Ecology & Exploration

The halls of each of the Mappa Mundi Institutes stand as a repository of memory and a cradle of curiosity. Each is an archive of what was before and an empty store of what is to be found and discovered. Their Chroniclers are ready and eager to explore the world anew, to travel to the next valley or the other side of the world, and return with tales of what they have seen and stories of how such places have changed. For the world of Ecumene is a world that has changed. People once willingly travelled, making the long and sometimes difficult journeys from their homes to the other three continents and returned as living libraries of all they had experienced and all that they had seen. People, places, and Monsters and Creatures were learned about and from, and the stories shared and remembered, again and again. Then the Flux came and the world changed. Storms rose so big and so furious that travel became impossible. Rivers burst their banks and mountains were lost to fog so thick, it was as their very existence was greyed out. The Monsters and Creatures too changed. Before they had been studied and known, their behaviours and patterns respected, and some had even lived alongside and been protectors of the people, now some retreated into the Wilds, whilst others became aggressive, even monstrous… The nature of the Flux has long been debated, but now change has come again to the world of Ecumene. It is receding and people can begin to travel again. The Chroniclers can not only recover the stories of old, before the coming of the Flux, but observe anew and record stories of the world of Ecumene as it is now.

This is the set-up to Mappa Mundi – An Exploration + Ecology RPG, a collaborative storytelling roleplaying game of exploration, discovery, and ecological change. Published by Three Sails Studios following a successful Kickstarter campaign, this is a roleplaying game with a firm emphasis on world building through play and a firm emphasis on non-violence to the extent that the roleplaying game does not actually have a combat system! Instead, the Chroniclers—as the Player Characters are known—having sworn an oath to ‘Do No Harm’, will explore new regions of the world, encounter new peoples, discover Monsters and Creatures, and interact with them, whilst their players are encouraged to ‘Shape’ the world around their Chroniclers, describing and adding detail to what they see, building upon what has been described before. The roleplaying game uses a deck of cards called the Journey Deck to create the story and the challenges the Chroniclers will need to overcome, all before coming face-to-face with the Monster or Creature they want to study and learn about. What they will not do, though, is discover what the Flux was—and perhaps still is—as that is not the point of the roleplaying game and the roleplaying game goes out of its way to not define it.

As a Chronicler, a Player Character will receive a Licence from the Mappa Mundi Institute, representing the training he has received. This is either Archivist, who specialises in recording folklore and separating it from the truth about Monsters and Creatures, and surveying new lands; Diviner, linked to Fate, who reads the signs in everything around him and the cards he draws and bones he rolls; Fixer, good at recognising social cues in both people and Monsters and Creatures, but also capable of jury-rigging tools, traps, and other helpful devices; and Guardian, who defends people from Monsters and Creatures, Monsters and Creatures from people, and also serves as a tracker and guide. A Chronicler has general Training in four Abilities— Traversal, Observation, Deduction, and Exploration—represented by ‘Bones’ or dice, the higher the better or more capable a Chronicler is. Mappa Mundi maps the Bone or die size to age and experience, the ‘Fate Bone’ or two-sided die represents childhood, the ‘Growth Bone’ or four-sided die represents young adulthood, the ‘Travel Bone’ or four-sided die represents the freedom of adulthood, the ‘Life Bone’ or eight-sided die represents experience and maturity, and the ‘Scholar’s Bone’ or twelve-sided die represents mastery and wisdom, but also deception. A Chronicler’s Licence determines where two of his Trainings are assigned, representing a strength and weakness, as well as the first Skills from the Licence’s Skill paths and then gives choices in terms of Interactions, how the Chronicler approaches the world.

In terms of development, all four Chronicler Licences can improve their Bones and possess extensive Skill trees that will see them be recognised for their Specialisations. For example, the Diviner can be recognised as a Cartomancer, Ossimancer, or an Augur, whilst a Guardian can be recognised as a Warden, Survivalist, or Trapper. It is also possible for a Chronicler to learn Skills from a Licence other than their own, and when a Chronicler gains two Specialisations or more, he will receive Endorsements. In general, it is faster to learn from failure than success.

Edmund
Licence: Archivist
ABILITIES
Traversal d4 Observation d6 Deduction d6 Exploration d4
SKILLS

Traversal:
Observation: Behaviourist, Politics
Deduction: Folk Tradition
Exploration: Geography
INTERACTIONS
Diagnose, Study, Study

Mechanically, Mappa Mundi is quite simple. Whenever the Narrator asks a player to make an Ability Check for his Chronicler, the player rolls the die appropriate to the Ability. If the roll is equal to or higher than the Target, the Chronicler succeeds. A player can choose to substitute an Ability with a Skill and if the Narrator agrees—and she does not have to—then she can allow the Chronicler to automatically succeed or the Target for the Ability roll be reduced. One oddity here is that Mappa Mundi does not list set Target values, which initially is going to leave the Narrator and players at a loss. However, Mappa Mundi does, a few pages later, explain that mechanically, Mappa Mundi is intended to be adaptive and proportional. The difficult Target value for each of the four Abilities is determined by the average of the dice values assigned to each Ability for all Chroniclers and then values are set above and below for more or less challenging Targets. For a group of beginning Chroniclers, the average would be five, so the challenging Target would be six, an impossible Target set at eight, a standard Target at four, and an easy Target at two. The actual difficulty of a task depends on the context and some tasks will remain challenging no matter what the Chroniclers do.

In addition, a Chronicler can earn Fate Points for good play and good roleplaying. These can be spent on Fate Checks, with more challenging situations requiring more than one Fate Point. A Fate Check requires both the expenditure of Fate Points and the roll of the Fate Die, so even if the Chronicler has the Fate Points and his player wants to use them, success is not guaranteed. Lastly, Fate Points can be saved and used to unlock new Interactions.

Lastly, although Mappa Mundi does not have a combat system and a Chronicler cannot die, he can still be hurt, whether that is from getting into a fight or getting too close to a Monster. In which case, he suffers one of four conditions—Minor, Major, Unconscious, or Transformative. Each of these will affect the Chronicler in some fashion, making it more difficult for him to succeed until he either recovers or adapts.

Whether played as a one-shot or a campaign—and it really is designed for long term play, The Mappa Mundi – An Exploration + Ecology RPG is played in three phases. These are the Research, Journey, and Encounter phases. During the Research phase, the Chroniclers will investigate a region, interact with its inhabitants, and learn about what they know about the region’s Monsters and Creatures. In the Journey phase, the Chroniclers will strike out into the wilderness in search of where the Monster or Creature they are looking for is located, and then, in the Encounter phase, they will confront the Monster or Creature. This is not to defeat it or tame it, perhaps as you would in another roleplaying game, but instead to observe it, learn about it, and discover its Behaviours. This requires the use of the Journey Deck. This consists of seventy-one Tarot deck-sized cards. These depict terrain such as a Summit, Stream, and Tor, and Monsters and Creatures such as the Afrit, Tiamat, and Shoroon Khutgagh. As well as being presented in full colour, each has a name at the top whose orientation in play will affect the challenges that the Chroniclers will face and work to overcome.

Prior to the start of play, the Narrator sets up the Journey Deck for the trip the Chroniclers want to make and the Creature or Monster that they want to encounter and learn about. This does not use all of the cards from the Journey Deck, but only the one representing the Creature or Monster and those that represent the terrain that the Chroniclers will traverse. This Monster or Creature and this terrain can be one of the Narrator’s own creation, or the Narrator can set it up based on the regions, Monsters, and Creatures detailed in Mappa Mundi. In response to the Chroniclers actions during the Research phase, the Narrator constructs the deck for the Journey phase. When added to this deck, a card can be placed ‘Rightwise’ or ‘Inverted’. ‘Rightwise’ if the Chroniclers encounter an NPC or learn a true fact during the Research phase, but ‘Inverted’ if they fail to find information, annoy an NPC, or so. During the Journey phase, reaching a location whose card is ‘Rightwise’ means that the travel is easier and more pleasant, and in game terms, the players have scope to ‘Shape’ the environment and narrative around their Chroniclers. Conversely, an ‘Inverted’ terrain card represents a challenge that the Chroniclers must overcome, but if they do, then they have the opportunity to again to ‘Shape’.

In the Encounter phase, the Chroniclers will come face-to-face with the Monster or Creature. Each Monster or Creature is defined by its Behaviours—eight for the Monster and four for the Creature—that are linked to and can be revealed by the Chroniclers’ Interactions, and Threads, which can either be Intact, Frayed, or Severed. These Threads require the Chroniclers to carefully handle them, and they can change according to the Chroniclers’ actions. Fail an Ability check and a Thread can go from Intact to Frayed and from Frayed to Severed, but where a Frayed Thread can be repaired to Intact, a Severed Thread cannot be repaired. Success means that a Chronicler can ultimately learn about a Behaviour and his player ‘Shape’ how it manifests. Overall success means learning about a Creature or Monster as much as the Chroniclers can and returning to the nearest Mappa Mundi Institute to share.

A Narrator is free to create her own regions and Monsters and Creatures, but almost two thirds of Mappa Mundi – An Exploration + Ecology RPG is dedicated to ten regional guides and Monster and Creature descriptions found across Ecumene. These provide geographies, histories, cultures, and bestiaries to explore, examine, and enter into the records, backed up with ‘Tales of Interest’ that provide rumours and hooks that the Narrator can use to draw the players and Chroniclers in to investigate further. Every region’s bestiary includes three Monsters and a list of the more mundane Creatures complete Threads, Interaction, and ‘Shaping’ inspirations that the players can draw from to ‘Shape’ their Chroniclers’ interactions with them. Each Region is prefaced by a map that the Narrator can also draw from for inspiration in terms of the Terrain cards that she will use from the Journey Deck.

For the Narrator, there is advice and suggestions, not just on running the game, but also its tone and its key principles, to create a living world that will react to the actions of the Chroniclers. There is advice too on the Narrator creating her own Monsters and Creatures beyond those given in the book, and also a ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ which addresses some of the enquiries already raised by Narrators.

Where Mappa Mundi underwhelms is in terms of its reader friendliness and accessibility. For example, there is no mention of the use of the cards to drive a story until the Narrator’s section and the explanation of how Target difficulties are rolled by the player and how Target difficulties are rolled by the Narrator are separate. Similarly, there are terms mentioned, such as various aspects of a Chronicler, that the reader is left to wonder at until several pages later. Consequently, there is a slight sense of disconnection in reading the book. Some of this could have been addressed with the inclusion of an index or even just a glossary. Further, whilst the use of the cards to set-up a story through its three phases is far from poorly explained, an example of play, from set-up to the three phases, would have eased the reader into what the designers intended. To be clear, none of these problems are insurmountable or impede play, they just mean that Mappa Mundi is just slightly harder to learn to play and harder to teach to play.

Physically, Mappa Mundi – An Exploration + Ecology RPG comes in a sturdy box that also contains the cards of the Journey Deck. The art and cartography of the book and the art of the Journey Deck are lovely, the Monsters in particular, portraying new Monsters as well as new interpretations of old ones. The book itself is engagingly written, especially in the colour text. However, there are sections of italicised text after italicised text which is awkward on the eye.

Mappa Mundi – An Exploration + Ecology RPG is a storytelling game and so offers a different style of play in comparison to traditional roleplaying games. Its lack of combat rules in particular, force the players and Chroniclers to roleplay and interact with the world in a different way, searching for signs of recovery from the Flux and finding out what has changed and what has stayed the same, and sharing what they have learned. This will require some adjustment for players and Narrators more used to the traditional style of roleplaying games, whilst those with experience with storytelling games will require far less adjustment, if any. The lack of fuller explanations and examples of play is likely to mean that the roleplaying game is better suited to be run by a Narrator who has some experience of running storytelling games. Nevertheless, the absence of combat rules and the ecological theme, very much mark Mappa Mundi out as a non-traditional roleplaying game and may open it up to a different audience. Overall, Mappa Mundi – An Exploration + Ecology RPG is a beautiful game about hope, discovery, and telling the story of the world around the Chroniclers.

The Other OSR: Book of Beasts

With Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts, the number of creatures and threats with which to menace the Player Characters doubles! Published by Free League Publishing, Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts provides twenty-eight descriptions of monsters fierce and fearsome adding to the twenty-three given in the core rulebook for the ‘Retro Open-World Survival Fantasy RPG’, Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World. Every entry comes with a short piece of colour fiction, full stats and abilities, and a table of Monster Attacks. That though is not all. For there is also a table for the player to roll his character’s Lore skill and so determine what Insights he might have into the creature. Then there is not one but two random encounters, each with some flavoursome description and an indication of the terrain types where the monster might be found. Lastly, there is a description of the ‘Resources’ that might be harvested from a monster if the Player Characters manage to kill one. Last, but least, there is a superb illustration. Beautiful, rich, and detailed, every image of a creature in Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is captivating. Any time that the Game Master shows one of these to her players, she really is going to amaze them.

So the Mummy is depicted as a dried husk of a warrior, grinning as it holds a victim by the throat in one hand, whilst readying a sword in the other. It is described as being in life a great lord who lusted after power, a lust that was not dimmed by the cold death of the crypt. In its unlife, it reigns over the steel and gold it was buried with and now jealously guards. Its body is hollowed out and empty and it hungers for the salts and juices that flow through the bodies of the living, having become a predatory cannibal in death. Some of this will be revealed in a Lore roll, but there is more that the Player Characters can learn. One of the random encounters is just a simple tomb description, whilst the other is a bit more exciting—a Mummy’s tomb that is already open and would have been plundered by some graverobbers were it not for the fact that they are being attacked by a Mummy and its servants!

In terms of stats, the Mummy is incredibly strong, but otherwise slow. It is unnaturally drawn to human entrails, but bound to its tombs. Its attacks include ‘Lordly Strike!’, which inflicts such a heavy blow that the defender is knocked prone, whilst with ‘Heart Constriction’, the Mummy makes a crushing genre with his fingers at an opponent who suffers a sudden and terrible pain in his chest and is potentially overcome with mortal terror! This is of course, in addition to the other four attacks listed for the Mummy, whilst the last entry in the monster description suggests the only Resource that can be harvested from a Mummy is the powder ground from its bones that when swallowed grants a bonus to the imbiber’s Strength.

So every monster and every creature in Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is given this treatment to great effect. The entries are all easy to read and easy to use, and include things such as a Dread Raptor, Giant Spider—which has descriptions of hatchlings, adults, and elders, the Iron Dragon, the Nature Spirit, Rat King, Twisted Ent, and more. There are some great monsters here and they provide the Game Master with some fantastic new options in terms of presenting challengers to her players. However, that is not all that there is in the pages of Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts, although they do take up nearly two thirds of the book.

The content beyond the monsters in Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts begins with a random encounter table for the thirty-six encounters that follow. All of these again, have a single paragraph of colour fiction, suitable to read out to the players, and typically a half page of detail, though some have more. Stats are included where necessary, but there is always a list of the terrain where the encounter can take place. They range from finding a man locked in a hanging iron cage pleading to be let free and coming across an old battlefield that could be salvaged to going to the aid of a legendary brewer and being employed to track down the bandits that attacked him and having to placate the spirit of an orc lord after sitting on his somewhat bedraggled stone throne. Some are as simple as coming across a piece of statuary and the opportunity to learn some lore about the history of the region, whilst others are more complex like discovering a length of a Dwarven wall and with the aid of an expert on its history finding a way to the tomb of an ancient chieftain. Not all of them are quite ready to run though, so there are several which require more development than others, such as the meaning behind a coded message that is found on a dead pigeon. This is though, a good selection of encounters and scenario hooks.

Oddly, Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts has its own section of ‘Game Master Tools’ as if none of the previous content was for the Game Master and this section is for her eyes only. Of course, the whole book is for the Game Master. The section contains a list of traps, from nets, poison darts, and crusting boulders to domination, magical traps, and teleportation, which can be rolled for or selected, whilst ‘Books, Ballads, and Grimoires’ expands upon the ‘Carried Valuable Finds’ and ‘Carried Precious Finds’ from the Game-master’s Guide. These can all be studied and in return, a Player Character can gain a bonus, which can be a Talent or a skill increase. For example, ‘Easy Little Dwarfling’, a lullaby by Yendra grants the Lightning Fast Talent, whilst ‘Sweet, Courage, and Leverage’ by Nilia Trollvälte is a manual that increases the Might of anyone who studies it. Between the various categories, there are over seventy entries here and even just having the names of either the manuals and ballads, and their authors, adds to the immersive nature of the Forbidden Lands setting. A similar set of tables adds new artefacts to the roleplaying game, though they lack the description and detail given to those in the core rules.

‘Journeys’ adds further tables, but this time for nature of different locations or terrain types, ranging from plains, forests, and dark forests to quagmires, marshlands, and ruins, and then it does the same for camps, plus there is trio of quick and dirty weather tables. In general, the ‘Journeys’ only adds a little extra detail and the tables are limited in their number of entries. Strongholds form a major part of play in Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World, whether that is the Player Characters needing to investigate one, either to take and hold it as a base of operations or explore and scavenge its contents, or as a base of operations, work to make the surrounding area safer. ‘Rules for Strongholds’ adds to the rules found in the Player’s Handbook with a short table of events and a long table of potential servants, their personalities, and secrets. The table of events could have been much, much longer, whereas in a campaign, the Game Master will get much more out of the table of servants.

‘Potions & Poisons’ opens up a new aspect of play, especially for the Player Character with the Herbalist Talent. It allows a Player Character with this Talent to forage for herbs and with the addition of the new Alchemist Talent, him to brew and concoct various potions, tinctures, and more. There are rules here for a new function that can be added to the Player Characters’ stronghold, a Laboratory, which adds a bonus to brewing potions and poisons. In addition to the list of various alchemical potions, there is a list of poisons too, which is useful for the Poisoner Talent. There is a new rule what happens if too many potions are consumed in too short a time.

Lastly, Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts includes ‘Solo Rules’. This addition to various roleplaying games has become popular since the advent of COVID-19 and the extended periods of lockdown, enabling players to play face-to-face gaming at the table proved impossible. The rules here give the player, which of course, can be the Game Master, the means to explore the Forbidden Lands alone. The Player Character needs to be a little more powerful than a standard Player Character, and suggests that Lucky be taken as an extra General Talent. There are rules here for including a companion character, potentially a replacement Player Characters, and tables for the creating encounters and providing answers that the Player Character might have about the world around him. An ordinary deck of playing cards is required to generate the answers from what the rules call ‘Oracles’, covering simple ‘Yes/No’ questions, ‘Helpful/Hazardous’ situations, and more. As with other solo rules, the ones presented here make play more procedural than standard play and of course, they lack the capacity for roleplaying. Nevertheless, they are a useful option.

Physically, Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is a black and white book, but an absolutely fantastic-looking one. The artwork is exquisite. Otherwise, the book is very well written and easy to read.

Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is great addition to Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World and so much more than a simple bestiary. In fact, as a bestiary, it is not even simple. The monsters and creatures described are things out of nightmare and folklore, memorably menacing and dangerous. There is more to them than just encountering a gaggle of Goblins as in other roleplaying games, aided by the uncertainty of their different and random attacks, their lore, and of course, the encounter descriptions which accompany each entry. Then, there is the rest of the content in Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts—encounters, traps, alchemy and potions, and quite a lot more. Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is not just a great bestiary for Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World, but a good companion to its rules as well.

Friday Filler: Exploriana

In the nineteenth century there remained much of the world to be explored and discovered, so men and women would set out to chart and catalogue the great unknowns in Africa, Asia, and South America. Many would be sponsored by august bodies such as the Royal Geographical Society, the Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, and Société de Géographie, as well as many museums, and in turn the most successful of explorers would return with tales of their explorations, bringing back with them charts of where they have been, fantastic animals and beautiful plants, amazing treasures, and even lost explorers. They would go on to be famous, whilst their sponsors—the societies and the museums—would gain prestige, able to conduct greater scientific work and open greater exhibits to the public. This is the set-up for Exploriana, a board game of exploration and discovery, published by Triple Ace Games, following a successful Kickstarter campaign in which august scientific bodies will send out intrepid explorers and naturalists to chart and catalogue the world, and come back with great discoveries. Each player is the head of one these scientific bodies, who Recruits and sends out Explorers to the far flung corners of the world where they explore regions, and make and return with discoveries that the scientific organisations so covet. It combines ‘Card Drafting’, ‘Push Your Luck’, ‘Set Collection’, and ‘Worker Placement’ mechanics, is designed for between two and five players, aged fourteen and up, and takes roughly forty-five to sixty minutes to play.

Fundamentally, Exploriana consists of five decks of cards and four boards. Three of the decks of cards are Region decks, consisting of Discovery cards, one each for Africa, Asia, and South America. Each Region deck has an associated Region board. The fourth board is the Renown/Score Track, whilst the fourth and fifth decks of cards consist of Explorer cards and Mission cards respectively. Each Discovery card in a Region deck indicates its type—Animal, Location, Treasure, Map, or Orchid, as well as the number of Victory Points it awards at game’s end, Renown for determining turn order, coins it awards, and potentially the Hazard it presented in acquiring. The three types of Hazard are ‘Wrong Turn’, ‘Animal Attack’, and ‘Rockfall’. If a player reveals the three different or three of the same Hazard types during a turn exploring, his turn is over. The three Region deck decks vary in terms of risk and reward, with South America having the lowest and Asia the highest.

The Explorer cards consist of individuals like the Entrepreneur who can draw new Mission cards and choose open to keep, the Medic who can turn over the top card of a Discovery deck and if has one, can ignore the Hazard it reveals, and the Photographer who can take two cards from a Region. Explorer cards are recruited in the first phase of each turn, but each has a cost to be paid if a player wants to use their effects, and an Explore card is discarded after use. Each Mission card has a task such as ‘My Hero!’ (rescuing three or more lost explorers), ‘Bloomin’ Marvelous!’ (collect a set of orchids, one of each type), and ‘Location, Location, Location!’ (collection a location from each of the three different Regions. Each Mission card awards four Victory Points.

Each of the three Region boards has spaces to place the players’ Explorer pawns and Lost Explorer tokens. They are also double-sided, one side being for two to four players and the other for five players. The Renown/Score Track is used to keep track of the players’ Renown throughout the game. Both Renown/Score Track and the three Region boards are designed to click together jigsaw fashion to form one long board.

Set-up of Exploriana is simple enough. The Renown/Score Track and the three Region boards are placed in a line down the table and the three Region decks shuffled and placed alongside them with three cards in reserve on one side and the rest on the other. Two cards from each deck are drawn and placed face up so that everyone can see them. Each player is given his two Explorer pawns, six coins, and two Missions, which will score them Victory Points if completed.

Each round of Exploriana consists of four phases. Turn order goes from the highest Renown to the lowest, but at the game’s beginning, the player who most recently travelled to another continent goes first. In the ‘Recruit Explorers’ phase, the players each choose one Explorer card from those face up. There is always one more Explorer card than the number of players and any Explorer card left has a coin added to it. A player who takes an Explorer card with coins on it, also gets the coins. This can be a consideration as players rarely have quite enough coins necessary to hire their Explorers and use their abilities. In the ‘Send Explorers’ phase, the players take in turns to assign one of their Explorer pawns, then the other, onto one or two of the Region boards. A player can only explore a Region deck if he has an Explorer pawn on the associated Region board. It is possible to completely fill the spaces on a Region board, forcing a player to place his Explorer pawn elsewhere.

Then, starting on the South America Region board and moving to the Africa Region board and then the Asia Region board, each player takes any number of actions for one of his Explorer pawns in the third phase, Explore Regions’, before going round again for each player’s second Explorer pawn. There are three types of action a player can take. First, he can ‘Explore’, turning over cards from the Region deck adjacent to Region board; second, he can ‘Hire a guide’, every player having a guide token he can use to cover a Hazard symbol on a face-up Region card, though this costs coins; and third, ‘Use an Explorer card’, a simple matter of following its instructions. A player’s turn with one Explorer pawn continues until one of four conditions are met. Either three different or three of the same Hazard types are revealed face-up on the Region cards, in which case the Explorer becomes lost and a random Lost Explorer token is added to the Region board and all of the face up Region cards in the Region are shuffled back into the Region deck, and two cards are drawn again. Lost Explorer tokens are worth two, three, or four Victory Points, and are placed face down. Either because there are five face-up Region cards adjacent to the Region board or the player decides to stop exploring, or because an Explorer card tells the player to stop.

If there are five face-up Region cards or the player decided to stop exploring, and there are not sufficient Hazard types revealed face-up to get the player lost, the last action he gets to do is ‘Take Picks’. If there are four or fewer Regions face-up to choose from, a player only gets one pick, but if there are five, he gets two. A pick can either be all of the Region cards with Animal symbols on them in the Region, a single Region card with a non-Animal symbol on it (Location, Treasure, Map, or Orchid), or a single Lost Explorer token on the Region Board. A player can then repeat this all with his second Explorer pawn, in either the same Region or a different one, depending upon where it is placed.

The fourth and last phase of a round is ‘End of the Round’. It is actually only triggered when any Region deck or its reserve pile, or the Explorer deck is depleted, and indicates the end of the game. Each player is awarded Victory Points for the number of Renown points scored, Mission cards completed, Lost Explorer tokens, coins, and Region cards with Location and Treasure symbols collected, for each Animal on their Region cards collected, the number of Map symbols collected, and the number of sets of Region cards with Orchid symbols collected. The player with the most Victory Points is the winner.

Essentially, each player is attempting to push his luck when exploring a Region and turning over its Region cards, attempting to find the Region cards he wants that will score him the most points or helps him fulfil the requirements of a Mission card. This is balanced against the possibility of too many Hazard symbols being revealed, and so making an Explorer lost, as well as the need to find coins which a player will need to pay in order to use the special ability of an Explorer card. The first player to any Region—typically dictated by Renown order—has the benefit of making use of the first two cards face-up in a Region, thematically, the equivalent of entering undiscovered territory. Later players will probably find that the face-up Region cards have changed, potentially with the best Region cards already having been picked or too many Region cards with Hazard symbols left to be revealed. The ‘Set Collection’ aspect of the game involves getting as many Region cards with Map symbols or sets of the three types of Orchid symbols on the Region cards. A last aspect of the game’s ‘Push Your Luck’ play, is whether or not to Explore the more dangerous Regions of Africa or Asia, which have higher rewards, but more risks in the form of a greater number of Hazard symbols.

Beyond the race to place Explorer pawns in choice slots on the Region boards, Exploriana is not a game with any real direct interaction between the players. This does not mean that it is a bad game however, rather that its competitive play is relatively gentle and probably suited to a younger audience than the minimum age of fourteen years old already given. Certainly twelve-year-olds would have no issue with relative complexities of Exploriana and those complexities are not that complex. Further, the playing time of forty-five minutes to an hour is a little long, except for the first playthrough perhaps. After that, it should play in thirty minutes or so.

That though, is the basic game. Exploriana includes much more than just the basic game. For two players, it adds a dummy third player to act as a rival, though this is not as enjoyable to play, and then there are several advanced rules and variants. These add valuable relics which can be discovered by collecting particular symbols for the Region the relic is from; a bonus of two coins for Explorer pawns which become lost, which encourages a player to actually push his luck even further exploring a Region and drawing cards; and Expansion cards which are taken as soon as they are drawn, such as the Poisoned Chalice which is given to another player (and later possibly to another player when an Explorer becomes lost) and losing the player who has it at the end of the game Victory Points. There are a total of nine advanced options and variants, which the players are free to pick and choose from, and that is in addition to the solo rules and variants included. Adding these to the play of the game will increase its play length though.

Physically, Exploriana is very well presented. A good cardstock is used for all of the cards, the playing pieces and tokens are of thick cardboard or wood, and everything is done in full colour. The rulebook is generally well written, but needs a careful read through in places.

Exploriana is quite a light game, with scope to make it as complex as the players want, but without getting overly so. Its engaging theme, attractive production values, and light mechanics make it a decent family game as well as something that can be enjoyed by the more experienced boardgamer too.

An Other OSR Quartet II

Forbidden Lands: Crypt of the Mellified Mage is an anthology of four adventure sites for use with Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World, the ‘Retro Open-World Survival Fantasy RPG’ published by Free League Publishing, following from the earlier The Spire of Quetzel. Like The Spire of Quetzel, it provides the Game Master with four more locales she can slot into her Forbidden Lands campaign—whether her own or Raven’s Purge, the roleplaying game’s epic eight-part campaign with an open structure built around eight locations and a finale at a ninth location—or possibly run as one-shots. They reflect the open play style of Forbidden Lands, in which the players and their characters are explorers, travelling across territories which have been cut off for centuries and of which they know little except legends. Such legends serve as hooks, pushing the characters to visit the setting’s adventure sites—villages, castles, and dungeons—and pulling them into the region’s history and secrets, often revealing the dark truths of lands that have been under a blood mist and demon-infested for centuries. Whether delving into the honeyed tomb of an undead apiarist-mage, making a rescue attempt for missing villagers in the caves of a blood-potter, taking advantage of internal politics to defeat the Monkey King and banish his pagoda temple complex which has drilled its way up into the Forbidden Lands, or exploring the weird mind cloud of a long dead wizard, just as with The Spire of Quetzel, what really marks these scenarios as being different is their authors.

All four scenarios in Crypt of the Mellified Mage are written by some of the leading writers in the Old School Renaissance. They include Fiona Maeve Geist, one of the designers of MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror RPG; David McGrogan, the creator of Yoon-Suin, the Purple Land; Zedeck Siew, author of Lorn Song of the Bachelor and A Thousand, Thousand Island setting; and Adam Kobel, the designer of Dungeon World. The quartet consists of three dungeon and one village adventure sites, and in each case will require a degree of preparation if the Game Master wants to include them in her campaign. Sometimes this is actually creating a location for a dungeon to be found under, but mostly they are foreshadowing during early parts of the campaign to be effective parts of the ongoing story of the adventurers’ explorations.

Crypt of the Mellified Mage opens with Fiona Maeve Geist’s eponymous ‘Crypt of the Mellified Mage’, a dungeon which lies beneath a village which the Game Master will need to create or develop. It is actually the tomb of the sorcerer Pagoag, whose cruel skill and hedonistic experimentation into medical matters is said to have led him down some dark paths including the mellifiying of flesh using honey into a candy which when consumed is said to prolong the consumer’s life. Pagoag, being a sorcerer, also sought life after death and the result of his experiments can be found throughout his tomb—apiaries built from bones, skeletons home to bee swarms, and undead bee swarms! If the legends are true, then perhaps the mollified flesh may be found and collected, perhaps to consume to heal a Player Character’s illness, that of their patron (if they have one), or simply sold to the highest bidder. There is a sense of sickly-sweet revulsion to the tomb and Pagoag himself is a vile monster. The crypt is, of course, not a pyramid, but it has the feel of an Egyptian tomb, although one infused with the musky scents of spices and honey and an apiarist theme running throughout. It is nicely designed, with a pervading sense of creepy unease and multiple entrances and approaches to the tomb itself so that unlike other crypts, there is no linear play to its exploration which funnels the Player Characters and limits their actions. However, one big problem with the scenario is that as attractive as the three-dimensional map is, its design does not always match the text and vice versa. So what this is means that the Game Master will need to put more effort into the scenario to ensure that she understands the layout of the tomb and certainly the connections between rooms.

David McGrogan’s ‘The Firing Pit of Llao-Yutuy’ is a smaller, more focused dungeon, a cavern complex where the eponymous Llao-Yutuy breaks his captured captives and infuses their blood into the bowls, pottery, and even golems he makes and fires. Despite being a much smaller adventure site and less complex than the others, it is no less creepy with its cruel atmosphere and unnerving automata which appear here and there. The potter’s servants and shockingly poorly treated apprentices are unlikely to present much of a threat to the Player Characters, whereas the aforementioned automata, Llao-Yutuy himself, and his vilely shrewish wife will do. There are some intriguing treasures to be found, which might be the reason for the Player Characters’ visit, or they might be employed to rescue some the captives currently held by Llao-Yutuy and his servants. In some ways this is the easiest of the four adventure sites in Crypt of the Mellified Mage for the Game Master to use—it is relatively easy to set up and prepare, and the site is small. However, it suffers from the same cartographic issues as ‘Crypt of the Mellified Mage’, and again will need careful preparation upon the part of the Game Master to ensure that there is no confusion between map and text.

Zedeck Siew’s ‘Temple of the Six-Limbed Lord’ literally invades the Forbidden Lands with monkey magic! Intended for more seasoned players and characters, technically, a village site, it is a temple complex consisting of several pagodas which have drilled their way up into the Forbidden Lands in an attempt to invade heaven. Of course, the Six-Limbed Lord wants to spread his worship, and that includes the Forbidden Lands, visiting nearby towns and occupying them, capturing friendly NPCs, even menacing strongholds held by the Player Characters. The Player Characters might encounter Monkey Soldiers on an impromptu pub-crawl, caravans beset by cloud riders sparking lightning, one of the Priests of the Six-Limbed Lord sat in a gilded throne borne by a Macaque Swarm, or even Nyanyetnya, Seventh Priest of the Six-Limbed Lord, who wants to serve them tea. Of course, she wants more than this, having been expelled from the temple—and she wants back in! To that end, she will engage the Player Characters who if they decide to help her will have to negotiate the petty politics of the other priests and their cohorts. This is the most sophisticated of the adventure sites, and the one to involve the most roleplaying as the Player Characters play the factions in the temple off against each other.

However, ‘Temple of the Six-Limbed Lord’ not only invades the Forbidden Lands literally, it invades the Western fantasy genre of Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World as well. What this means is that for some Game Masters, this adventure site might be at odds with their campaign and the genre. It is well done, despite suffering from the same cartographic issues as the earlier adventure sites and really adds something memorably different to a campaign, almost leaving Game Master and players alike to wonder quite what a Forbidden Lands-style campaign would be like in the setting beyond the walls of the Temple of the Six-Limbed Lord.

The last scenario in Crypt of the Mellified Mage is Adam Koebel’s ‘The Dream-Cloud of E’lok Thir’, and again is a very different dungeon—even radically different. What it does is turn the mind or dreams of a long dead wizard into a dungeon, one consisting of locations inspired by his fragmented doubts, elations, fears, and joys and as they explore each of these rooms, the Player Characters will encounter reflections of both E’lok Thir’s emotions and their own. There is no map to the dungeon, but rather the Game Master generates the life of the deceased mage and develops descriptions of rooms such as ‘Regret Made Manifest’ and ‘The Hidden Self’ based on what was rolled. The Game Master is free to connect these however she wants and without the need to adhere to the laws of physics, since this is, after all, a ‘Dream-Cloud’. Consequently, there is an otherworldly etherealness to ‘The Dream-Cloud of E’lok Thir’ and because the Game Master will need to know her player’s characters very well, there is an introspectiveness to it as well. Whilst it is the most open of the four scenarios in the anthology, it is also the most challenging to run. Further, it is not the easiest of scenarios to provide motivations for Player Character involvement. The Dream-Cloud can be reached via ritual, even as a consequence of a failed ritual, so the Player Characters might be forced to explore it following a magical mishap. The likelihood is that they will be wanting to enter the Dream-Cloud for a reason, either to obtain an object or treasure, or even information, and each of the location descriptions includes details of what treasures might be found there. Overall, ‘The Dream-Cloud of E’lok Thir’ is more a tool kit than a finalised adventure site ready to play, but its format does mean that it could be played through more than once, and each time it would be different enough.

Physically, Forbidden Lands: Crypt of the Mellified Mage is a lovely little book, that unfortunately let down by the disconnect between text and maps. Work around that though, and it is a pleasing hardback, nicely illustrated with maps done in the same style as other Forbidden Lands books. Each scenario follows the same format as those other books—Background, Legend, Getting Here, Locations, Monsters and NPCs, and Events. Despite the fact that the maps could have been better described, they are lovely to look at and the artwork throughout the book is exquisite. It would have been nice if some of the NPCs in the book had been illustrated, especially the various monkey priests in ‘Temple of the Six-Limbed Lord’ where they play such a pivotal role.

The disappointing side to the four adventure sites in Forbidden Lands: Crypt of the Mellified Mage is that each requires more preparation than they really should, especially to work them into a campaign, let alone coming to understand the map locations and their descriptions, and so none of the four are quite ready to play as they could be. If she is happy to make those preparations and develop them in readiness for inclusion in her campaign, Forbidden Lands: Crypt of the Mellified Mage provides the Game Master with some delightfully different adventure sites, each in their own way, creepy, weird, and wonderful. 

An Other OSR Quartet

The Spire of Quetzel is an anthology of four scenarios for use with Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World, the ‘Retro Open-World Survival Fantasy RPG’ published by Free League. It presents four locations which the Game Master can slot into her Forbidden Lands campaign—whether her own or Raven’s Purge, the roleplaying game’s epic eight-part campaign with an open structure built around eight locations and a finale at a ninth location—or possibly run as one-shots. They reflect the open play style of Forbidden Lands, in which the players and their characters are explorers, travelling across territories which have been cut off for centuries and of which they know little except legends. Such legends serve as hooks, pushing the characters to visit the setting’s adventure sites—villages, castles, and dungeons—and pulling them into the region’s history and secrets, often revealing the dark truths of lands that have been under a blood mist and demon-infested for centuries. Whether encountering a dreaming Demon-Queen, a prison of strange beasts who call themselves a family, a coven of witches who do not get along, or the weird graveyard of the last thunder lizard to walk this land, what marks these scenarios as different are their authors.

All four scenarios in The Spire of Quetzel are written by some of the leading writers in the Old School Renaissance. They include Patrick Stuart, the author of Veins of the Earth for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay; Chris McDowall, the designer of Into the Odd; Ben Milton, the designer of Maze Rats; and Karl Stjernberg, the designer of The Rad-Hack. They include a castle, a village, and two dungeons, all four of which are easily added to a campaign.

The quartet opens with Patrick Stuart’s eponymously titled ‘The Spire of Quetzel’, not so much a castle as a tower of high magic and mystery. The adventurers are approached by a crow-masked figure who asks them to perform a task—enter the tower where a long dead half elf, half demon sorcerer lies dreaming and return with her heart, a black gem. Once inside, the player characters first having to negotiate with demons before ascending into the tower’s upper reaches where its locations transcend the walls, spread out somewhere above the clouds. Several of these locations have a maze-like feel—one that the Game Master will need to improvise as the player characters progress—as well as an actual maze. Other scenarios for Forbidden Lands tend to have grim and gritty feel, but there is a sense of the ethereal to ‘The Spire of Quetzel’, one that echoes the dissolute and aged feel of an encounter that might be had by Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné.

The first of two dungeons in The Spire of Quetzel, Chris McDowall’s ‘The Bright Vault’ is home to a clutch of Demon spawn, siblings imprisoned in a blessed gaol lest they escape and wreak havoc upon a world only beginning to come to terms with the lifting of demon mists and some of the secrets so revealed. All four siblings are very different in terms of nature and motivation, and as much as the player characters will interact with them, they will be interacting with their guardian more and who will play a major role in their interaction with her charges. It also means that in places the Game Master is likely to be roleplaying one NPC against another and that is not always interesting for the players. Of the four scenarios in the anthology this is most awkward to run and prepare.

Technically, ‘The Hexenwald’ is a village, but really it is a set of similarly-themed locations—a coven of witches spread throughout a wood, on and around a lake. Ben Milton’s scenario is home to five witches, each with different pre-occupations and relationships with her sisters. Individually, these are interesting little encounters, but they are really designed to work together, their relationships driving potential events. Yet their homes feel too spread out to quite do that. Thus the Game Master might want to drive these motivations and interactions more proactively or have The Hexenwald a location that her player characters do not visit once, but several times, each time perhaps encountering different witches. Unlike the other scenarios in the anthology, ‘The Hexenwald’ is one that has the potential to be used in the long term.

Lastly, ‘Graveyard of Thunder’ by Karl Stjernberg is an entertaining change of tone, earthier and perhaps more natural. The location is actually a near-mythical dinosaur graveyard, which at the time of the player characters’ incursion is home to the cave system’s guardians and the last dinosaur which has come to die. They are not the only persons with an interest in the site, for an orc band has searched for the Graveyard of Thunder and its potential riches. The scenario is a pleasing contrast to the other three in the anthology, possessing a mythical naturalism where the others are archly arcane.

Physically, The Spire of Quetzel is a slim, but pleasing hardback, nicely illustrated with maps done in the same style as other Forbidden Lands books. Each scenario follows the same format as those other books—Background, Legend, Getting Here, Locations, Monsters and NPCs, and Events. In general, this works, but occasionally, where an NPC plays a major role in the scenario, for example, in ‘The Bright Vault’, having more information about the NPC upfront would make the descriptions of various locations clearer, less obtuse. Of course, this is not an insurmountable problem, but rather an issue upon first read and preparing the scenario with ease, and it helps that the fact that each of the four scenarios is barely twenty pages in length.

Unlike the scenarios in Forbidden Lands or Raven’s Purge, the four in The Spire of Quetzel are easier to adapt to other Old School Renaissance retroclones, not in terms of mechanics, but certainly in terms of plots and themes. Thus The Spire of Quetzel is a ready source of scenarios should the Game Master look outside of the Dungeons & Dragons-derived retroclones, but of course, the four scenarios in this anthology are best suited for addition to a Forbidden Lands campaign. They can be used as is, as one-shots, or as individual locations to be encountered in between others that are part of a campaign. Although some need a little more preparation than others, The Spire of Quetzel is solid collection of short scenarios that can be readily added to a Forbidden Lands campaign.

The Other OSR: Raven's Purge

One of the greatest artefacts of the Forbidden Lands is Stanengist, the royal crown known as ‘The Hanging Stones’. In this crown were mounted six rubies, each the elf stone of the first six elves of the Forbidden Lands who planted its trees, cut the beds through which the rivers flowed, and gave homes to its animals. From their position upon the crown, these elves could maintain a watch over what they had wrought and give advice to their descendants who wore the crown and so keep the lands intact. When several of the rubies were stolen, the land was weakened and with the coming of mankind to Ravenland, the land would ultimately be sundered with the rise of the Orcs and the unleashing of demons by the arch-sorcerer, Zygofer the Spellbinder. Walled off for centuries, the Blood Mist that has long settled upon these Forbidden Lands has recently lifted and men and women of all races have flooded into a realm untouched by their hands for centuries. They are not valiant souls, but scoundrels, treasure hunters, vagabonds, adventurers, fortune seekers, setting out to make their mark on the new land—there are dungeons to be plundered, great treasures to be found, and strongholds to be claimed!

The starting point for such expeditions are the legends, the lore, and the rumours that weft their way across the land, from ear to ear, and so it is with new word of Stanengist. It is said that visions have been seen of the lost rubies and where they lie. Locate these rubies and Stanengist itself and then remount them in the crown and it is said that whomever places it on her head shall according to legend gain the power to rally all kin and rule over the Forbidden Lands. There is truth in every legend, so is there a band of adventurers and fortune hunters brave enough, resourceful enough, foolhardy enough to locate all of the lost elf stones and so claim the crown of the Forbidden Lands?

This is the set-up for Raven’s Purge, the first campaign for Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World, the ‘Retro Open-World Survival Fantasy RPG’ published by Free League. Published as part of the roleplaying game’s Kickstarter campaign, Raven’s Purge is an epic eight-part campaign with an open structure built around eight locations and a finale at a last, ninth location. The player characters are free to visit any of the first eight locations in any order—and need not even visit them all—in order to gain sufficient information to go to that last location. This reflects the open play style of Forbidden Lands, in which the players and their characters are explorers, travelling across territories which have been cut off for centuries and of which they know little except legends. Such legends serve as hooks, pushing the characters to visit the setting’s adventure sites—villages, castles, and dungeons—and pulling them into the region’s history and secrets, often revealing the dark truths of lands that have been under a blood mist and demon-infested for centuries.

Raven’s Purge is presented as a toolkit to run its campaign as much it is a campaign itself. This is because the campaign is freeform in structure rather than linear, so the player characters are free to roam where they will, visiting which of the eight locations they want, and in what order they want. Now this means that the campaign is more of a challenge for the Game Master to prepare to run because it is primarily player directed. To offset this, the Game Master can nudge the player characters in certain directions, using the legends given for each of the artefacts which appear in the campaign and the various NPCs who have an interest in Stanengist.

As a toolkit, Raven’s Purge gives a complete history of Stanengist, including its missing rubies and details the nine key players from the Forbidden Lands with an interest of obtaining  in gaining the missing Elf Stones and Stanengist, before detailing the eight (plus one) locations which make up the campaign. Now the Game Master should be aware that the nine key players are not just the key players particular to this campaign, but the setting for the roleplaying game itself. Once the player characters get involved, their actions, the alliances they forge, and the enemies they make will have a profound effect upon the Forbidden Lands. Some of those effects, the consequences of the player characters’ actions across the campaign, are discussed in the book’s last chapter, ‘Aftermath’. This capacity to fundamentally change the political landscape ties back into the ethos of the designers of Forbidden Lands—that each Game Master’s campaign is going to be different and that the outcome of the player characters’ actions will be different in each campaign, essentially stamping their combined ‘legacy’ upon the Forbidden Lands.

The campaign’s adventure locations include the centre of the region’s slave trade, a party venue for ogres, an orc city, an abandoned mine, and more. Each location is accorded a chapter of its own and organised into the same format. This begins with a description of what the player characters see before detailing the location’s background, how to get there, the legends associated with it, its locations, monsters and NPCs, and possible events that might play out there once the player characters arrive. The ‘Getting There’ section typically gives two or three ideas, many of them NPC encounters before reaching the location itself that are tied into possible storylines given in the ‘Events’ section. If there is a weakness to the ‘Getting There’ section, it is that across the eight locations, the ‘encountering an NPC just outside a location who wants you do something in said location’ does become something of a cliché and the Game Master may want to adjust as necessary. That said, all of the given NPCs should be fun for the Game Master to roleplay and the events themselves are varied.

The Game Master can also expand upon Raven’s Purge by adding two of the adventure locations from the roleplaying game’s ‘Gamemaster’s Guide’—Weatherstone and Vale of the Dead. These can either simply be added to the eight given in Raven’s Purge, or if the Game Master has already run them, use them as a springboard into this campaign. Either way, they could be used as the starting point for playing Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World. The structure of the Raven’s Purge campaign—a series of nodes linked by legends at the centre of which is the finale—is also open enough such that a Game Master could design locations and adventures of her own to run in addition to the campaign itself.

Physically, Raven’s Purge matches the style and quality of both the ‘Player’s Manual’ and the ‘Gamemaster’s Guide’ for Forbidden Lands. Although it does not have the faux leather covers of the two core rulebooks, this is another sturdy hardback done in black and white on buff pages. Again illustrated in pen and ink throughout, it has the look and feel of a roleplaying game supplement from decades ago. The artwork, primarily drawn by one artist, is excellent, as is the cartography, again more illustrations than maps, is also good. It should be noted that the fantasy of Forbidden Lands is definitely grim and gritty with a mature tone.

In a great many ways, Raven’s Purge is the companion to the boxed set of Forbidden Lands. Together, the ‘Player’s Manual’ and the ‘Gamemaster’s Guide’ for Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World set up the Forbidden Lands as they are now, with Raven’s Purge expanding up that. Raven’s Purge though then provides the means for the player characters to not only interact with the great and the good—actually, mostly not good as there are shades of grey in every NPC—of the Forbidden Lands, but also truly change its political landscape. Raven’s Purge is a grim, gritty open campaign in which the future of the Forbidden Lands is placed in the player characters’ hands and what they do and what they decide will be their legacy in the Forbidden Lands.

The Other OSR: Forbidden Lands

The Ravenland was once ours, lands beyond the mountains which represented virgins ripe for expansion and settlement, but then the savagery of the Orcs was unleashed on the settlers, forcing their leader, Zygofer the Spellbinder to turn to foul means to drive them back. He opened dark gates to let in the demon help he sort and set himself up as king of Ravenland, but in response the wise king walled off the lands and forbade all to talk about the Spellbinder’s domain which became known as the Forbidden Lands. For centuries, they have been under the demonic control of both Zygofer and his daughter, as well as under the curse of the Blood Mist, which sucks the life out of anyone who strays too far from their door. Yet now, even while Zygofer and his daughter remain still on the throne of the Forbidden Lands, the Blood Mist has lifted and men and women of all races have flooded into a realm untouched by their hands for centuries. They are not valiant souls, but scoundrels, treasure hunters, vagabonds, adventurers, fortune seekers, setting out to make their mark on the new land—there are dungeons to be plundered, great treasures to be found, and strongholds to be claimed!

This is the set-up for Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World, a fantasy roleplaying game published by Free League, following a successful Kickstarter campaign. It comes as an imposing boxed set which contains two hardback books with faux leather covers—the ‘Player’s Manual’ and the ‘Gamemaster’s Guide’, a large full colour map of the Forbidden Lands, and a sheet of stickers. The roleplaying game is described as a ‘Retro Open-World Survival Fantasy RPG’ and designed to be played in the style of the fantasy roleplaying games of the seventies and early eighties, with the player characters free to roam as they will across the Forbidden Lands as a sandbox. The stickers play a role in this too, for they can be applied to the map to mark the location of sites across the Forbidden Lands, whether they are villages, strongholds, or dungeons. In this way, Forbidden Lands becomes a legacy game, in that playing through a campaign means that both map and campaign will be unique to each gaming group, the same as playing through board games like Pandemic Legacy or Gloomhaven.

Forbidden Lands is a roleplaying game of exploration, in which the player characters, like others, set out to see a land which has long been forbidden to them, to escape the bonds placed upon them by the deadly effects of the Blood Mist. In doing so, the player characters will discover adventure sites—villages, castles, and dungeons. To varying degrees, at each of these will be found intrigue, horror, and treasure. Initially, villages will bases of operation for the player characters, but in clearing out both castles and dungeons, they can be turned into strongholds and developed into long term bases for the player characters. As they find more treasure and develop sources of income, this can be spent to restore and rebuild facilities that have fallen into disrepair, to build new facilities, and to staff the new stronghold. In the process, the player characters will discover both the history and the secrets of the land, revealing legends and investigating them further, perhaps ultimately to find one of the great artefacts that have been lost during the centuries in which the land was covered by the Blood Mist.

A character in Forbidden Lands is defined by his Kin, Profession, age, attributes, skills, talents, Pride, and Dark Secret. There are seven Kin—or Races—Human, Half-Elves, Dwarf, Halfling, Wolfkin, Orcs, and Goblins. Of these, Wolfkin are a bipedal wolf-like species who have a pack mentality and love the hunt and the wilderness. Each Kin has a key attribute, a talent, and typical profession, though when creating a character a player does not have to adhere to this. For Humans, the key attribute is Empathy; the Kin talent is ‘Adaptive’, which enables a player to substitute another skill in a situation by spending a Willpower point; and typical professions are essentially any… There are eight Professions—Druid, Fighter, Hunter, Minstrel, Peddler, Rider, Rogue, and Sorcerer. Each also lists a key attribute as well as skills; suggestions for a source of pride, a dark secret, and a relationship. A character has four attributes—Strength, Agility, Wits, and Empathy. There are just sixteen skills to choose from, but a player will begin play with either eight, ten, or twelve points depending upon his character’s age. 

Talents are tricks and abilities which give a character an advantage in play. Each Kin has its own talent, which has just the one rank, but the other two types, professional and general, have three ranks each. Each Profession has three talents given, except for the Sorcerer, which has four.  For example, the Fighter’s Path of the Blade enables a character to spend a Willpower point to bypass armour during an attack at Rank 1, spend a Willpower point to gain another attack at Rank 2, and multiple Willpower points to increase damage inflicted at Rank 3. A character begins play with a Kin talent, a Rank in a Profession talent, and a Rank in up to three general talents, depending on age, of course.

Lastly, each character has a Dark Secret and a source of Pride. The former is primarily a narrative aspect for the Game Master to work into the play of the game, earning the character Experience Points when it comes into play, whereas the latter can be invoked once per game session after a player has failed a roll—even if he has Pushed the roll—to roll a twelve-sided die and hopefully get some or more Successes. The larger die types have more Success symbols on them, including multiple Success symbols on some faces. However, should a character still fail after his Pride is rolled, he loses that Pride and must come up with a new one in a later session.

To create a character a player selects a Kin, Profession, age, talents, Pride, and Dark Secret and assigns points to the character’s attributes and skills. The process is relatively quick, a matter of making a few choices. Our sample character Solga, a Goblin who got thrown out of her tribe for her snide remarks and being suspected of poisoning her husband. She helped Gaverin escape when she made a run for it and they have travelling together ever since. He is interested in uncovering the legends and secrets of the Forbidden Lands, whereas Solga is along for the company.

Name: Solga ‘the Rat’
Kin: Goblin Age: 26 Gender: Female
Profession: Rogue
Attributes
Strength 2 Agility 5 Wits 4 Empathy 3
Skills: Melee 1, Stealth 3, Sleight of Hand 2, Move 1, Manipulation 2, Scouting 1
Talents: Sneaky (Kin), Path of the Poisoner (Rank 1), Fast Footwork (Rank 1), Sharp Tongue (Rank 1)
Willpower: 0
Pride: No one has a softer step than you
Dark Secret: You compulsively steal valuables you catch sight of
Reputation: 1
Relationship: Gaverin treats you like a child to be chastised . Very annoying.
Gear: Dagger, grappling hook, lockpicks, 3 silver
Resource Dice: Food d6, Water d6

Mechanically, Forbidden Lands uses the same mechanics as Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days, Coriolis: The Third Horizon, and Tales from the Loop – Roleplaying in the '80s That Never Was. Called the Year Zero Engine, which uses a dice pool system based on six-sided dice. These dice are divided into three types—Base, Skill, and Gear (or Weapon) Dice—and coloured white maroon, and black respectively in the custom set available separately for Forbidden Lands. Alternatively, a playing group can substitute dice of three different colours. Sixes—or crossed swords on the custom dice—are counted as Successes, whilst ones—or skulls on the custom dice which appear do not appear on the Skill Dice—are counted as Banes.

What matters is that when a player rolls dice for his character’s action, he needs to roll at least one Success to succeed. Successes rolled greater than those needed can used to achieve further effects, such as fully repairing gear back up to the number of dice they add in any action. If the dice are rolled and there are no Success, then this is considered to be a failure. Alternatively, a player can decide that he wants to push his character’s action. In this case, he reroll any dice that have not rolled Successes or Banes in the first roll. Even if a roll is successful, any Banes a player has rolled from either the first or second roll, are triggered and will damage or exhaust either the attribute used if rolled on the Base dice or the gear used if rolled on the Gear dice. Rolling Banes has a positive side though. For every Bane rolled on the Base dice after a roll has been pushed, a character receives one Willpower Point, which can then be spent to fuel a character’s Kin and Professional Talents.

What the Game Master does not do is set a difficulty number or target in terms of the number of Successes a player needs to generate in order for his character to succeed—one is enough, and of course, any extra go towards effects that benefit the characters. Intead, the Game Master can modify the number of Skill dice a player rolls, for example, a Hard task levies a -2 modification, reducing the number of Skill dice a player has to roll by two.

For example, Solga and her companion, Gaverin, were ambushed by bandits and Gaverin was captured. Solga managed to escape the ambush and has tracked the bandits to the ruined tower they are based and are holding Gaverin. After some hours, Solga has found a way into the tower—an embrasure high up on the wall. The Game Master states that this will not be a test to see if Solga can climb the tower, but to see if she can do it silently. Otherwise, this might be a Move check, but Solga’s player states that the Goblin will be taking her time. Solga’s player assembles his dice pool, which will consist of five Base dice for her Agility, three Skill dice for her Stealth, and one Gear die for her grappling hook. This gives Solga’s player nine dice to roll, but the Game Master states that this task is Demanding and modifies the number of Skill by one, so now Solga’s player only rolls eight dice. Unfortunately he only rolls one Bane on the Gear die and no Successes, so Solag’s player decides to Push the roll. Taking up the seven dice which came up blank—the Gear die cannot be rerolled because it rolled a Bane—he rolls again and gets two Success and another Bane, this one on a Base die!

To sum up, Solga’s player has rolled enough Success to succeed, but has rolled two Banes, one on the Gear die and one on a Base die. The Game Master rules that the Bane on the Gear die means that one of the tines on Solga’s grappling hook has broken, meaning that it cannot be used effectively until repaired. In other words, it will not grant the +1 bonus to all climbing rolls until then. The Bane on the Base die temporarily reduces Solga’s Agility to 4 and gives her a Willpower Point, but at least the Goblin has succeeded and is inside the bandit’s tower.

Combat uses the same core mechanics, but adds tweaks to both initiative and actions. Initiative is handled by both players and Game Master drawing from a ten-card deck, numbered one to ten. Initiative then proceeds in ascending order, though some Talent allow Initiative to be changed and players can swap initiative cards if one character needs to act before another. Otherwise it remains the same throughout a fight. In combat itself, a character can perform two actions—a Fast Action and a Slow Action. The first might be a dodge, a parry, a swing of a heavy weapon before an actual attack with a heavy weapon, run, aim, and so on, whereas the second might be a slash with an edged weapon, stab with a pointed weapon, a taunt or persuade attempt, and so on. Fast Actions typically do not require dice rolls, whereas Slow Actions typically do.

Advanced combat in Forbidden Lands makes use of the combat cards from the Forbidden Lands: Card Deck to bring a tactical element to the game with hidden combinations. Essentially the combat cards give manoeuvres and actions that a character might take his combat attacks and before each attack, both defender and attacker take two and decide in what order they will be played, so not only does this add a degree of tactical back and forth to a fight, it also adds a degree of uncertainty. (The Forbidden Lands: Custom Deck also adds Artifact Cards, Mount Cards, and a Reference Card as well as Combat Cards and Initiative Cards.)

When an attack is successful, the attacker inflicts damage equal to the weapon, plus any extra Successes rolled. Damage can be blocked by both armour and cover, the defender rolling a number of dice equal to the armour or cover value, with every Success rolled blocking a point of damage. Weapon damage typically affects a character’s Strength Attribute, but other forms of damage can affect the other Attributes. Notably, in social situations, characters can use their Manipulation skill against an opponent’s Insight; damage to Agility represents physical fatigue and exhaustion; damage to Wits represents fear, confusion, and misjudgement; and damage to Empathy represents callousness and distrust. Damage has two effects. First it reduces the number of Base dice a player can roll for the damaged Attribute, and second, if reduced to zero, it means that the character is Broken, the exact effects of which vary from attribute to attribute, but essentially it means that a character cannot act. In combat, it means that an enemy can attempt to deliver a coup de grâce.

Continuing the example, Solga has successfully climbed the tower where the bandits are holding her companion, Gaverin. She sneaks down a corridor, checking several rooms and eluding the guard before finding where the bandits are holding the prisoner.  Slipping into the room, the goblin grins at the bound and gagged Half-Elf, and quickly goes to work, loosening the ropes and the gag that hold him silent and immobile. Almost as she finishes the task, Gaverin snaps a warning to his liberator—the guard has swung back on his rounds and discovered the escape attempt. Solga has her blade drawn, but the Guard does not. Both react at the sight of each other and a fight ensues.

Everyone involved draws an Initiative card—the Game Master draws a 9, Gaverin’s player draws a 7, and Solga’s player draws a 4. This means that of the player characters, Gaverin will go first, but all the Half-Elf can do is escape his bonds, which means that the Guard could attack him before Solga can act. So, before the round begins, the players swap their Initiative cards, making the order now the Guard, Solga, and Gaverin. The Guard’s first action is ‘Draw Weapon’, a Fast Action which enables him to attempt a Slash’ with his axe as his Slow Action.

The Game Master rolls three Base dice for the Bandit’s Strength, two Skill dice for his Melee skill, and two Gear dice for the attack. She rolls two Successes and one Bane on the Base dice, though the latter does not count because the roll has not been Pushed. The hand axe inflicts two bonus Success, so Solga is about to take four damage to her Strength. This is a lot of damage, but Solga has the Fast Footwork Talent which gives her a Dodge beyond any Reactive action. Solga’s player rolls four Base dice for her Agility—it should be five, but she took damage during the climb into the tower—plus a Skill die for her Move. Since this is a ‘Slash’ attack, Solga’s player would two extra dice, but Solga wants to remain standing, which would penalise her by two dice, it simply negates the bonus. Solga’s player has to Push the roll, but eventually gets two Success and a Bane on a Base die. Since the two Success are equal to what the Game Master rolled for the Guard, Solga avoids the attack. In the process though, she bangs an elbow and reduces her Agility to 3. She also receives a single Willpower Point.

Now it is her turn to act. Solga’s first act is a ‘Feint’, a Fast Action which will allow her to exchange Initiative cards with the Guard. So on Round 2, Solga’s Initiative will be 9 and she will act first! Then her Slow Action is to ‘Stab’ the Guard with her dagger. Solga’s player rolls two Base dice for her Strength, one Skill die for her Melee, and a Gear die for the dagger. Her two Success are enough to hit and as the Guard has already acted, he cannot take a Reactive action. With the bonus damage from the dagger, this would inflict a total of three hits on the Guard, but the Game Master rolls for the Guard’s armour and gets a single Success. This means that Solga’s blade slips past the Guard’s armour and inflicts two hits. His Strength is reduced from three to two. As the Goblin darts in with the blade, Gaverin behind finally frees himself from his bonds and readies a spell…

Magic in Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World is organised into Talents and like other Talents, is organised into three ranks. A Sorcerer or Druid who knows one of these Talents at Rank 1 is able to cast all of the Rank 1 spells in that Talent. This is in addition to a number of general spells that all spellcasters know which typically have to do with the general manipulation of magic itself. Mechanically, a player never rolls a skill check for his spellcasting character to cast a spell, as it is automatic. Instead, he spends Willpower Points to charge the spell and then rolls to see if the spell can be overcharged. For each Willpower Point so invested, the player rolls a base die. Each Success rolled overcharges the spell, whilst each Bane indicates a magical mishap. Now this is open to abuse, the player of a Druid or Sorcerer attempting to Push every roll in order to generate Willpower Points, so a Game Master does need to keep a check on this as really, whilst magic is not a one-shot thing, it is powerful and it does take effort and its use should reflect this.

Name: Gaverin 
Kin: Half-Elf Age: 106 Gender: Male
Profession: Sorcerer
Attributes
Strength 2 Agility 3 Wits 5 Empathy 3
Skills: Crafting 2, Melee 1, Sleight of Hand 2, Lore 3, Insight 2, Manipulation 2
Talents: Psychic Power (Kin), Path of Signs (Rank 1), Fearless (Rank 1), Incorruptible (Rank 1), Lucky (Rank 1)
Willpower: 2
Pride: Whoever threatens you will die a painful death
Dark Secret: You are haunted by visions of the world beyond the veil
Reputation: 1
Relationship: Solga doubts your magical powers. The fool!
Gear: Knife, crystal ball, 7 silver
Resource Dice: Food d6, Water d8

It is now Gaverin’s turn to act. Not wanting the Guard to cry out or alert his fellow bandits, he casts the spell, Paralyse. This is a Rank 1 spell which causes a target to lose one or more of his next actions. Gaverin’s player decides to invest two  Willpower Points into the spell, but his Pyschic Power Talent adds another Willpower Point to the total, giving Gaverin’s player three Base dice to roll. He rolls two Successes and one Bane. The Successes increase the Power Level of the spell to three and prevents the Guard from taking his next Fast Action and Slow Action. The Bane though means that Gaverin’s player must roll on the Magic Mishap table. The result of this is that casting the spell causes the Half-Elf pain, his losing a point of Strength. As the guard suddenly finds himself unable to move, Solga looks back at the Half-Elf who is now slightly wincing in pain, and says, “Well, ‘e ain’t mivin’, we betta do though.” The two quickly move to tie the Guard up and make their escape.

Overall mechanically, characters in Forbidden Lands are not incompetent, but they do often have push themselves in order to succeed and that increases the possibility of a player rolling Banes. As deleterious as Banes are, they have a positive effect in also generating Willpower Points, which are necessary if a magic using character wants to cast spells or to activate some Talents. Thus, this is not forgiving system and it is one that reflects the harsh nature of the Forbidden Lands.

Two big aspects of Forbidden Lands are Journeys and Strongholds. Journeys covers not just travel, but also exploration. Each character on a journey undertakes a particular part of the trip, such as ‘Lead the Way’ or ‘Keep Watch’. All characters undertake the ‘Hike’ action. In keeping with the dangerous nature of the Forbidden Lands, there are plenty of mishaps that can befall travellers should the roll be failed for any one of the journey’s parts, though no rolls are necessary for the simple ‘Hike’ action. Strongholds are bases that the player characters find, clear out of foes, rebuild, defend, and improve. At its most basic, a stronghold provides a place to rest and sleep in relative comfort and safety to the point where a character can gain a Willpower Point, but different facilities provide different benefits. So a Bakery provides food if there is flour, a Library a bonus to Lore rolls, a Shooting Range somewhere to practise Markmanship and so gain Experience Points towards that skill, and so on. Instead of being a game of exploration and discovery, the addition of strongholds add economic, planning, and battle elements to Forbidden Lands as well as further opportunities for roleplaying. It enables a campaign to develop, the players and their characters to have a stake in the world, and because funds are needed to build more, provides further reason to go out and adventure.

All of this so far, has been in the ‘Player’s Handbook’ for Forbidden Lands. The ‘Gamemaster’s Guide’ essentially gives the deeper secrets and background to the setting. As well as advice on running the game right from the first session, it gives the history of the Forbidden Lands and how they gained such a name, presents the gods and faiths of the region, and provides more information about the Kin, much of which will only become apparent during play. The bestiary includes lots of classic fantasy monsters, from Death Knights and Dragons to the Undead and Wyverns, although there are plenty of monsters unique to the Forbidden Lands. Every monster gets a table of six attack actions which the Game Master can choose from or on roll on. In terms of treasure and loot, most of the time, the player characters will find coins and things that they can sell. Magic items are extremely rare, but can be very powerful. These are artefacts, of which there are eighteen described in the book, each with illustration, an associated legend, and a suggested location where they might be found as artefacts are not just some random loot drops. Many have drawbacks, but all have an associated Artifact die. This is a dice type larger than a six-sided die, with the faces higher than six being marked with Success symbols or even multiple Success symbols. When a character uses an artefact, his player gets to roll its associated die instead of any Gear dice. (All of the game’s artefacts, including those associated with the Raven’s Purge campaign, appear on the Artifact cards in the Forbidden Lands: Custom Deck.)

In addition to extensive and detailed encounter lists and tables for creating adventure sites, which a Game Master could use to create locations and adventures on the go if she wants to run her game like that, the ‘Gamemaster’s Guide’ describes three adventure sites in detail—a village, a castle, and a dungeon. The Hollows is a village which is just opening itself up to trade and the wider world, which has divided the villagers; the castle of Weatherstone stands atop a rock promontory that stands separate to the walls of the gorge it is in and is said to hide the war chest of its last lord; and the Vale of the Dead is said to be where Zygofer the Spellbinder practised his necromantic arts! Together these provide multiple sessions of play, the player characters first exploring the village and then going out to explore the other locations, perhaps claiming Weatherstone as their own as their first stronghold. Each location has their own plots, but much of the action and roleplaying will be very player-led. They also work as a campaign’s first adventure sites before a group beings playing the Raven’s Purge campaign itself.

Physically, Forbidden Lands is very presented and put together. Both books are presented as old tomes on off-white paper and illustrated in pen and ink throughout, which given that most modern roleplaying games are presented in full colour, gives Forbidden Lands the look and feel of a roleplaying game from decades ago. The artwork, primarily drawn by one artist, is excellent and helps give both the books and the setting a very uniform look. One lovely touch is that the same weapons are redrawn again and again, each time to illustrate the types typically used  by the different Kin in the setting. There are no mechanical effects to this—an Orc sword works exactly the same as an Elf sword—but it adds a degree of verisimilitude. The cartography, more illustrations than maps, is also good. Lastly, the game’s box is deep enough to hold both the Forbidden Lands: Custom Dice Set and the Forbidden Lands: Custom Deck as well as the two books, should the Game Master purchase them.

From the start, Forbidden Lands has certain ‘Old School’ feel. It comes in a box, like all good games of yore did and the look of the books similarly echo an old style look. The fantasy of Forbidden Lands also echoes that of the traditional fantasy of the first roleplaying games in the types of player characters, the monsters to be faced, and in the exploration of dungeons—though it expands that to take in exploration of the lands too. Mechanically, Forbidden Lands has an ‘Old School’ feel too in that the Year Zero engine is far from forgiving, enforcing the fact that life in the Forbidden Lands is cruel, and that any attempt to explore and claim them involves danger and the possibility of both failure and death. Yet while there is still room for heroism and even quests too given that artefacts in the setting are unique things of legend and grant their wielders great power, the tone of this game is not heroic fantasy, but rough, gritty, and bloody with more than a lingering sense of menace.

Superbly packaged, Forbidden Lands is a pleasing combination of ‘Old School’ nostalgia and fast, simple mechanics with unobtrusive narrative elements designed to bring aspects of the character into play. Its setting offers scope for the player characters to develop not just personally, but also in terms of their place in the world. Overall, Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World is a brutal and modern take upon ‘Old School’ play in a land still under the influence of a great evil.