[Free RPG Day 2023] Loup Garou Free Preview

Now in its sixteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2023 took place on Saturday, June 24th. 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. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Fil Baldowski at All Rolled Up, and others, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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If the releases for Dragon Shield Roleplaying have been one of the two oddest releases for Free RPG Day 2023, the other is the Loup Garou Free Preview. This is a preview for Loup Garou, part of the ‘Graphic Novel Adventures’ from Van Ryder Games, best known for its board games like Final Girl and Hostage Negotiator. Funded via Kickstarter, these ‘Graphic Novel Adventures’ are solo or ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ adventure books. The publisher has released several series of these and what sets them about from other solo adventures is that they are presented in graphic form rather than text format. So essentially, what the reader is reading and playing in is a graphic novel. Such things are not new, of course, in the nineteen eighties, Diceman was a five-issue series from Fleetway which published stories involving characters from its sister publication, 2000 AD, including Judge Dredd, Nemesis the Warlock, Sláine, Rogue Trooper, Torquemada, and ABC Warriors. Diceman also ventured into political satire with the comic strip ‘You are Ronald Reagan in: Twilight’s Last Gleaming’ and Fleetway would continue this theme with the separate solo adventure book, You are Maggie Thatcher: a dole-playing game in nineteen eighty-seven. However, times have moved on, and in comparison, to both titles, Loup Garou, as well as other titles in the ‘Graphic Novel Adventures’ series are done in full colour.

The story of Loup Garou is this. The protagonist is Eoras, an apprentice to the mage, Thedocred. One night, Thedocred sends him out into the forest to collect a vital ingredient for a potion, but whilst out on the errand, a foul beast—a loup garou—attacks him. Although a hunter comes to his rescue and slays the monster, Eoras discovers that he has been scratched and is thus condemned to transform into a loup garou himself! As a mere mage’s apprentice, Eoras knows just the single spell, but as a loup garou, he has tremendous physical strength and endurance, but can he use it wisely? Will he find a cure or will he tracked down by the hunter who slew the beast that scratched him? Above all, can Eoras survive? This, ultimately, this is the aim for the reader with Loup Garou.

The Loup Garou Free Preview is a heavily truncated version of Loup Garou. It takes some thirty-one panels and a two-page spread explanation to get to the start and ‘Panel #1’. The actual adventure consists of just twenty-nine panels drawn from the full version of Loup Garou, which contains at least two-hundred-and-eighty-nine panels, this being the highest number in the Loup Garou Free Preview. Eoras begins play with ten Hit Points and ten Magic Points and a rating of four in his Strength and one in Defence, these last being his attributes. In loup garou form, five is added to both. He also has a skill point which the reader can assign. At the back of the Loup Garou Free Preview is a Skill Tree, each of which consists of eight boxes, each containing three improvements a player can choose. Eoras is an Apprentice, so would select that box and tick off its first entry, ‘Spell: Shock’. The others are ‘Ice Armour’ and ‘Spell: Fireball’. From the Apprentice box, Eoras could improve via the Sorcerer, Mage, or Lycanthrope boxes. Other starting options include Healer, Soldier, and Survivor. For every ten Experience Points gained, either through defeating an enemy or solving a riddle, Eoras gains one Magic Point and one Hit Point, and the reader can gain one improvement.

Mechanically, Loup Garou is quite simple. Combat requires a roll of a six-sided die each round to determine how many Hit Points an opponent loses. The combatant’s Strength is added to this in mêlée to get the total result or the base damage of the spell being cast if magic is being used. It costs one Magic Point to cast a spell. The other major mechanic involves riddles. Solve these and the reader and Eoras is awarded with a good number of Experience Points. A minor mechanic involves picking up items to use later. These are included in the comic panels and the reader is free to decide whether Eoras picks up one or another.

In terms of play, Loup Garou Free Preview is limited. Which is fine because it is a preview. Consequently, there is just the one incidence of combat and one of solving riddles, whilst there are several items to spot and pack in Eoras’ bag, although no reason to use them in the preview. What the Loup Garou Free Preview does show off is the excellent artwork, though in places, the number indicating the next panel to turn to or choose from is a bit small to read with any ease. The visual means also exacerbates the aspect of any solo adventure book with illustrations. Even one with a few illustrations will have the reader intrigued by them and wondering how he can guide the protagonist of the adventure to that paragraph and thus that location to discover what is actually going on there. In the Loup Garou Free Preview and thus Loup Garou, with all of paragraphs being graphic novel panels, that is an even bigger feature. Even to the point of being a distraction!

Physically, Loup Garou Free Preview is very well presented. The artwork is excellent throughout and nicely captures Eoras’ desperation and worry throughout its few pages.

As a preview, Loup Garou Free Preview is surprisingly playable given its scant number of panels and plotlines. It should really only take the reader a single effort or two to play through the whole thing and even then, only fifteen minutes or so. Yet there remains the much longer and deeper story in Loup Garou, which Loup Garou Free Preview does leave you wondering about and whether or not Eoras survives or even discovers a cure to his malady. Loup Garou Free Preview is a solid introduction to Loup Garou and by the end of it, the reader will know if he wants to find out more. Reviews from R’lyeh definitely did.

Solitaire: You Are Deadpool

The solo adventure book is no stranger to the comic book. In the nineteen eighties, Diceman was a five-issue series from Fleetway which published stories involving characters from its sister publication, 2000 AD, including Judge Dredd, Nemesis the Warlock, Sláine, Rogue Trooper, Torquemada, and ABC Warriors. Diceman also ventured into political satire with the comic strip ‘You are Ronald Reagan in: Twilight’s Last Gleaming’ and Fleetway would continue this theme with the separate solo adventure book, You are Maggie Thatcher: a dole-playing game in nineteen eighty-seven. Marvel Comics satirised the solo adventure book format with a comic book mini-series all of its own and with the only character it could—the fourth wall breaking, genre busting, Marvel Universe killing Deadpool. In You Are Deadpool, Al Ewing—who has also written for 2000 AD—and Salva Espin and Paco Diaz let you take the ‘Merc with a Mouth’ on another romp through Marvel’s back catalogue after a job goes wrong, and in the process pokes fun at some key moments of Silver Age, Bronze Age, and Modern Age comics across the history of Marvel Comics.

The set-up is simple and one which you can ignore or dive straight into the action. The Tomorrow Man hires Deadpool to steal a Time-Travel Helmet stolen from the Time Variance Authority by the Roxxon corporation and stored in a high-security facility. All Deadpool has to do is get in, steal the helmet, and get out again. Nothing could be simpler. Except, it goes all wrong and Deadpool gets flung back in time. Each of the five issues, or chapters, of You Are Deadpool is set in a different time period. For example, in chapter two, Deadpool lands in nineteen sixties New York where the storylines see him become a beatnik poet and pop artist—complete with de rigueur beret, and potentially be at the birthplace of both the Fantastic Four and the Incredible Hulk! In the third chapter, he dumped in the swamps of the nineteen seventies where he encounters Man-Thing, Dracula and a host of classic monsters, as well as a certain Richard Milhouse Nixon turned antihero in spandex! In chapter four, Deadpool returns to New York, but not of the nineteen sixties, but the nineteen eighties where he up against Kingpin alongside Daredevil and the Punisher, all before doing a quick run through history and back again in chapter five.

You Are Deadpool is no mere ‘Choose You Own Adventure’ book. It includes rules and mechanics. As explained at the being of the first chapter by Deadpool himself directly to the reader—because Deadpool is of course going to break the fourth wall—along with author (though not of this comic, though there is a Warhammer fantasy Battles gag in there at his expense. Twice), Kieron Gillen, Deadpool has two stats, Badness and Sadness. These start at zero and as he progresses through the story, he gains points of Badness for acts of violence and being a badass, and points of Sadness for learning things which make him feel down. These do not have any effect on the mechanics per se, but depending upon which one is higher than the other, they will direct the reader down one path or another. Combat is handled by rolls of six-sided dice. If Deadpool and the reader roll higher than equal to their opponent’s roll, he beats him. Otherwise, Deadpool and the reader lose. The reader rolls two six-sided dice for Deadpool, whilst also rolling one, two, or three dice for his opponents. Typical security guards might only have the one die, but the Incredible Hulk rolls a total of four six-sided dice! Unlike other solo adventure books, the character of Deadpool has an advantage—a healing ability which means that he cannot actually die. Which means he can take a lot of damage, recover, and the reader can keep playing. Well, mostly. There are paths down which Deadpool can go and which do end the adventure.

Along the way, Deadpool can pick and hold three a total of three items to store in his inventory, anything from a doughnut, yo-yo, and shuriken to a deck of playing cards, a teapot, and a Rubic’s Cube—and more. Some of these will prove useful in Deadpool’s adventure. Interspersed in the storylines are several mini-games, including a simple ‘roll and move’ board game and a roll your own slam poetry poem. At the end of You Are Deadpool is checklist of achievements, which the reader can chose to tick off or not.

Structurally, You Are Deadpool consists of five chapters. Chapters one and five form the beginning and the end, whilst chapters two, three, and four can be played in any order. Either amusingly or not, at the end of chapter one, the reader is directed to chapter two or chapter three. This is not an issue and therefore not amusing if reading the collected You Are Deadpool, but of course, You Are Deadpool was released as a five-part mini-series of comics, issue by issue, month by month. So when You Are Deadpool #1 was published, the reader had to wait a month for You Are Deadpool #2 or two months for You Are Deadpool #3 to continue playing. Depending upon the ratings of Deadpool’s Badness and Sadness scores of course. Very droll.

Each issue or chapter itself, consists of between eighty and one hundred panels. Not all are non-sequential as you would expect for a solo adventure book. Certain series of panels can be read sequentially, just as you would any other comic or graphic novel, but for the most part, the panels are placed in non-sequential order. There is one consequence of You Are Deadpool being done as a comic book though. When reading or playing a solo adventure book, it is not uncommon to look at the illustrations as you flick past them to another paragraph and wonder what they depict and how you get there. In You Are Deadpool this is exacerbated because it consists of nothing but illustrations or comic panels…

Physically, You Are Deadpool is adroitly done. The artwork varies from chapter to chapter, so the second chapter, set in the nineteen sixties has a very pop art style. In between, the graphic novel collects the mini-series’ variant covers, including the ‘You Are Deadpool: The Antiheroic Role-playing Comic’, a parody which fans of TSR, Inc.’s Marvel Super Heroes will enjoy and a parody of Errol Otis’ cover to the B/X edition of Basic Dungeons & Dragons. At the end of You Are Deadpool, the author provides the story maps for each of the five chapters.

You Are Deadpool works as both a solo adventure book and a Deadpool story, but unlike most solo adventure books, it does not have much in the way of replay value—even with the achievement list at the end of the collection. This is primarily due to everything in each of the chapters’ different paths being drawn and thus on show—the blocks of text in standard solo adventure books being easy for the eye to gloss over, the panels of this comic strip not so much. So there are fewer surprises and hidden details, though the authors and artists do work hard to hide some. Nevertheless, You Are Deadpool is an entertaining and fun, if light parody of the solo adventure book, as well as the Marvel Universe.

[Friday Faction] Rise of the Dungeon Master

E. Gary Gygax died thirteen years ago on March 4th, 2008. His contributions to roleplaying cannot be underestimated. He codified what became the first commonly accepted roleplaying game—Dungeons & Dragons. He created a hobby. He launched an industry. His creation would influence other industries and hobbies too. However, his role and his influence is not widely known outside of the hobby and the industry. In the years since, two works have examined his life specifically. One is Empire of the Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons, very much a traditional biography of the man, whereas Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D is not. Instead, Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D is a graphic novel.

Published in 2017 by Nation Books, Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D is written by David Kushner and illustrated by Koren Shadmi. It is based upon Dungeon Master: The Life and Legacy of Gary Gygax, an interview with Gygax which the author conducted in 2008 in the run up to the then upcoming revised edition of Dungeons & Dragons—what would be Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. It tells the story of Gygax from when he was a little boy, enjoying adventures and stories, to his enjoying playing games and ultimately developing and publishing games as an adult, before exploring some of the influence that he and Dungeons & Dragons would have on wider culture. This would include controversy that would grow from the disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III in 1979, on computer games such as the Ultima series and World of Warcraft, and its more recent wider acceptance with the release of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, its appearance on the television series, Stranger Things, and the popularity of Game of Thrones.

Rise of the Dungeon Master is not, however, a traditional graphic novel, just as it is not a traditional biography in the choice of format. Where Empire of the Imagination is written in the third person, Rise of the Dungeon Master is written in the second person, beginning each chapter and many of its subsequent panels with the words, “You are…” It is immediately immersive, literally casting the reader as Gygax himself and involving the reader in the decisions that Gygax makes himself. (Although the second person of “You are…” echoes the format of the ‘Choose Your Adventure’ books such as The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, the graphic novel is not the reader’s adventure. This is E. Gary Gygax’s adventure after all, and the reader is passive throughout.) It switches from this format at times to allow Gygax to explain things almost as if he is being interviewed—to go back to the author’s original 2008 interview—and it also switches viewpoints too, to that of two other men which prominently in the history of Dungeons & Dragons. One is Dave Arneson, Gygax’s co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, the other is the detective, William Dear, who would conduct the search for the missing teenager, James Dallas Egbert III, and write about it in the book, The Dungeon Master. Of the two, Arneson is portrayed in a better light, but his relegation to a more minor role than he necessarily deserves in the development of Dungeons & Dragons arises from Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D being Gygax’s tale rather than that of Arneson and from the graphic novel not being an actual history per se, like Jon Petersen’s Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures, from Chess to Role-Playing Games or Shannon Appelcine’s Designers & Dragons: the ‘70s. In comparison, Lorraine Williams, who succeeded Gygax in controlling the company between 1986 and its eventual sale to Wizards of the Coast in 1997, is cast in a very dark light.

Ultimately, the format and the relative lack of space in the one-hundred-and-thirty-six pages of Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D means that the graphic novel cannot do the man and his story justice. It seems to leap from one big event to the next, and whilst Dave Arneson receives and deserves a chapter of his own, there are many figures in Gygax’s life who barely get a mention or not all—Don Kaye, his wives, Kevin and Brian Blume, all of whom played a role in his life. The format also means that as much as the author wants the reader to engage with Gygax, there is never time to engage with him as a person, flaws and all—the nearest we get to that is Gygax’s often dismissive attitude towards Arneson, and so Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D is not a true biography of the man. It is arguably, more a hagiography. Although not perfect, Empire of the Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons, is a better choice if the reader wants that, as are the two aforementioned history books.

If the reader is looking for an introduction as to E. Gary Gygax was and what he accomplished, then Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D is a very acceptable starting point. It is delightfully and engagingly illustrated, the writing light, perhaps suffering from the functionality of the “You are…” second person format as much as it pulls the reader in. Overall, Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D will set the reader up to ask more questions about E. Gary Gygax and the origins and history of Dungeons & Dragons, whilst also serving as a well-drawn homage to the man, his creation, and the effect he would have on millions and millions of gamers.

Friday Fiction: Freeway Fighter vol. 1

Friday Fiction is a series of reviews which focus upon fiction which will be of interest to roleplayers and gamers in general. These can be novels as much as they can graphic novels, which is the case with Freeway Fighter. Older gamers will recognise this as the title of the thirteenth entry of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone’s Fighting Fantasy series—the history of which is detailed in You Are the Hero—and this graphic novel not only shares the same title, but also the same world. As the title suggests, this world is a post-apocalyptic future in the vein of the Mad Max films—three of which, Mad Max, Mad Max 2, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, had been released by the time of Freeway Fighter’s publication in 1985.

Freeway Fighter is set in a post-apocalyptic United States, after some eighty-five percent of the world’s population have been wiped out by a plague. As civilisation collapsed, the survivors divided into two groups. Most have fortified themselves in isolated towns and settlements, huddled together for protection and husbanding and trading for what few resources they could, whilst the second, roam from settlement to settlement, stealing and raiding, and killing who refused to submit to their demands. The gangs drive heavily modified vehicles, souped up, fitted with spikes, their crews armed with a variety of arms and armour. After all, there is no-one to stop them from taking it now.

In the Fighting Fantasy book, the player takes the role of a citizen of the town of New Hope. The settlement is in desperate need of a fresh supply of petrol and so send out the protagonist in a Dodge Interceptor motor car across the wastes in order to procure a tanker filled with the needed fuel. Published in 2017, the graphic novel, which collects the four-issue comic series written by Andi Ewington, drawn and inked by Simon Coleby, and coloured by Len O’Grady, is a prequel, set some twenty-four months after the spread of the virus which killed most of humanity. As the story opens, Former I-400 Driver Bella De La Rosa is driving and surviving, remensising of the days when she was a hotshot rookie racing driver and set to make a big name for herself. She is skilled enough to outdrive most nomads, but when she runs into the marauders known as the Doom Dogs, she and her recently joined passenger face a much more dangerous challenge as they attempt to reach New Hope, for her car itself becomes the subject of the Doom Dogs’ leader’s desire. This is no surprise, since the car plays a major role in the storyline and will go on to literally drive the storyline in the Freeway Fighter solo adventure book.

Freeway Fighter—both the Fighting Fantasy solo adventure and the graphic novel—wear their influences on its sleeve. Lonely stretches of highway, abandoned cars, empty towns with just about enough to picked over and scavenged from, protagonists hardened to the disaster which has fallen humanity and prepared to do almost anything to survive, and villains who believe that might means right and who will do anything to survive. The story it tells is also fairly straightforward, perhaps verging on the familiar, essentially setting everything for the reader to go and play Freeway Fighter as the sequel. Andi Ewington’s script is sparse, leaving room for art, inks, and colours of Simon Coleby and Len O’Grady to shine through and atmospherically depict the ruin that the world has fallen to and capture the action of car-on-car combat. Indeed, the look of Freeway Fighter feels not dissimilar to the Mad Max computer game of 2015.

Beyond the story itself, the Freeway Fighter collection includes a history of Fighting Fantasy and the Freeway Fighter solo adventure book in particular as well as a tribute to Kevin Bulmer, the artist on the Freeway Fighter solo adventure book. Both serve as a nice adjunct to You Are the Hero, as author of both that and the history here is Jonathan Green. Casual readers who have picked up Freeway Fighter because it looked interesting will find these extra pieces infomrative enough, but really they are aimed at the Fighting Fantasy fan who will appreciate the extra background and detail.

Published by Titan Comics, Freeway Fighter is an enjoyable, if slight post-apocalyptic tale of survival and car combat. The art is excellent and the action nicely captured, and the story, if somewhat light, sets the reader up for his playthrough of the Freeway Fighter solo adventure book. Fighting Fantasy fans will enjoy this in particular and will want to have it alongside You are the Hero on their shelves.

Unparalleled Alternatives

For many British gamers, their first encounter with Luther Arkwright came with Imagine #14, the June, 1984 issue of TSR (UK)’s house magazine. The issue gave an introduction to the character and to the seminal and award-winning comic strip by Bryan Talbot, The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, as well as presenting a scenario, ‘The Fire Opal of Set’, written for use with Classic Traveller and TSR, Inc.’s own Star Frontiers, which came complete with pre-generated player characters that could be played as a gaming introduction to the setting. The setting for the comic is not one Earth, but many, across which a war is being fought between one parallel, Zero-Zero, and the Disruptors. The latter seek to destabilise and control multiple parallels, typically through advanced technologies and the backing of totalitarian governments, to their own ends. Zero-Zero, an advanced scientific utopia, seeks to prevent this, its primary agent being Luther Arkwright, an escaped Disruptor trainee, who as the next step in Human evolution is unique in all the parallels and can psychically transport himself across the parallels.

The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, recently reprinted in a collected volume, is exquisitely drawn, its setting and central character a nod to the works of Michael Moorcock and the swinging television adventure series of the 1960s—The Avengers, The Champions, Adam Adamant Lives, and so on. Originally conceived in the 1970s, it would not be fully published until 1989 and go on to receive multiple awards as well as a sequel, Heart of Empire, or the Legacy of Luther Arkwright, a decade later. An audio adaptation was released in 2005. In terms of gaming, 23rd Parallel Games published The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, in 1992, but unfortunately it was ill received. More recently, the second iteration of Hogshead Publishing, announced that Zero-Zero, an RPG based on The Adventures of Luther Arkwright and using the d20 System, was due to be published in 2004, but it did not come to fruition. Then in 2015, The Design Mechanism, the Canadian publisher best known for RuneQuest 6 released Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels.

Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels though, is not a roleplaying game in its own right, but supplement that requires the use of RuneQuest 6. It casts the player characters as agents of Valhalla Project, a programme directed by the computer W.O.T.A.N on Zero-Zero, to monitor and counter Disruptor operations. Each is highly gifted being trained experts in their field and in many cases also possessing psychic powers, perhaps being in the progenitors of homo novus, the next step in human evolution. Whether they are indigenous to a particular parallel, able to operate through empathic links forged with other selves on other parallels, or shunting between parallels via advanced technology, the agents of Valhalla will be participating in missions that will ultimately lead into the events of the first series—roughly analogous the early 1980s.

Character or Agent Zero-Zero creation in Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels follows the step-by-step process as RuneQuest 6 and other Basic Roleplaying derived RPGs. A player rolls dice for his attributes and from them derives the starting values for his skills. Then the player has three sets of points to assign—one for his Culture, derived from his Parallel Type and his Social Type; one for his Career; and lastly a set to spend as he likes, representing his training by Valhalla. Several new skills included, whilst others are updated, to reflect the fact that the many Earths of  Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels are far more technologically advanced than the Bronze Age of RuneQuest 6.

It should be noted that the character creation process is not an easy one. Primarily this is due to having to flip back and forth between Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels and the RuneQuest 6 rulebook. This is exacerbated by the supplement’s slightly poor organisation and the need to work out which skills an Agent needs to represent the selected background.

Our sample Zero-Zero Agent is Lucretia Raslo, an airship mechanic on Parallel 13.16.94. Her family runs shipyards in New New York, building and repairing airships. Lucretia followed in her father’s footsteps, her mechanical aptitude being noted at an early age, and became a mechanic and engineer. This was despite her mother’s efforts to teach her the social niceties. With little chance of finding an eligible suitor for Lucretia, her mother’s attention turned to her younger daughter. This left Lucretia to work where she is happiest, that is, with machinery. Her knack for diagnosing and solving mechanical problems—represented by her Technical Trait—was what brought her to the attention of Valhalla Project Agents.

Lucretia Raslo
STR 8 CON 10 SIZ 10 DEX 11 INT 17 POW 16 CHA 11

Action Points: 3 Damage Modifier: -1D2 Experience Modifier: 0 Healing Rate: 2
Build: Heavy Height: 161 cm Weight: 67 kg
Hit Points
Head 4 Chest 6 Abdomen 5 L. Arm 3 R. Arm 3 L. Leg 4 R. Leg 4
Luck Points: 3
Prana Points: 16
Tenacity Points: 16
Movement Rate: 6
Strike Rank: 13

Standard Skills:
Athletics 19%, Brawn 53%, Conceal 27%, Customs 80%, Dance 37%, Deceit 28%, Endurance 45%, Evade 28%, First Aid 28%, Home Parallel 39%, Influence 22%, Insight 33%, Native Tongue 70%, Perception 48%, Sing 27%, Stealth 28%, Swim 18%, Unarmed 19%, Willpower 52%

Professional Skills:
Commerce 43%, Craft (Blacksmithing) 57%, Craft (Embroidery) 37%,Drive (Land Vehicle) 42%, Electronics 53%, Engineering 64%, Gambling 58%, Mechanisms 73%, Pilot (Airship) 44%, Streetwise 26%

Passions
Loyalty to Society 53%
Love (Sister) 47%
Hate (Gang) 53%
Dependency (Gambling) 20%

Parallel Type: Industrial Age
Sociological Type: Manufacturing

Trait
Technical

In addition to the various changes to the skills to reflect the width of technology found across the parallels, the Magic Points of RuneQuest 6 are replaced with Prana Points that fuel the setting’s Psionics and Mystic talents. Each Agent also has an attribute new to RuneQuest 6. This is Tenacity. It is equal to an Agent’s Power attribute and works like the mental or psychological equivalent of his Hit Points. Loss of Tenacity Points from shocks or sanity-shaking events can lead to an Agent loosing his mind.

Further, each Agent has one or more Traits that brought to the attention of the Valhalla Project and lead to his recruitment. These can be as simple as Charming, Polyglot, Quick, and Unshakeable, and most of these provide a base advantage rather than require the use an Agent’s Prana Points. Conversely, the rules for Psionics are more complex, though only slightly so, and do require the use of an Agent’s Prana Points. Once an Agent has rolled, or selected, the Psionic Trait, it opens up further options—Disciplines such as Biokinesis, Empathy, Telekinesis, Telepathy, and so on. Each Discipline possesses a number of Talents. For example, the Talents for Telepathy include Mental Scan, Mental Shield, Mind Probe, Telepathy, Thought Implant, and Psychic Wrack. Each Discipline will have its own skill, for example, Discipline (Biokinesis), that is rolled whenever a Talent is used from said Discipline.

As long as an Agent has Prana Points to spend and can make the appropriate Discipline checks, he is relatively free to use his Psionic abilities as he wants. What stops him is the Psionic Intensity he has for each Discipline. Equal to one twentieth of his Discipline, it governs the number of Talents he can use at any one time as well as the effects of some Talents. For example, the Focus Force Talent can be used to inflict damage equal to the user’s Intensity, whereas the protective value provided by Mental Shield is also equal to his Intensity.

Another option, representing the route taken by Luther Arkwright himself in the comics, is that of Mysticism. Consisting of a number of Paths of Enlightenment, such as Focal Yoga, Shaolin Monastics, and Transcendentalist Meditation, each of which have their own Talents. Where the Psionics of Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels presents a whole new set of powers and mechanics for RuneQuest 6, the rules for Mysticism in this supplement function exactly as they do in RuneQuest 6. It is possible for an Agent to begin the game already on one of these Paths of Enlightenment, but their primary use is twofold. Initially as abilities for NPCs—Luther Arkwright has them, but later on, as a campaign progresses, as something for the Agents to aspire to.

As powerful as Psionics and Mystic can be in Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels, their use, along with the difficulties and dangers of combating the machinations of the Disruptors, places a lot of stress upon an Agent and makes them prone to certain Dependencies. These can be as mundane as Alcoholism or Gaming (gambling), or as antisocial as Stealing or Voyeurism, or worse. Every Agent begins play with at least one Dependency—and can have more—and the strength of a Dependency also weakens his Tenacity, that is, his mental fortitude. Each Dependency has a percentage value that works like a skill, but any checks against it are ones that an Agent wants to fail lest it grow like any other skill. Again, this is another reflection of the comic series in which the characters, including Luther himself, suffer from addictions, whether drugs or behaviours. In game though, the effect of any Dependency will primarily be part of a scenario or ongoing campaign. These rules also mark Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels as a setting for mature players.

Although Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels has to encompass a wide range of technology, much like the comic, it places an emphasis upon steampunk and clockpunk devices. This does not mean that other technologies are not ignored as various examples of alchemical and chemical, psionic and multiversal, and computer and nanotech technology are also given. For the Agent who likes to tinker, there are rules for creating devices of their own, including vehicles and firearms. These feed into the supplement’s new rules for handling firearms and vehicles, which again encompass a wide array of types and technologies.

Having got the technical aspects of a Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels out of the way, the last third of the supplement devotes itself to the background. This starts with W.O.T.A.N, the Valhalla Program, and the Disruptors, but as much as they figure in the setting, the focus of this background is the infinite number of Parallels and the means to travel between them. Each parallel is significantly different to its neighbours and the further a parallel is away from ZeroZero, the more likely it is diverge from ZeroZero. Some parallels might be radioactive wastelands or frigid icehouses following runaway climate change, but there are common themes running across a great many of them. These are known as ‘variations’, for example, an Aztec Empire variation in which Christopher Columbus was executed for heresy and Spain is now the vanguard against an invasion from the New World; a British Empire variation in which the Great Fire of London did not happen, allowing mathematician Sir Christopher Wren to become astronomer royal and spur a scientific revolution that would lead to better timekeeping and thus improved navigation by the Royal Navy, ensuring its dominance decades earlier; and German Republic variation in which Franklin D. Roosevelt is lost at sea on a trip to Clipperton Island and an isolationist president is elected in 1940; and so on. 

The discussion of Parallels is supported by numerous examples, each ready for the GM to drop an adventure into, as well as guidelines for creating his own. These are very much pointers to spur the GM’s imagination rather than a set of tables to create Parallels from start to finish, though perhaps such a set of tables might have been of use for the GM new to The Adventures of Luther Arkwright. The inclusion of such a set of tables would also support the other technical aspects of Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels that aid in construction of devices, weapons, and vehicles. Perhaps they could be included in companion volume?

Advice for the GM is kept relatively short, but is supported by full stats for the various characters from The Adventures of Luther Arkwright and Heart of Empire as well as a short scenario. ‘On Thin Ice’ sees Valhalla Program Agents attempt to thwart a Disruptor plan to destabilise 13.16.94, a Parallel caught in a new ice age. Amusingly, it takes place in Design Mechanism’s home country of Canada and even has a chance for the Agents to encounter a Baron Harkonnen-like alternate version of Mayor Frode! Any fans who remember Imagine #14 may also note that illustrations from its adventure, ‘Fire Opal of Set’, also appear in ‘On Thin Ice’ as thumbnail portraits for various NPCs. Rounding out Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels are a complete write-up of the Luther Arkwright Saga—The Adventures of Luther Arkwright and Heart of Empire—and an appendix of extra sources and inspirations, all of them worth investigating in their own right, though that said, the inclusion of some nonfiction sources on alternate history would have been nice additions.

Physically, Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels is a slim hardback down in black and white. In some ways this is a pity, since the Luther Arkwright Saga has been done in colour. That said, black and white certainly suits the exquisite and beautifully detailed line art of the first series. In places Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels does need a tighter edit, but really it needs to be slightly better organised for ease of use, mostly because the GM will need to refer to RuneQuest 6 for its rules and because of the complexity of the setting. Some may also  find the choice of a smaller typeface wearying on the eyes.

Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels is not necessarily a setting nor a supplement for the uninitiated or the non-fan of Luther Arkwright. If you fall into that category, then go read the graphic novels and then come back to this review, because The Adventures of Luther Arkwright is far, far better than this or any other review of mine. Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels definitely feels like a toolkit for running a game across the Parallels. It is solidly done toolkit, but nevertheless, given the complexities of the setting and of the rules, Luther Arkwright: Roleplaying Across the Parallels is a sourcebook for the experienced GM and players alike.

Green & Unpleasant Land

Ian Edginton is no stranger to the Cosmic Horror that is the hallmark of the Cthulhu Mythos, his most notable contribution (with artist I.N.J. Culbard), being the graphic novel adaptation of Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness. With his latest stories, Ampney Crucis Investigates…, he dabbles and hints at the Mythos rather than drawing directly from Lovecraft’s works, just as he did with 2003’s Leviathan. As with Leviathan, these new tales originally appeared in the British weekly comic, 2000 AD and are now collected into volume of their own.

Ampney Crucis Investigates… Vile Bodies introduces us to Ampney Crucis, upstanding member of the British nobility (and not a small village in the Cotswolds) and Eddie Cromwell, Crucis’ stalwart man servant. Once tipped for high things, a strange otherworldly encounter in No-Man’s Land during the Great War, tipped him into temporary madness from which he has since recovered. The encounter has also left him with both a sense for the outré and a certain strength to withstand its malign power. A decade onwards and Lord Crucis is drawn to investigating the occult as its insidious influence infects dissolutely the Green and Pleasant Land that he holds so dear.

Ampney Crucis Investigates… Vile Bodies contains two cases, the titular story being the first in which Crucis must come to the aid of Lady Calliope Wykes, once his fiancée, but now driven from her home by the overripe advances of her husband. The second story, “The End of the Pier Show,” sends Crucis to a Northern seaside resort gone all to hell after his Lordship’s man Crowell, receives a postcard from a friend he saw shot dead during the Great War. Of the two stories, “Vile Bodies” feels very much the pilot, being a straightforward horror tale whose apian fecundity suggests at the influence of Shub-Niggurath. “The End of the Pier Show” is where the author and artist, Simon Davis, begin to really enjoy themselves, whether it is Crucis’ quartet of maiden aunts being depicted as the United Kingdom’s leading acting dames of the twenty-first century or hinting at the seediness underlying the polite façade of a seaside town with an artistic nod to the saucy postcards of Donald McGill. The threat faced is less obviously Lovecraftian, much more open to interpretation, but far more grounded in the woes of the period.

As the hero of the piece, Ampney Crucis draws from a familiar British archetype – the upper class twit with his resourceful servant. He is in part Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey and P.G. Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster, but Crucis is no fool, and Cromwell no urbane Jeeves, but rather more akin to Parker of Thunderbirds. Initially and outwardly, the pair do feel like the stereotypes that the author draws from, but by placing them in dire circumstances, their polite façade drops and they become more comradely with each other, lifting their portrayal out of caricature.

Simon Davis’ rich illustrations capture the delineation between the threats and the threatened. The inhabitants of dissolute England are pallid and wain, whilst the threats that Crucis and Cromwell must face are painted in swathes of rich colour.

The characters and situations of Ampney Crucis Investigates… would work as easily in print as on the radio – the latter perhaps the only other medium where its colours could be as rich – helped as much by our familiarity with its characters as its situations. There are certainly and hopefully, more of his Lordship’s investigations to be told of and collected, as the tales in Vile Bodies are most entertaining. That they are not overly Lovecraftian should not dissuade the reader, for these delightfully place manners against monstrosities.