Friday Fantasy: Hidden Hand of the Horla

In ages past there stood on the edge of the kingdom the dwelling of a great wizard. He was known as the Hand Mage, for the tower in which he experimented and hoarded his magics and his treasures was purportedly shaped like an open hand. After standing at the edge of the kingdom for many years, the Hand Mage’s Tower disappeared without reason and without a trace. Of course, the Hand Mage being a wizard meant that there were rumours that he had offended the gods and cast into hell or that the pact he had made with a demon for his powers had run its course and he was paying his due, likely having also been cast into hell. It has been so long since the disappearance of the Hand Mage’s Tower that it has passed into legend, a mere footnote in the history of the kingdom and some sage’s dusty notes. Now though, the Hand Mage’s Tower has reappeared exactly where it once stood. Where has it been? Is the Hand Mage still inside? If not, what has happened to him, let alone the tower itself? And can his secrets and treasures be found within its walls?

This is the set-up for Module T1 – Hidden Hand of the Horla, a short, but detailed scenario for use with Old School Essentials, Necrotic Gnome’s interpretation and redesign of the 1981 revision of Basic Dungeons & Dragons by Tom Moldvay and its accompanying Expert Set by Dave Cook and Steven M. Marsh. It is published by Appendix N Entertainment and is part of the publisher’s ‘Gateway to Adventure’ series of supplements. What this means is that adheres to an ‘Old School’ ethos in terms of its design. So, there will be encounters and threats in the adventure that will be too challenging to defeat or overcome for the Player Characters of the Level that it was written for, although there is nothing to prevent players using lateral thought or cunning; traps and puzzles rely on the players solving them rather than a mere roll of the dice; player creativity is encouraged; and adventures are designed as toolkits with scope for the game Master to develop details during play. Certainly, this applies to Module T1 – Hidden Hand of the Horla, as there is one threat which will be difficult for the Player Characters to defeat.

Module T1 – Hidden Hand of the Horla is designed for Player Characters of First to Third Level, and can be easily slotted into a campaign and played through in a session or two. It uses Dyson Logos’ ‘The Stone Sinister’ as the map of the Hand Mage’s Tower and includes new monsters and new spells. What brings the Player Characters to the Hand Mage’s Tower is essentially treasure, which feels rather drab. The adventure includes a table of rumours, but most of them are not very interesting either. What is interesting is that the Player Characters are not the only ones with an interest in the tower. A tribe of Chaotic Goat Folk, led by the shaman, Sha’aazra’aak, are set on looting the tower for its magical treasures and will already have been in the tower for a number of days before the Player Characters and barricaded the most obvious entrance. The scenario includes a table of options for what the Goat Folk have done and what they are up to. This is to make the scenario replayable, but it is debatable as to how replayable the scenario actually is, given the fact that the whole scenario consists of a tower with thirteen locations and four options in terms of Goat Folk actions. Plus, the tower is shaped like a hand, so it is highly memorable and if the Game Master really has to give a good reason why the characters would want to return to the Hand Mage’s Tower, let alone the players play through it again.

In fact, there is a reason why the Player Characters might want to return to the Hand Mage’s Tower, but it requires a magical item which enables control of the tower and which the scenario only mentions, but does not detail, and finding that magical item lies very much outside the scope of the adventure. Of course, in the event that the Player Characters obtain this item, by the time they return to the Hand Mage’s Tower, it will have changed as the Goat Folk will no longer there and the Player Characters will have looted all of its valuables previously. Now perhaps a table of motivations and hooks beyond simply looking for treasure could have supported the scenario actually being replayable, but again, as written, highly debatable.

Once the Game Master has decided upon what the Goat Folk are doing, the Hand Mage’s Tower is nicely detailed with particular attention paid to the Hand Mage’s working areas. Careful investigation of these will reveal some of what happened to the Hand Mage before he disappeared and thorough searches will uncover plenty of treasure to take away if the Player Characters came equipped for haulage! In fact, the Hand Mage’s Tower is a treasure in its own right. Claiming it though means facing the true danger that lies hidden in the tower and then the Game Master developing the means to take control outside of the adventure itself. This danger lies behind the scenario’s big puzzle—depicted very nicely in the scenario’s on handout—and is insidiously nasty. This is the Horla, based on the short story ‘Le Horla’, published in 1887 by the French author, Guy de Maupassant. An invisible creature, it will attempt to possess a Player Character and then proceed, in the long term, to betray and kill the rest of the party. This then, is the threat that the Player Characters are unlikely to be able to overcome at their Level, merely be lucky enough to make a successful Saving Throw to avoid being possessed. That said, destroying the Horla may be a good reason for the Player Characters to return to the Hand Mage’s Tower. Of course, handling the possession and roleplaying the betrayal requires careful play upon the part of both Game Master and players.

In addition to the scenario, Module T1 – Hidden Hand of the Horla includes three appendices. In turn, these detail the various monsters in the adventure, such as Animated Books and Winged Vipers as well as the Goat Folk and the Horla; a selection of spells with a hand-theme, like Mage Hand, Forceful Hand, and Crushing Hand, with a guide to spells beyond Sixth Level (and thus outside the scope of Old School Essentials); and a list of Inspirational Media. The latter does include ‘Le Horla’ alongside Twin Peaks and Diary of a Madman.

Physically, Module T1 – Hidden Hand of the Horla is very nicely presented. The layout is clean and tidy, and the artwork is good as well. Naturally, the cartography is excellent. The adventure does need an edit in places.

Module T1 – Hidden Hand of the Horla is a toolkit in that it will need working into a campaign given that it has consequences beyond the limits of the Hand Mage’s Tower and it really does need a hook or three to get the Player Characters involved beyond mere treasure hunting. Further, its claims of replayability are dubious at best as written and so again, will require some development upon the part of the Game Master. Module T1 – Hidden Hand of the Horla is a decent mini-scenario, an easy to run introductory adventure, though one which does have a sting in its tale that needs careful handling.

The Other OSR: Summer’s End and Other One-Page Adventures

A mountain infested with rival bandits, a tomb to a saint and a tree of swords on which hangs the saint’s sword, and a giant with stolen horn that can cause avalanches. A lake whose goddess gives swords to high kings, yet there has been no high king in an age, on whose shores stands a fortress commanded by a corrupt captain and manned by a soldiery whose swords have been stolen and who are preparing for mutiny, whilst a Gelatinous King lurks in the nearby forest. A patch of sea shrouded in fog and marked by four islands, one a ships’ graveyard, the second a pirate port, the third home to a sea serpent, and the fourth a tower of friendly and inquisitive liches, and three pirate crews each with three parts of a treasure map! A desert ruled from a city drawn on skids by a giant across the sands hunted by a Crawling Citadel which slides forward one black monolith at a time. A swamp dotted with shipwrecks and infested with swamp zombies, and home to six witches feuding over which one of them should be ‘The Swamp Witch’. These are just some of the entries in Summer’s End and Other One-Page Adventures, an anthology of adventures for Knave, Second Edition, the Old School Renaissance-style microclone published by Questing Beast.

Summer’s End and Other One-Page Adventures contains a total of twelve different adventures, or rather adventure sites. In fact, technically, they are not one-page adventures, since each one encompasses two pages rather than one. They consist of six wilderness adventures and six dungeons, all independent of each other and each easily dropped into a Game Master’s own setting or just run as is. This applies to the six wilderness adventures especially, since each is a self-contained six-mile-wide hex, which means that if the Game Master has an appropriate spot on her campaign map and the surrounding terrain matches, she can simply drop one of the wilderness adventures onto that map. After that, as with the dungeons, all that Game Master has to do is sow some links and rumours into her wider setting and any one of the dozen entries is ready to be visited by the Player Characters.

All twelve entries in the anthology are written in the same style and laid out in the same fashion. The map—whether hex or dungeon—is placed at the centre. Then individual location descriptions are threaded around the map like a border with arrows to mark the particular locations. Sometimes there is an overview of the dungeon or hex, sometimes not. Those with summaries are easier to grasp than those without, but to be fair, none of the entries in the anthology are difficult to prepare. This is, of course, intentional, since Knave, Second Edition is intended to be played from off the page with a minimum of preparation. And really, a two-page spread does require all that much in the way of preparation anyway.

Summer’s End and Other One-Page Adventures opens with a fairly basic wilderness hex. The eponymous ‘Summer’s End’ presents a mountain on which the tomb of a saint stands, whilst the sword he wielded is stuck into the nearby Tree of Swords. Rangers hunt the wilds for a group of bandits, which has split into two groups—one of warriors and one of alchemists, and a giant lurks in a ruined tower coveting the great horn he has discovered, which if he ever blew into, would cause an avalanche! It is simple and straightforward, with the Game Master only needing to add hooks such as bounties on the bandits’ heads, a pilgrimage to the saint’s tomb, and so on. Turn the page and the hexes get a lot more sophisticated. For example, ‘The Raiders of Wolfsea’ details a fog-shrouded archipelago of pirate infested islands, a ships’ graveyard strewn with gold watched over by screeching harpies, an island containing a tower of very happy and inquisitive liches, and a pirate port riven by the rivalry between three pirate collectives, each of whom possesses one part of treasure map. The waters are the Wolfsea are dangerous enough with just the pirates, but they are also hunted by Fog Wolves which prey on any ship and Tempest the sea serpent, who likes to disrupt the doings of pirates and harpies (and Player Characters) for his own amusement. ‘The Wizards of Sparrowkeep’ would have a bucolic feel to it, were it not for the fact that the area is home to four wizard’s towers, whose occupants all vie for the affection of the local witch who lives in the woods nearby. What each wizard does each day and what spells he learns each day is randomly determined, but it is all in pursuit of the witch and stopping the pursuit of his rivals and it is all disrupting life and work in the nearby town. The noble in charge of the area wants the petty feud to stop, each of the wizards wants to prove that his love is worthy of the witch, and the witch…? It is a great little set-up that lends itself to some fun portrayals of the NPCs by the Game Master and some good player-driven action.

‘The Alchemist’s Repose’ is the first of the dungeons in Summer’s End and Other One-Page Adventures and needs a little more preparation upon the part of the Game Master as the complex is patrolled and worked by a series of constructs which are programmed by simple punch cards. This gives it a slight Steampunk feel, but also a puzzle element as the Player Characters discover the punchcards and begin to work out how they are used. ‘The Lair of the Keymaster’ also has a puzzle element, this time consisting of locks and keys behind secret doors that the Player Characters need to find and open if they are to open a vault containing the Keymaster’s greatest secret, the schematics to the ‘Lock Absolute’. Which of course, any king or thief would be willing to pay handsomely to obtain (or steal) these plans. ‘Drums in the Deep’ is a mini-sewer crawl, home to a spider so high on hallucinogenic fungus his skin ripples in mesmerising colour, a mini-cult whose members paint themselves as skeletons, and want to summon the King of Nails, whilst a blind sewer squid lurks in the murky effluence that flows through the sewers. There are also three missing teenagers, which is why the Player Characters have descended into the sewer. This is a much simpler affair, easy to slip under any big town or city.

Some of the dungeons do defy description, such as ‘The Hollow Prince’, a temple complex dedicated to something named the ‘Hollow Prince’. Although there is a lot of lovely detail to the various rooms and consequences of the Player Characters’ actions, quite what is going on in the complex is never explained. Whilst it is fine to mystify the players and their characters, it is arguably not so fine as to leave the Game Master also mystified. Without some kind of hook—obvious or not, ‘The Hollow Prince’ is just that much harder to add to a game.

Physically, Summer’s End and Other One-Page Adventures is a good-looking book. The layout is clean and simple, the big bold maps for each of the adventures dominating every two-page spread and working like artwork as much as they do maps. The cartography varies in style throughout, but in general is very good, although the wilderness hexes are the better of maps.

Summer’s End and Other One-Page Adventures is great collection of adventures and locations, really stripped down to fit neatly into two pages, but still offering a lot of good game play and adventure right off those pages without needing to refer to anything else. In general, the wilderness hexes are better than the dungeons, offering more plot and story, and whilst they are written for use with Knave, Second Edition, the minimal nature of the stats and the minimal number of stats, means that there is hardly another retroclone or Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying game that Summer’s End and Other One-Page Adventures would not work with and work well with.

Miskatonic Monday #335: Ectoplasmorphia

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—

Name: Ectoplasmorphia

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Hyacinth

Setting: USA, 1926

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Twenty page, 3.22 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Two houses, one plot, never the twain

Plot Hook: Lost outside two lonely houses, which do they enter?

Plot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, three handouts, and one map.

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Haunted house mystery

# Easy to adjust to other eras for Call of Cthulhu

# Taxidermiphobia

# Zoophobia

# Dysergia

Cons

# Why are the pre-generated Investigators together?
# More haunted house mystery than a Mythos one

# Two locations for the same scenario, once a location is chosen, the other cannot be reached, so does it actually matter?

Conclusion

# Decently done haunted house horror

# Sadly, no Hoots Mon There’s A Moose Loose Aboot This Hoose

Miskatonic Monday #334: The Bristol Train Robbery

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—

Name: The Bristol Train Robbery

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Chicho ‘Arkashka’ OCARIZ

Setting: London and Reading, 1843

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Thirty-four page, 8.12 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: The great mummy robbery

Plot Hook: One of our mummies is missing!

Plot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, eight handouts, one map, five NPCs, one Mythos tome, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Scenario for Cthulhu by Gaslight

# Decent transport-based investigation

# Easy to adjust to other ‘Mummy mania’ eras for Call of Cthulhu

# Inspired by The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton

# Pharaohphobia

# Siderodromophobia

# Kinemortophobia

Cons

# Needs an edit
# More an occult scenario than a Mythos one

# Inspired by The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton, but no train action!

Conclusion

# Investigation into a train robbery, but without any train action

# Decently detailed investigation that is more Mummy than Mythos

Hope Reborn

Back in 1991, R. Talsorian Games, Inc. published Tales From The Forlorn Hope. This was not one, but three things. First, it was a special edition of the in-game magazine, Solo of Fortune, detailing a bar in Night City founded by veterans of the Central American Wars that provided a hangout, a sanctuary, and a refuge for themselves, other Solos, and Cops from 2011 onwards. Second, it was a setting supplement for Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0., one which the Edgerunners can turn into a base of operations for themselves. Third, it was an anthology of missions for Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. suitable for Edgerunners who visit the bar often or even find a home there, enabling them to interact with the regulars, many of whom are featured in the Solo of Fortune Special Edition. That though was in 2011 and a lot has happened in the decades since. What of The Forlorn Hope in 2045, in the Time of the Red?

Tales of the RED: Hope Reborn is a supplement for Cyberpunk Red: The Roleplaying Game of the Dark Future that brings the history of The Forlorn Hope up to date before presenting a whole new chapter that will involve the Edgerunners in first losing and then restoring hope and happiness. This is in the form of a six-part campaign which does two things. One is provide the means for the Edgerunners to effect change, if only at a small scale, and the other is to provide a street level campaign.

The six parts of the campaign are organised as is standard for scenarios for Cyberpunk RED. Each opens with a plot flowchart and then with a ‘Rumours’ table, which as the campaign progresses, begins to work in events that occurred previously and the Edgerunners will have been involved in, as well as hinting at what is to come. It is followed by the ‘Background’ to the scenario, which can be read out to the players, and ‘The Rest of the Story’ for the Game Master’s eyes only, as is ‘The Setting’ and ‘The Opposition’. ‘The Hook’ describes how the Edgerunners get involved, ‘Developments’ and ‘Climax’ detail the individual beats, whilst ‘Resolution’ provides options on how the scenario comes to end depending on whether or not the Edgerunners succeed or fail. ‘Downtime’ covers what the Edgerunners can do between missions and even prepare for the next one. In addition, there is general advice on running the campaign, which suggests that the Game Master uses look for possible hooks in the Edgerunners’ Lifepaths, created during character generation, to tie one or more of them into The Forlorn Hope. Despite both of this explanation and advice, what Tales of the RED: Hope Reborn does lack is an overview of the campaign and an explanation of what is going on. What this means is that the Game Master does not really learn who the antagonists of the campaign are until she reads about them in the campaign itself, which makes it just a little bit more difficult to prepare. All six chapters include an indication of their running time.

What Tales of the RED: Hope Reborn does include is ‘A Tale Of Hope’ by William Moss. Told through the eyes of Aurora ‘Rory’ O’Reilly, livecasting journalist and daughter of C.J. O’Reilly, the famed Solo of Fortune journalist who wrote the original special edition, this introduces The Forlorn Hope and gives its history from its founding in 2011 to 2045 as well as its notable staff and clientele. Now only part of The Forlorn Hope is mapped at this point—and it is the only part that the campaign itself requires—so if the Game Master does want to connect the Edgerunners to the bar before the campaign itself begins, then she will need access to a copy of Tales From The Forlorn Hope.

The campaign itself opens with ‘The Angel’s Share’ by Eddy Webb. Co-owner of The Forlorn Hope, Marianne Freeman, asks the Edgerunners to help with an ‘XBD’, or ‘Extreme Brain Dance’ Dealer, who is threatening her staff and family after she kicked out of the bar for attempting to sell his wares to her customers. She wants them to put him out of business, rather than killed. It is a simple straightforward job, but when the Egderunners return, the action and the campaign switches up a gear. What they hear—and find—when they get back is that The Forlorn Hope has blown up! The Egderunners have another fight on their hands, this time to rescue those still trapped in the rubble of The Forlorn Hope. This is literally handled as a fight, which does feel odd, but it is actually topped off by an actual fight as allies of the ‘XBD’ dealer take their revenge. The rescue attempt is against the clock so the first part of campaign has a frantic feel and pace.

Although The Forlorn Hope is no more, the owners decide they will rebuild and this is the thrust of the campaign proper and asks the Edgerunners to help. This leads into a couple of fun chapters in which the Edgerunners first find a new location and then conduct a long-term reconnaissance of the neighbourhood. In ‘Real Estate Rumble’ by Paris Arrowsmith and Tracie Hearne, the Edgerunners get to work for a property dealer by the name of Jack Skorkowsky as he tries to find Marianne Freeman a suitable new site. Skorkowsky’s properties have been beset by a series of pranks and odd occurrences which are impeding work on them. If the players and their Edgerunners have played scenarios from Tales of the RED: Street Stories and Cyberpunk RED Data Pack, they will likely recognise the threat here. By the end, Jack Skorkowsky will have found a property, enabling the Edgerunners to move into the area in Linda Evans’ ‘Welcome to the Neighbourhood’ and check it out. There are some really fun little encounters here, such as having to rescue a drunken student trapped in the giant leaves of a carnivorous plant being grown as an experiment by the Biotechnica and having to be an emergency replacement team to play the local Roller Derby team. All of these embody the street level nature of the campaign and do so very well.

The preparation for the opening of The Forlorn Hope anew, begins with Melissa Wong’s ‘The Devil’s Cut’. This is a classic heist style scenario in which the Edgerunners go to work for a veteran conman in an attempt to recover some bottles of genuine alcohol, which she believes have been stolen by a special operation run by the local office of a corporation and are being auctioned off. The Edgerunners have to investigate the operation and its staff, plan the heist, infiltrate the launch party—because of course, there is a launch party—and make off with the bottles of alcohol. Lastly—or rather penultimately—‘Hope’s Calling!!!’ by Chris Spivey takes the Edgerunners through the preparation proper for the reopening of The Forlorn Hope. They are taken on by the bar as combination roadies, techies, gophers, and security going through a checklist of things that Marianne wants addressing. This includes getting the right cocktail ingredients, technical checks, and more. As they work on checking these, the Edgerunners discover that someone is actually attempting to sabotage the opening night, so it becomes a race to both undo the efforts of the saboteurs and identify who they are. As soon as they manage that, it is time for the opening night. The Edgerunners’ efforts to undo the sabotage will play an unexpectedly big role in this as the bad guys make a direct assault on The Forlorn Hope. This plays out as a cross between a massive brawl and firefight, which is essentially a make-or-break night for The Forlorn Hope. It has its own mechanic for handling this mass combat, which is kept fairly simple, with plenty of room for player input and room for them to sway the fight.

Although ‘Hope’s Calling!!!’ feels very much like the end of the campaign, it actually is not. In Frances Stewart’s ‘Ripping the Ripper’, the Edgerunners are asked to take revenge on the people who actually blew up the original The Forlorn Hope. This requires them to sneak into ‘The Hot Zone’, the geographical centre of Night City where the tactical nuclear device was detonated almost atop Arasaka Towers and triggered the events of the Time of the Red, and either set the perpetrator up or gun him down! How the Edgerunners go about it is up to the players, but they need to do it without The Forlorn Hope itself being blamed for it. It is a solid ending to the campaign.

One consequence of Tales of the RED: Hope Reborn being a street level campaign, is that the Edgerunners are kept away from the wider plot. That is, who targeted The Forlorn Hope for destruction and who wants the new bar to fail? Neither are connected and neither become apparent until the last chapters of the campaign. How much of an issue this is, really depends on the players, and how much umbrage they might feel at being sidelined from what would be the main plots—or plots—in any other campaign. Essentially, what is really going on is that Edgerunners who are better and more experienced than those of the players are dealing with them. However, the players being players are likely to want answers to those questions and so the Game Master might want to have some answers and some updates as to what is going on and the owners and staff of The Forlorn Hope have learned.

Tales of the RED: Hope Reborn comes to a close with an Appendix of new rules. They include rules for ‘Hacking Agents’, ‘Vehicle Chases’, ‘Roller Derby’, ‘Flash of Luck’, and ‘Headquarters’. The majority of these are fairly general in their application and thus have life beyond the pages of the campaign. ‘Hacking Agents’ enables Netrunners and Techs to remotely hack the devices that everyone carries in the Time of the Red, so opening up options in accessing security and information and so on as well as increasing the versatility of both Roles. ‘Vehicle Chases’ are quick and dirty rules for handling chases and complement the rules for vehicle combat in Cyberpunk RED, relying primarily on Edgerunner Drive skill. The rules cover standard manoeuvres as well as ramming and passenger actions that can help the person behind the wheel. ‘Flash of Luck’ brings a narrative element into play, letting a player spend his Edgerunner’s Luck Points to retroactively bring items and events into play to provide an advantage when the unexpected occurs and so prevent heists, infiltration, and con jobs from becoming extended planning sessions rather than actually playing them through. Playing them out as flashbacks is optional, of course, but whilst ‘Flash of Luck’ is designed to work with the heist of ‘The Devil’s Cut’, it will also work in other situations too.

Other new rules are designed to work with the various Jobs in the campaign and are thus quite specific. ‘Headquarters’ is designed for the long term. It enables the Edgerunners to build their own base of operation, spending Improvement Points earned as a group to add things like an Evidence Wall, Medbay, or Server Room. There is advice too on how to use The Forlorn Hope as a base of operations, Improvement Points being spent to buy ready access to the bar’s facilities rather than actually build them. The oddest rules are for ‘Roller Derby’. They detail how to play the sport which takes centre stage in the ‘Wheels on Fire’ Job from the ‘Welcome To The Neighbourhood’ chapter of the campaign. These allow the Game Master and her players to play out their Edgerunners’ participation in that Job, but they could be useful in other ways. They could be used to handle street battles or chases on skates, but they could also be used as the basis for a campaign in which the Edgerunners actually form their own Roller Derby team!

Physically, Tales of the RED: Hope Reborn is well presented and organised, although it does lack an index. For the most part, the artwork is excellent and the cartography is good.

Although it does feel a little clumsy in places in terms of its mechanics, Tales of the RED: Hope Reborn provides a really fun street level campaign that offers a good mix of roleplaying, combat, and technical challenges, a variety of really different missions and jobs that will keep the players on their toes, and ultimately the opportunity for the players and their Edgerunners to really make a difference. Tales of the RED: Hope Reborn is an impressive first campaign for Cyberpunk RED that delivers on what it promises to do.

RuneQuest Classics: Sun County

Although Avalon Hill published RuneQuest III in 1984 and would work with Chaosium, Inc. for another four, the publisher, best known for its wargames rather than its roleplaying games, would not release any new material for the setting of Glorantha for seven years. The combination of a new company head and a new line editor would change this. Under the aegis of roleplaying game designer Ken Rolston, Avalon Hill published Sun County: RuneQuest Adventures in the Land of the Sun in 1992. It was well received by the fans of the setting and in the next three years, Sun County would be followed by River of Cradles, Shadows on the Borderlands, Strangers in Prax, Dorastor: Land of Doom, and Lords of Terror. All together, these six supplements for RuneQuest III set in Glorantha explored new areas of Dragon Pass and became known as the ‘RuneQuest Renaissance’, rekindling interest in Glorantha that continues to this day. Notably, some of the titles that formed the ‘RuneQuest Renaissance’ have inspired community-created content on the Jonstown Compendium. For example, Sun County is the setting for the ‘Tales of the Sun County Militia’ series and Dorastor: Land of Doom is the setting for Secrets of Dorastor.

—oOo—

Originally published in 1992, Sun County: RuneQuest Adventures in the Land of the Sun is once again available in print. It is a remastered edition, rather than an updated edition. What this means is that it is still rewritten for use with RuneQuest III, rather than RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, the most recent edition of the roleplaying game. It also means that it has been tidied up and is now available in colour rather than just being in black and white. Plus, it includes a foreword by Shannon Appelcline, author of the Dungeons & Designers series of books about the history of the roleplaying hobby, which explores the origins and consequences of the ‘RuneQuest Renaissance’. This is nicely detailed, but it does not extend that foreword to 2024 and the publication of this new edition of Sun County. This is a missed opportunity. One issue with Sun County is that it is not fully compatible with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, so some adjustments are necessary and the various NPC and monster stats will need adapting. Fortunately, there is a conversion guide in the appendix of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, which also includes the details necessary to play a member of the Cult of Yelmalio, which dominates religious and cultural life and outlook in Sun County. Further information is available in the forthcoming Cults of RuneQuest: The Gods of Fire and Sky.

Sun County: RuneQuest Adventures in the Land of the Sun can be divided into two halves. The first half describes the small, isolated province on the Zola Fel River in the River of Cradles valley, between Prax and Vulture Country, and just south of the city of Pavis. Since 877 S.T., the province has been settled by light-worshipping farmer-soldiers, known for their devout worship of Yelmalio, their extreme conservatism and prudishness, their sometimes-extreme distrust of outsiders, and their skill with the pike and the spear, with many of the county’s young men serving in militias and troops work as mercenary phalanxes far beyond the borders of Sun County. Since 1610 S.T., with the capture of Pavis, the biggest city in the region, by the Lunar Empire, Solanthos Ironpike, Honoured Count of Sun County, has owed begrudging fealty to Sor-eel the Short, Lunar Count of Prax and Governor of Pavis, effectively ensuring a relatively easy peace between the city and the county. Sun County: RuneQuest Adventures in the Land of the Sun is not a gazetteer of the province, but it does give a geographical overview, as well as describing how it is governed, how its deals with and trades with outsiders, and its problem with hazia, the additive euphoric herb, whose cultivation is profitable, but technically, banned.

Full stats are provided for Solanthos Ironpike, as well as his leading captains, Invictus, Light Captain of Sun County, commander of the Templars and the county’s military and Vega Goldbreath, Guardian of Sun County, an exception to the rule in being a Light lady of Yelmalio. Another exception is Belvani, Lieutenant of the Light Captain Light Son and Light Servant of Yelmalio, whose duties actually require him to deal with outsiders and who is accompanied by The Gamon, a crested dragonewt who never speaks, but who Belvani treats as his dogbody! Although the leading members of the priesthood of the Cult of Yelmalio are described, they are not given stats. The cult itself is fully detailed, including its mythos, history, place in the world, and more. How to become an initiate and then a Light Son or Light Priest, as well as a Light Servant who acts as their special servant. Along with the subcults of Monrogh, the cult’s spirit of reprisal, Kuschile the horse archer, and Togtuvei, the cartographer and geographer, plus a list of Yelmalio’s Gifts and Geases, this is an excellent write-up of the Cult of Yelmalio.

One pleasing addition to the write-up of the cult is the map of the Sun County Temple, renowned of course, like all temples to Yelmalio, for its gold dome that catches the light, which is taken from the Pavis: Threshold to Danger boxed set. Besides detailing the temple and its powerful defences—both magical and mundane, the temple description also details terms by which it offers sanctuary, now strictly enforced lest Solanthos Ironpike, irk Sor-eel the Short in Pavis. Which effectively means that if the Player Characters annoy the Lunars in Pavis, they may not have as much luck hiding out in Sun County as they might hope! There is also terrific write-up of an annual ceremony and heroquest, ‘The River Ritual of the Sun People’, which the current count performs to reforge Sun County’s alliance with a daughter of Zola Fel, god of the River of Cradles. (It is a pity that none of the adventures in Sun County deal with this, but that does mean that the Game Master has scope to develop something herself.) Lastly, the Sun County militia is detailed as is ‘Shield Push’, a Sun Domer game that can be best be described as Rugby or Australian Rules Football scrum or ruck played with shields!

Another notable inclusion in Sun County is that of ‘Jaxarte’s Journal’. This is the account of Jaxarte Whyded, a minor relative of Sor-eel the Short given the make-work role of ‘Commissioner of the Imperial Census for Prax’ recounts of his visit to Sun County. It gives a very enjoyable counter to the description of Sun County and a more immediate outsider’s point of view. It also comes with footnotes from a Lhankor Mhy sage which add further commentary, and all together, his account echoes that of the travelogue of Biturian Varosh, the merchant prince of the Issaries cult in Cults of Prax.

In addition to a set of encounter tables with some potentially entertaining entries for Sun County, the other half of Sun County: RuneQuest Adventures in the Land of the Sun is dedicated to four scenarios. Two of these, ‘Melisande’s Hand’ and ‘Rabbit Hat Farm’, are designed for relatively inexperienced Player Characters, whilst the other two, ‘Solinthor’s Tower’ and ‘Old Sun Dome’ require more experienced Player Characters. Most of the scenarios are flexible in who they are run, whether that is with Sun Domer Player Characters or outsiders. The eight provided Player Characters include a good mix of both, though they do come with notes for use with ‘Rabbit Hat Farm’.

The first scenario, ‘Melisande’s Hand’ is a classic festival adventure whose events and intrigues the Player Characters can embroil themselves. It details a harvest festival dedicated to Ernalda—and gives the winner the right to wed a local Ernalda initiate for a year as well as a fair bit of renown—which takes place each year in Garhound, a town on the other side of the river from Sun County. It is a busy affair with lots going on between the various contestants and plenty of opportunities for the Player Characters to shine, whether in the individual events or in between. There are prizes too for each of the individual events, there is the opportunity for everyone to win something. Whilst the scenario is designed for beginning Player Characters, its busyness does mean it is better run by a more experienced Game Master.

‘Rabbit Hat Farm’ is the RuneQuest equivalent of a ‘village-in-peril-that-nobody has heard from lately’-style scenario. Its location, Rabbit Hat Farm has been abandoned following an attack by Praxian nomads and then Broo, and so far, the militia already sent to investigate have not been heard from. The farm is fully detailed, as is what the Player Characters will find below—the remnants of a nasty Chaos nest! This is the scenario that the pre-generated Player Characters are written to play and there are really good hooks to get them involved in the investigation and exploration of the farm. Thankfully, the caves have been partially abandoned as otherwise it would be a very tough adventure. As it is, this is a challenging adventure against some tough opponents for inexperienced players and their characters, as it is effectively, a mini ‘Snake Pipe Hollow’! Nevertheless, clearing the remains out of the caves will be a major achievement.

The Sun County Ruins are site of the Old Sun Dome Temple—abandoned after an earthquake—and the location for the third scenario, ‘The Old Sun Dome’. Lots of hooks are given as to why the Player Characters might want to explore it, including looking for certain artefacts and even mapping it out for architecture-obsessed Jaxarte Whyded, and it makes use of the map of the current Sun Dome Temple (because why would a religiously orthodox society build anything different?) to create what is effectively a haunted house. There are guards outside to prevent anyone from going in, but the real threat lies inside in form of undead who have occupied the otherwise empty complex. There are some interesting secrets to be discovered, no matter whether you are a Sun Domer or an outsiders. The latter especially, as they are unlikely ever to get that far into a functioning Sun Dome Temple!

Lastly, in ‘Solinthor’s Tower’ is more of an encounter than a full scenario. A Lhankor Mhy sage is writing a thesis which collects all five hundred hymns and poems written by Solinthor, a priest of Yelmalio who ‘died’ in 1375 S.T. except that she cannot find the last seven. She thinks they might have been interred with him in his ‘retirement tower’ (which is where all priests of Yelmalio spend their last days) and so wants help in locating the right tower and getting inside. This is challenging since the penalties for looting—and this applies to ‘The Old Sun Dome’ scenario too—are death by ritual combat if they are caught! This sets up a bit of a dilemma because Solinthor is possession of treasures that the count will be pleased to have in his possession, but then where did the Player Characters find them? Getting hold of them though means getting past some tough magical defences which will challenge most Player Characters, especially given the tight space of Solinthor’s Tower. One thing it does share with ‘The Old Sun Dome’ is potential access to Yelm’s realm on the Hero plane, neither of which is actually designed to lead to any Heroquesting, given that at the time of publication for Sun County there were no rules for such activity! (Oh, how times change.) The outcome though of that access is actually better and better handled than it is in ‘The Old Sun Dome’. ‘Solinthor’s Tower’ is by no means a bad scenario, but it feels all too short.

One issue with Sun County is what you play. The core characters are the Sun Domers of Sun County and they are to man, xenophobic, misogynistic, repressive, and strict. This represents a roleplaying challenge because although not necessarily nasty, they are not nice people and they have a dislike of anyone who is different to them. In particular, female Player Characters will struggle in a society that would ideally restrict women to certain roles. Sun County does acknowledge this by suggesting that the Player Characters be outsiders for many of its scenarios, though of course, that has its own challenges. Alternatively, they could be misfits, as per Tales of the Sun County Militia: Sandheart Volume 1. This does not mean that players cannot roleplay Sun Domers, but both the Game Master and her players need to be aware of their cultural attitudes and present them with care.

Physically, the Sun County: RuneQuest Adventures in the Land of the Sun is decently presented. Behind the excellent front cover, the layout has been tidied up whilst still retaining the look and style of a RuneQuest III book, the internal artwork is good, and colour has been judiciously applied to make various elements stand out. This includes a new map of Sun County that now includes the settlement of Sandheart and the various documents done as scrolls, such as ‘The Light List: The Honoured Counts of Sun County’ and ‘Jaxarte’s Journal’.

In terms of a setting, SSun County: RuneQuest Adventures in the Land of the Sun does could have done with a gazetteer and more on the ordinary lives of the Sun Domers, as both would have been useful, especially if running the book’s four scenarios for Sun Domers. That said, the scenarios are easier to run for outsiders than they are for Sun Domers, as the Sun County parochial attitudes do set up tensions that a Game Master and her players might not want to deal with. However, Sun County: RuneQuest Adventures in the Land of the Sun is still a great book with a balanced mix of background and overall decent scenarios, ultimately providing what was a great introduction to the Yemalio-worshipping Sun County in 1992 and still is a good introduction over thirty years later.

The Other OSR: Teenage Oddyssey

The nineties was a decade of Grunge, Britney Spears, and Hip-Hop, of growing up without the Soviet Union and Communism being the traditional bogeyman, of television sensations like Twin Peaks, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, and Friends, and the rise of easy communication and information with the widespread adoption of mobile phones and the Internet. This is the decade in which Teenage Oddyssey is also set, a decade which was in its own way just as odd and crazy as the previous decade when many ‘Player Characters as Teens’ roleplaying games are set—though of course, without the existential dread and paranoia given that the end of the world was imminent. Published by Cannon Otter Studio, as its title suggests, Teenage Oddyssey uses Into the Odd, the Old School Renaissance-style rules light microclone published by Free League Publishing as the basis for its mechanics. The result is a fast-playing, fast set-up, sometimes brutal roleplaying game.

A Teenager in Teenage Oddyssey will be aged between twelve and fourteen and have three stats—Body, Mind, and Charm—and Luck, Hit Points, a Background, and some starting Gear as well as some cash. The stats range in value between eight and eighteen, but can go up and down. Body will go down because of injury and Mind because of fear, but all can be improved through experience. Luck ranges in value between one and five and Hit Points between one and six, but can go higher. Background might be Arcade Champion, Farmer’s Kid, Drama Club Kid, or even TTRPG Nerd and grants one or two items of Background Gear. Teenage Oddyssey uses an inventory system, so there are limitations on how many items a Teenager can carry, depending on whether they are Big Items or Small Items, carried in the hand or the backpack. High stats means that a Teenager begins play with one piece of Background Gear, whilst low stats mean he starts with two. Creating a Teenager is simply a matter of rolling for all of these and then cross-referencing Luck and Hit Points to determine Background, all of which can be done in a matter of minutes.

Michaela Puckett
Age: 13
Background: Photog
Body 13 Mind 15 Charm 11
Luck: 3
Hit Points: 3
Cash: $8
Gear: Camera, bicycle, backpack, notebook, pencil, House keys

Mechanically, Teenage Oddyssey is simple and straightforward. To have his Teenager undertake an action, a player makes a standard Test, rolling a twenty-sided die, the aim being to roll equal to, or less than, an appropriate stat. Standard rules for Advantage and Disadvantage apply. A Luck Test is rolled against a Teenager’s Luck, but Luck can also be spent to reroll a standard Test or to increase the damage rolled on a damage die to its maximum. The Game Master can reward Luck for good roleplaying or even out of pity! Depending on the situation, a Teenager’s Background can grant an Advantage or even an automatic success on an action.

Combat, in line with Into the Odd, is brutal in Teenage Oddyssey. Initiative is handled in narrative fashion, with combatants acting in order according to what fits the story and then when one participant has acted, he gets to choose who acts next, including the Game Master. Attacks always hit and inflict damage and the only time an Attack Test is rolled is when a Called Shot is desired. Weapons inflict damage according to their size, that is, whether they are Big Items or Small Items. A Small Item that will fit in pocket inflicts less damage than a Big Item carried in the backpack. The damage die can explode, so that it is possible to inflict a lot of damage with a lucky series of rolls. Damage is deducted from a target’s Hit Points and then his Body Stat. Armour—which can be Big or Small (Small Armour is not as easy to spot, whereas Big Armour is obvious to spot)—reduces damage, as does a shield. Once a Teenager starts suffering damage to his Body stat, his player has to roll to avoid Injury. The number of dice rolled for this depends on the Teenager’s current Luck. If it is very low, the maximum number of dice are rolled and there is a slight possibility that the Teenager will be killed straight off. A Teenager will die if his Body is reduced to zero.

In addition, weapons can have Tags, such as ‘Flammable’, ‘Nauseating’, or ‘Shrinking’. Although a combatant targeted by such a weapon cannot avoid the raw damage, he can make a standard Test to avoid the effects of the weapon’s Tags. Some Tags have ongoing effects and some allow further standard Tests to avoid their effects.

Fear is treated as an attack that inflicts damage to the Teenager’s Mind stat. A Mind Test is allowed to resist its effects, but if failed, a roll is made on the Fear Table. This works like Injuries, the player rolling more dice if his Teenager’s Luck is low. If the Teenager’s Mind stat is reduced to zero, a roll is made on the Madness Table, which can result in a permanent loss of Mind. Having a Snack will restore points of Body and Mind, whilst Going to Bed will restore both completely. When a Teenager goes up a Level, he gains more Hit Points and can either increase his stats or choose a Perk. Perk is typically based on the adventure just played, but can include being given a car, getting a job, building a treehouse, getting a companion pet, finding a Freeze Gun in the secret lab of the deranged scientist, or finding an Arcane Spell.

For the Game Master there is some advice, including not being afraid to make it up or keep it weird, and try not to kill the characters (but let it happen if they bring it on themselves). That said, Teenage Oddyssey is brutal in terms of its combat system and a big feature of its rules are combat-related. Enemies and NPCs are provided as templates to which the Game Master can add Tags to individualise them and so create interesting monsters and NPCs.

Almost half of Teenage Oddyssey is devoted to the single scenario, ‘Bad Times at Pazuzu Pizza’. Designed to be played by four to six First Level Teenagers in roughly a session or two, it begins after school with the Teenagers going to their favourite hangout, Pazuzu Pizza, a small hole-in-the-wall pizza shop. Here they can shoot the breeze, watch cartoons, eat greasy pizza, and play arcade videos. Something happens though, and when they wake up, the Teenagers find their hometown and its residents transformed into a hellscape and threatened by madness and monsters and demons. In order to save the town and its inhabitants, at the insistence of the ghost of one of the Teenagers’ crushes, they must destroy the demon responsible, hiding out at a farm on the outskirts of town. Except none of this is actually true. It turns out that the proprietor happens to be a Soviet sleeper agent and has spiked the Teenagers’ pizza with powerful experimental hallucinogens, and when they wake up, the Teenagers are not in a town fill with wrecked cars and broken buildings under roiling purple clouds and spiking red lightning, but suffering from a shared hallucination. In the course of the quest, the Teenagers will fight a Snake Priest at the church and take the Holy Sword, essentially play Frogger with huge insect-like monstrosities skittering along the highway, fight their Science Teacher wearing an exo-suit of hamsters, and so on. Finally, they will face the Demon in the Field.

So ‘Bad Times at Pazuzu Pizza’ is weird and gonzo and over the top. It is also entertaining, but its pay-off is incredibly shocking and downbeat. Essentially, because the Teenagers are on powerful experimental hallucinogens, nothing that they see is true. So, whilst they may think that they are attacking monsters and demons that have infested the town, what they are actually doing is attacking the townsfolk and going on a rampage. A drug-induced rampage true, but a swathe of actual bloody murder all the same. And whilst they are doing that, the scenario never lets them know that this might be the case, that what they are seeing is not real and what they are doing is having tragic consequences.

As an introductory scenario for a roleplaying game, ‘Bad Times at Pazuzu Pizza’ is a very bad choice. It is a one-shot scenario since the players are unlikely to want to roleplay their Teenagers again as they are now mass-murderers. It is shockingly violent—both in play and in hindsight after the reveal—which runs counter to the advice for the Game Master that she should avoid trying to kill the Teenagers. Most of the encounters in the scenario are about combat. It showcases the roleplaying game poorly. ‘Bad Times at Pazuzu Pizza’ could instead have been offered as a one-shot separate from the core rules and that would have been fine. The scenario also does not have warnings and it really does need them.

None of this is helped by the lack of advice for Game Master on what the nineties were like. There is no background, no bibliography, and no suggestions as to what a scenario for Teenagers set in the nineties would be like. The question is, what makes scenarios with Teenagers in the nineties different from scenarios with Teenagers in the eighties? Teenage Oddyssey does not tell you…

Physically, Teenage Oddyssey is well presented and the artwork has a suitably scrappy look to it.

In terms of rules and play, Teenage Oddyssey is a solid adaptation of Into the Odd. The Game Master can take these rules and run a fun game, based on her own knowledge of the nineties and that of her players. However, the lack of advice and historical background is disappointing and the included scenario is horrifyingly shocking for a roleplaying game that is pitched as one of wild and crazy adventures rather than one of unwitting murderous rampage.

Friday Fantasy: Treachery in the Beggar City

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #13: Treachery in the Beggar City is a scenario for Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and the thirteenth scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. Scenarios for Dungeon Crawl Classics tend be darker, grimmer, and even pulpier than traditional Dungeons & Dragons scenarios, even veering close to the Swords & Sorcery subgenre. Scenarios for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set are set in and around the City of the Black Toga, Lankhmar, the home to the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, the creation of author Fritz Leiber. The city is described as an urban jungle, rife with cutpurses and corruption, guilds and graft, temples and trouble, whores and wonders, and more. Under the cover the frequent fogs and smogs, the streets of the city are home to thieves, pickpockets, burglars, cutpurses, muggers, and anyone else who would skulk in the night! Which includes the Player Characters. And it is these roles which the Player Characters get to be in Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #13: Treachery in the Beggar City, small time crooks trying to make a living and a name for themselves, but without attracting the attention of either the city constabulary or worse, the Thieves’ Guild!

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #13: Treachery in the Beggar City is a scenario for Third Level Player Characters and is both an archetypal scenario for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, and like Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #8: The Land of the Eight Cities before it, also a setting supplement that expands the world of Newhon beyond the walls of Lankhmar. This is the Beggar City of Tovilyis, a once mercantile rival located to the south of Lankhmar that had the temerity to attempt an invasion of the City of the Black Toga. That was a century ago and ever since, Tovilyis has been a vassal state of Lankhmar, forced to purchase half its grain from the merchants of its occupiers and its surviving noble families to pay a ‘tax’ to the occupiers to be allowed to survive and feud between themselves for the right to become relatively recently restored Doge of the city. Given that that the ruler of the city is called the Doge, it no surprise that Tovilyis is based on the city of Venice. The city is cut through by canals, its buildings—many of which are sinking into the marshlands upon which the city is built—and alleys connected by bridges, constructed of either stone or rickety wood. Much like Lankhmar, Tovilyis has a thieves’ guild, but it is not as powerful as the one in Lankhmar, and thus thieves from both Tovilyis and Lankhmar can operate in the city without the thieves’ guild getting involved. Even so, Tovilyis is seen as a place of exile and not just by thieves from Lankhmar, but also nobles from Lankhmar.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #13: Treachery in the Beggar City begins en media res, with the Player Characters already in Tovilyis. Rumours have reached the city of Lankhmar that the scholar Fremma Inkfingers has discovered a map purported to show the location of the treasure vault where the last Dog, the one who launched the failed invasion of Lankhmar, hid his wealth. It is said that a set of scrolls, known as the Scrolls of Night, on which the Doge recorded all of the dark secrets of Tovilyis’ noble families, is also be found amongst this hoard of treasure. Why exactly the Player Characters are in Tovilyis is left up to the players and the Judge to decide. They may have been hired to find the Scrolls of Night or another object from the hoard, to make sure that Lankhmar’s thieves’ guild gets its cut from the retrieval of the treasures, or even Fremma Inkfingers could have hired them.

The scenario opens with the Player Characters going to meet Fremma Inkfingers to purchase her map from her. In almost film noir fashion, she is struck down by assassins, her map is stolen, and a chase ensues! Chases are a feature of Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar, most typically taking place across the rooftops of the city, but in Tovilyis there are canals and boats and crumbling buildings to contend with, so the chase feels excitingly different, almost as if it were out of a James Bond film! (In fact, it feels not too dissimilar to the end chase scene in Casino Royale.) Ideally, the chase will end with the Player Characters getting hold of Fremma Inkfingers’ map, but if not, the scenario provides other means for them to do so. In fact, it is probably better that the Player Characters obtain the map by other means rather than by chasing down the assassins because it makes the second half of the scenario that much more interesting.

Of course, there is another party interested in getting hold of the Scrolls of Night, which is why they had Fremma Inkfingers killed and stole her map. The second half of the scenario details the vault in which it is hidden, not once, but twice. First, as if the Player Characters get to the vault first and second, if the rival party gets to the vault first. If the latter occurs, some of the traps on the way to the vault will already been triggered and others avoided, and this combined with the confrontation with the rival party gives the scenario a shot of dynamism and an interesting NPC for the Judge to portray and the Player Characters to interact with. This is Settilina, the captain of the guards for one of the city’s noble families. Neither the building hiding the vault or the vault itself are large, but they are detailed and they are full of traps and little details that will perplex the players and their characters, and definitely challenge any Thief in the gang. The vault’s construction also used a lot of magic, so the scenario will also test any Wizard in the gang as well.

The scenario does not simply end with the Player Characters looting the vault. The interesting Settilina may still be about and is as ready to negotiate with the Player Characters as she is to kill them and there is also the matter of what to do with the wealth they find in the vault. The final interaction here with the Settilina is nicely handled, whilst the options for what the Player Characters do with their newfound wealth will require some development upon the part of the Judge as they lie slightly outside the scope of the scenario.

Just under half of Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #13: Treachery in the Beggar City is devoted to describing the city of Tovilyis. This starts with its history, but accompanied by a good map of the city, also describes its districts and landmarks. These though, are really the highlights of the city, which leaves plenty of room for the Judge to add her own content and so enable the Player Characters to revisit a city that is possibly even more corrupt than Lankhmar, but with a very different feel and atmosphere. Rounding out the module is a section on rules for using Tovilyis in play. This includes new Benisons and Dooms for Player Characters who come from Tovilyis, rumours about Tovilyis—not just general rumours, but ones for Thieves, Warriors, and Wizards too, and a table of events should the Player Characters go carousing in Tovilyis! This is a possibility if the Player Characters make off with the loot in the module’s scenario.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #13: Treachery in the Beggar City is well presented. The artwork and cartography are both good, but it would have been nice if the scenario had included a copy of the map that drives the first part of the scenario to give as a handout to the players.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #13: Treachery in the Beggar City opens up a whole new city to the Player Characters in which to scheme, scam, and steal, one that is rougher and rottener than Lankhmar. It combines solid background to the city with a fast-paced, entertaining vault-breaking scenario that drops the Player Characters into the action and shouts go. Tovilyis is worth revisiting and is just different enough to making playing there an interesting change of tone and style, but familiar enough that the Player Characters’ skills are not out of place.

Friday Filler: Ted Lasso Party Game

Ted Lasso is facing a big challenge. As an American Football coach recently appointed as manager of AFC Richmond, he has to get both the staff and the players of this soccer—sorry, football team—to ‘Believe to Believe’, despite his lack of knowledge and experience, and so win games. However, apart from Coach Lasso and his best friend, Coach Beard, nobody believes that Ted will succeed and while they are busy believing that, everybody is in need of something. Whether its Coaching, Quality Time, Jokes, or even Inspirational Speeches, Ted Lasso can give them all. And if that does not work, there is always that pink box of perfect biscuits which always makes things right. This then, is the set-up for Ted Lasso Party Game, a game based on the Apple+ comedy series, designed for two to six players, aged ten and up, which can be played in twenty minutes. Notably, it is a co-operative game played in four, very short rounds, and it comes with its own Timer App (although it is very noisy). It is designed by Prospero Hall and published by Funko Games.

The aim of the Ted Lasso Party Game is to score forty-five Morale or more. Do this and the players win. Otherwise, they lose. To do this, the players take it in turns to play Believe Cards on the Trouble Tiles belonging to the various Character Cards. This will score Morale. Believe Cards must also be used to the Coaches to the various Location Mats and to gain bonus Morale if there is nothing else to spend them on!

Ted Lasso Party Game is very well appointed. It includes a football-shaped Game Board, five Location Mats, two Coach pieces, twelve Event Cards, fourteen Character Cards, fifty-four Believe Cards, thirty-two Trouble Tiles, a Biscuit Box, a Football Die, a Scoring Clip, a Reference Card, and a Rules Booklet. The Game Board has spaces for the Event Cards, the Self-Care section, and the Move a Coach option. The Location Mats consist of Rebecca’s Office, Coach’s Office, the Locker Room, the Trainer Pitch, and the Crown & Anchor pub. Each has space for a Character Card and multiple Trouble Tiles and a Coach Piece. The two Coach Pieces consist of Coach Lasso and Coach Beard. Event Cards—of which four are drawn in game, provide a random event at the start of each round, such as ‘Silent Treatment’, which means that the players cannot talk that round or ‘Elaborate Set Pieces’ which if ‘Coaching’ Believe Cards are played on it, will score the players more Morale.

The various Character Cards have a special condition and a bonus to Morale. Most have a score, whilst the footballers have Football symbols indicating that the Morale bonus is rolled randomly on the Football Die. For example, ‘Rebecca Welton’, scores seven Morale and allows the use of the Biscuits Trouble Tiles to remove whole Trouble Tiles. The Believe Cards come in five colours, four of which correspond to the Trouble Tiles. The yellow Coaching Believe Cards deal with Characters who are Sceptical; the red Quality Time Believe Cards deal with Characters who are Angry; the blue Jokes Believe Cards deal with Characters who are Sad; and the purple Inspirational Believe Cards deal with Characters who are Insecure. The fifth Believe Card type is pink and are Biscuits, which act as a Wild Card. The thirty-two Trouble Tiles are each marked with two emojis whose colours correspond to the Believe Cards.

There is a fantastic sense of verisimilitude to Ted Lasso Party Game as it draws heavily from the television series. Thus, the Biscuit Box, which is pink, is used to store the Trouble Tiles and looks like the box which Ted Lasso delivers biscuits to Rebecca Welton every day; the Football Die is a four-sided die shaped like a football; and the base box is designed as a football stadium. The Believe Cards also have quotes from the television series.

Set-up is simple. Four Events cards are drawn and placed on the Game Board and, a random Character Card is placed on each of five Location Mats as are a number of Trouble Tiles as indicated on each Location Mat. The Believe Cards are shuffled and dealt out to the players. This is done at the start of each round, which also includes turning over an Event Card. The players are allowed to look at the combinations of the Character Cards and the Location Mats and are free to discuss plans for the round.

Each round lasts two minutes and the players act in turn. On his turn, a player plays as many Believe Cards as possible of one colour from his hand that he needs too. This is done to undertake three actions. These are ‘Be Kind’, ‘Move a Coach’, and ‘Self-Care’. If a Coach is on a Location Mat, a player can be ‘Be Kind’ and play Believe Cards to the Location to counter the emojis on the Trouble Tiles. A Believe Card can be discarded to the Move a Coach space on the Game Board to move a Coach from one Location Mat to another. ‘Self-Care’ lets a player discard cards to the Self-Care space on the Game Board. Once a player has played all of the Believe Cards, either that he can, his turn is over. Play proceeds like this until everyone has played all of their Believe Cards over multiple turns or the two-minute timer runs out.

At the end of the round, for every five Believe Cards in the Self-Care, the players can remove a single Trouble Tile from any Location Mat. Also, at the end of the round, any Trouble Tiles with matching Believe Cards at the Location Mat are removed. If all of the Trouble Tiles are removed from a Character Card on a Location Mat, he is removed and the players are awarded the Morale bonus—a simple number unless rolled for the Footballers. A new Character Card is added for the next round. Morale will be lost if the timer goes off and the players still have the Believe Cards in their hands.

Play of the Ted Lasso Party Game is frenetic as the players scramble from turn to turn to play all of their Believe Cards to their best advantage. Apart from this pace, it plays a great deal like any other co-operative game. There is some variability to the game in that there are fourteen Character Cards and not all of them are going to come out during play and the combination of Trouble Tiles on a Location Mat is rarely going to be the same. As with any co-operative game there is the danger of play being dominated by an ‘alpha’ player, though the frenetic pace of the game does negate that to some extent. The game does require some planning on the part of the players since they need to decide what Believe Cards they are going to play—and where, since with two minutes of play per round, there is insufficient time for planning. That said, a player will likely be forced to think his action if another player does something unexpected or a Coach Piece cannot be moved.

However, there is not a lot of variability and the game play does not really change. Consequently, there is not a lot of depth to the Ted Lasso Party Game and not a lot of replayability. So, it is going to appeal more to fans of the television series than hobbyist board game players. Yet saying that, the game play is challenging for the casual player and the fact that it is a co-operative game is going to be challenging for some players. The fact that it is a co-operative game and that it actually has a lot of components suggests that it is not, as the title of the game suggests, a ‘party’ game, although the theme and speed of play suggests that it might be. Lastly, that speed of play does hinder the enjoyment of the game’s theme—the game is too fast to read the quotes on the Believe Cards, for example, in play.

Physically, the Ted Lasso Party Game is a really great looking game. Photographs are actually used of the cast from the series, except for Coach Lasso and Coach Beard. Otherwise, everything is themed very much around the television series. Lastly, the game app is more intrusive and then useful.

The Ted Lasso Party Game is another good design from Prospero Hall which fits the theme of the source material. It is only a very light game though and only hardcore fans of Ted Lasso are likely to want to keep playing after a few plays.

Miskatonic Monday #333: Bride of the Wilds

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: Bride of the Wilds

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: H.S. Falkenberry

Setting: Appalachian Mountains, Georgia, 1932

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Twenty-eight page, 3.5 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Sometimes the forest is fulsomely fecund.

Plot Hook: Witchcraft in the woods and a missing woman. Could they be connected?

Plot Support: Staging advice, four handouts, six NPCs, ten Mythos tomes, and four Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Detailed missing persons case

# Solid investigation

# Easy to adjust to other eras for Call of Cthulhu

# Will end in a gunfight, but who should the Investigators shoot?

# Decent handouts

# Nyctohylophobia

# Wiccaphobia

# Tokophobia

Cons

# An abundance of Mythos Tomes

# Will end in a gunfight, but who should the Investigators shoot?

Conclusion

# Detailed investigation leads to a gunfight with a difficult choice

# Solid fear of the forest one-shot