Web Watch

Webworld is a disc-shaped planet spinning through the cosmos tethered to the web of the great spider, An’Ansee. It is a world of fantasy and magic, of dragons and dungeons and trolls and tunnels and orcs and oubliettes, where all manner of creatures and peoples can be found, but there is no better place to the start than the heart of the realm, the city that welcomes all visitors from next door and the next universe, which dangles at the centre of the web spun by An’Ansee, who hangs below. This is Heq Moreveg, whose inhabitants can look up to the fantastic disc from which their home hangs and out into the night sky of the universe from they came. Just as the disc dwellers have the pleasure of looking down on the Heq Morevegians! It is a raucous city of dwellers from hither and thither, who rub along at the best of times, brawl with each at other times, and riot at the worst of times. Under the shadow of the disc above, it is the dubious duty of the Dusk Watch to keep the peace, whether through hard graft, honest graft, or dishonest graft—and if that fails, through serendipity and stupidity. And sometimes, if a dusk’s patrol goes very, very badly, the members of the Watch have to descend into the Underweb… Unfortunately, on their very watch, some new members of the Dusk Watch are not only going to find themselves voluntarily being led into the Underweb, but they are also going to find themselves very involuntarily being thrown into it! And with the future of Heq Moreveg at stake, they are going to have to find their way back out again. This is the set-up for Orcs & Oubliettes, a scenario and mini-supplement for ACE!—or the Awfully Cheerful Engine!—the roleplaying game of fast, cinematic, action comedy. Published by EN Publishing, best known for the W.O.I.N. or What’s Old is New roleplaying System, as used in Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD and Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, where previous entries in the series have tended to be one-shot, film night specials, here the given scenario (or scenarios) is more expansive.

Orcs & Oubliettes is actually very slightly more than a scenario and mini-supplement for ACE! In fact, it is actually a roleplaying game all of its very own within the various worlds of ACE! There are numerous points within the adventures set in these worlds when the Player Characters can relax, take time out of their own adventures, to play out fantasy adventures with characters of their own. (Even to point as in thirties-set Montana Drones and the Raiders of the Cutty Sark where roleplaying games would have been an anachronism.) The genre for Orcs & Oubliettes is, of course, fantasy, and in particular, as its ‘noun-ampersand-noun’ name suggests, the roleplaying game fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons. Yet, Orcs & Oubliettes is not fully a parody of Dungeons & Dragons, for it is also by inspired by another fantasy, that of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series of novels. It is not set on a disc-shaped world per se, but rather Heq Moreveg is suspended in the webs spun by An’Ansee below it.

Heq Moreveg is described in broad detail, noting that although ruled by a king, but that the role is not hereditary, chosen from the members of the ‘Brazen Yeopersons of the Elective Council of Keepers’—or ‘BY’ECK’, whose are themselves elected representatives from amongst the city’s many and varied trade bodies. The city is built on stone slabs suspended in the web and subject to the strange cycle of light and dark from a sun that loops around the disc above casting regular periods of day and night. The three main districts of the city swirl out from the city centre—the Monarch’s Spiral, which contains the government buildings, guild headquarters, and houses of the rich; the Residents’ Spiral where most Heq Morevegians live; and the Traders’ Spiral, where most of the city’s trade and business is conducted.

In terms of characters, Orcs & Oubliettes provides four pre-generated members of the Dusk Watch. One is an experienced Watch Captain, a silver-plated mechanoid with a heart, but the other three are totally inexperienced. They include a larcenous faerie Sprite, a teenage wizard, and an inattentive Troll, but details of the Sprite and the Troll are included for the players to create their own using the ACE! rules. There is also a list of equipment and gear to buy and find, all the way up to magical items like a Climbing Potion and a Riveted Rod that always stays in place, Bag of Storing and Lidded Eye lantern whose light reveals anything invisible, Bracers of Giant Strength and even a Lamp of Wishes!

More than half of Orcs & Oubliettes consists of the eponymous scenario. On their very first shift, the Dusk Watch’s newest patrol is caught up in a diplomatic incident. An emissary from a warlike and carnivorous plant species has been kidnapped and dragged into the Underweb, so they have to rescue the diplomat before war breaks out! Despite their efforts, the newest members of the Dusk Watch find themselves ex-members after the rescue attempt goes awry, the emissary turns on them in a murderous rage, and they are not only blamed for his death, but put on trial and found guilty too! Their sentence is to be thrown into the Orphic Oubliette, an interdimensional pocket where the city’s most notorious criminals and darkest secrets are dumped and forgotten. The Orphic Oubliette actually turns out not be quite as dangerous as its reputation suggests, and the Player Characters will find some help coming from unexpected quarters—at least in traditional fantasy roleplaying terms—a tribe of helpful Orcs, and be able to get back out with relative ease. They will also have found the means to clear their names, but that still leaves the question as to what is actually going on and who is responsible.

‘Orcs & Oubliettes’ clips along at a handy pace, a classic fantasy tale, slightly tongue in cheek in tone, of despicable plans and unbridled ambition. Along the way, the Player Characters will bargain with a demon, gain a mighty forgotten weapon, and uncover a grand conspiracy hidden within a grand conspiracy, all before facing a dragon, stopping the city from going up in flames, and so saving the day! The scenario itself should take a secession or two, to play through, three at most.

Physically, Orcs & Oubliettes is well presented with decent, if dark artwork.

Although Orcs & Oubliettes does indeed involve orcs and oubliettes, and does descend into dungeons—or oubliettes—not once, but twice, this supplement for ACE! is not the parody of Dungeons & Dragons that the title suggests it to be. Instead, this is more about the weird mélange of a city hung in strange circumstances above the oubliettes and the schemes and shenanigans going on there. The obvious inspiration and its familiarity may result in some players finding it too familiar and some finding that it is not familiar enough, so Orcs & Oubliettes is not going to sit—or like Heq Moreveg, hang—in everyone’s sweet spot. Nevertheless, Orcs & Oubliettes is an entertaining scenario that will provide a couple of fun sessions’ worth of play.

Star Trekkin’

These are the voyages of the starship FSS Brazen. Under the command of Captain Wayjane, the ship has been directed by the Federated League of Planets, to undertake a mission of exploration beyond the frontier to discover strange new worlds, weird never before encountered species, and promote the benefits of life in Federated League of Planets (a.k.a. FloP). With the engines primed and ready, the crew buzzing with exciting, the FSS Brazen is ready to set out from Near Space 9 and begin her five-year mission. However, this mission will not be without its difficulties. The crew will have to learn to get along as it discovers mysteries and uncover strange stellar phenomena and faces numerous enemies. These may be mighty starships from the martial Kulkan Empire or the devious infiltrators from the Boredian Dominion, but they could be old enemies too, such as Duchess Ali Cann, a super soldier who served FLoP until a truce was signed with the Kulkan Empire. Now she feels abandoned and has sworn her revenge, so guess which FLoP vessel she has in her sights? Then there is ‘R’, a super being incensed that the members of FLoP even exist and could even go so far as to put them on trial to prove that they have the right to continue living in the same universe! This is the continuing mission of the FSS Brazen: to recklessly go where plenty of people have probably been before… and hope that nobody gets too upset to start major interstellar war! This is the set-up for Beam Me Up, a scenario and mini-supplement for ACE!—or the Awfully Cheerful Engine!—the roleplaying game of fast, cinematic, action comedy. Published by EN Publishing, best known for the W.O.I.N. or What’s Old is New roleplaying System, as used in Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD and Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, where previous entries in the series have tended to be one-shot, film night specials, here the given scenario (or scenarios) is more expansive.

Beam Me Up is very obviously and unsubtly inspired by the Science Fiction franchise, Star Trek. Which has the advantage of making everything in Beam Me Up more than a little familiar to most people. As with other supplements for ACE!, it very much wears its inspirations on its sleeve—or in this case is that on its spandex one-size too small, but still fits all, jumpsuits? Whilst a player may find it just a little too familiar, he will also find the genre and setting very easy to grasp. Similarly, as with other supplements for ACE!, a set of pre-generated characters is available to download to use with Beam Me Up, but the players can create their own. Several new roles are suggested. These include Captain, Chief Engineer, Comms Engineer, Hologram, Gunner, Ship Counsellor, and Pilot. The simplicity of the ACE! system means that whilst Beam Me Up defaults a mish-mash of elements drawn from across multiple different iterations of the Star Trek franchise, the Game Master and her players could easily adjust their game to fit whichever era of the setting that they want to game in.

Given that this is a Science Fiction roleplaying game involving starships and high technology, there are some details on its role in the game. The setting is post-scarcity, starship crews can replicate almost everything bar weapons of mass destruction, and are usually armed with blazers, which they should mostly use with the stun setting. Also, translocators enable crews to beam up and down from planets and even move instantly within a ship. Beam Me Up also defines its starships and provides rules for starship combat. A starship has four stats—Science, Shields, Size, and Warp—typically rated between one and ten—plus ratings for Health, Defence, and weapons and damage. Where a ship’s stats are higher than those of a Player Character for a particular action, then they can be used for a skill check instead. For example, the Chief of Security might want to use the ship’s scanners, but his Smarts is lower the ship’s Science, so his player can roll using that it instead. It is a nicely little levelling effect and it highlights the fact that the Player Characters are aboard an advance starship. Combat is handled in a narrative fashion and each Player Character have a particular role when it comes to combat. Thus, the Chief Pilot will fly the ship, the Gunner will fire weapons, the Chief Science Officer will operate the scanners, and so on. Here Beam Me Up is underwritten, really relying on the skill of the Game Master to adjudicate the different roles and how they affect combat. Some pointers as to what the roles might do would have been helpful. Should an attack hit a starship, it will reduce the shields and then health, and once the latter has gone, the ship will suffer critical hits.

The scenario in Beam Me Up is in line with its inspiration, episodic in nature. Effectively, its three acts are separate and the first two can be run in any order (though they are written and presented in a simple and playable order). In the listed first act, ‘Shotgun Ali’, the FSS Brazen sets out on its maiden voyage and is sent to check up on a missing vessel, the FSS Independent. When the crew find her, they are suddenly attacked by the ship and then boarded! After driving off the super tough boarding party, the Player Characters need to return the favour and beam aboard the FSS Independent to find out what is going on. The second act is ‘Incident at Boredia I’ when on a trip visit the world, the crew’s weekly report time is interrupted by the appearance of ‘R’, an alien super being who puts the crew and the FLoP as a whole on trial. To do this, he drags a ship from the Kulkan Empire to Boredia I and the Kulkan Empire vessel has the manpower to invade and conquer the planet below. Effectively this is a test to see how the Player Characters and the crew of the FSS Brazen will react to the Kulkan interference. Lastly, in act three, ‘Gunfight at the Brazen Corral’ in which the Player Characters get trapped in the holosuite and themselves cast as members of the Clanton-McLaury gang an hour before they face Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan Earp, and Doc Holliday on October 26, 1881. Events occur again and again until the Player Characters can spot and break the pattern and find out who or what is responsible.

None of the three acts are connected except for the FSS Brazen and the obvious inspiration. For example, ‘Shotgun Ali’ is drawn from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; ‘Incident at Boredia I’ is inspired by ‘Encounter at Farpoint’, the pilot for Star Trek: The Next Generation; and ‘Gunfight at the Brazen Corral’ is based on ‘Spectre of the Gun’ from the original Star Trek. These are not the only Science Fiction references in Beam Me Up, but they are, of course, the big ones. Both the Game Master and her players will have fun spotting the rest, likely groaning at them, as they appear.

Physically, Beam Me Up is a bright and breezy affair. The artwork is decent and the supplement is well written.

Beam Me Up veers widely between being cringeworthy in the broad parodying of its inspiration to actually being amusing. Part of the issue is not just the familiarity of the source material, but also with the parodying of it, so both feel over done and not really all that funny. What saves Beam Me Up are the three different episodes which dig deeper into the source material and play around with it to elevate the humour a little. In some ways, Beam Me Up is the most accessible and the least accessible of the supplements for ACE!, being too familiar, too on the nose, its humour underwhelming as a consequence.

Weirder Wonders

Wilden Falls is a nice town. It is surrounded by rich forest and sits on a lake with a waterfall that brings tourists all summer long. Out on Route 767 stands the Osterman Labs Research Facility, but it has been closed since the sixties and nobody goes there. The kids of the middle school and the high school get to enjoy the countryside and time to ride their bikes or drive their cars, free of parental supervision for much of the time. Located in the Pacific North West, the town also has a Mines & Mining Museum dedicated to the region’s played out silver mines, KWF Radio on which DJ Cherry Kilbourne plays the latest hits, Camp Whispering Pines where all sorts of fun activities take place over the summer—except five years ago when that terrible thing happened that nobody talks about, and when the kids get bored, there is the Pastimes Amusement Arcade where all the latest video games can be played for a quarter at a time and Sal’s Video where the newest releases on VHS can be hired for the night. Though you may have to wait until next year for the release of Spirits of Manhattan and Montana Drones and the Raiders of the Cutty Sark. This is the eighties, the best time for any kid to have an adventure and also the setting for Strange Science. This is a scenario and mini-supplement for ACE!—or the Awfully Cheerful Engine!—the roleplaying game of fast, cinematic, action comedy. Published by EN Publishing, best known for the W.O.I.N. or What’s Old is New roleplaying System, as used in Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD and Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, the scenario is primarily intended as a one-shot, film night special.

Strange Science is inspired by all of the kids in peril adventures of the nineteen eighties. The Goonies, Weird Science, and Back to the Future, with just a suspicion of Twin Peaks, Stranger Things, Eerie, Indiana, and A Town Called Eureka. Like all of the supplements for ACE!, it very much wears its inspirations on its sleeve, but as much a player may find it just a little too familiar, he will also find the genre and setting very easy to grasp. Wilden Falls itself is quite nicely detailed, including all of the notables places in town and in its surrounds that all together capture the feel of small town America. The set-up is also flexible in that the Player Characters can be either Middle School kids or High School kids and Strange Science and its adventure, also called ‘Strange Science’ can run without any changes. All that changes is the age of the children and just how aware of the world they are. What does not change are the roles that the Player can be. There are six, consisting of Brain, Cheerleader, Outsider, Protector, Radio Presenter, and Tycoon. These are classic archetypes of the ‘kids in peril’ genre.

As with other releases for ACE!, the eponymously named adventure in Strange Science, is a three-act affair. It specifically begins in April, 1984, when odd things begin happening at the school. There is the arrival of an odd new pupil, ‘Steve Twentyseven’, the replacement of the regular science teacher, Mr. Goodall, with a substitute teacher, and a van turning up outside the school handing out free protein shakes. Fortunately, the protein shakes taste of sprouts and cayenne pepper, so are positively disgusting and no kid in their right mind would drink one of them. Plus they look like snot. If Steve Twentyseven acts oddly, then his parents—dad ‘Steve Radioshow’ and mom ‘Steve BakingSoda’—are even weirder... Investigating the ‘Steve’ family will lead to the mall, revelations as to what is going on, a lot of exposition, and some time travel. This is back to 1884 and the town of Wildenville where with the help of the missing Mr. Goodall, the kids can prevent what is going on in the future and hopefully get back to that future. Sadly, this does not involve a steam train or shouts of “Great scot!”

‘Strange Science’ is a surprisingly lengthy and detailed adventure that will take two or three sessions to complete. For the most part, the scenario is very obviously inspired by its source material and the Game Master and her players should embrace wholeheartedly the eighties it depicts. However, given the lack of a DeLorean, the Player Characters need another way to travel back into the past, which is to have their minds cast back rather than their bodies. When this happens, their minds occupy the bodies of the men and women of Wildenville, which should lead to some roleplaying opportunities as the children of 1984 suddenly find themselves occupying the bodies of adults of 1884!

Written as a one-shot, Strange Science does include some notes on how to expand it. These are brief, but include adding in supernatural elements and possible sequel and crossover with Spirits of Manhattan. These are only suggestions though and the Game Master would need to develop and write it on her own.

Physically, Strange Science is a bright and breezy affair. The artwork is decent and the supplement is well written.

Strange Science is not a ground-breaking or even a great adventure, but then it is not trying to be. It is a little supplement and scenario that delivers exactly what it promises—eighties nostalgia, plus plenty of weirdness and a mystery that only the kids of small town America can see and solve. This is a great little combination that will be fun to play and fun to go back to if it gets the sequels it deserves.

Action & Archaeology

It is 1936 and as the world marches towards a greater conflict, there is a secret war being fought from one archaeological dig site to the next. Agents from the major nations are scouring the past to gain advantage and power in the present, unearthing and discovering ancient artefacts and objects of awe before the other side can. In this mix steps an archaeologist dedicated to keeping the past out of Nazi hands and in a museum, even if does involve working with Washington, D.C. and Army Intelligence. It is not though, Doctor Henry Jones, Jnr. Otherwise known as ‘Indiana Jones’ and this is not pitch for the third Indiana Jones roleplaying game. It is instead the set-up for Montana Drones and the Raiders of the Cutty Sark. Putting aside the fact that ‘Montana Drones’ is undoubtedly the worst name imaginable, beyond groanworthy, for any Indiana Jones-style, whip-cracking, fists flying archaeologist, Montana Drones and the Raiders of the Cutty Sark is an adventure and mini-supplement for ACE!—or the Awfully Cheerful Engine!—the roleplaying game of fast, cinematic, action comedy. Published by EN Publishing, best known for the W.O.I.N. or What’s Old is New roleplaying System, as used in Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD and Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, the scenario is primarily intended as a one-shot, film night special.

Montana Drones and the Raiders of the Cutty Sark is an adventure for four adventurers—cocky archaeologist, Montana Drones, optimistic socialite, Lou Boble, clumsy professor Johan Henry, Jr., and cynical botanist, Johnnie Cobbler—available to download from here. Alternatively, the players can create their own, inspired by the source material, and Montana Drones and the Raiders of the Cutty Sark does include details of several new Occupations, including Botanist, Double-Agent, Socialite, and Witch. Of course, changing the characters likely means changing name of the adventure too as Montana Drones will no longer be the star. There are relatively few additions to the Awfully Cheerful Engine! and relatively little setting background given in Montana Drones and the Raiders of the Cutty Sark because, after all, everyone is going to be familiar with the genre and the setting from the films which inspire this supplement.

‘Raiders of the Cutty Sark’ is not named for the famous tea clipper from the nineteenth century, but for the Cutty-Sark, the famous shift worn by the witch character in Tam o’ Shanter, the poem by Robert Burns. The Nazis are after it because they think it possess some kind of sorcerous power and stealing it from under the nose of the British government would be a major coup. The adventure will take the Player Characters from Jordan and the Middle East, around the world back to Halcyon Hall at Bennett College in upstate New York where Montana Drones teaches, and then out again to Scotland and a showdown with Nazis! The scenario is not very long, divided into three parts, and has room for the Game Master to insert her own content and so expand it beyond a single night’s worth of play. For example, for the third part, the Player Characters travel from London to Scotland and the scenario suggests that the Game Master run a ‘Murder on the Scottish Express’ mystery rather than describe the journey in narrative terms.

The scenario begins in Jordan with ‘Buried Secrets’ and essentially where Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade left off—Petra. The Player Characters are on the track of an ancient Greek artefact said to be in the Soldier Tomb, but in the course of finding and taking it, have to avoid a series of traps before they can escape the tomb. This leads to the Player Characters’ first big decision—how to deal with the scenario’s villain who turns up just at the wrong moment. Do they hand over the artefact or do they make a run for it. The scene is straight out of the start pf Raiders of the Lost Ark, as is the villain, right down to the white linen suit and Panama hat! This is mercenary archaeologist, Eric Freeman, neatly named after Paul Freeman who played archaeologist René Belloq in the film. If ‘Buried Secrets’ is all action and traps, ‘Horror at Halcyon’ brings the Player Characters back home and to weirdness at Bennett College with a strange mystery, but not before they have a chance to play a game of Oubliettes & Occultists for those who want to play a roleplaying game within a roleplaying game! Something is causing vines to grow all over the walls of the college, trapping teachers and professors alike, so the Player Characters will have to hack their way through the foliage to find and confront the source. There are lots of Lovecraftian references in this adventure, but the pulpy tone means that the Player Characters are unlikely to be driven mad.

The third and final part of ‘Raiders of the Cutty Sark’ takes the Player Characters to Scotland. ‘A Breath of Fresh Ayr’ begins though in London where the Player Characters need to find out what the Nazis and their archaeological agent, Eric Freeman, are up to. This requires a mixture of charm and stealth because that information is held only at the German embassy, which fortunately, is holding a reception. What they will discover is that Freeman, and thus his Nazi masters have discovered the location of the Cutty-Sark. Unfortunately, the protectors of the Cutty-Sark know everyone is coming, so not only will the Player Characters have to deal with Freeman and the Nazis, but also with whatever those protectors have in readiness to prevent anyone taking the Cutty-Sark away.

Physically, Montana Drones and the Raiders of the Cutty Sark is a bright and breezy affair. The artwork is decent and the supplement is well written.

Each of the acts in ‘Raiders of the Cutty Sark’ is short and solid, but together they do not form a cohesive whole. This is because each act is about an entirely different situation and an entirely different archaeological treasure, and there is nothing to connect the three except the Player Characters. Act one, ‘Buried Secrets’ does set everything up very nicely in Indiana Jones style, but the second act is a diversion and where the third should be the main plot of the scenario, it is not. It does not help that equal focus is paid to each of the acts and ultimately, ‘Raiders of the Cutty Sark’ is episodic rather than a whole. It might be the case that the Game Master adjust it to give more of a lead in time for the Cutty-Sark and its importance to the Nazis to grow in terms of story significance, but that is moving away from the intended one-night, cinematic style of Montana Drones and the Raiders of the Cutty Sark.

Big Apple Apparitions

To cut to the chase, Spirits of Manhattan is a scenario which lets you play in an alternate universe not dissimilar to that of the 1984 film, Ghostbusters, or indeed, the 1986 roleplaying game based on it and published by West End Games. In the scenario, the Player Characters are members of Ghostbreakers, who in a previous incarnation, in 1984, prevented the opening of dimensional gate to hell as an outbreak of ghosts, spirits, and other nasties haunted the streets of Manhattan. Once they get the call and are alerted to a supernatural occurrence, they will race from their headquarters in their Ghostmobile—actually a disused Range Rover Popemobile used for Pope John Paul II’s visit to the United Kingdom in 1982, so not only right-hand drive, but also blessed and holy—and confront the ghostly happening. They will be able to detect the ghosts and other apparitions with their ElectroMagnetic Field Detectors, see them with their Spirit-Spectacles Goggles, perhaps consult their copy of Tobias’ Guide to Ghosts, Spooks, and Specters, then blast them into immobility with their ‘Spirit Stopper’’ Anti-Plasm Particle Thrower, and capture them using an Anti-Plasm Binder, all before returning to their headquarters to safely store the captured ghost! Sound a whole lot like Ghostbusters? Well, it does and it actually isn’t the Ghostbusters roleplaying game either because that has long been out of print. Instead, Spirits of Manhattan will do the job just fine until you have either saved up enough money to buy a copy of the original roleplaying game—keep saving if you want the dice too, or someone with deeper pockets than you gets the rights and brings it back into print.

Spirits of Manhattan is a scenario for ACE!—or the Awfully Cheerful Engine!—the roleplaying game of fast, cinematic, action comedy. Published by EN Publishing, best known for the W.O.I.N. or What’s Old is New roleplaying System, as used in Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD and Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, the scenario is, of course, set in New York. With a few adjustments it could be set in the city of the Game Master’s choice. the background to the scenario is quite light, explaining a very little of the history of the Ghostbreakers, their equipment and how ideally it works, and the nature of ghosts and ghoulies. A ghost is measured by its EMF Class, from Class I and a nuisance all the way up to the dangerous Class VIII and the demons, demigods, and worse of Class X and beyond. The Class factor is a measure of its Power stat and the scenario includes a glossary of ghostly terms as well as sample entities, from the Class III Demonkin and Ghostly Creeps up the Class X Gozarr the Devourer. There is even a ghost called Slime Bucket, which, of course, likes to slime people. In addition, the basic equipment of the Ghostbreakers—the ElectroMagnetic Field Detectors, Spirit-Spectacles Goggles, ‘Spirit Stopper’ Anti-Plasm Particle Thrower, and Anti-Plasm Binder—are described in some detail as well as how they work. Users are warned that this equipment is often held together with duct tape and can be dangerous to use to both people and property. In terms of Player Character options, Spirits of Manhattan gives a list that includes Ghost, Demonologist, Exorcist, Inventor, Scientist, Student, and more, all with occupational abilities. For example, the Ghost cannot suffer any damage (apart from any weird gadgets), but cannot pick things up, the Demonologist knows how to hurt demons, and the Exorcist can hurt or hold off a ghost. Of course, the skills of parapsychology, cryptozoology, and parazoology will be useful too.

The bulk of Spirits of Manhattan is devoted to the scenario itself. The plot, which begins with the Player Characters as would be Ghostbreakers with access to the equipment, but none of the other set-up—so no disused former fire station as a base—and working at New York Columbia University Medical Center, has them receive their first call and go to a ghost emergency. This is at St. Peter’s Chapel, also on the university campus and involves an encounter with a minor ghost. It gives both the players and their characters a nice test run and successfully dealing with it also brings the Ghostbreakers to the attention of the university’s Dean, Richard Anderson (!). At first, the Dean is none too pleased with them, but after a second ghostly outbreak, the Ghostbreakers gain his support and he has the university sponsor their efforts. This is the chance for them to set up a base and begin working properly and for the scenario to really swing into action. This is with a series of tasks, including dealing with a ghostly creep at the fancy Glitzman Hotel, rescue crew trapped in a fire station by ghost gone health and safety mad, and capture a punk shrieker at a punk and new wave hotspot. These are nicely done encounters and really capture the feel of the scenario’s inspiration. Plus, there is plenty of room for the Game Master to add her own if she wants to expand the scenario into a longer scenario or even a mini-campaign.

Eventually, the main plot to Spirits of Manhattan kicks in and will drive the action to the scenario’s climax. This climax starts small, but ends big, with plenty of nods here to the source inspiration, but without copying it directly or exactly. So, no gigantic Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, but something similar. There can be no doubt that Spirits of Manhattan goes up to that line, but it does not cross it. One addition is that of ‘P.U.RE.’, the Protection of Undead Returned Entities, a rights organisation dedicated to the proper and humane treatment of the ghosts that the Ghostbreakers are capturing. ‘P.U.RE.’ can become a thorn in the Ghostbreakers’ side, especially in the long term if the Game Master develops the suggested sequels.

Rounding out Spirits of Manhattan is a quartet of four hooks for further adventures beyond its pages. These are thumbnail outlines only, but they ape the various sequels to scenario’s source material and although all four require a fair degree of input and development by the Game Master, they are still fun and engaging, and would make the basis of great sequels.

Physically, Spirits of Manhattan is a bright and breezy affair. The artwork is excellent, often done in a cartoon style, making the Spirits of Manhattan the equivalent of The Real Ghostbreakers. The maps are decent, but a bit too small to use with any ease. The worst aspect of Spirits of Manhattan is the flavour text, which is written in-character and means characters not mentioned elsewhere in the scenario. The Game Master will need to paraphrase a lot of it to really work.

There is no Ghostbusters roleplaying game anymore. Spirits of Manhattan is not the Ghostbusters roleplaying game, but rather a very knowing tribute to Ghostbusters. It captures the flavour and feel of its source material and this gives it a familiarity that is engaging and really easy to grasp, so that everyone knows what to expect and will be happy to play along. Above all, Spirits of Manhattan is a lot of fun and the Ghostbreakers will enjoy playing with its inspiration.

[Fanzine Focus XXXIII] Mutant High School

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another Dungeon Master and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Another popular choice of system for fanzines, is Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, such as Crawl! and Crawling Under a Broken Moon. One aspect of Crawling Under a Broken Moon is that it is designed to be played using the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game and not the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, despite it presenting a post-apocalyptic setting. Not so Mutant High School.

Mutant High School is a fanzine inspired by The Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke ’Em High, Weird Science, et al—and although it does not list it, at least tonally, the roleplaying game, Teenagers from Outerspace, published by R. Talsorian Games, Inc. Published by Goodman Games, Mutant High School is set in No-Go City, some time in the near future. Formerly the city of Fresno, California, the radioactive waste capital of North America, an earthquake burst the underground storage tank for the waste, causing a geyser to erupt and shower the inhabitants in mutagenic goo that not only mutated every single one of them, but also made them sufficiently toxic themselves that any encounter with them who is not already mutated, has a chance of mutating them. So, the authorities swept in, locked down the city, built a wall around it, and with the enactment of the ‘Maximum Extreme Disproportionate Response to Emergent Mutations Act’—also known as the ‘MEDeR’M’ act—strictly controlled access to the city, with guards in hazmat suits on the walls and the ever-present buzzing of surveillance drones. Both internet access and mobile connection have been severely curtailed. Since Ooze Day, the former Fresno has been dubbed No-Go City or the Mutant Quarter.

As a consequence, the inhabitants of No-Go City have to get by on limited resources and information access. Which includes its students at Bullroar High School. For example, with no other high school to compete against, Coach Phelan, a Plantient strain of the coffee plant, has set up rival teams. Elsewhere, the inhabitants of No-Go City have been forced to recycle over and over, including turning vehicles into rough and ready jalopies (or rickety rides), cloths and so on, whilst there is a thriving black market—if the smugglers can get it past the guards and the roly-polys (or robo-police, who only have an occasional chance of identifying No-Go City inhabitants as actually being human!)—for almost everything else. Alternatively, the inhabitants have access to their own homegrown drugs, including ‘27/7 Dust’, a potent stimulant, and ‘Telepathashish’, a telepathic weed that is sentient and encourages everyone nearby to say, “Just say yes”.

In terms of characters, a player takes the role of either a Mutant, Manimal, or Plantient, but not Pure Strain Human, who is a high school student. Otherwise, Player Characters are normal, First Level rather than Zero Level, and instead of rolling for Background, a player rolls for Archetype, such as Band Geek, Goth, or Punk. This provides some equipment and a special ability. For example, the Motorhead starts play with a rickety ride, a piecemeal toolkit, and +1d on all attempts to repair automobile and small engines. Besides their mutations, each Player Character is also ‘Best in Town’ at something, making them stand out, whether that is a specific form of attack, using a mutation, a skill check, and so on, and possesses a ‘Cool Mutation’, a mutation that makes them physically stand out even more, but which does not provide any other detail.

Since the inhabitants of No-Go City have the misfortune to live there, they are prone to bad luck. Instead of Fleeting Luck as per Mutant Crawl Classics, the inhabitants and thus the Player Characters have ‘Oozing Luck’. Gained for rolls of natural twenty and good play and lost for rolls of natural one, Luck in No-Go City tends to either stick around or ooze away. It can actually go below zero and impose a penalty to the Player Character’s Luck attribute. The use of Oozing Luck is tied into the ‘Mute-Guffin’, which is badly named because it is not a silent ‘guffin’, but rather an NPC with an agenda that is connected to the one of the Judge’s storylines. A Player Character can earn a point of Oozing Luck for successfully identifying the ‘Mute-Guffin’ and for successfully supporting the ‘Mute-Guffin’, but lose a point if the ‘Mute-Guffin’ is identified incorrectly. There is an option suggested for the opposite of a ‘Mute-Guffin’, the ‘Anti-Mute-Guffin’.

Running to just sixteen pages, there is still a lot of background in Mutant High School, covering studying and exams, find equipment, the wall surrounding the city, and various factions in and outside the city. Inside the city, ‘The Church of the Burbling Redeemer’, a law-abiding new cult lead by the mutant fusion of five interfaith council members who preach the beneficence of mutating slime and want to spread its effects beyond the wall; the sheriff and his Robo-Polys in near constant conflict with the criminal motorcycle gang, the Ultras; and the ‘Toxic Truthers’, outsiders who refuse to believe in Ooze Day and its effects, and resent not being able to walk about the twenty-five square miles blocked off by the wall as every true patriot should be allowed to do. Some even believe that the toxicity of No-Go City will cure all manner of ailments, which is why big pharma is denying them access!

Rounding out Mutant City High is a set of descriptions of various events that happen in No-Go City and an adventure hook, ‘Prom Night’. There is just about enough here to help a Judge get a mini-campaign started.

Physically, Mutant City High is decently produced, as you would expect for a release from Goodman games. It is lightly illustrated, but everything else is well explained, although the background does come after the rules for character creation, so that does read oddly, at least initially. A map of No-Go City would have been useful.

Mutant High School offers an alternative to the post-apocalyptic future of Terra A.D. of Mutant Crawl Classics. On one level it reads an alternative roleplaying setting of the nineteen eighties, but there is contemporary strand to it that effectively makes Mutant High School a Lockdown-era roleplaying setting, although one seen through a weird and wacky lens. Mutant High School packs a lot into its scant few pages, its combination of the weird and the familiar making it easy to develop further content for by the Judge, but really Mutant High School deserves more than just the one issue of the fanzine and even its own supplement.

ACE! fun

ACE!—or the Awfully Cheerful Engine!—is a roleplaying game of fast, cinematic, action comedy. Published by EN Publishing, best known for the W.O.I.N. or What’s Old is New roleplaying System, as used in Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD and Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, this is designed to handle anything from ghost hunting in New York to mercenaries operating underground in Los Angeles and everything in between, whether heroic galactic guardians, vampire slayers, or even cartoon animals fighting crime. Beyond being fast, cinematic, action comedy, it is meant to be multi-dimensional time-hopping, genre-mashing in terms of what it can cover, so long as the combination can still be enjoyed with bucket of popcorn and extra-extra-extra-large bucket of whichever coke variant you prefer. The core rules for ACE! are short, just forty pages in length, but a tenth of those are devoted to a long, rambling, and silly introduction by designer Sandy Petersen which will lead you into thinking that he is dead and speaking from beyond the grave. (Fortunately, he is not, but if you want to run a scenario in which he is and the heroes have to rescue him from hell, then ACE! might be a good start.)

A Hero in ACE! has a Role; four Stats—Smarts, Moves, Style, and Brawn—rated between one and five, stats for Defence and Health, and Trait. A Role can be a Talking Animal, another species like an Alien or Goblin or Vampire, a figure out of fantasy such as a Ninja or a Knight, an occupation such an Actor or an Inventor, or a Superhero. A Role provides a special ability, for example, a Kangaroo packs a mighty punch, so inflicts an extra point of damage, whilst a Trait, is a descriptive adjective which primarily serves as a complication, but under the right circumstances, might even be helpful. For example, cynical, Punk Rock, or Vain. To create a Hero, a player divides twelve points between the four stats, adds a Focus—an area of specialisation or expertise—for each Stat, which gives a bonus when using the Focus, and then selects a Role and a Trait. The process is quick and easy.

Name: Dino
Trait/Role: Clumsy Dinosaur Detective
Health: 8 Defence: 9
Karma: 6

Smarts 2 (Perception 4)
Moves 3 (Juggling 5)
Style 2 (Persuasion 4)
Brawn 6 (Brawling 6)

Mechanically, ACE! uses handfuls of six-sided dice. One die is a different colour, the Calamity Die. To have his Hero undertake an action, a player rolls a number of dice equal to the appropriate Stat or Focus. An Easy Target Number is equal to ten or more, Hard twenty or more, Herculean or more, and so on. These rolls are open-ended as rolls of six explode. If a one is rolled on the Calamity Die and the roll is failure, something goes disastrously wrong for the Hero. The nature of the disaster is determined and narrated by the players of the other Heroes, always for comedic effect. Fortunately, every Hero also has a number of Karma points. These can be spent to add an extra die to a roll, reduce the damage suffered by an attack, negate the effect of the Calamity Die, or to instigate a Flashback to reveal a previous event or action which helps the current one.

Combat in ACE! uses the same rules. Initiative is determined by the Moves Stat and mêlée by Brawn, ranged attacks by Moves, unless the Hero has the Brawling Focus or Shooting Focus, respectively. In either case of the latter, the result of the roll has to be equal to or higher than the defendant’s Defence value. Damage ranges in value from one for a punch, two for a club, and three for a pistol to four for a machine gun, and five for a bazooka. Heroes in ACE! do not die, but they can be knocked out.

ACE! also adds rules for magic with the addition of the Power stat. In fact, the Power stat can be magic, psionics, the power of prayer, and so on. It just depends on the type of game being run, but the Power stat can be used to do anything in the game—it just costs a point of Karma per use. There is no list of spells or psionic abilities, but a player can easily come up with ones of his own.

For the Director—as the Game Master is known in ACE!—is given a selection of ready-to-use Extra, from Mooks to specific Extra, like a Dark Lord and a Tyrannosaur. What ACE! does not have is an adventure. Instead, it points to adventures already available, such as ACE #2: Spirits of Manhattan and ACE #3: Montana Drones and the Raiders of the Cutty Sark and presents a list of inspirations. These range from Ghostbusters, Dangermouse, and Guardians of the Galaxy to Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, Star Trek, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Of course, ACE! is itself inspired by the Ghostbusters roleplaying published by West End Games in 1986 and the publisher’s own W.O.I.N. or What’s Old is New roleplaying system.

Physically, ACE! is cleanly presented with lots of colour artwork. If there is anything to grumble about ACE!, it is perhaps the lack of an opposite to the Calamity Die. So, either a Hero can succeed, fail, or fail catastrophically, but cannot succeed with elan or great success. The most obvious would be to have a roll of six on the Calamity Die count as this if the roll succeeds or if a certain threshold above the Target Number is rolled. This though will be down to the Director rather than the rules.

ACE! is lightly written and designed. It is easy to pick up and play, and it wears its inspirations on its sleeves or rather, in its Roles. Whether Ghost, Druid, Archaeologist, Con Artist, or Stuntman, ACE! draws on a lot of genre sources for the types of Heroes that the players can roleplay, each one pointing to one or more films, comics, or television series. The lack of dramatic success in the mechanics means that it cannot necessarily be as cinematic as perhaps it wants to be, but the Flashback option for Karma use adds a fun storytelling option and the rules for magic or Power are pleasingly open and flexible, but without being overpowerful. ACE!—or the Awfully Cheerful Engine!—is just that, an awfully cheerful, light system that is easy to pick up and play whether inspired by a particular film or setting or mashing their genres together.

Triskaidekaphobia

Lucky for None: A comedy-horror game could almost be said to not be a roleplaying game. This is because its mechanics amount to about three rules. Those rules consist of character generation, which is a single roll, an action mechanic—roll high and add a bonus from the character’s occupation, and then roll for just about everything in the game—mostly bad things and random things. It consists mostly of tables, each with thirteen entries—for good reason—which the players will roll on as play progresses. The entries act as prompts, which can be used in two ways, either as a group of players who have their characters react as they would in a roleplaying game, or as a single player, who records his character’s reactions or actions in a journal. The nominal setting for Lucky for None is the village of Grimhaven, which is about to be beset by dark, strange things. In fact, they will be beset by a rash of dark, strange things and bad things to the point where they die or wish they had. Standing between them and the strange events are the Player Characters, residents themselves. Grimhaven is said to be located on the coast of Monshire. So both village abd roleplaying game have a quaint British feel to it. That said, Lucky for None can easily be adapted to other settings.

Published by Beyond Cataclysm Books, the other notable aspect to Lucky for None is that it uses a thirteen-sided die or ‘d13’ and only a thirteen-sided die. The number thirteen proliferates through the whole roleplaying game. Every table uses the thirteen-sided die, the village has thirteen locations, and events take place every thirteen minutes in real time. The game begins with a roll on the ‘Village Problem table’. This could be ‘sky’ and ‘hunger’ or ‘local government’ and ‘size’. The players develop the actual problem from these prompts, and then create a character. This again, is a simple a roll on ‘The Character Table’. This can be a Labourer, Barkeeper, Child, Mayor, Farmer, or Police Officer, and each has an associated skill. For example, the Mayor has Leading, the Police Officer has Securing, and the Labourer has Building.

To undertake an action, a player rolls the die and consults ‘The Action Table’. The outcome ranges from Absolute Failure to Absolute Success. If a Player Character has a skill related to the action, he can add two to the result. He also has two Luck Points. These can be expended to each add four to the roll, but if used up completely, he is out of luck and all rolls are made at disadvantage.

Of course, rolling a thirteen-sided die means that bad things above and beyond what is normally rolled occur whenever a player rolls thirteen. On ‘The Character Table’ this means that the character has an occupation and associated skill, and is also personally afflicted by the Village Problem. On ‘The Action Table’, it means that the action has been an ‘Absolute Success’, but also requires that the player roll on the on ‘The Bad Things Table’. This develops a ‘Vibe’, ‘Who It Affects’, and a ‘Severity’. For example, ‘Asphyxiation’, ‘A loved one/another PC’, and ‘Death, explosive’. In addition, Events are rolled or every thirteen minutes of real time on ‘The Events Table’, which give a ‘Location’, ‘Incident type’, and ‘Severity’. For example, ‘Church’, ‘Disease’, and ‘Inconvenient’. In general, the higher the roll, the worse the effect…

Play continues like this until the last and thirteenth Event is rolled and its effects come into play. The game is then over. The minimalist storytelling rules do intrude upon play, of course, most obviously in ‘The Bad Things Table’ and ‘The Events Table’, but between that, the players are free to discuss and develop the world around their characters, and how the Village Problem, Events, and then Bad Things affects them, the locations in the village, and the residents. The story of this near constant cavalcade of catastrophes should play out of this as series of disasters and consequences that compounds each other, over and over, building and connecting as it progresses and the Player Characters react to everything around them.

That then is all there is to Lucky for None: A comedy-horror game. At least mechanically. There is an ‘Important and Useful Facts About the Number 13’ table and an ‘Alternative Village Problem Table’, but both are extra additions beyond the core of the game. There is an example of play and tips for the Game Master, both of which are actually useful.

Physically, Lucky for None: A comedy-horror game is a cleanly presented, vibrantly red booklet. It is simply written, very easy to grasp, and thus bring to the table. A combined ‘Character Sheet & Disaster’ is included, which sits in the middle of the table.

Lucky for None: A comedy-horror game is a one-session torrent of terror in which the Player Characters are inundated with issues and deluged with difficulties. It is an impossible situation, a dirty disaster drama of ridiculous proportions, played out in a single session or recorded in a dreadful diary, all good for a refreshingly farcical folly in between playing other roleplaying games. Or just good for getting your hands on a ‘d13’.

Miskatonic Monday #166: Stinky Orphans!

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

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

—oOo—

Name: Stinky Orphans! A Call of Cthulhu Christmas Special

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Alison Cybe

Setting: Modern Day
Product: Scenario

What You Get: Twenty-five page, 2.42 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Is it a pantomime? Is it horror? Why not both?

Plot Hook: “A Call of Cthulhu horror adventure for the holiday season”
Plot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, three NPCs, two maps, and two Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Plain.

Pros

# Short comedy-horror one-shot

# Kids as Investigators

# Escape from Grotbags!

# Pantomimic panic

# Breaks the fourth wall

# Glove puppet not optional

# Sphenisciphobia

# Pupaphobia

# Mr. Flibble strikes again!

Cons

# Short comedy-horror one-shot

# Kids as Investigators

# Breaks the fourth wall

Conclusion

# Oh so very knowing pantomimic panic best played at Christmas and only at Christmas

# “Blah, blah, blah, North Pole, blah, blah, blah, secret plans, blah, blah, blah, kidnapped Santa, Christmas ruined, blah, blah, blah, Cthulhu wins, blah, blah, blah.”

Goblins in a Gaberdine

We have a fascination with the antics of little people, whether that is of Goblins, Hobbits, or Kobolds. In gaming this goes all the way back to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and thus Middle Earth Roleplaying, but it really comes into its comedic own with Kobolds Ate My Baby!, published by 9th Level Games in 1999. The latest entry in this comedy subgenre is published by CobblePath Games, best known for Locus: A roleplaying game of personal horror. Stacks of Goblins: A Comedy roleplaying game of camaraderie, stupidity, and spite takes the comedy of the raucous antics of small and bumptious persons and literally puts them on top of another gag—the ‘Totem Pole Trench’ or ‘Two Kids In a Trenchcoat’. In other words, Stacks of Goblins puts one goblin on top of another goblin on top of another goblin, and puts them in a Trenchcoat—of seemingly elastic length—and a fedora, and sends them out to do mischief. The situation is simple. Their Snikittyness the Goblin ruler has a mighty need and multiple Goblin minions ready to see that it is met! Plus every Goblin has his heart set on finding something he desires. The best way to meet both that need and that desire is in a nearby People Place. Of course, Goblins are not welcome in this People Place. Hence the Trenchcoat and the fedora.

Stacks of Goblins: A Comedy roleplaying game of camaraderie, stupidity, and spite is a storytelling game involving multiple wants and multiple roles—roles which switch as the Goblins argue and fidget for dominance in the Trenchcoat and quite literally a higher place in the pecking order. Or rather picking (up) order. Designed for between two and six players, it requires one twelve-sided die, one eight-sided die, and several ten-sided dice. It also requires twenty tokens. The tokens represent the ‘Obliviousness’ of the inhabitants of the town or village to the Goblins who have infiltrated in their disguise and to their shenanigans. Over the course of the game, the number of ‘Obliviousness’ tokens in play will decrease to Goblin actions, first limiting their ability to move and act, and ultimately forcing them to flee the People Place. The ‘Obliviousness’ tokens also represent the game’s timing mechanism, twenty tokens being enough for a standard-length game.

A player and his goblin has one of three roles depending upon his place in the Trenchcoat, either Top Goblin, Middle Goblin, or Bottom Goblin. The Top Goblin is the hands and mouth of the operation. He operates the height of Goblin technology—a grabber in each hand. His player rolls a twelve-sided die when the Top Goblin acts. The Middle Goblin can help or hinder the Top Goblin. His player rolls a ten-sided die and can add or subtract the result from any of Top Goblin’s die rolls. The Bottom Goblin decides where the Trenchcoat goes. His player rolls an eight-sided die when the Bottom Goblin acts. His player chooses which locations in the People Place the Trenchcoat visits and narrates the outcome of the Trenchcoat’s actions. The player of the Bottom Goblin is thus both narrator and player. However, the position and role of each Goblin can change in the Trenchcoat. Consequently, the role of the player and the die size he rolls can also change.

Mechanically, to have his Goblin act, a player rolls his Goblin’s die. The result can either be a ‘Screw Up!’, ‘Good Enough!’, or ‘Goblin Success!’. Both ‘Screw Up!’ and ‘Good Enough!’ result in a complication and with a ‘Screw Up!’, another Goblin can also shuffle around and swap places with the Goblin who failed! A minimum roll of five is needed for a ‘Good Enough!’ and a minimum roll of nine is needed for ‘Goblin Success!’. Which means that the Bottom Goblin with his eight-sided die can never roll a ‘Goblin Success!’.

A Goblin can also shuffle around and swap places if his player removes an ‘Obliviousness’ token from the pile. If multiple Goblins want to change places in a shuffle in the Trenchcoat, their players have a dice off. An ‘Obliviousness’ token can also be removed if a player wants his Goblin’s action to automatically succeed. An ‘Obliviousness’ token is also removed if a Trenchcoat makes someone’s life materially worse and when a Goblin successfully acquires his desire. Ultimately, the pile of ‘Obliviousness’ tokens curbs the maximum result on any dice roll, so the more successful the Goblins are in acquiring their desires, the more material harm they cause, the more obvious their actions become to the inhabitants of the settlement, and the harder the Trenchcoat’s actions becomes.

Stacks of Goblins has tables for defining each Goblin, what their Snikittyness the Goblin ruler wants, and what each Goblin desires. Other tables determine the mission, including the target destination, the Goblin means of escape, and events happening in the destination.

When the number of ‘Obliviousness’ tokens drops below the number of Goblins, the Trenchcoat’s cover is blown and it is time to escape. The Trenchcoat must make its way back through the chaos and disarray left in its wake as it progressed through the People Place. Once the Goblins get home in their Trenchcoat, they count their loot, that is, their desires and whatever it was that their Snikittyness the Goblin ruler wanted. A Goblin succeeds if he brings home both.

Physically, Stacks of Goblins: A Comedy roleplaying game of camaraderie, stupidity, and spite is very green. As you would expect. It is simply and clearly written. The cartoon artwork varies in quality, but some of it is really quite decent.

Stacks of Goblins: A Comedy roleplaying game of camaraderie, stupidity, and spite lives up to its subtitle. It is fun and silly. It is semi-cooperative as the Goblins are forced to work together and no one Goblin is in charge, but forced into conflict with each other in order to assume the three roles in the Trenchcoat, each one necessary to grab both need and desire. It is stupid because dice rolls will fail and a Goblin always thinks he can do better, and to do better means a higher role and thus potential for a higher roll. Then as one Goblin gains his desire and their Snikittyness the Goblin ruler’s need, and the other Goblins do not, desperation and spite kicks in as one Goblin looks like succeeding and his rivals do not. All this would be fun enough, but the shifting roles from Top Goblin to Bottom Goblin and back again, enhances all of this, keeping everyone involved, and giving everyone a turn at each role. It does this through play and through each Goblin’s drive to obtain both desire and need. Which means that without knowing it and without it being forced upon him, a player gets to be the narrator of the Trenchcoat’s progress (and thus the roleplaying game’s storyteller or Game Master).

Stacks of Goblins: A Comedy roleplaying game of camaraderie, stupidity, and spite is simple and idiotic, but that simplicity and idiocy hides some clever little design decisions and a Trenchcoat full of silliness, squabbling, and fun.

Comedy & Games

Comedy takes effort and it takes practice. At this time of year, numerous practitioners of the art up and down the country are preparing for one event—the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Which according to Wikipedia is the world's largest arts festival, and for comedians it is a chance to bring an act to a larger audience that if successful will see them take it around the country for the next year. Plus of course, a good review from The Scotsman can really help a comedian’s career.

In order to prepare for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, comedians put on preview shows where they work out and practice their act beforehand.  Thus, these are not fully polished acts, so they may not quite work or they may not be quite funny enough. So that was why I attended the Jewellery Quarter Comedy Edinburgh Previews on Sunday July 8th with some trepidation and then some more trepidation for another reason. That second reason was because one of the acts would be about board games. The danger being that the comedian would be making fun of my hobby at the expense of my fellow gamers.

That the title of the show was ‘Always Be Rolling: How board games can change your life and save the world’ bode well for the evening. As did the fact that the comedian, James Cook, was a fan and player of board games, and was enough of both to have attended UK Games Expo, this country’s biggest games convention, held back at the end of May.  So at least he was going to know what he was talking about and from the title of the show, he was going to be positive about playing games.

As it turned out, Cook was positive about games, though not always quite so about gamers, though none of his comments were really unfair. At the core of the act was the hypothesis that as children our enjoyment of games was ruined by having to play bad games—Buckaroo, Guess Who?, Hungry (Hungry) Hippos, Monopoly, and so on. The solution of course, and despite all of our foibles—our love of accuracy, zombies, being inside on a hot day, putting medieval merchants on the front of game boxes—was to play the games that gamers like. This would teach us that games could be fun to play even if you did not win. So games like Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan.

Now to be fair, to many of those in the room, he was preaching to the converted, and whilst what he was saying was not wrong, it was obvious. Then again, unless he is going to perform the act at next year’s UK Games Expo, James Cook is unlikely to be performing to more than a dice roll’s worth of gamers at any one time. In addition to the thesis about the benefits of playing board games, there were interactive games and audience participation. I now know that it really helps to have facial stubble if you are going to be playing a live action version of Hungry Hippos with marshmallows instead of little plastic spheres.

Ultimately, the main criticism that can be levelled at ‘Always Be Rolling: How board games can change your life and save the world’ is that James tells you how bad games can be and he tells you why, but he does not effectively tell you how good they can be. If Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan are as good as James tells you that they are, then we never learn why. The issue there of course, is that James does not have five minutes or a thousand words to explain why they are good. He has to get on and be funny at the same time, and whilst he is, by not telling us how good the games are, he never quite sells the idea that they can change your life or save the world.