2016: Shadowrun: Anarchy

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

—oOo—

Shadowrun had a problem in 2016 with Shadowrun, Fifth Edition and it is a problem that continues today with Shadowrun, Sixth Edition. Originally published by FASA, Inc. in 1989, but now published by Catalyst Game Labs, the roleplaying game has always had a great setting and been a great combination of genres. Fantasy and Cyberpunk in a future in which man meets machine and magic, corporations are states unto themselves, dragons are CEOs and media personalities. The problem is with the mechanics. At their core, they consist of a dice pool mechanic determined by attribute, skill, and other bonuses, the aim being to roll as many successes—five or six on the dice—as possible, which is simple enough. Shadowrun though is a game of different character types—Adepts, Mages, Shamans, Deckers, Street Samurai, Riggers, and Technomancers—and effectively, the rules for each one is essentially a different subsystem. Which meant different rules for each player to master and a lot of different rules for the Game Master to understand. Plus, with different rules and different variations upon rules in each edition, no player or Game Master could quite agree upon which edition of the roleplaying game they preferred.

Published in 2016, Shadowrun: Anarchy was offered as an alternative ruleset to the then Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, notably a narrative driven ruleset which kept the core mechanics, but also simplified Shadowrunner creation. At its heart though, is the Cue System. This first appeared in the publisher’s pulp Sci-Fi roleplaying game Cosmic Patrol and then in the superhero roleplaying game, Valiant Universe Roleplaying Game. Both are storytelling games with some traditional mechanics, but unlike some storytelling roleplaying games, they do not forego a Game Master. Instead, in addition to roleplaying their characters, whether members of the Cosmic Patrol or superheroes in the Valiant Universe, the players take in turns to serve as the Game Master. Shadowrun: Anarchy uses the Cue System, but makes one significant change to it. Instead of each player being the Game Master for a scene, Shadowrun: Anarchy maintains the role of the Game Master as in traditional roleplaying games. The Game Master sets the brief and at the beginning of each scene narrates the situation, what the Shadowrunners see, smell, hear, and so on. Then the game play proceeds around the table with each player narrating what his character does. Each player’s narration ends when it is appropriate, either in terms of the story or the scene, or if the player needs to roll dice for his character, whether that is to attempt a particular objective or combat is initiated. A player is free to narrate his character’s actions in the scene and to develop the scene as long as any addition is not going to break it, usually inspiration from the ‘Cues’ or story or situational tags, that can either be ones the Game Master presents at the start of the scene or ones that are on the player’s character sheet.

The role of the Game Master here is to decide when a player needs to roll a Test for his character’s action, and then what Skill and Attribute are appropriate to the Test as well as what modifiers apply. She also roleplays the NPCs, rolls their Defence rolls, handles any rules difficulties, and decides when a player’s narration comes to end, either because it is too long or stretching the limits of credulity. The Game Master also needs to know the details of the Contract Brief, the scenario that she is running. When it is a player’s Narration, it is his role to keep the character’s opposition on its toes, to make his character stand out, to explore and highlight what is great about the Sixth World, and to work with the other players to make the story and the game better. When it is not his turn, it is the player’s duty to prepare for his next Narration, building on the Narrations of his fellow players, and to have his character interact with their characters in their Narrations. Lastly, the player is there, when needed, when need to make suggestions to his fellow players, in particular, if another player has difficulty creating Narration, again working from the Cues for the scenes and the Cues for the narrating player’s character.

Play proceeds like this through Scenes and Turns from the start of the ‘Contract Brief’ to its execution and its conclusion. However, Scenes can be broken by ‘Talk Time’, which is when conversations can take place—most typically with a Mr. Johnson—and when planning can take place. Both the Game Master and players have access to ‘Plot Points’. A Player Character starts play with three and can have at most five at any one time. More are awarded for great Narrations and certain Shadow Amps grant bonus Plot Points at the start of combat. A player can spend a Plot Point to ‘Live Dangerously’ to add a Glitch Die to a player’s roll (either their own or that of another player); ‘Shake it up’ by making a Narration and have his character take an action when it is not his Narration; ‘Double time it’ to take two movement actions; to add a ‘Surprise threat’, such as having unseen corporate security guards show up; carry out ‘First aid’ and heal a point of Physical or Stun damage; cause a ‘Malfunction’ in the spirits or devices of an NPC or another Player Character temporarily; ‘Take the hit’ if a weaker or injured character is successfully hit by a combat action; or deliver ‘A dish best served cold’ and immediately have his character take a free attack action against the NPC who just attacked him.

The Game Master starts a Contract Brief with a single Plot Point and earns more as the players spend them. She cannot spend her Plot Points to aid or hinder a Player Character, but can spend them to add a Glitch Die to an NPC’s action and also to change the turn order, whether that is in reverse or randomly! This is to shake up the play pattern and to keep the players on their toes.

In general, this is well explained and there is good advice on how to handle this switch to shared narration. Encouraging the players to build up, rather than tear down, encouraging a player to use all of his character’s options instead of using the most powerful, and where necessary, offer hints and recapitulating on the current situation, plans that the characters have already made, and twists already introduced. However, there are issues with the explanations in places. For example, the explanation never goes into how exactly a player rakes inspiration from a Cue, but worse, having told the Game Master and her players how to play a Contract Brief and thus Shadowrun: Anarchy, what it does not do is show them. There is no example of play anywhere in the book. Go back and read that again… Such an omission is a fundamental flaw in the design of any roleplaying game, but in a roleplaying game such as Shadowrun: Anarchy which is making a radical shift in its style of play, from traditional, simulationist to narrative, storytelling, this is worse. It is not a catastrophe in that its omission makes the game unplayable, but it hinders the learning of how the roleplaying game is run and played and it hinders the teaching of how the roleplaying game is run and played.

To be a little nuanced here, if the Game Master and her players have some experience of storytelling, narrative roleplaying games, this is much less of an issue. Even less of an issue if either has experience of the previous Cue System roleplaying games, Cosmic Patrol and Valiant Universe Roleplaying Game. If not, if the Game Master and her players are wanting to play Shadowrun for the first time or have played Shadowrun for a long time and are looking for a lighter ruleset, then it is a grave error of judgement upon the part of the designers.

In terms of the rules, Shadowrun: Anarchy starts with Shadowrunner creation. A Shadowrunner is defined by Attributes, Skills, Shadow Amps, Weapons, and Gear, plus Qualities and Cues. A Shadowrunner will also have a Metatype, either Human, Elf, Dwarf, Ork, or Troll. This Metatype provides various bonuses and adjustments. The Attributes consist of Strength, Agility, Willpower, Logic, and Charisma, which typically range between one and six for Humans, but can be higher or lower for different Metahumans. There is a wide range of Skills and a Shadowrunner will have some Skills in common with his colleagues—combat skills in particular—but specialise in a particular area, whether that is magic, vehicle use, hacking, or even combat. All skills have Specialisations, which increase the number of dice a player rolls when using them. Shadow Amps are what makes a Shadowrunner special. These can be Awakened so that the Shadowrunner can cast spells (the spells cost extra) or Emerged which gives the Shadowrunner access to Technomancer Amps. There are Amps for Adepts, Bioware and Cyberware, Matrix Amps for hacking, Drone Amps for the Rigger, Gear Amps, Social Amps, and Critter Amps. Installing too Bioware or Cyberware has its cost though, reducing a Shadowrunner’s ability to handle the effects of magic, including healing. Cues are often common phrases that a Shadowrunner might say or how he might react.

Qualities are the equivalent of advantages and disadvantages and a Shadowrunner has two positive Qualities and one negative Quality.

To create a Shadowrunner, a player assigns points to his Shadowrunner’s Attributes and Skills, purchases Shadow Amps, selects weapons and gear, and then creates Cues, at least two or three, and optionally add Tags, which give a quick ideas as the theme and style of the Shadowrunner. He also selects Qualities. The number of points the player has to spend on Attributes, Skills, and Shadow Amps, as well has many weapons and how much gear he has to select, will vary by game level, either Gang-Level, Street Runner, or Prime Runner. The rules allow for a player design the Shadow Amps he wants for his Shadowrunner, but the Shadowrun: Anarchy includes lots of off-the-shelf options which ease the creation process. The process overall is not difficult, except that is for coming up with Cues and Dispositions.

Name: ‘Rávdos’

Metatype: Ork

Tags: Ork • Barrens Girl • Rat Shaman • Wet Behind the Ears

Cues: Oh shiny! • The darkness is my friend • I know a shortcut (if you’re squeezy enough) • You lost something? I can find it • The pack is family • Eyes most places

Dispositions: Twitchy • Not run to fight another day. Just run • The streets always deliver • Pack player

ATTRIBUTES

Strength 3 Agility 4 Willpower 5 Logic 4 Charisma 3 Essence 6

SKILLS

Agility: Athletics 1, Close Combat 2

Willpower: Conjuring 2, Sorcery 2

Logic: Knowledge (The Barrens 1, Greek 1), Tracking 1

Charisma: Negotiation 1

SHADOW AMPS

Awakened (2), Vermin Control (1), Analyse Truth (1), Clairvoyance (1), Natural Weapons (1)

QUALITIES

Mentor Spirit (Rat), Home Ground (The Barrens), Low Pain Threshold

WEAPON

Knife (STR/2+1)P

GEAR

Synthleather jacket: 6, Trauma Patches, Crowbar, Smoke Grenades

Mechanically, Shadowrun: Anarchy uses a dice pool system that will be familiar to players of Shadowrun. When a player wants his Shadowrunner to act, he forms a dice pool of six-sided dice consisting of Skill Dice and Attribute Dice, plus any Modifiers from the situation, Shadow Amps, and Qualities. This roll is made against the Game Master’s Opposing Dice pool. Results of five or six count as Hits and if the player rolls more Hits than the Game Master, his Shadowrunner succeeds, if not, he fails. Edge can be spent—and a Shadowrunner typically starts with a single point of Edge—to alter the results. If spent before the test, four, fives, and sixes count as Hits, but after the test, any results that are not five or six can be rerolled. A player can also spend a Plot Point to add a Glitch Die to a dice roll. This is a die of different colour. If the result of the Glitch Die is a one, bad luck has befallen the Shadowrunner, even if the result overall means that the Shadowrunner has succeeded. For example, a Close Combat attack could not only fail, but the attacker falls over as well; a gun could jam; a Hacking Test results in the Hacker deleting or downloading the wrong file; and so on. However, if the result on the Glitch Die is a five or six, then good luck has befallen the Shadowrunner, such as bypassing armour in a fight, finding something interesting on a Hacking mission, and so on. Again, this good luck will still occur if the overall result indicates that the Shadowrunner has failed.

Combat is more complex, though some elements, such as ammunition tracking, shots fired per turn, firing modes, reloading speeds, and so on, have been removed to simplify player choices and keep things moving. When a player wants his Shadowrunner to attack, he forms a dice pool of six-sided dice consisting of Skill Dice and Attribute Dice, plus any Modifiers from the situation, Shadow Amps, Qualities, and Weapon effects. For the opponents, the Game Master is rolling a dice pool formed from the Agility Dice and Logic Dice, plus any modifiers and Shadow Amp effects. If the attacker rolls more Hits than the defender, the difference is added to the damage of the attack. If fewer or none, the attack fails and no damage is inflicted. Armour is treated as ablative and reduces damage, but is damaged in the process, though it can be repaired. Damage can either be Phsyical or Stun and is applied to the appropriate track of a Shadowrunner’s Condition Monitor. As it is filled in, modifiers reduce the number of dice a player will roll on every Test. Eventually, a Shadowrunner will either be knocked out or killed.

Combat is slower than standard task resolution in Shadowrun: Anarchy. Although there is an optional rule for handling Mooks, that is being able to subdue or kill numerous opponents in one attack, it is not the default. The problem here is that adds an element of grit that otherwise is at odds with the cinematic simplification of some rules elsewhere, such as removing the need to reload or track ammunition use.

There is a brilliant piece of writing when it comes to ‘Attack Limits’. “A character can only take a single attack action during their Narration. What is an Attack action? An action that intentionally and directly damages another living being (including NPCs, critters, spirits, and whatever). Want to debate the meaning of Attack action beyond that? Have fun, and we’ll be here for you when you’re ready to play!” It is just saying, get on with it, because Shadowrun: Anarchy is not the kind of roleplaying game where that kind of detail should be causing any sweat. This is not to say that Shadowrun: Anarchy manages to avoid causing any sweat, but it is a point well made.

An interesting side effect of there being no Nuyen in Shadowrun: Anarchy is that a Shadowrunner cannot simply go out and buy new armour. A Plot Point can be spent repairing a single point, but for a full repair, the player has to pay a point of Karma (usually awarded at the end of missions and spent to improve a Shadowrunner) or promise a favour to the Game Master. This allows the Game Master to select the next Contact Brief—normally the players do it—and if multiple favours are owed, the players at least get to choose the order in which they do them. This adds a narrative wrinkle as an urgent job suddenly gets in the way of what their Shadowrunners might want to actually do!

Elsewhere, there is a lot of streamlining in Shadowrun: Anarchy compared to previous editions of Shadowrun. Nuyen and Lifestyle Costs are treated as abstract, narrative elements rather than players needing to track the numbers; weapons and gear are simplified for fast play; hacking in the Matrix is distilled to single rolls and reactions such as triggering alarms and the Overwatch Score are narrative elements; magic remains much like Shadowrun, but there is no Drain effect; and Technomancers have no Drain effect. In many ways, this is an improvement, often really simplifying quite complex subsystems in Shadowrun, such as the Matrix rules. This does come at a cost, in terms of limiting the number of spells a caster can have, the spirits that a summoner can bring into play, and the Complex Forms a Technomancer knows. Combat in the Matrix though, works exactly as it does in the real world. Optional rules do allow for hacking to be more detailed if desired, but that does add extra complexity. In comparison, the Rigger, the one role which would have benefited from streamlining is underserved by the lack of details for drones and vehicles, except some drones described in the NPC descriptions.

Shadowrun: Anarchy does give the Game Master and player with a lot of support. There is a solid introduction to the setting with some fiction, the characters from which appear as NPCs or potential Shadowrunners elsewhere in the book, and there is decent account of the history up until the year 2077 when Shadowrun, Fifth Edition is set. The Big Ten megacorporations from Ares Macrotechnology to Wuxing Incorporated are detailed, as well as organised crime, gang, the law, politics, major powers, and more, as well as a look at life in the Sixth World. Thirty sample Shadowrunners, including an Elf combat archaeologist, Dwarf parkour adept, Human ganger razorgirl, Troll face, and Ork reporter, are given full descriptions and character sheets, plus there are stats for twenty-three NPCs, though twenty-three definitely does not feel enough. There is a good guide to Seattle as well.

The star though of this support, is the twenty-five ‘Contract Briefs’, several of which are multi-part affairs. Each starts with ‘Mr. Johnson’s Pitch’ and then lists the objectives, the setting, and the plot scene by scene. There are suggestions as the NPCs for each scene and a list of Tags for the whole mission. There is even one called ‘Food Fight’, an obvious nod to the original scenario/encounter given in Shadowrun. Overall, the selection of ‘Contract Briefs’ is very good and will provide multiple session of play if the Game Master decides to use all of them. Most of them can be played through in a single session or two. Lastly, there are notes on Shadowrun: Anarchy and Shadowrun, Fifth Edition and on using source material from the latter as well as adapting Shadowrunners from one to the other or vice versa. These are serviceable.

Physically, Shadowrun: Anarchy is a good looking book. The artwork is excellent and the layout clean. However, it definitely needs another edit.

Unfortunately, Shadowrun: Anarchy is a book with problems. Not least of which is the fact that there is no map of Seattle and its environs in 2077, let alone North America or the world. There are places where rules could have been clarified, but either never are or are very later on, such as placing the ‘Anarchy Catalogue’ with its ready-pick Shadow Amps right at the end of the book rather than with the rules for Shadowrunner creation or rules for a particular in a ‘Contract Brief’ rather than in the general section for the pertinent rules or in the NPC section. The selection of NPCs or ready-to-play Shadowrunners is great, but not all of them are consistent in their design. So, if player or Game Master wants to use one, they need to be redesigned to make the costs balance.

The issue with Shadowrun: Anarchy is threefold. First, it set out to address the crunch and mechanical complexity of Shadowrun, Fifth Edition that made it difficult to learn run, and whilst it can be argued that it very much did that, offering a streamlined, faster-playing system, in switching to the more narrative, player-involved Cue System, it asked player and Game Master alike to make a radical change in playing style, but did not explain it enough. How exactly does a ‘Cue’ work? Or a ‘Tag’ or a ‘Disposition’? It is possible for the Game Master and her players to grasp the fundamentals, but the nuances are lost they are not fully explained or given a full example of play, which if done right would have been the best teaching aid of all. Second, Shadowrun: Anarchy cannot decide who it is for. The old Shadowrun veteran who wants to try a simpler system for his favourite roleplaying game? Someone who is completely new to Shadowrun? Or someone who has played a Cue System roleplaying game and wants to try a Shadowrun roleplaying game? All three? It is unclear. Third, is the lack of development to make it coherent and have more of the pick-up-and-play aspect that you get the impression it is aiming.

Shadowrun: Anarchy is a great idea. A fast playing roleplaying game with narrative elements in one of the best developed and entertaining settings in the roleplaying hobby. In fact, it is not actually unplayable, but the lack of development, the underwhelming lack of presentation in terms of its idea, and its organisation make it almost as difficult to play as the then current version of the main roleplaying game, Shadowrun, Fifth Edition. Which misses the point of what it was intended to do.

Tales of the Star Guard III

One of my favourite RPGs from 2011 is Cosmic Patrol, Catalyst Game Labs’ Science Fiction RPG inspired by the Golden Age broadcast Science Fiction of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet and X MINUS ONE as well as the writings of Robert A. Heinlein, Poul Anderson, and E.E. “Doc” Smith. It is a light storytelling RPG in which the characters are stalwart members of the Great Union’s last line of defence against a dangerous universe. As Patrolmen, members of the Cosmic Patrol, the player characters crew rocketships sent out to explore the galaxy, to investigate its strange phenomena, protect the Solar System, and respond to emergencies as necessary. The mechanics are kept light with everyone taking it turn to narrate scenes in the current adventure with heroics being encouraged. Plus the little rulebook is a work of art itself, looking exactly like a handbook for the Cosmic Patrol itself.

Having previously reviewed Into the Cosmos: A Cosmic Patrol Sourcebook, the first supplement for Cosmic Patrol, it only seems fair that I should also review the second, more recently released supplement. Although plenty of patrol encounters and scenarios are presented in both Cosmic Patrol and Into the Cosmos, what Cosmic Patrol is yet to present is something that fulfils its promised grandeur and scope. This void is negated by the publication of The Moon Must Be Ours! A Cosmic Patrol Campaign that pitches the men and women of the Cosmic Patrol against a threat that has been disrupting Grand Union activities for decades—making objects and people disappear, directing activities and experiments with false readings, and generally being a nuisance. Further, the Moon Men forbid anyone from landing on the Lunar surface, ever since the Rocketship EM disappeared! 

This has been done without their being seen, all through their strange powers of Dynamo-Psychism. They present a threat to humanity and the Grand Union like no other—so Director Roderick Dyson has assembled the largest flotilla of ships in the history of the Cosmic Patrol and given the order: “The Moon Must Be Ours!”

The Moon Must Be Ours! is a complete campaign that throws the player characters into the Cosmic Patrol’s operation to conquer the Moon and put an end to the Moon Men as a threat. The invasion begins disastrously—Cosmic Patrol ships suddenly vanish from the flotilla, some explode or are impaled by previously unknown and powerfully destructive weapons, whilst others career off course and crash or collide with other vessels. The upshot is that very few Patrol vessels manage to reach the Moon’s surface—much of this is described in the supplement’s opening fiction, ‘Retaking the Sky’. The player characters’ vessel is one of those few. With their rocketship having crashed, they are the Patrol’s only hope and must penetrate the labyrinth of rooms under the lunar surface to discover the secrets of the Moon Men.

Cosmic Patrol is played without a dedicated GM, instead each player takes a turn being Lead Narrator. Although the Lead Narrator needs to be fair in presenting a challenge to his fellow players, what it means is that the players are all playing against the game rather than the game as presented by a GM. The Moon Must Be Ours!  pushes this aspect further in presenting a ‘Choose Your Adventure Path’ scenario that the players plays together. In comparison to The Warlock of Firetop Mountain or the more recent Blood of the Zombies, the locations and paragraph entries are few in number, consisting primarily of forty-two rooms that are played one after another, even in linear fashion—depending on the difficulty setting that the group decides to play the campaign at.

Each room consists of a two-page spread that contains Objectives, Cues, Tags, and Exits, as well as Opening Narration, Room Description, and Enemies and Obstacles. Each room gives seven or eight exists divided between the difficulty settings. Typically three each for an Easy setting, two for Normal and Hard settings, but just the one for the Insane setting. The latter because the players have no choice in what room they choose next—it must be the next room in sequential order, from one to forty-two. In order to complete The Moon Must Be Ours! at Easy difficulty, the group needs to overcome nine or ten rooms, thirteen or fourteen at Normal difficulty, and twenty-two at Hard. The idea is that once a group has completed The Moon Must Be Ours! at one difficulty, it should then try and play it again at a higher difficulty. Again, another aspect of the campaign that feels like a ‘Choose Your Adventure Path’ scenario.

A Room Tracker is provided so that no room is repeated. Also included are sample hero character dossiers and dossiers for the campaign’s villains, advice for the Lead Narrators—particularly on handling character death, and plot twists. Tables give random Dynamo-Psychism powers and random adversary creation, the latter including what is probably the best gun in Science Fiction—the Godwinization Ray. Its effect? It makes the affected target irrelevant! (If a player character, then he is Knocked Out for the length of his player’s next stint as Lead narrator). Many of the villains presented in The Moon Must Be Ours! veer towards to the weird and wacky, including an incredibly silly villain towards the end…

The Moon Must Be Ours! is well presented. It is not as liberally illustrated as previous books, but that is primarily because the book consists of rooms and these are not illustrated in Cosmic Patrol. The campaign itself, is probably too combat orientated, so the rules and suggestions for character death are likely to be necessary.

The Moon Must Be Ours! A Cosmic Patrol Campaign presents the chance to delve back into the history of the Grand Union. It possesses a slightly creepy, almost Lovecraftian sense of the unknown that might be difficult to maintain with multiple Lead Narrators, whereas its joyous embrace of 1950s retro-futurism will be easier to keep up. Above all, it provides a Cosmic Patrol crew with a big adventure, mysteries to be solved, and the chance to be heroic.

Tales of the Star Guard II

One of my favourite RPGs from 2011 is Cosmic Patrol, Catalyst Game Labs’ Science Fiction RPG inspired by the Golden Age broadcast Science Fiction of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet and X MINUS ONE as well as the writings of Robert A. Heinlein, Poul Anderson, and E.E. “Doc” Smith. It is a light storytelling RPG in which the characters are stalwart members of the Great Union’s last line of defence against a dangerous universe. As Patrolmen, members of the Cosmic Patrol, the player characters crew rocketships sent out to explore the galaxy, to investigate its strange phenomena, protect the Solar System, and respond to emergencies as necessary. The mechanics are kept light with everyone taking it turn to narrate scenes in the current adventure with heroics being encouraged. Plus the little rulebook is a work of art itself, looking exactly like a handbook for the Cosmic Patrol itself.

The first supplement for Cosmic Patrol is Into the Cosmos: A Cosmic Patrol Sourcebook. As befits a first supplement, it is a companion volume to the core rules. It adds further detail to the setting of Cosmic Patrol, presenting further threats and rumours, a guide to the rocket ships and other vessels to be found in the Great Union and beyond, detailed dossiers to support many of the threats, and almost two dozen Mission Briefs—enough to keep a Cosmic Patrol campaign going for session after session. As with the core rules, Into the Cosmos is presented as a small red handbook, lightly illustrated with solid line art. Unlike the core rules, Into the Cosmos has much more the feel of being a roleplaying game supplement and less of the feel being the Cosmic Patrol handbook.

It opens with ‘When in Doubt, Doubt’, a short piece of fiction about a Cosmic Patrol Intelligence Service agent infiltrating a Hakhaze base. A solid little tale, it throws a different light on Cosmic Patrol operations, one that is borne of necessity give the realities of the situation out in the Deep Black. It introduces a new race, the Hakhaze, which is one of the new races detailed in Into the Cosmos’ Gazetteer. The Hakhaze are a humanoid symbiotic species consisting of a reptile with a fungoid outer shell, which like many species the Great Union has encountered, is extremely warlike. Others include the mysterious Ro-Men, who not only capture other intelligent species, they also make them wear helmets that both make them slaves and dissolve their skulls! The Gazetteer also discusses the uses and dangers of the Fractum Drive which powers all Great Union interstellar rockets, what might be out there in the galaxy, the exploration of the jungle world that is Neptune, the Cat People of Annora, the Great Union’s manufactory behind Mercury, and an update about the Automen on Venus. All in all, it is an eclectic mix, but each of these little essays is informative and adds interesting detail to the Cosmic Patrol setting. Many are of them are further supported by the Dossiers section, which include Hakhaze, Ro-Men, Neptunian Frog Men, escaped Robots, and more, all written up and ready to bring to a game.

Of the eight vessels described in Into the Cosmos, three are particularly suitable for use by the player characters in Cosmic Patrol. They include the three-man Patrol Cutter, the twenty-five man Patrol Cruiser, and the one-man Intel Rocketship, the latter introduced earlier in ‘When in Doubt, Doubt’. Deck plans are given for each, but given the genre, it seems disappointing that the decks are horizontal along the length of each ship, rather than organised deck by deck vertically down the ship. This also means that these rocketships land on their bellies rather than on their tails, which would seem more in keeping with the genre. Other ships described include an Eiger Empire Attack Saucer, an Uth Hive, a Pirate Rocketship, and a Ro-Men Spereship.

Rounding out Into the Cosmos is a collection of twenty-three missions. Each consists of a narrative introduction, setting details, the scenes, plus a listing of its Objectives, Clues, and Tags. They begin with ‘Vo’s Fractum Cat’ in which the crew of Patrol Ship must go to the rescue of vessel with malfunctioning experimental equipment and ‘The Great Green Blight’ in which they must find out why the wary Frogmen of Neptune have turned aggressive. Other Mission Briefs will find the crew making mail runs, surveying asteroids, investigating both Eiger and Uth activity, going after pirates, going to dinner, and more. The almost two dozen run the gamut of genre clichés, but this should not be held against them. After all, certain clichés are part of the genre, and anyway, it is what the players and their characters do with them in the course of play that matters.

Despite it being a little book, just one-hundred-and-thirty-eight pages long, Into the Cosmos could do with an index. Finding things can be difficult. Another issue is the cost—it is not an inexpensive book. Nevertheless, Into the Cosmos provides excellent support for any group’s Cosmic Patrol game. Not just the Mission Briefs, which provide immediate support, but cues and inspirations aplenty with the support material.

Tales of the Star Guard

In many reviews an RPG’s designer rarely gets a mention, and even if when he does, it invariably comes a long way into the review and even then not by name. His contribution usually gets mentioned in passing or obliquely, but for this review I am going to mention a name. Matt Heerdt. It is not a name that I have encountered before, though it has to be said that I rarely check those details, and to be honest, that is unlikely to change. Nevertheless, that name is Matt Heerdt. His design for Cosmic Patrol, the latest RPG from Catalyst GameLabs of which he is also the author, captures its genre to perfection with just seventeen words and one image. Done in a simple two tone design, the front cover looks exactly the manual that every good Cosmic Patrol cadet should have in his locker, whilst the back cover looks exactly like a recruiting poster for the Cosmic Patrol. It is also beautifully simple.

Anyway, Cosmic Patrol, of which Matt Heerdt is also the author. Thirty years ago in the Pre-Cosmic Era, the Earth was hit by the fragments of a comet that upon impact disgorged a horde of alien “lizardmen” known as the “Uth.” It took a united effort to wipe out the rampaging raiders who in their wake left not only a united Earth, but also a cache of advanced, disparate, but stolen technology. In order to both study this and protect the Earth from further cosmic threats, the united world government forms scientific space program known as the “Cosmic Patrol.” Within a decade, Cosmic Patrol expeditions to Mars and Venus discover humans on both worlds; within two decades, the governments of Earth, Mars, and Venus would agree to form a single organisation known as the Great Union; and within three decades, Cosmic Patrol rocketships, equipped with the revolutionary “Fractum Drive” would not only explore the outer reaches of our Solar System, but also far out into the cosmos itself, quickly discovering an on-going intergalactic war whose sides it cannot quite yet determine.

This is the setting for Cosmic Patrol, a story-telling RPG of “Rockets and Rayguns!” set in a retro future based on the Golden Age of science fiction. Inspired by the covers of classic science fiction pulp magazines, the works of E.E. “Doc” Smith, Harry Harrison, Robert Heinlein, and Philip Francis Nolan, and classic science fiction radio series like X Minus One and Dimension X, Cosmic Patrol with its mantra of “Rockets • Rayguns • Robots” is not the Buck Rogers RPG, but it could be. Nor is it the Flash Gordon RPG or the Tom Corbett, Space Cadet RPG, but again, it could be. As the Grand Union’s first and last line of defence against a dangerous galaxy, the players take the roles of Patrolmen of the Cosmic Patrol crewing rocketships that set out to explore the galaxy, investigating its strange phenomena, and responding to emergencies as necessary. They could be cocky, stalwart heroes from Earth; Red Amazon warriors from Mars armed with their infamous red steel axes; or high thinking Venusian scientists, but whatever their origins, they are not only members of the Grand Union, but as members of the Cosmic Patrol, they are its first line of defence against the universe.

Cosmic Patrol is played in a series of Mission Briefs, each beamed to the characters’ rocketship from Cosmic Patrol headquarters. It might be that a ship has gone missing in the asteroid belt or that a survey team is under attack on the surface of Venus, but in game terms each Misssion Brief consists of a setting and one or more scenes that present the patrolmen with a series of enemies and obstacles. Each scene is further down into a number of turns, the number of turns depending upon the number of players. This is because each player will undertake the role of the Lead Narrator once during a scene. As Lead Narrator, a player not serves as the GM and presents the NPCs and environment just as you would expect in most RPGs, he also ensures that each of the characters has a chance to act in the turn. In serving as the Lead Narrator, a player does not ignore his own Patrolman, but allows him to act, though he always goes last in a turn. This completes the turn and narration passes to the next player, who then becomes the Lead Narrator and sets the scene for the new turn.

Narration can be taken from events in previous Turns, but also from “cues,” little suggestions and descriptions that the Lead Narrator can take inspiration from. Cues are given for Mission Briefs as well as Patrolmen and NPCs of all stripes. Narration can also to an extent be co-operative in that a player can turn to his fellows if he is bereft of inspiration and ask for advice. If a player wants to grab the narration then he can spend a Plot Point, which can also be expended by a player to modify dice rolls – either way, regain health points, and of course, to add a plot twist! The role of Lead Narrator also has its own pool of Plot Points, which passes from player to player as the role does. A Lead Narrator can only spend Plot Points to aid the NPCs and add plot twists, but not to impede the Patrolmen. Players earn their Plot Points through good narration, whilst the Lead Narrator earns one whenever a player expends one.

Player character actions that require dice come in two types. A Challenge handles actions against an inanimate object, while a Test is against another person, be it another player character or an NPC. To undertake a Test or Challenge a character adds the results of a twelve-sided die, an appropriate attribute die, plus modifiers to beat a target roll determined by a twenty-sided die. The modifiers are set by the Lead Narrator. For example, “in a blizzard” (-1), “Experienced” (+1), “the right tools” (+1), “already performed a scan” (+1), and so on, which with the character below having to perform emergency field surgery on an important NPC, might give the result of D12 + Medicine D10 + modifiers of +2 against the Lead Narrator’s roll of a D20. The end result of 1 (D12) + 6 (D10) +2 versus 4 (D20) means that the character has succeeded.

Character creation involves assigning various dice types to four attributes – Brawn, Brains, Charisma, and Combat; a Special Die or a D10 to something that the character is particularly good at; and determining his Luck. The latter is not a Die type, but a number between one and twelve, which when rolled on any die during any test or challenge means that a character always succeeds. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of character generation in Cosmic Patrol is the creation of a Patrolman’s Cues, and Disposition. The first are prompts from which a player can draw inspiration when it comes to his narration, whilst the latter more describe his manner. “Doc” Mulligan only has thirteen Cues, leaving room for a player or Lead Narrator to add more. This Patrolman also has Tags, essentially descriptors that give the Lead Narrator the gist of the character were he to be used as an NPC.

REGINALD MULLIGAN/ROCKETSHIP DOCTOR
VITAL FACTORS
Name: Reginald “Doc” Mulligan Age: 29
Homeworld: Earth Rank: Doctor
Tags: > Earthman > Friendly > Curmudgeon
> Brilliant > Medicine > Manners > Scottish
Brawn: D6 Brains: D8 Charisma: D10 Combat: D8
Medicine D10 (SPECIAL) Luck: 11
Armour: 17
Health: 3/3/3/2/1
Equipment: antique Webley Revolver, Install MK. VII anatomical scanner, classic doctor’s black bag, and bottle of 13 year old single malt
Cues: Och no! I am just a country doctor; Quiet! I’m trying to think!; This thing isn’t even a sasanach – I need time to analyse it; I’ll drink to that; Yes Ma’am; There are things that an Autosurgeon will not repair; This might not be a single malt, but she’ll do; My word as a gentleman; Captain, you just can’t blow it to bits; It’s a man’s place to grumble – it proves he’s alive; As my old aunt Jenny would say…; By Jupiter’s Trojans!
Disposition: Trustworthy, Ever the Gentleman, Exasperated at the lack of scientific training in the Patrol, Cautious

The setting for Cosmic Patrol is sketched in broad detail from the inner most worlds of the Solar System to the Outer Planets and beyond into the Deep Black with its Coalsack Dead Zone, some twenty astrons in diameter; the Eiger Empire with its army of triple-eyed clones; and the rumoured meddling of the cosmic beings that the Patrol has named the Metatherions. Whilst there are mysteries and intrigues galore to be placed by the Lead Narrator and unravelled by the player Patrolmen, there is still room aplenty for those and more within the Solar System itself. To support the setting, the Lead Narrator is given an array of pre-generated characters, some of whom can be used as player characters, the rest being a set of entertaining NPCs that should keep a game going for a while. An octet of Mission Briefings of increasing difficulty is certainly more than enough to get a game and thus a season of Cosmic Patrol going. Rounding out the book is a good, though unexplored, bibliography of suggested reading and viewing.

Perhaps if Cosmic Patrol as a game has a weakness, it is that the advice for the GM or Lead Narrator is underwritten. Which in what has leanings towards being a storytelling game, does seem odd. Yet whilst those leanings are present, this is not an RPG that focuses like so many storytelling RPGs on handing the players narration rights in order to tell a particular type of story. Nor should that be taken as a criticism of that type of game. Rather, Cosmic Patrol is all about a lightness of touch that encourages the players to work together to tell of adventures of “derring do” against a backdrop of Golden Age Science Fiction. It does include suggestions as to how it could be run using a single Lead Narrator, but to be fair, the narration duties in Cosmic Patrol are far from onerous, especially given how those duties are about everyone taking responsibility for telling a good story.

As has already been pointed out, physically, Cosmic Patrol is well done. The book is cleanly laid out and the artwork thoroughly excellent. The lack of an index is irksome.

Cosmic Patrol has three paragraphs devoted to the Theremin. That is enough for me to recommend this RPG. The fact that this game made me want to read some of the fiction suggested in the bibliography is also indicative of how much I like Cosmic Patrol, despite the fact that the book I re-read after some thirty years was Robert Heinlein’s Space Cadet, which is not in the bibliography. Having re-read it, I would suggest that it should be. In truth, I have wanted a good Golden Age Science Fiction RPG for a long time. Cosmic Patrol is not that RPG – it is better. Rather Cosmic Patrol captures its genre of Golden Age Science Fiction to not just perfection; it does so with charm and gusto.