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.

Friday Fantasy: Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands

Far from any frozen climes, from any mountains or tundra, or ice-churned seas, lies the strangest of lands. Qaasuitsup Nunaat, or Land of Polar Darkness, is inhospitable, ice and snowbound, its once life-giving lake frozen over, and where there were fields that settlers from far away came to till and make new lives, there are dunes and drifts of snow. The paradise that drew so many is long gone, frozen in a wasteland that stands in contrast to the surrounding jungle and warm coastal waters. Overhead nightly hangs the aurora borealis, bringing colour to the region where there is white of snow and black of ice. Ancient myths tell of the story of Imeq-inua, or Lake Spirit, who saw to it that the land was protected and made fertile and prosperous. Then the lake froze and the temperature dropped. In the crops, the trees and plants, and any animal that could not flee the region died. The settlers fled and the few that remained froze or starved to death. Now wolves have the run of region, howling and hounding intruders, whilst strange Iced-Blooded Mutants have been encountered by those brave—or foolish—enough to want to investigate what has become of the former paradise. Perhaps hired to restore the region to its original balmy climate or discover where the Iced-Blooded Mutants come from and if they are a threat, or cast ashore shipwrecked on the coast, or drawn by whispers of the Lake Spirit herself, the Player Characters found themselves in a strangely frigid land.

Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands is a mini-hexcrawl published by Angry Golem Games. Designed for Player Characters of between First and Third Level, it is the third in the publisher’s ‘Fortnightly Adventures’ series, begun with Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower, which is intended to provide a brand-new, original module every two weeks—each exploring a different biome, mysterious locale, and unique challenge. Having done a section of desert, a strange tower, and a mystery to uncover in The Hollow Tower and a volcanic island with a volcano, a temple with some hot springs, and more in Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact, the series switches to sub-polar region, all iced up and snowed under for Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands. It is written for use with Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy, published by Necrotic Gnome Productions, which is based on the 1981 revision of Basic Dungeons & Dragons by Tom Moldvay and its accompanying Expert Set by Dave Cook and Steve Marsh, and which together present a very accessible, very well designed, and superbly presented reimplementation of the rules.

What Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands details is an eleven-hexagon region of frozen tundra. Each takes roughly two hours to explore, so the region is not a large one overall and could easily be crossed in a day in any direction. In fact, it could actually be reduced in size without losing anything and it could easily be treated as a mini-location as a whole and placed in a single hex in a Game Master’s campaign. This might be to keep it as written as an oddly frozen location amidst much warmer climes or even move it to actual colder regions where its previous warmer and more fertile status would have been the oddity. 

The five locations in Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands consist of the ‘Experiments Base’, ‘Watchtower’, ‘Longhouse’, ‘Permafrost Caves’, and ‘The Lake’. Of these, only the ‘Experiments Base’ and ‘Permafrost Caves’ are fully mapped, but all are reasonably well detailed, bar ‘The Lake’ which is not detailed at all. ‘Experiments Base’ is where the scholars who brought about the changes to the valley with its radical climate change operate out of and continue to conduct research that their masters have since deemed unethical. The ‘Watchtower’ is home to a former guardian of the valley, whilst the ‘Longhouse’ is home to a gang of criminals desperately surviving after being washed ashore from the ship they were being transported in and attempted to take over. The ‘Permafrost Caves’ is home to a reclusive Frost Giant who prefers the company of the pack of wolves he keeps. The monsters and NPCs given full stats consist of the four scholars—two Wizards and two apprentices— and the new monster, the super-strong ‘Ice-Blooded Mutants’, who unarmed punches are so cold they inflict frostburn! The ‘Ice-Blooded Mutants’ are the result of another experiment by the scholars and are their servants and bodyguards.

There is a plot to Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands, the possibility that the Player Characters could discover the cause of how the valley became frozen and then perhaps reverse its effects. The problem is that as written, there is little in way of clues to find and little to really push either plot or Player Characters forward. It is as if the Player Characters are expected to wander around in the hope of finding something that might suggest a course of action. The few NPCs described—the scholars who are effectively the villains of the piece—are underwritten and lack both character and motivation. Similarly, beyond being reclusive, the Frost Giant residing in the ‘Permafrost Caves’ has no characterisation. In order to find a solution to the situation in the valley, the Player Characters do need to find why of dealing with him, but there are suggestions as how he might react to their presence. Lastly, the escaped prisoners at the ‘Longhouse’ will defend themselves, but that is about as much motivation as they are given.

Physically, Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands is decently done. The layout is clean and tidy and the illustrations are good. However, the scenario very much needs an edit.

Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands is disappointing. It is underwritten and it is underdeveloped. The plot concerning the current state of the valley and its potential reversal has been left for the Game Master to properly flesh out and the NPCs all need characterisation and explanations as to either what they know or what they want—and sometimes both. It does not help that the adventure is poorly edited with odd turns of phrase that make it jarring to read. Ultimately, Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands is a flaccid affair, an indication that the concept of releasing a complete mini-adventure every two weeks has got beyond the creators and run out of steam. At its very best, Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands is something that the prospective Game Master might want to develop properly herself, as that is only way to get it into a ready-to-run state.

Secrecy & Survivability

The world of Spume is hellhole and you definitely would not want to live there. Most of the few hundred that do live on the planet reside in the single dome settlement of Dryavis, where they conduct mining operations via remote drones and vehicles. Outside of the dome, the planet, with its thin, tainted atmosphere, is subject to near constant seismic activity, widespread volcanic activity, and a near constant rain of ash and rocks, all at extremes of temperature and intermittent radioactivity. Located within the Darrian Confederation in the Darrian Subector of the Spinward Marches, just two parsecs away from the capital and one parsec away from the homeworld, nobody would willing want to visit Spume. Except that researchers in the departments of geophysical sciences and engineering at Idikelin University have discovered new properties of certain materials when exposed to the magma of an active volcano and want them further investigated. To that end, it has mounted an expedition to Spume consisting of a planetologist, vulcanologist, seismologist, two materials specialists, and a technician to conduct in the field experiments. The fully equipped expedition will establish a base and conduct field experiments on Spume and report back with its findings within a few months.

This is the set-up for Ashfall, the first part of a trilogy of scenarios published by March Harrier Publishing for use with Traveller, Second Edition from Mongoose Publishing. Together, they form a mini-campaign for six players who will roleplay the six pre-generated scientist or technician characters. In addition to the core rulebook, the Game Master will need access to Alien Module 3: Darrians or Aliens of Charted Space Vol. 3, whilst the Central Supply Catalogue will also be useful. Access to various issues of The Journal of the Travellers’ Aid Society may be helpful, but are not crucial to running the scenario.

The plot to Ashfall sees the Player Characters arrive on Spume and set up their camp with three possible choices given. Contact with Dryavis is possible, but limited, and for the most part, the Player Characters will be alone. That is, until they receive a most unexpected knock on the door to the survival dome which has been constructed over the Advanced Base (Pressurised) they have set up. Until the scenario, the Player Characters spend their time conducting field research and analysing the results, having spent some time constructing and setting up the camp. This plays out over several days using the rules given to handle the results of the research. This is fairly dry, and although there are some minor rivalries between the expedition members, as the scenario notes, Darrian community ethic means that means there is much less likely to be inter-departmental or inter-faculty rivalry than there might be within an expedition from a university from the Third Imperium. This is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of a trio of Special Arm agents, who want to investigate the activities of the various academics. Each of them does have a secret, which a player is free to reveal or not during his character’s interrogation, but none of them are truly terrible or shocking. In fact, they are minor at best and reflect the Darrian cultural conservatism at worst. For the most part, the Player Characters will find the presence of the Special Arm agents a distraction from their ongoing work.

The other role that the Special Arm agents can play in the scenario is as a source of replacement Placement Characters. This is because the scenario takes another, sudden swerve which sets up the last, much more challenging third act. This occurs after the expedition’s base suffers a sudden catastrophe in the form of a landslip! The Player Characters have only minutes to get into their vacuum suits and grab what equipment they can before fleeing. Unfortunately, the expedition’s ATV is also destroyed in the accident. This leaves the Player Characters with little choice, but to make their way across Spume on foot. It possible to ask the miners at Dryavis to help rescue them, but contact is limited due to the environment and the equipment at the mining base not being entirely suited to such a role. The last third of the scenario is a gruelling trek across Spume’s barren, cracked, and often venting landscape. Multiple encounters are suggested, through problematically, one of the encounters does require access to Ashfall III: Into the Crust.

In terms of support for the players, Ashfall not only includes the six pre-generated scientists and technicians, but also six sets of roleplaying notes. These have been created using Myers-Briggs type indicators and are intended to be handed out randomly, meaning any time the Game Master runs Ashfall, the Player Characters remain the same, but the personalities are random. That said, not everyone is going to want to use these personality indicators, though if they were, it is a pity that they are not presented as handouts. Otherwise, Ashfall is a technical scenario. There are maps of the planet, a list of equipment assigned to the expedition, rules for handling research, and details of the vehicles used by the miners at Dryavis. There is a list of the personnel at Dryavis, though the Game Master will need access to Ashfall II: Under the Dome for the full details.

Ashfall can be played as is, but it is written to be the first part of a trilogy. There are discoveries to be made in the scenario, after all, what is a science-themed adventure without discoveries? However, these discoveries are dry at best and it does not help that a hint at a potentially interesting discovery requires access to Ashfall III: Into the Crust.

Physically, Ashfall is a tidy affair. The plan of the expedition base is somewhat threadbare, but the illustrations are serviceable and planetary maps decent enough.

Ashfall is a classic survival scenario for Traveller, the Player Characters forced to trek across hostile territory and make the best of what they have with them. This is going to be challenging since Spume is hostile to life and the Player Characters lack the Vacc Suit skill, whilst only one of them has the Survival skill. Which sets up an interesting dynamic as this is the technician, whose role is seen as less worthy than that of the scientists. Although the Player Characters should have remained in the office, Ashfall should be a bonding experience for them and it will set them up for Ashfall II: Under the Dome. Ultimately, Ashfall is a dry, technical adventure that requires a higher degree of engagement from the players in order to get through what is the first act of a trilogy to get to the potentially more interesting second and third parts.

Miskatonic Monday #415: Fungal Bodies

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: Fungal Bodies

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Stuart McNair

Setting: Lancashire, United Kingdom, 1926

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Thirty-three-page, 72.05 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “Ey up! It’s The X-Files!”

Plot Hook: Missing bomb ingredients lead to the discovery of a bigger threat in the Red Rose County

Plot Support: Staging advice, six pre-generated Investigators, seven NPCs, six handouts, two maps, and five Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Good

Pros

# Engagingly creepy, environmental horror scenario

# Great illustrations and handouts

# Easily adapted to take place after any conflict

# A fungus-based scenario that does not involve a Colour Out of Space

# Includes Trigger/Threshold mechanic for tracking NPC trust

# Will the Committee of Imperial Defence return in a sequel?

# Excellent art

# Mycophobia

# Sucker-phobia

# Mysophobia

Cons

# Floorplans would have been useful

Conclusion

# Chemical warfare and fungal fears up north!
# Trigger/Threshold mechanic is a good roleplaying tool

Miskatonic Monday #414: Whispers from the Bramble’s Heart

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: Whispers from the Bramble’s Heart

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Robert Gresham

Setting: Oregon, USA 1925

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Thirty-three-page, 15.11 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Ambition is the poison that spoils the fruit.

Plot Hook: What is the seed of corruption in small town Oregon?

Plot Support: Staging advice, six NPCs, fifteen handouts, six maps and floor plans, one Mythos tome, and two Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Variable

Pros

# Solid investigation with multiple hooks

# Easy to adapt to other settings and eras

# Adaptable to Pulp Cthulhu: Two-fisted Action and Adventure Against the Mythos

# A fruit-based scenario that does not involve a Colour Out of Space

# Excellent art

# Aichmophobia

# Fructophobia

# Pedophobia

Cons

# Needs an edit
# Heavily plotted in places

Conclusion

# Slightly heavy-handed in places, but a serviceably creepy scenario

# Something rotten in the heart of Oregon

Time & Tide

For three hundred years, the floating city of Naviri has been a beacon of comfort, co-operation, and community. Located in the shallow waters of a tropical lagoon, it consists of a number of large, permanent islands—or docks—as well as many floating ones, hence its nickname of the ‘Floating City’ or ‘Floating Islands of Naviri’, that together make up a warm and welcoming home under azure skies dotted with the fluffiest of white clouds. Despite their differences, numerous species live and work together in the city—Betalods, Chameleons, Crocs, Cuttlebeards, Frogs, Golfins, Humans, Iotas, Magnafrons, Nag’i, Salamanders, Turtles, and Tyros. Yet despite Naviri being a tropical paradise, it is sandwiched between two great threats. Behind it is the endless of expanse of the Droskani Desert, home to desert raiders and fiends, but also the grey-haired Human traders who make the twice annual journey from their home in Stoen on the far mountainous side of the continent to Naviri. Before it looms the Fold. A great storm that has been calcified into a glacier of apocalyptic weather and monsters. Naviri has always suffered from storms, but the city weathered them and the sea monsters that followed in their wake, protected by the Tidal Blades, elite guardians of the Floating Islands. For centuries, the Tidal Blades protected the city from both the storms and the monsters, as well as helping the community and helping to keep order. Fifteen years ago, the city was threatened by the biggest storm in recorded history. The Tidal Blades were no match for its ferocity or that of the monsters that invaded the reef. The city’s leaders asked the Tidal Blades to deploy an experimental piece of technology developed by Arcanists of the Citadel of Time called the Fold that would halt the storm and the sea monsters. Answering the call, in what became known as the Great Battle, the Tidal Blades successfully activated the Fold. It worked, but at a cost. The Fold stopped time. It trapped both storm and monsters in time, but also stopped the Tidal Blades in time. Now, the Fold has begun to weaken. Sea monsters are slipping through. How long until the Fold fails and who will protect the city now and then when it does? For there no Tidal Blades any longer…

This is the setting for two board games published by Druid City Games. In Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef, the heroes undertake a series of challenges across the island and in three arenas as part of the Tournament of Heroes in an attempt to be acclaimed one of the Tidal Blades. In its sequel, Tidal Blades 2: Rise of the Unfolders, the Tidal Blades are entrusted with the Nexus, a device that will enable them to enter the Fold, unfreeze time, discover its secrets, and hopefully recuse the Tidal Blade heroes of the Great Battle. It is also the setting for Tidal Blades: The Roleplaying Game, published by Monte Cook Games. It is set roughly at the same time as Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef, but can be set before or after, and although mechanically different, the board game could be used to play out the Player Characters’ efforts to become the new Tidal Blades. Or that can be played as part of the roleplaying game, which suggests several paths—or story arcs—that a Player Character can participate in to eventually become a Tidal Blade. In addition to being a roleplaying game, along with its rules for creating Player Characters and playing the game, Tidal Blades: The Roleplaying Game provides details of the world, making it a gazetteer of the setting, and two scenarios. It is a roleplaying game of hope and adventure, community and duty, exploration and heroism. It is an aquatic Science Fiction setting in which advanced Michronic technology enables Michronic Loops, or time jumps, often moments into the past to change the present.

As with other roleplaying games from Monte Cook Games, Tidal Blades: The Roleplaying Game uses the Cypher System, first seen in Numenera in 2013. A Player Character in the Cypher System and Tidal Blades: The Roleplaying Game has three stats or Pools. These are Might, Speed, and Intellect, and represent a combination of effort and health for a character. Typically, they range between eight and twenty in value. Might covers physical activity, strength, and melee combat; Speed, any activity involving agility, movement, stealth, or ranged combat; and Intellect, intelligence, charisma, and magical capacity. In game, points from these pools will be spent to lower the difficulty of a task, but they can also be lost through damage, whether physical or mental. A Player Character has an Edge score, tied to one of the three pools. This reduces the cost of points spent from the associated pool to lower the difficulty of a task, possibly even to zero depending upon the Edge rating.

A Player Character can be summed up in a simple statement—“I am an adjective species noun who verbs.” The adjective is the ‘Descriptor’, describing how the Player Character acts or his manner; the species is one of the thirteen species who live in Naviri; the noun is one of the four character ‘Types’ in the roleplaying game; and the verb is the Player Character’s ‘Focus, that is what he does. For example, “I am an Exiled Human Speaker who Doesn’t Do Much.”, “I am Sea-Born Tyro Explorer who Sails the Howling Seas.”, “I am an Intelligent Betalod Adept who Conducts Weird Science.”, and “I am Vicious Croc Fighter who Fights Dirty.” The four Types are Adept, Explorer, Fighter, and Speaker. Besides Human, the Species include the pink, semi-aquatic newt-like Betalods who are telepaths and good at analysing their environment; Crocs are aggressive combatants, often with regard to their own safety; Cuttlebeards have face tentacles used as manipulators and to enhance their speech, who are sociable and read the histories of objects; Nag’i are mutant, aquatic humans known for doing everything with a flourish or a quip; and more. All of the Species have one inability as well several abilities to choose from, as do the Descriptors and Foci.

Creating a character is a matter of making some choices, assigning a few points here and there, and so on. It is a fairly simple process, but there are a lot of options to choose from.

Sepiella

“I am an Inquisitive Cuttlebeard Adept who Delves the Fourth Dimension.”

Background: “You used to sneak into the Atoll of the Crab Mystics when you were young and that’s where you became enamoured of becoming an Adept”

Arc: Uncover a Secret

Tier 1 Adept

Might 9 Speed 12 Intellect 19 [Edge 1]

Effort 1

Inability: Medium and Heavy Weapons

Hindrances: Hearing/Noticing Dangers, Initiative, Physical Labour

Abilities: Anticipation, Far Step, Michronic Training, Onslaught, Scan, See History

Skills: Geography [Trained], History [Trained], Learning [Trained], Light weapons [Practiced], Pleasant Social Interactions [Trained]

Mechanically, as a Cypher System roleplaying game, Tidal Blades: The Roleplaying Game is player facing. Thus, in combat, a player not only rolls for his character to make an attack, but also rolls to avoid any attacks made against his character. Essentially this shifts the game’s mechanical elements from the Game Master to the player, leaving the Game Master to focus on the story, on roleplaying NPCs, and so on. When it comes to tasks, the Player Character is attempting to overcome a Task Difficulty, ranging from one and Simple to ten and Impossible. The target number is actually three times the Task Difficulty. So, a Task Difficulty of four or Difficult, means that the target number is twelve, whilst a Task Difficulty of seven or Formidable, means that the target number is twenty-one. The aim of the player is lower this Task Difficulty. This can be done in a number of ways.

Modifiers, whether from favourable circumstances, skills, or good equipment, can decrease the Difficulty, whilst skills give bonuses to the roll. Trained skills—skills can either be Practiced or Trained—can reduce the Difficulty, but the primary method is for a player to spend points from his relevant Stat pools. This is called applying Effort. Applying the first level of Effort, which will reduce the target number by one, is three points from the relevant Stat pool. Additional applications of Effort beyond this cost two points. The cost of spending points from a Stat pool is reduced by its associated Edge, which if the Edge is high enough, can reduce the Effort to zero, which means that the Player Character gets to do the action for free—or effortlessly!

Rolls of one enable a free GM Intrusion—essentially a complication to the current situation that does not reward the Player Character with any Experience Points, whereas rolls of seventeen and eighteen in combat grant damage bonuses. Rolls of nineteen and twenty in combat can also grant damage bonuses, but alternatively, can grant minor and major effects. For example, distracting an opponent or striking a specific body part. Rolls of nineteen and twenty in non-combat situations grant minor and major effects, which the player and Game Master can decide on in play. In combat, light weapons always inflict two points of damage, medium weapons four points, and heavy weapons six points, and damage is reduced by armour. NPCs simply possess a Level, which like the Task Difficulty ranges between one and ten and is multiplied by three to get a target number to successfully attack them.

Experience Points in Tidal Blades: The Roleplaying Game are earned in several ways, primarily through achieving objectives, making discoveries, and so on. There are two significant means of a Player Character gaining Experience Points. The first is ‘GM In trusion’. These are designed to make a situation and the Player Character’s life more interesting or more complicated. For example, the Player Character might automatically set off a trap or an NPC important to the Player Character is imperilled. Suggested Intrusions are given for the four character Types and the Foci. When this occurs, the Game Master makes an Intrusion and offers the player and his character two Experience Points. The player does not have to accept this ‘GM Intrusion’, but this costs an Experience Point. If he does accept the Intrusion, the player receives the two Experience Points, keeps one and then gives the other to another player, explaining why he and his character deserves the other Experience Point. The ‘GM Intrusion’ mechanic encourages a player to accept story and situational complications and place their character in danger, making the story much more exciting.

There is the reverse of the ‘GM Intrusion’, which is ‘Player Intrusion’. With this, a player spends an Experience Point to present a solution to a problem or complication. These make relatively small, quite immediate changes to a situation, such as an old friend suddenly showing up, a device used by a NPC malfunctioning, and so on.

The other means of gaining Experience Points is the Character Arc. A Player Character begins play with one Character Arc for free, but extra can be purchased at the cost of Experience Points to reflect a Player Character’s dedication to the arc’s aim. Each Character Arc consists of several steps—Opening, two or three development steps, followed by a Climax and a Resolution. Suggested Character Arcs include ‘Avenge’, ‘Become a Parent’, ‘Enterprise’, ‘Finish a Great Work’, make a ‘New Discovery’, and so on, that the Player Character can follow and be awarded Experience Points for each stage completed. This formalises and rewards players for engaging in their characters’ objectives. he selection of the Character Arc during character creation signals to the Game Master what sort of story a player wants to explore with his character.

One of the aspects inherent to Tidal Blades: The Roleplaying Game and all Cypher System roleplaying games and settings are the Cypher System’s namesake—Cyphers. Again, first seen in Numenera, Cyphers are typically one-use things which help a Player Character. In the Science Fantasy world of Numenera, they are physical or Manifest devices and objects which might heal a Player Character, inflict damage on an opponent or hinder him, aid an attack, turn him invisible or reveal something that is invisible, increase or decrease gravity, and so on. They are effectively, one-shot Player Character abilities that are free. In the Science Fiction setting like that of Tidal Blades: The Roleplaying Game, Cyphers are parts of Tidal Blade relics which so broken that they can only be used once or fruits that can be harvested. Cyphers are always obvious, but not always obvious in what they can do. Plus only a few Cyphers can be carried at any one time, otherwise there are side effects which can be dangerous. Artefacts can also be found. These are rare, but do have multiple uses.

Intrinsic to the setting of Tidal Blades: The Roleplaying Game is Michronic energy. This powers the technology in and around Navri and can be manipulated to enable time travel. A Michronic Loop or time leap will only take a Player Character back a few seconds into the past, but will enable him to reattempt an action or do another action instead. This can have the side effect of a memory loss. Mechanically, it requires the expenditure of Experience Points to allow a reroll, but devices such as a ‘Time Stretch’ Cyber or a Shell Shield artefact, or the abilities of someone who ‘Delves the Fourth Dimension’ also allow it. Where changes can be made as a result of a time leap, it is considered all but impossible when travelling in hyperdimensional space as the past is fixed whereas the future remains a series of possibilities.

In terms of support, the advice for the Game Master is as good as you would expect for a Monte Cook title, expanding upon this advice with setting specific guidance, such as running challenges. In terms of setting, Tidal Blades: The Roleplaying Game gives a gazetteer of Naviri, a bestiary of both creatures and NPCs, notes on languages, and two scenarios as well as details of various Cyphers and artefacts that the Player Characters can scavenge. Notable locations in the city of Naviri include the Citadel of Time from where the city is governed and much of its technology is developed and manufactured, and the Chronosseum, the Lamara Stadium, and the Droska Ring where festivals and other events are held, such as challenges. Challenges are a major part of Naviri culture and seen as a way of proving oneself, ultimately preparing participants for the Tournament of Heroes. There are numerous different challenges, including races and battles, and each venue has its own. Challenges are not intended for beginning Player Characters, but like the Tournament of Heroes, something for them to aspire to. Other cultural notes include elements such as the fact that killing other people is frowned upon, unless in self-defence, which is more likely the further away you are from the city. The bestiary lists a wide range of creatures, including the legendary Akora, a creature so big, it can be seen from miles as it emerges from the water, the volcano on its back spewing lava and ash! There is a variety of crabs as well as things like the Dragonslime, which has a dragon-like head and an octopus-like body, its tentacles exuding a burning slime, and the Whirlpool Weaver, a manta ray-like beast that can detect, absorb, and even use Michronic energy. 

The first of the two scenarios is ‘Chef Surprise’. This is designed as an introductory scenario in which the Player Characters are asked to help out a restaurant by obtaining some special ingredients from a distant island. Once past finding and equipping a boat, the scenario is all about the trip there and what the Player Characters find on the island, an on-the-run band of thieves hiding out. It presents a moral dilemma for the Player Characters to sort out, but is fairly direct affair and there is advice for the Game Master on running it throughout. The second scenario, ‘A Dock of Their Own’ is more complex and broken into discrete tasks, meaning that it can be run is or spaced out as series of events over the course of an ongoing campaign. The Game Master advice suggests ways in which it could be tied into a Player Character Arc, but leaves some of the scenario set-up to the Game Master, specifically how Player Characters might get involved in the project at the heart of the scenario, which building a dock that they can freely use. It is not a bad scenario, but it is not as immediately useful and ultimately it really works better as a framework into which the Game Master can add her won content.

There is nothing missing from Tidal Blades: The Roleplaying Game per se. It contains everything that a Game Master and her players need to begin playing and set up and support the aims of their characters. It also serves as a good introduction to the Tidal Blades setting. Yet there still remains much that is unexplained and unexplored, most obviously the Droskani Desert and the Flow. Both deserve further treatment and adventures involving them. A more minor issue that the example of play is given at the back of the book rather than the front where it would have been more obviously useful, especially to anyone new to roleplaying as a hobby.

Physically, Tidal Blades: The Roleplaying Game is well presented and written. The artwork, much of it in a cartoon style, is good. The illustrations of both buildings and sea-going vessels in Naviri are excellent. Overall, the artwork does a great job of imparting the look and feel of the world of Tidal Blades, a mixture of anthropomorphism and anime.

Tidal Blades: The Roleplaying Game is a Saturday morning cartoon of a roleplaying game, bright and breezy and positive. This makes it suitable for play by a younger audience, but it is not written for them, so requires a more experienced Game Master. Further, although the Cypher System is not complex, the Tidal Blades: The Roleplaying Game is a still daunting prospect for any fan of the two board games it is based upon, but for the fan who does roleplay, the Tidal Blades: The Roleplaying Game is much easier to grasp, presenting the players with a wealth of character options and an interesting setting to explore.