Every Week It's Wibbley-Wobbley Timey-Wimey Pookie-Reviewery...

Saturday, 9 April 2022

Enemies & Equipment

Metamorphosis Alpha: Creatures & Gadgets 
is a supplement designed for Metamorphosis Alpha: Fantastic Role-Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventures on a Lost Starship. The first Science Fiction roleplaying game and the first post-apocalypse roleplaying game, Metamorphosis Alpha is set aboard the Starship Warden, a generation spaceship which has suffered an unknown catastrophic event which killed the crew and most of the million or so colonists and left the ship irradiated and many of the survivors and the flora and fauna aboard mutated. Some three centuries later, as Humans, Mutated Humans, Mutated Animals, and Mutated Plants, the Player Characters, knowing nothing of their captive universe, would leave their village to explore strange realm around them, wielding fantastic mutant powers and discovering how to wield fantastic devices of the gods and the ancients that is technology, ultimately learn of their enclosed world. Originally published in 1976, it would go on to influence a whole genre of roleplaying games, starting with Gamma World, right down to Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic from Goodman Games. And it would be Goodman Games which brought the roleplaying game back with the stunning Metamorphosis Alpha Collector’s Edition in 2016, and support the forty-year old roleplaying game with a number of supplements, many which would be collected in the ‘Metamorphosis Alpha Treasure Chest’.

Metamorphosis Alpha: Creatures & Gadgets is written by James M. Ward, the designer of Metamorphosis Alpha and contains twelve new ‘monsters’ for the Judge to throw at her players and surprise them, and some forty or so new gadgets and pieces of equipment which their Player Characters can find, experiment with and determine their usage, and hopefully make use of as they explore the various levels of the Starship Warden. To get the very fullest of the twelve creatures in the supplement, the Judge will need access to Metamorphosis Alpha: The Mutation Manual, as they do have mutations listed there. The dozen includes five mutated plants, most of which feed on the dead and decaying flesh of their victims, three insectoid things, a fish and a shark, and more. All include full stats, plus a list of defects, mutations, appearance, normal reactions, the terrain where it is usually found, how it attacks, and how it procreates. The entries for all of these, for all twelve monsters, are nicely detailed, and together with their respective illustrations, every monster is given about three quarters of a page of detail.

The selection opens with the Blob Fish, an ugly giant thing with a powerful sense of smell which lives in mud caves at the bottom of the river and moves by undulating both on land and in the water. It is a powerful leaper and likes to leap out of the water to land on and smash boats in search of prey. The Corpse Flower, is the first of several plants which feed on carrion., this one swamp dwelling and smothering its prey with its giant leaves which snake out to fifty yards and distracting them whilst using its Mental Blast attack to kill them. The Dragon Pod sits atop sand dunes from where it launches the hallucination of a dragon to distract its prey before stabbing them with its javelin-like fronds. The fun thing is that certain mutant tribes cultivate these plants for their hallucination effects giving rise to sightings of dragons flying around certain mountaintops! Similarly, the Dragon Tree is found in sets of four and uses Density Control Self to increase the density of its seed-cones to almost one hundred pounds and drop them on anyone foolish enough to wander under their eaves! Meanwhile, its wooden tree humanoid servant drags the victims to be absorbed...

The Frilled Shark is another amphibious animal, lurking at the water’s edge, ready to dash out at surprising speed. The Horned Viper uses its chameleon power to blend into the background and bites its victims twice, before retreating to let its venom do its work. The Invisio Fly is not so much a fly as a giant butterfly which is all but invisible when in flight, before making a diving attack with its deadly proboscis and then feeding for as long as it can! One of the stated aims of the dozen or so creatures to be found in Metamorphosis Alpha: Creatures & Gadgets is to surprise the players and their characters with something new and unfamiliar. Whilst this a decently described collection of creatures, they do not all together do that by themselves. There is just a little too much similarity between some of them—the plants in particular with covering of large areas and feeding on carrion—for them to wholly surprise the Player Characters. That said, once they have encountered one type of plant like this, they are likely to be more than circumspect in approaching another as they will not know what its powers are yet.

The selection of gadgets in Metamorphosis Alpha: Creatures & Gadgets starts with a tables for randomly generating them across three categories—hand held devices, large devices, and vehicles before diving into the individual descriptions. Each one includes its power source, if any, description, functionality, and a very good illustration. They include Animal Dressing Kits, Canteens, Emergency Containers (for storing hazardous material—what fun a Judge can have with those!), First Aid Kit (not a kit as such, but a mini-robot cube capable of repairing most injuries), a Force Hammock (a hammock made from a forcefield web), Light Cube, Pepper Spray Grenade, and Stealth Day Pack (which creates a digital effect that blends with the surroundings, behind which a character could hide). The Large Devices include a Force Field Hunting Blind, a Generic Bot, Healing Tube (an autodoc which can heal Humans and will probably heal Mutants into Humans), and a Tiger Decoy. The Vehicles include an All-Terrain Vehicle, a Bubble Car, a Canoe, and even a One-Man Sub. All together this is a big collection of very useful gear, a lot of it, actually camping, hunting, and survival gear, as the players, but not their characters, will realise. Metamorphosis Alpha is very much a roleplaying game about the gear and weapons that the Player Characters can scavenge and learn how to use, so it is always useful to have more with which to confound them. The fun with them being that whilst the players may realise what an item might be, their characters will not, and so they will have to roleplay that ignorance and the subsequent act of finding out—which can have dangerous consequences!

Physically, Metamorphosis Alpha: Creatures & Gadgets is cleanly presented. The illustrations are excellent and the supplement is well written and easy to read. This is a supplement which will be of use to a lot of other Post-Apocalyptic settings or roleplaying games, such as Mutant Crawl Classics or Gamma World. The gadgets in the collection are likely to be more useful than the creatures, but this does not mean that the creatures will not have a use in a campaign. Overall, Metamorphosis Alpha: Creatures & Gadgets is a serviceable supplement for Metamorphosis Alpha: Fantastic Role-Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventures on a Lost Starship or the PostApocalyptic setting or roleplaying game of your choice.

The Old School Psionics Handbook

The Planar Compass series of fanzines takes Dungeons & Dragons and the Old School Renaissance out where it really goes—onto the Astral Realm and out between the planes. Of course, the option for travel in this liminal space has always been there in Dungeons & Dragons, most notably from Manual of the Planes all the way up to Spelljammer: Adventures in Space and the Planescape Campaign Setting. Whilst those supplements were for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition, the Planar Compass series is written for use with Old School Essentials, and it not only introduces the Astral Realm, but adds new Classes and rules for one very contentious aspect of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons—psionics! These new races and rules are collected in the Planar Compass Player’s Booklet.

The Planar Compass Player’s Booklet does not detail the Astral Realm or the setting’s central location, the port of Dreamhaven. Instead it details the four new Classes found in Dreamhaven and out on the Astral Realm and gives rules for psionics, all without any spoilers for the setting itself. The latter lack is not with its consequences. This is because as in Old School Essentials, in the Planar Compass series, Race is treated as a Class. Since each of the four new Classes in the Planar Compass Player’s Booklet is as much a race as a Class, and the Planar Compass Player’s Booklet is avoiding spoilers, their descriptions do lack context and do feel underwritten in terms of background rather than in terms of their mechanics. Nevertheless, all four Classes are very well presented and nicely adhere to the two-page layout of Old School Essentials which makes them accessible and easy to use.

The first Class in the Planar Compass Player’s Booklet is the Aldhesi, pale, slender, fey demihumans with pointed ear who are psionic warriors. In addition to their psionic powers, they have Planar Resistance, a bonus to saving throws versus effects of any plane they are on; a bonus to saving throws versus Charm and immunity to ghouls’ paralysis; and have an inherent chance of locating a planar portal. They are in effect, ‘space elves’, whereas the Astral Sailor is a swashbuckling or even piratical crewman aboard a vessel sailing the Astral Realm. The Astral Sailor has Swashbuckler, so can fight on uneven surfaces and has a bonus when duelling with a sword against an enemy also wielding a sword; gains a bonus to saving throws versus effects of any plane they are on; and can find safe Harbour, somewhere to sleep and occasionally someone to find information from. In addition, the Astral Sailor has several skills—Astral Navigation, Cartography, Fortune Telling, Heraldry, Looting, Signalling, and Shipwright. These are treated like the Thief Class skills in Old School Essentials.

If Aldhesi are ‘space elves’, then the Onauk look like ‘space orks’ or ‘space ogres’, as they are are tall, blue- or purple-skinned, have horns, enlarged lower canines, and long ears, but are really ‘space barbarians’. Their alien nature means that they suffer a Reaction check penalty, but can go Berserk and gain temporary bonuses to attack, magic resistance, and Hit Points when they attack a single target. They also have the skills of Astral Navigation, Looting, and Shipwright like the Astral Sailor. The last Class is the Psion, which simply specialises in the use of psionics.

What is interesting with two new Classes which use psionics—the Alhesi and the Psion, is that as written the Referee selects their psionic powers rather then the player. The Referee may allow the player to choose, but if not, it does allow her some leeway as what powers a Player Character has and can perhaps tailor them to her scenario or campaign.

Psionics in Dungeons & Dragons has always been a contentious ruleset, since they were either too powerful, not powerful enough, and if neither of those, often too complex to use with ease. The rules for psionics in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons were often regarded as game breakers. Now whilst anyone who has seen or played the psionics rules of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons will recognise much of them in the Planar Compass Player’s Booklet, the rules presented here for use with Old School Essentials are clearer, simpler, and easier to use. The Planar Compass Player’s Booklet devotes more than half of its pages to psionics, psionic abilities, and psionic combat.

A psionic-using Class, like the Alhesi and the Psion has a pool of psionic energy, equal to his Wisdom, modified by his Constitution and Intelligence. This pool will increase with each new Level. Every psionic power—of which there are forty-four listed in the Planar Compass Player’s Booklet—has a range, Power Score, Initial Cost, and Maintenance Cost. The Power Score is the modified attribute—either Intelligence, Wisdom, or Constitution—under which the player must roll to activate the psionic power. The Initial Cost is the psionic energy cost to start it, and the Maintenance Cost the amount to keep it going from one Round to the next. For example, Body Equilibrium, which allows a Player Character to adjust his weight so that he can walk on water or quicksand, has a Range of Self, a Power Score of Con -3 (meaning that the player must roll under his character’s Constitution score after it has been reduced by three), an Initial Cost of two psionic energy, and a Maintenance Cost of two psionic energy per Round. Some psionic powers require the user to make contact with the target and this increases the psionic energy cost. Overall, the list and abilities of the psionic powers is straightforward and easy to use.

Psionic combat involves Attack Modes and Defence Modes. The former includes Ego Whip, Id Insinuation, Mind Thrust, Psionic Blast and Psychic Crush, whilst the latter includes Intellect Fortress, Mental Barrier, Mind Blank, Thought Shield, and Tower of Iron Will. Psionic combat does require psionic contact with the target and rather than rolling against an Armour Class or similar factor as in normal combat, opposed rolls are made by those involved in the combat. The roll is modified by the attack mode used against the defence mode, so Ego Whip has a -4 modifier against Intellect Fortress, but a +5 modifier against Mind Blank. Apart from Psychic Crush, none of the attack modes actually do damage. Rather they inflict an emotional state, like Ego Whip making the target feel insignificant, or even believing that they have lost almost all of their Hit Points, as with Mind Blast. The various defence modes also allow a psionicist to use or maintain another power in addition to the defence mode.

The rules for psionics presented in Planar Compass Player’s Booklet are neither rule breaking nor game breaking. The combat rules are specifically designed for psychic duels between psionic Classes and psionic monsters, rather than using on the non-psionic, and whilst their effects can be devastating, they are not about blasting enemies with mental power to reduce mere Hit Points. They have a much more mental effect than that. Similarly, few of the psionic powers are designed to be offensive—telekinesis and body weaponry being amongst the few exceptions, but rather useful abilities. This does not means that an inventive player could not find a potential offensive use for some of them, but that is not how they are necessarily written. Overall, these really are a solid set of rules with which to introduce psionics to Old School Essentials.

Of course, the Planar Compass Player’s Booklet is designed to be used with the Planar Compass setting. If however, the contents of the Planar Compass Player’s Booklet are added to an existing game—and they can be, they will change a game. They introduce new powers and abilities which require new rules and a new level of complexity—not necessarily all that much, but some—and having psionic Player Characters means having psionic NPCs and monsters and so on. That said, the rules for psionics are specific to the two Classes—the Alhesi and the Psion—and there is no means of other Classes gaining them presented in the Planar Compass Player’s Booklet. Which means no sudden power rush or increase in complexity because everyone has them, and ultimately, it means that they remain specific and special. That said, it is not difficult to look at the psionics rules in the Planar Compass Player’s Booklet and wonder just a little, about an Old School Renaissance version of Dark Sun—or something very like it.

Physically, the Planar Compass Player’s Booklet is well written and nicely presented. The artwork is excellent throughout and everything is very readable and easy to grasp.

Ultimately, the Planar Compass Player’s Booklet needs the Planar Compass series of fanzines to come into its own. As a companion volume to that series, it does exactly what it should, present four Classes and a major rules addition associated with two of the new Classes in an accessible fashion. As a supplement on its own, it is understandably less useful, but for the Game Master and group who want to add psionics to their game, the Planar Compass Player’s Booklet is a good choice. The rules are clearly explained and do not overpower play because psionics are limited to the two new Classes. For the Game Master and her group who want to take their game onto a cosmic level, the Planar Compass Player’s Booklet is a handy little start.

Friday, 8 April 2022

Friday Fantasy: Where the Wheat Grows Tall

There is a lonely farm. Perhaps the last in the village, for everyone else has left, their farms abandoned. This last, lonely farm has been in the Polotnikov family for generations. Behind the farm is an old stone wall—broken in two places—which separates it from an ancient field of high grass, worn paths, and long abandoned buildings. It is said that the field behind the farm is cursed and that this curse is the cause of the other farms failing and being abandoned. It is taboo to enter the field, so no one does, not even the Polotnikovs. Mother Galina Polotnikov knows a little of the old ways, but is nowhere near the witch that her grandmother, the one-eyed Elena, was, nor as strange as her mother, who disappeared in her old age, so perhaps she knows about the curse? None of the Polotnikov family has been heard from in many days, and Piotr—Galina’s husband—has not been seen at the nearby market which he always attends. Thus, Andrei, Piotr’s brother is growing concerned. What secrets are the Polotnikov family hiding? Have they broken the taboo and entered the field behind their farm? And if so, what happened?

This is the set-up for Where the Wheat Grows Tall, a scenario which describes itself as an ‘Agrarian Adventure’. It is written to be used with the Old School Renaissance retroclone of your choice, but the stats and numbers are relatively easy to adapt to your preferred roleplaying game and its mechanics. In terms of setting, it is another matter. Where the Wheat Grows Tall  is set on a peasant farm and in its neighbouring field that together are caught between the competing desires of two sister spirits… One of whom has had her idol destroyed in the field, and unfettered, The Noon Lady has risen, and where her gaze drew the farm labourers’ sweat, soothed their rest with its warmth, and made the crops grow tall, now it falls cruelly upon the labourers’ backs with sunstroke and the crops grow wildly. Her sister, The Midnight Maiden, is secretive and playful, watching over men from the shadows and easing their sleep with dreams, but where her sister is unfettered, she is broken—perhaps by abundant growth encouraged by The Noon Lady. In the wake of this upset order, Barstukai, Children of the Crops, stalk the unwary, Night Goblins invite others dance and steal from their new dancing partners, roots snake and entangle, Turnip Jack searches the field for light to eat, and Likho, the One-Eyed Witch, watches, one eye at a time…

Where the Wheat Grows Tall is a deep, dark descent into Slavic myth and fairy tales played out across two halves. First, there is the ‘farm crawl’ where the Player Characters have an opportunity to get hints of what might have happened to the Polotnikov family and suggestions that they will need to break the taboo and go over the wall. Second is the ‘field crawl’, where the Player Characters will encounter all manner of the weird and the whimsy as they explore the area in search of the missing Polotnikovs. None of what they might encounter is necessarily dangerous, the dangers likely arising because the Player Characters are either careless or discourteous when comes to interacting with the inhabitants of this whimsical world. Some will want to dance or play, some to be left alone, and others happy to enjoy the company of visitors such as the Player Characters. The Game Master will find herself portraying a wide cast of characters and creatures—there are no real monsters in Where the Wheat Grows Tall —and imparting a fair bit of information as the scenario very much emphasises interaction and investigation.

The scenario is written in a very concise, bullet point fashion, style, and that has both benefits and issues. The benefit is that its information, whether background, location details, or NPC descriptions, are all easy to grasp, but the issue is that often, they do feel underwritten. Some of the NPCs could have done with a little more information as to what they will and what they will not tell the Player Characters. The advice for the Game Master, which most consists of hooks and rumours, along with suggestions on how to shorten the scenario as a one-shot or due to time, is also underwritten, making the scenario that much bit harder to prepare than should really be necessary.

Physically, Where the Wheat Grows Tall  is ably presented. The writing style is short and to the point, but still packing a lot of description into its terseness. The artwork, done by Evlyn Moreau, is excellent, primarily because it absolutely fits the wonder and the whimsey to be found in the field beyond the stone wall. The map is clear and easy to read, but two of the scenario’s locations, both underground, are not included on the map. Both of course could be anywhere in the underground of the field, but their depiction would have been useful. In places, the scenario could have been better organised, the map placed somewhere more readily accessible, and arguably the overview of the scenario at the beginning could have been stronger.

As delightful as Where the Wheat Grows Tall  is—and it really is—another issue hampering it, is its genre and mythology. Fitting it into an ongoing campaign is going to be challenging given its strong use of Slavic mythology, but there are settings and supplements that the scenario would work with and work well. Older supplements would include Mythic Russia and GURPS Russia, but more recent settings suitable for Where the Wheat Grows Tall would be that of Kislev of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and the Hill Cantons of Fever Dreaming Marlinko.

Where the Wheat Grows Tall is charming and challenging, weird and whimsical. It presents an utterly disarming excursion into lands beset by long summery days and barely soothed by nights of Moon-lit shadows, where there is a mystery to be solved, a family to be rescued—perhaps, and a restoration to be made…

Friday Fiction: The Gutter Prayer

The Gutter Prayer
is a fantastic novel of worldbuilding and tumultuous change. The debut from Gareth Hanrahan—an author best known for his many roleplaying credits, from The Persephone Extraction to The Pirates of Drinax—and much more besides, it opens with a prologue written in the second person that narrates a burglary upon the House of Law in the city of Guerdon. It gives a strange, almost impersonal point of view to the beginning of the novel, the identity of the narrator not quite clear, but oh so important as the events of the story reveal later. The burglary though is a failure, forcing its perpetrators, Carillon, an orphan newly returned to the city after years away as a refugee, Rat, a young Ghoul not wanting to his kind below, and Spar, a Stoneman, cursed with a disease which causes him to ossify into stone, and ultimately die if he does not receive injections of the serum, alkahest, to flee. In the wake of an explosion they know nothing about, the trio splits up, chased by the Tallowmen, waxworks which keep going as long as their wick remains alight, created by the Alchemists Guild to help enforce the laws and keep the peace. That explosion and the identity of the narrator in the prologue set off a chain of events which reverberate throughout the rest of novel.

Guerdon stands at the heart of the novel, a fantasy-industrial city-port which remains neutral in the ongoing Godswar afflicting other nearby nations. Religious strife underlies its history though, religious freedom allowed in the city because the Church of the Kept Gods threw down the dark rule of the Black Iron Gods and their vile servants. In recent times, the influence of the Kept Gods has diminished as the power and influence of the Alchemists grew and turned Guerdon into the soot-strewn industrial powerhouse that it is today. In the narrow streets and through the warrens of the smugglers’ tunnels lurks the Brotherhood, the city’s thieves’ guild—of which the novel’s central trio are members—whilst below are stranger factions still. Both are Lovecraftian in nature, the Ghouls feeding upon the city’s dead lowered into corpse chutes by the Church of the Kept Gods, whilst the Crawling Ones, amorphous collective masses of worms which can take on humanoid shapes, plot for greater power and influence in the city above at the expense of the Ghouls.

Once past the prologue, the story switches back and forth between character points of view, initially Carillon, Rat, and Spar, in turn providing different views of the city and building and building Guerdon. They counterpart each other, Carillon impulsive and impatient, Spar physically slowed into terminal patience, with the pragmatic Rat between them. Guerdon though, forms a character of its own as the author serves up one aspect of the city after another, often seeming to throw them away before moving onto the next, leaving the reader to wonder if he will ever return to explain or expand. The three central protagonists, plus Guerdon itself, are not the only characters given time in the spotlight. Carillon has a starchy cousin, Eladora, who provides a different perspective upon their extended family; the three are hunted by Jere, a thief taker with connections; and Aleena, foul-mouthed and weary, who as a Saint of the Kept Gods channels their power. Not all of the other characters in the novel are accorded such treatment and consequently, some are underwritten.

The Gutter Prayer is also a tale of responsibilities, each of the three central characters gaining them, often unwillingly, due to the events of the novel, in the case of Carillon coming to the prologue. In turn, they pull each of the three away from their central friendship which is so strong at the beginning of the novel, especially as the pace of the book picks up and up as their stories and the book comes to a climax.

Most obviously, in terms of genre, with its guilds and gods, thieves and cults, 
The Gutter Prayer is a dark fantasy, and whilst the industrialisation of alchemy in Guerdon does push it towards the steampunk genre, the novel is neither pseudo-Victorian nor obsessed with mechanical technology. It is rather Dickensian in both its character and its griminess, but The Gutter Prayer is ultimately more of a horror story, and whilst the author’s depiction of the Crawling Ones and their servants is suitably Lovecraftian, the truly creepy creations in the novel are the Tallowmen and the Gullmen. The latter appear only a few times in the novel, but that is enough, because seagulls given arms and legs is not something that you want to be thinking about. The former though, are a constant presence and threat—chasing, watching, guarding, herding… Each is the facsimile in stretched wax of their former self, vaguely self-aware, but always knowing that if their wick is extinguished, then so is their soul.

Throughout it is interesting to see the author going through the process of world-building through the narrative rather than the construction we are used to seeing done via roleplaying supplements. Although there are mentions of the wider world and then just the one fantastic excursionary scene, the action of 
The Gutter Prayer is confined to Guerdon itself. As much as the city is brought to life, there is still very much left for the reader to wonder at and hope that the author returns to in later books. Were The Gutter Prayer a roleplaying supplement, then perhaps it would be a different matter. In terms roleplaying, any number of rules sets could be used to portray Guerdon and its inhabitants, for example, Into the Odd would work.

The Gutter Prayer is a fast-paced—sometimes too fast-paced as the reader tries to keep up—and grim and grimy dark fantasy. It evokes a wonderfully sooty and tarnished sense of place in Guerdon and explores it through a cast of engaging characters who face difficult choices and undergo often traumatic transitions. The Gutter Prayer is a great introduction to Guerdon and the Black Iron Legacy series, and an exciting and engaging debut novel.

Monday, 4 April 2022

Miskatonic Monday #102: The Dragon of Wantley

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu InvictusThe PastoresPrimal StateRipples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in EgyptReturn of the RipperRise of the DeadRise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. 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—
Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: SR Sellens

Setting: Jazz Age North Yorkshire (sans Jazz).

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Fifty-Two page, 17.57 MB Full Colour PDF

Elevator Pitch: What evil hides behind an elopement?
Plot Hook: How far will the cultists and Investigators go in determining the aims of the cult?
Plot Support: Straightforward plot, staging advice for the Keeper, two maps, thirteen handouts, ten detailed NPCs, one Mythos tome, one ballad, and five pre-generated Investigators.
Production Values: Decent.

Pros
# Ferroequinology
# Lambton Worm-like scenario grounded in classic English folklore
# Decent background introduction to England
# Excellently done handouts and photographs
# Gentility hides a nasty little plot
# Nobility hides a dark secret
# Huge potential to disastrously break Yorkshire (a bit) 
# Roleplaying opportunities amongst the manners and mores the English Class system
# Can be run as part of Day of the BeastMasks of Nyarlathotep, or Tatters of the King

Cons
# Needs an edit
# Mummies feel like a red herring
# Underdeveloped in places
# Needs an area map
# No hooks for Day of the BeastMasks of Nyarlathotep, or Tatters of the King
# Huge potential to disastrously break Yorkshire (a bit) 

Conclusion
# Nicely supported scenario which twists classic English folklore
# Plenty of roleplaying opportunities amongst the manners and mores of the English Class system as the Investigators winkle out a dark secret.

Miskatonic Monday #101: The Dilemma in the Desert

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu InvictusThe PastoresPrimal StateRipples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the RipperRise of the DeadRise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. 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—
Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Ryan Graham Theobalds

Setting: The Desperate Decade, Death Valley.

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Twenty-Seven page, 49.63 MB Full Colour PDF

Elevator Pitch: Death, distrust, and derangement in Death valley.
Plot Hook: How far will the cultists and Investigators go in determining the aims of the cult?
Plot Support: Detailed plot strands, staging advice for the Keeper, two maps, five handouts, six detailed NPCs, one avatar, and four pre-generated Investigators.
Production Values: Decent.

Pros
# Desert-bound one-shot
# Initiates or Investigators, Investigators or Initiates?
# Interesting real world location, Scotty’s Castle
# Potential for paranoia
# Potential campaign starter
# Potential link to Cult of Starry Wisdom
# Decent handouts and photographs
# Investigators could become cultist NPCs in a campaign

Cons
# Needs an edit
# Maps upside down versus the photographs
# Plot strands not clearly explained before they occur
# Mythos mish-mash
# Floorplans left unmarked and undescribed
# Weird cult initiation to murder mystery plot and back again
# Crucial antagonist’s ultimate aim included as an aside
# Crucial Investigator/Player decision decided by a die roll 

Conclusion
# Possible played through background for cultists in a campaign?
# Oddly plotted and often initially underexplained murder mystery/cult initiation where ultimately, the dilemma of whether or not to turn to the Mythos is out of the players and their Investigators’ hands.

Sunday, 3 April 2022

Jonstown Jottings #58: A Site to Die For

Much like the 
Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s mythic universe of Glorantha. It enables creators to sell their own original content for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha13th Age Glorantha, and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.

—oOo—

What is it?
A Site to Die For is a scenario for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha 
in which the adventurers participate in a week-long ceremony of building and protecting a shrine for a Greydog Clan Hero.

It is a thirty-one page, full colour 2.57 MB PDF.

The layout is scrappy and the scenario requires development and editing.

Where is it set?
A Site to Die For is specifically set along the Starfire Ridges on the lands of the Orlmarth Clan.

Who do you play?
A set of six pre-generated Player Characters is provided to play A Site to Die For.

If played using other Player Characters, the assumed default is that they are members of the Greydog Clan. Ideally, the Player Characters should number at least one worshipper of Orlanth amongst their number. It is also assumed that Humakti not be part of the scenario.

What do you need?
A Site to Die For requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha as well as The RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack for wider information about the clans living along the Starefire Ridges. The RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary will be useful for details of some of the encounters.

Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes and The Sartar Companion will useful for background on the Greydog Clan..

What do you get?
A Site to Die For centres on week-long ceremony to construct and protect a shrine to a Greydog Clan hero. Unfortunately, this has to be done on Starfire Ridges, lands held by the rival Orlmarth Clan, which will object to both the intrusion by the Greydog Clan members and their task. The feud between the two clans has run for generations and sees no sign of being put to rest. Once the Player Characters have ascended into the steep hills—possibly assailed by ghosts of long dead clans, harassed by Orlmarthi hunters, and overcome environmental hazards, they can begin the ceremony. This takes place over the course of the week, involving the sacrifice of Magic Points and Rune Points—and even permanent points of Power(!), the erection of an ugly totem pole as an insult to the Orlmarth, and a small personal sacrifice to the hero, Tao. 

Throughout the week, the Player Characters will face the changing nature of the weather as it switches from one Rune-associated day to the next and a mix of encounters both planned and random. The planned are linked to the Rune-associated days, for example, a gang of wild Trollkin will attack on Freeze Day as it is associated with Darkness. Other encounters are random, whilst others will be with those known to the Player Characters, some of whom will support their quest, some of whom will wonder why they are provoking the Orlmarth by establishing the shrine?

A Site to Die For is nicely thematic and strengthens the Rune associations through the encounters and tasks that the Player Characters need to perform. There is actually more to the story than is obvious at first, though the likelihood of that full coming to light will depend upon whether the Player Characters completely fail to set up the shrine, or do so with a cost.

However, A Site to Die For is written in both a stream of consciousness style and in a style that keeps the players and their characters as ignorant as to what is going on as it does the Game Master. This primarily shows in the all, but complete lack of background for either in the opening stages of the scenario, even to the point where neither knows that the scenario actually comes with six pre-generated Player Characters—and the Game Master only knows this when she reads the last twelve or so pages.

A Site to Die For initially reads as toolkit to run the scenario, but it is a proper scenario that the Game Master really, really needs to read through and prepare a lot of information up front that the author does not. As a one-shot, with the given six pre-generated Player Characters, the scenario is probably too long for a single session given the likely number of combat encounters they will have with those wanting to stop the ceremony. With players roleplaying their own characters, this is less of an issue, and one of the potential uses of A Site to Die For is as a template for the Game Master to run a similar scenario for her players and their characters, though not one necessarily one involving either the Greydog Clan or the Orlmarth Clan. In some ways this is actually made all the easier by the amount of preparation the Game Master would have to do even if A Site to Die For was being run as written.

Is it worth your time?
YesA Site to Die For presents an interesting clash between clans and Rune-themed encounters, especially if the Player Characters are members of the Greydog Clan, which could be adapted to other clans.
NoA Site to Die For presents an interesting clash between clans and Rune-themed encounters, but if the Player Characters are not members of the Greydog Clan or they are not combat focused, then the scenario may not be suitable for them.
MaybeA Site to Die For presents an interesting clash between clans and Rune-themed encounters, which is perhaps too combat focused, but which could be adapted to explore the relationships between other clans.