The Lion After The Serpent

If you were wondering what had become of The Day After Ragnarok, the 2009 Savage Worlds setting created and written by Ken Hite and published by Atomic Overmind Press, then you are not alone. The award-winning post-WW2, post-apocalypse, post-Ragnarok campaign setting, which has since been adapted for use with Hero Games’ Hero Sixth Edition and more recently for use with Evil Hat Games’ Fate Core, has not received the support that it truly deserves. Ideally, that would be a Plot Point campaign, but in the meantime, the setting has been supported with a half dozen ‘One-Sheet’ adventures and three entries in the Serpent Scales: Fragments From The World After The Serpentfall series. To date, these have visited the rise of the Klan in Serpent Scales #1: The New Konfederacy; examined the STEN Gun in Serpent Scales #2: (Happiness is a) Sten Gun; and even gone ashore in Serpent Scales #3: Return to Monster Island. Now there is a fourth entry in the series, one which comes with a little bit of history of its own.

Available for Savage Worlds and Fate Core, Issue #4 in the Serpent Scales: Fragments From The World After The Serpentfall series is The Lion in Fimbulwinter: Sweden After the Serpentfall. It began life as a Ken Hite authored contribution to the Swedish gaming magazine FENIX for its ‘post-holocaust’ issue, and after all, there is no post-holocaust setting like The Day After Ragnarok. Atomic Overmind Press has taken Hite’s original article and developed it into this fourth entry in the Serpent Scales series. It describes the events in the July 1945 Serpent Fall as they fell upon Sweden, taking them up to the current situation in Sweden in 1948.

Of all the countries of Scandinavia, Sweden is the only one to survive nearly intact. To the west, Denmark and Norway took the brunt of the tsunami that flowed east and west in the wake of Jörmungandr’s atomic-fire induced plummet to earth. Sweden could not avoid the earthquakes or the torrential rain that followed, but despite hundreds of thousands that died, Sweden survived as a nation, although a politically unstable one. Placed east of the Serpent Curtain, Sweden is almost but not quite a client state of Moscow, which cannot be said of its neighbours – Norway and Denmark are both People’s Republics garrisoned by Soviet troops, whilst Stalin incorporated Finland into the USSR directly as the Karelo-Finnish SSR. At home, Sweden remains a monarchy although King Gustav VI Adolf or ‘Comrade G’ was forced to retreat from public life by a Communist government that has since been replaced by a left wing alliance that avoids making radical decisions that might break the government and force external intervention…

Meanwhile, the king’s son, Crown Prince Gustav Adolf, has decamped to the once-German island of Heligoland in the North Sea with much of the Swedish Navy and air force, and declared himself the Royal Governor of Heligoland. It has become a major staging post for ships of the British Royal Navy and for refugees getting out of Soviet occupied Germany – whatever their ‘former’ political allegiances. The British Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, supports anti-Communist activities in Sweden, the country serving as the perfect jumping off point to get spies through the Serpent Curtain and back out again. This activity includes research into the oldest runic symbols in Europe; the very ones that the Ahnenerbe scholars are said to have used to summon the Midgard Serpent! Monsters are everywhere, just like the rest of the world, whether that be sinuous serpents newly returned to Sweden’s lakes or the trolls and even more fearsome troll wives that do the bidding of their Frost Giant masters.

Just ten pages long, The Lion in Fimbulwinter is a 2.42 Mb, black and white PDF. It not includes a succinctly written, but nevertheless rich description of a country that is rarely visited in gaming. This presents a fraught nation, desperately trying to rebuild following the Serpentfall whilst staving off the seemingly inevitable Soviet annexation. Although it maintains the high quality in terms of content – content that should spark ideas aplenty for the GM – seen in previous The Day After Ragnarok titles, barring a somewhat silly final scenario seed, what The Lion in Fimbulwinter really lacks is ‘the Top Five’ lists begun in The Day After Ragnarock – such as Top Five Places To Stomp Nazis and Top Five Secret Bases. That said, it is a shorter piece than other titles in the series.

What Serpent Scales #4: The Lion in Fimbulwinter – Sweden presents is the Berlin of the post-Ragnarok world. Which is a little odd given that Hite has already described the city of Tehran, as detailed in his Tehran – Nest of Spies, as being Berlin’s equivalent in The Day After Ragnarok setting, it being the closest non-Soviet capital with an accessible border to the Soviet Union. Perhaps the Berlin of the North of the post-Ragnarok world? If there is a thematic similarity, then the flavour and the tone of The Lion in Fimbulwinter are very different, not as exotic, much dryer, even starker, and colder than Tehran – Nest of Spies. 

Victorians & Vampires (& Zombies)

In 1905 the dead rose and fell upon the living.

Whole countries collapsed under the onslaught of the cadaver cavalcade, but society and civilisation held. In the United Kingdom the declaration and implementation of martial law meant that society could hold on and hold out long enough to learn about the new world around them. It would take decades, but slowly the nation’s cities were reclaimed from the dead and refortified to prevent attacks from without, much of the countryside being left to roving bands of animates and the blight that poisons the very ground. Having retaken the cities, the Domestic Security Force – known as the Deathwatch – mans the walls, protecting the cities from threats without whilst having the mandate to ruthlessly put down any outbreaks of the Plague and the rise of the dead within. In the tightly packed slums, the living conditions mean that disease is rife and Outbreaks of the Plague and the dead are far from uncommon.

In the two hundred years since the first Outbreak, the well-known Victorian reverence for the dead has been more than reappraised. The cremation of the recently deceased, lest they rise again, with most bodies going to the great public crematoria – it is a prosecution offense not to send a body there. Only the very rich can afford to have the deceased lie in mourning, and even then, a member of the black clad Mourners’ Guild must watch over the deceased, ready to behead the corpse if he should rise. Other undead threats besides the animates – vampires and ghouls as well as the Frankenstein creations of the alchemy and embryonic sciences – lurk deep in the sewers, tunnels, and warrens below the cities. When the Deathwatch cannot deal with these, Undertakers will delve into the depths, seeking the bounty on the head of each at the branches of the Office of Urban Defence.

Whilst Great Britain remains a parliamentary monarchy, a new aristocracy has arisen as the old has ossified. The industrialists have become richer as the work place reforms of the nineteenth century have been repealed. Of course, this does not dissuade the industrialist nouveau riche from wanting to marry into the aristocracy for the name and the status, and of course, that money gives accesses to the anti-aging treatments that prolong life for up to two hundred years. Another path to unaging is vampirism, although the Office of Urban Defence places a bounty on head of all vampires – or rather their dust – as they are dangerous predators who spread their condition by disease and mind control. Vampires most commonly infect prostitutes, but there are some who survive the infection and live out an existence as that most romanticised of tragic figures in this new age, the Dhampiri. Eschewing their progenitor’s sanguinary desires, the Dhampiri express a hatred of all vampires and often turn to hunting them for their bounty.

The atrocious living and working conditions of the working class to be found in Britain’s cities are not only the breeding grounds of disease and new outbreaks of the Plague, but they are unsurprisingly the breeding grounds for dissent. Food riots are common and anarchist bombing campaigns not unknown, although the men of the City of London Police and Metropolitan Police do their best to rout the terrorists out. They are aided in this task by the clairvoyants, mediums, and telepaths of CID’s Psi Branch. The police also have to deal with the Resurrection Men who trade in bodies for experimentation and as food for the Meat Market; the swelling desire to kill in the growing number of murderers; and having to monitor the otherwise legal practice of prostitution, whose practitioners must be checked lest they spread disease and even vampirism.

The skies over the cities remind the inhabitants of both life and death. They crackle with the galvanic energy of the Tesla Towers that power many of the devices that people use daily, including the Van Haller Lightning Gun favoured by the Deathwwatch, yet are laden with the outpourings of the factories and the public crematoria, forcing everyone to wear protection from the ash coated London Peculiars – even the horses! The working classes often can only afford the cloth “dust masks” to wear over their mouths, whilst the middle and upper classes can afford gas masks of brass, glass, and rubber, as well as clothing in similar material, a style known as “Gas Mask Chic.”

This is the setting for Unhallowed Metropolis, a neo-Victorian set RPG that combines horror, manners, and zombie and vampire hunting set in an alternate future. First published by New Dark Age through by Eos Press in 2007, the Unhallowed Metropolis, Revised returns in 2012, this time published by Atomic Overmind Press, best known for Ken Hite’s superb The Day After Ragnorak. This can only be good news because the few supplements released by New Dark Age for Unhallowed Metropolis were either unavailable beyond the borders of the USA, or inordinately expensive to obtain. As the title suggests, Unhallowed Metropolis, Revised, the book has been redone, both character creation and combat being streamlined; the setting information being expanded to cover the USA, most of Europe, and beyond; new character Callings or types (the Deathwatch Soldier and the Detective) being added; and an array of new material incorporated from some of the supplements previously released. The result is an improved rulebook and background, but as will be explored, not all of game’s original issues have been addressed.

In terms of characters, Unhallowed Metropolis, Revised offers eight Callings – two more than the original edition – each of which not only determines a character’s social class, but also his Class in game terms. The eight are Aristocrat, Criminal, Deathwatch Soldier, Detective, Dhampir Vampire Hunter, Doctor, Mourner, and Undertaker. In addition, rules are given that enable a player to create a custom character not using one of these Callings. Although a Calling provides a character with a set number of features and skills, each also gives plenty of options that allow a player to customise his character. For example, the Aristocrat Calling grants the Blue Blood and Deference Features, but allows the player choose from another thirteen, one for each level in his Etiquette Skill – the skill varies according to the Calling. The Features for the Aristocrat Calling range from Big Game Hunter and Casanova to Military Family and Vogue via Duellist and Gossip. Each Feature usually adds a bonus to skill roles or allows failed skill rolls to be rerolled, but each also adds flavour and background to the character too.

Once a Calling is selected, each player has twenty-five points to spend on six attributes – Vitality, Coordination, Wit, Intellect, Will, and Charm; and another twenty-five to spend on skills. Both are rated between one and five, and with the points available, most characters will have average attributes of 3 or so, with perhaps one attribute a little higher, whilst their skills will again average at 3 with one or two skills much higher. Each player has a final five points with which to customise his character, and he can also choose from a wide selection of advantageous Qualities and disadvantageous Impediments. Before that, a player must select his character’s Corruption. This reflects that although the characters have the capacity to be great figures of the Neo-Victorian Age, they possess a greater susceptibility to the moral decay that threatens the very fabric of society. This is represented by the three Corruption paths that a character could take – Physical, Desire, and Drive. A character begins with just a point in one of these paths and an associated Affliction, but through play can develop further Afflictions as he meanders along the Corruption paths into moral decay, eventually to turn into a monster, both physically and mentally. The most obvious way of being drawn down these paths is by being exposed to greater horrors, but there is a more common means of being driven along the path to Corruption. First a character has “Second Chances” and can make a number of rerolls per session equal to his Corruption, and if he needs more rerolls, then he must increase Corruption, and second, once per session he can call upon the “Devil’s Luck” to automatically get out of a perilous scrape, again at the cost of increasing his Corruption. Since the likelihood of a character requiring “Second Chances” is quite high, it seems odd that the desperate need for luck is so tied to a character’s path to Corruption. That said, at its heart, the Corruption paths are a pleasing roleplaying reflection of the setting.

Our sample character is Mrs. Arthur Fanshawe, the widow of the late Arthur Fanshawe, Member of Parliament for Deal. He rose as a vampire after being infected following continued dalliances with prostitutes and had to be staked after he had killed several of his servants. Thankfully his son, John, was at boarding school at the time. Florence was the one who did the staking and had to endure the scandal even whilst she was in mourning. Come the end of mourning, the scandal did not go away and she entered the “Quiet Service” of the Guild and became a Mourner.

Mrs. Arthur Fanshawe

Calling – Mourner

Vitality 3 Coordination 3 Wit 3 Intellect 2 Will 3 Charm 3

Skills: Concentration 4, Etiquette 3, Language 2 (French), Melee Weapons 4, Psychology 1, Ride 1, Second Sight 1, Shadow 2, Thanatology 3, Theology 2

Prowess 6 Wealth 4

Corruption: Desire 1 – Addiction (Laudanum)

Features: Death Trance, Disconcerting, Disciplined Mind, Exculpus Mastery (Preferred Weapon: Exculpus), Familiarity: Animate, Latent Medium, Twin Blade Fighter (Two Weapon Fighting Stunt, Ambidextrous)

Combat Stunts: Fast Draw, Free Parry, Lucky Shot, Snap Reaction

Qualities: Dreamer (6), Faith (2)

Impediments: Allergy – Pollen (1), Fastidious (1), Good Tasting (4), Ward – Son, John (2)

Equipment: Exculpus (Pair), Armoured Leather Corset, Mourning Clothing, Respirator, £8

Mechanically, Unhallowed Metropolis employs a pair of ten-sided dice, these being rolled and added together along with either the appropriate attribute or skill to equal or beat a Difficulty Rating. A Moderate Difficulty Rating is 11, Complex is 14, Hard is 15, and Virtually Impossible. Although the average result on the dice will be 11, with a character only adding a pertinent attribute or skill to a roll, the average of which will probably be only 2 or 3, there is nevertheless a high chance of a character failing even a Moderate Difficulty Rating. Although some Calling Features and some Qualities allow rerolls with certain skills, it is not all and the likelihood is that a player is going to need to turn to his character’s “Second Chances” more often than not. As much as the Corruption mechanic is an integral part of the setting, this potential reliance upon it is all but an imposition.

This mechanical issue is only exacerbated when it comes to combat, which can be very deadly. That said, one pleasing aspect of the combat rules retained from the original edition are the combat stunts, which a character receives for each level he possesses in a combat skill. For example, “Snap Reaction” enables a character to react before an foe can take an action, whilst Fast Aim allows a character to forgo an action rather than a whole turn in order to gain an aiming bonus. (In the previous edition, every skill had a series of stunts associated with it, which while it added detail, slowed down both character generation and play). Nevertheless, the deadliness of the combat rules not only exacerbates the unforgiving rules system and its reliance upon the Corruption mechanics, it is at odds with the cinematic leanings of the combat stunts.

The problem would not be so bad were the base roll consist of the result of the two ten-sided dice and both the pertinent skill and the pertinent attribute (or twice the pertinent attribute if an attribute check), but it does not. Then it does under certain circumstances, such as attempting to strangle someone, which requires an opposed roll of the Vitality plus Unarmed Combat. To have such inconsistencies is odd and undermines the game’s rules.

The setting itself is explored in some detail, such as a discussion of “unmentionables” and “combat corsetry” under equipment, which covers the setting’s weaponry with flavour aplenty and gives the tools of the trade for the various Callings. Animate Restraints or Dust Kits for collecting the fine ash of staked vampires? Just what every Undertaker needs! Almost a quarter of the core rules is devoted to the threats faced by humanity in the Neo-Victorian Age. In turn, the anatomy of the animate dead – Zombies and Zombie Lords, Vampires and Dhampirs, and Ghouls, as well as the creations of alchemical and galvanic science – artificial life such as the Anathema and the Homunculi, the reanimated dead known as Mercurials, the assembled Prometheans, and the half-living Thropes that are capable of switching between human and bestial forms. The chapters explore the science and philosophy behind the creation of each as well as presenting the stats, and there is plenty here that the GM can draw from for inspiration and flavour for his scenarios. There is enough here that a player could draw from if his Doctor character wants to delve into the alchemical, galvanic, and life sciences of the very modern Neo-Victorian Age.

Many of these elements and threats are further discussed, exploring in particular how they can be used in play, in the chapter for the GM’s eyes only, as well as that ever present danger in the Neo-Victorian Age – scandal! Accompanying these notes and advice is a set of eight plot seeds. The rulebook is rounded out with appendices that provide a glossary, a bibliography, an index, and a detailed description of Deathwatch uniforms.

Physically, Unhallowed Metropolis, Revised come as an attractive and sturdy hardback. The book is illustrated with an array of artwork, some of it black inks, some greyscale pieces, and some it actually photographs of posed models. Much of the latter illustrations are devoted to the illustration of the setting’s “Gas Mask Chic,” and whilst they do fetishize said style, they do not always capture the grime and grubbiness of the setting. The other artwork does though. The book comes with a very nicely done map of London on the inside front and back cover, and the book is generally well written. If there is an issue with the book it is that it is not all that easy to use. The glossary is probably all too short, whilst the index, which although present, is too broad to be really of any use, whilst the need to refer to various tables, such as the wound tables in combat, is hampered by their not being reprinted at the end of the book (though they are referenced).

As much as the setting of Unhallowed Metropolis lends itself to any number of scenario and campaign ideas – Deathwatch duty beyond the walls of the fortified cities, animate hunting through the streets of London, and vampire hunting through London’s high society being the obvious ones – there is pair of dichotomies at the heart of the game and its set up. The first of these is intrinsic to the Victorian era, and is one of class. The issue is that bringing characters of different social classes together, as certainly it would be a possible scandal for a member of high society to be seen consorting with a member of the lower orders. Yet characters of all classes are needed if a party is to gain access to all classes of society. The second is the dichotomy between the combat orientated and the non-combat orientated characters. Both types are necessary, but one type will find itself relegated to the role of bystander when the game focuses on the speciality of the other. Both dichotomies are addressed in the section on Dynamics of Play, and whilst the advice is good, it does not totally negate either dichotomy.

When Unhallowed Metropolis was originally published, I reviewed it in 2008 for Steve Jackson Games’ Pyramid e-zine. The issues that I had at the time were the lack of Callings, the underpowered mechanics that imposed the Corruption mechanic, and the social/combat divide. Four years on and with the publication of Unhallowed Metropolis, Revised, not all of the issues have been addressed. Certainly the additional Callings of the Deathwatch Soldier and the Detective are welcome, as is the additional new material and the streamlining of the stunts. Yet the failure to address the fundamental flaws in the mechanics is at the very least disappointing.

Despite the shortfall in the revisions carried out with Unhallowed Metropolis, Revised, the return of the RPG and the promise of supplements are both more than welcome. The game itself is far from unplayable, and the setting itself is rich in horror, suspense, and intrigue, being atmospheric to the last. Ultimately, the atmosphere is what sells Unhallowed Metropolis, ash-laden, gin-soaked, and perpetually in mourning…

Cthulhu Who?

Ken Hite is Call of Cthulhu’s number one fan. He might not own the number one copy of Call of Cthulhu, but is more than qualified to write what is essentially an initiate’s guide to Cthulhu and the Cthulhu Mythos. His Cthulhu 101: A Beginner’s Guide to the Dreamer in the Deep is that guide, a pocket-sized book from Atomic Overmind Press that explains who Cthulhu is, where he is from – both in and out of the fiction, what he does and does not do; who H.P. Lovecraft was, what he wrote, and what were his inspirations; discusses the good and the bad of August Derleth – kept Lovecraft’s writings in print, but wrote bad stories and claimed too much when it came to copyrights; all before suggesting an awful lot of bests and not-so bests. The best and not-so best stories, comics, movies, television, music, games, and toys, plus suggested next steps.

In places it gets as basic as, “How do you pronounce Cthulhu, exactly?” In others, its gets a little more complex, such as in the discussions of Lovecraft’s inspiration for his creation, and what exactly, Cthulhu might symbolise. For the most part Hite gives us just the facts, but Derleth does not come out of this in a wholly favourable light.

Much of Cthulhu 101 will be familiar, being too basic for some. Basic can still be useful though, a handy reference. It is easy to imagine Hite delivering this as the Power Point presentation from R’lyeh, so worth having.

Falling Scales...

One of the most of inventive settings of the last year is Ken Hite’s The Day After Ragnarok, which describes a world devastated after the Serpentfall, an event caused by the detonation of the Trinity Device within the brain of the Midguard Serpent, unleashed by Hitler in an attempt to initiate Götterdämmerung. Best summed up as “Mad Max meets Conan” or “Submachine Guns & Sorcery,” this alternate Earth of 1948 from Atomic Overmind Press is a rich and frothy pulp setting for which we are still waiting the definitive campaign from the illuminated mind of Ken Hite. We already have had a scenario – Tehran: Nest of Spies – and now we have a series of articles known as Serpent Scales: Fragments from the World After the Serpentfall.

Each of these articles is designed to focus on particular aspects of the weird new world of 1948 that though of interest to The Day After Ragnarok GM, are not quite worthy of a full supplement. They are thus of a varying length – the shortest of the first three available being only six pages long, while the longest is almost five times that length. This varied length is reflected in the price, but on length and price alone, these are not cheap PDFs. That said, when you consider that each is written by Ken Hite and that the series promises to deliver a consistent diet of content rather than fluff, paying that little bit extra is probably worth taking into consideration. As with the core book, all three supplements are available for both Shane Hensley’s Savage Worlds and HERO System.

The series starts out with as unpalatable a subject as you would imagine, but it definitely provides details of an enemy that you can get away with despising and not suffer any comeback for it. The New Konfederacy details the third rise of the Klu Klax Klan out of Atlanta following the Serpentfall and its founding of the Grand Kounty of Birmingham, Alabama following the conquest of “The Magic City” back in 1947. Now flying the “Stars and Bars” flag, the New Konfederacy is a bastion of law and order in the Poisoned Lands, even if that law and order comes with an alliance with Nazi ex-POWs, the re-establishment of America’s most peculiar institution, and labour battalions that work for food. Meanwhile, radio station WKKK broadcasts “Birmingham’s American Voice” a thousand miles in all directions serving up a diet of pro-white, anti-non-white, anti-non-Protestant, anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic, anti-Communist propaganda alongside good old Bible thumping sermons and wholesome Country Music. The radio station claim to be the voice of an “Invisible Empire” across ravaged America, complete with a million-man army, might be propaganda, but the reach of the new Klu Klux Khan is long enough, and that is before you take into account the various White Supremacy groups that have sprung up across of the Mayoralties in the wake of the Serpentfall.

Just as you would want, the article details the Klan’s organisational structure – komplete with silly names that begin with the latter “k,” its leaders and agendas, its rivals, and its secrets – not as many of those as you might think. These are supported with the stats for a Klan super agent (or is he?), an atypical White Supremacist night-rider (not always affiliated with the Klan, so without the “k”), the Klommando and the Klandestine Agent (which are affiliated with the Army of the New Konfederacy, so do come with the silly “k”), and lastly the Haint, true Confederate ghosts riding spectral horses, and the only supernatural element described in the article.

The article sees the return of Hite’s “Savage Shortlist,” a quick pick listing of the “Top Five” elements pertaining to the subject in hand. This time around, the Top Five are the “Top Five Klan Plans,” more specific aims than just enslaving and oppressing the right minorities for the good of America. Essentially each is reason enough for a scenario or two, if not a mini-campaign, and while each is just a thumbnail sketch, they are also good starting points. Also included are a set of tables to help a GM determine just how deep the Konfederacy’s influence might be in a town out in the Mayoralties. Of course, subverting every town out in the Mayoralties is part of The Big Klan Plan. The “Town Subversion Generator” is an extension of the detailed encounter tables to be found in the core book, and as the author makes clear can just as easily be used with any other organisation, be it the Reds or the snake cultists, with just a change of a term or name or two. Either way, the “Town Subversion Generator” is neat means by which to create an encounter or scenario with relatively little effort.

What is obvious from this Serpent Scales is the author’s distaste for the subject matter, and to be fair, I do not envy the research he had to do in order to write about The New Konfederacy, even if the author is having fun with the latter “k.” Even as Hite is describing a villain as crass and as odious as the new born Klu Klux Klan, he is also making suggestions as how they can be used, some of them surprisingly subtle in comparison to the Klan’s reputation. Despite sharing the author’s distaste, this is much to be taken from The New Konfederacy, especially if the GM is running a game set in Mayoralties.

The second article is entitled (Happiness is a) Sten Gun. At just six pages, this is the shortest of the three articles available, and as its title suggests, is devoted to the humble Sten Gun, the cheaply and easily manufactured submachine gun that was a symbol of British stubbornness and Resistance defiance in the face of Nazi oppression during World War II. While its durability and simple functionality earned a place in the hearts of all who used it, the Sten Gun also had a reputation for unreliability at the wrong moment. It might be that the SMG jammed at a crucial moment; that it discharged a round if jarred or knocked badly; or that discharged the whole of the magazine in one go! That said, it could be highly effective and very reliable once a user had mastered the Sten Gun’s quirks. Lastly, a Sten Gun only has two machined parts, so it is possible to scavenge the remaining parts if you have to.

All this is covered and more in (Happiness is a) Sten Gun. It tells you where the Sten Gun might be found – throughout the British Commonwealth and anywhere that MI6 might be shipping the weapon to support an insurrection or the United Kingdom’s allies. If found in the USA, the likelihood is that it is somewhere near Toronto where they are manufactured for the standard 9mm Parabellum ammunition , or if nowhere near Canada, then guns have been adapted to a different calibre. What there is not in (Happiness is a) Sten Gun, is one of Hite’s superlative “Savage Shortlists,” but to be fair, there is hardly room for that in its six pages. Instead, there are rules for the SMG’s quirks and how to fix them to make it a really good gun, three scenario seeds (one including how to redo The Magnificent Seven with Sten Guns!), and lastly, a guide to give the Sten Gun a damned tune up. Essentially to make it a +1 Sten Gun of Serpent Slaying! Only with a bit more imagination...

The third and longest of the Serpent Scales articles adds a whole genre all its very own to the world of The Day After Ragnarok. Deep within the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere lies Bradbury Island or as the Japanese call it, Kaijūshima. Which just happens to translate as “Strange Beast” or “Monster” Island and “Monster Island” just happens to be part of title for Return to Monster Island, the title for the second Serpent Scales article. Kaijūshima is perhaps one of the strangest islands in the Pacific, being home to giant beasts, dinosaurs, and other strangeness all by the way of special effects by both Ray Harryhausen and Ishirō Honda.

Originally discovered by American whalers in the last century, but in Japanese hands since 1914, Kaijūshima is damned difficult to get to, and to get on to. Partly fortified (on the safe side of the island), remote, and protected by a surrounding natural boat bottom ripping coral reef, about the easiest way to get there is fly over and land by parachute. That or enlist in the Imperial Japanese Navy... Nevertheless, there are hooks aplenty to get the heroes there, whether it involves going after a missing mentor or girlfriend, being hit by a pterodactyl and forced to land, investigating Soviet interest in the island or just going to make a big damned movie, the heroes are going get there...

Once they do get there, Return to Monster Island comes with a “ready-to-play, throw the kitchen sink and its crockery at the players” scenario that lets them run a giant monster fight as their heroes run around underfoot! Actually, “Deploy All Monsters” is more of a Savage Scenario Starter, but in the hands of a good GM plugging in the other contents to be found in this Serpent Scales article, it should be hectic fun.

In addition to describing each of Kaijūshima’s major locations, each complete with suggestions as to what might be encountered there, Return to Monster Island lives up to its title and gives you monsters, or rather, daikaijū! Not just gigantically monstrous creatures native to the island, but also the creations and discoveries of the Soviet Institute for Genetics, and that is all before you get to the dinosaurs! And dinosaurs are so ubiquitous that you can put them anywhere as evidenced by the subject of this article’s “Savage Shortlist.” With “Top Five Places to Fight Dinosaurs” that takes you from Antarctica to China and from Africa to South America. As with every other “Savage Shortlist,” the five entries are quick and dirty, but that is in keeping with the “fast, furious, fun” ethos of Savage Worlds, and certainly much of the contents of Return to Monster Island plugs into those five entries.

Return to Monster Island pretty much wears its influences on its sleeve – or is that scales? – to present pulpy, two-fisted lost world action in the vein of Doug McClure and Edgar Rice Burroughs, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Professor Challenger, Godzilla and King Kong, all richly spread over an island that is one part Skull Island and the other Ponape. Of the three Serpent Scales to date, it happens to be the most versatile, the most pulpy, and the least setting specific. Which means that you could take it and drop it into any pulp action setting you care to name – could one of the island’s volcanoes hide a fissure that if followed would lead you on a Hollow Earth Expedition? – which the author acknowledges by suggesting how Return to Monster Island can be dropped into other Savage Worlds settings, from Rippers and Realms of Cthulhu to Weird War II and Weird War: Tour of Darkness.

So the question is, after having looked at each of the Serpent Scales articles released so far, do I recommend that you rush out and buy them? As an unabashed fan of both Ken Hite and his The Day After Ragnarok, I would say absolutely, but then that would hardly be fair. Thus I need to give you a more considered answer. Well, as interesting as (Happiness is a) Sten Gun is and as much solid content as it contains, it really is only of minor interest when compared to the other two. Of those two, The New Konfederacy does a fine job of both presenting a set of villains that GM and players alike will love to hate and providing support for the GM running a campaign set in the Mayoralties, the Eastern third of the USA that is one of the major settings in The Day After Ragnarok. The likelihood is that the GM will get a great deal of long term use out of this Serpent Scales. It is not as good though, as Return to Monster Island, which not only gives a good pulpy adventure location for The Day After Ragnarok, but also for any pulp action setting; manages to tag more pulp references than the other two; and lastly, has the potential to be just plain more fun.

Behind The Peacock Spray

As much as we are fascinated by the exoticism of the East, our gaze rarely strays from the furthest extent of the Orient. China and Japan are our pre-occupation, which explains the number of RPGs and supplements devoted to both countries, but it also ignores the myriad lands that lie between the occidental and the oriental. When such lands are detailed, then it is invariably Egypt that figures first, because if anything it is as equally exotic. Beyond that lie the lands of Araby, the Middle East, the Caucasus, and the many places along the fabled Silk Road. In gaming, supplements devoted to these regions are far and few between. When Gravity Falls for Cyberpunk 2013 – based on the novel of the same name by George Alec Effinger, The Cairo Sourcebook for Call of Cthulhu, and A Magical Society: Silk Road all spring to mind, still there could be more, and while they could all be written by Ken Hite, that is too much to hope for. Fortunately, the newest supplement to explore the Near East is written by Ken Hite, but he is not taking us to Araby, but rather to Persia.

Tehran: Nest of Spies ($7.95, Atomic Overmind Press) is the first supplement for The Day After Ragnarok, Ken Hite’s post-WW2, post-apocalypse, post-Ragnarok campaign setting for the popular Shane Hensley’s Savage Worlds rules set that is also available for the HERO System. It describes a world devastated after the Serpentfall, an event caused by the detonation of the Trinity Device within the brain of the Midguard Serpent, unleashed by Hitler in an attempt to initiate Götterdämmerung. Best summed up as “Mad Max meets Conan” or “Submachine Guns & Sorcery,” The Day After Ragnarok is a rich, frothy, and exciting pulp setting, and what Tehran: Nest of Spies sets out to do is provide a more focused setting within which to game.

A 34-page, 4.24 Mb PDF, Tehran: Nest of Spies comes with a little history, a description of the city and its major locations, descriptions of the major factions operating in the city, a short bestiary, and a guide to adventures in the city, plus a complete “Savage Tale” starter or adventure. It is written for the Savage Worlds version of the game, but doubtless the HERO System version will follow.

The Tehran of The Day After Ragnarok is a place of some importance, being caught between the recently expanded Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic to the North and the jewel in the crown of the British Empire, India, to the South. The significance of this fact is that the Soviet border is not impenetrable, spies can get in and information can get out (and vice versa), unlike in Europe where East and West are separated by the Serpent Curtain. Thus the city has become a maelstrom of intrigue and espionage, a continuation of the Great Game between the British and Russian Empires, and all that in addition to the city’s own domestic problems. There is the continuing tension between the Western oilmen, its Modern facing ruler, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi, and the city’s cosmopolitan middle classes on the one hand, and the old Qajar aristocracy, the various pro-Communist factions, the fundamentalist Fadayun-e-Islam (assassins, terrorists, or martyrs depending on your allegiance), and the conservative poor on the other. Of course, that forgets other factions in the city such as MAH, the Turkish intelligence service; pro-French refugees from Beirut; the Nazi-backed, pro-nationalist Ba’ath Party; and the staunchly anti-Communist Polish Free Army based in the city. It also simplifies matters a little, because a pro-Communist faction is unlikely to ally itself with the Fadayun-e-Islam, and so on.

After just a little history, Hite gets down to describing what might be found in the city. What he does here is map the various locations that he describes back onto the “City Location Table” found in The Day After Ragnarok. Which is a neat way not to replicate that table in this supplement, but it is about Tehran, so we are also told what makes such places different and particular to this city. This is followed by a description of the many factions and personalities caught up in the politics of the city, including all of those mentioned above. Into that cocktail Hite also throws in one or two historical figures into the mix. The first is Iran’s then head of its gendarmerie, an American called Colonel H. Norman Schwarzkopf – father of the famous general, chief investigator in the Lindbergh baby kidnapping in 1932, and the man who really did re-organise the Iranian police after 1941, while the second is Ruhollah Khomeini, a religious leader and Islamic scholar who would go on to play a significant role in world politics come 1979. Only his stats and basic history are given, and while that might be seen as bad enough in the eyes of some, Hite leaves it up to the GM to court controversy around the gaming table by deciding what Khomeini’s agenda might be. The author does give you options though...

Hite continues the “Top Five” lists begun in The Day After Ragnarock – such as Top Five Places To Stomp Nazis and Top Five Secret Bases, but as is to be expected for a city source book, the focus is much tighter. In Tehran: Nest of Spies the lists amount to just two – “Top Five Tehran Touches” and “Top Five Tehran Sights,” both a little more mundane than those found in The Day After Ragnarock itself. Nevertheless, both are useful with the first, “Top Five Tehran Touches,” doing a nice job of helping the GM add colour to his game.

Although Iran was not directly affected by the Serpentfall, it did suffer from a series of earthquakes and various snake cults and creatures in its wake. Only three are described here, the first being the serpentine Ganj or “jewel serpent,” which hunts down concentrations of gems and jewels, making it a regular threat to Tehran’s banks and jewellers. Both occasionally hire parties to hunt these creatures in the qanats (underground aqueducts) and cellars below the city, which amusingly, means that the Player Characters have the opportunity to do a “dungeon bash” in 1948! The other two are the Kil-barak, an army of dog-headed men sealed behind a great gate by Alexander the Great and let loose after the Serpentfall broke the seal, and the Symir, an emergent consciousness embodied in the city’s or the country’s birds.

The standard Savage Worlds Adventure Generator is, like the “City Location Table” above, altered and extended for use in Tehran: Nest of Spies, becoming the “Tehran Urban Adventure Generator.” It is a little short and really only gets going when used with the book’s “Encounter Table.” In Tehran, it is not just a case of who you might run into, but also a matter of who they owe their allegiance to, who they really owe their allegiance to, what they are up to, and how and why they might betray you. Again, it is another useful little tool kit that does much of the work for the GM, though to get the fullest out of it, it will probably be best to use in advance.

The supplement is rounded out with “A Key for the Peacock,” a Savage Scenario Starter. It is more of a toolkit than a straightforward scenario, providing option upon option for how the ornate “Peacock Key” comes into the possession of the Player Characters, who wants it, and what the key is, and what it opens. At its heart this is a MacGuffin, which in true Hitchcock style throws the Player Characters in at the deep end and forces them to sink or swim in a rich soup of intrigue and factional rivalries.

What Tehran: Nest of Spies is not, is a history book. Rather it gives a playable snapshot of the city for The Day After Ragnarok in 1948, supported by a ready set of tools that help it be different from the Tehran of our 1948. Nor does it actually add a great deal to the overall setting that is The Day After Ragnarok, almost as if the Tehran after the Serpentfall exists in isolation with little regard for what happens beyond its outskirts. Arguably that is a “Concentrated Isolation,” one that echoes the mindset of the espionage world of our own twentieth century Cold War. This does not mean though, that the information in Tehran: Nest of Spies is not useful. In fact, its contents are all useful, and I can see this supplement being useful (as my friend Dave suggested) for when a GM wants to take his Cold City game on holiday from its natural home in Berlin. Which is no surprise given that Hite describes Tehran in his “Inspirations” as being Berlin’s equivalent in The Day After Ragnarok setting, it being the closest non-Soviet capital with an accessible border to the Soviet Union.

Although Tehran makes perfect sense as the Berlin of the post-Ragnarok, it seems an odd choice given the author’s own leanings in the core setting book for the “Conan meets Mad Max” in the ravaged America of the Mayoralties. Perhaps such a setting will be the subject for the next sourcebook? As to this sourcebook, given its price and format, you are getting quite a lot for your monies with Tehran: Nest of Spies, especially as it comes with the means to use its contents in the form of the location and encounter tools or tables. Yet in terms of background, the book feels underwritten and the likelihood is that the GM is going to need access to the Lonely Planet Iran if he wants more detail. Hite though, makes Tehran: Nest of Spies a terrific little setting in which get involved in the grand intrigues, rivalries, and politics of the post-apocalyptic world of The Day After Ragnarok.