Magazine Madness 33: Tortured Souls! Issue One

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

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Adventures—beginning, of course, with dungeons for Dungeons & Dragons—had long been a feature of roleplaying game magazines, such as the Dragon magazine and White Dwarf, but they had been included alongside other content such as news, reviews, and other supporting content. So, it was rare for any magazine to be devoted to entirely adventures and nothing. Of course, the long running Dungeon magazine from TSR, Inc. is the major exception, running for some two-hundred-and-twenty-one issues, in print and online between 1986 and 2013. Bootstrap Press published six issues of Adventures Unlimited in 1995 and 1996, but before both that and Dungeon, there was Tortured Souls!. Published by Beast Enterprises Limited—or ‘Beast Entz’—it ran for twelve issues between 1983 and 1988, providing support primarily for Advanced Dungeon & Dragons, First Edition and Dungeons & Dragons, but later RuneQuest.

Tortured Souls! stood out not just for its adventure-focused content, but also for its format. It was magazine-sized, but it was not quite professionally-presented enough to be a magazine like White Dwarf or Imagine, yet it was too professionally-presented to be a fanzine. Instead, it sat somewhere in between, a ‘pro-zine’ if you will. Part of this is due to the heavy look and feel of its style, unbroken by any advertising in the early issues, which at the same time gave it daunting appearance and acted as an impediment to actually reading it. The other oddity was Tortured Souls! was almost designed to be pulled apart, with its featured adventure often appearing the middle with coloured sections or on different-coloured paper more like an insert than a part of the magazine. This meant that adventures would often be split between before and after this ‘insert’ and that the magazine was not a linear read in that sense. 

Tortured Souls! Issue One launched with the following description: “TORTURED SOULS! is unique among fantasy publications, combing high quality module material with an inexpensive magazine format. Every issue contains solid gaming material, consisting solely of ready-to-play scenarios for the leading role-playing games systems, put together by some of the most experienced writers in the country.” That said, none of those writers are credited in the issue, but the editorial continued, “With four or more complete scenarios in every issue, we believe that TORTURED SOULS! gives you a much better deal than ordinary packaged modules.” In addition, issues of Tortured Souls! provided support for its Zhalindor Campaign, designed for experienced players.

Published in October/November 1983, Tortured Souls! Issue One contains three scenarios and one solo scenario, all for Advanced Dungeon & Dragons, First Edition. Two of these are for the Zhalindor Campaign. The first of the four adventures in the issue is ‘The Chevalier’s Shrine’. This is designed for a beginning party of six to seven First Level Player Characters, although not totally beginning players and the introduction to the module makes much of the fact that it is not designed for players inclined to “[M]indless ‘hack-and-slay”, but for players who want a more challenging test for their roleplaying skills. Similarly, the Dungeon Master is advised that the adventure will require some development to bring its description to life as this has been kept to a minimum. What the adventure does make use of is the Dungeon Floor Plans series published by Games Workshop and the Dungeon Master is encouraged to use them and lay them out as shown in map, together with 25 mm miniatures, in order to keep the players interested. There are notes too, on running the scenario with more experienced players and their characters, suggesting two players with a Fighter and a Thief, each of second Level, as well as notes on how to incorporate it into a campaign and possible endings to the scenario.

The setting for ‘The Chevalier’s Shrine’ is the market town of Greendale. It is notable as being besieged by a band of Orcs led by an Ogre some years ago, the siege being broken by a Chevalier challenging the Ogre to single combat and when he defeated the Ogre, the Orcs turned on him. The quietly conservative townsfolk repurposed an old temple to create a shrine for the fallen chevalier and forbid any townsfolk from entering the shrine or its garden whilst armed. However, as relayed to the Player Characters by a captain of the town watch after he takes them aside from their scandalous behaviour of drinking watered-down beer, something is amiss at the shrine. Since he cannot investigate armed, he asks the Player Characters to enter the shrine, determine what is going on and report back, promising to pay well. What is so delightful about ‘The Chevalier’s Shrine’ is that it has a joyously, grubby and British feel to it. Essentially, the two clerics assigned to look after the shrine have got bored, seen the lack of nightlife going on in Greendale, and decided to turn the shrine into a private members’ nightclub for the town’s wealthiest and most bored inhabitants. This though, has led to further exploration of the shrine beyond hitherto unknown secret doors, dealing with the local Thieves’ Guild with plans for expansion, and an Octopus which would not mind going back to being worshipped as a god! What this means is that the Player Characters are attempting to get into a medieval nightclub and depending on what they find out during their investigations and when they try to get in, they may actually be able to just waltz in, having arrived at the right time when the club is actually open and the guards thinking them to be new members! The temple is one half nightclub, one half temple to a hungry octopus with delusions of grandeur, and both run by a pair of greedy, petty clerics.

The accompanying map of the temple—done using tiles from Games Workshop’s Dungeon Floor Plans is surprisingly colourful, though very orthogonal in its layout. The secret doors are not as obvious as they could be. There are multiple ways in which ‘The Chevalier’s Shrine’ could end. The Player Characters could simply return with a report for the watch captain, they could end in a fight with the octopus, or they could find the membership for the ‘club’ and blackmail them! More altruistic Player Characters will doubtless want to free the dancing girls who are being kept prisoner in the temple. ‘The Chevalier’s Shrine’ is unexpectedly different to almost any Dungeons & Dragons adventure, almost over the top in its banality, but brilliant at the same time.

‘The Crystal Keys’ is the solo adventure in Tortured Souls! Issue One. Designed for a party of five to seven Player Characters of Second and Third Level, it can be played with a single player controlling all of the characters, with a player reading out the entries and handling the descriptions and monsters the whilst the players control their characters (and in the process making one player roleplay his character and handle monsters!), or with the included notes, it can be run as a standard adventure with an actual Dungeon Master. There is quite a bit of backstory to the scenario, but it boils down to the party having recently come into possession of a Red Crystal Key whilst on an expedition for their friend, the Archmage Rabellion and had it stolen by a Thief. The key is one of three necessary to open Zamgardrar’s tomb which is said to hold a great treasure. To prevent this from falling into the hands of the Thief, the Player Characters are chasing after him north into the Orc and Lizard Men-infested Badlands. 

The set-up and the actual adventure are several pages apart in the issue of Tortured Souls! It consists of two parts. The first is descriptions of the two-hundred-and-thirty hex descriptions which make up the wilderness map. Each entry has numbers indicating which paragraph to turn to as you would expect for a solo adventure book—which were incredibly popular at the time given that The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was only published the year before—as the directions they lie in. If the hex has something of interest, an entry will also refer to a lettered hex type. There twenty-six of these, one for each letter in the alphabet, and each depicts an area of terrain that the player records on his hex map. There are a lot of brigands and the like preying on the locals and other travellers, as well as some annoying Orcs and Trolls, but despite the nonlinear fashion in which the information is presented, this half of the adventure is a decent hexcrawl in which the Player Characters may have the opportunity to find the other two Crystal Keys.

Where ‘The Crystal Keys’ gets complex is the other six-hundred-and-sixty-seven entries which detail the forty or so locations of the adventure’s dungeon. Complex because the individual entries not only have to include a description, but all the possible outcomes to the actions that the Player Characters might take. The dungeon is quite  detailed, built around puzzles involving the three Crystals and their different colours, but it is difficult to get a feel for, or an overview of, the dungeon because it is written in non-linear fashion. What this means is it is complex to play through because the player or players are acting as their own Dungeon Master, and even if run by a Dungeon Master, preparing the dungeon to be run means actually playing through it herself. Which is a time-consuming challenge all of its very own. ‘The Crystal Keys’ is cleverly done, but far more complex than most solo adventures were at the time or have been since.

The third adventure is ‘The Rising Tower’, which is the first of the two scenarios for the Zhalindor Campaign in the issue. It is intended for a party of three to eight Player Characters of Fifth to Eighth Level and takes place several hundred miles outside of the Empire in the Tumarian provinces in a valley in the Yagha-Tsorv foothills. (Unfortunately, neither the scenario nor Tortured Souls! Issue One as a whole give any further details as to the Zhalindor Campaign setting.) The tower was once the place of judgement and execution for a small kingdom, but has long since been abandoned, fallen into partial ruin, and been occupied by a small tribe of Fire Giants. The tribe has intimidated several tribes of lesser humanoids in the area into paying tribute, but the area beyond the tower is not detailed. The tower is described in odd fashion—from the top down rather from the bottom up. The upper part of the ramshackle tower is home to the tribe of Bugbears that serve and fight for the Fire Giants, whilst the later live on the lower floors and sleep in the underground rooms, making the tower’s former gaol cells their individual sleeping quarters. Underneath are the rooms where judgement and sentence were carried out in the past, and if the Player Characters are too inquisitive, find themselves being judged and sentenced whether they are guilty or innocent.

Unlike both ‘The Chevalier’s Shrine’ and ‘The Crystal Keys’, what ‘The Rising Tower’ lacks is a hook to get the Player Characters involved, let alone anything in the way of plot. The dungeon, tower, and their inhabitants are highly detailed, the execution and judgement chambers in particular, such that the Dungeon Master would need to pay particular attention to how they work with the rest of the tower and how the Player Characters get to them. This is in addition to providing something in the way of plot or motivation for the Player Characters to want to explore the tower in what is otherwise is a big challenging situation rather than scenario.

The fourth and last scenario in Tortured Souls! Issue One—and the second for the Zhalindor Campaign—is ‘Tomb of Qadir’. It is written for a party of four to seven Player Characters of Second and Fourth Level and details the temple dedicated to the god, Ha’esha, which was turned into the tomb of its last priest, after which the cult he led died out. More recently, the tomb, which lies to the east of Eldenvaan on the edge of the desert, has been occupied by a band of Goblins. The Goblins have taken up residence following a failed uprising against their former chief in the Tsorv Mountains (as opposed to the Yagha-Tsorv foothills of ‘The Rising Tower’), but they are well organised and will put up a stiff defence against any attackers. The temple is ruined and run down, but has been fortified by the Goblins. They have also moved into the rooms under the temple, but have not explored the furthest extent of the tomb. There are some nice touches here, such as zombies that have a chance to overcome being Turned by a Cleric, who can then attempt to Turn them again, and so on… and a couple of nasty traps. Again, the adventure is nicely detailed, but much like ‘The Rising Tower’, there are no hooks or motivations given for the Player Characters to want to come to the tomb.

Physically, Tortured Souls! Issue One looks decent enough for a fanzine, but amateurish for a professional magazine. It does need an edit in places and the artwork varies in quality. The cartography is plain in places, but otherwise decent.

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Doug Cowie reviewed Tortured Souls! Issue One in ‘Games Reviews’ in Imagine No. 12 (March 1984). He said, “Tortured Souls represents amazing value. The quantity of material for the money  makes it a recommended purchase. The quality of that material makes it an essential purchase. My only worry is — can they possibly keep it up issue after issue?” In answer to that question, he added the following postscript: “(PS: I have just seen issue 2, and I must say that the quality seems to have been maintained and the physical components are improved in that the covers are now thin card rather than thick paper. Issue 2 contains four ref’s scenarios and one solo — all for the AD&D game. After a quick scan, I would say that it looks like  another good issue.)”

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Tortured Souls! Issue One contains a mix of the potentially good and the excellent. ‘The Rising Tower’ and ‘Tomb of Qadir’ are potentially good because in each case, the Dungeon Master needs to supply the hooks and the motivation. ‘The Crystal Keys’ is an excellent, if complex, solo adventure, possibly the most complex solo adventure then published given it was written for a party of Player Characters for Advanced Dungeon & Dragons, First Edition! Given the complexity of ‘The Crystal Keys’ and its format, it would be very challenging to run it as a standard scenario. That leaves ‘The Chevalier’s Shrine’, which is undoubtedly the highlight of the issue. It comes with both plot and hooks and is not just an excellent scenario, but a fun one too. The overall quality of Tortured Souls! Issue One is good, providing the Dungeon Master with solid material to work with, but with ‘The Chevalier’s Shrine’, the Dungeon Master is really going to want to run that scenario and will have fun doing so.

Miskatonic Monday #295: A Sliver of Starlight

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

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Name: A Sliver of Starlight

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Daniel Chadborn

Setting: New York State, 1983

Product: Weird Haunted House One-Shot
What You Get: Forty-five page, 7.19 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “If you want to see an endangered species, get up and look in the mirror.” – John Young

Plot Hook: A haunted house (or inspiration) attracts the all too curious.

Plot Support: Staging advice, two NPCs, four pre-generated Investigators, and twelve handouts.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Multiple set-up options

# Decently done clues and events

# Easily shifted to other locations

# Staged, step-by-step plot

# Easy to adjust to other eras and locations

# Oikopobia

# Eisoptrophobia

# Trypophobia

Cons

# Maps could have been better and clearer

# Needs an edit

# Staged, step-by-step plot

Conclusion

# Clues and events engagingly unsettle the investigation

# Staged, step-by-step haunted house plot that leads elsewhere (and back again)

1983: Gamma World, Second Edition

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

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Published in 1978 in TSR, Inc., Gamma World introduced the roleplaying hobby to the post-apocalypse genre of surviving after the bomb and the fall of civilisation, although its progenitor, Metamorphosis Alpha had explored similar ideas, but set on a giant generation starship rather than the Earth. Gamma World, Second Edition was published five years later in 1983 and shifted the setting to a different part of the USA, inheriting and developing some of the mechanics, embracing the gonzo aspects of the setting even further, and presenting a new scenario. Gamma World, Second Edition is also a boxed set, containing the sixty-four-page ‘Basic Rules Booklet’ and the thirty-two-page ‘Adventure Booklet’, as well as dice and a large poster map. Gamma World, Second Edition was designed to be accessible and serve as an introduction to roleplaying taking as its model, Dungeons & Dragons Set 1: Basic Rules, the famous ‘red box’ edition designed by Frank Mentzer which began what is known as the ‘BECMI’ line. This consisted of Dungeons & Dragons Set 1: Basic Rules, Dungeons & Dragons Set 2: Expert Rules, Dungeons & Dragons Set 3: Companion Rules, Dungeons & Dragons Set 4: Master Rules, and Dungeons & Dragons Set 5: Immortals Rules. Yet Gamma World, Second Edition would not fully achieve its intended accessibility and introductory aims, primarily because of an organisation that although better than Gamma World, First Edition, was still not perfect, and because its rules, also inspired by Gamma World, First Edition, are not as easy and as easily presented as they should have been.

Gamma World, Second Edition, as described in the ‘Adventure Booklet’ takes place in a savage wasteland ravaged by radiation, biological agents, and chemical agents used in the ‘Social Wars’ of the early twenty-fourth century. The conflict bent and broke the very land itself, shattering parts of it and sending it into seas as less than one in five thousand of Humanity’s teeming billions survived and the mutagenic cocktail left behind twisted the genetics of every form of life on the planet—including man. Mutated men, animals, and plants twisted into new forms and gained wondrous new powers, both mental and physical. So now humanoid raccoons capable of generating illusions and repulsion fields and of telekinesis and telepathy scavenge for the advanced technology and weapons left behind by the Ancients, three-metre-high jack rabbits with chameleon powers and antlers serve as herd animals or mounts, and land sharks literately swim under the ground of deserts or deep snow using telekinesis, hunting prey. In the century-and-a-half since the conflict, societies have organised into tribal clans and feudal states, varying in their technology use, with highly technological enclaves rare. Found across these blasted landscapes, there are those that seek to forge a better world, though not always for the better… For example, the Knights of the Genetic Purity want to preserve the ‘purity’ of Humanity by wiping out Humanoids, The Iron Society wants to destroy all Pure Strain Humans, the Zoopremisists would stamp out all Humanoids and Pure Strain Humans in favour of Mutated Animals, and the Friends of Entropy would smash all life and mechanical activity! Others, like the Brotherhood of Thought, which fosters a sense of benevolence in all and the semi-monastic Healers who tend to the sick and the injured, seek a more positive future…

A Player Character in Gamma World, Second Edition can either be a Pure Strain Human, a Humanoid with mutant powers, or a Mutated Animal. He cannot be a Mutated Plant—unless allowed by the Game Master. He has six attributes—Mental Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity, Charisma, Constitution, and Physical Strength—which range in value between three and eighteen. A Pure Strain Human does not suffer mutations of any kind, will find it easier to work out how artefacts operate, and be recognised by robots, security systems, and A.I.s as such, which sometimes means the Pure Strain Human will not be attacked by them or can even give them orders. He also has better stats and more Hit Points. A Humanoid can look like a Pure Strain Human, but if he has any physical Mutations that make him look different, he will not be recognised as a Pure Strain Human by robots, security systems, or A.I.s, which will thus not obey his orders and may even attack him. A Mutated Animal can never pass a security check and be recognised by robots, security systems, or A.I.s. He will probably have claws or a similar feature meaning he is better in unarmed combat, and like the Humanoid, will have a number of Mutations and may gain more if exposed to anything mutagentic.

To create a character, the player rolls four six-sided dice and discards the lowest for all six attributes. If the Player Character is a Pure Strain Human, the lowest die is not discarded for Intelligence, Charisma, or Constitution. However, the maximum that a Pure Strain Human can have for Intelligence and Charisma is a twenty-one, and eighteen for his Constitution. To determine the number of Hit Points for a Humanoid or Mutated Animal, the player rolls a number of six-sided dice equal to the character’s Constitution, whereas eight-sided dice are rolled for the Pure Strain Human. A four-sided die is rolled to determine the number of Physical Mutations a Humanoid or Mutated Animal has, and then again for Mental Mutations, both types of mutation being rolled for randomly.

Name: Gronson
Type: Pure Strain Human
Mental Strength 14 Intelligence 14 Dexterity 08
Charisma 18 Constitution 18 Physical Strength 16
Hit Points: 78

Name: Neek
Type: Humanoid
Mental Strength 17 Intelligence 13 Dexterity 11
Charisma 10 Constitution 10 Physical Strength 15
Hit Points: 32

Mental Mutations: Dual Brain – Brain #1: Fear Generation, Heightened Intelligence, Will Force; Brain #2: Genius Capability (Mechanical), Telekinetic Arm, Teleportation
Physical Mutations: Regeneration, Vision Defect (Tunnel Vision)

It is clear that going from Gamma World, First Edition to Gamma World, Second Edition, the designers have not entirely solved the problem of a Pure Strain Human not actually being very interesting to play. It is a problem which besets post-apocalypse roleplaying games. Although Pure Strain Human has higher stats, more Hit Points, and can better interact with technology, both the Humanoid and the Mutated Animal receive mutations which make them different, sometimes difficult to play, but obviously more powerful and more fun. Some powers are limited by the number of times a day they can be used, but others are permanent, but they can be very powerful. It is also possible to roll for defect mutations, both physical and mental. Consequently, it is possible to create a Player Character with more defect mutations useful ones. In the long term though, the Pure Strain Human can find, identify, and use the artefacts of the Ancients. Gaining access to and using technology is not an intrinsic power though, and a Player Character Pure Strain Human has to go adventure to find that technology and the likelihood is that the technology will use a power cell and run out and… Plus this is exactly what the other character types will be doing, although not as handily as the Pure Strain Human. So, until such times as a Pure Strain Human can gain access to advanced technology, he is the ‘weakest’ character type.

The mutations can be what you expect and weird and wacky. So, a defect could be Attraction Odour, meaning the Mutated Animal or Humanoid exudes a fragrance that attracts carnivores, but he could have Death Field Generation which means he drains every living being within range of all but a single Hit Point, before dropping unconscious, antlers or horns that inflict damage, or Radiation Eyes that emit blasts of deadly radiation. In general, the more powerful a mutation, the more the roleplaying game places a limit on its use. Some do require further explanation or are super powerful, like Time Manipulation, which has the possibility of sending either the user or a target decades into the past or future, or Planar Travel, which opens a temporal portal to another plane. Its use is never fully explained.

Mechanically, Gamma World, Second Edition is quite simple. To have his character undertake an action, a player multiplies the appropriate attribute for the action by the difficulty factor, typically between one and five, set by the Game Master, and attempts to roll equal to or under it on percentile dice. That essentially is it and the rules do not go into any more detail than that. Combat is different though and works much like it did in Gamma World, First Edition and Metamorphosis Alpha. It uses three ‘Attack Matrixes’, one for physical combat, one for ranged combat, and one for mental combat. Each weapon has a Weapon Class, such as nine for a blowgun and fifteen for a Black Ray Pistol. The Weapon Class—the higher the better—is cross-referenced against the target’s Armour Class—the lower the better—and this gives a target to roll equal to or greater on a twenty-sided die. Armour Class represents the armour worn only as there is no Dexterity bonus to Armour Class. There are, however, modifiers from high and low Dexterity to attack a target, and from high and low Strength when determining damage for physical attacks. Many advanced weapons can be deadly. The Black Ray Pistol instantly kills an organic target!

The rules also cover Tech Level—either Tech Level I, Tech Level II, or Tech Level III, indicating a tribal, feudal/pre-industrial, or industrial society, respectively; movement and time; encounters and searching—the Player Characters will likely end up doing this a lot; and interacting with NPCs and recruiting NPCs. In general, the rules are straightforward, though they do feel influenced by Basic Dungeons & Dragons in places. The rules also cover the discover and use of artefacts.

As with Metamorphosis Alpha, the setting for Gamma World includes lots and lots of artefacts. These range from stun rays and laser pistols to energy maces and fusion rifles, from photon grenades and concussion bombs to mutation bombs and negation missiles, from plastic armour and powered attack armour to turbine cars and bubble cars, from energy cloaks and anti-grav sleds to atomic energy cells to pain reducer drugs and life rays, from light cargo lifter and ecology bots to security robotoids to warbots. Robots, bots, and borgs get their own section, and there are even some useful descriptions and details given of fixed machinery like broadcast power stations, rejuv chambers, and think tanks. There is, though, a distinct emphasis on weapons and armour to the equipment, all of which the player characters can find in various conditions and use—if they can work out how each device operates. Where Metamorphosis Alpha had the players describe and roleplay what their characters were doing to work out what a device does, in Gamma World, First Edition there were ‘flow’ charts. In Gamma World, Second Edition, there is a simple matrix for this. Each artefact has a complexity number and for every ten minutes a Player Character spends examining an artefact, both he and the Game Master roll a die. The Game Master adds her result to the complexity number, whilst the player’s result reduces the complexity number. Essentially, the player and Game Master are attempting to out roll each other, but the result is time consuming both in and out of the game.

Gamma World, Second Edition describes some sixty monsters of the post-apocalyptic future. From Androids (Thinkers, Workers, and Warriors), Arks (Hound Folk), and Arns (Dragon Bugs) to Yexils (Orange Scarfers), Zarns (Borer Beetles), and Zeeth (Gamma Grass), there are some entertaining creations and some favourites of the genre. For example, Badders or Digger Folk are anthropomorphic badgers with an evil disposition, the power of Empathy, and a penchant for raiding; Hoops or Floppsies are mutant rabbitoids who have the Mass Mind and Telepathy Mutations and the ability to change metal into rubber; and Perths or Gamma Bushes, whose flowers can emit deadly blasts of light or radiation. Plus, some thirteen Cryptic Alliances are detailed, including their Tech Levels, membership, numbers encountered, and secret sign along with their descriptions. These provide a ready source of potential allies and enemies for a campaign.

One thing missing from the ‘Basic Rules Booklet’ are the roleplaying game’s tables. It turns out that these are given at the end of the ‘Adventure Booklet’. So, the table for rolling for Mutations, matrixes for attacks, poison, and radiation, encounters, weapons, and more, are all in the ‘Adventure Booklet’. These are designed to be separated from the booklet, but it is odd to have the rules necessary for character creation in a separate book well away from where they are actually needed.

The primary content in the ‘Adventure Booklet’ is the adventure ‘Rite of Passage’. It sets up the Player Characters as inhabitants of the small village of Grover, a Tech Level I settlement part of Clan Cambol in the remains of western Pennsylvania. To become adults, they must undergo a rite of passage in which they travel to the dead city of Pitz Burke and return with an item which will become their personal totem. In addition to the rite of passage, the Player Characters are assigned a special mission. This is to rescue three fellow clan members held hostage by a band of Carrin and Bloodbird brigands in the city. The Player Characters must cross part of Allegheny—which is nicely detailed in the descriptions of the region—and have encounters and make contacts along the way, including with the Lil, small, graceful humanoids with fairy wings. The Lil actually want the help of the Player Characters as they have a similar situation with their own also being held hostage. The Lil hideout—or Bramble—feels not dissimilar to that of James M. Ward’s ‘Paths of the Lil’, which originally appeared in White Dwarf Issue No. 16 and was then reprinted in The Best of White Dwarf Scenarios. The ruins of Pitz Burke are nicely detailed with particular attention paid to the locations that feature in the hostage plot ‘Rite of Passage’. It is a fairly tough adventure overall, and the Player Characters will want to find and determine how to use some arms and armour above the very basic they begin with to give themselves more of an edge. The Lil will help with this, which will go some way to addressing the initial powerlessness of the Pure Strain Human versus the Humanoid and Mutated Animal Player Characters.

The ‘Adventure Booklet’ also includes advice on running and creating Gamma World campaigns, which emphasises the need to have the Player Characters act with both societies and the Cryptic Alliances. The standing of a Player Character with a particular society or Cryptic Alliance is measured by his Rank with it. Rank affects a Player Character’s Charisma when interacting with the society or Cryptic Alliance and his chancing of obtaining or borrowing an artefact from the society or Cryptic Alliance. In order to increase a Player Character’s Rank with any one society or Cryptic Alliance, he must spend Status Points. These are earned for defeating NPCs, donating artefacts, successfully completing missions, and so on. Basically, what a Player Character would do on an adventure. They are the equivalent of Experience Points in another roleplaying game, but spent to acquire Ranks with a society or Cryptic Alliance. Indeed, Gamma World, Second Edition does not actually have Experience Points, it is not a Class and Level roleplaying game, and there is no way for a player to improve his character except through discovering better and better equipment and potentially, improving the equivalent of his social standing.

Physically, Gamma World, Second Edition is well presented, but not necessarily well organised. Everything feels just a little bit too crammed in, especially in the ‘Basic Rules Booklet’, so that finding particular rules is not easy and that is not helped by having the rules for the roleplaying game and explanations of how its tables are intended to work and the tables needed to run the game in a separate book. The artwork is all very good and the cartography, whether of the locations in Pitz Burke, or Pitz Burke itself, the Allegheny region, and the remains of North America on the roleplaying game’s double-sided poster map, are excellent and colourful.

—oOo—

Chris Baylis reviewed Gamma World, Second Edition in ‘Game Reviews’ in Imagine No. 7 (October 1983) and was positive throughout. “For a post nuclear holocaust role-playing game, GAMMA WORLD game has just about all the right ingredients, in the correct proportions. It is a very good introduction into the fantasy world of role-playing, and should seriously rival all other RPGs.”

Dana Lombardy reviewed Gamma World, Second Edition in ‘Gaming’ in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Vol. 8, No. 8. (August 1984), describing its redesign as being, “[S]o extensive it should be considered a new game ... Gamma World offers one of the more bizarre and hostile environments to role-play in.” and highlighted how, “[T]he technology is disjointed. You can have a dog-man with a spear fighting alongside a robot with a laser, allied against humanoids with pistols and swords.” Her conclusion was measured, stating that, “If you prefer more straightforward science fiction with known and approximately equal abilities and weapons, then Gamma World may not be for you. It’s a topsy-turvy world, where the average pure-strain human is hard-pressed to exist among plants and animals mutated by humanity’s wars. But if you like a challenge, and want to role-play something really different — Gamma World could be it.”

—oOo—

What stands out with Gamma World, Second Edition in comparison with Gamma World, First Edition is the effort to reorganise, codify, and clarify the rules and the setting and bring its presentation more in line with Basic Dungeons & Dragons and Star Frontiers. For the most part, the designers succeeded, although the ‘Basic Rules Booklet’ is just a bit too busy to be fully successful. Nevertheless, it is a far more accessible and easier to understand edition of the roleplaying game than its predecessor, all done with an eye by TSR, Inc. to make it appeal to a wider and more commercial audience. However, with that eye to commercialism, there is a corresponding reining in of the setting’s weirder, wackier elements, that though still there, are kept very much in the background. They would only creep forward and be embraced by later editions, most notably in the D&D Gamma World Roleplaying Game (or Gamma World, Seventh Edition) and arguably in what is its spiritual successor, Goodman Games’ Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic.

Often regarded as the definitive version of the roleplaying game, Gamma World, Second Edition is definitely the classic version and the version that introduced its post-apocalyptic setting and the post-apocalyptic genre to a wider audience.

1983: Timeship

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

—oOo—

Time Master: Adventures in the 4th Dimension from Pacesetter Ltd. was published in 1984 and it was fun, giving a good idea of what the Player Characters, or Time Agents, should do, a threat to face in the form of the alien Demoreans, and the Game Master support in the form of scenarios and supplements. If you want a classic, pulp action Science Fiction time travel roleplaying game, Time Master: Adventures in the 4th Dimension has a lot to recommend it and it is still in print. However, it was not the first time travel roleplaying game. That was Timeship: A role playing game of time travel and adventure., published by Yaquinto Publications in 1983.

Unfortunately, it has almost nothing to actually recommend it, yet is still in print. It begins on the back of the box with, “THERE ARE NO MORE BARRIERS!” and continues with, “Yesterday you travelled to 600,000,000ad and solved a bizarre murder mystery. Today you watch, amazed, as the merchants of Gomorrah trade in vice and corruption. Tomorrow you will stalk the war-torn streets of Berlin in search of Adolph Hitler. You are a time traveller, and there are no more barriers.” Which does indeed sound amazing—because time travel does indeed sound amazing—and those are all things that you can do in Timeship because they are the settings for its three scenarios, but to claim that there are no more barriers is wholly inaccurate, for there is one single barrier to all of this, and that is a roleplaying game called Timeship: A role playing game of time travel and adventure.

Timeship: A role playing game of time travel and adventure. was originally published as a boxed set (The version from Precis Intermedia is a sixty-two page book). Behind its garishly weird cover which combines floating figures with glowing eyes, a domed city, an eyeball in a planet, a red knight, a pocket watch, a dinosaur, and a never-ending blank scroll, the box contains a single rulebook, a thick sheaf of character sheets, a Timelord Screen, and a set of maps and a set of illustrations for the roleplaying game’s three scenarios. It all looks to be of excellent quality—and it is. The maps are nice, the illustrations are good, and the screen is easy to read. All that changes when you start to read the rulebook, because when you start to read the rulebook, it is difficult to work out whether Timeship is an operating manual for a timeship, a guide to worshiping a timeship, or just an oddly written roleplaying game which does involve time travel, but not an actual ship.*

* if you want to know what it, it is the third of these options. An oddly written roleplaying game which does involve time travel, but not an actual ship. Despite the title.

The rulebook begins in-game. It forgoes the traditional explanation of what a roleplaying game is—the nearest that Timeship gets to that is on the back cover, and instead explains that what the reader has in his hands is essentially the translation, by the author himself, of a collection of cuneiform writings on papyrus and leather discovered near the site of the city of Jericho and the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Israel in the nineteen sixties. What the translation revealed was astounding. It was the ‘Great Ritual of the Timeship’, launched into space as the last, desperate act of an unnamed alien race to preserve its greatest achievement, that is, time travel, either as an interstellar probe or a mental message, which was then discovered by the ancient Sumerians and recorded. Then taken to Israel following the invasion by Israel. The ‘Great Ritual of the Timeship’ aspect will have a profound effect upon the writing of what comes next, the ‘Timeship Operating Manual’, of which the following are examples:

“The Group is gathered!

And as a Group, you all must now select a Timelord.

It is in the nature of a Timelord that he may not directly venture into Time. He may not seek the thrill of battle, may not taste the flower of bygone ages. Thus, to become a Timelord involves great sacrifice.

To compensate, a Timelord will eventually acquire the powers of a Creator. From his vast energies are whole worlds spun. The Timelord is the Judge of nations — and you all. He is your Guide, all you who now desire to venture into Time.

Choose well. By secret ballot, mortal combat, or whatever system is most favored by your culture.

Choose wisely. For the Timelord henceforth holds your lives within his hands.

Choose quickly. Already there are stirrings in the grey depths of the timestream.

When you have chosen, honour your new Timelord by the gift of this, his TIMESHIP. It is not lawful for others to read further.

GREETINGS, TIMELORD!”

…And then:

“Timelord!

Your Group must generate its ENERGY.

Within the TIMESHIP are two coloured spheres of many facets. One is the Greater Sphere of Color. The other is the Lesser Sphere of White.

Each member of your Group must now engage upon the Rolling of the Spheres.

By our arts we have embodied in the Spheres energy sufficient for each time trip.

The digits on the coloured Sphere each represent 10 units of the ENERGY. The digits on the White Sphere each represent one unit of the ENERGY.

The Spheres must be rolled together for the ENERGY to generate.”

This last quote is, essentially, an explanation of the dice. The whole four pages of the ‘Timeship Operating Manual’ is written in this fashion, which beggars belief. And this follows the four-page introduction to how the ‘Timeship Operating Manual’ was found and this in a forty-eight-page rulebook, half of which is comprised of the roleplaying game’s three scenarios. Which leaves twelve pages to explain how the game works. Now fortunately, the next section, ‘Commentaries on the Timeship’, is easier to understand, but not by much. In effect, the following description is of is a translation of what the Timelord—as the Game Master is known in Timeship—and the Voyagers—as the players are known in Timeship—are meant to be doing in Timeship. And remember this is a translation from the English.

As Voyagers, the players in Timeship do not create characters. Indeed, there is no means of creating characters in Timeship.* Instead, they play themselves. This is not an unusual concept. Fantasy Games Unlimited’s superhero roleplaying game, Villains and Vigilantes, did it, as did another time travel roleplaying game, Timelords, from Blacksburg Tactical Research Center. Rather than create stats or skills, a Voyager is measured by four factors: Personal Energy, Group Energy, Combat Reserve Energy, and Permanent Energy.

* Technically, this is not true. See below.

Personal Energy is rolled on 3d100 at the start of each scenario. First, it contributes to the Group Energy, and then in play it is expended to purchase personal clothing equipment at the start of the adventure, to shape change the Voyager so that he blends in with whatever historical period he is visiting, make an attack or dodge an attack during combat, heal Combat Reserve Energy, take damage when Combat Reserve Energy is exhausted, power a transportation vehicle when Group Energy is exhausted, power ‘Wild Talents’ or psychic powers (although what these psychic powers are is not described in the rulebook), and to move. Should a Voyager ever have his Personal Energy reduced to zero he is dead. Fortunately before that happens, a local physician can attempt to heal the Voyager. The physician has a seventy percent chance of healing the Voyager, a one percent chance of not being able to help the Voyager at all, and a twenty-nine percent chance of doing the Voyager further injury.

Group Energy is a shared resource. Its value is combination of each Voyager’s Personal Energy. It is expended for three things. First is to active the ‘Gateway’ to a Capsule—‘Capsule’ is what Timeship calls an adventure or scenario, second is purchase group equipment, and third is to generate movement of vehicles that the Voyagers have brought with them into the Capsule. Each ‘Gateway’ has an activation cost and this is paid for from the Group Energy pool, the Game Master determining the cost based on the number of Voyagers, the difficulty of the adventure, and any limitations upon equipment that can be taken with the Voyagers. However, since the players are allowed to roll for their Personal Energy until they are happy with the result, neither the need to roll for Personal Energy nor the need for sufficient Group Energy seems to matter that much.

Combat Reserve Energy represents how much damage a Voyager can suffer during an adventure. It is rolled on 2d100 at the start of play, but unlike Personal Energy, is only rolled the once. Permanent Energy is earned through successful completion of a Capsule and acts as a bonus to a Voyager’s roll for Personal Energy at the start of each adventure. However, death or failure during a Capsule can lead to the loss of Permanent Energy, including being reduced to a negative number. Essentially then, the last thing that Permanent Energy can be described as being, is ‘Permanent’.

So far then, Timeship appears to be a resource management game, with players expending their Voyager’s Personal Energy to equip and alter themselves before expending Group Energy to travel in time and once at their destination use Personal Energy to do anything bar talking. However, that changes when it comes to combat, which is surprisingly more detailed than Timeship would initially suggest. The expenditure of Personal Energy is still required to attack, dodge, and move, but to successfully make an attack, the percentile dice must be rolled. Combat adds a fifth factor—only mentioned when it comes to the combat rules—to a Voyager and that is the Speed Factor. This is a straightforward percentile roll and like the other factors, is rolled at the start of the adventure. Speed Factor represents both combat speed, a combatant with higher Speed Factor going first, and the number of attacks a combatant can make, a Speed Factor of sixty and above indicating that he has two or more attacks. So, a combatant with a Speed Factor of eighty will make three attacks before a combatant with a Speed Factor of fifty can do anything other than dodge.

Every Voyager has a personal ‘THN’ or ‘To Hit Number’ for the weapons that they want to use, from fists, slings, and swords to automatic pistols, grenades, fifteenth century cannon, and bazookas. Again, this ‘To Hit Number’ is not defined in Timeship.* This ‘To Hit Number’ is modified by the location targeted—every attack is a called shot, range, weapon type, and so on. If the roll is equal to, or higher, than the resulting ‘To Hit Number’, the attack is a success. Every weapon has a damage modifier, which is added to the difference between the ‘To Hit Number’ and the number rolled if successful. Any armour worn, will reduce the damage suffered.

* Technically, this is also not true. See below.

The combat rules are surprisingly straightforward and in a marked change of tone from the earlier ‘TIMESHIP OPERATING MANUAL’ are easy to read and understand. Similarly, so are the list of items of equipment that a Voyager might want to take into a Capsule and their costs in Personal Energy, including a Marvel comic. However, besides whatever equipment a Voyager wants to purchase to take into a Capsule, Timeship advises that any physical items that a player has on him when he comes to the table, can also be taken with the Voyager, but at no cost in terms of Personal Energy. The roleplaying game also notes that this is open to abuse and that the Game Master should say no to anything too ridiculous. The example given is of a player actually turning up to play Timeship, “…[W]earing a World War One gas-mask and carrying a sword!”. It is an amusing aside in what is otherwise a very straightlaced roleplaying game.

Then the tone of Timeship shifts again when the author settles down to chat to the Timelord in ‘THE TIMELORD’S BOOK OF SECRETS’ about how best to run the roleplaying game—such as the advice on handling of personal equipment given above—and extoll the virtues of Timeship over any other roleplaying game on the then market. Constantly, the author derides other roleplaying games for their comprehensiveness and complexity, and offering Timeship as an alternative, saying that, “TIMESHIP has been very carefully designed to make things easy for the Timelord – and to make play as interesting for the Timelord as it is for the players.” It is a very bold claim given that Timeship has very clearly, very much not been written to be easy for the Timelord, let alone for the players. For example, it is also here in ‘THE TIMELORD’S BOOK OF SECRETS’ that there is any suggestion as to a resolution mechanic. Essentially, everything that each player knows and can do, his Voyager can do in the game. If the Voyager attempts an action that is difficult or the Timelord thinks that the Voyager’s player has limited capacity to do, the Timelord simply sets a difficulty value and if the Timelord—not the player—rolls equal to or above that value, the Voyager succeeds. This may be modified by the expenditure of Personal Energy, but there is no guidance on this, which is a pity, since it might have given the player some agency.

What follows ‘THE TIMELORD’S BOOK OF SECRETS’ are the three Capsules, or adventures, in Timeship. Yet, Timeship has not yet finished explaining its rules, but to be clear the presentation of these follow the three Capsules and are either on the Timelord Screen rather than in the rulebook or on the back of the rulebook rather than before any other explanation of the rules. So, first, on the back of the rulebook, there are actually rules for creating a character or Voyager. A Voyager has eight physical attributes—which are only given on the Personal Data Sheets, or character sheets, for the Voyagers—and these are Speed, Endurance, Intelligence, Strength, Dexterity, Agility, Running Ability, and Jumping Ability. Of course, what they do and how they work is never explained. The base value for each is fifty and a player is allowed to distribute another fifty points between them. Also on the back of the rulebook is an actual resolution mechanic using these physical attributes, which is rolling equal to or less than the physical attribute to succeed at an action. Every other mechanic requires the player to roll high rather than low to succeed and the inclusion of the Speed Physical Attribute is incongruous given both the lack of explanation of how it works in the roleplaying game and that there is already a Speed Factor that a player has to randomly roll for, for use in combat, at the start of every adventure.

Similarly, on the back cover of the rulebook, there is the means to create the ‘To Hit Number’ values for various weapons. These values start at sixty and a player can lower the ‘To Hit Number’ values by assigning a total of forty points based on his expertise or experience with a particular weapon. What though, does a player do if he has no expertise or experience with any weapon? There the limitations of the rules and the concept behind the play of Timeship come to a screeching halt up against reality. In addition, the Timelord Screen has actual modifiers for actions on ‘The Anything Table’ and actually explains how Shape Changing works and what the ‘Wild Talents’ are in Timeship. These are Telepathy, Psychokinesis, Pyrokinesis, Precognition, and Empathy. However, how they manifest, is entirely left up to the Timelord to decide.

Lastly, then, there are the three Capsules in Timeship. There are two types, the ‘Adventure Capsule’ and the ‘Task Capsule’. In an Adventure Capsules, the Voyagers are free to explore the period they are visiting before discovering one or more pre-existing EXITS and make their way back to their own time. In a Task Capsule, the Voyagers must fulfil a task or complete an objective before an EXIT will and allow them to return to their own time. The first is ‘Murder at the End of Time’, set in the far future and taking place in artificial world that mixes fact and fiction within a closed environment. The Voyagers arrive to find themselves in a seemingly empty world except for a table laid for a children’s tea party and a coffin. In the coffin, stabbed to death is Dracula, and then a factotum will turn up to tell the Voyagers that they have to solve his murder. There is a determined sense of unreality to the Capsule as if the Voyagers are being played with, and as the Voyagers move around the area, bounded by forcefields, encountering Jeeves the Butler, Little Red Riding Orphan Annie Oakey, and a mafia boss from the seventies done up as an organ grinder, and gathering information and clues, they are also likely to become frustrated. This is primarily because there is no obvious or even unobvious way to solve the murder. Nevertheless, it is engagingly silly and absurd and with the addition of some clues as to the identity of the culprit could be quite fun.

In the second adventure, the Voyagers travel into the ancient past to discover how exactly one of the most notorious cities in all of history was destroyed. ‘The Destruction of Gomorrah’ is quite open-ended, with the Voyagers left to their own devices to wander around, from building to building, without any real sense of direction, looking for anything of interest. The inhabitants go about their daily business without any interest in the Voyagers, although a time traveller from the twenty-eighth century (who uses a different form of time travel*) might pop by to tell the Voyagers that their presence is a danger to the city. The details of most locations are randomly determined. Those that are not consist of the slave market where the Voyagers arrive, a guard house, the parkland (which has its own encounter table), the city palace (which immediately erupts into flames and burns down if the Voyagers gain entrance), and the ziggurat temple to Moloch.

* One can also hope that this form of different time travel is served by a better roleplaying game.

It is at the temple of the Moloch that the Voyagers will discover what happened to the city of Gomorrah, or rather what is going to happen to it within hours whilst they are there. Aliens have planted a nuclear bomb beneath the statue of Moloch and are going to detonate it because the city’s inhabitants are not going to evolve into better human beings. And even if the Voyagers do manage to find the bomb—despite the lack of clues—and do defuse it, the aliens are going to destroy the city anyway. So, the actions of the players have been to naught and in the meantime, their Voyagers will have wandered a city which lives up to its reputation as a den of vice and iniquity in all its glory. The good thing though, is that if a Voyager does catch lice from sleeping with a prostitute, it only takes the expenditure of three points of Personal Energy to kill the attacking lice.

If ‘The Destruction of Gomorrah’ proves to be both prurient and pointless, the third and final adventure, ‘Assassinate the Fuhrer!’, manages to be equally as unpleasant and also a bit of a slog. The Voyagers find themselves in Berlin in the final days of the Third Reich at the end of World War Two. They must get across Berlin to the Führerbunker, get inside and ensure that Hitler commits suicide or kill him to ensure that history runs its proper course. Whilst there is a lot of historical detail to the scenario, the majority of that detail is unpleasant, whether that is encountering avowed Nazis and their reprehensible views, actual historical figures trying to escape, or simply civilians trying to survive. Plus, there is the constant chance of death, whether from bombs and shrapnel, or making a mistake when interacting with the vile NPCs. The likelihood is that the Voyagers will need to take desperate measures to learn of the defences and internal details of Führerbunker, including possibly torture. Overall, interesting in its detail, but again, unpleasant from start to finish.

Physically, Timeship: A role playing game of time travel and adventure. is actually very nicely presented. The rulebook is cleanly laid and the artwork in both the rulebook and the illustration handouts is good, as is the cartography. Unfortunately, it is badly organised and badly written to the point of frustration.

—oOo—

Timeship was reviewed by Ken Rolston in Dragon #80 (December 1983). Rolston noted that he had “…[S]ome reservations about the style of presentation for the rules. Herbie Brennan has tried hard to create a sense of presence and atmosphere for the game, maintaining the fiction that this is not a game at all, but a powerful ritual discovered in ancient scrolls; this effort seems strained at times. What Brennan intends as a humorous and informal tone is often irritatingly cute and self-indulgent, and the rules of play themselves are difficult to read and reference because of the idiosyncratic style.” Despite reservations about the style of the roleplaying game and the silliness of one of the some of the scenarios, he was positive in the end, saying, “First, it is a distinctive example of simpler, rather than more complex, FRP game mechanics. Second, the central idea of the game, time travel, is marvelously fertile soil for FRP gaming, and this is the first game to attempt to cultivate it. Finally, I believe this game may be more accessible to those not already addicted to games.”

However, William A. Barton was decidedly more critical in his review in Space Gamer #70 (July-August 1984), dedicating a whole three pages to the review instead of the usual capsule review. He began with, “Timeship is – at least to me – the ultimate disappointment. While it does indeed involve time travel, it a roleplaying game only in the loosest terms. Not only that, it can be called science fiction only by stretching that term to it limits. What we have instead of hard—or even soft – SF is SF couched in terms of mystical mumbo-jumbo. Even the term “science fantasy” would be generous if applied to this game. Maybe “pseudo-science fantasy” would be closest one would come to describing Timeship. I cringe to one of my favourite subjects treated so.” Barton was scathing in his criticism of Timeship from start to finish, ending with, “As much as I enjoy time travel and would like to role-play such journeys into the past and future, I can hardly recommend Timeship. Unless you’re prepared to do a lot of work rewriting and making up rules, you’re best off waiting for someone else to take a shot at a time travel RPG.”

—oOo—

What becomes clear from the design of Timeship is that it is not traditional time travel roleplaying game like that which would follow and succeed where it fails. Instead, the Voyagers—or even possibly the players—are performing a ceremony to cast themselves backwards or forward in time via a portal or through a mental process rather than stepping aboard any type of vehicle. Consequently, this is a roleplaying game called Timeship in which there is no ship. Instead, it the players as themselves who travel through time and have adventures without all that needless mucking about with time travel and temporal causality. The aims of its designer are laudable—simplicity and ease of play versus the complexities of the roleplaying games he saw on the market at the time, but by enshrouding the text of the roleplaying game in an unnecessarily mystical and irritating style he obfuscates his aims over and over. Really, some of the writing in Timeship is laughably po faced and self-righteously pious in its attempt to turn the roleplaying game into a ceremony. Then when the rules are found and they are decoded from the author’s irksome religiosity and the book’s risibly rotten organisation, they turn out to be simplistic and barely up to any task, let alone that of time travel.

Yaquinto Publications released three roleplaying games—Man, Myth & Magic and Pirates & Plunder, both in 1982, and then Timeship in 1983. Timeship is the worst of three by any measure, excruciatingly overwritten, astoundingly underexplained, and mindbogglingly hindered by its own author. Timeship is an exemplary example of how not to write a roleplaying game and that is what it deserves to be known for, that and the fact that as the very first time travel roleplaying game, Timeship: A role playing game of time travel and adventure. has made every single time travel roleplaying game since look brilliant.

1983: Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

—oOo—

Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game was published by Games Workshop in 1983. The spiritual successor to the earlier Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules, but produced for a larger audience that by then the game would have through Games Workshop’s magazine, White Dwarf and through the popularity of the miniatures being produced by the publisher and Games Workshop’s partner company, Citadel Miniatures. Of course, it would prove to be a success and more. It would go on to spawn multiple editions, innumerable spin-off games, multiple editions of an actual roleplaying game, and as an intellectual property have novels and computer games developed from it. On this foundation, Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game has in forty years turned Games Workshop into a multimillion-pound, London Stock Exchange-listed company that has dominated the wargames hobby and industry.

Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game consists of a box containing three books and a set of errata, which in subsequent printings would be inserted into the centre of the first book as a separate appendix. The three volumes are Vol 1: Tabletop Battles, Vol 2: Magic, and Vol 3: Characters. All three are done in black and white and illustrated by Tony Ackland. The game is designed to be played fielding regiments of figures ranging in size between five and fifty figures, though it does not say this about halfway through Vol 1: Tabletop Battles and then individual figures when the roleplaying aspect comes into play via Vol 3: Characters. Vol 1: Tabletop Battles is the longest of the three and presents the rules for mass combat on the battlefield. There is little in the way of an introduction before the basics of the game are being explained, beginning with an explanation of dice notation and the game’s turn sequence. During his turn, a player has a Movement Phase, a Shooting Phase (for all players with forces with missile weapons), a Combat Phase, a Second Movement Phase for any troops that did not fight, a Magic Phase when spells are cast and their effects implemented, and a Rout Phase when routed and pursuing troops. Movement is in inches and is determined by troop type and type of mount, and accounts difficult ground, obstacles, charging, counter charging, and so on. Psychology plays a role in unit interactions, whether that is hatred of another race, or fear, terror, or a state of frenzy. For example, as is traditional, Goblins hate Dwarves, so will always attempt to attack them and fear Elves, so need to overcome that fear to face them. Some creatures, such Ogres, suffer from Stupidity, and can forget what they are doing on the battlefield.

Units themselves have ratings for their Move, Weapon Skill, Bow Skill, (Attack) Strength, Toughness, Wounds, Initiative, and Attacks. These typically range between one and six, although some can go much higher, for example, both Weapon Skill Bow Skill range between one and ten, and can be numbers or letters. For example, Attack Strength ranges from one and Weak to six and Irresistible, whilst Toughness ranges from A for Halflings and Lesser Goblins to F for Dragons and other very large creatures. In general, once combat is engaged, whether missile or mêlée combat, the attacker rolls a handful of six-sided dice—Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game needs a lot of six-sided dice, but does not actually say this until, again, halfway through Vol 1: Tabletop Battles—and attempts to roll as high as possible. This is modified by factors such as cover and range and is done on a figure-per-figure basis, so the game really does need a lot of lot of six-sided dice in addition to the other polyhedral dice. Rolling to hit is only the first step, as for each successful hit, a second roll is made against the Toughness of the target, using the Attack Strength of the missile weapon when shooting and the Attack Strength of the figure in mêlée combat, to see whether a wound or an automatic kill is registered—in some cases some combatants only have a single Wound and will die anyway, others have multiple Wounds and take multiple hits to kill. Finally, for each successful wound or kill result, the defendant rolls more dice to make a Saving Throw against each one. The Saving Throw is based on the armour worn and its type.

And that, fundamentally, is it to the core rules of Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game. There are rules for weapons differentiation and monsters and advanced rules for things such as critical hits, follow on combat, and so on. The Appendix (or errata) runs to eight pages and adds further advanced rules like return fire and fighting defensively, throws in a few ideas like siege craft and even Warp Frenzy and Warp Spasm. The Appendix also serves as a reference sheet for the game’s core tables.

The second half of Vol 1: Tabletop Battles gives advice on both tabletop battles and fighting in dungeons, the latter intended for underground battles such as between Goblins and Dwarves through tunnels and caverns. There are rules too for flying creatures and then Vol 1: Tabletop Battles gives an introductory battle, ‘The Ziggurat of Doom’. Here, a band of six noble and heroic Dwarves led by Thorgrim Branedimm, who is armed with Foebane, an ancient and magical Warhammer. Chased by a band of Goblins, the Dwarves take refuge atop a ziggurat standing in the clearing in the jungle. They have time to collect a few rocks to throw down on the Goblins, but this is a desperate stand against wave after wave of the Goblins. The Goblin player scores points for killing the Dwarves, whilst the Dwarf player receives points for simply surviving. Variation in the Goblin type—Goblins, Red Goblins, Night Goblins, or even Hobgoblins—allow for some replicability, as does swapping sides. The remainder of Vol 1: Tabletop Battles consists of Creature Lists, including men and humanoid monsters, numerous monsters such as the Jabberwok, and numerous werecreatures and types of undead.

Vol 2: Magic defines wizards, their use of magic on the battlefield, and spells. Wizards have a Mastery Level, ranging from one and Novice/Initiate to four and Magician/Mage. Their Constitution determines how much magic a Wizard can cast before he is exhausted. Life Energy is lost whenever a spell is cast, but is a long-term factor for roleplaying campaigns rather than battlefield encounters. All Wizards possess an innate magical sense and lob fireballs back and forth between each other in Wizard duels. When casting a new spell or a spell of a higher Mastery Level, it possible for the spellcasting to be fumbled. The creation of Wizards for the battlefield is random, but is combined with the rules for character creation in Vol. 3: Characters.

A spell is described in terms of Time to Prepare, Talismans, Spell Level, Energy cost, Time to Rest, and Remarks. Time to Prepare is the number of active player movement phases a Wizard must remain stationary in order to ready the spell, Talismans or magical devices required to cast, the Spell Level is the Spell Mastery required to cast a spell, the Energy Cost is deducted from both Constitution and Life Energy, and where Constitution is recovered, Life Energy is not. Time to Rest is the number of active player movement phases the Wizard must spend inactive—but can defend himself—before preparing another spell. The combination of the Time to Prepare and Time to Rest, then, prevents a Wizard from wandering around the battlefield like a mobile field gun, blasting away at all and sundry. Vol 2: Magic then includes a full list of spells. This spell list feels proscribed with none of the flexibility or complexity of the earlier Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules, but there is a good range of spells given here. The rules also cover Necromancy, magic specialisation, and a list of richly detailed enchanted objects.

Vol. 3: Characters covers the roleplaying aspect of Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game. Surprisingly, there is a longer introduction to this book than there is to the whole game in Vol 1: Tabletop Battles. A Player Character looks like this, and two things are apparent from the format. First, the Player Character is incredibly fragile with just the single Wound, and second, this does actually look very similar to what a Player Character from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay looks like. Of course, this should be no surprise, given that the roleplaying game is derived from these rules. The result is also highly random so that a Player Character could end being a brilliant archer who is also a Pharmacist and a Transvestite—which really is listed under the skills!—or a Prince who is a Fisherman and a Miner!

Name: Holger Muller

Social Status: Freeman
Race: Human
Age: 18
Sex: Male
Intelligence: 5
Cool: 8
Will Power: 8
Leadership: 1

Attacks: 1
Wounds: 1
Initiative: 4
Weaponskill: 3
Bowskill: 1
Strength: 2
Toughness: B
Move: 4”

Armour: mail shirt
Weapons: Sword and boat hook
Skills: Ship’s Mate, Pickpocket

A Player Character can advance for doing things like defeating enemies, surviving adventures, defeating Wizards, and acquiring gold. As a Player Character acquires more Experience Points, he can advance certain attributes and when he passes certain thresholds, he choose to advance any of the ones previously selected. A Wizard Player Character can learn more spells and eventually increase his Mastery Level. Vol. 3: Characters suggests possible Alignments—Good, Neutral, Evil, Avarice, and Hunger—for both Player Characters and NPCs and monsters, and it also provides a means to alleviate the fragility of the Player Character, or at least avoid the possibility of certain death. Thus, if a Player Character is killed or looses all of his Wounds, the player can then instead roll for an injury, which can something that the Player Character can recover from, such as a concussion, or be permanent, like a severe wound to the arm that prevents him from using the arm. There is still the chance of death even so, and if not, the Player Character will be out of action for a number of turns and must recover for several weeks. Nevertheless, until a Player Character acquires a total of five hundred Experience Points, he is going to wander around with a single Wound, hoping that he is going to be lucky enough to survive… If a Player Character does die, then replacing him is a matter of a few random rolls, yet how many more times does a character have to die before his player gets annoyed with the game?

Vol. 3: Characters also suggests a few adventure ideas, gives a price list for arms, armour, weapons, and other goods, lists employment that a Player Character might undertake to earn a living, and gives a set of encounter tables. Rounding out Vol. 3: Characters, though, is a full scenario, ‘The Redwake River Valley’. The Player Characters are employed to find out why the town of Ath Cliath has lost contact with the settlements to the north and the envoys they sent previously. Essentially, this a broadly detailed sandbox in which the Player Characters will discover Goblins on the march and settlements being attacked and sacked, and may be in time in defend one or more, and perhaps find an ally or two and learn what is going on. It feels very inspired by The Lord of the Rings and especially The Two Towers and it is serviceable enough, though not a great adventure, you could have fun playing it. Of course, there are notes on what miniatures to order from Citadel Miniatures to be able to run the scenario.

The roleplaying game presented in Vol. 3: Characters and thus Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game is perfunctory at best, underwritten at worst. There is no real guidance on the play of this aspect of the game, there is no means of handling tasks that a roleplaying game normally would—even in 1983, there is no way of handling the interaction between NPCs and the Player Characters, and the character options are extremely limited. The player has a choice of a Fighting Man who is likely to die very quickly and a Wizard who has to stand still for lengthy periods of time to cast magic and is also to die very quickly. No objectives for the Player Characters are discussed and the idea that a player might want to bring his character onto the battlefield looks absurd given their frail nature.

There is the genesis of the Old World and Chaos in Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game, but you have to look between the cracks to find it, such as Warp Frenzy and Warp Spasm. There are some oddities too, like the Night Elves and the Red Goblins, which either have their name changed or be excised for later editions. It shows too in the attributes used for monsters, soldiery, and Player Characters, which will change slightly for later editions of the game and for the roleplaying game. The fact that the figures on the battlefield and the characters in the roleplaying aspect of the game share the same attribute is to be applauded, but the fragility of the Player Characters is not. They are not designed to survive the world that Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game suggests and definitely not the battlefield. If a Player Character does, it will be primarily due to luck and not anything that the player will have done. Of course, Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game is precursor to the grim and perilous world of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, but even that gave the Player Character some resilience where Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game does not.

Physically, Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game is in general, not too badly presented. It is easy to read and grasp, Tony Ackland’s pen and ink illustrations are good, and John Blanche’s cover is great. However, it does need a good edit.

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Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game was reviewed in White Dwarf Issue 43 (July 1983) by Joe Dever. He awarded the rules eight of ten and said, “If you regularly wargame with miniatures, or have been wondering what additional fun you could have from your rapidly growing collection of fantasy figures, then I recommend you check out Warhammer and let battle commence!”

If the only wholly positive review was to appear in the pages of White Dwarf, it is hardly a surprise, but other magazines took a more critical assessment. Chris Hunter reviewed it in Imagine No. 8 (November 1983). He said, “My main criticism of Warhammer is that Citadel seem to have provided a mass combat system which cannot be used to the full by the characters that the role-playing section generates, at least not until they have become experienced enough to lead, rather than be led, into battle. The mass combat rules are very good, probably some of the best available for fantasy combat; but surely a better way of selling them would have been to publish them separately from the role-playing rules as a standalone supplement.” before concluding that, “Finally, then, if you are looking for a mass fantasy combat system, I recommend Warhammer; but if all you want is a role-playing game, it would perhaps be better to look elsewhere, at least, until further role-playing supplements have been brought out.”

In Dragon #85 (May 1984), Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game was reviewed by Ken Rolston in ‘Advanced hack-and-slash – Combat plays a big role in four fantasy games’, along with the earlier Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules. His evaluation was that. “Warhammer is exceptionally simple and playable for a miniatures rules system. The presentation is good in comparison to other miniatures rules, and adequate in comparison to recent FRP games. The rules sacrifice detail and comprehensiveness for simplicity, but most of the important aspects of tabletop battles are addressed. Though hardly a model of English usage or proofreading, the rules are well-organized and readable. The game has strong action potential, and the flavor of the fantasy elements is quite satisfying.” but like other reviews in concluded that, “The rules are not readily compatible with other published role-playing systems; adapting Warhammer to other FRP rules would be a major do-it-yourself project and of dubious value. It could be a satisfactory introductory role-playing game for a beginner or for someone willing to convert his campaign to Warhammer rules, but its most likely application is for occasional mass combat tabletop games independent of your role-playing campaign.”

This was followed in the same issue with ‘Warhammer FRP system falls flat’ by Katherine Kerr. From title, let alone the opening remarks, it was clear that she was not impressed, stating, “…[I]t’s one of the most irritating new games I’ve ever read. Warhammer has all the potential to be a good game – in fact, parts of it are very good – but overall it’s a sloppy, amateurish piece of work that needs rewriting, editing, and extending to be a playable system.” She was highly critical throughout, leaving her to ask the question at the end, “Is Warhammer worth buying? The answer depends on the potential purchaser. An experienced referee who’s discontented with the magic system in some other game might well profit from the magic rules in Warhammer. Anyone who revels in gory combat to the exclusion of all else will enjoy the game heartily. The novice gamer, or any gamer who’s looking for a complete rules system, should save his hard-earned cash. Perhaps someday the game will be revised to make it live up to its potential; until then, it will be a curiosity and nothing more.”

Edwin J. Rotondaro reviewed Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game in Space Gamer #72 (January-February 1985) in the magazine’s regular ‘Capsule Reviews’ department. He was in agreement with many of the other reviews: “Overall, I have to say that Warhammer is a good miniatures game, but a terrible roleplaying game. The system is flexible enough to be used as a mass combat module in most RPGs, but you have to decide whether it's worth $12.95 for a set of fantasy miniatures rules.”

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Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game is an important game for the influence it would have on the wargames, miniatures, and roleplaying industries, but it is not a great game. Or rather it is both a good game and a bad game. The miniatures rules are very good, decently explained, and serve as a good introduction to fantasy wargaming, whilst the roleplaying rules are bad, underwritten and ill-explained. The concept of integrating roleplaying characters onto the battlefield is a good one, but in Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game it is poorly handled. Ultimately, the two would have split to get the best of both, and consequently Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game can be regarded as a classic game more because of its influence rather than its overall design, even though parts of it are very good.