Quick-starts are means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps too. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game for the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

—oOo—

What is it?The Cohors Cthulhu Quickstart Guide is the quick-start for Cohors Cthulhu, the roleplaying game of Lovecraftian pulp investigative horror and action set at the height of the Roman Empire. It is published by Modiphius Entertainment, which also publishes Achtung! Cthulhu, set during World War II.

It includes a basic explanation of the setting, its factions, rules for actions and combat, magic in the setting, weapon qualities, the mission, ‘Rude Awakening’, six ready-to-play, Player Characters, and a Quick Reference Sheet for Tests.

It is an eighty-three page, full colour 48.20 MB PDF.

It needs a slight edit in places.

The quick-start is illustrated with some excellent, full colour, painted artwork. The rules do need to be carefully read through as they are moderately complex, especially when it comes to both magic and mêlée combat. The Cohors Cthulhu Quickstart Guide and thus Cohors Cthulhu place an emphasis on mêlée combat over ranged combat.

The scenario, ‘Rude Awakening’, and of course, Cohors Cthulhu, do involve horror. They are suited for a mature audience. There is some safety advice included to take account of this.

It should be noted that Cohors Cthulhu is not the first roleplaying game or supplement to explore Ancient Rome through the lens of Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying. The 7th Edition Guide to Cthulhu Invictus: Cosmic Horror Roleplaying in Ancient Rome does that for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, but the tone of Cohors Cthulhu is Pulpier and more action orientated.

How long will it take to play?
The Cohors Cthulhu Quick Start and its adventure, ‘Rude Awakening’, is designed to be played through in one or two sessions.

What else do you need to play?
The Cohors Cthulhu Quick Start requires five twenty-sided dice per player, several six-sided dice, and twelve tokens, divided into two colours. The tokens will be used to represent Momentum and Threat throughout the scenario.

Who do you play?
The four Player Characters include a Germanic priest of Tiwaz (or Tyr)—he is the only Player Character who can cast magic, an Aegyptus scholar and occultist, a North African legionary, a Germanic archer and scout, a Greek courier, and a Gaulish smuggler and bandit. The priest is capable of casting traditional magic.

How is a Player Character defined?
A Player Character has seven stats—Agility, Brawn, Coordination, Gravitas, Insight, Reason, and Will. Stats are rated between seven and twelve, whilst the twelve skills in the roleplaying game are rated between zero and five. He has one or more Foci, each Focus being attached to a skill and representing greater specialisation, and one or more Truths. These are facts which when applied to a situation, can make a task easier or harder, or even possible, depending on the Truth and situation. Each Player Character also has a Fortune point. This is used to let a Player Character perform a heroic action or gain an advantage in a life or death situation.

How do the mechanics work?
Mechanically, the Cohors Cthulhu Quick Start uses the 2d20 System used in many of the roleplaying games published by Modiphius Entertainment, such as Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 or Dune – Adventures in the Imperium. To undertake an action in the 2d20 System in Cohors Cthulhu, a character’s player rolls two twenty-sided dice, aiming to have both roll under the total of an Attribute and a Skill. Each roll under this total counts as a success, an average task requiring two successes. Rolls of one count as two successes and if a character has an appropriate Focus, rolls under the value of the Skill also count as two successes. In the main, because a typical difficulty will only be a Target Number of one, players will find themselves rolling excess Successes which becomes Momentum. This is a resource shared between all of the players which can be spent to create an Opportunity and so add more dice to a roll—typically needed because more than two successes are required to succeed, to create an advantage in a situation or remove a complication, create a problem for the opposition, and to obtain information. It is a finite ever-decreasing resource, so the players need to roll well and keep generating it, especially if they want to save some for the big scene or climatic battle in an adventure.

Where the players and their characters have access to Momentum, the Game Master has Threat. This can be used for similar functions as Momentum, but also to trigger NPC special abilities. She begins each session with a pool of Threat, but can gain more through various circumstances. These include a player purchasing extra dice to roll on a test, a player rolling a natural twenty and so adding two Threat (instead of the usual Complication), the situation itself being threatening, or NPCs rolling well and generating Momentum and so adding that to Threat pool. In return, the Game Master can spend it on minor inconveniences, complications, and serious complications to inflict upon the player characters, as well as triggering NPC special abilities, having NPCs seize the initiative, and bringing the environment dramatically into play.

Each Agent has a point of Fortune. It can be spent to perform cinematic feats such as ‘Critical Success’, ‘Re-Roll’, ‘Additional Major Action’, ‘Avoid Defeat’, and ‘Make It Happen’.

How does combat work?
Combat in Cohors Cthulhu uses the same mechanics, but offers more options in terms of what Momentum can be spent on. This includes doing extra damage, disarming an opponent, keeping the initiative—initiative works by alternating between the player characters and the NPCs and keeping it allows two player characters to act before an NPC does, avoid an injury, and so on. Damage in combat is rolled on the Challenge dice, the number of Achtung! Cthulhu symbols rolled determining how much damage is inflicted. A similar roll is made to resist the damage, and any leftover is deducted from a Player Character’s Stress. If a character’s Stress is reduced to zero or five or more damage is inflicted, then a Player Character is injured. Any Cohors Cthulhu symbols rolled indicate an effect as well as the damage. Damage can be deadly, but can be offset by the use of armour and shields.

How does magic work?
Magic in Cohors Cthulhu is divided into two disciplines—battlefield magic and ritualistic magic. The former consists of spells, curses, hexes, charms, and blessings, which are primarily used in combat. The latter is more complex and takes longer to cast, and is used to contact or summon the entities of the Mythos, travel to other planes of existence, and make lasting changes. Magic is also split into traditions, such as Runic and Oracular, or can be learned via Research. Spells are first bound into a spellcaster’s ‘mantle’, such as a staff or wand, and then can be cast from the mantle. Casting a spell has a cost in terms of mental damage to the spellcaster, whether successful or not, and if a damage spell, inflicts stress damage on the target. Momentum can be spent on ‘Cost Resistance’ for the spellcaster, ‘Bonus Damage’, and ‘Duration Increase’.

What do you play?
The setting for Cohors Cthulhu is the Second Century CE. A Hidden War is taking place behind Rome’s politicking and border expansion. The acolytes of the malign gods of the Mythos—Nyarlathotep, the God of a Thousand Forms, Sarthothus, the Shattered God, who infected the relics of lost Atlantis, and Mormo, Lord of the Woods—work in secret to subvert the temples and cults of the empire and beyond. Athena herself lends her wisdom in directing the activities of ‘The Temperari’, whilst an inner cabal within the temple to the Aurora, the Goddess of Dawn, called the ‘Fingers of Dawn’ dedicate themselves to defeating the forces of Mythos.

The scenario, ‘Rude Awakening’ begins en media res. The Player Characters are travelling with a caravan on the border with Germania which has just been attacked by bandits. The caravan master suggests travelling to a nearby village where help might be acquired. However, not all is well in the village, including a number of strange deaths. Investigation reveals the source might be a local farm on the outskirts of the village, and when the Player Characters go to look, they discover dark, horrific secrets. Overall, the scenario has the feel of a traditional fantasy adventure, but infused with the Mythos.

Is there anything missing?
The Cohors Cthulhu Quick Start is complete.

Is it easy to prepare?
The core rules presented in the Cohors Cthulhu Quick Start are relatively straightforward, but the Game Master will need to pay close attention to how both combat and magic works in the roleplaying game as they are more complex. The scenario, ‘Rude Awakening’, also requires a similar degree of attention and preparation.
Is it worth it?
Yes. The Cohors Cthulhu Quick Start introduces the Cohors Cthulhu roleplaying game and setting, which combines pulp with Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying. The result is more action orientated and more muscular in its approach to investigating the Mythos.
Where can you get it?
The Cohors Cthulhu Quick Start is available to download here.

The apocalypse was as sudden as it was unexpected. The sun, whose light and radiation, had been the source of life and energy for time immemorial, changed. Its radiation spiked. Within days, billions were dying of radiation poisoning. Ecologies collapsed as flora and fauna perished. Governments rushed to impose martial law and ration clean food and water. It was too late. The world’s electronic infrastructure was fried, rendered useless, and with it, communication and so many devices that humanity had come to rely on. The lucky found refuge in underground fortified Rad Bunkers or heavy concrete buildings, leaving anyone outside to a life of irradiated banditry and lawlessness. Yet even those inside the bunkers needed more to survive. Materials, food, water, medical supplies, fuel, equipment, raw materials, and more. Ideally, survivors who can help ensure the long-term survival of everyone in the bunker, and maybe, even beyond. It means going out into the irradiated world on the other side of the bunker door. Always at night, and never longer than twenty-four hours, lest a bad dose of radiation is suffered. And for the same reason, never more than two excursions in a row. This is the future of Rad Zone Totality – The Print and Play, Roll and Write, 1-2 Player Game.

Rad Zone Totality – The Print and Play, Roll and Write, 1-2 Player Game is a post-apocalyptic, solo game of exploration and survival in which the player will direct the movement and action of his character across a series of maps. For each excursion, this is divided into three maps. The first shows the terrain to be covered on the journey to the city, the second a building in the city which the character will explore, and the third, the journey home to the Rad Bunker. Each of the three maps is marked with a square grid on which there are symbols for Low Levels and High Levels of radiation, Bandits, Car Wrecks, Survivors, and Peril. Some of these are worth investigating—Car Wrecks, Perils, and definitely Survivors, and some are definitely worth avoiding—the Low Levels and High Levels of radiation, and the Bandits. In fact, combat in Rad Zone Totality favours evasion rather than fighting. All of the maps come as print and play. The player chooses the three maps for his character’s excursion, whereas the various encounters and Missions are all randomly generated.

To play Rad Zone Totality – The Print and Play, Roll and Write, 1-2 Player Game, a player will need some colour pencils—red, green, and yellow work best, and three six-sided dice. Ideally, the dice should match the colours of the pencils. He will also need to be able to print out the various sheets required to play.

When play begins, a player has a team of ten characters who will go out on the Missions. He also has ten Survivors, who do not go out on Missions. A complete game of Rad Zone Totality is ten Missions. The player wins by surviving the whole campaign of ten Missions and preventing the Rad Bunker’s Survivor count from falling to zero or by increasing the Survivor count to twenty. If the Survivor count is reduced to zero, the player definitely loses. Although initially designed as a solo game, Rad Zone Totality – The Print and Play, Roll and Write, 1-2 Player Game includes rules for two players who work together rather than against each other. The solo roleplaying game is published by DR Games, following a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Rad Zone Totality begins with character creation. The base character is simply defined with just a name, a Trait, and four Fable Dice. A Trait is rolled randomly. For example, ‘Patient Watcher’ enables a player to re-roll three Radiation Scan dice per location or ‘Sprinting Burst’, which lets him run past an NPC before an encounter is triggered. Further Traits are gained for completing Missions. Fable Dice are used for rerolls of any die roll, but are a finite resource and do not regenerate. Essentially, when a character runs out of Fable Dice, he is out of luck. A character can have an animal Companion, such as a fox or a horse. An animal Companion provides an extra Fable Die and an extra ability. For example, the fox is particularly good at sensing radiation hotspots and so the character being accompanied by the fox ignores a Radiation Icon on a Journey Map, whilst the horse speeds up travel between the Rad Bunker and the city. A character can also have an Affliction, which might be a ‘Busted Foot’, which slows travel by hour, or ‘Scaly Skin’, which gives the benefit of long leather gloves (which prevent hand damage), but appear too scary to keep or gain an animal Companion.

A Mission is played out on an Episode Sheet. This has spaces for the Character Sheet in the middle, plus spaces for the ‘Journey To’ and ‘Journey From’ Charts as well as the ‘Mission’, ‘Equipment’, and ‘Gathered Resources’. There are tracks for the ‘Time Line’, twenty-four hours long and a ‘Radiation Slide’ to track the amount of radiation damage suffered. There is also space for the ‘Extra Vigilant Doubles’. These are four numbers, decided upon by the player, which if all four numbers are rolled as doubles during the Mission, will grant the character a bonus at the end of the Mission. To begin an episode, the player places the Character Sheet on the Episode Sheet and rolls for a Mission on the Mission Inbound Table. For example, ‘Water Leak’ states that the Rad Bunker’s water tank has a crack in it and water is running empty. The character has to gather six Water, but if the character fails, four Survivors flee! To this, a player can add a Side Mission, which makes the overall Mission more challenging and whilst out on the Mission, can also locate ‘Rumours to Confirm’. Doing so reduces the resources the characters need to scavenge on the Mission.

An Episode of Rad Zone Totality is played out over three stages. The ‘Journey To’ and ‘Journey From’ stages each have their Journey Chart. These are marked with the various Event Icons. Each hour is spent moving across the terrain, interacting with or avoiding the Event Icons as best they can, but if a character gets too close, he can trigger an Event Icon. These can be positive or negative, with the Survivor, Peril, and Bandit all necessitating further rolls on their own tables. Specifically for the Bandit encounter, is the ‘Combat Evasion Table’, which lists various means of dealing with the Bandit, such as using an animal Companion or the ‘Sacrifice Loot’ option. Rad Zone Totality – The Print and Play, Roll and Write, 1-2 Player Game includes some twenty small for the travel to and from the Rad Bunker.

The second of the three stages is the Locations stage when the character will explore one or more buildings. Some thirty or so floorplans include a church, factory, gym, large house, office, police station, retail centre, school, and more. These are done in an isometric view as opposed to the flat view of the Journey Charts, and are marked with doors, individual rooms, and radiation hotspots. Every location is different, including what can be found there, and is accompanied in an earlier section by the ‘Search Matrix’, which provides loot and encounter tables specific to the various locations. Before a character begins exploring a location, his player checks on the number of NPCs—and potential Survivors—that the character might encounter. From turn to turn, the character scans for radiation, his player rolling randomly to determine the radiation in the squares ahead of him. He then attempts to plot his way forward via the safest path possible. Sometimes he will find radiation hotspots, sometimes low spots. Naturally, he wants to find the latter, not the former. Eventually, either because he has explored sufficient locations or he has run out of time, a character will want to return home. Once the character is back at the Rad Bunker, the player can check to see if the mission was a success or a failure, whether or not Survivors were gained or lost, and so on, before preparing the next Mission and the next Episode.

The two-player option for Rad Zone Totality – The Print and Play, Roll and Write, 1-2 Player Game adds a new set of more challenging Missions and provides twenty large grids for the Journey Charts for the travel to and from the Rad Bunker to account for the two characters rather than the one. These are played separately in that Encounters are handled individually, rather than both characters dealing with them. The larger Journey Charts add an extra Encounter, the ‘Manhole Cover’, which enables a character to travel more safely underground. Similarly, the larger Locations are included for the two-player option, but there is nothing to stop both characters exploring a smaller Location. Other than this, the play of the game remains mostly the same. What it means is that the characters are not working directly together, although they can still communicate and pass information back and forth to enable them to progress together. So, this is more playing in tandem than together and whilst the option is perfectly playable, there is a slight disconnect between the two characters.

Playing Rad Zone Totality – The Print and Play, Roll and Write, 1-2 Player Game is very much a procedural game, but it balances the need to roll on its various tables, for everything from the nature of the Encounters on a Journey To and Journey From the Location to the radiation levels at a Location and the Resources found in a Location, with decisions as what direction to move in, what Encounters to have or avoid, and so on being entirely in the player’s hands. Similarly, the player is free to select what Journey Charts he wants to use on his Journey To and Journey From the Location, as well as the Location. It needs adjusting to upon first play, a player working through the procedure at the heart of the game and book itself, but actually learning to play as he goes. Once learned, there are enough Journey Charts and more than enough Locations with Resources and Survivors to be found, which together create enough variation for Playing Rad Zone Totality to be repayable.

There are other options too, Playing Rad Zone Totality, though these are not explored within its pages. Since it is primarily a solo game, it lends itself to Journalling, a player creating his Characters’ attempts to survive on their excursions from the Rad Bunker. This is helped by background information about the setting, including how the apocalypse came about and the irradiated threats the characters will face. Similarly, these elements could inform the basis of a more traditional roleplaying game, the Locations and their associated content in the Search Matrix forming the basis of places that a group of Player Characters can explore and scavenge. The tone of Rad Zone Totality is far less fantastic than the settings for most post-apocalyptic roleplaying games, but that means its content is easy to slip into the setting or the setting’s more fantastical elements be layered on that content.

Physically, Rad Zone Totality is cluttered, with a lot of tables and elements that at first, makes it a daunting prospect to read through. However, it takes the player through the game step-by-step on a learning curve that is actually far from difficult. It just looks more difficult than it is. Otherwise, the artwork, mostly black and white, is decent, and both the tables and maps are clear and easy to read.

Playing Rad Zone Totality – The Print and Play, Roll and Write, 1-2 Player Game is a challenging game in which the player can explore a world radically altered from what it was just a few months ago and work—rather than fight—for the future of the Survivors in his Rad Bunker. It is grimmer than most post-apocalyptic settings, but the use of maps and floorplans gives the game a real sense of exploration, of what might be found, and what has been lost.

 Going back to Room 2 and taking the center passageway this leads to an area where lava is flowing from somewhere above.  The floor is covered in lava and only a thin walkway of stone is visible. 

A Thief my use their Move Silently skill to cross, but since they are not trying to stay silent, only step carefully, they can add a +40% to their chance of success.

Other characters can move across only by being careful. Their base chance of success is their Dexterity score times 5%. So a character with a Dex of 10 has a 50% chance of success and one with an 18 has a 90% chance. Characters wearing metal armor have a -15% penalty.

Falling into the lava causes 4d8 hp of damage. 

There is another passageway on the other side to Room 9.

This one is still going on, and I really want to see it get funded!

Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age Role Playing Game

A tabletop RPG of cosmic horror, swords, and sorcery in a savage lost epoch, 1000 years after the Old Ones fell to their eternal sleep.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jasonvey/wasted-lands-the-dreaming-age-role-playing-game?ref=b0ulif

I have been talking about this Kickstarter a lot and will continue. Please check it out and give Jason your support.

Both books are written. Both have gone through edits and playtest notes. Jason is doing the layout now. 

It looks great, and I see it as replacing D&D on my table for the foreseeable future. You really need to check it out. 

PLUS there is now FREE Quick Start rules with a brand new adventure ready for you to download. All you have to do is click on the link!

If you can't pledge please share the word of this great game.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #4: Violence for Votishal is a scenario for Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and the third scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. Scenarios for Dungeon Crawl Classics tend be darker, grimmer, and even pulpier than traditional Dungeons & Dragons scenarios, even veering close to the Swords & Sorcery subgenre. Scenarios for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set are set in and around the City of the Black Toga, Lankhmar, the home to the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, the creation of author Fritz Leiber. The city is described as an urban jungle, rife with cutpurses and corruption, guilds and graft, temples and trouble, whores and wonders, and more. Under the cover the frequent fogs and smogs, the streets of the city are home to thieves, pickpockets, burglars, cutpurses, muggers, and anyone else who would skulk in the night! Which includes the Player Characters. And it is these roles which the Player Characters get to be in Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #4: Violence for Votishal, small time crooks trying to make a living and a name for themselves, but without attracting the attention of either the city constabulary or worse, the Thieves’ Guild! The job in this scenario is a night spent prowling around a temple on a murder investigation.
Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #4: Violence for Votishal is a longer, location-based scenario which should take between two and three sessions to play. Designed for two to three Player Characters of Fourth Level, it opens with them being approached by a gagged priest. The priest passes them a message to go to the temple of Votishal the Silent—a god dedicated to silence, self-improvement, discipline, and getting what one deserves—on the Street of the Gods. Worship of the god has been on the increase of late and so it has come to occupy the second-best temple on the street. However, its priests and worshippers have been driven out of the building due to their high priest having been murdered, followed by other priests on subsequent nights. The Player Characters are hired to enter the temple and catch and deal with the murderer when he returns that night. The priest—who only has a few minutes to speak according to the tenets of his faith—promises to pay well, but not before presenting the Player Characters with their first problem. The temple is now locked to prevent robberies with it now being vacant and non-priests cannot have a key. So, the Player Characters will have to break into the building in order to investigate and stop the murderer. This being Lankhmar and the Player Characters being thieves, this is not really a problem, but it must be a first, being paid by a client to break into his own building!

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #4: Violence for Votishal is all about the temple to Votishal. This is a large, two-storey building with connected sewers and catacombs below. Over half of the scenario is dedicated to describing the building and its contents, including the floorplans for each storey. Numerous means are given for the Player Characters gaining access to the building, including via the sewers, and once inside, they find a baroque building dedicated to silence. They will also find that someone has got their before them and like them, is taking advantage of the quiet and the fact that nobody else is meant to be in the temple. There are thieves and assassins—and given that is the City of the Black Toga, their presence should be anything other than a surprise—skulking in the halls and rooms of the temple in their search for valuables and victims respectively. Yet, there is also something else, something whose presence suggests that the temple and worship of Votishal is more fractious than their gagged and silent façade suggests. It all lends itself to an eerie atmosphere, the hallowed silence inside the temple walls contrasting with the hubbub that the Player Characters are used to out on the streets outside.

As the Player Characters explore and investigate the temple, the Judge is provided with some great set pieces that she will definitely want to include if she can. For example, an attempt to garrote a Player Character from the floor above, which is not intended to kill the Player Character, but provide a fraught cinematic scene. There is also an encounter with the main threat in the scenario where breaking the silence will get the Player Characters into deadly danger and lastly with the ratfolk of Lankhmar, also seen in previous scenarios for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. Primarily an exploration and investigation scenario, there is relatively little roleplaying in Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #4: Violence for Votishal in comparison to earlier scenarios, such as Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #1: Gang Lords of Lankhmar and Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #3: Acting Up In Lankhmar. Thieves will be in their element, especially as the Player Characters explore the building and begin to discover some of the secrets that the priests of Votishal have been hiding within the walls of the temple.
Unfortunately, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #4: Violence for Votishal does have a quite complex background, not all of which may become apparent during the scenario. However, for the Judge, the back story becomes more apparent as she reads deeper into the scenario. The description of the temple of Votishal is quite detailed, so the Judge will need to pay careful attention to these details as part of her preparation. There is advice for the Judge in terms of hooks for getting the Player Characters involved, roleplaying the primary antagonist for the scenario, and adjusting the scenario to be run with four or five players rather then two to three. The scenario ends with an epilogue listing possible adventure ideas based on the discoveries that the Player Characters might have made in their exploration of the temple and expulsion of the various intruders.
Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #4: Violence for Votishal is as decently presented as you would expect from Goodman Games. It is well written, the handouts nice and clear, and the cartography decent. The floorplans of the temple would work very well on a virtual tabletop with their secrets and numbers excised.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #4: Violence for Votishal is a solid edition to the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. It is not as exciting or as fun as the earlier Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #1: Gang Lords of Lankhmar and Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #3: Acting Up In Lankhmar, instead a situation that owes much to the traditional style of play of Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. However, mix in the religious and criminal elements of Lankhmar—and Votishal, in particular—and what you have in Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #4: Violence for Votishal is an eerie, even creepy ‘temple crawl’.

You have been put in charge of the circus and are determined to put on the best series of acts and performers possible in order to wow the audience and make your circus the best. However, the running order has already been set, but you might be able to pull the performers you have out of that order knowing that they will outperform the previous act directed by a rival circus. If that is not possible, then you can scout the previous act and hire its best performer to join your circus, slotting into the running order you already have. Sometimes, you can even scout the previous act, hire its best performer, slot them into your running order, and have them perform immediately to really outdo the previous act. Do all of that enough times, and your circus will undoubtedly be the best!

This is the set-up for Scout, a quick-playing card game from Oink Games. Like nearly all of the Japanese publisher’s games, the game is small, tightly packaged, and comes with simple rules, but delivers terrific game play. The game was a Spiel des Jahres nominee in 2022 and won the Origins Award for Best Card Game in 2023. It is designed for two to five players, aged nine and up, and can be played in about twenty minutes. It is also easy to teach, plays quickly, and it can be enjoyed by the casual gamer as much as the veteran. In fact, its simplicity makes it a good family game whilst still providing a challenge for the experienced gamer. Plus, it is incredibly portable. That said, its theme is about as thick as the canvas on a worn circus tent, but then every card is named, such as ‘Anthony the Clown’ or ‘Jennifer the Bicyclist’. So, there is a personal touch to the game—just about.

Scout consists of forty-five cards, twenty-three Scout Tokens, thirty Score Tokens, five ‘Scout & Show’ Tokens, a Starting Player Marker, and a Game Manual. The forty-five, brightly coloured cards are numbered from one to ten, not once, but twice—at the top or bottom of the cards. In fact, the cards do not have a top or a bottom as such, because they are intended to be played with one number at the top. Notably, the numbers at either end of a card are never the same. This is important because a player can choose which way a card is orientated and thus which number is on display at certain points in the game. The game consists of a number of rounds equal to the number of players. Once the round have been completed, the player with the highest score is the winner.

The game’s key mechanics are ‘Hand Management’ and ‘Ladder Climbing’. Unlike other card games, Scout limits the degree of hand management a player can conduct—adding or playing cards in his hand, but not arranging the order of the card. ‘Ladder Climbing’ has the players attempting to play better cards or sets of cards than those currently on the table. In Scout, this is sets of the same value or runs of sequential number.

At the start of the round, adjustments are made for the number of players and the cards are shuffled and dealt out so that everyone has a hand the same size. A player also receives a ‘Scout & Show’ Token. Here appears the first wrinkle in the play of Scout. When a player receives his hand, he looks at it in order to see the numbers at the top or the bottom. Having done so, he choses one or the other. What he cannot do is change the order of the cards in his hand. The order will not change throughout the whole of the round unless he either plays cards or adds a card to his hand. This has two effects. It constrains what he can play, but it also gives him the foundation of something he can build upon to create a better hand and hopefully outscore his rivals.

On a turn, a player has a choice of three actions— ‘Show’, ‘Scout’, or ‘Scout & Show’—of which he must do one. To ‘Show’, he plays a set or run of cards. A set is multiple cards of the same number, whilst a run is a sequential series, but when played that set or run must be better than the cards in play on the table. If this replaces the current set or run of cards on the table, the player picks them up and adds them to his score pile. To ‘Scout’, the player takes one card from those on the table, which come from either end rather than the middle and adds it to his hand. When he does so, it can be added to anywhere in his hand and with either number. With careful or lucky choice of a card from a ‘Scout’ action, a player can begin to build a bigger set or run of cards in his hand that will hopefully be better than that on the table in another turn. A ‘Scout’ action also scores a ‘Scout Token’ for the player who played the current set or run of cards on the table. The ‘Scout & Show’ combines both actions and is the most powerful action in the game. Each player begins a round with a ‘Scout & Show Token’ which is turned in once a player decides to do a ‘Scout & Show’ action. Once handed in, a player cannot do another ‘Scout & Show’ action, so it is a one-use action.

Play continues until either a player has played all of the cards in his hand or a player plays a high enough set or run that no-one else can do anything else except the ‘Scout’ action and play passes back to the player who played that set or run. Each player determines his score for the round. This is equal to the number of cards in his score pile and ‘Scout Tokens’ he earned in the round, minus the number of cards in his hand. The player who played the last set or run does not have to deduct points for the cards in his hand. Play continues like this until a number of rounds equal to the number of players have been completed.

Scout is simple to play, but it has a surprising amount of depth and requires a bit more thought than at first glance. The inability to rearrange a player’s hand is frustrating, but it presents a player with a challenge as he is forced to ‘Scout’ over and over in search of the right cards that will enable him to create the best set or run that he can. The double and differently numbered cards make this less of a challenge and add some flexibility in the choices available to the players. Also, as a round progresses and better and higher sets and runs are played, the players will potentially—as long as they are on the end of a set or run—have access to the better and higher cards that they need and can acquire via a ‘Scout’ action. Playing a good set or run early on in the game can be devastating as the other players are likely to be unable to outdo it with the hands they have, forcing them to ‘Scout’, and if they all ‘Scout’, the round is over, forcing them to score negative points because they have been unable to play cards from their hands. However, the right card from a ‘Scout’ action or the right card and then cards played with the ‘Scout & Show’ action can be devastating when done at the right time. Plus, a player can benefit when it is not his turn, because if another player does the ‘Scout’ action and takes from the set or run of cards he played, he scores points for doing nothing. So, there is balance between the luck of the cards a player begins a round with and the choices he makes as round progresses.

Where Scout suffers is in the number of players. It is designed for two to five players, but at two players, the players do very little more than ‘Scout & Show’ actions most of the time. It is not as engrossing or as challenging as games played with more participants. It is thus better with three players, but with four or five, it becomes a great game. Then there is the theme, which is really neither here nor there.

Physically, Scout is, for the most part, well presented. The card quality is decent, but it is definitely worth sleeving the cards for repeated play. The Scout Tokens, Score Tokens, and ‘Scout & Show’ Tokens, plus the Starting Player Marker are all bright and cheerful and on good stock cardboard. The rulebook though, is a bit small and a bit flimsy.

Scout is great game. It would be an almost perfect game were it good to play with two players. It is not, so it is merely great. Easy to learn, easy to play, challenging enough to win at its play length, and easy to transport, Scout is a great addition to any games collection and a great go to filler game.

 The far right corner of room 6 has another lava tunnel that leads to a bright light.  It is also getting hotter as the party moves down.

The tunnel ends in another one of the magical portals that plagued the upper levels. This one leads to firey Hell-scape that appears to be the Elemental Plane of Fire. The heat is becoming so great that even if the characters have magical protection, they can feel the effects.

Fire creatures can be seen on the other side, Fire Nymphs, Burning Bunnies, and mephits mostly, but none appear to want to come over any more than the characters should feel like they can enter.

I mentioned the collection I got from my old DM and a few Dragons in it. As it turns out, this is the only one I had not done a "This Old Dragon" for. So. Let's go back nearly 40 years ago this month to a very different time. "When Doves Cry" by Prince dominated the airwaves, But I am sure I was listening to a lot of "Piece of Mind" by Iron Maiden. I was going through Module A1, mixed with a lot of Grimtooth's Traps. I had seen Ghostbusters about a dozen times by this point and wanted more and more horror in my D&D games. On the shelf was Issue #87 of This Old Dragon!

I am very certain that when this issue was new I was at my DM's house for his birthday (which is today by the way!) playing some D&D.  This might have even been the rather infamous session where I was carrying my D&D books in one hand, a large chocolate shake in the other and I tripped falling face first into and through their storm door. Made a huge mess. Thankfully (or maybe this was a sign), I did not have glasses yet.

On to the magazine at hand.

I will freely admit this is not one of my favorite covers. After seeing so many great covers from this time period, this one felt too "Cartoony" to me. Granted, it works with the article inside quite well, that is not something that can always be said about Dragon.

Kim Mohan's Editorial is up first. It covers the very dangerous ground of TSR's/Dragon Magazine's relationship with Tolkien Enterprises.  Basically saying there isn't one and they can't really say much more than that.

Letters section covers PBM and DragonQuest questions.  One of the great things about these older Dragons was how willing they were to cover other games. 

Nice big ad for the James Bond 007 RPG. Still, one I have never played. Another ad for Lords of Creation later on. I also never played that one but wanted too.

Forum asks questions about the Elemental Planes and Monty Haul campaigns.

Our first real article is from Dragon mainstay Katharine Kerr. Here we get Part 1 of her series Beyond the Dungeon, covering everything outside. She largely focuses on movement here for AD&D. But also what the characters should expect to find and what they are not expected to know.

Shaun Wilson is up with one of my favorite Ecology of articles, The Ecology of the Dryad. I do admit that after reading this article, I considered what it would take to have a Dryad PC race option. It lacks some of the style and personality of the Ed Greenwood articles, but it is still quite good. In fact when I had my own copy of this magazine, I cut this article out and stuck it into my AD&D Monstrous Compendium.

Len Lakofka is back with the next installment of Gods of the Suel Pantheon. This time we get Kord and Phaulkon.

The Legacy of Hortus is our cover story. The author is the same as the cover artist, Jack Crane. This covers a wide variety of fantastic plants that honestly should be used in any addition of the game. Some are whimsical, like Beebalm (a plant we have in our garden), but this one grows its own bees and cowslip with the face and heads of cows. Others are bit on the nose, like Foxglove and Dandelion. But all are rather fun. 

In Reviews, we get Jerry Epperson's opinion on the Tri Tac Stalking the Night Fantastic. Personally, I rather liked the game, but I am a fan of the source material. We both agree that the game's list of encounters is great. 

We get two centerfold sections here. The first is Whiteout, a Top Secret game adventure by none other than Merle Rasmussen himself. Like the James Bond RPG, I never played, or really even read over, Top Secret. I am no judge of this adventure but it does look fun. It is quite detailed and I could use it for other games. It is part three of a three-part series of adventures. Anyone who played it should let me know how it was/is.

Our other center section is the games listing for Gen Con 17. Lots of AD&D games listed but I am also seeing a lot of Car Wars. Some Chill, James Bond, Star Frontiers, and even some D&D.  Crazy that is all used to fit inside of Dragon.

John E. Stith has our fiction section, Simon Sidekick. Interestingly enough, it is a science fiction story about a personal AI assistant. Wow! Have you ever heard of anything so advanced Siri? How about you Alexa or Cortana?

This Dragon is early enough that we still get a proper Ares section.

Kim Eastland has Freeze! Star Law! for law enforcement officers in Star Frontiers.  Pretty good article to be honest.

Luna: A Traveller's Guide is another part of the "Luna" series Ares had been running. This one is naturally from Marc Miller. I think I need to go back sometime and collect all of these and do a special on them for Sci-Fi month. That could be fun. 

Jim Ward shows he is not be outdone and has A Field guide to Lunar Mutants for Gamma World.

Roger Moore answers some StarQuestions about the Universe game.

Nice big ad spread for the FASA Star Trek line. It is also old ads like this that make me realize how lucky I was. Illinois had, and still has some great hobby shops. They have 29 listed here. That is over 4.5 times what California had, and twice what all the neighboring states had combined. 

Gamer's Guide covers the small ads. Always a treat to look at.

Couple of pages of Wormy. Dragonmirth has the short-lived Tal an Alan comic. A three pages of Elmore's Snarf Quest.

So a good issue, but more memorable for the time period rather than all the content. 

 There is a large chamber beyond Room 6.  This room is wide and open, and small flames can be seen leaping from fissures in the floor and walls.  

Embedded in the walls are several uncut rubies. They are worth 1d8x50 gp each but if taken to a gem cutter their value will increase 1d4+1 times.  There are 5d20 such rubies here, but removing them causes 1d4 hp of damage due to heat and flame for each ruby removed.

There is one other chamber to the rear of this one.

 This past weekend I went down to my old hometown to see my family for my mom's 80th birthday. She is honestly doing great, and it was a pleasure to see all my family.  I even got the chance to run into an old friend, Jon Cook.

Jon and I met in Jr. High, we both played saxophone in the school band. But it was D&D that got us to be friends. I had been playing around with my very rudimentary knowledge of D&D at that point, Jon had some AD&D books and, like me, the B/X books. So we spent our time in band class when she should have been practicing rolling up characters.

We decided to meet up because he wanted to sell me his collection!

How could I say no?

Not a huge collection, but a really great one to be honest.  It shows our strange, eclectic blend of AD&D 1st Ed and Basic/Expert D&D in a way that only 1981-1983 could produce. 
I am pleased to get all the Monster books, and it has given me an idea for some edits to Basic Bestiary. Getting his copies of B4 and A1 really took me back too. Especially his weird blend of A1 with his idea of a worldwide assassin's guild. It was also the scene of one of my first character deaths!


I think I might be most thrilled with these dice.  Those orange dice came with MY Expert set. Jon and I traded since his set came with blue, and I wanted blue. Now I have them back. They are going to go into my "Halloween" set.
Those armory dice markers are a rare treat.


Some art books that my youngest brother is going to hold on too till I see them next. He called these "Elmore Porn."

The Lejendary Adventures are like new, and I can't wait to try them out!

Another DM's screen!

Some more Dragons for This Old Dragon.  ETA: Looks like the only one I have not done here is #87.

And the infamous Grimtooth's Traps. Gods I hated it when he would pull out this book.

I can add all of these to his minis he sold me a couple years back.

Those are the real deal lead minis.  The last one was the mini I had used for my cleric Johan Werper, but back then he had a blue robe and white hair. He also had a hand. No, I did not paint him myself.

This is all rather fantastic to have.

I have already added some of these to my collection, others have gone into my "extras" pile for when people come over to play (an extra Player's Handbook is always welcome), and some others have been claimed by my youngest.  He already called dibs on the B/X books and adventures along with the Traps book. Pity his poor players.

Tomorrow is his birthday, and I know he will use the cash to buy some more train gear. This was his previous hobby before D&D and the one he and his son are really enjoying together now. 

So Happy Birthday, Jon! 

Thank you for all these books, the memories of going through the A Series with your crazy ass traps, and our own blend of Advanced and Basic/Expert rules. Your books have a loving home where they will get used all the time!

 Going back to Room #2 and taking the next left leads to room where the party can smell the strong stench of brimstone.  Fires can be seen flickering in the tunnel and the party can feel heat.

Inside the room is a sight the party is not prepared for.

Inside the room are three Burning Bunnies.

These creatures are the Elemental Plane of Fire analogs to the common rabbit.  They are here eating coal and sulfur. Thus the smell.  Like regular bunnies, they are quite scared and mostly harmless.

Picking one up (if you can) causes 1d8 points of fire damage. When scared (which is all the time), they will explode. This is how they get back to their home plane. The explosion causes 2d8 points of fire damage to anyone within 5' of the rabbit. This behavior has given them the nickname Boom Bunnies.

In an interesting side effect of their diet, the Burning Bunnies leave behind 1d3 small diamonds worth 10 gp each as their "droppings."

They have no other treasure.

 This is a bit late, but one of my birthday gifts finally came in.

I got the three core D&D 5 books in Spanish. I have been taking Spanish all year and wanted an RPG to read. So my wife an kids got me these. The Player's Handbook was back ordered and I just got it. 

Now to practice my Spanish some more!

For Father's Day, in addition to having some of the best smoked food and strawberry pie my kids have ever made for me I got this ridiculous toy.

Yup. A 3.5" USB floppy drive for my retro computers. I have to decide now if I want to mount it or leave it free to use elsewhere.

 Following the lava tube past the hellhounds, it gets hot. The party enters a large room with glowing rocks. The floor is cooling (but by no means) cool, lava.  Inside "cooling off" there are three Fire Nymphs. 

The nymphs look tired, but they do not attack. Nor do they attempt to charm. The floor is too hot to wal across and the nymphs move further back. 

They will ask the party what they want, and try to figure out if they have a ruby or diamond of good size (50 gp). They will say they missed their opportunity to get back to the Plane of Fire and are stuck here. If the party has a ruby or diamond, they can use a ritual to get back home. The gem will be destroyed though in the process.

If the party coporates with them and lets them have a gem. Then they should receive the same XP as if they had defeated them.  If there is a party member with Charisma of 16 or higher they will offer a "Kiss of the Fire Nymphs" to the party.  This will grant anyone who receives it a +1 against all saves vs fire and fire magic for 24 hours.

If the party chooses to attack the nymphs, instead they will use all their burning hands attacks and try to charm anyone onto the lava floor. Grant the party only 1/2 the normal XP for defeating the fire nymphs in combat.

 It's a warm one out today (and I am posting remotely after visiting with my mom on her birthday) so let's get a conversion in shall we?

Here is a Fire Nymph from the Tome of Horrors now for Old School Essentials.  An update to my 5e version.

Nymph, Fire

Armor Class: 5 [14]
Hit Dice: 2* (9hp)
Attacks: 1 x magic (charm) or burning hands (1d6 damage)
THAC0: 18 [+1]
Movement: 120’ (40’)
Saving Throws: D10 W11 P12 B13 S14 (4)
Morale: 6
Alignment: Neutral
XP: 25
Number Appearing: 1d4 (1d6)
Treasure Type: D

This creature appears as a very attractive and beautiful female with long, flowing fiery-red hair. Her eyes are pale blue and her skin is lightly colored with a cinnamon hint to it.

A fire nymph is a very beautiful creature that dwells on the Plane of Fire. It is akin to the nymph and dryad, though its origins obviously lie elsewhere. Fire nymphs rarely visit the Material Plane, though mages are known to request their company on occasion. A fire nymph is most easily summoned on Midsummer's Eve where they can walk about and interact with mortals and other fey. A fire nymph usually wears translucent robes of white or ash.

Fire nymphs can charm like a their terrestrial cousins, but they can also cast a burning hands spell three times per day. Additionally, they have immunity to fire and take double damage from cold.

Summoning a fire nymph is relatively easy but not without dangers.  The nymph's passionate nature causes her to move from one emotional extreme to the next very quickly. When a fire nymph is angry, her hair will burst into flames.

Also, due to their passionate nature, there are many gifted pyromancers that claim to be the offspring of a wizard and a fire nymph.

Fire Nyphs are also known as Pyroeads in some arcane circles.

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

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

—oOo—
Name: Camp Hollow LakePublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Daniel Stephens

Setting: Modern day New EnglandProduct: One-shot
What You Get: Twenty-Eight page, 2.15 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Summer camp clichéPlot Hook: Sometimes the best thing to do is buy into the clichés and run with them.
Plot Support: Four pre-generated Investigators, seven handouts, two floorplans, one map, and two monsters.Production Values: Reasonable.
Pros# Fully embraces the Summer camp clichés# Multiple inventive mini-scenes of unnamed students getting slashed# Easy to adjust to the nineties, eighties, seventies, or sixties# Scopophobia# Phonophobia# Aichmophobia

Cons# Needs a strong edit# Another summer camp slasher stalker horror# Non-Mythos scenario# Unlikeable pre-generated Investigators# Fully embraces the Summer camp clichés# A runaround until the solution can be found
Conclusion# Another summer camp slasher stalker horror with all the clichés# Unlikeable pre-generated Investigators who deserve to die, but sadly the scenario drags their time to die out until the climax

In Room 2 there are five round passageways that lead out.  They look like old lava tubes and are larger than the one the salamanders came out of.

On the first tube on the left the party will come face to face with the three large mastif-like hounds. They are large, vicious, and on fire.

These are powerful Hellhounds. 

One has 7 HD, and two have 6 HD. They attack the party.

 The area at the bottom of the stairs is an oval-shaped natural cave. There are small openings in the walls where fires can be seen. In one of the larger holes to the left of the stairs a glow can be seen. The glow, and the heat, grows stronger by the moment.

From the hole emerges a large lizard-like creature, a Fire Salamander. 

There are two in total, they crawl out to attack the party. 

They have Treasure Type F x2 hidden in their lair. 

Lucky for None: A comedy-horror game could almost be said to not be a roleplaying game. This is because its mechanics amount to about three rules. Those rules consist of character generation, which is a single roll, an action mechanic—roll high and add a bonus from the character’s occupation, and then roll for just about everything in the game—mostly bad things and random things. It consists mostly of tables, each with thirteen entries—for good reason—which the players will roll as play progresses. The entries act as prompts, which can be used in two way, either as a group of players, or as a single player, who records his character’s reactions or actions in a journal. The nominal setting for Lucky for None is the village of Grimhaven, which is about to be beset by dark, strange things. In fact, they will be beset by a rash of dark, strange things and bad things to the point where they die or wish they had. Standing between them and the strange events are the Player Characters, residents themselves. The setting for Lucky for None is nominally the village of Grimhaven, located on the coast of Monshire. So it has a quaint British feel to it. That said, it can easily be adapted to other settings.

Published by Beyond Cataclysm Books other notable aspect to Lucky for None is that it uses a thirteen-sided die or ‘d13’ and only a thirteen-sided die. The number thirteen proliferates through the whole roleplaying game. Every table uses the thirteen-sided die, the village has thirteen locations, and events take place every thirteen minutes in real time. The game begins with a roll on the ‘Village Problem table’. This could be ‘sky’ and ‘hunger’ or ‘local government’ and ‘size’. The players develop the actual problem from these prompts, and then create a character. This again, is a simple a roll on ‘The Character Table’. This can be a Labourer, Barkeeper, Child, Mayor, Farmer, or Police Officer, and each has an associated skill. For example, the Mayor has Leading, the Police Officer has Securing, and the Labourer has Building.

To undertake an action, a player rolls the die and consults ‘The Action Table’. The outcome ranges from Absolute Failure to Absolute Success. If a Player Character has a skill related to the action, he can add two to the result. He also has two Luck Points. These can be expended to each add four to the roll, but if used up completely, he is out of luck and all rolls are made at disadvantage.

Of course, rolling a thirteen-sided die means that bad things above and beyond what is normally rolled whenever a player rolls thirteen. On ‘The Character Table’ this means that the character has an occupation and associated skill, and is also personally afflicted by the Village Problem. On ‘The Action Table’, it means that the action has been an ‘Absolute Success’, but also requires that the player roll on the on ‘The Bad Things Table’. This develops a ‘Vibe’, ‘Who It Affects’, and a ‘Severity’. For example, ‘Asphyxiation’, ‘A loved one/another PC’, and ‘Death, explosive’. In addition, Events are rolled or every thirteen minutes of real time on ‘The Events Table’, which give a ‘Location’, ‘Incident type’, and ‘Severity’. For example, ‘Church’, ‘Disease’, and ‘Inconvenient’. In general, the higher the roll, the worse the effect…

Play continues like this until the last and thirteenth Event is rolled and its effects play. The game is then over. The minimalist storytelling rules do intrude upon play, of course, most obviously in ‘The Bad Things Table’ and ‘The Events Table’, but between that, the players are free to discuss and develop the world around their characters, and how first the Village Problem, Events, and then Bad Things affects them, the locations in the village, and the residents. The story of this near constant cavalcade of catastrophes should play out of this as series of disasters and consequences that compounds each other, over and over, building and connecting as it progresses and the Player Characters react to everything around them.

That then is all there is to Lucky for None: A comedy-horror game. At least mechanically. There is an ‘Important and Useful Facts About the Number 13’ table and an ‘Alternative Village Problem Table’, but both are extra additions beyond the core of the game. There is an example of play and tips for the Game Master, both of which are actually useful.

Physically, Lucky for None: A comedy-horror game is a cleanly presented, vibrantly red booklet. It is simply written, very easy to grasp, and thus bring to the table. A combined ‘Character Sheet & Disaster’ is included, which sits in the middle of the table.

Lucky for None: A comedy-horror game is a one-session torrent of terror in which the Player Characters are inundated with issues and deluged with difficulties. It is an impossible situation, a dirty disaster drama of ridiculous proportions, played out in a single session or recorded in a dreadful diary, all good for a refreshingly farcical folly in between playing other roleplaying games. Or just good for getting your hands on a ‘d13’.

 The passageway beyond the opening on level 6 leads to long, long stair going down.

Giant visages of the soulless damned are carved into the walls on either side of this massive staircase. The detail is phenomenal and you swear it looks like they could reach out and get you. 

The air here is hot and quite fetid. The heat seems to come from everywhere, and even the rocks glow with a soft hellish light.

While on this level humans, elves, forest gnomes, and halflings will suffer a -1 penalty to hit due to the heat. Dwarves, deep gnomes, and others accustomed to the deep caves of the nether dark suffer no penalties.

Nothing gets me in the mood for working on a campaign or writing new material quite like a good playlist.
My memories of old-school gaming are inexorably linked to old-school rock and metal. In fact back in the 1980s we would stop our games if a particular video, mostly Iron Maiden or Judas Priest, came on MTV.
So here is a playlist from Jason Vey, author, and lead designer for the Wasted Lands RPG currently in Kickstarter.

Enjoy!