2006: Hollow Earth Expedition

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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The year 2006 was a good one for Pulp Action roleplaying games. Spirit of the Century from Evil Hat Games delivered high Pulp Action in which Doctor Methuselah’s time-zeppelins assembled over the skies of Europe to rip open a path to a new future, Gorilla Khan, conqueror of Atlantis, marshals his armies to take all of Africa, and the threat of Fascism looms over the whole world. It would go on to win several awards, as did the other Pulp Action roleplaying game released in 2006. Hollow Earth Expedition from Exile Game Studio did not necessarily focus on high concept, over the top threats to world peace, democracy, and the social order. Instead, inspired by the works of Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Edgar Rice Burroughs, the theories of astronomer Edmond Halley, and the oeuvre of Doug McClure, Hollow Earth Expedition concentrated upon the one theme and wanted to take you down and in. Down and into the interior of the Earth to lands where dinosaurs still roamed, eighteenth century pirates sailed the azure seas, and Amazon warrior women, ape men, and the vestiges of Atlantis could all be found. This was the Hollow Earth, a subterranean realm full of secrets, lost civilisations, and adventuring potential, whether that was making fascinating new discoveries or preventing whatever perfidious plans that the Nazis had of their own!

Hollow Earth Expedition starts by conflating a bit of polar exploration history by presenting the actual diaries from the Andrée-Strindberg-Frænkel Arctic balloon expedition of 1897. In our timeline, it would fail within months and the remains of the expedition members would be found on Kvitøya in 1930. The true diaries tell of how the expedition found itself off course and diverted into a wonderful tropical paradise where monsters roamed the land and its members accepted by a local tribe, before ultimately deciding to try and return home. Similarly, the fate of another polar explorer, Roald Amundsen, who disappeared in 1928 aboard a flight looking for missing crew members from General Umberto Nobile’s Italia air ship, will be revealed in ‘The Hollow Earth Expedition’, the introductory scenario at the back of the book. The North Pole is not the only known entrance to the Hollow Earth. Others include the South Pole, volcanos such as Mount Snaefell in Iceland, the region which would one day become known as ‘The Bermuda Triangle’, and even the fabled city of Shangri-La. What is interesting about the description of the Hollow Earth is that it is not described in terms of geography. This is not to suggest that it is not described at all, but rather that Hollow Earth Expedition focuses upon what might be found there in terms of peoples, threats, and other dangers rather than places, whether that is the Loch Ness Monster or other cryptids, or even flying saucers.

What Hollow Earth Expedition does tell the reader is how to get in and some of the best known routes; the extreme nature of its cosmology and geography, for example, it is constantly lit by its own Sun, so it is always noon, and Earth’s magnetic fields are disrupted, so radios and compasses do not work; and the strangeness of time with no day and night, and time also passes slowly than on the surface. Descendants of Romans, Mayans, Ancient Egyptians, and more can be found in the Hollow Earth, as can signs of the now lost Atlanteans and their civilisation. The possibility of discovering ancient Atlantean technology is one reason explorers enter the Hollow Earth and several examples of Lodestone, a piece of orichalcum which points towards the nearest source of metal, Telepathic Communicator, and more. The ‘Friends and Enemies’ chapter populates the Hollow Earth with native peoples such as Cargo Cultists, Noble Savages, Cannibals, Amazons, Pirates, and Beastmen (including Apemen, Lizardmen, and Molemen), plus creatures like dinosaurs, cave bears, giant apes, kraken, megalodons, rocs, sabre-toothed cats, and even giant sloths and unicorns! More details about the Hollow Earth can be found in Mysteries of the Hollow Earth.

Nor does Hollow Earth Expedition ignore the surface world. This is treated as recent history that a Player Character might know. First from twenty-five years ago, then ten, then five, and lastly a year ago with the default year for the roleplaying game being 1936. It does not delve too deeply into the Desperate Decade of the nineteen thirties, but does pay particular attention to the clash between Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, and Fascism, and gives a decent gazetteer of the world’s nations at the time. Of course, apart from the actual Hollow Earth, Hollow Earth Expedition is a historical roleplaying game, but the emphasis is more on what someone in 1936 might know rather than what we know in 2006 with the benefit of historians and hindsight. As it makes clear, Hollow Earth Expedition is not a roleplaying game of strict historical realism. Instead, history is there to provide backdrop and reason to adventure rather than to educate the players.

A Player Character in Hollow Earth Expedition has an Archetype, Motivation, six Primary Attributes, Skills, a Talent or Resource, and possibly a Flaw. There are fifteen Archetypes—Academic, Adventurer, Celebrity, Criminal, Doctor, Engineer, Explorer, Hunter, Missionary, Moneyman, Occultist, Reporter, Scientist, Soldier, and Survivor—which give some idea of what the Player Character is rather than any mechanical benefit. His Motivation, whether Duty, Escape, Faith, Fame, Greed, Love, Power, Revenge, Survival, or Truth, will drive the Player Character to act and gain him Style Points when roleplayed. The six attributes are Body, Dexterity, Strength, Charisma, Intelligence and Willpower, and typically range in value from one to five, but can go higher. Similarly, skills range from one to five, but can be higher, especially when specialities are selected. A lot of the Talents provide an attribute or skill bonus of some kind, whilst possible Resources include Allies, Artefacts, Contacts, Fame, and the like. Flaws are optional and not quite so prominent in the book, but include Blind, Deaf, Dying, Absent-Minded, Illiterate, and Overconfident. When a Flaw comes into play, it will also earn a Player Character a Style Point.

To create a character, a player assigns fifteen points to Attributes and then another fifteen to skills. A Specialisation costs half a point. A player selects a Talent or a Resource and can select another if a Flaw is taken too. The process is not difficult, but it is slightly fiddly, primarily because a player has so few points to spend. This also leads to a tight, quite restrained, and focused character type who is relatively component in a few skills. They are also mundane characters. Heroic, but mundane. The nearest Talent that Hollow Earth Expedition gets to being exotic is Psychic Sensitivity and whilst the roleplaying game does give a brief treatment of them in background, neither psychic phenomena nor spiritualism, magic, or sorcery really play a role in the Hollow Earth Expedition. What this means is that a player cannot create the equivalent of Doc Savage, The Shadow, or the like. For that, both Game Master and player are probably better looking at Spirit of the Century.

Name: Henry Brinded

Archetype: Academic Motivation: Truth

Style: 2 Health: 5

Primary Attributes

Body: 2 Charisma: 2

Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 4

Strength: 2 Willpower: 3

Secondary Attributes

Size: 0 Initiative: 6

Move: 4 Defence: 4

Perception: 7 Stun: 2

Skills             Base Levels Rating Average

Academics               4          4 8 [4]

(History)                  4          1 9 [4+]

Art                             4          1 5 [2+]

Diplomacy        2          1 3 [1+]

(Etiquette)               1          2 4 [2]

Empathy        4          1 5 [2+]

Gunnery        4          1 5 [2+]

(Artillery)                 1          1 6 [3]

Investigation           4          1 5 [2+]

Linguistics               4          3 7 [3+]

(Deciphering)         1          1 8 [4]

Pilot                          2          1 3 [4]

Talents

Total Recall

Resources

Wealth 1

Flaw

Hard of Hearing

Alternatively, a player can pick one of the pre-generated sample Archetypes included in the book. There are twelve of them and they consist of Big Game Hunter, Dying Moneyman, Field Biologist, Fortune Hunter, Imperilled Actress, Intrepid Reporter, Jungle Missionary, Lost Traveller, Mad Scientist, Occult Investigator, Rugged Explorer, and Snooty Professor. These come complete with a background and roleplaying notes. They are also done in full colour on the roleplaying game’s colour inserts, its only use of colour.

Mechanically, Hollow Earth Expedition uses the Ubiquity System and was the first to do so. It is a simple mechanic. If a player wants his character to undertake an action, he rolls a number of dice equal to double the Attribute or the Skill Rating. Every even result counts as a Success. The difficulty of a task determines how many Successes are needed, ranging from one for Easy to six or more for Nigh Impossible, with an Average Difficulty requiring two Successes. Modifiers will add or subtract from the player’s dice pool. If necessary, the Game Master can also determine how well or how badly the Player Character did, depending upon the number of Successes rolled. A critical failure occurs if no Success are rolled. In general, a player will be rolling a big handful of dice for his skills, especially for his character’s best skills. Further, a player can use any dice he likes or get away with just using six-sided dice.

Alternatively, Exile Game Studio also manufactured its own Ubiquity Dice. These are eight-sided dice, coloured white, red, and blue, numbered from zero to three, depending upon the colour of the die. The white die counts as a one-die, the red die as a two-die, and the blue die as a three-die. To use those, the player adds up the value of the Ubiquity Dice equal to the number of dice he needs to roll and the total result is the number of Success achieved. For example, to have Henry Brinded make a Linguistics skill roll, his player has to roll seven dice. Instead, with Ubiquity Dice, his player rolls two red dice and a single white die, adds the numbers rolled up and that is the number of Successes. Of course, rolling a handful of dice is simple, but the Ubiquity Dice are elegant. However, Hollow Earth Expedition was published in 2006 and Ubiquity Dice are very hard to find twenty years on.

In addition, the Ubiquity System does offer another pair of options to reduce dice clutter. One is to ‘Take the Average’. If the average number of Successes that a particular dice pool can generate is equal to or greater than the task Difficulty, the Player Character automatically succeeds. This both reflects the Player Character’s general skill level and eases speed of play by cutting out unnecessary dice rolls. The other option is for large dice pools of more than ten dice in which case the player will ‘Take the Average’ for the first ten dice and roll the rest.

A Player Character has access to Style Points. These are awarded for good roleplaying such as to a Player Character’s Motivation or Flaw; supporting the game out of game, such as keeping a game report; and even for hosting and providing snacks! They are spent to buy Bonus Dice, to Boost a Talent, and Damage Reduction. If a character has run out of Style Points, his player can ask for Chance Dice. These increase his dice pool, but also increase the Difficulty of the task involved, increase the number of possible Successes that can be rolled, and increase the possibility of failure, but not those Critical Failure, as more dice means a greater chance of rolling at least one Success. It feels like the Player Character is being a hero, pushing the envelope, pushing himself to succeed where others might fail…

Combat uses the same system of dice pools. Initiative is determined by the number of Success rolled and each combatant gets an attack action and a move action per round. An attack action can be a standard attack, but can also be aim, auto fire, block, called shot, and so on. The attack is resolved by an Attack Rating, which includes the attacker’s Attribute, Skill, and other modifiers, rolled against the defender’s roll of his Defence Rating which consists of his Passive Defence, Active Defence, and Size, and includes modifiers for cover, wounds suffered, and armour worn, Armour makes a target harder to hit rather than reduce damage, but if the Attack roll is successful, any Successes generated beyond the Difficulty number do count as extra damage. Damage can be lethal or non-lethal. If a defender suffers more damage in a single blow than his Stun rating, he is stunned and loses his next action, but knocked out if he suffers more damage in a single blow than double his Stun rating. Damage can also knockback or knockdown a defender. If a defender’s Health is reduced to zero by nonlethal damage, he is knocked unconscious, but disabled if the damage is lethal, and he will die if lethal damage lowers his Health to ‘-5’. The combat rules do account for massive size differences, such as facing a dinosaur (and the example of play includes a big game hunter going after a Tyrannosaurus Rex), but advises that it is better to use brains rather than brawn when dealing with them.

Hollow Earth Expedition includes an extensive list of equipment that might be found on both the surface world and in the Hollow Earth. Alongside this is the inclusion of some ‘Weird Science’ gadgets. The rules count these as Artifacts and in order for a Player Character to have one, perhaps because he is a mad scientist, he must have the Artifact Resource. This Resource ranges from Artifact 1, a useful item such as a lucky watch to Artifact 5 and a legendary and

extremely powerful, like a drilling machine. A rare and highly useful artifact, such as a jet pack is Artifact 2, whilst a one-of-a-kind and incredibly useful artifact like a mind control ray is Artifact 3. At starting level, a Player Character scientist or engineer is unlikely to be equipped with more than an Etheric Disturbance Monitor (which detects psychic powers), Spectrovision Goggles, or even a Jet Pack. What Hollow Earth Expedition does not include is rules for building such devices. If the Player Character does have access to bigger devices, at this stage of play, starting out, they are likely to be included for narrative effect rather than something that he possesses. (Full rules for weird science and gadgeteering appeared in Secrets of the Surface World.)

The advice for the Game Master covers genre conventions such as making the heroes larger than life, the villains villainous, and the good use of a cliffhanger or deathtrap. Alongside this, there is advice specific to Hollow Earth Expedition, including ‘Evoke a Sense of Discovery’, ‘Keep It Moving’, ‘Things Are Not Always as They Seem’, and ‘Make the Era Live’ as well as a look at its conventions. These are that ‘Getting In Is Always Easier Than Getting Out’ of the Hollow Earth, ‘Guns Don’t Kill Dinosaurs: People Kill Dinosaurs’, and that when asking the question, ‘Is it Science or Magic?’, it is likely to be the former than the latter, though some still do believe in latter. Notably, the advice covers fostering good communication with the players and talking about everyone’s expectations. The advice also covers campaign length and construction, how to handle and portray villains, and is backed up with some story seeds and campaign ideas. The advice is really very good, looking at both the broader nature of the Pulp genre and at the specifics of the lost world sub-genre, and it certainly has not dated. It would work as well in a contemporary roleplaying game as it did in 2006.

In addition to describing and populating the Hollow Earth, the roleplaying game also provides the Game Master with some allies and enemies from the Surface World to populate her campaign. They include secret societies, exploration societies, and government agencies. The Terra Arcanum was originally set up to guard Atlantean secrets and shepherd humanity, but has since developed into a network of puppet masters and powerbrokers in the mode of the Illuminati, whilst the Thule Society is a cult of militant Nazi occultists. The exploratory societies are the familiar National Geographic Society and Royal Geographic Society, whilst the government agencies are U.S. Army Intelligence and Secret Intelligence Service or MI6, in particular, Section Z, which investigates foreign occult activity. All six are accorded a lengthy write-up and details of both a notable NPC and a generic NPC. All six also feel more than suited to the genre and the two-fisted heroes of Hollow Earth Expedition are definitely going to want some Nazis to punch!

The Player Characters get a chance to punch some Nazis in ‘The Hollow Earth Expedition’, the introductory scenario in Hollow Earth Expedition. There is good advice on how to get the Player Characters motivated according to their Archetype, but what they will be doing is joining a U.S. Army Intelligence sponsored mission aboard an airship being sent after a secret Thule Society which it thinks is searching for advanced weaponry from a lost civilisation at the North Pole. It is a cracking little adventure, getting the Player Characters into the Hollow Earth in smart fashion, showcasing some of its dangers and wonders, revealing a secret or two, and putting them face to face with the Nazis. The roleplaying game is rounded out with a good bibliography and a glossary.

Physically, Hollow Earth Expedition is a great looking book. It is well written and actually an engaging read, but what really stands out is the artwork. Or rather, what really stands out is the blank and artwork. This is not to say that the colour artwork of the book’s colour inserts is poor. In fact, it is very good, capturing that vibrant colour of the cover of pulp paperbacks. However, the black and white is superb, again and again evoking a sense of wonder about the world, both the Surface World and the Hollow Earth.

Hollow Earth Expedition is a roleplaying game in a hurry and that is the cause of its problems. It really wants to get the Game Master, her players, and their characters into the Hollow Earth as fast as it can. Which is good. However, it rushes the reader into the rules and character generation without a lot of explanation. It is there, but a bit more explanation would have prepared the reader better. It also has to straddle two worlds—the Surface World and the Hollow Earth, when really it wants to focus on the Hollow World. Which it does. So, it leaves a lot of character elements behind, especially in terms of Talents and Resources, when the Player Characters reach the Hollow World. In a pulp action roleplaying like Hollow Earth Expedition, this means that some Player Characters are going to feel underpowered. There is also very little in the book on the occult or weird science and given that these are mainstays of the Pulp genre, their relative absence is notable. Lastly, players wanting high Pulp Action are going to be disappointed. Hollow Earth Expedition does deliver on both the Pulp and the action, but very much at the lower end of the scale. Lastly, for the Game Master wanting more ready to play and use content, Hollow Earth Expedition is lacking. Hollow Earth Expedition does give all of the elements, but as a setting, the Hollow Earth Expedition Game Master is going to have to put a lot of effort in to create the Hollow Earth as a realm that her Player Characters explore and adventure . However, if she does, then she will definitely make it her own.

Hollow Earth Expedition was released at the ebb of the d20 System. It would win the Silver Medal for Best Cover Art at the 2007 ENnie Awards and be a Finalist for Roleplaying Game of the Year in the 2007 Origins Awards. Its Ubiquity System would go on to be used in roleplaying games such as Desolation, A Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy from Greymalkin Designs and the version of Space: 1889 from Uhrwerk Verlag under its easier to pronounce Clockwork Publishing label.

Hollow Earth Expedition is not perfect and it is not the perfect pulp action game. There are elements missing from it to be an all-encompassing treatment of the genre and the Player Characters are likely to feel underpowered. However, it is not meant to be an all-encompassing treatment of the genre and does not try to be, and the fact that its Player Characters feel underpowered shifts it to a ‘Lost World’ roleplaying game of not quite ordinary men and women thrust into action in a land of wonder and discovery. As a pulp action roleplaying game, Hollow Earth Expedition is very much punching above its weight, but the Ubiquity System is solid, the writing is great, and the artwork excellent, and all together, they invoke a delightful sense of awe and wonder about the Hollow Earth and what might be found there.

Magazine Madness 46: Interface RED Volume 5

The gaming magazine is dead. After all, when was the last time that you were able to purchase a gaming magazine at your nearest newsagent? Games Workshop’s White Dwarf is of course the exception, but it has been over a decade since Dragon appeared in print. However, in more recent times, the hobby has found other means to bring the magazine format to the market. Digitally, of course, but publishers have also created their own in-house titles and sold them direct or through distribution. Another vehicle has been Kickststarter.com, which has allowed amateurs to write, create, fund, and publish titles of their own, much like the fanzines of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest. The resulting titles are not fanzines though, being longer, tackling broader subject matters, and more professional in terms of their layout and design.

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Technically Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 5 is not a magazine. It collects some of the downloadable content made available for Cyberpunk RED, the fourth edition of R. Talsorian Games, Inc.’s Cyberpunk roleplaying game. So, its origins are not those of a magazine, but between 1990 and 1992, Prometheus Press published six issues of the magazine, Interface, which provided support for both Cyberpunk 2013 and Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. It is this mantle that Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 1, Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 2, Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 3, Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 4, and future issues is picking up in providing support for the current edition of the roleplaying game. As a consequence of the issue collecting previously available downloadable content, there is a lot in the issue that is both immediately useful and can be prepared for play with relative ease. There is also some that is not, and may not even make it into a Game Master’s campaign.

Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 5 starts by adding some crunch to your Cyberpunk RED campaign. Quite literally. With ‘Breaking Your Stuff: Rules for Maintaining (and Damaging) Gear’, the Edgerunners have to deal with the wear and tear on their weapons and gear, and the need to maintain it. It can now be categorised as ‘Damaged’ as well as ‘Destroyed’ and ‘Destroyed Beyond Repair’, which allows it to be repaired or used with a penalty. Maintenance can be part of an Edgerunner’s Lifestyle level if the item does not exceed that Lifestyle level, but if it does, he will have to pay to keep it functioning. There are Role-based exceptions, such as Rockerboys having a Lifestyle one level higher for the benefit of maintaining musical instruments and other equipment. Lack of maintenance can lead to breakdowns, as can other damage, but when a player rolls a natural one to use a damaged or poorly maintained, malfunctions can happen. Tables list possible malfunctions for a range of devices and weapons and the Game Master can always make up more. This adds a level of realism to the play of Cyberpunk RED, but it may be a touch too much for some groups. Others will like the grit adds to the streets of Night City.

The Edgerunners may have had the chance to play Roller Derby as part of the campaign, Tales of the RED: Hope Reborn, but ‘Chasing The Rabbit: Roller Derby in the Time of the Red’ gives the full details of the game and the Night City Wonderland League and its twelve teams. It can be the focus of a scenario or two, but there is the possibility here that Roller Derby could be the central focus of a campaigned, perhaps combining a Streel Level campaign with a sports-based campaign. The combination would have lots of inspiration to draw upon and would work well for a short to medium length campaign.

In the Time of the RED, everyone has an Agent, an A.I. in their pocket that is one half-communication device, one-half computer, providing entertainment, handling calls and messages, filters news, tracks tasks, orders groceries, and more. Much like everyone today attached to their mobile phone, the Agent is very personal to its user. ‘All About Agents: Your Best Friend in your Pocket’ looks at the history of the Agent, their origins being in a game console that did not sell well in 2020 and got hacked to do much of what an Agent does today. The manufacturer of that game console tried to adapt, but other manufacturers came to dominate the market with models like the EBM PiR2 or Raven Microcybernetics Drake, the latter an internal model. An Agent can be hacked and there are rules for this, but this will get the hacker into serious trouble if discovered. The article includes models and apps ready to buy and install, but where Agents get interesting is the little details that they can add to play. They reflect their user and depending upon the personality installed, the Game Master can have fun roleplaying them and interacting with their owners, having them become unpredictable due to spotty connections and dead spots, and even offer the very occasional piece of advice to their owners. This is an article that helps the Game Master bring another aspect of daily life in Cyberpunk RED into the busy lives of her Edgerunners and makes it just a touch more immersive.

‘Toggle’s Temple: Be Ready When the Dolphins Invade’ brings back a lot of guns from Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. and gives them stats for Cyberpunk RED. Which makes a lot of sense, since in as heavily armed as the society was in 2020, there are going to be a lot of firearms to be found two decades later. So welcome back Militech Avenger, Dai Lung Streetmaster, Arasaka Minami 10, and others. The article couples this with a secret underground armoury, gun range, and configurable weapons-based obstacle course in Night City run by a man known as Toggle. And Toggle has a gloriously wild conspiracy theory about Cetaceans! A perfect combination of stats and off-kilter colour.

‘Did Someone Say Murder? An Investigation System for Cyberpunk RED’ does what it says and gives mechanics, advice, and examples for running mysteries in Cyberpunk RED. Edgerunners gain a new stat called ‘Focus’, derived from Intelligence and Will and expended to make Evidence Checks over the course of an investigation, and then recovered by whole days of rest. A mystery has a Goal and a Complexity rating; the latter being reduced by successful Evidence Checks as if Complexity was actually the mystery’s Hit Points. A successful Evidence Check also gain a clue. Clues even have the equivalent of armour, called Obfuscation, reducing the damage done by the Evidence Check. If the Obfuscation is zero, then the clue could be a first-hand witness statement or complete recording which points clearly towards the solution, but if as high as six, it might only be a rumour or grainy footage. Obstacles such as a remote location or a red herring or corporate interference will impede the Edgerunners’ investigative efforts, inflicting Focus damage if they are successful, but more damage if they are not.

The article turns the mystery into a construct of a kind, complete with Hit Points, that the Edgerunners are fighting, and likely fighting long term. So, there is an artificiality to both mystery and the investigative process that the Game Master may want to make less obvious so that the investigation is less of a game and more of an organic process. Of course, good roleplaying will help on both sides of the screen. Nevertheless, the system is workable, the advice solid, and the examples given are decent.

‘Your New Best Friend: Welcome to the Bottom of the Food Chain’ looks at the new range of cyberpets (and the dangers of keeping them) from Biotechnica. Want a lovable Forever Turtle™ (comes with combat jaw and its own Trauma Response account for longevity), cute and fluffy Datarabbit™ (complete with EMP-protected storage locker for holding sensitive memory chip in its eye), or Neon Newt™ (with acid-secreting skin and flamethrower breath)? Here are the rules and stats for them and more. An owner needs a good Animal Handling skill to train a Cyberpet and maintain the Cyberpet’s own Lifestyle level in addition to his own! The article describes nine Cyberpets old and new, new Cyberpet cyberware, and includes four hooks that the Game Master can use. These are fun new toys that the Edgerunners and their players can play with—if they can afford them, and the Game Master can use to out the occasional memorable NPC.

‘Screamsheet Generator: Creating Headlines for your Campaign’ is an excellent toolkit for the Game Master to create Screamsheets, the equivalent of newspapers in Cyberpunk RED. It is really several tables of prompts, but these are all good and the process is shown off with a good example of the process that works through a pitfall or two along the way. It provides another way to add verisimilitude to a campaign. The penultimate entry in Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 5 is the eponymous ‘The 12 Days of REDMAS: A Cyberpunk Red Holiday Tradition’. This is a collection of goodies and gear to satisfy most gearheads and cyberware junkies, from the Centurion Essentials Thermal Dagger which slices and stabs and as much as it sets defenders on fire, to a Zetatech CyberConductor that enables a Netrunner to have three Cyberdecks in parallel and switch between them that comes with some program shutdown, so he can have access to more programs ready to run. As with Christmas presents, there should be something here for everyone.

Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 5 comes to close with a big article which both adjusts the scale of Cyberpunk RED and the stage upon which it is played as well as providing an update for three whole supplements for both Cyberpunk 2013 and Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0., ‘Solo of Fortune 2045’ takes up almost a third of the issue and provides a state of affairs guide to mercenary work in the 2040s. In the process it updates the popular supplements Solo of Fortune, Solo of Fortune 2, and Maximum Metal. However, it is not the full update of Maximum Metal in that it does not detail tanks, artillery, ground-support aircraft, and other armoured vehicles. Rather, it keeps it personal with an examination of Advanced Combat Personal Armour or ‘ACPA’ suits, along new equipment, weapons, modifications, and more. The ‘editor’ of Solo of Fortune stresses that the magazine is for professionals and not ‘posers’ and in game terms it adds ‘Mercenary Level’ above the ‘Street Level’ of games where the Solo is not just the combat specialist, but also Hardened in terms of power level and will expect to face similar threats.

The ’magazine’ breaks down mission types and examines what Mercenary Level is as well as detailing new equipment like barrel extensions (and their increased ranges); adding ‘Machine Gun’ and ‘Autofire’ as categories; and listing numerous new weapons from manufacturers old and new. Burrowing ammunition, explosive ammunition, and high precision ammunition are also available for arrows, bullets, and slugs; new explosives and surplus armour such as Heavy, Hybrid, and Light Metalgear; and plenty of new chemicals and dispensers. Pride of place, of course, goes to the ‘ACPA’ suits and the rules for them. This includes operation, fabrication and repair, and design. The latter enables a Solo to order the parts and have a Tech construct them into a working machine, or of course, a Solo can just buy (and modify) an off-the-shelf design. The latter includes some familiar models such as the Militech Commando and the Zhirafa Boris in addition to new designs.

Add in to this some colour fiction which sets the groundwork for Mercenary Level games, gives advice for players new to the power level, and throws in some history that fans of Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. will specifically as well as some mission ideas and a full mercenary Level Screamsheet and ‘Solo of Fortune 2045’ just about gives everything that the Game Master and her players might want to take a Solo-focused campaign up a notch or two. There is probably still room for a full Solo of Fortune supplement for Cyberpunk RED, but in the meantime, ‘Solo of Fortune 2045’ is perfect for the Solo who really wants to go professional and the Game Master who wants to shift her campaign away from the streets.

Physically, Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 5 is cleanly, tidily laid out. The artwork is decent too and everything is easy to read.

Although much of it was originally available for free and of course, all of it is optional, as with previous issues, having it all in print in Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 5 is a great compilation and great support for Cyberpunk RED. There is so much in its pages that will find its way into any Game Master’s campaign and much that will extend it too in unexpected ways, such as sending it onto a Roller Derby rink, giving advice and structure to mysteries (murders and otherwise), and turning up the power for Mercenary Level. Plus, there is much that will add little details to the Game Master’s campaign like creating Screamsheet handouts and giving a touch of agency to Agents. All of it together, Interface RED: A Collection for Cyberpunk RED Enthusiasts Volume 5 is another great issue.

Solitaire: To Honour And Obey

It is the traditional role of the woman to stay at home, to maintain the household, and raise the family whilst their husband is away at work, at war, and at other duties. The stories of such women have long been explored and examined in fiction, but rarely in roleplaying. To Honour And Obey is a roleplaying game in which the tale of one such woman can be told. In particular, it is the tale of a woman who has married well to a man of status who has land and a title. He is also a man with duties who owes fealty to the King and when the call comes, must ride away to serve him, that is simply serving as part of a garrison, going on campaign, or undertaking a quest. Thus, she is left alone, barely married for four months and pregnant with their first child and potentially, his heir. The castle is cold and drafty, the household staff equally as cold and unwelcoming, and threats lurk on the edge of her husband’s fiefdom. Raised to be a good wife and a suitable match for any knight, the lady must prove herself of undertaking all of the tasks that her husband would see as his duty were he at home. Manage the household, see to the land, protect it from dangers, and ensure the safety of the peasantry. This is the task faced by the player in To Honour And Obey, ‘A solo game about an Arthurian lady protecting her own.’

To Honour And Obey is published by Twelve Pins Press. It is both a solo journaling and an epistolary roleplaying game told in five acts in which a lady must survive the winter faced by travails that her mother failed to warn her about. It uses Blinking Birch Games’ Anamnesis system and thus to play, it requires a Tarot deck, a notebook and pen, and some tokens, as well as a coin. To set up, the player separates the Tarot Deck into five individual decks consisting of the Major Arcana, Wands, Swords, Cups, and Pentacles. The player then draws two cards from the Major Arcana. The first is the Lady’s Strength, which can be a talent, a quality, a skill, or a secret. Whenever the Lady uses her Strength to deal with a problem, a token is placed on the card. The second is reversed and is her Enemy. When the Lady is confronted with a problem that she is unable to deal with at all or simply badly, or acts out of desperation, a token is placed on the card. The player always decides, except when a card is drawn reversed, in which case a token is placed on her Enemy. To Honour And Obey does suggest three sample Strengths and Enemies, but more would have been both nice and further supported its replay value.

To Honour And Obey is played in five acts. The first three acts switch between the action and epistolary, from surveying her situation to writing to her mother, from facing her enemies acting against her to writing to her husband, and so on. Her player draws three cards from the Pentacle. This generates three questions. For example, “You have a friend who you can never spend enough time with when you are attending your wifely duties. Who is she, and how quickly have you made plans to see her?”, “As you stand by the gate a man watches you from a window. What about his gaze makes your skin crawl?”, and “As he rides away, you think about the one person you wish was here to offer you support and wisdom. Why are they not with you right now? Do you cave in, and in a moment of weakness, ask them to come?” The player answers these questions and moves onto epistolary action. As the Lady, the player writes to her mother, telling her about the keep, her duties, insecurities and fears, love and resentment of her husband, and fears for the future, before asking for advice. She has a chance to act on it and gain a token for her Strength card, before the player moves onto the second act.

As the story progresses through the subsequent acts, the Lady deals with issues in her husband’s fiefdom and then writes to her husband, never knowing when he will write in reply and even if he is still alive; tries to find out more about her enemies and writes to the Queen—perhaps even for help; finally ultimately face her foes, in turn direct attack, treachery, scandal, and illness. In the final, the Lady will face Ending, its nature determined by a Major Arcana card, her fate determined by which card has the most tokens. More tokens on her Strength indicates victory, whereas more on her Enemy indicates defeat. It is easier to accrue tokens on her Enemy than it is on her Strength, meaning that the Lady’s ending is often one of tragedy.

The story at the heart of To Honour And Obey is structurally the same and each time the Lady is going to answering the same broad questions and facing the same sort of difficulties. Where the variation comes is in the exact nature of those difficulties as prompted by the drawing of the cards. When it comes to replaying To Honour And Obey, the challenge is creating answers to the broader prompts about the Lady and her relationships rather than the external threats that she faces.

Physically, To Honour And Obey does need a slight edit, but is otherwise well presented. It is also illustrated by a range of fitting Pre-Raphaelite artwork.

The role of the woman and how much she supports and makes sacrifices for her husband even when he is not there  in Arthurian legend is often overlooked and often tragic. To Honour And Obey is an opportunity to bring her tale to light and hear it her told from her perspective.

Friday Fantasy: One Bad Apple

One Bad Apple is a scenario for Shadow of the Weird Wizard, the roleplaying game set on the world of Erth in the Borderlands between the remnants of once great empires and the realm of the Weird Wizard greatly changed by his magics. The unexplained disappearance of the Weird Wizard allowed all manner of creatures and strangeness to flood into the empires and kingdoms causing strife and civil war, as refugees fled into the borderlands and adventurers ventured into the Weird Wizard’s lands into explore its strangeness, hopefully stop any dangerous threats, and perhaps return with treasures both magical and mundane. Player Characters progress from Level One to Level Ten, their progress divided between three Paths—Novice, Expert, and Master, gaining greater ability, skill, and specialisation. A Novice Path begins at Level One, an Expert path at Level Three, and a Master Path at Level Seven. Adventures for Shadow of the Weird Wizard are tailored to these three Paths. One Bad Apple is designed for Novice Heroes and can be run as a beginning scenario for Shadow of the Weird Wizard. It confronts the players and their Heroes with one of the big changes in Shadow of the Weird Wizard in comparison with traditional fantasy roleplaying games.

One Bad Apple is set in the small village of Two Forks, located in the Borderlands between the twin forks of the Flenderish River and marked by the two stone bridges which cross the sluggish, muddy rivers, the temple, and the Two Forks Distillery and Public House, the most profitable building in the village. Were it not for the quality of its spirits, Two Forks would be utterly unremarkable, a place where nothing happens. That placid nature has been shattered with the sudden change in behaviour by the town’s blacksmith. Victor the Smith has always been a friendly, agreeable man, always ready to help others, but now, a sudden, unprovoked and extremely violent outburst has left his neighbour, Ruprecht Allson, bruised, battered, and bloody, and like the rest of the village unable to explain why he was attacked. Two Forks’ two guards managed to subdue Victor the Smith and lock him in a shed, where he continues to rage and scream and hammer at the door. What has affected Victor the Smith? What is the reason for his rage? How long will the shed hold him?

The Player Characters may be residents of Two Forks or they might be passing through, but they get caught up in the situation following a village meeting. When they investigate, none of the villagers have any explanation, but there are signs of other odd activity in the village. Footprints and warning graffiti suggest that Goblins have been skulking about in Two Forks and the nearest Goblins are known to live in a relatively nearby forest. When confronted, the Goblins and their leader, Bung, will defend their temple ruin hideout, but will ultimately reveal what they have done, and that is to place a curse on Two Forks, one that inflicts ‘Soul Sickness’ upon the villagers. This ‘Soul Sickness’ manifests as a magical disease that drives sufferers to ever greater rage and acts of unprovoked violence, before ultimately transforming them into Orcs. This is one of the radical changes in Shadow of the Weird Wizard that divorces the origin of the Orc from its traditional cultural difficulties, and as seen here in One Bad Apple, suggests new story possibilities and adds to the lore of Shadow of the Weird Wizard.

Bung though, is not the only threat to Two Forks. Salty Lemon, a vicious Bauchan, has his own issues with the village, but as it turns out, would rather not see everyone there turned into Orcs as that would be dangerous for both him and the surrounding area. He knows of a cure to the ‘Soul Sickness’, but of course, wants something in return. This is a jewel that was stolen from him and which can be found in the tombs below the temple where the Goblins had their base. The heroes may already have explored this and may even have found the jewel and so be ready to hand it over in return for the recipe, but either way, the last part of One Bad Apple is an exploration of tombs under the temple, essentially, a mini-dungeon foray. With luck, but mostly skill, the heroes should be able to find the jewel, get the recipe, and so help stop the spread of the ‘Soul Sickness’.

The scenario is straightforward and easy to run. The Sage will need to refer to Secrets of the Weird Wizard for details of the traps and treasures to be found in the tomb, as well as all of the monster stats. If Bung survives and runs away, he could easily return as a recurring villain in subsequent scenarios and the Sage might want to develop him further to that end.

Physically, One Bad Apple is cleanly and tidily laid out. It is well written, but the map of the tombs below the temple could have been easier to read.

One Bad Apple offers a good mix of investigation and interaction, combat, and exploration in its short few pages that all together should provide two or three sessions’ worth of play. It is a classic village-in-peril scenario, but one based upon a major twist that Shadow of the Weird Wizard brings to fantasy roleplay. In this way, as an introductory scenario, One Bad Apple shows both the Sage and her players that although based on classic fantasy roleplaying, Shadow of the Weird Wizard is different. It is a good start.

Assault on Algiers

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 Kindling is a scenario that takes Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 back to North Africa after the events of the early war campaign, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: The Serpent & The Sands, although the two are not connected. Its set-up—and pretty much all of the scenario—is simple and straightforward. This because it is designed to be played as part of, and is included with, the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Quickstart Pack, along with Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Ultimatum. The latter is designed to serve as a one-hour demonstration session, whereas Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Kindling is slightly more involved and will take a longer session in which to complete. It could easily be run using the players’ own characters, perhaps as a mission to run between the early part of the war and the mid- to late part of the war. However, the scenario is designed to be used as a quick-start, so includes four pre-generated agents. These consist of an indecisive American natural engineer and linguistic, an implacable British Commando with a reputation for surviving combat, a well-read Belgian police detective who has joined the Free French forces, and a French North African sorceress with an eye for clues and reading others. The latter is the only female pre-generated agent.

It is November 7, 1942. The Allies are about to launch their first combined operation—Operation Torch. This is an invasion of North Africa intended to help the British secure victory in North Africa and the Americans gain combat experience against the forces of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Three task forces are to launch amphibious attacks on the Atlantic coast of Morocco and the northern coast of Algeria, both under the control of Vichy France. As part of this co-operation, Britain’s Section M is to co-operate with the USA’s occult department, Majestic, as well as the French Resistance, in support of Operation Torch, specifically support Operation Terminal, the Allied landing in Algiers, the capital of Algeria. The mission for the combined occult strike team has been named Operation Kindling.

Against the background of distrust between the French and the British because of the Battle of Mers-el-Kébir when the British attacked French vessels to prevent from falling into German hands, the Player Characters are ordered in turn to neutralise a force of Vichy troops at a police station, ideally by getting them to switch sides or surrender; destroy a radio tower; and ultimately, to capture a Nachtwölfe experimental artillery battery and hold it until relieved. The team is also warned that Black Sun forces may also be operating in the area. The set-up is this straightforward and the agents are likely to deal with the mundane Vichy forces very quickly. Only after than does the scenario get interesting. This is with the discovery of a Black Sun convoy which has clearly been ambushed and gunned down. The agents learn too that the ambushers took an object of importance—a ‘horn’. With this information in hand, the Player Characters still need to capture the gun battery, which turns out to be a Blauer Kristall-powered pair of lightning cannons! Once done, their orders are to hold the battery. Which the agents have to do against a force of Black Sun troops which is chasing the Nachtwölfe unit which was responsible for the ambush on the Black Sun convoy. The scenario will come to climax with the agents fighting alongside sudden and temporary allies—the fleeing Nachtwölfe soldiers—and discovering what the ‘horn’ is that they took from the Black Sun convoy.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Kindling is a combat-focused scenario. There is a little room for interaction, but not a lot. The orders given to the agents mean that they and their players have little room to manoeuvre and act outside of their parameters. For example, the agents cannot do anything with the lightning cannons except shut them down or blow them up. As a combat focused scenario, the easiest way to run the scenario’s climatic combat scene is to let the players roll dice and handle the actions of their agent’s temporary Nachtwölfe allies as well as their agents lest the Game Master be overwhelmed with dice rolls. One thing that the scenario does is expose both players and agents to three of the factions in the Secret War and learn that the relations between the Nazi factions are strained to say the least!

Physically, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Kindling is generally well presented, though it has clearly been rushed in places. Both maps and agent illustrations are fine.

Beyond the amusing play upon its name, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Kindling is a serviceable scenario. Its emphasis upon combat cannot lift it above that and its skirmish nature suggests that its finale really wants to be fought out using miniatures and terrain. Yet it does a reasonable job of showing off the rules and some basic elements of the setting, so it does do what it was written to do.

Miskatonic Monday #424: The Innsmouth Terror

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

—oOo—

Name: The Innsmouth Terror

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: John Hedge & Miskatonic Playhouse

Setting: 1923 Lovecraft Country

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Forty-six-page, 68.09 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Hollywood horror comes to Innsmouth

Plot Hook: A stolen artefact leads from the Miskatonic University to a Technicolour film set on the edge of madness

Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, thirteen NPCs, three handouts, and a town full of Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Excellent

Pros

# Potential sequel to Stage Fright at the Playhouse

# Straightforward investigation

# Great double finale

# Fine addition to any Miskatonic University-based campaign

# Addition to The Society for the Exploration of the

Unexplained-based campaign from the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set

# Camerophobia

# Batrachophobia

# Chapodiphobia

Cons

# Works best as a sequel to Stage Fright at the Playhouse

# Straightforward investigation

# No maps

Conclusion

# Innsmouth investigation leads to Train to Busan Innsmouth-style
# ‘The Shadow over Innsmouth’ writ large, but in an entertaining fashion

# Reviews from R’lyeh Recommends

Miskatonic Monday #423: Hunger at the Campsite

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: Hunger at the Campsite

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Phanzar

Setting: 1982 USA forest

Product: Encounter
What You Get: Three-page, 2.99 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: A cat-tree-cat god is hungry

Plot Hook: An abandoned campsite deep in the woods

Plot Support: Staging advice, four Investigator templates, one NPC, and two Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Short and easy to understand

# Could be set in any period or country

# Ailurophobia

# Dendrophobia

# Hylophobia

Cons

# Investigator templates rather than pre-generated Investigators
# No motivation for the Investigators

# No plot
# Playable in thirty minutes

Conclusion

# Plotless
# Hookless

# Reviews from R’lyeh Discommends