[Free RPG Day 2022] How to Raise the Dead

Now in its fifteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2022, was celebrated not once, but twice. First on Saturday, 25th June in the USA, and then on Saturday, 23rd July internationally. This was to prevent problem with past events when certain books did not arrive in time to be shipped internationally and so were not available outside of the USA. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Reviews from R’lyeh was get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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How to Raise the Dead is perhaps the most different—or at least most singular—of the releases for Free RPG Day in 2022. It is not a quick-start or a scenario for a roleplaying game, but a set of instructions booklet on how to build and paint a piece of terrain which can be added to a game and provide space in which the brave heroes can confront some undead in their natural environment—or is that their unnatural environment? This is at the doors of a necropolis, surely the tomb of some dark master or the entrance to a crypt network below a cemetery, but however it is used and brought to the table, the necropolis is sure to be the site for a confrontation between some brave adventurers and a band of armed and armoured skeletons or zombies before the adventurers dare to open to open the door to the necropolis and enter... Designed and written by Dave Taylor Miniatures, it shows a Game Master—or of course, a Dungeon Master—how to use a combination of Speedpaints Set from The Army Painter and miniatures and terrain pieces from Mantic Games’ Terrain Crate and Dungeon Essentials ranges.

In comparison to How to Build a Boss-Fight Final Chamber, the release for Free RPG 2021, How to Raise the Dead is relatively short and focused. It starts off by stating that many a Game Master wants to present her players with an immersive experience and one way of doing that is not only to use the appropriate terrain and miniatures, but also make it look good. It acknowledges that this can be daunting prospect in terms of the preparation and painting required, and so the aim of How to Raise the Dead to help break down the barriers that might stand in the Game Master’s way. How to Raise the Dead does this by taking the reader through a step-by-step process, not once, not twice, but three times, each with a different set of miniatures or pieces of terrain, in order to show the prospective painter how it can be done in as uncomplicated a fashion possible—and of course, using the Speedpaint Set. The latter is not included in the release for Free RPG Day 2022, but ‘The Necropolis’ along with the How to Raise the Dead booklet is. To follow completely the guide included in its pages, the Game Master will also need the ‘DUNGEON DEAD’ from the Mantic Games Dungeon Essentials Range and the bare trees found in Mantic Games’ Gothic Grounds set. Of course, the Dungeon Master is free to use these or similar terrain and miniatures from other manufacturers, and the likelihood is that the guidelines in How to Raise the Dead would still apply.

The two piece of terrain which come up with How to Raise the Dead—the necropolis and sturdy iron gate—are chunky pieces. How to Raise the Dead addresses these two pieces first, showing the Game Master how to prepare, prime, and then apply a ‘zenithal prime’ the model. The latter involves priming a layer of black first, and then a layer of white from above so that the black remains uncovered in the shadows. Then the model is painted using the Speedpaint Set. This includes going over it with grey for the base stonework, adding colour to the roof to represent an oxidised copper roof, and then adding highlights to pick particular details. It is really is simple, showing how this can be done in just eight steps. If there is an issue here, it does not quite focus in on the details in the latter stages, but with some experimentation, the Game Master should be able to pick out these details.

How to Raise the Dead then proceeds to show how to paint a cadre of undead and a set of trees and trunks using the Speedpaint Set. In comparison to the earlier guide to painting the Necropolis and Gate, these two actually better illustrated and consequently, more clearly explained. In comparison to the advice given in How to Build a Boss-Fight Final Chamber from last year, the advice in How to Raise the Dead is clearer and easier to understand, and it is better aimed at the Game Master new to this aspect of the hobby. If there is an issue with the instructions, it is that How to Raise the Dead does not state what items the Game Master will need before setting out to work on the project.

The last two pages in How to Raise the Dead before a raft of adverts are devoted to quartet of scenario hooks written with the Necropolis model and the band of undead guarding it in mind. The four are divided between three fantasy ideas and one modern one.

In ‘The Tomb of Varan Tor’, the resting place of a paladin has been desecrated by the black dragon Rotslug and it is rumoured that he has risen as a Death Knight, whilst in the ‘Lost Mines of Draul’, the necropolis is actually an entrance to a mine where Dwarves in search of mithril found a metal so malign that it corrupted them and turned them into the undead. In both cases, the threat is rumoured to be on the rise, ready to step out of the Necropolis and spread their dread to the wider world. The Necropolis stands at the heart of ‘The Dark Depths of Forlakk Forest’ in the third hook, thought by some to be connected to the Feywild, but by others to the Shadowfell. There is certainly some corruptive force at the forest’s heart, but what? And does it represent a greater threat? The modern hook is ‘The Freaks Come Out at Night’ in which a would-be reality television star and his friends search the sprawling tunnels of hospital in search for the results of horrific experiments said to have been conducted by a renowned medical expert. It is not quite clear how the latter uses the Necropolis and that is disappointing.

Physically, How to Raise the Dead is decently presented with lots of photographs as illustrations. It is underwritten in places, both the instructions and the hooks, and it does need an edit in others.

Of all the releases on Free RPG Day 2022, How to Raise the Dead is the least useful—at least in the short term. It will take time for the Game Master to bring any of the contents to the table. Most obviously because she will need to have access to the Terrain Crate and Dungeon Essentials ranges, as well as the Speedpaints Set. Then prepare and paint the terrain following by developing and writing a scenario, perhaps one of the story hooks in How to Raise the Dead, perhaps one of her own. In comparison, most of the other titles released for Free RPG Day 2022 are quick-starts and scenarios and so can be brought to the table much more immediately. And of course, because How to Raise the Dead is designed to make use of the Terrain Crate and Dungeon Essentials ranges, plus the Speedpaints Set, it is also very much obviously designed to sell both them and other terrain sets. The other releases are similarly designed to do that too, so that is no criticism, but with How to Raise the Dead, it is more obvious.

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An Unboxing in the Nook of How to Raise the Dead appears here.

[Free RPG Day 2021] How to Build a Boss-Fight Final Chamber

Now in its fourteenth year, Free RPG Day in 2021, after a little delay due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, took place on Saturday, 16th October. As per usual, it came with an array of new and interesting little releases, which traditionally would have been tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Of course, in 2021, Free RPG Day took place after GenCon despite it also taking place later than its traditional start of August dates, but Reviews from R’lyeh was able to gain access to the titles released on the day due to a friendly local gaming shop and both Keith Mageau and David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3 in together sourcing and providing copies of the Free RPG Day 2020 titles. Reviews from R’lyeh would like to thank all three for their help.

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How to Build a Boss-Fight Final Chamber is perhaps the most different—or at least most singular—of the releases for Free RPG Day in 2021. It is not a quick-start or a scenario for a roleplaying game, but a set of instructions booklet on how to build and paint a piece of terrain which can be added to a dungeon and provide space in which the brave heroes can confront its big boss. This is the final chamber in a dungeon, the site for a showdown between the adventurers the villain and his acolytes, filled with treasure, loots, and possibly secrets. Designed and written by Dave Taylor Miniatures, it shows a Game Master—or of course, a Dungeon Master—how to use a combination of using the Gamemaster Dungeons and Caverns Set from The Army Painter and Mantic Games’ Dungeon Treasure Terrain Crate.

Although it is clear that you get a lot in the Gamemaster Dungeons and Caverns Set—lots of XPS Foam with which to build the terrain and the tools to prepare it, including knife, glue, hot wire cutter, and so on—How to Build a Boss-Fight Final Chamber does not show this. There are lots of photographs though, which illustrates the various steps that the author takes in building the scene. This includes preparing it, such as scoring the floor with a one-inch grid to mark out stone flagstones and even adding a little variation to floor by using a metal ruler to press down in the corners of some of the squares. The walls of the chamber look to be more complex to build, but the instructions are clear enough and there is plenty of detail in the photographs. Then how to paint the terrain and the treasure piles and the other treasure pieces are all given a similar treatment.

However, all of this advice and guidance is not quite written from a beginner’s point of view. As much as it says that it introduces the prospective builder to “[S]ome basic building painting approaches – including techniques like washing and drybrushing…” it really does not quite do that. Rather, it explains that the author used them, but does not explain what they are. So it is not quite introductory enough, which means that the reader will need to do a little research beyond the pages of How to Build a Boss-Fight Final Chamber. Fortunately, finding this information out should not be difficult, whether on a website or on YouTube. The prospective builder should be aware that she needs to do so though.

The penultimate two pages are devoted to ideas as to how to use the end result of following the instructions in How to Build a Boss-Fight Final Chamber and bring it into a campaign. There are three hooks suggested. In the first, ‘Lair of the Minotaur’, the brave adventurers must confront Gharus Vilehoof, a canny Minotaur who has been luring adventurers into his lair in the service of his master, Baphomet and keeping their treasure, whilst in the second, ‘The Summoning’, the chamber is home to a great portal that the sorcerer Illikar is attempting to open and so bring his long-banished people back from their exile. This would result in a new era of darkness and so the adventurers must rush to thwart the ritual. The third, ‘Eternal Slumber’, is the longest of the three and sees the adventurers rush into the depths of a former Dwarven stronghold which has been long been occupied by hordes of Goblins and their Fomorian masters. The stronghold has a secret though, the Rune Chamber of Vaul contains the former Dwarven Runelords and their artefacts held in stasis—and the magic behind is weakening. Can the adventurers hold off the Goblin hordes long enough to save the Dwarves from the past?

These hooks get better as you read along. ‘Lair of the Minotaur’ amounts to no more than a room description and encounter rather than a hook, and whilst there is a hook in ‘The Summoning’, it is adequate at best. Fortunately, ‘Eternal Slumber’ makes up for the underwhelming nature of the first and there is plenty here for the prospective Game Master to get her teeth into. In fact, there is a whole dungeon, or rather a former Dwarven stronghold, for her to design to fit this final boss chamber. Perhaps if the illustration at the top of the page containing ‘Lair of the Minotaur’ and ‘The Summoning’ the author would have had more room to give them the development they so need.

The hooks are followed by descriptions the treasures to be found in the various versions of the final boss-fight chamber. These include the Axe of Gharus, wielded by the Minotaur Gharus Vilehoof, possessed by a demon servant of Baphomet that whispers to its wielder to fulfils its master’s goals and drips blood that infects wounds and the Seven Stones of Cinderac, ioun stones created by an ancient wyrm that contain the secrets of the universe… So a little like Stormbringer in the case of the first and Marvel Universe’s Infinity Stones in the case of the latter, but of course, the Game Master to free to design the items however she wants to fit her game.

Physically, How to Build a Boss-Fight Final Chamber is decently presented with lots of photographs as illustrations. It is perhaps a little underwritten in places, both the instructions and the hooks.

Of all the releases on Free RPG Day 2021, How to Build a Boss-Fight Final Chamber is the least useful—at least in the short term. It will take time for the Game Master to bring any of the contents to the table. Most obviously because she will need to have access to the Gamemaster Dungeons and Caverns Set and the Dungeon Treasure Terrain Crate, and then build the terrain, and then prepare the scenario in which to set the final boss-fight. In comparison, most of the other titles released are quick-starts and scenarios and so can be brought to the much more immediately. And of course, because How to Build a Boss-Fight Final Chamber is designed to make use of the Gamemaster Dungeons and Caverns Set and the Dungeon Treasure Terrain Crate, it is also very much obviously designed to sell both them and other terrain sets. The other releases are similarly designed to do that too, so that is no criticism, but with How to Build a Boss-Fight Final Chamber, it is more obvious.

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An Unboxing in the Nook of How to Build a Boss-Fight Final Chamber appears here.