Friday Fantasy: Melwan

It has been over a decade since the first release for Les Ombres d’Esteren or Shadows of Esteren, in English. That was Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue, which provided us with an introduction to this low dark, humancentric fantasy setting with Lovecraftian undertones, as well as a set of player characters/NPCs and three ready-to-play scenarios. The English-speaking hobby was fascinated by this French roleplaying game with its themes of tradition versus modernity, science and industrialisation versus faith, and monotheism versus spiritualism, as well as captivated by its artwork which looked like nothing then being published. Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue itself was subsequently made available for free to download. However, since the publication of Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue in 2011 and its release in English in 2012, releases from the publisher, Studio AGATE, have been slow to appear. Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe introduced its setting of Tri-Kazel peninsula in more detail, introducing properly the three nations of the region—Tol-Kaer with its old tribal ways and Demorthèn spiritual cults; Gwidre which has been converted to the Temple of the One God by missionaries from the Great Theocracy from the rest of the continent to the north and adopted feudalism; and Reizh, which has taken up the science of Magience, developing and creating devices, machines, and ‘toys’ powered by ‘Flux’, an energy derived from matter itself, though not without its cost to the environment and land itself. It also provided rules for character generation and is also available as a ‘Pay What You Want’ title. The third release, Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels expanded the setting from an in-character point-of-view, as well as several ‘canvases’ or short scenarios, a longer scenario, and more NPCs as well as a bestiary. Together, these three releases form the core of Shadows of Esteren and they underpin the sixth release, Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg, a great campaign that is divided into two parts that is culmination of what has been released to date.

Shadows of Esteren: Melwan is a supplement published between Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1 and Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 2. This is a companion to the earlier Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe, expanding as it does the setting of Tri-Kazel and taking player and Game Leader alike into the Vale of Melwan, which lies next to the Vale of Dearg. It ties deeply into both the background and the story of the major characters explored over the course of the Shadows of Esteren roleplaying game. For example, Wailen, the grandmother of Yldiane the Varigal and Adeliane the Ionnthén, is a Demorthèn. Much of it is written as a guide by Neala the Bard which describes the small region, its inhabitants, and notable locations. It begins with a description of the Vale of Melwan, small and bucolic, quiet and isolated, but not unwelcoming of passing strangers. It visits several places in and around the village, beginning with the Old Oak Inn, the heart of the community, a plain and plainly run establishment, except for the food, which is renowned for its quality and the number of recipes adopted from outside of the vale. Touchingly, it incudes actual recipes which a gaming group could actually cook, such as duck with mushrooms and turnip mash or apple and raisin fritters. There is a rough homeliness to the inn, complete with descriptions of its owners and regulars. Melwan’s apothecary is described in less detail, focusing on what might be sale—and if it is not, then on the reasons why in a pleasingly useful table.

The influence of the Mac Lyrs, long the family rulers of the Vale of Melwan, is felt far beyond its borders, so it is nice to have the family and its history and its family seat explored within the pages of Shadows of Esteren: Melwan. Yet it takes a more personal and intimate tone when Neala the Bard explores the library of the Mac Lyrs, a refuge for him when he has no mentor and instead relies upon the books and scrolls in the library as his teachers. Perhaps the oddest place visited in Shadows of Esteren: Melwan is the laboratory of the magientist, Talacien, established in an old building with the permission of the Mac Lyrs, but much to the consternation of the inhabitants of the Vale of Melwan. When his request to interview the magientist and visit the laboratory, Neala admits to being awed by what he found and the possibilities that it represented in being able to look at the universe in a way previously unimagined, but is ultimately reviled by the insane rush of uncontrolled power and likely damage is would result in. When his request to interview the magientist and visit the laboratory, Neala admits to being awed by what he found and the possibilities that it represented in being able to look at the universe in a way previously unimagined, but is ultimately reviled by the insane rush of uncontrolled power and likely damage is would result in. Fortunately, he retreats from what he regards as insanity to recover his equanimity by losing himself in the contemplation of the vale—and that is also something that the supplement does as well.

More than a third of Shadows of Esteren: Melwan is dedicated to the flora and fauna of the vale in some fashion. In taking the reader into its dark forests and across its peaceful wetlands, Neala not only tells of the creatures and plants to be found, but also how they are put to use by the peoples of Melwan and how they feature in stories that he performs for the villagers. For adults, the ‘Tales of Fur and Feather’ are often satires on the mores of power and those that wield it, whilst for children they are heroic stories featuring their favourite animal heroes. Although no tales are included, several of the protagonists of these tales are detailed, providing a cast of characters that could be brought into play as allusions to current events and important figures in a scenario. Numerous crops are described, as are various ingredients that are gathered locally and brewed and mixed into remedies and other concoctions. The rules here for brewing potions compliment the earlier description of the village’s apothecary and detail numerous ingredients and mixtures. There is an in-world guide to how they are brewed as well as actual game mechanics, so that a knowledgeable Player Character, with a skill such as ‘Demorthèn (Traditional Medicine)’ or Science (Botany), can create various cures, including poison-based cures. All of this is very nicely done with well-balanced mix of in-game flavour and mechanics.

The ‘Bestiary of Melwan’ includes beasts such as the single-horned, goat-like Calyre, boars, the feared Mórbear, and the Caernide, a horned deer-like creature which is also domesticated as a beast of burden. In fact, the latter gets its own section, with Neala giving a guide to the creatures and their advantages as a domesticated animal compared to that of horse. This is understandable since he actually keeps a stable of them himself! There are a few skill checks listed here for both horse and Caernide, enabling a mechanical comparison of the two. There is, however, one monster included in the bestiary, a murderous Feond known as the Guilthas Man—though the inhabitants of the vale are not sure whether it truly exists and if it does, if it is an actual Feond. The misshapen humpback creature lurks in the woods, unsettling, even scaring those it encounters, but no one knows if its has killed anyone yet. So, might it not be a monster? Rounding out is a glossary, perhaps not as lengthy as it should have been.

Physically, Shadows of Esteren: Melwan is simply beautiful, in some ways more artbook than roleplaying supplement. There is some roleplaying content within the book, but it is more background and flavour rather than instantly useable content. That though suits both book and setting, very quiet and understated in describing a location on the Tri-Kazel peninsula, the setting for the Shadows of Esteren roleplaying game, often mentioned, but never fully detailed.

An Esteren Engagement

It has been over a decade since the first release for Les Ombres d’Esteren or Shadows of Esteren, in English. That was Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue, which provided us with an introduction to this low dark, humancentric fantasy setting with Lovecraftian undertones, as well as a set of player characters/NPCs and three ready-to-play scenarios. The English-speaking hobby was fascinated by this French roleplaying game with its themes of tradition versus modernity, science and industrialisation versus faith, and monotheism versus spiritualism, as well as captivated by its artwork which looked like nothing then being published. Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue itself was subsequently made available for free to download. However, since the publication of Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue in 2011 and its release in English in 2012, releases from the publisher, Studio AGATE , have been slow to appear. Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe introduced its setting of Tri-Kazel peninsula in more detail, introducing properly the three nations of the region—Tol-Kaer with its old tribal ways and Demorthèn spiritual cults; Gwidre which has been converted to the Temple of the One God by missionaries from the Great Theocracy from the rest of the continent to the north and adopted feudalism; and Reizh, which has taken up the science of Magience, developing and creating devices, machines, and ‘toys’ powered by ‘Flux’, an energy derived from matter itself, though not without its cost to the environment and land itself. It also provided rules for character generation and is also available as a ‘Pay What You Want’ title. The third release, Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels expanded the setting from an in-character point-of-view, as well as several ‘canvases’ or short scenarios, a longer scenario, and more NPCs as well as a bestiary. Together, these three releases form the core of Shadows of Esteren and they underpin the sixth release, Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg.

Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1 is the first part of the campaign for Shadows of Esteren. It is a highly structured campaign, specifically built around the themes of Love, Ethics, Guilt, and Adoption, which will in turn will be explored by one of the players and their character, supported by a combination of NPCs played by the Game Leader and what would otherwise be NPCs played by the other players. This together with the detailed set-up requirements—in comparison to other campaigns—makes Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg a more demanding campaign than those other campaigns. Although it suggested that parts of the campaign can be played through in a single session or so, really every part of the campaign deserves more time and attention given its thematic and emotional depths. This includes expanding the campaign with extra content. The scenarios in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue can serve as prequel and The Monastery of Tuath can be added too as it further details an NPC important to the campaign. In terms of requirements, ideally, Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1 should be played through by at least four players as well as the Game Leader. This enables the Game Leader and her players to explore the campaign’s four themes, each of which corresponds to a particular archetype found in Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe. These are Eoghan, a Warrior whose theme is Love; Finn, a Magientist whose theme is Ethics; Adeliane, the Demorthèn whose theme is Guilt; and Joris, a Theologian whose theme is Adoption. This part of the campaign also has four secondary narrative arcs—Ambition, Origins, Regret, Vengeance—but does not specifically focus on them or their associated archetype to be found in Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe. Although the campaign works best with these pre-generated Player Characters, there is advice for the Game Leader should a player want to play a different character type or want to roleplay against the associated theme and its narrative. This has the side effect of increasing the preparation time for the Game Leader.

Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1’s themes are explored in a new type of scenario called a ‘Focus’. In Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1, these are used to delve deep into the motivations, history, and relationships of an individual Player Character, essentially portraying and examining key scenes in his life. A Focus can also be used to explore different aspects of an ongoing adventure. Whilst each of the four Focuses in Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1 concentrates on one particular Player Character, the other players will take the roles of NPC involved in that Focus and they will earn Experience Points for their own characters, though not as much. Mechanically, playing through a Focus will grant a Player Character both Experience Points and points in Determination. Points in Determination, together with his Passion, set the value of a new Player Character aspect introduced in Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1, Drive. Drive measures a Player Character’s engagement with both the theme of his Focus and what matters to him, the higher it is, the more likely the Player Character is to act impulsively when following the Drive. A Player Character will also earn further Experience Points and even extra Advantages depending upon the value of his Determination.

There is advice in Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1 for the Game Leader on running a Focus. This covers portraying NPCs, adapting existing Player Characters to the campaign, and both the opportunities and difficulties of running them. The advice is excellent, but ultimately, most of the difficulties can be avoided by players being prepared to buy into the demands of the campaign’s set-up and play style. That said, the preparation time required to set up the players with the NPCs needed for a Focus that is not for their character is more than a normal scenario requires. It should be noted that Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 2 will explore two further Focuses. The four Focuses in Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1 can be run in any order, although a very ambitious and organised Game Leader could actually work with her players to switch back and forth between the various scenes in the four rather than playing through them in linear fashion. Either way, since NPCs can appear in more than one Focus, this is effectively troupe play and the Game Leader best work through the huge cast of characters to work out which players should be roleplaying which NPC and which Focus in order to be consistent.

Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1 begins by presenting ‘The Vale of Dearg’, the setting for the bulk of the campaign. This details the various locations and factions plus NPCs, throughout the valley, in particular the village of Dearg and the Black Feathers, a gang of bandits plaguing the region that will grow to become a destabilising threat over the course of the campaign. There are rules too for hostile weather as much of the campaign takes place during winter, and also for ‘Advanced Character Generation’. This adds further steps to the process, including giving a Player Character ties to his native or adoptive homeland, Drive as detailed above, a Narrative Arc, and Relationships. Of these, Narrative Arcs are actually tied to both player and his character so that if the character dies, the new one with continue the narrative Arc. This is designed to get the new Player Character involved without any complications. There is a guide for the Game Leader on creating Narrative Arcs in Shadow of Esteren, but in Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1, they are primarily explored in its four Focuses.

Another aspect of Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1 which the Game leader, and her players in particular, will need to buy into, is the horror within its story and the way in which it can affect their characters’ emotions and lead to a loss of control. There are points within the campaign—and the Focuses especially—where the Game Leader is expected to suggest, even indicate how a Player Character is feeling. In play, this can be handled through roleplaying means or mechanical means as best fits the player’s style, but again, this requires the agreement of the player to allow this and marks Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1 as being very different in comparison to other campaigns. Again though, there is good advice on handling all of this.

The four Focuses form the second and middle part of Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1. The first ‘Gaol: Of Love and Fury’, explores the theme of Love as an unrequited love triangle is formed between the Player Character, Eoghan, his rival-then friend, Mael Mac Govrian, and a local girl, Céliane. She falls in love with Mael Mac Govrian and Eoghan goes away for military training in a neighbouring Dukedom. Eoghan will also encounter the activities of the Black Feathers. The theme in ‘Modhannan: A Better World’ is Ethics, as Finn runs away from the Vale of Dearg to study in Reizh to become a Magientist, but field assignments in disputed territory will lead to him facing the first of several dilemmas. Joris, a Theologian, is the protagonist of ‘Mac Thogail: The Legacy of the Rose’, who comes to question both his faith and his origins, the latter being the Focus’ theme of Adoption, as he works towards becoming a member of the clergy. There are hints too of heresy linking in the background in this Focus. Lastly, in ‘Coir: The River Child’, the Demorthèn, Adeliane, must come to terms with the Guilt she has faced throughout her life since a friend disappeared when they were children. Options are given to suggest how and why the friend disappeared, as well as the possibility that she is actually still alive. There is the suggestion that if she is dead, that her ghost might be capable of helping Adeliane, though this comes with some downsides too. All four players whose characters undergo their own Focus can expect to face dilemmas and trauma, but it is this last Focus that is the most demanding and the most harrowing, and the roleplaying skill and emotional fortitude of its player will be put to the test.

The campaign proper starts in the third and final part of Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1. This moves the timeline up to date and after the events of the scenarios played through in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue. In effect, what that means is the four Focuses in Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1 are effectively flashbacks, which some cases, will take one or more of the Player Characters to locations previously visited in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue, before the effects of events of the scenarios in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue play out. The campaign proper in Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1 actually begins with its prequel, the Player Characters all together and en media res, being chased by some unnamed monster before being forced to take refuge in some tunnels in the mountains surrounding the Vale of Dearg. What they discover in the tunnels hints at things to come in the following scenario, ‘Scourge’. This takes place at the height of winter, with it being particularly cold, foggy, and snowy, and the inhabitants of the Player Characters’ home village of Dearg having to ration food due to poor harvests. They see signs of disturbance coming from the neighbouring village of Fearìl, fires and smoke, but it is too cold to travel. Then a refugee arrives, half out of his mind, and telling of the terror that befell Fearìl, then more refugees, who bring the terror with them. There are hints that something indescribable—or could it be ravenous wolves or murderous crows?—has attacked Fearìl. The Player Character whose Focus was Love will certainly want to investigate as Fearìl is where his betrothed, Céliane, lives. Investigating Fearìl will initially only reveal confusion and uncertainty, as it appears that the Black Feathers bandit gang has attacked the village as well. Some of the villagers fled to the nearby Fortress of Smiorail—where Eoghan, the Warrior whose theme and Focus is Love, did his military training—and it appears too that this has been attacked. This is intentionally confusing and it takes no little gathering of clues and investigation to determine what is behind the attacks. The final confrontation is nasty and challenging and will potentially have long lasting consequences… This, and the discovery of Céliane, unfortunately comatose, is where this part of the campaign comes to an end.

Physically, Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1 is incredibly well presented. It is profusely illustrated and the artwork is superb. The maps are decent too, but the book does need a slight edit in places. The layout is notably open and easy to read, with icons used throughout to indicate important notes for the Game Leader, scenario hooks, options to include monstrous encounters or supernatural elements, key scenes, setting suggestions, and so on. Several of the setting suggestions include what music to play in particular scenes, including from Shadows of Esteren’s own soundtrack.

Ultimately, the issues with Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1 are twofold. The first is that Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 2 is not yet available. Thus, the campaign is currently on a cliffhanger. The second is that the campaign and its Focuses and themes are demanding, not just in terms of set up and organisation, but also in terms of roleplaying and emotions. Every player is expected to roleplay both a character who will experience traumatic and difficult events as part of the character’s childhood, and numerous other NPCs who will often be present at the traumatic and difficult events of another Player Character in his Focus. Which is, of course, demanding for the Game Leader to prepare and run. It is also a campaign that works best with the pre-generated Player Characters to be found in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue, because despite the advice given to suggest otherwise, not using them in a campaign specifically written for them, only increases the amount of preparation required by the Game Leader. Ultimately though, if the Game Leader is prepared to undertake the effort to set the campaign up and her players are ready to accede to its demands and mature enough to handle its emotional heft, Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 1 will deliver a horrifying dark and disturbingly grim roleplaying experience.

—oOo—

The Kickstarter for the second part of the campaign, Shadows of Esteren 3-Dearg – Volume 2, can be found here.

An Esteren Esoterica

The Black Moon Handbook is fifth book to be released in English for the French RPG, Les Ombres d’Esteren or Shadows of Esteren, published by Agate RPG. What stands out about this roleplaying game is its art—every book appears in full colour and is superbly illustrated, but there is more to it than just its art, stunning as it is. Introduced in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue, the roleplaying game is a low dark, fantasy setting with Lovecraftian overtones, the core rules being presented in Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe, a gazetteer of the setting and several scenarios in Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels, and a full length scenario in The Monastery of Tuath. The Black Moon Handbook focuses upon the one subject and supports it with several scenarios, a bestiary, and more. Its subject matter is ghosts and hauntings.

Originally, The Black Moon Handbook began life as Ghost Stories, a stretch goal for the Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels kickstarter which would be divided into two books. The Black Moon Handbook is one, the other is Hauntings, a collection of short stories set in Esteren. At its most basic, The Black Moon Handbook presents an examination of ghosts and hauntings in the Tri-Kazel peninsula, but it is actually a bit more than that. It is actually an examination of ghosts and hauntings in the Tri-Kazel peninsula plus commentary, supporting this with detailed write-ups of four figure associated with hauntings, several examples of hauntings and ghosts, detailed descriptions of four common ghosts, and more. Where the slim book is clever is in the way that the material is presented. On the one level, it presents information about ghosts and hauntings so that the GM can add them to his game—or not, as some of the options in the scenarios attest—but on another, it presents this information in a such way that The Black Moon Handbook is itself is an in-game artefact which the GM can give to the players and their characters. Once they have played through the book’s scenarios that is. In the book, the information is presented by Steren Slàine, an occultist and ghost hunter who it is implied is a wanted woman for her having distributed The Black Moon Handbook and its heretical content. Throughout though, both the author and her information are commented and debunked in a commentary written from a scientific standpoint by the Alienist, Enyl Mc Bedwyr. This gives the book both a pleasing balance and a pleasing sense of verisimilitude and the reader is left to make his mind up as to the existence of ghosts in Esteren. That is until the very final pages of the book when the differences of opinion are confirmed one way or another...

The book opens with ‘Haunting Phenomena in Tri-Kazel’ which looks at ghosts and ghostly phenomena on peninsula, how and where they might manifest, and how they can be exorcised, and how the Demorthèn and the Temple approach such incidents. What Steren Slàine suggests is that hauntings commonly occur in two locations. One is the haunted house, where great misfortune or suffering has occurred, the other is the cursed place, where even greater misfortune or suffering has occurred, whether in one incident or over the course of time. Haunted houses tend to be relatively small locations, but suggested cursed places include prisons and places of great battle. Ghosts might be anchored to a location or building, or to an object as ‘object of power’, but they might also be capable of possessing the bodies of the living, sometimes at the cost of the host’s very soul. Ghosts tend to exhibit strong emotions—regret, remorse, desire, yearning, and so on—and often have unfulfilled needs or desires that if addressed may allay their haunting activities. In some hauntings, addressing such unfulfilled needs may not be possible and an exorcism is required. This may involve an Occultist engaging in spiritual combat with the ghost—and rules are included for this—but flames can often be used to destroy or drive out a ghost. This though is not guaranteed method, the danger being that a ghost may still return, let alone the fact that the authorities frown on the indiscriminate use of fire to destroy property.

Included amongst these descriptions of ghostly types and hauntings are descriptions of typical signs of their manifestation. These are nightmares, the cold, drafts of air, shadows, and reflections in mirrors. Variations upon each provide the Leader—as the Game Master is known in Shadows of Esteren—with elements that he can use to build atmosphere and direct the story, whether ghosts and hauntings exist in the Tri-Kazel peninsula or not. Answering this question lies at the heart of the debate in The Black Moon Handbook between Steren Slàine and Enyl Mc Bedwyr. Although the supplement itself does eventually give an answer, the Leader is free to decide whether or not they do, being provided with the means to support his decision either way. What this also means is that the Leader can run scenarios with or without actual ghosts and hauntings, but still using these atmospheric elements. The scenarios without are pretty much akin to episodes of Scooby Doo or perhaps U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, the first scenario for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons from TSR (UK). This enables the Leader to sow the seeds of doubt in the minds of the player characters as to the existence of ghosts and hauntings, and then, in a bait and switch, have them encounter an actual haunting or ghost!

‘Figures’ presents five individuals of note, connected to either The Black Moon Handbook or the scenarios presented in the next chapter. Thus they include both Steren Slàine and Enyl Mc Bedwyr, as well as a Varigal haunted by her past, a tortured assassin, a witch hunter, and a reckless knight seeking to restore his family fortunes. As with other books for Shadows of Esteren, these five NPCs are each accorded a full write-up and a full-page illustration.

‘Ghost Hunting’ provides the Leader with five examples of possible hauntings and ghost sightings across the Tri-Kazel peninsula. These are not scenarios in the traditional roleplaying game sense, but shorter affairs designed to be played in one or two sessions that come as detailed outlines rather than fully presented ready-to-play scenarios and so can be run with the minimum of preparation. The first scenario is ‘Rounding Up Stray Souls’ and is set at boarding school for rebellious children in the kingdom of Gwidre where salvation of sinners is sought through education and reeducation. When the adventurers are visiting the school, the headmaster asks them to look for a teenaged girl who has gone missing. In the wake of her disappearance and subsequent discovery washed ashore on the beach below the school, another pupil begins claiming that she keeps seeing the deceased girl’s ghost. Then more and more of the pupils do, so the question is, is the school really being haunted or has it fallen prey to a case of mass hysteria, what the supplement terms a ‘collective fear’. This is the first of the scenarios to offer both the mundane and the outré options and to be honest, the outré option is often not as interesting as the mundane option. In some cases the mundane option is more challenging in terms of roleplaying rather than ‘roll playing’.

‘The Key to the Past’ and ‘Bloody Trail’ are the second and third canvasses and are so closely connected that arguably, they should one scenario rather than two. In ‘The Key to the Past’ the player characters are hired to retrieve documents from a castle whose family were all tragically slain. The castle is said to be haunted and if the documents can be retrieved, ownership can be claimed and it can then be knocked down, destroying a bleak site and having a road built in its stead. What at first seems a simple task escalates into survival horror as the player characters are trapped in the mist enshrouded castle and forced to deal with the consequences of previous events in the castle. Both ‘The Key to the Past’ and ‘Bloody Trail’ make extensive use of the NPCs and monsters given elsewhere in the supplement, with the player characters having to go after the NPC responsible in the second part. ‘Bloody Trail’ is much more straightforward than ‘The Key to the Past’ and not quite as interesting.

The fourth scenario is ‘The Return of the Missing One’ deals with long aftermath of a terrible clash between mankind and the dread Feondas known as ‘The Buried Battle’. A husband long thought to have died in the battle has returned after some fifteen years, much to the delight of his widow. The question at the heart of this canvas is whether this returned man—who does not look all that much like her husband—really is her husband returned from death in another’s body or a con man working to take advantage of the wealthy widow’s grief? This is a nicely down character piece. It is followed by the fifth and final canvas, ‘Spectral Dance’, which unlike the previous four canvasses, takes place in an urban area. Thirty people, attendees at a private event, have all been found dead and it is thought that they were struck down by a local legend, the Wing of Death. Again, the line between the mundane and the outré  is easily delineated here and much like the earlier ‘Rounding Up Stray Souls’, this is an easy scenario for the Leader between the mundane and the outré options. It ends the quintet of canvases on a solidly entertaining note.

The ‘Bestiary’ contains just four entries, all of which appear in the preceding canvases. Three are new monsters. The Bodysnatcher is a ghost that enters the body of the living to possess them at the cost the original personality—either to subdue it or destroy it; the Claws of Limbo is a fog-borne entity that attacks its victims physically and mentally, which might be one of the Feondas or not; and the Anchored Ghost is a spirit which can be a place or a traditional ghost. The fourth entry is a detailed NPC, Joderine, who appears in the canvas, ‘Key to the Past’. She is the most difficult to use outside of the scenario in which she appears, but as an almost Rusalka-like thing, the Leader should be able to adapt her to a situation or scenario of his own design. Overall, this is a reasonable mix of new creatures, all four of which quite restrained what they are capable of, at least mechanically. In storytelling terms, they have a lot of potential though, especially in building upon the atmospheric elements presented in ‘Haunting Phenomena in Tri-Kazel’. Again, just like the five NPCs in ‘Figures’, these monsters are given a full page write-up and a full page, full colour illustration.

Physically, The Black Moon Handbook is a beautiful book. As with other Shadows of Esteren titles, The Black Moon Handbook is engagingly laid out and rich in full colour detail and artwork. The artwork is simply fantastic and show just how much effort goes into this RPG. The cartography is also very good and this is one of the few supplements for the RPG where the maps have been allowed to shine. Unfortunately, the writing is not as clean and tidy as it could be, the translation and localisation not quite as smooth as it could be. Another issue is the tone of the annotations from the pen of the Alienist, Enyl Mc Bedwyr, which is more disparaging and sneering without being constructive or helpful. If was that would have better countered the in-game author’s writings and perhaps better supported the mundane option.

It is entirely up to the Leader whether or not ghosts and hauntings exist in his Tri-Kazel peninsula. The joy of The Black Moon Handbook is that its content can be used either way, to run scenarios in which there no ghosts, but simply a strong belief in them or scenarios in which the beliefs are vindicated. Or for greater effect, be run to instil a sense of complacency into the player characters as the existence of ghosts using the mundane option, then shake their beliefs with a real haunting! Either way, The Black Moon Handbook is really only an optional supplement for use with Shadows of Esteren, but exactly what the Leader needs if he wants to bring ghosts and hauntings into his game—whether they are real or not...

—oOo—

Agate RPG and Shadows of Esteren will have a stand at UK Games Expo, which will take place between June 2nd and June 4th, 2017 at Birmingham NEC. This is the world’s fourth largest gaming convention and the biggest in the United Kingdom.

An Esteren Mystery

The Monastery of Tuath is the fourth book for the French RPG, Les Ombres d'Esteren or Shadows of Esteren, published by Agate RPG. What has been so pleasing about this low dark, fantasy setting with Lovecraftian overtones is that these four releases have provided both plenty of background material as scenarios that part of the RPG’s campaign. This began with the very first release, Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue which provided us with an introduction to the setting as well as a set of player characters/NPCs and three ready-to-play scenarios and was continued with the third release, Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels, which included a set of five extended encounters—not all of them of the highest quality, but some of them very good. Now those scenarios are joined by a full length affair, The Monastery of Tuath.

Like previous books in the line, The Monastery of Tuath was funded via Kickstarter. It comes as slim, fifty-page hardback accompanied by a folder of handouts and clues, all in gorgeous full colour. The book itself is divided equally into two sections, the first providing both background material on monasteries in Esteren and the particular monastery where the contents of the second half is set. That second half is ‘Vengeful Words’, a murder mystery inspired by—what else?—Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. Now this could be terribly trite, even clichéd, both as a murder mystery and as a murder mystery in which magic and horror—Esteren of course being a dark, fantasy setting with Lovecraftian overtones—play a part, but fortunately, the authors have not only firmly based ‘Vengeful Words’ in the setting of Esteren, they have lifted it above being a cliché.

The Monastery of Tuath begins with an examination of monasteries and monastic life on the Tri-Kazel peninsula and the nation of Gwidre in particular as part of worship of the One. Essentially it covers how one can become a monk or nun—six years as an Adept before taking one's vows—and then the life and duties afterwards. The vows, and there are six of them, is where monastic life gets interesting. They include Frugality, Abstinence, Anonymity, Temperance, Abstention, and Obedience, and a newly sworn monk is expected to choose several of them to makes vows of, though not necessarily all of them as that can seem as if the monk is too ambitious, too career minded. Not very order of monks swears to the same vows, which can add a degree of politics and doctrinal interpretation to the game. Further, even when they do, the duties of the monks may mean that a monk cannot observe them all of the time—and that applies equally to religious life beyond the confines of monastic ground. So for example, members of all religious orders are expected to attend six masses per day, but the duties of a herbalist or physician may mean that he cannot attend all six and a party of Temple’s Blade knights on patrol could not interrupt their patrol to make their religious observances. Similarly, the ordinary followers of the One are expected to acknowledge the six daily masses if not strictly observe them as they go about their daily life.

As well as the title of this supplement, the ‘Monastery of Tuath’ is also a location on the Tri-Kazel peninsula and the location of the scenario, ‘Vengeful Words’. So the supplement also describes  the history, layout, and current staff and guests at the monastery. Indeed, part of the supplement’s colour fiction is devoted to that history—the story of the famous monk, Beren, canonised for his selfless healing work during a great plague. The isolation of the monastery in the Vale of Thoir and the veneration in which Saint Beren is held has meant that there is a danger of a doctrinal split as one as the monks at the Monastery of Tuath comes to favour the Saint over the One. The various NPCs at the monastery are described in some detail, especially their motivations, which are of course, vital in explain what is behind the events in ‘Vengeful Words’.

Getting to the truth of the events in ‘Vengeful Words’ is as tricky as you would imagine, with red herrings and misdirection aplenty—and that is before the Leader incorporates some of the suggested staging and gamemastering advice given in the adventure. While the Leader will need to make a careful read to keep on top of everything, the players are given help of a sort through their own efforts with a set of full colour clue cards. These come in their own little folder and add a certain verisimilitude to the play of the scenario, which should last one good session or two shorter ones. Now as solid a scenario as ‘Vengeful Words’ is, there is one issue with it. This is the fact that although it is a minor part within the larger Shadows of Esteren campaign, it takes place within this campaign’s environs and there is every danger that the player characters might go rushing off to deal with an aspect the campaign that they are neither ready to, or capable of, dealing with, and that The Monastery of Tuath does not address in any detail. Thus the Leader will needs to take care in steering his player characters away from a course of action that might get them killed.

Physically, The Monastery of Tuath is beautifully presented. Although the book needs an edit here and there, the artwork and illustrations are beautiful, fully painted pieces that are well used in the book. The scenario is well organised and again makes use of icons—‘Gore’, ‘Suspense’, ‘Psychology’, and ‘Supernatural’ to indicate its various elements as advice and important pieces of information—to help the Leader. Apart from the already mentioned issue with the scenario, one other grumble with The Monastery of Tuath is it could have included more information on the various monastic orders to be found on the Tri-Kazel peninsula.

As many scenarios as we have had for—to which ‘Vengeful Words’ is fine addition—it would be nice to have something longer and a bit meatier for both the Leader and his players to get into. The scenario also makes for an excellent destination for the player characters to be going to when the Leader runs the minor encounters to be found in Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels. Coupled with the solid source material on monasteries to be found in the other half of the book and The Monastery of Tuath is a short, if decent addition to Shadows of Esteren.

An Esteren Companion

To date, the French RPG, Les Ombres d'Esteren or Shadows of Esteren, published by Agate RPG, remains an intriguing game. This low dark, fantasy setting with Lovecraftian overtones has been explored in just two releases in the English language—Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue provided us with an introduction to the setting as well as a set of player characters/NPCs and three ready-to-play scenarios, while Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe presented that setting, the Tri-Kazel peninsula, in more detail. Both were beautiful books, but they also left much unsaid about the setting, in particular its secrets and the true nature of the world and the Feondas, the strange and hideous beasts that threaten the inhabitants of the peninsula. In addition, the books have their own problems. In places their writing has been obtuse, a problem that comes from their being translations of books in another language. This is not to say that the translations are poorly done, but they are not done by native English speakers and that does show in places. The other problem is the sheer density of text, typically written in character. This gives the world flavour aplenty, but it does sometimes make the setting inaccessible and details difficult to find.

The third release, Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels, suffers from similar issues, but not to the same extent. It does though, have problems of its own. Its structure heavily weighs in upon those problems. The original French version began life as two chapters—‘Cartography’ and ‘Canvasses’, but to these have been added three more chapters in the English edition of Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels. The first of these new chapters provides a full length, detailed adventure, the second gives yet more NPC/player characters, and the third some actual secrets to the setting.

Initially, the contents of ‘Cartography’, the first chapter, is difficult to digest. It consists of descriptions of different places around the Tri-Kazel peninsula. Little more than snapshots,  together they initially feel slightly incoherent, but it quickly becomes apparent that these are the reminiscences of a Varigal, one of the travellers and messengers who spread news and stories via the secret ways each apprentice learns. They are full of little details such as that narrow pass known as ‘Faol Ròd’ or ‘Wolf’s Breach is said to be haunted by a giant barbed wolf appeased every twenty years by the sacrifice of a hero or that the previous villagers of Aimliù were said to hear things upon icy winds of the sea and shied away from sunlight, which is why they were put to the sword before the War of the Temple. Eventually these reminiscences switch to providing more detail about particular places, such as the newly rebuilt city of Expiation, constructed by the Temple on the site of vile heresy  as a model of the perfect town should be, and the Carmine Chasm, a maze-like canyon uniquely home to blood red flora and known for its lamenting wind and the ‘white cross widows’, the small spiders that collectively weave great webs. These longer descriptions are more accessible, and thus for the Game Leader—the Referee in Shadows of Esteren—are much easier to bring into his game. Rounding this chapter are notes the geographical features of the Tri-Kazel peninsula and travelling them, including a nice guide to the ‘Stermerks’, the ideograms used by the Varigals to mark the dangers and difficulties upon the road.

Chapter 2, ‘Canvases’, presents five short adventures intended to be played in an evening or a single session. They are more like extended encounters as they do require the Game Leader to flesh them out and provide game stats for each the NPCs, which means that they are easier to adapt to a particular playing group. Unfortunately, the quintet is an uneven lot in terms of quality. They begin in uninspiring fashion, with a pair of familiar plots. In ‘Blood Feathers’, an exiled family has turned to preying on lonely and lost travellers, while in ‘The Disappearance’, the player characters fall in with the Tarish—the equivalent of the Gypsies in Shadows of Esteren—and are honour-bound to find out happened when both their companion and a beautiful girl disappear. The fourth Canvas, ‘Say it with Flowers’ is a murder mystery and again uses a rather familiar plot. This is not to say that a Game Leader could not run these three encounters well enough, but more that their plots do not evoke the game world as well as a Game Leader might like. 

Fortunately, this cannot be said of the third Canvas, ‘Night of Fright’, which finds the player characters in a village, unexpectedly and oddly alone. It is a terrific set-up and needs relatively little in the way of preparation compared to the others. The Game Leader should have plenty of fun with it and once he has run it for one group, it worth running again for another. Or indeed stealing it for another game and setting! The fifth and last Canvas, ‘The Shipwreck’ is not as fun as ‘Night of Fright’, but it does bring out much of what is interesting and unique to the setting of Shadows of Esteren—the tension between progress and tradition, and in particular , the ecological dangers of that progress. In ‘The Shipwreck’ the player characters come across a seaside village poisoned by the wreck of a Magientist ship.

The third chapter, the first of three wholly new ones to the English edition of this supplement is devoted to a single, lengthy scenario, ‘A Life Choice’.  It has the player characters hired to accompany a Magientist to reclaim her son whom she thought dead, but who was actually kidnapped by his father and taken to join what is essentially the equivalent of religious fundamentalist cult. Unsurprisingly, neither the father nor the head of the cult want the boy to go, and worse, the boy thoroughly hates his mother. There are though those within the cult that want out and are prepared to reveal its secrets, secrets that may aid the player characters in rescuing both the boy and those that want to leave. What ‘A Life Choice’ boils down to is a custody battle, and quite a meaty one at that. There is a lot of detail to the scenario and certainly plenty for the Game Leader and player alike to get their roleplaying teeth into. The initial parts of the scenario have room to expand it a little with other adventures, possibly with some of the Canvases given earlier in the book. The intent here is to turn it into a campaign of sorts, but even with the addition of those canvasses, or others of the Game Leader’s own devising, ‘A Life Choice’ is not quite long enough to be a full campaign. One issue with the scenario is that the writing is not quite as clear as it could be, so the Game Leader will need to give ‘A Life Choice’ a more careful read through than is the norm. Otherwise, this is a good, challenging scenario for all concerned.

‘Figures of Tri-Kazel’, the fourth chapter, describes and illustrates eighteen new NPCs. At least one of these appears in the previously presented chapters, but this is not followed through with the rest, though is nothing to stop the Game Leader from adding the NPCs to one location or another. The chapter also includes some details on the setting’s ‘Mysterious Powers’, in particular how they are used by some of the NPCs given earlier. Whilst useful for those NPCs, in the long term, these powers are limited in their application as just how often can a Game Leader use them in his campaign? In general though, as well designed as these NPCs are—including stats, personality, description, and associated rumour—and as beautifully illustrated as they are, they do feel out of place in Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels.

Rounding out Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels is ‘Bestiary’, the fifth chapter which presents a mini-menagerie of monsters. Stats are provided for several mundane creatures, but what will be interest to the Game Leader will be the full stats and full write-ups of ten the strange and deadly Feondas! Of course their inclusion is only to support the scenario and Canvases that appear elsewhere in the book, but they do provide us with a glimpse of the distantly forthcoming supplement, Shadows of Esteren 4-Secrets. As with the NPCs, each creature write-up includes the stats and general description. Each creature also has its own particular powers and several come with supplementary information or associated rumours. All are nicely detailed and even those that feel a little unoriginal, like the Vampire Bats, are well done and come with more flavour than they might have done in any other horror RPG. Most though are original and interesting and should test the player characters. Of course, the problem with it being a glimpse is that we are left wanting more and there is at least one more book  to come before the publication of Shadows of Esteren 4-Secrets. That wait is frustrating, more so given that no ‘real’ secrets are given away, we are not told the true nature of the Feondas, but we are least given the opportunity to examine some in detail—and a very welcome opportunity it is too...

As with the first two releases for the game, Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels is a full colour book that is beautifully illustrated. The artwork is excellent, being evocative and eerie throughout. Surprisingly, the writing is better than in the previous two supplements. It is not as dense or obtuse as in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue or Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe. That is primarily due to shorter pieces, especially in the snapshot descriptions of the various locations given in Chapter 1, ‘Cartography’, though not in the full scenario, ‘A Life Choice’, which as has already been mentioned, will need a careful read through before being run.

Although lacking access to the original French version of this supplement, from examining just the contents of the first two chapters of the English language version of Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels, it suggests that the original version had more of a focus. With three extra chapters, the English edition loses some of that focus and has a disparate feel to it. This is not to say that the new content is not useful or interesting. Some of it, particularly the secrets at the end of ‘Figures of Tri-Kazel’ and the  ‘Bestiary’ of chapter 5 support both the scenario outlines of ‘Canvases’ and the longer scenario that is ‘A Life Choice’. The NPCs are another matter and they do feel lost amongst the rest of the book.

Overall, Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels is more accessible than previous releases for Shadows of Esteren, but not as focused or as detailed. This makes it more of a companion supplement than one that concentrates on the single subject. It also means that there are several sections of the book that contain material that will need the Game Leader’s attention and development in order to be of full use. As to the parts of it that are good—‘Cartography’, ‘A Life Choice’, and the ‘Bestiary’, not forgetting ‘Night of Fright’ from ‘Canvasses’—they are more than worthy of a Game Leader’s attention.

An Esteren Primer

Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue provided us with an introduction to the French RPG, Les Ombres d'Esteren or Shadows of Esteren, published by Agate RPG. In its few pages we first learned about the setting of this low, dark fantasy RPG—the Tri-Kazel peninsula, populated by the descendants of the same tribes that have long since coalesced into three countries and begun to follow their own paths. Tol-Kaer adheres to the old tribal ways and the Demorthèn spiritual cults; missionaries from the Great Theocracy from the rest of the continent to the north have converted Gwidre to the Temple of the One God and adopted feudalism; whilst Reizh, fascinated by the machines and ‘toys’ of the Confederation, has taken up the science of Magience, developing and creating devices powered by ‘Flux’, an energy derived from matter itself, though not without its cost to the environment and land itself.

Although the peoples of this an isolated and hilly, heavily-forested spit of land are divided by nation and by ideologies and traditions, what binds them together is a fear of the Feondas, an enemy that the Demorthèn consider to be the expression of death and destruction unleashed by chaotic nature spirits; the Temple see as demons; and the Magientists regard as a natural predators to be neutralised. The exact nature of Feondas remains undetermined, but all fear their predations and what their corrupting influence might turn human nature to… It is this, combined with the facts that the rules for Shadows of Esteren do not quantify or necessarily stats for the Feondas, that the rules include a solid Sanity mechanic, and that the rules possess a certain brutalism have led some to describe the RPG as at least being Lovecraftian, if not actually Cthulhu Dark Ages done right.

In addition to introducing the setting of Esteren and the Tri-Kazel peninsula in particular, Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue also provided the Game Leader and his players with everything necessary to start playing Shadows of Esteren. That included an explanation of the RPG’s mechanics as well as a sextet of pre-generated player characters and ‘Omens’, three complete, ready-to-play adventures. The trilogy is essentially the prologue to the game’s overarching campaign as well as an introduction to its themes of tradition versus progress, of fear of the unknown, and having to come to face to face with your own fears and faults.

What Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue did not include was an expanded exploration of the setting, rules for character creation, rules for any of the setting’s magics and sciences, or indeed, an explanation of what exactly the Feondas are. Indeed, we will still have to wait for the latter, for there is no such explanation in the next book in the line, Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe. It does though, give hints as to what they may be and it does include the rest—an expanded exploration of the setting, rules for character creation, rules for the setting’s magics and sciences—plus advice on running and playing Shadows of Esteren.

Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe introduces us fully to the setting of Esteren, devoting almost two thirds of its content to this description over the course of three chapters. These cover the Tri-Kazel peninsula—its geography, history, peoples and their attitudes, its would-be capital city, Osta-Baille, the three nations that dominate it, Gwidre, Reizh, and Taol-Kaer; the lifestyles of its peoples—habits and customs, crafts and foods, architecture, societies, mercantile practices, and its arts; and its factions—the Demorthèn, the Temple, the Magientists, the Varigals, and the Hilderin Knights. The last of these three chapters is rounded out with a page or two of rumours. All of this information is presented in a series of letters, journals, and reports, as well as sections of fiction, and is full of detail and colour. For example, on Tri-Kazel’s south-east coast, the beaches are flat and wide enough that it is common enough to travel their length by sail wagon; that the Bent Tree, an inn in Reizh built inside the trunk of a slumped, giant sequoia tree, serves alcohol sparsely lest its clientele suffer a terrible fall over its raised floors; and that the tenets of the Temple revere austerity to the extent that its worshippers value snow and the cold as signs of purity!

For players and their characters, the sections on the factions of Tri-Kazel will be of particular interest as they provide patrons, enemies, rivals, and inspiration. The Demorthèn, the Temple, and the Magientists receive the most pages each, while the Varigals and the Hilderin Knights receive fewer. Of these, the Demorthèn embrace nature and value balance, learning and guarding the secrets of the deep woods of the peninsula, and are capable of mastering the ancestral art of Sigil Rann and thus command the powers of nature through the Ogham Stones—Air, Water, Vegetal, Life, Animal, Fire, and Earth. Together with the Varigals, travellers and messengers who spread news and stories via the secret ways each apprentice learns, the Demorthèn impart much of Shadows of Esteren’s Celtic feel. The Temple worships and proselytizes the One, organised into six orders, adhering to six ordinances and six daily prayers, and worshiping in and building hexagonal buildings. Through prayer and chanting, the devout of the Temple may learn to invoke miracles that can castigate, protect, bring down divine wrath, induce faith with stanzas, and even miraculously heal. Magientists build and operate devices and artefacts, searching for and extracting Flux from mineral, flora, and fauna. This takes time and effort, but they think it worth it in the name of progress. Lastly, the Hilderin Knights is an independent order dedicated to destroying Feondas. They and the Temple invoke parallels of the Crusades, just as the Magientists lend the setting the feel of the Age of Enlightenment, although one with a steampunk-like sensibility.

Like Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue, six pre-generated characters are given in Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe. The six, which include a male Varigal, a male warrior, a female Demorthèn, a male Theologian of the Temple, a male Magientist, and a female Bard, are different to those given in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue. They are written as a group and are included as samples, as inspiration, and as ready-to-play characters. Indeed, it would be possible to play through the ‘Omens’ trilogy from Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue using these characters, or those created using the rules in Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe.

Character generation in Shadows of Esteren involves selecting the character’s ethnicity, profession, birthplace, and social class before assigning to various factors. First to the core traits of a character’s personality or the five Ways—the Way of Combativeness, the Way of Creativity, the Way of Empathy, the Way of Reason, and the Way of Conviction. They are not attributes as such, but ‘ways’ of thinking and acting to which ratings of one, two, three, four, and five are assigned. Each Way possesses Qualities and Flaws—positive and negative Traits, so for example, possible Qualities and Flaws for the Way of Combativeness include assertive, optimistic, brash, and stubborn if high a high value, but calm, level-headed, pessimistic, and sad if a low value. A character needs to choose two Traits—one Quality, one Flaw—attached to his Ways.

Choice of Profession grants a character a primary Domain and a secondary Domain. Each represents a broad skill, such as Craft, Close Combat, Erudition, Magience, Prayer, or Science, and is valued between 1 and 5. For example, the primary Domain for a Knight is Close Combat, the secondary Domain either Relation or Travel. Beyond a Domain value of five, a character must specialise in one or more Disciplines, each of which is valued between six and fifteen. Thus a character might have a Domain of Close Combat 5 and a Discipline of Axe 9, meaning that his rating with a knife would be 5 and 14 with his Axe. A character also receives levels in other Domains, these based on other pursuits as well as birthplace and social class.

All characters start between the ages of sixteen and twenty, but can be older. This grants them bonus Domain levels, but will also give them Setbacks, randomly rolled events that have a negative effect on the character. Every character receives one hundred Experience Points to further develop his Ways, Domains, and Disciplines. He can also select Advantages and Disadvantages, though there are relatively few of these in the game. There is also a wide range of derived statistics to work out before play begins.

Our sample character is Alane, the younger son of a wealthy Reizh merchant who was enrolled at university to study Magience. Traumatised as a child by the fire that killed his mother, Alane grew from an introverted and bookish boy to a studious man who relished every chance to learn and works hard to be personable. His father wanted Alane to enter the family business, but his tutor persuaded his father of his son’s scholastic brilliance and suggested that he take the examinations to enter university. These he passed with ease and for the next few years he engrossed himself in his studies, progressing at a prodigious rate, often finding himself distracted because he was outpacing his fellow students. Becoming bored he began to read other books and scrolls on a variety of other subjects—this eventually would be his downfall.

Since he found the study of Magience relatively unchallenging and he found other subjects to fill his time and intellect. Thus he discovered Occultism and became obsessed with it to the point that although he passed his final examinations, it was not with the distinctions expected of him. Without these, Alane found himself posted to more mundane tasks that he found unchallenging and eventually boring until he drifted off into studying Occultism. The Council of Baldh-Ruoch has no idea where to send him and so he went back to his family, but there he found no welcome. Instead, he was thrown out, his father refusing to fund his studies further. 

Currently Alane tries to find work in the university libraries, but this is not quite enough to support him or the life of reading and study that he wants. He has begun doing small tasks and helping others find things, answer their questions, and solve their problems. This brings himself some funds and on occasion he can be challenged.

Alane is a sparse looking youth, slightly unkempt, with a penetrating look. His clothes have been patched again and again, but he tries his best, if only for his mother’s sake. He will undertake many tasks, each one being given his undivided attention. Physically he is less capable, even cowardly, and barely knows how to handle the dagger he carries in his belt.

Alane, Scholar & Investigator
Age: 25 Ethnicity: People of Tri-Kazel (Reizh) Social Class: Middle Class
Profession: Investigator

Ways: Combativeness: 1. Creativity: 4. Empathy: 3. Reason: 5. Conviction: 2.
Skills: Close Combat: 2. Erudition: 4. Magience: 5. Occultism: 3. Perception: 5. Relation: 2. Science: 2. Travel: 1.
Advantages: Brilliant (+2 with Magience, Occultism, & Science)
Disadvantages: Pyrophobia 
Sanity: Mental Resistance: 7. Trauma: 0.
Consciousness: 7. Instinct: 5.
Orientation: Rational. 
Combat: Attack: 3 (Dagger Damage: 3), Defense: 13 (Protection: 4). 
Speed: 4. Potential: 2.
Stamina: 10.
Survival Points: 3.

Personality
Character Traits: Ingenious/Eccentric
Latent Disorder: Obsession

Mechanically, Shadows of Esteren is simple and straightforward. Whenever a character wants to undertake an action, he rolls a ten-sided die and adds it to the total of a Way, a Domain, and a Discipline. Typically, a character will be rolling against a Threshold of 11 (Standard), 14 (Complicated), and 17 (Difficult), with characters not needing to roll if their total is higher than the Threshold. The same mechanic is used throughout Shadows of Esteren—it is simple and it is direct, working well with the combat mechanics that have the potential to be short and brutal, the Sanity system, and Shadows of Esteren’s magics. The Sanity system has the characters making rolls against a Threshold set and kept hidden by the Game Leader as is each character’s mental state in game terms. The mechanics for the Sanity system are perhaps the more complex of those found in Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe, as are those for the Demorthèn Art and the Miracles of the Temple. The systems for both present a similar and flexible means of handling the ‘magics’ of the setting, that start off with quite small effects and build up with an accompanying rise in Threshold difficulties. For example, using a Vegetal Oghamic Stone, a Demorthèn might camouflage himself in the surrounding undergrowth with a Difficult (17) Threshold for a minute, but if he succeeds at a Heroic (30) Threshold, he might even cause plants to bloom, trees to grow, and thickets to spread for miles around. Essentially the mechanic requires to the player and Game Leader to agree upon a Threshold for the desired effect rather than presenting a set of ‘spells’.

In contract, the section on Magience is something of a disappointment, primarily because of its limited focus. This is essentially on the extraction and refinement of Flux, the substance that fuels the artefacts and devices built by the Magientists. A list of common devices is included in the book, but there are no rules that allow the player character Magientist to devise and build items of his design. To be fair, there is enough here to get a campaign started involving the Magientists. Advice is given on allowing player characters to start with the Demorthèn Art and the Miracles of the Temple.

The advice for players and Game Leader alike is excellent. At the heart of said advice is that they ‘role’ with the system rather than roll it. The good news is that the system is light enough and unobtrusive enough that it supports this advice, though it does very much means that Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe is not a book for anyone new to roleplaying. Elsewhere, the advice covers character creation and play, types of player character group set-ups, and so on. The advice presented here is always straight forward and it is always useful. 

As with Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue, the look of Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe is incredibly well done. The artwork is rich and detailed, and adds a great to the look and feel for the setting. The book is also well-written—to an extent. The problem is one of translation, Shadows of Esteren originally having been Les Ombres d'Esteren, so occasionally some oddities in terms of phrasing do slip through. More of a problem is the density of the text and its presentation. With the setting presented through in-game means through letters, reports, and so on, it becomes quite difficult to assimilate it—let alone finding any particular fact or aspect of the setting in the book. This impedes both the imparting of the setting of Esteren to his players by the Game Leader and his making use of it to write material of his own for a game or a campaign. In this it does not help that the book is very much organised to keep its setting material and its mechanics very much apart from each other, so often there is not the immediate correlation between the two.

If you have seen Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue and liked it—and why not when it is available to download for free?—then Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe is your next step. Beautifully presented, it pulls you further into the rich and detailed world of Esteren and the Tri-Kazel peninsula, immersing you with detail after detail. It presents a low fantasy and grim fantasy world with just a hint of horror and the unknown—details of both will have to wait for later books—that offers quite a lot of options in terms of what can be played. There is still yet plenty of information about the setting that has not yet been given and will have to wait for later books, but Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe is an excellent introduction to its setting and mechanics that do require more attention than most fantasy RPGs.

An Esteren Starter

Just as with everything else, the English language dominates the hobby industry. For the most part this means that most RPGs are translated from English into a nation’s own language, but the passage of RPGs from the English language to another is not wholly one way. Some RPGs do get translated into English, for example, Siroz’s In Nomine Satanis/Magna Veritas was translated by Steve Jackson Games as In Nomine in 1997; Cubicle Seven Entertainment publishes Kuro, Qin, and Yggdrasill, all French RPGs from Le Septième cercle; Ulisses Spiele GmbH’s Adventures in Kaphornia 01 – Draconian Rhapsody: A Fantasy Movie For Your Game Table is a German RPG published by Chronicle City; and Maid the Roleplaying Game is a rare Japanese RPG to be translated into English. What these all have in common is that English language publishers have translated and had them published. Not so Les Ombres d'Esteren or Shadows of Esteren, a new French RPG whose publisher, Agate RPG, is bringing the RPG to the English speaking world following a successful Kickstarter programme.

Shadows of Esteren is a low, dark fantasy RPG set in a world on the edge of great change, but still looking to older traditions and still fearing that something unspoken lurks in the dark beyond man’s understanding… The setting is the Tri-Kazel peninsula, an isolated and hilly, heavily-forested spit of land cut off from the rest of the Continent. It is divided into three countries, all descended from the same tribes, but now following own their paths. Tol-Kaer adheres to the old tribal ways and the Demorthèn spiritual cults; missionaries from the Great Theocracy to the north have converted Gwidre to the Temple of the One God and adopted feudalism; whilst Reizh, fascinated by the machines and ‘toys’ of the Confederation, has taken up the science of Magience, developing and creating devices powered by ‘Flux’, an energy derived from matter itself. Although these ideologies predominate in each of the three countries, they are not exclusive to any of the three countries despite their being inherently antagonistic towards one another.

What is common to all three countries is a fear of the Feondas, an enemy that the Demorthèn consider to be the expression of death and destruction unleashed by chaotic nature spirits; the Temple see as demons; and the Magientists regard as a natural predators to be neutralised. The exact nature of Feondas remains undetermined, but all fear their predations and what their corrupting influence might turn human nature to… It is this, combined with the facts that the rules for Shadows of Esteren do not quantify or necessarily stats for the Feondas, that the rules include a solid Sanity mechanic, and that the rules possess a certain brutalism have led some to describe the RPG as at least being Lovecraftian, if not actually Cthulhu Dark Ages done right.

Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue is the first title released for the game. It is not the full RPG, but rather an introduction to both the rules and the setting. It comes complete with a description of the setting, a discussion of its themes, an overview of the game system, six pre-generated characters, and ‘Omens’, a trilogy of three complete scenarios that serve as a prologue to the game’s overarching campaign. What strikes the reader first about Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue is how good the book looks. Eighty pages of full colour, painted artwork that both inspires and awes the reader.

Mechanically, Shadows of Esteren is simple and straightforward, at least in 0-Prologue. The core traits of a character’s personality are defined mentally by five Ways – the Way of Combativeness, the Way of Creativity, the Way of Empathy, the Way of Reason, and the Way of Conviction. Each Way possesses Qualities and Flaws – positive and negative aspects, so for example, possible Qualities and Flaws for the Way of Combativeness include assertive, optimistic, brash, and stubborn if high a high value, but calm, level-headed, pessimistic, and sad if a low value. Each Way is valued between one and five. Similarly, Domains, the system’s broad skills, such as Craft, Close Combat, Erudition, Magience, Prayer, and Science, are also valued between one and five. Beyond a value of five, a character must specialise in one or more Disciplines, each of which is valued between six and fifteen. Thus a character might have a Domain of Close Combat 5 and a Discipline of Bastard Sword 9, meaning that his rating with a knife would be 5 and 9 with a Bastard Sword.

To undertake an action, a character totals the value of an appropriate Way, Domain, and Discipline and adds them to the roll of a ten-sided die to beat a set Difficulty Threshold – the standard being eleven. It should be noted that all six of the pre-generated characters have their values pre-totalled for ease of play. The same mechanic works with both in combat – which is short and brutal, and the Sanity system. Rolls for the latter are made with only the Game Leader – or Game Master – only knowing the Difficulty Threshold. The full rules for Sanity are not presented in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue, but rather presented on a case-by-case basis in the three scenarios.

To play through the three scenarios in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue, a total of six pre-generated characters are provided. They include a female Varigal, a courier and messenger for hire; a female warrior in training; a male spy turned archer; a male Demorthèn trainee; and a male Adept of the Temple. By playing through ‘Omens’ using these six, the intent is that the players can transition onto ‘Dearg’, the Shadows of Esteren campaign, though the Game Leader could instead have them use the characters given in Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe or have the players create their own. The six in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue have ties of varying strength to the region and to each other, though this need not be established before play begins of the three scenarios as if played in order as presented, they begin in media res.

‘Omens’ consists of ‘Loch Varn’, ‘Poison’, and ‘Red Fall’. Throughout, the authors use icons to highlight certain elements of particular moments and scenes – Gore, Psychology, Supernatural, and Suspense, as well as tips for the Game Leader and suggested musical cues. Many of the latter come from Of Men and Obscurities, a CD of music specifically written for use with Shadows of Esteren, but cues are given for other soundtracks also.

‘Omens’ takes place in Loch Varn’s Vale. It opens with a bang in ‘Loch Varn’, the characters under attack and unsure of where they are. The situation is intentionally unsettling for both players and characters, and the aim of the adventure is for them to uncover where they are and how they came to be there. Equally, this is not an easy scenario for the Game Leader to run and quite possibly a frustrating one because the players are not necessarily in full control of their characters. Further, as the initial scenario of the trilogy, it is probably too difficult an affair for the inexperienced Game Master. One suggestion made is that the scenarios of the trilogy be run in a different order, but this feels at odds with the intent of Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue and certainly defuses the impact of playing ‘Loch Varn’ first.

The second and third scenarios in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue are shorter and more traditional affairs. ‘Poison’ sees the characters investigate an outbreak of illness that sees many of its victims sent into a murderous rage before they die. The characters are caught up in this as they investigate and there is even the possibility of their coming down with the illness and suffering its effects. ‘Poison’ is the most straight forward adventure of the trilogy, such that it works as an easier introduction to Shadows of Esteren for both the Game Leader and his players. Initially, the third and final scenario, ‘Red Fall’, feels very similar to ‘Loch Varn’, but rather than every character beginning the adventure in an unexpected situation, it is just the one. Despite the reuse of amnesia to set up a scenario, ‘Red Fall’ is a murder mystery that adds a greater complexity over ‘Poison’.

Physically, Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue is beautifully presented. At its worst, the book reads a little oddly in places, but that is an issue with the translation. Nevertheless, it is an engaging read.

One complaint about Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue is the lack of explanation as to its secrets and an explanation of what the Feondas actually are. Certainly there is no explanation in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue or indeed in the next book, Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe. Rather the explanation is saved for a later book. Some readers or Game Leaders will be disappointed by this, but for Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue, this is not an issue. The mysteries presented here have as much explanation as is needed.

There is much pleasure to be had in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue. It comes from the obvious love put into its presentation, from the effort put into presenting a world in a relatively small page count, and from the triptych of scenarios that work hard to immerse the player characters in the setting. Lastly it comes in the presentation of the mysteries in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue, not just in the individual scenarios, but in the feel that there is more to this RPG. Atmospheric and engaging, Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue is a well done introduction to the mysteries and setting of Shadows of Esteren.