Outsiders & Others

Miskatonic Monday #151: The Flooding of Black Tarn

Reviews from R'lyeh -

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 InvictusThe PastoresPrimal StateRipples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in EgyptReturn of the RipperRise of the DeadRise 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: The Flooding of Black TarnPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Jonas Morian

Setting: Jazz Age SwedenProduct: Scenario
What You Get: Twenty-three page, 3.06 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Change must come, even if not all want it.Plot Hook: The secrets of the past stand in the way of modernisation.
Plot Support: Staging advice, ten NPCs, seven pre-generated Investigators, one handout, and one (Mythos) monsters.Production Values: Decent.
Pros# Gold medalist for the 2022 national Swedish Call of Cthulhu scenario competition# Eerie Sweden-set investigation# Backwoods folkloric horror# Engaging portrayal of period Sweden# Good NPC portraits# Easy to adapt to other time periods# Gerontophobia# Hippophobia
Cons# Pre-generated Investigators need mechanical development# Map would have been useful

Conclusion# Gold medal winner in the 2022 national Swedish Call of Cthulhu scenario competition sees the modernity of the Investigators clash with the past in backwoods folkloric horror# Eerie, under-played one-shot drawn from Swedish history and Norse folklore.

A Delicate Balance

Reviews from R'lyeh -

The year is 10,181. The Imperium has stood for 10,000 years under the rule of House Corrino, currently headed by Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV. Balanced against him are the Landsraad, the alliance of Houses Great and Minor, whose feudal seats are granted by the Imperial house, and a combination of the Spacing Guild and CHOAM. CHOAM—or Combine Honnette Ober Advancer Mercantiles—controls all trade and contracts across the Imperium, including that of Spice. The spice melange is harvested on only one world—the desert planet of Arrakis—and bestows longevity, enhanced awareness, and prescience. Although highly addictive, it has one other property. It enables the mutated Guild Navigators to safely navigate interstellar space and thus the Spacing Guild to maintain its monopoly on all space travel between systems, for the Imperium bans the construction of thinking machines and has done so for millennia, ever since the Butlerian Jihad. Yet beneath this façade of stability, the Houses Great and Minor jockey and feud for power, such as the centuries old rivalry between House Atreides and House Harkonnen, the Great Convention preventing such feuds from breaking out into open warfare, but allowing economic wars and wars of assassins. Emperor Shaddam IV sits over it all, ready to unleash his dreaded Imperial Sardaukar, shock troops raised and trained in the harshest of environments, should the conventions be broken, a House gain too much power, or too strong a voice in the Landsraad. Four Great Schools provide services to the Emperor and all of the Houses. The Sisterhood of the Bene Gesserit provide wives, counsellors, and concubines; the Order of Mentats, strategists, spymasters, consellors, and advisors capable of computer like calculations; the Suk School incorruptible and unbreakable physicians; and the Swordmasters of Ginaz, commanders, generals, security officers, and bodyguards, trained in the use of swords and other weapons capable of piercing the personal energy shields worn as protection.

This is the setting for Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Game, published by Modiphius Entertainment and based on both the recent film and the fictional universe and novels originally created by Frank Herbert. Using the publisher’s house rules of the 2d20 System, it enables players to take the reins of a House in the Landsraad, and as its heirs and advisors, direct it fortunes in the quietly turbulent politics of the Imperium. Perhaps they will negotiate new contracts, gain the right to harvest spice from Arrakis, form an alliance with another house, or feud with a rival house. All of these are possible in a rules system which allows the players to play at two levels—‘Architect’ when they will direct the fortunes of their house and ‘Agent’, the personal level of the Player Character. Of course, Dune – Adventures in the Imperium is not the first roleplaying game to be set within Frank Herbert’s creation, Dune: Chronicles of the Imperium having been designed by Last Unicorn Games and published by Wizards of the Coast in 2000, but it does have the advantage of already being better supported. Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune provided a campaign starter that offered a different beginning than might be expected in the setting, and it should be noted that by being set over a century before the start of the first novel, Dune, there is a greater flexibility in what is possible in Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Game.

Dune – Adventures in the Imperium begins with an introduction to the setting of the Known Universe that takes up a quarter of the book. Its primary focus is on the situation in the year 10,181, but also explains how that came about using the history and background drawn from the expanded series of novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Potentially, this history offers scope to play in different time periods, although that is not the focus of core rulebook, and in addition, the history does not push beyond the year 10,181 and the events portrayed in either Dune or its film adaptations. As well as a timeline, the background covers the major factions and balance of powers, the schools, and more. There is a degree of repetition here as the book looks at each in more depth, but this a very solid overview which will be appreciated by fans of both the novels and the films, as well as helping to cement the setting for anyone coming to Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Game after watching just the films.

Playing and running Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Gamereally begins with the creation of a House, the noble family with feudal holdings around which much of the roleplaying game’s play will be directed. The choice of Nascent House, House Minor, House Major, or Great House will determine much of the framework. It will determine how many Domains, areas of interest the House will have, how many enemies, and mechanically, how much Threat (used to create problems and difficulties for the House and the Player Characters) the Game Master will have at the start of each session Apart from the enemies, who can be created on the given table, all of this is down to player choice.

House Hauteville is a renowned for its skilled military and its tacticians based on the world of Menerth III. It is also known for its diary products made on the vast upland pastures it owns, and had to protect in the past, hence its development of its military prowess. This includes its former vassal, House Indermauer, whose founders originally trained with House Hauteville, and has continued offer rival services to this day.

House Hauteville
House Minor
Primary Domain: Military
Secondary Domain: Farming
Banner: A red cow on a green background
House Trait: Stalwart (Military)
Enemy: House Indermauer (Rival)

When it comes to Player Character creation, a player decides the role that his character will take in the house. This can include the heirs, councillors and advisors, swordmasters, warmasters, and more. A player will have a main character and possibly supporting characters too. A Player Character in Dune – Adventures in the Imperium is defined by Skills, Focuses, Drives, Traits, Complications, and Assets. The five Skills are Battle, Communicate, Discipline, Move, and Understand, whilst the five Drives are Duty, Faith, Justice, Power, and Truth—both of which are rated between four and eight. Focuses represent skill specialisations, such as Deductive Reasoning for Understand or Dirty Fighting for Battle. Traits can be Talents, which make a test possible or make it harder or easier depending upon its nature. So the Bene Gesserit Talent of Hyperawareness grants a Bene Gesserit Sister the ability to ask two questions rather than one when spending Momentum to Obtain Information, whereas the Bold Talent can be selected by anyone and when used with the Battle skill, the player can additional twenty-sided dice by generating Threat for the Game Master to use, the player can reroll one of the dice in the pool. Assets include equipment, contacts, and so on, for example, a personal shield or someone in a criminal gang on Arrakis.

Although character creation can be done in play, and that process is fully detailed too, the standard process involves selecting an Archetype, which sets the base skills, assigns four focuses to the skills, three Talents, assigns the values and statements to his character’s Drives, chooses three assets which the Player Character will always have access to, and then finally, a Trait, Ambition, and any personal details. Faction templates are also available if a player wants his character to be a Bene Gesserit Sister, Fremen, Mentat, Spacing Guild Agent, or a Suk Doctor, but these are optional and a player is free to pick and choose as he likes.

The sample character is a Mentat, sponsored by the Spacing Guild to work with House Hauteville in ensuring that the house’s goods and services find markets.

Name: Benedikt Winter
Faction Template: Spacing Guild Agent
Archetype: Analyst
Ambition: To ensure the economic prosperity of my house

Skills
Battle 4 Communicate 5 (Bartering) Discipline 8 (Composure) Move 4 Understand 7 (Attention to Detail, CHOAM Bureaucracy)

Drives
Duty 8 (I serve at the pleasure the House) Faith 4 Justice 5 Power 6 (Power must be used wisely and cleverly) Truth 7 (You will know me by my deeds)

Traits: Analyst, Guild Agent
Talents: Calculated Prediction, Guildsman, Intense Study
Assets: Sapho Juice, Ixian Dampner

Dune – Adventures in the Imperium employs the 2d20 System first used in the publisher’s Mutant Chronicles: Techno Fantasy Roleplaying Game and Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, and since developed into the publisher’s house system. To undertake an action, a character’s player rolls two twenty-sided dice, aiming to have both roll under the total of a Skill and a Drive. Each roll under this total counts as a Success, an average task requiring two successes. Rolls of one count as two Successes and if a character has an appropriate Focus, rolls under the value of the Skill also count as two Successes.

In the main, because a typical difficulty will only be a Target Number of one, players will find themselves rolling excess Successes which becomes Momentum. This is a resource shared between all of the players which can be spent to create an Opportunity and so add more dice to a roll—typically needed because more than two successes are required to succeed, to create an advantage in a situation or remove a complication, create a problem for the opposition, and to obtain information. It is a finite ever-decreasing resource, so the players need to roll well and keep generating it, especially if they want to save for the big scene or climatic battle in an adventure.

Now where the players generate Momentum to spend on their characters, the Game Master has Threat which can be spent on similar things for the NPCs as well as to trigger their special abilities. She begins each session with a pool of Threat—equal to the number of players if their characters’ House is a Minor one, but can gain more through various circumstances. These include a player purchasing extra dice to roll on a test, a player rolling a natural twenty and so adding two Threat (instead of the usual Complication), the situation itself being threatening, or NPCs rolling well and generating Momentum and so adding that to Threat pool. In return, the Game Master can spend it on minor inconveniences, complications, and serious complications to inflict upon the player characters, as well as triggering NPC special abilities, having NPCs seize the initiative, and bringing the environment dramatically into play.

Combat uses the same mechanics, but offers more options in terms of what Momentum can be spent on. This includes creating a Trait or an Asset, or taking advantage of one in the situation, either of which can then be brought into the combat, and keeping the initiative—initiative works by alternating between the player characters and the NPCs and keeping it allows two player characters to act before an NPC does. It takes in various forms, scaling up from duelling and skirmishes to espionage and warfare, taking in intrigue along the way. These are supported by descriptions of the various assets which the Player Characters can bring into any one of these conflict types. Where Dune – Adventures in the Imperium differs from other 2d20 System roleplaying games is the lack of Challenge dice, and instead of inflicting damage directly via the loss of Hit Points, combatants are trying to defeat each through the removal of Assets and attempting to create—cumulatively—Successes equal to or greater than the Quality of the task or the opponent. Minor NPCs or situations are easily overcome, but difficult situations and major NPCs will be more challenging to defeat and will require extended tests.

In addition, a Player Character has access to Determination, typically a point at the start of an adventure. Determination is used in conjunction with a Player Character’s Drives and their associated statements, and when spent, a point of Determination can be used to set a die automatically to one, to reroll dice, create a new trait, or take an extra action. However, if the action is at odds with the statement attached to a Drive, then the Game Master can force the Player Character to comply or challenge the Drive and its statement. Compliance means that the Player Character suffers a Complication, unable to overcome the Drive, but Challenge means the Player Character can act freely, but leads to the loss and use of the statement, at least temporarily. It can be recovered, but with some difficulty. Either way, the Player Character gains a point of Determination.

What Determination highlights here is the degree of nuance in the combination of Skills and Drives for each Player Character, a Skill often being used over and over again, but the how and the way being determined by the Drive. A Player Character will have a greater chance of success if his highest Skill is combined with his highest Drive, representing the best that the character can do and for what he believes to be the best of reasons. However, even shifting away to another Drive, because it is more appropriate, for example, Duty versus Faith, may well mean that the Player Character is still as skilled, but not as personally motivated.

Overall, the iteration of the 2d20 System in the Dune – Adventures in the Imperium lies at the simpler and easier end of its implementation. It is not as simple as Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars: Adventures on the Dying World of Barsoom, but is roughly on a par with Star Trek Adventures.

For the Game Master, there is advice on setting up and running a game, the type of campaigns possible, managing the types of conflict in the game, as well as on running a gaming with safety and comfort in mind. It pays particular attention to bringing key aspects of Dune as a setting—faith, prophecy, prescience, and hyper-perception, all versus the freedom they can be often seen to impinge. It is solid advice throughout, and there is further support of stats for the major figures in Dune—Duke Leto Atreides, Lady Jessica, Paul Atreides, and more. They take in the Atreides household, plus notables of House Harkonnen and House Corrino, amongst the Fremen on Arrakis. Alongside the notables, there are sample NPCs and Houses that the Game Master can more easily be brought into her campaign, and advice on creating them too. Many of the NPCs come with story hooks too. Rounding out Dune – Adventures in the Imperium is the adventure, ‘Harvester of Dune’, in which the Player Characters are assigned to check on their House’s fiefdom on Arrakis. What they discover is trouble, deceit, and betrayal. It is a solid enough affair, and could be easily become the starting point for a campaign.

Physically, Dune – Adventures in the Imperium is cleanly and tidily laid out. The book is well written and easy to read. The artwork throughout is excellent as well.

Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Game is very much pitched at the fans of Herbert’s novels, but provides enough background and explanations that the more casual player, intrigued after the seeing the more recent film, could better understand the setting to play in it. And this is all done whilst focusing on one period within Dune’s millennia long future history and avoiding the more immediate future history of Frank Herbert’s novels. From there, it builds the means to create campaigns played at dual scales—the personal and the epic, and involve intrigue, espionage, warfare, and more, whether that is down some dirty alley or at a grand ball, at a reception for an Imperial envoy or across the sweeping deserts of Arrakis. Overall, Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Game takes an incredibly rich and detailed setting and makes it impressively accessible and playable.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

Reviews from R'lyeh -

“All right my Orcy Borgy boys and girls, dis great trash rocket, da Derelict, just smashed in a new ship. We gonna break it and smack it open, and hack the snot of any hoomies and gobbos and pointy ears, and make it good like any Orc home, like our dear old Derelict. Da goods have rumbled and yelled today and they say no DOOM today, but DOOM tomorrow. And we wantz that DOOM! We when have DOOM, we crash the Derelict into Heaven and scream every dead-hard big-toothed bastard in a glorious tide of violence. And when dat happens, ya wanna be at the front to be the first to kick Heaven right proper in its bollox. So ya gonna fight and yell and steal and kill to be at the front, but no DOOM today, but DOOM tomorrow!”

This is the set-up for ORC BORG, a fanzine-style roleplaying game of brutal action and violence, published by Rowan, Rook & Decard, following a successful Kickstarter campaign. It is modelled upon Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance retroclone designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing, the result being a doom-laden, death metal driven, dark fantasy roleplaying game set in a grim-dark world of despair. ORC BORG also shares with Mörk Borg its same neon and yellow colour palette, but not its despair. Instead, ORC BORG is a more action-orientated roleplaying game, even a more optimistic one, though still not a positive one. Rather, its optimism is driven by Orcish anger and energy—every Orc absolutely positive that DOOM is going to happen and until it does, and afterwards too, hand out plenty of punches, headbutts, and stabbings! This includes the dread Orcborgs, machine-Orc, Orc-machines turned into even brutaler killin’ machines with scrap and junk, and even the Big Robots, clankin’, smoking’, metal-screechin’ machines of war piloted Orcs who wire themselves in.

An Orc in ORC BORG has four abilities—Presence, Strength, Agility, and Toughness. For a standard Orc, a player rolls four six-sided dice and discards the lowest result, the total used to determine the ability values, which range from -3 to +3. (If a player is rolling up an actual Orc Borg or Big Robot, the two Classes in ORC BORG, only three six-sided dice are rolled.) Then the player rolls for his Orc’s Origins, Physical Features, plus gear that includes Stuff, Armour, and Weapons. This can include powers such as Technowizard Runes or Prayers, the latter to the Orc Gods. For example, the ‘Metronomicon’ Technorune summons a monorail car to the Orc’s location, whilst the ‘Rip and Tear’ Prayer allows an Orc to ignore armour in attacks. Technowizardry comes installed on single-function computers, data slugs, or ancient punch cards, whilst prayers are inscribed on steel plates, printed on clothing, or tattooed on flesh. This can be determined randomly, or chosen at the cost of some armour and weapon selection. If an Orc does not have either, he can easily beat up an Orc who already has, or simply steal them from his corpse! In comparison, the standard Orc is more straightforward than the Orc Borg or the Big Robot.

Bumhug Gorzharz
Presence +0
Strength +3
Agility +2
Toughness +1
Hit Points: 9

Tek: 10

Origins: Hunted by wild humans in Spacer territories until he was strong enough to defend himself.
Physical Feature: Huge Fuckin’ Teeth
Stuff: Yelling Helm, Alien Dogbeast, 25 m reinforced extension cable
Armour: Junk and Scrap (-d2 damage taken)
Weapon: Club (d4)
Technowizardy: Rite of the Blue Key

Mechanically, ORC BORG is simple. When he wants his Orc to act, his player rolls a twenty-sided die, adds the appropriate ability, and succeeds if the result is equal to or greater than the Difficulty Rating, which range from ten for Simple Enough to eighteen for Barely Possible. Technowizardy and Prayers have a limited number of uses per day—determined randomly, and can go wrong if the test is a failure. Combat is more complex, allowing natural criticals and fumbles, as well as Dodgin’, morale, and more. An Orc reduced to zero Hit Points is not dead—this occurs at -6 Hit Points—but ‘Mangled’. This in general, has a negative effect upon the Orc, but bionic prosthetics can be purchased to offset them. A head Mangle though, can result in a quirk, like mistrusting anything in writing or the Orc alone becoming the voice of DOOM!

For the Game Master, there is a map of the Derelict, marked with all of the ships that have crashed into it over the years. There are stats too for Angels of the Dark Gods as well as threats such a Spacers (Hoomies) and Rival Orcs, and it is fairly easy to create more threats. One set of tables determines whether or not the Derelict is one step closer to DOOM that day and what that day’s prophecies might be, whilst another suggests ways of mapping the Derelict to create easy adventures and jobs for the Orcs to carry out. They are all quick and dirty, and will run out fairly quickly if ORC BORG is overplayed. That said, it should not be too difficult to create more.

Physically, ORC BORG is a neon assault on the senses and scrappy stab in the eyes. It is big, it is bold, and it intentionally based together. Thankfully, ORC BORG is simple enough. With this layout and this colour scheme, anything more complex would be a pain in the proverbial and rightly require you to go all Orcy on the publisher.

ORC BORG is a cathartic scream of a roleplaying game. It demands a single session of brutal violence and Hoomie stompin’ and no more, before the Game Master and her players switch back something more involved and more restful. Then come stompin’ back to more yellin’ and stabbin’ action when a break is needed again!

By Ferry and by Bullet

Reviews from R'lyeh -

Since 2007, the 2004 Spiel des Jahres award-winning board game Ticket to Ride from Days of Wonder, has been supported with new maps, beginning with Ticket to Ride: Switzerland. That new map would be collected in the Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 2 – India & Switzerland, the second entry in the Map Collection series begun in Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 1 – Team Asia & Legendary Asia. Both of these have proved to be worthy additions to the Ticket to Ride line, whereas Ticket to Ride Map Collection vol. 3: The Heart of Africa and Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 4 – Nederland have proved to add more challenging game play, but at a cost in terms of engaging game play. Further given that they included just the one map in the third and fourth volumes rather than the two in each of the first two, neither felt as if they provided as much value either. Fortunately, Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 5: United Kingdom + Pennsylvania came with two maps and explored elements more commonly found in traditional train games—stocks and shares in railroad companies and the advance of railway technology. This was followed by Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 6: France + Old West, which provided two maps exploring a common theme—telegraphing each player’s intended placement of their trains, then by Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 6½: Poland, which focused on borders and connecting them.

The next entry in the Ticket to Ride Map Collection is Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 7: Japan + Italy. This introduces another pair of maps, two sets of different mechanics, two different ways to score points, and of course, two gorgeous maps. Both can be distinguished by their long sweeping routes and consequently they are played out on what is a very large board for Ticket to Ride. On the Japan map, the players will take advantage of the bullet train network, which everyone can use once built to connect their routes, whilst also building into, out of, and across subnetworks of routes that represent the city of Tokyo’s subway system and the island of Kyushu. On the Italy map, the players will not only connect cities up and down the peninsula, but also regions, whilst also making use of the new Ferry cards to travel by sea to Sicily and Sardinia, and up and down the coast. Like other entries in the Ticket to Ride Map Collection series, it only requires a set of Train cards, train pieces, and scoring markers from a base Ticket to Ride set to play.
The first of the new maps in Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 7: Japan + Italy is Japan. Its board is beautifully illustrated and introduces a new type of route—the ‘Bullet Train’. These represent Japan’s high-speed train network which run the length of the country. They are grey routes, but unlike on other maps for Ticket to Ride, when they are claimed using standard Train cards, they do not use a player’s train pieces. Instead, they use the Bullet Train pieces, of which there are sixteen. When a player builds the ‘Bullet Train’ route, he places a single Bullet Train piece on the route, and once the route is built, not only can that player use the route, but so can everyone else! This introduces an element of forced co-operation into Ticket to Ride, each player knowing that he will have to build ‘Bullet Train’ routes to connect his destinations and complete Destination Tickets at the same time as knowing he will probably share them.
A player is subtly encouraged to build ‘Bullet Train’ routes throughout the game. First, the more ‘Bullet Train’ routes a player builds, the more points he will score at the end of the game as a bonus. Second, he will receive a hefty penalty to his score at the end of the game if he does not build any ‘Bullet Train’ routes at all. Third, each player begins play with only twenty train pieces, which limits the number of coloured, non-‘Bullet Train’ routes he can claim. In effect, the ‘Bullet Train’ routes create a core network of routes that run the length of Japan, off of which the players will build.
The other feature of the Japan map is a pair of zoomed in submaps, one for Kyushu Island and one for Tokyo subway. These have Destination Tickets for destinations within their submaps, but there are also Destination Tickets which connect a destination on the submaps to a destination elsewhere in Japan. To complete one of these Destination Tickets, a player will have to build or use the various routes and ‘Bullet Train’ routes from the destination in Japan to the city of Tokyo or Kyushu Island on the main map and then into the submap itself.
The network of routes on the Japan map feels highly organised and ordered, and that is reflected in another, not so obvious feature, of this expansion. This is extra Destination Ticket-drawing, the aim being to draw Destination Tickets that a player has already completed as part of play, or nearly completed, as part of play. The shared network feature of the ‘Bullet Train’ routes encourages this, but the result is fairly underplayed in comparison to the Switzerland map of Ticket to Ride: Switzerland.
The Japan map for Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 7: Japan + Italy is engaging and fun. The Bullet Trains are a great feature that both encourage a different play style and enforce the Japanese feel of the map as well as pushing the players to work together—just a little bit.  
The Italy map takes in all of the Italian peninsula, as well as the islands of Sardinia and Sicily. It also connects to the neighbouring countries of Monaco, France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia. The various cities across Italy are divided up amongst its various regions and a player will score more points for connecting more regions. The busy feel of the Italian north with this its many, compact two-train routes gives way to long sweeping routes that lead south, which are often paralleled by the long ferry routes which run from the mainland to the islands of Sardinia and Sicily, and across the Adriatic to Slovenia and Croatia. Several of these Ferry Routes are as many as seven spaces long, which even given the fact that each player begins with forty-five train pieces, means that a player will quickly be using up his train pieces.
The Ferry Routes on the Italy map do not work like the traditional Ferry Routes of Ticket to Ride. Since Ticket to Ride: Europe, a Ferry Route has required a single Locomotive or wild card as well as the indicated Train cards of the same colour to complete. On the Italy map, Ferry Routes make use of Ferry Cards. Both the Ferry Routes and the Ferry Cards are marked with ‘Wave Symbols’. The Ferry Cards have two Wave Symbols on them and instead of drawing Train Cards as normal or Destination Tickets, a player can instead draw a single Ferry Card, up to a maximum of two. The Ferry Routes have one, two, three, or four Wave Symbols on them. To claim a Ferry Route, a player must play Ferry Cards with same number of Wave Symbols on them combined, plus a number of Train cards of the same colour equal to the other spaces on the route. A Locomotive card can substitute instead of a single Wave Symbol. For example, if the player wants to claim the four-space Ferry Route between Roma and Olbia, he needs to play two cards of one colour and one Ferry Card as this will have the same number of Wave Symbols as marked on the Ferry Route. The maximum number of Ferry Cards a player can have is two. Where taking Train cards of a particular colour can indicate the routes that a player might be wanting to claim, here taking a Ferry Card definitely signals the intent to claim a Ferry Route. 
Although they feature in the Italy map, the Destination Tickets which connect to Italy neighbouring countries do not play as big a role as they do for Ticket to Ride: Switzerland or Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 6½: Poland. Where they differ is that some connect from one of Italy’s regions to a country rather than from a city. The regions also figure in the scoring at the end of the game as players score more for connecting more regions together with their train networks.
The Italy map in Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 7: Japan + Italy is playable, entertaining, and challenging in its own right, but it is not feel as exciting as the Japan map. It is stately and much closer to the original Ticket to Ride than the Japan map, which has an energy and excitement of building new routes and in the main competing, but also working together just a tiny little bit in the construction of the ‘Bullet Train’ routes.

Physically, Ticket to Ride Map Collection is Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 7: Japan + Italy is as well produced as you would expect for a Ticket to Ride expansion. Everything is high quality and the rules are easy to understand. If there is an issue, it is that the otherwise beautiful maps, are big, and consequently, unwieldy to unfold for play and fold up to put away.

What Ticket to Ride Map Collection is Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 7: Japan + Italy shows is that you can mix and match the old with the new in Ticket to Ride. The Japan map is modern, sweeping, with a sense of speed and energy, offering a different style of play. The Italy map provides a variation upon the standard game, but still feels very traditional. Together, Ticket to Ride Map Collection is Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 7: Japan + Italy offers something old and new, and is a solid addition to the Ticket to Ride family.

Friday Fantasy: DCC Day 2021 Adventure Pack

Reviews from R'lyeh -

As well as contributing to Free RPG Day every year Goodman Games also has its own ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day’, which sadly, is a very North American event. The day is notable not only for the events and the range of adventures being played for Goodman Games’ roleplaying games, but also for the scenarios it releases specifically to be played on the day. For ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2021’, which took place on Saturday, July 26th, 2021, the publisher released two books. One was Dungeon Crawl Classics Day #2: Beneath the Well of Brass, a classic Character Funnel, one of the features of both the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic and the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game—in which initially, a player is expected to roll up three or four Level Zero characters and have them play through a generally nasty, deadly adventure, which surviving will prove a challenge. Those that do survive receive enough Experience Points to advance to First Level and gain all of the advantages of their Class. The other was an anthology, the DCC Day 2021 Adventure Pack, which contains three adventures. One for Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, one for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, and one a preview for the forthcoming Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth.
The DCC Day 2021 Adventure Pack opens with ‘Temple Siege!’. This is designed for five to six First Level Player Characters and draws directly from ‘Appendix N’ by being inspired by the Cossacks stories of Harold Lamb, an influence on Robert E. Howard. The Player Characters will definitely encounter horse nomads—and they prove to be a rough, evil lot, ready to kill the Player Characters and take whatever they have. ‘Temple Siege!’ is a very different scenario. Rather than being an atypical dungeon, it takes place entirely in the confines of a single location. Such a constraint is a challenge to the author. Can he create an interesting location and an interesting plot built around the one place? Often, these are ‘locked room’ style adventures, but ‘Temple Siege!’ is not quite that. Rather, the Player Characters are trapped within the confines of the site, but the door is open and the enemy really wants to get in!
‘Temple Siege!’ takes place on the nomad steppes where the Player Characters have come to plunder an ancient temple, but not long after they enter its confines, they are besieged by a band of nomads. The Player Characters have a limited number of actions they can take between wave upon wave of nomad incursions inside the temple, but they also have a lot to examine in the temple. There are puzzles to be solved and traps to be discovered, some of which will lead to means and ways that the Player Characters can use to their advantage. To that end, the Judge is provided with a wealth of detail which she will need to understand and be able to impart to her players as their characters, as well as handle the three different waves of vile nomads, each of which is slightly different. The progress of the Player Characters will be greatly hampered if they do not have a Thief amongst their number. ‘Temple Siege!’ is a scenario which will keep a Thief really busy just as it will keep a Fighter—and other Classes—busy facing off against the nomads outside. ‘Temple Siege!’ might be slightly too long a scenario to run in a single session and its isolated, nomad steppe location make it a little too difficult to add to a campaign, although the prominent role of the Thief Class in the scenario means that it could work with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. Overall though, this is a detailed and fun scenario which combines traps, puzzles, and combat in an entertainingly fought situation.
The DCC Day 2021 Adventure Pack is really notable for its inclusion of the first scenario for Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth, the adaptation of the world of Jack Vance’s Dying Earth. ‘Fathoms Below Witch Isle’ is again a scenario for First Level Player Characters, but just three or four. However, it does not require the use of Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth and does not make use of the new Classes from Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth, but can instead be run using the standard rules from the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. (Doubtless, this will change once Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth is widely available.) The scenario opens with their travelling aboard the Calealen, a vessel pulled by giant sea worms that need careful handling throughout the journey. Due to circumstances beyond their control—and heedless of the Calealen’s somewhat scurvy crew—the Player Characters find themselves cast ashore on a decidedly strange island. One that has been turned upside down! To find out how this came about and perhaps make their escape back to sea, they must descend the upturned mountain and confront a mad hermit! 
‘Fathoms Below Witch Isle’ is intentionally odd and weird, just as you would expect from something set in the world of Jack Vance’s Dying Earth. For the Judge, the language itself is ostentatious and takes some getting used to, but the scenario works just as well under the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game as it will under Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth. However, it does not quite feel weird enough, primarily because the players cannot engage with it as Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth characters yet, and only as Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game characters. This is still a decent scenario and will be enjoyable which ever version of Dungeon Crawl Classics is used.
‘The Neverwhen Rock’ is a Character Funnel for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic. It can be run on its own, or if the Judge has access, run together with ‘Ruins of Future Past’, the scenario from the DCC Day 2020 Adventure Pack. As part of their Rite of Passage, the Player Characters are instructed by the tribal shaman to examine a strange boulder not too far away and explore the cave inside of it, the likes of which no one has ever seen before. Although their characters will have no idea as to what is going on, the players will quickly realise that this is a time travel adventure. It is a very basic one though, with an obvious nod to Doctor Who, and the Player Characters never get the chance to explore the strange boulder, merely get thrust out of it in different locations. It definitely feels like it should be more and like some of the great ideas presented in other titles from Goodman Games, it leaves the Judge left wondering what to do next if she wants to do more with that idea.
Physically, DCC Day 2021 Adventure Pack is decently done. The artwork is fun and the maps clear. The maps for both ‘Temple Siege!’ and ‘Fathoms Below Witch Isle’ are both well done. All three scenarios are well written and easy to read.
The DCC Day 2021 Adventure Pack contains three scenarios which vary in their utility and their capacity to entertain. ‘Temple Siege!’ is the standout entry, a thrillingly constrained and nicely detailed encounter which will challenge the player and their characters and is suitable for almost any Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game setting. ‘Fathoms Below Witch Isle’ is a serviceable introduction to Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth, but will really come into its own when the Judge and her players can experience the whole of what the setting has to offer, including characters Classes. In comparison, ‘The Neverwhen Rock’ feels too slight, as if it wants to be something more, but the page count is constraining it. There are more than enough Character Funnels for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic that the Judge not really need look at this unless she has access to ‘Ruins of Future Past’ from the DCC Day 2020 Adventure Pack.

Friday Faction: The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain

Reviews from R'lyeh -

There are plenty of good guides to the weird and wonderful past of Great Britain. The country is rich in folklore, the occult, magic and mysteries, horrors and hauntings, and much, much more, and so has been subject to numerous books and guides. The Readers Digest Folklore Myths and Legends of Britain and The Lore of The Land, backed up with Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, will give anyone with an interest in the myths and legends of the United Kingdom a good grounding in the subject, but both are hefty books. So they are not easily carried on the go, and in the case of both The Readers Digest Folklore Myths and Legends of Britain, several decades old. The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain does a similar job and covers much of the same material, but differs in two important ways. First, it is a more recent treatment of the subject and second, it is smaller and thus infinitely portable. In fact, The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain is actually designed to be portable for it actually includes the post codes for each of the numerous locations and sites described in its pages—though it is unlikely that all of these sites actually receive anything via Royal Mail (other delivery services may deliver). What this means is that the sites of the various standing stones, ghost sightings, occult personages, and more, are all easy to find. The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain may not be pocket-sized, but digest-sized, it is easy to carry around.

The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain is published by Hellebore, which collates various essays and pieces devoted to British folk horror—including folklore, myth, history, archaeology, psychogeography, witches, and the occult—into a series of fanzines. It covers the United Kingdom, region by region and country by country, so Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, as well as England—with London as a separate location. It starts in the southwest in Cornwall, and moves steadily east and north. The maps are marked with clear icons, including ‘Witches and Cunning Folk’, ‘The Old Gods’, ‘Magic, Rituals, and the Occult’, ‘Ancient Megaliths’, ‘Ports to the Otherworld’, and more. So in Dorset, Bradbury Rings and Cerne Abbas are the site of ‘The Old Gods’; Avebury and Stonehenge sites of ‘Ancient Megaliths’ in Wiltshire; ‘Witches and Cunning Folk’ of Pendle in Lancashire; and the ‘Curses and Portents’ of Cleopatra’s Needle and the ‘Magic, Rituals, and the Occult’ at both the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert, all in London. This barely touches upon the hundreds and hundreds of entries in The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain.

The various regions across The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain are colour coded, each region’s entries combining a mixture of short descriptions with slightly longer pieces. For example, Worcestershire has short entries on the Fleece Inn with its three white circles inn front of its fireplace to prevent the entry of witches via the chimney and Penda’s Fen, the children’s television series from the seventies, but longer entries on Bredon Hill and Wychbury Hill, the latter the site of an iron age hillfort, several follies, and the mystery of Bella in the Wych Elm. London is an exception to this with numerous entries under several different banners, such as Bloomsbury with the British Museum, Freemason’s Hall, and amusingly, both Treadwell’s Bookshop and The Atlantic Bookshop, and Hawksmoor’s London and Doctor John Dee’s London (Dee will also have entries for Manchester and Oxford).

Where The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain differs from other books of legend and folklore is its inclusion of sites particular to film, television, and literature. As with the other categories used in the book, these are clearly marked on the maps. For example, Aldeburgh in Suffolk is listed under ‘Film and Television Locations’ for the Martello Tower there, as it was the basis for M.R. James’ ‘A Warning to the Curious’, whilst several locations across southwest Scotland are listed as locations for the classic British folkloric horror film, The Wicker Man. There are not too many of the film, television, and literature locations throughout the volume, but in the case of the film and television entries, they add visual cues in particular for the imagination.

Physically, The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain is cleanly, if tightly laid out, primarily in black and white with the occasional use of spot colour. If there is an issue with the book it is that the liberal illustrations are not as crisply produced as they could be. The book does include an index and a list of references as well.

For roleplaying purposes, The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain is a useful book to have to hand. It is a veritable fount of ideas and hooks that the Game Master could turn into roleplaying encounters, scenarios, or mysteries for her gaming group. No more than that though, for the entries are thumbnail-sized and should be considered to be pointers or starters for the Game Master who will then need to conduct a little more research to flesh out the scenario or mystery. Nevertheless, much of the content would work in a wide range of horror roleplaying games, including They came from Beyond the Grave! from Onyx Path Publishing or Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition from Chaosium, Inc., as well as specifically United Kingdom-based roleplaying games, like Liminal from Wordplay Games, The Dee Sanction: Adventures in Covert Enochian Intelligence from Just Crunch Games, Vaesen – Mythic Britain & Ireland for Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying from Free League Publishing, or Fearful Symmetries for Trail of Cthulhu from Pelgrane Press.

The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain is an indispensable travel guide to the legends and folklore of Britain. It is not so much a definite reference guide, but more a reference starter, a point from where the reader (or gamer) can have her interest piqued and from there conduct her own further reading and investigations. Compact, but full of interesting content, The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain is an excellent little tome to take off the shelf and flip through or even have handy in the bag when you want to find something really interesting to visit nearby.

The Isles of Avalon

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The Isles of AvalonOne of the reasons I do the long projects here like 100 Days of Halloween or BECMI Month or even shorter week-long deep dives into topics is to take a topic and explore it as deeply as I can. Some topics just need longer to figure out than a one-off blog post. Another reason is to recharge my creative batteries.

So I am fresh off October and last night I feverishly got nearly 10,000 words into a project. Nothing I am ready for the public eye yet, but it felt good to be full of such raw creativity again.

Another little project that grew out my October is this idea of The Isles of Avalon. In truth, it has been there ever since I first picked up Clark Ashton Smith and thought I needed an Empire of Necromancers. But it was rereading my Complete Book of Necromancers and the Avalon Hill game Wizards that the idea became something I want to pursue in depth. 

I do not have all the details yet, but I do know the following.

It is an Archipelago of Islands

There is one large island, the main one, and many smaller islands around it / near it. Right now my mental model is something like the Hawaiian Islands only not tropical. I need some cold places, so another model are the British Isles. Since I am re-reading Tolkien's Unfinished Tales I can't help but add some Númenor into my mental mix.

It is Old

This place needs to have risen to its height ages ago and now fallen into decay. There are still people here and still living their lives, and there are still wizards galore here. But one of the consequences of this is the islands still feel like they are in some sort of lost past. For me to get this feeling I want everything to look like 1970s art. More specifically I am thinking something along the lines of the album art Roger Dean used to do for Yes and Uriah Heep. In fact, those two groups, in particular, would also provide the soundtrack for this endeavor.  This is not the NWOBHM of the 80s I typically do. This needs to sound and feel different to me. 

Another feeling I want is not just that this place is old, but nature has reclaimed it. So there are, or more to point were, mighty citadels here that are now abandoned and nature has moved back in. What strange magics are here? Are there wizards still sleeping in long-forgotten chambers? Do the experiments of long-dead necromancers still haunt the dungeons?  Again with the Yes album cover idea I want this place to look beautiful and feel dangerous. 

It is Advanced D&D

I am pretty well-known for my love for Basic-era D&D. B/X is my jam.  BUT I want a 1970s feel here, and B/X and BECMI are quintessentially 80s.  Now I could very easily merge this with my "1979 Campaign Idea." Indeed, parts of that plan work well in this one, in particular using Warlocks & Warriors as an add-on to module B1.

Though I won't rule out using something like Advanced Labyrinth Lord or Old-School Essentials Advanced.  Especially since I have some new OSE-Advanced books coming from the last Kickstarter and there is a Labyrinth Lord 2nd Edition on the way.

Mix and Match

As usual, I am going to look for existing material to use with it and hopefully things that were published before 1980.  

Again why use other stuff when I can easily create my own? Simple I enjoy doing it. I like to see what pieces I can put together from various other products. That way it feels familiar and new all at the same time. 

I already have a few things in mind I will adapt for this and I am going to have fun doing it. So let's put on some Yes and come with me to these islands and let's visit for a while. 

100 Days of Halloween and October Movie Challenge, Visual Guides

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Today has been a day of collecting pages of notes, half-jotted ideas, and plans. What are those plans? Oh so many, enough that I am calling 2023 The Year of the Monster now. More on that later.

But before I go forward, one last look back.  Here are some visual guides to both my 100 Days of Halloween and October Movie Challenge thanks to Pinterest.

100 Days of Halloween

Follow Timothy's board Witch Books on Pinterest.


October Movie Challenge

Follow Timothy's board October Horror Movie Challenge on Pinterest.

Wow I guess that puts me at nearly 460 Horror movies. I should pass 500 next year.  I should really an go back a rewatch ones I enjoyed and not on these lists for a full and proper record.  Something to consider.


Halloween Hangover 2022

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Witches GatherWell, here we are at the end of another Halloween season. 

Let's look at some numbers.

I had a total of 85 posts for October. Not my highest, but certainly a lot.

I watched 48 horror movies, 37 of which were brand new to me. 

I pulled off my 100 Days of Halloween posting a review of a horror, witch or Halloween-flavored product every day since July 23rd.  I sometimes did multiple products in one day so in the end that was 126 products not counting all my Monstrous Mondays.

As fun as that was I am not likely to do that one again anytime soon.

November will be much lighter in posting as I try to wrap up some projects and gear up for a new one I want to do in 2023.

I hope your Halloween was wonderful! My was. Though now I have to take down all my Halloween decorations. 

October Horror Movie Challenge: Documentary Night

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I do like to have at least one night of documentaries.

Understanding the Witch Trials (2018)

Understanding the Witch Trials (2018)

This was a good one. I found it on Kanopy and it is part of the Great Courses series. Not a lot of new data here but it was all very well represented. I will need to find the rest of this series.  

Aside: Kanopy is a great service. All you need is a public library or University library card to get access. 

War on Witches (2011)

Fairly obscure one. I only found it on Tubi. It covers England and Scotland's witch trials, arguably some of the most famous. It's fluffy and not a lot new material. 

Witches: Masters of Time and Space (2021)

Ok, this one does cover material I have seen before but it also covers stories and histories from other parts of the world that I have seen only a few times before. So quite good really.

War on Witches Masters of Time and Space (2021)

The Witches of Hollywood (2020)

This one covers how witches are depicted in Hollywood (and before). It features commentary from Peg Aloi, Heather Green, Pam Grossman, Kristen J. Sollée, and Dianca London. I am familiar with most of them.

It covers a lot of history very quickly to focus on Hollywood. They start with Snow White and Wizard of Oz and moves on to The Witch.  We get some history on why Margaret Hamilton has green skin.  There are some interesting thoughts on the ruby slippers but totally ignores the fact they are silver in the book and red because that shows up better in Technicolor. Other movies covered are Carrie, Rosemary's Baby, I Married a Witch, and more. 

They cover television as well including one of my favorites, "Bewitched" and "Charmed." 

There is a lot of great commentaries also on witches vs. the Patriarchy which is great, to be honest. This documentary reminds me how much I like Peg Aloi's and Pam Grossman's work.  

The Witches of Hollywood (2020)

I have a few more on my list but I am running out of juice here. So I am calling it.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!


October Horror Movie Challenge 2022
Viewed: 48
First Time Views: 37

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022


100 Days of Halloween: Witch: Fated Souls Second Edition

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 Fated Souls Second EditionDouble shot today for my LAST #100DaysOfHalloween. Wow. It was nice and sunny and I was sitting on my patio when I wrote my first post in this series. Now it is cold, rainy, and gray outside. But this is exactly where I want to be. And today I saved something very special for last.

Witch: Fated Souls Second Edition

I have been a fan of Witch: Fated Souls and Elizabeth Chaipraditkul for a while now. I even got her to the foreword for my own The Green Witch for Swords & Wizardry book. 

So for this Halloween day, I give you Witch: Fated Souls Second Edition, Quickstart, AND the Witch: Fated Souls Second Edition, Kickstarter.

Quickstart

PDF. 36 pages. Full-color cover and interior art. 

Design & Development: Elizabeth Chaipraditkul & Steffie de Vaan

This quick start covers the basic rules of Witch: Fated Souls Second Edition and includes a quick adventure to play.

Like the 1st Edition, Witch: FS2 deals with people (Witches or "The Fated") who sell their souls for power in the modern world. The different sorts of "demons" these characters sell their souls to will determine what sorts of power they will get and how they interact with the world, or their "Fates". 

Pausing for a second I can see already improvements in gameplay, readability, and layout of this Quickstart over the original Witch: FS1. 

Characters now have nine abilities, not eight, and are grouped by Mind, Body, and Spirit with three sub-attributes each. These are all explained and how they are used in the QS.  Checks are also explained. The new mechanics are based on Elizabeth Chaipraditkul and Steffie de Vaan's other game Afterlife: Wandering Souls. This opens up a whole level of play if you have both games. But I am going to wait on that one. 

We have a section on magic and knowing Witch: FS1 there is going to be a lot more in Witch: FS2.

There is even some detail on advancement. So really, as far as characters go you have enough here to keep you busy until the Second Edition Kickstarter is done.  

Demons are covered in their own section and they are the most interesting and likely complicated thing in this game. Complicated that is in how to run them and interact with their Fated. 

The last half of the quickstart covers the included sample adventure, "The Devil Made Me Do It."

There are included NPCs, similar to the ones that appear in Witch: FS1 and using the same art; which is great for returning players helping them get acclimated to the new system. It is recommended you use these characters to aid you in learning the game. 

The Fated

If the full product is anything like this Quickstart then we are in for a treat!

Kickstarter

The Kickstarter for this game just launched today and it will likely be funded by the time you read this post.

You can read all the Kickstarter details on their campaign page, but for me, the proof is in the playing.  I liked Witch: Fated Souls First Edition, even if there were things I would have done differently (but hey, that is the nature of these things) and this new edition looks better.

There is an absolute ton to go along with this game and it looks fantastic. 


My Links to Witch: Fated Souls, First Edition


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Miskatonic Monday #150: Heinrich’s Call of Cthulhu Guide to Character Creation

Reviews from R'lyeh -

Call of Cthulhu is a roleplaying game with a problem—and always has been. The first and most famous of horror roleplaying games inverts the traditional path for the Player Character, as first seen in Dungeons & Dragons, and then ever since, who as he learns and masters skills and has experiences, goes from a nobody to a hero in the course of his adventures. In Call of Cthulhu, a Player Character—or Investigator—enters play as someone with skills and experiences, but as he learns more and master skills, he declines, most obviously in terms of his mental health or Sanity. Of course, that ignores his fragility relative to the world and the multiple ways in which he can be killed or sent mad, both very common destinies in Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying. Whether dead or mad—not impossibly both, what that means is that the player has to create a new Investigator. Which in any edition of Call of Cthulhu is a straightforward enough process, but the resulting Investigator is not going to be as interesting as the one that died, perhaps little more than a run-of-the-mill example of whatever Occupation the player has decided up for the Investigator. A louche Dilettante? A hardboiled Detective who has seen it all? An all-too nosy Journalist? And if the Investigator’s fortunes go awry, how quickly will the player be returning to the Call of Cthulhu Investigator Handbook?

Now Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition goes some way in allaying this issue. In presents numerous Occupations, but also encourages a player to create a Backstory, including Personal Description, Ideology/Beliefs, Significant People, Meaningful Locations, Treasured Possessions, and Traits. Optional rules also provide alternative means of creating Investigators, as well as Experience Packages that can further round out an Investigator, though at a cost of some Sanity. What though, if there was a volume which would go even further, to help a player create even more interesting Investigators, with detailed backgrounds and histories, which would be even more engaging and interesting to roleplay and interact with? Heinrich’s Call of Cthulhu Guide to Character Creation is such a tome.

Heinrich’s Call of Cthulhu Guide to Character Creation is inspired by the series of books published in the early nineties by Task Force Games that include Central Casting: Heroes of Legend, Central Casting: Heroes Now, and Central Casting: Heroes for Tomorrow. They provided tools for interesting Player Character generation—in addition to the mechanics and numbers provided by the roleplaying game that the Player Character was being created for—for their respective genres, and so does Heinrich's Call of Cthulhu Guide to Character Creation. The book also works with Pulp Cthulhu: Two-fisted Action and Adventure Against the Mythos as some of the entries do veer into the fantastic. The volume takes the Investigator through the four steps of his life prior to becoming involved with the Mythos and entering play, from Origins through Childhood and Adolescence to Adulthood, the player rolling on the tables as necessary, and sometimes also being asked to make skill or attribute rolls as well. What is made clear is that neither the player nor the Keeper has to adhere to the outcome of any roll. Indeed, both are encouraged to cheat if it will make a more interesting Investigator or NPC, and anyway, even if not using dice the entries on the innumerable tables in the Heinrich's Call of Cthulhu Guide to Character Creation are ultimately nothing more than prompts to the imagination.

To it necessary to really see what we are contrasting in Heinrich's Call of Cthulhu Guide to Character Creation and so the following is an Investigator who has appeared in numerous forms. He is a Boston antiquarian, a would be academic whose experiences in the Great War left him partially deaf and unsuited to the rigours of university life.

Henry Brinded,
age 44, Antiquarian

STR 40 SIZ 85 CON 45 DEX 70
APP 75 INT 80 POW 65 EDU 91
SAN 58 Luck 75 Damage Bonus +1d4 Build 1
Move 7 HP 12

Brawl 35% (17/7), damage 1D3+db, or by weapon type
Rifle/Shotgun 35% (17/8), damage 2D6/1D6/1D3 (Ithaca Hammerless Field 20G 2.75” calibre shotgun)
Handgun 30% (15/7), damage 1d10+2 (Colt New Service (M1909) .45 LC calibre revolver)
Dodge 35% (17/7)

Skills: Appraise 45%, Archaeology 26%, Art/Craft (Book Restoration) 49%, Art/Craft (Painting) 26%, Artillery 40%, Climb 30%, Credit Rating 45%, Firearms (Handguns) 30%, Firearms (Rifle/Shotgun) 35%, First Aid 50%, History 55%, Library Use 50%, Navigate 20%, Occult 20%, Persuade 40%, Pilot (Boat) 26%, Psychology 31%, Spot Hidden 45%, Stealth 25%, Swim 40%, Track 20%.
Languages: Ancient Greek 41%, English (Own) 91%, Latin 51%.

Backstory
Personal Description: Tall and thin, just shy of infirm, bespectacled and inquisitive.
Treasured Possessions: Latin-English Primer
Traits: Introspective but curious, softly spoken, but firm in manner
Phobias: Ligyrophobia – Fear of loud noises.
Notes: Immune to sanity losses resulting from viewing a corpse or gross injury.

Heinrich's Call of Cthulhu Guide to Character Creation will build in elements that will potentially include Personal Description, Traits, Ideology/Beliefs, Injuries & Scars, Significant People, Phobias & Manias, Meaningful Locations, Arcane Tomes, Spells, & Artifacts, Treasured Possessions, and Encounters with Strange Entities, but begins with a point spread of characteristics. Similarly, it assumes a similar point spread for both Occupational skills and Non-Occupational skills, and builds from there. What the volume does not do is include tables to determine the Investigator’s race, sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation, these being all very personal choices and it should not be a case of a random roll determining something that a player might uncomfortable portraying in game. Similarly, the tables do not reflect the social, cultural, and legal prejudices prevalent during the Jazz Age or the Desperate Decade, the primary settings for Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying. Again, such choices are very much left up to the Keeper and her players to decide upon.

The creation process is methodical, step-by-step, sometimes sending off the player or Keeper off to a separate table way in the back in the book—so it does involve a lot of flipping back and forth—to roll on another table to get another detail. Some entries instruct the player or Keeper to add a detail here or assign there. For example, ‘Bookworm’ is an entry in the ‘Childhood Events’ table and informs the player or keeper that the Investigator or NPC was studious and curious as a child, always asking questions or reading a book. The Keeper or player is then instructed to assign the highest remaining characteristic score to the Education of the NPC or Investigator and suggests ‘Book Dealer’ and ‘Librarian’ be listed under Potential Occupations.

Albert Johansen,
age 44, Book Dealer

Place of Birth: Germany
Social Status: Extremely Wealthy
Occupation: Book Dealer
Potential Occupations: Librarian, Book Dealer, Professor

STR 40 SIZ 50 CON 50 DEX 50
APP 50 INT 70 POW 60 EDU 80
SAN 60 Luck 84 Damage Bonus None Build 0
Move 8 HP 12

Brawl 25% (12/6), damage 1D3+db, or by weapon type
Rifle/Shotgun 45% (22/11)
Dodge 35% (17/7)

Skills: Accounting 45%, Appraise 55%, Art/Craft (Painting) 21%, Credit Rating 70%, Cthulhu Mythos 05%, Drive Auto 60%, History 75%, Library Use 70%, Navigate 30%, Occult 45%, Own Language (German) 80%, Other Language (English) 61%, Other Language (Latin) 61%, Persuade 50%, Pilot (Boat) 21%, Psychology 30%, Swim 40%

Albert Johansen was born in Germany to an Extremely Wealthy family and was expected to be a great scholar (Destiny). He was brought up by his mother, his father having been killed in an automobile accident which left her blind in her right eye. He has a younger sister. During his childhood, he was frightened of taking a bath, believing there to be a monster in the water pipes, but as he grew older, the members of the hunting lodge his father had belonged to took an interest in his upbringing and encouraged to learn to shoot and enjoy other field sports. As a boy, he was studious and religious coming to believe that he was Blessed (gains the relevant handout which grants bonuses in play, plus extra Luck) after adopting the faith of his father (Turn of Faith). He was surprised to receive an invitation at Miskatonic University (Invitation to Study), having expected to study at home, but there discovered the Professors’ Conspiracy investigating some dread powers. Your involvement led to an encounter with a living flame, which injured your throat (gaining the handout, ‘The Injured’), scarring your neck (Body Scars) and leaving you with a raspy voice. You returned home and much to your family’s surprise entered the book trade. You were apprenticed to Herr Emil Winter, who provided to be more than a book dealer. Indeed, he was a Magician who was able to teach him one spell at least.

This is only the start and it is possible to explore numerous aspects of the Investigator or NPC. Events can occur as part of his Occupation, he can engage in romances and build a family life, suffer fortune and misfortune, join the military, get caught up in crime and even end up incarcerated or institutionalised due to mental illness, go on an expedition, including to the Amazonia and Antarctica, come to the attention of a secret government agency, and even venture into the Dreamlands and other dimensions. There is the chance of experiencing some kind of event that will become part of a campaign—as decided or chosen by the Keeper, that the Investigator or NPC be kidnapped or have to put up with a nosy neighbour, be possessed, and a whole more, all supported by table upon table! Handouts cover strange events which will have long lasting in-game effects, such as suffering ‘The Innsmouth Look’ or becoming ‘A Friend of Ghouls’. These do push the campaign towards a more Pulp style, but add flavour and detail. Even at the most basic functions, the tables in Heinrich's Call of Cthulhu Guide to Character Creation are just lists of prompts—certainly too many to count. If perhaps the one table that is underwhelming, it is the one of names, but to be fair, covering that in this book would probably double the page count!

Physically, Heinrich's Call of Cthulhu Guide to Character Creation is busily laid out with table upon table. It is decently written and liberally illustrated with both period photographs and painted pieces.

Heinrich's Call of Cthulhu Guide to Character Creation is fantastic toolkit. Of course, it is too much perhaps to create an Investigator or NPC with any rapidity. There are just too many tables to roll on and options to choose from, but between games, this is a superb resource to consult and gently create interesting and detailed characters. It very much has the feel of a solo adventure book, but one which creates a character by the end rather than at the beginning, equipped with a treasure trove of experiences and details that the player or Keeper can draw upon.
With Heinrich’s Call of Cthulhu Guide to Character Creation, the player is at last going to have a resource and supplement all of his very own from the Miskatonic Repository. With it he can create interesting and varied Investigators ready to bring to his Keeper’s next game using the wealth of detail and background and ideas to be found in its pages. Sometimes though, just sometimes, he is going to have to let his Keeper have a peak too. Heinrich’s Call of Cthulhu Guide to Character Creation is the player’s tome that the roleplaying game never knew it quite needed, but now it really, really does.

Monstrous Mondays: D&D Undead

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 The Book of Undead (3.5)Wow. It is the last Monday of October and it is Halloween.  If you think I have been saving something special for today then you would be correct.  Today I want to talk about the Undead!

Ghosts. Vampires. The Undead. These are the monsters that got me into D&D from the start. Yes it was fun to see all the monsters of mythology here, but I didn't want to be Perseus or Heracles, I wanted to be Van Helsing (I ended up as Dr. Seward, and that is fine). 

So it is to the undead that my monster-hunting eye has always turned. This has been true for every edition of D&D I have played. Second Edition AD&D had Ravenloft and The Complete Book of Necromancers. Third and Fourth Editions have had today's subjects.

Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead (3.5)

PDF and Hardcover. 192 pages. Full-color cover and interior art. For this review, I am considering both the PDF from DriveThruRPG and my hard-cover book.

Libris Mortis was the undead book for 3.5. Undead were covered in the Book of Vile Darkness for 3.0 and here they get more attention and more details.

Introduction

Tells us all about this book and the basics of the Undead and undeath.

Chapter 1: All About Undead

Gets into the detail of the undead including how they manifest; largely along the traditional Corporeal/Incorpeal lines. Undead physiology and details like metabolism and feeding are covered. There is a useful table of various undead monsters and whether or not they feed, what they feed on, and whether it is needed or just desired. This also covers their senses which can be very different than the living stock they came from. All Undead have Darkvision 60' for example, but their sense of touch is limited. 

Also, undead psychology is covered. Namely, how does one deal with being nearly immortal and never changing? There is a bit on undead religion including some gods (in 3.x format) of the Undead. Some of these we have seen before or have seen mentions of. Doresain the King of Ghouls, Nerull the Reaper, and our good friend Orcus are all mentioned here. 

Though one of my favorite sections is the Fighting Undead section which covers weaknesses and tactics that can be used in fighting the undead.  Much like Professor Hieronymus Grost informs us in Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter, all undead (not just vampires) have a means to their destruction.  This section should make the undead scarier than other monsters. Orcs and Dragons die the same way. You reduce their HP enough with weapons and they will die.  Not always so with Undead.

Chapter 2: Character Options

This is a 3.5 book so there are going to be character options. These start with the feats. They are split between undead-friendly feats and undead-hunting feats.

Building off of the Savage Species there are rules for Undead Characters. This includes level adjustments for undead characters. Not every group will want undead characters, but these rules do help. There are even some Monster Classes. Of course, the best use of these is to make unique undead NPCs to threaten characters with. 

Chapter 3: Prestige Classes

3.x was all about the prestige classes. And there are several here that I found a lot of fun. There are Death's Chosen (high level lieutenants for the undead),  Dirge Singer (a fun bard idea), Master of Radiance (one my Paladin went into), Master of Shrouds (their evil counterpart), Pale Master (Prestige Divine Necromancer), Sacred Purifier (another good undead fighting class), True Necromancer (Prestige Arcane AND Divine Necromancer).  The True Necromancer advances in both Divine and Arcane spellcasting classes and gets special powers. It is also an odd Prestige Class in that it has 14 levels. Obviously to give the maximum effect of taking three levels in a divine class (need Knowledge Religion 8 ranks, cast summon undead II) and three levels in an arcane class (need Knowledge Arcan 8 ranks, cast command undead). I also can't help but think this is an obvious nod to the Death Master.

There are also Undead Prestige Classes such as Lurking Terror, Master Vampire, and the Tomb Warden.

At this point, I could run a 3.5 campaign and battle only undead and never run out of combinations and permutations of monster, class, feat, and prestige class combinations. 

Chapter 4: Spells

Covers spells for Assassins, Blackguards, Clerics, Druids, Paladins, and Sorcerer/Wizards. There are many here that are new. I'd have to go line by line to see how many came from the Complete Book of Necromancers. 

Chapter 5: Equipment

A shorter chapter that covers new equipment. There are alchemical substances, toxins, poisons as well as undead grafts and magic items. 

Chapter 6: New Monsters

Nearly 50 new monsters here and only a few seem to come from previous versions of D&D. The Brain in a Jar stands out as a previous one, but the rest are new. 

I never get tired of new monsters, especially undead ones. 

Chapter 7: Campaigns

This covers the last quarter or so of the book. It covers how to use undead in various roles including using them in encounters. There is also a great section on variant undead. I believe that all undead should be unique in some fashion, often relating to how they lived or died (see "A Christmas Carol"). Only a few examples are given, but they can be extended to all sorts of undead. 

There are various cults here that can be used anywhere and in any version of D&D. There are also adventure sites and seeds which can also be dropped anywhere but require some minor conversion for other versions of the game. 

This is one of those books I keep coming back to for more ideas. Yes I have been using the undead in my own games for more than 40 years now, but there is something else to do, something else to learn, and more to the point, more monsters to fight. 

 Secrets of the Undead (4e)Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead (4e)

PDF and Hardcover. 224 pages. Full-color cover and interior art. For this review, I am considering both the PDF from DriveThruRPG and my hard-cover book.

This book has a solid pedigree. First off one of the authors of this, Bruce R. Cordell, was also one of the authors of Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead.  He was also one of main designers of the epic HPE series of Orcus-focused adventures for 4e. This means to me at least that if you are running the HPE series and using undead (and of course you are) then this book is a must-buy.  There are more details in this book that make it a great book on D&D Undead, but I will get to those in due time.

Chapter 1: Undead Lore

This book starts much like it's 3.5 Edition counterpart. This chapter covers the hows, whats, and whys of undead. There are sections on physiology, outlook, and psychology, as well as society.  These sections are very similar to the 3.5 edition, which makes sense, with the addition of edition specific details.  

For my point of view, the two books (Open Grave and Libris Mortis) both compliment and complete each other. Together they are not the final words on Undead, but they cover quite a lot. 

The section that is newest here is the one on Shadowfell (and thus why it is a great resource for the HPE adventures). 

There are few undead monster stat blocks featured here as well. 

Chapter 2: DM's Guide to Undead

This covers DM's rules. In particular there are skill challenges, how to handle hauntings, and building undead into campaigns. This section in particular is good advice to any DM of any edition wanting to use undead in their games. 

There are also some artifacts detailed here including the Mask and Sword of Kas, the Soul Sword, the Von Zarovich family sword, and more. Like 3.5 there are even some undead grafts. 

New rituals are also detailed. Something I felt D&D 4e never had enough of.  

Chapter 3: Undead Lairs

Location-based encounters were a big deal in 4e. This covers ones with an undead flavor to them for Heroic, Paragon, and Epic level tiers. Three of each are featured with character levels from 1st to 26th. As with all 4e encounter listings, there are plenty of quasi-unique monsters here. Sometimes they are new, and often they are just an edit on an existing creature.  

Chapter 4: New Monsters

Ah, here is what we want! There are more than just undead here, there are the "unliving" as well; monsters that have cheated death but are not undead themselves. There are 122 statblocks of monsters here. These included variations on the Ghoul, Lich, Mummy, Skeleton, Vampire, and Zombie. There are new creatures including undead constructs and oozes. Our old friend the Brain in the Jar from Ravenloft is also back. So many of these are at least familiar to me and some are new.

Undead Hall of Infamy

This flows from the Chapter 4 material and is nominally part of Chapter 4, it is its own section. Here we get some stats for some of the biggest undead names in D&D history. They include Acererak, Ctenmiir the Cursed (from White Plume Mountain), Kas the Betrayer, Kyuss, Osterneth the Bronze Lich (a new NPC but has the relic, the Heart of Vecna), Strahd von Zarovich, and Vecna himself.

Templates

Also part of Chapter 4 these are templates for undead creatures.

Alternative Powers

Undead should be unique, so these are alternate power for various undead that replaces one or more of the powers they have listed. 

The utility of this book to the 4e DM can not be overstated. Especially if you are running the HPE adventures or dealing with any undead.

Undead

For me, these books complement each other well. They cover the same basics but go into different sorts of details even outside of their system-related materials. 

It's Halloween!

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Monster Party!It's Halloween! 

I have a lot going on today, so let's get going.

I am ending my Month of Halloween the same way I began, by guest starring on a podcast.

On October 1 I appeared on Monster Movie Fun Time Go where I talked about the movie Day Shift and my game NIGHT SHIFT.

And today October 31 I appeared again on Wobblies & Wizards. Where I talked with Shane (Logar) and Ryan of Appendix N Entertainment about all sorts of horror movies. 

So check them both out!

I was also interviewed over at Third Kingdom Games. So give that a read as well.

Miskatonic Monday #149: Trick or Treat 2

Reviews from R'lyeh -

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 InvictusThe PastoresPrimal StateRipples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in EgyptReturn of the RipperRise of the DeadRise 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: Trick or Treat 2Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author Andy Miller

Setting: Modern DayProduct: Scenario
What You Get: Sixty-Two page, 32.43 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Sequel to ‘Trick or Treat’ from Blood BrothersPlot Hook: Bored? Too old to trick or treat? Why not visit the site of an unsolved series of murders?
Plot Support: Staging advice, six pre-generated Teen Investigators, twelve NPCs, three handouts, four maps, three non-Mythos spells, and four non-Mythos monsters.Production Values: Decent.
Pros# Sequel to ‘Trick or Treat’ from Blood Brothers# Pleasing history of Halloween and Halloween and Call of Cthulhu# Decent staging advice# Plenty of background# Does not simply start at the murder site# Contrasts the horror with school life# Detailed playtest notes included# Detailed plotting# Botanophobia# Formidophobia
Cons# Another ‘Kids in peril on Halloween’ scenario# Too much background for a one-shot?# Handouts a little plain# Needs an edit# Detailed plotting# Slightly too for a one-session one-shot
Conclusion# Classic ‘Kids in peril on Halloween’ scenario in which exploring an old murder site turns horrifically bloody as traditional Halloween motifs come to life and stalk the teenage protagonists. # Highly detailed and plotted—perhaps overly so?—teenage horror scenario which delivers a suitably nasty sequel to a Call of Cthulhu, non-Mythos classic. 

October Horror Movie Challenge: The Cursed (2021)

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The CursedA surprise one tonight while browsing Hulu. A neat werewolf movie.

The Cursed (2021)

During the Battle of the Somme, a French captain is wounded. He is taken to the hospital tent and he had three bullets removed from him. A fourth is also found but it is different than the rest, larger and made of silver.

Thirty-five years earlier a group of Romani makes a claim to some land in the French countryside in the 1880s.  They melt down some silver coins and fashion a set of fangs that look like a wolf's but are set in a human skull. 

The landowners, not wanting to lose their land the landowners have the Romani all killed. Their old witch is buried alive with the silver fangs.  

Soon everyone in town is having the same nightmare. The kids of the landowner and the tenants go out to where the old woman is buried and dig up the fangs. One of them puts them into his mouth and bites Edward, the landowner's son. Edward falls into a fever and is bedridden. But soon he runs out of the house into the nearby woods.

A pathologist, John McBride (Boyd Holbrook) arrives. He has been following the Romani. Soon people start dying from "animal" attacks. We learn that John has seen this all before in Gévaudan.  He collects clues and determines it is the curse of the teeth that has turned Edward into a beast and anyone he attacks. 

Few more deaths till the final battle in the church.  John manages to shoot Edward with his silver bullet but hits Isabell, Edward's mother, as well.  

John takes Edward and Charlotte to live with him since their mother and father are now dead and their manor burned down. Charlotte gives John the three unused silver bullets.  We see that the captain from beginning is an adult Edward. Edward dies on the operating table and we see a older Charlotte giving and bed ridden elderly John the last bullett.

--

So yeah this one was fun. Recovering from a bad migrane this morning (and I just told my doctor on Wednesday it had been months since I had one and I might need anymore Sumatriptan.) So I am calling it a night.  But I really should work up the Beast of Gévaudan.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022
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First Time Views: 33

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022


100 Days of Halloween: Out of the Abyss

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Sorry for the delay on this one. The perfect combination of a migraine and no internet all day conspired against me.

I have spent time with all the previous editions of D&D, let's do 5th today.  And for that, I think I want to spend some time with 2015's Rage of Demons adventure Out of the Abyss.

Out of the Abyss

Hardcover. 256 pages. Full-color cover and interior art.

This adventure was produced by Green Ronin and sold by Wizards of the Coast and is the third adventure made for D&D 5 if I recall right. I bought this one largely because I wanted 5e stats for demons and some places in the Abyss as this book has that.  I also was working on my Forgotten Realms campaign ideas, what would be come part of the Second Campagin

The adventure is an interesting one. For characters 1 to 15. You start in the Underdark and end fighting demon lords in the Abyss itself. That's the least interesting thing about the adventure. We get the aforementioned demon lords and a lot NPCs and a cool new feature of demons, madness. Not only are most demons a little (or a lot) insane and this insanity is contagious. 

We get some new monsters and some updated variants of older monsters.  For our demon lords we get Baphomet, Demogorgon, Fraz-Urb'luu, Graz'zt, Juiblex, Orcus, Yeenoghu, and Zuggtmoy. Interestingly enough, no Lolth. 

I found the adventure was a great introduction to the Underdark and to demons and, for me, a nice hook into the Forgotten Realms. 

I might run it someday, but I have cut it up (not literally) and used pieces of it in other places now so it would need to be with a new group.


The Other Side - 100 Days of Halloween


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