Now that the last US bank holiday for a while is over, it’s time to get back to a regular schedule on Triffid Ranch events, and weather permitting, they’re going to be outdoors for a while. Yes, it’s time to … Continue reading →

As well as contributing to Free RPG Day every year Goodman Games also has its own ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day’, which sadly, is a very North American event. The day is notable not only for the events and the range of adventures being played for Goodman Games’ roleplaying games, but also for the scenarios it releases specifically to be played on the day. For ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2022’, which took place on Saturday, July 16th, 2022, the publisher released not one, not two, but three booklets. Two of these were specifically for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game—the supplement, Dungeon Crawl Classics Day: The Book of Fallen Gods, and the scenario, Dungeon Crawl Classics Day #3: Chanters in the Dark. The third, DCC Day 2022 Adventure Pack, is a duology of scenarios for both the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic. Both scenarios are designed for Player Characters of Second Level, both are nicely detailed, and both can be played in a single session, but neither should take no longer than two sessions to complete.
Dungeon Crawl Classics Day: The Book of Fallen Gods is different to what you would normally expect Goodman Games to release for either Free RPG Day or ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day’. Instead of a scenario, it is a sourcebook for the roleplaying game, one presents a set of new Patrons. In the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, these are typically gods and deities and entities that the spellcasting Classes such as the Cleric, the Wizard, and the Elf can turn to in order for greater power and surety. In the case of the Cleric, this is typically a god who in return for the Cleric’s worship and proselytising their shared faith, grants him spells and blessings, but will punish the Cleric if he sins against the strictures of the faith. Wizards can turn to greater powers and invoke their aid to gain potent, but dangerous magic, whilst Elves must work closely with an extra planar patron to do so. Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game includes numerous gods, deities, and entities that Clerics, Elves, and Wizards can entreat and invoke. Dungeon Crawl Classics Day: The Book of Fallen Gods introduces entities that are and are not gods.
For those that know where to look, there are the legends of the Ones Who Were. They were the gods who arose when the multiverse was new and shaped it according to their whims, their time one of turbulence and turmoil, upheaval and unrest, of chaos and change unfettered. It took newly arisen gods to reign in this unbalance and as the new gods rose in power, they built empyral structures and projections that reigned in the reach of chaos and with it the power of the Ones Who Were. So they were diminished and they fell and they were forgotten. Yet they are not gone, merely reduced to the status of beggars, divine down-and-outs, stripped of their power and priestly hierarchies, but nevertheless remaining the personifications of endless certainties… For those in the know, these Un-Gods can be reached out to, invoked, and called upon for the aid of what cosmic power they still possess.
What Dungeon Crawl Classics Day: The Book of Fallen Gods presents is seven of these Un-Gods, representing everything from the eternal night and the power behind the throne to celestial Radiance and inspiration and devastation. Each the seven Un-God descriptions includes an invoke patron table, a patron taint table, and a spellburn table. What the descriptions do not include any patron spells, primarily due to size constraints, but there is the possibility that they will be included in future supplements. On the one hand, this perfectly reflects the status and lack of power and influence held by each of the Un-Gods, but on the other, it limits the usefulness of the supplement. Without the patron spells, the Judge is limited in how she can create interesting NPCs linked to the Un-Gods or present Player Characters seeking the aid of the Un-Gods with interesting rewards. Yet it also leaves room for the Judge to create her own and perhaps build a story around discovering what they are.
Should a Player Character (or NPC) manage to forge a patron bond with one of the Un-Gods, there is another way in which he can benefit. If his player possesses the dice set associated with the Un-God—available from Impact Miniatures—then the Player Character can call upon the Un-God and in doing so, grant the player a bump in die size for the action. Should the player roll a one, the Player Character immediately gains patron taint. One reason why the Un-Gods lack priests is that they have long been unconcerned with the trivialities of the mortal realms, are the doings of Player Characters are nothing if not trivial. Fortunately, these are not expensive dice sets, but it is very specific means of getting this bonus.
Dungeon Crawl Classics Day: The Book of Fallen Gods opens with Chaar, Titan of Eternal Night, confined to his throne at the centre of everything, he is the manifestation of the inevitable exhaustion and decay of all things. When invoked, he can cause eternal night to envelop the Player Character and all around him, or even cause his hand to become an entropic conduit, increasing his melee damage, especially against Lawful creatures. His Patron Taint might cause the Player Character to age or cause everything in his hand to decay to dust, whilst the Spellburn has similar effects. All of the Un-Gods are like this, so the Ianthinian is the silver-tongued voice that negotiates treaties and the knife at the throat that launches coups, the power behind a billion thrones, who can animate the Player Character’s shadow to slip under doors and spy on others or dispatches a venomous, purple spider to attack a single target nearby. His Patron Taint might leave the Player Character with an unnatural and unsettling aura, which can affect his Personality or punish him by stealing his voice, whilst the effects of his Spellburn can steal Player Character’s memories or remind him that he is worth no more than the creatures that skulk and creep in the shadows, so dozens of spiders, centipedes, crawlers, and other creepy insects burst forth from the caster’s orifices in traumatic and painful fashion.
All seven Un-Gods are described in similar fashion. The others include Ivyeel the Entwining is the vibrant force of growth unchecked, Olathvee personifies passions unchecked, The Sallow Blight manipulates emotions into negative ones, Shayl, the Celestial Radiance is the potential of the righteous and the possibility of redemption for the wicked, and Tuanna and Djahlbak are the sundered remnants of lost Un-God now representative of Inspiration and Devastation. All seven are given four pages each and accompanied by a lot of artwork, a lot more than often appears in the scenarios for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. So physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics Day: The Book of Fallen Gods is very nicely presented.
The lack of Patron Spells aside, Dungeon Crawl Classics Day: The Book of Fallen Gods is an entertaining collection of entities and effects that the Player Characters can both benefit and suffer from in interacting with them. Hopefully, Goodman Games will develop further in the future and perhaps use them in a campaign or a scenario or two. In the meantime, the Judge can use and develop them as suits her campaign.

The last time there was a board game based on the 1986 film, Top Gun, it was Top Gun: The Game of Modern Fighter Combat, published by FASA, also in 1986. It was a game of aerial combat which took the players from Pensacola: Flight School to Miramar: Top Gun School and pitched them into simulated battles between the fighters from the USA, the USSR, and other world powers of the late Cold war period. It even included rules for incorporating the game into FASA’s BattleTech universe and allowed players to field atmospheric fighters against aerospace fighters, although the technologies between the two differ greatly. The Top Gun Strategy Game is the second board game based on the 1986 film and it is a very different beast.
The Top Gun Strategy Game is designed by Prospero Hall, the collaborative game design studio responsible for games such as Horrified and Jaws. Both of which are fantastically thematic designs and highly playable adaptations of their source material. Published by Mixlore, the Top Gun Strategy Game is designed to be played two to four players, aged ten and up. It draws directly upon the film itself, but does not send the players into direct combat—only mock combat—and employs the same two-stage game play as seen in Jaws. The players take the roles of Team Maverick/Goose and Team Iceman/Slider, pilot and WSO or Weapons System Operator, respectively. In the first half of the game, the ‘Volleyball Phase’, the two teams face off against each other on the volleyball court. The team that beats the other gains self-confidence or intimidates the team, which grants them an advantage in the ‘Hop Phase’ when the two teams engage in an aerial dogfight in an attempt to acquire valuable target lock on their opponent and so secure a swift victory. The game play will switch back and forth between the ‘Volleyball Phase’ and the ‘Hop Phase’ until one team scores sufficient points to win.
The components for the ‘Volleyball Phase’ consist of nineteen Volleyball cards, a Volleyball token, and a Volleyball Net, the latter two items in thick card. The Volleyball cards are divided into two identical sets, the same for each team, a pink set for Maverick and Goose, and a blue set for Iceman and Slider. Each set is laid out face down as a three-by-three grid on each side of the Volleyball Net and consists of five card types. When revealed, the Set card and the Bump cards allow the player with control of the ball to move it orthogonally to another card and reveal it. This can be one of his own cards or his rival’s across the net. The Set card allows the ball to be moved one space and the Bump card one or two spaces. The Spike card enables the controlling player to place the ball on one of his opponent’s cards which is still face down. The aim for each team is to find and reveal its opponent’s Whiff cards. When this happens, the team who reveals this, can draw Pilot Tiles or WSO Cards which will provide an advantage in the ‘Hop Phase’. Each team has three Whiff cards and once a team has revealed all three of its opposing team, it wins the volleyball match. The winning team decides who will play as the Attacker and the Defender in the ‘Hop Phase’.
In addition, there is a fifth card type, the Bump Save card. Each team can use it once to prevent a face-down card from being revealed. It is instead used as a Bump. Overall, the ‘Volleyball Phase’ plays quickly and easily, and has the feel of a volleyball game.
The components for the ‘Hop Phase’ are more complex. Each team has a Cockpit Shield, a set of Pilot Tiles and WSO cards, and a plane. In addition, there is a Hop Board, six Hop Scenario cards, a set of Waypoint Tokens, Target Lock Tokens, green Pilot Tiles, green WSO cards, and a set of four dice. The Cockpit Shields are used to keep each Team’s decision hidden, whilst the Pilot Tiles are used to determine a plane’s movement. Each Pilot Tile consists of two joined hexes, one indicating the plane’s starting position and finishing position and direction, as a potential change of elevation. Each plane slots into a stand on which its elevation can be adjusted to one of four positions. Each WSO card shows a hex grid at the centre of which is marked a plane. In front of it are several numbered ‘Target lock Attack Hexes’, whilst behind it are several ‘Countermeasure Defence Hexes’, again numbered. Each WSO card in a team’s hand can only be played once unless the Retrieve card is played, which returns all played cards to a team’s hand, but prevents them from attacking or defending that turn. The Hop Board shows a seven by eight grid of hexes of the skies near TOPGUN, the Naval Fighter Weapons School at Naval Air Station Miramar. The Waypoint Tokens are placed on the Hop Board on spaces marked on the Hop Scenario cards. These are double-sided and as well as hexes indicating where the Waypoint Tokens are placed, each Hop Scenario card gives the starting position and elevation for each plane. The four dice are marked with blanks and Target Lock icons and are rolled when attempting a target lock. The green WSO cards and the green Pilot Tiles show different ‘Target lock Attack Hexes’ and ‘Countermeasure Defence Hexes’ and manoeuvres to the standard ones which each team starts play with.
To play, a Hop Scenario card is selected, and the Hop Board set according to its layout. Each team chooses two Pilot Tiles and a WSO card. The Pilot Tiles are played, the defending team moving first, followed by the attacking team. This will result in a change of position and potentially, elevation. The WSO cards are revealed and if a defending plane falls within the ‘Target lock Attack Hexes’ marked on the WSO card, the attacking team rolls a number of dice equal to the number on hex that the targeted plane is in. The number of dice can be reduced if the attacking plane is in the ‘Countermeasure Defence Hexes’ marked on the defending team’s WSO card. Being at a higher elevation will grant an extra die, or lose a die if at a lower elevation. If a Target Lock symbol on any of the dice is rolled, Target Lock is achieved, and the attacking receives a Target Lock token.
Play continues like this from turn to turn until one team achieves a Target Lock, the defending team has collected three of the Waypoint tokens, or either team manages to achieve the ‘Flipping the Bird’ manoeuvre as per the film. Once achieved, the ‘Hop Phase’ is over. At this point, if a team has scored a total of twelve or more points from achieving Target Locks and/or collecting Waypoint Tokens, it has won the game. If not, play switches back to the ‘Volleyball Phase’, then to the ‘Hop Phase’, and so on until one team wins.
Physically, the Top Gun Strategy Game reflects it low price. The cards are a bit thin and do need to be sleeved if the game is be played more than a few times. The Volleyball Net is difficult to set up and to be honest does not add that much to the game anyway. The planes and their stands with their poles for changing elevation are decently produced and although slightly fiddly to use, do add a lot to the game and give it a sense of space. The rules are easy to read and understand. One last issue is the choice of colours. Pink and blue neon. Which do give the game a singular look.
The Top Gun Strategy Game is two games in one. The ‘Volleyball Phase’ is a short, primarily luck-based mini-game whose game play will quickly pale in comparison to the complexities and options in the ‘Hop Phase’. It also does not really work as a game for more than two players as there are not enough decisions to be made in playing it, whereas the ‘Hop Phase’ actually works better with four players rather than two. With two players on each team, one can be the pilot and one the Weapons System Operator, responsible each turn for selecting the Pilot Tiles and WSO card respectively. This forces them to work together as shown in the film as attacker and defender attempt to out manoeuvre each other and line up the Target Lock needed to win each ‘Hop Phase’. The Waypoint Tokens add a tactical element too, as the defending plane races through them to collect them and the attacking plane chases, attempting to stop it from collecting too many whilst the remaining Waypoint Tokens predict where the defending plane might be headed.
The Top Gun Strategy Game is an odd game. An aerial combat game combined with a volleyball game and done in neon colours like the cover to an eighties’ computer game. Nor is it a ‘strategy’ game, but rather one that is tactical and that really only in the dogfights. The ‘Volleyball Phase’ does not add all that much to the play of the ‘Hop Phase’ and actually having to go back, set it up again and replay it soon becomes a chore, especially if there are four players, because it leaves a player on each team with little to really do. It is possible to alternate, but it does not really matter that much in what is a random phase anyway. Thankfully, the ‘Hop Phase’ offers actual decisions and a little deduction to work out the best Pilot Tiles and WSO card to use, and whilst the Hop Scenario cards add some variety in terms of set-up, it is not that much.
Ultimately, the Top Gun Strategy Game is a game for the fan of the film who does not mind playing the odd board game. For the regular board game player, there is not enough depth to the game to really want to replay it more than once or twice and it is certainly too light a game for devotees of aerial combat games. Prospero Hall has designed some excellent games, matching up mechanics with theme to create some excellent emulations of the films they draw from, but the Top Gun Strategy Game is not one of them. The best of the Prospero Hall designs do two things. One is to engage the players in the story of the film or source material, the second is to enable them to play and make that story their own, but the Top Gun Strategy Game only just achieves the first and never manages the second. If you feel the need for speed, then the Top Gun Strategy Game might be all you need, but there are definitely better and more fun air combat games available that do not require you to simulate a game of volleyball.

I want to introduce what I hope will be a new semi-regular feature here at the ole' Other Side.  

"In Search of" will delve into odd, esoteric topics from my games in search of their origins and their relationship to myths, legends or even just a good story.  The obvious tribute to the old 70s-80s TV series "In Search of..." featuring Leonard Nimoy.  I am going to go back and retag some posts with this new "In Search of" label since this is not really a new idea for me.  My hope here is this takes the place of "One Man's God" in my rotations of posts.

Let us start my first In Search of looking for a demon who captured my attention back in the 1980s.

Back in the Monster Manual II days, we were treated to a long list of demons that were also powerful members of the abyssal Hordes. These included a few demon lords (L) and oddly enough some that were tagged as being female (F).  It seems odd to call that out now, but this was the 1980s.  

But that is not why I am posting today.  I was cleaning up some minis the other days and noticed one in particular.  Maybe because I have been thinking of various monsters and monster books I decided to go back to an old search.

Who Is Nocticula: Part 1 History

This is the mini and an entry in question.

Originally she was obviously some sort of demon related to the night.  She is not listed as a "Lord" so we assume she must be of higher rank along with Lolth and Zuggtmoy. 

Obviously, the name caught my attention then as it does now.  Though there is almost nothing about her in any products outside of the MMII. 

She does get name-dropped in the 1981 made-for-TV horror movie Midnight Offerings. When I saw it back in 2019 I wondered at the time if Gygax/TSR got the name from the movie. Though now it seems likely the name came from various occult books from the 1970s.

It would not be until the 1990s that I would run across her again.  

My first encounter with her was during the Netbook craze of the Pre-OGL Internet.  While many people were still blissfully unaware of what the Internet could do AD&D players were on LISTSERVs on Bitnet sharing "Netbooks."  These fan mad creations often lacked any sort of editorial control, art, or often even playtesting. But they made up for all of that in pure enthusiasm.  If you were lucky you found one that had been formatted like a "real book" in Microsoft Word 2.0.  One such book was "The Complete Netbook of Demons and their Relatives." This ancient and dusty tome was full of new demons.  It was a great little treasure, to be honest.  It did have an entry for Nocticula and Socothbenoth (I'll get to why that is important later).  Their entries were:

Nocticula(F)-a patron of witches. Could only find one reference on her.
...
Socothbenoth-Another female (harem) like deity turned into a male demon.

That obviously had my attention. So I was already doing deep dive research into witches at this point for my "Netbook of Witches and Warlocks" so I added her name as one to be on the lookout for.  Now keep in mind that at this time people were very, very wary of being sued by TSR for any copyright violations.  So I had no real plans to use Nocticula in my books, I was just curious about her.
In my reading, I came across "Mastering Witchcraft: A Practical Guide for Witches, Warlocks, and Covens" by Paul Huson, 1970.  Nocticula is mentioned many times. Likely as a "dark aspect" of Hecate or Habondia (or Habundia). That name is not in my "Dictionary of Classical Mythology" by J.E. Zimmerman. Huson adds that Noctiula is "Ruler of the Dead and Warden of the Tower Adamantine" and she walks at night.  He also claims that the title of "Nocticula" meaning "little night" comes from the 12th century.

I do have to admit that the paperback cover of Mastering Witchcraft makes for a good depiction of Nocticula. 

Gerald Gardner, the father of modern Wicca, even mentions her in his "Witchcraft Today" (1954). He also associates her with the figure of Bensozia. I guess that removes the fear of copyright issues, but I was still hesitant to use her preferring to come up with my own.

While all this is going on I got a copy of Dungeon #5 and found the adventure with Shami-Amourae, the demon queen of Succubi. She, along with Nocticula and Malcanthet have all been contenders for the title "Queen of the Succubi."

This bit didn't last long really and with the publication of Green Ronin's Armies of the Abyss and later the Book of Fiends we get a new look on Nocticula. 

Part 2: Green Ronin & The d20 Years

Green Ronin brought Nocticula into the new Millennium with the various fiend books. Chris Pramas had worked on a few Planescape and devil-related books for Wizards of the Coast in the waning years of TSR.  So he was in a great position to bring all of that knowledge to Green Ronin during the d20 boom.  Armies of the Abyss (2002) covered demons and introduced us to a new Nocticula. Or rather, gave us Nocticula since so little detail had really been published about her so far.  (Note. I am coming back to the Armies of the Abyss later in this series.)

Here she is demon lady of night yes, but also of women, dark fey, the natural world, psychotropic drugs, and earthly sensuality.  Known as the Princess of Moonlight she revels in all things pleasurable, earthly, and chaotic. She very much is the patroness of "living deliciously."  The description of her followers can only be described as "witches."

She has a twin brother, Socothbenoth, the demon lord of perversion, with whom she has an incestuous relationship with. Socothbenoth is basically the mind of Aleister Crowley in the body of Lord Byron and the sexual appetites of both.

I have used him before as a witch's patron based on the movies Byleth: The Demon of Incest (1972) and Il Sesso Della Strega (1973).

She only gets a mention in Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss, a little more than what she got in the MMII nearly 20 years prior.  She gets the title "The Undeniable" and her concerns are "Night" and she makes her realm on the 72nd layer of the Abyss called Darklight.

Part 3: Pathfinder

Our Queen of the Night fares better in her Pathfinder version where she is a major Demon Lord.  Her history is largely that of what was seen in the Green Ronin books. Indeed all of that is kept to the extent the OGL will allow. However, she is taken further in Pathfinder when she is given the ability to kill other demon lords. This gives her a connection to assassins.  

Here she appeared in a number of Pathfinder products, in particular the Book of the Damned, which covered the demons and devils of the Pathfinder game.

At some point, she grew tired of killing demon lords and sought out redemption as the Goddess of Artists. I am not sure I completely like this idea, but hey Pathfinder can do what they like really.

Now to be fair, Pathfinder added a ton of material to Nocticula, and a lot of it is good. I could easily use any amount of it, to be honest.  

Part 4: Nocticula in my World

I have a lot of great information and details. But not all of them are great for my games. So. How can I rebuild Nocticula for my games and in particular my War of the Witch Queens campaign?

Part of her background is she was one of the first Succubi. That's fine and all, but I feel there is a tendency to make a female demon a type of succubus. Sure I get it and her background supports it to a degree, but it feels lazy to me. I mean there are SO MANY "first" Succubi. There is Malcanthet, Shami-Amourae, Xinivrae, and Lynkhab. Do we need Nocticula to be a succubus? Not really.

I do like keeping Socothbenoth as her brother/lover. I like keeping them both as being fairly depraved as well. They are demons after all.  I even like the assassin idea from later Pathfinder books. Given her name I would like to get back to her association to the night and things of the night. In some ways the evil counterpart to my Nox.

In this, Nocticula is the demon lord of Night. She is honored by witches, warlocks, prostitutes, and assassins. Anyone committing an evil act at night will say a benediction to Nocticula. She is the daughter of Nox by Camazotz, the demon lord of bats and vampires (or maybe Orcus?). She is the twin sister to and lover of the demon lord Socothbenoth (the demon lord of perversion). 

Given that her first "D&D" appearance was in the Monster Manual II from 1983, I would draw on sources from 1982 and before for my influences on her. 

Obviously, I would need to write her up for AD&D 1st Edition.  I would use some of her Pathfinder details (what is allowed under the OGL) and go back to the earliest ideas about her. 

--

NOCTICULA 
FREQUENCY:  Unique (Very Rare)NO.  APPEARING:  1 
ARMOR CLASS: -2
MOVE: 18" / 24" (MC: C)
HIT DICE:  13+39 (97 hp)
%  IN  LAIR:  0%
TREASURE  TYPE:  Q (x10), U
NO.  OF  ATTACKS:  2
DAMAGE/ATTACK:  Whip 1d6+1d4 (fire) (x2)
SPECIAL  ATTACKS:  Witch spells
SPECIAL  DEFENSES: +2  or  better weapon to hit
MAGIC  RESISTANCE:  25%
INTELLIGENCE:  Genius
ALIGNMENT:  Chaotic Evil
SIZE:  M  (6')
PSIONIC ABILITY:  See below
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: IX/8250 +  18/hp (9,996 xp)

Nocticula is the Demon Lady of the Night. Witches, warlocks, assassins, and all those who make illicit trades or bargains under the cover of darkness are her followers. She hears their prayers when none of the gods will. She is also the patron of creatures of the night like vampires, shadow creatures, and even alu-demons and succubi.

She will always appear as a very attractive member of the gender and species the observer prefers. In a mixed company, she will attempt to provide as many attractive qualities as she can.  She can do this via a limited form of telepathic awareness that is not quite ESP.  It is a subtle power, like many of her gifts, and can only be blocked by magic or psionic ability specifically designed to do so. It also gives her the ability to speak any language known.

Nocticula is a lover, but also a capable fighter. She wields a whip of fire that she can attack with twice per round. The whip will do 1d6 points of damage and the fire an additional 1d4.  She can cast spells as a Mara Witch of the 13th level. 

She also has the following spell-like powers.

• At will: Detect Good (Law), Detect Invisible, Detect Magic, Darkness 10' Radius, Glamour, Telekinesis (250 lbs / 25,000 GP weight), Tongues.
• 3 times per day: Astral Projection, Charm Monster/Person, Read languages, Read magic, Shape change, Teleport without Error, Trap the Soul.
• 1 time per day: Gate, Polymorph any object.

Like all demons, she is affected by acid, iron weapons, magic missiles, and poison, (full).  Cold, electricity, fire (dragon, magical), and gas (half). She has 25% magic resistance, but this does not apply 

She has wings, but these can be hidden away. Despite her appearances and appetites, she is not a succubus or any sort of Lilim. She does have many succubi attendants and servants.  Her preferred servants though are humans and some elves and fae. She may gate in 1d6 Succubi or 1d8 alu-demons to aid her. These are from her personal retinue and not easily replaced. She can also summon 2d8 shadow demons to do her bidding. Either of these can be done once per day (1/day). She can compel any vampire she encounters (as a charm-like ability they are not immune to) to do her bidding, but she can't summon vampires.

Rumors of her always appearing nude when summoned were created by clerics and scholars who rarely left their scriptoriums. However, to approach her in her layer in the Abyss one must be completely unclothed. This includes armor and weapons. 

Relationships

Nocticula has the best relationship with her brother and lover Socobenoth, the Demon Lord of Perversion. It is a good relationship as far as two chaotic evil demons can have.  She respects Lilith, the Demon Queen as the two are fine as long as they remain out of each other's business. Her rivalry with, and enmity of, Malcanthet is legendary. Equally so is her distaste of the demon Lord Graz'zt but none remember how this all began. Her relationship with Camazotz is one of pure hatred and each hates the other's claim as the demonic patron of vampires.  A hatred she does not extend to Lilith or even Orcus, whom she refers to as "Grandfather." Whether this is an acknowledgment of paternity or an honorific is unknown.  Orcus also extends this recognition to Nocticula. 

Unknown to most, Nocticula is an assassin of demon lords and even a minor god. She has discovered that when she kills them she can take on their powers. She successfully assassinated Vyriavaxus, the former demon lord of shadows. Now shadow demons begrudgingly show her patronage.  Presently Nocticula sits and carefully plans her next kill.

--

Looking forward to seeing what I can do next in my new In Search Of feature.

--

Links

• The Greyhawk Wiki
• Nocticula
• Malcanthet
• Shami-Amourae
• The Succubus Wiki
• Nocticula
• Bensozia
• Malcanthet
• Shami-Amourae
• Xinivrae
• Lynkhab
• Pathfinder SRD
• Nocticula
• Pathfinder Wiki
• Nocticula
• Socothbenoth
• Shamira

A little more Pathfinder tonight. This one promises some wicked witches. Let's see if it delivers. 

As always, to stay objective I will be following my rules for these reviews.  

Legendary Villains: Wicked Witches

PDF. 36 pages. 1 title page, 1 table of contents, 1 page OGL. Color cover and interior art.

I went into this expecting some NPCs, and I got that, but this is also more here. 

There are three new archetypes presented here, the consort of fiends, the curio collector, and the shadow sister.

All are presented as being evil, which is great fun really. I do love an evil witch.  All of these are quite fun too, but it is the consort of fiends and shadow sister that have the most of my attention.

Each archetype has appropriate powers to call on. The Consort of Fiends for example has powers and fluff thatmake it feel like a 5e Warlock.  The Shadow Sister works with any of the various Shadow prestige classes we have had since the early 3e days.

Speaking of which there is also a prestige class offered here, the Hag Matron, which makes the connection between witches and hags stronger. The witch in question actually transforms into a hag as she gets stronger. This reminds me a bit of the old Van Richten's Guide to Witches from the AD&D 2nd Ed Ravenloft days.  This would certainly fit in well with that.  Also different sorts of hags have different powers.

We also get a bunch of Patron Oaths, which are different ways at looking at the patrons. 

There are new witch hexes, new magic items, and a lot of "lesser" familiars.

All in all a very fine addition to the trove of witch related material available for Pathfinder. The focus on evil witchcraft is a great bonus here.

 

I sure know how to pick an open house date. Labor Day Weekend 2022 started out beautifully: moderate temperatures, sunny skies, and a general feeling of relaxation,. Friday night moved into Saturday, and the weather was just perfect. Sunday can’t … Continue reading →

Getting into some more OSR today with a book of classes, the witch is just one 13.

As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.

OSR Alternative Classes

PDF. 48 pages. 1 table of contents page, 3 pages of OGL (which could have be brought down to 2 with better formatting), rest content.

Ok the PWYW suggestion is 50 cents. That puts this book at 1 cent per page practically. Easily the best page-to-cost ratio here.  

The layout is basic to point of non-existence really.  Not to be to judgemental but it looks like a PDF save of an MS Word document. There is very little art. 

The 13 classes are Cleric, Fighter, Magic-User, Thief, Assassin, Scout, Dervish, Berserker, Cerves Brave, Witch, Ironskin (Siderenos), Sorcerer, and Bard.  All the classes are presented in B/X style; levels to 14th limited spells.  The classes have some connection to an existing campaign setting that is not explained well here. Moreover they are also compared to other people's IP/Copyrights that really you can't do with the OGL.   Each class also has a set of alternate rules that are interesting and would likely work well in Old-School Essentials or B/X game. The company behind this document has gone on to do other OSE-compatible products.

All of the new classes have quite a bit of detail which is good. A few notes. The Assassin and Scout get arcane dabbling which I like.  The Cerves are Deer-folk and has one of the few examples of art. Though I would not use the word "Brave" to describe a warrior type. The Ironskin is a neat idea.  The Sorcerer here follows the 3.x mold and that is a good thing in my mind. The Bard looks like it would play well, to be honest, but there are so many out now you can usually find one that does exactly what you want. 

The Witch

Let's get why I bought this. These witches are divine casters, so wisdom is a prime along with Charisma. XP values are similar to clerics as is spell progression, though they do get spells at 1st level.  This witch has various powers.  They can use animals to see at 2nd level, brew potions at 3rd, craft fetishes at 5th level, dominate animals at 7th, scribe scrolls at 9th level, and at 11th create magic items.  They form covens at 9th level and can curse or bless others. 

This witch has a spell list, drawn from Labyrinth Lord, but no new spells. There are also a fair number of optional powers.

Ok. So there are a lot of good ideas here that are almost lost due to the sub-par layout and formatting.  I am betting that newer books from the same publisher/author are much better.  This one could go for an upgrade to be honest.  There is a designation of Open Content, but it also seems to be from another book. So I am not sure whether or not it is for this book or not. 

For the price though it is good. Even if you only ever use one class here, or even just the additional ideas for the basic 4 classes it is totally worth it. 

You have asked and I serve them up. It's September, it's almost the start of Autumn and that means Pumpkin Spice Season!

The Basic Witch: The Pumpkin Spice Witch Tradition

And I am so pleased with it!

Much like my Craft of the Wise book this one now comes in softcover and hardcover options. 

The Softcover version is Letter-sized, 8.5" x 11".  This works with your B/X, BECMI, or other OSR books.

The Hardcover is A5 sized, 148mm X 210mm, (8.3" x 5.8").  This is the same size as the OSE books and roughly the same size as my Warlock book (which is Digest size 6"x9").

The content and art are the same for each, so the layout is different. Despite the size, this is still designed largely for Labyrinth Lord; so 20 character levels, and 8 spell levels. Though obviously it can be used with any "Basic Era" sort of game.

With only 55 days left till Halloween order yours now and enjoy the magic of Fall!

I bought this one as soon as it came out. Purple Duck Games does a lot of great stuff so I had very high expectations for this one.  This is for Pathfinder, but likely it would work for any 3.x d20 OGL game.

As always, to stay objective I will be following my rules for these reviews.   

Witches of Porphyra 

PDF. 52 pages. 1 cover, 1 title, 4 pages OGL. Rest content. All text open gaming content.  Color covers and interior art.

A bit about the art. We have seen a few of these pieces already. The cover by Gary Dupis, interior art from Brian Brinlee and Brett Neufeld.  I mention it because I really want to collect all the products that use the same art a build something, maybe an NPC witch using that Gary Dupuis art and all of these books.  So yeah, for me this is all a value add.

We start with an introduction to Witches and Witchcraft in Porphyra. A nice little extra that many books do not do. 

We get right into the archetypes next. The Blooded Hag, the Brewer, the Impetuous Dervish, the Insufflator (a "breath" hag), Legionmaster (lots of familiars), Mentor, Polytheistic Witch (many patrons, nice idea), Sanguisuge (feeds on their familiars), Sightless Seer, Warweaver, the Whitelighter (!), and the Wood Witch.  All are fantastic and I'd love to try them all to be honest.

We get some new familiar archetypes. As well as new familiars (4).  Our cover girl is set for example with the new Hoop Snake on pages 31-32. If you want something a bit more classic there are winged monkeys too.

Of course, with a new world, there should be opportunities for new types of Patrons.  This book delivers on that with 13 new* patron types.   I say new* because I have seen these Patron types in other books. That is not a slight against this book. It just means the authors all had similar ideas.

Hexes are one of the Pathfinder's witch's biggest features. So this book does have some new hexes as well. Nine hexes, six Major hexes, and three Grand hexes.  

There are also nine new feats.

There is a section on new materials and a sample witch.

The book is great and if I were to say it was missing anything it would be spells. But there is so much here that I didn't even think about it in my first read-through.

So for just under $4 you get a lot.

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

—oOo—
What is it?The Sunken Dead is a scenario for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

It is an eleven page, full colour, 4.42 MB PDF.

The layout is tight and it needs an edit. The cover is decent, but the scenario name is lost among the canopy. It is art free.

Where is it set?
The Sunken Dead is nominally set in and near the territory of the Orleving Clan of the Malani Tribe in Sartar. With some light adjustment it can be located to anywhere where the practice of cattle raids is seen as honourable conduct.

Who do you play?
Player Characters of all types could play this scenario, but The Sunken Dead is intended for new players and their characters, as well as the relatively inexperienced Game Master (who may be confused by the use of the Storm Rune rather than the Air Rune).
What do you need?
The Sunken Dead requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and the Glorantha Bestiary. The RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack will useful about the area around the Colymar Tribe and Apple Lane if the Game Master is basing her campaign there.
What do you get?The Sunken Dead is a straightforward and simple scenario. Yantar Raelston, a loyal Thane, of the Colymar tribe, offers to guide the Player Characters on their first cattle raid. He clearly lays out the rules for the benefit of the characters (and their players) and then everyone sets out the next morning. The first half of the scenario consists of a series of skill rolls as the Player Characters attempt to overcome various obstacles their journey. Of course things do not go as planned, and just as the Player Characters is about to snatch up the cattle, both target herd and its shepherds are attacked. Do the Player Characters take advantage of the Chaos—literally—and take the cattle they came out for or do they go to the aid of the herders?

The choice is simple and either way, leads to some decent roleplaying, as does another challenge on the way home from the cattle raid. This challenge can easily be omitted if time is short, otherwise, the scenario offers two good sessions’ worth of play at the most.
The Sunken Dead showcases an element of Heortling culture—cattle raiding—in a short and easy scenario which can be slotted into an ongoing campaign in its early days or perhaps used as a flashback. The details of honourable cattle raiding are a pleasing inclusion.
Is it worth your time?Yes—The Sunken Dead is short filler scenario that pleasingly showcases, ‘How to Conduct a Cattle Raid’, an aspect of Heortling culture and puts it into practice.No—The Sunken Dead is not really useful if cattle raids are not part of the culture where the Game Master’s campaign is set.Maybe—The Sunken Dead is not a sophisticated scenario and may be too action orientated for some groups, although it does have potential if the Game Master wants to turn it around and have her players and their characters defend against a cattle raid.

Last week I talked about the last of the D&D 3.x monster books to be published, but that was not the end of the d20 "3rd Ed era" monster books by a long shot.  When Wizards of the Coast moved on to D&D 4th Edition, Paizo (who had been publishing d20 material this whole time) came back with Pathfinder. 

The Pathfinder core combined the Player's and Game Master's material into one place and there was a rumor that the book would also have monsters. That was not to be and that was good in retrospect since it would have given us a 900+ page book.

Pathfinder Bestiary

Print and PDF. 328 pages. Color cover and interior art. For this review, I am considering the hardcover I bought in 2010 and the PDF I got from Paizo's webstore.

At this point, people were calling Paizo's Pathfinder "D&D 3.75."  It was an update, via the OGL, of the D&D 3.5 rules with many of their own rules added on. Not sure if it was a coincidence or choice but both Pathfinder and D&D 4 featured cover art from Wayne Reynolds. This helped what came to be known as the "Dungeon Punk" style and gave us Pathfinder's unique-looking goblins, kobolds, and trolls.  

This bestiary features 309 monsters. Like their godfather, D&D 3.x all the monsters feature robust stat blocks and full-color art.  Like 2nd Ed AD&D before and 4th ed D&D currently, each monster is present on a single page. Again the value add for me is the ability to print the PDFs and place them in the order I like along 3rd party Pathfinder monsters.

The stat block of the Pathfinder monsters is easy enough to read for native D&D 3,x players.  There is some reorganization and added details that greatly improve both the readability and playability of these monsters. 

Nearly all of the "classics" and "usual suspects" monsters are here. What makes this book so much fun is seeing how a familiar creature changes between the D&D 3.x worlds to the Pathfinder ones.

I would argue that anyone playing D&D 3.x can get a lot of value out of the Pathfinder Bestiary books.  The rules are not so dissimilar as to have problems. And unless I am misreading here, it really does appear that ideas in this book would later manifest in D&D 5e.

The value of the Pathfinder Bestiaries comes not in so much how they are alike the other "Monster Manuals" or even monster books derived from the SRD, but how they are different. At some level, these differences are cosmetic or even campaign world specific. It will be interesting to read the future ones and see what they have to offer outside of this core set of monsters.

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

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

—oOo—
Name: The HeatPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Michał Pietrzak

Setting: Jazz Age KingsportProduct: Scenario
What You Get: Eighteen page, 729.45 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: The family that feuds spreads its love as Kingsport heats up...Plot Hook: Frayed tempers seem strange in a happy family, could it be the heatwave?
Plot Support: Staging advice, three handouts, seven NPCs, one floorplan, two Mythos monsters, three new spells, and one Mythos tome. Production Values: Reasonable.
Pros# One night one-shot# Straightforward investigation# Potential Lovecraft Country campaign starter# Low key, Mythos-infused twist upon Greek myth# Underplayed introduction to the Mythos# Interesting options given for scenario’s end# Sympathetically portrayed villain
Cons# Needs a good edit# Backstory remains hidden, so hides the more subtle horror# Straightforward investigation# Big clue on the front page!# Options given for scenario’s end incomplete
Conclusion# Short, but direct investigative one-shot which could work as a Lovecraft Country campaign starter# Horrifying Mythos-infused twist upon Greek myth that needs development in places, but still works despite that.

Some more Pathfinder tonight. This time for the Heroes Wear Masks RPG.

Heroes Weekly, Vol 5, Issue #3, Witchcraft

PDF. 13 pages. Color covers and interior art.

This one is a bit of a mixed bag really.

I love the idea of having an evil witch class. This one is also different enough from the base Pathfinder witch to make it worth a look.

I don't love that they chose to call their evil witch a "Wiccan."  After all no one would make an evil cleric class and call it a "Catholic" or anything like that.

These witches get powers but no spells to speak of; though the powers take place of the spells.

There are some print and fold minis near the end.  The art is mixed. I am not a fan of the cover. If this was for a modern sort of game it feels out of place.  The witch on page 2 would have been a better choice.

In the end, there is not enough here for me to recommend it. 

Under the guidance and protection of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Karl-Franz I, the Glorious Empire is a bountiful bastion of civilisation and order, together with its faith in the great gods Sigmar and Ulric, a redoubtable fortress against its many enemies and the forces of Chaos that threaten it from without. Great armies of Orcs, Goblins, and worse—Chaos Warriors, Beastmen, Mutants, and Daemons. Yet there are dangers from within too. Bickering nobles, fumbling and feuding for power and influence undermine both defences and resolve of the greatest and most powerful nation in the Old World, pirates who prey on the shipping of the empire’s mighty rivers and bandits who pick at the weary traveller on its network or roads that bisect the deep swathes of forest, and worse. Numerous cults hide in the shadows, some appearing to be no more than excuses for frowned upon frivolity and debauchery, but all too many dedicated to the Ruinous Powers, those dark gods from which the Winds of Magic do blow and threaten to corrupt the unwary and the ambitious, even as they are studied and harnessed by the Colleges of Magic. The practices and beliefs of such cult threaten mind, body, and soul of the members, twisting them, mutating them, and driving them to spread the reach of Chaos until the Witchfinders act, burn them out and put them to the sword, before covering their activities up. Meanwhile, the citizens labour for themselves and their families and pay their taxes to the Empire for protection by day, drink and gamble and gossip as agitators cry out for better life and the overthrow of some noble or other (or even the Emperor himself—what heresy!) if they can by evening, before retiring to behind closed doors by night, fearful of what stalks the forests, what lies in the village over yonder, what curse a witch may lay upon them, and what Beastmen might catch them unwary on the morrow, rip them limb from limb—or worse! Yet there are some who see there is more to life than mere drudgery. They may never be nobles, but they might make coin enough to get by, they might make a difference in driving off monsters and mutants even as the locals look at them in fear and wonderment, and they might just help keep the Empire safe!

This is the Empire and the Old World, the setting for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. The publication of its fourth edition by Cubicle Seven Entertainment is a reminder that once upon a time, Games Workshop published roleplaying games. Chief amongst these was of course Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, which even thirty years on, remains the definitive British roleplaying game. Its mix of fantasy, European history—the Holy Roman Empire in particular, Moorcockian cosmology, humour, grim and perilous feel, disease and damnation, and mud and shit underfoot, very much set it apart from the fantasy found in other roleplaying games of the time—and arguably since. Perhaps the best expression of those elements is not in the roleplaying game itself, but in what is arguably the greatest British roleplaying campaign ever published—The Enemy Within. Subsequently published by Hogshead Publishing, before returning to Games Workshop via Black Industries with a second edition designed by Green Ronin Publishing, and then by Fantasy Flight Games as a third edition which combined the roleplaying with physical elements such as cards and counters usually found in board games and so was not compatible with either the first or the second editions (although it was still playable as a roleplaying game). Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition shares the same setting as the previous editions, but mechanically draws from the first and second editions, remaining a relatively low, percentile driven set of mechanics, designed to do ‘grim and perilous’ roleplaying in a world of mud and blood, Chaos and fear, and desperation and danger. It is a roleplaying game in which minor nobles, dwarf slayers, witch hunters, ex-soldiers, merchants, road wardens, petty wizards, priests to Sigmar and Ulrich, and of course, rat catchers—plus little dog, hold back incursions by the forces of Chaos, run scams, uncover cults and conspiracies, and more, all in the face of intransigence and callousness upon the part of the ruling classes and the churches.

A Player Character in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition has a Species—Human (Reiklander), Halfling, Dwarf, High Elf, or Wood Elf; a Class—Academic, Burgher, Courtier, Peasant, Ranger, Riverfolk, Rogue, or Warrior; and Career, such as Nun, Watchman, Duellist, Hedge Witch, Pedlar, Wrecker, Grave Robber, or Warrior Priest. He has ten attributes—Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Strength, Toughness, Initiative, Agility, Dexterity, Intelligence, Willpower, and Fellowship—expressed as percentages. His Fate and Fortune are linked together as destiny and his luck, and his Resilience is his inner strength and linked to grit through the ‘single word’ Motivation which drives him to act. Skills, both Basic and Advanced, as well as Talents are derived from the character’s Species and Career. Advanced skills are only available to those who have studied or practiced them and require at least one Advance in them to use. An Advance is an improvement of a skill by +1%, and these can be applied to skills and characteristics. Each Class and Career provides trappings and items of equipment. A Player Character also has Ambitions, short term and long. Fulfilling the former will grant an Experience Point bonus, whilst fulfilling the latter might reward an even larger Experience Point reward or even see the Player Character retire! Similarly, the Party of Player Characters will also have its own ambitions.

One notable facet of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is that of Careers and how Player Characters can advance through or even change them, and it is no different in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition. Each Career has four levels, presented on the same page, and when a Player Character wants to change Career, he either moves up to the next level of the Career he is in or a completely new one. It costs Experience Points to change a Career, more if the Career is in an entirely different Class. All of the Classes, Careers, Species, and so on, are nicely detailed, including the thoughts of the various Species on other Species and options for Species aspects such as ‘Animosity (Elves)’ for the Dwarfs, which let a player decide rather than adhere to a stereotype.

Character creation in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition—apart from attributes, which are all random—can be random or chosen by the player. If the former, extra Experience Points are awarded to the Player Character, for each stage the player decides to roll and keep the result. The last step process is answering questions about the character’s origins, family life and childhood, why he left home, best friends, greatest desire, and more. This can include adding Psychological Traits like Fear (Snakes), Frenzy, or Hatred (Slavers), primarily for roleplaying opportunities rather than mechanical benefits. The process is not particularly quick, if only because there is a fair amount of information to note down. In general, if rolled, the chances of roll up a non-Human Player Character is slim and certain Careers are unavailable to some Species. For example, the Priest is a Human-only Career, the are no Dwarf or Halfling Wizards, and of course, the Slayer is a Dwarf-only Career.

Sigfreda von Stark is the youngest daughter of House Stark, sister to several older brothers. Where her brothers were taught to fight, she was not allowed to, and her brothers made fun of her. She learned to give as good as she got, and this went from taunting to punches and she gave as good as she got. Forbidden to enlist in the army and despite being married (he avoids her for the black eye she gave him on their wedding night), she applies her muscle and underhand means of applying it to making a living without him or his annoying mother. What she can, she saves for training.

Name: Sigfreda von Stark
Species: Human (Reiklander)
Class: Warrior
Career: Protagonist
Motivation: Greed
Ambition: To beat the snot out of her brothers

Age: 22 Height: 5’ 6”
Eye Colour: Blue Hair Colour: Dark Brown

Weapon Skill 32 Ballistic Skill 33
Strength 38 Toughness 31
Initiative 33 Agility 34
Dexterity 34 Intelligence 35
Willpower 34 Fellowship 27

Wounds: 12
Fate: 3
Resilience: 3
Movement: 4

Skills: Athletics +5, Cool +5, Dodge +5, Endurance +5, Entertain (Taunt) +5, Evaluate +5, Gossip +5, Haggle +5, Intimidate +5, Language (Bretonnian) +3, Language (Wastelander) +3, Lore (Reikland) +3, Melee (Basic) +5, Melee (Brawling) +7
Talents: Acute Sense (Listen), Dirty Fighting, Noble Blood, Savvy, Sixth Sense, Warrior Born
Trappings: Mask, Clothing, Hand Weapon, Dagger, Pouch, Knuckledusters, Leather Jack

Mechanically, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition uses percentile dice. A Simple test is roll against an attribute or skill plus attribute. If the situation requires the Game Master and player to know how well his character did, he rolls a Dramatic Test. This is slightly more complex in that the ‘tens’ value on the dice roll is subtracted from the ‘tens’ value of the skill. This determines the Player Character’s Success Level, which can be positive or negative. The higher it is, the better the outcome, the lower—or more negative—it is, the worse the outcome. Opposed rolls generally compare Success Levels, the Player Character or NPC with more succeeding over the other.

For example, Sigfreda is a hired by a brewery to persuade the landlord of a rough, riverside tavern, Klatt’s Bier Haus, to pay his bills. Her player will roll Sigfreda’s Intimidate plus Strength (42%), which will be opposed by Klatt the landlord’s Cool plus Will Power (32). Sigfreda’s player rolls 23. Subtracting ‘tens’ value of the dice roll, or two, from the ‘tens’ value of the skill value gives two Success Levels. The Game Master rolls 63 for the landlord, which leaves him with minus three Success Levels. Without having to lay a hand on him, Sigfreda has reduced him to a quivering mess, and he quickly apologises, saying that it is not his fault because some local toughs have been taking nearly all takings in protection money. Sigfreda’s player spots an opportunity and asks how much Klatt the landlord would pay to get these toughs off his back…

Melee combat also uses opposed rolls—Weapon Skill versus Weapon Skill if parrying or the Dodge Skill if trying to get out of the way, whereas missile attacks, rolled on Ballistic Skill are Simple Tests. Success Levels not only determine if a Player Character manages to strike his opponent in combat, but also the amount of extra damage inflicted. Damage is determined by a combination of the Success Levels from the attack roll, the weapon, and the Strength Bonus, with armour and the target’s inherent Toughness counting against the incoming damage. If a double is rolled—eleven, twenty-two, thirty-three, and so on—then a critical hit has been made. This can be made when attacking or parrying, and it can even be made when an opponent has rolled more Success Levels than the character’s player. Thus, a character can lose an exchange of blows, but still inflict an effect. In addition, the combat mechanics in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition are designed to have a character build upon success, gaining Advantage when attacking an opponent who is surprised, charging into combat, defeating an important NPC, and so on, gaining a +10 bonus to combat actions each time. This is lost if a Player Character or NPC loses an opposed roll or suffers a wound, but is designed to give a Player Character an edge as he gains momentum in a fight. Both players and Game Master are expected to keep track of Advantage for both the Player Characters and NPCs, the suggestion being that tokens be used where everyone can see them.

Later that morning, the two toughs, Klaus and Karl, call in to take the day’s takings from Klatt’s Bier Haus. As Karl keeps an eye on the door, Sigfreda informs Klaus at the bar that the tavern’s takings are not available and that neither of them is welcome at the establishment. Unfortunately, Sigfreda fails to intimidate him like she did Klatt and Klaus steps in close and asks, “Says who?” “Me—and this mug” she responds and with that she slams the mug of beer into his face. Klaus is no fool and the Game Master gives him a chance of spotting the attack, but fails the Perception Test. Klaus now has the Surprised Condition, which grants Sigfreda a +20% bonus on the Melee (Brawling) Test for her attack. For this one attack, she has a 59% attack chance, opposed by Klaus’ Melee (Brawling) Test of 32%. Sigfreda’s player rolls 22%, which gives her three Success Levels and is a Critical Hit too. The Game Master rolls 98%, which minus six Success Levels! Sigfreda is using an improvised weapon, which means that she inflicts a base of her Strength Bonus (three) plus Success Levels (three) plus weapon base damage (one) plus her one level of Dirty Fighting (one), for a total of eight! In addition, Sigfreda has +1 Advantage.

Normally, the result of the Melee (Brawling) Test would be reversed to determine the location struck, which in this case would be Klaus’ left arm. However, the Critical Hit means it is randomly determined, which is a roll of the 05% and the head! Klaus’ Toughness Bonus of three means the thug suffers five Wounds. Plus, Sigfreda’s player rolls 32% on the Head Critical Wounds table. This means that Klaus suffers two more Wounds, which ignore armour and Toughness, and suffers the Stunned Condition. Until the Game Master can make a successful Endurance Test for Klaus, the thug cannot take an action and is at a penalty to all Tests. In addition, Sigfreda has +1 Advantage. At the end of the round, she is at +2 Advantage. As Klaus wavers, Karl grips his club and rushes towards Sigfreda as she slips her knuckledusters onto her hands.

Combat in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition is designed to have the Player Characters’ fortunes fluctuate back and forth across the battle, as well as encourage their players to be tactical in order to take and maintain Advantage. It covers not simple hand-to-hand melees, but also two-weapon fighting, mounted combat, movement, chases, pulling blows, and more. Damage is not just a case of inflicting as many Wounds as possible, but also Conditions which will be typically inflicted through Critical Wounds. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition has a table for each location, and the results are all brutal. Long time fans of the roleplaying game will be pleased to see the last entry for the Head Critical Wounds table: “Your head is entirely severed from your neck and soars through the air, landing 1d10 feet away in a random direction (see Scatter). Your body collapses, instantly dead.”

However, the Player Characters do have number of factors in their favour. First, they have Fate Points and Fortune Points. Fortune Points grant a Player Character a little luck and allow his player to reroll a failed Test, add a Success Level to a Dramatic Test after it is rolled, and to disregard Initiative order and have the character act when they want. Fate Points are spent to avoid death or completely avoid taking incoming damage. Second, they have Resilience Points and Resolve Points. Resilience Points grant immunity to a Psychological Trait or effect for a round, enable the Player Character to ignore all modifiers from all Critical Wounds for a round, or remove a Condition. Resilience Points are spent to prevent a Player Character from suffering a mutation due to Corruption or to select the result of a Test, which in combat can be right down to location and the Critical Wounds table. These do all give a Player Character an advantage, something to fall back on in an emergency, but mechanically, are four different types of points really necessary? It is cumbersome and difficult to remember what does what. Why not reduce the number of types and increase the costs of what they can do? (Of course, this increases the number of times a player can use the lesser benefit, but this is cumbersome still.)

In addition to suffering horrible, scarring wounds in bar fights, let alone on the battlefield, Player Characters can encounter Lesser Daemons, Mutants, Warpstone, Chaos worshippers and their temples, and worse, let alone suffering despair, all of which can lead to them suffering Corruption and gaining Corruption Points. Corruption and gaining Corruption Points can even be gained for making a ‘Dark Deal’ with the Ruinous Power, the player choosing—and it is always the player’s choice in what is a Faustian Pact—this option when out of Fortune Points and really, really needing to reroll a failed Test. Except for Elves, which are only affected mentally, Corruption twists both body and mind. Corruption Points can be lost in a number of ways. Absolution, but that requires a great deed, such as cleansing a Chaos temple; accepting a Mutation, but has its own dangers, especially if the witchfinders find out; and listening to Dark Whispers. Again, this is the player’s choice, but in return for the Corruption Point, something bad will happen, such as a prisoner being allowed to escape, an ally being accidentally shot, or falling asleep on watch… Which is a delightful narrative mechanic with the Game Master literally leaning over the table and whispering into the player’s ear. Also covered are ailments, diseases, and infections—all of which are as unpleasant as you would expect, but not quite as much fun as the rules for Corruption.

A campaign of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition could entirely focus upon the adventures that the Player Characters have, but the rules do cover what they can do on their downtime as option. A Player Character is subject to random events, but he can simply spend money, train an animal, bank his treasure, consult an expert, craft an object, train, invention something, and more. There are potential endeavours for Species and Classes as well as general ones, but all together, they help the Player Characters’ develop and grow, and explore their lives away from the stresses of adventuring.

Religion and faith play important roles in The Empire and the Old World. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition presents numerous gods and cults in accessible fashion, the primary focus being Sigmar and his associated pantheon. There are lots of little details here that help bring their worship alive, most notably the various strictures for each deity which their most devout or Blessed worshippers follow, and which if violated, will earn them Sin Points. Gain too many and if the worshipper appeals to his god, then he may bring the Wrath of the Gods down upon his head. Careers such as Nun, Priest, and Warrior Priest, provide the Bless Talent enabling such Blessed to enact Blessings, whilst the Invoke Talent lets the Blessed call on their gods for the more powerful miracles. There are only a limited number of Blessings and Miracles per god, and then only for primary gods worshipped in The Empire. In comparison, the Chaos Gods are only given a cursory examination.

Magic is one of the most powerful aspects of the Old World, drawing as it does from the Winds of Magic which can only be seen by those who possess the Second Sight. Only Elves and Humans use magic, but where Elves can harness more than the one of the eight Winds of Magic, Humans rarely can, and often follow such a path to damnation and the influence of the Ruinous Powers. Accepted, but rarely trusted by the populace at large, magic is studied at the Colleges of Magic in Altdorf, the capital of The Empire, as eight different lores—The Lore of Light, The Lore of Metal, The Lore of Life, The Lore of Heavens, The Lore of Shadows, The Lore of Death, The Lore of Fire, and The Lore of Beasts. The Lore of Hedgecraft and the Lore of Witchcraft are also known, but not sanctioned by Colleges of Magic, and both are rarely practiced. Divided into Petty, Arcane, Lore, and Chaos spells, casting requires the Language (Magick) Skill for minor spells and the Channelling skill for major ones. It is possible to Overcast, extending the Range, Area of Effect, Duration, or number of Targets, though this requires a greater number of Success Levels when making the test, but a critical roll, whether a Critical success or a Fumble, the player’s caster has to roll on the miscast tables—the ‘Minor Miscast Table’ for lesser spells and the ‘Major Miscast Table’ for the more powerful spells. For example, ‘Unfasten’ on the former causes all belts, buckles, and laces undo, causing pouches to drop, armour to fall off, and trews fall down, whilst ‘Traitor’s Heart’ on the latter prompts the Dark Gods to entice the caster to commit horrendous perfidy. They will grant him all Fortune Points he has lost should he betray or attack a friend and a gift of one Fate Point if the caster causes a friend to lose a fate Point. Overall, the rules for magic and spell casting, are straightforward and easy to use, and they do cover the both the Lore of Hedgecraft and Lore of Witchcraft, as well as Dark Magic, the latter primarily for the Game Master’s NPCs.

On addition to some decent advice on running the game for the Game Master, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition includes a good guide to Reikland—though not the greater Empire, a timeline of The Empire, an extensive look at goods and crafting in ‘The Consumer’s Guide’, and a bestiary, complete with illustrations and an explanation of the bestial traits. It covers ordinary animals such as bears and boars, green-skinned hordes like Orcs, Goblins, and Snotlings, Daemons, Beastmen, Mutants, and a whole lot more. All good supporting material and all useful to running the roleplaying game, although ‘The Consumer’s Guide’ feels oddly placed so far back in the book. The bestiary is far from complete, but is certainly comprehensive enough for most starting campaigns. The one omission here is the lack of a scenario. Although there are several hooks given in the guide to Reikland, the omission feels even odder given that the last page of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition is an advert for scenario anthology Rough Nights & Hard Nights, which opens with, “Continue Your Adventures With…” which is really difficult to do if the core book does not provide the Game Master and her players that starting adventure to actually continue from!

Physically, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition is very well presented. The layout is clean and tidy, and from the start, the artwork is excellent, and the world of The Empire is very well illustrated throughout. There is initially an idyllic feel to The Empire in its depiction early in the book, shifting to a grimmer and grimier feel later on. Throughout, the writing is good, although it could have benefited from more fulsome examples in places to really to get a feel for the flow of the game.

Long-time fans of this roleplaying game will pick up Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition and feel very much at home with its dingy, dangerous, and sometimes decadent depiction of the Old World and The Empire in particular, combined with often brutal and bruising mechanics. Though not quite as brutal and bruising as perhaps in previous iterations, with Player Characters having to access to Fate Points and Fortune Points, Resilience Points and Resolve Points, and then trying to achieve and maintain control of Advantage in combat. The addition of the four Hero Point types does feel like it is overegging the mechanics’ attempt to keep the Player Characters alive, but the addition of Corruption Points and Sin Points, and their use are entertaining narrative-focused additions. Despite these additions, newer players may find the sometimes-unforgiving mechanics too much and potentially be uncomfortable with the often-intolerant attitudes and politics that are part and parcel of the setting and always have been. Well then, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Editionis not their roleplaying game.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition is fantastic iteration of the classic British roleplaying game, returning grim and perilous roleplaying to where it started in the Old World. There is mud and blood to be trudged though, there is Chaos to be faced, there are cults to be looked into and smashed in disgust, and there are Beastmen to be hacked down, and by Sigmar’s hammer, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition is the right way to do it.

Back to a little bit of Pathfinder tonight, though with a modern twist. 

Bloodlines & Black Magic - The Witch

PDF. 21 pages. Black & White art.

This is a supplement for the Bloodlines & Black Magic RPG. A dark modern RPG based around Pathfinder. This one presents a witch class. 

It is largely the Pathfinder witch class with 5 levels. There are some new hexes presented here so that is nice. 

The art is really nice. Black & white, but fits the mood and tenor of the game, so it works here. Color would be a distraction. 

It could work with Pathfinder proper or even with D20 Modern 3rd edition as a Prestige or Advanced class.  Personally, that is what I would like to try with it.

I'll have to check out the full Bloodlines & Black Magic RPG.

Beyond the great frontier lies the Lost Frontier, dominated by Covett City, a teeming, bloated city of exploited masses and stinking industries, which arises out of the tarry swamps its factories pollute. Melanethon P. Murrsom, sits at the head of the Incorporation which controls this coastal city and whose influence reaches far and wide. Inland across to Sunken Hill where coffins are chained shut before burial and the dead are said to ring their grave bells still even as looters plunder the coffins that rise from the swamp. Across Carcass County where the roots of the ancient bloodgum trees have a taste for flesh. To Slackgaff-by-the-Sea in Stubbshead County, strife riven by an unpaid debt owed to the Incorporation. To frozen Dalliance in the south across the sea, where the Allied Governess rules with a love as cold as the artic wastes beyond the newly reopened silver mines that the Incorporation previously closed and claimed to have been worked out. West to Fort Gullet, an oil city where the gun rules and Marshal Betjemen Knapp and his posse of ne’er-do-wells enforce their law at gunpoint. Beyond to Palace in the Dust Barrens where the Redrum Boys, outlaws all, protect the exiles, homesteaders, bushwhackers, and deserters from Incorporation carpetbaggers, sending them packing after taking all they have on them—plus a pound of flesh—back to Covett city, even as they ensure that the hill around remain lawless. To Sickwater Oasis in the north, where the klepto-meritocratic Outlaw Union recognises only the licences it issues, otherwise killing all lawmen and bounty hunters, and hates any other legalise otherwise to the point of murder. At the edge of the Lost Frontier stretches the Western Expanse, accessible by the hellmouth of Allhallows Canyon, and beyond that lies the Scree Knives, a purgatory of slat flats where only the desperate pioneer and sanctimonious sect finds a home.

This is the setting for Frontier Scum: A Game About WantedOutlaws Making Their Mark on a Lost Frontier. It is inspired by the Acid Westerns, such as Jodorowsky’s El Topo, Jarmusch’s Dead Man, and Zahler’s Bone Tomahawk, which twisted the traditional westerns of the twentieth century and their conservatism with the radical counterculture of the sixties. Instead of codes of honour and morality and the mythic search for justice and a chance to begin again in a land of golden opportunity, the west of the Acid Western is infused with uncertainty and loss, the landscape and its promise of renewal subverted by avarice and ambition. The Lost Frontier of Frontier Scum is not the frontier of the Wild West, nor the frontier of the Weird West—its horrors being mundane and manmade, but a frontier, almost a hallucination of a twisted frontier of its very own. Published by GamesOmnivorous, Frontier Scum is an Old School Renaissance adjacent roleplaying game, inspired mechanically by Mörk Borg, in which the players take the roles of Outlaws. They are criminals and they are guilty. They did the crime they are accused of and are going to be hanged. Perhaps, if they can escape their fate at the end of a noose, then perhaps they can make their mark—pull off the biggest heist, win the biggest pot in a poker game, hit a silver motherlode, or even reap their own brand of justice—on the Lost Frontier.

An Outlaw in Frontier Scum has four stats—Grit, Slick, Wits, and Luck—which range in value from -3 to +3. He also has a pair of traits which make him stand out, a crime which he most definitely did commit and why he is wanted (dead or alive), a background which helps define starting skills and equipment, plus a bonus skill and a bonus item. He also has a canteen of water, a stolen horse, and a gun and some ammunition. Most importantly, he has a hat. This hat will save his life. Probably. So, he should keep it close. Probably wear it. Character creation is entirely randomly, except skills. These are devised by the player, though the event which inspired their selection is randomly determined. 

Windor ‘Grubworm’ Casket
A Charlatan and a Fraud
Outlaw Scum with ‘An Artist’s Soul’ and ‘Plague-Pox Scars’
Who is Wanted Dead or Alive for the Crime of Attempted Fraud

Grit -2 Slick 0 Wits +1 Luck -2
Hit Points: 2

Skills
Sympathetic Begging (lost all his stock)
Bargaining (sold some actual treasure)
Disguise Disease (you caught the Plague-Pox)

Items
Self-Help Bible
Expensive Perfume
Tin of sixteen biscuits

Stolen Mount
Donkey (HP 2, Morale 8, slow, bad at manoeuvring)

Gun
Pocket pistol (d6)

Hat
A stiff bowler, brushed to perfection, with an emergency ten dollar note inside the hat.

Mechanically, Frontier Scum requires a simple roll of a twenty-sided die against a Difficulty Rating, the standard Difficulty Rating being twelve, with the appropriate stat applied as a modifier. The standard rules for Advantage and Disadvantage are used, the former primarily derived from a Outlaw’s skills, and each player has an Ace up his Sleeve, which can be expended to reroll any die result which is not a one or twenty. If a player rolls a natural twenty on an ability check, he has the choice of choosing an additional Ace or a new skill. (This new skill must relate to the situation under which it was rolled, up to a maximum of six skills.) However, if a player rolls a natural one on an ability check, every player loses all of their Aces! In general, Frontier Scum is player-facing, so the players roll the dice, for example, to hit with an attack or to avoid an attack rather than the Game Master rolling an NPC’s attack.

Gun combat is nasty, and shots always hit (except tricky shots which require a roll). Damage dice can explode, so characters can be killed with a single shot or hit with extra shots from fanning a pistol or slamming in more rounds from a repeater rifle! Fortunately, every good character should be wearing a hat. If a player is shot, he can ignore damage by having his hat shot off his head. Which is an entertaining emulation of the genre! Then afterwards, once the fight is over, a player can roll his character’s Luck to retrieve his hat and see if it is still wearable.

An Outlaw can take damage that reduces him to zero Hit Points, necessitating a Death Check. This can result in straight death, but it might leave him dying and losing ability points, but it could also result in the Outlaw gaining ability points! An Outlaw can also suffer one of two Conditions—Drunk and Miserable. Of the two, Drunk is the more entertaining, with the Miserable Condition either due to being skunked, rain-sodden, frostbitten poisoned, exhausted, or some other cause, which prevents the Outlaw from healing when rested until the cause is addressed. When Drunk, an Outlaw swaps two abilities at random and that is always how he reacts when drunk. It is a potentially entertaining effect, and depending on the value of the abilities swapped, could be disadvantageous to the Outlaw or advantageous.

For the Game Master there are numerous tables upon which to roll for inspiration, from ‘Scum on the Trail’ and ‘Scum on the Streets’ to ‘House Loot’, Pocket Loot’, and ‘Tomb Loot’. There is even a ‘Going on a Bender’ table, followed by ‘What Was Won’, ‘What was Lost’, and ‘Who You Owe’ tables for evening’s carousing at the saloon. There are tables of employment opportunities and bounties too, sufficient enough to provide a variety of encounters, set-ups, and developments. Frontier Scum also includes the scenario, ‘Escape the Organ Rail’, which begins with the Outlaws held aboard a black penal train being transported to their execution. Naturally linear in design—after all, the Outlaws have to fight and make their way up the train to the engine to effect an escape, the scenario is presented in car order from the Outlaws’ cells to the engine. Each car is shown in cross section rather than floor plan. The Outlaws begin play shackled together hand and feet, which should challenge the players until they find the right keys. Although Frontier Scum is intended to be a more mundane version of the Old West than the horror of the Weird West, the scenario does involve elements of the weird and horror. If the Outlaws succeed in stopping the train and escaping, there is the chance they get away with some loot, find themselves a patron, or if they want, there is an ‘Epilogue Or How To Spend 10,000 Silver’ table if they scarper.

Physically, Frontier Scum has an immediate presence. It is done as a board book, with a non-glossy, plain matte cover and no spine so that the glue binding is visible. The feeling in the hand is rough and tactile like no other roleplaying game. Inside, the black and white layout is done as a Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalogue and it is incredibly atmospheric, pulling the reader into the setting with tight blocks of black and white, and period style illustrations. The graphic design on Frontier Scum really brings the game to life and adds so much to its atmosphere.

Imagine in 1895 if the paste up artist at Sears, Roebuck and Co., high on absinthe and laudanum, sat down to create a game of the vanishing frontier. Frontier Scum: A Game About Wanted Outlaws Making Their Mark on a Lost Frontier is what you would get, a roleplaying game of the last, dark days of desperate Outlaws surviving on a dream of the frontier turned nightmare, ravaged by avarice and ambition, and the vicissitudes of modernity and misuse.

Mutant Crawl Classics #12: When Manimals Attack is the eleventh release for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, the spiritual successor to Gamma World published by Goodman Games. Designed for Second Level player characters, what this means is that Mutant Crawl Classics 12: When Manimals Attack is not a Character Funnel, one of the signature features of both the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game and the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game it is mechanically based upon—in which initially, a player is expected to roll up three or four Level Zero characters and have them play through a generally nasty, deadly adventure, which surviving will prove a challenge. Those that do survive receive enough Experience Points to advance to First Level and gain all of the advantages of their Class. In terms of the setting, known as Terra A.D., or ‘Terra After Disaster’, this is a ‘Rite of Passage’ and in Mutants, Manimals, and Plantients, the stress of it will trigger ‘Metagenesis’, their DNA expressing itself and their mutations blossoming forth. By the time the Player Characters in Mutant Crawl Classics #12: When Manimals Attack have reached Second Level, they will have had numerous adventures, should have understanding as to how their mutant powers and how at least some of the various weapons, devices, and artefacts of the Ancients they have found work and can use on their future adventures.
Mutant Crawl Classics #12: When Manimals Attack begins with the Player Characters coming to the rescue of a young Manimal, who has been chased up a tree by some ravenous preyor beasts. They will learn that although she cannot talk very much, her name is ‘Anji’. She is friendly, seems fascinated by the village’s sole pure Strain Human, and despite her Mustelid appearance, claims she comes she is ‘ooman’ and that she comes from the fabled lands of ‘tsoo’. She seems to settle into the Player Characters’ village, but in the middle of the night attackers loom out of the darkness, setting hut after hut alight. In the morning, the tracks are easy to find—with signs of something apelike, something feline, and something unknown—and lead out into the jungle. Barring an encounter or two, the Player Characters are able to follow the tracks back to a large domed structure. On the side can be seen the word, ‘ZUU’.
The scenario assumes that the most likely approach the Player Characters will take is stealth, following Anji’s escape route out of the ‘tsoo’ back to within its confines. There they find themselves not in a building as such but a stretch of open grasslands, the sky a different colour… Once they have dealt with the robots informing visitors that park is a closed and they are trespassing and that any Manimals are in the wrong zone, interacting with the Manimals will reveal the situation. They are trapped in a habitant, ruled over by the Savage One and his brutal guards, but it was the Savage One who made them stronger and better than they were. Finding out further information means breaking out of this one habitant and into the others, and there is some fun to be had seeing the Player Characters exploring some radically different climes than the ones they are used to. It is interesting to see the Player Characters challenged in this. Ultimately, they will be able to determine what is going on at the ‘ZUU’, and either rescue or free the numerous Manimals in its various habitats.
Mutant Crawl Classics #12: When Manimals Attack is a short scenario, emphasising stealth and investigation in preparation for a confrontation with the Savage One and his brutal guards. The strangely bestial creature has plans for more than just the ‘ZUU’, wanting to convert Terrans of all types into the Manimals they were meant to be. He certainly has the means to do so. The scenario is reminiscent of H.G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau as well as two Cryptic Alliances from Gamma World—the ‘Zoopremisists’ and ‘The Ranks of the Fit’. They are not the same of course, but there are similarities. The scenario is, though, about confronting and fighting the supremacy of one species type over another in the world of Terra A.D. It should be no surprise that the Savage One is portrayed as a supremacist monster and certainly as a monster by the artist, Kelly Jones, on the front cover of the module.
Physically, Mutant Crawl Classics #12: When Manimals Attack is cleanly and tidily laid out. As you would expect for a book from Goodman Games, the scenario—especially its locations—is highly detailed and is given a decent piece of cartography. However, the Savage One is illustrated not once, but three times if the cover is included, and it is too much. Ideally, an illustration and even a map—after all, it would have had a visitors’ map before the Great Disaster—of the ‘ZUU’ could have been included as handouts, both of them helping to enhance and improve game play.
Mutant Crawl Classics #12: When Manimals Attack is decent scenario which should provide two good sessions worth of play or so. Full of detail, it which presents an interesting confrontation for Manimal Player Characters in particular.

For the most part, my 100 Days of Halloween has been about all the witch or spooky stuff I need to get some reviews done or just stuff I like. Typically everything has been languishing on my hard drive for years.  But not tonight's entry.  I bought it just for this because it looked fun.

Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice Wampus Country

PDF. 30 pages 

From the product page,

A Halloween-and-Harvest compilation of articles from the Wampus Country blog, suitable for use with classic fantasy games and related nonsense. Within, you'll learn the dark arts of sucromancy, punch ghosts, explore death masks, and more.

Yeah sounds like something I would like really.  

These are all articles collected from the Wampus Country Blog which has been out there doing its thing for 11 years.  So they are quite upfront with what to expect, but the new format and layout of this PDF is worth the price really.

The articles are a mixed (Halloween) bag, including Candy Magic and Bone Magic. There is a great section on creating random witches, which I really liked. A Ghost Hunter monk subclass. 

The art is Halloween ephemera so it is all rather appropriate. 

It is a rather fun collection of articles to be honest and to have them all in one place for an easy download is worth the price of the PDF easily.

We’re now coming up on two weeks of cloudy and wet weather after months and months of Mad Max: Fury Road cosplay (and never have I been more glad to change hair color to avoid the inevitable Immortan Joe cracks), … Continue reading →

In the year of our lord, 1631, a strange island came to be on the coast of the city of Plymouth, in the fair county of Devon, where none had stood before. From all around it could be seen, far and wide, for a great light shone from atop a lighthouse that stood at very centre of the strangely circular isle. When sailors saw the light, their only thought was to sail their ships until they beach them upon the shores of that very island, and soon there was not one ship at sea for many miles to see. The merchants of the city did rain much in the way of complaints, for the light was clearly a danger to their livelihoods and did raise fair sum with which to reward brave adventurers who would venture to the shores of the aberrant isle and seek out the reason for the beguiling light. This is the set-up for The Obsidian Anti-Pharos, a scenario designed for low Level Player Characters for use with Lamentations ofthe Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay. Published by Lamentations of the Flame Princess, the scenario is primarily a short mini-dungeon that slots easily into the default historical period for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay—that is, the early modern period of the seventeenth century—and equally, is as easy to adapt to the retroclone of the Game Master’s choice. The dungeon though is tough and unforgiving and if the Player Characters are to survive, they are going to need to have a lot of luck on their side.
The Obsidian Ant-Pharos provides the Player Characters with two options for their getting involved. However, whether offered a reward of a thousand silver or being shipwrecked on the shore of the island itself, what the Player Characters discover is a perfectly round island at the centre of which stands the strange tower, fifty foot tall and apparently cut from one piece of black stone. The thickly wooded island itself is divided into two hemispheres by a barricade, each occupied by a different, but antagonistic tribe. In addition to each tribe hating the other, primarily because of the way it worships the occupant of the tower, Khepegoris, each tribe practises cannibalism and will happily eat any sailor washed up on the shore. Which is just the second problem that the Player Characters has to deal with getting onto the island—the first being withstanding the effects of the hypnotic light beams cast by the type of the tower. (Of course, the aim is the scenario to get to and investigate the tower, but players do object to their characters being pulled about so obviously…) Neither tribe, both descended from the Khepegoris’ servants, can agree on what colour the doors to the tower should be either—one side believes it should blue, the other it should be yellow, and wear wooden masks painted accordingly.
The third big problem that the Player Characters will face is getting into the tower. The doors on the outside—the ones which one tribe wants to paint yellow, the other tribe blue—are false and if anyone touches them, they vanish. This is the fourth big problem. The actual entrance is a hatch in the ground that appears at random, so initially, the players are going think that there are multiple hatches across the island. The key to the hatch is also missing (sort of). The Game Master will definitely need to drop some hints as to how the Player Characters might find the clues to getting into the tower. That fourth big problem remains in the meantime, because when a Player Character touches either of the false doors, not only does he vanish, but reappears on a platform in a room, surrounded by water (but which is actually potent acid) with a door by the wall, some forty feet away. This is the tower prison. It is left up to the player’s ingenuity to work out exactly how his character is going to get out of the situation, but the fourth big problem is not the true nature of the problem. Instead, it is the fact that it separates the Player Characters from each other and splits the party. Touching the false doors on the outside of the tower is not the only method the scenario has of splitting the party by dumping one or more in this prison.
As the Player Characters proceed up the tower, they will encounter a maze, a grotto with a bejewelled alligator-shaped automaton, a bed chamber, and more. There is a clue to be found to how to proceed through the maze, but beyond that? The tower has very much been built to dissuade visitors and intruders and so any attempt to move forward upon the part of the Player Characters will be down to guess work as there are no clues whatsoever. For example, the bejewelled alligator-shaped automaton contains two keys, one of which will open the door to the next room. Pull that one out and the Player Character will be fine, but pull the other out and the Player Character loses a limb. There is no way of knowing which is the right key. In effect, The Obsidian Anti-Pharos shares elements of the death-trap dungeon a la S1 The Tomb of Horrors, but with less of a reliance on puzzles. Plus, Khepegoris returns and is really not very happy about anyone having been meddling in his home. How exactly he returns is unlikely to turn out well for at least one Player Character…
Which leaves the fifth and final big problem for the Player Characters—what do they do about Khepegoris if he does return? He need not return, that being down to Player Character invention, but if he does, Khepegoris is very much of a higher Level than they are and they unlikely to pose a real threat to him. He may even reward them for bringing him back to life. If he stays, his research will remain a regular threat to local shipping, so the Player Characters may be back again, this time to kill him—if they can. Ultimately, the best outcome for the Player Characters is not to summon him at all—inadvertently or otherwise, as his presence will radically alter the campaign.
Physically, The Obsidian Anti-Pharos is laid out white on black and has solid artwork and cartography. Unfortunately, the editing is slipshod, and the result is the scenario feels rushed in places.
The Obsidian Anti-Pharos does have its moments—the interaction and roleplaying with either of the two tribes should prove entertaining and watching the players come up means to escape the acid pool prison should prove either inventive or frustrating. Yet the end result is underwhelming, a dissatisfying death-trap dungeon that does not seem to reward the players and their characters for their guesswork and is likely to end in an exercise in frustration for both.