[Free RPG Day 2024] Dragonbane – The Sinking Tower

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

Dragonbane – The Sinking Tower is a preview of, and a quick-start for Dragonbane, the reimagining of Sweden’s first fantasy roleplaying game, Drakar och Demoner, originally published in 1982. Funded via a Kickstarter campaign by Free League Publishing in 2022, Dragonbane promises to be a roleplaying game of “mirth and mayhem”. It includes a basic explanation of the setting, rules for actions and combat, magic, the adventure, ‘The Sinking Tower’, and five ready-to-play, Player Characters.

‘The Sinking Tower’ scenario is designed as a tournament style adventure and can be played in two hours. This does not mean that it cannot be added to an ongoing campaign, but rather that it includes a scoring sheet to determine how well one group of players fared compared to another. That said, two hours is tight for the scenario and outside of a tournament, the Game Master can easily prepare the scenario and run it in a single session. One aspect of the scenario the Game Master will want to include if it is not run as a tournament scenario, is have treasure cards on hand. In the tournament version, the discovery of treasures is handled in the abstract as a means to add to the point total for the players at the end of the scenario.

The five Player Characters include a Human Wizard (Fire Elementalist), an Elf Hunter, a Mallard Knight (yes, a duck knight!), a Halfling Thief, and a Wolfkin Warrior. All five Player Characters are given a double-sided sheet with one side devoted to the character sheet whilst the other gives some background to the Player Character, an explanation of his abilities, and an excellent illustration. One issue is with the Human Wizard, whose player will need to refer to the magic section of the rules in Dragonbane – The Sinking Tower to find out how his spells work. It would have been far more useful for them to be at least listed along with costs for the benefit of the Wizard’s player.

A Player Character has a Kin, which can be human, halfling, dwarf, elf, mallard, or wolfkin. He also has six attributes—Strength, Constitution, Agility, Intelligence, Willpower, and Charisma—which range in value between three and eighteen, as well as a Profession. Both Kin and Profession provide an ability which are unavailable to other Kin and Professions. Various factors are derived from the attributes, notably different damage bonuses for Strength-based weapons and Agility-based weapons, plus Willpower Points. Willpower Points are expended to use magic and abilities derived from both Kin and Profession. A Player Character has sixteen skills, ranging in value from one to fourteen.

To have his player undertake an action, a player rolls a twenty-sided die. The aim is roll equal to or lower than the skill or attribute. A roll of one is called ‘rolling a dragon’ and is treated as a critical effect. A roll of twenty is called ‘rolling a demon’ and indicates a critical failure. Banes and boons are the equivalent of advantage and disadvantage. Opposed rolls are won by the player who rolls the lowest.

If a roll is failed, a player can choose to push the roll and reroll. The result supersedes the original. In pushing a roll, the Player Character acquires a Condition, for example, ‘Dazed’ for Strength or ‘Scared’ for Willpower. The player has to explain how his character acquires the Condition and his character can acquire a total of six—one for each attribute—and the player is expected to roleplay them. Mechanically, a Condition acts as a Bane in play. A Player Character can recover from one or more Conditions by resting.

Initiative is determined randomly by drawing cards numbered between one and ten, with one going first. A Player Character has two actions per round—a move and an actual action such as a melee attack, doing first aid, or casting a spell. Alternatively, a Player Character can undertake a Reaction, which takes place on an opponent’s turn in response to the opponent’s action. Typically, this is a parry or dodge, and means that the Player Character cannot take another action. If a dragon is rolled on the parry, the Player Character gets a free counterattack!

Combat takes into account weapon length, grip, length, and so on. The effects of a dragon roll, or a critical hit, can include damage being doubled and a dragon roll being needed to parry or dodge this attack, making a second attack, or piercing armour. Damage can be slashing, piercing, or bludgeoning, which determines the effectiveness of armour.

Armour has a rating, which reduces damage taken. Helmets increase Armour Rating, but work as a Bane for certain skills. If a Player Character’s Hit Points are reduced to zero, a death roll is required for him to survive, which can be pushed. Three successful rolls and the Player Character survives, whilst three failures indicate he has died. A Player Character on zero Hit Points can be rallied by another to keep fighting. Dragonbane – The Sinking Tower also includes rules for other forms of damage such as falling and poison, plus darkness and fear. Fear is covered by a Willpower check, and there is a Fear Table for the results.

A Wizard powers magic through the expenditure of Willpower Points. Typical spells cost two Willpower Points per Power Level of a spell, but just one Willpower Point for lesser spells or magic tricks. Spells are organised into schools and each school has an associated skill, which is rolled against when casting a spell. Willpower Points are lost even if the roll is failed, but rolling a dragon can double the range or damage of the spell, negate the Willpower Point cost, or allow another spell to be cast, but with a Bane. Rolling a demon simply means that the spell fails and cannot be pushed. A spell cannot be cast if the Wizard is in direct contact with either iron or steel.

Three spells and three magical tricks are given in Dragonbane – The Sinking Tower. These are all fire-related, designed for the Wizard Player Character. The magical tricks include Ignite, Heat/Chill, and Puff of Smoke, whilst the full spells are Fireball, Gust of Wind, and Pillar.

The scenario in Dragonbane – The Sinking Tower is ‘The Sinking Tower’. This is Magdala’s Tower, a malign lighthouse built and named by her sorcerer brother in remembrance of his sister, topped by a magical eye that was intended to draw the pirates who killed her to their deaths on the rocks below. In time, many more ships foundered on the rocks than the sorcerer intended and after his death, it sank beneath the sea. Every twenty years since, on the anniversary of her death, Magdala’s Tower rises again for a few hours. It gives adventurers courageous enough to row out to the tower, explore its extents and plunder its treasures, just about enough time to do so. The Player Characters are asked to recover a green emerald by a one-eyed and promised reward in return. The tower consists of seven levels, one a cellar, but each a large, single room filled with secrets and puzzles which need to be winkled out and solved before the Player Characters can proceed to the next level. In effect, the whole of the tower is a puzzle that the players will need to solve and almost everything is a clue to a puzzle somewhere in the tower. Players looking for more than a combat challenge—and there are a reasonable number of combat encounters—will enjoy the adventure as a whole.

Physically, Dragonbane – The Sinking Tower is clean and tidy. The cartography is excellent, but the artwork and illustrations are superb. They are done by Johan Egerkrans, who also illustrated Vaesen and possess a grim, if comic book sensibility.

Dragonbane – The Sinking Tower is a decently done tournament adventure, packed with puzzles and secrets that the players and their characters need to discover and solve before the time limit of the scenario. As a standard adventure, it can be played out at a more leisurely place and will be no less challenging, though without the time limit. Either way, Dragonbane – The Sinking Tower is a tightly designed, eerie dungeon adventure that pleasingly showcases DragonBane.

[Free RPG Day 2024] Garbage & Glory – Trashrun

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

Garbage & Glory – Trashrun is a preview of, and a quick-start for Garbage & Glory, the roleplaying games of raccoons—known as ‘trash pandas’—going on adventures, typically to acquire the best kind of trash dumped by humans and turn it into something useful. They will have to compete—and sometimes even fight—for this trash with other trash-mongers like Rat Bandits and Killoyotes. Of course, there is rubbish, which is rubbish and trash, which is useful, and the best source of waste is always guarded giant Ogres in flashing yellow outfits. Who knows why? Actually, the ‘why’ really does not matter, because nothing is going to stop raccoons from getting the best trash. It is published by Wet Ink Games, which previously published Heckin’ Good Doggos – Someone’s Last Day at the Track for Free RPG Day 2023, but is probably best known for Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall, the horror roleplaying game set in a Chinese restaurant in the 1920s. Designed to be played by all ages, it includes the roleplaying game’s +One System, six ready-to-play pre-generated dog characters, and a full adventure, ‘Beyond the Sewer Gate’. In order to play, a group will need a pool of six-sided dice and two decks of ordinary playing cards, each of which should be different to tell them apart.

A raccoon in Garbage & Glory is defined by a Title, Calling, Attributes, and Training. The Title is descriptive, but a Calling grants a raccoon a unique ability and a unique skill. For example, ‘Argentus’, one of the pre-generated raccoons in Garbage & Glory – Trashrun has the Title of ‘The Crafty Blade’. He also has the Calling of ‘Rubbish Ruffian’. This grants him the Calling Ability of ‘The Body Remembers’ which doubles the effect when negating damage or receiving healing, as well as the Calling Skill of ‘Attack Back’, which allows him a riposte if an attack against him misses. The three Attributes are Brawn, Smarts, and Guts, which start at three each, but can be much higher. Each Attribute has four associated areas of Training. For example, Brawn has Break, Scrap, Sneak, and Wriggle. Besides equipment, a Raccoon has rating in Garbage and Glory, which indicate the number of cards for each that a Raccoon has.

Mechanically, Garbage & Glory – Trashrun and thus Garbage & Glory uses the +One System. This involves rolling a number of six-sided dice each to the skill being used. Each five or six rolled is a success. Harder tasks require more Successes. ‘+One Manipulations’ enable a player to change the outcome using points from the Attribute associated with the Skill. Prior to a roll, a manipulation can be made to add a die to a roll or even gain a skill rating in a previously untrained skill, if only temporarily. After the roll, to increase the value of a die roll by one—typically from a four to a five—and to reroll any number of dice. In addition to skill rolls, raccoons can face Challenges, which are attempted by the whole Mask—as a group of raccoons is known—as a group effort. They simply need to roll a number of Successes equal to the target number for the Challenge for the whole pack to succeed. The scenario, ‘Beyond the Sewer Gate’, uses ‘Countdown Challenges’, which if failed, add a cumulative penalty to all subsequent Countdown Challenges in the adventure.

There multiple uses for playing cards in the +One System in Garbage & Glory – Trashrun and thus Garbage & Glory. It depends upon which deck they are played from. Cards drawn from the Garbage deck have two uses—crafting and healing. For the former, the suits represent types of trash. Spades for sharp objects, Hearts for soft, Diamonds for shiny, and Clubs for hard, with higher value cards representing better trash and Jokers acting as wild cards. Notably, very Shiny trash means that it might be magical. For healing one card is discarded per potential point of damage. Cards from the Glory deck can be discarded for ‘+One Manipulations’, healing, and to gain Initiative scores. Whenever a card from the Glory deck is discarded, the player is expected to narrate exactly how glorious it is.

Combat is kept simple. Participants have the one action per turn, initiative is determined by the highest-ranking card of Glory—card suits matter in the full rules to Garbage & Glory, but not in Garbage & Glory – Trashrun—and once a player has acted, then he gets to choose who goes next. At the end of a round, the player of the last character—or the Game Master—to act chooses who acts first in the next round, though it cannot be themselves. Attacks are made against the Scrap, Hurl, or magic values of the defendant as the Target Number. Overall, both the mechanics and combat are nicely explained in Garbage & Glory – Trashrun, and supported with innumerable examples as well as tone and using the X-Card where necessary.

Garbage & Glory – Trashrun includes six pre-generated raccoons. They include a fighter, a skills generalist, a brawler, a healer and skilled dumpster diver, a sneaky raccoon with sticky fingers, and a tinkerer who can delivered a barbed quip. Each has a full sheet, with spaces for each raccoon’s Attributes marked with bottlecaps!

The scenario, ‘Beyond the Sewer Gate’ opens with the raccoons outside the legendary Munci Wastedisp, ready to sneak in and search for its long sought after trove of trashy treasure. The Mask plans to explore its dark and twisty depths in search of good trash, all the whilst avoiding patrolling Ogres in their shiny yellow armour. There is a constant flow of water and rubbish—and perhaps some trash—into Munci Wastedisp, but there is also the chance that too much flows in and it has to go somewhere! Mechanically, if the players fail three Countdown Challenges, they are washed out of Munci Wastedisp. Inside, the Mask will find Rat Bandits, rooms full of all too shiny rubbish, and eventually way into ‘The Depths’ of Munci Wastedisp where they will find the best trash they have ever dreamed of. There they need to avoid the Ogres—and worse—search for the best trash, and get out again, likely chased out… ‘Beyond the Sewer Gate’ is a solid scenario, which hides much of what is going on to the players in the dark of the municipal waste dump, giving it an atmosphere that they unlikely to have thought much about, let considered a location to set a roleplaying scenario in!

Physically, Garbage & Glory – Trashrun is brightly, cheerfully presented. The writing is clear and the illustrated of the various raccoons and the threats they face are excellent. At the front there are illustrations of the weapons that the raccoons use, including a ‘Car Key Shank’, a Stainless Steel based on a steel ruler, and a ‘Pretty Gear Chain Sword’, which is essentially a bicycle chain turned rapidly using the pedals as handles! These are a lot of fun. It is a pity that none of the character sheets for the raccoons have illustrations, and it would have been useful if there had been explanations on what each of the pre-generated raccoons do.

Garbage & Glory – Trashrun is a good quick-start and a good introduction to Garbage & Glory. Its setting and its mechanics make it suitable for younger teenagers and older players and an experienced Narrator, especially one who has run some storytelling style games, will be able to grasp the +One System and explain how it works with ease. Overall, Garbage & Glory – Trashrun is cheerfully, cheeky fun and should give a session’s worth of raccoonish rambunctiousness.

[Free RPG Day 2024] The Shining Shrine

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

The Shining Shrine is a preview of Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting, a supplement for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition published by Loot Tavern. The supplement contains adventures as well as rules for tracking, crafting, and harvesting, and also new monsters, spells, and Player Character options. The Shining Shrine includes just a little of that, making it essentially, a mini-version of the full book. Thus, it contains a full adventure and not one, not two, but seven appendices. These in turn provide new magical items, spells, creatures, familiars, a wizard, and more—including a QR code for a soundtrack! All of which is illustrated with some lovely artwork. The Shining Shrine opens with the eponymously named scenario. This is a short affair designed to be played in roughly one or two sessions, and contains the stats and details necessary to run it for between three and seven Player Characters of Second, Seventh, or Twelfth Level. Ideally though, there should be an average of four Player Characters. The scenario takes place in the Springarden, a bounteous and blossom-filled estate at the heart of the Springwood. Here the barrier between the Plane of Fey and the Material Plane is at its thinnest, enabling the fey to slip into our world. The barrier is at its weakest during a confluence of stars and this when Feyfest is held. Unfortunately, during the most recent confluence a creature called the Suneater Owlbear slipped in the Springarden and has subsequently made its home in a shrine holy to the Blossom Union, a sect of druid-monks that cares for the surrounding Springwood.

The scenario set-up is nicely detailed and gives a clear explanation of what is going on as well as some adventure hooks. The scenario itself is quite structured. Designed as a hunt, it is split into two parts. In the first, much shorter part, the Player Characters have the opportunity to gather three clues pertinent to the hunt itself. These are primarily delivered by Threeflowers, a timid Gnome Druid who would rather be in some quiet corner smoking a pipe, but there are other means of gathering clues too. The authors both make it clear what the clues and their significance are and that the players and their characters need to know all three. It is not subtle about this. Once the Player Characters have their clues, they are ready to face the creature, a Sun-powered version of the Owlbear. The battle is fought in three stages, or waves, and each is described in detail including the tactics that the Suneater Owlbear and its minions will use each time. Making use of the given clues will at least ameliorate some of the deadlier attacks that the creature can deploy. Ultimately, the scenario is a one-session affair (though it may take longer to play), primarily combat-based, but with a little bit of roleplaying and puzzle solving thrown.

There is treasure to be found at the end of the scenario. Some of these are magical items held in the Blossom Union, whilst others can be crafted from the unique components that can be harvested from the Suneater Owlbear. These and others are detailed in the first appendix in The Shining Shrine. They include the Bonze’s Bokken, Wind Ripper, a wooden sword which can create increasingly strong gusts of wind; the Suncatcher, a staff which can catch and absorb radiant energy, and even imbue spell attacks with radiant agency; and the Sunwing Bow, which requires no ammunition in sunlight and marks targets with radiant energy. There are magical meals such as Suneater Steak and Eggs, that grant healing every hour spent in sunlight, and so on.

The other appendices contain spells like The Bends, which creates bubbles of nitrogen in a target’s blood, effectively poisoning him and Endoleech, which with a touch allows the caster to absorb the energy from the target and slow its metabolism. It also inflicts cold damage. These two spells come from the new school of magic given in The Shining Shrine and thus in Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting. The school specialises in the manipulation of the biology of both the caster and others. This includes ‘Self Improvement’, by which the caster can give himself an extra appendage like a prehensile tail or an arm, make a hand detachable, owl eyes to see in the dark, and spidersense to gain a bonus to his initiative. The main feature of the new creatures is the Suneater Owlbear, a fey rather than beast-aligned creature with radiant energy abilities. Three versions are given—young, adult, and ancient—complete with stats so that the Dungeon Master has the right version to match the Level of the Player Characters for adventure in The Shining Shrine.

The Tamer Class is new to Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting, but The Shining Shrine only goes so far as to give tantalising glimpses of what it can do. This includes the ability to harvest and craft familiars from remains of powerful creatures. The accompanying example is of a Sunsnacker, a tiny Fey creature that can grow with the Tamer as the Player Character gains Levels. In doing so, it gets bigger and it gains abilities like a Solar Beam and eventually, the power to appear to be an Eye Tyrant in low light or darkness. More obviously playable is the ‘Rakin’, a playable raccoon-like race known for their practical jokes. It has three subraces consisting of the Urkin, the Posskin, and the Tanukin. Of these, only the streetwise Urkin with a penchant for theft and the nomadic and tough Posskin who will play dead when in a dire situation are actually given playable details.

Physically, The Shining Shrine is very well done. It is decently written and the artwork is excellent throughout.

The Shining Shrine is a mixture of playable content and hints at what is to be found in the pages of Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting. The latter is intriguing, whereas the playable content is decent, the adventure in particular, presenting a tough challenge for the Player Characters whatever their Level. Overall, The Shining Shrine is an engaging preview that nicely showcases a little of what is to be found in Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting.

[Free RPG Day 2024] Arzium Quickstart Guide

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

The Arzium Quickstart Guide is the introduction to the Arzium Roleplaying Game. It is not, though, an introduction to the World of Arzium. That would be the series of board games designed by Ryan Laudkat and published by Red Raven Games, including Above and Below, Near and Far, and others. It presents a fantasy world filled with mysteries, magic, and forgotten technology, above and below ground. The Arzium Quickstart Guide is a slim affair, providing a very basic overview of the setting, an explanation of the mechanics, a short adventure, and four pre-generated Player Characters. Arzium is described as a world of strange mechanics and strange magics, some of it scavenged from fallen civilisations, some of its developed by the newly arisen city-states, industrialised with devices powered by bottled demons and rare crystals. The world is also a diverse one, being home to Humans, Hogfolk, Fishfolk, Lizardfolk, Birdforl, and other species, including Robots! Not every region is a hive of magical and industrial development. Out in the Surstrayne Forest stands the village of Above, and underneath it is the village of Below, established to easily mine and harvest the resources to be found in the nearby surrounding underworld. It is here that, ‘Empty Cave Town’, the adventure in the Arzium Quickstart Guide is set.

Mechanically, the Arzium Quickstart Guide and thus the Arzium Roleplaying Game, is a dice and resource management game. A Player Character has six attributes—Strength, Reflexes, Knowledge, Cunning, Perception, and Craft. Each ranges in value between zero and ten, and presents a pool of points that a player can spend to modify dice rolls. A standard difficulty is seven, whilst a hard one is ten. The maximum that a player can spend on a challenge is five. To have his character undertake an action, a player rolls a ten-sided die and attempts to equal or exceed the difficulty. Results less than the difficulty have a failure forward outcome in that the story continues despite the negative outcome. The latter might be an actual failure, but it can also be that the action succeeds and the Player Character or an item of equipment suffers damage, or even that the whole situation changes. In addition, if a six is rolled on the die, then a complication is automatically added to the situation. Resting for at least half a day will restore a Player Character’s spent attribute points.

In combat, the Player Characters typically act first and then the enemy. When a Player Character acts, he moves first and then takes an action. All attacks succeed in hitting and inflict damage as per the die type for the weapon or type of attack. The damage inflicted can be increased by spending points from the associated attribute. Armour reduces the amount of damage suffered. Attacks, abilities, and spells can also temporarily affect Power, a measure of NPC and monster ability to inflict more damage. Each monster and NPC gains one Power at the start of each turn, but because the Player Characters act first, they directly affect the monster and NPC capacity to inflict more damage. The rules also allow for gambits, inventive actions which can change the environment or affect monsters and NPCs, but without inflicting damage.

Casting spells requires the expenditure of Attribute points, but not a dice roll. However, a dice roll is required to take account of magic being whimsical and occasionally dangerous. When a spell is cast, the Game Master rolls a ten-sided die and if a one or two is rolled, she also rolls on the ‘Whimsical Magic’ table. This might result in the caster smelling like rotting garbage for a day or temporarily grants a nearby object life as it grows limbs and runs around in a chaotic manner.

Other rules for the Arzium Quickstart Guide and the Arzium Roleplaying Game can be found on the character sheet. For example, it uses an inventory system of boxes for gear and offers Memory Knots as a means to maximise a die roll. This requires the player to explain why a particular memory will help his character in the current situation. The Arzium Quickstart Guide includes four pre-generated Player Characters. They include an Ancient Robot Soldier, a Toadfolk Cook with a grasping tongue, a Human Machinist equipped with a firework rocket and a piercing rifle, and a Human Mystic.

The scenario in the Arzium Quickstart Guide is ‘Empty Cave Town’. The citizens of Above have established a second settlement in the underworld called Below next a lake of crystal-eyed fish and emerald waterfalls. Unfortunately, all townsfolk of Below have disappeared and the town is inexplicably empty. A note left by the Mayor of Below points to the nearby Chamber of Screaming Walls. There are a couple of encounters on the way there, but once at the Chamber of Screaming Walls, the Player Characters find the missing townsfolk, held silent. The Player Characters will need to fight their captor to save them.

‘Empty Cave Town’ is short. Playable in an hour—or two at the most. Yet, the whole of the Arzium Quickstart Guide is short. Consequently, it feels underwritten and slightly underexplained, particularly when it comes to NPCs and combat, but the mechanics are simple enough that they can be understood. The scenario though is underwhelming and does not give the players and characters much to do beyond face a series of combat challenges. It would have been nice if the suggested connections between the Player Characters and the town of Below—that one of them wants to be mayor, one of them has bought the town’s tavern and does not want to lose any customers, that one of them is owed money by one of the missing townsfolk, and more, could not have been made more of and written into the scenario instead of leaving the Game Master to do it.

Physically, the Arzium Quickstart Guide is decently put together. The cartography and artwork are good, and it is all clean and tidy. Yet as nice as it looks, the Arzium Quickstart Guide does not successfully bring the world of Arzium to life and make it a setting that you want to visit in play. There is not enough of the setting and the scenario is cursory and short and not enough to really sell the reader on the Arzium Quickstart Guide. At first sight, the Arzium Quickstart Guide appeared to be one of the most interesting things about Free RPG Day. Instead, it is the most disappointing.

[Free RPG Day 2024] Shadows of Esteren: A Journey in the Shadows – 1

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

Shadows of Esteren: A Journey in the Shadows – 1 is an introduction to Shadows of Esteren, the French roleplaying game of low dark fantasy with elements of Gothic and Lovecraftian horror. Published by Studio Agate, this originally debuted with Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue in 2013, providing not only an introduction, but also descriptions of the setting, some pre-generated Player Characters—all of whom were key to the ongoing campaign tied to the setting, and three scenarios to get started. When it was introduced, the English-speaking hobby was fascinated by this French roleplaying game with its themes of tradition versus modernity, science and industrialisation versus faith, and monotheism versus spiritualism, as well as captivated by its artwork which looked like nothing then being published. Shadows of Esteren: A Journey in the Shadows – 1 is similar to Fateforge: A Journey in Eana – 1, the introduction to Fateforge: Epic tales in the World of Eana, also published by Studio Agate. Thus, Shadows of Esteren: A Journey in the Shadows – 1 serves not only as an introduction to the setting, it also provides an overview of the game line as a whole and includes a scenario as well.

Shadows of Esteren: A Journey in the Shadows – 1 begins by highlighting the key points about Shadows of Esteren, that it combines a dark universe with a low fantasy, has a unique visual atmosphere, involves a intuitive game system, and is supported by music and a video game. There is a short guide to all eight books in the Shadows of Esteren series, but it focuses upon the first two in particular—Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue and Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe—are available to download or ‘Pay What You Want’, providing a more detailed background for both.

Then there is detailed exploration of the setting for Shadows of Esteren. This is the Tri-Kazel peninsula. It is home to three nations—Tol-Kaer with its old tribal ways and Demorthèn spiritual cults; Gwidre which has been converted to the Temple of the One God by missionaries from the Great Theocracy from the rest of the continent to the north and adopted feudalism; and Reizh, which has taken up the science of Magience, developing and creating devices, machines, and ‘toys’ powered by ‘Flux’, an energy derived from matter itself, though not without its cost to the environment and land itself. This sets up the core tensions within the setting, although elements of Demorthèn spiritual cults, the Great Theocracy, and Magience are found across all three nations, although to varying degrees. What unites the different peoples is a fear of the unknown, of the Feondas, hideous monsters with a ghastly reputation for doing the vilest things. The introduction notes that The Shining is a major inspiration, so there is the constant danger in Shadows of Esteren of the Player Characters and the story slipping into this other genre, a feeling of dread that threatens to tip over into something worse. Shadows of Esteren is a roleplaying game about the psychology of horror as much it is the clashes between culture and faith.

‘A Solitary Path’ is the scenario in Shadows of Esteren: A Journey in the Shadows – 1. It takes place near a Cinthareïd, a Demorthèn sacred place infused with the essence of spirits, located alongside a wooded mountain path. Not so long ago, a Varigal, a local guide, get separated from the party he was guiding, fell, and died. His restless spirit haunts the path, angry at being abandoned and left alone, despite the fact that he was actually a loner. The Player Characters are drawn into the situation simply by travelling along the same route, perhaps on their way to another location, perhaps actually investigating word of restless spirits besetting the way. As they get closer to the Cinthareïd, the trees rustle more ominously, the tracks the Player Characters leave in the snow disappear, the ground shakes, brambles thicken and grow, and worse… The mist grows and perhaps threatens to separate the Player Characters, lead them astray, perhaps to suffer a similar fate to the lost Varigal?

Finding a solution to the scenario does involve separating one Player Character from the rest of the party. The problem with this is that it places one Player Character in the spotlight, leaving the others with little to do in order to resolve the situation. The solution perhaps is instead to run the scenario for just a single Player Character and so place him in the spotlight from the start. This makes it suitable to run between other longer scenarios and slot into an ongoing campaign, especially as it can be run in a single session. ‘A Solitary Path’ is strong on atmosphere and horror, with a sense of isolation that makes it perfect to run for a single Player Character.

Physically, Shadows of Esteren: A Journey in the Shadows – 1 is a solid looking booklet. It does a very good job of showcasing the artwork found in the v line and it also includes a very nice map of the Tri-Kazel peninsula.

Shadows of Esteren: A Journey in the Shadows – 1 is good introduction to the world of Shadows of Esteren, explaining both what the setting is and what books are available. The scenario is atmospheric, but the Leader—or Game Master—will need to take some care in how she chooses to use it in her campaign. Overall, Shadows of Esteren: A Journey in the Shadows – 1 does a serviceable job of setting the player and Leader alike up for their first proper exploration of the setting with Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue.

[Free RPG Day 2024] Shards of the Spellforge

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

Shards of the Spellforge is a scenario for Tales of the Valiant, the alternative to Dungeons & Dragons published by Kobold Press. It is designed to be played using four to five First Level Player Characters and using Tales of the Valiant Player’s Guide and Tales of the Valiant Monster Vault, and can be played through in a single session. It involves a mystery concerning malfunctioning inventions and a missing inventor that will lead to an encounter with some of the secrets of the word buried deep underground!

The scenario is set in and around Fernhaven, an idyllic town that straddles of a trade route. Here the Player Characters are contacted by Serina Tass, a local herbalist and inn owner, who wants help in finding her husband, Feren. He left home in a hurry and she has no idea where he went. The Player Characters will need to talk to various townsfolk and friends of Feren Tass to learn about where he has gone. What she can tell the Player Characters is that Feren was concerned about Eglantine ‘Egg’ Tass, local inventor and the wife of his late sister. In particular, he was worried that Eglantine’s most recent inventions are dangerous, and Serina Tass has found that a stall in the inn’s stables has been severely blackened by fire. To determine where Feren has gone, the Player Characters will need to talk to other townsfolk who Eglantine has sold inventions to, and it is here that the scenario shines. Besides Serina, there are four other highly detailed NPCs that the Player Characters can talk to and learn what it was that Eglantine invented and sold them. They include a self-absorbed artist who does not want to give up the invention he purchased and Eglantine herself. Eglantine does not share her brother-in-law’s concerns, but will explain where she got the several shards of an ancient device she discovered deep in the caverns near the town.

Once the Player Characters learn where Eglantine ‘Egg’ Tass had been before creating her new and wondrous and possibly dangerous inventions, they can follow her route there and then into the caverns. These are broken down into six locations, mapped using the Map Tiles: Caves & Caverns also available from Kobold Press, though these are not obligatory to run Shards of the Spellforge. The dungeon locations are nicely detailed and one of the most fun is the traverse that the Player Characters have to make across an underground lake to get to the caves on the other side. Here, the Player Characters discover the source of the shards—a spellforge. This is a remnant of an ancient civilisation known as the Pthrull and it is guarded by the devolved descendants of the Pthrull. Once the creatures guarding the spellforge, the Player Characters can rescue Feren and get him back to the surface.

Physically, Shards of the Spellforge is decently presented. The artwork is excellent, and the scenario is well written. However, it could have been better organised so that it is easier to run to get the Player Characters into the scenario and then follow through on the hook so that they know what to do next and where to go.

Shards of the Spellforge is a short, solid scenario. It does leave the Player Characters and Game Master alike wanting when it comes to the Pthrull and their background, so it can at best be seen as a teaser to the full setting. It is strong though on interaction and the Game Master will have fun portraying the various NPCs.

[Free RPG Day 2024] One-Shot Wonders

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

One-Shot Wonders is a preview of the One-Shot Wonders, the supplement for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition published by Roll & Play Press. The supplement, which won the 2024 Silver Ennie for Best Adventure – Short Form, contains over a hundred adventures, of which this preview provides a total of seven as samples. These are divided into five, longer, double-page adventures, one shorter, one page adventure, and three hooks, each of which can be used as a one-shot or a sidequest or an extended encounter. All include some stats—Armour Class, Hit Points, Initiative modifier, and key ability—but these are kept to a minimum. This though, has two consequences. The first is that the adventures in the One-Shot Wonders preview can be used in any Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying game or retroclone. The second is that the Game Master will need to undertake some preparation in terms of the extra stats needed. However, on the plus side, the format of each adventure is extremely well done. Below the name of the adventure is its theme, objective, and setting. For example, for the first adventure, ‘Flower Power’, the theme is ‘Adventurous’, the objective is ‘acquisition’, and the setting is an ‘oasis’. After the opening summary, the entry for each adventure gives its start for the Player Characters, lists its important NPCs and gives their quick stats, outlines the ‘Suggested Story’ in bullet point format, describes the quest rewards, its three important locations, the ‘Secrets and Clues’ which will be revealed as the players have their characters play through the scenario. Lastly, there is a base line indicator as to what Level Player Characters the scenario is designed for. This includes notes on to make the scenario harder, or even harder (and occasionally, easier), so that the Game Master can use it with higher Level Player Characters. There is even a broad outline of events given in the footer of the page!

This layout is terrific. It is easy to use and everything is clearly laid out on the page, which even has room for an illustration! The shorter, one-page scenario outline feels slightly more cramped and has less information and so needs more work, but that should not detract from the rest of the book. Of course, the hooks will need much more work.

The anthology opens with ‘Flower Power’ in which the Player Characters are hired by a Druid to harvest a single petal from a plant at a secret oasis, but must contend with a gang of rival plant hunters hired by a wizard and a team of unsurprisingly stubborn team of mules who are the only creatures who know the way. ‘Curtain Call’ is a murder mystery which takes at a performance at a caravan theatre which the Player Characters are called upon to investigate. It has a flexible set-up with three suspects, three motives, and no given murderer, so its outcome can tailored to the result of the Player Characters’ investigation rather than adhere to a set story. ‘Fishy Business’ is probably the most fun adventure in the anthology, ruining the Player Characters’ fish of the day dinner when the chef at the restaurant they are at, comes running out of the kitchen, yelling that the fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods he was preparing for dinner have suddenly come alive and started attacking him! It is up to the Player Characters to engage in a ‘food fight’ and deal with the seafood strike.

The one shorter adventure consists of ‘Sting Operation’. In this, the Player Characters are hired to deal with an outbreak of wasps out of season and become pest controllers, and follow a string of clues to the ultimate cause. The three hooks involve a hunt for a werewolf, an outbreak of undead at a mortuary, and the theft of an artefact by some of the very knights who are parading it through the street. 

The penultimate adventure in the One-Shot Wonders preview is ‘Dangerous Delivery’. The Player Characters are hired as postal workers in a town recently cut off from the rest of the area by snow. The post mistress has lots of deliveries to catch up on and employs them to make a delivery to a reclusive knight whose estate is up a mountain. Unfortunately, after making the difficult journey up to the estate through the barely melted snow, the Player Characters are attacked by several of the animal denizens who live there. This annoys the knight who blames the Player Characters rather than the animals and who also rejects almost all of his post. This is worst entry in the One-Shot Wonders preview and likely to be deeply dissatisfying for the players and their characters as they are subject to an unprovoked attack, and blamed for the attack, and essentially all of their efforts in getting up the mountain are rebuffed.

‘Spectator Sport’ is the last adventure in the One-Shot Wonders preview and the nearest to an actual dungeon in the short anthology. It is a funhouse dungeon in which the Player Characters are trapped in a series of caves which promised to be a carnival of games and challenges in which they could win a mighty jackpot. What follows is a series of deadly games at their expense all to entertain the devilish owner of the complex. In comparison to the other fuller entries in the preview, the adventure feels underwritten, primarily because it is the only entry with a map, so there is less text. The Game Master will probably want to explain why the carnival is the caves and not been noticed before and definitely work out the mechanics of the various games, but this linear—quite literally—adventure has a surprisingly Old School aesthetic and feel to it.

Physically, the One-Shot Wonders preview is very well done. It is bright, breezy, and easy to read. The artwork is decent.

The One-Shot Wonders preview is a bargain. Five adventures which require minimal preparation in order to play? Plus, some hooks should the Game Master be short on ideas? And not only free, but well presented and fun, too? The One-Shot Wonders preview is worth having on the shelf, just in case, all by itself for that reason. Of course, its real purpose is as a showcase for the full One-Shot Wonders: Over 100 Session Ideas for Fantasy RPGs itself, and on the strength of the One-Shot Wonders preview, it looks to be a supplement worth adding to the shelf of the Game Master running any Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying game.

[Free RPG Day 2024] Treasures of Deep Grotto

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

Treasures of Deep Grotto is a scenario for Sink!, the piratical setting for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Published by Crimson Herald via Hitpoint Press, it is designed to be played by four Third Level Player Characters in a single session. Notably, it employs the unique mechanic called the ‘Soul Link’. It represents a Player Character’s connection to his soul, mechanically represented by his Hit Dice. During play, a Player Character’s Hit Dice can be affected and drained by various effects, such as traps and magical attacks, but it can also be used as a source of power to fuel magical items. However, the downside is that if a Player Character suffers the ‘Sunken’ condition—potentially common in a nautical and piratical setting like Sink!—he can die if he is reduced to zero Hit Points when he also has his Hit Dice reduced to zero! Thus, Hit Dice are an important new resource in the Sink! setting. In addition, Sink! also adds tattoos as magical items. These are treated as wondrous items and are created using a magical needle. Four are detailed. They are the Assassin’s Tattoo, the Flicker Tattoo, the Ironbound Tattoo, and the Skyward Tattoo. Each grants a special effect, such as ‘Feather’s Grace’ for the Skyward Tattoo, which grants limiting flying speed.

The scenario begins en media res with the Player Characters already having been shipwrecked and suffering the ‘Sunken’ condition. The Player Characters are part of the crew of the Misty Mermaid, which has been attacked and sunk by the Hades Hound, a pirate ship commanded by Captain Grimscar, a warlock in the service of the powerful sea-bound fiend, Y’agthul. The Dread Admiral Y’agthul commands the Black Armada, and as one of his lieutenants, Captain Grimscar has been ordered to sail the seas around the chain of islands known as ‘The Blots’ and seize ships for plunder and the souls of their crews and passengers. These he must return to the Isle of Journey’s End where the Deep Grotto, home to one of the crossroads of life and death, and give them to his master. After the prologue which explains how they got there, the Player Characters, washed ashore, they are approached by the Misty Mermaid’s lucky—lucky were it not for the attack by Captain Grimscar and the Hades Hound—Sea Gnome* who tells them where they are and what they need to do. Which of course is to defeat Captain Grimscar and his master!

* Somewhat tweely dressed in tweed flat cap and cream-coloured cable knit sweater.

Although other adventure hooks are listed, they are all to get the Player Characters to the Isle of Journey’s End. There are three of them, whereas perhaps four would have been better to each give the four Player Characters the adventure is designed for to each have their own motivation. The Deep Grotto is a small dungeon, with just four locations. These are decently detailed, with links to monster stats and other details in the book clearly marked. The plotting is quite simple. The Player Characters must overcome or solve two puzzles located in two parallel watery chambers. Doing so enables them to unlock access the main room, the Sanctuary, where they confront Captain Grimscar before his master, the fiend, Y’agthul. This is a challenging combat, as not only do the Player Characters have to fight the pirate captain, but they also have to defeat Lubber and Swabbie, his eel fiend familiars, and all under the baleful influence of Y’agthul!

Four pre-generated Player Characters are available to download via the publisher’s website. They consist of a Half Orc Mist Born Ranger who can tether others with magical, ethereal harpoons and then zap them with lightning; a Human Buccaneer Fighter; a High Elf Spellskin Wizard whose spells are tattooed onto his skin some which can be shared with his allies; and a Half-Elf College of Tidesong Bard who can entreat allies to join in a Sea Shanty and gain Advantage on a single attack, ability check, or saving throw each turn for a minute. Of the four, the Fighter feels underwritten, but otherwise they showcase some of the Player Character options in the Sink! setting.

In addition to the four tattoos in the book—which the Dungeon Master is encouraged to let the players choose one each for their characters, Treasures of Deep Grotto describes three magical items. All of these work with the ‘Soul Link’ mechanic introduced in the scenario. For example, Dead Man’s Promise is a ring of coral found on the fingers of drowned sailors which grants the wearer an extra Hit Die to use with the ‘Soul Link’ mechanic and which can be used once to expend that Hit Die to recover Hit Points.

Physically, Treasures of Deep Grotto is a small, slim book. It needs a slight edit in places, but artwork stands out. Done in the style of traditional nautical tattoos, they really are very good and for the Dungeon Master impart an engaging sense of the Sink! setting. The writing could have been clearer in places. In particular, it is not quite clear if Captain Grimscar has the Player Characters’ souls or not.

Treasures of Deep Grotto is a short, action-packed scenario, with an emphasis on combat and puzzles. In fact, there is very little interaction and roleplaying involved in the scenario. For a one-shot, that is less of an issue than for a longer scenario where the plot would be longer and more involved. That said, Treasures of Deep Grotto can easily be added to a campaign in the Sink! setting and with some adjustment shifted to another setting with a strong nautical or piratical theme. Overall, Treasures of Deep Grotto is solid introduction to the Sink! setting and some of its ideas, with much of the flavour being imparted by the traditional tattoo artwork.

[Free RPG Day 2024] Lost Tome of Monsters

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

Bar the dice, the smallest and very probably the weirdest release for Free RPG Day 2024 is the Lost Tome of Monsters: Free RPG Day Edition. Unlike the majority of the other releases, it is not a booklet, but what at first appears to be a pin (or badge) with a backing card. And this is more or less what it is, except that it is also something more. Published by Foam Brain Games, it is actually a ‘Pinature’ and an encounter. Except that description does not help given the fact that right now you are asking yourself, “What the hell is a ‘Pinature’?” It is a portmanteau word that combines ‘pin’ and ‘miniature’, and like that portmanteau word, what you get with is the Lost Tome of Monsters: Free RPG Day Edition is both a ‘pin’ and a ‘miniature’! The pin-part depicts a zombie in all of its ‘purple decayed flesh, knock-kneed, brain exposed, ragged cloth wearing, and blood dripping from the mouth’ glory. It is cartoonishly lurid as it looms over an open book, its pages marked with a ribbon. The book sits slightly forward of the zombie-figure, obscuring its twisted feet. This looks a bit odd, but the reason becomes apparent once you turn the pin over. On the back are two ‘Rubber Clutches’* and they look and are perfectly normal. However, at the bottom of the ‘pin’ there appears to be a hinge, right where the zombie’s feet are. The hinge enables the book on the front of the ‘pin’ to twist through ninety degrees and in doing so, provides a base for the zombie, which now stands vertically like a miniature much like the two-dimensional miniatures sold by W!ZK!DS. Thus, with the twist of the book base, the zombie goes from ‘pin’ to ‘miniature’ and back again. Hence, ‘pinature’.

* This I did know was a thing or what Pin Backs and Pin Attachments were called until I read ‘Custom Pins 101: Types of Pin Backs and Attachments’.

The encounter is described on the card that comes with the ‘pinature’. It is a ‘Challenge Rating 6’ encounter that begins with the adventurers playing dice and having a nice time at ‘Ye Olde Local Game Store’. This is interrupted by a storm and an unnatural darkness which surrounds the establishment and as thunder and lighting flash outside the store’s windows, the doorbell chimes. The shopkeeper screams in fear as it is not another customer that has entered the shop, but a zombie—the zombie of the ‘pinature’. As it lurches towards the adventurers, it utters one word: “Gammeeeesssss……” Do the Player Characters cower in fear or do they let the zombie join in? Also, where did the zombie come from, are there more? How can the zombie understand the rules of the game? And lastly, does the zombie have anything to do with the unnatural dark and the storm? The first question is the crux of the encounter, whilst the others are hooks that the Game Master can expand as possible further hooks.

There is no clear suggestion as to what roleplaying game exactly the encounter is written for, but the ‘Challenge Rating 6’ of the encounter suggests either Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition or the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. That said, with the ‘Challenge Rating 6’ being the only mechanical element to the Lost Tome of Monsters: Free RPG Day Edition, the encounter can be very easily adapted to the roleplaying game of the Game Master’s choice.

Physically, the Lost Tome of Monsters: Free RPG Day Edition is decently done. The zombie ‘pinature’ is small, but nicely detailed and really quite cute. The card captures the zombie ‘pinature’ in all of its lurid detail on the back, whilst the encounter is given on the back. The text for that is small though, and not easy to read.

The Lost Tome of Monsters: Free RPG Day Edition is both cute and silly. The zombie ‘pinature’ is the cute, in addition to being gory, whilst the adventure is the silly, what with adventurers playing in ‘Ye Olde Local Game Store’ and a zombie wanting to play games. Overall, tongue in cheek and not without its charms, but definitely the weirdest release for Free RPG Day 2024.

[Free RPG Day 2024] Mayhem at the Truffle Festival

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

Mayhem at the Truffle Festival: An Obojima Adventure is a scenario compatible with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, written for the Obojima Tales: From The Tall Grass campaign setting. Both the scenario and the campaign setting are “Inspired by Studio Ghibli & Legend of Zelda”. Published by 1985 Games, it is a short affair, playable in a single session with between two and four Third Level Player Characters. It is a straightforward affair, easy to prepare and set up, with a strong emphasis on interaction between the Player Characters and the NPCs. There is the possibility of combat, but it is possible to avoid this completely if the Player Characters prefer negotiation or diplomacy.

The scenario is set in and around the village of Matango. Many villages in the Obojima setting hold annual events and in the case of Matango, it is an annual Truffle Hunt. The nearby forest is known to be home to some seventy-three unique mushrooms. Competitors have five hours in which to find and gather as many mushrooms as they can, particularly the unique ones, such as ‘The Elephant Tuber’ and ‘Flatrat’. At stake is the chance to be crowned the Truffle Prince, which enables the winner to commune with the Great Pig Spirit, Roghora, and indulge in all of the feasts held in the spirit’s honour.

Standing between the Truffle Hunt and the Player Characters is Ebrus Bellerose, an NPC willing to sabotage the efforts of any competitors in his drive to win one village competition! Thankfully, the previous year’s winner, Reheni, is much more helpful and friendly, and her pet pig, Gooma, is particularly cute. Much of the scenario is concerned with detailing the various types of mushroom that the Player Characters can find and when they do, they require the use of various different skills to harvest.

The climax of the scenario involves another run in with Ebrus Bellerose, who proves himself as rotten a character as the Player Characters will have realised after their first encounter, followed by a confrontation by some roving hyena-like Howlers. They can be fought or they can be persuaded to move on, but since they have captured poor little Gooma, the Player Characters—unlike Ebrus Bellerose—are very likely motivated to deal with the situation. The consequences of their actions are neatly summarised at the end of the scenario.

Mayhem at the Truffle Festival: An Obojima Adventure is short. It can easily be played in a single session—or less. The scenario does include an optional encounter with a ‘lovable’ companion spirit and help him with a task. It details a magical item too, a Scarf of Muffling, which has its own charm, but without resorting to some degree of duplicity, the Player Characters are unlikely to get their hands on it or use it. This runs counter to the theme and style of the scenario, and if the Game Master wants her Player Characters to get some use out of it, she may want to rewrite this section.

Mayhem at the Truffle Festival: An Obojima Adventure itself ends with not one, but four character sheets. All of them blank. They are nice, but four? Really?

Physically, Mayhem at the Truffle Festival: An Obojima Adventure is very nicely done. It is well written and the artwork is excellent, done in the style of Studio Ghibli.

Mayhem at the Truffle Festival: An Obojima Adventure is utterly charming as an adventure, but even with the addition of the optional encounter it is short. Worse, the inclusion of four black character sheets leaves the Game Master to wonder if they should have been filled in as example Player Characters for the Obojima Tales: From The Tall Grass campaign setting. If not that, then there could have been some background to setting included instead or the adventure extended even further. Overall, very likeable, but it will leave the Game Master wanting more.

[Free RPG Day 2024] Second Contact

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

In 2017, Paizo, Inc. published Starfinder: First Contact, a preview of and teaser for its then forthcoming Starfinder, the Science Fantasy roleplaying game which takes the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game forward thousands and thousands of years and to the stars. So it is most appropriate that as a preview of and teaser for the forthcoming Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Second Edition, Paizo, Inc. has released Starfinder: Second Contact for Free RPG 2024. Where the task of Starfinder: First contact was to introduce the new roleplaying game and highlight some of the differences between it and the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, the task of Starfinder: Second Contact is to reintroduce us to the Starfinder Roleplaying Game and highlight some of the differences between it and the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Second Edition as seen in the Starfinder Playtest Rulebook.

The introduction highlights how the Starfinder Roleplaying Game is going to evolve to be in line with Pathfinder, Second Edition, before jumping straight into ‘What’s New?’. These start with elements and skills that appear in the monster descriptions given in the booklet’s following pages. For example, the ‘Integrated Weapons’ appears in the entry for robots and new skills include Computers and Piloting used by both the Asteray and the Glitch Gremlin. Similarly, several of the spells are used by those creatures. They include Delete, a spell used to remove a limited amount of data, whilst the cantrip, Recharge Weapon, reloads a weapon with a round’s worth of ammunition upon a touch. The new weapons are a couple of laser guns, whilst the rest of the Starfinder: Second Contact is really all about the monsters. These start with the Asteray, Fey Tricksters born where the void and the First World overlap, they wander space looking for distractions and starship crews to consume, and end with the Cybernetic Zombie, which might have an arm cannon or a shriek module or repair nanites! In between, there are Security Robots, Glitch Gremlins—which of course, want to cause mayhem, Laser Wolves, and Ferrofluid Oozes, sentient puddles of ferromagnetic fluids that interfere with technological devices of all sorts. Every creature is given a full page description, stats, and an illustration.

Like the earlier Starfinder: First Contact, there is little to the background of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game to Starfinder: Second Contact. There is mention that Golarion, the setting for Pathfinder, is missing, that rumours arose during the Drift Crisis of super-size versions of Ferrofluid Ooze, capable of consuming whole ships, and that the AbadarCorp is responsible for the manufacture of most robots in the Pact Worlds, becoming a byword for guaranteed quality, but making their weakness commonly known so that criminals and spies can take advantage of them.

Being a release from Paizo, Inc., it should be no surprise that Starfinder: Second Contact is a slickly produced and well-presented booklet. Much like with Starfinder: First Contact for Free RPG Day 2017, Starfinder: Second Contact is very technical in nature in comparison to the other releases for Free RPG 2024. Nevertheless, Starfinder: Second Contact is a solid introduction to the technical elements of the roleplaying game, one aimed more at fans of the roleplaying game rather than the general roleplayer.

[Free RPG Day 2024] A Journey in Eana – 1

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

Fateforge: A Journey in Eana -1 is an introduction to Fateforge: Epic tales in the World of Eana, the epic, swords & sorcery, high magic setting for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Published by Studio Agate—best known for Shadows of Esteren, the award-winning dark, horrific, and low fantasy roleplaying game—this introduction looks at the game line itself and what it offers, each of the four core books, the setting and its cosmology, and a scenario, ‘Super Digger 12000’. It opens though, with an introduction to the line and what marks it out as different, in particular its modularity in terms of atmosphere, the Game Master and her players having choices such as ‘Action’, ‘Dark’, ‘Gritty’, ‘Intrigue’, and ‘Mystery’, so that they get the type of game that they want to play. There are new archetypes keyed to the twelve base classes of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, optional rules such as sparing and wounding, background creation, geomagic where the flow of magic can vary from location to location, and more. Noted also is how Wizards of the Coast’s decision to end the OGL in 2023, since retracted, affected the future of Fateforge: Epic tales in the world of Eana as an ongoing series, however, the first four books—Fateforge: Epic tales in the World of Eana 1. Characters, Fateforge: Epic tales in the World of Eana 2. Grimoire, Fateforge: Epic tales in the World of Eana 3. Creatures, and Fateforge: Epic tales in the World of Eana 4. Encyclopaedia—are still published under the terms of the OGL and Studio Agate has made all four ‘Pay What You Want’.

The description of the world of Eana focuses on the Fateforge, integral to the mythology of Eana. Said to be hidden in the depths of the world and at the centre of a massive maze, its most renowned ability is that of birthing gods of those that find it and use, though it is also said to grant wishes. Those that search for it are the ‘Fate-Chosen’, though not all ‘Fate-Chosen’ do go in search of it. The ‘Fate-Chosen’ are different from ordinary men and women, whether they have been chosen by the gods, are the descendants of the ancients known as the Travellers, driven by their own will, or simply lucky, they posses great powers and great skill. They are in turn looked upon with admiration, envy, or fear. The Player Characters are, of course, ‘Fate-Chosen’. In addition, there flavour and detail about the world of Eana, including a slight description of Geomagic, how magic can vary in intensity from one place to another and Canker, a corruptive force whose origins and nature are as much feared and discussed as the location of the Fateforge and the origins of the ‘Fate-Chosen’ are debated. Altogether, it feels like a series of snapshots and very much a potted overview of the setting rather than a coherent write-up. In fact, the descriptions of the four books and the differences in terms of mechanics are more accessible.

The scenario in Fateforge: A Journey in Eana – 1 is ‘Super Digger 12000’. This highlights another aspect of the setting not covered elsewhere in the introduction—technology. The mercadin—or merchant—Nevrec, has hired craftsmen to create a revolutionary digging machine that he hopes will open up shorter trade routes underground! The Player Characters are hired to aid and protect the drill’s maiden voyage with its crew of Drow, Duergar, and Svirfneblin. As the unique magic and steam-driven vehicle drives down into the bowels of Eana, the Player Characters should begin to feel that it the journey is not going quite as planned. First, it pierces a kheg nest full of eggs and is then ambushed by a Duergar force! There are some other fun encounters along the way, including having to hunt rust monsters for enough chitin to repair the underground drill. The scenario is linear and short, and as written looks to be fairly combat heavy. Combat is not the only solution to every situation, though, and the Player Characters will also have to interact with the vehicle’s crew and leader. It is a decent enough scenario, although it feels rushed in places. The main issue is the lack of suggestion as to the Level of the Player Characters it is written for. From the monsters included, it should be for Player Characters of Seventh and Eighth Level.

Rounding out Fateforge: A Journey in Eana – 1 is a bestiary of all of the NPCs and creatures that appear in the scenario. The NPCs are given as archetypes rather than named NPCs, which does mean that they feel underwritten. That said, the descriptions of their personalities and motives are given in the text of the scenario. The monsters are all decently done, many of them decently illustrated, such as the Rust Monster Matriarch.

Physically, Fateforge: A Journey in Eana – 1 is very well presented and the artwork is fantastic. Yet as written, it is intriguing rather than informative, the details about the world given a very broad treatment. As a result, Fateforge: A Journey in Eana – 1 is underwhelming as an introduction to the world of Eana and the reader may simply want to bypass this and download Fateforge: Epic tales in the World of Eana 1. Characters.