5 Rooms Good, Four-Fifths Bad

So, the first room presents a challenge, such as trapped or hidden entrance or is protected by a guardian placed to keep intruders out. The second room contains a puzzle or roleplaying challenge, like a chessboard puzzle across the whole floor or dirt floor filled with snakes. In the third room, the Player Characters will face a trick or a setback, which might be a one-way exit or a collapsed ceiling or the means to defeat the villain, but which is broken or has parts missing. The climax comes in the fourth room, when the Player Characters are forced into a battle or a conflict, for example, a villain already alerted to the progress in the previous rooms, a villain who offers to settle the dispute with a wager, a duel, or a villain who threatens to break the very item that they have come to get. Then at last, in the fifth, and last, room, the Player Characters gain their reward, are given a revelation, or come upon a plot twist, which could be another guardian in the chest of treasure, that the whole series of rooms have been set up to further another villain’s plot, or that the villain turns out to be the mother of a Player Character. This is the set-up for the ‘5 Room Dungeon’.

As explored in The Ultimate Guide to 5 Room Dungeons, the idea behind the concept of ‘5 Room Dungeon’ is that they can be slotted into any location and their short length means that they quick to run, quick to create, easy to move around in an actual dungeon, and easy to integrate into an existing dungeon. All this as opposed to the classic megadungeon, which takes a great of planning and design, months if not years to run and play, and is not as flexible or as easy to integrate. The ‘5 Room Dungeon’ can played through in a single session and together, offer a complete adventure and dungeon, but one very much in miniature, both in terms of time and design. Published by Roleplaying Tips Publishing, The Ultimate Guide to 5 Room Dungeons is a guide to the concept of the ‘5 Room Dungeon’ and more. It takes the format of ‘Entrance And Guardian, Puzzle Or Roleplaying Challenge, Red Herring, Climax, and Plot Twist’ and applies it to other genres, like the horror genre and running battles, it adds in further tools, whilst also adding new ones. The basic book does with a few examples of a ‘5 Room Dungeon’, some as worked through examples, others as ready-to-play examples. Then it goes one step further. It gives examples. Even more examples. Reader submitted examples. Eighty-seven of them. Really. Eighty-seven of them. The Ultimate Guide to 5 Room Dungeons is three-hundred-and-sixteen pages long. Two-hundred-and-fifty-five pages of that consists of sample ‘5 Room Dungeons’. Four-fifths or eighty percent of the book.

In some ways, the ‘5 Room Dungeon’ format is reminiscent of the short dungeon encounters that appeared in the pages of magazines and fanzines, independent of their origins and flexible enough that that they could dropped into the pages of the Dungeon Master’s own dungeon. The Ultimate Guide to 5 Room Dungeons goes beyond that to use the ‘5 Room Dungeon’ format as not just as dungeon-specific, but an encounter format. The Player Characters need to get into a nightclub to steal some evidence? That can be a ‘5 Room Dungeon’. Want to have the Player Characters engage in a mass, but not necessarily be aware of the whole picture? That can be a ‘5 Room Dungeon’. Want to run a short horror adventure? That can be a ‘5 Room Dungeon’. The author’s methods and advice builds from this, adding Game Master moves such as effects and feedback/counteraction loops, which a fan has taken used to present the Mines of Moria encounter in The Lord of the Rings as inspired by inspired by Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. It is a lovely bit of interaction between the author and one of his patrons and it is one of the best examples of the ‘5 Room Dungeon’ format presented in the book.

The Ultimate Guide to 5 Room Dungeons also includes advice on making encounters intense, avoiding the TPK or ‘Total Party Kill’, how to work secrets into campaign and their effects, using spikes of danger to add a sense of threat and thrill to a scenario, to add features to a dungeon and develop ideas around them, and more. All of it presented in a short punchy style befitting its origins as a series of blog posts, which makes it easy to read and digest. There are lots of ideas and lots of good advice, the ‘5 Room Dungeon’ core format fundamentally serving as a design framework as much as a constraint to help the Game Master focus upon what she needs. Of course, what The Ultimate Guide to 5 Room Dungeons does not do is step back from the format to look at its use in the wider framework of a Game Master’s campaign. Nor are the limitations of the format fully explored, the primary possibility being that the format could become too limiting in the long term or too familiar. Nevertheless, the ‘5 Room Dungeon’ format is a good starting for the Game Master and useful tool to have.

Unfortunately, the book takes a nosedive in quality, if not quantity, when it comes to the examples. The eighty-seven varies widely in terms of length, from half a page to five pages. There are pirate treasures to be discovered, delves to be made on a drowned realm, a haunted house to explore, and tombs aplenty to be plundered—and a whole lot more. The problem is none of them are edited, none are given stats, and the longer ones are often so overwritten as to be unreadable. Wading through the morass of raw text to get to the good ones is a disappointingly dispiriting challenge in its own right. There is nothing wrong with reader-submitted or inspired content, but the author has done nothing to curate them or even organise them, so that in the printed version, their use is severely hampered because there is index or categorisation. Consequently, the Game Master has to read all eighty-seven to not just find the good ones, but to find out what their themes and ideas are, so that she can take ones she wants to use because they fit her campaign or she needs one to quickly prepare a scenario for the next session. This is slightly less of an issue in the PDF because that can be searched through, but nevertheless, the utility factor of the eighty-seven worked examples never arises from being a hard slog.

Arguably, what The Ultimate Guide to 5 Room Dungeons should have done or would have been better, is if the author had curated the examples or even run a competition to present the best of them in this book. Or even included the eighty-seven in a book of their own rather than in The Ultimate Guide to 5 Room Dungeons, which would have given space for the author to present several (ideally five), fully worked, fully explained as to why he included this or that and why it fits the ‘5 Room Dungeon’ format, that put his ideas—and his ideas alone—into practice. That would have made the book shorter, infinitely more useful, Game Master friendly, and so much easier to use.

Physically, The Ultimate Guide to 5 Room Dungeons is punchily presented in its first sixty pages as befitting its origins as a series of blog posts. The remaining two-hundred-and-fifty-five pages are unreadable, unprofessional, and unbearably uncurated and undeveloped.

There is no denying that The Ultimate Guide to 5 Room Dungeons is full of good advice designed to help the Game Master create an exciting encounter for her players. The book shows how that advice and its format can be used and applied to different genres and situations, from the dungeon to the battlefield, and that is all good. However, The Ultimate Guide to 5 Room Dungeons is poorly supported, even burdened, by the content and examples that it has chosen to showcase its ideas. Given that four-fifths of the book is so poorly presented, it begs the question, is The Ultimate Guide to 5 Room Dungeons actually worth it? Well, yes and no. As a free PDF, available to download from the publisher’s website, of course. As a PDF to purchase, possibly. As a printed book? Definitely not. Ultimately, the Game Master will get some good advice and ideas on how to write and prepare quicker dungeons and encounters with The Ultimate Guide to 5 Room Dungeons, but has to weigh that against being given a deluge of raw ideas whose utility is negligible.

Magister’s Miscellany

Magister’s Guide – A Spire RPG GM Handbook is supplement for Spire: The City Must Fall, the roleplaying game of secrets and lies, trust and betrayal, violence and subversion, conspiracy and consequences, and of committing black deeds for a good cause. It is set in a mile-high tower city, known as the ‘Spire’, in the land of the Destra, the Drow, which two centuries ago the Aelfir—or ‘High Elves’—invaded and subjugated the Dark Elves. The Drow have long since been forced to serve the High Elves from their homes in the city’s lower levels and allowed only to worship one facet Damnou, the moon goddess, instead of the three they once did. However, not all of the Drow have resigned themselves to their reduced and subjugated status and joined ‘The Ministry of Our Hidden Mistress’, or simply, the Ministry. Its members—or Ministers—venerate the dark side of the moon, the goddess of poisons and lies, shadows and secrets, her worship outlawed on pain of death, and they are sworn to destroy and subvert the dominion of the Aelfir over the Drow and the Spire. Published by Rowan, Rook, and Decard Ltd., Spire: The City Must Fall inverts traditional fantasy, making the traditional enemy in fantasy—the Drow—into the victim, but not necessarily the hero.

Magister’s Guide – A Spire RPG GM Handbook is a a companion to Spire: The City Must Fall. Born of four years development, it brings together a number of new systems, new stuff for every Character Class in Spire, including content drawn from the Strata and Sin sourcebooks, as well as advice for the Game Master. It is a fairly slim book, but comes packed with content for both the player and the Game Master. The book opens with four New Systems, beginning with ‘Liberty’, based on the ‘Control’ mechanic from Strata. This is a further measure of control and oppression applied by the authorities on the Dark Elves in response to actions of the Ministers that make the High Elves feel threatened. It does not target them specifically, but the Drow population in general. Liberty is a broad response and its Fallout can be Minor, Moderate, or Severe. For example, Light Fallout might be ‘No Congregation’, meaning that no Drow can gather together, Moderate Fallout might be ‘Branding’ or tattooing of Drow criminals, and Servere ‘Sanctioned Killers’ which arms the agents operating against the Ministry. Its broad nature means that Liberty is difficult to reclaim or remove. Only two options are listed, but the rules suggest using ‘Acquisitions’, the third of the new Systems to supplement these two.

‘Advancement Beats’ give a Minister and his player options in terms of challenges, goals, and achievements. Each ‘Beat’ can be a personal aim or shared with a fellow Minister, but is not specifically tied to the broader advancement of the Ministers’ cell and overall objectives of the The Ministry of Our Hidden Mistress. A Minister can have as many Beats as he wants, but only two are active in play at any one time. They are measured in terms of time they take to achieve. So a Low Beat such as ‘Sell someone out to the authorities’ can be fulfilled in a single session, a Medium Beat like ‘Research and perform a demonological ritual’ takes two or three, and so on. Essentially an adaption of the concept of ‘story beats’, this New System provides a player with story options that flag to the Game Master what he would like to have happen to his Minister—good or bad—in a session or more.

‘Acquisitions’ provides a further means of Player Character improvement, not just a means of getting items of equipment. One way to use them to is reclaim or remove the aforementioned Liberty, but options here include gaining an Ability from an entirely different Class, Favours, extra Advances, and a Safehouse. The latter nicely ties in with the rules for safehouses later on. For the Player Characters, this takes time, but they can push the attempt and act recklessly, to increase the Stress they suffer. Acquisitions are similarly categorised into Low, Medium, and High. The system is nicely worked through with a couple of good examples and enable a Player Character to have something going on in the background that he is working towards in terms of story and bring it into the action when necessary.

The fourth and last of the New Systems is for ‘Safehouses’. Out of all of the New Systems in the Magister’s Guide – A Spire RPG GM Handbook, this does like the most obvious addition. After all, the Player Characters do make a terrorist cell and will need somewhere to hide out and operate from. Once they have a safehouse—and the rules here suggest a ‘starter’ safehouse—the Player Characters can upgrade it with facilities such as a secret entrance, a gunsmith, and even a sacrificial chamber! Each of these is rated as a Medium Advance or a Medium Acquisition, using the previously presented ‘Acquisitions’ system. Suggested too are options for making the sanctuary a community instead of a hidden base and for using it as part of the story, so again giving both the players and the Game Master some flexibility in how the System is used.

The bulk of the Magister’s Guide – A Spire RPG GM Handbook is devoted to new options for the roleplaying game’s numerous Character Classes. Each is given various options including, but not all, new abilities, equipment and special equipment, adversaries, and Fallout (or consequences specific to the Class). For example, the Midwife emphasises the arachnid nature of the Drow and her role in the nurseries with Abilities such as ‘Hands of Silk’ which give her silk glands in the wrist from which can draw and combine with any hand-to-hand weapon to stun and bind, whilst with ‘Trapped Door’ she casts glyphs upon a door to hide it. She can use equipment such as a ‘Prosthetic Limb Array’, useful for the Midwife who finds it difficult to partially change into a spider, or a weapon like a ‘Arachnid Glaive’ . Her Special Equipment includes ‘Frenzy Incense’ which allows her to shrug off the negative effects from Minor or Moderate Blood Fallout. Her Adversaries include ‘The Black Sheep’, those that the Midwife raised, but which turn out bad—criminals, High Elf loyalists, apostates, heretics, and worse... Potential Fallout specific to the Midwife consists of ‘Spiders’ which crawl out her clothing, the walls, or even her mouth, much to the consternation of those around her.

In addition, the entry examines the nature of birth and child-care amongst the Drow, but also neatly provides a list of elements related to her role that the Game Master can bring into play. So, children, families, sacrificial altars, upholding traditions, and so on, and these work for NPCs as much as they do for the Player Character. The Magister’s Guide – A Spire RPG GM Handbook does this again and again for each of the Classes in Spire: The City Must Fall, each time providing options for the player to chose from, as for the Game Master to add to the story.

Rounding out the Magister’s Guide – A Spire RPG GM Handbook is a quartet of short essays in ‘Essays and Advice’. ‘Just the Basics’ is a relatively short blurb which the Game Master can use to explain the setting to prospective players or even for convention games. Even better is ‘Preparing For A Game of Spire’, which gives advice on how to prepare a scenario if a Game Master has no time, twenty minutes, an hour, or two hours. The advice of course, directly applies to Spire: The City Must Fall, but could easily be adapted to any roleplaying game. The essay also includes advice for preparing for a one-shot and again, is applicable to other roleplaying games. If Rowan, Rook, and Decard Ltd. was to publish a generic book of advice for running games, a version of this essay would definitely be included. Similarly, ‘When To Roll, And When Not To’ and the shorter ‘Creative Use Of Skills’, can apply to this roleplaying and others, but are not quite as interesting.

Physically, the Magister’s Guide – A Spire RPG GM Handbook is well presented and its contents are neatly organised and easy to reference, done in a succinct style for start to finish. All of that content is really very good, providing options in terms of Player Character abilities and actions, that both the player and the Game Master can use or effectively tag in the game. It is backed up by really good advice for the Spire Game Master, that is applicable in any roleplaying game. Overall, the Magister’s Guide – A Spire RPG GM Handbook is great supplement for the Spire Game Master, which the Game Master for almost any other roleplaying game should borrow (from her Spire Game Master) just to read the essays.

Less Anger, More Advice... Eventually

The Angry GM has made a name for himself dispensing advice and guidance on how to be a better game Master on his blog, which promises “RPG Advice with Attitude”. Some of that advice has been collected and collated in Game Angry: How to RPG The Angry Way. This promises that you can “Learn to play fantasy role-playing games”, “Run your first Dungeons & Dragons or Pathfinder game”, and “Improve your GMing skills and run great less worse games”, and if you take the advice and implement elements of it, then that is likely the case. This a book for the prospective player initially, but mostly the prospective Game Master, which has got her first roleplaying game—most likely Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, and wants to start running it for her friends or her existing group. It discusses narration and adjudication of running games, running the first game and then starting again, engaging with the players, handling combat, addresses risk and failure, portraying NPCs, dealing with problems at the table, and more. Though full of good advice, but for the most part, Game Angry: How to RPG The Angry Way is not a book for the experienced Game Master as she is likely already implementing the book’s suggestions and guidance. Of course, there is nothing to stop her from perusing the book to at least pick up the odd tip, or even confirm that she is at least game master the ‘Angry Way’.

However, Game Angry: How to RPG The Angry Way is not without its problems which get in the way of the good advice to be found in its pages. The first of which are its price and its length. The book is simply too expensive and too long. At over one-hundred-and-seventy pages, it is far too long. It could and should have been shorter and more concise. It is often overwritten and all often feels as if it could have got to the point a lot earlier. At $15 for the PDF, there are better looking books with more focused advice on being a good Game Master for less. Similarly, there are better looking books with more focused advice on being a good Game Master in print for the same cost as the PDF. Then there is the issue with tone and remit. The title of the book suggests that the book is going to be written a sense of energy and urgency, with anger, and there is none of that. Anyone coming to the book after reading the blog with its near rants and use of deleted expletives will be severely disappointed, for the style of the book is light and chatty—often too chatty. Which leads into the issue with remit, because if the book is written by the ‘Angry GM’ and he never gets angry in the book as he does on the blog, what is the point of the title? What Game Angry: How to RPG The Angry Way really means is that the player and prospective Game Master should be playing using the advice from a writer whose nickname is ‘Angry’, not be a Game Master with that emotion in mind. Which is misleading.

Game Angry: How to RPG The Angry Way is divided into three parts. ‘Part I: The World of Role-Playing Games’ is intended for the new player, ‘Part II: Getting Your (First) Game On’ is the first time Game Master’, and ‘Part III: Running Less Worse Games’ is the Game Master who wants to improve her skills. The opening of ‘Part I: The World of Role-Playing Games’ starts with first principles, taking the reader through the first steps of a Dungeons & Dragons-style game, what options has in terms of purchasing roleplaying games and what they offer, and giving a first examination of what a Game Master is. Veteran players and Game Masters are advised to skip this, but it feels too basic for the book, too much of a focus upon being the player in a book that is primarily for the Game Master. Perhaps this could have been saved for a book of advice on how to play roleplaying games the ‘Angry Way’—that is, a book of advice for the player, or retooled for the intended audience, the Game Master?

Thankfully, ‘Part II: Getting Your (First) Game On’ does begin getting to the point and telling the reader what a Game Master is and does. It starts with simple advice, such as ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid’, preparing the first adventure, explains the basic conversation involved in playing a roleplaying game, how to be a narrator and what the four types of narration are, and how to adjudicate the rules. This though, is forty pages in… It breaks down the nature of combat, examining the four things that the Game Master has to handle in the process—as a Referee, as monster wrangler, an accountant, and as a jockey, the latter to keep the pace of the combat appropriately fast and free flowing. Then it returns to the basic conversation involved in playing a roleplaying game, but examines it from the point of view of combat. This all sets the prospective Game Master up with the basic elements of her role.

At more than half its length, ‘Part III: Running Less Worse Games’ is the longest section in the book. It includes interesting sections on player agency and the power they and their characters have within a game, breaks down the time and framing units of roleplaying—action, scene, adventure, and campaign—before using them to build back up a Game Master’s approach to the structuring her game. There is standard advice too, such as only rolling the dice when it is important and running a Session Zero, and for the most part, the advice and suggestions are rules agnostic, but the book is heavily weighted towards playing and running Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, and Pathfinder, and where it does get mechanical it is always with those roleplaying games in mind. It also includes some mechanics of its own. This includes ‘Angry’s Ten-Point Scale’, used to track a Player Character’s success or failure and potential reaction points along that scale when he attempt’s a task that takes longer than a single roll, developing that as a means to handle loner, more involved conversations, for example. It differentiates between scene and encounter, and it also provides advice and suggestions as to how to create and portray NPCs in interesting and dramatic fashion in what is one of the more enjoyable sections of the book, and it also has advice on tone, a degree of improvisation, and finally potential issues and conflicts at the table. Here Game Angry moves into the social space of gaming. Lastly, the advice takes the reader to the verge of beginning campaign, but no further. That perhaps is the subject of another supplement?

Physically, Game Angry: How to RPG The Angry Way is a plain affair interspersed by pieces of cartoon artwork, much like the author’s blog posts. Here the artwork only serves to separate the chapters and adds nothing to the content. The writing is often over blown and it could have done with tighter editing for length and focus. The book lacks an index. Similarly, the author makes references to outside sources, such as to ‘The MDA Design Approach’, but does not cite them or include a bibliography. This is inexcusably unprofessional.

As decent as the advice in Game Angry: How to RPG The Angry Way is, it has dated slightly and it does not take into account different forms of gaming. Or even ways in which it can be consumed, stating “Now, RPGs don’t have audiences.” whereas even when the book was originally published, they did. Hence Critical Role. Anyway, no convention games or online games, the latter increasingly important and common since the pandemic. Now of course, the book was written before that occurred, but a section on running convention games would have been a very useful inclusion.

The author, the ‘Angry GM’, has neutered his voice for Game Angry: How to RPG The Angry Way. Had he not, then perhaps the book might have stood out from the range of titles on how to be a good Game Master. The advice given is good, but for experienced players and Game Masters will probably be familiar, whilst for the new or prospective Game Master, Game Angry: How to RPG The Angry Way takes a while to get the point and could have been far more concise.

A Symbaroum Collation

The Symbaroum Game Master’s Guide is a supplement for Symbaroum, the near-Dark Ages fantasy roleplaying game from Swedish publisher, Free League Publishing. The supplement does two things. First, it collects and collates material from previous titles for the Symbaroum roleplaying line, but not only that, builds upon them. The titles include the Advanced Player’s Guide and Monster Codex, as well as Thistle Hold – Wrath Of The Warden, Karvosti – The Witch Hammer, and Yndaros – The Darkest Star. Second, it builds on and expands on this content as well as adding new content of its own. This has a number of consequences. First, in replicating content from previous titles, there is a sense of redundancy to it, more so if the Game Master already has those supplements. Second though, in collating the content, it brings it all together in one place for easy reference, and that does mean it is useful. More so, of course, if the Game Master lacks one or more of the earlier volumes it draws from

Intended as the capstone to the core books for Symbaroum, the Game Master’s Guide essentially explores the adventures, challenges, and rewards to be had in the setting, giving advice and practical suggestions  that the Game Master can bring to her game. It is divided into three sections, each of which is further divided into chapters. The first section, ‘The Adventure’ essentially covers the design and creation of game worlds, chronicles, and landscapes—the latter better known as scenarios or adventures. It begins with the primary building blocks such as theme—most obviously Symbaroum’s ‘struggle between civilisation and nature’, stories, and tone, before adding secondary building blocks such as history, nature, cultures, population, and more. It guides the Game Master through the process, and then it does the same for chronicles—better known as campaigns, from establishing a chronicle’s theme and the importance of the first adventure through the course of the chronicle to its climax. Adventure landscapes are treated in the same fashion. The opening chapters of the Game Master’s Guide narrow their focus again and again, going from an overview down to individual scenarios, throughout referencing various scenarios for Symbaroum, as well as the Crown of Thorns campaign begun with Thistle Hold – Wrath Of The Warden.

However, these opening chapters are not overly engaging, particularly early on when examining the base building blocks. The references, especially to roleplaying games from Free League Publishing for other than Symbaroum feel somewhat superfluous and the chapters feel overwritten. This is not to say that the advice is poor, but the writing becomes more engaging and to the point when subject being covered is more specific, for example, when discussing the concept of Troupe Play in Symbaroum, in which the players take the roles of more than one character, suggesting the roles that the players might take in particular organisations. Thus, for a Barbarian village, the first set of Player Characters would be the chieftain’s council, the second his guard warriors, and the third, common villagers. ‘Adventures for Heroes’ gives advice on presenting scenarios and encounters for experienced Player Characters, not just adjusting the enemy’s numbers, but also adapting the enemy’s tactics and altering the terrain. It also suggests weaknesses against particular character types, not necessarily to defeat them, but rather to present such characters with challenges. So for the giant berserker with a two-handed weapon, the Game Master might counter with ranged enemies, monsters which bind or hinder movement, and enemies using mystical powers.

More specific to the setting is ‘Under, Above, and Beyond’ which explore the realms beyond Ambria and Davokar—the Underworld, the Yonderworld, and the Spirit World. It covers what might be found in each as well as encounter tables, adventure suggestions, and more. None of this is intended to be definitive, but more a guide for the Game Master for the few occasions when her Player Characters have to visit or traverse such realms. Again, more specific, ‘Goal Oriented Roleplaying’ presents objectives that the Player Characters might want to achieve, such as a conquest or staging an expedition, and examines each through five phases, the problems and challenges that they might face. Here the Game Master’s Guide most obviously draws from, and builds on, content from Thistle Hold – Wrath of the Warden and the Symbaroum Monster Codex, so is much more a case of developing content further along with the straight reprint and presenting it in the one location.

The practicality of the second section, ‘Challenges’, means that the focus in the Game Master’s Guide strengthens further. ‘Advanced Traps’ is useful for adding to the tombs and treasure vaults know to be located in the Davokar Forest and comes with some rather nice illustrations reminiscent of Grimtooth’s Traps, whilst ‘Pitched Battle’ enables the Player Characters to take to the battlefield, whether as combatants or commanders. It is an abstract system which calculates battle odds via the ratio between attackers and defenders, adjusting for factor such as resistance levels and battle location, to determine the outcome and casualties suffered. It also allows for random events, such as waking amongst the dead or being saved by allies, whilst an adjacent article provides a good examination of the nature of Ambrian Wars. This covers the Great War, the invasion of Ambria, and the battles of Karo’s Fen, as well as discussing the tactics used by the Dark Lords, the Ambrians, and the Barbarian clans. However, what the ‘Pitched Battle’ rules lack are an example or two, not an issue with the ‘Managing a Domain’, which puts the Player Characters in charge of a small fiefdom, from a fortified farm to a small market town. It includes events and improvements which can occur over the course of a year, as well as ways to protect the domain should it come under attack.

Equally as well supported by examples are the rules for ‘Social Challenges’, which cover Player Character scheming as well as tracking the relationships between them and Symbaroum’s various factions. However, the Player Characters’ favour with any one of the factions will wax and wane, so it is not merely a case of doing a deed or conducting a task to gain a faction’s support, but doing more deeds and conducting further tasks to maintain that support.

Travelling through and exploring the Davokar forest comes under the spotlight in first ‘Expeditions in Davokar’, followed by ‘Exploring Ruins’. These are perhaps the most familiar chapters, covering content previously presented in Symbar – Mother of Darkness. ‘Expeditions in Davokar’ covers the dangers and travails of moving through the forest—planning, misfortunes, companions, treasures to be found, reasons to delve underneath the canopy, and more. ‘Exploring Ruins’ provides a set of tables for the Game Master to create various that might be found in the forest. The penultimate chapter in the section, ‘Ceremonies’, expanded from The Darkest Star, covers powerful rituals the casting of which comes with significant corruption and side effects, and which are outlawed by the Ambrians. Numerous examples are given, but for the most part, these remain the province of NPCs and likely events which the Player Characters will either have to investigate, prevent, or interrupt. Lastly, ‘Legendary Creatures’ draws on the Monster Codex to present legendary, climatic challenges for the Player Characters, such as Sakofal the Slaughterer, legendary dragon, recently awoken and emaciated, and very, very hungry…

The third section, ‘Rewards’, is the last and shortest, consisting of two chapters. The first, ‘Enhanced Rewards’ covers everything from thalers to artefacts as rewards, but there are some non-traditional options too, including ‘burdens as rewards’. The idea being that the Player Characters will have faced great, probably stressful challenges and dangers, and the likelihood is that they will come away hurt in body or mind, if not both. This is an interesting way of developing a Player Character, plus the ‘burden’ grants both roleplaying opportunities and Experience Points! The second, ‘Great Artifacts’ gives almost unique devices of a magical nature, such as Bunefor’s Death Mask, which enables the wearer to find gaps in an enemy’s armour as well emit a piercing scream under certain circumstances or Desdemorgos’ Iscohedron, a device which protects the user against environmental corruption, but which also allows the user to draw corruption and use it as an attack! Each of the artefacts comes an adventure hook ready to develop.

Physically, the Game Master’s Guide is up to the standard you would expect of the Symbaroum line. It needs a tighter edit perhaps in the earlier chapters, but is otherwise well written and the artwork is up to the usual standard.

As much as the Game Master’s Guide reprints content from previous titles, it also expands upon them and it collates them, all in one handy reference tome. In doing so, it supports whatever type of campaign set in Symbaroum the Game Master is running, whether that is the Crown of Thorns or one of her own devising, with advice on set-up and theme, handling traps and ruins, Player Character goals and rewards, and really, quite a lot more. It goes further though, in offering ideas and suggestions for running campaigns in Symbaroum other than that presented in the Crown of Thorns campaign. The chapter on troupe play lends itself to roleplaying and adventure opportunities aplenty, as does managing a domain, so that a campaign could be location-based rather than travelling hither and thither.

However, as good as much of the content in the Game Master’s Guide is, it is difficult to describe as a must-have title—and less so if the Game Master already has many of the other supplements and titles for Symbroum. As much as the content has been expanded upon, it is simply a case of being less useful if the Game Master already has it. On the other hand, it does collate as well as expand that content and that means that it is useful reference tome to have alongside the core rulebook instead of having to leaf through numerous supplements. So for the Game Master new to Symbaroum, the Game Master’s Guide is a worthy purchase, but for the veteran Symbaroum Game Master, the Game Master’s Guide is worth considering before making the purchase.

The 'Whose a Good Dog?' Guide

Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire is a supplement for the trilogy of post-Man, post-apocalypse fantasy roleplaying games—Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game, Monarchies of Mau, and Pirates of Pugmire. It is something of an odd product, not being the Realms of Pugmire Guide’s Handbook, for an example, and not really possessing a singular focus. Now it does contain advice for the Guide—as the Game Master is known in the Realms of Pugmire roleplaying games—but it also contains a whole lot more. This includes the Realms of Pugmire Style Guide, useful for example for wouldbe authors wanting to create content for the Canis Minor Community Content Program; a number of blog posts which explore the setting and reveal some of its secrets; a conversion guide between the OGL for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and Pugmire; and a FAQ.

Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire opens with the Style Guide for the Realms of Pugmire roleplaying game. This not only lists the lexicon of game-related terms and their correct spellings, but also covers the game line’s tone, how magic and religion is handled, that it is ‘Inclusive Fantasy’, and it uses ‘Gendered Language’. For example, Pugmire is game of adventure and quiet morality, light-hearted with implied humour rather than out and out humour; never revealing to the characters that their magic is actually lost technology; that it is best in general to default gender-neutral terms like ‘dog’ and ‘cat’ rather than ‘he’ and ‘she’; to avoid both binary and non-binary gender terms; and so on. In some ways, this is a dull start to Buried Bones and of limited use. However, as an editor and reviewer it is interesting to see a Style Guide in print, it is actually of use to the Realms of Pugmire Guide. Especially if she wants to create content for the Canis Minor Community Content Program, but also if she wants a more explicit guide to how the designer wants Pugmire and its companion roleplaying games to feel.

‘Claws and Effect’ draws from a series of blog posts to explore various topics not necessarily explored in Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game, Monarchies of Mau, or Pirates of Pugmire. In the process, it addresses a number of topics are commonly raised when it comes to both games and setting. Most notable amongst these are the question, ‘Is this a Joke?’ and the description of Pugmire as ‘Just D&D with Dogs’. In addressing the former, it makes clear that although Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game is not necessarily a serious game, it is not a jokey one despite there being elements of implied humour in the setting. In fact, it does explore serious issues, such as loss—particularly of every Good Dog’s Master, the ethics and dogma of being a Good Dog, both cultural and racial (or rather, species) differences. Now when it comes to the latter, I have been guilty of giving Pugmire that description, but essentially not what the game is about, but rather as an elevator pitch to sell the game (verbally rather than in a written review). The chapter also discusses the nature of the different Breeds and Callings in Pugmire—the equivalent of Race and Class in Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Here Buried Bones begins to dig into the author’s design decisions, why he created the game as he did, not just for Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game, but also for Monarchies of Mau and Pirates of Pugmire.

Other elements of the setting and rules are also explored—how money or ‘Plastic’ is handled in the setting, the implied rules of the Fortune mechanics, and the dynamics between the various species in the setting. All of this is designer commentary, giving the Guide a peek behind the curtain, answering what turns out to be not-so important questions such as, ‘Where is Humanity?’, ‘What exactly happened in the War of Cats and Dogs?’, ‘What is the exact nature of Nine Lives in Mau?’, and ‘What lies in the Lands Beyond?’. What is so pleasing here is the designer’s honesty. This is not to say that other designers are not honest, but rather that here where the designer says that he does not know something or has not decided something about the Realms of Pugmire setting, then he simply says so. There is Guide Advice too, covering different types of play like long-term and troupe play, styles of play including silly, gritty, and epic, and creating adventures. The advice emphasises the importance of the player characters, balancing types of scenes, setting jokes and humour within the setting, but letting the players get the punchline rather than have the author or scenario deliver it, and making every NPC important. All of this is solid advice, not just for the Guide wanting to create adventures for her own group, but for the Guide wanting to publish and submit them as part of the Canis Minor Community Content Program. Lastly, there is an ‘Appendix P’—the equivalent of the ‘Appendix N’ of inspiration found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons—but for the Realms of Pugmire setting. This includes books such as The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents and The Tao of Pooh, comics like Mouseguard and Maus, roleplaying games and supplements such as S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and Tales of the Floating Vagabond. It is a good selection of books and titles and more, and there is even little explanation with some of the entries.

Rounding out Buried Bones is ‘5e OGL Changes’ and ‘Frequently Asked Questions’. The ‘5e OGL Changes’ enables a Dungeon Master to run a Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition game of Pugmire. It also highlights the differences, useful if a playing group or would be author is moving between the two. The ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ does exactly what you would expect.

Physically, Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire is a slim book, easy to read, and illustrated with several fully painted pieces. None of the artwork is new, having appeared in previous Realms of Pugmire titles, but that does not mean that it is not good. Overall, Buried Bones is as good looking a book as you would expect for the line.

However, Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire is not a book that the Pugmire Guide absolutely must have. She can run or write adventures for own playing group without it, but it does contain plenty of interesting information, working as it does, as the equivalent of the Guide’s Companion—the referee’s handbook, the designer’s notes, and the style guide all in one. So not only interesting, but also useful if the Guide wants to know a little more of the context and the secrets to the setting. However, if a Guide or an author wants to write her own scenarios or content for publication as part of Canis Minor Community Content Program, Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire is a must-have. 

Stamping a mark on your campaign

At the heart of Broodmother Skyfortress is one question. When you run an adventure does it have it lasting effects and so change elements of your campaign world? If the answer is no, then Broodmother Skyfortress may not be the adventure you are looking, but if the answer is yes, then get ready to run Broodmother Skyfortress and kick over the proverbial ant’s net. In this adventure, unimaginably alien creatures anchor their ship to the ground and descend from their sky to plunder and pillage, rampaging across the land. There are reports of an anchor dropping from the sky and ripping through buildings, of villages smashed, of centaurs, of strange boulders appearing from nowhere in formation, and more… From the first report, a trail of destruction can be tracked across the land and eventually to a cloud topped with a gold dome. What exactly is going on?

It turns out that a brood of near-godlike beings that have the bodies of elephants and the heads of hammer head sharks have taken control of a giant magical fortress and have just enough brains to pilot it from one spot to the next where they descend to eat or take anything that they want. Can the adventurers ascend to the strange world above and discover what these creatures are and stop them? Funded by an IndieGoGo campaign and published by Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Broodmother Skyfortress is an adventure written by Jeff Rients—best known for Jeff’s Gameblog—for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay, released at DragonMeet, 2016, alongside the scenario, Blood in the Chocolate*. Actually getting there is not really the issue, although the Referee is free to throw in what encounters he likes along the way—especially encounters where the player characters’ favourite watering hole is found smashed—as they chase down the chaos and destruction that the fortress leaves in its wake… Once aboard, the adventurers need to sneak around both on and in the cloud to ferret out the cloud fortress’ secrets. Be warned, this is a tough adventure, suited to high level characters, although Broodmother Fortress does not specify any particular Levels.

*Which for professional reasons I cannot review.

Before the adventure begins though, the Referee needs to make two choices. The first is deciding what the brood giants are—space aliens? Angels? Mutants? Or actual shark-elephants? Then, who built the cloud-fortress—titans? Angels? Space gods? Real gods? These options are explored in some detail and their consequences examined, and this in addition to presenting each of the brood as an individual with different personalities, motivations, attacks, and more. All seven though—and there are just seven, which is enough!—share more or less the same stats and attack. They are the equivalent of twenty Hit Dice Fighters! Much like there is a Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy approach to firearms—once fired there is not enough time to reload in a melee, there is also a Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy approach to fighting giants. Simply, they have no Armour Class and there is no need to roll to hit to attack a giant as any missile or melee attack will always hit. The problem is getting past the giants’ damage reduction! Alternative stats are provided if the Referee really, really wants to make them dangerous.

The dungeon consists of less than thirty locations divided between three areas, the fortress proper, the tunnels below the fortress, and the outbuildings. The fortress is home to the brood and means to power and steer the fortress; the tunnels to humans known as wretches who have been caught by the brood and despite having escaped have reverted to a primitive state; and the outbuildings to various ruins and features left behind by the skyfortress’ original builders and mostly ignored by the brood since. Each of the thirty or so locations is described in more than enough detail to intrigue the players and their characters, but even so, this barely takes up twenty pages. There are some fascinating things for them to find and play with—the Angry Brain of a Sky King, strange machinery, the nearly dead bodies of titans, and more. Besides the brood, the adventurers are likely to have difficulties with spider swarms, brood hatchlings, and spectral malevolences, things excreted by the Angry Brain, and possibly the Wretches, though there is also the possibility that the adventurers might form an alliance with them instead.

Physically, Broodmother Skyfortress is stunning. Most of it is done in black and white, but where colour is needed, it is put to good effect. Such as the very nicely done maps positioned in the book’s endpapers along with the appropriate random encounter tables. The artwork though is fantastic, Ian MaClean’s illustrations not only being done in the style of Jack Kirby, but in some cases actually aping some of the great covers that Kirby drew for both Marvel and DC. In many cases, these star Jeff Rients and some may not be all that tasteful... In other places, the artwork is simply good, such as that depicting the Brood looting the Pyramids of Egypt or snapping off the head of the Statue of Liberty. Jeff Rients’ writing is also engaging and enjoyable, maintaining a light tone throughout.

If there is an issue with Broodmother Skyfortress, it is that we do not have the medieval (or Early Modern) mind-set to play it effectively. Our contemporary exposure to the weird—whether from nature or from fiction a la H.P. Lovecraft—means that we have the means to categorise the weird and in doing so lessen its inherent difference. This starts with the cover. We look at the cover and we identify the scenario’s primary monster as being half-elephant, half-hammerhead shark and so we already know it and reduce the threat it represents. Nevertheless, Rients’ choice in combining elephants and hammerhead sharks is a nod to the medieval understanding of the world around them and how utterly alien and weird such creatures would be to them. Of course, Rients presents options in deciding what the Brood are, but part of the challenge in running and playing Broodmother Skyfortress is making that sense of the alien and the weird very much part of the scenario and the player characters.

Broodmother Skyfortress is a great adventure in the mode of the G Series of modules of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fame, but it goes beyond that series simply because it is not served up in aspic. If the adventurers do not stop the Brood, then they will go on looting and pillaging with abandon. This is a grand affair that brings a grandeur to the weird in Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay and amongst the best releases for the retroclone to date.

Just like the description of the skyfortress and its environs barely takes twenty or so pages, so the adventure Broodmother Skyfortress barely takes up more than half of the book. The other half reprints the very best of the articles and advice for the Referee that the author posts on his blog. There are fourteen of these in the book’s lengthy appendix, covering such diverse subjects as ‘What’s My Motivation?’ for recalcitrant players; ‘Twenty Quick Questions For Your Campaign Setting’ and ‘Old Schoolin’: How To Get Started’ for addressing the starting point for the Referee’s game; and ‘Grimoires of Wessex’ and ‘Wessex Henchmen/Hireling Rules’ for ideas from the author’s own campaign. There are also various rules variants and discussions of how to handle various aspects of the rules. Each is essentially a short article and worth reading whatever your level of experience in running Dungeons & Dragons and similar RPGs. In fact, Lamentations of the Flame Princess could have released Broodmother Skyfortress on its own and then a separate compendium of Rients’ posts and advice and that would have been good too. Perhaps there is still material enough for a Rients Compendium?

If Broodmother Skyfortress is a very good adventure on its own, then the appendix of Jeff Rrients’ writings is a most welcome bonus. Together, they make Broodmother Skyfortress an impressive package that combines the weird with the old school.

Fanzine Focus V: Winged Snail Plays RPG’s – ‘Game Master Basics’

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Winged Snail Plays RPG’s (sic) is a small fanzine—quite literally at roughly an A6 size—that looks at getting into roleplaying for the first time. The inaugural issue, Winged Snail Plays RPG’s – ‘Begin at the Beginning’ looked at how to get into the hobby as a new player and being a good player through the experiences of the author, Sarah E. Hoffman. With the second issue, Winged Snail Plays RPG’s – ‘Game Master Basics’, the author takes a further step into the hobby by looking at what it is like to be a GM or referee.

Winged Snail Plays RPG’s – ‘Game Master Basics’ beings with a decent description of what a GM, framing it in terms of taking the role of the Banker in Monopoly, but explaining how the GM facilitates the game and works to ensure that everyone has fun. It tells how to create a game in knowing your players’ personalities and keeping it small—two to four players rather than six; to organise the GM’s supplies, what to do prior to the game, during the game, and after the game. So it suggests and advises that it is better to choose a more well-known and popular rules system because it will be familiar and better supported, to use rules that you understand, to use ‘canned’ (or pre-written) adventures, and during play to directly ask the players if a particular rules work or explain a particular rule or explain the consequences of an action. After the game, the advice is take notes, ask for specific feedback, and schedule the next game. 

The advice is never less than to the point—unsurprising given the paucity of space in Winged Snail Plays RPG’s – ‘Game Master Basics’—and perhaps whilst familiar to some, it does not mean that such advice cannot be stated or given. Unfortunately, from the very first page of Winged Snail Plays RPG’s – ‘Game Master Basics’, it is clear that the author’s experiences in the hobby have not always been positive ones and have not been positive ones of late. In both the introduction and in the last few pages, Sarah talks about the ‘player from hell’, in her words, “…the doubchebag player, the rules lawyer, the railroading player, and every other conceivable rude social behavior imaginable.” Their existence and her experiences with players of this type and with the GMs who do not fulfil their responsibility to police and curb such behaviour, is why she has stopped being a player and switched to being a GM. She also states that the, “…constant negative interaction with rude players is the reason so many interested individuals never begin or become long term players.”

This is such a disappointing reason to switch roles. Most players switch to being the GM because they want the chance to run a game and present adventures to the other players. They do not change roles necessarily because of bad players and deciding to, or being forced to, for this reason, is terrible indictment upon our hobby. Or rather not entirely, since the author also makes the point that she does not actively play in real life in the tabletop roleplaying community of Yellowknife in the North West Territories, which is where she lives, for these reasons. So more a terrible indictment upon our hobby in Yellowknife in the North West Territories.

This is not to say that the problem does not exist at large in the hobby, such immature players do exist. It is one reason why the gaming community adopts conduct and harassment policies for its public events, its conventions, and so on, and certainly in this gamer’s experience, such poor behaviour is anything other than the norm. At home, around the gaming table, it is another matter, and that is where individuals in the hobby need to self-police. Not only the GM, but also the players too. There is no indication in Winged Snail Plays RPG’s – ‘Game Master Basics’ that the author raised these issues with the offending player or the player’s GM, and it would have been interesting to read what the effect was had she done so… Further, could she not have recruited the players and GMs she likes to form a group where such issues would not such an issue?

As good as the material is in Winged Snail Plays RPG’s – ‘Game Master Basics’, the second issue of this fanzine is disappointing. The advice is good, it is clearly presented, it is to the point, and it is helpful, and overall, the second issue of Winged Snail Plays RPG’s is more assured and well written. It disappoints though because of the sting in the tail of the author’s poor playing experiences, yet more so because the reader is left wondering about these poor playing experiences and their consequences. Her experiences would make the fanzine more personal and more interesting. That perhaps is the challenge for the third issue of Winged Snail Plays RPG’s, that and perhaps attending a gaming convention…

Winged Snail Plays RPG’s – ‘Game Master Basics’ is not really a booklet for the experienced GM (or player). Most of the advice will familiar to them, but this does not mean that it is bad advice. In fact, the advice is sound and is clearly born of personal experience—though in the case of Winged Snail Plays RPG’s – ‘Game Master Basics’, not really quite enough.

Dirty Pool Old Man

Back at the turn of the millenium, John Wick was contracted to write Play Dirty, a column about game mastering advice for Pyramid Magazine, Steve Jackson Games’ online weekly. Over the course of the eleven columns that he would write for Pyramid Magazine, Wick would arouse controversy, ire, and irritation. His columns were a real talking point for the magazine. Subsequently, they would be collected and published by Wick himself in 2006 in a volume entitled Play Dirty. The book also included the original column that appeared at the website www.gamingoutpost.com which would spur the then-editor of Pyramid, Scott Haring, to engage Wick as a columnist. As Wick launches Play Dirty 2: Even Dirtier on Kickstarter, it seems appropriate to look back the original essays and see what made them so controversial.

So what is the fuss all about? Well, the GM advice in Play Dirty is about doing one thing. It is also about not doing one thing. The thing it is about doing is the GM entertaining his players. The thing it is not about is the GM being fair or even honest to the players. Play Dirty is about the GM doing anything and everything to ensure that his players have a good time—and that includes lying, cheating, and stealing; being mean—even cruel; and when it counts, being a bastard. All in the name of good storytelling and good drama. 

To do so, Wick not only gives the reader tricks, traps, and tactics aplenty that will enable the GM to get down and dirty with his players, he illustrates them with anecdotes from his own games and those of others. For example, in Episode 0, ‘Hit ‘Em Where It Hurts’ the author examines the weakspots of every player character—his Disadvantages—and shows you how to punch them hard. Not out of spite or because he can, but to maximise their drama potential. After all, is that not why the player took those Disadvantages? Well sometimes not, because they are often just a means to gain more points to make the character stronger elsewhere. In one example, Wick shows us how he had an outwardly helpful and friendly NPC push the heroes about in a Champions campaign by using (NOTE, not threatening) the heroes’ dependents and their luck, pushing their immunities and their psychological limitations, and so on. In Episode 7, ‘What’s It Worth?’ he talks about player assumptions, that they assume that they are doing the right thing, that they are the protagonists, and that the world revolves around them. Other episodes make Darth Vader the good guy, explain how the players can get involved in running a city campaign with the GM, how to deal with problem players, make combat lethal, and so on and so on. There is even an episode entirely for the players about how to play dirty with the GM.

Not all of the episodes are adversarial, or at least not confrontational. For example, Episode 3, ‘The Living City’ describes a means for the players to get involved in running and adding to a city campaign. All in the name of good drama—plus cutting down on the GM’s workload of course. Yet there are many episodes that are adversarial. Take for instance, in Episode 2, ‘The Return of Jefferson Carter’ he describes how he makes a player roleplay his character whilst the character is stuck in prison. For six weeks.

That is being adversarial. That is being a bastard.

The question has to be asked, “Did you really do that John? Did you make a player sit and seeth for six weeks? Or were you simply trying to make a point?” (Technically, this is three questions, but all of them have to be asked).

It does not help that throughout Play Dirty it feels as if John has got up on stage, cane and straw boater in hand, a gleaming smile plastered across his face and preached at us. Play Dirty involves chest beating aplenty and all of it John’s. Yet if none of his advice is intended to be fair or honest in application, then why should his tone and writing be fair, honest, or even measured?

Now the original Play Dirty columns appeared in 2000—plus the last column that appeared in 2003 for Pyramid’s tenth anniversary—and were brought to print in 2006. As the author states in 2006, they were written by a younger version of himself, a brasher, more pugnacious version. It shows. In many cases it feels like Wick’s advice is obvious and that what he has done is taken said advice and ‘turned it up to 11’, but even by 2006 that advice had entered the mainstream. Perhaps not to the extremes that Wick pushes it, but it was there. By 2014, some fifteen years after the advice was first written down, it is no less useful or at least no less thoughtful, but it does feel staid. That in part is because the gaming hobby has aged and moved on, and few gamers have the time to devote to the type of game that this advice applies to—the long game, the campaign game. Even by the time that Play Dirty was published as a book, gaming had moved on with the advent of the Indie Roleplaying  movement.

To be honest, John Wick’s advice may not be to everyone’s taste. It is likely to be too ‘unfair’, too confrontational, and too much in their face. If applied, it is likely to upset their players and thus the apple cart that is their game. To some, John Wick’s advice is bad and John Wick’s advice ruins games. If this is the case, then Play Dirty and thus Play Dirty 2: Play Dirtier will not be for you. Perhaps instead Robin’s Laws of Good Game Mastering by Robin D. Laws will be of use to you. (In fact, I might just dig out my copy of that and review it…)

Physically, Play Dirty is a plain, buff book. There are no illustrations. The words draw the pictures for you.

Play Dirty is a quick and easy read. In fact, I read it on my commute to work and back again today—not all of my commute as reading and walking is not the safest of activities. Indeed I suspect that writing this review will take longer than it did to read Play Dirty. (I was so keen to start the review that I cut myself shaving for the first time in decades. So, Mister Wick, your book has blood on its pages).

Now to the point. Is Play Dirty a good book? Is its advice useful and helpful? Well yes, no, and yes. Yes, because its advice can be taken and applied with the end result being a good game, even a memorable game. No, because it is not going to suit every game, every GM, every set of players, or every campaign. It has the potential to upset each and every one of them. Lastly and most importantly of all, ‘YES’.

Yes, Play Dirty is a good book and its advice is useful and helpful. For this very important reason. It will make you think about your game. Even if you never apply the advice in its pages, it will make you think about your game.