[Free RPG Day 2025] Exalted Funeral DOUBLE FEATURE!

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

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As its title suggests, the Exalted Funeral DOUBLE FEATURE! contains scenarios for two of the roleplaying games published by Exalted Funeral. These are for Land of Eem and for Monty Python’s Curricular Medieval Reenactment Programme. The ‘Land of Eem: Curse of the Chicken-Foot Witch – A Quickstart Adventure’, which is for the roleplaying game which describes itself as ‘The Lord of the Rings meets The Muppets’, is not quite a full quick-start in that the Game Master will need to download a set of Player Characters, whilst the content for the Monty Python’s Curricular Medieval Reenactment Programme is a scenario rather than a quick-start and again, the Game Master will need to download a set of Player Characters. The two scenarios are presented as a tête-bêche book, so that one book is upside-down relative to the other. Both scenarios can be played through in a single session or so.

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The scenario for Monty Python’s Curricular Medieval Reenactment Programme is ‘The Brachet and the Black Heart’. This is actually the scenario from the quick-start, so essentially the Game Master is getting with Monty Python’s Curricular Medieval Reenactment Programme half of Exalted Funeral DOUBLE FEATURE! is a version of the scenario with better presentation and artwork. The scenario does have some requirements in terms of which of the pre-generated Player Characters should be used. The Troubadour and the Knight should definitely be included as well as a Lower-Class Player Character such as the Knave or the Churl. The Enchanter will likely also be useful. However, the scenario itself does not make this explicit.

The scenario opens with the Player Characters in the village of Lower Entrails, which is described as quaint, nice, has several chickens, and not too much shit on everyone. There is a festival going on and the Player Characters are encouraged to wander around, gossip,and shop. There are plenty of prompts here for the Game Master to portray various encounters here, but the scenario begins with the Knight being approached by a footman from the nearby manse of Lord Arthur Name who invites him to a grand banquet to celebrate the betrothal of his daughter, Lady Lucky. Once the Player Characters have got past the Gumbys who serve as gatekeepers, they are divided by social class and funnelled into different scenes and activities. The Knight is feted, the Troubadour is expected to work, and anyone lower class is sent to the kitchens to work. There is the chance to pick up some gossip before, in the middle of the banquet, Lady Lucky is abducted by a giant dog chased by a surprisingly large flying mouse! Of course, Lord Arthur Name looks to the Knight to go after his daughter and rescue her.

The second part of the scenario is more traditional, a trek or quest into the Forest Sauvage to locate Lady Lucky. However, this is Monty Python’s Curricular Medieval Reenactment Programme and so the encounters along the way include with French knights and a witch a la Monty Python and the Holy Grail before the confrontation with a dragon that is more Jabberwocky than Monty Python. There is an optional encounter which will reveal the villain behind the whole affair, but like the encounter with the Gumbys, the encounters with the French knights and the dragon are a chance for the Game Master to play up her knowledge of Monty Python and quote from its oeuvre in character. ‘The Brachet and the Black Heart’ is a decent adventure which treats its medievalism in fairly silly fashion. Where it fails is in telling the Game Master what is going on until the very end of the scenario, so she must read to find out rather than the scenario telling her as part of her preparation.

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In comparison to ‘The Brachet and the Black Heart’ for Monty Python’s Curricular Medieval Reenactment Programme, the ‘Land of Eem: Curse of the Chicken-Foot Witch – A Quickstart Adventure’ does actually include an explanation of its rules. This starts with its core mechanic. To have his character undertake an action, a player rolls a twelve-sided die and adds a skill modifier. On a result of one and two, the attempt is a complete failure; a failure with a plus on three to five; a success with a twist on result of six to eight; a success on nine to eleven; and a complete success on a twelve. There is a lot of scope for interpretation in terms of what the twists and failures might be, but there are explanations of each along with the rules for advantage and disadvantage, proficiencies and deficiencies, and the attributes, stats, and skills for the Player Character.

The conflict rules are given an equally straightforward and simple explanation. Notably, conflicts are handled in four phases—‘Parley’, ‘Improvise’, ‘Run’, and ‘Combat’—with the emphasis being that fighting is not the only option. Both melee and ranged combat have their own outcomes similar to those for a standard ability or skill test. Notably for melee combat, instead of success with a twist on result of six to eight, the result is ‘Hit with a Counterattack’. This means that the defender can attack back when hit, but could then roll the result of ‘Hit with a Counterattack’. This could simulate a duel, but it could also lead to the serious inflicting of Dread. Dread is a measure of the mental and physical harm that an attack or effect can inflict, and it is deducted from Courage. Armour will reduce physical Dread. A Player Character reduced to zero Courage is not dead, but unconscious and can suffer wounds, but if Courage is reduced to zero again, a Defy Death check must be made.

The adventure, ‘Curse of the Chicken-Foot Witch’ is described as having the hijinks tone and being “A fun, goofy, and light-hearted Level 1+ adventure’, inspired by The Muppets, Labyrinth, and Adventure Time. A witch, Chara the Chicken-Foot Witch, is causing trouble in the Used T’Be Forest in the Mucklands, including cursing the powerful Gnome, L. Dorothy Sandwich and turning her into a muskrat. Unable to undo the curse as a muskrat and stuck at Wally’s Waffles and Weorgs, L. Dorothy Sandwich hires the Player Characters to enter Chara the Chicken-Foot Witch’s hovel and steal back her Wand of Decursification. The adventure begins with the Player Characters at the Crack, the fissure in Used T’Be Forest that is the entrance to Chara the Chicken-Foot Witch’s hovel. The hovel is presented as a one-page location consisting of seven individual rooms and caves detailed in a list of bullet points. The caves are full of monsters, but also victims of Chara the Chicken-Foot Witch’s ire and jealousy. Some will have to be fought, but in many cases, the Player Characters can parley with the inhabitants or even avoid them all together. Of course, Chara the Chicken-Foot Witch cannot be avoided, but again, she does not have to fought to be defeated and the scenario includes ways in which the Player Characters can successfully Parley with her.

The adventure is definitely goofy and there is a little bit of whimsy to it. A headless skeleton wanders the caves, a ghostly ballerina weeps for her lost career, and an anthropomorphic Wug bakes cookies for his mistress. Depending upon the route taken through the caves, the scenario could be played in less than a single session. It looks like a mini-dungeon, but whilst there are opportunities for combat, the ‘Curse of the Chicken-Foot Witch’ encourages other options than that and is all the better for it.

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Physically, the Exalted Funeral DOUBLE FEATURE! is a colourful affair. The artwork is excellent, and both scenarios are well written, even if the ‘The Brachet and the Black Heart’ does leave it to the end to explain to the Game Master what is going on.

Unfortunately, there is a disjointed feel to Exalted Funeral DOUBLE FEATURE!. Not because of there being content for two roleplaying games within its pages or the tête-bêche format, but because of what is missing and what the Game Master has to do to run either scenario. Both require that the Game Master download the Player Characters rather than giving them to her up front and in the case of ‘The Brachet and the Black Heart’, the Game Master has to download the quick-start for Monty Python’s Curricular Medieval Reenactment Programme, which not only includes the rules to run ‘The Brachet and the Black Heart’, but also ‘The Brachet and the Black Heart’ itself. Which is weird, as in, “So, to get the rules I need to run the scenario you have given me, I need to download the quick-start which includes the scenario you have already given me?” Ideally, Exalted Funeral DOUBLE FEATURE! should have been two books and the Game Master would have had everything needed to play one or both as is her wont. Instead, what Exalted Funeral has provided is a weird, unsatisfying compromise.

Nevertheless, Exalted Funeral DOUBLE FEATURE! does include two very enjoyable scenarios. Although they require a bit more effort to prepare than they really should, both ‘The Brachet and the Black Heart’ and ‘Curse of the Chicken-Foot Witch’ nicely showcase the humour and tone of their respective roleplaying games and present the players with some entertaining challenges for a single session each.

An Exalted Quick-Start

As its title suggests, The Tomb of Dreams An Exalted Third Edition Jumpstart, is a ‘jump-start’—or quick-start’—for Exalted Third Edition, the high fantasy anime-inspired roleplaying game published by Onyx Path Publishing. It is set in a forgotten age when the world lay flat atop a sea of chaos, when the elements were sharply defined culturally and geographically. The gods made war upon the monsters that forged this world and give their human champions the gift of Exaltation, their divine power which granted them amazing gifts and fortitude. Led by the Solar Exalted, mankind would defeat the monsters and inaugurate the First Age of Man, but the Dragon-Blooded Exalted grew jealous, threw down the realm that the Solar Exalted had built, slew them one-by-one, and locked away their powers of Solar Exaltation. The Dragon-Blooded empire has ruled over a Second Age—an age of sorrows, warfare, and strife—for centuries. Now as lesser nations chafe at the Dragon-Blooded empire’s grip and the Dragon-Blooded empire has been wounded by the less of its immortal empress, Solar Exaltation has returned from its long banishment and death, its champions unleashing the powers of the Unconquered Sun upon the world anew. Will they bring light to the world or set it alight?

In The Tomb of Dreams An Exalted Third Edition Jumpstart, five Solar Exalted will follow their dreams into mystery from ages past. It provides five pre-generated Solar Exalted player characters, an explanation of the core rules for Exalted Third Edition, and ‘The Tomb of Dreams’, a short scenario. It is designed to introduce the Game Master and her players to both the setting and mechanics, as well as proving a starting point for an ongoing Exalted Third Edition campaign using the full rules. Besides The Tomb of Dreams An Exalted Third Edition Jumpstart, the Game Master and her players will need between ten and fifteen ten-sided dice—preferably per player, and copies of the character sheets and their explanation.

In Exalted Third Edition, a character or ‘Exalted’, ise defined by various traits. These include nine attributes—Strength, Dexterity, Stamina, Charisma, Manipulation, Appearance, Perception, Intelligence, and Wits; Skills such as Archery or Socialise; Merits such as wealth and political power, and traits of a singular nature; Willpower—representing mental fortitude as well as being spent for various things; Essence—magical potency, consisting of personal and peripheral motes which fuel mystical powers and can be committed to power ongoing effects; and Limit and Limit Trigger, representing the curse twisting an Exalted’s soul, levied when they kill the enemies of the gods. He will have Intimacies, what be believes and cares about, used in social interaction. Health and Defence cover static values such as Parry, Evasion, Defense, Resolve, and Guile. Now some of these elements are not used in The Tomb of Dreams An Exalted Third Edition Jumpstart. These include the Merits, Limit and Limit Trigger, Experience, amongst others. 

Mechanically, a player will be rolling a pool of ten-sided dice, typically formed by adding an Attribute and a Skill together—each being rated between one and five. Each die result of seven or more counts as a success with ‘double tens’, or rolls of ten, counting as double. A character may need to beat a given Difficulty, again rated between one and five. One notable way of increasing the number of dice a character rolls is a stunt, earned by a player giving an evocative description of what his character is going to do. Stunts range in value from one to three, and can simply add dice to a pool, raise a Static value, or grant an automatic success. The point of stunts is to make situations and their outcome exciting and grant players a greater degree of narrative control.

The Tomb of Dreams An Exalted Third Edition Jumpstart focuses on three aspects of the Exalted Third Edition rules—combat, battle groups, and social influence. Combat can be divided into two types of attacks which are rolled against the opponent’s Defence static value. These are ‘Withering Attacks’ which seize the flow of battle and steal an opponent’s initiative and enable to the attacker to use it as his own. Decisive attacks inflict damage directly on the opponents, and are typically used after a few Withering attacks have been made. An opponent reduced to an Initiative of zero is forced into Initiative Crash and is limited in his actions. The combat rules also cover rushing into a fight, withdrawing, and taking cover, as well as aiming, making flurry attacks, full defence, and more. Flurry attacks enable a character to act more than once in a round. There is a sense of escalation to combat, of attacks and high action going back and forth between the opponents, until one side or another manages to make enough Withering attacks to follow them up with a Decisive attack.

Battle Groups are designed to handle anything from a squad or a band to a mob or a formation. They have their own values—Size, Drill (training), Might (supernatural power, if any), and Magnitude (health). A Battle Group inflicts Withering attacks, does not gain the benefits of ‘Double Tens’, and only gets one attack per round. Essentially, the rules for Battle Groups treat them as Mooks, making them dangerous, but not as dangerous or powerful as the NPCs who lead them and whom the Exalted player characters are likely to face on the battlefield. The rules for Social Influence work with the Intimacies which are divided between Ties, attachments to people, places, and organisations, and Principles, beliefs and ideals. For example, ‘My Mentor (Grudging Respect)’ or ‘I am the greatest swordsman who ever lived.’ They can be used increase a target’s Resolve against efforts to influence him, change a target’s feelings and beliefs, and threaten, inspire, and more. 

Lastly, an Exalted can tap into the real power of Creation, which expresses through his Anima Banner. This exhibits first in the caste mark on his forehead and then grows into raging glow around him, becoming more and more as an Exalted uses motes of the Essence that underlies all of creation—either his Personal Essence or Peripheral Essence drawn from around him. These motes are used to fuel various Charms and Spells, for example, ‘Excellent Strike’ ensures an automatic success and lets a player reroll any ones, which requires three motes, whilst ‘Death of Obsidian Butterflies’ costs fifteen sorcerous motes and one Willpower to a create a torrent of razor-edged black butterflies which can inflict a Decisive attack!

The five pre-generated Exalted all come with character sheets and a couple of pages of description and explanation, which includes an illustration and some background. They include Volfer, a pit-fighter; Karal Fire Orchid, a retired general who once served the Dragon-Blooded; Iay Selak-Amu, a witch from the Windward Isle; Faka Kun, a desert pygmy acrobat-thief; and Mirror Flag, a revolutionary actor. They are a reasonable mix, though they do lack personal motivations as to their involvement in the scenario.

‘The Tomb of Dreams’ scenario in The Tomb of Dreams An Exalted Third Edition Jumpstart begins with the player characters arriving on a strange island, seemingly walking out of the ocean along a reef. They are drawn here by dreams of their legacy of their recent Solar Exaltation, and must find their way between the ongoing, ancient struggle between a god, an elemental, and a demon. Their ultimate goal is to locate a cache of ancient weapons and more, but to do that, they will need to determine the motives of the three antagonists. This is key to uncovering quite what is going on the island, but the likelihood is that they will need to enter into a few battles too. The adventure is not quite linear, a couple of options being given which vary according to which of the NPCs the Exalted meet first. Overall, this is a decent scenario which hints at the long history before the Third Age, though it could have done with stronger hooks for the given player character Exalted.

Physically, The Tomb of Dreams An Exalted Third Edition Jumpstart is well presented and well written. The artwork is good, some of it excellent, though some of it is slightly cartoony. The four characters are given some fantastic abilities to bring to the game and often the battlefield, both high action and high fantasy.

What The Tomb of Dreams An Exalted Third Edition Jumpstart is not, is a quick-start. Although it drops various elements of the full Exalted Third Edition, there is still a complexity to the mechanics of the roleplaying game which requires a careful read-through upon the part of the Storyteller. In fact, the Storyteller would be advised to sit down and run an example of the various mechanics herself prior to bringing it to the table for her players. Otherwise, The Tomb of Dreams An Exalted Third Edition Jumpstart is a serviceable introduction to Exalted Third Edition, which though requires a bit of preparation, enables the Game Master to bring anime style high action, high fantasy to her gaming table.