Danger Under Dover

Achtung! Cthulhu is the roleplaying game of fast-paced pulp action and Mythos magic published by Modiphius Entertainment. It is pitches the Allied Agents of the Britain’s Section M, the United States’ Majestic, and the brave Resistance into a Secret War against those Nazi Agents and organisations which would command and entreat with the occult and forces beyond the understanding of mankind. They are willing to risk their lives and their sanity against malicious Nazi villains and the unfathomable gods and monsters of the Mythos themselves, each striving for supremacy in mankind’s darkest yet finest hour! Yet even the darkest of drives to take advantage of the Mythos is riven by differing ideologies and approaches pandering to Hitler’s whims. The Black Sun consists of Nazi warrior-sorcerers supreme who use foul magic and summoned creatures from nameless dimensions to dominate the battlefields of men, whilst Nachtwölfe, the Night Wolves, utilise technology, biological enhancements, and wunderwaffen (wonder weapons) to win the war for Germany. Ultimately, both utilise and fall under the malign influence of the Mythos, the forces of which have their own unknowable designs…

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Under the Gun takes place on the Home Front with the Player Characters, or Agents, suddenly rushed to the Kent coast where a frightening discovery has been made. With the Battle of France over and the Nazi war machine readying itself for Operation Sea Lion, Britain is frantically preparing defences against imminent invasion. This includes the fortification of the Kent coast, specifically in and around Dover and its famous, chalk cliffs which stand at the closet point between England and France. There are news reports that excavations have unearthed an ancient British fort, but this only a cover story. What an archaeologist and several British army engineers have discovered is a strange stone pillar which seems to make everyone feel at least queasy, if not leave them suffering nightmares, seeing things out of the corners of their eye, and if that is not odd enough, suffering bouts of ichthyophobia! Those that have been suffering the worst have been hospitalised. As agents of Section M, the Player Characters are ordered to investigate the site at St. Andrew’s Cliff.

With a little care, the Agents have the opportunity to learn what happened to the men digging at St. Andrew’s Cliff and perhaps conduct a little research locally. Very quickly, the Agents are rushed to the site, now a combination of fortification in the making and archaeological dig site, both semi-abandoned. The Agents have the afternoon to investigate the site before events take a sudden and highly confrontational turn. The site, including the Agents and the few members of the British Army left to guard the site are attacked—not once, but twice! First by locals from the nearby village and then by Nazis. The Agents may already have discovered the legends about the nearby village of St. Andrews, but what they find out in the confrontation is that the legends are true, that, “Them St. Andrew’s folk aren’t right — flat-faced, goggle-eyed devils!” In other words, Deep One Hybrids. The Nazis are members of Black Sun, though only a small team that has landed by glider on the cliffs nearby. This is a big fight—though small in the scheme of things—over who has access to the strange stone pillar in the case of the Black Sun unit and who should be punished for defiling the strange stone pillar in the case of the villagers.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Under The Gun is a short, sharp scenario which can be completed in a single session. It does leave the question of what to do with a village of Deep One Hybrids on the English coast up to the Game Master. Either raid the village and intern everyone as per the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps raid on Innsmouth in 1928 or actually recruit them as allies in the Secret War against the Nazi occult? Both options are valid and both would make for interesting developments, especially the latter. More so if the Game Master is planning to run Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Vanguard. The events of Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Under The Gun take place in June, 1940, whereas the events of Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Vanguard take place in August, 1940. Both involve Deep Ones, so they are thematically linked and thus Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Vanguard can be run as a possible sequel to Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Under The Gun. Since it involves the Black Sun, it can be run after the events of ‘A Quick Trip to France’ found in the Achtung! Cthulhu Quickstart: A Quick Trip to France.

Although Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Under The Gun is not a complex scenario, its climax does involve a big battle with multiple opponents and factions, so it does feel a little like a mini-wargame rather than the climax of a roleplaying scenario. Certainly, the Game Master might want to have the factions involved in this fog-bound confrontation divided between herself and the Player Characters to make it easier to run and give her fewer dice to roll and NPCs to keep track of.

Physically, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Under The Gun is cleanly and tidily laid out. It is not illustrated, but the maps of the various locations are decently done.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Under The Gun is a short, sharp encounter with the multiple forces of the Mythos that also manages to pack in a little investigation as well. It can be played in a single session and this makes it easy to drop into a campaign, especially taking early in the war.

The Other OSR: .GIF

The Shattered Dominion stands broken by war and the passing of the Last Gods. Only the Warriors of the Grand Guild are now touched by the dwindling spark of their fleeing divinity, imbuing a rage that sees them smash and savage their way through the underground complexes of ancient races or the up towers of overly ambitious wizards, wiping out all before them and looting great relics, but always missing much and leaving a rather big mess in their wake. Thus, they are always followed by members of the Lesser Orders. Chaplains, cut off from their gods and in search of new purpose. Rogues, avoiding a life of crime that might be deadlier than disarming traps and uncovering secrets in a dungeon. Scholars, bereft of magic also, whose sage-like knowledge and ability to keep records might be useful. Their job, perhaps with the addition of the hired help, is to follow the Warrior into the dungeon and there clean up in his wake, map everywhere, record every detail, pick up on anything that the Warrior might have missed, and report back. Their duty is not to fight, especially since the Warrior should technically have dealt with everything, and more importantly, sending a fighting man to clean up after a great Warrior would be exceptionally rude. That though does not mean that they will not have to fight, since the Warrior likes to be direct and straightforward—quite literally in some cases—when dealing with a dungeon.

This is the set-up for With Guile, Incantation and Faith, a ‘Genre Set-Up’ for Sanction: A Tabletop Roleplaying Game of Challenges & Hacks. Published by Just Crunch Games, this is in fact, an expansion to a Genre Set-Up, also called ‘With Guile, Incantation and Faith’, one of the two given in Sanction. Of the two, it was most familiar and consequently, not quite as interesting, whereas the other was far more intriguing. That said, With Guile, Incantation and Faith—or .GIF as it is annoyingly abbreviated—does do something interesting with Dungeons & Dragons-style play. This is to make any dungeon replayable again. Not by simply restarting afresh, but by starting after a party of Player Characters—or in this case, a mighty Warrior—has worked their way through the dungeon, leaving a trail of broken bodies, traps, puzzles, and treasures behind him as well as a myriad number of rooms and locations unattended. It can be a dungeon that the players might even have played through previously or it can be one that the Game Master creates or adapts herself. Whatever the source of the dungeon, when the members of the Lesser Orders work their way through it, it is in the aftermath.

The expansion in With Guile, Incantation and Faith sees the setting developed further—if only a relatively little—and more details given to the Lesser Orders. That is, the Rogue, the Scholar, the Chaplain, and the Hireling. To this are added extra Abilities, the means of the Lesser Orders members’ survival. These include Boating, Disguise, Excavation, Anatomy, Brewing, Passage & Pathway (the dungeoneering equivalent of traffic analysis), Astrology, Gambling, Signs, and more. These are intended not necessarily as options available during character generation, but rather Abilities that can selected once a Player Character has some experience working as member of the Lesser Orders. Two suggestions—Dungeon Designer and Fate the Stars Foretold—are mentioned, but left undeveloped. The two new Specialities are more obvious and easier to use. The Druid worships the Force of Nature, which might be the only Old God that remains, and has access to Animal Lore, Animal Whispering, and Trapping, whilst the Ranger is a guide and trapper who has access to Hunting, Orienteering, and Passage & Pathway.

Cantrips are treated in a very basic fashion in Sanction: A Tabletop Roleplaying Game of Challenges & Hacks as just simple, single words that are left for the players and the Game Master to develop. In the world of Shattered Dominion, cantrips are remnants of spells that when have disappointing limited effects. With Guile, Incantation and Faith, each of the single words in the core rules are developed to set the boundaries of what each can do. The descriptions are not written in stone, a player allowed to develop his own interpretation or use of the cantrip, though what is written in stone is that any suggested use of a cantrip which feels or sounds like a fully fledged spell should not be allowed.

Although the set-up and running of With Guile, Incantation and Faith and what the Player Characters do is predicated on the actions of the Warrior, the Warrior remains a nebulous, offscreen presence, but one that is nevertheless constantly felt by the Player Characters. In mechanical terms he becomes a timing mechanism marked by alternating periods of progress and sleep, the latter also marked by a sudden silence after all of the crashing, banging, and wails cut off mid-scream. Then with a yawn and stretch, the Warrior is off again, either to leave the dungeon all together—good for a single session or a convention game—or ready to continue smashing his way through the dungeon.

Random tables are given to track the Warrior’s way through a dungeon with the Player Characters following on behind, and these can be used in a couple of ways, depending on the degree of preparation that the Game Master wants to do. The tables can be used to direct the movement of the Warrior with relatively little regard for the consequences upon the wider environment in a low preparation game, whereas in a high preparation game, the Game Master can use them in combination with asking what effect the Warrior has on the wider dungeon. This will include the obvious scattering of corpses, but to that can be added rescuers, reinforcements, looters, wanderers, vermin, and more. The Warrior’s progress can also cause instability in a dungeon, either break traps or ignore them, likely ignore puzzles, and so on. A handful of monsters are be added, but together with those given in Sanction: A Tabletop Roleplaying Game of Challenges & Hacks still does not feel enough. Perhaps there is scope for a bestiary of broken and unbroken dungeon monsters, both scarred and unscarred, for With Guile, Incantation and Faith?

With Guile, Incantation and Faith ends with a ‘Sample Dungeon’. It feels more like a manor house than a dungeon, one which the Warrior has run straight through rather entering rooms to the left or right. However, the path can be altered with a few rolls on the random tables to provide some deviation and add more chaos and destruction. Overall, it is short, but detailed and should provide single session’s worth of clear up and accounting in the Warrior’s wake.

Physically, With Guile, Incantation and Faith is a slim, little book, cleanly laid out and easy to read. It is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is good. The cartography is plain.

With Guile, Incantation and Faith is a clever, even witty twist upon classic Dungeons & Dragons-style play, and this supplement nicely expands upon the information first given in Sanction: A Tabletop Roleplaying Game of Challenges & Hacks. However, it does feel as if there could be more—more monsters, more background, and more adventure sites—but nevertheless, With Guile, Incantation and Faith is a decent further exploration of a world of lost gods, missing magics, and damaged dungeons.

The Alternative

The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game has a relatively short history that really runs parallel to that of Dungeons & Dragons. Originally published by Paizo, Inc. in 2009, it was an extension and development of Dungeons & Dragons, 3.5, published by Wizards of the Coast, a reaction to the development and direction of Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition, which was radically different to the previous editions of the roleplaying game. That reaction to Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition would result in three separate developments. One is that that the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game would acquire the nickname of ‘Dungeons & Dragons 3.75’; the second is, of course, the publication in 2014 of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition; and the third is that the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game sold very, very well, though never enough to actually outsell Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. In the years since, the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game has continued to sell very well, receiving a second edition in 2019. Then, in 2023, it was revealed that Wizards of the Coast was planning to make updates that would revoke the previously authorised use of the Open Gaming Licence upon which many roleplaying games, including the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, relied. Although Wizards of the Coast never followed through on its planned changes, by the time it decided not to, Paizo Publishing, along with several other publishers, had developed and was using the Open RPG Creative Licence in its stead. For Paizo, the result would be the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Second Edition Remaster. Its four core rulebooks—Player Core, GM Core, Monster Core, and Player Core 2—replacing the previous books—Core Rulebook, Bestiary, Gamemastery Guide, and Advanced Player’s Guide.

The Player Core contains everything that a player needs to play the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Second Edition Remaster. Well, almost, but this review will come to that. It is a handsome sturdy volume that provides a player with an introduction to the game, an explanation of what it is, and then the means to create a variety of different characters and begin play. The explanations are clear and simple, noting that the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is for everyone, defining what a character is and what it looks like, and describing how the game is played. This is supported by a clearly presented two-page spread of the roleplaying game’s key terms and more importantly, by an example of play that mixes in exploration, interaction, and combat. It is decently done. An experienced player will read through these pages and very quickly pick up the basics of the game, whereas a less experienced player will find himself eased into the game.

The point of the Player Core is the creation of Player Characters. Each Player Character is first defined by six attributes—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. He also has an Ancestry, Background, Class, and then extra details. Ancestry represents the broad family of people that the Player Character belongs to; Background is what the Player Character before he became an adventurer; and Class is his profession as an adventurer. The Ancestry sets the Player Character’s beginning Hit Points, languages, senses, and Speed, as well as Ancestry Feats; Background gives a feat and training in one or more skills; and Class grants the Player Character his extra Hit Points at each new Level, the majority of his proficiencies, and Class Feats. Eight Ancestries and eight Classes are given in the Player Core. The eight Ancestries are Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Goblin, Halfling, Human, Leshy, and Orc. Of these Leshy is an immortal nature spirit granted physical form, and all of the Ancestries have Heritages which define them further. For example, the Orc Ancestry offers the Badlands Orc, Battle-Ready Orc, Deep Orc, Grave Orc, Hold-Scarred Orc, Rainfall Orc, and Winter Orc. Each grant quite different abilities. For example, the Battle-Ready Orc is the descendant of very scary battle leaders and is trained in Intimidation and has the Intimidating Glare skill Feat, whilst the Winter Orc is trained in Survival and can cope with more extreme cold environments.

In addition, there are three versatile Ancestries, the Changeling, the Nephilim, and the Mixed Ancestry. These build off a base Ancestry, but offer alternative Heritages to those normally associated with the base Ancestry. The Changeling was stolen as a child and taken elsewhere; the Nephilim is a character who has had dealings with immortal beings; and the Mixed Ancestries offered are the Aiuvarin and the Dromaar. The Aiuvarin has one parent who was an Elf, whilst the Dromaar has one parent who was an Orc. An Aiuvarin Player Character can choose from both Aiuvarin and Elf Ancestry Feats and the Dromaar Player Character can choose from both Dromaar and Orc Ancestry Feats.

The eight Classes in the Player Core are the Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Witch, and Wizard. Notably, the Cleric, the Fighter, the Rogue, and the Wizard Classes are illustrated with signature pieces of artwork for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game which actually predate the roleplaying game when they appeared as example Player Characters in the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path back in 2007. Also notable is the absence of certain Classes that one would expect to see in the core rulebook for a roleplaying game such as Pathfinder. The Barbarian, Monk, and Sorcerer Classes are absent, and so the Player Core does not feel complete. However, they do appear in the Player Core 2, along with a host of other Ancestries and Classes.

Character creation in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Second Edition Remaster is a matter of making a number of choices rather than rolling any dice. The lack of the latter is because once a player has selected both an Ancestry and a Class, attributes are not rolled to determine the bonuses they grant as in similar other roleplaying games. In fact, the classic three to eighteen spread for attributes is done away with entirely and instead the bonuses that the attributes might have generated in those other roleplaying games, actually become the attributes. It is not a new idea, having previously been seen in roleplaying games such as True20 Adventure Roleplaying and Fantasy AGE, both published by Green Ronin Publishing. Instead of rolling dice, a player applies Attribute Boosts to the attributes, which will come from the character’s Ancestry, Background, Class, plus some free ones. An Ancestry may also apply an Attribute Flaw, but these are rare. At First Level, no attribute can be boosted above +4 and when it can, it takes two Attribute Boosts to raise an Attribute by another full point.

Name: Eglund
Ancestry: Human
Heritage: Versatile Human
Background: Farmhand
Languages: Common

Class: Fighter
Class DC: Fighter (Trained) 16
ATTRIBUTES
Strength +4 Dexterity +2 Constitution +2 Intelligence +0 Wisdom +1 Charisma +0
Hit Points: 18
Hero Point: 1
Armour Class: 16 (18)
Melee Strike: +5 Ranged Strike: +3
Saving Throws: Fortitude (Expert) +7, Reflex (Expert) +7, Will (Trained) +4
Attacks: Simple Weapons (Expert) +5, Martial Weapons (Expert) +5, Advanced Weapons (Trained) +3, Unarmed Attacks (Expert) +5
Defences: All Armour (Trained) +3, Unarmoured Defence (Trained) +3
Class Features: Reactive Strike
Class Feats: Reactive Shield
Ancestry Feats: Co-Operative Nature
General Feats: Ride, Shield Block
Skill Feats: Assurance (Athletics)
Skills: Acrobatics (Trained) +3, Athletics (Trained) +3, Farming Lore (Trained) +3, Intimidation (Trained) +3, Nature (Trained) +4, Perception (Expert) +6, Survival (Trained) +4
Equipment: Scale mail, dagger, adventurer’s backpack, grappling hook, longsword, steel shield, 6 gp, 2 sp

One major change in the Player Core and thus the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Second Edition Remaster is the replacement of Alignment, an aspect of game design which has been with us from the start of the hobby, with Edicts and Anathema. Edicts suggest acts and behaviour driven by a personal code or philosophy, whilst Anathema are acts and behaviour which run counter to that personal code or philosophy. The various Ancestries suggest commonly held Edicts and Anathema amongst that particular species, whilst certain Classes more or less mandate them. The most notable of those are the Cleric Class, which will have Edicts and Anathema according to the deity worshipped by the Cleric. Violating the Edicts and Anathema can lead the Cleric to lose some Class abilities. The Player Core includes details of the gods commonly worshipped on Golarion, the setting for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Of course, a Player Character need not be a Cleric to worship any of these gods.

This change from Alignment to Edicts and Anathema has a profound effect upon the player of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. No longer is the world around the Player Character sharply categorised according to a moral compass. Nor is there any need for the Player Character to adhere to its diktats. The player and his character is freed to make choices according to the latter’s Edicts and Anathema, which can be those shared with an Ancestry, a deity, nation, or other organisation, or they can be more individual than that. It also means that the morality of the play or the roleplayed actions of the Player Character come out through play rather than necessarily being rigidly defined. Also gone are spells like Detect Evil since they are based on Alignment, whilst Protection from Evil is simply changed to Protect which provides a bonus to Armour Class and Saving Throws.

In addition to the mechanical aspects, the Heritages and Feats for the Ancestries, the Features, Skills, and Feats for the Classes, every Ancestry and Class is accompanied with suggestions as why a player might choose it and what they might do in play. Each Ancestry also covers physical descriptions and typical society and beliefs, whilst a Class also suggests what a Player Character might during combat and social encounters, when exploring, and during downtime. It offers some possible motivations and broad ideas about what others might think of the Class. Every Class description includes some sample concepts too, which suggests Attributes, Skills, beginning Feat, and higher-Level Feats to take to recreate the concept. There are notes too on creating Multiclass Player Characters, to create archetypes, though this is a more complex option.

In terms of progression, every Class goes up to Twentieth Level—and at every Level, a Player Character will receive something. The Ancestry will provide Ancestry Feats, whilst the Class will provide its own Feats, plus options to choose Skill Feats and General Feats. Plus, Attribute Boosts as well. Since a Player Character gains a new Level every thousand Experience Points, progression is consistent between the Classes and every player will feel like he and his character is being rewarded at regular intervals. The range of Feats available across all of the categories gives a player a wealth of choice and options when designing the type of character he wants to play.

The four spell-casting Classes in the Player Core are the Bard, Cleric, Druid, Witch, and Wizard. All have access to a range of cantrips and spell defined by magical tradition. This is another change like that of Alignment. Instead of Abjuration, Alteration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Illusion, Invocation, and Necromancy, what the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Second Edition Remaster has is four magical traditions. These are Arcane, Divine, Occult, and Primal. The Bard can also infuse his performances to create Compositions and will be inspired by a Muse such as Enigma or Maestro; the Cleric gains extra spells from his Divine Font that can either harm or heal, as well as those from his deity; the Druid belongs to a Druidic Order such as Animal, Leaf, or Storm which grants further spells; Witches are granted hexes and taught lessons by a patron such as ‘Faith’s Flamekeeper’ or ‘Silence in Snow’; and Wizards study a thesis, such as ‘Improved Familiar Attunement’ or ‘Staff Nexus’ which changes the way in which they cast spells and attend an arcane school which grants further spells. In addition, some spellcasters, like the Witch and the Wizard, have a familiar through which they can cast their spells. Any Player Character can have an animal companion if they have the right feat, and whether the animal is a companion or familiar, it will grow and improve as the Player Character gains experience and Levels.

Name: Thulee
Ancestry: Goblin
Heritage: Unbreakable Goblin
Background: Cultist
Languages: Common, Draconic, Dwarvish, Kholo, Goblin, Orcish
Class: Witch
Class DC: Witch (Trained) 17 Spell DC: Witch (Trained) +7
ATTRIBUTES
Strength +0 Dexterity +4 Constitution +0 Intelligence +4 Wisdom -1 Charisma +2
Hit Points: 16
Hero Point: 1
Armour Class: 16
Melee Strike: +0 Ranged Strike: +5 Spell Attack (Trained): +7
Saving Throws: Fortitude (Trained) +3, Reflex (Trained) +7, Will (Expert) +4
Attacks: Simple Weapons (Trained) +3, Unarmed Attacks (Trained) +3
Defences: All Armour (Untrained) +0, Unarmoured Defence (Trained) +3
Class Features: Patron (Spinner of Threads), Witch Spellcasting
Class Feats: Cauldron
Ancestry Feats: Goblin Song
General Feats: Pet (Familiar) – Badger
Skill Feats: Schooled in Secrets
Skills: Arcana (Trained) +7, Craft (Trained) +7, Deception (Trained) +5, Lore (Spinner of Threads) (Trained) +7, Medicine (Trained) +7, Occultism (Trained) +7, Perception (Trained) +2, Performance (Trained) +5, Stealth (Trained) +7, Thievery (Trained) +7

Lessons: Lesson of Fate’s Vicissitudes, Familiar of Balanced Luck

SPELLS
Cantrips: Daze, Detect Magic, Know the Way, Shield, Telekinetic Hand
First Level: Grim Tendrils, Summon Undead
Equipment: Explorer’s clothing, staff, sickle, sling and 20 bullets, staff, adventurer’s backpack, cookware, healer’s toolkit, 7 gp, 1 sp, 8 cp

The Player Core includes an introduction to Golarion and the Inner Sea, the default setting for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, describing the various regions and their themes, and possible ideas for example characters. There is a list too of the various deities worshipped on Golarion. Besides a description, each god write-up includes areas of concern, Edicts and Anathema, and associated divine attribute. For the devotee, it gives spells for the Cleric, its Divine Font, skill, domains, and even a divine weapon. Together, this provides background details for the Player Character who wants a faith to follow and fundamental aspects of a Cleric’s worship. There are not just gods listed, but faiths and philosophies too, such as Atheism and the Green Faith. The latter two are in keeping with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game giving a player more choice, and avoiding the diktats of Alignment.

Much of the Player Core is devoted to the numerous feats and spells within pages, so it is almost four hundred pages into the book when it looks at how to play the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and its core mechanics. There is some guidance on the Pathfinder baseline in terms of content and tone, more detail being provided in the GM Core, but the focus here is on the core rules. It covers the three modes of play—Exploration, Encounter, and Downtime, rolling checks, attacks, damage, spellcasting, and so on. Checks are made against a Difficulty Class, the roll modified by the Attribute modifier, Proficiency bonus from skills, and circumstance modifiers. If the result is ten more than the Difficulty Class, it counts as a critical success, whilst if it is ten less than the Difficulty Class, it is a critical failure. A roll of natural twenty counts as a critical success, whilst a roll of one is a critical failure. Attacks, of course, are rolled against a target’s Armour Class, and that includes spell attack rolls. Damage and its effects work as you would expect, although Hit Points cannot be reduced below zero. If they reduced to zero, the Player Character will be dying if the damage is lethal or knocked out if the damage is nonlethal. If his character is dying, his player must make Recovery Checks, each failure increasing the character’s Dying Value, which if it reaches a value of four, the character dies.

The actual play of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game includes two notable additions. The first is Actions. Each round, a Player Character has three Actions. Activities can either take one, two, or three Actions. (The number is indicated by an icon in the rules, so initially it is not obvious.) The basic activities are One-Action, such as Leap, Raise a Shield, Sense Motive, Stride, and Strike. Notable of these is the Raise a Shield Action, which when taken means that a Player Character raises his shield to protect himself against a possible attack against him. The default position is thus: a shield is carried, but not raised, the protection it provides is not automatic and the player has to choose to raise it. The three Actions per round gives some flexibility to what a Player Character does over the course of a round. So, a Fighter might use the Stride Action to move to attack the enemy, attack with the Strike Action, and then do the Raise a Shield Action to provide himself with further protection. Or, a Cleric might cast his Bane spell, which takes two Actions and then do the Raise a Shield Action or the Take Cover Action. The rest of the Player Core covers movement, area effects, conditions, and more.

Physically, the Player Core is a thick heavy book. But it designed for use. It eases the new player in and there is an indication where the reader is in the book on each righthand page, whilst at the back the glossary and index are combined, which is very helpful. The book is also a good-looking affair. The layout is clean and tidy, and the artwork is excellent.

Of course, the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Second Edition Remaster offers play that is like Dungeon & Dragons—after all, that is what it is derived from, but that play is different and, in many places, more nuanced. These include the three Action economy of the combat round, the Edicts and Anathema, and so on. Their combined effect is to give a player more choice in game and support that choice mechanically, beginning with the range of Ancestries and Classes that just that bit different and then in the long term, reward the character and his player at every Level. The Player Core is a everything that a player needs to get started with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Second Edition Remaster and makes that getting started, accessible and easy.

The Other OSR: Book of Beasts

With Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts, the number of creatures and threats with which to menace the Player Characters doubles! Published by Free League Publishing, Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts provides twenty-eight descriptions of monsters fierce and fearsome adding to the twenty-three given in the core rulebook for the ‘Retro Open-World Survival Fantasy RPG’, Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World. Every entry comes with a short piece of colour fiction, full stats and abilities, and a table of Monster Attacks. That though is not all. For there is also a table for the player to roll his character’s Lore skill and so determine what Insights he might have into the creature. Then there is not one but two random encounters, each with some flavoursome description and an indication of the terrain types where the monster might be found. Lastly, there is a description of the ‘Resources’ that might be harvested from a monster if the Player Characters manage to kill one. Last, but least, there is a superb illustration. Beautiful, rich, and detailed, every image of a creature in Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is captivating. Any time that the Game Master shows one of these to her players, she really is going to amaze them.

So the Mummy is depicted as a dried husk of a warrior, grinning as it holds a victim by the throat in one hand, whilst readying a sword in the other. It is described as being in life a great lord who lusted after power, a lust that was not dimmed by the cold death of the crypt. In its unlife, it reigns over the steel and gold it was buried with and now jealously guards. Its body is hollowed out and empty and it hungers for the salts and juices that flow through the bodies of the living, having become a predatory cannibal in death. Some of this will be revealed in a Lore roll, but there is more that the Player Characters can learn. One of the random encounters is just a simple tomb description, whilst the other is a bit more exciting—a Mummy’s tomb that is already open and would have been plundered by some graverobbers were it not for the fact that they are being attacked by a Mummy and its servants!

In terms of stats, the Mummy is incredibly strong, but otherwise slow. It is unnaturally drawn to human entrails, but bound to its tombs. Its attacks include ‘Lordly Strike!’, which inflicts such a heavy blow that the defender is knocked prone, whilst with ‘Heart Constriction’, the Mummy makes a crushing genre with his fingers at an opponent who suffers a sudden and terrible pain in his chest and is potentially overcome with mortal terror! This is of course, in addition to the other four attacks listed for the Mummy, whilst the last entry in the monster description suggests the only Resource that can be harvested from a Mummy is the powder ground from its bones that when swallowed grants a bonus to the imbiber’s Strength.

So every monster and every creature in Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is given this treatment to great effect. The entries are all easy to read and easy to use, and include things such as a Dread Raptor, Giant Spider—which has descriptions of hatchlings, adults, and elders, the Iron Dragon, the Nature Spirit, Rat King, Twisted Ent, and more. There are some great monsters here and they provide the Game Master with some fantastic new options in terms of presenting challengers to her players. However, that is not all that there is in the pages of Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts, although they do take up nearly two thirds of the book.

The content beyond the monsters in Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts begins with a random encounter table for the thirty-six encounters that follow. All of these again, have a single paragraph of colour fiction, suitable to read out to the players, and typically a half page of detail, though some have more. Stats are included where necessary, but there is always a list of the terrain where the encounter can take place. They range from finding a man locked in a hanging iron cage pleading to be let free and coming across an old battlefield that could be salvaged to going to the aid of a legendary brewer and being employed to track down the bandits that attacked him and having to placate the spirit of an orc lord after sitting on his somewhat bedraggled stone throne. Some are as simple as coming across a piece of statuary and the opportunity to learn some lore about the history of the region, whilst others are more complex like discovering a length of a Dwarven wall and with the aid of an expert on its history finding a way to the tomb of an ancient chieftain. Not all of them are quite ready to run though, so there are several which require more development than others, such as the meaning behind a coded message that is found on a dead pigeon. This is though, a good selection of encounters and scenario hooks.

Oddly, Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts has its own section of ‘Game Master Tools’ as if none of the previous content was for the Game Master and this section is for her eyes only. Of course, the whole book is for the Game Master. The section contains a list of traps, from nets, poison darts, and crusting boulders to domination, magical traps, and teleportation, which can be rolled for or selected, whilst ‘Books, Ballads, and Grimoires’ expands upon the ‘Carried Valuable Finds’ and ‘Carried Precious Finds’ from the Game-master’s Guide. These can all be studied and in return, a Player Character can gain a bonus, which can be a Talent or a skill increase. For example, ‘Easy Little Dwarfling’, a lullaby by Yendra grants the Lightning Fast Talent, whilst ‘Sweet, Courage, and Leverage’ by Nilia Trollvälte is a manual that increases the Might of anyone who studies it. Between the various categories, there are over seventy entries here and even just having the names of either the manuals and ballads, and their authors, adds to the immersive nature of the Forbidden Lands setting. A similar set of tables adds new artefacts to the roleplaying game, though they lack the description and detail given to those in the core rules.

‘Journeys’ adds further tables, but this time for nature of different locations or terrain types, ranging from plains, forests, and dark forests to quagmires, marshlands, and ruins, and then it does the same for camps, plus there is trio of quick and dirty weather tables. In general, the ‘Journeys’ only adds a little extra detail and the tables are limited in their number of entries. Strongholds form a major part of play in Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World, whether that is the Player Characters needing to investigate one, either to take and hold it as a base of operations or explore and scavenge its contents, or as a base of operations, work to make the surrounding area safer. ‘Rules for Strongholds’ adds to the rules found in the Player’s Handbook with a short table of events and a long table of potential servants, their personalities, and secrets. The table of events could have been much, much longer, whereas in a campaign, the Game Master will get much more out of the table of servants.

‘Potions & Poisons’ opens up a new aspect of play, especially for the Player Character with the Herbalist Talent. It allows a Player Character with this Talent to forage for herbs and with the addition of the new Alchemist Talent, him to brew and concoct various potions, tinctures, and more. There are rules here for a new function that can be added to the Player Characters’ stronghold, a Laboratory, which adds a bonus to brewing potions and poisons. In addition to the list of various alchemical potions, there is a list of poisons too, which is useful for the Poisoner Talent. There is a new rule what happens if too many potions are consumed in too short a time.

Lastly, Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts includes ‘Solo Rules’. This addition to various roleplaying games has become popular since the advent of COVID-19 and the extended periods of lockdown, enabling players to play face-to-face gaming at the table proved impossible. The rules here give the player, which of course, can be the Game Master, the means to explore the Forbidden Lands alone. The Player Character needs to be a little more powerful than a standard Player Character, and suggests that Lucky be taken as an extra General Talent. There are rules here for including a companion character, potentially a replacement Player Characters, and tables for the creating encounters and providing answers that the Player Character might have about the world around him. An ordinary deck of playing cards is required to generate the answers from what the rules call ‘Oracles’, covering simple ‘Yes/No’ questions, ‘Helpful/Hazardous’ situations, and more. As with other solo rules, the ones presented here make play more procedural than standard play and of course, they lack the capacity for roleplaying. Nevertheless, they are a useful option.

Physically, Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is a black and white book, but an absolutely fantastic-looking one. The artwork is exquisite. Otherwise, the book is very well written and easy to read.

Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is great addition to Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World and so much more than a simple bestiary. In fact, as a bestiary, it is not even simple. The monsters and creatures described are things out of nightmare and folklore, memorably menacing and dangerous. There is more to them than just encountering a gaggle of Goblins as in other roleplaying games, aided by the uncertainty of their different and random attacks, their lore, and of course, the encounter descriptions which accompany each entry. Then, there is the rest of the content in Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts—encounters, traps, alchemy and potions, and quite a lot more. Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is not just a great bestiary for Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World, but a good companion to its rules as well.

The Little Book of Death

Escape the Dark Castle: The Game of Atmospheric Adventure is about survival. About making a break from the deep dank dungeon cell you have been thrown into and working your way through the rooms and corridors of the dark castle until you can get to the main gate and escape. Of course, in between there is lots of uncertainty and plenty of death—the latter your own included, and that is all before you encounter the big Boss who will definitely try to kill you and prevent your escape. Published by Themeborne Ltd., inspired by the Fighting Fantasy series of solo adventure books and also the dark fantasy artwork of those books, Escape the Dark Castle offered plenty of replay value and variability with six Character Cards, fifty-three Chapter Cards—fifteen of which form the encounter deck, and five Boss Cards. Then of course, there are game’s three expansions: Escape the Dark Castle: Adventure Pack 1 – Cult of the Death Knight, Adventure Pack 2 – Scourge of the Undead Queen, and Adventure Pack 3 – Blight of the Plague Lord. Each of these provided players with new characters to play, a new mechanic—which meant a new challenge to overcome, new equipment, and of course, a new Boss standing in the way of the players’ escape. However, when it came to death—and there is no denying that Escape the Dark Castle is definitely about death, as well as escaping, if not more so—what neither Escape the Dark Castle, nor any of its expansions could offer was much mote than a mechanical outcome whenever a player’s character dies in the game.

The solution is The Death Book. This is a book of over one hundred death scenes, each corresponding to a particular Chapter or Boss. It is very easy to use. Whenever a character dies as a result of the vents in a Chapter or the showdown with a Boss, he checks the relevant entry in the pages of The Death Book. This is made possible because every card in Escape the Dark Castle as well as in all three of its expansions is marked with a unique code. Cross reference the code with corresponding entry in the book, whether for a Chapter or a Boss card, read out the description provided, and so provide an unfitting, but final end for your character, followed by that of everyone else.

For example, the details on the Boss card, ‘The Dark One’ reads as follows:

“Your pitiful trinkets are no match for my dark magic!”

As YOU enter the Dark One’s presence, any items YOU are carrying vaporise (other players keep theirs). Discard them now.

If a player should die in the course of this final confrontation before he and his companions, always a strong possibility in Escape the Dark Castle, he picks up The Death Book and after finding the entry for ‘The Dark One’, he reads aloud the following:

The Dark One

From the strange, clawed fingertips of The Dark One a terrible torrent of dark magic pours, crackling through the air and striking you down. The unrelenting stream intensifies, coiling around you and holding you in place like spectral chains. You roll and twist on the chamber floor, wracked with agony, foaming at the mouth. With a single motion of it staff, The Dark One sends you hurtling through the air. Your body slams into each of fellow prisoners, the impact knocking them from consciousness one by one. By an upward motion of the staff, you are now sent soaring high into the air, only to be released as The Dark One turns his back and glides out of the chamber. As quickly as rose you tumble helplessly downward, slamming to the cold stones and exploding in a shower of gore.

Your adventure ends here.

Physically, The Death Book is a neat and tidy, if plain affair. A page of introduction explains how to use the book and contains the book’s single illustration which shows where the unique code for the Chapter or Boss card is located. Then each entry has a page of its own. There is a degree of repetition to the entries, but only a little, and it really only becomes apparent when reading the book from end to end, which is not its intended use. A small and relatively slim book, The Death Book fits easily into Escape the Dark Castle: The Collector’s Box Set.

The Death Book is book of endings, but one that provides a final narrative and some context to that death. Escape the Dark Castle is an enjoyable game, but character deaths can feel little, “Is that it?”. With The Death Book, it is no longer the fact that you died, but very much how you died. Grim and ghoulish, The Death Book brings the death of every character, and with it, the game of Escape the Dark Castle to a nasty and unfortunate, but fitting end.

Friday Fantasy: The Emerald Enchanter

The green-skinned wizard known as the Emerald Enchanter has been a presence in the region for as long as anyone can remember. In recent times a number of inhabitants from nearby villages have gone missing and the clues point to him being responsible. It is feared that the Emerald Enchanter will use them as subjects in the experiments he is said to conduct. Hopefully, someone will be brave enough to make a rescue attempt. Thus, a number of brave adventurers have assembled outside the gates to his citadel, which sits atop a windy cliff, a foreboding presence over the whole of the region. This is as much set-up as there is for Dungeon Crawl Classics #69: The Emerald Enchanter, the third scenario to be published by Goodman Games for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. Designed for a group of eight to ten Second Level Player Characters, it is an important scenario for three reasons. One is that it is written by the publisher, Joseph Goodman, the second is that it is the third scenario to be written for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game and the second to be written for Player Characters who are not Zero level, and the third is that it is the first scenario for Second Level Player Characters.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #69: The Emerald Enchanter is as grim and weird and as challenging as you would expect for a scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. The scenario feels in part inspired by B1 In Search of the Unknown and ‘The Halls of Tizun Thane’ from White Dwarf Issue No. 18 reprinted in The Best of White Dwarf Scenarios) as well as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus in that it involves the home of a wizard—though not a dead one—and the creation of new constructs. The latter are not composed of the flesh of the dead, but of blocks of emerald, green gemstone. The Player Characters will quickly discover that there are two types, one rough as if an unfinished sculpture, the other exquisitely detailed it had been a living person transformed into a block of moving emerald, green gemstone. Which of course, is what it is, and what some poor victim has been transformed into after having dunked into the Transmogrification Vats in the Emerald Enchanter’s workshop. Pairs, consisting of one unfinished and one finished, can be found throughout the manse of the Emerald Enchanter. Worse, the Player Characters will discover that upon killing a finished one, it reverts back to the person they were before the Emerald Enchanter experimented upon them. Sadly, they still die, but if they can revert back, does this mean that a way can be found to reverse the process and keep them alive?

The scenario beings with the Player Characters outside the doors to the Emerald Enchanter’s citadel faced with the first of the various pairs of emerald constructs. Once inside, the path from the front door to the Emerald Enchanter’s laboratory and the final confrontation with his evil ways is quite straightforward and linear. There are some entertaining encounters on the way, such as the ‘Hall of Mosaics’ and the ‘Hall of Anguish’. The first is with a Tile Golem, which pulls itself off mosaics on the walls and can draw more tiles from the wall to heal itself, blast the Player Characters with a stream of tile shards, and even create tile beasts that can harass the party! The second is of grey rock into which the Emerald Enchanter has imprisoned his enemies as ebon spirits. Now they haunt the hall, able to reach out from the walls, floor, and ceiling to attack the Player Characters. The encounter description references the fate of Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back as to how they look, but of course, they are much, much more menacing! There is even an initial encounter with the Emerald Enchanter who comes to check on the intruders, weirdly appearing up through an emerald gemstone table. This is only a fleeting encounter, though it does offer a way to circumvent the whole of the rest of the adventure and cut straight to the final confrontation—if the Player Characters are adventurous enough to take it. If they do not, though, they are stalked by a number of bewinged, flying emerald skulls that appear and disappear out of the walls.

Before the Player Characters get to the confrontation with the Emerald Enchanter in his laboratory—fantastically illustrated with a player handout on the inside front cover—there is an encounter with the source of his power. This is a demon, long held captive in a pentagram. This is primarily a roleplaying encounter, one that can grant the Player Characters a major bonus, but oddly what it does not do, is actually help them in defeating the Emerald Enchanter. In fact, nothing does except their abilities, spells, and luck. Narratively, this is underwhelming, especially if, as given in an earlier encounter, the Player Characters could have leaped straight into the final encounter with little in way of penalties. There are elements which can be discovered to help solve aspects of the scenario, but none them of help the Player Characters defeat the Emerald Enchanter and none of them are time sensitive. The confrontation though, is fun and full of action. Roiling vats of boiling green liquid, flying emerald skulls that fire beams of deadly energy from their eyes, an automatic pulley system ferrying cages with villagers screaming in terror on their way to immersion in the nearest vat, and the Emerald Enchanter himself! If the Player Characters can defeat the Emerald Enchanter, they will be praised for their courage, and if they manage to save the villagers, they will be feted as true heroes! For the Elf or Wizard there is some decent loot too.

The scenario does have some requirements. One is the large number of players which may be difficult for some groups to get together. Alternative options are either to have a number of replacements in the event of Player Character death or increase the Player Characters from Second to Third Level. Neither are quite satisfactory. The other requirement is perhaps more important and that is the need for a spellcaster, whether a Wizard or an Elf. Since the adventure takes place in a wizard’s manse, there are numerous encounters in which items or parts of the encounter are activated by spell checks. Whilst it is possible for non-spellcasting Player Characters to attempt such checks, the probability of their succeeding each time is so low that in combination with high number that occur in the adventure means that the without an actual spellcaster, the play of the scenario is going to be much slower than the author intended.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #69: The Emerald Enchanter also includes a second scenario—‘The Emerald Enchanter Strikes Back’. This a sequel, also written for eight to ten Player Characters of Second Level, in which it revealed that they failed to kill the Emerald Enchanter, and now he roams area, enraged and bent on revenge. Only he is not on foot, but now in command of the Emerald Titan, a towering arcane colossus, in which strides the land, targeting the surrounding towns and villages in his revenge. This is a much more open scenario, primarily a mini-wilderness adventure—although the Judge might want to consult Dungeon Crawl Classics #66.5: Doom of the Savage King about one of the locations—in which the Player Characters must track down the Emerald Titan (although how difficult is to hide a thirty-foot tall emerald green robot?), gain access and deal with the Emerald Enchanter once and for all. This is a fun addition which requires a little more careful handling by the Judge as it is a wilderness adventure and bit more open.

Also, as much fun as this adventure is, and as fun as some of the things that the Emerald Titan can do to dislodge or kill the Player Characters once they are inside it, like stepping into a river to fill its legs with water and drown them, poke at them between its armour plates with splintered trees, or even pushing a bee hive through a crack, the inside of the Emerald Titan is barely described, if at all, making it feel very sparse and not really helping to emphasise the odd nature of the Player Characters’ situation. ‘The Emerald Enchanter Strikes Back’ is a great addition to Dungeon Crawl Classics #69: The Emerald Enchanter, but it just needed that bit more fleshing out.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics #69: The Emerald Enchanter is as solidly produced as you would expect for a scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. The maps are decent for both scenarios and the artwork is nicely done too.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #69: The Emerald Enchanter is a grim scenario that feels like a Hammer Horror scenario as much as it does a scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. It is playable as is, but at the same time, the Judge is left wanting more information about the Emerald Enchanter and might want to give a temporary bonus that will weaken the Emerald Enchanter if the Player Characters defeat his source of power. Other than that, Dungeon Crawl Classics #69: The Emerald Enchanter is an  entertainingly engaging and grim scenario that should really challenge the Player Characters.

Magazine Madness 31: Senet Issue 11

The gaming magazine is dead. After all, when was the last time that you were able to purchase a gaming magazine at your nearest newsagent? Games Workshop’s White Dwarf is of course the exception, but it has been over a decade since Dragon appeared in print. However, in more recent times, the hobby has found other means to bring the magazine format to the market. Digitally, of course, but publishers have also created their own in-house titles and sold them direct or through distribution. Another vehicle has been Kickststarter.com, which has allowed amateurs to write, create, fund, and publish titles of their own, much like the fanzines of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest. The resulting titles are not fanzines though, being longer, tackling broader subject matters, and more professional in terms of their layout and design.

—oOo—

Senet—named for the Ancient Egyptian board game, Senet—is a print magazine about the craft, creativity, and community of board gaming. Bearing the tagline of “Board games are beautiful”, it is about the play and the experience of board games, it is about the creative thoughts and processes which go into each and every board game, and it is about board games as both artistry and art form. Published by Senet Magazine Limited, each issue promises previews of forthcoming, interesting titles, features which explore how and why we play, interviews with those involved in the process of creating a game, and reviews of the latest and most interesting releases. Senet is also one of the very few magazines about games to actually be available for sale on the high street.

Senet Issue 11 was published in the summer of 2023. It opens with the editorial noting the death of Klaus Teuber, the designer of one of the world’s most successful board games, Settlers of Catan, and that he had hoped to interview him in the future. Of course, that is not to be, but perhaps a tribute may appear in a future issue? After that, the issue gets down to business with ‘Behold’. This is the regular preview of some of the then-forthcoming board game titles. As ever, there are some interesting titles previewed here, including Crumbs!, a mini-card game about making sandwiches and Empire’s End, a board game in which the players’ empires are beset by plagues, floods, barbarian hordes, and more. Players bid to win the least worst of the disasters, their empires suffering the effects, but also learning and growing hardier from the experience. This sounds like a fascinatingly different game from the usual treatment of empires in board games.

‘Points’, the regular column of readers’ letters, contains a mix of praise for the magazine and a discussion of gaming culture, including representation in the hobby and the appeal of co-operative games. Just four letters, so it does not seem enough. As with the previous issue, Senet Issue 10, there is scope here for expansion of this letters page to give space to more voices and readers of Senet. One way of doing that is perhaps to expand it when ‘For Love of the Game’ comes to end. This regular column continues the journey of the designer Tristian Hall towards the completion and publication of his Gloom of Kilforth. In this entry in the series, he wanders off on a tangent about game designs which could have been, including one which appeared to the designer in a dream! Just how much this is useful to anyone interested in the design process is really up for debate.

Definitely more interesting is ‘Bez in Show’ by Alexandra Sonechkina. This is the first of the two interviews in the issue and with the designer and publisher Bez Shahriari, best known for the games Yogi and the ELL deck. This gives a little of her history and goes into more detail about her design process. The process for each designer differs, more obvious perhaps if you have read the interviews with other designers in previous issues and so can compare, but as an independent designer, hers differs perhaps more than most, focusing as it does on titles and subjects that are not necessarily as commercial, but still interesting and playable. Senet always includes two interviews, one with with a designer and one with an artist. Dan Jolin’s interview with the artist in this issue is with Adrian Smith. He has created art for publishers such as CMON and Games Workshop, specialising in Science Fiction and Horror. ‘Gods and Monsters’ showcases Smith’s artwork for Zombicide, Cthulhu: Death May Die, Rising Sun, and many more. Each piece is accompanied by a commentary from the artist to enjoyable effect.

In addition to the interview with an artist and a designer, each issue of Senet also includes one article examining a theme and a mechanic. Senet Issue 11 is no exception. ‘Sowing the Seeds’ is both an examination of a mechanic and an exploration of the proliferation and spread of a particular. The mechanic is ‘count and capture’ or ‘sow and harvest’ in which a player picks up seeds from one of his pits and sows them one at a time in the adjacent pits, aiming for certain objectives. The objectives will vary according to the different game variations, but they are all based upon Mancala. This is said to have originated in either Africa or Southeast Asia, but has subsequently spread around the world via various trade routes. It is perhaps one of the oldest of games and one of the oldest mechanics, but has been revisited by designers in more recent years. Most well known is Five Tribes, in which players manipulate the placement of the members of five different Arabian tribes and Trajan, an area control and set collection game set in Rome which uses a rondel (a mechanic previously examined in Senet Issue 5). More recent designs have used the mechanic for gunslinging duels as in A Fistful of Meeples and even improving links to attract supplicants to English abbeys in Pilgrim. This is a fascinating article which puts Mancala under the spotlight and engagingly explores its more modern applications.

Equally as interesting is ‘Power Play’. Written by Matt Thrower, this is the theme article in the issue, which is politics. It begins with The Landlord Game, which has today been transmogrified into Monopoly and its many variants, before coming up to date with SHASN, an Indian design which explores ideology in general elections and even Brexit: The Board Game of Second Chances, which examines the absurdities of that vote. In between, looks at political games with focuses big and small, the latter including games around the Suffragette movement, including the more recent Votes for Women, whilst the former includes Twilight Struggle, a game which covers the whole of the Cold War. Parodies and polemics are also covered, such as the less than serious Kremlin and the more then serious designs from Brenda Romero, such as Train, though it is as much an art piece and thought exercise rather than actual game. Both ‘Power Play’ and ‘Sowing the Seeds’ explore fascinating aspects of the gaming hobby, but in both cases do feel as if there is much more to be said about both. Especially political games. One sub-genre of the political game is only touched upon briefly here with 1960: The Making of the President and that is games about the U.S. election. The repetitive nature of the American election cycle means that designers often return to the subject. Not necessarily every election, but certainly often enough to warrant a whole article of its own.

‘Unboxed’, Senet’s reviews section covers a wide range of games. This incudes Verdant, a drafting and placement game about houseplants; Till The Last Gasp, a two-player skirmish game which involves elements of roleplaying; and even a reissue with Cranium 25th Anniversary Edition. ‘Senet’s top choice’ is Frosthaven, a sequel to Gloomhaven, which offers even more game play. Of course, Senet cannot cover every board game being released, but this is a good selection.

As is traditional, Senet Issue 11 comes to a close with the regular end columns, ‘How to Play’ and ‘Shelf of Shame’. For ‘Confessions of a bad board gamer’, James Lewis explains why it does not matter that he is not a good player when it comes to board games. What he means is that he is not a good player at winning games, rather than being a poor player in social terms. He even points out that games need losers as well as winners. At the same time, he makes clear that when not winning, he is actually learning about the game and how it can be won. All very obvious, but it is still an entertaining enough piece. Danielle Standring, takes Mechs vs Minions off her ‘Shelf of Shame’ and discovers that she enjoys it enough to want to play again, and so brings the issue to a close.

Physically, Senet Issue 11 is very professionally presented. However, it does need an edit in places, but otherwise looks and feels as good as previous issues of the magazine. Oddly, the cover with Lady Liberty rolling dice does suggest that issue include some roleplaying content, since the dice are polyhedral dice more associated with that hobby rather than board games. There is no roleplaying content in the issue though.

Senet Issue 11 is an enjoyable read, made all the better for two excellent articles. These are ‘Sowing the Seeds’ on the influence of Mancala and ‘Power Play’ on politics in games. The latter though, does feel as if it barely scratches the surface and could have been much, much longer. Together they are worth the price of picking up Senet Issue 11, whilst everything else in the issue is a bonus.

North Sea Nasties

Achtung! Cthulhu is the roleplaying game of fast-paced pulp action and Mythos magic published by Modiphius Entertainment. It is pitches the Allied Agents of the Britain’s Section M, the United States’ Majestic, and the brave Resistance into a Secret War against those Nazi Agents and organisations which would command and entreat with the occult and forces beyond the understanding of mankind. They are willing to risk their lives and their sanity against malicious Nazi villains and the unfathomable gods and monsters of the Mythos themselves, each striving for supremacy in mankind’s darkest yet finest hour! Yet even the darkest of drives to take advantage of the Mythos is riven by differing ideologies and approaches pandering to Hitler’s whims. The Black Sun consists of Nazi warrior-sorcerers supreme who use foul magic and summoned creatures from nameless dimensions to dominate the battlefields of men, whilst Nachtwölfe, the Night Wolves, utilise technology, biological enhancements, and wunderwaffen (wonder weapons) to win the war for Germany. Ultimately, both utilise and fall under the malign influence of the Mythos, the forces of which have their own unknowable designs…

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Vanguard is designed for a group of Player Characters who have one or two basic adventures under their collective belt, likely Achtung! Cthulhu Quickstart: A Quick Trip to France. In ‘A Quick Trip to France’, the Agents were assigned to investigate the activities of a Black Sun Master in the village of Saint Sulae, southwest of the city of Rouen. That mission takes place in June, 1940, merely weeks after the invasion of the Low Countries and the fall of France. Barely two months pass and in August, 1940, the Agents are sent on another mission into enemy occupied territory. This time, the Netherlands. As the country’s general populace begins to adjust to the shock of being invaded, the newly formed resistance has already begun to report to London where Queen Wilhelmina and her government are now in exile. These reports percolate throughout the various offices and departments of British intelligence, the odder stories ignored by all except Section M. One such report is from the small Dutch fishing town of Nermegen and tells of a strange installation being constructed at both St. Olaf’s lighthouse and on the nearby Skellen Island and of the presence in the town of Nachtwölfe. The rivals to the Black Sun, they are likely just as dangerous. For Section M, this is the first known sighting of the Night Wolves, and it wants it confirmed by the Agents. Their mission to travel by submarine to the Dutch coast and make landfall by folding canoes. There, they are to make contact with the local Resistance movement, avoid all contact with the German garrison, investigate Nachtwölfe activities in and around Nermegen, before proceeding to Skellen Island and determining what the secret organisation is up to. Any and all intelligence is to be gathered with expediency.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Vanguard is a straightforward mission and scenario. The Agents are first given some training in the use of the folboat—or folding canoe, used in Operation Frankton and made famous by the film, The Cockleshell Heroes—and the Player Characters the basic skill in them as a nice bonus, before the mission begins. The process of the mission is presented in some detail, including making contact with the Resistance and gathering rumours about the Nazi activities in and around the town, the latter of which will lead to another location on the coast where Nachtwölfe was seen operating and a local drunken fisherman who might know a lot more than they had imagined! Ultimately, this should prime the Agents to investigate first St. Olaf’s lighthouse and then nearby Skellen Island. Both locations are fortified, the scenario including full details of the defences and the enemy numbers stationed at both. For the most part, stealth is probably the most useful skill that the Player Characters will need as a full out assault will alert the garrison and any Nachtwölfe nearby. That will change once the Agents are on Skellen Island and have broken into the base there, ‘Installation 41’, a big bruising fight the likelihood, helped by some unexpected allies.

If the players have been paying attention, by the time their Agents get into ‘Installation 41’, they will have some idea of whatever it is that Nachtwölfe is up to, it involves the Deep Ones. The latter are a major faction in the Secret War, and just as Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Vanguard is designed as the first encounter that the players and their Agents have with Nachtwölfe, it also their first with any other faction of the Secret War. The likelihood is that the Agents are not going to be able to communicate with the Deep Ones—an option that the scenario does not really explore—but they are going to see them in action against the scientists and soldiers of Nachtwölfe. There is the option to add more Deep Ones if the Agents are floundering, but either way, the best way to run this fight is for the players to roll for the Deep Ones as well as their Agents, so as to keep the action flowing and the Game Master from rolling for too many NPCs.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Vanguard does involve Nachtwölfe, though not necessarily the key to its power and the means to power its many advanced weapons of war, the vibrantly blue Blauer Kristall. This and the fact that it takes place in August, 1940, means that it takes place after the events of the campaign, Achtung! Cthulhu: Shadows of Atlantis, which ends in May or June of that year. It could be run as a sequel, but it could also be shifted to earlier in the war and countries under German occupation that bit earlier. Denmark and Norway are good candidates and if used, Operation Vanguard could be run during April 1940. If the Game Master decides not to run Achtung! Cthulhu: Shadows of Atlantis,or is running for different group of Agents, then she can simply run this scenario as is.

Physically, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Vanguard is cleanly and tidily laid out. It is not illustrated, but the maps of the various locations are decently done.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Vanguard feels inspired by Operation Biting, the 1942 raid to capture German radar equipment from near the village of Bruneval in Normandy. Then again, it could been inspired by any number of World War 2 films or commando missions! Overall, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Vanguard combines a good mix of the Mythos and the military and is a solid stealth and assault mission that includes a little investigation as well.

Weirder Wonders

Wilden Falls is a nice town. It is surrounded by rich forest and sits on a lake with a waterfall that brings tourists all summer long. Out on Route 767 stands the Osterman Labs Research Facility, but it has been closed since the sixties and nobody goes there. The kids of the middle school and the high school get to enjoy the countryside and time to ride their bikes or drive their cars, free of parental supervision for much of the time. Located in the Pacific North West, the town also has a Mines & Mining Museum dedicated to the region’s played out silver mines, KWF Radio on which DJ Cherry Kilbourne plays the latest hits, Camp Whispering Pines where all sorts of fun activities take place over the summer—except five years ago when that terrible thing happened that nobody talks about, and when the kids get bored, there is the Pastimes Amusement Arcade where all the latest video games can be played for a quarter at a time and Sal’s Video where the newest releases on VHS can be hired for the night. Though you may have to wait until next year for the release of Spirits of Manhattan and Montana Drones and the Raiders of the Cutty Sark. This is the eighties, the best time for any kid to have an adventure and also the setting for Strange Science. This is a scenario and mini-supplement for ACE!—or the Awfully Cheerful Engine!—the roleplaying game of fast, cinematic, action comedy. Published by EN Publishing, best known for the W.O.I.N. or What’s Old is New roleplaying System, as used in Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD and Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, the scenario is primarily intended as a one-shot, film night special.

Strange Science is inspired by all of the kids in peril adventures of the nineteen eighties. The Goonies, Weird Science, and Back to the Future, with just a suspicion of Twin Peaks, Stranger Things, Eerie, Indiana, and A Town Called Eureka. Like all of the supplements for ACE!, it very much wears its inspirations on its sleeve, but as much a player may find it just a little too familiar, he will also find the genre and setting very easy to grasp. Wilden Falls itself is quite nicely detailed, including all of the notables places in town and in its surrounds that all together capture the feel of small town America. The set-up is also flexible in that the Player Characters can be either Middle School kids or High School kids and Strange Science and its adventure, also called ‘Strange Science’ can run without any changes. All that changes is the age of the children and just how aware of the world they are. What does not change are the roles that the Player can be. There are six, consisting of Brain, Cheerleader, Outsider, Protector, Radio Presenter, and Tycoon. These are classic archetypes of the ‘kids in peril’ genre.

As with other releases for ACE!, the eponymously named adventure in Strange Science, is a three-act affair. It specifically begins in April, 1984, when odd things begin happening at the school. There is the arrival of an odd new pupil, ‘Steve Twentyseven’, the replacement of the regular science teacher, Mr. Goodall, with a substitute teacher, and a van turning up outside the school handing out free protein shakes. Fortunately, the protein shakes taste of sprouts and cayenne pepper, so are positively disgusting and no kid in their right mind would drink one of them. Plus they look like snot. If Steve Twentyseven acts oddly, then his parents—dad ‘Steve Radioshow’ and mom ‘Steve BakingSoda’—are even weirder... Investigating the ‘Steve’ family will lead to the mall, revelations as to what is going on, a lot of exposition, and some time travel. This is back to 1884 and the town of Wildenville where with the help of the missing Mr. Goodall, the kids can prevent what is going on in the future and hopefully get back to that future. Sadly, this does not involve a steam train or shouts of “Great scot!”

‘Strange Science’ is a surprisingly lengthy and detailed adventure that will take two or three sessions to complete. For the most part, the scenario is very obviously inspired by its source material and the Game Master and her players should embrace wholeheartedly the eighties it depicts. However, given the lack of a DeLorean, the Player Characters need another way to travel back into the past, which is to have their minds cast back rather than their bodies. When this happens, their minds occupy the bodies of the men and women of Wildenville, which should lead to some roleplaying opportunities as the children of 1984 suddenly find themselves occupying the bodies of adults of 1884!

Written as a one-shot, Strange Science does include some notes on how to expand it. These are brief, but include adding in supernatural elements and possible sequel and crossover with Spirits of Manhattan. These are only suggestions though and the Game Master would need to develop and write it on her own.

Physically, Strange Science is a bright and breezy affair. The artwork is decent and the supplement is well written.

Strange Science is not a ground-breaking or even a great adventure, but then it is not trying to be. It is a little supplement and scenario that delivers exactly what it promises—eighties nostalgia, plus plenty of weirdness and a mystery that only the kids of small town America can see and solve. This is a great little combination that will be fun to play and fun to go back to if it gets the sequels it deserves.