At first, they were found on old, dead worlds. Massive chrysalises by the hundreds, seemingly impervious to cutting tools, waiting in alcoves and caves, surrounded by metallic fibers that slowly waved as if in a light breeze, even if in … Continue reading →

Now in its fourteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2021, after a little delay due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, took place on Saturday, 16th October. As per usual, it came with an array of new and interesting little releases, which traditionally would have been tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Of course, in 2021, Free RPG Day took place after GenCon despite it also taking place later than its traditional start of August dates, but Reviews from R’lyeh was able to gain access to the titles released on the day due to a friendly local gaming shop and both Keith Mageau and David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3 in together sourcing and providing copies of the Free RPG Day 2020 titles. Reviews from R’lyeh would like to thank all three for their help.

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The Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy is Green Ronin Publishing contribution to Free RPG Day in 2021. This is an introduction to Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy which provides Game Master and players alike with everything necessary to play. This includes an explanation of its genre, the rules, a complete scenario, and a nonet of pre-generated Player Characters, all of which comes packaged in a handsome, not to say sturdy—especially in comparison to other releases for Free RPG Day, booklet done in full colour. It very quickly gets down to explaining what it is, what roleplaying is, and what everyone needs to play before providing an explanation of what ‘Romantic Fantasy’ is. Traditional fantasy is not necessarily romantic, although it can have great romances, its focus is more on great sagas and battles and magic and great evils and the like, but inspired by authors such as Mercedes Lackey, Diane Duane, Tamora Pierce, and others, Romantic Fantasy and thus Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy, emphasises love and relationships between a diversity of healthy sexualities, genders, and identities, often through deep, meaningful romantic relationships and consent. In the Kingdom of Aldis, the key setting for Blue Rose, preference for more than the single gender is widespread, and although in the minority, preference for a single gender is equally as accepted. The tone is also positive, rather than grim and gritty, so the characters—and thus the Player Characters—are motivated by sincerity and heroism. Magic is also different to that of standard fantasy, tending to be psychic in nature rather than necessarily arcane, although that too, as arcana, also exists. Lastly, there is a sense of sense of environmental consciousness to be found in the genre, and reverence for the natural world often drives stories in which the antagonists have none.

A quick overview of Kingdom of Aldis—the ‘Kingdom of the Blue Rose’—is also provided as is a description of the Aldinfolk. The kingdom is a beacon of Light having arisen from the darkness that was the Empire of Thorns, whose cabal of wicked Sorcerer Kings had previously overthrown the Old Kingdom. It is also home a diverse range of peoples. Not just Humans of all colours, but also aquatic Sea-folk, the mystical Vata (divided between the chalk-skinned Vata’an and the ebonskinned Vata’sha), and also the Night People, the creations of the Sorcerer Kings and their terrible sorcery, who eventually freed themselves from their servitude. Lastly, there are the Rhydan, various species of animal who Awaken to sapience and psychic ability, and are equal citizens in Aldis. This mix is reflected in the range of Player Characters presented in the appendix at the end of the Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy. Nine pre-generated First Level Blue Rose Player Characters make up the Family Nightsong, a collection of misfits and outcasts who have come together to form a family. The appendix includes an explanation of who they and what the relationships are between the nine, as well as their history. Each of the nine comes with a complete background and descriptions of their personality, goal, calling, destiny, and fate, plus their important relationships. This is in addition to their actual character sheets, so every one of the nine pre-generated Player Characters is given a two-page spread. The mix includes Sea-folk, a Night Person, Humans, Vata’sha, Vata’an, and a Rhy-Badger, and they can either be used intended with the scenario included in the quick-start, or as a ready supply of replacement Player Characters, or even NPCs if the Game Master is running a Blue Rose campaign.

The Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy and thus Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy uses the AGE System, or Adventure Game Engine System. Originally seen in Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying Set 1: For Characters Level 1 to 5. It is fast, simple, but cinematic in its play style. At the core of each character in Blue Rose are eight abilities—Accuracy, Communication, Constitution, Dexterity, Fighting, Intelligence, Perception, Strength, and Willpower. Each attribute is rated between -2 and 4, with 1 being the average. They will have ability focuses, areas of expertise such as Perception (Searching) or Intelligence (Natural Lore), each of which adds +2 bonus to appropriate rolls. Characters can also know Weapon Groups, Talents, and Specialisations and these are worked into and explained in the nine pre-generated characters. The AGE System and Blue Rose has three Classes—Adept, who use arcana, Experts, who can be anything from stealthy scouts to suave diplomats, and Warriors, who can use a variety of weapon styles.

Mechanically, the AGE System requires the use of just six-sided dice, both to handle actions as well as effect—such as damage, time taken, or to generate Stunt Points. To undertake an action, a player rolls three six-sided dice to beat a target, the average being eleven. To the roll a player also adds the appropriate Ability and if one applies, a +2 bonus for any Focus. For example, Chaya the Rhy-Badger wants to understand what a wolf that she and her family has just encountered is doing. Her player would roll the dice, add two for her Intelligence Attribute and two for her Natural Lore Focus. The roll is two, two, and six, which together with the bonuses for the Intelligence Attribute Natural Lore Focus, means that Chaya’s player has rolled a fourteen. This is more than the Target Number of the twelve required to understand the wolf.

Now of the three six-sided dice, one is a different colour to the other two. This is called the Stunt Die. Typically, it acts as an effect die, measuring how well a character does or how quickly an action takes, but in the basic rules, particularly in combat, the Stunt Die does much, much more. Whenever a player rolls doubles on two of the three six-sided dice and succeeds, he gets a number of points equal to the result of the Stunt Die to spend on Stunts, which come in four types—Combat, Exploration, Social, and Power. Thus, Knock Prone or Mighty Blow are Combat Stunts for use in melee or missile combat, Arcane Shield or Effortless Arcana are Arcane Stunts when casting magic, Speedy Search or With a Flourish are Exploration Stunts for general actions, and Passionate Inspiration or Flirt! are Roleplaying Stunts. In the case of Chaya above, her player rolled doubles, generating two Stunt Points to spend from the Exploration Stunts. The list of stunts is not exhaustive in the quick-start, but enough at last for the scenario, and there are more in Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy.

The Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy explains the rules clearly and simply in just a few pages. Tables are included covering the Actions that the Player Characters and NPCs can take, as well as Talents and Arcana. Four tables list Combat Stunts, Exploration Stunts, Roleplaying Stunts, and Arcane Stunts. Lastly, and particularly to the Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy, the Player Characters can be driven to greater feats and achievements when the people and things they care about are in danger, and mechanically, this is reflected in the Relationship value which each Player Character has with particular members of their family. Once per scene, if an action would support the emotion and context of the Relationship which the Player Character has with another, then the player can add the Relationship value to any Stunt Points generated, or even be used to generate Stunt Points when the roll actually does not. Lastly, there is advice throughout the quick-start, especially on handling the potential interplay of Stunts and Emotions and how to portray them, in a way which is responsible and mature.

The scenario in the Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy is ‘The Rhy-Wolf’s Woe’. Consisting of eight scenes, the adventure can be easily scaled to any number of players, though four or five should be a reasonable number. The Player Characters are traveling through the Pavin Weald, a vast forest, when they encounter a Rhy-wolf who wants their help. One of his friends, another Rhy-wolf, has gone missing and he believes that she may have gone off with a boy with whom she has formed a rhy-bond. He wants the Player Characters to find her and make sure that she is safe. Of course, being heroes, the Player Characters agree and go in search of the missing Rhy-wolf. He directs them to the village where the boy can be found, but once they discover that he too is missing. Now in search of both, they must trek deep into the wilderness, facing increasingly difficult encounters along the way.

‘The Rhy-Wolf’s Woe’ is nicely built around a burgeoning relationship between the boy and the Rhy-wolf, and comes with plenty of detail. However, the scenario is short—really intended to be played in a single four-hour session—and it is linear. So in terms of storytelling it is not particularly sophisticated and beyond perhaps using it as an introduction or a side quest in a campaign, it is perhaps a little too basic an adventure for experienced players. This does not mean that they will not enjoy it necessarily, but its structure is likely to be obvious. Less experienced players or those new to roleplaying will have less of an issue, and if this is one of the first things that the Game Master has run, then the structure makes it easier for her to run and concentrate on roleplaying and portraying the setting.

Physically, the Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy is cleanly and tidily laid out. The full colour artwork is excellent and as a physical product, it feels nicely solid in the hands.

Overall, as an introduction to the Blue Rose: The AGE RPG of Romantic Fantasy, the Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy is better aimed at players and Game Masters new to the hobby rather than experienced roleplayers. However, as an introduction, the Blue Rose Quick-Start: An Introduction to the AGE Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy is well done and a more than serviceable entry point.

This creature began with a picture posted to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Facebook group, and I thought it might be fun to stat up.  The original posters asked, "in game terms, what is this?"

Here is what I posted in response. 

It is a "Confessor." It appears in areas of profound sadness. It feeds on the professed guilt of those who sit next to it. You have to confess your worst guilt to it. If you do, it leaves. If you don't or lie to it then it attacks as a specter.

It seemed to go over well, so here are some full stats.

What struck me about it was the white "robes" it is wearing, the bench seems to have room for someone else to sit next to it, and it is out in the daylight.

This is an undead creature, but a special one.

CONFESSOR
FREQUENCY: Very Rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 3
MOVE:  0" (special)
HIT DICE:  10+10 (55 hp)
% IN  LAIR:  100%
TREASURE  TYPE:  Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS:  1
DAMAGE/ATTACK:  1d10 + Energy Drain
SPECIAL  ATTACKS:  Compell, Energy Drain
SPECIAL  DEFENSES:  +1 or better weapon to hit
MAGIC  RESISTANCE:  25%
INTELLIGENCE:  Average
ALIGNMENT:  Chaotic  Evil (Chaotic Neutral)
SIZE:  M  (6' tall)
PSIONIC ABILITY:  Nil

The confessor is a special undead appearing in places of great sorrow.  They are found sitting alone waiting for someone to sit down next to them.  Humanoids are compelled to do so unless they make a saving throw vs. spells.   If a victim fails the save they sit down next to the confessor. This is all the magic does, what the victim does next is up to them.  If they make the save the confessor still will beckon any living humanoid to come to sit next to it. 

Once someone sits next to the confessor it will then ask them to confess their deepest guilt. The character then has to confess their worst guilt to it. If they do and are honest, it leaves. If they don't or lie to it then it attacks as a 10 HD undead creature.  Its touch does 1d10 hp of damage and drains one energy level as per a specter.  They can and do move about in the daylight and are not harmed by it.  

They can be turned by a cleric as a Lich.  Unless the confessor hears a confession they will return on on the next sunset.  Anyone killed by a confessor will remain as a spirit helplessly haunting the area around the confessor; wordlessly screaming out their warnings to others. 

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Have to admit, I thought of this.

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.
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As much as the noughties was a decade dominated by the d20 System and the rise and fall of the third-party Dungeons & Dragons publisher, it was also the decade of two genres. One was pirates, the other was World War 2. The former was certainly given a big push by the release in 2003 of Pirates of the Caribbean, and would see titles such as Swashbuckling Pirates, Pirates of the Spanish Main, and Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies being published. The latter was spurred on by the anniversary of the USA’s entry into World War 2 with the attack on Pearl Harbour, and indeed, in that sixtieth anniversary three World War 2 roleplaying games would be published—Gear Krieg The Roleplaying Game from Dream Pod 9, GURPS WWII from Steve Jackson Games, and Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946. Over the course of the next decade, numerous World War 2 themed roleplaying games, from the small such as Battleforce Bravo from Deep7 Press to Weird War Two D20: Blood on the Rhine from Pinnacle Entertainment. These five represent the differing approaches taken to what is a defining period in twentieth century history. Both Battleforce Bravo and GURPS WWII played it straight and kept it to the history (that is, until GURPS WWII Classic: Weird War II), but the others would go in a different direction, adding another genre. Weird War Two D20: Blood on the Rhine added horror, Gear Krieg The Roleplaying Game added combat walkers, and Godlike added superheroes.
Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 did superhero roleplaying and superheroes in World War 2 like no other. In supplements like Glory Days for Brave New World and scenarios like All This and World War II for Marvel Super Heroes, the focus is traditionally on the superhero first, not the soldier. Although Godlike was a superhero roleplaying and an alternate history game in which superheroes existed and influenced the course of the war—and beyond, they would not change the outcome of the war. The World War 2 of Godlike would still be won by men and machinery, by grit and determination, and when the Talents—those blessed with the superpowers or miracles which set them apart from ordinary men—of the Allies met the Übermensch of the Axis powers, they were soldiers first, superheroes second. Godlike is not a superhero setting in which the superheroes, the Talents, wear spandex. Instead, they wear a uniform and they serve their country. It is also not a Four Colour setting, but gritty. Despite their amazing abilities, Talents do die, whether that is due to combat with an Übermensch or an artillery barrage.

The alternate history of Godlike begins in 1936 when Der Flieger—‘The Airman’—appeared in the skies over the Berlin Olympics. He was the first Talent, and as Europe moved towards war, more would appear. Pevnost, a Czechoslovakian resistance fighter who could step through one door and out of any door he had previously stepped through, enabling him to traverse hundreds of miles in an instance. He would support the underground resistance throughout the war. As Der Flieger destroyed the Polish airforce, a Polish Talent, Cien appeared, who was capable of manipulating objects touched by his shadow, the Finnish Viljo, became one with the arctic snow and fought the Soviet invaders, and the Danish schoolboy, Vogel, found himself invulnerable to any attack he was aware of. As the Nazis occupied more and more of Europe, more Talents appeared amongst the local populations, many of whom would become heroes of their nations. The first British Talent was Jumping Johnny, capable of leaping twenty-seven miles in a single bound and land with a destructive bang, whilst The Indestructible Man, the USA’s first Talent, immune to any damage he was aware of, up to and including as was tested after the war, a ten-megaton nuclear bomb. More and more Talents would manifest throughout the war and around the world, as men and women were subject to the stresses and strains of the war. Despite the Soviet attempts to ‘biologically re-educate’ subjects into manifesting as Talents, the resulting Baba Yaga escaped, mad and willing to attack Soviet and Nazi forces alike. The Nazis conscripted its Übermensch into special SS brigades, whilst the Allies transferred its Talents into Talent Operations Command and trained them as commandos before organising them into Talent Operation Groups, or squads, which would typically be attached to standard forces or used on special missions.

In Godlike, player take the roles of Talents, soldiers with superpowers or miracles who serve in Talent Operation Groups. A character has six stats, Body, Brains, Command, Cool, Coordination, and Sense, rated between one and five, with two being average. Similarly, skills are rated between one and five. Beyond this, stats and skills can have Hyperstats and Hyperskills, so a Talent can have Hyper-Body and be super strong, or Hyper-Intimidation, and be incredibly imposing! Then there are Miracles. Certain traditional superpowers are unknown in the world of Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946—mind control or reading, absorption or imitation of other Talents, the ability to create Talents, time travel, unlimited healing powers, and actual super-science—though Goldberg Science and the creation of gadgets is possible. A wide array of cafeteria-style Miracles is given. This ranges from Aces, which makes the Talent incredibly lucky, Break, which enables a Talent to puncture or smash objects beyond Human capability, and Dampen, which allows him to reduce or negate a physical effect of a Talent to Side Step, with which a Talent can avoid a disaster or attack, Time Fugue, which enables a Talent to stop time for a single object or creature, and Zed, which can be used to negate the ability of another Talent. All of the Miracles come with Power Stunts, Extras, and Flaws, which all adjust the cost of the Talents, and there are also prebuilt, ready-to-play, Cafeteria Power-Sets—though only a handful of them. They include The Blaster, The Brain, The Bruiser, The Flyer, and so on.

There is also the option for a player to build his Talent’s Miracles as per other point-buy systems in other superhero roleplaying games. Fundamentally though, the tone and power level of Godlike means that certain superhero archetypes are challenging, even impossible to build. To build a Talent with the powers of flight and blast rays is possible, but expensive, but add in invulnerability, and it becomes prohibitively expensive. This is because Miracles—and also Hyperstats and Hyperskills—are bought as die types. Standard dice are the least expensive, Wiggle dice the most expensive, and Hard dice in between. Figure in Qualities—Attacks, Defends, Useful out of Combat, and Robust—and the cost also goes up, although a player could remove them to reduce the cost, but with the loss of utility. Miracles can also be modified by Extra, Flaws, and Power Stunts, which in turn adjusted the cost. Another limiting factor is the number of Will Points a Talent is built on. Godlike gives the stats for the first ten Talents to appear, their costs ranging from twenty-five to one-hundred-and-fifty Will Points, but the majority have Miracles way out of the league of beginning Talents. In the default campaign setting of the Talent Operations Group, a player is given twenty-five Will Points with which to purchase Hyperstats, Hyperskills, and Miracles. It is not a lot and it makes it challenging to create Talents without resorting to Hyperstats or Hyperskills. Nevertheless, it is possible to create interesting Talents, not all of them necessarily designed for combat.

To create a Talent, a player assigns six points to his Talent’s stats—which already begin at one, assigns twenty points to skills, and if playing in the Talent Operations Group campaign, receives training in another eighteen points’ worth of skills. Lastly, he has twenty-five Will Points to spend on Hyperstats, Hyperskills, and Miracles. As well this, a player should determine his Talent’s background, nationality, age, family, education, motivations, and so on, to flesh out the character.

Our sample Talent is Technician Third Grade Theodore Huffman, who was studying piano at the Juilliard School of Music in New York when his draft number came up 1943. After basic training he was assigned to Special Services and performed piano concerts in the USA, and then England and North Africa. In early 1944, the convoy he was in, was ambushed by the Germans and the truck he was driving blown up. He was thrown from the vehicle and knocked unconscious. It was then that his Talent manifested—Billy Bones. Whilst Theodore was unconscious, his skeleton got up, grabbed a machine gun and proceeded to fight the ambushers, killing most of them, and driving the rest off. When relief arrived, they discovered Huffman asleep and Billy Bones brashly playing jazz on the piano and smoking a cigar. As a Talent, Billy Bones fights when Huffman cannot, and is stronger and faster than Huffman. He also smokes when Huffman does not, and whilst Huffman is a classical pianist, Billy Bones plays music more popular with his fellow soldiers.

Technician Third Grade Theodore Huffman, ‘Billy Bones’, TOG-242
Body 2 Coordination 2 Sense 2
Brains 2 Command 3 Cool 1
Base Will 4
Current Will 4
Motivations: Survive the war; Become a better musician
Skills: Brawling 1 (3d), Climb 1 (3d), Cryptography 2 (4d), Dodge 1 (3d), Drive (Automobile) 1 (3d), Education 2 (4d), Endurance 1 (3d), Explosives 1 (3d), Grenade 1 (3d), Hearing 2 (4d), Knife Fighting 1 (3d), Language (French) 2 (4d), Machine Gun 1 (3d), Map Reading 1 (3d), Navigation (Land) 1 (3d), Perform (Piano) 3 (6d), Perform (Sing) 1 (4d), Pistol 1 (3d), Radio Operation 1 (3d), Rifle 1 (3d), Sailing (Sailboat) 1 (3d), Stealth 1 (3d), Submachine Gun 1 (3d), Survival 1 (3d), Swim 1 (3d), Tactics 1 (3d)

Talents (25 Will Points)
Alternate Form 2hd (Qualities: Attacks, Defends, Robust, Useful Outside of Combat. Base Cost: 5/10/20. Extra: Endless +1/+2/+4, Extra: Unconscious +1/+2/+4; Flaw: Peace of Mind (Asleep) -2/-4/-8; Flaw: Mental Strain -2/-4/-8; Final Cost 3/6/12; 12 points).
Hyperstat: Body +3d (Base Cost: 2/5/10. Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/3/6; 3 points).
Hyperstat: Coordination +3d (Base Cost: 2/5/10. Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/3/6; 3 points).
Hyperstat: Cool +3d (Base Cost: 2/5/10. Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/3/6; 3 points).
Hyperskill: Submachine Gun +2hd (Base Cost: 1/3/7. Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/1/3; 2 points).
Hyperskill: Perform (Piano) +2hd (Base Cost: 1/3/7. Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/1/3; 2 points).

Although there is a wide range of Miracles listed in Godlike, the list is not extensive, and it would not be until the supplement, Will to Power when the roleplaying game received Miracles such as Size Shift and Unconventional Move. (The supplement also added a range of aircraft which were not included in the core rules—an issue potentially if one of the player Talents could fly.) Nevertheless, between the Godlike and Will to Power, both Game Master and player had access to a decent range of Miracles, enabling both to create interesting Talents. (The following example Talent was created using the extra content from Will to Power.)

Dorothy Murray was fourteen when she was evacuated from London. Unhappy with life away from her parents she ran away and returned to life in the capital. When the family house was bombed, and she found herself buried under rubble, her Talent manifested—she was able to tunnel her way out. At first she thought it was luck, but during later raids, she could hear the cries of those trapped and knew where they were. She began to experiment her powers and by the height of the Blitz, was going out nightly to tunnel into the rubble of bombed houses to rescue the survivors. Anyone pulled free always remembered the glow of the girl who came to rescue them and carry them to safety. The newspapers nicknamed her the ‘Angel of the Blitz’.

Dorothy Murray ‘Angel of the Blitz’
Body 2 Coordination 2 Sense 2
Brains 2 Command 2 Cool 2
Base Will 4
Current Will 4
Motivations: Help people with her Talent; Finish school
Skills: Athletics 1 (3d), Education 1 (3d), First Aid 1 (3d), Health 1 (3d), Hearing 1 (3d), Inspire 1 (3d), Language (Latin) 1 (1d), Mental Stability 1 (3d), Perform (Violin) 1 (3d), Run 1 (3d)
Talents (25 Will Points)
Unconventional Move: Tunnelling 4d+2wd (Qualities: Attacks, Defends, Robust, Useful Outside of Combat. Base Cost: 5/10/20. Extra: Endless +1/+2/+4, Extra: Passenger +1/+2/+4. Flaw: Beacon -4/-8/-16, Flaw: Glows -1/-2/-4, Flaw: Specific Material (Rubble) -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/2/4; 12 points).
Hyperstat: Body +8d (Base Cost: 2/5/10. Flaw: Attached to Unconventional Move -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 1/3/6; 8 points).
Detection: Humans 4d (Qualities: Defends, Robust, Useful Outside of Combat. Base Cost: 4/8/16. Flaw: Human Trapped in Rubble/Underground -1/-2/-4; Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form -1/-2/-4; Final Cost 2/4/8; 4 points).

Mechanically, Godlike uses what would become known as ‘Ore’ or the ‘One-Roll Engine’. This is a dice pool system, usually formed of the appropriate Stat plus Skill, for example, Coordination plus Rifle or Command plus Perform (Piano), the aim being not to roll success, but get matches—pairs, triples, and so on. Neither player nor Game Master roll more than ten dice—although actually rolling that many dice is not common. If any of the dice match, then the character has succeeded. However, the more successes rolled, the wider the result is and the faster it is, and the higher the set of matches, the more effective it is. Carried over into combat, the width of the roll will determine the speed of the attack and how much damage is inflicted, whilst its height will determine exactly where the hit was made. Taking damage is not only physically injurious, but will negate dice in an attacker’s pool, so going first is almost a must, but dodging can ‘gobble’ up dice if successful, potentially breaking up matching sets. Although damage inflicted can be stunning, killing, or stunning and killing, combat can be brutal in Godlike, so players had better be warned ahead of play. Leaping into a game and expecting bullets to bounce off your hero’s chest just because is a sure-fire way to get him killed. Overall, the system is elegant, easily handles multiple actions, and plays fast, although it does take some adjustment from the traditional rote of rolling for initiative, rolling to hit, rolling for damage, and so on.

However, there are a couple interesting wrinkles which comes into play once Hyperstats, Hyperskills, and Miracles are figured. There are two other die types beyond the standard type. The medium cost die type is the Hard die. When this is in a pool and rolled, it is always set at a ten. This means that with a pair of Hard dice, a Talent will not always succeed, he will always do so with the maximum effect possible. The most expensive die type is also the most flexible. The Wiggle die can be set to any number, either to create a set or widen a set. Effectively, both give a player more control over his Talent’s ability to bring his Hyerstats, Hyerskills, and Miracles into play, especially as the dice pools for these increase in size—and it is generally easier to improve an already existing Talent rather than select a completely new one.

Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of Godlike is the extensive timeline which covers the ten years from the Berlin Olympics of 1936 to the beginning the Cold War in 1946. It is richly detailed, mixing in both the actual history with the alternate history of Godlike, but keeping the two sperate. The entries which involve Talents are clearly marked with a bullet hole. This is supported by an equally interesting exploration of the wider background to Godlike and the appearance of Talents, especially how society at large reacted to them. The racism and sexism rampant throughout societies in the period is also acknowledged, but notes that despite that the targets of both played major roles in the global conflict. In the main, the role of Talents in Godlike—at least in Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946—is focused upon military and special operations style campaigns. This is understandable given that it is the major role of Talents throughout the war, and perhaps other types of campaigns, perhaps with a more diverse range of characters might have come had the publisher had the opportunity. Nevertheless, there is nothing to stop the Game Master using the content in Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 and backed up with research of her own from running other types of campaigns set within the Godlike universe.

Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 is further supported with a wide arsenal of equipment used by both the Allied and Axis powers, from small arms to armoured vehicles. The Game Master is given good advice on running a Godlike campaign, and the following details of the Talent Operations Group campaign is accompanied by a complete write-up of a sample TOG squad. This nicely showcases some of the possibilities using the Miracle creation rules earlier in the book. Alternatives and options suggest ways in which a campaign can be adjusted to allow Talents to be even more ‘godlike’, right up to a Four Colour-style campaign, but these do push the setting away from its gritty and very much soldier-first feel. Rounding out the book are the aforementioned write-ups of the first ten Talents to appear and since the book was published in 2001, rules for running a Godlike campaign under the d20 System. These are decently done, but feel superfluous now.

Physically, Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 is sturdy black and white hardback. It perhaps feels a little odd in its ordering of its content, with explanations of the rules, mechanics, and character creation coming before the roleplaying game’s detailed background. Without the latter, the rules do lack context, but with perseverance the reader will get to the richly detailed background and begin to put everything together. The book is well written and illustrated throughout with black and photographs manipulated to add in the presence of the Talents in each and everyone. There is something quite odd about many of them, their slightly off kilter perspective giving them a sense of the unearthly.

Godlike is lacking a number of elements. Mostly obviously a scenario, but World War 2 is such a familiar setting that a Game Master should be able to develop something of her own with relative ease. It is lacking details of the aircraft—of either side, but that would be addressed in Will to Power. Perhaps its major omissions are the lack of perspectives from either a female point of view or a non-American point of view—and to be fair, there is some truth to both omissions. Yet the focus of Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 is on the soldier on the front lines and beyond them, and not necessarily on the home front, and the role might very well have been more fully explored in subsequent supplements—for example, if a supplement devoted to the Russian Front had been published. The authors did publish scenarios in which women played a significant role, and to be fair, there is only just so much that can be covered in a book, even a core book like Godlike. Plus again, there is nothing to stop the Game Master, backed up with some research from running a campaign where women can play a major role. The other emphasis, that of the US soldier and the role of the USA in World War 2 is present in Godlike, but again to be fair, the roleplaying game was published in a year which was the anniversary of the entry of the USA into World War 2 and that emphasis could be found across all media. However, throughout the alternate history of Godlike, the roles of non-US Talents and their stories and contributions are highlighted again and again, each time working as potential inspiration for stories and scenarios which do not necessarily involve the USA. So ultimately, that emphasis is not strong as it could have been.

Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 would go on to spawn a number of supplements and scenarios, including Will to Power and the campaign, Black Devils Brigade: The First Special Service Force and the Italian Campaign, 1943–1944. Its mechanics would have a wider influence, the One-Roll Engine appearing eventually on its own in Wild Talents, a sequel of sorts to Godlike, but which also stood alone and enabled a Game Master to run a more traditional style of superhero campaign. It in turn would give rise to some wildly imaginative campaign settings, including Wild Talents: Progenitor, Wild Talents: The Kerberos Club, and Wild Talents: This Favored Land.

Then published by Hawthorn Hobgoblynn Press, but later Arc Dream Publishing, Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 would be one of the first roleplaying games I reviewed and certainly the first I reviewed after being contacted directly by the publisher and asked to review. I can remember the surprise when it happened, even when it happens today, I am still surprised and even humbled by the trust that publishers place in me in asking me to review their books. Godlike was worth that trust, because it was a great game in 2001 and it still is in 2021. The combination of Greg Stolze’s elegant mechanics with Dennis Detwiller’s richly developed background is a grim and gritty take upon the superhero genre, something that still stands out today as being different and stood out even more in 2001 against the backdrop of the d20 System boom and the tone taken by the other World War 2 roleplaying games then being released. Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 is an amazing piece of writing and design which shows how even as miraculous powers change the world, the soldier—even the soldier Talent, not only has to survive that world, but stand up and still be a hero in that world.

Well, Danny Gallagher’s interview in the Dallas Observer drew some attention, and the crowd coming out for the third Nightmare Weekend Before Christmas open house was quite lively. It was a nice mix between old friends and new people who … Continue reading →

One of the most fun features of both the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic is how they handle magic and spells. Or in the case of Mutant Crawl Classics, wetware programs granted by an A.I. patron as opposed to an actual deity as in Dungeon Crawl Classics. In each case, every spell or program is given a page which details how it works, what its effects are, and what can go wrong with said spell; in other words, an effect chart. For example, the classic standby of First Level Wizards everywhere, Magic Missile, might manifest as a meteor, a screaming, clawing eagle, a ray of frost, a force axe, and so on. When cast, a Wizard might throw a single Magic Missile that only does a single point of damage; one that might normal damage; multiple missiles or a single powerful one; and so on. Alternatively, the Wizard’s casting might result in a Misfire, which for Magic Missile might cause the caster’s allies or himself to be hit by multiple Magic Missiles, or to blow a hole under the caster’s feet! Worse, the casting of the spell might have a Corrupting influence upon the caster, which for Magic Missile might cause the skin of the caster’s hands and forearms to change colour to acid green or become translucent or to become invisible every time he casts Magic Missile! This is in addition to the chances of the Wizard suffering from Major or even Greater Corruption… Although this does add an extra mechanical element to play, it also adds a degree of danger and uncertainty to magic. Plus it is huge fun to play—and yet…

The Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game is well served with its lengthy list of spells for both the Cleric and the Wizard, which all together takes up a good third of the rulebook. Not so, the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. This is due another major aspect of the roleplaying game—mutations. Active mutations—as well as defects, such as Holographic and Pyrokinesis, have their own tables which work in the same fashion as spells, and since they are a major aspect of the roleplaying game, they take up a fair amount of the book. Consequently, this means that there is relatively little space to detail the wetware programs cast—or run—by the Shaman Class. With eight Patron A.I.s and just the Invoke Patron A.I. program and three programs per Patron A.I., the Shaman Class is woefully underserved in terms of capability in comparison to the Wizard or the Cleric and their extensive spell lists in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. As much as the wetware programs use the spell mechanics of Dungeon Crawl Classics, in Mutant Crawl Classics they are still pieces of software and thus technological rather than divine in nature. What Mutant Crawl Classics really needs is a list—at least—of more wetware programs, and that is something provided by the Enchiridion of the Computarchs.

Enchiridion of the Computarchs is a supplement designed to support the Judge and her players in settings where the Player Characters and the NPCs cast spells in high-tech settings. This includes not just the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but also third-party settings such as Cyber Sprawl Classics, Crawljammer, Umerica, Terror of the Stratosfiend, and Star Crawl Classics. Published by Horseshark Games following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Enchiridion of the Computarchs includes a long list of some forty or so new spells or programs, a new Spellburn table, new mechanics for spell failure, and a new corruption table written using high-technobabble, all of which supports the aforementioned settings and other post-apocalyptic, far-future, and dystopian-future campaigns.

In the past, before the Great Disaster, the cabalistic and powerful Computarchs built and established the laws and conventions of the WorldNet. It reached everywhere, but like the rest of civilisation, the network was shattered by the Great Disaster, scattering their tools and programs to be found by subsequent generations across Terra A.D. by the Seekers, especially the Shaman. If ever those tools and pieces of software were to be brought together, they would be collectively known as Enchiridion of the Computarchs. It includes a glossary that explains its terminology in terms of Dungeon Crawl Classics and Mutant Crawl Classics, so ‘source vault’, ‘repository’, and ‘source code’ rather than ‘spellbook’, ‘grimoire’, or ‘scroll’, and ‘encode’, ‘create’, ‘deploy’, ‘run’, and ‘inject’ rather than ‘enchant’, ‘recite’, ‘summon’, ‘place’, or ‘hex’. All of which supports the cross compatibility of the supplement.

Enchiridion of the Computarchs starts with adding mishaps—Faults, Bugs, and Critical Errors which can occur when a user rolls a natural one when executing a program. Once which of these has occurred—based on the user’s Luck modifier, Patron A.I. taint, and so on—the user makes a roll on the appropriate table. A Fault causes a program to stop running and must be fixed, a Bug means that the program runs to completion but with altered or unexpected results, and a Critical Error not only forces the program to stop, but directly affects the user too, including increasing the chance of his rolling a natural one when it is run again. Mechanically, the Faults are flavour rather than effect, whilst both Bugs and Critical Errors more effect than flavour. Less divine and more computational, a mishap simply does not vanish once it occurs, but any time the program is run again, it can also occur again, and even escalate from a Fault to a Bug, and if the roll is bad enough to a Critical Error. However, rest and time spent performing hardware and software maintenance can fix them. Critical Errors require a program like Quarantine to be run to fix.

As with Dungeon Crawl Classics and the ability of the Wizard to ‘Spellburn’ points in his Abilities to gain temporary bonuses to regain lost spells, in Enchiridion of the Computarchs, a Shaman or Techno-caster can do the same with ‘Burndown’. This uses the same mechanics as ‘Spellburn’, but replaces the table for the latter with one for the technological effects of ‘Burndown’. The table requires the use of a twenty-four-sided die and gives entries such as, “The user’s hands are scorched by electrical feedback. Until the ability score damage is healed, the user suffers -1 to tasks requiring the use of his hands.” However, not all of the entries are appropriate, such as “The user must donate an organ, skin, or other body part to a representative from a collection service.”, which will not apply in all settings. Perhaps a table per genre—Science Fiction or Cyberpunk, Post-Apocalyptic, and so on, might have been useful?

When it comes to the actual programs and executing programs, Enchiridion of the Computarchs provides rules for running program teams which although their involvement increases the running time, increases the program check bonus and enables the lead programmer to make multiple rolls on the program check. Computing power also allows for the effect of running programs at points of enhanced processing power, such as within or with the help of a central mainframe or via an orbital communications super router. Particularly rare program components, like proprietary algorithms or encryption keys can grant further bonuses, as can spending extra time activating a program, but rushing a program—essentially ignoring quality assurance—can introduce Bugs, and require fixing later on if a program is to be run more than once. Lastly, a big table gives one hundred options for program provenance, enabling the Judge to individualise programs with quirks, meaning that the version cast by one user might be different from that of another. It leads to the possibility of there being whole batches of a program which have the same quirk and a Player Character actually searching for a better version of a program he already has, or even just a version which lacks the deleterious quirk the version he has right possesses.

Much like the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and its extensive list of spells, Enchiridion of the Computarchs contains a lot of spells. In fact, over two thirds of the supplement is devoted to its spells. The forty-eight run from First Level to Fifth Level, widening the choices available at the lower Levels and actually providing choices at the higher Levels. The spells are designed primarily as adventuring spells rather than utility spells, and so will suit most adventuring Shaman and ‘techno-casters’. Some of the spells listed are actually detailed in Dungeon Crawl Classics and in Mutant Crawl Classics, such as Force Manipulation and Lightning Bolt, but there are plenty of new ones. For example, Close Access enables the user prevent access to entryways—both real and virtual, with Glitch the user transmit code or commands to cause robots, A.I.s, and other computer-driven technology to pause temporarily, Daemon summons an autonomous processing agent to do the user’s bidding, and Technorganic Virus, which infects the user’s enemies with effects ranging from suddenly being deafened to striking them down with a techno-plague. Some of the programs are directly computer-related, such as Create Deck, which enables the user to create a computer deck that will grant a bonus for later rolls involving computers, but for the most part, the programs in Enchiridion of the Computarchs interact with the biological, the computational, and the mechanical.

Rounding out Enchiridion of the Computarchs is a trilogy of appendices. These in turn, introduce malicious code which can implanted using the Exploit program, provide a pair of tables to generate program faults and their associated acronyms, and add and generate ICE—or Intrusion Countermeasures Electronic—to the game. These do feel underwritten in comparison to the ret of the book and will require the Judge to flesh them out a bit, but once she has, they will add more flavour and detail to a campaign.

Physically, Enchiridion of the Computarchs is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is decent and the supplement is well written. Many of the spell descriptions and their effects are engaging and any Shaman or user will want to bring them into play.

There is a split in the focus behind Enchiridion of the Computarchs born of having to cover multiple genres—or rather subgenres of Science Fiction. Whilst it covers the ‘techno-caster’ in general, that means that it has to encompass the computer hacker of the Cyberpunk genre and the Shaman of the post-apocalyptic genre, so there are programs—or spells as the Shaman call them—which will work in the one genre and be hard to work in the other. Much of this will depend upon the computational and electronic architecture of the world, where it is more prevalent, programs affecting computers will play a bigger role, such as Cyber Sprawl Classics, Crawljammer, or Star Crawl Classics, but less so in settings like that of Mutant Crawl Classics and the like. This means that some adjustment will be needed by the Judge in determining which of the programs she wants in her campaign.

In addition, if there is an issue with Enchiridion of the Computarchs, it is that it does not directly address the lack of programs to be found in the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game nor does it tie any of its programs to any of the eight Patron A.I.s given in the rules. Not that it necessarily has to have done, but it would have been useful. Still, that does not stop the Judge from doing so if she wishes.

Overall, Enchiridion of the Computarchs presents a fantastic set of new options, rules, programs, and/or spells that supports not just the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but any number of Science Fiction roleplaying games based on Dungeon Crawl Classics. Pleasingly, it provides much needed support and resources for the otherwise underdeveloped Shaman Character Class from Mutant Crawl Classics. If you play any roleplaying game from Goodman Games, or based on a Goodman Games roleplaying game, and you need programming support, Enchiridion of the Computarchs is exactly what you need.

Not everything I post here is game-related.

Friday Night Videos is a prime example.  And in truth, there might not be a Friday Night Videos (or even an MTV as we used to know it) without the pioneering work of Mike Nesmith.

Nesmith, who passed away on December 10 at the age of 78 was one of the members of the fake rock band, The Monkees.  LAter he created the show PopClips that was later sold to Time Warner and gave us MTV.  This is not a surprise since the Monkees show was essentially a surreal sitcom with music video sensibilities.  It played in reruns to kids like me that would grow up into teens with MTV.

Mike Nesmith is the Godfather of Music Videos.  Yes, there were music videos before, some WAY before, but he turned them into entertainment for the masses.

So here's Nes and some of my favorite songs he has written.

He also was featured on songs written by others. 

His best though, is one he wrote and performed and became something of a signature song.

Weren't they good, they made me happy.  Miss yeah Nes.

Some of you may be making plans to come out to the gallery for the December 18 Nightmare Weekend Before Christmas, and some of you may be holding off until the open house on December 24, both running from noon … Continue reading →

Okay, let’s be honest: it’s been a rough year all around, and most of us planning any kind of giftgiving looked at calendars this week and realized “You mean it’s NOT still August?” For everyone else, we’re looking at our … Continue reading →

The Book of Gaub is a book of power whispered of by those fear it—and those lust after its secrets, a book of terrible knowledge that is never found whole, a book of vile things unleashed when its dark spells are miscast by the unready or the desperate, the reaching into our world of a being unknowable except by his hand which stretches out, his fingers—all seven of them, together and independently scratching at the walls and behind the cobwebs in the forgotten places. In mouldering dusty libraries, beyond the edges of maps, on the inside of the flesh of patients at a hospital underbudget, under the floorboards where rats and other things run, in that pie leftover from Christmas at the back of the icebox, nowhere because it never existed, and in that moment of lost love when a tear rolls down the cheek… Here the seven fingers—detached from the Hand of Gaub—incise their spells, perhaps to last for years and years, perhaps to disappear moments after discovery… Seven spells and seven instances for seven fingers, a catalogue of catastrophes to befall the foolish and the ambitious caster, details the many known things—or paraphernalia—left behind by the Shards of Gaub, a score of things that may come about because of Gaub, and descriptions of the situations that have wound themselves around the appearance of Gaub—in any form, all may be found within the pages of The Book of Gaub.

The Book of Gaub is a book of spells, a book of minor magical artefacts, a book of magical disasters, a book of magical monsters, a book of adventure or encounter hooks, and a book—a very short book—of rules for running sorcerer-type characters. All themed around Gaub, The Book of Gaub, Gaub’s spells and more. The Book of Gaub is a book of magic and spells from Lost Pages, a small press publisher best known for Genial Jack and Into the Odd. The publisher is no stranger to spell books, having previously published Wonder & Wickedness and Marvels & Malisons, but whilst The Book of Gaub follows the format of the latter, it is an altogether stranger tome. Not just stranger, but darker too. There are spells in The Book of Gaub that embrace medical violence, eating disorders, body horror, pregnancy, decay, bugs and spiders, stalking and gaslighting, self-harm and addition, and much more. This is not a book for an immature audience, but definitely a book that requires roleplaying safety tools and consent at the table.

The Book of Gaub is a book of spells for the Old School Renaissance and the retroclone of your choice. However, mechanically, The Book of Gaub is incredibly light with barely a handful of stats—and then only for its monsters. This makes it incredibly easier to adapt and not just to the Game Master’s preferred retroclone, but almost any roleplaying game in which spells, dark magic, and horror play a role. In addition, as much as the spell book is traditionally written with fantasy roleplaying games in mind, much of the colour or ‘micro fictions’ which accompany each spell have a very modern feel and tone. In fact, very twentieth century… What this means is that the contents of The Book of Gaub are easily transposed to roleplaying games such as Dying Stylishly Games’ EsotericEnterprises: Old School Adventures in the Occult Underground, Just Crunch Games’ The Dee Sanction, or even Liminal.

The forty-nine spells in The Book of Gaub are divided and themed darkly into seven. Thus the Finger That Trails Letters, working itself into dusty tomes and the written word, its spells related to the spells and written word; the Finger That Points The Way takes the caster and sometimes the victim of its spells on journeys; the Finger On The Pulse whose spells slice at the flesh, perhaps to heal, perhaps to bring suffering; the Finger That Scratches Beneath The Floorboards and in the hidden places of your house, its spells hiding and losing its victims there; the Finger Chewed Down To A White Bone, its spells inducing hunger and purges; the finger that is not there that you have already forgotten about by the time you reach the end of this clause; and the Finger That Catches A Shed Tear and slides it into a bottle, its spells playing upon and manipulating emotions.  Thus for example—at random, Eicastise, incised by the Finger Under The Floorboards, hides the caster in a painting—although he can be seen if it is examined—and even allows him to move freely in it or to another painting, to speak or hear from the painting, and appear appropriately dressed in the painting. The Finger On The Pulse leaves the Hypochondria spell behind, which requires the caster to fill a pouch marked with his sigil with rusty nails and the unwashed clothes of the victim, and then hide it in the victim’s house. Should the victim fail his Saving Throw, then he is cursed to have every injury amplified—cuts widen, blood does not clot, shortness of breath becomes stifling, and worse… Whilst under the curse, the victim cannot heal and for as long as the curse remains, only he and caster are aware of the worsening symptoms.

Not only are the spells often vile, but so is what they leave behind. Wherever the spells from The Book of Gaub are cast, they can corrupt the area and this corruption often manifests as a bauble or trinket, known as the Paraphernalia of Gaub, again each tied to one of the seven Fingers of Gaub. For example, the Finger That Trails Letters might discard a bibliography of non-existent books or an inkwell always filled with ill-appropriately coloured ink, whilst that left behind by the Finger Chewed Down To A White Bone could be a black photograph of a child standing in an empty house, the position of the child changing each time the photograph is viewed, the child also weeping when something invisible is near, or an exquisitely fractally carved scrimshaw which can be studied to aid concentration or the study of small things, but leaves the user open to hypnotism. In many cases, a Paraphernalia of Gaub requires the user to empower it, which means a spell has to be cast upon it.

The vile nature of The Book of Gaub and its spells are only exacerbated by the Catastrophes, misfortunes which will befall the caster such as the sorcerer’s joints creaking and moaning whenever he moves, potentially becoming too stiff for him to move, if he miscasts a spell learned via the Finger On The Pulse , but there are general Catastrophes too, like all children born within the region for the next seven days having seven fingers on each hand and upon reaching puberty will know a single spell of Gaub. Under certain conditions Monsters of Gaub can manifest too, though fortunately there are not quite so many of those are there of either the spells or the Catastrophes. They also range vastly in size from the Pinmate, a white paste goblinoid thing which seeps into a house and possesses its fabric, turning every edge or potential point of friction into features which scratch and scrape, feeding upon the blood they draw, whilst the Tide of Turmoil is a swirling mass of chaos and unresolved collective trauma that always closer to the nearest source of suffering…

As well as some twenty or so manifestations of the Grip of Gaub, each a hook that pulls the Player Characters into a story which hints at the effect Gaub has upon the world, The Book of Gaub includes suggestions of how to use them in a game with rules for Sorcerers hunting for The Book of Gaub. Fundamentally, this is a Class and Level system in which the spells themselves do not have Levels and so can be learned in any order as long as a searching Sorcerer can find them and has the time. They can be learned and cast via rote memorisation or off the cuff, but if a spell is cast without learning it first, more spells are cast beyond a Sorcerer’s usual allotment, the spellcasting is interrupted, or other misjudged events occur, then a Catastrophe can occur!

Physically, The Book of Gaub is a beautiful little book in its own right. Cloth bound, it feels delightful in the hand, such that you wish that it was an actual artefact within the game world itself. The artwork is decent for the most part, whilst the writing is also good, although perhaps it does veer into the ponderous in places.

The adult tone of The Book of Gaub means that this book is not for everyone nor every campaign, and its contents will need to be carefully judged to determine whether it is suitable for a campaign or not. If it is, The Book of Gaub is a fantastically nasty book of ideas, encounters, and mysteries whose impact upon a campaign will not be obvious initially. Instead, The Book of Gauband its contents should creep into a campaign, turning it darker and weirder, whether that is in a frantic race to prevent yet one more spell from the tome fall into the wrong hands or a desperate search to find yet one more spell incised by one of the Fingers before a rival does. Whether a fantasy campaign or an urban fantasy campaign, The Book of Gaub is waiting to reach into your campaign and creep through its shadows, and show just how a little knowledge can spread darkness and chaos…

Been crazy busy at work. That time of year.  But one big project is done and I am down to the last few courses in this contact hour audit I have been doing for weeks.  

I have been neglecting things here so here is a quick one.  I got some art made of a scene crucial to the "War of the Witch Queens"  back story.  The scene is called "Tea With the Witches" and it takes place in The Simbul's castle in the Forgotten Realms.

I want to send out a hearty thank you to Brian Brinlee for doing such a great job with this. Here are the witches pictured. Left to right (clockwise, never widdershins when dealing with witches):

Sagarassi the Sea Witch (Krynn/Dragonlance), Iggwilv the Witch Queen (Oerth/Greyhawk), The Simbul, Witch Queen of Aglarond (Toril/The Forgotten Realms and where this is taking place), Larina (my OC), Feiya the Pathfinder iconic witch (Golarion/Pathfinder).

They are playing Pentacles, a game played with five people using Tarroka cards.

Hopefully regular posting will resume next week!

Yesterday was an exceedingly exciting day (details will follow soon), to the point where an interview with Danny Gallagher in the Dallas Observer isn’t quite the biggest personal news of the day. Go read the interview anyway, and come out … Continue reading →

It has not been a good week.  In addition to Anne Rice and Mike Nesmith, we also lost British Cypriot painter Chris Achilléos.  He was 74.

Achilléos' book Sirens was one of the first art books I ever bought.  I think my brother (who is an artist) still has it.  I'd later go on to pick up his Beauty and the Beast and Medusa books. 

I loved his art from Heavy Metal (and sometimes White Dwarf) magazine as well as the British covers of the Richard Kirk Raven novels.  But it was his art of Taarna of the Heavy Metal movie poster that most people know him.

Links

• Website
• Facebook
• Wikipedia
• Internet Speculative Fiction Database 

Taarna

Tanith

Elric

Let's not forget his Raven covers for the British publisher Corgi.

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 a 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: Secret SantaPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Thomas Newman

Setting: Jazz Age Devon

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Fifty-eight page, 25.75 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Coal for Christmas! How naughty were you?Plot Hook: A black tie soirée becomes a loathsome lockdown!

Plot Support: Twenty NPCs, eleven good handouts, two plain maps, and six pre-generated Investigators.
Production Values: Good.
Pros
# Second Albion’s Ruin title# Locked room monster hunt# Linear plot
# Self-contained scenario# Good artwork
# Excellent handouts# Can be run as a Christmas-themed convention scenario# Can be run as a Christmas-themed one-shot

Cons
# Linear plot# Too many NPCs# Needs an edit# Locked room monster hunt
# Locked room solution hunt
Conclusion
# Self-contained, linear scenario# Locked room monster hunt# Christmas-themed one-shot or convention scenario# Excellent artwork and handouts

This is now the seventh holiday season in which the Triffid Ranch has been open, and 2021 has been…interesting. Things have been remarkably quiet since before Thanksgiving, and this isn’t just about gallery traffic. Even the roads, and we’re close … Continue reading →

Author and world creator Anne Rice died this past weekend at the age of 80. 

Rice's writing, whether her books on vampires, witches, mummies, or erotic fairytales, had a huge effect on horror writing, modern media vampires, and not least of all, games. 

I recently watched the 2017 "World of Darkness" documentary where Vampire the Masquerade creator talked about how he tried to avoid everything Anne Rice when he was writing, only to watch all the movies and read the books that influenced her. 

There was certainly something in the air around then.  World of Darkness / Vampire the Masquerade came out in 1991, with development starting in the late 80s (on the way to Gen Con according to the documentary).  Back in 1985-86, I read "The Vampire Lestat."  I actually read it before I read "Interview with A Vampire" so my opinion of Lestat was a bit higher than my friends that read the books in the proper order.  "Lost Boys" came out in 1987.  All of this led to some interesting discussions at the game table on the nature of vampires.  

Once again I am going back to my original "Red Book" and I pulled the stats on an old favorite, the Children of Darkness, updated to my new Basic Bestiary stat block.  Though spoiler alert, you have seen a variation on these with the Children of Twilight.

Vamire, Children of Darkness
Medium Undead (Corporeal)
Frequency: Very Rare
Number Appearing: 1 (1d4)
Alignment: Chaotic [Chaotic Neutral]
Movement: 180' (60') [18"]
  Run 360' (160') [36"]
Armor Class: 2 [17]
Hit Dice: 10d8+20*** (65 hp)
To Hit AC 0: 6 (+13)
Attacks: 2 fists or by weapon
Damage: 1d6+5 x2, or weapon+5
Special: Constitution drain, immune to mind-affecting spells such as sleep, hold, and charm, plus additional powers
Save: Monster 10
Turn As: Type 12 (Lich)
Morale: 11 (12)
Treasure Hoard Class: XX [C]
XP: 3,000 (OSE) 3,100 (LL)

Str: 22 (+5) Dex: 18 (+3) Con: 16 (+2) Int: 16 (+2) Wis: 13 (+1) Cha: 20 (+4)

Few undead creatures are as powerful as the vampire and none are as successful as hunters as the vampire.  The Children of Darkness are among the most powerful of the vampires.  The transformation to the undead causes the Children of Darkness to become the perfect predator. Their physical form becomes perfect; imperfections disappear, they become stronger, can see and hear better, and naturally, can smell blood.  These vampires only prey on humans and as such only humans become Children of Darkness. 

The Children of Darkness share many of the same strengths and weaknesses as the common vampire. They are strong (they have strength scores of 22), undead, immune to mind-affecting spells such as sleep, hold, and charm. They are also immune to having their minds read.  However, unlike other types of vampires, they can enter dwellings, holy ground and are not harmed by holy items like symbols of holy water.   Additionally, they cannot turn into bats, wolves, or mist. They do not need to rest in coffins, but many do since it is a good guarantee that they will lie undisturbed.  Like all vampires, Children of Darkness are damaged by and can be destroyed by sunlight.   They take 2d6 hp of damage per round exposed to sunlight.   These vampires are turned by Clerics as Liches or Type 12 Undead. 

These vampires can attack with their fists causing 1d6+5 points of damage per hit or attack with a weapon with a +5 to damage.  Additionally, these vampires can have a special power.  These powers can include, Charm, Levitation, Pyrotechnics, Telekinesis, or Telepathy.  Typically these vampires gain their first power soon after becoming a vampire and an additional power for every 100 years of age.   Children of Darkness over 1,000 years old are believed to be able to fly or even immunity to sunlight.

Magical weapons can harm them and if they are reduced to below 0 hp they do not die, must retreat where they will heal at the rate of 1 hp per day.  Damage above this 0 hp threshold is regenerated at the rate of 1 hp per round.  Vampires can "heal" hp on an eight-for-one basis for any hp they drain from constitution points (1 con point = 8 hp). 

The deadliest attack is their Constitution Drain.  Once they latch onto a victim they drain them of blood via a bite.  This bite drains the victim of two (2) points of constitution per round, with most humans drained to zero in five rounds. A human drained to below 0 constitution points will die. A drained human will not return as a vampire unless the Child of Darkness also gives them some of their own blood.  They can only do this if the human is at 0 points of constitution, no more, no less.

Children of Darkness will band together in small groups for protection. Many will share the same sire or will even be "orphans", Children whose sire has abandoned them.  They have a complex set of laws they must abide by which includes not turning children into vampires, (though feeding on them seems to be ok) not creating too many of their own kind (which is difficult to start with), and not killing their own sires.  Some even take this as far as not killing others of their kind. 

The Children of Darkness see themselves as superior to all other types of vampires.  They view other vampires as mutations or aberrations.  Their own rules prohibiting them from killing other vampires do not apply to other vampire types. They often refer to all these other types as "Children of the Devil."

Every hundred years or so a Child of Darkness feels the need for a deeper sleep. They will find a secluded location away from the sun where they will sleep for a decade or more.  Sometimes very old vampires will fall into this death-like state and forget to awaken. 

--

About twice as much text as my late 80s version.  For this stat block, there is now a "Turned As" listing.  This is something I'll introduce in Basic Bestiary II: Undead (currently 220 entries, but only 140 are complete).  "Named" undead will get a chance to make a saving throw but I will detail all of that and my alternate rules for Undead Level Drain in the book.

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 a 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: Border TownPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Michael Bertolini

Setting: Jazz Age Idaho

Product: Scenario Outline
What You Get: Ten page, 337.85 KB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “Sometimes, you’re closer to the border than you think...”Plot Hook: “The mystery isn’t how you got here, it’s how you get out.”

Plot Support: One NPC and five pre-generated Investigators.

Production Values: Plain.
Pros
# Self-contained outline# Begins en media res
# Huge scope for Keeper input
# Easy to relocate to other times and places

Cons
# Asks for skill rolls the pre-generated Investigators lack# Pre-generated Investigators more modern than Jazz Age# NPCs undeveloped
# Leaves it up to the Keeper to add the horror and the monsters
# Requires the Keeper to develop and write the middle of the scenario
Conclusion
# An escape room with effectively one key# Underwritten plot and villain motivations
# Overwhelmingly underdeveloped# Requires the Keeper to develop and write the scenario’s middle
# Nothing to customise, everything to write

 1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

—oOo—
In 1981, Basic Dungeons & Dragons moved out of the dungeon and up a Level. X1 The Isle of Dread was the first wilderness adventure for Basic Dungeons & Dragons, published the year before, and so focused on exploration across a wider geographical area—though not too wide—and discovering individual locations within that area. It was available separately, but was also packaged as the standard module for the Dungeons & Dragons Expert Set, which in addition to being designed to cover character Levels between three and seven, also focused on rules for wilderness travel, exploration, and encounters. If, due to their inclusion in the Basic Dungeons & Dragons boxed set, B1 In Search of the Unknown and B2 Keep on the Borderlands were a Dungeon Master and her players’ first experience of delving into dungeons and cave complexes, then X1 The Isle of Dread would be their first journey to a far off place in Dungeon & Dragons and their first taste of a world outside of the rock and stone walls underground…
X1 The Isle of Dread is designed for a large party of Player Characters, roughly between six and ten, who should be between Third and Sixth Level, averaging thirty Levels between them. The spur for their involvement in X1 The Isle of Dread will be the discovery of a sheaf of scrolls which are revealed to be letters and map describing an expedition by the pirate and explorer, Rory Barbarosa, to the Thanegioth Archipelago, a thousand-mile sea voyage south of the main continent. He relates how he and his crew reached one island with a small peninsula at its south western tip with access between the peninsula and the rest of the island to the north blacked by a massive stone wall. Standing before the wall is the village of Tanoroa, whose inhabitants stand guard on the wall against incursions and attacks from the creatures on what they call the ‘Isle of Dread’ to the north. Friendly and open to the possibility of trade, the inhabitants told Barbarosa that the wall was built by the gods who also built an ancient city in the Isle of Dread’s central highlands and that the inland city was rumoured to hold unimaginable treasures, including a great black pearl of ‘the gods’! Unfortunately storms and attacks by tribes of cannibals meant that Barbarosa was unable to explore the island fully and was planning an expedition when he died. Now of course, it is up to the Player Characters to hire a ship, set sail for the far islands, and explore them themselves, and perhaps make the discoveries that Rory Barbarosa was never able to!
Rather than leaving it there, X1 The Isle of Dread also includes several suggestions as to how the Player Characters might get involved rather than simply discovering Barbarosa’s letters and then get them to the island. These include being hired by a merchant to investigate and explore the island, purchasing an old ship and hoping that it can get them to the Thanegioth Archipelago, having a Player Character inherit a ship, or simply letting them borrow the money to purchase the ship. Whatever the option, the Player Characters set sail and make the week or more long journey south with the Dungeon Master rolling for encounters on the Ocean Sea Encounter Tables in the Dungeons & Dragons Expert Set and rolling for weather.
Landing on the island, most likely at the village of Tanoroa, the Player Characters will find the inhabitants friendly and helpful. Their society is an interesting mix of the South Seas and the Caribbean, each village being led by a matriarch who is advised by a male war chief and a Zombie Master, who raises the ‘Walking Ancestors’ as labourers and sometimes warriors. Whilst the villagers are welcoming and open to trade, they will not join the Player Characters on any expedition north of the wall, which means that unless they have brought hirelings with them, the Player Characters are very much of their own. Overall, the village of Tanoroa has a slightly creepy feel to it, what with the zombie work force and the question of just what the giant wall is protecting the village from. However, unless the Player Characters commit some faux pas, Tanoroa should serve as a safe base of operations from which they can mount their expeditions.
Beyond the wall itself is the ‘Isle of Dread’, a mix of jungle, low lying coastal swamps and swampy lakes, marked by mountains and the occasional volcano. Some twenty-four locations on and around the island, including the village of Tanorora, are described. They include sharks basking off beautiful beaches, camps of pirates, a deranged ankylosaurus (!), a sea dragon, and more. There are caves infested with troglodytes, rock baboons, ogres, and even a green dragon. Notably, all of these cave encounters use either one of the two cave maps provided, though the Dungeon Master would be free to design her own. There are encounters with new monsters too, such as the nomadic Rakasta, anthropomorphic felines which ride sabre-tooth tigers; the Phanaton, monkey-raccoon-like creatures which dwell in tree villages and can glide from tree to tree; and the Aranea, a large, pony-sized species of intelligent spider, capable of using magic. Some of the marked encounters are not pre-written, but left up to the Dungeon Master to roll on the three Wilderness Wandering Monster tables included with the scenario, this in addition to rolls she will be making regularly on the tables as the Player Characters explore the island.
Eventually, the Player Characters will reach the ancient city where the black pearl can be found. This is on an island—Taboo Island—in the middle of a lake in the crater of a hopefully extinct volcano which stands at the centre of a thirty-mile-wide plateau, some three thousand feet high. The plateau is so high it has its own climate—temperate rather than tropical of the rest of the Isle of Dread—and thus its own wandering monster table, which includes mastodons, pterodactyls, sabre-tooth tigers, and occasional tremor. Having gotten atop the plateau, it will take an eight-hour climb to get over the lip of the volcano on and descend to its base. Here the Player Characters will eventually be welcomed by villagers who live on the lakeshore and who are being attacked by head-hunters. In fact, they will be so welcoming that in return, they will want the Player Characters to deal with the rogue tribespeople.
Taboo Island turns out not to be so much an island, as a temple complex partially occupied by the head-hunters with the lower levels. This actually the nearest that X1 The Isle of Dread comes to including an actual dungeon. The highly detailed complex has three quite detailed and very different levels. The temple itself is ruin, occupied by the cannibals, whilst the second level is partially flooded and infested with traps, and the third consists of a cavern filled with steam and super-hot mud pools and the true villains of the scenario, the Kopru, evil amphibious, fluke-tailed humanoids with the ability to charm others into serving them. This is their first appearance in Dungeons & Dragons, as well as in X1 The Isle of Dread, and the Player Characters’ encounter with them is going to be made all the more challenging by the hot, hot steamy environment and the ability to charm of the Kopru top charm the Player Characters into doing their bidding.
Rounding out X1 The Isle of Dread is half a dozen suggestions for further play on the Isle of Dread, including destroying a Zombie Master in Tanaroa after the village has been attacked by undead creatures, mapping the island, hunting for dinosaurs and harvesting their parts, exterminating the pirates, capturing animals and creatures to bring them back to the mainland, and searching for sunken treasure. These are all fun ideas and could easily be developed by the Dungeon Master. Lastly, there are stats for typical NPCs and write-ups of all of the new monsters given in X1 The Isle of Dread of which there are a lot.
In terms of advice for the Dungeon Master, as a training scenario for running a wilderness scenario, X1 The Isle of Dread is perhaps underwhelming, especially in comparison to the earlier, B1 In Search of the Unknown, which was specifically designed to help the novice Dungeon Master populate and design her first dungeon. Nevertheless, despite being short, the advice is to the point that, “The DM should be careful to give the player characters a reasonable chance for survival. The emphasis is on ‘reasonable.’ Try to be impartial and fair, but give the party the benefit of the doubt in conditions of extreme danger. However, sometimes the players insist on taking unreasonable risks; charging a tyrannosaur bare-handed, for example. If bravery turns to foolhardiness, the DM should make it clear that the characters will die unless the players act more intelligently.” What this makes clear to the Dungeon Master is that the environment of the Isle of the Dread is dangerous, potentially deadly to the Player Characters, especially given that some of the creatures—particularly the dinosaurs—they will encounter will have a high number of Hit Dice and lots of Hit Points. This is further emphasised with, “When describing monster encounters, the DM should rely not only on sight – there are four other senses – smell, sound, taste, and feelings of hot, cold, wet and so forth!” Further, the Dungeon Master should use this as, “…[A] good way to “signal” a party that an encounter may be too difficult for them to handle.” and lastly, “The DM should also try to avoid letting unplanned wandering monsters disrupt the balance of the adventure.”
Further, in addition to X1 The Isle of Dread being the first wilderness adventure for Basic Dungeons & Dragons and subsequently Expert Dungeons & Dragons, the module is interesting because it introduced the lands of the ‘Known World’, what would become Mystara, with a large map of an area identified as the ‘Continent’. Smaller maps of Karameikos and its wider environs would later be included in the Dungeons & Dragons Expert Set, but here there is a full and large-scale map of the Continent accompanied by thumbnail descriptions of its sixteen or so countries and regions and a pronunciation guide for each of their names. Many of these go on to be more fully detailed with a series of setting supplements for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition, but even here the descriptions capture the odd mix of cultures and geographies mashed together. Many of the cultures are based on Earth cultures, including Huns, Mongols, Icelanders, medieval Italy, Byzantium, and more, all alongside the fantasy elements of Dwarven and Elven kingdoms, magocracies, and Halfling shires. Further, these are all mixed and pushed together, so famously, the Vikings of the Nordic Soderfjord Jarls sit immediately to the north of the Arabic Emirate of Ylarum, a giant desert. Of course, it feels unrealistic, even nonsensical, but perhaps taken in the context of the Pulp sensibilities of X1 The Isle of Dread, that lack of realism will not be so much of an issue and can even be a feature.
Physically, X1 The Isle of Dread is really very well presented. The maps are excellent, whether wilderness or other location—and there are a lot of them. The map of Continent and its relationship to the Thanegioth Archipelago, as well as that of the Isle of Dread itself, are fantastic. The module is also well written and solidly supported with the new monsters, a rather plain handout of Barbarosa’s letter, and the outline of the Isle of Dread he mapped before he died.
—oOo— X1 The Isle of Dread was reviewed in The Space Gamer Number 38 (April 1981) by Aaron Allston. He laid out the groundwork for his capsule review with, “An introductory scenario must, first and foremost, be an enjoyable adventure. It must also provide a “working model,” so that beginning DMs can see how to construct and organize an adventure. And it must be easily read, that the novice referee not become lost and confused with travelling from Crypt 1 to Village 3.” He made clear that, “This adventure goes a long way towards accomplishing those goals. The scenario itself, set on an island whose simple human culture bears tinges of Polynesian and Amerind societies, is relatively tame, but provides some tense moments. Enough variable situations are presented to keep the whole thing from becoming static. More important, in this instance, is the module’s organization as a prototype. It does well here, too; almost all the maps can be removed and the appropriate text descriptions are clearly keyed to the proper maps. This scenario cannot be played cold, which is also a necessary experience for a novice DM; it must first by read through and assessed.” However, he was not wholly positive, adding, “No real problems evidence themselves. As noted, this adventure will not appeal to experienced players; there is a certain lack of color or sweep to the whole thing.” before concluding that the module was, “Recommended to beginners only – but it says so on the cover.”
Anders Swenson reviewed X1 The Isle of Dread in Different Worlds Issue 12 (July 1981). He liked the, “…[C]oncept, design, and execution of this dungeon module. There have been only a few campaign/adventure books among the scores of products published for the hobby, but this is one of the best yet available. The map is flexible in that many sorts of adventures could be worked into the terrain as it is shown. There are many different types and patterns of landforms depicted. Many of the encounters specified for the Isle of Dread could be dropped intact onto other parts of the map.”
More recently, X1 The Isle of Dread was included in ‘The 30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time’ in the ‘Dungeon Design Panel’ in Dungeon #116 (November 2004). The founder of GREYtalk, the World of GREYHAWK discussion list, Gary Holian, described it as, “The first true module to introduce players to a ‘wider world’ beyond the castle, forest, and cave, Dread tore them from their medieval moorings and sent them careening across the waves to collide with a prehistoric lost world.” Mike Mearls, Co-Lead Designer for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, asked, “Who doesn’t like hopping on a longship and sailing for days across the open sea to battle dinosaurs, pirates, cannibals, and the horrid kopru? It’s hard to believe that all that material is crammed into 32 pages.”
—oOo—
X1 The Isle of Dread is a great set of tools to run a hex crawl wilderness campaign. With its new monsters and distance from the civilisations of the Continent, the Dungeon Master has the scope to just not run a very different kind of adventure, but also scope to develop areas of her own. After all, there are whole other islands in the Thanegioth Archipelago which are left devoid of detail in the module. Plus with its mix of Zombie Masters, dinosaurs, pirates, and strange mind-controlling amphibians, it has a lush, Pulp sensibility, taking in King Kong, The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, and H.P. Lovecraft. And yet…
In so many places, X1 The Isle of Dread feels flat. To start with, whilst the hook of great treasure is enough to get the Player Characters to the Thanegioth Archipelago, it does not feel enough to quite keep them going. For example, there are no hooks or NPCs with motivations to be found at the village of Tanoroa, although the suggestions for further adventures on the Isle of Dread do suggest one. In addition, although there is a great wall across the narrow isthmus connecting the peninsula to the Isle of Dread, there is no mention of quite what the wall is guarding against. Given the Pulp sensibilities of the adventure and the wall’s obvious nod to King Kong, its very existence is begging for a night-time attack against it to be staged by some great beast. Then there is Taboo Island, barely described bar the old temple, which as dungeon complex is open to expansion, but incredibly difficult to traverse from one level to the next such that the Player Characters may never discover the true secrets of the island. The fact that the Player Characters may never discover the true secrets of the island is the ultimate problem with X1 The Isle of Dread.
X1 The Isle of Dread does not really explain what the true secrets of the Isle of Dread are until two thirds of the way through the module. This is that the Kopru once controlled a great empire which spanned the whole of the Thanegioth Archipelago, thriving in the islands’ hot geysers and mud springs and enslaving native human population with their mind-controlling powers. The temple on Taboo Island was where they were worshipped as gods, but eventually they were overthrown. This is why the villagers on the peninsula fear the Isle of Dread, but cannot say why. Yet there is no sign of the Kopru on the Isle of Dread or any of the encounters on the island, until the Player Characters descend into the temple on Taboo Island—no ruins or hints, or even indications that Koru have charmed anyone on the island and so might be in their service. Literally, the Kopru are simply locked away until the Player Characters arrive and that is a huge, missed opportunity in terms of storytelling to the point where even if the Player Characters do encounter them, they may not realise the true nature of the Kopru and their secrets.
Ultimately, X1 The Isle of Dread needs the Dungeon Master to really work at it to drop some hints and develop some hooks which will draw her players and their characters into wanting to explore more, and it fails to really help the Dungeon Master do that when it really should. However, as a first wilderness module, X1 The Isle of Dread is a fantastically pulpy, fun hex-crawl, rife with potential for some great adventures and stories.

Now in its fourteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2021, after a little delay due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, took place on Saturday, 16th October. As per usual, it came with an array of new and interesting little releases, which traditionally would have been tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Of course, in 2021, Free RPG Day took place after GenCon despite it also taking place later than its traditional start of August dates, but Reviews from R’lyeh was able to gain access to the titles released on the day due to a friendly local gaming shop and both Keith Mageau and David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3 in together sourcing and providing copies of the Free RPG Day 2020 titles. Reviews from R’lyeh would like to thank all three for their help.

—oOo—

For Free RPG Day 2021, Hit Point Press released not one, but two things. However, the publisher, best known for its Humblewood anthropomorphic setting for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, actually put the two things in the one booklet and gave them a cover each, much like a Doubleday cover. So look at the one cover, turn the book over and upside down, and you have the other. Both contributions are for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, but each provides the Dungeon Master with something different, one is more generic than other, whilst that other is setting specific. T provides an NPC designed to be dropped into almost any fantasy setting and a new Humblewood adventure.

The BIG BADS series presents a range of booklets, each detailing a villainous NPC which the Dungeon Master can drop into her campaign at short notice. The idea is that they be used when the Player Characters have wandered away from the centre of the action or the plot, and the Dungeon Master does not have anything ready for such an eventuality. Each entry comes complete with a description of the villainous NPC, his tactics and traits (Ideal, Bond, and Flaw), his allies, some background, and some adventure hooks. In the case of The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe release for Free RPG Day 2021, the ‘BIG BAD’ is Zara Harlowe, who can be inserted into major town or city which has a city guard and a single thieves’ guild dominating the criminal underworld. Zara Harlowe is the chief of the watch or city guard, and has managed to wage a major campaign against organised crime, breaking up gangs and intimidation rackets, foiling heists just in the nick of time, and filled the nearby gaols with innumerable crooks. However, one major criminal, the local Thieves’ Guild Guildmaster, known as Nix, eludes her, and it continues to frustrate the chief of the guard. Except, of course, it does nothing of the sort, for the simple reason that Zara Harlowe and Nix are one of the same. Zara Harlowe has long been corrupt, and her growing ties to the local criminal underworld put her in a position, eventually, to eliminate all of the local competition and install someone else on charge. Namely, herself—or rather Nix. By day, she commands the city guard to crack down on crime, invariably directing them away from her activities by night as the city’s crime boss. It is all a case of one big misdirection—through double agents, bureaucracy, ruthlessness, and disguise.
The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe also details her two allies in the know, both as evil as she is, one a Dragonborn shapechanger and wereboar, the other a Half-Elf Necromancer! There are good notes on roleplay on each of these villains, but especially Zara Harlowe, as well as details of what might be found should the trio be encounter at the Guard Station or the Thieves’ Guild Headquarters. Neither is mapped, which is pity, but the Dungeon Master should be able to find or draw something. Should the Dungeon Master want to use Zara Harlowe and her compatriots, the mini-supplement comes three adventure hooks, one a closed room mystery, one a heist in the city where Zara commands the guard, and the last a rambling letter which hints at the truth of her activities. All three will need no little development upon the part of the Dungeon Master, but they represent a good start. Lastly, there are the stats for each of the three NPCs, each given their own page and all accompanied by decent illustrations. In terms of Challenge Rating, all together they have a rating of ten or eleven, depending upon the situation, so the Dungeon Master will need to adjust according or choose when to run these NPCs.
The BIG BADS section of The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe runs to just twelve or so pages of content, but provides the background and stats necessary for the Dungeon Master to run this villainess and her allies with relative ease. She will need to make adjustments and development the content a little to fit her campaign or scenario, but no more than usual.
—oOo—
The other half of The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe is ‘The Heart of Dako’. This is a scenario for the Humblewood campaign setting in which you play anthropomorphic Birdfolk and other woodland creatures. It does not take place in the Humblewood region though, but in the Tanglewilds, a vast jungle far south of the Humblewood on the western continent of Wesden. Here Tanglewilds Guides are stationed at the guide outpost of Wayfare, from where they can be hired to lead expeditions through the jungles of Sania’s Paradise. The four pre-generated Player Characters, all of Fifth Level, are Tanglewilds Guides. They include Zenja Brightfeather, a Seeta Luma (or Parrot) Druid, a Sun Eluran (big cat) Cleric, a Sandscale Tilia (lizard or gecko) Rogue, and an Arma Hedge (armadillo?) Ranger. All four are given two pages each containing all of the necessary stats, features, and traits, plus an explanation of each character’s role, backstory, and equipment. These are all easy to read and understand, and thus far from difficult to ready to play.
‘The Heart of Dako’ opens with the four Player Character Tanglewilds Guides being hired by the Companions of the Blue Rose, a stalwart company of adventurers, to lead them on their way to the coastal city of Espinorra, where a ship awaits to ferry them to their northern homelands. They boast of great find, a precious magical relic they believe to be the fabled Heart of Dako, which they took from the Temple of Naba, and plan to take home with them. Thus they want to get home without any fuss or difficulty. Not long after they set out, the Player Characters and their employers are disturbed in their journey. It might be that they see a strange, apocalyptic vision, be suddenly warned by Companion of the Blue Rose about the Heart of Dako his companions are carrying, or they recall or hear a story about the dreadful outcome should the Heart of Dako be removed from the Temple of Naba. Essentially, the Dungeon Master is free to use these as necessary to persuade the Player Characters that taking the Heart of Dako from the Temple of Naba was not a good idea, each serving as a hook for the adventure proper. Making this decision though will come after the scenario’s opening scene when the Player Characters have an opportunity to interreact with the Companions of the Blue Rose, learn of some of the dangers they faced in finding and plundering the Temple of Naba, and more. This is no mere exposition, but essential in completing the adventure, because the Player Characters will not only have to retrace the steps of the Companions of the Blue Rose, but do so with hot on their heels after stealing the Heart of Dako!
‘The Heart of Dako’ perhaps suggests a nod towards Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, but the scenario is more Indiana Jones—right down to one of the NPCs exclaiming, “ It belongs in a museum!”, than exploring the nature of European colonialism! After a race across a rope bridge, the Player Characters enter the Temple of Naba and must navigate the various traps and puzzles located in its various chambers. These include the classic spike traps and walls closing in trap, all before the Companions of the Blue Rose confront again and hopefully, the Player Characters can save the day.
In addition to the scenario, ‘The Heart of Dako’, the first appendix gives full stats for all four members of the Companions of the Blue Rose, as well as other NPCs and a handful of jungle monsters. The second appendix describes the Wilderness Explorer, a new Background, and the third, details the actual Heart of Dako.
‘The Heart of Dako’ is a short and linear and presumes that the Player Characters will do the right thing in returning the artefact to the temple. If not, the scenario ends badly… In fact, the scenario feels all too short and could have done with interaction and opportunities for roleplay as it does emphasise exploration, puzzles, and combat rather than roleplaying. This does not mean that there are no opportunities, but they feel sparse in comparison. The adventure itself can be completed in a single session or so, certainly no more than two sessions. The players are provided with some decent characters to roleplay, and the Dungeon Master likewise has a good selection of NPCs to portray. The Companions of the Blue Rose will need careful study as they are the equal of the Player Characters and just as detailed and capable.
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Physically, The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe decently presented. The artwork is decent enough in ‘Zara Harlowe’, but fully painted in ‘The Heart of Dako’, and full of lush colours that help bring the various characters (Player Characters and NPCs) to life and the jungle too. A fair bit of the artwork gets used more than once, but it is really good artwork. Otherwise, the writing is good, though perhaps a better explanation of the scenario’s plot could have been included at the beginning.
Of the two pieces of content in The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe, ‘Zara Harlowe’ is undoubtedly the more useful, being generic in nature and easily transposed to any setting. Being more specific in its setting, ‘The Heart of Dako’ is less useful to the Dungeon Master unless she wants to run a jungle-set scenario and/or run an anthropomorphic scenario, and less useful to the Humblewood Dungeon Master it takes place far away from the core setting. That said, ‘The Heart of Dako’ is a preview of Humeblewood 2, which opens up the southern tropical continent for the Humblewood setting. As a preview though, it still feels all too short and perhaps wondering if ‘Zara Harlowe’ had been omitted, there might have been room for a bit more adventure and bit more of the Humeblewood 2 to be showcased. Plus, as an adventure for Fifth Level Player Characters, ‘The Heart of Dako’ is not necessarily going to be useful to run when Humeblewood 2 is released.
Overall, The Heart of Dako & Zara Harlowe as a combination does not quite work. The latter is more useful than the former, but detracts from the former which feels as if it could have done with a bit more adventure as a result. Both are available separately on the Hit Point Press website.

The Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide is an introduction to the new mecha roleplaying game from Leyline Press, best known for its post-apocalypse, post-BREXIT roleplaying game, Shadow of Mogg. Traditionally mecha roleplaying games and mecha games in general are very technical and tactical, of which BattleTech and its roleplaying game, MechWarrior, are perhaps the best known. Not so Salvage Union, which forgoes the tactical and the technical elements of the game play typically found in the genre, in favour of more narrative play. There are different mech types and different weapons and pieces of equipment, as well as different types of mech Pilots in Salvage Union—and in the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide, but there are no points of armour to scour off in a firefight and keep track off and there is not a detailed resolution system, or even an initiative mechanic! The Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide comes with six Pilots and their mechs, the core mechanics, advice for the Mediator—as the Game Master is known, rules for scrap and salvage, and a sample scenario. All of this in a digest-sided booklet, nearly ninety pages long.

Salvage Union and the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide takes place on a colony world in the far future which has been heavily scarred by the effects of global warming, deforestation, pollution, nuclear fallout, and several conflicts. The luckiest and the wealthiest live in Corporate Arcologies—each one run by a different corporation, but most are Wastelanders, living in scattered settlements or in the case of a relative few, as members of self-sufficient communities living in gigantic mechs called Union Crawlers. From these roam bands known as Salvage Unions, made up of workers, salvagers, Pilots, and free spirits, each Piloting their scrap-built or former corporate mech, in search of scrap and salvage to keep their machines and the Union Crawler running, and even upgrade their machines. To some the Salvage Unions are folk heroes, to the corporations they are greedy opportunists and recalcitrant rebels, part of the growing Resistance against the corporations taking control of the planet. In Salvage Union and the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide, the Player Characters are part of one such Salvage Union.

At the core of Salvage Union is a Pilot and his Mech. Each Pilot has a Profile, three Stats, three pieces of equipment, and three Abilities. The Profile includes a callsign, background, ideal, flaw, keepsake, and motto, whilst the three Stats are Health, Ability Points, and Stress. Health is how much physical damage a mech Pilot can suffer, Ability Points are expended on Abilities, and Stress is how much mental damage he can take, which can be generated via a player Pushing his Pilot, using certain Abilities and items of equipment. Health, Ability Points, and Stress are the same for each of the six pre-generated Pilot in the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide. For example, the Engineer archetype has the Callsign of Twitch, the Freelancer Background, her Ideal is Pragmatism and her Flaw is Judgemental, her Keepsake is a Red Toy Car, and her Motto is ‘Call me, or screw it up yourself’. Her three pieces of equipment are Riveting Gun, which when the safety is switched off, can inflict damage, a Wrench that can be used as a melee weapon, and a Portable Arc Welder. Her three Abilities are ‘If I cut this wire…’, ‘Field Repair’, and ‘Talk Shop’. ‘If I cut this wire…’ allows her to pinpoint a System or Module on a Mech and disable it. This can be done in person and requires her player to expend two Action Points, or aboard her Mech with a Welding Laser, in which case it costs two Energy Points to use. Similarly, ‘Field Repair’, which enables her to repair a damaged Module or System, and costs either two Action Points or two Energy Points depending whether she is conducting the repairs in person or in her Mech. Lastly, ‘Talk Shop’ just costs one Action Point to use and means she can engage in conversations other Mechanics, Salvagers, workers, and the like, and they will share information with her.

A Mech has several Systems, its hardware and weapons, and Modules, its software, electronic warfare systems, and the like, as well as three ratings for its Spec—Structure Points, Energy Points, and Heat Capacity. Structure Points are how much damage it can take, Energy Points are expended to power a Mech’s Systems and Modules, and Heat Capacity is how much Heat it can generate before a Reactor Overload Check is required and the Mech either shuts down, loses Systems or Modules, or simply blows up! For example, the Engineer’s Mech is a Type 43 ‘Magpie’, a Medium Class worker Mech developed by the Stefanus Corporation. It features Hot Swap Universal Mounts for easy change of Systems and Modules, and its Systems include a Rigging Arm, Locomotion System, and Welding Laser, which when at Engaged range, can be used a weapon. Other Systems include ‘Repair’, allowing the Pilot to repair a Mech or Structure for two Structure Points—even in combat, and ‘Mass Field Repair’, an out-of-combat which enables the Pilot to repair up to ten Structure Points across any number of Mechs. Both ‘Repair’ and ‘Mass Field Repair’ cost two Energy Points to use. The Type 43 ‘Magpie’ also has a Mini Mortar, an Emergency Hatch, and a Transport Hold. Its Modules include a Comms Module and an EM Shield Projector, which can be projected around itself or another Mech and provides protection against lasers and ballistics. It costs two Energy Points to use and requires a roll on its own table to determine its effectiveness.

There are six pre-generated Pilots and their Mechs in the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide. They include Hauler, who can intimidate her enemies or make a deal with them and her Mk8 ‘Atlas’, a heavy supply Mech which can also lay a minefield; Scout, a tracker and sniper, whose agile ‘TC40’ Gopher can track and survey targets; Soldier Pilots a GCC21 ‘Brawler’, a combat Mech; Hacker, whose MCS-1337 ‘Mantis’ Mech is designed for stealth and hacking into enemy Mechs; Engineer and her Type 43 ‘Magpie’ repair Mech; and Salvager with his BG-288 ‘Jackhammer’, a sturdy mining Mech intended to survey deep underground, excavate rock, and survive a cave-in! Together, these six are all different and they nicely showcase the range of characters and Mechs possible in Salvage Union.

Mechanically, the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide and thus, Salvage Union, is built around a small set of tables, upon which a player will roll a twenty-sided die. There are no bonuses applied to the roll, but simply an outcome. On a one, the Player Character suffers a ‘Cascade Failure’, meaning that not only has he failed, but has done so spectacularly, or something else has gone wrong. A result of a two to five means a simple ‘Failure’, whilst that of six to ten, means the Player Character has succeeded, but with a consequence. A roll of eleven to nineteen is a ‘Success’ and means that he has succeeded without any penalties, and a roll of a twenty means he has ‘Nailed it’ and succeeded beyond his expectations.

A Pilot can push both himself and his Mech. Pushing his Mech generates Heat and too much can result in a roll on the Reactor Overload Table to see what happens, but it also allows a player to re-roll any check involved with his Pilot’s Mech. Venting Heat is possible, but requires the Mech to be completely shutdown for ten minutes and is therefore vulnerable. If a Pilot pushes himself, he generates Stress and can result in a roll needing to be made on the Stress Overload Table. Similarly, resting for ten minutes will get rid of all of a Pilot’s Stress.
Other tables cover Critical Damage to a Mech and Critical Injury to a Pilot, and there are Modules and Systems which have their own tables, but Salvage Union is not much more complex than this. This is because it is actually a resource management roleplaying game—not a complex one, but a resource management roleplaying game nonetheless, with players keeping track of Energy Points and Action Points for their Mechs and Pilots respectively, and deciding where and when to use them. Although both Stress and Heat can be reduced during play, Action Points and Energy Points cannot, Pilots and Mechs needing to speed a week back in their Union Crawler to recover both. This shifts play in Salvage Union to more of a narrative structure, with even combat initiative being handled narratively rather than via random dice rolls, and makes knowing when to use a System, Module, or Action much more important. Similarly, knowing when to Push a Pilot or a Mech for that all important reroll is also important, and is effectively the nearest thing to a skill system that Salvage Union has.

The Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide also includes rules for salvaging and what can be done with salvage, whether that is paying for Downtime aboard the Union Crawler, making repairs to Mechs, or even building new Modules and Systems and upgrading a Mech. There is good advice for the Mediator too, especially on game structure and handling consequences—especially since this is a quick-start. The Mediator is also provided with sample enemy Mechs, a glossary of terms, and several table of salvage. With a bit of care, the Mediator could even design a few Mechs of her own to field against those of the Player Character Pilots.

Lastly in the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide, there is a short scenario. This is ‘The Downing Of The Atychos’ and sees the Player Characters tracking down a corporation air transport ship which has crashed. It belongs to Evantis Industries, which manufactures experimental heavy mechs and weaponry, and that means potentially good salvage. Unfortunately, the transport has crashed in the city ruins of Hope Falls, thought to be home to outlaws, and there are going to be rival Salvage Unions interested. The Pilots will need to fight and possibly negotiate their way across the area and conduct a survey in order to locate the downed transport, facing some interesting threats and situations along the way. Several fun NPCs are provided too, as well as some different Mechs. It is a decently done adventure which should take a couple of sessions to play, but could easily be developed by the Mediator to run a mini-campaign if the players and their Pilots wanted to explore the area further and scour it empty of salvage.

Physically, the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide is a decently presented digest-sized book, whose cover is reminiscent of a Haynes manual. Inside, the artwork varies in style, from fully painted vistas to line art drawings of the Mechs with cartoon-like illustrations of the pre-generated Pilots in-between. The layout is clean and tidy, and the quick-start is easy to read through.

The Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide does an excellent job of introducing Salvage Union and how it is played. It not only comes with everything necessary to play its scenario, but a bit extra with which the Mediator can expand play beyond the scope of the scenario, providing a broader look at the core game. Some adjustment is necessary in terms of play since although this is a Mecha-style game, as it emphasises narrative play rather than tactical, for both the roleplaying and the Mech combat. Overall, the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide is an impressive introduction to Mecha-style games and settings, but without resorting to a lot of stats and wargames style play.

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Salvage Union is currently being funded via Kickstarter.