Now in its fifteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2022, was celebrated not once, but twice. First on Saturday, 25th June in the USA, and then on Saturday, 23rd July internationally. This was to prevent problem with past events when certain books did not arrive in time to be shipped internationally and so were not available outside of the USA. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Reviews from R’lyeh was get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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Goodman Games provided two titles to support Free RPG 2022. The first was The Three-Wizard Conundrum, an entertaining scenario for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, much in the mode of The Dying Earth stories by Jack Vance. The other was an adventure for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, as you would expect, highly anticipated. Free RPG Day 2022 – Dungeon Crawl Classics: Danger in the Air is a Character Funnel, one of the features of both the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game and the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game—in which initially, a player is expected to roll up three or four Level Zero characters and have them play through a generally nasty, deadly adventure, which surviving will prove a challenge. If one or more of the Player Characters survive—and the players may need to share some of their surviving characters if one or more players get theirs killed—then they will have each acquired the sufficient Experience Points necessary to rise to the heady heights of First Level. In the process, they will gain a Class and all of its benefits.
Free RPG Day 2022 – Dungeon Crawl Classics: Danger in the Air begins with a strange occurrence. As the villagers look up, they see a strange alien creature drifting in the air above their homes, its translucent body rent with weeping wounds. Within its body can be seen a structure and from one damaged corner gold and other treasure glints, even as the occasional trickle of alien, though doubtless gold, coins rains from the sky. Already, other villagers have scavenged treasures beyond their imagination from the blobs of alien flesh which have fallen from the sky, but there is surely more—much more—to be found inside the odd combination of jellyfish with butterfly-like wings? Fortunately, there is an easy way up. Numerous tentacles and tendrils dangle from its underside, and if some brave souls can climb their length, there has to be a way inside. After all, how else did the treasure get there otherwise? There are certain to be dangers too, but any man, woman, elf, dwarf, or halfling, armed only with a stick or a pig or a piece of overly fragrant cheese, brave enough to make the climb and explore the strange structure is destined for better things.
Getting into the strange floating object is relatively easy and what the Player Characters discover is not one, but two weird combinations. The first is that of Science Fiction and fantasy, though actually, more the former than the latter. The second is strange biology with technology. This will be apparent to the players of course, but not their characters, for whom Clarke’s Third Law—“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”—definitely applies. This is because the object turns out to be an advanced interdimensional spacecraft which suffered a catastrophic encounter and with its occupants dead, drifted into the Player Characters’ world. It also means that there are a lot of strange devices and objects which the Player Characters can interact with to various effects. The adventure consists of just eleven locations across three floors, and it should no surprise that each includes lots of detail that the Judge can use to bring the adventure location to life.
A playing group should be able to play through Free RPG Day 2022 – Dungeon Crawl Classics: Danger in the Air in just about a single session. If any of the Player Characters survive long enough to discover and return with the treasure its vault holds, then they will be surprisingly wealthy as well having sufficient Experience Points to each First Level. The Judge also has a hook or two which she can develop into a possible sequel. Hopefully, Goodman Games will return to the story in a sequel to Free RPG Day 2022 – Dungeon Crawl Classics: Danger in the Air.
Physically, Free RPG Day 2022 – Dungeon Crawl Classics: Danger in the Air is slightly disappointing as it is not quite up to the standards usually set by the publisher. In places the writing is rushed and the map, whilst clearer than in other releases for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, is mislabelled. The artwork is excellent and entertaining though.
Free RPG Day 2022 – Dungeon Crawl Classics: Danger in the Air is a thoroughly entertaining scenario. It definitely offers a fun session of roleplaying mind-boggled villagers just trying to work what they have themselves into and wondering if they are going to be able to get out again. 

Now in its fifteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2022, was celebrated not once, but twice. First on Saturday, 25th June in the USA, and then on Saturday, 23rd July internationally. This was to prevent problem with past events when certain books did not arrive in time to be shipped internationally and so were not available outside of the USA. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Reviews from R’lyeh was get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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Cyberpunk Red: Easy Mode – An Introduction to the Dark Future is the new quick-start and introduction to Cyberpunk Red, the fourth edition of the Cyberpunk roleplaying game originally published by R. Talsorian Games Inc. in 1988. Inspired by the Cyberpunk literary subgenre—of which William Gibson’s Neuromancer was a leading example—Cyberpunk Red is set in a dark future ravaged by disease, ecological collapse, corporate rapaciousness, and political unrest. The massive growth of corporations as extraterritorial entities, which radically dividing the future into one of extreme haves and havenots, was shattered in 2023 when a ‘pocket nuke’ was detonated in the Arasaka headquarters in the west coast metroplex of Night City. This ended the Fourth Corporate War between Arasaka and Militech, devastated Night City, and brought economic and environmental devastation to the world, causing a depression which continues two decades on... It ended corporate domination, reducing corporations to being local and international; turned much of the USA into a new Wild West where safe travel could often be promised by the Nomad tribes. For years after the nuclear detonation, the sky was red and still is at dawn dusk, leading the new age to be known as the Time of the Red.

The world of Cyberpunk Red is violent, neon cast, and dominated by technology to the point where it has been subsumed into the body. Cyberware enables humanity to be faster, stronger, have better senses, and more. Some have reacted to this mechanical invasion of the body with technoshock, but other have embraced it, living on the edge, taking advantage of their enhancements to be able to rip doors off with their cyberarms, drive their car or aerodyne with inhuman reflexes via interface plugs, tune into the infrared with cybereyes, or even cast their consciousness into local NET architectures at the speed of data. All to survive, make money, and build their rep. They are known as Edgerunners.
The setting for Cyberpunk Red and Cyberpunk Red: Easy Mode – An Introduction to the Dark Future is Night City, the independent west coast city state where the ‘pocket nuke’ was detonated in 2023 and is still rebuilding after the effects of the bomb. Services, supplies, and law enforcement are what you pay for. The reduced corporations still supply and provide almost everything, from power to food to medical services to media, often brought in by Nomad tribes that run transport in the new North America, independents do grow real food though, and whilst the corporations have their own security, freelancers and bodyguards are available for hire, though the city maintains a Maximum Force Tactical Division or ‘Psycho Squad’ or ‘MAX–TAC’ which handles cybernetic criminals or anyone suffering from Cyberpsychosis. As inhabitants of Night City, you get your information from city wide freestanding dataterms and news from screamsheets downloaded to a personal agent helps you with your daily life from phone calls to shopping; you wear clothing able to emit sounds and video, even monitor your condition; you do your shopping at self-contained, armed and armoured Vendits; you eat kibble or good prepack food if you can; and you go armed. Either a Polymer One-shot easily bought or printed, or something bigger purchased from a Fixer after it has been scavenged from the Fourth Corporate War or smuggled into the city. The same goes for Cyberware...
Cyberpunk Red: Easy Mode – An Introduction to the Dark Future devotes the first quarter of its forty-eight pages to introducing the genre of Cyberpunk and Cyberpunk Red as a setting. The former covers the attitudes of the genre—‘Style Over Substance’, ‘Attitude is Everything’, and ‘Live on the Edge’—before the latter provides a surprisingly detailed overview of Cyberpunk Red’s dark future. This overview is of course, much shortened from the Cyberpunk Red core rulebook, but there is a lot of information here, including a timeline running from 1990 to 2045 and a description of Night City, as well as its notable megacorporations, gangs, and street slang.
The middle part of Cyberpunk Red: Easy Mode – An Introduction to the Dark Future is devoted to explaining the rules. Mechanically, both it and Cyberpunk Red uses the Interlock system. In general, for his Edgerunner to do anything, a player will roll a ten-sided die and add the Edgerunner’s Stat and Skill (or Role Ability) to the result in order to beat a Difficulty Value. This Difficult Value is thirteen for an Everyday task, fifteen for Difficult, seventeen for Professional, twenty-one for Heroic, and so on. Critical successes—rolls of ten—enable a player to keep rolling and adding to his total as long as he keeps rolling ten, whereas Critical failures—rolls of one—forces him to roll again and subtract from the total, but just the once. In combat, chases, and so on, the rolls tend to be opposed, both sides rolling and adding their character’s Stat and appropriate Skill.
Combat covers gun combat, melee combat, and brawling, including various manoeuvres such as grab, choke, hold action, and more. Weapon damage is rolled on six-sided dice, such as five six-sided dice for a shotgun and three for a heavy pistol. Whenever a damage roll includes two or more rolls of six, a critical injury is inflicted and a roll on the Critical Injuries table is required. This can result in the character having a limb dismembered, a collapsed lung, crushed fingers, or worse… Also included in the rules is another kind of combat—the facedown. This enables a character to gain a psychological advantage over an opponent.
The scenario in Cyberpunk Red: Easy Mode – An Introduction to the Dark Future is ‘Getting Paid: A First Job for Cyberpunk Red’. It is short, consisting of really only two scenes, focusing on conflict and confrontation, and it should only take a single session to play through. Designed as an introduction to Night City and Cyberpunk Red, as the scenario opens, the Player Characters or Edge Runners have made a score, having stolen some money from the South Night City Docks. However, a gang of corrupt cops have learned about the theft and sets the Edge Runners up to take the money from them after beating up their fixer. After surviving an ambush, the Edge Runners are free to take whatever approach they want in getting the money back, including diplomacy, violence, and stealth.
‘Getting Paid: A First Job for Cyberpunk Red’ is designed to be played by five players and five pre-generated Edge Runners are provided in Cyberpunk Red: Easy Mode – An Introduction to the Dark Future. They are a Rockerboy, a Solo, a Tech, a Medtech, and a Media. Rockerboys are rock and roll rebels who use performance and rhetoric to fight authority; Solos are assassins, bodyguards, killers, and soldiers for hire in a lawless new world; Techs are renegade mechanics; Medtech are doctors who patch up meat and metal alike; and Medias are reporters and journalists looking to break the big story. Each pre-generated Edgerunner is given a two-page character sheet. On the front is an illustration of the Edgerunner as well as his full stats, skills, armour, weapons, cyberware, and gear. On the back is some background, plus spaces for the Edgerunner’s Lifepath to be filled in. Once a player has selected the Edgerunner he wants to play, he rolls on the Lifepath table—a feature of Cyberpunk going all the way back to Cyberpunk 2013 and replicated in a stripped back version in the Cyberpunk Red: Easy Mode – An Introduction to the Dark Future—to determine his Background, Motivation, Goals, Friends (other than the player characters), Enemies, Romance, and Personality. This nicely adds a degree of variation between the player characters and gets them rolling dice even before play, and in addition, the Game Master is encouraged to tie the results of some of these dice rolls into the scenario.
Physically, everything in the Cyberpunk Red: Easy Mode – An Introduction to the Dark Future is presented in full colour. The layout is clean and tidy, the illustrations are fully painted pieces and excellent. The two maps provided for the encounters in ‘Getting Paid: A First Job for Cyberpunk Red’ are also nicely done. Overall, Cyberpunk Red: Easy Mode – An Introduction to the Dark Future is an enjoyably readable product.
There are two issues with Cyberpunk Red: Easy Mode – An Introduction to the Dark Future, both of which it shares with the earlier Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit. One is that does not name its weapons or cyberware, so that all of the gear feels flat and generic, rather than giving flavour as it should. The second is that it does not include the Netrunner Role, the cybernetic master hackers of the post-NET world and brain burning secret stealers. This is understandable, as the Role is mechanically and conceptually far more complex than any of the Roles used in ‘Getting Paid: A First Job for Cyberpunk Red’, and its inclusion would potentially slow down game play in what is designed to be a fast-paced, action orientated scenario. That said, the Netrunner is one of Cyberpunk Red’s signature Roles and its absence is felt in Cyberpunk Red: Easy Mode – An Introduction to the Dark Future.
With its combination of background, rules, Edge Runners, and straightforward scenario, Cyberpunk Red: Easy Mode – An Introduction to the Dark Future does feel like a mini or stripped back version of the Cyberpunk Red core rule book. Essentially, as the title suggests, Cyberpunk Red on ‘Easy Mode’. Cyberpunk Red: Easy Mode – An Introduction to the Dark Future is a solid, serviceable, and succinct introduction to Cyberpunk Red that delivers a one-session taster of the Time of the Red.

Now in its fifteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2022, was celebrated not once, but twice. First on Saturday, 25th June in the USA, and then on Saturday, 23rd July internationally. This was to prevent problem with past events when certain books did not arrive in time to be shipped internationally and so were not available outside of the USA. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Reviews from R’lyeh was get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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Published by Magpie Games, Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game is a roleplaying game based on the award-winning Root: A Game of Woodland Might & Right board game, about conflict and power, featuring struggles between cats, birds, mice, and more. The Woodland consists of dense forest interspersed by ‘Clearings’ where its many inhabitants—dominated by foxes, mice, rabbits, and birds live, work, and trade from their villages. Birds can also be found spread out in the canopy throughout the forest. Recently, the Woodland was thrown into chaos when the ruling Eyrie Dynasties tore themselves apart in a civil war and left power vacuums throughout the Woodland. With no single governing power, the many Clearings of the Woodland have coped as best they can—or not at all, but many fell under the sway or the occupation of the forces of the Marquise de Cat, leader of an industrious empire from far away. More recently, the civil war between the Eyrie Dynasties has ended and is regroupings its forces to retake its ancestral domains, whilst other denizens of the Woodland, wanting to be free of both the Marquisate and the Eyrie Dynasties, have formed the Woodland Alliance and secretly foment for independence.

Between the Clearings and the Paths which connect them, creatures, individuals, and bands live in the dense, often dangerous forest. Amongst these are the Vagabonds—exiles, outcasts, strangers, oddities, idealists, rebels, criminals, freethinkers. They are hardened to the toughness of life in the forest, but whilst some turn to crime and banditry, others come to Clearings to trade, work, and sometimes take jobs that no other upstanding citizens of any Clearing would do—or have the skill to undertake. Of course, in Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game, Vagabonds are the Player Characters.

Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game is ‘Powered by the Apocalypse’, the mechanics based on the award-winning post-apocalyptic roleplaying game, Apocalypse World, published by Lumpley Games in 2010. At the heart of these mechanics are Playbooks and their sets of Moves. Now, Playbooks are really Player Characters and their character sheets, and Moves are actions, skills, and knowledges, and every Playbook is a collection of Moves. Some of these Moves are generic in nature, such as ‘Persuade an NPC’ or ‘Attempt a Roguish Feat’, and every Player Character or Vagabond can attempt them. Others are particular to a Playbook, for example, ‘Silent Paws’ for a Ranger Vagabond or ‘Arsonist’ for the Scoundrel Vagabond.

To undertake an action or Move in a ‘Powered by the Apocalypse’ roleplaying game—or Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game, a character’s player rolls two six-sided dice and adds the value of an attribute such as Charm, Cunning, Finesse, Luck, or Might, or Reputation, to the result. A full success is achieved on a result of ten or more; a partial success is achieved with a cost, complication, or consequence on a result of seven, eight, or nine; and a failure is scored on a result of six or less. Essentially, this generates results of ‘yes’, ‘yes, but…’ with consequences, and ‘no’. Notably though, the Game Master does not roll in ‘Powered by the Apocalypse’ roleplaying game—or Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game. 

So for example, if a Player Character wants to ‘Read a Tense Situation’, his player is rolling to have his character learn the answers to questions such as ‘What’s my best way out/in/through?’, ‘Who or what is the biggest threat?’, ‘Who or what is most vulnerable to me?’, ‘What should I be on the lookout for?’, or ‘Who is in control here?’. To make the Move, the player rolls the dice and his character’s Cunning to the result. On a result of ten or more, the player can ask three of these questions, whilst on a result of seven, eight, or nine, he only gets to ask one.

Moves particular to a Playbook can add to an attribute, such as ‘Master Thief’, which adds one to a character’s Finesse or allow another attribute to be substituted for a particular Move, for example, ‘Threatening Visage’, which enables a Player Character to use his Might instead of Charm when using open threats or naked steel on attempts to ‘Persuade an NPC’. Others are fully detailed Moves, such as ‘Guardian’. When a Player Character wants to defend someone or something from an immediate NPC or environmental threat, his player rolls the character’s Might in a test. The Move gives three possible benefits—‘ Draw the attention of the threat; they focus on you now’, ‘Put the threat in a vulnerable spot; take +1 forward to counterstrike’, and ‘Push the threat back; you and your protected have a chance to manoeuvre or flee’. On a successful roll of ten or more, the character keeps them safe and his player cans elect one of the three benefits’; on a result of seven, eight, or nine, the Player Character is either exposed to the danger or the situation is escalated; and on a roll of six or less, the Player Character suffers the full brunt of the blow intended for his protected, and the threat has the Player Character where it wants him.

Root: Talon Hill Quickstart is the Free RPG Day 2022 from Magpie Games for Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game. It includes an explanation of the core rules, six pregenerated Player Characters or Vagabonds and their Playbooks, and a complete setting or Clearing for them to explore. From the overview of the game and an explanation of the characters to playing the game and its many Moves, the introduction to the Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game in Root: Talon Hill Quickstart is well-written. It is notable that all of the Vagabonds are essentially roguish in nature, so in addition to the Basic Moves, such as ‘Figure Someone Out’, ‘Persuade an NPC’, ‘Trick an NPC’, ‘Trust Fate’, and ‘Wreck Something’, they can ‘Attempt a Roguish Feat’. This covers Acrobatics, Blindside, Counterfeit, Disable Device, Hide, Pick Lock, Pick Pocket, Sleight of Hand, and Sneak. Each of these requires an associated Feat to attempt, and each of the six pregenerated Vagabonds has one, two, or more of the Feats depending just how roguish they are. Otherwise, a Vagabond’s player rolls the ‘Trust to Fate’ Move.

The six pre-generated Vagabonds include Fineas the Champion, a Pug would-be hero who has become tired of war; Saga the Chronicler, a Possum fearless scholar whose curiosity drives them to uncover the secret of the past (and Talon Hill in particular); Shariyen the Envoy, a Bat diplomat who wants to end conflicts; Jeurgin the Heretic, a Rabbit healer and preacher wanting to found and build a faith in the Great Tree; Dona the Seeker, a Mole explorer who wants to dig into the ruins of Augustine Castle in Talon Hill; and Aurélien the Exile, a Lizard former knight who seeks revenge for being betrayed many years before. Most of these Vagabonds have links to the given Clearing in Root: Talon Hill Quickstart and all are complete with Natures and Drives, stats, backgrounds, Moves, Feats, and equipment. All a player has to do is decide on a couple of connections and each Playbook is ready to play.
As its title suggests, the given Clearing in Root: Talon Hill Quickstart is Talon Hill. Its description comes with an overarching issue and conflicts within the Clearing, important NPCs, places to go, and more. The situation in Talon Hill is different to that of most Clearings. A sprawl of modern buildings below the crumbling Augustine Castle atop a great tree, its core Conflict concerns a dynastic feud which has the potential to affect all of the Woodland. Although foxes dominate the Clearing, it is ruled by the Kingfishers, an old Eyrie family which once sat on the throne of the Eyrie Dynasties. The current possessor of the silver laurel crown is Lord Thurgud II of Talon Hill. His claim though, is disputed by his sister, Theodora, a successful general, and Gaius, an ambitious merchant who believes has a stronger claim via a more traditional means of determining the succession. All three believe Augustine Castle to hold several Eyrie symbols of power, possession of which would strengthen a claim to both wear the silver laurel crown of Talon Hill and potentially, the Eyrie Dynasties. This has led to standoff between the three factions and their forces over access to Augustine Castle, but if a way could be found into the crumbling ruins, perhaps they could found and one faction or another favoured…? Elsewhere in Talon Hill, the local band of smugglers, thieves, and cutthroats known as the Moonlight Syndicate is looking to expand beyond its agreement with the local Knight Sergeant of the Guard which keeps it in balance, and a rash of murdered birds have appeared on the streets of the clearing who appear to have been killed in a manner previously used by a Lizard Cult as part of its sacrifices. Has the Lizard Cult returned or is there another faction operating in Talon Hill? There is advice on how these Conflicts might play out if the Vagabonds do not get involved and there are no set solutions to any of the situations. For example, the Moonlight Syndicate will ultimately expand its operation and come to run law enforcement in Talon Hill. If there is an issue with any one of the four Conflicts, it is perhaps that the one involving the Moonlight Syndicate and the local Knight Sergeant of the Guard is a bit too similar to Conflicts found in other Clearings. However, the Conflict involving the disputed claim to the silver laurel crown and the Eyrie Dynasties pulls Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game and the Vagabonds into the backstory to the current situation of the Woodland, and potentially, pushes its story forward.

Physically, Root: Talon Hill Quickstart is a fantastic looking booklet, done in full colour and printed on heavy paper stock. It is well written and the artwork, taken from or inspired by the Root: A Game of Woodland Might & Right board game, is bright and breezy, and really attractive. Even cute. Simply, just as Root: The Pellenicky Glade Quickstart was for Free RPG Day 2020 and Root: The Bertram’s Cove Quickstart was for Free RPG Day 2020, so too Root: Talon Hill Quickstart is physically the most impressive of all the releases for Free RPG Day 2022.

If there is an issue with Root: Talon Hill Quickstart it is that it looks busy and it looks complex—something that often besets ‘Powered by the Apocalypse’ roleplaying games. Not only do players need their Vagabond’s Playbooks, but also reference sheets for all of the game’s Basic Moves and Weapon Moves—and that is a lot of information. However, it means that a player has all of the information he needs to play his Vagabond to hand, he does not need to refer to the rules for explanations of the rules or his Vagabond’s Moves. That also means that there is some preparation required to make sure that each player has the lists of Moves his Vagabond needs. Another issue is that the relative complexity and the density of the information in Root: Talon Hill Quickstart means that it is not a beginner’s game and the Game Master will need a bit of experience to run Talon Hill and its conflicts.

Ultimately, the Root: Talon Hill Quickstart comes with everything necessary to play and keep the attention of a playing group for probably three or four sessions, possibly more. Although it needs a careful read through and preparation by the Game Master, Root: Talon Hill Quickstart is a very good introduction to the rules, the setting, and conflicts in Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game—and it looks damned good too. For the Game Master who is already running a Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game campaign, the Root: Talon Hill Quickstart provides another Clearing that she can add to her campaign with the others available in the proper quick-start for the roleplaying game as well as releases for previous Free RPG Days.

Now in its fifteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2022, was celebrated not once, but twice. First on Saturday, 25th June in the USA, and then on Saturday, 23rd July internationally. This was to prevent problem with past events when certain books did not arrive in time to be shipped internationally and so were not available outside of the USA. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Reviews from R’lyeh was get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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Epic Encounters: Bridge of the Duergar Cult is a scenario part of the Epic Encounters series. Published by Steamforged Games for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, the Epic Encounters line is a series of boxed adventure sets which include a scenario and both floor plans and miniatures for use with the scenario. Steamforged Games divides its Epic Encounters series in three Tiers of Play—Lower, Middle, and Higher—which determine the standard Difficulty Check value that a Player Characters has to roll and Damage Level (or die type) suffered by a Player Character throughout the scenario. For Bridge of the Duergar Cult, there is no set Tier of Play, which means the scenario can be easily adjusted to suit the Level of the Player Characters. However, the high Challenge Rating of the end of level boss makes the scenario unsuitable for the lower Tier of Play. In addition, the scenario includes numerous motivations for the Duergar to explain their actions and hooks for the Player Characters to get involved. This immediately gives Epic Encounters: Bridge of the Duergar Cult a pleasing flexibility when it comes to the Dungeon Master adding it to her campaign.
Epic Encounters: Bridge of the Duergar Cult reveals that the stone-willed and brutally logical and darkly cruel Duergar have plan to extend their domination of the Underways and give their hatred of the surface world a physical reality. Under the leadership of the Duergar king, Roarie mac Nessa, they want to raise an ancient and terrible demon from the Abyss and then have it lead them into war across the Underworld and beyond… The ritual will be performed in the Temple of Medb, dedicated to the first ruler of the Duergar. Yet before anyone can enter the temple and prevent the ritual before it can be completed, they must cross the great Bridge of Cathbad, the formidable piece of engineering that is the last bastion of defence before the temple doors. Epic Encounters: Bridge of the Duergar Cult focuses upon these two locations—the Bridge of Cathbad and the Temple of Medb—and their defenders and their defences. Both are suspended over the abyss and require full on assaults by the Player Characters.
The Duergar are stalwart defenders. First, the Player Characters will need to overcome a phalanx of Duergar soldiers supported by archers; make their way across a bridge which shifts under their feet, its iron tiles trapping their ankles and impeding their progress; and the while being sniped at by Duergar Mages. The Player Characters will find that the environment favours the Duergar—stone giving them strength, knowledge of the defences an Armour Class bonus, and the magic that has seeped into the stone granting the Deep Dwarves Mages a definitive advantage. That is the least of the defences—at least on the bridge. Once in the Temple of Medb, the Player Characters are beset by a great gale which threatens to gust them over the edge and into the Abyss; by fire, blood, bile, and even gold, which jets out of the broken network of pipes which just from the temple walls; and by Duergar berserkers willing to throw themselves at the Player Characters, and then both themselves and the Player Characters into the Abyss to defend the temple to their great mistress. Throughout all of this chaos and battle sits Roarie mac Nessa, waiting, watching, and preparing to face those who would stop his plans. He himself has a Challenge Rating of eight, and is likely too tough an opponent for the lower Tier of Play.
Physically, Epic Encounters: Bridge of the Duergar Cult is cleanly and tidily presented. The artwork is excellent and the layout of the various NPCs and monsters easy to use. The two maps—one each for the Bridge of Cathbad and the Temple of Medb—are dark, if clear. These are slightly small for use with miniatures, but do look great. One problem with both maps is that neither is numbered. So, it is not obvious where particular locations are, which makes them a little difficult to use for the Dungeon Master.
Epic Encounters: Bridge of the Duergar Cult lives up to its title of being a genuinely ‘epic’ encounter. Its two great battles will challenge any group of Player Characters, though perhaps the rewards for all of that effort may be disappointing for some playing groups. Epic Encounters: Bridge of the Duergar Cult is a really good addition to any Dungeons & Dragons campaign set in the Underworld. If the Player Characters have been actively campaigning against the Duergar, then it can work as the culmination of the campaign, otherwise it can be slipped into the campaign as an epic sidequest. 

Two more weeks of gallery updating before the big August 27 seventh anniversary open house, and everyone is welcome to come by to see everything in progress. The gallery is open on August 13 from noon until 5:00 pm: there’s … Continue reading →

Now in its fifteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2022, was celebrated not once, but twice. First on Saturday, 25th June in the USA, and then on Saturday, 23rd July internationally. This was to prevent problem with past events when certain books did not arrive in time to be shipped internationally and so were not available outside of the USA. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Reviews from R’lyeh was get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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Goodman Games provided two titles to support Free RPG 2022, one of which was more highly anticipated than the other. As you would expect, the highly anticipated titles was Danger in the Air, an adventure for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. Yet as highly anticipated as Danger in the Air was, the other release should not be dismissed out of hand. The other release asks the question, “What do adventurers do between adventures?” Well, in the case of The Three-Wizard Conundrum, they get themselves involved in more adventures, of course! As the scenario opens, the party of brave adventurers is unwinding in a tavern, when they receive word that not one, not two, but three mighty wizards are in town, each looking for a band of capable adventurers to retrieve a fabled Ring of Wizardry. In return, they will pay a decent reward and let the Player Characters take whatever other treasure they recover. However, the task must involve great peril, for otherwise the wizards would have already found and obtained the ring for themselves.
The Three-Wizard Conundrum is an adventure for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition designed to be played by a party of Third and Fourth Level Player Characters. It is delightfully simple affair, really divided between the nicely detailed descriptions of the three scenario’s antagonists—Humboldt of Hightower, Dunbar the Arcane, and Rialto the Resplendent—and the three area dungeon that they send the protagonists to. All three wizards will approach the Player Characters and make them an offer if they will climb Cleft Mountain and once near its summit, descend into the depths of a deep gorge, the result of a great divine battle in ages past which has left magic reliable in the area. Hence their reluctance to descend into their depths themselves. This is reflected by the ‘Wild Magic Effects’ table which is rolled upon any time that a Player Character attempts to cast a spell and fails.
The Player Characters have the chance to check up on the three wizards and may learn a secret or two about the wizards before they climb the mountain and descend into its depths. There is more going on than meets the eye—though not much more given the length of the scenario—and ultimately, if the Player Characters survive they will have made an enemy or two, or three, or more. However, they are unlikely to have grabbed much in the way of treasure and extremely unlikely to have been paid, and for a very good reason. The whole situation is a scam, a fairly dark scam, which will keep both Dungeon Master and her players and their characters on their toes. The other reason that the lack of treasure is unlikely to be a bother is that The Three-Wizard Conundrum is an in-between adventure, a side trek affair, which slots very easily into any campaign.
Physically, The Three-Wizard Conundrum is superbly presented. The cover is excellent and internal artwork good. It does a careful read through to quite grasp what is going on, but the scenario is well written.
The Three-Wizard Conundrum is a really fun little adventure which should provide one or two sessions’ worth of play when the Dungeon Master slots it into her campaign. Although not specifically written for it, the scenario has all of the knavery and insouciance of Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth series of stories, which of course, Goodman Games is publishing as an adaptation of for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. Overall, The Three-Wizard Problem is a delightful in-between adventure which would slots into any Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition campaign or can be adapted to The Dying Earth Sourcebook for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. In the meantime, can we have more scams from Humboldt of Hightower, Dunbar the Arcane, and Rialto the Resplendent please?

Now in its fifteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2022, was celebrated not once, but twice. First on Saturday, 25th June in the USA, and then on Saturday, 23rd July internationally. This was to prevent problem with past events when certain books did not arrive in time to be shipped internationally and so were not available outside of the USA. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Reviews from R’lyeh was get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

—oOo—
One of the perennial contributors to Free RPG Day is Paizo, Inc., a publisher whose titles for both the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Starfinder Roleplaying Game have proved popular and often in demand long after the event. For Free RPG Day 2022, the publisher again provides a title for each of these two roleplaying games, A Fistful of Flowers for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Second Edition, the other being Skitter Warp for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. As in past years, this is an adventure involving four of the cheerfully manic, gleefully helpful, vibrantly coloured, six-armed and furry creatures known as Skittermanders—Dakoyo, Gazigaz, Nako, and Quonx. They were introduced in the Free RPG Day adventure for 2018, Starfinder: Skitter Shot, in which as the crew of the starship Clutch performed salvage tasks in the Vast beyond the Pact Worlds and then came across a derelict luxury liner, before being boarded by pirates and forced to crash land on a nearby world and survive as detailed in the Free RPG Day adventure for 2019, Starfinder: Skitter Crash. The foursome returned for Free RPG Day 2020 in Starfinder: Skitter Home—not to have adventures, but to have fun!
Starfinder: Skitter Warp is designed to be played by four Player Characters of Fifth Level. In addition to the core rules, the supplements Starfinder Alien Archive 2 and Starfinder Drift Crisis will be useful in running the adventure, but neither are required. The scenario returns to the planet Varkulon 4, the setting for Starfinder: Skitter Crash. In that scenario, a confrontation with a pirate ship combined with a strange natural phenomenon—now identified as the annual cosmic event known as a Drift cyclone—forced both ships to crash. The Player Characters must fight off the surviving pirates, repair their own ship, and make friends with the members of a scientific outpost, the Helix Lyceum, staffed by the slug-like Osharus. As a result of their efforts, the Player Characters acquired the salvage rights to the interesting debris which the Drift cyclone deposits on Varkulon 4. As Starfinder: Skitter Warp opens, the quartet of Skittermanders have returned to the world to collect more salvage—and once again, they are affected by a Drift cyclone.
The Drift cyclone is an annual cosmic event which occurs where the barrier between the Material Plane and Drift is thin. Varkulon 4 regularly passes through this region and so the crew of the Clutch is used to navigating its way around the phenomenon, but this year the ship is caught up in a miasma of planar energy which wreaks damage on the ship and as desperate message from the scientific outpost warns, on the planet below. Starfinder: Skitter Crash is primarily set up as a series of tasks built around events. So first, the Player Characters must repair their ship—which involves multiple tasks, such as using the Computer skill to plot the fastest route out of the miasma or the Athletics to rush to the engineering deck to heft power cables through access ports to reach power junctions—and then fending off an undead spaceship! Once the Player Characters reach the Helix Lyceum, they discover what is going on Varkulon 4—the planar energy unleashed by the Drift cyclone has transformed both planet and its inhabitants. The latter have transformed into either the best or the worst versions of themselves, so the majority of the scientists and inhabitants of the Helix Lyceum have become angelic and good, but those outside the scientific outpost have become demonic and evil, which includes friends of the Player Characters. Not only that, but the demonically transformed are now hellbent on smashing the Helix Lyceum and its inhabitants!
In the second half of the scenario, the Player Characters must defend the Helix Lyceum, including guiding civilians to safety, constructing defences, and holding off an attack by planar energy-transformed demons. These tasks can be done in any order, but get increasing difficult no matter which order they are dealt with. In addition, they are designed so that they have to be done with all four Player Characters rather than them splitting up and dealing with the tasks separately. This feels forced and some advice to handle what happens if the players decide their characters split up to deal with these tasks, would have been useful. Perhaps having the Player Characters realise that they cannot face a situation alone and they come to the rescue of each other? Once the Helix Lyceum is safe, the Player Characters can go out and track down their friends and hopefully save them and deal with the cause of the demonic outbreak which is attacking the Helix Lyceum.
Starfinder Skitter Warp is short and linear, no surprise given the format for Free RPG Day and the fact that it is intended as a demonstration adventure. Ideally, it should provide a session or two’s worth of entertaining play. Where the scenario differs from the previous scenarios involving the Skittermanders, is in the quartet of pre-generated characters provided for the players to roleplay. In the previous entries in the series, the four Player Characters are the Skittermanders—Dakoyo, Gazigaz, Nako, and Quonx. In Starfinder Skitter Warp, three of the Player Characters are Skittermanders. These are Dakoyo, Gazigaz, and Quonx. They are joined by Nakonechkin Ginnady, the male Vesk who is the others’ boss. It is great to see him play, his presence having been felt in the previous scenarios. However, this leaves the problem of what has happened to the fourth Skittermander, Nako. In the previous titles in the serious, he has always been a Player Character, but in Starfinder: Skitter Warp, he is shifted from being a Player Characters to NPC and discovering what happened to him is part of the scenario’s plot. Yet what if a player has roleplayed through the previous scenarios as Nako and wants to play him again? The obvious choice is to make Nakonechkin Ginnady the NPC, but Starfinder: Skitter Warp does not explore this option.
Physically, as with previous entries in the series, Starfinder: Skitter Warp is very nicely laid out and presented. The artwork is excellent, the writing clear, and the maps—placed inside the front cover—easy to use, if a little small. All exactly as you would expect for a scenario from Paizo, Inc.
If a group has played Starfinder: Skitter Shot, Starfinder: Skitter Crash, and Starfinder: Skitter Home before it, then doubtless they will be pleased to return to playing the humorous, if not silly, Skittermanders with Starfinder: Skitter Warp. Players new to Starfinder and the Skitterfinders may find the rules of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game slightly more complex than they expect and they certainly will not have the same sense of attachment to the Skittermander quartet as someone who has played the previous entries in the series. Even someone who played the previous scenarios may feel a sense of disconnect with the normally Player Character Nako being made an NPC.
Starfinder: Skitter Warp is a simple, straightforward scenario with a sense of both energy and urgency. Engagingly presented as you would expect for a title from Paizo, Inc. Starfinder: Skitter Warp is too deep into the story of the Skittermanders to quite work as an introduction to the Starfinder Roleplaying Game and ultimately, it is fans of both that will enjoy this scenario the most.

Hmm.  These questions can sometimes be a little cringe. BUT I am going to take it at face value.

I rather like my Ordinary World setting for NIGHT SHIFT.  The supernatural is real, but it largely wants to be left alone.  I just kinda like the idea that vampires work the morgue night shifts, werewolves are postal carriers, and the scary old lady down the street really is a witch.

Who knows. It might be fun!

Something a little different today, although I am not moving on from Pathfinder just yet. Today I want to explore the amazing reference that is the Echelon Reference Series from Keith Davies.  There are a bunch of these, but I am going to focus my attention on the witch.

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

Echelon Reference Series: Witch Spells Compiled (3pp+PRD)

2 PDFs. $33.99. 186 pages (PF) and 544 pages (3PP).

Yes. 730 pages total. This compiled collection covers both spells from various Pathfinder products and the 3rd Party Pathfinder products.  There is no fluff. Very little art.  Here is how each book breaks down.  There is a cover page, and OGL statement of Open Content page, a table of contents, and two pages on what this book is.  For the Pathfinder book there is three pages of OGL. For the 3rd Party book there are seven pages for the OGL. There is a hyperlinked index for both and hyperlinked table of contents.

The rest is solid text of spells.

And by spells. I mean every single witch spell ever published by the date of this book.  The 3rd Party book for example has nearly 30 pages of cantrips, 50 pages of 1st level spells, 60 2nd level spells and so on. 

The spells are given an editorial clean-up so that they all look similar and can flow well. 

What these books lack (and were never trying to cover) is all the fluff or explanatory pieces that might go with the background of a spell.  For example "Air Bubble" mentions a firearm can be loaded within an Air Bubble, but makes no attempt to explain anything more.  This is perfectly within the scope of this product.

The number of spells break down as follows:

Witch 3pp
Cantrips: 123
1st level: 200
2nd level: 251
3rd level: 221
4th level: 188
5th level: 163
6th level: 142
7th level: 131
8th level: 122
9th level: 109
Total 1,650

Witch Prd
Cantrips: 15
1st level: 83
2nd level: 107
3rd level: 88
4th level: 70
5th level: 51
6th level: 39
7th level: 40
8th level: 28
9th level: 22
Total 543

That's insane really. 

He also has these per level and for every spell casting class in Pathfinder.

You might ask if you buy this does that get rid of the need to buy other Pathfinder spell books? I say no since there is nothing here but the spells.  Other products often have the spells, explanatory notes, monsters, feats, and items that might go with them.  These books are a fancy SRDs. Highly organized and very useful ones at that.

If you are like me this is a treasure trove.

As mentioned with the nominations for the Dallas Morning News Best of DFW Awards last week, it’s awards season in the Dallas area. The big surprise this week is that the Texas Triffid Ranch was just nominated for the Dallas … Continue reading →

When did I start Game Mastering?  Right away to be honest.

It would have been with the D&D Basic Set edited by Tom Moldvay. I am sure I ran my younger brother and sister through some adventures.  I know I had made my own dungeons then and still have a couple of the maps. One, in particular, had a red dragon in one room and a green dragon in another.  No idea how they got through the doors.

I would like to think I got better.

Going back to some Pathfinder tonight. I can't help it there is a lot of great Pathfinder content out there. 

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

Character Options: Witches

PDF. $1.49. 7 pages. 1 page cover.  ½page OGL. 5½ pages of content.

This PDF gives us what I consider the "usual bag" of options for the Pathfinder Witch class. NOTE that is not a slight on this book or even a bad thing.  It is very, very often exactly what people want.

There are 10 new Patrons with their bonus spells. There are 10 new hexes as well.

There are three (3) new archetypes as well. These include the Devoted Witch (I might call this a Divine Witch or Witch Priestess), Green Witch (largely the same as mine in feel), and the Storyteller Witch which is a lot of fun.  It is closest to my "Good Walker" witch.

So for just under $1.50 you can get all of this. Not at all bad really. If you need some new witch options then this is a good choice.

I took advantage of the latest Christmas in July Sales at DriveThruRPG to get myself some Print on Demand deals.

I wanted a new Dragonlance hardcover to replace the one my son absconded with when he was little. I have also been wanting copies of City System and A Paladin in Hell for a while now.  Cult of the Dragon and Minsc and Boo's Journal of Villainy are gifts for the aforementioned son.

While that was getting printed and shipped to me my youngest was 3D printing my Sagarassi minis.  

They are a little hard to see, here is a close-up.

Yeah, still a little hard. Here is what they will look like painted.

I am pleased with how the prints turned out.

Ok. This one is up for some debate.

D&D and its variants of the time were all my "First" RPG.  I played them like they were all one game.  

My Second RPG?

That one was a bit fuzzier.  I know where I bought it though. It was from the Mail Order Hobby shop.  I know this because I am sure I bought them both at the same time because they were not available at my local book store.

It was either Chill or Traveller.  

For my "street cred" I will say Chill, but in my gut, I think it was Traveller. I do know that I did not get a chance to play either of them until much later in life. 

I still rather enjoy both games.

We are back to Pathfinder today, but honestly, with a name like this how can I possibly say no? 

Incantations from the Other Side: Spirit Magic

PDF. $9.99. 38 pages. 1-page cover. 1 credits page. 1-page table of contents. 1 page for OGL and index. 34 pages of content. Landscape page orientation (sometimes this cuts off art).

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

This book is divided into four major sections, each with a different author from the cover.  Each covers a different type of magic.

The Spirit World by Scott Gable introduces us to the book and the three types of spirit magic we will cover here. 

Vodou by Scott Gable. This is our first and is familiar by name. It involves working with various spirits, the Loa, many listed later in this section.  There seems to be some campaign setting specifics here. This is not a surprise because in our world Vodou, Vodun, and Voodoo are very location specific. This is mentioned in a sidebar here. 

There are some new spells, but beyond that there is plenty of information on how these spells are supposed to be used.  This section will not replace any of the works of say C.J. Carella on the subject, but it works great for Pathfinder.

The Middle World by Uri Kurlianchik. Covers the magic found in the tales from Russia and the Slavs. This includes a number of "House spirits."  Again we are treated to some familiar names; the Leshy, the Domovoi, but here they are spirits and not fae creatures exactly. Here we also have a few spells associated with the various creatures.

The Arcanum by Clinton Boomer. Lastly we have the Arcanum. This one covers "Starry Patrons" but there is a solid "from beyond the stars" feel to these. You can read these as Lovecraftian horrors, but they seem more aloof and alien even than that. 

This book succeeds in giving us a very different felling magic system that still works with the rules of Pathfinder. Since the publication of this book there have been more book on magic for Pathfinder, so it would be interesting to see how this works with these new works.

The art is full color and quite good.

The Monster Manual II for the 3.0 version of 3rd Edition appeared in 2002, just before the big transition to 3.5.  Like its namesake from 1st Edition, this MMII brings us some new monsters, but it also gives us a number of updated old favorites. 

Monster Manual II (3.0)

For this review, I am considering both the PDF from DriveThruRPG and the hardcover version I bought back in the early 2000s.

In the the 2 years since the Monster Manual was printed the designers of the 3rd Edition game had gotten a lot of feedback from players and also have seen the designs that other monster books have been able to do.  They knew what the players and the DMs were saying about monsters.  So the MMII has two overt purposes. The first, and the obvious one, is give us more monsters to use in out games. The second, and likely more helpful one, is to help clarify how the monster stat blocks are used and can be altered.  I want to discuss the second one first.

The first section of the book covers the monster stat blocks. How to read them and what sorts of details you are likely to find in them.  This is largely similar to the list to the MMI but there are a lot of additions, like the table of typic creature damage types by type and size.  Each creature type is broken down into what makes that type different than the other types with much more detail than in the MMI.

There are new guidelines on advancing monsters. This really is the reason to get this book. It expands greatly on the rules and lets you know how to do it with an example.

On the back side of the book, there are also new templates to apply to monsters to make other monsters.

In the middle, we have the reason that most people pick up the book, the monsters.  There are over 130 monsters listed here and some are new, others are old favorites.

We get some 1st Ed. MM1 favorites like the banshee, the catoblepas, the sylphs, the water weird (though now expanded into elemental weirds), and ixitxachitls.  There are a good number of Fiend Folio monsters too in the hook horror, grell, death knight (as a template), meenlock, dune stalker, Son of Kyuss, and needleman er needlefolk.  

The Daemons return, but this time they keep their 2nd Edition name of Yugoloths. Actually, I am good with that. Yugoloth always was cooler sounding than daemon anyway.  There are more demons and devils too and even some weird Lovecraftian beasts like the Moon Beast and more.

This addition to the Monster Manual line feels like it was more completing the MMI than it was a second book. I consider it a must-have book for any 3.x DM  with even a slight interest in monsters.

The art is great throughout and you can see the design is leaning into what will become known as "dungeon punk" later on.

Is this one of my favorite monster books? No. But it is a great work-horse book that has great designer information and a few really great monsters on top of that.

That one is a little harder to figure out.  I feel like that in the late 70s and early 80s D&D was all over the place. I knew of it as far back as 77 or 78. I didn't read any of it until 1979 though.

I borrowed the Monster Manual from my classmate Geordie Herald. I got a copy of Holmes' Basic from someone. My first real DM was Jon Cook. 

In truth, there was this critical mass of D&D in my town in the late 70s. I DO remember I almost didn't get involved with it due to my interest in video games. But reading mythology and "The Hobbit" and watching all sorts of horror movies I think made my involvement in the game at the time rather inevitable.

All roads lead to the Keep on the Borderlands it seemed.

Now in its fifteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2022, was celebrated not once, but twice. First on Saturday, 25th June in the USA, and then on Saturday, 23rd July internationally. This was to prevent problem with past events when certain books did not arrive in time to be shipped internationally and so were not available outside of the USA. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Reviews from R’lyeh was get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

—oOo—

Curse of the Dread Marsh Crew is an adventure for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Published by Loke BattleMats, a publisher best known for its maps for roleplaying games, such as The Towns & Taverns Books of Battle Mats, The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats, and The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats, the scenario takes place in the same setting as the Box of Adventure 2: Coast of Dread. It involves pirates, a cemetery, a curse, and undead in short encounter which easily be played in a session. It comes with four pre-generated Player Characters of Second Level as well as a doubled-sided map and a sheet of counters, both on heavy cardboard. The adventure involves a good mix of combat, interaction, and a big puzzle, and is highly thematic, but in terms of its plotting, it needs a bit work.

In Curse of the Dread Marsh Crew the Player Characters are members of the privateer, Dread Marsh, who have been sent on a mission by the ship’s quartermaster, Axell. They were to acquire the Emerald Eye, a great gem, said to be held in the tomb of the legendary pirate, Foxbeard, which is in the Windward Cemetery. As the scenario opens, with Axell’s advice, they have successfully entered the tomb and exited with the Emerald Eye in hand. Yet as soon as they make their exit, the tomb entry slams shut, a mist surrounds the cemetery, and their very flesh begins to rot. It appears that they have been afflicted by the ‘Curse of the Black Mark!’

So the Player Characters begin the scenario being dead! Which brings with it a host of problems—terrible speech, looking and smelling like a zombie, a vulnerability to Radiant damage, and being unable to benefit from any type of Rest, as well as being unable to leave the cemetery. Their first problem though, is that the cemetery watchman along with his dog, Snuffles, arrives to keep an eye on the place overnight. Fortunately, he is short-sighted and so will not spot that they undead so easily. This is not the only difficulty the Player Characters will face as a torch and pitchfork-wielding mob will turn up from the nearest village, but for either encounter, there are plenty of options detailed, so the players can approach them in numerous ways, not necessarily via combat. Similarly, the two locations of the scenario—Windward Cemetery and Foxbeard’s crypt—are both nicely detailed.

In the second part of the scenario, arcane symbols light up around the entrance to Foxbeard’s Crypt. These are part of puzzle which must be solved before the Player Characters can get back into the crypt, but surely, they would have solved that when they broke into the tomb the first time? Inside, they face Foxbeard himself, wanting revenge for their having stolen the Emerald Eye, as well as members of his undead crew. Also, why did Foxbeard not rise and take his revenge when they were they broke into the tomb the first time? The obvious solution would be for the Player Characters to have been brilliant when they originally plundered the tomb and not disturbed the dread pirate in his final resting place  and then forgotten the solution to the puzzle as a result of their suffering from the ‘Curse of the Black Mark!’ The Dungeon Master may instead come up with a solution of her own, but either way, it is a problem in terms of the narrative.
All the while this is going on, the Player Characters are under the effects of the ‘Curse of the Black Mark!’. If they kill anyone in the cemetery—and there is a warning to found if they search the cemetery—the Black Mark on their hand will grow. Kill too many persons and the Black Mark will grow and grow until they are permanently transformed into one of the undead. There is a means to lift the curse to be found, but that means entering the tomb of course.

The four Player Characters include a Fighter, a Rogue, a Warlock, and a Wizard, all Second Level. All come with a back story, a thumbnail portrait, and a tracker for the ‘Curse of the Black Mark!’. The latter s nicely done as a hand, but there are no other mechanical effects as the Black Mark grows. It might have been fun if there had been to help enforce a sense of impending doom if there had been.

Physically, Curse of the Dread Marsh Crew is decently presented. The scenario booklet is general, well written and laid out. It lacks a card cover and so is flimsy. The double-sided map is done on sturdy card and in full colour. One side depicts the cemetery and the entry to the tomb, whilst the other shows the tomb proper. Both maps are easy to use with either the included counters, or with miniatures if the Dungeon Master and her players have them. The counters are decently done, but do need to be cut out carefully.

Curse of the Dread Marsh Crew is potentially a lot of fun and it takes the classic combination of pirates and the undead and does something different with it. The scenario also contains some nicely scenes as a consequence, such as making friends with a dog when you appear to be undead and persuading a baying mob that you are actually alive. Whilst the scenario can be played straight as written, it does have some plot holes which the Dungeon Master will have to fix to really bring out the fun to be had in Curse of the Dread Marsh Crew.

Now for something a little different. Pathfinder is great, but it is not the only 3.x-based game out there not named Dungeons & Dragons.  For a while there I did a lot stuff for D20 Modern and I still like to pick up material for it.  Though today I think a 5e-based Modern might be the way to go.

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

Witchology 101

PDF. 60 pages, $2.99. 1 page cover, 1 title page, 1 page introduction, 3 pages table of contents. 3 pages Creative Common license, 1 page OGL.  Rest content.

This book is punching way above its weight class, to be honest.   The organization is a bit odd, but nothing I can't navigate. 

We get a Glossary at the start, which I guess works to help people unfamiliar with some of these terms.  An introduction to a Who's Who of magical people and places. This includes the various school of magic as if they were actual schools. Each school gets its Latin motto, its center of studies, and titles. It is a pretty cool idea really.  Spells by school are listed with their appropriate colleges. 

There is a whole implicit setting here that can be used in conjunction with any Modern d20 game that also has magic, say like Urban Arcana. It can also be used with other modern games that are built on a d20 system.  I am not 100% sure, but I bet it would work with Mutants and Masterminds for example.

This is a d20-based rule book so there are some features of that. What am I saying? There are Feats! Quite a few in fact. There are spells, some new, some we have seen before (this is fine).  Also to my pleasure, there are new creatures or some reskinned ones. This is a must I think.

It has a Creative Commons License and the OGL. I am not really sure if you can mix the two.  But that does not detract from my enjoyment of it.

So for just under $3 you get 50 pages of solid content. There is no art to speak of, but that is fine really.

Solid work.

I have to admit, I am a big fan of the "Rule of 2" we use for NIGHT SHIFT.

From the rules:

The rule of 2: this is my name for a sub-system in D&D that has never been precisely codified, but is buried deep in the bones of the game. Any time a situation needs to be adjudicated in D&D for which there is not another system, throw a die, and on a result of 1 or 2, it happens. Listening at a door (and not a thief)? You hear noise on a 1 or 2. Looking to notice a secret door (and not a dwarf or elf)? Roll a d6 and you find it on a 1 or 2. Surprise? 1 or 2. The only thing that changes, for the most part, is the type of die--rangers, for example, use a d8 surprise die--and some character types may adjust the probability (elves noticing a secret door without searching is a 1 on a d6).

A nice simple rule that covers a bunch of situations.