Mystery & Monsters?

One of the great things with the Dragonbane: Mirth & Mayhem Roleplaying – Core Box from Free League Publishing is that it comes with everything necessary to play. The means to create Player Characters, the rules, a solo adventure, pre-generated Player Characters, a setting in peril in the form of the Misty Vale, and a complete hexcrawl campaign set within the Misty Vale. A reimagining of Sweden’s first fantasy roleplaying game, Drakar och Demoner, originally published in 1982, Dragonbane combined modern rules and mechanics with an Old School Renaissance sensibility. Plus, with the ‘The Secret of the Dragon Emperor’ campaign, it offers multiple sessions’ worth of play. However, beyond the box, the options for Dragonbane are a little more limited. There is the Dragonbane: Mirth & Mayhem Roleplaying – Rulebook and a new campaign, Path of Glory, an update of the original campaign for Drakar och Demoner. One definite issue with Dragonbane: Mirth & Mayhem Roleplaying – Core Box and the Dragonbane: Mirth & Mayhem Roleplaying – Rulebook is the limited options in terms of monsters. Certainly, enough for the ‘The Secret of the Dragon Emperor’ campaign, but not necessarily enough for long term play.

The Dragonbane Bestiary introduces some sixty-three new monsters for the roleplaying game. Not just monsters, but creatures and beasts and undead and dragons and demons, and more. Every entry includes a description, some stats, and an illustration just like a bestiary for any other roleplaying game, but the Dragonbane Bestiary does more than that. In addition, every entry includes a random encounter that the Game Master can run as and when as well as an adventure seed that the Game Master can develop into something longer than the simple random encounter. Yet that is not all, because unlike any other bestiary for any other roleplaying game, the Dragonbane Bestiary includes content that can be used by the players as well as the Game Master. Plus, it is superbly illustrated by David Brasgalla giving the creatures and beings it depicts a Scandinavian sensibility to all of the entries.

Although the world beyond the Misty Vale is not all that developed, there is some world building written into the Dragonbane Bestiary. This is because it is written as the journal entries of the Halfling adventurer and researcher, Theodora Sneezewort, who often has derisory opinions of her fellow scholars. She provides the commentary on each and every monster, often as the counterpoint to a more parochial point of view about the entries. The latter is given as a quote, whilst she provides the bulk of the entry description. This is followed by the monster stats and the options that add variety to combat in Dragonbane.

The sixty-three entries are catalogued into nine categories—Nightkin, Rare Kin, Insectoids, Trolls, Giants, Beasts, Undead, Dragons, and Demons—by Theodora Sneezewort and in each case, she explains why. For example, she notes that the Nightkin, those kin that are uncomfortable in the sun, are often regarded as being under the thrall of darkness and evil, and history is rife with stories of the battles between Elves and Orcs, Humans and Goblins. That they have a short temper and an often deserved reputation for burning and pillaging the lands of others, but she offers hints that Orcs can be scholarly, that Nightkin can want peace, and their heroes fought oppression, and wights and ghosts, all to better their future. Thus, what we get here is two sides to the argument about a broad category of so-called monsters, in this case dominated by negatives as much perceived wisdom, but hinting too that there might be more to the individual kin. Similarly, the Rarekin live on the margins and are often regarded as legends and if not legends, as fairies responsible for child abductions, but Theodora Sneezewort condemns such views, saying that they are far from the truth.

What the Dragonbane Bestiary does for the player is offer further choice in terms of Kin beyond those—Human, Halfling, Dwarf, Elf, Mallard, and Wolfkin—detailed in the Dragonbane: Mirth & Mayhem Roleplaying – Core Box. The new Kin are Orc, Ogre, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Frog People, Karkion, Cat People, Lizard People, and Satyr. They are treated in two ways in the supplement. First, they are listed as ‘Non-Monsters’ meaning that they are treated as NPCs and handled as Player Characters rather than as traditional monsters. Second, they can be selected as the Kin for Player Characters if everyone at the table agrees. Each has their own Ability. For example, the Goblin has ‘Resilient’ which gives them a Boon to resist poison and disease and enables them to make camp without a Bushcraft skill roll; Ogres have a ‘Slam’ attack rolled with a Boon that inflicts damage, cannot be parried, and normal size targets are knocked prone; and Cat People have ‘Nine Lives’ which grants a Boon on Death rolls and can reduce falling damage. Perhaps the one that players will pick is the Catkin as their ability is both fitting and given how lethal Dragonbane can be, but all of the abilities are kept simple and add flavour to each Kin.

That said, there is some replication between Dragonbane: Mirth & Mayhem Roleplaying – Core Box and the Dragonbane Bestiary. The Adult Dragon, Ghost, Giant Spider, Goblin, Griffon, Harpy, Manticore, Minotaur, Orc, Skeleton, and Wight are repeated from the Dragonbane: Mirth & Mayhem Roleplaying – Core Box, but in keeping with the rest of the Dragonbane Bestiary, their entries are expanded with the descriptions by Theodora Sneezewort, the random encounters, and the adventure seed. Further, the Goblin and Orc are presented as Kin rather than just threats.

Elsewhere, the Dragonbane Bestiary draws on myth for creatures such as Mermaids, Naiads, Minotaurs, Basilisks, and Chimera. There are tweaks though, such as the Medusa being able to fly and able to pummel foes with her fists as well as the snakes that are her hair that bite and her terrifying gaze which is capable of turning anyone to stone within meters. A few are more clearly drawn from Scandinavian folklore, such as the Brook Horse and the Lindworm. There are also different types of similar monster. So, under Trolls there is the Cave Troll, the Forest Troll, and the Mountain Troll; the Dragon is categorised as the Hatching Dragon, Young Dragon, Adult Dragon, and Ancient Dragon; and the Demon category includes write-ups of the Blood Demon, Chaos Demon, Guardian Demon, and Shadow Demon. The oddest entries in the Dragonbane Bestiary are the Karkion and the Insectoids, with even Theodora Sneezewort noting how odd and alien the latter are. The Karkion is a ‘Non-Monster’ Kin, almost cat-like, but with wings like a bat. They are scholars and mages that hunt for lore about demons, but there is little more to them than that. The Insectoids include the Ant People, Beetle Kin, and Spider Kin. Of these, Ant People will communicate with outsiders and even Beetle Kin can be found employed as bodyguards by the wealthy. The Spider Kin are definitely the most mysterious, spinning strange webs that capture magic rather than prey.

Physically, the Dragonbane Bestiary is superbly presented. The writing is engaging and the artwork is a delight, evoking senses of wonder and fright in equal measure. The Giant Spider bearing down upon the Elf in its web is scary, whilst the Skeleton slamming open a door makes you want to jump.

The Dragonbane Bestiary and Theodora Sneezewort get to the point of these creatures quickly, meaning that they simple to use in play. The random encounters are easier to use than the adventure seeds and that is not just because the Game Master has to develop them. There is not a great deal of information in the write-ups of these creatures and monsters for the Game Master to work with and what there is, tends to be more flavour than definitive fact. On the one hand, this leaves plenty of room for the Game Master to develop more her own details about the creature, on the other, it leaves the Game Master with more to develop than just the adventure seed. Certainly, in comparison to other bestiaries far less attention is paid to the ecologies and life cycles of these creatures. In places this leaves the player adrift, such as with the Karkion, which are different enough that more information is needed.

The Dragonbane Bestiary is a book that the player is going to want for more character options and the Game Master is going to want to develop her Dragonbane campaign beyond the pages of ‘The Secret of the Dragon Emperor’ campaign in the Dragonbane: Mirth & Mayhem Roleplaying – Core Box with new threats and new Kin. As much as the content is useful to that end, it does lean into the mystery of both monster and Kin a little too much, leaving details to be developed by the Game Master. What that means is that whilst the Dragonbane Bestiary is useful and easy in bringing encounters with its entries into play, it is harder to use beyond that in campaign development than it ideally should be. The Dragonbane Bestiary is a very lovely book, but not quite as useful as it should have been.

The Other OSR: Player’s Survival Guide

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—

The Player’s Survival Guide is the core rulebook for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG, detailing as it does the the rules for character creation, Stress and Panic, and combat. The book also comes with a content warning giving that Mothership is a horror game and best suited for mature players. Plus, there is advice on being a great player, waning them that their characters can die, that the game is stacked against them, that they will be faced with difficult choices, that they should pay attention, and finally, to accompany the content warning, to create a safe play environment. Of course, it is obvious, but is short and to the point, readying the player for his first experience of play in the Mothership universe.

A Player Character in Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG has four Stats—Strength, Speed, Intellect, and Combat—together indicate how well he might perform under trying conditions. He also has three Saves—Sanity, Fear, and Body—which are his capacity to withstand the effects of different kinds of trauma. There are four Classes, which determine what skills he begins play and how he reacts to Stress and Panic. These are Marines, Androids, Scientists, and Teamsters, essentially modelling the type of characters that appear in Alien and Aliens. When a Marine fails a Panic Check, all nearby Player Character must make a Fear Save; Fear Saves made by Player Characters close to an Android at made at a Disadvantage; when a Scientist fails a Sanity Save, all nearby Player Character gain one Stress; and once per session, a Teamster can make a Panic Check at a Disadvantage. Skills are rated as Trained, Expert, or Master, or ‘+10%’, ‘+15%’, or ‘+20%’ respectively. Penultimately, he has a Loadout, Trinket, and Patch, the Loadout being his equipment, the Trinket something that might give him good fortune, and the Patch is the slogan or saying, which may or may not have some meaning, he has sewn onto his clothes or equipment. Lastly, he has a value for ‘High Score’, which starts at zero and may not actually change since it represents the number of missions or assignments or sessions completed (or survived). It has no mechanical effect, being something that the player and Warden can track. The rules suggest that the average High Score is four, so that and better is something for both player and character to aim for.

NAME: Boyd Tófa

CLASS: Teamster

STATS

Strength 42 Speed 45 Intellect 41 Combat 44

SAVES

Sanity 35 Fear 29 Body 24

Health: 5

Stress: 2

SKILLS

Trained (+10%): Zero-G, Industrial Equipment, Rimwise

Expert (+15%): Piloting

Master (+20%):

Credits: 100cr

Trinket: Pamphlet: Android Overlords

Patch: “Powered By Coffee”

Loadout: Standard Crew Attire (AP 1), Nail Gun (32 rounds), Head Lamp, Toolbelt with Assorted Tools, Lunch Box

Player Character creation is an easy process, just as it always was with the Zero Edition of the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG. This was because the character sheet was marked with a flow chart that led the player through the process. Here in the new edition of Player’s Survival Guide it not only been retained, but slimmed down and streamlined for ease of use.

Mechanically, the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG is percentile game. To have his character undertake an action, a player rolls percentile dice, aiming to roll equal to or under the appropriate Stat. To avoid dangers, a player can make a similar roll against a Save. A Save is rolled against Sanity to withstand the illogical nature of the universe and to deal with Stress; Fear for fear itself, isolation, and emotional distress; and Body to resist physical effects such as hunger, disease, and invasion organisms. Rolls can be made with Advantage and Disadvantage, meaning that a player rolls the dice twice, taking the best result if at an Advantage and the worst result if at a Disadvantage. A roll of a double counts as a critical success if the roll is equal to, or under the Stat or Save, a critical failure if over. A critical failure also triggers a Panic Check. If appropriate, a player can add one of his character’s Skills to the roll, whether a Stat Roll or a Save.

However, there is a further penalty to failed rolls. The Player Character gains a point of Stress, up to maximum of twenty. Under certain situations, such as seeing another crewmember die, multiple crewmembers failing a Panic Check at the same time, when encountering something horrific and unearthly for the first time, a Player Character must roll a Panic Check. This is a roll of a twenty-sided die, the aim being to roll above the Player Character’s current Stress. A failure requires a roll on the Panic Table. The result is a random effect such as a ‘Loss of Confidence’, ‘Haunted’, ‘Deathwish’, or ‘Heart Attack/Short Circuit (Android)’.

Combat is designed to be fast and deadly. During each round, a Player Character can move and undertake a single action. Attacks are handled by a Combat Check and armour protects up to a certain limit, but above that is destroyed. Some Armour can have Damage Reduction. Damage is subtracted from the defendant’s Health. When Health is reduced to zero, a roll is made on the Wounds Table. The Wounds Table has options for Blunt Force, Bleeding, Gunshot, Fire & Explosives, and Gore & Massive damage.

In terms of further support, there are options for Player Character training skills, although it will actually take years to do so and apart from military training, has to be paid for. The rules cover the effects of different atmospheres, cryosickness from time spent in the cryopods used for long space journeys or hyperspace jumps, starvation, radiation, and more. When not on a mission or assignment, there are ports that the Player Characters’ ship can dock, where they can engage in rest and recreation, and mechanically, each make a Rest Save to reduce their Stress. This can be made at Advantage if a Player Character participates in consensual sex, recreational drug use, heavy drinking, prayer, or other suitable leisure activity. (This is another why the Player’s Survival Guide makes that consent is required.) Contractors can also be hired at ports and once hired, become NPCs defined by a simple format, but potentially upgradable to full Player Character should one of the existing ones somehow die…

If there is anything missing from the Player’s Survival Guide, it is the omission of the stealth skill. This seems odd given that the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG is a horror roleplaying game and such situations often require the Player Characters to sneak around to avoid alerting whatever threat they are facing. That said, one of the several examples of play does show a Player Character attempting to sneak. Instead of making a Stat Check with a Stealth skill added on as a bonus, the player instead rolls a Stat Check with the outcome being that a successful check indicates that it has been done quietly. So instead of the absence of a Stealth skill, the attempt is rolled into whatever it is that the Player Character is attempting to achieve. This could have been made clearer in the rules rather than an example of play.

Physically, the Player’s Survival Guide is very well presented. The layout is clean and tidy, and the book is easy to read. Learning the rules is eased by the numerous examples of play. The artwork is also good throughout.

The ‘Zero Edition’ of the Player’s Survival Guide has proved to be a Science Fiction workhouse, supporting the creation of numerous scenarios and supplements and fanzines within the Blue Collar Science Fiction, Military Science Fiction, Science Fiction Horror genres. The Player’s Survival Guide for Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG, First Edition does and will do the same thing. The new edition of the Player’s Survival Guide is really accessible and everything in its pages are easy to learn—helped by the reference guide on the back—and it lays the foundation of the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG.

Friday Fantasy: The Darkness Under The Water Foul

Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part is notable for two particular facts. One is written and published by Heidi Gygax Garland—yes, the daughter of E. Gary Gygax—and her husband, Erik Gygax Garland. The other is that it is a frustratingly bad module, a linear dungeon design with almost no plot, limited player agency, and a majority of its encounters designed to do nothing more than impede and confound both players and characters. Published by Gaxland Games, it is a module written for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and Player Characters of First Level. Conversion, of course, to the rules of the Game Master’s choice is far from challenging, but the PDF version of the scenario is accompanied with conversions for both Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition and Castles & Crusades. In addition, the PDF version includes some setting background that the module itself does not. This details Sørholde, a warm, dry, and fortified Dwarven port-city sitting on the island of The Dundel. In Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part, the Player Characters were hired by a famed auctioneer to rescue a local noblewoman, the Lady Heiress. She had been kidnapped by Crikpaw and was being held hostage on Governor’s Island, which lies north of Sørholde. In addition to returning with the Lady Heiress, safe and sound, the Player Characters were expected to return with the signet ring from the house of Ukoh An—which Crikpaw is searching for—and ideally with Crikpaw. Dead or alive. Unfortunately, none of that was actually possible in Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part with the module ending with the Lady Heiress sailing off into the distance. Which leads us to Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul.

As the title suggests, Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul expands upon Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part. Or rather, it is a sequel rather than an expansion, since it is set very much after the events of Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part. The good news is that Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul is better than Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part. The bad news is that it is not much better than Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part. Further, it does nothing to advance the plot of Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part, such as it was.

Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul is designed for Player Characters of Second Level and opens with them returning to Governors island, the scene of previous adventure in which they not so much fail their objectives as were not allowed to attempt them by the authors. They have been overcome by need to return the pair of keys they were given during one of the first encounters in that adventure. The keys draw them through the wreckage of the dungeon to what is one of the most idiotic and pointless encounters in the adventure. This is the room with the paddling pool in which floats a rubber duck and which contains surprisingly deep water at the bottom of which is a locked gate. In the description of this room in Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part, the Dungeon Master is expected to advise her players that, “It becomes obvious that the gate is unreachable at this time”. Which begs the question, when will it be reachable and what does it actually add to the adventure?

Well, as it turns out, with Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul, it is now possible to open the gate because the Player Characters have the keys. The problem with this is that the keys were gained by the Player Characters during the playthrough of Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part. So, that begs the question, why did the keys not draw the Player Characters back to that room with the paddling pool and the rubber duck when they were actually on the island the first time?

The Player Characters are free to wander through the rest of the dungeon, effectively tramping through the debris that they behind on their first visit. Thankfully, the truly stupid encounter with the Bucket of Fish is gone, having been replaced by an infinitely superior empty room. There are some combat encounters to be had along the way, but they are neither here nor there, and definitely far from interesting. In fact, the only interesting encounter is at the end of the dungeon with the female Barbarian depicted on the module’s front cover. Or rather it would have been interesting had the authors given anything more to do than just say hello. Unless she is there to fight the Player Characters, it is up to the Dungeon Master to decide what her motivation is.

That though still leaves what is below the room with the paddling pool and the rubber duck now that the Player Characters can gain access. There are six rooms or encounters below the paddling pool, three of which are combat encounters, two of which provide a little colour to the dungeon and one of the latter that has a sense of having had purpose. The final encounter is the finale of Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul. Here the Player Characters are faced with a big puzzle, a series of riddles that are not all that challenging. If the Player Characters solve the riddles, they cause a crypt to open. What climbs out is a Lich. A Lich with over one hundred Hit Points, numerous resistances and immunities, the spellcasting abilities of an Eighteenth Level spellcaster, and Legendary Actions, one of which is Frightful Presence, which the Lich will immediately use upon climbing out of his crypt. Of course, since the Player Characters are second Level, they have no hope of making the Saving Throw and withstanding the effects of Frightful Presence. Nor are they meant to and even if they could, it does not matter, because the Lich simply thanks the Player Characters for releasing him and vanishes.

What this Lich wants and where he is going, the scenario does not say. How he relates to the plot of Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part, if at all, the scenario does not say. It is not made clear that there is a connection between the Lich and the keys that drew the Player Characters back to Governors Island. Of course, the players and their characters are going to feel as if they have been duped. Which is correct, because they have. That said, they have earned some Experience Points and gained some treasure and had an experience, just not a very satisfying or enlightening one.

As an expansion to Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part, there is nothing in Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul that actually expands it in terms of plot or story. For that reason, there is no need for the Dungeon Master to even consider buying it. The only thing it does is add some rooms behind a gate that the Player Characters cannot under any circumstances get through unless the Dungeon Master does purchase Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul. And if she does and then she decides to run Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul, then out of twenty-four pages, only six pages, detailing two rooms, actually matter. One of those is the room with the paddling pool and the rubber duck, and the other is the room with the crypt for the Lich. Anything else is window dressing at best, distractions or delaying tactics at worst. They simply do not serve any purpose or add anything to the scenario. In fact, those six pages could have been shortened further by not including the stats for the Lich, since is mechanically and narratively impervious to the Player Characters.

Physically, Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul is not badly presented. The artwork is reasonable, the cartography is decent, and the two handouts are divided between the plain and the intriguing. It does need an edit.

Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul is an expansion to Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part in two senses. One is physical, adding further rooms to the dungeon in Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part. The other is in terms of questions and answers. As in the number of questions it raises as to what is going on, what the plot or story is, and so on, that it raises, and the number of answers it fails to give. In terms of narrative, it does not so much as expand the narrative of Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part, such as it is, as to bolt on another narrative that it does not do anything with. That said, there is the glimmer of inventiveness in the design of the puzzle in the scenario’s anticlimactic finale, but as for the rest of Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul? Well, it is simply not worth the effort to read as it adds nothing to what was already a poor scenario and really, the authors very much needed a developer or editor or friendly voice to point out the very many flaws of both Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part and Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul.

in the event that any Dungeon Master is attracted by the names attached to Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part or Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul, she should avoid both. Both are frustratingly poor designs and Dungeon Expansion GG1: The Darkness Under The Water Foul feels like a bauble stuck on a rubber duck.

Magazine Madness 44: Senet Issue 18

The gaming magazine is dead. After all, when was the last time that you were able to purchase a gaming magazine at your nearest newsagent? Games Workshop’s White Dwarf is of course the exception, but it has been over a decade since Dragon appeared in print. However, in more recent times, the hobby has found other means to bring the magazine format to the market. Digitally, of course, but publishers have also created their own in-house titles and sold them direct or through distribution. Another vehicle has been Kickststarter.com, which has allowed amateurs to write, create, fund, and publish titles of their own, much like the fanzines of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest. The resulting titles are not fanzines though, being longer, tackling broader subject matters, and more professional in terms of their layout and design.

—oOo—

Senet is a print magazine about the craft, creativity, and community of board gaming. Bearing the tagline of “Board games are beautiful”, it is about the play and the experience of board games, it is about the creative thoughts and processes which go into each and every board game, and it is about board games as both artistry and art form. Published by Senet Magazine Limited, each issue promises previews of forthcoming, interesting titles, features which explore how and why we play, interviews with those involved in the process of creating a game, and reviews of the latest and most interesting releases. Senet is also one of the very few magazines about games to actually be available for sale on the high street.

As its cover suggests, with the publication of Senet Issue 18, the magazine reached its fifth anniversary and as its cover hints at, there is an Ancient Egypt in the issue. Or rather, the article in the issue that explores a theme in board games is Ancient Egypt. Which is appropriate given the name of the game magazine and it should be no surprise that alongside that article, the magazine explores the history of Senet, the Ancient Egyptian game that inspired the magazine and its name. That the magazine has lasted so long and appeared on the magazine shelves on your local high street deserves to be celebrated and so Senet Issue 18 feels just a bit special.

Published in the spring of 2025, the issue adheres to its tried and tested format. Thus it opens with ‘Behold’, highlighting some of the then forthcoming games with a preview and a hint or two of what to expect. The most intriguing of the titles previewed here is Onada, a solo wargame that tells of the story of Hiroo Onada, a Japanese soldier who held out in the jungle of a Philippine island for almost thirty years after World War 2 ended. The player has to gather resources to survive, but doing so alerts the local inhabitants and eventually the authorities. Plus, he must deal with the problems of being alone for so long. The most cute title is Knitting Circle, Flatout Games’ cosy game about knitting in which the cats get to collect the stitches and the most fun game is Interstellar Adventures: The Sincerest Form of Flattery, an ‘escape room’ style game from Minty Noodles Ltd. that combines the play of solo adventure books and looks like a comic book. The other opening sections of the magazine are surprisingly good. The regular column of readers’ letters, ‘Points’, continues to be disappointingly constrained to a single page, waiting for room to expand and build into something more, yet covers a diverse range of matters including the lack of books about board games. Or rather the lack of books about board games on the shelves of bookshops. Actually, there have several such books that have made it to the those shelves, but they are not always easy to find. That said, coverage of such books might be a welcome addition in the pages of Senet. With ‘For Love of the Game’ the journey of the designer Tristian Hall continues towards the completion and publication of his Gloom of Kilforth—and beyond. In ‘At Your Service’, he discusses logistics and fulfilment and dealing with the companies that provide such services, including shipping and delivery. This is informative and gives the publisher’s point of view when normally we only experience this part as customers.

Every issue consists of two interviews, one with an artist and one with a designer, plus an article about a theme in games and an article about a mechanic in games, and of course, Senet Issue 17 is no exception. The tried and tested formula begins with ‘Family Value’, Alexandra Sonechkina’s interview with designer, Ellie Dix. She is perhaps best known for The Shakespeare Game and The Jane Austen Game—both from Laurence King Publishing Ltd. and both of which can be found on the shelves of high street shops—and having won the Hasbro Women Innovators of Play contest in 2023. As well as discussing her gaming background and her favourite mechanism, deduction, Dix gets to explain her high regard for the family game. Or rather, the good family board game, since too often, she feels that the games that families play are terrible. It would have been interesting to have had her suggest some suitable games, but otherwise this is a solid interview with a designer that it is perhaps not as well known as the names that the magazine usually interviews. Dan Jolin interviews the artist Jeremy Nguyen in ‘New York State of Mind’. It is a less interesting piece because the artist has to date only illustrated three games—Inner Compass and Santa Monica, both from Alderac Entertainment Group’, and WizKids’ Rebuilding Seattle. Nevertheless, Nguyen’s striking artwork, inspired by the ‘ligne claire’ or ‘clear line’ style defined and used by Hergé, the creator of The Adventures of TinTin, is shown to good effect that you expect a Belgian reporter and a small white dog to step into view.

The aforementioned theme in Senet Issue 18 is Ancient Egypt and Dan Thurot’s ‘Pyramid Schemes’ gets off by making a startling point that not all board games treat the subject matter very well and this view comes from an expert, Doctor Julia Cromwell, an Egyptologist who specialises in tabletop games as a medium. She is critical of certain games, such as GameWorks SàRL’s Sobek that oversimplify Ancient Egypt, which either results in the flattening of the history or in the depiction of the people as stereotypes. Equally, she is positive about titles like Amun-Re from Alley Cat Games and Ankh: Gods of Egypt from CMON Global Limited, which acknowledge the differences between the Old and New Kingdoms, and Ergo Ludo Editions’ Pyramidice which brings the gods into play. It is clear from the piece that Ancient Egypt is a very popular theme with designers such as the prolific Reiner Knizia who has created multiple titles based on it with Tutankhamen from AMIGO, Ra from Alea, and Amun-Re amongst them. What these games all benefit from is familiarity. The pharaohs, the pyramids, the river Nile, hieroglyphics, mummies, and more are all undeniably well known and that makes games based on this theme all the more accessible.

As part of the article and for its anniversary, Senet Issue 18 also examines the history and significance of its namesake, the Ancient Egyptian board game, Senet. It is a fascinating article as much for what it cannot say as what it does. It suggests a possible theme to the game, but the absence is really the lack of rules to its play because nobody knows what they are. The other celebration in the issue is the ‘Fifth Anniversary Top Choice Special’ which collates ‘Senet’s Top Choice’ from each of the previous seventeen issues. It is nice to be reminded of them.

For the issue’s mechanic, Matt Thrower’s ‘Little Wars’ looks at skirmish games, board games and war games that are played at a smaller scale with a limited number of miniatures of figures per side. Their origins lie in H.G. Wells’ Little Wars rules and in more recent decades in roleplaying and Games Workshop’s War Hammer Fantasy Battles. Joseph McCullogh, the designer of Osprey Games’ Stargrave and Frostgrave provides an apt definition, “A skirmish game is wargame where you think about naming everyone on your team.” Although it looks at games as such as Star Wars: X-Wing from Fantasy Flight Games and Atomic Mass Games’ Star Wars: Shatterpoint, both based on a very popular intellectual property, it also devotes space to other and as it admits, stranger designs, like Max Fitzgerald’s Turnip28, Napoleonics-inspired post-apocalyptic rules that are in part about root vegetables, and Necromolds: Monster Battles, a game of modelling and squishing your miniatures from Necromolds LLC. The article though is not really about a mechanic, but a type of game, one that is examined here from outside of the wargaming hobby.

Senet’s reviews section, ‘Unboxed’ includes a look at Reiner Knizia’s then latest, Rebirth, published by Mighty Boards, a tile-laying design that is actually two board games in one and described as his elegant best. Survive the Island is Zygomatic’s update of Escape from Atlantis! from 1982 and described as an “’80s throwback”, whilst ‘Senet’s Top Choice’ for the issue is War Story: Occupied France, a game from Osprey Games with an interesting heritage. It is a collaboration between the designers of Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective and the Undaunted series. It combines elements of the war game with the solo gamebook to help drive the story along with the game play, which has elements of roleplay as much as guerrilla tactics.

As per usual, the last two columns in Senet Issue 18 are ‘How to Play’ and ‘Shelf of Shame’. For the former in ‘All for one and one against all’, James Nouch explores the ways in which different players view the play of games, especially in the face of skill imbalance between them. Lastly, the DJ, Andy Bush pulls a game from his ‘Shelf of Shame’. He delves back into gaming history to examine Magic Realm from 1979! He finds it thoroughly old-fashioned and overly complex such that he actually downloads a fan version of the rules for clarity, but still has fun.

Senet magazine always shows off the board games it previews and reviews to great effect, and Senet Issue 18 is no exception. It seems fitting as an anniversary issue that it a rather good read with the celebrations nicely understated. All of the articles are interesting and worth reading, with even the instalment of ‘For Love of the Game’ having something useful to say. Both ‘Pyramid Schemes’ and ‘Little Wars’ are informative and the standout articles in the issue. 

Miskatonic Monday #410: The Vanishing

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

—oOo—

Name: The Vanishing

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Raul Longoria

Setting: East Texas, 1997

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Sixteen-page, 1.01 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: A missing persons case casts a different colour on East Texas

Plot Hook: Investigate the town where missing students conducted a biology field trip

Plot Support: Staging advice, no pre-generated Investigators, some NPCs and wildlife, nine handouts, one map, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Scenario for one or two Investigators

# Pleasing sense of mouldering decline and distrust

# Seplophobia

# Chromophobia

# Nosophobia

Cons

# Pre-generated Investigators for Calamity in Drywater Canyon

# Set-up as to who is employing the Investigators muddled

# The presence and details of the missing students should play a bigger role
# Obvious threat

Conclusion

# Recognisable threat developed into an eerie ecological horror
# Set-up needs clarification and development, but otherwise a decent treatment of a classic Mythos monster
# Reviews from R’lyeh Recommends

Miskatonic Monday #409: Attenzione, Shub-niggurato!

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

—oOo—

Name: Attenzione, Shub-niggurato!

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Wille Ruotsalainen

Setting: French-Italian border, 1945

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Twenty six-page, 2.03 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Episodic horror on the forgotten front

Plot Hook: Can the soldiers survive more than the horrors of war?

Plot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, three NPCs, four maps, and two Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# Isolated, icy horror in the French alps

# Straightforward plotting

# Kinemortophobia

# Germanophobia

# Frigophobia

Cons

# Needs an edit

# Reads more like a narrative than a scenario

# Keeper will need to better develop the end of the scenario

# Does suggest that the Investigators might have to commit war crimes, but consequences left unexplored

Conclusion

# Heavily plotted survival horror that could have done with more investigation
# Too much focus on the monster not the monstrous

Tactics & Tales (Part I)

Let us be clear. 13th Age is Dungeons & Dragons. It offers a Dungeons & Dragons style of play. It is a Class and Level roleplaying game. It has the six traditional attributes, the traditional different Races of Dungeons & Dragons, and the various Classes of Dungeons & Dragons. It is even designed by the designers of Dungeons & Dragons. Not one edition of Dungeons & Dragons, but two editions of Dungeons & Dragons. It might even be called ‘Dungeons & Dragons 4.5’. What it calls itself is an ‘F20’ or ‘Fantasy 20’ roleplaying game, a roleplaying game derived from the family of Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying games. Yet it is also very much its own thing and has been from the start. When 13th Age was published in 2013, the hobby was in an uncertain place as it always is when it is between editions of Dungeons & Dragons. In 2013, Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition was done, never having been as well received as its predecessors, and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition had yet to appear, yet to make the splash that it did on Dungeons & Dragons’ fortieth anniversary in 2014, and yet to make its glorious ascent into the mainstream and acceptance as legitimate pastime. What was available then, was D&D Next, the playtest version of the next edition. It was into this liminal space that 13th Age slipped in 2013. Published by Pelgrane Press, 13th Age did what Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition also did. Which was to take the best features of the previous editions of Dungeons & Dragons and rework them. In the case of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, that would be to create the next edition of the venerable roleplaying game. In the case of 13th Age, that would be to combine its style of play with a style of play that had come from another wing of the hobby, one that was radical and all but anathema to Dungeons & Dragons—storytelling games. Certainly, not a direction that Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition was ever going to go in. The aim with 13th Age was to provide story and crunch, and so it is with 13th Age, Second Edition.

13th Age, Second Edition comes in two books, one a direct continuation of the other. The first is the 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook, which provides everything necessary for the players, including rules for character creation, the place of the characters in the world and their relationships with the Icons, the great powers of the age, the core mechanics, and combat, whilst the 13th Age Second Edition Gamemaster’s Guide contains a description of the Dragon Empire, the setting for 13th Age, advice on running the game, a bestiary, a treasury, and an introductory scenario. The emphasis in 13th Age is on the Player Characters and their exploits as heroes and legendary heroes to be, not just in the epic battles they will fight—and fight from First Level to Tenth Level, but on the epic stories that will be told in the process. The battles are the focus of the roleplaying game’s self-confessed ‘crunch’, providing detail and flavour whilst also making the battles fast-paced and exciting. The epic narrative or story-telling aspect of 13th Age is handled by making every single Player Character special with his own ‘One Unique Thing’ which sets him apart from everyone else in the Dragon Empire; by replacing skills with Backgrounds that broaden player choice, add depth to the setting, and enable flexibility in how they are used; and in linking each Player Character to two or three of the Icons, the great powers of the Dragon Empire in 13th Age, whose influence over the story can be positive or negative, depending upon the nature of the relationship.
One of the great things about 13th Age, Second Edition is that it compatible with 13th Age, First Edition, which means that the Game Master and her players have access to some great supplements, such as the Book of Ages which opens up the history of the Dragon Empire and the killer dungeon, Eyes of the Stone Thief. However, 13th Age, Second Edition is a new edition and that does mean changes. Pelgrane Press actually includes a list of the major changes here for the benefit of Game Master of 13th Age, First Edition. Much of it has been to clarify the rules as much as streamline them. For example, instead of using days as a time unit to indicate the period in which certain powers work, the term is now ‘arc’. This allows the period to be used narratively rather than being constrained by time. The number of Icons has been reduced from thirteen to twelve (actually making it easier to roll for them randomly), the Orc Lord having been killed in a recent war—exactly how is up to the Game Master and her players to decide. This is the major change to the Dragon Empire and is connected to another change, which is the removal of the Half-Orc as a player choice in terms of Race—or rather Kin as 13th Age calls it. This is intentionally done to avoid the controversy surrounding the nature of the Half-Orc, and is instead replaced by the Troll-kin. It serves a similar, combat-orientated, brutish role, but is connected to the High Druid or the Emperor Icons rather than the Orc Lord. Other changes to Kin include more choices in terms of Kin powers, the removal of ability bonuses based on Kin, and the making of Player Character Kin special. The removal of ability bonuses based on Kin means that a player can place them wherever he wants—though he will probably want to place them to benefit his choice of Class, and by making Player Character Kin special, that is, they possess the special Kin Powers rather than having every member of their Kin do so, avoids stereotyping and widens player choice.
Then all of the Classes in 13th Age have been adjusted, from minor tweaks to major overhauls. For example, the simplest and easiest of Classes to play, the Barbarian and the Paladin, receive minor tweaks, the Barbarian Rage feature changed to be a wider critical hit range rather than roll two twenty-sided dice to attack and the Paladin’s ‘Lay on Hands’ becomes a feature of the Class rather than a talent, ‘Smite’ inflicts more damage, and so on. Major overhauls include the Bard Class, whose features and talents are based on the type of performance—Brass: Horn & Trumpets, Dance: Poise & Motion, Drums: Rhythm & Percussion, Flutes & Pipes & Ocarinas, and Strings: Lutes & Harps & Guitars—which also presents a greater choice for the player. The Sorcerer retains its Breath Weapon, the type of damage depending on the Dragon-type, and gaining bonuses to both to hit and Critical Range from the Escalation die, and can empower his spells in one round to cast for double the effect, including damage, the next. There are a lot of changes here of varying magnitude throughout 13th Age, Second Edition, affecting everything from Icons and Icon connections and combat rules and more, all based on a decade’s worth of play of, and feedback about, 13th Age, First Edition. The aim is to streamline and ease play, especially for the player new to 13th Age.
To that end, one big change that the roleplaying game does make to 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook in order to help the neophyte player and Game master is to give an extensive example of play right after the introduction. Most examples of play run throughout a rulebook, but here 13th Age frontloads it in one go, taking the reader through the process, step-by-step, of creating a character—selecting Icon connections and determining their relationships, choosing a Class and Kin, designing a One Unique Thing, setting ability scores, selecting gear, picking Talents and a Feat, creating Backgrounds, and so on. At each stage, particularly in relation to the Icon connections, One Unique Thing, and Backgrounds, the example of play shows how they can tie into the setting and into the campaign that the Game Master is running. Once done and the example Player Character is presented on a character sheet, the Player Character is taken through her first arc, her first series of battles, in the process showcasing combat and suffering damage, resting, bringing Icon connections into play, and more. It is annotated with pointers as where to learn more about each aspect of the creation process and the play, further, like any good example of play or any good example of the rules, what 13th Age is doing here is showing the reader how the roleplaying game is first intended to be set up and then played. It saves the telling of how this is done for afterwards, the reader having been prepared for it by that point.
A Player Character in 13th Age has the traditional six abilities—Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma—plus a Kin, Class, One Unique Thing, and Backgrounds. There are fourteen Kin, which are Human, Dwarf, High Elf, Silver Elf, Wood Elf, Forgeborn, Gnome, Half-Elf, Halfling, Holy Ones, Troll-Kin, Dragonic, Holy One, and Tielfling. Of these, the Silver Elf is also known as the Drow, and the Dragonic, Forgeborn, Tielfling, and Holy One are by default less common. The nine Classes are Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, and Wizard. Some obvious Classes, the Druid and the Monk, are not included, their details being in 13 True Ways, though not yet for 13th Age, Second Edition. The process is a matter of making choices rather than rolling dice, including selecting ability values.
Lottie Custard
Class: Rogue Level: 1
Kin: Halfling One Unique Thing: There isn’t a lie I haven’t heard and a truth that I haven’t hidden
Connections: Prince of Shadows (Conflicted/2), Emperor (Negative/1)
Backgrounds: I’m a Halfling, of course I can bake pies +2, My tongue is not so much silver, as golden +4, If I don’t know, I know man who can +1, Old Town Valley Girl +1 Strength 12 (+1) Constitution 15 (+2) Dexterity 17 (+3)
Wisdom 14 (+2) Intelligence 14 (+2) Charisma 17 (+3) Armour Class 15 (Light)
Physical Defence 15
Mental Defence 15
Hit Points 24
Weapons: Mother’s Third Best Flat Iron (d8), It’s just a fruit knife (1d6)
Kin Power: Evasive
Class Features: Bravado, Sneak Attack, Skulduggery
Class Talents: Shadow Walk, Shift, Wriggle, and Roll, Tumble
Class Powers: Evasive Strike (At-Will), Deadly Thrust (At-Will/1 Bravado), Flying Blade (At-Will)
Feat: Smooth Talk 13th Age is played out in arcs, each consisting of three or four combat scenes leavened with narrative scenes in between. The most basic of mechanics involves the Backgrounds, which work as skills in other roleplaying games, but narratively more flexible. A character’s Icon connections can also affect the narrative by providing knowledge, adding detail, securing help, triggering flashbacks, and other options, his player deciding what the actual effect is by working with the Game Master. This does not automatically happen every arc, a player needing to roll to see if it does for each Icon connection, and if it does, it can only happen once per arc. When an Icon comes into play, there is a chance that it will come with a ‘Twist’ and as the 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook states, that is when, “The GM also gets to have some fun, adding a twist that improves the story by making the heroes’ lives a bit more interesting… but not so complicated that the connection turns bad for the heroes.” A twist will also occur if a player does not roll successfully to involve his character’s Icon connections, in which case the Game Master rolls for a random Icon to be involved. This is all backed up by detailed descriptions of the Icons—even the Orc Lord, helpful advice and plenty of examples and suggestions which will make the game play interesting and engaging.
Combat is comparatively much more complex and where the crunch occurs in 13th Age. It is also the focus of most of a Player Character’s Class talents, features, and feats, as well as spells for the spellcasting Classes. A Class’ talents are divided into three types that indicate their usage—at-will, once per battle, and once per arc. For example, at First Level, the Cleric Class can cast spells such as Combat Boon, Javelin of Faith, and Sacred Violence at will, Mark of Enmity and Spirits of the Righteous once per battle, and Mighty Healing and Hammer of Faith once per arc. The effects of talents increase as a Player Character rises in Level, as does total Hit Points, number of Recoveries (used for healing Hit Points) and feats, and so on up to Tenth Level. 
Where combat in 13th Age gets exciting, even exhilarating, is in the use of the Escalation Die. This sits in the middle of the table and comes into effect on the second round of the combat and then on subsequent rounds. On the second round, it gives a ‘+1’ bonus to all of the Player Characters, on the third round it gives a ‘+2’ bonus, on the fourth round, it gives a ‘+3’ bonus, and so on all the way up to the seventh round and after. It applies to the Player Characters only, not the monsters or NPCs, it can de-escalate or temporarily freeze, and it can trigger the powers of some Classes depending upon the number it is at or whether it is odd or even. The aim is to push combat forward and give it momentum once past the initially difficult rounds, rather than have it bog down in detail and unnecessary crunch.
All of the content in the 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook (and also in the 13th Age Second Edition Gamemaster’s Guide) is supported by helpful examples, suggestions, and advice, some of which takes the form of commentary and interjections from the authors. This is where they talk directly to the players and to the Game Master, telling them how they ran their games, what worked, what did not work, what they think of some of the feedback on the changes to the new edition, and more. It adds a personal touch to what is very much not a drily academic-in-tone rulebook and escalating, a little, its engaging style.
Physically, 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook is a great looking book. The artwork is solidly heroic fantasy, apart from the Icons, which are drawn as a cross between the decoration on Greek vases and icons for the Greek Orthodox Church. The book is well written and despite the complexity of its crunch, never less than readable. It is supported by a very decent combined index and glossary.
It is difficult to truly criticise the 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook. The main issues are perhaps that some of the Classes are still too complex to play with ease, especially in comparison to other ‘Fantasy 20’ roleplaying games and that some fans of 13th Age, First Edition are not necessarily going to be happy with all of the changes. Yet even the designers acknowledge this and even applaud some groups that want to keep playing 13th Age their way.
The 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook is the players’ book and the core book for 13th Age, Second Edition. It does what a new edition of a roleplaying game should do and improve and tweak the rules and the game to make it play better, in this case on lengthy playtesting and feedback, and then make it accessible. In particular, it does this with its lengthy example of campaign set-up, character creation, and play that showcases how 13th Age is intended to be played and readies player and Game Master for the rules that follows. Yet it goes even further by having the designers explain their decisions and give alternative suggestions. 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook is everything that the 13th Age player is going to need to help set him and his character up for some heroic fantasy.