All the Action—Everywhere

Inspired by the classic action films of the past sixty years—Die Hard, Goldfinger, Kingsman, Ocean’s Eleven, Hot Fuzz, Lethal Weapon, and John Wick, the cinematic action roleplaying game Outgunned is designed to do three things. One is to handle a variety of different action films, from chases and heists to Spy-Fi and hostage situations. The second is to help deliver short action-packed sessions, tending towards one-shots or ‘Shots’, and in keeping with the genre, sequels. The third is to play fast and easy, and definitely encourage the action. Originally published by Two Little Mice following a successful Kickstarter campaign, but now published by Free League Publishing, the award-winning Outgunned fills what would appear to cover a relatively limited niche in roleplaying. Which is not a bad thing. However, Action Flicks begs to differ, shucking off its leather jacket, peering over the top of its sunglasses, and giving a million dollar grin in a hundred thousand dollar direct-to-video movie before taking you round the universe—or is that multiverse? This is a supplement which takes you to ten different genres which you knew that Outgunned should and could do, lets you play in them for a bit, or at least for a long as the film lasts, leaving you waiting for the sequel.

Action Flicks is a book of mini-settings for Outgunned. Or rather sub-genres, because it does Space Opera, martial arts or Wuxia, swashbuckling, superpowers, kids in danger (bicycles optional), magical kids, hunting aliens, hunting ghosts New York-style, hunting vampires and/or werewolves, and cyberpunk. Which is a lot for a small, two-hundred page book. Each sub-genre is given a similar treatment. This includes an introduction to the specific sub-genre, a list of what it contains; ‘Action Homework’—a lengthy list of the touchstone films and television series which inspires the particular sub-genre treatment in Action Flicks that both the Director and her players should watch; an examination of its core themes and some hooks for the Director to develop into full missions; new rules and roles; new enemies and enemy feats; new genre-specific mechanics; and both a Hero ready for action and a dedicated Hero Sheet.

Or rather sub-genres, because it does Space Opera, martial arts or Wuxia, swashbuckling, superpowers, kids in danger (bicycles optional), magical kids, hunting aliens, hunting ghosts New York-style, hunting vampires and/or werewolves, and cyberpunk. Which is a lot for a small, two-hundred page book. Each sub-genre is given a similar treatment. This includes an introduction to the specific sub-genre, a list of what it contains; ‘Action Homework’—a lengthy list of the touchstone films and television series which inspires the particular sub-genre treatment in Action Flicks that both the Director and her players should watch; an examination of its core themes and some hooks for the Director to develop into full missions; new rules and roles; new enemies and enemy feats; new genre-specific mechanics; and both a Hero ready for action and a dedicated Hero Sheet.

The selection of sub-genres opens with ‘Star Raiders’ whose ‘Action Homework’ lists Firefly, The Fifth Element, The Mandalorian, Star Trek, and John Carter, but the touchstone for this first treatment is very obviously Star Wars. Which is no bad thing, since every treatment in Action Flicks is intended to be obvious in its inspiration just as with much the action films which inspire the core rules of Outgunned and thus its visual look and story beats are meant to be easy to grasp and run with. The core themes of ‘Star Raiders’ is ‘Know the Other’, that everyone in the galaxy is alien is each other and that a Hero should learn to navigate the differences in physiology and culture and work with others, whilst ‘For Freedom’ states that a Hero will always yearn to look to the sky and fly free despite what the authorities or the alien invaders or robot revolutionaries want.

In terms of new rules and gear, ‘Star Raiders’ replaces bullets with lasers, which are always loaded, so instead of running out of rounds, overheat. The weapons also include the Laster Crossbow as well as the Laser Blade. Star Pilots get to replace the Proven Driver Feat with the Star Pilot Feat, whilst the ‘Alien Diplomacy’ feat grants free rerolls on interactions with alien species and negates the standard penalty when doing so, ‘Hyperlight Evasion’ lets a starship crew jump to hyperlight to avoid a chase, and ‘Shoot First’ does exactly what you think it should. New roles include ‘Logical Thinker’, ‘Lonely Stranger’, and ‘Lovable Scoundrel’, whilst the ready-to-play Hero is the eponymous ‘Star Raider’, who could be Han Solo, Malcolm ‘Mal’ Reynolds, or Korben Dallas. Alien Feats ‘Amphibian’, ‘Big Guy’, ‘Little Guy’, ‘Brainiac’, and more enable player and Director alike to create alien Heroes and NPCs, whilst the rules for Starships adapt the vehicle rules to outer space by adding the need for a ‘Copilot’ and giving special actions such as ‘Raised Shields’ and ‘Asteroid Field’, the latter turning every action into a Gamble when passing through them.

There are notes too on how to add the ‘Power’ to ‘Star Raiders’. This combines the ‘Samurai’ Role from World of Killers with the Mental Powers of ‘Great Powers’, the superhero treatment later in the book. It is a pity that the Director needs to refer to another supplement, because this neatly distils the essence the archetype with just about enough a nod to the source, yet leaving room for Director and player to develop it as they want. Lastly, the ready-to-play Hero sheet is for very cute ‘Young Alien Nobody’.

‘Star Raiders’ packs a lot into its sixteen pages, enabling the Director to pick it up and start developing a galaxy her own and missions to fit, or taking the obvious inspiration from the ‘Action Homework’ and then running missions in their galaxies using Outgunned (rather than any licensed roleplaying games). Which is the point of Action Flicks. Yet ‘Star Raiders’ also does not quite pack enough, which an issue with a lot of the sub-genre treatments in Action Flicks. In the case of ‘Star Raiders’, there could have been more options for Alien Feats and the rules for robots are underwhelming, simply treating them as aliens and letting them take more Feats later on. As a sub-genre, ‘Star Raiders’ leans very much into space opera which does not feel right for one of its inspirations, Star Trek, which in most of its incarnations, is not as cinematic as Outgunned. Similarly, John Carter is a great choice for Outgunned, but deserves its own ‘Swords & Planet’ Action Flick entry rather than being lumped in with everything else here.

‘Rising Dragon’ is inspired by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and House of Flying Daggers and brings Wuxia to Outgunned giving the option of Heroes learning Ancient Martial Arts such as Dragon Style, Drunken Style, or Monkey Style as they and everyone already knows martial arts, replacing with Plan B: Bullet with Plan B: Blade (again from World of Killers), and swapping Adrenaline with Qi. Daring Noble and Vengeful Ghost are fitting new roles and along with a range of new Feats, this is a solid little genre set that does not just have to remain fixed in some mythical past. It is easily mixed with sub-genres if the Director wants to run more Hong Kong-style films. The Pirates of the Caribbean, The Three Musketeers, and The Princess Bride are the inspiration for ‘Cloak & Dagger’, which does swashbuckling action. There are rules for horses, carriages, and flintlock weapons, and Plan B: Bullet is again replaced with Plan B: Blade, whilst the new Friendly Brute and Witty Casanova roles fit both the sub-genre and the humour that often runs through it. Depending upon the type of film, the Director and her players may need to engage with the humour more than in others.

Fundamental to the sub-genre is duelling and for this ‘Cloak & Dagger’ adapts the duelling rules from Household, also from Two Little Mice. With admonition not to repeat an action twice because it is boring, it suggests mixing skills to make duels exciting and dynamic, and optionally, adding Challenge Feats so the Director can customise a challenger to make him a capable duellist. It notes that the rules could apply to Heroes too should their ardours and tempers fly enough for them to want to settle matters of honour with each other. These Duelling rules enable a Director to set up some great scenes and confrontations and they could be used with ‘Rising Dragon’ too for confrontations with weapons rather than martial arts.

‘Great Powers’ is the superhero treatment for Outgunned in Action Flicks. It draws from Kick-Ass, Watchmen, and Daredevil amongst others. It gives rules for what happens to vigilantes whose identities are exposed, Plan B: Blast to go alongside Plan B: Bullet and Plan B: Blade, and ‘Powerless’, a new condition when a Superhero suffers the effects of his weakness. There are numerous new roles, like Billionaire Philanthropist and Chatty Mercenary, and specific to the genre, Super Feats rather than Feats. Every Superhero gets one at character creation and can swap a standard Feat for another one. Super Feats include ‘Flight’, ‘Gadget’ (which can cover retractable claws, spiderwebs, returning weapons, and so on), ‘Mind Powers’, ‘Regeneration’, ‘Super-Speed’, and more. The silliest is ‘Ruler of the Sea’, which lets the Superhero talk to fish! ‘Great Powers’ manages to cover a lot, but it has three problems. One, obviously, is that it has been superseded by Outgunned Superheroes. Two, the superhero genre encompasses a lot of subgenres itself and sixteen pages cannot cover everything. Three, ‘Great Powers’ has to work hard to get up to the Four Colour sub-genre and being for Outgunned is a better fit for the street level style.

As its title suggests, ‘Weirder Things’ covers inspirations such as The Goonies, Karate Kid, and most obviously, Stranger Things. Which again is quite a lot. First, it makes everyone young and removes the ‘Too Young to Die’ Feat and very much inspired by Stranger Things replaces a young Hero’s catchphrase with his favourite song and then backs it up with Plan B: Beat which comes into play when a Hero listens to that favourite song. The Director and her players need to decide quite how dangerous and deadly a ‘Weirder Things’ should be. Several Feats get replaced like ‘Better Than Walking’ for ‘Proven Driver’ and ‘Popular’ for ‘Heartbreaker’. The Hero ready for action is ‘The Loser’, very much inspired by Kevin McCallister from Home Alone along with many others.

‘A Kind of Magic’ is mostly obviously inspired by the Harry Potter books and films, but again it wants to cover a whole lot more like Doctor Strange, Big Trouble in Little China, and The Dresden Files. With rules for incantations and wands, magical culture, flying cars and broomsticks, and roles such as ‘Charming Bookworm’ and ‘Chosen One’ it really wants to stick to modelling the Harry Potter books and films rather than trying cover everything under its ‘Action Homework’. It does not help those aims by needing the Director and players to adapt the ‘Dog Trainer’ role from World of Killers and switch out the dog for an owl (or another suitable creature) to have a magical familiar. There is a short list of spells, each of which is effectively treated as a piece of Gear. The more obvious companion to ‘A Kind of Magic’ is ‘Weirder Things’, but ultimately, it would be a stretch for ‘A Kind of Magic’ to cover all of the inspirations it lists and perhaps there should be an Urban Fantasy treatment for Outgunned?

‘Killing Aliens’ is again more obvious in its inspirations—Aliens, Predator, Starship Troopers, and so on—but switches the role of the Heroes around to be the hunted in ‘You Are The Prey’. ‘Whatever It Takes’ gives the Hero an edge, but typically at a cost as the situation gets ever more desperate. Despite switching the Hero from hunter to hunted, this is a straightforward adaptation backed up with lots of alien enemies for the Director to build and several that come on-demand ready to play. ‘Ghost Hunters’ does the same with its ghosts and ghoulies on-demand or waiting to be built in a sub-genre adaptation that might include Caspar and Beetlejuice amongst its inspirations, but really is Ghostbusters writ large, especially with the new conditions of ‘Possessed’ and ‘Smeared’ (in sticky green ectoplasmic discharge!?).

Hunting takes place at night in the penultimate sub-genre treatment with ‘Midnight Wars’. Underworld and Blade are the primary inspirations, but Buffy the Vampire Slayer is another touchstone. It introduces three modes—‘Humans versus Monsters’, ‘Monsters versus Humans’, and ‘Monsters versus Monsters’—as the wars between vampires, werewolves, and humans continue. Plan B: Bullet and Plan B: Blade are joined by Plan B: Blood & Beast and Monstrous Feats such as ‘Lycanthrope’ and ‘Nosferatu’ enable a Hero to be a Monster Hero! The new gear is designed for anti-vampire and anti-vampire action and the new Role is the Slayer, looking exactly like Blade. This works well with the earlier ‘A Kind of Magic’ too.

The last sub-genre treatment is ‘Neon Noir’ which does cyberpunk for Outgunned. If the Director wants to add androids to this future, then the Synth Alien Feat option from ‘Star Raiders’ is the suggested option, whilst psychic powers can come from the ‘Great Powers’ sub-genre. The primary is that of cyberware, which is treated as gear. Every Hero in ‘Neon Noir’ has one piece, whilst the given Role of Solo can have another item. A Hero can also give up Feats to have more. Some of the items could easily added to the ‘Great Powers’ sub-genre to give an extra source of powers.

What is apparent with all ten of the sub-genres explored in Action Flicks for Outgunned is that how many will work with each other. For example, ‘Midnight Wars’, ‘A Kind of Magic’, and ‘Weirder Things’ to really do Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but Action Flicks runs with the mix and match options and throws them all into the mixing bowl with ‘Everything at Once’. This allows Heroes to jump from one universe to another and even learn the Feats of one universe to take it to another and presents a new Role, ‘The Master of the Multiverse’, who can jump from universe to universe and channel the power of the Multiverse. It is a special Role, combining Role, Trope, and Job in one that uses a Multiverse Roulette instead of a Death Roulette. When ‘The Master of the Multiverse’ uses his Plan B: Break to create a crack in reality to the advantage of his allies, is Left for Dead, or taps into power of the Multiverse to Go to another universe, Grab an object from another universe, Send a target to another universe, or Pass to someone else in this universe, there is a chance that an Anomaly is created and that can really miss with the universe! ‘The Master of the Multiverse’ has a lot of power, but there is a price.

Physically, Action Flicks is a good looking book. The artwork is excellent and the layout clean and tidy, and easy to read.

Action Flicks is fantastically, genre-encompassing ambitious covering ten genres and over one hundred films and television series. However, Action Flicks cannot encompass everything about all of its genres. It just does not have the space. It also means that that none of the genres it explores are quite ready to play and in all too many cases, like ‘Great Powers’ and Outgunned Superheroes, the Director is going to wish that there was more, especially where genre descriptions really have to work hard to handle some of the given inspirational suggestions. However, the core essentials of its cinematic settings and sub-genres, ably supported with rule changes and additions, are all here in Action Flicks to help get the Director with every movie and mission the Director wants to write for Outgunned. The good news is that there are now sequels too—Action Flicks Vol. 2 and Action Flicks Vol. 3.

Friday Fantasy: Underworld

In the cool of the ‘Underworld’ lurk spiders, centipedes, lizards, beetles, and bats—and of course, things much, much worse. It is a rougher, quieter place than the surface world, colder too with no light to shine in its caverns or over the black waters of its deep lakes. Adventurers venture deep underground perhaps looking for resources, hunting for threats to the surface world and its inhabitants, or even searching for lost treasure. Yet stray too long in the dark of the Underworld and anyone venturing below may be overwhelmed by the constant blackness and lack of light, their imaginations formulating things that they can see the edge of their vision, even horrors that can even unreal can work at their minds and composure. This is what might lie below the world of Dragonbane: Mirth & Mayhem Roleplaying, the roleplaying game published by Free League Publishing, and is explored in the supplement, Underworld.

Underworld is a mini-supplement and anthology of scenarios for Dragonbane which can easily be added to the Game Master’s own campaign or used to expand the ‘Misty Vale’ campaign setting detailed in the Dragonbane Core Set—not outwards, but downwards. Besides its three adventures, it gives an overview of what the ‘Underworld’ is like and describes several features, some of which can work with the three adventures. These include the bronze bridges which regularly cross three particular rivers in the ‘Underworld’ and if walked over or under trigger a dream-like vision in the walker, something that denizens take advantage of to ambush the momentary dreamers, and the Black Swans found on the three rivers that supposedly bring death to any demon that touches them, but which are hated by Goblins. There are some nice little elements here, odd enough to stand out, but with room to add more alongside them if the Game Master wants to. In terms of the Misty Vale, Underground details four different entrances via which the Player Characters enter the ‘Underworld’ and begin to explore part of its depths.

Each of the three ‘Underworld Quests’ has its own reward and the more the Player Characters complete, the more they will be rewarded. Each of the three also involves a demon and each also has a link to the ‘Secret of the Dragon Emperor’, which lies at the heart of the ‘Misty Vale’ campaign. In ‘Lair of Kavor’, the Player Characters descend to a subterranean Dwarven fort, perhaps in search of herbs or looking for something that might have been preying on local farmstock. It is occupied by a band of goblins and contains several demonic shrines and there are several puzzles that the Player Characters can poke at for various odd effects, including triggering some roleplaying. The demon is a Kavor Demon, a scraggy, four-armed thing with a vertical, many toothed mouth and eyes on either side which revel in carnage, can be distracted by fresh meat and blood. As a former Dwarven fortress, there is a lovely sense of the former occupants’ boredom when posted there, but as an ‘Underworld’ location and adventure site, it is underwritten. There is no explanation why the demon shrines are there and what the relationship is between the Goblins and the demon. So, the Game Master is likely going to want to develop that, as well as deciding where the herbs are located.

The second scenario is ‘Lair of Rumej’. A wealthy noble hires the Player Characters to collect monster parts as trophies for his room or a ghost calls out to one of the Player Characters to whom it is related, for release. Either way, this leads the Player Characters into a series of caves at the end of which can be heard singing of the glory of demonic immortality. The Rumej demon is spherical in shape and has eight tentacles, each of which ends with a sucker which contains an eye in. It is also hovers in the air. The ‘Lair of Rumej’ is obviously more straightforward, but does not suffer from that simplicity. In fact, ‘Lair of Rumej’ is easier to use because it is simple and the Game Master does not have to develop any details herself.

The third scenario is ‘Lair of Vekar’. The Player Characters are hired to scout out an old mine to see whether it is safe and is still viable today or simply they fall into a sinkhole! What they find is a former Wolfkin-operated mine, though no real signs of anything worth salvaging or that the mine is viable. However, it is the lair of a Vekar-Demon, bony and humanoid shaped with the soul of a mortal burning in its chest and bat wings either side of its eyeless head. Again, it feels underdeveloped, but not quite as much as Lair of Kavor’.

Rounding out Underworld are three random maps that the Game Master can develop as is her wont, though suggestions are given. There is also a pair of ‘Magic Items & Treasure’ tables that the Game Master can use with the supplement or her campaign in general. They are all good magical items and the Game Master will likely want to flesh them out a bit to make them stand out.

Physically, Underworld is rough and does need an edit. The maps are blocky and not the easiest to use. There are versions for both player and Game Master, but those for the Game Master are not numbered which means that they are not as easy to use from the page as they should be. The artwork for the demons is decent though.

Underworld is a bit rough and ready and in places will require some development upon the part by the Game Master to really flesh the locations out. The demons are decently done and have an entertaining range of attacks—though more for the Game Master than her players—so will surprise both players and characters. Overall, Underworld is something to work with rather than being quite ready to play.

Vaesen d’Italia

Italian Chronicles is a supplement for Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, the Roleplaying Game of investigative folklore horror set in nineteenth century Scandinavia published by Free League Publishing. There has been a push to explore the set-up at the heart of Vasen, that of the clash between folklore and modernity in an age of industrialisation, shifting populations, changing attitudes, and forgetting the customs of past as a secret organisation attempts to catalogue those forgotten customs and prevent the clashes between folklore and modernity in countries beyond Scandinavia. However, most of them have remained north of the Alps, leaving the rich folklore and culture clashes of Southern Europe under much sunnier climes unexplored. Italian Chronicles introduces us to the world of the Vaesen and the Society in nineteenth century Mythic Italy. This includes a discussion of the conflicts which lie at the heart of Italian society in the late nineteenth century—the rich versus the poor, the nobility versus the bourgeoisie, the bourgeoisie versus the proletariat; and the north-south divide between the industrialised and modernising north and the agricultural, poorer south. It provides basic introductions to the cities, many of whom are undergoing major transformations as they industrialise and peasants emigrate looking for work and a better life. There are descriptions of the leading Italian great and the good of the period, societies and groups active up and down the country; details of mysterious places; and a short history of the Society and its investigation of Vaesen in Italy. All of which is supported with three new archetypes and six new supernatural creatures.

Italian Chronicles is published as part of the Free League Workshop and starts with a description of Mythic Italy. This highlights the notable divides in the country during the period and its important cities. These include the northern industrial triangle of Turin, Milan, and Genoa, the medieval and Renaissance grandeur of Bologna and Florence, before moving south through the splendour of Rome as it rushes to be the city’s new capital, and down to Naples and Palermo, undergoing their own transformation with their loss of independence. Turin is the ‘magical city’, Italy esoteric and occultic capital which has its own zones of light and dark influencing magic in the city, whilst also standing in an alchemical triangle of ‘white magic’ along with Prague and Lyon, and an alchemical triangle of ‘black magic’ with London and San Francisco. How these zones affect magic in the city is not explored, but short descriptions of numerous arcane and occultic sites across the city, as well as legends up and down Italy, are included.

Numerous notables, including Cavour, Garibaldi, Verdi, and Puccini are given thumbnail portraits, alongside less well known figures such as Carmine Crocco, the so-called ‘Napoleon or the General of the Brigands’, the spiritualist Eusapia Palladino, and Cesere Lombroso, the father of modern criminology. The most notable of the societies and groups alongside the actual Society is the Inquisition, which is still operating in the nineteenth century and which the Society suspects of harbouring all manner of secrets, of already knowing about Vaesen, and of some of its members actually possessing the Sight that the Society’s members possess. The Inquisition has long suppressed occult practices and broken op occult organisations, most recently in the seventeenth century, the Accademia della Mandragora. One survivor of this suppression found refuge with the Society in Scandinavia and another, a herbalist, found refuge in southern Italy. The herbalist would later found the Order of Herbalists, based in Turin.

The three new archetypes are Teacher, Notable, and Migrant. Of these, the Teacher and the Migrant are obvious in what they are, whereas the Notable is not. It might be an administrator or a lawyer or a tax collector and some context would have been useful to make clear what it is. The Migrant does a new Talent, ‘Folk Wisdom’, which gives him a knowledge of folk traditions and customs as well as fairy tales, legends, and myths concerning supernatural creatures. Unfortunately, this has not been translated from the original Italian.

Numerous mysterious places and legends detailed as well as six new supernatural creatures. They include the Borda is a witch-like that haunts the swamps and marshes of the north looking to strangle the unwary with rope or ligature; Sprites are pranksters that differ in how they look across Italy, but the Monacello live in old houses in cities, has the appearance of a hooded monk, and can bring good luck, and the Salvanel, is wilder and dresses in leaves, and often makes travellers in the woods get lost; and the Marrabbecca is a shapeshifter that likes to live in the dark or shadows, preferably in old wells and water cisterns, from where it bewitches those who lean too close to the well such that they throw themselves in and are drowned. Besides their stats, all of the creature write-ups include secrets of the creatures that can be used against them and example conflicts that the Game Master can develop into fuller encounters.

Physically, Italian Chronicles is a basic affair. Unfortunately both artwork and writing are amateurish, but are at least in English. Not all of the supplement is.

One of the problems with Italian Chronicles and its version of Italy in the nineteenth century is that it attempts to present, “[A]n idealized, slightly timeless version, suitable as a backdrop for the activities of the Player Characters and the peninsula’s supernatural inhabitants.” Where that works in Vaesen is because its setting of Sweden is singular whole for whole of the nineteenth century, whereas Italy is not. In fact, Italy does not actually exist as a political entity until the Risorgimento—the unification of Italy—in 1861. Before that, the Italian peninsula consisted of a mix of kingdoms and duchies, some which were dominated by neighbouring France and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, plus the Papal State. Arguably, Italy was not fully Italy as we recognise today until the capture of Rome in 1871. And before that, before the Napoleon Wars, the Italian peninsula was even more balkanised. Now it is this balkanisation that underpins many of the geographical, cultural, and linguistic divides in Italy and thus the conflicts in Italian Chronicles, whilst the others come from the drive to modernity and industrialisation that followed unification. The result is that even though it does not say so, Italian Chronicles really only focuses on the last forty years—and arguably—the last thirty years of the nineteenth century.

The authors do make the point that, “History should be a servant that gives the game a distinctive flavour rather than a master that stifles possibilities.” Which is a valid point, and if you are not aware of this history, then this perhaps less of an issue. If you are, then it feels as if that servant and those sixty years of history are being ignored and the whole of the century is being flattened into its last third.

However, perhaps the biggest problem with Italian Chronicles is that the description of its equivalent of the ‘Society’ is underwritten with a very short history and description and an address. We are never told how different it is to those in other countries and consequently the starting point or base of operations for any investigations into the Vaesen in Italy lacks character.

There is a surprising amount of content in Italian Chronicles, but most of it varies between short and brief, meaning that if the Game Master wants to set her campaign in Italy or send his Player Characters to Italy, she is going to have to do a lot of research herself to develop its content. There is no official supplement for Italy for Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying and until there is, Italian Chronicles will have to do, but what it does is provide is only the most basic of introductions.

A Wick’d World

Operating in the shadows, untouched by the police, and with the utmost of professionalism, there is a world of killers. Professional assassins and hitmen, trackers and bounty hunters. Killing not because they are evil or cruel. Killing because it is their duty, because it is their skill, because it is their style, because it is their job, because it is their honour. They may be employed by one of the great families. They may be freelancers hired from one job to the next. They may belong to secret society that has long used assassination as a tool. Their world is governed by the secret and ancient organisation known as the Stone. Beneath the Stone are six families, each representing one of the major criminal organisations—the Bratva, the Camorra, the Cartel, the Mafia, the Triads, and the Yakuza—which the killers may be allied with or work for as freelancers, and which control great swathes of territory and influence the direction of whole cities and nations. They also feud with each other and that is in part why the actions of the killers are so regulated by the Stone, lest such feuds get out of hand and come to the attention of the wider world. The killers, in return for their skill that they hone constantly, live lives of luxury. They also have access to the Belmont, not just a chain of businesses that serve the world of the professional killers, but also a hotel where they can stay, relax, arrange for new contracts, and order the latest tactical gear like it was fine wine. And best of all, the Belmont is neutral ground. Of course, if a professional killer is declared a renegade by the Stone, then it is game on, and the renegade is anybody’s to hunt and kill.

This is the setting for World of Killers, ‘A Supplement of Assassins, Hired Guns, and Secret Societies for Outgunned’. Published by Two Little Mice, Outgunned: Cinematic Action Roleplaying Game is the cinematic action roleplaying game inspired by the classic action films of the past sixty years—Die Hard, Goldfinger, Kingsman, Ocean’s Eleven, Hot Fuzz, Lethal Weapon, and John Wick. It expands the rules for Outgunned with five new roles and a special role, nine new tropes, rules for trained dogs and both hunts and getaways, new gear, and a cinematic campaign, ready to play with four pre-generated killers. All of this is inspired by John Wick, Kill Bill, Leon, Assassin’s Creed, and Hitman. Of these, the first is important because essentially, World of Killers is unashamedly the John Wick series of films with the serial numbers filed off, and short of an actual licence, that really is no bad thing. After all, the players get to play in a very similar world to the one they have seen on screen.

Arguably, because most players of World of Killers will have seen the John Wick films, or at least be aware of them, the supplement does not need a huge amount of detail to describe its setting. The background covers the Stone, its organisation and the important roles within it, all six families who get a page each, the Belmont and the services it provides, paying particular attention to the New York Belmont, and then the Rats. The Rats live on the fringes of society and on the fringes on the fringes of the world of killers, a mixture of criminals, dropouts, derelicts, and outcasts, led by a Rat Queen in New York, and providing similar services to the Belmont—protection, gear, information, and favours. This all costs of course, and nothing more than offering a sanctuary for renegades.

The five new roles in and for the World of Killers are the Samurai, Hired Gun, Aristocrat, Dog Trainer, and Derelict. As in the core rulebook, these are templates that give options in terms of Work, Catchphrase, Flaw, and Characteristics, including attribute and skill points feats, and gear, that a player customises. They include a list of inspirations from a variety of action films as well, starting off, of course, with the John Wick franchise. If the Samurai and Hired Gun are obvious, the others less so. The Aristocrat relies on breeding, manners, and charisma; the Dog Trainer operate with a trained canine companion, which can be a tracker dog or an attack dog; and the Derelict lives on the streets and very likely has a past with the world of killers. In addition, the World of Killers gives a sixth, special role, one that combines a standard Player Character’s Role, Trope, and Job in one, and that is the Assassin. The Assassin does get more skill points to assign and three Feats instead of two. Although there is no inspirational list of films to accompany it, the illustration makes it obvious that the role is inspired by the Assassin’s Creed series of computer games. Its inclusion opens up the possibility of setting Outgunned stories in the past.

Besides new Tropes such as ‘Battle Butler’, ‘Gone Rogue’, ‘Magnificent Bastard’, and ‘Professional’, and new Feats like ‘Deflect Bullets’, ‘Elegance’, ‘Endure Pain’, ‘Gun Fu’, and ‘Sword Fighter’, World of Killers adds two new Plan B options. ‘Blade’ grants an immediate success or amazing advantage with a slash of the sword, whilst ‘Belmont’ brings the intervention of the organisation, whether its personnel or its services. Gold, particular coins, is introduced as an exclusive currency to gain access to Belmont services, equipment, and favours and services, and is earned communally for completing tasks and contracts for the Stone, the Belmont, and the families.

Although the Trained Dog is specifically for the Dog Trainer Role, it is possible for a Player Character to gain one later. The Trained Dog itself is treated as character in its own right, complete with a flaw, attributes, and Grit. Stats are given for a hunting falcon and a monkey as well as a dog. The other major addition to Outgunned are the rules for ‘Hunts’. This handles how assassinations and kills play out by tracking two numbers, ‘Need’ and ‘Kill’. ‘Need’ measures how close the Player Characters are to the target and how exposed the target is, whilst ‘Kill’ tracks the Player Characters’ position and advantage over the target. From turn to turn, the players roll and narrate how they get closer to the target, increasing their ‘Kill’ until their characters are in the position to carry out the shot. A Hunt can then turn into a chase, whether the Player Characters fail and have to go after their target, or fail or succeed and are then pursued by the target’s forces. Supported by an example, the ‘Hunt’ rules set up great set pieces full of tension and pent up violence.

Half of World of Killers is dedicated to a cinematic scenario, ‘Family Business’. It incudes four pre-generated Player Characters, a Hired Gun, an Aristocrat, a Dog Trainer, and a Samurai. They are asked for help by the manager of New York’s Belmont, an old friend or someone whom they are indebted to, who has let two renegades slip out of his grasp. The Stone has given him twenty-four hours to make up for his error. The hunt for the two renegades—who turn out be star-crossed lovers and killers—takes the Player Characters to a showdown on a cruise and back to New York where they discover that the Stone has already taken away their own friend to be judged at a Tribunal. This is not how things are normally conducted, so the Player Characters’ suspicions should have been aroused and they will want to investigate. As they do so, they run the risk of being declared renegade, must face the Stone’s own forces and those of some of the families, travel around the world from New York to Rome to Tokyo, and unmask a conspiracy that could upset the balance between the six families. It is a highly entertaining scenario that takes the Player Characters from the highs to the lows of the world of killers and back again. There are some great set scenes and the players get to try out the ‘Hunt’ rules more than once. The five-shot scenario will probably take several sessions to play through and very nicely showcases the setting.

The scenario is supported by several handouts, actually portraits of all of the Player Characters and NPCs, not handouts in the traditional sense, since Outgunned is not an investigative roleplaying game. The scenario is expertly presented though with scenes detailed on the lefthand page and advice for the Game Master on the right. This format makes the scenario easy to run from the page. There are some sequel suggestions too in addition to some scenario ideas given earlier in the book.

Physically, World of Killers is, like Outgunned, a good looking book. The artwork is excellent and the layout clean and tidy, and easy to read.

If you are a fan of Outgunned, then you are going to want World of Killers, and if you are a fan of the John Wick films, you are going to want World of Killers. As an action film roleplaying game, Outgunned is great for one-shots, but World of Killers gives it a setting, a structure, and a franchise that the players can return to again and again.

Vows & Vaesen

Vaesen: City of my Nightmares is a campaign for Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, the Roleplaying Game of investigative folklore horror set in nineteenth century Scandinavia published by Free League Publishing. It differs from campaigns and scenarios for the roleplaying game in that they are primarily set along that boundary between the rural and the raw countryside where modernity and progress clashes with tradition and folklore as the knowledge of the customs that enabled Vaesen and man to live alongside each other is being lost. Instead, Vaesen: City of my Nightmares takes in or near the ‘Venice of the North’, the city of Stockholm. Here, in the Swedish capital, the Player Characters will still be confronted with the clash between the old and the new. Between science and savagery, monarchism and unionism, new institutions replacing the old, and quite literally the past and the future, but all driven by all too human fear, ambition, and revenge. This is a city-based campaign that will involve the Player Characters in the doings of the nouveau rich, the avantgarde, and the poor and the oppressed, and more importantly in terms of the roleplaying game and its background, will involve them in both the history of the Society they belong to and the history of its founder. As a consequence of all of this, Vaesen: City of my Nightmares is better suited to be run with experienced Player Characters, ones who have conducted several investigations, thus enabling their players to appreciate the campaign’s contrast in terms of setting and the revelations that will be uncovered as part of their investigations. The campaign is ideally run after the events of Vaesen: Seasons of Mystery and whilst it will be helpful have copies of Johan Egerkrans’ The Undead and Vaesen to hand, they are not absolutely necessary. In the case of the latter, the ‘Codex Occultum’ from the Vaesen – Starter Set is an easy substitute. Lastly, although Vaesen: City of my Nightmares is set in and around the city of Stockholm, it can be shifted to other European cities if the Game Master prefers. Of course, the Game Master will need to change the setting details to fit the new location.

Vaesen: City of my Nightmares was funded as part of the joint Kickststarter for Vaesen: Mythic Carpathia. It takes place in late nineteenth century Sweden and involves numerous historical figures that have been adjusted slightly to fit the setting, its events playing out over the course of a year and consisting of four parts with several months in between. This enables the Game Master to run a scenario or two between the events of Vaesen: City of my Nightmares, which is also the best way in which to run it. There is a plot that runs through the whole campaign, but it is not a strong one. Certainly not strong enough to drive the Player Characters to continue their investigation from one part to the next directly and this is reflected by the months long gaps between scenarios and the instigating factor for each scenario. This is the cork magnet, August T. Lysander, a self-made wealthy capitalist, who has taken an interest in the activities of the Society and made several donations to keep its current incarnation operating. In turn, he will ask the Player Characters for their help and reward them for giving it. Of course, these adventures can be run their own, but that would negate the plot to the campaign. All four scenarios are organised in the same fashion. They start with the background and breakdown the Countdown of events that will occur as time goes on, ultimately leading to a Catastrophe if the mystery remains unsolved and the situation unresolved. This is followed by a list of the clues that become available after each step of the Countdown, pleasingly with the core, key clues clearly marked, and then the scenario’s pertinent locations. Each scenario ends with a breakdown of the climax and its aftermath. The organisation is consistent and accessible throughout, and in addition the scenarios are supported with a good overview of Stockholm in the late nineteenth century accompanied by excellent period maps. Notably, the period map of the city is included on a poster map in the book, but further, the back of this poster map is presented as the front cover for a copy of the City Gazette, Stockholm’s conservative newspaper. It is full of clues and hints for the four scenarios in Vaesen: City of my Nightmares, but especially the first scenario. Each of the scenarios should take roughly two to three sessions’ worth of play to complete.

The first part of the campaign is ‘Scent of a Killer’, which takes . Businessman August T. Lysander makes a request of the Society. Of late, the Town Between Two Bridges district of Stockholm has beset by a series of killings, common criminals found ripped apart. Now a noted tenor at the Royal Swedish Opera has been found dead too, and so the newly founded Police Department is being pushed to investigate this death at the very least. However, the nature of the killings means that the police cannot make head nor tail of them, let alone any progress. The case is a matter of medical malpractice—of a sort, as is another situation in the city. Experienced players will likely work out what the problem is very quickly, but knowing what the problem is and both identifying the culprit and dealing with is another matter. This is a good start to the campaign, setting the tone for the urban mysteries that are to come.

The Player Characters get some respite the following year in ‘Song to the Moon’, when August T. Lysander invites them to stay with him and his family at his summer retreat on Goose Island in the Stockholm archipelago. This is not only to say thanks for their efforts helping the city Police Department the previous autumn, but also to consult with them about the nature of Vaesen. The beguiling idyll is broken by series of strange drownings that trap everyone on the island. The deaths are not the only strangeness pervading Goose Island, though the Player Characters may not uncover all of it. This scenario combines horror with a classic country house murder and hints that not all is well in the Lysander family.

August T. Lysander’s interest in Vaesen comes to the fore a matter of six months later in the autumn in ‘The Haunted Library’. He makes another request of the Society and the Player Characters, this time to help him to find the lost notes of Carl Linnaeus, the founder of the Society himself. He believes that they are hidden in a secret library beneath the National Archives on Knights Island in Stockholm. So far, he has been unable to penetrate far into the labyrinthine catacombs under the National Archives and thinks that those with the Sight—in other words, the Player Characters—will have better luck. The Player Characters will be faced with a maze, and despite being haunted by a number of ghosts, but will eventually be able to find their way to a ‘Chamber of Riddles’. Doing so reveals the strangest of encounters in the campaign—windows into the very past of Carl Linnaeus! These are essentially mini-mysteries that reveal the biologist and physician’s past and some of his secrets, many of which are pertinent to the mystery at the heart of the campaign.

‘The Haunted Library’ climaxes with the intervention of the Rosenbergers, the rival organisation which split from the Society. Their appearance in the campaign is an oddity since they have rarely appeared in previous scenarios for Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying and whilst they appear in the next and final scenario in campaign, the eponymous, ‘City of My Nightmares’, it is a pity that there is not greater scope to explore this aspect of the setting. It is perhaps a missed opportunity, perhaps one that the Game Master could follow up herself.

In ‘City of My Nightmares’, the Player Characters are once again recalled to Stockholm, but this time not by August T. Lysander. Instead, the letter is from a renowned spiritualist and artist who received a portentous message from a spirit during a séance. They find a city tense with worker unrest and filled with an uncertainty that quickly tips over into dance and destruction. Against this backdrop of increasing civil agitation, the Player Characters must work out who is being warned about in the message and find a way to stop the threat. This is a much more challenging scenario than the previous three, but it ultimately reveals the real threats that the Player Characters and the Society face, one of them a returning from previous scenarios. The ‘City of My Nightmares’ brings the campaign to a satisfying climax. After which, the Player Characters are likely going to be relieved to return to the countryside for a more traditional investigation!

If there is an issue with Vaesen: City of my Nightmares, it is one that is found in many scenarios and campaigns—the introduction of an NPC that the players and their characters have to trust. This is as much a problem with stories and players themselves and their not always trusting nature when it comes to such NPCs. It may well be a good idea to introduce the major NPC in this campaign and portray him as helpful and useful long before the campaign starts.

Physically, Vaesen: City of my Nightmares is very well presented. It is well written and easy to understand, whilst the cartography—old and new—has a pleasingly period feel. The artwork, including the handouts, is, of course, excellent.

Vaesen: City of my Nightmares is an engaging campaign, best played intermittently as written, that veteran players will enjoy, whilst wholly new players may find a bit more challenging. Vaesen: City of my Nightmares presents a contrasting backdrop, a chance to explore the history of the Society, and brings urban fantasy and horror to Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, if only for a little while.

Friday Fantasy: The Lost & Found Forest

Villagers have been disappearing from Amber, one of the hamlets known as the Sisters Three that stand on the shore of Loch Maeglen, and nobody knows why. Only one has reappeared, the florist, Mirabel Gobel, and she is unable to recall where she went and what happened to her. Only now she can hear a mysterious woman’s voice calling to her to “Find me! Find me and longer taste sorrow,” and go to the nearby Lost & Found Forest and she fears for her life. What kind of danger is she in and where have the other villagers gone? Perhaps the Player Characters are hired to investigate by a previous employer, like Kelvin Belmont from the adventure The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure, or they are camping in the area when they come across Mirabel Gobel walking towards the woods in a trance, or they come across a tumbledown cottage on the edge of the woods from which can be heard muffled cries of a woman. However the Player Characters get involved, this is the mystery and set-up at the heart of The Lost & Found Forest: A Sisters Three Adventure. This is a scenario for Dragonbane: Mirth & Mayhem Roleplaying, the roleplaying game published by Free League Publishing.

The Lost & Found Forest: A Sisters Three Adventure is published by Gallow’s Tomes as part of Free League Publishing’s Free League Workshop community content programme. It is part of the same series as The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure and can be run as an indirect sequel since both are set in the same area. This setting is the Bailwick of Fenwick and the three hamlets—Amber, Burgundy, and Lapis—which stand on the shores of Loch Maeglen, which can be used as or adapted to fit the Game Master’s own setting, or it can be slotted into the Misty Vale setting as detailed in the Dragonbane Core Set. To that end, it is suggested that they be placed around the unnamed lake in the Misty Vale just south of the Temple of the Purple Flame and the Magna Woods. Alternatively, they can be placed on the other side of the Drakmar Pass from where the ‘Secret of the Dragon Emperor’ campaign begins. Each of the three hamlets is associated with and named for a statue of a woman, collectively known as The Sisters. In the case of Lapis, the starting point for The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure, the statue is of lapis, whereas for Amber, the starting points for The Lost & Found Forest: A Sisters Three Adventure, the statue is of amber. Amber is decidedly bohemian in nature, home to artists and craftsmen of all kinds, as well as the Honey Well Playhouse, the region’s only theatre. The Player Characters can speak to various villagers most of whom have an interest in the arts or crafts, picking up clues and rumours, some the latter actually being repeated from The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure to give the whole region a cohesive feel and to connect to other adventures.

Eventually, the Player Characters will decide to investigate the woods and this where The Lost & Found Forest: A Sisters Three Adventure gets interesting. This is because there is no map of the forest, but rather a set of nine forest sites and one end site, called the Hovel Site. The nine forest sites are divided into three bands reflecting how far they are into the forest, but as the Player Characters try and move from one site to the next, they may find themselves returning to the site they just left or another site that they previously visited. There is guidance for the Game Master when to make the Hovel Site accessible narratively or there is ’Hovel Dice’ mechanic which she can roll to determine when the Player Characters discover the Strange Tracks that lead towards the Hovel Site and when they reach the Hovel Site itself. Either way, the aim here is make the search for the cause of the disappearances from Amber a cross between a search and chase, following a set of strange tracks. The encounters in the forest are often creepy and odd, and dangerously soporific.

The final confrontation with the witch behind the mystery is a tough, two-stage battle. First against the Hovel which she makes her home and is actually mobile and whose strange tracks the Player Characters have been following, then against the witch herself. This is the first encounter proper that they will have with one of the ‘Sisters Three’ of the series’ title and if there is an issue, it is that her motivation is underwritten. The Game Master may want to strengthen it and make it more obvious in the Player Characters’ interactions with her.

The Lost & Found Forest: A Sisters Three Adventure can be run as a standalone adventure, but it can be a sequel to The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure. There is advice to set up the adventure either way, but like the latter scenario, The Lost & Found Forest: A Sisters Three Adventure still leaves numerous questions answered. Hopefully, future scenario releases will address them, especially when the Player Characters encounter the other of the titular ‘Sisters Three’.

Physically, The Lost & Found Forest: A Sisters Three Adventure is well laid out in the style of Dragonbane. It does feel heavier in its use of colour and art style, even a little cartoonish. That said, the artwork works, whilst the maps are decent.

The Lost & Found Forest: A Sisters Three Adventure does bring the hamlet of Amber to life and give a very different feel and tone to that given for Lapis in The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure. The set-up is strong and it has a dark fairy tale atmosphere, backed up with some decent encounters and a big finale, but the motivation behind the adventure and the villainess’ actions are underwritten.

Friday Fantasy: The Alchemist’s Fire

The alchemist, Kelvin Belmont, is distraught and distracted, and in need of help. He has received a letter from his brother, Solomon, begging for his help in dealing with a dangerous threat which seems to be hounding him. This is strange, for the brothers had a falling out and neither has spoken to the other in almost a decade. The question is, what is the nature of the threat such that one pair of estranged siblings would seek out the aid of the other? Fortunately, Kelvin does want to help his brother, but he is old and weary, ill-suited to such tasks. So, he decides to hire some doughty adventurers to check on his brother and to deliver the package that he requested. This is the core hook—though several other hooks are included to get the Player Characters to meet Kelvin—for the scenario, The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure. This is a scenario for Dragonbane: Mirth & Mayhem Roleplaying, the roleplaying game published by Free League Publishing.

The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure is published by Gallow’s Tomes as part of Free League Publishing’s Free League Workshop community content programme. The setting is the Bailwick of Fenwick and the three hamlets—Amber, Burgundy, and Lapis—which stand on the shores of Loch Maeglen. This can be used as or adapted to fit the Game Master’s own setting, or it can be slotted into the Misty Vale setting as detailed in the Dragonbane Core Set. To that end, it is suggested that they be placed around the unnamed lake in the Misty Vale just south of the Temple of the Purple Flame and the Magna Woods. Alternatively, they can be placed on the other side of the Drakmar Pass from where the ‘Secret of the Dragon Emperor’ campaign begins. Each of the three hamlets is associated with and named for a statue of a woman, collectively known as The Sisters. In the case of Lapis, the starting point for The Alchemist's Fire, the statue is of lapis. The hamlet is described in broad detail, noting its most important business and their colourful proprietors and patrons, including the inn with a Dwarven innkeeper with an ear for ‘Dad jokes’, a grumpy Mallard sailor wanting to return to the sea, an overly curious Halfling cartographer, and a baker with a line in hot buttered muffins. Besides talking to the inhabitants, which may earn the Player Characters some rumours, divided between those pertinent to the scenario and those left for the Game Master to develop or ignore as is her wont, can of course, do a bit of shopping.

Eventually, the Player Characters will make their way to Ravenhook Tower, the home of Kelvin Belmont. Once they get past his cagey manner, he will employ them to deliver a cart, which he will provide, full of flasks of a blue liquid that ignites upon impact when thrown—Fire Flasks. The alchemist’s brother has asked him to deliver to his tower, Coralholm, which lies to the east. The journey is not without its dangers as the Blue Root Mountains are full of Worgs and Goblins—and worse. Plus, the Player Characters are essentially driving a bomb on wheels, and if anything goes wrong, there is the chance of a massive explosion. In fact, a really, really big explosion which is going to leave them at a disadvantage later in the scenario.

However, by the time the Player Characters reach Solomon Belmont’s tower of Coralholm, it is too late. Someone has already broken in and when the Player Characters find him, they also find an army of frogs harassing him. This is after a nasty encounter with a Giant Slime that can shoot ooze-coated skulls out of its gelatinous depths and make weapons protrude from its body. Of course, this fight can be eased with the application of a Fire Flask or two. Once the fight is over, Solomon is pleased to see the Player Characters—in complete contrast to his brother—but he fears that the frog men will be back and asks the Player Characters to mount what is effectively, a ‘tower defence’. The players and their characters have time to set up defences and they are encouraged to lay traps and build defensive points as well as prepare the ballista on the roof. The fight comes with its own maps and feels like a cross between the Battle of Helm’s Deep and the destruction of Isengard in The Two Towers of The Lord of the Rings, but with the Player Characters and Solomon Belmont as the defenders in both cases. Of course, this is on a very much smaller scale in either case. It does include a ‘Squad Dice’ mechanic for handling when more squads of Frog Men appear on the battlefield.

The scenario does end with some unanswered questions. This includes the cause of the estrangement between the brothers and the identity and aims of an antagonist—hopefully to be detailed in another scenario. That said, if the Player Characters never find out, it is no great loss. Rounding out The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure is another table of encounters should the Player Characters venture into the woods near the hamlet of Lapis and some full page pieces of artwork. These are actually quite good, especially that of the Briar Mawr, the malign walking tree carrying a platform of Frog Men in its branches (which the Player Characters can attempt to topple).

Two points arise from the setting. One is that the author cannot decide whether the setting for The Alchemist’s Fire—Lapis—is a hamlet or a town. The other is the name, ‘Bailwick of Fenwick’. Putting aside the rhyming, it does sound very much like the Duchy of Grand Fenwick from the Peter Sellers’ film, The Mouse That Roared.

Physically, The Alchemist’s Fire is well laid out in the style of Dragonbane. It does feel heavier in its use of colour and art style, even a little cartoonish. That said, the artwork works, whilst the maps are decent.

If the plot to The Alchemist’s Fire is straightforward, its details are colourful and detailed, and all together, the whole affair is easy to run and easy to slot into a campaign. Offering a good mix of roleplaying with some surprisingly nasty and challenging encounters, The Alchemist’s Fire: A Sisters Three Adventure is an impressively sturdy little adventure that should play through in two or so sessions.

The Full Zero to Hero

Like any good action film, Mission Dossier: Project Medusa starts with a bang! Not with the bang of a gunshot, but with the sound a door being kicked open and the bruised and bloody contact that the Heroes have been waiting for, being thrown to the floor of the diner where they have been waiting for him. After the requisite brawl with the thugs that beat him and came after the Heroes, the chase is on the MacGuffin of the title—a speedy drive to the airfield followed by a race to board a departing aeroplane, which before it reaches it destination, will explode, deliberately, of course, leaving the heroes in mid air and short of parachutes… This then is the opening part of Mission Dossier: Project Medusa, a scenario, or ‘mini-campaign’ for Outgunned, the cinematic action roleplaying game inspired by the classic action films of the past sixty years—Die Hard, Goldfinger, Kingsman, Ocean’s Eleven, Hot Fuzz, Lethal Weapon, and John Wick.

Mission Dossier: Project Medusa is ‘A 3-Shot Introductory Campaign for Outgunned’ and if it seems familiar, there is a good reasons for this. This is because its first part, or shot, ‘Race Against Time’ is used in both the core rulebook as the introductory scenario and in Outgunned– Zero to Hero, the quick-start for Outgunned. So, by the time the Director and her players get to Mission Dossier: Project Medusa, they may already have played through the first part. That said, it is nice to have the whole scenario in one place, and further, all of Mission Dossier: Project Medusa can be run using the Outgunned – Zero to Hero rather than the full rules in Outgunned. Both Outgunned and Mission Dossier: Project Medusa were funded via a Kickstarter campaign and published by the Italian publisher, Two Little Mice, via Free League Publishing. Mission Dossier: Project Medusa comes with four ready-to-play Heroes—a maverick undercover police officer, a hotshot driver and pilot, an ever cheerful bounty hunter, and a charming martial artist—and can be played through in two or three sessions. Some elements of these Heroes are written into the story, so if the players want to create their own Heroes, the Director will need to link them to the plot. If the players do want to create their own Heroes, it is recommended that one of them be a hotshot driver.

Mission Dossier: Project Medusa quickly summarises the plot and its three shots, introduces the four Heroes (character sheets for each of them is included at the back), and both explains who the villain is and what his dastardly plan is. This is the charming Greek philanthropist, Konstantin Stamos, who has a very dark past and a suitcase to take delivery of. The suitcase is the MacGuffin of the scenario and contains a deadly virus, which if unleashed, would kill millions. ‘Race Against Time’ is not clear as to where it is set beyond an unspecified sea-side city, but the action definitely switches to Greece for the second and parts of the scenario, ‘Unwanted Guests’ and ‘Into the Heart of Medusa’. In ‘Unwanted Guests’, the Heroes land in Greece and discover who is behind the beating up of the Heroes’ contact in the previous act, one Konstantin Stamos, and that he is holding a big party very shortly. Which gives an opportunity for the Heroes to infiltrate the event, trying to avoid the attention of the security at Stamos’ villa, and learning more of the villain’s secrets. Since this is the second act, it will end with another fight, of course, a big fight, and will end with the Heroes being captured and imprisoned. ‘Into the Heart of Medusa’, they discover the truly monstrous nature of both Stamos’ plans and its origins, fight their way out of a collapsing secret laboratory, and engage in a helicopter chase, before a final showdown between Stamos and one Hero atop a cliff.

Make no mistake, Mission Dossier: Project Medusa is linear and straightforward, and whilst there is opportunity for the players to embellish parts of the scenario, there is no deviation from its plot. This should be okay though, since the players are here for an action film, not a melodrama, and for their heroes to land punches and shoot the villains and look very, very cool whilst doing it.

What is particularly noticeable about Mission Dossier: Project Medusa is its format. The details of the scenario are always placed on the left, whilst the advice—or ‘Pro-Tips’—for the Director, is always placed on the right in a big, bold, red block with the text in white and different typefaces used on each page. The ‘Pro-Tips’ varies in size, or rather width, throughout the scenario. On some two-page spreads, it is a simple sidebar, on others, it takes up a whole page. The latter includes every scene and situation in the adventure, the advice and suggestions keyed to particular scenes. The advice suggests moments when the Heroes have an opportunity to rest and remove a Condition they might have suffered in a previous scene, the best way to handle a scene, ideas as to how a scene might be expanded or embellished typically to enable the players to develop their Heroes, and to expand on the villains’ actions. The advice is very good and there is so much of it that Mission Dossier: Project Medusa might actually be considered to be half-adventure, half-advice for the Director. Certainly, there is a lot here that the Director can learn and apply to subsequent Outgunned campaigns.

Lastly, Mission Dossier: Project Medusa includes not one, but six ideas which the Director can develop into full scenarios, all connected to the events of Mission Dossier: Project Medusa. These are divided into three sequels and three prequels, so that with the latter, the Director could run some flashback scenarios before the sequels which link to the mysterious organisation that Stamos was connected to. What this organisation is and what it wants is very much up to the Director to decide and develop (unless, of course, the publisher develops a further campaign in the meantime).

Physically, beyond the depictions of the Heroes and major NPCs, Mission Dossier: Project Medusa is not illustrated. Nor are there any maps. The latter should not be too much of an issue, since many of the locations in the scenario will be familiar from all manner of action films. That said, there is nothing to stop the Director from finding her own maps and floorplans. Otherwise, the layout is clean and tidy and effective as outlined earlier. It does need an edit in places though.

Mission Dossier: Project Medusa is exactly what you want in a scenario for an action movie. It is fast paced, there are secrets and betrayals to discover, a mystery to be solved, the world to be saved, and lots and lots of opportunities for the Heroes to be heroic. Of course, this means that there are more than a few clichés of the genre along the way, but they are to be expected and the players should be buying into them as much as they are the cinematic action and chance for their Heroes to look cool. Supported by excellent advice for Director, Mission Dossier: Project Medusa is an entertaining introduction to running and playing Outgunned – Cinematic Action Role Playing Game.

Zombies on the Thames

It is the year 1829 and polite society’s horror and disgust at the poor and the great unwashed is once again being stoked by reports of them shambling about at night, faces ashen, and looming out of the miasma along the River Thames to scare anyone and everyone, whether going about legitimate business or not. In sordid South London, in the notorious slum that is Jacob’s Island, right on the banks of the Thames, people are going missing—and worse, they are coming back very much in a discombobulated fashion! It is a very strange matter indeed, and despite it having been brought to the attention of Sir Robert Peel and his recently founded Metropolitan Police Force, there is not the manpower, or indeed, the political willpower to do a great deal about it. Which is why the Apollonian Society, whose members investigate the unseemly and the unnatural, is approached to look into the matter.

This is the set-up to Mists of Old London, a scenario for use with Vaesen – Mythic Britain & Ireland, the campaign supplement for Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, which details the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in the nineteenth century and the clashes the arose between the old ways and the new with rapid industrialisation. The scenario is set primarily in the rotten rookery and sodden slum of Jacob’s Island, home to some of the city’s poorest inhabitants, on the south bank of the river, notable as being the home of Bill Sykes in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Investigation will reveal the area is rife with tension. There has been a recent influx of immigrants from Jamaica into the slum as well as the people vanishing into the mists and then reappearing at their homes, as cold as the grave. There are also strange figures stalking the streets. One is hooded in rags and mutters curses and incantations as she clambers across the rickety walkways and bridges that connect many parts of Jacob’s Island, whilst the other strides purposefully, a gentleman in frock coat and top hat as well as a mask. She is Madame Otay, he is Monsieur Thursday.

It should be pretty clear that to the players that what their characters are facing is an infestation of zombies, appropriate for the threat that the Player Characters face, though since the word would have been little known at the time when the scenario is set, it is very unlikely that the characters will initially know they are facing and extremely unlikely that they will have come across the term before. There are opportunities for both Madame Otay and Monsieur Thursday to educate the Player Characters though. Being a scenario for Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, there is a countdown in which things get worse, the mists will rise and worsen, and the zombies will walk the streets of Jacob’s Island openly. There are a limited number of lines of investigation, but the Player Characters should get enough clues to work out what is going and where they need to go—whether either of the major NPCs want them to, or not. All of which will lead to classic showdown at a summoning by the villain of the piece and the Player Characters in position to stop it.

This is a most serviceable scenario with a pleasingly tense and strong, if sodden atmosphere of uncertainty, tinged just a little with a fear of the unknown. Smart or experienced players will probably crack on through and complete it in a single session, though it should take no more than two sessions’ worth of play at the most otherwise. It could work as a convention in the case of the former, but it is not really set up for that. Thematically the plot could work with the Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game or period wise with Regency Cthulhu: Dark Designs in Jane Austen’s England, both from Chaosium, Inc. In fact, retooling it for the latter for the Miskatonic Repository would work rather well.

Mists of Old London is not without its issues and the likelihood is that the complaints about are going to come from both ends of the spectrum. One is that the scenario makes use of African diaspora religion of Obeah as a feature of its plot. The other is that one of the NPCs is called ‘Nigel Barrige’, who as MP for Southwark, “…[N]ow seeks to consolidate his power by stoking parliaments [SIC] fears of the working class and social revolution.” The author goes further than this though, in what is a parody of a contemporary British political figure. To be fair, the first of these is more of an issue than the second, but the author does make clear that it is not intended faithful representation of the religion, but sticks to being a Western, dramatised version for the sake of the scenario’s plot. The author also suggests that if the Game Master is unhappy with this, then it is possible to some research and adjust as necessary. A link is provided should the Game Master want to get started. As to the second, it is parody, and parody is fair game.

Mists of Old London is published via the Free League Workshop, the community content programme for Free League Publishing, so not professionally produced. As a consequence, physically, Mists of Old London is rough. The layout and the few pieces of illustration are fine, but it really, really needs a good edit. There are also no maps.

Mists of Old London is far from a bad scenario. It just needs to be more clearly and tidily presented and supported with a map or two. Otherwise, Mists of Old London is eminently serviceable, enjoyable scenario.

Action Against the Odds

Your rival killed your favourite pet when all you wanted was a quiet life. Your daughter—or even the President’s daughter—has been kidnapped. Terrorists have occupied the New York Stock Exchange and are threatening to blow it up when in reality they are raiding the markets. A train has to keep going because if it drops below a certain speed, bombs will detonate the dangerous chemicals it is transporting. A secret cabal plot against you as you try to uncover hidden truths that will reveal the real history of your nation. A team of superspecialists sets out to pull off the heist of a century by stealing from the wealthiest casino in Macau. A madman holds Chicago hostage with a nuclear bomb. A supervillain threatens world domination with an array of space lasers, supposedly put in orbit to protect against asteroids, but now turned inwards. Any of these hooks could be and possibly have been the plot of an action movie, a film that focuses on fast storylines, furious action, astounding stunts, and incredible tension to deliver a great cinematic experience with a tub of popcorn and a bucket of soda thrown in. They could also be the storylines for any scenario for Outgunned, the cinematic action roleplaying game inspired by the classic action films of the past sixty years—Die Hard, Goldfinger, Kingsman, Ocean’s Eleven, Hot Fuzz, Lethal Weapon, and John Wick.

Outgunned: Cinematic Action Roleplaying Game continues the wave of Italian roleplaying games reaching the English-speaking market and is now reaching a wider audience thanks to being published by Free League Publishing. Originally published by Two Little Mice following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Outgunned is the roleplaying game of eighties action films which won the Silver Ennie for Best Game and Silver Ennie for Product of the Year in 2024. It is designed to do three things. First, to handle a variety of different action films, from chases and heists to Spy-Fi and hostage situations. Second, to help deliver short action-packed sessions, tending towards one-shots or ‘Shots’, and in keeping with the genre, sequels. Third, to play fast and easy—Outgunned only uses six-sided dice—and to encourage action, so that whilst the Heroes will constantly face terrible odds and be hounded by enemies from start to finish, the game mechanics favour success, with failure only a setback, a chance for the Heroes to take a breath, and come back to put the villain’s chief lieutenant down, the villain himself in handcuffs, and save the day, if not the world.

In keeping with the genre, there is a certain snappiness to Outgunned. It wants to get the players and the Director to the play as quickly as possible, so it quickly defines what its themes are, where and when the roleplaying game is set, and what its core tenets are. The themes are ‘Doing the right thing’, ‘Alone against all’, ‘Spirit of sacrifice’, ‘Revenge and forgiveness’, ‘Friends as your real family’, and ‘The broken system’, and whilst Outgunned takes its inspiration from a wide variety of action films, it is set somewhen between the eighties and the early noughties, in a world that looks exactly like own, but a whole lot cooler and in surround sound. The roleplaying game’s pillars of action are that ‘Action never stops’, ‘Like at the movies’, and ‘You don’t know everything’, whilst as a Real Hero, a Player Character is ‘Someone with a mission’, will ‘Live dangerously’, and is ‘One of the good guys’. If the Director and the players are fans of action films—and obviously, for Outgunned, they should be—most of this will be familiar, but the roleplaying game distils it all down into the core essence of the genre and makes it easy to grasp.

A Player Character or Hero in Outgunned is defined by a Role and a Trope, Attributes, Skills, and Feats. The Role of which there are ten—the Commando, Fighter, Ace, Agent, Face, Nobody, Brain, Sleuth, Criminal, and Spy—defines what the Hero’s job is or was, gives him a choice of Catchphrases (the use of which can earn a Hero points of ‘Spotlight’) and Flaws, set points to assign to Attributes and Skills, and some Feats and Gear to choose from. Every Role is given a two-page spread that includes a list of the films where that Role has appeared. Tropes represent an archetype, such as ‘Bad to the Bone’, ‘Jerk with a Heart of Gold’, or ‘Vigilante’, and provide more points to assign to Attributes and Skills, plus a Feat to choose. The five Attributes are Brawn, Nerves, Smooth, Focus, and Crime and they are rated between one and three as the roleplaying game’s skills. Lastly, Feats typically allow a player to reroll his dice under a certain situation, but can have other effects such as giving a Hero more Cash or having useful Contacts, and some may take effect immediately or require a whole turn of game play. Some also require a player to expend Adrenaline.

To create a Hero, a player simply selects a Role and a Trope. From these, he assigns the points to Attributes and Skills as directed, and chooses Feats, Catchphrases, Gear, and so on. He also receives two extra points to assign to Skills. The process is quick and easy, and adjustments can also be made for age too.

Name: Ottilie Harsholm
Role: The Brain Trope: Neurotic Geek
Age: Adult
Catchphrase: “Have I ever been wrong before?”
Flaw: “Without my glasses, I am nearly blind.”

Brawn 2: Endure 1 Fight 3 Force 1 Stunt 1
Nerves 2: Cool 2 Drive 3 Shoot 1 Survival 1
Smooth 2: Flirt 1 Leadership 2 Speech 3 Style 1
Focus 3: Detect 3 Fix 3 Heal 2 Know 3
Crime 3: Awareness 2 Dexterity 3 Stealth 3 Streetwise 1

Feats: Hacker, Intuition, Outsmart
Gear: Portable Computer, notebook, pencil

Mechanically, Outgunned is player-facing, so the Director never has to roll and uses what it calls the ‘Director’s Cut’. At its core, it plays a little like Yahtzee, but from there it very quickly escalates both the action and the urgency. What a player is trying to roll is matches on a pool of six-sided dice, which can be numbers if standard dice or symbols if using the Outgunned dice. The base number of dice is equal to an Attribute plus a Skill, but can be modified by gear and any Conditions that a Hero might have suffered. Most rolls will be Action Rolls, made when a player wants his Hero to act, whilst Reaction rolls are made to avoid a bad situation. A player is free to choose the Attribute and Skill he wants to combine for an Action roll, but the Director dictates them for a Reaction roll.

The difficulty for any task is the number of matches required. ‘Basic’ difficulty requires two matches, ‘Critical’ difficulty requires three matches, ‘Extreme’ difficulty requires four matches, and ‘Impossible’ difficulty requires five matches. Better results than those required can give better outcomes, primarily in gaining extra actions, but if a player rolls six or more matches, then his Hero has hit the ‘Jackpot!’ and he gets to be the Director and narrate how amazing his Hero is. A player only needs to roll the dice when it matters and, in most situations, the difficulty is ‘Critical’. This is the standard roll, but beyond this, the ‘Director’s Cut’ escalates the difficulty that a player and his Hero has to overcome mechanically to reflect the challenge that the Hero has to overcome in the story. It also escalates the consequences.

In Outgunned there is no failure, only the consequences of a temporary setback. In general, a Hero should fail with style, whether that is to ‘Roll with the Punches’, ‘Pay the Price’, or ‘Take the Hard Road’. In the next step up, the difficulty can be doubled, requiring the player to roll two sets of matches to fully succeed. If he manages to roll only one of the matches, he will be unable to avoid one of the consequences. However, if the situation and the roll is classed as ‘Dangerous’, then the consequences are that the Hero loses points of Grit, the equivalent of Hit Points in Outgunned. The greater the difficulty of the failed roll, the greater the loss of Grit. It is possible to do Damage Control to reduce the loss of Grit, but every Hero has twelve boxes for Grit on his character sheet. When the eighth box—the ‘Bad Box’—is filled in, the Hero gains a Condition and when the ‘Hot Box’, the last box, is filled in, Hero gains two Adrenaline. Losing all of his Grit puts a Hero on the Death Roulette, ‘spinning’ and rolling against it, on a failure causing him to be ‘Left for Dead’ and on a success, getting back up, but loading up the Death Roulette with another lethal round and making it difficult to survive next time. A Hero can come back after being ‘Left for Dead’, but with a scar and a preposterous story of his survival, and then only at the appropriate point in the storyline. Grit is recovered through rest or when the Hero is allowed to ‘Catch a Break’ or ‘After a Shot’.

Beyond Dangerous rolls, when a Hero’s life or the situation is on the line, a roll can be a ‘Gamble’. For each one rolled after the last roll, the Hero loses a point of Grit.

Of course, the audience of an action film really wants to see the Hero succeed and so does Outgunned. If a player rolls at least one Basic match and needs more, he can reroll any dice that did not match. If this fails, one of the previously rolled matches is lost. Many Feats grant a free reroll which does not carry this penalty. Either way, the player is encouraged to reroll because it increases the chances of his Hero succeeding. Lastly, if a player still does not have enough matches or the right sort of matches, he can go ‘All In’ and reroll any other dice not part of a match. However, this carries with it the risk of losing all of the matches rolled if the result does not improve the player’s roll and this is discouraged as an act of desperation.

A Hero also has Adrenalin. For one Adrenalin, a player can add a single die to a roll or activate a particular Feat, and for a total of six Adrenalin, gain the Spotlight. Adrenaline can be regained for essentially good play. A Hero can hold three Spotlights, which can be spent to gain an Extreme Success, to save a friend who is on the Death Roulette, remove a Condition, save a Ride—a vehicle of any kind, about to be destroyed, and so on. A Hero can gain a Spotlight with the appropriate use of his Catchphrase or Flaw, and can keep a spent Spotlight with the flip of a coin.

Combat uses these mechanics, but since the Director never rolls in Outgunned, alternates back and forth between the Heroes’ Action Turn and the Heroes’ Reaction Turn. In an Action Turn, the Hero takes a full Action Roll and a Quick Action, such as reloading, whilst in the Reaction Turn all rolls are ‘Dangerous’ rolls. Extra successes work as a counter and inflict Grit loss on the Enemy. Brawls and gunfights are covered in a surprisingly speedy fashion, as is Gear and Cash which are kept simple, and in the case of Cash, abstract.

Enemies are divided into three types—Goons, Bad Guys, and Bosses, to which a Director can add a Template and Feats. Enemies are simply defined. Goons require a ‘Basic’ success to hit and defend against; Bad Guys require a ‘Critical’ success to hit and defend against; and Bosses require a ‘Critical’ or an ‘Extreme’ success to hit and defend against. All just have Grit and not the Death Roulette that each Hero has. Each Enemy Type is given five Templates to apply, so Template 1 for the Bad Guys might be armed hooligans, two well-trained agents, or a large guard dog, whilst Template 5 is a team of ninja, the perfect shot assassin, or a pair of big bruisers. Goons might have only a single Feat, but Bad Guys and Bosses get a lot more. Feats might be ‘Automatic Weapons’, ‘Mob’, ‘Armoured’, ‘Shotguns’, ‘Flamethrower’, ‘Rage’, and more. In addition, some Enemies can have a Weak Spot, and can also be the environment as much as the actual Enemy. For example, an unsafe structure nearby that a Hero can knock over on an Enemy to inflict damage or the Enemy can be drawn into a trap, enabling all of the Heroes to skip their next Reaction Turn.

Chases use the same alternating Action Turn and Reaction Turn as combat. This plays out over a Need Track, between six and eighteen boxes in length, and represents what the Heroes want to get out of the Chase, whether to flee from an Enemy or to chase after them. The Heroes’ Ride will have a Speed of between zero and three, but it can be increased through the Heroes’ actions and decreased by the Enemies actions. At the end of the Action Turn, the Need Track is filled in with the current Speed, but if it is not yet completely filled in, the Reaction Turn occurs, and so on. As with combat, the ‘Director’s Cut’ includes plenty of ways in which the Director can make a chase more challenging.

For the Director, there is advice on running Outgunned and creating content to run. This focuses on the structure around an ‘Establishing Shot’, a ‘Turning Point’, and a ‘Showdown’, and what aspects of the game are triggered within each. For example, the Villain cannot be defeated until the ‘Showdown’ and prior to that, rolls against the Villain carry a penalty and Spotlight cannot be used to thwart a Villain. There is decent advice on how to define both the villain, including his weak spot, and supporting characters, and there is also a tool given for the Director to track the tension over the course of a mission. This is Heat, which starts at a level equal to the number of Heroes and can rise as high as twelve. It will go up at the ‘Turning Point’ and the ‘Showdown’, when a Hero is ‘Left for Dead’, the Heroes suffer a stinging defeat, and so on. As it rises, it complicates the Heroes’ progress by adding a Lethal Bullet to their Death Roulettes, giving Enemies another Feat, and then adding another Lethal Bullet to their Death Roulettes as well as granting them a point of Adrenalin. The Director can also use the Heat Track to trigger events in her campaign.

It is in the middle of this advice that the players and their Heroes are given another resource beyond Adrenalin and Spotlight—and it is the most powerful. ‘Plan B’ is a group resource and comes in three types. These are ‘Bullet’, ‘Backup’, and ‘Bluff’. Each can only be used once in the whole of a campaign and only one can be used per session. Each is really powerful and gives the Heroes an immediate advantage that will get them out of the dire situation they find themselves in. It seems odd to have this at the back of the book where the players are not going to find it and the Director definitely has to tell them about it. In addition, there is advice on running heists, the Heroes creating a Master Plan that they can attempt to follow, and the Director can react to. This is the most specific advice that Outgunned gives about a type of plot.

However, the advice is broad, and it talks about campaigns rather than individual missions. The advice can be applied to individual missions, but a Director looking for advice on how to create her own missions is going to be disappointed. There is not any real analysis of the genre that she can take and adapt to create her own content, the assumption being that both Director and players will have watched and studied a lot of eighties and nineties action films. Some plot breakdowns and some analysis would really have bolstered the advice the Director and overall, what is given, especially with its focus on campaign, is underwhelming.

As well as a filmography and all of the roleplaying game’s forms, the section for the Director ends with a sample scenario. This is ‘Race Against Time’ is the ‘Introductory Shot’ involving a hunt for a MacGuffin which involves lots of fights, a chase, and an exploding aeroplane! It is an entertaining affair that can be played through in a single session and there is actually some good advice, suggesting manoeuvres that the Heroes might take in the various situations they find themselves in throughout the scenario, given in the margins alongside the main plot. The scenario is intended as a lead into Project Medusa, which is fine, but what is not fine is that the scenario is included in Outgunned – Hero to Zero, which might leave the Director without anything to run from the core book for the roleplaying game if she has run the quick-start.

Physically, Outgunned is a good looking book. The artwork is excellent and the layout clean and tidy, and easy to read.

Outgunned is a book and roleplaying game that makes you want to play or run an action movie by presenting easy to grasp character archetypes and at its core, a very basic dice mechanic that is backed up by ways to avoid having the Heroes fail. In this way, it emulates its genre. However, it complicates things by making rolls more complex as the stakes grow higher—not too more complex, but just that bit more complex—so that it ratchets up the mechanical demands in time with the tension. This too, emulates its genre, but does slow game play down, if only a little, at that time of tension. Where Outgunned truly disappoints is in the lack of analysis of the genre which would have helped inform the Director and the underwhelming advice for the Director which could have been better in helping her create and run Shots rather than focusing on campaigns.

For the Director and her players who know their eighties and nineties action movies, Outgunned: Cinematic Action Roleplaying Game delivers on what it promises—the means to run intense and action-packed stories of cinematic thrills and spills.