Friday Fantasy: Bastard King of Thraxford Castle

The warning is well known throughout the area. There is a curse upon Thraxford Castle and all who enter its gates. A Curse of rotting flesh, of unlife as one of the undead, for all who die within its walls must rise again at dawn to play out a danse macabre of their lives the day before. It is a Curse lain upon the soldiers and occupants of Thraxford Castle by The Bastard King’s slaughter of his kin. None can leave and all who put a foot within a thousand paces of that accursed place will fall foul of the curse… Bastard King of Thraxford Castle is a macabre, gothic mini-location inspired by both British medieval history, Hammer horror films, and even British Dungeons & Dragons adventures drawn from the pages of White Dwarf magazine back in its heyday, such as ‘The Lichway’ by Albie Fiore (White Dwarf Issue No. 9, October/November 1979). Published by Leyline Press and like The Isle of Glaslyn and The God With No Name before it, Bastard King of Thraxford Castle manages to fit an adventure onto the equivalent of four pages and then present it on a pamphlet which folds down to roughly four-by-six inches. One the one side it provides all of the details of the descriptions of the outer and inner wards, whilst on the other there is a map of the whole of the castle, plus descriptions of the actual keep.

Bastard King of Thraxford Castle is designed for use with Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy and presents a location supposedly on the Isle of Kybaros . Here the Bastard King took his last stand against invading forces after he had risen up and defeated King Hardrada at the Battle of Ashing Hill, and was cursed for his hubris. One of the great scenes later in the scenario depicts this battle—taking place in the castle’s great hall—and if the Player Characters are not careful, they may actually get caught up in the nightly (knightly?) reenactment! The scenario is designed for Player Characters of low to medium Level, and a Cleric, although any party upon discovering the true nature of the situation in Thraxford Castle going full bore slaughtering the undead and attempting Turn Undead, will themselves in a for surprise—the dead rise the following morning, the undead rise again as more powerful creatures of death, and they themselves are trapped for the duration... can the Player Characters discover the secrets  and a way to solve their predicament and that of the inhabitants of Thraxford Castle?

What the Player Characters find within the walls of Thraxford Castle is a theatre of ‘Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol’, in some places a slaughterhouse, in others the inhabitants of the castle now long undead, but still going about a semblance of their former lives. Yet long cut off from the outside world, they have been forced to turn to other means to continue that semblance which resembles a horror show, from the tanner to the food at The Peckled ’Hen, and which should invoke a strong sense of revulsion in the players—if not the Player Characters. Many of these scenes should warrant fear checks of some kind, and it is a pity that not every retroclone does, for Bastard King of Thraxford Castle is very much a horror scenario. Nevertheless, despite the weirdness of undead community to be found in the castle, these are opportunities for roleplay and interaction, and they are the surest means of determining what is going on in the castle—along with exploring both its and its grounds, of course.

Bastard King of Thraxford Castle definitely has Shakespearean overtones—definitely of Macbeth and Richard III—combined with the Gothic, and there is potential for some great scenes during the adventure. The Game Master is given some fun NPCs to portray as well as some good ones to roleplay, including what would be traditionally treated as monsters. The scenario includes a pair of new monsters too, the Giant Undead Maggot and the Giant Undead Botfly. Yet as much as Bastard King of Thraxford Castle makes the Game Master want to run it, there is still a lot that she has to do to get the scenario to the table. Apart from a little background about the Bastard Knight rebelling and defeating, even possibly killing, the previous king, the background to the scenario is underwritten. In a sense, this means the Game Master has a lot of flexibility in dropping Bastard King of Thraxford Castle into her campaign, but it skews too far that way by not giving the Game Master the choice but to do that. There is no explanation of the events of the rebellion and there are certainly no hooks given to help the Game Master get her players and their characters involved.

Physically, and once again, Bastard King of Thraxford Castle is a piece of design concision. It is compact and thus easy to store, and unlike The God With No Name, this makes better use of the format, with the inner and outer wards of the castle described on the one side, and the keep on the other along with the map. Besides the cover, the only illustrations in the scenario are those of the new creatures. Those are decent, as is the map of the castle. The scenario does need another edit though.

Although it needs a limited amount of development to make it easier to even run as a one-shot, let alone add to a campaign, Bastard King of Thraxford Castle makes good use of its format and size. In places weird and creepy, Bastard King of Thraxford Castle really goes full theatre of blood, and turns up the horrifying rather than the horror. If the Game Master r wants a short—two sessions or so—bloodily repulsive horror scenario for her campaign, then Bastard King of Thraxford Castle certainly delivers.

Friday Fantasy: The God With No Name

The God With No Name is a dungeon within the body of remains of a giant beast or god. Published by Leyline Press this is a setting more recently seen in Genial Jack Vol. 2 from Lost Pages and Into the Würmhole, the Free RPG Day release in 2021 for Vast Grimm. Instead of the dry, hard rock walls of caves and worked stone of corridors and rooms, such dungeons possess an organic, moist, often pulsating, and even fetid environment. However, they may also have calcified and fossilised over time, leaving behind an organic imprint of caves and tunnels. The God With No Name combines elements of both—the organic and the calcified. It is also noticeable for its format. Like The Isle of Glaslyn before it, The God With No Name manages to fit an adventure onto the equivalent of four pages and then present it on a pamphlet which folds down to roughly four-by-six inches. It contains all of the room descriptions on one side and the maps and various tables on the other. It is the very definition of a clever little design. Ultimately however, it is a design which places constraints on the scenario.

The God With No Name is designed for use with Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy and ostensibly details a network of tunnels and caves mined by ancient Dwarves for its very pure salt deposits. It is still said that not all of those deposits have been mined out, but the mine has long been abandoned and it is said that the local Mountain Folk revere the mine as a god. The valley below the mine is said to be infested with trolls and the mine full of secrets. There is a truth to a great many of the rumours about the mine… The mine consists of two levels, a longer main tunnel and a shorter cliff tunnel. The entrance to the main tunnel is at ground level, the entrance to the cliff tunnel above in the cliff face. Above that is a small tower. It is depicted in both cross section and a floorplan with cartography by Dyson Logos.

The long abandoned mine has in parts the feel of Tolkien’s Moria, a sense of mystery and age, but there is also something squamous to it too, as well as something of the film Alien, for parts of the mine—or rather ‘The God With No Name’—are still alive and the shadows seem to move… This is because the god is not merely dead, but slumbering, even if for time immemorial, and the shadows are infested by the Void Doppler, the shadow child of ‘The God With No Name’ who stalks the living in search of body parts so that it can be reborn and walk under the sun. It leaves behind secretions of the void, and those void secretions spread as the Player Characters delve deeper and deeper, blocking off access to parts of the mine, including the way back out…

In addition to the descriptions of the mine’s locations and maps, The God With No Name is supported with a set of tables which provide rumours, encounters outside and inside the mine, and the contents of unmarked rooms. The table of rumours also works as a set of hooks to involve the Player Characters as there is no given set-up or hook to the scenario, and the table of valley encounters as a means to expand the adventure and flesh the scenario out a little more. The size and isolated nature of The God With No Name also means that it is relatively easy to drop into a Dungeon Master’s campaign.

There is scope in The God With No Name for some nasty, horrifying sessions of play, as the Player Characters are hunted from the shadows and their body parts are stolen one by one. However, the scenario is not without its issues, which either stem from its physical design or its tone. Physically, the fold up pamphlet design of The God With No Name means that its content feels constrained and having the descriptions on one side and the map on the other—when folded out, let alone folded up—does mean that in actual play, the scenario is not as easy as it should be to use. The scenario has no set-up or hooks for the Player Characters to get involved, so the Dungeon Master will have to create those, though she can, of course, make use of the given rumours table. Perhaps the biggest issue with the scenario is the tone and genre. Although this is a dungeon adventure, it is very much a ‘you’re locked in a room with a monster’ horror scenario a la the film Alien, its horror is not just of the dark and the shadows, but also of the body. As a body horror scenario, it creeps up on both the Player Characters and the Dungeon Master, and whilst it should be doing the former, it should not be doing the latter. Some warning to the prospective Dungeon Master should have been given upfront. Also, the scenario does not state what Player Characters Levels it is designed for, but the nature of the monsters encountered—trolls in the valley and the Void Doppler in the mine—suggest at least Fifth and Sixth Levels.

Physically, The God With No Name is a piece of design concision. It is compact and thus easy to store, but format does not make it easy to use. It is not illustrated bar the front cover and as to the cartography, Dyson Logos’ maps here are not his best, or even his most clear. The scenario does require a slight edit though.

Its compact size and content means it needs a little development upon the part of the Dungeon Master, but The God With No Name is creepy and not a little weird. If the Dungeon Master wants a short—two sessions or so—body horror scenario for her campaign, then The God With No Name certainly delivers.

A Narrative Mecha Quick-Start

The Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide is an introduction to the new mecha roleplaying game from Leyline Press, best known for its post-apocalypse, post-BREXIT roleplaying game, Shadow of Mogg. Traditionally mecha roleplaying games and mecha games in general are very technical and tactical, of which BattleTech and its roleplaying game, MechWarrior, are perhaps the best known. Not so Salvage Union, which forgoes the tactical and the technical elements of the game play typically found in the genre, in favour of more narrative play. There are different mech types and different weapons and pieces of equipment, as well as different types of mech Pilots in Salvage Union—and in the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide, but there are no points of armour to scour off in a firefight and keep track off and there is not a detailed resolution system, or even an initiative mechanic! The Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide comes with six Pilots and their mechs, the core mechanics, advice for the Mediator—as the Game Master is known, rules for scrap and salvage, and a sample scenario. All of this in a digest-sided booklet, nearly ninety pages long.

Salvage Union and the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide takes place on a colony world in the far future which has been heavily scarred by the effects of global warming, deforestation, pollution, nuclear fallout, and several conflicts. The luckiest and the wealthiest live in Corporate Arcologies—each one run by a different corporation, but most are Wastelanders, living in scattered settlements or in the case of a relative few, as members of self-sufficient communities living in gigantic mechs called Union Crawlers. From these roam bands known as Salvage Unions, made up of workers, salvagers, Pilots, and free spirits, each Piloting their scrap-built or former corporate mech, in search of scrap and salvage to keep their machines and the Union Crawler running, and even upgrade their machines. To some the Salvage Unions are folk heroes, to the corporations they are greedy opportunists and recalcitrant rebels, part of the growing Resistance against the corporations taking control of the planet. In Salvage Union and the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide, the Player Characters are part of one such Salvage Union.

At the core of Salvage Union is a Pilot and his Mech. Each Pilot has a Profile, three Stats, three pieces of equipment, and three Abilities. The Profile includes a callsign, background, ideal, flaw, keepsake, and motto, whilst the three Stats are Health, Ability Points, and Stress. Health is how much physical damage a mech Pilot can suffer, Ability Points are expended on Abilities, and Stress is how much mental damage he can take, which can be generated via a player Pushing his Pilot, using certain Abilities and items of equipment. Health, Ability Points, and Stress are the same for each of the six pre-generated Pilot in the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide. For example, the Engineer archetype has the Callsign of Twitch, the Freelancer Background, her Ideal is Pragmatism and her Flaw is Judgemental, her Keepsake is a Red Toy Car, and her Motto is ‘Call me, or screw it up yourself’. Her three pieces of equipment are Riveting Gun, which when the safety is switched off, can inflict damage, a Wrench that can be used as a melee weapon, and a Portable Arc Welder. Her three Abilities are ‘If I cut this wire…’, ‘Field Repair’, and ‘Talk Shop’. ‘If I cut this wire…’ allows her to pinpoint a System or Module on a Mech and disable it. This can be done in person and requires her player to expend two Action Points, or aboard her Mech with a Welding Laser, in which case it costs two Energy Points to use. Similarly, ‘Field Repair’, which enables her to repair a damaged Module or System, and costs either two Action Points or two Energy Points depending whether she is conducting the repairs in person or in her Mech. Lastly, ‘Talk Shop’ just costs one Action Point to use and means she can engage in conversations other Mechanics, Salvagers, workers, and the like, and they will share information with her.

A Mech has several Systems, its hardware and weapons, and Modules, its software, electronic warfare systems, and the like, as well as three ratings for its Spec—Structure Points, Energy Points, and Heat Capacity. Structure Points are how much damage it can take, Energy Points are expended to power a Mech’s Systems and Modules, and Heat Capacity is how much Heat it can generate before a Reactor Overload Check is required and the Mech either shuts down, loses Systems or Modules, or simply blows up! For example, the Engineer’s Mech is a Type 43 ‘Magpie’, a Medium Class worker Mech developed by the Stefanus Corporation. It features Hot Swap Universal Mounts for easy change of Systems and Modules, and its Systems include a Rigging Arm, Locomotion System, and Welding Laser, which when at Engaged range, can be used a weapon. Other Systems include ‘Repair’, allowing the Pilot to repair a Mech or Structure for two Structure Points—even in combat, and ‘Mass Field Repair’, an out-of-combat which enables the Pilot to repair up to ten Structure Points across any number of Mechs. Both ‘Repair’ and ‘Mass Field Repair’ cost two Energy Points to use. The Type 43 ‘Magpie’ also has a Mini Mortar, an Emergency Hatch, and a Transport Hold. Its Modules include a Comms Module and an EM Shield Projector, which can be projected around itself or another Mech and provides protection against lasers and ballistics. It costs two Energy Points to use and requires a roll on its own table to determine its effectiveness.

There are six pre-generated Pilots and their Mechs in the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide. They include Hauler, who can intimidate her enemies or make a deal with them and her Mk8 ‘Atlas’, a heavy supply Mech which can also lay a minefield; Scout, a tracker and sniper, whose agile ‘TC40’ Gopher can track and survey targets; Soldier Pilots a GCC21 ‘Brawler’, a combat Mech; Hacker, whose MCS-1337 ‘Mantis’ Mech is designed for stealth and hacking into enemy Mechs; Engineer and her Type 43 ‘Magpie’ repair Mech; and Salvager with his BG-288 ‘Jackhammer’, a sturdy mining Mech intended to survey deep underground, excavate rock, and survive a cave-in! Together, these six are all different and they nicely showcase the range of characters and Mechs possible in Salvage Union.

Mechanically, the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide and thus, Salvage Union, is built around a small set of tables, upon which a player will roll a twenty-sided die. There are no bonuses applied to the roll, but simply an outcome. On a one, the Player Character suffers a ‘Cascade Failure’, meaning that not only has he failed, but has done so spectacularly, or something else has gone wrong. A result of a two to five means a simple ‘Failure’, whilst that of six to ten, means the Player Character has succeeded, but with a consequence. A roll of eleven to nineteen is a ‘Success’ and means that he has succeeded without any penalties, and a roll of a twenty means he has ‘Nailed it’ and succeeded beyond his expectations.

A Pilot can push both himself and his Mech. Pushing his Mech generates Heat and too much can result in a roll on the Reactor Overload Table to see what happens, but it also allows a player to re-roll any check involved with his Pilot’s Mech. Venting Heat is possible, but requires the Mech to be completely shutdown for ten minutes and is therefore vulnerable. If a Pilot pushes himself, he generates Stress and can result in a roll needing to be made on the Stress Overload Table. Similarly, resting for ten minutes will get rid of all of a Pilot’s Stress.

Other tables cover Critical Damage to a Mech and Critical Injury to a Pilot, and there are Modules and Systems which have their own tables, but Salvage Union is not much more complex than this. This is because it is actually a resource management roleplaying game—not a complex one, but a resource management roleplaying game nonetheless, with players keeping track of Energy Points and Action Points for their Mechs and Pilots respectively, and deciding where and when to use them. Although both Stress and Heat can be reduced during play, Action Points and Energy Points cannot, Pilots and Mechs needing to speed a week back in their Union Crawler to recover both. This shifts play in Salvage Union to more of a narrative structure, with even combat initiative being handled narratively rather than via random dice rolls, and makes knowing when to use a System, Module, or Action much more important. Similarly, knowing when to Push a Pilot or a Mech for that all important reroll is also important, and is effectively the nearest thing to a skill system that Salvage Union has.

The Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide also includes rules for salvaging and what can be done with salvage, whether that is paying for Downtime aboard the Union Crawler, making repairs to Mechs, or even building new Modules and Systems and upgrading a Mech. There is good advice for the Mediator too, especially on game structure and handling consequences—especially since this is a quick-start. The Mediator is also provided with sample enemy Mechs, a glossary of terms, and several table of salvage. With a bit of care, the Mediator could even design a few Mechs of her own to field against those of the Player Character Pilots.

Lastly in the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide, there is a short scenario. This is ‘The Downing Of The Atychos’ and sees the Player Characters tracking down a corporation air transport ship which has crashed. It belongs to Evantis Industries, which manufactures experimental heavy mechs and weaponry, and that means potentially good salvage. Unfortunately, the transport has crashed in the city ruins of Hope Falls, thought to be home to outlaws, and there are going to be rival Salvage Unions interested. The Pilots will need to fight and possibly negotiate their way across the area and conduct a survey in order to locate the downed transport, facing some interesting threats and situations along the way. Several fun NPCs are provided too, as well as some different Mechs. It is a decently done adventure which should take a couple of sessions to play, but could easily be developed by the Mediator to run a mini-campaign if the players and their Pilots wanted to explore the area further and scour it empty of salvage.

Physically, the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide is a decently presented digest-sized book, whose cover is reminiscent of a Haynes manual. Inside, the artwork varies in style, from fully painted vistas to line art drawings of the Mechs with cartoon-like illustrations of the pre-generated Pilots in-between. The layout is clean and tidy, and the quick-start is easy to read through.

The Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide does an excellent job of introducing Salvage Union and how it is played. It not only comes with everything necessary to play its scenario, but a bit extra with which the Mediator can expand play beyond the scope of the scenario, providing a broader look at the core game. Some adjustment is necessary in terms of play since although this is a Mecha-style game, as it emphasises narrative play rather than tactical, for both the roleplaying and the Mech combat. Overall, the Salvage Union Beta Quick-Start Guide is an impressive introduction to Mecha-style games and settings, but without resorting to a lot of stats and wargames style play.

—oOo—

Salvage Union is currently being funded via Kickstarter.

Friday Fantasy: The Isle of Glaslyn

How small can a hex crawl be? The Isle of Glaslyn manages to fit a seven-hex hex crawl onto the equivalent of four pages and then present it on a pamphlet which folds down to roughly four-by-six inches. Yet when it folds out (and is folded over, slightly), it can sit on the table between the players and the Game Master, with all of the player-facing content—the hex map of the island and the town map—on the one side, and the Game Master content—random monster tables, NPC details, and more, on the other. It is the very definition of a clever little design.

The Isle of Glaslyn lies off the coast, its hills and forests enshrouded in mists, covering rich veins of a metal found nowhere else—strands of woven copper entwined with gold. These unique formations have brought men and women to the island hoping to strike it rich and so set themselves up for life. Yet few who have ventured beyond the walls of Caer Emyrys, the small fort on the south side of the island, have returned, and fewer with the desired wealth. Those walls are a frontier and on the other side lies a rough wilderness, full of dangers yet to be encountered and secrets to be discovered. There are rumours of an ancient guardian watching over the mines, of islanders who eat men, and a magical sword swathed in golden ichor which sleeps in the many barrows to be found on the island. Lady Morgan, commander of Caer Emyrys and representative of the Emperor, has been directed with securing the mine and making it safe, then opening it back up. To that end, she has decided to employ adventurers bold who will explore the island, deal with its dangers, and ensure that its riches can be mined.

The Isle of Glaslyn is thus a classic set-up for an adventure. Caer Emyrys and the Isle of Glaslyn—the island barely eighteen miles across—are described succinctly, the maps nice and clear, and accompanied by tables of rumours, wilderness encounters, an evening at the ‘Itchy Hole’ tavern in Caer Emyrys, and more. Beyond the fort, each of the hexes is fully detailed with several specific adventure sites across the island, such as an abandoned tower and the village of bones. These are scaled down to fit the size of the island, but accompanied by the tables of rumours and encounters, and so on, and The Isle of Glaslyn has the potential for multiple sessions of play as the Player Characters explore the island. Ultimately, the secret to the island echoes that of scenarios like ‘The Lichway’ from White Dwarf #9 or Death, Frost, Doom for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay.

Physically, The Isle of Glaslyn is neatly, if perhaps a little too tightly in places, presented—but then that is down to the format. It needs an edit in places too, but the artwork is really rather charming. Physically too—and despite the cleverness of its design—it is not always easy to use because sometimes it is not merely a matter of content being on the other side of the page, but a matter of being on the other side, and flipping back and forth can be cumbersome. It is printed on fairly stiff paper, so it will withstand some handling though.

Inspired by Welsh folklore and Arthurian myth about the lake below Snowdon, The Isle of Glaslyn, is published by Leyline Press and designed for a party of low-Level adventurers using Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy. Which means it is very easy to adapt to the retroclone of the Game Master’s choice. The limited amount of space means that the designers have to pack a lot of information into its pages and folds, but much of that is concisely presented, leaving room for the Game Master to add or develop detail and flavour as is her wont, although there is plenty of flavour implied. Literally as presented, the adventure is not a large one, but roughly a hex or two should be explored per session, and that with a fairly minimal degree of preparation upon the part of the Game Master. Plus, the size and self-contained nature of the island means that The Isle of Glaslyn is easy to drop off the coast of almost any fantasy roleplaying campaign. That self-same scope and size means that The Isle of Glaslyn could work as a low-Level party’s first wilderness adventure or hex crawl.

Overall, The Isle of Glaslyn is not necessarily a great scenario, but its small size contains plenty of adventure and its concision and format afford it a charm not always found in other scenarios.