Your SHIVER Blockbuster Starter

A good starter set has to do a number of different things. It has to introduce and explain the roleplaying game it is a starter set for, whether that is the roleplaying game’s setting, mechanics, or both. It has to both tell and show what the players and their characters are expected to do in the setting and how they do it, first with the rules and then with a scenario. It has to provide everything that a group needs to play—rules, scenario, pre-generated Player Characters, and dice—and ideally more. Maps, handouts, tokens, and the like are all items that will help bring the world of the roleplaying game’s setting to life and give the players something to look at and interact with. Above all, a good starter should showcase the roleplaying game and entice both Game Master and her players to want to roleplay more with the rules and in that setting by picking up the core rulebook, and if the contents of the start set support continued play, whether that is providing an extra set of dice or maps for the setting, then all the better.

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“Welcome to Hollow World!” With this announcement, tech billionaire Linus Crick welcomes some of the world’s leading archaeologists and adventurers, park rangers and hunters, scientists and security experts, influencers and superfans, rebels, saboteurs, and green protestors to his greatest creation yet, a wonder of the age that showcases the wonders of the past! A theme park like no other. A theme park with dinosaurs. Real, living dinosaurs recreated through the wonders of genetic engineering. All the white-suit wearing entrepreneur his with perfectly coiffured hair and his shiny sunglasses, wants is to be endorsed and his venture to be a success. Or does he? Is setting up a dinosaur safari park beneath the Antarctic Longhorn Island enough for Crick? Will grizzled archaeologist Madison Stone, park ranger Obasi Mbacke, palaeontologist Doctor Hana Ueno, new wave scientist Malcolm Goldstein, eco-warrior Petal Moon, neanderthal clone Ug Ug, and dinosaur superfan Billy Wazowski discover if Crick is all he says he is or if he has ulterior motives? Will they survive long enough deep below the Antarctic when disaster strikes, everything goes wrong, and raptors attack to exit through the gift shop to safety?

This is the set-up for ‘Welcome to Hollow World’, the scenario in the SHIVER Blockbuster Starter Set, one of two themed starter sets published by Parable Games for SHIVER – Role-playing Tales in the Strange & the Unknown. The other is the SHIVER Slasher Starter Set. More specifically, the SHIVER Blockbuster Starter Set ties in with the campaign supplement, SHIVER Blockbuster: Legends of the Silver Scream, in which the Player Characters are actors working for a small film studio in Hollywood, trying to make some blockbusters, get notice, and prove how good—or bad—they are and make Hollywood sit up and take notice! Effectively, in SHIVER Blockbuster: Legends of the Silver Scream, each player is roleplaying an actor who is playing a role in five different films, so five times—and slightly more—the roleplaying as in any other campaign or roleplaying game, unless they always play the same role and play it to the camera. Then, the best thing of all, a roleplaying game like Shiver – Role-playing Tales in the Strange & the Unknown and thus SHIVER Blockbuster: Legends of the Silver Scream, has got a budget bigger than any Hollywood studio. So, it can make any film and it will never blow the budget!

That budget though, does not get any bigger than ‘Welcome to Hollow World’. For make no mistake, ‘Welcome to Hollow World’ is a remake (or pastiche) of a 1993 film with a budget of $63 and a box office of a billion dollars! It should be no surprise to anyone reading this review that the film in question is Jurassic Park. There are a lot of plot similarities. A remote island, a genial billionaire, a sick stegosaurus to be found and cured, being chased by velociraptors, and a showdown in the visitor centre. Plus many of the pre-generated Player Characters are similar to the characters in the film. Some are not though, and further, there are plenty of scenes in the scenario along with a plot thread about the nefarious Crick (a nod to the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA), for ‘Welcome to Hollow World’ to not feel like they just recreating Jurassic Park. The scenario maintains a pleasing balance between the familiar and the unfamiliar so the players and their characters can knowingly play along with the pastiche in some scenes and then improvise as they normally would in other roleplaying scenarios.

The structure of the scenarios includes some well handled introduction scenes for each Player Character so that we get to see them in action before the plot gets rolling. Much like the film its takes its inspiration from, the early part of the scenario is on rails as they take a guided tour round the park. After that though, the players and their characters have more freedom.

The SHIVER Blockbuster Starter Set contains two books, the ‘SHIVER Starter Rulebook’ and the ‘Welcome to Hollow World’ scenario book, a set of seven pre-generated Player Characters, and a complete set of SHIVER dice. The ‘SHIVER Starter Rulebook’ is a concise version of SHIVER – Role-playing Tales in the Strange & the Unknown rulebook and contains all of the rules necessary to run and play ‘Welcome to Hollow World’. Player Characters in SHIVER can advance up to Tier Ten, but the ‘SHIVER Starter Rulebook’ only goes up as far as Tier Five. The SHIVER dice are of course, required to play, and one advantage of the SHIVER Blockbuster Starter Set is that once the scenario has been played through, the gaming group has another set of dice to continue playing the roleplaying game.

The seven pre-generated Player Characters in the SHIVER Blockbuster Starter Set match the roleplaying game’s seven Archetypes—the Warrior, the Maverick, the Scholar, the Socialite, the Fool, the Weird, and the Survivor—and each emphasises one of the six Core Skills and gives access to several Tiers of Abilities. The six Core Skills—effectively both skills and attributes—are Grit, Wit, Smarts, Heart, Luck, and Strange. Grit represents a character’s physical capabilities; Wit covers physical dexterity; Smarts is his intellect and capability with investigation and technology; Heart is his charisma and charm; Luck is his good fortune and the random of the universe; and Strange is his capacity for using magic, psychic powers, and so on. A Player Character also has a Luck Bank for storing Luck—one for all Archetypes, except for the Fool, who has space for three; a current Fear status—either Stable, Afraid, or Terrified; and a Lifeline—Weakened, Limping, Trauma, and Dead—which is the same for all Archetypes.

Mechanically, SHIVER uses a dice pool system of six-sided dice, their faces marked with the symbols for the roleplaying game’s six Core Skills—Grit, Wit, Smarts, Heart, Luck, and Strange. To these are added Talent dice, eight-sided dice marked with Luck and Strange symbols. When a player wants his character to undertake an action, he assembles a dice pool based on the action and its associated Core Skill plus Talent dice if the character has in that Core Skill. Further dice can be added or deducted depending on whether the Player Character has Advantage or Disadvantage, an Ability which applies, or the player wants to spend his character’s Luck, and on the character’s Fear status. The aim is to roll a number of symbols or successes in the appropriate Core Skill, the Challenge Rating ranging from one and Easy to five and Near Impossible. If the player rolls enough, then his character succeeds; if he rolls two Successes more than the Challenge Rating, it is a Critical Hit; and if a player rolls three or more dice and every symbol is a success, this is Full House. In combat, a Critical Hit doubles damage and a Full House triples it, but out of combat the Director can suggest other outcomes for both. If Luck symbols are rolled, one can be saved in the Player Character’s Luck Bank for later use, but if two are rolled, they can be exchanged for a single success on the current skill roll, or they can be used to turn the Doom Clock back by one minute.

A failed roll does not necessarily mean that the Player Character fails as he can use other means to succeed at the task if he rolls enough successes in another Core Skill for that task, though this requires some narrative explanation. However, a failed roll has consequences beyond simply not succeeding—each Strange symbol rolled pushes the Doom Clock up by a minute…

Combat uses the same mechanic with monsters and enemies—and the Player Characters when they are attacked—using the same Challenge Rating as skill tests. It is Turn-based, with the Director deciding whether each Player Character is acting First, in the Middle, or Last, depending upon their situation and what they want to do. Players are encouraged to be organised and know what their characters are capable of, the surroundings for the battle, and so on, in order to get the best out of their characters. With every Player Character possessing the same Lifeline (the equivalent of sixteen Health Points), combat can be simply nasty or nasty and deadly, depending upon the mode. Death is a strong possibility, no matter what the mode, and depending on the scenario, death need not be the end though. A Player Character could become a ghost and continue to provide help from the afterlife or even become an antagonist!

Fear in SHIVER uses the same Challenge Rating system and mechanics. A Fear Check is made with a Player Character’s Strange Dice, and if the player fails the check, the character becomes Afraid, and if Afraid, becomes Terrified. If Afraid, a Player Character loses one die from all Core Skills, and two if Terrified. This is temporary, and a Player Character can get rid of the effects of Fear by escaping or vanquishing the threat, steadying himself (this requires another Fear Check), or another Player Character uses an Ability to help him.

Narratively, SHIVER is played out against a Doom Clock. This is set at eleven o’clock at night and counts up minute by minute to Midnight and the Player Characters’ inevitable Doooommm! However, at ‘Quarter Past’, ‘Half Past’, ‘Quarter To’, and ‘Midnight’ certain events will happen, these being defined in the scenario or written in by the Director. Every scenario for SHIVER includes its own Doom Clock events. In general, the Doom Clock will tick up due to the actions of the Player Characters, whether that is because of a failed skill check with Strange symbols, a failed Fear Check, abilities for the Weird Archetype, Background Flaws, or simply interacting with the wrong things in game. What this means is that dice rolls become even more uncertain, their outcome having more of a negative effect potentially than just failures, but this is all in keeping with the genre. However, just as the Doom Clock can tick up to ‘Midnight’ through the Player Characters’ actions. It can also be turned back due to their actions. Rolling two Luck on skill checks, reaching Story Milestones, finding clues and important items, and certain Abilities can all turn the Doom Clock back.

‘Welcome to Hollow World’ is the scenario in the SHIVER Blockbuster Starter Set. As mentioned above, it casts the Player Characters as the cast of a dinosaur disaster blockbuster. There is a good explanation of its set-up and advice on how to run the scenario. There is a list of the Doom Clock events for the scenario as well as a compendium giving the details of all of the items, NPCs, and monsters to be found in the scenario. The main mechanical addition is the inclusion of the Starring Role mechanic from SHIVER Blockbuster: Legends of the Silver Scream. This can be ‘The Leading Hero’, ‘The Stunt Performer’, ‘The Thespian’, ‘The Heartthrob’, ‘The Love Interest’, ‘The Comic Relief’, ‘The Method’, and more. Each Starring Role has a Star Power and Audience Expectation. The Star Power is a unique ability that the Actor can perform once per quarter of the Doom Clock, whilst the Audience Expectation is something that if done on screen will gain the Actor the favour of both the audience and the Director, and so boost his career. So, for ‘The Love Interest’, the Star Power is a ‘A Healing Heart’ that enables the Actor to make a Heart Check and regain Hit Points if they perform a romantic scene, whilst the Audience Expectation ‘Break Heart/Bow Minds’ in which the Actor wants the audience’s favour to fall in love with them and so will make romantic confessions, and have moments of passion or tear-jerking moments to get the audience to love them.

Depending upon how well an Actor performed, he or she can receive an Accolade or a Review. Both are awarded by the Director. Engage in both Star Power and Audience Expectation and an Actor will earn an Accolade, but if not, he or she may be in line for a Bad Review. Accolades include the ‘Performance Award’, ‘Hall of Fame’, ‘Rabid Fanbase’, ‘Top Billing’, and so on, whilst Bad Reviews include ‘Hamming It Up’, ‘Worst Actor Ever’, and ‘Boring Performance’. Accolades provide a minor benefit, whilst Bad Reviews act as minor disadvantage. For example, ‘Performance Award’ gives the Actor a piece of armour to use in the next film, but once used, it is gone, whilst ‘Looking Fit’ grants Advantage on acts of athleticism. The Bad Review, ‘Diva Reputation’ means that if the Actor fails a Check that would advance the Doom Clock, if they also fail a Strange Check, they suffer Soul damage.

Physically, the SHIVER Blockbuster Starter Set is a good-looking box. The inclusion of the roleplaying game’s tables on the inside lid of the cover means that the Director has an easy rules reference and screen, whilst the dice do sit in their own niche in the bottom of the box. The books themselves are well-presented with excellent artwork done in a style similar to that of Mike Mignola and his Hellboy comic. The writing is clear, but could have done with an edit in places.

The SHIVER Blockbuster Starter Set is a solid introduction to SHIVER – Role-playing Tales in the Strange & the Unknown, whether or not the Director wants to run the SHIVER Blockbuster: Legends of the Silver Scream campaign. If not, it can be run as one shot scenario, but is probably a bit too long to be run in a single session. It is more more likely to last two sessions at least. The scenario, ‘Welcome to Hollow World’, is really entertaining and the will have a lot of fun playing it.

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Parable Games will be at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, 29th to Sunday 31st of May.

Home & Horror

Achtung! Cthulhu is the roleplaying game of fast-paced pulp action and Mythos magic published by Modiphius Entertainment. It is pitches the Allied Agents of the Britain’s Section M, the United States’ Majestic, and the brave Resistance into a Secret War against those Nazi Agents and organisations which would command and entreat with the occult and forces beyond the understanding of mankind. They are willing to risk their lives and their sanity against malicious Nazi villains and the unfathomable gods and monsters of the Mythos themselves, each striving for supremacy in mankind’s darkest yet finest hour! Yet even the darkest of drives to take advantage of the Mythos is riven by differing ideologies and approaches pandering to Hitler’s whims. The Black Sun consists of Nazi warrior-sorcerers supreme who use foul magic and summoned creatures from nameless dimensions to dominate the battlefields of men, whilst Nachtwölfe, the Night Wolves, utilise technology, biological enhancements, and wunderwaffen (wonder weapons) to win the war for Germany. Ultimately, both utilise and fall under the malign influence of the Mythos, the forces of which have their own unknowable designs…

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance is the ninth release for Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20, and does something a little different. Most missions in Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20, whether for Section M or Majestic sees the agents sent behind enemy lines, investigating the activities of the enemy in the Secret War, perhaps gaining the support of the homegrown resistance movement (itself, typically armed and supported by the SOE), thwarting those efforts, and subsequently returning back to base in dear old Blighty. But what of the resistance movements? What of these NPCs? They get to stay, hiding in the shadows, always moving, constantly in danger from being betrayed by collaborators, captured, interrogated, and worse. What is at stake is the freedom of their country from under the jackboot of the Nazi occupiers and oppressors. This is the subject of Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance, presenting an overview of Resistance movements in Europe, new agent options, friends and foes, equipment—Mythos and mundane, and a quintet of missions and maps.

From the start, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance makes clear that campaigns involving the various resistance organisations will be different to normal campaigns for Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20, darker in tone and more dangerous in play. Whilst the Player Characters may be the heroic protagonists of the story, they will be constantly watched and often hunted, whilst not always having the support of their fellow countrymen. Collaborators and traitors might betray them at any minute—and sometimes they can be family or colleagues. Thus, the atmosphere of Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance is one of mistrust and paranoia rather than just its usual straightforward combination of heroic, pulp action and weird Secret War occultism. There is plenty of scope for that combination, often acts of sabotage and resistance snatched in the dead of night between hiding out in fear of capture, interrogation, and worse. What this means is that the discussion about the campaign’s themes and tone in Session Zero will be differ from that of a standard Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 campaign. Whilst the supplement does include a discussion safety tools, it is the standard discussion found in all Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 books rather than addressing issues specific to Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance.

The overview and history of the various resistances movements is relatively brief. This is done nationality by nationality, in turn covering the French, Dutch, Polish, and Yugoslavian movements. The coverage of the German, Italian, and Jewish resistance movements is even briefer, as is the general support provided for all of them by the SOE. At best, it is a good introduction to the subject, but not much more.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance gives new Archetypes suitable for the underground war in Europe. They include the Assassin, Propagandist, Raider, Resistance Leader, and Saboteur, and all have their base attributes, skills, focuses, equipment, suggested Talents, and also a quick list of reasons why a player might want to play that role. To these can be added new Backgrounds that include Interrogator, Liberated Prisoner, Partisan, Striker, and Turncoat, and new Characteristics which include Anti-Fascist, Born Under a Bad Sign, Field Tester, Ruthless, and Sees Beyond the Veil. There are new Talents too, for example, Never Surrender! and Practised Skill are common Talents. Notably, the Weird Talent of Child of Carcosa means that the Player Character has been marked by the Yellow Sign and can mark it on others… If the Assassin Archetype perhaps looks too much like a femme fatale, the chapter is still a good mix of options, many of which can be used in a general Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 campaign, not just in a Resistance-based one.

These are accompanied by heroes and villains ready to be added to a Resistance-based campaign, and if their backgrounds do not fit the country where the Game Master has set her campaign, they can easily be adjusted. They include the usual mix of the named and unnamed, but notable amongst the former is Standartenführer Helmut Ziegler, a Black Sun occult practitioner who specialises in interrogations, whilst of the latter, Black Sun Silverwalkers are troopers tasked with tracking down magical practitioners equipped specially-tuned amulets forged from silver and captured Dreamlands energy to detect magical emanations. The most controversial addition to Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance is that of Demons. The supplement does not confirm or deny whether they are actual infernal creatures or entities of the Mythos adopting their guise for the gullible, but treats them as Mythos creatures. Their inclusion expands the horror in Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 and gives the Game Master more options, it is debatable whether either was needed given surely that the Mythos is enough.

The includes a mix of equipment, spells, and tomes. There are requisition rules in Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 and these primarily come in to play during preparation for a mission, usually at a base. Members of the Resistance rarely have that luxury, so most of the time they default to being in the field, though they can request items from SOE in London. Equipment includes a range of new skill kits, such as a Poisoner’s Kit and a Safecracking Kit; a bicycle dynamo for charging and powering electrical devices and a one-shot pistol disguised as a smoker’s pipe(!); and experimental items like Glue Grenades and Charges developed by Polish alchemists, and a Grounding Spike, a pure iron, sigil marked spike created by the Parisian diabolic society, Loge de Flauros, to weaken summoned demons! The new tome and spells consist of a Demonology spellbook, Abjuration Of The Regal Star, and its associated spells. Of these the new equipment is likely to be of more use, depending upon whether the Game Master accepts demonology in her game.

For the Game Master, there are tables and charts, which she can use to create missions for her Player Characters. These can be used in conjunction with the Achtung! Cthulhu Gamemaster’s Toolkit. Lastly, she is provided with five missions that she can develop into full scenarios. These include stealing a Mythos tome from a grand exhibition of stolen art in ‘The Grotesque Gala’; concealing signs of Resistance activities when the Nazis raid a base of operations in ‘Home and Hearth’; investigate and sabotage Nachtwölfe operations in a factory in ‘The Industry of Storms’; recover dropped supplies before the Germans do in ‘Under Moonlit Skies’; and delay a convoy train in ‘War on the Rails’. All five are given a good page of details and adventure hooks as well as a full colour map. These maps are also provided unmarked for the players’ use.

Physically, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance is well presented. The artwork is great and everything is well organised.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance is mechanically sound, but thematically underwritten in places. Whilst it does mention the differences in tone and style for a Resistance style campaign, it does not explore them in any depth and the lack of advice for the Game Master given those differences is disappointing. Another area where the supplement could have benefited is a bibliography, since the activities and stories of the various resistance groups are not as well known and the Game Master could have done with greater inspiration. And then there is the inclusion of Demonology? Does it fit? Does it not fit? Its inclusion pushes Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 towards more pulp horror, rather its usual Lovecraftian action horror, and it very likely not going to be for everyone. Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Vive La Résistance only touches the surface of its subject, leaving the Game Master with work to do to explore its themes.

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Modiphius Entertainment will be at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, 29th to Sunday 31st of May.

Quick-Start Saturday: Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual

Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

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What is it?
Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual is the quick-start for Tom Clancy’s The Division: The Official Tabletop Roleplaying Game, the roleplaying game based on the video game developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft, and its subsequent novels and comic book series.

It is a eighty-four page, 51.14 MB full colour PDF.

It is decently written and the artwork really is very good.

How long will it take to play?
Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual is designed to be played through in one or two sessions.

What else do you need to play?
Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual needs five ten-sided dice per player.

Who do you play?
Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual includes five pre-generated Player Characters or Agents. They consist of a sharpshooter and scout, a non-specialist soldier, an ex-member of the riot squad, a medic, and a leader. None of the pre-generated Agents have backgrounds.

How is a Player Character defined?

An Agent in Tom Clancy’s The Division: The Official Tabletop Roleplaying Game has three Attributes—Awareness, Dexterity, and Technique; skills and specialities in their associated Skill Domains, and three Traits—Resilience, Vigour, and Quickness, which are used to test an Agent’s speed, strength, or calmness. These all range in value between one and five. Each Agent also has his or her own specific Manoeuvre.

How do the mechanics work?

Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual—and thus Tom Clancy’s The Division: The Official Tabletop Roleplaying Game—uses what it calls the GRIS system. This is short for ‘Gather, Roll, Indicate, and Succeed’. Rolls will either be Trait or Skill rolls. The Traits are Resilience, Vigour, and Quickness, which are used to test an Agent’s speed, strength, or calmness. The number of dice rolled when a player wants his character to act are determined the points in Skill Domain, Skill, and Specialities for skill rolls and the Trait values for Trait rolls. In either case, this will be between one and five dice. The Difficulty value for any task will be between five and ten with seven being average. Modifiers apply to the Difficulty value only, and do not adjust the number of dice rolled. Once rolled, the player choses which die will be his Resolution die, which will determine the outcome. In most situations, this will be the highest die, but in certain circumstances, such as determining how much trauma an Agent suffers when taking damage it might be lower.

The result on the Resolution die will determine the outcome. A result of one is a fiasco, a roll less than the Difficulty value is a failure, a roll equal to the Difficulty value is a success, greater than the Difficulty value is a Tour de Force, and a result of ten which is higher than the Difficulty value is a Feat. The skills list possible Fiascos, Tour de Forces, and Feats. Outside of combat, this might be to generate a Strategy Point, an Inspiring Example which grants an ally a one-time bonus die, and even lowering the Difficulty value for that skill for the rest of the mission. In combat, it can do extra damage, but also generate a Strategy Point or an Inspiring Example. 

How does combat work?

Combat is intended to be fought out on the hex grid. Initiative is a Quickness roll. In a round, an Agent or NPC can move and either sprint, use a Manoeuvre, or an automatic action. The use of a Manoeuvre requires the expenditure of Strategy Points. Strategy Points represent powerful actions, are shared resource and in limited supply. Generic Manoeuvres include ‘Barrage’, ‘Precision Fire’, and ‘Suppressive Fire’. In general, a player will be rolling to see if his Agent hits and that will inflict damage. Damage is a straight value—four for a pistol, five for a submachine gun, six for a rifle or assault rifle, and so on. Armour worn reduces damage, whilst all Agents have ten boxes of Health. They have a Wound Threshold which when reached, means they are exhausted and/or in pain and suffer a die penalty to all rolls. An Agent is down when his Health is reduced to zero. This does not mean they are dead. In a Skirmish, they will be out of the fight, but not dead, whereas in a Confrontation, it can mean they are. There are tables for both Minor and Major Trauma suffered when this occurs. 

 

In general, the combat rules in Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual do feel underwritten and perhaps an example of combat would have helped. One thing that is clear is that Manoeuvres are special actions and should be selected with care. In another roleplaying game, a Player Character might be able to do them all the time and so gain the bonus. Not so here, where their use is likely to be narrative-based. In other words, the players should be asking themselves if now is the right time to use a Manoeuvre instead of later in the scenario.

What do you play?

The setting for Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual and also for Tom Clancy’s The Division: The Official Tabletop Roleplaying Game, requires some explanation. It is a near future post-apocalyptic setting in which a deadly bioweapon, known as the ‘Green Poison’ because it was primarily spread via infected bank notes, led to high casualty rates, civil unrest, the collapse of civil government, and near societal collapse, especially in the US cities of New York and Washington, D.C. Both cities are quarantined, populated by criminal gangs, separatists and secessionists, and worse, as well as refugees and communities surviving despite the chaos and disorder. In response, the President of the United States activates sleeper agents in the population who work for the Strategic Homeland Division (SHD; or simply ‘the Division’), who are ordered to enter the quarantined zones, render aid and assistance, and combat any threats within the bounds of the city which threaten the continuity of the USA. Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual provides an extensive background to and overview of the current situation in the roleplaying game including the factions on both sides in New York and Washington D.C.

The scenario in Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual is ‘Ashes of Murray Hill’. It is an introductory scenario and so does not use the full mission rules from Tom Clancy’s The Division: The Official Tabletop Roleplaying Game, though the Director could adapt it if he has access to them. There is advice on adjusting the story in palces as well. In ‘Ashes of Murray Hill’, the Agents are stationed in a fire station at Kips Bay on the edge of the New York City quarantine zone. The Joint Task Force, made up of police, fire-fighters, and emergency workers, has been sending medical and food convoys into eastern Manhattan to help civilians. Amidst a rainstorm, the Agents learn that one of the convoys has been hijacked, probably by the Rikers, a violent gang made up of former inmates at the infamous prison. The Agents have access to an ECHO or ‘Evidence Correlation Holographic Overlay’, from which they can determine what happened at the ambush site and track the culprits to the Murray Hill district. Whether they use stealth or a more direct approach, the Agents will be able to find the Rikers base of operations and with luck, rescue the survivors from the convoy. In the final scenes, the Agents have to escape the Rikers base of operations as it is attacked by a rival faction and get back to safe territory, only to discover what the Rikers’ true plan was all along…

Is there anything missing?
No. Not as written, but examples of play or combat would not have gone amiss.

Is it easy to prepare?
Yes. Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual is easy to prepare.

Is it worth it?
Yes. Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual does give a good idea of that the roleplaying game will be like. Some players may be disappointed by the lack of tactical elements in the combat system and the combat mechanics may be too light for others, especially given the combat-focused game play of the video game it is based on. On the other hand the rules are not too complex, the background to the setting is surprisingly detailed in its explanation, and the scenario is decent.

Tom Clancy’s The Division – Quickstart Manual is published by Arkhane Asylum Publishing and is available to download here.

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Tom Clancy’s The Division: The Official Tabletop Roleplaying Game is currently being funded on Kickstarter.

Friday Fantasy: Altar of Madness

Altar of Madness is not a scenario per se. It is definitely not an adventure. It is definitely a book for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay published by Lamentations of the Flame Princess. It is definitely a place that the Player Characters are likely to visit again and again and it can be placed almost anyway in the known multiverse. So, what it is, is a single room. A large room, but a single room. A single large encounter that the Game Master can add to any dungeon. Given what it is though, it really works as an addition to a large dungeon. So good for a megadungeon. Or actually two megadungeons. This is because the room can move and as they explore a megadungeon, the Player Characters find might the entrance to this room on more than one dungeon level and later on, they might find the entrance in another altogether. So far, so many generalities. Which is entirely the fault of the encounter, because Altar of Madness has no plot, no beginning, middle, or end, and so none of that can be reviewed. Which leaves the description of what is a very detailed room to review and that is going to be difficult to review without giving away any spoilers because there is a great deal to spoil in Altar of Madness.

Altar of Madness is the final resting place of the mythical First Wizard and the good news is that it has been found. Who or what the First Wizard was is not known, but what is known is that he was interred with a splendid variety of magical treasures ripe for the taking. To which the blurb for Altar of Madness adds, “You are so, so fucked.” Which is entirely accurate, because what Altar of Madness actually is a deathtrap dungeon, or rather a deathtrap room. A room filled with features that are going to entice the players to have their characters investigate and search and play around with and have things go wrong, oh so wrong, that their characters are going to walk away changed. Changed. Cursed. Poisoned. Maddened. Scarred. Aware. Altered. Infested. Bleeding. Incensed. Undead. Armoured. Prescient. Bejewelled. Blinded and blinding. Unlucky. Colourblind. Deviated. All of these are entirely possible conditions that a Player Character can suffer in Altar of Madness. Essentially, this is a tomb with not so much traps as items and objects and spaces which if the Player Characters interact with them, they are going to suffer. This is one giant ‘screw you’ for the players and their characters if their curiosity and greed get the better of them—and it will because there are good magical items to be found—and touch things.

The Altar of Madness is a room one hundred feet in diameter and twenty feet high, with a five foot wide ledge running round the edge. Steps lead down to a bowl of thick phosphorescent mist out of which rises in the centre of the room is fountain topped with demonic skulls and filled with an oily black liquid. A ten foot high diameter hangs over the fountain. Spaced around the room is a statue of a naked woman holding aloft an actual bolt of lightning and a chain hangs straight up from the floor to a hole in space. To the left, there is writing in an unknown language on the wall, whilst to the right, there is a mural of a star-filled sky. In alcoves dotted around the room is an altar carved with human faces, a skeleton dressed in fine clothes lying on a couch, two sarcophagi in separate alcoves, and an eyeball floating in a jar, sitting on a table. There is more, but this is what is visible from the door.

All of this can be interacted with and all of it is described in a very great detail. As are the effects of what happens when the Player Characters do, those effects being rolled on the tables that are associated with each piece of furniture or dressing in the room. Some of the features in the room are connected, primarily through the treasures that they hide, but most are not. The result is that actually many of the features are more installations, almost pieces of art that are designed to screw with the Player Characters. They do not feel out of place as such, but they could be used in a dungeon of the Game Master’s design without any real issue.

This being a design for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay, it should be no surprise that the content is intended for mature players. That said, some of the descriptions of what the Player Characters could do and what the consequences are, is prurient, if not distasteful, concerning as it does the molestation of a highly anatomically accurate statue and a pliant woman. To be clear, the author is not encouraging or condoning such actions, but rather explaining the consequences if a player has his character undertake such actions. The first reaction is to wonder quite who you are roleplaying with if a player does think of these actions and voices them, and then the Game Master allows it. The second reaction is to wonder if that content should have been in the book at all, to which the answer is no. Of course, the Game Master can ignore such content if she wants and not allow for the possibility of the players suggesting such ideas, but still… No.

Physically, Altar of Madness is well done. It has an arcane look to it with just the sigil on its front cover and no title or blurb. Inside the book is in black and white and full of dense text. This encounter does need a careful study to understand how each item in the room works.

Altar of Madness is an amazingly inventive exercise in ‘screw the characters, screw the players’ in deathtrap dungeon design. A comical circus of consequences for the overly curious.

—oOo—

Lamentations of the Flame Princess will be at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, 29th to Sunday 31st of May.

Drawing Dungeons

To date, Loke BattleMats has become best known for its maps which it publishes as books. So far these have included the Big Book of Battle Mats: Rooms, Vaults, & Chambers, the Big Book of Cyberpunk Battle Mats, The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats, The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats, The Towns & Taverns Books of Battle Mats, and Castles, Crypts, & Caverns Books of Battle Mats. These are all big products, containing big maps, ready to play. Conversely, the Dungeon Designer’s Deck: 100 Cards to Level Up your Dungeon Game is quite small, but it can actually do quite a lot and is quite flexible. As its subtitle suggests, it is a deck of cards which can be used in multiple ways. This includes as a dungeon and adventure generator, a solo-adventure generator, and as a set of terrain accessories. The box does say that it is suitable for use with Player Characters of Levels One to Ten and it is compatible with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. However, do not let the latter put you off. The Dungeon Designer’s Deck will work just as well with any retroclone.

As its subtitle suggests, Dungeon Designer’s Deck: 100 Cards to Level Up your Dungeon Game consists of one hundred cards. This includes sixty ‘Terrain Feature Cards’, ten ‘Quest Cards’, ten ‘Room Cards’, ten ‘Door Cards’, five ‘Enemy Generator Cards’, two ‘Random Loot Cards’, and three ‘How To Use Cards’. This includes sixty Terrain Feature Cards, ten Quest Cards, ten Room Cards, ten Door Cards, five Enemy Generator Cards, two Random Loot Cards, and three How to use Cards. In addition to this, there is a foldout map and a reference book. The map is double-sided and shows plain flagstones on one side and a simple room arrangement on the other. If the Game Master or player wants other room arrangements, the Terrain Feature Cards do work with other maps from the publisher.

The three ‘How To Use Cards’ are double-sided and in turn describe the card types, the core principles of using the Dungeon Designer’s Deck, how to use the ‘Random Dungeon Creation’, adjusting the deck based on party size and solo play, and explanations of the ‘Difficulty’ and ‘Damage’ keywords. For ‘Difficulty’ keywords, this sets the Difficulty Class values from First Level to Tenth Level, depending upon whether the task at hand is routine, difficult, very difficult, or near impossible. The ‘Damage’ keywords set the possible damage values in similar fashion depending upon whether it is minor, light, major, or lethal damage.

The ten ‘Quest Cards’ provide a mission, a backstory, clues and where to place them, the rooms the specific locations the missions requires and when to place them, where the finale takes place, any special rules, and rewards. They include a ‘Vault Heist’, ‘Tome Raiders’, ‘Rescue Mission’, ‘Loot and Run’, and more. Each of the ‘Room Cards’ details the ‘Encounter Cards’ to be drawn, extra ‘Clues’, and ‘Troops’ to be encountered, as well as a description of the ‘Finale Encounter’. They include a ‘Headquarters’, ‘The Kennels’, an ‘Evil Temple’, ‘Treasure Vault’, and even a ‘Sewage Plant’. The bulk of the cards in Dungeon Designer’s Deck consist of the sixty ‘Terrain Feature Cards’. Unlike the other cards, these are double-sided. One side depicts a feature of a room or furniture. For example, a ‘Stargazer Study’, ‘Sewer Pool’, ‘Reading Corner’, or ‘Skull Altar’. On the back a table of three or four random options, some flavour text, and a little extra detail. These  ‘Terrain Feature Cards’ will essentially be dressing the adventure. Lastly, each of the ten ‘Door Cards’ describes a door, such as a ‘Vault Door’ or a ‘Mossy Door’ with its stats and details on the back, whilst the five ‘Enemy Generator Cards’ have tables on them for randomly generating encounters.

The Reference Book replicates all of the content on the cards and can be used during play or during the designing of a quest or dungeon. The contents of the Dungeon Designer’s Deck can be used randomly. So ‘Encounter Cards’ can be drawn when a new room is entered and ‘Door Cards’ when a door is found, and this can be done randomly, whether the Dungeon Master is drawing it for her group of players and their adventurers or a player is drawing the cards for solo play. Unlike other solo and/or random dungeon generator tools, there is map making or drawing necessary, though there is nothing to stop the Dungeon Master or player from drawing a map. The Dungeon Master can use the cards to help her create a dungeon as part of her preparation. Alternatively, the ‘Quest Cards’ provide outlines of missions that can played solo and run for a group. These require some preparation and whilst the Dungeon Master might run the same ‘Quest Card’ more than once, there is still plenty in the box for the Dungeon Master to use, whilst a solo player might try again to see how well he can do this time.

Physically, Dungeon Designer’s Deck is a handy little boxed set. The writing is good and all of the art and cartography is excellent. The cards have a matte finish on the reference side and a gloss finish on the picture side. This does feel very slightly odd, but you get used to it.

The multi-purpose Dungeon Designer’s Deck: 100 Cards to Level Up your Dungeon Game has the potential to provide quite a bit of game play, whether from creating quests and dungeons for solo or group play and enhance that game play with attractive scenery that can be different each time it is drawn. The Dungeon Master will need to provide the connective tissue, that is, the narrative to the story generated and the corridors between locations, but that is her job.

—oOo—

Loke Battle Mats will be at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, 29th to Sunday 31st of May.

[Fanzine Focus XLIII] The Travellers’ Digest Number 10

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. However, not all fanzines written with the Old School Renaissance in mind need to be written for a specific retroclone. Although not the case now, the popularity of Traveller would spawn several fanzines, of which The Travellers’ Digest, published by Digest Group Publications, was the most well known and would eventually transform from a fanzine into a magazine.

The publication of The Travellers’ Digest #1 in December, 1985 marked the entry of Digest Group Publications into the hobby and from this small, but ambitious beginnings would stem a complete campaign and numerous highly-regarded supplements for Game Designers Workshop’s Traveller and MegaTraveller, as well as a magazine that all together would run for twenty-one issues between 1985 and 1990. The conceit was that The Travellers’ Digest was a magazine within the setting of the Third Imperium, its offices based on Deneb in the Deneb Sector, and that it awarded the Travellers’ Digest Touring Award. This award would be won by one of the Player Characters and thus the stage is set for ‘The Grand Tour’, the long-running campaign in the pages of The Travellers’ Digest. In classic fashion, as with Europe of the eighteenth century, this would take the Player Characters on a tour of the major capitals of known space. These include Vland, Capitol, Terra, the Aslan Hierate, and even across the Great Rift. The meat of this first issue, as well as subsequent issues, would be dedicated to an adventure, each a stop-off on the ‘The Grand Tour’, along with support for it. The date for the first issue of The Travellers’ Digest and thus when the campaign begins is 152-1101, the 152nd day of the 1101st year of the Imperium.

To best run ‘The Grand Tour’, the Referee will need access to The Atlas of the Imperium, Supplement 8: Library Data (A-M), Supplement 11: Library Data (N-Z), Supplement 7: Traders and Gunboats (or alternatively, Supplement 5: Azhanti High Lightning), as well as the core rules. In addition, other supplements would be required depending on the adventure, in the case of this issue, The Travellers’ Digest Number 9, that would only be Book 8, Robots. For ‘Reference Point’, the tenth part of ‘The Grand Tour’, the Referee will also want access to The Travellers’ Digest Number 8 and The Travellers’ Digest Number 9 for the subsector maps that appear in those issues. CHALLENGE Magazine No. 27 will also be useful. Of course, that was in 1987, and much, if not all, of the rules or background necessary have been updated since. The campaign is also specifically written for use with four pre-generated Player Characters. They consist of Akidda Laagiir, the journalist who won the Travellers’ Digest Touring Award; Dur Telemon, a scout and his nephew; Doctor Theodor Krenstein, a gifted-scientist and roboticist; and Doctor Krenstein’s valet, ‘Aybee’, or rather, ‘AB-101’. The fact is, AB-101 is a pseudo-biological robot, both protégé and prototype. Consequently, the mix of Player Characters are surprisingly non-traditional and not all of them are easily created using the means offered in Traveller or MegaTraveller. This is addressed within various issues of the fanzine.

The Travellers’ Digest Number 10 was published in 1987. One major change announced in the editorial is the magazine will no longer print the Universal Task Profile. In past issues, this has explained the mechanical format used in The Travellers’ Digest, but with the publication of and its application in MegaTraveller, it seems redundant. This gives the magazine two extra pages to play with! In previous issue, The Travellers’ Digest Number 9, and ninth part of ‘The Grand Tour’ brought the Travellers to Capital, the heart of the Third Imperium, and the Emperor’s court at ‘Before the Iridium Throne’. When ‘Reference Point’, the tenth part by Gary L. Thomas, opens, the Travellers found themselves with a problem. To get to Capital, the four Travellers were granted Imperial space-required travel vouchers. However, the Emperor’s largesse does not run in the opposite direction. Thus, they find themselves on Capital, the core of the Third Imperium, with nowhere to go and now way of paying for it! Fortunately, three of the four have transferable skills aboard ship and the other is a member of the Traveller’s Aid Society and so can begin make their way. They decide to see more of the Third Imperium and head Rimward towards Sol in the Solomani Sphere.

This is fun set-up, shifting the adventurers of the Travellers into something that is more peripatetic and more like a classic Traveller campaign. In ‘Reference Point’, the Travellers find themselves husbanding a difficult species from one zoo to another, pulling a few strings based on their various reputations, and so on, until they receive a message from Eneri Balan, who had been the protocol assigned to them on Capital. He has a task for them that he can pass on from the Moot, the primary deliberative assembly of the Third Imperium, composed of all nobles holding the rank of Baron or higher. The Baron of Wolton holds his patent on Kigaru in the Ilelish subsector, but it was destroyed along with other records in a fire. Fortunately, copies of all such records are held in the computers on the Scout Base underground on the world of Reference. Here, the records of the Third Imperium go all the way back to the First Imperial Grand Survey and the Second Imperial Grand Survey. Unfortunately, when copies of the records about Kigaru were returned, there was no mention of his barony and it was in fact, public property. This effectively strips him of his title, so he sought help from the Moot. The Travellers are to travel to Reference and investigate this discrepancy, as two of their number are computer specialists. Besides investigating this problem, the Travellers’ arrival on Reference will trigger another couple of plots, which though small, are quite interesting. The Referee will develop some of the NPCs and scenes in the mini-adventures that the Travellers will encounter and so bring them to life, ‘Reference Point’ serves up a thoroughly enjoyable slice of life with small stories that push the Travellers onwards on ‘The Grand Tour’.

‘Reference Point’ is followed by a second adventure, ‘Plague of Perruques’. This is by Gary L. Thomas and Marc W. Miller and is set in the Regina Subsector following the end of the Fifth Frontier War. The party, led by Baron Ganidiirsi hault-Reitan, are touring his holdings, surveying them for damage, when he has arranged a hunting trip for the Rebacked Slonth on Uakye in Regina Subsector. The scenario is divided into two parts. In the first half, the Player Characters go hunting, but in the second, they return to the capital to discover that a strange and unfortunately deadly plague has broken out. Its symptoms include grey fibres appearing at the roots of suffers’ hair and covering the skull in a few days, followed by a film growing over the eyes, leading to blindness and fever. It kills half of its sufferers. This is an investigative scenario in which the Player Characters need to travel to various locations, sifting rumour from fact. It is challenging and needs some set-up by the Referee to ensure that the players have some pointers to get started, but this is a solid scenario, and like ‘Reference Point’ before it, has its world data presented in same format as for The Grand Survey. Task details are provided for the hunting half of the scenario, and whilst the scenario was originally written as a tournament scenario, it does not come with any pre-generated Player Characters.

The ‘Library Data of the Core Sector’ is surprisingly extensive, paying particular attention to Cadlion and Chant Subsectors which are also detailed, compete with maps. There is a lot of detail here, and some of the entries are marked with Referee suggestions for their use. The ‘Playing the Characters’ series comes to close with an examination of Akidda Laagiir, the journalist whose Travellers’ Digest Touring Award at the start of ‘The Grand Tour’ sets the campaign off. This is useful, more so if the Referee is starting the campaign from the start. The ‘Traveller Q & A’ provides answers to the readers’ questions. These include a very detailed explanation of what MegaTraveller and Traveller: 2300 are and what the differences are between (and the original Traveller); why nobles are actually banned from taking anagathic treatments (useful in conjunction with the later article in the magazine); the stats for the Princes Lucan and Varian, and Margaret, Grand Duchess of Delphi; and much more. Some of the information here is quite technical, entirely in keeping with Traveller as a roleplaying game.

This is followed by a series of departments, old and new. For the ‘Tech Briefs’ department, any player of Akidda Laagiir will be pleased to see that the device detailed is ‘Holorecorders’. This is a recording and playback device as well as an editing suite using holocrystals. It is a highly detailed description and also suggests other applications too, such as holographic recording robots for hazardous environments, medical imaging, police crime scene recording, and more. The next department is ‘The Gaming Digest—Referee’s Tips—Part 1’ for which Gary L. Thomas explores ‘More Effective Roleplaying’. He observes that the quality of roleplaying varies wildly, especially in Traveller, but points out that actually roleplaying is a skill and can be made better with practice. This is a surprisingly deep examination of roleplaying, exploring the differences between character and player, the limitations of player knowledge in what they know and do not know, tailoring content to players’ interests, and more. The article is aimed at both the player and the Referee and is actually informative and useful, possibly more so when the issue of the magazine was published.

‘Anagathics, the Drug of the Ages’ by Joe D. Fugate Sr. examines the development of the anti-ageing drugs and how they are obtained, what their possible side effects are, and more. Anti-ageing treatment becomes available at Tech Level 12 and rules are provided for this, and then again at subsequent Tech Levels up to 15. There are fewer side-effects as the science advances, but the article also examines what happens if a Player Character takes a break between treatments or runs out and suffers withdrawal symptoms. However, the article is more technical than social, so the social consequences are not explored, which is a pity. Otherwise, this comprehensive guide and useful should players have their character seek out anagathics. ‘Statistics From the Second Imperial Grand Survey’ brings the support for Traveller in the issue to a close. It consists mostly of numbers so is not that interesting.

The last few pages of The Travellers’ Digest Number 10 are devoted to Traveller: 2300. First, William Connors describes ‘Pentapod Constructs for 2300’, a number of biological devices available on the open market from the alien species. They include a ‘Breather’, a lifeform that when worn enables the user to breathe freely underwater (the lifeform does look like a Facehugger though…); the ‘Hibernation Inducer’, a black blob that when placed on the back of an injured person induces unconsciousness and a greatly lowered metabolism to enable the person to be transported to medical safety; and ‘Atmospheric Filter Symbiots’, tiny creatures that can be injected into the lungs to filter out trace elements that would normally harm the host. The ‘Briefcase Library for 2300’ by Robert Parker describes a briefcase-sized device that uses optical storage drives to store vast amounts of information suitable for personal use and transportation to the frontier. Of course, it looks vastly outdated by modern standards, being the equivalent of the modern laptop. Nancy Parker gives a very detailed breakdown of the ‘Medical Kit for 2300’, detailing what medical kit contains and must be carried by vehicles with a passenger capacity of thirty or more and also by emergency workers. Lastly, Robert Parker also describes ‘The Life Foundation “Squid” for 2300’, a relatively cheap and easily customisable submersible for frontier use. Unfortunately, there are no technical details or deck plans, but otherwise, this is a nice description.

Physically, The Travellers’ Digest Number 10 continues the physical improvement begun in the previous issue. The artwork is improved too and overall, this is a much more professional looking issue.

After the tumultuous events explored in The Travellers’ Digest Number 9 with the assassination of Emperor Strephon, The Travellers’ Digest Number 10 settles down and concerns itself with providing solidly gameable support for both MegaTraveller and Traveller: 2300. The scenarios in the issue are good, ‘Reference Point’, the tenth part of ‘The Grand Tour’ is really quite enjoyable. The Travellers’ Digest Number 10 is simply a good issue with good support for both roleplaying games from Game Designers’ Workshop.

[Fanzine Focus XLIII] The Valley Out of Time: Gods Walk the Valley

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry and the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game from Goodman Games. Some of these fanzines provide fantasy support for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but others explore other genres for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. One such fanzine is The Valley Out of Time.

The Valley Out of Time is a six-part series published by Skeeter Green Productions. It is written for use with both the Dungeon Crawl Classics RolePlaying Game and Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, ‘The Valley Out of Time’ is a ‘Lost Worlds’ style setting a la X1 The Isle of Dread, and films such as The Land that Time Forgot, The Lost World, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, One Million years, B.C., and others, plus the artwork of Frank Frazetta. Combining dinosaurs, Neanderthals, and a closed environment, it is intended to be dropped into a campaign with relative ease and would work in both a fantasy campaign or a post-apocalyptic campaign. It could even work as a bridge between the two, with two different possible entries into ‘The Valley Out of Time’, one from a fantasy campaign and one from a post-apocalyptic campaign.

The Valley Out of Time: Gods Walk the Valley is the sixth and final entry in the series. Unfortunately, it marks a return to form for the series. Unlike the fourth and fifth issues in the series before it, The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions and The Valley Out of Time: Rotten at the Core it does not do anything more than just give the Judge one more dinosaur or megafauna or one more fight with one more dinosaur or megafauna. For the Judge that wants fights and monsters, the first three issues of The Valley Out of Time were perfect, and the good news is that in the case of The Valley Out of Time: Gods Walk the Valley, that Judge will find the issue equally as good. However, for the Judge wanting more, this sixth issue as well as the first three issues, will be a disappointment. What the series promises is set out on the back cover: “The Valley Out of Time is a series of ’zine-sized adventures from SGP. This valley can be placed in any ongoing campaign, and is set in the “Neanderthal Period” of development. Huge monsters – both dinosaurs and otherwise – and devolved humanoids plague the area, and only the hardiest of adventurers will prevail!” The problem is that the series failed to deliver on anything more than just dinosaurs and at best, very minor encounters, all of which emphasised combat rather than interaction or exploration. Certainly, until The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions and The Valley Out of Time: Rotten at the Core, the series failed to provide what might be called an adventure as promised on the back cover.

One of the things that The Valley Out of Time: Gods Walk the Valley does do is address the issue of Player Character motivations. Unfortunately, in previous issues, the series has steadfastly refused to make any suggestions as to what they might be and leave the Judge to decide what they are—which in all fairness is the series’ signature design feature. Here though, they are included and they suggest that the Player Characters might have been cast through some random portal and ended up in the valley, found the valley deep into a mountain range they were exploring, or have found their way into a jungle enclave shut off from the rest of the world by some powerful entities who wanted to see how it developed free of outside influence, to protect the location of an artefact, to imprison dangerous creatures, or a mix of all four. Putting aside that it is strange to suggest these ideas so late in the series, it should be no surprise that having suggested them, the fanzine leaves it up to the Judge to develop which of them to choose and then develop.

The mainstay of this sixth and final issue of the fanzine is four, highly detailed encounters monstrous beings, the almost god-like things alluded to by the issue title. In ‘The Living Jungle’ the Player Characters are cutting their way through the jungle when it comes to life and attacks them. They must defend themselves against a Topiary-Thing and Animated Palm Trees (a variant of the Treant) lead by a Dryad whom the Player Characters have unwittingly angered in slashing their way through the jungle. Unfortunately, there is no way of resolving the situation other than with a fight. So no doing a service or task for the Dryad as restitution and therefore no opportunities for interaction or roleplaying. Worse, this is not the only encounter like this in this or previous issues of the fanzine. So, whilst the creatures might well designed and detailed, the encounter itself strikes a disappointingly singular note.

The second encounter, ‘The Summoning’ has more depth and detail, but that is because it is a bigger encounter. The Player Characters crest a hill to look down upon an enormous ziggurat at the base of which a ceremony is being enacted at the end of which it is clear that a sacrifice will be performed. This is to summon a prime ooze from beyond time and space (for Dungeon Crawl Classics) or activate a War-bot (for Mutant Crawl Classics) and with five hundred feet between them and the ziggurat, the Player Characters have time to act. The combat is broken down into a timeline that last several rounds which track what the enemy is doing. At the end of it, the Player Characters might find a great artefact, an Orb of Power (for Dungeon Crawl Classics) or Dimensional Orb (for Mutant Crawl Classics). The Orb of Power gives a statistic and spellcasting bonus, whilst the Dimensional Orb gives a bonus to the program checks and access to a patron AI. However, the possessor cannot let the artefact out of his sight, but beyond that, either artefact feels underwhelming.

In ‘Ancient Hero’ the Player Characters find a great stone slab on the side of a hill. If they can shift the slab, they find inside a tomb for a Skeletal Champion (for Dungeon Crawl Classics) or Scream Champion (for Mutant Crawl Classics). If the Player Characters can defeat this mighty monster and its companions, there is an equally mighty treasure to gained. This is The Bloody Hand, a cursed and Chaotic two-handed sword that causes those of opposed Alignment to bleed when wounded with it. However, the sword must take a life every twenty-four lest the wielder suffer actual damage or a statistic loss (the weapon is highly reminiscent of certain soul-sucking sword…). Following a rumour—which makes a nice change from just wandering into an encounter—about a flame that fell out of the sky, the Player Characters investigate which might be its crash site, the Isle of Golenmot, deep in the jungle. It turns out that the crater where it landed, now full of muck and water is actually home to a giant snapping turtle—and it is hungry. If they defeat it, the Player Characters may find the meteorite at the bottom of the lake, but other than that, the encounter is over and done with.

Beyond that, The Valley Out of Time: Gods Walk the Valley presents write-ups for all of the monsters that the Player Characters will have faced in the previous four encounters in Appendix A. Then in Appendix B, ‘Resources of the Valley’ reprints details of materials used in the valley rather than metal—bone, wood, and diamond. Between them, Appendix A and Appendix B, along with the article on materials, and the empty three pages of ‘GM Notes’, make up half of the issue, and add nothing to the fanzine. The unnecessary repetition of material here could have been put to so much better use, but instead, half of the fanzine is a waste of space.

So The Valley Out of Time: Gods Walk the Valley is essentially is four combat encounters. Four, big, bruising combat encounters, but nothing more, nothing less. And not one of them adds to The Valley Out of Time as a setting and not one of them an adventure as promised.

Physically, The Valley Out of Time: Gods Walk the Valley is well presented and well written. The artwork is of a reasonable quality.

As a series, The Valley Out of Time has continued to astound and astonish in the author’s steadfast refusal to explore the concept of a lost valley and the sense of a lost valley as a place, instead, presenting again and again, one combat encounter with a dinosaur or megafauna after another with nary an opportunity for roleplaying. It is as if the author found the concept of a lost valley, pointed the Judge towards it, and then lost the concept entirely, leaving the Judge to do all of the work to make it a gameable space. And that is not what a good fanzine should be doing.

In the meantime, there scope for someone to step up and write a lost valley setting for Dungeon Crawl Classics and/or Mutant Crawl Classics which has setting details, plots, motivations, NPCs, hooks, secrets, and more that the Judge can run for her players without having to do all of the heavy lifting, because The Valley Out of Time does none of that.