The Twelfth Doctor

Every regeneration ushers in a new era, but the Twelfth Doctor ushers in one of uncertainty and reflection, a last era for the Doctor as he reaches the last of the twelve regenerations that every Time Lord has. Of course, he would be granted more beyond the dozen, but for this incarnation, the Doctor, initially unsure as to who he was, proved himself to be irascible and grumpy, unhappy with the state of the universe, and full of regrets about his failures. If the Eleventh Doctor looked back to the Second Doctor, the Twelfth Doctor looked back to the First Doctor, for he was more prickly grandfather than likeable uncle. This connection would culminate in ‘Twice Upon a Time’, the last episode for the Twelfth Doctor, in which he encounters the First Doctor at the South Pole as both are faced with their regeneration, but refuse to let it happen. The Twelfth Doctor could be funny and joyful, passionate and empathetic, but was always fierce, fearless, and gruff. This would change over time as he softened, but there were still regrets to be addressed and made, perhaps the greatest and most challenging of these being his failure to reform his oldest enemy and best friend, the Master. Sadly, he never would, for his old adversary cannot change his true nature, but in Missy, the most mischievous and malicious of the Master’s incarnations, there was hope. There are regrets of his own as well as the past, often due to his austere demeanour, self-importance, and sometimes dismissive attitude towards those he regarded as beneath him. Too often his companions would suffer for his nature, in turn, Clara Oswald, Danny Pink, and Bill Potts, all either dying or being lost as a result of their adventures with the Twelfth Doctor. Yet the reflections also meant the Doctor would encounter monsters old—Daleks, Cybermen, Zygons, and Ice Warriors—as well as new, whilst his desire to explore would send him and his companions on perhaps his most fantastic adventures yet!

The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook is part of Cubicle Seven Entertainment’s celebration of Doctor Who’s fiftieth anniversary—celebrated itself with the special episode, ‘The Day of the Doctor’—for the Ennie-award winning Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. It returns the series to its shorter page count, after the lengthier sourcebooks devoted to the Tenth Doctor and Eleventh Doctor, but actually reduces the number of chapters down to three, consisting of just ‘The Twelfth Doctor And Companions’, ‘Playing in the Twelfth Doctor’s Era’, and ‘The Twelfth Doctor’s Adventures’. What is missing here in comparison to previous sourcebooks is ‘The Twelfth Doctor’s Enemies’ chapter, its absence really pointing to the fact that the Twelfth Doctor’s enemies are not as memorable as those of previous incarnations of the Doctor. In fact, The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook really treats what would be the most notable of the Twelfth Doctor’s enemies—Missy and Ashildar (Me)—as companions rather than enemies and even notes that there is a deceitfulness to Clara Oswald that the Doctor distrusts. Not since Turlough who travelled with the Fifth Doctor has there been companions that the Doctor cannot wholly trust or being himself to trust. Stats are provided for both the Twelfth Doctor and all of his companions, but like those in the rest of the sourcebook, they are written for use with the first edition of Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game, rather than the second. (That said, adapting them is relatively easy.)

In terms of themes, it presents and examines concepts such as ‘What’s Old is New Again’, ‘Hard Decisions’, ‘Places to See, People to Annoy’ all backed up with suggestions as to how they might be used. As already mentioned, the Twelfth Doctor would meet many of his old foes, but ‘What’s Old is New Again’ means that when he does, they are often radically different. Most notably, Missy rather than the Master, but also a Dalek who hates other Daleks and Zygons who can be persuaded to integrate into Earth society rather than conquer the planet. Similarly, he visits places that ‘Familiar, but Strange’, such as the Orient Express, but in space with a Mummy! The era of the Twelfth Doctor is one of ‘Hard Decisions’, sometimes having to decide who has to die and who has to live, and for how long, often because it up to the Doctor to make them because no-one else is coming to save the day. ‘Places to See, People to Annoy’ examines some of the motifs of the incarnation such as a love of deserted places and locations, though often these hide dark secrets, and perhaps because the Doctor has seen so much and cannot decide where to go, actually setting the TARDIS controls to random, so that nobody knows where they might end up. However, since the TARDIS has telepathic circuits, it can pick up on subconscious desires, and so The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook suggests that the players and their characters might take it in turns to suggest a destination, adding a collaborative element to play. It also examines the more fantastical nature of the Twelfth Doctor’s stories, typified by ‘Robot of Sherwood’, ‘Kill the Moon’, and ‘In the Forest of the Night’, noting that ultimately a more Science Fictional explanation will prevail.

There is advice for the Game Master too, on different campaign frameworks, such as the companions being left behind when the Doctor runs off an adventure of his own, leaving them to try and cope with a situation where they have to do his job, or more extreme, running a campaign without a Time Lord, with the Player Characters being on equal footing. This is an option that the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game has considered before, but never before has it been brought to fore as in the era of the Twelfth Doctor where he is not always present and his Companions have to emulate him as best that they can. Later, the relationship between the Doctor and Bill Potts lends itself to a campaign where the relationship between Time Lord and companion is that of teacher and student, with each new adventure becoming a learning opportunity, which again is another nod in this era and The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook between the First Doctor and his companions. Penultimately, the supplement examines the relation between the Doctor and UNIT, standoffish at best, as is that of his relationship with Gallifrey which he engineered the return of, but has also left it to its own devices, with no real government or direction, suggesting that perhaps another Time Lord might need to get involved depending upon how its politics or lack of them play out. Lastly, The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook details several of the gadgets and associated traits that appear in the era, most notably the Sonic Sunglasses.

The third and final chapter in The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook is, as with the previous entries in the series, its longest. Again, it takes up some four fifths of the book, detailing all thirty-four of the Twelfth Doctor’s stories, from ‘Deep Breath’ to ‘Twice Upon a Time’. The format is simplified with the removal of the ‘Changing The Desktop Theme’ section—a reference to the changed look of the TARDIS interior after some thirty or so years—which suggested ways in which the story might be reskinned with another threat or enemy, and the like. Instead, all open with a synopsis, including notes on continuity—backwards and forwards to stories past and future, followed by advice on ‘Running the Adventure’. This includes ‘Further Adventures’ that the Game Master can develop enabling the players and their characters to visit its themes and setting.

Thus, for the episode, ‘Mummy on the Orient Express’, the synopsis describes how the Doctor offers Clara one last trip in the TARDIS, this time somewhere special. Once aboard the Orient Express, they discover that a Mummy is killing the passengers, but is actually a cover, not once, but twice. One for ‘The Foretold’, a deadly mythical creature, and one for the whole of train, which it turns out is a travelling laboratory on the train. ‘Continuity’ notes that premium travel in the future looks like premium travel from the past such as ‘Voyage of the Damned’ for the Tenth Doctor, how the Twelfth Doctor is dispensing Jelly Babies in a silver cigarette case, and how he offers Perkins, the engineer aboard the Orient Express, a job as ‘his engineer’! In terms of ‘Running the Adventure’, it suggests that the Orient Express is background and it can be set anywhere and that given that ‘The Foretold’ is an unstoppable killing machine, so the Game Master needs to be careful to have it kill the Player Characters (unless it really matters), and instead kill the NPCs they form attachments to. ‘Further Adventures’ suggests ways in which its elements can be further explored. For example, they could discover the site where ‘The Foretold’ are created and one of the companions is converted and has to be rescued, or the Player Characters suddenly find themselves aboard the Orient Express and have to work out how. There are no stats for ‘The Foretold’, but there are for Perkins.

The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook adheres to this format throughout, for all of its thirty-four episodes and specials. The write-ups are lengthy, and in the process the Game Master is given detailed background and advice on running an array of great episodes, including ‘Dark Water/Death in Heaven’ which sees the return of Missy, and ‘The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion’ in which a new conflict with the Zygons is being fomented.

Physically, The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook is well presented in what is very much a tried and tested format. The supplement is richly illustrated with lots of photographs from the series and decently written, all backed up with a good index.

The Twelfth Doctor brought a fractious relationship between the Doctor and his Companions as well as a sense of the fantastic to ‘Nu Who’ and The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook enables the Game Master to bring these to her campaign for the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. There are some excellent suggestions as to how these and other themes can be used, as well as adventure hooks throughout the supplement to support the Game Master. That said, the nature of the relationship between the Doctor and his Companions is harder to run than the average Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game, since it brings in elements of mistrust and potentially challenging roleplaying into play. Ultimately, The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook is a sound guide to the era of the Twelfth Doctor that captures its prickliness, its regrets, and its empathy in bringing the Doctor Who generation sourcebooks to a close.

Quick-Start Saturday: Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG Prerelease Guide

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

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

—oOo—

What is it?
Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG Prerelease Guide is the quick-start for Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG, the alternative history roleplaying game inspired by, and set five years before, the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. The Player Characters are members of peasanty, barely recovering from the disastrously disruptive effects of the Great Mortality, who want to challenge the powerful, the greedy, and the tyrannical, and build a new version of England, one known as ‘The Anarchy’, where they would be free of bondage and have the liberty to live in peace.

It is a ninety page, 65.57 MB full colour PDF.

‘A Spark Takes Hold’, the introductory adventure is a thirty page, 15.48 MB full colour PDF.

It is decently written and the artwork really is very good.

How long will it take to play?
Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG Prerelease Guide together with the scenario, ‘A Spark Takes Hold’, is designed to be played through in two sessions.

What else do you need to play?
Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG Prerelease Guide requires three each of four-sided, six-sided, and twelve-sided dice, which should be of a different colour.

Who do you play?
Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG Prerelease Guide does not include any pre-generated Player Characters. Players are expected to create their own using the included rules, but the process is quick and easy.

How is a Player Character defined?

A Player Character in Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is a peasant who has a

name and description, a Trade and a Job, as well as Experience, represented by three Traits which are Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual. Trade, Job, and the three Traits are each represented by a die. Six Trades and their associated Jobs are given. The Trades are Soldier, Herbalist, Barber-Surgeon, Pickpocket, Smith, and Scribe. Each has four Jobs. For example, the Scribe has ‘Teacher’, ‘Trusted Confidant’, ‘A Comfortable Life’, and ‘Local News’, whilst the Barber-Surgeon has ‘Setting a Bone’, ‘Bite down on this’, ‘Leeches’, and ‘Pain Artist’. Trade, Job, and two of the Traits have a six-sided die assigned to them, whilst the third has an eight-sided die assigned to it. These dice can change and grow in number over the course of a campaign.

How do the mechanics work?

Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG Prerelease Guide—and thus Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG—advises that a player relies upon his own abilities as much as those of his character, since he will be more aware of the world rather than the character, that collaboration is the key to success, death is likely and combat to be avoided—most of the time, and that they should embrace failure.

The roleplaying game uses a dice pool system. It advises that a player relies upon his own abilities as much as those of his character, since he will be more aware of the world rather than the character, that collaboration is the key to success, death is likely and combat to be avoided—most of the time, and that they should embrace failure. When a player wants his character to act and pass a Test, he forms a dice pool formed of his character’s Experience dice, Trade dice, and Job dice. A result of five or more is counted as a success, four or less a failure, and only singled success required for the peasant to succeed. The rules tell the player to advocate for as many dice as he can to form the pool, but ideally, a player and his character should rely upon roleplaying and Skills rather than attempting Tests. A Skill represents something that a Player Character can automatically do.

The players as a group can also spend ‘Opportunities’ to alter the world around or give an order to member of their Retinue. This might be to send a member of their retinue to scout out a village, to wait in ambush ready to strike at an enemy, or to gather resources or craftsmen to reinforce their camp or improve their community, but they can also be spent to allow a player to bring their character’s Job into play once again.

Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is played out over a series of Seasons, Scenes, and Clocks, the latter being used to track something that the Player Characters are struggling against, such as being hunted by a local Sherrif’s soldiery, attempting to erect fortifications in a hurry, and so on. They are attempting garner ‘Influence’, a combination of their fame and notoriety that enables them to do greater and bigger things as it grows. Primarily, it allows them to recruit a Retinue, but as it goes from ‘Unknown’ up through ‘Spoken Of’, ‘Recognisable’, ‘Well Known’, and ‘Notorious’ to ‘Famous’, they will be able to more, granting Benefits and Detriments that can be used once per Season. Their overall Collective Influence is measured against ‘Control’, which represents the power and domination that the state—the crown, the nobility, and the church—hold over the immediate county and over all England. By undertaking acts of liberation and challenging the power of the state such as writing and spreading mocking songs, disrupting the activities of tax collectors, and even burning the manors of the landed classes, the Player Characters can reduce the ‘Control’ value for the county. If the ‘Control’ value is reduced to under the Player Characters’ ‘Collective Influence’, a Showdown can be staged.

How does combat work?

Combat is quick and deadly. It is played out as a series of opposed Physical Experience rolls, each combatant attempting to reduce his opponent’s condition from ‘Standing’ to ‘Knocked Back’ to ‘Down’, and then ‘Retreating’. This also applies an increasing penalty to the roll. The victor always chooses the outcome, but can also improve his own condition, offer assistance to an ally, kill or capture an enemy, and so on.

What do you play?

Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG Prerelease Guide does include some background on the counties north of London, a short adventure, ‘At the Centre of the World: A Stirbitch Adventure’ that could be dropped into a campaign and is really a set-up for a freeform, some NPC details, and various tables of events. These can be developed into fuller situations, but do suggest the consequence of success and failure. The main scenario in Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG Prerelease Guide is ‘A Spark Takes Hold’ which opens with the Player Characters having been captured by the militia after agreeing to help a woman, Blackwater Maggie, a wanted outlaw, some hours earlier at a midsummer’s eve celebration the previous night. The bulk of the scenario is spent attempting to persuade the river port of Maldon and its most notable inhabitants to their cause, and working to reduce the ‘Control’ value the state has over the town, ultimately to force a Showdown. Effectively, this showcases the play of Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG in just a single location which can then be scaled up to a whole county and the creation of The Anarchy.

Is there anything missing?
No. Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG Prerelease Guide does not include the ‘Pointcrawl’ mechanics of the full game, instead focusing upon the core game play of ‘Influence’ versus ‘Control’.

Is it easy to prepare?
Yes. Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG Prerelease Guide is easy to prepare, but there is a lot to read through. Ultimately, the rules are straightforward and easy to understand.

Is it worth it?
Yes. Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG Prerelease Guide is a very good looking product that is somewhat overwritten for what is effectively a quick-start. That is, it does give a more than sound introduction to the rules of the roleplaying game and how it is played, but not all of it is pertinent to the playthrough of the included scenario. The combination though, of the rules and the scenario, ‘A Spark Takes Hold’ superbly showcases Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG and gives a good taster of what is to come in the full RPG.

does a good job of introducing both the future that is Planet of the Apes and the rules to the roleplaying game, along with a solid adventure that gives the Player Characters more agency than most quick-start adventures and is thus more complex to run.

Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG Prerelease Guide is published by Three Sails Studios and is available to download here.

Friday Fantasy: Fate’s Fell Hand

Out in the lost dimensions there is an island vale floating on a sea of storm-tossed, roiling phlogiston. It is home—or rather, it has become home—to three of the greatest magi of their age, the wizard Darjr, the enchantress Erodiade, and the accursed scribe Al-Hazred, trapped behind a wall of regenerative magic, friendship turned to rivalry turned to hate, and perfectly balanced conflict. Once together, they sought the relic known as the Deck of Fates, and in that they were successful. For they found a dozen of the ivory plaques painted with strange personages and icons, but none could agree as who could possess the Deck of Fates. Their fate was decided after a three-way spell duel that tore their manor, the original vale where it stood, and their vassals out of reality and tossed it onto the sea of phlogiston. They were trapped, each condemned to direct their vassals to find all twelve cards from the Deck of Fates that were once in their possession so that they could gain mastery over the pocket realm they found themselves in, defeat their rivals, and so escape their prison, even as they devoted their energies to holding back the seas that scoured the edges of the vale. And if only it were that is easy, one of them would have achieved this by now, but the vicissitudes of their imprisonment mean that every day, the clock resets, the fealties of their vassals of the day before are likely to change, and they have to start all over again. If only there was factor which might sway the perfectly imbalanced situation to one magi or another?

This is the set-up to Dungeon Crawl Classics #78: Fate’s Fell Hand, a scenario published by Goodman Games for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. It is designed for a party of four to eight Second Level Player Characters with an easy set-up, but is far more complex than the typical adventure for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. In fact, ‘complex’ is not really fair or accurate, so it would be better to describe the scenario as being more sophisticated than the typical adventure for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. This is because although it is does involve combat and exploration as you would expect for a scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, it emphasises roleplaying and interaction as much as it does those other elements of play. Further, despite the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game being renowned for drawing upon the works of the authors listed in ‘Appendix N’ of the Dungeon Master’s Guide for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition for their inspiration, Dungeon Crawl Classics #78: Fate’s Fell Hand draws more deeply and more obviously than most. Especially from the works of Clark Ashton Smith and Edgar Allen Poe, as it has dream-like, baroque quality to it.

There are hooks for Player Characters of all Classes that the Judge can use to pull them into the scenario and eventually, they will find themselves in the vale, overlooking a run down and dilapidated manor house standing amidst trampled fields marked with signs of slaughter and battle. The house is most obviously inhabited by an overbearing raptorial priest, a drunken warrior captain, a trio of simpering Ladies-in-Waiting, and a quartet of skeletal warriors. Of the magi, there is no sign, initially, but perhaps the Player Characters may dig around for them as they explore the manor? In addition, a Matron sees to the well-being of the Ladies-in-Waiting, whilst a Fool capers in the background. The Priest will sermonise on the benefits of merciful release from the suffering of existence and will seek one of the Player Characters to set a good example; the warrior captain will spoil for a fight in the hope that one of their number proves a worthy foe; and the Ladies-in-Waiting will individually entreat one Player Character or another to be her champion, each attempting to outdo her sisters in highlighting and debating the advantages and disadvantages of one potential champion over another. Meanwhile, the warriors go about their duties in the service their master, one or more of the three Magi. Then at dawn, it changes…

Not where the Player Characters are. Not who the overbearing raptorial priest, the drunken warrior captain, the trio of simpering Ladies-in-Waiting, and quartet of skeletal warriors are and what their manners are, but who they owe their allegiances to, reflected by the colour of the clothing they wear. It is always to one of the three Magi. Yesterday, it was to one of the Magi. Today it is to the same Magi or a different one. Tomorrow, it might be to the same Magi, the Magi from the previous day, or the third Magi. Who can tell?

What is happening is that Deck of Fates—or at least the cards from the deck within the vale—are being reshuffled and dealt back out at each new dawn, randomly shifting allegiances in the process. In the scenario, this is done behind the scenes, but in the play of Dungeon Crawl Classics #78: Fate’s Fell Hand, it is done by the Judge. This is facilitated by a set of handouts, each representing a single card. The Judge is expected to copy or cut these out and construct her own mini-Deck of Fates and at start of each day in the scenario, collect up all of the cards, reshuffle them, and then deal them out between the three Magi. And then do the same the next day, and so on, and so on, resetting the balance of power between the three Magi in their attempts to gain complete control of the Deck of Fates. So far, and despite their best efforts, all three have failed. Enter the Player Characters.

The Player Characters are the deciding factor, for they do not owe allegiance to any of the three Magi. As free agents, they can choose to ally themselves with one Magi or none at all. They may simply decide to search for a way out or the truly ambitious might even decide to campaign to do what the Magi have been unable to do and that is to collect all of the cards from the Deck of Fates themselves and take control of them. If they manage to pull this off, it will be a truly magnificent achievement, but of course, it is fraught with danger and even the process of trying to tune the Deck of Fates might kill such an ambitious Player Character. Ideally, this should be a Wizard, of course. As difficult as the process is, the Player Characters do have an advantage over the Magi. When they manage to obtain cards from the Deck of Fate, the Player Characters keep them. They are not lost with the dawn reshuffle and as they gain more cards, the Magi have fewer allies to control… However, finding some of the cards is really challenging.

This is an incredibly juicy set-up of shifting allegiances and strings being pulled from behind the scenes against the backdrop of a decaying manse and against the clock. The latter, because unfortunately, in bringing the Player Characters to the vale, the Magi have doomed its existence. In just a few short days, the phlogiston seas will swallow the island and remove the one point of stability in the endless waters it floats on. However, thus will not be readily apparent to the Player Characters as they interact with the inhabitants of the manor, realise the next day (and if not the next, then definitely the day after that) that something even stranger is going on in the vale, and that they really need to work on what is going on.

All of which makes it a much more challenging than the average scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. Although there are dungeon-like elements in the scenario, Dungeon Crawl Classics #78: Fate’s Fell Hand is not a classic dungeon, but a puzzle or a mystery to be solved. It is also challenging to run, since it involves multiple NPCs whose allegiances can shift that the Judge has to roleplay. The author even acknowledges how different this scenario is by including ‘Tips for Running the Adventure’ in the first of its two appendices. This boils down to the need for the players and their characters to be proactive, since they are up against the clock, as well as giving advice for the Judge on portraying the various NPCs in the scenario.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics #78: Fate’s Fell Hand is decently presented. The writing is good, the artwork is excellent, and the handouts are nicely done, even having been updated to colour since the original publication of the scenario.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #78: Fate’s Fell Hand is a tough adventure for Player Characters of Second Level and probably even those of a higher Level, so is best suited to the experienced player and Judge. It rewards good roleplaying as well as exploration, and its emphasis on these two are a pleasing change of pace. It is also a good adventure for a Wizard Player Character given the potential rewards, whilst its arcane, even arch nature mean that it could easily be run using the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set and Dungeon Crawl Classics Dying Earth without any difficulty. Dungeon Crawl Classics #78: Fate’s Fell Hand is a really good, really well written adventure strongly inspired by the Appendix N awaiting the nimble fingers of a good Judge in whose hands the players and their characters are going to have a ball of time playing.

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Dungeon Crawl Classics #77.5: The Tower Out of Time was the previous scenario • The next scenario is Dungeon Crawl Classics #79: Frozen in Time.

Salvage & Secrecy

Ernsteyn Industrial Materials (EIM) is a thriving concern operating a pair of Type J Seekers out of the orbital starport of Yres in the Regina subsector of the Spinward Marches. Or was until a week or so ago. Losing a contract with Ling Standard Products came at the wrong time when one of the company’s vessels, the Evan’s Endeavour, suffered a drive failure, and whilst insurance will cover the cost of some of the repairs, it will not cover them all. The company needs a good contract, one that will cover the bills that are due soon. Fortunately, one of the shareholders, Neal Slessinger, a senior starport administrator, got EIM a job. This is to salvage cargo from the Deutsche Post, a merchant tender lost in the wake of the Fourth Frontier War some thirty years ago, with long term plans to go back and salvage the rest of the vessel. However, the Deutsche Post’s location is at the edge of the Menorb and Yres systems. Getting to the site of the lost ship will not be easy and will require Sydni’s Search, EIM ‘s only operational ship, to be fitted with demountable tanks to fuel the necessary Jumps to get into the system and out to its edge. Unfortunately, the company’s only demountable tanks are aboard the Evan’s Endeavour, the vessel in dry dock, undergoing extensive repair… This is only the start of the problems for the crew of Sydni’s Search and the set-up for Cold Dark Grave.

Cold Dark Grave is a scenario of salvage and secrets for Traveller, the Science Fiction roleplaying game and setting published by Mongoose Publishing. The scenario itself is published by BITS UK Limited, or ‘British Isles Traveller Support’, a British organisation dedicated to supporting Traveller, especially at conventions. To that end, Cold Dark Grave began life as the BITS tournament adventure From a Cold Dark Grave for Gen Con UK 2005. It is designed to be played in a single session with six players, though can be run with less, and is both demanding technically and in terms of roleplaying. The technical nature because the players and their characters will need to think about refitting their ship, getting it out of the Yres system without looking suspicious, locating the Deutsche Post, getting on board it, and not only finding the cargo to be salvaged, but also get it off the ship and back to the Sydni’s Search. The roleplaying challenge comes in the form of roleplaying and trusting Neal Slessinger. He is designed to be a Player Character—though with fewer players, he need not be—and despite being (or because he is) a major shareholder in Ernsteyn Industrial Materials, he is hiding a lot of secrets. Secrets that the player roleplaying him has to cover for lest the other Player Characters either beat the hell out of him or simply space him… The likelihood is that one of those will occur by the end of the scenario, but until then, the player roleplaying Neal Slessinger really needs to be good for the others to maintain a degree of trust in him. That said, it both helps that the crew of the Sydni’s Search are desperate to make enough money to keep EIM a going concern and that the scenario is designed to be played in a single session and therefore at some pace, since the players and their characters are unlikely to have the time to worry too much about Slessinger’s caginess. However, if Cold Dark Grave is played in longer, multiple sessions, the danger is that it gets bogged down into the other Player Characters trying to get answers out of Slessinger. And if they do, then the scenario, depending upon what the players and their characters decide to do, will either be truncated or go in another direction and potentially fizzle out.

The plot of Cold Dark Grave kicks into gear once the Sydni’s Search has made its first Jump and arrives at the edge of the system where the crew find themselves on the edge of a huge battlefield of dead and broken ships. This is the first of the physical dangers that the crew will face, but as the physical peril grows so does the moral—and legal, peril. The story is presented as a series of nuggets that in turn give the basic situation and then explore the likely options that the Player Characters might choose. The scenario presents several possible resolutions to the situation that the Player Characters find themselves in and these should bring the scenario to a satisfying solution. That is, for everyone except Neal Slessinger…

To support the scenario’s plot and set-up, Cold Dark Grave includes six detailed pre-generated Player Characters, details and deck plans of both the Type J ‘Wobbegong’ Class Seeker operated by the Player Characters and the Maagukii Class Bulk Carrier operated by the pirates. There are details of the Deutsche Post ‘Earth Mail’ Class Tender, primarily in its current state, though no deck plans are provided. Its internal, highly damaged state is described in some detail as is getting aboard her, finding their way around, and finding the cargo are the most physical challenges that the Player Characters will face in the scenario.

To support the play of the scenario, Cold Dark Grave does include some slightly alternative rules. The ‘BITS Generic Task System’ is designed to handle Classic Traveller, Mongoose Traveller, Traveller 4, GURPS Traveller, MegaTraveller, and Traveller T20, and despite all of those games systems were available in the noughties when Cold Dark Grave was first published, its inclusion has really been superseded by Mongoose Traveller as the dominant rules for Traveller. The ‘BITS Generic NPC System’ is more useful since it simplifies the handling and presentation of NPCs in the scenario.

Physically, Cold Dark Grave is solidly presented. The illustrations are all of a technical nature as is the writing in many places.

Cold Dark Grave is a good convention scenario, played at pace and emphasising the physical peril as much as the moral peril that the Player Characters are placed in. All backed up with the technical detail that you would expect of a scenario for Traveller.

Miskatonic Monday #411: The Disappearance in Montignac

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 Disappearance in Montignac

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Thomas Baudart

Setting: France, 2015

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Ten-page, 1.58 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: A missing persons case attracts a podcast squad

Plot Hook: Find the girl, make a podcast, get famous

Plot Support: Staging advice, no pre-generated Investigators, one NPC, two handouts, one map, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Simple investigation 

# Scope for development

# Family horror story

# Sciophobia

# Castlephobia

# Entomophobia

Cons

# Needs a good edit and localisation

# Some NPCs underdeveloped

# Why is the castle causing Sanity loss?

Conclusion

# Not enough time to really allow for an investigation

# Small village, family horror scenario that could benefit from development and clarification

A Copernican Catastrophe

It is the year 1580 and one of the greatest mathematicians, astronomers, and physicians of the age has been dead these past thirty-seven years. Nicolaus Copernicus is most famous for formulating a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at its centre. So, the question is, why has someone sent Doctor John Dee, court astronomer to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, Copernicus’ coffin? And why does it contain a skeleton with a silver dagger plunged into its chest plate with a note attached which reads, “Do you Believe now?” Doctor Dee knows that the skeleton is not that of Copernicus, since he had more teeth than the skeleton, but cannot fathom why someone should send both it and the coffin to him. Nevertheless, he is definitely intrigued by the delivery and strongly suspects that this is a trap. Which is why he sends agents to the village of Frombork in Poland to investigate, since they are, after all, condemned men. Condemned men whose heresy—as minor as it was—is enough for them to have been executed long ago were it not for Sir Francis Walsingham giving them a stay of execution whilst they investigate occult threats to both Queen and kingdom, are all that stand between an even greater heresy and the reordering of the cosmos that would undo all of Copernicus’ theories! This is the situation that faces the Agents in Only A Fool, a scenario for Just Crunch Games’ The Dee Sanction, the roleplaying game of ‘Covert Enochian Intelligence’ in which the Player Characters—or Agents of Dee—are drawn into adventures in magick and politics across supernatural Tudor Europe.

Only A Fool is not your average scenario for The Dee Sanction. To begin with it is the winner of a scenario-writing competition on The Raspy Raven Discord which hosts a lot of online games, and then it is not set in Merry Olde England, but in Poland. This requires that the Player Characters speak Polish and Doctor Dee employs them because they can. This is not usual for the Player Characters in The Dee Sanction, so Only a Fool is better suited to play as a one-shot or convention scenario.

Armed with details of Copernicus’ life and studies, the Player Characters travel to the village outside of the Archcathedral of Frombork and from there investigate and follow the clues that lead them into the cathedral, Copernicus Tower where Nicolaus Copernicus conducted his astronomical research, and beyond the village to where his mistress, Anna Schilling, still lives. The investigation is relatively short and not overly complex, essentially a mini-sandbox with a handful of locations. However, the Player Characters will quickly realise that they are being watched and that despite the rationality of Copernicus’ thesis, there are men and women in the village and the Archcathedral of Frombork who very much still hold to the heliocentrism of the past several thousand years. Their belief is ardent and raises the questions, what else do they believe in and what powers does that belief grant them? In fact, belief and non-belief lies at the heart of the scenario and the Player Characters will be constantly asked if they are believers or non-believers. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Believers will see the acts of heresy that are carried out during the scenario, but will also be suspectable to them as well, whilst Non-Believers will not be affected by them because they cannot see them. Further, some NPCs will only readily talk to Believers and talking to some of those NPCs is vital to the plot.

Ultimately, the scenario will climax at a performance of the malign Dischordant Harmoney at a Grand Alignment Eclipse in which Belief and Non-Belief are the weapons that the enemy and the Player Characters must wield against each other. The Dischordant Harmoney is performed on the organ in the Archcathedral of Frombork, so the climax has an over the top Gothic feel. Given that Only a Fool is best used as a convention or one-shot scenario, it is a pity that a set of pre-generated could not have been included with the scenario.

Physically, Only A Fool is tightly laid out over three pages. It is lightly illustrated and does need an edit. The single map is slightly too small to be fully effective and would have benefited from being on a whole page rather than half a page. Nevertheless, everything is decently organised and easy to use straight from the page.

Only a Fool is pulpy Gothic horror scenario that really benefits from its very different setting to that usually seen in scenarios for The Dee Sanction and from the players and their characters having to explore the consequences of belief and non-belief. It is short, direct, and easy to prepare, so is a solid convention or one-shot scenario.

Victory & Venom

Achtung! Cthulhu is the roleplaying game of fast-paced pulp action and Mythos magic published by Modiphius Entertainment. It is pitches the Allied Agents of the Britain’s Section M, the United States’ Majestic, and the brave Resistance into a Secret War against those Nazi Agents and organisations which would command and entreat with the occult and forces beyond the understanding of mankind. They are willing to risk their lives and their sanity against malicious Nazi villains and the unfathomable gods and monsters of the Mythos themselves, each striving for supremacy in mankind’s darkest yet finest hour! Yet even the darkest of drives to take advantage of the Mythos is riven by differing ideologies and approaches pandering to Hitler’s whims. The Black Sun consists of Nazi warrior-sorcerers supreme who use foul magic and summoned creatures from nameless dimensions to dominate the battlefields of men, whilst Nachtwölfe, the Night Wolves, utilise technology, biological enhancements, and wunderwaffen (wonder weapons) to win the war for Germany. Ultimately, both utilise and fall under the malign influence of the Mythos, the forces of which have their own unknowable designs…

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: The Serpent & The Sands is the eighth release for Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20, and the third campaign following on from Achtung! Cthulhu: Shadows of Atlantis and Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Forest of Fear. There are two notable factors about the campaign and the supplement. First is that it is the second of the ‘Early War’ campaigns, beginning in May, 1941 at the same time as the Siege of Tobruk. What this means is that it can be run after the events of Achtung! Cthulhu: Shadows of Atlantis with relatively low experienced Player Characters, despite it actually being released after Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Forest of Fear, which is set in late 1944. The second is that it is not just a campaign, but also a sourcebook for Achtung! Cthulhu, providing a guide to the allies and enemies participating in the Secret War across North Africa, their aims, equipment, NPCs, threats, and more, along with numerous Player Character options and a host of Adventure seeds that the Game Master can all use to develop her own scenarios and missions, as well as run the other scenarios that Modiphius Entertainment has published that are set in this theatre of war. This means that Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: The Serpent & The Sands is effectively two books in one. The book actually has two tables of content—one for the sourcebook half and one for the campaign—and even the edges of the pages are coloured differently to distinguish the two!

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: The Serpent & The Sands begins with an overview of Egypt and Libya and its major settlements and locations, including those associated with the Mythos. The most notable of these is Irem, the City of Pillars, here shifted from its Arabian desert location as described in H.P. Lovecraft’s The Nameless City which describes it as having been built by a sapient reptile species. Given the latter, this makes sense, since the major Mythos threat in North Africa in Achtung! Cthulhu is not the Deep Ones or the Mi-Go or the Nazi outré agencies, Nachtwölfe and Black Sun, but the Ophidians or Serpent People. The activities of all of these factions in Achtung! Cthulhu in North Africa are also described as well as those of Section M and Majestic. The main aim of Section M is to thwart the efforts of Black Sun to scour the region for as many artefacts and tomes as it can lay its hands on and prevent Nachtwölfe from finding further deposits of Blauer Kristall that fuel its advanced weaponry. The American Majestic is not as busy in the region, at least not until after the success of Operation Torch in 1942 and whilst it shares some of the same aims as Section, is not as subtle about it, causing some friction. This does play a little into the stereotyping of Americans in the period, but that does not feel out of place in the Pulp fiction of Achtung! Cthulhu. Alongside the details of Nachtwölfe operations is a description of Adlerhorst, its own ‘Eagle’s Nest’, located in a huge cave complex hidden deep in the Tunisian desert.

The Deep Ones are a major faction in Achtung! Cthulhu, but given the environment, not in Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: The Serpent & The Sands. They are relegated to minor faction, and joined by the bloodthirsty Children of Typhon dedicated to Yig and thus rivals to the Serpent’s Tooth; a handful of Free French occultists of the Géo Gras, who loathe Black Sun in particular for looting its lore; the Mi-Go, who may occasionally ally with Nachtwölfe, but have their own alien agenda; and the Eye of Ur, an Italian association of occultists dedicated to transcending the limits of the human form, whose origins dates back to Ancient Rome and whose leaders prefer to play the long game, are obsessed with the Great Library of Alexandria, and have longstanding links to the Black Pharoah, Nyarlathotep himself. They tend to have a Roman-theme, but modernised. They do not play a role in the campaign, but do appear in some of the adventure seeds, plus, of course, their presence makes sense since Italy has colonial possessions in North Africa and is one of the Axis powers. The Eye of Ur would likely play a role in any scenario or campaign involving Italian forces or figure later in the war once the Allies have invaded Italy. Player Characters may find allies in the form of a handful of Free French occultists of the Géo Gras and the more familiar Order of the Alnim, whose members loathe the Ophidians.

For the Game Master, there are stats for numerous Allied, Axis, and occult heroes and villains. Australian infantry, New Zealand Desert Patrol Soldier, an Alnim warrior, and German Afrika Korps troops and Italian forces. The BLACK SUN Krokodilmeister has an Augmented Assault Crocodile bound to him (instead of the traditional hound) and wears a face mask with an extended and toothed maw and a trench coat of cured crocodile skin, whilst the Nachtwölfe ‘Skorpian’ Class Sniper wears a ‘Skorpian’-class environment suit to survive long periods in the desert on deep observation missions whilst armed with an MK89 ‘Auslöscher’ Sniper Rifle. It feels like something out of Dune rather than Achtung! Cthulhu. There are stats too, for members of the Eye of Ur and Serpent’s Tooth cultists.

Of course, particular attention is paid to the Ophidians, the serpentine humanoid species that once dominated the planet millions of years ago in the Pliocene Era and have long been in hibernation, whilst those who are awake consider Humanity to be nothing more than mammalian vermin. This is because the Ophidians are a major Mythos faction in the region and the primary threat in the campaign. Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: The Serpent & The Sands details their history, their long term and their current aims, and the effects of their toxins as well as what is known or conjectured about them. The latter is done via the notes, letters, and histories of the late Professor George Linden, found poisoned in his office following a fire that destroyed much of his research. It adds a human touch to the reptilian slant that follows in the descriptions of the various Ophidian villains and NPCs. Along with their bestiary—including several snake types, equipment, spells, and rituals, this aspect of the supplement significantly expands the threat of the Ophidians given in the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Gamemaster’s Guide, providing the Game Master with options in how they can be used both in North Africa and elsewhere in the world where they might be found. The options are expanded because the Ophidians are divided between two different factions, the Atavistic and the Evolved, the former believing that their species should not change, whilst the latter believe that they should adapt to the changing nature of their world. A table of ‘Evolved Powers’ allows the Game Master to customise her Evolved Ophidian threats. Amongst the creatures listed which the Ophidians use is the Gryphon, and pleasingly, the supplement allows for the possibility that a Player Character might actually want one as a mount of his own!

Amongst the descriptions of the various items of equipment and vehicles for all of the factions, there are rules for mines and how to detect them. There are notable arms and armour such as the Dämon Luger, which feels very much like organic gun from the film, Existenz, but looks like a Luger and shoots plasma rather than teeth, and the Aegida Tactical Shield, an energy shield which looks like a scutum when activated, so used as protection device by the Eye of Ur. Lastly, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: The Serpent & The Sands adds Robowaffe, one of them a remote-controlled walking tank (so not quite a mecha) and the other, essentially a drone.

In terms of Player Character options, the supplement provides six new archetypes—the Adventurer, Diplomat, Gambler, Guide, Smuggler, and Spy. New Backgrounds include Alnim Mystic and Warrior, Archaeologist, Desert Rat, French Foreign Legionary, Free French Fighter, Greek Sacred Band member, LRDG Officer and Soldier, and Popski’s Private Army Privateer, plus Characteristics such as ‘Blood of Yig’, ‘Called to Mystery’, and ‘Rugged’, and Talents like ‘Evil Eye’, ‘Well-Informed’, ‘Eidetic Memory’, ‘Spray and Pray’, ‘Battlefield Sawbones’, and ‘Hunker Down’. These are a mix of those suited to North Africa, but many can be combined with the options from the Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Player’s Guide and other sourcebooks. They also enable players to create the classic archetypes of the pulp genre, but also be more inventive.

Being a book of two distinct halves means that Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: The Serpent & The Sands warrants three conclusions. One for each half and then the book as a whole. There can be no doubt that the supplement half of Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: The Serpent & The Sands provides a lot for the Game Master to use in her own scenarios and campaign. There are plenty of adventure ideas too and a good overview of the setting. However, the map of the region is underwhelming and does not mark all of the locations described. Whilst there are rules for mines and minesweeping, there are no rules for desert travel or survival—at least not in the supplement half of the book. They are instead saved for a whole chapter of ‘The Serpent & The Sands’ campaign. There is no denying that they are the focus of that chapter, but arguably they should have been in the supplement half with the rest of the rules. And perhaps if Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: The Serpent & The Sands had actually been divided into two books, they would have been. If that was the case, the fifth chapter of the campaign would have been different, or at least had a different focus, whilst without the campaign half, the supplement could have included a scenario or two that explored the activities of other factions—the Eye of Ur in particular, in a bit more detail as well as one for the Ophidians that could have been added to the campaign.

The campaign in Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: The Serpent & The Sands consists of ten-parts and will take the Player Characters west from Cairo and Alexandria to Tobruk and back, as well deep into the deserts and beyond. It is fast-paced, some of the chapters being playable in a single session, and it does have a focused narrative, the Player Characters being directed and driven to attempt and complete a series of missions. So, there is not a wide variety of options in terms of what the Player Characters can do and where they can go in the grand scheme of things. This is the nature of what is effectively a military horror campaign. The Player Characters are under orders. The military nature of the setting means that mass combat occurs several times throughout the campaign and that in combination with the number of NPCs and combatants is where the relative complexity of the campaign lies.

‘The Serpent & The Sands’ campaign begins in classic pulp fashion. The Player Characters meet an old friend, Aisha Aziz, an experienced agent of the Order of the Alnim, in Alexandria and shortly after they meet in a café, she is assassinated. She has time to tell the Player Characters what she came to tell them before she dies, that they should seek the Oasis of the Veiled Moon and a ziggurat beyond, and to do so, should find the Australian, Bruce Taylor, as the time of the snake is high. Going after the assassins leads to a rooftop chase and the revelation that they are Ophidians and worshippers of Yig. As soon as it learns of this, Section M wants the Player Characters to investigate this and find out what Bruce Taylor knows. He is a soldier with the Australian army and unfortunately is stationed behind enemy lines in the besieged city of Tobruk, several days travel west of Alexandria. The Player Characters can get a lift with the Long Range Desert Group and will have the chance to gain some impromptu desert training, before being dropped off and having to get across enemy lines themselves. It turns out that Bruce Taylor is in the guardhouse and facing a firing squad for deserting. He willingly joins up with the Player Characters and his commanding officer is happy to get rid of him. Taylor is a chancer though, so not to be trusted, but the Player Characters have no choice in escorting him back to Cairo, because they need his knowledge.

Taylor will help the Player Characters and he will get them into the Oasis of the Veiled Moon and beyond, but ‘The Serpent & The Sands’ is a Pulp horror campaign and so he will betray the Player Characters. The Game Master should play up his smiling, scoundrelly nature and much like the death of Aisha Aziz, the players should expect it and to some extent accept it as part of the genre. It will follow the discovery of a site of bloody carnage in the ziggurat where the true nature of the foe that threatens the North African theatre comes to light, the release of an Ophidian called Alom Shallar from her tomb. It is at this point that Taylor exits ‘The Serpent & The Sands’, which is a pity because he is one of the few well developed NPCs in the campaign and his absence means that there is no narrative arc for him in the campaign.

Up until this point, the campaign is straightforward and direct. It takes a break in the middle for a long trek through the desert using the supplement’s travel and survival rules, before returning to that style afterwards. Instead of using pre-determined encounters as in previous and subsequent chapters, the Game Master is creating random encounters for the Player Characters to run into. There is nothing wrong with bringing desert travel and survival rules into play, but the way in which it is done in this campaign is problematic. Focusing upon them to the exclusion of all else does not push the plot forward and focusing upon them in one chapter begs several questions. Why were they not used in pervious—and subsequent—chapters involving desert travel? Why were they not included in the supplement half of Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: The Serpent & The Sands rather than the campaign half? Ultimately, the inclusion of the rules to the exclusion of all else does not make a lot of narrative sense here, as the Game Master could simply cut them and the campaign would not be affected.

After their trek in the desert, the Player Characters will get to the Caravanserai of a Thousand Fragrant Sighs. Here they can restock and supply, but also discover signs of Serpent’s Tooth cult activity and allies from the Order of the Alnim. These are vital as the Player Characters penetrate the labyrinth of the Serpent’s Lair where the Serpent’s Tooth are performing a ritual. The Player Characters have the opportunity to both disrupt the ritual and learn from the past in clues left behind by Alexander the Great as well as the location of the Temple of Stars. From this chapter onwards, the Player Characters are chasing Alom Shallar and her Ophidian retinue, attempting to stop her from finding the means and ways to complete her ultimate aim—summon the ancient Ophidian city of Sethopolis and establish herself as an important power in the middle of North Africa. These chapters are longer and more complex than the ones in the first half of the campaign, particular chapters involving puzzles and stealth, ultimately to a final confrontation in the depths of the Ophidian city. This is a tough, big battle as you would expect, but interestingly, along the way, the Player Characters can collect some allies—and not the ones that they expect. This aspect of the campaign highlights how in the Secret War of Achtung! Cthulhu, not every Mythos faction is willing to co-operate with any other and sometimes rivalries will push them to find other allies, even ones that would otherwise be enemies.

The grand sweep of North Africa allows us to draw from a variety of themes of images, especially for World War 2. Egypt has its teeming cities and its ancient history and mysteries, whilst the desert has its arid sands and scouring sandstorms, its excessive heat and lack of water. It evokes images of sweeping tank battles, hidden fields of mines, holding out against overwhelming forces as in the film Sahara, driving out of the desert in a Long Range Desert Group Patrol Vehicle to strike at Axis airfields like The Rat Patrol, Tobruk, or SAS: Rogue Heroes, and making the long trek across the dunes, hot and thirsty, trying to get back to Allied lines for one ice cold beer as in Ice Cold in Alex. Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: The Serpent & The Sands combines these with the Pulp action of secret oases, strange pyramids, untrustworthy natives—in this case, cultists, hidden kingdoms, and Nazi-punching action of Raiders of the Lost Ark! Of course, ‘The Serpent & The Sands’ campaign takes the “Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?” quote from that film and runs with it. Plus, there are one or two nods to the film throughout the campaign, including a rolling ball trap.

‘The Serpent & The Sands’ campaign is a muscular affair, an entertaining mix of pulp action and weird science. It is not a great campaign, but not a bad campaign either, both solidly straightforward and playable. There are missteps, notably the inclusion of a chapter entirely focused upon desert travel and survival when that should have been part of the campaign as a whole. The Pulp nature of the campaign’s plotting also means that the players do need to accept certain story beats such as betrayal and failure to achieve certain objectives in the later part of the campaign and so set up the final confrontation. The point is the campaign is tightly plotted. If the players can accept that, then ‘The Serpent & The Sands’ campaign is short enough that it will not outstay its welcome whilst moving on the overall campaign framework through the early part of the war.

Physically, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: The Serpent & The Sands is well presented. The artwork is great and everything is well organised. However, it is not as accessible as it could have been, because although there are two tables of content—one for the supplement and one for the campaign—there is no index. It could have done with more artwork, especially for the NPCs to make them better presentable for the players. The campaign could also have done with more maps of certain locations. That said, their inclusion would have eased the running of the campaign rather than being a necessity.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: The Serpent & The Sands is literally a book of two halves. Arguably, it could and should have been two books, a supplement and a campaign. That would have given the Game Master the choice, to be able to purchase the sourcebook half of the book and use it to create her own content without having to purchase the campaign. Certainly, making it two books would have avoided some of the issues with the narrative of the campaign and made the supplement more obviously useful. However, it is not two books. Nevertheless, it is still a book of two halves and the supplement half of the book is better and more useful than the campaign side. Of course, it is useful to run the campaign, but its contents can be used beyond the campaign. The campaign itself is solid and entertaining, but no more than that. Together, they make Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: The Serpent & The Sands a good package that has a lot of playable and useful content that expands the Secret War.