Friday Fantasy: The Darkness Under The Water Foul

Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part is notable for two particular facts. One is written and published by Heidi Gygax Garland—yes, the daughter of E. Gary Gygax—and her husband, Erik Gygax Garland. The other is that it is a frustratingly bad module, a linear dungeon design with almost no plot, limited player agency, and a majority of its encounters designed to do nothing more than impede and confound both players and characters. Published by Gaxland Games, it is a module written for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and Player Characters of First Level. Conversion, of course, to the rules of the Game Master’s choice is far from challenging, but the PDF version of the scenario is accompanied with conversions for both Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition and Castles & Crusades. In addition, the PDF version includes some setting background that the module itself does not. This details Sørholde, a warm, dry, and fortified Dwarven port-city sitting on the island of The Dundel. In Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part, the Player Characters were hired by a famed auctioneer to rescue a local noblewoman, the Lady Heiress. She had been kidnapped by Crikpaw and was being held hostage on Governor’s Island, which lies north of Sørholde. In addition to returning with the Lady Heiress, safe and sound, the Player Characters were expected to return with the signet ring from the house of Ukoh An—which Crikpaw is searching for—and ideally with Crikpaw. Dead or alive. Unfortunately, none of that was actually possible in Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part with the module ending with the Lady Heiress sailing off into the distance. Which leads us to Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul.

As the title suggests, Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul expands upon Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part. Or rather, it is a sequel rather than an expansion, since it is set very much after the events of Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part. The good news is that Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul is better than Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part. The bad news is that it is not much better than Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part. Further, it does nothing to advance the plot of Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part, such as it was.

Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul is designed for Player Characters of Second Level and opens with them returning to Governors island, the scene of previous adventure in which they not so much fail their objectives as were not allowed to attempt them by the authors. They have been overcome by need to return the pair of keys they were given during one of the first encounters in that adventure. The keys draw them through the wreckage of the dungeon to what is one of the most idiotic and pointless encounters in the adventure. This is the room with the paddling pool in which floats a rubber duck and which contains surprisingly deep water at the bottom of which is a locked gate. In the description of this room in Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part, the Dungeon Master is expected to advise her players that, “It becomes obvious that the gate is unreachable at this time”. Which begs the question, when will it be reachable and what does it actually add to the adventure?

Well, as it turns out, with Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul, it is now possible to open the gate because the Player Characters have the keys. The problem with this is that the keys were gained by the Player Characters during the playthrough of Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part. So, that begs the question, why did the keys not draw the Player Characters back to that room with the paddling pool and the rubber duck when they were actually on the island the first time?

The Player Characters are free to wander through the rest of the dungeon, effectively tramping through the debris that they behind on their first visit. Thankfully, the truly stupid encounter with the Bucket of Fish is gone, having been replaced by an infinitely superior empty room. There are some combat encounters to be had along the way, but they are neither here nor there, and definitely far from interesting. In fact, the only interesting encounter is at the end of the dungeon with the female Barbarian depicted on the module’s front cover. Or rather it would have been interesting had the authors given anything more to do than just say hello. Unless she is there to fight the Player Characters, it is up to the Dungeon Master to decide what her motivation is.

That though still leaves what is below the room with the paddling pool and the rubber duck now that the Player Characters can gain access. There are six rooms or encounters below the paddling pool, three of which are combat encounters, two of which provide a little colour to the dungeon and one of the latter that has a sense of having had purpose. The final encounter is the finale of Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul. Here the Player Characters are faced with a big puzzle, a series of riddles that are not all that challenging. If the Player Characters solve the riddles, they cause a crypt to open. What climbs out is a Lich. A Lich with over one hundred Hit Points, numerous resistances and immunities, the spellcasting abilities of an Eighteenth Level spellcaster, and Legendary Actions, one of which is Frightful Presence, which the Lich will immediately use upon climbing out of his crypt. Of course, since the Player Characters are second Level, they have no hope of making the Saving Throw and withstanding the effects of Frightful Presence. Nor are they meant to and even if they could, it does not matter, because the Lich simply thanks the Player Characters for releasing him and vanishes.

What this Lich wants and where he is going, the scenario does not say. How he relates to the plot of Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part, if at all, the scenario does not say. It is not made clear that there is a connection between the Lich and the keys that drew the Player Characters back to Governors Island. Of course, the players and their characters are going to feel as if they have been duped. Which is correct, because they have. That said, they have earned some Experience Points and gained some treasure and had an experience, just not a very satisfying or enlightening one.

As an expansion to Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part, there is nothing in Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul that actually expands it in terms of plot or story. For that reason, there is no need for the Dungeon Master to even consider buying it. The only thing it does is add some rooms behind a gate that the Player Characters cannot under any circumstances get through unless the Dungeon Master does purchase Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul. And if she does and then she decides to run Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul, then out of twenty-four pages, only six pages, detailing two rooms, actually matter. One of those is the room with the paddling pool and the rubber duck, and the other is the room with the crypt for the Lich. Anything else is window dressing at best, distractions or delaying tactics at worst. They simply do not serve any purpose or add anything to the scenario. In fact, those six pages could have been shortened further by not including the stats for the Lich, since is mechanically and narratively impervious to the Player Characters.

Physically, Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul is not badly presented. The artwork is reasonable, the cartography is decent, and the two handouts are divided between the plain and the intriguing. It does need an edit.

Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul is an expansion to Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part in two senses. One is physical, adding further rooms to the dungeon in Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part. The other is in terms of questions and answers. As in the number of questions it raises as to what is going on, what the plot or story is, and so on, that it raises, and the number of answers it fails to give. In terms of narrative, it does not so much as expand the narrative of Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part, such as it is, as to bolt on another narrative that it does not do anything with. That said, there is the glimmer of inventiveness in the design of the puzzle in the scenario’s anticlimactic finale, but as for the rest of Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul? Well, it is simply not worth the effort to read as it adds nothing to what was already a poor scenario and really, the authors very much needed a developer or editor or friendly voice to point out the very many flaws of both Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part and Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul.

in the event that any Dungeon Master is attracted by the names attached to Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part or Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul, she should avoid both. Both are frustratingly poor designs and Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul feels like a bauble stuck on a rubber duck.

Magazine Madness 44: Senet Issue 18

The gaming magazine is dead. After all, when was the last time that you were able to purchase a gaming magazine at your nearest newsagent? Games Workshop’s White Dwarf is of course the exception, but it has been over a decade since Dragon appeared in print. However, in more recent times, the hobby has found other means to bring the magazine format to the market. Digitally, of course, but publishers have also created their own in-house titles and sold them direct or through distribution. Another vehicle has been Kickststarter.com, which has allowed amateurs to write, create, fund, and publish titles of their own, much like the fanzines of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest. The resulting titles are not fanzines though, being longer, tackling broader subject matters, and more professional in terms of their layout and design.

—oOo—

Senet is a print magazine about the craft, creativity, and community of board gaming. Bearing the tagline of “Board games are beautiful”, it is about the play and the experience of board games, it is about the creative thoughts and processes which go into each and every board game, and it is about board games as both artistry and art form. Published by Senet Magazine Limited, each issue promises previews of forthcoming, interesting titles, features which explore how and why we play, interviews with those involved in the process of creating a game, and reviews of the latest and most interesting releases. Senet is also one of the very few magazines about games to actually be available for sale on the high street.

As its cover suggests, with the publication of Senet Issue 18, the magazine reached its fifth anniversary and as its cover hints at, there is an Ancient Egypt in the issue. Or rather, the article in the issue that explores a theme in board games is Ancient Egypt. Which is appropriate given the name of the game magazine and it should be no surprise that alongside that article, the magazine explores the history of Senet, the Ancient Egyptian game that inspired the magazine and its name. That the magazine has lasted so long and appeared on the magazine shelves on your local high street deserves to be celebrated and so Senet Issue 18 feels just a bit special.

Published in the spring of 2025, the issue adheres to its tried and tested format. Thus it opens with ‘Behold’, highlighting some of the then forthcoming games with a preview and a hint or two of what to expect. The most intriguing of the titles previewed here is Onada, a solo wargame that tells of the story of Hiroo Onada, a Japanese soldier who held out in the jungle of a Philippine island for almost thirty years after World War 2 ended. The player has to gather resources to survive, but doing so alerts the local inhabitants and eventually the authorities. Plus, he must deal with the problems of being alone for so long. The most cute title is Knitting Circle, Flatout Games’ cosy game about knitting in which the cats get to collect the stitches and the most fun game is Interstellar Adventures: The Sincerest Form of Flattery, an ‘escape room’ style game from Minty Noodles Ltd. that combines the play of solo adventure books and looks like a comic book. The other opening sections of the magazine are surprisingly good. The regular column of readers’ letters, ‘Points’, continues to be disappointingly constrained to a single page, waiting for room to expand and build into something more, yet covers a diverse range of matters including the lack of books about board games. Or rather the lack of books about board games on the shelves of bookshops. Actually, there have several such books that have made it to the those shelves, but they are not always easy to find. That said, coverage of such books might be a welcome addition in the pages of Senet. With ‘For Love of the Game’ the journey of the designer Tristian Hall continues towards the completion and publication of his Gloom of Kilforth—and beyond. In ‘At Your Service’, he discusses logistics and fulfilment and dealing with the companies that provide such services, including shipping and delivery. This is informative and gives the publisher’s point of view when normally we only experience this part as customers.

Every issue consists of two interviews, one with an artist and one with a designer, plus an article about a theme in games and an article about a mechanic in games, and of course, Senet Issue 17 is no exception. The tried and tested formula begins with ‘Family Value’, Alexandra Sonechkina’s interview with designer, Ellie Dix. She is perhaps best known for The Shakespeare Game and The Jane Austen Game—both from Laurence King Publishing Ltd. and both of which can be found on the shelves of high street shops—and having won the Hasbro Women Innovators of Play contest in 2023. As well as discussing her gaming background and her favourite mechanism, deduction, Dix gets to explain her high regard for the family game. Or rather, the good family board game, since too often, she feels that the games that families play are terrible. It would have been interesting to have had her suggest some suitable games, but otherwise this is a solid interview with a designer that it is perhaps not as well known as the names that the magazine usually interviews. Dan Jolin interviews the artist Jeremy Nguyen in ‘New York State of Mind’. It is a less interesting piece because the artist has to date only illustrated three games—Inner Compass and Santa Monica, both from Alderac Entertainment Group’, and WizKids’ Rebuilding Seattle. Nevertheless, Nguyen’s striking artwork, inspired by the ‘ligne claire’ or ‘clear line’ style defined and used by Hergé, the creator of The Adventures of TinTin, is shown to good effect that you expect a Belgian reporter and a small white dog to step into view.

The aforementioned theme in Senet Issue 18 is Ancient Egypt and Dan Thurot’s ‘Pyramid Schemes’ gets off by making a startling point that not all board games treat the subject matter very well and this view comes from an expert, Doctor Julia Cromwell, an Egyptologist who specialises in tabletop games as a medium. She is critical of certain games, such as GameWorks SàRL’s Sobek that oversimplify Ancient Egypt, which either results in the flattening of the history or in the depiction of the people as stereotypes. Equally, she is positive about titles like Amun-Re from Alley Cat Games and Ankh: Gods of Egypt from CMON Global Limited, which acknowledge the differences between the Old and New Kingdoms, and Ergo Ludo Editions’ Pyramidice which brings the gods into play. It is clear from the piece that Ancient Egypt is a very popular theme with designers such as the prolific Reiner Knizia who has created multiple titles based on it with Tutankhamen from AMIGO, Ra from Alea, and Amun-Re amongst them. What these games all benefit from is familiarity. The pharaohs, the pyramids, the river Nile, hieroglyphics, mummies, and more are all undeniably well known and that makes games based on this theme all the more accessible.

As part of the article and for its anniversary, Senet Issue 18 also examines the history and significance of its namesake, the Ancient Egyptian board game, Senet. It is a fascinating article as much for what it cannot say as what it does. It suggests a possible theme to the game, but the absence is really the lack of rules to its play because nobody knows what they are. The other celebration in the issue is the ‘Fifth Anniversary Top Choice Special’ which collates ‘Senet’s Top Choice’ from each of the previous seventeen issues. It is nice to be reminded of them.

For the issue’s mechanic, Matt Thrower’s ‘Little Wars’ looks at skirmish games, board games and war games that are played at a smaller scale with a limited number of miniatures of figures per side. Their origins lie in H.G. Wells’ Little Wars rules and in more recent decades in roleplaying and Games Workshop’s War Hammer Fantasy Battles. Joseph McCullogh, the designer of Osprey Games’ Stargrave and Frostgrave provides an apt definition, “A skirmish game is wargame where you think about naming everyone on your team.” Although it looks at games as such as Star Wars: X-Wing from Fantasy Flight Games and Atomic Mass Games’ Star Wars: Shatterpoint, both based on a very popular intellectual property, it also devotes space to other and as it admits, stranger designs, like Max Fitzgerald’s Turnip28, Napoleonics-inspired post-apocalyptic rules that are in part about root vegetables, and Necromolds: Monster Battles, a game of modelling and squishing your miniatures from Necromolds LLC. The article though is not really about a mechanic, but a type of game, one that is examined here from outside of the wargaming hobby.

Senet’s reviews section, ‘Unboxed’ includes a look at Reiner Knizia’s then latest, Rebirth, published by Mighty Boards, a tile-laying design that is actually two board games in one and described as his elegant best. Survive the Island is Zygomatic’s update of Escape from Atlantis! from 1982 and described as an “’80s throwback”, whilst ‘Senet’s Top Choice’ for the issue is War Story: Occupied France, a game from Osprey Games with an interesting heritage. It is a collaboration between the designers of Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective and the Undaunted series. It combines elements of the war game with the solo gamebook to help drive the story along with the game play, which has elements of roleplay as much as guerrilla tactics.

As per usual, the last two columns in Senet Issue 18 are ‘How to Play’ and ‘Shelf of Shame’. For the former in ‘All for one and one against all’, James Nouch explores the ways in which different players view the play of games, especially in the face of skill imbalance between them. Lastly, the DJ, Andy Bush pulls a game from his ‘Shelf of Shame’. He delves back into gaming history to examine Magic Realm from 1979! He finds it thoroughly old-fashioned and overly complex such that he actually downloads a fan version of the rules for clarity, but still has fun.

Senet magazine always shows off the board games it previews and reviews to great effect, and Senet Issue 18 is no exception. It seems fitting as an anniversary issue that it a rather good read with the celebrations nicely understated. All of the articles are interesting and worth reading, with even the instalment of ‘For Love of the Game’ having something useful to say. Both ‘Pyramid Schemes’ and ‘Little Wars’ are informative and the standout articles in the issue. 

Miskatonic Monday #410: The Vanishing

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 Vanishing

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Raul Longoria

Setting: East Texas, 1997

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Sixteen-page, 1.01 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: A missing persons case casts a different colour on East Texas

Plot Hook: Investigate the town where missing students conducted a biology field trip

Plot Support: Staging advice, no pre-generated Investigators, some NPCs and wildlife, nine handouts, one map, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Scenario for one or two Investigators

# Pleasing sense of mouldering decline and distrust

# Seplophobia

# Chromophobia

# Nosophobia

Cons

# Pre-generated Investigators for Calamity in Drywater Canyon

# Set-up as to who is employing the Investigators muddled

# The presence and details of the missing students should play a bigger role
# Obvious threat

Conclusion

# Recognisable threat developed into an eerie ecological horror
# Set-up needs clarification and development, but otherwise a decent treatment of a classic Mythos monster
# Reviews from R’lyeh Recommends

Miskatonic Monday #409: Attenzione, Shub-niggurato!

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: Attenzione, Shub-niggurato!

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Wille Ruotsalainen

Setting: French-Italian border, 1945

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Twenty six-page, 2.03 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Episodic horror on the forgotten front

Plot Hook: Can the soldiers survive more than the horrors of war?

Plot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, three NPCs, four maps, and two Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Isolated, icy horror in the French alps

# Straightforward plotting

# Kinemortophobia

# Germanophobia

# Frigophobia

Cons

# Needs an edit

# Reads more like a narrative than a scenario

# Keeper will need to better develop the end of the scenario

# Does suggest that the Investigators might have to commit war crimes, but consequences left unexplored

Conclusion

# Heavily plotted survival horror that could have done with more investigation
# Too much focus on the monster not the monstrous

Tactics & Tales (Part I)

Let us be clear. 13th Age is Dungeons & Dragons. It offers a Dungeons & Dragons style of play. It is a Class and Level roleplaying game. It has the six traditional attributes, the traditional different Races of Dungeons & Dragons, and the various Classes of Dungeons & Dragons. It is even designed by the designers of Dungeons & Dragons. Not one edition of Dungeons & Dragons, but two editions of Dungeons & Dragons. It might even be called ‘Dungeons & Dragons 4.5’. What it calls itself is an ‘F20’ or ‘Fantasy 20’ roleplaying game, a roleplaying game derived from the family of Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying games. Yet it is also very much its own thing and has been from the start. When 13th Age was published in 2013, the hobby was in an uncertain place as it always is when it is between editions of Dungeons & Dragons. In 2013, Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition was done, never having been as well received as its predecessors, and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition had yet to appear, yet to make the splash that it did on Dungeons & Dragons’ fortieth anniversary in 2014, and yet to make its glorious ascent into the mainstream and acceptance as legitimate pastime. What was available then, was D&D Next, the playtest version of the next edition. It was into this liminal space that 13th Age slipped in 2013. Published by Pelgrane Press, 13th Age did what Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition also did. Which was to take the best features of the previous editions of Dungeons & Dragons and rework them. In the case of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, that would be to create the next edition of the venerable roleplaying game. In the case of 13th Age, that would be to combine its style of play with a style of play that had come from another wing of the hobby, one that was radical and all but anathema to Dungeons & Dragons—storytelling games. Certainly, not a direction that Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition was ever going to go in. The aim with 13th Age was to provide story and crunch, and so it is with 13th Age, Second Edition.

13th Age, Second Edition comes in two books, one a direct continuation of the other. The first is the 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook, which provides everything necessary for the players, including rules for character creation, the place of the characters in the world and their relationships with the Icons, the great powers of the age, the core mechanics, and combat, whilst the 13th Age Second Edition Gamemaster’s Guide contains a description of the Dragon Empire, the setting for 13th Age, advice on running the game, a bestiary, a treasury, and an introductory scenario. The emphasis in 13th Age is on the Player Characters and their exploits as heroes and legendary heroes to be, not just in the epic battles they will fight—and fight from First Level to Tenth Level, but on the epic stories that will be told in the process. The battles are the focus of the roleplaying game’s self-confessed ‘crunch’, providing detail and flavour whilst also making the battles fast-paced and exciting. The epic narrative or story-telling aspect of 13th Age is handled by making every single Player Character special with his own ‘One Unique Thing’ which sets him apart from everyone else in the Dragon Empire; by replacing skills with Backgrounds that broaden player choice, add depth to the setting, and enable flexibility in how they are used; and in linking each Player Character to two or three of the Icons, the great powers of the Dragon Empire in 13th Age, whose influence over the story can be positive or negative, depending upon the nature of the relationship.
One of the great things about 13th Age, Second Edition is that it compatible with 13th Age, First Edition, which means that the Game Master and her players have access to some great supplements, such as the Book of Ages which opens up the history of the Dragon Empire and the killer dungeon, Eyes of the Stone Thief. However, 13th Age, Second Edition is a new edition and that does mean changes. Pelgrane Press actually includes a list of the major changes here for the benefit of Game Master of 13th Age, First Edition. Much of it has been to clarify the rules as much as streamline them. For example, instead of using days as a time unit to indicate the period in which certain powers work, the term is now ‘arc’. This allows the period to be used narratively rather than being constrained by time. The number of Icons has been reduced from thirteen to twelve (actually making it easier to roll for them randomly), the Orc Lord having been killed in a recent war—exactly how is up to the Game Master and her players to decide. This is the major change to the Dragon Empire and is connected to another change, which is the removal of the Half-Orc as a player choice in terms of Race—or rather Kin as 13th Age calls it. This is intentionally done to avoid the controversy surrounding the nature of the Half-Orc, and is instead replaced by the Troll-kin. It serves a similar, combat-orientated, brutish role, but is connected to the High Druid or the Emperor Icons rather than the Orc Lord. Other changes to Kin include more choices in terms of Kin powers, the removal of ability bonuses based on Kin, and the making of Player Character Kin special. The removal of ability bonuses based on Kin means that a player can place them wherever he wants—though he will probably want to place them to benefit his choice of Class, and by making Player Character Kin special, that is, they possess the special Kin Powers rather than having every member of their Kin do so, avoids stereotyping and widens player choice.
Then all of the Classes in 13th Age have been adjusted, from minor tweaks to major overhauls. For example, the simplest and easiest of Classes to play, the Barbarian and the Paladin, receive minor tweaks, the Barbarian Rage feature changed to be a wider critical hit range rather than roll two twenty-sided dice to attack and the Paladin’s ‘Lay on Hands’ becomes a feature of the Class rather than a talent, ‘Smite’ inflicts more damage, and so on. Major overhauls include the Bard Class, whose features and talents are based on the type of performance—Brass: Horn & Trumpets, Dance: Poise & Motion, Drums: Rhythm & Percussion, Flutes & Pipes & Ocarinas, and Strings: Lutes & Harps & Guitars—which also presents a greater choice for the player. The Sorcerer retains its Breath Weapon, the type of damage depending on the Dragon-type, and gaining bonuses to both to hit and Critical Range from the Escalation die, and can empower his spells in one round to cast for double the effect, including damage, the next. There are a lot of changes here of varying magnitude throughout 13th Age, Second Edition, affecting everything from Icons and Icon connections and combat rules and more, all based on a decade’s worth of play of, and feedback about, 13th Age, First Edition. The aim is to streamline and ease play, especially for the player new to 13th Age.
To that end, one big change that the roleplaying game does make to 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook in order to help the neophyte player and Game master is to give an extensive example of play right after the introduction. Most examples of play run throughout a rulebook, but here 13th Age frontloads it in one go, taking the reader through the process, step-by-step, of creating a character—selecting Icon connections and determining their relationships, choosing a Class and Kin, designing a One Unique Thing, setting ability scores, selecting gear, picking Talents and a Feat, creating Backgrounds, and so on. At each stage, particularly in relation to the Icon connections, One Unique Thing, and Backgrounds, the example of play shows how they can tie into the setting and into the campaign that the Game Master is running. Once done and the example Player Character is presented on a character sheet, the Player Character is taken through her first arc, her first series of battles, in the process showcasing combat and suffering damage, resting, bringing Icon connections into play, and more. It is annotated with pointers as where to learn more about each aspect of the creation process and the play, further, like any good example of play or any good example of the rules, what 13th Age is doing here is showing the reader how the roleplaying game is first intended to be set up and then played. It saves the telling of how this is done for afterwards, the reader having been prepared for it by that point.
A Player Character in 13th Age has the traditional six abilities—Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma—plus a Kin, Class, One Unique Thing, and Backgrounds. There are fourteen Kin, which are Human, Dwarf, High Elf, Silver Elf, Wood Elf, Forgeborn, Gnome, Half-Elf, Halfling, Holy Ones, Troll-Kin, Dragonic, Holy One, and Tielfling. Of these, the Silver Elf is also known as the Drow, and the Dragonic, Forgeborn, Tielfling, and Holy One are by default less common. The nine Classes are Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, and Wizard. Some obvious Classes, the Druid and the Monk, are not included, their details being in 13 True Ways, though not yet for 13th Age, Second Edition. The process is a matter of making choices rather than rolling dice, including selecting ability values.
Lottie Custard
Class: Rogue Level: 1
Kin: Halfling One Unique Thing: There isn’t a lie I haven’t heard and a truth that I haven’t hidden
Connections: Prince of Shadows (Conflicted/2), Emperor (Negative/1)
Backgrounds: I’m a Halfling, of course I can bake pies +2, My tongue is not so much silver, as golden +4, If I don’t know, I know man who can +1, Old Town Valley Girl +1 Strength 12 (+1) Constitution 15 (+2) Dexterity 17 (+3)
Wisdom 14 (+2) Intelligence 14 (+2) Charisma 17 (+3) Armour Class 15 (Light)
Physical Defence 15
Mental Defence 15
Hit Points 24
Weapons: Mother’s Third Best Flat Iron (d8), It’s just a fruit knife (1d6)
Kin Power: Evasive
Class Features: Bravado, Sneak Attack, Skulduggery
Class Talents: Shadow Walk, Shift, Wriggle, and Roll, Tumble
Class Powers: Evasive Strike (At-Will), Deadly Thrust (At-Will/1 Bravado), Flying Blade (At-Will)
Feat: Smooth Talk 13th Age is played out in arcs, each consisting of three or four combat scenes leavened with narrative scenes in between. The most basic of mechanics involves the Backgrounds, which work as skills in other roleplaying games, but narratively more flexible. A character’s Icon connections can also affect the narrative by providing knowledge, adding detail, securing help, triggering flashbacks, and other options, his player deciding what the actual effect is by working with the Game Master. This does not automatically happen every arc, a player needing to roll to see if it does for each Icon connection, and if it does, it can only happen once per arc. When an Icon comes into play, there is a chance that it will come with a ‘Twist’ and as the 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook states, that is when, “The GM also gets to have some fun, adding a twist that improves the story by making the heroes’ lives a bit more interesting… but not so complicated that the connection turns bad for the heroes.” A twist will also occur if a player does not roll successfully to involve his character’s Icon connections, in which case the Game Master rolls for a random Icon to be involved. This is all backed up by detailed descriptions of the Icons—even the Orc Lord, helpful advice and plenty of examples and suggestions which will make the game play interesting and engaging.
Combat is comparatively much more complex and where the crunch occurs in 13th Age. It is also the focus of most of a Player Character’s Class talents, features, and feats, as well as spells for the spellcasting Classes. A Class’ talents are divided into three types that indicate their usage—at-will, once per battle, and once per arc. For example, at First Level, the Cleric Class can cast spells such as Combat Boon, Javelin of Faith, and Sacred Violence at will, Mark of Enmity and Spirits of the Righteous once per battle, and Mighty Healing and Hammer of Faith once per arc. The effects of talents increase as a Player Character rises in Level, as does total Hit Points, number of Recoveries (used for healing Hit Points) and feats, and so on up to Tenth Level. 
Where combat in 13th Age gets exciting, even exhilarating, is in the use of the Escalation Die. This sits in the middle of the table and comes into effect on the second round of the combat and then on subsequent rounds. On the second round, it gives a ‘+1’ bonus to all of the Player Characters, on the third round it gives a ‘+2’ bonus, on the fourth round, it gives a ‘+3’ bonus, and so on all the way up to the seventh round and after. It applies to the Player Characters only, not the monsters or NPCs, it can de-escalate or temporarily freeze, and it can trigger the powers of some Classes depending upon the number it is at or whether it is odd or even. The aim is to push combat forward and give it momentum once past the initially difficult rounds, rather than have it bog down in detail and unnecessary crunch.
All of the content in the 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook (and also in the 13th Age Second Edition Gamemaster’s Guide) is supported by helpful examples, suggestions, and advice, some of which takes the form of commentary and interjections from the authors. This is where they talk directly to the players and to the Game Master, telling them how they ran their games, what worked, what did not work, what they think of some of the feedback on the changes to the new edition, and more. It adds a personal touch to what is very much not a drily academic-in-tone rulebook and escalating, a little, its engaging style.
Physically, 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook is a great looking book. The artwork is solidly heroic fantasy, apart from the Icons, which are drawn as a cross between the decoration on Greek vases and icons for the Greek Orthodox Church. The book is well written and despite the complexity of its crunch, never less than readable. It is supported by a very decent combined index and glossary.
It is difficult to truly criticise the 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook. The main issues are perhaps that some of the Classes are still too complex to play with ease, especially in comparison to other ‘Fantasy 20’ roleplaying games and that some fans of 13th Age, First Edition are not necessarily going to be happy with all of the changes. Yet even the designers acknowledge this and even applaud some groups that want to keep playing 13th Age their way.
The 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook is the players’ book and the core book for 13th Age, Second Edition. It does what a new edition of a roleplaying game should do and improve and tweak the rules and the game to make it play better, in this case on lengthy playtesting and feedback, and then make it accessible. In particular, it does this with its lengthy example of campaign set-up, character creation, and play that showcases how 13th Age is intended to be played and readies player and Game Master for the rules that follows. Yet it goes even further by having the designers explain their decisions and give alternative suggestions. 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook is everything that the 13th Age player is going to need to help set him and his character up for some heroic fantasy.

Revenants in the Renaissance

The year is 1348 and mankind is subject to a divine punishment for its sins. For the last two years, all of Europe has suffered the devastating Black Plague which seems to spread fire and kills almost everyone it touches. The symptoms are easy to spot, black spots on the skin and swollen lymph nodes called buboes. Yet there is a second symptom, one that remains secret, one that the Papacy fights in a hidden war, and one it is desperate to eradicate—the Revenant Plague. Victims of the Black Plague are known to rise and not only spread its symptoms, but also feed upon the flesh of the living. The Papacy instituted the Ordo Mortis, a military order dedicated to not only fighting the secret war against the Revenant Plague, but also to keeping knowledge of the war against the Revenant Plague a secret. Word of it cannot spread, for it would weaken faith in the Catholic Church. It means that not only do all of the symptoms of the Revenant Plague have to be eradicated, but do any signs of infection and all knowledge of it. The members of the Ordo Mortis will face holy challenges in cutting down the risen revenants and unholy challenges in keeping its duties a secret. This is the set-up for Píaga 1348, a storytelling game from NEED! Games, the Italian publisher best known for the Fabula Ultima TTJRPG.

As a supernatural horror roleplaying game, Píaga 1348—meaning ‘Plague 1348—requires some choices to be made in terms of its set-up. To that end it includes a discussion of safety tools, though surprisingly without a reference to the X-Card. It suggests three options in terms of tone—‘Dramatic’, ‘Sinister’, and ‘Grotesque’—pairing them with the film, The Name of the Rose, the computer game Bloodthorne, and the films, Army of Darkness and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, thus effectively doubling as a bibliography. The tone is going to affect both the game’s style of play and its atmosphere, going from Greek tragedy to splatter punk with streak of black humour with creepy and mysterious in between. Further choices need to be made as to the nature of the world. This includes the size of the Revenant outbreak, the character and name of the Pontifex, the size and motto of the Ordo Mortis, and the nature and size of the missions that its soldiers—the Player Characters—are to be sent on. Lastly, the player who will take the role of the Ludi Magister—as the Game Master is known in Píaga 1348—is decided. This is important as the players will take in turn to undertake this role from one mission to the next. The process for this set-up is shared between the players.

A soldier in the Ordo Mortis will likely look like and be equipped any other knight, though he need not be. A Soldier is simply defined by several traits. These are the ‘Motto of the Ordo’; ‘Name’, including both full name and nickname, if any; ‘Description’; ‘Weapon’, which can either be physical or metaphorical (metaphorical is the better of the options here as it tends to be more flexible); and ‘Armour’, which should ideally be figurate rather than physical. These are the five core traits, but he also has entries for ‘What I Want’, ‘What I Don’t Want’, and ‘Traumas’, the latter physical, psychological, and social wounds suffered when a conflict is lost. A player simply has to define these traits in order to create his Soldier, either creating them or picking them from the suggestions included in the rulebook.

Name: Gunther of Cologne

Motto of the Ordo: Holy is our mission, unholy is their end

Description: An arrogant ex-tax collector with an eye for opportunity

Weapon: Everyone has a weakness and I will exploit every last one

Armour: Faith will only get you so far, money will get you further

What I Want: The favour of his Holiness, a penny in his pocket

What I Don’t Want: To die penniless

Once a mission has been decided upon, the player to the left of the Ludi Magister becomes the ‘Soldier on Duty’ and the Ludi Magister asks him what he perceives and based on those answers, frames the scene for her players, primarily the ‘Soldier on Duty’ as he will be leading the action for the scene and his player the conversation with the Ludi Magister. The advice for the Ludi Magister is to twist the interpretation of the senses that the ‘Soldier on Duty’ to make it dramatic and set the tension high from the start to reflect a world in crisis—physically and spiritually. The scene proceeds as normal until the point where something occurs that the ‘Soldier on Duty’ does not want to happen, in which a conflict ensues. When a conflict ensues, the player of the ‘Soldier on Duty’ decides what his Soldier wants to do and builds a dice pool based on his five core traits. For each of them that the player can persuade the Ludi Magister to include, a six-sided die is added to the pool. Every result of five or six counts as a Success and only one Success is required for Soldier to achieve the objective outlined by the player. The Ludi Magister will narrate the outcome of the dice roll, though if a failure because no Successes are rolled, the Soldier on Duty will suffer a Trauma.

Any excess Success go into the Morale Pool, which on subsequent turns, the ‘Soldier on Duty’ can draw from to increase the size of dice pool. Additional dice can come from the two sources. One is the other Soldiers, who can contribute dice based on their traits. The second is from a ‘Gamble’, in which the player adds a die of another colour to his dice pool. On a result of one, two, or three, nothing happens, but on a four, five, or six, the Soldier is ‘Exposed’. What this means that is a Soldier on Duty can still succeed—that is, roll a five or six—and still be ‘Exposed’. When ‘Exposed’, a roll is made on the ‘Gamble’s Outcome’ table. The result might be that a Soldier cannot use any further ‘Gamble’ attempts in the mission or that the Soldier is wounded and infected by a Revenant! Another way to gain more dice is for the Soldier to sacrifice himself, but will also result in his death. Whatever the result, the outcome is narrated by the player.

What is important here is there is an economy to a player’s use of his Soldier’s five core traits. If they can be used all in one go whilst a Soldier is the ‘Soldier on Duty’, then they can be refreshed to be used on subsequent turns. Whilst a Soldier can use them to help another Soldier who is the current ‘Soldier on Duty’, it will mean that he will have fewer to use when it is his turn to be ‘Soldier on Duty’. Running out of traits and having none to confront a situation when a ‘Soldier on Duty’ on Duty means that he will automatically fail. This forces a player to husband the use of those traits from scene to scene.

When a Soldier suffers a Trauma, it can be physical, psychological, or social, the nature of which is decided by the Ludi Magister. In general, the effect of a Trauma is more narrative in nature than mechanical, except under two circumstances. One is if a Soldier is either bitten, scratched, or wounded by a Revenant as a first or second Trauma, in which case the Soldier becomes a carrier of Revenant Plague. He can hide this, but if he dies, he will rise as a Revenant. The other is the effect of the third Trauma which will cause the Solder to exit the mission. How depends on the type of Trauma. A physical Trauma means he has died, a psychological Trauma pushes him into madness, and social Trauma makes him flee the Ordo Mortis all together. At this point, the Soldier can become a Tutelary, a dead soul watching and protecting the other Soldiers, or a Spectator, able to tell scenes from his former life that might give hints as to the current situation when it his turn to be the ‘Soldier on Duty’.

Play like this continues from round to round, with the Ludi Magister narrating another scene between them until the mission is over. At the end of a mission, the surviving Soldiers have a chance to reflect upon their actions and their successes—if any. At this point, the players have the opportunity to change various traits and even add another ‘What I Want’ or ‘What I Don’t Want’. After that, another mission, typically in another session, can be run by another player serving as the Ludi Magister.

Píaga 1348 provides a lot of support for the Ludi Magister. This includes several good examples of play, hints in terms of framing scenes and the narrative, motifs of the Ordo Mortis, and suggestions as the nature of Revenants and the world. There are several scenarios too. These are not scenarios in the traditional roleplaying sense, but more a themed set of prompts and rumours that the Ludi Magister—whose ever turn it is—can use to set up a mission. Píaga 1348 comes to a close with a quick-start and some designer notes, but also includes an excellent appendix of ‘Historical Essays’ which are these for everyone to read. Covering such subjects as the power of the pope—Boniface VIII, warfare in the period, famine, pestilence, and the nature of death, these are short pieces, but useful and informative.

Physically, Píaga 1348 is fantastically presented. The woodcut style artwork and the use of a Gothic fount very gives it a singular look and conveys a lot of atmosphere to the Ludi Magister.

Píaga 1348 can be seen as the answer to the question, “What would a zombie uprising look like in the Middle Ages?” Which is as terrifying, if not more so, than it would today since it follows awful deaths by the Black Plague and it would be regarded as the vindication of the danse macabre and the triumph of death over life. It also places the Soldiers of the Ordo Mortis on a mission from God himself to wipe out not only death itself, but all signs and knowledge of this triumph of death. That means they have to kill the living too, including the innocent. What this means is that Píaga 1348 is a simple and oppressively atmospheric storytelling game with a brutal edge.

A Colder Cold War

There are not a lot of roleplaying games which feature submarines. Polaris, the French roleplaying game originally published by Halloween Concepts in 1997 is one since it is set in a post-apocalyptic undersea future. Cold Space, from Better Mousetrap Games is another, presenting an alternate Cold War era in which interstellar travel has been achieved in spaceships which are designed along the lines of submarines. Then of course, Game Designers’ Workshop published a trilogy of scenarios—The Last Submarine, Mediterranean Cruise, and Boomer—for Twilight 2000 in which the Player Characters have to capture a Los Angeles-class submarine in the post-Twilight War and use it to help defend what is left of civilisation. SUBMERGED is a rules-light roleplaying game which takes it cue from Polaris in that it is a post-apocalyptic roleplaying game set under the sea. In its future, the climate did not heat, but cooled down, and the planet froze. The lucky few of the billions on Earth escaped to the underwater cities and survive under the icy waters in the ‘Sub-burbs’. Contact and trade are kept going via nuclear-powered submarines. The last contact with the surface was in 1983 when the plummeting temperatures forced the rapidly built ‘Sub-burbs’ to close their doors to more refugees. The Great Plan was to wait thirty years for the temperature on the surface to rise again and the survivors to return to reclaim the planet, but even after forty years that has never happened. In the meantime, ‘Sub-burbs’ have failed, others are barely holding on, many have become totalitarian states, and some have gone to war. With the failure of the Great Plan, the ‘Sub-burbs’ remain in a stalemate, not ready to go to war in the face of an uncertain future. Above and below, the Earth is in the grip of a new Cold War.

SUBMERGED – A Rules Light Roleplaying Game of Life Under the Frozen Oceans is published by Farsight Games and written by the designer of Those Dark Places: Industrial Science Fiction Roleplaying and Pressure. In it, the players take the role of crewmembers of a submarine trying to make a living, hauling cargo and passengers, scavenging and salvaging, smuggling, and fulfilling whatever contract they can and pays the bills, all to pay off the mortgage on their vessel. Think of it as an undersea version of a tramp freighter campaign in the vein of Traveller or the television series, Firefly. Certainly, SUBMERGED has a similar blue collar sensibility—just not in space.

A Player Character in SUBMERGED is simply defined. He has ten Skills. These are Agility, Charisma, Close Combat, Technical, Medicine, Ranged Combat, Science, Strength, Submariner, and Subterfuge, and they range in value between two and eleven. In addition, he has Hit Points starting at twelve and then modified by his Strength. He can have an extra specialist or hobby Skill which lies outside the scope of the standard ten. Lastly, the Player Character has four Submariner Sub-skills.* These are ‘Helm’, ‘Sonar’, ‘Engineer’, and ‘WEPS’, the latter being the Weapons Officer. To create a character, a player simply assigns each of one of the numbers between two and eleven to one of the Skills and decides on a specialist or hobby Skill, if any, a name, and lastly assigns six points to the Submariner subskills. Character generation can be done in thirty seconds.

* Yes. Really.

Sunday Faruku
Engineer
Agility 4 Charisma 3 Close Combat 8 Technical 9 Medicine 6 Ranged Combat 5 Science 7 Strength 10 Submariner 11 Subterfuge 2
Sub-Skills: Helm 1 Sonar 1 Engineer 3 WEPS 1
Skill: Singing 6
Hit Points 22

Mechanically, SUBMERGED is a simple. To have his character undertake a task, a player selects the most appropriate Skill and adds its vale to the roll of a twelve-sided die. If the result is thirteen or more, then he has succeeded. The Game Master can adjust the difficulty as needed. It is as simple as that. Combat is handled as opposed rolls, with the highest roll indicating the winner. Thus, Close Combat versus Close Combat in a fist fight, but Ranged Combat versus Agility if the defendant wants to dodge. A punch does 1d2 plus Strength in damage, a blade 1d4 plus Strength, a pistol 1d6+6, and a rifle 1d12+6. Most Player Characters will last a punch-up, even a knife fight, but once firearms start being used, the best thing a Player Character is to get behind cover as a rifle can kill in a single shot.

The Submariner Sub-skills are used in conjunction with the Submariner skill. They are spent on a one-for-one basis to modify rolls using the Submariner skill.

The submarines are equally as simply defined. Each has stats for ‘Knots’, ‘Depth’, and ‘Cargo’, so how fast it can go, how deep it can go, and how much it can carry. The Armament details its weapons and defences. For the most part, operating a submarine is handled narratively until actually matters. Such as in combat. Initiative requires a Sonar operator since submarines have to detect each other, submarines have to be positioned to attack, and so on. Submarine combat is run as a series of opposed rolls. Sonar versus sonar to gain initiative; Helm versus Helm to gain a better firing position and bonus to the firing roll; and WEPS versus Helm to track a torpedo. The latter is done three times with the best out of three determining if the torpedo hits the target submarine or is avoided. Countermeasures can be launched once per combat to try and distract an incoming torpedo. Fortunately, most torpedoes are not designed to destroy submarines, but to cripple them or slow them, though a lucky—or unlucky—strike can still destroy a submarine. The crew can suffer injuries from the jolt of a torpedo explosion and damage typically knocks out a system that the engineer must race to fix.

SUBMERGED details several sample submarines, some of which are cheap enough for the Player Characters to take a mortgage out on (though if second-hand or more, it means beginning play with damaged systems), and small enough to be crewed by three or four Player Characters. Others consist of transports, defence and combat boats, and even pirate and mercenary boats. There is also a list of equipment, some suggested rates for various contracts, and descriptions of the major city states. There are scenario hooks too, plus an introductory adventure. In ‘The Blue King’s Wrath’, the Player Characters are hired by the city-state of Sub-London to infiltrate the base of a notorious pirate called the Blue King, who has established himself and his cult in an abandoned city-state project off the coast of Iceland, so threatening the North Atlantic trade route, and claims to be in possession of the ‘ultimate weapon’. The authorities in Sub-London want to know if this ‘ultimate weapon’ actually exists, what it is, and ideally, stolen from the Blue King. It is a quick and dirty affair that can be played through in a session or so. Plus, there are some secrets that once revealed the Game Master could develop into further adventures.

Physically, SUBMERGED – A Rules Light Roleplaying Game of Life Under the Frozen Oceans is a bit messy and it does need an edit in places. The main problem is that not everything is quite in the right places, but the roleplaying game is short enough not to matter very much and simple enough that the Game Master will not need to refer to the rules too often.

SUBMERGED – A Rules Light Roleplaying Game Of Life Under The Frozen Oceans has the very grubby feel of a seventies post-apocalyptic film and even a little of Escape from New York, especially in the scenario. Surprisingly, it combines quite a number of different genres in just a few pages—seventies disaster and post-apocalyptic films, all things nautical, piratical, and subaquatic, and blue collar trucking adventure—all of which will be familiar to both the Game Master and her players. SUBMERGED – A Rules Light Roleplaying Game of Life Under the Frozen Oceans is rough and ready, if not a bit damp and slightly rusty, but definitely easy to run and play. It would be interesting to see this alternate Cold War future developed and explored a little more.

Friday Fantasy: Dark Visions

Dark Visions does not waste a lot of time before getting down to brass tacks. Three lines make up the back cover blurb and there is no introduction before it leaps into describing the first of the three Character Classes found in its pages. So, it feels as if it could do with a bit more context and a bit more in the way of guidance for the Game Master as to what it is, what its contents are, and how it might be used. To explain, it is a supplement for ShadowDark, the retroclone inspired by both the Old School Renaissance and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition from The Arcane Library. Published by RPG Ramblings Publishing, following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is dedicated to cults and cultists, who and what they worship. In addition to its three Player or Occult Classes and their spells—twenty-five of which are new, it details sixteen cults, twenty-five dark creatures, and more. The more consists of two scenarios, the first two parts of a three-part mini-campaign which culminates in The Tower of Six.

Dark Visions opens with the Cultist Class. The Cultist is an outcast from society because of the taboos broken, dark deeds done, and secretive rituals performed in the name of his patron or deity. With ‘Ashes to Ashes’, he can burn Hit Points to increase damage inflicted and can cast a particular set of spells. The Inquisitor Class hunts for signs of heresy and heretics, and has Advantage when hunting the enemies of his god. He can use the Priest Class’ scrolls and wands and bring down the Judgement of ‘Mark of Hellfire’ or the ‘Mark of Radiance’ on a target. With ‘Mark of Hellfire’, the target is illuminated and if Chaos-aligned, at a Disadvantage for the next round, whilst ‘Mark of Radiance’ gives the target damage resistance and illuminates if they share the same alignment. The Covenant Knight is a Lawful-aligned knight dedicated to the ideals of the Covenant Council, which pass the ‘Final Word’ upon an enemy, inflicting maximum damage several times a day and ‘Resolute in Adversity’, is at Advantage to resist the abilities of devils and demons. At Third Level and above, the Covenant Knight can cast Priests’ spells.

The new Classes are an interesting mix, with the Covenant Knight feeling like a variant of the Paladin-type Class. The other two are potentially more interesting given that much of their flavour will come from the player’s choice of patron in terms of a god, demon, devil, or other entity. Nor are they exclusive, since the Cultist need not be Chaos-aligned and instead linked to the Celestial, the Draconic, Primordial, or Sylvan. With some thought, the three Classes could be found working together, as well as with other Classes for ShadowDark. In addition, there is a table of for ‘Cultists Backgrounds’ and a list of Cultist gear.

The Cultist also has its own table for ‘Cultist Mishaps’ as well as list of its own spells. Some of the spells do come from the ShadowDark core rulebook, whilst a few are taken from the official fanzine, Cursed Scroll 1: Diaberlie!, which does limit the Class’ usefulness. The new spells are grim in nature, such as Inflict Pain, a Tier 3 spell which enables a Cultist to inflict damage on his target by drawing his own blood, essentially exchanging his Hit Points for dice of damage, whilst the Tir 1 spell Misery, floods the mind of the target with guilt from dreadful deeds and ill-fortune, forcing them to roll at Disadvantage. There is also flavour too that the Cultist—whether a Player Character or the Game Master as an NPC—can bring into the casting and application of the spells.

Dark Visions gives simple descriptions of various gods along with their Domains and those of various demi-gods not so detailed. Further, these pale into insignificance in comparison to the attention paid to the sixteen cults described in the supplement. These are archetypes, such as Ash cults, Blood cults, Doom cults, Moon cults, Plague cults, and more, that the Game Master can flesh out and develop. Each comes with a description, a special ability or sacred item, and then tables of rumours, encounters, and plot generator, as well as stats for associated NPCs and monsters. For example, the Gallows cult is Lawful and dedicated to levying capital punishment, its leaders wielding axes and regarding themselves as judge, jury, and executioner. Its holy item is the Axe of the Executioner, a +2 great axe that cannot be wielded by the Chaotically-aligned, has a better chance of rolling critical strikes and when its wielder does, inflicts maximum base damage. Yet at the end of a combat in which it did not inflict a killing blow, the wielder can suffer a loss of Intelligence. The rumours include stories of gallows suddenly appearing in the town squares of every nearby town, the encounters a band of cultists that has broken into a butcher’s shop where it is preparing a chopping block, and the stats are for standard cultists and cultists leaders. Combined with the ‘Plot Generator’ table and there is a decent amount of detail, flavour, and gameable content in all the cult descriptions. It is notable that not all of the cults are necessarily Chaotic (or evil) in nature and that expands the flexibility of the content.

Rounding out Dark Visions is a pair of scenarios that both involve cultists and together form the first two parts of a trilogy of scenarios that culminates with The Tower of Six. The campaign sees the Player Characters discover the activities of a band of cultists and then track it in order to find out what it is that the cultists are planning and try to put a stop to it. The given cult is the Cult of Nightmares, but the campaign suggests alternatives. The first scenario is ‘In Cultist’s Wake’, which is designed for First Level Player Characters and can be played in one or two sessions. They are employed by a farmer to investigate a water-logged crypt that has just opened up. What the Player Characters is a mini-dungeon where the cultists appear to be cleaning up after their activities in the crypt and looting what they can. What is interesting is that the crypt is for a Lawful lord and what that means is that the dungeon has become dangerous because of the cultists’ meddling rather than being a place of evil. It is pleasingly atmospheric, the Player Characters having to slosh through the lower level to find out what is going on.

‘In Cultist’s Wake’ ends with a map taken from the cultists and in the Player Characters’ hands. It is marked with locations that the cultists are also interested in and one of these is detailed in ‘As Above, So Below’. It is designed to be played in two to three sessions by Player Characters of Second and Third Level, either as direct sequel or another adventure or two afterwards. It details a partially collapsed dome structure that was once used by druids and mages to study the power of ley lines. Again, the cultists are clearing up after investigating the site, so are busy and going about their duties, which gives the Player Characters the opportunity to sneak in and strike. Things are complicated by the interest of a rival cult, which has sent thieves to steal what the Cult of Nightmares has found so far. It gives the adventure an energetic dynamic that plays out at dusk as the Player Characters discover what the cultists are doing, what they have been looking for, and what happened at the complex to cause its collapse.

Physically, Dark Visions is cleanly and tidily presented. It is a good read and although lightly illustrated, the artwork is good. Both dungeons are very clearly presented so that they are easy to run from the page. The maps do have slightly fuzzy feel.

Of course, cultists can be any Class or even none, but Dark Visions gives the cultist focus and role and causes and masters to be fervent over, as well as rewards for their service and devotion. Which can be as Player Characters or NPCs, and the fact that there are multiple cults described means that the Game Master can return to Dark Visions again and again for inspiration and opponents—or even use to set up a campaign in which the Player Characters are cultists fighting other cultists. Certainly, the two scenarios in that supplement can be used in fashion as well as with normal Player Characters. Dark Visions will not suit all campaigns given its nature, but for those it does suit and those with more mature themes and players, it is an excellent supplement, bringing a grimmer, darker tone to a ShadowDark campaign.