A Supernatural Search

Although Pendragon, the roleplaying game of Arthurian chivalry and romance can be run using adventures and stories of the Game Master’s own devising, at its heart is the great chronicle of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, the period between his drawing the sword from the stone in 410 CE to his eventual death in 466 CE. It is an epic tale of romance, chivalry, questing, and generational adventure in which great knights uphold ideals, serve the king, and protect all against the threats that beset King Arthur and his kingdom. The heart of this chronicle is the highly regarded Great Pendragon Campaign, which encompasses the years 495 CE to 570 CE, and would win the H.G. Wells Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement of 1985 (as the Pendragon Campaign) and Diana Jones Award in 2007 (as the Great Pendragon Campaign). For Pendragon, Sixth Edition, that chronicle remains at the roleplay game’s core with The Sword Campaign of the Pendragon Starter Set which initiates the Boy King Period with the drawing of the Sword in the Stone, covering the years 510, 511, and 512 CE. Pendragon: The Grey Knight continues the story, laying the groundwork for storylines that will be resolved later in the campaign and covering the years 513, 514, and 515 CE.

Pendragon: The Grey Knight is a scenario that delves into the weirdness and the supernatural of King Arthur’s kingdom, on a quest that will take the Player-knights across a land blighted by the Dolorous Stroke and a fairy kingdom, and back again, their faith tested again and again, and all the while bearded and tempted by those that would see them fail, Arthur’s honour besmirched, and the shining star that is his realm tarnished. It is a reprint and update of the first adventure to be released for Pendragon in 1986, written by Larry DiTillio no less, the author of the much revered Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign for Call of Cthulhu. It can be played using either the Pendragon Core Rulebook or the Pendragon Starter Set as well as a direct sequel to the latter. Where the original consisted of the one scenario, that is, The Grey Knight, this update has been expanded to include two scenarios that make it a trilogy and fills in the years between the end of the Pendragon Starter Set and the beginning of ‘The Grey Knight’. They bridge the gap between the two just as Pendragon: The Grey Knight bridges the beginning and the end of Boy King Period.

The first of the two prologue scenarios is ‘Bearding the Lion’. It is set in 513 CE and when news reaches King Arthur that King Ryons is besieging King Leodegrance at Castle Terrabil, near Stafford in Cameliard, he orders army to war in an attempt to lift the siege. A chance occurs for the Player-knights to shine and earn Glory when they have the opportunity to capture King Ryons on the eve of battle. The scenario ends with the Battle of Terrabil, offering another chance to try out Pendragon’s battle rules, and then with the appearance of the Lady Guenever. This brings in another aspect of the roleplaying, the Adoration Passion, which may have long term effects for the Player-knights. The second scenario is ‘King Pellinore’s Quest’. It takes place in 514 CE and is a slightly busier affair. The Player-knights begin on the road to Carlion, King Arthur’s capital, to attend his marriage to Guenever. Along the way, there is the opportunity to hunt for Questing Beast, chase after a dastardly knight, and rescue a very fair maiden. Both scenarios lay the groundwork for ‘The Grey Knight’ scenario—‘Bearding the Lion’ in particular—and both are playable in a session or so. Given that they are relatively slight affairs, there is scope too for Game Master to insert scenarios of her own in these years and if the Game Master has access to Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook, could add to ‘King Pellinore’s Quest’ using the Feast rules for the wedding celebrations.

In between the two shorter scenarios and ‘The Grey Knight’ scenario, is a description of Carlion, which the Player-knights will return to in 515 CE at the start of the scenario for the Easter Tournament. There are some good roleplaying encounters on the road and at the court, with at least two of the Player-knights irritating to other knights in the process, and others attracting the attention of a lady. This sets up rivalries and love triangles that can be duelled during the tournament the following day, but the event is brought to a halt with a clap of thunder and out of a rolling mist ride a strange trio. A Dwarf, a Lady in Black, and a Black Knight. The Lady in Black makes grave accusations against the king and challenges to have her Black Knight face the king’s champion, and if he loses, the king will have been proven unworthy to rule. It is Sir Gawaine who throws down the mantle, but Merlin prophesises that he will fail unless one of the Thirteen Treasures of Britain is found and used to aid him in the duel. The Player-knights will ride forth in search of one of these, the Whetstone of Tudwal Tudglyd.

The Player-knights are faced with three challenges. First, determining where the Whetstone of Tudwal Tudglyd can be found; second, actually finding it; and third, returning it to Carlion in good time. This is because the duel between Sir Gawaine and the Black Knight is due to take place at Pentecost, some six weeks hence. The Player-knights will need to ride north and deep into the Wastelands. Here they will be constantly challenged by the strange encounters they have, especially if they are Christian knights, less so if they are Pagan knights, and not at all if they are Wotanic knights. Nevertheless, the Traits and Passions at the heart of Pendragon, Sixth Edition are given a thorough workout as the Player-knights progress. The trek through the Wasteland is a test of character as much as it is endurance, though there is one such test so severe that it could end the quest for a Player-knight (and the scenario for the player too)—and if too many fails, end the quest for all and place the kingdom in peril. (The scenario does include options as to what could happen if the Player-knights do fail.) After a big fight, the Player-knights can obtain the Whetstone of Tudwal Tudglyd and begin the journey back to Carlion, though this has its own challenges.

‘The Grey Knight’ is a linear scenario with no room for the Player-knights to deviate from the path of the quest. This does not mean that the Player-knights are bereft of agency, they are free to act as they want (or as their much-tested Traits dictate) throughout all of the encounters in this scenario as well as both ‘Bearding the Lion’ and ‘King Pellinore’s Quest’, though of course there are benefits to certain actions and penalties to others. Another point about player agency is that the scenario makes clear that it is the Player-knights who are the heroes of the tales because they are the ones that find and return with the Whetstone of Tudwal Tudglyd and so ensure the victory of Sir Gawaine and that without it, the king’s champion is doomed. Structurally, as written, the Player-knights are always going to arrive during the duel between Sir Gawaine and the Black Knight, the scenario providing the Game Master with extra encounters to run should the Player-knights have managed to have completed the quest in good time. Narratively, this means that six week time limit between challenge and duel does not actually matter, so really it is a means of keeping the tension high for the players and their knights and keeping them focused.

If the Player-knights do succeed, they will, of course, be well rewarded with Glory. There however, two further potential rewards. Both of which are fantastic, but will really only benefit one player each. One of them will grant extra responsibility (and even the potential for early retirement of the knight), but provide ongoing Glory and income. The Noble’s Handbook will be required to get the best use out of the reward. Hopefully future scenarios will offer similar opportunities for reward for the other Player-knights in the future.

There are really only three issues with Pendragon: The Grey Knight. One is that the maps showing particular locations and regions are difficult to locate on the full map of England in the back of the book. Another is that although it is subtitled a campaign, Pendragon: The Grey Knight is really too short to be that. Whilst it does have two extra scenarios before ‘The Grey Knight’, they are more like one session prologues to the main event. Lastly, it would have been useful to have had a pronunciation guide handy. As amusing it was to hear an American mangle many of the place and creature names whilst playing through Pendragon: The Grey Knight, it could easily have been avoided.

Physically, Pendragon: The Grey Knight is well very presented. The artwork is excellent and the illuminations entertaining. The maps are decent and add much to the manuscript-like feel of the book. The inclusion of the author’s notes is a pleasing and informative extra.

Pendragon: The Grey Knight is a great scenario made all the better by the addition of the two smaller scenarios which add depth and lay the groundwork for what is to come, much as ‘The Grey Knight’ does itself for The Great Pendragon Campaign. It tests and pulls at the Player-knights from start to finish, and in doing so, presents some delightful opportunities to roleplay as they are confronted with some of the more supernatural and more magical aspects of Arthurian Britain. Any Game Master and player who enjoyed the Pendragon Starter Set will definitely want to continue the story of their knights in Pendragon: The Grey Knight.

—oOo—

With thanks to Scott Joest and my fellow knights.

The Other OSR: Creatures of the Dying World

Mörk Borg is not short of monsters. Since its publication in 2020, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance style roleplaying game designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing, has been supported by numerous third-party supplements and scenarios, which includes numerous new threats. The world of Mörk Borg is a dangerous, even lethal one with relatively little chance of survival for the Player Characters, so new monsters are always going to be useful. Primarily to confront the characters with foes that their players have never seen before, so in game such as Mörk Borg, a bestiary is invariably going to be useful. Creatures of the Dying World: A Bestiary by Jonny Bloozit #1 gives the Game Master some twenty-one monsters, parasites, magical constructs, lurkers, and other threats, all of which are presented in full, succulent colour. This is because they are written and drawn by the author and in some ways, Creatures of the Dying World: A Bestiary by Jonny Bloozit #1 is as much an artbook as much as it is a roleplaying supplement. There is a looming, lurking quality to the art style, often spattered with the muculent and malodorous mess of the midden. All of the entries get a full-page entry with the minimal stats of Mörk Borg monsters leaving plenty of room for the illustrations and the descriptive text. The latter varies in length from one entry to the next and places an emphasis on the folklore to the creatures described. Even this varies from one entry to the next. However, Creatures of the Dying World: A Bestiary by Jonny Bloozit #1 is no A Folklore Bestiary, The Merry Mushmen’s gold standard by which any Old School Renaissance or Old School Renaissance-adjacent bestiary must be measured. In fact, the folkloric elements are underwritten in place and the Game Master will need to extract them from the text rather than use them as written.

There are some common themes running through Creatures of the Dying World: A Bestiary by Jonny Bloozit #1. There are creatures from swamps and marshes and associated with filth and decay, such as the Bogmen which seek to suffocate, envelop, and digest its victim, but is immune to weapon damage, whilst the ‘Giant Leechworm’ is exactly what you think it is. The ‘Miasma’ is an evil spirit attracted to filth and decay and spreads diseases like the sniffles and the plague, whilst the ‘Plague Fly’ settles on carrion, fresh battlefields, and rubbish dumps in swarms, causing fever-like symptoms in those it bites and laying eggs in open wounds. Worm-like creatures are common too, such as the Cavern Worm that is like a deep sea tube worm that hides in crystalline tubes only to snap out and bite at its victims, The weirdest of the worms are the ‘Howling Worm’, a magical plant-human hybrid which howls and shrieks loudly when anyone comes near, so they are used as alarms much to the annoyance of anyone else living nearby. 

Not all of the entries in Creatures of the Dying World: A Bestiary by Jonny Bloozit #1 are simple foes that the Game Master can throw at his players and their characters. There is a version of the ‘Crystal Skull’ that is a combination of magical artefact and personality, containing the bound soul of a priest or herbalist who is not very happy about being so bound. Consequently, he is ill-mannered, angry, and contemptuous of the Player Characters, but might be persuaded to help. What is in no doubt is the Game Master will have fun portraying the unfortunate soul! The entry for ‘Dagon’ is really more illustration than description and adds little that is of use. The ‘Plague Doctor’ is an adaptation of the seventeenth century figure that sought to treat the bubonic plague, both as NPC and Player Character. It is suggested that the towns and cities setting of the Dying World are home to many Plague Doctors, who attempt cures through bloodletting, which can be dangerous if failed, and similarly use magical cures to shorten illnesses, though such an attempt will lengthen the illness if the attempt fails. In comparison to other Classes for Mörk Borg, this is underwritten, but there is perhaps scope for development.

Creatures of the Dying World: A Bestiary by Jonny Bloozit #1 is a slight affair at just twenty-one entries and sparse descriptions for too many of them. Similarly, the emphasis upon folklore in the entries veers towards the meagre rather than the substantial, and in places, that lack gives less for the Game Master to work with and work into her campaign setting. And whilst there is no denying the effectiveness of the artwork in Creatures of the Dying World: A Bestiary by Jonny Bloozit #1, it cannot wholly make up for the underwritten nature of some of the bestiary’s entries. Creatures of the Dying World: A Bestiary by Jonny Bloozit #1 does not wholly suffer from a case of style over substance, but the Game Master is likely to want to develop some of that substance herself to make fuller use of the bestiary.

Friday Fantasy: The Lost & Found Forest

Villagers have been disappearing from Amber, one of the hamlets known as the Sisters Three that stand on the shore of Loch Maeglen, and nobody knows why. Only one has reappeared, the florist, Mirabel Gobel, and she is unable to recall where she went and what happened to her. Only now she can hear a mysterious woman’s voice calling to her to “Find me! Find me and longer taste sorrow,” and go to the nearby Lost & Found Forest and she fears for her life. What kind of danger is she in and where have the other villagers gone? Perhaps the Player Characters are hired to investigate by a previous employer, like Kelvin Belmont from the adventure The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure, or they are camping in the area when they come across Mirabel Gobel walking towards the woods in a trance, or they come across a tumbledown cottage on the edge of the woods from which can be heard muffled cries of a woman. However the Player Characters get involved, this is the mystery and set-up at the heart of The Lost & Found Forest: A Sisters Three Adventure. This is a scenario for Dragonbane: Mirth & Mayhem Roleplaying, the roleplaying game published by Free League Publishing.

The Lost & Found Forest: A Sisters Three Adventure is published by Gallow’s Tomes as part of Free League Publishing’s Free League Workshop community content programme. It is part of the same series as The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure and can be run as an indirect sequel since both are set in the same area. This setting is the Bailwick of Fenwick and the three hamlets—Amber, Burgundy, and Lapis—which stand on the shores of Loch Maeglen, which can be used as or adapted to fit the Game Master’s own setting, or it can be slotted into the Misty Vale setting as detailed in the Dragonbane Core Set. To that end, it is suggested that they be placed around the unnamed lake in the Misty Vale just south of the Temple of the Purple Flame and the Magna Woods. Alternatively, they can be placed on the other side of the Drakmar Pass from where the ‘Secret of the Dragon Emperor’ campaign begins. Each of the three hamlets is associated with and named for a statue of a woman, collectively known as The Sisters. In the case of Lapis, the starting point for The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure, the statue is of lapis, whereas for Amber, the starting points for The Lost & Found Forest: A Sisters Three Adventure, the statue is of amber. Amber is decidedly bohemian in nature, home to artists and craftsmen of all kinds, as well as the Honey Well Playhouse, the region’s only theatre. The Player Characters can speak to various villagers most of whom have an interest in the arts or crafts, picking up clues and rumours, some the latter actually being repeated from The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure to give the whole region a cohesive feel and to connect to other adventures.

Eventually, the Player Characters will decide to investigate the woods and this where The Lost & Found Forest: A Sisters Three Adventure gets interesting. This is because there is no map of the forest, but rather a set of nine forest sites and one end site, called the Hovel Site. The nine forest sites are divided into three bands reflecting how far they are into the forest, but as the Player Characters try and move from one site to the next, they may find themselves returning to the site they just left or another site that they previously visited. There is guidance for the Game Master when to make the Hovel Site accessible narratively or there is ’Hovel Dice’ mechanic which she can roll to determine when the Player Characters discover the Strange Tracks that lead towards the Hovel Site and when they reach the Hovel Site itself. Either way, the aim here is make the search for the cause of the disappearances from Amber a cross between a search and chase, following a set of strange tracks. The encounters in the forest are often creepy and odd, and dangerously soporific.

The final confrontation with the witch behind the mystery is a tough, two-stage battle. First against the Hovel which she makes her home and is actually mobile and whose strange tracks the Player Characters have been following, then against the witch herself. This is the first encounter proper that they will have with one of the ‘Sisters Three’ of the series’ title and if there is an issue, it is that her motivation is underwritten. The Game Master may want to strengthen it and make it more obvious in the Player Characters’ interactions with her.

The Lost & Found Forest: A Sisters Three Adventure can be run as a standalone adventure, but it can be a sequel to The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure. There is advice to set up the adventure either way, but like the latter scenario, The Lost & Found Forest: A Sisters Three Adventure still leaves numerous questions answered. Hopefully, future scenario releases will address them, especially when the Player Characters encounter the other of the titular ‘Sisters Three’.

Physically, The Lost & Found Forest: A Sisters Three Adventure is well laid out in the style of Dragonbane. It does feel heavier in its use of colour and art style, even a little cartoonish. That said, the artwork works, whilst the maps are decent.

The Lost & Found Forest: A Sisters Three Adventure does bring the hamlet of Amber to life and give a very different feel and tone to that given for Lapis in The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure. The set-up is strong and it has a dark fairy tale atmosphere, backed up with some decent encounters and a big finale, but the motivation behind the adventure and the villainess’ actions are underwritten.

Peninsular Peregrinations

Since 2007, the 2004 Spiel des Jahres award-winning board game Ticket to Ride from Days of Wonder, has been supported with new maps, beginning with Ticket to Ride: Switzerland. That new map would be collected in the Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 2 – India & Switzerland, the second entry in the Map Collection series begun in Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 1 – Team Asia & Legendary Asia. Both of these have proved to be worthy additions to the Ticket to Ride line, whereas Ticket to Ride Map Collection vol. 3: The Heart of Africa and Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 4 – Nederland have proved to add more challenging game play, but at a cost in terms of engaging game play. Further given that they included just the one map in the third and fourth volumes rather than the two in each of the first two, neither felt as if they provided as much value either. Fortunately, Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 5: United Kingdom + Pennsylvania came with two maps and explored elements more commonly found in traditional train games—stocks and shares in railroad companies and the advance of railway technology. This was followed by Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 6: France + Old West, which provided two maps exploring a common theme—telegraphing each player’s intended placement of their trains; then by Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 6½: Poland, which focused on borders and connecting them; and lastly, by Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 7: Japan + Italy which examines two ways in which long routes affect game play. Thematically, the next entry in the series is connected by peninsulas.

Ticket to Ride Map Collection 8: Iberia + South Korea gives the Ticket to Ride fan with another Asian map and another European map, both of them depicting peninsulas and offering two new, and quite different ways to play Ticket to Ride. The standard game play remains—draw Destination Tickets and attempt to connect them via various routes between cities using sets of Train Cards that match the route colour, scoring points for both claiming routes completing the Destination Tickets. On each turn a player can still draw two Train Car Cards, either from those face up or from the deck, play Train Car Cards to claim a route, or draw new Destination Tickets. Or not, because in this expansion, there are limits placed upon when a player can draw Destination Tickets, and this is not the only way in which Ticket to Ride Map Collection 8: Iberia + South Korea differs from either the base game for Ticket to Ride or other map sets.

Of course, Ticket to Ride Map Collection 8: Iberia + South Korea requires the base game for its train pieces and scoring tokens, and both of its maps are designed to be played by between two and five players. The Iberia map includes one-hundred-and-ten Train Car Cards, fifty-four Festival Cards, a Ticket Draft Card, and fifty Destination Ticket Cards. The map itself depicts the Iberian Peninsula, primarily Spain and Portugal, but routes over the Pyrenees into southwestern France and ferry routes across the western Mediterranean to Palma, capital of the Spanish island of Mallorca. There is nothing radical or different about the map. Rather, the game play is different. This begins with the set-up. After the standard number of Train Car Cards are dealt to the players, the fifty-four Festival Cards are shuffled into the deck of Train Car Cards and the Ticket Draft Card is inserted into the combined deck. The players are dealt a total of Destination Ticket Cards. Instead of deciding to keep several of them and discard the rest, each player drafts on passes the remaining Destination Ticket Cards to the player on his left. This is done until each player has six Destination Ticket Cards, at which point, he can chose to discard two. This will mean that a player will get to see most of the Destination Ticket Cards that the other players have rejected and have some idea as what they have kept. There is the luck of the draw in drawing Destination Ticket Cards in any version of Ticket to Ride, but this draft mechanic randomises the draw even further, and it makes it difficult for a player to tailor his Destination Ticket Cards so that they fall along similar routes. Yet, Ticket to Ride Map Collection 8: Iberia + South Korea adds an extra twist to this.

When the Ticket Draft Card is drawn from the deck of Train Car Cards, a second draft takes exactly like the first, but going in the opposite direction. This has a player draft six new Destination Ticket Cards and keep four. It forces a player to consider eight new destinations that he has to connect and again they may not fall along similar routes. It also forces a player to marshal his train pieces since he knows will need some in the latter half of the game to complete the new Destination Ticket Cards. This also has another effect, which is to prevent a player from claiming as many routes as he can to speed up the end of the game. Up until this point, the players have not been allowed to draw new Destination Ticket Cards, but the other effect of the Ticket Draft Card is that now they can. However, with eight Destination Ticket Cards in hand, there is going to be less diving for new Destination Ticket Cards in the hope of scoring big.

The other means of scoring that Ticket to Ride Map Collection 8: Iberia + South Korea adds is Festival Cards. When drawn from the Train Car Card deck, a Festival Card is placed on the edge of the board nearest to the Festival City mentioned on the Festival Card. Many of the cities have multiple associated Festival Cards and when drawn these placed in a stack. When player claims a Route that connects to a Festival City, he can take all of the available Festival Cards for that city. At the end of the game, a player scores points for each set of Festival Cards he has for each city. This is a set collection mechanic similar to the railroad shares for the Pennsylvania map from Ticket to Ride Map Collection Vol. 5: United Kingdom + Pennsylvania.

Of the two new mechanics in Ticket to Ride Map Collection 8: Iberia + South Korea, for the Iberia map, the draft mechanic and the Ticket Draft Card are better than the Festival Cards mechanic. The draft mechanic alters some of the fundamentals of play and forces a player to think in the long term, husbanding his train pieces as important resources not knowing how many he will need towards the end of the game, and knowing that at some point the scoring opportunities are going to get more complicated. The Festival Cards does offer extra scoring opportunities that are easier because a player can claim routes even if they are not on any of his Destination Ticket Cards, but is just a bit busy and adds clutter around the edges of what is a large board.

The South Korea map is noticeably different and has a direct effect on play. This is because instead of the route colours being distributed across the map, they are clumped together in zones. There are a few grey routes as you would expect, but otherwise, all of the red routes are together in a zone, all of the blue routes are together in a zone, and so on. This has an immediate effect upon drawing Train Car Cards, because no matter what colour Train Car Cards a player draws, he is signalling which zone he wants to claim a route in.

In addition to the new map, the South Korea expansion includes fifteen Express Train Cards, forty-four Destination Ticket Cars, a Province Mat, and a province Scoring Card. The first rule that the South Korea expansion adds is the same draft mechanic in the Iberia map, but not the Ticket Draft Card. The second is for the Express Train Cards. Each player is given three of these, marked ‘+1’, ‘+2’, and ‘+3’. Each can be used once per game to either increase the number of Destination Ticket Cards a player can draw or the number of Train Car Cards a player can draw. This will give a player a one-time boost when each is played.

A player has another action that he can do after claiming a route. This is to place an extra train car on the Province Board. The Province Board is marked with several lines matching the colours of the Train Car Card and numbered from one to eight. The Train Car must be placed on both the line corresponding to the colour of the route just claimed and on the number equal to the length of the route just claimed. A player can also expend extra Train Car Cards to claim a higher number. If that number has already been claimed, the Train Car is placed on next free number of a lower value instead. An Express Train Card can also be expended to claim a higher number. At the end of the game, each player totals the combined value for the numbers claimed on each line and is awarded points according to their rank.

The South Korea map is a simpler, more direct map than Iberia. It rewards faster, more efficient play because the competition to claim routes is more open. Players telegraph to each other the zones where they want to claim routes when they draw Train Car Cards of a particular colour and so the race to claim routes within a zone can become tighter. Similarly, there is a race to claim routes because having done so, a player can claim numbers on the Province Mat that will contribute towards their final score. The Express Train Cards do give players a one-off advantage each time they are used, so should not be wasted. Overall, the South Korea map is much more competitive in comparison to many other Ticket to Ride Maps.

In addition, both maps offer something to the wider Ticket to Ride family. The drafting mechanics from the Iberia map could be used with other maps as could the Province Mat from the South Korea map. The drafting mechanic would have a greater effect upon play since it counters common game play elements such as collecting Destination Ticket Cards with roughly the same routes, playing Train Cars in order to speed up the end of the game, and drawing Destination Ticket Cards late in the game to score extra points along already claimed routes. Certainly, it would be interesting to see these rules implemented elsewhere and their effects examined, perhaps in a book dedicated to new rules for Ticket to Ride?

Physically, as you would expect, the production values for Ticket to Ride Map Collection 8: Iberia + South Korea are excellent. Everything is of a high quality and both looks good and feels good in the hand. The only item that could have been a better quality is the Province Mat, which is on card and not mounted. It is a pity that there is not room on the South Korea map for it either.

Given that Ticket to Ride Map Collection 8: Iberia + South Korea changes the way in which Ticket to Ride is played—the Iberia map in particular with the far reaching, even structural effects of the drafting rules—this is not an expansion for the casual player of Ticket to Ride. Rather it is for the fan of the game who wants to be challenged in new ways and the board game player who wants to be challenged more than the standard play of Ticket to Ride offers. Of the two maps, the Iberia map is the better, but the South Korea map is still good. Ticket to Ride Map Collection 8: Iberia + South Korea continues to offer new ways to play a tried and tested, even venerable format.

Jonstown Jottings #105: Applefest

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 Glorantha, 13th 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?
Applefest is scenario for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. It is intended to be used after the events in and around Apple Lane as detailed in the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack.

It is a thirty-three page, full colour, 1.410 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy, but there are no illustrations and the text does need an edit in places. The single map is decent.

Where is it set?
Applefest is set in Apple Lane and takes place early in Fire Season over the course of Harmony week in the run up to the Ulerian holy week.

Who do you play?

Applefest is designed to be used with any Player Characters, ideally ones who have played through the events of the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack. It is assumed that by the end of that, one of the Player Characters will have been appointed the Thane of Apple Lane, although the scenario accounts for the possibility that this has not happened or has not yet happened.

What do you need?

Applefest requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack. The Glorantha Bestiary and The Red Book of Magic may be useful.

What do you get?
In the wake of the Dragonrise and the Lunar Empire being forced out of Sartar, there has been an understandable resurgence in Orlanthi religious practices and the village of Apple Lane is no exception. Every Fire Season for decades before the Lunar occupation, the community would hold a three day festival which celebrated its most well-known crop in conjunction with the village’s renowned temple to Uleria. It was, until the Lunars invaded, a quiet local affair, but this year it will be different. It will take on a greater significance than ever before as omens speak of ill winds flowing south still from the Lunar Empire, the Storms gods intimate that the old practices be taken up again, and guests from far and wide, including the great and good, and the unknown and the malicious. It will be up to the Player Characters to help marshal events, keep the peace, guide several children on their first ‘hero quest’, help save the day, and ultimately make sure everyone has a good time.

Playing out over the course of three days and nights, Applefest is a busy affair that brings a classic festival scenario to Glorantha and Apple Lane in particular. What would have been an ordinary affair quickly balloons in size as unexpected guests arrive, including a band of Telmori, an Earth Priestess from Kero Fin and her entourage, and Queen Leika and her entourage! In addition, there are traders and entertainers, and significantly if the Player Characters have played through the events of ‘Gringle’s Pawnshop’ in Apple Lane, the return of an old band of foes. Thus, there will opportunities for a barroom brawl, diplomacy, shopping, entertainment and games, a little mystery, some madness, and some active childcare in the field!

Although any ordinary band of adventurers can play through Applefest, this is a scenario that is really going to both interest and benefit a group that includes the thane of Apple Lane amongst their number and which makes the village their home. It is highly detailed and it involves multiple plot threads, both major and minor, plus a lot of NPCs, so the Game Master will need to need to prepare it carefully and be prepared to keep those threads moving and the Player Characters involved. The effort will pay off, ideally with the thane and the other Player Characters burnishing their reputations and helping to restore the spiritual strength of Sartar and its people.

Is it worth your time?

Yes—Applefest is a thoroughly entertaining addition to any campaign set in and around Apple Lane.

No—Applefest is too location specific and too story specific to work elsewhere with ease and the Game Master may be running a campaign set elsewhere.

Maybe—Applefest is too location and story specific to adapt to elsewhere with ease, but there are plenty of ideas and events that could be reworked for a similar event.

Miskatonic Monday #422: The Children of Blackwood

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: The Children of Blackwood

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Sean Liddle

Setting: World War II Plymouth

Product: Outline
What You Get: Sixteen page, 1.04 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Three Go Mad in Devon (Again)(Again)(Again)(Again)(Again)

Plot Hook: This Christmas, the rebirth is not one you are going to celebrate

Plot Support: Staging advice, three handouts, and three Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Sequel to HUM, The Borrowed, The Hollow Beneath Clapper Tor, and A Thread Through Stone

# Detailed outline

# Potential for child-like curiosity and terror

# Definitely part of a series rather than a one-shot

# Potential for sequels

# Botanophobia

# Entomophobia

# Oneirophobia

Cons

# No pre-generated Investigators
# No advice on creating teenage Investigators

# Definitely part of a series rather than a one-shot
# A lot of exposition

# No explanation for the Keeper for what is going on

# Needs an edit

Conclusion

# Detailed outline still leaves the Keeper none the wiser
# Ultimately feels like the plot of children’s novel that the players are roleplaying out 

Mavens, Mystery, Murder, & Mythos

Just occasionally, along comes a roleplaying game that makes you sit back and think. A roleplaying game that upends your expectations. Brindlewood Bay: A Dark & Cozy Mystery Game does exactly that. It changes how you think about how you roleplay investigation in mystery games and it changes who you roleplay. The mystery—as opposed to the mysterious, which has always been there—has long been a part of roleplaying, all the way back to The Maltese Clue, the scenario published by Judges Guild in 1979. It really came to the fore with roleplaying games like Call of Cthulhu, Gangbusters, and Justice, Inc. and more recently seen in the GUMSHOE System with roleplaying games such as Mutant City Blues, which combines superheroes with the police procedural. What these all do with the mystery is provide the Game Master with a plot and a set of clues that the players and their characters investigate and hopefully piece together the clues to uncover the mystery. In other words, there is always a set solution as to who did what to whom and why. And in such roleplaying games, the investigators are detectives and investigators, typically young and in the prime of their careers. Neither is the case in Brindlewood Bay. Instead, Brindlewood Bay asks what if there was no set solution and instead the solution to the mystery could be constructed from the clues uncovered by the players and their characters and would be, if not absolutely correct, then very nearly so? Very nearly so that when hypothesised and put to the suspects, turned out to be case solved? And instead, Brindlewood Bay asks the players not to roleplay police detectives or private eyes, but asks them to take the roles of elderly, retired women turned amateur sleuth in the manner of Miss Jane Marple or Jessica Fletcher.

There is more to Brindlewood Bay: A Dark & Cozy Mystery than just this, but at its heart, this roleplaying game is Murder She Wrote with a semi-improvised plot/mystery and everyone being Jessica Fletcher. Of course, Brindlewood Bay offers more options than just playing Jessica Fletcher, but the idea of roleplaying elderly female amateur detectives is utterly delightful. Published in 2022 by The Gauntlet following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Brindlewood Bay is designed to be played by between two and four players as well as the Game Master and casts the Player Characters—known as Mavens—as retirees in the eponymous small coastal Massachusetts town, a former whaling port that has long since transformed itself into a charming tourist spot. The Player Characters are members of the Murder Mavens, a mystery book club that meets weekly on the top floor of The Candlelight Booksellers every Saturday evening, and has done so for a decade now. Their favourite writer is Robin Masterson, the author of The Gold Crown Mysteries series by featuring the globe-trotting super-sleuth, Amanda Delacourt. As well as their own hobbies and activities, sometimes and much to the chagrin of the local authorities who resent their meddling, the Mavens stumble onto crimes and through a combination of astuteness, savviness, and the fact that old ladies often get overlooked, solve crimes. Brindlewood Bay can be played as a one-shot, but it is really set up to played as a campaign. The campaign unknowingly pitches the Mavens against a dark cult known as the Midwives of the Fragrant Void, Hellenic death cult working to summon the ‘Children of Persephone’, chthonic monstrosities that will bring about the End of All Things. As the campaign progresses, the Mavens and the cult conspiracy will become aware of each other, and ultimately, the Mavens will not only be solving murders, but saving the world too! (Though there are possible other outcomes as well…)

A Maven is defined by five Abilities—Vitality, Composure, Reason, Presence, and Sensitivity—each rated between ‘-3’ and ‘+3’, a name, a Style that reflects her outlook on life as much as how she dresses, and a Cosy Activity that is her favourite hobby. The Style might be ‘Alexis Carrington Colby’, ‘Hippy Dippy’, or ‘Office Hours’, whilst the Cosy Activity will be something like Cooking, Gardening, Knitting, Pointing, or Scrapbooking. It should be noted that Brindlewood Bay is a very American game, so some of the references, especially the Styles may not necessarily be familiar and may require a little research. A Maven also has a Maven Move, a special action or benefit that can be brought into play. For example, the ‘Frank Columbo’ Move means that society’s elite underestimates the Maven and whenever she is amongst the rich and famous, her Meddling Move will always grant her an extra clue; the ‘Dale Cooper’ Move increases a Maven’s Sensitivity and the Keeper—as the Game Master is known—will grant Void Clues in the form of a disturbing dream at the beginning of each session; and the ‘Jim Rockford’ Move means that the Keeper narrates an answering machine message that the Maven receives asking to undertake a task that if completed will earn her Experience Points and will get odder as a campaign progresses. Ironically—and self-admittedly—all of the Maven Moves are named after male detectives, highlighting the lack of strong female roles within the genre. That said, the extra and alternative Maven Moves do include some named after female detectives. All of the Maven Moves are delightfully clever, if not actually witty, and like any good Move in a Powered by the Apocalypse they tell a lot about the Mavens.

To create a Maven, a player chooses a name, Style, and Cosy Activity, as well as defining her Cosy Little Place. She assigns a single point to one of her Abilities and chooses one Maven Move. The creation process is simple and easy and made all the easier by fitting onto a third of the character sheet that is as much worksheet as character sheet and by the step-by-step process being explained by the section that takes both the Keeper and her players through the first session of Brindlewood Bay from set-up through safety tools and character creation to the first mystery and beyond.

Name: Pearl
Style: Jackie O
Cozy Activity: Charity Events

STATS
Vitality 0 Composure +1 Reason +1 Presence +2 Sensitivity -1

MOVES
Jonathan Hart

Mechanically, Brindlewood Bay uses a stripped down version of Powered by the Apocalypse, the mechanics first seen in Lumpley Games’ Apocalypse World. To undertake an action or ‘Move’, a player rolls two six-sided dice, adds one of his Maven’s Stats, adds his Maven’s Investigative Style and aims to roll high. The results are either ‘No’, ‘Yes, but...’, ‘Yes’, and ‘Yes and…’. A result of six or less is a ‘No’ and lets the Keeper add a Complication; roll between seven and nine, and the result is ‘Yes, but…’, and successful, but comes with a Complication; a roll of ten or eleven and the result is a ‘Yes’; and a result of twelve or more and the Move is ‘Yes and…’, indicating that there is a bonus to the Move. A Complication hinders the Maven’s investigative efforts and is primarily played by the Keeper as a Reaction to a Maven’s action. This Reaction can be environmental such as the Maven getting lost, aggressive and have the killer attack the Maven or sabotage her efforts, or social, like being threatened with being blackballed at the country club. A Reaction at night will place a Maven in greater danger than one in the day, and it even possible for a Maven to be killed. One special Reaction, allowed just once per mystery, is ‘Cut to Commercial’ when the Keeper lets the player of an imperilled Maven narrate a commercial of some kind (there are prompts), when the story returns, the Maven will have found a way to succeed.

Unlike most versions of Powered by the Apocalypse, the rules in Brindlewood Bay include an Advantage and Disadvantage mechanic. Thus, when a Maven has the Advantage, which can come from her Style, Cosy Activity, one of her Maven Moves, or the situation, three six-sided dice are rolled instead of two, and the best used. Conversely, when she is at a Disadvantage, her player rolls three dice and keeps the lowest two. Another difference between other roleplaying games using Brindlewood Bay and Brindlewood Bay is that it does not make use of Playbooks, each of which provide an archetypal character and its associated Moves. Instead, Brindlewood Bay provides a standard set of seven Moves that all of the Mavens can use. The first four Moves—‘The Day Move’, ‘The Night Move’, ‘The Cosy Move’, and ‘The Meddling Move’ are all to do with collecting Clues. The primary difference between ‘The Day Move’ and ‘The Night Move’ is that failure and Complications are likely to be more dangerous at night. ‘The Cosy Move’ is when the Mavens share a moment over a Cosy activity and in the process discover a clue that will help, but not conclusively, solve the mystery. ‘The Meddling Move’ is when the Mavens actively look for a clue.

The fifth and sixth Moves are more specialised. ‘The Gold Crown Mysteries Move’ occurs when a Maven says, “This reminds me of something that happened to Amanda Delacourt!” and together the players work out how the current situation recalls a scene from one of Robin Masterson’s mystery novels. It can only be done once per mystery and must refer to previously unmentioned entry in the series, but always results in a Yes and…’ outcome, whether an action or an addition to the mystery. It is thus a powerful move. ‘The Occult Move’ is used whenever a Maven attempts an action related to the occult and somehow tied to the Midwives of the Fragrant Void. This is unlikely to be used in the opening stages of campaign as the Mavens are unlikely to be aware of the Midwives of the Fragrant Void. It will often justification as why a Maven might attempt it and it is not without its dangers.

The seventh Move is the ‘Theorise’ Move. This happens at the end or near the end of the game when the Mavens gather their collected clues and deduce the identity of the murderer. The roll is only modified by the number of clues and secrets found so far, minus the Complexity of the murder. This is most radical and innovative element of Brindlewood Bay. The Keeper will have a body and then lists of locations, suspects, and clues that make up the mystery, but will know neither which of the suspects committed the crime and which of the clues are important. In fact, when the Keeper does give the players and their Mavens a clue, she picks a clue from the given list based not on which seems the most significant, but on which seems the most interesting. The Mavens are free to search for clues and talk to suspects and when clues are revealed, it is the players and their Mavens that assign them meaning and significance; effectively ‘play to find out what happens’ through the emerging story of the investigation.

There are two further actions which involve a Maven ‘putting on a Crown’. ‘The Crown of the Queen’ explores the femineity of the maven via a flashback to a scene involving the Maven’s late partner or a relative, a private moment, a recent romantic or sexual situation, and so on. Each can only be used once and enable a Maven to escape adversity or a dangerous situation as well giving the player to think about and roleplay a different side to his Maven. ‘The Crown of the Queen’ actions can be triggered in any order, whereas ‘The Crown of the Void’ must be triggered in order. There are fewer of them and they represent the growing influence of the Midwives of the Fragrant Void’s upon the Maven. If they are all ticked off, the last one forces the Maven to retire from play as she is lost to the Void…

Brindlewood Bay includes several ready-to-play mysteries. Each includes a description of the mystery, a way to present it, moments that the Keeper can use to set the scene or add tension, lists of suspects, clues, and locations, and a Complexity value. This ranges between six and eight and represents the number of elements of the solution that the players and their Mavens need to discuss and hypothesise before they can make the ‘Theorise Move’ without a penalty.

Now Brindlewood Bay can be played as a one-shot mystery in which the mavens investigate a mystery, but that mystery is always going to be mundane, because in the long term there is the greater mystery, the conspiracy and aims of the Midwives of the Fragrant Void. That conspiracy is the most detailed part of the Brindlewood Bay background, but unlike the clues of the mundane mysteries, the clues behind the conspiracy and its Mythos—known as Void clues—slip out inadvertently, sort of accumulating to the point where the Mavens and their players being to realise that something else is going on. It is likely at this point that the ‘Occult Move’ comes into play, it is likely that the Mavens being to dabble in occult in order to understand and stop the Midwives of the Fragrant Void, it is increasingly likely that a Maven might die, and it is even likely that a Maven might join the Midwives of the Fragrant Void. The descriptions of the Midwives of the Fragrant Void and The Children of Persephone do flirt with Lovecraftian influences, and perhaps one group might want to bring those into play more, but the Midwives of the Fragrant Void is more of cosmic threat than a Lovecraftian one. However without this conspiracy, Brindlewood Bay cannot be anything other than best suited for one-shot play as narratively it has no scope for development.

The advice for the Keeper in Brindlewood Bay is extensive and detailed, and particularly helpful in guiding the Keeper through the shift in perspective and playstyle that Brindlewood Bay demands. And then helpful in guiding her player through that same shift. Storytelling games have been around for over two decades now and when first published, they also represented a shift how a roleplaying game was played and considered, but the shift that Brindlewood Bay demands of its Keeper and player is even bigger. Not just how a roleplaying game was played and considered, but also how a mystery is investigated and played out and how the decisions of the players and actions of their Mavens determine the story and build the world around them. The advice also covers the structure of play and the structure of the campaign, it breaks down the anatomy of a mystery, and it gives an extensive guide on how to run the first session and thus first mystery of Brindlewood Bay. It takes the Keeper and her players through the Maven creation process, explains to them what to expect, and shows the structure of play, providing a template that the Keeper will return again and again.

There is not so much a learning curve to Brindlewood Bay so much as an adjustment, and the book does a fine job of helping everyone through that. However, the downside is that upon first reading Brindlewood Bay, the reader is left wondering how to create a Maven. Literally everything in the game—the situation, the Moves, the Conspiracy, and the given Mysteries—is presented before the actual process of Maven creation. This is given in the ‘Session One’ guide at the very back of the book. It is fine once you know it is there, but there is also nothing at the start of the book to say that it is. The character sheet for the Maven does help with her creation, but neither that or other sheets for the roleplaying game, like ‘The Dark Conspiracy’ worksheet is included in the book.

Physically, Brindlewood Bay is clean and cosy. It is well written and engaging, but the illustrations by Cecilia Ferri are stunning, veering between showing the Mavens joyously having the time of their cosy lives and the foreboding nature of the conspiracy at the heart of the roleplaying game.

There are moments in a roleplaying session when the players will say something about the current storyline or situation and the Game Master will think to herself, “Oh that’s good. That is so clever and better than what I had thought of, I am going to steal that.” Brindlewood Bay does not so much make that implicit as make it part of its play. It shifts the standard mystery roleplaying set-up from having to find the clues and work out what they mean with the Game Master knowing the answers to finding the clues, working out what they mean, and then giving them meaning. And then it hands the process of that deduction not into the hands of traditional action hero detectives, but to grannies and little old ladies, asking the players to roleplay from the perspective of the older woman and use charm and wits and insight to solve the crime rather than fists and guns. Both demands are radical, but delightfully so. Brindlewood Bay: A Dark & Cozy Mystery Game is a wonderfully cosy, brilliantly innovative game that genuinely asks us to think differently about how we play and who we play.