Ours is the Anarchy

It is the Year of our Lord 1376. England is a land of unrest. The Great Mortality—the Black Death—has swept the country twice in the last three decades and now half of her people are dead. With half of the labourers and serfs who worked the land also dead, labour is much in demand and wages have risen, enriching the working man and so giving him the possibility of improving his life and that of his family. In response, the authorities have passed laws that fix wages at pre-plague rates and made it a crime to refuse work or break a contract, imposing fines and even branding and imprisonment should such laws be broken, in practice applying it to the labourer rather than the labourer and the employer. Sumptuary laws have even been passed to regulate the goods that the increasingly wealthier labourer can consume! In France, King Edward III continues to press his claim to the French throne, but as the French conduct cross-Channel commerce raids, the war is becoming increasingly more expensive maintain, Parliament levying poll taxes upon every adult in the country more than once and sending commissioners from one County to the next in search of those who refuse to pay. In London, the city’s populace resent the presence of foreigners, Flemish weavers in particular, and loath John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, for his support of the religious reformer John Wycliffe, whom they regarded as a heretic, and this will continue upon the death of King Edward III in 1376 and the accession of his grandson, Richard II. The new king is only ten years old and John of Gaunt will go on to serve as his regent for many years. The infamous Peasants’ Revolt led by Wat Tyler is five years away, yet England buckles under the authority of the Crown, the Church, and the Nobility and there are many ready to throw off the shackles of oppression and their desperate despair, to rise up and make England theirs. And when they do, when they drive off their feudal lords and officers of the King, their land is theirs, their land is ‘The Anarchy’.

This is the backdrop to Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG, published following a successful Kickstarter campaign by Three Sail Studios—whose previous roleplaying game was the joyous Mappa Mundi. Taking its name from the road junction where a set of gallows once stood in the old County of Essex where the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 rose, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is a storytelling game of struggle, hope, and community. Of struggle against the adversity of the environment and the enmity of authority, of hope for better future, and in connecting a community having the strength to survive. The players takes the roles of peasantry, tradespersons, and even the intelligentsia, natives to one of the counties of England, confronting the rich and the powerful, bettering the community, attempting to improve their Influence whilst reducing the Control that the authorities hold over the countries, and in the process acquiring retinues and retainers, and from their humble beginnings in a single hundred in one County, the Player Characters will travel to neighbouring hundreds and work to liberate them in a Point-Crawl keyed to themes based on verbs.

Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG, an alternative history roleplaying game, but one which does not ignore the grim realities of history. This means that violence against people and animals, arbitrary punishment, torture and execution, conflict at any and all levels of society, slavery and serfdom, refugee displacement, and sexual violence as a weapon are all part of the realities of the period. Whilst they are part of the setting for Gallows Corner, they are not the focus of it. Where they do factor, it should be as actions or the consequences of actions of the authorities, yet further signs—as if needed—of how little the authorities value the ordinary man or woman, let alone the Player Characters. However, Gallows Corner suggests setting boundaries (or Veils) during Session Zero and having any contentious issues happen off camera and make use of a stop sign (or X Card) in play).

A Player Character has three Experiences—Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual, but at the core of a Player Character is a Trade and a Job. Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG categories its forty-eight Jobs across eight Trades. ‘The Body’ represents those who work their muscles to earn their bread; ‘The Earth’ is made up of those who till the soil, grow the food, and tend to the animals; ‘The Flesh’ consists of those who see the inner workings of bodies and know exactly where to cut, either to kill or to cure; ‘The Hood’ are made up of those who work from the shadows; ‘The Market’ is where deals are made, goods are traded, and coin is earned; ‘The Masque’ is worn by performers and entertainers; ‘The Mind’ involves the learned and the clever; and ‘The Stranger’ is home to outlier, those that survive on the edge of society, often doing the unpleasant jobs that no-one else will. With Jobs such as Servant, Herbalist, Barber-Surgeon, Smuggler, Merchant, Minstrel, Scribe, and Gravedigger there is a distinct hint of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay to the options. Even the Rat-catcher is depicted with a small, vicious dog! However, there is a grimmer tone to Gallows Corner with inclusion of Jobs such as Sex Worker, Marshman, Dung Farmer, and Sin-Eater.

Each Job has four skills. For example, the Rat Catcher has the skills of ‘Cunning’, ‘Good with Traps’, ‘Knows Poisons’, and ‘Terrier Companion’, whilst the Butcher has ‘Anatomy’, ‘Cause of Death’, ‘Precision Cuts’, and ‘Tools of the Trade’. Each represents knowledge or an ability that a Player Character has learned and instinctively understands. Each encompasses only a small area of expertise, but they are open to interpretation and if the Narrator agrees with a suggested interpretation, then that is how they work. In general, they allow a Player Character to undertake a relevant action without the need to roll any dice for a Test, though the Narrator may sometimes state that a Test is required.

To create a character, a player assigns a single eight-sided die to one of his Traits, either Physical, Emotional, or Intellectual. A single six-sided die is assigned to the other two and then also to the character’s Trade and Job. He picks a single skill from the four listed for the Job. The die size for all of a Player Character’s Traits, Trade, and Job can all be increased with experience, but instead of a die increase, a player can pick another Skill. Player Character creation is quick and simple.

Name: Hugo Brackenridge
Trade: Mind d6
Job: Lawyer d6

EXPERIENCES
Physical d6 Emotional d6 Intellectual d8

SKILLS
Good in an Argument

Mechanically, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG uses a dice pool system. When a player wants his character to act and pass a Test, he forms a dice pool starting with one or more of his character’s Experiences and then adding dice for his Trade and his Job, if appropriate. A result of five or more is counted as a success, four or less a failure, and only a single success is required for the Player Character to succeed. Another Player Character can help. This can be to increase the size of the Experience die that the player making the Test is going to be rolling or if appropriate, add a Trade or Job die to his dice pool. Gallows Corner advises the player to advocate for as many dice as he can to form the pool, but since the roleplaying game is narrative-led, a player and his character should ideally rely upon roleplaying and Skills rather than attempting Tests.

The size of a die can also go down as well as up. This may be due to injury or illness and if it falls to a four-sided die, it means that the Player Character cannot succeed with that die and its associated Experience, Trade, or Job, because the minimum needed for a success is five. If the Player Character is solely relying upon that die for a Test, then he is in trouble. In such cases, the player should definitely be trying to increase the size of the dice pool, whether that is trying to use his character’s other Experiences and Trade and Job, along with help from his character’s Retinue and other Player Characters.

The players as a group can also spend ‘Opportunities’ to alter the world around or give an order to members of their Retinue. This might be to send a member of their retinue to scout out a village, to wait in ambush ready to strike at an enemy, or to gather resources or craftsmen to reinforce their camp or improve their community, but they can also be spent to allow a player to bring their character’s Job into play once again.

Combat is quick and deadly. It is played out as a series of opposed Physical Experience rolls, each combatant attempting to reduce his opponent’s condition from ‘Standing’ to ‘Knocked Back’ to ‘Down’, and then ‘Retreating’. This also applies an increasing penalty to the roll. The victor always chooses the outcome, but can also improve his own condition, aid an ally, kill or capture an enemy, and so on.

Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG also advises that a player rely upon his own abilities as much as those of his character, since he will be more aware of the world rather than the character, that collaboration is the key to success, death is likely and combat to be avoided—most of the time, and that they should embrace failure.

Chronologically, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is played out over a series of Seasons and Scenes with Clocks being used to track something that the Player Characters are struggling against, such as being hunted by a local Sheriff's soldiery, attempting to erect fortifications in a hurry, and so on. By undertaking acts of liberation and challenging the power of the state such as writing and spreading mocking songs, disrupting the activities of tax collectors, and even burning the manors of the landed classes, each Player Character garners ‘Influence’, a combination of their fame and notoriety that enables them to do greater and bigger things as it grows. As it rises from zero and ‘Unknown’, all the way up through ‘Spoken Of’, ‘Recognisable’, ‘Well Known’, and ‘Notorious’ to ‘Famous’ and one hundred, a Player Character gains Benefits that can be used once per season, whilst the Narrator gains Detriments or negative events that she can bring into play once per season. For example, a Player Character who has an Influence of ten or more is ‘Spoken Of’ and gains the Benefit that because rumours of his good name are beginning to spread and people are willing to help him, he can turn a failed Test to influence an NPC into a success instead. However, the Narrator can select an NPC known to the Player Character who rejects his radical ideas out of fear for his safety. A Player Character’s Influence can also fall due to failure or defeat.

In addition, the Benefit gained at each rank of Influence, a Player Character can recruit a Retainer to his Retinue, up to a total of five. Each Retainer is an NPC in his own right and created just like a Player Character. Once a Retainer is part of a Retinue, a player and his character gains access to his Experiences, Trade, and Job as well as his skills and in combat, a Retainer contributes his Physical die to the Player Character. Retainers can also be sent off on missions, though this costs ‘Opportunities’ to do so, with the outcome determined by a Test after two or more scenes. There is some scope for troupe-style play here and a player is free to roleplay a Retainer as necessary. However, a Retainer is always a secondary character to a player’s main or perspective character. Should a Player Character die, he can be replaced by a Retainer. Thus, a Player Character’s Retinue is not just a source of replacement characters, but also an extension of his physical capabilities and knowledge.

Whilst each Player Character has his own Influence, they are combined together as the party’s Collective Influence. It is this value that is measured against ‘Control’, which represents the power and domination that the state—the crown, the nobility, and the church—holds over the immediate County or Region and ultimately, over all of England. If the Player Characters’ ‘Collective Influence’ is increased above the ‘Control’ for a County or Region, a Showdown can be staged. This is a significant and ideally cinematic confrontation with the leading antagonist for the County or Region. Now the text suggests that ‘Control’ might be reduced by a single point for writing and spreading mocking songs about the local sheriff, two points for skirmishing soldiers, and four points for attacking and burning manorial holdings, but there is not a useful list that the Narrator can easily reference. Whilst this does allow a Narrator a lot of flexibility, arguably it is too much and some guidance could and should have been included.

Chronologically, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is played out as a ‘Point Crawl’ that scales up from the Hundreds and Liberties which make up each County, and then the Counties that make up a Region, and the Regions which make up England. Each Hundred, Liberty, County, and Region is a Point, a location where there is a problem or situation to resolve and several scenes will play out as the Player Characters attempt to resolve it. The ‘Point Crawl’ is set up by the Narrator. The Narrator selects a County and determines its degree of ‘Control’, based on the number of Hundreds and Liberties plus a die roll for NPC antagonist in charge, and then assigns a single ‘Verb’ to each of the County’s Hundreds. For example, ‘Destroy’, ‘Entertain’, ‘Fight’, ‘Grow’, ‘Organise’, ‘Play’, ‘Sin’, and ‘Steal’. These are prompts around which the Narrator can set up a situation or storyline and they can come from the players—indicating what type of stories they want to tell in playing Gallows Corner, chosen by the Narrator, or selected from the suggestions given and developed in the rulebook as potential related scenes. A Clock is also set up which tracks the reactions of the authorities to the Player Characters’ rebellious activities.

Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG includes descriptions of London and of the thirty-nine counties of England in the late fourteenth century. London and its districts are given more detail, whereas the counties receive a page each. This gives a broad overview and feel for the county along with an encounter that the Narrator can develop into something more and one or more reasons why the peoples of that county might want to revolt. Each region is also given a scenario for a total of eight. There is an NPC generator which can also be used to create potential Retainers as well as antagonists.

The Narrator will need to download the forms for the different Region and Counties she plans to use. These are not in the core rulebook itself, but it would have been nice if the boxed set for Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG had included them, perhaps in a forms booklet that would also be available separately.

Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG makes clear that the Player Characters are both custodians and victims of England and working towards becoming more of the former and away from the latter. That ‘Point Crawl’ is a way to explore England starting from the very small and local and scaling up, with the surrounding villages, towns, and counties reacting in response to the actions of the Player Characters, but also having their own stories going on. The advice suggests that the Narrator should not get too bogged down in the historical details of the period, since the roleplaying game is intended to be an alternate history. There is some detail in the London and County descriptions and there is a section describing the English which includes details of various NPC types by class, but nevertheless, Gallows Corner is a roleplaying game that will benefit from some historical research if just to add a degree of verisimilitude.

Physically, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is a stunning looking book. It is easy to read, and as good as the production values are, what shines is its artwork. It is brutally bright and beautiful in its depiction of the hope and hardship of the setting.

Unfortunately, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG does not feel quite complete as a roleplaying game. There could have been clearer and fuller examples of set-up and play and the guidance on handling certain aspects of the roleplaying game, such as the reductions in ‘Control’ for certain actions by the Player Characters, that would have made the roleplaying game easier to grasp and easier to run, could have been given. Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is not a complex roleplaying game by any means and anyone with any storytelling game experience will have no problems either running it or playing it. Anyone with less experience, perhaps attracted by the high production values of the roleplaying game, may have more of a problem. Overall, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is just underwritten enough in places to make it not quite as accessible as it should be.

Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is magnificently ambitious in its scope and parochially English in its setting and tone. This is a gloriously brutal, beautiful roleplaying game that with the right Narrator and players is going to tell a great campaign of hardship and hope.

I Sing The Mind Electric

The extinction is coming and America is dying. It began in 1974 in the wake of President Ford pardoning Nixon after Watergate and an assassination attempt on Ford. A civil rights spokesman was blamed and in the demonstrations that followed, the Capitol in Washington D.C. was stormed and the US Army was sent into to quell the protestors, resulting in hundreds of deaths when they opened fire with live ammunition. Across the USA, people took up arms in response and incidents of guerrilla warfare broke out across the country. Within a year, the conflict escalated and first California and then Texas seceded, and the country was in civil war. The Second Civil War lasted until 1984, prosecuted by the sophisticated drone technology adopted by the military following the development of scientific field of Neuronics. There were no winners and the former USA remains divided still thirteen years later. In the west, the nation of Pacifica has arisen out of the old state of California, its wealth built on Hollywood and further development and widespread adoption of neurotechnology. The biggest company in Pacifica and arguably the power behind its president, Sentre, made Neuronics available to the public through Neurocasters. Wearers of these high-tech devices are not only capable of controlling drones, but also of accessing neuroscapes, hyperreal landscapes. With the release of Mode 6 by Sentre last year, something changed—and changed for the worse. Some suggested a God awoke within the Machine, some say Pacifica’s enemies were attacking via the system, but whatever it was, users became addicted to their Neurocasters. They preferred it to real life. Some, deeply immersed in the virtual worlds that give them every experience they want, wear their Neurocasters until they die. Others roam the roads and the landscapes, stilling wearing their Neurocasters and controlling hulking great drones. Nobody was immune. As more and more people have become addicted to their Neurocasters, the more services and tasks have begun to break down. This lassitude is spreading and with it an impending apocalypse… Elsewhere there are rumours of technocults hiding out far from the cities and shambling mechanical creatures assembled by the Neuronic network rather than man. Yet there are a few who are immune to the effects of the Neurocasters and there a few who want to move, to become Travellers ready to make the long and dangerous journey to elsewhere, to get away, to find something, to find someone.

This is current situation in The Electric State Roleplaying Game, a pre-apocalyptic Science Fiction dystopia set in 1997, based on the book by Simon Stålenhag, whose artwork has also inspired the roleplaying games, Tales from the Loop – Roleplaying in the '80s That Never Was and Tales from the Flood. All three are published by Free League Publishing and all three use the Year Zero mechanics first seen in Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days. This is the 1997 of Nirvana and Sony Walkmans, Bart Simpson Tee-shirts and Nintendo Game Boys, hoop earrings and slackers, and so on. Recognisable were it not for the rise in advanced technology that has given the world drones, robots, and Neurocasters. It is a world in which the Player Characters want to get somewhere else. They each have their different reasons, but travelling together is safer than travelling alone. Society is not what it was with everyone immersed in the worlds of their Neurocasters. The landscape is not what it was, swathes left untended or poisoned from the Second Civil War. The Journey that these Travellers undertake is the focus of The Electric State Roleplaying Game, its route marked by a Starting Point and a Destination, and in between, Stops. Stops can be a place where the Travellers get food, petrol for the car, find a payphone, and then move on, but they can be a place of danger and mystery…

A Traveller in The Electric State Roleplaying Game has four Attributes—Strength, Agility, Wits, and Empathy, which are rated between two and six. Health and Hope are derived from this, with Hope being a personal resource that can be reduced to push rolls or traumatic events. He also has an Archetype, a role representing what he is. The options here include Artist, Criminal, Devotee, Doctor, Investigator, Outsider, Runaway Kid, Scientist, and Veteran. Perhaps the one signature Archetype is the Drone Pilot, who will not bodily appear in play necessarily, but instead be represented by the Drone that he constantly controls via his Neurocaster. Each Archetype provides options—either chosen or rolled for—in terms of starting Talent, Dream, Flaw, Neurocaster, and Personal Item. The Talent will either grant him extra dice under certain circumstances, such as ‘Drone operator’ or ‘Sleuth’, or provide a more specific benefit, such as ‘Medic’ being able to stabilize someone who is Incapacitated or ‘Neuroresistant’ which means the Traveller is better able to resist the Bliss of neurocasting. Beyond this, the details of Traveller are more personal than mechanical. These start off with a Dream and a Flaw. A Traveller’s Dream is their motivation, their push to go far and make the Journey rather than give into the easy lure of Neurocasting. His Flaw is something that will hold him back and something that he needs to overcome. Roleplaying the Dream and the Flaw will give a chance for the Traveller to improve. The Neurocaster is the model that he owns (though he may not own one) and he also has a Personal Item and a favourite song.

To create a Traveller, a player selects an Archetype and then rolls for the Attributes on a single six-sided die each, with the minimum roll being two Then he rolls for the Talent, Dream, Flaw, Neurocaster, Personal Item, and Favourite Song. This is not the complete Traveller creation process, but that is done collectively during the set-up for the Journey.

Name: Jake
Age: 17
Archetype: Outsider
Strength 3 Agility 5 Wits 6 Empathy 6
Health 4 Hope 6 Bliss 0
Talent: Stealthy
Dream: Get a normal life, like everyone else
Flaw: You don’t trust anyone.
Neurocaster: None
Personal Item: Dog
Favourite ’90s Song: Wannabe (Spice Girls)
Tensions: A dispute about hierarchy (Karen Brooks) [1], Religious or political differences. There’s reason Americans say never discuss religion or politics (Jesus Castillo) [1]

The Journey is the central part of the play to The Electric State Roleplaying Game. Setting this up is a collective process. This includes creating a personal Goal for each Traveller which lies at the end the Journey, whilst the Threat which is working to stop the Traveller from fulfilling his Goal. The Threat is created by the Game Master, whilst key to the Goal is the Kicker, the event that pushes the Traveller to decide to make the Journey in that moment. Together, the Travellers have a vehicle and a shared item, such as a bottle of hard liquor or walkie-talkies. Each Traveller also has a difficult relationship with one of the companions in their vehicle, which could be ‘Hidden contempt pent up for ages.’ or ‘Distrust. Something another Traveler does offends you deeply. It’s all you can do not to scream at them every time they do it.’. This is measured by Tension, which ranges between zero and three. If a Traveller acts against another Traveller who he has Tension with, the Tension value is used as bonus dice. It is possible to reduce Tension simply by talking things through or even arguing about relationships can reduce it and this will restore Hope, but equally, Tension can go up depending on circumstances and roleplaying.

Mechanically, The Electric State Roleplaying Game uses the Year Zero engine, so the rules are light and fairly quick, with dice rolls primarily intended for dramatic or difficult situations such as combat, hiding from members of a Technocult intent on inducting you, making repairs in a hurry, and so on. To have a Player Character undertake an action, a player rolls a number of Base dice equal to the appropriate Attribute (notably, The Electric State Roleplaying Game does not use skills or skill dice), modified by an applicable Talent and the difficulty. To this can be added Gear dice for weapons and other gear if used. Rolls of six on either count as Successes. One result is enough to succeed, whilst extra successes can be used to do it in a showy fashion, quickly, quietly, and so on. However, if the player does not roll any Successes, which is a failure, or needs more Successes, he can opt to Push. In this case, he rolls any dice that are not showing a one or a six, and any Successes rolled count towards the task.

However, any rolls of one after the Pushed roll, have negative effects. For the Base dice, they reduce the Traveller’s Hope for each one rolled, whilst ones on the Gear dice reduce the bonus provided by the Gear used. When Hope is reduced to zero, a Traveller suffers a Breakdown and is in danger of suffering further mental trauma.

Combat in The Electric State Roleplaying Game uses the same mechanics. Initiative is determined narratively, and when a Traveller gets to act, he has an action and move or two moves. An action be an attack, reloading, taking cover, rallying a demoralised comrade, and so on. If in close combat, the defender can choose to take the hit or fight back, in which case it becomes an opposed roll, whilst if being shot act, the defender can dodge, and that too is an opposed roll. Cover provides protection if Successes are rolled on its dice. If a Traveller’s Health is reduced to zero, he is Incapacitated and if he suffers damage equal to twice his Health in one hit, he is dead. If his Traveller is Incapacitated, the player makes three Death Rolls with four dice. If he rolls a total of three Successes in the course of the three rolls, he survives, if not, the Traveller is dead. It is also possible for another Traveller to rally one who is Incapacitated and the Medic Talent means he can be stabilised without the need for Death Rolls. An Incapacitated Traveller also suffers an injury, which can be anything from a broken finger to internal bleeding.

The most important mechanic in The Electric State Roleplaying Game is Hope. It is a measure of a Traveller’s motivation and it can be lost in a variety of ways, such rolling ones on a Pushed roll or suffering a Traumatic Event like seeing a friend get badly hurt or being confronted by your worst fear. When it is reduced to zero, the Traveller suffers a Breakdown and potentially from mental trauma ranging from ‘Confused’ to ‘Personality Split’. The challenge after losing Hope is that there no automatic means of recovering it. Instead, the players and their Travellers have to work at it. It is possible for a Traveller to be rallied following a Breakdown and this will restore Hope, but otherwise the two means to increase Hope are to reduce Tension with another Traveller or spend time with an item of Gear that will increase Hope, like a dog or a Walkman, or a religious book. Certainly, in the case of Tension, this requires dedicated roleplaying between two players, and The Electric State Roleplaying Game makes clear that time should be set aside for this. Further, these scenes should not always be about reducing Tension, but about increasing it. This is because in the long term, if there is no Tension between one Traveller and another, there is no reason to reduce it and thus no means to increase Hope. It also reduces scope for interpersonal roleplay. This then is the ‘Hope Loop’ at the heart of The Electric State Roleplaying Game.

The ‘Hope Loop’ in The Electric State Roleplaying Game is complicated by Bliss. One of the most interesting aspects of roleplaying game is how Hope and Bliss interact. Bliss is a measure of a Traveller’s addiction to using his Neurocaster. A Traveller is going to be spending most of his time on the road or at Stops along the Journey, so in the physical, rather than the virtual worlds. However, this does not mean he will never have to enter a Neuroscape, which can be global or local, as he may need to find information, use or hack a system linked to the Neuroscape—such as drones and alarms, or interact or fight with the other avatars in the Neuroscape. It is possible to act in the physical world whilst Neurocasting, but it is slow and the option are limited. It is also possible for Travellers to help another who is Neurocasting.

However, any time a player fails a roll whilst his Traveller is Neurocasting, whether any ones were rolled or not, his Bliss increases by one. This is before the player chooses to Push the roll, which whilst the Traveller is Neurocasting, has its own extra danger. This is because any rolls of one after a player has Pushed a roll reduce his Traveller’s Hope by one each, and Bliss has dire effects if it equals or exceeds the value of a Traveller’s Hope. If this happens, the Traveller is trapped in the Neuroscape, is lost in the ‘Electric State’, and cannot willingly disconnect himself from it. A Traveller lost in the ‘Electric State’ can be forcibly disconnected, but this has disturbing consequences. It automatically reduces his Hope to zero, which again causes a Breakdown.

Bliss is lost at a point per day spent without doing any Neurocasting. However, this has its own dangers too, since there is a chance that the point lost that day will become permanent. Effectively reducing a Traveller’s Hope in the long term and modelling the effect that Neuroscaping has had on society with the introduction of Mode 6.

The focus of play in The Electric State Roleplaying Game is the Journey. As described earlier, setting this up involves deciding on a Starting Point, Destination, and the route. It also involves choosing the number of Stops, each one an adventure in itself that the Travellers’ Dreams and Flaws will drive them to explore. The number of Stops determines the overall play length, from one Stop for a one-shot to a long Journey of eight or more stops. The Game Master creates these Stops using the advice and prompts given in the roleplaying game, including a Setting, the Blocker (which what makes the Travellers pause their journey), and Threats, as well as adding a Countdown that is triggered by the arrival of the Travellers and will push events forward during the playthrough of the Stop. There is good advice for both creating and running Stops, including playing Neuroscapes, and it is supported by a range of threats each of which has their own example Countdown. Mechanically, this makes them easy to insert into a Stop. The Threats include people, such as cultists or local business leaders as well as the expected technological ones, like drone growths and robots, and environmental ones, such as extreme weather or disease. There are only two entries listed for the technological and environmental, which feels too few in either case. There are rules for travel and chases to reflect the nature of play as a Journey.

The Game Master is also provided with a complete mini-campaign, ‘Into the Dust’, which takes up a fifth of the book. This is a three-part Journey, though it could easily be expanded and some of the stops could be used as one-shots, which takes the Travellers from San Francisco Memorial City into the Blackwelt Exclusion Zone (former state of Nevada), but a long route which takes them south via the Sierra Nevadas and the Mojave desert in a run-down 1993 Buick Roadmaster Estate. Between them, the Stops involve a cult, a murder mystery, and a strange festival, and between the Stops, there are encounters that the Game Master can use to make the Journey even more interesting and exciting. There is also a pre-generated Traveller with their own Goals and Threats for each of the Archetypes in the roleplaying game, giving the players plenty of choice. Overall, this is the basis for a decent campaign that could expanded to eight or more Stops. Lastly, in The Electric State Roleplaying Game,  there are rules for solo play.

Physically, The Electric State Roleplaying Game is very well presented. It is clean and tidy and easy to read. Of course, what makes it stand out is the artwork of Simon Stålenhag which depicts an American landscape in decline as Neurocasters wander like zombies and kitschy robots loom and lurk almost everywhere. The Game Master should absolutely be using this artwork to show off the state of Pacifica.

The Electric State Roleplaying Game is not a traditional roleplaying game in that its world is designed for long term play. The story of the Travellers is going to be told in a single Journey rather than in multiple Journeys because the surviving Travellers are going to need new Goals if they are to set out again. Further, there is not a huge scope for development mechanically as arguably, if a Traveller is only doing the one Journey, however long it is, there does not need to be. The emphasis on Pacifica as a setting and journeying across it also limits the scope of the roleplaying game. These are not criticisms, because instead, what The Electric State Roleplaying Game is, is a narrative, storytelling roleplaying game designed for one-shots and short campaigns that tell specific stories about Journeys across a strange new landscape within which there is scope for interaction, discovery, and horror. In this way, The Electric State Roleplaying Game adds a new twist to the classic American road trip.

Your Shadow Scar Starter

In ages past, the Kotoamatsukami, the First Great Spirits of the Land, created the peaceful land known as Nakatsukuni. All was well in this land until the Great Mother Spirit Izanami died giving birth to the Spirit of Fire. Her husband, Izanagi, attempted to retrieve her spirit from Yomi No Kuni, the Afterlife, and appeared to have succeeded when given permission to return her by the Ruler of the Dead. Unfortunately, Izanami has been corrupted by the Ruler of the Dead, and she brought with her an army of twisted souls and horrible monsters and after corrupting the minds of the Yokai, Izanami set out to destroy reality. The peace was at an end and the war known as the Hundred Years of Sorrow was only won by a combined effort of Izanagi and the Kami. It was a victory won at great cost. Although Izanami was cast into the Void—or the Inbetween, via a Shadow Scar rent in the fabric of reality, her monstrous minions were scattered across the Mosaic, a vast array of worlds and realities that to this day remains unexplored. These Yokai continue to do the bidding of Izanami on these worlds, often served by human agents and cults, most of whom have no idea who they are serving or the true nature of reality that is the Mosaic. Whilst there a few worlds that fortunate enough to be free of Yokai, both their presence and their influence, there are many which are infected by both, and there are even more where the situation remains unknown. On Nakatsukuni, an organisation was established by the Kami to counter the threat of the Yokai. This is the Shadow Scar Agency, an order of Shinobi—or ninja clans—trained by the Six Great Clans of Shadow. Its task is to investigate potential signs of activity of both the Yokai and their human servants across the worlds of the Mosaic, stop such activities when discovered, and prevent the inhabitants of those worlds from learning about either the Yokai or the Mosaic. The Shadow Scar Agency still fights this Veil War today.

This is the set-up for Shadow Scar, a new roleplaying published by R. Talsorian, Inc., best known for Cyberpunk RED and Castle Falkenstein. It is a world/parallel Earth hopping setting across what Shadow Scar calls the Mosaic in which modern day Ninja, armed with high tech tools and magical artefacts, leap from one world to the next to defeat the Yokai and other minions of the corrupted Great Mother Spirit Izanami. The Player Characters—or Agents—are these Ninjas, members of the Shadow Scar Agency, a secret organisation dedicated to keeping reality safe. The Ninja must conduct their assignments in secrecy and ‘Maintain the Veil’, both to keep the civilian population safe and prevent any mystical monsters from learning of their presence and activities until they absolutely have to reveal both to the targets of their operations. It was introduced in Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness as part of Free RPG Day 2024, which provided a basic primer for the setting and rules as well as scenario to play and the Player Character Agents needed to play it. The scenario in Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness is a prequel to ‘The Mask of the Green Demon’, the scenario in Shadow Scar Starter Set, and although it is not necessary to play through ‘Eyes in Darkness’ in order to play ‘The Mask of the Green Demon’ and the contents of the Shadow Scar Starter Set, ‘Eyes in Darkness’ serves as a good build up to it.

The Shadow Scar Starter Set comes as a solid box containing three booklets, six pre-generated customisable Player Characters, a pair of maps and tokens to help play out the action of its scenario, and a set of Shadow Scar six-sided dice. Beside the dice, the first thing that you see upon opening the box is the ‘Welcome to Shadow Scar’ sheet. This is a sperate sheet tells the reader what to expect from the roleplaying game and starter, that the Player Characters will learn the ways of Ninjitsu, assassinate deadly foes, foil complicated plots, work with powerful factions, explore the Mosaic, and hunt down rogue agents, and tells the player where to go next. On the back is a glossary. Altogether, this primes the player up, ready to learn to play, and the Storyteller ready to learn to run Shadow Scar.

The first of the three books in the Shadow Scar Starter Set is the twenty-eight page ‘World Lore’ booklet. This introduces Shadow Scar Agency and expands on the on-going Veil War as well as explaining the nature of the Mosaic and the Utsushiyo and the Kakuriyo. The former is the Unveiled or Material World, whilst the latter is the Unseen or Spirit World. To most mortals, the Kakuriyo, home to spirits, Kami, and even spirits that fail to pass and become monsters, is inaccessible although it does mirror the Utsushiyo in an exaggerated way. Every world has its own Utsushiyo and Kakuriyo, but the Kami can traverse between the Kakuriyo of one world and the Kakuriyo of another. Some mortals can see into the Kakuriyo and sometimes monsters and dangers can find their way out of it. The Mosaic itself is described in broad detail, but the accompanying shows the rough relationships between just a few of the worlds within it and the links between them. Several of these worlds are described in some detail. These include the primary base of operations for the Shadow Scar Agency, Nakatsukuni, which remains an archipelago of islands—many floating—shattered by the war against Izanami and her minions. The others include ‘Steel Court’, a Grand Victorian Empire in which the Stewart Steam Turbine Engine has powered fantastical industrialisation and inventions even as revolt foments the Empire’s ‘Protectorates’; ‘5th Street’, an early twentieth century world recovering from the Great War that would seem to be utterly mundane except the masked vigilantes on the rooftops and the racial inventors working in their workshops; and ‘Refuge’, a world so blighted by the Yokai that humanity has been forced to retreat to a Lunar Colony and massive station orbiting the moon. All three locations will be visited as part of the scenario included in Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness. Thumbnail descriptions are given for the three worlds as well as the Shadow Scar Agency and the six Shinobi clans. These consist of the war at any cost Arashi Clan; the spiritualist Futsumashi working to pull the world back into balance; the fire-using Hibana; the espionage-focused Kuromaku; the Tantei clan which works to free Yokai from Izanami’s grasp; and the Yokai-hunting Wanami clan. These are not the only organisations detailed in ‘World Lore’. ‘The Hollow Eye Syndicate’ is a secret criminal organisation that offer a refuge to ‘nukenin’, those missing ninja who have left the Shadow Scar Agency. The Shadow Scar Agency takes a very dim view of the ‘nukenin’. Lastly, there are some details of the Yokai.

The forty-eight-page ‘System’ book is both a rules book and a bestiary for Shadow Scar. First, it breaks down a Player Character, which has three attributes, Mind, Body, and Spirit, rated between one and five. Each attribute has six associated skills, each of which is rated between one and three. He has Techniques, Mikkyo, and Quirks. Techniques are special abilities, such as ‘Nimble & Quick’, which increases an Agent’s speed, whilst Mikkyo are secret techniques taught by the shinobi clans which require an Agent to expend Ki to trigger, such as ‘Duplicates’ which enables the caster to create silent duplicates himself that he can control.

Mechanically, Shadow Scar is a dice pool system that uses six-sided dice. Every roll of a three or more is a success, whilst a roll of six is equal to two successes. If the number of successes is equal to or greater than the Difficulty Value, the task is successful. An average task has a Task Difficulty of two, Challenging has a Task Difficulty of three, Difficult has a Task Difficulty of four, and so on. Bonuses and penalties adjust the number of dice a player has to roll. To reflect that the world of Shadow Scar is pulled in two directions by different forces of nature, an Agent has access to ‘Inyo’—Japanese for Yingyang. If an Agent fails a task by a single Success, he can call upon the power of ‘Inyo’ to gain that much-needed Success. Or he can use to inflict an additional three points of damage upon a target. However, when the Agent draws upon the power of Inyo, he draws only upon one side. In response, the other side draws back and the Storyteller can draws upon the Agent’s Inyo to make him fail a task by one Success or have an enemy inflict three extra damage on the Agent. Once that has happened, the Agent has access to Inyo again. Essentially, the fortunes of each Agent swings back and forth quite literally.

Combat is an extension of the rules, with Initiative Order being determined by an Awareness Check. During a turn, each Agent can conduct two actions. Some fifteen possible actions are detailed as are the conditions and hazards that they might suffer. The hazards covered include environmental, mechanical, and magical. When an Agent is reduced to three points of Vitality or less, he suffers the Grievously Wounded Condition, and when his Vitality is reduced to zero, in combat, he can either be killed or knocked out. The latter reduces his Vitality to one rather than zero. If an Agent’s Vitality is reduced to zero or less, it is possible to become a Wandering Spirit, but an Agent equipped with a Spirit Lantern can collect and protect a Wandering Spirit. At the end of a mission, if the other Agents return with a dead Agent’s body and his Wandering Spirit in a Spirit Lantern, the Agent can be resurrected. Otherwise, a new body has to be created.

Over half of the ‘System’ book is devoted to a ‘Rogues Gallery’. This describes some sixteen or so creatures. There is a good mix of the mundane and the monstrous to the book, all of which appears in the ‘The Mask of the Green Demon’ scenario.

The six pre-generated Player Characters in the Shadow Scar Starter Set come from each of the six clans who contribute to the Shadowscar Agency. Each is done in full colour and as a folder. Each comes with an illustration, background, and history of the Player Character, full stats and abilities, and options for improving the character over the course of the adventure. It also includes a set of bullet points suggesting why a player might choose to roleplay a particular character.

The longest of three books in the Shadow Scar Starter Set is ‘The Mask of the Green Demon’. It is ideally run as a sequel to ‘Eyes in Darkness’ from Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness as that already gets the players and their characters involved in the scenario. Of course, it need not be, and either way, the scenario opens with the Player Characters being introduced to a fellow member of the Shadow Scar Agency prior to the briefing. This Agent Jasmine Gamble, who has been investigating a notorious Yokai and crime lord, Green Demon, whose activities and network spreads across the four known worlds that the Shadow Scar Agency has ready access to and is suspected to spread into others unknown. Her work has greatly been enhanced by a notebook that Agents recently uncovered (this is mission is detailed in ‘Eyes in Darkness’) and she has begun to decode. Her notes so far point to a Green Demon operative working in a pleasure quarter on one of the floating islands of Nakatsukuni. This set-up scene is designed to introduce Agent Gamble as she plays an important role in ‘The Mask of the Green Demon’ and ideally the Player Characters should come to like her. This needs a careful portrayal by the Storyteller to make her as likeable as she is written and to build up a relationship between her and the Player Characters.

The missions in ‘The Mask of the Green Demon’ will take the Player Characters from a pleasure house in Nakatsukuni where tensions between a pretentiously arrogant noble scion, the staff, and other patrons, helped by a mischievous kami, get in the way of capturing the target Green Demon operative all the way to Refuge in Lunar orbit where they have an opportunity to capture one of the Green Demon’s most loyal lieutenants before he is assassinated! In between, they must travel to an abandoned island infested with venomous ghost centipedes left over from the Hundred Years of Sorrow; investigate Green Demon activities on Steel Court only to discover that the Green Demon has been investigating them; and dive into an ancient, submerged, and of course, puzzle and death trap-filled Olmec temple in the Gulf of Mexico in 5th Street, which holds a magical artefact said to give access to the Hollow Earth.

‘The Mask of the Green Demon’ is a fun exciting adventure, with a good mix of action and intrigue, that also showcases both the different worlds of the Mosaic and some of the history of the roleplaying game’s setting. It also hints—just a very little—at how ruthless the Shadow Scar Agency can be. The adventure is designed to be played through in roughly five to six sessions and make use of the tokens and maps included in the box. Notably, the booklet does begin with some excellent advice for the Storyteller on how to run Shadow Scar and ‘The Mask of the Green Demon’. Much of it will be obvious to experienced Storytellers, but it is still worth reading and it is good advice for anyone running Shadow Scar Starter Set as her first game. However, what the Shadow Scar Starter Set does not do is give any advice for the players. The Storyteller has her role explained, is given tips, and then advised on how to run Shadow Scar. There is no similar advice for the player, except for the ‘Welcome to Shadow Scar’ sheet at the top of the box, which does not do as good a job.

Rounding out the Shadow Scar Starter Set is a set of maps. There are four of these, depicting various locations in the scenario. Using in conjunction with the two sheets of tokens, these are bright and colourful, done by Loke BattleMats, which previously created The Big Book of Cyberpunk Battle Mats for use with Cyberpunk RED. Lastly, there is also a ‘Reference Sheet’, which includes rules for everything up to and including the assassination manoeuvre, and ‘The Armoury’, a sheet of traits, gear details, and information about artefacts that will play a role in the adventure.

Physically, the Shadow Scar Starter Set is an attractive product with a pleasing heft and sturdiness. All three books are on thick paper and all have card covers. Similarly, the maps and tokens have a good physical presence. The artwork is excellent throughout, having an anime style that reflects the genre of the Shadow Scar setting. Particularly attractive is the piece showing players sat round playing the game itself, but there is also plenty of artwork show different scenes across the Mosaic as well. However, the Shadow Scar Starter Set does need a further edit as it feels slightly rushed in places.

Shadow Scar is both a spy and a ninja roleplaying game, a sidebar for the Storyteller noting that it is inspired by the anime series Demon Slayer and Naruto as much as it is the James Bond and Men in Black films. Mix in martial arts, magic, and the supernatural and it offers a stealth and action orientated genre mashup—all of which is on show in the Shadow Scar Starter Set. The result is that the Shadow Scar Starter Set is a very well presented, fun and exciting introduction to the Shadow Scar setting and roleplaying game.

Old West Wonder

The year is 1860 and the War for Southern Independence has been over for three years. The Confederate States of America won, capturing the thirtieth state, the island of Cuba, and Maryland, forcing the United States of America to move its capital to New York. Yet it could not hold much of Louisiana, which seceded the Republic of Texas, itself an independent bulwark between United States of America and United States of America and the Confederate States of America. The price of a negotiated peace was the gift of New Orleans to France. Mexico is embroiled in another civil war and remains nominally in control of the west and southwest of the North American continent. In the west, California, the thirty-first state, is the only state on the Pacific coast, with large, yet to be admitted territories between it and the rest of the United States of America; the Mormons retained their state of Deseret; and the five ‘civilised’ tribes of American Indians founded their own state, Sequoyah, establishing their independence, but remaining an ally of the United States of America. This is the setting for Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier, an alternate Old West roleplaying game originally published by Kenzer & Company in 2007. What is notable about Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier was not necessarily the alternate, though highly historical, setting, but rather that in all other ways it was a straight treatment of the genre. Thus, no undead or horror or steampunk or other outré elements. In fact, Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier could be shifted to our own history after the American Civil War and you would be none the wiser that its was an alternate history roleplaying, because the rules were that good. Further its treatment of the Old West was not that of the pulp novels or Hollywood per se. You could run a traditional Wild West roleplaying game of ‘white hats’ and ‘black hats’ with it, but in the main, what you roleplayed in Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier were men and women who have to the frontier to find a new life and establish their own futures. It was refreshingly simple in its set-up, although its mechanics were anything but nevertheless, Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier would win the Origins Award Roleplaying Game of the Year 2007 and be nominated for the ENnie Award for Best Production Values, Best Rules, Best Game, and Product of the Year. It would win the 2008 Silver ENnie Award for Best Game.

Aces & Eights: Reloaded is the second edition, tidied up and reorganised for better access and ease of play. The main changes involved the removal of four rules subsets—covering in turn cattle drives, chases, frontier justice, and prospecting—and replacing them with expanded rules for horses and skills, and a whole new town with which to start play. Plus, numerous NPCs created via the Kickstarter for the new edition.

Aces & Eights: Reloaded, though, begins just as Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier did with its Shot Clock. This is a clear plastic overlay, marked with a circular grid divided into four quarters. This is laid over a target silhouette and the attacker’s player rolls a twenty-sided die to hit. If the result of the roll is twenty-five or more—possible if a twenty is rolled, to which the player can add the result of an open-ended six-sided die, the attacker hits that exact spot. If the attack did not hit the targeted spot, and is fourteen or more, a card is drawn from a standard deck of Poker cards. This indicates the direction away from the targeted spot that the attacker fired at, whilst the number rolled determines how far. This can be off the silhouette and indicate a miss or be somewhere else on the target’s body, indicated that the shot still hit. Damage is then rolled. Add in a continuous ‘Count’ up in which the initiative constantly increases as gunfighters move, shoot, and take other actions, and what you have is smooth playing, highly thematic Old West gunfights. Aces & Eights: Reloaded includes Shot Clock overlays for both rifles and revolvers and for shotguns. All this is covered in the basic rules for ‘Scrapes’ which showcase the basic rules and provide a mini-skirmish system should a group want to try before the main game. A Player Character at this stage has Hit Points and two stats. One is Speed for determining how fast the Player Character can act and the other is Accuracy, how good a natural shot he is. In fact, Aces & Eights: Reloaded could actually work as an Old West skirmish rules set.

A Player Character in Aces & Eights: Reloaded has nine abilities—Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, Looks, Charisma, Reputation, and Fame. The first seven are rolled for on three six-sided dice and then amended with a percentile roll. Rolls are also made for a character’s background and family and quirks and flaws. The abilities provide various starting modifiers to other abilities, such as Looks to Charisma and Fame or modifiers to Accuracy and Speed—both important in combat. At each stage, a player can decide to spend Build Points. This can be to adjust Ability scores, allow rerolls when roll for background details, and for quirks and flaws, and so on. Or a player can simply keep the rolls made and, in some cases, receive bonus Build Points. Some Abilities also grant extra Build Points, but the points of those must be spent on skills that are related to the Ability. Thus, any gained from the Intelligence Ability must be spent on Intelligence-related skills. The Talents are mostly combat related, such as Hip Shooter or Quick Aim. The character creation process is not difficult, but it is a lengthy one.

Name: Esperanza Martinez
Age: 15
Place of Origin: Cuba (Rural)
Circumstances of Birth: Legitimate
Parental Status: Mother Deceased
Siblings: 6 (Older sister, died from typhoid fever; older sister, died in infancy; older brother, died in an accident; older sister, died from diarrhoea; younger sister, very close; younger sister, very close)
Upbringing: Abusive (Hardcase)
Social Class: Lower Lower Class (Freed Slave, Farmhand)
Reason To Go West: Establish a Farm
Handedness: Right
Height: 5’ 1” Weight: 122 lbs.

Strength 11/87 (Lift 210 lbs., Carry 52 lbs., Drag 525 lbs.)
Intelligence 14/37 (+1 Accuracy)
Wisdom 8/25 (+3 Speed)
Dexterity 16/98 (-2 Speed, +3 Accuracy, +9 Feat of Agility)
Constitution 8/23
Looks 16/38 (+2 Charisma Modifier, +3 Starting Fame Modifier)
Charisma 16/90 (Max. Compatriots 4, +3 Starting Reputation Modifier)
Reputation 16/28
Fame 3

Hit Points: 20

Quirks: Loco (Royalty – and acts like it), Lusty, Clean Freak
Talents: Dodge

Skills: Agriculture 35%, Animal Husbandry (Chickens) 64%, Art of Seduction 34%, Artistry (Performance) 32%, Baking & Cook 54%, English 34%, Fast Talking 54%, Glean Information 17%, Graceful Entrance/Exit 61%, Idle Gossip 59%, Joke Telling 57%, Listening 42%, Lock Picking 30%, Nursing 28%, Observation 16%, Persuasion 54%, Resist Persuasion 38%, Skilled Liar 36%, Social Etiquette 26%, Slick Talker 55%, Sneaking 37%, Spanish 78%

Reputation is a measure of a character’s standing and the degree of respect in which he is held. It can be gained for actions such as being in a gunfight, taking prisoners, keeping a difficult promise, or paying the funeral expenses of someone you killed. It can be lost by being banished by your family, fleeing a fight with an equal foe, rash or improper social behaviour, and more. Reputation can be spent to reroll combat, skill, or ability rolls. Through play, it is possible for a character’s Reputation to go into negative figures, in which case it becomes Notoriety. Fame, in comparison, is a measure of how widely known a Player Character is known.

Mechanically, Aces & Eights: Reloaded is a percentile system, a player needing to roll under a skill to succeed. The difficulty acts as a modifier to the actual die roll. Only a ‘Difficult’ applies a zero modifier, whilst a ‘Very Difficult’ task adds a positive modifier. Quite a bit of detail is provided as to what a skill can be used at each mastery level.

In terms of progression, Aces & Eights: Reloaded lists numerous Profession Paths. They include the mundane and the extraordinary, ranging from Apothecary, Artist, and Assassin to Wainwright, Weaver, and Whore! Each lists tasks that a Player Character can undertake and when achieved, will earn more him Build Points. For example, a Gun For Hire earns one Build Point for acquiring a signature weapon, five for getting involved in two or more gunfights, two for buying a speed rig, another five for winning a fair gunfight, and two for getting hired for a job, whereas an Undertaker gains one for burying a body, two for acquiring a lot to use as a graveyard, three for opening a parlour, two for operating it for a month, one for holding a wake, three for making an extraordinary coffin, and another three for making an extraordinary marker or headstone. These are in addition to any personal goals that a Player Character might have and there is good advice for the Game Master on giving out awards, both professional and personal.

The full combat rules in Aces & Eights: Reloaded expands greatly upon the basic rules at the beginning of the book. This expands the number of options in terms of actions that combatants can take and how long, the effect of both Fame and Reputation on a fight, the number of gunfights that a combatant has survived, the flinch effect of being shot, the use of the shotgun Shot Clock, and more. The rules also cover tactical and mounted tactical movement, shifting the play of Aces & Eights: Reloaded to more like a Wild West skirmish game. There are even more advanced rules which cover double-action weapons, the use of la reata or lariat, artillery, explosives, and so on. It really does look quite complex, but patience and careful reading proves otherwise. Further, there is an incredibly good example of a gunfight which shows how the rules are supposed to work. Unfortunately, as much fun as the gunfight rules are in Aces & Eights: Reloaded, getting shot is not. There is a chance of infection, there is a chance of bleeding, and there is the physical effect of the wound such that depending upon its Severity, bones will be broken, attributes will be lost, and worse. Then, without access to medical attention, it takes days and days for a Player Character to recover from a wound, and that is even before the possibility of infection is taken into account. Consequently, there is a difference in the way that the players approach gunfights in Aces & Eights: Reloaded. If it is being played as a skirmish wargame, they need not worry about the lethality of the gunfight rules, whereas in a roleplaying game, the players do need to worry about both the lethality and the deleterious effects of being shot. Thus, gunfights are not a casual choice in play.

Unfortunately, if the gunfight rules in Aces & Eights: Reloaded are slick and fun, the same cannot be said of the brawling rules. It requires three types of coloured poker chips. These are red, blue, and white, and correspond to a character’s Strength and the amount of damage he inflict, to his Dexterity and ability to land blows, and to his Constitution and his endurance during a fist fight. Essentially, what each brawler is doing is betting the coloured poker chips in order to act and have an effect. Despite there being another good example of play to accompany the rules for brawling, in comparison to the gunfight rules, the brawling system is ungainly and demanding.

In terms of support and setting content, there are two good chapters on firearms and horses, the latter including rules for creating and individualising horses. The two settings provided in Aces & Eights: Reloaded are a pair of towns, Black Horse and Lazurus. In the ‘Shattered Frontier’ of Aces & Eights: Reloaded, they are located in Alta California, in northern Mexico, close to the borders with the Colorado Territory and the Arapahoe Territory. This is in the San Juan Mountains, in what is today, the state of Colorado. Of these, Black Horse is a backwater settlement, its gold mines on the verge of being played out, intended as a blank slate for the Game Master to develop, whilst Lazurus is a boom town and more fully detailed. This includes a lot of NPCs, many of which are based on the Kickstarter backers for Aces & Eights: Reloaded. Either setting is intended for the Player Characters to settle in and begin playing a role in events and making themselves part of the setting and the town. The actual setting description for the whole of the Shattered Frontier and the history that lead up to the War for Southern Independence and its consequences are detailed at the back of the book along with profiles of the major governments and nations of North America. There are also seven beginning scenarios, such as ‘Showdown!’ and ‘Bank Robbery!’, but these are more skirmish scenarios than roleplaying scenarios. That said, there are lots of adventure hooks that the Game Master can develop into roleplaying scenarios. These are accompanied by excellent advice as to what types of games to run—skirmish, one-shot, or campaign—and how to get the Player Characters involved. There are also stats for some of the most famous and infamous gunfighters and duellists of the period, such as Sam Bass, the Clantons and the Earps, Patt Garrett, the Daltons, and others. These are the bare stats only, best suited to skirmish play and the basic rules for combat given at the front of the book.

The one disappointment in the new edition that is Aces & Eights: Reloaded, is the rules for brawling. They are still cumbersome and do not flow as well as the rules for gunfights. The one thing that perhaps Aces & Eights: Reloaded could have addressed more directly is the playing and portrayal of Indigenous peoples in the setting. There is an absence of reference to safety tools that a more modern audience is likely to find problematic. However, mature players should be able to take these issues into account and be aware of them even when playing an alternate version of the Old West, especially given that slavery still exists in the setting, though not where the focus of play is taking place.

Physically, Aces & Eights: Reloaded is a fantastic looking book, from its faux-leather embossed cover to its use of classic Old West paintings. The cartography is also very good. However, the book could have better organised. The setting material could have been better placed together and the gambling chapter seems to wander in as an afterthought almost at the end of the book.

Aces & Eights: Reloaded is not just a fantastic looking book, it is also a fantastic roleplaying game, a historical treatment—even if an alternate historical treatment—of the Old West genre. Its focus on the ordinary occupations of the Player Characters grounds the setting and helps bring it to life, whilst still allowing room for excitement of the gunfights, the bank robberies, and the jail breakouts that the genre is known for. Yet it counters that excitement with the deadly sobriety of the gunfight rules, making shootouts the last resort in any action. Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier was good enough to win an Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Game, and Aces & Eights: Reloaded is still very good today. In fact, Aces & Eights: Reloaded is the definitive treatment of the Old West in roleplaying. If you wanted an Old West roleplaying game, Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier was the best to get in 2007 and Aces & Eights: Reloaded remains the best to get in 2024.

[Free RPG Day 2024] Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness is the ‘Easy Mode’ for Shadowscar, a new setting from R. Talsorian Games, Inc., much like The Witcher: Easy Mode – An Introductory Booklet to the Witcher TRPG for The Witcher and Cyberpunk Red: Easy Mode – An Introduction to the Dark Future for Cyberpunk RED. It is a world/parallel Earth hopping setting across what Shadow Scar calls the Mosaic in which modern day Ninja, armed with high tech tools and magical artefacts, leap from one world to the next to defeat the Yokai and other minions of the corrupted Great Mother Spirit Izanami. The Player Characters—or Agents—are these Ninjas, members of the Shadow Scar Agency, a secret organisation dedicated to keeping reality safe. The Ninja must conduct their assignments in secrecy and ‘Maintain the Veil’, both to keep the civilian population safe and prevent any mystical monsters from learning of their presence and activities until they absolutely have to reveal both to the targets of their operations. Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness mixes magic, action, and stealth, including not just an introduction to the setting, but also the rules, six pre-generated Agents, and a complete scenario.

The setting is Nakatsukuni, a peaceful land created by the Kotoamatsukami, the First Great Spirits of the Land. When the Great Mother Spirit Izanami died giving birth to the Spirit of Fire, her husband, Izanagi, attempted to retrieve her spirit from Yomi No Kuni, the Afterlife, and appeared to have succeeded when given permission to return her by the Ruler of the Dead. Unfortunately, Izanami has been corrupted by the Ruler of the Dead, and she brought with her an army of twisted souls and horrible monsters and after corrupting the minds of the Yokai, Izanami set out to destroy reality. The war was won by the combined effort of Izanagi and the Kami, but at great cost. Izanami was cast into the Void via a Shadow Scar, but her monstrous minions were scattered across the Mosaic. To counter the Yokai threat, the Kami established the Shadow Scar Agency, an order of Shinobi—or ninja clans—trained by the Six Great Clans of Shadow. The Shadow Scar Agency still fights the Veil War today.

Nakatsukuni remains an archipelago of islands—many floating—shattered by the war against Izanami and her minions. Other worlds of the Mosaic include ‘Steel Court’, a Grand Victorian Empire in which the Stewart Steam Turbine Engine has powered fantastical industrialisation and inventions even as revolt foments the Empire’s ‘Protectorates’; ‘5th Street’, an early twentieth century world recovering from the Great War that would seem to be utterly mundane except the masked vigilantes on the rooftops and the racial inventors working in their workshops; and ‘Refuge’, a world so blighted by the Yokai that humanity has been forced to retreat to a Lunar Colony and massive station orbiting the moon. All three locations will be visited as part of the scenario included in Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness. Thumbnail descriptions are given for the three worlds as well as the Shadow Scar Agency and the six Shinobi clans.

An Agent in Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness—and thus Shadow Scar—has three stats. These are Mind, Body, and Spirit, and these are rated between one and five. Each attribute has six associated skills, each of which is rated between one and three. He has Techniques, Mikkyo, and Quirks. Techniques are special abilities, such as ‘Nimble & Quick’, which increases an Agent’s speed, whilst Mikkyo are secret techniques taught by the shinobi clans which require an Agent to expend Ki to trigger, such as ‘Duplicates’ which enables the caster to create silent duplicates himself that he can control. All six pre-generated Agents come with background and illustration.

Mechanically, Shadow Scar is a dice pool system that uses six-sided dice. Every roll of a three or more is a success, whilst a roll of six is equal to six successes. If the number of successes is equal to or greater than the Difficulty Value, the task is successful. An average task has a Task Difficulty of two, Challenging has a Task Difficulty of three, Difficult has a Task Difficulty of four, and so on. Bonuses and penalties adjust the number of dice a player has to roll. To reflect that the world of Shadow Scar is pulled in two directions by different forces of nature, an Agent has access to ‘Inyo’—Japanese for Yingyang. If an Agent fails a task by a single Success, he can call upon the power of ‘Inyo’ to gain that much-needed Success. Or he can use to inflict an additional three points of damage upon a target. However, when the Agent draws upon the power of Inyo, he draws only upon one side. In response, the other side draws back and the Storyteller can draws upon the Agent’s Inyo to make him fail a task by one Success or have an enemy inflict three extra damage on the Agent. Once that has happened, the Agent has access to Inyo again. Essentially, the fortunes of each Agent swings back and forth quite literally.

Combat is an extension of the rules, with Initiative Order being determined by an Awareness Check. During a turn, each Agent can conduct two actions. Some fifteen possible actions are detailed as are the conditions and hazards that they might suffer. The hazards covered include environmental, mechanical, and magical. When an Agent is reduced to three points of Vitality or less, he suffers the Grievously Wounded Condition, and when his Vitality is reduced to zero, in combat, he can either be killed or knocked out. The latter reduces his Vitality to one rather than zero. If an Agent’s Vitality is reduced to zero or less, it is possible to become a Wandering Spirit, but an Agent equipped with a Spirit Lantern can collect and protect a Wandering Spirit. At the end of a mission, if the other Agents return with a dead Agent’s body and his Wandering Spirit in a Spirit Lantern, the Agent can be resurrected. Otherwise, a new body has to be created.

In terms of setting, Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness covers the means of travel between worlds, the invisible and magical tattoos which enable communication and understanding, arms and armour and other equipment, before leaping into the scenario, ‘Eyes in Darkness’. The Shadow Scar Agency assigns the Agents to investigate a Dodomeki named Kagura, a lieutenant to a powerful smuggler known as the ‘Green Demon’, who runs operations at the ground level of the Green Demon’s Mountain Branch. Two of the Yokai working for Kagura are attending a black-market auction in a makeshift space station called the Scattery in the Refuge. Whatever the Agents do, the Yokai are likely to cause trouble at the auction, meaning that the Agents will have to work hard to protect the Veil. Following the Yokai—or following the clues they leave behind—the Agents jump through a gate or Rift Dive to find themselves at Easy Ray’s Gas Station outside of New Orleans on 5th Street, and when they or their contact make a run for it, it leads to a car chase through the streets of the city. A pair of tables providing random events both outside and inside the city nicely enliven the car chase.

Although this turns out to be a dead end, the Agent’s Handler suggests that a renegade Agent, currently in ‘Steel Court’ might have some information. The renegade Agent is selfish and immoral, but will trade for information—at a price. Which can be money or some entertainment. The information he provides gives the location of Kagura’s hideout in an isolated village in the mountains which she is beginning to fortify. The climax of the scenario is an assault on the village, initially by stealth, helped and then hindered by two of the Kami of the sky having a violent argument over the borders of their territory and causing a severe snowstorm. Success leads provides clues as to the whereabouts of Kagura’s boss, the Green Demon. Locating the Green Demon will be the Agents’ next mission, the details of which are given in Shadow Scar Jumpstart Kit: The Mask of the Green Demon!, the sequel to Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness. The bestiary or ‘Rogues Galley’ at the end of Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness provides all of the stats and details of the Yokai and other NPCs that the Agents will encounter over the course of the mission.

Although ‘Eyes in Darkness’ does have a sequel in the form of Shadow Scar Jumpstart Kit: The Mask of the Green Demon!, it is complete and can be played on its own without the need to run the sequel. Thus, the Storyteller and her players can get a full taste of what Shadow Scar is like to play and what a mission feels like. ‘Eyes in Darkness’ is a decent scenario, with lots of action and plenty of stealth and combat. It is accompanied by some decent maps as well.

Physically, Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness is decently put together. Much of the artwork is anime in style and bright and colourful. The cartography is excellent. Whilst well-written, it does need an edit in places.

Shadow Scar: Eyes in Darkness is a solid introduction to the Shadow Scar setting and roleplaying game. There is good advice for the Storyteller on running the game and everything is clearly explained and easy to understand, and all supporting an exciting, action-packed scenario which can played through in a single session or two.

Grudge from the Grave

The Nature of the Beast is a scenario set in an England rent by division and strife during the reign of Charles I. This division is between the Protestantism of the country and the Catholicism of Rome, Paganism and Protestantism, King and Parliament, King and country, weakening the Anima Gentum, the bloodline and the Crown, which ensured that the Crown looked to both the spiritual needs and the physical needs of the country. The Anima Gentum is yet to be broken with the execution of the king in 1649, but the Veil has been weakened by this division, giving access to the beyond, the Shadowlands, and the Demonic Realms, and so allowing mankind to entreat with things beyond our understanding. The Anima Gentum will be broken, England will be upturned, and the land will have no king. In the north of England, as the Scots fume and bridle at the King Charles’ attempt to reform the Presbyterian Church and there is mutterings of civil unrest in the south as the king may actually recall Parliament for the first time in a decade, the weakening of the veil has enabled a terrible revenge to be wrought from beyond the grave. Monsters stalk the land, and though they do not know it, they threaten the reputation of a noble family even as their presence brings about terrible tragedy.

The Nature of the Beast is the first scenario to be published for The End of Kings: Core Rules for 17th Century Adventure, the roleplaying game of magic, monarchy, and division set in the early modern period prior to the English Civil War. Published by MontiDots Creations, best known for publishing horror scenarios such as The Fenworthy Inheritance and scenarios for the Old School Renaissance such as Limbus Infernum. It is a roleplaying game in which weaselly Vagabonds, stout Commoners and Yeomanry, and gracious members of the Nobility, as Cunning Folk or Woodkernes, Clubmen or Soldiers, Priests or Witch Hunters, Warlocks or Outlaws seek adventure and perhaps work to protect the realm from creatures from beyond the Veil and machinations of those men and women who would take advantage of the weakening of the Veil. Notably, it uses the GORE Generic Old-School Role-playing Engine published by Goblinoid Games. This is a percentile system which means that anyone familiar with the Basic Roleplay mechanics will have no difficulty adapting The End of Kings and thus The Nature of the Beast.

The scenario opens with the ‘Adventurists’—as it terms the Player Chaarcters—being hired by Reverend Richard Hinde, the corpulent priest of the village of Cranfold in the north of England. The flocks of sheep kept round the village have been subject to a spate of vicious attacks, the corpses left mutilated and half-eaten. The village is divided as to the nature of the culprit. Although no wolf has been seen in the country for a century, some say that is what it is, but others think it to be something much, much fouler. The priest, though, will confide that he thinks it a thing summoned through the Great Veil, though by whom or to what end, he can only conjecture. He had thought to hire the local hunter, but he has not been seen for days, but there is worse news for the reverend’s employer, the local squire. Lord Perfleet’s eldest daughter has also gone missing. The Adventurists are thus to travel to Cranfold and investigate the activities of the creature before hunting it down and killing it.

These events are of course, all connected, as the Adventurists will discover in the course of their investigations. Initially, it is suggested that this take the form of divination. The scenario gives crystallomancy as being the most effective and suggests that one of the Adventurists be capable of this, whilst another should be a priest with a sanctified silver cross capable of holding twenty Magic Points. The divination will grant them some initial hints, and can be used to gain further insights once the Adventurists arrive in Cranfold and want to examine the surrounding valley. Beyond this, their efforts are hampered by the arrival of the county Intelligencers—members of the inquisition who search for witches and signs of the devil—who have come to Cranfold in order to uncover what they think to be the activities of a witch. Bullies, man and woman, they will be quick to discover the ‘culprit’, denounce her, and condemn her to her fate, all in the name of god and coin in the pocket! The witchfinders are a reprehensible bunch, and are likely to arouse the ire of the Adventurists. This may lead to confrontation, if not between the Adventurists and Intelligencers, then between the Intelligencers and the returned hunter. The issue for the Adventurists is that the Intelligencers have the law on their side and any confrontation will get them into trouble. If he can be found, he knows much more about what has been happening and will point the Adventurists in the right direction, including approaching a caravan of Roma who are due to pass through the village as they regularly do at this time of the year. They will be able to help with advice and more before the Adventurists home in on the source and centre of the horror going on in Cranfold.

The Nature of the Beast is well supported with excellent maps and stats of the various NPCs and monsters. However, it could have been better organised, such as giving the description of the village towards the start of the book rather than in the middle of the adventure. Otherwise, physically, The Nature of the Beast is well presented, decently illustrated, and does come with great maps.

Where The Nature of the Beast is at its weakest is in the overreliance upon crystallomancy and divination as a means for the players and their Adventurists to gain hints and clues. It does not allow for other options and this, combined with the poor organisation means that The Nature of the Beast is not as easy to run as it should be. Here is where it could be better developed to be more flexible and less reliant on magic.

The Nature of the Beast is a solid adventure that combines some familiar elements—attacks on animals, revenge from beyond the grave, fear of witches, folk horror, and so on—with a pervading sense of horror and the unknown, the result feeling very much like a Hammer Horror film. The climax of the scenario does lend itself to cinematic action, so enforcing that feel. Even if the Game Master does not want to run the scenario using The End of Kings: Core Rules for 17th Century Adventure, the plot and set-up of The Nature of the Beast is relatively easy to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition or Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay, as both are set during a similar period.

Five Children & It

A camping trip on the edge of the Norfolk Broads and the edge of the Norfolk Loop leads to a strange encounter late at night. A pulse of energy in the sky over the Loop appears to open a rift and something flies through it and over the Kid viewing it, bathing him in a strange, purple light. Then it flies away. In the following days there is a surge of activity at the Norfolk Loop, one of the United Kingdom’s leading scientific and technological centres of study and development, its staff disrupted through a change of management and the new management scouring the area around the Loop, including the nearby seaside resort of Great Yarmouth. The Kid who saw the event and was bathed in the light is drawn to a site that a team from the Norfolk Loop is investigating. There he and his friends make an amazing discovery—an egg. A strange, translucent, purple egg-shaped object. Could this have been left behind by the thing that flew out of the rift? Why is the Kid drawn to it? If it is an egg, what is going to hatch out of it? This is the set-up for They Grow Up So Fast.

They Grow Up So Fast is the second campaign for Tales from the Loop – Roleplaying in the ’80s That Never Was, the roleplaying game of childhood in an alternate 1980s in which young teenagers explore rural small-town Sweden, but a rural small-town Sweden in which its streets, woods and fields, and skies and seas are populated by robots, gravitic tractors and freighters, strange sensor devices, and even creatures from the long past. To the inhabitants of this landscape, this is all perfectly normal—at least to the adults. To the children of this landscape, this technology is a thing of fascination, of wonderment, and of the strangeness that often only they can see. In Tales from the Loop, it is often this technology that is the cause of the adventures that the children—the Player Characters—will have away from their mundane, often difficult lives at home and at school. Published by Free League Publishing, the Ennie-award winning Tales from the Loop is not solely a Swedish-based setting. By default, it is set on Mälaröarna, the islands of Lake Mälaren, which lies to the west of Stockholm. This is the site of the Facility for Research in High Energy Physics—or ‘The Loop’—the world’s largest particle accelerator, constructed and run by the government agency, Riksenergi. There is another Loop however, an American counterpart to The Loop, this time located under Boulder City in the Mojave Desert in Nevada, near the Hoover Dam. Here the particle accelerator is operated by the Department of Advanced Research into Technology and there is an extensive exchange programme in terms of personnel and knowledge between the staff of both ‘Loops’. With the publication of Our Friends the Machines & Other Mysteries, a third Loop was introduced. This is ‘The Broads Loop’, located under the Norfolk Broads in the East of England and built and operated by MAFF, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food. It is in and about ‘The Norfolk Broads Loop’ that They Grow Up So Fast is set.

They Grow Up So Fast is a short, four-part campaign set in 1988, with its four scenarios divided between the four seasons. It opens in the Spring with ‘Easter Egg Hunt’, in which one of the Kids will have a strange encounter on a campaign trip and together with his friends, come into possession of a strange alien that together they will feel drawn to hide and protect. A few weeks later in the Summer and ‘The Best of What Might Be’, the egg hatches and the Kids bond with the oddly cow-like creature that is revealed. As school begins in the Autumn and ‘The Year’s Last, Loveliest Smile’, the Kids will have to move the surprisingly cute lain and find it a better hiding place. The campaign comes to close with ‘You can’t Get Too Much…’ with a race to find the creature once again and get it home… All of this whilst facing school bullies, news interest about UFO sightings, staff upheaval at the nearby Loop and its consequences as a new government organisation—ReGIS or ‘Regional Geomagnetic Information Sciences’, part of the Ministry of Defence—takes over, protests at the Loop, and a highly qualified, but very new and very inexperienced science teacher who takes a deep interest in their activities. Each scenario is intended to run in roughly four hours or so, perhaps two sessions at most, that They Grow Up So Fast really is very short campaign.

To help the Game Master set the scene for the campaign, there is a solid primer on the United Kingdom and the Norfolk Broads of the late eighties. This covers activities that Kids might engage in, what they might listen to, and what they might watch. There is even a discussion of the politics of the period. Altogether, there is enough here for the Game Master to provide a picture of the eighties for her players, although no doubt there is plenty more to draw on elsewhere and so set further set the background. Nevertheless, there is genuine sense of nostalgia in the description given here and any Game Master or player of certain age, who grew up during this period in the United Kingdom, will recognise it. Further, as with other supplements for Tales from the Loop, there are notes and suggestions on how to run They Grow Up So Fast in either the Swedish or the American setting, including maps of the appropriate locations around their respective Loops. Each of the four scenarios is well organised and follow the pattern set in the core rules by being divided into five phases—‘Introducing the Kids’, ‘Introducing the Mystery’, ‘Solving the Mystery’, ‘Showdown’, ‘Aftermath’, and ‘Change’. Details of countdown events are given to push each Mystery along as well as suggested scenes and other advice.

Physically, They Grow Up So Fast is as well presented as you would expect for a Tales from the Loop title. Of course, it highlights Simon Stålenhag’s fantastic artwork, but the writing is also good and the layout is clean, tidy, and accessible. All four scenarios follow the same format, making them easy to access and relatively easy to run.

It is great to have a campaign for Tales from the Loop set in the United Kingdom and given the fact that its four scenarios take place over the course of the year, there is scope for the Game Master to run other scenarios in between those four. However, the scenarios do rely on the extensive use of the Charm and Sneak more than the others and the plot to They Grow Up So Fast is underwhelming. This is primarily due to two factors. One is the familiarity of its plot, which feels very much like the plot of one of the films suggested as its inspiration, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. Other suggested mood setting films include Pete’s Dragon, Free Willy, and Gremlins. One effect though, of setting the campaign in the United Kingdom, is to give They Grow Up So Fast certain shabbiness as if the Children’s Film Foundation made E.T. The Extra Terrestrial on a very much reduced budget! The other factor is that as written the ending does not feel quite as climatic as it should, it can also end in an even more underwhelming failure, but that will probably be different in play and the Game Master will need to up the pace depending upon the flow of events.

They Grow Up So Fast is a solid enough campaign, but not on par with other releases for Tales from the Loop. Ultimately, this is due to the familiarity of the plot, but if the Game Master is looking for a Tales from the Loop campaign in the style of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, then They Grow Up So Fast is exactly what she is looking for.