Miskatonic Monday #359: The Kangaroo Route

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.

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Name: The Kangaroo Route

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Royce Wilson

Setting: 1930s United Kingdom to Australia, and points between

Product: Sourcebook
What You Get: Fifty-Seven page, 42.81 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “It Pays To Fly British” – Quantas Empire Airways

Plot Hook: London to Sydney in eleven days and see the Empire!

Plot Support: Aviation and travel history, a fully detail aeroplane, seventeen adventure hooks, seventeen NPCs, three handouts, three maps, and more.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Detailed journey descriptions—there and back again!

# Potential campaign structure

# Visits places rarely touched upon by Lovecraftian investigative horror

# Interesting passengers

# Cocktail recipes!

# Aerophobia

# Hodophobia

# Thalassophobia

Cons

# Limited in time frame and geography
# Lots of story hooks, but all need developing

# Not a Mythos sourcebook per se...

Conclusion

# Richly detailed journey description for the rich only!

# Brings verisimilitude to a long voyage

[Free RPG Day 2025] GAS-N-GUNS-A-GOGO

Now in its eighteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2025 took place on Saturday, June 21st. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

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Perhaps the oddest release for Free RPG Day 2025 is GAS-N-GUNS-A-GOGO, which describes itself as “a zero-prep introduction to roleplaying with cars and guns”. It is published by 9th Level Games, best known for Kobolds Ate My Baby! and more recently, the controversial Rebel Scum roleplaying game. GAS-N-GUNS-A-GOGO is odd because it is written for the Thunder Road: Vendetta RPG and because it comes in a notepad format. Even the Thunder Road: Vendetta RPG is odd because it is based on the Thunder Road: Vendetta board game, the restored version of Thunder Road from 1986, originally published by Milton Bradley, but now published by Restoration Games. The setting for all three of these—Thunder Road, Thunder Road: Vendetta, and Thunder Road: Vendetta RPG—is a post-apocalyptic world in which freeway warriors race and duke it out on what remains of the highways. Effectively, what the board game and the roleplaying game are, are adaptations, unlicensed, of Mad Max, Mad Max 2, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

Open up GAS-N-GUNS-A-GOGO and it quickly tells the reader, that as the MC, that he is going to be running a game for the next thirty minutes and explains what the various symbols mean in terms of reading thing out to the players, reading for himself, which describe obstacles, and so on. Some sections also have a symbol indicating that the MC tear the page out and flip it over. This is done straight away to reveal the basic rules as well as the characters. There are four Player Characters. They consist of Heavy Metal Crotch Rocket,a motorcycle; Off Road Football Jeep; Spooky Armoured Hearse; and Hefty Garbage Truck.

A Player Character has four stats—Shift, Street, Shoot, and Slam. Shift is a Player Character’s senses and knowledge, Steer is driving and physical action, Shoot covers all violence, and Slam is being brave and tough. Each stat has a run of numbers assigned to each stat. For example, the Heavy Metal Crotch Rocket has ‘2 and 3’ assigned to Shift, ‘3, 4, and 5’ to Steer, ‘4, 5, 6, and 7’ to Shoot, and ‘5, 6, 7,8, and 9’ to Slam. To have his character undertake an action, a player rolls a single die, the size of which depends on the character. A Heavy Metal Crotch Rocket always rolls a four-sided die, for example. In order to roll higher than the maximum on the die, the player needs to roll the maximum on the die, and that allows him to roll again and add the result. In addition, if the player rolls a one and can justify to the MC that his character can do an action, he succeeds. He must ‘Take the Wheel’ and put his character in danger though. In addition, some Player Characters can undertake actions with Advantage, meaning that two dice are rolled and the highest selected.

If a roll is a failure or something bad happens to a Player Character, there is a chance that he is in danger and takes a point of Danger. In which case, the player rolls his character’s die type and if the result is equal to or less than the character’s current Danger value, the character dies! If the roll is above his character’s current Danger value, he survives. Thus, Player Characters with low die types need to be careful, but the system—called the Polymorph System—and used also for the Mazes Fantasy Roleplaying, also published by 9th Level Games, can be lethal. This is especially so with combat, as the system is player-facing, that is, all the rolls in the game are made by the players. So, missing an opponent, means there is a chance of being fatally struck and killed by an opponent! The system is player-facing, so the MC never has to roll any dice.

The set-up for GAS-N-GUNS-A-GOGO is simple. All four Player Characters are from Friendlytown, but whilst they are away, the town was raided by Desert Pirates. Now all four are on the road, on the trail of the Desert Pirates, racing to catch up with them before the get to canyon up ahead. One of Desert Pirates spots them and about face, races to attack the Player Characters. This is played out on a simple map that looks like one of the board pieces from Thunder Road: Vendetta and gets everyone involved in a fight and used to the rules. The adventure will take the Player Characters racing into canyon, dodging obstacles and traps, and eventually to face the pirate captain in her gas station headquarters.

Physically, GAS-N-GUNS-A-GOGO is surprisingly well presented, in that it is surprise to work out exactly how it works and when you do… The information is clearly and cleverly presented for both the MC and the Player Characters in a format which is reminiscent of the flipbooks used for the scenarios for the Dark Sun setting for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition from TSR, Inc. However, the rules for the play are not quite as clearly presented for the MC as they could have been, but most of them become apparent once you play.

GAS-N-GUNS-A-GOGO is a bit cheap and cheerful, but it does succeed in what it sets out to do, and that is present a simple, direct, and exciting roleplaying experience in thirty minutes. It does this with easy to learn rules, a very straightforward scenario, and a clever format.

Your SHIVER Slasher Starter

Summer camp is a tradition. A chance for the parents to take a break from their children and a chance for the children to meet other children, enjoy the outdoors, engage in outdoor activities and have some fun, whilst for the camp counsellors, it is a chance to get away from their parents, take some responsibility, and maybe have fun with their fellow camp counsellors after their charges are all in their bunks. Summer camp is also a tradition of blood and tragedy, terror and death, as some seemingly random, unrelenting Slasher sneaks out of the surrounding woods and stalks the occupants of the camp, stabbing them, cutting them, hacking them, and putting them to death in murderously inventive ways. That is, until there is one ‘Final Girl’, a survivor who will somehow put an end to the Slasher’s rage-fuelled rampage, and then go on to live a life of happiness and love, untroubled by the trauma inflicted upon her by the monster that pursued her and her friends that night… Or perhaps not.

Camp Blood is a summer sleep-away camp located on the shores of Camp Blood, surrounded by the woods, with a dark history. In the sixties, its attendees, children and camp counsellors, were stalked by a Slasher known as Lopsy, and of the staff and camp counsellors, only three survived. Now, a decade later, they have returned to Camp Blood and led by camp counsellor, Cindy Beyers, have opened it up again and welcomed another group of children for another summer of exciting and educational activities which will definitely make the counsellors’ young charges learn and grow into better adults. Of course, after a month of Cindy Beyers recounting the legend of Lopsy at every fireside ghost story telling session, everyone is tired of hearing about the Slasher and looking forward to going home! Just one more sleep and summer will come to an end…

This is the set-up for ‘Return to Camp Blood’, the scenario in the SHIVER Slasher Starter Set, one of two themed starter sets published by Parable Games for SHIVER – Role-playing Tales in the Strange & the Unknown. The other is the SHIVER Blockbuster Starter Set. More specifically, the SHIVER Slasher Starter Set ties in with the campaign supplement, SHIVER Slasher: Generation Murder, in which the Player Characters suffer an attack by a Slasher and the survivors and their descendants will go on to suffer further attacks by different Slashers down the decades, from the twenties to the noughties, each decade highlighting a different style of Slasher film. What this means is that the SHIVER Slasher Starter Set can be run as one-shot, a classic Summer Camp Slasher horror film in the style of Friday the 13th, Sleepaway Camp, and Cheerleader Camp, but it can also be slotted into the full SHIVER Slasher: Generation Murder campaign. This can be done as a flash forwards-style prequel to the full campaign, which then switches back to the beginning, if the Director does not have SHIVER Slasher: Generation Murder or it can be simply inserted into the campaign if she does.

The SHIVER Slasher Starter Set contains two books, the ‘SHIVER Starter Rulebook’ and the ‘Return to Camp Blood’ scenario book, a set of seven pre-generated Player Characters, and a complete set of SHIVER dice. The ‘SHIVER Starter Rulebook’ is a concise version of SHIVER – Role-playing Tales in the Strange & the Unknown rulebook and contains all of the rules necessary to run and play ‘Return to Camp Blood’. Player Characters in SHIVER can advance up to Tier Ten, but the ‘SHIVER Starter Rulebook’ only goes up as far as Tier Five. The SHIVER dice are of course, required to play, and one advantage of the SHIVER Slasher Starter Set is that once the scenario has been played through, the gaming group has another set of dice to continue playing the roleplaying game.

The seven pre-generated Player Characters in the SHIVER Slasher Starter Set match the roleplaying game’s seven Archetypes—the Warrior, the Maverick, the Scholar, the Socialite, the Fool, the Weird, and the Survivor—and each emphasises one of the six Core Skills and gives access to several Tiers of Abilities. The six Core Skills—effectively both skills and attributes—are Grit, Wit, Smarts, Heart, Luck, and Strange. Grit represents a character’s physical capabilities; Wit covers physical dexterity; Smarts is his intellect and capability with investigation and technology; Heart is his charisma and charm; Luck is his good fortune and the random of the universe; and Strange is his capacity for using magic, psychic powers, and so on. A Player Character also has a Luck Bank for storing Luck—one for all Archetypes, except for the Fool, who has space for three; a current Fear status—either Stable, Afraid, or Terrified; and a Lifeline—Weakened, Limping, Trauma, and Dead—which is the same for all Archetypes.

Mechanically, SHIVER uses a dice pool system of six-sided dice, their faces marked with the symbols for the roleplaying game’s six Core Skills—Grit, Wit, Smarts, Heart, Luck, and Strange. To these are added Talent dice, eight-sided dice marked with Luck and Strange symbols. When a player wants his character to undertake an action, he assembles a dice pool based on the action and its associated Core Skill plus Talent dice if the character has in that Core Skill. Further dice can be added or deducted depending on whether the Player Character has Advantage or Disadvantage, an Ability which applies, or the player wants to spend his character’s Luck, and on the character’s Fear status. The aim is to roll a number of symbols or successes in the appropriate Core Skill, the Challenge Rating ranging from one and Easy to five and Near Impossible. If the player rolls enough, then his character succeeds; if he rolls two Successes more than the Challenge Rating, it is a Critical Hit; and if a player rolls three or more dice and every symbol is a success, this is Full House. In combat, a Critical Hit doubles damage and a Full House triples it, but out of combat the Director can suggest other outcomes for both. If Luck symbols are rolled, one can be saved in the Player Character’s Luck Bank for later use, but if two are rolled, they can be exchanged for a single success on the current skill roll, or they can be used to turn the Doom Clock back by one minute.

A failed roll does not necessarily mean that the Player Character fails as he can use other means to succeed at the task if he rolls enough successes in another Core Skill for that task, though this requires some narrative explanation. However, a failed roll has consequences beyond simply not succeeding—each Strange symbol rolled pushes the Doom Clock up by a minute…

Combat uses the same mechanic with monsters and enemies—and the Player Characters when they are attacked—using the same Challenge Rating as skill tests. It is Turn-based, with the Director deciding whether each Player Character is acting First, in the Middle, or Last, depending upon their situation and what they want to do. Players are encouraged to be organised and know what their characters are capable of, the surroundings for the battle, and so on, in order to get the best out of their characters. With every Player Character possessing the same Lifeline (the equivalent of sixteen Health Points), combat can be simply nasty or nasty and deadly, depending upon the mode. Death is a strong possibility, no matter what the mode, and depending on the scenario, death need not be the end though. A Player Character could become a ghost and continue to provide help from the afterlife or even become an antagonist!

Fear in SHIVER uses the same Challenge Rating system and mechanics. A Fear Check is made with a Player Character’s Strange Dice, and if the player fails the check, the character becomes Afraid, and if Afraid, becomes Terrified. If Afraid, a Player Character loses one die from all Core Skills, and two if Terrified. This is temporary, and a Player Character can get rid of the effects of Fear by escaping or vanquishing the threat, steadying himself (this requires another Fear Check), or another Player Character uses an Ability to help him.

Narratively, SHIVER is played out against a Doom Clock. This is set at eleven o’clock at night and counts up minute by minute to Midnight and the Player Characters’ inevitable Doooommm! However, at ‘Quarter Past’, ‘Half Past’, ‘Quarter To’, and ‘Midnight’ certain events will happen, these being defined in the scenario or written in by the Director. Every scenario for SHIVER includes its own Doom Clock events. In general, the Doom Clock will tick up due to the actions of the Player Characters, whether that is because of a failed skill check with Strange symbols, a failed Fear Check, abilities for the Weird Archetype, Background Flaws, or simply interacting with the wrong things in game. What this means is that dice rolls become even more uncertain, their outcome having more of a negative effect potentially than just failures, but this is all in keeping with the genre. However, just as the Doom Clock can tick up to ‘Midnight’ through the Player Characters’ actions. It can also be turned back due to their actions. Rolling two Luck on skill checks, reaching Story Milestones, finding clues and important items, and certain Abilities can all turn the Doom Clock back.

‘Return to Camp Blood’ is the scenario in the SHIVER Slasher Starter Set. It casts the Player Characters as Camp Counsellors at the recently reopened, on another site (but nearby to the old one where the infamous massacre took place) Camp Blood. They have been serving as the camp lifeguard, assistant cook, and teachers of archery, nature, and crafts, and there is a camp roster of characters who can be linked back to the massacre at the original Camp Blood. There is a good explanation of its set-up and advice on how to run the scenario. It opens with the Player Characters sat round the campfire, chatting about their experiences over the summer, which sets up some nice little flashbacks that can be played through, such as stopping another counsellor picking on a young camp attendee or going in search of a missing member of staff. Not only does this allow the players to try out the mechanics of the roleplaying game before the action starts, it gives them their characters the opportunity to earn some merit badges—no matter the outcome—that can then be used by a player as a one-time bonus during the rest of the scenario.

After hearing Cindy Beyers relate the story of how Lopsy attacked the original Camp Blood one more time, the action proper begins! The Player Characters are sent to check on some missing counsellors who have sneaked off like any true teenagers in lust at summer camp must. Of course, this being a horror scenario in the Slasher genre, the missing counsellors are going to be found, in the burnt out ruins of the original camp, and of course, dead, and with signs of terror on their faces! That is when the Player Characters’ own terror begins as arrows fly out of the darkness and they are stalked back to the new camp, and back and forth, Slasher known as Lopsy seemingly having returned to wreak havoc just as he did a decade before. Initially, the Player Characters have a chance to hide, but this is a Slasher horror film and Lopsy is not going to let anyone hide for long! In keeping with the genre, the Player Characters will be flushed out and go on search of a means to stop the unrelenting stalker. Ultimately, the Player Characters will be forced to face the Slasher in a final confrontation, and that is when ‘Return to Camp Blood’ pulls its twist. It is a fitting twist, one that perceptive or knowing players might work out a little earlier as there are hints in the scenario, but ups the ante and makes for a big battle when during which the merit badges earned earlier are going to come in really handy.

In addition to the advice on the set-up and running of ‘Return to Camp Blood’, the Director is presented with a variety of endings she can use, Doom Clock events the players and their characters can trigger, and a compendium with depictions of all of the Camp Blood Badges, equipment that can be found and used in the fight against Lopsy, including Snuffles the bunny (who deserves star credit), and stats for the various enemies, which of course, includes Lopsy. There is advice too on how to portray him and what he does in combat.

Physically, the SHIVER Slasher Starter Set is a good-looking box. The inclusion of the roleplaying game’s tables on the inside lid of the cover means that the Director has an easy rules reference and screen, whilst the dice do sit in their own niche in the bottom of the box. The books themselves are well-presented with excellent artwork done in a style similar to that of Mike Mignola and his Hellboy comic. The writing is clear, but could have done with an edit in places.

The SHIVER Slasher Starter Set is a solid introduction to SHIVER – Role-playing Tales in the Strange & the Unknown, whether or not the Director wants to run the SHIVER Slasher: Generation Murder campaign. If she does, then it is a worthy addition, fitting into a decade not covered in the sourcebook and campaign. If not, the scenario is still fun and the players can enjoy the clichés of the genre and the twist that ‘Return to Camp Blood’ gives them.

[Free RPG Day 2025] Titanskeep: Where the Zal River Flows

Now in its eighteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2025 took place on Saturday, June 21st. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

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Titanskeep: Where the Zal River Flows is an introductory adventure set in the world of Kaelador and more specifically in Zaltroonia, a politically unstable region previously dominated by mining interests that have since left, relegating the area to one of lawlessness and greed. Worse, the major thoroughfare through the region, the Zal River, has been poisoned by the waters of a river in the netherworlds. Published by Hexed Ink LLC, it is actually intended as a systems neutral setting, but for this first adventure, it has been written to be played using six Third Level Player Characters for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. As the scenario opens, the Player Characters are travelling down the Zal River aboard a skiff, heading for Harthorpe, the port that stands at the mouth of the river where she flows into the sea. After the opportunity for the players to introduce their characters, the action gets going with an attack by giant mutant crocodiles that pitch everyone overboard, smashes the skiff, and leaves them fleeing the shore, where hopefully they will escape the notice of the vile amphibious reptiles chomping their supplies, the skiff, and the remains of her poor captain.

The Player Characters are thus stranded on the banks of the river, with at least a week’s walking required if they want to get to Harthorpe, and they barely have time to recover before they are attacked by bandits. The journey south takes them through the barren terrain along the river, through a swamp and out again, to get to the port. Once the bandits are dealt with, the next problem they face is one of food and water, but the Player Characters will have to deal with former colleagues in service to a warlord, transforming demons, and their reputations. What makes these encounters interesting is that each of the Player Characters has his or her own secret which should come into play as the scenario proceeds. Titanskeep: Where the Zal River Flows includes two appendices. The second gives the stats for the Demon Crocodile, but the first—and far more interesting appendix—gives the background and secrets to each of the scenario’s six pre-generated Player Characters. They include a Human Bard who has been hired to investigate the strange magical properties of the River Zal; an Elf Rogue looking for partner after they got separated following a theft; a Half-Orc Paladin with secret knowledge about the region of Zaltroonia; a Dwarf Barbarian who found himself in the service of a would-be warlord; a Human Cleric transporting one half of a holy relic; and a Gnome Ranger who is a suspect in a murder case. In addition, all six Player Characters have a strong motivation for wanting to get to Harthorpe.

Physically, Titanskeep: Where the Zal River Flows is a surprisingly small book, just a digest-sized booklet. It is also quite short, at fourteen pages long. This leaves room for just the one piece of art, depicting the city of Harthorpe. There is one map, but it is rather plain and not all that useful. A map of the region and the travel route would have been more useful.

Titanskeep: Where the Zal River Flows is not a great adventure. It is linear and picaresque and does not really bring to life what it is that makes the setting of Titanskeep and Kaelador and Zaltroonia different from any other. Yet the adventure is playable and the backgrounds to the Player Characters and their secrets should encourage roleplaying and these are nicely tied into the events of the story.

[Free RPG Day 2025] Arzium Quickstart Guide 2

Now in its eighteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2025 took place on Saturday, June 21st. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

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The Arzium Quickstart Guide 2 is the introduction to the Arzium Roleplaying Game, the second following the release of the Arzium Quickstart Guide for Free RPG Day 2024. It is not, though, an introduction to the World of Arzium. That would be the series of board games designed by Ryan Laudkat and published by Red Raven Games, including Above and Below, Near and Far, and others. It presents a fantasy world filled with mysteries, magic, and forgotten technology, above and below ground. The Arzium Quickstart Guide is a slim affair, providing a very basic overview of the setting, an explanation of the mechanics, a short adventure, and four pre-generated Player Characters. Arzium is described as a world of strange mechanics and strange magics, some of it scavenged from fallen civilisations, some of its developed by the newly arisen city-states, industrialised with devices powered by bottled demons and rare crystals. The world is also a diverse one, being home to Humans, Hogfolk, Fishfolk, Lizardfolk, Birdfolk, and other species, including Robots! In the City-state of Arc, far to the south of Surstrayne Forest, location of the village of Above, and underneath it, the village of Below, the Academy of Gom has been beset by a series of thefts, which are believed to have been committed by a mysterious organisation known as the Shattered Knife! Although the Academy of Gom has tight purse strings, the thefts need to be investigated!

Mechanically, the Arzium Quickstart Guide and thus the Arzium Roleplaying Game, is a dice and resource management game. A Player Character has six attributes—Strength, Reflexes, Knowledge, Cunning, Perception, and Craft. Each ranges in value between zero and ten, and presents a pool of points that a player can spend to modify dice rolls. A standard difficulty is seven, whilst a hard one is ten. The maximum that a player can spend on a challenge is five. To have his character undertake an action, a player rolls a ten-sided die and attempts to equal or exceed the difficulty. Results less than the difficulty have a failure forward outcome in that the story continues despite the negative outcome. The latter might be an actual failure, but it can also be that the action succeeds and the Player Character or an item of equipment suffers damage, or even that the whole situation changes. In addition, if a six is rolled on the die, then a complication is automatically added to the situation. Resting for at least half a day will restore a Player Character’s spent attribute points.

In combat, the Player Characters typically act first and then the enemy. When a Player Character acts, he moves first and then takes an action. All attacks succeed in hitting and inflict damage as per the die type for the weapon or type of attack. The damage inflicted can be increased by spending points from the associated attribute. Armour reduces the amount of damage suffered. Attacks, abilities, and spells can also temporarily affect Power, a measure of NPC and monster ability to inflict more damage. Each monster and NPC gains one Power at the start of each turn, but because the Player Characters act first, they directly affect the monster and NPC capacity to inflict more damage. The rules also allow for gambits, inventive actions which can change the environment or affect monsters and NPCs, but without inflicting damage.

Casting spells requires the expenditure of Attribute points, but not a dice roll. However, a dice roll is required to take account of magic being whimsical and occasionally dangerous. When a spell is cast, the Game Master rolls a ten-sided die and if a one or two is rolled, she also rolls on the ‘Whimsical Magic’ table. This might result in the caster smelling like rotting garbage for a day or temporarily grants a nearby object life as it grows limbs and runs around in a chaotic manner.

Other rules for the Arzium Quickstart Guide 2 and the Arzium Roleplaying Game can be found on the character sheet. For example, it uses an inventory system of boxes for gear and offers Memory Knots as a means to maximise a die roll. This requires the player to explain why a particular memory will help his character in the current situation. The Arzium Quickstart Guide 2 includes four pre-generated Player Characters. They include a Human Treasure Hunter good at exploring caves and old facilities, a Toadfolk Investigator with a grasping tongue, and a Hogfolk Curstic Mystic with a knowledge of curse-related spells.

The scenario in the Arzium Quickstart Guide 2 is ‘Flight into Madness’. The Player Characters are hired by the Academy of Gom in the City-state of Arc following a series of thefts by the secret organisation known as the Shattered Knife and following an attempt by the Academy of Gom’s best and brightest to investigate the thefts thwarted by sabotage upon the part of the Shattered Knife. Boarding a ramshackle airship, the Player Characters are only armed with a couple of leads that their employer, Professor Argof, gave them. Following both will lead them over the seas to a large island and eventually to the secret base where the Shattered Knife has its headquarters. There they will meet, Zaradin, the head of the organisation, who will give them to opportunity to join him. The Player Characters are fee to do, fight, or run away. Fighting is a difficult option as there are so many members of the Shattered Knife that can call upon Zaradin. However, no stats are given for Zaradin.

‘Flight into Madness’ is short. Playable in an hour—or two at the most. Yet, the whole of the Arzium Quickstart Guide 2 is short. Consequently, it feels underwritten and slightly underexplained, particularly when it comes to NPCs and combat, but the mechanics are simple enough that they can be understood. The scenario though is underwhelming and does not give the players and characters much to do beyond face a series of combat challenges.

Physically, the Arzium Quickstart Guide 2 is decently put together. The cartography and artwork are good, and it is all clean and tidy. Yet as nice as it looks, the Arzium Quickstart Guide 2 does not successfully bring the world of Arzium to life and make it a setting that you want to visit in play. There is not enough of the setting and the scenario is cursory and short and not enough to really sell the reader on the Arzium Quickstart Guide 2, let alone on the Arzium Roleplaying Game. Ultimately, the Arzium Quickstart Guide 2 showcases everything that the Arzium Quickstart Guide got wrong for Free RPG 2024 by repeating them exactly. As an introduction to the setting of Arzium,the Arzium Quickstart Guide 2 just about works. As as a quick-start the Arzium Quickstart Guide 2 comes up woefully short at barely four pages long of actual adventure...

[Free RPG Day 2025] Whispers of Chaos

Now in its eighteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2025 took place on Saturday, June 21st. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

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Whispers of Chaos is a scenario for the Aetherial Expanse setting published by Ghostfire Gaming , one of three released by the publisher for Free RPG Day 2025. Both scenario and setting are written for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and the scenario is designed to be played by a party of five to six Player Characters of Third Level. It opens with ‘Welcome to the Aetherial Expanse’, a much needed description of the setting and its key features, because the scenario does not have a back cover blurb. What it tells the reader is that Aetherial Expanse is a realm of high fantasy which lies on the Astral Plane, one which combines the Age of Sail and Golden Age of Piracy with magic and swashbuckling action under a sky of swirling stars. Wind flows from the Elemental Planes to fill the sails of the ships, rain falls from the Material Plane on the islands that dot the Astral Plane and swirl around the Maelstrom, the enormous aether-storm at the heart of the Astral Sea. Planar Portals lead elsewhere, lost civilisations lie beneath the poisonous liquid aether of the Astral Sea, and aether comes in three forms—liquid, vapour, and solid. Aetherium crystal can be found floating in the Astral Sea like icebergs, but is rare and can even be used as a power source or a weapon. The Astral Emergents are those reborn and healed in the bodies of the recently dead, having been lost in the waters of the Astral Sea. Two powers from the Material Plane have invaded the Aetherial Expanse and founded colonies, the Kingdom of Ayris, a small, but powerful mercantile kingdom, and the expansive Karelagne Empire. It is less than a decade since the warring powers signed an uneasy truce, their rivalry exhibiting in feuds and acts of piracy and privateering.

In Whispers of Chaos, the Player Characters are hired by Professor Delkin Doss, an anthropology teacher. He wants to recover an ancient book of dark secrets, Godlike: Research, Stories, and Theories, which has been stolen from him by a sage, Dr. Marigold Brambletoe. A student, the Gnome, Sophia Blush, has managed to get word to him of where Doctor Brambletoe has taken the tome. This is the uninhabited Tumult Isle which lies close to the Maelstrom, where Nth Degree, a cult of Karelagne zealots, have established a base of operations where she can conduct his research. Unfortunately, Professor Delkin Doss is on a budget and has a booked passage on the Ethnos, completely unaware that some of the crew are very unhappy. So unhappy that they mutiny! This is the first big event of the scenario, throwing the Player Characters into the action, ideally being able to deal with the mutineers before sailing on, though notes are given suggesting what might happen if the mutineers prevail. Either way, the Ethnos is left shorthanded and the Player Characters are expected to pitch in. Here is where the scenario mixes it up with fun with some activities aboard ship—cooking meals, coming across a derelict ship, searching for Moose, the ship’s cat, and much more… These are pleasingly entertaining and keep the Player Characters busy until it throws them into the main action of the scenario.

This takes place in the Tumult Facility. The Player Characters need to find a way past the partially open frond or, but once inside discover a scene of bloody devastation. There are bodies everywhere as if monsters have been rampaging through the facility, and as they explore further, they will not only find several of those monsters, but also that the Tumult Facility has a surprisingly modern feel, including a welcome centre, shower room, and games room! Their progress is marked by the whole facility suddenly shaking again and again, each time the intensity increasing as if Tumult Isle was beset by ground tremors building up to an earthquake. This adds to the creepy tension that pervades the blood spattered facility, but eventually the Player Characters will discover the cause—a Maw, a great toothy mouth protruding from a crack in the ground, spitting monsters into the realm, as its tentacles flail and attempt to draw power from several Astral Emergent prisoners! The Player Characters are likely to have found Godlike: Research, Stories, and Theories by now, but this monstrous thing, even one constrained by the size of the crack in the floor of the facility, needs to be defeated, and even though it is constrained by the size of the crack in the floor of the facility, it is a challenging foe. Defeating the toothy, tentacled terror will bring the scenario to an exciting close.

The scenario comes with three appendices. The first gives stats and details for the scenario’s monsters, including a ship mimic! The second and third describe a card game that the Player Characters might play aboard ship and the effects of aether poisoning. The scenario includes maps of the Tumult Facility, the Ethnos, and the Astral Sea. A set of resources is also available for all three of the scenarios published by Ghostfire Gaming. They include maps, tokens, and pre-generated Player Characters for each. They include a Kobold Cleric with the Aether Domain; a Dwarf Fighter with the Corsair Raider subclass and Starlight Sea Raider Background; an Automaton Wizard with the Technomage Subclass and the Karalagne Naval Magewright Background; a Dragonborn Rogue with the Veiled Guardian Subclass and the Ayrissian Magnate Background; a Bard from the College Of The Blade Dancer and with the Opportunist Of The Expanse Background; and an Astral Emergent Ranger with the Expanse Wayfinder Subclass and the Silvery Sea Wanderer. All six are nicely detailed and come with some background as well as an illustration and an explanation of all their abilities and features.

Physically, Whispers of Chaos is well presented. The artwork and the maps are excellent, and the scenario is well written. The only disappointment is the lack of a back cover blurb to inform the reader what Whispers of Chaos actually is.

The biggest problem with Whispers of Chaos is the background. Not that it is not a good background—it is. Rather that there is a fair bit of it to impart to the players before they can start to play the scenario. Once over this hurdle, Whispers of Chaos is a really entertaining scenario, especially the scenes aboard the ship, that all together serves as a solid introduction to an intriguing setting.

[Free RPG Day 2025] Dragonbane – The Magistrate’s Gambit

Now in its eighteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2025 took place on Saturday, June 21st. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

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Dragonbane – The Magistrate’s Gambit is a preview of, and a quick-start for Dragonbane, the reimagining of Sweden’s first fantasy roleplaying game, Drakar och Demoner, originally published in 1982. Funded via a Kickstarter campaign by Free League Publishing in 2022, Dragonbane promises to be a roleplaying game of “mirth and mayhem”. It includes a basic explanation of the setting, rules for actions and combat, magic, the adventure, ‘The Sinking Tower’, and five ready-to-play, Player Characters.

‘The Magistrate’s Gambit’ scenario is designed as a tournament style adventure and can be played in two hours. This means that it is intended to be run for multiple groups and their scores at the end collected and compared to determine a winner. However, this does not mean that it cannot be added to an ongoing campaign, but rather that it includes a scoring sheet to determine how well one group of players fared compared to another. That said, two hours is tight for the scenario and outside of a tournament, the Game Master can easily prepare the scenario and run it in a single session. The Game Master will need a timer of some kind. The scenario includes everything necessary to play—pre-generated Player Characters, maps, puzzles, and more. If the scenario is being run as part of a standard campaign, a Rogue and a Wizard are recommended Player Characters. The scenario setting also suggests that it is located near a large town or city.

The five pre-generated Player Characters include a Human Wizard (Fire Elementalist), an Elf Hunter, a Mallard Knight (yes, a duck knight!), a Halfling Thief, and a Wolfkin Warrior. All five Player Characters are given a double-sided sheet with one side devoted to the character sheet whilst the other gives some background to the Player Character, an explanation of his abilities, and an excellent illustration. One issue is with the Human Wizard, whose player will need to refer to the magic section of the rules in Dragonbane – The Magistrate’s Gambit to find out how his spells work. It would have been far more useful for them to be at least listed along with costs for the benefit of the Wizard’s player.

A Player Character has a Kin, which can be human, halfling, dwarf, elf, mallard, or wolfkin. He also has six attributes—Strength, Constitution, Agility, Intelligence, Willpower, and Charisma—which range in value between three and eighteen, as well as a Profession. Both Kin and Profession provide an ability which are unavailable to other Kin and Professions. Various factors are derived from the attributes, notably different damage bonuses for Strength-based weapons and Agility-based weapons, plus Willpower Points. Willpower Points are expended to use magic and abilities derived from both Kin and Profession. A Player Character has sixteen skills, ranging in value from one to fourteen.

To have his player undertake an action, a player rolls a twenty-sided die. The aim is roll equal to or lower than the skill or attribute. A roll of one is called ‘rolling a dragon’ and is treated as a critical effect. A roll of twenty is called ‘rolling a demon’ and indicates a critical failure. Banes and boons are the equivalent of advantage and disadvantage. Opposed rolls are won by the player who rolls the lowest.

If a roll is failed, a player can choose to push the roll and reroll. The result supersedes the original. In pushing a roll, the Player Character acquires a Condition, for example, ‘Dazed’ for Strength or ‘Scared’ for Willpower. The player has to explain how his character acquires the Condition and his character can acquire a total of six—one for each attribute—and the player is expected to roleplay them. Mechanically, a Condition acts as a Bane in play. A Player Character can recover from one or more Conditions by resting.

Initiative is determined randomly by drawing cards numbered between one and ten, with one going first. A Player Character has two actions per round—a move and an actual action such as a melee attack, doing first aid, or casting a spell. Alternatively, a Player Character can undertake a Reaction, which takes place on an opponent’s turn in response to the opponent’s action. Typically, this is a parry or dodge, and means that the Player Character cannot take another action. If a dragon is rolled on the parry, the Player Character gets a free counterattack!

Combat takes into account weapon length, grip, length, and so on. The effects of a dragon roll, or a critical hit, can include damage being doubled and a dragon roll being needed to parry or dodge this attack, making a second attack, or piercing armour. Damage can be slashing, piercing, or bludgeoning, which determines the effectiveness of armour.

Armour has a rating, which reduces damage taken. Helmets increase Armour Rating, but work as a Bane for certain skills. If a Player Character’s Hit Points are reduced to zero, a death roll is required for him to survive, which can be pushed. Three successful rolls and the Player Character survives, whilst three failures indicate he has died. A Player Character on zero Hit Points can be rallied by another to keep fighting. Dragonbane – The Magistrate’s Gambit also includes rules for other forms of damage such as falling and poison, plus darkness and fear. Fear is covered by a Willpower check, and there is a Fear Table for the results.

A Wizard powers magic through the expenditure of Willpower Points. Typical spells cost two Willpower Points per Power Level of a spell, but just one Willpower Point for lesser spells or magic tricks. Spells are organised into schools and each school has an associated skill, which is rolled against when casting a spell. Willpower Points are lost even if the roll is failed, but rolling a dragon can double the range or damage of the spell, negate the Willpower Point cost, or allow another spell to be cast, but with a Bane. Rolling a demon simply means that the spell fails and cannot be pushed. A spell cannot be cast if the Wizard is in direct contact with either iron or steel.

Three spells and three magical tricks are given in Dragonbane – The Magistrate’s Gambit. These are all fire-related, designed for the Wizard Player Character. The magical tricks include Ignite, Heat/Chill, and Puff of Smoke, whilst the full spells are Fireball, Gust of Wind, and Pillar.

The scenario in Dragonbane – The Magistrate’s Gambit is ‘The Magistrate’s Gambit’. This takes place in Archmage Kalisial’s palace where each year she meets an old friend, Magistrate Stalomer, for a game of smickleboard. When they were young, they were adventurers, and together they found a magical necklace. Both wanted to wear it, but to decide who would for the following year, they decided to play the game, with the winner getting to wear it. Magistrate Stalomer has never won a single game despite his having studied smickleboard for years, and as he nears the end of his life, he just wants to wear it the once. Yet he suspects that Archmage Kalisial, his old friend, is cheating by using three magical artefacts. These are a wig, a pair of gilded spectacles, and an onyx game board and if he can replace them, he thinks that for once, he will prevail in the annual game. To that end, he hires the Player Characters and instructs them to attend the party, find each of the suspect artefacts and replace them with replicas he has made.

So what the Player Characters have to do is sneak away from Archmage Kalisial’s party and explore the rest of her palace for the location of the three artefacts. Given that they only have an hour to explore the palace, it is actually quite large, with eleven rooms that they will probably want to examine. There is a strong emphasis on puzzles and interaction, with the possibility of a little combat along the way, and the puzzles are actually supported by handouts that the Game Master can cut out and present to her players. All of the locations are highly detailed and there is usually a lot to examine and interact with in each room. The Player Characters will also find plenty of treasure to take away with them, which they will, as this is how Magistrate Stalomer plans to pay them. The Game Master will need to keep track of the Player Characters’ actions as they have the potential to first arouse Archmage Kalisial’s suspicions and eventually alert her to their activities. Her initial suspicions will make it increasingly difficult for the Player Character to sneak about and act surreptitiously, and will ultimately result in her sending servants to investigate if she becomes too concerned.

Eventually, a bell will ring (in other words, the timer set by the Game Master will go off) and the party proper will begin. This will be followed by the game itself being played between Archmage Kalisial and Magistrate Stalomer. How well he does will depend upon how successful the Player Characters have been in substituting the three items. In game terms, the Player Characters earn points for various objectives achieved throughout Archmage Kalisial’s palace, whilst her vigilance level is substracted from this and a twenty-sided die is rolled against the resulting value. If the roll is equal to, or below the value, then Magistrate Stalomer wins!

Physically, Dragonbane – The Magistrate’s Gambit is clean and tidy. The cartography is excellent, but the artwork and illustrations are superb. The handouts are also very good. They are done by Johan Egerkrans, who also illustrated Vaesen and possess a grim, if comic book sensibility.

Dragonbane – The Magistrate’s Gambit is a well done tournament adventure, packed with puzzles and secrets that the players and their characters need to discover and solve before the time limit of the scenario. It is effectively, an anti-heist scenario that is till played out with all of the stealth of a classic heist scenario. As a standard adventure, it can be played out at a more leisurely place and will be no less challenging, though without the time limit. Either way, Dragonbane – The Magistrate’s Gambit is a tightly designed and impressive little scenario, which not only has the potential to be a lot of fun, but which also feels refreshingly different from other scenarios for Dragonbane.