Inquisitorial Intelligence II

The light of the Emperor’s divine might reaches everywhere—but not always. Only in recent years has the Great Rift begun to unseal and the mysterious Noctis Aeterna begun to recede, the Days of Blinding ended, and links reforged with worlds in the Marcharius Sector lost under its pall and beyond the sector itself. As communication, trade, and psychic links have been re-established with Terra, the Imperium has worked hard to restore its rightful authority and ensure that no deviancy from creed has taken place in the Days of Blinding. Despite this still, from within heretics turn to the Dark Gods with their promises and falsehoods and corruption is rife, wasting the Emperor’s resources and wealth, and from without, there is always the danger of raids by Orks or worse, Tyranoids. Yet routing out such heresies and corruption is no simple matter, but an issue of politics and influence as well as loyalty and devotion. The Emperor’s great servants search out those they deem worthy to serve them and the Imperium, directing them to investigate mysteries and murders, experience horror and heresies, expose corruption and callousness, whether in in pursuit of their patron’s agenda, his faction’s agenda, the Emperor’s will, or all three. In return they will gain privileges far beyond that imagined by their fellows—the chance to travel and see worlds far beyond their own, enjoy wealth and comfort that though modest is more than they could have dreamed of, and witness great events that they might have heard of years later by rumour or newscast. This though, is not without its costs, for they will face the worst that the forces of Chaos has to fling at them, the possibility of death, and if they fail, exile and loss of all that they have gained. In the Forty-First Millennium, everyone is an asset and everyone is expendable, but some can survive long enough to make a difference in the face of an uncaring universe and the machinery of the Imperium of Mankind grinding its way forward into a glorious future.

This is the set-up in Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum, the spiritual successor to Dark Heresy, the very first fully realised roleplaying game to be set within the Warhammer 40,000 milieu and published in 2008, the very first roleplaying game that Games Workshop had published in two decades. Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum is published by Cubicle 7 Entertainment and sets up the Player Characters as Acolytes in service to an Inquisitor dedicated to protecting the Imperium of mankind from threats within, threats beyond, and threats without. The Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide is the first of two supplements that make up a two volume set and together expand upon the role of the Inquisition within the Imperium and its mission within the Macharian Sector, the other being the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition GM’s Guide.

The Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition GM’s Guide is more than a simple guide to the Inquisition of the Marcharius Sector. It does expand upon the background material given in the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide—and arguably, between the two, there is some repetition, but not a lot—but it includes much more that the Game Master can use and even develop as part of her Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum campaign. It includes expanded notes on the Inquisition and its philosophies, a guide to running Inquisition adventures and roleplaying Inquisitors, looks at some of the most radical tools has to hand in investigating, learning about, and eradicating heresy, details a decades-long campaign frame work, and provides contacts, threats, and case files. If the emphasis in the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide was on the Acolytes, that is, the Player Characters, and their Patron Inquisitor, in Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition GM’s Guide, the emphasis on the Patron Inquisitor, his rivals, and the Inquisition in general. Lastly, unlike Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide, this is definitely a book for the Game Master rather than the player.

After a quick refresher about the three Holy Orders of the Inquisition—Ordo Hereticus, Ordo Malleus, and Ordo Xenos—and their goals, philosophies, and techniques, the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition GM’s Guide gives a quick overview of some the allies that the Inquisition can rely upon if needs direct force and intervention, it presents a more detailed examination of the philosophies of the Inquisition. This expands upon the information given in the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide and adds further eight Philosophies. These include Horusian, the belief that the God-Emperor will return as a living god, requiring an appropriate vessel to embody, which will be facilitated by the power of the Warp; Libricaranism, which holds that the status quo within the Imperium must be maintained at any cost, that no-one, no matter their status, is beyond reproach, and every Infractionist, revolutionary, and heretic must be put to death; and adherents of Seculos Attendous believe that the Adeptus Ministorum is slowly corrupting and hampering the growth of the Imperium, that the Adeptus Ministorum is unnecessary to embrace the God-Emperor’s Power, and for Mankind to be free, the Imperial Cult must be removed from power. In each case, the tenets and modus operandi of each Philosophy is outlined and suggestions are given as how to roleplay an adherent of the Philosophy, along with a scenario hook. This highlights further how the Inquisition is not a monolithic organisation and helps the Game Master portray both the Acolytes’ Patron Inquisitors and those Inquisitors that appear latter in the book.

Further help for the Game Master comes in the form an examination of how the Inquisition relates to the Imperium in terms of means, methods, and power. It is backed with a good guide to running adventures for Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum that includes direct pointers on how to make a campaign feel like Warhammer and on how to make it feel like Imperium Maledictum. Thus, it suggests for the former that everything should be big, from thousand-layer hive cities to cathedral-like voidships; that Mankind relies on technology despite the fears and restrictions imposed by Imperial law; and that on some level, everyone is terrified and that fear is pervasive. Whilst for the former, it suggests both Noir and Gothic themes, deadly encounters, the application of brains over brawn, and the unique nature of the relationship between the Acolytes and their Patron Inquisitor. The advice covers setting up a game, running a campaign, handling an investigation, and more.

In terms of investigation, Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition GM’s Guide includes a great guide to what to look for when investigating first signs of Chaos and then Xenos. The section is particularly good in listing the marks of Chaos for the four gods—Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch. In comparison, the signs of xenos are less colourful. However, as much as the Inquisition works hard to eradicate signs of heresy, there are Philosophies in the Inquisition that hold that heretical knowledge can be turned on the heresies themselves. The supplement examines such Radical methods via the use of ‘Forbidden Knowledge’ as a skill specialisation. This requires the ‘Forbidden Knowledge’ Talent, which an Acolyte can only gain with permission of the Game Master, and its use is very much not without its dangers. There are Philosophies that hold that even knowing such knowledge is heretical, which would put a knowledgeable Acolyte in peril, but there is also the danger of possession by a demon! Of course, learning such knowledge means that an Acolyte is likely to gain Corruption Points and definitely will if he is possessed! The degree of demonic influence—and eventual possession—is tracked on the Possession Tracker, which goes from one and ‘The Puppet’ to one hundred and ‘The Chosen’. With the latter, there is no hope of the Acolyte being exorcised or redeemed, but otherwise there is a possibility. All of which presents the possibility of an interesting roleplaying challenge for a player willing to have his Acolyte fall under demonic influences and perhaps find a way back…

The advice on roleplaying Inquisitors is also good, looking at both their greater interactions and actions across the Marcharius Sector and their lesser interactions and actions with the Acolytes, which will primarily come through the briefings and debriefings that the Acolytes will receive from their Patron Inquisitor. All this leads up to the presentation of six sample Inquisitors, each complete with their own secrets and their own Inquisitor Patron Sheets. Any one of the six could be the Acolytes’ Patron Inquisitor, but all six have a role to play in ‘The Heresies Macharia’.

Arguably, ‘The Heresies Macharia’ is the heart of the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition GM’s Guide. This is not a campaign as such, but a campaign framework around which the Game Master can insert her own content as well as develop and run the suggested mission outlines. It follows the death of Inquisitor Lord Hieronymo Drake that left the Marcharius Sector and its Inquisitors without an Inquisitor Lord, a position which his former Interrogator, now Inquisitor herself, Sylvestrine Horst, schemes for over the course of seven Conclaves. A Conclave is an opportunity to share resources ad information, determine threats which need to be addressed, and perhaps agree on the activities of the Inquisition for the next few years before the next Conclave. However, they are also a chance to ascertain the status of rival Inquisitors, both learn and substantiate rumours, discover secrets, get involved in intrigues, and more. For the players and their Acolytes, it is an opportunity to engage in politics and decisions that have sector-wide and Inquisitorial repercussions and consequences as their support their own patron Inquisitor. It is also a chance for the Acolytes to spend more time in the company of their Inquisitor than they would normally do, and if they campaign hard and succeed, may put them on the path to potential greatness on the coattails of their patron Inquisitor as he is elevated to the position on Inquisitor Lord. This can be a Patron Inquisitor already created prior to the start of the campaign or one of the six detailed earlier in the book, each of which plays a role in the campaign. This can include the instigator of the campaign, Sylvestrine Horst.

A number of plots run in the background to ‘The Heresies Macharia’, one connected to the activities of the late Inquisitor Lord Hieronymo Drake, another to an imminent threat from outside of the borders to the sector, and yet another one deals with an internal threat. The first Conclave involves all six Inquisitors detailed earlier in the supplement and they will continue to play a role throughout the campaign, not at every Conclave, but with more of presence to expose the players and their Acolytes to their various philosophies, Puritan or Radical. Besides the attendees, each Conclave describes the Intrigues and rumours and secrets that the Acolytes can get involved in and the Strifes. Each Strife represents a major issue or agenda that will be brought before the Conclave and discussed in terms of possible resolution. For example, at the first Conclave, one Strife concerns a missing, presumed dead Inquisitor, whilst another deal with the worrying rise of four cults on the world of Goros Pok that require investigation and either eradication or re-education, the latter two options varying depending on whether an Inquisitor is a Puritan or a Radical.

Each Strife has an associated mission outline that the Game Master can develop into a proper scenario or even series of scenarios. Some might take a session or two to resolve, but others might involve multiple sessions. Some may also be ongoing simultaneously such that the Acolytes can only be assigned to deal with one rather than the other. This enables other plots to unfold in the background whilst the Acolytes are dealing with one Strife plotline. If successful in a mission, the Acolytes will improve their Patron Inquisitor’s Legitimacy once they attend the next Conclave, but reduce it if they fail. Ultimately, if the Acolytes’ Patron Inquisitor has proven to be the most capable—as measured by his Legitimacy versus those of the other Inquisitors—of dealing with the emerging and growing threats, he is likely to be elevated to the position of Lord Inquisitor of the Marcharius Sector.

‘The Heresies Macharia’ has a grand scope with lots of play packed into some forty pages. However, the Game Master still has to unpack it and then develop the finer details of each Conclave, add numerous NPCs, and expand each of the given missions, as well as adding more of her own, in order to work it up into a full campaign that is ready to play. It presents a lot of work and effort. Of course, it means that the Game Master can make it her own, but at the same time, the reader is left wishing that none of this was necessary, that ‘The Heresies Macharia’ was ready to play. It is a great campaign outline, but it really deserves a book of its own.

With ‘The Heresies Macharia’ placed in the middle of the book, it does feel as if the first third of the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition GM’s Guide has been building support towards it, although there is plenty about that support which is useful outside of the campaign framework too. Contacts are barely touched upon in the core rulebook, but here the rules are expanded upon with guidance on finding, making, and maintaining contacts. This can be done both during a mission and during downtime, the strength of the relationship determined by the Influence that the Acolyte’s Patron Inquisitor has with the faction that the contact, but can be adjusted up and down depending upon the Acolytes’ actions and what they ask for. The mechanics are a good way in which to bring NPCs into play and they are supported by ten sample contacts from a variety of factions complete with the requests that they might make of the Acolytes and the rewards that the Acolytes in turn may receive.

Where the contacts can be inserted into any campaign, some of the supplement’s ‘Threats’ are more closely tied to ‘The Heresies Macharia’ framework. For example, ‘The Company of the Twisted Sickle’ is a traitorous guard regiment in league with Nurgle cultFists on Goros Pok, an agricultural world where the first Conclave will direct the Acolytes to investigate a number of potential heresies. Each threat is given a decent description, including resources, methods, and secrets. There are also Genestealer Cults, cults devoted to Tzeentch and Nurgle, and more. The creepiest of them is ‘Momas the Murmurer’, a rumoured fear that spreads from world to world across the Macharian Sector, seemingly capable of possessing anyone and directing their actions as if they were puppets, and then disappearing. In comparison to the more overt Chaos-related threats, this is nicely subtle and underplayed. Rounding out the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition GM’s Guide is a set of ready-to-play ‘Open Case Files’ and a short bestiary. As with the Threats, the ‘Open Case Files’ can be used with ‘The Heresies Macharia’ framework or the Game Master’s own campaign.

Physically, Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition GM’s Guide is very well presented. The book is cleanly, tidily presented and an easy read. The artwork is also good.

With so much of the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition GM’s Guide dedicated to ‘The Heresies Macharia’ framework in one fashion or another, the supplement does not feel quite as useful as the companion Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide. However, there is plenty that is useful and that can be used with the Game Master’s own campaign rather than the ‘The Heresies Macharia’ framework. The Inquisitors and their Philosophies, the Contacts and the Threats, and more are all useful to that end as is the supplement’s good advice for running Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition. Ultimately though, whilst the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition GM’s Guide does provide a great deal of support for the Game Master, at the same ‘The Heresies Macharia’ framework shows what a campaign for the roleplaying game would look like, but does not provide the Game Master with something that is really ready to play. It does provide the Game Master with a great basis for a very good campaign that she can work on until that ready-to-play campaign arrives.

Inquisitorial Intelligence I

The light of the Emperor’s divine might reaches everywhere—but not always. Only in recent years has the Great Rift begun to unseal and the mysterious Noctis Aeterna begun to recede, the Days of Blinding ended, and links reforged with worlds in the Marcharius Sector lost under its pall and beyond the sector itself. As communication, trade, and psychic links have been reestablished with Terra, the Imperium has worked hard to restore its rightful authority and ensure that no deviancy from creed has taken place in the Days of Blinding. Despite this still, from within heretics turn to the Dark Gods with their promises and falsehoods and corruption is rife, wasting the Emperor’s resources and wealth, and from without, there is always the danger of raids by Orks or worse, Tyranoids. Yet routing out such heresies and corruption is no simple matter, but an issue of politics and influence as well as loyalty and devotion. The Emperor’s great servants search out those they deem worthy to serve them and the Imperium, directing them to investigate mysteries and murders, experience horror and heresies, expose corruption and callousness, whether in in pursuit of their patron’s agenda, his faction’s agenda, the Emperor’s will, or all three. In return they will gain privileges far beyond that imagined by their fellows—the chance to travel and see worlds far beyond their own, enjoy wealth and comfort that though modest is more than they could have dreamed of, and witness great events that they might have heard of years later by rumour or newscast. This though, is not without its costs, for they will face the worst that the forces of Chaos has to fling at them, the possibility of death, and if they fail, exile and loss of all that they have gained. In the Forty-First Millennium, everyone is an asset and everyone is expendable, but some can survive long enough to make a difference in the face of an uncaring universe and the machinery of the Imperium of Mankind grinding its way forward into a glorious future.

This is the set-up in Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum, the spiritual successor to Dark Heresy, the very first fully realised roleplaying game to be set within the Warhammer 40,000 milieu and published in 2008, the very first roleplaying game that Games Workshop had published in two decades. Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum is published by Cubicle 7 Entertainment and sets up the Player Characters as Acolytes in service to an Inquisitor dedicated to protecting the Imperium of mankind from threats within, threats beyond, and threats without. The Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide is one of two supplements that make up a two volume set and together expand upon the role of the Inquisition within the Imperium and its mission within the Macharian Sector, the other being the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition GM’s Guide.

The Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide is not wholly for use by the players, but the majority of it is player- or rather Acolyte-facing. It can be roughly divided into three sections. In the first, it looks at Holy Orders of the Inquisition, its philosophies, factions, what it demands of its Acolytes, and guidance on creating the Inquisitor who will serve as patron to the Acolytes or be his rival. In the second, it expands upon Acolyte creation, offering new options in terms of skills, talents, psychic powers, and equipment, including Familiars. In the third, it looks at what the Acolytes are doing when they are on a mission and what they do between new missions. It does include checklists for both Patron and Acolyte creation, but both player and Game Master will still need to access the core rulebook.

What Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide makes clear is that despite the fact that an Inquisitor’s authority is second only to the Emperor himself and that an Inquisitor’s Acolytes are his eyes and ears, muscle and sinew, the Acolytes are more investigators than enforcers. Their duty is still to investigate, identify, and root out signs of heretical activity, but theirs is subtle task, what the supplement calls ‘Inquisitorial Espionage’, until, of course, everything blows up in their faces, and they have to go in, bolters blazing, or even calling in support—all the way up to Space Marine Chapters. Who or what the Acolytes will be directed to investigate will primarily depend upon the Holy Order that their patron belongs, to, either Ordo Hereticus, Ordo Malleus, and Ordo Xenos, which investigate heresy hidden within the Imperium, hunt down signs of daemonic activity, and fight against alien or xeno incursions respectively. The Holy Order that the Acolytes’ patron belongs to will, of course, influence the types of threats they will be investigating and the nature of campaign the Game Master is running.

Within each Holy Order, the Inquisitors—and thus potential patrons for the Acolytes—are primarily divided between two philosophies. Puritans tend to burn out any and all signs of heresy without mercy, whereas Radicals are prepared to use heretics and cults as tools to root greater evils. Both philosophies have their dangers. Puritans will destroy one evil before another might be revealed, whilst Radicals can allow a heresy to fester and spread whilst in search of other signs. Of course, the degree to which an Inquisitor holds to either philosophy varies—and many not even hold to either, but is further complicated by adherence to more specific philosophies. Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide describes several, including the pessimistic and bombastic, Monodominants who believe that Humanity will be wiped out if any enemy survives and so enemy must be permitted to survive; the Polypsykana want to nurture and develop Humanity’s psychic potential to the point where it transcends physical form and so protect psykers; Oblationists believe that any and every means should be used to root out threats to Humanity, including heretical ones; and Amalathians favour balance and tradition with a dislike of factional infighting. Amalathianism is said to have been the philosophy that drove Lord Solar Macharius to launch his crusade and consequently is the dominant philosophy in the Macharian Sector—at least publicly. More philosophies are detailed in the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition GM’s Guide.

Mechanically, Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide provides the means to create Patrons from all three Holy Orders, including their philosophies, demeanour, and Boons and Liabilities. The latter two will vary depending upon if a Patron is a Puritan or radical, and a range of new ones are added too. They include Beacon of Judgement, Death Cult Agents, Dubious Allies, and Hunting Hounds, as well as Crisis of Faith, Deadly assignments, Obsessive Objective, and Wheels Within Wheels. This is in addition to the Duty Boon of Limitless Authority that all Inquisitors possess and is physically represented by their individual Inquisitorial Rosettes, the badges of office that they forge upon becoming an Inquisitor. Technically it can get Inquisitors and their Acolytes everywhere, and they have been known to lend them, or facsimiles of them, to their Acolytes to enforce their authority in their Patron’s name. However, wielding such authority is not subtle and not without its consequences.

For the Acolyte, it highlights how dangerous their work is and how gaining recognition is rare, even though many aspire to become their Patron’s Interrogator and perhaps even an Inquisitor themselves. Mechanically, there are expanded Origins for the Macharian Sector, such as ‘Damned Useful – Daemonic Host’ or ‘Damned Useful – Null Persona’, ‘Death World Veteran’, ‘Penitent’, and more. The expanded Faction options focus on the relationship between each Faction and the Inquisition, whilst also enabling an Acolyte to begin play with a background in one of the three Holy Orders. In addition, there are four new Roles. These are the ‘Assassin’, the ‘Cruciator’', the ‘Explicator’, and ‘Seeker’. The Cruciator is both chirurgeon and interrogator; the Explicator is a data specialist, including forbidden lore and heresy; and the Seeker is judge, jury, and executioner of heretics and xenos, often hunting targets behind enemy lines or undercover. There are new skills such as ‘Lore: Major Ordos’ for each of the three Holy Orders, ‘Xeno-Cant’ for communicating with xenos, and Disguise, whilst the new Talents include ‘Blunt Force Authority’ by which Acolytes use their Patron in an overbearing manner to greater effect at a lose of Subtlety, ‘Cult Infiltrator’ which enables the Acolyte to infiltrates at a cost of Corruption, ‘Gut Instinct’, ‘Subtle Psyker’, and ‘Unwavering Will’. One strange Talent is ‘Subtle Mutation’, which marks the Acolyte as a mutant, but not an obvious one. With this Talent, the Acolyte has both a positive and a negative mutation, which his Patron may know or may not about, but which the Acolyte still keeps hidden. The new Psychic powers include minor ones available to all Psykers, like ‘Auditory Manipulation’, ‘Force Bolt’, ‘Mark’ by which a Psyker can leave physical mark of his psychic power on a surface or target and which can be tracked, ‘Induce Panic’, and ‘Stimulating Jolt’, zapping the target’s nervous system with a jolt of psychic energy to bolster it against fatigue and temporarily against falling unconscious.

An Acolyte can also arm and equip himself with an array of new weapons, armour, and gear. The new weapons include a mixture of exotic, daemonbane, null, power, tainted, and even xenos weapons, including the forging of Nemesis weapons. All of these are rare or only available to the wealthy, so for the most part out of the reach of Acolytes, unless they scavage them or are given to them as gifts. Literally, the most Radical of weapons is the Daemonblade, which has a daemon bound into it and has a feature like ‘Unholy Venom’ or ‘Mind Leech’, but also a quirk, such as “A baleful eye sits within the cross guard, and many teeth grow from the hilt, encircling the wielder’s hand in a none-too-subtle threat.” Wielding such a weapon carries with it the danger of Corruption. There are details for grenades and explosives too, and even rules for ‘Requisitions’, essentially gaining support from other factions should a situation demand it.

With the ‘Familiar Bonded’ Talent, an Acolyte can have a Familiar, and if he takes the Talent again, he can bond with a Cyber- or Psyber-Familiars. However, the Acolyte still needs to find and purchase such a Familiar and they can be expensive. Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide describes how Familiars can be used in and out of combat, how to train them, which often requires the Acolyte to invest further in his Familiar. Full rules are included for creating a Familiar with numerous ways in which it can be improved and enhanced. The rules are supported by a ‘Familiar Bestiary’ which includes well known ones such as the Cherubim, Cyber-Mastiff, and Multi-Task Servo-Skull, as well as a variety of rarer, and thus more expense ones. Once in play, a Familiar requires its own character sheet.

In terms of actual play, Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide adds a new mechanic called ‘Subtlety’. This tracks how aware heretics, cultists, and other Inquisitors are of the Acolytes’ actions and enables the Game Master to create a response to their increasing prominence. There is a balance to the rules since a high ‘Subtlety’ enables the Acolytes to operate in secret without the targets being aware that they are being investigated, whereas a low ‘Subtlety’ can become a demonstration of their Patron’s power and influence in shattering a cult or burning out a nest of xenos. Mechanically, what it means that with a high ‘Subtlety’, the Acolytes will gain a bonus to clandestine activities and a penalty to blatant ones, whereas with a low ‘Subtlety’, the reverse is true. It is a straightforward mechanic, but it provides a way for both players and Game Master to track consequences of their Acolytes’ actions and provide a mechanical effect as well as a narrative one.

Lastly, Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide suggests options for ‘Between Options’. These include ‘Inquisition Group Endeavours’ such as ‘Search for Xenos Infiltration’, ‘Punish Dissent’, and ‘Pool Knowledge’ alongside ‘Inquisition Individual Endeavours’ like ‘Cultivate Network’, ‘Erase Truth’ (or knowledge of heresy), ‘Familiar Training’ for the Acolyte with a Familiar, and ‘Mental Sanitisation’ through Imperial re-education to cleanse the Acolyte’s mind of the terrible things he has seen. Attentively, an Acolyte can enter ‘Inquisition Long-Term Endeavours’. These include ‘Craft Anointed Weapon’ to create a holy weapon, ‘Craft Daemonblade’ which could attract the attention of a Puritan Inquisitor, ‘Learn a True Name’ of a daemon, and ‘Research Cultist Network Ciphers’. These are intended to be combined with a random event and together these can have an influence on subsequent sessions of game play as well as give opportunities to roleplay between missions.

Physically, Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide is very well presented. The book is cleanly, tidily presented and an easy read. The artwork is also good.

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide is a combined handbook for players and their Acolytes, explaining what their duties are as Acolytes, who and what their Patron Inquisitor is, and giving them new options terms of who the Acolytes are, what they can do, and what they can wield in the ongoing battle against enemies inimical to Humanity. As well as expanding player options, it provides details with which the Game Master can flesh out her campaign and help bring it to life. The result is that Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide is a solid combination of content that will enhance any Imperium Maledictum campaign.

Heroic, But Perilous

Time has long since passed since the Old World was destroyed in the End Times. Since that time, eight Mortal Realms have arisen from their remnants, each keyed to one of the eight Winds of Magic and connected by the magical portals known as Realmgates. Sigmar survived the End Times and was borne to the Mortal Realms, uniting the survivors and bringing the gift of civilisation, as well as finding the other gods and appointing them divine protectors of the Eight Realms. Grungni taught mortals metalcraft, Nagash imposed order on the spirits of the restless dead, the savage twin-god Gorkamorka cleared the wilderness of monsters, and Sigmar established a great Parliament of the Gods. It was a new golden age under the protection of the Pantheon of Order, but it was not to last. Rivalries and sins caused cracks and fractures in the world and it is though these that Chaos entered the Mortal Realms. Their worship spread and spread untold, until the emboldened Dark Gods unleashed their legions on all of the eight realms. The gods of the Pantheon of Order together had the strength to stand against the Chaos, but riven by rivalries and jealousies, they failed and what remained of the Pantheon of Order was catastrophically defeated at the Battle of the Burning Skies. Thus, was ushered in the Age of Chaos… It was compounded by the Necroquake, a great ritual by the Supreme Necromancer, Nagash, to harness the Winds of Magic that was undone by Chaos and forcing the dead to rise and changing the nature of magic as it flowed into the realms and unleashed devastatingly predatory living spells that stalked the lands.

All was not lost. Sigmar, the God-King still yet faced the forces of Chaos, rampaging Greenskin Hordes, and Nagash’s legions of spirits and undead servants, for he had his Stormcast Eternals, paragons of humanity whose mortal souls are reforged with the celestial energies of the Cosmic Storm and hammered into living weapons of Azyr upon the Anvil of Apotheosis. Yet they are few in number, and so he put out calls to former allies. Yet it was not enough, for not all answered his call, and so he turned to the people of the Mortal Realms. The mightiest of souls and most powerful of realms came together and entering into Bindings which bound small bands together to fight for the Mortal Realms. Together, they are SOULBOUND, and as a new era looms, the Age of Death, they are needed more than ever!

This is the set-up for Warhammer Age of Sigmar – Soulbound: Perilous Adventures in the Mortal Realms, a roleplaying game published by Cubicle 7 Entertainment based upon Warhammer Age of Sigmar, the miniatures wargame from Games Workshop. Warhammer Age of Sigmar was originally published in 2015 as a replacement for the venerable Warhammer Age of Sigmar—upon which Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition—and as of 2024, is on its fourth edition itself. Although perilous as the roleplaying game’s subtitle suggest, this is not as grim or as grotty as other roleplaying games set with the Warhammer universe, certainly not like Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Instead, it is a world of high and heroic fantasy, one in which the Player Characters are bound—or Soulbound—into small groups, or Bindings, which last a lifetime. They embody hope against the death and chaos, and Chaos, and this can be expressed through Soulfire, that collectively, they can make them do amazing and truly heroic things!

A Player Character is primarily defined by an Archetype, which sets his starting Attributes, faction or cultural heritage, Species, and initial options in terms of Skills, Talents, and equipment. The five Species are Human, Stormcast Eternal, Aelf, Duardin, and Sylvaneth. A Stormcast Eternal is a reforged soul, the Aelf and Duardin are similar to the Elf and Dwarf, but not the same, and the Sylvaneth is a living tree. A Player Character has three attributes—Body, Mind, and Soul—which typically range between one and eight, with two being considered average. There are several different factions, such as the Daughters of Khaine, devoted to the Aelven god of battle and bloodshed, and the Idoneth Deepkin, said to have been saved from Slannesh’s gullet and now reside in the most hidden place of the Mortal Realms, its ocean floors; and the Duardin mercenaries of the Fyreslayers and the scientific privateers in their great airships, the Kharadron Overlords. There are twenty-three Archetypes. For the Human there is the Battle Mage and Excelsior Warpriest; For the Aelf there is the Black Ark Corsair, Darkling Sorceress, Hag Priestess, Witch Aelf, Akhelian Emissary, Isharann Soulscryer, and Isharann Tidecaster. For the Duardin there is Auric Runesmiter, Battlesmith, Doomseeker, Aether-Khemist, Endrinmaster, and Skymaster. For the Stormcast Eternal there is the Knight-Azyros, Knight-Incantor, Knight-Questor, and Knight-Venator. For the Sylvaneth, there is the Branchwych, Kurnoth Hunter, and Tree-Revenant Waypiper. Lastly, anyone can become a Trade Pioneer.

What is missing here is options for Orruks or Ogors and other Species. Not all other Species are suitable as Player Characters, the options are limited, as those especially for Humans, although the Stormcast Eternal are a variant of Human, one initially idealised, but each time a Stormcast Eternal dies and is reforged, he loses some of his humanity. To create a Player Character, a player selects an Archetype, several Talents from the Archetype’s list, and spends some given Experience Points on improving the Archetype’s skills. He also sets long and short term goals for his character and together with the other players, sets long and short term goals for the party. Completing these is a major way to earn Experience Points. Connections between the Player Characters are determined, either making them or rolling on the given table, and each player also has a set of questions to answer that help round out his character.

Krylla Heartseeker
Faction: Daughters of Khaine
Archetype: Hag Priestess
Age: 110
Height: 6’ 9”
Eye Colour: Gold Eye Type: Mesmerising
Hair Colour: Deep Red
Distinguishing Feature: Strange arcane markings on chest

Body 2 Mind 2 Soul 4

Melee 3 (Average) Accuracy 2 (Poor) Defence 3 (Average) Armour 1
Toughness 8 Wounds 4 Initiative 3 (Average) Natural Awareness 2 (Poor)
Mettle 2

Core Skill: Devotion (Training 1 Focus 1)
Skills: Awareness (Training 1 Focus 0), Determination (Training 1 Focus 0), Guile (Training 1 Focus 0), Reflexes (Training 1 Focus 0), Theology (Training 1 Focus 1), Weapon Skill (Training 1 Focus 0)

Core Talent: Blessed (Khaine)
Talents: Fearless, Forbidden Knowledge, Blood Binding, Red Mist

Equipment: Ceremonial armour (Light Armour), sacrificial blade (Dagger), a bloodstained ritual chalice (Holy Symbol), a whetstone, manacles, pestle and mortar, and 280 drops of Aqua Ghyranis.

Mechanically, Soulbound uses a dice pool using six-sided dice. The basic aim is for a player to roll dice and get results that equal or exceed a Difficulty Number to generate successes. Both the Difficulty Number and the number of successes required will vary. A Test adheres to the format, ‘DN X:Y Attribute (Skill), where ‘X’ is the Difficulty of the Test, ‘Y’ is the Complexity, or the number of successes required to succeed, and the Attribute and Skill indicating which should be used. For example, a Dexterity Test of Difficulty 4 and Complexity 2 is shown as DN 4:2 Body (Dexterity); a Channelling Test of Difficulty 3 and Complexity 4 is shown as DN 3:4 Mind (Channelling). Most Tests only require a single success, but Tests with greater Complexity will require more. Advantage and Disadvantage will adjust the Difficulty down or up as appropriate.

The number of dice a player will roll to perform a Test will depend on the appropriate Attribute for his character and the degree of Training the character has in the skill. If none, or Untrained, the player just rolls a number of dice equal to the Attribute. For each level of Training—either one, two, or three—a player will add an extra die. In addition to Training, a Player Character can have Focus in a skill, again, either one, two, or three levels. For each level in Focus, a player gains a single +1 bonus. These bonuses are used to adjust the results of the dice after they have been rolled.

For example, the high priestess is testing Krylla Heartseeker to determine if she is worthy of being assigned an important. To prove her worthiness, the Game Master sets the Test at DN 4:2 Soul (Devotion), meaning that Krylla Heartseeker’s player must roll two successes of four or more. Her player assembles her dice pool of four from Krylla Heartseeker’s Soul and adds another one for the single level of Training she has in the Devotion skill. In total, she is rolling five dice. Krylla Heartseeker’s player rolls two, three, four, five, and six. This gives Krylla three success, more than enough to success, but she also a level of Focus in the skill, so uses it to adjust the result of three to a four, and this gives her four success. Enough to succeed and Kyrlla to a give a very impressive answer that persuades the high priestess that not only is she worthy of the task, but is given some secret information about it as well.

In addition, all Soulbound have access to Mettle. This partly regenerates every turn after use and can be used to take an extra action, use a Talent or Miracle, and temporarily either double the Training or Focus in a skill. The Binding as whole has access to Soulfire that can be spent to achieve the maximum successes on a Test instead of rolling, to reroll as many dice as necessary, to recover Toughness or all spent Mettle, or to cheat death. Soulfire is a shared resource and every member of the Binding must agree to its use. If a Binding does not agree, a player can still use the Soulfire, but this increases Doom by one. Doom is measure of the hopelessness in the Mortal Realms and it grows as the levels of fear, envy, doubt, and anger rise. On one level it reflects how bleak or tense the current state of the Mortal Realms, but on another, as it grows it draws the enemy to the Binding and will make them powerful foes, increasing their armour, giving them extra attacks, and granting access to powerful abilities. Doom can be decreased, but it takes time and effort.

Combat uses the same mechanics. Initiative is done in a fixed order according to Initiative values, each Player Character can act and move once per turn, and the engagements are fought out in zones. It is not overly tactical, but terrain and cover will be factor, and combatants can undertake actions such as charge, called shots, defend, dodge, grapple, improvise, dual wielding, and more. An attacker’s Melee or Accuracy values are compared with the defendant’s Defence to determine the Difficulty Number of an attack. Weapons inflict a base damage, plus the number of Successes rolled. Armour worn reduces damage and damage reduces a defendant’s Toughness and then his Wounds. Having no Wounds left means the defendant is mortally wounded. Wounds can be minor, serious, or deadly, depending on much damage they inflict. A mortally wounded defendant is stunned, cannot recover Toughness, and must death tests on subsequent rounds. Alternatively, a Player Character could choose to make a last stand, in which case, he is no longer stunned, regains all his Mettle, is immune to all damage, his Melee and Accuracy get better, and his damage ignores armour. This lasts only one turn before the Player character dies, so it had better count.

Beyond the basic rules, there is guide to the endeavours that the Soulbound can do between missions, though never lasting longer than a week, because Chaos never sleeps! This can be to increase the Bond between a Binding, Cleanse Corruption, Create a Spell, Repair Equipment, Train a Companion, and others. There is a full list of equipment, including Aetheric Devices, such as Kharadron devices, weapons, and armour wielded by the Kharadron Overlords and their forces. These include Aetheric Lenses, Arkanaut Armour, Rapid-Fire Rivet Gun, and a lot more. Most have a power requirement and can be plugged into the Basic Aether-rig used by the Kharadron, limiting the number of devices that can be wielded over the course of an adventure. The Regular Maintenance Endeavour is required to maintain an Aether-rig between adventures.

Background is given for the Mortal Realms—Azyr, the Realm of Heavens, Aqshy, the Realm of Fire, Chamon, the Realm of Metal, Ghur, the Realm of Beasts, Ghyran, the Realm of Life, Hysh, the Realm of Light, Shyish, the Realm of Death, and Ulgu, the Realm of Shadow—and the Realm Gates as well as daily life, safety, entertainment, and so on. These are accompanied by various adventure hooks, details on the Realm of Chaos, various factions, and a deeper description of The Great Parch. This is located in Aqshy, the Realm of Fire, where Sigmar first unleashed his Stormcast Eternals, and covers its geography and history and is designed to provide a starting region for the Game Master and her players. Religion is given a similar treatment, including such gods such as Gorkamorka, and Nagash, and the Chaos Gods—Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch. These traditional four, all of whom fear the rise in power of Nagash and his undead hordes, are joined by the Horned Rat.

Just as the Mortal Realms are divided into eight, so is magic lore, with each lore being tied to a specific realm. Magic energy churns and swirls throughout the Mortal Realms as it has done since Nagash’s Necroquake, empowering even the weakest of spellcasters. Worse, this roiling wave upon wave of aetheric energy have created Endless Spells that have proven to be danger to the original caster, his enemies, and anyone else they come in contact with. (Unfortunately, only one Endless Spell, the Purple Sun of Shyish, is given in the book.). Arcane spellcasting requires a successful Mind (Channelling) Test and extra successes can be used to Overcast a spell, often to increase its duration or the damage it inflicts. Bonus dice are rewarded when attempting to cast spell of a Magic Lore in its associated Realm, for example, casting Amethyst Magic in the Realm of Death, Shyish. If a Channelling Test is failed, then a player must roll on ‘The Price of failure’ Table, which can be anything from the caster simply losing control and suffering damage to inadvertently summoning an Endless Spell! (Depending on how unlucky your spellcasting Player Character is, again, the Purple Sun of Shyish is not enough.) Some ninety spells are listed across all eight Magic Lores and there is even a guide to creating new spells.

In comparison, Miracles are treated as individual Talents that require the ‘Use a Talent’ action to cast and one or more points of Mettle. There are some generic Miracles, but most are tied to particular god and his worship. Rounding out is a decent bestiary of nearly fifty entries, which covers automata, beasts, daemons, mortals, spirits, and undead, from minions, swarms, and warriors to champions and chosen in terms of power levels. They include the People of the Cities of Sigmar, pets and mounts, monstrous beasts, disciples of the Dark Gods, the legions of Nagash, and Greenskin hordes. This is a solid selection and provides a lot of depth in terms of NPCs and threats.

One of the best descriptions the mechanics in of Soulbound—and any roleplaying game—in the core rulebook for Warhammer Age of Sigmar – Soulbound: Perilous Adventures in the Mortal Realms is, “The dice and the rules are tools for you to use to create memories. They are little cuboid wildcards that can completely flip a story on its head, and turn a moment of crushing despair into one of joyous celebration.” There is further advice for the Game Master later in the rulebook, which actually suggests that if the prospective Game Master has not yet learned how to be a Game master, then she learn using the Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound Starter Set. The Game Master advice covers the rules, but also looks at setting up a game and making it feel like the Age of Sigmar. It states that Soulbound has four tones—mythic, hopeful, tragic, and dark—and takes the Game Monster through them one by one. Besides talking about humanising the setting despite it being about a continuing, often epic war against Chaos, it provides various tools for the Game Master to adjust Soulbound to get the game she wants. This includes using a Point Buy system to create Player Characters, setting up different campaign frameworks, such as making it grim and perilous rather than heroic and perilous, and more. Overall, the advice is good, but it does leave the basics to the Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound Starter Set. This does leave Soulbound with a disparity between the ease and lighter nature of the rules and the more advanced nature of the Game Master advice, as if the Game Master should be able to pick this book up and easily run a game from its pages without needing to refer to another product in order to learn how to use it.

Physically, Warhammer Age of Sigmar – Soulbound: Perilous Adventures in the Mortal Realms is very well presented with lots of excellent artwork. It is well written and benefits from lots of examples.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar – Soulbound: Perilous Adventures in the Mortal Realms offers both a new set of dice mechanics for playing in the Warhammer universe and a new—to roleplaying—setting within the universe. With it comes a lighter, faster set of rules and a more heroic style of play as well as a setting that is nicely detailed, but not as accessible as others in the Warhammer universe. This is due to the lack of familiarity with it and the differences between it and the Old World, as well as the lack of a scenario which would have provided a way into the setting of the Mortal Realms. What this means is that it requires some adjustment, because Soulbound really is its own thing in terms of roleplaying and has relatively little in common with its forebear, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. The easier, faster style of play could have been eased with advice on why player would want to roleplay a particular archetype and there could have more options for humans compared to the other species. Lastly the lack of scenario also hampers that process, intentionally speedy, of getting into the game.

For the player and the Game Master who wants to get out of the mud and muck of a grim and perilous world, and take a heroic stand, push the fight forwards, and face the forces of Chaos, the Dark Lords, and the undead in righteous fury and make a difference—as heroes—in the Warhammer universe, then Warhammer Age of Sigmar – Soulbound: Perilous Adventures in the Mortal Realms is exactly what they want. High fantasy in a heroic and perilous world.

Your Imperium Maledictum Starter

The light of the Emperor’s divine might reaches everywhere—but not always. Only in recent years has the Great Rift begun to unseal and the mysterious Noctis Aeterna begun to recede, the Days of Blinding ended, and links reforged with worlds in the Marcharius Sector lost under its pall and beyond the sector itself. As communication, trade, and psychic links have been reestablished with Terra, the Imperium has worked hard to restore its rightful authority and ensure that no deviancy from creed has taken place in the Days of Blinding. Despite this still, heretics turn to the Dark Gods with their promises and falsehoods and corruption is rife, wasting the Emperor’s resources and wealth, and from without, there is always the danger of raids by Orks or worse, Tyranoids. Yet routing out such heresies and corruption is no matter, but an issue of politics and influence as well as loyalty and devotion. The Emperor’s great servants search out those they deem worthy to serve them and the Imperium, directing them to investigate mysteries and murders, experience horror and heresies, expose corruption and callousness, whether in in pursuit of their patron’s agenda, his faction’s agenda, the Emperor’s will, or all three. In return they will gain privileges far beyond that imagined by their fellows—the chance to travel and see worlds far beyond their own, enjoy wealth and comfort that though modest is more than they could have dreamed of, and witness great events that they might have heard of years later by rumour or newscast. This though, is not without its costs, for they will face the worst that the forces of Chaos has to fling at them, the possibility of death, and if they fail, exile and loss of all that they have gained. In the Forty-First Millennium, everyone is an asset and everyone is expendable, but some can survive long enough to make a difference in the face of an uncaring universe and the machinery of the Imperium of Mankind grinding its way forward into a glorious future.

This is the set-up in Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum, the spiritual successor to Dark Heresy, the very first fully realised roleplaying game to be set within the Warhammer 40,000 milieu and published in 2008, the very first roleplaying game that Games Workshop had published in two decades. Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum is published by Cubicle 7 Entertainment and now it has its own introduction to the setting in the form of the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Starter Set. Given that this is from Cubicle 7 Entertainment, there is the likelihood that this is going to be a good product. After all, since the publication of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set, the publisher has been releasing one good starter set after another. Which begs the question, what is a good starter set? Essentially, it has to provide everything that the Game Master and her players need to play a good scenario that showcases the nature of the setting and what the players and their characters do in the game, explains the rules, and provide content that can be played beyond the confines of the box.

Open the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Starter Set and the first thing that the reader sees is a set of nice percentile dice and a gatefold pamphlet that screams, “READ THIS FIRST!”. This starts with a broad overview of the setting, shows you what is in the box, what Imperium Maledictum and a roleplaying game are, how you get started and what you need to play, and where to go next once the contents of the box have been played through. In four pages, it provides the reader—both player and Game Master with a solid introduction to the setting. As an introduction to roleplaying games, it is more basic, so the reader might want to look elsewhere. Nevertheless, this does not mean that it does not do a good job. Below this are six Player Character sheets, again done as gatefold pamphlets. On the front they explain who the character is and why a player might choose to roleplay that character, gives the character some quotes that player could use in play, whilst inside the actual character sheet for the character is presented, along with a breakdown of the sheet alongside it and a list of the character’s goals, connections to the other characters, and secrets. Lastly on the back of the character sheet is a full-page illustration of the character. These pack a lot of information into their three pages—four including the illustration—but the layout never threatens to overwhelm the reader, keeping everything to hand whilst the focus remains on the character sheet at the centre. The six include a Zealot, a Penumbra (a stealthy assassin and infiltrator), an Interlocutor, a Psyker, a surgeon of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and a warrior.

In addition, the box also contains a set of tokens that include the Inquisitorial Seal, a prop that is used to indicate who has possession of it in the game, Character Portrait and Environmental Trait tokens for use on a map (there are no maps provided Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Starter Set), Superiority Tokens to track the party’s Superiority, and Fate Tokens. There is a set of reference sheets that in turn explain the basic rules, combat, criticals and wounds, conditions and environmental hazards, factions and influence, Warp and Psykers, and trading and gear. These are done on sturdy cards and contain rules and background needed for each aspect of the game, and all together serving as the rules booklet in the set.

The meat of the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Starter Set consists of two books, ‘Adventure Book: The Blazing Seraph’ and ‘Rokarth: A Guide to the Hive’. The ‘Adventure Book: The Blazing Seraph’ provides a full investigation in the depths of Hive Rokarth where the Player Characters’ patron, Inquisitor Halikarn, assigns them to investigate the site of a purported miracle, Acid Refinery Delta-64, which has exploded, leaving behind a possible survivor. The Adeptus Ministorum is investigating to determine if this survivor is a saint. The Player Characters have three days to investigate, locate the survivor, and confirm whether or not he is actually a saint, or merely very lucky. Inquisitor Halikarn also provides them with the details of a contact who can help, but before he does that, the Player Characters will need to find and rescue him. This is an opportunity for the Game Master to show how the game system works and how combat works in it, and thus for the players to get used to both it and their characters. The investigation takes the Player Characters from the dank industrial confines of the hive deep into its bureaucracy and out again to the governor’s table and further into the foul, fetid bowels of the hive to confront heresy and corruption.

The adventure is designed to provide a learn as you play experience and it certainly does that in its opening steps. It is a relatively straightforward investigation, though with marked changes of pace as the Player Characters navigate the labyrinthine bureaucracies of the Hive Rokarth and particularly in the council with the governor they have to attend. This is probably the most difficult scene to run. In the later scenes the Player Characters descend into the depths of the Hive are quite detailed and require careful preparation that perhaps might have been easier with the inclusion of a map. One element that the Player Characters do need to take into account of, is the fact that their patron does not want to reveal his involvement in the investigation. He does give them an inquisitorial seal as a sign of his authority, but he is never happy with its use. Further, its use will attract the attention of those who are likely to take exception to Player Characters’ presence.

The second book, ‘Rokarth: A Guide to the Hive’, describes the setting for the adventure given in ‘Adventure Book: The Blazing Seraph’, the hive of Rokarth on the world of Voll. Surprisingly, it is only six centuries old, home to thirty billion souls who dedicate themselves through the Cult Imperialis to work that sees hive manufacture material and materiel for the Imperium of Man’s continuing war efforts. However, the facilities are being constantly corroded from without from Voll’s caustic environment and from within by the caustic waste product, as well as the corruption and criminal activity. The supplement provides details of the factions within the Hive Rokarth from House Castyx, the governing family on down. This includes the other noble Houses, the Adeptus Terra, which constitutes the vast bureaucracies and organisations that actually run the Imperium and to which every Player Character and their Patron is associated with, the guilds that hold monopolies on certain goods, and all the way down to the Infractionists, the gangs that control parts of the lower depths of the Hive, some of which have ties to the noble Houses. There are notes too on how commerce, the manufactorums, and how both the open and black markets work, noting that there is a silent trade in xeno artefacts smuggled into the Hive. There is a complete description of the hive from top to bottom, breaking it down from the Spire at the top down through the Upper Hive, Lower Hive, and into the Bowels & Beyond. All of these sections include a lengthy encounter table and descriptions of places and locations found there. Each of these locations is accompanied by a plot hook, and there are almost fifty of them! For example, the Player Characters might be asked by Sister Celestia of the Orders Hospitaller in the Upper Hive to move the last victim of the plague known as the Shivers so she can conduct further research; to find out for Lawrenca Parnam why her family secretly donates to the Cathedral of Obligatory Modesty—out of loyalty to the God Emperor or a shameful history; or either put down a gang war or broker a truce between in the wake of the events of the scenario in ‘Adventure Book: The Blazing Seraph’. Lastly, ‘Rokarth: A Guide to the Hive’ describes the presence and activities of the four Ruinous Powers and their cultists in the Hive. Of course, the plot hooks need development, but for the Game Master willing to make the effort, there is a lot to work with here.

Physically, Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Starter Set is very well presented. The artwork is good and the books are well written. The inside of the box is illustrated with a map of the Marcharius Sector, whilst the inside of the box cover shows an image of Hive Rokarth, though it is not very clear.

There is a lot to like about the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Starter Set—the production values, a meaty scenario, and the combination of setting and extra plot hooks, but it is not quite as good as the earlier Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set. This is because it does not have the extended content, the mini campaign that is further supported with content in Ubersreik Adventures: Six Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik and its sequels, instead giving the Game Master numerous plot hooks that do require development. What Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Starter Set very obviously does provide is something that the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum rulebook does not and that is a ready-to-play scenario. Hopefully, Cubicle 7 Entertainment will develop scenarios for the Marcharius Sector from this starter set in the same fashion as the Ubersreik Adventures.

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Starter Set is another good starter set from Cubicle 7 Entertainment, providing the Game Master and her players with everything necessary to start playing and learning the rules, along with a dark investigation into heresy and corruption.

Medicae Misconduct

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum is a roleplaying game in which the Player Characters, in the service of their patron, have the opportunity to travel and see worlds far beyond their own, enjoy wealth and comfort that though modest is more than they could have dreamed of, and witness great events that they might have heard of years later by rumour or newscast. In return, they are directed to investigate mysteries and murders, experience horror and heresies, expose corruption and callousness by their patron, whether in pursuit of their patron’s agenda, his faction’s agenda, the Emperor’s will, or all three. This takes place in the Macharian Sector, catastrophically isolated from the rest of the Imperium of Mankind by the Great Rift for far too long, and only recently have communication, trade, and psychic links been reforged and the Imperium begun to re-establish its authority. Who knows what has happened in the time when the connections were broken? What Dark Gods, with their promises and falsehoods, have heretics turned to, how far does corruption run with its waste of Emperor’s resources and wealth, and when will Orks, or worse, Tyranoids, take advantage of the Imperium’s weak grip on the sector to conduct deadly raids or murderous rampages? What this means is that the Macharian Sector is a dangerous place and there is the possibility that the Player Characters might get hurt. Or rather, the Player Characters are definitely going to get hurt. Eventually. When that happens, they are going to need a Medicae Technician.

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum: Diagnostica Obscurus is there to fulfil that need. It presents ‘Three Mendacious Medicae Technicians for your Grim And Treacherous Adventures in the Macharian Sector’. There for when a Player Character suffers more Critical Wounds than he can cope with, the supplement not only describes three NPCs in quite some detail, but it also provides their stats, information as to where they might be found and what their facilities are like, their background—and of course, secrets, and a Treatment Table listing the typical effects of their medical attention. Lastly, each NPC description includes a set of scenario hooks that ends with an apex mission. The latter to be played out once the previous scenarios have been played through and the Player Characters have earned the NPC’s trust—or enmity. In each case, the Game Master will need to develop the scenarios into something that can be readily played, but if she does so, she will have an ongoing story, lasting a session or two each time, which can be slotted into her campaign and played out over time.

The supplement’s three Medicae Technicians consist of Noxia Vex, Karzinth Half-Hand, and Genetor Erudir Phi-VI. Noxia Vex runs a back-alley clinic in the depths of Hive Rokarth, providing cut-rate medical care to all, heedless of their faction, and is protected by well-armed and intensely loyal guards with strangely milky eyes. For some patients though, she will offer her services in return for a favour and this ultimately, will put that patient in a dangerous situation as he is tasked with investigating a viral vector that Noxia is researching in the hope that she can find a cure for the guards who protect her before they go on a murderous rampage!

Karzinth Half-Hand is noticeably missing two fingers from one hand and why he does not replace them with bionics is the subject of some speculation amongst his rich patrons and secretly, a source of shame for him. He primarily offers his surgical expertise to the Mavins of Hive Praemiosus on Asterion, having fled his former position as a Chapter Serf to an Apothecarian and is deeply paranoid that his former masters are still looking for him. Currently he seeks wealth and the means to protect himself, which includes blackmail using information he gathers from certain patients whilst they are anaesthetised and under his knife! Karzinth Half-Hand might become a patron for the Player Characters or he might blackmail them with information gained whilst under his care to work for him. The hooks for Karzinth Half-Hand are not connected, but the apex mission is connected to his activities and is quite detailed in comparison to the others.

Genetor Erudir Phi-VI is an arrogant surgeon with some highly unorthodox ideas that verge on heresy. A member of Adeptus Mechanicus, he has established a clinic at the Grand Docks of Harjus where conducts radical surgical experiments whose subjects find themselves supposedly ‘improved’ with transplants harvested from xeno beasts! This lends itself to the possibility that the Player Characters might find themselves on ‘bug hunts’ looking for specimens to capture for Genetor Erudir Phi-VI’s experiments and one of them involves such as task through the tunnels of the Spear on which the surgeon has his clinic. His associated apex mission involves protecting him against a black mail attempt and like the one for Karzinth Half-Hand is longer and more detailed than that given for Noxia Vex.

The length of the apex missions for Karzinth Half-Hand and Genetor Erudir Phi-VI in comparison to that given for Noxia Vex does unbalance her entry in Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum: Diagnostica Obscurus slightly, though she has four missions as opposed to their three. The situations for all three NPCs in the supplement are quite flexible in that they can be as written or shifted to other worlds in the Macharian Sector, and the NPCs themselves used as patrons, as straightforward NPCs, or even as NPCs to be investigated on behalf of the Player Characters’ actual Patron. The latter option will need more development upon the part of the Game Master as it is only suggested in the text.

Physically, Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum: Diagnostica Obscurus is well presented and the artwork is excellent. It does need a slight edit.

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum: Diagnostica Obscurus is a great addition for Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum. Using all three of its entries might be a challenge, but three skilled, but imperfect Medicae Technicians to add to the Game Master’s campaign complete with secrets and scenarios to be developed and brought into play is exactly what this completely unqualified not-a-Medicae Technician recommends.

Your Wrath & Glory Starter Set II

In the far future of the 41st Millenium, the Gilead System has been isolated from the Imperium of Man by the Cicatrix Maledictum, the Great Rift that unleashed waves of supernatural darkness and malignant power from the Realm of Chaos. The system, rent by internal strife and disagreement from within as to how to survive and threatened by the Ruinous Powers and its allies from without, teetered on the edge of collapse, but hope arrived in the form of the Varonius Flotilla, a Rogue Trader fleet under the command of Jakel Varonius, bringing ships and forces which could ensure the system’s survival. The only vessels to have made contact since the opening of the Great Rift, the Varonius Flotilla is seen across the Gilead System as its saviour, but the fleet alone can only so much. There are wars across the system, the chances of starvation grow daily, and alliances have to be made, even with xenos. This is a time for heroes, for ordinary men as well the Imperium’s genetically enhanced super soldiers, the Space Marines, Psykers, scribes, and others to work together to withstand the Chaos and protect all those it would suborn and destroy. Under the command of Jakel Varonius himself, such agents will become the most distant, but worthy arm and blade of the Emperor himself! Can the agents save the Gilead System? Will ‘wrath and glory’ be theirs?

This is the set-up for the Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory – Starter Set. Published by Cubicle 7 Entertainment, this is the second attempt at a starter set for the Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory, previously published by Ulisses Spiele in 2019. It follows the same format as the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set in providing everything needed to play and get started in action, horror, and intrigue of the 41st Millenium. This includes ‘Traitor’s Hymn’, an adventure set aboard the Varonius Flotilla; ‘The Varonius Flotilla’, a guide to the fleet; six character sheets; three reference sheets; Wrath, Glory, and Ruin; and a set of eight six-sided dice, including a Wrath Die. ‘Traitor’s Hymn’ is a detailed adventure designed to introduce both the setting and the mechanics of Wrath & Glory, but ‘The Varonius Flotilla’ is designed to not only detail that setting, but also support further play with both background and further play with extra scenarios that will extend the usefulness of the Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory – Starter Set.

Open the Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory – Starter Set and the first thing that you see is a gatefold sheet with the words ‘READ THIS FIRST’ on it. This introduces the basics of everything about Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory, essentially preparing each player for his first choice—what will he roleplay? Underneath is a sheaf of six gatefold character sheets, each of which details a Player Character or Agent. A lot of thought has gone in terms of the design of these gatefold character sheets. On the front of each, there is a summary of who and what the Agent is, as well as warning not to open the character sheet up unless the player is definitely planning to roleplay that character. Inside, the character sheet presents the stats and details in easy-to-read fashion, plus a background, and possible connections with the other Agents, secrets, and objectives. It includes notes on each Agent’s talents, abilities, and equipment too. There is a full-page illustration of the character on the back. None of the secrets are heretical, but they are often dark and may make life difficult for the Agent. The Agents consist of a Sanctioned Psyker, a Sister of Battle, a Rogue Trader, a Skitarius, an Aeldari Ranger, and a Space Marine Scout. The inclusion of an Aeldari Ranger, a Xenos, indicates the desperation which is driving the surviving factions and forces in the Gilead System to work together.

‘Traitor’s Hymn’ is the beginning scenario. It is designed to introduce the setting, the Agents, and the concepts behind the roleplaying game in a step-by-step process. As play begins the Agents are aboard The Herald Varonius, a voidship transporting notables to the Varonius Flotilla. They are attending a grand banquet for the guests aboard when everything goes awry. Before that, each Agent receives a flashback which allows his player to make a choice, roll some dice for the first time, and have some time in the spotlight. The events of all six flashbacks tie into the adventure. There is the chance to learn a few more clues before the action begins and the voidship is inexplicably thrown into the Void. However, the Geller Field which would normally protect the crew and passengers of The Herald Varonius is fluctuating, which means her Geller Field Generator is malfunctioning. Which means the Agents are going to make their way into the bowels of the ship in order to find the cause and if they can, fix it. Between them lie Chaos infestations and manifestations, cultists, and worse, via an entrail-strewn library, a combat turned execution arena, twisted hydroponics gardens, and more before they reach the bowels of the vessel and discover the real culprits behind the situation The Herald Varonius finds itself in.

Mechanically, the Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory – Starter Set, and thus Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory, is a dice pool system using six-sided dice. Rolls of four and five are counted as ‘Icons’, and a roll of six as ‘Exalted Icons’. Tests are typically rolled as combinations of an attribute and a skill, or just the attribute, the latter being fairly broad, with a Difficulty Number of three being ‘Standard’ difficulty and a Difficulty Number of five being ‘Challenging’ difficulty. If a player rolls a number of Icons equal to the Difficulty Number, the task is successful. Any ‘Exalted Icons’ rolls are worth two Icons rather than one. However, if enough Icons are rolled on a test and there are any ‘Exalted Icons’ left over, they can be ‘Shifted’, or removed from the dice pool. A ‘Shifted Exalted Icon’ can be sued to gain more information, make the Test exceptional and give an extra beneficial outcome, add an extra Effect Die in combat, or add a point of Glory to the party’s pool.

Included with any roll, is the Wrath Die. This is of a different colour. It works like a standard die, except when one or six is rolled. On a one, it adds a complication to the task, whereas a roll of six is counted as an ’Exalted Icon’, but also adds a point of Glory to the party pool. In combat, it indicates that a Critical Hit has been scored. A player also has access to Wrath Points. These can be spent to reroll all dice that rolled a one, two, or three on the dice in a Test, add a minor element to the narrative, or to take an Action to recover Shock which has either been lost through combat or misadventure. The party as a whole, has access to the Glory Pool. Glory Points can be spent to add dice to a test, to add more damage to a successful attack, to improve the effect of a Critical Hit, or to seize the initiative.

Combat uses the same rules, with an Agent able to take a Combat Action, a Simple Action, a Reflexive Action, a Movement Action, and a Free Action on his Turn. Initiative simply passes back and forth between the players and the Game Master until everyone has acted. Both Armour and an Agent’s Resilience stop damage, any left over being suffered as Wounds. The Wounded Condition means that the Difficulty Number for Tests increases, but a player can roll his character’s Determination. Any Icons from this roll convert Wounds to Shock, but suffer too much Shock and an Agent may end up exhausted.

Fear Tests are based on an Agent’s Resolve, failure giving the Agent the Fear Condition. Corruption Tests are based on the severity of the source of Corruption, a player rolling his Agent’s Conviction to withstand its effects. Corruption will increase the Difficulty Number for future Corruption and Mutation Tests. The latter will occur when the number of Corruption Points exceeds an Agent’s Conviction. The Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory – Starter Set only provides a few options for Mutations, there being a more extensive list and advanced rules in the core rulebook for Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory.

Whilst the Players have access to Wrath and Glory, the Game Master has Ruin. Points of Ruin are gained when an Agent fails a Corruption Test or a Fear Test, or the Game Master rolls a six on the Wrath Die. She can expend it to reroll failures on Test, to Seize the Initiative or have NPC act in an ambush, to restore an NPC’s Shock, and to make a Determination roll. Ruin is also spent to activate certain abilities on NPCs and creatures of Chaos.

‘The Varonius Flotilla’, the second book in the Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory – Starter Set, details both the Varonius Flotilla and the Gilead System. This includes the major NPCs with their goals and agendas and their quirks and secrets, and the various ships of the fleet, the last being The Herald of Varonius. The latter is where ‘Traitor’s Hymn’ is set and it is also the reward which the Agents are assigned at the end of the scenario. What that does, is give them the means to travel back and forth across the Gilead System, undertake further missions, and do both with some agency. ‘The Varonius Flotilla’ notes that of Jakel Varonius, the rogue trader and commander of the fleet, has brought the shuttles across the whole fleet under his command to lessen individual ship control, tie the fleet together, and to give him an information network in the form of the shuttle pilots. Besides bringing support and relief to the Gilead System, the Varonius Flotilla is also searching for resources in the system to exploit, despite it having been settled and worked for millennia.

The ’Ports of Call’ section details the eight worlds of the Gilead System, including the major locations, NPCs, threats faced by the world, and important features. Notably, there is one of each major type of world found within the system, thus, Gilead Primus is a Hive World, Ostia an Agri World, Enoch a Shrine World, and so on. Each world is given a couple of adventure hooks as well. Lastly, there is a discussion of the Warrant of Trade that Jakel Varonius holds as a Rogue Trader, before ‘The Varonius Flotilla’ presents six further adventures that will take the Agents back and forth across the Gilead System. In terms of play, these are relatively, offering a single session each unless the Game Master wants to flesh them out further. In comparison, ‘Traitor’s Hymn’ will probably take tow to three sessions to play through.

One issue in terms of play between ‘Traitor’s Hymn’ and six extra scenarios is that the Agents are not going to improve or learn from their experience. To do that, the Game Master will need access to the core rulebook for Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory. That said, a starter set is typically not designed to facilitate that aspect of play, the Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory – Starter Set being no different here, and of course, the Game Master can adjudicate the rewards as necessary if her players want to continue playing beyond the confines of the Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory – Starter Set.

Another issue is the player count required for the Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory – Starter Set. There are six Player Characters or Agents, but ‘Traitor’s Hymn’ requires a minimum of five players. It can be played with four players, but one of the other Agents becomes a communal NPC. It is a high demand, and perhaps it could have been written with the lower player count in mind and allowed for an adjustment in terms of more rather than fewer players.

In terms of setting, the Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory – Starter Set draws the Game Master, her players, and their Agents in a couple of steps. First, ‘Traitor’s Hymn’ gives an immediate experience of the milieu and sets them to explore the setting of the Gilead System detailed in ‘The Varonius Flotilla’. Together, the two books do the same for the wider setting of the Gilead System detailed in Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory. However, there is a third thing that it should do as well, and that is follow in the footsteps of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set which is supported by its own series of scenario anthologies, beginning with Ubersreik Adventures: Six Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik. That enables the Game Master and her players to continue playing with the same Player Characters and in the same setting.

Much like the earlier Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set, the Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory – Starter Set is not a good introduction to roleplaying and nor is it designed to be. It just does not start from the first principles to do that, but that is fine, because as an introduction to Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory, it does a very good job and does so in an attractive package. Similarly, the rules presented have been stripped down from the core rulebook, but there is more than enough to play through the contents in the Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory – Starter Set. If the Game Master and her players have access to the Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory core rules, it would be possible for the players to create their own Agents and play through the scenarios included here, but unless they adhere to the archetypes given in the Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory – Starter Set, some of the nuances of the pre-generated Agents and their ties to the Gilead System and the events of the scenario in ‘Traitor’s Hymn’ may be lost.

Physically, the Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory – Starter Set is a handsome boxed set. Everything inside is of good quality—the gatefold character sheets are particularly well done—and vibrantly illustrated. It does, unfortunately, need an edit in places.

Overall, the Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory – Starter Set is an impressive introduction to the setting of the Gilead System and Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory, its playthrough preparing the Game Master and her players for wider adventures. For anyone wanting to roleplay the action, horror, and intrigue of the 41st Millenium, the Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory – Starter Set is the perfect place to make that stand against corruption, chaos, and Chaos!

Magazine Madness 29: Senet Issue 9

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

—oOo—

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

Senet Issue 9 was published in the winter of 2022. As an issue, it does something different. This is to spread its wings away from its usual subject, that is, board games, into roleplaying—though only a little! This is in the issue’s interviews with designers and publishers who have both had a big influence on the games hobby and industry, one more recently, one over the course of decades. Never fear though, for outside of these articles, Senet Issue 9 is very much a board games magazine. This does not stop the editor highlighting one of the issue’s interviews in his editorial, which is perfectly reasonable, since it is with a designer and publisher who is a very big name in both the board game and the roleplaying hobbies—and other hobbies—here in the United Kingdom.

‘Behold’ is the regular preview of some of the then-forthcoming board game titles. As expected, ‘Behold’ showcases its previewed titles to intriguing effect, a combination of simple write-ups with artwork and depictions of the board games. Notable titles previewed include Pandasaurus Games’ The Fox Experiment, co-designed by Elizabeth Hargrave of Wingspan fame, which is a ‘roll-and-write’ design about the Belyaev-Trut experiment into fox domestication, in which the players attempt to draft friendly foxes and use them to breed even friendlier foxes, whilst Moon, the third and final part in a trilogy of card-drafting games from Sinister Fish Games which began with Villagers, takes the series off planet to colonise the Moon as well as increase the player interaction with this style of game.

‘Points’, the regular column of readers’ letters is only as thematic as to be all from readers praising the magazine, so is a whole lot less interesting than in previous issues. ‘For Love of the Game’, continues the journey of the designer Tristian Hall towards the completion and publication of his Gloom of Kilforth. In this entry in the series, he addresses the issue of  acknowledging your inspirations when it comes to your game, both in terms of other game designs and other sources. He cites Donald X. Vaccarino being inspired by the deck-building aspect of Magic: The Gathering for his Spiel des Jahres award-winning Dominion, but actually lists other sources for his inspiration for his own Gloom of Kilforth, such as the Fighting Fantasy books, Dungeons & Dragons, and J.R.R. Tolkien, so although this represents another nod to roleplaying in the issue, it does feel one-sided.

Senet follows a standard format of articles and article types and Senet Issue 9 is no exception. One explores a theme found in board games, its history, and the games that showcase it to best effect, whilst another looks at a particular mechanic. In addition, there are two interviews, one with a designer, the other with an artist. The particular mechanic in the issue is the engine-building game. In ‘Rise of the Machine’, Alexandra Sonechkina examines the history and state of the mechanic, starting by making an interesting suggestion that Monopoly, a fairly poorly regarded game, is actually an engine-building game—although not one in the modern sense. That, though, is really as far as the history goes in the article, as it looks what makes a good engine-building game. The article is an interesting look at what the mechanic can do, but it could have benefited from boxed sections highlighting particular designs and used them to track some of the mechanic’s development to give more context. Although interesting, the article does not feel complete.

The theme article in the issue is pirates! Matt Thrower’s ‘Pirates on Board’ is a far thorough look at the history of its subject, whose more recent surge in popularity as a theme can be traced back to 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean, and before that with Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Along the way, it notes the historical nature of the subject means that it has long been a popular subject for wargames, such as Wooden Ships & Iron Men and Blackbeard, both from Avalon Hill, but the fantasy element of pirates means that it is seen as a suitable subject for lighter board game designs too. Examples include Cartagena and Pirate’s Cove, yet as the hobby has matured, there has been an acknowledgement the fantasy of pirates does not always equate to the actual history, since they are both villainous and violent, though less so with other board game themes and history. Thus pirate-themed board games tend to romanticise the history and make it palatable for a wider audience. It does, though, come up to date with a look at the issue of actual piracy and counterfeiting in the board gaming industry, but does not come to any more conclusion than that it is an ongoing issue. ‘Pirates on Board’ is an entertaining piece that nicely continues the magazine’s thread of examining the themes common to modern and not so modern board games.

The much-heralded highlight of the issue is ‘The Games Master’. This is the first of the two interviews in the issue, and is with Sir Ian Livingstone, co-founder of Games Workshop and co-creator of the Fighting Fantasy series, as well as designer of board games like Judge Dredd: The Game of Crime-Fighting in Mega-City One. The lengthy interview, which starts with Livingstone’s first experiences with board games and takes the reader through the founding of Games Workshop, the games he designed, the creation of the Fighting Fantasy series—the primary roleplaying focus in the interview, and beyond to what he plays today. It is a good, solid interview, interesting and informative, liberally illustrated, though more so if you have not read other interviews with Livingstone. The interview is, of course, timed ahead of the release of Dice Men: The Origin Story of Games Workshop, which expands upon the various subjects explored in the piece and more.

The second interview in Senet Issue 9 is with Johan Nohr, the co-creator and illustrator of Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance retroclone, and its Cyberpunk counterpart, CY_BORG. As with previous issues of the magazine, this does a very nice job of showcasing his artwork, although it is not necessarily a style that would be seen in board game design.

‘Unboxed’, Senet’s reviews section actually includes a review of Apothecaria: Solo Potion Making RPG, so continuing the issue’s flirtation with roleplaying games, although solo journalling games are typically the magazine’s only flirtation with roleplaying games. Otherwise, a wide range of games is reviewed, from family titles such as Dodo and its egg-rolling down a mountain mechanic to big, brutal storytelling designs such as Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood. The latter is the issue’s game of choice, but there are a surprising number of disappointments reviewed too, like Rear Window and Cellulose: A Plant Cell Biology Game. In between, there is a good mix of interesting games reviewed that should drove the reader to go and find out more.

Rounding out Senet Issue 9 are the regular end columns, ‘How to Play’ and ‘Shelf of Shame’. For ‘How to Play’, Mx Tiffany Leigh addresses the issue of ‘Playing with Alphas’, and how the over abundance of advice from an Alpha Player can negate player agency, involvement, and fun, before giving straightforward advice. In fact, the advice might be called too straightforward, even obvious, but this does not make it bad advice. Tom Brewster of Shut Up & Shutdown takes Pax Pamir, a wargame of nineteenth century politics in Afghanistan, off his and ‘Shelf of Shame’ and explains why it is not getting to his table to play more often. Unlike a lot of entries in this series, it is not because it got forgotten or bypassed in favour of other titles, but because it is actually not a game that others want to play because of its complexity and capacity. This highlights an issue with a lot of board games, that of finding the right audience.

Physically, Senet Issue 9 is very professionally presented. It looks and feels as good as previous issues of the magazine.

It has almost become a cliché to state that as with previous issues, Senet Issue 9 offers a good mix of articles, interviews, and reviews, but it does. Yet where the interviews both look great and are very accessible, the articles on the issue’s theme and mechanic are not. This is not to say that they are unreadable, as they are, but they are no longer highlighting particular games appropriate to either theme or mechanic, so unlike in previous issues with these articles, there are no examples to stand out effectively and catch the reader’s attention. The issue also has an odd feel to it because of its emphasis on roleplaying in its two big articles, but this change is refreshing, widening the scope of the magazine, if only a little. It also highlights how a magazine of similar quality devoted to roleplaying could be just as good. Overall, Senet Issue 9 is still good, but just a little bit different—and that is not a bad thing.