Miskatonic Monday #355: The Outbreak 1854

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 Outbreak 1854

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Chicho ‘Arkashka’ OCARIZ

Setting: London, 1854

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Forty-seven page, 16.32 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “You know nothing, Jon Snow” ― Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin

Plot Hook: “A plague o’ both your houses!” — Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

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

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Well-researched background

# Obfuscation of the plot by the history

# Possible sequel to The Bristol Train Robbery

# Nosophobia

# Seismophobia

# Scoleciphobia

Cons

# Needs an edit

# Needs development to pull the Investigators in more

Conclusion

# Bloody horror in Victorian London that will give you the shakes

# Underdeveloped in terms of investigation, but could be developed further

Miskatonic Monday #354: The Plague of Scratches

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 Plague of Scratches

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Maude Cort

Setting: A U.S. mining town

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Two page, 1.42 MB Black & White PDF
Elevator Pitch: “To die, - To sleep, - To sleep! Perchance to dream: - ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life;”

― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Plot Hook: There’s a murderer or there’s a plague or there’s both

Plot Support: Staging advice, fourteen named NPCs, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Sparse

Pros

# Barebones presentation
# Easy to adapt to different eras

# Multiple plot hooks

# Good for the Keeper that really, really likes to improvise

# Dipsophobia

# Somniphobia

# Oneirophobia

Cons

# From the author of Millan’s Tomb

# Presented in a backwards fashion

# Needs development

# Keeper will need to supply stats

# Needs a slight edit

Conclusion

# All the right elements, not necessarily in the right order

# In need of development to flesh out the story, let alone the stats

Your Fallout Starter

It is the year 2287 and life is far from easy in the remains of New England, including Boston, an area called ‘The Commonwealth’. Two centuries after a nuclear holocaust that ended a war between the United States and China, there are plenty of pools of radiation hanging around, feral ghouls lurk in tunnels and caves, mirelurks hunt the banks of rivers and shores of lakes, and raiders are a constant threat. Yet there are survivors to protect and old Vaults to explore and even loot. It is a dangerous world out there, but when there is shooting and screaming, it probably means that somebody is in trouble. This is how ‘Once Upon a Time in the Wasteland’ opens, the mini-campaign in Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Starter Set. Designed for two to seven players, aged fourteen and over, the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Starter Set is introductory boxed for Fallout: The Roleplaying Game, which is based upon the Fallout series of post apocalyptic computer games from Bethesda Game Studios. In particular, Fallout 4, which depicts a post-apocalyptic future that is heavily influenced by American culture of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. In fact, the events of ‘Starter Set Quest: Once Upon a Time in the Wasteland’ are set before those of Fallout 4. Published by Modiphius Entertainment, Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Starter Set is an attractive looking boxed set.

Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Starter Set includes a fifty-six-page ‘Starter Set Rulebook’, a sixty-page ‘Starter Set Quest: Once Upon a Time in the Wasteland’, six pre-generated Player Characters, two twenty-sided dice, one twenty-sided hit location die, four six-sided Fallout game dice, and fifty-six Nuka-Cola cap tokens. The ‘Starter Set Rulebook’ covers the basics of characters, the mechanics and combat, and equipment, whilst the quest book gives the campaign. The Nuka-Cola cap tokens can be used as Action Points in the game or as in the computer game, as currency. The six pre-generated Player Characters include a Vault Dweller who is good at hacking; a Survivor who hits hard and can lie well; a Ghoul who heals fast and is immune to radiation; a Brotherhood Initiate good at repairing and healing; and a Mister Handy with a pincer arm attachment that can stab and even inflict critical hits! All six of the pre-generated Player Characters are presented on double-sided card sheets complete with a biography. The dice are actually nice and chunky and done in the blue of Vault dweller uniforms.

A Player Character in the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Starter Set—and thus the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game—will look more familiar to anyone who has played Fallout 4 than anyone who has played a 2d20 System roleplaying game. A Player Character has seven ‘S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Attributes’. These are Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. These are rated between four and ten and will be familiar to anyone who has played Fallout 4. He will ratings in skills including Athletics, Barter, Big Guns, Energy Weapons, Explosives, Lockpick, Medicine, Melee Weapons, Pilot, Repair, Science, Small Guns, Sneak, Speech, Survival, Throwing, and Unarmed. Skills are ranked between zero and six. Some skills are marked as Tag skills, indicating expertise or talent. Tag skills improve a Player Character’s chances of a critical success. Each twenty-sided die rolled for a Tag skill that gives a result equal to or under the skill rank is a critical success, counting as two successes rather than one.

One noticeable difference between Fallout: The Roleplaying Game and other 2d20 System roleplaying games is that the Player Characters have hit locations. This reflects the nature of the computer game. A Player Character will also have several Perks and Traits, essentially the equivalent of advantages and disadvantages, and he will have Luck Points equal to his Luck Attribute. The ‘Starter Set Rulebook’ includes a long list of Perks, many of which the players will recognise from the computer game. For example, ‘Commando’, ‘Gunslinger’, ‘Hacker’, ‘Infiltrator’, ‘Iron First’, ‘Mysterious Stranger’, ‘Ninja’, and more. A Player Character does have a biography and a list of gear as well.

Mechanically, the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Starter Set—and thus the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game—uses the 2d20 System seen in many of the roleplaying games published by Modiphius Entertainment, such as Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 or Dune – Adventures in the Imperium. To undertake an action in the 2d20 System in Fallout: The Roleplaying Game, a character’s player rolls two twenty-sided dice, aiming to have both roll under the total of an Attribute and a Skill to generate successes. Each roll under this total counts as a success, an average task requiring two successes, the aim being to generate a number of successes equal to, or greater, than the Difficulty Value, which typically ranges between zero and five. Rolls of one count as a critical success and create two successes, as does rolling under the value of the Skill when it is a Tagged Skill. A roll of twenty adds a Complication to the situation, such as making noise when a Player Character is trying to be stealthy or breaking a lock pick when opening a safe.

Successes generated above the Difficulty Value are turned into Action Points. Action Points are a shared resource and a group can have up to six. They can be used to purchase more dice for a Skill test, to Obtain Information from the Overseer, Reduce Time spent on a test, or to take an Additional Minor Action or Additional Major Action.

With Luck of the Draw, a player can spend his character’s Luck Points to add a fact or detail or item to the area he is in that would benefit him. Other uses include Stacked Deck, which enables a player to substitute his character’s Luck Attribute instead of another, Lucky Timing, which lets a survivor interrupt the Initiative order, and Miss Fortune to reroll dice. The Overseer—as the Game Master is known—has her own supply of Action Points to use with her NPCs.

Combat in the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Starter Set and thus Fallout: The Roleplaying Game, is quite detailed in comparison to other 2d20 System roleplaying games. A Player Character can attempt one Minor Action and one Major Action per round, but Action Points can be spent to take one more of each. Minor Actions include Aim, Draw Item, Move, Take Chem, and more, whilst Major Actions include Attack, Command an NPC, Defend, Rally, Sprint, and others. During combat, Action Points can be expended to purchase more dice for a Skill test, to Obtain Information from the Overseer, to take an Additional Minor Action or Additional Major Action, or to add extra Combat Dice.

Damage is inflicted per random Hit Location and it is possible to target a particular Hit Location. The number of Combat Dice rolled to determine damage is based on the weapon, Action Points spent to purchase more Combat Dice, Perks, and other factors. Combat Dice determine not only the number of points of damage inflicted, but the ‘Damage Effects Trigger’ of the weapon used. This has an extra effect, such as Piercing, which ignores a point of Damage Resistance or Spread, which means an additional target is hit. Both damage inflicted and Damage Resistance can be physical, energy, radiation, or poison. If five or more points of damage is inflicted to a single Hit Location, then a critical hit is scored. Ammunition is tracked.

Radiation damage is handled differently. It reduces the Maximum Health Points of a Player Character rather than his current Health Points. Until cured, this reduces both his Maximum Health Points and the number of Health Points which can be cured.

One aspect of the Fallout computer games that the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Starter Set does not cover is crafting. In Fallout 4 and the other games, the Player Character can craft almost everything—arms, armour, food and beverages, and so on. This falls outside of the remit of the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Starter Set, but the ‘Starter Set Rulebook’ does include a lengthy list of equipment which includes plenty of the various items seen in the computer game. It also covers Junk—if not necessarily what to do with it—and also Magazines, for example, Astoundingly Awesome Tales, Massachusetts Medical Journal, and Tumblers Today. When read, these provide a single one-time bonus or Perk that can also be made permanent if the Player Character uses the Perk and learns it when he next gains a level.

The ‘Starter Set Quest: Once Upon a Time in the Wasteland’ presents a three-part mini-campaign that begins with an investigation of a vault and continues with a trek across and under the dangerous lands of the Commonwealth to Diamond City—Boston that was—and discovery of secrets about the setting. Each chapter should take a session or two to play through. It begins in a slight awkward fashion, with all of the Player Characters facing each other in a circle, in a potential stand-off outside the entrance to Vault 95. Each heard screams and the sound of gunfire and decided to investigate. However, the scenario uses this situation to get the players to talk about their characters by getting the Game Master to ask each of them a question. In the process, the players get an idea of who the other characters are and the characters are pushed towards co-operating with each other, potentially a problem given that they are such a diverse lot. This is only the beginning of the staging advice in ‘Starter Set Quest: Once Upon a Time in the Wasteland’, which does not overwhelm the Game Master with the rules, but eases both her and her players into the 2d20 System step-by-step.

The scenario also has some nice nods to the computer game, such as being able to befriend a canine companion and the Player Characters get to explore several of the signature location types found in the computer game—a vault, some sewers, a lone warehouse, and of course, Diamond City. There are moments too, for each of the Player Character types to shine, such as the Super Mutant interacting with fellow Super Mutants in order to avoid a fight or the Ghoul holding off some Feral Ghouls that will not attack him. The initial scenes are more action and combat-based, but later on, the players have plenty of room for roleplay and interaction, especially in Diamond City. There are also opportunities for the Player Characters to improve as well. The campaign only has the one side quest, and it is possible to complete that before accepting it from the NPC, but by the end, the Player Characters will either have established themselves in the Commonwealth or be left a challenging villain they still have to track down and defeat. The latter though, lies beyond of the scope of ‘Starter Set Quest: Once Upon a Time in the Wasteland’, and the Game Master will need to develop that herself. Although there are notes on possible sequels, the scenario stands alone and complete by itself.

Physically, the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Starter Set is decently presented. The dice are nice and chunky, the character sheets well done, and both of the ‘Starter Set Rulebook’ and ‘Starter Set Quest: Once Upon a Time in the Wasteland’ are easy to read and come with plenty of illustrations. The only thing lacking physically, is a map or two.

There is a lot in The Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Starter Set that fans of the Fallout 4 and the other computer games will recognise and enjoy engaging with, whilst the rules are easily explained and staged to make both learning and teaching them an easy process, all backed up with a solid scenario. The result is that the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Starter Set is a very good introduction to both the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game and the post-apocalyptic setting of the Commonwealth.

—oOo—

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

Slasher Serial

There is someone stalking us. Someone faceless or wearing a mask that hides his features, makes him anonymous, who wants us dead. He will catch us. He will slice us. He will stab us. He will play elaborate pranks on us. Pranks that do not make us laugh, but make us die. Then he will fade into the background, allowing a moment of respite to recover, only to come stalking out of the darkness, relentless, unstoppable. Picking us off, one by one. Perhaps always targeting the same person. Again, and again. All for reasons only he understands. Perhaps he has a weakness, something that will stop his unflagging hunt for you all. What will it take for you to survive? What will it take to stop him? What will you tell your family, your friends, your children about this determined horror? This ‘Slasher’ insistent upon bringing your life to end? Nothing? Or reveal the truth? Or let the trauma of your experience fall upon their heads until the Slasher from your youth comes looking for them and they realise that it was all real…

The slasher film is a subgenre of horror films that involves one or more killer stalking and killing people with knives and other sharp implements. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Child’s Play, Scream, and I Know What You Did Last Summer are considered to be classics of the subgenre and most of them have spawned sequels and even franchises of their own, as well as books, games, and more. It is the idea of the Slasher film as a franchise complete with a returning Slasher such as Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, and Chucky that is explored in SHIVER Slasher: Generation Murder.

SHIVER Slasher: Generation Murder is a stalking, slashing, stabbing sourcebook and campaign for Shiver – Role-playing Tales in the Strange & the Unknown, the horror roleplaying game published by Parable Games. It not only analyses the Slasher subgenre, but also provides six different scenarios all from the subgenre and different eras of the subgenre. These can be run as a single campaign with generational play, the players creating and roleplaying characters who are related to or descendants of the characters who were victims of a Slasher in the previous scenario. The playthrough of each film or scenario follows the structure of the Slasher film, with its advance and retreat format and its building of terror, all to a final confrontation with the Slasher. In turn, they take the Player Characters from the nineteen thirties to the twenty-tens, via the nineteen fifties, eighties, nineties, and noughties, forcing them to confront a different type of Slasher each time. Any one of the six scenarios in SHIVER Slasher: Generation Murder could be run as a single one-shot, but ideally not, because in-between, the survivors will pass on an inheritance to subsequent Player Characters. In effect, the entirety of the campaign in SHIVER Slasher: Generation Murder can be seen as one big Slasher film, with the inheritance interludes between each scenario as the only respite.

Although the campaign in SHIVER Slasher: Generation Murder has its own Slasher(s), the supplement handily categorises the various types as monsters that the Game Master can use them in scenarios of her own creation. So, for the Jason Vorhees or Michael Myers type there is the Unstoppable Force, the Supernatural Terror for Freddy Kreuger or the Candyman, and even the Apex for the Xenomorph or the Predator, which obviously points to a different interpretation of certain Science Fiction film series. There are full stats for all of these and discussion too, of possible attacks and signature weapons, and of course, resistances and weaknesses, the discovery of the latter typically enabling the Player Characters to defeat their Slasher. Lastly, there are some thought upon what the Slasher is going to look like, what makes his appearance iconic. The advice here is fairly broad, but in that, it certainly fits the horror subgenre.

The inter-generational nature of the campaign in SHIVER Slasher: Generation Murder is handled via ‘The Inheritance System’. This starts with the players deciding upon why their characters or one of the characters in their group has inherited the ire of the Slasher stalking them. This can be due to a curse, a transgression, or a prophecy, but whatever the cause the legacy means that they will inherit two things—a Boon and a Cost. A Boon can be an artefact or wisdom, a Cost a certain trauma or a fear. An artefact might be a Lucky Rabbit’s Foot or a Diary; the Wisdom might be First Aid Skills or knowledge that ‘The Truth is Out There’; the Trauma could be Fear Paralysis or Panic Attacks; and the Fear could be of Fire or Masks. The campaign makes use of these and more.

The campaign in SHIVER Slasher: Generation Murder presents six very different scenarios. Each is very nicely formatted, including a set-up, suggested characters for use as both Player Characters and extra NPCs, a Classification Board, details of what the Director knows, enemies, weapons, and items, the epilogue, and the Doom Events. The Doom Events are the four events per scenario that can be triggered over the course of the script, whilst the Classification Board categorises the scenario. Actually the ‘SHIVER Board of Classification’, for each scenario it lists the length of play time, number of players required, Subgenre, Film Age Rating, Content Warning, Recommended Ability Level, and Watchlist. The latter includes the archetypal films that the script references and that the Game Master should watch for inspiration. The six are all quite linear in terms of story and lengthy too, so will probably take two sessions to play through.

The campaign opens with a prequel, ‘The Quiet Isle’. It is set in the 1920s and inspired by King Kong and Cannibal Holocaust. The Player Characters are the cast and crew of the groundbreaking film, The Lost Temple. Groundbreaking because it is going to be shot on film with the new technology. However, despite the director having sent out an advanced scouting party to get things set up on what is a lost world, by the time the Player Characters get there, it seems to have doubled down on being abandoned. Even getting to the base and the film sets is fraught with danger, and that is before things begin to go badly wrong. And that is all whilst the director is trying to get scenes shot. The scenario switches into a big chase sequence as the Player Characters try to get out of the ancient temple below the island. The scenario would be easier to run if there was a map of the sequence and it feels more Indiana Jones than King Kong in places, but it sets everything up for what is to come. This includes the villain of the whole campaign and a secret organisation with an interest in what he will doing in the next one hundred years! Its filmic nature also means that there is scope for a crossover with the publisher’s other anthology-campaign, SHIVER Blockbuster: Legends of the Silver Scream.

It leaps forward to the fifties with ‘Static Zone’. The setting is small town America and the inspiration is Stephen King’s It and Channel Zero. Thus, the Player Characters are children and the subject matter is the technological marvel of the age—television. They get to explore the town of Wayville and get a hint of what the lives are like for some of the adults in small town America. In this case, living in a box that is suburban and conservative. As children they do get see behind the façade, if only a little, and may gather a few clues that might be useful in the second part of the scenario. This takes place behind the television screen, first in an unreal reflection of the Player Characters’ own home life, then wider suburbia, and lastly, in a series of very dark versions of children’s television programmes. They will encounter dangerous mannequins, cartoon bullies, a killer pig, and Chippy, an axe-wielding maniac, who could be a man in a beaver costume or a big, animated beaver! Thematically, ‘Static Zone’ takes the conservatism of the fifties and gives it very scary twist.

The given inspiration for the next part is Alien and Stage Fright, but at times it touches a little on The Running Man as well as video nasties. Moving into the eighties, ‘Curse of the Owlman’ shares some of the unreality of ‘Static Zone’, but this time of film-making rather than television. The Player Characters are only a little older, teenagers in their school’s Audio/Visual Club who sneak into a film studio shut down following a series of on-set deaths, for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a never before released film. Unfortunately, there is a very reason as to why the film was never released, which the Player Characters discover as the Slasher on-screen climbs out into the screening room and begins chasing them through the studio, including across sound stages which are set up just like they have seen on the screen! There is more of a mystery to this scenario and some puzzles to be solved before the final confrontation and the Owlman is sucked back onto the silver screen!

As the title of the fourth scenario suggests, ‘Be Kind, Rewind’ is all about VHS video cassettes. Set in the nineties and inspired by Saw and Squid Game, the Player Characters are now adults, looking for a ‘get-rich-quick scheme and desperate to sign up for a business conference promising wealth and success, held at a rundown Las Vegas-style hotel undergoing renovation. The villain of the piece, Mister Flick, only appears on screen for most of the scenario as the Player Characters ascend the hotel being made to play one deadly game after another. The scenario does involve scenes of torture that the Player Characters will need to find a way to stop, typically by winning the various games.

A cross between Terminator and Bubba Ho-tep, though there also hints of the novel, The Thursday Murder Club, ‘Fear, Scream-Lined’ takes place in the noughties at Shaded Pines, a retirement village. The Player Characters are retirees, members of the ‘Midnight Mystery Society’ to stave off the boredom of life in the highly regulated community, when the leader of their group goes missing. Investigating—or rather, being overly nosy—ends with them all following in her footsteps and receiving personalised care in the Shaded Pines’ medical facilities. Investigating further reveals that the retirement home is a front for a secret project to create the next evolution in fear, a biomechanical homunculus capable of transforming into the other Slashers. Which in this case means those Chippy, Mister Flick, and the Owlman! Of course, the creation turns on the creator in the final scene before the Player Characters have to battle it in the laboratory. This is weirdly creepy and made all the more challenging by the players having to roleplay retirees.

The campaign comes to a head in the last and final scenario, ‘Re-Slasher-Ed’. Combining Cabin in the Woods, Monster Squad, and Freddy vs Jason, it brings back the Slasher for 2010s at ‘Slash-fest 201X’, a convention dedicated to the horror subgenre and the works of a late director renowned for his horror films. It unsurprising that this final scenario is self-referential, with room for Player Characters from previous instalments to star as attendees much as Slashers from those previous episodes do, and there are plenty of callbacks to those instalments along with room for more. These include a playdate with Chippy and facing Mister Flick in a virtual realm, all the Player Characters have a final showdown with the villain behind it all. It brings the campaign to a decent close, but is less useful as a standalone affair given that it references so much of the rest of the book.

Physically, SHIVER Slasher: Generation Murder is another good-looking book from Parable Games. Although there are moments of respite, the artwork looms out of the darkness at you, cartoonishly horrifying in its depiction of the monsters and maniacs that will threaten one set of Player Characters after another. Unfortunately, it does need an edit in places and the writing feels a little rushed.

Unfortunately, SHIVER Slasher: Generation Murder does not work quite as well as the publisher’s other shared anthology campaign, SHIVER Blockbuster: Legends of the Silver Scream. Whereas in SHIVER Blockbuster: Legends of the Silver Scream, the players are roleplaying the same characters from one film or scenario to the next, although performing a different role each time, in SHIVER Slasher: Generation Murder, the players are not roleplaying the same characters in each of its scenarios. They are roleplaying different characters, some or all of whom are related to characters who appeared in a previous scenario. They are also playing in different eras, decades apart, with each scenario showcasing a different type of Slasher each time. Whilst there is the connection of the villain between scenarios, the overall connection between the scenarios is not as strong or as immediate because of the campaign framework. Obviously, the supplement has to showcase the different types of Slasher and different types of Slasher particular to each era, but this weakens the connections between the scenarios and the campaign, because unlike the film franchises which inspire the supplement, there is no horrifying realisation that Michael Myers or Freddy Kreuger has come back from the grave to hunt us down again.

Conceptually, SHIVER Slasher: Generation Murder is a great idea, but the supplement really shows how difficult that idea is to bring to fruition and make it engaging for the players. This is not to say that the idea is unplayable or indeed, that SHIVER Slasher: Generation Murder is unplayable. Rather that ultimately, SHIVER Slasher: Generation Murder is easier to run as an anthology of disconnected Slasher scenarios than as a connected campaign.

—oOo—

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

Solitaire: Innsmouth: The Stolen Child

It begins in simple, almost Film Noir fashion. There is not much call for a Private Investigator right now in Arkham. So, both cases and funds are light when the woman comes knocking at your office door. Her son, Lester, has been kidnapped, she says. Her husband did it, along with his family, and they have fled back to their hometown of Innsmouth. She wants you to get him back, but warns you that it will not be easy. The people of Innsmouth are strange, likely members of a cult, and do not take kindly to outsiders. She suggests that perhaps they can be bribed with gold, so obsessed are with the precious metal, but otherwise, you need to be careful. You promise you will be and so you find yourself ashore in the dilapidated, blighted town on the New England coast, your senses assailed by the smell of fish and the sight of buildings that were once a sign of wealth gone to seed and decrepitude. Can you rescue Lester from one of the most notorious towns in Lovecraft County? Can you find any sign of the previous investigator that the woman hired, only a week ago? Can you ‘Escape from Innsmouth’?

Innsmouth: The Stolen Child puts you in the flat shoes a Private Investigator hired to look into a kidnapping of a young boy in one of H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous creations, the town described in his short story, The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Published by Blue Fox Gamebooks following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is a solo adventure book in the mould of the Fighting Fantasy series of solo game books as typified by The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. In fact, it is only slightly more complex than the Fighting Fantasy series and requires no more than a pair of six-sided dice and paper and pencil to play. Your character has seven attributes. These are Health, Speed, Accuracy, Stealth, Detection, and Power. Speed is how quick you are in terms of reaction time and running; Accuracy is aim and precision; Stealth is hiding and quiet movement; Detection is both spotting things and reading people; and Power is brute strength. In addition, your character also has Conspicuousness, measuring how much you stand out and bring attention to yourself. Health is set at a value of fifteen and is likely to go down over the course of the investigation, whilst Conspicuousness is set at a starting value of four and will go up and down, and even reset if your character changes his appearance. The value of the other attributes are determined by rolling a single die and adding six to each. They will not change over the course of the investigation.

Mechanically, Innsmouth: The Stolen Child is simple. For most of the attributes, you roll two six-sided dice and if the result is equal to, or lower than the value of the attribute, you succeed. Otherwise, you fail. This is reversed for Conspicuousness, where rolling higher than its value means that you have not been spotted. Combat is fast and deadly, especially when firearms are involved. Attack order is determined by Speed, successfully hitting by Accuracy, and damage by weapon. Firearms have a chance of killing a target with one shot. Damage is deducted from the Health of the character or NPC. The character does have a limited inventory and can carry and find rations, effectively the equivalent of packed lunches, which will restore Health if eaten.

Innsmouth: The Stolen Child consists of six hundred paragraphs and within moments of stepping off the boat in Innsmouth harbour, you are presented with hard choices. Investigate some crates on the wharves even though opening them might cause a noise and raise Conspicuousness? Deal with a man begging for death? Approach a solitary man sitting on the dock of the bay? The story funnels your character from the drop-off point into Innsmouth town proper where it opens up again after making rendezvousing with a contact in the town. There is a pleasingly appropriate point here to get a change of clothes and so enable the character to reduce his Conspicuousness. The story unfolds around places familiar from Lovecraft’s short story, including encountering the bus that takes the narrator from Newburyport to Innsmouth, but the much of the action and investigation takes place in the Gilman House, Innsmouth’s only hotel of note. Getting in—and getting a room—is surprisingly easy, but searching the hotel is not. Getting out, especially with young Lester in tow, is harder. Sometimes finding a uniform to use as a disguise will help, but at other times, it will not, as the hotel staff will wander what you are doing. This is a nice touch, forcing the player to think about remaining in disguise or not.

Innsmouth: The Stolen Child is an adventure that presents the reader with a lot of detail and a lot of options to chose from as you move from paragraph to paragraph, often as many as four or five. Often, the reader will find that there is not enough time to do everything at a location before you are pushed onward into the investigation. Innsmouth: The Stolen Child does not have a Sanity mechanic, but there moments throughout the investigation where the character’s fear overcomes his judgement and he flees a scene, again likely in the process losing an opportunity to investigate there further. As with all solo adventure books, as you move from one paragraph entry to the next, you switch back and forth through the pages of the book getting glimpses of artwork and wondering how you might get to them in the story from amongst the maze of entries. Or not given the fact that that is a horror scenario and you want to get away unscathed.

Physically, Innsmouth: The Stolen Childis well presented and written. The artwork, all black and white, is decent.

Innsmouth: The Stolen Child is a big adventure that presents you with a lot of detail and options to explore, in which stealth through the Conspicuousness mechanic plays a big part, whilst not shying away from the deadliness of combat. It presents both an opportunity and a reason for the reader to want to visit and hopefully, escape from, the dread town of Innsmouth, and so make an entertainingly desperate return to The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

—oOo—

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

Friday Fantasy: Terror in the Streets

Terror in the Streets is perhaps one of the most mundane scenarios written for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay in recent times. In fact, there is nothing outré, weird, or even profane in the scenario, that is, unless the Game Master decides that is what she wants it to include. In which case, the scenario provides options to add aplenty. Otherwise, the Game Master could run it simply as a straight historical scenario and her players would be none the wiser that it is written for a fantasy roleplaying game with a certain reputation. Similarly, the author of Terror in the Streets breaks his track record of doing bad things with typically big things inspired by his childhood toys to English villages in the 1630s. Instead, he shifts the action to Paris and sets it against the background of the city’s political and religious turmoil as the Player Characters are hired to investigate the disappearances of a number of children from across the city. Yet despite that mundanity, Terror in the Streets is a terrific scenario, rich in historical detail background—decent enough to serve as the backdrop for further adventures in the city during the seventeenth century—and rife with real and interesting historical figures for the Player Characters to interact with, including the greatest and most powerful political figure of his age. However, Terror in the Streets suffers from a truly terrible problem of its own, one that can be almost, but not quite completely, be blamed upon the author. It cannot, though, be forgiven.

Terror in the Streets is published by Lamentations ofthe Flame Princess and fulfils a brief that was given to the author as, “Jack the Ripper, but 250 years early.” It is a murder mystery—inspired by historical events of thirty years before, the ‘Werewolf of Châlons’—involving the disappearances and then deaths of initially, four children from the streets of Paris. It is quickly followed by more as the rate of disappearances and deaths accelerates, driving the Player Characters to investigate ever deeper in an attempt to stop further murders and whatever it is that the murderer is planning. Clearly, Paris has a serial killer stalking its streets and alleyways, one who like Jack the Ripper did in London two-hundred-and-fifty-years later, taunts the authorities with a series of letters that hint at his motivations. Ostensibly, the Player Characters are hired by a Deputy Provost, one of several city officials reporting to the Provost of Paris, the king’s representative and governor of the city, though other set-ups are possible. The adventure opens on November 7th, 1630, and will be over by November 18th. The Player Characters have the freedom of the city to investigate as they like, first the deaths and then the letters. Similarly, the players are free to approach the investigation how they want and the scenario facilitates that with a very clean layout that makes everything easy to find by the Game Master and by not having the players roll for their characters to find clues. Instead, the focus is on interpreting them and using them to further the investigation and the story.

However, there is one issue that will hamper the Player Characters’ investigation—Paris. Getting around Paris is difficult, a city just two square miles, but threaded through with narrow streets and alleyways that makes getting anywhere slow and occasionally difficult, and this despite the fact that there are numerous taxi services that run throughout the city. Then there are the Parisians, who will grow increasingly fractious and give themselves over to mob rule, which will ultimately lead to city offices closing, Paris being shut down, and martial law being declared. This tension is measured through an ‘Unrest Die’, a large—ideally, the largest that the Game Master has—six-sided die which sits in the middle of the table where the players can see it. As the tension rises, the Game Master will adjust the die to the new face indicating the increase in tension. Thus, the players will be aware of the tension in both narrative terms, as portrayed by the Game Master, and in mechanical terms. It is, as the author acknowledges, very similar to the ‘Escalation Die’ used to track the degree of action in Pelgrane Press’ 13th Age.

The investigation is neatly organised into tautly detailed little scenes that are clearly presented on the page making each and every easy for the Game Master to run and expound upon as necessary. The smaller scenes are typically with the families of the missing children and thus pertinent to the exploration, whilst the longer, more detailed scenes and locations tend to be red herrings—a potential werewolf attack and the search of a townhouse belonging to the wizard, Alain de la Mare.* Much like the rest of the scenario, these scenes can be played mundane or magical. Thus, for the encounter with the werewolf if magic factors into the campaign, this yes, it is werewolf, but if the campaign is mundane, then the werewolf is a fake. The Author does give advice on the Player Character use of spells to gain information, in case they decide to go down that route. Ultimately, the efforts of the Player Characters’ investigation will reveal that Armand Jean du Plessis, First Duke of Richelieu, also known as Cardinal Richelieu, is connected to the murders, but how? There is potential at the end of the scenario for the Player Characters to actually gain a degree of influence over the most powerful man in France, for good or ill. They could actually change history here if the ‘Day of the Dupes’ does not end in the way it did in our history! That said, apart from these scant few hours when the Player Characters can leverage their knowledge into a proper favour, Cardinal Richelieu is described as constantly playing fourth dimensional Chess and will always be a step or three in front of whatever they have cooked up.

* Yes, this really is who you think it is meant to be. Just not living in Northampton.

The scenario is very well appointed and the Game Master ably supported. Besides the description and map of Paris, there are full stats and details of Cardinal Richelieu, details of the various taxi companies operating in the city, and a full discussion of the possible outcomes to the scenario.

There are also the various letters sent by the perpetrators as handouts, rare in a fantasy roleplaying game, and a table of encounters. For the most part, there are no stats provided for these, so the Game Master will need to provide these herself.

Lastly, Terror in the Streets closes with a quintet of appendices. The first, ‘La Perfide Angleterre’ provides an optional event involving an English spymaster who wants the Player Characters to smuggle a ring out from a prisoner currently being held in the Grand Châlet, which is also the headquarters of the Provost of Paris. The English spymaster simply calls himself ‘W’, so could be Sir Francis Walsingham as the appendix suggests. Which is odd, because Walsingham has been dead for forty years when the scenario starts. The second appendix gives a full description of the Grand Châlet, whilst the third is potentially the most fun. ‘Musketeers’ gives stats and details of the main characters from Alexander Dumas’ The Three Musketeers for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay and thus other retroclones. It opens up the possibility of Terror in the Streets being as a one-shot as an investigation in the style of The Three Musketeers using the given characters, but it also suggests that Terror in the Streets could be run using other roleplaying games set in the swashbuckling period, such as Musketeers vs. Cthulhu: A Simple Nightfall RPGBook, AllFor One: Régime Diabolique, Swordpoint: A Swashbuckling Roleplaying Zine, and Miseries & Misfortunes – Book 1: Roleplaying in 1648 France, though the scenario will require some historical adjustment as it is set in 1648 rather than 1630. The fourth appendix, ‘Comment t’appelles-tu?’ provides a list of ready names for NPCs in the scenario, whilst the firth appendix, ‘Maison Richelieu’, which describes the home of Cardinal Richelieu, should the Player Characters ever need to visit (or break in).

Physically, Terror in the Streets is very well presented. The artwork has a slightly scratchy, cartoonish quality to it, but is still decent, and the cartography is good.

So, what of its utterly awful problem? Terror in the Streets—beginning with the acronym for its title—contains a profusion of puns and bad humour that in places does not so much veer as leer into slightly poor taste. To be clear, this is no Asterion or Beware the Mindfuck, so not utterly tasteless, but the schoolboy humour and dad jokes of Terror in the Streets gets wearisome very quickly. That said, in comparison to both Asterion and Beware the Mindfuck, let there be no doubt that Terror in the Streets is a work of profound genius and skill.

Humour aside—and there is a lot to put aside—Terror in the Streets is a very good scenario, an engaging murder mystery with lots of historical flavour and detail and options to run with or without magic, depending on how fantastical the Game Master’s campaign actually is. The scenario is well written, well presented, and well, one of the best scenarios for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay.

—oOo—

DISCLAIMER: The author of this review is an editor who has edited titles for Lamentations of the Flame Princess on a freelance basis. He was not involved in the production of this book and his connection to both publisher and author has no bearing on the resulting review.

—oOo—

Lamentations of the Flame Princess will be at UK Games Expo which takes place on Friday, May 30th to Sunday June 1st, 2025.

Friday Faction: Art by Nohr

Johan Nohr has had an almost unparalleled effect upon the roleplaying home. Together with Pelle Nilsson, he created Mörk Borg, the pitch-black pre-apocalyptic fantasy roleplaying game which brings a Nordic death metal sensibility to the Old School Renaissance, designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing. Since its publication in 2019, has gone to become the basis of several other roleplaying games, such Cy-Borg, Pirate Borg, and Death in Space, as well as a host of other supplements, scenarios, fanzines, and other third-party content. It has not only retained its popularity, but become a firm fixture of the Old School Renaissance hobby, even if it does not share the same origins. In particular, Johan Nohr created the look of Mörk Borg, beginning with the distinctive chromium yellow of its cover to the swathes of deep black and neon pink inside. The look and style of Mörk Borg is art punk, inspired by the post-punk rock sophistication that drew on the theory of art.

Art by Nohr, subtitled ‘Drawings and Doodles by Johan Nohr, Made Between 2006 and 2033’ and published by Stockholm Kartell following a successful Kickstarter campaign, is part retrospective, part showcase of the graphic designer and illustrator’s work from before, during, and after Mörk Borg. It is a coffee table artbook, that in truth is dominated by his art for Mörk Borg and other roleplaying games, but there is more than that just here, some it of simple sketches, some of it more. Some of it is simply annotated, most left to speak for itself. From the beginning there is always a jagged edge to Nohr’s style, figures and monsters lurking in the gloom, such as ‘The Skull Crone. Malevolent forest spirit I made up when living in the woods’, the annotation a story in itself, the old woman caught in the shadows of the tall trees, clawed hands reaching out, the skulls piled atop her head hiding her face in their shadows as green flames flicker from their eye sockets. Others seem to stagger at the viewer, whilst other images draw on classic heroic heavy metal fantasy, great horned helmets and mighty weapons, but here the weapons are cracked and stained through use, the helmets keeping the warriors anonymously inhuman. Witches wail and goblins cackle, strange figures stare accusingly at the reader.

‘Barkhäxan’ looks at an earlier collaboration with Pelle Nilsson, a folk horror roleplaying game, a startling simple black and white suggestion of horror and the unknown that contracts sharply with the more widely seen Mörk Borg style. This is widely showcased in the book, with covers and internal illustrations from titles both official and third-party. Some are accompanied by fuller explanations, such as that given for ‘Wickheads’ who have lanterns for heads and who lurk in the dark only for their lights to blaze and blind, before going dark again and striking at the temporarily sightless. They are shown in four images, charting the development of the creatures. For the Mörk Borg there are interesting images of books that have never appeared, such as ‘The End’ which would have depicted the ‘36 Miseries’ which marked the end of the world. The illustrations for third-party both show how popular Mörk Borg has been and act as an illustrated catalogue. The artwork for Cy_Borg is given a similar treatment, but typically less monochrome and more frenetic in its use of colour and energy, but clearly a Mörk Borg-style game.

Nohr changes tack for Into the Odd Remastered with a more subdued style that consists of collages that depict a world of industrial horror and mystery. There is a subtlety to this not seen in the punchiness of the illustrations elsewhere in the book. It is a shame that there is not more of this, both here and in other roleplaying games. ‘Other Projects’ covers a range of promotional posters, album covers, and other roleplaying products. Other sections highlight the other sometimes near illegible typography employed in Mörk Borg, whilst the most fun are the ‘Cardboard Drawings’ that Nohr decorates packages he sends out, whilst the artbook comes to a close with some of the maps he drew for Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days and its predecessor.

Physically, Art by Nohr is an imposing book. All of the artwork is crisply reproduced and it is fantastic to see so much of it presented in double its original size given that its typical format was digest-sized. It also provides an opportunity for the reader to see a lot of art that can only be found on the covers of hard-to-find books and fanzines. Fans of the Old School Renaissance and fans of the artpunk will both enjoy this book, but ultimately Art by Nohr is definitely a book for fans of Johan Nohr and for Mörk Borg, who will appreciate seeing the collection and development of the artpunk style.

—oOo—

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

Companion Chronicles #15: Feast of the Forest

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

—oOo—

What is the Nature of the Quest?

Feast of the Forest is a scenario for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition.

It is a full colour, thirty-one page, 16.28MB PDF.

The layout is tidy and it is reasonably illustrated.

Where is the Quest Set?

Feast of the Forest is a one-shot (or potential campaign starter) scenario for Pendragon, Sixth Edition. It takes place in East Anglia during the Anarchy Period.

Who should go on this Quest?

Feast of the Forest includes six pre-generated Player-knights.

What does the Quest require?

Feast of the Forest requires the Pendragon, Sixth Edition rules or the Pendragon Starter Set. The Hunting, Folklore, and Horsemanship skills will prove useful during the play of the scenario.

Where will the Quest take the Knights?

Feast of the Forest opens with the Player-knights ambushing a Saxon convoy containing a silver-laden wagon. Barely do the Player-knights have time to celebrate their success before they are presented with a moral dilemma—do they let the survivors go or do they put them to the sword? In other words, are they Merciful or are they Cruel? There are benefits to either course of action, but there are also penalties too. This is the first of many such tests in the scenario as the Player-knights first discover that the wagon was not carrying taxes, but tithes for the church and that has its own repercussions… They are forced to flee from the scene of the crime and deeper into the fens as first they are pursued by angry Saxons, and then by a creature out of Myth that literally hounds them and drives them into fear and hauntings.

The middle part of the scenario involves a radical shift in the point of view as the players roleplay villagers under attack by bandits. The realisation should come at the end of these scenes that the bandits are no mere NPCs, but the Player-knights of the previous scenes, and that the Player-knights are neither heroes nor embody chivalric ideals. Although jarring, this shift is a good way of showing how villainous the Player-knights actually are, rather than forcing their players to roleplay them committing immoral acts. Nor are they anti-heroes. They are the villains of the piece, morally compromised and very far from the oaths they took as knights. Already, the Player-knights’ decisions and actions will have had serious personal consequences. Mechanically, their acts of cruelty, sacrilege, cowardice, and so on, have earned each Player-knight ‘Curse Points’, representing his spiritual corruption and penalising skills, Traits, and ultimately his Honour. It is possible to find a path of Redemption by committing merciful acts, making confession, and the like. This is what the last part of the scenario is about. The Player-knights are given the opportunity to undertake a number of tests that will lead to a great battle, all of which will put them on the path to atonement, though the exact details of that path lie outside of the scenario. That path—and even getting to that path—is not certain and no Player-knight is under any obligation to follow it.

Feast of the Forest does require some set-up. The scenario works best when the players begin unaware exactly as to the true nature of the knights they are going to play. This requires some adjustment to the character sheets to keep that information hidden until after the scenes in the village where the players take the roles of the villagers being attacked by the knights. That way, the players and their knights can come to the conclusion that they are not heroes rather than being informed of it right from the start. The scenario is also quite complex and there is a lot to keep track of by the Game Master with the various tests, the accumulated Curse Points, and the big battle at the end to keep track of.

Should the Knights ride out on this Quest?

Feast of the Forest is a short, but far straightforward adventure that does something that Pendragon typically asks the players never to do. That is, play the villains. It neatly sidesteps the issue of having to roleplay villainous acts, instead focusing in the immediate consequences of said acts. Primarily, it is a one-shot, though one that is slightly too long for a single session or convention scenario given its complexity, but has potential as a campaign starter where the Player-knights are on the path to redemption. It would be interesting to see such a path explored in a sequel. Fear of the Forest is the antithesis of a classic Pendragon scenario, presenting a rare and intriguing exploration of the anti-Chivalric knight whilst suggesting that there might be a path of out of The Anarchy and the darkness.

Miskatonic Monday #353: Fear Jet 1975 – Hijack!

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

—oOo—

Name: Fear Jet 1975 – Hijack!

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Andy Miller

Setting: 1975 USA and beyond...

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

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

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

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Mad Men meets the Mythos

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

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

# Pre-built tension and secrets

# Extensive playtest notes

# Xanthophobia

# Aerophobia

# Katagelophobia

Cons

# Very similar sequel to Fear Jet

# Challenging to run as a convention scenario

# What happens next?

Conclusion

# Mad Men meets the Mythos in mid-air

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