2008: Saga of the Rat King

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

—oOo—

In 2003, Goodman Games launched its long running Dungeon Crawl Classics series, which combined old style play with modern rules, with Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King. In that scenario, the Player Characters’ investigations into raids by Goblin bandits on caravans carrying silver ore lead to the nearby Gannu Silver Mine which turned out to be infested by not just Goblins, but rats and Wererats. The final confrontation in the mine is with Lawrence Gannu, cursed by the villagers of Silverton to be a Wererat after they blamed his father for a dangerous discovery in the mines, returned to take his revenge upon the villagers. This scenario was more recently republished as Fifth Edition Fantasy #31: Idylls of the Rat King, for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. In 2006, the publisher released a sequel, Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King. The Player Characters have an opportunity to confront Aaron Gannu, father of Lawrence, in this sequel. However, he has other designs on the Player Characters and they are tested sorely as he lures them into his lair, weakens them and depletes their resources, before capturing them. Fortunately, the Player Characters, only armed with luck and wits, do have the opportunity to escape, find their possessions, and fully arm themselves once again before the final showdown. Both Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King and Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King were written for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition, rather than the publisher’s own (not yet published) Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game.

Dungeon Crawl Classics: Saga of the Rat King is not written for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition or Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. Published in 2008 for sale at Gen Con Indy in 2008, it is instead a special module in more ways than one, First, it is written for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, rare in 2008 as it would be for today. second, it combined both Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King and Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King. Third, it not only compiles the previously published scenarios, but includes a third new part, ‘The Scourge of Silverton’. This connects the two scenarios and it means that together, all three parts can be played as a single campaign taking the Player Characters from First Level all the way up to Sixth Level.

The plot to both Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King and Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King remain the same. In the former, the Player Characters explored the apparently abandoned Gannu Silver Mine and find it crawling with Goblins and Wererats, one level of the mine being reworked with zombie slaves, and Lawrence Gannu the Wererat overseeing it all as well as something else hidden deep in the bowels of the mine. In the latter, the Player Characters are in the city of Soulgrave tracking down a ring of slavers and are lured in one big dungeon trap by Aaron Gannu, father of Lawrence, who will have his revenge! Divided over three acts, the Player Characters will be tested in each. First, with a series of challenging dungeon encounters designed to wear them down; second by capturing them and stripping them of all their equipment; and third, with dangerous battle against Aaron Gannu’s minions and finally, Aaron Gannu himself. It remains an evil dungeon. However, there are changes to both because, understandably, this is a compilation for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, not Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition.

The most obvious change is from a roleplaying game with intrinsic rules for skills, skill checks, and other activities to a roleplaying game without those. Here we are in classic ‘rulings not rules’ territory, Dungeon Crawl Classics: Saga of the Rat King leaving it very much up to the Dungeon Master to decide upon the specifics of how resolve a Player Character action. Unfortunately, this is not consistently applied throughout the adventure anthology, giving it slightly unbalanced feel. Without the suggested mechanic solution for each and every situation, it feels authentic to the design and play of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, but where they are included, they intrude rather than feel natural.

However, the adaptation from Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition has been less consistently applied to the ‘Idylls of the Rat King’ part of the campaign. One of these is narrative in that as a section of boxed text explains whilst Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King had Goblin Wererats as its main monsters, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition restricts lycanthropy to Humans only. Thus, there are no Goblin Wererats in Dungeon Crawl Classics: Saga of the Rat King, only Human ones. Neither are there any Goblin Clerics in Dungeon Crawl Classics: Saga of the Rat King, these also having been changed to Human Clerics, though still devoted to the rat gods Narrimunth and Nimlurun. Similarly, the Goblin Wizard of the original has been changed to Human Wizard, but in this his illustration is that of the Goblin in the original, and whilst the bandit chief and his guards are now described as Human, their illustration still shows them to be Goblins. Lastly, Half-Orc slavers have been added to the scenario. These effectively replace the Goblins who would fight to the death to protect the young Goblins in the tribe’s nursery. So now the Half-Orc slavers will fight to the death to protect their slaves, which though ties in with the slave ring theme found in ‘Revenge of the Rat King’, it still does not make sense narratively.

It should be noted that ‘Revenge of the Rat King’ still retains the story element of the Player Characters being captured by the Rat King. As problematic as this in terms of storytelling and player agency, it is very difficult to change this because it is pivotal to the events of the scenario.

In between ‘Idylls of the Rat King’ and ‘Revenge of the Rat King’ is ‘The Scourge of Silverton’. This is designed for Player Characters of Third and Fourth Level. It is designed as a short bridging affair between the two scenarios, but it is not a full enough adventure to provide sufficient Experience Points to take the Player Characters from ‘Idylls of the Rat King’ to ‘Revenge of the Rat King’, so the Dungeon Master will want to run other content before it as ‘The Scourge of Silverton’ is a direct prequel to ‘Revenge of the Rat King’. It provides a specific reason for the Player Characters to travel from Silverton to Soulgrave. The scenario draws the Player Characters back to Silverton, which has been restored to its fortunes with the death of Lawrence Gannu and the driving out of his bandits at their hands. Lawrence’s younger half-brother, Marcus, equally as evil, has heard of his brother’s death and working with their father, has concocted a plan to take revenge upon the Player Characters. This will play out in ‘Revenge of the Rat King’, but to set this up and draw the Player Characters in, Marcus kidnaps several of the villagers from Silverton and holds them to ransom. The villagers of Silverton ask the Player Characters to deliver the ransom to the Deveraux Silver Mine and ensure the safe return of the hostages.

The Player Characters have the choice of handing over the ransom or fighting their way into the mine. Either way, they will have a fight to get to the hostages as the situation is not simply a ransom and hostage exchange, but of course, a trap! Marcus has seeded the mine with traps and groups of his men, who will snipe and harass the Player Characters as they work their way to where the hostages are being held. Ultimately, there will be a confrontation with Marcus, but he and his chief henchman will escape the mine in Indiana and the Temple of Doom style in a mine cart with the Player Characters in hot pursuit.

‘The Scourge of Silverton’ is a set-up and also a set-up to a set-up, that of ‘Revenge of the Rat King’. It is short and serviceable, playable in a single session or so, and primarily combat focused. The addition of Marcus Gannu is the main addition to the trilogy in terms of its storytelling, but the main problem with ‘The Scourge of Silverton’ is that it sets up Marcus Gannu as a villain, but then lets him exit the trilogy of scenarios as he does not appear in the updated version of ‘Revenge of the Rat King’.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics: Saga of the Rat King is done in the then style of the Dungeon Crawl Classics line. The artwork is decent, though not always befitting the text, and the cartography varies in style and quality. This is from the very plain, even dull, maps of ‘Idylls of the Rat King’ to the detailed maps for ‘Revenge of the Rat King’ and ‘The Scourge of Silverton’. Unfortunately, Dungeon Crawl Classics: Saga of the Rat King is not let down by its adaptation to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, but rather by its lack of consistency when it comes to terminology and phrasing. Errors are strewn throughout the book. Not necessarily to make Dungeon Crawl Classics: Saga of the Rat King unplayable, but more than enough to irk the veteran of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition and potentially confuse the Dungeon Master who has less experience of playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition.

Dungeon Crawl Classics: Saga of the Rat King provides three different styes of dungeons. ‘Idylls of the Rat King’ is a dungeon crawl; ‘The Scourge of Silverton’ is an extended combat encounter, a game of cat-and-mouse through the mines; and ‘Revenge of the Rat King’ is a challenging, even evil, obstacle course that will test the players’ lateral thinking and dungeoneering skills perhaps more than those of their characters. This gives it variety that is neatly tied to its theme of revenge that runs through all three parts.

Dungeon Crawl Classics: Saga of the Rat King is really a trilogy in two parts because ‘The Scourge of Silverton’ is not enough to bridge the gap between the events of ‘Idylls of the Rat King’ and ‘Revenge of the Rat King’. It does, however, provide a reason for the Player Characters to play through ‘Revenge of the Rat King’, so very much a mini-prequel. Which means that Dungeon Crawl Classics: Saga of the Rat King is not really a mini-campaign either, since it has a beginning and an end, but no real middle. The Dungeon Master will have to provide that, and perhaps one way of doing it, is to use Dungeon Crawl Classics: Saga of the Rat King as a precursor to the classic campaign, Against the Slave Lords, since there are elements in ‘Revenge of the Rat King’ inspired by that campaign.

[Free RPG Day 2026] The Dying Spire

Now in its nineteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2026 took place on Saturday, June 27th. 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. Unfortunately, due to vagaries of International Customs, Free RPG Day in the UK did not take place until Saturday, 22nd August.

This review is possible due to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham.

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The Dying Spire is an adventure for Daggerheart, the fantasy roleplaying game which combines classic high fantasy roleplaying elements with a narrative element that was one of biggest successes of 2025. Published by Darrington Press, it is the 2026 Ennie Gold Winner for Best Game and Best Rules as well as Ennie Silver Winner for Product of the Year. It does two things. One is to continue the story and provide a sequel for ‘The Sablewood Messengers’, the scenario in the Daggerheart Quickstart Adventure. The other is to give an adventure that also stands on its own and is not necessarily holding the players’ hands as in the Daggerheart Quickstart Adventure. Thus, The Dying Spire is a Tier 2 adventure and one that designers advise the Game Master to take care if her players have not either played Daggerheart or are not used to how their characters work, lest they find the scenario too much of a challenge. In the Daggerheart Quickstart Adventure, the Player Characters are entrusted with transporting an important package to Hush, small village within the ancient forest of Sablewood, where they are to deliver it to the Whitefire Arcanist. Eventually they find the Whitefire Arcanist and protect him as he performs a ritual to ensure the continued safety of the village.

The Dying Spire picks up where the Daggerheart Quickstart Adventure left off. The Whitefire Arcanist asks the Player Characters to check on Vaya, the Spire Keeper for one of the tall structures which towers over the forest canopy atop which burns a signal fire that seems to protect the Sablewood. Of late, the fire appears to have weakened and nobody is quite sure how this will affect the woods. The scenario is divided into five acts. The first two deal with their journey and arrival at the Spire, descending into a valley where they first encounter a pair of injured travellers and then the goathogs that attacked them. Goathogs are normally passive creatures, but something has caused them to decay and made them suicidally aggressive, as the Player Characters will discover when another pack attacks them. Afterwards, at the Spire, the Player Characters can make several discoveries. One is that the tall structure protects an impossibly tall Elder Tree, so tall that it is potentially stressful to climb the height of the stairs that run round the inside of the tower.  A second is that Vaya is injured and the third is that the ‘Brambleheart’ has been stolen. This is a magical mesh of thorns that draws wild magic up the Elder Tree and creates and maintains the ‘Spire Weave’ which protects the Sablewoods and makes them verdant, and without it, the forest’s future is threatened. The third, fourth, and fifth acts consist of a chase across the Sablewoods in pursuit of the thieves, the scenario throwing some fun encounters into the Player Characters’ path. These include a race down a raging river, into an ancient cave network, and finally confront an ancient evil and discover an external threat to the Sablewood.

The scenario consists of a good mix of challenges. There are social and environmental challenges to be faced as well as plenty of combat. Throughout, there are clear explanations of how each encounter is handled, both narratively and mechanically, and where a situation relies upon an action dice roll, of what happens if the players succeed or fail, whether they rolled with Hope or Fear. There are lots of optional questions too, which the Game Master can ask her players, their answers flavouring the detail and feel of the scenario as it progresses. The scenario ends with the possibility of a sequel and publisher’s website has a ‘Downloads’ section, which includes the Sablewood as a location.

The scenario uses the same set of six Player Characters as the Daggerheart Quickstart Adventure. They consist of Marlowe Fairwind, the Loreborne Elf Sorcerer; Barnacle, the Underborne Ribbet Rogue; Garrick Reed, the Highborne Human Warrior; Khari Nix, the Ridgeborne Giant Guardian; and Varian Soto, the Wildborne Katari Ranger. Copies of these are included with the scenario.

The scenario is solidly supported for both the Game Master and her players. There are standees and terrain, and a GM Guide for the former, plus a Play Guide for each of the players. This is in addition to sheets for all of the Player Characters. All of them are on perforated sheets for easy removal from the book.

Physically, The Dying Spire is very well presented. The artwork is excellent and the adventure is well written. The only downside is that the artwork is black and white.

The Dying Spire is an entertaining scenario for Daggerheart with plenty of action and a little bit of mystery. It works as a one-shot, but better as continuing support for the Sablewood setting.

2006: Revenge of the Rat King

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

—oOo—

This is an evil dungeon. For example, the first room consists of a set of stairs which lead down to a door. Murky water is pooled in front of the door. That is simple enough. However, the door cannot be opened because the passage on the other side has been filled with rubble, which will take several hours to clear and that after the strenuous effort to smash the door down. Whilst the Player Characters are doing that, they are standing in the pool of water which hides several caltrops whose points have been laced with poison called Vein Rot, which does Strength damage and halves movement. Ah, I hear you say, “What about secret doors?” Well, yes, of course. There is a secret door, but you know what? That has been trapped too. Opening the secret door releases clouds of finely powdered glass, which if a Player Character breathes in, causes Constitution damage. Which is evil and just the first room. Then the dungeon proceeds to batter the players and their characters over their heads with another fourteen encounters with different mechanics and different traps and monsters, but in a very similar vein… If it sounds like someone has it in for the players and their characters, that is because someone has—and it is not Harley Stroh.

Obviously, the clue to fact that this is the start of a revenge scenario is in the title, Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King. Designed for a party of between four and six Player Characters of Fourth to Sixth Level, this is the twenty-seventh entry in the original line-up of Dungeon Crawl Classics from Goodman Games. Being published in 2006, it is not written for use with the publisher’s own Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, but for Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition published by Wizards of the Coast. It is also a sequel to the very first entry in the series, Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King. In that scenario, the Player Characters’ investigations into raids by Goblin bandits on caravans carrying silver ore lead to the nearby Gannu Silver Mine which turned out to be infested by not just Goblins, but rats and Wererats. The final confrontation in the mine is with Lawrence Gannu, cursed by the villagers of Silverton to be a Wererat after they blamed his father for a dangerous discovery in the mines, returned to take his revenge upon the villagers. Now Aaron Gannu, father of Lawrence, has discovered that it was the Player Characters who killed his son and has engineered a plot to snare them in his clutches and their certain deaths. He will have his revenge!

Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King is really a dungeon in three acts. The first part opens with the Player Characters in the city of Soulgrave tracking down a ring of slavers and having found an entrance to one of its staging areas under its streets. Very quickly, the Player Characters will find themselves facing challenging situations, both in terms of traps and foes. Monsters harry the Player Characters, scampering away when they get too close and barely giving them time to recover before the next encounter, whilst a rattish figure taunts them all the way. It is linear, including some nasty traps and an unguided and consequently perilous ride on a skiff down a raging storm sewer, and gruelling. The latter intentionally so. Intentionally because Aaron Gannu wants to capture the Player Characters rather than kill them—at this stage. Ultimately, he will. In the second act, the Player Characters wake up dressed in rags, chained up, and bereft of their equipment. After escaping, they must find their way down another rushing waterway and eventually, their equipment, arming them ready to face their captor at the end of the scenario. The third and final act of the scenario is shorter and just as bruising, but the Player Characters have the benefit of their equipment and so the encounters leading up the finale are almost a relief for the players if not their characters.

The scenario requires some preparation in terms of hooking the Player Characters in. It does suggest several ways to do that, all of them tied into the slave ring hook. Yet the Dungeon Master may still want to develop some background in her campaign involving a slave ring before the Player Characters get to this scenario, whether that is in the city of Soulgrave or one of her own choosing. Ideally though, the Dungeon Master should run Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King as a sequel to Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King, otherwise the revenge plot at its heart will not just be as significant to either the players or their characters.

If those issues can all be dealt with, the scenario’s primary problem remains insurmountable. This is the fact that it is linear. In fact, each of its three acts is linear. Act one to get the Player Characters captured, act two to get the Player Characters free and to their equipment, and act three to get the Player Characters to the finale and the confrontation with Aaron Gannu. Each is testing in its way, the first act grinding the Player Characters down, the second acting stripping them bare, and the third building them back up again. The designer is telling not just a story of revenge, but a revenge epic! One, of course, starring a variable cast, yet that also means that the scenario’s plot has to run for it to work. That is, the Player Characters have to be captured, they have to lose their equipment, and they have to regain it. In effect, no matter how foolish or clever the players and their characters are in the first act—and clever play, along with lucky aplenty, can curtail the effect of some of the challenges they will face, it does not actually matter. For some Dungeon Masters and some players this may be too much of an imposition upon player agency.

Most obviously, Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King is connected to Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King, but there are one or two nods to other roleplaying classics in the book too. One is the cover, a delightful homage to the cover of the Player’s Handbook for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, but with a statue of a rat god replacing the demon, larcenous adventurers swarming all over it of course and attempting to prise out the gemstones it has eyes! The Player Characters will discover this very statue towards the end of the dungeon. Inside, the scenario develops the slavers theme by taking inspiration in one or two locations to A1-4, Scourge of the Slave Lords, such as having to run along the tops of walls of cages holding captured slaves as in A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade and the whole sequence to the second part of the scenario in which the Player Characters wake and find themselves clothed, but completely lacking equipment and must rely upon wits and abilities is inspired by A4 In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords.

The scenario includes some new magical items and a new monster too. The latter is the Redtooth Troll, a troll afflicted with wererat lycanthropy. His encounter in the scenario starts with him under a bridge and reaching up and over to knock the Player Characters off.

Penultimately—and notably, Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King and Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King have something else in common beyond one being the sequel to the other. This is that both have subsequently been adapted for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. These are Fifth Edition Fantasy #31: Idylls of the Rat King and Fifth Edition Fantasy #36: Revenge of the Rat King.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King is generally well presented. There is a lot to work through and prepare as many of the NPCs and monsters are highly detailed. The artwork is excellent throughout and there are many images here that the Dungeon Master can show to her players in addition to the handouts at the end of the scenario. One big improvement in Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King is the cartography which more detailed and interesting than in Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat King.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King is not quite a death trap dungeon because it is not designed to kill the Player Characters. It is, however, designed to hurt them, scour at their resources, and put them through the wringer and make them as well as their players work really hard. Every encounter in the dungeon is challenging, but the first act is really testing and full of nastily inventive scenes. The Dungeon Master is going to really enjoy running Dungeon Crawl Classics #27: Revenge of the Rat King; the players not quite so much—unless they like a challenge.

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.

Friday Fantasy: Shrine of the Cabbage God

High in the mountains, across the sea in an old colony, there is plateau long dried out and dusty from drought and the wind. Once it was fertile, dominated by fields of rich brassica, or cabbages, and at the centre stood a temple. A temple to Oleracea, petty-god of cabbages. His followers and priesthood were slaughtered men who came in boats and the temple was all but destroyed, partially buried by a vengeful Earth goddess. For decades, if not centuries, Oleracea has been forced to sleep, weakened by a lack of worshippers and a lack of tribute, but now the weather has turned and rain has soaked the soil of the plateau and cabbages are growing again. Word is spreading that there is one last temple to plunder, a temple to a minor agricultural god, but a temple said to be full of gold and precious gems that was ignored when the colony was originally conquered. Perhaps the Player Characters learn about the temple by rumour or are sold a map showing its location? A priestess of the god of earth has received visions of a minor, but annoying god of old stirring in the mountains and wants to hire adventurers to ensure that this god remains buried or a messianic nobleman wants proof of his divinity and wants the wak’as—or relics—of other gods for planned new temple, and his aides have identified Oleracea’s shrine as a potential source? A famous hero has gone missing and the only clue is a map to Oleracea’s shrine that he left behind or a local family is getting annoyed by the recently awakened skull of an ancestor which keeps telling his descendants to go to the shrine in the mountain and they want someone to return the skull to the shrine.

This is the set-up to Shrine of the Cabbage God, a dungeon-scenario published by Coldlight Press. It is designed for a party of Fourth to Sixth Level Player Characters and is written for use with the B/X version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons. Which means that it will work very well with Old School Essentials from Necrotic Gnome and can be easily adapted to the retroclone of the Game Master’s choice.

The background to the scenario does have some demands to make it fit a Game Master’s campaign world. In particular, a Mesoamerican world faraway over the sea that long ago was discovered, conquered, and colonised, much like Central and South America. Sufficient time also needs to have passed for the temple to Oleracea to have fallen into ruin, and of course, it needs to have a pantheon with an earth goddess. Surprisingly, the one setting that is actually more or less fits much of those demands is Pirate Borg!

The temple complex itself consists of several crumbling Offering Houses above ground with the two Levels of the temple below ground. Everywhere there is dust and other signs of disuse, but the brassica theme shines through, whether it is the statues of men with cabbages for crowns, a seedbank of ancient cabbage varieties, and a tomb where an Avatar of Oleracea crouches in deep sleep, its bolted cabbage body humanoid in shape, but with its ears and eyes covered by the stony hands of a rocky statue. This rocky statue is an earth elemental assigned by the earth goddess to ensure that Oleracea can see or speak through his avatar, its presence a pleasing reminder of the earth goddess’ desire to punish the minor god! This is not this is not the only sign of the earth goddess’ presence in the temple as several earth elementals prowl the complex. The Player Characters may also discover other manifestations of Oleracea.

There are some utterly fantastic details to the scenario. For example, there are classic traps in the scenario a la the film Raiders of the Lost Ark, corridors with poison dart traps in the walls. It is called the ‘Genuflectory’ and its walls are carved with scenes of priests bowing deeply and kneeling, a hint as to what the Player Characters should do. Yet if they do activate the poison dart traps, it is so long has passed since the temple was actively used, the darts themselves have crumbled and all the holes out of which the darts were once fired do is belch the poisonous dust that remains. In the past, the priests would have kneeled and bowed to avoid the darts flying overhead, but now, if the Player Characters take the hint on the walls, they will be bowing and kneeling into the poisonous dust! It is a lovely detail that although effectively a bait and switch, is thematically appropriate.

Elsewhere, the Player Characters find a table with two masks on it, one of which has a melted face on the inside of it, whilst on the floor lies a dead man with his face missing! Both masks are valuable, but will literally melt the face off anyone who wears it without the correct vestments being worn. Nearby, there is a mummy on a table who will communicate with the Player Characters only sarcastically unless she is plied with food and alcohol. A gleaming golden dagger hangs suspended five feet above a raised square platform in a Calendar Chamber, a domed chamber with a ceiling painted in now yellowing white, marked with black specks for the stars. The dagger is one of the more powerful magical items in the scenario and the Player Characters are likely to want to grab it. Should a Player Character do so, he will find his hand and arm inserted in goopy acid! The platform is actually occupied by a translucent gelatinous cube, with the dagger suspended at its centre.

However, the scenario is underdeveloped in places. For example, the scenario does not explain to the Game Master what the mummy will tell the Player Characters and there are various bodies strewn about the complex, all of them thieves who were pillaging the temple, but none of the bodies are detailed. Similarly, the Game Master may want to detail the thieves who have survived the dungeon so far and have been unable to find their out. She will also need to decide where some of the individual locations are in a room since they are not clearly marked.

Physically, Shrine of the Cabbage God is scrappy. There are few illustrations and the maps are serviceable at least. The writing is often rushed and could have been better phrased in places.

Shrine of the Cabbage God is thematic delight! Who knew you could design such an interesting and enjoyable dungeon around a common garden vegetable—and do so as effectively as this? However, the scenario needs a polish, some development of the details, and an edit. In other words, Shrine of the Cabbage God deserves for someone to give it the professional treatment and make it shine as much as it deserves to.

Friday Fantasy: Haunting of Beggar’s Creek

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

Haunting of Beggar’s Creek opens with the Player Characters traveling along Towers Track, one of the roads leading to Four Towers, the guild-dominated city known for the dungeons that extend deep under the city and Delver Halls, its distinctive district home to the delver companies, the groups of professional treasure-hunters who live off what they can recover from the depths. The countryside either side of the road is lightly wooded and dotted with small farms, but what catches their attention is the body of young man on the road. There is blood encrusted around his nose and eyes as well as on his face, and his bluish-white skin, feels cold to the touch. There is no obvious cause of death and no obvious sign of a scuffle. The nearest settlement is Beggar’s Creek, just along the road, a town best known for Beggar’s Bridge which crosses the creek and the large inn, the Muggin’s Rest, which caters to the townsfolk, the farmers and farmhands, and the frequent travellers on their way to Four Towers.

The scenario is a murder mystery, almost a cliché in its backstory and its set-up. The Player Characters are not suspects themselves and once they have been directed to take the body to the nearby cemetery for burial, they are free to do what they want. They could walk away, continue their journey, and leave it at that—and that is the scenario’s biggest weakness. It really does rely upon the players’ curiosity and that of their characters. If they remain and investigate, the Player Characters will discover that their discovery was not the first and the bodies of several men have been found on the road in similar circumstances. Worse, their spirits have been seen prowling the area at night and the locals are worried, including the owners of the Muggin’s Rest. So, the question is, what is killing the men and causing their spirits to walk at night instead of passing on?

Haunting of Beggar’s Creek mixes a mini-sandbox with some decent interaction and investigation with a big dollop of horror thrown in. There is a surprisingly large cast of NPCs to talk to and question, a few locations to visit—none of them overly detailed, and a distinct difference in tone between day and night. By day, it is bucolic, tinged by the locals’ concern at the curse which seems to have beset the area. By night, ghosts and worse walk, perhaps leading to situation wherein the owners of the Muggin’s Rest, their family, guests and patrons, as well as the Player Characters, all find themselves under siege by the undead! This is only one possible climax to the scenario, but it is one that can be used to push the plot behind the scenario to a conclusion, especially if the Player Characters have not resolved it by then.

There are not a lot of moving parts to Haunting of Beggar’s Creek, but they are enough to keep the Sage busy and most of them will require more preparation than most other scenarios for Shadow of the Weird Wizard. This mostly consists of a lot of NPCs and ideally a map and a floorplan. The scenario would certainly benefit from a map of the area around the Muggin’s Rest and Beggar’s Creek, and whilst the Sage will need to draw one herself, she will probably find it easier to find a floorplan of an inn to represent the Muggin’s Rest. These are perhaps the only omissions from Haunting of Beggar’s Creek.

Physically, Haunting of Beggar’s Creek is decently presented and well written.

Haunting of Beggar’s Creek is a thoroughly likeable and engaging scenario, a classic set-up in terms of fantasy and horror roleplaying. It does need pulling apart a bit to make clear all of the clues and a fair amount of preparation, but once done, this player-driven scenario will provide a good session or two’s worth of solid play.

Friday Fantasy: The Grotesques’ Grotto

Up in the hills there is a grotto out of which a babbling spring rises where it is said that ghostly echoes of lurid ritual mania from millennia ago can be heard. Folklore says that the grotto hides a temple to Iakos, the ancient wild god who blessed the site and his followers with the power of delirium-inducing prophetic visions. The temple was sealed long ago after his worship was outlawed, but its hidden entrance was revealed two weeks ago when an earthquake hit the area. Drawn by the spreading news of the seal to the temple having been broken, four royal witch hunters—Aida, Crawe, Ric, and Oswin—arrived in a nearby town and set out to investigate. They have since entered the temple in an effort to suppress its heathen influence, but are yet to return. In response to this situation, perhaps the Player Characters are hired to go after them and rescue them; perhaps they are hired by a decadent noble to help bring about a prophecy associated with the temple and its destruction that would bring about a new world; or having learned of the temple having been unsealed and the witch hunters gone inside, the Player Characters simply want to follow them in and loot the place of its treasure and relics. This is the set-up and hooks for Quick Delve #2: The Grotesques’ Grotto.

Quick Delve #2: The Grotesques’ Grotto is an adventure for Old School Essentials from Necrotic Gnome and is designed to be played with six Player Characters of Second Level to Fourth Level. The scenario is the second in the publisher’s ‘Quick Delve’ series, following on from Quick Delve #1: Milk. Each is designed for one or two sessions’ worth of play and is intended to be perfect for side quests, one-shots, and conventions, as well as easily into any campaign. The scenario begins with the Player Characters outside the grotto. Inside is a temple that has long fallen into misuse, but more recently, extensively damaged by the earthquake. This also limited the Player Characters movement through the temple, effectively limiting them to edges before they can make their way into the middle. It has a strange, woozy atmosphere primarily because of three ‘Grotesques’ of the title, the servants of Iakos who have been trapped in the temple since it was sealed and desperately, monstrously welcome the arrival of interlopers after centuries. The creepy trio include Mu, Grotesque of Keeping, starved for new secrets to hoard; Thee, Grotesque of Disclosure, starved for new secrets to reveal; and Los, Grotesque of Revelation. The first of these has a hole where its face should be, the second has mouth framed by numerous empty eye sockets, and they both hate each other; whilst the third’s eyeless face sloughs off and regrows every five minutes (he is also the only one not to be illustrated). Their desires and rivalries will drive much of the Player Characters’ exploration of the temple and provide much of the scenario’s potential roleplaying.

Unfortunately, this leaves the rest of NPCs in the scenario—the surviving royal witch hunters and an NPC or two—markedly underserved in terms of roleplaying potential. They are sadly underwritten, leaving little for the Game Master to work from in terms of their portrayal, but possibly leaving lots of room to develop from that might fit her campaign. Another issue with the writing is the descriptions given of the various locations. The writing is sparse and punchy, but the boxes of descriptive text often veer into details that should not be initially apparent to the Player Characters. For example, the boxed text for the Crypt reads, “A large Martyr sits cross-legged atop an imposing stone sarcophagus. The east and south walls are lined with niches. Most are empty but 4 contain inanimate Martyrs. The archway north (to Area 12) is draped in strands of glowing moss, a humid, noisome atmosphere wafting through it.” It seems odd for this text to mention the presence of Martyrs when that instead should be information for the players and their characters to discover. What it also means is that what should be in other scenarios, boxes of descriptive text there for the Game Master to read out, fail to serve that function in Quick Delve #2: The Grotesques’ Grotto. As a consequence, Quick Delve #2: The Grotesques’ Grotto requires just a bit more effort to prepare than it really should—all of which could have been addressed during the development and editing process for the scenario.

Physically, Quick Delve #2: The Grotesques’ Grotto is generally well presented. Barring the issue with the boxed text, it is decently written. The cartography is good, but the artwork is better. In fact, the artwork is excellent and really capture the feel and atmosphere of the individual encounters in the dungeon. The depiction of two of the three Grotesques is appropriately disturbing, but the most unsettling illustration is of the near-cadaverous Nymph, Pity, as she preys on a victim ready to drown him.

Quick Delve #2: The Grotesques’ Grotto feels inspired by the Oracle of Delphi at the Temple of Apollo on Mount Parnassus, its trio of Grotesques echoing also the three Fates, but the scenario otherwise avoids being inspired by Ancient Greece. Its primary storytelling impetus for the Player Characters will be how they react to the drives of the three Grotesques. If they ignore them, the scenario is likely to be an underwhelming experience for the Player Characters. Engage in them and there are definite consequences, ones that are entertaining, but will not affect a campaign in a drastic way which would unpin it and send it in another direction. Quick Delve #2: The Grotesques’ Grotto is underdeveloped in places, but not fatally so, in what is otherwise a solid scenario easily dropped into a campaign.

Friday Fantasy: Drink Deep from the River of my Hate

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[DCC Day #7] Pestilence at the Peak of Law

As well as contributing to Free RPG Day every year Goodman Games also has its own ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day’. The day is notable not only for the events and the range of adventures being played for Goodman Games’ roleplaying games, but also for the scenarios it releases specifically to be played on the day. For ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2026’, which took place today on Saturday, July 18th, 2026, the publisher is releasing not one, not two, but three scenarios, plus a limited edition printing of Dungeon Crawl Classics #112: Mother of M0nsters. Two of the scenarios, ‘The Temple of Fluttering Terror’ and ‘The Crawl is Not Always Greener’, appear in the duology, the DCC Day 2026 Adventure Pack. ‘The Temple of Fluttering Terror’ is written for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, the spiritual successor to Gamma World, ‘The Crawl is Not Always Greener’ is for use with Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game, which combines Dungeons & Dragons and World Wrestling Entertainment, turns it into a blood sport, televises it, and throws in celebrity culture in an alternate dystopia shot through with a knowing black humour. Lastly, both Dungeon Crawl Classics #112: Mother of M0nsters and DCC Day #7: Pestilence at the Peak of Law are written for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics.

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High in the Acherak Mountains there is a Dwarven Monastery that sits above the Dwarven kingdoms far below and under the ground. It is dedicated to Daenthar, but the monks there have a secret purpose in addition to worshipping Daenthar, the Dwarven lord of the mountains as close to his realm as they can get, and that is to protect the world against a servant of Chaos known as the Matron of Pestilence. In years past, as an agent of Nimlurun, the Chaos god of filth and pestilence, Matron of Pestilence unleashed a plague upon the kingdoms of Acherak, but having imprisoned it, the monks have long worked to ensure that it would never be free to unleash its scourge of contagion again. However, what the monks could not do is destroy the Matron of Pestilence, for that requires the Hammer of the Mountaintop. Sadly, that great weapon is long lost and the monks never thought it would be in their possession. Fortunately, it has been found and perhaps the long-hoped for dream of ending the threat of the Matron of Pestilence will come to pass… Unfortunately, agents of Nimlurun have found a way to infiltrate the monastery and work to free the Chaos god’s servant. They have not managed to do so yet, but it is only a matter of time.

This is the set-up for DCC Day #7: Pestilence at the Peak of Law, the offering for DCC Day 2026 for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. It is designed for group of four to six Player Characters of Second level, one of which should be a Cleric and another should preferably be a Dwarf. The ability to read Dwarven will be very useful in the scenario and either the Dwarf or the Cleric should be an adherent of Law rather than Chaos. The scenario can be played through in a single session and includes different hooks for the various Classes in Dungeon Crawl Classics.

In true Dwarven fashion, the Acherak Monastery is an austere place, with polished floors and bas reliefs on the walls. Equally, it appears to be quite a simple place, with a single archive, dormitory, sacristy, and so on. However, there is more to the monastery than meets the eye. As well as worshipping Daenthar, the monks are known for the brewing of a very fine mead and there are signs of it throughout the monastery, including some broken and empty casks. There is also a black slime that coats the walls and floors of the monastery. The oily, viscous substance adheres to everything it touches, can soak through clothing and leather, and worse, seeks new victims to infect. The scenario includes a ‘Rotting Corruption’ table to determine its effects upon any poor Player Character so infected and this adds a sickly, putrefying feel to the scenario. Make no mistake, this back slime is unholy, but DCC Day #7: Pestilence at the Peak of Law does discuss numerous ways of treating the symptoms and ultimately, of finding a cure, but in the meantime, the Player Characters are in for a sweaty, virulent experience.

Ultimately, there is a puzzle at the heart of DCC Day #7: Pestilence at the Peak of Law—one poisoned by agents of Nimlurun before they arrive—that the Player Characters will have to solve in order to defeat the Matron of Pestilence, save the Acherak Monastery, and save themselves. Given the timeframe for the scenario, it is not too challenging a puzzle and there are clues to be found that will reveal what has happened and what needs to be done next. This should lead to a climatic confrontation with the Matron of Pestilence and her servants in her secret prison. It will be a tough fight—especially if one or more of the Player Characters is infected with the corruption—but again, several means of slaying her given.

Physically, the DCC Day #7: Pestilence at the Peak of Law is as well done as you would expect for a release from Goodman Games. It is lightly illustrated, but the artwork nicely captures the foulness that the Player Characters will be facing in the scenario. The cartography is perhaps a little plain, but is serviceable enough.

DCC Day #7: Pestilence at the Peak of Law should have the feel of cleanliness and sharpness of the air of high mountain peaks, but instead, it has a vile, smeary, fungal, and viscous feel, which also contrasts with the austerity of the monastery. There are some enjoyably oozy, oily, odious encounters along the way to overcoming a great evil in DCC Day #7: Pestilence at the Peak of Law and this is a deliciously repulsive scenario.

Friday Fantasy: The Cursed Farm

It is midsummer, and Hrafn Reginsson, the local goði, asks the Player Characters for help. He asks them to visit the farm of a distant neighbour, Björg Finnsdóttir, who unexpectedly and uncharacteristically, has requested his help. He fears that the situation must be fraught if she is asking for his help. When the Player Characters arrive, it appears that the goði’s fears are well placed. Björg Finnsdóttir’s farm has clearly fallen into a state of disrepair and disarray. The kale patch has overgrown and seems to rustle strangely; the barley field has been trampled and its soil churned up by several cows that aggressively rove its extent; and then there is Björg Finnsdóttir’s pride and joy, a grove of red currant berry shrubs that made the farm famous for miles around, now reduced to burned and shattered stumps. Björg Finnsdóttir herself—and her family, which includes two farmhands, are tired and drawn, clearly deeply concerned at their plight and that of the farm. This is the situation that the Player Characters find in The Cursed Farm.

The Cursed Farm is a scenario for Age of Vikings: The Roleplaying Game, the low fantasy, deeply historical game published by Chaosium, Inc. and designed to help tell stories of home, hearth, and honour, myth and magic, and bring new sagas to life. Subtitled ‘An Introductory Scenario for the Age of Vikings Roleplaying Game’, it is designed as a first scenario be played for the roleplaying game and in many cases it has been. That said, it is not designed as a quick-start. In other words, it does not come with the rules necessary to play it, although links are provided so that the Game Master has a set of ready-to-play Player Characters. Instead, The Cursed Farm works as a demonstration scenario. It not only tells a tale of how dark Viking magic can come to affect the innocent, of past lives, and misplaced ambitions, but involves a classic Norse monster too! Further, it can be run in a single session. This means that is very easy add to a campaign, to be run as a showcase for the Game Master’s own group, or run as a demonstration scenario at a convention. In the case of the latter two options, this includes teaching the rules to the players. The rules themselves are not difficult to learn and anyone with experience of Basic Roleplaying: Universal Game Engine will pick them up with ease.

The family will quickly reveal what they know and the Player Characters are free to examine the farm and its current state, and will very likely discover that as the title of the scenario states, that it is cursed. The Second Sight skill is important here and a mixture of interaction and perception skills will play a major part in determining what is happening at the farm. The likelihood is that the Player Characters will quickly track down the source of the curse and deal directly with it. This can result in combat, and in particular, there is a chance for a warrior and his honour to shine, and even ultimately benefit. Combat is not the only solution though, and the source is willing to communicate and wait. That said, the Game Master is given an optional combat encounter if the Player Characters have avoided combat so far or if she wants to add another combat encounter. Ultimately, resolving the situation in The Cursed Farm relies upon interaction and perception. To that end though, the NPCs are simply drawn and the Game Master will need to strengthen their individual characters in her portrayal of them. This is due more to the limited page rather than any other reason.

Physically, The Cursed Farm is solidly presented. It is well written, easy to understand, and quick to prepare, and the artwork is good. The cartography, done in colour and black and white, with versions for both the players and the Game Masters, is clear and easy to read.

The Cursed Farm is good little scenario for Age of Vikings: The Roleplaying Game. It is straightforward and easy to prepare, whether to add to a campaign or run as a demonstration, and gives a good flavour of Icelandic horror and mystery.

[DCC Day #7] DCC Day 2026 Adventure Pack

As well as contributing to Free RPG Day every year Goodman Games also has its own ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day’. The day is notable not only for the events and the range of adventures being played for Goodman Games’ roleplaying games, but also for the scenarios it releases specifically to be played on the day. For ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2026’, which took place today on Saturday, July 18th, 2026, the publisher is releasing not one, not two, but three scenarios, plus a limited edition printing of Dungeon Crawl Classics #112: Mother of M0nsters. Two of the scenarios, ‘The Temple of Fluttering Terror’ and ‘The Crawl is Not Always Greener’, appear in the duology, the DCC Day 2026 Adventure Pack. ‘The Temple of Fluttering Terror’ is written for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, the spiritual successor to Gamma World, ‘The Crawl is Not Always Greener’ is for use with Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game, which combines Dungeons & Dragons and World Wrestling Entertainment, turns it into a blood sport, televises it, and throws in celebrity culture in an alternate dystopia shot through with a knowing black humour. Lastly, both Dungeon Crawl Classics #112: Mother of M0nsters and DCC Day #7: Pestilence at the Peak of Law are written for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics.

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As in past years, the DCC Day 2026 Adventure Pack contains two adventures. The first and longest of the two is ‘The Temple of Fluttering Terror’ are written for use with Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, the spiritual successor to Gamma World. It is designed for a party of three to six Player Characters of First Level and begins with them in the jungle on the back of a fast-flowing river on the other wise of which is an island with some pre-disaster ruins on it.

The Player Characters—or Seekers—have been sent by their respective tribes to rescue a much-fabled artefact, called AESOP, from the ruins. AESOP is rumoured to be a learning device from before the disaster used to teach children. If it can be brought back, it will be a great asset to the confederation of local villages. Unfortunately, the weather has taken a turn for the worse and a series of storms has led to widespread flooding and the rising waters threaten the buildings in which AESOP is located. Thus, the Seekers have to survive the environment and the weather, explore the buildings, find AESOP, and then haul it back! The dangers of the floods are represented by a ‘Deluge Effects’ table which is triggered when a natural roll of one or twenty is rolled. The waters can swell and surge, the winds rise, wildlife flee, and more, plus some effects also increase the die size by a step for subsequent rolls. Which means that as the scenario progresses, the effects of the storm get worse and worse. Then if a Seeker gets caught in the waters, then is a ‘Fighting the Flood Waters’ table to be rolled on, the greater the strength of the Seeker, the less likely he will be swept away.

The ruins on the island are those of Pennsville Learning Academy, so the Seekers are exploring the ruins of an ancient school. As you would expect, there are classrooms dedicated to different subjects, including history, science, and art, a cafeteria, and so on. Each location contains a mix of things to experience and lots of things to loot. For example, in the history classroom, the Experio5400 is a teaching device that beams a holographic, immersive experience straight into the eyes of nearby pupils. One experience is given, but the Judge can be inventive here too, adding her own historical scenes, whether from actual history or the history between now and the events of the disaster that led to Terra AD. However, it is loot where the author gets to be inventive. Items to be looted include a Cheat Lens that when worn provides answers to written questions; a chemical cabinet in the science classroom full of ingredients to be mixed for various effects; school lockers containing things such as a Jet Board, a Dysfunctional Robotic Playmate, Acks Body Spray (incites attacks from nearby feral creatures!), and more.

Finally, there is AESOP itself. It is a A.I. with a pleasing personality—though for entertainment value, the Judge could readily change it—that the Seekers can talks to and ask questions of. The Judge has a list of questions and answers to facilitate any interaction. AESOP is easy to find, but rather than challenging to deal with, it is challenging to move! The seekers must find a way of transporting it out of the ruins, across the island, and then over the river with its raging waters. ‘The Temple of Fluttering Terror’ is a good mix of exploration and combat, twisting a familiar location and making it a dangerous and rewarding in equal measure, before escalating the danger with the weather. The result is an excellent, entertaining scenario for the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game.

The second scenario is ‘The Crawl is Not Always Greener’, which is designed for the Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game and for party of four to six Player Characters of First Level. Their Agent informs them that they have been invited to participate in a new gig—an Xcrawl designed by a first-time Dungeon Judge. Not just any first-time Dungeon Judge, but Tiger Silva, the world’s most famous and accomplished pro-golfer, who wants to try his hand at a different sport. Apart from the fact that it being organised by one of the most famous sportsmen in the North American Empire, it is meant to be a low-key affair. It is a chance for the Player Characters to pick up some new sponsors, look good in a celebrity-driven event, and perhaps move into the orbit of the rich and famous by association.

As you would expect, this Xcrawl is entirely Golf-themed and that starts with the sponsorships on offer, which include the Ultra Whack Golf Clubs and Golfing Gear and Super Aid Sports Drinks. It continues with the individual locations in the Xcrawl, a giant miniature putt-putt golf course, which include woad-painted Goblin Picts which attack to the sound of bad bagpipes being played (and unfortunately the bagpipe-player is a non-combatant, so cannot be attacked and the Player Characters will need to find another way to stop the playing) reflecting Golf’s Scottish origins; a giant sand trap and a even bigger windmill with deadly spinning blades; and a battle with a giant gopher! All of which is confronted whilst attempting to whack a giant Golf ball through the dungeon and into the cup at the end of each room. Being a dungeon for the Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game, the adventure is straightforward and linear, that feel exacerbated by the need to drive the giant Golf ball from one end of the dungeon to the other, room by room. However, it is ever so tongue-in-cheek and fits with the absurdity of the world of Xcrawl.

The absurdity of setting and the scenario are made all the more so by the satirical elements worked into it. These dig at the theme of Golf and at the contemporary politics surrounding Golf. These are likely to amuse or irritate in equal measure, but given the theme, it is no surprise they are included. ‘The Crawl is Not Always Greener’ is a silly, but fun adventure and there are notes too if the Judge wants to add it to her campaign.

Physically, the DCC Day 2026 Adventure Pack is as well done as you would expect for a release from Goodman Games. The artwork is decent, but a little cartoonish in places—which actually suits the Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game.

The DCC Day 2026 Adventure Pack delivers two good scenarios for two different games, but of the two, ‘The Temple of Fluttering Terror’ is the most inventive and interesting, but ‘The Crawl is Not Always Greener’ is sillier and more immediately entertaining. Both are fun to play and both are easy to add to a campaign as they are to run as one-shots.

[Free RPG Day 2026] Age of Vikings Quickstart

Now in its nineteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2026 took place on Saturday, June 27th. 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. Unfortunately, due to vagaries of International Customs, Free RPG Day in the UK did not take place until Saturday, 22nd August.

This review is possible due to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham.

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Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

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What is it?
Age of Vikings Quickstart: Further Adventures in a Land of Sagas and Mystery is the quick-start for Age of Vikings: The Roleplaying Game, the low fantasy, deeply historical game published by Chaosium, Inc. and designed to help tell stories of home, hearth, and honour, myth and magic, and bring new sagas to life.

The Age of Vikings Quickstart is a thirty-nine page, 8.38 MB full colour PDF.

How long will it take to play?
The Age of Vikings Quickstart includes the scenario ‘Belly of the Beast’. It can be played in roughly two hours.

What else do you need to play?
The Age of Vikings Quickstart needs a standard set of polyhedral dice.

Who do you play?
The Age of Vikings Quickstart includes four pre-generated Player Characters. They include two warriors, an archer, and a skaldic poet.

How is a Player Character defined?

A Player Character in the Age of Vikings Quickstart is defined by his name, his Passions and Devotion to a single god, characteristics and skills, and personality. A Player Character’s Passions represent his values and emotional desires, and in play, they can drive him to act (and mechanically grant a bonus) and bring him into conflict with others. He starts with three: Honour, Loyalty (goði), and Love (Family). The seven characteristics are Strength, Constitution, Size, Dexterity, Intelligence, Power, and Charisma. These are rated between three and eighteen, although the minimum value for Size and Intelligence is eight. Skills include combat skills and standard skills. A Player Character’s Devotion is made to the gods that he most values and can draw upon for inspiration, represented by points of Dedication that grant him a bonus when acting according to their ideals and then spent. For example, the ideals for Baldur are light, happiness, and peace, whilst those for Óðinn are magic, war, and wisdom.

The Player Characters in the Age of Vikings Quickstart are stripped down versions in comparison to those that can be created using the full rules in Age of Vikings: The Roleplaying Game. What is not included are the Spirit Animal, Family details, and extra Devotions that such Player Characters will have. Full versions of the demonstration Player Characters are available, but not all of the rules in Age of Vikings are used in the Age of Vikings Quickstart. An experienced Game Master for Age of Vikings could easily run the scenario in the Age of Vikings Quickstart using standard Player Characters, whether the demonstration versions or ones created by the players.

How do the mechanics work?

The Age of Vikings Quickstart uses the Basic Roleplaying: Universal Game Engine as its mechanics and is thus a percentile system. Rolls equal to, or lower than the value of the characteristic roll or the skill, and a character succeeds. A characteristic roll is typically a characteristic multiplied by three, but can be higher or lower depending on difficulty. Any result of ninety-six and above is always a failure and can be a fumble, whilst a roll of one twentieth a Critical success (the full rules also also for a Special success).

Rolls can be augmented with another skill or Passion. A successful augmentation roll will apply a bonus, which will be better with a Critical success. A failed augmentation levies a penalty whilst a Critical failure results in the temporary despair of the Player Character. Devotion points can be spent to gain a bonus and Player Character can also call upon his Wyrd to change his fate. This turns a failed roll into a successful roll, but at the permanent cost of a point of Power. Do this too often and a Player Character’s Wyrd or fate has played out.

How does combat work?
The combat rules in the Age of Vikings Quickstart and Age of Vikings are skill-based. Order of action is based on Dexterity, and during a round, a combatant can move, act or attack, and defend. Attacks can be dodged or parried and armour deducts damage, as does a shield, but only a few points in each location. Damage is done by location, but if the Hit Points in a particular location are reduced to zero, a limb becomes useless, the combatant is left bleeding to death, or knocked unconscious and dying. Damage done to locations is also applied to general Hit Points and reducing those will knock a combatant unconscious. First aid is available, but natural healing takes weeks. (Age of Vikings includes rules for healing magic.)

How does magic work?

The Age of Vikings Quickstart does not include rules for magic. Age of Vikings: The Roleplaying Game details two types of magic. These are Rune magic, which uses the Elder Fúþark and can be cast relatively quickly, and Seiður magic, which requires ritual casting and takes much longer to cast.

What do you play?

The Age of Vikings Quickstart includes the scenario ‘Belly of the Beast’. It beings in media res with the Player Characters waking up to find themselves in a strange tunnel after their boat encountered the kraken! They must extract their boat before it gets crushed and attempt to climb up out of the temple. Fortunately, the Player Characters are not alone in the tunnels and can find allies who will help them as they try and find their way out. They will also encounter monsters. The fight is clearly staged with advice and instructions for the Game Master on when the Player Characters act, what they might do, and how the monsters work. The final scene is treated in the same way.

‘Belly of the Beast’ is short and linear, but it clearly teaches the rules and advises the Game Master on how to handle and stage its encounters. There is some limited opportunity for roleplaying, but the main focus of the scenario is on action and combat. As its title suggests, the action of the scenario takes place within the belly of the Kraken from which the Player Characters must escape. It is a great set-up and the tale of escaping from it is worthy of a saga.

Is there anything missing?
No. The Age of Vikings Quickstart has everything that a Game Master needs to run the included scenario.

Is it easy to prepare?
Yes. The Age of Vikings Quickstart is direct and to the point and the advice makes the rules easy to understand and the various scenes easy to run.

Is it worth it?
Yes. The Age of Vikings Quickstart is a well done, solid introduction to the basics of Age of Vikings: The Roleplaying Game. It clearly explains both rules and the action of the scenario.

The Age of Vikings Quickstart is published by Chaosium, Inc., and is available to download here.