Original Roleplaying Concepts
It is the first of the month, so that means a new character. I went through the effort of creating a new character for Man, Myth & Magic. Well, I say "new" because it is a new character for this game, but it is someone I have used a lot in the past.The Game: Man, Myth & Magic
I spent the day reviewing Man, Myth & Magic and it was rather fun. But not a game I am likely to play. So in these cases I use the game to help inform characters that I might be using in other games. In this case I am doing the human, still living version of a character that has so far only appeared in my games as a ghost.
The Character: Queen Boudica
Fans of the Ghosts of Albion RPG will recognize this name. Boudica is the Queen of the Iceni Celts living in western Briton at the time of the Roman occupation. So the time period is really perfect. I set this at 61 CE. If I am going to play a game in Roman Briton then I want to join the Queen as she burns down Londinium.
Boudica, or Boadicea, was a central figure in the Ghosts of Albion animations on the BBC and in the books by Christopher Golden and Amber Benson. She became one of my personal favorite characters in the RPG as well. While she is great fun as a ghost, getting the chance to play her as a still living and breathing human is too much of a temptation to pass up.
I am going to include a scan of the sheet with page numbers appended to it. This was one of the bigger (but by no means unique) issues with this game. You have to flip all over the place to get the information you need to create a character, let alone to play.
Note: Windows updated and now can't find my scanner. So here is an image from my phone.
For Boudica here I did not include any spells, though I could have. I didn't find any that fit well with the concept of her in this game. Plus she is technically not a spell caster here.
In any case, she is a fascinating character and I could stat her up in several systems and not grow tired of her.
Long live the Queen.
I am going to be spending some quality time with the classic game Man, Myth & Magic by Herbert "Herbie" Brennan and J. Stephen Peek and published originally byYaquinto Publications in 1982, and now published (in PDF and single softcover formats) by Precis Intermedia. I was always kind of fascinated by this game. The name of course grabbed me for two reasons. There was the whole "Myth and Magic" side to it all which in 1982 was a big draw for me. Also, there was the magazine and encyclopedia series also called Man, Myth & Magic that dealt with all sorts of occult-related topics.
I read reviews for it in Dragon Magazine (#80) and White Dwarf (#41) and was actually quite curious about it. The reviews really ripped into the game and I needed to know if it was as bad as they made it sound. Sadly I never found a copy near me and a mail-order of $19.00 + tax and shipping and handling made it a little more out of reach when it was new.
But I was always drawn to historical games. I felt if I could play or run a game and learn something about history at the same time then it was time well spent really. A few I have enjoyed quite a lot, mostly Victorian-era ones, and others I ripped online so much I promised I wasn't going to rip on them anymore.
Man, Myth, & Magic sadly belongs to the camp of a historical mishmash, that is to say, it is about as historically accurate as an episode of Xena: Warrior Princess. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Xena and it is very entertaining in the right frame of mind. The same is true for this game. Great, in the right frame of mind. In fact, I think that now, living in a post-Xena world, there is a place for this game that did not exist in 1982.
For this review, I am going to consider my original boxed set from 1982 (now minus the dice) and the newer PDF versions found on DriveThruRPG published by Precis Intermedia. In both cases, the material is the same minus some of the extras that came in the boxed set like the dice and a pad of character sheets.
Man, Myth, & Magic was published in a boxed set of three books (same covers), with a pad of character sheets, some maps, and dice. The PDF combines the three books into one 132 page volume. The original boxed set retailed for $19.00 in 1982 ($55 in today's buying power) and the PDFs sell for $7.95 today. The books feature color covers and black & white interiors.
Book 1
Book 1 is 24 pages and covers the "Basic Game" and the game most like the one as originally conceived of by Herbie Brennan. In this game, the players play gladiators in the time of the Roman Emperors. Which one? That is up to a random dice roll unless of course, the players want something different.
It's an interesting idea, but...well there are some problems here. According to the back of the box, it is the Summer of 41 CE. Cool. But Caligula was assassinated in January of 41 CE. Tiberius ruled 14 to 37 CE and Nero was Emperor from 54 to 68 CE. The only Emperor in the Summer of 41 was Claudius. Adding dates in parentheses would have been a nice touch. Let's not even get into the fact that Cleopatra VII, the last of the Egyptian Pharaohs, had died back in 30 BCE, 71 years before the events of this game, but that looks like her on the cover. I'll talk more about this later. In theory you can tun this game from 4000 BCE to 500 (or 1000) CE.
You begin with your Roman Gladiator and your two percentile d20s and roll up your characteristics. The characteristics in the Basic Game are Strength, Speed, Skill (not used just yet), Endurance, Intelligence, and Courage. The scores range from 1 to 100. You add all these up for your Life Points (so 5 to 500), you fall unconscious at 20 or below and dead at 0 or below.
The Basic rules take your gladiator from start to a bit of combat and adventure with the maxim that the best way to learn is to do. This is a tactic that the rest of the game uses. At the end of this, your character is ready for new adventures.
The neat bit, and one I want to revisit, is the idea of reincarnation. That is if your character dies they can be reincarnated.
Book 2
Book 2 covers the "Advanced Game" and includes 40 pages. Here we learn more about skills, the Power score, and the different Nationalities (10) and Classes associated with each (2-5 each). All are completely random and no real attempt is made to explain why say an Egyptian Sorcerer, a Gaulish Barbarian, a Roman Gladiator, and a Hibernian Leprechaun would all be part of the same adventuring party. Ok. That's not entirely true, but the explanation takes some digging.
Up first is determining your Nationality. Again a random roll gives you African, Briton, Egyptian, Gaul, Greek, Hebrew, Hibernian, Visigoth, Roman, and Oriental. Each at 10% chance. Within each nationality, there are character classes. Regardless of how many there is an equal chance for any given class. Most nationalities have a sort of "fighter" like class and all have merchant. There are two classes open to women characters only, Wisewoman (African) and Sybil (Greek). Details are given for all the classes, 20 in total, but not a lot of information. In most cases only a paragraph here and some more details later on. This brings up a persistent issue, the rules are a bit scattered everywhere throughout the book.
Additionally, there are two "Special Categories" of players (not characters) of "Orator" and "Sage" or essentially a storyteller and a record keeper. Much in the same way Basic D&D has a "Caller." Not much else is mentioned about these roles however.
This character is considered to be your first incarnation. Anytime your character dies, you can then reincarnate. This allows you to change your nationality, class, and gender and retain a little bit of the Skill from a previous incarnation. It is an interesting idea, I am not 100% certain though that it works. Knowing gamers I see a situation where players would play a character only to get them to die for a chance at a better character next time.
There is a fun chart on inheritance that would be fun to port over to other games. Related there are our ubiquitous tables of equipment.
Some of the other secondary "Optional" characteristics are also detailed. These include Agility, Charm, Dexterity, Drinking, and so on. These are really more akin to "skills." The trouble is that some of these you have to roll higher, some you have to roll lower and others you don't roll at all. There is no rhyme or reason here.
Combat rules follow and they remind me a bit of Runequest. Nothing really special really. Strength points over 50 can add to your damage, Skill points over 50 can add to your "To hit" chance. Combat, like all the rolls here, start with a basic 50% chance to hit. The Basic game just has you roll. The Advanced game has you make called shots. Classes with Combat as their "Prime Ability" can improve their ability to hit even more. All classes can spend Power to also increase their to-hit bonus; 10 points of Power to increase your chance by 1%. Interestingly armor does not stop you from being hit, it does reduce damage taken.
The goal of the game though is the accumulation of Power. Power advances your character and can overcome that 50% failure rate. Power also is the, well, power behind Magic.
The last third or so of the book covers all sorts of additional rules. Some seem tossed in, to be honest. Poisons are covered as are spells.
Magic, as expected, is given some special attention, though not as much as I was expecting. Magic is assumed to be real and work, at least part of the time. Magic is described as "Coincidence," a spell is uttered and something happens whether it caused it or not. "Science," Damascus steel is given an example. The superior technology was seen as magic. "Psychic Phenomena" which not really an explanation at all, likewise "Trance State" and as "Lost Knowledge." Though no explanation is really given as to how magic works.
Book 3
The adventures take up Book 3 and is 64 pages. This book is for the Lore Master (Game Master) only and is also one of the weaker parts of the game. The Adventures, while interesting, are a bit of a railroad. In order to succeed the players have to hit all the parts in order and then move on to the next adventure.
The adventures include the following:
These adventures are a prelude to the published adventures. There are some neat ideas here, but the adventures lack something for me. Actually, it lacks a lot of things for me, but I could make some changes to make them work.
There are some encounter tables, but they only cover the areas that the adventures are detailed here. I also have to note there are no monsters here. Just humans.
One of the bigger criticisms of this game at the time was the then $19.00 price tag, about $55 in today's buying power. Now $20 for a boxed set of three books, character sheets, and dice sounds like a steal. With the PDF at just $7.95 it is at a price I think should attract anyone that might have been interested in this game.
The art is in black & white, which is expected and welcome, but there is not a lot of it and some of it is repeated throughout the books.
Man, Myth, & Magic at times feels like two different games, or rather two different ideas merged into one game. I feel that the classic Roman Gladiator/Basic Game was Herbie Brennan's idea and the worldwide game of various nations and types or the Advanced Game was Steve Peek's. Given that Brennan started working on a game called "Arena" which was a Gladitorial RPG.
About Reincarnation
Reincarnation is quite a big deal in this game. This is not a huge surprise given Herbert Brennan's publication history. His book "The Reincarnation Workbook: A Complete Course in Recalling Past Lives" could work as a guide for this game. Personally, I would like to use the reincarnation idea to help smooth out some of the issues with different times. So adventurers from Cleopatra VII's Egypt, can then deal with Tiberius, and then help in Boudicea's raid on Londinium. Something similar to the Old Soul quality in Unisystem.
Somehow using the idea of the Distant Memory which, like Old Soul, allows the characters to draw on past life knowledge and skill. That is easy to do in Unisystem, not so easy to do in D&D like games with very rigidly defined classes. Maybe taking a level in another class might do it.
I am sure there is more in the expansion, The Egyptian Campaign, but I don't have access to that set right now.
There is an interesting game here but I think the concept of it is greater than the rules as presented actually allow. It never quite lives up to what the box claims. Nor is it the abomination that earlier reviews made it out to be. I think most reviewers balked at the price tag and the fact that the game did not offer anything new; at least not anything that meant going through the rather clunky rules.
It is most certainly not a historically accurate game. Historically inspired to be sure, but not by any means accurate.
The bottom line is that the game really isn't good, in fact, it is rather bad in many respects. That is not to say that someone won't find this game interesting or fun. I just think that there are far, far better games out there.
Should you buy it?
I would say the PDF at just under $8 makes it worthwhile for the very, very curious. I have my boxed set and I am happy with it, but my expectations were low and my curiosity was really high.
The game itself is only worth about 2 stars. My curiosity about it and my desire to have pushed it closer to 4 stars. In the end, I am going to give 3 stars since I don't want to unduly affect Precis Intermedia games' overall rating. But don't grab this unless you are really curious (which is a good reason) or want to see how not to design a game.
Links
Mad House - Wraparound Cover Art
Tomb of the Forgotten King - Interior art for "Cave Evil, War Cults" board game
Thomas Ligotti - Grimscribe, Wraparound Cover Art
Thomas Ligotti - Songs Of A Dead Dreamer, Wraparound Cover Art
Monster Sheet
Invasion of Zanadane, "The Complete Cthulhu Mythos Tales of Michael Shea" Wraparound Cover Artwork
Possession
"The Devil's House, Cover art for "Lost Ghosts: The Complete Weird Stories of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman" Cover Art
Popeye Comic Cover Art
Baba Yaga
Space Vampires (Inspired by Tobe Hooper's film, Life Force)
Starting now through the rest of the week, until midnight on Saturday night, December 4th, I'm offering buy 2 get 1 free on all of my 13x19 inch art prints and smaller. Just mention which third print you want and it will be included with your order.
See all 19 prints available here!
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I have talked about Tiamat since the earliest days of this blog. No surprise really given my love of mythology and my oldest son's obsession with dragons. It really is a natural fit for me. I was working on this post a lot over my Thanksgiving break and I went back and forth on a lot of different ideas. But circumstances came together and I finally decided, last night, what to post.
My oldest started Descent into Avernus this weekend for his 5e group. We thought that a nice early Christmas present would be the new Gargantuan Tiamat miniature.
The Tiamat "mini." Feiya and Larina for scale.This thing is, well, gargantuan!
Up till now, we had been using the Aspect of Tiamat, the D&D Icon of the Realms Tiamat, and the Mage Knight Apocalypse Dragon (more on that guy in a bit). The Queen of Dragons enters a lot into our games.
This also got me thinking about how I handle dragons in my Old-School games. In particular how I want to handle them in my Basic Bestiary. Over the years here I have experimented with various ways to present dragons so they are a constant challenge to any party regardless of size or levels. There have been some really good innovations over the years starting with the dragons in AD&D 2nd Ed and into 21st Century forms of D&D. I want to capture the best of the best design principles and also allow them to fit into the design I have already been using with my own monster stats.
I am not really 100% there yet.
But I am at a point where I can present unique dragons like Tiamat (or Tiâmat as I am presenting her). I still have a few issues to work out, but since I want to get my money's worth out of that figure here she is.
TiâmatStr: 30 (+7) Dex: 10 (+0) Con: 32 (+8) Int: 28 (+7) Wis: 24 (+5) Cha: 22 (+5)
Tiâmat is the mother of all dragons, good and evil. She was destroyed by her grandson Marduk and was cast out. Formerly a god she now represents the primordial chaos of the deep sea or even the infinite abyss. For this reason, she is often seen with the heads of all the major evil dragons, Black (Acid), Blue (Electric), Green (Poison), Red (Fire), and White (Cold). Fittingly, the mother of dragons makes her home in the depths of the Abyss in a layer known as Têhom, or the "deep". She is also considered to be the mother, or at least the Grandmother, of all evil and chaotic monsters.
Tiâmat can attack with all five heads per round. Each head can bite, use their respective breath weapons, or use spells. The bite attacks do 3d6+7 hp of damage each, but the individual heads cannot attack the same Medium-sized or smaller victim at the same time. A Large or larger-sized target can be attacked by two heads at the same time. Tiâmat can attack up to five (5) separate targets this way. Each head can also use their respective breath weapons doing 10d8 (45 hp) up to three times per day. She will typically attack with her breath weapons first, to overwhelm and awe her opponents and then resort to spells and bite attacks. Tiâmat believes that opponents need to be dealt with in the quickest, most deadliest, of ways.
Her aura of dragon fear is such that all, even true dragons, have to make a saving throw vs. magic or fall under the effects of a Cause Fear spell. This will affect all creatures regardless of HD/level. Each head can additionally cast a Magic-user/Wizard spell per round in lieu of a physical attack. The white head can cast 2 first-level spells and 1 second-level spell. The black head can cast 2 second-level and 1 third-level. The green head can cast 2 third-level and 1 fourth. The blue head can cast 3 fourth, 2 fifth, and 1 sixth-level. Finally, the red head can cast 3 sixth, 2 seventh, and 1 eighth-level spell. Tiâmat chooses her spells at the start of her day. She typically opts for spells of control, damage, and ones that can summon support. She does not need somatic or material components for her spells, they come naturally to her.
Due to her size, Tiâmat cannot make claw attacks while on the ground. She can attack with her foreclaws when she is flying or swimming. She is immune to charm, hold, mind-affecting magic, and sleep effects. She is additionally immune to all sorts of poison. She takes half damage from acid, cold, and fire. She also has 75% magic resistance.
As the Queen and Mother of Dragons Tiâmat she is served by five consorts. These are dragons of largest size and greatest age of their respective dragon types, White, Black, Green, Blue, and Red. Each one is utterly loyal to Tiâmat, failure to be anything but this will result in their immediate death and their skins put on display. Tiâmat can summon 2d6+1 evil dragons of any type once per day.
Tiâmat's home plane is known as Têhom, or the "deep." Here there are seven distinct areas that represent the preferred habitat of each of the five evil dragon types. Each one is governed over by her consorts. The sixth area is an ocean, so deep and so dark that no bottom has even been seen. Tiâmat makes her home here along with sea dragons of all sorts. It is rumored that the great dragon Leviathan also resides here. The seventh and last area is an island that Tiâmat often visits. Here her treasure horde can be found. This land is populated only by undead dragons.
Tiâmat as a Patron
Dragon Tradition Witches and Draconic Pact Warlocks take Tiâmat as their patron. Chaos mages also look to the Mother of Monsters as their patron, inspiration, and even Goddess. All dragons, good and evil, regard her as their mother or the first of their kind but only evil dragons and dragon-kin worship her.
--
Notes
I like this stat block quite a lot. I can look at it though and tell I still need to define my demons and dragons both a little better. There are ideas I want to express that I am currently not doing.
She is a Gargantuan creature. So because of that, I am going to be using my alternate HP calculations. A gargantuan creature uses a d20 for HP determination, not the standard d8. Even with this she is at 30 HD so in standard games she ends up with 375 hp. In my games that is boosted to 555 hp.
A bit on that HD. Yeah, she has 30 HD. She is big and bad and is not a monster you find on level 20 of some random dungeon. This flows from the level setting I was doing in One Man's God. Tiamat is not just on the top of the scale, she should be the top. A former Goddess now cast into the Abyss, that means two things for me. One she is powerful and two she should be a demon of some sort. She is obviously something more. I have her listed as "Gargantuan Dragon (Evil)" but she would certainly also be an Outsider or even a Fiend possibly. She could even be an Eodemon.
Alignment. I have been playing Tiamat as "Chaotic Evil" since I first started reading Chaos Theory back in the 90s. It always made far more sense to me. Plus she never really fit into the hierarchy of Hell as far as I was concerned. I do borrow a page from Paradise Lost and say she was there when the Devils fell. But that was only one of her lairs in the cosmos.
What about that Apocalypse Dragon? Well, I still want to get my money's worth out of him. So he has been redubbed as Leviathan. Fitting, given the history my games have had with him. I will need to revisit my stats for him though.
Tiâmat and LeviathanLinks
Links to other Tiamat postings here on the Other Side.
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.
Name: The OrphanagePublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
The starter set for any roleplaying game is always designed as an entry point into that game. It has to do three things. First, it has to introduce the game—its settings and its rules to both players and Game Master. Second, it has to showcase the setting, the rules, and how the game is played to both players and Game Master. Third, it has to intrigue and entice both players and Game Master to want to play more and explore the setting further. A good starter set, whether City of Mist: All-Seeing Eye Investigations Starter Set, the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set, or the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set will always do that, whereas a bad starter set, or even a mediocre starter set, such as the Sixth World Beginner Box for Shadowrun, Sixth Edition, will not. Whilst a starter set is always designed to introduce a roleplaying game, it has another function, depending upon when it is published. A starter set published as a roleplaying game’s first—or one of its first—releases introduces the game and setting to everyone. A starter set published later or deep into a line’s run, when there are multiple supplements and scenarios available as well as the core rulebook, is designed to introduce the game, but not to those who are already playing it. If there is content in its box that veteran players of the game and fans of the setting will enjoy and can bring to their game, then that is an added bonus. Ideally though, it is intended to introduce the game and setting to new players, at the time of its publication providing a means of getting into both when the range and number of books and supplements available might be daunting and there might not be an obvious point of entry to the propective player and purchaser. This is exactly what the RuneQuest Starter Set does for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha from Chaosium, Inc.The RuneQuest Starter Set comes in a dense sturdy box which weighs two-and-a-half pounds! It designed to introduce new players and new Game Masters to RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha to that end includes all of the rules necessary to play the content in the RuneQuest Starter Set, provides an introduction to Glorantha and the area where the three scenarios it comes with are set, fourteen pre-generated adventurers, a sheaf of handouts and play aids, and a set of polyhedral dice. The latter come in an appropriately bronze colour since RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is a Broze Age roleplaying game, but whilst they both fetching and obvious as soon as you open the box, they are not the starting point for the RuneQuest Starter Set. No, that would be the cover sheet, which in turn yells out ‘Read Me First!’ and ‘What’s In This Box’ and ‘What’s Not In This Box’. The cover sheet—as with any good roleplaying box set of old, including a great many from Chaosium, Inc.—introduces the RuneQuest Starter Set, explains what it is and what its contents are. Less importantly, it does not cover character creation, equipment, advanced combat rules, becoming a Rune Master, Shamanism, Sorcery, or Sacred Time, and that is fine, since all of that can wait until the core rules for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. Instead, it contains the sixty-page Book 1: Rules, fifty-eight-page Book 2: The World of Glorantha, fifty-seven-page Book 3: SoloQuest, and eighty-one-page Book 4: Adventures, plus the aforementioned fourteen pre-generated Player Characters, two blank Adventurer Sheets, the Map of the Jonstown Area, the Map of Jonstown, and the Map of the Rainbow Mounds (all maps measure twenty-two by seventeen inches in size), two four-page RuneQuest Starter Set References handouts, Gloranthan Runes sheet, and a Strike Rank Tracker. This may seem like a lot—and it is, but this is a starter set and is designed to ease the player and the prospective Game Master into both Glorantha and RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha without overwhelming them as they delve deeper and deeper into the box.
Book 1: Rules does exactly what it says, explaining the core rules for RuneQuest: Roleplaying Game in an easy to understand fashion. In turn, it covers the dice and dice rolls, the core mechanics, the Resistance Table, time and movement, skills, experience, passions, Runes and how they work, combat, magic—both Rune and Spirit magic, and so on. Much of this will be obvious to veteran players, but this is a streamlined version, for example, the Fumble Table for very bad results in combat, is much shorter than that given in the core rules. Which makes sense since the variety is not really needed within the limits of the scenarios given. As well as explaining how magic works, Book 1: Rules also lists all of the spells—both Spirit magic and Rune magic—which appear in the adventures that appear in the RuneQuest Starter Set. Useful boxouts explain the difference between RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, how to survive combat, how Strike Ranks work, when you need healing, and more. One useful addition here, sadly missing from The Red Book of Magic, is made to each of the Rune spell entries, that of the cults which use that particular Rune spell. There are also two examples of play—one of roleplaying and one of combat—that help show how the game is played, both done as two-page spreads and both of which are drawn from scenes in the scenarios in Book 4: Adventures. Rounding out Book 1: Rules is a list of spot rules for easy access, whilst the centrefold of Book 1: Rules provides an ‘Adventurer Sheet Overview’, not just of one of the pre-generated Player Characters, but of Vasana, Farnan’s Daughter, the Player Character used in Book 3: SoloQuest. In effect this, like the two examples of play and the rest of Book 1: Rules, is preparing the player and Game Master alike to play and adventure in Glorantha.
Book 2: The World of Glorantha is the proper introduction to the setting of Glorantha. Of the four booklets in the RuneQuest Starter Set, it has the most dynamic cover illustration, depicting as it does Sartarites reacting in fear and shock to the rising of a dragon into the sky and coiling itself around the Red Moon. It is a fantastic image, depicting the very moment and reaction to the Earth and Moon-shaking event that prefigures the events which play out not just in the RuneQuest Starter Set, but also RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. Inside, Book 2: The World of Glorantha explains the nature of its setting, that it is an Age of Bronze in which magic is part of everyday life, kinship ties and temples play important roles in society, that everyone has loyalties and passions that will drive their actions, and that the influence of the Gods is felt through their associated Runes. It details all of the Runes and the cults which have a role in the RuneQuest Starter Set—whether in one of the scenarios or because one of the pre-generated Player Characters belongs to one of them, and it also explains what is sets Glorantha apart from other settings. This covers Heroes and Heroquesting (although further detail on this left for the core rulebook to explain), the importance of community and kinship, what drives and motivates characters to act—the Rune affinities and Passions, the lethal nature of combat, and more, before exploring the nature of the world. As with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, the emphasis is upon Dragon Pass and its immediate surrounds, and is accompanied by what is an incredibly attractive and readable map of Northern Sartar, essentially the region where the Player Characters will be adventuring, at least in the RuneQuest Starter Set. A short history given too, essentially to bring the reader up to date and ready to play the adventures.
The second half of Book 2: The World of Glorantha—in fact, more than half—focuses in on one setting, that of the City of Jonstown. This will be the base of operations for the adventurers and the central location for Book 4: Adventures. In comparison to the first half, this section is much more detailed and details the history of its founding by Sartar in ST 1480 and the establishment of its famous Jonstown Library in 1535, surrender to the Lunar Empire in 1602, through to 1625 and the Dragonrise, its besieging by the Sartar Free Army under Kallyr Starbrow, and the reestablishment of a free City Ring and thus local government in the wake of its capture. The city is described in some detail, including architecture, distribution of food, prominent religions, politics, along with write-ups and stats for the city’s notable figures and descriptions of the city’s various quarters. Jonstown itself is divided into an Upper City, built on the site of an old hill fort with the Lower City spread before and the two connected by a set of wide steps and a spiraling tunnel for carts and wagons. Again, there is a very nicely done three-dimensional map provided for the city, but the booklet goes a step in making use of that map. For the Upper City and each of the four quarters, the particular section of the map is blown up and included alongside the descriptions to make it easier for the Game Master to navigate her way around Jonstown. Lastly, there is a set of generic stats for the typical inhabitants of the city and each the notable locations around the city—which appear on the map of Northern Sartar is given a thumbnail description.
Book 3: SoloQuest is where the fun starts in the RuneQuest Starter Set. To play through the adventure in Book 3: SoloQuest, the player will also need to refer to Book 1: Rules and have two of the pre-generated Player Character folios to hand. One is that of Vasana, the character whom the player will be roleplaying, and that of Vostor, the Lunar Tashite warrior, who where necessary will stand in for the other Lunar warriors she will face in the course of the adventure. As the title suggests, the adventure takes the form of a SoloQuest (something which RuneQuest has not had since the publication of SoloQuest 1, SoloQuest 2: Scorpion Hall, and SoloQuest 3: The Snow King’s Bride, all in 1982, and available collectively, here) in which Vasana takes part in the Battle of Dangerford, at which Sartarite and allied forces mount a defence of the village against an incursion by Lunar forces. The adventure gives her time to prepare before the battle, take part in multiple sorties, and more. The adventure makes great use of not just Vasana’s martial skills, but also her Passions, and often they will drive her to act in unexpected ways. As well as the Experience Checks gained through successful skill or Passion use, the player gains points towards Vasana’s Battle Result Total, which at the end of the battle is used to determine both the outcome of the battle and her role in it. With two hundred entries, it is likely that the adventure can be played through more than once, to explore all of the options, and although the scenario is specifically written with the character Vasana in mind, it should be possible to play using the other martial characters from the fourteen given in the RuneQuest Starter Set.
The fun continues with Book 4: Adventures. This contains three adventures, each of differing nature and complexity, and designed to ease the Game Master into running RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. Its cover sets the tone, depicting the Player Characters arriving at the walled city of Jonstown (described in Book 2: The World of Glorantha) after surviving the Battle of Dangerford (as adventured in Book 3: SoloQuest). The three adventures are ‘A Rough Landing’, ‘A Fire in the Darkness’, and ‘The Rainbow Mounds’, and they can be played in any order, but ‘A Rough Landing’ is designed to bring the adventurers into the city and get them involved in its affairs, so should ideally played first. It is also intended to be played after the adventure in Book 3: SoloQuest, so any number of players could have run their characters through that before coming to the table to roleplay together. None of them are overly challenging to run, each of them having quite straightforward plots, which whilst different in each case, means that they should not overwhelm either the first time Game Master or players. This does not mean that veteran players will find them simplistic as they do make good use of the background—especially recent events in the case of ‘A Fire in the Darkness’ and they are genuinely fun to play. The first scenario, ‘A Rough Landing’ is the most straightforward, the adventurers arriving in Jonstown and finding themselves quickly involved in a brawl that will bring them to the notice of the city authorities. It sounds almost like a cliché, but it does not take place in a bar and there are lots of ways in which it can go, which the authors take the time to discuss. Once they have come to the attention of the authorities, the adventurers will be called upon to perform the first of several tasks and missions, which is to check on a settlement to the west which has not been heard from in a few days. It is a nasty twist upon the ‘village in peril’ set-up and primarily involves action and combat, but there are opportunities for the Game Master to make the situation a little creepy too.
If ‘A Rough Landing’ involved combat and action, then ‘A Fire in the Darkness’ is an investigation scenario. A rash of fires has broken out across Jonstown and everyone is on edge because they fear both arson and the possibility that any future fire cannot be contained and might spread across the city, raising parts of it to the ground. Like any investigation, this is quite detailed, involves a fair number of NPCs, and some clues to sort through and try and work out what is going on. Of course, there is more to mystery and the fires than meets the eye, but with care, some stealth in places, and even some diplomacy, the adventurers should be able to learn what is going on. This is a nicely done investigation which should take several sessions to play out and which should prove interesting to play depending upon the Player Characters’ Passions and the cults they belong to.
The third and longest scenario is ‘The Rainbow Mounds’ and is a throwback to the scenario of the same name which appeared in the supplement, Apple Lane. Originally published in 1978, the two scenarios in Apple Lane would for very many years be the first scenarios that many RuneQuest groups played and it is lovely to see it updated here. Recently, the hamlet of Apple Lane has been beset by raids by bandits of the Troll and Newtling kind, and one of the local farmers recognises the Troll attackers at least as similar to those who abducted him when he was a child. The Player Characters are hired as mercenaries to investigate and if possible, put an end to the attacks. What follows is the equivalent of a dungeon, Gloranthan style, but a network of caves rather than a worked network of corridors and rooms, and with a strong emphasis upon its different factions and their loyalties. As a ‘dungeon’ there is plenty of opportunity for exploration and there are some quite nasty encounters—even those not necessarily attached to the adventure’s main plot, but players who approach it as a dungeon are likely to come away disappointed. There are plots and plots in motion in the Rainbow Mounds, and whilst there are plenty of opportunities to fight, including some really quite big fights, approaching the cave complex and its inhabitants in a combative stance may not always be the best approach.
As the longest and most complex scenario in the RuneQuest Starter Set, ‘The Rainbow Mounds’ will provide multiple sessions’ worth of play. However the fact that it involves the Rainbow Mounds throws up a couple of wrinkles which will not necessarily be obvious to anyone new to RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. It is noted that the scenario is an updated version with some major changes and it does not follow the same plot as the previous version, although in places there are lots of similarities. So players whose characters have adventured here before will still enjoy it. The other issue is that as written in the introduction, the hamlet of Apple Lane does not have a Thane. If that is the case, then if the Player Characters are successful in dealing with the problems of the bandits from the caves, the situation is ripe for the Game Master to make the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack her next purchase and run the adventures contained within. However, what if the Game Master has already run the adventures in the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack and one of the Player Characters is Thane? The Game Master may need to make some adjustments to the beginning of the scenario as it is not addressed here. Those issues aside, the scenarios in Book 4: Adventures and thus the RuneQuest Starter Set are really very good, engaging and fun, whilst drawing the players and their characters into the setting.
And penultimately, the RuneQuest Starter Set comes with not six as you would expect and as appeared in The Broken Tower—the quick-start for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha—but fourteen pre-generated adventurers. All of them come in folio form, with a full-page illustration of the Player Character on the front—including mount or other animal or elemental companion, and the character’s Rune affinities, background, and guide on how to play them on the back. The back splits open to show the character sheet, with statistics and attacks on the left-hand panel, skills and passions in the middle, and magic on the right-hand panel. Spread across an A3-size sheet rather than both sides of an A4-size sheet, the format is very readable. There are a couple of blank sheets in the box too, but hopefully they will be available in general as well. The given pregenerated adventurers include Vasana, of course, ready to play the solo adventure in Book 3: SoloQuest, but also Yanioth, the Assistant Priestess of Ernalda, Harmast the merchant, Vishi Dunn the shaman, Vostor the Lunar Tarshite soldier and Seven Mothers initiate, Sorala, the Lhankor Mhy initiate, and Nathem, the hunter and Odayla initiate. Together, these seven will be familiar from The Broken Tower and the RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha rulebook. However, they are joined by initiates of Babeester Gor, Yelmalio, Maran Gor, Storm Bull, Chalana Arroy, Eurmal, and Humakt, essentially giving the players a wider choice what they play for the scenarios in the RuneQuest Starter Set, as well as providing replacement characters as necessary.
Lastly, the RuneQuest Starter Set includes two map sheets, two four-page RuneQuest Starter Set References handouts, and a Strike Rank Tracker. The map sheets are double-sided. One depicts the Rainbow Mounds from the scenario in Book 4: Adventures, one side marked up with location names, the other without, whilst the other sheet has a map of Jonstown on one side and a map of Northern Sartar on the other. Both of the latter are exceptional pieces of cartography. Plus the actual backs of the four booklets in the RuneQuest Starter Set form the map of Northern Sartar, which again, is another nice touch. The RuneQuest Starter Set References handouts—two of them, so one for the Game Master and one for the players, collates the most useful tables in the game. The Gloranthan Runes sheet simply lists all of the common Runes which appear in the game and the Strike Rank Tracker shows the twelve Strike Ranks of a round on the outside of the sheet with the modifiers in the middle. Clear and easy to read, it is so obviously useful that it will have groups playing RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha wishing they had had it from the start.
Physically, there is no denying the impact and physical presence of the RuneQuest Starter Set. There is a lot in the box, but there are a couple of issues with it. One is that it does need a slight edit in places, but the other is that parts of it feel fragile. None of the set’s four booklets have card covers. And whilst the maps and the Strike Rank Tracker are done on stiff paper stock or card, the RuneQuest Starter Set References handouts are not. So even as you hold them in your hand, there is the feeling that they will not withstand a great deal of handling. This though, is the most—and the only—disappointing aspect to the RuneQuest Starter Set. Otherwise, the contents of the RuneQuest Starter Set are well written, engagingly presented, and supported with some great artwork and some superb cartography. Even physically, the RuneQuest Starter Set is simply good value, let alone the amount of play a gaming group is likely to get out of it.
Now of course, veteran players and Game Masters of RuneQuest and of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha are going to find much that is familiar in the RuneQuest Starter Set, especially in terms of the rules and the background. What is in it for them though, is the background on Jonstown and the opportunity to expand the details of northern Sartar in the wake of the Dragonrise, the opportunity to play a solo adventure which throws them into recent events, for the Game Master to play rather than run with the solo adventure, and then for everyone to play the three new adventures, and make use of the maps and references. The ‘Rainbow Mounds’ adventure will probably bring back memories for veterans of a certain age anyway and the chance to revisit something again is always fun.
If there was any danger of being overwhelmed by the RuneQuest Starter Set, it would be by the amount of things in the box, not the actual content. The RuneQuest Starter Set really does give the prospective Game Master and her players everything they need to start playing RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha—background, rules, dice, a solo adventure with which to learn to play, multiple, lengthy, and engaging adventures, and gorgeous, gorgeous maps that just make want to look at them and have your character want to visit each and every location just because it is on these maps. Yet by breaking everything down into the four books, the RuneQuest Starter Set never threatens to overwhelm, easing them into the world and the game step-by-step, deeper and deeper they go into the box until they have learned about the world and are involved in the solo adventure and wanting more with the proper adventures. And the three adventures will deliver that and multiple sessions of play. The RuneQuest Starter Set is the perfect introduction to RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha that both the roleplaying game and setting have long deserved and it really does set a standard by which other starter sets are going to be measured. Chaosium did that already with the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set, now it has done it again with the RuneQuest Starter Set.
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A full Unboxing in the Nook video of the RuneQuest Starter Set can be found here.
One of the issues with HARP SF is that beyond the necessary piloting skills, it does not detail the vehicles—starships, aircars, gravbikes, and the like—which all have a role to play in a Science Fiction roleplaying game like HARP SF. Especially a Science Fiction roleplaying game in which star travel and different worlds and systems all play a role. Now this is not due to any oversight on the part of the publisher, Iron Crown Enterprises, but rather an issue with space—or page count. The addition of the rules for vehicles (and a whole lot more) would have added greatly to the page count of HARP SF, which is why they have been split into a second book, HARP SF Extreme. Half the length of HARP SF, HARP SF Extreme covers vehicle rules for slower-than-light and faster-than-light travel, a long list of land, marine, air, space and hybrid vehicles, combat between starfighters and capital ships, and more. The more gets a little more personal in taking HARP SF and its characters into the far future of Transhumanism—upgrading the mind with nanoware implants and the body with cybernetic replacements, and uploading your mind into the virtual world of cyberspace and downloading it into a robot body, and even going beyond as an Artificial Intelligence. —oOo—
Fabula Ultima TTRPG: Press Start is something a little different for Free RPG Day 2021. Published by Need Games!, it is a quick-start for the Fabula Ultima TTRPG—or Fabula Ultima Table Top Roleplaying Game—and is based on Japanese console roleplaying games such as the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series. As a quick-start, it is of course designed to introduce and teach the game to both players and the Game Master, but it does it in an interesting way. It models the learning process upon that of a computer roleplaying game. In a computer roleplaying game, the player is taken through the process of playing the game step-by-step—so movement, looking, attacking, defending, inventory, and so on. And until the player gets to the particular step in that process, he cannot tell his character to do the new part of the play of the computer game. Fabula Ultima TTRPG: Press Start does exactly the same, locking each part of the character until the players reach a particular scene in the adventure in the quick-stat. So in Scene #1, the Game Master introduces the game and its setting, and the attributes and status effects, whilst Traits and Bonds are explained and come into play in Scene #2, how to use Fabula Points in Scene #3, and so forth all the way up to skills, actions, inventory, and abilities. 
One of the perennial contributors to Free RPG Day is Paizo, Inc., a publisher whose titles for both the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Starfinder Roleplaying Game have proved popular and often in demand long after the event. For Free RPG Day 2021, the publisher again provides a title for each of the two roleplaying games, one of them being Threshold of Knowledge for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, whereas the one for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game is a change of tone and pace.In past years, the releases for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game have been adventures involving four of the cheerfully manic, gleefully helpful, vibrantly coloured, six-armed and furry creatures known as Skittermanders—Dakoyo, Gazigaz, Nako, and Quonx. However, they do not appear in the Starfinder Roleplaying Game release for Free RPG Day in 2021, which instead features a new, and altogether more diverse cast, as well as kicking off a brand-new series of adventures. The adventure can be run as is, using nothing more than the Starfinder Roleplaying Game core rules, although the Game Master and players alike may find access to the supplements, Alien Archive 2 and Alien Archive 3, to be useful. 
It is late Tuesday night (now early Wednesday morning) and I just finished binge-watching Masters of the Universe: Revelation with my wife. Now I only consider myself a causal MotU fan, but it really should come as no shock or surprise that my two favorite characters were Teela (because who doesn't like a highly capable redhead) and Evil-Lyn (because...well I am sure you have met me by now). So after hearing all the whiny-ass man babies online bitching and moaning that Kevin Smith had "destroyed their childhood" I knew right away one thing. I was going to love it. And I did.
If Part 1 was "The Teela Show" then Part 2 was that and "The Evil-Lyn" show.
Though I am happy to also report that my other favorite character, Duncan the Man-at-Arms, also fared well.
My enjoyment of Evil-Lyn in particular and the MotU, in general, come not from watching the show back in the 80s all that much, but instead from one episode. The Witch and the Warrior, written by none other than Paul Dini himself. In an interesting twist, Paul Dini created the character Harley Quinn and Kevin Smith the executive producer of Masters of the Universe: Revelation named his own daughter Harley Quinn Smith.
Watching this was a fun romp through nostalgia land and there were more than a few tongue-in-cheek references. Also having Lena Headly as Evil-Lyn, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Teela and Liam Cunningham as Duncan was great. And Mark Hamil chewing up the scenery as Skeletor? That's just the icing on a great cake.
We get more background on Teela, and the payoff the original series promised. We get some more background on Evil-Lyn which is also great, but I think it is different than in other versions of this franchise. No matter really, I know even less about those.
Personally, I am thrilled we got a kick-ass Teela and Evil-Lyn. I always felt that He-Man himself was the least interesting character in the franchise, though this one made me feel a little different about that.
I like where it ended for all the characters involved. But especially for Evil-Lyn.
No new season has been announced, but I like what I am seeing here to be honest.
Once again it is Happy Wolfenoot Everyone!
What, you don't know about Wolfenoot, the holiday to celebrate all that is cool about the wolf and dogs? Well get yourself over to Wolfenoot.com to find out more then come back here. Even DriveThruRPG is in on the fun this year with their Wolfenoot sale.
So the last Wolfenoot I did the lycanthropic Wolf-Witch, this year I am also looking to a book I read for inspiration. Back in High School, I had to take English from this teacher I was looking forward to having but quickly came to despise. He was such an arrogant asshole and treated his students like shit. Very much of the type to belittle students for mistakes. Anyway, the books he has us read were ones that had been on the curriculum for gods know how long. I hated them all and nothing connected with me. So being a pretty fast reader I would do the assigned reading in the class ad then read something else. We had this book of short stories and it seemed to me that he would pick the most boring, moronic stories for reading and leave the others alone. One story I found that I actually rather enjoyed was Emma-Lindsay Squier's "The Soul of Caliban."
I knew Caliban from Shakespeare's Tempest because of Kalibos in the "Clash of the Titans" movie. The story focused on an ugly dog, which I imagined looked like Cujo, living somewhere in Canada. He belonged to man who began to treat him poorly after he got married. The story went on from there, but the important part was at the end. The man came back to his home to see his new baby gone and Caliban limping and covered in blood. The man reacts and kills Caliban only to discover the dead wolf and the baby pulled away to safety. The last scene is of Caliban in Heaven being treated by St. Peter (not St. Bernard) saying, (something like) "Mon Dieu Caliban, comme tu es devenu beau !" or "my God Caliban, how beautiful you have grown!" I thought it was a good story. Certainly written for a Freshman English class to discuss issues like "do dogs have souls?" and so on.
Fast forward to 1989 and the movie "All Dogs Go to Heaven" is out. I never saw it, but from the title, I thought it might have been the same story. It wasn't, but that is fine.
Fast forward again to more recent times and we now get the "All Dogs Go to Sto'Vo'Kor" meme. Ok, ok I get it. No need to beat over the head with it anymore.
So for this year's Wolfenoot, I give you the Glory Hounds. You will excuse me if I also want to slip a little more of The Bard into my games.
Glory Hounds
Str: 15 (+1) Dex: 16 (+2) Con: 18 (+3) Int: 12 (+0) Wis: 13 (+1) Cha: 16 (+2)
Glory Hounds are the souls of mortal dogs and wolves who died from an ultimate act of bravery and self-sacrifice. They ascended to the Heavens and were given forms that matched their brave deeds. All glory hounds appear as majestic, proud versions of their type of canine. Their head is noble and their visage is one of calm serenity. That is until they sense evil. They appear to become fierce and frightening, causing fear (as per the spell) to all around them (10' radius).
Glory hounds exist for one purpose, to destroy evil. They are sent to the mortal planes to hunt down and destroy all evil influences they can, saving a special hatred for demons and those that abuse children. A glory hound will unerringly seek out evildoers and attempt to destroy them. The ancient pacts made by Angels do not apply to glory hounds so they are free to roam the mortal realms as they see fit. Because the pacts between creatures of the upper planes and creatures of the lower planes do not apply to glory hounds they also can not be summoned. Often glory hounds will be in the company of other angels, typically like a hunting party. Woe to any evil creature hunted by a dirae with a pack of glory hounds at her sides.
The glory hound attacks with their bite using pack tactics to the best of their abilities. They also can bark 3 times per day. This bark is a loud sonic wave of damage that sounds like a thunder crack. It will do 5d6 points of damage (save vs. petrification for half) to all in a 120' long (60' wide at the end) cone from the glory hound. They cause fear against all chaotic (evil) creatures at all times, and can once per day increase this power to all creatures.
Glory hounds can only be hit by magical weapons. They take half damage from magical fire and no damage from mundane or non-magical fire. They are immune to charm, hold and sleep magic or other mind-affecting magic. They take full damage from lightning and cold. A slain glory hound will discorporate and return to the Heavens. It will be seven years before that particular glory hound will be powerful enough to return to the mortal realms.
Glory hounds are the natural enemies of hell hounds and vargr. Attacking these creatures on sight. Unless accompanied by another angel they will abandon their current mission to fight with hell hounds and vargr.
Glory hounds will not attack Lawful (good) or Neutral creatures unless attacked. If Chaotic (evil) creatures are not acting in a way that is overtly evil then they will be ignored as well.
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Don't forget to howl at the moon tonight!
