Relatives at Risk

Nephews in Peril: A Collection of New Mysteries in BRINDLEWOOD BAY is a companion volume to Brindlewood Bay: A Dark & Cozy Mystery Game. Published by The Gauntlet, Brindlewood Bay upended the traditional concept of murder mystery scenarios in roleplaying and changed what we play. In the traditional murder mystery scenario, the Keeper has the answers to hand—the victim, the suspects, the culprit, the means, and the motive—and the players and their characters have to deduce which of these is correct. In Brindlewood Bay, there is no set solution, but there are plenty of suspects and motives, and it is up to the players and their characters to hypothesise who the culprit is and why he committed the murder, and put it to the test. If passes, the murder mystery is solved. If not, the players and their characters must continue their sleuthing. Plus, the players are doing this with elderly female amateur detectives as their characters, such as Jessica Fletcher and Miss Marple, for example. Brindlewood Bay changed how we thought about investigative scenarios in roleplaying and how we played them. Besides the rules, Brindlewood Bay: A Dark & Cozy Mystery Game also detailed numerous murder mysteries, the Dark Conspiracy behind them that threatens the future of the quiet New England tourist spot, and a little about the town itself. Nephews in Peril: A Collection of New Mysteries in BRINDLEWOOD BAY presents the Keeper and her players—and their Mavens—with even more of this.

Nephews in Peril: A Collection of New Mysteries in BRINDLEWOOD BAY gives the Keeper a total of twenty new Mysteries, seven of which are of a new type of Mystery, which change the way in which Brindlewood Bayy is played—ever so slightly, and details more of Brindlewood Bay itself. It does not waste any time beyond simply listing the contents and describing the first mystery. After all, the Brindlewood Bay Keeper already knows what she is getting as far as the content goes. Each follows the same format as the core rulebook, with sections labelled, ‘Presenting the Mystery’, ‘Moments’ for various particular scenes, ‘Suspects’ complete with their quotes, ‘Locations’ with a guide on how to ‘Paint the Scene’ at each, ‘Clues’, and ‘Void Clues’, the latter connecting the mystery to the Dark Conspiracy playing out behind the scenes in the town. Also included is a ‘Complexity’ value, which represents the number of elements of the solution that the players and their Mavens need to discuss and hypothesise before they can make the ‘Theorise Move’ without a penalty. Some of the Mysteries do include elements that only come into play once parts of the Dark Conspiracy have been revealed, so the Keeper will need to pick which ones she wants to run and when. Further, some also have special rules, such as that for Brindlewood County Charity Poker Tournament which the Mavens can enter in the first mystery, ‘Dead Man’s Hand’.

The mysteries vary in tone. So, ‘Dead Man’s Hand’ takes place at a charity poker tournament, whereas ‘Lies and Dolls, or A Very Brief Tenure’, in which a corpse is discovered at the Museum of Brindle-Dolls, home to a collection of historic, locally-made dolls, and is thus a bit creepy. There is a sequel to ‘The Great Brindlewood Bay Bake-Off’ , with the Mavens again judges, but this time at Faversham’s Favourite Fudge competition at a farmer’s market in a neighbouring town, in the process, expanding the world of Brindlewood Bay, if only a little. The title of the latter, ‘Fudge, Jury, and Executioner’ is in the running for the best named mystery in the book, although ‘The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soulless’ and ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Murder’ are almost as good. There are classic locations for murder mysteries too such as auctions, high school reunions, and carnivals, but also odder ones too, such as at a high school wrestling tournament. One of the most potentially fun is ‘A Throng of Vice and Liars’, set at the Mavens’ own headquarters, The Candlelight Booksellers which is hosting fantasy author, Herb L. L. Paxton, currently facing some criticism about how long it is taking him to finish the sixth volume of what was originally planned to be a trilogy. It very knowingly and amusingly pokes at fandom and fantasy, both onscreen and on the page.

Seven of the Mysteries are ‘Sweeps Week Mysteries’. These are designed emulate the type of stunt episodes of a television series in the USA in the eighties and nineties, typically involving a weird plotline or celebrity guest star, intended to attraction higher advertising revenue. In Nephews in Peril, ‘Sweeps Week Mysteries’ are intended to be played late in Dark Conspiracy campaign, as Mysteries after the campaign has been completed, or as one-off Mysteries. ‘Sweeps Week Mysteries’ emphasis the supernatural rather than murder, and to account for this, instead of solving a murder, the Mavens are answering key questions about the mystery. Further, there are limitations on the mechanics, most notably negating the effect of several Maven Moves, removing the Occult Move, and the replacement of the ‘Theorise’ Move with the ‘Answer A Question’ Move. Where in normal murder mysteries, there are Suspects, here there are Side Characters, and where in normal murder mysteries, solving a mystery would be enough, here the Mavens get rewards. These can come in the form of new Moves, recurring Side Characters, decorations for the Cosy Little Place, and so on.

The ‘Sweeps Week Mysteries’ start out with the amusingly named ‘The Hex Files’, which finds the Mavens on a road trip to Who Dunnit? Con, a mystery book convention in California when they discover an overturned car in a ditch outside of Devilwood, New Mexico—a New Mexico which looks surprisingly like Vancouver—and it so happens that there are bodies of two dead FBI agents in the vehicle with files about missing persons on the road on their person. ‘Dressed to Kill’ shifts the mystery to the Peak District in the United Kingdom, whilst in ‘Let the Night One In’, the Mavens are invited to visit another famous crime writer, this time living in an isolated town in the Canadian north in deep winter when the sun never rises and people are going missing… There is a good mix of mystery types to these ‘Sweeps Week Mysteries’ and they show off the flexibility of the Brindlewood Bay mystery format, though with some mechanical changes.

The third part of Nephews in Peril is devoted to ‘The Village of Brindlewood Bay’. This expands greatly upon the setting presented in the core rulebook that add a mixture of new and old businesses, old and new locations. So, there is Historic Brindlewood Congregational Church, The First Well Historic Restoration Trust, and Minuteman Memorial Statue versus the Foam coffee house and Nerdcore, which caters to nerd culture including players of Sorcery: the Coalescence! Each entry includes a description that explains what it does and its role in the community, details of its proprietors and employees, and with ‘Pose a Question’, a reason why a Maven might visit. The sense of Brindlewood Bay as a place is further developed in the last part of the supplement is ‘A Cozy Little Place’ which gives advice for the Keeper in bringing the town to live and playing up its cosy nature, developing each Maven’s attachment to both her home and community. The aim is to provide a counterpoint to the rash of murders that beset the town and the growing realisation that something else is going on with the Dark Conspiracy. The advice is optional, but if used it can enhance the setting of Brindlewood Bay.

Physically, Nephews in Peril is clean and cosy, and thus in keeping with the main rulebook. It is well written and engaging, but the illustrations by Cecilia Ferri are stunning, veering between showing the Mavens joyously having the time of their cosy lives, not just in Brindlewood Bay, but around the world.

Although entirely optional, Nephews in Peril: A Collection of New Mysteries in BRINDLEWOOD BAY can be both expand the play of Brindlewood Bay: A Dark & Cozy Mystery Game and continue its play even after the Dark Conspiracy at its heart has been confronted and thwarted and the campaign is over. Nephews in Peril: A Collection of New Mysteries in BRINDLEWOOD BAY simply gives you more. More mysteries and more cosiness and more of Brindlewood Bay itself, but also a slightly different way to way to play which remains faithful to the inspiration for the roleplaying game itself.

Quick-Start Saturday: ShadowSun Revised

Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

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What is it?
ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart is the quick-start for ShadowSun Revised, a dark, post-apocalyptic desert setting which uses ShadowDark as its rules. It is inspired by, and implements, the world of Athas, the setting for Dark Sun, the ‘Swords & Planet’ Conan-meets-John Carter-style campaign for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition, published in 1991. It is one of the few Dungeons & Dragons settings not to have been updated to Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition despite it being a fan favourite. Further, the differences between Athas and traditional fantasy roleplaying, both mechanically and thematically, especially given its inclusion of psionics, has meant that there has been relatively little drive within the Old School Renaissance to recreate Athas or Dark Sun.

It consists of two separate books.

The ‘Player Quickstart for ShadowSun’ is a seventy-six page, 15.37 MB full black and white PDF. The ‘GM Quickstart for ShadowSun’ is a sixty-two page, 12.81 MB full black and white PDF.

How long will it take to play?
ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart includes the scenario ‘Colossi’s Rest’. This will take a session or two to complete.

What else do you need to play?
The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart needs a standard set of polyhedral dice and the ShadowDark rules.

Who do you play?
The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart does not include any pre-generated Player Characters, but shows off eight Ancestries and eight Classes. The eight Ancestries consist of Dwarf, Elf, Goliath, Hawkfolk, Human, Lizardfolk, Mantisfolk, and Mule. Of these, the Dwarf and Human Ancestries are what you would expect, whereas the Elf Ancestry differs from Dungeons & Dragons (or ShadowDark), and the rest are new. Elves are nomads, moving from one oasis to another, with limited views on property, so they are often mistrusted in the city-states and the worst of them become raiders and bandits. Goliaths are giant humanoids, but not actually Giants, created as a race by the Mage-Kings. They are fascinated by other cultures and adhere to personal aesthetics which influence their outlook. Hawkfolk have wings, and whilst they prefer to live in high places, cannot truly fly, only hover. Lizardfolk hunt the dusk sinks and Black silt seas for food and construct most of the ships sailing the Black. Mantisfolk are semi-nomadic insectoid humanoids who are absolutely loyal to their clutchmates. Mules are the infertile offspring of Humans and Dwarves, often born into slavery and thrown into the arena as pit fighters and gladiators.

The eight new Classes are the Enforcer, Explorer, Gladiator, Infiltrator, Mentalist, Shaman, Sorcerer, and Warrior. The Enforcer is trained to subdue and capture others rather than kill them, can cause others to freeze on the spot with a look, can place a subdued opponent in manacles, and has Advantage when questioning a captive for information. The Explorer is a scout with Advantage on navigation and tracking checks, knows how to deal with poison, and oddly, knows how to take advantage of others if he wants to betray them. The Gladiator is good at brawling and cheating at gambling. The Infiltrator can knock a target out with a blackjack, has an ear for conversation, and is skilled at Thievery. The Mentalist has a calming presence, has access to psionic powers, knows the silent language of Vedinal. The Shaman can affect undead, has an elemental affinity which protects him against that element and can temporarily create a handful of it, and specialises in nature spellcasting. The Sorcerer is an arcane spellcaster that when spellcasting check is failed, results in defilement and the loss of Hit Points to either the caster or an ally or a captive, which can kill them. The Sorcerer can easily understand languages and learn spells by studying tablets. Lastly, the Warrior is a skirmisher, spurred on in the first few rounds of combat, knows how to use the environment to his advantage with dirty tricks, and is skilled with throwing weapons.

Both the Ancestries and the Classes are clearly inspired by Dark Sun and fans of the classic setting will recognise those inspirations here. One issue clearly implied in the ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart—and thus in ShadowSun Revised itself—is that of slaves and slavery. For example, the Mule is typically born into slavery, the encounter tables include slavers, and both the Enforcer and Gladiator Classes are connected to slavery within the setting. The Enforcer may be capturing them and the the Gladiator may well be a slave. Slavery is a facet of the pulp fantasy and ‘Swords & Planet’ genres that ShadowSun Revised draws from. As an emulation of those genres, it is not unreasonable to include it as part of the setting, but only if handled in a mature fashion. That said, not every player or group is going to want to accept that as part of their campaign.

How is a Player Character defined?

A Player Character in the ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart—and thus in ShadowSun Revised—is defined as a standard ShadowDark Player Character. However, there are three notable additions. The first two relate to the Ancestries. Each Ancestry has a means to regain Luck tokens and a Refusal. For example, if an Elf spends a week or more alone in the wilderness or a Mule spends a week performing hard labour, each will gain a Luck token. The Refusal reflects an outlook that the Ancestry does not have, such as the Mule’s rejection of metaphysics and any idea of an afterlife or an inability, like the Mantisfolk inability to swim in water, dust, or the Black due to a lack of buoyancy. The third is the fact that every Player Character has a Psionic power, called a Wild Talent, not just the Mentalist Class.

In addition, the traditional Alignment of Dungeons & Dragons is replaced by Apathy, Empathy, and Tyranny. As well as being an outlook, these also provide a possible means of gaining Luck tokens.

How do the mechanics work?

The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart—and thus in ShadowSun Revised—uses the standard d20-based rules of ShadowDark.

How does combat work?
There are no specific combat mechanics in the ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart.

How does magic work?

Magic is formed from six Elements. These are Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Life, and Void. A spellcasting check is required to cast a spell. This can be rolled at Advantage or Disadvantage if an element is particularly strong in an area.

The arcane magic of the Sorcerer has potentially dangerous side effects. If a spellcasting check is failed, it will result in the loss of Hit Points in the caster, an ally, or a captive, and this loss can kill. A Critical Success allows one of a spell’s numerical effects to be doubled, whilst a Critical Failure means a magical mishap has happened. The caster loses the spell and a roll must be made on the Arcane Mishap table. At worst, this can result in a ‘Defilement Surge’, destroying all nearby plants and killing all nearby small creatures, and doing minor damage to all living creatures and inflicting heatstroke on them. If they are already suffering heatstroke, they die!

The nature magic of the Shaman has its own potentially dangerous side effects. However, being nature-based, they are not quite as dangerous.

How do Psionics work?

All Player Characters have a ‘Wild Talent’. This is a natural, but minor psionic ability. It does not include classic psionic abilities such as telepathy or teleportation or clairvoyance. Instead, a Player Character might be ‘Nimble’ and take half damage from falling and less damage from ranged attacks or have ‘Affinity’ with domesticated animals and all riding beasts are reliable. In a traditional roleplaying sense, these are more akin to advantages, but here they can still be interpreted as psionic abilities.

The Mentalist Class is the main user of Psionics, although some powerful NPCs and many creatures and monsters on Althea have them too. Where spells require a spellcasting check to cast them, psionic powers require Psionic Power check to activate a psionic power. The Critical Success and Critical Failure rules apply as normal and there is a Psionic Mishaps table for the latter. The psionic powers are organised into tiers just like the spells for the Sorcerer and the Shaman, but many of the higher tier psionic powers have prerequisites in terms of lower tier psionic powers. For example, Repel is a Tier 2 psionic power that can force opponents away from the user and potentially crush them against walls and other objects. The psionicist cannot learn it until he has mastered the Tier 1 power of Lift, which he uses to lift targets up off the ground and prevents them from moving or making melee attacks.

What do you play?

In addition to its scenario, ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart provides a lot of information about its world of Althea and the rules for ShadowSun Revised. From the start it makes clear that Althea is grim setting in a harsh world where everyone struggles for food, water, and shelter, and might is right. This is reflected in rations containing food and water being treated separately for purposes of survival, and a lack of water will lead to heatstroke, when every roll is made at Disadvantage, and Hit Point loss, which cannot be healed by magic. Extended deprivation like this will kill a Player Character.

The background to the setting explains how the once verdant world of Althea was transformed first by the Shadow Fall of its ancient moon of Sheera, from which the original inhabitants—the Wee Folk—of Althea stole its magic and transformed into many of the Ancestries known today. Second, by the ShadowSun which twisted the magic so that its use would defile the land and the sea, rendering them in deserts and silt. The ShadowSun also melted the metals causing them to flow into the depths, and now metal is rare, with arms and armour and other equipment constructed of wood, bone, and rock. This is reflected in the equipment list.

The travel rules account for the harsh nature of Athlea’s terrain and climate. Any distance travelled means that a Player Character will gain points of Exhaustion, the amount varying depending on the harshness of the terrain. Gain too many points of Exhaustion and a Player Character will suffer from deprivation, which again, is potentially lethal.

Most of what the Game Master and her players needs to run ShadowSun Revised is in the ‘Player Quickstart for ShadowSun’. The ‘GM Quickstart for ShadowSun’ covers terrain types, hazards, random encounters, dungeon types on Althea, and treasure as well as giving an extensive bestiary. It also includes the scenario, ‘Colossi’s Rest’. This is a dungeon adventure set in the body of a fallen golem that has been dug out by giant ants! The rumour tables will provide motivation and the Game Master might want to expand it little with some wilderness travel to show off the travel and survival rules, but the dungeon itself is very nicely detailed, a good mix of natural and the unnatural, both of which are a little weird.

Is there anything missing?
No. The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart has everything that a Game Master needs to run the included scenario. Probably more than she needs to run the included scenario.

Is it easy to prepare?
No. The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart contains a lot of information, and the players will need to create their own characters as well as the Game Master preparing the adventure.

Is it worth it?
Yes. The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart contains a wealth of information about the setting of Althea and the ShadowSun Revised rules. Arguably too much information in comparison to a traditional quick-start, being a lengthy and surprisingly detailed preview of what will be in the main rulebook rather than a quick-start. This does mean that preparing to run the scenario takes longer since the players actually need to create characters rather than choosing them, but it also means that it provides a very good feel for the world and shows you how its play will differ from that of traditional ShadowDark.

The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart is published by Chubby Funster and is available to download here.

Friday Fantasy: Glipkerio’s Gambit

In aspiring to great power and in obtaining the patronage of a great power, perhaps a god, a demon, or a celestial, there is sometimes a cost to be paid, a service to be rendered in return such patronage. So it is that the Three Fates, patron to the wizard in the party, call upon his aid and thus the aid of all in the party. There is no denying that is a great hook. It gets the Player Characters involved immediately because the wizard owes his patron a great deal and he stands to lose much, starting with his reputation and standing with the Three Fates, if he says no. What the Three Fates want him and the rest of the party to do is to recapture their temple, the Temple of Destiny. They can tell the Player Characters that it has been captured by the forces of Chaos, but no more, for something blocks their vision of it. To do so, the Player Characters must ascend Mount Tyche, in particular, the Staircase of Fate, close to the top of the mountain, in order to enter the Temple of Destiny and determine who leads the forces of Chaos in its takeover and defeat them.

This is the set-up for Dungeon Crawl Classics #80.5: Glipkerio’s Gambit is a scenario published by Goodman Games for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. It is designed for a party of Second level Player Characters and it can be played through in one or two sessions. What has happened is that the wizard, Glipkerio, emboldened by his dark patron, Obitu-Que, has brashly seized the Temple of Destiny and turned it into his own lair, tapping into the Fates’ wellspring of power to fuel his own magical research. In particular, he has been able to infuse an amulet with enough power to control time and will use that against the Player Characters in what is the best scene in the scenario. However, to get to that scene, the Player Characters have to get through the rest of scenario and the scenes and encounters that make up the rest of the scenario are not bad, they are far from inspiring or exciting. The scenario begins well, with the Three Fates summoning the Player Characters when they return home from a night out and asking for their help. It does not have to be the Three Fates and they could instead be replaced by a Player Character’s own patron, but in this instance, it is the Three Fates and they give the Player Characters a magical artefact, a thread from their spinning wheel to protect the wearer from the forces of Chaos. Once the Player Characters accept the task and are transported near Mount Tyche to bring their ascent. The Player Characters can follow the path that winds round the steeply conical mountain, climb up the side, or fly, but pretty much, after a handful of fights, they get to the top.

If the encounters up the mountain underwhelm, the random events do add some colour and many feel a bit more ominous. For example, the phrase ‘Turn back now’ has been chiselled into a rock wall in gigantic letters and the Player Characters can discover the severed head of a Dwarf propped up on a rock which will croak the same phrase again and again, “You-ooo go-ooo noooooow.” The scenario picks up a pace when the Player Characters reach the Staircase of Fate just below the entrance to the Temple of Destiny. There is a fun puzzle here for the Player Characters to crack, though it has the potential undermine the gift that the Fates gave them, and between that and the Temple of Destiny has turned the temple entrance into a Corpse Gate, a gate of undead flesh, all grabbing arms, formed from the corpses of the villagers who lived below the mountain. If the Player Characters get too close, they will be grabbed, but a Cleric’s Turn Unholy ability will release them or do damage, and if a Thief wants to pick the lock, he has to reach into a gaping mouth!

The finale sees the Player Character confront the wizard, Glipkerio, not just once but multiple times. This is because he has used his newly infused Chronomantic Amulet to reach back in time and recruit younger versions of himself. Fortunately, these younger versions of himself are not as powerful as he currently is, though there are more of them. The number of duplicates also limits his (or their) spellcasting ability, but the Player Characters will need to kill them multiple times before they stop reappearing, and eventually, they will only be facing one, which transforms into the strange cat-headed, partially furry, one tentacled arm creature depicted on the cover. It is a cinematically fun final boss battle which brings the scenario to an entertaining climax.

Unfortunately, an exciting climax does not make up for an otherwise unexciting and underwhelming scenario. There are few opportunities for roleplaying, but worse, the scenario mostly ignores its themes of fate and the Fates with the Three Fates and time travel and manipulation with Glipkerio’s newfound powers. There are elements of both in the scenario, but not enough. Some of this can be explained by a lack of space, the scenario barely running to nine pages in length, but it would have been interesting if the Player Characters had been given the option of exploring three possible Fates somehow and perhaps been flung around in time as well.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics #80.5: Glipkerio’s Gambit is as well presented as you would expect for a scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. The writing, the artwork, and the cartography are all excellent

Dungeon Crawl Classics #80.5: Glipkerio’s Gambit is a serviceable adventure and no more—as written. It feels constrained by its slim page count, so if a Judge wants to take it and develop its themes and create some engaging encounters and events around them, whether that is the Player Characters chasing Glipkerio through time or deciding between their fates, then Dungeon Crawl Classics #80.5: Glipkerio’s Gambit could live up to its ideas and its potential.

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Dungeon Crawl Classics #80: Intrigue at the Court of Chaos was the previous scenario •

The next scenario is Dungeon Crawl Classics #81: The One who Watches from Below.

Friday Filler: Lacuna

Lacuna is a very light game that is incredibly fast and easy to learn and quick to play and it also looks good on the table. It is an abstract, highly themed area control game that can be played in ten minutes and set-up again for another go. Published by CYMK, Lacuna is ‘A Cozy Game of Mystical Geometry’ designed for two players, aged eight and over. It stands out for two reasons. The first is the packaging. Lacuna comes as a sturdy tube dotted with flowers in sift pastel shades against a black background. The second is the components. The first of these is the playing surface, a black cloth mat roughly seventy centimetres square, marked with a blank circle in the middle and bordered by different flowers. The second are the game’s wooden tokens, forty-nine flowers divided into seven different shapes and colours. The third are the twelve pawns, six in silver and six in gold, and weighing quite a lot in the hand. The fourth is the tube itself, which serves as a shaker to sprinkle the flowers on the cloth. This is a game that looks good and feels good, but when it is on the table, it is simply pretty.

The idea behind Lacuna is that the players are competing to collect the most flowers from a pond by moonlight. The cloth mat represents the pond and the flower tokens the flowers they are collecting. At the start of the game, the mat is laid out flat and the player who will go first takes a flower token of any colour. This is because the second player will have an advantage in placing his tokens when going last because the first player cannot put a token near his. Then the rest of the flower tokens are placed in the game’s tube and sprinkled onto the cloth, adjust as necessary to ensure that they are not all clumped together. Play proceeds in two phases.

In the first phase, the flowers captured. To do this, a player draws an imaginary line between two flowers of the same colour. If nothing blocks them, he places one of his metal pawns anywhere on that imaginary line between the two flowers and takes the two flowers. This continues until both players have placed all six of their metal pawns.

In the second phase, the players take in turns to collect the remaining flowers. This is determined by the player whose metal pawn is nearest the flowers. If it is unclear whose metal pawn is closer to a flower or group of flowers, the game includes a ruler to determine the exact distance.

Once both phases are complete, the players determine who the winner is. If one player has the most of one colour flower, he wins that colour, and the player who wins the most colours, wins the game. Since there are only seven of each colour, a player only has to win four of a colour to win it, and since there are seven colours, a player only has to win four of them to win the game.

This all sounds a bit simple, even simplistic, and random. Of course, the distribution of the flowers is random, but whilst the mechanics of the play, that is, the placing of the metal pawns, is simple, their placing is not simplistic. There is some nuance to Lacuna. Not necessarily a great deal, but some. And it boils down to this… Where does a player place his metal pawn on the imaginary line between to flowers of the same colour? At one end or in the middle? It all depends on close the metal pawn can be placed to another group of flowers to claim them in the second phase of play. Too close and whilst the player will claim those flowers, the metal token might to far from other flowers to claim them. Too far, and the player might not be able to claim enough of them or any at all because his opponent has a pawn placed closer. After that, Lacuna is a numbers game. Since there are only seven flowers in a colour set, a player only needs to take four of them to hold the majority and claim the point. Consequently, a player cannot simply place his metal pawns at random if he wants to win. He does need to think about the best, or at least, the optimal places, to put them.

Physically, Lacuna is a lovely looking game. It comes in a sturdy tube, the cloth mat is clean and simple, and both the flower tokens and metal pawns are attractive. However, the tube does make the game difficult to store on the shelf along with other board games as much as it does make it stand out. The rulebook is underwritten, not defining quite exactly where the line is drawn between flowers in the game’s first phase. Is it from the middle or any edge? This can matter in play and the players will need to decide on a house rule. The distribution system of using the tube to sprinkle the flower tokens is cute, but there is always the chance that the flower tokens will roll off the table and the players will find themselves on their knees, looking for them on the floor.

Unfortunately, Lacuna is a game that will quickly outstay its welcome. Not because it is a bad game. It is not. Rather, it is charming and simple, and easy to teach and play, but it lacks depth. It is relying upon the attractiveness of its components—and they are very pretty—rather than game play to sell itself. At its worst, Lacuna is slightly fiddly and irksome trying to work out if a line is clear or which is the nearest metal pawn. At its best, Lacuna is cozy and calming, a perfect five or ten minutes between longer, deeper games. Its simplicity and attractiveness make it suitable for play with children and family members who do not play board games, but for veteran board gamer, Lacuna will likely live up to its true meaning.

Companion Chronicles #24: The Adventure of the Deluded Knight

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

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What is the Nature of the Quest?

The Adventure of the Deluded Knight is a short encounter for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition.

It is a full colour, eleven page, 2.16 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy, though it does need an edit.

Where is the Quest Set?

The Adventure of the Deluded Knight is a scenario for Pendragon, Sixth Edition. It takes place in the year 481 CE, during the events of the Uther and Anarchy Periods near Salisbury, but can be set in any year with little difficulty.

Who should go on this Quest?

Any type Player-knight can go on this quest. The scenario suggests that both both Christian and non-Christian Player-knights be included and that Religious Knights will have an advantage.

What does the Quest require?

The Adventure of the Deluded Knight requires the Pendragon, Sixth Edition Core Rulebook and the Pendragon: Gamemaster’s Handbook.

Where will the Quest take the Knights?

In The Adventure of the Deluded Knight, the Player-knights are sent west towards the Forest of Gloom and in the direction of the market town of Warminster. The town has the ancient right to smelt all the bog iron found on Salisbury Plain. This summer’s mule train which left with the bog iron and is expected to return with Salisbury’s share of the smelted iron has not returned and the Player-knights are sent to investigate. The journey is relatively straightforward barring a possible ambush with bandits/deserters in a chalk gorge along the way, before the Player-knights ride up into the Forest of Gloom. Here they discover the members of the mule train cut down, and its leader, Sir Bursules, missing. Wild-eyed, bruised and bloodied when they finally track him down, Sir Bursules is initially pleased to see the Player-knights, as he is about to pass judgement upon a pair of commoners, whom he accuses of being demons and tools of Satan! The likelihood is that Sir Bursules will soon turn on the Player-knights making the same accusations, though unlike the commoners, they have the means to defend themselves.

Unfortunately, Sir Bursules is a driven individual, even inspired, having been affected by something of a fiendish nature and there is possibility that whatever is affecting him can also affect the Player-knights. Non-Christian Knights have a slight advantage, but Player-knight upon Player-knight action is a distinct possibility and it is not impossible that all of the Player-knights are affected and momentarily made into NPCs! At which point, the players can switch to playing their squires. The scenario accounts for and explores various different possible outcomes that can result from the Player-knights’ encounter with Sir Bursules, but it is likely to get quite chaotic at the end as the finale descends into a mass of whirling blades and cries of “Demon!”

The adventure ultimately forces the Player-knights to confront someone who has fallen prey to deceit and illusion, and potentially themselves, should they also fall prey to it. The scenario lays the groundwork for sequels in which others also fall victim to it as well

Should the Knights ride out on this Quest?

The Adventure of the Deluded Knight is as written, a solid scenario that can easily be added to a campaign, no matter in which period the Game Master is setting it. However, as a campaign introduction it is slightly underwhelming, only hinting at some of the things to come.

Miskatonic Monday #437: The Light on the Hill

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 Light on the Hill

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Geoff Bridges

Setting: London, 1928

Product: Scenario

What You Get: Fifty-four page, 36.42 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Missing men lead to pastoral horror

Plot Hook: Ensure that restoration work is complete
Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, seven NPCs, seven handouts, four floor plans and maps, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Excellent

Pros

# Home Counties, market town horror

# Strong on investigation

# Can be adapted to other periods, especially Cthulhu by Gaslight

# High production values

# Excellent handouts

# Ecclesiophobia

# Nyctophobia

# Gephyrophobia

Cons

# Portraits heavy-handed

# Short

Conclusion

# Short, but well done and well presented parochial peril 

# Solid investigation and low key horror

Scouting for Scares

The concept of children versus Cthulhu is not new, but it is challenging when it comes to roleplaying, since it has to provide rules for playing children in Call of Cthulhu, a roleplaying game in which the Investigators are adults, and also make adjustments for the lethality of encountering its alien races and cosmic entities—both mentally and physically. Publisher Trepan’s The Haunted Clubhouse: The Little Play House of Horrors made few changes, whilst The Dare from Sentinel Hill Press stripped the rules back with ‘The Call of Kid-thulhu’. Both of those are single scenarios, whereas Golden Goblin Press’ The Eldritch New England Holiday Collection explored the young lives of scions of the Mythos, making adjustments in terms of the amount of Luck that the youthful Investigators can spend and receive and its campaign framework. Campfire Tales: Scouts Against Cthulhu goes even further. Inspired by the likes of The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books, films E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and The Goonies, as well as the more recent Stranger Things and even Scooby Doo, Where Are You? presents rules for creating pre-teen and teenage Investigators, gives them an Investigator organisation, and the Keeper a complete setting and campaign that plays out over the course of several years.

As the title suggests in Campfire Tales: Scouts Against Cthulhu, what the supplement for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition from Chaosium, Inc. does is make its Investigators the young members of a Scouting organisation. This gives them the reason to be together and bond together, because over the course of their time as Scouts, they will discover strange things in the ‘Westhaven Campaign’ about their hometown, things that few, if any, adults will believe. Then perhaps as result of their experiences in their formative years, they might become adults who will investigate the Cthulhu Mythos in the traditional sense and go on as adult Investigators looking into the mysteries of such campaigns as Masks of Nyarlathotep or A Time to Harvest. To do that, Campfire Tales and the ‘Westhaven Campaign’ shift the story back a few years from the Jazz Age of classic Call of Cthulhu, to the late 1910s and the end of the Great War. This will add its own tensions to the ‘Westhaven Campaign’ in terms of the relationships between the Scouts—both the junior Investigators and NPCs, and adults in the setting, but it also means that if the Scouts graduate from Campfire Tales, that they can attend college and gain some experience and life skills before diving into the myriad of options in terms of scenarios and campaigns set during the Jazz Age. Essentially, instead of a player describing his Investigator’s backstory, he and his fellow players can roleplay it.

Campfire Tales: Scouts Against Cthulhu begins with an origin of the project and a history of the Scouting movement, and also the ‘Wayfarer Scouts’, the fictional organisation that the junior Investigators belong to in the campaign. Notably, the founder’s wife is a supporter of suffrage and thus the organisation allows both boys and girls as members. The Scout-Investigators will all be members of the same patrol and as they age and learn—and also play through the ‘Westhaven Campaign’, they will move through four ranks. These are ‘Wanderer’, ‘Rover’, ‘Ranger’, and ‘Warden’. As a ‘Wanderer’, a Scout-Investigator will be eleven or twelve years old, but by the time he is a ‘Warden’, he will be seventeen or eighteen. As he progresses, each Wayfarer Scout will learn new skills, improve the skills he already has, and earn badges. Badges provide an important benefit during play.

To create a Scout-Investigator, a player rolls for characteristics as normal, although Strength, Size, and Education will vary depending upon the Scout-Investigator’s age and rank in the Wayfarer Scouts. Instead of an Occupation, a Scout-Investigator has a Hobby, such as Amateur Sleuth, Farmhand, Junior Photographer, Junior Police Corps, Library Helper, Religious Assistant, or Shop Assistant. Each suggests the obligations that the Scout-Investigator has, lists eight skills, suggests an associated ‘Trusted Adult’, and a badge that the Scout-Investigator can start play with. All Scout-Investigators receive a set number of points to assign to their Hobby. The ‘Trusted Adult’, whether that is petty criminals or local police for the ‘Street Punk’ or a boat owner, fisherman, or navy veteran for the ‘Junior Sailor’, is an adult that at least will listen to what the Scout-Investigator has to say and trusts them, whereas other adults do not trust the Scout-Investigators and will be wary of them. Through events and roleplaying, a ‘Trusted Adult’ relationship can be soured, but it provides each player and his Scout-Investigator an NPC to interact with and the Keeper with an NPC to portray on a regular basis. In addition, the Scout-Investigator has a ‘Fear’ that can make certain situations for him more stressful.

Henrietta Brinded
Age 11, Hobby: Amateur Sleuth
Family Credit Rating: Average
Trusted Adult: Local Librarian
Badges: Wayfarer Scout Badge, Wanderer Badge, Reading Badge

STR 18 SIZ 36 CON 40 DEX 70
APP 75 INT 75 POW 65 EDU 30
Cool 65 Luck 80 Damage Bonus -2 Build -2
Move 8 HP 5

COMBAT SKILLS
Dodge 35%

SKILLS
Law 30%, Library Use 55%, Locksmith 26%, Persuade 35%, Read Lips 26%, Spot Hidden 50%, Stealth 45%, Track 35%
LANGUAGES
Other Language (French) 11%, Other Language (Latin) 11%, Own Language (English) 30%

BACKSTORY
Personal Description: Tall and skinny, sandy haired and freckled.
Treasured Possessions: Latin-English Primer, magnifying glass
Traits: Honest
Phobias: Heights

Mechanically, Campfire Tales makes a change to one skill and adds three others. The Credit Rating skill is shifted to reflect the status of the Scout-Investigator’s family rather than the Scout-Investigator himself, since he will likely have a few cents in his pocket. ‘Language (Signals)’ covers Semaphore and Morse Code; is imported from Cthulhu Dark Ages and replaces Psychoanalysis, but is more immediate in its effect; and Ride (Bicycle) is self-explanatory. Campfire Tales otherwise lists all of the skills in Call of Cthulhu, but many are marked as uncommon for Scout-Investigators or as suitable only for adults. Luck can be more readily spent to adjust skill rolls and if a Scout-Investigator gets stuck, the Keeper can ask for a ‘Leap of Logic’ roll, enabling the naïve eleven-year-olds to connect the dots in a televisual or cinematic way.

When out camping or hiking, a Scout-Investigator can suffer ‘Adversity’. This comes in the form of five forms—cold, hunger, lost, overburdened, and sore. Campfire Tales details their individual effects, but in addition, the more of them that a Scout-Investigator is suffering, the more penalty dice that a player has to roll for Cool rolls for his Scout-Investigator. However, if a Scout-Investigator overcomes one of the five adversities, it encourages the player to describe what his Scout-Investigator actually does to overcome them.

The major addition to Campfire Tales is that of ‘Badges’. All Scout-Investigators start play with the Wayfarer Scout Badge, Wanderer Badge, and an Ability Badge from his Hobby, and will go on to earn Rover, Ranger, and Warden Badges. Each of which will replace the previous rank Badge in terms of the ability it grants. Every badge gives the holder benefits, which will often alter traditional Call of Cthulhu play. The Wayfarer Scout Badge lets a Scout-Investigator spend Luck to help others; the Wanderer Badge enables Scout-Investigator to succeed at one roll once per session; the Rover Badge to refresh the Scout-Investigator’s Luck; and so on. The Ability Badges include Animal Friendship, Crafting, Cycling, Hiking, Knot-Tying, Nature, Orienteering, Public Speaking, Radio, Signals and Codes, Weather, and more. Each of the Ability Badges grants an increase in an associated skill and an extra bonus once per scenario. For example, the Animal Friendship Badge lets a Scout-Investigator understand whatever it is that a dog or cat is trying to tell him; the Camping grants a bonus to the Mechanical Repair skill; and the Weather Badge to correctly forecast the weather. All of these badges bring a strong narrative element to the play of Campfire Tales as well as enforcing the world of Scouting with its culture of self-improvement and self-reliance.

In terms of combat, Campfire Tales makes some pleasingly thematic changes that both account for the size of a Scout-Investigator and the Scouting ethos. Unlike traditional Call of Cthulhu, in Campfire Tales the Scout-Investigators can not only work together, but are encouraged to do so to gain the benefits of Assisted Fighting Manoeuvres. These are not set in stone, but dependent upon the situation, the imagination of the players, and the goal they want their Scout-Investigators to achieve. Examples given include entangling an enemy in a bedsheet to give time for the Scout-Investigators to run away or pushing an enemy down the stairs. The rules for handling Assisted Fighting Manoeuvres are slightly complex, relying upon the Scout-Investigators’ Builds to determine if they gain bonus or penalty dice, but they do include a fully worked out example which is helpful. Further most weapons are cumbersome for Scout-Investigators and require a Strength check to wield without a penalty. When hurt, a Scout-Investigator heals faster, ignores Major Wounds, and at zero Hit Points is unconscious, not dead. Unless a Scout-Investigator suffers damage equal to his maximum Hit Points in one go or under certain circumstances, he cannot die. Spending thirty points of Luck will also allow a Scout-Investigator to escape death.

The last big change to Campfire Tales is to Sanity. It replaces Sanity with ‘Cool’. A Scout-Investigator’s Cool is equal to his Power and unlike Sanity does not go up or down. Instead of losing Sanity points and going insane if a Cool roll is failed, a Scout-Investigator can suffer one of five involuntary reactions—‘Fawn’, ‘Fight’, ‘Flight’, ‘Flop’, or ‘Freeze’—which the player is free to choose from (though the Keeper can dictate which reaction a Scout-Investigator has), and his player must tick a Distress Box on the Scout-Investigator sheet. These are labelled ‘Stressed’, ‘Jumpy’, and ‘Upset’, but have no mechanical effect, though of course, they should be roleplayed. When all three are ticked, the Scout-Investigator is ‘Distressed’ and possibly subject to ‘Delusions’ as per standard Call of Cthulhu. A Scout-Investigator’s Fear will make a Cool roll harder. Ticks can be removed from Distress Boxes with a night of rest at home, a good night’s camping round the fire, or at the end of a scenario.

The setting for ‘Westhaven Campaign’ is Westhaven, a quiet town some forty miles west of Arkham, Massachusetts, near the border with New Hampshire. So, on the edge of Lovecraft Country. The notable locations, including the scout hut, and NPCs, including any ‘Trusted Adults’, are all detailed, as is the ‘Sons of Seth’, a branch of a secretive cult with Egyptian origins that governs the town. Also detailed are the members of a second, rival Wayfarer Scout squad in the town, a very helpful Hobo, Boxcar Jim, and there are also options for shifting the campaign to the relative metropolis of Arkham and the heart of Lovecraft Country.

The ‘Westhaven Campaign’ is divided into four parts, one for each Wayfarer Scout Rank and thus two years apart. All four scenarios include ‘Leads’—obscure and obvious clues—at the end of particular key sections to help the Keeper each run one. They start with ‘Tremors Below’, which is for Wanderer scouts. The Scout-Investigators are taking regular hikes to work towards their Hiking Badge in the nearby Orth-Beane Forest Preserve when the fog sets in and suddenly, Don Blackwell, the assistant scout leader in charge of the hike, is grabbed from below and pulled under the earth, leaving his scout hat behind. Lost out in the woods, the Scout-Investigators must find their way back to Westhaven, perhaps plagued by bad dreams and fears of what exactly it was that attacked Don Blackwell, but a friendly and desperate dog leads the Scout-Investigators to what is both a bloody discovery and a potential source of solutions. The scenario culminates in a chase back to town, the Scout-Investigators harried by the thing from below.

Two years later and the Scout-Investigators are Rover Scouts when one of their number’s curiosities are aroused by the arrival of a large car from which two men in dark suits deliver a wooden crate to the home of Colonel Grimm, local celebrity author and semi-retired explorer, and they seemed to be talking to the crate. The scenario plays better if one of the Scout-Investigators is related to Colonel Grimm since it makes it easier for him to gain access to his house and strengthens the reason why the Scout-Investigators want to, and otherwise, the Scout-Investigators will have to break in, which may not be in keeping with the Scouting code of conduct. The Scout-Investigators do have a potentially sympathetic ally in the house in the form of Colonel Grimm’s housekeeper, but they also have to get into Colonel Grimm’s study where the crate is kept. Get past the possible issues with the set-up and the scenario has some nasty secrets to unleash within the house, which the Scout-Investigators will need to battle to defeat.

As Ranger Scouts, the Scout-Investigators can discover the ‘Treasure of the Secret Way’ after Boxcar Jim gives them a map to an old mine marked with the word, ‘gold’. Worse, after some research, the Scout-Investigators learn that it is also haunted. This is an exploration scenario, as much like a dungeon as a children's adventure film from the eighties, one filled with secrets, some mundane, some connected to the Mythos and the history of nearby Westhaven.

More secrets of Westhaven are revealed in the fourth and final part of the campaign, ‘Shadow Over Westhaven’. This is a two-part scenario and will take longer to complete than the previous three scenarios. In the first part, ‘Lakeside Horror’, now Warden Scouts, the Scout-Investigators as well as the Scouts from the other patrol are invited on a three-day camping trip to New Hampshire’s Green Mountains, and everything seems to be going well when two Scouts go missing from their tent. This combined with the odd behaviour of the brother and sister hosts and strange discoveries made in the woods, puts everyone on edge, with good reason as the trip comes to a brutally nasty conclusion.

If the first part sees the Scout-Investigators acting directly against adults in the form of the sinisterly bucolic brother and sister, the second part escalates this as they act against many of the adults in Westhaven. In ‘Hands of Winter’, when they return to town, the Scout-Investigators find it in an icy grip—figuratively and literally—as fires are banned, the temperatures drop, and many of the townsfolk are driven to construct a series of wooden towers, whilst the rest cower in fear. The Scout-Investigators’ inquiries point to the home of the brother and sister hosts of their ghastly camping trip and potentially one of the creepiest scenes in the campaign. The scenario ends with a traditional summoning ceremony which requires careful staging by the Keeper. However, one advantage that the Scout-Investigators have is that they can ‘Be Prepared’ and have to hand many of the items and artefacts that they gathered in the previous three scenarios. The scenario includes notes on how each of them can be used in the finale to give them all manner of boons. The scenario does suggest what happens if the Scout-Investigators fail (and if they do fail, it could set up a more traditional Call of Cthulhu campaign with the town under the sway of an evil cult), as well as what happens if they succeed. A nice touch is that if they do succeed, the Scout-Investigators earn the respect of the adults in Westhaven.

Rounding out Campfire Tales is a set of four appendices. These provide extra scenario seeds, a glossary of Scouting terms, a list of spells in the campaign (including three new ones), and a quick reference guide for the campaign’s new rules. These are all useful.

In addition to the fact that it is designed to be played with teenage Scouts, the ‘Westhaven Campaign’ is not a traditional campaign for Call of Cthulhu. Its story is more physical than mental and what holds it together is not the Sons of Seth as a threat, but the presence of the Scout-Investigators and what they experience in and around the town. Indeed, the Sons of Seth as an organisation does not play a role in the campaign, though several of its members do. Where in a traditional campaign for Call of Cthulhuu, the Investigators would be directly making enquiries into the cult, here the Scout-Investigators are never given the opportunity and it is not part of the campaign as a whole. Consequently, the ‘Westhaven Campaign’ is more a series of adventures with some occurring adversaries, than a campaign with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The Mythos is also non-traditional until the very end.

The ‘Westhaven Campaign’ is relatively straightforward and the experienced Keeper could run it without reference to the Call of Cthulhu Keeper Rulebook (though the Keeper may want to refer to the Chase rules for the first scenario). However, Campfire Tales is not a standalone book. It just could have been. One thing it is missing is advice for the Keeper on writing and creating more for the genre. So, Campfire Tales is a campaign with a very specific set-up rather than a supplement. Had it had that advice it might better have lived up to its tagline.

Physically, Campfire Tales: Scouts Against Cthulhu is well presented. In particular, the artwork is some of the best of any supplement for modern Call of Cthulhu. It is directly inspired by the work of Norman Rockwell—and this is intentional. Rockwell painted scenes of Americana and pastoralism and had a strong association with the Boy Scouts of America, illustrating covers for the organisation’s publications and calendars. So, it is fitting that his style is adhered to here.

Campfire Tales: Scouts Against Cthulhu is the most radical campaign and supplement for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition since Regency Cthulhu: Dark Designs in Jane Austen’s England. The latter forced the players and their Investigators to think about their social status and their reputation in investigating the Cthulhu Mythos, but Campfire Tales forces the players to think about investigating the Mythos from a very different position where the players cannot bring the force of the adult world to bear and must see things from a child’s perspective. It counters this with the narrative elements such as the effect of the Badges and the Assisted Fighting Manoeuvres that also reinforce the Wayfarer Scouts set-up and the Investigators as Scout-Investigators. Campfire Tales: Scouts Against Cthulhu presents and supports a great set-up and a different way in which to play Call of Cthulhu, and does so with some entertaining scenarios rather than a campaign in the traditional sense.