Philippines Peril

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: Operation Talisman is a scenario that takes Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 to a theatre of war that it rarely visits, instead focusing in the main upon the home front and Western Europe. That theatre of war is the Pacific and in particular, the invasion of the Philippines by the Japanese. It is early March, 1942, and with the attack on Pearl Harbour by the Japanese Imperial Navy only three months before having delivered a blow to American pride that still stings, the USA is about to suffer another defeat. That is the loss of the Philippines. Already, General MacArthur has been ordered to evacuate to Australia lest he be captured by Japanese forces, but there is still intelligence to be gained from the enemy—some of it of an outré kind. This is an opportunity for Majestic to learn more about the occult activities of the Japanese. What they know, what they wield in the Secret War, and what alliances they might already have made. Just three months into the war, this is an opportunity for Majestic to prove itself and what it is capable of. Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Talisman is a one-shot scenario with five pre-generated Player Characters. It can be played as a one-shot, as the start of campaign in the Pacific developed by the Game Master, or as a potential source of Majestic agents who have been sent on their first important mission and if they survive, could be assigned elsewhere.

The scenario is a three-act affair which opens with the Majestic agents quickly brought together and briefed on their mission to go behind enemy lines and gain actionable intelligence about enemy occult efforts and assets, what their briefing officer describes as ‘Special Assets’, as well as confirmation of disappearances and massacres at the hands of Japanese forces. They are to trek north through the jungle and check on various villages near Mount Naib as they go. The biggest problem that the Player Characters face is that they are up against a deadline—less than five days. They definitely need to hurry up and they are likely to need to make a run for it on the way back.

Initially, the difficulties faced by the Player Characters on their north are natural—slippery underfooting, quicksand, a difficult river crossing, and more, but quickly they will come across more and more signs of Japanese activities, including an initial encounter with the scenario’s primary antagonists, Colonel Takeshita Fuyuto and a strangely silent, long haired and robed woman who appears to strike fear in the surviving villagers. At this point, the characters are not expected to intervene, the Game Master being expected to tell her players that the odds are overwhelmingly against their characters. However, the knowledge they can gather is useful and will help them in the river port of San Domingo where the Colonel Takeshita Fuyuto has established a base and is planning a ceremony of some kind the very night that the Player Characters arrive. Ideally, they should arrive beforehand, have time to reconnoitre the town and hopefully prepare a plan of action.

The summoning is the climax of the scenario and the Player Characters are free to deal with it as they wish. Given that maps are given for the town and the compound where Colonel Takeshita Fuyuto has his headquarters, this final encounter (as well as an earlier encounter at a village), can be run narratively or involve the use of tokens or miniatures—depending upon the inclination of the Game Master and her players. It is a challenging battle as there are still plenty of Japanese soldiers about and the Player Characters are lightly armed (though there is a scene early in the scenario where they have the chance to gain more or better equipment). The aftermath of the climax is a race back through enemy lines to report back to headquarters. Depending upon the outcome of the battle in San Domingo this can extremely unnerving or it can be a relatively safe journey bar a run in with a Japanese patrol or two.

The scenario includes full stats for the chief villains of the piece, Colonel Takeshita Fuyuto and his thoroughly evil ‘great-great-aunt’, Oba-San, as well as Japanese soldiers. The five pre-generated Majestic agents consist of a female dilettante* and traveller of Japanese-Sicilian background, a combat engineer, a military policeman with a background in the occult, an ex-burglar turned soldier, and a Filippino soldier and jungle scout. All five are lightly equipped as there U.S. Army is running short of supplies in the face of the Japanese onslaught.

* Her name is Beverly Andrews. There is no indication as to which set of sisters she is related to.

Physically, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Talisman is generally well presented, though it could have been tidier in places. It does not have any artwork, which is a pity as it would have been nice for the chief villain and his ‘great-great-aunt’ to have been illustrated. The scenario’s four maps are good, but these are battle maps, not area maps. Again, it would have been nice if the area map that the Player Characters are given in game as part of their briefing had also been included as a handout.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Talisman is a mission-based scenario. Which means it is quite linear in its plotting, but it will tests the Player Characters from start to finish, there is scope for roleplaying, and of course, there is plenty of action. Plus it takes the players to a different theatre of war and focuses more strongly on other factions in the Secret War. Plus its treatment of the Mythos is a little more restrained in comparison to other scenarios involving either Black Sun or Nachtwölfe for Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20, so the tone of the scenario is a bit more creepy rather than out and out pulp horror. Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Talisman is a solid scenario that be run as a one-shot, as a change of pace from other Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 scenarios, or with some effort from the Game Master be the beginning of a behind the lines campaign in the Philippines.

Friday Fantasy: EM1 – Eastern Spark

EM1 – Eastern Spark is a classic fantasy roleplaying scenario, set on the edge of an empire where the frontier promises work, adventure, and danger. The region is ‘The March’, a province of Mertannic Empire far from the capital. It is beset by brigands, pirates, dangerous creatures of all types, a bear beset by lightning, and more. It is specifically written for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition and its retroclones, such as OSRIC, but there is also a version available for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. It is published by Tarichan Games and designed to be played by five Player Characters of First Level. To get the best out of the scenario, at least one Player Character should be a Druid or have the capacity to speak to animals. The scenario offers some eight mini-adventures or extended encounters, across sixteen different locations, which all together should offer roughly ten to twelve sessions’ worth of play.

EM1 – Eastern Spark begins with the Player Characters on the road to the village of Hadd, the main settlement in the region. As they make way past a horse ranch, they see a trio of men dismantling the fence, enter the ranch, and approach the horses, who shy away. Clearly an act of horse theft is about to be carried out. It is not an unreasonable start to the scenario, as it drops the Player Characters straight into the action. However, there is no payoff to the encounter. There is no discussion of what happens next or how the sisters who run the farm react. It would be the perfect situation to get the Player Characters invested in the region, if only a little at this stage, and then an opportunity for the Dungeon Master to impart some information via the sisters. This lack of information compounds the lack of reasons why the Player Characters might want to travel to ‘The March’. There are no hooks to pull them towards the village of Hadd, no rumours to entice them to visit. Nor does it help that instead of going on to Hadd, the Player Characters could wander off to the nearby fishing hamlet of Fry, where the brawny inhabitants might hire the Player Characters to help them fish because they no longer have the manpower to do as much as they did, or they might attempt to drown the Player Characters because it turns out that the fisherfolk of Fry are evil cultists. What cult they belong to and what its aims are, is not explained, and certainly, there is no suggestion that the sisters at the horse ranch might hint that the people of Fry are a strange lot…

Things do pick up once the Player Characters reach Hadd. There are more NPCs to interact with and there are rumours that the Player Characters can pick up. There is a visiting herald who will spread the news and there are potential employers to be found. Jobs available include finding work as fishermen in the nearby hamlet of Fry, that an agent of the Guilds’ Bank wants someone to visit a nearby hidden village of Gnomes and collect a message from them, and even someone wanting some ‘night work’ done. In terms of presentation, these individual employment opportunities are the highlight of EM1 – Eastern Spark as they are neatly organised and easy to use with sections for each job’s ‘Origin’, ‘Destination’, ‘Description’, ‘Trigger’, ‘Engagement Opportunities’, ‘Successful Consequence’, and ‘Consequence if incomplete’, all handily encapsulated in half a page. What is interesting with many of these jobs is that some of them do not have any positive outcomes. For example, in the ‘Light Work’ plot, the Player Characters are hired for some ‘night work’, which actually involves their signalling with a lantern to a boat out to sea at the mouth of a nearby river. If the Player Characters get involved and successfully signal to the boat over successive nights, they will have alerted some pirates who on subsequent days will come ashore and either sell slaves and/or raid farms. However, even if the Dungeon Master and her players do accept slavery as an aspect of the scenario, the scenario does not say might want to buy them, if at all. If the Player Characters decline this task, the scenario suggests that others will be recruited in their stead, but the scenario does not say who they are. Potentially, they could be a trio of amoral, selfish adventurers that appear in the scenario’s climax, but again, the scenario does not say whether this is the case. Potentially, this is an interesting situation that can play out in several ways and have different consequences for the Player Characters. Is their involvement discovered and if so, are they blamed, and who by? If not involved, will they discover the involvement of the other NPCs? However, again, the ramifications are not fully explored.

The scenario’s two major plot strands include a druid under a curse and the Gnomes at their hidden village of Opus. Hadd’s druid Nehira has been struck with a curse that renders her unable to communicate because her links to a radical sect of primitive druids. Initially, the Player Characters’ involvement with this is peripheral, encountering an NPC who sets up Nehira’s assassination. In the meantime, the Player Characters are expected to visit the Gnome village and collect a letter. However, the Gnomes do not trust them and ask the Player Characters to deal with a problem that they have—an attack by a ‘Lightning-infused Black Bear’! This encounter with the strange bear takes place in a grove, the nearest that EM1 – Eastern Spark has to a dungeon.

When the Player Characters return to Hadd after revisiting the Gnomes of Opus, the scenario kicks into a higher gear with the penultimate encounter, ‘Savage Hadd’. All of the animals in the village are enraged and have gone berserk and not only are the villagers terrified, but they also blame the druid, Nehira! Here the scenario does bring the villagers to life, detailing the different ways in which the various households are under attack and what their inhabitants will do if the Player Characters saves them. There is a nice mix here. The likelihood is that the scenario will end with the Player Characters confronting Nehira. They may kill her, they may save her from whatever is affecting her—though that is likely to be through more luck than skill, since there is little in the way of clues as to the cause of her condition and how it might be relieved. Certainly, there are no clues as to who might have done it and why. Perhaps these and the other questions raised in EM1 – Eastern Spark might be answered in EM2 –Prelude to The March?

There are three primary issues with EM1 – Eastern Spark. One is that it raises more questions than it answers, such as the nature of the cult in Fry and who might purchase slaves from the pirates? The second is that the scenario is too often threadbare when it comes to making connections between people and places and plots and fleshing it with smaller details that might arouse the interest of the players and their characters and so motivate them to act. The scenario looks like a hexcrawl, but it really is not given the main plot around Nehira’s madness. Arguably, it would have been better if that been brought to the fore as the scenario’s spine and the other plots presented as side encounters.

Physically, EM1 – Eastern Spark is perfunctorily presented at best. The artwork is variable in quality and the cartography is serviceably done using a software mapping program.

EM1 – Eastern Spark is underwritten and underdeveloped and rarely clearly explained. There is the basis of a decent adventure within its pages, but the Dungeon Master will need to do some deconstruction and redevelopment, adding some much needed details of her own before it really fully works.

Miskatonic Monday #417: Party Favour

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

—oOo—

Name: Party Favour

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: PJC

Setting: Australia, 1932

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Fifty-four-page, 11.61 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Revolution and reaction on the bloody streets of Sydney

Plot Hook: The favour is a hunt for missing Party loyalists

Plot Support: Staging advice, six pre-generated Communist Investigators, two major NPCs, twenty-eight handouts, two maps.

Production Values: Good

Pros

# Politically-themed scenario for Terror Australis: Call of Cthulhu in the Land Down Under

# Beer mat as a handout! (How very Australian)

# Historically detailed and annotated scenario

# Adjustable to run as a convention scenario

# Punch a Fascist moments built in

# Nice period maps

# Tyrannophobia

# Trypophobia

# Cuprolaminophobia

Cons

# Layout could be tidier

# Running it as a convention scenarios misses some of cultural subtleties

Conclusion

# Showcases the effects of the Great Depression from an Australian angle

# Politically-charged punch-up of a scenario

# Reviews from R’lyeh Recommends

Miskatonic Monday #416: Welcome to Silkwood Motel

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

—oOo—

Name: Welcome to Silkwood Motel

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Niebosky

Setting: Jazz Age USA

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Nine-page, 9.45 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Arachnophobia at the Bates Motel

Plot Hook: A dark and stormy night forces a last stay at the Silkwood Motel

Plot Support: Staging advice, one NPC, one floorplan, and one Mythos monster and a swarm of Mythos monsters!

Production Values: Solid

Pros

# Very short, creepy session, suitable as a side trek or encounter in between longer scenarios.

# Suitable for small groups, but necessarily a single Investigator

# Would work with Spawn of Azathoth

# Easily adapted to other countries and eras

# Arachnobia

# Daknophobia

# Tokophobia

Cons

# Floorplans hard to read

Conclusion

# Single session, harrowing encounter that will put the put the Investigators off lonely motels
# Easy to slip into a campaign or between scenarios.

Suffrage & Survival

It is two-hundred-and-fifty years since the nations and corporations of Earth and the solar system unified under the United Inner Systems Alliance. It is two-hundred-and-thirty-six years since I-Werks Solutions developed and demonstrated the Jump Drive which made interstellar travel possible. It is two-hundred-and-twenty-eight years since the first A.I. went rogue and the first uplifted animal was created. It is one-hundred-and-ninety-five years since the first interstellar jump was made between Jupiter and Proxima Centauri. It is seventy-seven years since the relaxation of the Cornelius Accords leading to the rapid development of Uplifted species as labourers and companions. It is fifty-six years since the Bugs, a previously unknown insectoid alien species attacked and overran human settlements. It is forty-six years since the United Inner Systems Alliance established the United Expeditionary Force, a paramilitary organisation to target threats to and protect the interests of humanity in the Untamed Worlds that lie at edge of—and beyond—the United Inner Systems Alliance. Bar a few Human officers, it is entirely staffed by Uplifts. Despite the dangers they encounter as members of the United Expeditionary Force, Uplifts are rarely recognised for their service or their bravery, especially in comparison to their Human officers and counterparts, and throughout the United Inner Systems Alliance, Uplifts are classified as ‘domestic dependent life forms’ and thus second class citizens with limited rather than full rights.

This is the set-up for Untamed Worlds, an anthropomorphic military Science Fiction roleplaying game published by Osprey Games. It is inspired by such things Band of Brothers and Babylon 5 on television, The Dirty Dozen and Starship Troopers on film, and Albedo and Justifiers in roleplaying. The Player Characters are Uplifts (or the rare Human) who are members of United Expeditionary Force. Theirs is not an entirely happy lot. They have a family in their brothers in arms, but they have limited rights, including the fact they have to seek permission to procreate, are seen as inferior, and ultimately, expendable. The roleplaying game can be played in one of two ways. First, as a straightforward, bullets and bravado military Science Fiction roleplaying game in a series of mission-based scenarios. Second, as a straightforward, bullets and bravado military Science Fiction roleplaying game in a series of mission-based scenarios, until such times as the Player Characters begin to chafe at the inequality of their situation and begin to seek a way out of it or a way to change it. In this it changes to objective-based scenarios with the aims of the Player Characters driving much of the play. However, Untamed Worlds does not support this objective-based play as much as it does the mission-based play, including as it does more detailed advice on creating and running missions and their consequences, as providing several example mission outlines. As a consequence, Untamed Worlds has a lopsided feel, emphasising one style of play over another, whilst leaving the other in the hands of the Game Master to develop in response to her players and their characters. In this way, the mission-based style of play is better suited to the less experienced Game Master than the more experienced Game Master. To be fair, the objective-based style of play is much less structured and open, so is harder to explore, but still, at just about a page in length, it is not up to the task. In the meantime, they will face marauders, pirates, dissidents, terrorists, the insectoid Bugs, and arachnoid Nids, as well as the poor regard of the United Inner Systems Alliance.

A Player Character or Uplift in Untamed Worlds has a Heritage, a Background, and two Specialities. The Heritage is the species from which he is uplifted and Untamed Worlds offers some twenty-four broad species types, from amphibians, bats, and birds to ungulates, ursines, and xenarthra. Within these broad categories, there is room for a player to be more specific. Thus, for the xenarthra, the Uplift could be a sloth, an armadillo, or an anteater. A Heritage provides skills , Tricks, and Permissions, whilst a Background grants more skills and a Trick, and the Specialities, just skills. The Backgrounds consist of ‘Fostered’, ‘Farm’ (an educational facility rather than an educational one), or ‘Feral’ for Uplifts, and ‘Troublemaker’, ‘Dissident’, and ‘Volunteer’ for Humans. The Specialities all consist of military training packages, such as ‘Communications’, ‘Infantry’, ‘Ranger’, ‘Sniper’, ‘Space Operations’, and Vehicle Operations’. There are thirteen skills, each rated between zero and eight, of which twelve are obvious. The less obvious one is ‘CQB’ or ‘Close Quarters Battle’, which covers close range combat using guns, and armed and unarmed combat, whilst ‘Marksmanship’ is for long range combat.

Tricks are one of two things. First, they are innate things that an Uplift might have because of his Heritage. For the xenarthra, these are ‘Armoured Hide’, ‘Hardy’, ‘Keen (Smell)’, ‘Resistant’, ‘Second Skin’, ‘Strong’, and ‘Smol’ (small). Second, they are special abilities that the Uplift is good at such as ‘Ace’, ‘Charmer’, and ‘Trauma Doc’. In some cases, Tricks are mandatory, but most are not. Then there are Permissions. These are simply things that the Uplift can do because of his Heritage. For example, the Hyena has the Permissions of “Sense of smell and hearing well outside human ranges. Excellent night vision. Natural Scavengers.” Permissions are not detailed in the roleplaying game any more than this and there is no mechanical benefit to them. The Uplift simply has them. Yet there is some crossover between Permissions and Tricks. For example, the Hyena Uplift could have ‘Keen (Smell and Hearing)’ Trick, which does provide a mechanical benefit, but definitely does have the “Sense of smell and hearing well outside human ranges.” Permission. The Trick provides an Advantage when used, but what does the Permission provide? Does it mean that the ‘Keen (Smell and Hearing)’ Trick is better than the Permission? Ultimately, it leaves it up to the Game Master to adjudicate when instead Tricks could have been categorised between those available to just the Uplifts from their Heritages and those available to both Humans and Uplifts rather being left in a muddle between what is a Trick and what is a Permission.

Uplift (or Human) Player Character is not difficult. It is simply a matter of making choices in terms of Heritage, a Background, and two Specialities, and then choose from the options they give. Lastly, a player picks some gear for his Uplift.

Name: ‘Baby’
Rank: Trooper 2nd Class
Heritage: Shark
Background: Feral
Specialities: Infantry, Special Operations
Tricks: (Aquatic) Adept, Hunter, Keen (Smell), Natural Weapons (Bite)
Permissions: Adapted to aquatic life (including cold and high pressure). Extremely acute sense of smell. Possesses electroreceptors capable of sensing electric impulses and magnetic field (enhanced by Tricks/modifiers that affect smell).
Skills: Athletics 5, CQB 7, Demolitions 1, Espionage 1, Marksmanship 4, Mechanics 1, Recon 4, Survival 4
Hits: 7
Defence: 6
Carrying Capacity: 9

Mechanically, Untamed Worlds uses what it calls the Lucky 7 System. Any time a player wants his Uplift to undertake an action, he rolls two six-sided dice. Any result of seven or more is a success, whilst a result of six or less is a failure. To this roll, the player adds the appropriate skill, whilst subtracting the difficulty modifier set by the Game Master. The levels of difficulty range from ‘1’ and ‘Easy’ to ‘9’ plus and ‘Hellish’, which means that even the easiest of tasks levies a penalty. Having an Advantage means that the player rolls three dice and keeps the best two, whilst having a Disadvantage means he rolls three dice and keeps the worst two. Having multiple incidences of Advantage adds a ‘+2’ bonus each extra incidence of Advantage, whilst having multiple incidences of Disadvantage adds a ‘-2’ penalty each time. Getting a result of above or below seven generate Effects for each point above or below. Good Effects include increasing damage inflicted on a target or another target, moving to a different zone, adding new information to a scene, shaking off a Hit, and so on. Bad Effects include suffering an extra Hit, running out of ammunition, being a bad spot and suffering a Disadvantage, having some bad information come to light, and so on.

Both players and the Game Master have access to their own pool of Momentum. A player can spend the players’ Momentum to add bonuses to his Uplift’s rolls, but levy them on the Game Master to inflict penalties on an NPC’s dice roll. Conversely, the Game Master can spend her own points of Momentum on improving her NPCs’ dice rolls and levying penalties on the players for their Uplifts’ rolls.

Combat in Untamed Worlds uses the same core mechanic. Initiative is handled narratively with the Game Master deciding who goes first—the NPCs or the Uplifts, and then after each combatant has acted, their player or the Game Master deciding who acts next. The rules also scale up to enable combat between vehicles and spaceships. Each combatant has a pool of Action Points to spend during his turn, typically two for a player Uplift. Actions costing one Action Point include ‘Aim’, ‘Assist’, ‘Attack’, ‘Evade’, ‘Reload’, and more, whilst ‘Full Evade’ is the only action which costs two Action Points. Optional rules enable a player to spend Momentum to seize initiative; costly success for more heroic style of play; critical rolls and fumbles; wounds; non-lethal attacks; and more.

Armour reduces damage, but most armour is ablative. Most NPCs die when their Hits are reduced to zero, but Uplifts and major NPCs suffer a Down status and subsequent Death task checks. It only takes one successful Death task check for an Uplift or major NPC to recover, but two failed ones or a Death task check failed by five or more and they are dead. An Uplift or major NPC who has suffered the Down status can take a Last Stand and take one more action, and as long they keep making the rolls to do so, they can continue making a Last Stand. However, it does get progressively more difficult to do this.

As expected for a military roleplaying game there is an extensive list of arms and armour as well as gear and vehicles, with most modern weapons being electromagnetic slugthrowers, though there are laser weapons available as support weapons. Vehicles include land, air, and watercraft, plus spaceships of various kinds. For the Game Master, there is a wealth of background details that detail the United Inner Systems Alliance, its culture, corporations, enemies (such as Moreau’s Children, the New Reich Conglomerate, and the Blue Skull Brotherhood pirate gang), and more. Worlds both in United Inner Systems Alliance and in the ‘Untamed Worlds’ beyond are described and several secrets of the setting are given ready for discovery by the Uplifts, likely furthering their disillusionment with the United Inner Systems Alliance when they do find out. The duties and structure of the United Expeditionary Force are also covered, and there is not only advice on running the roleplaying game, but also several missions ready for the Game Master to develop.

There is much to like in Untamed Worlds. Both the setting and the military Science Fiction genre are accessible, there are a lot of options in terms what species types that the players can roleplay, and the Game Master is provided everything she needs in terms of a set-up. The rules for the Lucky 7 System are surprisingly uncomplex for what is a military Science Fiction roleplaying game and they are also fast playing. Yet Untamed Worlds hampers this with mundane presentation and annoyingly poor organisation. The rules are simple enough, but they are not organised in a wholly coherent fashion, the general rules mixed with the combat rules. The rules also come immediately after the setting explanation and before the character creation rules, so they are talking about elements before they are explained.

Physically, Untamed Worlds is uninspired. It is text heavy and there is not a lot of art to either break up the text or help bring the setting to life. The majority of the art, all done in a cartoony style that really is quite good, consists of depictions of Uplifts in the United Expeditionary Force service, and that makes sense. Yet that also means that very little of the arms, armour, and other gear is illustrated and certainly none of the vehicles or spaceships are illustrated. Lacking such illustrations means it is difficult to get a feel for what the future of Untamed Worlds looks like.

Untamed Worlds takes a cartoonish concept, that of anthropomorphic military Science Fiction, and pushes it towards an intriguing consequence, essentially that of indentured soldiery coming to the realisation as to the inequalities of their situation and aspiring to do something about it. Unfortunately, the roleplaying game does not explore this consequence in as much depth as it should, especially in comparison to its focus on the anthropomorphic military Science Fiction. Couple this with a dreary layout and confusing rules, and Untamed Worlds is simply not as well realised as it could have been.

Fetching & Forbidding

What if Rapunzel let down her hair and then ran away to go adventure? What if Cinderella found her prince, but decided to see the rest of the world? What if the princess had enough of poor mattresses and wanted to help others in the kingdom? And once having escaped the tower, run away from the castle, and left evil stepmothers, evil stepsisters, and not-evil princes behind, what if they all met up and after a nice hot cup of tea and a picnic, decided to do it all together—see the world, help others, and have adventures? Each armed with a gift from their respective Fairy Godmothers, and sometimes with a sword and sometimes not, but always with grace and wits, a basket of goodies, plus a little bit of magic, they are ready to journey out on enchanted quests, ride into forests to retrieve rings from mischievous pixies, delve into caves to steal back children taken by trolls, rush up mountains to rescue other maidens given up to dragons, and climb towers to undo the doings of wizards! Such adventures and what happens next is the subject of Perils & Princess: A Fairy Tale RPG published by Outrider Creative LLC.

Perils & Princess: A Fairy Tale RPG, published following a successful Kickstarter campaign, is an Old School Renaissance-style roleplaying game, a ‘Princes and Level’ roleplaying game in which the players take on the roles of princesses, have adventures, save the day, and do all of the sorts of things that princesses in general avoid doing in fairy tales. It states that Princesses need not necessarily be female—and gives a few examples—but still presents its Princesses as being very traditional in their origins. It comes with the means to create eight types of Princesses, their talents, the things in their purse, the perils they will face and the means how they will face them—including magic, the wondrous items and relics they might find, some curses, and a starting adventure as well as a mini-realm that the Princesses can explore beyond the adventure.

A Princess is defined by her Fairy Godmother, Gift, stats including her Virtue scores and Heart Points, personality and talents, and stuff. Each Gift grants unique items, Talents, and abilities that she can use at any time, and Special Abilities which require the expenditure of Gift Dice. For example, the ‘Wild Heart’ Gift grants the Talents of Hunting, Fishing, and Wayfinding, and the innate abilities of ‘Whisperer’, which lets her speak to animals and ‘Natural Climber’, and as she acquires Levels, the abilities of ‘Give a Little Whistle’ to summon friendly, local animals; ‘Roar’ to let out a bestial cry and scare everyone nearby; and so on. Every Gift includes a list of possible Mishaps, which occur when a Princess rolls doubles on her Gift Dice. Besides ‘Wild Heart’, the other Gifts are ‘Enchanting Voice’, ‘Spritely Agility’, ‘Elemental Connection’, ‘Kitchen Magic’, ‘Healing Touch’, ‘Powerful Friendship’, and ‘Sage Intellect’. The Virtues are Resolve, Grace, and Wits, and are the equivalent of attributes in other roleplaying games. Resolve is courage in the face of terror and other physical actions; Grace is poise under pressure and all maters agile; and Wits is mental fortitude as well as intelligence. Talents are the equivalent of skills, and either allow a Princess to undertake an action or do so with Advantage.

The process of creating a Princess is straightforward. A player can either choose all of the options or roll for them.

Princess Sage of Whispering Orchard
Level 1
Fairy Godmother: A beloved ANCESTOR, appearing to you through visions in your dreams.
Gift: Powerful Friendship
Innate Abilities: Fast Friends, Burden
Special Abilities: Sidekick
Hidden Talents: Healing, Carousing, Gardening, Cartography
Items: Oak shield (2), set of dice, 10 silver pieces, four torches, six meals of trail food, bedroll for sleeping, tinderbox for starting fires, big purse, hooded cloak, leather boots
What’s in my Purse: Hammer and chisel, box of chalk, a pungent mushroom, leather-bound diary

PERSONALITY:
At first glance people notice my... Unconventional beauty
Those close to me think I'm... Savvy and diplomatic
Secretly, Deep Down I... Am painfully shy
What really motivates me is... Instilling peace
I’m dressed like… A PILGRIM

Armour: None
You better watch out for my… sling

STATS
Resolve 13 Grace 10 Wits 12
Heart Points: 9

Mechanically, Perils & Princess: A Fairy Tale RPG takes its inspiration from roleplaying games such as Into the Odd and Knave. To have his Princess undertake an action, a player rolls a twenty-sided die, the aiming being to roll equal to, or less than, an appropriate Virtue. Depending upon the situation, this can be rolled with Advantage or Disadvantage. A Princess also has a number of Gift Dice and Heart Dice, which increases by Level. Gift Dice are rolled when a Princess wants to use her Gift. For example, Princess Sage of Whispering Orchard can use her Sidekick Special Ability from her Gift give ‘Aid’ to one of her companions when she tests one of her Virtues. When Gift Dice are rolled, the total is used, but any roll of four, five, or six on a Gift Die means that it cannot be used again until the following day, whilst a roll of one, two, or three means that it can be rolled again that day. However, if doubles are rolled, whatever the number, a mishap will occur. There is a mishap table for each of the eight Gifts that a Princess might have.

Heart Dice are used either at a picnic to restore a Princess’ Heart points or modify another Princess’ Virtue test. They are used up for day in whatever way they are used.

Combat is just as straightforward. Perils & Princess: A Fairy Tale RPG is player-facing, meaning that only the players roll, never the Game Master. Thus, in combat, a player rolls for his Princess to attack, but when a monster attacks, the player rolls for his Princess to avoid the attack. Resolve is used for mêlée attacks, Grace for ranged attacks. Armour worn reduces damage. Rolls of one indicate a critical hit and double damage, but a roll of twenty when defending, meanings that the damage suffered by the Princess ignores armour. If a Princess suffers her Heart Points falling to zero, she is wounded, the treatment of which requires first aid at least, rather than a simple picnic and a rest. Some wounds effectively strengthen a Princess, increasing her total Heart Points. However, if a Princess suffers more than double her Heart Points in damage, she is not wounded, but gains a point of Trauma. She can also be traumatised due deadly or horrifying experiences. A Princess’ first Trauma Point means she is frightened and cannot use any Gift Dice temporarily; her second that she cannot use any Gift Dice temporarily and suffers a temporary phobia due to the cause of the trauma; and with her third, a Princess has had enough and her story ends. Trauma Points can be removed only by magical or other extraordinary means.

Since Perils & Princess: A Fairy Tale RPG is a fairy tale roleplaying game, wrinkles can occur. This is when a Princess or Princesses ‘Spend Time’ doing something, such as have a Picnic or Rest whilst in in uncertain territory, riding across uncharted wilderness, or thoroughly searching a dungeon room, or it can be due to a Mishap or a Special Ability from a Gift. When this happens, the Game Master can roll a die, a result of one indicating a Wrinkle occurs. The more dangerous the situation, the smaller the die type the Game Master rolls. For example, in a dungeon, a wandering monster might appear, but in town, the shop might be out of stock of that very thing a Princess needs to further a quest.

A Princess, whether because of a Gift or a relic or a grimoire, can also cast spells, as can certain creatures and monsters, as well as wizards and witches. When a Princess wants to cast a spell, her player rolls one or more Gift Dice and as with her actual Gift, magic has its own Mishap table. In general, magic is meant to be special, even humble, hence the inclusion of herbs and mushrooms that a Princess can forage. In addition, a Princess can find wondrous items like a Climbing Rope, Cursed Mirror, or Magic Beans, and Relics such as a Ring of Fire or Wand of Bubbles. There are potions and weapons too, and overall, there is a lovely mix of the traditional fantasy roleplaying and the fairy tale in the magical items described.

Similarly, there is a mix of the traditional fantasy roleplaying and the fairy tale in bestiary of monsters. So, Ghouls, Rot Goblins, Black Oozes, and Trolls, but also the Big Bad Wolf, Unicorn, Pixies, Dragons, and an Evil Queen. There are curses too—of course—and delightfully, utterly in keeping with the genre, a ‘What's for Supper?’ table as well as its converse, ‘ew. what's that?’ table with such entries as ‘Fish Heads’, ‘ An Old Sock’, and ‘A jar of smelly yellow stuff (snot?)’!

There is a handy example of play and also advice for the Game Master that can also be used to pitch the tone of the game to her players. This is that the world of Perils & Princess: A Fairy Tale RPG is both grim and pretty; that it mixes magic with the mundane, with the Princesses having to rely more on the latter than the former; common sense, teamwork, and creativity will drive the story with the Game Master making rulings since there is not a rule for every situation; that there should be multiple solutions to any one problem or situation and the Game Master should reward creativity; that failures should fail forward and advance the story in interesting ways; and so on. Some of the advice is drawn from the Old School Renaissance, such as ‘Rulings not Rules’, but some such as ‘Playing the role’, suggesting that since each Player Character is a Princess and thus should act like one, including asking, “…[W]hy not sing a lovely tune?”, are more specific to Perils & Princess: A Fairy Tale RPG. The advice is short and direct, so better suited to the Game Master who has run a roleplaying game before or at least played before, rather than one new to the role. Whereas Perils & Princess: A Fairy Tale RPG is accessible to both experienced players and those new to the hobby.

Rounding out Perils & Princess: A Fairy Tale RPG is a short adventure, ‘The Rosewood Crown’. It is a single-session dungeon adventure in which the Princesses drawn to the legend of Princess Elysia, her betrayal, and the lost Rosewood Crown, and so investigate a small dungeon. It is short and sweet and gives room for Princesses to be inventive and come up with solutions other than combat, though some is to be involved. There is also ‘An Enchanted Realm’, a mini-hexcrawl that the Princesses can explore after ‘The Rosewood Crown’.

At this point, it is traditional to point out issues or problems with the title being reviewed. In the case of Perils & Princess: A Fairy Tale RPG, they are minor, more nitpicks than problems. For example, ‘Game Master’ seems a wholly inappropriate title for the Referee in a roleplaying game about Princesses. Perhaps more of an issue is that as written, Perils & Princess: A Fairy Tale RPG is not as good an introductory roleplaying game as it could have been. It is not written to be that, but its subject matter, that of roleplaying Princesses beyond their fairy tales very much suggests that it could be. However, this does not mean that an experienced Game Master could not run Perils & Princess: A Fairy Tale RPG as an introduction to roleplaying as for certain audiences it would work very well.

Lastly, it should be pointed out that Perils & Princess: A Fairy Tale RPG is not designed for long term play. Each Gift has only four special abilities and short of mixing and matching special abilities from other Gifts, which the roleplaying game does suggest, play beyond this is limited.

Physically, Perils & Princess: A Fairy Tale RPG takes its design cues from Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance style roleplaying game renowned for its Artpunk style. Perils & Princess: A Fairy Tale RPG is not done in the Artpunk style. Its aesthetic is softer and more accessible, done in swathes and swirls of soft pink that cast a different colour upon the darkness in the dungeons below and in the woods beyond. Otherwise, the book is well written and presented.

Perils & Princess: A Fairy Tale RPG asks players to roleplay characters that they would not normally roleplay, to place those characters in situations that would not normally expect them to be, and to seek out solutions that foster creativity and co-operation. To some extent this makes it not very much like the Old School Renaissance, but at the same time shows that there is space for such non-traditional roleplaying in the Old School Renaissance. Perils & Princess: A Fairy Tale RPG is utterly charming, infusing the Old School Renaissance with a softness and a feistiness, as well as colouring it a definite pink.

Wet & Wonderful II

FLOTT’S MISCELLANY VOLUME ONE is written by Thaddeus Flott, (imaginary) alchemist and operatic tenor, in answer to A Visitor’s Guide to the Rainy City by Beauregard Hardebard, The Master and Four Wardens of the Fellowship of the Art or Mystery of Haberdashery and Millinery. Flott claims said guide to be a fine work, but suggests that reflects poorly upon the details that sees about him as he goes about his daily flânerie. He suggests that his Miscellany is perfect for visitor to learn a great deal about the city, but not too much about any particular one thing, to ready them for those occasions when he should compulsively tell everyone he meets the many things he has learned, and to be able to do it in a charming manner! And thus, the reader will be in such a position to earn a reputation as one of the more charming boors at any bourgeois social engagement he should attend. This is the manner in which FLOTT’S MISCELLANY VOLUME ONE should be approached and once done, for the dedicated boulevardier, there is FLOTT’S MISCELLANY VOLUME TWO!

FLOTT’S MISCELLANY VOLUME ONE is published by Superhero Necromancer Press and is an expansion to A Visitor’s Guide to the Rainy City. Both are systems-agnostic and are there suitable to be used with numerous different roleplaying games, but FLOTT’S MISCELLANY VOLUME ONE should definitely be used with A Visitor’s Guide to the Rainy City. Like any miscellany, FLOTT’S MISCELLANY VOLUME ONE is a book of things. In fact, FLOTT’S MISCELLANY VOLUME ONE is a book of lists of things, whether they are people, encounters, emporia and other businesses, rumours, goods and services, and more. Barring an essay at its rear discussing theatre in the Rainy City, no entry is longer than ten lines, and a great many of them, much, much shorter than that. This is done district by district and what it means is that the Game Master can dip into FLOTT’S MISCELLANY VOLUME ONE, whether in preparation or in play, pick out a detail, whether a name or a location or an object, and slip it into her game as her Player Characters go about their own flânerie.

For example, in general, ‘Brollys Used Instead Of Hats By The Undiscerning—A List By Beauregard Hardebard’ will be use to almost anyone, suggesting ‘The Pocket Parasol’, which provides maximum protection for the wigged and unhatted with its adequate use of lace and ‘The En Garde’, hard-tipped and sturdy, for when disagreements become pointed. There are notes on magical resonances when spells do not co-operate, such as adding an emotional effect or making the spell cracked. There are grimoires for sale, like Damson Days, a.k.a. The Secret of Ooze, Purple or Otherwise, by Pores the Indifferent and Skin Trade, On The Delicate Art of Etched Homunculi. There are new gangs, for example, ‘The Weathered Crows’, a gang of animated scarecrows and effigies and ‘The Welcoming Committee’, a gang whose membership is entirely made up of Gulls who shakedown of newly arrived ships of refugees for their jewellery. Guilds include ‘The High Society of Chivalrous Chiffoniers’ and ‘The Eternal Order of Smoke’, whilst notable legal covens which oversee contracts in a city without government, include ‘The Law Offices of Right Honourable Honorius Laborius Constantine Fuddyduddy, Fuddyduddy, and Fuddyduddy’ and ‘The Salty Hull of Mary Clew, Sela Konigsdot and Hurra O’Malley’.

FLOTT’S MISCELLANY VOLUME ONE does this over and over. List upon list in delightfully fusty and parochial language that borders on the Dickensian. Once it has done for the Rainy City in general, there are lists devoted to each of the city’s ten districts. In Rickety and the Swells, there is a list of pirate captains, captured, executed, stuffed, and displayed on the Plank, each waiting to possess someone and continue about their life, whilst in The Mids, there is a list of ‘Who is Duelling In Public Square Today?’. For example, ‘Ten Rusty Nails, Pugilist, vs. City Jeansm Achterfuss. Over the particularly annoying cant of Mr. Jeans’ hat as he undulated down the street.’ Again and again, FLOTT’S MISCELLANY VOLUME ONE gives morsels of information that intrigue and interest, but never a fuller explanation. Just enough to wonder where such details and situations might go were they to encounter the curiosity of the players and their characters.

Physically, FLOTT’S MISCELLANY VOLUME ONE retains all the charm of A Visitor’s Guide to the Rainy City. The artwork appears as woodprints with a Renaissance feel, but with an unsettling nature to it upon closer examination. The nature of the book with its many, many lists is short and pithy.

A Visitor’s Guide to the Rainy City engaged the senses from page one, bringing the storm-tossed, sodden metropolis and its strange inhabitants with their odd habits to life. FLOTT’S MISCELLANY VOLUME ONE continues in that vein with little tidbits and gobbets of detail and colour that will enrich the Game Master’s Rainy City campaign even further. FLOTT’S MISCELLANY VOLUME ONE is a feast of the bonne bouche, indulgently odd and quirky.