[Free RPG Day 2023] A Few Flowers More

Now in its sixteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2023 took place on Saturday, June 24th. 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. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Fil Baldowski at All Rolled Up, and others, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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One of the perennial contributors to Free RPG Day is Paizo, Inc., a publisher whose titles for both the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Starfinder Roleplaying Game have proved popular and often in demand long after the event. The emphasis in these releases have invariably been upon small species. Thus, in past years, the titles released for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game have typically involved adventures with diminutive Player Characters, first Kobolds, then Goblins, and then with the release of A Fistful of Flowers for Free RPG Day 2022, Leshys, humanoid sapient plants of various species and Classes, typically crafted by a druid as a minion or companion. For Free RPG Day 2023, the same Leshys from A Fistful of Flowers return in A Few Flowers More, a second scenario which continues the ‘Spaghetti Forest’ theme of the first. As before, four pre-generated Player Characters are included, each of Third Level, each independent of their creator, and the scenario requires the Game Master have access to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Second Edition, Pathfinder Bestiary, Pathfinder Advanced Player’s Guide, and the Pathfinder Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. The scenario can be played through in a single session and unlike in past years, is more combat focused, than the previous scenarios.

A Few Flowers More, like A Fistful of Flowers before it, begins in Verduran Forest, a large woodland in Avistan. There is a Wildwood Treaty in place between the forest and the nearby settled lands, affording the forest certain legal protections which limit what the nearby humans can harvest from under the eaves. In A Fistful of Flowers, the Player Characters traced a number of missing Leshys to a nearby village where they discovered an alchemist transforming the kidnap victims into showpieces to display at the tea parties of the snooty, venal aristocrat, Lady Constance Meliosa. Having prevailed and rescued the missing Leshys, the Player Characters have taken the chance to rest and recuperate and enjoy life in the forest. Unfortunately, the events of A Few Flowers More means that their respite is cut short and their bravery will be called upon once again.

The scenario begins with Stella, a tiny, bat-featured spirit known as a Nyktera, and also a pillar of the community, summoning the Player Characters to her home. Here, she explains that part of the forest has seen the rapid growth and spread of strange plants and this has attracted the attention of Humans harvesting them and thus annoyed the local fey. With the treaty between the humans and the forest under threat, the Player Characters are instructed to investigate. When they do, they discover that the harvesters’ is already in disarray and there are signs that somebody has already attacked the intrusive Humans. By now, the Player Characters may already be suspicious that the plants are neither native to the Verduran Forest or indeed, the prime material plane. Investigation will quickly confirm this, pointing to the First World, the primeval home of the fey, as the source of the new plant life. The question is, has there been breach between the Verduran Forest and the First World, and if so, who caused it?

A Few Flowers More is a short adventure, taking up less than half—including the maps for the scenario—of the sixteen page booklet. It effectively consists of three scenes: a roleplaying scene which introduces the scenario, followed by two combat scenes. The better and more inventive of the two combat scenes is essentially a big game of peekaboo as the Player Characters try to get into the cabin belonging to the harvesters, but since occupied by Fey who have hacked holes in the walls. The combat in the third scene is nowhere near as interesting, or even actually interesting. That said, the scenario does finish with the Player Characters needing to decide what do with the cause of the breach with the First World.

If less than half of A Few Flowers More consists of the scenario, what comprises the bulk of the booklet? Simply, the Player Characters. These consist of a Gourd Leshy Druid, Leaf Leshy Bard, a Vine Leshy Barbarian, and a Fungus Leshy Rogue. Each is neatly arranged on their own two-page spread and complete with background and clear, easy to read stats. Of course, the players do not have to use these, but could instead substitute their own characters, created using the rules in the Pathfinder Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. Otherwise though, these are a decently diverse range of characters. The Player Characters are all Third Level and highly detailed. In fact, too highly detailed. Arguably, all four Player Characters are accorded too much information given that they are designed to be played in a scenario intended to be played in a single session and in effect, the two-page spread for each Player Character becomes filler.

Physically, A Few Flowers More is as well presented as you would expect for a release from Paizo Inc. Everything is in full colour, the illustrations are excellent, and the maps attractive.

Unfortunately, unlike A Fistful of Flowers before it, A Few Flowers More is not an entertaining and likeable scenario—or a sufficiently entertaining and likeable scenario. What is there is, is detailed and decently written, but A Fistful of Flowers is simply too short and focuses too much on combat instead of investigation and interaction. Consequently, A Few Flowers More fails to provide Pathfinder, Second Edition with the showcase it should for Free RPG Day. Paizo, Inc. has a proven track record of providing great content and support for the Pathfinder roleplaying game over the fourteen years that it has supported Free RPG Day. That track record is broken with A Few Flower Flowers more.

[Free RPG Day 2023] Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day 2 Mission Booklet

Now in its sixteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2023 took place on Saturday, June 24th. 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. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Fil Baldowski at All Rolled Up, and others, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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It is more common for roleplaying games to get turned into board games, for example, Exalted: Legacy of the Unconquered Sun for the Exalted roleplaying game from White Wolf Entertainment and Grand Tribunal, the board game set in the world of Atlas Games’ Ars Magica, but that trend is on the turn. Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game from Magpie Games is based on Leder Games’ Root: A Game of Woodland Might and Right, whilst the popular Zombicide board game from CMON Global Limited now has its own stand-alone roleplaying game in the form of Zombicide: Chronicles – The Roleplaying Game. For Free RPG Day 2021, CoolMiniOrNot and Guillotine Games released the Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day Mission Booklet. This contained a trio of short scenarios which can either set up or continue a post-apocalyptic campaign in which the dead rise, walk, shamble, or even run, and want to munch on your brains. However, it did not contain any rules from Zombicide: Chronicles—for that the Zombie Master needed to download the Zombicide: Chronicles Quick-Start, which has everything necessary to play through the three scenarios in the Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day Mission Booklet. This is also the case for the Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day 2 Mission Booklet.

The Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day 2 Mission Booklet contains two scenarios rather than the three of Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day Mission Booklet from Free RPG Day 2021. They will work with either the Zombicide: Chronicles Quick-Start or the full rules from Zombicide: Chronicles – The Roleplaying Game. The first of the two missions in the booklet, ‘Car Crush’, is the longer and the more detailed—and is the better for it. The scenario begins with the Survivors encountering Reginald, a chauffeur—who happens to be an English chauffeur for a well-known rapper in the pre-Zombicide Chronicles world—in a spot of difficulty. His limousine’s battery is flat and needs replacing, but he is surrounded by zombies. If he can get a replacement battery, he can get to a source of food and supplies that has yet to be scavenged. Can the Survivors help? Thankfully, the chauffeur has stopped right outside the perfect place to find a replacement battery: Monster Joe’s Used Auto Parts. The rest of the mission is a sandbox adventure set entirely within the confines of a junkyard. Which just happens to be full of zombies because the Mob used ‘Billy Boy’, Monster Joe’s enormous car crusher, to dispose of bodies. Unfortunately, the Mob has been using it for years and whilst that was not before the apocalypse, after an apocalypse when the undead have arisen to walk the earth and feed on the living, it definitely is! This results in a great set-up with members of the corpse cortege ready to leap out of partially crushed wrecks and the junkyard’s car graveyard. It being a junkyard, it has towering piles of well, junk, and scrap, some of them noteworthy and interesting some not, and it has dogs to discourage would be thieves and intruders, and some of these are, of course, zombie dogs.

‘Car Crush’ details nine locations, each one a set-piece of its own. In addition to this, there are a trio of events which add flavour and a little pathos to the whole affair. The scenario also serves as a prequel to Road to Haven, which is the first campaign for Zombicide Chronicles. To play that, Reginald should survive the mission and drive the Survivors to the Shopmarket, which marks the start of the campaign proper, where they will be able to resupply with food and perhaps even run into Reginald’s boss, Adam W. Clever. Even if the Zombie Master decides not to run the scenario as part of the Road to Haven campaign, this is a really fun scenario which plays up to the classic tropes of American junkyard, right up to including links with the Mob.

Where ‘Car Crush’ was more open and had more of a freeform feel to it, the second mission, ‘Oliver Twisted’ is more constrained and tactical, and as the title suggests, it involves children. It is also the shorter of the two. It also assumes that the Survivors have access to a Shelter and have made contact with other Shelters such that the Survivors possess a radio and a codebook which enables the various occupants of the Shelters to communicate with each other in secrecy. Unfortunately, the Survivors have had their copy of the codebook stolen—and stolen by children, no less! So to enable the Survivors to remain in contact with the other Shelters, they need to retrieve the codebook. Which means finding the children, who all turn out to be orphans with a strong distrust of adults. Plus, the one orphan who stole the codebook has been kidnapped by the ‘Devils’, a band of soldiers who have holed up in the upper levels of a city block. Worse, they have surrounded it with zombies! This sets up a tactical situation in which the Survivors—none of them trained soldiers—have to assault or break into hideout occupied by trained soldiers. Whilst there is some roleplaying to be had between the orphans and the Survivors, ‘Oliver Twisted’ primarily consists of combat and stealth, and it lacks the inventiveness of ‘Car Crush’. Not every scenario has to be quite as inventive, but ‘Oliver Twisted’ is just merely okay.

Physically, Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day 2 Mission Booklet is well presented, the artwork, all cartoonish zombies and Survivors, is decent, and the one map in the booklet does the job very nicely.

If the Zombie Master wants two more Missions for Zombicide: Chronicles – The Roleplaying Game, then Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day 2 Mission Booklet will give her that. If the Zombie Master is planning to run Road to Haven, the first campaign for Zombicide: Chronicles – The Roleplaying Game, then the Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day 2 Mission Booklet is exactly what she needs. Either way, the Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day 2 Mission Booklet includes two Missions which are decent, but one of which is a lot more fun and inventive than the other.

[Free RPG Day 2023] Dragon Shield Roleplaying

Now in its sixteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2023 took place on Saturday, June 24th. 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. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Fil Baldowski at All Rolled Up, and others, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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The award for the slimmest release for Free RPG Day 2023 goes to Dragon Shield for its Mini-Adventure, ‘The Knights of Botan’. It amounts—more or less—to a single sheet of card, in US Letter-size, upon which is detailed an encounter which a Dungeon Master can easily add to her Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition game. If that sounds underwhelming, well, that is because it is and also it is not. For in actuality, the release from Dragon Shield—better known for its range of accessories for the collectable card market rather than the roleplaying hobby—consists of three things. One is the aforementioned one-sheet adventure for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, the second is a monster card for the major NPC in the adventure, and the third is The Pocket RPG Guide, a miniature booklet of tips for both player and Game Master.

The first is the adventure, ‘The Knights of Botan’. This is presented on a single sheet of light card. There is no set Level for the Player Characters, but it is assumed that they are heroic and have completed several adventures. The scenario begins when they awake in a dream. This enables the scenario to be run either between adventures or even during an adventure as a side quest. The scenario thus takes place on the astral plane where they are faced with four doors, each connected to a dragon. Beyond each door lies a similarly structured, but thematically different challenge. All require certain bones to be identified and rifled through to locate a certain object, a terrain and environment to be overcome, and so on, with monsters impeding their progress if the Player Characters falter. All four challenges adhere to the same format, with only their various elements differing. The Dungeon Master will need to prepare some monster stats here and probably break down the procedure to best understand it. If they succeed, the Player Characters will be rewarded with the trust of the Botan, the dragon of dreams. The idea here is that Botan will return to call upon the Player Characters for aid as Knights of Botan.

The structure and set-up for ‘The Knights of Botan’ is presented on the one side of the card, whilst on the other is the set of four tables for the scenario’s four challenges, along with an illustration of an unnamed dragon. In terms of presentation and design, ‘The Knights of Botan’ is succinct. It needs close attention and a little development upon the part of the Dungeon Master to make it easier to use and in the long term, some ideas of the Dungeon Master’s own if she wants to bring Botan and the Player Characters new positions as Knights of Botan into her campaign.

The second of the items is the Monster Card. This is of Abigan, the small Fey Dragon who is part of the events of ‘The Knights of Botan’. This is the creature’s full stats and abilities, or rather ability. This is ‘Fey Dragon Charm’, which enables Abigan to charm a single humanoid and convince him that he is the Fey Dragon’s truest, most trusted friend. On the front is an illustration of Abigan. Unfortunately, there are no personality or roleplaying notes for the creature.

The third of the items is The Pocket RPG Guide. This is a seven-page, full colour booklet which contains tips for player and Game Master alike. For the player, there is ‘Breathing Life Into A Character’, a quick and dirty step-by-step guide to creating interesting Player Characters. It starts off a bit silly with a Player Character called Milly Cyrus, a bard who wants to go to the magical land of Las Vegas. However, the advice is not without merit, highlighting the difficulty of creating interesting characters and suggesting a way round this by starting with a cliché and combining that with a motivation, and using it to drive the Player Character’s actions, whilst also throwing in a contradiction to add complexity and generate interest in the Player Character and his actions. The advice is obvious, but that does not mean that it is bad advice. In fact, for the player new to roleplaying games, it is good advice as a starting point, and for the experienced player, it is advice worth revisiting because it still works, especially if the player is short of ideas or inspiration. Similarly, the advice for the Game Master is obvious, but not necessarily bad. ‘5 Tips To Becoming A Great GM’ talks about how to get the right players involved that want to be involved, the importance of running a ‘Session Zero’ and being consistent to it, and so on. Much like the advice for the player, there is nothing new or innovative in the advice given, but it is good advice and it is helpful advice. Rounding out The Pocket RPG Guide is two sets of tables, one for generating locations and one for NPCs. Each is given four tables, for example, ‘Personality’, ‘Quirk’, ‘Archetype’, and ‘Desire’ for the NPC Generator, with six entries per table. The mix of options is limited, but as a starting set, is reasonably serviceable.

What is noticeable about The Pocket RPG Guide is that it is heavily illustrated with photographs, especially for a booklet as short as this is. The photographs all show two items that Dragon Shield makes as aids for both the player and the Game Master. These are the Game Master Companion and the Player Companion which are shown throughout The Pocket RPG Guide in actual use.

The literally slim offering from Dragon Shield means that as a scenario, ‘The Knights of Botan’, is not as easy to use in play as other releases for Free RPG Day 2023. It is underdeveloped and it underwhelms, but it has scope to be further developed and made easier to use by the Dungeon Master. Similarly, the Monster Card feels the same way, whereas there is that little bit more to The Pocket RPG Guide that makes it more obviously useful. Overall, succinct, but potentially serviceable is the best description of the Monsters Cards, Mini Adventure, and The Pocket RPG Guide from Dragon Shield for Free RPG Day 2023.

[Free RPG Day 2023] Cobra/Con Fusion

Now in its sixteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2023 took place on Saturday, June 24th. 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. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Fil Baldowski at All Rolled Up, and others, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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Cobra/Con Fusion is a scenario not just for one roleplaying game, but two! It is published by Renegade Game Studios for use with its G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game and its Transformers Roleplaying Game. In bringing the two together, the theme of the adventure is team-ups. For when Cobra and the Decepticons begin working together, the operatives of G.I. Joe and the Autobots are forced to co-operate in order to thwart their iniquitous intrigues… This means that the players will take the roles of characters working for both—three from G.I. Joe and three of the Autobots. What this means is that Cobra/Con Fusion actually differs from other adventures for Essence20—the system that the G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game, the Transformers Roleplaying Game, and the Power Rangers Roleplaying Game use—in which the players use characters created of their own or pre-generated characters. Instead, Cobra/Con Fusion uses specific pre-generated Player Characters, which consist of A.W.E. Striker Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Minerva of the Autobots and Cover Girl, Doc, and Mainframe from G.I. Joe. They are all of Tenth Level as required by the scenario and are available to download. The other notable aspect of Cobra/Con Fusion is that it is independent of the timeline for the comics for both G.I. Joe and The Transformers, so fans of either can expect some differences.

Cobra/Con Fusion opens with Part One, ‘Awestruck’, with the three G.I. Joe operatives arriving on La Grande Dune du Pilat on the south-west coast of France in the Bordeaux area for a briefing. Stalker, the G.I. Joe leader giving the briefing, reveals four things. The first is that The Baroness, the Cobra mastermind has been seen in the area. The second is the existence of the Autobots, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Minerva. Three, that the G.I. Joe operatives will be working with the Autobots. Four, one of the Autobots, Bumblebee, is badly damaged and needs to be repaired. This sets up the first challenge for the scenario, as members of the two diverse factions—G.I. Joe and the Autobots—are directed to co-operate in repairing Bumblebee. This scene is essentially an emergency room scene played out against a time limit, with each of the Player Characters being given tasks that they can perform to complete and speed the process. In actuality, there is no time limit, but rather that the quicker the Player Characters perform the repairs, the greater the benefits they can gain when facing the forces of Cobra and the Decepticons. At the end, Bumblebee is restored to full operating health, though with G.I. Joe technology rather than Autobot technology.

The action-proper begins in Part Two and ‘Street Hustle’, when the story moves south-east to the village of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, close to the Pyrenees, where G.I. Joe has tracked the Decepticon and Combaticon Swindle. Oddly, the whole village has been bought out from underneath the residents by none other than The Baroness. The G.I. Joe operatives and the Autobots are sent to capture and interrogate Swindle in the hopes of discovering the location of The Baroness. This sets up a desperate car chase around the village which is hampered by the fact that the village is one of the most beautiful in France and has a heritage which dates back to before Christ! Which means that parts of it are very old and cannot be damaged by collateral damage. Full rules are provided for vehicle chases in The Field Guide to Action & Adventure Crossover Sourcebook, but sufficient details are provided here for the Game Master to run the scene. However, there is scope here for some expansion too, since like the earlier La Grande Dune du Pilat, Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges is a real place, so the play through of the chase around the village could be enhanced with maps and photographs—none are given in the scenario—to give a greater sense of verisimilitude.

Part Two will climax with a battle between Swindle and the Player Characters, but they will be able to learn what Cobra and the Decepticons are planning together. This includes where the plans are being carried out, a secret base in the Pyrenees. In Part Three, ‘Break the Joint’, the Player Characters must break into the facility and destroy the fruition of Cobra-Decepticon co-operation—a prototype H.I.S.S. drone based on the leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, known as Fusion. Defeating both Fusion and the forces at the Cobra base brings the scenario to a successful end.

A full appendix gives the stats for all of the adversaries in Cobra/Con Fusion, including Fusion. In addition, there are notes for the Game Master throughout the scenario, giving advice on using other Player Character options, modifying the adventure up to Twentieth Level, and staging the adventure.

Physically, Cobra/Con Fusion is well presented. The artwork is good and the map of the Cobra facility is clear. The text in Cobra/Con Fusion is tight in places and a little busy, so the Game Master will need to pay careful attention to the checks and stats needed for each scene.

Cobra/Con Fusion is designed to highlight the supplement, The Field Guide to Action & Adventure Crossover Sourcebook. Not just mechanically with the chase rules, but also thematically, as Cobra/Con Fusion is a ‘layered crossover’, in which both settings of G.I. Joe and The Transformers exist in the same world, but rarely interact. Of course, in Cobra/Con Fusion, they do. The nature of scenario with three Player Characters from G.I. Joe and three Autobots does limit choice, as does the fact that the G.I. Joe operatives tend to be technical versus the Autobots who are more competitive in nature. But that is in the nature of scenarios with pre-generative Player Characters and Cobra/Con Fusion is a one-shot after all. Plus, it would be more difficult to run it as part of a campaign or with other Player Characters.

Cobra/Con Fusion is a fun, one-shot scenario, just about the right length to be run in a single session or at a convention. This makes it the best offering from Renegade Game Studios for Free RPG Day for both the G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game and the Transformers Roleplaying Game to date.