthur’s birthplace (and source of his accent), as well as the film Tristan and Isolde and the poems it is based upon.
In general, more detail is given the kingdoms and regions that surround Logres, whilst the Saxon kingdoms are only given a paragraph each and their primary suggested ‘Reading and Viewing’ is Beowulf. Other lands are not ignored, the supplement providing introductions to the Picts and their lands north of the Two Walls, Ireland, and even further beyond. Lastly, A Guide to Arthurian Britain includes a handy timeline from 410 CE when the Romans leave Britain to the Sword Tournament in Londinium in 510 CE.
Should the Knights ride out on this Quest?A Guide to Arthurian Britain is a good introduction to the Britain of Pendragon, Sixth Edition, the ‘Britain, Your Home’ handout being a most useful and excellent introduction for players with relatively little knowledge of the setting, that works for a convention game or a home campaign. A Guide to Arthurian Britain is good for forearming both player and Game Master alike and getting them ready for their Arthurian saga.

For a thousand years there has existed a divide in the land. In the west stands the Great Kingdom and many other nations that arose following the collapse of earlier civilisations and kingdoms, most notably the Old Empire. In the east, the land is dominated by one figure—the Weird Wizard. Whether a fallen god, cast down from the stars by Lord Death himself or a traveller from another world swallowed by darkness, the Weird Wizard established himself and brooked no challenge. None dared do so, for rumours came of the great changes he wrought over his lands, raising mountains to reach the stars, setting rocks to flow like a waterfall into a great chasm, islands floating in the sky, forests of mushrooms, or the clockworks he established to run his capital, the Forbidden City. His shadow, the ‘Shadow of the Weird Wizard’ reached beyond the divide, for surely all of the ills—great and small—that beset the peoples of the Great Kingdom could be blamed for whatever strangeness he was enacting in his lands. Then one day, he disappeared. No one knows why, but it remains a matter of much speculation, from lowly taverns to the great courts. Whether the gods decided to punish him by sealing him away with the Ancient Ones or a mighty ended his reign with a single blow of his sword, perhaps one day someone will discover what happened to him. With his disappearance too went the divide between the Great Kingdom and all the lands to the east. With it went stability and assurance as the Great Kingdom fell into civil war. No one knows if the two are connected. What they do know is that refugees have fled to the borderlands as monsters from the east—cruel faeries, hybrid beasts, the undead, multilegged hulking collectors, and floating eyes that hang in the air trailing their nerve endings—have skulked west into the borderlands. As explorers slip into the east in search of answers, the inhabitants and refugees in the borderlands need protecting. It is a time for brave adventurers to step forth and stop the monsters, to protect the people, and perhaps track them to their source, and so become heroes.

This is the set-up for Shadow of the Weird Wizard, a roleplaying game of high fantasy, high magic, and high adventure published by Schwalb Entertainment following a successful Kickstarter campaign. The publisher is best known for the grim dark, horror fantasy roleplaying game, Shadow of the Demon Lord, but whilst both Shadow of the Demon Lord and Shadow of the Weird Wizard use the same Demon Lord Engine for their mechanics, Shadow of the Weird Wizard is not as bleak and the Player Characters are intended to champion the innocent, brave grave dangers, and right terrible wrongs. In other words, they are meant to be heroes rather than just protagonists. Shadow of the Weird Wizard consists of two core books. One is Shadow of the Weird Wizard, the other is Secrets of the Weird Wizard, but Shadow of the Weird Wizard is the core book, providing an introduction to the setting, the core rules for combat and magic, the means to create Player Characters, and lots and lots of spells and career choices.

Although there is some history given for the setting of Shadow of the Weird Wizard, it really defines the nature of the world and what it is like rather than geographical and political specifics. These are that the world of Erth is much like that of Earth, including the Sun and the Moon, a day lasting twenty-four hours, and week seven days, and so on. This is where the differences end because Erth is home to multiple species— Dwarfs, Faeries, Clockworks, Dragonets, and more, as well as weird hybrid creatures, dragons, and monsters. Magic is real and studied, there is technological development (including muskets and bicycles), the gods exist and some even walk the Erth, the Ancient Ones were defeated by Lord Death and remain asleep, and so on. The combination gives the setting a sense of familiarity and difference. The companion volume, Secrets of the Weird Wizard, does go into more detail, as well as doing one more pertinent thing, and that is providing Ancestry details. Only the Human Ancestry is available in Shadow of the Weird Wizard, which is disappointing. However, Secrets of the Weird Wizard is intended as companion, so details of Archon (exiled angels), Cambion (Human and Fiend parentage), Centaur, Changeling, Clockwork, Daeva, Dhampir, Dragonet, Dwarf, Elf, Faun, Goblin, Halfling, Haren (leporine or rabbit-like), Harpy, Hobgoblin, Janni (masters of elemental magic), Naga, Pollywog, Revenant, Sphinx, Spriggan, Sprite, Triton, Warg, and Woodwose ancestries can all be found in its pages.

As with other Demon Lord Engine roleplaying games, Shadow of the Weird Wizard is a Class or Profession and Level roleplaying game. A Player Character starts at First Level and can rise as far as Tenth Level (although Secrets of the Weird Wizard does give options for continued play beyond this). As a Player Character gains Levels he will enter and follow different Paths, each Path providing an array of benefits. These include setting the Player Character’s natural defence and Health, and determining languages spoken, bonus damage, and talents. Some also grant access to Traditions, different schools of magic, mostly for the spellcasting character types, some martial and skill-based character options grant access to limited magic.

The most basic Paths are Fighter, Mage, Priest, and Rogue, which provides benefits at First, Second, and Fifth Level. At Third Level, a Player Character can enter an Expert Path, categorised as Paths of Battle, Paths of Faith, Paths of Power, and Paths of Skill, which provides benefits at Third, Fourth, Sixth, and Ninth Level, and at Seventh Level, he enters a Master Path. These are categorised as Paths of Arms, Paths of the Gods, Paths of Magic, and Paths of prowess, granting benefits at Seventh, Eighth, and Tenth Level. The choice of Paths widen as a Player Character gains Levels, so that whilst at the beginning one Rogue will very much be like another Rogue, by the time a Rogue has followed the Expert Path and entered the Master Path, he really is different in comparison to another Rogue. So, a Priest might begin as just that, but for his Master Path, he might become a Cleric and cast miracles or an Inquisitor, a Paladin, or a Theurge who summons angels to aid him, and then for the Master Path he could continue to cast miracles as a High Priest, or switch to become a Moon Celebrant in service to Sister Moon.

Besides Ancestry and Level, a Player Character is defined by four attributes—Strength, Agility, Intellect, and Will. These initially range in value between nine and twelve and provide a modifier, which is equal to the attribute minus ten. He will also have a basic profession; what he did before becoming an adventurer which will provide an item of equipment. The creation process starts by selecting an Ancestry (only Human in Shadow of the Weird Wizard, but another option from Secrets of the Weird Wizard), and then rolling for the Player Character’s Profession, and then Distinctive Feature, Affability, Dependability, Outlook, Receptiveness, Sociability, Piety, and Religions. The process is quick and easy.

Name: Tilia
Ancestry: Human
Profession: Hunter (Wilderness)
Level 1
Novice Path: Priest
Distinctive Feature: Different coloured eyes
Affability: You can fend for yourself in social situations, but you’re also fine when alone.
Dependability: You try to be conscientious, but sometimes fall short
Outlook: You strive to be a positive, upbeat person. You look for the good in all things and hope for the best.
Receptiveness: New ideas and activities make you uncomfortable.
Sociability: You believe people can be good or bad. You withhold judgment about someone until you get to know them.
Piety: You believe in the gods and offer prayers to them all.
Religions: Horned Lord
Divine Calling: Some tragedy or horrific experience saw you turn to the gods for meaning. You might have suffered an attack by undead, encountered a spirit, or had someone close to you fall into the clutches of a diabolical fiend.

Strength 11 (+1) Agility 10 (+0) Intellect 13 (+3) Will 11 (+1)
Natural Defence: 9 Health: 14

Languages: Common and one other language
Traditions: Primal, Animism
Talents: Prayer (Magical), Holy Symbol (Magical), Holy Smite, Holy Healing, Holy Denunciation, Armor of the Ancient Oak, Bestial Aspect
Spells: Plant the Seed, Stalk Prey

The basic mechanic in Shadow of the Weird Wizard is simple and straightforward, whether a player needs to make an attribute check, an attack roll, or a roll against an attack or spell for his character. The player rolls a twenty-sided die and adds any Attribute bonuses or penalties, and if the result is ten or more, or is equal to or greater than the target number, typically the target’s Defence value, his character succeeds. In addition, a Player Character can also have Boons or Banes—each a six-sided die—that he can add to, or subtract from, the roll. These can come from a Path, a Talent, or spell, and Banes and Boons cancel each other out prior to rolling, but when rolling multiples of either type, only the highest number rolled counts and is added to the total. A critical success occurs on a roll higher than the target or a natural twenty, whilst a critical failure occurs if the result is zero or less. This can occur due to the effect of a Bane reducing the final result. In comparison, a luck roll is made without any modifiers and the target number is always ten.

Combat uses the same core mechanic, with attack rolls being against the target’s Defence value, either natural or derived from armour worn. Damage is accrued up to the limit of the target’s Health. If the target suffers damage equal to, or greater than, half his Health, he is injured and may suffer extra effects from certain Talents and spells, and if he suffers total damage equal to his Health, he is his incapacitated. Damage beyond this actually reduces his Health and the amount of damage he can suffer. If his Health is reduced to zero, he is dead. In general, Player Characters have more Health than in other Demon Lord Engine roleplaying games.

The most radical element of combat is how initiative works in Shadow of the Weird Wizard. In a round, a combatant can move and use an action, whether an attack or casting a spell or something else, but the Player Characters do not automatically act first. The NPCs and any monsters controlled by the Sage—as the Game Master is known—move and act first, followed by the Player Characters, which can be in any order. However, some effects and actions enable the Player Characters to act out of turn, using Reactions. For example, a Free Attack occurs as a Reaction if an enemy moves out of reach without retreating, a Dodge is a Reaction, and so is ‘Taking the Initiative’. If the Player Characters are aware of their enemies at the beginning of a new round, then they can use a Reaction to ‘Take the Initiative’ and act before the enemy does. They can do this in any order they like. That said, effects such as wearing heavy armour prevents the ‘Take the Initiative’ Reaction. This seems more complex than it really is and really means that the Player Characters have more control than it first appears.

Magic and spellcasting is also kept simple. Shadow of the Weird Wizard a total of thirty-three Traditions from Aeromancy, Alchemy, and Alteration to Technomancy, Teleportation, and War. Each provides four Talents and eighteen spells spread across Novice, Expert, and Master Paths. Each spell description includes its effects as well as its target and number of castings. The latter is the number of times that a spellcaster can cast it between rests, which never changes unless a player decides to choose that spell again, doubling the amount. Spell effects, especially damage effects, do increase as the caster moves into the next Path. For the most part, casting a spell is also automatic, though a player may need to make an attribute check to gain a particular effect and improve its effects, or to strike a target. This is done on a spell by spell basis, so that any player with a Mage or Priest character will need to learn the specifics of every spell that their character knows. Lastly, Mage and Priest Player Characters can learn any Traditions that they want, though Priests are likely to pick those that relate to their faiths and their gods.

Besides Paths and spells, Shadow of the Weird Wizard includes rules for most adventuring situations, common information that every Player Character will know, how to handle social situations, companions and hirelings, and a lengthy guide to equipment that includes a few magical items, explosives, clockwork prosthetic and wheeled chairs, and more. Yet it is the Paths and Spells that dominate Shadow of the Weird Wizard. Beyond the four Novice Paths, Shadow of the Weird Wizard details forty-two Expert Paths and one-hundred-and-twenty-one Master Paths, and whilst a Player Character could specialise, combining Expert and Master Paths to be the best at a particular way of fighting, school of magic, or expertise, he is also free to switch Paths entirely because there are no prerequisites. It means that the possible combinations are more than might be explored over the course of multiple campaigns!

Physically, Shadow of the Weird Wizard is a densely presented book. The artwork is good and it is well written, but there is a lot of information in the book, obviously related to character creation as well as the core rules. Given that density, the core rules could have been made more obvious and perhaps a reference page included at the start or end of the book to make it easier to run.

Shadow of the Weird Wizard is the equivalent of the Player’s Handbook for Shadow of the Weird Wizard. It is not quite perfect, the inclusion of only one Ancestry limits player choice, but a roleplaying group is going to be using Secrets of the Weird Wizard anyway, so this is not as much of an issue as it could have been, whereas the density of the book making the rules less accessible than they could have been, is more of an issue. Not an insurmountable issue by any means, but rather one that could have eased. Nevertheless, as well as presenting a more streamlined version of the Demon Lord Engine mechanics for its rules, it presents the player with hundreds of options and then hundreds and hundreds of choices and combinations in terms of what his character is and can be. Want to become a Berserker who Juggernauts his way through walls? A Holy Avenger who employs Necromancy to wreak his vengeance? An Inheritor of a mighty magical weapon who as Diabolist deals in the Dark Arts? An Artificer who imbues technology with magic and pilots his own War Machine? All these—and a whole lot more—are possible in Shadow of the Weird Wizard. Overall, Shadow of the Weird Wizard is a comprehensive set-up and introduction to playing positive, high fantasy using the Demon Lord Engine.

Like any good action film, Mission Dossier: Project Medusa starts with a bang! Not with the bang of a gunshot, but with the sound a door being kicked open and the bruised and bloody contact that the Heroes have been waiting for, being thrown to the floor of the diner where they have been waiting for him. After the requisite brawl with the thugs that beat him and came after the Heroes, the chase is on the MacGuffin of the title—a speedy drive to the airfield followed by a race to board a departing aeroplane, which before it reaches it destination, will explode, deliberately, of course, leaving the heroes in mid air and short of parachutes… This then is the opening part of Mission Dossier: Project Medusa, a scenario, or ‘mini-campaign’ for Outgunned, the cinematic action roleplaying game inspired by the classic action films of the past sixty years—Die Hard, Goldfinger, Kingsman, Ocean’s Eleven, Hot Fuzz, Lethal Weapon, and John Wick.

Mission Dossier: Project Medusa is ‘A 3-Shot Introductory Campaign for Outgunned’ and if it seems familiar, there is a good reasons for this. This is because its first part, or shot, ‘Race Against Time’ is used in both the core rulebook as the introductory scenario and in Outgunned– Zero to Hero, the quick-start for Outgunned. So, by the time the Director and her players get to Mission Dossier: Project Medusa, they may already have played through the first part. That said, it is nice to have the whole scenario in one place, and further, all of Mission Dossier: Project Medusa can be run using the Outgunned – Zero to Hero rather than the full rules in Outgunned. Both Outgunned and Mission Dossier: Project Medusa were funded via a Kickstarter campaign and published by the Italian publisher, Two Little Mice, via Free League Publishing. Mission Dossier: Project Medusa comes with four ready-to-play Heroes—a maverick undercover police officer, a hotshot driver and pilot, an ever cheerful bounty hunter, and a charming martial artist—and can be played through in two or three sessions. Some elements of these Heroes are written into the story, so if the players want to create their own Heroes, the Director will need to link them to the plot. If the players do want to create their own Heroes, it is recommended that one of them be a hotshot driver.

Mission Dossier: Project Medusa quickly summarises the plot and its three shots, introduces the four Heroes (character sheets for each of them is included at the back), and both explains who the villain is and what his dastardly plan is. This is the charming Greek philanthropist, Konstantin Stamos, who has a very dark past and a suitcase to take delivery of. The suitcase is the MacGuffin of the scenario and contains a deadly virus, which if unleashed, would kill millions. ‘Race Against Time’ is not clear as to where it is set beyond an unspecified sea-side city, but the action definitely switches to Greece for the second and parts of the scenario, ‘Unwanted Guests’ and ‘Into the Heart of Medusa’. In ‘Unwanted Guests’, the Heroes land in Greece and discover who is behind the beating up of the Heroes’ contact in the previous act, one Konstantin Stamos, and that he is holding a big party very shortly. Which gives an opportunity for the Heroes to infiltrate the event, trying to avoid the attention of the security at Stamos’ villa, and learning more of the villain’s secrets. Since this is the second act, it will end with another fight, of course, a big fight, and will end with the Heroes being captured and imprisoned. ‘Into the Heart of Medusa’, they discover the truly monstrous nature of both Stamos’ plans and its origins, fight their way out of a collapsing secret laboratory, and engage in a helicopter chase, before a final showdown between Stamos and one Hero atop a cliff.

Make no mistake, Mission Dossier: Project Medusa is linear and straightforward, and whilst there is opportunity for the players to embellish parts of the scenario, there is no deviation from its plot. This should be okay though, since the players are here for an action film, not a melodrama, and for their heroes to land punches and shoot the villains and look very, very cool whilst doing it.

What is particularly noticeable about Mission Dossier: Project Medusa is its format. The details of the scenario are always placed on the left, whilst the advice—or ‘Pro-Tips’—for the Director, is always placed on the right in a big, bold, red block with the text in white and different typefaces used on each page. The ‘Pro-Tips’ varies in size, or rather width, throughout the scenario. On some two-page spreads, it is a simple sidebar, on others, it takes up a whole page. The latter includes every scene and situation in the adventure, the advice and suggestions keyed to particular scenes. The advice suggests moments when the Heroes have an opportunity to rest and remove a Condition they might have suffered in a previous scene, the best way to handle a scene, ideas as to how a scene might be expanded or embellished typically to enable the players to develop their Heroes, and to expand on the villains’ actions. The advice is very good and there is so much of it that Mission Dossier: Project Medusa might actually be considered to be half-adventure, half-advice for the Director. Certainly, there is a lot here that the Director can learn and apply to subsequent Outgunned campaigns.

Lastly, Mission Dossier: Project Medusa includes not one, but six ideas which the Director can develop into full scenarios, all connected to the events of Mission Dossier: Project Medusa. These are divided into three sequels and three prequels, so that with the latter, the Director could run some flashback scenarios before the sequels which link to the mysterious organisation that Stamos was connected to. What this organisation is and what it wants is very much up to the Director to decide and develop (unless, of course, the publisher develops a further campaign in the meantime).

Physically, beyond the depictions of the Heroes and major NPCs, Mission Dossier: Project Medusa is not illustrated. Nor are there any maps. The latter should not be too much of an issue, since many of the locations in the scenario will be familiar from all manner of action films. That said, there is nothing to stop the Director from finding her own maps and floorplans. Otherwise, the layout is clean and tidy and effective as outlined earlier. It does need an edit in places though.

Mission Dossier: Project Medusa is exactly what you want in a scenario for an action movie. It is fast paced, there are secrets and betrayals to discover, a mystery to be solved, the world to be saved, and lots and lots of opportunities for the Heroes to be heroic. Of course, this means that there are more than a few clichés of the genre along the way, but they are to be expected and the players should be buying into them as much as they are the cinematic action and chance for their Heroes to look cool. Supported by excellent advice for Director, Mission Dossier: Project Medusa is an entertaining introduction to running and playing Outgunned – Cinematic Action Role Playing Game.

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

—oOo—

Technically Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 4 is not a magazine. It collects some of the downloadable content made available for Cyberpunk RED, the fourth edition of R. Talsorian Games, Inc.’s Cyberpunk roleplaying game. So, its origins are not those of a magazine, but between 1990 and 1992, Prometheus Press published six issues of the magazine, Interface, which provided support for both Cyberpunk 2013 and Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. It this mantle that Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 1, Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 2, Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 3, and future issues is picking up in providing support for the current edition of the roleplaying game. As a consequence of the issue collecting previously available downloadable content, there is a lot in the issue that is both immediately useful and can be prepared for play with relative ease. There is also some that is not, and may not make it into a Game Master’s campaign.
Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 4 opens with ‘Hornet’s Pharmacy: A Chemical Wonderland’, which introduces a dealer—Hornet—in street drugs, his wares, and more. There are combat drugs for the Solo, of course, but surprisingly for the Exec and the Netrunner too. ‘Berserker’, which lets the user shrug off the immediate effects of Critical Injuries, so good for the Solo, whilst the Exec becomes a killer in the office with temporary bonuses to Will and Cool with ‘Prime Time’, but a huge loss of Humanity, and ‘Sixgun’, which gives a Netrunner a bonus to Speed when Jacked in and always effect a Safe Jack Out, but reduces his Move and Ref. Additive Compounds include a ‘Delaying Compound’, which can delay the effects of a substance, and ‘Distilling Compound’, which supercharges any substance, increasing the difficulty to resist its effects. New gear includes the Suzumebachi Assassin Drone, which can be operated remotely and is equipped with a dartgun, and new Cyberware, such as the ‘Pursuit Security Inc. Gas Jet’, which is installed in a cyberarm and is an aerosol gas launcher that effectively works as an exotic shotgun that sprays the chemical or toxin of the user’s choice.
‘Black Chrome+: Extra Content for Black Chrome’ puts the Edgerunners in contact with another dealer, Molly Anderson, who has stuff left out of Black Chrome. There is ‘Junk Ammunition’ and ‘Scavenged Armour’ for the Edgerunner on a budget, incendiary grenades, of course called ‘Molotov Cocktails’, and more. The content of ‘Black Chrome+: Extra Content for Black Chrome’ is less useful than ‘Hornet’s Pharmacy: A Chemical Wonderland’, since it is really filling in niches rather than presenting items of more general use. What is definite of use in ‘Black Chrome+: Extra Content for Black Chrome’ is the answers to questions, “What does X style look like?” and “What do External and Internal Linear Frames look like?” Part of Player Character generation in Cyberpunk RED is deciding what the Player Character looks like and to that end, Cyberpunk RED suggests ten basic fashion types, such as ‘Bag Lady Chic’, ‘Gang Colours’, and ‘Urban Flash’. In response to R. Talsorian Games, Inc. having to answer the first question one too many times, it decides to show you with a set of mini illustrations for each fashion type that nicely bring this aspect of 2045 to life. Then it does the same for Linear Frames along with some description too. Again, very useful because the Game Master can show her players rather than just tell.
The fact that ‘Achievements and Loot Boxes’ was the publisher’s April Fool’s download makes complete sense, since it is bonkers, but it is easy to imagine it being integrated into play. It is a reward system, known as the ‘M.R.A.M.A.Z.E.’ or ‘Mystery Reward Achievements Making (you) Attain (the) Zenith (of) Existence’ program, which gives an Edgerunner a trophy for attaining certain targets. For example, ‘15 Minutes of Fame’ is awarded when an Edgerunner reaches Reputation level 7, ‘Going Dark’ for completing a mission without resorting to combat, and ‘Pub Crawl’, for a buying a drink in a bar in each one of Night City’s districts. In return, a player can turn an Achievement in to gain a reroll or one of Mr. Amaze’s Mystery Boxes, randomly rolled for. This adds loot boxes to the play of Cyberpunk RED and versions of the Achievement Badges are given that the Game Master could print out and actually put on badges! It is a very silly option and probably the best way to use it is either to ignore it or to combine it with a city wide event with a limited time frame.
‘Stickball: The sport of the street’ gives the rules for the game that some gangs in Night City, as well as other groups, use as a means to settle disputes. It is a non-lethal combat sport in which microwavers, acid paintballs, heavy handguns loaded with Stickball-sanctioned rubber ammunition, smoke grenades, stun batons, stun guns, and Stickball Sticks are ‘legal’ weapons, the game being played with electrified balls and electromagnetic lacrosse sticks. Although the players and their Edgerunners need to learn the rules to Stickball, this adds a non-lethal option for an action session or so. Of course, if violence is the preferred option, then a gang might take the engines off one or more AV-4s, bolt them onto a combination of bus, truck, and/or junk, and hang whatever it can off the sides and mount the biggest weapons it can to create a cobbled-together scrap vehicle that might just give the gang the means to stand up to the hi-tech, dedicated combat vehicles fielded by law enforcement and corporate military forces. If only for a little while… The result is ‘The Dreaded Punknaught’, a Mad Max-style battering ram, weapons platform, and ganger transport that the article gives the means and guide for the Game Master to create one for her gangs. It even comes with a character sheet for the Punknaught and its own death table, and the vehicle can be used as threat to the Edgerunners, as a temporary vehicle for the Edgerunners, and the Edgerunners might even have to build one themselves!
One of the useful articles back in Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 2 was ‘Cargo Containers & Cube Hotels’ which explored options of where an Edgerunner might live if on a budget. ‘Corporate Conapts & Studio Apartments’ is the sequel, presenting more luxurious choices for when an Edgerunner is ready to move out of the modified Cargo Container home. The focus here is on the types of accommodation that the various corporations provide and where they are in Night City. For example, the employees of bitter rivals Petrochem and SovOil both reside in the ‘Petrochem & SovOil Joint Temporary Housing Solution’ near their offices. The facility is cheap because it is what they could get after they blew each other’s apartment blocks and to avoid each, the employees of Petrochem use one lift and one tennis court and the employees of SovOil use another. Unless one of the lifts breaks down and, in the meantime, human resources for both companies say it is just temporary. There are lots of little details like this, plus the article suggests what apartments are like in different districts and what fittings the up and coming Edgerunner might furnish his new home with. Real instant coffee, smart oven, and orbital crystal shower head for the ultimate in water pressure are some of the options here. The article definitely needed more though, and a sequel would be fitting since players do like to go shopping, if not always for guns.

‘Halloween Screamsheets: three spooky shorts for Cyberpunk RED’ outlines three scenarios to run during October. In ‘Haunted Vendit Haunts NCU Campus’, it appears that someone is aping a Continental Brands Triti-Fizz Vendit to sell flavours that the corporation does not and denies it is testing. The Edgerunners are hired to find the rogue Vendit, put it out of operation, and return the remains for analysis. In ‘Spook Up at Ghostglobe Halloween’, the EdgeRunners are hired by the Goth poser gang, the Sinful Adams, to run security for its upcoming Halloween event and prevent the Philharmonic Vampyres from crashing the event. This is a point defence scenario, which works especially well if the Edgerunners have encountered the Philharmonic Vampyres before, perhaps in ‘A Night at the Opera – Darkness and Desire in Night City’, from Tales of the RED: Street Stories. The third Screamsheet is ‘TSpooks’ Terror, Episode 21: Werewolf in Watson’. After a series of werewolf sightings and the supposed death of one in the district, the assistant coroner asks the Edgerunners to investivate what looks like enforced body sculpting. This a more detailed investigation than the previous two, but all three can be played through in a single session, and whilst all three involve Halloween, none of them have a whiff of the supernatural about them. This does not stop them from being horrific in places. Of the three, ‘Haunted Vendit Haunts NCU Campus’ is the screamsheet with least connection to Halloween, so can be run at any time of the year, whilst the other two are more specific in their time setting. All three are good solid screamsheets though, easily played through in a single session or two.
Penultimately, Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 4 offers up its by now traditional Christmas carol suitable for the ‘Time of the Red’ and twelve classic pieces of cyberware or gear from days of Cyberpunk past. The head-mounted Cybercam EX -1 is every Media’s dream, whilst the Tech will want to get his hands on the Master Mechanic’s Tool Kit, especially given the bonus it gives to all tech-related rolls. Meanwhile the Cops of the NCPD swear by the Cyberscanner which picks up the cyberware installed in a suspect and the ION Cuffs that when placed on the suspect’s wrists shuts them down.
Lastly, ‘Cyberfists of Fury: Expanded Martial Arts’ adds twenty-three new martial arts forms for Cyberpunk RED which has martial artists learn multiple forms as their skill level increases, each form providing its own Special Moves as access to the Shared Special Moves common to most forms. The new forms in the article are divided between the traditional, such as Boxing, which provides Knockout Punch and Punch Combination, and Tai Chi, like Joint Manipulation and Lu, and the new, specific to the ‘Time of the Red’. Unsurprisingly, Arasaka and Militech have their own forms. Arasaka-te teaches Counter Strike and Escape Hold, whilst Militech Commando Training includes Combat Knife Training and Commando Disarm. For the Full Body Conversion, there is PanzerFaust with Borg Fist and Inner Chrome. There are also weapons-focused martial arts including Kendo or ‘Way of the Sword’, the archery focused Kyudo, and Gun Fu, the latter a modern Form with the Special Moves of Combat Reload and the amusingly named Woo Technique.
The need to choose a Form with each increase in skill level enables martial artists to learn a wide range of techniques and styles, and can be used in a variety of ways. One is to suggest a martial artist’s origins, such as training in Arasaka-te versus Capoeira, whilst another is set up a roleplaying opportunity, a martial artist Edgerunner needing to find and satisfy a teacher to learn a new Form and its Special Moves. Then of course, a Form can suggest details about an NPC as well as the way in which he fights. The article expands the options available to both player and Game Master and is undoubtedly useful to any campaign in which martial arts play a role, however significant.
Physically, Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 4 is cleanly, tidily laid out. The artwork is decent too and everything is easy to read. Notably, many of the articles open with colour fiction that detail individuals and places that a Game Master could easily use help bring her campaign to life, for example, Hornet of ‘Hornet’s Pharmacy: A Chemical Wonderland’.

Although much of it was originally available for free, as with previous issues, with the publication of Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 4, it is nice to have it in print. And again, as before, all of it is useful in some ways, but barring the drug-related gear of ‘Hornet’s Pharmacy: A Chemical Wonderland’, the new equipment detailed in the issue is the least interesting content. ‘Halloween Screamsheets: three spooky shorts for Cyberpunk RED’ gives three good scenarios, whilst ‘Cyberfists of Fury: Expanded Martial Arts’ expands the character options in the roleplaying game in very useful fashion and ‘Corporate Conapts & Studio Apartments’ adds further detail and colour to the downtime of the Edgerunner with Eurobucks to spend. Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 4 brings a wealth of new detail to Cyberpunk RED and there is something useful in its pages for every Cyberpunk RED Game Master.

Today the desert region is known only for the nomads that cross its sands, the tales of ancient myth and legends of what it once was, and the monsters said to lurk there. In times past, despite its dry environs, it was crossed by well-known trade routes on which the once-great Anhurak people—or the Children of the Burning Stone and the Wandering Stars, as scholar say they called themselves—grew rich and powerful ensuring the safe passage of goods and people. When they sought to build a settlement in the middle of the routes, they began by establishing a great tower for their leader, Mahrun Tal’Zahir, with the help of the group’s Cartographer. Yet legends say they turned on him soon after and fled the desert after the settlement began to sink into the sands. Now all that remains are half-buried houses and the tower itself, although only the top three of its five storeys are visible. This is the setting for ‘The Desert Forgotten by Time’ with which stands The Hollow Tower.

Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower is a mini-hexcrawl published by Angry Golem Games. It is the inaugural in the publisher’s ‘Fortnightly Adventures’ series which is intended to provide a brand-new, original module every two weeks—each exploring a different biome, mysterious locale, and unique challenge. For The Hollow Tower, this is a section of desert, a strange tower, and a mystery to uncover. It is written for use with Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy, published by Necrotic Gnome Productions, it is based on the 1981 revision of Basic Dungeons & Dragons by Tom Moldvay and its accompanying Expert Set by Dave Cook and Steve Marsh, and presents a very accessible, very well designed, and superbly presented reimplementation of the rules.
What Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower details is a seven-hexagon rosette of desert terrain. Each takes roughly two hours to explore, so the region is not a large one overall. In fact, it could easily be treated as a mini-location as a whole and placed in a single hex in a Game Master’s campaign. In that case, what would distinguish it from other hexes is the Eternal Sandstorm that rolls around the region, moving from hex to hex within the region. This is part of a curse said by the Anhurak people to have been laid on the region by their leader, Mahrun Tal’Zahir. A handful of hooks are included to get the Player Characters involved, including one of their number having “[a] dream about the sunken city and felt drawn to the mysterious place.” and being hired to investigate the region and make sure it is secure, primarily from the giant ants that plague it. These are not enthralling hooks and the Game Master will likely want to create her own that are stronger and likely tied to her campaign setting.
The four adventure locations in Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower consist of a ‘Giant Ant Lair’, ‘Mahrun’s Tomb’, ‘The Sunken City’, and ‘The Hollow Tower’ itself. The ‘Giant Ant Lair’ is detailed, but not given a map. That said it is a simple encounter, more bug extermination that anything else. ‘Mahrun’s Tomb’ is singular in nature, consisting of single room under a cairn of white stone. He is though, still ‘alive’, and will plead his case with the Player Characters, telling them of how he was wronged. There is the possibility that the Player Characters discover his tomb and even aid him before his true nature is revealed when they discover the secrets of ‘The Hollow Tower’. (The point when the Player Characters confront him is both when they discover what a charmingly challenging foe he is, since he is actually powered by the stars, and when any NPC accompanying them turns out to a cultist dedicated to him.) ‘The Sunken City’ consists of ruins which the Player Characters can scavenge before ascending the spiral staircase with winds around ‘The Hollow Tower’.
The most detailed location in in Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower is ‘The Hollow Tower’ itself where Mahrun Tal’Zahir once worked and studied. It inverts the exploration by making it from the top down, rather than bottom up, and is filled with secrets and the occasional monster. In comparison to other locations in the region, and barring the occasional random encounter, the focus is on exploration and investigation rather than combat or interaction. There is plenty to find, whether an indestructible chest which can either be opened with its key or cut open with a magical weapon, a pot plant with gem petals, and a ghost in the cells which wants help to move on to the afterlife. There is also ‘Anhurak’s Peculiar Library’ filled with potentially interesting books. These are listed by type and value, but the Game Master might want to develop them further to add detail and possible bonuses for their study.
What there is not in Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower is any plot or sense of story. There is no imminent danger in the region which threatens to spill over into the surrounds and Mahrun Tal’Zahir remains trapped in his tomb. Instead, the Player Characters will have to poke around to find out what is going on and potentially find out who Mahrun Tal’Zahir was and what he has become. However, there are elements here around which a plot can be strung in the setting with the addition of a rumour or two and some NPCs, perhaps some scholars or cultists with an interest in Mahrun Tal’Zahir and the civilization he left behind. These through, require development by the Game Master, but with their inclusion, the Player Characters might have stronger motivation to visit the region.
Physically, Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower is decently done. The layout is clean and tidy, the illustrations good, and the hexcrawl is an easy read.
Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower veers from overview to detail and back again. In places it feels underdeveloped, whilst in others, comparatively overly detailed. It leaves a lot for the Game Master to create herself to make it more useable and useful, but it at least provides the bare bones for that in what is attractive-looking minx-hexcrawl.

 My wife and I re-watched all of Stranger Things last month. I had forgotten how much I really enjoyed it. It also got me thinking about my setting for NIGHT SHIFT (or any other modern horror RPG) Jackson, IL. 

One of the great things about my Jackson, IL project is I get to involve some of the best occult and weird-things investigators I know; my brothers and sisters. 

Seriously. I talk about all the monsters my mom gives me all the time and all the bad horror movies I watched with my dad. Well, think of the stuff I write and now times that by five. We have this huge discussion thread that has been going for a while now where we talk about all the weird shit that went on in the town we grew up in. Even right now they are still at it while I am typing this and trying to stay caught up. 

I'd better get some of this all down here before they provide me with another year's worth of posts.

Up first is an Urban Legend I remember as a kid. This rumor involved a small Midwest town with two smaller colleges and how an axe murderer, or serial killer, or deranged student, was going to kill some students in the girls dorm.

Here is one article I was able to find that covers it. It never mentions any town by name, but my old home town fit all the criteria, as did a few others. 

Here is my revised version for Jackson, IL for use with NIGHT SHIFT and using my Weirdly World News introduced in the Night Companion. 

--

MIDWEST MURDER MYSTERY!

The Jackson College Prediction

As Told Since the Late 1970s

The story has been circulating around Jackson College for as long as anyone can remember, though every retelling changes a detail or two. It all begins with an article, if it ever truly existed, in a fringe tabloid called Weirdly World News.

No one has ever found a copy.

No librarians have ever seen it.

No archive lists it.

And yet, somehow, everyone has heard about it.

The Alleged Article

According to the rumor, Weirdly World News once ran a short, breathless piece claiming that a well-known psychic, sometimes named, sometimes not, foretold a tragedy in:

“a small Midwestern town with two colleges or twin campuses, where one women’s dormitory faces to the south and another to the west.”

That was the entire identifying description.

No town was named.

No state was noted.

No dates were provided beyond a cryptic warning:

“The danger comes due in a spring month with five Thursdays.”

Everyone remembers that part clearly, even if they disagree on everything else.

Why the Legend Stuck

Naturally, the description was generic enough to apply to more than one place in the Midwest… but it also matched Jackson, Ill, a little too closely for comfort.

The both campuses in town had women’s dorms. And in the murky, grainy way old buildings are remembered, it is easy to see one dorm as “facing south” and the other “facing west,” depending on which entrance a person uses or which direction the old architecture leans.

This vagueness kept the rumor alive.

The resemblance to Jackson kept it fed.

Spring Months With Five Thursdays

The legend only resurfaces during years when a spring month, March, April, or May, contains five Thursdays. Students whisper about it in the cafeteria. Professors jokingly warn their classes to “stay safe.” Campus security quietly increases patrols, though nobody ever admits it.

Some upperclassmen swear their older siblings heard the same warnings a decade earlier.

Some claim the psychic predicted:

a stabbing

an axe

a faceless figure

a student “losing control”

Others insist the warning was far more symbolic, mentioning only “moon-dark corridors” or “the hour of the fifth.”

All of this contradicts.

All of it circulates.

The Vanishing Article

Every few years, someone tries to track down the original Weirdly World News issue. Every few years, they fail.

Some say the tabloid never printed the article.

Some claim the article was retracted.

Some insist it existed only as a single teaser in the back pages of a spring edition.

A few swear their aunt or an older neighbor once had a copy taped to a fridge.

But when pressed, no one has ever been able to produce one.

What Actually Happened

Of course nothing.

No attacks, no tragedies, no unexplained disappearances.

And yet, each new generation of students tells the story again whenever a spring month carries a fifth Thursday… as if the warning might finally stick, or the shadowed threat might finally step out from where it has been waiting, just off the page, just past the edge of memory.

Jackson remains quiet each year.

But the legend, and the fear, continues.

--

Game Masters Note

Of course, the article is real in the Jackson, Ill, universe. And it will turn up, when the prediction starts to come true.

The mini-games from Oink Games pack a lot of game play into small packages. In fact, the publisher’s small boxes have become as much part of its signature trade design as a design challenge for its game designers who have to pack their creations into these small boxes. The result is that the games themselves are easy to fit on the shelf and easy to fit into a pocket or bag to take to the next game session. And another aspect of Oink Games’ designs is that they have been around longer than most gamers realise, much longer than the publisher’s breakout title, Scout, published in 2019 and the Origins Awards Best Card Game Winner and a Spiel des Jahres Nominee in 2022. Maskmen is a much older game, having been published in 2014, and like Scout, is a ‘ladder climbing’ game in which the players must play cards of an equal or higher value of the previous set already played. Where in Scout, the players were trying to have their performers outperform each other in the circus, in Maskmen, the players are promotors trying to have their wrestlers gain dominance over each other and win Lucha libre seasons.

Maskmen is designed to be played by two to six players, aged nine plus, and can be played in twenty minutes. Inside the box are sixty Wrestler Cards, thirty Strength Markers, and twelve Score Markers. The Wrestler Cards represent the six different wrestlers in different colours, ten each. The Strength Markers match the colours of the Wrestler Cards and there are five of each colour. Both Wrestler Cards and Strength Markers depict the masks worn by the luchadores, the masked Mexican wresters, and importantly, the Wrestler Cards are not numbered. The Score Markers are valued ‘+2’, ‘+1’, and ‘-1’, and are awarded at the end of each season for the winner, the runner-up, and the player in last place. The game is played over four rounds or Seasons and the player with the most points at the end of the four is the winner.

At the start of each season, each player is dealt a hand of Wrestler Cards, the amount varying according to the number of players. The first player—initially determined by the most recent person to have viewed a wrestling match,* but on subsequent seasons, the player who came last in the previous season—plays one Wrestler Card. This puts the Strength Marker for one luchador into the ring. Subsequently, the players can play their Wrestler Cards in one of two ways. The first is to establish a luchador whose dominance over any luchador has yet to be established. This must be over another luchador and done with one more Wrestler Card than was previous played, up to a maximum of three cards. The other is to play Wrestler Cards on a luchador who is stronger than a previously played luchador. If a player cannot or does not want to play any more Wrestler Cards, he can ‘throw in the towel’ and his participation in the Season is over.

What is important here is that the Wrestler Cards are not numbered and instead, it is the number of Wrestler Cards played on a luchador versus another luchador that establishes the dominance of one over another. The dominance of one luchador over another is tracked using the Strength Markers. These depict the masks of Maskmen’s six luchadores and have little cutouts where each luchador’s mouth and chin are visible. These cutouts match the curve of the top of each luchador’s head, which means they can be stacked up the table to show which one is on top of another and has dominance over the luchadores below him. Once dominance has been established for one luchador over another, it cannot be changed during the season. However, it is not always possible to establish the ladders, or hierarchies, of dominance of every luchador over another and this can lead to the creation of multiple ladders on the table, showing the relationships between some luchadores, but not others.

Ultimately, a season will come to an end when one player has played all of his cards for that season. He wins the season and the ‘+2’ winner’s belt. The runner-up is determined by whomever has the least cards in his hand, and the loser, the one with the most.

Although the aim of every play is to empty his hand, he need not rush to do so. There is scope in Maskmen to be tactical, a player holding three Wrestler Cards of one colour until it is the right moment to establish a luchador’s dominance rather than rushing them out early, playing smaller numbers of cards to maintain dominance, and so on. It is not too tactical though, just enough to keep a veteran player happy and a casual player intrigued. The game is at its most casual at two players, random at five or six with the cards divided among so many players, and cutthroat at three of four.

The theme of battling luchadores is a way for the players to empty their hands of Wrestler Cards, but whilst quite light, it is a stronger than in Scout. This is because the theme in Scout does not affect or enable the telling of stories, whereas in Maskmen, the theme of one luchador being stronger or better than another is physically depicted in the ladder of masks on the table and players can, if they want, tell the story of how any one luchador performs over a whole season. Plus, over the course of the game, a luchador of one colour might be at the bottom of the hierarchy in one season, only to bounce back in the next season and narratively, fight his way to the top.

Physically, Maskmen is a sturdy tight package. The artwork on the Wrestler Cards and the Strength Markers is striking and simple, whilst the rules pamphlet is easy to read. The stacking of the Strength Markers which show the hierarchy of dominance is not as easy to understand as it could be and the owner of Maskmen should definitely play through a few hands himself to understand how it works before teaching it to others.

Maskmen is a fun little filler, which makes use of an engaging theme to drive its game play. Its basic play is easy to teach and it offers some depth beyond that, but not too much, making suitable for family and casual play as well as play by experienced players too.

 If you have not seen it, there is a great mapping of many of the popular OSR blogs put together by Elmcat. I found it via JB at B/X Blackrazor, who in turn found it from James at Grognardia.

The map is based on linking, so if a blog doesn't link out to others or is not linked to, then its presence on this map is less. There are various clusters of blogs that are closer together than others. I am out in a region known as "Community 4."

There is a lot of value in this map, and I am quite impressed at the Herculean effort put forth here. 

The ability to see growth and decline over the years is rather amazing. I guess 2016 was a banner year here at The Other Side. Maybe I should go back and reread some of those posts!

The ability to see who links to you is great. Maybe they are praising your blog? Maybe they hate it!  It appears I link to a lot of "bigger blogs" (naturally, that is why they are bigger), but there are also a lot of lesser-known (to me) blogs linking to me. I am going to make an effort to link back to those blogs more. This includes blogs like Seed of Worlds, who is my top linker. As one commenter (@farmergadda.bsky.social) said, "We (bloggers) have GOT to get sluttier (link more)." 

While I feel we, OSR Bloggers, are a community as a whole, there are obvious sub-communities. In statistics and research design, we have a tool called Cluster Analysis. This is not that, not exactly, but we can draw some similar ideas from it. Namely, that various clusters have more similarity within than between. And these clusters can have themes or names. I don't think I'll offer up any names for these clusters, some are obvious. For example, the blogs in Grognardia's orbit tend to be more classical old-school, playing by the book or how Gary intended it, sort of blogs. The mini-cluster I am in tends to be old-school, but with a twist. There are a few blogs nearby that also add more elements, like horror, to their games. But that is a massive over-generalization.

It is all rather fascinating and a reminder that even while I am sitting on my own typing away at whatever nonsense comes up in my mind, I am not really out there alone am I? It's like the Police song "Message in a Bottle,"  "it seems I am not alone at being alone." Well, I never felt alone, but it is nice to be part of something larger.

Hopefully, we can use this data and excellent work by Elmcat to improve our community. 

To that end. Here are the top 10 blogs linking to me:

1. Seed of Worlds
2. THOUGHT EATER
3. Wasted Lands: The Official Blog of Elf Lair Games
4. B／X BLACKRAZOR
5. Dreams of Mythic Fantasy
6. Dungeon Fantastic
7. Tenkar's Tavern
8. CROSS PLANES
9. OLD Elf Lair Games Blog
10. Sea of Stars RPG Design Journal

The top 10 Blogs I Can't Believe I Have Never Linked To:

1. Age of Dusk
2. Numbers Aren't Real
3. Rise Up Comus
4. A Knight at the Opera
5. Ars Ludi
6. Whose Measure God Could Not Take
7. Throne of Salt
8. Coins and Scrolls
9. Goblin Punch
10. BASTIONLAND

I could probably keep doing this all day. But that is good for now. Will check more later on.

Photo by Dima ValkovOr,  Biting off more than you can chew, magically speaking.

In the AD&D rules (and really most D&D variants), a spellcaster can't cast a spell above their prescribed levels. As a rule of thumb, this is often a spell level of half their caster level. There are variations across classes and editions, but this is sufficient for today's discussion.

But what happens when a spellcaster tries to cast a spell of a higher level?

The 1st Edition DMG has some rules on pages 127-128 on scroll reading and failure, but nothing as far as I have found on similar rules for spellbooks. I am sure someone, somewhere, has said with all the authority a Rule Lawyer can muster that "I Shall Not Be Done!" and then quote something that someone else said somewhere else. Frankly, that is myopic and doesn't serve the players well. 

So let me see if I understand the logic here...a group of adventurers are going to risk life, limb, possiblly even their immortal souls and sanity, for a chance of gold and glory. But reading a spell of slightly too high a level is verboten? No. I don't think so. Granted, it should come with consequences.

Here some rules I have been picking at. They supersede the ones found in the DMG.

Casting Higher Level Spells

A spellcaster is typically prohibited from casting spells to which they have no mastery of. Higher level spellcasting is the domain of higher level spellcasters and the untrained mind can not recall the information adequately to even attempt a spellcasting, that is even when they can understand the arcane or occult formulae at all.

But there are times, dire times, in which a spellcaster might want to attempt the dangerous casting of a spell to which they have no knowledge or skill of. This maybe attempted by reading a scroll or directly from a spellbook. There is a high chance of spell failure, and a chance of unintended and catastrophic results. There is also a chance that the spell works as intended and desired. This could be the difference between life and death, or a fate even worse.

To determine the chance of success, start with the Caster level.

Roll under chance of Success on d%.

Base Chance of Success = 5% per level

Table: Spell Casting Modifiers

.tg {border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:0;} .tg td{border-color:black;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px; overflow:hidden;padding:10px 5px;word-break:normal;} .tg th{border-color:black;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px; font-weight:normal;overflow:hidden;padding:10px 5px;word-break:normal;} .tg .tg-avos{background-color:#c0c0c0;border-color:#c0c0c0;text-align:right;vertical-align:top} .tg .tg-oe15{background-color:#ffffff;border-color:#ffffff;text-align:left;vertical-align:top} .tg .tg-52k4{background-color:#c0c0c0;border-color:#c0c0c0;text-align:right;vertical-align:middle} .tg .tg-pnhl{background-color:#c0c0c0;border-color:#c0c0c0;text-align:left;vertical-align:top} .tg .tg-kpp0{background-color:#ffffff;border-color:#ffffff;text-align:right;vertical-align:middle} .tg .tg-3m6e{background-color:#ffffff;border-color:#ffffff;font-weight:bold;text-align:left;vertical-align:top} .tg .tg-ap7t{background-color:#c0c0c0;border-color:#c0c0c0;text-align:left;vertical-align:middle} .tg .tg-8n49{background-color:#ffffff;border-color:#ffffff;text-align:left;vertical-align:middle} .tg .tg-c1kk{background-color:#ffffff;border-color:#ffffff;text-align:right;vertical-align:top} Situation Modifier Spell is of caster's own class list +10% Spell is of allied Witch tradition (Classical, Craft of the Wise, etc.) +5% Spell belongs to a related arcane class (Magic-User ↔ Illusionist) -5% Spell belongs to a related occult class (Witch ↔ Warlock) -10% Spell belongs to an entirely different class (Divine/Cleric/Druid/etc.) -15% Spell is 1 level above caster's maximum +5% Spell is 2 or more levels above caster’s maximum +10% per spell level Spell of opposing alignment/Patron -25% Spell of opposing school (arcane only) -10%

01 always succeeds.

00 (100) always triggers a Major Backlash (roll twice on the d100 table).

Failure results are detailed in the tables below. Scrolls and Spellbooks use different tables. Any casting, success, failure, or otherwise, results in the destruction of the spell being used.

Table: Scroll Spell Failure / Minor Backlash

.tg {border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:0;} .tg td{border-color:black;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px; overflow:hidden;padding:10px 5px;word-break:normal;} .tg th{border-color:black;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px; font-weight:normal;overflow:hidden;padding:10px 5px;word-break:normal;} .tg .tg-oe15{background-color:#ffffff;border-color:#ffffff;text-align:left;vertical-align:top} .tg .tg-pnhl{background-color:#c0c0c0;border-color:#c0c0c0;text-align:left;vertical-align:top} .tg .tg-3m6e{background-color:#ffffff;border-color:#ffffff;font-weight:bold;text-align:left;vertical-align:top} d100 Result 01–20 Fizzle: Spell fails harmlessly; scroll turns to ash. 21–25 Harmless Surge: Hair stands on end; tiny sparks fly. No damage. 26–30 Minor Burn: Caster takes 1d4 damage. 31–33 Flashblind: Caster blinded for 1d4 rounds. 34–36 Reversed Spell: Effect targets caster. 37–40 Wild Targeting: The spell affects a random creature within 30 ft. 41–43 Spell Fragment: Only the first or last portion of the spell manifests (DM choice). 44–46 Partial Success: Spell works at half-strength, half duration, or half area. 47–49 Echo: The spell takes effect 1d4 rounds later. 50–52 Arcane Whiplash: Caster cannot cast spells for 1d3 rounds. 53–55 Magic Drain: Lose one randomly chosen prepared spell (or witch spell-slot) for the day. 56–58 Item Flare: A magic item worn must save vs. Spells or malfunction once. 59–60 Sour Ink: A random scroll in caster’s possession corrodes (save or be ruined). 61–63 Spirit Attention: A minor invisible spirit observes for 1 turn; 10% chance it interferes. 64–66 Vermin Sign: Normal vermin swarm briefly; 10% chance of ruining random gear or potions. 67–69 Etheric Disruption: All spellcasting within 10 ft suffers –2 to initiative for 1 turn. 70–72 Foul Omen: Caster takes –1 on all rolls for 1 hour. 73–75 Spell Echoes Elsewhere: The spell manifests 100–1000 ft away at random. 76–78 Vitality Leak: Caster loses 1d3 points of Constitution for 1 turn (fatigue aura). 79–81 Arcane Whip: Caster is knocked prone. 82–84 Shadow Flicker: Something mimics the caster’s shadow for 1 turn. Harmless but unsettling. 85–87 Planar Draft: A chill wind blows from nowhere; undead within 1 mile sense the caster. 88–90 Fail + Attract Minor Monster: Equivalent to a random monster roll. 91–95 Arcane Pulse: 1d6 damage to all creatures within 10 ft (save half). 96–99 Severe Shock: Caster stunned 1d4 rounds; lose 1d3 prepared spells. 100 Catastrophic: Roll once on the Major Backlash Table below.

Table: Spellbook Spell Failure / Major Backlash

.tg {border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:0;} .tg td{border-color:black;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px; overflow:hidden;padding:10px 5px;word-break:normal;} .tg th{border-color:black;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px; font-weight:normal;overflow:hidden;padding:10px 5px;word-break:normal;} .tg .tg-oe15{background-color:#ffffff;border-color:#ffffff;text-align:left;vertical-align:top} .tg .tg-pnhl{background-color:#c0c0c0;border-color:#c0c0c0;text-align:left;vertical-align:top} .tg .tg-3m6e{background-color:#ffffff;border-color:#ffffff;font-weight:bold;text-align:left;vertical-align:top} d100 Result 01–05 Psychic Burn: 1d6 damage per spell level attempted; stunned 1 round. 06–08 Arcane Fever: –2 to all rolls, no spellcasting for 24 hours. 09–10 Witch-Marking: A permanent visible magical mark appears; –1 Charisma. 11–13 Memory Leak: Lose 1 prepared spell of each level. Highest levels first. 14–15 Reversal Cascade: Every beneficial effect on the caster reverses for 1 turn. 16–18 Wild Elemental Surge: Take 1d8 acid, cold, fire, or lightning damage (random). 19–21 Voice of the Spirits: Caster hears whispers for 1d6 hours. -2 on all rolls 22–24 Spirit Intrusion: Attempted possession (save vs. Spells or controlled 1d6 rounds). 25–27 Fates Displeasure: –1 to saving throws for 24 hours; omen appears. 28–30 Arcane Wound: Permanent –1 Constitution unless cured by heal, wish, or witch ritual. 31–33 Temporal Skip: Caster vanishes for 1d4 rounds and reappears confused for 1 round. 34–35 Spell Implosion: Lose all prepared spells of the highest level available. 36–37 Mana Scour: Drop to 0 spells; cannot cast for 12 hours. Spells return. 38–39 Grimoire Corruption: A spell in the caster’s book becomes unusable for 1 day. (Divine reroll) 40–41 Pain Curse: For 24 hours, all damage dealt to the caster is increased by +1 per die. 42–44 Aura Taint: Detect Magic/Good/Evil shows the caster as a random alignment for 1 day. 45–47 Attract Lesser Demon/Spirit (DM chooses): Negotiation may be required. 48–49 Blood Price: Lose 1d4 Strength for 24 hours. 50–52 Summoning Echo: A random outsider peers through briefly; 5% chance it steps through. 53–55 Arcane Feedback: Caster and all within 10 ft take 2d6 damage (save half). 56–57 Magic Reversal: The spell goes off but affects the absolute worst possible target. 58–59 Astral Flicker: Caster is partially astral for 1 turn; incorporeal but cannot act. 60–61 Possessed Insight: Gain a vision of the future, but also take 2d6 psychic damage. 62–63 Hexblight: Caster cannot benefit from magical healing for 24 hours. 64–65 Nightmare Veil: The next time the caster sleeps, they suffer a draining dream (lose 1d6 hp). 66–67 Witchfire Backlash: Caster burns with blue flame; take 1d6 damage and frighten nearby animals. 68–69 Feral Mind: –4 Intelligence and –4 Wisdom for 1 hour. 70–72 Undead Attraction: The nearest undead (within 1 mile) senses and seeks the caster. 73–74 Patron Claim (Occult only): The Patron asks a service (within 1 week).
Refusal imposes -2 to all rolls. (Arcane/Divine reroll) 75–76 Contagion of Chaos: 10% chance for each magic effect within 30 ft to misfire. 77–78 Spell-Eater Aura: For 1 hour, any spell cast within 10 ft automatically fails. 79–80 Dimensional Shudder: Teleportation near caster is impossible for 1 day. 81–82 Grave Chill: Caster’s touch deals 1 cold damage per hit die for 10 minutes. 83–84 Shadow Doppelganger: A hostile shadow-copy of the caster manifests (HD = caster level –2). 85–87 Blood-Ink Words: Any further spellcasting today causes 1 hp damage per spell level. 88–89 Wards Collapse: Any magical protections on caster immediately expire. 90–91 Forbidden Knowledge: Gain a secret insight (DM chooses) but take 2 permanent hp loss. 92–93 Cataclysmic Surge: 3d6 force damage in 20 ft radius; save half. 94–95 Deathly Pallor: Caster appears undead to detection spells for 1 week. 96–97 Spellstorm: Roll a random spell of each level the caster can cast; all activate at once. 98–99 Arcane Rupture: Caster must save vs. Death Magic or die (success = 3d10 damage). 100 Grand Catastrophe: Roll twice more; both effects apply; the attempted spell explodes violently. Spellbook destroyed.

Any roll that results in an ability being reduced to 0 or below results in the death of the caster. Saving throw vs Death will instead place the caster in a coma until they are restored.

--

With the chances of death, destruction, and the potential loss of an entire spellbook, it is easy to see why many spellcasters treat casting higher level spells as something "they just can't do."

Posting is likely to be a bit sporadic for a bit.

I started a new job and while I have expertise in SAS, SPSS, Statistica, and enough knowledge of R to get me into real trouble. My new gig needs me to know Python.

Like yesterday.

So I am battling a Python today.

I'll figure it out. 

If they are very lucky, for the agents of Doctor John Dee, it will be an evening like any other. Unluckily—rather luckily, for were they not such agents serving the crown, Walsingham would have not spared them their sentence for heresy—it is not going to be an evening like any other. Their employer, Mister Garland, sends the agents on what should be a simple collection task at The Admiral’s Compass, an inn in the once great port of Winchelsea, its once busy harbour silted up and its status as one of the Cinque Ports long since lost. Take possession of a valuable package and safely transport it Dee at Mortlake, they are told. Unfortunately, the contents of the package are far more dangerous than the Agents might suppose and certainly far more dangerous than the unfortunately greedy and larcenous stable boy at the inn could ever imagine. However, a furtive delivery and collection and a foolish theft are not the only events that are going to take place and be resolved at The Admiral’s Compass that night. This is the situation as laid out to the Agents in The Admiral’s Compass, a scenario for Just Crunch Games’ The Dee Sanction, the roleplaying game of ‘Covert Enochian Intelligence’ in which the Player Characters—or Agents of Dee—are drawn into adventures in magick and politics across supernatural Tudor Europe.

TheAdmiral’s Compass is a short, single session scenario, published under the ‘Sanction Community Content Creation Licence’, that is location-based and could easily be run as a convention scenario, but just as simply slipped into an ongoing campaign. Its events all take place within the confines of the inn over the course of a single evening. Besides the collection of the package, the other threads—appropriately—involve a prisoner exchange with a Spanish envoy and the sad story of a young sailor whom came home scarred by his experiences serving aboard the Counter Armada launched by Sir Francis Drake in April, 1589, following the defeat of the Spanish Armada the previous year. Initially, the three strands are separate, but by mid-evening, they will crash into each other and become increasingly intertwined and involve the Agents more and more. This all takes place against the backdrop of a storm that keeps the inn isolated and its staff and patrons reluctant to step outside, plus the growing realisation that something is stalking them both. Mixed into this are at least a couple of creepy scenes, more so if either player or Agent is an arachnophobe!

Physically, The Admiral’s Compass is short, but decently organised and illustrated. Everything is clearly laid out and easy to find and there is both a floorplan and a description of the Inn. Overall, a nice-looking scenario.

The Admiral’s Compass can be run as a standard or a convention scenario or one-shot. As either of the later, the Game Master will need to prepare some ready-to-play Agents, complete with agendas of their own and agendas tied to the various members of staff and patrons at the inn. Otherwise, The Admiral’s Compass is a neat little horror scenario which takes place on a dark and stormy night.

Carla Bosteder from Pixabay I am working on another piece of something that may or may not involve my "The One Who Remains."  Think of this as a warm-up sketch an artist would do before getting into their main composition. 

As it turns out, this also makes a decent OGL-ready version of a Displacer Beast. This is based on a monster we used to use called a "Tessercat." 

Wyrdcat

Dimensional Apex Predator

“It isn’t invisible. It’s just in three places you’re not.”

- Notes from the Archives of Killian Mazior

The Wyrdcat is a predator from beyond the edges of known planes, not born of one world, but between them. It is not native to any reality, and perhaps not even alive by most definitions. When Killian’s Tower began drawing in unstable planar energies, the Wyrdcat slipped through. A wandering apex hunter, now trapped within the folds of fractured dimensions.

Though feline in form, the Wyrdcat is a thing of quantum uncertainty and temporal stutter. It appears as a sleek, panther-like creature with oily black fur, three shadow-laced tails, and eyes that glint in colors no one can name. Its form pulses with fractured reflections. At any given moment, it may exist in multiple nearby positions, flickering like an unsynced illusion.

It hunts with the precision and cruelty of a big cat; stalking, pouncing, toying with prey before the kill. The laws of space and time bend around it. Some say it sees not just where a creature is, but where it was and will be. Those who survive a Wyrdcat encounter speak of claws that cut through armor, wounds that reappear after healing, and psychic echoes that return in dreams.

Behavior

Solitary Apex Predator: The Wyrdcat hunts alone. It marks its territory across multiple overlapping realities. If another apex predator enters its distorted hunting grounds, it becomes immediately aggressive.

Reality Drifter: The Wyrdcat can manipulate its form to align with different versions of reality. This shift can cause localized changes in reality, resulting in distorted probability fields. (This results in the players needing to use different dice to roll for initiative, to hit, and damage. It can also cause the local "rules" to shift between editions of the game.)

Mirror Flicker: It always appears in three semi-distinct forms: one solid, two afterimages or preimages. Only one is real at any time, and it may shift between them without warning.

Dimensional Stalker: It may pursue prey even after they plane shift, teleport, or escape into another zone of the tower. It remembers where they will be.

Wyrdcat (1st Edition)

Frequency: Very Rare
No. Appearing: 1 (always solitary)
Armor Class: 2
Move: 15"
Hit Dice: 7+2
% in Lair: 5%
Treasure Type: Q (×10), X
No. of Attacks: 2 claws / 1 bite
Damage/Attack: 2–8 / 2–8 / 2–12
Special Attacks: Surprise (90%), planar pounce
Special Defenses: Mirror Flicker (see below), +2 or better weapon to hit
Magic Resistance: 25%
Intelligence: Low (animal cunning)
Alignment: Neutral
Size: L (8–10' long)
Psionic Ability: Nil

The Wyrdcat is a sleek, black-furred feline predator from beyond the known planes. Though it resembles a panther or great jungle cat, the Wyrdcat’s form flickers unnaturally between overlapping dimensions, accompanied by afterimages that move out of sync with its body. Its three shadow-tailed limbs seem to lag or stutter through space, and its eyes shimmer with alien colors beyond mortal comprehension.

Wyrdcats are not native to any world. They are planar anomalies. Believed to be either accidents of cross-dimensional entropy or the predatory echoes of something far older and deeper. The creatures now prowl the fringes of unstable magical structures such as witch gates, collapsed covensites, and reality-warped ruins.

Though bestial in nature, Wyrdcats hunt with a cruel cunning. They stalk arcane spellcasters and dimensional travelers, and are particularly drawn to witches, warlocks, and those who have tampered with interplanar forces.

The Wyrdcat attacks via a claw/claw/bite routine common to large cat predators. Each claw can do 2-8 (2d4) hp worth of damage, while its bite can do 2-12 (2d6).

Mirror Flicker (Special Defense)

The Wyrdcat constantly flickers between three visible forms. It functions as if under a permanent mirror image spell with two false images. The true form randomly shifts every round. Attacks against the creature have a 66% chance to target an illusion unless the attacker has true seeing or similar magic.

Planar Pounce (Special Attack)

Once per encounter, the Wyrdcat may teleport up to 30 feet to attack as if using a dimension door. This grants it +2 to hit and imposes a -2 penalty on the target's surprise roll.

Edition Flux (Optional Rule)

Once per turn, the GM may declare that the Wyrdcat is using mechanics from a different edition (i.e., switch initiative methods, AC rules, etc.). Players must quickly adapt.

Wyrdcat (3.5 Edition)
Large Magical Beast

Hit Dice: 8d10+32 (76 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares), planar pounce 1/day
AC: 18 (–1 size, +4 Dex, +5 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 14
Base Atk/Grapple: +8/+17
Attack: Claw +12 melee (1d8+5)
Full Attack: 2 claws +12 melee (1d8+5), bite +7 melee (2d6+5)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft. (10 ft. with claws)
Special Attacks: Planar Pounce
Special Qualities: Mirror Flicker, Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, DR 5/magic, SR 18
Saves: Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +5
Abilities: Str 21, Dex 19, Con 18, Int 6, Wis 14, Cha 10
Skills: Hide +8, Listen +8, Move Silently +12, Spot +8
Feats: Multiattack, Improved Initiative, Weapon Focus (claw)
Environment: Any extraplanar
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 6
Treasure: None
Alignment: Neutral
Advancement: 9–12 HD (Large); 13–18 HD (Huge)

The Wyrdcat is a sleek, black-furred feline predator from beyond the known planes. Though it resembles a panther or great jungle cat, the Wyrdcat’s form flickers unnaturally between overlapping dimensions, accompanied by afterimages that move out of sync with its body. Its three shadow-tailed limbs seem to lag or stutter through space, and its eyes shimmer with alien colors beyond mortal comprehension.

Wyrdcats are not native to any world. They are planar anomalies. Believed to be either accidents of cross-dimensional entropy or the predatory echoes of something far older and deeper. The creatures now prowl the fringes of unstable magical structures such as witch gates, collapsed covensites, and reality-warped ruins.

Though bestial in nature, Wyrdcats hunt with a cruel cunning. They stalk arcane spellcasters and dimensional travelers, and are particularly drawn to witches, warlocks, and those who have tampered with interplanar forces.

The Wyrdcat attacks via a claw/claw/bite routine common to large cat predators. Each claw can do 1d8+5 hp worth of damage, while its bite can do 2d6+5.

Mirror Flicker (Su): The Wyrdcat exists partially in multiple dimensions. It is constantly under an effect similar to mirror image, generating 2 illusory copies of itself. These cannot be dispelled normally. True seeing reveals the true form.

Planar Pounce (Su): Once per day as a free action, the Wyrdcat may teleport up to 30 feet before making a full attack. This does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Edition Flux (Ex): Once per encounter, the Wyrdcat may twist reality, forcing all initiative to be rerolled using d10 (2e style) or d6 (1e style), randomly determined. It may also alter damage reduction, attack styles, or magic resistance at the GM’s discretion.

Wyrdcat (D&D 5e)
Large monstrosity, unaligned

Armor Class 16 (natural armor, flickering defense)
Hit Points 95 (10d10 + 40)
Speed 40 ft.

STR 20 (+5)
DEX 18 (+4)
CON 18 (+4)
INT 6 (–2)
WIS 14 (+2)
CHA 10 (+0)

Saving Throws Dex +7, Wis +5
Skills Perception +5, Stealth +8
Damage Resistances force, necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks.
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15

Languages —

Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +3

The Wyrdcat is a sleek, black-furred feline predator from beyond the known planes. Though it resembles a panther or great jungle cat, the Wyrdcat’s form flickers unnaturally between overlapping dimensions, accompanied by afterimages that move out of sync with its body. Its three shadow-tailed limbs seem to lag or stutter through space, and its eyes shimmer with alien colors beyond mortal comprehension.

Wyrdcats are not native to any world. They are planar anomalies. Believed to be either accidents of cross-dimensional entropy or the predatory echoes of something far older and deeper. The creatures now prowl the fringes of unstable magical structures such as witch gates, collapsed covensites, and reality-warped ruins.

Though bestial in nature, Wyrdcats hunt with a cruel cunning. They stalk arcane spellcasters and dimensional travelers, and are particularly drawn to witches, warlocks, and those who have tampered with interplanar forces.

Mirror Flicker.

The Wyrdcat projects two illusory versions of itself, similar to the mirror image spell. At the start of each turn, roll 1d6. On a 1–4, the attack targets an illusion, which vanishes; on a 5–6, the attack targets the real creature. If all images are destroyed, they regenerate at the start of the Wyrdcat’s next turn.

Planar Pounce (1/Day).

As a bonus action, the Wyrdcat teleports up to 30 feet to a space it can see and makes a full multiattack.

Reality Flux (Recharge 5–6).

The Wyrdcat distorts the battlefield. Until the end of its next turn:

• All initiative rerolls use a d10 or d6
• Saving throws use the 3e categories (Fort/Ref/Will).
• AC is treated as descending (lower = better) for targeting purposes.

This affects PCs and NPCs alike. Creatures with truesight are unaffected.

Actions 

Multiattack. The wyrdcat makes two attacks with its claws and one attack with its bite.

Claw.

Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target

Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) slashing damage.

If the target is a spellcaster concentrating on a spell, it must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or lose concentration due to the Wyrdcat’s disruptive phasing claws.

Bite.

Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target

Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) piercing damage.

If this attack reduces a creature to 0 hit points, the Wyrdcat may teleport up to 30 feet as a free action at the start of its next turn (Planar Reflex Surge).