It is 1870. In Hofwasser Village in Styria, the eastern region of Austria that borders Hungary, a strange affliction has struck many young women, the symptoms mysterious and often fatal. One day they are bright, energetic, and full of life, then the next their skin pales as white as milk and they become lethargic, losing their appetites, and gaining a sensitivity to light such that they dare not venture out of doors. Already one young woman has died from this strange sickness and there are two more girls in the village showing symptoms. What is this dreadful illness which has struck the village? Many of the village’s older residents have begun to recall the folktales of the region they learned as children, of black beasts in the darkness, of forest demons that lure innocents to their doom, worse, of the much-feared Upir, a soulless monster that preys on the blood of its victims. Hofwasser Village is also home to Colonel Daniel Morton, a former British attaché to the Austrian service, who has retired and now lives in the schloss, Karnstein Hall. He too has grown concerned about the illness, fearing that it will come to infect both his teenage daughter, Laura, and the young charge, Carmilla, he is looking after.
If all this sounds familiar, then it probably means that you have read Carmilla, the Victorian-era novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Predating Bram Stoker’s Dracula by twenty-five years, this is a classic tale of Gothic romance and vampiric horror with a strong female antagonist, which is now the direct—very direct inspiration for Carmilla, a scenario published by Yeti Spaghetti and Friends. Part of the publisher’s ‘Frightshow Classics’ line, it is ostensibly written for use with Chill or Cryptworld: Chilling Adventures into the Unexplained, the percentile mechanics of the scenario mean that it could easily be adapted to run with Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and similar roleplaying games.

Carmilla opens with the Player Characters at Karnstein Hall. They are there with Colonel Daniel Morton to assist him in determining the cause of the malady that has beset the young women of Hofwasser and been cause of one death so far. After some tea—there is actually a lot of tea consumption in the scenario as Karnstein Hall is a bastion of the British Empire in ‘Mitteleuropa’—and the first of several listless encounters with Colonel Morten’s daughter and recent charge, Laura and Carmilla, he asks for the Player Characters’ help. The initial investigation takes place in the nearby village at the homes of the affected women, but later there is scope for research in the library at Karnstein Hall, which reveal some oddities that suggest that the mystery lies closer at home. The Player Characters’ suspicions will be confirmed following the funeral of one of the young women in the village and that will lead to a nasty confrontation in the confines of the Karnstein family mausoleum.
The advice for running Carmilla states that, “As an adaptation of a fairly popular story, players should be willing to suspend their knowledge of plot for the sake of playing their characters more accurately (offering Experience Points for roleplaying can help encourage this).” This is either a challenge or a problem depending upon your point of view, due because what the scenario is asking the players is to roleplay characters who do not know what a vampire is and unlike the players, are not steeped in over a century’s worth of vampiric lore. This is in the face of a situation where the players are fully aware that Laura is the victim of a vampire and that vampire is Carmilla. Literally, aware players could end the scenario in fifteen minutes by going to Carmilla’s bedroom, breaking down its door, and kill her. The scenario does not want the players to do that, but wants them to play through the investigation and experience the effects of the vampire’s predation and determine its cause. The scenario also admits that it proceeds in linear fashion and it does, very much keeping the players away from directly investigating either Laura or Carmilla.
As with other scenarios in the publisher’s ‘Frightshow Classics’ line, Carmilla includes eight pre-generated Player Characters. They are divided between visitors and staff at Karnstein Hall. The staff consist of Madame Raquel Perrodon, governess to Laura Morton; Mademoiselle Beatrix De Lafontaine, the French finishing governess to Laura; and Frau Franziska Pichler, the cook at Karnstein Hall. The visitors include General Gerhard Spielsdorf, a former colleague and new friend of Colonel Morton; Fraulein Johanna Bauer, a young hunter who lives in the nearby woods; Dr. Hans Hartog, a laudanum-addicted medical doctor with an interest in eastern mysticism; Father Augustus Koellerer, the local Catholic priest; and Baron Maximilian Vordenburg, a local noble with a fascination for folklore. Only one of the eight, Mademoiselle Beatrix De Lafontaine, has any Paranormal Abilities and so might give the Player Characters a slight advantage in certain situations.
The scenario is supported with two good maps, one of the village of Hofwasser and the other of the mausoleum where the final confrontation with Carmilla takes place. There is no map of Karnstein Hall, which is slightly disappointing, but its inclusion might have encouraged further exploration of the Morton family home which the scenario would prefer the players not to do. The back cover blurb for the scenario also serves as a handout and there is one handout in the book, which is plain.
Physically, Carmilla is well written and has excellent artwork. The combination of a linear structure and a clear layout means that the scenario is going to be easy to run.
As written, Carmilla is not a challenging scenario to run. As written, Carmilla is going to be a challenging scenario to play. This is because it demands that the players suspend their self-knowledge, locking it away for the length of the scenario, and roleplay characters who have no knowledge of the threat they face and have to learn about it, bit by bit. It does help that ‘Carmilla’ is not a wholly traditional vampire in the style of Dracula and it does help that it is intended to be played in a single session. As an adaptation of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s short story, Carmilla, the scenario is decently done, but as a scenario, Carmilla is making big demands of its players and keeping a straight face because of those demands and not being able to rush off and always investigate where a player might want to, makes it hard work. And this in a scenario designed for casual, one-shot play. If the players are able to do this—or they have not read the original short story, then Carmilla is a serviceable one-shot, easily prepared and run.

Last time I talked about my adventures in Forgotten Realms, which was all about the urban adventures of Waterdeep. This week, I’m going to flip that lens outward, into the wilds, and take a look at a supplement that’s equal parts field guide, lore dump, and DM toolbox: Elminster’s Ecologies (1994).

Now, a small caveat. I don’t own the original boxed set with all its booklets. What I do have is the DriveThruRPG PDF bundle and the print-on-demand softcover, which compiles the whole thing into one thick book. No box, no handouts, but all nine 32-page booklets are there, and honestly, the POD version is probably easier to read anyway since this is written like an in-universe resource.

Another small caveat, one that affected my perspective. I have known about this boxed set for years. But I thought it was a collection of the various Ecology of articles from Dragon Magazine. So if you hear a subtle bit of disappointment in my tone here, that is why. Look that is no fault at all of the product in front of me. It is my fault for not setting my expectations appropriately. It *IS* objectively a good Realms product. Just not the one I thought it was all these years. 

Elminster's Ecologies (2e)

1994. by Rick Swan, Monte Cook, Eric Haddock, Anthony Pryor.

Note: For an "Elminster" themed book, there is no Ed Greenwood in this as far as I can tell. 

Elminster’s Ecologies does something a little unusual for TSR at the time. Instead of another city box or adventure series, this one focuses entirely on environments. The conceit is that Elminster (and his “field correspondents”) are writing in-character about the natural world of the Realms. It’s like Volo’s Guides, but instead of inns and alehouses, you get trees, rivers, beasts, and bogs.

The box contained nine booklets:

Explorer’s Manual. The “master key” of the set, with Elminster’s musings, excerpts from his ongoing natural history of Faerûn, color-coded encounter tables, and the enigmatic “Rules of the Rabbit.”

Cormanthor. The ancient forest, its trees and mystical wildlife, and the rumors that still drift beneath the boughs.

Anauroch. A deep dive into the desert: the shifting sands, the High Ice, the Plain of Standing Stones, even the Underdark beneath it all. Survival, monsters, and lost secrets abound.

Coastal Aquatic Lands – The Sea of Fallen Stars. The largest inland sea in the Realms gets its due, from fish to krakens, with sea stories and notes on the cultures clinging to its shores.

The Cormyrean Marshes. Brother Twick’s journal paints the swamps as treacherous, full of dangerous monsters and stranger rumors.

The Stonelands and the Goblin Marches. Rugged terrain, fading wildlife, the ever-present goblin threat, and a few truly massive beasts.

The Thunder Peaks and the Storm Horns. Two mountain ranges, with their harsh climates, common life, monsters of the peaks, and local legends.

The Great Gray Land of Thar. A bleak, arid region with hard conditions and stranger mysteries—exactly the sort of place Elminster would call “unpleasantly educational.”

The Settled Lands. Farmlands, villages, and the borders of civilization. Here you get a look at the everyday ecologies that brush up against the wilderness.

Each booklet follows a familiar structure: a personal introduction, a survey of the land, detailed notes on monsters and natural life, and then “rumors and legends” that a DM can immediately use as hooks.

What makes this set shine is how it reframes monsters and encounters. You don’t just get “roll d8, 1-2 owlbear.” Instead, you get owlbears in context, how they live, what they eat, how other monsters avoid them, and how a random traveler might actually run into one. A marsh isn’t just a backdrop for lizard men, it’s a dangerous, interconnected ecosystem where the lizard men, the crocodiles, and the giant frogs are all part of the same web.

The encounter tables in the Explorer’s Manual really drive this home. They’re organized by biome and color-coded to match the booklets, making it easy to swap in details wherever your PCs happen to wander.

One thing though. There are no Monstrous Compendium pages. Not only there isn't even a good section to "cut out" and put into my Monstrous Compendium binders. Yes, this has much more to do about me and what I *thought* this product was rather than what it actually is.

The Realms in ’94

The timing of this release is also worth noting. TSR was really leaning into “in-character writing” in the early ’90s: Volo’s Guides, Pages from the Mages, and now Elminster’s Ecologies. Cormyr was getting lots of love, with its own sourcebook, adventures, and now half this box dedicated to its borders and neighbors. The in-character style is fun and gives a lot of Realms flavor. But sometimes the “in-character” voice gets in the way of practical DM info. Still, it is what I want from the Realms; it is what separates it from other fantasy worlds. 

Sinéad, Nida, and Company

And what of my characters in the Realms? Well, Sinéad and Nida are still lingering in Waterdeep, but the pull eastward grows stronger. The road through the Heartlands is long, and as I flip through Elminster’s Ecologies, I can’t help but see it as a ready-made travelogue for their journey.

If they leave the City of Splendors behind, their path east will naturally thread through the Dalelands and into Cormanthor. That’s one of the booklets covered in the Ecologies, and it’s a perfect setting for a side trek. Sinéad, with her pagan background, would be spellbound by the great trees and the old magic of the forest, an echo of her homeland, but deeper and stranger. Nida, more practical, might be the one keeping her eyes on the monsters lurking in those woods.

From there, they could skirt Anauroch. I don’t know if I want them to cross the desert outright, but even brushing its borders could provide some fantastic challenges. The Ecologies gives me survival notes, monsters adapted to the sands, and whispers of the Underdark beneath, just the kind of flavor that could delay their progress, or tempt them off the road with legends of buried secrets.

The Sea of Fallen Stars booklet also feels useful. Even if the party doesn’t cross the sea directly, they’ll certainly pass along its shores. Tales of the Dragonmere or the Dragon Reach could add both color and danger, pirates, sahuagin, or worse. It’s a reminder that not all travel is overland.

And then there are the mountains. The Thunder Peaks and the Storm Horns sit along possible eastward routes, and both regions are detailed here. Jaromir, whom I keep playing less as a “barbarian” and more like a warrior of the Fianna, would feel at home in the high places, testing his strength against mountain predators. I could easily see a ranger path opening up for him here, with the ecology booklets giving me just the right kinds of encounters. The book is fun, and it gives me a lot to think about. While I have said that Fighter with the Barbarian kit is a good choice for him, I might see if I can change him to Ranger. And I need to see if I have a copy of the Complete Ranger's Handbook OR I might cheat and look ahead to see what the Spellbound boxed set has for me. 

Finally, Rhiannon. If she is to embrace her Rashemi witch heritage, then a long journey through these liminal, witch-haunted spaces seems exactly right. The Cormyrean Marshes, with their strange monsters and whispered rumors, would be a fine testing ground for her. She may not yet be home, but the marshes, with their witches’ whispers, could foreshadow what awaits her in Rashemen. More ideas for my Witches' Secret Journey.

So the question remains, will Sinéad and Nida follow Rhiannon and Jaromir eastward? That was always my idea, but Waterdeep’s siren call is strong. And I have so many ideas for Waterdeep.

The Ecologies gives me the scaffolding for either path. If they stay west, they linger in the greatest city of the Sword Coast. If they go east, they’ll wander through forests, deserts, swamps, and mountains that feel alive, thanks to this odd little box set from 1994.

This is their travel guide, their road map, and the background in which the characters grow. 

DriveThruRPG PDF and PoD

The scans of this product are top notch. The PDFs are very clear and very sharp. This translates well into the Print on Demand copy as well. Maybe one of the best I have seen in a while to be honest.

There is a lot of color throughout. It does make me wish I had grabbed this as a boxed set when I had the chance. My opinions of it when from high, to low, back to high now.

Final Thoughts

Elminster’s Ecologies is one of those quirky TSR experiments that I’m glad exists. It’s not essential Realms material, but it makes the wilderness feel alive in a way few supplements ever try to do. If Forgotten Realms Adventures was about the cities, this is about everything in between: the swamps, forests, deserts, mountains, and seas that adventurers must cross to get from one tavern to the next.

This is not a game product you sit down and use in one session. It is a game product you grab in game sessions when the characters are in the right places. It is used throughout your stay in the 2nd Ed Realms. Ok, it can be used in every edition to be honest. Ignore the minor edition-specific material and go with it.

For DMs running wilderness-heavy campaigns, this is a goldmine of ideas. For Realms fans, it’s a snapshot of TSR in the ’90s, trying something a little different. And for me, even just in POD form, it’s another reminder that the Realms isn’t just kings and wizards, it’s owls in the trees, frogs in the marshes, and strange rules about rabbits.

When we talk about the foundations of Dungeons & Dragons, the names that come up most often are the obvious ones: Robert E. Howard, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Jack Vance, among others. But alongside Conan and hobbits stands another set of icons, the roguish duo of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, born from the imagination of Fritz Leiber.

In Appendix N, Leiber's entry is "Leiber, Fritz. 'Fafhrd & Gray Mouser' series; et al." So that leaves me a lot of room to explore his works. 

Leiber’s tales of Lankhmar gave us thieves’ guilds, a decadent city, and sword-and-sorcery camaraderie that would become staples of the game. And a couple of tales where witchcraft plays an important role.

The Snow Women (1970)

Before he became a hero of Lankhmar, Fafhrd was a youth of the cold North, raised among the Snow Women. This community of women was led by Mor, Fafhrd’s mother, who dominates both him and the other men of their tribe through will, manipulation, and a kind of communal witchcraft.

The Snow Women are not cackling hags with bubbling cauldrons; their magic is subtler. It lies in the power of custom, ritual, and fear. Their witchcraft is not just spellwork but social control, and it casts a frost over every relationship in the story. For young Fafhrd, escaping their grip is as much an act of rebellion against sorcery as it is against his mother’s authority.

This tale shows witchcraft not as something learned in a grimoire, but as an inheritance and an atmospher a cold wind that shapes destinies.  In many ways they remind me of tales of Finnish witchcraft. I have a hard time reading about these women and not think of Louhi, the Crone (and Maiden too) of Pohjola. This leads us to Iggwilv, the "spiritual daughter" of Louhi and Mor.

In the Witch’s Tent (1968)

Later, in the story In the Witch’s Tent (collected in "Swords Against Wizardry"), Leiber presents us with another kind of witch. Here, Fafhrd and the Mouser find themselves consulting a prophetess. The scene is thick with atmosphere: the tent filled with smoke, the seeress exhaling her visions like opium haze, the sense that knowledge comes at a cost.

This witch is less about domination and more about liminality. She occupies that familiar role of the oracle, standing at the threshold between worlds. But in true Leiber fashion, she is not a benign guide. Her words are dangerous, her presence uncanny, and the tent itself feels like a trap. The scene could be dropped whole into any RPG session as the archetypal fortune-teller who reveals just enough truth to get the characters into trouble.

Conjure Wife (1943)

If Leiber’s Fafhrd and Mouser stories gave us witches in the context of sword-and-sorcery, it was his first novel, Conjure Wife, that put witchcraft at the center of the narrative.

Or as I have said in the past, “Between Bewitched and Rosemary’s Baby lies Leiber’s Tansy.”

Norman Saylor, a rational-minded professor, discovers that his wife, Tansy, has been secretly practicing protective magic. When he convinces her to stop, he learns the hard way that witchcraft is not merely superstition, and that rival witches have been circling all along.

As I wrote in my earlier review:

Conjure Wife has been held up as sort of a prototype of the modern American Witch tale.  Seemingly normal wives in a small East Coast town married to normal, rational men of science and academia turn out to be powerful witches engaged in a silent secret war of magic.

... They were intelligent (more so than their husbands), clever and some down right evil and all were powerful. By the end of the book, you are left feeling that the men in this tale are really no more than children, a bit dim ones at that.

This is what makes Conjure Wife powerful: the way it sets witchcraft not in ancient forests or ruined temples, but in the kitchens and parlors of mid-century America. The witches here are faculty wives, the battleground is tenure politics, and the weapons are hexes whispered between cocktail parties. It is both psychological horror and social commentary, and it remains one of the most influential witchcraft novels of the 20th century.

It has also been made into three different movies, Weird Woman (1944), Burn, Witch, Burn aka "Night of the Eagle" (1962), and Witches' Brew (1980).

Our Lady of Darkness (1977)

Decades later, Leiber returned to occult horror with Our Lady of Darkness, a novel steeped in the landscapes of San Francisco and the esoteric science of “megapolisomancy,” a fictional occult science that focuses on harnessing the supernatural forces present in large cities. There is even a connection to Clark Aston Smith.

This isn’t a witch story in the conventional sense, but it resonates with the same archetypal power. Its date allows me to make a claim for it as "sliding into home" just barely.

At its heart, Our Lady of Darkness is about the anima, that Jungian figure of the feminine that exists within the male psyche. She is muse and terror, desire and destruction, and in Leiber’s hands, she becomes a literal haunting presence. The Lady of the title is both a psychological construct and a supernatural force, a liminal witch of the soul.

This is a theme I’ve explored myself in the character of Larina Nix. Larina, too, is not just a witch but an embodiment of anima at once familiar, archetypal, and unsettling. She represents how the witch figure can exist in both myth and the inner landscape of the imagination.

While Our Lady of Drakness may not have influenced D&D at all, there are a lot of things here you can find in the RPG Kult. Sadly, this book is nowhere near as good as Leiber's other works, especially Conjure Wife. 

Closing Thoughts

When it comes to witches, Leiber made one significant contribution: Conjure Wife. The Snow Women and the prophetess of In the Witch’s Tent add atmosphere to Fafhrd’s world, but they are more color than core. Our Lady of Darkness circles the same archetypal ground from a Jungian angle, but it isn’t witchcraft in the usual sense.

Yet even if these stories didn’t leave much of a mark on D&D, they left a mark on me. Conjure Wife remains one of the best examples of modern witchcraft horror, and its faculty wives locked in a secret magical war still resonate. The others, Mor’s cold grip, the seeress in her smoky tent, and the anima-haunted towers of San Francisco, add layers to Leiber’s legacy and to my own sense of how witches live in story: sometimes social, sometimes symbolic, sometimes spectral, but always there. 

It was Monday, September 11, 2000.

I actually remember it pretty well. I went to my Favorite Local Game Store and I picked up the new Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition. I grabbed the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide and the Creature Collection, the first OGL monster book released. I had to wait a bit longer for the official Monster Manual.

That was 25 years ago this week.

 When D&D 3.0 hit the game stores in 2000, I was ready for it. I had been away from D&D for several years and was eager to get back into it. So, D&D 3.0 was the right game for me at the right time. In truth, there is still a lot I love about D&D 3.x, and significant advances were made in terms of game design and lore.  

This edition was new. So new that, unlike the past editions, this one was not very backward compatible. This was fine since Wizards of the Coast (now dropping the TSR logo) had provided a conversion guide. The books were solid. All full color and the rules had expanded to fix some of the issues of previous versions of D&D. Armor class numbers got larger as the armor got stronger, as opposed to lower numbers being better. Charts for combat were largely eliminated, the number on the sheet was what you had to roll against. Everyone could multiclass, all the species (races) could be any class without restrictions, though some were better at it than others, and everyone had skills. 

But the most amazing thing about 3rd Edition D&D was that, aside from a few protected monsters and names, Wizards of the Coast gave the whole thing away for free! Yes, the books with art cost money. But the rules, just a text dump, were free for everyone to download. It was called the System Reference Document or SRD. It was all the rules so that 3rd-party publishers could produce their own D&D compatible material. With these rules, you could play D&D without the books. There was no art and no "fluff" text, but everything was there.

D&D 3rd edition had an good run from 2000 to about 2008. 

I played it quite a bit to be honest and there is a lot about it I still love. It was the game system I used to teach my kids how to play and one I still enjoy going back to. It is also one of the few editions of D&D I never really played much. I was always a DM. So other than a version of Larina and Johan Werper IV, I don't have a lot of characters for 3e. The only time I ever got to play it was at conventions, mostly Gen Con.

I loved the 3rd Edition's multiclassing and, honestly, I loved Prestige Classes. But things got ridiculous at high levels. Ever try stating up a high level character from scratch? But I would still play it if given the chance. 

So here is to 25 years of D&D 3.0. You were not the perfect game, but your were perfect for me at the time.

 

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?Old Owl Tower is a scenario for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha in which the Player Characters are asked to investigate the source of a horde of mythical creatures which are attacking a village.

It is sequel to The Gate of Dusk and a possible corollary to the scenarios, ‘The Pegasus Plateau’ and ‘Crimson Petals’, from The Pegasus Plateau & Other Stories: Seven Ready-to-Play Adventures for RuneQuest.

It is the second part of a series of scenarios which explores the future of the Locaem tribe.

It is a full colour, ninety-one page, 289.29 MB PDF.

The layout is clean and tidy, though a little tight in places, and it is decently illustrated, especially the NPCs.

The cartography is excellent.
Where is it set?Old Owl Tower takes place in Owlstead, the main settlement for the Owl clan, and nearby, but all with the lands belonging to the Locaem tribe.
It is set after the DragonRise in 1625 or early 1626.
Who do you play?
Old Owl Tower does not require any specific character type, but Player Characters who are capable warriors are highly recommended as is a Lankhor Mhy initiate, whilst a Shaman will potentially be overwhelmed. Knowledge of Dark Tongue could be useful.
What do you need?
Old Owl Tower requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and the RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary, whilst The Pegasus Plateau & Other Stories: Seven Ready-to-Play Adventures for RuneQuest might be useful, but is not required to run the scenario.
What do you get?Old Owl Tower is, initially, a straightforward and even old-fashioned scenario. A village in peril. Monsters attack. The Player Characters are asked to investigate and determine the source of the trouble. Numerous reasons are suggested as to why the Player Characters have come to Owlstead, but the primary one is they are visiting Owlstead as emissaries of the Wind Lord, Farinst of the Richberry Clan, who wishes to become the king of the Locaem Tribe, the previous one having been killed in the Dragonrise, and wants to know if he will have the support of Dringar, chieftain of the Owl Clan. Ideally, the Player Characters will have protected Farinst whilst he underwent a ritual to improve his chances of becoming king as detailed in The Gate of Dusk.
The initial steps in the investigation are quite easy, the monsters having left a trail that the Player Characters can follow. as they proceed along the trail, the landscape begins to change, becoming bright and vibrant, the air fresh and full of strange insects, life itself appearing to bloom in pleasing fashion. However, once the Player Characters reach and enter the ‘Old Owl Tower’ of the title that the dangers truly begin, or at least when they get to the end of the complex below. Between the entrance and the end of the complex below is a series of highly detailed rooms that will interest a Lankhor Mhy Player Characters, but not others. However, exploring does help, even though the characters and the players may not be aware of it.
Ultimately, what the Player Characters will find at the end of the complex is an artefact dating back to the time of the Empire of the Wyrms Friends which allows the user to peer into God Time! Unfortunately, the process is actually two way and the Player Characters are likely to find themselves facing interlopers who have got themselves lost in the present! This encounter is likely to begin with a fight and end with some challenging explanations.
In many ways, the most interesting part of Old Owl Tower is what happens after the situation in the complex has been resolved. A neighbouring clan gave a scholar permission to investigate the complex despite it not actually sitting on their lands. The scholar is aghast at the duplicity of the neighbouring clan, though its chief is unrepentant if confronted. Perhaps it will take the involvement of the ‘new king’ to resolve the matter? As a reward, the Player Characters could also be adopted into the clan, especially if they are willing to remain and guard the complex. This would also strengthen ties to the Owl Clan and the Locaem Tribe as a whole. The scenario provides a surprising number hooks, both long term and short term, which the Game Master could develop to support a campaign based in the lands of the Owl Clan and the complex itself. Ultimately, Old Owl Tower is very much a campaign scenario rather than a standalone affair.
Almost a third of Old Owl Tower is devoted to a lengthy bestiary, including many creatures past ages before time began. The maps are also provided separately.
Old Owl Tower has a solid set-up and an intriguing conclusion, plus a surprisingly thought through and supported aftermath. However, the middle section is not very exciting and it is not going to interest very many characters, let alone their players. If the players can abide the exploration middle part of the scenario, then they will have opportunity aplenty for roleplaying and good storytelling—and more so if they stick around long after the events of the scenario.
Is it worth your time?Yes—Old Owl Tower is a good campaign scenario and sequel to The Gate of Dusk, pulling the Player Characters into the ongoing story of the Locaem Tribe, and that is how it is best used.No—Old Owl Tower is much too tied to the Locaem Tribe and its future, and it really does not start to get interesting until the very end of the scenario and in its aftermath.Maybe—Old Owl Tower is easy to run and its strong ties to the Locaem Tribe could see the Player Characters attempting to forge stronger ties between the Locaem Tribe and their own.

 Small folk have always found a place at the edges of fantasy worlds, halflings and hobbits in their holes, gnomes tinkering in their burrows, kender poking their noses where they don’t belong. The Brindlekin are cut from the same cloth but stitched in different patterns.

The Brindlekin populate my new world of Iriandor. Overtly, this world is for D&D 5e or Daggerheart; a bright new world where I can create something new. Brindlekin come from the question I had of "do we really need gnomes AND halflings?"

Brindlekin

The Brindlekin are little wanderers with fur-tufted ears, wide curious eyes, and a knack for mischief that borders on magical. They’re storytellers, fire-keepers, and uncanny survivors who seem to slip through the cracks of history. Villagers often dismiss them as fairy-touched cousins of halflings or gnomes, but anyone who’s traveled with a Brindlekin knows there’s something more at work, an old magic that lingers in their blood.

Brindlekin delight in new friends, good food, and dangerous dares. They’re the first to strike a bargain with the fae and the last to abandon a doomed quest. Some whisper that they are the children of forgotten gods, sent to keep laughter alive when the world grows dark.

Brindlekin (AD&D 1st Edition)

Frequency: Rare
No. Appearing: 2–20
Armor Class: 6
Move: 9"
Hit Dice: 1+1
% in Lair: 20%
Treasure Type: Individuals J, in lair U, S, T
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: By weapon (1–6)
Special Attacks: Mischief (see below)
Special Defenses: +1 to saves vs Spells, +10% to find/remove traps.
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Very to Exceptional
Alignment: Neutral (tend toward Good)
Size: S (3–3½ ft. tall)
Psionic Ability: Nil
Level/XP Value: II/25 + 2/hp

Description: Brindlekin resemble halflings with a wilder cast: brindled fur-patches on their arms and faces, sharp eyes that gleam gold or green, and a tendency to twitch their noses when excited. They live in tight-knit clans but roam widely.

Brindlekin avoid combat when they can, preferring trickery. Once per day, a Brindlekin may use Confusion (single target, 1 round) or Faerie Fire as if cast by a 2nd-level druid.

These folk gather in clans of a dozen families, traveling in painted wagons or settling in hidden glades. Their culture prizes stories, songs, and dares, reckless challenges that often lead them into adventures.

Some scholars believe that Brindlekin are the rare offspring of halflings and gnomes. Other though point to a oft quoted saying among the Brindlekin that they are "children of the earth." Believing that the Brindlekin are the remaining children of long-forgotten gods. 

Brindlekin (D&D 5e)

Small Humanoid (Brindlekin), Neutral (Good)

Armor Class: 13 (leather)
Hit Points: 11 (2d6+4)
Speed: 30 ft.

STR 8 (–1)
DEX 15 (+2)
CON 14 (+2)
INT 11 (+0)
WIS 12 (+1)
CHA 13 (+1)

Skills: Stealth +4, Performance +3
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11

Languages: Common, Sylvan

Challenge: 1/4 (50 XP)

Mischief Magic (Recharge 5–6). As a bonus action, the Brindlekin casts faerie fire or forces one creature within 30 ft. to make a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw or become confused (as the spell, 1 round).

Nimble Escape. The Brindlekin can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action.

Actions

Short Sword. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6+2) piercing damage.

Sling. Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4+2) bludgeoning damage.

Description: Brindlekin are curious wanderers, often mistaken for halflings at a glance. They sport brindled fur along their arms and cheeks, and their eyes glitter with mischief.

Brindlekin (Daggerheart Ancestry)

Brindlekin are small folk with wide, bright eyes and patches of brindled fur along their arms, cheeks, or temples. Their ears are fur-tufted, their voices lilting, and their laughter quick to come. Standing about 3 to 3½ feet tall, Brindlekin resemble a mix of human and fae, with a wild spark in their features. Their appearance often hints at animalistic ancestry: a striped lock of hair, whisker-like markings, or a nose that twitches when they’re excited.

Brindlekin are wanderers at heart. They travel in painted wagons or form temporary camps in forests and hidden glades, always eager to share stories, tricks, and dares. Their clans value daring and humor as much as hospitality, and they see risk-taking as a way to court fate. Many outsiders consider them reckless, but the Brindlekin say that courage is just laughter held a little closer to the heart.

They live slightly longer than humans, often reaching 120 years, though most spend their lives chasing trouble and adventure rather than comfort or longevity.

ANCESTRY FEATURES

Mischief Spark. Once per rest, mark a Stress to impose disadvantage on an enemy’s roll within Near range, or grant an ally advantage on a roll within the same range.

Nimble Step. You ignore movement penalties from difficult terrain, and you may always Hide if it is even slightly possible to do so.

--

I have been sitting on this post for a while. I really want to move these guys over to AD&D, but they cover some of the same roles as my Glade Gnomes (more on them later) and gnomi. Do I need another species of small folk? Well...yes, because they are always fun and make the best sort of adventurers. But is there a niche for them? Maybe they will stay on Iriandor. Maybe even they are linked to that world in subtle and magical ways. 

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

—oOo—
Name: Shadows in the TreesPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Jared Tallis

Setting: Modern day AustraliaProduct: Scenario
What You Get: Twelve-page, 10.25 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch:  Big cat horror on the Sunshine CoastPlot Hook: Big cat hunt for your YouTube channelPlot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, three handouts, three maps, two NPCs, and two Mythos creatures.Production Values: Good
Pros# First in the ‘Short Cosmic Horror Collection’ series# Short, intense encounter with the monsters you could become# Parallels to Viral# Can be adapted to other settings or time periods with cryptids# Flexible running time up to a single session# Good Keeper advice# Ailurophobia# Diokophobia# Scoleciphobia
Cons# Parallels to Viral# Needs a slight edit# Plain handouts# Pre-generated Investigator motivations could be stronger
Conclusion# Intense encounter with monsters and the Mythos on the Sunshine Coast# Solid advice for the Keeper on how to dial it up or down# Reviews from R’lyeh Recommends

The Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook is the second of the three core books for Pendragon, Sixth Edition, the latest edition of a roleplaying game considered by many to be a classic, and by its designer, Greg Stafford, nothing short of a masterpiece. It is a roleplaying of high adventure, high romance, and high fantasy set deep in the legends and stories of Britain’s golden age, the mythical period when the country had one true king. That king was Arthur Pendragon, his reign the mythical period of honour and chivalry, courtly love and romance, that arose from the unrest following the withdrawal of the Romans, withstood invasions from the Saxons, before falling to evil and the country to the Dark Ages. In the process it inspired great tales of medieval literature and great tales of literature, including the Welsh The Mabinogion, Sir Thomas Malory’s fifteenth century Le Morte D’Arthur, and T.H. White’s The Once and Future King. Pendragon is a roleplaying game in which the Player Characters are knights in service to their liege lord and then to King Arthur himself, managing their manor and serving in his army, but also going on quests and adventures and so dealing with threats and problems that beset the men and women of the land, including their fellow knights, attending court and tourneys and involving themselves in intrigues and romances, and finding a wife and raising a family. Raising a family is important because a knight may adventure for only so long before age catches up with him. Then his eldest son will take up his mantle and inherit his father’s good name and reputation, and not only uphold it, but follow his ideals and make a name for himself, perhaps even more glorious than that of his father. Like his father, he will aspire to take a seat alongside King Arthur and become one of the Knights of the Round Table, to serve alongside the greatest knights in the country. In turn, his son will follow in grandfather’s footsteps and aspire to the ideals of the age, to be a bastion of duty and honour until the kingdom falls. The play of Pendragon is generational, and ultimately, intended to play out over the course of the decades that comprise The Great Pendragon Campaign.

It is not unfair to say to that the Pendragon Core Rulebook does not cover absolutely everything necessary to play Pendragon, Sixth Edition. However, it would be unfair to say that you could not play Pendragon, Sixth Edition using its content and still get a very good feel for how the roleplaying game plays and still have a very enjoyable and exciting roleplaying experience. The Pendragon Core Rulebook is very much as its title suggests, the key title that presents the principles of play and the cornerstones of characters. Further, it is actually possible to run and play Pendragon, Sixth Edition using only the Pendragon Core Rulebook and the Pendragon Starter Set as the latter does include the rules for battles—although in a limited form. Indeed, many of the titles on The Companions of Arthur, the community content programme for Pendragon, Sixth Edition, can be run and played using the Pendragon Core Rulebook and/or the Pendragon Starter Set. Which begs the question, is the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook really necessary to run and play Pendragon, Sixth Edition? To which the answer is a simple yes, not just because it contains the complete rules for battles, but also because it expands on the rules and setting at the core of the Pendragon Starter Set, as well as the wider stage too. Not far, but far enough and more than ready for the next book.
The Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook begins by establishing and exploring where and when Pendragon, Sixth Edition is primarily set. There is an overview of Logres, the part of Britain where much of the Arthurian canon takes place; a good introduction to the primary source material for the roleplaying game—Le Morte D’Arthur, of course, T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, the film Excalibur, are all listed as worthy sources, but many others and their merits are discussed too; and there is a framing too of when the roleplaying game is set. A quick guide to the who’s who of the chronicle across its four periods—Boy King, Conquest, Romance, and Grail Quest—previews their full stats presented for many of the leading figures later in the book. Another element which previews later content is the campaign set-up example of the Holding of Underditch Hundred, the primary holding of the—as will be revealed later in the book—surprisingly young Count of Salisbury.
Advice on running the Game Master is solid, focusing in the main on how to use the different aspects of the rules, including characteristics and handling time in the game. The advice on encouraging player contribution and adding courtly play is good, but elsewhere the advice on campaign set-up is a little light, again, feeling as if it is a preview of something to come. Not though of a section later in the book, but rather of a supplement to come. The Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook really comes into its own with the discussion of Arthurian activities, in particular, the first rules addition that is feasting. A Player-knight gains a new stat, ‘Geniality’, representing his nobility in the eyes of his peers and a combination of his Appearance and his Courtly skills, which comes into play when Feasting. A Player-knight’s Glory will influence where he will be sat at the feast, the closer to the high table, the better the bonus to his Geniality, whilst his Appearance will determine how many Feast Event Cards his player will draw. Feast Event Cards work as mini-encounters much like Opportunities in Battles and the solo adventures that a Player-knight might have at the end of the year that will give him the chance to test a Personality Trait. Ultimately, as with other activities in Pendragon, Sixth Edition, the aim is to earn Glory. This is done by keeping a Player-knight’s Geniality as high as possible, but it gives him a chance to shine in a more civilised setting and use his Courtly skills. Of course, it is also a good opportunity for the players to roleplay. Other activities covered include ‘Fine Amour’ or romance, hunting, intoxication, seduction(!) at court and its consequences, tournaments, and visiting foreign courts. Of these, hunting and tournaments are more mechanically involving, but they are no less welcome for it.
If the section on ‘Feasting’ is entertaining, the chapter on religion in Arthur’s Britain is fascinating reading—and should be required reading for player and Game Master alike, since the Player-knights are classified according to both their cultural background and their faith. In turn, the chapter discusses the beliefs, the ethics and how they relate to a Player-knight’s Personality Traits, the worship, history, holy places, festivals, and notable places and figures in turn of Christianity, Paganism, Heathenism, and Wodinism. To these are added the requirements for religious knights of all of these faiths, details such as the differences between the churches of Britain and Rome, a list of Pagan deities, and more. There is a lot of useful information here that the Game Master can bring into play, especially for her players who have religious knights, but also for her NPCs. Plus, the inclusion of Heathenism opens up the possibility of bringing Pictish knights into play!
Previous versions of Pendragon have allowed for Player Characters who are not knights, but this is not the focus of Pendragon, Sixth Edition, and magic very much remains the province of the Game Master and her NPCs. However, magic plays a strong role in the Arthurian chronicle. Like religion, it is divided according to type. So, for Paganism, there is the four talents—Divination, Enchantment, Glamour, and Healing; for Wodinism there are sacrifices, talismans, controlling the weather, and carving runes; Heathensim employs the four Talents of Paganism, but through a shaman rather than a magician; and for Christianity, there are miracles and saints. They are able to perform Miracles like Divine Manifestation, Divine Intervention, and Divine Retribution. In addition to shaman, other magicians include witches, specialising in folk magic, and enchanters and enchantresses which can encompass druids as well as Pagan and Wodinic practitioners. They also include the Ladies of the Lake. More recently, they have been joined by magicians who have learned their magic from books—sorcerers and sorceresses. Covered here too is fairy magic and also protection from such magics. Religious, chivalrous, and romantic knights can all withstand the effects of magic, but this requires adherence to high ideals. Otherwise, a Player-knight has little innate protection against magic, so avoiding it is likely the best defence.
One issue with both religion and magic is that the examination is a preview for the mechanical treatment later in the book, so that the description and the rules for both are not given in their relevant chapter. Rather they are included in the stats and guidelines for their NPC types in the ‘Game Master Characters’ chapter. Mechanically, magic uses the four talents—Divination, Enchantment, Glamour, and Healing—as skills, adding the non-Knightly skill of ‘Clerk’ to represent book learning and accounting, and treats them as skills. Thus, under the ‘Pagan Religious Folk and Magicians’, an ‘Itinerant Bard’ can have ‘Enchantment 12’ for his Magical Talent, enabling him to immobilise a target with a song by making him fall asleep, weep, or laugh, whilst a ‘Druid’ has values in all four Magical Talents and thus be more capable and more flexible in terms of what he can perform. For the ‘Christian Religious Folk and Saints’, they will have values in the three Miracles—Divine Manifestation, Divine Intervention, and Divine Retribution—and again their mechanics are explained here. The rules are the loosest of those presented in the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook, allowing for more narrative input, whilst avoiding simple, if constant, Game Master fiat.
Perhaps one of the more complex aspects of Pendragon, Sixth Edition is handling battles. Previously presented in a cut-down version in the Pendragon Starter Set, here they are presented in full detail and explanation. The rules cover how to set up a battle and determine the numbers involved, establishing the Player-knights’ conroi (effectively, their cavalry squadron as they will be on horseback), how to fight the battle and face each encounter, through to what might happen after the battle. Oddly only the means of determining victory or defeat during the Boy King Period is given, which limits the utility of the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook. That said, numerous battlefield foes are detailed as well as a six opportunities, such as ‘Capture the Banner’ and ‘Clash of Champions’. This does feel like too few opportunities, essentially extra encounters in the battle where the Player-knights have an opportunity to shine, but in play they do not actually occur that often.
The earlier ‘Who’s Who’ of Arthurian legend is fully supported with stats and details of several figures, including King Arthur and Lady Guenever, and Merlin, alongside those from Pendragon itself, like Sir Robert, Count of Salisbury. Numerous NPC types are given stats—various types of knights, Saxon warriors, nobles, common folk, and practitioners of magic and miracles. The bestiary is nicely detailed, beginning with ordinary animals, amongst which it includes elephants and lions, but also covering a variety of supernatural creatures. This includes the cockatrice, dragons, unicorns (with details of how to employ the Virgin Ploy to put them at ease), giants, and more. Sidebars list the Dwarfs of Arthurian literature, Arthurian fairy knights and ladies, Arthurian fiends, and Arthurian giants, so that the Game Master can take more direct inspiration when using the accompany game stats. Many of the entries in the bestiary will be familiar from folklore or even other roleplaying games, but what makes the bestiary all the more useful is that every is put in an Arthurian context.
Lastly, the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook presents two scenarios. These take place in the years 508 and 509, before the events depicted in the Pendragon Starter Set and ‘The Sword Campaign’. They are both set at Sarum Castle and are designed to help set up the campaign and establish Salisbury as the starting point for the campaign and essentially a home for the Player-knights. Except that the Player-knights are not knights at the beginning of the first of these two scenarios, but squires. To that end, Sarum Castle is fully detailed and mapped and the players have the opportunity to roleplay their squires proving themselves worthy of being knights and beginning their life in service to the young Sir Robert. These are both good scenarios, both easily run in a session or two each. Although designed to be played prior to the Pendragon Starter Set, the problem with this set-up is that some groups may already past the point where these scenarios are of use to them, playing through the Pendragon Starter Set and even the campaign scenario, The Grey Knight. That said, if a playing group has not started playing Pendragon Starter Set, then both scenarios are solid additions as prequels.
The Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook comes to a close with appendices which give a detailed guide to Glory awards and a list of suggested reading. The latter is useful for the Game Master wanting further inspiration, especially in the context of the bestiary.
Physically, the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook is very well presented. The book is also a good read and profusely illustrated. Some of the artwork has a manically cartoonish feel to it in addition to the weirdness of the some of the illuminations.

To be clear, the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook is a very useful book and one that the Pendragon Game Master is definitely going to want and need. The new rules additions of feasting and tournaments are great, the guide to religion is very good, and the bestiary and the guide to magic are good. And yet… the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook, as comprehensive as it is, is not and does not feel complete. Rather, it feels incremental, as if building the next part of Pendragon, Sixth Edition in readiness for the next book in the line. This shows in both the omissions and the focus of the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook. One omission is the absence of the Feast Event Cards for the Feasting rules when the section on Battles has all of its foes and Opportunities given. The Feast Event Cards can be downloaded—and of course, since there are eighty of them, their inclusion would have greatly increased the book’s page count—but their absence is notable.

Also missing is detail about Logres and beyond in terms of setting and background, so that ultimately, the only location that is presented in any detail are the lands of Sir Robert, Count of Salisbury. Similarly, there are no details about running an estate and holding land. Together, this supports the focus of the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook, which whilst supporting long term play with the rules for feasting, tournaments, battles, magic, and the bestiary and guide to religion, concentrates the role of the Player-knights as household knights—ideally in the service of Sir Robert. This, combined with the emphasis on Salisbury as a starting point and the underwhelming advice on campaigns, means that the Game Master wanting to set up her own campaign and not wanting to run the content leading up to The Great Pendragon Campaign is not supported as well as she could have been and that she will have to wait for subsequent books which will support her. And to be clear, if this makes the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook sound as if it is a disappointing book, then it is very much not. Rather that it provides the Game Master with a lot that will support her campaign whilst leaving a few things for latter supplements.

The Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook is a mandatory purchase for the Game Master, expanding the world of Pendragon both mechanically and culturally in an interesting, informative, and entertaining fashion, whilst also proving a new introduction to the roleplaying game and setting that can lead into the Pendragon Starter Set. Whilst in the long term, it will require expansion with further supplements, there is nothing in the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook that is anything less than useful and the Game Master should have this to enhance her campaign.

BTS has added a second set of orcs to their Tolkien Children of Hurin line. 

Fairhaven is your typical American small town. Fairhaven is also utterly normal. There are no three-foot-tall bulbous heeded running around in loincloths in the woods near the quartz caves that have closed off since that kid disappeared in the fifties. Alien invaders are not planning to invade the town and replace everyone over eighteen with doppelgangers. The parking lot outside the 7-Eleven on route 67 out of town is not cursed. Fairhaven Mall, the town’s very first enclosed retail centre, is not going to be used as a summing circle for the ancient serpent demon Menevoth, with the very excited members of the town’s Chamber of Commerce definitely not going to use everyone who attends on the opening day at 3 pm as ritual sacrifices. Sherman Glimp, would be comic, prize-winning tap dancer, and owner of GlimpBytes, the most reliable computer repair shop in Fairhaven, did not die in strange circumstances. Swamp Eggs, the latest kids’ craze to hit Fairhaven, sold by local, advanced technology development company, X-Tec, definitely do contain something alive in them, but whatever it is, it is definitely safe (terms and conditions apply). The Fairhaven Aquarium Natural History Annex has definitely not lost the exhibit, ‘Our Cool Ancestor, The Iceman’, and Jed and Edna Hamburger were definitely not attacked by a prehistoric ape-creature with beady yellow eyes says a spokesman for Fairhaven Police Department. Rest assured, Fairhaven Police Department keeps everything normal.

Except, of course, the Rev. Joey Royale, the Station Manager at WHPA-TV13 Fairhaven knows different. He runs the town’s Public Access Television channel and he wants to ensure that the good folk of Fairhaven are kept safe from the weird, strange, horrifying, and unnatural things going on in the town that nobody talks about and the Fairhaven Police Department resolutely deny are happening. Of course, a figure of such ‘good standing’ in the community as Rev. Joey Royale cannot be seen to be involved in such abnormal activities as investigating the outré and the unconventional, but he can of course, call upon the skills, services, and gumption of numerous individuals already exposed to such doings—the hosts of the shows on WHPA-TV13 Fairhaven!

This is the set-up for Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game, published by Get Haunted Industries. Originally released as a series of fanzines—the Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game collates the first four and adds further content—this is an investigative roleplaying game into small town weirdness, horror, and mystery set in the eighties. Crptids, UFOs, disappearances, strange deaths, alien invasions, all too advanced technology, cults, monster sightings, psychic powers, and that old homeless guy muttering prophecies under his breath are all fair game. The player take the role of Hosts of programmes on WHPA-TV13 Fairhaven. They have ordinary, even dull day jobs, but once a week—or even nightly, depending upon the needs of the schedule and their popularity—they have their own show on WHPA-TV13 Fairhaven. They might be spiritualists or psychics, fitness fanatics, local talk show hosts, variety show hosts, hosts of special interest shows—whether that is fishing, cooking, religion, and so on, and of course, they might host late night horror movie marathons! They receive instructions from Rev. Joey Royale, kept anonymous via the use of a ventriloquist’s dummy or a Speak & Spell, and then they investigate, keeping sure to avoid the Fairhaven Police Department because WHPA-TV13 Fairhaven definitely does not want that kind of publicity!

A Host in Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game is simply defined. He has four core skills—Mind, Mouth, Body, and Soul. Every Host begins play with six points of Hope, which represents both his health and his determination. A Host also has a Programming Focus, which will define these skills, connections in the community, some props that he uses on his show, and a safety item which he can use in a fight. The latter cannot be a gun because that brings too much attention to WHPA-TV13 Fairhaven. The Host types include Spirituality, Fitness, Variety, Monster Movies, Local Talk, and Special Interest, which covers anything else that a player can think of. Each provides a bonus to a core skill and most also provide an extra connection and special abilities. For example, a Fitness Host simply receives a big bonus to his Body skill, but a Monster Movies is given a small bonus to his Mind skill, can receive vivid flashes of arcane, occult, and/or scientific knowledge, and can also perform acts of sleight of hand. Lastly, a Host has a Supernatural Ability, like X-ray Vision or Minor Pyromancy.

Host creation is a matter of distributing some points between the core skills, and choosing a Programming Focus, some props, and a supernatural ability. It is a simple process, but it is not as clearly worded as it could have been and an example would have helped.

Host: Frau Blücher
Programming Focus: Special Interest (Cleaning)
Show Name: The Marital Arts Show
Occupation: Small Business Owner (Spick-Und-Span – Murder Scenes a Speciality)

CORE SKILLS
Mind 1 Mouth 2 Body 1 Soul 0
Hope 6

Connection: Aldous Kesey (Deputy Chairman, Fairhaven Chamber of Commerce)
Props: Mop and bucket, bleach, thick rubber gloves
Safety Item: Urn with her mother’s ashes

Mechanically, Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game is very simple, using a dice pool of six-sided dice. When a player wants his host to undertake an action, he rolls one die plus dice equal to the appropriate core skill. Rolls of five or six are counted as a success and typically, only one success is required for the Host to carry out the action successfully. However, if all ones are rolled on the dice, the Host loses a point of Hope, but if all sixes are rolled, it triggers the Host’s Supernatural Ability temporarily.

Combat is equally as simple and fast. Initiative is a roll of a six-sided die and a successful Body check is required to see if an attacker is successful. Damage is also rolled on a single die. If the result is four or less, the defendant loses one point of Hope, but two points if five or six is rolled. If a Host loses all of his Hope points, he can be stablised and continue investigating with one point, but if not, he suffers Cancellation, or worse, a return to normality!

And that really is it to Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game. The players can help the Ref—as the Game Master is known—conduct some planning and zoning to create the town of Fairhaven, and there are detailed rules for psionic powers using Zener cards if the Ref wants to use them (though she should probably buy or create her own rather than cutting up the book) and for handling seances, which uses a standard deck of playing cards. Really though, but the rest of Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game is dedicated to defining the possible weirdness in Fairhaven, and if not defining then alluding to it. This includes scenario outlines such as the appearance of the horse-headed serpent, Sassy, in ‘Return of the Pond Beast’ and exploring ‘The Forgotten Canals of Amontillado’, the tunnels dug under the town to facilitate the bootlegging of its famous fig schnapps during Prohibition. Whilst there are stats for a few creatures and oddities, the Ref is left to define a lot the details of the various descriptions.

In between—and even in—the scenarios, Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game bombards the reader and the Ref with adverts and classified adverts. ‘Haunted Light Tours’? Call ‘Capt.’ Bob on 555-1366; examine the ‘Outer Space Time Manipulator’, ‘Happy Clown Bombs’, and ‘Ghost-Whispering Mask’ at the Fairhaven Funtime Museum on Fairground Lane; and call Ethel on 555-1947 if looking for ‘Rare Ventriloquist Dummies’, but no flimflammers as these dummies are special! All of these are just a bit off kilter, slightly odd, and could with some effort be developed in an investigation proper.

Physically, Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game can best be described as scrappy. It is underwritten in places and the layout, designed to look like a cheap community newspaper with everything crammed in alongside the adverts—as much as it evokes the rundown, sometimes seedy nature of its setting—is overwhelming in places. Nothing ever has the time to breath in Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game and the weirdness is suitably relentless.

Of course, the problem with Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game is that not everyone is going to be familiar with the concept of public access television and its often high aspiration, low achievement style of broadcasting on a wide of subjects. Whether talk shows, phone-ins, special interest shows, or movie marathons—complete with a host in a horror-themed costume, they provided cheap—in all senses of the word—late night ‘entertainment’ for the insomniac, the shift-worker, and the late-night party-goer who has just got home. Anyone outside of the USA may want to do some research to get a feel of what these shows are like, but Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game does get the tone across fairly well.
Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game is underwritten in terms of its mechanics and messily overwritten in terms of its setting, which sounds like a terrible combination, but it does actually work. There is lot of room for improvisation and player input during play and roleplaying a Host who wants to be something more than an ordinary jane or joe and who might have a modicum of talent, but is probably going nowhere except Public Access Television, is actually fun. Weird Heroes of Public Access: The Roleplaying Game is The National Enquirer meets Eureka and Eerie, Indiana, managing to be both creepy and creaky with an extra couple of slices of cheese on top. American cheese, of course.

They Came From The Necropolis is supplement for Forbidden Psalm and Forbidden Psalm: End Times Edition is a miniatures game published by Space Penguin Ink. It is a 28 mm skirmish level miniatures game playable with just five miniatures per warband per player and as a systems-agnostic setting, those miniatures can be from any range and publisher. It is also notable for a number of things. First, its background means that it is compatible with Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance style roleplaying game designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing. That means that Player Characters from the roleplaying game can be converted for use with Forbidden Psalm and with a bit of effort, content for Forbidden Psalm, could be adapted to Mörk Borg if a more physical, combative game is desired. Or the Game Master and her players want to scale their game up to handle skirmish encounters on a battlefield rather than in the theatre of the mind.

They Came From The Necropolis is a short affair that provides further additions to the dark and dirty world of Forbidden Psalm. The danger of conflict is a constant threat and every incident of conflict is brutal and uncaring, with few surviving such occurrences unscathed. Yet for the right amount of coin there are some that will enter the employ of others. Mercenaries or sellswords, they can join a warband and serve until the task they have been hired for is complete. Their advantage is that they bring their own equipment, but they will jealously guard it as it represents their livelihood, their capacity to go from one job to another. In game terms, what this means is that a mercenary can be hired for 25 gp and will replace a member of a warband at least temporarily. The mercenary does not have to be outfitted, but will not share or drop his own gear.
The supplement describes and gives stats for twelve such mercenaries. Each not only comes with his equipment, but also details of a feat, a flaw, and a special aspect. They include Pigmen, a Duke, a warrior, Knights, a Falconer, the Wounded, an Alchemist, a Zealot, a Bombardist, Necropolis Priests, Village Heroes, and a Knight and Retainer. For example, the Feat for Warrior lets her player roll two dice and take the better result, but the Flaw of never leaving combat, and the Special of granting a bonus to Melee to other members of the warband, whilst the Wounded has the Feat of being hard to kill and takes less damage with each hit, and the Flaw that when he is downed and gets back up, his Toughness increases, and the Special that he is cheap to hire. What is really is that the combination of the Feat, the Flaw, and the Special builds character in each mercenary, adding a little story potential as well as making them different to play. For example, the Village Heroes have the Feat of ‘Defenders of the Innocent’ which gives them a bonus to damage to monsters and a Flaw of being ‘Untrained’ and suffer a penalty to attack rolls, but their Special is that if they kill a monster, they lose the flaw.
The supplement also includes a ready list of names to give the mercenaries and details one monster. This is the Horse Head Knights, which of course, have the head of a horse, are immune to darkness conditions, and are undying. There is a chance that when they are killed, that they will return to life with full Hit Points!
Physically, They Came From The Necropolis is decently presented, with only a hint of the artpunk styling of Mörk Borg. Most of the mercenaries are given a page each which includes their stats and an illustration, which is that of a fully painted miniature (drawn from the Black Crab Miniatures! range). These are very nicely done, the Pigmen having a beady-eyed porcine face, the Wounded limping along on a stick with his right leg capped at the knew, Necropolis Priests possessing a certain creepiness.
They Came From The Necropolis is a solid expansion for Forbidden Psalm. The stats and mercenaries are quick and easy to add to a warband and each one is interesting enough to make play just that little bit different for the single session or battle, they are hired for.

It is surprising that there is no companion to ShadowDark, the retroclone inspired by both the Old School Renaissance and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition from The Arcane Library. Or at least, an official companion. The GM Companion for ShadowDark is a third party supplement for the roleplaying game which is designed to expand on the content in the core rulebook. Although the book includes some content for player, it is primarily a book for the Game Master. Divided into four sections—‘The World Above’, ‘The World Below’, and ‘Treasure’, it includes a lot of tables, more than a few monsters not found in the core rulebook, and plenty of treasure, as well as some activities that the Player Characters can undertake away from the dungeon or wilderness.

The GM Companion for ShadowDark, published by Chubby Funster, first provides the Game Master with several sets of table for generating content both in and out of the dungeon. The ‘Hex Crawling’ section expands on the rules in the core rulebook by adding ‘Points of Interest’ for nine different terrain types, from artic and coast to river and swamp. Each table consists of two sets of entries, location and development, twenty options for each. For example, in the desert, there might be a ‘Castle Ruin’ that is ‘Frequented by desert caravans’ or has ‘Displayed banners of a defeated army’. To this are added tables for ‘Terrain Hazards’, again for the nine different terrain types, but with entries that can either hinder movement, inflict damage, or weaken or confuse. Some of the locations are marked as a ‘settlement result’, which means that the Game Master then rolls on the settlement tables. These begin with the type, from crossroads to capitals, before digging down into the detail with different districts, such as transient, craft, and spectacle, each of will have one or more points of interest. Further sections adds shops, broken up according to the income levels. There are some nice variations here, such as the predatory moneylender in the poor district, respectable moneylender in the standard district, and the exclusive moneylender in the wealthy district.

Since taverns can be found anywhere, they have their own set of tables. Together, these generate a name, what the tavern is known for, and what food and drink it serves. For example, ‘The Moist Wagon’ is known for its ‘Divisive political arguments’ and is a poor tavern that serves ‘Pigeon Jelly Tart’ and ‘Salted Fish Strips’ with ‘Juggler’s Gold’, a honey-flavoured beer and ‘Bacon Broth Beer’, which makes drinkers ravenously hungry.

For Player Characters, the GM Companion for ShadowDark gives rules for Farkle, a dice game that will complement the Thieves & Wizards card given in the core rulebook. It gives something else for them to do when they are carousing, but the supplement also gives alternative activities for the Player Characters other than carousing and learning. ‘Acts of Devotion’ gives devotional events that devout Player Characters can invest in and potentially gain a benefit. For example, ‘You violate local laws in an act of piety and are arrested. Your allies must pay 10 gp to release you.’ which earns two Experience Points or ‘Your celebration is attended by devotees from far away temples. They become convinced that you are the next great religious leader of your sect.’ which grants six Experience Points and up to thirty-two devoted acolytes! ‘Combat Training’ does a similar thing for martial Player Characters who practise their weapon skills and for Wizards conducting ‘Magic Study’, there is a table for the results of their research, and all in a similar level of detail.

For the ‘The World Below’, the second section, builds on the dice-drop method detailed in ShadowDark with more tables. These start by determining the danger level of the dungeon, its entrance, size, and type, followed by room type, encounters with NPCs and rival crawlers, and even how the room changes over time, such as ‘Filled with fragile objects that repair themselves when PCs leave.’ and ‘Slowly fills with water, slime, mud, sand, or similar material.’ Other tables add scenes of a combat’s aftermath, dead zones, unique objects to be found, and monsters, whether single, mobs, or bosses. Similar to ‘Terrain Hazards’ for the ‘Hex Crawling’ section, the ‘Dungeon Hazards’ adds dangers for caves, deep tunnels, ruins, and tombs. Further tables expand upon NPCs which can be used for encounters outside of the dungeons as well as in, but as can the tables for creating Rival Crawlers. This includes ancestry, alignment, Class and/or monster, party name, preferred tactics, and even party secrets.

What can be found in a dungeon starts with simple ‘Dungeon Dressing’, worth only a few coppers at most, rising in level to match the rough Level of the dungeon or encounter. So, Dungeon Dressing might be ‘Five inches of leather lacing from a corset’ worth a copper piece or ‘Three large cheese wheels, mouldy and decaying’ worth nothing, but later Levels might contain a ‘Set of carved ivory cutlery covered in halfling runes’ worth twelve gold pieces or ‘Playing cards featuring drawings of Elvish maidens’ worth twenty-eight. The higher the Level, the more likely there is to be treasure to be found and yes, there are tables for this. They include potion descriptions and effects, magic armour to which can be added features—appearance, scent, and quirks, as well as a possible bonus and benefits (and even curses). There are similar tables for weapons and utility items too. In addition, there are table for Boons to be earned from creatures, monsters, NPCs, and organisations, and secrets to be found and blessings to receive.

Further, beyond the tables that the Game Master can roll on, the GM Companion for ShadowDark describes over seventy magic items. For example, the Imposter’s Wand can be pointed at a spellcaster to spell a First Level from him and until the next sunrise, the user can cast the spell, and further, it can be used by non-spellcasters! The Potion of the Unicorn hardens the imbiber’s skin like a rhinoceros, improving his Armour Class, and also makes him grow a horn from his head which he can use as a magical dagger. The Promise Bow is an intricate ironwood longbow with Elvish runes and silver accents, which is a +2 longbow, and grants the benefit to the wielder of attacking at an advantage if fired after declaring his intention to kill a particular enemy, but until that enemy is killed, the promised enemy is slain, all other attacks are made with disadvantage. The bow has a personality and is convinced that there is a pattern to the wielder’s choice of targets and will speculate on it.

Lastly, the GM Companion for ShadowDark gives the stats for monsters and creatures ranging from First Level to Ninth Level. There are thirty-nine in total, from Aarakocra, Ant (Giant), and Assassin Vine to Troglodyte, Vegepygmy, and Werebear. Most fill in the missing entries in the ShadowDark core rulebook, but there are new ones too like Frost Maggots and Armitage.

Physically, even if it is not the official companion to ShadowDark, the GM Companion for ShadowDark looks like it should be. The layout is clean and tidy, the artwork is decent, and the book is well written.

To be fair, much of the GM Companion for ShadowDark does consist of tables, ones that compliment those in the core rulebook. They are though, tables filled with evocative content that are essentially prompts. They can be rolled on ahead of time as part of the Game Master’s preparation, to help her set up her world, but they are also simple and direct enough that the Game Master can use them in play to drive emergent world generation if that is her wont. If the table are pushing the Game Master to be inventive, then the rest of the book is already so, with a wide selection of new and interesting magical items and three great additions to downtime activities for the Player Characters that give both them and their players more options without overwhelming post-adventure activities. The GM Companion for ShadowDark is a solid set of tools for the Game Master to enhance her campaign and her game play.

Exerpt from Letter to Albresh Glariot.

Well, the missus and I took the flyvver to Vinalville up the A1. It’s a nice drive, charming countryside, rolling downlands, and the autumnal colors in the trees is breathtaking. Anyhow, her sister in Pufflumi was needing a visit, and I took the opportunity to check in on progress in the Northwest.

The report will be mixed at minimum I’m afraid. The Two divisions under General Pasteboard are sadly lacking. The 15th and the 6th exist in name only. The 1st Pufflumi Musketeers are housed in an old stone watchtower, I’d be concerned at the spartan accommodation's minuscule size, except the “Regiment” consists of exactly one company’s worth of men, and a small Machine gun section. The supply for the unit can afford 100 rounds per man, though how on earth they’ll move that copious superfluity is anyone’s guess as the single antiquated supply service truck is up on blocks in the parade ground due to lack of tires...a requisition that has languished in limbo for thirteen months it seems.

Colonel Warmwater assures me that it will be filled this week. Warmwater is hardly a source of confidence however. He drilled his “regiment” for me, a display worthy of a carload of clowns rather than the backbone of national defense in the North. Oppressorbad is laughing at us, and it’s no wonder that sources report trains and munitions being moved to Laducat and Bigdog… the invasion is coming Albresh, and it’s going to be a hurricane fended off with a paper fan.

The Snooty Zouaves were if anything, worse. They muster a whopping 8 men, 3 of them antiquated Pufflumi bankers so rotund they might best serve the state as a sort of meat fascine. They have MUSKETS, Alb, black powder muskets, and the armory includes age-of-sword helmets and pikes! What are they going to accomplish against a legion of Black Oppressorbad stormtroopzen; food for daisies I suppose?

The two “Regiments” of Lancers assigned to the 15th have exactly 2 motorcycles, four “training tanks” made of fabric and cardboard intended to be manually hoisted by it’s “crew”. And a 50 year old Goslow taxi converted to military use. I’m immediately sending letters to demand next weeks run of Lancer tanks be diverted North. And perhaps we can find at least ONE driver that’s used something more modern than the plow horse.

Did you know we had a Paratroop regiment in Pufflumi? Neither did Colonel Footfall, who seemed surprised at the notion that his 3 sergeants and underweight batman might be called on to jump out of airplane someday; though what airplane remains to be seen, as the craft assigned to the Regiment is a fabric biplane powered by what I’m certain is a motor removed from a kitchen mixer, and capable of barely hoisting the pilot and a passenger into the sky, given a few yards of runway, strong headwind, and no expectation to climb higher than the average house.

Colonel Brassboot’s 2nd Pufflumi Musketeers is the only bright spot in the Northern sector. Admittedly they are undermanned as well, but they can hold the old fort at Vindsoc, of that I’m certain. They muster almost a full battalion, and the Regimental Sergeant Major Brickthews is a paragon, his men are trained, competently trained. I wish they had material worthy of them. The fort is equipped with 40 year old mortars, massive, but dubious. They also have a beautiful 220mm gun captured from Gross Montaine in that unpleasant business 12 years back. It’s a marvel for it’s age and I think we should produce a few more examples to the same pattern for the 6th Division, which at the moment is using muzzle loading guns from the Saber and Saddle era. This gun and this regiment may be the key to holding the Coast here.

South of Rockrump is the General Slipshin’s 6th Div. I don’t think there are 40 men across it’s 7 regiments. Most of them manning the cannon of it’s two artillery regiments, It’s Dragoon tank regiment has 1, yes, a single one tank. And it’s the experimental one we were saddled with by the illustrious firm of Jackrabbit and Sons out of Gobsnoke. The troops use it to bake bread on hot days, and indeed it’s better fitted as an oven than as a tank.

Oh and the Materwich Lancers??? They Have Lances! No horses mind, just two superannuated mules, one old camel and a riding hippo named Corporal McBitey.

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 Getting back to the real purpose behind the Fantasy Friday posts, helping you to find that perfect Fantasy RPG and showing that there is more than just D&D out there. Though today's post doesn't stray very far from D&D.

Adventurer Conqueror King System

The Adventurer Conqueror King System, or more often ACKS, was released in 2012. It was one of the biggest OSR titles released and met with a lot of critical acclaim. I have already talked about it quite a lot here, so instead of treading over well-trodden ground, I'll link out those posts here. 

• A is for Adventurer Conqueror King System
• Tale of Two Games
• ACKS B/XC Or How I commit heresy with Adventurer Conqueror King
• Review: ACKS Player's Companion
• Skylla: Adventurer Conqueror King & Players Companion

I like ACKs. The system is B/X with some add-ons to give me some of the things I miss from AD&D. Plus the Witch class from the Player's Companion is based on my OGC and material I shared with the authors/designers back in their early days. 

Adventurer Conqueror King - Imperial Imprint (ACKS II)

by Alexander Macris, Autarch 2025

The WotC/Hasbro OGL scandal caused a lot of folks, myself included, to re-think their reliance on the OGL. So Autarch opted to revise their core rules into three new books they are calling Adventurer Conqueror King - Imperial Imprint AKA ACKS II.

The books feel familiar:

• ACKS II Revised Rulebook
• ACKS II Monstrous Manual
• ACKS II Judges Journal

I like how the new Revised Rulebook looks like the next scene of the original rulebook.

This system is largely the same, with some of the OGC removed and revised. We are still not deviating far from the D&D B/X standard of 14 levels and some "race as class" ideas, but all in all it is still a very playable system. Converts from OSE or D&D B/X will drop right in, maybe even using the same characters they already were. Converts from D&D 5 or Pathfinder might find themselves wonder where all their "kewl powerz" are.

Where ACKS II shines is in its scope and depth. Autarch has taken what was already a very crunchy, very ambitious game and doubled down. The Revised Rulebook is a beast of nearly 550 pages, the Judges Journal piles on another 350k words of domain rules, economic systems, alchemy, and advice. If ACKS I was about building dungeons and kingdoms, ACKS II is about running empires.

The proficiency system deserves a call-out. It’s the same idea as before, but cleaned up and standardized to cover a wide variety of “skills.” In my opinion, this is one of the better OSR takes on non-combat abilities, and something I’d happily import into other B/X-derived games.  The systems here feels like the feats of 5e (but not 3e if that makes sense) so there is a solid rhyme and reason to them all. Plus the need to spend money and time for training keeps it solidly in the old-school camp. 

The GM's book is filled with great advice. With the vast majority of if compatible with whatever OSR or old-school game you are currently playing. 

The monster book is well organized with one monster per page, art, and plenty of information on each monster. Again, compatible with most OSR games, but especially anything with B/X DNA. Even if you don't play ACKS or ACKS II, this book would be useful. Note, there are no demons or devils in this book so if you need demons, devils or creatures from the "lower planes," may I recommend my own The Left Hand Path - The Diabolic & Demonic Witchcraft Traditions.  Given ACKS compatibility, you could add this as another type of witch tradition.

The overall vibe? If Hyperborea is AD&D wearing a B/X mask, ACKS has always been B/X pretending to be AD&D. ACKS II leans further into that identity. It’s a game that lets you start with kobolds in a hole and end with fleets, armies, and dynasties, something most OSR titles only sketch at. 

A note about AI art. There is a lot of art in this book, and unlike the previous edition, it is all color art. The vast majority is human made, but some of it is AI art. This is according to Autarch themselves. I am not going to moralize on this at all. But you will need to figure out for yourself it this is a deal-breaker or not.

Larina Nix for ACKS II

So a D&D-like system with a native witch, based on my own witch materials? Of course, I am going to try out Larina. In ACKS Witches are a type of Divine Caster, so they use the same spells as do Priests/Clerics.

Larina Nix
Witch (Antiquarian), Level 14 Witch Queen
Human (Rorn) Female, Neutral (Lawful Neutral)

STR 9 +0, Witches are a type of Divine Caster, so they use the same spells as do Priests
INT 18 +3
DEX 11 +0
WIL 18 +3
CON 11 +0
CHA 18 +3

Hit Points: 30
Initiative +0
AC: 1 (Bracers of Defense AC 1)

To Hit AC 0: 16

Paralysis 9
Death 9
Blast 11
Implements 7
Spells 8

Movement
Exploration 120 Feet/Turn
Combat 40 Feet/Round
Charge/Run 120 Feet/Round
Expedition 24 miles/day

Class Features
Traditional Medicine, Brew Potions, Minor Magical Research, Second Sight, Scribe Scrolls, Magic Mirror, Major Magical Research

Proficiencies
 Lore Mastery, Knowledge Occult (x2), Healing, Familiar, Arcane Dabbling, Alchemy, Mystic Aura, Adventuringt 

Spells (Divine)
First Level: Allure, Counterspell, Cure Light Injury, Kindle Flame, Sanctuary, Word of Command
Second Level: Augury, Dark Whisper, Halt Humanoids, Magic Lock, Righteous Wrath, Spiritual Weapon
Third Level: Bewitch Humanoid, Clairvoyance, Dispel Magic, Lightning Strike, Remove Cure, Winged Flight
Fourth Level: Divination, Inspire Awe, Lightless Vision, Skinchange, Smite Undead, Spirit of Healing
Fifth Level: Boil Blood, Communion, Fiery Pillar, Healing Circle, True Seeing
Sixth Level: Arrows of the Sun, Bewitch Monster, Home Ward, Phoenix Armor, Spellwarded Zone

Rituals Known: 7

All in all, not a bad version of Larina. Reminds me a bit of her AD&D 2nd Edition counterpart from my Complete Netbook of Witches & Warlocks. I would like to have pumped up her language skills a bit more. 

Who Should Play This Game?

ACKS is a fine game, it does some things rather well, but it only brings a few new things to the table already crowded with Hyperborea, Old-School Essentials, and original B/X D&D. Mind you, the things it does bring are really great. The organization is wonderful as is the presentation. The monster book is worth grabbing if you play any OSR game, just because it has a great presentation and some new monsters. The new classes are a great addition and I am certain someone out there is using the new classes here in their OSE game or even in B/X. I admit I would roll up a Bladedancer or Elven Nigthblade in a heartbeat. Come to think of it, Taryn, Larina's Half-elf daughter, would also make for a good Elven Nightblade.

Reading the rules will not help you decide if this game is for you over some other OSR game. You will need to play.

What makes ACKS II unique in the OSR landscape is that it doesn’t stop at the dungeon door. It’s not just about slaying dragons or clearing hexes, it’s about what happens next. You claim land, raise armies, chart trade routes, and maybe even crown yourself emperor. The rules don’t just hand-wave these things; they give you the numbers, the systems, and the tools to run them at the table.

I don't think ACKS or ACKS II will replace D&D 5e at someone's table, but who knows, I could be wrong. There is enough here to make it someone's perfect game.

The physical books, especially the limited edition black covers, look fantastic. I am content with my PDFs for now.

For me, it will be a game I reference a lot, but one I likely won't actually play. Though I think I would like to come up with the three Witch Queens (one for each tradition) of the Auran Empire on the continent of Aurëpos on the world of Cybele.

Tacta, published by The Op Games, is a game of connecting cards and covering them up, of twisting them and flipping to make the right connections, and ultimately, trying to be the one with most dots visible. The game play is incredibly simple to play and teach, but it can get slightly complex when trying to find the right place to place the cards. The playing time is about twenty minutes, it can be played on any size surface—even odd ones if there is other stuff on the table, and it is designed to be played by two to six players, aged seven and over. Quite simply, Tacta is a great filler game with decent replay value because of its simplicity.

What really stands out about Tacta are its cards. There are one-hundred-and-eight of these, double-sided and matt black except for the neon markings that line the edge of the cards and the various shapes that appear to be cut into the blackness of the cards—triangles, squares, and rectangles. Some of these are marked with dots and some are simple outlines. The look of the cards is simple, but amazing, almost as if they have burst out of the film, Tron. The cards are divided into six decks—coloured blue, green, orange, pink, purple, and red—of eighteen cards each and each deck is identical.

The aim of the game is simple and that is to have the most dots visible from your colour cards. Do that and a player wins. To do that, each player will be placing one card on his turn. This can be from the top or bottom of the deck—the cards are double-sided, and the card drawn must be placed so that one of its features, whether a triangle, square, or rectangle, covers up a feature on a card belonging to another player. Ideally this should with the dots showing and if it covers up another player’s feature with dots, then all the better, but a blank feature will still cover another player’s feature with dots and prevent them from being adding to that player’s final score. A player will also be thinking about how he can protect the features with dots on his cards from being covered over by the other players, so that there is defensive element to placement as well. There are few limits on card placement, the primary being that a card cannot cover another card when played and cannot connect to features that do not perfectly match.

Set-up itself is simple. Each player receives a deck and shuffles it, holding it in hand so that card can be drawn from the top and bottom of the deck rather being fanned out. The starting card is placed in the middle of the table. It has a simple white grid on it that allows any shape to be played onto it. After that, the players take it in turns to draw and play cards, the play area quickly filling with the cards in a tightly packed and connected sprawl. At the end of the game, everyone counts up the number of dots that are visible on their cards and the player with the highest total wins.

The core game play of Tacta is simple and easy to explain. However, this is not the only way to play and the game includes five alternate ways. There is an option for shorter playing time by removing cards from each player’s deck, playing as teams—dividing each deck between two players, and even a real time version in which everyone tries to empty their deck first and trigger scoring before anyone else can. This works well for larger groups. There is also a version where players share decks, but only score from their own colour, so they are trying to sabotage the player holding the other half of their deck, whilst still trying to score with what they have their own. The team play, free play, and sabotage play are the most out of the alternatives given.

Physically, Tacta is very black, from the box to the rulebook, all highlighted in the game’s neon colours. The rulebook is very easy to read and the cards simple to use, each deck also being marked with a symbol for the colour blind.

Tacta is a great filler. It is simple and easy to learn and teach, so is family friendly, but it can get cutthroat too as players aggressively hunt for their opponents’ dots to cover. Lastly, its stark neon on black design really gives it a presence on the table.

Today, we head back to the dawn of the 1990s. It's February 1990. I am working on my undergrad degree in Psych and decided to pick up a minor in Computer Science. I have some great friends, a girlfriend in the last half of the term, and I am having a great time. My roomate's kid brother comes to stay with us a couple of days, I opt to stay at my girlfriend's for a bit. But he has this really annoying friend who came with him playing all these bootlegs in my tape deck telling me I need to listen because this band he has been following is going to be HUGE. I ignore him. The band as it turns out, is Soundgarden. Maybe I should have listened.

The number one song on the radio is "Opposites Attract," a duo by Paula Abdul and an animated cat. The number one film was "Driving Miss Daisy" with Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy. On the shelves and tables is Issue #154 of this old Dragon.

I am getting to the bottom of this giant box of Dragons. Many of them don't even smell musty anymore. As usual, this one is missing a cover. This one features a "war dragon" with an undead rider by Bob Eggleton. 

The Letters section is a bit thin this month. Sage Advice covers some spells from AD&D 2nd Edition. 

James Ward is up with The Game Wizards: Angry Mothers from Heck. Basically Ward talks about the removal of Demons and Devils from AD&D 2nd ed as an appeal to the "Angry Mother Syndrome" which he sees as a good, but somewhat limiting policy. He does conclude that appealing more to heroic motives rather than just wanton killing of hack-and-slash is a noble endeavor. I don't disagree, but I also like fighting demons and devils. 

The Forum covers clerics, the relative merits of the D&D vs AD&D 1st ed vs AD&D 2nd games. I *get* the discussion, but I have admitted here before we so readily mixed the rules that seems like a non-issue to me. 

We get to the featured section of this issue, The Art of Making War. 

Our first article is from Eileen Lucas, with Warrior Kings and Empire Builders, where she borrows from history, and you should as well, to define your warrior leaders. She uses Julius Ceaser and Charlemagne as her examples. 

Eric Oppen is next with The Making of a Paladin.  A fun article about the purpose of playing a paladin. Oppen makes the claim that paladin is one of the most popular class. I can see that. I love playing paladins. Even today paladin is one of the classes most used in Baldur's Gate III.

Heraldry, politics, and feudalism in fantasy campaigns is next in Thomas M. Kane's All in the Family. Covers details on how heraldry originated and how they are designed.  It is a fairly detailed article to be honest. 

For King and Country from Dan Salas gives a new campaign model where the PCs are called to duty by their king. Well new at the time. This sort of game was well covered by Pendragon, Chivalry & Sorcerery, and AD&D's own Birthright.

Thomas M. Kane is back with another long article with How to Win Wars and Influence People. This one grabs details from AD&D 1st ed, 2nd ed and even battle system. There is a lot here, and I am wondering if this would have helped in the massive war I had run about 2-3 years before this article.  It is a great article that I am not 100% sure I get all of. I mean I like massive battles, every so often, but I don't run enough of them to have a lot of experience here.

A bunch ads and we are done with the special feature. While my issue has no cover, it does still have the GURPS poster intact.

Ken Rolston is up with Role-Playing Reviews with three Sci-Fantasy games, and all three are favorites of mine; Shadowrun, Spelljammer, and Space: 1889.

He loved Space: 1889, calling it "pure pleasure" and "comes with my unreserved recommendation." I concur. It might have been this review that made me want to check out this game. He felt Shadowrun was "adorable and surprising" and "impressive, exciting, and entertaining." Again, I concur. I remember driving back to University one night from my home town and talking with my old highschool DM who was getting ready to transfer there.  We talked about his Shadowrun campaign the whole 2.5 hour dirve down. I now have his old Shadowrun book. He also loved Spelljammer but felt that the AD&D 2nd ed rules was it's weakest point. 

I have to admit this article is what I remember the best of this whole issue. I was thinking how cool it would be to mix magic and sci-fi. An alchemy I have been trying to perfect for a while. You see in my Star Wars posts and certainly my BlackStar idea. 

Our fiction section is from all stars. Raistlin and the Knight of Solamnia from none other than Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, with illustrations from Larry Elmore. 

The Lessers, Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk are up with The Role of Computers. This month cover the Mines of Titan, M1 Tank Platoon, Star Fleet II, Ghostbusters II, and David Wolf: Secret Agent. I do note that most of the games are now PC-DOS games for the IBM compatible machines. I do miss seeing the Apple, Mac, and even Amiga games. 

Convention Calendar is next with the hottest cons of the winter and spring of 1990. I swear there were more cons then than now. Cons now are bigger for sure, but there doesn't seem to be as many. 

Novel Ideas comes to us from Will Larson and covers the novels coming out of TSR in the next months. They are "Dark Horse" by Mary Herbert, "Warsprite" by Jefferson Swycaffer, and "Nightwatch" a Greyhawk Adventures novel from Robin Bailey. I will freely admit, none of these sound familiar to me. 

Ah, now something I DO recognize, The Voyages of the Princess Ark, Part 2 from Bruce Heard. One day I will collect all of these. For the moment though I'll keep this one to the side. 

Dragonmirth gives us some comics. I recognize Yamara of course. But nothing in color.  There is a jab at the "Trump Game" which I am pretty happy to see. 

TSR Previews lets us know what is coming up in the next couple of months. More Spelljammer, more Monstrous Compendiums, and even a Buck Rogers novel. 

Marcus L. Rowland is stuck at the end of the issue with "Who Was That Masked Android?" overtly for Marvel super Heroes, but can be adapted to other supers games. 

We end with the small ads of Gamers Guide. There is a sub-section here dedicated to Play by Mail games. These were about to head to the same category as Ham Radio; still loved but by an ever decreasing fandom. 

All in all, not a bad issue, but not one that kept my attention then or even today, to be honest. 

Still working through my ideas on "Occult D&D." 

I have scads of notes on Enoch and Enochian and the connection he has to the occult via figures like John Dee and Edward Kelley. I have always wanted to explore the concept of Enochian as a magical language, but I have not used it. Why? Well, for starters, Enochian works well here due to its ties to history (Dee, Kelley) and myth (Enoch), as well as the gravitas of the Abrahamic religions. That all works wonderfully in a NIGHT SHIFT game, but not for a D&D-like game.

I also have a bunch of notes and ideas scribbled out on Proto-Indo-European languages. My thinking was to use PIE as a sort of root language of the world and one taught to witches, much like the ideas of my first "witch language" posts. 

There is no way I am going to build my own constructed language no matter how cool that sounds. I am no David Peterson. Though I do like to think his Inha language would be fun to explore. Great for Primordial. His Verbis Diablo is also great for Infernal, and I loved the idea of his Méníshè from Motehrland: Fort Salem.  What do all three of these languages have in common other than being constructed by Peterson? They are all explicitly languages learned by witches.

I am not ready yet to put a stake down in a specific witch language. I mean, I assume most Pagan witches are likely illiterate, and many of my other traditions are separated by time and space (Classical and Gothic, for example). So what language would they have in common? Well, nothing witch-specific, but something very occult.

SUPERNAL (Lost Tongue of Creation)

This language is the primordial root-speech from which all alignment tongues are said to descend. It is believed to have been spoken in the earliest ages, before the division of law and chaos, good and evil. Angels and devils alike once uttered its syllables, but even the eldest celestials and the most ancient fiends no longer command it in full.

Supernal is not a common language of conversation but a metaphysical system of sound and sign, wherein words themselves shape reality, bind spirits, and mark the planes. Only a fragment survives. Fewer than two hundred words are known with proper pronunciation, and even these must be taught with precision, for error can render meaning void or bring peril to the speaker.

There are many written forms, the most notable being Supernal-A, a draconic-seeming script often mistaken for true Draconic, and Supernal-B, a flowing elven hand that appears beautiful but yields nonsense when translated as Elvish or Sylvan. Supernal texts (grimoires, tablets, or fragments) are commonly interpolated with Celestial, Draconic, or Elven words to replace what has been lost.

Those Who May Learn It: Supernal is reserved for scholars of the occult, such as high witches, ceremonial warlocks, magi, and certain esoteric clerics or wizards. Ordinary characters cannot select it. Even among such classes, mastery is partial; no individual is known to possess more than a handful of true phrases.

Game Use: Treat Supernal as a secret, universal occult tongue. It may be used to decipher ancient inscriptions, recite certain rituals, or command extraplanar beings when the proper words are known. It is never learned by chance; knowledge of Supernal must come through initiation, tutelage, or the study of rare and perilous texts. Characters cannot learn Supernal unless they meet the following requirements. 

• Must be a witch, warlock, cleric, magic-user, or one of their subclasses. Druids cannot learn this language.
• Intelligence score of 16 or higher.
• Have a free language to learn.
• Find a teacher who knows Supernal.

Costs for this can vary greatly depending on the demand and location. It takes one year for the character to even learn the basics and a decade to learn enough to be able to read any text. For game purposes, treat one year of learning as one level of experience.

Magic-users, as part of their normal education, learn a few words of Supernal along with magical words of Draconic and Elvish. They can be assumed to have had one year (one level) of instruction already.

Phygor

The Ascended Master, Scribe of the Gods, Walker Between Worlds

In the chronicles of magic, few names are so widely spoken and so little understood as Phygor. Born into a wealthy family, he was initially a promising but unremarkable student at the Great School of Magic. Then, as the tale is told, one day he simply stood up from his bench, leaving behind his books, his belongings, and even his half-eaten meal, and began to walk. He walked out of the School, out of city, and out of the world that others knew.

Phygor wandered for years beyond counting, traveling among hermits, witches, shamans, astrologers, monks, and warlocks. He learned a fragment here, a secret there, piecing together what none before him had dared: a greater vision of magic, gathered from every corner of the earth. Some say he spoke with dragons in their dreams, others that the spirits of the land taught him great mysteries. A few whisper that he was shown hidden truths by beings of heaven and hell, who recognized in him a mind vast enough to hold the Supernal syllables themselves.

When Phygor returned, he was transformed. His magics were strange and terrible, alien even to the archmages of the Great School. With these, he crushed a rebellion of wizards not with slaughter, but with dazzling displays of artifice and spells they could not comprehend, forcing them to surrender in awe. Though a man of Law and Good, he did not hoard his knowledge. He broke with all tradition, declaring that magic was not the possession of a cabal or a guild, but a birthright of the wise. He published his findings, opened his grimoires, and gave freely of his lore. Even those of wicked heart who opposed his ideals respected his power and grudgingly acknowledged his genius.

Phygor’s end is disputed. In some tales, he simply walked again, leaving the world behind as he had once left the School, and was never seen thereafter. In others, he ascended bodily into the higher planes, taking a place among the immortals. A few claim he became something greater still: the Scribe of the Gods, known to angels as a shining scribe and to demons as a voice of thunder, recording the hidden laws by which all spells are written.

Among witches, magi, and warlocks alike, Phygor is a luminary sage of study, initiation, and the pursuit of hidden knowledge. To invoke his name is to claim the lineage of the wandering master, the one who saw further than all others and gave what he found to the world. To some, he is a hero, a true master teacher. To others, a dangerous radical bent on upsetting the balance of magic. To all who wield magic, he is a name spoken with respect.

All of the known words of Supernal come from his writings. 

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

—oOo—
Name: Rryonn: The Room You Can’t Escape Without Eating TangerinesPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Choya

Setting: TonightProduct: Tangerine Dream
What You Get: Eight-page, 360.25 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch:  “I must not fear fruit. Fruit is the mind-killer. Fruit is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fruit. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fruit has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” – With apologies to Dune, Frank HerbertPlot Hook: An amber room with amber fruitPlot Support: Staging advice.Production Values: Orange
Pros# The first Korean scenario translated into English?# Could be run as a LARP# Thirty-minute filler (dream sequence?)# Very Korean# Esperidoeidiphobia# Fructophobia# Chrysophobia
Cons# Very Korean# No Mythos
Conclusion# Short and easy to run, but extremely Korean and extremely physical# Fruit is the only fear

Photo by Дмитрий ПропадалинStill working through a bunch of notes for my "Occult D&D" project. I was thinking about my descriptions of "The Library," home of the Akashic Records in my universe, and how I have not really detailed any librarians at all. I am still not today, but I am going to share the Guardians. These creatures keep an "eye" on the collections, make sure no one damages any books or tomes or disrupt other patrons. 

Guardians of the Library
(Custos Bibliothecae)

FREQUENCY: Very Rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 2
MOVE: 12" (Fly 18")
HIT DICE: 8+8 (always 50 hp) (Greater Guardian: 10+10, always 60 hp)
% IN LAIR: 90%
TREASURE TYPE: Special (see below)
NO. OF ATTACKS: 2
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1–6+3 / 1–6+3 (mace)
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Gust of Wind (breath weapon)
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Immune to fire, sleep, charm, hold; half damage from non-magical weapons
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 30%
INTELLIGENCE: Very
ALIGNMENT: Neutral (orders tend toward Lawful Neutral)
SIZE: L (7' tall)
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
    Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
LEVEL/XP VALUE:
 Guardian: VIII / 3,200
 Greater Guardian: IX / 4,500

Guardians of The Library are powerful extraplanar servitors, created by the Unseen Masters to protect the great cosmic Archive known simply as The Library. Their forms appear as animated suits of ancient, rune-marked armor, though the armor is but a shell, within dwells an intelligent elemental force akin to an invisible stalker, but bound by vows of scholarly protection.

They serve as wardens and curators, ensuring the safety of books, scrolls, and ancient grimoires from theft, fire, and willful destruction. Though not inherently violent, Guardians will employ force, escalating as needed, to fulfill their charge. Most patrons of The Library will only see them as silent watchers, pacing slowly down the marble corridors of endless shelves.

On the very rare occasions they speak, their voices are a deep bass and sound hollow, as if the voice is coming from somewhere deep within their suits of armor.

A Guardian attacks with two powerful mace strikes per round, each dealing 1d6+3 damage. Though they carry weapons, these are not enchanted items; they are extensions of their elemental force and vanish if the creature is destroyed.

Once every 3 rounds, a Guardian may exhale a gale-force blast of wind (treat as a Gust of Wind spell cast by a 10th-level Magic-User). Creatures in a 6" cone must save vs. Breath Weapon or be knocked prone and disarmed. The gust will extinguish all non-magical flames instantly and has a 50% chance to snuff out magical fires (e.g., Flaming Sphere, Burning Hands). It is frequently used to subdue would-be thieves or suppress fires before they spread.

Guardians are immune to fire, and suffer only half damage from all non-magical weapons. They are unaffected by sleep, charm, and hold spells, and cannot be turned. They can see invisible, detect heat, and sense intention to harm (as ESP) within 3".

They never pursue to kill unless the lives of other patrons or the integrity of The Library is directly endangered.

Guardians dwell within The Library, an interplanar construct maintained by the Unseen Masters—entities believed to be ancient witches, archmages, or ascended Starchildren. Each Guardian is assigned a section to oversee, and their awareness is attuned to every page, shelf, and ward within that domain.

Once bound to The Library, a Guardian remains in eternal service unless recalled by its Master or utterly destroyed.

Guardians do not eat, sleep, or age. They do not reproduce. Their armor-shells are forged from spiritual metals unknown to mortal smiths. Upon death, they dissipate into rushing air and scattered dust. No treasure is carried save what they guard, which may include scrolls, spellbooks, or occult tomes.

GREATER GUARDIANS

These elite custodians (HD 10+10, AC 0, +4 damage per strike) are found only in restricted or high-risk sectors of The Library, such as the Infernal Stacks, Forbidden Annex, or near tomes written in Supernal. They are also sent to the Prime Material Plane to recover overdue or stolen books, always appearing silently near the offender.

Once per day, a Greater Guardian may Gate in a second Guardian (60% chance, no greater variant), but only if defending The Library itself.

--

The phrase "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" keeps running through my mind here. Who are the Ascended Masters?