Miskatonic Monday #404: That Damned Auction!

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: That Damned Auction!

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Man Of Thousand Hobbies

Setting: 1922

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Twenty-four page, 5.3 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: The biggest MacGuffin of them all! Somebody’s bound to end up dead.

Plot Hook: When the Necronomicon is up for auction, everyone drops everything!

Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, some NPCs, two floorplans, three Mythos entities, and the Mythos tome.

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Pulpy treatment of a classic Call of Cthulhu scenario set-up

# Easy to adapt to other modern eras

# Can be set anywhere wealthy and coastal
# Suited to experienced Investigators with the Cthulhu Mythos skill

# East to set up and run

# Auction Anxiety

# Paranoia

# Helminthophobia

Cons

# Needs a good edit

# Keeper will need to explain the evidence of some dice rolls

Conclusion

# Country house murders, but with murders!

# A fluffy lemon meringue pie of a scenario, complete with soggy bottom  

Miskatonic Monday #403: The Island of Insanity

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

—oOo—

Name: The Island of Insanity

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Jay Sojdelius, Jonas Morian, Alison Cybe, and The Yellow Hand

Setting: New England, Argentina, and Antarctica, 1937

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Twenty-eight page, 25.72 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: The island that time should have forgot

Plot Hook: A race against the clock to find a missing author

Plot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, four NPCs, eleven handouts, and five maps, and one Mythos entity.

Production Values: Superb

Pros

# Pacy race against the clock 

# Easily adapted to other eras

# Easy to add to a campaign or run as a one-shot

# Very good looking scenario

# Great handouts
# Decent pre-generated Investigators

# Well presented background

# Automatonophobia

# Carceroophobia

# Antarcticaphobia

Cons

# No Sanity rewards

# Undeveloped in terms of cult reaction

Conclusion

# Superbly appointed, fast-paced race against time

# Cult antagonists need development in terms of motivation, action, and a human presence to lift into a full recommendation 

2005: Serenity Role Playing Game

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

—oOo—

The Serenity Role Playing Game was published in 2005 by Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd. It is a Science Fiction roleplaying game—or rather a ‘Space Western’ roleplaying—based on the film of the same name released in the same year. Both film and roleplaying game are set in the universe of Joss Whedon’s short-lived 2002 Fox television series Firefly. It would be the first roleplaying game to use the Cortex System, or rather the first roleplaying game to use what it called the Cortex System, the mechanics having been previously used in the Sovereign Stone roleplaying game, initially produced by Sovereign Press, Inc. and subsequently published by Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd. Not only would the Serenity Role Playing Game be the ‘first’ to use the Cortex System as named, but it would also actually be named for the system-wide communications and data network that appears in Firefly. The Serenity Role Playing Game would win the 2005 Origins Award for Gamer’s Choice Best Role Playing Game of the Year and the 2006 Gold Ennie Award for Best Production Values. Whilst the licence for Serenity Role Playing Game would lapse in 2011, Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd. would return to the setting under a different licence agreement with the Firefly Role-Playing Game in 2014, this time using Cortex Plus, an evolution of the Cortex System that was first seen in the Smallville Roleplaying Game and in Leverage: The Roleplaying Game.

The Serenity Role Playing Game and both the film Serenity and the Firefly television series are set in the year 2517 in a large system of habitable and terraformed planets and moons that were settled by colonists in generation ships from Earth-That-Was. The core two planets formed the U.S.-Chinese Alliance and sought to enjoin the outer planets under their rules. The Outer Planets declined to do so, leading to tensions that would erupt in the Unification War. Despite their best efforts, the Independents, known as Browncoats for the great coats they wore, were defeated by the Alliance and it has been expanding its authority ever since. The remnants of the Browncoats, dissenters, settlers, and others fled to the border where Alliance influence and presence was weaker, but life was tougher since the worlds there had not been terraformed beyond forbidding, dry environments akin to the Old West of Earth-That-Was. This is the ’Verse, where in both the television series and the film, the protagonists are the rag-tag crew of a Firefly-class small transport, the Serenity, getting by on small jobs, crimes, and shifting cargoes and passengers. In the Serenity Role Playing Game, the Player Characters are the same, whether that is the players playing the crew of the Serenity or creating their own characters and their ships. Either way, they will be telling their own gorram stories.

To that end, as well as introducing the setting of the ’Verse, the Serenity Role Playing Game provides the attributes, skills, and traits for each of the crew aboard—Mal Reynolds, Zoë Washburne, Hoban ‘Wash’ Washburne, Jayne Cobb, Kaywinnet Lee ‘Kaylee’ Frye, Inara Serra, Shepherd Book, Simon Tam, and River Tam, along with ‘Roleplaying Notes’ that are actually Mal Reynolds’ assessment of them. This adds a lot of in-game assessment and flavour and helps set the scene. Alternatively, the players can create their own characters.

A Player Character in the Serenity Role Playing Game is defined by his attributes, skills, and traits. The six attributes are Agility, Strength, Vitality, Alertness, Intelligent, and Willpower. They are represented by a die type, from ‘d4’ to ‘d12’, although it is possible to go higher. Skills are also represented by die type, again from ‘d4’ to ‘d12’. Skills tend to be general up to a rating of ‘d6’, but higher die types represent skill specialisations. A Player Character must have at least two traits, one a beneficial Asset, the other a hindering Complication, but can have up to five of either. The number of points a player receives depends on the Heroic Level of the characters or characters. This can be either ‘Greenhorn’, ‘Veteran’, or ‘Big Damn Hero’. These points are effectively spent twice, first on attributes and then skills with an extra bonus. The cost for any die type is equal to its size, so a ‘d4’ costs four points, whilst a ‘d10’ costs ten. Assets and Complications can be Minor, Major, or both, the cost coming out of the points to spend on attributes. There are two Assets of note, ‘Reader’ and ‘Registered Companion’, which require the permission of the Game Master for a player to select since they might not match the tone of the campaign.

Name: Arabella Townsley
Concept: Historian gone wild
Heroic Level: Greenhorn
Plot Points: 6

ATTRIBUTES
Agility d8 Strength d4 Vitality d6 Alertness d6 Intelligent d10 Willpower d8

VITALITY 14
INITIATIVE d8+d6

ASSETS
Allure (Asset – Minor), Highly Educated (Asset – Minor), Natural Linguist (Asset – Minor), Combat Paralysis (Complication – Minor), Soft (Complication – Minor)

SKILLS
Artistry d6 (Writing d8), Influence d6 (Lecture d8), Knowledge d6 (History d10), Linguist d6 (Mandarin d8), Perception d6 (Research d8), Scientific Expertise d6 (Historical Sciences d10), Unarmed Combat d6, Survival d4

Mechanically, the Cortex System is straightforward. To have his character undertake an action, a player rolls the die for appropriate attribute and the skill and adds the total together, the aim being to roll equal to, or greater than, a Difficulty number. This ranges from three or ‘Easy’ to thirty-one or ‘Impossible’. Results that are seven or more higher than the Difficulty number is an Extraordinary success, which the Game Master adjudicates. In combat, it might result in a target suffering a broken limb or being stunned. Various Assets and Complications will add a bonus or impose a penalty on the result. The circumstances can alter the die type to be rolled. If hindered, the die type is stepped down, but if a Player Character has an advantage, it is stepped up. A die type can be stepped down as far as a ‘d2’ and stepped up to a ‘d12+d2’, ‘d12+d4’, and so on. What is notable about the system is that no matter what die types the attributes and skills are, even if they are a ‘d10’ or a ‘d12’—or higher—a player or the Game Master can still roll ones on the dice, and if ones are rolled on both dice, the attempt is a botch. Again, like an Extraordinary success, the Game Master decides upon the consequences of the botch, the most immediate result being a Player Character to lose his next action. In addition, there is no set way in which an attribute or skill can be combined to undertake an action.

Since a Player Character is a hero, he also has access to Plot Points, starting play with six, and can earn more through play. This can come from the effect of Complications and the situation, but they can also be rewarded for cool ideas, and completing challenges, personal goals, and crew goals. They can then be spent to buy extra dice for a task—two Plot Points for a ‘d4’, three Plot Points for a ‘d6’, four Plot Points for a ‘d8’, and so on. This must be declared before the roll, but Plot Points can be spent on a one-for-one basis to a straight ‘+1’ bonus. Plot Points can also be spent to reduce damage suffered, trigger certain Assets, and even change the story to some extent. For two or three points, this will be a consequential change, for up to six, the change is minor, and so on, all the way to a major change that costs eleven or more Plot Points!

Combat uses the same mechanics. Initiative is handled by rolling each combatant’s Initiative die types and anyone can take multiple actions, but each action after the first suffers a step down in die type. Defence is also handled as a roll rather than a set value; the roll being determined by the defensive action that the combatant wants to take. The Defence value applies only to the next attack that a combatant suffers and can be active or passive. An active defence enables a roll of both an attribute and a skill, but a passive defence is rolled on an attribute only. The rules account for aiming, called shots, feints, grapples, automatic fire, and so on. Damage is either suffered as Stun damage or lethal Wounds. Armour will reduce either, but both are deducted from a combatant’s Vitality. If a combatant suffers Stun and Wound damage equal to Vitality, there is a chance he is knocked out, and if he suffers Wounds equal to half his Vitality, he is Seriously Wounded and suffers a Step Down penalty.

In terms of play, the Serenity Role Playing Game and the Cortex System is very variable in its results. Where in another roleplaying game, a player will have the flat value of his character’s skill to add to the roll, what he has to rely on in the Cortex System is Plot Points. Which means that the player needs to generate them through play, so leaning into his character’s complication. Offsetting that is the fact that after play, Plot Points can be converted into Advancement Points—in addition to those awarded at the end of a scenario—that are spent on Player Character improvement.

Two lengthy sections in the Serenity Role Playing Game support the technological aspects of the ’Verse. The first looks at money and equipment, including a section on the economics of operating a tramp freighter, emphasising the default set-up for the roleplaying game, whether that is roleplaying as the crew of the Serenity or as a crew of the players’ own creation. The equipment list is extensive and includes a variety of robots and ‘Newtech’ that will originate in the Core planets and be extremely rare out on the Rim. Amongst the items are the expensive and rare laser pistol from the television series episode ‘Trash’ and the LoveBot from the film. The rules for ‘Newtech’ are effectively design rules for creating interesting devices and modifying existing ones.

The second is on spaceships and vehicles and is just as extensive, explaining how they work and how they are operated. Mechanically, they are treated as Player Characters, with similar attributes, skills, and traits. It enables the Game Master and her players to create ships as easily as they can characters and it literally gives a ship character, one that the players and their characters can love and hate as the crew of the Serenity do. The rules do cover weapons and armour, but the ’Verse of Firefly and Serenity is not a setting in which spaceship combat is common. In the main, weapons add to the expense of a ship’s operation and are the province of the Alliance navy. Several vessels are given as examples. These include the Aces and Eights, a Firefly-class vessel operated by a renowned gambler, the Bumblebee-class homestead transport, the Serenity itself, an Alliance Patrol Boat, the El Dorado, a swanky passenger liner, and a Reaver skiff. These are accompanied by deck plans too.

The Game Master is given decent advice on running the Serenity Role Playing Game and exploring its themes of thrilling heroics, hidden secrets, outcasts and misfits, and freedom. It discusses character creation, establishing relationships, designing adventures, and more as well as suggesting campaign concepts other than operating a tramp freighter. These include a planet-based community, bounty hunters operating on the Rim, or even working for an Alliance organisation. Overall, the advice is sound and is accompanied by a cast of ready made NPCs that the Game Master can use in her campaign. This includes many from the film, such as Mr. Universe, Reavers, and the dreaded Operative of Parliament. Rounding the section out are full write-ups and details of the crew of the Aces and Eights, described in the chapter on spaceships. These are the most detailed characters in the Serenity Role Playing Game and can be used as NPCs or as an alternative set of pre-generated Player Characters to the cast of the Serenity. The Serenity Role Playing Game is rounded out with as decent a guide to the ’Verse as was available in 2005 and an appendix that presents ‘Gorram Chinese’, the slang of the Rim and its mix of Chinese and English.

Physically, Serenity Role Playing Game is decently presented with lots of stills from the film and decent artwork, as well as very good deck plans for various spaceships. The layout is tidy, but feels slightly heavy. The book is well written, but sometimes the use of ‘Gorram Chinese’ and frontier slang is intrusive. There is a lot of in-game fiction, which is quite extensive and enforces the tone of the roleplaying game and its setting.

Unfortunately, the Serenity Role Playing Game is not without its issues, most of them to do with its organisation. The roleplaying game and the Cortex System are not challenging to understand, but the Serenity Role Playing Game lacks examples of either play or character creation. There is an example of combat, which does double as an example of play, but it is presented in-game fiction, so is not immediately obvious. There is no index. The organisation is weird. The actual rules for the roleplaying game are almost two thirds of the way into the book after those for money, gear, and spaceships. There is no character sheet. What it means is that the Serenity Role Playing Game is not as easy to use as it should be.

Although the Serenity Role Playing Game was a success and won awards, and would be supported by several supplements, that was more due to the licence than the roleplaying game itself. It was a decent sourcebook for the Firefly universe when there was relatively little information about it, but its Cortex System was not popular. In many cases, the Serenity Role Playing Game was purchased for its background rather than its rules and the setting run under different rules. TheCortex System drew comparisons, often unfavourably, with Pinnacle Entertainment Group’s Savage Worlds, which has proven to be more successful. This is despite the fact that over its history, the Cortex System was used for a number of licences based on popular television series, including the Battlestar Galactica Role Playing Game and Supernatural Role Playing Game. However, it would receive critical acclaim with the development of the more narrative focused Cortex Plus System, first seen in the Leverage: The Roleplaying Game and the Smallville Roleplaying Game.

One of great aspects of the Serenity Role Playing Game is how easy it is to pick and play. Mechanically, it is neither too complex nor too simple, and the familiarity of its setting—Firefly only having been broadcast three years before and the much anticipated film fresh in people’s minds, made it accessible. To be blunt, the Cortex System, more serviceable than great, is nothing to write home about (whereas to be fair, Cortex Plus, was), and that means it is neither intrusive nor difficult to learn. An experienced roleplayer will have no problem picking up the Serenity Role Playing Game and learning how to play. However, the inexperienced or new roleplayer—perhaps attracted by the fact that it is based on the Firefly setting—will find learning to play much, much harder than it should have been.

Overall, whilst far from perfect, the Serenity Role Playing Game is a combination of a stolidly functional set of rules with a good adaptation of its source material that is easy to learn and play.

An Intriguing Invitation

This is a beautiful artefact. Inside the stark black and alabaster box is a cornucopia of gaming content and again, all of it is beautiful. This includes a small white silk bag—almost like a wedding favour—containing two six-sided dice that are done in the style of early nineteenth dice. Below that is a hard back book. This is the fifty-four-page ‘Archeterica Invitation Rules’. Linen finish and heavy stock paper with line art. Below that is the first of three scenarios. These are ‘Game Scenario: The Good Mayor’, ‘Game Scenario: The Bastinarys’, and ‘Game Scenario: Shady Deals in Strange Alley Ways’. Each of these is sixteen to twenty-pages long and again printed on heavy paper stock, but with sturdy card covers with a linen finish. There are two envelopes. One contains nine quite lovely handouts, whilst the second contains character sheets for six pre-generated Player Characters and six blank sheets, all of which are on sturdy paper stock. Penultimately, there are thirty-four standees and twenty-four counters, the former depicting the six pre-generated Player Characters and NPCs in the three scenarios. These are laser-cut on wood. Lastly, there is a Combat Status Chart which tracks the position of the Player Characters and the NPCs and their actions in combat. Along with a letter from the publisher, this is everything in Archeterica: The Invitation. Everything is delightfully tactile and again, it is a beautiful artefact.

Archeterica: The Invitation is published The Imago Cult following a successful Kickstarter campaign. The Ukrainian roleplaying game describes itself as the ‘game of genteel conspiracy’. It is set at the Dawn of the New Times. The opening years of the nineteenth century as the world is beset by revolution and occultism. The Industrial Revolution brings changes to the daily lives of workers, bankers, and the increasingly rich industrialists, whilst actual revolution brings about political change as bright young republics burst in existence alongside the older, staid monarchies and colonial powers. All of this takes place on the Disc, for no sailor is yet to brave the edge and beyond to see whether some scholars’ claims that the world is a sphere is true. The Old World lies in the west, its continents of Adriano and Al-Avid being similar to Europe and the Near East, respectively, whilst the New World is in the east, its continents of Salmandia and Graaldo being similar to Africa and the Americas, respectively. This is an alternate world in a Napoleonic Age of its own.

This is no mundane world though. It is full of secrets and conspiracies and the paranormal. Proper society dismisses such subject matters and discussions of them as being the realm of the fool and foolishness, often pointing to the countless charlatans, pseudo-scientists, and straight-up madmen that indulge the gullible or indulge themselves in such matters to no good end. Yet there is hidden truth in the occult and the Unearthly is real. Curses are real, paranormal abilities are real, rituals that take months of study and research that when enacted have the potential to grant enlightenment or change the movement of the heavens are real. Artefacts known as ‘Diablica’, perhaps ritualistic or occult objects or devices employing technologies not yet known, brought home from the New World or constructed by the enlightened (or the mad), continue to fascinate both researchers and collectors, yet their possession is banned by churches and governments alike. The authorities consider such artefacts dangerous sources of spiritual corruption and fear the powers they grant lest they be turned to revolution. Yet interest in the occult and diablica is rife, with amateur occultists forming local societies of their own to research and discuss such matters, their interests often benign, but all too often becoming a danger to themselves and others. Other societies have transcended mere parochialism, growing in power and influence, abutting, competing, and feuding with not just other occult brotherhoods, but also secret political and criminal organisations. Fear and suspicion of these secret cabals is fuelled by the sensationalism of the yellow press which sees and blames conspiracies everywhere.

The elevator pitch for Archeterica: The Invitation is The X-Files in the Napoleonic era. It is not though a roleplaying game about alien invasion or the fear of alien invasion, but rather a roleplaying game of Napoleonic conspiracy and the occult. Inspired by the television series Sharpe and Taboo, the film The Prestige, the Assassin’s Creed series of computer games, Archeterica: The Invitation casts the Player Characters as seekers of enlightenment, occult researchers, conspiracy theorists, and so on, who investigate both signs of the occult and conspiracy and work to prevent either from having too strong an influence on society.

A Player Character is defined by a concept, Narrative Attributes and their associated Talents, Burdens, combat skills, and inventory. The concept is who he is, whilst each Narrative Attribute represents an area of expertise or knowledge, profession, background, or previous experience. For example, a student radical might be represented by the ‘Student’ and ‘Firebrand’ Narrative Attributes, muckraking yellow journalist by the ‘Agent’ and ‘Journalist’ Narrative Attributes, and dilettante occultist by the ‘Aristocrat’ and ‘Occultist’ Narrative Attributes. Talents are the skills associated with a Narrative Attribute. Burdens are his personal flaws and weaknesses and are rated I, II, or III depending on how much of a hindrance they represent. Archeterica: The Invitation gives four options for combat skills—‘Fine Choice’, ‘Resourceful Ranger’, ‘Artful Daredevil’, and ‘Peaceable Socialite’.

Ottilie van Tulleken
Concept: Campaigning Journalist

GENTLE FOLK
Мanners II, Etiquette I, Social Connections I

JOURNALIST
Journalistic Reputation I, Subtle Bribery I, Reporting II

DETECTIVE
Information Gathering I, Sharp Eye I

BURDENS
Feminist II, Adventurism I, Vanity I

COMBAT SKILLS – PEACEABLE SOCIALITE
Classic Fencing II, Shooting I, New Beginnings 2, Instinct 3

INVENTORY
Pocket Pistol, Dagger, Umbrella, Small Set of Tools (lockpicking kit) Aristocratic Wardrobe, 1 mark in savings

Archeterica: The Invitation does detail several Narrative Attributes and their Talents as well as sample Burdens. A player is free to pick these or create his own and they do give a surprisingly wide choice. The creation process is not fully explained however, and it is only clear from the example that ranks are applied to the Talents. It does include some tables for character ideas, suggesting a character’s home country, social class, and former secret society. The entries for the table of home countries do draw parallels between the nations of the Disc and those of our Napoleonic era. Alternatively, the players can instead use the pre-generated Player Characters included in Archeterica: The Invitation. They include a ‘Gentleman Incognito’ with the Narrative Attributes of ‘Gentleman’ and ‘Malefactor’; a ‘Barricades Queen’ with the Narrative Attributes of ‘Revolutionary’ and ‘Commissar’; a military ‘Pioneer’ with the Narrative Attributes of ‘Sapper’ and ‘Expeditioner’; a ‘Foreigner’ with the Narrative Attributes of ‘Secret Broker’ and ‘Mystic’; a ‘Modern Day Hero’ with the Narrative Attributes of ‘Doctor’ and ‘Businessman’; and a ‘New Times Child’ with the Narrative Attributes of ‘Courier’ and ‘Opportunist’.

Mechanically, whenever a player wants his character to undertake an action in Archeterica: The Invitation, he rolls two six-sided dice, attempting to beat a Narrative Test Difficulty Level, which ranges from three and ‘Trivial’ to twelve and ‘Desperate’ with eight and ‘Challenging’ being the median. A player can lower the Difficulty Level by using his Talents, but the Game Master can increase it depending upon the character’s Burdens. Talents at Rank II or Rank III also enable a player to ‘Flip’ a roll, that is, to Flip it up or down, by turning the dice over to reveal and apply their reverse faces. In general, a player will want to perform an Upward Flip to have his character succeed at a task, but certain situations might mandate a Downward Flip. A player may only perform an Upward Flip once every twelve hours and it always incurs a complication of the Game Master’s choice. This might be to suffer Stress, which if ever reaches twelve means that the Player Character breaks down under the mental trauma, but it could also be a time delay, a loss of reputation, and so on.

In comparison to the core mechanic, combat in Archeterica: The Invitation is more complex. Actions require the expenditure of Action Points, whether that is step from one hex to another, run, aim, shoot, reload, cock a weapon, and so on. However, the number of Action Points a combatant has each round is rolled randomly. An attack requires a Mastery Test determined by comparing the attacker’s Mastery against the target’s Difficulty and rolling equal to or higher than the given target value. Although there are plenty of firearms listed, fencing is the preferred form of combat. It allows a combatant to attack as well as react to an attack against him. Such a reaction also costs Action Points, so it is wise to save some for that very purpose. Five styles are given, including ‘Classic’, ‘Savage’, ‘Court’, ‘Knightly’, and ‘Trickster’, and each comes with its form of attacks, reactions, and stances, all with their own Action Point costs.

Success indicates a successful strike and damage is rolled on two six-sided dice—for all weapons and attacks, though it can be modified depending on the weapon or type of attack. Some armour is available, which blocks damage, but all Player Characters have twelve Endurance Points whilst NPCs have ten. When a combatant’s Endurance is reduced to zero, it indicates that he has suffered an extra effect, the severity depending upon the amount of damage inflicted with the blow that reduced his Endurance to zero. This might be an insignificant scratch, being knocked out, receiving a scar, a severe wound, or death. Once every twelve hours, a player can Flip Down the damage his character receives in a single blow to reduce it. Each combatant’s number of Action Points and Endurance Points can be tracked on the Combat Status Chart.

Ottilie van Tulleken is conducting an investigation in a rookery when she is set upon by Albert, a thug who does not like her poking her nose into things. Albert has ten Endurance Points as an NPC, plus Savage Fencing II and is armed with a club that does three to seven points of damage (2d6/2+1). In the first round Ottilie has five Action Points and Albert has ten! Albert opts for a Battering Assault as part of his Savage Fencing Style. It costs him seven Action Points and will leave him with three. This enables him to attack twice. Ottlie opts for a Clean Block as a Reaction, using her umbrella. It costs three Action Points and will leave her with two. Not enough to repeat the action though. The Target Difficulty for Albert is seven because Ottilie has Classic Fencing II, which reduces it to five. Similarly, Ottilie’s Target Difficulty is also seven because of Albert’s Savage Fencing II and her Classic Fencing II. The Game Master’s Mastery Test for Albert’s first Battering Assault is ten, meaning his first punch lands, but Ottilie’s player’s is twelve meaning she blocks the first blow with her umbrella. For Albert’s second Battering Assault, the Game Master’s Mastery Test is nine and his second connects. This time Ottilie cannot defend against it and the Game Master rolls for damage. This is on two-sided dice and halved because it is non-lethal. The Game Master rolls ten and Ottilie’s Endurance Points are reduced to seven.

In the next round, Ottilie’s player rolls eight for Action Points, whilst the Game Master rolls four for Albert. With little he can do, Albert backs off, but not before Ottilie thwacks him one with her umbrella. This is a standard test and her player’s Mastery test result is six, meaning that she has succeeded. Unable to defend himself, Albert takes five points of damage from the Thrust. Ottilie still has four Action Points to spend. In turn, she uses two Action Points to draw her pocket pistol, another to aim it, and her last one to cock it. Albert finds himself at the point of her gun and steely gaze when she asks him, “Who sent you to lay your hands on me?”

Throughout, a Player Character can suffer Stress, which is tracked on a twelve-point scale, from ‘Clarity of Mind’ to ‘Onset of Madness’. The Game Master imposes Stress upon the Player Character, anything from a minor misfortune like the death of an acquaintance, worth one or two points, to the five or six points from the loss of a loved one, regarded as a major tragedy. That said, a Player Character resist Narrative Stress by making a Desperate Test, halving the number suffered, and when suffering an Archeshock from encountering the Unearthly, a Player Character can force himself to forget the experience and replace the memories of it with something mundane, or retain it and suffer the Stress. In the long term, taking a holiday or engaging in a hobby can reduce Stress. If however, the Player Character’s Stress exceeds twelve, he does go insane and he gains a point of Deep Stress, which cannot be removed. The nature of the insanity is a matter of discussion between player and Game Master, giving the player control over the effects. Should a Player Character’s Deep Stress also rise to twelve, the madness is permanent and he becomes an NPC. One side effect of Stress is that if the Action Point roll in combat is under a Player Character’s Stress level, he panics rather than acts.

In terms of Player Character development, players are rewarded three types of points. The first is Narrative Points which are used to buy and improve Talents. The second are Combat Points, used to improve Combat Techniques. The third are Burden Points which can be exchanged for Narrative Points, Combat Points, or used to reduce a Player Character’s Stress. The neat aspect is that the higher the Ranks of the Burden and the more of a hindrance, the better this exchange rate is. Although more complex than simple Experience Points, this encourages players to roleplay all aspects of their character as they will be rewarded for doing so.

Mysticism is the study of occult secrets and otherworldly knowledge, found in the whispers spread in the most select salons, in spirits that haunt the edge of vision, and tomes of esoteric knowledge that appear to be nothing more than the ravings of the deluded. However, the line between delusion and the actuality of the Unearthly is uncertain, giving scope for the charlatans, the believers, mystics and occultists, and the unfortunate who have been driven mad by their experiences. Archeterica is the pseudo-scientific study of Occultism and all that relates to the Imagosphere, the otherworldly plane of ideas and images, the Hexen Cauldron where the boundary with the Imagosphere is at its weakest and where most Diablica are found, and the Vladyfus, the ethereal rulers of Otherworld who have attained True Enlightenment and who most occultists want to emulate. All beings and some artefacts have an Imago, their esoteric essence and reflection of their soul. This is manifested in mystics, otherworldly entities, and artefacts as their mystical powers and represented by Imago Strings, ranging from between one and twelve. The greater the number of Imago Strings, the greater an Imago’s power.

For the Player Character, it is possible to increase the number of Imago Strings he has. To do so, he has to acquire Focus Points, whether through spiritual practices, studying occult literature, suffering shock enlightenment, or experiencing events of historical significance that further herald the Dawning of the New Times. He can also purchase Mystical Abilities such as Intuition, Manipulation, Fortune’s Favourite, and Anomaly Compass. Only six such Mystical Abilities are detailed and they are relatively low key in their application. As with the capacity to either ‘Flip Up’ or Flip Down’, they can only be used once every twelve hours. Conversely, a Player Character or NPC can gain a Metamorphosis, the mystical manifestation of a sin that they have committed, such as hearing ‘Wicked Voices’ or suffer ‘Sinner’s Shame’. There are ways of Absolving yourself of a Metamorphosis and its sin, but this would be a demanding task.

Rounding out the ‘Archeterica Invitation Rules’ are details of several of the Shadow Clubs, Shadow Leagues, and Shadow Empires lurking across The Disc. These are its secret societies, from local clubs to grand conspiracies, such as ‘The Evercourt’, the society of aristocrats and kings and queens, many of whom who have been forced into exile following revolutions; ‘The Blackwater Marauders’, Strangers from the other side of The Disc who have inveigling their way into societies across this face of The Disc; and the travelling warlock communities known as ‘The Wandering Cities’. Each description includes details of known agents, known vassals, and associated conspiracy theories.

‘Archeterica Invitation Rules’ is surprisingly comprehensive, but far from complete. The secret societies details are large rather than small and there is no advice for the Game Master or any discussion or presentation of any threats. So, no monsters or NPCs. The description of the occult is understandably brief, but one of the pre-generated Player Characters does have Mystical Abilities that will show off that aspect of the setting in play. However, what Archeterica: The Invitation does have is three scenarios. Each of the three comes with a good introduction, some character hooks that can be used to get the Player Characters involved, a breakdown of the plot, the dessert, and handouts. Some also include some lore as well, but the ‘dessert’ actually gives the supplementary information for the Game Master, including the stats for any NPCs or Imago.

The first of these, ‘Game Scenario: The Good Mayor’ is designed as an introductory scenario that can be played through in a single session. The Player Characters are employed by the Senate Special Services in the small town of Tsaplyny in the Brasian Republic to stifle any news of the death of the town’s mayor. It quickly escalates into a search for the body and a race to get a new one! The second, ‘Game Scenario: The Bastinarys’, switches the action to the end of the eighteenth century during the revolution in the Spohledian Protectorate that led to the founding of the Brasian Republic. It takes place in the capital of Bramastadt where the Revolution Commissary appoints the Player Characters to take control of the Bastinarys, the city’s royal fortress prison. They have to decide which faction they need to align with and free the prisoners previously incarcerated by the monarchy. Unfortunately, one of the inmates is much more than they expect and ultimately, they need to avoid ending up being executed by the Revolution Commissary. The third scenario is the most sophisticated of the three. ‘Game Scenario: Shady Deals in Strange Alley Ways’ begins with the Player Characters in possession of a mystical tome as they attempt to find a seller in Bramastadt without attracting the attention of the authority. Each of the scenarios in their own way deal with the occult elements of the setting, but not the conspiratorial elements. That will have to wait for a fuller longer scenario or game.

Physically, Archeterica: The Invitation is—as already mentioned—lovely. The quality is amazing and the artwork is superb. The writing is not always as clear as it should be, but the examples of play help illustrate the rules and make it easier for the Game Master to grasp them. Of course, it is so lovely that really, as the Game Master, you do not want your players getting their grubby little mitts on it.

As a starter set, what Archeterica: The Invitation is missing is perhaps ready reference material for both the Game Master and her players. Some tables and explanations of what various aspects of each Player Character are and how they work would have been useful. The setting itself probably does not receive as much attention or explanation as it should, and in places the rules really rely upon the examples to impart full understanding of them. It also leaves the reader wanting to know more about the Occult and the things that threaten the real world.

Of course, what grabs the reader first about Archeterica: The Invitation is its stark physicality. This is a gorgeous boxed set whose contents are genuinely delightful. Yet this is not just a pretty box with pretty contents. Inside the very well appointed quick-start not only makes a ‘I want to play now’ elevator pitch of a Napoleonic-era meets The X-Files world of the occult and conspiracies, but whilst not quite perfect in its execution, delivers on that promise. Archeterica: The Invitation is absolutely worth accepting and it would be impolite not to try this, the introduction to the first Ukrainian roleplaying game to reach the English-speaking hobby.

So Whose Dare is This, Anyway?

There is a very early meme called ‘Realmen, Real Role Players, Loonies, and Munchkins’. In this meme, players are classified into the four categories and the types of roleplaying games they would play, their favourite elements of those roleplaying games, and how they would play them. It originally dates back to 1983 and so its references are all from the eighties. For example, for ‘Favourite 1920s RPG’, the responses are, ‘*Real Men* play Gangbusters’, ‘*Real Roleplayers* play Call of Cthulhu’, ‘*Loonies* play a variant Spawn of Fashan’, and ‘*Munchkins* play anything by TSR’, whilst for ‘Favourite Dungeon Activity’, the responses are ‘*Real Men* fight Dragons as old as the world itself’, ‘*Real Roleplayers* bluff the Ogres’, ‘*Loonies* tell dirty jokes to Green Slime’, and ‘*Munchkins* do whatever gives the most experience/rip each other off’. Dumb Dares & Silly Side Quests: The In Character Game for your RPG Party very much plays into that type of humour—the *Real Men* will be up for the challenge, but will probably fail to get the humour, the *Real Roleplayers* will embrace the challenge because their character is a good sport, the *Loonies* will do it just because, and the *Munchkins* will do it for the Experience points.

Dumb Dares & Silly Side Quests: The In Character Game for your RPG Party is published by Loke BattleMats. Although it has form this kind of humour, having previously published The Deck of Many Insults, the publisher is better known for its volumes of maps such as Big Book of Battle Mats: Rooms, Vaults, & Chambers and Castles, Crypts, & Caverns Books of Battle Mats. Now Dumb Dares & Silly Side Quests, as with The Deck of Many Insults, does sport a content warning in its cover and it does state it suitable for players fourteen years old and older, due to its mature content. It also states that that it is ‘5E Compatible’. To be honest, the degree of mechanical compatibility, let alone rules, is actually very low, and the cards in this box will honestly work as well with any Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying game and any retroclone, not just Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition.

The idea behind Dumb Dares & Silly Side Quests is simple. Each player and each NPC—important NPC—races to complete three dares and do so in-character. Completing a Dare earns the player or NPC a reward. In terms of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, this can be Inspiration, Advantage on a roll, Experient Points, the benefits of a Short Rest, or some loot. These are suggestions only, and in terms of rules compatibility, that is about as far as Dumb Dares & Silly Side Quests goes in being ‘5E Compatible’. And even then, these suggestions work as inspiration for the Game Master of another roleplaying game.

The rules to Dumb Dares & Silly Side Quests are just as simple. Explained on two of the game’s one-hundred card deck, at the start of the session or adventure, the players and the important NPCs receive three cards. The player or NPC who completes the most not only receives the individual rewards for completing dare cards in-game, but wins the game of Dumb Dares & Silly Side Quests too. The rules themselves are very simple and to be fair, it is what is on the Dare cards that matters.

Each Dare card is split into two parts. The top tells the player what the dare is, whilst the bottom half suggests ways in which the player might complete the dare. The player is free to follow the given suggestions or have his character complete the dare however he wants. The Dares include, “Get to know your companions in the worst possible way.” with the suggestion of, “So, whose parents are the most disappointed in them and why?; “Refer to a companion as they are not present/deceased.” with the suggestion, “It’s what Dan would have wanted”; “Translate what the pigeon are saying (it is all swears, taunts and insults).” with the suggestion, “That pigeon really hates your mother…”; “Keep a score card, ranking your companions.” with the suggestion, “That’s minus two points for not spotting that trap Dan, making you the new worst party member.”; and “Use only taste and smell to search for clues or answers.” with the suggestion, “Traps, locks, hidden keys? Lick your way to answers…” Most of these are entirely player-driven, but in some cases, like the last Dare involving searching for clues using only the senses of taste and smell, they can involve the Game Master too, as she has to tell the player what it is exactly that his character is smelling or tasting.

Physically, Dumb Dares & Silly Side Quests is simply presented. The rules are easy to grasp and the content of the cards is easy to understand.

Dumb Dares & Silly Side Quests: The In Character Game for your RPG Party is silly. So silly that it will disrupt a normal game, unless that game already includes the type and amount of ridiculous humour that Dumb Dares & Silly Side Quests is all about. So best then, to use Dumb Dares & Silly Side Quests as an occasional treat or special event. Perhaps for April’s Fools Day, a dream sequence, or when the Player Characters are all caught up in the effect of a prankster’s magic? Dumb Dares & Silly Side Quests: The In Character Game for your RPG Party will definitely encourage some fun, silly roleplaying, but is best used in moderation or ideally, under special circumstances, to avoid spoiling that fun.

Gnashers & Nazis

Punching Nazis. Shooting Nazis. Blowing up Nazis. Setting Nazis on Fire. Scare Nazis. Bite Nazis. Then feed on their blood. It is 1943 and as Hitler brings about his dire plan to create Werewolf soldiers, the British government decides to strike. Not with its brightest and its best, but its darkest and its worst. Under the command of F.A.N.G., a single RAF bomber will drop six crack commandos onto Paris in their drop-coffins. Each drop coffin contains a vampire. Their mission? Cut a bloody swathe across the City of Light, kill Nazis and feed on their blood. Once enriched, they are to storm the Eifel Tower and climb to its top where Hitler has his personal Zeppelin moored. Once aboard, they are to kill Hitler, drink his blood, and stop his Nazi werewolf programme. This is Inglorious Basterds meets The Suicide Squad in a sanguinary splatterfest in an alternate World War 2 and the setting for Eat the Reich. This is a pulp-action horror one-shot storytelling roleplaying game or a scenario with some roleplaying rules attached, published Rowan, Rook, and Decard, best known for Spire: The City Must Fall and Heart: The City Beneath. Intended as a fun and cathartic punch-up of a game of evil action delivered on an even greater evil, Eat the Reich does not so much wear its heart on its sleeve as bare its fangs and tell you to hold still whilst it bites you.

To be fair, the elevator pitch for Eat the Reich, as hard as it punches, it is not the first thing that grabs the reader. What grabs the reader is the crazed eyes staring out of the cut-out in the front cover. After that, it is the colours used—vibrant swathes of neon pink, yellow, and blue that continue right through the length of Eat the Reich. This is technicolour in all of its comic book exuberance and brio, that in case of the front cover hides a frightened looking monster. And it is monsters that Eat the Reich makes a case for playing, noting that it is monsters preying on monsters that even more monstrous. It includes the by now traditional advice on safety at the table, covering the X-Card and Lines and Veils, but goes beyond that to ask the Game Master and her players what is acceptable in their game. Anti-hero vampires invading occupied France, feeding on blood for the power it gives, killing and feeding fascist, are all fine. Murdering innocent civilians and acts of fascism are definitely reserved for the villains of the piece. Although there are boundaries that it definitely sets—primarily sexual violence and violence against children—Eat the Reich examines others to help guide a playing group what it is and is not acceptable at its table taking into account religious sensibilities as well. It backs this up with an ‘Evil Calibration Checklist’ that a group can work through before play.

Unfortunately, the response of some to this advice—which goes further than most roleplaying game—is to see it as unnecessary moralising, especially in a roleplaying game that only runs to seventy or so pages. Perhaps in a longer roleplaying game it might not have been so prominent. On the other hand, it is not bad advice and in the context of the game, it is really only going to ask everyone to think about their limits and their expectations. And ultimately, like any advice, the Game Master and her players are free to accept it or reject it as is their wont.

Although there is advice on creating Player Characters or rather adapting the pre-generated ones, Eat the Reich really is about playing its six pre-generated Vampire Commandos. They consist of Iryna, a noble woman who is a crack shot and wields a mesmerising dark glamour; Niclole, resistance fighter and saboteur who likes blowing things up; Cosgrave, Cockney spiv and necromancer on the run from East London’s undead mafia; Chuck, a fan of cowboy films pulled out of prison to go on the mission; Astrid, ex-fighter pilot with a parasitical soul wrapped round her heart who can command spirits and hunts with a greatspear; and Flint, a half-human, half-bat who can fly and rarely speaks.

Each Vampire has seven stats—Brawl, Con, Fix, Search, Shoot, Sneak, and Terrify—rated between one and four. He will also have some equipment each marked with a number of use boxes; four Abilities, some of which require the expenditure of Blood, some of which require a player to roll and assign a Special to it; Advances when he learns from the campaign against the Nazis; and Injury boxes. For example, Iryna has an ‘Exquisite Hunting Rifle’ which grants an extra die when she is elevated; a ‘Magic Cavalry Sabre’ which grants a bonus when she charges with it; ‘Explosive Runes’ that wok better if concealed; and ‘Cigarettes taken from the pockets of a hanged man’ to smoke and regain two Blood. Her Abilities include ‘Dark Glamour’ to mesmerise those nearby with her unearthly appearance; summoning a swarm of bats under her control with ‘Night’s Willing Servants’; and reducing a Threat’s Attack rating by one with ‘Deadeye Shot’. Her Advances include ‘Hell’s Ravenous Fire’, ‘Enervation of the Soul’, and ‘Mantle of the Fell Beast’, whilst her Injuries are randomly determined, which might be ‘Suit Torn’ or ‘Abdominal Puncture’, ‘Shoulder Injury’ or ‘Arm Removed’, and so on. Each Vampire’s character sheet is easy to read and comes with a great illustration.

Mechanically, Eat the Reich uses the HAVOC Engine. To have his Vampire undertake an action, a player rolls a number of six-sided dice equal to an appropriate stat plus any bonus dice from an item of equipment used or an Ability. The Game Master rolls a number of dice equal to the current Threat or Attack rating. Results of four and five count as a Success each, whilst a six counts as a Critical. There are multiple ways in which a player can now spend his Vampire’s Successes and Criticals. If the situation has an Objective, they can be spent to advance it; to counter a Threat and reduce it; to active a Special; to feed on a Nazi; and to defend against an attack. When defending, a Success counters a Success rolled by the Game Master, whilst a Critical counters a Critical. A Critical can also be used as a Special to activate various Abilities. Any Success or Criticals not defended against like this means that the Vampire suffers an Injury, and if he suffers too many Injuries and dies, he can at least go out in a ‘Blaze of Glory’ with one last roll of a bigger dice pool. Blood can also be spent to heal a Vampire. Lastly, feeding on Nazi blood fills up a Vampire’s Blood which he can subsequently spend to active various Abilities.

In addition to rolling the dice and assigning the dice, what a player is expected to do with each Success or Critical is narrate the outcome and describe the actions of his vampire. Once per session, if a player rolls two Successes or fewer, he can instead narrate a flashback scene of a prior mission which somehow helps this one and reroll all of the dice again.

There is a definite loop to the play of Eat the Reich. A Vampire needs Blood and thus needs to feed on Nazis, in order to have Blood to activate Abilities or heal himself. So, he needs to keep a flow of Blood going from scene to scene, action to action, but this has to be balanced against the needs of an induvial scene, whether that is reducing a Threat and thus its capacity to Attack the Vampires or work towards an Objective. Plus, he also has to counter the Attack rolls made by the Threats to prevent himself from being Injured. However, when a Vampire lands in his Drop Coffin, he has no Blood, as it has been used to heal him from the drop, which means that his player has to make Successful rolls in order to get Blood to get the play loop running. It does make for a slow start to the action.

The play of Eat the Reich is one big mission. Essentially, rampaging across Paris until the Vampires get to the Eifel Tower and ascending to the final confrontation against Hitler. After the briefing and the coffin drop, this takes place across three sectors of Paris. This is a comic book version of Paris rather than an historical recreation, but then having already thrown the Vampires into the mix, it not being historically accurate is hardly going to break immersion. Working their way across three sectors, the Vampires will start off in somewhere like the Place de la Sirène where there are families and bistros and the only threat they will face are police patrols, their Objective being to get out of the open and into cover. In Sector 2, they might have to get through ‘The German Technology Pavilion’ and get out the other side. They will face Stahlsoldat, half-men, half-machine warriors, but will also have the opportunity to find loot such as a ‘Prototype Beam Emitter’ and achieve secondary Objectives such as powering up a weapons platform. As the Vampires move from sector to sector, the locations become more interesting and complex, including a chance for the Vampires to team up with the Resistance at the ‘Le Cochon Noir’ and battle magically-animated suits of armour and use medieval weaponry in the ‘Museum of European Warfare’! Eventually, the Vampires will make it to the Eifel Tower and hopefully defeat his minions and kill Hitler.

Physically, Eat the Reich is a riot of colour. This is used in such a way that it does not impede the legibility of the text, which is clear and well written.

Eat the Reich is a one-shot. Two or three session’s worth of play and the playthrough is done. Whilst there are suggestions for sequels, including going up against Churchill—for unfortunate historical reasons—and perhaps they might want to play it again, but switching vampires, a group is unlikely to play through it again. Of course, the Game Master could run it for another group. It is simple to play and as a storytelling game gives plenty of room for every player to narrate how vicious and nasty and frightening his vampire is, in a very violent comic book caper. Nevertheless, however a group decides to play, whatever boundaries they set for themselves, Eat the Reich is a blast to play, a blaze of blood and brutalising Nazis, of monsters masticating on monsters, and ripping the heart out of the Reich.

Friday Fantasy: The Alchemist’s Fire

The alchemist, Kelvin Belmont, is distraught and distracted, and in need of help. He has received a letter from his brother, Solomon, begging for his help in dealing with a dangerous threat which seems to be hounding him. This is strange, for the brothers had a falling out and neither has spoken to the other in almost a decade. The question is, what is the nature of the threat such that one pair of estranged siblings would seek out the aid of the other? Fortunately, Kelvin does want to help his brother, but he is old and weary, ill-suited to such tasks. So, he decides to hire some doughty adventurers to check on his brother and to deliver the package that he requested. This is the core hook—though several other hooks are included to get the Player Characters to meet Kelvin—for the scenario, The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure. This is a scenario for Dragonbane: Mirth & Mayhem Roleplaying, the roleplaying game published by Free League Publishing.

The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure is published by Gallow’s Tomes as part of Free League Publishing’s Free League Workshop community content programme. The setting is the Bailwick of Fenwick and the three hamlets—Amber, Burgundy, and Lapis—which stand on the shores of Loch Maeglen. This can be used as or adapted to fit the Game Master’s own setting, or it can be slotted into the Misty Vale setting as detailed in the Dragonbane Core Set. To that end, it is suggested that they be placed around the unnamed lake in the Misty Vale just south of the Temple of the Purple Flame and the Magna Woods. Alternatively, they can be placed on the other side of the Drakmar Pass from where the ‘Secret of the Dargon Emperor’ campaign begins. Each of the three hamlets is associated with and named for a statue of a woman, collectively known as The Sisters. In the case of Lapis, the starting point for The Alchemist's Fire, the statue is of lapis. The hamlet is described in broad detail, noting its most important business and their colourful proprietors and patrons, including the inn with a Dwarven innkeeper with an ear for ‘Dad jokes’, a grumpy Mallard sailor wanting to return to the sea, an overly curious Halfling cartographer, and a baker with a line in hot buttered muffins. Besides talking to the inhabitants, which may earn the Player Characters some rumours, divided between those pertinent to the scenario and those left for the Game Master to develop or ignore as is her wont, can of course, do a bit of shopping.

Eventually, the Player Characters will make their way to Ravenhook Tower, the home of Kelvin Belmont. Once they get past his cagey manner, he will employ them to deliver a cart, which he will provide, full of flasks of a blue liquid that ignites upon impact when thrown—Fire Flasks. The alchemist’s brother has asked him to deliver to his tower, Coralholm, which lies to the east. The journey is not without its dangers as the Blue Root Mountains are full of Worgs and Goblins—and worse. Plus, the Player Characters are essentially driving a bomb on wheels, and if anything goes wrong, there is the chance of a massive explosion. In fact, a really, really big explosion which is going to leave them at a disadvantage later in the scenario.

However, by the time the Player Characters reach Solomon Belmont’s tower of Coralholm, it is too late. Someone has already broken in and when the Player Characters find him, they also find an army of frogs harassing him. This is after a nasty encounter with a Giant Slime that can shoot ooze-coated skulls out of its gelatinous depths and make weapons protrude from its body. Of course, this fight can be eased with the application of a Fire Flask or two. Once the fight is over, Solomon is pleased to see the Player Characters—in complete contrast to his brother—but he fears that the frog men will be back and asks the Player Characters to mount what is effectively, a ‘tower defence’. The players and their characters have time to set up defences and they are encouraged to lay traps and build defensive points as well as prepare the ballista on the roof. The fight comes with its own maps and feels like a cross between the Battle of Helm’s Deep and the destruction of Isengard in The Two Towers of The Lord of the Rings, but with the Player Characters and Solomon Belmont as the defenders in both cases. Of course, this is on a very much smaller scale in either case. It does include a ‘Squad Dice’ mechanic for handling when more squads of Frog Men appear on the battlefield.

The scenario does end with some unanswered questions. This includes the cause of the estrangement between the brothers and the identity and aims of an antagonist—hopefully to be detailed in another scenario. That said, if the Player Characters never find out, it is no great loss. Rounding out The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure is another table of encounters should the Player Characters venture into the woods near the hamlet of Lapis and some full page pieces of artwork. These are actually quite good, especially that of the Briar Mawr, the malign walking tree carrying a platform of Frog Men in its branches (which the Player Characters can attempt to topple).

Two points arise from the setting. One is that the author cannot decide whether the setting for The Alchemist’s Fire—Lapis—is a hamlet or a town. The other is the name, ‘Bailwick of Fenwick’. Putting aside the rhyming, it does sound very much like the Duchy of Grand Fenwick from the Peter Sellers’ film, The Mouse That Roared.

Physically, The Alchemist’s Fire is well laid out in the style of Dragonbane. It does feel heavier in its use of colour and art style, even a little cartoonish. That said, the artwork works, whilst the maps are decent.

If the plot to The Alchemist’s Fire is straightforward, its details are colourful and detailed, and all together, the whole affair is easy to run and easy to slot into a campaign. Offering a good mix of roleplaying with some surprisingly nasty and challenging encounters, The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure is an impressively sturdy little adventure that should play through in two or so sessions.

Miskatonic Monday #402: The Grotesque by Gaslight

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

—oOo—

Name: The Grotesque by Gaslight

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Ryan Graham Theobalds

Setting: Kew Gardens, 1893

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Thirty-Three page, 16.98 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: The consequences of colonial botany

Plot Hook: Something nasty in the greenhouse

Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, two NPCs, one handout, one map, one Mythos tome, one Mythos spell, and two Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Hunting-monster, monster-hunting murder mystery at Kew Gardens

# More set-up then anything else

# Easy to add to a campaign or run as a one-shot
# Decent pre-generated Investigators

# Botanophobia

# Dendrophobia

# Hyloptophobia

Cons

# Needs an edit

# No NPC stats

# Suggested shift to the Jazz Age not explored
# References Green and Pleasant Land (not needed to run the scenario)

# May require H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands
# Rougher than the author’s other scenarios

Conclusion

# Explores the consequences of colonial botany

# Serviceable set-up and outline that the Keeper will need to develop further

Miskatonic Monday #401: Attack of the Brain Bats!

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: Attack of the Brain Bats!

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Tod Miller

Setting: Vermont, 1920s

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Thirty-Three page, 16.98 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: For the Investigators it is going to be a ‘Picnic in Hell’!

Plot Hook: “Like a bat out of hell

Oh, like a bat out of hell

Oh, like a bat out of hell

Oh, like a bat out of hell (I’ll be gone when the morning comes)

Like a bat out of hell (I’ll be gone when the morning comes)

Like a bat out of hell (ooh, ooh)”

—Bat Out of Hell, Jim Steinman

Plot Support: Staging advice, six pre-generated Investigators, two NPCs, two handouts, one map, one Mythos tome, one Mythos spell, and four Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Good

Pros

# Open-ended invasion from space scenario

# Easy to adapt to other nations and time periods

# Has a fifties in the twenties feel
# Easy to prepare, but player-led with no set outcome

# Hylophobia

# Kinemortophobia

# Chiroptophobia

Cons

# Batty
# Has a fifties in the twenties feel

Conclusion

# Entertainingly batty tale of invasion and zombification

# “We’re going a space-bat hunt!”

# Reviews from R’lyeh Recommends