Companion Chronicles #11: Heirs & Spares

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.

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What is the Nature of the Quest?

Heirs & Spares is a supplement for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition.

It is a full colour, Seventy-six page, 97.90 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy and it is nicely illustrated.

Where is the Quest Set?

Heirs & Spares is suitable to run with any campaign for Pendragon, Sixth Edition, but has content specific to the Pendragon Starter Set.

Who should go on this Quest?

Heirs & Spares is suitable for knights of all types, works exceedingly well with the Knights provided as pre-generated Player-knights in the Pendragon Starter Set.

What does the Quest require?

Heirs & Spares requires the Pendragon, Sixth Edition rules or use it at its fullest the Pendragon Starter Set. In addition, Squires Rampant may also be useful.

Where will the Quest take the Knights?

One of the key aspects of Pendragon is the lethality of its combat combined with dynastic play. Players are expected to not just roleplay their characters, but the sons and daughters of those characters, and in turn, the grandsons and granddaughters of those characters, and so on, over the course of several decades. As knights and thus members of the nobility, it is important that the Player-knights not only have designated heirs, but also spares. The heir is the one who will inherit a Player-knight’s mantle and position as well as his wealth and his duties, should something catastrophic happen to the Player-knight. The spare—a slightly dismissive term suggesting a certain uselessness—is there should something terrible happen to the heir. Thus, it is both vitally important that a Player-knight should have an heir and a spare to continue the family line and honour and full of potential in terms of storytelling.

Heirs & Spares is a supplement which explores these roles in Pendragon, Sixth Edition, but goes further than this by examining in greater depth their role and place in the lives of the Player-knights given as pre-generated Player Characters in the Pendragon Starter Set. In addition, it gives advice on how to integrate these heirs and spares to the Player-knights into the campaign—which will lead from the Pendragon Starter Set and into The Grey Knight and beyond—and provides plot hooks and story seeds for all eight pre-generated Player-knights and their heirs and spares. There is a wealth information and detail in this supplement that will add depth to the lives of the Player-knights and the beginnings of the official Great Pendragon Campaign as whole. However, although the content is very much tied to the pre-generated Player-knights, it is important to stress that none of it is official and that it definitely falls under the purview of ‘Your Pendragon Will Vary’.

Heirs & Spares opens with a discussion of the nature of both roles and where they can be drawn from in game terms. From the backgrounds of pre-generated Player-knights and families of Player-knights, with glance at simply replacing the deceased with someone unconnected and wholly new. It also looks at the degree of Player-knight creation, either taking a pre-generated Player-knight—as is presented for the Player-knights from the Pendragon Starter Set in Heirs & Spares, simply cloning an existing Player-knight (even one of the Player-knight who has just died), or full character generation. It notes the limited scope for this using just the Pendragon Starter Set and the Game master will need the Pendragon Core Rulebook.

The largest section in Heirs & Spares is devoted to the eight Player-knights from the Pendragon Starter Set, providing an overview of why each is interesting to play before detailing their heirs and spares. It is followed by a timeline of their family history. All expand their backgrounds in interesting ways. For example, Dame Lynelle and her squire, Booth, share a history, but are not related, and so technically, she has no family heir. Further, it is suggested that Lynelle’s younger brother and actual heir, might still be alive. Were he to be found, then he would become her heir and Booth, her spare. The heir to Asterius, the Byzantine knight, is his cousin, Callinicus, described as “the Slippery Exile”, more courtier than knight who fled Byzantium after his father was arrested by the emperor for corruption. Dame Cwenhild’s family is expanded with the addition of a half-brother, Oswain, but more Cymric than Saxon like Cwenhild, whilst their cousin, Eahild, whom Cwenhild regards as a younger sister, follows in her footsteps in wielding a heavy axe and a vengeful nature. All eight Player-knights are explored and expanded in this fashion.

The Player-knights and their heirs and spares are supported with advice for the Game Master on how to use them, primarily as NPCs, as well as suggesting alternative their respective Luck Benefits. Each Player-knight is given two pages of plot hooks and story seeds, the most obvious being to explore whether or not Dame Lynelle reveals her lack of status as a knight and potentially, her attempt to reclaim her family seat. To that end, her estate is detailed. Dame Cwenhild’s story hooks examine the politics and bureaucracy of Londinium, Dame Tamura her connection with the Ladies of the Lake, and so on. Of course, these will need development, but all are worth looking at, if only for their ideas. Lastly, Heirs & Spares details three NPCs that can be added to a campaign. Morcades of the White Tower is the daughter of the Constable of the White Tower in Londinium, renowned as a nunnery-raised, literate tomboy healer with an independent streak a mile wide, who could become firm friends with a female Player-knight, appear as part of Londinium-based adventures, and be the subject of courtship attempts by other Player-knights despite her father’s protestations! Her father is also detailed. The other two consist of Griflet de Carduel, actually a squire in the Pendragon Starter Set, and his sister, Lore de Carduel, both of whom are secondary characters in the Arthurian canon. Their detail enables the Game Master to bring them into play and so further the Player-knights’ involvement in telling the chronicles of King Arthur’s legend.

Should the Knights ride out on this Quest?

The usefulness of Heirs & Spares depends very much upon if the Game Master is running the campaign in the Pendragon Starter Set with the included pre-generated Player-knights or not. If not, Heirs & Spares will be of limited use and application, perhaps best serving as a ready source of NPCs and replacement Player-knights, plus associated story hooks and plots.

However, if the Game Master is running the campaign in the Pendragon Starter Set with the included pre-generated Player-knights, then Heirs & Spares is very, very useful. It expands greatly upon the backgrounds of the eight Player-knights, giving them heirs and spares when it even seemed unlikely that they would have any, and in the process, adding a wealth of story possibilities that can be told alongside the events of the great chronicle that makes up Pendragon. The fact that Heirs & Spares falls under ‘Your Pendragon Will Vary’ is actually disappointing. The content in the pages of Heirs & Spares is not only useful in terms of what it will add to a Game Master’s Pendragon campaign, but also so well developed and thought out that it will enrich the lives of the Player-knights and the campaign as a whole. Heirs & Spares may not be official, but it is very good and it is the companion to the Pendragon Starter Set—and beyond—that Pendragon, Sixth Edition did not know it needed.

Miskatonic Monday #349: Omega Kappa DIE!!!

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

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Name: Omega Kappa DIE!!! – A Highly Inebriated, Modern(ish) Horror-Comedy Scenario For Call of Cthulhu

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author Colin Richards

Setting: USA, 1930 and 1999

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Seven page, 877.91 KB PDF

Elevator Pitch: Animal House meets Call of Cthulhu

Plot Hook: “’Cause they say

2000, zero-zero, party over, oops, out of time

So tonight, I’m gonna party like it’s 1999”

– 1999, Prince

Plot Support: Staging advice, ten pre-generated Investigators, eight handouts, one set of floorplans, six NPCs, a robot, three Mythos monsters, and a goat.

Production Values: Excellent.

Pros

# Thematically brilliant design

# Good handouts

# Inventively macabre description of the ritual

# En media res action

# Every player gets a Drunkometer

# Dipsophobia

# Social anxiety disorder

# Phasmophobia

Cons

# Astrology or Astronomy?

# A lot of mature elements and the caveats are deserved

# Some scenes are going make you go, “Ick!”, let alone the players

# “Nyarlathogoat”

Conclusion

# Don’t say Omega Kappa Pi, say Omega Kappa DIE!

# An orgy of witting nastiness that highlights the horror of the Mythos

# Reviews from R’lyeh Recommends & Discommends

Prohibition & Powers

The set-up for Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties is really simple. It is the 1920s. It is the USA. Prohibition is in full swing and under the terms of the Volstead Act, the sale of alcohol is outlawed. Which means there is money to be made from making the stuff in illegal stills or smuggling it across the border from Canada. Which means criminals are getting rich from making people happy and officials and cops are topping up their pensions by looking the other way. However, not every cop or bureau agent is on the take. Some want to enforce the law and are brave enough to do it. Some even have the power to back it up, not just with a sense of fairness and justice and a Smith & Wesson .38 Special Model 1899 Military and Police Hand Ejector, but the ability to fly or create a stream of acid or pick up things up their hair or manipulate probability or control small objects. Used at the right time and in the right fashion, any one of these abilities can help the law bust criminal activities or arrest a crook. However, the life of a law enforcement Caper—as these powered individuals are known—is not that easy, because just as a would-be Caper is drawn to uphold the law, another Caper is drawn to break it. There are Capers protecting gangs and syndicates, running numbers games, cooking the books, bootlegging, and bringing the number one prohibited substance into the country—alcohol.

Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties is published by Nedburger Games, following a successful Kickstarter campaign. It is a super-powered roleplaying set in a Jazz Age, but not a Jazz Age that we would fully recognise. Capers are a known and recognised phenomenon, appearing in newspapers and news reports, many stories being of a sensationalist nature, whilst the Department of Justice has established a Registry of Abnormal Persons and begun tracking their locations and activities. Currently, registration is voluntary. Capers may face religious intolerance and there are doctors and hospitals who will not treat them, but the US Army is actively recruiting them and the media loves them! Elsewhere, Carla ‘Lucky’ Luciano is the right-hand-woman to New York Boss Arnold Rothstein and Al Capone’s mentor is Giada Torrio, and a broader range of ethnicities and genders are accepted at all levels of society. It is thus ahistorical, rather than truly historical and more representative of modern sensibilities. As is the feel of the roleplaying game and its look, is more akin to a cartoon show. A cartoon show that can be told from two different angles. One is with the cast of Capers as members of law enforcement and the other is with the cast of Capers as members of a criminal gang or organisation. In that, it shares some resemblance with the set-up in TSR, Inc.’s Gangbusters: 1920’s Role-Playing Adventure. However, as a super-powered roleplaying game, Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties is very much a ‘Street Level’ campaign and very much not a ‘Four Colour’ setting. Essentially, this is not a traditional cowl and capes style of superhero roleplaying game, but more akin to the masked adventurers style of the following decade—even if the Caper wears a costume at all. All of which is detailed in a simple, easy to grasp introduction that explains its situation within a few pages.

A Player Character in Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties is either an Exceptional or an actual Caper. There are also Regulars, but these are normal people and so not what a player will be typically roleplaying. An Exceptional will not have full superpowers, but will instead have Perks, such as ‘Lucky’, ‘Power-Resistant’, or ‘Speciality Skill’. There are only nine Perks given in the roleplaying game, as compared to the thirty-nine major and minor powers. What an Exceptional makes up for in terms of a limited choice of Perks is having a wider choice of general abilities, whereas a Caper will have a limited choice of general abilities and more powers. Beyond a concept, such as gangster, enforcer, bounty hunter, journalist, or federal agent, a Player Character has three Anchors. Consisting of Identity, Virtue, and Vice, these define who the Player Character is, and by roleplaying them, provide a means of the Player Character regaining Moxie. He also has six Traits—Charisma, Agility, Perception, Expertise, Resilience, and Strength—which are rated between one and three for Regulars, but can go as high as four or five for Capers. Each Trait has an associated Defence value, which is sets how difficult it is for an opponent to overcome a Player Character. He will have between three and five skills, if a Caper either one or two Minor Powers or one Major Power, and if an Exceptional, a combination of either Perks or Trem-Gear. The latter consists of devices, weapons, and suits powered by the previously unknown radioactive element called Trembium, which is also found in the blood of Capers. It is possible to be injected with Trembium and temporarily gain powers, but similarly, it is possible to be injected with Anti-Trembium and Powers be temporarily negated. This sets up some interesting story possibilities, whilst the quick guide Trem-Gear in the book, with careful adjudication upon the part of the Game Master, might lend itself to some possible gadgeteering.

In general, skills are fairly broad, so Conveyances covers all vehicles, Sciences all of the sciences, and so on. How they are used varies though, depending on what a Player Character wants to do. To perform an impressive driving feat, for example, a bootlegger reverse, a player might combine his character’s Charisma Trait with his Conveyances skill, whilst attempting to drive into a narrow alley at high speed would use Agility and Conveyances instead. Notably, there is no Gambling skill or Performance skill, so the Game Master and player will need to work together to get skill and Trait combinations that work.

In comparison, Perks and Powers in Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties are much narrower in scope. Perks tend to provide better protection against an Exceptional’s powers than a Regular has. Minor Powers are more tightly focused and flashier in their use, and include Acid Stream, Body Armour, Concussion Beam, Dimensional Manipulation, Force Field, Mental Shield, and more. Major Powers are broader and include Dimension Step, Elasticity, Invisibility, Mimic, Speedster, and many enhancement to Traits, like Super Expertise or Super Strength. Some Powers are simply active all the time, whilst others require a Power Check to activate. Many also provide a range of different effects or Boosts. For example, the Speedster Major Power has the Chaperone Boost, the Damage Boost, the Lightning Boost, the Speed Boost, the Water Walk Boost, and the Whirlwind Boost. When creating his character, a player selects one of these Boosts as the standard effect for that Power. He can still do the others, but they are not as easy for him to do.

Creating an Exceptional or a Caper is a matter of making choices and assigning a few points to the Player Character’s Traits. The only random element is determining his Anchors—done by drawing cards from an ordinary deck of playing cards, but even this does not need to be done randomly.

Our example Caper is Arabella Bellange. She is a former magician’s assistant who graduated to stage magician when the magician had an unfortunate accident that meant he could not perform for a few months. Not Arabella’s doing, but rather he was unlucky and she was lucky. It seems that life goes that way for Arabella. She looks good on stage or when doing close-up tricks, but things just seem to go her way—and that includes the cards. Which suits her fine. She wants fame and money and she has the ambition to drive her into crime if she met the right person. She might come out of whatever they do smelling of roses, but her friend might not be so lucky…

Name: Arabella Bellange
Type: Caper
Identity: Leader
Virtue: Moderate
Vice: Vain

Body 9 Mind 9 Hits 14
Speed 30’
Level 1

TRAITS
Charisma 3 (Defence 10) Agility 2 (Defence 9) Perception 2 (Defence 9)
Expertise 2 (Defence 9) Resilience 2 (Defence 9) Strength 1 (Defence 8)

SKILLS
Deception, Insight, Sciences, Sleight of Hand

POWER
Minor – Probability Manipulation (Rank 1)
Minor – Hypnosis (Rank 1)

Mechanically, Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties uses decks of ordinary playing cards and every player needs to have a deck of his own. Whenever a player wants his character to act, he flips over a card. The value of the card, its suit, and its colour determines the outcome and specific effects from the desired action. The value of the card determines if the action is a success or a failure, ranging from a Task Difficulty of Routine or four to Incredible or Ace. The Task Difficulty is set by the Game Master and kept secret until the Player Character succeeds or fails. The suit of the card will determine the degree of the success or failure, with Spades cards being the best and Clubs cards being the worst. So, if the value of the card indicates the action is successful and its suit is Spades, it is a ‘Success with a Boon’, but a ‘Success with a Complication’ if the suit is Clubs. Conversely, if the value of the card indicates the action is a failure and its suit is Spades, it is a ‘Failure with a Motivation’, but a ‘Botch’ if the suit is Clubs. The ‘Failure with a Motivation’ result means that the Player Character is pushed to try again and receive a point of Moxie to use on his next action. Drawing an Ace means that the Player Character succeeds with a Boon, or two, if the Ace of Spades. Drawing the red Joker will end the player’s turn and means the Player Character suffers a botch, but the black Joker means the Player Character succeeds with a boon and can take another action.

This is drawing just the one card, but a player can draw more. His Caper or Exceptional has a Card Count equal to the Trait being used. If using an appropriate skill, the Card Count will increase by one and if the Game Master grants Advantage on the action, it increases by one again. (Conversely, having Disadvantage on an action will decrease it by one and if the card Count is reduced to zero, the action cannot be attempted.) Each extra card flipped after the first replaces the previous card, the aim being to draw the best card possible, effectively turning every action into a gamble! A player’s deck is typically reshuffled after the end of a fight or significant scene.

For most actions, a player will determine the Card Count from a Trait or a combination of a Trait and an appropriate Skill if his character has one. For a Power Check, when a player wants his character to use a Power, the Card Count is equal to the Rank of the Power.

In addition, a Player Character has access to Moxie. It can be spent to increase the Card Count on an action, reduce incoming damage, gain a Boon, shape the narrative, take an extra action related to a Trait, recall a card (which must be a card used in current action rather than a previous one), reshuffle the deck immediately, and to have an Exceptional or a Caper commit an act of self-sacrifice, meaning that he takes damage from an attack rather than a colleague or NPC. Moxie is gained at the end of significant encounters, a player roleplaying his character’s Anchors—such as staying true to a Virtue or suffering a complication due to a Vice, or his character doing something cool or entertaining.

For example, Arabella Bellange is playing a high stakes Poker game. If she wins, she gets top billing at the speakeasy where she has been performing. If she loses, she has to work for the owner, Domenic ‘Peanuts’ Conigliaro, in the speakeasy for free for a year. Arabella wants to play this as straight possible, since she does not want to suffer any slight to her reputation that an accusation of cheating would cause, so is counting the cards and working the odds rather than resorting to deception. This will use her Expertise Trait, which gives her a base Card Count of two. Her Sciences skill will increase this by one to a total of three. The Game Master sets the Task Difficulty at Challenging or ten.

Arabella’s player turns over the top card of her deck. The card is a three of Hearts. This is not good enough to beat Arabella’s boss’ hand, so her player draws a second card, the nine of Spades, followed by the seven of Spades. Again, not enough. Arabella’s player decides to spend some Moxie. First to increase her Card Count by one. This means she can draw another card, but she spends a second to reshuffle her deck. Then she uses Probability Manipulation Power and its Control Boost to look at the top three cards of her deck and rearrange them. The cards are the ten of Diamonds, the eight of Clubs, and the Ace of Hearts in that order. Now the ten of Diamonds is enough to win the Poker game, but the Ace of Hearts is a surefire win and it grants Arabella a boon. She moves this to the top of her deck and with her last card drawn because of her increased Card Count draws the Ace of Hearts. Arabella’s boon is not only top billing at the speakeasy, but a better clothing allowance because a girl has to look her best… The Game Master agrees to this, but also because this ties in with her Vice of Vanity, awards her a point of Moxie.

Combat in Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties uses the same mechanic. Each participant will make an Agility/Sense Reaction Check to determine his place in the Initiative order, whilst Agility/Guns or Agility/Ranged Weapons are used for ranged attacks and Strength/Fisticuffs or Strength/Melee Weapons are used for melee combat. In either case, the Target Difficulty for the attacker is equal to the Defence value of the defender’s Body value. The amount of damage inflicted is determined by the Suit and Colour of the card used for the attack, Black and Spades inflicting the most damage. Damage typically ranges between one and six points, but can be higher, as the weapon used will modify this. If a Player Character’s Hits are reduced to zero, he is either temporarily removed from the story or dead, player’s choice. If a player chooses to have his character die, then he gets one final turn in which he can use all of his Moxie to affect the narrative. Similarly, if a character reduces an enemy to zero Hits, his player get to decide whether he is merely knocked unconscious or is killed.

An important or unexpected fight can be preceded by a standoff, in which the participants stare each other out and attempt to assess the abilities of their would-be opponents. Played out over three rounds, it can gain a Player Character the initiative and more cards to play on the resulting action check. Other actions include assessing an opponent, intimidating him, or using a Power to boost the Player Character.

Overall, there is pleasing depth to game play, with players not just aiming to draw cards of a value sufficient to overcome a challenge or inflict damage, but also of the right colour and suit to get a more beneficial outcome. Although a player will mainly be relying upon better Card Counts to increase the possibility of drawing better cards, the use of Moxie allows for some limited manipulation of the cards , hopefully, towards a better outcome.

In terms of setting, Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties provides a short section of goods and services that noticeably includes prices for speakeasies, breweries, casinos, and hotels for gangster Exceptionals and Capers who want something to invest their ill-gotten gains in, as well as thirteen different Backdrops in which the Game Master can set her campaign. These are the big cities of the USA, notorious for their criminal underworlds during the ear of Prohibition. Atlantic City, Chicago, and New York have several pages devoted to them each, covering recent history and the current state in the city, notable organisations and places, and people of note. Plus, stats are provided for the latter as well as a map of the city and story hooks for both law enforcement and gangster campaigns. The others, including Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, and Miami, only receive a page each, so will require some development upon the part of the Game Master to bring into play, especially if she wants to base her campaign in any one of them. The main three though, are very playable location write-ups ready for a campaign.

Similarly, law enforcement is given a broad overview before the Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties delves into a toolbox containing all manner of strange elements to bring into play. These include a selection of alternative earths, like ‘Capek’s Earth’ where automata have become part of everyday society; ‘Flipside’ where anyone from Principal Earth occupies the mind of their counterpart on this openly violent world where Al Capone is already dead; and ‘Madworld’, where the Central Powers used Capers to slaughter thousands in France, Capers in the USA are hated, hunted, and outlawed. These are all given the same degree of detail as the Backdrops of Atlantic City, Chicago, and New York, and together expand the storytelling possibilities of a campaign set in the world of Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties. There is a lot here that the Game Master can play around with in combining classic superhero style stories and elements with the cop with powers versus robbers powers nature of the setting. There is even Stone Island Beach, a secure island prison off the coast of New York for Capers, much like The Raft from the Marvel Universe.

All of this supported with advice for the Game Master on how to run the game, allow scope for player agency and input, adjudicate the rules, design adventures and encounters, and even on how to give animals powers and set up ‘events’ in which more people—either around the world or in one city—suddenly become Capers and explore the consequences that ensue. It is good solid advice, but there is a certain brevity to it. What it does not do is look at long term play in any of the roleplaying game’s three genres—law enforcement, crime, or superheroes—and the differences between them. What does a campaign look like? After all, a law enforcement campaign is going to be different from a criminal enterprise gang. The first is all about investigating criminal empires and tearing them down, whilst the second is all about building criminal empires up and preventing them from being torn down. The bibliography will provide some inspiration, as will familiarity with the genres, but this is definitely where the Game Master wanting to run a longer game of Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters could have done with more help and advice.

Physically, Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties is neatly, cleanly presented. The artwork has a cartoon style, and there is a short, but engaging cartoon strip in the middle of the book.

Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties has a setting that is actually unique and sounds cool—superheroes and supervillains in the Roaring Twenties fighting for law and order or crime and corruption. The addition of superpowers is the game changer, of course, both in terms of the setting and play, but the various abilities feel suitably low key and never like they are going to overwhelm the setting or the storytelling. This is helped by the fact that the card-based always make game play feel as if the players and their characters are pushing their luck and gambling on the outcome. If underdeveloped with regard to long term play, Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties offers a breezy, fast-paced, and intriguingly different combination of genres in a familiar setting.

Advanced Savage Worlds?

To be upfront and absolutely clear, the World Builder and Game Master’s Guide is not necessary to run Savage Worlds. It is not, in the traditional roleplaying sense, a guide to being a Game Master. All the advice that the Savage Worlds Game Master needs to run Savage Worlds Adventure Edition, or ‘SWADE’, is in the core rulebook. If it is not a traditional guide to being a Game Master for Savage Worlds, what then is the World Builder and Game Master’s Guide? This is the book for the Savage Worlds Game Master who wants to go a bit further than simply running the game for her friends on a week-by-week basis. The book is a collection of articles divided into three categories—guides to world building and writing content for Savage Worlds, running the game in situations other than at home, and advice on tweaking the game here and there, plus a handful of anecdotes that capture how fun Savage Worlds is to play and run. Published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group [https://peginc.com/], the World Builder and Game Master’s Guide is written by the publisher’s members of staff as well as freelancers and Game Masters who have writing and running Savage Worlds for more than a decade.

The World Builder and Game Master’s Guide opens with ‘World Building’, the first of the two articles on world building and writing content for Savage Worlds. The uncredited article explores how a Game Master might go about creating worlds and settings of her own. It is not extensive article—indeed whole books have dedicated to the subject—but it does boil the process down to a handful of questions such as what makes this new world special and exciting? What is its genre? Or as in the case of so many worlds for Savage Worlds, its genres? It suggests summing this up in an elevator pitch before discussing the various elements that make up the setting. Naturally, this is done through the lens of Savage Worlds, so looks at Edges and Hindrances, various types of adventure, and of course, Plot Point campaigns. These are Pinnacle Entertainment Group’s signature campaign format, providing a means to tell a big story in a setting, but also explore different aspects of the setting as well. Backed up with the ‘Pinnacle Style Guide’, this is a solid introduction to world creation, especially for Savage Worlds. Beyond this, the Game Master will likely want more detailed advice.

Some of that does come in Richard Woolcock’s ‘Turning Ideas into SWAG’. This gives advice on how the prospective author can create his own content and then publish it as part of the Savage Worlds Adventurer’s Guild, Pinnacle Entertainment Group’s community content programme. It covers first principles in terms of the working process, structuring the setting and the wordcount, editing and proofreading, playtesting and feedback, and so on, all the way up to making it available as Print on Demand, marketing the release, and even setting a price. The specifics do relate to Savage Worlds as you would expect, but there is advice here too that applies to any of the community content programmes that feature on DriveThruRPG. Combined with the first article in the supplement and the ‘Pinnacle Style Guide’, and this is a good introduction to the process of getting published.

Jodi Black’s ‘Savage Worlds For All Ages’ is the first of two articles which look at running Savage Worlds under different circumstances. As its title suggests, this one looks at the challenges of running Savage Worlds and gives tips on how to prepare a game, run a game, and keep player interest in a game going for different ages, from six years old to sixty-five and older, as well as groups of mixed ages. There are houses rules for each age group, such as for players aged six and up, awarding Bennies for good manners, initiative run in seating order rather than drawing cards, and the need for ‘wiggle breaks’ when the players get restless, as well as suggested plots. For example, making them feel epic in terms of scope for those aged between fifteen and twenty-five who have more time for this sort of game. Accompanied by the author’s guide to running a game club at her school, this is the best article in the supplement, applying to any roleplaying game and not just Savage Worlds. Of all the articles in the World Builder and Game Master’s Guide, this should be freely available.

The other article on running Savage Worlds under different circumstances is ‘Building Your Tribe’ by Chris Fuchs and Chris Landauer. This charts their establishment of the Rocky Mountain Savages, a team of Game Masters that run Savage Worlds at conventions. There are numerous teams that do this, not necessarily for single games or just Savage Worlds, and some actually handle the demonstration games for various publishers. At conventions, these groups and their Game Masters have become part of the public face for the publishers in question, such as the Rocky Mountain Savages for Pinnacle Entertainment Group. It is not just a guide on how to create and run a team of semi-professional Game Masters, but also how to run games at conventions and how to play in games at conventions. The latter gives the article a surprising third strand to its advice, but one that has a broader application than the other two strands since most roleplayers are more likely to play at a convention than be the Game Master or set up a Game Master group. Nevertheless, despite the limited application of the other advice in the article—an aspect common to the supplement as a whole—this is all good advice.

Despite it not being a supplement of general advice on running Savage Worlds, there is still advice to do so in World Builder and Game Master’s Guide. This starts with Owen Lean’s ‘Risks & Reversals’, which is all about the benefits of risk in a game, that essentially, it makes it exciting and whatever the outcome, often memorable. Together with its discussion of ‘reversals’, the joy of going from success to failure and back again as a situation changes, the article throws a bucket-load of examples at the reader, all taken from films with which he is very likely familiar—Pirates of the Caribbean, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and so on—that illustrate both situations. He neatly scales this up from scenes to adventures and campaigns to show how reversals work on that bigger scale. The scaling up continues with ‘High Powered Games’ by Tracy Sizemore. This examines the power progression in Savage Worlds, from Player Characters rising in power vertically initially and then horizontally as their power broadens in application before offering advice on how to use the rules and mechanics of Savage Worlds to adjust to the play and lethality of high-powered play. This includes setting a Wound Cap to limit the amount of damage a Player Character will suffer, but also using the Gritty Damage Setting for deadlier games. It also looks at the unpredictability of the core mechanic to Savage Worlds, how the dice results can swing wildly from one roll to the next, potentially causing disappointment and excitement from one round to the next, and how that can be managed. Suggestions include creating non-combat goals, making villains complex and interesting to give them a role other than wanting to destroy the Player Characters, and so on. There are numerous options and ideas here which support both high-powered play and high-end play.

In ‘The Long Game’, Shane Hensley charts the history of how Deadlands came about and its development over the years, and how the game has been kept fresh since its publication in 1996 and how a Game Master’s campaign can be kept going. Lastly, World Builder and Game Master’s Guide, ‘Anecdotes’ offers not a selection of stories and memories as the title suggests, but further advice on a variety of differing aspects of running Savage Worlds, such as ‘The Art of the Celebrity Con Game’ by Ed Wetterman on running audience participation games with celebrity players, Sean Patrick Fannon on ‘Running the Big Game’ with eight to sixteen players, and recording and making available your game play with Jordan Caves-Callarman’s ‘Savage Steaming’. None of these sections of advice is bad and some of it is useful, but not one of them is an ‘anecdote’, not one of them is story, and labelling them as such is an annoyingly misleading misnomer. Lastly, Clint Black gets ‘Under the Hood’ and discusses ideas on how the Game Master and player might tweak their Savage Worlds game, bringing the supplement to close with the broadest of advice.

Physically, World Builder and Game Master’s Guide is well presented, easy to read, and a nice-looking book.

Ultimately, the World Builder and Game Master’s Guide is not a book that is essential for any Savage Worlds Game Master. There is no denying that there is plenty of advice within its pages, but it is too specialised to be of general use to the average Savage Worlds Game Master. For the Game Master looking to do more than run the game for her friends, then the World Builder and Game Master’s Guide has the possibility of being useful and have the advice that she wants—and if so, then it is useful, it is good, it is helpful. Otherwise, the World Builder and Game Master’s Guide is too specific and too specialised for the average Game Master’s needs.

Quick-Start Saturday: The Smurfs Roleplaying Game – Quick-start Guide

Quick-starts are means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

—oOo—

What is it?
The Smurfs Roleplaying Game – Quick-start Guide is the quick-start for The Smurfs Roleplaying Game, based on the Belgian comic created by Peyo and The Smurfs cartoon series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast between 1981 and 1989. It is published by Maestro Media Ventures.

It is a twenty-page, 5.24 MB full colour PDF.

How long will it take to play?
The Smurfs Roleplaying Game – Quick-start Guide is designed to be played through in a single session, two at most.

What else do you need to play?
The Smurfs Roleplaying Game – Quick-start Guide needs five six-sided dice per player.

Who do you play?
The five Player Characters—or Smurfs—in The Smurfs Roleplaying Game – Quick-start Guide consist of Smurfette, Hefty, Jokey, Smurflily, and Clumsy Smurf.

How is a Player Character defined?

A Smurf in The Smurfs Roleplaying Game – Quick-start Guide is defined by his name which provides a broad description of him and a motivation which explains how he thinks. A Smurf also has an Advantage, a special power which ties into his name or motivation. Each Advantage provides a bonus which applies to certain situations, modifies action rolls, or grants access to certain equipment. For example, Hefty has an Advantage that grants a bonus to any test of strength, whilst Smurflily, who has the Motivation of, “I will do my best to be friends with, and not hurt, any Smurf or other creature.” has an Advantage that reduces the difficulty of skill tests to persuade, calm, or befriend any NPC. Each Smurf also has four attributes—Quick, Brawn, Mind, and Heart—rated between four and twelve.

How do the mechanics work?

Mechanically, The Smurfs Roleplaying Game – Quick-start Guide uses the BURN 2d6 published by Saltheart RPG. To have his Smurf undertake an action, a player rolls two or more six-sided dice, aiming to roll under the appropriate attribute. If the roll is under the attribute value, the action succeeds, but if it is equal to the attribute value, it is only a partial success. A roll higher than the attribute is a failure. Bonuses can come from equipment, Advantages, and Smurfberries.

The difficulty of the action is set by the number of dice a player has to roll. This ranges from two for a Challenging difficulty to five dice for an Impossible difficulty. The Storyteller can make an action more challenging by adding another die, whilst a player can add another die if he wants the outcome of the action to have greater effect. A player can also reduce the number of dice ha has to roll by spending Effort. Each attribute has a number of points of Effort equal to its value and they can only be spent on actions related to that attribute. If a Smurf runs out of Effort for a single attribute, all of his actions are penalised an extra die. If Effect is exhausted for a second attribute, a Smurf falls unconscious or rather, is smurfed...

To avoid this and other dangerous situations, for example, a dragon breathing fire on a Smurf or a Smurf falling from a great height, a player can make a Safety Roll. It is rolled on two six-sided dice and difficulty for is determined by the Smurf’s own Smurf House (but is set to three for the purposes of The Smurfs Roleplaying Game – Quick-start Guide). If the Safety Roll is successful, the Smurf wakes up in his bed, fully refreshed, but with no idea of how he got there. If a failure, the Smurf will probably start the next session in dire circumstances.

In addition to Advantages, bonuses to any action can come from equipment and Smurfberries. Smurfberries are enjoyed by every Smurf and by every player because they are rewarded for good roleplaying. Each Smurf begins play with one and their primary use is to give a player a one-point advantage on any roll. Their secondary use is to restore a point of Effort to a single attribute. This can be for the player’s Smurf or the Smurf of another player, and is more expensive, costing three Smurfberries.

Lastly, each Smurf has access to Smurf Power! This is represented by the Smurf Power Die, and can be used in one of two ways. When rolled, it replaces one of the standard dice a Smurf’s player rolls for any action. It is a standard six-sided die, but marked with the Smurf Symbol on five of its six faces and the Smurf Critical symbol on the one face. It does not add anything to a roll, but when the Smurf Critical symbol is rolled, one of two things can happen. If the roll is a success, with the Smurf Critical symbol, it becomes an amazing absolutely smurfy success. However, if a failure, it becomes the unsmurfiest of failures possible. Alternatively, it can be used to add a narrative element to the play of the game. The ability to roll or use the Smurf Power Die becomes possible once a player rolls all sixes on a previous roll. Otherwise, it is inactive.

Besides the possibility of a critical failure, there is another downside to using the Smurf Power Die. This is that when used, it grants the Game Master a Thorn, which she can then use to make the lives of the Smurfs that much more difficult. This can be by describing a change in circumstances and adding an extra die to a roll, adding a complication by adding or removing a story element, allowing an opponent to act first (as Smurfs always act first otherwise), or cause a piece of equipment to become lost.

Mechanically, The Smurfs Roleplaying Game – Quick-start Guide is player-facing. This means that the players make all the dice rolls rather than the Game Master.

How does combat work?
Combat? In a roleplaying game about Smurfs?

What do you play?

The scenario in The Smurfs Roleplaying Game – Quick-start Guide is ‘Papa Smurf Goes Missing: An Introductory Adventure for The Smurfs RPG’. The adventure begins when the Smurfs wake up to find that Papa Smurf and his Mushroom House has gone missing, leaving a big hole in the ground where it stood the previous day. Investigating the hole reveals the wreckage of his house at the bottom and a tunnel leading deep into the earth! Where will lead and where has Papa Smurf gone? The adventure is quite straightforward, primarily involving a mixture of stealth and exploration. It also comes with plenty of staging advice that the Game Master can use simply as examples of play or inspiration for when she runs the scenario. It playable in a single session.

Is there anything missing?
Yes. The Smurfs Roleplaying Game – Quick-start Guide does not come with a Smurf Power die, so the Game Master will need to provide something in its stead.

Is it easy to prepare?
The core rules presented in The Smurfs Roleplaying Game – Quick-start Guide are very easy to prepare. They are light and easy to use as much as they are to teach, making them and the quick-start as a whole suitable for running for a younger audience.

Is it worth it?
Yes. The Smurfs Roleplaying Game – Quick-start Guide presents everything you you need to play a fun, happy-go-lucky session of Smurfiness, with a little dash of mild peril. The rules are easy to grasp and teach and the scenario is an uncomplicated affair. However, this is a quick-start (and a roleplaying game) for fans of The Smurfs rather than the casual player necessarily and they are likely to get more out of this than the said casual player. Otherwise, this is a well done quick-start, one that roleplaying fans of The Smurfs will pick up with ease and enjoy. Plus, if there are younger fans of The Smurfs, this is something that they will enjoy playing and being run for them.

The Smurfs Roleplaying Game – Quick-start Guide is published by Maestro Media and is available to download here.

Friday Fantasy: Doom of the Savage Kings

The village of Hirot stands besieged, its inhabitants cowering and scared at who they might have to give up next. Standing atop a hillock, jutting up above windswept moors and rain sodden forests, for the past six months a monster, a devil-hound, has climbed over its palisade walls every night and stalked its few streets looking for victims. Once found, the creature from hell butchers and plays with them, before vanishing into the mists leaving a bloody and rent corpse for the survivors to render funeral rites to. No one is safe and to date, neither the Jarl, master of Hirot, nor his thegns have been able to kill the best, for every time they do, it quickly returns another night to kill yet another victim. The Jarl’s seer, Sylle Ru, has advised that a random villager should be sacrificed to the killer very third and this has been taking place over the past few weeks, reducing the population of the village by a third. It is one of these sacrifices, being driven forward by a village mob and overseen by the Jarl and his thegns, to be placed upon ancient altar stones, that the Player Characters come across at the start of Dungeon Crawl Classics #66.5: Doom of the Savage Kings, a scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game published by Goodman Games.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #66.5: Doom of the Savage Kings is a special scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. For although it was not the first to be published as a standalone scenario—that would be Dungeon Crawl Classics #67: Sailors on the Starless Sea—Dungeon Crawl Classics #66.5: Doom of the Savage Kings was the first scenario that many players roleplayed, for it was included as a separate item in the rulebook for Dungeon Crawl Classics as the first scenario to be played after they had played through the roleplaying game’s signature feature, a ‘Character Funnel’. Written by Harley Stroh, It is designed to be played by between six and twelve First Player Characters and mixes the classic ‘village in peril’ set-up of so many a fantasy roleplaying scenario with the classic tale of Beowulf and the Sherlock Holmes novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles with more than a dash of Hammer Horror. Much like the author’s later Dungeon Crawl Classics #72: Beyond the Black Gate, it has a grim, northern European feel to it that suggests Saxon or Scandinavian influences upon its dark Swords & Sorcery.

When the Player Characters offer to help deal with the creature, nicknamed the ‘Hound of Hirot’, the Jarl seems oddly disinterested in offer of aid, rebuking them for their meddling and suggesting instead that giving themselves as sacrifices to the creature is the best thing that they can do. In comparison—and despite their pessimism, the thegns and the commoners will be welcoming, looking to the Player Characters for hope and perhaps a solution to the ghastly situation in which the village and its inhabitants find themselves in. Both Jarl and his thegns will tell the Player Characters why the situation is hopeless. Simply that the ‘Hound of Hirot’ cannot be killed. Of course, this is not the case, because the creature be dealt with. It is not easy though, and will require some investigation and interaction, some exploration, some brute strength upon the part of the Player Characters. Or combination of all three. The scenario provides multiple means—shackles woven from the hair of the dead that will bind the hound, the Wolf-spear of Ulfheonar which can pin the creature in place, and simply wrestling with it—and it is just up to the Player Characters to find out about these methods and decide which ones they want to use. Of course, in the first means, they will need to find some dead men with hair still on their heads and bring it back, whilst in the latter, they need to find where the Wolf-spear of Ulfheonar is and how they can get it.

The scenario consists of three distinct acts. In the first, the Player Characters arrive at Hirot and investigate the village, talking to the inhabitants, and winkling out some rumours and secrets that might help them defeat the beast. To that end, the Judge is furnished with a table of ready rumours and a detailed description of the villager and its inhabitants. The descriptions nicely brings to live the morose sense of hopelessness that pervades Hirot whilst also providing the players with plenty of opportunities to roleplay. The encounter with the village’s old crone, known as the mad widow, is a delight and has a fantastic payoff at the end of the scenario. What is also great about the encounters in the village is that none of the NPCs are truly evil. Venal, desperate, resigned, and most of all, fearful, but not evil.

If the emphasis in the first act is on investigation and interaction in the village of Hirot, the second is on exploration of the ‘Tomb of the Ulfheonar’, where hopefully the Player Characters will be able to find the other primary means of defeating the ‘Hound of Hirot’, the Wolf-spear of Ulfheonar. The barrow-mound is quite sparse in look and feel, all rough stone slabs and earth and roots. It is quite small and barely—and only recently—inhabited by a nasty trio of monsters, that lurk in the dark ready to ambush intruders. The tomb also narrows towards the end setting up a really nasty, claustrophobic ambush that should really scare the players, let alone their characters. Combined with a deadly trap at the end—this being a tomb after all—the Player Characters will likely be very relieved to get out of the tomb. And the moment when they exist is when the Jarl strikes, ambushing them as threat to even the dark situation and his hold over it in the village of Hirot. Of course, if the Player Characters decide not to hunt for the Wolf-spear of Ulfheonar, then the entire dungeon is optional. (In some ways, this spoils the adventure for the Judge, denying her the opportunity to throw some horrible little encounters at her players, but that does not stop her from repurposing the dungeon-tomb and placing it elsewhere in another adventure.)

The third act of the scenario is the confrontation with the beast, using whatever means the Player Characters have gathered. Here the emphasis is on exploration and combat, a slog through the mire of a foul swamp and down into the maw of the creature’s lair. The sinkhole is a nasty place to have a fight, but it makes a great scene for a grand climax.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics #66.5: Doom of the Savage Kings is a good-looking book. For the most part, the artwork is good, but the cartography is excellent. The adventure is well written and explained, making it easy to prepare.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #66.5: Doom of the Savage Kings packs a lot of adventure, a good monster, and plenty of decent NPCs into its sixteen pages. It also includes quite a bit of treasure, all nicely unique and different as well as lots of little details that might play out well beyond the pages of the scenario. Finally, Dungeon Crawl Classics #66.5: Doom of the Savage Kings has atmosphere aplenty, grim and foreboding, a genuinely epic mini-saga for First Level Player Characters.

The Other OSR: Vast Grimm – Space Cruisers

It has been over six hundred years since the First Prophecy of Fatuma came to pass. The SIX, the Disciples of Fatuma, who following the prophecies put down in the Book of Fatuma, made a pilgrimage to the Primordial Mausoleum of THEY and deployed the Power of Tributes to decrypt the Mystical Lock sealing the Mausoleum. It was then that the They drew in the stale air of the Mausoleum, becoming one with the THEY and breathing out the parasites. The Six scattered, bringing the word and the infection of THEY to every corner of the ’verse. Then the Gnawing began. The parasites of THEY gnawed their way out of the infected. They spread. They gnawed their way out of planets. They spread. The infected split open. The planets split apart. Now mankind cling to life, looking out for any signs of THEY or hiding it inside them in the hope that it never erupt and spread… The Earth is gone. Shattered into large pieces. There are places and planets where the remnants of Mankind survive, squabbling over resources and power, fearing the parasitical infectious word of THEY, but not without hope. There are whispers of a means to escape the end of this universe by entering another, one entirely free of THEY. It is called the Gate of Infinite Stars. Yet time is running out. The First Prophecy of Fatuma came to pass and so has every other Prophecy of Fatuma since. Except the last Seven Torments. Will the last Seven Torments come to pass and allow the Würms and the Grimm to consume the ’verse and with it, the last of Mankind? Or will the lucky few find their way to the Gate of Infinite Stars and at last be free of the Würms and the Grimm in a better, brighter future? That is, of course, if everyone fleeing through the Gate of Infinite Stars is free of the gnawing…

This is the set-up for Vast Grimm. Published by Infinite Black, it is a pre-apocalypse Science Fiction roleplaying game compatible in tone and structure with Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance style roleplaying game designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing. To get around the shattered solar system of the Vast Grimm’s ghastly future, let alone out into ’verse, the survivors are going to need transport and places to go. This is where Vast Grimm: Space Cruisers comes to the fore.

Vast Grimm: Space Cruisers expands on the rules for starships given in Vast Grimm. It provides the means to both create and modify them, gives rules for starship combat, and it describes three new locations that the Game Master can add to her game and her Player Characters can visit. Lastly, it includes rules for generating abandoned starships. The latter is particular useful. It adds further uncertainty to the setting, provides somewhere for the Player Characters to explore, investigate, and loot. Effectively, mini-dungeons in space, if you will. Further, such vessels also serve as a ready source of parts and resources to scavenge, as well as potential replacement starships. The latter is important because the last starship to roll out of the shipyards was three hundred years ago. In a universe where the Grimm are the biggest threat that Mankind had ever faced, building the then current spaceship models and developing new spaceship designs was very quickly low on everyone’s priorities. Which means that the Player Characters may start play with one starship and end up with another and then another, just due to wear and tear and use and a lack of parts.

Creating a starship for Vast Grimm is quick and easy. It involves choosing or rolling for a Starship Class and following the various steps listed for each Starship Class in terms of capabilities, equipment, and modifications. Then rolls are made for the Starship’s Abilities, Hit Points, characteristics, battle scars, and Modifications. There are six Starship Classes and there are six options given for each. These are ‘Minimal Crew’, ‘Transports’, ‘Cruisers’, ‘Freighters’, ‘Warships’, and ‘Shotrods’, the latter being intergalactic hotrods. The ‘Minimal Crew’ Class includes ‘Family Truckster’, ‘Intergalactic Trucker’, and ‘DIY Death Trap’; ‘Transports’ like a ‘Yachthole’ or ‘Jailboat’; ‘Cruisers’ such as a ‘Light Cruiser’ or ‘Ram Jam’; ‘Freighters’ include ‘Garbage Getter’ and ‘Crowdfunded Slow Boat’; ‘Warships’ such as a ‘Frackin’ Frigate’ or ‘Dreadnought’; and ‘Chopper’ and ‘Domed Disc’ for the ‘Shotrods’. Starship Abilities consist of Manoeuvre, Accuracy, Fortitude, and Power, ranging in value from three to eight, modified by Class.

Most Starships have an A.I. on board, but it is possible to purchase the code to install a new one or replace an old, possibly damaged one. There is a table of A.I. personalities included, but these is quite short at six entries, especially given the Starship-hopping/Starship-scavenging nature of play. The likelihood is that the Game Master is going to run out of A.I. personalities quickly.

Name: The Slim Grimm Express

Class: Transport
Type: Galaxy Express
Size: 1 Speed: 2 Crew: 2

Armour: Tier 6 (-2d6)

Hit Points: 35
Pilot Presence dR12

Well-Engineered
Starship’s Log: A.I. Overkill (each section of the starship is controlled by a different A.I. personality)
Battle Scars: All original seating gutted. Replaced with lawn furniture.

Modifications: Escape Pod, Surge Protector, Armour (Tier 2), Slam Shocker

Weapon: Laser Turret (3d8 damage)

Manoeuvre 7 (-2) Accuracy 13 (+1) Fortitude 15 (+3) Power 18 (+4)

The process is not difficult and provides a total of thirty-six Starship types from which to choose or generate. Consequently, the likelihood of the Player Characters finding a similar ship to their own is quite low and even if they do, it will still be very different. Starship operation requires minimum Power to operate and also use weapons and other capabilities. A Power Core can be recharged, but can also be scavenged from other Starships.

Starship combat is played out on a hex grid. One player takes the role of Captain, who is then responsible for manoeuvring the starship in combat. Possible other actions available to the Player Characters include using a weapon, a capability, activating a Tribute (data chips containing the Neuromantic energy released at the same time as the Grimm when THEY opened the Primordial Mausoleum of THEY and used for various effects), defending the Starship, conducting repairs, and even a launching a raiding party if the two Starships are close enough. Although the combatants do roll for initiative, damage occurs simultaneously. Critical rolls inflict double damage and reduce the target Starship’s armour by a tier, whilst on a critical Defence roll, the damage bounces back and inflicts damage on the attacker or the attack is Evaded, and the defending Starship manoeuvre’s away. Fumbles include temporary weapon malfunctions, a Player Character spilling a drink on a console and having to clean it up before it works again, and so on. If the Hit Points of a Starship are reduced to zero, then the Starship is broken, possibly leading to a loss of oxygen, all systems shutting down to maintain life support, and worse. If the damage is reduced to below zero, the damage is worse.

In addition to the rules for Starships and Starships, Vast Grimm: Space Cruisers details three locations that the Player Characters can visit in their vessel. They include ‘Guthrie’s Fuel & Fix’, a former waste barge turned travelling station and source of parts, repairs, and fuel. There are tables for Power Core recharge rates, availability of parts, and so on, plus stats for its operator, a short and rusty service bot that records everything. ‘Tangle Station’ is a small planetoid run by the necrotic cyborg Kid Arachnid—the only non-robot on the facility—and dedicated to keeping the Netwürk running. He will sell all sorts of information to any manner of buyers, though not all of it is safe. The ‘Roach Coach 2’ is probably the last place that anyone might want to eat, what with its ‘Mystery Meat pie’, ‘Sautéed Gooey Gland’, and ‘Crunchy Sugar Larvae’ on its menu and the fact that it is run by Cockroach Karl, Jr. Then there are the side effects, which might be positive, might be negative…

There is a brevity to the content of Vast Grimm: Space Cruisers, but in many cases that makes the content easy to grasp and use in play, even when rolling at the table. It also leaves scope for the Game Master to develop that content herself and tailor it to fit her campaign. This is made all the easier by the engaging and entertaining nature of the content.

Lastly, Vast Grimm: Space Cruisers comes with lots of tables. The main set will help the Game master determine the appearance, current occupiers, and some sample rooms that might be found aboard a seemingly abandoned Starship. Others include a table of parts that might break down on a trip and tables of things and person who might be found on a Starship.

Physically, Vast Grimm: Space Cruisers adheres to the Artpunk aesthetic of both Vast Grimm and Mörk Borg, with its use of vibrant, often neon colours and heavy typefaces. It looks amazing, a swirling riot of colour that wants to reach out and infect everything, but where the core rules were not always the easiest to read, the simplicity of the content in this supplement make it easier to read and use.

Mechanically, Vast Grimm: Space Cruisers is not as easily explained as it could have been, especially when it comes to Starship combat. Another page and probably an example of play would not have gone amiss and it would make the grasping of what should be relatively straightforward rules that much easier. This is not to say that they are difficult, but that the explanation could have been clearer. besides that, Vast Grimm: Space Cruisers neatly expands on the single aspect of the dark future that is Vast Grimm and provides the means for the Game Master to bring Starships into her campaign in greater and more entertaining fashion.

Miskatonic Monday #348: Shadow of the Eagle

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: Shadow of the Eagle

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author Jordan Falcon

Setting: Vietnam, 1968

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Seven page, 877.91 KB PDF

Elevator Pitch: “In the jungle, the mighty jungle

The Mi-go hunts tonight

In the jungle the quiet jungle

The Mi-go hunts tonight”

Plot Hook: “Near the village, the peaceful village

The Tcho-Tcho sleeps tonight

Near the village, the quiet village

The Tcho-Tcho sleeps tonight”

Plot Support: Staging advice, no pre-generated Investigators, no handouts, no maps, one NPCs, and two Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Plain.

Pros

# Interesting period for Mythos investigation

# Straightforward and easy to run

# Could form the basis for an anti-Delta Green campaign for use with Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game and/or The Fall of Delta Green

# Gephyrophobia

# Vorarephobia

# Entomophobia

Cons

# No pre-generated Investigators

# No advice on creating Investigators

# Short and linear

Conclusion

# Potential starter to a campaign, but too basic

# Pre-generated Investigators with backgrounds would make it 100% better

Miskatonic Monday #347: The Demon of the Deep Leads

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 Demon of the Deep Leads

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author David Waldron

Setting: Ballarat, 1854

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Forty-three page, 21.49 MB PDF

Elevator Pitch: The Blue Mountains panther hunts by night

Plot Hook: Hunt for a missing man in time of chaos
Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, three handouts, two maps, four NPCs, one non-Mythos monster, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Reasonable.

Pros

# Combines Cthulhu by Gaslight and Call of Cthulhu: Darker Trails, but in Australia!

# Engaging historically based scenario

# Solid interaction investigation

# Straightforward, uncomplicated

# Can be run as a non-Mythos horror scenario

# Ailurophobia

# Teratophobia

# Amychophobia

Cons

# Needs an edit

# No pre-generated Investigator backgrounds

# Underwritten introduction

Conclusion

# Uncomplicated scenario against a chaotic background

# Engaging sense of history combined with an urban legend