Reviews from R'lyeh

  

The Best Witches
It is an undeniable truth that the Witch gets a lot of bad press. Not necessarily within the roleplaying hobby, but from without, for the Witch is seen as a figure of evil, often—though not necessarily—a female figure of evil, and a figure to be feared and persecuted. Much of this stems from the historical witch-hunts of the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeen, and eighteenth centuries, along with the associated imagery, that is, the crone with the broom, pointy hat, black cat, cauldron, and more. When a Witch does appear in roleplaying, whether it is a historical or a fantasy setting, it is typically as the villain, as the perpetrator of some vile crime or mystery for the player characters to solve and stop. Publisher The Other Side has published a number of supplements written not only as a counter to the clichés of the witch figure, but to bring the Witch as a character Class to roleplaying after being disappointed at the lack of the Witch in the Player’s Handbook for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition. However, there is a tradition of telling stories about witches, often aimed at younger readers, such as in the Harry Potter stories or The Worst Witch series by Jill Murphy, and if your players are fans so either, a book like The Children of the Gods: The Classical Witch for Basic Era Games is probably not going to the most appropriate option. In which case, Tales of the Village might be.Tales of the Village is an introductory roleplaying game published by Arion Games, best known for reprinting the Elizabethan-era Maelstrom and its other iterations, such as Maelstrom Domesday. The roleplaying game is intended to be played by younger players, aged between seven and twelve, but run by an experienced Game Master. Each Player Character is a young witch, living in a small, rural village, helping out with day-to-day tasks, but also helping the sick, finding lost animals, and dealing with such threats as greedy bandits, mischievous faeries, and scary ghosts! Or at least they aspire to do so, because being young, they show plenty of promise, but have only recently graduated as fully fledged witches.To create Witch, a player rolls first for her Background, which explains what her parents do and grants her an appropriate skill. For example, the daughter of weavers learns Clothworking, whilst if the parents are castle guards, the Witch knows Brawling as a skill. A second roll determines how she became a Witch, such as a local witch shouting and pointing at the aura around the young Witch or because the Witch’s memory proved to be so good that a witch took her on immediately. Whatever way in which the Witch became a Witch, she is granted a random ability, and then two more, one from the training she receives from her Witch teacher and another from a life-changing event towards the end of her training.Name: OttilieClass: WitchBackground: MinstrelsSkill: EntertainmentHow Did You Start: Drove a mischievous faerie awayTeacher: conventional WitchEvent: Lifted a cure of locustsGift: BroomstickAbilities: Naturebond, Potion Making, ShapechangeAll of the backgrounds and events as well as the skills and abilities are nicely expanded upon and clearly explained. In the case of the abilities, there are some examples of their is too and the Witch creation process is supported with an example too.Mechanically, Tales of the Village is simple. To have her Witch undertake an action, her player rolls three six-sided dice. Each result of five or six is counted as a Success. One Success is required if the task is Awkward, such as catching a pig; two Successes are required if the task is Difficult, like catching a sheep; and three Successes are required if the task is Very Difficult, such as catching a goat or wild hill sheep. This represents a Witch who is untrained, but if a Witch is trained in a skill, her player only has to roll four, five, or six to succeed, and if the skill or ability is mastered, her player only has to roll three, four, five, or six to succeed. The advice for failure suggests that it need not be absolute, and that if a player rolls Successes, but not enough to succeed, her Witch might get half way there or do most of a task, and so on. The consequences for failure comes into play in when the Witch loses in a mental, physical, or social contest. In which case, the player ticks a box on either the mental, physical, or social track. On each track, the Witch starts at Fine, but will go from Fine to Shaken to Beaten to Defeated. It is up to the player to roleplay most of these conditions, but if ever one of the tracks is reduced to Defeated, the Witch has failed at the adventure!The advice for the Storyteller Guide  is simple and straightforward. This is to set up minor challenges, a mix of challenges related or unrelated to bigger challenges, and even the main challenge. Overcoming such challenges should not wholly rely upon the Witches’ skills and abilities, but allow for player ingenuity and roleplay. The more minor challenges that the Witches overcome or deal with, the easier it should be to confront and deal with the main challenges. Unfortunately, there is no advice on running Tales of the Village for the specific age range it is intended for, and what this means is that the roleplaying game relies upon the experience of the Storyteller Guide more than anything else.In terms of support, the Storyteller Guide is provided with a scenario, ‘Goblin Rings’. It is set in a happy, fairly ordinary village except that it is home to the Witches and there are unseen threats roundabout. The scenario consists of a series of small events, such as a child being sick or sheep going missing, the child being a sickly green in colour and there being no trace of the sheep. As the Witches solve each problem, they earn Success Points, and these can be used to ease the final confrontation against the villain responsible for the situation. None of the problems are overly challenging, should not take too long to play through before the final encounter, and is thus suitable for play by its intended audience. ‘Goblin Rings’ is a charming scenario with a fairy-tale feel that its audience will enjoy.Physically, Tales of the Village is neatly and tidily presented. It is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is certainly cute.In the strictest of senses, Tales of the Village is not an introductory roleplaying game, one that anyone new to the hobby can pick up and start playing. It is, as intended, best suited to be run by someone who has some roleplaying experience and can therefore run the game for the intended audience—younger players who like witches and fairy tales. Yet as playable and runnable as it is, it is underwritten in places and the lack of advice on running roleplaying games with a younger audience is disappointing. And, of course, once the scenario is played through, the Storyteller Guide will need to write some more, and again, the advice to that end is underwhelming. Overall, Tales of the Village is a serviceable roleplaying game that does what it sets out to do and does it with a little charm, but it feels like it could have done a little more.

Miskatonic Monday #439: Fear of Overtime
Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.—oOo—Name: Fear of OvertimePublisher: Chaosium, Inc.Author: PhanzarSetting: New York, 1929Product: One-shotWhat You Get: Twenty-three page, 8.22 MB Full Colour PDFElevator Pitch: ‘Karoshi’ would be a safer way to go…Plot Hook: It starts with a bang!Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, five NPCs, two handouts, one map, one Mythos artefact, and one Mythos monster.Production Values: GoodPros# Overtime survival horror# Closed location one-shot# Escalating horror that builds and builds# Nicely done location# Ergophobia# Diokophobia# MicrophobiaCons# Needs a slight edit# Investigator templates rather than pre-generated Investigators# Escalating horror is very procedural# Only way to defeat the hunter is through violenceConclusion# Opens with a bang and the horror builds and builds# Literally brings a shrinking feeling to survival horror

Miskatonic Monday #438: Abracadabra!
Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.—oOo—Name: Abracadabra!Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.Author: Steven HernandezSetting: New Jersey, 1926Product: One-shotWhat You Get: Thirty-eight page, 40.94 MB Full Colour PDFElevator Pitch: “Never try to fool children, they expect nothing, and therefore see everything.” – Harry HoudiniPlot Hook: There should be nothing magical about a missing boyPlot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, five NPCs, five handouts, one map, one Mythos tome, one Mythos monster, and one boiled cabbage recipe.Production Values: GoodPros# Solid double crime investigation# Strong on investigation and interaction# Horror of the Mythos versus horror of a distraught gangster father# Easily adapted to other periods, especially Cthulhu by Gaslight# Easily adapted to other cities# Excitingly weird, but pacy finale# Tycophobia# Scelerophobia# RhabdophobiaCons# Needs a slight edit# Not every location is mapped# Finale needs careful study and stagingConclusion# Solid set-up leads to strong investigation and a race to the finish# Police procedural which proves that Mythos and magic should never mix…

Calm & Charm
Far out in the ocean lies a land of peace and tranquillity, where the people live in harmony with the spirits and the spirit world, and each other. Where magic is woven into the fabric of the land, where folk magic, academy wizardry, and witches covens are as acceptable as each other, whilst potions are often used to help with work and other tasks, and where certain technology of the ancient past remains and has been adopted and adapted to work in the present. They include cartridges, cassettes, and VHS tapes, and instaprint cameras. The cartridges, cassettes, and VHS tapes have been discovered to contain hidden messages—singing, music, and voices, and on the VHS tapes, images too, but spellcasters have turned them into spellbooks, played on portable cassette players. The pictures developed and shaken from the instaprint cameras show up magical auras in addition to their pictures. However, the most common technology left over from the first age is that of Vending Machines, and they can be found anywhere and everywhere. Enchanted by wizards and witches they are used as workshops and to sell magical trinkets, but are often prone to theft by skilled thieves, so often they have guardians, awakened cats being the most common. There is no one government on the island, the various communities agreeing to get along and nor is there true evil, though there is villainy and there is corruption. The island was recently beset by a great earthquake and tsunami, just three months ago, and there are rumours of zones of supernatural Corruption on the eastern side of the island where the tsunami struck. This is a quiet self-contained island, its inhabitants rarely wanting to see what lies beyond the horizon—and when those that do, they do not return, instead preferring lives of contemplation of the island around them and companionship with family and friends. The island is not perfect though, for there are perils and there are dangers, and when conflicts arise, the islanders seek to resolve them peacefully rather than combatively.This is the setting for Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass. Published by 1985 Games, best known for its dice and its Dungeon Craft range of map and terrain packs, following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is a campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, but do not let that put you off. Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass describes itself as ‘leisure fantasy’, intended to tell cozy, charming stories that are character rather than conflict driven. There is room still for conflict and heroism, but it is not necessarily the focus of the setting, or least not the whole focus. It is as much about exploration and interaction as conflict and heroism. Much of the charm of the setting is imparted by the illustrations which are a delight, done in the style of Studio Ghibli, also one of the inspirations for Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass, along with the Zelda series of computer games and the rural Japan of the eighties.The setting and background to the island of Obojima is richly detailed. This includes the primary differences between it and any other Dungeons & Dragons setting. These are that it consists of the Primary Realm and the Spirit Realm only, that it possible to travel between the two, though getting in is usually easier than getting out, and that bustling markets, floating shrines, ghost ships, and megalithic temples might be found there. As Obojimans have no ‘souls’, there are no ghosts, though a spirit in the Primary Realm might act like one and technically no demons or fiends, though a sinful spirit might act like one. Numerous organisations, such as the Academic Adventurers of the AHA, the Knights of the Postal Service of Courier Brigade, Sword Schools, Witches and Covens, and more, which the Player Characters can interact with and even join, are detailed, along with numerous locations, each with NPCs, wandering encounter tables, points of interest, adventure hooks, and rumours and legends. There are notes too on the tone and vibe for each one, such as ‘Festive, Jovial, Inviting, Magical’ for Matango Village, Mysterious, Ancient, Hopeful, Ominous’ for the Temple of Shoom, a partially submerged ziggurat, ‘Adventurous Spirit, Innovation All Around, Industriousness’ for Sky Kite Valley, and ‘Witchy, Academical, Focused, Mysterious, Closed Off’ for the Domain of the Fish Head Coven. The names of these locations are evocative on their own, but each is richly detailed with lots of flavour that as player you want to have your character visit and as a Game Master you want to take the characters there. Even a minor location, such as the ‘Wandering Line’, train tracks that assemble out of nowhere and a three-car train appears to take the Player Characters anywhere they want as long as the Conductor accepts their payment for the tickets, and then both tracks and train disappear as soon as they alight (or are kicked off), feels fantastical and adorable. That said, in comparison, the millennia long history of Obojima is distinctly underwritten, but then it almost does not matter. There is plenty of room in that history for the Game Master to add her own details, but not enough history that it might get in the way of storytelling.In terms of Player Character options, Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass provides four Ancestries, eleven Subclass Options, six new Backgrounds, twenty new Feats, and two new skills. The Ancestries are Humans, Dara, Elves, and Nakudama, but there are guidelines on how the other Dungeons & Dragons Ancestries might be brought into play. The Dara emerged from the forests of the island three centuries ago and are divided into two types. Blue Dara are tall, hairless, and have a single eye, and can create Knowledge Talismans that anyone can use to gain a one-off bonus to an ability check. Red Dara are short, have two eyes, and can create Might Talismans that grant a bonus to Saving Throws. All Dara can gain knowledge from the fingerprint-like glyphs left in the forests and can create a range of other talismans. Elves are born to human parents and are connected to the Spirit Realm as indicated by the Oaka Mark they each bear and the cantrip and extra spell that each Oaka Mark grants. Elves also have Ethereal Sight, enabling them to look into the Spirit Realm. The Nakudama are oldest people on Obojima, frog-like and amphibious with a grasping tongue, and highly social. The new Backgrounds include Apprentice of AHA, Apprentice Diver, Apprentice Witch, Courier Brigade Cadet, Mechanic, and Spirit Kin, and the new skills are Mechanic and Salvage. Feats include Boomerang Expert, Canden and Moon’s Master Cut, Tellu and Scale’s Master Cut, and Toraf and Bolder’s Master Cut for defeating a master at their respective sword schools, Potion Brewer for creating more potions and with finesse, and Nakudama’s Electric Bloodline or Nakudama’s Toxin Bloodline which awaken the abilities of the ancient Nakudama warring bloodlines.Instead of whole new Classes, Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass provides an extra Subclass for the Classes in Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. The features and abilities for some of these Subclasses come in play at First Level, mostly for the arcane spellcasters, but other at Third Level as standard and others later still. Only the Cleric does not receive a new Subclass, but the others consist of the Path of the Belly Brewer for the Barbarian, College of Masks for the Bard, Circle of the Petal for the Druid, The Spirit-Fused for the Fighter, the Sheep Dragon Shepherd for the Monk, the Oath of the River for the Paladin, the Corrupted Ranger for the Ranger, the Waxwork Rogue for the Rogue, the Oni Bloodline for the Sorcerer, The Lantern for the Warlock, and the Origami Mage for the Wizard.Many of these Subclasses are a delight. For example, Circle of the Petal enables the Druid infuse the magic of the island into flower petals, summoning them to perform a dance, improving Armour Class, making lunge attacks with them, and even taking damage for allies, and later imbuing the petals with life to form beasts that serve the Druid, whilst The Spirit-Fused Fighter becomes the vessel for a spirit that has died and channel its essence to increase damage, into objects to various effect such as finding objects, bonding with a First Age vehicle like a bicycle or moped which is indestructible and can be summoned anywhere for a hour, and later cast the Jolt cantrip to power technology. The downside is that The Spirit-Fused Fighter only has access to a couple of these channelling options, when all of them are good. The Sheep Dragon Shepherd for Monk brings the skills and abilities herding sheep dragons, often regarded as the epitome of goodness and authenticity on the island, to bear in other situations. This includes summoning allies he can see closer to him, to blast enemies using the Sheep Dragon’s wind pistol, to deflect attacks against allies, and even walk in the air.Perhaps the strangest is Corrupted Ranger, whose body has somehow become fouled by the strange magic. When struck, the Corrupted Ranger gains curse markers which are then released as necrotic damage when the Corrupted Ranger strikes an opponent, and his body sometimes seems to act or move of its volition (this allows the Corrupted Ranger to replace the result of a Strength or Dexterity check with a set value rather than a rolled value). In the long term, the Corrupted Ranger suffers an ailment like greying vision, failing lungs, or loss of feel. With the Oni Bloodline, the Sorcerer has an Oni trapped within him, desperate to get free. Oni traits—eyes, horns, skin, tongue, and hair—manifest the more Sorcery Points that the Sorcerer expends. The Oni traits grant abilities of their own, such as charismatic eyes and tongue that adds a fear component to any spell with a verbal component. However, with this Subclass it does feel as if there should be more of a downside to transforming into an Oni.The magic and ordinariness of Obojima continue with the equipment. There are martial weapons such as a Secret Stone Sword, Sheperd Crook, and Vertebrae Sword—the tines of which can be twisted off for extra damage, but the simple melee weapons include fans, frying pans, iron tea kettles, and umbrellas! Magical items are delightfully mundane, such as a Burnright Brand Hair Dryer which can be used to cast Burning Hands, Cone of Cold, and Gust of Wind; a CRT TV & Chicken Timer that records a fuzzy video of events in its vicinity; Cube of Cubes, which is used to cast a particular spell when one of its sides is solved; a Gametoy which activates a different skill proficiency every time a new cartridge is inserted into it; and a Ruby Red Bike, that when ridden at the right speed creates a Wall of Fire spell!Since the island is restricted to two planes—the Primary Realm and the Spirit Realm—Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass omits spells that deal with other planes, such as Astral Projection, Plane Shift, and Teleport, as well as reality-altering spells like Wish and True Resurrection. It includes its own spells amongst the various lists for the spellcasting Classes. For example, Butterfly Storm creates a cloud of butterflies that obscures an area, but also clears fog and smoke; Festival King temporarily turns a target into a festival king complete with gaudy crown and cape who enamours anyone who comes too close to him; Origami Bird Swarm launches a flock of origami birds at a target inflicting slashing damage; and with Create Spirit Train Stop, the caster creates a temporary stop for the Wandering Line.The biggest change to magic in Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass is its emphasis upon potions. They come in three types and three rarities. Combat potions such as Rabbit’s Speed, Gargoyle Hooch, and Dragon Frog Transmutation grants bonuses and benefits in a fight. Utility potions like Detective’s Tonic, Pocket Stomach, Breakfast in a Bottle, and Umi’s Powerful Undertow provide advantages and benefits out of combat. Whimsical potions such as Melodious Bird Calls, Pocket Portal, and Chicken Chaser grant odd, even silly benefits. Potions are further divided by their rarity, which can be common, uncommon, or rare. Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass gives sixty for each type of potion for each rarity, for a total of five-hundred-and-forty potions, all of them inventive, all of them interesting, and all of them illustrated. Yet, that is not all.Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass includes detailed rules for brewing potions too. Numerous ingredients are listed and illustrated, again common, uncommon, or rare, and again, delightful in their detail. For example, a Living Spud is an uncommon ingredient, a potato that pops up out of the ground and wanders off on a long meandering trek, revered wherever it goes, whilst Bubble Gum is rare, found stuck to floors, walls, under tables, and the bottom of shoes, typically in ruined buildings from the First Age. Unchewed Bubble Gum still in its wrapper is rarer still. Many of the common ingredients can be purchased, but others have to foraged for, and Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass lists the ingredients by region too. Once found—and regional almanacs can help with that, they can be scanned with an Arcane Detection Kit to determine their suitability and added to the pot. Each ingredient has a rating for its Combat, Utility, and Whimsy rating. When a potion is brewed, three ingredients are used and the Combat, Utility, and Whimsy ratings for all three are added together. The highest of the three values determines the category of the potion and its actual type. What this means is that there is no one way in which to brew a particular potion. Mechanically, it comes down to the numbers, but thematically, it gives a lot of flexibility, and the Player Character wanting to focus on potions, through play, he can create his own recipe book. Further, potions only take ten minutes to brew, so the process does not slow play, and of course, finding the right potion and the right ingredients can an adventure in itself.However, there is no skill check associated with potion brewing and so no chance that it can go wrong. Although anyone can brew potions, the Player Character options for brewing are slightly underwhelming. There is no Subclass option which specialises in brewing potion, so no potion master or alchemist. There is the Potion Brewer Feat, which primarily allows the potion brewer to choose from the two highest totals of Combat, Utility, and Whimsy ratings, and the Apprentice Witch background begins with some ingredients and with the Coven Witch Feat, the Player Character will know two potion recipes. Another option is the Path of the Belly Brewer Subclass for the Barbarian, which brews concoctions in his stomach. However, this is all internalised, so only he can use the results rather than they be bottle for use by the rest of the party and whilst the Barbarian can learn common potion recipes, he is limited in what can learn. This is a missed opportunity.Character development is encouraged not to be just mechanical in Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass. During character creation a player is encouraged to create some goals, weaknesses, desires, and so on for his character as well as think about what the character will be like at Tenth Level. The Game Master is encouraged to account for these in the campaign and as part of Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass’ ‘Hero’s Journey Boon System’ reward the player for good roleplaying and for the character changing and evolving through play. Boons can also be lost if the character reverts from the change and not all of Boons are positive. For example, the Mercy Boon is earned when a Player Character has the power to deal out judgement, but learns the compassion and understanding to hold back. When the Player Character makes an attack that would reduce an opponent below zero Hit Points, he can forgo the damage and instead make a Charisma skill check with Advantage. Whereas the Selfishness Boon is gained when a Player Character’s actions have been to the detriment of those closest to him and means that when he takes damage, he can instead heal Hit Points for every ally he has close by, and they suffer necrotic damage in return! There are some great roleplaying opportunities here, but as the authors advise, not all of these boons are going sit well with every group and they should definitely discuss their inclusion at the start of a campaign.Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass has an extensive bestiary, and whilst it includes monsters in the traditional since, the emphasis is on friends and foes, on companion spirits and their goals, and on antagonists rather than enemies. Companions, typically spirits such as an animated pocket video game, flying goose spirit, animated bubbles, or a flaying radish, are NPCs, controlled by the Game Master. They give her another way to interact with the players and their characters, drive stories, and so on. The advice for creating and running antagonists is excellent, focusing not just on why an antagonist is acting the way he is, but also the ultimate outcome of the Player Characters’ interactions with him. The bestiary is really engaging and fantastically illustrated, from the Cat Of Prodigious Size, the Corrupted Muk that emerges from pools of Corruption, Dragons, and Dragon Frogs to Goro Goro (or Sake Demon), Mosslings, Sheep Dragons, Skeletal Fish, and Soda Slimes.Lastly, Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass includes three adventures. In ‘The Curious World Within’, the Player Characters help out a Postal Knight and are shrunk to the size of a mouse in order to find a letter in a witch’s house; ‘Below the Shallows’ sends the Player Characters to the ocean floor to explore a sunken town in search of a kite-plane hijacked and stolen by fish folk pirates; and after saving a Dara novelist and her dog companion from a dangerous howler attack (howlers are humanoid hyenas) in ‘Lost Within The Crawling Canopy’, the Player Characters are engulfed by the Crawling Canopy, a moving forest that roams the Gale Fields. What is odd is that none of the three adventures is for First Level Player Characters, which leaves Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass without a clear starting point.Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass is a setting with secrets, and more importantly, a setting that will raise questions from the players. Most commonly, why is there eighties technology from Japan on the island? Penultimately, in a chapter for the Game Master’s eyes only, ‘Mysteries, History, and More’, the designers do address this and other mysteries. In some cases, there is no definitive answer, and in others, multiple possible answers are given, leaving it to in-world and in-game discussion to debate as much as decide on the answer. This may not satisfy every Game Master, but it keeps the setting mysterious and magical.Physically, Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass is presented in a very clean and accessible fashion. What stands out though, is the artwork, which is superb, depicting both the world and its tone, whilst making its inspirations clear. Pick this book up and you are transported to another world on the strength of the art alone.Roleplaying games which take inspiration from Studio Ghibli are not new; Golden Sky Stories and Ryuutama being the most well known examples. However, no roleplaying game or setting has embraced or depicted that inspiration as strongly as Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass. Whilst Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass is not perfect, it successfully and engagingly brings its world to life, first through its illustrations, and then through its description. Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass presents a world that you would be happy to see on screen or in a manga or play on a screen, but lets you roleplay in it, explore it, experience its charm, and delve into its mysteries. Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass becalms Dungeons & Dragons in a world of wonder and whimsy and it is utterly adorable.

Relatives at Risk
Nephews in Peril: A Collection of New Mysteries in BRINDLEWOOD BAY is a companion volume to Brindlewood Bay: A Dark & Cozy Mystery Game. Published by The Gauntlet, Brindlewood Bay upended the traditional concept of murder mystery scenarios in roleplaying and changed what we play. In the traditional murder mystery scenario, the Keeper has the answers to hand—the victim, the suspects, the culprit, the means, and the motive—and the players and their characters have to deduce which of these is correct. In Brindlewood Bay, there is no set solution, but there are plenty of suspects and motives, and it is up to the players and their characters to hypothesise who the culprit is and why he committed the murder, and put it to the test. If passes, the murder mystery is solved. If not, the players and their characters must continue their sleuthing. Plus, the players are doing this with elderly female amateur detectives as their characters, such as Jessica Fletcher and Miss Marple, for example. Brindlewood Bay changed how we thought about investigative scenarios in roleplaying and how we played them. Besides the rules, Brindlewood Bay: A Dark & Cozy Mystery Game also detailed numerous murder mysteries, the Dark Conspiracy behind them that threatens the future of the quiet New England tourist spot, and a little about the town itself. Nephews in Peril: A Collection of New Mysteries in BRINDLEWOOD BAY presents the Keeper and her players—and their Mavens—with even more of this. Nephews in Peril: A Collection of New Mysteries in BRINDLEWOOD BAY gives the Keeper a total of twenty new Mysteries, seven of which are of a new type of Mystery, which change the way in which Brindlewood Bayy is played—ever so slightly, and details more of Brindlewood Bay itself. It does not waste any time beyond simply listing the contents and describing the first mystery. After all, the Brindlewood Bay Keeper already knows what she is getting as far as the content goes. Each follows the same format as the core rulebook, with sections labelled, ‘Presenting the Mystery’, ‘Moments’ for various particular scenes, ‘Suspects’ complete with their quotes, ‘Locations’ with a guide on how to ‘Paint the Scene’ at each, ‘Clues’, and ‘Void Clues’, the latter connecting the mystery to the Dark Conspiracy playing out behind the scenes in the town. Also included is a ‘Complexity’ value, which represents the number of elements of the solution that the players and their Mavens need to discuss and hypothesise before they can make the ‘Theorise Move’ without a penalty. Some of the Mysteries do include elements that only come into play once parts of the Dark Conspiracy have been revealed, so the Keeper will need to pick which ones she wants to run and when. Further, some also have special rules, such as that for Brindlewood County Charity Poker Tournament which the Mavens can enter in the first mystery, ‘Dead Man’s Hand’. The mysteries vary in tone. So, ‘Dead Man’s Hand’ takes place at a charity poker tournament, whereas ‘Lies and Dolls, or A Very Brief Tenure’, in which a corpse is discovered at the Museum of Brindle-Dolls, home to a collection of historic, locally-made dolls, and is thus a bit creepy. There is a sequel to ‘The Great Brindlewood Bay Bake-Off’ , with the Mavens again judges, but this time at Faversham’s Favourite Fudge competition at a farmer’s market in a neighbouring town, in the process, expanding the world of Brindlewood Bay, if only a little. The title of the latter, ‘Fudge, Jury, and Executioner’ is in the running for the best named mystery in the book, although ‘The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soulless’ and ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Murder’ are almost as good. There are classic locations for murder mysteries too such as auctions, high school reunions, and carnivals, but also odder ones too, such as at a high school wrestling tournament. One of the most potentially fun is ‘A Throng of Vice and Liars’, set at the Mavens’ own headquarters, The Candlelight Booksellers which is hosting fantasy author, Herb L. L. Paxton, currently facing some criticism about how long it is taking him to finish the sixth volume of what was originally planned to be a trilogy. It very knowingly and amusingly pokes at fandom and fantasy, both onscreen and on the page. Seven of the Mysteries are ‘Sweeps Week Mysteries’. These are designed emulate the type of stunt episodes of a television series in the USA in the eighties and nineties, typically involving a weird plotline or celebrity guest star, intended to attraction higher advertising revenue. In Nephews in Peril, ‘Sweeps Week Mysteries’ are intended to be played late in Dark Conspiracy campaign, as Mysteries after the campaign has been completed, or as one-off Mysteries. ‘Sweeps Week Mysteries’ emphasis the supernatural rather than murder, and to account for this, instead of solving a murder, the Mavens are answering key questions about the mystery. Further, there are limitations on the mechanics, most notably negating the effect of several Maven Moves, removing the Occult Move, and the replacement of the ‘Theorise’ Move with the ‘Answer A Question’ Move. Where in normal murder mysteries, there are Suspects, here there are Side Characters, and where in normal murder mysteries, solving a mystery would be enough, here the Mavens get rewards. These can come in the form of new Moves, recurring Side Characters, decorations for the Cosy Little Place, and so on. The ‘Sweeps Week Mysteries’ start out with the amusingly named ‘The Hex Files’, which finds the Mavens on a road trip to Who Dunnit? Con, a mystery book convention in California when they discover an overturned car in a ditch outside of Devilwood, New Mexico—a New Mexico which looks surprisingly like Vancouver—and it so happens that there are bodies of two dead FBI agents in the vehicle with files about missing persons on the road on their person. ‘Dressed to Kill’ shifts the mystery to the Peak District in the United Kingdom, whilst in ‘Let the Night One In’, the Mavens are invited to visit another famous crime writer, this time living in an isolated town in the Canadian north in deep winter when the sun never rises and people are going missing… There is a good mix of mystery types to these ‘Sweeps Week Mysteries’ and they show off the flexibility of the Brindlewood Bay mystery format, though with some mechanical changes. The third part of Nephews in Peril is devoted to ‘The Village of Brindlewood Bay’. This expands greatly upon the setting presented in the core rulebook that add a mixture of new and old businesses, old and new locations. So, there is Historic Brindlewood Congregational Church, The First Well Historic Restoration Trust, and Minuteman Memorial Statue versus the Foam coffee house and Nerdcore, which caters to nerd culture including players of Sorcery: the Coalescence! Each entry includes a description that explains what it does and its role in the community, details of its proprietors and employees, and with ‘Pose a Question’, a reason why a Maven might visit. The sense of Brindlewood Bay as a place is further developed in the last part of the supplement is ‘A Cozy Little Place’ which gives advice for the Keeper in bringing the town to live and playing up its cosy nature, developing each Maven’s attachment to both her home and community. The aim is to provide a counterpoint to the rash of murders that beset the town and the growing realisation that something else is going on with the Dark Conspiracy. The advice is optional, but if used it can enhance the setting of Brindlewood Bay.Physically, Nephews in Peril is clean and cosy, and thus in keeping with the main rulebook. It is well written and engaging, but the illustrations by Cecilia Ferri are stunning, veering between showing the Mavens joyously having the time of their cosy lives, not just in Brindlewood Bay, but around the world.Although entirely optional, Nephews in Peril: A Collection of New Mysteries in BRINDLEWOOD BAY can be both expand the play of Brindlewood Bay: A Dark & Cozy Mystery Game and continue its play even after the Dark Conspiracy at its heart has been confronted and thwarted and the campaign is over. Nephews in Peril: A Collection of New Mysteries in BRINDLEWOOD BAY simply gives you more. More mysteries and more cosiness and more of Brindlewood Bay itself, but also a slightly different way to way to play which remains faithful to the inspiration for the roleplaying game itself.

Quick-Start Saturday: ShadowSun Revised
Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.—oOo—What is it?ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart is the quick-start for ShadowSun Revised, a dark, post-apocalyptic desert setting which uses ShadowDark as its rules. It is inspired by, and implements, the world of Athas, the setting for Dark Sun, the ‘Swords & Planet’ Conan-meets-John Carter-style campaign for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition, published in 1991. It is one of the few Dungeons & Dragons settings not to have been updated to Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition despite it being a fan favourite. Further, the differences between Athas and traditional fantasy roleplaying, both mechanically and thematically, especially given its inclusion of psionics, has meant that there has been relatively little drive within the Old School Renaissance to recreate Athas or Dark Sun.It consists of two separate books.The ‘Player Quickstart for ShadowSun’ is a seventy-six page, 15.37 MB full black and white PDF. The ‘GM Quickstart for ShadowSun’ is a sixty-two page, 12.81 MB full black and white PDF.How long will it take to play?ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart includes the scenario ‘Colossi’s Rest’. This will take a session or two to complete.What else do you need to play?The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart needs a standard set of polyhedral dice and the ShadowDark rules.Who do you play?The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart does not include any pre-generated Player Characters, but shows off eight Ancestries and eight Classes. The eight Ancestries consist of Dwarf, Elf, Goliath, Hawkfolk, Human, Lizardfolk, Mantisfolk, and Mule. Of these, the Dwarf and Human Ancestries are what you would expect, whereas the Elf Ancestry differs from Dungeons & Dragons (or ShadowDark), and the rest are new. Elves are nomads, moving from one oasis to another, with limited views on property, so they are often mistrusted in the city-states and the worst of them become raiders and bandits. Goliaths are giant humanoids, but not actually Giants, created as a race by the Mage-Kings. They are fascinated by other cultures and adhere to personal aesthetics which influence their outlook. Hawkfolk have wings, and whilst they prefer to live in high places, cannot truly fly, only hover. Lizardfolk hunt the dusk sinks and Black silt seas for food and construct most of the ships sailing the Black. Mantisfolk are semi-nomadic insectoid humanoids who are absolutely loyal to their clutchmates. Mules are the infertile offspring of Humans and Dwarves, often born into slavery and thrown into the arena as pit fighters and gladiators.The eight new Classes are the Enforcer, Explorer, Gladiator, Infiltrator, Mentalist, Shaman, Sorcerer, and Warrior. The Enforcer is trained to subdue and capture others rather than kill them, can cause others to freeze on the spot with a look, can place a subdued opponent in manacles, and has Advantage when questioning a captive for information. The Explorer is a scout with Advantage on navigation and tracking checks, knows how to deal with poison, and oddly, knows how to take advantage of others if he wants to betray them. The Gladiator is good at brawling and cheating at gambling. The Infiltrator can knock a target out with a blackjack, has an ear for conversation, and is skilled at Thievery. The Mentalist has a calming presence, has access to psionic powers, knows the silent language of Vedinal. The Shaman can affect undead, has an elemental affinity which protects him against that element and can temporarily create a handful of it, and specialises in nature spellcasting. The Sorcerer is an arcane spellcaster that when spellcasting check is failed, results in defilement and the loss of Hit Points to either the caster or an ally or a captive, which can kill them. The Sorcerer can easily understand languages and learn spells by studying tablets. Lastly, the Warrior is a skirmisher, spurred on in the first few rounds of combat, knows how to use the environment to his advantage with dirty tricks, and is skilled with throwing weapons.Both the Ancestries and the Classes are clearly inspired by Dark Sun and fans of the classic setting will recognise those inspirations here. One issue clearly implied in the ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart—and thus in ShadowSun Revised itself—is that of slaves and slavery. For example, the Mule is typically born into slavery, the encounter tables include slavers, and both the Enforcer and Gladiator Classes are connected to slavery within the setting. The Enforcer may be capturing them and the the Gladiator may well be a slave. Slavery is a facet of the pulp fantasy and ‘Swords & Planet’ genres that ShadowSun Revised draws from. As an emulation of those genres, it is not unreasonable to include it as part of the setting, but only if handled in a mature fashion. That said, not every player or group is going to want to accept that as part of their campaign.How is a Player Character defined?A Player Character in the ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart—and thus in ShadowSun Revised—is defined as a standard ShadowDark Player Character. However, there are three notable additions. The first two relate to the Ancestries. Each Ancestry has a means to regain Luck tokens and a Refusal. For example, if an Elf spends a week or more alone in the wilderness or a Mule spends a week performing hard labour, each will gain a Luck token. The Refusal reflects an outlook that the Ancestry does not have, such as the Mule’s rejection of metaphysics and any idea of an afterlife or an inability, like the Mantisfolk inability to swim in water, dust, or the Black due to a lack of buoyancy. The third is the fact that every Player Character has a Psionic power, called a Wild Talent, not just the Mentalist Class.In addition, the traditional Alignment of Dungeons & Dragons is replaced by Apathy, Empathy, and Tyranny. As well as being an outlook, these also provide a possible means of gaining Luck tokens.How do the mechanics work?The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart—and thus in ShadowSun Revised—uses the standard d20-based rules of ShadowDark.How does combat work?There are no specific combat mechanics in the ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart.How does magic work?Magic is formed from six Elements. These are Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Life, and Void. A spellcasting check is required to cast a spell. This can be rolled at Advantage or Disadvantage if an element is particularly strong in an area.The arcane magic of the Sorcerer has potentially dangerous side effects. If a spellcasting check is failed, it will result in the loss of Hit Points in the caster, an ally, or a captive, and this loss can kill. A Critical Success allows one of a spell’s numerical effects to be doubled, whilst a Critical Failure means a magical mishap has happened. The caster loses the spell and a roll must be made on the Arcane Mishap table. At worst, this can result in a ‘Defilement Surge’, destroying all nearby plants and killing all nearby small creatures, and doing minor damage to all living creatures and inflicting heatstroke on them. If they are already suffering heatstroke, they die!The nature magic of the Shaman has its own potentially dangerous side effects. However, being nature-based, they are not quite as dangerous.How do Psionics work?All Player Characters have a ‘Wild Talent’. This is a natural, but minor psionic ability. It does not include classic psionic abilities such as telepathy or teleportation or clairvoyance. Instead, a Player Character might be ‘Nimble’ and take half damage from falling and less damage from ranged attacks or have ‘Affinity’ with domesticated animals and all riding beasts are reliable. In a traditional roleplaying sense, these are more akin to advantages, but here they can still be interpreted as psionic abilities.The Mentalist Class is the main user of Psionics, although some powerful NPCs and many creatures and monsters on Althea have them too. Where spells require a spellcasting check to cast them, psionic powers require Psionic Power check to activate a psionic power. The Critical Success and Critical Failure rules apply as normal and there is a Psionic Mishaps table for the latter. The psionic powers are organised into tiers just like the spells for the Sorcerer and the Shaman, but many of the higher tier psionic powers have prerequisites in terms of lower tier psionic powers. For example, Repel is a Tier 2 psionic power that can force opponents away from the user and potentially crush them against walls and other objects. The psionicist cannot learn it until he has mastered the Tier 1 power of Lift, which he uses to lift targets up off the ground and prevents them from moving or making melee attacks.What do you play?In addition to its scenario, ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart provides a lot of information about its world of Althea and the rules for ShadowSun Revised. From the start it makes clear that Althea is grim setting in a harsh world where everyone struggles for food, water, and shelter, and might is right. This is reflected in rations containing food and water being treated separately for purposes of survival, and a lack of water will lead to heatstroke, when every roll is made at Disadvantage, and Hit Point loss, which cannot be healed by magic. Extended deprivation like this will kill a Player Character.The background to the setting explains how the once verdant world of Althea was transformed first by the Shadow Fall of its ancient moon of Sheera, from which the original inhabitants—the Wee Folk—of Althea stole its magic and transformed into many of the Ancestries known today. Second, by the ShadowSun which twisted the magic so that its use would defile the land and the sea, rendering them in deserts and silt. The ShadowSun also melted the metals causing them to flow into the depths, and now metal is rare, with arms and armour and other equipment constructed of wood, bone, and rock. This is reflected in the equipment list.The travel rules account for the harsh nature of Athlea’s terrain and climate. Any distance travelled means that a Player Character will gain points of Exhaustion, the amount varying depending on the harshness of the terrain. Gain too many points of Exhaustion and a Player Character will suffer from deprivation, which again, is potentially lethal.Most of what the Game Master and her players needs to run ShadowSun Revised is in the ‘Player Quickstart for ShadowSun’. The ‘GM Quickstart for ShadowSun’ covers terrain types, hazards, random encounters, dungeon types on Althea, and treasure as well as giving an extensive bestiary. It also includes the scenario, ‘Colossi’s Rest’. This is a dungeon adventure set in the body of a fallen golem that has been dug out by giant ants! The rumour tables will provide motivation and the Game Master might want to expand it little with some wilderness travel to show off the travel and survival rules, but the dungeon itself is very nicely detailed, a good mix of natural and the unnatural, both of which are a little weird.Is there anything missing?No. The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart has everything that a Game Master needs to run the included scenario. Probably more than she needs to run the included scenario.Is it easy to prepare?No. The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart contains a lot of information, and the players will need to create their own characters as well as the Game Master preparing the adventure. Is it worth it?Yes. The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart contains a wealth of information about the setting of Althea and the ShadowSun Revised rules. Arguably too much information in comparison to a traditional quick-start, being a lengthy and surprisingly detailed preview of what will be in the main rulebook rather than a quick-start. This does mean that preparing to run the scenario takes longer since the players actually need to create characters rather than choosing them, but it also means that it provides a very good feel for the world and shows you how its play will differ from that of traditional ShadowDark.The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart is published by Chubby Funster and is available to download here.

Friday Fantasy: Glipkerio’s Gambit
In aspiring to great power and in obtaining the patronage of a great power, perhaps a god, a demon, or a celestial, there is sometimes a cost to be paid, a service to be rendered in return such patronage. So it is that the Three Fates, patron to the wizard in the party, call upon his aid and thus the aid of all in the party. There is no denying that is a great hook. It gets the Player Characters involved immediately because the wizard owes his patron a great deal and he stands to lose much, starting with his reputation and standing with the Three Fates, if he says no. What the Three Fates want him and the rest of the party to do is to recapture their temple, the Temple of Destiny. They can tell the Player Characters that it has been captured by the forces of Chaos, but no more, for something blocks their vision of it. To do so, the Player Characters must ascend Mount Tyche, in particular, the Staircase of Fate, close to the top of the mountain, in order to enter the Temple of Destiny and determine who leads the forces of Chaos in its takeover and defeat them. This is the set-up for Dungeon Crawl Classics #80.5: Glipkerio’s Gambit is a scenario published by Goodman Games for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. It is designed for a party of Second level Player Characters and it can be played through in one or two sessions. What has happened is that the wizard, Glipkerio, emboldened by his dark patron, Obitu-Que, has brashly seized the Temple of Destiny and turned it into his own lair, tapping into the Fates’ wellspring of power to fuel his own magical research. In particular, he has been able to infuse an amulet with enough power to control time and will use that against the Player Characters in what is the best scene in the scenario. However, to get to that scene, the Player Characters have to get through the rest of scenario and the scenes and encounters that make up the rest of the scenario are not bad, they are far from inspiring or exciting. The scenario begins well, with the Three Fates summoning the Player Characters when they return home from a night out and asking for their help. It does not have to be the Three Fates and they could instead be replaced by a Player Character’s own patron, but in this instance, it is the Three Fates and they give the Player Characters a magical artefact, a thread from their spinning wheel to protect the wearer from the forces of Chaos. Once the Player Characters accept the task and are transported near Mount Tyche to bring their ascent. The Player Characters can follow the path that winds round the steeply conical mountain, climb up the side, or fly, but pretty much, after a handful of fights, they get to the top.If the encounters up the mountain underwhelm, the random events do add some colour and many feel a bit more ominous. For example, the phrase ‘Turn back now’ has been chiselled into a rock wall in gigantic letters and the Player Characters can discover the severed head of a Dwarf propped up on a rock which will croak the same phrase again and again, “You-ooo go-ooo noooooow.” The scenario picks up a pace when the Player Characters reach the Staircase of Fate just below the entrance to the Temple of Destiny. There is a fun puzzle here for the Player Characters to crack, though it has the potential undermine the gift that the Fates gave them, and between that and the Temple of Destiny has turned the temple entrance into a Corpse Gate, a gate of undead flesh, all grabbing arms, formed from the corpses of the villagers who lived below the mountain. If the Player Characters get too close, they will be grabbed, but a Cleric’s Turn Unholy ability will release them or do damage, and if a Thief wants to pick the lock, he has to reach into a gaping mouth!The finale sees the Player Character confront the wizard, Glipkerio, not just once but multiple times. This is because he has used his newly infused Chronomantic Amulet to reach back in time and recruit younger versions of himself. Fortunately, these younger versions of himself are not as powerful as he currently is, though there are more of them. The number of duplicates also limits his (or their) spellcasting ability, but the Player Characters will need to kill them multiple times before they stop reappearing, and eventually, they will only be facing one, which transforms into the strange cat-headed, partially furry, one tentacled arm creature depicted on the cover. It is a cinematically fun final boss battle which brings the scenario to an entertaining climax.Unfortunately, an exciting climax does not make up for an otherwise unexciting and underwhelming scenario. There are few opportunities for roleplaying, but worse, the scenario mostly ignores its themes of fate and the Fates with the Three Fates and time travel and manipulation with Glipkerio’s newfound powers. There are elements of both in the scenario, but not enough. Some of this can be explained by a lack of space, the scenario barely running to nine pages in length, but it would have been interesting if the Player Characters had been given the option of exploring three possible Fates somehow and perhaps been flung around in time as well. There is some element of time manipulation in the scenario at the start of the Player Characters’ ascent of the mountain with a strange encounter that foreshadows the scenario’s finale, and whilst a neat set-up, that again could have been  a stronger encounter.Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics #80.5: Glipkerio’s Gambit is as well presented as you would expect for a scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. The writing, the artwork, and the cartography are all excellentDungeon Crawl Classics #80.5: Glipkerio’s Gambit is a serviceable adventure and no more—as written. It feels constrained by its slim page count, so if a Judge wants to take it and develop its themes and create some engaging encounters and events around them, whether that is the Player Characters chasing Glipkerio through time or deciding between their fates, then Dungeon Crawl Classics #80.5: Glipkerio’s Gambit could live up to its ideas and its potential.—oOo—Dungeon Crawl Classics #80: Intrigue at the Court of Chaos was the previous scenario •The next scenario is Dungeon Crawl Classics #81: The One who Watches from Below.

Friday Filler: Lacuna
Lacuna is a very light game that is incredibly fast and easy to learn and quick to play and it also looks good on the table. It is an abstract, highly themed area control game that can be played in ten minutes and set-up again for another go. Published by CYMK, Lacuna is ‘A Cozy Game of Mystical Geometry’ designed for two players, aged eight and over. It stands out for two reasons. The first is the packaging. Lacuna comes as a sturdy tube dotted with flowers in sift pastel shades against a black background. The second is the components. The first of these is the playing surface, a black cloth mat roughly seventy centimetres square, marked with a blank circle in the middle and bordered by different flowers. The second are the game’s wooden tokens, forty-nine flowers divided into seven different shapes and colours. The third are the twelve pawns, six in silver and six in gold, and weighing quite a lot in the hand. The fourth is the tube itself, which serves as a shaker to sprinkle the flowers on the cloth. This is a game that looks good and feels good, but when it is on the table, it is simply pretty. The idea behind Lacuna is that the players are competing to collect the most flowers from a pond by moonlight. The cloth mat represents the pond and the flower tokens the flowers they are collecting. At the start of the game, the mat is laid out flat and the player who will go first takes a flower token of any colour. This is because the second player will have an advantage in placing his tokens when going last because the first player cannot put a token near his. Then the rest of the flower tokens are placed in the game’s tube and sprinkled onto the cloth, adjust as necessary to ensure that they are not all clumped together. Play proceeds in two phases. In the first phase, the flowers captured. To do this, a player draws an imaginary line between two flowers of the same colour. If nothing blocks them, he places one of his metal pawns anywhere on that imaginary line between the two flowers and takes the two flowers. This continues until both players have placed all six of their metal pawns. In the second phase, the players take in turns to collect the remaining flowers. This is determined by the player whose metal pawn is nearest the flowers. If it is unclear whose metal pawn is closer to a flower or group of flowers, the game includes a ruler to determine the exact distance. Once both phases are complete, the players determine who the winner is. If one player has the most of one colour flower, he wins that colour, and the player who wins the most colours, wins the game. Since there are only seven of each colour, a player only has to win four of a colour to win it, and since there are seven colours, a player only has to win four of them to win the game. This all sounds a bit simple, even simplistic, and random. Of course, the distribution of the flowers is random, but whilst the mechanics of the play, that is, the placing of the metal pawns, is simple, their placing is not simplistic. There is some nuance to Lacuna. Not necessarily a great deal, but some. And it boils down to this… Where does a player place his metal pawn on the imaginary line between to flowers of the same colour? At one end or in the middle? It all depends on close the metal pawn can be placed to another group of flowers to claim them in the second phase of play. Too close and whilst the player will claim those flowers, the metal token might to far from other flowers to claim them. Too far, and the player might not be able to claim enough of them or any at all because his opponent has a pawn placed closer. After that, Lacuna is a numbers game. Since there are only seven flowers in a colour set, a player only needs to take four of them to hold the majority and claim the point. Consequently, a player cannot simply place his metal pawns at random if he wants to win. He does need to think about the best, or at least, the optimal places, to put them. Physically, Lacuna is a lovely looking game. It comes in a sturdy tube, the cloth mat is clean and simple, and both the flower tokens and metal pawns are attractive. However, the tube does make the game difficult to store on the shelf along with other board games as much as it does make it stand out. The rulebook is underwritten, not defining quite exactly where the line is drawn between flowers in the game’s first phase. Is it from the middle or any edge? This can matter in play and the players will need to decide on a house rule. The distribution system of using the tube to sprinkle the flower tokens is cute, but there is always the chance that the flower tokens will roll off the table and the players will find themselves on their knees, looking for them on the floor. Unfortunately, Lacuna is a game that will quickly outstay its welcome. Not because it is a bad game. It is not. Rather, it is charming and simple, and easy to teach and play, but it lacks depth. It is relying upon the attractiveness of its components—and they are very pretty—rather than game play to sell itself. At its worst, Lacuna is slightly fiddly and irksome trying to work out if a line is clear or which is the nearest metal pawn. At its best, Lacuna is cozy and calming, a perfect five or ten minutes between longer, deeper games. Its simplicity and attractiveness make it suitable for play with children and family members who do not play board games, but for veteran board gamer, Lacuna will likely live up to its true meaning.

Companion Chronicles #24: The Adventure of the Deluded Knight
Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, The Companions of Arthur is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon. It enables creators to sell their own original content for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition. This can be original scenarios, background material, alternate Arthurian settings, and more, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Pendragon Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Pendragon campaigns.—oOo—What is the Nature of the Quest?The Adventure of the Deluded Knight is a short encounter for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition.It is a full colour, eleven page, 2.16 MB PDF.The layout is tidy, though it does need an edit.Where is the Quest Set?The Adventure of the Deluded Knight is a scenario for Pendragon, Sixth Edition. It takes place in the year 481 CE, during the events of the Uther and Anarchy Periods near Salisbury, but can be set in any year with little difficulty.Who should go on this Quest?Any type Player-knight can go on this quest. The scenario suggests that both both Christian and non-Christian Player-knights be included and that Religious Knights will have an advantage.What does the Quest require?The Adventure of the Deluded Knight requires the Pendragon, Sixth Edition Core Rulebook and the Pendragon: Gamemaster’s Handbook.Where will the Quest take the Knights?In The Adventure of the Deluded Knight, the Player-knights are sent west towards the Forest of Gloom and in the direction of the market town of Warminster. The town has the ancient right to smelt all the bog iron found on Salisbury Plain. This summer’s mule train which left with the bog iron and is expected to return with Salisbury’s share of the smelted iron has not returned and the Player-knights are sent to investigate. The journey is relatively straightforward barring a possible ambush with bandits/deserters in a chalk gorge along the way, before the Player-knights ride up into the Forest of Gloom. Here they discover the members of the mule train cut down, and its leader, Sir Bursules, missing. Wild-eyed, bruised and bloodied when they finally track him down, Sir Bursules is initially pleased to see the Player-knights, as he is about to pass judgement upon a pair of commoners, whom he accuses of being demons and tools of Satan! The likelihood is that Sir Bursules will soon turn on the Player-knights making the same accusations, though unlike the commoners, they have the means to defend themselves.Unfortunately, Sir Bursules is a driven individual, even inspired, having been affected by something of a fiendish nature and there is possibility that whatever is affecting him can also affect the Player-knights. Non-Christian Knights have a slight advantage, but Player-knight upon Player-knight action is a distinct possibility and it is not impossible that all of the Player-knights are affected and momentarily made into NPCs! At which point, the players can switch to playing their squires. The scenario accounts for and explores various different possible outcomes that can result from the Player-knights’ encounter with Sir Bursules, but it is likely to get quite chaotic at the end as the finale descends into a mass of whirling blades and cries of “Demon!”The adventure ultimately forces the Player-knights to confront someone who has fallen prey to deceit and illusion, and potentially themselves, should they also fall prey to it. The scenario lays the groundwork for sequels in which others also fall victim to it as wellShould the Knights ride out on this Quest?The Adventure of the Deluded Knight is as written, a solid scenario that can easily be added to a campaign, no matter in which period the Game Master is setting it. However, as a campaign introduction it is slightly underwhelming, only hinting at some of the things to come.

Miskatonic Monday #437: The Light on the Hill
Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.—oOo—Name: The Light on the HillPublisher: Chaosium, Inc.Author: Geoff BridgesSetting: London, 1928Product: ScenarioWhat You Get: Fifty-four page, 36.42 MB Full Colour PDFElevator Pitch: Missing men lead to pastoral horrorPlot Hook: Ensure that restoration work is completePlot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, seven NPCs, seven handouts, four floor plans and maps, and one Mythos monster.Production Values: ExcellentPros# Home Counties, market town horror# Strong on investigation# Can be adapted to other periods, especially Cthulhu by Gaslight# High production values# Excellent handouts# Ecclesiophobia# Nyctophobia# GephyrophobiaCons# Portraits heavy-handed# ShortConclusion# Short, but well done and well presented parochial peril # Solid investigation and low key horror

Scouting for Scares
The concept of children versus Cthulhu is not new, but it is challenging when it comes to roleplaying, since it has to provide rules for playing children in Call of Cthulhu, a roleplaying game in which the Investigators are adults, and also make adjustments for the lethality of encountering its alien races and cosmic entities—both mentally and physically. Publisher Trepan’s The Haunted Clubhouse: The Little Play House of Horrors made few changes, whilst The Dare from Sentinel Hill Press stripped the rules back with ‘The Call of Kid-thulhu’. Both of those are single scenarios, whereas Golden Goblin Press’ The Eldritch New England Holiday Collection explored the young lives of scions of the Mythos, making adjustments in terms of the amount of Luck that the youthful Investigators can spend and receive and its campaign framework. Campfire Tales: Scouts Against Cthulhu goes even further. Inspired by the likes of The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books, films E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and The Goonies, as well as the more recent Stranger Things and even Scooby Doo, Where Are You? presents rules for creating pre-teen and teenage Investigators, gives them an Investigator organisation, and the Keeper a complete setting and campaign that plays out over the course of several years. As the title suggests in Campfire Tales: Scouts Against Cthulhu, what the supplement for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition from Chaosium, Inc. does is make its Investigators the young members of a Scouting organisation. This gives them the reason to be together and bond together, because over the course of their time as Scouts, they will discover strange things in the ‘Westhaven Campaign’ about their hometown, things that few, if any, adults will believe. Then perhaps as result of their experiences in their formative years, they might become adults who will investigate the Cthulhu Mythos in the traditional sense and go on as adult Investigators looking into the mysteries of such campaigns as Masks of Nyarlathotep or A Time to Harvest. To do that, Campfire Tales and the ‘Westhaven Campaign’ shift the story back a few years from the Jazz Age of classic Call of Cthulhu, to the late 1910s and the end of the Great War. This will add its own tensions to the ‘Westhaven Campaign’ in terms of the relationships between the Scouts—both the junior Investigators and NPCs, and adults in the setting, but it also means that if the Scouts graduate from Campfire Tales, that they can attend college and gain some experience and life skills before diving into the myriad of options in terms of scenarios and campaigns set during the Jazz Age. Essentially, instead of a player describing his Investigator’s backstory, he and his fellow players can roleplay it.Campfire Tales: Scouts Against Cthulhu begins with an origin of the project and a history of the Scouting movement, and also the ‘Wayfarer Scouts’, the fictional organisation that the junior Investigators belong to in the campaign. Notably, the founder’s wife is a supporter of suffrage and thus the organisation allows both boys and girls as members. The Scout-Investigators will all be members of the same patrol and as they age and learn—and also play through the ‘Westhaven Campaign’, they will move through four ranks. These are ‘Wanderer’, ‘Rover’, ‘Ranger’, and ‘Warden’. As a ‘Wanderer’, a Scout-Investigator will be eleven or twelve years old, but by the time he is a ‘Warden’, he will be seventeen or eighteen. As he progresses, each Wayfarer Scout will learn new skills, improve the skills he already has, and earn badges. Badges provide an important benefit during play.To create a Scout-Investigator, a player rolls for characteristics as normal, although Strength, Size, and Education will vary depending upon the Scout-Investigator’s age and rank in the Wayfarer Scouts. Instead of an Occupation, a Scout-Investigator has a Hobby, such as Amateur Sleuth, Farmhand, Junior Photographer, Junior Police Corps, Library Helper, Religious Assistant, or Shop Assistant. Each suggests the obligations that the Scout-Investigator has, lists eight skills, suggests an associated ‘Trusted Adult’, and a badge that the Scout-Investigator can start play with. All Scout-Investigators receive a set number of points to assign to their Hobby. The ‘Trusted Adult’, whether that is petty criminals or local police for the ‘Street Punk’ or a boat owner, fisherman, or navy veteran for the ‘Junior Sailor’, is an adult that at least will listen to what the Scout-Investigator has to say and trusts them, whereas other adults do not trust the Scout-Investigators and will be wary of them. Through events and roleplaying, a ‘Trusted Adult’ relationship can be soured, but it provides each player and his Scout-Investigator an NPC to interact with and the Keeper with an NPC to portray on a regular basis. In addition, the Scout-Investigator has a ‘Fear’ that can make certain situations for him more stressful.Henrietta BrindedAge 11, Hobby: Amateur SleuthFamily Credit Rating: AverageTrusted Adult: Local LibrarianBadges: Wayfarer Scout Badge, Wanderer Badge, Reading BadgeSTR 18 SIZ 36 CON 40 DEX 70APP 75 INT 75 POW 65 EDU 30Cool 65 Luck 80 Damage Bonus -2 Build -2Move 8 HP 5COMBAT SKILLSDodge 35%SKILLSLaw 30%, Library Use 55%, Locksmith 26%, Persuade 35%, Read Lips 26%, Spot Hidden 50%, Stealth 45%, Track 35%LANGUAGESOther Language (French) 11%, Other Language (Latin) 11%, Own Language (English) 30%BACKSTORYPersonal Description: Tall and skinny, sandy haired and freckled.Treasured Possessions: Latin-English Primer, magnifying glassTraits: HonestPhobias: HeightsMechanically, Campfire Tales makes a change to one skill and adds three others. The Credit Rating skill is shifted to reflect the status of the Scout-Investigator’s family rather than the Scout-Investigator himself, since he will likely have a few cents in his pocket. ‘Language (Signals)’ covers Semaphore and Morse Code; is imported from Cthulhu Dark Ages and replaces Psychoanalysis, but is more immediate in its effect; and Ride (Bicycle) is self-explanatory. Campfire Tales otherwise lists all of the skills in Call of Cthulhu, but many are marked as uncommon for Scout-Investigators or as suitable only for adults. Luck can be more readily spent to adjust skill rolls and if a Scout-Investigator gets stuck, the Keeper can ask for a ‘Leap of Logic’ roll, enabling the naïve eleven-year-olds to connect the dots in a televisual or cinematic way.When out camping or hiking, a Scout-Investigator can suffer ‘Adversity’. This comes in the form of five forms—cold, hunger, lost, overburdened, and sore. Campfire Tales details their individual effects, but in addition, the more of them that a Scout-Investigator is suffering, the more penalty dice that a player has to roll for Cool rolls for his Scout-Investigator. However, if a Scout-Investigator overcomes one of the five adversities, it encourages the player to describe what his Scout-Investigator actually does to overcome them.The major addition to Campfire Tales is that of ‘Badges’. All Scout-Investigators start play with the Wayfarer Scout Badge, Wanderer Badge, and an Ability Badge from his Hobby, and will go on to earn Rover, Ranger, and Warden Badges. Each of which will replace the previous rank Badge in terms of the ability it grants. Every badge gives the holder benefits, which will often alter traditional Call of Cthulhu play. The Wayfarer Scout Badge lets a Scout-Investigator spend Luck to help others; the Wanderer Badge enables Scout-Investigator to succeed at one roll once per session; the Rover Badge to refresh the Scout-Investigator’s Luck; and so on. The Ability Badges include Animal Friendship, Crafting, Cycling, Hiking, Knot-Tying, Nature, Orienteering, Public Speaking, Radio, Signals and Codes, Weather, and more. Each of the Ability Badges grants an increase in an associated skill and an extra bonus once per scenario. For example, the Animal Friendship Badge lets a Scout-Investigator understand whatever it is that a dog or cat is trying to tell him; the Camping grants a bonus to the Mechanical Repair skill; and the Weather Badge to correctly forecast the weather. All of these badges bring a strong narrative element to the play of Campfire Tales as well as enforcing the world of Scouting with its culture of self-improvement and self-reliance.In terms of combat, Campfire Tales makes some pleasingly thematic changes that both account for the size of a Scout-Investigator and the Scouting ethos. Unlike traditional Call of Cthulhu, in Campfire Tales the Scout-Investigators can not only work together, but are encouraged to do so to gain the benefits of Assisted Fighting Manoeuvres. These are not set in stone, but dependent upon the situation, the imagination of the players, and the goal they want their Scout-Investigators to achieve. Examples given include entangling an enemy in a bedsheet to give time for the Scout-Investigators to run away or pushing an enemy down the stairs. The rules for handling Assisted Fighting Manoeuvres are slightly complex, relying upon the Scout-Investigators’ Builds to determine if they gain bonus or penalty dice, but they do include a fully worked out example which is helpful. Further most weapons are cumbersome for Scout-Investigators and require a Strength check to wield without a penalty. When hurt, a Scout-Investigator heals faster, ignores Major Wounds, and at zero Hit Points is unconscious, not dead. Unless a Scout-Investigator suffers damage equal to his maximum Hit Points in one go or under certain circumstances, he cannot die. Spending thirty points of Luck will also allow a Scout-Investigator to escape death.The last big change to Campfire Tales is to Sanity. It replaces Sanity with ‘Cool’. A Scout-Investigator’s Cool is equal to his Power and unlike Sanity does not go up or down. Instead of losing Sanity points and going insane if a Cool roll is failed, a Scout-Investigator can suffer one of five involuntary reactions—‘Fawn’, ‘Fight’, ‘Flight’, ‘Flop’, or ‘Freeze’—which the player is free to choose from (though the Keeper can dictate which reaction a Scout-Investigator has), and his player must tick a Distress Box on the Scout-Investigator sheet. These are labelled ‘Stressed’, ‘Jumpy’, and ‘Upset’, but have no mechanical effect, though of course, they should be roleplayed. When all three are ticked, the Scout-Investigator is ‘Distressed’ and possibly subject to ‘Delusions’ as per standard Call of Cthulhu. A Scout-Investigator’s Fear will make a Cool roll harder. Ticks can be removed from Distress Boxes with a night of rest at home, a good night’s camping round the fire, or at the end of a scenario.The setting for ‘Westhaven Campaign’ is Westhaven, a quiet town some forty miles west of Arkham, Massachusetts, near the border with New Hampshire. So, on the edge of Lovecraft Country. The notable locations, including the scout hut, and NPCs, including any ‘Trusted Adults’, are all detailed, as is the ‘Sons of Seth’, a branch of a secretive cult with Egyptian origins that governs the town. Also detailed are the members of a second, rival Wayfarer Scout squad in the town, a very helpful Hobo, Boxcar Jim, and there are also options for shifting the campaign to the relative metropolis of Arkham and the heart of Lovecraft Country.The ‘Westhaven Campaign’ is divided into four parts, one for each Wayfarer Scout Rank and thus two years apart. All four scenarios include ‘Leads’—obscure and obvious clues—at the end of particular key sections to help the Keeper each run one. They start with ‘Tremors Below’, which is for Wanderer scouts. The Scout-Investigators are taking regular hikes to work towards their Hiking Badge in the nearby Orth-Beane Forest Preserve when the fog sets in and suddenly, Don Blackwell, the assistant scout leader in charge of the hike, is grabbed from below and pulled under the earth, leaving his scout hat behind. Lost out in the woods, the Scout-Investigators must find their way back to Westhaven, perhaps plagued by bad dreams and fears of what exactly it was that attacked Don Blackwell, but a friendly and desperate dog leads the Scout-Investigators to what is both a bloody discovery and a potential source of solutions. The scenario culminates in a chase back to town, the Scout-Investigators harried by the thing from below.Two years later and the Scout-Investigators are Rover Scouts when one of their number’s curiosities are aroused by the arrival of a large car from which two men in dark suits deliver a wooden crate to the home of Colonel Grimm, local celebrity author and semi-retired explorer, and they seemed to be talking to the crate. The scenario plays better if one of the Scout-Investigators is related to Colonel Grimm since it makes it easier for him to gain access to his house and strengthens the reason why the Scout-Investigators want to, and otherwise, the Scout-Investigators will have to break in, which may not be in keeping with the Scouting code of conduct. The Scout-Investigators do have a potentially sympathetic ally in the house in the form of Colonel Grimm’s housekeeper, but they also have to get into Colonel Grimm’s study where the crate is kept. Get past the possible issues with the set-up and the scenario has some nasty secrets to unleash within the house, which the Scout-Investigators will need to battle to defeat. As Ranger Scouts, the Scout-Investigators can discover the ‘Treasure of the Secret Way’ after Boxcar Jim gives them a map to an old mine marked with the word, ‘gold’. Worse, after some research, the Scout-Investigators learn that it is also haunted. This is an exploration scenario, as much like a dungeon as a children's adventure film from the eighties, one filled with secrets, some mundane, some connected to the Mythos and the history of nearby Westhaven.More secrets of Westhaven are revealed in the fourth and final part of the campaign, ‘Shadow Over Westhaven’. This is a two-part scenario and will take longer to complete than the previous three scenarios. In the first part, ‘Lakeside Horror’, now Warden Scouts, the Scout-Investigators as well as the Scouts from the other patrol are invited on a three-day camping trip to New Hampshire’s Green Mountains, and everything seems to be going well when two Scouts go missing from their tent. This combined with the odd behaviour of the brother and sister hosts and strange discoveries made in the woods, puts everyone on edge, with good reason as the trip comes to a brutally nasty conclusion. If the first part sees the Scout-Investigators acting directly against adults in the form of the sinisterly bucolic brother and sister, the second part escalates this as they act against many of the adults in Westhaven. In ‘Hands of Winter’, when they return to town, the Scout-Investigators find it in an icy grip—figuratively and literally—as fires are banned, the temperatures drop, and many of the townsfolk are driven to construct a series of wooden towers, whilst the rest cower in fear. The Scout-Investigators’ inquiries point to the home of the brother and sister hosts of their ghastly camping trip and potentially one of the creepiest scenes in the campaign. The scenario ends with a traditional summoning ceremony which requires careful staging by the Keeper. However, one advantage that the Scout-Investigators have is that they can ‘Be Prepared’ and have to hand many of the items and artefacts that they gathered in the previous three scenarios. The scenario includes notes on how each of them can be used in the finale to give them all manner of boons. The scenario does suggest what happens if the Scout-Investigators fail (and if they do fail, it could set up a more traditional Call of Cthulhu campaign with the town under the sway of an evil cult), as well as what happens if they succeed. A nice touch is that if they do succeed, the Scout-Investigators earn the respect of the adults in Westhaven.Rounding out Campfire Tales is a set of four appendices. These provide extra scenario seeds, a glossary of Scouting terms, a list of spells in the campaign (including three new ones), and a quick reference guide for the campaign’s new rules. These are all useful.In addition to the fact that it is designed to be played with teenage Scouts, the ‘Westhaven Campaign’ is not a traditional campaign for Call of Cthulhu. Its story is more physical than mental and what holds it together is not the Sons of Seth as a threat, but the presence of the Scout-Investigators and what they experience in and around the town. Indeed, the Sons of Seth as an organisation does not play a role in the campaign, though several of its members do. Where in a traditional campaign for Call of Cthulhuu, the Investigators would be directly making enquiries into the cult, here the Scout-Investigators are never given the opportunity and it is not part of the campaign as a whole. Consequently, the ‘Westhaven Campaign’ is more a series of adventures with some occurring adversaries, than a campaign with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The Mythos is also non-traditional until the very end. The ‘Westhaven Campaign’ is relatively straightforward and the experienced Keeper could run it without reference to the Call of Cthulhu Keeper Rulebook (though the Keeper may want to refer to the Chase rules for the first scenario). However, Campfire Tales is not a standalone book. It just could have been. One thing it is missing is advice for the Keeper on writing and creating more for the genre. So, Campfire Tales is a campaign with a very specific set-up rather than a supplement. Had it had that advice it might better have lived up to its tagline.Physically, Campfire Tales: Scouts Against Cthulhu is well presented. In particular, the artwork is some of the best of any supplement for modern Call of Cthulhu. It is directly inspired by the work of Norman Rockwell—and this is intentional. Rockwell painted scenes of Americana and pastoralism and had a strong association with the Boy Scouts of America, illustrating covers for the organisation’s publications and calendars. So, it is fitting that his style is adhered to here.Campfire Tales: Scouts Against Cthulhu is the most radical campaign and supplement for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition since Regency Cthulhu: Dark Designs in Jane Austen’s England. The latter forced the players and their Investigators to think about their social status and their reputation in investigating the Cthulhu Mythos, but Campfire Tales forces the players to think about investigating the Mythos from a very different position where the players cannot bring the force of the adult world to bear and must see things from a child’s perspective. It counters this with the narrative elements such as the effect of the Badges and the Assisted Fighting Manoeuvres that also reinforce the Wayfarer Scouts set-up and the Investigators as Scout-Investigators. Campfire Tales: Scouts Against Cthulhu presents and supports a great set-up and a different way in which to play Call of Cthulhu, and does so with some entertaining scenarios rather than a campaign in the traditional sense.

The Other OSR: Down Among the Dead
Down Among the Dead describes itself as ‘A Terrible Expansion’ for Pirate Borg, the ‘Worst Pirate RPG Ever Made’. In the case of the latter claim, Pirate Borg is actually highly accessible, especially in the form of the Pirate Borg Starter Set, an Old School Renaissance-style roleplaying game is set in the Dark Caribbean, a sea of tropical islands marked with European towns and fortresses and ruins of civilisations long gone, of shipwrecks with rich cargoes and even richer treasures, and of the Scourge. The Scourge made the dead walk once again, ghosts return to haunt the living, and monsters lurk ready to smash the foothold that the Europeans have established in the region. The governors and the viceroys, representatives of kings and queens, have forced to adapt and rule with no contact from home following the Scourge and even take advantage of the situation, especially since the discovery of the abilities and addictive nature of ASH, the ash of the burned and ground undead. Some seek to make money from the trade in ASH and some seek to control it, whilst others seek to repress it. This is another cause of the conflict in the Dark Caribbean. Pirate Borg casts the players as members of a crew who will sail the ASH-tinged waters the Dark Caribbean, raiding and smuggling, carousing and drinking, adventuring, and exploring. In the case of the former, Down Among the Dead is the first official supplement for the roleplaying game, providing four adventures, three new Classes, skills, motivations, even house rules, and a lot more.Down Among the Dead is published by Limithron via Free League Publishing following a successful Kickstarter campaign. It contains three new Classes, new skills, adds motivations for Player Characters, four sets of tables for generating different aspects of the setting and game, and three lengthy adventures, all of which can be added to an ongoing campaign. The first new Class is ‘The Antiquarian’, which is essentially Indiana Jones (or other swashbuckling archaeologist of your choice) for the Age of Sail, complete with a phobia, a holy grail—perhaps discovering lost temples or ruins and ancient treasures or the origins and dark secrets behind the creation of ASH, and an ’Expertise’ such as ‘Theology/Arcana’, ‘Athletics’, or ‘Occultism’. The ‘Deep One’ brings a Lovecraftian touch to Pirate Borg, its origins such as ‘Hybrid’, ‘Bathyal’, and ‘Abyssal’—the type and depth of water it comes from—determining starting stats, and its options include either ‘Shaman’ or ‘Warrior’. The former learns Pelagic Sorcery Spells, whilst the latter is armed with a cultural weapon like a coral and seashell long knife or a piece of driftwood with stingray spikes and learns combat techniques. Lastly, the ‘Unlocked Soul’ is resurrected spirit who has returned to the surface after dying and being cast into Davy Jones’ Locker. This Class is living on borrowed time as there is a increasing chance that Charon will reclaim his soul, but in the meantime, he can regenerate wounds and regrow limbs, ask questions of the dead, become like transparent water, and more, though his skeleton might itch from within because it is made of coral or his head might be able to spin right round and he cannot see a particular colour.All three Classes are good, bringing fun archetypes into Pirate Borg. All three can be played as written, but the ‘Unlocked Soul’ is best used for an NPC or for Player Characters who have also escaped Davy Jones’ Locker—perhaps after playing through ‘Lost to the Locker’ later in the book—and wanting to multi-class upon returning to the surface.One possible negative aspect of Pirate Borg is the limited number of Class features that a Player Character can have. A Player Character gains one per Level, so typically by Fifth or Sixth Levels, there are no more abilities to choose from. ‘d66 Skills for the Seasoned Sea Rover’ remedies that with a list of alternative skills that a player can select from instead of taking a Class feature, and not once, but twice for each skill. For example, with ‘Gunsmith’, a Player Character can repair black powder weapons, lower their chances of misfires, and improve their accuracy and damage inflicted, and if taken a second time, improve their accuracy and damage inflicted again. With ‘ASH Apothecary’, a Player Character can cook ASH down to a potent crystallised form that when consumed has a greater effect, but also sells for triple the price, and if taken again, these effects are doubled! From ‘Deadshot’, ‘Barrelman’s Eyes’, and ‘Font of Chaos’ to ‘Salvage Diver’, ‘Agile Amputee’, and ‘Siren’s Tongue’, this is an entertaining selection and there are a lot here that a player will want to choose from rather than one of his character’s Class Feature. There is the option to roll randomly, but the Game Master could also use these skills as rewards during play or simply allow Player Characters to have both these skills and their Class Features to make them more capable and heroic.The ‘Motivations During the Apocalypse’ can be used for both the Player Characters or NPCs, whilst ‘House Rules’ gives options for the Game Master in terms of design notes, examples, and tips. These range from rerolling initiative each day and adding Armour Class to the game when one Player Character fights another (instead of rolling to defend) to having damage dice explode and playing Pirate Borg in either Nightmare or Heroic modes! Many of these address issues that a Game Master might have with the roleplaying game and some of them push Pirate Borg away from the Mörk Borg model and closer to a Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying game. All though are options that enable a group to play the roleplaying game in the style it prefers. The other general support for Pirate Borg includes four sets of tables for generating elements of the Dark Caribbean setting, including a ‘Jolly Roger Flag Generator’, ‘Dark Caribbean Island Generator’, ‘Coral Reef Generator’, and ‘Coin Generator’. ‘Dark Caribbean Island Generator’ and ‘Coral Reef Generator’ both come with examples, but all four are useful adding further details to the Game Master’s Dark Caribbean campaign.The first of the four scenarios in Down Among the Dead is ‘Anchor Drop Falls’. It is a short, two-page location detailing a set of caves behind a five hundred foot high waterfall where pirates and/or conquistadors are said to have buried their treasure, Deep Ones have made a home, and then been driven out by a hungry, giant crab. It is a plain and simple affair, with the location descriptions placed around the map, that is very easy to run from the page and just as easy to slot into a campaign. ‘Anchor Drop Falls’ can be played in a single session, whereas the other three scenarios are much longer and much more detailed.‘Lost to the Locker’ is a seabed, sandcrawl in which the Player Characters awaken to find themselves dead in a purgatory of small islands and shipwrecks, and will very likely do so again should they die again. The aim is for the Player Characters to escape back to the realms of the living, requiring a vessel and an exit, as well as several coins called ‘Obols’. Finding all of these forms the focus of the scenario. Once they freed themselves from the floating rocks they have been chained to, the Player Characters will be ferried by Charon to the liminal space of ‘The Locker’. Overseen by Lady Oblivion—ethereal, watery Egyptian priestess or Reef Ghoul?—this region consists of just eight locations, including the pirate-town-like Port Oblivion with its wrecks and boulders home to Lost Souls like the Player Characters; the Pellucid Palace of volcanic glass where Lady Oblivion holds court; and the Inverted Galleon, capsized and chained to the seabed. Every location details vessels that might be repaired or stolen, how Obols might be gained, as well as numerous NPCs, random encounters, and more. There is a lot of detail to this concentrated sandbox and a lot of elements that the Game Master can bring into play. It is fantastically liminal place with plenty for the players and their characters to do and plenty of random elements that Game Master can use to enhance the undersea unreality. ‘Lost to the Locker’ can be used as written, following a ‘Total Party Kill’, but it could also be used as a non-standard campaign starter.The second scenario veers towards the fantasy horror of Robert E. Howard, rather than the Lovecraftian horror of ‘The Deep One’ Class, with its use of Serpent Men as the villains of the piece. ‘Venom in the Veins’ details an ancient shrine to the Slithering One, rumoured to be the last known location of a missing conquistador, to hold ancient knowledge, to be target of French spies and revolutionaries, to be source of a deadly venom, and so on. Overseen by a once-human shaman corrupted by necromancy and his undead serpentfolk guardians, this is snake-infested, trap ridden, but nicely detailed dungeon that requires some set-up to get the Player Characters to explore its depths. There is plenty of treasure to be found and no little forbidden knowledge, but lingering over that has its own consequences. Particular attention is paid to the traps and puzzles, which makes running it easier. ‘Venom in the Veins’ would be a perfect adventure for the Antiquarian Class given at the start of the supplement.‘Into The Maelstrom’, the third scenario in the supplement requires more experienced Player Characters and takes a classic Gothic set-up and gives it a piratical, nautical twist. Instead of a haunted house, the setting is a haunted galleon, The Maelstrom, a galleon with blood-red sails of flesh that is home to  Albrecht the Tideborn, a Deep One vampire, and his vampiric crew. The Player Characters are hired to sneak aboard and rescue an important VIP that Albrecht the Tideborn is holding prisoner and also to slaughter as many of the vampires as they can. However, that is not the only reason the Player Characters to want to board The Maelstrom. They will each have their reasons. All of this is set up ahead of time, using a deck of ordinary playing cards and the rules for ‘Three-Eyed Parrot’, a game provided prior to the scenario. This includes the identity and location of the VIP being held prisoner, the identity of the Player Characters’ Patron, the location of a powerful ritual, the location of an artefact, and so on. The cards are then divided into their suits and then used as decks to determine random prisoners, mundane items, treasure, and encounters. The scenario is played against the clock and there is a strong chance that prisoners will be sacrificed before the Player Characters rescue them—the scenario even suggests that the Game Master tear up the card for a particular NPC if the Player Characters fail to save him!The main feature of the scenario is The Maelstrom, but also detailed are ‘The Dead islands’, the former Virgin Islands in the Lesser Antilles, infested by ASH addicts, cannibalistic pirates, and the undead, its coats marked by numerous derelict ships and wrecks waiting to be picked over. Several locations are detailed on the island, including Charlotte’s Cove, the main settlement now overrun with vampires, the swamp encroached Ruins of Whitby Abbey, Sanctum of the Feathered Tree—home to an orangutan sorcerer, and other locations. This gives the setting longevity beyond the scenario itself, and there are notes too, if the Game Master wants to run it as a one-shot, short campaign, or a long campaign, and even includes tournament mode and scoring! As such, ‘Into The Maelstrom’ is a tool kit that the Game Master needs to adjust fit her players and for full effect is best run over multiple sessions. This brings all of the brine and rot of the sea to the Gothic and the doomed romance and horror of the Gothic to the Dark Caribbean. When their characters  have enough experience to play it through, ‘Into The Maelstrom’ should be a grand, memorable scenario for the players.Physically, Down Among the Dead is very well laid out, and the artwork and cartography are excellent. Everything is very easy to use.Down Among the Dead has everything a Pirate Borg Game Master would want. Three good scenarios, two of which have really memorable locations, content that the Game Master will still come back to, and options that the Game Master and her players can pick and chose from to make Pirate Borg theirs.

Solitaire: Be Like a Cat
There is a world out there for every cat to explore—gardens to laze in, rooftops to laze on, trees to climb, sheds to investigate, fences to scamper along, other cats to scowl and yowl at, humans to run away from and humans to properly socialise, and all in territories to mark and make that cat’s own. Be Like A Cat: a solo/two-player roleplaying game offers the opportunity for a player to explore that world from cat’s own eye level and tell the story of that exploration in a journal. By default, that story will be one set across the urban world that we are all familiar with, but options included in Be Like A Cat can take the player and his cat into other genres, including a dystopian future, ancient Egypt, the far future aboard a space station, and  even aboard a pirate ship! If this sounds familiar, then it is because it follows the format of Be Like a Crow: A Solo RPG, in which the player takes the role and tells the story of a Corvidae—crow, magpie, jackdaw, or rook—over multiple landscapes and differing genres. Indeed, Be Like A Cat is by the same author and from the same publisher, Critical Kit Ltd. Where Be Like a Crow requires a deck of ordinary playing cards to play, Be Like A Cat requires a handful of dice.Be Like A Cat: a solo/two-player roleplaying game casts the player as either a Feral, Stray, or Domestic Kitten. The Kitten will explore a world mapped out on a Territory Tracker, adding rivers, parks, houses, trees, shops, businesses, restaurants, churches, street markets, and more, encountering all manner of creatures, including other cats, dogs, pigeons, rats, humans—old and young, and goats and llamas! Some of these encounters will be resolved with a fight, but not all of them, and as the Kitten moves from one type of territory to another, it can mark it as their own, hopefully permanently. As a Kitten explores, it will age, first into a Young Adult, and into a Mature Adult and a Senior. It will improve many of its skills when it does so at these stages of its life. The play of the game continues until a scenario’s goals have been fulfilled, all of the Territory Tracker for a scenario has been mapped out, the Kitten has reached the age of a Senior, or when it has run out of Lives.A Kitten—and thus a cat of any age—is defined by sixteen skills, grouped into four categories. The skills are rated between one and six. The Kitten will have a Background— Feral, Stray, or Domestic—which will determine its appearance, behaviour, starting location, and bonus and weakness. For example, a Feral Kitten takes good care of itself; is unsociable and prefers to retreat or aggression; has a starting location of woodlands, countryside, a farm, or park; as a Bonus, rolls Prowl and Hunt skill checks with courage; and as a Weakness, rolls Cute and Signal skill checks with timidity. Of course, a Kitten has nine lives, each of which is lost when a Kitten loses all of his Health. Hercule Lifecycle Stage: Kitten Background: Domestic Starting Location: Back Garden Bonus: All Social skill checks Weakness: Balance and Jump skill checks Health: 5 Lives: Nine SKILLS Survival: Prowl 1, Hunt 1, Mark 3, Preen 1 Social: Cute 3, Scare 1, Play 2, Signal 2 Travel: Jump 1, Climb 3, Balance 1, Land 1 Combat: Claw 1, Bite 1, Pounce 1, Evade 1 Mechanically, Be Like A Cat is a dice pool system. When a player wants his Kitten to undertake an action, he rolls the dice for the appropriate skill. Results of four and five count as one Success, whilst six counts as two. Rolls of one count as minuses and reduce the number of Successes rolled and if the total number Successes is negative, the Kitten loses Health. One or two Successes counts as a successful action, whilst three or more Successes is an outstanding outcome and the next roll is made with Courage. If the roll is made with Courage, a player can reroll any die that did result in a one, whilst rolls with Timidity means that results of four do not count. Combat use the Claw, Bite, Pounce, and Evade skills. Claw and Bite are used to attack and inflict damage, whilst Evade is used to avoid attacks. Pounce is rolled to pin the defender down and if this can be done for three rounds, the defender will yield and if the defender holds territory, it also gives this up to the attacker. Social encounters are set up using the reaction table and the encounter verbs in the ‘Urban Cat’ scenario. In addition, a Young Adult and Mature Adult suffer a ‘FRAP’ or ‘Frenetic Random Activity Period’ or a ‘zoomie’. It occurs when two sixes are rolled for any action, and then the Cat rushes off in random direction.The structure of Be Like A Cat consists of four phases. These are to move or stay, check for and resolve any encounters and any events, and then potentially take control of the location. The roleplaying game includes a cheat sheet and each scenario includes tables for locations, encounters, ‘Yes, and…’, and genre appropriate tables. The ‘Yes, and…’ table gives events that help the player add depth and detail. The genre scenarios also add objectives. For example, for ‘Brave Mew World’, the Kitten is uploaded to a corporate mainframe and sent to locate and copy eight databases, equipped with augmentations that can be salvaged from opponents the Kitten defeats, whilst the Kitten is searching for scrolls under the temple of Rameses II in ‘The Book of Bastet’, from which it can gain Boons, ultimately leading to a showdown with Bastet’s sworn enemy. In addition, Be Like A Cat includes options for two players instead of one. These include taking it turns to control the actions of the Kitten; competitively, with each player controlling a different Kitten; and finally with a Game Master. The competitive option shifts Be Like A Cat towards being more like a board game, with the players competing for territory, whilst the option with the Game Master makes Be Like A Cat more of a traditional roleplaying game. Physically, Be Like A Cat: a solo/two-player roleplaying game is a clean little book with some decent artwork. It is an easy read. Be Like A Cat: a solo/two-player roleplaying game enables a player to explore the world (and other worlds) from a cat’s eye view. Some worlds are more fantastical than others, but the point of view has its own magic, that of an animal whose life we as owners and passersby we only see parts of. Be Like A Cat: a solo/two-player roleplaying game lets us imagine all of that world and in some cases, more. Be Like A Cat: a solo/two-player roleplaying game is perfect for the cat lover who roleplays and for the cat lover who wants to try something a little different.

Friday Fantasy: Eye of the Serpent
Eye of the Serpent is a scenario for Shadow of the Weird Wizard, the roleplaying game set on the world of Erth in the Borderlands between the remnants of once great empires and the realm of the Weird Wizard greatly changed by his magics. The unexplained disappearance of the Weird Wizard allowed all manner of creatures and strangeness to flood into the empires and kingdoms causing strife and civil war, as refugees fled into the borderlands and adventurers ventured into the Weird Wizard’s lands into explore its strangeness, hopefully stop any dangerous threats, and perhaps return with treasures both magical and mundane. Player Characters progress from Level One to Level Ten, their progress divided between three Paths—Novice, Expert, and Master, gaining greater ability, skill, and specialisation. A Novice Path begins at Level One, an Expert path at Level Three, and a Master Path at Level Seven. Adventures for Shadow of the Weird Wizard are tailored to these three Paths. Eye of the Serpent is designed for Expert Heroes and can be run as a scenario for slightly more experienced Player Characters for Shadow of the Weird Wizard. It confronts the players and their Heroes with one of the big changes in Shadow of the Weird Wizard in comparison with traditional fantasy roleplaying games.Eye of the Serpent shifts the action of the previous two scenarios—One Bad Apple and Friends in Need—from a rural location to an urban one. The Sage can set the scenario in the city of her choosing, but the city of Westport is suggested as being suitable. Of late, the members of minor and formerly benign cult, the Followers of the Silver Road, have been making a nuisance of themselves, including engaging in odd pleasures, buying up rare and expensive crystals, recruiting the young, wealthy, and influential, and daubing their mark all over the city. Whether because of the lure of treasure that the city’s temple must surely hold, to rescue a recent recruit at the behest of his family, or a local constable wants to know what is inside, but lacks the authority, the Player Characters are hired to break into the temple. The Player Characters are free to investigate the cult and ask questions about it round the city and even visit the temple during the day. The action, then, will take place at night. The Player Characters will have to sneak in at some point and explore the grounds of the temple and its buildings. These are far from extensive and similarly, neither are the warrens beneath temple. The cultists are not a danger to the Player Characters, except in numbers, whereas the cult leaders are definitely a danger. As with other scenarios for Shadow of the Weird Wizard, the Sage will need to supply the stats from the core books. Once the Player Characters have found the entrance to warrens and climbed down, it will quickly become obvious what type of threat they face. They do represent quite a challenge to the Player Characters as they are likely to encounter quite a few of them in the warrens and a stand up fight is likely. There are some magical traps too, but the Player Characters will be decently rewarded if successful.With multiple possible motivations, the ending of Eye of the Serpent can play out in different ways. The Player Characters might find themselves being hunted as thieves for breaking into the temple and stealing valuables; praised for rescuing a child; or hunted by the cultists still alive. The scenario includes a few notes which cover these possibilities, though the Sage will need to develop some of these possible plot threads.Physically, Eye of the Serpent is decently presented. The map of the temple in particular is done in vibrant colours and with the pagoda at its heart, it has a slightly exotic feel that shifts to unworldly once the Player Characters enter the warren below.Eye of the Serpent is short and sharp and direct. It can be prepared with ease and run within a single session. Its handful of motivations give different ways of involving the Player Characters whilst the possible different consequences, which do need to be worked into a campaign, are a surprising consideration. Otherwise, solidly serviceable.

Rolling for Ravenloft
Dice. Dice are so integral to the roleplaying game hobby that everyone has their own set. Probably more than one set. Whether they are the very first set that the roleplayer had when he started playing, the set that he pulls out from the many in his dice bag or his All Rolled Up, or a set that is specific to the roleplaying game he is currently playing—either because the roleplaying game in question requires its own special dice set or the dice are aesthetically designed to match the game—dice are a fundamental part of a roleplayer’s kit. Some roleplayers have traditions about their dice. They pick a dice set for each game, they do not like other players touching or rolling their dice, they will punish dice that roll badly by placing them in a ‘dice gaol’, they dump a set entirely because of the bad rolls, and they collect dice. They will peruse dice sellers looking for the perfect set or the most pleasing set, but that is not the only way in which roleplayers collect dice sets. They buy dice in blind packs, each containing a complete dice set, but which the roleplayer has no idea what the set will look like. This is much like a traditional trading card game with its booster packs. The difference is that instead of opening booster packs in search of better cards to enhance and improve the game play of the trading card game, dice blind packs are opened in search of finding prettier, rarer dice sets and in the hope that all of the sets can be collected. This is how the Castle Ravenloft Treasure Dice Packs work. Castle Ravenloft Treasure Dice Packs are official, licensed Dungeons & Dragons dice, manufactured by Sirius Dice, and themed around the Ravenloft campaign setting inspired by Gothic horror and its supernatural monsters—vampires, werewolves, mummies, and more, but most obviously by Count von Zarovich, the Darklord of Barovia, who originally appeared in I6 Ravenloft. So, what do you get in a Castle Ravenloft Treasure Dice Pack? Rip open the pack and inside you will find an embroidered dice bag containing a full polyhedral dice set and a collectible metal ability coin. The complete set consists of fifty-five unique dice sets, thirty-one ability coins, and seven dice bags. The latter come in seven, different designs that in turn depict the famous Dungeons & Dragons ampersand, a raven on a skull, the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind (sacred to the Good-aligned Barovians), bats flying against the backdrop of the Moon, and more. Each is roughly four-by-three-and-a-half inches and done in soft material, with a strong draw tie that has Dungeons & Dragons embroidered on it and enough room to comfortably hold the ability coin and the dice set. The dice bags are not big, but will hold two dice sets. The ability coins are double-sided and depict a variety of images. They can also be round, square, or octagonal; bronze, gold, or silver. So, one might depict a ‘Werewolf’ on one side and the werewolf undergoing the ‘Shapeshift’ on the other side; a young or an aged Rudolph Von Richten on one side and ‘Monster Hunter’ with a stake on the other; ‘Dragon Flight’ and a Dragonborn on one side and the Dungeons & Dragons ampersand on the other; and others. The rarest is a replica of the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind and a colour coin depicting Count von Zarovich himself. The coins themselves grant no in game bonus, but they can be used to indicate whether a Player Character has Inspiration, is suffering a particular condition, has activated an ability, and so on. The dice vary in look and feel, but are all standard polyhedral dice with an extra ten-sided die to use as the ‘tens’ die for percentile rolls. Some of the sets are standard sets in solid colours or clear gem style, whilst others moulded as if made from stone or brickwork. The latter style is not inked, so although they have a different tactile feel to them, they are not as easy to read. The rarity of the dice runs from common and uncommon through rare to super rare and legendary. The rarer dice have their top values marked with a symbol and there is also the legendary Ravenloft metal dice set. The Castle Ravenloft Treasure Dice Packs do not include any indication as to the rarity of the contents and complete range. The Castle Ravenloft Treasure Dice Packs are nice. The embroidered dice bags are fetching and well made, the ability coins solid as you would expect, and the dice ranging from good to decent. Not all of the dice are as easy to read as they could be, but they all roll well, and it will come down to whether or not the look and feel of the dice is something that you find attractive. Ultimately, it is a matter of taste.It is also a matter of age. Whilst many gamers and roleplayers of a certain age will be familiar with the pulling of cards from booster packs for trading card games like Magic: The Gathering, they will be less familiar with blind dice packs. They are more used to buying their dice—when they need to—off the shelf. In fact, the idea of blind dice packs, feels weird. Yet not to younger players, so there is a market for the blind dice pack, such as the Castle Ravenloft Treasure Dice Packs. As an older gamer, it is easy to dismiss these as for the youth, but given that as a roleplayer you are always imagining yourself being someone else, it is not difficult to imagine the roles reversed. As seeing the dice packs as perfectly normal and the attitude of older gamers being small-minded. Further, it feels appropriate for a dice and accessory range inspired by a Gothic horror setting for Dungeons & Dragons to have a sense of mystery and the unknown like the one imparted by the blind nature of these dice packs. Opening Castle Ravenloft Treasure Dice Packs is actually more fun than you might think and you might get lucky.—oOo— A video of opening Castle Ravenloft Treasure Dice Packs can be found here.