Age of Athena

It is an age of chaos. The once mighty city-states of Greece have become isolated refuges, sanctuaries against the monsters and creatures and bandits and undead that roam beyond their walls, preying upon the weak and ravaging the land. In response, the people cry out for help and beseech the gods of Olympus. Yet only one of their number hears their cries and only a handful of men and women answers her appeal for heroes. She is Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, strategic war, handicraft, and the city, the daughter of Zeus who sprang from his head fully formed. They are the Demigods, born of divine and mortal parentage and so granted some of the gifts of the gods and they stand fast, ready to answer the hollering for help, the need to fight the legendary monsters of the age, to protect the innocent and the helpless, and to seek out adventure. This is the set-up for Warriors of Athena, a skirmish scale miniatures wargame from Osprey Games. Written by the designer of the highly regarded Frostgrave: Fantasy Wargames in the Frozen City, it is a game in which a player creates a Warband, consisting of a Hero and several Companions, the number ranging between one and seven (depending upon the number of players, the more players, the fewer the number of Companions in a Warband), and takes them on quests set by Athena. What is notable about Warriors of Athena is that it is not designed to be adversarial, that is, one player or more players playing against each other as is traditional in miniature wargames. Instead, it can be played in one of four modes. First, it can be played in Solo mode against the game itself, with the player controlling his miniatures and the actions of the monsters and other threats as well as when random events taking place being determined by the rules. Second, it can be played co-operatively, with two or more players and their Heroes and Warbands working together to complete a quest. Third, it can be played with an Oracle. This is another player who will control the actions and movement of any threats as a referee. Fourth, the Oracle not only controls the actions and movement of any threats as normal, but also runs scenes in between which do not take place on the table of terrain where all the action happens. Instead, they are run in the theatre of the mind in the same way that a roleplaying game would be run. In the latter mode, Warriors of Athena develops one of the particular aspects of skirmish level miniatures wargaming, which is the strong identification that a player will develop with the members of his Warband. The Hero and his Companions will grow and change as result of their successfully fulfilling Quests and so will a player’s investment in them.

At the core of the game are two books, both needed to play. Warriors of Athena: Heroes gives the core rules for the game, including how to create a Warband consisting of the Hero and his Companions, running combats, and handling campaigns and rewards. Warriors of Athena: Quests explains how to create and run Quests, a bestiary of threats, and four ready-to-play multi-scenario campaigns. In addition to the rules, a player requires miniatures, both to represent his Warband and monsters and creatures, some terrain and buildings such as temples, a pack of ordinary playing cards, a twenty-sided die, and a play area, roughly thirty inches square. Warriors of Athena can be played using any scale miniatures and miniatures from any manufacturer (though North Star Military Figures does manufacture a range of miniatures to support the rules). If a player is new to wargaming as a hobby, the advice on the set-up and play area might be a bit light, but an experienced player will have no problems.

A Hero has six stats—‘Move’, Fight’, ‘Shoot’, ‘Armour’, ‘Will’, and ‘Health’. He will also have a Parentage, which will determine who his divine parent is and what his Gifts are, as well as potential Weaknesses. Gifts can a Heroic Ability, such as ‘Call Curse’, ‘Limited Flight’, or ‘Lunge’, bonuses to Stats or skills, or a mixture of all three. A Weakness can be an Enemy, Madness, Inhuman Appearance, and so on. Many of the Gods provide multiple different Gifts and Weakness. In Co-operative mode, this means that different Heroes can be half-brothers and sisters as they share the same divine parent, but a different mortal parent means different Gifts. Given the philandering ways of many of the gods, this is perfectly in keeping with Greek myth. All Heroes start off with same values for their stats, a player increasing his Hero’s Fight or Shoot and Will or Health by one each. He then rolls on the ‘Hero Parentage Tables’ to determine his Parentage, Gifts, and possible Weaknesses. He selects another five Gifts (the option is given to roll for them and in-keeping with the setting, let fate decide) and then divides fifteen points between eight skills—Artistry, Athletics, Diplomacy, Hunt, Navigation, Perception, Strength, and Trickery. A player also has some Wealth with which to equip his Hero. Lastly, a Hero has a Fate Pool of Threads which lets his player to reroll any die roll. He starts with two Threads.

A player has a pool of Recruitment Points to spend on purchasing Companions to complete his Hero’s Warband. A Companion has the same Stats as a Hero, though their values will vary wildly. They include warriors such as Archers, Barbarians, and Slingers, other Companions like Hunters, Thieves, and Songmasters, members of uncivilized species such as Centaurs and Satyrs, and even animals like Boars, Raptors, and Weasels!* Not all of a Hero’s Companions are going to accompany him on a Quest, but a player is free to choose which ones he wants to accompany his Hero. This allows a player to build up a stable of Companions he can choose from each time his Hero undertakes a Quest.

* Sorry, but I just want to shout, “Go! Go! Battle-Weasel!”

Name: Dionysodoros
Parentage: Dionysus
Gifts: Burning Eyes, Deadeye, Command Undead, Backswing, Ironskin, Waterlung
Weaknesses: Beauty

STATS
Move 6 Fight +4 Shoot +1 Armour 9 Will +3 Health 19

SKILLS
Artistry +4 Athletics +4 Diplomacy +1 Hunt +1 Navigation +0 Perception +1 Strength +4 Trickery +0

Once a scenario has been set up—and Warriors of Athena: Quests covers that in more detail—a game is played as series of turns. A turn consists of four phases. These are the ‘Hero Phase’, the ‘Creature Phase’, the ‘Companion Phase’, and the ‘Event Phase’. When activated, a miniature can take two actions, a standard action and a simple action. A simple action typically involves movement, whilst standard actions include attacking and any other thing that a Hero might want to do when activated. There are no hard or fast rules on this. Stat or skill checks are made by rolling a twenty-sided die and adding the appropriate Stat or skill, the aim being to roll equal or exceed a given Target Number. A roll of a one is always a failure, whilst a roll of twenty is always a success.

Combat is handled as a series of opposed rolls. Both combatants roll the die and add their Fight Stats, plus any other bonuses, whether from magic, reach, and so on. The combatant who rolls the highest Combat Score is the winner. Damage modifiers, typically from weapons, are added to the winner’s Combat Score and the defender’s Armour value is deducted from it. The resulting value indicates how much damage is inflicted and deducted from the defender’s Health. Some weapons and monsters will multiply this value two or three times. The combat rules also allow for critical hits which do more damage, weapon reach, breaking weapons, and more. Ranged attacks work the same way, but use the Shoot Stat.

One important action that a Hero can do is to activate a Heroic Ability. Every Heroic Ability has a Utilisation score, which a player rolls against to activate the Heroic Ability. Successfully activating a Heroic Ability costs Strain, typically a single point, which is deducted from a Hero’s Health.

If Warriors of Athena is being played with an Oracle, then that player controls the actions of the evil creatures in the scenario. Otherwise, there is a simple chart for determining their actions, typically either to try to attack or move to a target point representing some kind of objective. The advantage of the solo and co-operative modes is that they are easy to set up and play, but the disadvantage is that the player or players will know what the scenario involves and who the enemy are. However, the advantage of playing with an Oracle is that the player or players have no idea what their Warbands are going to be facing. The other advantage is that if the players want to—and Warriors of Athena: Heroes makes it clear that it completely optional—the Oracle can run Scenes in which the players can roleplay their Heroes.

Warriors of Athena: Heroes also covers injury and death—Heroes can suffer permanent injuries, and Experience rewards gains for completing objectives within a scenario. These can apply to both Heroes and Companions, but in terms of Experience, progression and benefits accrue at a slower rate for Companions. During play, a Hero may be searching for and find various types of tokens. These are Food Tokens, Clue Tokens, and Treasure Tokens. Clue Tokens will help progress the scenario, but treasure Tokens allow for a roll for treasure at the end of the scenario. This will typically result in wealth, but magical items, including potions, talismans, arms, armour, and more can be found. Another way gaining a magical item, invariably a talisman of a god, is by making a sacrifice to the gods. Fans of Jason and the Argonauts will be pleased to find included is the Dragon’s Tooth, which can be thrown to the ground and sown to have a warrior grow on the spot!

Physically, Warriors of Athena: Heroes is cleanly and tidily presented. It is an easy read, and everything is well explained. There are surprisingly few shots of the game in play, that is, photographs of miniatures on the table, in the book, in comparison to normal artwork. That artwork is excellent though, often depicting scenes of action and combat that you would want to see enacted on the table.

Warriors of Athena: Heroes is only one half of Warriors of Athena, but the rules its presents are simple, fast-playing, and easy to understand. Its skirmish scale makes it all the more accessible, as does the fact that it draws upon the familiar Greek mythology. Its scale allows for greater investment in the adventures and successes and failures of a player’s Hero and his Warband, but also allows for the possibility of some roleplaying too with the addition of an Oracle. Warriors of Athena can be played a simple skirmish scale miniatures wargame, but with the presence of the Oracle, it becomes a wargame with light roleplaying elements or a very light roleplaying game with strong wargaming elements. Effectively, a roleplaying/war game hybrid.

The Other OSR: Shipbreaker’s Toolkit

It is curious to note that since its original publication in 2018, the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG from Tuesday Knight Games has been reliant upon the single rulebook, the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG – Player’s Survival Guide. First as a ‘Zero Edition’ and then as an actual ‘First Edition’. Curious, because despite the horror roleplaying rules detailing no alien threats and giving no advice for the Warden—as the Game Master is known in Mothership—the has proved to be success, with numerous authors writing and publishing scenarios of their own as well as titles from the publisher. What the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG offered was a stripped down, fast playing Science Fiction system that supported a number of sub-genres. Most obviously Blue Collar Science Fiction with horror and Military Science Science Fiction, the most obvious inspirations being the films Alien and Aliens, as well as Outland, Dark Star, Silent Running, and Event Horizon. Yet the authors of third-party content for the roleplaying game have also offered sandboxes such as Desert Moon of Karth and Cosmic Horror like What We Give To Alien Gods, showing how the simplicity of Mothership could be adjusted to handle other types of Science Fiction. This combination of flexibility and simplicity has made it attractive to the Old School Renaissance segment of the hobby, despite Mothership not actually sharing roots with the family of Old School Renaissance roleplaying games derived from the different editions of Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, at best, Old School Renaissance adjacent.

With the publication of the Mothership Core Box and the Mothership Deluxe Box following a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2024, the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG has a complete set of rules for what is its first edition. The includes rules the construction and option of spaceships with Shipbreaker’s Toolkit, monstrous threats with Unconfirmed Contact Reports, and a guide for refereeing the roleplaying game in the form of the Warden’s Operations Manual.

—oOo—

The Shipbreaker’s Toolkit fulfils a void in the rules for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG. For despite the fact that as the title suggests, the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG is a Science Fiction roleplaying game and that spaceships play an important role in its primary inspiration, which have been until the publication of the Shipbreaker’s Toolkit, no actual rules for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG. The Shipbreaker’s Toolkit presents all of the rules that a Warden and her players are going to need for handling spaceships in the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG. This includes designing them, operating them, running them in combat, repairing them, and so on. If the Player Characters in Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG own or operate a spaceship, it is their collective home from home, their base of operations, and/or their means of making a living. It is, of course, also their means of transport from place to another, one scenario to another. It can be a millstone around their collective necks if they need to make repairs or cannot make the mortgage payments. In the hands of the Warden, a spaceship is a means of travel as well as an opponent (or source of opponents), a potential mystery, and so on.

The good news is that the Shipbreaker’s Toolkit keeps its rules short and simple. A spaceship in the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG has three stats—Thrusters, Battle, and Systems—and just like a Player Character’s attributes, they are expressed as percentiles. In addition, a spaceship is rated for its Hull (the amount of Megadamage it can withstand), how much fuel it carries, the number of Warp Cores its is fitted with indicating how far it can jump in hyperspace, how many cryopods and escape pods it has, how much it carries, the number of crew and what their positions are, how many hardpoints it has and what it is armed with, and so on. All of which is recorded on a ‘Mothership Ship Manifest’ sheet.

Interstellar space travel in the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG is achieved via hyperspace, a typical journey taking between two and twenty days. There is the danger of relativistic time dilation with every space trip, which more likely the longer the distance travelled. Hyperspace can only be entered or exited at Jump Points a safe distance—typically equal to two-weeks’ travel time—outside of a star system. Travel in hyperspace is handled automatically whilst the crew and passengers are in cyropods. Ships are categorised Class 0 to Class V. Class 0 vessels are shuttlecraft, shuttles, fighters, and dropships, whilst Class V vessels are medium military ships, exploration vessels, and troopships. A crew of a merchantman might operate a Class II medium commercial like a freighter, a team of scientists might be assigned to a Class V Exploration Vessel, and a squad of marines might be assigned to a Class V Troopship.

The Shipbreaker’s Toolkit details nine starships as well as various spaceships. They include a Raider for pirates, Executive Transport, Freighter, Patrol Craft, Salvage Cutter, Corvette, Jumpliner, Troopship, and Exploration. Each one has its own stats, a decent illustration, a good idea of the ship’s layout rather than deck plans, and some extra details. All of the vessels are long rather than squat and quite open in their construction. The extra details really do add to the nature of the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG future. For example, the Patrol Craft also includes details of how customs inspections are handled along with possible contraband that might be found; the Salvage Cutter includes the Law of Salvage; and the Jumpliner describes what a typical space journey is like for its passengers. All of which can be brought into play as needed.

There is no means of handling ship construction in the Shipbreaker’s Toolkit. Rather, the Warden and her players are expected to pick a ship off the shelf and modify it, as necessary. There is a large table of Upgrades which can be added to most vessels such as ‘Agar Cushioning’ to help reduce Cyrosickness or an ‘Enhanced A.I.’ to improve a ship’s Systems’ stat. There is space on the ‘Mothership Ship Manifest’ sheet to note these in addition to the standard details as well as draw some simple deck plans.

Mechanically, to have a character operate a ship, his player rolls against the Thrusters, Battle, or Systems stats as appropriate, just as he would for a stat for his character. A player can add an appropriate skill rating as well. For example, the Pilot skill can be added to Thrusters to manoeuvre the spaceship and Systems and Asteroid Mining when scanning for mineral deposits. The rules also cover scanning and sensors, communications, distress signals (with a table to roll on indicating how long before the signal is picked up and someone comes to investigate), and of course, combat. Ship-to-ship combat is designed to be short and deadly. A round can be minutes or hours, and if either ship elects to pursue or evade, it requires the expenditure of fuel. Damage, whether from autocannons, laser cannons, or missiles, is inflicted as Megadamage. The Hull rating protects against Megadamage, but once destroyed, the amount left over is added to a roll on the Megadamage Table. This can result in ‘Navigation Offline’, damaging navigation data and preventing Thruster Checks, a ‘Hull Breach’ which forces all aboard to make a Body Save or suffer a Wound, or simply ‘Abandon Ship! (in less than ten minutes). Overall, fast-playing, and brutal.

Encountering space aliens and engaging in spaceship combat is, of course, stressful. Unfortunately, so is operating a starship. There is constant need for maintenance and the chance that issues will arise. Failing a Maintenance Check can lead to a Stress Check and for Owner-Operator, there is a new Save called a Bankruptcy Save. Rolled every quarter or year, failure and critical failure ends up with the crew and/or owner owing a massive debt to the wrong people. Even successful Bankruptcy Save gives limited options—purchasing one Minor Upgrade for the ship, paying for one Minor Repair for the ship, paying each crewmember several months salary, or investing to improve the Bankruptcy Save for next quarter. A Critical Success provides better options.

Physically, the Shipbreaker’s Toolkit is clearly written and easy to read. The illustrations are decent and the rules are supported by examples of play. The only thing that the book might have benefitted from is clearer and more deckplans.

In terms of the future of the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG, the Shipbreaker’s Toolkit makes clear that being an operator-owner is difficult and expensive, and spaceship combat is really dangerous. Operating a vessel for a corporation, institute, or the military means avoiding some of the expense at least, but it does not give the Player Characters the same sense of freedom. In whatever way the Warden and her players want to involve spaceships in their Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG game, the Shipbreaker’s Toolkit has them covered with a solid set of uncomplicated rules that still leaves room for Warden input.

Friday Fantasy: Tower of the Black Pearl

Everyone along the coast knows the legend of the Tower of the Black Pearl. That it is reputed to be the final resting place of the fabled Black Pearl—an artefact said to bring doom upon all who dare to possess it. That it stands out sea, deep enough that none can reach. Except that once every ten years the tides of the Empyrean Ocean recede far enough for one night to reveal the very top of this mysterious undersea tower. Easily reached by rowing boat. And that night is tonight. As the Moon hangs low in the sky, the Player Characters, armed with rumours and perhaps a little knowledge, have hours get atop the tower and descend to its lower floors in the hope that the Black Pearl might still be there. And they can survive the curse. This is the simple set-up for what is a fairly straightforward and mostly linear scenario. It is also a scenario with a bit of history.

The set-up is for the Dungeon Crawl Classics 2018 Convention Module: Tower of the Black Pearl, a scenario for Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, published by Goodman Games. It is written for use with First Level Player Characters. It was originally published in 2006 as part of Dungeon Crawl Classics #29: The Adventure Begins anthology for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition and subsequently converted in 2008 for use Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition as TheGolden Auroch/Tower of the Black Pearl. This was followed by its first appearance in 2013 for Dungeon Crawl Classics as Dungeon Crawl Classics #79.5: Tower of the Black Pearl and then more recently, as Dungeon Crawl Classics 2018 Convention Module: Tower of the Black Pearl. The fact that it has been adapted into a convention scenario is indicative that scenario type that it is, that is, short, direct, but still challenging—and designed to be played in a single four hour session.

The scenario mixes pirates, magic, more than a few traps, and weird, fury crab monsters. The pirates provide the Judge with the scenario’s only real NPC, the nefarious Savage Quenn, courteous to a fault, smooth talking, and charming, but still a ruthless murderer! The Judge should have some fun portraying him, perhaps as a classic matinee movie villain idol! The tower also hides a big secret. In fact, it has two big secrets. It was once one of the eldritch fastnesses of Sezrekan the Elder. Today, he is renowned as the most wicked wizard ever to plague the Known World, but that does not stop many Wizards seeking him as their patron. In fact, the scenario will be that more interesting if the Wizard in the party does have Sezrekan the Elder as his Patron. The second secret is that the tower is effectively one big trap. If the Player Characters mange to get down far enough to get hold of the Black Pearl, its curse is that it causes the tower to rapidly flood. Which gives the Player Characters very little time to escape as the waters rise in rapid fashion…!

In terms of design, the tower itself is linear, although the Player Characters will find themselves returning to the Chamber of Portals to solve some simple puzzles to be able to teleport into lower areas and proceed with the adventure. This means that the adventure does not feel as linear. Beyond, there is a mini-River Styx, complete with Charon the Ferryman, and ultimately, the ‘Shrine of the Black Pearl’ which lies on the other side of a pool of black snakes. Getting across this pool without antagonising the snakes is going to be a problem for the Player Characters. Getting back across with the waters rising is an even bigger challenge. However, none of these encounters are the most interesting room in the tower. This is the ‘Hall of Mysteries’, the second encounter in the tower. It consists of a room containing a single book and a lot of candles. Each candle represents the life of a Lawful hero. Snuff it out and the hero dies. Relight it and the hero springs back to life. This applies to the Player Characters as much as it does any other hero. This gives the Player Characters the power of life and death—at least within this room—and potentially, if the Player Characters actually snuffed out every candle, they could change the fate of nations as without Lawful heroes, Chaos triumphs and civilisations collapse. Essentially, unwittingly, the Player Characters could destroy the world as they know it, and since the tower is only accessible for a few hours and then not again for a decade, only discover the consequences of their actions after they leave and be unable to reset if for a decade! This is such a deliciously tart outcome to the meeting, just plain evil. Dungeon Crawl Classics 2018 Convention Module: Tower of the Black Pearl even suggests that this could be beginning of a ‘Dark Age of Heroes’ campaign.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics 2018 Convention Module: Tower of the Black Pearl is well presented. This is a much tidier and easier to use version of the scenario. The map is clearer and the handouts good. The artwork is good too.

Dungeon Crawl Classics 2018 Convention Module: Tower of the Black Pearl is easy to set up and run. It could be run as ‘Character Funnel’—the signature feature of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game in which Zero Level Player Characters attempt to survive an scenario in the hope of gaining sufficient Experience Points to acquire a Level and be eligible to take up a Class and all of its features—but it feels just a bit too tough for that. It is potentially also a good adventure for a Wizard Player Character given the potential rewards, whilst its arcane, even arch nature mean that it could easily be run using the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set and Dungeon Crawl Classics Dying Earth without any difficulty. Overall, Dungeon Crawl Classics 2018 Convention Module: Tower of the Black Pearl is an entertainingly short, sharp, and sweet example of a low Level scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game.

Perfidy & Profitability

The world of Spume is hellhole and you definitely would not want to live there. Most of the few hundred that do live on the planet reside in the single dome settlement of Dryavis, where they conduct mining operations via remote drones and vehicles. Outside of the dome, the planet, with its thin, tainted atmosphere, is subject to near constant seismic activity, widespread volcanic activity, and a near constant rain of ash and rocks, all at extremes of temperature and intermittent radioactivity. Located within the Darrian Confederation in the Darrian Subsector of the Spinward Marches, just two parsecs away from the capital and one parsec away from the homeworld, nobody would willing want to visit Spume. Except that the planetary population has risen by a handful with the arrival of a team of scientists from the departments of geophysical sciences and engineering at Idikelin University to conduct field research. Unfortunately, the site designated for the expedition’s base was highly prone to seismic activity and a sudden landslip upended the base and made it uninhabitable, forcing the surviving members of team to flee across the highly inhospitable surface of Spume. This is the set-up for and plot of Ashfall, the first part of a trilogy of scenarios published by March Harrier Publishing for use with Traveller, Second Edition from Mongoose Publishing. As Ashfall comes to close, the Player Characters have managed to make their way to Dryavis and safety.

Ashfall II: Under the Dome is the sequel to Ashfall and the middle part of the trilogy. In addition to the core rulebook, the Game Master will need access to Alien Module 3: Darrians or Aliens of Charted Space Vol. 3, whilst the Central Supply Catalogue and Book 10: Cosmopolite may also be useful. Similarly, access to various issues of The Journal of the Travellers’ Aid Society may also be helpful, but are not crucial to running the scenario.

For the most part, Ashfall II: Under the Dome is a locked room, or rather ‘locked dome’ affair. The inhabitants of Dryavis, consisting of miners, technicians, and administrators readily welcome the arrival of the Player Characters and even celebrate their survival with a banquet. After that, the Player Characters are free to wait out the period between their arrival and their eventual collection and departure off world as they wish, although they are encouraged to take part in the community life of the mining base. There are mechanical issues to fix, a tournament to participate in, and other events to get involved in. As they go about their daily lives in the mining base, perhaps even spending time preparing their research notes and data (gathered in the previous scenario, Ashfall) for publication, it becomes clear to the Player Characters that all is not well in Dryavis. There is some friction between the old timers and new commers in the settlement, and some between the employees of the five companies that make up the conglomerate, the Pihrund Corporation, that controls the settlement, but most friction is between the Pihrund Corporation and the miners as they suspect that the Pihrund Corporation is operating a ‘fire and rehire’ programme to bring in a new workforce that will accept cheaper wages. The Player Characters will learn of this right at the start of the scenario when a miner approaches them and voices her concern about the state of the Pihrund Corporation’s accounts.

Ashfall II: Under the Dome is not only a radical change of pace from Ashfall, but also a difficult change of pace. The hook is simply not as strong in Ashfall II: Under the Dome as it is in Ashfall, shifting from, ‘To survive, I must march to safety across this dangerous landscape’ to ‘I have reached safety, but someone is telling me her worries about some accounts’. The players and their characters are not motivated to get involved unless they decide they want to. It is entirely possible that the scenario could play out with the Player Characters involving themselves in the community and life of the mining base and nothing more. The conspiracy, as small scale as it is and as nasty as it is, could simply pass them by and remain uncovered and unnoticed. Depending upon how the scenario is being run, this can present the Game Master with a challenge because the hook relies too on player and character curiousity. As a one-shot and on its on rather than as part of the trilogy, Ashfall II: Under the Dome needs the conspiracy hook to keep the players and their characters interested because they have not been through the crucible of Ashfall, whereas as part of the trilogy, Ashfall II: Under the Dome is such a contrast of tone to Ashfall, that the conspiracy almost seem superfluous.

Whether or not the Player Characters decide to investigate the rumours and the accounts of the Pihrund Corporation, the scenario is solidly supported. Besides the description of Dryavis and its facilities, including the mining equipment, there are full write-ups of various NPCs, a detailed explanation of the politics of the mining base, a description of the rules to Pamboyra, or Darrian chess (this is the game for the tournament), lots and lots of rumours to drive any plot or distract from it, and even Occupation tables for the Miner/ROVer (remotely operated vehicle operators) and Technicians working on Spume. The latter allows for possible replacement Player Characters as there is the possibility of their being killed in the scenario. It also allows for the scenario to be run as one-shot with the Player Characters as Miners/ROVers and Technicians rather than as scientists seeking the safety of the mining base after a disaster. In many ways, this set-up makes better use of the scenario’s plot, because as Miners/ROVers and Technicians, the Player Characters would have a greater sense of investment in the future of the mining operation.

Physically, Ashfall II: Under the Dome is a tidy affair. The plan of the mining base is serviceable, but the illustrations of the animals on the base are sort of cute.

Ashfall II: Under the Dome is a scenario with two plot strands, one an amiable slice of mining base life, the other a corporate conspiracy. Getting the players and their characters interested and involved in the first is straightforward, but getting them interested in the other is much more of a challenge. So much of rests on the curiosity of the players and their characters, and for some players that will be enough to get involved, but for others, the Game Master may need to work harder to trigger that involvement.

Miskatonic Monday #421: Nothing but the Wind

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—

Name: Nothing but the Wind

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: JP Stephens

Setting: New World in the Dark Ages

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Seventeen page, 2.15 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Vikings versus Wendigo

Plot Hook: Vikings versus Wendigo

Plot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Vikings, one map, and several Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Technically a scenario for Call of Cthulhu and Mythic Iceland

# Could be run using either Cthulhu Dark Ages (or even Age of Vikings)

# Low preparation, easy set up and run

# Ososphobia

# Ancraophobia

# Frigophobia

Cons

# Straightforward and fairly obvious

# It is going to end in a fight (and it does)

Conclusion

# Easy to set up, low preparation scenario

# Vikings versus Wendigo, claws versus sword action

Miskatonic Monday #420: Lamps for the Lost

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—

Name: Lamps for the Lost

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: David Waldron & Reshmi Lahiri-Roy

Setting: 1890s Ballarat, Australia

Product: scenario
What You Get: Fifty-eight page, 51.48 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Grave consequences of caste, corruption, and crime in Victorian-era Australia

Plot Hook: Is bigotry hiding a serious crime?

Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, four NPCs, six handouts, and two ‘monsters’.

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Scenario for Cthulhu by Gaslight

# Lots of interesting historical background

# Diverse cast of pre-generated Investigators

# Casts a light on the Indian experience in Australia

# Phasmophobia

# Thalassophobia

# Homichlophobia

Cons

# Rushed in places

# Needs an edit

# No maps

# Historical background needed to be handouts

# Separation of the historical background and the scenario could have been better

# Should there be a Ballarat source and/or campaign now?

Conclusion

# Rushed, but well-researched historical ghost story

# A classic horror story of Victorian cultural indifference and bigotry

Magazine Madness #45: Knock! #4

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.

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Published in January, 2024 by The Merry Mushmen, the fourth issue of Knock! An Adventure Gaming Bric-à-Brac comes as jam-packed as the previous issues. There is content drawn from blogs and content that is wholly new, there are new rules and new ways of doing old things, there are monsters and NPCs, there are spells and spellcasting, there are swords and scenarios, and there are thought pieces and threads that run through the issue. There is just about anything and everything in the issue that a reader with any interest in the Old School Renaissance might want to read about. There is even a ten-page section at the end of the issue called ‘Welcome to the OSR’ that explores how various authors encouraged Old School Renaissance style play at their table. (Despite the title, the section is not intended as an introduction to the Old School Renaissance, but the issue’s editorial does give pointers to that.) Along the way to that last section, there is plenty of art, some of it new, some of it in the public domain, some drawn from unexpected sources (Vincent Price makes a surprising appearance), and honestly, just almost too much stuff, too much to read, too much to use, too much to think about. Knock! An Adventure Gaming Bric-à-Brac #4 really does pack a lot into its two-hundred-and-ten-pages.

Published following a successful Kickstarter campaign, the content in Knock! An Adventure Gaming Bric-à-Brac #4 begins with the dust jacket which contains with ‘The Lost City Sandbox’, Eric Nieudan’s homage to Tom Moldvey’s B4 The Lost City, the classic scenario for Basic Dungeons & Dragons. Along with the cover, this is a great start to the issue which does explore several themes. The first of these draws upon the influence of J.R.R. Tolkien upon the hobby. Josh McCrowell develops its ideas into two articles. The first is ‘The Hobbit as a Setting’ which asks, “What if The Hobbit was the only inspiration for roleplaying?”, whilst the second, ‘In search of better travel rules’ looks at where travel rules go wrong and how they might be improved for the Old School Renaissance. The first examines some of the elements of The Hobbit not normally seen in roleplaying, such as song do a lot of work—means to remember, appeals to authority, taunts, and more—and the importance of journeys means that Experience Points should be earned from them. There are new rule suggestions for each aspect like spending Experience Points to name yourself or an item following a critical success, to add both a story and a bonus to play, and that animals can speak their own language. There is even the observation that The Hobbit alludes to the existence of guns in Middle-earth! The second article expands upon the point about travel in the first, pointing out its potential mishaps if handled poorly and offering solutions to those problems. The second article can be seen as adjunct of the first, but can be used also be used in general Old School Renaissance too, not just one directly drawn from The Hobbit. Nevertheless, the first article could be the basis for a mini-roleplaying game and campaign all of its own.

A second theme will be more familiar; the design of adventures (and dungeons). They lead off with Idiomdrottning presenting her ‘BLORB Principles’, a preparation-focused, no-plot preparation, playstyle. The aim is to have the elements to place and engage the players and their characters with, but not plots, and then advice on how to develop and add to those elements in play. Then designer Chris McDowall takes a look at them in ‘Patching’ and develops them further to look at the more immediate effects of encountering something in play that the Game Master did not prepare for as part of her preparation. McDowall suggests ways of improvising a fix in play rather than leaving it for subsequent preparation. In some ways, the advice is obvious, but the second article complements the first and together they make a thought-provoking pair.

The theme is further explored by a trio of articles by Joseph Manola. ‘Elements of Incongruity’ suggests adding unexpected elements alongside elements, including traits, individuals, and nature, and ‘Localism – The Adventure as Microclimate’ decries the genericism in modern Dungeons & Dragons and suggests that the Game Master focus on small regions and populate with unique, even singular monsters and perhaps with races that are not found elsewhere, the aim being to make them memorable. Good solid advice and both backed up by examples, but Manola’s ‘Romantic Fantasy and OSR D&D’ takes Dungeons & Dragons in another direction. At the heart of the article, is the simple idea that not every solution has to be resolved with violence and its shows a number of ways in which the mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons—the reaction system, the morale system, the combat system, and the retainers system—can be all used to support that. The result is a game that focuses on relationship-building and non-violent forms of resolving conflict and getting rewarded for it.

Since Knock! #4 is for the Old School Renaissance, there are articles aplenty on magic, monsters, and treasure. Some of these are specific, some are not. The specific includes a complete magic system in ‘d200 Power Words of Sorcery!’, inspired by a gamebook from the eighties, but feeling very much like the television series Knightmare; the ‘Menagerie’ gives full stats and details for creatures such as Zedeck Siew’s Mob Demon, Danilo Moretti’s Mirror Mare, and James V. West’s Raptor Knight as well as Islayre d’Argohl gives four fully detailed villains; and a selection of swords awaiting stats in Letty Wilson’s ‘The Sword Librarian’. The less specific includes Jens Turesson’s weird ‘Telephone Pictionary Game as Spell Research’, which fortunately is completely untested; a ‘4d8 Golem Generator’ by Chance Dudhack; and Glynn Seal’s complete to what happens following the ‘Desecration’ of a grave for its goods and treasure. There is even a little crossover by Eric Nieudan. So, his ‘Dragons Should Be Unique!’ gives the means to create dragons from alignment, age, and element to personality, hoard, and quirk, whilst the accompanying ‘The never-ending saga of the Wyrm’ shows how it works with a complete example.

Each issue of Knock! always includes some new Classes with ‘Retinue of Rogues’ and this issue is no exception. Joseph Manola’s ‘The Ghoul Blooded’ lets a player create a character who gets more Ghoulish as he goes up in Levels, from having an acute sense of smell and very tough fingernails to learning all the benefits of cannibal cookery and tunnelling through the ground, and even though he will become an unliving monster, he is not undead! Manola follows this with ‘The Inquisitor’, who can pass judgements on others for various effects, and is an interesting variant upon the Cleric Class. Pierre Vagneur-Jones also details two new Classes. ‘The Cynocephasus’ is a dog-headed human who may be born that way or cursed and may, through good fortune, transform into a full human and take Levels in another Class. It is inspired the medieval legend of St. Christopher. ‘The Skiapod’ draws from the writings of Pliny the Elder to present a very agile one-legged human. They prefer to kick with their feet rather than use weapons, but there are no details to reflect this. These second two Classes are less useful than the first two and ‘The Skiapod’ is underwritten in comparison to ‘The Cynocephasus’.

Penultimately, Knock! #4 gives four short adventures in ‘Extraordinary Excursions’. Numbered Work’s ‘Swamp Renewal’ involves the Player Characters in an ecological battle between a wizard who is using golems to dig out peat in a swamp and a Lizardfolk Druid who wants him stopped. The scenario does not give a set ending, so it will be entirely down to the players, but there are consequences to whatever side the Player Characters choose. ‘Grandma’s Cottage, Inc. and Gift Shoppe’ by Glenn Robinson has a cosy feel until it does not as the Player Characters go in search of a lot of missing orphans. When the king puts out the call for the softest of feathers for his bed, the Player Characters are off in search of the softest feathers in the land only to be found on the Giant Arboreal Goose in Martin Orchard’s ‘A Fistful of Feathers’. A cross between a race—there are rival groups—and a pointcrawl, this is an entertaining scenario. Lastly, ‘The Mountain Hall of the Iron Witch’ by Rosie Grey is written for The Merry Mushmen’s CRACK!, but is easily adapted to the rules of the Game Master’s choice. The Player Characters find themselves shackled and forced to work in the Iron Witch’s mines and have to escape. This is a fun campaign starter. In fact, all four scenarios are easily adapted and would work with a number of different roleplaying games.

Lastly, Knock! #4 rounds out the issue with ‘Welcome to the OSR’. Here the issue explores some of the responses to the attempt by Wizards of the Coast to rewrite the terms of the Open Game Licence. The aim here is for the members of Old School Renaissance hobby to show this section to players of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and point them in the direction of the possibilities in the different play style. There is discussion too of several Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition-retroclone hybrids. For the most part, this preaching to the choir, but the first article, ‘Back to the Future (of D&Deering)’ by Daniel Norton gives a good comparison between the play styles and why a player might want to switch.

Physically Knock! #4 is impressively bright and breezy, just as with the previous three issues. The layout is cluttered in places and the text a little too busy, but on the whole, it is clear that a lot of attention has been paid to the layout. It needs a slight edit in places, but the artwork is good and the cartography excellent.

The honest truth is that the Game Master is never going to use everything in the pages of Knock! An Adventure Gaming Bric-à-Brac #4. There is just too much. It is an embarrassment of riches. However, it gives the reader a lot of things to choose from and lots of ideas to think about. It is an absolute treasure trove of content for the Old School Renaissance and with so many contributors from the hobby, Knock! may well serve as a candidate for a focal point for the Old School Renaissance hobby. The reader could spend hours surfing the Internet for similar ideas and other content in Knock! An Adventure Gaming Bric-à-Brac #4, or he could just get the issue and have it all at his fingertips in another literally solid issue of the magazine.

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An unboxing of Knock! #4 An Adventure Gaming Bric-à-Brac can be viewed here.