Quick-Start Saturday: The Official PLANET OF THE APES RPG Quickstart Rules

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.

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What is it?
The Official PLANET OF THE APES RPG Quickstart Rules is the quick-start for The Official PLANET OF THE APES RPG, the roleplaying game based on the Planet of the Apes film franchise. Specifically, it is based on the original 1968 film, Planet of the Apes, followed by Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, and Battle for the Planet of the Apes, as well as the 1974 television series and later novels and comic book series.

It is a eighty-six page, 55.08 MB full colour PDF.

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

How long will it take to play?
The Official PLANET OF THE APES RPG Quickstart Rules is designed to be played through in two sessions.

What else do you need to play?
The Official PLANET OF THE APES RPG Quickstart Rules needs a handful of six-sided dice, one of which must be a different colour to represent the Wild Die.

Who do you play?
The Official PLANET OF THE APES RPG Quickstart Rules includes six pre-generated Player Characters. They consist of an ambitious Chimpanzee Statesape, a Gorilla Veteran scout, a Gorilla Constable, an Orangutan Lawgiver, almost muckraking Chimpanzee Journalist, and a Gorilla Serviceape.

How is a Player Character defined?

A Player Character in the The Official PLANET OF THE APES RPG can be a Chimpanzee, Gorilla, Orangutan, Mutant, Human or Tribal Human, or even an ‘Astro-Naut’. In The Official PLANET OF THE APES RPG Quickstart Rules needs, they are either Chimpanzee, Gorilla, or Orangutan. A Player Character has six Attributes—Dexterity, Knowledge, Mechanical, Perception, Strength, and Willpower—and their associated skills. They are rated by a die code, indicating the number of six-sided dice it has as well as a bonus, either ‘+1’ or ‘+2’. A Player Character will also have a memento that grants him a bonus under specific circumstances, background, and motive. In The Official PLANET OF THE APES RPG, a Player Character can also have a Quirk, which enables to have a Remarkable Ability, but those in the The Official PLANET OF THE APES RPG Quickstart Rules do not.

How do the mechanics work?

The Official PLANET OF THE APES RPG Quickstart Rules—and thus The Official PLANET OF THE APES RPG—uses a variant of the D6 System first seen in Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game published by West End Games in 1987. This variant is called the ‘Magnetic Variant’ or ‘D6MV’. To have his character undertake an action, a player rolls a number of dice equal to the attribute, plus a skill, if appropriate. The result is compared to a Difficulty Number, ranging from five or ‘Very Easy’ to thirty or ‘Extremely Difficult’, with fifteen being ‘Average’, to determine the degree of success. If the result is equal to the Difficulty Number, it is a ‘Partial Success’, which means that the Player Character succeeds, but with a setback. If the result is greater than the Difficulty Number, it is an ‘Ordinary Success’, but if three times greater than the Difficulty Number, it is an ‘Exceptional Success’ and the action is achieved with greater speed, accuracy, or effect. Conversely, if the result is less than the Difficulty Number, it can be simple ‘Ordinary Failure’, ‘Exceptional Failure’, or ‘Catastrophic Failure’, depending on how low it is. With an ‘Exceptional Failure’, something bad will happen to the Player Character, but not immediately, whereas with a ‘Catastrophic Failure’, it happens immediately.

One of the dice rolled on an action is always the Wild Die. If it rolls a six, then the Player Character gains an advantage, which can be elevating a successful roll by one step, gaining Hero Points, or granting another Player Character a Hero Point. If the roll is a failure and the Wild Die result is still a success, a player can roll it again and hope that it rolls more sixes to add to the total. If the Wild Die rolls a one, then something bad happens, even if the action was otherwise a success. This can be to add a setback, lowering the degree of success by one step, and so on. Some of these options will grant the Player Character more Hero Points.

Hero Points are also earned from ingenuity or good play. They can be spent to double the Die Code for a single roll, to reroll a result, or to turn a Wounded, Incapacitated, or Mortally Wounded condition into ‘Just a Flesh’ wound.

How does combat work?
Initiative in combat is a group roll, either using the Reflex skill if the combatants are aware of the fight, or just Perception if not. It is rolled at the start of each round to reflect the back and forth of cinematic pulp action of the source material. Hand-to-hand attacks are rolled using the Brawl or Melee skills against the defender’s defence value. Ranged attacks use either the Marksmanship, Thrown, or Gunnery skills, the Difficulty Number determined by the defender’s defence value and the range. A defender—and thus a Player Character—has three defence values. These are ‘Surprised Defence’, ‘Ready Defence’, and ‘Psyche Defence’, each of which is derived from an attribute. Damage—whether from a combination of Strength and a melee weapon’s damage or a ranged weapon’s damage—is compared to the defender’s Strength to give a result of either ‘Stunned’, ‘Wounded’, ‘Incapacitated’, or ‘Mortally Wounded’. The rules in The Official PLANET OF THE APES RPG Quickstart Rules also cover mental trauma and recovery as well as general recovery.

What do you play?

The scenario in The Official PLANET OF THE APES RPG Quickstart Rules is ‘The Deadliest Prey’. In this an affluent, but bored and ambitious Chimpanzee uses his position and connections to organise a lawgiver-sponsored hunt for one of the deadliest of predators to have appeared in years—a meat-eating, ape-murdering Human! So far, he has proved himself to be a highly deadly and elusive threat, and this is further enforced when the members of the current expedition—of which, the Player Characters are a part—are attacked and their supplies destroyed. The Player Characters are forced to rely on their survival skills as they attempt to track down the Human predator. The situation escalates as the Player Characters become the hunted as well as the hunters. The scenario is a sandcrawl in which the Player Characters track down the predators and explore the region. It is decently detailed, but is very much a ‘pull-and-push’ scenario as the LAWGIVER—as the Game Master is known—reacts to the actions of the Player Characters and pushes back at them with the very active threat that they face. The scenario also allows for a greater freedom of action upon the part of the Player Characters as they are free to wander wherever they want in the valley and on the hillsides where it is set. It means that ‘The Deadliest Prey’ is more complex to run than the typical quick-start.

Is there anything missing?
No. Not as written. However, it is disappointing that the quick-start does not use the rules for Quirks and Remarkable Abilities to show off better how special the Player Characters are. The Official PLANET OF THE APES RPG Quickstart Rules includes a good introduction to the history and background to Planet of the Apes that also provides the general viewpoints of the various factions, starting with the apes. It also incudes lots of references to the full rules and what is to be found in the full rulebook for The Official PLANET OF THE APES RPG. Which does become a little wearisome.

Is it easy to prepare?
Yes. The Official PLANET OF THE APES RPG Quickstart Rules is easy to prepare.

Is it worth it?
Yes. The Official PLANET OF THE APES RPG Quickstart Rules is a very good looking product that 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.

The Official PLANET OF THE APES RPG Quickstart Rules is published by Magnetic Press Play and is available to download here.

Friday Fantasy: The Tower Out of Time

A never-before seen ‘bearded star’—or comet—is seen skittering across the night sky that mystics and astrologers have labelled ‘Serbok’, which just happens to be the old word for ‘serpent’. Any coincidence? Then, in the nearby forest, woodcutters report the appearance of, again, a never seen before dark lake, its waters full of strange fish and other creatures, with a tower standing on the water’s edge, its walls not of traditional mortar and stone, but of a material with leathery appearance, as if cut and sewn from monstrously giant reptile! The woodcutters knew better than to stick around, but their departure was heralded by the sudden emitting of a burning beam of light out of the top of the tower and up into the sky. Even now, the fiery ray continues to sear its way into the heavens, visible from beyond the confines of the forest. Any coincidence? Are the two connected? Well, of course they are! The comet marks the impending return of S’lissakk, a serpent-man sorcerer of great renown from the empire of E’shernulus, who since that time has travelling the comos aboard his voidcraft. His return is guided by the tower, the Pharos of Scales, which itself has been piloted through time by S’lissakk’s apprentice, H’lisk, to ensure that the beacon is in the right time to anticipate his master’s return.

This is the set-up to Dungeon Crawl Classics #77.5: The Tower Out of Time, a scenario published by Goodman Games for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. The scenario was published in 2013 as a special incentive to Game Masters participating in the DCCRPG World Tour 2013, which promoted the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game both in store and at conventions, and then was later suggested as a demonstration scenario for Free RPG in 2013. It is designed for a party of six Second Level Player Characters and has both a quick set-up time and a quick playing time. It can easily be played in a single session and prepared in less than hour. That set-up also makes it easy to add to a campaign, the Judge only needing to locate the forests where the Pharos of Scales has appeared in her campaign world.

The Pharos of Scales is actually made of prehistoric reptile hide stiffened and toughened through the wonders of ancient Serpent-Man sorcery, with doors made of ‘soap-bubble’-like membranes that instantly reform when there is nothing is breaking them. This weirdness continues inside, enforcing a sense of ancient primordial hothouse origins on each of its floors. The layout of the tower is simple with no more than two rooms per storey. The lower levels consist of an arboretum that provides an environment more to the liking of H’lisk and his servants as well as their quarters. The latter are Ape-Men controlled via Cerebraleechs that look like parasites attached to the back of their necks and granting them a psionic attack in addition to their physicality. Above this is an example of Serpent-Man science, what looks like exotic jungle flower supported by three thick and fleshy stems to which are attached small, hairy anthropoid creature known as Antehumans, precursors to Humanity, via tubes that pierce their bodies, siphoning off blood to feed the flower-like device. This is the beacon itself and H’lisk and his Ape-Men servants will fight to the death to protect it!

One entertaining change to this style of adventure, is that it changes when H’lisk gets to do his villainous monologue! He gets to have this and any conversation with the Player Characters when they are on the floor below, so that when they do get to confront him, there is no delay in the fight starting. This is the only opportunity for roleplaying in the adventure and gives the Judge to explain some of the scenario’s background without the players deciding that their characters automatically attack rather than listen to any monologue. This is enforced by the design of the tower which places a trap on the ramp up from the storey that the Player Characters are on and the storey where H’lisk is. The point is highlighted in a rather entertaining section of boxed text, ‘Behind the Scenes’, which gives some insight to the final confrontation and what happened during the scenario’s play test.

The scenario comes to a close with a puzzle door—which comes with its own rather nice handout—that the Player Characters must solve if they want to get to the roof, though there not anything up there worth investigating. It may well be that the puzzle door is more rewarding if the Player Characters have climbed the tower and are attempting to break in from the roof. It ends that, with the arrival of S’lissakk in his voidship. Where he lands depends upon whether the beacon is still working. If it is, his voidship splashes down in the lake beside the tower, but if not, it will be much further way. What happens next—and the details of S’lissakk—are left for the Judge to develop. Rounding off the scenario, in addition to the map, are details of ‘Serbok: The Slithering Shadow’ as a Patron, although no new spells are included.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics #77.5: The Tower Out of Time is decently presented. The writing is good, the artwork is decent, and the handout is nicely done. The cover is very well done, getting across its weirdness in comparison to normal wizard’s towers.

Ultimately, that is what Dungeon Crawl Classics #77.5: The Tower Out of Time is—a wizard’s tower. It is just that the wizard’s tower is a weird Serpent-Man wizard’s tower! Dungeon Crawl Classics #77.5: The Tower Out of Time is a small adventure, really only providing a session’s worth of engagingly thematic play. However, as much as his return is heralded by its background, the scenario leaves what happens with S’lissakk undeveloped and in the hands of the Judge, who is left without any ideas or suggestions. Without developing that further, as written, the actual ending of is either a cliffhanger or an anticlimax, and if the Judge decides to forgo the arrival of S’lissakk, then there is the possibility that the players and characters may have no idea what it is exactly they have been doing in the scenario. Dungeon Crawl Classics #77.5: The Tower Out of Time is short and very serviceable, but its ending leaves the Judge without any answers and plenty of questions to ask.

Friday Faction: This is Free Trader Beowulf: A System History of Traveller

“This is Free Trader Beowulf, calling anyone … Mayday, Mayday.” are the most famous lines in Science Fiction roleplaying and quite some of the most lines in roleplaying, first appearing as the strapline on the black and white and red box that contained the what become the famous ‘Little Black Books’ for the roleplaying game, Traveller, when it went on sale on July 22, 1977, at the Origins III Game Fair. Not the hobby’s first Science Fiction roleplaying game, that would be TSR, Inc.’s Metamorphosis Alpha: Fantastic Role-Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventures on a Lost Starship, or indeed the second, which would be Starfaring, published by Flying Buffalo, Inc., both published the previous year. However, Traveller would be the first Science Fiction roleplaying game to have an impact upon the hobby, the first roleplaying to explore the concept of a metaplot upon a whole game line, and as we approach 2027, the oldest Science Fiction roleplaying game to be in print and to have remained in print in one edition or another for nearly all of those fifty years. It is these past four decades—and a bit—of Traveller history that are explored in This is Free Trader Beowulf: A System History of Traveller.

This is Free Trader Beowulf: A System History of Traveller is written by the author of Designers & Dragons and is a described as ‘A Designers & Dragons System History’. Published by Mongoose Publishing—the current publisher of Traveller—it takes the reader from the late fifties to the twenty-twenties in recounting the story of the many editions and designers of Traveller, from the 1977 ‘Little Black Books’ of Classic Traveller to the 2013 Traveller⁵ from Far Future Enterprises to the 2016 Traveller, Second Edition from Mongoose Publishing. The origins lie—as much of early roleplaying does—in the wargaming hobby, first in designs from Avalon Hill, but then in GDW’s own wargames and its Science Fiction board games such as Imperium and Dark Nebula. Elements of these Science Fiction board games would eventually be incorporated into the Charted Space setting that would eventually become the setting for Traveller.

The first five years of Traveller’s history very much involves its original creators and developers, but after that, thanks to the largesse of the its creator, Mark Miller, the roleplaying game and its setting begins to be developed by other publishers and creators—FASA, Paranoia Press, Gamelords, and others—most notably brothers, J. Andrew Keith and William H. Keith Jr. This is where the book is at its most interesting examining the influence of others upon Traveller and its development, most notably by the staff of Digest Group Publications, first through their fanzine, The Traveller Digest, followed by supplements that they would publish themselves and those they would write and develop for GDW. If it was not quite as obvious at the time, it is made clear that the relationship between GDW and Digest Group Publications was very strong, the latter effectively serving as a design house for the latter. Equally as interesting is the exploration of the response to Traveller and its development by its fandom, especially to the major changes wrought in the latter editions of Traveller published by GDW. First with MegaTraveller and the assassination of Emperor Strephon and its repercussions, and second, with its most far-reaching repercussion, Traveller: The New Era. This takes the reader deep into the development and complexities of the History of the Imperium Working Group, out of which would grow the next writers and developers to Traveller.

Part of the conceit of This is Free Trader Beowulf is that as much as it explores the history of Traveller and its setting of Charted Space, it maps that history onto the structure of the book. In the timeline of Charted Space, the period of economic collapse between the Rule of Man and the foundation of the Third Imperium is known as the Long Night, inspired by the collapse and subsequent interregnum detailed in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, but in This is Free Trader Beowulf, the Long Night is the decade between 1998 and 2007 following the collapse of Marc Miller’s Traveller or T4. Much like the collapse of the Third Imperium and Asimov’s Galactic Empire, support for Traveller in the early twenty-first century collapsed into Pocket Empires, each specialising in different treatments of the intellectual property. Thus, it collapses from one history into several—GURPS Traveller from Steve Jackson Games which kept Emperor Strephon and the Third Imperium alive, QuikLink Interactive which developed Traveler T20 based on the d20 System, Comstar Games and Avenger Enterprises which pushed the history of Charted Space even further into the future the 1248 Sourcebook 1: Out of the Darkness, and even another ruleset with Traveller Hero. Yet like the Long Night and the Pocket Empires that hung on, their history is swept away with the coming of Mongoose Publishing, which 2007 has been the publisher of Traveller, bringing about as This is Free Trader Beowulf alludes, a new golden era of content and support for both the roleplaying game and Charted Space. It ends the history on a hopeful tone, noting that Mark Miller is still creating his own content with Traveller⁵ in parallel with the extensive support from Mongoose Publishing.

Throughout, with every era, ‘A View From The Industry’ gives context into which each new version of Traveller is published, paying particular attention to the state of Science Fiction roleplaying, whilst ‘What Could Have Been’ details different roleplaying games, supplements, scenarios, rulesets, and board games which might have been, had things been different. Then, as a reference, every chapter in This is Free Trader Beowulf concludes with its own list of main references—the latter consisting of URLs, original sources, maps that mark the locations of various scenarios, and more. There is a checklist too of titles released, useful, no doubt, for the collector.

However, it does feel odd that This is Free Trader Beowulf, as a history of Traveller, was published in 2024 rather in 2023, which would have been the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of GDW, or in 2027, which would have marked the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Traveller. Further, the lack of interviews—although many interviews are referenced throughout the book—lends This is Free Trader Beowulf an impersonal air, even a feeling of austerity that dare I say it, echoes that of the original ‘Little Black Books’. That said, if This is Free Trader Beowulf lacks the personal touch, it is never less than clear on what the designers of and contributors to Traveller intended and what they achieved. Perhaps that personal touch might be celebrated for the roleplaying game’s fiftieth anniversary with a book of interviews and retrospectives that could be a welcome companion to This is Free Trader Beowulf?

Nevertheless, This is Free Trader Beowulf is a physically attractive book. The layout is clean and tidy, and it is illustrated with a wide range good art, including individual pieces that date back to the early years of Traveller and all the way to the present, as well as lots and lots of covers from the roleplaying game’s numerous editions and eras. That said, it does need an edit in places, including—amusingly—on the spine.

Of course, the author of This is Free Trader Beowulf has already presented a history of GDW in the pages of the first volume of Designers & Dragons: A History of the Roleplaying Game Industry. Some of that history is repeated here, which is understandable and unavoidable, but This is Free Trader Beowulf is in part, also the history of other publishers and their specific role in keeping Traveller in print, if not always successfully. The combination of the old and the new is a fascinating read, an exploration of the hows and the whys of not just the original contributors, but also the fans and the fans who became contributors. This is Free Trader Beowulf is not book for the casual fan of roleplaying necessarily, and it is possibly too specialised for many players and Game Masters. Whereas, for anyone with an interest in roleplaying history it is a volume that they should have their shelf and for the Traveller fan, it is a volume that they will appreciate above all, exploring as it does both their past and that of the hobby. This is Free Trader Beowulf: A System History of Traveller is the definitive guide to the history of the roleplaying hobby’s most popular and longest running Science Fiction game and certainly lays down a template for other roleplaying games of a similar vintage and varied story.

Miskatonic Monday #400: Rewind – A 1980s Anthology

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

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With a trade dress that is a nod to the Blockbuster chain of home video rental shops, the Keeper and her players are going to know where they with Rewind – A 1980s Anthology. This is a collection of connected scenarios that throws them back into the nostalgia of the eighties, Reagan’s America, and the films to rent from the local video library. It consists of five individual scenarios, plus a prequel that can also be played as a flashback, each of which is inspired by a particular set of films from the period. They take place in and around the fictional Butcher Creek, a wholly unremarkable town that has been absorbed by a nearby larger city and had what was its major employer for decades shut down its operations. As a consequence, like so many towns and cities in Reagan’s America, it is suffering from a post-industrial combination of malaise, decline, and loss of identity. This lends its scenarios a certain sense of scuzzy desperation as cults take advantage of the townsfolks’ desperation and hopelessness to bring their plans to fruition and entities from beyond infiltrate the town.

All six scenarios are quite short, designed to be played in approximately two hours—equal to the running time of a video cassette—though some have scope for a longer playing time. Although there are suggestions as to adjust to a lower number of players, the ideal number for all six scenarios is five players. Each scenario is inspired by a different series of films released on video during the period and as a consequence, each has a both a different theme and a different cast of pre-generated Investigators. This gives Rewind – A 1980s Anthology a portmanteau structure and a disparate nature, so that there is no one strong hook that a standard campaign for Call of Cthulhu would have. Rather than be run as a traditional, dedicated campaign, Rewind – A 1980s Anthology might instead be run as what are initially one-off scenarios, in any order, set in the same place with the players making connections with elements of the previous scenarios as they roleplay through them. In addition, none of the scenarios conclude in a satisfactory conclusion or with questions answered. Only the finale does.

The anthology opens with the prequel, ‘I Can’t Stand It’. Inspired by Hillstreet Blues, it is actually set in the late seventies, and casts the Player Characters as ‘cowboy cops’ who act first and complain about the paperwork afterwards. A routine callout to a notoriously seedy motel leads to a late night hostage situation, followed by a car chase and deadly motor vehicle collision, and a revelation that will have repercussions in later scenarios. The film Repo Man is the inspiration for the first part of the campaign, ‘Best Damn Car in the Yard’, in which a rough team of repo men who are given the emergency task of recovering a stolen bright green 1970 Plymouth Barracuda with black graphics. Their hunt for the missing vehicle leads them into a confrontation with local mobsters and probable arrest, at which point one of the surviving cops from ‘I Can’t Stand It’ might tell them about the events back in 1978 and so allow the Keeper to run the prequel as a flashback.

‘Insert Coin for Credit’ is inspired by Tron and Weird Science. The Investigators are teenagers who like to hang out at Butcher Creek’s Sure Shot arcade and get to try their hands at a few arcade classics before the mystery begins. This is around a strange game that two other teenagers are obsessed with—and increasingly so, becoming violent in their attempts to play it. At the same time, the Investigators begin to suffer strange dreams and become obsessed themselves. When the arcade game disappears can they track it down and discover what it really is? The Investigators are employees of Trajan’s Pizza in the third scenario, ‘Special Delivery’, which is inspired by Terminator, Alien, and other slasher/stalker films. First, one of their number begins to suffer seizures and then they all do. As they occur again and again, investigating that evening’s pizza deliveries leads to death, mystery, and indications that something not of this Earth is stalking them.

Karate Kid/Cobra Kai and Kung-Fu Hustle are the inspiration for ‘Dojo Nights’ which casts the Investigators as students at the town’s dojo. This is the most combative of the scenarios in Rewind – A 1980s Anthology as the students face off against each other several times in the course of the scenario. Their sensei is desperate to recover some books taken from him to repay a debt, a process which could get them into trouble, and definitely will when they return the books and he becomes obsessed and wants to control all of his students. The ‘Finale – Gotta Die of Something, Kid’ potentially brings all of the survivors from the previous five scenarios together, giving the player multiple options as who they might roleplay for the climax of Rewind – A 1980s Anthology. Also returning are the remaining foes from the previous scenarios so the players could also roleplay the Investigators in those scenarios too, the Keeper keeping the action going by switching back and forth between the different groups and foes. As the townsfolk rise in a brainwashed stupor, the surviving Investigators need to stop each of their foes’ final plans before a showdown with the source of the threat for everything that has been happening in Butcher Creek.

Physically, what is striking about Rewind – A 1980s Anthology is the use of different trade dresses. Most obviously, its cover is a reference to the Blockbuster chain, but inside the guide to Butcher Creek is done as an insert to Yellow Pages, the commercial telephone directory, and the scenario backgrounds are themed. ‘Fight to Live’ takes place in and around a dojo, so is decorated with dragons and Chinese Hanzi script, ‘Special Delivery’ is a done as an Italian pizzeria, and so on. It is very cheesy, but it does not always work. The Yellow Pages guide is a bit too vibrant and uses a lot of different fonts that make it difficult to read. In addition, the NPC stat blocks, done as Blockbuster-style membership cards are slightly too small to read with ease and the anthology also needs a good edit.

Rewind – A 1980s Anthology is ambitious, but unlike a traditional campaign for Call of Cthulhu, there is insufficient scope for the players, let alone the Investigators in the individual scenarios, to really gain any idea of what is going on or to really affect what is going on until the finale of the campaign. The Investigators do not come to fully realise who or what the antagonist is and what they are trying to do, and there are no real ways of their finding this out. There is even an organisation in the campaign which probably does know, appearing as it does at the end of several of the scenarios, to offer to help by cleaning up after the Investigators’ activities. It is not explained who they and they certainly do not explain to the Investigators what is going on either. Individually, the scenarios are thematically engaging and pack a decent amount of action and social interaction within their two-hour running times, but as a whole, Rewind – A 1980s Anthology leaves much of the mystery out of the grasp of Investigators and their players.

Blood for the Blood Queen!

It is 1586 and Queen Elizabeth holds Mary, Queen of Scots still prisoner. Powerful, yet on the periphery of Europe, she is anathema to every good Catholic and every Catholic majesty on the continent, and to the Pope in Rome. Philip II of Spain, once also King of England by marriage to Elizabeth’s older half-sister, Queen Mary, sees it as his divine duty to overthrow his sister-in-law as a heretic and install Mary, Queen of Scots on the throne of England. It is a year before Queen Elizabeth will execute Mary, Queen of Scots and two years before King Philip launched the ill-fated Spanish Armada to defeat England’s sea power and invade, making England catholic once again. Meanwhile, he plots and directs court to undermine the English throne at every turn. In 1586, at his bidding, his court astrologer, Abiathar Crescas, will launch a plot that will see Queen Elizabeth suborned and replaced by the end of the year! Only the condemned men and women in the employ of Doctor John Dee, heretics themselves who would 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 Spain and a dastardly demonic plot to overthrow her majesty! This is the situation that faces the Agents in Abaddon’s Puppet, 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.

Abaddon’s Puppet takes place in late 1586. It begins with Doctor John Dee instructing the Agents to continue investigating Christopher Marlowe after the events outlined in the scenario, ‘Ex Libris’ (which can be found in The Dee Sanction Adventures: A True & Faithful Transcription of Matters Concerning Lost Books, Strange Sorceries, Befouled Poppets, Accusations of Witchcraft, and Assorted HELLSCAPES) and word reaching the Agents of the bodies of children being found in the Thames, each one strangely withered, as if aged. This gives the Agents two lines of inquiry, one more difficult than the other. Investigating Christopher Marlowe is hampered by the fact that he has disappeared, but he was last seen coaching a young actor, Victor Smith, who has also disappeared. The Agents need to be circumspect here, since the clues point to Victor Smith working at the estate of Lord Wessex at nearby Egham. The other line of inquiry is more direct, taking the Agents along the banks of the Thames and surrounding streets on the trail of the bodies leading to an orphanage and a foundered ship just upriver. Eventually, this will lead to signs of very bloody doings in a nearby cellar. If the Agents are quick, they may well discover the perpetrators of bloody doings in situ and bring the scenario to much earlier end. However, it is more likely that they will be long gone by the Agents get there and it will be necessary to follow the other line of inquiry to the conclusion of the scenario. This takes place at Kenilworth Castle, owned by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth, where Abiathar Crescas and other Catholic conspirators work to bring their demonic plan to fruition and so engineer her dethronement and replacement by Mary, Queen of Scots.

Abaddon’s Puppet is a well organised affair. Each plot strand—the two investigations into Christopher Marlowe and the bodies in the water, followed by the journey to and the confrontation at Castle Kenilworth—is presented on a single page. This includes an overview and lists of clues, characters, and locations, the lists presenting the information as a series of bullet points. However, there is no direct connective tissue between the lists and it is not directly clear as to what clue each NPC knows and why. For the experienced Game Master this is not a problem as she can make the narrative connections and so bring the interactions between the NPCs and the Agents to life. For the less experienced Game Master this will be more of a hurdle and she may well want to assign each clue to a particular NPC or group of NPCs as part of her preparation. The Game Master might also want to create a few minor NPCs too should the players and their Agents want to talk to the families of the ‘adopted’ children. Otherwise, the organisation makes the scenario very easy to run from the page.

Physically, Abaddon’s Puppet is short, but decently organised and illustrated. Everything is clearly laid out and easy to find, and although lightly illustrated, it is a nice-looking scenario.

Taking some inspiration from the film Shakespeare in Love, Abaddon’s Puppet presents a dark, twisted plot against Queen Elizabeth that combines some pleasing investigation, a horrifying and challenging confrontation against the occult, and outright, bloody treason! In truth, the Agents are going to be lucky to survive the confrontation against Abaddon at the end of the scenario, but if they do, they will have proved their worth and their loyalty to the crown. Of course, having already been condemned to death and under stay of execution, their reward is never going to be more than a mere thanks and another assignment. Such is the power of The Dee Sanction.

Fallout Together

The year is 2287. It is two centuries since the Great War between the USA and China that turned the world into irradiated, chemically polluted Wastelands. The Commonwealth is no different, in part overrun by feral ghouls, raiders, and super mutants, whilst in the background the remnants of pre-war corporations and institutes plot to dominate the region. Not all is lost, for the survivors, whether descendants of those who survived the great war, intelligent ghouls and super mutants, and former dwellers of the vaults established by Vault-Tec who have begun to leave the refuges that have protected them for centuries, are working to rebuild. Yet there remain many threats to face and secrets to uncover if the Commonwealth is to be safe and able to prosper. This setting may well, unsurprisingly, be familiar to many. This is because it is that of Fallout 4, the award-winning action roleplaying game published by Bethesda Softworks in 2015 and updated in 2025 for its tenth year anniversary with Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition, which depicts a post-apocalyptic future that is heavily influenced by American culture and kitsch of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. And it is also that of the Fallout television series available on Amazon Prime Video. Arguably, it is one of the most well-known post-apocalyptic settings and either playing Fallout 4 or watching Fallout is not the only way in which to explore and enjoy this world.

Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – The Post Nuclear Tabletop Role Playing Game is published by Modiphius Entertainment and what it provides is the means for a group of players to explore the Commonwealth and uncover its secrets together. The core rules are set specifically at the start of the computer game, Fallout 4, so that the characters—if not the players—will have no idea as to the machinations of Vault-Tec or the Institute, or other factions, although they will be aware of the broad geography of the Commonwealth and the location of Diamond City. Where in Fallout 4 the only choice is to play the ‘Sole Survivor’ of Vault 111, Fallout: The Roleplaying Game, the players have the option to play an Initiate of the Brotherhood of Steel, an intelligent Ghoul, an intelligent Super Mutant, a Mister Handy robot, or Survivor, as well as a Vault Dweller. As with Fallout 4, there is a strong emphasis in play in Fallout: The Roleplaying Game upon the environmental dangers of the Commonwealth, on scavenging, and on crafting. The rules for latter mean that a Player Character can use things found in and under the wastelands of the Commonwealth to cook food and drink, concoct healing stimpaks and other drugs or chems, and construct and modify both weapons and armour, including modifying power armour. What the latter means is that players new to Fallout: The Roleplaying Game can have fun exploring what their characters can make, but players familiar to Fallout 4 can create in the roleplaying game, what their ‘Sole Survivor’ created or modified in the computer game. So, if a Player Character wants to turn that standard pipe gun into a .38 Pipe Rifle with Powerful Receiver, Ported Barrel, Sharpshooter’s Grip, Recoil-Compensating Stock, Large Quick-Eject Magazine, Short Scope, and Suppressor, then he can—if he has the right parts, modifications, Perks, and access to a Weapons Bench. This is just one of the ways in which Fallout: The Roleplaying Game emulates Fallout 4.

That emulation beings with the Player Character and Player Character creation. This is because a Player Character in the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game will look more familiar to anyone who has played Fallout 4 than anyone who has played a 2d20 System roleplaying game. A Player Character has seven ‘S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Attributes’. These are Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. Of these, Luck is the default attribute when the outcome of a situation depends on chance rather than Player Character skill or knowledge. The seven attributes are rated between four and ten and will be familiar to anyone who has played Fallout 4. A Player Character has ratings in skills including Athletics, Barter, Big Guns, Energy Weapons, Explosives, Lockpick, Medicine, Melee Weapons, Pilot, Repair, Science, Small Guns, Sneak, Speech, Survival, Throwing, and Unarmed. Of these, Athletics, Survival, Throwing, and Pilot are additions to the other thirteen which are taken from Fallout 4. Skills are ranked between zero and six. Some skills are marked as Tag skills, indicating expertise or talent. A Player Character will also have several Perks and Traits, essentially the equivalent of advantages and disadvantages, and he will have Luck Points equal to his Luck Attribute. The list of Perks is extensive and players of Fallout 4 will again recognise them as they include ‘Aquaboy/Aquagirl’, ‘Armourer’, ‘Bloody mess’, ‘Cap Collector’, ‘Commando’, ‘Dogmeat’, and many, many more.

To create a character, a player first selects an Origin—either, ‘Brotherhood of Steel’, ‘Ghoul’, ‘Super Mutant’, ‘Mister Handy’, ‘Survivor’, or ‘Vault Dweller’. This provides him with a Trait and an equipment pack. The ‘Survivor’ has choice of Traits and equipment packs. He assigns five points to his ‘S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Attributes’; selects three Tag Skills to receive a bonus and distributes ranks equal to character’s Intelligence plus six to his skills; and picks his first Perk from those he qualifies for. As he gains each new Level, he can puck another Perk. Lastly, the player picks an equipment pack based on his character’s Origin, a trinket, and adds the equipment gained from his Tag Skills. The process is simple and straightforward.

Name: Trader Joe
Origin: Survivor
Level: 1
Traits: Gifted, Fast Shot
Perks: Junktown Jerky Vendor
Luck: 4
Carry Weight: 190 lbs Damage Resistance: 0 Defence 1
Initiative: 11 Health Points: 12 Melee Damage: 0

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Attributes
Strength 4 Perception 7 Endurance 7 Charisma 8 Intelligence 7 Agility 4 Luck 5

Skills
Athletics 0 Barter 4 (Tag) Big Guns 0 Energy Weapons 0 Explosives 0 Lockpick 2 Medicine 1 Melee Weapons 0 Pilot 0 Repair 2 Science 1 Small Guns 2 Sneak 0 Speech 4 (Tag) Survival 2 (Tag) Throwing 0 Unarmed 2

Equipment
Tough clothing, leather armour chest piece, pipe gun (ten .38 calibre rounds of ammunition), brightly coloured bandanna, trading wares (eleven.308 ammo, five missiles, nine .50 ammo, Radaway, Healing Salve, Dirty Water, two Holotape Players, eight bobby pins), pack brahmin, formal hat and clothing, 83 caps

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

Successes generated above the Difficulty Value are turned into Action Points. These are another change from traditional 2d20 System roleplaying games in which the players generate and have Momentum to use for their characters, whilst the Game Master has Threat to make the lives of the Player Characters more challenging and give his NPCs advantages in play. Action Points replace both Momentum and Threat and are a shared resource of which a group can have up to six. They can be used to purchase more dice for a Skill test, to Obtain Information from the Game Master, Reduce Time spent on a test, or to take an Additional Minor Action or Additional Major Action.

In addition, a player can also spend Luck Points (the total based on his Luck attribute) to gain an advantage in a situation. With Luck of the Draw, a player can spend his character’s Luck Points to add a fact or detail or item to the area he is in that would benefit him. Other uses include Stacked Deck, which enables a player to substitute his character’s Luck Attribute instead of another, Lucky Timing, which lets a survivor interrupt the Initiative order, and Miss Fortune to reroll dice.

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

One noticeable difference in combat between Fallout: The Roleplaying Game and other 2d20 System roleplaying games is that the Player Characters have hit locations. Again, this reflects the nature of the computer game with its PIP Boy and VATS system. Damage is inflicted per random Hit Location and it is possible to target a particular Hit Location. The number of Combat Dice rolled to determine damage is based on the weapon, Action Points spent to purchase more Combat Dice, Perks, and other factors. Combat Dice determine not only the number of points of damage inflicted, but the ‘Damage Effects Trigger’ of the weapon used. This has an extra effect, such as Piercing, which ignores a point of Damage Resistance or Spread, which means an additional target is hit. Both damage inflicted and Damage Resistance can be physical, energy, radiation, or poison. Armour is rated for its Damage Resistance against physical, energy or radiation damage and because armour is handled as both suits of armour worn and individual locations, it means unless a character is wearing a complete suit of armour, the player or Game Master has to keep track of what armour is worn where and what resistances it has. As much as this emulates armour in Fallout 4 it also adds a layer of detail and potential complexity to the game. If five or more points of damage is inflicted to a single Hit Location, then a critical hit is scored. Ammunition is tracked.

Radiation damage is handled differently. It reduces the Maximum Health Points of a Player Character rather than his current Health Points. Until cured, this reduces both his Maximum Health Points and the number of Health Points which can be cured. The rules also cover other environmental dangers, scavenging, and loot. The scavenging rules define whether a location has been searched before, the difficulty of searching the location, its size, and so on, followed by rolls on the different loot tables. Scavenging plays a big role in the play of Fallout 4 and so it does here, far more so than many other post-apocalyptic roleplaying games in comparison, to the point where it can overwhelm the players as much as it can the player in Fallout 4.

Fallout: The Roleplaying Game includes an extensive equipment list which takes up a fifth of the whole book and so supports the scavenging rules. It includes all of the weapons, armour, modifications, recipes, trinkets, junk, and more to be found in the Commonwealth of Fallout 4. Players of Fallout 4 will recognise all of these, whether it is globes of the world, packs of Salisbury Steaks, the Powerfist, Deathclaw Gauntlet, Super Sledge, Gatling Laser, Fat Man, Laster Musket, T-45 Power Armour, Nuka-Cola in all flavours, Mentats, and more. Notable amongst them are the various books, magazines, and comics, each of which provides its own Perk. For example, issues of Wasteland Survival Guide might ‘Coupon Spectacular’ shifts the price of food and drink in the reader’s favour, whilst ‘Water Aerobics for Ghouls’ reduces the difficulty of Athletics tests for swimming. Of course, there are issues too, of Grognak The Barbarian to found and read, granting Perks like ‘Blood on the Harp’ which increases melee damage and ‘Jungle of the Bat-Babies’ which increases resistance to poison.

Mechanically, Fallout: The Roleplaying Game is not as streamlined as more recent 2d20 System roleplaying games. This is because it has to emulate its source material, Fallout 4, so there are more attributes, more skills, there are rules for crafting, hit locations in combat, and so on. Yet the end result is the rules to the roleplaying game are not necessarily overly complex, but rather overly detailed, especially when it comes to the recipes and the modifications of weapons, armour, and so on. To some players, it may be too much, the play of Fallout 4 warrants it and so Fallout: The Roleplaying Game has to include it because it reflects the source material and it provides a means by which the Player Characters can improve themselves—by building and modifying better gear.

Roughly half of Fallout: The Roleplaying Game is dedicated to detailing aspects of its background. This includes histories of the Commonwealth’s corporations, pre-war and post-war, and suggestions as what role they might play in the Commonwealth of 2287. For example, the distinctive architecture of the Red Rocket shops always stands out and indicate somewhere that is generally safe and defensible. Manufacturers and big tech companies are also detailed and this includes some of their secrets, which ordinarily would only be discovered in the course of play of Fallout 4. Particular attention is paid to Vault-Tec and its activities within the vaults it established, including a table of possible wacky quests that Player Characters might trigger upon exploring a random vault. Again, these will need developing by the Game Master. This is in addition to several vault-related plots, plot seeds, and side quests. The Commonwealth is given a similar treatment with an extensive gazetteer describing many familiar locations such as Concord and its Museum of Freedom where the Minuteman, Preston Garvey has holed up against besieging raiders, one of the first encounters in Fallout 4. Diamond City is given particular attention as it will likely form a base of operations for the Player Characters. These are all accompanied by descriptions of generic locations and Commonwealth plots.

The advice for the Game Master on running Fallout: The Roleplaying Game is sound, focusing on managing the rules as well as safety guidelines as tentatively exploring the idea of running the roleplaying game in the wasteland of the former USA away from the Commonwealth. The advice highlights how the biggest danger in the wasteland is actually other people and suggests ways in which the dark humour of Fallout 4 can be brought into play. A bestiary gives descriptions and stats for a vast array of animals, monsters, mutated humanoids, and NPCs, from Bloodbugs, Bloatflies, and the two-headed pack beasts known as Brahmin to Synths, Turrets, and Raiders, via Ghouls, Glowing Ones, members of the Brotherhood of Steel, Railroad Agents, and Wastelanders.

The final support for the Game Master is the scenario, ‘With A Bang, Or A Whimper’. This can be played as is, or as a sequel to ‘Starter Set Quest: Machine’, the scenario in Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Starter Set, and is set before the start of Fallout 4. The quest begins in a recently created town—which the players are encouraged to flesh out the details of—that is celebrating its first anniversary. A murder-mystery leads to a pattern of other strange behaviour by other townsfolk, and manipulation by one of the major factions in the Commonwealth. This is a solid scenario, though it does work better as a sequel to ‘Starter Set Quest: Machine’.

Physically, Fallout: The Roleplaying Game is a well written and engaging book illustrated with good, but clashing art styles. On the one side there is kitsch of Fallout 4, but on the other hand, there is the excellent depiction of the ruin that Commonwealth has been reduced to.

If you are a fan of the Fallout series of computer games, but not necessarily Fallout 4, then Fallout: The Roleplaying Game is not going to be as flexible as you might want a Fallout roleplaying game to be, since its focus is very much Fallout 4. As an emulation of Fallout 4, the only thing that is missing, are the rules for communities and building and improving them. Those rules are to be found in Fallout: The Roleplaying Game Settler’s Guide Book. Everything else that you would want in a Fallout 4 roleplaying game is included in Fallout: The Roleplaying Game and in such comprehensive fashion that it also works as a good sourcebook for Fallout 4. Of course, a player who has played Fallout 4 will get more out of Fallout: The Roleplaying Game than if they have not, but there is sufficient background and information in the book that a player definitely does not need to have played it to understand the basic aspects of the Commonwealth setting or the genre. Overall, Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – The Post Nuclear Tabletop Role Playing Game is a really good adaption of Fallout 4 that enables a gaming group to explore the setting of the Commonwealth and its plots and factions together.

Inquisitorial Intelligence I

The light of the Emperor’s divine might reaches everywhere—but not always. Only in recent years has the Great Rift begun to unseal and the mysterious Noctis Aeterna begun to recede, the Days of Blinding ended, and links reforged with worlds in the Marcharius Sector lost under its pall and beyond the sector itself. As communication, trade, and psychic links have been reestablished with Terra, the Imperium has worked hard to restore its rightful authority and ensure that no deviancy from creed has taken place in the Days of Blinding. Despite this still, heretics turn to the Dark Gods with their promises and falsehoods and corruption is rife, wasting the Emperor’s resources and wealth, and from without, there is always the danger of raids by Orks or worse, Tyranoids. Yet routing out such heresies and corruption is no matter, but an issue of politics and influence as well as loyalty and devotion. The Emperor’s great servants search out those they deem worthy to serve them and the Imperium, directing them to investigate mysteries and murders, experience horror and heresies, expose corruption and callousness, whether in in pursuit of their patron’s agenda, his faction’s agenda, the Emperor’s will, or all three. In return they will gain privileges far beyond that imagined by their fellows—the chance to travel and see worlds far beyond their own, enjoy wealth and comfort that though modest is more than they could have dreamed of, and witness great events that they might have heard of years later by rumour or newscast. This though, is not without its costs, for they will face the worst that the forces of Chaos has to fling at them, the possibility of death, and if they fail, exile and loss of all that they have gained. In the Forty-First Millennium, everyone is an asset and everyone is expendable, but some can survive long enough to make a difference in the face of an uncaring universe and the machinery of the Imperium of Mankind grinding its way forward into a glorious future.

This is the set-up in Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum, the spiritual successor to Dark Heresy, the very first fully realised roleplaying game to be set within the Warhammer 40,000 milieu and published in 2008, the very first roleplaying game that Games Workshop had published in two decades. Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum is published by Cubicle 7 Entertainment and sets up the Player Characters as Acolytes in service to an Inquisitor dedicated to protecting the Imperium of mankind from threats within, threats beyond, and threats without. The Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide is one of two supplements that make up a two volume set and together expand upon the role of the Inquisition within the Imperium and its mission within the Macharian Sector, the other being the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition GM’s Guide.

The Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide is not wholly for use by the players, but the majority of it is player- or rather Acolyte-facing. It can be roughly divided into three sections. In the first, it looks at Holy Orders of the Inquisition, its philosophies, factions, what it demands of its Acolytes, and guidance on creating the Inquisitor who will serve as patron to the Acolytes or be his rival. In the second, it expands upon Acolyte creation, offering new options in terms of skills, talents, psychic powers, and equipment, including Familiars. In the third, it looks at what the Acolytes are doing when they are on a mission and what they do between new missions. It does include checklists for both Patron and Acolyte creation, but both player and Game Master will still need to access the core rulebook.

What Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide makes clear is that despite the fact that an Inquisitor’s authority is second only to the Emperor himself and that an Inquisitor’s Acolytes are his eyes and ears, muscle and sinew, the Acolytes are more investigators than enforcers. Their duty is still to investigate, identify, and root out signs of heretical activity, but theirs is subtle task, what the supplement calls ‘Inquisitorial Espionage’, until, of course, everything blows up in their faces, and they have to go in, bolters blazing, or even calling in support—all the way up to Space Marine Chapters. Who or what the Acolytes will be directed to investigate will primarily depend upon the Holy Order that their patron belongs, to, either Ordo Hereticus, Ordo Malleus, and Ordo Xenos, which investigate heresy hidden within the Imperium, hunt down signs of daemonic activity, and fight against alien or xeno incursions respectively. The Holy Order that the Acolytes’ patron belongs to will, of course, influence the types of threats they will be investigating and the nature of campaign the Game Master is running.

Within each Holy Order, the Inquisitors—and thus potential patrons for the Acolytes—are primarily divided between two philosophies. Puritans tend to burn out any and all signs of heresy without mercy, whereas Radicals are prepared to use heretics and cults as tools to root greater evils. Both philosophies have their dangers. Puritans will destroy one evil before another might be revealed, whilst Radicals can allow a heresy to fester and spread whilst in search of other signs. Of course, the degree to which an Inquisitor holds to either philosophy varies—and many not even hold to either, but is further complicated by adherence to more specific philosophies. Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide describes several, including the pessimistic and bombastic, Monodominants who believe that Humanity will be wiped out if any enemy survives and so enemy must be permitted to survive; the Polypsykana want to nurture and develop Humanity’s psychic potential to the point where it transcends physical form and so protect psykers; Oblationists believe that any and every means should be used to root out threats to Humanity, including heretical ones; and Amalathians favour balance and tradition with a dislike of factional infighting. Amalathianism is said to have been the philosophy that drove Lord Solar Macharius to launch his crusade and consequently is the dominant philosophy in the Macharian Sector—at least publicly. More philosophies are detailed in the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition GM’s Guide.

Mechanically, Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide provides the means to create Patrons from all three Holy Orders, including their philosophies, demeanour, and Boons and Liabilities. The latter two will vary depending upon if a Patron is a Puritan or radical, and a range of new ones are added too. They include Beacon of Judgement, Death Cult Agents, Dubious Allies, and Hunting Hounds, as well as Crisis of Faith, Deadly assignments, Obsessive Objective, and Wheels Within Wheels. This is in addition to the Duty Boon of Limitless Authority that all Inquisitors possess and is physically represented by their individual Inquisitorial Rosettes, the badges of office that they forge upon becoming an Inquisitor. Technically it can get Inquisitors and their Acolytes everywhere, and they have been known to lend them, or facsimiles of them, to their Acolytes to enforce their authority in their Patron’s name. However, wielding such authority is not subtle and not without its consequences.

For the Acolyte, it highlights how dangerous their work is and how gaining recognition is rare, even though many aspire to become their Patron’s Interrogator and perhaps even an Inquisitor themselves. Mechanically, there are expanded Origins for the Macharian Sector, such as ‘Damned Useful – Daemonic Host’ or ‘Damned Useful – Null Persona’, ‘Death World Veteran’, ‘Penitent’, and more. The expanded Faction options focus on the relationship between each Faction and the Inquisition, whilst also enabling an Acolyte to begin play with a background in one of the three Holy Orders. In addition, there are four new Roles. These are the ‘Assassin’, the ‘Cruciator’', the ‘Explicator’, and ‘Seeker’. The Cruciator is both chirurgeon and interrogator; the Explicator is a data specialist, including forbidden lore and heresy; and the Seeker is judge, jury, and executioner of heretics and xenos, often hunting targets behind enemy lines or undercover. There are new skills such as ‘Lore: Major Ordos’ for each of the three Holy Orders, ‘Xeno-Cant’ for communicating with xenos, and Disguise, whilst the new Talents include ‘Blunt Force Authority’ by which Acolytes use their Patron in an overbearing manner to greater effect at a lose of Subtlety, ‘Cult Infiltrator’ which enables the Acolyte to infiltrates at a cost of Corruption, ‘Gut Instinct’, ‘Subtle Psyker’, and ‘Unwavering Will’. One strange Talent is ‘Subtle Mutation’, which marks the Acolyte as a mutant, but not an obvious one. With this Talent, the Acolyte has both a positive and a negative mutation, which his Patron may know or may not about, but which the Acolyte still keeps hidden. The new Psychic powers include minor ones available to all Psykers, like ‘Auditory Manipulation’, ‘Force Bolt’, ‘Mark’ by which a Psyker can leave physical mark of his psychic power on a surface or target and which can be tracked, ‘Induce Panic’, and ‘Stimulating Jolt’, zapping the target’s nervous system with a jolt of psychic energy to bolster it against fatigue and temporarily against falling unconscious.

An Acolyte can also arm and equip himself with an array of new weapons, armour, and gear. The new weapons include a mixture of exotic, daemonbane, null, power, tainted, and even xenos weapons, including the forging of Nemesis weapons. All of these are rare or only available to the wealthy, so for the most part out of the reach of Acolytes, unless they scavage them or are given to them as gifts. Literally, the most Radical of weapons is the Daemonblade, which has a daemon bound into it and has a feature like ‘Unholy Venom’ or ‘Mind Leech’, but also a quirk, such as “A baleful eye sits within the cross guard, and many teeth grow from the hilt, encircling the wielder’s hand in a none-too-subtle threat.” Wielding such a weapon carries with it the danger of Corruption. There are details for grenades and explosives too, and even rules for ‘Requisitions’, essentially gaining support from other factions should a situation demand it.

With the ‘Familiar Bonded’ Talent, an Acolyte can have a Familiar, and if he takes the Talent again, he can bond with a Cyber- or Psyber-Familiars. However, the Acolyte still needs to find and purchase such a Familiar and they can be expensive. Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide describes how Familiars can be used in and out of combat, how to train them, which often requires the Acolyte to invest further in his Familiar. Full rules are included for creating a Familiar with numerous ways in which it can be improved and enhanced. The rules are supported by a ‘Familiar Bestiary’ which includes well known ones such as the Cherubim, Cyber-Mastiff, and Multi-Task Servo-Skull, as well as a variety of rarer, and thus more expense ones. Once in play, a Familiar requires its own character sheet.

In terms of actual play, Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide adds a new mechanic called ‘Subtlety’. This tracks how aware heretics, cultists, and other Inquisitors are of the Acolytes’ actions and enables the Game Master to create a response to their increasing prominence. There is a balance to the rules since a high ‘Subtlety’ enables the Acolytes to operate in secret without the targets being aware that they are being investigated, whereas a low ‘Subtlety’ can become a demonstration of their Patron’s power and influence in shattering a cult or burning out a nest of xenos. Mechanically, what it means that with a high ‘Subtlety’, the Acolytes will gain a bonus to clandestine activities and a penalty to blatant ones, whereas with a low ‘Subtlety’, the reverse is true. It is a straightforward mechanic, but it provides a way for both players and Game Master to track consequences of their Acolytes’ actions and provide a mechanical effect as well as a narrative one.

Lastly, Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide suggests options for ‘Between Options’. These include ‘Inquisition Group Endeavours’ such as ‘Search for Xenos Infiltration’, ‘Punish Dissent’, and ‘Pool Knowledge’ alongside ‘Inquisition Individual Endeavours’ like ‘Cultivate Network’, ‘Erase Truth’ (or knowledge of heresy), ‘Familiar Training’ for the Acolyte with a Familiar, and ‘Mental Sanitisation’ through Imperial re-education to cleanse the Acolyte’s mind of the terrible things he has seen. Attentively, an Acolyte can enter ‘Inquisition Long-Term Endeavours’. These include ‘Craft Anointed Weapon’ to create a holy weapon, ‘Craft Daemonblade’ which could attract the attention of a Puritan Inquisitor, ‘Learn a True Name’ of a daemon, and ‘Research Cultist Network Ciphers’. These are intended to be combined with a random event and together these can have an influence on subsequent sessions of game play as well as give opportunities to roleplay between missions.

Physically, Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide is very well presented. The book is cleanly, tidily presented and an easy read. The artwork is also good.

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide is a combined handbook for players and their Acolytes, explaining what their duties are as Acolytes, who and what their Patron Inquisitor is, and giving them new options terms of who the Acolytes are, what they can do, and what they can wield in the ongoing battle against enemies inimical to Humanity. As well as expanding player options, it provides details with which the Game Master can flesh out her campaign and help bring it to life. The result is that Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum Inquisition Player’s Guide is a solid combination of content that will enhance any Imperium Maledictum campaign.