2016: Shadowrun: Anarchy

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

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Shadowrun had a problem in 2016 with Shadowrun, Fifth Edition and it is a problem that continues today with Shadowrun, Sixth Edition. Originally published by FASA, Inc. in 1989, but now published by Catalyst Game Labs, the roleplaying game has always had a great setting and been a great combination of genres. Fantasy and Cyberpunk in a future in which man meets machine and magic, corporations are states unto themselves, dragons are CEOs and media personalities. The problem is with the mechanics. At their core, they consist of a dice pool mechanic determined by attribute, skill, and other bonuses, the aim being to roll as many successes—five or six on the dice—as possible, which is simple enough. Shadowrun though is a game of different character types—Adepts, Mages, Shamans, Deckers, Street Samurai, Riggers, and Technomancers—and effectively, the rules for each one is essentially a different subsystem. Which meant different rules for each player to master and a lot of different rules for the Game Master to understand. Plus, with different rules and different variations upon rules in each edition, no player or Game Master could quite agree upon which edition of the roleplaying game they preferred.

Published in 2016, Shadowrun: Anarchy was offered as an alternative ruleset to the then Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, notably a narrative driven ruleset which kept the core mechanics, but also simplified Shadowrunner creation. At its heart though, is the Cue System. This first appeared in the publisher’s pulp Sci-Fi roleplaying game Cosmic Patrol and then in the superhero roleplaying game, Valiant Universe Roleplaying Game. Both are storytelling games with some traditional mechanics, but unlike some storytelling roleplaying games, they do not forego a Game Master. Instead, in addition to roleplaying their characters, whether members of the Cosmic Patrol or superheroes in the Valiant Universe, the players take in turns to serve as the Game Master. Shadowrun: Anarchy uses the Cue System, but makes one significant change to it. Instead of each player being the Game Master for a scene, Shadowrun: Anarchy maintains the role of the Game Master as in traditional roleplaying games. The Game Master sets the brief and at the beginning of each scene narrates the situation, what the Shadowrunners see, smell, hear, and so on. Then the game play proceeds around the table with each player narrating what his character does. Each player’s narration ends when it is appropriate, either in terms of the story or the scene, or if the player needs to roll dice for his character, whether that is to attempt a particular objective or combat is initiated. A player is free to narrate his character’s actions in the scene and to develop the scene as long as any addition is not going to break it, usually inspiration from the ‘Cues’ or story or situational tags, that can either be ones the Game Master presents at the start of the scene or ones that are on the player’s character sheet.

The role of the Game Master here is to decide when a player needs to roll a Test for his character’s action, and then what Skill and Attribute are appropriate to the Test as well as what modifiers apply. She also roleplays the NPCs, rolls their Defence rolls, handles any rules difficulties, and decides when a player’s narration comes to end, either because it is too long or stretching the limits of credulity. The Game Master also needs to know the details of the Contract Brief, the scenario that she is running. When it is a player’s Narration, it is his role to keep the character’s opposition on its toes, to make his character stand out, to explore and highlight what is great about the Sixth World, and to work with the other players to make the story and the game better. When it is not his turn, it is the player’s duty to prepare for his next Narration, building on the Narrations of his fellow players, and to have his character interact with their characters in their Narrations. Lastly, the player is there, when needed, when need to make suggestions to his fellow players, in particular, if another player has difficulty creating Narration, again working from the Cues for the scenes and the Cues for the narrating player’s character.

Play proceeds like this through Scenes and Turns from the start of the ‘Contract Brief’ to its execution and its conclusion. However, Scenes can be broken by ‘Talk Time’, which is when conversations can take place—most typically with a Mr. Johnson—and when planning can take place. Both the Game Master and players have access to ‘Plot Points’. A Player Character starts play with three and can have at most five at any one time. More are awarded for great Narrations and certain Shadow Amps grant bonus Plot Points at the start of combat. A player can spend a Plot Point to ‘Live Dangerously’ to add a Glitch Die to a player’s roll (either their own or that of another player); ‘Shake it up’ by making a Narration and have his character take an action when it is not his Narration; ‘Double time it’ to take two movement actions; to add a ‘Surprise threat’, such as having unseen corporate security guards show up; carry out ‘First aid’ and heal a point of Physical or Stun damage; cause a ‘Malfunction’ in the spirits or devices of an NPC or another Player Character temporarily; ‘Take the hit’ if a weaker or injured character is successfully hit by a combat action; or deliver ‘A dish best served cold’ and immediately have his character take a free attack action against the NPC who just attacked him.

The Game Master starts a Contract Brief with a single Plot Point and earns more as the players spend them. She cannot spend her Plot Points to aid or hinder a Player Character, but can spend them to add a Glitch Die to an NPC’s action and also to change the turn order, whether that is in reverse or randomly! This is to shake up the play pattern and to keep the players on their toes.

In general, this is well explained and there is good advice on how to handle this switch to shared narration. Encouraging the players to build up, rather than tear down, encouraging a player to use all of his character’s options instead of using the most powerful, and where necessary, offer hints and recapitulating on the current situation, plans that the characters have already made, and twists already introduced. However, there are issues with the explanations in places. For example, the explanation never goes into how exactly a player rakes inspiration from a Cue, but worse, having told the Game Master and her players how to play a Contract Brief and thus Shadowrun: Anarchy, what it does not do is show them. There is no example of play anywhere in the book. Go back and read that again… Such an omission is a fundamental flaw in the design of any roleplaying game, but in a roleplaying game such as Shadowrun: Anarchy which is making a radical shift in its style of play, from traditional, simulationist to narrative, storytelling, this is worse. It is not a catastrophe in that its omission makes the game unplayable, but it hinders the learning of how the roleplaying game is run and played and it hinders the teaching of how the roleplaying game is run and played.

To be a little nuanced here, if the Game Master and her players have some experience of storytelling, narrative roleplaying games, this is much less of an issue. Even less of an issue if either has experience of the previous Cue System roleplaying games, Cosmic Patrol and Valiant Universe Roleplaying Game. If not, if the Game Master and her players are wanting to play Shadowrun for the first time or have played Shadowrun for a long time and are looking for a lighter ruleset, then it is a grave error of judgement upon the part of the designers.

In terms of the rules, Shadowrun: Anarchy starts with Shadowrunner creation. A Shadowrunner is defined by Attributes, Skills, Shadow Amps, Weapons, and Gear, plus Qualities and Cues. A Shadowrunner will also have a Metatype, either Human, Elf, Dwarf, Ork, or Troll. This Metatype provides various bonuses and adjustments. The Attributes consist of Strength, Agility, Willpower, Logic, and Charisma, which typically range between one and six for Humans, but can be higher or lower for different Metahumans. There is a wide range of Skills and a Shadowrunner will have some Skills in common with his colleagues—combat skills in particular—but specialise in a particular area, whether that is magic, vehicle use, hacking, or even combat. All skills have Specialisations, which increase the number of dice a player rolls when using them. Shadow Amps are what makes a Shadowrunner special. These can be Awakened so that the Shadowrunner can cast spells (the spells cost extra) or Emerged which gives the Shadowrunner access to Technomancer Amps. There are Amps for Adepts, Bioware and Cyberware, Matrix Amps for hacking, Drone Amps for the Rigger, Gear Amps, Social Amps, and Critter Amps. Installing too Bioware or Cyberware has its cost though, reducing a Shadowrunner’s ability to handle the effects of magic, including healing. Cues are often common phrases that a Shadowrunner might say or how he might react.

Qualities are the equivalent of advantages and disadvantages and a Shadowrunner has two positive Qualities and one negative Quality.

To create a Shadowrunner, a player assigns points to his Shadowrunner’s Attributes and Skills, purchases Shadow Amps, selects weapons and gear, and then creates Cues, at least two or three, and optionally add Tags, which give a quick ideas as the theme and style of the Shadowrunner. He also selects Qualities. The number of points the player has to spend on Attributes, Skills, and Shadow Amps, as well has many weapons and how much gear he has to select, will vary by game level, either Gang-Level, Street Runner, or Prime Runner. The rules allow for a player design the Shadow Amps he wants for his Shadowrunner, but the Shadowrun: Anarchy includes lots of off-the-shelf options which ease the creation process. The process overall is not difficult, except that is for coming up with Cues and Dispositions.

Name: ‘Rávdos’

Metatype: Ork

Tags: Ork • Barrens Girl • Rat Shaman • Wet Behind the Ears

Cues: Oh shiny! • The darkness is my friend • I know a shortcut (if you’re squeezy enough) • You lost something? I can find it • The pack is family • Eyes most places

Dispositions: Twitchy • Not run to fight another day. Just run • The streets always deliver • Pack player

ATTRIBUTES

Strength 3 Agility 4 Willpower 5 Logic 4 Charisma 3 Essence 6

SKILLS

Agility: Athletics 1, Close Combat 2

Willpower: Conjuring 2, Sorcery 2

Logic: Knowledge (The Barrens 1, Greek 1), Tracking 1

Charisma: Negotiation 1

SHADOW AMPS

Awakened (2), Vermin Control (1), Analyse Truth (1), Clairvoyance (1), Natural Weapons (1)

QUALITIES

Mentor Spirit (Rat), Home Ground (The Barrens), Low Pain Threshold

WEAPON

Knife (STR/2+1)P

GEAR

Synthleather jacket: 6, Trauma Patches, Crowbar, Smoke Grenades

Mechanically, Shadowrun: Anarchy uses a dice pool system that will be familiar to players of Shadowrun. When a player wants his Shadowrunner to act, he forms a dice pool of six-sided dice consisting of Skill Dice and Attribute Dice, plus any Modifiers from the situation, Shadow Amps, and Qualities. This roll is made against the Game Master’s Opposing Dice pool. Results of five or six count as Hits and if the player rolls more Hits than the Game Master, his Shadowrunner succeeds, if not, he fails. Edge can be spent—and a Shadowrunner typically starts with a single point of Edge—to alter the results. If spent before the test, four, fives, and sixes count as Hits, but after the test, any results that are not five or six can be rerolled. A player can also spend a Plot Point to add a Glitch Die to a dice roll. This is a die of different colour. If the result of the Glitch Die is a one, bad luck has befallen the Shadowrunner, even if the result overall means that the Shadowrunner has succeeded. For example, a Close Combat attack could not only fail, but the attacker falls over as well; a gun could jam; a Hacking Test results in the Hacker deleting or downloading the wrong file; and so on. However, if the result on the Glitch Die is a five or six, then good luck has befallen the Shadowrunner, such as bypassing armour in a fight, finding something interesting on a Hacking mission, and so on. Again, this good luck will still occur if the overall result indicates that the Shadowrunner has failed.

Combat is more complex, though some elements, such as ammunition tracking, shots fired per turn, firing modes, reloading speeds, and so on, have been removed to simplify player choices and keep things moving. When a player wants his Shadowrunner to attack, he forms a dice pool of six-sided dice consisting of Skill Dice and Attribute Dice, plus any Modifiers from the situation, Shadow Amps, Qualities, and Weapon effects. For the opponents, the Game Master is rolling a dice pool formed from the Agility Dice and Logic Dice, plus any modifiers and Shadow Amp effects. If the attacker rolls more Hits than the defender, the difference is added to the damage of the attack. If fewer or none, the attack fails and no damage is inflicted. Armour is treated as ablative and reduces damage, but is damaged in the process, though it can be repaired. Damage can either be Phsyical or Stun and is applied to the appropriate track of a Shadowrunner’s Condition Monitor. As it is filled in, modifiers reduce the number of dice a player will roll on every Test. Eventually, a Shadowrunner will either be knocked out or killed.

Combat is slower than standard task resolution in Shadowrun: Anarchy. Although there is an optional rule for handling Mooks, that is being able to subdue or kill numerous opponents in one attack, it is not the default. The problem here is that adds an element of grit that otherwise is at odds with the cinematic simplification of some rules elsewhere, such as removing the need to reload or track ammunition use.

There is a brilliant piece of writing when it comes to ‘Attack Limits’. “A character can only take a single attack action during their Narration. What is an Attack action? An action that intentionally and directly damages another living being (including NPCs, critters, spirits, and whatever). Want to debate the meaning of Attack action beyond that? Have fun, and we’ll be here for you when you’re ready to play!” It is just saying, get on with it, because Shadowrun: Anarchy is not the kind of roleplaying game where that kind of detail should be causing any sweat. This is not to say that Shadowrun: Anarchy manages to avoid causing any sweat, but it is a point well made.

An interesting side effect of there being no Nuyen in Shadowrun: Anarchy is that a Shadowrunner cannot simply go out and buy new armour. A Plot Point can be spent repairing a single point, but for a full repair, the player has to pay a point of Karma (usually awarded at the end of missions and spent to improve a Shadowrunner) or promise a favour to the Game Master. This allows the Game Master to select the next Contact Brief—normally the players do it—and if multiple favours are owed, the players at least get to choose the order in which they do them. This adds a narrative wrinkle as an urgent job suddenly gets in the way of what their Shadowrunners might want to actually do!

Elsewhere, there is a lot of streamlining in Shadowrun: Anarchy compared to previous editions of Shadowrun. Nuyen and Lifestyle Costs are treated as abstract, narrative elements rather than players needing to track the numbers; weapons and gear are simplified for fast play; hacking in the Matrix is distilled to single rolls and reactions such as triggering alarms and the Overwatch Score are narrative elements; magic remains much like Shadowrun, but there is no Drain effect; and Technomancers have no Drain effect. In many ways, this is an improvement, often really simplifying quite complex subsystems in Shadowrun, such as the Matrix rules. This does come at a cost, in terms of limiting the number of spells a caster can have, the spirits that a summoner can bring into play, and the Complex Forms a Technomancer knows. Combat in the Matrix though, works exactly as it does in the real world. Optional rules do allow for hacking to be more detailed if desired, but that does add extra complexity. In comparison, the Rigger, the one role which would have benefited from streamlining is underserved by the lack of details for drones and vehicles, except some drones described in the NPC descriptions.

Shadowrun: Anarchy does give the Game Master and player with a lot of support. There is a solid introduction to the setting with some fiction, the characters from which appear as NPCs or potential Shadowrunners elsewhere in the book, and there is decent account of the history up until the year 2077 when Shadowrun, Fifth Edition is set. The Big Ten megacorporations from Ares Macrotechnology to Wuxing Incorporated are detailed, as well as organised crime, gang, the law, politics, major powers, and more, as well as a look at life in the Sixth World. Thirty sample Shadowrunners, including an Elf combat archaeologist, Dwarf parkour adept, Human ganger razorgirl, Troll face, and Ork reporter, are given full descriptions and character sheets, plus there are stats for twenty-three NPCs, though twenty-three definitely does not feel enough. There is a good guide to Seattle as well.

The star though of this support, is the twenty-five ‘Contract Briefs’, several of which are multi-part affairs. Each starts with ‘Mr. Johnson’s Pitch’ and then lists the objectives, the setting, and the plot scene by scene. There are suggestions as the NPCs for each scene and a list of Tags for the whole mission. There is even one called ‘Food Fight’, an obvious nod to the original scenario/encounter given in Shadowrun. Overall, the selection of ‘Contract Briefs’ is very good and will provide multiple session of play if the Game Master decides to use all of them. Most of them can be played through in a single session or two. Lastly, there are notes on Shadowrun: Anarchy and Shadowrun, Fifth Edition and on using source material from the latter as well as adapting Shadowrunners from one to the other or vice versa. These are serviceable.

Physically, Shadowrun: Anarchy is a good looking book. The artwork is excellent and the layout clean. However, it definitely needs another edit.

Unfortunately, Shadowrun: Anarchy is a book with problems. Not least of which is the fact that there is no map of Seattle and its environs in 2077, let alone North America or the world. There are places where rules could have been clarified, but either never are or are very later on, such as placing the ‘Anarchy Catalogue’ with its ready-pick Shadow Amps right at the end of the book rather than with the rules for Shadowrunner creation or rules for a particular in a ‘Contract Brief’ rather than in the general section for the pertinent rules or in the NPC section. The selection of NPCs or ready-to-play Shadowrunners is great, but not all of them are consistent in their design. So, if player or Game Master wants to use one, they need to be redesigned to make the costs balance.

The issue with Shadowrun: Anarchy is threefold. First, it set out to address the crunch and mechanical complexity of Shadowrun, Fifth Edition that made it difficult to learn run, and whilst it can be argued that it very much did that, offering a streamlined, faster-playing system, in switching to the more narrative, player-involved Cue System, it asked player and Game Master alike to make a radical change in playing style, but did not explain it enough. How exactly does a ‘Cue’ work? Or a ‘Tag’ or a ‘Disposition’? It is possible for the Game Master and her players to grasp the fundamentals, but the nuances are lost they are not fully explained or given a full example of play, which if done right would have been the best teaching aid of all. Second, Shadowrun: Anarchy cannot decide who it is for. The old Shadowrun veteran who wants to try a simpler system for his favourite roleplaying game? Someone who is completely new to Shadowrun? Or someone who has played a Cue System roleplaying game and wants to try a Shadowrun roleplaying game? All three? It is unclear. Third, is the lack of development to make it coherent and have more of the pick-up-and-play aspect that you get the impression it is aiming.

Shadowrun: Anarchy is a great idea. A fast playing roleplaying game with narrative elements in one of the best developed and entertaining settings in the roleplaying hobby. In fact, it is not actually unplayable, but the lack of development, the underwhelming lack of presentation in terms of its idea, and its organisation make it almost as difficult to play as the then current version of the main roleplaying game, Shadowrun, Fifth Edition. Which misses the point of what it was intended to do.

[Free RPG Day 2026] The Weaver & The Redcaps

Now in its nineteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2026 took place on Saturday, June 27th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Unfortunately, due to vagaries of International Customs, Free RPG Day in the UK did not take place until Saturday, 22nd August.

This review is possible due to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham.

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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?
The Dolmenwood Quick-Start: The Weaver & the Redcaps is the quick-start for Dolmenwood, the weird fairy tale adventure game. It is published by Necrotic Gnome, best known for Old School Essentials, the retroclone based on the 1981 revision of Basic Dungeons & Dragons by Tom Moldvay and its accompanying Expert Set by Dave Cook and Steve Marsh.

The Dolmenwood Quick-Start: The Weaver & the Redcaps is a twenty page, full colour booklet.

How long will it take to play?
The Dolmenwood Quick-Start: The Weaver & the Redcaps includes the scenario, ‘The Weaver & the Redcaps’, a short scenario which can be played through in a single session.

What else do you need to play?
The Dolmenwood Quick-Start: The Weaver & the Redcaps needs a full set of polyhedral dice per player.

Who do you play?
The Dolmenwood Quick-Start: The Weaver & the Redcaps includes six pre-generated Player Characters. They consist of a Human Cleric, a Human Fighter, a Human Friar, a Breggle Magician, an Elf Thief, and a Mossling Hunter.

How is a Player Character defined?

In Dolmenwood, a Player Character is defined by his Kindred, Class, Level and Abilties. These will help determine his Armour Class, Hit Points, Attack, Speed, Magic Resistance, Save Targets, and Skill Targets. The six Abilities are Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma. Of the pre-generated Player Characters in Dolmenwood Quick-Start: The Weaver & the Redcaps, Elves are fairy folk, a Breggle is a goat-headed humanoid whose folk rule part of south-west Dolmenwood, and a Mossling is a part-mortal flesh/part-plant or fungus humanoid from the dank, fungal-infested lowlands to the east.

How do the mechanics work?

Mechanically Magic works very much as other retroclones, in particular those based on Basic Dungeons & Dragons. It is Vancian in nature, meaning that each day, a spellcaster memorises spells daily and once cast, the magical imprinting of a spell on the caster’s memory dissipates.  looks any other retroclone from the Old School Renaissance, but with minor changes. Both Ability Checks and Skill Checks are rolled on a six-sided die. For Ability Checks, the Ability modifier is applied to the die roll to beat a typical target of four. For Skill Checks, the appropriate Ability modifier is applied to the die roll to beat a target. All Player Characters have the Search and Listen skills, whilst the Thief Class will have its usual range.

Saving Throws are rolled on a twenty-sided die as per other retroclones. The five Save Categories are Doom, Ray, Hold, Blast, and Spell, each representing a different type of hazard.

In addition to the Basic Rules, the Dolmenwood Quick-Start: The Weaver & the Redcaps also provides explanations of the supernatural abilities of clerics, friars, and magicians, the roleplaying game’s skills, and how to handle encounters and combat.

How does combat work?

Combat works very much as other retroclones, in particular those based on Basic Dungeons & Dragons.

How does magic work?

Magic works very much as other retroclones, in particular those based on Basic Dungeons & Dragons. It is Vancian in nature, meaning that each day, a spellcaster memorises spells daily and once cast, the magical imprinting of a spell on the caster’s memory dissipates. 

What do you play?

It is a short, whimsical encounter that is easily added to a Referee’s Dolmenwood campaign. Griselma Harrow, a weaver and embroiderer renowned for crafting magical garments for various notable figures in Dolmenwood and recently rejected a demand from the capricious fairy lord, Prince Mallowheart, craft him a new coat. In spite, the Prince has sent a quartet of Redcaps to persuade her otherwise and are causing chaos inside Griselma Harrow’s cottage, starting with making a mighty oak to grow underneath it and thrust it up into its boughs. This is when the Player Characters arrive, having been invited to afternoon tea by Griselma Harrow.

The Redcaps are not those of traditional folklore, so no dipping of caps in blood to keep their colour, but bandits who whilst sly and malicious, prefer to taunt, beat, and rob others. They are also not the brightest sparks in the forest and in many cases, the Player Characters can talk or trick their way past the Redcaps scattered about Griselma’s cottage. Thus, there is scope for roleplaying and interaction with the Redcaps rather than just fighting them, whereas the Player Characters are more likely to be confronting and fighting the consequences of the Redcaps’ causing chaos and havoc in the cottage. The result is a delightfully quaint adventure that captures the peculiarly eccentric nature of the Dolmenwood setting.

Is there anything missing?
No. The Dolmenwood Quick-Start: The Weaver & the Redcaps is complete as is.

Is it easy to prepare?
Yes. The Dolmenwood Quick-Start: The Weaver & the Redcaps is easy to grasp and prepare. The adventure requires a close read as it is quite detailed.

Is it worth it?
Yes. The Dolmenwood Quick-Start: The Weaver & the Redcapse includes everything for a great introduction to the Dolmenwood setting with a thoroughly entertaining and whimsical adventure,  whether run as a one shot or added to a campaign.

The Dolmenwood Quick-Start: The Weaver & the Redcaps is available to download here.

Squawk Borg

If Pirate Borg pitches itself as the “Worst Pirate RPG Ever Made™!”, then get ready for the “Worst Parrot RPG Ever Made™!”. Well, to be fair, compared to pirates, there really is not any competition when it comes to parrot-themed roleplaying games. In fact, the only other one that springs to mind is Pirates of Pugmire from Onyx Path Publishing, and that actually also does pirates and parrots (as well as other anthropomorphic animals). To be even fairer, this review is not even of actual roleplaying game, so arguably, Pirates of Pugmire does not have any competition at all when it comes to actual pirates and parrots roleplaying games. Instead, Parrot Borg: A Scenario for Pirate Borg is an adventure for the the “Worst Pirate RPG Ever Made™!” published by Limithron via Free League Publishing, especially for ‘International Talk Like a Pirate Day’—or is that ‘International Squawk Like a Parrot Day’?—which takes place on Saturday, 19th September each year.

Parrot Borg: A Scenario for Pirate Borg is both a scenario and a mini supplement for Pirate Borg. It enables players to create and roleplay the parrot companions to their usual pirate characters, either as essentially what is a new character Class (though the Game Master will need to decide on the improvements should a Player-Parrot ever level up) or as an animal companion to each Player-Pirate. (And if you want to take a narrative note from Wraith: The Oblivion, you could even have each player’s Parrot companion be played by another player!) A Player-Parrot is treated just like a Player-Pirate in Pirate Borg with the same ability scores and limited Hit Points and Devil’s Luck. A Player-Parrot is of course capable of flight and has simple attacks including claws and beak, but also a ranged poo attack (which requires some reload time—or that straining time?) that each do minimum damage. A Player-Parrot also has a Type, Physical Trademark, Starting Weapon, and a Special Ability. The Type is a Player-Parrot’s species such as Macaw, Parakeet, Cockatoo, Grey, and Amazon, whilst the Physical Trademark can be clipped wings and scruffy, missing leg, or even being a skeleton or ghost! Starting Weapons include sharper beaks or talons, a weapon, a deadly spit, or even Mega Poo! A Special Ability can be an ability improvement, starting play with a random relic or ritual, or simply being lucky. Of course, Player-Parrots are meant to be throwaway—or is that ‘flyaway’?—characters, but as a mini-supplement, Parrot Borg: A Scenario for Pirate Borg provides a good mix of character types and abilities that a player can take as inspiration too for his parrot’s personality in less than half a page.

The scenario in Parrot Borg: A Scenario for Pirate Borg is a hexcrawl—or is that ‘wing-crawl’?—with a simple set-up and simple solution. The Player-Parrots’ pirate crew have gone ashore on a small archipelago to raid a small town and fort held by the English/Spanish/French (delete as appropriate), but left their parrot companions aboard ship because they heard a rumour that the commander of the fort has a menagerie of animals dangerous to parrots. Several days have passed and still the pirates have not returned. So, either the pirates have successfully raided the fort and town and have been celebrating since, or they have been captured or killed by the authorities. Either way, the Player-Parrots need to check.

From the Player-Parrots’ sloop, they can wing their way out over the islands looking for the missing pirates. There are twelve locations, each neatly detailed. There is a graveyard and a sea cave to explore as well as a villa—home to the fort’s commander, the small town, and the fort itself. Soldiers will take pot-shots at the Parrot-Players and there are birds who will harass them, but in some ways the biggest problem for the Player-Parrots will be the capuchin monkeys which will cause a nuisance wherever they are. They chase a ghost in the Graveyard to get a bite of her for the ASH and caper and agitate for fruit (but not bananas, they hate bananas). There are small stories here to be told too, some of which will play out the Player-Parrots explore.

Of course, what the Player-Parrots are looking for is their Pirates. Some are held in the gaol as you would expect, but others are scattered around islands. Some need rescuing, some do not, and some even need saving! How this is done is all up to the Player-Parrots, but their players will need to be inventive and work together to achieve their aims. This is primarily because the Player-Parrots are fragile and really should avoid combat if they can. However, if the Player-Parrots rescue a pirate, that pirate becomes a Player-Pirate. A player can either switch to playing a pirate or stick with his parrot, but if not, the pirate becomes a back-up or replacement character.

Lastly, Parrot Borg: A Scenario for Pirate Borg is different to other scenarios. One reason is, of course, the fact that the players are roleplaying parrots. The other reason is that the scenario has winning conditions. Rescuing pirates, finding treasure, killing soldiers, and pooing on things will all score points. If the scenario is being run on its own, then the points are not that important. However, Parrot Borg: A Scenario for Pirate Borg could be run as a tournament event and then the (parrot) points would mean a whole lot more.

Physically, Parrot Borg: A Scenario for Pirate Borg is very nicely presented. It is a trifold, pamphlet adventure done in full colours with a great cover and a very lovely map. The format means that the writing style is concise, but the content is neatly organised and laid out so the Game Master can run it straight from the one side.

Parrot Borg: A Scenario for Pirate Borg is a very silly affair, but it is also a fun affair. Whether as a one-shot from other roleplaying games or a diversion from a Pirate Borg campaign, Parrot Borg: A Scenario for Pirate Borg is a chance for the players to squawk if they want to fly faster and get polymerous with their parrots.

[Free RPG Day 2026] Water & Mist

Now in its nineteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2026 took place on Saturday, June 27th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Unfortunately, due to vagaries of International Customs, Free RPG Day in the UK did not take place until Saturday, 22nd August.

This review is possible due to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham.

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For Free RPG Day 2026, Magpie Games published not one book, but six—Adventure Booklet 1: Earth & Root, Adventure Booklet 2: Fire & Brimstone, Adventure Booklet 3: Ash & Steel, Adventure Booklet 4: Air & Wind, and Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist as well as the Expanded Rules supplement. These are all for Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game, one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns for any roleplaying game. This is the roleplaying adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, animated series which are inspired by the indigenous cultures of North America and Asia, in particular, China, Chinese martial arts, and the ability to ‘bend’ or manipulate the four elements—water, earth, fire, and air. Only one person can bend all four elements, and he is known as the ‘Avatar’, and not only does he serve as the link between the physical world and the spirit world, but he is also responsible for maintaining harmony between the world’s four nations. In the roleplaying game, the players roleplay characters, or companions, who are capable of bending one of the elements as well as practising martial arts, all with the aim of protecting the world from harm and those unable to stand up to misuse of power.

As with the other four Adventure Booklets, Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist originally appeared in Wan Shi Tong’s Adventure Guide, which explores and presents adventures in the different eras of the Avatarverse, including the Kyoshi, Roku, the Hundred Year War, Aang, and Korra periods. Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist presents an adventure during the Korra period that will involve the Player Characters in a tale of revenge that takes them into a mess of city politics and city crime in Republic City. In what first looks like a missing persons case, the Player Characters are asked by Zhu Li Moon, the president of the United Republic, to look for her husband, First Gentleman Iknik Blackstone Varrick, who has gone missing. Now this is not the first time he has gone missing, but on previous occasions, he always turned up in some absurd situation or another, leading to the adoption of the ‘Varrick Rule’ under which his disappearances do not warrant too much concern. However, this time it looks to be different and the President wants her husband found quickly and quietly, the inference being that as a recently elected head of government, she wants to avoid a scandal!

In comparison to Adventure Booklet 3: Ash & Steel and Adventure Booklet 4: Air & Wind, the previous entries in the series, which were both chase stories, Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist is a detective story and involves a deep investigation into city politics. It begins with the Player Characters meeting President Zhu Li Moon at the Presidential Box at the Spring-Pro-Bending Tournament Qualifier and being asked for their help. After that, the Player Characters are free to conduct the investigation how they want, much as they were in the fairly first entry in the series, Adventure Booklet 1: Earth & Root. This time though, what the Player Characters will not be aware of, is that they are actually up against a deadline. To handle this, the scenario includes a ‘Clock’ as means of tracking how long it takes the Player Characters to act. As they progress, but are either too slow or travel to a new location, the Clock is filled in and when enough segments are filled in, certain events are triggered which go from helpful to ominous. If the Clock is completely filled in, then the Player Characters really only have moments before disaster strikes and they fail in their assignment!

What this means is there is much more of a sense of tension to Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist, a race to not only find First Gentleman Varrick, but also finding out why he has gone missing. Unlike the previous entries in the series there is a plot at the heart of the scenario, but like the previous entries in the series, there is no story plot of there being one scene after another. Instead, the scenario is very determined by the actions and decisions of the players and their characters. To that end, the Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist lists all of the NPCs and groups together and all of the locations together. Although the various NPCs will have things to tell the Player Characters, more importantly, the location descriptions include details of clues that can be found at each and leads which will link to other NPCs and locations. Effectively, the Player Characters can work their way through mystery, scene-by-scene, with the Game Master throwing in the odd complication or encounter, as determined primarily by the number of segments filled in on the Clock.

The advice for Game Master covers how to handle and fill in the Clock and throwing in escalations to raise the tension, but dedicates most of it attention to running detective stories. It suggests highlighting the passing of time to impress upon the Player Characters the sense of urgency and the consequences of the Player Characters not conducting the investigation in a quiet manner, but above all, it advises that the truth not be hidden from the players and their characters. In other words, the mystery is more fun if it gets solved, so the Player Characters should be able to find the clues and they should be able to undercover the truth. Overall, the advice is solid and useful.

There is advice too on how to set up the scenario if the players are using their own characters rather than the pre-generated quintet which is included in Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist. Whether or not the scenario is being run with the pre-generated Player Characters or ones of the players’ own creation, the players will still need to explain the relation between them and President Zhu Li Moon. The five pre-generated Player Characters include Enuk the Guardian, a new Airbender who has come to Republic City to learn Air Nation Ways and wants to keep an eye on a sibling; Changunak the Successor, a Waterbender and technologist from the Southern Water Tribe who wants to main her family’s fishing village; Zhu Song the Hammer, a weapon-wielding former Terra Triad gang member with a grudge against its new boss; Slate the Pillar, an Earthbender trained to lead to a specialised metalbending anti-mecha police force; and Pianchir Jing the Rogue, a Firebender and street orphan who knows Republic City well.

Also included are details of the Basic Moves and Balance Moves in Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game—in addition the Moves for all of the Player Characters—and the techniques that are not in the core book, plus the combat exchanges, statuses, and basic techniques. The Legendary NPC in Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist is First Gentleman Varrick, a technologist who could become a teacher to a Player Character (and of course, whether he survives) in the future beyond the scenario.

Physically, Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist is well presented, sturdy booklet.

Adventure Booklet 5: Water & Mist is the most sophisticated of the scenarios in the series released for Free RPG Day 2026. The Game Master needs to maintain a tension through between the mystery and its truths, between the actions and decisions of the Player Characters and the countdown of the Clock triggering events, whilst also pushing the players and their characters forward just little to keep the story and mystery unfolding. It is supported by good advice though and the scenario has every that the Game Master needs to run an entertaining blend of intrigue, interaction, and action. Again, as with other entries in the series, Fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra will enjoy the background too and overall, Adventure Booklet 4: Air & Wind is great support for Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game.

2006: Revenge of the Rat King

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

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This is an evil dungeon. For example, the first room consists of a set of stairs which lead down to a door. Murky water is pooled in front of the door. That is simple enough. However, the door cannot be opened because the passage on the other side has been filled with rubble, which will take several hours to clear and that after the strenuous effort to smash the door down. Whilst the Player Characters are doing that, they are standing in the pool of water which hides several caltrops whose points have been laced with poison called Vein Rot, which does Strength damage and halves movement. Ah, I hear you say, “What about secret doors?” Well, yes, of course. There is a secret door, but you know what? That has been trapped too. Opening the secret door releases clouds of finely powdered glass, which if a Player Character breathes in, causes Constitution damage. Which is evil and just the first room. Then the dungeon proceeds to batter the players and their characters over their heads with another fourteen encounters with different mechanics and different traps and monsters, but in a very similar vein… If it sounds like someone has it in for the players and their characters, that is because someone has—and it is not Harley Stroh.

Obviously, the clue to fact that this is the start of a revenge scenario is in the title, Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King. Designed for a party of between four and six Player Characters of Fourth to Sixth Level, this is the twenty-seventh entry in the original line-up of Dungeon Crawl Classics from Goodman Games. Being published in 2006, it is not written for use with the publisher’s own Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, but for Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition published by Wizards of the Coast. It is also a sequel to the very first entry in the series, Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King. In that scenario, the Player Characters’ investigations into raids by Goblin bandits on caravans carrying silver ore lead to the nearby Gannu Silver Mine which turned out to be infested by not just Goblins, but rats and Wererats. The final confrontation in the mine is with Lawrence Gannu, cursed by the villagers of Silverton to be a Wererat after they blamed his father for a dangerous discovery in the mines, returned to take his revenge upon the villagers. Now Aaron Gannu, father of Lawrence, has discovered that it was the Player Characters who killed his son and has engineered a plot to snare them in his clutches and their certain deaths. He will have his revenge!

Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King is really a dungeon in three acts. The first part opens with the Player Characters in the city of Soulgrave tracking down a ring of slavers and having found an entrance to one of its staging areas under its streets. Very quickly, the Player Characters will find themselves facing challenging situations, both in terms of traps and foes. Monsters harry the Player Characters, scampering away when they get too close and barely giving them time to recover before the next encounter, whilst a rattish figure taunts them all the way. It is linear, including some nasty traps and an unguided and consequently perilous ride on a skiff down a raging storm sewer, and gruelling. The latter intentionally so. Intentionally because Aaron Gannu wants to capture the Player Characters rather than kill them—at this stage. Ultimately, he will. In the second act, the Player Characters wake up dressed in rags, chained up, and bereft of their equipment. After escaping, they must find their way down another rushing waterway and eventually, their equipment, arming them ready to face their captor at the end of the scenario. The third and final act of the scenario is shorter and just as bruising, but the Player Characters have the benefit of their equipment and so the encounters leading up the finale are almost a relief for the players if not their characters.

The scenario requires some preparation in terms of hooking the Player Characters in. It does suggest several ways to do that, all of them tied into the slave ring hook. Yet the Dungeon Master may still want to develop some background in her campaign involving a slave ring before the Player Characters get to this scenario, whether that is in the city of Soulgrave or one of her own choosing. Ideally though, the Dungeon Master should run Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King as a sequel to Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King, otherwise the revenge plot at its heart will not just be as significant to either the players or their characters.

If those issues can all be dealt with, the scenario’s primary problem is insurmountable. This is the fact that it is linear. In fact, each of its three acts is linear. Act one to get the Player Characters captured, act two to get the Player Characters free and to their equipment, and act three to get the Player Characters to the finale and the confrontation with Aaron Gannu. Each is testing in its way, the first act grinding the Player Characters down, the second acting stripping them bare, and the third building them back up again. The designer is telling not just a story of revenge, but a revenge epic! One, of course, starring a variable cast, yet that also means that the scenario’s plot has to run for it to work. That is, the Player Characters have to be captured, they have to lose their equipment, and they have to regain it. In effect, no matter how foolish or clever the players and their characters are in the first act—and clever play, along with lucky aplenty, can curtail the effect of some of the challenges they will face, it does not actually matter. For some Dungeon Masters and some players this may be too much of an imposition upon player agency.

Most obviously, Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King is connected to Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King, but there are one or two nods to other roleplaying classics in the book too. One is the cover, a delightful homage to the cover of the Player’s Handbook for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, but with a statue of a rat god replacing the demon, larcenous adventurers swarming all over it of course and attempting to prise out the gemstones it has eyes! The Player Characters will discover this very statue towards the end of the dungeon. Inside, the scenario develops the slavers theme by taking inspiration in one or two locations to A1-4, Scourge of the Slave Lords, such as having to run along the tops of walls of cages holding captured slaves as in A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade and the whole sequence to the second part of the scenario in which the Player Characters wake and find themselves clothed, but completely lacking equipment and must rely upon wits and abilities is inspired by A4 In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords.

The scenario includes some new magical items and a new monster too. The latter is the Redtooth Troll, a troll afflicted with wererat lycanthropy. His encounter in the scenario starts with him under a bridge and reaching up and over to knock the Player Characters off.

Penultimately—and notably, Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King and Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King have something else in common beyond one being the sequel to the other. This is that both have subsequently been adapted for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. These are Fifth Edition Fantasy #31: Idylls of the Rat King and Fifth Edition Fantasy #36: Revenge of the Rat King.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King is generally well presented. There is a lot to work through and prepare as many of the NPCs and monsters are highly detailed. The artwork is excellent throughout and there are many images here that the Dungeon Master can show to her players in addition to the handouts at the end of the scenario. One big improvement in Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King is the cartography which more detailed and interesting than in Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King is not quite a death trap dungeon because it is not designed to kill the Player Characters. It is, however, designed to hurt them, scour at their resources, and put them through the wringer and make them as well as their players work really hard. Every encounter in the dungeon is challenging, but the first act is really testing and full of nastily inventive scenes. The Dungeon Master is going to really enjoy running Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King; the players not quite so much—unless they like a challenge.

[Free RPG Day 2026] Law and Obligation

Now in its nineteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2026 took place on Saturday, June 27th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Unfortunately, due to vagaries of International Customs, Free RPG Day in the UK did not take place until Saturday, 22nd August.

This review is possible due to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham.

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Law and Obligation is a scenario for the Cosmere Roleplaying Game, the roleplaying game based on the works if Branddon Sanderson. Published by Brotherwise Games and designed to be played using Third Level Player Characters, it is set during and designed to introduce the players to the Stormlight Campaign setting. It comes with six pre-generated Player Characters (plus an optional seventh) and can be played through in a single session as easily slipped into a campaign. Chronologically, it takes place before the events of the Everstorm and whilst there are notes to adapt the scenario to after it, it will take some adjustment by the Game Master.

In Law and Obligation, the Player Characters have arrived in the port of Kharbranth, an independent city-state on the Tarat Sea. A beacon of scholarship, medicine, and law, the Player Characters have been tasked with locating Tenilar Valtian, a runaway Alethi noble. They are to find him and deliver a message from his parents. The Player Characters are free to look for him however they want—search through the harbour master’s records, ask the locals, or scout out each of the ships docked at the harbour, and the Game Master is encouraged to push the story and reveal details whether the players succeed or fail at their rolls. What they soon learn is that they are not the only ones looking for Tenilar. A Marabethian investigator, Constable Janikk, is also looking for him, looking into allegations of smuggling, and once she has enough evidence, she plans to execute him! Eventually, however, they will be able to identify the vessel he is aboard, the Star of Natanatan, and find him. The investigator is hot on their tail though…

When spoken to, it turns that Tenilar has been smuggling—though with good reason—and even when told the easiest way to avoid being executed is leaving the city, does not want to go. The Player Characters may have an advantage if one of them speaking is a Radiant or demonstrates Surgebinding, as Tenilar is also a Radiant, but an untrained one. Whether the Player Characters manage to persuade him or not, the Marabethian investigator arrives with a pair of guards to arrest the noble and take him away to be executed. The situation can play out in several ways, depending upon whether they can persuade the captain of the Star of Natanatan to help them. The main thrust is a combat between Constable Janikk as she tries to apprehend Tenilar and the Player Characters as they try to protect him against a timed event which if completed means that the Star of Natanatan has sailed beyond the legal reach of the city. The scenario allows the possibility of the captain siding with Constable Janikk and even the Player Characters getting captured.

The scenario is supported with six pre-generated Player Characters, all of which are Human, bar one. They consist of a male Envoy from Natan, a female leader and Windrunner who is a mercenary, Thaylen Warrior and duellist, an Azish Scout who is a Hunter and Edgedancer, an Unkalaki investigator who is a Scholar and Hunter, and an Iriali Agent. If the Windrunner or Edgedancer Player Characters are chosen, there are Surgebinding sheets for both that explain how their powers work. Lastly, the seventh pre-generated Player Character is Singer, intended to be used if the Game Master runs the scenario after the Everstorm. There is a very nice deck plan of Star of Natanatan too.

Physically, Law and Obligation is very well presented. It is well written and both the artwork and the cartography are very good. The deck plan of Star of Natanatan is very nice, though it is a pity that only the top deck is depicted.

Law and Obligation is a serviceable scenario for the Cosmere Roleplaying Game—and that is it. It shows some of the tensions in the setting, but really does not show the setting at its best or really introduce the setting effectively. In other words, Law and Obligation is a scenario that is best appreciated by fans of the setting rather than anyone who is new.

Miskatonic Monday #450: Nightmares From The Depths

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.

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Nightmares From The Depths: Cthulhu and the Mythos in Massachusetts is an epic campaign. Not of scope, not of scale, but of detail. Not of scope, because rather than taking the Investigators around the world on a globetrotting campaign against some inhuman and inhumane conspiracy, it dares not stray beyond the state lines of Massachusetts. Not of scale, because it does not involve an attempt by some crazed madman to bring about the end of the world as mankind knows it because the ‘Stars are Right’. Rather, its events may be seen as peripheral to such attempts. Nor will it encompass months of the Investigators’ time to complete. It begins on Tuesday 17th March, 1925 and ends on Thursday 2nd April, 1925. Fans of H.P. Lovecraft and his ‘The Call of Cthulhu’, will doubtless recognise the latter date, for it is the very day that Norwegian sailor, Gustaf Johansen, at the helm of the yacht, Alert, rammed it into “The Thing cannot be described…” In doing so, he drove great Cthulhu back under the sea to his tomb on the previously aeons-long sunken island of R’lyeh and thus disrupted the psychic signal that for weeks had been emanating the middle of the south Pacific and inflicted feverishly irrational nightmares upon psychics, artists, and occultists, whilst attracting the attention of his most devoted adherents and worshippers. In this perhaps, Nightmares From The Depths is a call-back to Shadows of Yog-Sothoth, the very first campaign for Call of Cthulhu. A call-back that is actually six times bigger than that 1982 release!

Nightmares From The Depths is a campaign for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition published on the Miskatonic Repository. Inspired by the short, ‘The Horror at Martin’s Beach’ by H.P. Lovecraft and S. H. Greene, it is set over the course of fifteen very specific days in the March and April of 1925 and for the most part, is firmly set in Boston, from Brahmin high society and the shock of the new in its arts to the seedy seam of small time crime and greed and out to the bracing spray of sea and salt on the Massachusetts coast. This is a campaign on a par with A Time to Harvest: Death and Discovery in the Vermont Hills – A 1930s Era Campaign Across New England and Beyond and A Cold Fire Within: A Mind-Bending Campaign for Pulp Cthulhu, but far more geographically and chronologically constrained. Consisting of seven chapters, the campaign opens with ‘The Dreamer’ in which the Investigators as Private Detectives are hired by a family lawyer to find Kenneth ‘Kenny’ Jacobson, a poet, arts journalist for The Boston Herald, and Naval veteran of the Great War who has gone missing. The trail will lead from his work to his psychiatrist—it appears that Jacobson is possibly suffering from another bout of shellshock again—and into the orbit of one of the villains of the piece and his various contacts, rather than him directly. This is Ernest Armenfelt, a former Navy officer who served with Jacobson during the Great War. Initially, the campaign is more Film Noir than Mythos investigation, as barring a nasty side trek scenario, there is a little to no Mythos involvement at this stage. That changes with ‘The Murders’ as in some shocking acts of violence, the scenario’s antagonist moves amongst the avant-garde artworld of Boston, members of which have fallen under the influence of strange dreams. Following the acts of violence and their perpetrator leads to a nasty encounter with his acolyte in ‘The Shadow of Mather’. Both of these chapters do veer away from the actual search for Jacobson, but ‘The Lure of the Sea’ puts the Investigators back on track as a sighting sends them up the Massachusetts’ coast to the sleepy village of Pigeon Cove, where the inhabitants have their own problems and may benefit from the Investigators’ help. Though in some cases no less horrific these problems contrast with the malignity of the Mythos elsewhere. Primarily what the Investigators will learn is the location of Ernest Armenfelt and thus in ‘The Truth Revealed’ discover how far his greed has taken him. This is a short, one location chapter involving a confrontation in some fashion or another—Armenfelt versus the Mythos, Armenfelt versus the Mafia, or Armenfelt and the Mafia versus Mythos—which all depends on the actions of the Investigators. More news of Kenny Jacobson’s whereabouts returns the Investigators to ‘Death on the Coast’ and the coastal resort of Martin’s Beach. This is perhaps the most staged of the scenarios in the campaign as a torrential storm rolls in from the sea, the Investigators are split up to help lead search terms to save the villagers, and the Mythos runs wild as one of Cthulhu’s greatest servants smashes his way across the land Kaiju-style! Finally, in ‘A Bitter Pill To Swallow’, the Investigators confront the campaign’s villain as he seeks his ultimate triumph on Calf Island in Boston Harbour. It is a classic Call of Cthulhu finale, big, brawling, and bruising encounter held on an especially significant day, and though likely to be more physical than previous scenarios in the campaign, if successful will likely be most cathartic.

In addition, the campaign is supported by several Sidetrack Scenarios. All are optional, but the best brings out the monstrous in Humankind as well as the Mythos, some driven by the Mythos, others not. There are also two extra scenarios in Nightmares From The Depths which take place after the main campaign and are only tangentially connected to it. The first is the touloungeaphobic ‘The Sisterhood of Dreams’ which takes the Investigators to a Chicago under the thumb of Al Capone and his mob to investigate a series of murders at the hands of what turns out to be a feminist cult, whilst ‘The Stories of the Dead’ takes them further west to San Francisco and dark underbelly of Chinatown. Secrets of San Francisco will be both a useful reference and extra source of scenarios for ‘The Stories of the Dead’. These are two very solid scenarios, but they are extra to the campaign and if they had been omitted, it would not distract from the campaign as a whole.

Lastly, the campaign is supported with a set of six appendices. These in turn list new spells—Cast Away Flesh and Return to the Sea are particularly nasty, new artefacts, and Mythos tomes old and new specific to the campaign. There is also a list of scenarios set in Boston should the Keeper want to continue her own campaign beyond the pages of Nightmares From The Depths. The lists include those from Chaosium, Inc., from magazines, and from Stygian Fox Publishing as well as many from the Miskatonic Repository. Most notable are the ‘The Hermetic Order of the Silver Twilight’ chapter from Shadows of Yog-Sothoth and ‘The Haunted House’/‘The Haunting’ which is currently in the quick-start for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, as well as ‘Boston’, the article in The Unspeakable Oath Issue 16/17 from Pagan Publishing. There is no advice, sadly, as to whether the scenarios listed are suitable to add to the Nightmares From The Depths campaign, though it is such a chronologically constrained campaign that there really is little room to add extra scenarios. Other appendices list all of the NPCs by chapter and give easy-to-read transcriptions of all of the campaign’s handouts, whilst the last presents six pre-generated Investigators. These are a good mix and there are notes too on how to adapt them to Pulp Cthulhu: Two-fisted Action and Adventure Against the Mythos.

If there is a downside to Nightmares From The Depths it is its size. It is four-hundred-and-fifty-four pages long and it does present the Keeper with a wealth of detail on Boston and its environs and it could very easily be argued that the campaign is probably the best sourcebook for the city of Boston in the Jazz to date for Call of Cthulhu, let alone Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition. Yet it is also an embarrassment of riches at times. Every place, every NPC, and so on is presented in detail and there is often too much information and that it is in places overwritten, both of which hinder the efforts of the Keeper to read and prepare the campaign.

Another issue is the campaign’s timeframe and structure. Although the campaign looks to be linear, threads link one scenario to another—as they should—actually create more of a sandbox and this can often lead to the Investigators following a lead into another scenario before finishing the immediate investigation. This is due to the lack of geographical constraints within the campaign. Since it is not a globe-spanning, world-trotting campaign there is no need to take a journey lasting days or weeks to follow a particular clue, the need to commit to such a journey invariably driving players and their Investigators to complete their inquiries in a particular location before moving onto the next. Almost all of Nightmares From The Depths is set in Boston which means that every location is just a taxi or tram ride away and there are no such geographical constraints.

The timeframe means that the Investigators need to be proactive in their inquiries. Although neither the players nor their Investigators know it, Nightmares From The Depths does have a deadline. So, the Keeper needs to push her players to investigate and to keep on investigating—literally to pick up the pace, as well as split up. The consequences of the need for this pace and geographical structure of the campaign means that the Keeper has to prepare a lot of the campaign upfront. That said, the content is decently organised with every NPC showcased at the start of each chapter, flowcharts to show connections, and indications of where threads link to and where they are linked from.

Physically, Nightmares From The Depths is impressively presented in sepia tones. It is profusely illustrated with period photographs of Boston and that in addition to the excellent maps and other period documents. The artwork, some of it by Paul Carrick and Earl Geier, is also good. The handouts are similarly very good. Some of the portraits of the NPCs do show evidence of some touch-up. The writing is clear, but overdone in places and it could have benefited from tighter editing.

Nightmares From The Depths is a really strong investigative scenario with lots of clues and strands to its mystery and mysteries. There is a lot here for players who like to play detective to get their teeth into, but it is a campaign for Call of Cthulhu and thus a horror campaign too. Nightmares From The Depths underplays its Mythos elements for much of the campaign, having them lurk at the periphery of the Investigators’ inquiries. This makes their presence and their influence when they do appear have much more of an impact and there are some great set pieces littered across the campaign. Such as discovering artist Maria Camhurst in her pain and agony; the séance at the Wavecrest Inn at Martin’s Beach which goes blazingly wrong; and the assault on the Boston docks warehouse by Deep Ones! Of course, the campaign does end in a big set piece, a summoning in classic Call of Cthulhu style.

Ultimately, Nightmares From The Depths is not a campaign about a madman working to summon a great evil in the demented service to his alien and uncaring master, although as the campaign progresses, that is its plot, but about the effects of the Mythos upon society at large. How the actions of the foolish and the greedy unleash consequences upon the innocent and how the emanations of a mind so incompatible with that of humankind bring out or exacerbate the worst in those it touches to the detriment of themselves and those around them. NPC after NPC suffers because of both and whilst that might be wearisome or overdone in another campaign, in Nightmares From The Depths it works because of the narrow timeframe, quite literally because the ‘Stars Are Right’ and so many can be touched by Cthulhu’s otherworldly influence. Other scenarios have touched upon it, but the authors of Nightmares From The Depths are to be commended for taking the dreams of “great Cyclopean cities of titan blocks and sky-flung monoliths.” described in H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ and building a whole campaign around it.

The truth is, Chaosium, Inc. could have published Nightmares From The Depths, as could any Call of Cthulhu licensee, and it would not have not only passed muster, it would have been recognised as a good campaign. That it is not published by an actual roleplaying publisher and put on its schedule of releases is all but astounding, because Nightmares From The Depths is almost as professional a product without it either being official or professional. That applies to the look and production values of the book as much as the campaign itself. Both are of a high standard.

Make no mistake, Nightmares From The Depths: Cthulhu and the Mythos in Massachusetts is an impressive and richly detailed campaign, horrendously human in its horror and monstrously malign in its application of the Mythos, and ingenious in exploring the vile influence of Cthulhu’s dreams at a signature point in Lovecraft’s fiction like no campaign or scenario before it. That it brings the city of Boston to life in the Jazz Age and gives the city its first campaign is a bonus.