Cosmic Changed

A new life awaits you in the far reaches of the galaxy! A chance to begin a life of adventure and excitement in a dark region of opportunity and adventure! There is no future for you at the heart of civilisation, let alone on some backwater planet. You can take the government scrip and the government slop and live an existence of hopeless lassitude. Or you can sign up with the Extracsa Conglomerate and receive training that will make you useful to the corporation and to society, contributing to the future of humanity. The operations of the Extracsa Conglomerate are expanding into the far reaches of the galaxy, a bleak region of space, dominated by a golden scar-like object known as the Glitch. Having completed your training, you have been assigned to this expansion area for the period of your indenture. Rumours swirl about your assignment, that the region is somewhere where life, technology and reality can become twisted and wrong. This is the set-up for Cosmic Dark, is a game of weird space horror from the designer of Cthulhu Dark and the highly regarded Stealing Cthulhu.

Cosmic Dark is a storytelling game of cosmic and Science Fiction horror that is significant in three ways. First, it offers a complete six-part campaign that can be played through in roughly twelve or so sessions. Second, it provides complete guidance for the Director—as the Game Master is known—to create more scenarios of her own. Third, it is designed to be played straight from the page with a minimum of effort, using a very light set of mechanics. The players learn the rules of the roleplaying game as they play, including Employee generation, although the Director will still need to read the rules and the scenario beforehand to get the best out of the story. Thankfully, the core rules run to just seven pages, requiring no more than some six-sided dice, preferably of different colours.

A Player Character—or Employee—is very simply designed. He has a Specialism, such as Medical Officer, Mining Engineer, Geologist, Comms Officer, and Team Leader, and then a series of stats on a one-to-six range. Changed represents how much space affects an Employee. It is rolled every time an Employee is hurt or something weird happens to him, and when it reaches six, he is broken and their story is over. In addition, he has a Reality Die and a Specialism Die. These are rolled when the Employee wants to investigate something. The highest result determines the amount of information the Employee gains. This is the bare minimum on a roll of one and everything the Employee can be expected to discover on a four. In addition, the Employee can also gain access to Records from Extracsa’s databases on a roll of five, but on a six, the Employee learns all of this and worse, gains a glimpse of the Anomaly, which may trigger a Changed roll. (The Director can hold a five or six if there is nothing appropriate in a scene.) If someone—which can be another player or the Director—thinks the story would be more interesting if the Employee failed, they roll a Failure Die against the Employee’ player. If the Failure Die rolls higher than the Employee’s die, the Employee fails. Combat is handled in this way, failure triggering a Changed roll. However, it should be noted that the focus of Cosmic Dark and its campaign is upon interaction and exploration and discovery, and not on combat.

In the long term, it is possible for an Employee to reduce his Changed. This might be through surgery, drugs, Memory Anaesthetic, or something else, but it is not guaranteed to work. However, an Employee’s Changed does reset to one at the end of an assignment. He also gains a new attribute, Burnout. This starts at one and is gained between assignments and potentially from moments when his mistrust in Extracsa Conglomerate is triggered or grows. If an Employee’s Burnout reaches six, he is unable to work anymore, gains one more scene, and he retires.

Mechanically then, Cosmic Dark is fast and simple. Obviously, this means that it leaves space for the Director to focus on the narrative and presenting the story and the setting.

The campaign of Cosmic Dark consists of six parts. Each part consists of a different assignment by the Extracsa Conglomerate. The first assignment, ‘Extraction’, begins by establishing who the Employees are, where they all grew up together, and more, elements of which will be reinforced again and again at the beginning of each assignment, and then pushes the players to use the rules to Comic Dark. This is intended as a learning process, though the Director should read through the rules at the end of the book as it is more directly presented. The Employees are assigned to excavate a never before mined asteroid and find it strangely invasive. They also find signs that it is not as pristine as promised. ‘Time Murder’ is a weird murder mystery where the Employees are assigned to sister-company to help harvest energy, whilst in ‘Transparency’ they are given a twenty-four-hour window to salvage what they can aboard an Extracsa Conglomerate starship. To their surprise, the Employees find survivors, but ones with unreliable memories of what happened to the starship. This Assignment does get gory in places, but it is a decently cosmic twist upon the ship in peril set-up. The fourth and fifth Assignments—‘Every Sunrise’ and ‘Every Sunset’—parallel and mirror each other, and can be played in any order, although they work slightly better in the order given. They explore the same or similar planets from different angles, one a desperate evacuation mission, the other a terraforming mission. The campaign comes to a close in ‘The Invisible Hand’ in which past discoveries give a chance for the Employees to put their employer on a different path—or has that already happened?

Cosmic Dark is a roleplaying game of weird space horror, in which life, technology, and reality break down, change, and go wrong. When not describing the situations that Employees find themselves and the outcomes of their actions, the Director is in many ways exactly that, someone who ‘directs’, and who does this through direct questions and prompts intended to provoke an emotional response, such as “What scares you most about space?” or “What is your most painful memory?” The advice for the Director suggests ways in which to do this and enhance the horror, building from the players’ answers to the prompts, but is also on how to write scenarios for Cosmic Dark as well as run it. Here the advice suggests creating situations that the Employees cannot correct and giving them choices where the only options are bad ones. Just as the questions to the players and their Employees are very direct, so too is the advice to the Director, pointedly telling her what to do as she takes the players and their Employees through the stages of a Cosmic Dark Assignment, first ‘Weird’, then ‘Dangerous’, before escalating into ‘Deadly’. All three stages are explored as are a variety of different situations, such as the Employees contacting the Extracsa Conglomerate, using the preceding scenarios as examples. What is clear from the advice throughout is that in each of the Assignments in Cosmic Dark there is a story to be told, one that the players and their Employees cannot easily deviate from or disengage from. In the case of the former, although the ending of any one story is not set in stone, there is still room to explore and investigate, and even add details to the world around the Employees, whilst in the case of the latter, the Director is told to make it clear when certain actions simply will simply not work. Conversely, where necessary—and especially if it enhances the horror—the Director is encouraged to work player suggestions into the story. Overall, the advice is strong and to the point.

Physically, Cosmic Dark is well presented with a clean and tidy layout. The book is black and white and lightly illustrated, but the artwork is starkly appropriate. As with previous books by the author, his voice shines through, especially in the advice for the Director.

To be clear, Cosmic Dark is in no way Lovecraftian in its cosmic horror. Its horror is environmental in nature, born of the clash between the alien spaces the Employees are instructed to explore and in the case of the Employees, the need to first understand them and then second, survive them, whilst in the case of the Extracsa Conglomerate, to exploit them. The Extracsa Conglomerate is not necessarily evil, but it is a corporate entity with all of the dispassionate, self-serving drive and scientific pride you would expect. The play of Cosmic Dark is interactive and investigative in nature, but also introspective given the number of questions that the Assignments and thus the Director is ordered to ask. Here it feels as if the author himself is asking them, but were it not for these questions, there would be an overwhelming sense of depersonalisation of each Employee by the Extracsa Conglomerate. What remains still serves to enhance the disconnection that the players and their Employees are likely to feel in the face of the Glitch as they are bounced from one Assignment to the next.

As a roleplaying game, Cosmic Dark is a simple set of rules combined with good advice and suggestions as to how to use prompts to elicit responses from the players and their Employees to drive good storytelling. As a campaign, Cosmic Dark depicts an uncaring universe and the consequences of Humanity interacting, unwittingly or not, with it. Together they showcase each other. Ultimately, Cosmic Dark presents a campaign of Science Fiction horror in which the only compassion belongs to the Employees and the real monsters might be humanity and its drive to explore and exploit.

—oOo—

Cosmic Dark is currently being funded via Kickstarter.

The Other OSR: Ship of Fools

The year is 1395. The Hundred Years War has long been over, but neither Europe, or indeed, Christendom is stable. The Crusades continue in the Levant to the great cost of Europe’s great kingdoms. Outbreaks of the Black Death are all too frequent. The peasantry and the labouring classes bristle against the continued abuse of privilege and ill-treatment they suffer at the hands of both government and nobility, resulting in civil unrest and uprisings. Trade and production are held in the vice-like grip of mercantile and craft guilds, limiting scope for growth, enrichment, and improvement. And the Papacy is itself riven in two. In the past, unrest in the Holy See and Rome forced the Pope to flee to the French city of Avignon. Now there are two members of the church claiming to be the Bishop of Rome and thus head of the church. Pope Boniface IX sits in Rome, whilst Benedict XIII sits in Avignon. Which of the incumbents has the right to call himself the Holy Father? Which of the incumbents is ready to accept the other as the rightful Pope? Which of the incumbents is willing to resign, so that a new Pope can be elected and so reunite the church? It does not matter, for now Pope Benedict XIII fears the influence of the other Pope and outside influences, undermining his authority and that of the faithful. In the city of Avignon, made grand by his beneficence and that of his predecessors, all legitimate Popes, the paranoia of Pope Benedict XIII runs deep. The security and integrity of the Papal Court must be maintained in the face of continuing subversion, greedy priests, proud kings, angry mercenaries, lazy clerks, not said the neuroticism of the Pope, and so Papal Investigators must be deployed.

This is the set-up for Ship of Fools, a ‘Genre Set-Up’ for Sanction: A Tabletop Roleplaying Game of Challenges & Hacks. Published by Just Crunch Games, this is setting in which the Player Characters are members of the Office of Papal Investigation charged with finding peaceful—or at least the least disruptive—solutions to the issues that the Avignon papacy faces, ensuring the safety of the Pope, and enforcing the pronouncements and decrees made by Pope Benedict XIII. The setting is based upon historical research, its bibliography referencing The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco and Ars Magica by Jonathan Tweet, let alone books on the Avignon Papacy and the Medieval world. In tone it suggests the setting is Father Ted meets Kafka’s The Trial, but add to that the roleplaying game Paranoia and the animated Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. The degree of research shows succinctly in the first few pages, which in turn describe the world of Avignon, the papal palace, the ladder of stations—from Pope all the way down to the Monk and the layman—in the Catholic Church, and its world in turmoil.

A Papal Investigator in Ship of Fools has three Resources, here called Influence, Eminence, and Passion, the equivalent of Charisma, Reputation, and Willpower (or faith). These are not necessarily physical abilities, although there is nothing to stop a Papal Investigator from applying them to physical situation, but rather ways in which a Papal Investigator can apply his standing and belief in his standing in the church—that belief being his own and that of the NPCs around him. He also has three Abilities, one for each of his three Lifepaths. One Lifepath is his Curia Role, what was his original assignment within the Avignon court before being appointed to the Office of Papal Investigations; one is from his Secret Order which gives him secret purpose; and one from his Papal Duties, the training that marks him as a Papal Investigator. There are eight orders of the Curia, which together run the church. For example, the Camera Apostolica, whose lawyers extract taxes, whilst their most devout examine and catalogue relics for signs of their divinity; the Hospitallers protect the church, but their lack of faith is  doubted by the Inquisition; and the Transitus maintains the Papacy’s means and lines of communication across Europe, leading to rivalry with the Supportare, which maintains the infrastructure of the Papacy and Avignon. The other Curia include the Chancery, Dominican Order, Roman Inquisition, Apostolic Penitentiary, and the Supportare. The Secret Orders consist of the Adminsitratum, Anarcho-Syndicalists, Black Friars, Clementines, Committee, Free Spirits, Gardeners, Knights of the Holy Ghost, Metéora, Mumblers, and Occamites, whilst the Papal Duties include Barber Surgeon, Cellarer, Lector, Sacrist, Almoner, Financial Steward, and Liturgist.

In addition to two devices and pieces of equipage, the Papal Investigator has Corruption. This is a measure of his lack of Piety. It begins play at one and can go as high as ten. When his player fails a Challenge, that is, rolling one or two on a Challenge, the Papal Investigator suffers doubts and his piety is tested, requiring a roll higher than his current Corruption score. Calling upon a relic for its divine power or making a confession—as every Papal Investigator must do at the end of a Calling—also requires a similar test. If failed, the Papal Investigator gives into a sin or Folly, such as pride, sloth, deceit, or petulance. One point of Corruption and its associated Folly can be expunged between adventures, but a Papal Investigator can also beg an indulgence of another Papal Investigator (though if this fails, both suffer more Corruption) or pay a penance to remove more.

Although the Camera Apostolica controls the vast archive of holy relics held by the papacy and access to them, each Papal Investigator has his own that he can pray on and draw inspiration from. He may even find more in play, though not all of them may be ‘holy’. A Papal Investigator’s Relic is supplied by his Secret Order. Each Relic grants a particular power, but the Game Moderator is encouraged to create and fully develop Relics to make them interesting and unique. Several sample Relics, all nicely detailed, are provided. (The Game Moderator might want to look at Burgs & Bailiffs: Trinity – The Poor Pilgrim’s Almanack for more information on Relics.)

Catalina the Benignant

Origins: Toledo

Influence D8 Eminence D4 Passion D6

Curia Role: Chancery

Secret Order: Clementines

Papal Duties: Barber Surgeon

Abilities: Ciphers, Dance, Craft (Tailor)

Pressure Track: 0

Equipment: Vial, Medicinal Cordial, Scribe’s Kit

Hits: 3

Corruption: 1

Relic: Candle of St. Thomas (Extinguish: Fervour)

An adventure or assignment in Ship of Fools is known as a ‘Calling’. There is a little discussion on what a ‘Calling’ is, as well as an example as a suggested opening. At the start of a Calling, one Papal Investigator is appointed the leader, or Prior. He has two Fortune which can be sued on anyone’s roll, but at the end of the Calling, his player assesses the other Papal Investigators and rates them. The Game Moderator then tests their Corruption on this basis. This adds a tense and slightly adversarial element to play, the feeling that the Papal Investigators are constantly being monitored. To balance this, the Papal Investigators can take turns being the Prior.

Rounding out Ship of Fools is a set of short, sample Calling hooks and five sample pre-generated Papal Investigators, some enemies, and a complete Calling. This is ‘The Relic, The Ruse, and The Ridiculous’ in which the Papal Investigators are tasked with locating a missing relic. It is an entertaining affair which can be played through in a single session, perhaps two. The final pages discuss what might happen in the future of the twin Papacy.

Physically, Ship of Fools is well presented, but lightly illustrated with nicely period artwork. The supplement is a pleasing read.

Ship of Fools is a thoroughly engaging and enticing setting. The idea of playing papal investigators in a world of apostolic bureaucracy, religious dogma, and papal perturbation is a delight. This setting definitely deserves more content and even a campaign, but in the meantime, Ship of Fools is a very good introduction to a world of papal paranoia and sacred shambles.

Friday Fear: The Nightmare

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the city of Stockton, California, was beset by a rash of strange deaths amongst its Hmong community. The Hmong were refugees from the Vietnam War and subsequent conflicts in southeast Asia. A total of one-hundred-and-seventeen immigrants and their descendants died under strange circumstances in their sleep, suffering from what doctors called ‘Sudden Unexpected Death Syndrome’ or ‘SUNDS’. However, the community did put these deaths down to medical causes, but to a supernatural creature that had accompanied individual families to the USA, continuing to prey upon the men of the families as they slept, literally pressing upon their chests and paralysing them in waking nightmares and feeding upon their terror, killing them in the process, whilst to outsiders making it appear as if they died in their sleep. The Hmong call this creature the ‘Dab Tsog’. That was decades ago, but now the city and its Hmong community has once again been beset by an outbreak of deaths due ‘sleep paralysis’. Could the Dab Tsog have returned to prey on the Hmong community? After losing one of her patients to these nightmares, Dr. Maria Vicente, who conducts studies at a sleep clinic, is beginning to suspect that something is stalking the sleep of her patients and so asks for help from anthropologists, folklorists, and investigators. Published by Yeti Spaghetti and Friends, The Nightmare is a short, one-night horror scenario, part of and third in the publisher’s ‘Frightshow Classics’ line. Ostensibly written for use with Chill or Cryptworld: Chilling Adventures into the Unexplained, the percentile mechanics of the scenario mean that it could easily be adapted to run with Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and similar roleplaying games.

The Nightmare, like the first in the ‘Frightshow Classics’ line, Horror in Hopkinsville, before it, is inspired by a real incident, one that also inspired the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. It returns to the story in Stockton and opens with the Player Characters attending Dr. Vicente’s sleep clinic where she is attempting to study the disrupted sleep patterns of a young boy. The Player Characters will have had the opportunity to conduct some research about Stockton, the deaths amongst the Hmong, and the community’s belief that a Dab Tsog was responsible. They will also have discovered that strange lights have been seen in the city as well, but most notably they will have made the link between the Dab Tsog and figure of the ‘Night Hag’ found in other cultures. Thus, the scenario really sets the players and their characters up with what they need to know right from the start. After an encounter in which Dr. Vicente’s young patient has his sleep interrupted in a frighteningly scary fashion and one, if not more, of the Player Characters are lured away, the narrative in the scenario is not to discover that there is supernatural threat abroad in Stockton, but rather to confirm what the Player Characters already think it to be. To do this, they will need to visit the Hmong and ask some questions of the not always trusting members of the community, calling for some good roleplaying.

The Nightmare is a three-act story. In the first, the Player Characters ‘witness’, or at least, experience someone suffering from the predations of the Dab Tsog and the second investigating the reactions of the community. The third brings the story to a climax back at the sleep clinic where, with local help, the Player Characters can lure the Dab Tsog into striking and thus revealing her presence and making her vulnerable. This will result in an intense physical battle in which the Player Characters have very little time in which to attack—so they had better be prepared. She is not the only threat that the Player Characters may face, but she is the toughest one.

In terms of support, the scenario includes a handful of handouts and eight pre-generated Player Characters. They represent a good mix of ages and backgrounds, several have the Investigation skill, others the Paranormal Folklore skill, and a couple the Sense Monsters Paranormal ability. The latter will be very useful, whilst one is a very dab hand with the dagger, which will be extremely useful in the final encounter.

Physically, behind its creepy cover, The Nightmare is decently presented. The artwork is decent and is dark and foreboding throughout, whilst the floorplans of the sleep clinic are nicely done (though oddly, there is no toilet on the floor where it is located). Although the handouts are plain, the pre-generated Player Characters portraits are good.

The Nightmare is short and direct, no surprise given that it is intended to be played in a single session. Like The Blood Countess before it, the scenario very much has the feel of an episode of a television series. For The Blood Countess, this was Kolchak: The Night Stalker, but for The Nightmare this is The X-Files, though a standalone episode, not one tied to the Series’ ongoing plot to do with UFOs and aliens. Overall, The Nightmare is easy to prepare and will provide a good sessions’ worth of creepy horror that might put the players, let alone the characters, off their sleep.

Friday Fantasy: Temple of the Forgotten Depths

Dreams of a beautiful dark-skinned woman asking to be returned to the ocean and a temple hidden within its depths. A local coastline being beset by deadly storms and attacks by monsters and spirits which rise from the deep. A scholar wanting to visit an ancient subaquatic site as part of his research and asking the adventurers to help him locate it. A strange bleaching is spreading along the coast, destroying ships, marking fish stocks, and spreading panic, and merchants want to hire some to determine the cause and put an end to it. An ancient, underwater temple is said to be home to a great jewel called the Ocean Jewel, said to grant great powers to the user when at sea or under the water. One, more, or all of these are reasons to visit the ‘Temple of the Forgotten Depths’, an ancient temple said to have collapsed into the sea decades ago and become a beacon for drowned souls and those who would turn upon any and all seafarers! They are also the hooks for Temple of Forgotten Depths.

Temple of the Forgotten Depths is an adventure written for use with ‘5E+’, so Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and Dungeons & Dragons 2024. It is a playtest adventure, the first, in an anthology of scenarios published by No Short Rests! called One Room One Shots. Each entry in the collection is a short adventure themed around a single room or structure and intended to be slotted readily into a campaign or more readily, played in a single session with either no preparation or preparation required beforehand. This might be because some of a group’s players are unable to attend; because they want to play, but not want to commit to a longer scenario or campaign; or because a group wants to introduce new players to the roleplaying game. Temple of the Forgotten Depths is written for a group of Player Characters of Fifth Level. The scenario has no other requirements beyond this and its setting, but knowledge of the Aquan language will be useful or any ability to speak other languages.

However they are drawn to the ‘Temple of the Forgotten Depths’, the Player Characters begin the encounter after having swum down from the surface, having imbibed a Potion of Water Breathing. However, once inside the temple, apart from certain locations, they will not need this as there is air. The temple is a giant dome constructed of stone and coral that is no longer as magnificent as it once was. This is due to the coral having been bleached through exposure to corruption and this bleaching has not only affected some of the inhabitants of the temple, it can also affect the Player Characters like a cosmetic curse. The location of the temple’s treasure, the Ocean Jewel is easy to discern, but getting to it is less obvious. Although they will receive some hints from an intriguing variant of the mermaid drawn from African mythology, the Player Character’ progress will be hampered by the temple itself corrupted as it is from dark influences and that dark influence’s attempts to stop them. Throughout the scenario there are some encounters with some nicely thematic monsters like the Drowned Ones, the spirits of those who died at sea, and the malign influence behind the temple’s corruption. In this, any Warlock should beware. Contact with this malign influence may result in the Warlock’s pact suddenly shifting, though this is not explored in the scenario.

Penultimately, the Player Characters will get within sight of the Ocean Jewel, but to get to it with any ease, they will need to solve three highly thematic and decent puzzles. This will enable access to the Ocean Jewel, but not before the threat at the heart of the scenario and the threat to the temple reveals itself. The climax of the scenario is a big boss fight against the Hydra of the Deep, a huge monstrosity with multiple Hit Points per head, its own Mythos Actions, which escalate into Legendary Actions if it loses two many heads! It is an appropriately challenging fight for both the environment and the scenario. Once the creature is defeated, the Player Characters can decide what to do with the Ocean Jewel. Several options are given for this and they are discussed in detail. Temple of the Forgotten Depths comes to a close with full stats and descriptions for all of its monsters and creatures and details of the magical items that can be found in the adventure.

However, one option not discussed in Temple of the Forgotten Depths in detail is what happens if a Warlock Player Character is forced into a Pact of the Deep through prolonged contact or another Player Character is affected by a Pact of the Deep. It is suggested that there is the possibility of such a pact turning that Player Character—Warlock or not—against the other Player Characters. These are only suggestions though and it would have been useful to have been given advice and mechanics on what has the potential to be an exciting turn of events.

Physically, Temple of the Forgotten Depths is well presented. It is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is excellent, and the maps of the temple are clear and easy to use. If there is an issue with Temple of the Forgotten Depths, it is that the text is small, making it a challenge to read!

Temple of the Forgotten Depths delivers a solid, enjoyably thematic scenario for a good session’s worth of play. It is presented as a playtest adventure, but in truth, Temple of the Forgotten Depths is ready to play, whether that is as a one-shot for an evening or an encounter for a campaign, and ready to play with a minimum of effort.

Companion Chronicles #16: Sir Balin: A Most Virtuous Knight

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, The Companions of Arthur is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon. It enables creators to sell their own original content for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition. This can be original scenarios, background material, alternate Arthurian settings, and more, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Pendragon Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Pendragon campaigns.

—oOo—

What is the Nature of the Quest?

Sir Balin: A Most Virtuous Knight is a scenario for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition.

It is a full colour, twenty-nine page, 26.94 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy and it is starkly illustrated.

Where is the Quest Set?

Sir Balin: A Most Virtuous Knight is a scenario for Pendragon, Sixth Edition. It takes place in Forest Sauvage during the Boy King Period in 512.

Who should go on this Quest?

Knights of any type are suitable for Sir Balin: A Most Virtuous Knight. The Player-knights are expected to have sworn fealty to King Arthur or one of his supporters, the scenario suggesting the rival and occasionally feuding vassal lords, Duke Ulfius or Earl Robert of Salisbury.

What does the Quest require?

Sir Balin: A Most Virtuous Knight requires the Pendragon, Sixth Edition Core Rulebook and the Pendragon: Gamemaster’s Handbook.

Where will the Quest take the Knights?

The Player-knights are tasked by Sir Kay, Arthur’s adopted brother and trusted seneschal, to travel north to the Forest Sauvage and locate the manor of two great knights, Sir Balin and Sir Balan. With the constant threat of war from the northern kings who refuse to give fealty to Arthur, who they see as a pretender and an upstart, the young king is in need of allies. Both Sir Balin and Sir Balan are renowned for martial prowess and would greatly bolster King Arthur’s forces. The task is a simple matter of diplomacy, but the two-week journey is not expected to be easy. The first part of the campaign involves a road trip, similar to ones undertaken by the Player-knights if they have through the events of the Pendragon Starter Set following Arthur pulling the sword from the stone and being crowned.

However, before the Player-knights have a chance to properly seek Sir Balin’s allegiance to King Arthur, their host asks a favour of them. A fellow knight, one Sir Guy du Lak, has befouled the code of chivalry by kidnapping the mother of both Sir Balin and Sir Balan, an act that Sir Balin swears involved some kind of fairie enforcement. He asks the Player-knights to accompany him in rescuing her mother.

The majority of the events of Sir Balin: A Most Virtuous Knight are told in flashback, so ultimately, the Player-knights cannot alter the outcome, but this does not mean that the scenario lacks opportunities to roleplay or react to events, prove themselves worthy to be knights, and eventually, earn Glory. However, the scenario draws on a number of sources earlier than Le Morte d’Arthur and the exact details of Sir Balin and Nineve—the sister of Sir Guy du Lak—differ to that presented in Great Pendragon Campaign, so that may not fit what the Game Master intends for her campaign in the long term.

Should the Knights ride out on this Quest?

Sir Balin: A Most Virtuous Knight has tighter requirements in terms of timeframe than other scenarios for the Pendragon, Sixth Edition, but it still offers the chance for the Player-knights to involve themselves in the events of the wider events of the Arthurian saga.

Miskatonic Monday #355: Burton’s Motel: A 1920s Call of Cthulhu One-Shot

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: Burton’s Motel: A 1920s Call of Cthulhu One-Shot

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Bart Verhoeven

Setting: New England, 1923

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Forty-four-page, 60.10 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Psycho meets Call of Cthulhu

Plot Hook: “Inside No. 9: Where things aren’t what they seem, and the truth is always a twist.” – Inside No. 9

Plot Support: Staging advice, six pre-generated Investigators, nine handouts, three maps, two NPCs, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Classic, stormy night, motel horror
# Easy to adapt to different eras

# Obvious in its inspiration, but different

# Covers all the eventualities

# Lost-o-phobia

# Hodophobia

# Sciophobia

Cons

# Investigator backgrounds would have been nice
# Keeper may want to adjust Investigator numbers

# Needs a slight edit

Conclusion

# Serviceable, service-based one-night horror

# Would be tighter and better motivated with Investigator backgrounds

Goodman Games Gen Con Annual XI

Since 2013, Goodman Games, the publisher of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic has released a book especially for Gen Con, the largest tabletop hobby gaming event in the world. That book is the Goodman Games Gen Con Program Book, a look back at the previous year, a preview of the year to come, staff biographies, community content, and a whole lot more, including adventures and lots of tidbits and silliness. The first was the Goodman Games Gen Con 2013 Program Book, but not being able to pick up a copy from Goodman Games when they first attended UK Games Expo in 2019, the first to be reviewed was the Goodman Games Gen Con 2014 Program Book. Fortunately, a little patience and a copy of the Goodman Games Gen Con 2013 Program Book was located and reviewed, so since 2021, normal order has been resumed with the Goodman Games Gen Con 2015 Program Guide, the Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book, the Goodman Games Gen Con 2017 Program Book, and Goodman Games Gen Con 2018 Program Guide: The Black Heart of Thakulon the Undying, and Goodman Games 2019 Yearbook: Riders on the Phlogiston.

With both Goodman Games Gen Con 2018 Program Guide: The Black Heart of Thakulon the Undying, and Goodman Games 2019 Yearbook: Riders on the Phlogiston, the series had begun to chart a new direction. Each volume would contain a mix of support for the various RPGs published by Goodman Games and the content published by the Goodman Games community, but the major feature of each volume would be a tournament scenario, staged the previous year at Gen Con. Unfortunately, events caught up with the eighth entry in the series, Goodman Games Yearbook #8: The Year That Shall Not be Named, as the Covid-19 pandemic forced the world to adjust, which of course, included Goodman Games. The result was that the traditional Gen Con Program Guide became a ‘Yearbook’ and this trend has continued since with the Goodman Games 2021 Yearbook and the Goodman Games 2022 Yearbook. However, it has shifted ever so slightly again with a name change the book in the line, Goodman Games Yearbook #11.

Goodman Games Yearbook #11 looks back at 2023 for the publisher and opens on a more reflective, even mournful note than is usual for the regular annual or Gen Con Program Guide. In turn, various members of the Goodman Games team look back at the year past, starting with Joseph Goodman, noting the year’s highlights, changes, and so on. Joseph Goodman examines how he has made the switch from running the publisher fulltime rather than as a ‘hobby’ job and made a concerted effort to look at the trends in the hobby, whilst Jen Brinkman discusses the shift to Goodman Games having its own dedicated warehouse in Fort Wayne, Indiana, along with Harley Stroh. (This move has its own article later in the book, ‘News Flash: Goodman Games Moves To Our Own Warehouse!’, which also introduces the warehouse mascot, ‘Bricky’.) Michael Curtis and Chris Doyle look at the development and output of Goodman Games for Dungeon Crawl Classics and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, respectively, whilst Brendan Lasalle gives a short history of Xcrawl and the success of the Xcrawl Classics Kickstarter campaign as well as overview of the activities of Goodman Games Road Crew for the year. This is the cadre of Judges who run games for Goodman Games at game shops and conventions, and are in many ways the public face of the company, and it is further supported by both ‘Ten Years of Road Crew Art’ and ‘2023 Poster Design Contest’, both of which look back at Goodman Games’ art. Rick Maffei talks about the end of the Goodman Games YouTube series, Talking TSR, and the start of the new series, The 50 Greatest Classic Adventures of All Time. These look like great series, the one worth going back to and the other beginning of.

The reflections come to a close on a sad note, with Goodman Games Yearbook #11 remembering the deaths of three stalwarts of the hobby, noted for their contributions to the hobby and in one way or another, the Old School Renaissance. They are in turn, Russ Nicolson, who was previously interviewed in Goodman Games Yearbook #8: The Year That Shall Not be Named; Jennel Jaquays, noted designer of The Dark Tower and The Caverns of Thracia, both originally published by Judges Guild and since republished by Goodman Games; and James M. Ward, best known for the creation of the first Science Fiction roleplaying game, Metamorphosis Alpha: Fantastic Role-Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventures on a Lost Starship.

The first gaming entry in Goodman Games Yearbook #11 with ‘DCC Gen Con Funnel Experience Adventure: The Forsaken Vault of the Crimson Oracle’. Written by Brendan LaSalle, this is a ‘Funnel Experience’, intended as a means to introduce new players to Dungeon Crawl Classics using Zero Level characters. For the Player Characters, it begins with the appearance of a giant colossus, bursting up through the earth, in West Mauldeen, a remote farming village, opening a maw into which tip the remains of the village and its inhabitants—both living and dead! Awoken and thrown from their beds, the ordinary survivors find themselves in a cavern filled with the dead and the buildings they once lived in, facing a demon! The scenario is short, direct, and deadly, but has some really entertaining encounters, such as with ‘Gallyjacks’, Dwarves and Humans being ridden by one-inch-tall humanoids called Prizetakers (who come from the City of the Prize-takers) as if they pirate ships and from which they can launch boarding parties on the Player Characters; a surprisingly helpful goat; and a dying ‘giant’ head, which might be helpful if a way can be found to save him. There are opportunities too, for quite a lot of treasure to be found. The scenario is a lot of fun and will work as a demonstration scenario as well.

Both Dungeon Crawl Classics and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition are catered for with ‘Two More Old School Traps’ by Chris Doyle and converted by Mihailo Tešić. Inspired by Original Adventures Reincarnated #8: Grimtooth’s Old School Traps, the two traps here are detailed and dirty, nasty affairs. The first of the two, ‘The HyStairical Trap’, is also inspired by DCC #106, Trials of the Trapmaster’s Tomb and is a set of stairs that is trapped not once but three times. First, by a pressure plate that releases oil to make the stairs slippery, second by a pressure plate that releases laughing gas, and third, a pit which is really hard to avoid given the effects of the first two! ‘Whole Lotta Pit Traps’ is quite simple, five pit traps on top of each other and each one deadlier than the one above…

The scenario for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition in Goodman Games Yearbook #11 is William Fischer’s ‘Chains of the Conflagrator’. This is an expansion to Jennell Jaquay’s Original Adventures Reincarnated #7: Dark Tower, very much a classic, but highly thematic dungeon. It is designed for four to six Ninth Level Player Characters and intended to be played in a single session. They encounter Argun the Conflagrator, an ancient red dragon who terrorised the lands far to the south of Mitra’s Fist, the location for the ‘Dark Tower’. He has been long been imprisoned by cultists dedicated to Set and asks the Player Characters to free him. The main part of the scenario takes place in his lair where the Player Characters must survive the volcano environment and find a way to free him. It is a big and enjoyably bold encounter and adds a pleasing side quest to a classic game, but which could also be added another dungeon without any difficulty. It is supported with several new monsters devoted to Set.

Marc Bruner takes us back to ‘Dinosaur Crawl Classics’ in The Goodman Games Gen Con 2017 Program Book with ‘The Return Of Dinosaur Crawl Classics!’. This presents a new Character Class for the setting which is based on that of Dinosaur Planet: Broncosaurus Rex. This is the Protoceratops, a highly intelligent ceratopsian, which is also curious, peaceful, and psionic. They record knowledge on stone using their highly dextrous beaks, are good translators and negotiators and so serve as diplomat, and have psionic powers such as Rustling Brush which camouflages the user and Strengthen Bonds of social connections, new abilities also given here. There is a quick guide to converting the psionics from Mutant Crawl Classics to ‘Dinosaur Crawl Classics’. This is a solid addition to the setting, but just like its original inclusion in The Goodman Games Gen Con 2017 Program Book, it really makes the reader wish that it was a proper setting with a book of its own. It is followed by ‘From The Vault: New Mutations

For Your MCC Campaign’, in which Erica Barlow, Julian Bernick, James Pozenel, and Skeeter Green give yet more mutations for Mutant Crawl Classics, including Acid Generation, Bio Boost, Salvage Savant, and Warp Reality.

Throughout, as is the norm for all entries in the series, Goodman Games Yearbook #11 includes photographs from various conventions that the publisher and its representatives attended over the case of 2024. This, of course, includes Gen Con 2023, but also includes Gameholecon, Garycon, and many more. They are not as profusive as in more recent issues of the program guide and are threaded throughout the supplement rather than in blocks. This makes the events themselves and Goodman Games’ presence feel a little more peripheral than in past years, which is obviously not the actual case. ‘DCC Day’ is, of course, special for Goodman Games and so gets its own article with ‘DCC DAY 2023’ highlighting the great releases on the day. The publisher’s presence at Gen Con is dominated by the Goodman Games booth, which always has a physical presence. For Gen Con 2023, this was with a Wizard Tower Dice Tower Podium and its creation—as have the creation of other features have been charted in previous volumes of the Gen Con Program Guide/Yearbook—is enjoyably detailed by Wayne Snyder in ‘Building The Wizard Tower Dice Podium’. Lastly, the Goodman Games community and their contributions are highlighted in ‘The 2023 Goodie Awards: Our Annual Thank You To The Community!’. This brings the program guide to a close by bringing many names in the community to the reader’s attention and what they give. It brings the Goodman Games Yearbook #11 to a fitting close.

Physically, the Goodman Games Yearbook #11 is a slim affair, in keeping with the current reduced format of the series. It is well presented, a pleasing read, and full of very good artwork.

There are really two strands to the Goodman Games Yearbook #11—community and content to game with. Although it feels very much like there is more of the former than the latter, both are engaging and entertaining, capturing another year of Goodman Games and giving some fun gaming content too.

—oOo—

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

The Putney Pirate

When you are called into to investigate a violent assault at an address in Putney, Southwest London, it sounds like any other day on the job in Putney, let alone London. When it turns out that that the assailant is described by an eyewitness as looking like, “… [S]omething straight out of one of those pirate films.”, then you know this is no ordinary case. It is, instead, a case for The Folly. Or rather, the ‘Special Assessment Unit’ of London Metropolitan Police Service, which in particular deals with magic and the Demi-Monde, and under the command of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, registered practitioner of Newtonian magic, is increasing the number of its operational staff as crimes involving magic also rise. Which includes the Player Characters, who are then assigned to investigate the affray at the house in Kingsmere Close. Whilst the victims of the assault are not saying much, it quickly becomes clear that they are up to no good, as they have turned the house into a cannabis farm and are not the actual owners of the house. Further, once an Initial Vestigium Assessment has been conducted, it confirms that magic was used in the assault, and that very definitely means that this is a case for the Folly. So where is the owner of the house? Who is the man dressed like a pirate, quite likely an unlicensed practitioner of magic, and why did he attack the operators of a cannabis farm in a quiet corner of Southwest London? All pressing questions in Jimmy’s Last Dance: A Swashbuckling Case File of Family Intrigue.

Jimmy’s Last Dance: A Swashbuckling Case File of Family Intrigue is an investigation and case file for Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game, based on the Rivers of London novels by Ben Aaronovitch. Published by Chaosium, Inc., this is a lengthier case file than previous releases for the roleplaying game, one that will probably take two or so sessions to play through. Or it can be added to campaign, perhaps run after ‘The Bookshop’ from the core rulebook or the case files, Going Underground – A Case File for Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game and The Font of All Evil: Murder and Mayhem Besides the Thames. One issue perhaps with the scenario is that it set in a specific year and that it involves a political scandal that was at its height at the time. The year is 2016 and the scandal is The Windrush Scandal. Of course, the authors advise the Game Master to handle the issue with care and it is certainly not a problem that The Windrush Scandal is part of the scenario—in fact, it is actually woven into the plot of the case file—but rather that the timeframe is quite specific and thus difficult to shift the case file to another year.

There are multiple plot strands to the investigation, ones that will lead the Player Characters to a criminal gang, a solicitor with less than ethical standards, a rotten son-in-law and a bare-suspecting daughter, and an old lady with interesting secrets of her own. Then ultimately to the ‘pirate’ who attacked the cannabis farm and who has his own agenda throughout the scenario. Sometimes that and his movements will intersect with those of the Player Characters and their investigation. Although they can return to the Folly to conduct research, most of the investigation is confined to the borough of Putney itself and involves lots of Police dogwork—interviews, surveillance, and so on. Over the course of the investigation, the Player Characters will be conducting multiple interviews, all of which nicely presented to help the Game Master answer their questions and portray the various NPCs. In addition, there are some decent handouts that the Player Characters will be able to find through various research avenues.

There is good advice for the Game Master throughout the scenario. This starts with suggested Player Character types and roles, how to portray a pirate without sounding like Robert Newton, and continues with notes from both Peter Grant and Ben Aaronovitch. It is recommended that at least one Player Character be a police officer or detective and that one be a Newtonian apprentice or hedge wizard. Suggestions are given too, if the players want to roleplay pre-generated characters from the core rulebook. The oddest advice is on various pieces of British vernacular, such as the meaning of the term ‘old bag’ when used as a pejorative to describe a woman, old or not. Whilst a British audience will find this amusing, for a non-British Game Master, it explains the vernacular and gives alternatives where necessary. This gives her the choice of enforcing the verisimilitude with the given terms or using less pejorative ones. The structure of the scenario is nicely supported with both a relationship map and a plot progression chart, to help the Game Master keep track of the investigation and more importantly, the location of the ‘pirate’.

Physically, Jimmy’s Last Dance: A Swashbuckling Case File of Family Intrigue is clean, tidy, and easy to use. The maps and plot progression diagram are easy to use, the advice is good throughout, and the portraits of the various NPCs are excellent.

Jimmy’s Last Dance: A Swashbuckling Case File of Family Intrigue is a richly detailed investigation that combines parochially British charm and menace, backed up with good advice for the Game Master—and if things go right, a cozy ending.

—oOo—

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

The Little Book of Death ...in Spaace!

Escape the Dark Sector: The Game of Deep Space Adventure is about survival. About making a break from the cell of the detention block of a vast space station where they have found themselves incarcerated. They have an opportunity to escape their imprisonment, but the route they must take, between the detention block and their spaceship, is fraught with danger. The escapees must find their way out of the Detention Level, through the Heart of the Station, and then the Forgotten Zones to their impounded spaceship—and escape! Published by Themeborne Ltd., Escape the Dark Sector is the Science Fiction sequel to Escape the Dark Castle: The Game of Atmospheric Adventure, which was inspired by the Fighting Fantasy series of solo adventure books and also the dark fantasy artwork of those books. As with its fantasy predecessor, Escape the Dark Sector can be played solo or collectively and 

offered plenty of replay value and variability with six Character Cards, fifty-three Chapter Cards—fifteen of which form the encounter deck, and five Boss Cards. Then of course, there are game’s three expansions: Escape the Dark Sector – Mission Pack 1: Twisted Tech, Escape the Dark Sector – Mission Pack 2: Mutant Syndrome, and Escape the Dark Sector – Mission Pack 3: Quantum Rift. Each of these provided players with new characters to play, a new mechanic—which meant a new challenge to overcome, new equipment, and of course, a new Boss standing in the way of the players’ escape. However, when it came to death—and there is no denying that Escape the Dark Sector is definitely about death, as well as escaping, if not more so—what neither Escape the Dark Sector, nor any of its expansions, or even Escape the Dark Castle, could offer was much mote than a mechanical outcome whenever a player’s character dies in the game.

The solution is Death in Deep Space, the Science Fiction equivalent of The Death Book for Escape the Dark Castle. This is a book of over one hundred death scenes, each corresponding to a particular Chapter or Boss. It is very easy to use. Whenever a character dies as a result of the events in a Chapter or the showdown with a Boss, he checks the relevant entry in the pages of The Death Book. This is made possible because every card in Escape the Dark Castle as well as in all three of its expansions is marked with a unique code. Cross reference the code with corresponding entry in the book, whether for a Chapter or a Boss card, read out the description provided, and so provide an unfitting, but final end for your character, followed by that of everyone else.

For example, the details on the Boss card, ‘The Alien Queen’ reads as follows:

“Die, humansss!”

The Alien Queen was lying wait! Jets of venom fly towards you as she pounces—YOU must roll two HIT DICE now.

If a player should die in the course of this final confrontation before he and his companions, always a strong possibility in Escape the Dark Sector, he picks up Death in Deep Space and after finding the entry for ‘The Alien Queen’, he reads aloud the following:

The Alien Queen

Once it enters your bloodstream, the paralysing venom of the Alien Queen works quickly – a spreading rigidity coursing through your entire body, locking your joints one by one until you are all but paralysed. Even your eyelids cannot close, and you are forced to watch in horror as the terrible creature captures your fellow crew with equal ease.

With a series of hissed commands to her countless, scurrying servitor spawn, you are all dragged back her vast, deck-spanning nest. There, a slick, black, fleshy membrane covers the walls and beneath the vaguely humanoid shapes of her decomposing victims are still recognisable. Their shallow breaths rise and fall in eerie synchronicity, an indication that their suffering is yet to be ended. Soon, you and your crew join them.

Once in place, your spines are sliced open. The shimmering spools of nerve fibre that spill out are intertwined with those of the other captives suspended around – the connection sealed with a sticky, mucus coating. In this way, you become part of the fabric of the hive, a sensory node in a living web, lining the walls as far as the eye can see, warning the hive of approaching threats and passing the news back through the biotic chain in an instant.

For the rest of your days, your pain is theirs and theirs is yours; you see what they see and hear what they hear, your collective existence painfully prolonged in service to your bestial captor.

Your adventure ends here.

Physically, Death in Deep Space is a neat and tidy, if plain affair. A page of introduction explains how to use the book and contains the book’s single illustration which shows where the unique code for the Chapter or Boss card is located. Then each entry has a page of its own. There is a degree of repetition to the entries, but only a little, and it really only becomes apparent when reading the book from end to end, which is not its intended use. A small and relatively slim book, Death in Deep Space fits easily into Escape the Dark Sector: The Collector’s Box Set.

Death in Deep Space is book of endings, but one that provides a final narrative and some context to that death. Escape the Dark Sector is an enjoyable game, but character deaths can feel little, “Is that it?”. With Death in Deep Space, it is no longer the fact that you died, but very much how you died. Grim and ghoulish, The Death Book brings the death of every character, and with it, the game of Escape the Dark Sector to a nasty and unfortunate, but fitting end.

—oOo—

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

Meddling Mysteries

It could be the seventies. It could be the eighties. It could be nineties. It could be now. Whatever the decade, the world is in danger and refuses to believe it. Creatures of the night stalk the darkness and only you have the knowledge and bravery to face their danger head on. So ready your UV torch, sharpen your stakes, bless your holy water, and load up the mystery wagon, because tonight you are going monster hunting! Are you ready to save the world and have nobody notice? Then that makes you a vampire hunter—fearless or otherwise! This is the simple set-up to Bite Me!, a scenario and mini-supplement for ACE!—or the Awfully Cheerful Engine!—the roleplaying game of fast, cinematic, action comedy, published by EN Publishing, best known for the W.O.I.N. or What’s Old is New roleplaying System, as used in Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD and Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition. Some of the entries in the series have been expansive, such as Orcs & Oubliettes and Strange Science, providing a detailed setting and an scenario, whilst others in the series have tended to be one-shot, film night specials. Bite Me! falls into the latter category.

As with other supplements for ACE!, both the genre and inspiration for Bite Me! are obvious. However, there is a twist. The genre involves vampires and vampire-hunting, so the obvious inspiration is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is not though, the only inspiration for Bite Me! and the other adds very tongue (or is that fang?)-in-cheek tone to the whole affair. That inspiration is the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series, Scooby-Doo. So, this injects an extra dose of cheesiness into the play of the Awfully Cheerful Engine!. The bulk of Bite Me! is dedicated to a single adventure, ‘Darkness, BITES!’ and to that end, it provides four pre-generated Player Characters. However, it also gives the means for the players to create their own characters. These include suggested Roles such as talking Animals, Clerics, Druids, Slayers, Vampires, and Werewolves. To these are added the new Roles of Fortune Teller and Paranormal Investigator. The Fortune Teller gains the Power stat and can cast magic, but to begin with, does not know any spells. The Role also grants a bonus when using a tarot deck and knows if spirits are harmful. The Paranormal Investigator begins play never having encountered the supernatural, but has unveiled a lot of hoaxes. The Role gains a bonus when looking for clues and interacting with the authorities, and starts play with the Mystery Wagon, a mid-sized van.

In addition, various items of equipment are listed as being of use. These include garlic, holy symbol, tarot deck, EMF meter, pure salt, and more. In addition, there are stats for various things that the Player Characters might encounter, such as devil, mummy, poltergeist, and wolfman. The most amusing of these are the Crooked Property Developer (all together now, “And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!”) and the Pirate Ghost.

The four pre-generated Player Characters consist of Fluffy Winters, reluctant vampire slayer; Lilo Thornberg, witty fortune teller; Rooby Roo, faithful dog; and Ted Bones, cheery paranormal investigator. All of whom are very knowingly tongue-in-cheek in being drawn from their sources.

The adventure, ‘Darkness, BITES!’ begins with news reports of strange occurrences at a rundown amusement park. It could be ghosts or it could be something else! In fact, it is both, because the adventure really leans into both of its inspirations. So, if the players are expecting there to be a Crooked Property Developer, they will not be disappointed, and if they are expecting ghosts, they will not be disappointed either. That though, is not the end of the scenario. The Crooked Property Developer is hiding something and that tips the Player Characters into a much darker storyline, which will see them race around town to find signs of occult and even vampiric activity—helped by a local psychic and chased by another classic monster—before finally tracking the evil down and confronting it in its lair. Not so much Transylvania, as Transylvania USA! The scenario is nicely detailed and plotted out and easy to run. It is not set in a specific city, so can be set anywhere the Game Master decides. It just needs to be big enough to have an abandoned amusement park. The play of it should take two sessions or so to play through.

Physically, Bite Me! is well presented with reasonable artwork. It needs a slight edit in places.

Bite Me! is very light in terms of its treatment of its inspirations—but then it has to be. The aim is to make those inspirations easy to grasp by Game Master and player alike and enable the players to engage with them as little or as much as they would like. Which is all part of making the main focus of Bite Me!, the adventure ‘Darkness, BITES!’, just as easy and as quick to prepare. Bite Me! should provide the Game Master and her players with a session or two’s worth fang-tastic and snacka-licious fun. All they have to is provide the snacks.

—oOo—

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