The Other OSR: Down Among the Dead

Down Among the Dead describes itself as ‘A Terrible Expansion’ for Pirate Borg, the ‘Worst Pirate RPG Ever Made’. In the case of the latter claim, Pirate Borg is actually highly accessible, especially in the form of the Pirate Borg Starter Set, an Old School Renaissance-style roleplaying game is set in the Dark Caribbean, a sea of tropical islands marked with European towns and fortresses and ruins of civilisations long gone, of shipwrecks with rich cargoes and even richer treasures, and of the Scourge. The Scourge made the dead walk once again, ghosts return to haunt the living, and monsters lurk ready to smash the foothold that the Europeans have established in the region. The governors and the viceroys, representatives of kings and queens, have forced to adapt and rule with no contact from home following the Scourge and even take advantage of the situation, especially since the discovery of the abilities and addictive nature of ASH, the ash of the burned and ground undead. Some seek to make money from the trade in ASH and some seek to control it, whilst others seek to repress it. This is another cause of the conflict in the Dark Caribbean. Pirate Borg casts the players as members of a crew who will sail the ASH-tinged waters the Dark Caribbean, raiding and smuggling, carousing and drinking, adventuring, and exploring. In the case of the former, Down Among the Dead is the first official supplement for the roleplaying game, providing four adventures, three new Classes, skills, motivations, even house rules, and a lot more.

Down Among the Dead is published by Limithron via Free League Publishing following a successful Kickstarter campaign. It contains three new Classes, new skills, adds motivations for Player Characters, four sets of tables for generating different aspects of the setting and game, and three lengthy adventures, all of which can be added to an ongoing campaign. The first new Class is ‘The Antiquarian’, which is essentially Indiana Jones (or other swashbuckling archaeologist of your choice) for the Age of Sail, complete with a phobia, a holy grail—perhaps discovering lost temples or ruins and ancient treasures or the origins and dark secrets behind the creation of ASH, and an ’Expertise’ such as ‘Theology/Arcana’, ‘Athletics’, or ‘Occultism’. The ‘Deep One’ brings a Lovecraftian touch to Pirate Borg, its origins such as ‘Hybrid’, ‘Bathyal’, and ‘Abyssal’—the type and depth of water it comes from—determining starting stats, and its options include either ‘Shaman’ or ‘Warrior’. The former learns Pelagic Sorcery Spells, whilst the latter is armed with a cultural weapon like a coral and seashell long knife or a piece of driftwood with stingray spikes and learns combat techniques. Lastly, the ‘Unlocked Soul’ is resurrected spirit who has returned to the surface after dying and being cast into Davy Jones’ Locker. This Class is living on borrowed time as there is a increasing chance that Charon will reclaim his soul, but in the meantime, he can regenerate wounds and regrow limbs, ask questions of the dead, become like transparent water, and more, though his skeleton might itch from within because it is made of coral or his head might be able to spin right round and he cannot see a particular colour.

All three Classes are good, bringing fun archetypes into Pirate Borg. All three can be played as written, but the ‘Unlocked Soul’ is best used for an NPC or for Player Characters who have also escaped Davy Jones’ Locker—perhaps after playing through ‘Lost to the Locker’ later in the book—and wanting to multi-class upon returning to the surface.

One possible negative aspect of Pirate Borg is the limited number of Class features that a Player Character can have. A Player Character gains one per Level, so typically by Fifth or Sixth Levels, there are no more abilities to choose from. ‘d66 Skills for the Seasoned Sea Rover’ remedies that with a list of alternative skills that a player can select from instead of taking a Class feature, and not once, but twice for each skill. For example, with ‘Gunsmith’, a Player Character can repair black powder weapons, lower their chances of misfires, and improve their accuracy and damage inflicted, and if taken a second time, improve their accuracy and damage inflicted again. With ‘ASH Apothecary’, a Player Character can cook ASH down to a potent crystallised form that when consumed has a greater effect, but also sells for triple the price, and if taken again, these effects are doubled! From ‘Deadshot’, ‘Barrelman’s Eyes’, and ‘Font of Chaos’ to ‘Salvage Diver’, ‘Agile Amputee’, and ‘Siren’s Tongue’, this is an entertaining selection and there are a lot here that a player will want to choose from rather than one of his character’s Class Feature. There is the option to roll randomly, but the Game Master could also use these skills as rewards during play or simply allow Player Characters to have both these skills and their Class Features to make them more capable and heroic.

The ‘Motivations During the Apocalypse’ can be used for both the Player Characters or NPCs, whilst ‘House Rules’ gives options for the Game Master in terms of design notes, examples, and tips. These range from rerolling initiative each day and adding Armour Class to the game when one Player Character fights another (instead of rolling to defend) to having damage dice explode and playing Pirate Borg in either Nightmare or Heroic modes! Many of these address issues that a Game Master might have with the roleplaying game and some of them push Pirate Borg away from the Mörk Borg model and closer to a Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying game. All though are options that enable a group to play the roleplaying game in the style it prefers. The other general support for Pirate Borg includes four sets of tables for generating elements of the Dark Caribbean setting, including a ‘Jolly Roger Flag Generator’, ‘Dark Caribbean Island Generator’, ‘Coral Reef Generator’, and ‘Coin Generator’. ‘Dark Caribbean Island Generator’ and ‘Coral Reef Generator’ both come with examples, but all four are useful adding further details to the Game Master’s Dark Caribbean campaign.

The first of the four scenarios in Down Among the Dead is ‘Anchor Drop Falls’. It is a short, two-page location detailing a set of caves behind a five hundred foot high waterfall where pirates and/or conquistadors are said to have buried their treasure, Deep Ones have made a home, and then been driven out by a hungry, giant crab. It is a plain and simple affair, with the location descriptions placed around the map, that is very easy to run from the page and just as easy to slot into a campaign. ‘Anchor Drop Falls’ can be played in a single session, whereas the other three scenarios are much longer and much more detailed.

‘Lost to the Locker’ is a seabed, sandcrawl in which the Player Characters awaken to find themselves dead in a purgatory of small islands and shipwrecks, and will very likely do so again should they die again. The aim is for the Player Characters to escape back to the realms of the living, requiring a vessel and an exit, as well as several coins called ‘Obols’. Finding all of these forms the focus of the scenario. Once they freed themselves from the floating rocks they have been chained to, the Player Characters will be ferried by Charon to the liminal space of ‘The Locker’. Overseen by Lady Oblivion—ethereal, watery Egyptian priestess or Reef Ghoul?—this region consists of just eight locations, including the pirate-town-like Port Oblivion with its wrecks and boulders home to Lost Souls like the Player Characters; the Pellucid Palace of volcanic glass where Lady Oblivion holds court; and the Inverted Galleon, capsized and chained to the seabed. Every location details vessels that might be repaired or stolen, how Obols might be gained, as well as numerous NPCs, random encounters, and more. There is a lot of detail to this concentrated sandbox and a lot of elements that the Game Master can bring into play. It is fantastically liminal place with plenty for the players and their characters to do and plenty of random elements that Game Master can use to enhance the undersea unreality. ‘Lost to the Locker’ can be used as written, following a ‘Total Party Kill’, but it could also be used as a non-standard campaign starter.

The second scenario veers towards the fantasy horror of Robert E. Howard, rather than the Lovecraftian horror of ‘The Deep One’ Class, with its use of Serpent Men as the villains of the piece. ‘Venom in the Veins’ details an ancient shrine to the Slithering One, rumoured to be the last known location of a missing conquistador, to hold ancient knowledge, to be target of French spies and revolutionaries, to be source of a deadly venom, and so on. Overseen by a once-human shaman corrupted by necromancy and his undead serpentfolk guardians, this is snake-infested, trap ridden, but nicely detailed dungeon that requires some set-up to get the Player Characters to explore its depths. There is plenty of treasure to be found and no little forbidden knowledge, but lingering over that has its own consequences. Particular attention is paid to the traps and puzzles, which makes running it easier. ‘Venom in the Veins’ would be a perfect adventure for the Antiquarian Class given at the start of the supplement.

‘Into The Maelstrom’, the third scenario in the supplement requires more experienced Player Characters and takes a classic Gothic set-up and gives it a piratical, nautical twist. Instead of a haunted house, the setting is a haunted galleon, The Maelstrom, a galleon with blood-red sails of flesh that is home to  Albrecht the Tideborn, a Deep One vampire, and his vampiric crew. The Player Characters are hired to sneak aboard and rescue an important VIP that Albrecht the Tideborn is holding prisoner and also to slaughter as many of the vampires as they can. However, that is not the only reason the Player Characters to want to board The Maelstrom. They will each have their reasons. All of this is set up ahead of time, using a deck of ordinary playing cards and the rules for ‘Three-Eyed Parrot’, a game provided prior to the scenario. This includes the identity and location of the VIP being held prisoner, the identity of the Player Characters’ Patron, the location of a powerful ritual, the location of an artefact, and so on. The cards are then divided into their suits and then used as decks to determine random prisoners, mundane items, treasure, and encounters. The scenario is played against the clock and there is a strong chance that prisoners will be sacrificed before the Player Characters rescue them—the scenario even suggests that the Game Master tear up the card for a particular NPC if the Player Characters fail to save him!

The main feature of the scenario is The Maelstrom, but also detailed are ‘The Dead islands’, the former Virgin Islands in the Lesser Antilles, infested by ASH addicts, cannibalistic pirates, and the undead, its coats marked by numerous derelict ships and wrecks waiting to be picked over. Several locations are detailed on the island, including Charlotte’s Cove, the main settlement now overrun with vampires, the swamp encroached Ruins of Whitby Abbey, Sanctum of the Feathered Tree—home to an orangutan sorcerer, and other locations. This gives the setting longevity beyond the scenario itself, and there are notes too, if the Game Master wants to run it as a one-shot, short campaign, or a long campaign, and even includes tournament mode and scoring! As such, ‘Into The Maelstrom’ is a tool kit that the Game Master needs to adjust fit her players and for full effect is best run over multiple sessions. This brings all of the brine and rot of the sea to the Gothic and the doomed romance and horror of the Gothic to the Dark Caribbean. When their characters  have enough experience to play it through, ‘Into The Maelstrom’ should be a grand, memorable scenario for the players.

Physically, Down Among the Dead is very well laid out, and the artwork and cartography are excellent. Everything is very easy to use.

Down Among the Dead has everything a Pirate Borg Game Master would want. Three good scenarios, two of which have really memorable locations, content that the Game Master will still come back to, and options that the Game Master and her players can pick and chose from to make Pirate Borg theirs.

Solitaire: Be Like a Cat

There is a world out there for every cat to explore—gardens to laze in, rooftops to laze on, trees to climb, sheds to investigate, fences to scamper along, other cats to scowl and yowl at, humans to run away from and humans to properly socialise, and all in territories to mark and make that cat’s own. Be Like A Cat: a solo/two-player roleplaying game offers the opportunity for a player to explore that world from cat’s own eye level and tell the story of that exploration in a journal. By default, that story will be one set across the urban world that we are all familiar with, but options included in Be Like A Cat can take the player and his cat into other genres, including a dystopian future, ancient Egypt, the far future aboard a space station, and  even aboard a pirate ship! If this sounds familiar, then it is because it follows the format of Be Like a Crow: A Solo RPG, in which the player takes the role and tells the story of a Corvidae—crow, magpie, jackdaw, or rook—over multiple landscapes and differing genres. Indeed, Be Like A Cat is by the same author and from the same publisher, Critical Kit Ltd. Where Be Like a Crow requires a deck of ordinary playing cards to play, Be Like A Cat requires a handful of dice.

Be Like A Cat: a solo/two-player roleplaying game casts the player as either a Feral, Stray, or Domestic Kitten. The Kitten will explore a world mapped out on a Territory Tracker, adding rivers, parks, houses, trees, shops, businesses, restaurants, churches, street markets, and more, encountering all manner of creatures, including other cats, dogs, pigeons, rats, humans—old and young, and goats and llamas! Some of these encounters will be resolved with a fight, but not all of them, and as the Kitten moves from one type of territory to another, it can mark it as their own, hopefully permanently. As a Kitten explores, it will age, first into a Young Adult, and into a Mature Adult and a Senior. It will improve many of its skills when it does so at these stages of its life. The play of the game continues until a scenario’s goals have been fulfilled, all of the Territory Tracker for a scenario has been mapped out, the Kitten has reached the age of a Senior, or when it has run out of Lives.

A Kitten—and thus a cat of any age—is defined by sixteen skills, grouped into four categories. The skills are rated between one and six. The Kitten will have a Background— Feral, Stray, or Domestic—which will determine its appearance, behaviour, starting location, and bonus and weakness. For example, a Feral Kitten takes good care of itself; is unsociable and prefers to retreat or aggression; has a starting location of woodlands, countryside, a farm, or park; as a Bonus, rolls Prowl and Hunt skill checks with courage; and as a Weakness, rolls Cute and Signal skill checks with timidity. Of course, a Kitten has nine lives, each of which is lost when a Kitten loses all of his Health.

Hercule
Lifecycle Stage: Kitten
Background: Domestic
Starting Location: Back Garden
Bonus: All Social skill checks
Weakness: Balance and Jump skill checks
Health: 5
Lives: Nine
SKILLS
Survival: Prowl 1, Hunt 1, Mark 3, Preen 1
Social: Cute 3, Scare 1, Play 2, Signal 2
Travel: Jump 1, Climb 3, Balance 1, Land 1
Combat: Claw 1, Bite 1, Pounce 1, Evade 1

Mechanically, Be Like A Cat is a dice pool system. When a player wants his Kitten to undertake an action, he rolls the dice for the appropriate skill. Results of four and five count as one Success, whilst six counts as two. Rolls of one count as minuses and reduce the number of Successes rolled and if the total number Successes is negative, the Kitten loses Health. One or two Successes counts as a successful action, whilst three or more Successes is an outstanding outcome and the next roll is made with Courage. If the roll is made with Courage, a player can reroll any die that did result in a one, whilst rolls with Timidity means that results of four do not count.

Combat use the Claw, Bite, Pounce, and Evade skills. Claw and Bite are used to attack and inflict damage, whilst Evade is used to avoid attacks. Pounce is rolled to pin the defender down and if this can be done for three rounds, the defender will yield and if the defender holds territory, it also gives this up to the attacker. Social encounters are set up using the reaction table and the encounter verbs in the ‘Urban Cat’ scenario. In addition, a Young Adult and Mature Adult suffer a ‘FRAP’ or ‘Frenetic Random Activity Period’ or a ‘zoomie’. It occurs when two sixes are rolled for any action, and then the Cat rushes off in random direction.

The structure of Be Like A Cat consists of four phases. These are to move or stay, check for and resolve any encounters and any events, and then potentially take control of the location. The roleplaying game includes a cheat sheet and each scenario includes tables for locations, encounters, ‘Yes, and…’, and genre appropriate tables. The ‘Yes, and…’ table gives events that help the player add depth and detail. The genre scenarios also add objectives. For example, for ‘Brave Mew World’, the Kitten is uploaded to a corporate mainframe and sent to locate and copy eight databases, equipped with augmentations that can be salvaged from opponents the Kitten defeats, whilst the Kitten is searching for scrolls under the temple of Rameses II in ‘The Book of Bastet’, from which it can gain Boons, ultimately leading to a showdown with Bastet’s sworn enemy.

In addition, Be Like A Cat includes options for two players instead of one. These include taking it turns to control the actions of the Kitten; competitively, with each player controlling a different Kitten; and finally with a Game Master. The competitive option shifts Be Like A Cat towards being more like a board game, with the players competing for territory, whilst the option with the Game Master makes Be Like A Cat more of a traditional roleplaying game.

Physically, Be Like A Cat: a solo/two-player roleplaying game is a clean little book with some decent artwork. It is an easy read.

Be Like A Cat: a solo/two-player roleplaying game enables a player to explore the world (and other worlds) from a cat’s eye view. Some worlds are more fantastical than others, but the point of view has its own magic, that of an animal whose life we as owners and passersby we only see parts of. Be Like A Cat: a solo/two-player roleplaying game lets us imagine all of that world and in some cases, more. Be Like A Cat: a solo/two-player roleplaying game is perfect for the cat lover who roleplays and for the cat lover who wants to try something a little different.

Friday Fantasy: Eye of the Serpent

Eye of the Serpent is a scenario for Shadow of the Weird Wizard, the roleplaying game set on the world of Erth in the Borderlands between the remnants of once great empires and the realm of the Weird Wizard greatly changed by his magics. The unexplained disappearance of the Weird Wizard allowed all manner of creatures and strangeness to flood into the empires and kingdoms causing strife and civil war, as refugees fled into the borderlands and adventurers ventured into the Weird Wizard’s lands into explore its strangeness, hopefully stop any dangerous threats, and perhaps return with treasures both magical and mundane. Player Characters progress from Level One to Level Ten, their progress divided between three Paths—Novice, Expert, and Master, gaining greater ability, skill, and specialisation. A Novice Path begins at Level One, an Expert path at Level Three, and a Master Path at Level Seven. Adventures for Shadow of the Weird Wizard are tailored to these three Paths. Eye of the Serpent is designed for Expert Heroes and can be run as a scenario for slightly more experienced Player Characters for Shadow of the Weird Wizard. It confronts the players and their Heroes with one of the big changes in Shadow of the Weird Wizard in comparison with traditional fantasy roleplaying games.

Eye of the Serpent shifts the action of the previous two scenarios—One Bad Apple and Friends in Need—from a rural location to an urban one. The Sage can set the scenario in the city of her choosing, but the city of Westport is suggested as being suitable. Of late, the members of minor and formerly benign cult, the Followers of the Silver Road, have been making a nuisance of themselves, including engaging in odd pleasures, buying up rare and expensive crystals, recruiting the young, wealthy, and influential, and daubing their mark all over the city. Whether because of the lure of treasure that the city’s temple must surely hold, to rescue a recent recruit at the behest of his family, or a local constable wants to know what is inside, but lacks the authority, the Player Characters are hired to break into the temple. The Player Characters are free to investigate the cult and ask questions about it round the city and even visit the temple during the day.

The action, then, will take place at night. The Player Characters will have to sneak in at some point and explore the grounds of the temple and its buildings. These are far from extensive and similarly, neither are the warrens beneath temple. The cultists are not a danger to the Player Characters, except in numbers, whereas the cult leaders are definitely a danger. As with other scenarios for Shadow of the Weird Wizard, the Sage will need to supply the stats from the core books. Once the Player Characters have found the entrance to warrens and climbed down, it will quickly become obvious what type of threat they face. They do represent quite a challenge to the Player Characters as they are likely to encounter quite a few of them in the warrens and a stand up fight is likely. There are some magical traps too, but the Player Characters will be decently rewarded if successful.

With multiple possible motivations, the ending of Eye of the Serpent can play out in different ways. The Player Characters might find themselves being hunted as thieves for breaking into the temple and stealing valuables; praised for rescuing a child; or hunted by the cultists still alive. The scenario includes a few notes which cover these possibilities, though the Sage will need to develop some of these possible plot threads.

Physically, Eye of the Serpent is decently presented. The map of the temple in particular is done in vibrant colours and with the pagoda at its heart, it has a slightly exotic feel that shifts to unworldly once the Player Characters enter the warren below.

Eye of the Serpent is short and sharp and direct. It can be prepared with ease and run within a single session. Its handful of motivations give different ways of involving the Player Characters whilst the possible different consequences, which do need to be worked into a campaign, are a surprising consideration. Otherwise, solidly serviceable.

Rolling for Ravenloft

Dice. Dice are so integral to the roleplaying game hobby that everyone has their own set. Probably more than one set. Whether they are the very first set that the roleplayer had when he started playing, the set that he pulls out from the many in his dice bag or his All Rolled Up, or a set that is specific to the roleplaying game he is currently playing—either because the roleplaying game in question requires its own special dice set or the dice are aesthetically designed to match the game—dice are a fundamental part of a roleplayer’s kit. Some roleplayers have traditions about their dice. They pick a dice set for each game, they do not like other players touching or rolling their dice, they will punish dice that roll badly by placing them in a ‘dice gaol’, they dump a set entirely because of the bad rolls, and they collect dice. They will peruse dice sellers looking for the perfect set or the most pleasing set, but that is not the only way in which roleplayers collect dice sets. They buy dice in blind packs, each containing a complete dice set, but which the roleplayer has no idea what the set will look like. This is much like a traditional trading card game with its booster packs. The difference is that instead of opening booster packs in search of better cards to enhance and improve the game play of the trading card game, dice blind packs are opened in search of finding prettier, rarer dice sets and in the hope that all of the sets can be collected. This is how the Castle Ravenloft Treasure Dice Packs work.

Castle Ravenloft Treasure Dice Packs are official, licensed Dungeons & Dragons dice, manufactured by Sirius Dice, and themed around the Ravenloft campaign setting inspired by Gothic horror and its supernatural monsters—vampires, werewolves, mummies, and more, but most obviously by Count von Zarovich, the Darklord of Barovia, who originally appeared in I6 Ravenloft. So, what do you get in a Castle Ravenloft Treasure Dice Pack? Rip open the pack and inside you will find an embroidered dice bag containing a full polyhedral dice set and a collectible metal ability coin. The complete set consists of fifty-five unique dice sets, thirty-one ability coins, and seven dice bags. The latter come in seven, different designs that in turn depict the famous Dungeons & Dragons ampersand, a raven on a skull, the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind (sacred to the Good-aligned Barovians), bats flying against the backdrop of the Moon, and more. Each is roughly four-by-three-and-a-half inches and done in soft material, with a strong draw tie that has Dungeons & Dragons embroidered on it and enough room to comfortably hold the ability coin and the dice set. The dice bags are not big, but will hold two dice sets. The ability coins are double-sided and depict a variety of images. They can also be round, square, or octagonal; bronze, gold, or silver. So, one might depict a ‘Werewolf’ on one side and the werewolf undergoing the ‘Shapeshift’ on the other side; a young or an aged Rudolph Von Richten on one side and ‘Monster Hunter’ with a stake on the other; ‘Dragon Flight’ and a Dragonborn on one side and the Dungeons & Dragons ampersand on the other; and others. The rarest is a replica of the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind and a colour coin depicting Count von Zarovich himself. The coins themselves grant no in game bonus, but they can be used to indicate whether a Player Character has Inspiration, is suffering a particular condition, has activated an ability, and so on.

The dice vary in look and feel, but are all standard polyhedral dice with an extra ten-sided die to use as the ‘tens’ die for percentile rolls. Some of the sets are standard sets in solid colours or clear gem style, whilst others moulded as if made from stone or brickwork. The latter style is not inked, so although they have a different tactile feel to them, they are not as easy to read. The rarity of the dice runs from common and uncommon through rare to super rare and legendary. The rarer dice have their top values marked with a symbol and there is also the legendary Ravenloft metal dice set. The Castle Ravenloft Treasure Dice Packs do not include any indication as to the rarity of the contents and complete range.

The Castle Ravenloft Treasure Dice Packs are nice. The embroidered dice bags are fetching and well made, the ability coins solid as you would expect, and the dice ranging from good to decent. Not all of the dice are as easy to read as they could be, but they all roll well, and it will come down to whether or not the look and feel of the dice is something that you find attractive. Ultimately, it is a matter of taste.

It is also a matter of age. Whilst many gamers and roleplayers of a certain age will be familiar with the pulling of cards from booster packs for trading card games like Magic: The Gathering, they will be less familiar with blind dice packs. They are more used to buying their dice—when they need to—off the shelf. In fact, the idea of blind dice packs, feels weird. Yet not to younger players, so there is a market for the blind dice pack, such as the Castle Ravenloft Treasure Dice Packs. As an older gamer, it is easy to dismiss these as for the youth, but given that as a roleplayer you are always imagining yourself being someone else, it is not difficult to imagine the roles reversed. As seeing the dice packs as perfectly normal and the attitude of older gamers being small-minded. Further, it feels appropriate for a dice and accessory range inspired by a Gothic horror setting for Dungeons & Dragons to have a sense of mystery and the unknown like the one imparted by the blind nature of these dice packs. Opening Castle Ravenloft Treasure Dice Packs is actually more fun than you might think and you might get lucky.

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A video of opening Castle Ravenloft Treasure Dice Packs can be found here.

Miskatonic Monday #436: The Limehouse Piper

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

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Name: The Limehouse Piper

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: James Killick

Setting: London, 1893

Product: Scenario for Cthulhu by Gaslight

What You Get: Thirty page, 4.98 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Murder stalks the streets of Whitechapel... Is this the return of Jack the Ripper

Plot Hook: Murder!!!
Plot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, seven NPCs, eleven handouts, four floor plans and maps, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Prequel to Tournament of Shadows

# Scenario for Cthulhu by Gaslight that plays off Jack the Ripper, but does not use or explain Jack the Ripper

# Nicely done pre-generated Investigators
# High production values

# Works as one-shot too

# Phasmophobia

# Phonophobia

# Homichlophobia

Cons

# Backgrounds to the pre-generated Investigators underwritten

# Needs an edit in places
# Does not explain its connection to Tournament of Shadows

Conclusion

# Solid murder investigation on the streets of fog-bound London

# Works as one-shot or a prequel

Miskatonic Monday #435: Terror on Texas 4

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

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Name: Terror on Texas 4

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Autumn Unwin

Setting: Atlantic, 1961

Product: One-shot

What You Get: Thirteen page, 2.05 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Grace Under Pressure because Grace under Pressure is out of print.

Plot Hook: An engineering survey reveals the reason why the deep sea tower went done...
Plot Support: Staging advice, no pre-generated Investigators, two NPCs, one handouts, one deck plan, and three Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Serviceable

Pros

# Interesting real world location

# Set on the eve of a real world disaster
# Strong sense of isolation

# Man versus the elements shifts to man versus the deep

# Thalassophobia

# Batrachophobia

# Teraphobia

Cons

# Needs a slight edit

# No pre-generated Investigators

Conclusion

# Not entirely original, but the location and the staging is

# Engaging period piece let down by lack of pre-generated Investigators

Your SHIVER Blockbuster Starter

A good starter set has to do a number of different things. It has to introduce and explain the roleplaying game it is a starter set for, whether that is the roleplaying game’s setting, mechanics, or both. It has to both tell and show what the players and their characters are expected to do in the setting and how they do it, first with the rules and then with a scenario. It has to provide everything that a group needs to play—rules, scenario, pre-generated Player Characters, and dice—and ideally more. Maps, handouts, tokens, and the like are all items that will help bring the world of the roleplaying game’s setting to life and give the players something to look at and interact with. Above all, a good starter should showcase the roleplaying game and entice both Game Master and her players to want to roleplay more with the rules and in that setting by picking up the core rulebook, and if the contents of the start set support continued play, whether that is providing an extra set of dice or maps for the setting, then all the better.

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“Welcome to Hollow World!” With this announcement, tech billionaire Linus Crick welcomes some of the world’s leading archaeologists and adventurers, park rangers and hunters, scientists and security experts, influencers and superfans, rebels, saboteurs, and green protestors to his greatest creation yet, a wonder of the age that showcases the wonders of the past! A theme park like no other. A theme park with dinosaurs. Real, living dinosaurs recreated through the wonders of genetic engineering. All the white-suit wearing entrepreneur his with perfectly coiffured hair and his shiny sunglasses, wants is to be endorsed and his venture to be a success. Or does he? Is setting up a dinosaur safari park beneath the Antarctic Longhorn Island enough for Crick? Will grizzled archaeologist Madison Stone, park ranger Obasi Mbacke, palaeontologist Doctor Hana Ueno, new wave scientist Malcolm Goldstein, eco-warrior Petal Moon, neanderthal clone Ug Ug, and dinosaur superfan Billy Wazowski discover if Crick is all he says he is or if he has ulterior motives? Will they survive long enough deep below the Antarctic when disaster strikes, everything goes wrong, and raptors attack to exit through the gift shop to safety?

This is the set-up for ‘Welcome to Hollow World’, the scenario in the SHIVER Blockbuster Starter Set, one of two themed starter sets published by Parable Games for SHIVER – Role-playing Tales in the Strange & the Unknown. The other is the SHIVER Slasher Starter Set. More specifically, the SHIVER Blockbuster Starter Set ties in with the campaign supplement, SHIVER Blockbuster: Legends of the Silver Scream, in which the Player Characters are actors working for a small film studio in Hollywood, trying to make some blockbusters, get notice, and prove how good—or bad—they are and make Hollywood sit up and take notice! Effectively, in SHIVER Blockbuster: Legends of the Silver Scream, each player is roleplaying an actor who is playing a role in five different films, so five times—and slightly more—the roleplaying as in any other campaign or roleplaying game, unless they always play the same role and play it to the camera. Then, the best thing of all, a roleplaying game like Shiver – Role-playing Tales in the Strange & the Unknown and thus SHIVER Blockbuster: Legends of the Silver Scream, has got a budget bigger than any Hollywood studio. So, it can make any film and it will never blow the budget!

That budget though, does not get any bigger than ‘Welcome to Hollow World’. For make no mistake, ‘Welcome to Hollow World’ is a remake (or pastiche) of a 1993 film with a budget of $63 and a box office of a billion dollars! It should be no surprise to anyone reading this review that the film in question is Jurassic Park. There are a lot of plot similarities. A remote island, a genial billionaire, a sick stegosaurus to be found and cured, being chased by velociraptors, and a showdown in the visitor centre. Plus many of the pre-generated Player Characters are similar to the characters in the film. Some are not though, and further, there are plenty of scenes in the scenario along with a plot thread about the nefarious Crick (a nod to the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA), for ‘Welcome to Hollow World’ to not feel like they just recreating Jurassic Park. The scenario maintains a pleasing balance between the familiar and the unfamiliar so the players and their characters can knowingly play along with the pastiche in some scenes and then improvise as they normally would in other roleplaying scenarios.

The structure of the scenarios includes some well handled introduction scenes for each Player Character so that we get to see them in action before the plot gets rolling. Much like the film its takes its inspiration from, the early part of the scenario is on rails as they take a guided tour round the park. After that though, the players and their characters have more freedom.

The SHIVER Blockbuster Starter Set contains two books, the ‘SHIVER Starter Rulebook’ and the ‘Welcome to Hollow World’ scenario book, a set of seven pre-generated Player Characters, and a complete set of SHIVER dice. The ‘SHIVER Starter Rulebook’ is a concise version of SHIVER – Role-playing Tales in the Strange & the Unknown rulebook and contains all of the rules necessary to run and play ‘Welcome to Hollow World’. Player Characters in SHIVER can advance up to Tier Ten, but the ‘SHIVER Starter Rulebook’ only goes up as far as Tier Five. The SHIVER dice are of course, required to play, and one advantage of the SHIVER Blockbuster Starter Set is that once the scenario has been played through, the gaming group has another set of dice to continue playing the roleplaying game.

The seven pre-generated Player Characters in the SHIVER Blockbuster Starter Set match the roleplaying game’s seven Archetypes—the Warrior, the Maverick, the Scholar, the Socialite, the Fool, the Weird, and the Survivor—and each emphasises one of the six Core Skills and gives access to several Tiers of Abilities. The six Core Skills—effectively both skills and attributes—are Grit, Wit, Smarts, Heart, Luck, and Strange. Grit represents a character’s physical capabilities; Wit covers physical dexterity; Smarts is his intellect and capability with investigation and technology; Heart is his charisma and charm; Luck is his good fortune and the random of the universe; and Strange is his capacity for using magic, psychic powers, and so on. A Player Character also has a Luck Bank for storing Luck—one for all Archetypes, except for the Fool, who has space for three; a current Fear status—either Stable, Afraid, or Terrified; and a Lifeline—Weakened, Limping, Trauma, and Dead—which is the same for all Archetypes.

Mechanically, SHIVER uses a dice pool system of six-sided dice, their faces marked with the symbols for the roleplaying game’s six Core Skills—Grit, Wit, Smarts, Heart, Luck, and Strange. To these are added Talent dice, eight-sided dice marked with Luck and Strange symbols. When a player wants his character to undertake an action, he assembles a dice pool based on the action and its associated Core Skill plus Talent dice if the character has in that Core Skill. Further dice can be added or deducted depending on whether the Player Character has Advantage or Disadvantage, an Ability which applies, or the player wants to spend his character’s Luck, and on the character’s Fear status. The aim is to roll a number of symbols or successes in the appropriate Core Skill, the Challenge Rating ranging from one and Easy to five and Near Impossible. If the player rolls enough, then his character succeeds; if he rolls two Successes more than the Challenge Rating, it is a Critical Hit; and if a player rolls three or more dice and every symbol is a success, this is Full House. In combat, a Critical Hit doubles damage and a Full House triples it, but out of combat the Director can suggest other outcomes for both. If Luck symbols are rolled, one can be saved in the Player Character’s Luck Bank for later use, but if two are rolled, they can be exchanged for a single success on the current skill roll, or they can be used to turn the Doom Clock back by one minute.

A failed roll does not necessarily mean that the Player Character fails as he can use other means to succeed at the task if he rolls enough successes in another Core Skill for that task, though this requires some narrative explanation. However, a failed roll has consequences beyond simply not succeeding—each Strange symbol rolled pushes the Doom Clock up by a minute…

Combat uses the same mechanic with monsters and enemies—and the Player Characters when they are attacked—using the same Challenge Rating as skill tests. It is Turn-based, with the Director deciding whether each Player Character is acting First, in the Middle, or Last, depending upon their situation and what they want to do. Players are encouraged to be organised and know what their characters are capable of, the surroundings for the battle, and so on, in order to get the best out of their characters. With every Player Character possessing the same Lifeline (the equivalent of sixteen Health Points), combat can be simply nasty or nasty and deadly, depending upon the mode. Death is a strong possibility, no matter what the mode, and depending on the scenario, death need not be the end though. A Player Character could become a ghost and continue to provide help from the afterlife or even become an antagonist!

Fear in SHIVER uses the same Challenge Rating system and mechanics. A Fear Check is made with a Player Character’s Strange Dice, and if the player fails the check, the character becomes Afraid, and if Afraid, becomes Terrified. If Afraid, a Player Character loses one die from all Core Skills, and two if Terrified. This is temporary, and a Player Character can get rid of the effects of Fear by escaping or vanquishing the threat, steadying himself (this requires another Fear Check), or another Player Character uses an Ability to help him.

Narratively, SHIVER is played out against a Doom Clock. This is set at eleven o’clock at night and counts up minute by minute to Midnight and the Player Characters’ inevitable Doooommm! However, at ‘Quarter Past’, ‘Half Past’, ‘Quarter To’, and ‘Midnight’ certain events will happen, these being defined in the scenario or written in by the Director. Every scenario for SHIVER includes its own Doom Clock events. In general, the Doom Clock will tick up due to the actions of the Player Characters, whether that is because of a failed skill check with Strange symbols, a failed Fear Check, abilities for the Weird Archetype, Background Flaws, or simply interacting with the wrong things in game. What this means is that dice rolls become even more uncertain, their outcome having more of a negative effect potentially than just failures, but this is all in keeping with the genre. However, just as the Doom Clock can tick up to ‘Midnight’ through the Player Characters’ actions. It can also be turned back due to their actions. Rolling two Luck on skill checks, reaching Story Milestones, finding clues and important items, and certain Abilities can all turn the Doom Clock back.

‘Welcome to Hollow World’ is the scenario in the SHIVER Blockbuster Starter Set. As mentioned above, it casts the Player Characters as the cast of a dinosaur disaster blockbuster. There is a good explanation of its set-up and advice on how to run the scenario. There is a list of the Doom Clock events for the scenario as well as a compendium giving the details of all of the items, NPCs, and monsters to be found in the scenario. The main mechanical addition is the inclusion of the Starring Role mechanic from SHIVER Blockbuster: Legends of the Silver Scream. This can be ‘The Leading Hero’, ‘The Stunt Performer’, ‘The Thespian’, ‘The Heartthrob’, ‘The Love Interest’, ‘The Comic Relief’, ‘The Method’, and more. Each Starring Role has a Star Power and Audience Expectation. The Star Power is a unique ability that the Actor can perform once per quarter of the Doom Clock, whilst the Audience Expectation is something that if done on screen will gain the Actor the favour of both the audience and the Director, and so boost his career. So, for ‘The Love Interest’, the Star Power is a ‘A Healing Heart’ that enables the Actor to make a Heart Check and regain Hit Points if they perform a romantic scene, whilst the Audience Expectation ‘Break Heart/Bow Minds’ in which the Actor wants the audience’s favour to fall in love with them and so will make romantic confessions, and have moments of passion or tear-jerking moments to get the audience to love them.

Depending upon how well an Actor performed, he or she can receive an Accolade or a Review. Both are awarded by the Director. Engage in both Star Power and Audience Expectation and an Actor will earn an Accolade, but if not, he or she may be in line for a Bad Review. Accolades include the ‘Performance Award’, ‘Hall of Fame’, ‘Rabid Fanbase’, ‘Top Billing’, and so on, whilst Bad Reviews include ‘Hamming It Up’, ‘Worst Actor Ever’, and ‘Boring Performance’. Accolades provide a minor benefit, whilst Bad Reviews act as minor disadvantage. For example, ‘Performance Award’ gives the Actor a piece of armour to use in the next film, but once used, it is gone, whilst ‘Looking Fit’ grants Advantage on acts of athleticism. The Bad Review, ‘Diva Reputation’ means that if the Actor fails a Check that would advance the Doom Clock, if they also fail a Strange Check, they suffer Soul damage.

Physically, the SHIVER Blockbuster Starter Set is a good-looking box. The inclusion of the roleplaying game’s tables on the inside lid of the cover means that the Director has an easy rules reference and screen, whilst the dice do sit in their own niche in the bottom of the box. The books themselves are well-presented with excellent artwork done in a style similar to that of Mike Mignola and his Hellboy comic. The writing is clear, but could have done with an edit in places.

The SHIVER Blockbuster Starter Set is a solid introduction to SHIVER – Role-playing Tales in the Strange & the Unknown, whether or not the Director wants to run the SHIVER Blockbuster: Legends of the Silver Scream campaign. If not, it can be run as one shot scenario, but is probably a bit too long to be run in a single session. It is more more likely to last two sessions at least. The scenario, ‘Welcome to Hollow World’, is really entertaining and the will have a lot of fun playing it.

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Parable Games will be at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, 29th to Sunday 31st of May.