Sorcery & Steel & Powder & Psionics

Civilisation is divided and in decline. Two great nations stand opposed to each other. Witch-hunters search the length and breadth of the Maloresian Empire for signs of sorcery and execute all those who tainted so as incense and the prayers from a thousand temples of the Church of Mendorf calling for salvation and damnation clash with the sound of hammer on anvil and smoke from the gunsmiths’ forges that pour forth blades, cuirasses, and wheel-locks. Just as the inquisitors of the Church of Mendorf would put the members of the Cult of the Star to the sword and the flame for their heresy, it would launch a crusade against the Urden, the realm of the Sorcerer King. Yet it is powerless to do so, for in the Empire’s ruined Senate Hall, twelve noble lords lie dead, their corpses twisted by powers that radiate malevolent energy even now. Rumour places their deaths firmly upon the sorcerers of Urden whose vile practices have seen them erect great towers of black stone that stab the skies. Their magics are powered by Star Dust, refined from the Star Shards that fell to earth long ago and found in the Borderlands between the two nations, and used in the crafting of all manner of magical concoctions and artefacts. Yet this power is not without is dangers, for it is highly radioactive and deadly. The greatest of the Star Shards is the Hope Star, divided in two, each half held by the Maloresian Empire and the sorcerous kingdom of Urden. There are other nations and powers, including the pirate Caliphate of Khalida and the Free-Trade Nations, in these Borderlands, but beyond lie the Wastes that encroach upon the bastions of civilisation. They are scarlet blights upon the landscape where stars fell in ancient times and breed horrors and monsters that to this day withstand sorcery and steel, powder and faith. Yet there are secrets and artefacts to be found in the Wastes and to this day, many set forth from the Keep on the Borderlands to explore the crystal-lined caves that lie nearby and face the horrors within.

This is the world of Firnum, the setting for Barrows & Borderlands, which describes itself as “A Weird Science Fantasy Old-School Style Role Playing Game set in a Dark Radioactive Wasteland of Magic, Black-powder, and Dragons!” Designed and published by Matthew Tap, it consists of four books—Book 1: Men & Mutants, Book 2: Psychics & Sorcerers, Book 3: Horrors & Treasure, and Book 4: The Underworld & Borderlands—and is unashamedly ‘Old School’ in its design. It is a Class and Level roleplaying game, it uses THAC0, and its various subsystems use different mechanics, but there are some modernisms, such as spellcasting not being Vancian, that is, cast and forget, but requires a casting roll and there is a chance of miscasting. Its primary inspirations are Original Dungeons & Dragons and Metamorphosis Alpha: Fantastic Role-Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventures on a Lost Starship, but set in a near-apocalyptic (or possibly post-apocalyptic) world that draws from the seventeenth century and a lot of the illustrations from the period rather than the medievalism of Dungeons & Dragons. Thus, you have magic and the worship of gods alongside gunpowder and steel and psychic powers and mutations. There are even elements of the Mythos within its setting, though that of Robert W. Chambers rather than H.P. Lovecraft with the inclusion of Carcosan aliens and the King in Yellow and Carcosa as rumours, as well as the inclusion of Greys, or Zeta Reticulans.

Barrows & Borderlands Book 1: Men & Mutants introduces the setting and provides the means to create characters. A Player Character has seven attributes—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and Radiation Resist—which range in value between three and eighteen. He will have a Race which grant some inherent abilities and Class that give him his abilities. He will also have a Star Sign that will grant him a single bonus, plus one or more skills, which divided between ‘Common’, ‘Middling’, and ‘Gentry’ which suggests a Player Character’s social origins. The skills are included for roleplaying depth rather than to support a skill mechanic, but a Game Master may allow a Player Character an advantage in a situation where they are being used or simply let the Player Character know a certain fact or attempt an action. The skills, such as ‘Beggar’, ‘Watchmaker’, or ‘Philosopher’, can also be used to determine the origins and type of character that the player s roleplaying. A Player Character will have a named relative who will inherit his wares and chattels should he go missing for long enough, and an Alignment, either Lawful (good or evil), Neutral, or Chaotic (good or evil).

The nine Races include traditional Pure-Strain Humans, Halflings, and Dwarves, and are joined by Kobolds, Starborn, Greenskulls, Mutants, Mycelians, and Fairies. Kobolds, Mutants, Greenskulls, and Starborn are demi-humans altered by the radiation of the stars and dark magiks. The dog-like Kobolds are said to have been once the slaves of dragons; Starborn are the living fragments of fallen stars given flesh and form, exiles from heaven that the Church would burn; Greenskulls are undead creatures of radiation appearing as either pale green skeletons or having green translucent skin; Mutants can be Humans, Animals, or Plants and continue to mutate; Mycelians are colonies of intelligent fungi with voices like rotting leaves that trade in prophecies and poisons; and Fairies are bewinged fey tricksters that promise wishes and enchantments. The Classes are Fighting-Man, Magic-User, Cleric, Half-Caster, Thief, Gamma, and Psychic. The Half-Caster is one-part Fighting-Man, one-part Magic-User, but is not as good at fighting or spell-casting; Psychics employ psionic powers; and Gammas have mutant powers—both beneficial and detrimental, and can have more.

The list of mutations for the Gamma is not extensive in comparison to other post-apocalyptic roleplaying games and its single table includes both beneficial and detrimental mutations. So, options include ‘Radiation Eyes’, ‘Wings’, and ‘Density Shift Self’, and ‘Carrion Odour’, ‘Non-Sensory Nerve Endings’, and ‘Bulbous Skull’.

Character creation in Barrows & Borderlands is a matter of rolling three six-sided dice and recording them in order for the seven attributes (though it does allow alternative means of generating them). The player selects a Race and Class for his character, rolls for a Star Sign and number and category of skills, and then picks skills from those categories.

Name: Billy Bones Bonce
Class: Psychic Level: 1
Race: Greenskull

Birthsign: Moon (tides/cycles) (+1 Firearms damage)

Hit Points: 6
THAC0: 19
Saving Throw: 19 (+2 versus Paralysis and Sorcery)
Alignment: Chaotic Good

Strength 8 (-1 Damage)
Dexterity 10
Constitution 16 (+1 HP, +1 versus Radiation (Death) Saves)
Intelligence 18 (+8 Languages Spoken)
Wisdom 14
Charisma 09 (Maximum Number of Retainers: 4)
Radiation Resist 12

Racial Abilities
Immune to Radiation. Does not need sleep. Starts with a 2:6 chance to form a human disguise from a fresh dead body. Has Infravision at a range of 60’.

Psychic Strength: 104
Psychic Abilities
Telepathy 3 (Know Alignment, Thought Influence, Empathy)

Skills
Common: beggar, domestic servant, paper-ink maker, apprentice
Middling: printer, apothecary, schoolmaster
Gentry: astrologer, lawyer, duellist

The equipment list is surprisingly short, but includes matchlock, flintlock, and wheellock black powder firearms. All firearms have a chance of misfiring and muskets ignore five points of armour, whilst pistols only do so at close range. (Presumably, this means that the defender’s Armour Class is reduced.) Basic combat is simple enough with rolls being made to hit on a twenty-sided die, the target number determined by comparing the attacker’s THAC0 value with the Armour Class of the defender. The combat rules cover options such as charging, mounted combat, spear charges, shield walls, and more. Shield techniques allow for shield bashes and cover for allies; defensive and aggressive stances, which will alter Armour Class and a character’s ‘To Hit’ chance; blocking and parrying and dodging for defensive techniques; having a shot ready and firing on the move for archery techniques; disarming and making double-feints in melee combat; and mounted shot and pike and shot formation for firearm techniques. These are not the only options, but there is a comprehensive list of them, allowing a Player Character to do more than simply hack and slash.

Barrows & Borderlands Book 2: Psychics & Sorcerers covers magic and psionics. Spells require a free hand and the freedom to speak to cast, and mechanically, a casting roll. This is done by comparing the caster’s Level with the Level of the spell and rolling two six-sided dice. The result can be that the spell is cast immediately, its effect delayed by up to six Rounds, or a chance that a Critical Miscast occurs. This always happens if two is rolled on the dice. It is possible for a caster to cast a spell that is above his Level, but this increases a chance of a Critical Miscast. When the possibility of a Critical Miscast is indicated, the player must make a Saving Throw versus Spells. On failure, he must roll on the ‘Magic-User Critical Miscast Table’, which at its worst obliterates the caster or changes reality so that he was never born. Other results include forcing the caster to cast every spell he knows at a random target (which includes the other Player Characters), the caster’s bones disappearing, suffering a random mutation, and so on. There is a Critical Miscast Table for the Magic-User, but not the Cleric. Learning a new spell, which can be from a scroll, tome, a master, or self-created, requires a roll under the Player Character’s Prime Requisite attribute, modified by the difference between the caster’s Level and the Level of the spell. Magic-Users and Clerics can also counterspell against another caster.

The spells for both the Magic-User and the Cleric will be familiar to anyone who has played plenty of Dungeons & Dragons. Only those of Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Level for the Magic-User are new. These are powerful spells, such as Adaptive Blast which sends a blast of energy at a target adapting to the type of energy to which it is most vulnerable; Jaws of the Snake God which summons a giant, spectral snake that bites a target for one-to-one-hundred damage and ignores armour; and Dark Forest, which summons a singe square-mile of forest with trees that grow to be a hundred feet tall and a population of up to one hundred Giant Spiders, up to one hundred Evil Shadows, and up to one hundred Orcs at the caster’s command.

One of the spells does stray into poor taste. Insanity Multiplied inflicts a form of mental instability on everyone within a one-mile radius for eight hours. These include being manic depressive, paranoid, schizophrenic, sexually perverse, and violently homicidal. Times and attitudes have changed and whilst this would have no doubt have acceptable in the roleplaying games of some forty years ago, it is not the case today. This is a spell that the Game Master may want to consider leaving out of her game.

It is possible for any Player Character to a Wild Psionic, but they have fewer points to invest in disciplines and there even the chance of their suffering Psycho-desynchronization when attempting to learn a new discipline and losing points from their attributes. The Psychic Class does not suffer this. There are twelve disciplines and they include Telekinesis, Cell Adjustment, Object/Aura Reading, Mental Assault, and Living Weaponry. Each Discipline has six different effects. For example, Telepathy has the effects, from one to six in ascending order of ‘Know Alignment’, ‘Thought Influence’, ‘Empathy’, ‘ESP’, ‘Commune’, and ‘Mind Control’. Each Disciple requires two points of Investment to gain the first effect, but after that, only one point is required to gain the next effect. To use a Discipline, a Psychic’s player rolls a single six-sided die. If the result is equal to or less than the Investment level, then the Psychic can the desired effect. If a one is rolled, only the base effect can be used and the Psychic cannot use the Discipline until the next day. However, with some disciplines, it is possible to push the roll again and again, improving the effect each time until the Psychic is able to use the desired effect. For example, if a Psychic has invested in the Pyrokinesis Discipline enough to know ‘Spark of Flame’, ‘Control Fire’, and ‘Heat Metal’, his player could attempt to push the roll three times to trigger ‘Immolation’ and set the target alight!

Several of the Disciplines provide means for a Psychic to attack others, but he can also duel with another Psychic. This is essentially the equivalent of ‘Rock-Paper-Scissors’ in which the duellists each select a Defence Mode and an Attack Mode and compare the results. These can be nothing or they inflict damage to the duellist’s Psychic Strength (to the point where they are unconscious), or hopefully stun them, which means they can do nothing and are at their opponent’s mercy. Overall, the Psionics rules are simple enough and provide a mix of spell-like and other effects that can make the Psychic Class flexible and powerful.

Barrows & Borderlands Book 3: Horrors & Treasure is the bestiary for Barrows & Borderlands. It includes many, many monsters and creatures that will be recognisable from Dungeons & Dragons—Black Puddings, Cockatrices, Gargoyles, Lycanthropes, Mimics, Owl Bears, Rust Monsters, Trolls, Will O’Wisps, and Yellow Molds. These are joined by the less familiar creatures such as Ladies of the Lake who offer a divine pact sealed with the gift of a weapon, Mirror Men that ape their opponent’s equipment and fighting style, the slow, but hard hitting Robots, the Silver Men of gleaming liquid metal that shoot eye-beams, and Dynaco Employees, mutants in synthetic work-suits that follow the diktats of a secret ancient organisation. There are a lot of entries as it also includes dinosaurs, dragons, giants, and golems.

The treasure also many items that will be familiar from Dungeons & Dragons, but also devices particular to the world of Firnum. For example, Sword +1 vs. Robots and Magic Gun +2, and swords as well as guns can be intelligent. Some weapons and devices are not magical, but technological. For example, the Dynaco Anti-Material Rifle which fires rounds that ignore armour; the Ray Gun powered by a Star Shard magazine; and Lukas’ Laser Sword, an energy blade that ignores damage reduction and five points of armour. Armour is treated in a similar fashion, all the way up to Dynaco Star Armour, a suit of powered armour. Similarly, the miscellaneous items are a mixture of the familiar and unfamiliar.

Barrows & Borderlands Book 4: The Underworld & Borderlands is the Game Master’s book for Barrows & Borderlands. It suggests two main ways of playing Barrows & Borderlands and exploring the world of Firnum—The Underworld and The Borderlands. It also suggests adhering to strict timekeeping of one real-world day being equal to one game day, which has consequences on play including time management and where the Player Characters are in the setting. It also demands more of the players and the Game Master, making Barrows & Borderlands more a commitment to play. The primary advice is about preparing for either style of play, designing The Underworld and filling it with features and traps and encounters, and working from a single village location to creating a wilderness landscape and adding locations and settlements and populating them. It gives guidance on how encounters are handled, including wandering monsters, and also on building domains and aerial combat. It also includes an example of play of a party exploring an Underworld.

What Barrows & Borderlands Book 4: The Underworld & Borderlands does not do is present Firmnum as a setting or explain any of its secrets or details of the setting. This is frustrating, because right from the start, Barrows & Borderlands has been suggesting and hinting as to what it is, telling the reader about elements of the setting, but going no further. Instead, author opens Barrows & Borderlands Book 4: The Underworld & Borderlands with, “Instead of creating my own version of the Borderlands for you to explore, I find it more pertinent to give you the tools necessary to make your own.” On the one hand, this is a laudable aim. It is telling the prospective Game Master that she has all of the tools necessary to create her own campaign, but her own setting as well. It means that Barrows & Borderlands emulates those early versions of Dungeons & Dragons that presented rules for playing in a fantasy realm whose inspirations—the works of Robert E. Howard or J.R.R. Tolkien—would have been familiar to the Game Master and the player. And if that is what the Game Master and her players want, then Barrows & Borderlands provides that. On the other hand, it is disingenuous. The issue is twofold. The first issue is that Barrows & Borderlands is not upfront enough about being a toolkit and leaving it until the fourth of its rulebooks to be clear that it is, is a mistake. The second issue is that Barrows & Borderlands is not explicit in telling the reader that there is no actual setting in the roleplaying game. What the introduction states is the following:

“The Borderlands is abstract, a land of mystery to be decided by the Referee and the Players. The core concepts are set, but specific locations, adventures, and battles are up to the emergent creativity of all at the table. A sampling of histories and lores exist within this book which suggest Nations and Powers exist outside the Confines of the Borderlands.”

The Borderlands—as presented in Barrows & Borderlands—are too abstract and whilst the presentation of histories and lores are suggestive of an interesting setting to come, it is a setting that the roleplaying game has no intention of delivering. Arguably, Barrows & Borderlands might actually be a better game without those histories and lores. As to the ‘core concepts’, they are very much not set. Fundamental questions such as, ‘What are the Borderlands?’, ‘What is the Dynaco Corporation?’, ‘What are Star Shards?’, ‘What are barrows in the context of the Borderlands?’, and even something as basic as, ‘What languages are spoken in and around the Borderlands?’ are left unanswered. If those elements were more sharply defined, then perhaps they would form a firmer basis upon which the Game Master and her players could build their version of the Borderlands through emergent play.

Physically, Barrows & Borderlands is presented as and looks like a roleplaying game from TSR, Inc. from the nineteen-seventies, but much cleaner, tidier, and sharper. The artwork, much of it drawn from the public domain, is not bad and together, the whole effect just says that this is an Old School Renaissance roleplaying game. In general—especially when it comes the rules, the roleplaying game is clearly written. However, elsewhere the writing is more opaque.

Despite its omissions, Barrows & Borderlands is very likeable roleplaying game. It has all the rules necessary to run a post-apocalyptic weird science fantasy campaign, and yet… whilst it describes itself as “A Weird Science Fantasy Old-School Style Role Playing Game set in a Dark Radioactive Wasteland of Magic, Black-powder, and Dragons!” and there can be no doubt that it delivers on being “A Weird Science Fantasy Old-School Style Role Playing Game… of Magic, Black-powder, and Dragons!”, what it fails to do is give the Game Master and her players the promised “…Dark Radioactive Wasteland…” Barrows & Borderlands is either a toolkit which hints unnecessarily at a setting or a desperately underdeveloped setting attached to a decent set of rules. Barrows & Borderlands really needs to be one or the other, rather than both. Or Barrows & Borderlands really, really needs Book 5: The Borderlands to give the Game Master and her players a starting point.

1975: Boot Hill

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

—oOo—

Despite the analogy that roleplaying is like the games of cops and robbers and cowboys and Indians that we played as children, it is surprising that there are so few roleplaying games in either genre or that so few of these roleplaying games have been popular. Indeed, it would not be until the publication of Gangster! by Fantasy Games Unlimited (in 1979 that the hobby would have its first ‘cops and robbers’ (or cops and gangsters) roleplaying, whereas the first cowboys and Indians roleplaying game appeared in 1975, the year following the release of Dungeon & Dragons. There have been several Wild West roleplaying games published since, many of them, well-researched, well-designed roleplaying games, but few have been truly popular and when they were, it was with a big dash of horror. Boot Hill was the third roleplaying game to be published by TSR, Inc. Designed by Brian Blume and E. Gary Gygax, it was subtitled, ‘Rules for “Wild West” Gunfights and Campaigns with Miniature Figures on a Man-to-Man Scale’. That it does not say ‘roleplaying game’ is indicative of the nascent hobby into which it was released. The idea of roleplaying as a pastime in a shared world was new; many early titles that the hobby calls roleplaying games today had their roots in wargames and were seen as an adjunct to that hobby, rather than the separate thing they would evolve into; and the term ‘roleplaying game’ had yet to be defined. Boot Hill definitely had its roots in wargaming as its subtitle suggests, but was there more to it than that?

Unlike most wargames, the play of Boot Hill focuses upon the single figure, or ‘character’, each one controlled by a different player to recreate gun fights, barroom brawls, and other situations synonymous with the Wild West. The action is meant to be inspired by both history and Hollywood—both film and television. To that end, the book includes two scenarios, both historically based. One is the ‘Gunfight at the OK Corral’ and the other is the ‘Battle of Coffeyville’. However, Boot Hill be played in a number of ways. One is as simple gunfights or shootouts, which are more akin to a traditional wargame, but played at a skirmish level with single figures. Another is as a freeform in which the players have roles assigned to them—represented by the figures—and they attempt actions that are appropriate to those roles. It is made clear that none of these ways to play require a Referee, the players being expected to resolve any rules difficulties between themselves. However, it is suggested that a “…[R]eferee is nice to have for some games…” Of course, a Referee can adjudicate the rules and she can also set-up the town for the freeform style of play and assign roles to the players. Boot Hill definitely makes clear that the game can be played using 25 mm or 30 mm scale figures, but advises strongly that the plastic figures from Airfix are not suitable as they are difficult to paint!

A Player Character in Boot Hill has four abilities. These are Speed, Personal Bravery, and Personal Accuracy, which are rated as percentiles, whilst Strength is rated between eight and twenty. To determine their values, percentile dice are rolled for each with results of seventy or below receiving a small bonus to the result. Personal Accuracy is rolled twice, once for thrown weapons and once for fired weapons. The process is very quick.

Nellie ‘Whip’ Woodard

Speed 65 (Very Quick)

Personal Bravery 64 (Above Average)

Personal Accuracy (Fired Weapons) 68 (Fair)

Personal Accuracy (Thrown Weapons) 98 (Crack Shot)

Strength 13 (Average)

The rules for Boot Hill are written as a wargame. Movement and range are measured in inches and the rules very much focus on combat. The outcome of a gunfight begins by determining who has the ‘First Shot’. Who can shoot first is determined by individual Speed ratings, weapon speeds, surprise, movement, and wounds suffered, as well as if a gunfighter is drawing two guns or shooting from the hip. Then, the chance To Hit is determined. This has a base value of 50% which is modified by the range, movement of the firer and the target, Personal Accuracy, Personal Bravery, Wounds suffered, and Personal Experience, that is, the number of gunfights that the induvial has been. Surviving a lot of gunfights gets a shooter a big bonus!

If the attack is successful, two means of determining damage and wounds suffered are provided. The ‘Fast Hit Location Method’ determines if the gunfighter has suffered a light or serious wound, or is dead—and there is a 15% chance of the latter happening! The second uses the ‘Exact Hit Location Chart’ and requires two rolls. Once to determine where a bullet has hit the target and the severity of the wound. Again, there is a chance that a bullet will kill the target straightaway, from 10% for a hit to the shoulder to 60% for a hit to head! Otherwise, damage reduces a character’s Strength, rendering him unconscious if reduced to zero, and slows his movement.

The brawling rules are simpler, but not quite as clearly explained. Instead of determining who has the ‘First Shot’, the players determine who gets to try and land the ‘First Blow’. The faster brawler gets to throw two punches or grapple, whilst the defender gets to defend himself by punching or grappling in return. The brawling rules allow for weapon use, though knives and cutting weapons use the tables for determining damage in gunfights. Blunt weapons simply do slightly more damage. Results can be a miss with no second punch, glancing blow, blocked, jab, hook, and so on.

The ‘Advanced Rules’ cover simultaneous, hidden, and vehicle movement, and options such as firing during movement and firing at horses. Minor character morale covers the response of everyone other than a player’s character and includes both cavalry and Indians. There is a list of ‘Miscellaneous Characters’, from Town Marshals and Deputies to Merchants, Clerks, and Saloon Girls. There is light guidance too, on setting up a town, suggesting what might be found within its boundaries, as a Mexican or Chinese quarter, and that the interiors of buildings should be mapped out as well as exteriors.

Optional rules suggest alternative rules for determining the ‘First Shot’, being a ‘Sharpshooter’ if the character has a very high Personal Accuracy, stunning attacks, the effects of intoxication, dynamite and possible injuries from dynamite, misfires, Gatling guns, and cannons. Particular attention is paid to the gambler, meaning that the actions of a character beyond combat is actually covered in Boot Hill. The gambler has a percentage score for his ability to manipulate cards and avoid being caught cheating. Gambling is handled by straight percentile rolls, highest roll winning, the gambler having a bonus. If a gambler wins too often, his fellow cardplayers get a chance to determine if he has cheated. The campaign rules expand play beyond the typical frontier town with rules for mapping, rules for posses, and tracking.

Perhaps the most attention in Boot Hill is paid to the two scenarios, ‘Gunfight at the OK Corral’ and ‘Battle of Coffeyville’, which are given in the Appendices. This includes historical background, set-up, and stats for the various characters involved. Both come with rough maps of their locations. It is suggested that these can played over and over, perhaps a hallmark of a wargame rather than roleplaying game. Rounding out the appendices is a list of prices and wages as well as sample town map.

Physically, Boot Hill is plainly laid out, though readable. The artwork is scruffy and the maps are rudimentary.

Boot Hill is both more than a set of wargames miniatures rules and less than a roleplaying game. Its emphasis upon single characters, and their capacity for growth and the capacity for doing things other than gunfighting and brawling, if implicit rather explicit—except for the gambling rules, push it towards roleplaying, but the deadliness of the combat system and emphasis upon combat is definitely more akin to a wargame. What it is more akin to is a ‘Braunstein’, a wargame with players taking individual roles in a Napoleonic Germany, and then developed by David Wesely in the late sixties and later developed by Duane Jenkins into a Wild West ‘Braunstein’ set in the fictional, ‘Brownstone Texas’. This suggests that Boot Hill has the capacity for roleplaying and to be a roleplaying game, but it is very much reliant upon the Game Master and players to do that rather than the game itself encourage them to do so. Boot Hill has always been included in the canon of roleplaying games, but where the later editions of the game—published in 1979 and 1990—do qualify and count as roleplaying games, it can be strongly argued that its original, first edition version barely qualifies as a roleplaying game.

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.

—oOo—

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.

—oOo—

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.