Dungeons & Disapora

For centuries, the Third Horizon—a system of thirty-six star systems—and a wave of colonial expansion and exploration reached through a series of portals built and abandoned long ago by an alien species now known as the Portal Builders, has existed in a state of peaceful isolation. Contact had been long lost with the First Horizon and the Second Horizon following an interstellar war which ended in the portals being permanently closed to the previous Horizons. Yet the Third Horizon was never without its tensions—tensions that would be exploited from within and without. Most notably the latter as the First Horizon fought to take control of the Third Horizon and the Second Horizon fought to prevent it, their proxies continuing the conflict across the ribbon of the stars that made the Third Horizon and changing it for ever. Some fled the war and never saw its outcome. Their ragtag fleet went in search of a signal emanating far from the Third Horizon, said to be from the Nadir, sent with its sister colony vessel, the Zenith, from Earth to Aldebaran, centuries before. The Zenith made contact with, and reinvigorated, the Third Horizon. The Nadir disappeared into the Dark Space between stars. The twelve year journey, known as the Long Traverse, brought the fleet to a system with only two gas giants it called Jumuah where the signal was lost and that was its final stop. The star portal which would hopefully have led onward, hopefully to more prosperous worlds was dead. The fleet was stranded. The survivors were forced to adapt. They labelled their new home the ‘Lost Horizon’ and founded ‘The Ship City of Coriolis the Eternal and Jumuah the First and Last’, or Ship City, in a hollowed out asteroid which they expanded with the hulls of ships no longer space worthy. That was two hundred years ago.

Almost a century after its founding, prophet-physicists made a startling discovery—the ‘Slipstream’. It enabled Greatships, gigantic, sturdy vessels capable of withstanding the buffeting ripples of the Slipstream, to navigate at near Faster-than-Light speeds to other systems. In time, following the River of Stars, the people of Jumuah and the Ship would expand beyond the Lost Horizon and establish eleven settlements and outposts across what is called the Charted Sphere. Now, despite its dangers, travel aboard the Greatships has become almost routine. In addition to new worlds and new systems, the explorers also made discoveries.

They found ruins. They found signs that Humanity was not the first to settle the Great Dark and the region around Charted Space. They found Gardens, Shallows, Structures, and Deep Vaults. They began to learn about them by translating the glyphs left on the ruins and the artefacts the explorers and archaeologists found. They also found the Blight. Whether it appears as blooms, as frost, as dust, or as ice, Blight is a plague that corrupts both structures and biology, that can kill and destroy, but also leave its sufferers with strange visions. And the deeper that explorers and archaeologists delve, the greater the danger of Blight. Today, almost two hundred years after the Long Traverse began, the Explorers’ Guild has risen to direct expeditions to the twelve most significant sites discovered to date and to search for other ruins.

This is the setting for Coriolis: The Great Dark. Published by Free League Publishing following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is sequel to Coriolis: The Third Horizon, a more traditional Science fiction roleplaying game with strong Middle Eastern themes and flavour. It marks a radical departure in terms of style and tone as well as what you play in Coriolis: The Third Horizon. In Coriolis: The Great Dark, the Player Characters are not the crew of a spaceship, travelling from one world to the next, trading, investigating, fighting, and running, as they would be Coriolis: The Third Horizon and many other Science Fiction roleplaying game. Instead, they members of, or working for, the Explorers’ Guild. As teams, they will travel aboard a Greatship on the Slipstream, be dropped off in system before the Greatship departs, and make their own way to a world or moon or asteroid and explore a ruin, delving deep into its reaches, looking for discoveries, artefacts, and information. However, time is short, resources are limited, and there is the constant threat of the Blight. It feels like the Player Characters are delving into dungeons in deep space, but if this is dungeoneering Science Fiction style, it is a style—and setting—that is inspired by nineteenth-century expeditions, deep-sea diving, and pulp archaeology.  The dangers of the unknown are not the only threats that the explorers face in entering the ruins. The criminal organisation known as the Black Toad sends teams into ruins to harvest the Blight and turn it into a drug that is smoked for its hallucinogenic properties. Acts of piracy have been attributed to a group known as the Wreckers and there are creatures and other things lurking in the ruins.

A Player Character is defined by his Profession, attributes, Health, Hope, and Heart, Talents, Quirk, and Keepsake. The Professions are Artist, Enforcer, Esoteric, Odd Jobber, Roughneck, Scholar, Scoundrel, and Traveller. Each provides sample names, gives a key attribute and Talents, some equipment, and a Speciality, which grants an extra Talent. Of the Professions, the Esoteric is a mystic or prophet driven reshape the peoples of the Lost Horizon and the Odd Jobber covers a range of roles such as Guild Clerk, Alley Cook, or Artefact Dealer. All of the Professions provide a variety of roles and associated Talents each of which expand a Player Character’s background. Most Talents can be taken up to three times and add a bonus base die for each level. For example, ‘Streetwise’ adds a bonus base die per Talent level to locate stolen goods, find a contact, or learn rumours, which ‘Jury-Rig’ does the same for crafting or repairing mechanical devices and components. A Player Character has six attributes—Strength, Agility, Logic, Perception, Insight, and Empathy—and three stats—Health, Hope, and Heart—which measure how much trauma he can suffer before he is broken. The attributes range in value between one and five, except the key attribute for a Profession. His Quirk represents a flaw that when roleplayed will earn a Player Character Experience Points and a Keepsake his means of recovering Hope.

To create character, a player selects an origin, chooses a Profession and Speciality, divides twenty-four between his character’s attributes, chooses three more levels of Talents from the Profession, choose a Quirk, a Keepsake, and some equipment, and then a name, appearance, and a reason why the character became an Explorer. Many of these elements can be rolled for as well.

Name: Chandra Koulidis

Profession: Odd Jobber

Speciality: Stair Peddler

ATTRIBUTES

Strength 2 Agility 4 Logic 4

Perception 3 Insight 4 Empathy 5

Health 6 Hope 9 Heart 7

TALENTS

Actor (1), Charmer (2), Cultural Savant (1), Mentalist (1), Streetwise (1)

Origin: Among the Alleys and Shanties of Aluminium Bay

Associated Faction: The Black Toad

Contact: Cook Lissa Losoi

Quirk: Wears makeup

Keepsake: Piece of a Builder shard

Appearance: Unruly hair

Reason for becoming an Explorer: To escape the drudgery of everyday life

Equipment: Fancy clothing, waking pills, bottle of shroom brandy

Mechanically, Coriolis: The Great Dark, uses the Year Zero engine, first seen in Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days. To have a character undertake an action, a player rolls a number of Base Dice equal to a combination of attribute and applicable Talent, plus Gear Dice. A single roll of a six (or the symbol on the custom dice for Coriolis: The Great Dark) indicates a Success. Multiple Successes improve the outcome, especially in combat and conflict. If the roll is a failure and no sixes are rolled, or a player wants more Successes, he can Push the roll. This enables him to reroll any dice which did not result in a one or six. A roll can be Pushed once and any rolls of one on the Base Dice indicate that the Player Character loses a point of Hope, whilst any rolls of one on the Gear Dice indicate that the item of equipment used is damaged and needs to be repaired, and if happens multiple times, it will break. Other Player Characters can help another on a task, each one contributing an extra Base Die to the player making the roll.

Conflict in Coriolis: The Great Dark uses the same core mechanics. Initiative uses a deck of cards numbered from one to ten and the rules for conflict cover both ranged and close combat, plus social conflict. A combatant can move once and do one action per round. Reactions, such as blocking or dodging, are counted as actions and so use up a Player Character’s action in a round. A single Success is required to inflict the base damage for an attack, but extra Successes can be expended to increase damage as well as other effects. In close combat can be used to wrestle an object from an opponent, trip him, or push him away. Ranged combat allows for aimed fire, full auto, cover, and so on. Armour has the potential to protect against damage, requiring a roll and Successes to be rolled, to be effective. If a Player Character suffers more damage that reduces his Health to zero, he is Broken and cannot act. Critical damage is inflicted if the number of successes rolled are equal to, or exceed, the ‘Crit Threshold’ for the weapon. This necessitates a roll on the ‘Critical Injuries’ table. Two critical injuries will both NPCs and Player Characters. 

Social combat is handled via rolls versus an opponent’s Empathy or Strength attributes. The rules also cover chases and vehicle combat, including spaceship combat. The rules for both are simply handled and overall, the rules for Coriolis: The Great Dark are a very traditional version of the Year Zero mechanics.

The play of Coriolis: The Great Dark switches back and forth between life and intrigue in Ship City and exploring the Ruins in the Great Dark. To support the former, there is a detailed description of Ship City, its districts and the powerful guilds—the Navigators Guild, the Machinists Guild, the Gardeners Guild, and the Coriolites, the families that adhere to the traditions of the Third Horizon, and the Black Toad, the shadowy criminal cartel operating throughout the Charted Sphere, as well as the less powerful, though still influential Explorers Guild. The background on the rest of Charted Space is not as detailed, but there is more than enough information to bring it to life on the Player Characters’ expeditions.

Expeditions form the second part and primary focus of play in Coriolis: The Great Dark and that starts with the creation of a Crew. There are five positions on the Crew—Delver, Scout, Burrower, Guard, and Archaeologist. The Delver leads the way into Ruins; the Scout looks for hidden dangers ahead; the Burrower digs paths and secures routes through tunnels and caves; the Guard protects the Crew; and the Archaeologist interprets the Ruins, as well as glyphs and artefacts found. The Explorers Guild trains Crew members in particular Manoeuvres. For example, the Burrower can use ‘Destabilise’ in conjunction with an explosive charge to destroy a wall or blockage to either open up a route or block it, whilst the Delver can use ‘Rally’ to restore Hope or remove a Condition for all nearby Explorers. These are extra combat actions that can be used specifically during a delve.

In addition to some personal equipment, the Explorers Guild provides the Crew with a rover and an interplanetary shuttle. Both will be carried aboard the Greatship that ferries the Crew to the system destination where it drops the Crew off. The oddest item that the Explorers Guild loans the Crew is  a Bird, also called a ‘Garuda’, which serves as a guardian spirit and Blight-finder. They are actually bioengineered artifacts discovered in the Ruins and awakened, willing to co-operate with the peoples of Ship City. Many are kept as companions and there is specific Bird Market in Ship City. In the illustrations, the Birds have a hawk-like appearance. Although they vary in terms of type and ability, the Birds are indispensable when it comes to exploring Ruins. In particular, their ‘Clear Blight’, ‘Blight Scan’, and ‘Soak Blight’ powers help a Crew keep safe on a delve. Whilst the individual Player Characters will earn Experience Points, collectively as a Crew they can earn Crew Points for taking on a challenge, going on a trek or delve, making discoveries, and so on. These can be spent to learn new manoeuvres, as well as to improve the vehicles and the Bird. Plus, there are Talents which help a Player Character interact with his Crew’s Bird more easily. Choosing a Bird and both a rover and a shuttle is a collective endeavour that comes at the end of Player Character generation.

Name: Fench

Type: Guide

Health: 4 Energy: 3

Appearance: Ink black with a long beak and bold personality

Special Power: Farsight

Basic Powers: Attack, Defend, Clear Blight, Blight Scan, Sock Blight, Glow

Expeditions can be mounted for many reasons, such as finding new sites to colonise, prospecting for new resources, and even to find new Slipstream routes, but the iconic type of expedition is the ‘Delve’ into Ruins. There are rules for land exploration, which essentially covers the Crew touching down in its shuttle and then making its way to the Ruin site by rover. Once there, the rules shift. Not just in intensity, but also in their axis. If the journey to a Ruin is horizontal across the landscape, the Delve swings through ninety degrees into the vertical. Not every Delve has this verticality, but most do, and it makes a Delve feel more like spelunking or potholing. Of course, one of the inspirations in Coriolis: The Great Dark is deep-sea diving and this is reflected in the heavy suits that the Crew members wear and are depicted in the art. A Delve also has the feel of a mountain climbing expedition and mechanically by the journeying rules in other roleplaying games from Free League Publishing. Mountain climbing because a Crew has to keep track of Supply—consumables including oxygen, water, food, energy, ammunition, and light—and establish camps where Supply caches can be laid up, and the journeying rules because the Player Characters will have specific roles on an expedition or Delve.

Like those journeying rules, in a Delve a Crew is trying to get to a key location or locations. This has a specific procedure, first making a Delve roll to move into the next area, then dealing with any hazards, and dealing and suffering from any Blight. Blight can be encountered anywhere, but is primarily associated with Ruins and often with the strange creatures and things discovered there. The Delve suits that each Crewmember wears provides some protection against the Blight, but if a Crewmember does suffer from Blight, it reduces his Heart stat. If this is reduced, his player rolls on the ‘Blight Manifestation’ table to represent its direct effect, which can be temporary or permanent. For example, the Crewmember might be stricken with uncontrollable shivering that leaves him Exhausted; temporal dissonance that causes lapses in time perception such that the Crewmember always goes last in combat; crystalline blooms grow from the Crewmember’s skin causing pain and piercing his Delve suit; and even ‘Wander the Pale Halls’ after the Crewmember falls into a coma, experiencing vivid hallucinations of the Pale Halls, leaving him permanently Broken.

The play switches to more traditional exploration once the Crew reaches a location. Here its members can search for artefacts, shards, and secrets. The Game Master has a good set of tables for creating Delves, defining its age, purpose, type, depth, theme, quirks, discoveries to be made, Blight levels encountered, and more. She can populate it with threats and creatures, the latter from the roleplaying game’s extensive bestiary, and even rival parties also exploring the Ruin. This is supported by an extensive discussion on the nature of the Ruins and the themes of the roleplaying game—Space as a wild sea, a sense of wonder, the mystery and enigma of the Builders and who they were, as well as intrigue, hope, and teamwork. The advice for the Game Master is excellent, covering not just running the roleplaying game, but also creating her own content for it. The Game Master is also supported with a sample scenario, ‘The Black Ziggurat’ in which the Explorers Guild sends the Crew to look for a missing Navigator near the eponymous site. The scenario emphasises the Delve aspect of play, but adds some intrigue into the mix as well.

Lastly, ‘The Outcast Explorer’ presents the option to play Coriolis: The Great Dark in solo mode. In these rules, the player still roleplays an Explorer, but one who has been spurned by everyone except the Explorers Guild. It sponsors the Outcast to explore the Red Garden, a vast valley located on Ilum, one of the moons of the two gas giants in the Jumuah System, which is dotted with labyrinthine Builders ruins. However, the Explorers Guild does not care how the Outcast conducts his expedition or if he survives. If he does, the Explorers Guild will simply sponsor him again. The rules are solidly serviceable for what you would expect for solo play, though of course, they do lose that shared sense of trepidation and wonder and awe at exploring the unknown. In the meantime, there is nothing to stop the Game Master visiting some of the tables for ‘The Outcast Explorer’ for further inspiration for Delves of her own.

Physically, Coriolis: The Great Dark is very well presented. It is well written and the artwork is excellent, capturing that sense of wonder almost at the end of the universe and the strangeness of what the Player Characters might find below, coupled with the slightly ramshackle feel of Ship City.

Memory & Magic

The coven is where the sisterhood is safe, where memories can be made, where its members can rejoice in the company of each other, where threats can be faced together, and dangers overcome, even if that is at the cost of memories. For memories represent power. But give up too many memories, use too much power, and the afterlife may become a dark and evil existence. This is the underlying story to Last Sabbath, a storytelling game of the history of a coven of witches and warlocks. The history will take them from their calling and formation of the coven through the appearance of a threat which imperils the coven, the discovery of how that threat can be defeated, and ultimately a confrontation with that threat and the aftermath of that confrontation. As the history progresses, the events and Memories are recorded in a diary. To defeat the threats and dangers they may face, the Witches may draw upon these Memories or their life sources to power charms, spells, and incantations. As a result, they will lose the Memories or age minutes, hours, or years, and potentially die in the process. They will have an existence in the afterlife, but the number of Memories lost determines the nature of that existence. A few and the Witch will return as a familiar to the next generation, too many and the Witch becomes an evil ghost!

Last Sabbath is from the Italian publisher, Officina Meningi. It is very rules light and can be played as a group or solo, and is designed to be played without a Game Master. As a solo roleplaying game, Last Sabbath is a journalling game, whereas in a group, the journal, or diary, is shared. It is played over the course of seven Scenes—‘The Calling’, ‘Initiation’, ‘Danger’, ‘Research’, ‘Revelation’, ‘Threat’, and ‘Epilogue’—which takes the Witches through their story and the story of the coven. There is no setting beyond the fact that there is a coven and a threat, the players being free to create their own during the first scene, whether that is Witches at a school of magic, a coven fleeing the Salem witch trials, or modern day coven protecting a small town.

The Scenes are further subdivided into Rounds, either three, five, or seven, depending upon the length of game that the players want to play. Each Scene is driven by three Leading Questions and six Prompts, the latter intended to be rolled on a six-sided die, or alternatively a Divination, of which four methods are given. The push here is to use the Divination means as six prompts is not enough and does not offer enough variability for repeat play. The Divination can also be used as means to suggest a resolution also. In each Round, the players take it in turns to narrate the Story from their Witches’ perspective, inspired by the Prompt or Divination. Interaction between the players and Witches is limited, a player and Witch only able to respond directly to the narration of another player and Witch when it is their turn. At the end of her narration for a Round, a player notes a Record of it in the diary, and at the end of the Scene, the player marks one of these Records, whether it is personal or pertains to the whole coven, as a Memory. As the coven faces greater dangers and the threat, these memories can be consumed to cast ever increasing more effective magic—Charms, Spells, and Incantations. Casting an Incantation has the greatest effect, such as regenerating the whole of a burned down forest, exorcising an ancient evil, or sending another Witch through time, but also the greatest cost, either terms of Memories or the Witch’s life itself. It represents the greatest sacrifice and will likely come in the penultimate Scene, ‘Threat’, when the coven will confront the danger at the heart of their story. The ‘Epilogue’ has only one Round, in which the players each narrates what happens to their Witches, including those who died, in a single Record.

The last quarter of Last Sabbath is devoted to divination methods. Four are given—Tarot, Rune Stones, Mikado, and Tea Leaves—along with instructions on how to use them and then interpret the readings as prompts for each scene. Some are easier to use than others, and some will take longer to use and interpret, and so may slow game play down. The latter is less of an issue in solo play, but in group play, it may become a problem. The Tarot cards are likely to be more familiar and easier to interpret, whilst the Runes are more flexible and open to interpret. The Mikado is likely the least familiar and will take some adjusting to. Which leaves the Tea Leaves, the most ambiguous and most open to interpretation, but also the most charming and relaxing since it involves making tea in a teapot and drinking the tea to find the results. All include examples of interpretations. What might have been useful is a bibliography of books consulted for these methods. That said, they offer a greater variability than most journalling games do, since the prompts they provide are open to wider interpretation.

Although Last Sabbath is described as being suitable for being played as a solo journalling game, this aspect of its play is not explored beyond a single paragraph. The lack of advice on this and other aspects of play is disappointing. Last Sabbath is not a long roleplaying game, especially given that its lats quarter is given over to alternative, but thematically appropriate means of generating prompts. Arguably, one of these means could have been dropped in favour of more advice and support, especially for solo play. Or simply, the page count increased from forty-eight to sixty plages.

Physically, Last Sabbath is boldly presented in splashes of red and black with stunning artwork. The artwork really is good, but it does not always feel appropriate. The artist—Loputyn—is noted as being part of the Lolita fashion moment, and this is reflected in the art style of Last Sabbath. It means that the witches depicted are young, and often nude. The artwork is not explicit, but because it only depicts the Witches as young girls and not a wide range of ages, the look of the roleplaying game does lean towards the prurient. This is in contrast to the writing which states that the Player Characters can be warlocks as well as witches and that each player is free to decide who her witch is. As a consequence, there is a dissonance between what Last Sabbath is about and how it looks, such that it is either going to put off the audience it is intended for or attract the attention of an audience for whom it was not intended.

Where Last Sabbath is at its best is in the inclusion of its four real-world divination tools as a means of creating prompts and driving the story forward, as they bring a physicality and a verisimilitude to the play and give the players something to interact with. Yet ultimately, Last Sabbath is underwritten as a roleplaying game and definitely as a solo journalling game. It does not provide enough structure or advice on how to set-up or play the game, relying instead upon the players to provide that, giving them more work than is really necessary. With that in mind, Last Sabbath is best suited experienced players who can overcome its issues.

The Other OSR: Another Bug Hunt

It is curious to note that since its original publication in 2018, the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG from Tuesday Knight Games has been reliant upon the single rulebook, the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG – Player’s Survival Guide. First as a ‘Zero Edition’ and then as an actual ‘First Edition’. Curious, because despite the horror roleplaying rules detailing no alien threats and giving no advice for the Warden—as the Game Master is known in Mothership—the has proved to be success, with numerous authors writing and publishing scenarios of their own as well as titles from the publisher. What the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG offered was a stripped down, fast playing Science Fiction system that supported a number of sub-genres. Most obviously Blue Collar Science Fiction with horror and Military Science Science Fiction, the most obvious inspirations being the films Alien and Aliens, as well as Outland, Dark Star, Silent Running, and Event Horizon. Yet the authors of third-party content for the roleplaying game have also offered sandboxes such as Desert Moon of Karth and Cosmic Horror like What We Give To Alien Gods, showing how the simplicity of Mothership could be adjusted to handle other types of Science Fiction. This combination of flexibility and simplicity has made it attractive to the Old School Renaissance segment of the hobby, despite Mothership not actually sharing roots with the family of Old School Renaissance roleplaying games derived from the different editions of Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, at best, Old School Renaissance adjacent.

With the publication of the Mothership Core Box and the Mothership Deluxe Box following a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2024, the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG has a complete set of rules for what is its first edition. The includes rules the construction and option of spaceships with Shipbreaker’s Toolkit, monstrous threats with Unconfirmed Contact Reports, and a guide for refereeing the roleplaying game in the form of the Warden’s Operations Manual.

—oOo—

Contact has been lost with Samsa IV. A survey detected signs of biochemistry on the planet and the Company assigned a team of researchers, engineers, and marines to establish a base of operations, a terraforming station, and investigate the signs. Doctor Edem, the team xenobiologist reported finding a species of arthropods on the planet, nicknaming them ‘carcinids’ or ‘carcs’. A subsequent report informed the Company that one had been captured for further study and examination. That was nine months ago. Six months ago, communication ceased with Gretna Base on Samsa IV. Three months ago, the crew was hired to investigate the loss of communication and reestablish contact. Specifically, they are to rendezvous with the marine commander, Second Lieutenant Kaplan, re-establish satellite communication and restore the terraforming machinery to full operation, and if that fails, evacuate Doctor Edem and the colony’s synthetic science officer, Hinton, or at his logic core. After several weeks in cyrosleep and following a briefing by Company representative, Maas, the Crew finds itself dropped at the landing zone for Gretna Base, surrounded by jungle and in the pouring rain, the rusty, scarred, base ahead along the muddy path.

This is the set-up for Another Bug Hunt, which describes itself as ‘The Introductory Adventure for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG’. As an introductory scenario to the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG, what Another Bug Hunt does is almost exactly not what you want it to be doing, but the good news is that it does it well. In fact, very well. What Another Bug Hunt does is take direct inspiration from the most obvious of influences over the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG, which are the films Alien and Aliens. That would seem too obvious, too easy, too derivative. Whereas what you would expect the scenario to do is show how Blue Collar Science Fiction horror can be done without any reference to either film. Especially since the Warden’s Operations Manual was about running the game and creating your own content and Unconfirmed Contact Reports contained numerous examples of threats that the Player Characters might contend with in Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG. Instead, what Another Bug Hunt does is take that inspiration and show how it can presented as playable content without being derivative and does so as an extension of the Warden’s Operations Manual.

The Warden’s Operations Manual is the best of the core books for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG. It takes the reader and prospective Warden through the first steps of getting started the roleplaying game, helping her think about the sort of scenario and horror she might want to run, decide what obstacles to present, what she wants each of the roleplaying game’s four roles to do, and so on. It is obvious advice, but that does not mean that it is not helpful. It is, because the scenario is an introductory scenario, written to be run and played by those new to the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG at the least. If the Warden’s Operations Manual tells the Warden how to run the roleplaying game, then Another Bug Hunt extends that advice by showing her. It goes beyond simply telling the Warden what she needs to run the scenario, but also calls out rules as needed, such as how to handle Fear Saves, how to describe locations, handle pacing and tensions, how to handle searches in locations, and asking something as basic as when should the players roll dice? At every stage of Another Bug Hunt, there is useful, helpful advice on how to handle the different aspects of the scenario, from set-up to the climax and then into the aftermath. This does include advice on running the individual parts of the scenario as one-shots, but doing so does mean that the players and their characters will not get the full story or the plot to the scenario.

The Warden’s Operations Manual is the best of the core books for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG. It takes the reader and prospective Warden through the first steps of getting started the roleplaying game, helping her think about the sort of scenario and horror she might want to run, decide what obstacles to present, what she wants each of the roleplaying game’s four roles to do, and so on. It is obvious advice, but that does not mean that it is not helpful. It is, because the scenario is an introductory scenario, written to be run and played by those new to the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG at the least. If the Warden’s Operations Manual tells the Warden how to run the roleplaying game, then Another Bug Hunt extends that advice by showing her. It goes beyond simply telling the Warden what she needs to run the scenario, but also calls out rules as needed, such as how to handle Fear Saves, how to describe locations, handle pacing and tensions, how to handle searches in locations, and asking something as basic as when should the players roll dice? At every stage of Another Bug Hunt, there is advice on how to handle the different aspects of the scenario, from set-up to the climax and then into the aftermath.

In terms of that story, Another Bug Hunt is just another bug hunt. There is an isolated planet, contact has been lost with the team sent there, the Player Characters will find signs of chaos and discover a desperate situation on the planet, and the primary threat they face does consist of bugs, the aforementioned carcanids. Much like the Xenomorph of the Alien universe, the carcanids have a lifecycle which involves infecting victims—which it does with a shriek—and transforming them physically and mentally. The process gives a player with an infected character some interesting symptoms to roleplay before they completely transform and become an NPC for the Warden to control. If the parts of Another Bug Hunt are run as a one-shot, the Warden will need to speed the process up as it is more suited to the length of the whole scenario. Fortunately, there is scope for replacement Player Characters.

In terms of structure, Another Bug Hunt is divided into four parts. These start out simple and get increasingly more complex as the story progresses. The first part, ‘Distress Call’, is an exploration of the battered and chaotic ruins of Gretna Base, a mini-room crawl containing hints of the horrors to come. It ends with the first encounter with the carcanids, a surprisingly tough encounter that unnerve the players, let alone their characters. The Player Characters are free to move around wherever they want, so it is possible for them to encounter the carcanids very quickly. In ‘Hive Mind’, the Player Characters make contact with the survivors of the team sent by the company to investigate the biochemistry signals on Samsa IV. Here, the Warden has several NPCs to keep track off, three of whom give the Player Characters sub-missions to try and complete. These take place in and around the terraforming station, effectively a dam and pumping station, and they include attempting to call the dropship for evacuation, recover the team’s research from the laboratory, and rescue a squad sent to prepare the reactor against the oncoming storm. The latter, combined with the rising waters, is a growing threat in the scenario, especially when the Player Characters discover that the carcanids can swim! The Player Characters can tackle the three in any order, but the flooding makes them increasingly difficult to do. In addition, they have to deal with the tensions between the survivors and their clashing demands.

Each of the three missions has a cinematic feel to them, whether it is the drive and flight along the top of the dam; the creepiness of the laboratory which is completely in black; and descending down the chimney to cooling room of the reactor. If the first two parts take their cue from industrial spaces of Aliens, then the third part, ‘Mothership’, draws from Alien and Prometheus as the Player Characters ascend into the mountains and discover the carcanid mothership and clamber inside. The inside of the mothership is the setting for the scenario’s grand finale and showdown with its actual villain. It is great scene that the Warden should play for all its worth, terrifying and awe-inspiring, that should with a tense finale as the Player Characters flee for their lives! As the storm breaks and the carcanids swarm towards them in the fourth and final part, ‘Metamorphosis’, the survivors and the Player Characters race to evacuate the planet. This should be narratively exciting encounter as the Player Characters hold off wave after wave of the carcanids, now better equipped to deal with them—at least temporarily—as they make a run for it. This can end in a bang and a total party kill, but the subsequent scene has a sting in the tail and the final scene is a bit of an anticlimax as it purports to be a scene in which the spaceship combat rules for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG can be taught. As the scenario makes clear, the spaceship that the Player Characters are aboard is not capable of defeating the alien spaceship, so the best option is for them is to flee.

There are elements of the scenario that could have been better handled. For example, the flooding element lacks mechanical support, forcing the Warden to make up something to cover the omission. Which is pity since the scenario is designed to teach the Warden. The aforementioned spaceship encounter is a disappointment.

Physically, Another Bug Hunt is a busy affair. The layout is clean and tidy, accessible, but a little tight in places, but there is a lot going on. The artwork is decent and the cartography serviceable. It is well written and the use of the ‘Warden Educational Support’ to give out the advice is an entertaining touch.

Another Bug Hunt is not just ‘another bug hunt’. It is more than that. It is essentially a tutorial scenario for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG that draws from its primary inspirations and combines our familiarity with those inspirations with the unfamiliarity of its own story in a pleasing balancing act. Another Bug Hunt is well designed, it does a good job of showing where the rules come into play and where they do not, and it is a great introduction to both the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG and its genre.

Friday Fantasy: Idylls of the Rat King

The silver shipments out of Silverton north to the capitol of Archbridge have suddenly ceased. Goblin bandits have been attacking the caravans laden with silver ore, killing innocent miners, and stealing cargo. Their base of operations has been identified as the old Gannu Silver Mine, abandoned almost a century ago. Perhaps the Player Characters learn off this when they stop off at the Silver Cup Inn in the village. Or they are asked to find out why a young nobleman is suffering a vile fever after the caravan he was travelling with was attacked by Goblins. Or perhaps the Player Characters are approached by the leader of the Miner’s Guild whose operations have been sabotaged and caravans raided by goblins. He believes that the Goblins are being aided by an ancient evil that was the actual cause of the mine being closed almost a century ago. Whichever way in which the Player Characters learn of the situation in Silverton, they find themselves outside the collapsed tunnel entrance to the Gannu Silver Mine with Goblin footprints all about, ready to investigate. If this set-up sounds familiar, that is because it is. It is the set-up to Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the RatKing, the very first scenario in the Dungeon Crawl Classics line for Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition, published by Goodman Games in 2003. It is also familiar because Reviews from R’lyeh only recently reviewed Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King in 2023 on its twentieth anniversary. So why review it again quite so soon? The reason is that Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King that it is being reviewed here. Instead, it is Fifth Edition Fantasy #31: Idylls of the Rat King that is being reviewed.

Fifth Edition Fantasy #31: Idylls ofthe Rat King is not for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition, or even Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics roleplaying game. As its full title suggests, it is instead designed for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Or rather adapted for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Intended to be played by four to six Player Characters of First to Third Level, what it does is combine the modern rules of the world’s most popular roleplaying game with the sensibilities of the Old School. However, Fifth Edition Fantasy #31: Idylls of the Rat King does get off to an odd start by directly quoting the opening paragraph from the original: “Remember the golden days of role playing, when adventures were underground, NPCs were there to be killed, and the finale of every dungeon was the dragon on the 20th level? Well, those days are back. Dungeon Crawl Classics feature bloody combat, intriguing dungeons, and no NPCs who aren't meant to be killed. Each adventure is 100% good, solid dungeon crawl, with the monsters you know, the traps you fear, and the secret doors you know must be there somewhere.” Of course, as an adaptation, Fifth Edition Fantasy #31: Idylls of the Rat King will deliver all of those elements, but it is an odd way in which to start the scenario, referring back to the original in such a direct manner, but without referring to the rules its uses. It is almost as if the publisher forgot to rewrite the opening paragraph to account for the adaptation.

However, beyond that, there is relatively little that is different from the original scenario. It still recommends the inclusion of a Player Character Rogue and a Good-aligned Cleric, as well as a Fighter with a silvered weapon. The scenario consists of a four-Level ‘Abandoned Silver Mine’ infested with Goblins and rats, but there is worse to be found the deeper that the Player Characters go. This is revealed first in a fun encounter at the end of the First Level with the Goblin Boss, who turns out to be a Wererat! To get to him though, there is the upper level of the mine to explore and plenty of stiff opposition from the Goblins to overcome. The latter due to a division in the Goblin tribe between those who are Wererats and those who are not, and those who are not, are frightened of those who are. This creates a little bit of tension in the scenario, though not necessarily something that the Player Characters are going to be aware of necessarily. What they are likely to be aware of is the number of secret chambers and vaults, given that under Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, it is easier to find secret doors, which are scattered across this and all levels of the mine. These are worth finding, not just because they might contain treasure, but because they may also contain silvered or magical weapons and useful clues to the secrets of the mine.

The encounter with the Wererat Goblin Chief is a sign of things to come. There are some entertaining encounters with the tribe’s torturer and jailer—into whose custody any Player character who is captured will end up, a Goblin sorcerer, a Gnome necromancer, a vampiress, and ultimately, the real villain behind the recent events. These last two encounters are tough, but they do present opportunities for roleplaying as opposed to rollplaying. In between, there is a whole level still being worked by miners still. Zombie miners, but miners, nonetheless.

There are some changes between Fifth Edition Fantasy #31: Idylls of the Rat King and the original Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King. For example, there is no daycare area or family room area for the Goblin tribe on the second level in Fifth Edition Fantasy #31: Idylls of the Rat King as there is in Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King. Which means there is no suggested Experience Point penalty should the Player Characters decide to slaughter the females and children of the Goblin tribe. This shifts the feel of the mine in original scenario from being the home to a Goblin tribe to this updated version in which the mine feel more like a Goblin military outpost. Also missing are the zombie badgers from the third level, but the several temples dedicated to the rat gods, Narrimunth and Nimlurun, remain. Effectively, some of the original spikiness of Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King has been scoured to take the edges off, so it is smoother, more palatable to a wider audience.

Rounding out Fifth Edition Fantasy #31: Idylls of the Rat King are three appendices. The first details the new monsters for the scenario. They include a Goblin Priest, Horned Giant Rat, Ogre Skeleton, and Wererat Goblin. The second details the village of Silverton. It is a one-page description of the village and its notable inhabitants. The third contains three handouts. If found during the adventure, the players and their characters will be able to learn about the secret history of the mine.

Physically, Fifth Edition Fantasy #31: Idylls of the Rat King is well presented and, in many ways, an improvement. The maps are a vast improvement with some actual detail, but they are small and not as easy to read as they could have been. It also needs editing in places.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat Kingg has been republished before, most notably with its sequel, Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King, rewritten for use Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, and released at Gen Con 2008. Surprisingly, the scenario was not republished on its twentieth anniversary in 2023, nor indeed updated for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics. This update, Fifth Edition Fantasy #31: Idylls of the Rat King is not unwelcome, but feels both slightly rushed and an odd choice in terms of roleplaying rules. That aside, Fifth Edition Fantasy #31: Idylls of the Rat King is a serviceable scenario now brought to a wider audience.

Friday Filler: dnup

If you like Scout, then you will like dnup. It is a card-shedding game, just like Scout, but is smaller, less complicated, easier to teach, and plays faster. It is also from the designer as Scout. The latter, published by Oink Games, was a Spiel des Jahres nominee in 2022 and won the Origins Award for Best Card Game in 2023. It is not an Oink Games title though—and not just because the components fit in the box! Another difference is that there is no semblance of theme with dnup.

dnup—short for ‘Down up’—is published by the Asmodee Group. It is designed to be played by between two and five players, aged eight and up, and can be played in fifteen minutes. The aim of game for each player is to try to empty his hand of cards. This done by playing cards from his hand as sets of the same value that are of a higher value or greater size than the ones on the table. If a player is the first to empty his hand this way in a round, he gains two letters. The next player to empty his hand, gains a single letter. The first player to be able to spell ‘dnup’ with his letters wins the game.

dnup consists of forty cards, five Player Aid cards, sixteen letter tokens, and the rules leaflet. The forty cards are marked with two different numbers. The cards can be turned over so that the upper number can always be read, but the lower number is always upside down and cannot be read as easily. The Player Aid cards show the card distribution at each player count and the actions that a player can take each round. The sixteen letter tokens are used to keep of player score.

At the start of a round, each player receives a hand of cards, the number varying depending on the number of players. A player can rearrange the cards in hand at any time. When he receives his hand; when it is not his turn; and when he picks up cards. What he cannot do is rotate his hand. What this means is that he can build sets of cards easily throughout the play of the game. On his turn, a player first discards any set he played the previous turn and takes on action. He can play a set of cards onto the table on front of him; add a card to an opponent’s set; take a set of cards from in front of an opponent; or rotate the cards in his hand. Unlike in Scout, where there is one set of cards on the table, in dnup, each player has a set in front of him. When a set is played, it must be bigger than another set already in front of another player. When it is, the lower set must be returned to its player, who must rotate the returned cards before adding them to his hand. If a player adds a card to an opponent’s hand and it increases the value of the set in comparison to another set, that lowered valued set is returned to its player’s hand. This is a key tactical move as it forces cards back into a player’s hand and they will not be same value because the cards have to be rotated. Similarly, a player can play a low set in the hope that another player will put down a better set and force him to take the cards back into his hand, and rotating them, give him cards with numbers he can use to make better sets. This adds some nice tactical options. Of course, taking cards back into a player’s hand means that he has to rotate them and he has to rearrange them. Sometimes that can be advantageous for a player, sometimes not. When it is not, a player will have to rebuild a set, but the game play is speedy enough that it does not take long.

dnup does include a two-player option. For this, each player has two play areas and can play sets into both areas. This also means that sets in a player’s play areas can conflict with each other, but it also means that a player can use it to his advantage. However, the two-player option is not quite as fun as there is not the same degree of interplay between the players. Thus, dnup plays better with multiple players.

Physically, dnup is very nicely presented. The rules are simple and clear, and the cards are attractive in bright and breezy colours.

dnup is as bright and breezy as it looks. The game is easy to teach and learn, and it plays easy too. This means that it plays well with families and younger players, but there is just enough of an edge to the game that experienced players can play it a bit more cutthroat.

Snæland Sagas #04: The Runestone of Laugardalur Valley

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

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What is the Nature of the Saga?

The Runestone of Laugardalur Valley is a scenario for use with Age of Vikings.

It is a full colour, ten page, 1.06 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy, but it does need an edit in places.

It is part of the ‘West Fjords Tales’ series.

Where is the Saga set?

The Runestone of Laugardalur Valley takes place in the Ice Fjord Deep area in the West Fjords region. It takes place during midsummer.

Who should be the subject of this Saga?

Any type of Player Character can take part in this sage. The skills Spot Hidden, Read/Write (Runes), and Craft (Masonry) will be useful, and at least one Player Character with good Mythic skills, such as Second Sight and being able to read and cast the Runes, is recommended, but a diverse range of skills is better than focused ones.

It is written to be played by beginning Player Characters.

What does the Saga require?

The Runestone of Laugardalur Valley only requires the Age of Vikings core rulebook.

Where will the Vikings go in this Saga?

The Runestone of Laugardalur Valley is a story of betrayal and revenge from the grave, a classic subject for a Viking saga. The Player Characters are visiting the local leader, a farmer named Hallsteinn the old Hafsteinsson, at his home of Laugaból farm. As his guests, Hallsteinn relates to the Player Characters how a runestone was recently discovered erect above the valley near the barrow of Halldór, a hero who was killed by the outlaw he was tracking down to kill in revenge for killing his brother. The runestone had originally been placed there and later fell over, but no-one returned to repair it. Now Hallsteinn believes it is tainting the area, for his sheep will not graze on the side of the valley and his thralls will not walk there. Backed by a vision from his wife, Hallsteinn asks the Player Characters to accompany him to the runestone to investigate further.

The skills Spot Hidden and Read/Write (Runes) are key to revealing the dark secrets behind the situation, but other skills can help. The skill Craft (Masonry) is vital and if used early on, can resolve the situation quite quickly. If not, the consequences are likely to be deadly and more combat capable Player Characters ill be needed. If the Player Characters lack the skill, one option might be to create a fellow sailor who has the skill, if they arrived by boat. Otherwise, the Player Characters may need to flee the farm, along with the NPCs, and return with an NPC who has the skill.

What will the Skalds sing of this Saga?

Playable in a single session, The Runestone of Laugardalur Valley is a short simple encounter that is readily added to an ongoing campaign. Depending upon the skills possessed and the rolls made by the Player Characters, the events of the scenario can play out quickly or the Game Master may need to improvise a little.

Miskatonic Monday #440: Fallen from the Farthest Star

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—

Their arrival in Olympia, the state capital of Washington State, on Monday, August 20th 1877, begins with a bang. Or rather several bangs. As one Native American passenger alights and is distracted down a side street by another, the remaining passengers aboard the stagecoach are subject to a hail of gunfire from the surrounding buildings. Native Olympians pull out their own handguns and shoot back, and when they manage to get out of the stagecoach to look, it appears that their assailants are also Native Americans. The exchange of fire quickly fizzles out and if any of the newly arrived passengers go after the shooters, they quickly find themselves lost in the back alleys and side streets of the city, and before they know it, a gun is in the small of their backs. Within moments the passengers, captured at gun point, find themselves whisked out of the city, as is the Native American who was beckoned to from down an alley. In the chaos, one of the female passengers is spirited away by some men with Russian accents. Anyone left at stagecoach, is approached by a scruffy, oddly mannered man, apologising for the attack, explaining that the Native American attackers are Squaxin, one of many Indian tribes who have long lived in the area of the Puget Sound and some of the tribes have strange secrets. One is a very strange secret indeed. Something important is hidden nearby and they would do anything to protect it. Others have recently arrived in the city of search of the secret in order to take for themselves. The man, who introduces himself as Elwood Candy, tells the passengers that he wants to find out for himself and his employers, but will not say who those employers are, except that they are not the US government.

This is the action-packed opening to Fallen from the Farthest Star. This is also the messy opening to Fallen from the Farthest Star. The scenario is for use with Down Darker Trails: Terrors of the Mythos in the Old West, the official Old West sourcebook for use with Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition. Action-packed because it opens with a shootout, but messy because it is written as a narrative and there is a lot going on. In fact, almost too much for the Keeper to track of. The result is overwhelming, and arguably, whilst it should be overwhelming for the players and their Investigators, the same should not be case for the Keeper. Unfortunately, this is no error upon the part of the author, but rather by design. The aim is actually to split the party and for each Investigator to interact with the different factions involved in the scenario, including two different groups of Native Americans, some Russians, and the strangely singular Elwood Candy. The aim is that all together, they will have a greater understanding of the situation they find themselves in, but only if they can get together and relate what has happened to them in the meantime. What this means is that Keeper will be running longer solo narratives for her players than she might ordinarily do so for a Call of Cthulhu scenario. In several of the situations, the kidnapped Investigators will be asked if they have ‘it’. Which they do not, and further, do not know what ‘it’ is. In fact, ‘it’ turns out to multiple things, but the fact that Fallen from the Farthest Star is a multi-MacGuffin, will again, not become apparent until the Investigators are brought together and can share what happened to them. All this requires a degree of acceptance by the players. The opening and set-up for the Investigators in Fallen from the Farthest Star is anything other than a traditional one for Call of Cthulhu and to high degree, the players and their Investigators are being railroaded.

From this point, the Keeper is going to be switching back forth between the Investigators and the groups that they are with. In some cases, the Investigators are held captive, in others they have more agency, but all have opportunity to interact an NPC or NPCs and gain some information pertinent to the situation. There is chance here too, for some good roleplaying. So, what is going on? The Native Americans are guardians to an ancient mind-bending artefact called the Star Egg, that fell from the sky thousands of years ago, split into two factions who cannot agree what to do with it; the Russians are dissidents turned archaeologists and treasure hunters looking for Spanish silver; and everyone else? They answer to their own masters! The Investigators are part of a prophecy said to tell of a growing threat to the Star egg and are asked for their help. As the different factions discover more of the information they need, they will make their way upriver and inland to the site where the Star Egg is hidden. The Investigators are the catalysts here, ultimately deciding how the scenario plays out and who comes out on top. There are a couple of wildcards thrown into this mix and they may influence what happens next. Along the way, there are some entertaining scenes, including one with the ‘Greatest Thief in the World’ and revelations ahoy as to who Elwood Candy’s true masters are and what they are prepared to tell the Investigators.

Besides the NPCs and Mythos monsters, the scenario is supported with information about Olympia, its history and surrounds, plus information about the Mythos tome, El Naufragio de Nuestra Señora de Loreto, that drives part of the story, the various devices that the Investigators might get their hands on, and the alien ship itself. These are nicely detailed. There is also a timeline for the scenario; maps of both Olympia and its surrounds—for both the players and the Keeper; and floorplans for the various locations. The floorplans are period pieces and do vary in quality. The handouts include the colourfully bizarre pictograms as well as NPC pictures (some of which look not a little familiar) and details of two pistols new to Down Darker Trails. Lastly there are six pre-generated Investigators. They consist of a Hispanic gunfighter, an aspiring artist, a soldier, a Native American cowboy, and a dilettante would-be writer. The aspiring artist previously appeared in The Schoolmarm’s Ghost.

Physically, Fallen from the Farthest Star is generally well presented. However, the writing is not as clear it could have been in parts and the artwork for the pictograms cartoonishly contrasts the rest of the scenario. That said, the NPC portraits are all period photographs, as are the maps and floorplans, and they do add a degree of verisimilitude. The floorplans could have been clearer though.

Ultimately, the problem with Fallen from the Farthest Star is the writing. There is a lot of context and background up front, including some decent advice about adapting the scenario to other periods, and a detailed—likely overly detailed—history and description of Washington state, Olympia, and nearby—it throws the Keeper into the action without much thought or advice as how the set-up, let alone the rest of the scenario is going to play out.

Ultimately, the problem with Fallen from the Farthest Star is the writing. There is a lot of context and background up front, including some decent advice about adapting the scenario to other periods, and a detailed—likely overly detailed—history and description of Washington state, Olympia, and nearby—it throws the Keeper into the action without much thought as how the set-up, let alone how the rest of the scenario is going to play out. It is not until after the shootout and its aftermath is there any advice for the Keeper, who is told that the next(!) “…[S]ection of the scenario might be a little confusing.” By this point it might be too late. There is no denying the ambition of Fallen from the Farthest Star, but it really going to need an experienced Keeper to run well with its multiple moving parts, and even then, said Keeper will need to pull some parts of the narrative—the gunfight at the start of the scenario, in particular—apart and put them back together to her satisfaction to have them work effectively.