Miskatonic Monday #353: Fear Jet 1975 – Hijack!

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

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Name: Fear Jet 1975 – Hijack!

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Andy Miller

Setting: 1975 USA and beyond...

Product: Expansion to Fear Jet
What You Get: Thirty-four page, 31.94 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: A flight into The King in Yellow via hijack-horror horror!

Plot Hook: When fear of flying takes you out of this world with a gun to you head...

Plot Support: Staging advice, six pre-generated Investigators, six Investigator portraits, and one handout.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Mad Men meets the Mythos

# Can be run as a convention scenario
# Can be run over and over until some Investigators escapes...

# Easy to adapt to other periods during the Age of Flight

# Pre-built tension and secrets

# Extensive playtest notes

# Xanthophobia

# Aerophobia

# Katagelophobia

Cons

# Very similar sequel to Fear Jet

# Challenging to run as a convention scenario

# What happens next?

Conclusion

# Mad Men meets the Mythos in mid-air

# Character-driven re-iteration that a group might not want to play again

The Other OSR: Black Powder and Brimstone

The Vaterländer Empire is in purgatory. The Holy Empire of the Sanguine Church is rent by a schism of faith. The Church of Holy Blood, governed by the Grand Magister from the Holy City of Mars, has administered to the faithful for a thousand years. The Church has launched rituals of bloodletting and the imbibing of sanguine sacraments in honour of the Torn Prophet and launched crusades upon the unfaithful. However, some call it decadent, accuse it of corruption, and there arose schisms when some wanted worship to be less excessive and more ascetic. They were called heretics and put to the torch by the Inquisition, yet they found a voice in Luther Martin, who taught that the God of Light and the Torn Prophet’s teachings be taught and experienced by the common man as well as the clergy. To that end, the text of the Torn Prophet was printed in the common tongue, the first of what the Church of Holy Blood regarded as acts of high blasphemy… As Luther Martin’s words drew an ever greater flock, the Church of Holy Blood declared them and Luther Martin to be heretics and he was assassinated. Those who followed his teachings broke with the Church of Holy Blood and from the schism arose two faiths—the Orthodoxy of the Church of Light and the Puritans of the Church of Light. As the Emperor of the Holy Empire of the Sanguine Church led his armies into the Vaterländer Empire to put down the heresy of the Puritans. The peasantry and the zealots of the Puritans of the Church of Light rose up in the city of Deliverance and rounded up the tax collectors and the priests and burned them alive in what was once Festival Square, but is now Execution Square. The Vaterländer Empire split into the Holy Confederacy of the Puritan Church and those loyal to the Church of Light and Holy Emperor.

As religious war spread, cities burned, thousands died, and neighbouring powers took advantage of the weakened Holy Empire of the Sanguine Church. Svea and Orla funded the Puritans and as one city and town after another declared its allegiance to one side or the other, one faith or the other, or even none, no army could protect them all. So out went the call for mercenaries on all sides, and as long as they are paid, such free companies will serve their paymasters, but if not, they become as much of a threat as the enemy extracting the pay they are owed, in the process, making the populace suffer further. The Inquisition and its witchfinders scour the broken land in search of corruption, signs of the dark arts, and demons, ready to torture, burn, and hang all it suspects, all in service of the Orthodoxy of the Church of Light, yet almost as fanatically as the Puritans. The Inquisition cannot be everywhere and where a witch would be burned where the Puritans hold sway, a wise woman would be revered where the Orthodoxy remains, and demons frolic, come to Vaterländ to revel in the pain and suffering. Worse, even worse than the plague and famine that rolls back and forth across the land, is the Staggering Pox that blights the dead of the battlefields in their shallow graves and forces them to walk again… Another year of Purgatory and winter seems longer and colder than the last…

This is the setting for Black Powder and Brimstone, a roleplaying game which is very obviously inspired by the events of the Thirty Years’ War, the civil war which tore the Holy Roman Empire apart between 1618 and 1648, born of the Reformation that divided Christendom in Western Europe. Published by Free League Publishing following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is compatible with Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance style roleplaying game designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and also published by Free League Publishing. This is a setting in which the Player Characters not only have to survive the horrors of war, but also the fanaticism of the faithful, the unnatural and the occult as well as the attentions of the Inquisition in ferreting out signs of apostasy and heresy. Vaterländ is a land where demons lurk and cultists skulk, flagellants scourge themselves into apoplexies of piety and pain, mercenaries and armies tramp the land taking what they want when they feel they have not been given what they are owed, the night folk dart out of the black swathes of forest at night in search of human flesh, the Bandersnatch takes lost children to who knows where, and the Staggering Pox casts a sickly green shadow... They may simply survive or they may form free companies, mercenaries for hire by either side, and so gain employment and responsibilities.

A Player Character in Black Powder and Brimstone has four stats—Strength, Agility, Presence, and Toughness. These range in value between -3 and +3. The values are determined by rolling three six-sided dice, modified by the character’s Archetype and Subclass. The five Archetypes are Mercenary Deserter, Bounty Hunter, Witch, Opportunist, and Practioneer. The Subclasses for the Mercenary Deserter are Rifleman, Greatswordsman (who comes with a Zweihander) and Grenadier; for the Bounty Hunter they are Pistolier, Master Trapper, and Beast Hunter; for the Witch, they are Woods Witch, Herbalist, and Hexen; those for the Opportunist are Adventurer, Sneak Thief, and Silver-Tongued Trickster; and for Practioneer, they consist of Vow of War, Vow of Healing, and Vow of Sustencance. Each Archetype provides the Stat bonuses, some gold, and a little background, whilst the Subclasses provide equipment and a special ability. A set of optional tables provide various character traits including a background skill.

Ottilie Schönlein
Archetype: Witch
Subclass: Hexen
Abilities: Curse (-2/+2 penalty/bonus), Black Candles, Deck of Cards
Strength 0 Agility 0 Presence +3 Toughness +1
Hit Points: 12
Background: Running from a deal gone wrong
Spells: Invisibility, Befuddlement
Character Traits: Ottilie is sullen; Ottilie wants to write a book; Ottilie’s setback is rudeness; Ottilie is good at dancing; Ottilie’s passion is being creative; Ottilie most notable physical feature is her jewellery

Collectively, the Player Characters can form a Free Company. This costs a lot of gold to register, but the members should have a shared goal and will share both treasure and income. If a Player Character is killed whilst a member of a Free Company, a new one can enlist at the same Level and degree of income. Beyond that, being a member of a Free Company does provide any benefits. It is supported with rules for hiring mercenaries and a very light means of handling combat between detachments.

Mechanically, Black Powder and Brimstone is, like Mörk Borg, player-facing. In other words, the players roll the dice, not the Game Master. This particularly applies to combat whereas as well as rolling for his character to stab a witch, a player also rolls avoid being bitten by the witch rat familiar. To have his character undertake an action, a player rolls a twenty-sided die, aiming to roll equal to or over a Difficulty Rating from six and simple to eighteen and impossible, with an average Difficulty Rating being ten or twelve. To this he adds the value of the stat.

In addition to setting the Difficulty Rating of a task, the Game Master can determine the Position and Impact based upon the situation. These do not adjust the Difficulty Rating, but set out the consequences of the action, Position the outcome if a failure, Impact if a success. Position can either be ‘Shaky’, ‘Risky’, or ‘Dire’, that is, not as bad as it could have been, as bad as expected, or worse than was imagined. There is scope for the player to negotiate with the Game Master as which degree of Position or Impact applies to the situation and a player can even trade Position for Impact, making a task easier to complete, but not be as effective. Position and Impact are also applied to negotiations, a player typically having his character attempting to shift an NPC’s disposition from Hostile/Strong through Indifferent/Fair to Positive/Strong.

Combat uses the same core mechanic. Initiative is simply determined by who acts first, but combat order is rolled with any Player Character with a positive Agility stat at an advantage. Mêlée combat uses the Strength stat, both magic and ranged combat use Presence, and Defence uses Agility. The rules cover stealth, the breaking of morale, cover, attacks of opportunity, grappling and stunning, and more, including simple chase rules for mounted combat. There are a handful of possible outcomes given for rolls of natural one or twenty in combat for mêlée, ranged combat, and using magic. If a character is reduced to zero or negative Hit Points, his player must make a Toughness check. If successful, the character is simply Broken, but fail and he might fall unconscious, suffer a wound, or bleed to death. A wicked scar might be small or might be missing nose or a limb. Worse, there is a chance that rusty, unclean weapons will cause an infection beyond the wound itself…

Most of the weapons have special rules. For example, on roll of eighteen plus, a zweihänder will cut a man in half, whilst its cumbersome nature means that it is at a penalty to use in enclosed spaces, whilst a club will knock someone out on a roll of sixteen or more. All black powder weapons have a misfire die, an eight-sided die rolled in addition to the attack roll. On a roll of two, the weapon misfires, one a roll of one it explodes and injures the wielder—the aarquebus is worse! All take a round to reload, but the advantage of these black powder weapons is that they ignore armour. Armor simply reduces damage for other attacks.

A Player Character also has access to ‘Devil’s Luck’. This can be spent to either lower the Difficulty Rating of a task or to activate a Dark Power. A Dark Power might be to deal maximum damage, neutralise a critical roll or a fumble, allow a reroll of any die, or ignore all damage dealt to a Player Character. However, it has its consequences, as the Player Character might gain a mutation, like small bony horns sprouting from his head or growing an extra finger on his hand.

A Witch can cast between one and four spells per day. Casting a spell is a simple Presence roll, but if failed, the Witch is left temporarily dizzy and whilst dizzy cannot successfully cast another spell. Only a Witch can learn spells, although other Player Characters can consume various potions for similar effects. Spells include Cursed Ammunition which hits easier and harder, but the wielder suffers damage; Wound Eater causes the target to suffer all damage temporarily that the caster would otherwise suffer; Back from the Brink brings a fresh corpse back to life, but reduces his total Hit Points. The spell list is not extensive and includes three spells—Spectral Skeletons, Raise the Dead, and Death Glare—that can only be learned from Gothel, the Mistress of Twilight. A mishap will occur if the Witch’s player rolls a one on the spell casting roll.

For the Game Master there is revelations about the setting and some decent advice on running the game and creating scenarios. The former includes applying ‘Yes and…’ and ‘No, but…’, using failed rolls to make something happen rather negate the action, and the use of countdown clocks, all very modern for an Old School Renaissance-style roleplaying. The latter is backed up with some short frameworks around which the Game Master can build a plot, some sample plot hooks, and a set of tables to generate adventures, locations—and inns in particular, and even dungeons. There is also quite a large bestiary, of which mutants, bandits, free company mercenaries, and puritan martials are the most mundane. More outré monsters include the Grave Colossus, walking graveyards with a hatred of grave robbers, Dryads, and a host of demons. There is even a weird swerve into Science Fiction in the form of the Watchers, cowardly aliens which conduct experiments in secret. There is also a full gallery of villains, friends, and adversaries, some of which more than a little tongue in cheek, like the world-renowned thief, Carmen San Dominira, and Lord Flash, a British mercenary with a silver tongue and a lot of luck, unlike those he leads into battle.

Rounding out Black Powder and Brimstone is a short scenario, ‘The House of Pain and Loss’. The Player Characters arrive in the town of Koch. It is rundown due to the war and the higher taxes, but the town noticeboard has several notices nailed to it asking about the whereabouts of several missing women. There is little to learn in the town except that the local nobleman, Count Lethgar, has not been seen since the death of his wife and that the wife of the innkeeper is missing. The inference is that there might be a creature of the night abroad and it might be the count. It is an easy assumption to come to since the plot to the scenario is underwhelmingly straightforward, ending in an investigation of the count’s manse and discovering his secrets. Annoyingly, the Game Master has to ‘read to find out’ what the plot is as there is no explanation at the start of the scenario, which can played in the same session as the players create their characters.

Physically, Black Powder and Brimstone is stunning. The artwork has a cartoonishly grim and gothic style that is really eye-catching and pivotal in conveying the sense of the game and its world, enticing the viewer to look, find out, and want to play. Black Powder and Brimstone really is a cool looking book. However, it does need an edit.

There is a lot to like about Black Powder and Brimstone. The setting—and the artwork are enthralling, since this is one of the few roleplaying games to specifically draw upon the Thirty Years’ War for its key inspiration. There have been other roleplaying games to do the same, most notably Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, but that does not draw so directly upon the religious schism and the resulting war. Indeed, it could be argued that Black Powder and Brimstone is the Old School Renaissance answer to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, but the historical parallels between the setting of Black Powder and Brimstone and the Thirty Years’ War and the emphasis upon horror rather than fantasy in Black Powder and Brimstone suggests otherwise. (In fact, it could be said that the parallels between the setting of Black Powder and Brimstone and the Thirty Years’ War are a bit too on the nose, such as naming the instigator of the Reformation, ‘Luther Martin’.) Yet Black Powder and Brimstone is not a wholly satisfying design. Mechanically, it is underdeveloped, in the main, the ‘Position’ and ‘Impact’ mechanic feeling bolted on and being more narrative in play, at odds with the Old School sensibility of Mörk Borg. As an extension of that, the social mechanics are best described as a statement of intent rather than a set of rules. Other issues are more minor, but Black Powder and Brimstone seems to be trying to be modern, yet old and not quite right as either.

The other issue is the setting and what to do with it. That the included scenario is so uninspiring is the coda to the issue of what the Player Characters are going to be doing in setting. There are some plot hooks and advice, but there is no discussion of long term or campaign play.

Black Powder and Brimstone is a really fantastic looking book with what looks to be a very gameable setting, but unfortunately it does not deliver that setting or that game as easily as it should have done. Its lack of development is going to leave the Game Master with some work to do and a lot of rulings during play to successfully run it. Hopefully a companion volume or some scenarios will go a long way to fixing that.

The Beasts Between Light and Dark

Darklands – A Dark Sourcebook For: Soulmist expands the divided world of Fyera. ‘The Ruination’ divided it into three when it ceased to spin on its access. The ‘Lands of the Old Days’ faced the sun, waters and rivers boiled away to leave only sand and heat. ‘The Darklands’ will never face the sun, frozen and withered, now home to beasts and beings of the darkness unknown before The Ruination. Between them runs a narrow band around the world, the ‘Penumbra’, where the survivors have to live with no diurnal cycle, no night and day, always at the mercy of attacks from deep within The Darklands. From the Penumbra, the peoples of Freya launched expeditions into The Darklands and once there, constructed Cressets of Vigil, towering portable beacons of light that revealed once again the lands and secrets lost to the darkness and advanced warnings of attacks upon Penumbra. These attacks bare cease, as if the very darkness would reach out and swallow the last of the light. Many of the survivors of The Ruination would find themselves changed, granted ‘The Gifts of Fyera’ that enabled them to hold back the Darkness, yet facing the ever-present danger of falling into the Darkness as a result of committing or witnessing sins done in the name of the Light, of their souls being scarred by both the Light and the Dark. Darklands – A Dark Sourcebook For: Soulmist is the first supplement for Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light, a dark fantasy setting compatible with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Published by Black Lantern following a successful Kickstarter campaign, this is the first roleplaying game and setting to be published by a Greek publisher and reach the English-speaking market.

Darklands – A Dark Sourcebook For: Soulmist leaps straight into the world of Fyera with introductions by the authors of the ‘Tenebris Cordis’—the ‘dark heart’—a treatise that presents some of the threats emerging from The Darklands. These are scholars and participants in reclamation expeditions into the Darklands whose voices give an engaging verisimilitude to the supplement, one that continues throughout the supplement with marginalia that annotates and adds commentary to its content. Yet it does leave the reader slightly adrift to quite wonder what the supplement is and what its content consists since there is no introduction from its designer. Once past the introductions—which actually could be used as handouts for the players—and the Game Master will discover that Darklands – A Dark Sourcebook For: Soulmist is a grimoire of monsters and demons supported by new rules and advice for creating memorable antagonists and stories suited to the pitch-black half of Soulmist’s world and the shadows that the Player Characters’ light can cast upon it.

The Dark Saints are the natural and spiritual leaders of the forces of The Darkness, some ancient, some new, some native to the world, some foreign. Some were martyrs of the Light who fell to Darkness, others struck down previous Dark Saints, but they all wear the legendary ‘Black Halos’, the ‘Dark Crowns’ that are the symbols of their authority and power. Fortunately, only ten Dark Saints are known, each embodying a different aspect of the Darkness and each perusing their own agenda. Each of the ten is accorded a description that includes a lengthy history, details of its lair, the Dark Endowments—major and minor—that it can bestow on its followers, and the lair actions it can take within its domain. Full stats are also given. These include not just its standard actions, but also bonus actions, legendary actions, and abilities. The least of the Dark Saints is Sixteenth Level, the highest Nineteenth Level, whilst one is listed as its Level being unknown.

For example, Nycta, the Dark Saint of Voracity was once an inquisitive young noble woman who paid to be taken on an expedition into The Darklands. Unfortunately, her naivety and poor choice of expedition led to everyone being captured by a dark raid and imprisoned. Refusing to be left to starve, she horrified the other survivors by consuming the flesh of one of their number who had died. This attracted the attention of the demon lord, who, enraptured by her beauty took her as his wife and on their wedding night, literally offered his bride his heart of magma. In seducing and taking him to the heights of ecstasy, she took his power and his ‘Black Halo’. Since then, despite many suitors and many rivals, she has seduced and consumed them in order to protect her position and make herself more powerful. There remains though, a void in her that she cannot fill, even as she continues to slake her desires. Although scholars have identified who the young noble woman who became Nycta was, an injunction has been placed by the Judiciary Order on the Legislative Order to prevent it from becoming public knowledge.

Mechanically, Nycta is a Seventeenth Level Undead Demonoid. She has a Charisma of 26 and her standard include include using Heartrender, a whip that inflicts more damage on those she has Charmed; blowing a ‘Kiss of Surrender’, that if the recipient fails the saving throw, forces him to drop his weapons and divest himself of both armour and all combat gear, before going on in subsequent rounds to extoll his allies to do the same; and with ‘Insatiable Hunger’, drain the Hit Points from the willing and the Charmed to keep for herself or her allies. Her ‘Damsel in Distress’ Reaction calls on a Charmed ally to rush to her defence. Her Abilities consist of ‘Thief of Hearts’, which makes it harder for those charmed by her to break that charm and ferociously compete for her attention; as the ‘Foil of Hearts’, appear as an innocent maiden to the pure of heart, making it hard for them to attack her; ‘Destiny Consumed’ turns her followers into zealots who gain attacks of opportunity if anyone attacks her; her ‘Innate Spellcasting means that amongst other spells, she can cast Charm Person at will; and her Crown of Voracity hungers for what desires lie in the hearts of men, forcing those nearby to attempt to fulfil them and even forces those who fight near it to swap their allegiances!

Nycta also has the Legendary Actions of Charm Person (though she can already cast this at will, so…), ‘Foerender’, which enables her to swing her whip, Heartrender, in a thirty foot radius, and ‘Voracious Command’ that gives her allies an extra action or move. As her lair actions, her very presence can drive the residents of the city to her location, drunk on desire and impulsiveness, call ruination black warriors and then an alastor knight to her, and raise a cloud of the ethereal dust that covers the city into the air causing any charmed creature in the cloud to randomly attack someone else! Last she has Dark Endowments. The Major Endowments grant advantage on saving throws against being charmed—except by Nycta, the ability to cast Charm Person three times a day, and the temporary ability to steal the appearance of someone they have charmed. The Minor Endowments make them permanently charmed by Nycta, increase two attribute scores, and grants them a Dark Spark when they complete one of her commands.

All ten of the Dark Saints are given a similar and as powerful a treatment, from Acheron, the Dark Saint of Corruption and Asmodae, the Dark Saint of Void to Sagha, the Dark Saint of Fear, and Varna, the Dark Saint of Madness. These are all major NPCs and thus significant challenges for the Player Characters to overcome and Darklands – A Dark Sourcebook For: Soulmist makes clear that they sit atop a very simple hierarchy in the realm of Darkness—might makes right. And that percolates all the way down to the bottom. The supplement provides several ways in which to populate this hierarchy. One is to add a template like ‘Hollows’ or ‘Umbrus’ to an existing creature, another to use the extra creatures given in the supplement. These range from the ‘Yormoth’, the most common creature, known as ‘flesh hunters’, in the Darklands to the ‘Wandering Qualms’, former ordinary men and creatures whose regrets and shame ate them from within and turned into masses of stings and tentacles bound in iron. They also include the Guardians of the 2nd Legion, a unit so brave and so stubborn, that when they were recognised by the Dark Saint of Vengeance, they had to be resurrected through their armour, so worn were their bodies. With the legs of a carnivorous bird, the body of a wolf, and wings of bats, the Septigore is the major flying predator in the Darklands, flying in packs form buildings and caves big enough to accommodate their flock. They are often fielded as aerial guards or scouts. The Ruinetarians are the natives of the Darklands, the descendants of those who did not flee to the Penumbra in the wake of the Ruination, but survived enslavement and subjugation. They have advantage on Stealth rolls and can see in darkness as if it were daylight, but are sensitive to sunlight. None of the monsters in Darklands – A Dark Sourcebook For: Soulmist is below Tenth Level and all of them are challenging opponents.

Lastly, Darklands – A Dark Sourcebook For: Soulmist discusses a means in which any one of its Dark Saints could be in a campaign. This is as a nemesis for one or more the Player Characters, who can be introduced at the start of a campaign, as part of the ongoing play, through the nemesis itself deciding that the Player Characters are his enemy—either from their actions or their fame, or simply player choice. Once introduced, they can be used to enhance the theme of a campaign and develop drama via the ‘Nemesis System’. The relationship between the Player Characters and a nemesis is measured in Edge and who has it. Effectively, this is the narrative advantage that one side has over the other, gained through scoring victories, learning information, and so on, that will push the story on to the next Challenge or episode in the campaign. Only one side can have the Edge and it can only be used once before the turn of events might mean that the Player Characters overcome a Challenge and regain the Edge over their nemesis, or they fail and the nemesis gains it. In play, it is spent by the players to advance the narrative, for example, finding a map showing all of the entrances to a fortress where the nemesis is holding some of the Player Characters family hostage or a captured prisoner is willing to reveal information in return for help. The players take it in turn to spend their characters’ Edge and the Game Master then incorporates their suggestions, if not necessarily their desired outcome of those suggestions, into the campaign.

What the nemesis can do when it has the Edge is less clearly defined, but what it can do is overcome minor challenges in going after the Player Characters. If the Player Character take too long in using their Edge, they can lose it to their nemesis. Ultimately, both sides are working towards a confrontation with each other, and whilst the campaign can progress to this narratively, it is possible to initiate a confrontation using Edge. The side which has used the most Edge will be at advantage in the ensuing confrontation. The confrontation need not be campaign-ending or result in the final defeat of one side or the other, so that it is possible to go through several cycles of Edge swapping back and forth, a confrontation taking place, and then starting again before the final, final battle. The Nemesis System is slightly lose and woolly, though far from unworkable, adding a narrative element that is not always found in Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying games.

Physically, Darklands – A Dark Sourcebook For: Soulmist is a dark, grim-looking book as befits the setting. The artwork is decent, but the book does need another edit.

Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light introduced an interesting setting that really did not detail the nature of the threat at the heart of the game. Darklands – A Dark Sourcebook For: Soulmist does that, showcasing the monsters and other horrors, including their vile leaders, to be found within the Darklands. Any one of the Dark Saints would be a grand threat or nemesis in a Soulmist campaign—or indeed in any other grim dark roleplaying game—and Darklands – A Dark Sourcebook For: Soulmist supports that too with the Nemesis System. Ultimately, Darklands – A Dark Sourcebook For: Soulmist is the bestiary—the horridly dark bestiary—that Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light needed.

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Black Lantern will be at UK Games Expo which takes place on Friday, May 30th to Sunday June 1st, 2025.

From Beyond

In the mile-high tower of the Spire, the Aelfir—the High Elves—enjoy lives of extreme luxury, waited upon by the Destra—the Drow—whom they have subjugated and continue to oppress the criminal revolutionaries that would rise up and overthrow them. In the City Beneath, where heretical churches have found the freedom to worship their forbidden gods and organised crime to operate the drug farms that supply the needs of the Spire above, the Aelfir find themselves free of conformity, the Destra free of repression. They are joined by Gnolls and Humans. Some simply live free of the stifling Aelfir control, whether by means lawful or unlawful, others are driven to beyond the Undercity, delving ever deeper into the bowels of the world in search of the fabled Heart, or perhaps their heart’s desire. There are also those who use the Undercity as a sanctuary, as a base of operations, from which they lead the rebellion against the Aelfir. They are members of the Ministry of Our Hidden Mistress, both a faith and a revolutionary movement, and outlawed for both reasons. As the Ministry of Our Hidden Mistress foments and funds rebellion and unrest in the Spire above, it sends cells of its black ops paramilitary wing, Throne Division, scurrying up the Spire to conduct assassinations, acts of sabotage and blackmail, abductions, extractions, and more. The City Beneath then, is a home to many, sanctuary to some, a base of operations to others, a stepping stone to elsewhere for a few, and a thorn in the side for even fewer. What though, would happen if the City Underneath was threatened from somewhere else, perhaps a means of escape?

Doors to Elsewhere is a supplement for Heart: The City Beneath, a roleplaying game that explores the horror, tragedies, and consequences of delving too deep into dungeons. Published by Rowan, Rook, and Decard Ltd., like the other supplements for Heart: The City Beneath—Sanctum, Vermissian Black Ops, and Burned and Broken—it explores other ways in which to roleplay in its world underneath. Where it differs is that it actually takes the Player Characters away from the City to explore another place and from there, potentially, whole new dimensions. This opportunity comes when dozens of doors that were not there before suddenly appear and open. On the other side is a strange land between the dimensions. This is the City Elsewhere, home to untold numbers of people, who live in buildings that reach four or five storeys into the sky, the upper levels connected by wrought iron bridges, their homes connected to markets and workshops by warrens of alleys and streets. By day, the vast city is a blaze of colour, noise, and light, but at night, only the light remains, fizzing and fizzling in the streetlights that provide sanctuaries against the dark. And such sanctuaries are needed, for no one walks the streets voluntarily now. Between the light of the lamps and darkness beyond, there is no shadow, there is only a darkness that is home to the Interstitials, pools of liquid darkness that smell of curdled milk whose mandibles click at locks to unpick them, whose claws clack on the cobbles and so make you realise that your companions number more than you can count, and who want to eat you and spread the darkness. They abhor the light and something or someone is stealing the Power Crystals that fuel the lights of the City Elsewhere. Citizens of Elsewhere remain inside and lock their doors at night, but many have begun fleeing the city, leaving via the many passageways that lead to doors to other dimensions—and that includes the City Beneath. Can the City Beneath provide them with sanctuary as it does others, or now that the doors are open, will the Interstitials follow and bring their eternal death and darkness with them?

This is a campaign framework which begins in the City Beneath rather than away from it as do the other supplements for Heart: The City Beneath. Its set-up presents an immediately intriguing mystery, one almost on the Player Characters’ doorstep. The framework really consists of that beginning and its possible endings, leaving what happens in between in the hands of the Game Master and her players. This includes the culprits behind the theft of the Power Crystals, Doors to Elsewhere suggesting multiple options, some of whom might be surprisingly close to home for the Player Characters. After that, it explores the nature of the City Elsewhere, the main factions in the city and their notable personalities, various locations or landmarks that the Player Characters might visit, the dimensions that the Player Characters might find themselves in if they take a wrong turn, and a set of tables for bringing the City Elsewhere and its inhabitants to life.

Some of the flavour of the difference of the City Elsewhere comes through in the small details. For example, one possible door from the City Beneath to the City Elsewhere is described as a corpse, slumped over, through coral has blossomed to form a doorway, whilst potential means of overcoming the language barrier is solved by everyone smoking from the same hookah to temporarily understand each other or a book, when handed to the Player Characters by an NPC, reveals in exact detail, the conversation they would have if they spoke the same language. At the Crowdswallow Market—where the bustling crowds over seven streets never quite seem to buy anything, the Player Characters might want to buy a Fighting-Rope, since bloodshed is forbidden in the City Elsewhere or a Light Bomb, as it is one of the few things that harms the Interstitials. Other locations include the Café De L’Autre Monde, which always remains a café no what happens in the City Elsewhere and serves a delightful menu of cakes; the Desert Maiden, a ship lost at sea that crash-landed atop an artist’s workshop and become a bar; and the Street of Doors, the City Elsewhere’s central street lined with stable doors to other dimensions, allowing travel to and from Approved Realms—if the toll is paid, of course.

The City Elsewhere’s major factions include the City itself and only the one guild, the Guild of Cartographers, which seeks to catalogue and control every portal. Surprisingly, the Vermissian Collective has a presence in the City Elsewhere. The group of scholars and explorers who map and examine the transport network which runs up and down the Spire to the City Beneath and beyond, maintains an embassy in the City Elsewhere. It has become much busier since the doors to the City Elsewhere began opening. Not all of the factions are happy to see the Doors open. The Hounds—or the Glorious 33rd—are dedicated to finding every door, closing the ones they can, and boobytrapping the ones they cannot.

Doors to Elsewhere also has discussion on ‘Dimensional Theory’ and descriptions of some of the major dimensions that have multiple, stable links to the City Elsewhere, along with several minor ones that are harder to reach. A favourite from the latter is ‘The Place Where Cats Go When No-One’s Watching’, a constant twilight labyrinth of rooftops, alleys, airing cupboards, bins with fish in, and more, that all cats can access if nobody is watching. Sadly, non-cats are not allowed and to them it is anything other than a feline paradise. The SS Freebird is ship that sails on the aether between dimensions, the collective of shamans, magi, fringe scientists, de-frocked priests, and occult oddities that make up its crew working to maintain and improve their vessel when not docking at other dimensions and partying hard—really hard!

Rounding out Doors to Elsewhere is a list of the (story) beats—minor, major, and zenith—that the Player Characters can hit whilst in the City Elsewhere and the advances available. There is some advice on how running as different a campaign in the City Elsewhere compared to the City Beneath, but it is relatively light. It is backed up with a set of random tables for creating details in play at the table.

Physically, Doors to Elsewhere is a slim, very well-presented book. It is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is excellent and the book is easy to read and understand.

Much as with Sanctum, Vermissian Black Ops, and Burned and Broken before it, Doors to Elsewhere presents a different campaign focus and set-up for Heart: The City Beneath. In fact, a very different campaign focus and set-up for Heart: The City Beneath, one with an external rather than an internal focus. It enables to the Player Characters to explore and contrast their existence in the City Beneath with the City Elsewhere and beyond, but as much as it is filled with lovely little details and intriguing secrets as you would expect for a supplement for Heart: The City Beneath, ultimately, Doors to Elsewhere does feel like an outlier.

—oOo—

Rowan, Rook, and Decard Ltd. will be at UK Games Expo which takes place on Friday, May 30th to Sunday June 1st, 2025.

The Horror of the Hum

The Hum has been heard for weeks now, a near-constant source of pain that has been affecting the tribe’s hearing-sensitive mutants and manimals and impeding their ability to invoke their divine gifts. The leaders of the tribe sent out parties of its young Seekers to locate the source and whilst they failed to find it, what one Seeker learned revealed an even bigger threat to the tribe. Her party was ambushed by a gang of Ascended Ones—a violent sect of three-eyed mutants who believe that Pure strain humans were responsible for the destruction of the planet and bringing about Terra A.D. She learned from them that the Ascended Ones were on a quest of their own, to find The Temple of Mutant Alpha: the first known mutant on Terra A.D. or ‘Terra After Disaster’. Does The Temple of Mutant Alpha really exist? If so, if the Ascended Ones find it, there can be no doubt that they will turn it into a site of holy pilgrimage that will further their aims. In response, a stronger and more experienced party of Seekers is to follow up on the information. This is the set-up for Mutant Crawl Classics #15: The Mutant Menace of Lab 47, the fifteenth release for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, the spiritual successor to Gamma World published by Goodman Games. It is designed for Third Level Player Characters and will take deep into the history of Terra A.D. to reveal some of its secrets with a big dose of Area 51-style ufology thrown in.

Mutant Crawl Classics #15: The Mutant Menace of Lab 47 begins with Player Characters near the source of the Hum in the glow desert, an oasis of the Ancients. After some exploration of what are nearby tourist facilities a la Rachel, Nevada (the nearest settlement to Area 51), the Player Characters can break into the facility, which reveals itself through notices and announcements to be the Trevino Research Base. There is some knowing fun to be had here, since the adventure assumes that any Player Characters of the Shaman Class or of sufficient Intelligence will know the Ancient Tongue. This means that the players will quickly grasp what is going on at the facility, but their characters will not, effectively adding an element of metaplay as the players have their characters explore the facility in search of conformation of what they know and their characters can understand. The adventure also emphasises classic Gamma World-style play in which obtaining the correctly collared com-badges will allow the Player Characters access to different areas of the facility. Alternatively, the Player Characters can use brute force or Security Systems checks of various difficulties, but the simplest and easiest method of exploring the facilities is to find and use the com-badges.

What the Player Characters find in the Trevino Research Base are clear signs that the Ancients obtained—from a place called ‘Glossop’—alien technology and survivors that scientists were conducting research on, including gene research. Plus, the results of the research may well indeed, have led to the creation of the first Mutant. This research was kept well hidden from the outside world, although of course, conspiracy theorists and UFOlogists thought otherwise, hence the UFO-themed tourist facilities outside of the base. The Player Characters do have plenty of opportunity to learn about this research and even conduct a little of it themselves, but perhaps the most entertaining part of the scenario is the fact that they discover living results of that research begun long ago that will trigger their parental instincts. Consequently, the latter half of the scenario is likely to consist of the Player Characters exploring the rest of the Trevino Research Base whilst caring for squalling, wailing, defecating babies! Although their players will have been alerted much earlier in the scenario, eventually their characters will discover that the base’s self-destruct system has been triggered and they will need to find a way to deactivate it. The scenario ends in a genre classic showdown t the bottom of a missile silo!

In addition, Mutant Crawl Classics #15: The Mutant Menace of Lab 47 suggests some possible sequels if the Player Characters survive the scenario and three appendices. One details the various artefacts that the Player Characters can find in the scenario and make use of, such as the Biomesh Com-Badge Jumpsuit—colour-coded, of course, Illuma-Drones for lighting, and NuEarz, jaunty, animal-shaped hearing devices with various modes, some of them useful. The others describe the new monsters in the scenario and the new Mutation, ‘Binary Voice’, similar to Achroma’s Artificial Intelligence Hack, but without the need to bond with the A.I.

Physically, behind a very suggestive cover, complete with a metallic logo, Mutant Crawl Classics #15: The Mutant Menace of Lab 47 is cleanly and tidily laid out, clearly written, and decently illustrated. The maps are decent too, although a little scratchy towards the end.

Mutant Crawl Classics #15: The Mutant Menace of Lab 47 is a short adventure with an emphasis on exploration and combat. As with other scenarios for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, it is self-contained, but with plot strands to develop, and so is easy to add to a Judge’s campaign. Overall, Mutant Crawl Classics #15: The Mutant Menace of Lab 47 is solid and entertaining.

—oOo—

Goodman Games will be at UK Games Expo

from Friday 30th May to Sunday June 1st, 2025.

Friday Filler: Back Stories: Alone Under the Ice

High up Mont Blanc stands the Refuge du Nid d’Aigle, a shelter considered to be the starting point for the royal route up the mountain. Here is where you last heard from John, your brother, a letter you received two weeks ago. In the letter he promised to call you in a few days, but never did. However, he also revealed that he had made an incredible discovery. This was a clue to the location of one of the greatest missing treasures from the end of World War 2—the Amber Room. Often considered to be a candidate for the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’, the amber panels of the room, backed with gold leaf and mirrors, was looted from the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg by the Nazis, taken to Königsberg on the Baltic coast and there lost from history! Now your brother knows where the Amber Room might be and that there are people after him. Is John simply missing? Has he been kidnapped? Is he even alive? And does he really know anything about the location of one of the greatest missing treasures of all time? And from the too few clues that he has given you, can you find John before it is too late?

This is the set-up for Back Stories: Alone Under the Ice. Published by La Boîte de Jeu, it is a storytelling game that is very much like a ‘Choose Your Adventure’ book or a ‘Click & Point’ computer adventure in which the story is told by proceeding through a deck and making choices when prompted. However, although it may possess the playstyle of a ‘Choose Your Adventure’ book or a ‘Click & Point’ computer adventure, Back Stories: Alone Under the Ice is not necessarily a solo game. It is designed to be played by between one and six players, aged ten and over, and in an hour or less. Thus, it can be played solo, but it can also be played co-operatively, with the players deciding together what the heroine of the story—Sophie—will do in each scene and location, the current cards being laid out in front the players for everyone to see and examine. Yet unlike a ‘Choose Your Adventure’ book or a ‘Click & Point’ computer adventure, there is no random factor in Back Stories: Alone Under the Ice. No dice to roll as in a solo adventure book or clicking a button in a computer game. All of it what happens as Sophie searches for her brother is down to the players, the choices they make, and the consequences of those choices.

Back Stories: Alone Under the Ice consists of a deck of one-hundred-and-twenty-eight cards. The cards are large, full colour, double-sided, numbered between one and one-hundred-and-twenty-eight, and played through in order starting with one and moving through card by card. Of course, depending on the players’ choices, they will not see every card in the deck on a single play though. They are likely to skip over whole sections of the deck as determined by their choices. The cards come in six types. The purple cards are Character, Objective, and Ending cards. These represent Sophie and what she wants to do. The green Clue cards give information about a situation or a challenge. The yellow Story cards move the adventure on. The dark blue Situation cards depict items, locations, or people. Often they can be arranged together to form larger scenes. The light blue Action cards are what Sophie can do and in the game they are used to interact with the Situation cards. They form the key mechanical part of play and come in two types. The ‘Window’ cards have a rectangular hole cut in them and text indicating the action, such as ‘Search Gather Explore the area’, whilst the ‘Notch’ cards have notches cut into the side. The red ‘Status’ cards indicate Sophie’s current condition, such as ‘Sophie is weak’ or ‘Frozen’.

At the start of Back Stories: Alone Under the Ice, the player takes the top card off the deck, turns it over. This is card number one. He reads it and follows the instructions. Initially, this will be to draw the next set of numbered cards. They are placed on the table so that everyone can see the current Objective card; the Action cards available and thus, what Sophie can do in the scene; and the Situation cards that show what Sophie can see. These are areas on the table known as the Objective area, Player area, and Panorama area, respectively. Once the cards are in front of them, the players debate and decide what they want Sophie to do, choosing an Action card to combine with a Situation card. When this happens, the player takes the Action card and slides it behind the chosen Situation card. He then picks up the two cards—Action and Situation—together and turns them over. Most of the reverse of the Situation card will be hidden apart from what can be seen through the window or notch of the Action card. The window will reveal information, whilst the notch will show a number indicating the code for a lock or another Situation card that the players must now consult.

For example, Sophie has arrived at the Refuge du Nid d’Aigle. This is card one. It tells her which cards to draw and place on the table. They include several Action cards and several Situation cards. Card eight states, ‘Someone is waiting upstairs in the lobby’, and depicts a young man leaning against a bar. The players decide that they want to talk to the young man, but cannot decide between the simple ‘Chat Talk’ Action card or the ‘Ask about your brother John card’. After a quick debate, they select the ‘Chat Talk’ Action card as it is not confrontational. The player picks up the ‘Chat Talk’ Action card, which is card five and slides it behind the ‘Someone is waiting upstairs in the lobby’ card or Card eight. When the player turns the two cards over, he can read the text and the clue that is not covered. The players are free to use as many Action cards as they want, but each one and the consequences that follow, must be completed before another action can be attempted.

Initially, most of the actions the player will be directing Sophie to take will involve talking and asking questions, but as play proceeds, other Action cards and actions become available. Sophie also has opportunities for theft and violence, the latter when she picks up/steals an ice pick—which then has its own Action card—though resorting to such methods will probably get her hurt or mistrusted, depending on the action. Yet there are also some utterly amazing Action cards and thus actions that come about due to particular circumstances, such as ‘Feel around using your hands’ when Sophie is in the pitch dark or ‘Match×1’ which she can strike to reveal where is in the darkness!

Back Stories: Alone Under the Ice is not a challenging game (or puzzle?) to play, certainly not in terms of the rules or mechanics, and is not too challenging in terms of the story. In fact, the publishers rate the difficulty at two out of five. The simplicity of play and the standard sequence of card numbers means that Back Stories: Alone Under the Ice is also easy to set back up again. So, if the players fail the first time, they can set it back up and try again and start looking for other clues and interesting ways to interact in a different way with the locations and people within the mystery. Even when the players do solve the mystery and find John, there is nothing to stop them resetting the game and examining other clues to find out where they might lead Sophie. That said, with just one-hundred-and-twenty-eight cards and a difficulty of two out of five, subsequent playthroughs are not going vary too widely, though of course, the endings probably will.

Physically, Back Stories: Alone Under the Ice comes in a small, but solid box. The cards are all glossy and full of vibrant colour, whilst the artwork on them is excellent. The rules are clearly explained, though the text on the cards might be a little small for some readers.

Back Stories: Alone Under the Ice is a solo adventure book in a box, with the cards replacing the paragraphs and giving the mystery a pleasing physicality that twists the tension a little as the players slide an Action card behind a Situation card in the hope of getting a good clue. This is a game that people are going to want to play and play again until they have solved the mystery at its heart and if they have played it in a group, they are likely to want to try it again, playing alone this time. However, once the mystery is solved, there is relatively little need to play again. Except, that is, if a player wants to introduce it to a new group, because although it has a slightly longer playing time of an hour, the combination of the game play’s simplicity and tension with the intrigue of the mystery, means that it works as an ice breaker game as well. That simplicity plus the mystery means it works as a family game as well.

Back Stories: Alone Under the Ice packs a good mystery, excellent artwork, and clever play into its solid little box.

[Fanzine Focus XXXVIII] The Travellers’ Digest #5

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

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

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

To best run ‘The Grand Tour’, the Referee will need access to The Atlas of the Imperium, Supplement 8: Library Data (A-M), Supplement 11: Library Data (N-Z), Supplement 7: Traders and Gunboats (or alternatively, Supplement 5: Azhanti High Lightning), as well as the core rules. In addition, other supplements would be required depending on the adventure. Of course, that was in 1985, and much, if not all, of the rules or background necessary have been updated since. The campaign is also specifically written for use with four pre-generated Player Characters. They consist of Akidda Laagiir, the journalist who won the Travellers’ Digest Touring Award; Dur Telemon, a scout and his nephew; Doctor Theodor Krenstein, a gifted-scientist and roboticist; and Doctor Krenstein’s valet, ‘Aybee’, or rather, ‘AB-101’. The fact is, AB-101 is a pseudo-biological robot, both protégé and prototype. Consequently, the mix of Player Characters are surprisingly non-traditional and not all of them are easily created used the means offered in Traveller or MegaTraveller. This is addressed within various issues of the fanzine.

The Travellers’ Digest #5 was published in 1986 in the run up to the Origins convention, which took place from July 3rd to 6th in Los Angeles and moved the date on from the 324th day of the 1101st year of the Imperium to 005-1102, the fifth day of the 1102nd year of the Imperium. The opening ‘Editors’ Digest’ celebrates the fanzine’s first birthday and the increase in page count to sixty pages due to advertising revenue! It highlights the fact that two books would be on sale at Origins ’86 designed by the team behind the fanzine—Grand Survey by J. Andrew Keith, published by Digest Group Publications and Traveller Book 8: Robots, published by Game Designers Workshop. In addition to providing an overview of the content of the current it announced the contents of the next four issues.

The fifth part of ‘The Grand Tour’ in The Travellers’ Digest #5 is ‘Feature Adventure 5: The Humaniti Experiment’, written by editor Gary L. Thomas. In addition to the standard books required by the campaign, the supplements Beltstrike! and Traveller Alien Module 6: Solomani are also useful. As a result of the events in ‘Feature Adventure 3: Tourist Trap’ in the previous issue, the Player Characters were knighted and are now on their way to Capitol, the heart of the Third Imperium where they will be formally ennobled by the emperor. They have now reached Vland, the home of Vilani culture and capital of the Sector in the Vland Subsector of Vland Sector in the Domain of Vland.

The scenario opens with Doctor Theodor Krenstein dealing with a possible memory glitch in ‘Aybee’, before they descend to the surface of Vland. Amongst the many tourist attractions on offer, Doctor Krenstein wants to visit the ‘Argushiigi Admegulasha Bilanidin’, the ‘Vilani Repository of All Knowledge’, also known as the ‘AAB’ or ‘the Encyclopaedia’. A combined museum, library, research centre, and publishing house, it is largest facility of its kind in explored space and it should be no surprise that Doctor Krenstein has an old friend there that he wants to visit. Doctor Issac Imlu is pleased to see him and happily gives the Player Characters a tour of the facility when he is approached by a belter who shows him an extremely old First Imperium data disk. The scenario concerns not only what is on the disk, but also where it came from. The belter explains that he has more disks, but will not readily reveal where he found it beyond the name, ‘Star Harbour’. Fortunately, the facility does have a First Imperium data disk reader and getting past the security code is not too difficult. The recording turns out to be a report on the manipulation of a human subspecies on the world of Uradanid to enhance their technological development past the use of the nuclear weapons. Analysing the information on the data disk reveals that the world was in the Solomani Rim and that this manipulation took place over three thousand years previously.

The inference of the information on the data disk is that the world of Uradanid is in fact, Terra, and that the Vilani made covert contact with the Terrans and manipulated their technological advancement so that they discovered Jump Drive technology before they might have done otherwise without this manipulation. This does not negate the Solomani status as a Major Race, that is, one of the species to discover Jump Drive technology independently, but it does call it into question. This is an astounding discovery if true. Certainly, Doctor Theodor Krenstein would want to research it further simply for its historical significance, whilst for the journalist, Akidda Laagiir, it would be an amazing scoop. However, when the Player Characters go looking for the belter who gave Doctor Imlu the data disk, they first find that he has left Vland and then discover that he is dead!

The second half of the scenario leads the Player Characters to the ‘Star Harbour’ system and the discovery that the belter was up to no good and ultimately, that the recording is a sham. Getting to this information is not as structured as the set-up to the scenario’s core mystery, which itself in terms of the Traveller background is both interesting and intriguing. The scenario, although underwritten in this second half, does expose the Player Characters to one of the pro-Vilani/anti-Solomani groups active the sector. These are expanded upon by the scenario’s ‘Library Data’ which describes several of these groups, some of which are extremist in their outlook.

The Travellers’ Digest #5 contains two big articles, both by big names in the Traveller community. The first is ‘Vland! Cradle of the First Imperium’ by J. Andrew Keith. It ties with ‘Feature Adventure 5: The Humaniti Experiment’ earlier in the fanzine, but also provides a map and a complete description of Vland, complete with statistics generated using the rules from Grand Survey. It is followed by ‘Library Data of the Vland Sector’ by Nancy Parker that complements the previous article and the adventure. The Vland Subsector is also detailed. The second big article is ‘The First Imperium’ by Marc Miller. This charts the history of the Vilani from their origins as part of the Ancients colony on Vland and their survival during the Final War between the Ancients, through their industrial and cultural development to their first space exploration and beyond. The discovery of the Jump Drive led to rapid economic dominance of the systems around Vland and the establishment of the three Bureaux that would control vast swathes of space for centuries to come. Within two millennia of this, the ‘Ziru Sirka’ or ‘Grand Empire of Stars’ was declared to govern over the whole of the territory it consolidated before fully instituting an emperor and governing in peace for over another millennia. Ultimately, the article details the Solomani making contact with the Ziru Sirka and the war that followed that would see the Vilani defeated. There is also a map that shows the extent of the Ziru Sirka and the areas controlled by the three bureaux, as well as list of other references available at the time of publication. Together though, the two articles form a very good introduction to one of the Major Races in Traveller and in 1986, they would have been major developments of the background to the roleplaying game.

The issue switches subject with Henry R. Neufeld’s ‘Playing in Character – Effective Role Playing’. As the title suggests, it is a guide to good roleplaying and roleplaying etiquette. It applies as much to the player as it does the players and it topped and tailed by an example of poor play and an example of good play. In between is a list of dos and don’ts that look obvious today, but perhaps might not have been obvious in 1986—at least to some players and Game Masters. It is still good advice though, but a surprising addition to the pages of The Traveller’s Digest though and one has to wonder if the author has had some poor roleplaying experiences…

Lastly, the issue includes the ‘Traveller’s Digest Astrographic Index for Issues 1—4’. This collates all of the mentions of the worlds, subsectors, and sectors mentioned in the first four issues of the fanzine. It is a useful addition for the Game Master wanting to find a location and its specific mention.

Physically, The Travellers’ Digest #5 is, as with all of the issues so far, very obviously created using early layout software. The artwork is not great, but it does its job and it is far from dreadful. What is noticeable about the issue is the first use of colour on its front and back cover.

The Traveller’s Digest #5 picks up the Grand Tour with an episode that does not develop quite as well as its set-up suggests, but remains interesting and intriguing nonetheless. However, it is the inclusion of authors such as J. Andrew Keith and Marc Miller that really elevates The Traveller’s Digest #5 into a thoroughly interesting read that develops the background to the roleplaying game. Overall, this is good issue.

[Fanzine Focus XXXVIII] The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions

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

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

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

The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions is the fourth issue in the series and finally—finally—the series does something more than just give the Judge one more dinosaur or megafauna or one more fight with one more dinosaur or megafauna. For the Judge that wants fights and monsters, the first three issues of The Valley Out of Time were perfect, but for the Judge wanting more, they were a disappointment. What the series promises is set out on the back cover: “The Valley Out of Time is a series of ’zine-sized adventures from SGP. This valley can be placed in any ongoing campaign, and is set in the “Neanderthal Period” of development. Huge monsters – both dinosaurs and otherwise – and devolved humanoids plague the area, and only the hardiest of adventurers will prevail!” The key word here is ‘adventure’. There is not a single adventure, with plot and interaction and motivation and other elements that the players and their characters can grasp and engage with, in the first three issues of fanzine. Thankfully—thankfully—with The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions actually begins to deliver on its promise.

As the title suggests, The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions details some of the various groups and peoples of the valley as well as providing encounters and ways in which to interact with them. This includes four adventures or extended encounters, backgrounds on some of the tribes, and more. The tribes and adventures are divided into three sections, ‘Beastmen and Other Things’, ‘Urmanoids and Other Less-Developed Tribes’, and ‘The Urman, And Establishment Of Society’, each of which deals with different tribes and factions and gives a scenario or two. In ‘Beastmen and Other Things’, the groupings are Beastmen, the equivalent of Dungeons & Dragons’ non-human tribes, such as Goblins, Kobolds, and Orcs. The first of two entries for this section is ‘Here Comes the Cavalry’, the tribe being with ‘Pig-mees’, actually taken from Fight This Mutant. It begins in typical The Valley Out of Time fashion with the Player Characters encountering the Pig-mees after or during a fight that they are having with several dinosaurs, in this case, some Deinonychi. The Beastmen might aid the Player Characters or they might ambush them, depending upon how well the Player Characters are doing. Afterwards, there is potential for a parley and even some trade as the spoils of the fight are divided up. The encounter will be eased if the Player Characters have access to the Comprehend languages spell.

The second scenario begins in similar fashion, with the Player Characters encountering a dinosaur, having a fight with it, and then someone coming to their rescue. In ‘Why Did It Have To Be Snakes?’, it is Ophidian Beastmen. They will not only aid the Player Characters, but offer to share the treasure—in this case, the eggs of the Giant Iguana Lizard they were fighting—and invite them back to their dwellings to celebrate the victory. Of course, the Ophidian Beastmen, a la the Serpent Men of the Cthulhu Mythos or Robert E. Howard, have their own motives for helping the Player Characters—and they are not good! This scenario does carry a content warning, as it does include a horrifying possible ending in which the Player Characters become incubators for the snake-like humanoids’ eggs. There are notes alongside on the Ophidian Beastmen culture which the Judge can use to develop later encounters with them, though for ‘Why Did It Have To Be Snakes?’, the Judge may want to draw some maps of the Ophidian Beastmen’s underground lair.

‘Urmanoids and Other Less-Developed Tribes’ focuses on Urmanoid troops and families found across the valley. They do not yet have a language, but in comparison to other groupings in the valley, they are peaceful and family-orientated. They also tend to specialise in skills, such as builders or animal tenders, and there is even the possibility that a troop might specialise in communication and learn Common from the Player Characters. They are supported with an actual proper scenario, one that has a beginning, a middle, and an end, a plot, and opportunities to roleplay. Further, in an astonishing development for The Valley Out of Time series, ‘Ranch Hands’ does not actually begin with the Player Characters having an encounter with a dinosaur and having to fight it! Instead, they discover an Urmanoid village and are welcomed to stay, and even encouraged to join in the daily activities of the tribe. Then the tribe’s hogs are attacked by Dire Wolves! This is not the first time and their hosts decide to track the Dire Wolves to their lair and put an end to the menace. They will welcome any help upon the part of the Player Characters. Fighting the Dire Wolves and investigating their lair reveals an even bigger threat—not just the Dire Wolf Pack Alpha—but also a Man-Wolf! There are also hints of a bigger mystery too, one that will hopefully be developed in The Valley Out of Time: Rotten at the Core, the next entry in the series. Overall, this is the most sophisticated adventure that has been presented in The Valley Out of Time series to date.

The entries in The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions have been working up the developmental ladder and reaches the most advanced group with ‘The Urman, And Establishment Of Society’. It develops earlier content and makes full use of the Dungeon Crawl Classics dice to determine each tribe’s general appearance, organisation, and technological development. The attached scenario is ‘Jungle Saviors’, which begins with the Player Characters stumbling into a clearing consisting of blood-soaked mud and bones surrounding a squat and ugly idol. Then out of the surrounding jungle, a band of small, but also ugly Urman attack! The Player Characters have trespassed on their sacred site, but fortunately—or unfortunately, they are not interested in killing the Player Characters. They have other plans for them, plans that warrant another content warning for this issue of the fanzine. The encounter does not quite get that far as an even more scary-looking group of Urmen, looking like jungle ghosts, attacks the Player Characters and the other Urmen alike, turning the encounter into a three-way fight! Again, this is more of an extended encounter, one that sets up an interesting situation, but never quite fully develops the aftermath as it could have done.

The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions also includes discussions of barter, trade, and the economy of the valley and religion in the valley. ‘Barter, Trade, And The Economy Of Valley’ looks at what the tribes’ value and what they might trade for it—based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs—as well as what the Player Characters might be able to barter for with the items that they bring into the valley with them. It also looks at unique items to be found in the valley and how they might be worked into a campaign. ‘Religion In The Valley (And Other Fey Tales)’ looks at worship in the valley, emphasising how it is often more immediate in nature, helping the valley’s inhabitants get through the day. It also examines other motivations such as expanding the tribe (as in a couple of cases in the issue’s encounters) or conquest, but suggests that primarily, what the inhabitants worship are primarily related to nature. It also notes that the inhabitants’ pragmatic attitude towards death means that undead are rare in the valley beyond ghosts and apparitions. The importance of omens is highlighted and the essay notes that these can play a significant role in interacting with the valley dwellers. These are frustratingly good overviews of both subject matters as they pertain to the valley. Frustrating in that it has taken four issues of the fanzine to get to this point to really look at life in the valley rather than list dinosaur after dinosaur.

The issue comes to a close with appendices that start with entries for the new monsters in the issue (despite them being given in the actual adventures), including stats for the Urman. ‘Resources Of The Valley’ is a nice accompaniment to the earlier essay on trade and barter, whilst the third appendix gives a little flavour text that adds another legend to the valley.

Physically, The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions is well presented and well written. The artwork is of a reasonable quality.

With The Valley Out of Time: Tribes and Factions, The Valley Out of Time series begins to deliver on some of the promises made by the author at the beginning of every issue. It starts to look at the valley as a whole, its inhabitants and their lives, and supports that with better scenarios rather than just dinosaur, dinosaur, dinosaur, dinosaur, dinosaur, dinosaur. There really should have been more content like this from the start and it is a shame that it has taken the author so long to get to an actual proper overview of just some of the elements to the setting that would enable the Judge to run it properly.