The Other OSR: Eye of the Aeons

Troika! is both a setting and a roleplaying game. As the latter, it provides simple, clear mechanics inspired by the Fighting Fantasy series of solo adventure books, but combined with a wonderfully weird cast of character types, all ready to play the constantly odd introductory adventure, ‘The Blancmange and Thistle’. As the former, it takes the Player Characters on adventures through the multiverse, from one strange sphere to another, to visit twin towers which in their dying are spreading a blight that are turning a world to dust, investigate murder on the Nantucket Sleigh Ride on an ice planet, and investigate hard boiled murder and economic malfeasance following the collapse of the Scarf-Worm investment bubble. At the heart of Troika! stands the city itself, large, undefined, existing somewhere in the cosmos with easy access from one dimension after another, visited by tourists from across the universe and next door, and in game terms, possessing room aplenty for further additions, details, and locations. One such location is Eye of the Aeons.

Eye of the Aeons is the third entry in a new series of scenarios for Troika! from the Melsonian Arts Council begun with Whalgravaak’s Warehouse and continued with The Hand of God. This is the ‘1:5 Troika Adventures’ series, which places an emphasis on shorter, location-based adventures, typically hexcrawls or dungeoncrawls, set within the city of Troika, but which do not provide new Backgrounds for Player Characters or ‘Hack’ how Troika! is played. Eye of the Aeons lives up to these tenets, in that it is a dungeoncrawl that takes place in a single castle location, but arguably fails to live up to these tenets by not actually being set in the city of Troika, but in the rubbish and detritus strewn wastes beyond the city’s extensive walls. The location is the Manse of Mirrors, a walled castle consisting of seven domes and three towers that is home to Queen Yanwa of the Cyclopes. It is of particular interest to the Wizards of the College Illuminate, a minor school of magic in the city of Troika, because it also houses the Eye of the Aeons, a mysterious prism of immense power said to be cause of the Red Eye Curse that afflicts some of the college’s members. ;Victims of this curse randomly shoot a fire bolt that pierces armour, which makes them a danger to others. ;Queen Yanwa of the Cyclopes also suffers from the Red Eye Curse, but is rumoured to dole out an elixir that cures or at least alleviates the ailment, attracting many sufferers, known as ‘Burning Eye Pilgrims’ to the manse in the hope of relief. Unfortunately, Queen Yanwa has been beset by rebellion, not once, but twice. The Cyclopes’ former servants, the Anthropophagi, which have four arms and hands and no legs, so always walk on their hands, a single eye and a mouth in their stomach, and no head, have rebelled and set up their own kingdom in the manse, where they squabble and fight, and regularly hold elections to see who the new Jub-Jub will be. Worse, Yorg the Usurper has dethroned Queen Yanwa, and studies the Eye of the Aeons in hopes that it will repower his golden barge and enable him and his compatriots to escape to the Outer Spheres where he hopes they will be safe from the fate ordained for him. Add in rumours of a Chaos Godling at the heart of the manse, a missing wizard’s apprentice, and treasures said to be hidden within its walls, and the Manse of Mirrors sounds like an intriguing place to visit and explore.

Getting the Player Characters to the Manse of Mirrors requires some set-up. Several hooks are given, ranging from shattering the mirrors in the manse to prevent something terrible from approaching this sphere to finding a cure to the Red Eye Curse by asking Yorg the Usurper. One or more of these can be used to drive the Player Characters to explore the manse and interact with its factions, who though opposed to each other maintain a rough truce between themselves, barring the odd raid or Queen Yanwa’s Cyclopes deciding to turn the mighty weapon atop the Gun Tower on somewhere in the Manse. That said, the ; obvious starting point and entrance into the Manse is not as clearly signposted as it could be and the factions, the relationships between them. and what they want are not as clearly explained as they could be. Which is a pity because it hinders the set-up process and getting the Player Characters involved in Eye of the Aeons.

The likelihood is that the Player Characters will begin at the Burning Eye Pilgrims’ Camp in one of the ruined tower, though there are other options as how they might enter the Manse. Here they can pick up rumours, interact with the members of the various factions, and begin to learn more about the situation within the Manse. Beyond this the grounds of the manse are split between a very large pond and an equally large, but overgrown garden. The pond is dominated by the boathouse, home to the rowdy Anthropophagi, and the blind boatwoman who sees beauty in ugliness and ugliness in beauty and cleanliness, and who prefers to be paid in trinkets and eyes. The garden is an oasis of calm by comparison. The Manse, though, is dominated by its nineteen towers, many of them in ruins, some of them containing mounds of rubbish and rubble, and some home to the rival factions of the Cyclopes. Others though house sets of mirrors, set up in differing fashions, sometimes to hold an object in place between them, sometimes to hold something or someone within. The mirrors form the major magical element of the scenario and finding the way to operate them will grant access to some of the secrets in the Manse of Mirrors.

There are some nasty surprises to be found and dangers to be encountered in the walls of the Manse of Mirrors, but Eye of the Aeons is not a scenario that drips with menace or suffers a sense of impending doom. Rather, the Manse of Mirrors feels forlorn, run down, and forgotten, the last refuge of a fallen Queen, that the Player Characters can explore and pick over, perhaps siding with one faction or another as they attempt to fulfil their objectives within the manse. This will expose them to the weirdness and wonder to be found in the Manse of Mirrors.

The scenario is supported by stats the various faction members in the Manse of Mirrors, as well as the enemies that the Player Characters might face. There is a list of new equipment too, but many of the items to be found within the manse’s walls are drawn from the Troika! rulebook.

Physically, Eye of the Aeons is very well presented. The layout is tidy and the artwork is excellent.

Eye of the Aeons is far from a bad adventure, but in comparison to other scenarios for Troika! and its ‘1:5 Troika Adventures’ series, it does not grab the reader and make him want to run it. Unlike the first two entries in the series, it lacks the enthrallment of a good elevator pitch and its set-up needs development itself to motivate the players and their characters to want to explore the Manse of the Mirrors. None of that is beyond the ability of a good Game Master to fix, and if that is done, Eye of the Aeons is a quiet, eerie manse meander punctuated by hullabaloo and horror.

Mycological Mysteries

Fungi of the Far Realms is many things. First, it is a systemless sourcebook of mushrooms, toadstools, and other fungi, and where they might be found, suitable for use in almost any roleplaying game. Second, it is an in-world guide to mushrooms, toadstools, and other fungi, and where they might be found, one that could be in almost any fantasy roleplaying game setting. Third, it is an in-world artefact, a tome of mushrooms, toadstools, and other fungi, and where they might be found, one that could be in almost any fantasy roleplaying game setting. Fourth, it is it is a systemless sourcebook of mushrooms, toadstools, and other fungi, and where they might be found, that could be used as series of fungal prompts for situations and scenarios, that the Game Master can develop for her campaign in almost any fantasy roleplaying game setting. Sixth, it is guide to the mushrooms, toadstools, and other fungi of the Far Realms, wherever that may be found in the Game Master’s campaign in almost any fantasy roleplaying game setting. Seventh, it is a guide to fantasy mushrooms, toadstools, and other fungi rather than those of the real world. Eighth, and last, Fungi of the Far Realms is simply a beautiful book.

Fungi of the Far Realms is published by the Melsonian Arts Council, a publisher best known for Troika!, the Science Fantasy roleplaying game of baroque weirdness that lies beyond eldritch portals that open into non-Euclidean labyrinths which lie on the edge of creation under skies filled with innumerable crystal spheres and the golden-sailed barges that travel between them. Although Fungi of the Far Realms could be used with Troika!, it is not designed to be used with it, or indeed any specific roleplaying game. The mechanics in the supplement are there to determine what fungus the Player Characters might have come across and that is it, although an appendix does include a table of random effects that might best a Player Character should he decide to consume any of the entries in the book. Of course, one of the first things that the author makes clear in Fungi of the Far Realms is that it is not a guide to real world mushrooms—and thankfully not, because some are weird—and should definitely, definitely not be read as such. The other advice is that the contents of Fungi of the Far Realms should be used sparingly, so as to reward the Player Characters for exploring an area.

In game, Fungi of the Far Realms is a volume written by E.Q. Wintergarden. In particular, it is a new facsimile edition of the classic work on mycelium with an introduction by A.R. Clements and a new introduction to the second by S. Zhang. A.R. Clements is the ‘Chair of Mycology at the Imperial College of the Brass Spires’ and S. Zhang is the illustrator of the original edition who actually accompanied E.Q. Wintergarden on his research trips. Yet, one Alex Clements is the author of the Fungi of the Far Realms and Shuyi Zhang is the illustrator. So, there is a sense of world within a world, or rather a book within a book within a world with Fungi of the Far Realms.

Of course, the bulk of Fungi of the Far Realms is devoted to over two hundred entries, each a particular fungus. They run from ‘The Adversary’, ‘Agaric Rex’, and ‘Almost Invisible Trumpet’ to ‘The Wrack’, ‘Yellow-Spotted Creeper’, and ‘Zarafetti’s Eyelash Fungus’. Each entry is accorded a single page which includes a full illustration in water colours, a mini-map of the Far Realms where the fungus can be found, and a description of its habitat, appearance, flavour/mouthfeel, and aroma. So, ‘Flibbertygibbets’ can be found on river sidings and in reed beds, and has the appearance of, “Finger-like protuberance reaching upwards. Intensely pink at the base, colouring to deep royal purple at the tips. Covered in tiny hairs giving it a soft, almost velvet texture. ‘I’d rather suck a flibbertigibbet!’ – common peasant oath.” The flavour/mouthfeel is described as “bitter, unpleasant!” and the aroma as “sour lemon”.

There are no suggestions as to how entries might be used, but some entries are more suggestive. For example, the habitat for the ‘Church Black Bracket’ is the high branches of wild plum and has the appearance of, “Black top crust with a fluffy pore-bearing surfaces that drip an oily excretion. Processed into a paint used by religious artists. Hard to work with but produces a fine, glossy black pigment. The heretic sects in the far west make wonderful use of this paint, but as the bracket doesn’t grow in such hot climates, it has become a valuable trade good (if one can bear to trade with such barbarians).” It has the flavour and mouthfeel of being far too oily and the aroma of rotten cherry. This has much more of an immediate use as the prompts are stronger and suggest questions that the Game Master might want to answer.

Thus, the entries vary in how useful they are in terms of storytelling. Some tend towards being mundane, others are more interesting. It should be noted that many entries are of an adult nature. Not necessarily explicit, but definitely requiring an adult readership.

If Fungi of the Far Realms does not detail the effects or uses of its fungi in the induvial entries, the appendices do. The first appendix suggests various potential symptoms for consuming a fungus, such as ‘Cucco Aminata’ that causes a homunculus to grow and bud from the consumer, or ‘Pixie Yeast’, a puddle of which can produce a small loaf of bread each day or a flagon of beer in two weeks. ‘Pixie Yeast’ can be kept aside over and over, so that it can be grown again and again over time to provide more bread and perhaps, beer. The second examines poisons. This provides an overview of potential poisonous effects rather than specific rules since Fungi of the Far Realms is systemless and every roleplaying game has its own rules for poison. Simply, a poisonous fungus should not simply kill the consumer, but suggest symptoms and give time for a Player Character to react and seek help. There is a table of entries for hallucinogenic effects, plus details of some fungal infections and a quick word about fungiculture that it is hard work and probably done by a mycologist. A view of the Far Realms is included inside the front cover with a grided map inside the back cover to help locate the various entries in the book in the region.

Physically, Fungi of the Far Realms is a beautiful looking book. The artwork is excellent.

Fungi of the Far Realms is an attractive book, but not an immediately useful book and it makes clear that not all of its entries are going to be used and that they should be used sparingly. What this means is that Fungi of the Far Realms is a book that is likely to sit on a Game Master’s shelf far longer than other sourcebooks and only be pulled from said shelf when there is a need a fungus, a toadstool, or the like. The fact that it is systemless is both an advantage and a disadvantage. An advantage because it can be used with any roleplaying game and a disadvantage because the Game Master still needs to develop the entries in the book to give them a role in her campaign setting or world, with some entries more interesting in the prompts they provide. Fungi of the Far Realms is a lovely book to have and pretty to peruse, but of limited use and application.

The Other OSR: Get It At Sutler’s

Shall we go shopping? Shopping can be a necessity, it can be a chore, and it can be fun. Whether online or in person, we need to shop for essentials, but there are times when it can be a pleasure. Perhaps browsing for a new book or looking for the perfect outfit for that big event. Shopping in roleplaying though? Exactly the same. For the Game Master, it can be an exercise in tedium as her players pick over the contents of the rulebook’s equipment list or the roleplaying game’s equipment guide. For the player, it can be all part of the roleplaying experience, building his characters with the right gear, whether for flavour or the right effect. It even has a certain mystique of its own, because in most cases, what a player is buying for his character, is not a pint of milk, a loaf of bread, and a box of tea bags, but everything he could never imagine buying for himself. A chain hauberk, a short sword, a silver mirror, sleeping furs, a bag of caltrops, a Geiger counter, a Bergmann M.P.18,I submachine gun, a vial of black scorpion contact poison, and whatnot and so on and so on… What then of the staff? The life of the shop worker is very rarely exciting, bar the occasional encounter with a shoplifter or a fire evacuation, but what if that was not the case? Could a day in the life of a shop worker actually be exciting, or even interesting? With Get It At Sutler’s, it could actually be both.

Get It At Sutler’s is a supplement for TROIKA!, the science-fantasy role-playing game of exploring the multiverse. It is published by the Melsonian Arts Council, and much like the recent Whalgravaak’s Warehouse and The Hand of God adventures, it presents another aspect of the great city of Troika which lies at the heart of said multiverse. Its focus is firmly upon shopping, but firmly upon the staff perspective, and upon the hijinks and misadventures they have as employees of the greatest, the most fashionable, and the most prestigious department store in all of Troika. Whether it is Harrods, Liberty, Selfridges, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Le Bon Marché, and even Grace Brothers from the BBC comedy series, Are You Being Served?, the department store not only sells you everything, but it does also so with courtesy and a degree of prestige. Its halls are places to be seen and its name carries a certain cachet, and its always polite staff have a certain way of doing things, for a department store is a world unto itself. Sutler’s is no different. It is just a whole weirder—and it really, really specialises in fish.

There is no call for any particular character type for Get It At Sutler’s. The Player Characters have simply applied for a job at the department store and in this age of the gig economy, can put in a shift at any time of the day or night. Except bank holidays, when Sutler’s is closed. The management pays only for shifts worked. After all, a Player Character cannot spend all of his time adventuring across the multiverse and does have rent and food to pay for. Plus, all that time spent adventuring across the multiverse does not always pay for said rent and food. Putting in a shift at Sutler’s might just mean keeping the turbot from the door.

What Get It At Sutler’s is not is a complete guide to a department store, from the basement to the top floor, from department to department, from deliveries in to deliveries out, from just out the back to the department’s café where being seen is all that matters, from its prestigious food hall to the office of the night manager. Rather, it is an adventure or encounter generator. All the players have to do is to decide that their characters are to put in a shift and the Game Master can make a roll on the ‘shop business matrix’ to determine the time of year, how busy the shift will be, and what the most exciting thing that will happen to the characters on that shift. The six categories are ‘Quiet Day’, ‘Helping Customers’, ‘Stock Control’, ‘Feast Day’, ‘Tourists’, and ‘Heaving Wall of Flesh’, the latter referring to a day when Sutler’s is very busy and the Player Characters are facing ‘Too Many Customers’.

For example, a roll for ‘Heaving Wall of Flesh’ might be “A live-catch tank leaked overnight, and the stain looks like the gaping face of St Mungo. People looking for his blessings are queuing along every isle, mixed in with innocent fish buyers. Tensions flare.” whilst a roll for ‘Stock Control’ a day might involve, “The Society of Porters and Basin Fillers is on strike, meaning you must collect your own fish from the back warehouses. You may TEST YOUR LUCK or else get lost and trapped in the store overnight. Beware the Nightmanager.”

Beyond an adventure or encounter generator, What Get It At Sutler’s is also a bestiary of Enemies that the Player Characters might face on a shift at the department store. From the All-Terrain Shark, the Cutter Clam that can be used as weapons with their fleshy siphons, and the Palyngers, the city’s eels that are known to be incumbent souls standing ready to be reborn, but are still a staple food, to the members of Troika’s great and good, such as the Alcalde, the city’s unpredictable peacekeepers and spies commanded by the Great Cairo, the Cocksure Gamins, juveniles on great adventures of armies, kings, and queens, which actually look delinquency, and simply, Too Many Customers. There are also members of Sutler’s’ staff, such as the genial Daymanager, who everyone sees once, but rarely sees again; the long-legged, pinstriped Floorwalkers whose bodies lurk near the ceiling, only descending to deal with violent incidences; and the well-built and sunburnt barbarians who work as Florists despite their violent sense of humour and toxic work culture. Then there is the Nightmanager, the counterbalance and sinister shadow to the Daymanager, again rarely seen, but known to break the rules, replenish the stock, and creepily observe the doings of the department store. As you would expect from a Troika! supplement, these are all weird and odd and intriguing, and there are even mini-adventures or hooks, like those for the Disciplinary Ordeal, that can take place instead of a Player Character being fired!

Get It At Sutler’s closes with three appendices. In turn, these detail the Troikan year, a selection of fish products, and ‘Pisceans in the Second House – A Sutler’s Adventure’. This introduces Sutler’s and takes the Player Characters from their interview with the beatific Daymanager and into their first shift as a probationary member of staff. It is an unsettlingly fishy affair, and rightly so. The suggestion is that this could happen after the events detailed in ‘The Blancmange & Thistle’, the scenario in the Troika! rulebook. Of course, it would be fascinating to see an anthology of scenarios set just within the halls and departments of Sutler’s.

Physically, Get It At Sutler’s is a delightful book. Troika!’s art is always off kilter and Get It At Sutler’s is no different. In between, full page greyscale pieces capture the vastness and scope of the department store, as well as just how busy it can get.

Get It At Sutler’s is not a campaign setting or a sourcebook in the traditional sense. It does depict and describe a setting, but rather than simply laying out the details, it places them in encounters to be found by the Game Master, and then developed and presented to her players. It gives ideas and encounters—and lots of them—in a world within a world, that of a department store, that the Player Characters will visit when they need money or the Game Master wants to run something in between fuller, more traditional scenarios. Such traditional scenarios might even be run as ‘Disciplinary Ordeals’ since the management at Sutler’s is loath to truly fire anyone. The supplement is thus particularly useful when not all of the players are present or the campaign is between scenarios.

Get It At Sutler’s is a delightfully unconventional framework and book of encounters and hooks for the Game Master to develop and so bring to life, the world of the department store, in true Troika! style. It is a world of piscine peculiarity and harrowing hierarchy, one that gives the Player Characters something to do and somewhere to be, on their quite literally, odd offdays.

The Other OSR: The Hand of God

Troika! is both a setting and a roleplaying game. As the latter, it provides simple, clear mechanics inspired by the Fighting Fantasy series of solo adventure books, but combined with a wonderfully weird cast of character types, all ready to play the constantly odd introductory adventure, ‘The Blancmange and Thistle’. As the former, it takes the Player Characters on adventures through the multiverse, from one strange sphere to another, to visit twin towers which in their dying are spreading a blight that are turning a world to dust, investigate murder on the Nantucket Sleigh Ride on an ice planet, and investigate hard boiled murder and economic malfeasance following the collapse of the Scarf-Worm investment bubble. At the heart of Troika! stands the city itself, large, undefined, existing somewhere in the cosmos with easy access from one dimension after another, visited by tourists from across the universe and next door, and in game terms, possessing room aplenty for further additions, details, and locations. One such location is The Hand of God.

The Hand of God is the second entry in a new series of scenarios for Troika! from the Melsonian Arts Council begun with Whalgravaak’s Warehouse. This is the ‘1:5 Troika Adventures’ series, which places an emphasis on shorter, location-based adventures, typically hexcrawls or dungeoncrawls, set within the city of Troika, but which do not provide new Backgrounds for Player Characters or ‘Hack’ how Troika! is played. The Hand of God lives up to these tenets, in that it is a dungeoncrawl that takes place in the upturned hand atop the tallest statue to a god in the temple district of the city of Troika. The Player Characters are plucked from their dreams and the scenario opens with them waking to find themselves atop the extended index finger, in the giant nest of THOG, the demon bird. It is a strikingly silly and utterly appropriate cold opening for the Player Characters and the scenario, and it makes the scenario incredibly easy to slot into a campaign. The Players Characters fall asleep one night and when they wake up, there they are. What the Player Characters can see below them is the fingers of the hand, a gondola spanning the distance between the index finger and the thumb, bridges between the other fingers, a tower on the middle finger whilst water rushes out of the tip of the finger to fall to a lake below, a ramshackle wooden town on the little finger, and far below on the palm, forests and mountains surrounding the lake, and even perhaps a way down. It is a wondrous vista, a sight unlike that in any other roleplaying game and The Hand of God never lets the Game Master or her players forget it. There are constant reminders of what the Player Characters can see throughout the adventure.

The Hand of God is a pointcrawl, consisting of locations linked by specific routes and connections, making deciding where to go from one location to the next easy to decide. It is literally laid out in front of them, like the palm of well, a god’s hand. As the Player Characters descend, they will encounter the denizens of the hand, like the Goblins at the Gondola Station led by Frenki, the elderly radical mazematician ostracised for his experimental maze design, and Skink, the priest from Jibberwind Temple, currently riding the gondola back and forth in silent contemplation, who could be provoked enough to start a fight—and would quite like it if you did. In a cave down the thumb, the sleazy, flat cap-wearing Crenupt the Undead, who has been thrown out of Jgigji, the tumbledown town of living dead on the little finger, who might have goods to sell that he very likely stole and if that fails, the means to take revenge by stealing everything from the town if the Player Characters will help him. All he wants is a lot of wine. A lot of wine. The index finger is scored and scarred by Sofia the Giant Serpent as she endlessly circumnavigates the finger, her iron scales cutting deep into the stone of the finger, whilst just above in the crags, three Harpy sisters all want food, but one also wants to hear fine music, another to see beautiful paintings, and a third to read beautiful words, and they all hate each other!

The hand has several major locations. They include Jibberwind Temple, which is home to the cult of the Perfect Fingers, dedicated to Thog, its looping corridors acting more as wind tunnels and its treasure vault the target of many an inhabitant of the hand, whilst Thark Village is being put to the torch by Automonous Arrests and Adjudication Inquisitorial sect of The Indelible Order of Allotted Idols as the villagers huddle in the crypts below and attempt a ritual which might save them. Elsewhere, there is Jgigji, the town of drunken undead, a wizard’s tower/folly where the wizard’s work is likely the actual folly, and a community of Parchment Witches—one of the signature character types in Troika!—who set snares and net traps for beast and intruders, using the skins of the former to create some of the best parchment across the spheres whilst squabbling about anything and everything. All of these locations and their various factions are interlinked and many of the people that they meet will share information or ask for help in return for it, pushing the Player Characters onwards in their exploration of the statue. The descriptions of the scenario’s many NPCs do vary in detail, but all are going to be fun for the Game Master to portray, some of the less detailed ones really leaving room for the Game Master to develop how she wants to portray them and make them memorable.

Escape is the ultimate aim for the Player Characters in The Hand of God. But there are also plenty of mini-locations and dungeons to explore, treasures to find or steal, and of course, there is the view to look at. Other options are suggested as to why the Player Characters might want to go to The Hand of God, whether that is find one of the treasures in the statue, locate a curse-eater, or discover their future from Vow, the Spider-God who can read the threads of fate. Many of these reasons might also explain why the Player Characters might want to return to The Hand of God in the future.

Physically, it all helps that the content of The Hand of God is presented in very accessible fashion. The maps are great and the adventure is decently illustrated. The scenario needs a slight edit in places.

The Hand of God manages to feel big, but is delightfully self-contained, more or less in the palm of a god’s hand, a pointcrawl as memorable for its location as its content, such that it is more of a ‘handcrawl’ than a pointcrawl. The Hand of God is fun, easy to drop into a campaign, and like any good Troika! scenario is weird and wondrous.

The Other OSR: Whalgravaak’s Warehouse

Troika! is both a setting and a roleplaying game. As the latter, it provides simple, clear mechanics inspired by the Fighting Fantasy series of solo adventure books, but combined with a wonderfully weird cast of character types, all ready to play the constantly odd introductory adventure, ‘The Blancmange and Thistle’. As the former, it takes the Player Characters on adventures through the multiverse, from one strange sphere to another, to visit twin towers which in their dying are spreading a blight that are turning a world to dust, investigate murder on the Nantucket Sleigh Ride on an ice planet, and investigate hard boiled murder and economic malfeasance following the collapse of the Scarf-Worm investment bubble. At the heart of Troika! stands the city itself, large, undefined, existing somewhere in the cosmos with easy access from one dimension after another, visited by tourists from across the universe and next door, and in game terms, possessing room aplenty for further additions, details, and locations. One such location is Whalgravaak’s Warehouse.

Whalgravaak’s Warehouse is the start of a new series of scenarios for Troika! from the Melsonian Arts Council. This is the ‘1:5 Troika Adventures’ series, which places an emphasis on shorter, location-based adventures, typically hexcrawls or dungeoncrawls, set within the city of Troika, but which do not provide new Backgrounds for Player Characters or ‘Hack’ how Troika! is played. Whalgravaak’s Warehouse lives up to these tenets, in that its dungeoncrawl takes place in a large, in places, impossibly large interdimensional warehouse that served as major import/export house for the city of Troika. Whalgravaak was once known as the cruel, but efficient logistics wizard who could get anything from anywhere and ship anything to anywhere, which made him and clients rich as the city became a shipping nexus between the spheres without the need or the expense of training staff to crew and maintain the golden barges that still traverse between the spheres today. However, Whalgravaak grew paranoid in his old age, destroyed the instruction manual to the great device by which goods were transported, and retired. When the device became a threat to the city of Troika, the Autarch ordered Whalgravaak’s Warehouse permanently closed and locked. That was centuries ago. Whalgravaak is long dead. His warehouse still stands, a looming monolithic presence in a bad part of the city. Nobody goes in and nobody comes out. Though some claim there is movement on the room. Now, someone wants something from inside and have decided that the Player Characters are best equipped to find their way in and navigate its darkened offices and deep storage bays with their vertiginously stacked crates, which surely must still contain something interesting after all that since Whalgravaak himself died?

Whalgravaak’s Warehouse gives one main reason why the Player Characters might want to break into and explore the warehouse. This is to locate a book called The Tome of Sable Fields, for which they will be paid handsomely, but there are others and the Game Master can easily come up with more. Finding a way into the warehouse is a challenge in itself, but inside, the Player Characters will find strange worm-headed dogs gone feral, creeping bandits and burglars looking for goods to fence or places to dump bodies, cultists who worship the still breathing nose of a titan, a clan of dustmen sieving the heaps of dust on the expansive roof of the warehouse where the air glows aquamarine like the Dustmen of Charles Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend, and more. There are rooms full of great lengths of rope that are mouldering into slime, a vegetable store where an onion has become an Onion Godlet, a room of sponges so dry it will suck the moisture from anyone who enters, and a set of employee records laden with bureaucratic despair… The roof is a post-apocalyptic hexcrawl of its very own, a separate environment that is essentially a desert of dust, marked only by the flickering head of one the giants that still work in the warehouse below and an Oasis of Tea, that will take the Player Characters days to explore. They had better come prepared for hot weather!

Locating The Tome of Sable Fields is a relatively simple matter and the Player Characters may do so relatively quickly, but actually getting hold of it is another matter. It is actually suspended over the very means by which Whalgravaak transported goods from one dimension to another by a crane. Unfortunately, none of the parts of the crane are talking to each other and the only way to get the crane operating is to get them to talk to each other. Essentially one bit of the crane is more noble than the other and the Player Characters will probably need to persuade them to overcome their individual problems and snobbery. This will drive them into exploring the warehouse further in the hopes of finding the means of getting each one to co-operate.

As part of the ‘1:5 Troika Adventures’ series and thus a dungeoncrawl, although one in a warehouse, Whalgravaak’s Warehouse is designed to be played like a dungeon and explored like a dungeon. Thus movement, noise, and resources become important, the Player Characters need a source of light and the scenario is played out in ten-minute turns in true Old School style Dungeons & Dragons. This also means that Whalgravaak’s Warehouse is played differently to other adventures for Troika!, with less of an emphasis on narrative play and more on environmental, location-based exploration. In keeping with the style, the adventure is perhaps deadlier and more challenging than the typical Troika! adventure, requiring more caution and care than a Troika! player might be used to.

Physically, Whalgravaak’s Warehouse is very well presented. The artwork is as weird and wonderful as you would expert, the cartography is decent, and the layout is clear and easy to use. There is also good advice for the Game Master on how and why she should use Whalgravaak’s Warehouse, and a clear explanation of what is going on in the warehouse.

Whalgravaak’s Warehouse is a great set-up for an adventure. Take the warehouse of an interdimensional import/export house, abandon it for centuries, and then turn it into an industrial dungeon with weird Dickensian undertones. The result is eminently entertaining and constantly going to screw with the heads of both the players and their characters as they discover one example of industrial decline after another and just what happens when you leave a dangerous interdimensional magical industrial complex alone for far too long.

The Other OSR: Bridgetown

In between the Infinite Sky above and the fog-bound depths of the Under below, the Bridge goes ever on. Towns sprawl upwards into dense conurbations of towers as if to touch the Infinite Sky, whilst the narrow sewers and undercities thread in and out of between the Bridge’s great stone piles. Were one to descend below, you might discover labyrinths and hidden facilities, and deeper still, horrors and strangeness beyond the understanding of any Bridger, each fascinated by the Bridgers brave—or foolish—enough to descend so far. Some Spans of the Bridge are busy towns. Some the gated estates of the aristocracy. Some are broken—by accident or by too much theft of the Bridge’s stone and metal, the only source of either, for the Bridgers. Some have buildings upon which there are rooftop gardens—the only source of food for the Bridgers. Some have gone to seed and overgrown into wildernesses, as much as the cobbles of the Bridge will allow. There is said to be a Span on the Bridge where it is perpetual night and another where the Span revolves slowly to connect with the rest of the Bridge once a day. It is also said that the Bridge is alive and some can hear its whispers if they listen carefully enough. In between every Span, stands a Gatehouse. Most are operated by the Turnpike Guild, taking travellers money in return for supposedly safe passage, though most regard the supposedly protective guild members as nothing more than extortionists. From the Awful Birds in the Infinite Sky and the Gargoyles lurking seemingly everywhere, everything is hungry and resources are far from plentiful, and occasionally, something strange will happen on the Bridge, though no one will say what. As the Bridge crumbles underfoot, there are those who look beyond their Span, ready to go in search of… something. The Bridgers are at peace now, thanks to the mythical pact between the Trolls and Gruffolk and Humans and Coblins, so now is as good a time as any for a Bridge-Punk to go look for it, somewhere along Bridgetown.

Bridgetown describes itself as a pastoral, liminal roleplaying game. Liminal certainly, as it is always set somewhere in between along the infinite length of the Bridge. Pastoral? Perhaps, but then only so far as the cobbles of the Bridge allows. Published by Technical Grimoire Games, best known for Bones Deep, it uses the TROIKA!, published by the Melsonian Arts Council, this is a roleplaying game of picaresque adventure and exploration along a weird and winding bridge that never seems to end. It is possible for the players to select backgrounds from the core rules for TROIKA!, but Bridgetown has a dozen of its own that all help enforce the feel of the sitting. These are Coblins, Gruffolk, Humans, and Trolls. The Humans include the Cobble Canter, charlatans who beg and spread the word of new gods and ideas like the Unrequited Moon and the Bleeding Stone; the Fallen Aristocrat who has literally fallen out of his tower and been scored by his fellows; the Pebble-Pincher, the homeless of the Bridgetown, who cheerfully avoids the authorities and might be connected to the mysterious Bindlestick Syndicate; the Stonewright, who can shepherd the spirits of the dead into protective keystones and talk to them; and the Turnpike Turncoat, a member who has been turfed out of the Turnpike Guild. Coblins are tiny folk, who typically travel in very large groups, forced out of their homes following the pact that ended their enslavement, finding homes where they can squeeze into. Coblin Cranny-Crawlers travel more openly, whilst Coblins in a Trench Coat disguise themselves in human-sized clothes. Gruffolk are nomadic goat-folk, travelling in braying groups called trips. The Gruffolk Hostler is on an endless quest to feed his Gruffolk travellers, whilst the Gruffolk Pilgrim searches for the perfect destination, the Fat Pastures, the Gruffolk afterlife, with a zeal, but enjoy a good fight along the way. The Troll Sewer Worker maintains and protects the sewers in the Underbridge, and as a member of the Sewer Union, seeks to unionise other works and stand up against the Turnpike Guild, whilst the Troll Shaman, or ‘Croaker’, who sacrifices part of his own stony hide to cast various spells and cures. Lastly, the Stone Keening is a Troll-sized agglomeration of human souls not syphoned into a keystone by a Stonewright, who have animated a pile of rubble and are mostly looking to avoid getting turned into a pile of gravel by a braying mob or for a quiet place to grow moss.

Bridger creation in Bridgetown follows the same process as TROIKA! begins with character creation. A Bridger is defined by his Skill, Stamina, and Luck. A player rolls for each of these, notes his possessions, and then rolls for his Background. Each Background provides several Advanced Skills, which can be actual skills or they can be spells. The process is quick and easy, and also includes an objective or three that each Background might pursue.

Name: Cumil
Background: Troll Sewer Worker
Skill 4
Stamina 18
Luck 6

ADVANCED SKILLS
Sanitation 7, Swim 3, Awareness 6, Tunnel Fighting 6

SPECIAL
See well in dark tunnels and cloudy water
Inoculated against waterborne diseases

POSSESSIONS
Knife, rucksack, lantern, flask of oil, a grimy shovel, miniature trollhole cover (Sewer Union Badge of Membership), slimeproof ratskin cap, snapstipe mushrooms (three provisions)

LOOK’N FOR
Workers to unionise
A place in need of infrastructure
A real breath of fresh air

Bridgetown is described in twelve locations, such as The Heights (and Depths); Craterton with its massive rock that fell from the Infinite Sky; the Squeeze, which is so densely populated that a single path runs through it; the Great Excavation where the inhabitants have dug down so deep into the Bridge, that Bridgers have to climb down deep into the excavated pylon and climb back out again; and Sourstone, which is not home to the Fabled Candy Cobbled Streets where every stone is a treat, but something much worse… If this does not sound that all that many, they are not necessarily one and done locations. All have tables of events and NPCs, so that the Bridgers can visit certain locations again and again, like The Heights (and Depths) and The Wyld Bridge, which are given over to lengths of wilderness.

Between the spans the Gatehouses, massive blocks of stone manned by the various Turnpike Guilds who always charge extra, or special, for ne’er do wells like the Player Characters. The description of each Gatehouse includes the toll that the Bridgers will have to pay to pass. So, The Armistice Gate has a powerful keystone that enforces a ban against the use of all weapons, so the Turnpike Guildsmen have become expert martial artists and brawlers with a penchant for delivering impromptu sermons! To pass through the Gate, the Toll the Bridgers will need to pay is not monetary, but the gruelling ‘Embrace of Peace’ initiation rite and give up their arms and armour. Locations within the Gate include The Hall of Arms where the confiscated arms and armour—some of them actually a rare source of metal on the Bridge—are displayed and stored and The Path of Peace, the temple-point of crossing where travellers cross from one span to the next.

Essentially, every Span and Gate is an encounter all of its own, each unique in their own way and rife with flavour and small details that bring them to life. They can be played in order as written—and Bridgetown includes a full-colour map that both depicts all of the Spans and Gates and allows the Game Master to do that or alternatively, randomise their order. Bridgetown comes with a way to push the Bridgers along in addition to their individual motivations. This is the campaign starter, ‘Stone Soup’, in which the Bridgers come into possession of the Cauldron, a big iron pot with a smiling face in which can be cooked magical stews! Known recipes are few and ingredients rare, but start with a handful of provisions. Possible stews can be boring, fancy, or tainted, and have odd effects such as a fertile stew that makes anything planted in it grow to fruition in a day, turns into a blade that shatters are dealing maximum damage, or makes anyone eating it grow hungrier and hungrier until he finds what he is looking for. The Fertile Stew requires fresh and magical ingredients, the Bladed Stew needs sharp and old ingredients, and the Curiosity Stew wants dull and secret ingredients. In possession of the Cauldron, the Bridgers might be searching for the cure to a horrible disease, for the Perfect Stew that might be the best means of exchange to pass through the many Gates, and so on. The more immediate driver will be the search for more ingredients and recipes, and Bridgetown has lots of information about ingredients and recipes.

Of course, in addition the Game Master can create her Spans and Gates—in fact, a book of reader submitted Gates and Spans would be an excellent companion volume—and she can add her own dungeons to the Under below the Bridge or even insert a ready-to-play one! In addition to the events and NPC tables to be found in most of the Span locations, Bridgetown includes spells linked to the Bridge which require the caster to be touching the Bridge directly and to possess a Spell-Stone. Every Spell-Stone has its own Stamina, which is expended when a spell is cast and crumbles to dust when all of the Stamina is expended. However, overuse of magic in an area causes a Span to weaken and also begin to crumble… Spells include Word on the Street when the caster literally asks the street underfoot what has happened there recently or Stonewall to create a physical wall to slow pursuers or a metaphysical wall to cause obtuse instructions in getting answers! There are further random tables for ‘Weird Weather’, more ‘Bridgetown NPCs or Creatures’, the effects of ‘Magical Spells Run Amok’, ‘Items and Loot’, ‘Awful Birds’, and more.

Physically, Bridgetown is cleanly laid out and accessible. It is clearly designed to be used at the table. The artwork is a mix of the twee and the odd and the doleful, a delightful combination.

As befitting a setting for TROIKA!, there is a weirdness and whimsiness to Bridgetown. In terms of scope, it is designed for short campaigns that would likely take the Bridgers across many of the Spans and through several of the Gates described in its pages, in addition to whatever the Game Master devised of her own. In terms of character, Bridgetown offers some wonderfully engaging choices, but the real character is the Bridge itself, a combination of the original London Bridge and Castle Gormenghast that looms over the Bridgers in their Dickensian flânerie as they in turn trudge and cavort from one Span to the next.

The Other OSR: Slate & Chalcedony

The land where the two towers now stand was bright and clean. Then they appeared and from their base grew a circle spreading blight which destroys all that it touches, creating a zone where nothing lives and nothing grows. The rivers are poisoned and empty. No birds fly overhead. Armies have been sent to assault and topple the towers to bring an end to the spreading blight. None have returned. The blight continues to grow. Will the world become a jet-black desert or can anything be done about it? Perhaps brave adventurers will venture forth and investigate the towers? Perhaps they have their objectives—to recover an object from inside one of the towers, to access a gateway to another world inside, to kidnap or rescue someone from inside the tower, and so on… The two towers are not what they seem, though they are the source of the blight. They are the bodies of two powerful sorcerers who travel from world to world, drawing energy from each one, but rarely staying long. The question is, what is it that keeps them in this world? Although each tower is actually the body of a great sorcerer, each is occupied—by sorcerers, Apeman guards, staff, and the occasional monster. Each can be fully navigated and each is full of mysteries.

This is the set-up for Slate & Chalcedony. Slate & Chalcedony is both the names of the two wizards and thus the two towers and the name of an adventure for TROIKA!, the science-fantasy role-playing game of exploring the multiverse. Published by the Melsonian Arts Council, it presents the twisted towers, along with the NPCs and monsters, new spells, and prophecies, as an environment in which to explore and roleplay. Notably, both towers are presented in cross section as a whole, rather floor plans, level-by-level. This adds a certain degree of childish wonder to the weirdness and whimsy that pervades the two towers. This starts from the moment that the Player Characters enter either tower. In Slate they will find diplomatic Delegates in Pressure Suits who have been so harassed by the porcine Gentle Hurmin the Familiar that they have forgotten their purpose; a sphere of black liquid which collates prophecies that can be collected by the mouths in the room below and if drunk, will grant the imbiber some of those prophecies and possibly kill them; a would-be apprentice who specialises in magical dentistry and is so bored, she lets her teeth grow and replenish consistently; and more, whilst overhead Pig Harpies circle and inside the tower, Apemen formidable and loyal patrol and protect the tower, sometimes guarding, sometimes grooming, sometimes curious, sometimes hooting. In Chalcedony, Brain Clusters spark and flash on a great tree, but cannot seem to work or communicate together; Boneroach nests infest the walls; and the tower seems to breath through great gill slits that also happen to be very convenient for climbing. Slate is more extensive, more developed, and more detailed than the other, in places possessing the feel of strange rocket ship or upright submarine, whilst Chalcedony is less developed and not as extensive, being a rougher combination of stone and flesh.

There are short incident or encounter tables for both towers, whilst the first of several appendices provides stats and details of all of the ‘New Enemies’ to be found in both towers. These include the Apemen, Boneroaches, Cerebral Spiders, the Chalcedony Wizard, and a lot more. Their entries include Mien tables too, so that encounters with the various creatures can vary from one encounter to the next. This is especially so with the porcine Gentle Hurmin the Familiar, who can be encountered in either ‘Malevolent’ or ‘Benevolent’ mode. The new spells are inventive, but as weird and as icky as you would expect. Emetomancy forces vomiting and consumption of the result, Megadonsy causes teeth to grow and replace older teeth for as long as the caster wishes; and Metonomasy forces a name change on a victim and it sticks until the caster decides. It should be noted that the lightness of the mechanics to TROIKA! means that Slate & Chalcedony is easily adapted to the Old School Renaissance retroclone of the Game Master’s choice.

Physically, Slate & Chalcedony is very well presented. Even the cover—slate grey on one side and shot through with the red of carnelian on the other half—presages what lies inside, which is illustrated with rich colours. The illustrations are excellent and the cross sections of the two towers present a surprising amount of detail. The writing leans towards the succinct where necessary, adding more detail depending upon the location.

Where Slate & Chalcedony comes up short is in the ‘What If?’. It does not discuss the consequences of the Player Character actions or how exactly they go about preventing the spread of the blight emanating from the two towers. So, no mention of what happens if they stop the blight or what happens if they fail to stop the blight. Options are mentioned in the text, but not developed, leaving the Game Master with a number of questions to answer herself in preparing the scenario. More so than ideally should be necessary. Another issue is that some of the locations within the Slate tower are only accessible via the network of vents, but it is not made clear how those vents are accessed.

Slate & Chalcedony takes the fantasy motif of twin towers and twists them to the weirdness and wonder of TROIKA! The scenario provides a great set-up and situation, and if it does not develop any possible outcomes as it really should, it does in the meantime deliver two wondrous and strange environments for the Player Characters to explore and interact with and so provide several sessions of rich adventure.

Whimsy & Weirdness

TROIKA! is the Science Fantasy roleplaying game of weird and whimsical adventure across the universe and beyond. Originally published by the Melsonian Arts Council in 2016, mechanically, it is inspired by the most British of roleplaying games—the Fighting Fantasy series of solo adventure books—and fiction as diverse as Jack Vance’s Dying Earth tales, Michael Moorcock’s Jerry Cornelius adventures, and the baroque future of the Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. With no limit as to where, and possibly even when, the Player Characters can go—whether by eldritch portal, non-Euclidean labyrinth, or golden-sailed barge from crystal Sphere to another, they are essentially the flaneurs of the far future. The game combines simple character creation and easy rules, but with rich character ideas. However, what strikes you about the new edition of TROIKA! is its format: a light softback book with spine cover unglued so that the front cover folds out and sits flat to show the map of ‘The Blancmange & Thistle’, the hotel that is the site for the adventure of the same included in the book. Not only does the front cover sit flat, so does the book as a whole on the table, making it physically very easy to read. That is in addition to the fact that TROIKA! itself is easy to read and digest.

TROIKA! begins with character creation. A Player Character is defined by his Skill, Stamina, and Luck. A player rolls for each of these, notes his possessions, and then rolls for his Background. Each Background provides several Advanced Skills, which can be actual skills or they can be spells. There are thirty-six of these, ranging from the ordinary to the outré—and there are definitely more of the latter than the former. So the ordinary include the Burglar, the Chaos Champion on a sabbatical from plunging worlds into chaos and speaks Kurgan no less, the Member of Miss Kinsey’s Dining Club whose members will and can eat anything that can be imagined edible, and Questing Knight, whilst the outré includes the Befouler of Ponds, high priest of the Great Toad and his reed filled waters; a Parchment Witch’ long dead sorcerer who wraps herself in perfectly beautiful paper skin; and many more.

Name: MacKack
Background: Monkeymonger
Skill 5
Stamina 19
Luck 6

ADVANCED SKILLS
Climb 4, Trapping 2, Club Fighting 1, Knife Fighting 1

POSSESSIONS
Knife, rucksack, lantern, flask of oil, provisions (six), 4 silver pence, monkey club, butcher’s knife, pocket full of monkey treats, five small monkeys

Mechanically, TROIKA! is very simple. To undertake an action, including casting a spell, a player rolls two six-sided dice, the aim being to roll equal to, or less than, his character’s Skill attribute. If the character has an appropriate Advanced Skill, the player adds that to his character’s Skill attribute. A roll of two sixes always indicates that the action fails. In contests, such as a race or a combat, the combatants roll two six-sided dice each, and each add any appropriate bonuses or Advanced Skill. The highest roll indicates the winner. Luck is tested when a Player Character is subject to fate. It is reduced by one no matter whether the test is a success or a failure. It can be recovered after several hours of rest.

Combat uses the same mechanics except initiative. This requires a lot of different coloured tokens and a container or cloth bag. The players each then add two dice of the same colour, but different to the other players, to the bag. The Game Master also adds a number of dice equal to the total enemy initiative. One last token, of an entirely different colour, is also added to the bag. This is the ‘End of Round’ token. All together, this is the called the Initiative Stack. When a token is drawn from the container, the NPC or Player Character whose token has been drawn, gets to act. When the ‘End of Round’ token is drawn, the round ends. This has an interesting range of effects. Players no longer know when their characters are going to act and may face innumerable actions upon the part of the enemy, before they have the opportunity to act. Further, they may not even get to act before the round ends. Opponents can have multiple tokens in the stack, perhaps because they are faster, more cunning, or better prepared, or have fewer tokens in the stack, because they are slower, cowardly, uncertain, and so on. It can also mean that the same opponent acts multiple times in a round, though this really applies to bigger or more powerful monsters, for example, a dragon, who have multiple options in terms of what they can do or attack with. (As an aside, this has a side effect of TROIKA! not being easy to run online.)

Armour is classified as either light, medium, and heavy, and reduces damage suffered by either one, two, or three points respectively. If a Player Character’s Stamina is reduced to zero, he is dying and his fellow Player Characters have roughly a round or so to act before he actually dies.

Casting a spell in TROIKA! costs the caster points of Stamina and also requires a Skill roll. A rolls of two ones always succeeds and a roll of two sixes not only fails, but necessitates a roll on the ‘Oops! Table’. The spells again range from the ordinary to the outré. The ordinary includes Darkness, which creates a sphere of blackness, and Find, which enables the castor to locate a lost object. Examples of the outré include Coal Resolve, which turn the target’s heart into a burning ember of grief which captures his entire focus, rendering him immune to mind control or physical pain, and Thought Vapour, which grants the caster’s nose a multidimensional presence enabling it to smell emotions, attitudes, and thoughts, though strong smells can block this effect.

Enemies in TROIKA! are simply defined. An Enemy’s Skill covers everything it can do, including the equivalent of a Player Character’s Advanced Skills as well as covering Luck, Stamina is generally lower to encourage faster combat and play, Initiative indicates the number of tokens that the Game Master adds to the Initiative Stack, and Armour indicates how much its protection, whether thick hide, worn armour, or incorporeality, reduces damage suffered. The damage an enemy can do is random, but the range determined by its size. Every one of the enemies described in TROIKA! is given a Mien table to help indicate its behaviour. And again, just like the spells and the Backgrounds, Enemies include the ordinary and the outré. There are Boggarts, Cyclops, Dragons, Goblins, and Harpies, but also Khabits, the cloned handmaids and officers of Exultants, used to fill out the attendance at parties and often as a source of spare organs for their clone-parents, but really want to replace or inherit from them; Notules, formless and freezing star-creatures which are sometimes used as a means of murder by targeting a victim to have their warmth sucked out to leave behind an unmarked corpse; and the Sympathy Serpent, which does not aggressively constrict its prey, but takes them in a gentle embrace and soothes them reassuringly that life is indeed soul-crushingly awful whilst swallowing them whole…

Rounding out TROIKA! is the introductory adventure, ‘The Blancmange and Thistle’. It is as weird as the Backgrounds that the Player Characters are likely to have. They arrive at their hotel to discover that it is hosting the Feast of the Chiliarch on the top floor, the consequences of which are there is only one room left in the hotel and it too, is on the top floor. Getting to their hotel room is a challenge and the meat of the scenario. The primary routes are by the Mandrill-operated lift or the stairs. There are some absolutely terrific encounters here, such as a Sweet Old Lady who asks lots of questions and the process gets the players to think about and describe their characters, rewarding their characters with magical bonbons; a Gas Form alien whose presence will drown the Player Characters, essentially forcing them to deal with an environmental threat; let them go shopping and peruse the wares of a Pushy Wall merchant; and more. There is an entirely different set of encounters on the stairs. This a genuinely fun adventure, for player and Game Master alike, well designed with just about the right level of oddness without overwhelming the players.

Physically, TROIKA! is cleanly and tidily presented. The artwork is cartoonish, mixing humour and weirdness in equal measure. The book itself is very light in the hand.

TROIKA! combines very quick and easy to learn and play rules with a set of fantastically entertaining and enticing choices for both for the players and the Game Master. These choices are wonderfully weird and whimsical in a very British way, slyly humorous, and all in readiness to explore the Crystal Spheres starting with the really fun scenario in the book.

Quick-Start Saturday: Swyvers

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

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

—oOo—

What is it?

The Swyvers Quickstart is introduces the rules light roleplaying of guttersnipes, rogues, grifters, charlatans, shysters, and chisellers on the make in filth and detritus of The Smoke, where it is always wet, foggy, smoky, and dirty, whether that is above ground or in the extensive Midden that runs deep under the sprawling metropolis. The Player Characters—or Swyvers—are desperate and dirty, but have to deal with corrupt officials, looming war, rogue sorcerers, monsters below and nobs above.

It is an Old School Renaissance-style roleplaying game.

It is an eighty-seven page, black and white book.

The quick-start is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is superb, capturing the grubbiness of the setting.

The Swyvers Quickstart requires an edit.

Technically, the Swyvers Quickstart is not a quick-start. It is an extensive exert from the core rulebook for Swyvers and there are missing an important number of elements usually found in quick-starts.

How long will it take to play?
The Swyvers Quickstart can provide multiple sessions of play, although it does not include an actual adventure.

What else do you need to play?
The Swyvers Quickstart requires five six-sided dice and a standard set of polyhedral dice.

A standard deck of playing cards is also necessary.

Who do you play?
There are no ready-to-play Swyvers given in the Swyvers Quickstart.

How is a Player Character defined?
A Swyver has three stats—Constitution, Dexterity, and Strength—and a chance of being literate (though the player needs to explain why in under five seconds!) and starts with a few coins, a trinket, and a personality trait.

How do the mechanics work?
Mechanically, the Swyvers Quickstart and thus Swyvers, uses two types of rolls—Competing Rolls and Saves. The rolls are made on pools of six-sided dice which can be adjusted in size to reflect the difficulty of the task. The aim is roll a total equal to, or less than, the appropriate attribute or a target number set by the Game Master.

In addition, a Swyver can have skills, for example, lockpicking, drinking contests, clipping and counterfeiting coins, or evaluating goods—stolen or otherwise, but mostly stolen. Each level adds increases the value of the attribute when using that skill.

There are also rules for chases, the random consequences of carousing, researching marks for cons, creating stooges and putterers (putterers are apprentices that a Swyver can train) and the possible revenge if they are abandoned, and fences and offloading stolen goods.

The rules for advancement highlight how Experience Points are gained from the sale of loot ‘conveniently’ found and for expenditure on carousing, research, and training a putterer. Of course, like other activities, these have associated damagers of their own.

How does combat work?
Combat in the Swyvers Quickstart involves a roll of two ten-sided dice to beat the Defence Value of the target. A roll of two tens by a player means that his Swyver has automatically killed the defendant, but is a standard attack by an NPC. A roll of two ones is a fumble and requires a roll on the ‘Critical Miss’ table.

Defence Value is determined by the weapon a combatant is wielding. So the Defence Value if a combatant is ‘Shooting’ or ‘Unarmed’ is six, but twelve if wielding a ‘Medium Weapon + Shield’. Armour soaks damage, the amount determined randomly, whilst weapon damage is dependent upon quality. Ropey weapons roll damage twice and take the lowest value; decent weapons roll once; and mint weapons roll damage twice and take the higher result.

There are notes on how to ‘Fyte Lyke a Swyver’. Essentially, a quick and dirty guide to fighting and not getting killed. Fighting fair will get a Swyver killed.

In other words, combat in Swyvers is brutal and meant to be that way.

How does Magic work?
Magic in Swyvers is uncommon, though rumours of witchcraft are not. Casting magic involves playing Blackjack to obtain a score of between seventeen and twenty-one. Results of sixteen and below indicate a failure, whilst results of twenty-two and above are critical failures—and there is a nasty table for that. With more understanding of magic, a caster can match the right card suit with the right Hippocratic Humour to gain extra spell effects if the spell is successfully cast, enhance it with spell components, and even gain an inkling of demonic forces behind what magic can be cast in The Smoke. The included grimoire is full of grim and ghastly spells.

What do you play?
There is no adventure in the Swyvers Quickstart. As an excerpt from the Swyvers rulebook, what it includes instead is a combined guide to The Smoke and set of procedural tables to enable the Game Master and her players procedurally generate the city. This starts with the city in broad details before focusing upon a district. The tables enable to the Game Master to determine the power and nature of the ruler of The Smoke, power and nature of the church, commonly supposed facts about the war going on, and districts and their features and qualities, including rumours and opportunities—the latter for every ‘good’ Swyver to take advantage of, random encounters, and some absolutely great street names!

Since Swyvers are anything but honest, so there is a list of crimes and their punishments. Plus a guide to making bribes and dealing with the watch and detectives. A watchman may make a Swyver’s lfe a misery, but a determined detective can be positively bothersome! Tables are provided to enable the Game Master create both and add quirks to bring them to life.

Below The Smoke is The Midden. First, the Shallow Midden and then the Deep Midden. Entrances to the former can be found all over The Smoke, the latter can only be accessed via the Shallow Midden. The dead are are entombed in the Shallow Midden, whilst the Deep Midden is where secrets are hidden and the call of the sea can be heard...

Although the Swyvers Quickstart does not include an adventure, there is nothing to stop a Game Master from using the content of the tables in the excerpt to create adventures.

Is there anything missing?
The Swyvers Quickstart is not complete, since it is truly not a quick-start, but a rulebook excerpt designed to give a taster of the full book. Aside from the lack of an adventure, the excerpt is missing a list of ready to use names and unlike other Old School Renaissance-style roleplaying games, there

Is it easy to prepare?
The core rules presented in the Swyvers Quickstart are far from difficult to prepare. The Game Master will need to create content herself, but this process is supported by the festering feast of details and descriptions included in the book. Thus the Game Master will need to come up with a plot, some NPCs, and more, which will take longer than preparing a typical quick-start.

Is it worth it?
Yes. The Swyvers Quickstart is a scrumptious feast of vile vagabounds, dastardly deceivers, and pernicious pilferers whose grotty shabiness and unscrupulous shadiness as told in a series of Dickensian penny dreadfuls. And as appalling and as awful as those penny dreadfuls are, there is a fascination with this wicked world that means that the Swyvers Quickstart is begging to be played and demanding that you roleplay the snot out of these tricksy little bastards.

Where can you get it?
The Swyvers Quickstart is available to purchase and download here.

Friday Fantasy: Wet Grandpa

Far up the River Whey there lives a monster. Well, not exactly a monster to be. It is not even as if he wants to be a monster. He is just old and lonely without his late wife and he has not long come back from being drowned. He has his grandchildren. After all, not for nothing were he and his wife known as Grandpa and Grandma Tolling. But they are young and he is old, and the young and the old do not understand each other. Especially when one of them has come back from the dead. So now Grandpa Tolling, not long since drowned, in the idle moments of his busy like—mostly as it was before—dreams of having companions like himself. Drowned. Connected to the waters of the river—somehow. And as the dead old man sleeps, the river rises and lowers, thrashes and surges, and the natural inhabitants of the river, the Naiads, are frightened. The river is their realm and they do not want to lose to some strange dead thing. The few remaining inhabitants of the nearest settlement, the town of Fatfish, have other worries. The river nearby was once full of fish just waiting to be hauled from the waters and fill the fishermen’s nets. Now the stocks of fish have long since gone and the fishing boats and their crews with them, leaving the once rich river port to fall into destitution, its inhabitants into despair and desperation. The few remaining inhabitants are divided between those who want to leave, those who want to stay, and those who simply no longer care. What might give them cause to leave are the dangers of the rising and falling waters of the fish-depleted river, were they to understand what those dangers mean. Were they to understand the now unnatural nature of the ‘Wet Grandpa’ on the Cursed Island, just across from the village, they might be more concerned…

Wet Grandpa is a scenario from Melsonian Arts Council, a publisher best known for Troika!, the science-fantasy role-playing game of exploring the multiverse. The scenario is ostensibly written for use with the Old School Renaissance, but in terms of stats it is relatively light. This means that Wet Grandpa can be run using all manner of Old School Renaissance retroclones, much in the manner of The Haunted Hamlet & other hexes, but with relatively little adjustment the scenario would work with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay or even RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha or Old Gods of Appalachia. Wet Grandpa sets up a fantastic situation, one full of roleplaying potential, but the uneven presentation and tone works all too often to undermine what is an evocatively sodden and bedraggled situation built around the interaction and relationships between various NPCs. Fundamentally, the problem is twofold. First, the players’ introduction consists of a man selling a roughly printed treasure map to their Player Characters. The seller explains that the treasure site is near Fatfish, a community about two weeks’ travel up the River Whey. This is not only an underwhelming hook for the players, let alone their characters, it ignores the richness of the situation in and around Fatfish and the interactions between the NPCs, any part of which could have been used to hook the Player Characters. Instead, the given hook is bland, even boring.

Second, the Referee’s Introduction does not start with an introduction to the scenario, but with an explanation of the situation of Grandpa Tolling. At that point, the Game Master is wondering how the two are connected. In fact, there are three strands to the scenario—Grandpa Tolling, the town of Fatfish, and the Naiads—but it is not until the reader gets to the last strand that he can begin to work out what is going on. So, from the start, the Game Master is unclear as to what she is reading and how it all links together, which hampers both her understanding and her preparation time. To be fair, once the Game Master has read much further into the book, she will be able to grasp what is going on and make the connections ready for her and her players, but this does not negate what is a fundamental error upon the part of the author.

Fortunately, once Wet Grandpa gets into its individual sections, it begins to come alive—or not in the case of the undead Grandpa Tolling. The descriptions of his current life and that of the few remaining inhabitants of Fatfish are evocatively forlorn and forgotten. An elderly couple, the Caplins, sit in their cabin, waiting for their sons to return, but they never will; with the loss of fish stocks, former fishing boat owner, Karlin Wilamyer, has forbidden his family from leaving though they want to, whilst his brother who did get away, wants to rescue his niece and nephew; the families of Dana Strix and Haren Greene have all died or left, either that or the two lovers simply murdered them; and Jorf Quine is waiting for his aunt to die so he can leave, and he might hurry it along—just a little. The families, what there is of them, are mouldering into the ground. Here there are some taunt little tensions between the various NPCs which only need the presence of the Player Characters to be brought out into play. The Game Master will need to develop her description of Fatfish itself, mostly drawing upon the detailed timeline included, such as suggesting the number of houses, the insect swarm ridden gardens, and so on.

As much opposed to Grandpa Tolling as scared of what he might become, the four Naiads—one per season—are also similarly detailed. Each of the four Naiads has a distinct form and character, Winter being an emaciated cougar, Summer a giant glass-eyed crow, and so on. They are minor gods at this point, but depending upon the actions of the Player Characters may grow in stature and power to become gods. Although capricious, they can be interacted with as what they really want is Grandpa Tolling dealt with. As a reward, the Naiads will grant access to their shared treasury, or simply abandon it, leaving for the Player Characters to discover and plunder, if they ascend to godhead. The treasury is a short, little dungeon whose primary threat is a nasty trap.

Rounding out Wet Grandpa is a guide to what happens if nobody stops Grandpa Tolling, followed by stats and more descriptions of the inhabitants of Fatfish and an encounter table for the area around the village. This includes the River Whey and the Cursed Island upon which Grandpa Tolling and his family of orphans live. It could also be used for the long two-week journey up the River Whey to Fatfish.

Physically, Wet Grandpa is presented as a board book, with a non-glossy, plain matte cover and no spine so that the glue binding is visible. The feeling in the hand is rough and tactile like that of the much later Frontier Scum. The scenario is readable and well written—in places. Elsewhere, the content is poorly organised. The artwork is bright and colourful, if rough.

Wet Grandpa has all of the elements to present a tensely playable situation between a dying village, a rising, but unwanted unnatural power, and fearful natural powers. Yet time and again, its poor organisation and its poor presentation of information hamper its ease of use and preparation. Potentially, there is a good scenario to be played in Wet Grandpa, if the Game Master is prepared to put the effort in pulling it out and putting the various parts together in a more playable fashion.