The Other OSR: Kavlov’s Sanctuary

It is over a thousand years since the great wizard, Kavlov, drew upon his magics to bind and imprison Balthazar, a three-eyed demon of Uzran, in the Halls of Dread below the Dreaded Hills. It is said that he sacrificed himself to ensure that the demon would never again walk the mortal realm and spread his influence, for he was not seen again. This is not the case, for Kavlov not only drew upon his mighty magics to bind the demon in place, but he also bound himself to ensure that they did not fail. Yet failing they are and as the wizard’s power fades, so do the bindings that hold the demon in place. As they weaken, so the influence of Balthazar has spread once again, and many and diverse a group of men and monsters have found their way to the Dreaded Hills and there settle within the network of caves that thread out down the hill under which the demon’s bindings lie. Dread creatures and monstrous men are abroad in the forests and hills nearby, threatening those unwise to be travelling through the region and the nearby village of Sanctuary, noted as haven for the bereaved, its guilds and temples dedicated to ensuring that the deceased are accorded a proper burial. As darkness begins to spread and seep into the hearts of men, what will the Player Characters do? Strike a blow for the safety of all concerned and prevent those that still worship the demon from freeing him of his shackles or do they side with the demon and work to free him and so unleash his dark desires upon the world once again?

This is the set-up for K-1 Kavlov’s Sanctuary, a scenario and sandcrawl for use with Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance style roleplaying game designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing. Published by The Dungeon’s Key following successful Kickstarter campaign, K-1 Kavlov’s Sanctuary may well be written for use with Mörk Borg (there is also a version written for use with Necrotic Gnome’s Old School Essentials, the retroclone based on the 1980-81 version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons), but what it is inspired by, is a classic module for Basic Dungeons & Dragons. This is B2, Keep on the Borderlands, which presented a frontier base of operations—the keep of the title—from which the Player Characters could operate and the Caves of Chaos, the series of caves and caverns in which all manner of humanoid tribes could be found in service to the forces of evil. The inspiration then, provides for a base of operations, in this case, the settlement of Sanctuary, a wilderness area packed with danger, and a big threat, in this case, the caves under the Dreaded Hills, a set of thirteen mini-dungeons. K-1 Kavlov’s Sanctuary, though, manages to provide not just more than this, but ultimately and effectively less than this.

The book begins with seven Classes for Mörk Borg. These are the Flesh Weaver, which uses a bone needle and bloody sinew to alter the flesh of himself and others; the Blood Baron, who must drink the blood of others to retain his virility; the Degenerate Cannibal, whose own body is nutritious and restores Hit Points, but must eat the raw meat of other humanoids; the Mycotic Fiend, which grows on the body of its host and never needs to eat or drink; the Skinned Bastard, a former child abductee who can invade the dreams of others and whose toughened scar-tissue skin is resilient to damage from magical and physical resources; the Disgraced Court Alchemist, whose surprisingly continued royal patronage gives him advantage in gaining reagents and who is accompanied by a foul smelling, but loyal aide; and a Roach God Emissary, an undying servant to the deity who is sent spells each day by his god, each one scrawled on the wings of its cockroach servants. Bar the Disgraced Court Alchemist, there is a grotesque, even gruesome, quality to all of these Classes, all befitting Mörk Borg. Further, they lend themselves to a play style in which the Player Characters are freaks and monsters and do want Balthazar to be freed.

The given base of operations for the Player Characters is the village of Sanctuary, dominated by its guilds dedicated to mortuary services. They include the Grave Diggers’ Guild, Coffin Makers’ Guild, Embalmers’ Guild, and the Undertakers’ Guild. There is also the chapel, under which the devil (?) Balthazar is bound. The stones of the chapel weep the blood of the demon/devil, which is collected in a cistern underneath the chapel's basement and used in rituals or added to meals for the dying. The head of the chapel, the Master of Rituals leads the town, whilst his deputy, the Deacon, has been corrupted by Balthazar and is leading his acolytes in freeing the demon. The village also has tenement blocks, a general store, a traders, a bake shop, textiles shop, and a merchant bank, and almost none of it is presented in a way that makes it come to life or engage the interest. What is potentially of interest is one NPC is a werewolf, one heads the chapel and the village, and one is his deputy who is working against him. None of them are named and none of them are given suggestions as to what they might do over the course of the scenario or in response to the Player Characters’ actions. Further and putting aside the fact that the facilities feel more suited to an urban area than a rustic one, all of these facilities in the village are only protected by guards at a watchtower. There are no walls around the village so it feels as if Sanctuary could be overrun and raised to the ground at any minute, but the real problem is simply that the village does not feel lived in and none of its inhabitants feel like real people.

There are more interesting elements in the wilderness, like the Fey who lurk in the Deadwoods and instead of killing their victims, flay them and wear their skins. This is the source of Skinned Bastards Class earlier in the book, potentially setting up an interesting plot hook for a Skinned Bastard Player Character. Yet nothing is developed from this and there is no explanation of why the Fey do this. In comparison, the Bog Witch is more developed and thus more interesting, a crone who lives deep in a swamp and will sell interesting wares, such as a Wand of Health that costs one hundred dirty fingernails or a Potion of Verities which forces the imbiber to answer all questions truthfully for ten minutes and costs four flagons of wine and a bunch of spices. These wares are engagingly inventive and the Bog Witch will also ask potential purchasers for help in searching for her missing albino children. Yet again, the author fails to follow through in setting something interesting up as the entry for the Bog Witch does not tell the Game Master where those children might be found.

The thirteen dungeons range from a ‘Dwarfling Cave’ and the ‘Cannibals’ Den’ to the ‘Wight’s Crypt’ and the ‘Halls of the Dead’. Most are just four pages long and all have their maps repeated on each two-page spread for ease of reference. There are some entertaining dungeons amongst this devil’s dozen. For example, the ‘Gorgon Temple’ has an Egyptian-themed, sepulchral feel, whilst the ‘Hobgoblin Arena’ adds a little excitement in the form of gladiatorial games. Yet all of the dungeons appear to exist in a vacuum. There are connections between some of them, but they are very few and far between, and none of the occupants ever appear to interact with the occupants of another dungeon, and certainly never go outside since none of the occupants appear on any of the encounter tables. Further, none of the dungeons have explanations as to what they are, what their occupants are, and what those occupants do before the actual descriptions begin. Instead, K-1 Kavlov’s Sanctuary commits the cardinal sin of ‘Read to find out’ rather than telling the Game Master what she actually needs to know upfront. Even then, when she does find out, it is unlikely to make sense. For example, the ‘Wight’s Crypt’ has no Wights, but is instead full of Vampires and the ‘Cyclops’ lair’ is not just home to a Cyclops, but a gang of feral children who serve him. Why are they there and why do they not just run away? The Dreaded Hills even have ‘Leper Colony’ and a ‘Laboratory’, both places of butchery and torture rather of healing or study, recurring themes which run throughout many of the dungeons.

Physically, everything in K-1 Kavlov’s Sanctuary designed to help the Game Master just gets in the way. Both of the area maps in the scenario are designed to, and do, look like those of B2, Keep on the Borderlands. This is not a problem with the ‘Wilderness Map’, given a two-page spread, but the map of the Dreaded Hills, designed to look like the map of the Caves of Chaos from B2, Keep on the Borderlands, is laughably too small. It represents an area approximately 570 by 460 feet, is marked with entrances and caves of thirteen such cave complexes in that area, and is then fitted onto a single digest size page. It looks vaguely pretty, but is unreadable. What should they do to counteract that? Perhaps include excerpts of this map to use with each dungeon? Well, no, that would have been too obvious. Instead, each mini-dungeon has its own map, redrawn and done in white on muted colours to the blandest effect possible. The maps of each dungeon are functional and utterly lacking in terms of inspiration or style. Then there is the writing. It aims to be concise and to the point, but all too often it leaves the Game Master without any real idea as to what is going on. Over and over, thr Game Master to ‘Read to find out’.

K-1 Kavlov’s Sanctuary is overambitious, but underdeveloped and underwhelming. It attempts to bring the sensibilities of Mörk Borg to classic Basic Dungeons & Dragons-style play and classic Basic Dungeons & Dragons-style play to Mörk Borg. Although it succeeds tonally in bringing the sensibilities of Mörk Borg to classic Basic Dungeons & Dragons-style play, often overly so with its scenes of torture and other gruesomeness, it fails in too many other ways. It simply does not provide enough context and set things up sufficiently to enable the Game Master to run it effectively and engage her players and their characters with any ease, too many things are left unexplained, and tonally, it really only works if the Player Characters are working to release the demon rather than keep him bound under the earth—especially if the players decide to roleplay the new Classes included at the front of the book. Ultimately, K-1 Kavlov’s Sanctuary promises much, but fails to deliver fully and effectively on that promise.

Inside the Thunder Dome

In the not-too-distant future, 2020, civilisation is no more. It was wiped away by the falling of bombs, by the plagues that ran rampant, by rampant starvation, and the desperate, resulting scramble to survive. This was the Boom. It took place years, probably decades ago. What remains is the Waste, where communities cling together for support and protection, as well as access to supplies of clean food and water, hoping with withstand the predations of marauders, cannibals, and worse. One such community is Paradise City and in recent months, its inhabitants have suffered an outbreak of the plague known as Bleeding Fever. Fortunately, Paradise City’s leaders managed to obtain a cure from the Science Council of Heartbeat City. Unfortunately, the truck carrying the antidote was captured by the Saint, a local warlord who notoriously runs fights in her ‘domes of thunder’, or rather in electrified cages. Many communities send fighters to participate in these fights, but not Paradise City. Until now, that is… In order to get the antidote its citizens need, Paradise City is sending fighter for the first time, backed up with a team, the Saint’s next tournament, called ‘Lectric Buggalu’. However, the team is not there just to support the fighter, because if he does not win and cannot get the antidote back, the team is going to have to steal it and drive it all the way back to Paradise City.

The is the set-up for Domes of Thunder, a scenario and mini-supplement for ACE!—or the Awfully Cheerful Engine!—the roleplaying game of fast, cinematic, action comedy. Published by EN Publishing, best known for the W.O.I.N. or What’s Old is New roleplaying System, as used in Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD and Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition. Some of the entries in the series have been expansive, such as Orcs & Oubliettes and Strange Science, providing a detailed setting and an scenario, whilst others in the series have tended to be one-shot, film night specials. As with other supplements for ACE!, both the genre and inspiration for Domes of Thunder are obvious. The genre is Post Apocalyptic and the inspiration is the Mad Max series of films, specifically, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. This is a setting where guns and bullets are scare, petrol (or gasoline) is precious, and leather and scrap armour along with a pink mohawk are the only thing seen as fashionable since before the boom. The book provides some basic background and some rules additions before leaping into the scenario itself, which makes up two thirds of the supplement.

Domes of Thunder starts by suggesting some old Roles suitable for setting, as well as giving some new ones. The old include the Barbarian, Bounty Hunter, Cowboy, Outlaw, and more, and these are joined by the Cyborg, Driver, Gladiator, Mechanic, Mutant, and Survivalist. Each has a simple benefit, such as the Cyborg being able to a Brawling attack and inflict double damage by spending a point of Karma, the Driver gains the Driving Focus for free in addition to his other Focus, and the Mechanic can spend Karma to scrounge enough metal and plastics and parts to restore the Health of any vehicle. Since this is a cinematic setting, it adheres to the ‘Rule of Cool’ when it comes to personal armour. If it looks cool, it provides personal protection. Vehicles in Domes of Thunder—automobiles, motorcycles, trucks, and armoured RVs—have all been scavenged, patched, and repaired again and again, and players need to roll at the beginning of every Act to see if their characters’ vehicles have enough fuel. A vehicle is defined by four stats—Health, Bash, Steering, and Plating. Health is the amount of damage a vehicle it can take, Bash how much it can deal out when ramming or sideswiping another vehicle, Steering is its manoeuvrability, and Plating how much damage it stops. A handful of vehicles are given stats, but the game does not really need any more than that.

One of the things that Domes of Thunder makes clear is that it is not a setting in which speed matters. In fact, none of the vehicle have a speed rating. There are two reasons for this. One narrative, one physical. The physical is that the roads are strangely still maintained, but being marked by cracks and potholes, it is impossible to go too fact. The narrative is that all the interesting things happen when vehicles get close to each other, rather than one racing away simply because it is faster. It is possible to get away from another vehicle in a chase and catch up with another vehicle in a chase, but in Domes of Thunder, what determines this is the narrative and manoeuvring rolls. This is about as far as the driving rules and driving duel rules go in Domes of Thunder, essentially keeping them simple and fast.

The ‘Domes of Thunder’ adventure begins in the post-apocalyptic equivalent of the tavern in fantasy roleplaying—an old rest stop, now barricaded and fortified. The Player Characters are hired by the fighter from Paradise City and his manager to provide support and back-up on their journey to Saint’s Compound and help in getting the antidote out if things go wrong. And since, Domes of Thunder is effectively a one-shot, film night special, things are definitely going to go wrong. This starts with the Paradise City fighter being challenged by a rival fighter and ultimately ending up dead the next morning. Which also makes things more complex as one of the Player Characters will have to enter the ‘dome of thunder’ as the fighter representing Paradise City. There are other complications, but they are just bumps in the road. The main action takes place at Saint’s Compound, which turns out to be more like ‘Santa’s Compound’ if it was protected by armed ORCs and Elves. This is because it used to be a shopping mall and it was the mall’s Christmas Santa who fortified the mall not long after the Boom.

Apart from the Player Character who is going to fight in the dome, the other Player Characters are going to have to sneak around and investigate Saint’s Compound in search of the truck with the antidote for Bleeding Fever, try not to get caught—but hey, it is definitely more dramatic if they do as they have to escape the Saint’s (prison) workshop and then have to escape her compound too, and eventually race out of there in the truck with the antidote. It is fairly freeform in its structure and there is scope for the Game Master to add her own encounters and situations or simply play out the story to see where it goes. Ultimately, the scenario will end with the Player Characters with the truck containing the antidote driving hell for leather to Paradise City. There is good reason for this—the Saint is very annoyed with the Player Characters and she unleashes her dragon on them! This is not a dragon, but a helicopter, but it is so unfamiliar to the Player Characters that it might as well be. Finish the ‘dragon’ off, and the Player Characters can ride off into the sunset…

The ‘Domes of Thunder’ adventure is straightforward and should take a session or two to complete. If there are issues, it is that it introduces an NPC under one name and them changes it and that it skirts around what the nature of the apocalypse is. There are mutants and there is prejudice against them. For example, only pure strain humans with neither mutation or nor mechanical modification can participate in the games. Further, the scenario does play around with the fantasy genre a little so it may not be clear to players in particular, if the setting embraces elements of fantasy as well, and if so, quite how far. This is because the security for the Saint’s Compound are called ORCs and Saint’s infiltrators are called Elves. The ORCs are derived from the name of the shopping mall, which was the Odessa Retail Centre, whilst the Elves are essentially Santa’s ‘little helpers’. Nominally, the scenario actually be taking place at Christmas, but that is not entirely clear. So, tonally, Domes of Thunder feels slightly odd in places, but not enough to disrupt the scenario.

Physically, Domes of Thunder is well presented with reasonable artwork. It needs a slight edit in places.

Domes of Thunder is as straightforward an adventure as you want it to be. The plot is none too complex and what the Player Characters have to do is easy to grasp. Where the the complication comes in is whatever mess the Player Characters get themselves into. There is plenty of room for Game Master to add her own content, but as is, Domes of Thunder is easy to prepare and bring to the table for a session or two’s worth of uncomplicated post-apocalyptic, cinematic action.

Jonstown Jottings #96: Rings of Glorantha

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford's mythic universe of Glorantha. It enables creators to sell their own original content for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.

—oOo—

What is it?
Runequest: Rings of Glorantha is a short supplement for for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. It is by the same author of GLORANTHA: Trinkets from Dragon Pass.

It is a four page, full colour, 893.15 KB PDF.

Runequest: Rings of Glorantha is decently presented, but it could have been better organised. It needs a slight edit.

Where is it set?
Dragon Pass.

Who do you play?
Adventurers of all types who could come across these rare items.

What do you need?
RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. It can also be run using the RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha – QuickStart Rules and Adventure.

What do you get?
Runequest: Rings of Glorantha is a description of seven rings which might be found in the world of Glorantha. However, it begins by noting that finger rings are rare in Glorantha, where rings are worn through the nose or around the arm. Thus magical rings are even rarer and more so in a world and setting in which magic is common, but magical items to be note rather than just functional.

The seven rings in this supplement each come with publicly sourced image and two short paragraphs, one giving its description and the other its effects when worn. The rings are divided between two types. The first suggests that many copies of it have been produced. For example, the Ring of Green Power is one of the Earth Goddesses’ implements of war and is made of tiny, solidified leaves with an emerald stone. Found very occasionally on former battle fields where the Goddesses’ worshipers fought Chaos, it must be worn on the thumb of the right hand and an axe wielded in the same hand for its power to work. This consists of a magical bonus to damage inflicted on creatures with a high affinity for the Chaos Rune or have one or more Chaotic Features.

The second type is unique, there being only one of its type in existence. For example, Charred Hope is ancient Elvish treasure that survived the Moonburn. It is found in Rist by those opposing the Lunar Empire. When worn, the wearer suffers less damage from spells that inflict damage and are connected to the Moon Rune.

The rings detailed in Runequest: Rings of Glorantha do feel as if their powers fit their descriptions and none of the powers they grant are overly powerful, often working only under certain conditions. However, more description of their histories and their legends would have been welcome as that would potentially make each ring more interesting and more special beyond simply its rarity.

Is it worth your time?
Yes. Runequest: Rings of Glorantha is an inexpensive way of adding more magic to give Player Characters or NPCs minor powers that will enhance their legends.
No. Runequest: Rings of Glorantha is simply too expensive for what you get and the Game Master could create her own with a little bit of research which are just as good.
Maybe. Runequest: Rings of Glorantha is expensive for what you get, but the Game Master might want to add a little variety to the treasure found or perhaps take inspiration from the rings presented here and either develop more of their legend or create new ones of her own.

Jonstown Jottings #95: Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s mythic universe of Glorantha. It enables creators to sell their own original content for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, 13th Age Glorantha, and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.

—oOo—

What is it?
Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is anthology of scenarios and the beginnings of a campaign for use with Korolan Islands: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 1, both written for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

It is a one-hundred-and-twenty-nine page, full colour, 50.60 MB PDF.

The layout is clean and tidy, but the text feels disorganised in places and requires an edit. The artwork varies in quality, but some of it is decent.

Where is it set?
Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is set on Mingai and Sitoro, two of the five Korolan Islands that make up the Korolan Isles which lie in the Jeweled Islands, the Islands of Wonder that lie to the east.

Who do you play?

Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is designed to be used with Player Characters who are native to the Korolan Islands. (The possibility of outsiders playing the scenarios is acknowledged, but not developed to any great depth.)

What do you need?

Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 requires Korolan Islands: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 1, RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, the Glorantha Bestiary, and The Red Book of Magic. In addition, the Guide to Glorantha and The Stafford Library – Vol VI Revealed Mythologies may be useful.

What do you get?

Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is anthology of scenarios set on two islands previously detailed in Korolan Islands: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 1. More specific setting information is provided for both islands, including settlements, major landmarks, and NPCs minor and major. Thus, for Mingai, this is the village of Verena; the Crack of Fire, sacred place to the women of Mingemelor cult; and Red Top Hill, renowned for its red rocks and the former occupant, a wizard called Red Top. Particular attention is paid to the village of Serena, since Mingai is the setting for three of the scenarios in the anthology. Whilst, for Sitoro Island, this the Senate House of Sitoro, seat of the Korolan senate, and the Dream Canal, which flows down from Laughing Plateau, and if paddled up to the waterfall at its far reaches, a gateway to the Dreamworld may be found and entered. Only the one scenario, the third, is set on Sitoro Island.

The adventures themselves involve a good mix of physical action, interaction, and spiritual confrontation. The latter in particular, figures prominently in the confrontations in two of the four scenarios and the Player Characters do need to be prepared to face such threats. ‘The Nest’ is the first scenario of the quartet and quickly involves the Player Characters in the politics of the Almainas, the women who led the island. The Player Characters are engaged to investigate and deal with the presence of a Roc, recently arrived on the island and having built a nest, causing consternation and havoc by eating too many goats. However, none of the Almainas can quite decide what is the best course of action—kill the gigantic bird, charm it, drive it off, and so on. Ultimately, it will be up to the players and their characters to decide, but the Almainas do provide the characters with means to communicate with the creature. Climbing to the nest is a challenge in itself and the Player Characters are not the only ones interested in the contents of the nest. All possibilities are explored and there are some decent rewards for the Player Characters whatever action they decide to do. Overall, this is a fun scenario with a good mix of action and combat.

‘The Nest’ is followed by ‘The Hill of Red Top’. Here, the Player Characters are employed to climb up to the Hill of Red Top and there investigate Red Top Tower, abandoned years ago by a wizard and then his servants, and said to be cursed. It is damaged, but occupied still, by a very strange creature. This is a Keet, one of the avian species similar to the Ducks, but who can be found in separate albatross, cormorant, gull, mallard, pelican, puffin, seagull, tern, and other tribes throughout the East Isles, who has been maddened by spirits and who may hinder or help the Player Characters—and who in the long term may actually join them as a companion. ‘The Hill of Red Top’ has the feel of a classic wizard’s tower of fantasy roleplaying, full of secrets and some nasty encounters with spirits. The secrets hint at the island’s dark past, both relatively recent and in the long past. Uncovering these secrets will put the Player Characters in deadly danger and some of those secrets have ramifications that will not come into play until the fourth scenario in the anthology. There is a certain grubbiness to the scenario and it may end not only with the Player Characters not only being joined by an odd companion, but by their cementing a place in the community of the village of Verena.

Taking place on the island of Sitoro, ‘The Korolan Games’ involves another classic gaming situation—a competition. An annual event which takes place between all of the Korolan Islands and serves two purposes. One is to funnel the energy of the islands’ youth into peaceful activities rather than raiding and the other is to determine who will be the king or queen of the islands for a year with the winning island also exempt from paying tax for a year. So, it is not just a matter of winning individual competitions, but winning as many as possible. The Player Characters get to both attend and participate in the individual events, each played on a single day. There are generous rewards for the winners as well as reputation gains aplenty. However, because the competition has political ramifications, the event is far from clean and fair. There are many willing to cheat and resort to other acts of skullduggery to win. Thus, the Player Characters will kept involved investigating the various machinations going on behind the scenes as much as they are participating in the athletics competitions. ‘The Korolan Games’ is a busy affair with a lot to keep track of and the Game Master will need to prepare the scenario with care.

The last scenario in the anthology is ‘Fires of Mingai’. The Player Characters are asked to investigate after a fiery ghost has arisen from the ashes and lava of the Crack of Fire and fires are spreading across the island, destroying farms and endangering life. Stranger still, the Mingemelor’s cult spirits seem to have done nothing about this interloper. The scenario has an epic feel as the Player Characters go in search of more information, including consulting an ancient and dipsomaniac Gibbon shaman, and potentially help, before a confrontation with powerful fire spirits which will reveal some dark truths—hinted at in the second scenario, ‘The Hill of Red Top’—brings the anthology to a close.

One fundamental issue with Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is the lack of pre-generated Player Characters. The authors instead suggesting that NPCs could be used from amongst the competitors for the Korolan Games in the second scenario, ‘The Korolan Games’. Many of these are also NPCs tied to the four scenarios in the anthology, so not necessarily suitable. Further, given the differences between the setting of Dragon Pass and the Korolan Islands, pre-generated Player Characters would serve as a way to ease the players into and past those differences, showcasing the different Occupations and Cults. It would also make the four scenarios in the anthology easier to run.

Is it worth your time?

Yes—Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2, with its four engaging scenarios, puts the setting detailed in Korolan Islands: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 1 into action and enables the players to explore RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha from a different cultural perspective in a dispersed island setting.

No—Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is too location specific and too radical a change in cultural outlook to be of use in a general RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha campaign.

Maybe—Fires of Mingai: Hero Wars in the East Isles – Volume 2 is too location specific and too radical a change in cultural outlook to be of use in a general RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha campaign, but its scenarios could be used to explore a clash of cultures.

Darkness & Danger

When it comes to the Old School Renaissance, there are plenty of retroclones and microclones and other roleplaying games designed to emulate the play and feel of retroclones, but without being directly derived from Dungeons & Dragons. Further, in the two decades of the Old School Renaissance, there have been plenty of gaming darlings, designs that have garnered praise, play, and support from both within and without the Old School Renaissance. 2010’s Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying from Lamentations of the Flame Princess, was one of the first, bringing an adult sensibility to the hobby in terms of content, tone, and horror, whilst in 2019, Necrotic Gnome’s Old School Essentials presented a very clean and elegantly accessible version of the Moldvay/Cook 1980/81 version of Dungeons & Dragons. More recently, Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance style roleplaying game designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing made a splash with its doom punk attitude combined with its artpunk style. In each case, these offered a combination of the familiar play of Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying games with their own unique selling point. So, if Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying offered adult horror and Dungeons & Dragons, and Old School Essentials offered accessibility and elegance in a new version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons, and Mörk Borg offered doom metal sensibility alongside a splash of chromium yellow and neon pink, what does the latest darling of the Old School Renaissance, Shadowdark, have to offer in terms of its unique selling point?

Shadowdark is published by The Arcane Library following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Its claim was that it would be ‘Old School Gaming’, but modernised, and presented in a way that devotees of the Old School Renaissance and players of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. And in the case of the latter, a means of entering the Old School Renaissance sector of the hobby. So, what is Shadowdark? The publisher describes Shadowdark as, “…[W]hat an old-school fantasy adventure game would look like after being redesigned with 50 years of innovation.” And certainly, there is some truth in that, since what Shadowdark offers is Dungeons & Dragons-style play, but with many rules and mechanics that are modern, having been derived from the more recent iterations of Dungeons & Dragons rules. So, what it uses is the key d20 System mechanic of rolling a twenty-sided die and aiming to roll high to beat a difficulty class and ascending Armour Class, both drawn from Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition; the Advantage and Disadvantage mechanic from Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition; and the slot-based inventory system of microclones such as Knave. Thus, there is a lot here that a player of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition will recognise.

What the player of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition will not recognise is the replacement in Shadowdark of the Vancian ‘cast & forget’ style of spellcasting by having players of Wizards and Priests roll to cast magic. Then again, neither will the devotee of the Old School Renaissance. However, said devotee will recognise the standard attributes—rolled for in order, the relatively low Hit Points, standard Alignments of Law, Chaos, and Neutrality, Experience Points being awarded for treasure found, and certainly, a lot of content and tables designed to be used at the table and support developing play.

Shadowdark is a Class and Level roleplaying a la Dungeons & Dragons. In the game, players take on the roles of Crawlers, who will use their magic, iron, and cleverness to delve into and explore mysterious ruins, lost cities, and monster-infested depths. They will overcome traps, face monsters, and the constant threat of danger and calamity, but they will find gold and gems, amazing magic, and ancient, forgotten secrets, and with luck, survive to return to civilisation. As well as luck, they need light, and if ever it goes out, they are in danger of being attacked by those creatures and monsters who can see in the dark, of wandering into traps and chasms unseen, and getting lost in the depths of the Shadowdark!

A Crawler is defined by his stats, Class and Ancestry, Background and Talents, Armour Class, Hit Points, what he can carry, and more. The stats are the six standards—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. There are four Classes—Fighter, Priest, Thief, and Wizard, and six Ancestries—Dwarf, Elf, Goblin, Half-Orc, Halfling, and Human. Each Ancestry provides a single benefit. The Dwarf gains more Hit Points and rolls with Advantage at each Level to increase them; the Elf has a bonus to either ranged weapon attacks or his spellcasting checks; the Goblin cannot be surprised; the Half-Orc is better at fighting with melee weapons; the Halfling can turn invisible once per day; and the Human gains an extra Talent from his Class at First Level. What none of the non-Human Ancestries have is anything akin to Infravision or Darkvision. Thus, no Player Character can naturally see in the dark. This is by intent and it has major ramifications in play.

Each Class determines the arms and armour a Player Character can wield and wear, several Class abilities, and access to Class Talents. Each Class has a table of these, rolled for randomly at First Level and then every other Level. So, the Fighter can use all arms and armour, can carry more if his Constitution is higher, can master a weapon, and gains Advantage on either Strength or Dexterity checks to overcome an opposing force. The Talents include mastering another weapon, gaining a bonus to hit on all weapons, increasing a stat, improving Armour Class for one type of armour, and so on. These Talents can be rolled again and again as the Player Character acquires Levels.

Of the three other Classes, the Priest can Turn Undead and cast Priest spells, and generally gets better at spellcasting through his Talents. The Thief can Backstab and has Advantage on Climbing, Sneaking and Hiding, Disguises, Finding and Disabling Traps, and Picking Pockets and Locks. The use of the latter does not get batter through Talents, the Thief improving his Backstab Ability and combat prowess. The Wizard can learn spells from a scroll and cast spells, whilst his Talents include being able to make a random magic item get better at casting magic. Backgrounds range from Urchin, Wanted, and Cult Initiate to Scholar, Noble, and Chirurgeon. These provide no mechanical benefit; the player and Game Master being expected to work out when they provide a benefit or a penalty during play. Essentially, roleplay their use and provide an on-the-spot bonus or penalty, the most obvious being Advantage or Disadvantage.

Player Character creation is simple. Stats are rolled for in order—a complete new set can be rolled for if no stat is fourteen or higher—and the player then selects an Ancestry and Class, rolling for a Talent for the latter. He also chooses Alignment and purchases equipment.

Name: Brak
Class: Thief (Robber)
Ancestry: Goblin
Level: First
Alignment: Neutral

Strength 13 (+1) Dexterity 17 (+3) Constitution 14 (+2)
Intelligence 13 (+1) Wisdom 12 (+0) Charisma 05 (-3)

Armour Class: 14
Hit Points: 6

Abilities: Backstab, Thievery, Cannot Be Surprised
Talents: +2 Dexterity
Background: Sailor

Equipment: Crawling Kit, Leather Armour, Daggers, Lantern, Flint & Steel, Oil Flasks, Crowbar

Mechanically, to have his character perform a task, a player rolls a twenty-sided die and adds any Stat modifier and bonus from a Talent to the result. The Difficulty Classes are standardised to nine for Easy, twelve for Normal, fifteen for hard, and eighteen for extreme. It is possible to roll a critical hit or fumble, which will require interpretation in play. In combat, a critical hit will typically double damage, but if spellcasting, it will double one aspect of the spell. Combat plays out as you would expect for a Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying game.

Magic works the same way for Priests and Wizards. To have his spellcaster cast a spell, a player rolls a twenty-sided die and adds a Stat bonus to the result. This is either from Intelligence for Wizards or Wisdom for Priests. The Difficulty Class for spells is ten plus the tier of the spell. So, to cast a First-Tier spell, a player must roll against a Difficulty Class of eleven, then twelve for Second Tier spells, and so on. A spellcaster will know a number of spells and during an adventure can cast as many and as often as he likes. Once cast, he does not forget them. However, if the spellcasting roll is a failure, the spell cannot be cast again until the spellcaster has had a rest. If the roll is a one, or critical failure, then the spellcaster will not only forget the spell until he has had a rest, but also roll on the Wizard Mishap table if the spellcaster is a Wizard or complete a ritualistic penance if a Priest.

The players and their character also have access to Luck Tokens. These are awarded by the Game Master for good roleplaying, character heroism, and so on. Effectively, they are reroll tokens, which allow a player to reroll his dice. A player may only hold one Luck Token at any one time.

So far, so good. Shadowdark reads and sounds like a standard Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying game, but done in a very accessible style and with some tweaks. However, the play of it is radically different to most retroclones in two major ways. The first is Initiative. In almost every other roleplaying game, Initiative is determined at the start of a fight or the action. In Shadowdark, it is determined at the start of play and play progresses in turn order for the rest of the session like that, though it may be rerolled for combat and a Game Master can decide not to adhere to it all the time, allowing for more freeform play. When it is in effect, what it means is that the players and their characters are always on. There is no let up to the tension. They are Crawling through the dungeon or the temple or the caves and so they are in a dangerous place and anything can go wrong or happen at any moment.

The way is light. No Player Character has Infravision and can see in the dark, no matter what their Ancestry. Therefore, a party must keep a torch lit at all times. A torch or a lantern, only lasts for a single hour—and that is an hour of real time, not game time. At the end of the hour, the torch (or lantern) goes out and the Player Characters are in the dark. Now they can move and act in the dark, but it is difficult and dangerous. All actions are at a Disadvantage—including lighting a new torch—and the Danger Level of the location where the Player Characters are, rises to ‘Deadly’. The higher the Danger Level, the more chance of a random encounter. Plus, if there is a random encounter, the monsters are going to be able to see in the dark. Now simply changing one torch for another is not going to matter in most cases, but there will be moments when a light source being extinguished turns the situation into one of dread and fear. Imagine being in a fight and the light source goes out or fleeing from a cave-in and the light goes out…

For the Game Master there is excellent advice on running the game, always direct and the point. Providing information to the players so that they can make informed choices, telegraphing danger, dropping tells for traps, being the neutral arbiter, letting the players learn as their characters do through play, and so on. There is a brevity to all of the advice given, that makes it easy to grasp. Advice particular to Shadowdark suggests ways in which the Player Character’s light source can be ‘attacked’, whether by monsters or the environment, so that as well as the Player Characters needing to watch the clock for when the light goes out, they have to protect it too. There are suggestions for different modes of play, such as halving the time for which a torch remains alight for ‘Blitz Mode’ or ‘Momentum Mode’ that gives Advantage on repeated tasks and makes damage dice explode. There notes too, on running Shadowdark in ‘The Gauntlet’, a starting type of adventure for Zero Level Player Characters in which the survivors will rise to First Level much like the Character Funnel of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. To support this, there are tables upon tables, covering everything. A random ‘Something Happens!’ table, ‘NPCs’ and ‘Rival Crawler’ tables, tables for creating maps of the Shadowdark below and for Overland travel, ‘Settlement’ tables accompanied with ‘Taverns’ and ‘Shops’ tables, plus encounter tables for a variety of environments. One of the fun activities that the Player Characters can do during their Downtime is carouse and there is a fun table of outcomes which will often reward them with bonuses and Experiences. Plus, they might engage in a game of Wizards & Thieves, a gambling game whose rules are included overleaf!

There is not just a set of tables for generating monsters, but a good bestiary of monsters. From Aboleth, Acolyte, and Angels to Wraith, Wyvern, and Zombie, there will be a great that is familiar here from any Dungeons & Dragons-style game. Alongside the more well-known entries are more individual threats. These are given full page write-up as opposed to the thumbnail descriptions accorded most creatures, such as ‘Mordanticus the Flayed’, a skinless mummy-lich who lives in secret in the sanctum of Gehemna’s archmage and ‘The Ten-Eyed Oracle’, a barnacle-encrusted mass with ten writhing eyestalks that shoot out random damaging rays and which stalks the Shadowdark…

Rounding out Shadowdark is a further section of tables for generating treasure, which supports the ‘treasure as Experience Point award’ aspect of the roleplaying game. Included here are boons such as oaths, secrets, and blessings, for non-tangible treasures, plus all manner of tables for creating simple, but interesting magical items. For example, a shield with blurry indistinct edges that once per day deflects a ranged attack against the wielder or a dagger that trails sparkles and when it hits a target enables the wielder to learn the target’s true name. The notes on creating magical items are short, but do advise against creating items that grant Darkvision or light or increase the number of Inventory slots a Player Character has. Both of these adversely affect the core features of Shadowdark’s game play. The section is followed by a selection of ready-made magical items.

There are a lot of things that the Player Characters do in roleplaying and Dungeon & Dragons in particular with its procedural play that are conveniently glossed over and forgotten, it being assumed that the Player Characters automatically do it. This includes the lighting of torches and the maintenance of their upkeep or replacement. Shadowdark does away with that for a profound effect on game play and constantly highlighting the danger that the Player Characters are in. How much that game play of constantly being alert and of constantly watching the torches is going to last in the long term is another matter. At what Level does it become a tedious part of play? This is not something that is addressed in Shadowdark, but it may well be something that the Game Master wants to bear in mind as her campaign progresses.

Physically, Shadowdark is very well presented. The artwork is excellent and notably, the book is written in a short, punchy and concise style. Rarely is a paragraph more than a couple of sentences long. It is a thick, little hardback, but the formatting makes the content easy to read and quick to grasp and there are fewer rules in its pages than might be first imagined. Anyone coming to Shadowdark from a longer, more verbose roleplaying game will be very surprised by its brevity. However, some of the phrasing could have been clearer in places and marking of text in bold for some terms does not always work. Lastly, the roleplaying game is missing an index and a glossary might have helped.

If anything, Shadowdark has the feel of a Basic Dungeons & Dragons-style game at its core, but with modern additions that do not impede that feel or its play. What impedes its play—or rather what the players have to get used to—in comparison to other Dungeons & Dragons-style games are the rules for light and time. They need to adjust to never forgetting that their torch might go out at any time and that they are always on the clock and always in danger when Crawling. This is what Shadowdark has to offer the Old School Renaissance and players of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, its unique selling point—time and tension.

Your Second Star Trek Starter

With the publication of Star Trek Adventures by Modiphius Entertainment in 2017, there have been a total of ten roleplaying games based on the Science Fiction franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. In the past eight years, the publisher has provided solid support for the franchise across three different series of Star Trek. In turn, Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Generation and by extension, Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and Star Trek: Voyager, as well as Star Trek: Enterprise. In addition, the publisher has expanded setting with details of the Shackleton Expanse, whilst also encompassing the expanding settings for Star Trek with the StarTrek Adventures Star Trek: Lower Decks Campaign Guide for Star Trek: Lower Decks and the Star Trek Adventures Star Trek: Discovery(2256-2258) Campaign Guide and Star Trek Adventures The Federation-Klingon War Tactical Campaign for Star Trek: Discovery. With the further expansion of Star Trek with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Picard, so too does Star Trek Adventures change, with a second edition.

The Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set provides an introduction to Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition. It comes as a handsome boxed set containing two booklets—the forty-eight page ‘Rules Booklet’ and the sixty-page ‘Campaign Booklet’, four Reference Sheets, a Ship Sheet, seven pre-generated Player Character Sheets, a sheet of forty-four tokens, and a set of five twenty-sided dice. The Ship Sheet is for the U.S.S. Challenger, a Constitution Class multirole explorer. The seven pre-generated Player Character Sheets are for the ship’s captain, a Joined Trill; an Andorian security officer; a Vulcan physician; a Tellarite engineer; a Human Scientist; a Human Helmsman; and a Betazoid Engineer. These are all done on stiff cardboard and on the back of the character sheets there is a list of tasks and targets particular to their roles.

What is noticeable about this, is that the books and the reference and characters sheets are all done on a white background rather than the LCARS black background of the first edition of Star Trek Adventures. This makes everything very easy to ready and gives the whole Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set a very shiny, clean look and feel. The adventure for Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set is set in 2259, the era of Star Trek: The Original Series, but the changes necessary to run its mini-campaign, whether to Star Trek: The Generation or Enterprise, are merely cosmetic.

A Player Character in Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set is defined by Attributes, Disciplines, Focuses, Traits, Talents, and Values and Dictates. The six Attributes—Control, Daring, Fitness, Insight, Presence, and Reason—represent ways of or approaches to doing things as well as intrinsic capabilities. They are rated between seven and twelve. The six Disciplines—Command, Conn, Engineering, Security, Science, and Medicine—are skills, knowledges, and areas of training representing the wide roles aboard a starship. They are rated between one and five. Focuses represent narrow areas of study or skill specialities, for example, Astrophysics, Xenobiology, or Warp Field Dynamics. Traits and Talents represent anything from what a character believes, is motivated by, intrinsic abilities, ways of doing things, and so on. They come from a character’s species, upbringing, training, and life experience.

Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition employs the 2d20 System previously used in the publisher’s Mutant Chronicles: Techno Fantasy Roleplaying Game and Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, as well, of course, as the first edition of Star Trek Adventures. To undertake an action, a character’s player rolls two twenty-sided dice, aiming to have both roll under the total of an Attribute and a Discipline. Each roll under this total counts as a success, an average task requiring two successes. Rolls of one count as two successes and if a character has an appropriate Focus, rolls under the value of the Discipline also count as two successes. Target difficulties range from one to five, and if a player rolls more successes than is necessary to beat the difficulty, they are converted to Momentum.

Momentum can be spent for various effects. These consist of ‘Create Opportunity’ to purchase more twenty-sided dice to roll, up to a total of five; to ‘Create a Trait’ in a scene; to ‘Keep the Initiative’ in an action scene; to ‘Obtain Information’ by asking the Game Master questions; ‘Reduce Time’ to achieve objectives faster; and to have an ‘Extra Major Action’ or ‘Extra Minor Action’. There is a maximum amount of Momentum that the Player Characters can have and any excess is lost. So, the players are encouraged to spend Momentum rather than save it.

Main characters like the Player Characters possess Determination, which works with their Values or with the Values of the mission. A Value can either be challenged once per session in a negative or difficult situation to gain Determination or invoked once per session to spend Determination to gain an extra die for a check (a ‘Perfect Opportunity’) or to get a reroll of the dice in a check (‘Moment of Inspiration’). They also have Talents and Traits which will grant a character an advantage in certain situations. So Bold (Engineering) enables a player to reroll a single twenty-sided die for his character if he has purchased extra dice by adding to the Game Master’s Threat pool.

Now where the players generate Momentum to spend on their characters, the Game Master has Threat which can be spent on similar things for the NPCs as well as to trigger their special abilities. She begins each session with a pool of Threat, but can gain more through various circumstances. These include a player purchasing extra dice to roll on a test, a player rolling a natural twenty and so adding two Threat (instead of the usual Complication), the situation itself being threatening, or NPCs rolling well and generating Momentum and so adding that to Threat pool. In return, the Gamemaster can spend it on minor inconveniences, complications, and serious complications to inflict upon the player characters, as well as triggering NPC special abilities, having NPCs seize the initiative, and bringing the environment dramatically into play.

What the Momentum and Threat mechanics do is set up a pair of parallel economies with Threat being fed in part by Momentum, but Momentum in the main being used to overcome the complications and circumstances which the expenditure of Threat can bring into play. The primary use of Threat though, is to ratchet up the tension and the challenge, whereas the primary use of Momentum is to enable the player characters to overcome this challenge and in action, be larger than life.

Conflict uses the same mechanics, but offers more options in terms of what Momentum can be spent on, which includes both social and combat. Obviously for combat, includes doing extra damage, disarming an opponent, keeping the initiative—initiative works by alternating between the player characters and the NPCs and keeping it allows two player characters to act before an NPC does, avoid an injury, and so on. Now, in the first edition of Star Trek Adventures this damage would have been rolled for using Challenge Dice, but these are not used in the second edition. Instead, the attacker determines the base amount of damage inflicted and can increase its Severity by spending Momentum, whilst the defender decides to either accept the damage and suffer an Injury, which would take him out of the action or combat, attempt to avoid the injury and suffer Stress. This combination of a lack of dice rolled for effect and increased player choice streamlines the combat process.

Starships are treated in a similar fashion to Player Characters, but have Communications, Computers, Engines, Sensors, Structure, and Weapons rather than Control, Daring, Fitness, Insight, Presence, and Reason. There is advice on how to use each of them and each of them actually serves as a Focus when used by a Player Character. The various aspects of a ship, such as resistance, shields, crew support, and more are described before starship combat is explained. Typically, a Player Character can only conduct a single major action during each turn of a starship combat and each Player Character will have a role during this according to his position aboard ship and the appropriate Discipline—Command, Conn, Engineering, Security, Science, or Medicine. Starship combat is kept relatively brief, but the rules suggest the same degree of streamlining as in personal combat. However, personal combat is the easier of the two to grasp, though the inclusion of a dedicated example of starship does help the Game Master understand how it works.

The ’Campaign Book’ provides a big three-part mini-campaign called ‘INFINITE Combinations’. It begins with the crew of the U.S.S. Challenger answering a distress call from a mining city floating in the atmosphere of Kizomic VI. The city is under attack by a bizarre, tentacled alien lifeform and its inhabitants are calling for evacuation. There is lots of physical action in this first part as rescues are performed, alien attacks are held off, and desperate shuttlecraft missions are flown through a flurry of attacks and flying debris. There is some planning too, as to how to conduct the evacuation safely, involved, and a minor dilemma over the Prime Directive. The second scenario is shipbound, but again drives to an excitingly different climax after U.S.S. Challenger is stranded in the asteroid field it was meant be surveying and an extra-dimensional invader threatens the safety of the ship and the Player Characters have to race to make the repairs necessary to get away. Armed with some information as who might be responsible for the alien invasions, the crew of the U.S.S. Challenger track his movements to Starbase 23 and from there into an area of space disputed by Nausicaans, Klingons, and Gorn! The Away Team will make some amazing discoveries, but there is still the alien invasion from another dimension to contend with as well as the arrival of a small Nausicaan warship wanting to take control of the discoveries. The climax to the campaign is thus twofold, ideally with the action switching back and forth between the Away Team on planet and their starship above.

Overall ‘INFINITE Combinations’ is a decent mini-campaign, each scenario taking two or three sessions to complete and providing a good mix of action and combat with investigation and interaction thrown in. Plus, the ’Campaign Book’ adds three ‘Mission Briefs’ tied into the events and background to the campaign, so that the Game Master can develop them and add them to her campaign.

Physically, the Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set is very nicely presented. The books are clear and easy to read, with plenty of illustrations inspired by classic moments from Star Trek, though there is a scene from Lower Decks as well. The dice are decent and there are plenty of reference sheets for the players’ use.

The Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set is easy to pick up and then run and play if the Game Master has run Star Trek Adventures before, the rules changes consisting primarily of streamlining rather than a heavy rework. It will be harder for the Game Master new to the role, but the Star Trek Adventures – Second Edition – Starter Set does a good job of explaining things and providing tips and advice throughout, and then providing a good, solid Star Trek style adventure with lots of action and excitement and a moral dilemma or two thrown in along the way.

Immediate Idiosyncrasy

Weird Discoveries: Ten Instant Adventures for Numenera does something interesting and it does it very quickly. In fact, it has been designed to do it quickly. It is a supplement for Numenera, the Origins Award-winning Science Fantasy roleplaying game of exploration and adventure in the very far future, originally published in 2013 by Monte Cook Games. What it does is set out to solve the problem of wanting to roleplay and not having time to prepare to roleplay. It wants to do what board games allow, which is easy set up and readiness to play straight out of the box—or in the case of Weird Discoveries, off the page. To do this, it presents scenarios that can be read through and set up in the same time as it takes to grab a board game off the shelf, open the box, and set everything up. Once done, each scenario will provide a single evening or session’s worth of gaming as a board game would. Or in this case, roleplaying. Now it should be noted that Weird Discoveries: Ten Instant Adventures for Numenera is published for use with the first edition of Numenera, but the simplicity of the Cypher System, means that adapting or adjusting the supplement’s ten scenarios to Numenera Discovery.

All ten scenarios in Weird Discoveries: Ten Instant Adventures for Numenera follow the same format. Each opens with a brief summary followed by the details and the scenario’s salient points, before describing the scenario’s starting point for the Player Characters and the wrap-up, how it can be ended. Also detailed are the scenario keys, the clues and the MacGuffins or objects, that the Player Characters need to find to push the scenario’s plot onwards. This is followed by the scenario itself. Each scenario is constructed around a map or a plot, which always has links to further details, such as location and NPC descriptions, as well as stats. They include descriptions of the possible GM Intrusions, the means by the Game Master challenges, imperils, and rewards the Player Characters.

Some of the locations or plot points are marked with symbols for the scenario’s keys. Depending on the scenario, these can be a set place or the Game Master is given the option to place them a choice of different locations. The layout is always simple, clear, and easy to use straight from the page. The scenario proper is followed by ‘More Details’. These are not necessary to actually run the scenario, but if the Game Master has time to read through them, provide her with extra information which enables her to expand the scenario. This is not just with details that will enliven her portrayal of the scenario, but advice on how to insert the scenario into an ongoing campaign, including a map of where it might be located in the Ninth World, and lastly, the Experience Awards for completing the adventure as well as possible further ramifications. The Experience Awards are the only thing that the Game Master needs for this section if she does not have time to read through this third section.

Further support for all ten scenarios comes in the form of ‘Show ’Ems’, twenty full colour illustrations designed to be shown to the players as they roleplay through each scenario. There is also a ‘Numenera Cheat Sheet’ for ready rules reference and a set of six ready-to-play Player Characters. The handouts help bring the scenarios to life, whilst the pre-generated Player Characters enhance the ready-to-play nature of the anthology. There is also a list of possible Cyphers—the devices and unguents and gases and concoctions—that the Player Characters can find to enhance themselves temporarily during a scenario. Further support comes in the form of an excellent introductory guide to improvised Game Mastering. Overall, the combination of format and support makes the scenarios in the anthology both easier to prepare and develop beyond the single session game play they are designed for.

The decade opens with ‘Beneath The Pyramid’ in which the Player Characters track down missing beasts to gigantic black pyramid floating over a ruined city and try find their way in from below. Simple enough, it is followed by the more complex, ‘Inside the Horror Pyramid’. These are the only two directly connected scenarios in the anthology, but the second is a much nastier affair, the Player Characters finding themselves trapped within the pyramid and stalked by dangerous energy creature with a penchant for eyes! The Player Characters need to find the means to get through a sealed door and then out of the Pyramid, hopefully eyes intact. ‘Natural And Unnatural’ places a village in peril when the device it relies upon for clean water disappears and the Player Characters have to find out where it has gone. Should the Game Master want to, the scenario has ways to expand by adding links to other entries in the supplement. Divine right versus divine reputation clash in ‘The Spider Knight’ when the Player Characters give aid to a young women who claims her throne has been usurped and potentially discover how far she will go to reclaim her family seat. ‘Please Help Us’ opens with the Player Characters being asked to help free a group of explorers trapped in a Cypher device, but doing so means angering a nearby group of religious Inhumans.

The sixth adventure, ‘Guilty!’ does something usefully far more complex, but in the two-page spread format of Weird Discoveries. It is a murder mystery set in a town divided by a river in which members of the Varjellen community from one side of the river are being murdered by humans from on the other side. Of course, there is more to it than simply that, but it is neatly presented as an elegant little plot flowchart with all of the various details in just the place both narratively and geographically. It is the most pleasing of all the entries in Weird Discoveries. A daughter has gone missing in ‘Lost in the Swamp’, but what if she does not want to come back? Whilst in ‘Mother Machine’, the inhabitants of another village are under attack, but nobody knows why. There is a surprisingly good reason though… ‘From Here To Sanguinity’ reveals the perils of worship in the Ninth Age, whilst in the last entry, ‘Escape from the Obelisk’, the Player Characters find themselves trapped in another floating object and have to find a way out. This time though, they are up against a deadline as they have been infected by a scientist to see how they react and need to find a cure before they can escape. It still feels a little like the second scenario, and perhaps actually setting in the Black Pyramid of ‘Beneath The Pyramid’ and ‘Inside the Horror Pyramid’ would have been a nice call back.

Overall, the scenarios in Weird Discoveries: Ten Instant Adventures for Numenera are short and solid, rather than amazing or epic. That is not the aim of the anthology after all, which is to provide easy-to-prepare scenarios that showcase the weirdness of the Ninth Age in short sharp packages. Of the ten, ‘Guilty!’ stands out as the most interesting.

Physically, Weird Discoveries: Ten Instant Adventures for Numenera is very well presented. The maps are clear and the artwork is excellent, whilst sidebars give links and notes for the Game Master to add further to the scenarios. Notably, the two-page spread for the scenarios—one two-page spread for the introduction and background, one for the scenario itself, and one for the extra content, keep everything handily organised and accessible.

Weird Discoveries: Ten Instant Adventures for Numenera is exactly as advertised. A very serviceable, very useful, and superbly supported anthology that provides the means for the Game Master to bring a scenario to the table in mere minutes, but if he has the time, also the scope to expand each scenario and set it up in previous sessions. Overall, Weird Discoveries: Ten Instant Adventures for Numenera is such a good idea that you wish more roleplaying game settings had a supplement like this.