Friday Fantasy: Drink Deep from the River of my Hate

Drink Deep from the River of my Hate is a scenario for Shadow of the Weird Wizard, the roleplaying game set on the world of Erth in the Borderlands between the remnants of once great empires and the realm of the Weird Wizard greatly changed by his magics. The unexplained disappearance of the Weird Wizard allowed all manner of creatures and strangeness to flood into the empires and kingdoms causing strife and civil war, as refugees fled into the borderlands and adventurers ventured into the Weird Wizard’s lands into explore its strangeness, hopefully stop any dangerous threats, and perhaps return with treasures both magical and mundane. Player Characters progress from Level One to Level Ten, their progress divided between three Paths—Novice, Expert, and Master, gaining greater ability, skill, and specialisation. A Novice Path begins at Level One, an Expert path at Level Three, and a Master Path at Level Seven. Adventures for Shadow of the Weird Wizard are tailored to these three Paths. Drink Deep from the River of my Hate is designed for Expert Heroes and can be run as a scenario for slightly more experienced Player Characters for Shadow of the Weird Wizard.

In Drink Deep from the River of my Hate religious fury and war comes to the Borderlands. Following his  exile from Paradise, the archon Invidian the Fallen has sworn to take his revenge upon the High One and his followers wherever they may be. This has drawn him to the Auxen Vale where there is both a Temple of the High One in Auxen Village and the Holy Brothers Monastery also dedicated to the High One. With him is a band of marauders known as the Unbelievers. Whilst some of them fight for him because of his reputation and his desire to kill all and any worshippers of the High One, others simply fight for him because they can indulge in their own murderous desires and take their share of the plunder. Ahead of their progress across the Borderlands rumours have spread of burned shrines, sacked temples, murdered priests, and slaughtered villagers, giving rise to fear in many and a loss of faith in some. Now those fears have materialised in in Auxen Vale and Father Montaine, the priest of the Temple of the High One in Auxen Village, has sought out the help of mercenaries and adventurers in the defence of the vale and village.

This then is a classic village-defence scenario, not quite The Magnificent Seven, more the malign quartet. The Player Characters need to survey the area, perhaps find some allies (there are some potential allies, but they are far from willing), and reconnoitre the enemy and its activities. To that end several locations are detailed across the vale, including the village of Auxen itself, the monastery, the nearby woods, and the ruined keep where Invidian the Fallen and the Unbelievers have made their camp. None of the NPCs or creatures who live in Auxen Vale are given stats, nor are there any stats included for Invidian the Fallen and most of his acolytes and followers. The Sage will have to provide those. However, stats are provided for his chief lieutenant, Agada the Seer, a fiend-worshipping diviner who takes pleasure in torturing and killing priests of the High One. She is quite vile!

Unfortunately, the NPCs are the cause of a big problem with Drink Deep from the River of my Hate. Or rather, the number of them. Including its leaders, there are over seventy members of the Unbelievers. This is a lot of stats to provide and a lot of NPCs for the Sage to control. Fortunately, most of them are raider wildlings, and except for the major assaults on the village, the Unbelivers will not be operating together, but rather in smaller warbands. Ideally, the Player Characters need to picking these separate warbands off, one-by-one, so as to reduce numbers they will be ultimately facing in the assault on the village.

The nature of the scenario means that it works better with some set-up time, so as to lead the Player Characters into its events. That set-up should ideally also involve the Sage creating some maps for the various locations, including at least the keep where the Unbelievers are based and the village. The Sage may also want to add a hook or two to involve the potential other allies for the villagers.

Physically, Drink Deep from the River of my Hate is decently presented. The map of the Auxum Vale is nice and clear and the scenario is well written.

Drink Deep from the River of my Hate is a classic set-up in terms of fantasy roleplaying and it is a well done, player driven scenario. However, it is underwritten in places and needs development—not too much, but a little more than it should—to make it easier to set up and run. 

Friday Fantasy: Trip the Light Fantastic

Trip the Light Fantastic is a scenario for Shadow of the Weird Wizard, the roleplaying game set on the world of Erth in the Borderlands between the remnants of once great empires and the realm of the Weird Wizard greatly changed by his magics. The unexplained disappearance of the Weird Wizard allowed all manner of creatures and strangeness to flood into the empires and kingdoms causing strife and civil war, as refugees fled into the borderlands and adventurers ventured into the Weird Wizard’s lands into explore its strangeness, hopefully stop any dangerous threats, and perhaps return with treasures both magical and mundane. Player Characters progress from Level One to Level Ten, their progress divided between three Paths—Novice, Expert, and Master, gaining greater ability, skill, and specialisation. A Novice Path begins at Level One, an Expert path at Level Three, and a Master Path at Level Seven. Adventures for Shadow of the Weird Wizard are tailored to these three Paths. Trip the Light Fantastic is designed for Expert Heroes and can be run as a scenario for slightly more experienced Player Characters for Shadow of the Weird Wizard. Like One Bad Apple before it, Trip the Light Fantastic confronts the players and their Heroes with one of the changes in Shadow of the Weird Wizard in comparison with traditional fantasy roleplaying games.

Trip the Light Fantastic starts out with a cliché and gets better. It starts with a village seemingly abandoned, apparently mid-activity, when the Player Characters come upon it. The village could be any number of the ones that have been settled in Borderlands and although the village can be one that the Player Characters have never been to before, the scenario works better and is likely to have more of an emotional impact if the village is one that the Player Characters have been to before and know some of the inhabitants. This might be because the Player Characters live there or because they have simply visited it before, but either way, it requires some degree of set-up upon the part of the Game Master. There are odd signs about like lots of small footprints dotted about and the milk being spoiled in addition to the missing people and livestock. The clues point towards a nearby grove of trees where the Player Characters are swarmed by Atomies, tiny faeries, that play pranks upon them and steal items from them, and if the Player Characters follow them, they find themselves elsewhere and in another realm. Then the scenario proper can begin!

The Player Characters find themselves in a faerie realm. It is heavily forested with faces in the bark of the tall trees and glowing motes drifting softly providing light under the canopy and seems like an otherworldly idyll. There appears to be no way back and so the Player Characters will need to search for one in addition to searching for the missing villagers. Fortunately, a stranger says that he will offer them a means of returning to the mortal realm in return for undertaking a number of tasks for him. These include things such as fetching the mirror from the bottom of Starry Pond or freeing Old Man Time from the witch. There are five of tasks, four of which are at set locations, whilst one can be encountered randomly at the Game Master’s choosing. There are another six locations within the realm not associated with the tasks that the Player Characters have been set, including a stair into the clouds that will fling the Player Characters randomly across the realm, a wishing well, and a sword in a stone. There is a sense of whimsy to the place as you would expect for a faery realm, but a darkness too. An old hag steeps in her bad luck and tormenting any she captures with her resentments, including an old knight whom she keeps chained up under the watchful eye of a carnivorous tree, a quartet of Poweries that wear blood red caps that like to refresh the colour of said caps with the blood of their dinner guests, and the discovery of the fate of the missing villagers. There is a definite streak of cruelty and darkness to many of these encounters , but some humour too, such as the bird that the Player Characters have been directed to rescue singing every time someone comes near waking up the Ogre holding him captive in the process like a bad version of Tweety and Sylvester (just give the Ogre a lisp to highlight the comparison)!

Physically, Trip the Light Fantastic is decently presented. The map of the faery realm is nice and clear and the scenario is well written.

The only thing Trip the Light Fantastic is perhaps missing is a random encounter table and again, the Game Master will need to provide the stats for all of the monsters as well as setting up the village so that the players and their characters have a connection to it. The scenario is will likely take longer to play than the previous scenarios, probably two to three sessions. Overall, Trip the Light Fantastic is an entertaining mini-sandcrawl through a dark amd whimsical mini-realm filled with mini-quests and mini-encounters.

Friday Fantasy: Eye of the Serpent

Eye of the Serpent is a scenario for Shadow of the Weird Wizard, the roleplaying game set on the world of Erth in the Borderlands between the remnants of once great empires and the realm of the Weird Wizard greatly changed by his magics. The unexplained disappearance of the Weird Wizard allowed all manner of creatures and strangeness to flood into the empires and kingdoms causing strife and civil war, as refugees fled into the borderlands and adventurers ventured into the Weird Wizard’s lands into explore its strangeness, hopefully stop any dangerous threats, and perhaps return with treasures both magical and mundane. Player Characters progress from Level One to Level Ten, their progress divided between three Paths—Novice, Expert, and Master, gaining greater ability, skill, and specialisation. A Novice Path begins at Level One, an Expert path at Level Three, and a Master Path at Level Seven. Adventures for Shadow of the Weird Wizard are tailored to these three Paths. Eye of the Serpent is designed for Expert Heroes and can be run as a scenario for slightly more experienced Player Characters for Shadow of the Weird Wizard.

Eye of the Serpent shifts the action of the previous two scenarios—One Bad Apple and Friends in Need—from a rural location to an urban one. The Sage can set the scenario in the city of her choosing, but the city of Westport is suggested as being suitable. Of late, the members of minor and formerly benign cult, the Followers of the Silver Road, have been making a nuisance of themselves, including engaging in odd pleasures, buying up rare and expensive crystals, recruiting the young, wealthy, and influential, and daubing their mark all over the city. Whether because of the lure of treasure that the city’s temple must surely hold, to rescue a recent recruit at the behest of his family, or a local constable wants to know what is inside, but lacks the authority, the Player Characters are hired to break into the temple. The Player Characters are free to investigate the cult and ask questions about it round the city and even visit the temple during the day.

The action, then, will take place at night. The Player Characters will have to sneak in at some point and explore the grounds of the temple and its buildings. These are far from extensive and similarly, neither are the warrens beneath temple. The cultists are not a danger to the Player Characters, except in numbers, whereas the cult leaders are definitely a danger. As with other scenarios for Shadow of the Weird Wizard, the Sage will need to supply the stats from the core books. Once the Player Characters have found the entrance to warrens and climbed down, it will quickly become obvious what type of threat they face. They do represent quite a challenge to the Player Characters as they are likely to encounter quite a few of them in the warrens and a stand up fight is likely. There are some magical traps too, but the Player Characters will be decently rewarded if successful.

With multiple possible motivations, the ending of Eye of the Serpent can play out in different ways. The Player Characters might find themselves being hunted as thieves for breaking into the temple and stealing valuables; praised for rescuing a child; or hunted by the cultists still alive. The scenario includes a few notes which cover these possibilities, though the Sage will need to develop some of these possible plot threads.

Physically, Eye of the Serpent is decently presented. The map of the temple in particular is done in vibrant colours and with the pagoda at its heart, it has a slightly exotic feel that shifts to unworldly once the Player Characters enter the warren below.

Eye of the Serpent is short and sharp and direct. It can be prepared with ease and run within a single session. Its handful of motivations give different ways of involving the Player Characters whilst the possible different consequences, which do need to be worked into a campaign, are a surprising consideration. Otherwise, solidly serviceable.

Friday Fantasy: Friends in Need

Friends in Need is a scenario for Shadow of the Weird Wizard, the roleplaying game set on the world of Erth in the Borderlands between the remnants of once great empires and the realm of the Weird Wizard greatly changed by his magics. The unexplained disappearance of the Weird Wizard allowed all manner of creatures and strangeness to flood into the empires and kingdoms causing strife and civil war, as refugees fled into the borderlands and adventurers ventured into the Weird Wizard’s lands into explore its strangeness, hopefully stop any dangerous threats, and perhaps return with treasures both magical and mundane. Player Characters progress from Level One to Level Ten, their progress divided between three Paths—Novice, Expert, and Master, gaining greater ability, skill, and specialisation. A Novice Path begins at Level One, an Expert path at Level Three, and a Master Path at Level Seven. Adventures for Shadow of the Weird Wizard are tailored to these three Paths. Friends in Need is designed for Novice Heroes and can be run as a beginning scenario for Shadow of the Weird Wizard. It confronts the players and their Heroes with one of the big changes in Shadow of the Weird Wizard in comparison with traditional fantasy roleplaying games.

Friends in Need takes a classic set-up—or a cliché, depending upon your point of view—from high fantasy roleplaying and gives it just of enough of a twist to make that set-up interesting. That set-up is the meeting of the heroes of in a tavern, or the stopping off on a journey in a tavern and spending the night, and either being hired to go on an adventure or following up on some rumours and so going on an adventure. The tavern in the adventure is more than that, a walled compound called the Traveller’s Rest, which was once a stop on a coaching route through the Borderlands. The current owners have worked hard to retore it to a going concern and it also has a forge and a general store as well as somewhere to eat, drink, and stay, overall, offering a major source of employment in the area. Here the Player Characters have a chance to stop and rest on their journey and interact with the staff and patrons, perhaps while away the evening playing cards and dice, and along the way picking up a rumour or two. Amongst the latter is the fact that several people from the area and some travellers have gone missing, a lion in the nearby Green Hills have been preying on goat herds, and there is word that a new disease is spreading through the borderlands. Then, of course, the Player Characters are offered a proper job.

A scholar resident at the Traveller’s Rest recruits the Player Characters to escort him on an expedition in the Green Hills where he has discovered an old tomb. He believes that there is treasure to be found in the tomb, but also clues as to what happened to the peoples once indigenous to this part of the borderlands. However, the twist comes the following morning, when the Player Characters discover that the scholar has already left without them, and worse, has done so in the company of another band of adventurers which was the bar the previous evening. Essentially, what has happened is that this other band of adventurers has undercut the Player Characters!

This is an entertaining twist, but as much as the Player Characters’ newly-encountered adventuring rivals undercut them, the twist has the potential to undercut the scenario. Whether this happens depends on what the players and their characters decide to do next. They could simply do nothing or leave, and events will play out without the Player Characters’ involvement in which case they do not what discover what is actually going on and the region surrounding the Traveller’s Rest suffers the consequences. Effectively, this negates second half of the scenario. Alternatively, the Player Characters can follow the path of the scholar and his hired guards, and this is the plot thread that the scenario presents, but the Player Characters could also explore one of the other rumours that were floating about the tavern the previous evening. The events of these sidequests can be brought back connect to the main plot, but the Sage will need to develop these a little more to flesh them out.

Eventually, and ideally, the Player Characters will reach the tomb site which the scholar wanted them to guard whilst he excavated. Here the Player Characters discover another twist to the classic set-up—or a cliché, depending upon your point of view—from high fantasy roleplaying and what is actually in the tomb. The latter plays out in more traditional fashion.

Friends in Need is a slightly more complex scenario than, One Bad Apple, the previous one for Player Characters on the Novice Path. It will need more input from the Sage to keep the players and their characters on the main plot and thus into the second half of the scenario. That said, this is not too difficult, but it is in addition to the preparation required to ready stats for both the NPCs and the monsters for the scenario.

Physically, Friends in Need is cleanly and tidily laid out. It is well written, but there are no maps. The Sage may want to provide them, but they are not necessary to run or play the adventure.

Friends in Need is strong on interaction and roleplaying with the Player Characters given time to interact with the other patrons at the Traveller’s Rest, learn about the area, and perhaps gamble away some of their monies. The various NPCs are nicely detailed and there is even an example dice game which the players could play too. The scenario is short, but Friends in Need will probably take two sessions to play through if its plot is followed as written. If it is, the players and their characters will find that Friends in Need delivers a couple of nice little twists to its clichéd set-up as well as a good mix of interaction, combat, and exploration.

Friday Fantasy: One Bad Apple

One Bad Apple is a scenario for Shadow of the Weird Wizard, the roleplaying game set on the world of Erth in the Borderlands between the remnants of once great empires and the realm of the Weird Wizard greatly changed by his magics. The unexplained disappearance of the Weird Wizard allowed all manner of creatures and strangeness to flood into the empires and kingdoms causing strife and civil war, as refugees fled into the borderlands and adventurers ventured into the Weird Wizard’s lands into explore its strangeness, hopefully stop any dangerous threats, and perhaps return with treasures both magical and mundane. Player Characters progress from Level One to Level Ten, their progress divided between three Paths—Novice, Expert, and Master, gaining greater ability, skill, and specialisation. A Novice Path begins at Level One, an Expert path at Level Three, and a Master Path at Level Seven. Adventures for Shadow of the Weird Wizard are tailored to these three Paths. One Bad Apple is designed for Novice Heroes and can be run as a beginning scenario for Shadow of the Weird Wizard. It confronts the players and their Heroes with one of the big changes in Shadow of the Weird Wizard in comparison with traditional fantasy roleplaying games.

One Bad Apple is set in the small village of Two Forks, located in the Borderlands between the twin forks of the Flenderish River and marked by the two stone bridges which cross the sluggish, muddy rivers, the temple, and the Two Forks Distillery and Public House, the most profitable building in the village. Were it not for the quality of its spirits, Two Forks would be utterly unremarkable, a place where nothing happens. That placid nature has been shattered with the sudden change in behaviour by the town’s blacksmith. Victor the Smith has always been a friendly, agreeable man, always ready to help others, but now, a sudden, unprovoked and extremely violent outburst has left his neighbour, Ruprecht Allson, bruised, battered, and bloody, and like the rest of the village unable to explain why he was attacked. Two Forks’ two guards managed to subdue Victor the Smith and lock him in a shed, where he continues to rage and scream and hammer at the door. What has affected Victor the Smith? What is the reason for his rage? How long will the shed hold him?

The Player Characters may be residents of Two Forks or they might be passing through, but they get caught up in the situation following a village meeting. When they investigate, none of the villagers have any explanation, but there are signs of other odd activity in the village. Footprints and warning graffiti suggest that Goblins have been skulking about in Two Forks and the nearest Goblins are known to live in a relatively nearby forest. When confronted, the Goblins and their leader, Bung, will defend their temple ruin hideout, but will ultimately reveal what they have done, and that is to place a curse on Two Forks, one that inflicts ‘Soul Sickness’ upon the villagers. This ‘Soul Sickness’ manifests as a magical disease that drives sufferers to ever greater rage and acts of unprovoked violence, before ultimately transforming them into Orcs. This is one of the radical changes in Shadow of the Weird Wizard that divorces the origin of the Orc from its traditional cultural difficulties, and as seen here in One Bad Apple, suggests new story possibilities and adds to the lore of Shadow of the Weird Wizard.

Bung though, is not the only threat to Two Forks. Salty Lemon, a vicious Bauchan, has his own issues with the village, but as it turns out, would rather not see everyone there turned into Orcs as that would be dangerous for both him and the surrounding area. He knows of a cure to the ‘Soul Sickness’, but of course, wants something in return. This is a jewel that was stolen from him and which can be found in the tombs below the temple where the Goblins had their base. The heroes may already have explored this and may even have found the jewel and so be ready to hand it over in return for the recipe, but either way, the last part of One Bad Apple is an exploration of tombs under the temple, essentially, a mini-dungeon foray. With luck, but mostly skill, the heroes should be able to find the jewel, get the recipe, and so help stop the spread of the ‘Soul Sickness’.

The scenario is straightforward and easy to run. The Sage will need to refer to Secrets of the Weird Wizard for details of the traps and treasures to be found in the tomb, as well as all of the monster stats. If Bung survives and runs away, he could easily return as a recurring villain in subsequent scenarios and the Sage might want to develop him further to that end.

Physically, One Bad Apple is cleanly and tidily laid out. It is well written, but the map of the tombs below the temple could have been easier to read.

One Bad Apple offers a good mix of investigation and interaction, combat, and exploration in its short few pages that all together should provide two or three sessions’ worth of play. It is a classic village-in-peril scenario, but one based upon a major twist that Shadow of the Weird Wizard brings to fantasy roleplay. In this way, as an introductory scenario, One Bad Apple shows both the Sage and her players that although based on classic fantasy roleplaying, Shadow of the Weird Wizard is different. It is a good start.

Weird Wizard Wondrousness II

Shadow of the Weird Wizard introduced us to the divided land of the Great Kingdom and other nations in the west and the lands once dominated by the Weird Wizard in the east. For centuries, he ruled from his capital, the Forbidden City, over a land in which he worked great changes—raising mountains to the stars, making rocks flow like waterfalls, islands set to float in the sky, growing forests of mushrooms, and setting clockworks to run his capital. Long is the reach of his shadow, its touch still felt despite his recent disappearance that has triggered civil war in the west and chaos as refugees fled east to escape the conflict and monsters from the east—cruel faeries, hybrid beasts, the undead, multilegged hulking collectors, and floating eyes that hang in the air trailing their nerve endings—have skulked west. Now there exists a borderland between the lands of the east and the west where people and refugees need protecting and from where monsters can be tracked back into the old lands of the Weird Wizard and expeditions can be launched into his lands. It is a time for heroes and a time for the brave to make a name for themselves. Written for use with the Demon Lord Engine, first seen in the publisher’s grim dark, horror fantasy roleplaying game, Shadow of the Demon Lord, the difference is that the fantasy of Shadow of the Weird Wizard is high fantasy and heroic fantasy, and thus much more positive in tone. However, although it introduces the setting, provides means to create Player Characters, and gives rules for acting and action, combat and magic, it is not complete. The Sage—as the Game Master is known and a self-confessed reference to Skip William’s long-running ‘Sage Advice’ column in the pages of The Dragon magazine—will still need its companion volume, Secrets of the Weird Wizard.

The reference to both Skip Williams and The Dragon magazine is only the first of the references to Dungeons & Dragons throughout the pages of Secrets of the Weird Wizard. These are very knowing nods, but Shadow of the Weird Wizard is not doing Dungeons & Dragons per se. Rather that it offers heroic fantasy roleplaying using a simpler, slicker rules system, a multiplicity of character options, and a standard campaign structure.

Secrets of the Weird Wizard is effectively, the book for the Shadow of the Weird Wizard Game Sage. With that in mind, Secrets of the Weird Wizard does something surprising. Something for the players. This is that it addresses the lack of non-Human ancestries to be found (or rather not found) in Shadow of the Weird Wizard. From Archon, Cambion, and Centaur to Sprite, Spriggan, and Woodwose, as well as the traditional to fantasy Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling, Secrets of the Weird Wizard gives the player access to twenty-four ancestries and thus a wider choice in terms of what characters he can play. That said, the Weird Ancestries supplement is a handier supplement to use for that purpose and it does include six more than is given in Secrets of the Weird Wizard.

Other than this, Secrets of the Weird Wizard is very much for the Sage and to that end, it is divided into three chapters. The first chapter is dedicated to advice for the Sage, the second provides a more detailed description of Erth, the setting for Shadow of the Weird Wizard, and the third is a bestiary for Shadow of the Weird Wizard.

The advice begins from the moment that the Game Master opens the book. The introduction opens with an explanation as the mood and tone of Secrets of the Weird Wizard, that its setting is one of a world in crisis, as old nations war and collapse and the new lands offer opportunity and danger in equal measure. That the new lands are ripe for adventure by heroes who seek to make it a better and safer place, to undo damage done by the machinations of the Weird Wizard, and looking to better future. This is in deep contrast to the blood, mud, and horror of Shadow of the Demon Lord. There is solid basic advice, like that of taking time to learn and play through the rules, to keep what the players and their characters simple, to keep the Player Characters foremost in the game, and so on. Much of the ‘Sage Advice’ is familiar, but it also suggests collective origins for the Player Characters, such as explorers, merchants, and outlaws, as well as adventurers. It breaks down the overarching structure of the Shadow of the Weird Wizard, categorising its quests into ‘Novice’, ‘Expert’, and ‘Master’ Quests which represent greater and greater challenges for the Player Characters. Together they will take the Player Characters’ progress from First to Tenth Level, at which point a campaign typically ends. There is guidance though for play beyond and for what the Player Characters might do in their downtime.

There are rules for travel and guidance on the many things typical to fantasy roleplaying. This includes terrain types, doors and gates, locks, walls and structures, and the like, before detailing a plethora of traps, including a hungry chest trap, flooding chamber, falling blocks, and much more. There is a guide to creating NPCs and roleplaying, combat and making it exciting, and rewards. In terms of treasure, there are oddities and items of power. The former are minor artefacts whose manufacture is lost, whilst the latter are devices of great history and power, often dangerous power. Several examples are included. Overall, the advice is excellent, giving a good idea of what the roleplaying game is about, how to handle the rules, and more.

The middle chapter, ‘Borderlands’ focuses on the lands between the Old Country and the New Lands. This covers social groups, societies and institutions, such as Bards, Druids, Free Companies, and more, so in its way looking at both classic fantasy roles and groups. Some of these are cults, like the Cult of the Last Door dedicated to Lord Death and Daughters of Hate detailed under the pantheon also detailed. The pantheon itself is conceptual in its depiction and naming of some of the gods—Want, Calamity, and Hates, for example—others less so. In the main, what the description of ‘Borderlands’ is trying to do is hit the high spots and in doing so, show off the weird and the traditional, all whilst still leaving room for the Sage to add her own content. For example, Asylum, City of Thieves, is the largest, wealthiest, and safest city-state because its government is the actual Thieves’ Guild and the most efficient organisation in the city; the Cinder Peak Isles grow in number with every new eruption; the Sylphs of the Cloud Islands are fiercely xenophobic and allow no-one to land or climb onto their islands in the sky, except the Cloud market, which they winch customers up to; the arrival of Augustus, wizard and sage in the pirate town of Eastport, echoes the ride of Emirikol; ruled by four guilds from four different towers, the primary industry of the city of Four Towers is catering the delving companies that explore the extensive and deep dungeons under each tower; and the Wyvern Forest has long overgrown a fairy realm where in its deepest parts, the Horned Lord and the Wild Woman gods are known to walk. There are notes too, on the lands beyond the New Lands, including the Weird Wizard’s Forbidden City, but these are not as extensive or as detailed. There is a good mix here of elements that the Sage or her players are not necessarily going to be surprised to find in the Borderlands, but there are plenty that they are. Plus, there is room for the Sage’s ideas as well as room for the author to expand too.

The third and final chapter is the longest. The ‘Bestiary’ takes up almost two thirds of Secrets of the Weird Wizard. The ‘Bestiary’ takes up almost two thirds of Secrets of the Weird Wizard. As well as the aforementioned entries for races or species that have options as Ancestries for the Player Characters and NPCs (handily listed all together in the PDF), there is again, a good mix of the familiar and unfamiliar. Often this is a case of making the former into the latter. As well as Slimes, Oozes, and Goos, there is a Blob, a leathery-skinned corrosive liquid-filled bladder that has eyes, mouths, and other organs dotting its skin, so is much more Lovecraftian; the Hydra are actually classed as Angels, having sprang from the blood spilled when Lord Death defeated Draconus, but are otherwise the multi-headed serpents who regrow lost heads; Kobolds are fairy folk, the diminutive miners of Germanic folklore; Ogres are the creation of Trolls, made from human stock and spawned from the Trolls’ flesh-forges; and Orcs are victims of a magical sickness that affects the soul, infecting anyone—Humans, Elves, Dwarfs, and others—who has lived too close to one of the imprisoned Ancient Ones and instantly transforming them into the hate-fuelled Orcs. The origin of the Orc here not only divorces it from its traditional cultural difficulties, but suggests new story possibilities and adds to the lore of Shadow of the Weird Wizard. The bestiary in Secrets of the Weird Wizard does this again and again, just shifting the familiar to make it that little bit different and that much more interesting. There are remnants too, of the Weird Wizard like the Observers, floating eyeballs that monitored his lands passively unless attacked and signs of the OM collective, the invaders from another dimension that the Weird Wizard fought so hard to hold off, but which are now making a resurgence with his disappearance. The OM Collective is not the only ‘alien’ incursion which threatens the new lands. All of the entries are in the bestiary are neatly organised and often multiple variants under each entry, giving the Sage more options in terms of tailoring threats and encounters to her Player Characters.

There are no real issues with Secrets of the Weird Wizard. From a useability standpoint, a bigger map of the Borderlands would have been a good idea, perhaps presented inside the front or back cover. The one given is too small to read with ease. The inclusion of a bibliography—perhaps the equivalent of the ‘Appendix N’ for Shadow of the Weird Wizard would have been a nice touch.

Physically, Secrets of the Weird Wizard is very presented. It is well written and engaging, especially the chapter describing the Borderlands, whilst the illustrations vary a little in quality. For the most part though, the illustrations in Secrets of the Weird Wizard are excellent.

Secrets of the Weird Wizard is not just the companion volume to Shadow of the Weird Wizard, but the second half of the full rules, providing as it does a bestiary of NPCs and monsters, advice for the Sage, and setting details for the roleplaying game. The advice is good, but the setting content is really good, providing details and information to make the Borderlands intriguing and playable whilst leaving room for more content, as the bestiary adds extra little details and populates the setting with the old and the new, the familiar and the unfamiliar. The Shadow of the Weird Wizard Sage is definitely going to want—even need—to have Secrets of the Weird Wizard and she will not be disappointed.

Weird Wizard Wondrousness

For a thousand years there has existed a divide in the land. In the west stands the Great Kingdom and many other nations that arose following the collapse of earlier civilisations and kingdoms, most notably the Old Empire. In the east, the land is dominated by one figure—the Weird Wizard. Whether a fallen god, cast down from the stars by Lord Death himself or a traveller from another world swallowed by darkness, the Weird Wizard established himself and brooked no challenge. None dared do so, for rumours came of the great changes he wrought over his lands, raising mountains to reach the stars, setting rocks to flow like a waterfall into a great chasm, islands floating in the sky, forests of mushrooms, or the clockworks he established to run his capital, the Forbidden City. His shadow, the ‘Shadow of the Weird Wizard’ reached beyond the divide, for surely all of the ills—great and small—that beset the peoples of the Great Kingdom could be blamed for whatever strangeness he was enacting in his lands. Then one day, he disappeared. No one knows why, but it remains a matter of much speculation, from lowly taverns to the great courts. Whether the gods decided to punish him by sealing him away with the Ancient Ones or a mighty ended his reign with a single blow of his sword, perhaps one day someone will discover what happened to him. With his disappearance too went the divide between the Great Kingdom and all the lands to the east. With it went stability and assurance as the Great Kingdom fell into civil war. No one knows if the two are connected. What they do know is that refugees have fled to the borderlands as monsters from the east—cruel faeries, hybrid beasts, the undead, multilegged hulking collectors, and floating eyes that hang in the air trailing their nerve endings—have skulked west into the borderlands. As explorers slip into the east in search of answers, the inhabitants and refugees in the borderlands need protecting. It is a time for brave adventurers to step forth and stop the monsters, to protect the people, and perhaps track them to their source, and so become heroes.

This is the set-up for Shadow of the Weird Wizard, a roleplaying game of high fantasy, high magic, and high adventure published by Schwalb Entertainment following a successful Kickstarter campaign. The publisher is best known for the grim dark, horror fantasy roleplaying game, Shadow of the Demon Lord, but whilst both Shadow of the Demon Lord and Shadow of the Weird Wizard use the same Demon Lord Engine for their mechanics, Shadow of the Weird Wizard is not as bleak and the Player Characters are intended to champion the innocent, brave grave dangers, and right terrible wrongs. In other words, they are meant to be heroes rather than just protagonists. Shadow of the Weird Wizard consists of two core books. One is Shadow of the Weird Wizard, the other is Secrets of the Weird Wizard, but Shadow of the Weird Wizard is the core book, providing an introduction to the setting, the core rules for combat and magic, the means to create Player Characters, and lots and lots of spells and career choices.

Although there is some history given for the setting of Shadow of the Weird Wizard, it really defines the nature of the world and what it is like rather than geographical and political specifics. These are that the world of Erth is much like that of Earth, including the Sun and the Moon, a day lasting twenty-four hours, and week seven days, and so on. This is where the differences end because Erth is home to multiple species— Dwarfs, Faeries, Clockworks, Dragonets, and more, as well as weird hybrid creatures, dragons, and monsters. Magic is real and studied, there is technological development (including muskets and bicycles), the gods exist and some even walk the Erth, the Ancient Ones were defeated by Lord Death and remain asleep, and so on. The combination gives the setting a sense of familiarity and difference. The companion volume, Secrets of the Weird Wizard, does go into more detail, as well as doing one more pertinent thing, and that is providing Ancestry details. Only the Human Ancestry is available in Shadow of the Weird Wizard, which is disappointing. However, Secrets of the Weird Wizard is intended as companion, so details of Archon (exiled angels), Cambion (Human and Fiend parentage), Centaur, Changeling, Clockwork, Daeva, Dhampir, Dragonet, Dwarf, Elf, Faun, Goblin, Halfling, Haren (leporine or rabbit-like), Harpy, Hobgoblin, Janni (masters of elemental magic), Naga, Pollywog, Revenant, Sphinx, Spriggan, Sprite, Triton, Warg, and Woodwose ancestries can all be found in its pages.

As with other Demon Lord Engine roleplaying games, Shadow of the Weird Wizard is a Class or Profession and Level roleplaying game. A Player Character starts at First Level and can rise as far as Tenth Level (although Secrets of the Weird Wizard does give options for continued play beyond this). As a Player Character gains Levels he will enter and follow different Paths, each Path providing an array of benefits. These include setting the Player Character’s natural defence and Health, and determining languages spoken, bonus damage, and talents. Some also grant access to Traditions, different schools of magic, mostly for the spellcasting character types, some martial and skill-based character options grant access to limited magic.

The most basic Paths are Fighter, Mage, Priest, and Rogue, which provides benefits at First, Second, and Fifth Level. At Third Level, a Player Character can enter an Expert Path, categorised as Paths of Battle, Paths of Faith, Paths of Power, and Paths of Skill, which provides benefits at Third, Fourth, Sixth, and Ninth Level, and at Seventh Level, he enters a Master Path. These are categorised as Paths of Arms, Paths of the Gods, Paths of Magic, and Paths of prowess, granting benefits at Seventh, Eighth, and Tenth Level. The choice of Paths widen as a Player Character gains Levels, so that whilst at the beginning one Rogue will very much be like another Rogue, by the time a Rogue has followed the Expert Path and entered the Master Path, he really is different in comparison to another Rogue. So, a Priest might begin as just that, but for his Master Path, he might become a Cleric and cast miracles or an Inquisitor, a Paladin, or a Theurge who summons angels to aid him, and then for the Master Path he could continue to cast miracles as a High Priest, or switch to become a Moon Celebrant in service to Sister Moon.

Besides Ancestry and Level, a Player Character is defined by four attributes—Strength, Agility, Intellect, and Will. These initially range in value between nine and twelve and provide a modifier, which is equal to the attribute minus ten. He will also have a basic profession; what he did before becoming an adventurer which will provide an item of equipment. The creation process starts by selecting an Ancestry (only Human in Shadow of the Weird Wizard, but another option from Secrets of the Weird Wizard), and then rolling for the Player Character’s Profession, and then Distinctive Feature, Affability, Dependability, Outlook, Receptiveness, Sociability, Piety, and Religions. The process is quick and easy.

Name: Tilia
Ancestry: Human
Profession: Hunter (Wilderness)
Level 1
Novice Path: Priest
Distinctive Feature: Different coloured eyes
Affability: You can fend for yourself in social situations, but you’re also fine when alone.
Dependability: You try to be conscientious, but sometimes fall short
Outlook: You strive to be a positive, upbeat person. You look for the good in all things and hope for the best.
Receptiveness: New ideas and activities make you uncomfortable.
Sociability: You believe people can be good or bad. You withhold judgment about someone until you get to know them.
Piety: You believe in the gods and offer prayers to them all.
Religions: Horned Lord
Divine Calling: Some tragedy or horrific experience saw you turn to the gods for meaning. You might have suffered an attack by undead, encountered a spirit, or had someone close to you fall into the clutches of a diabolical fiend.

Strength 11 (+1) Agility 10 (+0) Intellect 13 (+3) Will 11 (+1)
Natural Defence: 9 Health: 14

Languages: Common and one other language
Traditions: Primal, Animism
Talents: Prayer (Magical), Holy Symbol (Magical), Holy Smite, Holy Healing, Holy Denunciation, Armor of the Ancient Oak, Bestial Aspect
Spells: Plant the Seed, Stalk Prey

The basic mechanic in Shadow of the Weird Wizard is simple and straightforward, whether a player needs to make an attribute check, an attack roll, or a roll against an attack or spell for his character. The player rolls a twenty-sided die and adds any Attribute bonuses or penalties, and if the result is ten or more, or is equal to or greater than the target number, typically the target’s Defence value, his character succeeds. In addition, a Player Character can also have Boons or Banes—each a six-sided die—that he can add to, or subtract from, the roll. These can come from a Path, a Talent, or spell, and Banes and Boons cancel each other out prior to rolling, but when rolling multiples of either type, only the highest number rolled counts and is added to the total. A critical success occurs on a roll higher than the target or a natural twenty, whilst a critical failure occurs if the result is zero or less. This can occur due to the effect of a Bane reducing the final result. In comparison, a luck roll is made without any modifiers and the target number is always ten.

Combat uses the same core mechanic, with attack rolls being against the target’s Defence value, either natural or derived from armour worn. Damage is accrued up to the limit of the target’s Health. If the target suffers damage equal to, or greater than, half his Health, he is injured and may suffer extra effects from certain Talents and spells, and if he suffers total damage equal to his Health, he is his incapacitated. Damage beyond this actually reduces his Health and the amount of damage he can suffer. If his Health is reduced to zero, he is dead. In general, Player Characters have more Health than in other Demon Lord Engine roleplaying games.

The most radical element of combat is how initiative works in Shadow of the Weird Wizard. In a round, a combatant can move and use an action, whether an attack or casting a spell or something else, but the Player Characters do not automatically act first. The NPCs and any monsters controlled by the Sage—as the Game Master is known—move and act first, followed by the Player Characters, which can be in any order. However, some effects and actions enable the Player Characters to act out of turn, using Reactions. For example, a Free Attack occurs as a Reaction if an enemy moves out of reach without retreating, a Dodge is a Reaction, and so is ‘Taking the Initiative’. If the Player Characters are aware of their enemies at the beginning of a new round, then they can use a Reaction to ‘Take the Initiative’ and act before the enemy does. They can do this in any order they like. That said, effects such as wearing heavy armour prevents the ‘Take the Initiative’ Reaction. This seems more complex than it really is and really means that the Player Characters have more control than it first appears.

Magic and spellcasting is also kept simple. Shadow of the Weird Wizard a total of thirty-three Traditions from Aeromancy, Alchemy, and Alteration to Technomancy, Teleportation, and War. Each provides four Talents and eighteen spells spread across Novice, Expert, and Master Paths. Each spell description includes its effects as well as its target and number of castings. The latter is the number of times that a spellcaster can cast it between rests, which never changes unless a player decides to choose that spell again, doubling the amount. Spell effects, especially damage effects, do increase as the caster moves into the next Path. For the most part, casting a spell is also automatic, though a player may need to make an attribute check to gain a particular effect and improve its effects, or to strike a target. This is done on a spell by spell basis, so that any player with a Mage or Priest character will need to learn the specifics of every spell that their character knows. Lastly, Mage and Priest Player Characters can learn any Traditions that they want, though Priests are likely to pick those that relate to their faiths and their gods.

Besides Paths and spells, Shadow of the Weird Wizard includes rules for most adventuring situations, common information that every Player Character will know, how to handle social situations, companions and hirelings, and a lengthy guide to equipment that includes a few magical items, explosives, clockwork prosthetic and wheeled chairs, and more. Yet it is the Paths and Spells that dominate Shadow of the Weird Wizard. Beyond the four Novice Paths, Shadow of the Weird Wizard details forty-two Expert Paths and one-hundred-and-twenty-one Master Paths, and whilst a Player Character could specialise, combining Expert and Master Paths to be the best at a particular way of fighting, school of magic, or expertise, he is also free to switch Paths entirely because there are no prerequisites. It means that the possible combinations are more than might be explored over the course of multiple campaigns!

Physically, Shadow of the Weird Wizard is a densely presented book. The artwork is good and it is well written, but there is a lot of information in the book, obviously related to character creation as well as the core rules. Given that density, the core rules could have been made more obvious and perhaps a reference page included at the start or end of the book to make it easier to run.

Shadow of the Weird Wizard is the equivalent of the Player’s Handbook for Shadow of the Weird Wizard. It is not quite perfect, the inclusion of only one Ancestry limits player choice, but a roleplaying group is going to be using Secrets of the Weird Wizard anyway, so this is not as much of an issue as it could have been, whereas the density of the book making the rules less accessible than they could have been, is more of an issue. Not an insurmountable issue by any means, but rather one that could have eased. Nevertheless, as well as presenting a more streamlined version of the Demon Lord Engine mechanics for its rules, it presents the player with hundreds of options and then hundreds and hundreds of choices and combinations in terms of what his character is and can be. Want to become a Berserker who Juggernauts his way through walls? A Holy Avenger who employs Necromancy to wreak his vengeance? An Inheritor of a mighty magical weapon who as Diabolist deals in the Dark Arts? An Artificer who imbues technology with magic and pilots his own War Machine? All these—and a whole lot more—are possible in Shadow of the Weird Wizard. Overall, Shadow of the Weird Wizard is a comprehensive set-up and introduction to playing positive, high fantasy using the Demon Lord Engine.