Rebellion & Repulsion

It is 1775. It is an Age of Reason. It is an Age of Rebellion. It is an Age of War. New philosophies of logic, mathematics, and science appearing in the writings of Descartes, Hobbes, and Newton are being read and embraced and are supplanting centuries old beliefs rooted in myth and superstition. In the Thirteen Colonies, the first shots have been fired and the Patriot militias defeating the British Army at the Battles of Lexington and Concord, igniting tensions between Colonies and the Crown in London and setting them aflame. Great Britain and her Thirteen Colonies in North America are now at war. It is also an Age of a Secret War. For as many embrace the new ways of thinking, some still reject it, for they know the truths about the world, whether that is learned from a master or a mistress or because they have confronted it in all of its terrifying reality. Monsters are real. Magic is real. There are some men and women who would use their knowledge of magic and monsters for ill, there are monsters native to the New World and some came with the colonists from the Old, and perhaps there is a deeper, darker threat that only the most ambitious and most foolish would treat with. Whatever your politics—Loyalist, Nonassociator, or Patriot—these threats may be the biggest danger to the future of the Thirteen Colonies whether they remain in the grasp of the Crown or break free of its regime and achieve independence. This is the setting for Colonial Gothic.

Originally published in 2007, Colonial Gothic returns to its original roots after Flames of Freedom with a streamlined and revised version of the original rules. Published by Rogue Games, Inc. can be a roleplaying game of ‘High-Action’ a la the film The Patriot or the comic book, The Rebels; ‘Occult & Mystery’ inspired by H.P. Lovecraft or Edgar Allan Poe; or of confrontations with the ‘Supernatural’ like the films, Sleepy Hollow, Brotherhood of the Wolf, and Pirates of the Caribbean, with the latter being the default, but still cinematic. The core rulebook covers character creation, rules, magic, and some of the dangers that the Player Characters might face.

A Player Character is defined by seven Abilities—Brawn, Nimble, Vigor, Reason, Resolve, Vitality, and Sanity. Of these, all but the last two vary in value between ‘+0’ and ‘+4’, although they can be as high as ‘+10’. Vitality and Sanity are derived factors, Vitality representing a Player Character’s ability to suffer damage and Sanity his mental well-being. He also has a Background, Side, Profession, Action Points and Hooks, and skills. The Background options include Frontier Colonist, Rural Colonist, Urban Colonist, Freedman, Freed Slave, Former Indentured Servant, Immigrant, Native, and Tribe-Adopted. His Side can be Loyalist, Nonassociator, or Patriot. Neither Background nor Side impart any bonuses or skills, instead providing roleplaying details only. His Profession further explains his background, grants a Vitality Bonus, gives some starting skills, and three items of equipment. They include a wide range of Professions such as Alchemist, Barber, Clergy, Clerk, Farmer, Gambler, Lawyer, Libertine, Militia, Publican, Robber, Student of the Occult, Witch Hunter, and more. Hooks are categorised as either Educational, Emotional, Magical, Metaphysical, Physical, Situational, or Supernatural, and are statements such as ‘I will pay my taxes to the American government to forge my freedom rather than pay them to a king I will never see’ or ‘My faith is all I have in the face of a greater evil’. These are tagged in play in order to spend Action Points.

To create a character, a player assigns six points across Brawn, Nimble, Vigor, Reason, and Resolve. He then selects a Background, Side, Profession, Hooks, and skills. All of the Backgrounds, Sides, and Professions are all really nicely detailed and for the Native and Tribe-Adopted Backgrounds, Colonial Gothic provides very decently done descriptions of the peoples of the Indigenous nations.

Name: Simon Teahan
Background: Former Indentured Servant
Side: Patriot
Profession: Student of the Occult
Brawn 0 Nimble 1 Vigor 1 Reason 2 Resolve 2
Vitality 12
Sanity 50

Skills
Astrology (Reason) 0, Herbalist (Reason) 0, Lore (Reason) 1, Magic (Resolve) (Clarity’s Embrace) +0, Magic (Resolve) (Veiled Aegis) 1, Study (Astronomy) 1

Hooks
‘The bastard British deserve every kicking they get’
‘I owe my master for the knowledge I know, but I will become greater than him to defeat his evil’

Equipment
The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, The Divine Pymander of Hermes Mercurius Trimegistus, The Hieroglyphic Monad

Mechanically, Colonial Gothic involves the rolling of two twelve-sided dice. The typical Target Number is twelve and to this a player add the Ranks for his character’s Skill and its associated Ability. Modifiers apply to the dice rather than the Target Number. Rolls above the Target Number can generate Degrees of Success, whilst rolls below the Target Number can generate Degrees of Failure. It is up to the Game Master to decide what that might be narratively. Combat uses the same mechanic. Initiative is a simple test using Nimble and actions include Attack, Casting Spell, Hiding, Loading a Weapon, Searching, Withdrawing, and so on. Rolling the exact Target Number in combat inflicts only the base damage for the weapon, whilst Degrees of Success will add to the base damage. When a Player Character suffers damage, he suffers a ‘-1’ penalty to all actions for the first ten points suffered, and then ‘-1’ for each five points after that. Damage is deducted from Vitality. Fear is resolved as a Resolve test and if failed, the Player Character loses Sanity and suffers a ‘-2’ penalty until he can rest. Losing Sanity can result in the Player Character also suffering from a phobia, which when it is in effect, imposes a greater penalty. Both Vitality and Sanity recover at a rate of one point per day, and a Phobia can be overcome, but should a Player Character’s Sanity be reduced to zero, the Phobia becomes permanent and his Sanity is permanently reduced by one.

Colonial Gothic is a set in a world in which magic is real and practiced by mages, sorcerers, witches, and shamans. Two forms of practice are detailed, Alchemy and Magic, both exclusive to the other, so that if a practitioner studies one, he cannot study the other. Mechanically, an Alchemist gains ranks in the Alchemical Arts, whilst a Mage gains ranks in different spells. The Arts include the Alchemicall Revanaunt by which the alchemist can create a zombie; the Arte of Blackpowder, the creation of various types of gunpowder; the Arte of Elixirs such as the Philosopher’s Tincture which sharpens wits; and the Vitae of Rekyndlyng for restoring a person to life. Alchemy requires investment in equipment and reagents, and it takes time to complete as well as gather any ingredients needed, whilst failed tests tend to concoct tinctures and elixirs that have negative rather than positive effects. The casting of spells is quicker, but still takes several rounds depending upon the spell. Spells also have a cost in Sanity to cast. Of the two, more detail is accorded to alchemy including its history and aims, making it easier for the Game Master to make it an aspect of play.

Besides a good list of equipment that includes weapons and alchemical apparatus, the Game Master is supported with advice on running Colonial Gothic. It primarily focuses on how to use the history of the period and how to use horror in play. Its default is a ‘secret’ history, but does not discount using alternative history either. It advises that the Game Master be respectful of the history whilst using it as a source of ideas. That said, it does not suggest where to look for that history and it highlights one absence from Colonial Gothic—and that is the lack of a bibliography, which would have served as a pointer for the Game Master wanting to do some research herself. This is not an issue that affects the roleplaying game’s advice on horror, which covers various types including folk, Mythos, and supernatural, as well as how to use it in play. This is all combined with a good section on creating adventures and an even better one on creating interesting and memorable villains.

Rounding out Colonial Gothic is ‘Lurking in the Shadows’, an extensive list of threats that the Player Characters might face. As well as breaking down their various possible abilities and traits, they are categorised as either Infernal, Natural, Otherworldly, and Undead. Infernal creatures such as the Boo-Hag and the Headless—as per Sleepy Hollow—have Taint, representing their evil presence in the world, but which can only keep them in this world for a short time. Oddly, the Byakhee, the Jersey Devil, and the Werewolf are included in the Natural section. The chapter includes several entries of Indigenous origins including the stone giants known as A-sense-ki-wake of Abenaki lore and the Mestabeok of the Atikamekw legend found in central Quebec. This is a decent selection of monsters which includes the familiar and the unfamiliar.

Physically, Colonial Gothic is decently presented with a good mix of artwork. It is an easy read although it needs a slight edit in places and it does feel slightly odd to have the roleplaying game’s mechanics explained before Player Character creation.

Colonial Gothic includes excellent sections that are full of historical detail, such as the examination of alchemy and the descriptions of the peoples of the indigenous nations, yet in terms of the history of the period it is set in, it is lacking. Much of that is saved for the Colonial Gothic Guidebook and the Colonial Gothic: Atlas, but some background details could have been included as well as a bibliography for the benefit of the Game Master or player for whom the roleplaying game does not share their history. Whilst the system is straightforward enough, it lacks examples of play, combat, and character creation. There is also no scenario to help the Game Master get started or show her what a Colonial Gothic adventure looks like.

Overall, Colonial Gothic is a solid roleplaying game that is easy to pick up and play, the revised rules being slicker and quicker to grasp. The rules are backed up with some solid character options and historical details. However, unless the Game Master is knowledgeable about the period and ready to write her own scenarios, she will need to make further purchases and possibly conduct some research of her own.

Friday Fantasy: Feast of the Gobbler Witch

Nine months ago, the Player Characters set sail aboard the Mayflower to the island of Alviz as members of a fanatical religious sect led by the charismatic Captain William Bradford and his second-in-command, Samual Parris. Adherents of Klazath, God of War, their sermons persuaded the Player Characters and other members of the cult that the word and yoke Klazath should be brought to the copper miners on the distant island of Lys. Unfortunately, the voyage has been struck by disaster, not once, but twice. First, when Captain Bradford was swept overboard during a sudden freak storm, and second, with a competent navigator aboard, when the vessel, its crew and passengers, were shipwrecked on the reef of a small, uncharted island. Where everyone aboard set out believing that they were journeying to bring the faith of Klazath to a far distant land, now they had to switch their focus to surviving on an island with no war to be fought in the name of Klazath. Their travails continued when the crops in the fields suffered a rot and with supplies dwindling, tensions rose rapidly and infighting broke out. This escalated when some of colonists began exhibiting paranoid and erratic behaviour, and in response to all of this, Magistrate Parris has declared that worshippers of foul Malotoch, the Carrion Crow Goddess of Death, have infiltrated the members of congregation and that they must be found and punished. Which turned into a witch hunt, literally, since Magistrate Parris condemned those of worshipping Malotoch as witches. As the paranoia grew, and the first handful of witches found guilty as charged and subsequently executed, the resulting hysteria spread through the colony and every man, woman, Elf, Dwarf, and Halfling lives in fear of being accused. Which is exactly what has happened to the Player Characters at the start of Dungeon Crawl Classics 2021 Holiday Module: Feast of the Gobbler Witch.

Dungeon Crawl Classics 2021 Holiday Module: Feast of the Gobbler Witch is a scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, published by Goodman Games. It is a Character Funnel, and a Character Funnel is a scenario specifically designed for Zero Level Player Characters in which initially, a player is expected to roll up three or four Level Zero characters and have them play through a generally nasty, deadly adventure, which surviving will prove a challenge. Those that do survive receive enough Experience Points to advance to First Level and gain all of the advantages of their Class. The Character Funnel is a signature feature of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, and whilst they are challenging to play, they are also both fun and wrought with emotion as players often become highly attached to the poor four unfortunates, they are roleplaying who have found themselves in the situation. Some of the best Character Funnels really begin with the Zero Level Player Characters in desperate straits, much like the recent Dungeon Crawl Classics #101: The Veiled Vaults of the Onyx Queen and exactly like Dungeon Crawl Classics 2021 Holiday Module: Feast of the Gobbler Witch.

As the scenario opens, the Player Characters are shackled together and condemned to death on Danver’s Green, the colony’s place of execution. After an attack by ‘Malotoch’s murder crows!’, Magistrate Parris offers them the opportunity to restore them to the bosom of the colony and Klazath’s good grace. They must locate the witch Abutit and take back the Holy Scythe of Mayflower that she has stolen. From the settlement of New Crimson and Danver’s Green, they need to explore the rest of the island, perhaps returning to the wreck of the Mayflower, examining the fields with their blighted crops, and so on. In the process, the Player Characters should discover some secrets that suggest that the situation on the colony and the true threat it faces is not as they have been told… Dungeon Crawl Classics 2021 Holiday Module: Feast of the Gobbler Witch has just eleven locations, and not one, but two climaxes. The first involves brooms and flying atop a very high nest and the second, a fight at a feast alongside an unholy turkey, animated and murderous cranberry goo against a vampire!

Thematically then, what with its colonists, a ship called the Mayflower, a feast of turkey and cranberry sauce, the holiday in Dungeon Crawl Classics 2021 Holiday Module: Feast of the Gobbler Witch is Thanksgiving. However, it is quite a lot more than that given its length and the fact that it is a scenario for Dungeon Crawl Classics. Like a chef with a turkey baster, the author injects a squirt or two of Gothic horror to make the scenario Colonial Era Gothic Americana and another squirt or two of Arthur Miller to make it the scenario a Dungeon Crawl Classics version of The Crucible. After all, what else is a Character Funnel but a crucible for Zero Level player Characters?

Dungeon Crawl Classics 2021 Holiday Module: Feast of the Gobbler Witch can be played in a single session and includes a ‘DCC Holiday Placemat and Dice Drop 0 Level PC Generator’. This replaces the standard table in the Dungeon Crawl Classics rulebook for generating Zero Level Player Characters.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics 2021 Holiday Module: Feast of the Gobbler Witch is as decently done as you would expect for Dungeon Crawl Classics. It is well written, the artwork is good, and the map easy to use. If it is lacking anything, it is illustrations of the scenario’s NPCs and major monsters that the Judge could show her players.

The major downside to Dungeon Crawl Classics 2021 Holiday Module: Feast of the Gobbler Witch is that it is a one-shot scenario. The Judge and her players are going to be left wondering what happens next to the characters who survived the ordeal on the island, and further, a Colonial Era setting for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game could be a lot of fun. Whether as a one-shot or the start of something that the Judge wants to write herself, Dungeon Crawl Classics 2021 Holiday Module: Feast of the Gobbler Witch is a highly entertaining and thematically silly Character Funnel for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, which at the end of it, nobody going to look at a turkey the same way again.

Miskatonic Monday #32: We Are All Savages

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

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

—oOo—

Name: We Are All Savages: A Colonial Scenario for Call of Cthulhu, 7th Edition

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: William Adcock

Setting: The French and Indian War

Product: Scenario
What You Get: 29.01 MB thirty seven-page, full colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Survival Horror in the Snow. 
Plot Hook: Snow, Scurvy, Starvation, and Worse at the far of the British Empire.
Plot Development: Missing supplies, blood on the snow, the worst winter, and a terrible confrontation.
Plot Support: Floorplans of Fort Niagra, six pre-generated characters, six illustrations, musket stats.

Pros
# One-two session one-shot
# Unique historical location
# Strong use of weather and location
# Strongly plotted
# Potential convention scenario
# Technology presents its own challenges
# Six solid pre-generated characters
# Potential Colonial Gothic one-shot

Cons

# Tightly plotted
# Unfamiliar setting to non-Americans
# Not suitable for the new Keeper
# Works best with six players
# Limited options for the players
# Military scenario

Conclusion
# Strong use of weather and location
# Military scenario in an unfamiliar period and setting
# Potential one-session one-shot convention scenario

Good Georgians Aghast

Just as Call of Cthulhu has its classic time frame of the 1920s, so too does Trail of Cthulhu with the 1930s. Yet just as with Call of Cthulhu, the clue orientated RPG of Lovecraftian investigative horror from Pelgrane Press can easily slip the bonds of its natural home in the Desperate Decade to visit other periods. One author to follow this trend is Adam Gauntlett, who has already given us a a scenarios set during before the Great as well as a pair set during the Great War, such as the recent Flying Coffins and “Not So Quiet,” from the anthology Out of Time. Like those scenarios, Hell Fire is a one-shot affair designed for use with the six provided pre-generated investigators. Further, Hell Fire not only continues the trend away from Trail of Cthulhu’s core period, but exacerbates it by setting it in the 1760s, a period never visited by either Lovecraftian RPG, or indeed, rarely by any RPG, Rogue Games’ Colonial Gothic and the self-published indie RPG, Sons of Liberty, the Roleplaying Game of Freedom and Badassery, are rare exceptions.

Welcome to the mid-eighteenth century, an age of enlightenment and ennui, of privilege and propriety, of associations and assignations, of virtue and vice, and of scientific enquiry and salacious pornography. This is the age of the “belle époque” for the first British Empire, when there is much wealth to made from the colonies in the Americas, but the colonists themselves chafe under governance from London and will openly rebel within a decade or so. The protagonists of the scenario are all men and women of good standing, as well as members of an exclusive Hell Fire Club. They share an interest in fine dining, the finest of pornographic literature, Rational debate, and politics. Membership is of course by invitation only, and should word of their activities comes to the attention of society, then their fall from grace is assured, at best, scorned by society, at worst, locked up in gaol.

In order to fit the period, the author has radically altered the Skills list. Modern skills such as Psychoanalysis and Archaeology have been removed, the Piloting skill only covers boats, and the science skills have been amalgamated into one, The Sciences. Traveller is added as a new skill representing a character having visited countries and colonies outside of Europe and the Grand Tour, whilst Politics is a new interpersonal skill that allows characters to navigate the intrigues, politics, and careers of the period. Lastly and most importantly, the Evidence skill has been added for Hell Fire as well. It is not about collecting proof of certain activities having been carried out, that still being covered by Evidence Collection, but rather the evidence of the characters’ ill doings. Which of course, they will not want to be brought to light…

As in his previous scenarios, Gauntlett gives us the history too. Hell Fire comes with extensive notes on the place and manner of the Club during the period, as a guide to the pornography available and the art of duelling. The latter is accompanied by a simple set of rules to handle such matters of honour.

As the scenario opens in London, the “investigators” are at a meeting with fellow club member, Bubb Pearce. The man has been placed in terrible bind. The notorious, though fashionable Lady Mary Protheroe has in her possession letters belonging to Pearce with which she is blackmailing him into marrying her with a threat of his Breach of Promise. The Lady also has knowledge of doings at their Club, and Pearce entreats his friends to obtain the letters for him so that he can break the woman’s hold over him. Yet it seems that the player characters’ efforts are insufficient, for Pearce quickly vanishes, leaving in his wake, the body of Lady Mary Protheroe… Worse still, this brings the activities of the Hell Fire club to the attention of the authorities, were its secrets to become public knowledge the scandal would be the undoing of them all. As trusted club members, the “investigators” must uncover the cause of Lady Mary Protheroe’s death and the whereabouts of Pearce, all the whilst ensuring that knowledge of club’s doings remain out of the limelight.

Chasing down Pearce leads the characters to investigate his activities, both commercial and covert. This reveals ties across the Atlantic to England’s colonies and across the Channel to England’s greatest enemy, but worse to London’s sordid and malodorous underskirts where something lurks working to find fresh hosts and vectors that it will see it spread its infection far and wide.

Structurally, Hell Fire is presented as a series of lines of investigation that the player characters need to follow if they are to reveal the nature of the threat. For the most part, the scenario is very player driven, with the antagonists rarely moving against the player characters. This gives it a more languid feel, with the danger that the characters could lose their way unless they are pro-active in their investigation. The upshot being that this potentially indolent nature of the investigation when combined with the occasionally prurient nature of the scenario means that Hell Fire is best suited to more experienced players and a more experienced Keeper.

Physically, Hell Fire is neatly presented, although in comparison with other Trail of Cthulhu scenarios, is missing the artwork of Jérôme Huguenin. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with the art of Olli Hihnala, but rather that it feels more traditional in comparison with other Trail of Cthulhu titles. The issue with Hell Fire is one of history. The period will not be familiar to every gamer and an introduction to the period might have been useful to the less knowledgeable so as to get across the nature of the period’s political and social clime. Such information would have also helped should a player want to create a character of his own. Similarly, a map or two would have helped, especially later in the scenario when it crosses the Atlantic to the Colonies. That said, the history presented here is interesting and the scenario does include one of the period’s odder figures.

Overall, Hell Fire does a good job of bringing Lovecraftian investigation to an interesting period of history, whilst the period itself brings a sense of Hogarthian horror to Lovecraftian investigation.