Extra! Extra!

What initially stands out about Deadline – A Clockwork Press: A News-Chronicling & Map-Making TTRPG is its physical presence. It consists of what appears to be a tabloid newspaper that comes in an envelope of its own. So, it has a slightly rough feel to it, even a cheapness to it. However, because what that quality hides is a rather engaging storytelling in which the players get together and create a city and tell its story—or at least the stories that are reported in its newspapers. This is the simple set-up for Deadline – A Clockwork Press, a map-making and storytelling—or rather story reporting—game. In a single session, the players create a city whose origins are medieval and propel it forward into an age of steam-powered industry, corruption, and rebellion, plus a pinch of the arcane. Once that is done, they take it in turns to develop and report stories that explore the city, investigate the benefits and detriments of the new industries, uncover that corruption, and perhaps get a little ensorcelled along the way. It is published by The Wanderer’s Tome, best known for Flabbergasted!A Comedy Roleplaying Game inspired by Jeeves and Wooster and Fawlty Towers, and perhaps could be used to create a city for that roleplaying game as an alternate setting. Deadline – A Clockwork Press is inspired by cities such as Pratchett’s Ankh-Morpork and Lovecraft’s Arkham, and Dunwall and Midgar from the Dishonoured and Final Fantasy VII computer games respectively. It designed to be played by up to four players, but can be played solo. It can also be used to create cities where steampunk and magic is rife for other roleplaying games, to create a city that can have stories written about it, or it can simply be an exercise in creativity and storytelling with geography for a single afternoon.

Deadline – A Clockwork Press: A News-Chronicling & Map-Making TTRPG comes as a twenty-four page newspaper. The players will need one twelve-sided, two six-sided dice, and a twenty-sided die as well as pens and pencils in a variety of colours. In addition, the players will need a City Record (broad)sheet upon which they can record its political climate, power source, primary industry, and arcane influence along with its districts and factions. Plus, a sheet upon which they can draw the map of the city. It is played in two phases, the Establishment Phase and the Chronicling Phase.

In the Establishment Phase, the players discuss what elements of the city interest them and the tone that they want to set. Then they take it in turn to roll for the city environment, its eight districts, political climate, power source, primary industry, arcane influence, notable features, and lastly, they name it. Some prompt a player to draw another element on the map. For example, a crater city is located in the crater formed by an ancient meteor impact with the crater’s wall forming a natural defence and then the player is directed to draw the crater’s edge as the limits of the city. Others prompt a player to answer questions, such as for the city’s primary and trade being arcane research, explaining what areas of arcane research are conducted in the city. The arcane influence is where it begins to get a bit weird, with entries such as ‘Echoes of Past Lives’, ‘Eternal Fog’, and ‘Eldritch Horrors’. Possible notable features include gardens, bridges, fighting arenas, clock towers, and more, and the players add two of these. At the last step of process, there is a helpful table for naming the city. By the end of the Establishment Phase, the players will have created a fully fashioned city with notable buildings and geographical features and more, but none of this is set in stone, the players being free to adjust their creation to their satisfaction.

Then, in the Chronicling Phase, the players get to play with their city. They work as journalists, writing the headlines for events which occur in the city. They need to decide what type of newspaper they work for and what its outlook is and which group in society it usually aligns with. (This also lends itself to the possibility that each player could be writing headlines for a different newspaper rather than the same one, though this is not explored in Deadline – A Clockwork Press.) The Chronicling Phase consists of a series of News Cycles, typically one, two, or three on a playthrough. Each News Cycle consists of six headlines, beginning with an Arcane Headline, followed by four Minor Headlines, and finished with a Major Headline. The Minor Headlines can be political, environmental, unrest, culture & society, infrastructure & innovation, and outsider influence. For example, an Arcane Headline might be ‘Magic Users Hunted’, followed by the Minor Headlines of ‘Civic Protest’, ‘Aberrant Weather’, ‘Masked Vigilante’, and ‘World Showcase’, before ending with the Major Headline of ‘Public Execution’. At each stage, the players come up with headlines and sub-headlines for their newspapers and even though there is a table of suggested headline formats, this is actually not that easy. After all, this is normally the purview of professional journalists and editors, not someone sitting down to play a game and tell a story. This does not mean that it cannot be fun though.

Physically, Deadline – A Clockwork Press is very nicely, thematically presented as if it was a newspaper. Alongside the multiple tables of prompts there are engaging adverts that definitely feel as if they should be in an actual nineteenth century newspaper. The only issue with Deadline – A Clockwork Press is its physical nature. In newspaper format, it cannot avoid feeling flimsy.

What is interesting about Deadline – A Clockwork Press is that although by the end of a playthrough of its two phases, the result is twofold, one of which is not what you would expect. The obvious one is the creation of a city and its geography; the less obvious one is its history. The city has a history because it is being generated during the play, but only in the broadest of strokes and instead of the history being recorded as is, it is being reported upon and an opinion being formed on each and every incident. The play is not to create history so much as reportage. There is still room to create that history in detail, though perhaps away from the game itself, because that is not what the players are creating in play. Plus, more reportage in the game if the players want to continue with more playthroughs of the Chronicalling phase as many times as they want.

Deadline – A Clockwork Press: A News-Chronicling & Map-Making TTRPG combines an utterly charming physical presence with an intriguingly different approach to map-making and storytelling. It is an entertaining process and the results have potential to be explored beyond the confines of the roleplaying game’s headlines.

Friday Faction: Weird Medieval Guys

As the ideal suitor, if male, you should cut your hair in the chic bowl—or pudding bowl—style, and ideally have golden hair, and wear a houppelande, a long loose gown with flowing selves. Red is a good colour for men, indicating vitality, kingliness, and power. Blue is good for the ladies as it indicates expense. Should you ever suffer from cancer of the mouth, then you may be fortunate to receive a visit from the Virgin Mary, who will bestow upon you a kiss that will you heal of it. And should you want to press your ardour—perhaps as a show of thanks for her beneficence—there will be an angel on hand to prevent you from doing so. In order to launch a crusade, there are certain requirements which need to be fulfilled first, including equal measures of hardship and oppression, a pinch of famine, all of Europe’s collective sin and religious guilt, a helpless labouring class, a new and bordering anti-Christian empire, one Pope (never two), and an impending apocalypse. Preparation time is a single decade. Cooking time is three years. Serve with the death of thousands, including kings and princes, garnish with plunder, and four Crusader kingdoms with uncertain futures. In the event of an encounter with wolves—such as when the River Seine froze over in 1338, allowing them to race across the river and attack the citizens of Paris and dig up the city’s corpses—always remember to see the wolf before it sees you because it will lose its courage if it sees you first, plus if it sees you first, you will struck dumb, be unable to cry for help and the wolf will bite you. However, all is not lost, because if you strip down to your underwear, grab a pair of rocks and bang them together, the wolf will turn tail and run away. Lastly, if you happen to have a weapon to hand, at least a dagger, do take the time to kill the wolf. The wolf will not be happy about this and will not want you to feel happy about it either. This is a trick. Do not fall for it. Fortunately, wolves have no legal protection and you can definitely kill a wolf with that handy dagger. Which is all the sort of thing you will know because you are a weird medieval guy. Or rather, none of this is weird whatsoever, because you are a medieval guy, and all of this—and more—is the subject of Weird Medieval Guys.

Weird Medieval Guys: How to live, laugh, love (and die) in dark times is a guide to life and living in the Medieval era by Olivia W. Swarthout. Drawn from a swathe of period manuscripts on numerous visits to the British Library, and originally posted on the Weird Medieval Guys Twitter account, combines images from the manuscripts and facts from the history to present a punchy, easy to read book that takes the reader from the moment of creation itself to the end of the world with the coming of the Four Horsemen and the apocalypse, and in between, the reader from his birth to his death—and in between that there is a lot that can happen. The book is profusely illustrated, so no aspect of Medieval life goes undepicted in the rich colours of the manuscripts. Having begun with the creation of everything, Weird Medieval Guys gives you life and so lets you pick a name, learn some useful slang—such as ‘Merobia’ for a woman who likes strong wine or ‘Sterilis Amator’ for that lover who has no money, choose your astrological sign and patron saint, determine where you live in the first of the book’s several short quizzes—the options being Constantinople, London, Paris, and Venice, suggests several jobs you like, and more. It is not all hard work, as there are examinations too of play and romance, but the latter all too soon feels like hard work, what with the need to make a love potion, which whilst a lot quicker than mounting a crusade, involves a dog, some rope, a hunting horn, an ivory stake, and a mandrake, does not take into account the fact that dogs—as noted in the section on play—do not like the horn being played. Then there are possible causes of marital difficulties and if it really does not work out, the possibility of a divorce, which comes with a handy flow chart to determine if you can get a divorce, the answer of course, being mostly no, that is also the counterpart to the handy flow chart to determine if you can court the lady of your affections… Of course, it all has to come to an end and the question of your death is raised before Judgement Day is raised. Hopefully with dignity before you get caught up in a civil dispute. Perhaps here the weirdest means of settling such a dispute, in combat, between a man and a woman, is for the man to be placed in a pit up to his waist where he must fight from there with a club, whilst the woman is armed with a big rock in a clock bag and allowed to roam the ground around the man. The illustrations would not look out of place in a wrestling match.

A good half of Weird Medieval Guys: How to live, laugh, love (and die) in dark times is devoted to a bestiary. Divided into several subsections—‘Beasts’, ‘Birds’, ‘Fish’, and ‘Serpents’. Each entry is catalogued and categorised, with strengths and weaknesses, and even some Medieval stats in the form of ‘Virtue’, ‘Beauty’, and ‘Danger’. The creatures range from the ordinary, such as the lion, the wolf, and the hedgehog to the fantastic, like the manticore, the mermaid, and the amphisbaena, the latter a snake with two heads. These are all presented from the Medieval point of view, of course, such as the bat being classified as a bird and cats as being extremely dangerous. There is, of course, a section devoted to the snail and plenty of images of knights versus snails. Sadly, there is no similar section on rabbits, and that perhaps is really the only omission from Weird Medieval Guys.

What really stands out in Weird Medieval Guys is the artwork, which is of course, drawn from the source material, the manuscripts. It is fantastically colourful, profusely illustrated and all annotated in a wry tone.

Weird Medieval Guys joins a growing list of works interested in the minutiae of Medieval life and the Medieval outlook and the colourful marginalia of period manuscripts. For example, How to Slay a Dragon: A Fantasy Hero’s Guide to the Real Middle Ages by Cait Stevenson, any number of enamel pins, and the more recent The Medieval Margin-agerie – Volume 1 from Just Crunch Games, which turns those marginalia into gameable content. Of course, Weird Medieval Guys does not do that, but what it can do is influence the portrayal of the Medieval world by the Game Master, perhaps even inspire an encounter or scenario or two. Weird Medieval Guys is a wry look at the fantastically strange world of the Medieval man and woman, what they knew and what they thought, how they lived, brought to life in the artwork of the period. For anyone with a casual interest in the Medieval period, Weird Medieval Guys: How to live, laugh, love (and die) in dark times is a perfect, vividly visual introduction to its oddness and oddities.

Friday Faction—Dice Men

The influence of Games Workshop upon the hobby—certainly in the United Kingdom, let alone beyond—cannot be underestimated. From its founding in 1975 to its current status as a FTSE 250 company, Games Workshop has come to represent the gaming hobby and latterly the wargaming hobby to first the United kingdom and later the world. Notably it imported the first commercially available copies in the United Kingdom of Dungeons & Dragons and as the first distributor and publisher of licensed versions of the new rulebooks for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, it would grow and grow the hobby in this country. Its main vehicle for this would be White Dwarf magazine, which would not only support Games Workshop’s titles licensed from publishers in the USA, but also its own growing range of board games and roleplaying games. So Apocalypse (or The Warlord) and Talisman, the Judge Dredd Roleplaying Game and Golden Heroes, and many more. Its spin-off, Citadel Miniatures, produced licensed miniatures and its own, ultimately leading to Warhammer The Mass Combat Fantasy Role-Playing Game and from there, Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warhammer 40,000, and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. 

Alongside this, Games Workshop opened retail shops, if not on the high street, then at least close by, thus enabling games enthusiasts to pick up the latest games and miniatures, but also beginning that long road to normalisation and wider acceptance for the hobby, as well as being somewhere where hobby enthusiasts could meet. The refocus of Games Workshop in the late eighties and eventual buyout from the two surviving founders—Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson—in the early nineties would send the company down a different path to the company that it is now. That though, is another story, and not the one told in Dice Men: The Origin Story of Games Workshop.

Written by Sir Ian Livingstone with Steve Jackson—two of the three founders of Games Workshop—Dice Men is a memoir of the company’s first fifteen years. It begins with the two of them, together with their friend John Peake, deciding to set up their own games company. Initially, this was producing wooden puzzles and games, along their gaming fanzine, Owl & Weasel, but when a copy of that fell into the hands of the co-designer of Dungeons & Dragons, E. Gary Gygax, they were first offered a copy of the game to review, then placed an order to sell, and then were offered the distribution rights for the United Kingdom. Proselytising the merits of the first roleplaying game in the pages of Owl & Weazel and then White Dwarf, Livingstone and Jackson, now without Peake, would build the company as a games wholesaler, a magazine publisher, and then a retailor, with its first shop at Dalling Road in Hammersmith, and an events organiser, with Games Day. The company would publish its board games, beginning with Apocalypse: The Game of World War III, Doctor Who: The Game of Time and Space, Valley of the Four Winds: An Epic Game of Swords & Sorcery, and Warlock: The Game of Duelling Wizards and become a licensee for numerous roleplaying games as well publishing its own. Time and again, Games Workshop would publish fondly remembered titles, many of which have been reprinted since or remain in print today. Setting up Citadel Miniatures too to support fantasy gaming in general as well as Games Workshop’s own titles, ultimately of course, lead to Warhammer Fantasy Battles and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

Physically, Games Workshop would grow too, moving from a flat to an office, the latter with Livingstone and Jackson living out a van, before opening the company’s first shop at Dalling Road, acquiring offices and warehouse space at Sunbeam Road, Citadel Miniatures opening premises in Nottingham, and so on, with many of the addresses being familiar to British gamers from the eighties. The book also looks at other aspects of the authors’ involvement in the hobby, most notably the Fighting Fantasy series of solo adventure books—detailed in You Are The Hero, but also the beginnings of the computer games industry.

Along the way, there are plenty of asides. They include Steve Jackson’s search for a copy of The Warlord, the map and key for ‘The Inner Temple of the Golden Skeleton’—Livingstone’s first dungeon, the authors’ first trip to Gen Con, and more. There are other contributors, including various employees, notably Bryan Ansell, who was so important in establishing Citadel Miniatures and eventually taking the company in a new direction. There is also a lovely message from Gail Gygax, the wife of the late E. Gary Gygax, highlighting how Gary felt about Ian Livingstone. In the main though, the voices heard are those of Jackson and Livingstone. There are controversies and failures along the way as well, but not many. Such as the time Games Workshop received a letter from Lucas Film because of an advert, the newspapers’ assertion that the company was distributing Mayfair Games’ War in the Falklands board game, and of course, Ian Marsh’s infamous acrostic in White Dwarf #77!

Physically, Dice Men is an engaging read, but what really catches the eye are its photographs. The book is lavishly illustrated. They begin the company’s first orders for its own games, covers for all of the copies of Owl & Weasel, catalogue covers, flyers for Games Day and Dragonmeet, photographs from these events and the authors’ Gen Con trip, White Dwarf covers, beautiful reproductions of figures from Citadel Miniatures, and more. The book is as much a visual history of the company as it is a personal memoir, and it is clear that the authors have dived deep onto the archives to pull out so many of its photographs.

Dice Men is not a history of Games Workshop. That book is yet to be written, whether of the first part of its history—the period covered here, or of the second part, its more recent history built around its own intellectual properties. It is instead a memoir, and so a personal history. As interesting as it is, to an extent this limits its readership. It is not necessarily going to be of interest to the fan of Games Workshop who has no interest in the company’s origins and for the roleplaying historian, it may not be critical enough. Yet what shines through is the hard work that both authors put into building and developing Games Workshop, as well as their love of games and gaming. 

For the role-player of certain age—especially if British, or the role-player with an interest in the history of gaming, then Dice Men: The Origin Story of Games Workshop is an absolute must-have. This is a sumptuously illustrated trip down memory lane for both reader and the book’s authors to look at the beginning of an institution and the gaming hobby in the United Kingdom.

1982: Mazes and Monsters

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

—oOo—

In 1982 we learned that roleplaying could be dangerous. We learned that it could drive Tom Hanks into identifying with his character to the point where he became the character and so would step out onto the road on his character’s great quest, only this was across New England and not some fantasy land. He would drive his friends away and once lost in a great metropolis—New York (this is the New York in the eighties) and its tunnels below—would be driven mad by dragons above, be menaced by monsters (again New York in the eighties), commit acts of violence against monsters (yes, still the New York of the eighties), and using his spells, desire to fly from the top of the Twin Towers (and yes, still the New York of the eighties). Ultimately, even after being rescued by his friends and being returned home, he would never escape that character even as his friends became proper adults and left such trivial pursuits behind them. This was a story told on our television screens in the made for television film, Mazes and Monsters, based on the novel by Rona Jaffe, which had been published the year before. The film was the first leading role for actor Tom Hanks and where it had been rushed from print to screen, the book had been rushed from the news to print, for both the film and the book it was based upon were based upon a true story.

In 1979, a young student at Michigan State University, James Dallas Egbert III, had gone missing. Initial investigations and subsequent newspaper reporting linked the disappearance to Egbert having played a strange new game called Dungeons & Dragons. Egbert would be later found by private investigator, William Dear, but the reasons behind the disappearance would not be revealed until after the student’s subsequent suicide and only be properly explained in Dear’s own 1984 book The Dungeon Master. Both Mazes and Monsters and The Dungeon Master would precede the backlash against Dungeons & Dragons that was part of the Satanic Panic of the eighties.

In Mazes and Monsters, Robbie Wheeling (Tom Hanks) attends the small Grant University where he forms a group of friends who play the titular game. All four of them have difficult family backgrounds to one degree or another. Robbie has an alcoholic mother and strict father who fight constantly, and is still tormented by the mysterious disappearance of his older brother, Hall. Jay-Jay (Chris Makepeace) is neglected by his mother who constantly redecorates his room since she can never make up her mind about the best look—the opening look is a brilliantly white Science Fiction room which could be in a Cyberpunk novel—and so wears an ever-changing selection of hats as a means of self-identification. (Of course, as the story progresses and he grows up, he gives up the hats.) Kate (Wendy Crewson) has suffered a number of difficult relationships and comes from a broken home, and Daniel (David Wallace) wants to become a computer games designer, but his parents have other ideas. All find solace in the game and when Jay-Jay suggests that they take the game to another level by acting it out in the nearby and forbidden Pequod Caverns—accessed by the most cave entrance possible—they agree.

However, when they separate to search for the treasure (never separate the party!), Robbie suffers a psychotic episode connected to his brother’s disappearance and now believes he is actually his character, the cleric Pardieu. Consequently, he will break off his relationship with Kate—because clerics are celibate—and disappear on a quest to find his brother. This leads his friends on the quest too in order to find him, because the police, in the form of Lieutenant John Martini (as portrayed by Murray Hamilton, best known for playing the mayor in Jaws), have no idea. After Robbie is returned home, they visit him, and it is made clear that Robbie will never recover from his psychotic episode and will always believe himself to be Pardieu. Together, feeling sorry for him and their contribution towards his current condition, they join Robbie on a game of Mazes and Monsters with Robbie as the Maze Controller. The final words of the film are Kate’s: “And so ... we played the game again ... for one last time.”

Mazes and Monsters is a strange film, a treatment of roleplaying games disassociated from its subject, a film made about roleplaying games in which the author of the book and thus the film have no real idea what a roleplaying game is. For example, in Mazes and Monsters the game, the players finally have the right to be their own Maze Controllers at Ninth Level and the game is played out by candlelight with just the Maze Controller and the three players. It also makes clear that this is a game played by young people with difficult home lives and worse, roleplaying games like Mazes and Monsters have the capacity to exacerbate existing mental health issues and entwine them with the game. There is no real effort to portray roleplaying as a positive activity and there is a certain goofiness to the script that the actors do their very best with, but cannot ultimately escape.

—oOo—

Both Rona Jaffe’s original novel and another which involved roleplaying, John Coyne’s Hobgoblin were reviewed in Dragon Magazine #75 (July, 1983). In ‘Tales stranger than fantasy’, Michael Lowery highlights that in both novels, “Above all else, both writers view fantasy gaming as something that must be explained, like teenage alcoholism or joining the Moonies. And examined: Just what is it, anyway, that leads intelligent, seemingly normal people into fantasy role-playing? In both works, game players are eventually shown suffering from dissociative schizophrenia (or some similar malady), which the reader is invited to blame on fantasy role-playing.” He identifies Mazes and Monsters as the better novel, but still calls it, “…[A] Problem Novel, and the Problem is role-playing games.” before concluding that, “Neither of these books is likely to be enlightening to the FRP gamer, except as examples of what reasonably intelligent adult non-players imagine we must be like. In both books, the attainment of mature adulthood is accompanied by the abandonment of role-playing games. Need I say more?”

John J. O’Connor’s review, ‘TV: 'MAZES AND MONSTERS,' FANTASY’ in The New York Times (December, 28, 1982) in contrast, was more positive. “Miss Jaffe takes her story and characters through some fairly predictable turns as the game proceeds to its ''logical extension.'' At one point, the underlying message is spelled out directly: ''The most frightening monsters are the ones that exist in our minds.'' But, gradually, her carefully diagrammed contraption begins to work with reasonable effectiveness. He concludes, “And in the end, the film achieves a broader ''ritesof-passage'' experience than most viewers might be expecting.”

—oOo—

Mazes and Monsters is forty years old in 2022 and to mark the occasion, Plumeria Pictures has released the Mazes and Monsters 40th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray. In the words of Lieutenant John Martini, it promises “Swords… poison… spells… battles… maiming… killing!” The production values for the release are basic, but to be fair, it is debatable whether Mazes and Monsters warrants more than that. However, the release features an eight-page booklet containing the essay, ‘The real-life tragedy and sensationalised fantasy behind D&D-inspired movie Mazes and Monsters’ which explores the reality and fantasy behind the film. This is a decent read, but does not throw any more light upon the matter than is already known. It is there more for those who are new to both film and its origins rather than the amateur historian of the hobby or the roleplayer who lived through the period. The film itself is simply presented and as a television film feels dark and claustrophobic.

The release has two extras. The first is a set of English language subtitles, which are absolutely necessary if the viewer wants to watch the film with the other extra, a commentary track from roleplaying luminaries Seth Skorkowsky, Scott Dorward, Joe Trier, Veronica Escamilla-Brady, and Eoghan Falvey. This is a fairly jokey, occasionally funny commentary which ultimately does not add much to the film itself. Only Seth Skorkowsky and Scott Dorward appear to have seen the film before, and both add heft to the commentary where the other participants have little to add. Dorward in particular adds significant context and background to the commentary, not only having familiarity with the film, but also the period when it was made and the New York of the time. There is an interesting conversation to be had about the film and its context, but the Mazes and Monsters 40th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray misses that opportunity with what is an unbalanced commentary cast.

Mazes and Monsters and the Mazes and Monsters 40th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray together look back at a period in the hobby when the wider world is only beginning to become aware of it and it is clear that it has no understanding of what it was. With a film which is more curio than actually good, the Mazes and Monsters 40th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray provides an interesting snapshot of the early eighties that shows how lucky we and the hobby are in the twenty-first century. 

Friday Faction: Slaying the Dragon

In Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons, Jon Peterson told three stories—one about a rise, one about a feud, and one about a fall and all of them about Dungeons & Dragons. The story of the rise was not one, but four, hand in hand with each other. The first rise would be of Dungeons & Dragons, the first roleplaying game. The second rise would be of roleplaying itself. The third rise would be of E. Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons and the founder of the hobby. The fourth rise would be of TSR, Inc., the company he co-founded to publish Dungeons & Dragons. The feud would be between E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, the other co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, which would colour so many of his decisions. The fall would be his ousting from the company he co-founded, at the infamous ‘The Ambush at Sheridan Springs’ in 1985, following a debt crisis which would result in the company’s takeover by Lorraine Williams. Game Wizards though, only explored the first twelve years of TSR, Inc. Another twelve years would follow with Lorraine Williams at the helm before history repeated itself and TSR, Inc. would be bought out by Wizards of the Coast following another debt crisis. How this history was repeated and how the reputation of Lorraine Williams was cemented as a villain are told in Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons by Ben Riggs.

Like any other history of Dungeons & Dragons, Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons begins with E. Gary Gygax. Its first fifth charts his rise and fall, mostly in familiar fashion before the Lorraine Williams era is ushered in with a sense of relief. This is important, because as Game Wizards highlighted, her intervention saved TSR, Inc. and with it Dungeons & Dragons. Yet again and again, her reputation is soured by poor management decisions combined with a dismissive attitude towards both the core product and the core market. This would see the company attempting to expand out of what management saw as the ghetto of the roleplaying hobby market into mass markets, whether that was the mass market for boardgames such as Monopoly or for books. This was despite being the biggest fish in the roleplaying hobby market and despite having number one bestsellers on the New York book list. Yet at the same time, the publisher put out introductory boxed set after introductory boxed throughout nineties, all in an attempt to widen the appeal of Dungeons & Dragons and attract new players. Then when the company did attempt to innovate, whether attempting to design a boardgame intended to introduce Dungeons & Dragons to a younger audience or developing a rival to Magic: The Gathering, it would always seem to be undone by management decisions.

Similarly, management’s treatment of its talent was poor. Time and again, the management would call upon the company’s creative talent to create brilliant product, and time and again it did. David ‘Zeb’ Cook created the Planescape setting, a combination of the earlier Manual of the Planes with factions inspired by Vampire: The Masquerade; Timothy B. Brown and Troy Denning designed Dark Sun, an anti-Dungeons & Dragons setting much of which was inspired by the artwork of then in-house artist, Brom; and Bruce Nesmith and Andria Hayday developed the Ravenloft: Realm of Terror boxed set, based on Tracy and Laura Hickman’s module, I6 Ravenloft. All of these were fantastic products with superb production values and gaming potential, but all at a cost that as the book reveals made the publisher nothing in the way of profit. Yet despite this, it never seemed as if TSR wanted to keep its creative talent, let alone keep them happy. Its management would change agreements that benefitted its employees and then ask them for more, driving the actual men and women who loved roleplaying and Dungeons & Dragons and what they did—being creative on a daily basis—away from the company, and often onto bigger and better things, whether finding further fame as an author or artist, or in the computer games industry.

Much like the earlier Game Wizards, there are fascinating asides and missed opportunities throughout Slaying the Dragon. Notably, in Game Wizards it was the opportunity for TSR, Inc. to purchase Games Workshop. In Slaying the Dragon, the major missed opportunity was a failure to capitalise fully on its innovations, most notably in the development of comic books based on Dungeons & Dragons and TSR’s other properties, which would see the establishment of TSR West and the souring of the company’s relationship with DC Comics, and also the creation of Dragonstrike, a board game designed to introduce roleplaying and Dungeons & Dragons to eight-year-olds using a VHS recording, the company overinvested in and was unable to sell in the long term. Yet perhaps the most intriguing opportunity that TSR lost was designing and publishing a roleplaying game based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. From being sued for the use of the term ‘Hobbit’ in Dungeons & Dragons in the seventies to being approached by the holder of the film rights to Tolkien’s works to being offered the chance to create a new Middle-earth roleplaying game in the early nineties is quite a turnaround. Unfortunately, when TSR was unable to obtain the rights to publish new fiction set in Middle-earth—because what the management of the company wanted to be was a legitimate publisher of fiction—Lorraine Williams passed on the opportunity. In hindsight it would have been fascinating to see a Middle-earth boxed set for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition and it would have been popular with the roleplaying game’s fans. It was not to be though, and it would not be until Cubicle Seven Entertainment published Adventures in Middle-earth in 2016 that the works of Tolkien and Dungeons & Dragons would be brought together.

Slaying the Dragon ends in 1997 with Peter Adkison manoeuvring to bring in the money that he and Wizards of the Coast had made with the huge success of Magic: The Gathering—as detailed in Generation Decks: The Unofficial History of Gaming Phenomenon Magic: The Gathering—and buy out TSR, Inc. and save Dungeons & Dragons. Which although necessary, was much to Lorraine Williams’ chagrin. By then, the terms of the company’s sales agreement with Random House, the inability to be profitable or innovate, or truly understand its market, had placed it deep in debt. The twenty-five years since are their own history, not yet written and probably not as tumultuous, but Slaying the Dragon ends on positive note, with the number one roleplaying game in safe hands awaiting the new millennium and a new edition.

Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons is a not a comprehensive history of the second twelve years of TSR, Inc. and Dungeons & Dragons and nor can it be. The author was unable to secure interviews with two of the leading figures at the company. One was Brian Thomsen, managing fiction editor at TSR, Inc., whose decisions would drive bestselling R.A. Salvatore, the creator of Drizzt Do’Urden, to stop writing for the company. The other was the president of the company, Lorraine Williams. Sadly, Thomsen died in 2008, but Williams declined to give Riggs an interview. Consequently, their roles in the company’s downfall and the defence of their reputations are told via anecdote, and there are more anecdotes charting the former than defending the latter. Thus, Brian Thomsen comes across as hardnosed and unnecessarily aggressive, whilst Williams remains a cold and remote figure, dismissive of gamers and the hobby, unable to escape her reputation as the true villain of the piece and the supposed inspiration for Planescape’s Lady of Pain. Yet there are moments when Williams does come across as being human, notably her sadness at losing TSR, Inc., but they are far and few between. Ultimately, until Lorraine Williams tells the history of the company whilst she was at its helm from her perspective, even though she saved the company and thus Dungeons & Dragons in 1985 and under her tenure there were some great products published, her reputation is always going to be that of the woman who destroyed TSR, Inc.

Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons is the counterpart that Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons needed. The two complement each other, one telling the rise of TSR, Inc., the other its fall, and it is impossible to read one without wanting to read the other. Slaying the Dragon is the lighter of the two histories, more anecdotal and less drawn from documentation—though they play an important role in Riggs’ telling of the story. Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons lifts the lid on the failures of TSR, Inc. and the consequences of poor decision after poor decision. Yet it is also a tale of brilliant creativity in the face of mismanagement, writers and artists like David ‘Zeb’ Cook and Bruce Nesmith and Jeff Easley and Brom putting out acclaimed content despite the input of upper management. Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons is a compelling catalogue of catastrophes and a miasma of missteps, which tell the story of TSR’s failure and talented creativity in spite of itself.

Friday Faction: The Madman’s Library

One of the pleasures of visiting the home of a friend or acquaintance, is the opportunity to peruse his shelf. Does he have the same titles as you, suggesting that you share interests and friendship in common? If so, does he possess titles you have never seen before, perhaps books you want to read or simply never heard of? Or do his shelves hold titles on subjects you have no interest at all, revealing a point of divergence? Perhaps he will allow you to browse their contents or even take them home with you to read them at your leisure? Author Edward Brooke-Hitching is highly unlikely to allow you to do either. He barely mentions the titles he has in his own collection, let alone on his shelves, but in the pages of The Madman’s Library: The Strangest Books, Manuscripts, and Other Literary Curiosities From History, he explores the weird world of books that are mad, bad, and dangerous to handle (and even eat!), and which he would like to have in his library.

Open up the pages of The Madman’s Library and within moments you will be astounded by the vibrancy of the colour illustrations from Louis Renard’s Fishes, Crayfishes, and Crabs, of Diverse Colours and Extraordinary Form, that are Found Around the Islands of the Moluccan and on the Coasts of the Southern Lands from 1719, if not intrigued by the scientific inaccuracies and wild imaginings, been offended by a nude depiction of the demon Asmodee from the Compendium of Demonology and Magic, and hopefully amused by He-Gassen, a Japanese scroll depicting men in flatulent competition with each other. You will also have learned that in 2010 Google estimated that there were approximately one hundred and thirty million titles in print—or at least available, and that Google planned to scan them all; the eponymous dictator commissioned the Blood Qur’an of Saddam Hussein, a copy of the holy book written using fifty pints of his own blood as ink; and that the art of binding books in human skin is known as ‘anthropodermic bibliopegy’. The practice is more common than you would have thought, and so deservedly receives its own chapter devoted to ‘anthropodermic bibliopegy’ in The Madman’s Library. It is also as fascinatingly ghoulish as you would expect.

Other chapters explore ‘books that are not books’, such as Chinese oracles bones, carved with predictions and forecasts, which were often mistaken for dragon bones and ground up to be used in medicines; ‘demon bowls’ containing spiralling protective incantations on the inside and buried in houses as supernatural protection; and hollow books which contain a secret cabinet of poisons; and 20 Slices, whose bright yellow binding contains exactly that number of Kraft American cheese slices. There are also the aforementioned ‘Books Made of Flesh and Blood’—thankfully not made from us, along with ‘Cryptic Books’, which takes the reader all the way from secret messages written on eggs and only revealed on the white of the egg is boiled to Kit Williams’ infamous Masquerade via the incomprehensibly mysterious Voynich Manuscript, followed by ‘Literary Hoaxes’, ‘Curious Collections’, Works of the Supernatural’, ‘Religious Oddities’; there are hoaxes, like the Fortsas Affair, which was announcement in 1840 of the sale of the magnificent library of the late Comte de Fortsas, which included fifty-two previously unknown works and which brought bibiophiles and collectors scurrying to the Belgian town of Binche, and which of course was an enormous joke; and a whole lot more.

Throughout, The Madman’s Library is delightfully luxurious in its presentation. No page goes without the image of a cover of, or of pages from a book, presented in exquisite detail and beautiful colour. These bring each and every book mentioned in the text to life—and short of having the titles in front of him, they are the next best thing.

As engaging and as entertaining as The Madman’s Library is in bringing its many books to life, the writing does sometimes feel as if it is skating over several of its subject matters. For every Grand Grimoire, a guide to summoning the Devil’s prime minister of Hell, Lucifuge Rofocalé or If We Can Keep a Severed Head Alive…, a patent of 1987 which discusses the technological, scientific, religious, historical, and ethical issues of decapitation and afterwards, there is a prayer-book pistol—owned by the Duke of Venice, Francesco Morosoni—which could be fired when the book was closed and the silk bookmark pulled as trigger, that only merits a mention. However, this still leaves several shelves’ worth of books to discover in reading The Madman’s Library.

Our fascination with books is also carried over into our gaming. Not just the fact that many of the games we play are actual books, but that the books play a role in our games. They are sources of knowledge, MacGuffins to be chased, secrets to be found, and more. Straight away, The Madman’s Library is excellent source material for almost any roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror. Both Call of Cthulhu and Trail of Cthulhu both share numerous Mythos tomes, but so many of the esoteric titles described in the pages of The Madman’s Library would sit alongside them or even make their way onto the shelves of the Orne Library’s Special Collection at the renowned Miskatonic University. Of course, the contents of The Madman’s Library are perfect for Bookhounds of London, Kenneth Hite’s campaign setting for Pelgrane Press’ Trail of Cthulhu, since it specifically casts the Investigators as bibliophiles. Many of the titles mentioned work in earlier periods too, whether that is the aforementioned Grand Grimoire or prayer-book pistol for The Dee Sanction or Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay, or even earlier for The Design Mechanism’s Mythic Babylon or Mythic Rome.

As good as a potential source of inspiration for your gaming as this book is, it is simply a good read. Engaging and eclectic, entertaining and enjoyable, with something interesting to discover on every page, The Madman’s Library: The Strangest Books, Manuscripts, and Other Literary Curiosities From History is a delight to read from end to end.

Ave Britannia

Over the years, there have been plenty of roleplaying games set in the Roman Empire, from TSR, Inc.’s Glory of Rome supplement for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition and Deep7’s entertainingly simple Pax Gladius 1PG to Golden Goblin Press’ excellent The 7th Edition Guide to Cthulhu Invictus: Cosmic Horror Roleplaying in Ancient Rome and Thyrsus Games’ sublime FVLMINATA: Armed With Lightning. To this cohort of titles can be added 43 AD - Invasion & Insurrection - Roleplaying in Roman Britain. Published by Zozer Games, this is roleplaying game set in the first century AD during the invasion and subsequent pacification campaigns by the Roman Empire right up to the campaigns in the Caledonia in the early third century. The players take the role of members of the Legions, soldiers ordered to conduct special missions in order to further Rome’s right of conquest, but doing so far from home, in a hostile land full of natives ready to kill you and druids determined to curse you with their magic, a land said to be on the edge of the world, and a land so cold and wet that socks are a really good idea.

43 AD is thus a historical military roleplaying game set in a world of gods, magic, and the unknown and the untrustworthy, and which is dark and horrible because Britannia is a thoroughly unpleasant place. Yet for all of the actual horror of being assigned to the edge of the world, there may be a truth to the dark magic of the Druids and the tales of witches and monsters which lurk out in the thick forests and the stinking bogs. For there is option for the Game Master to run 43 AD not as a straight historical military game, but as a historical horror military game. So then there really is truth and substance to the folktales about the Flayed Man, Hunting Crows, and the Cauldron Born, and there are Dark Druids who have turned to magics of the blackest kind to drive out the invaders.

Characters in 43 AD are members of a legion, from relatively raw recruits to experienced veterans. They come from all across the empire and from all backgrounds, and whilst they may be simple legionaries, they might also be scouts, accountants, scribes, and more. A character is defined by five Attributes—Might (physical and combat prowess), Fate (luck and the will of the gods), Hits (health and endurance), Craft (construction and repair tasks), and Learning (education and social skills); Cultural Origins, which provides a bonus and base language; Character Type, like coward, veteran, or hero, which provides another bonus; Social Class, from Landless Poor to Noble; and Events. Each character has four of these, one explaining why they joined up and the others detailing things that have happened they enlisted. A character also has Allies & Enemies, Background Details, and Wealth & Equipment.

To create a character a player can roll dice—just one six-sided die for his character’s Might and Fate, with more dice rolled to determine his Hits, and both Learning and Craft being set at 1 each. Alternatively, a player can divide twelve points between Might, Fate, and Hits. Two six-sided dice are rolled on various tables to other aspects of the character, whilst a percentile dice roll is needed to determine the various events which have befallen him. Various bonuses from this may increase a character’s attributes as well as grant him skills.

Aulus
Might 6 Fate 5 Craft 1 Learning 3
Hits 17 Combat/AV 9/2
Legionary Age 19
Character Type: Thinker
Origins: German Craftsman
Appearance: Blond and stocky with thick fingers and a winning grin
Sestertii: 80
Background: From near the Rhine where his family are potters, Aulus—Germanic name being Folcher before enlisting—joined the Roman army to prove to his brother that he could be something better as he was no potter. Having training with the tribal warriors, he was already a capable fighter and an ability to learn Latin easily got him noticed and a head for numbers got him assigned as a clerk to the legion’s offices by a friend in the staff section. He is currently having a secret affair with another soldier’s woman, a member of a local tribe and her brother and his wife are currently spreading scurrilous rumours about him. Aulus’ centurion is looking to promote him to actuarius in the future. 
Skills: Warcry!, Evaluate, 
Kit Choice: Spearman

Mechanically, 43 AD is fairly simple, using a roll of two six-sided dice plus an Attribute—Might, Fate, Craft, or Learning to beat a difficulty number. This is usually ten, but can be higher. The use of skills, from Acting, Carry Burden, and Detect Lies to Two Attacks, War Cry, and Work Horse enable a character to do something without the skill he would not be able to. There is no skill roll as such, although knowledge and use of a skill might grant a character a bonus on an attribute roll. In general, Might is used for combat and physical actions; Fate is used a a luck saving throw, for example to survive a poisoning attempt, spot an ambush, and so on, but can also be expended to call for divine aid and automatically succeed at an action; Craft is used for construction and making repairs; and Learning for knowledge and social actions.

Combat uses the same mechanic and has a brutal quality to it. Opponents make opposed rolls of two six-sided dice plus their Combat value, which is equal to their Might plus the killing efficiency of their weapons. Results of zero mean a draw; if one opponent rolls higher than the other by one, two, or three points, then he inflicts that many number of points in terms of damage; if he rolls four or higher, then he inflicts a Crippling Blow—attacker’s choice; and if he rolls eight or higher, then he can inflict a maiming blow. It is possible to roll this by one of to means. First by rolling a natural twelve, which enables a player to roll and add another six-sided die. Second by saving the bonus one, two, or three points rolled higher than an opponent, the character making a feint maneuvre rather than an attack. These can be saved up and used in a later combat round, but are lost if the character suffers any damage.

Fate can be spent to fight on despite having suffered a Crippling Blow, but armour can stop damage also. For each point of armour worn—one for a helm or mail, two for a breastplate, and three for segmented armour—a defender rolls a six-sided die. If a six is rolled on any of them, then the attack is negated! First aid is available and turns out to be quite effective, though combat is brutal and likely to leave scars. As well as tables for Crippling Blows and Maiming Blows, there are tables for Stunning Blows for unarmed combat too.

For example, Aulus has heard some of the rumours that Cunittos, the brother of the girl he has been seeing, has been spreading about him. He goes to see him to persuade him to stop, but instead Cunittos annoys Aulus, who calls the German, “A Roman lackey, a Rhine ox yoked to the legions!” Aulus yells back that he will have no choice but to point out that the Briton has been cheating on his taxes—and whether or not this is true—Cunittos is angered enough to grab a sword and swing it at the stocky German. Cunittos is a trained, but not seasoned warrior—the local tribe has gone soft under Roman occupation— and has a Might of 3 and a Long Sword of +2 to give a Combat value of 5. It would be higher, but Cunittos only grabs has sword, not his sword and shield. He is, however, wearing some protective magic in an amulet, which which has a Armour Value of 2 and works in a similar fashion to armour. Aulus has his dagger and his gladius, is wearing mail, but not carrying his shield. So this gives him a Combat value of 8.

In the first round, the Game Master rolls 11, plus Cunittos’ Combat value of 5 for a total of 16. This must have been a surprise attack! Aulus’ player can only manage a total of 14, meaning that Aulus would suffer 2 Hits of damage, but he is wearing mail, so his player gets to roll a single six-sided die. Unfortunately, he does not and Aulus’ Hits are reduced from 17 to 15. In the second round, the Game Master rolls just 10 for Cunittos, whilst Aulus’ player rolls 12. Instead of inflicting damage, Aulus’ player decides to save the to hits over Cunittos for the next round and describes how the legionary backs up, fending off the Briton’s attack, but is already looking for an opening. On the third round, the Game Master rolls just 12 for Cunittos, but Aulus’ player rolls 14, which with the addition of the two saved, becomes 16 and that is more than four points greater than his opponent. Aulus’ player gets to choose a Crippling Blow to inflict on the Briton and selects an arm hit, leaving Cunittos’ sword arm bloodied and unable to hold a sword…

The combat is not over though, as Cunittos’ wife, Una, comes upon the fight and with a scream charges at Aulus. Una has a Might of 2 and is using a dagger, so has a Combat value of 3. Aulus’ player decides that he is not even going to use his sword and just punches her… The Game Master rolls a lowly 7 for Una, whereas Aulus’ player—using only the German’s Might of 6—rolls a natural 12, so rolls an extra die for another 3 and then adds Aulus’s Might for a total of 21. This is 14 more than Una’s attack and so Aulus can do an Advanced Unarmed Move. In this case, Strangle! as Aulus’ player describes this as the stocky German reaching out and grabbing Una by the throat before she can really get close to stick him with her dagger… Aulus then turns to Cunittos and says, “Your move, shithead?”

In terms of character improvement, 43 AD provides two tracks. These are based on character action from assignment to assignment rather than on nebulous experience points. First, for participating and succeeding on missions, characters earn Glory which not only earns them awards, but also gets them noticed. Once their superiors recognise them, might be appointed to a junior position like Optio (deputy to the centurion), Artificer (military engineer), or Actuarius (military scribe). Once a character has held four of these positions, then he is eligible to be promoted to centurion. These positions each grant a skill, but some also have requirements, typically Latin literacy. To improve his attributes—and also to restore any fate expended on calling for divine aid or using certain skills—a character will need to make sacrifices to his god. He can also join a collegium, which grants him access to a brotherhood and a skill. Both sacrifices and collegium membership costs sestertii, so legionaries will need a way to make money, either through promotion, loot, gambling, or awards. All together, this makes progression more of a thoughtful process with the greater opportunity for roleplaying away for missions.

43 AD provides a great deal of background about the Roman legions—operations, daily activities, campaigns, and fortifications; the Roman occupation and pacification of Britannia; and the tribes of the newly conquered province. There is a lot of information presented here, all of it useful and all of it content that the Game Master could bring to his campaign. Yet, there is a fair degree of repetition in that information, especially in terms of what the Legions and the Legionaries do.Included in all of this information are maps of the province, fortification lines, tribal hills forts and duns, plus NPC stats for locals and legionaries, and a starting location. This is Danum Fort, located on the River Don, currently manned by the First Cohort of Morini, all from a tribe in Belgica province. It includes more NPCs and several adventure ideas, one of which is inspired by the work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and another which involves a Night Hag. This is in addition to the plethora of adventure and campaign ideas which can be found throughout the book, enough to keep a campaign going for multiple sessions. Rounding out the book is a reference section and decent bibliography.

Much of the focus of 43 AD has been on the horror in a campaign involving the invasion, occupation, and pacification of a foreign land, including references to the Vietnam War. An option is given though, to add both the supernatural and horror to a campaign. In this, it takes its inspiration from films such as Aliens, Dog Soldiers, The Bunker, Predator, and others. The horror though is used to explain why the Britons do what are to Roman eyes, certain barbaric things—cutting off the heads, the throwing of human sacrifices into peat bogs in particular ways, tying victims to posts at the bottom of deep pits, and so on. 43 AD is relatively light on advice for the Game Master on running a horror campaign, so she may have to look elsewhere should she want such advice. Of course, there are plenty of supernatural threats detailed, from Cave Crawlers and Hunting Crows to the Invisible Hound and Vengeful Spirits, plus several individuals of a supernatural nature. A number of quite dark and twisted spells are included, but these are only available to Druids and Witches and they are both NPC types.

What is missing from the rules are any means of handling the response to the horror inherent to a 43 AD campaign, whether it involves the supernatural or not. So no sanity or shock rules, which given the emphasis on both types of horror in the setting, is disappointing.

Physically, 43 AD is generally tidy and decently illustrated. Much of the art depicts the brutality of Roman occupation, and whilst it is not explicit, it is not pleasant either. Whilst the maps are easy to read, they are not necessarily as crisply presented as they could be. The main problem with 43 AD is that it could be better organised so that the rules sections could be together and it does need another edit to excise the repetition.

One issue that 43 AD does not address is that of playing female characters. Now it is a military roleplaying game and a historical roleplaying game, so the playing of male characters only is very much part of its set-up. Yet despite that, some ways around it could have been suggested, perhaps by allowing native characters to included as guides? It remains though a very male-orientated game, but that is very much in keeping with the setting and not the fault of the game itself. And anyway, the set-up allows for a diverse range of character types and backgrounds—from all over the Roman Empire.

The biggest disappointment with 43 AD is the lack of rules for handling horror and its effects, but a good Game Master and players happy to roleplay this should be able to sidestep the issue. That aside, 43 AD - Invasion & Insurrection - Roleplaying in Roman Britain does a fine job of bringing the horror of campaigning in a foreign land—one we are all familiar with—to life.

What Are Your Ages?

One of the questions raised about 13th Age might be, “What were the other ages?”. Published in 2013 by Pelgrane Press, 13th Age distilled the best features of the then two previous editions of Dungeons & Dragons—Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition and Dungeons & Dragons,Fourth Edition—and added elements which made each player character unique, emphasised narrative game play elements, and upped the action. In the Dragon Empire of the 13th Age, thirteen great Icons—kings and queens, princes, emperors, creatures, and more—work together, feud, and fight in order to hold onto power and to take it, sometimes to maintain the greater good, sometimes not, as the great and the good theorise that the age might be on the wane... The player characters each have two or three links to these icons and it is these that push and pull the characters into their adventures. In the 13th Age the thirteen icons are the Archmage, the Crusader, the Diabolist, the Dwarf King, the Elf Queen, the Emperor, the Great Gold Wyrm, the High Druid, the Lich King, the Orc Lord, the Priestess, the Prince of Shadows, and the Three—the latter being ancient evil Dragons. But were they icons in the previous age and in the ages before that? If not, who did they replace? And just what exactly, is an ‘age’?

Of course, to play 13th Age, none of these questions need be asked, but the Book of Ages certainly asks them and answers them too. In doing so, it gives suggestions as to what an Age might be and how old the icons might be, the means to define the Ages, and thirteen sample Ages (plus one more). Plus, buried in all of that content are new character Races, magic items, spells, and monsters—and some suggestions as to how all of this content might be used from the perspective of the 13th Age.

Basically, an Age is a period of time with a specific influence or arc in terms of events, which begins and ends with tumult and catastrophe. The most well-known in the Dragon Empire being of course, being the 1st Age, marked by its founding following the defeat of the Wizard King and its ending with the destruction of the city of Axis by the giants. The Book of Ages suggests that an Age might be defined by later historians or according to Icon insight, their being best placed to understand when an Age begins and when it ends. These two options are given by the book’s author and the game’s designer respectively and as with the rest of Book of Ages, the Game Master is free to pick and choose the options that she likes. As to the nature of the Icons, three types are given. The first are Eternal Icons, these having always existed, either because they are immortal or because the Icon is held as a very important office. The second are Age-Defining Icons, ones which heavily influence an Age, but then disappear. The third are Recurring Icons, which appear for an Age or two, disappear, but reappear later on, again and again. In the default setting of the Dragon Empire, it is suggested that the Emperor and Great Gold Wyrm are eternal, the Crusader and Orc Lord age-defining, and High Druid and Prince of Shadows recurring.

These suggestions are not set in stone of course, and exactly in which Age the Icons appear, dominate, rest, or disappear can either be defined by the Game Master ahead of time, or alternatively, turned into a collaborative exercise in history creation by both Game Master and her players. To do this, the Book of Ages provides an ‘Engine of Ages’. To use this, both Game Master and players take control of various factions and link Icons to them—these need not be the Icons present in the 13th Age, but can be created specifically for the particular Engine of Ages. So it might be Lady Lamia associated with serpent-sorcerers, the Tallest Ent with living forests, and so on. Each faction is assigned a number of anchor points—Zeniths when the faction is at its highest point, Nadirs when it is at its lowest, Crossovers when they interact with other factions, and Iconic when a faction’s Icon changed—and these are sown across history by rolling dice. The higher the die type rolled, the further back in history the Age when the anchor is placed. Then for each anchor placed, the player gets to define an associated Legend—essentially a tale still told about that Age, Legacy—an enchantment, group, or structure that survives to the current Age, or a Lair—a dungeon or other problem that dates back to the Age. Lastly, the catastrophe which ended the Age should be defined. Any gaps, that is, undefined Ages, are left for the Game Master to fill in the details. This is all noted down on a matrix so that everyone can see the ebb and flow of the anchor points and begin to build a history.

So for example, Helena is controlling Lady Lamia and the serpent-sorcerers. She has rolled a Zenith in the 3rd Age for her faction and describes this as the serpent men’s attempt to bind their future with sorcery, a period known as the Age of Serpents. It is agreed that the Age of Serpents comes to an end because the sorcerous ritual fails and unleashes demons upon the world. The Legacy for this Age is the Crown of Time, said to be able to control the passage of time. The 4th Age is marked by a Crossover by Jeremy’s Tallest Ent and Living Forest, which Dave as the Game Master, suggests is with the Elves because they have not appeared in the history. Jeremy agrees and describes how the Ents and Elves joined together in order to end the threat represented by the serpent men. This Age of the Green Alliance ends with victory over the serpent men and their imprisonment in the City of Serpents, the Lair rolled at the end of the Age. The Nadir in the 5th Age for the Living Forest and Tallest Ent is described as their having spent much of their effort to stop the Serpent Men and so go into decline. It is known as the Age of Sorrow.

The result is a broadly sketched history, one which both Game Master and her players can their link their characters to via the Icons. It is intended to be a collaborative process, roleplayed out over a session with the Game Master primarily serving as the chronicler and noting everything down, whilst asking the players to explain what happened—and perhaps why. To aid both, the Book of Ages includes a list of prompts and suggestions to get everyone’s creativity going… What this creates is not the history of the Dragon Empire, but ‘a’ history of the Dragon Empire, one that is unique to the playing group.

There are though, two Ages which are not defined using this process. The first is the 1st Age, which defines the Dragon Empire as it is known in the 13th Age, whilst the second is the 12th Age and when that is defined using the Engine of Ages, it is with the intent that it sets up the situation in the 13th Age as outlined in 13th Age. The process is accompanied by both prompts and an extensive example.

The remainder of the Book of Ages—some four fifths of it—are devoted to detailing thirteen different Ages, from ‘The Age of Founding’ to the ‘Age of Balefire’. The primary use of these Ages is to fill in the blanks after running the ‘Engine of Ages’, but in play, they can be kept as a mystery or fully realised, visited via portals or even time travel. Another option is taken from 13th Age Glorantha and makes the previous Ages accessible via heroquests. Each Age is given a rough period when it should happen; a summary, overview, the Icons associated with the Age; its Legends, Legacies, and Lairs; End Times—how it ended; as well as notable Races, Spells, Powers, and Items. So ‘The Age of Founding’ describes the chaos after the death of the Wizard King, how the Emperor tamed the land, and the Giants came to destroy the city of Axis. The Emperor, Great Gold Wyrm, and the Three figure strongly during the Age, as do the Hooded Woman ruled over the unquiet dead before the Lich King, the Spelljack who sowed magical chaos, and of course, the Chieftain of the Giants. One Lair leftover is the Spelljack’s Citadel, stolen flying realm which might be found flying somewhere, and a Legend concerns the fate of the Wizard King, who has never returned despite being known to renew his youth. Monsters include Skeletons of Giant Ancestors, Snapping Skulls, and the Wizard King’s Servants, post-human Arcanites transformed by too much exposure to his magic. Besides being monsters, they can also be a player character Race. As such, an Arcanite can better recharge spells or magical items after a battle and as they gain in experience, can better protect themselves against magic. Like the other races in the supplement, the Arcanites can be added to a campaign as is or treated as a player character’s one Unique Thing—survivor, time traveller, and so on. Besides this, some of the other interesting Ages include ‘Age of the Blazing Meteor’ in which a starship explodes over the Dragon Empire disrupting magic and the survivors ally with Hobgoblins, the Age of the Howling Moon in which the Emperor becomes a werewolf and lycanthropy becomes noble, and the Age of the Terrible Emperor in which he becomes tyrant, destroys all opposition, makes himself immune with astrological magic, but forgets about the monks, who dethrone him with a killer punch. 13th Age kung-fu, anyone?

Physically, the Book of Ages is an attractive supplement illustrated with excellent pieces of black and white art. It is well-written, and the content is ably supported with suggestions and extensive reference lists for ease of use. Although there is no index, these do a decent job instead.

The Book of Ages probably does more to expand a 13th Age campaign than any previous supplement, opening up the history of the Dragon Empire, not only for play, but for set-up too, so that like every player character, every Dragon Empire is unique. This is a book of ideas and campaign themes as much it is history, so that campaign could become a time-hopping, theme-hopping game, where instead of finding somewhere to find and fight pirates in the Dragon Empire, it becomes a case of when, as in the Age of Corsairs. And of course, any one of the Ages could be expanded upon by the Game Master to run a campaign in, were she so inclined. A really ambitious Game Master could run a 13th Age campaign built around Age hopping, almost like the adventures of a well-known time traveller on the television. Certainly, the Book of Ages demands its own anthology of scenarios set in the different Ages, if not that very campaign!

It is difficult not to be thoroughly impressed by the Book of Ages. This is a fantastic book of campaign ideas and options that every 13th Age Game Master should have.

1980: Civilisation

For fans of Kingmaker—which I reviewed in 2014—the good news is that Gibsons will be bringing it back and republishing it. Equally as good news is that the publisher has in the meantime, republished another classic board game of that era—Civilisation. This is the father of all board games in which players build and develop their civilisations, from 7 Wonders and Antike to Stone Age and Tzolk’in: The Mayan Calendar, but this is no Euro game—and it is definitely not Ameritrash. It is a game that is epic in theme, epic in scale, and epic in terms of play. Its theme is that of its name: the founding of a civilisation, the growth of its population, and the advancement of knowledge, that will take its people out of the Stone Age and through the Bronze Age into the Iron Age. Its scale is from the Stone Age until 250 BCE, some eight thousand years, five hundred years at a time, all played out across the birthplace of classical civilisation—the Eastern Mediterranean. Its terms of play are epic in that it is designed for up to seven players and the full game takes as long as eight hours!

Originally published in 1980 by Hartland Trefoil and then Avalon Hill in 1981, Civilisation would win the Charles Roberts Award for Best Pre-20th Century Boardgame of 1982. Later published by Gibsons in 1988, it has been out of print for some years, but Gibsons have brought it back out once again, to no little fanfare. Indeed, at UK Games Expo 2018, it won the Judges’ Award for Best New Board Game (Strategic Style).

In Civilisation, each player takes control of one of seven cultures—Africa, Asia, Assyria, Babylon, Crete, Egypt, and Illyria (or Thrace)—and as nations, spread out from one territory to another, grow their populations, build cities and tax them, acquire goods and trade with other nations, acquire technologies in the arts, crafts, sciences, and civics, and so on. Sometimes they will war with their opponents, but it should be made clear that Civilisation is no wargame, and often, they will suffer calamities that their peoples must weather if they are to advance. The key to winning and thus developing the greatest civilisation the technologies, represented by Civilisation Cards, which provide both an in-game benefit and points, for without them, a player’s nation cannot advance through the epochs of time… All of this involves both Area Control and Area Influence mechanics and Hand Management, Set Collection, and Trading mechanics. The game does not use dice and there are no random elements to the game.

Designed for two to seven players, aged twelve and over, Civilisation consists of five of components—the board, seven sets of counters, seven Playmats, a set of Trade and Calamity Cards, a set of Civilisation Cards, and a rulebook. The large board depicts the Eastern Mediterranean divided into four differently coloured regions—Italy and the Balkans, Greece and Asia Minor, the Levant and the Middle East, and Egypt and North Africa, further divided into zones. Each zone is marked with a number indicating the maximum number of Population Tokens it can hold. Some are marked with a square to indicate a city site, a zone where cities are cheaper to build. Several zones are marked with floodplains and volcanoes and Population Tokens and cities in these zones are particularly vulnerable to floods and volcanic eruptions or earthquakes—both represented by Calamity Cards.

The lower quarter of the board is given over to spaces for the Progress Track, the Census Track, and a display area for the Trade and Calamity Cards. The Census Track is used to record a civilisation’s population total, from one turn to the next, whilst the Progress Track is used to determine how far a civilisation has advanced. It is divided into five epochs across the New Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. Each player and his civilisation with advance one square each turn until he reaches the end of an epoch. If the requirements of the next epoch have been fulfilled, then they can continue their progress. To enter the second epoch, a player and civilisation must have two cities; to enter the third, they need three Civilisation Cards from three different categories; to enter the fourth, they need seven Civilisation Cards; and to enter the fifth, they need Civilisation Cards with a total value of a thousand points. At the end of the track is a point value a player needs in terms of Civilisation Cards, his treasury, and the value of any Trade Cards, his civilisation needs to advance to the very end of the game.

It should be noted that length of the various epochs varies from civilisation to civilisation, as does the total number of points required at the end. This is a balancing mechanism to reflect a lower capacity to support high populations.

Each set of counters consists of fifty-six Population Tokens, twelve City Tokens, and four Ships. Each set is done in a strong colour and marked with an easy to spot symbol. The play mats have spaces to store a player’s stock of tokens and a civilisation’s Treasury. The play mat also lists the game’s thirteen phases. The Trade Cards consist of eleven commodities, which have a value between one and nine. They include Ochre, Hides, Iron, Papyrus, Salt, Grain, Cloth, Bronze, Spice, Gems, and Gold. They used to trade with other players, as well as to purchase Civilisation Cards. The more Trade Cards of a single type a player has, the more valuable they are. For example, each Ochre Trade Card has a value of one, but two have a value of four, three have a value of nine, four have a value of sixteen, and so on. There are eight Calamity Cards—Civil Disorder, Civil War, Epidemic, Famine, Flood, Iconoclasm & Heresy, Piracy, and Volcanic Eruption or Earthquake—which are marked with either red or black backs. The red-backed Calamity Cards—Civil War, Famine, Flood, and Volcanic Eruption or Earthquake—affect the player who draws them, but the black-backed Calamity Cards—Civil Disorder, Epidemic, Iconoclasm & Heresy, and Piracy—do not affect the player who draws them, but can be traded away to rival players who will be affected by them.

The Civilisation Cards are divided into four categories—Arts, Crafts, Sciences, and Civics, though some do fall into two categories. Each has a name, a cost to purchase using a mix of Trade Cards and Population Tokens, the possible credits it provides to purchase other Civilisation Cards, and an advantage, either reducing the effect of a Calamity Card or providing some sort of bonus. For example, Democracy reduces the effects of both Civil Disorder and Civil War; Cloth Making gives ships an extra move; and Coinage allows for changes in taxation. In addition, the cost of each Civilisation Card also represents the total value it contributes towards a player’s civilisation. So as well as costing two hundred points, Democracy increases a civilisation value by two hundred points. What is interesting about these cards is that some do posses prerequisites, Civilisation Cards which have to be purchased before a player can purchase the desired Civilisation Card and some Civilisation Cards provide points that can only be spent on specific Civilisation Cards. For example, Law is required before a player can purchase either Democracy or Philosophy, whilst Literacy provides twenty-five points which counts towards the purchase of Law, Democracy, and Philosophy. So what you have here is a rough ‘Tech Tree’, a path which leads from one technology or advance to the next, each relying upon the preceding ones to work and understand. Now it is only rudimentary, but it was the first time that such a mechanic appeared in a boardgame. Of course, it would not be the last.

There is one possible issue with the Civilisation Cards and that is the total number that a player can hold—eleven. If a player purchases too many of the cheaper Civilisation Cards, he may not gain enough points to advance along the Progress Chart and so win the game. So he needs to be careful in what Civilisation Cards he purchases.

Game set-up is relatively straightforward. The Trade Cards are placed on their respective spaces on the board with the Civilisation Cards alongside the board. Each player chooses a civilisation—this being done in randomly determined order—and places a City Token and a Population Token in their civilisation’s starting zone. Each player places tokens on the Progress and Census Tracks. The number of players determines which civilisations and which regions are used in a game (though oddly, Italy is not included in the locations, pointing towards needing a second edition of the rulebook). Each player puts his Population Tokens into his Stock space on his Play Mat; these will move into his Treasury space as the game proceeds where they can be spent.

Game play in Civilisation consists of thirteen phases! These are ‘Collect Taxation’, ‘Population Expansion’, ‘Census’, ‘Construct Ships’, ‘Movement’, ‘Conflict’, ‘Build Cities’, ‘Acquire Trade Cards’, ‘Trade’, ‘Acquire Civilization Cards’, ‘Resolve Calamities’, ‘Return Excess Trade Cards’, and ‘Alter Progress Marker’. This looks like a lot, but many of these phases are quite simple and relatively short. Some though are quite involving, and they are the meat of the game.

In the ‘Collect Taxation’ phase, a player adds two tokens from his Stock into his Treasury for each city his civilisation has; in the ‘Population Expansion’ phase, he adds Population Tokens to the zones in which he already he has Population Tokens; and in the ‘Census’ phase, he counts up how many Population Tokens has has on the board to determine his turn order in the ‘Movement’ phase. In the ‘Construct Ships’ phase a player builds ships and pays the upkeep costs of the ships he already has. Ships allow a player to pick up and drop off Population Tokens as they sail along the coast. Once his civilisation acquires the Astronomy Civilisation Card, a player’s ships can cross the open sea zones on the map. Ships allow Population Tokens to move longer distances and en masse. In the ‘Movement’ phase, a player can move as many of his Population Tokens he wants one space each and ships up to four spaces each.

The ‘Conflict’ phase is where the game begins to get interesting. Each zone has a population limit. If two or more players have Population Tokens in a zone that together exceed this limit, then war ensues. Cities are considered to be equal to six Population Tokens, so war always ensues if another player moves into that zone. Its resolution is quite simple—the players take it in turn to remove one Population Token, starting with the player with the fewest number in the zone. This continues until the zone’s population limit is not exceeded. In this way, the player with the highest number of Population Tokens will defeat the other. It is also possible to attack and sack a city, but this requires an invasion with at least seven Population Tokens by the attacking player.

In the ‘Build Cities’ phase, if a player has six or more Population Tokens on a zone with a square, he can build a city. If the zone has no square, it needs twelve Population Tokens. Any Population Tokens in excess of the population limit on any zone are returned to the player’s stock as those zones cannot support them. Cities need to be supported by two Population Tokens each in play and the maximum number of cities a player can have is nine. It is possible to lose a city if it not sufficiently supported. Once a player has determined the total number of cities he has, in the ‘Acquire Trade Cards’ phase, he can draw one Trade Card for each city he has. This is mandatory, and a player must draw one Trade Card from each stack starting at the first and going up in order. There is the chance that a player will draw a Calamity Card during this phase. The red-backed Calamity Cards are obvious in play and will affect the player who draws them, whilst the black-backed Calamity Cards are kept secret and can be traded in the next phase.

The ‘Trade’ phase is open to everyone, players bartering with each other in attempt to get more cards of a single type as together they are more valuable. Trading is necessary because in the ‘Acquire Trade Cards’ phase, a player can only acquire a single card of any of the trade goods available. To trade, a player has to offer at least three cards, declaring both what one of the cards is and what the total value of the cards are. So for example, a player might say, “I want Bronze. For that, I am willing to trade Cloth. My three cards have a total value of nine.” Since the value of Cloth is five, the other players may have some idea as what the other Trade Cards might be as they must add to four to make the total of nine. So they might be Salt and Ochre, worth one and three respectively, or they might be a Grain card, worth four on its own, and a Calamity. The ‘Trade’ phase can last as long as the players want or a time limit can be set, but in order to trade, a player needs a minimum of three Trade Cards.

Using the combined value of his Trade Cards and possibly tokens from his Treasury, a player can buy in the ‘Acquire Civilization Cards’ phase. A player can only buy one Civilisation Card of any one type, but can buy multiple Civilisation Cards on his turn. Expended Trade Cards back on the bottom of their respective decks on the board. The effect of Civilisation Cards come into play as soon as a player acquires them. This can be important because some of them ameliorate the effects of Calamity Cards. For example, a player who holds Grain Trade Cards can offset the effects of the Famine Calamity Card if he also has the ‘Pottery’ Civilisation Card.

In the ‘Resolve Calamities’ phase, civilisations suffer the effects of the Calamity Cards their players have either drawn—if red backed—or received in a trade—if black backed. No civilisation can suffer the effects of more than to Calamity Cards in a player’s turn. What is interesting is that many of the Calamity Cards do not just affect the player holding them in the ‘Resolve Calamities’ phase—they can affect rivals too. For example, the Famine Calamity Card forces a player to lose nine Population Tokens, but he can instruct the other players to lose up to twenty between them as well. The Epidemic Calamity Card works in a similar fashion. All resolved Calamity Cards go back at the bottom of the Trade Card decks they are drawn from.

Lastly, in the ‘Return Excess Trade Cards’ phase, each player reduces the number of Trade Cards he can hold to six, and in the ‘Move Progress Marker’, each player moves his marker on the Progress Track along one space, taking into account the requirements to move into each of the epochs. Once done, the turn is over, and the next one proceeds until the game ends and there is a winner.

It should be pointed out that not all of the phases will necessarily come into play, especially in the early part of the game where the players will be primarily concerned building their civilisation’s population up enough to build a city. Once a player has a city or three, then the game picks up and becomes more complex as trading increases in importance. Once this happens, Civilisation becomes a balancing act between a player’s Cities, Population, Stock, and Treasury. Not enough Population Tokens and Cities will collapse; not enough Tokens in his Stock for Taxation and a player’s Cities will Revolt and join another civilisation; not enough Population Tokens and a player make not be able to withstand an invasion by a rival. Notably though, the Calamity Cards can upset these balances and a civilisation that suffers the effects of one too many Calamity Cards is greatly hindered or or even destroyed. Coming back from these effects can be challenging, but they can be offset with the right Civilisation Cards. The fact that once their effects have been applied, the Calamity Cards are returned to respective Trade Card decks means that they will cycle through the game, appearing again and again, throughout the game and history. The Calamity Cards also serve as a means to rein in any civilisation which advances too quickly in comparison to its rivals, although of course, its player needs to be amenable to trades. Otherwise, a runaway civilisation may be difficult to catch up with.

The big issue with Civilisation is its playing time and the commitment this requires. A playing time of six to eight hours for the full game is not be sniffed at and takes dedication upon the part of the players. The game is also longer the more players there are involved, but that said, the game plays better the more players there. Not only is the competition for territory fiercer, but there are more opportunities for trade and interaction, for forming alliances, and so on. Nevertheless, Civilisation is no casual game. That said, the rulebook does offer options for simpler versions of the game and shorter versions of the game. The simplest version, ‘The Game of Nomads and Seafarers’ omits most of the phases and therefore the rules, whilst the ‘The Game of Farmers and Citizens’ omits just a few of them. The shortened versions use the full rules, but play stops after the winner reaches the ninth, twelfth, or fourteenth space along the Progress Track rather than the sixteenth. Of these, ‘The Game of Nomads and Seafarers’ is too simple, whereas ‘The Game of Farmers and Citizens’ serves as a better means by which to learn the basics of the game.

Physically, Civilisation is reasonably well presented. Certainly, the board is nicely mounted, and its presentation of the Eastern Mediterranean makes good use of strong colours. The cardboard counters are clear in their design and colour, if a little small on the board to handle easily. The game’s cards are clear and easy to read, but for long term play, it might be a good idea to put them in sleeves. The reference cards feel as if they could have been sturdier and whilst the rulebook is generally well written, its use of orange as the colour for its titles on a cream background does make finding things not as easy as it should be. One issue is that the box is a bit tight to get everything into the insert tray once each of the sets of counters has been stored in zip lock bags, something that is really necessary lest the counters are left to slosh around inside the box. Overall though, the game’s production values are adequate by modern standards, but decent by the production values of when Civilisation was previously published. (That said, higher production values would have increased the price of the game.)

The designer, Francis Tresham, has said of Civilisation, “I regard this game as my masterpiece.” It easy to see why. No game does the sweep of history quite as well as Civilisation, the players being able to chart the rise—and possible fall—of cultures and civilisations over the course of centuries, spreading out to build cities, discover their neighbours and trade with them, make advances in knowledge and belief, go to war and withstand calamities, and perhaps, survive long enough to become the greatest of civilisations. It does all this—eight thousand years of history—with simple, elegant mechanics that are easy to learn and easy to play, but not necessarily easy to master as there are some subtle nuances to them. Civilisation is a classic piece of board game design and an influence on many games since, a great strategy game and a great history game. Gibsons should be applauded for making it available once again.