Friday Fantasy: Terror in the Streets

Terror in the Streets is perhaps one of the most mundane scenarios written for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay in recent times. In fact, there is nothing outré, weird, or even profane in the scenario, that is, unless the Game Master decides that is what she wants it to include. In which case, the scenario provides options to add aplenty. Otherwise, the Game Master could run it simply as a straight historical scenario and her players would be none the wiser that it is written for a fantasy roleplaying game with a certain reputation. Similarly, the author of Terror in the Streets breaks his track record of doing bad things with typically big things inspired by his childhood toys to English villages in the 1630s. Instead, he shifts the action to Paris and sets it against the background of the city’s political and religious turmoil as the Player Characters are hired to investigate the disappearances of a number of children from across the city. Yet despite that mundanity, Terror in the Streets is a terrific scenario, rich in historical detail background—decent enough to serve as the backdrop for further adventures in the city during the seventeenth century—and rife with real and interesting historical figures for the Player Characters to interact with, including the greatest and most powerful political figure of his age. However, Terror in the Streets suffers from a truly terrible problem of its own, one that can be almost, but not quite completely, be blamed upon the author. It cannot, though, be forgiven.

Terror in the Streets is published by Lamentations ofthe Flame Princess and fulfils a brief that was given to the author as, “Jack the Ripper, but 250 years early.” It is a murder mystery—inspired by historical events of thirty years before, the ‘Werewolf of Châlons’—involving the disappearances and then deaths of initially, four children from the streets of Paris. It is quickly followed by more as the rate of disappearances and deaths accelerates, driving the Player Characters to investigate ever deeper in an attempt to stop further murders and whatever it is that the murderer is planning. Clearly, Paris has a serial killer stalking its streets and alleyways, one who like Jack the Ripper did in London two-hundred-and-fifty-years later, taunts the authorities with a series of letters that hint at his motivations. Ostensibly, the Player Characters are hired by a Deputy Provost, one of several city officials reporting to the Provost of Paris, the king’s representative and governor of the city, though other set-ups are possible. The adventure opens on November 7th, 1630, and will be over by November 18th. The Player Characters have the freedom of the city to investigate as they like, first the deaths and then the letters. Similarly, the players are free to approach the investigation how they want and the scenario facilitates that with a very clean layout that makes everything easy to find by the Game Master and by not having the players roll for their characters to find clues. Instead, the focus is on interpreting them and using them to further the investigation and the story.

However, there is one issue that will hamper the Player Characters’ investigation—Paris. Getting around Paris is difficult, a city just two square miles, but threaded through with narrow streets and alleyways that makes getting anywhere slow and occasionally difficult, and this despite the fact that there are numerous taxi services that run throughout the city. Then there are the Parisians, who will grow increasingly fractious and give themselves over to mob rule, which will ultimately lead to city offices closing, Paris being shut down, and martial law being declared. This tension is measured through an ‘Unrest Die’, a large—ideally, the largest that the Game Master has—six-sided die which sits in the middle of the table where the players can see it. As the tension rises, the Game Master will adjust the die to the new face indicating the increase in tension. Thus, the players will be aware of the tension in both narrative terms, as portrayed by the Game Master, and in mechanical terms. It is, as the author acknowledges, very similar to the ‘Escalation Die’ used to track the degree of action in Pelgrane Press’ 13th Age.

The investigation is neatly organised into tautly detailed little scenes that are clearly presented on the page making each and every easy for the Game Master to run and expound upon as necessary. The smaller scenes are typically with the families of the missing children and thus pertinent to the exploration, whilst the longer, more detailed scenes and locations tend to be red herrings—a potential werewolf attack and the search of a townhouse belonging to the wizard, Alain de la Mare.* Much like the rest of the scenario, these scenes can be played mundane or magical. Thus, for the encounter with the werewolf if magic factors into the campaign, this yes, it is werewolf, but if the campaign is mundane, then the werewolf is a fake. The Author does give advice on the Player Character use of spells to gain information, in case they decide to go down that route. Ultimately, the efforts of the Player Characters’ investigation will reveal that Armand Jean du Plessis, First Duke of Richelieu, also known as Cardinal Richelieu, is connected to the murders, but how? There is potential at the end of the scenario for the Player Characters to actually gain a degree of influence over the most powerful man in France, for good or ill. They could actually change history here if the ‘Day of the Dupes’ does not end in the way it did in our history! That said, apart from these scant few hours when the Player Characters can leverage their knowledge into a proper favour, Cardinal Richelieu is described as constantly playing fourth dimensional Chess and will always be a step or three in front of whatever they have cooked up.

* Yes, this really is who you think it is meant to be. Just not living in Northampton.

The scenario is very well appointed and the Game Master ably supported. Besides the description and map of Paris, there are full stats and details of Cardinal Richelieu, details of the various taxi companies operating in the city, and a full discussion of the possible outcomes to the scenario.

There are also the various letters sent by the perpetrators as handouts, rare in a fantasy roleplaying game, and a table of encounters. For the most part, there are no stats provided for these, so the Game Master will need to provide these herself.

Lastly, Terror in the Streets closes with a quintet of appendices. The first, ‘La Perfide Angleterre’ provides an optional event involving an English spymaster who wants the Player Characters to smuggle a ring out from a prisoner currently being held in the Grand Châlet, which is also the headquarters of the Provost of Paris. The English spymaster simply calls himself ‘W’, so could be Sir Francis Walsingham as the appendix suggests. Which is odd, because Walsingham has been dead for forty years when the scenario starts. The second appendix gives a full description of the Grand Châlet, whilst the third is potentially the most fun. ‘Musketeers’ gives stats and details of the main characters from Alexander Dumas’ The Three Musketeers for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay and thus other retroclones. It opens up the possibility of Terror in the Streets being as a one-shot as an investigation in the style of The Three Musketeers using the given characters, but it also suggests that Terror in the Streets could be run using other roleplaying games set in the swashbuckling period, such as Musketeers vs. Cthulhu: A Simple Nightfall RPGBook, AllFor One: Régime Diabolique, Swordpoint: A Swashbuckling Roleplaying Zine, and Miseries & Misfortunes – Book 1: Roleplaying in 1648 France, though the scenario will require some historical adjustment as it is set in 1648 rather than 1630. The fourth appendix, ‘Comment t’appelles-tu?’ provides a list of ready names for NPCs in the scenario, whilst the firth appendix, ‘Maison Richelieu’, which describes the home of Cardinal Richelieu, should the Player Characters ever need to visit (or break in).

Physically, Terror in the Streets is very well presented. The artwork has a slightly scratchy, cartoonish quality to it, but is still decent, and the cartography is good.

So, what of its utterly awful problem? Terror in the Streets—beginning with the acronym for its title—contains a profusion of puns and bad humour that in places does not so much veer as leer into slightly poor taste. To be clear, this is no Asterion or Beware the Mindfuck, so not utterly tasteless, but the schoolboy humour and dad jokes of Terror in the Streets gets wearisome very quickly. That said, in comparison to both Asterion and Beware the Mindfuck, let there be no doubt that Terror in the Streets is a work of profound genius and skill.

Humour aside—and there is a lot to put aside—Terror in the Streets is a very good scenario, an engaging murder mystery with lots of historical flavour and detail and options to run with or without magic, depending on how fantastical the Game Master’s campaign actually is. The scenario is well written, well presented, and well, one of the best scenarios for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay.

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DISCLAIMER: The author of this review is an editor who has edited titles for Lamentations of the Flame Princess on a freelance basis. He was not involved in the production of this book and his connection to both publisher and author has no bearing on the resulting review.

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Lamentations of the Flame Princess will be at UK Games Expo which takes place on Friday, May 30th to Sunday June 1st, 2025.

Crime at Christmas

It is the time of year when a man’s mind turns to murder. Not because he have had enough of his family and his relatives for one year—and just in one day—but because it is traditional to enjoy murder mysteries, whether on the page or one the screen. And of course, such murders should be as cozy as possible. Then, if that murder is cozy, the detectives need to be equally as cozy. When not cooing and aahing over the very latest tragic death that has occurred under their noses, they like attending to their gardens, participating in the Women’s Institute, reading the next title to discuss as part of their book club, knitting something suitable for a grandniece or nephew, organising the next village fete, and singing in the church choir. These are the Matrons of Mystery, older ladies of leisure whose surreptitious and unobtrusive nature means that they get overlooked when investigating crimes and searching for clues, and eventually putting together a solution which unmasks the perpetrator! Matrons of Mystery is an investigative roleplaying game in which there are mysteries and there are clues to be uncovered, but there is no set solution. And if the Matrons do not get quite get their solution right the first time, they can investigate further and propose another solution!This is what Matrons of Mystery: A cozy mystery roleplaying game—and Brindlewood Bay, the roleplaying game by Jason Cordova it is derived from—both do.

Christmas Crime: Three festive mysteries for Matrons of Mystery presents three more mysteries for the Matrons to solve, but all with a Christmas theme. Each of the three comes with a description of the theme, sets the scene with a set-up, details of the victim, suggests ways in which the Matrons can get involved, and the Teaser, essentially that scene before the opening credits when everyone’s obvious relationships are established and then the dead body of the murder victim is dramatically revealed (cue dramatic music!). This is followed by seven or eight possible suspects, each with a description and reason to want to murder the victim. Lastly there is a lengthy list of clues to be found.

The trilogy starts with ‘Oh No They Didn’t’, which opens with the dress rehearsal for the village amateur dramatics society’s annual Christmas pantomime at the village hall coming to an abrupt halt when Willow Jackson, the lovely young actress playing the lead role of Cinderella, is found lying in the middle of the stage in a pool of blood! Ideally, one of the Matrons should be playing the role of the Fairy Godmother, but the murder mystery suggests other roles too. The second mystery, ‘Bake or Death’, takes place at the village’s annual baking contest with three contests being of note—best mince pie, best biscuit, and best cake. Of these, the best cake competition is subject to the fiercest rivalries. The victim is Lisa Monroe, relative newcomer to the villager and winner of the contest three years in a row. Unfortunately, she is unlikely to winner a fourth time after she is found dead with a cake ribbon wrapped around her neck! The Matrons can be the Judges, contestants, or the organisers. The trio comes to a close with ‘Slay Ride’ in which Bob Chandler, the owner of the local stable yard, who every year plays Santa Claus and provides a carriage as Father Christmas’ sleigh for the village Christmas fete, is found dead in the stables. The Matrons can be organisers of the fete, friends of Bob Chandler, or simply like horses. The teaser as a somewhat gruesome tone when it turns out that Rudolph the Horse’s nose is not red simply because, but because it has something red on it…*

* “Why Rudolph, you’ve got red on you.”

All three cases, the various suspects have secrets and reasons to kill the respective victims. Most of them are not all that nice and all of them are rampant stereotypes typical of the genre. So, there is scope aplenty here for the Game Master to ham up her portrayal of the NPCs, since these episodes—as per the genre—is being broadcast in the middle of the afternoon or the middle of the evening, the perfect cozy, easy spots for the genre. Further, the mysteries themselves are stereotypical, even clichés, of the genre. Or rather as they are properly called, classics. What lifts these classics up above the ordinary is the fact that there is not set solution to the murders. The players and their Matrons can discover the clues, question the suspects, verify alibis, and deduce the identity of the culprit and his or her motivations, and in the process provide a comfortably cozy entertainment, whilst the Game Master gets to portray a cast riddled with jealousies, insecurities, and secrets. Plus, just like the cozy murder mysteries themselves, the murder mysteries in Christmas Crime are just as undemanding when it comes to set-up.

Physically, Christmas Crime is neatly and tidily laid out. It is not illustrated bar the Christmasy front cover. The only that it lacking is some locations for the mysteries to play out in, but the Game Master and her players should be able to improvise those.

What could be cozier than death at Christmas, than the comfortable clichés and mild murders of Christmas Crime: Three festive mysteries for Matrons of Mystery?

Margins & Mysteries

It is 1979. Those that find themselves not fitting into ordinary society, feeling like an outsider, or being rejected because they do not fit the norms in terms of gender, sexuality, and identity have the need to escape, to find a place not only where they will fit in, but where they are also the norm. Not easy in this day and age, when to be gay or lesbian or transgendered is reason enough to be despised and decried, to be regarded as monstrous or perverse. There is, though, such a place. Isolated and on the edge of America as far from middle America—both geographically and figuratively—as you can get. This is Roseville Beach. Located on a barrier island just a short ferry ride off the coast of the North American Atlantic or Gulf Coast, this is a community where ‘queer’ is the norm. Where visitors come because it is accepted and those that stay do so because they find acceptance and a family that they create for who they are. A family that they also have to rely upon, for the authorities and particularly the police rarely bother with Roseville Beach—and if they did, it would not be to the benefit of anyone within the community. Thus, if the ‘queerdom’ of Roseville Beach have an issue, it is they who sort it out, but it is not just because they are queer that see to their own and prefer to deal with their own problems, for the community of Roseville Beach has other secrets. As much as it is a haven for ‘queerdom’, it is also a haven for magic and the supernatural, for the witch and the wizard, for the shapechanger, for the familiar without a mistress or master, for secret societies and cabals. They are not the norm within Roseville Beach, but they are known, and there are members of the town’s ‘queerdom’ who have gifts and magics themselves and will use it to investigate the strange and the supernatural, the mysterious and the magical, all to keep the community safe and avoid the undue attentions of the authorities on the mainland.

This is the set-up for Moonlight on Roseville Beach: A Queer Game of Disco & Cosmic Horror, an urban fantasy roleplaying game in which the Player Characters are part of both communities in Roseville Beach and thus outsiders twice over. Published by R Rook Studio following a successful Kickstarter campaign, this is a storytelling roleplaying game of magic and mystery, community and care, and of family and fear. This is very much a roleplaying game for mature and accepting players, for it is set in a town where the majority of the population is LGBTQIA+ and it is explicit about this—though that does not mean that the roleplaying game is either explicit or exploitative in other ways. In other words, it is explicit in its social acceptance of LGBTQIA+ being the norm. However, there are issues attached to this. One is that it is not obviously accepting of all norms when it comes to people of colour. This is not to say that they are not present in the setting of Roseville Beach, but rather they are not depicted as being present in the roleplaying game’s artwork. This is because the artwork is public domain, all taken from LGBTQIA+ pulp novels and whilst thematically appropriate, the characters, luridly, suggestively depicted, are all Caucasian. The book does acknowledge that this is an issue, one caused by the artwork rather by intent. Another issue is with the term ‘queer’. The author uses it as a catchall to describe all members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and whilst it is period appropriate, it was used as a slur. It is not the intent of the author to use it in the pejorative sense, but there are members of the LGBTQIA+ community who may see it as an insult. Thus, as part of her Session Zero of Moonlight on Roseville Beach, the Game Master may want to discuss what is an appropriate term to use in her game.

A Player Character in Roseville Beach has an Origin which Provides a Background and Skills, as possible Troubles. They will also have a Job which provides a further Skill, a Strange Event that they had, plus Allies and Comforts. There are six Origins and each grants a special ability. The Fresh Face is the new kid who has fled his family to find out who he is in Roseville Beach and has the ‘Beginner’s Luck’ ability to let his player reroll ones when undertaking an action. The Scandalous has fled to Roseville Beach to avoid media attention and gains an extra contact, though it may not be one that the Player Character wants. Both the Fresh Face and the Scandalous have more Backgrounds and Skills than the other Origins. The Shifter can shift into an animal form and back again, and has two banes that force him into his animal form. The Witch has the Witch Background and Sorcery Skill and also knows three Words of Power that fuel his magic. The Familiar was once attached to a sorcerer, but no longer is, so knows a lot of magic and Words of Power, but is stuck in his animal form and must communicate telepathically and needs help to perform magic. Plus of course, the Familiar does not have a Job. The Stranger has come from somewhere else, and knows a little bit of magic, some of it innate, and has worked hard to acclimatise himself to the world of men. The Strange Event is shared between two players and their characters, such ‘The Monolith’, which seemed to follow them both, but was never seen to move, or ‘The Starry Form in the Dunes’, a glimmering figure seen in the dunes west of town one night which called something to either Player Character. The Strange Event can leave the Player Character with an extra Skill, an Ally, or Word of Power, or a Scare, a Trouble, or even an Injury. Besides an Ally, the three Comforts a Player Character has are a ‘Special Place’, a ‘Special Memento’, and a ‘Special Person’. During downtime, spending time with a Comfort can help to remove a Scare. Lastly, the Player Characters share a Bungalow. This is used as both a base of operations and a potential source of supplies, although that does not necessarily mean guns. Certainly, the Player Characters do not have ready access to guns and their use can lead to a Player Character suffering a Scare.

To create a character, a player selects an Origin and chooses his character’s Comforts and Allies. He then rolls for a Background, Skills, Troubles, Scandals, Words of Power, and so on as appropriate. Then the players establish the Strange Event between their characters and determine its effect.

Lana Jorgeson
Origins: The Witch
Age: 24
Backgrounds: Witch, Magic Shop
Skills: Sorcery, First Aid, Stagecraft, Charming
Job: Piano Player at Cedar Point Hotel
Words of Power: Flood, Bless, Heal
Troubles: Someone in Roseville Beach helped set me up with somewhere to live, a job, and some money.
People I Owe: Jon Amos
Ally: Ghost in the Bungalow
Strange Element: The Poltergeist
Comforts: Special Place – Violet Flame Candles &Gifts, Special Memento – Grandmother’s locket, Special Person – Mrs Esther Neilson (Oblivious Grandma)

Mechanically, Moonlight on Roseville Beach: A Queer Game of Disco & Cosmic Horror uses dice pools of six-sided dice, rolled whenever a Player Character undertakes a Risky Action. To assemble a dice pool, a player starts with a single die and adds further dice for relevant Backgrounds, Skills, for the situation being a Golden Opportunity, and if the Player Character is protecting a housemate, ally, and so on. These are all rolled with the aim being to roll as high as is possible on each die. No matter the results, they are then assigned individually to different tables. The standard set of tables are ‘Goal’, ‘Injured’, ‘Scared’, ‘Clue’, and ‘Trouble’. The Game Master decides which tables come into play, depending upon the situation and what the Player Character is trying to do. ‘Goal’ is the base table, but if the Player Character is investigating something, the Game Master will add the ‘Clue’ table, and if there is a chance of the Player Character being injured or scared as result of his actions, those tables are added to. The ‘Trouble’ table is added if the player has not rolled enough high results and wants to roll an extra die. However, it places an Ally, Trouble, or Comfort in danger. If the player does not have enough dice to assign to the tables the Game Master has set out, he either decides to approach the situation in another way to reduce the number of tables, or if he rolls, any tables without dice are counted as if ones are assigned to them—which is not good. In general, results of four or more on all of the tables bar the ‘Trouble’ table indicate progress or a positive outcome, but it is always the player who decides where the dice are placed and thus decides on the degree of success or failure for the action.

Magic uses the same mechanics. The Player Character must be a Witch, Familiar, or Stranger, possess the Sorcery skill, knows one or more appropriate Words of Power, and can gain more dice for taking time, having someone with the Sorcery spell help, using a spell book, casting the spell at an auspicious time, and so on. Magic always involves the ‘Scare’ table and always adds a table of its own which determines if control of the magic is lost.

For example, Lana has been lured to the house of a local dignitary after a strange magical encounter only to discover what she thinks is ritual that will see her mind supplanted by the dignitary’s. The dignitary’s aide, Georgina Wellman, has a revolver, a Saturday night special pointed at Lana in order to persuade her to co-operate. It is approaching midnight when the ritual needs to be performed and Lana, not liking the odds either way, decides upon a brute force solution. She will cast a spell using the ‘Flood’ Word of Power, drawing from the swimming pool outside the house, the aim being to disarm Georgina, disrupt the ritual, and cause chaos. Her player assembles the dice pool, beginning with the base, plus one each for the Witch Background, the Sorcery Skill, and the Game Master allows an extra die because it is an auspicious moment or midnight. That gives the player four dice to roll.

The Game Master lays out the tables that the player will be assigning dice too. These are ‘Goal’, ‘Injured’, ‘Scared’, and ‘Magic’. The player rolls two, three, five, and six. He assigns the six to the ‘Goal’ table, which means it is achieved and the five to the ‘Magic’ table, which means that Lana does not lose control of the magic. The two and three are assigned to the ‘Scared’ and the ‘Injured’ tables, meaning that either Lana or an ally is injured, and everyone is scared. The Game Master narrates how the water from the pool surges up and in through the window of the house and swirls around the room that Lana and Georgina are in. Both are knocked to the floor and bruised and battered as the furniture is shifted. The gun is knocked from Georgina’s hand and everyone screams in terror!

Moonlight on Roseville Beach is thus mechanically quite simple and has two consequences. The first is that the Game Master will need to place the various results tables on the table before the players so that they can consult them and make choices. The second is that the players can make these choices. They determine the degree of outcome, which the Game Master narrates.

One odd addition is a set of Guest Stars that allow other players to step in and participate in a mystery on an occasional basis. Alternatively, these could be used as NPCs, but either way they include an interventive cast of characters, such as ‘The Haunted Ice Cream Vendor’, ‘Definitely Not An Occultist’, and ‘The Oblivious Grandma’, amusingly unaware of anything out of the ordinary going on in Roseville, either in terms of the LGBTQIA+ community or the outré. These are fantastically well-drawn characters, ones that contrast sharply with the standard types that the players roleplay, so that if the roleplaying game were being run as if it were a television series, they could potentially make highly memorable appearances. They could even be used as potential scenario ideas. For the Game Master, there is deeper background on the various locations in and around Roseville Beach, including a hotel whose young owner is missing, a rocky island occupied by overly curious otters, of bronze monoliths that are never seen to move, but clearly do, and more. These locations do come with hooks, some more detailed than others. There are threats discussed here too, some of which does involve the bigotry of the era. There is advice on setting up a mystery, giving out clues, and handling romance. The advice for the latter is nicely done and provides advice for relations between Player Characters and NPCs and between Player Characters. There are also several ready-to-play scenarios as well.

Physically, Moonlight on Roseville Beach: A Queer Game of Disco & Cosmic Horror is fantastically presented in its use of its period book covers and graphical style that luridly hint secrets and truths, of just somethings that are different at the edge of society. The book is also well written and an engaging read.

Moonlight on Roseville Beach: A Queer Game of Disco & Cosmic Horror is a roleplaying game about the othering of minorities and their agency. The othering of minorities is simply and directly handled—it is normalised. Roseville Beach normalises the LGBTQIA+ community in a way which could almost never happen in 1979 when it is set, and makes the Player Characters intrinsically part of it and wanting to be part of it. Then it normalises it by having the players accept and roleplay this norm. In doing so, it gives room to both characters and players to explore and investigate the second othering present in Roseville Beach, that of magic and the supernatural, as well as the agency to do so. The characters within the setting and the players within the mechanics that give them the capacity to decide the outcomes of their characters’ risky actions. It is a powerful combination in terms of storytelling and resolution.

Moonlight on Roseville Beach: A Queer Game of Disco & Cosmic Horror is a fantastic combination of acceptance and community with pulp horror and mystery, that like its setting of Roseville Beach, gives a space for the marginalised and scope to tell their stories as they confront horrors and mysteries, and so protect their new homes and family. This is a great storytelling roleplaying game, good for one-shots and conventions as it is for telling longer summer seasons.

Mystery. Accessory. Game. Accessory. Mystery.

All Rolled Up is best known for the eponymous gaming accessory, a cloth dice bag with a wrap containing pockets for pens, pencils, notes and notepads, and other gaming accessories, which can be rolled around the dice bag and tied close. The innovative design has become known for two things. First, its ubiquity. Attend a gaming convention in the United Kingdom and when you sit down to roleplay, at least one of your fellow gamers will pull one from his bag and unwrap it to get out his dice. Second, its sturdiness. I have an unofficial Doctor Who-themed one that I have had for a decade and it has travelled to gaming session after gaming session, convention after convention, and even to Gen Con (twice). It remains in almost perfect condition, a little grubby around the edges, and although I have several other All Rolled Ups via Kickstarter campaigns, it is not the fact that they are too nice to use—which they are—that explains why I have not switched to another All Rolled Up. (Were All Rolled Up to do a good duck-themed All Rolled Up, I might change my mind. Seriously. I have two sets of duck-themed dice that need an All Rolled Up home.) However, in addition to high quality, award-winning All Rolled Up, the company also produces a wide range of equally high-quality gaming accessories—dice trays, write-on/wipe-off counters and cards, tokens, and more. These are all available separately, but many have found their way into All Rolled Up’s All Rolled Up Mystery Roleplaying Starter Set.

Each All Rolled Up Mystery Roleplaying Starter Set rattles with goodies and promise. Each contains fourteen items, which always includes dice and a dice tray—another of the innovative products from All Rolled Up, along with the other twelve items. One of which will be a standalone mini-game. What exactly will be found in one All Rolled Up Mystery Roleplaying Starter Set to the next, varies, and because every box comes sealed, is of course, a mystery. The standalone mini-games also vary. Three consist of mini-roleplaying games, the fourth another game. Open up your All Rolled Up Mystery Roleplaying Starter Set and this is what you might find. A cloth bag containing a set of polyhedral dice, including a percentile die as well as the standard ten-sided die. This marked with the price of £10, which alone is two-thirds the price of the All Rolled Up Mystery Roleplaying Starter Set itself. Two extra six-sided dice. A ‘Pad of Geomorphic Intent’ or a mini-notepad of squared paper from Square Hex. A slim plastic box. Not one, but two sets of Stone Skull Counters, one in bone colour, the other in blood red. A set of five tentacle-themed Dry Wipe Counters to use as markers on the table. (Note: The slim plastic box will hold both sets of Stone Skull Counters, but not the Dry Wipe Counters as well.) A Drywipe pen. A compact Neoprene Folding Dice Tray. A large notepad. A pencil. Plus, the roleplaying game. This is a lot of goodies.

The roleplaying game in my All Rolled Up Mystery Roleplaying Starter Set is Electric Schemes: Feedback Loop Edition. Printed on both sides of a single sheet of A4 paper, which has then been folded down into a small pamphlet. The roleplaying game does not have an introduction, but it is quickly obvious that the players are taking the roles of school age teenagers in a modern industrial society, which might be now or it might be in the latter half of the twentieth century. One is the Leader, not necessarily the boss, but the focus for a group, and the others could be ‘The Brat’ or ‘The Neighbour’ or ‘The New Kid’. Mechanically, the roleplaying game uses the minimald6 rules. These are simple, a player or Game Master never rolling more than three six-sided dice or less than one, the aim being to roll fives or sixes to succeed. (As an aside, it is clear that the contents of an All Rolled Up Mystery Roleplaying Starter Set are not always random. Only the one six-sided die has been included in the full polyhedral set, but the two extra six-sided dice have been included to specifically use with Electric Schemes: Feedback Loop Edition.) The combat rules are kept brief, a Player Character never suffering more than a ‘Bang’ or an ‘Owie’, with the player being expected to narrate the outcome, whether his character wins or loses the fight. In terms of what you play, Electric Schemes: Feedback Loop Edition starts with two tables, ‘Stuff Challenged’ and ‘…By Things’. So, the Game Master might roll ‘Existence’ on the ‘Stuff Challenged’ table and ‘Opportunity, Wrong Decision’ on the ‘…By Things’ table. Further tables can add a hook, organisation, location, motivation, visions of tomorrow, and more. There are notes too for the Game Master on the design and handling of NPCs, including Bystanders and Monsters.

Electric Schemes: Feedback Loop Edition is a barebones affair. After all, it fits onto both sides of an A4 sheet of paper. The Game Master will need to improvise the plot once its basic details have been rolled for, but once done, the genre is easy to grasp—kids have adventures, perhaps on bikes, perhaps not, and the lightness of the mechanics means that there is plenty of room for player input, narration, and improvisation. It does draw parallels with Tales from the Loop – Roleplaying in the '80s That Never Was from Free League Publishing, but the tone is more Children’s Film Foundation.

However, Electric Schemes: Feedback Loop Edition is not an introductory roleplaying game. It barely even has an introduction and there is no explanation of what roleplaying is and how it is done. It calls for an experienced Game Master who can whip up a plot, ready-to-play, from the few rolls on the roleplaying game’s table, and then engage with her players. Indeed, an experienced Game Master, could purchase an All Rolled Up Mystery Roleplaying Starter Set, peruse its contents, read through Electric Schemes: Feedback Loop Edition, and have an adventure ready to play in minutes. What this does highlight though, is the fact that whilst the All Rolled Up Mystery Roleplaying Starter Set has the word ‘starter’ in its title, it is not designed introduce the prospective player to the hobby. If not that, what is it designed for? Essentially, it is designed to outfit the player who is new to the hobby, has a little bit of roleplaying experience under his belt, wants some dice and ready to use gaming accessories—and that it does very well. Of course, if an experienced player turned up at a convention and had forgotten all of his dice and other gaming paraphernalia, if All Rolled Up happened to have a stand at the convention, he could definitely outfit himself with some dice and a dice tray, let alone all of the other surprises, just by purchasing an All Rolled Up Mystery Roleplaying Starter Set. Lastly, if gamer really wanted to, he could actually purchase more than one in the hope of collecting all four games across the various boxes.

Physically, the quality of the All Rolled Up Mystery Roleplaying Starter Set is excellent. The poorest quality item in the All Rolled Up Mystery Roleplaying Starter Set is the game itself, but then that is only a single sheet of A4 paper.

An All Rolled Up Mystery Roleplaying Starter Set will equip a gamer with all of the gaming accessories he is going to need—dice, dice tray, counters, and a whole lot more. Plus, a mini-game as a bonus. You may not know what you are going to get in your All Rolled Up Mystery Roleplaying Starter Set, but what you are guaranteed is useful, of high quality, and good value for money.

Friday Fantasy: In a Deadly Fashion

Word and rumour are spreading across the whole of Europe. Miucci Carnivo is the greatest fashion designer of his age, his clothes and outfits in high demand not only in his home city of Seville, but across the whole of Spain and beyond. The dress he has fashioned for the Countess Serena de Reya for her wedding is said to have cost eighteen thousand gold pieces and taken him three months to make. He is never short of clients with deep pockets ready to purchase his latest designs, and he himself has become a wealthy man. Yet, his private life is a matter of debate and it is rumoured that strange men and women come to his house at night on a regular basis. Then there is the matter of his greatest rival, Francisco Alcon, found slaughtered in his home. Is Miucci Carnivo connected to his death, and if so, then how? These rumours have even reached his ears and he is worried—though these are not his only concerns. The dress he has designed for Countess Serena de Reya has gone missing and several of his customers have also turned up dead. All of which could affect his business, if not ruin his good name. Thus, he hires the Player Characters to investigate all of this, and he is prepared to pay handsomely—which should be enough to pique their interest and get them involved!

This is the set-up for In a Deadly Fashion, a murder mystery and mystery scenario for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay. Like other scenarios published by Lamentations of the Flame Princess it is set in the game’s default early Modern Period. Specifically, in Seville, Spain, so it would work well with several of the other publisher’s titles or equally easily adapted to the retroclone of the Game Master’s choice. Yet by its very nature, the scenario is easily adaptable to other roleplaying games set in the same period, such as Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, or even a time travel roleplaying game such as Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space! The scenario is not without its issues though, primarily due to its historical setting, which means that it involves religious bigotry. The scenario does not involve it directly in its story line, but it is present by implication. Further, the scenario involves a cult and some of the activities its members engage in are both listed and illustrated—the latter not explicitly, but it is clear what is happening. It is entirely up to the Game Master and her players how they want to deal with this aspect in play, but it is easy easy to draw a veil over this if necessary.

Whether hired by Carnivo, the government, a relative of one of the victims, or simply greedy enough to take an interest in some very valuable items of clothing, In a Deadly Fashion is easy to set-up and run. As Carnivo, the Game Master quickly points the Player Characters in the direction of the four avenues of investigation—the homes of Countess Serena de Reya, the two customers who died, and the rival tailor. Each of these has their own section in the book, which detail the locations, NPCs, clues, and so on, to be found there. The investigation itself is detailed, but limited. There are few if any clues beyond these locations, but if the Player Characters do come unstuck and are unable to progress any further, an NPC is provided who can point them in the right direction. There is also the equivalent of the local Catholic police who might be interested too, and could be helpful to the Player Characters, leading to an encounter with a bishop with a laconic and oddly elliptical manner.

Ultimately, the clues should lead back on themselves and point towards Miucci Carnivo as being the culprit—rather his clothes! For reasons unknown, they have taken on a life of their own and conducting a series of murderous acts. The scenario should ideally come to head as the Player Characters return to Carnivo’s mansion with all of its nouveau riche fripperies to confront him, only to find a cult party in full swing and the discovery of the missing dress before it animates and attacks! This is intended to be creepy, even unnerving, and should be a good set-piece with which to end the scenario.

In a Deadly Fashion is not a scenario which needs much in the way of maps. However, its one map, that of Carnivo’s mansion, is oddly placed, nowhere near the descriptions of its locations towards the back of the book. Nor is the actual plot presented in a fashion that makes it easy to read and use by the Game Master. The finale, or at least the aftermath, of the scenario is underwritten, as is the description of Seville. Of course, that makes the scenario easy to adapt elsewhere to the city of the Game Master’s choice, but if that is not an option, she will still needed to conduct some research on seventeenth century Spain and Seville. Even a page of information would have been useful, since it is rare for any scenario to be set there, let alone one for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay. There is though, decent advice on running a murder mystery and on running one in which the Player Characters are equipped with magic.

Physically, In a Deadly Fashion is a very presentable, if slim hardback. The writing is clear and easy to grasp, much of it little more than bullet points, such that a Game Master can prepare the scenario quickly and easily. The map is more pretty than serviceable, whilst the artwork is excellent, done in dense, rich palette of colours.

In a Deadly Fashion is easy to read and quick to prepare, and can be run more or less from the page. It is a solid murder mystery which should provide two or three session’s worth of creepy, horrific play.

Miskatonic Monday #102: The Dragon of Wantley

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—

Name: The Dragon of Wantley

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: SR Sellens

Setting: Jazz Age North Yorkshire (sans Jazz).

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Fifty-Two page, 17.57 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: What evil hides behind an elopement?

Plot Hook: How far will the cultists and Investigators go in determining the aims of the cult?

Plot Support: Straightforward plot, staging advice for the Keeper, two maps, thirteen handouts, ten detailed NPCs, one Mythos tome, one ballad, and five pre-generated Investigators.

Production Values: Decent.

Pros

# Ferroequinology

# Superb cover

# Lambton Worm-like scenario grounded in classic English folklore

# Decent background introduction to England

# Excellently done handouts and photographs

# Gentility hides a nasty little plot

# Nobility hides a dark secret

# Huge potential to disastrously break Yorkshire (a bit) 

# Roleplaying opportunities amongst the manners and mores the English Class system

# Can be run as part of Day of the Beast, Masks of Nyarlathotep, or Tatters of the King

Cons

# Needs an edit

# Mummies feel like a red herring

# Underdeveloped in places

# Needs an area map

# No hooks for Day of the Beast, Masks of Nyarlathotep, or Tatters of the King
# Huge potential to disastrously break Yorkshire (a bit) 

Conclusion

# Nicely supported scenario which twists classic English folklore

# Plenty of roleplaying opportunities amongst the manners and mores of the English Class system as the Investigators winkle out a dark secret.

Miskatonic Monday #101: The Dilemma in the Desert

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—

Name: The Dilemma in the Desert

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Ryan Graham Theobalds

Setting: The Desperate Decade, Death Valley.

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Twenty-Seven page, 49.63 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Death, distrust, and derangement in Death valley.

Plot Hook: How far will the cultists and Investigators go in determining the aims of the cult?

Plot Support: Detailed plot strands, staging advice for the Keeper, two maps, five handouts, six detailed NPCs, one avatar, and four pre-generated Investigators.

Production Values: Decent.

Pros

# Desert-bound one-shot

# Initiates or Investigators, Investigators or Initiates?

# Interesting real world location, Scotty’s Castle

# Potential for paranoia

# Potential campaign starter

# Potential link to Cult of Starry Wisdom

# Decent handouts and photographs

# Investigators could become cultist NPCs in a campaign

Cons

# Needs an edit

# Maps upside down versus the photographs

# Plot strands not clearly explained before they occur

# Mythos mish-mash
# Floorplans left unmarked and undescribed

# Weird cult initiation to murder mystery plot and back again

# Crucial antagonist’s ultimate aim included as an aside

# Crucial Investigator/Player decision decided by a die roll 

Conclusion

# Possible played through background for cultists in a campaign?

# Oddly plotted and often initially underexplained murder mystery/cult initiation where ultimately, the dilemma of whether or not to turn to the Mythos is out of the players and their Investigators’ hands.

Murder or Mythos?

A year ago, in the small town of Milo, Maine, thirty-year-old Alicia Thorne left Redd’s Bar and Grille after a few quiet drinks with casual friends. She never got home. The local police department investigated, but neither found her body or signs of a struggle. The number one suspect was, and remains today, her partner, Ben Facet. Public opinion then—and now—was that he kidnapped and murdered her. After all, he is known to be a recluse who collects strange books and manuscripts, who dresses in strange costumes, and practices all manner of sorcery and witchcraft. Who knows what goes on in the basement of the house that he shared with the missing woman? This is the background against which the Player Characters return to the town of Milo to celebrate their ten-year high school reunion. Everyone has an opinion upon what happened to Alicia, especially many of the women who attended high school with her and so will be at the reunion. The question is, what happened to Alicia, and did her partner, Ben, have anything to do with it?

This is the set-up for Whatever Happened to AliciaThorne?, a short scenario set in the modern day just north of Lovecraft Country for Callof Cthulhu, Seven Edition. Published by Stygian Fox, it can be played as a one-shot or as a campaign starter, and although there is advice on running the scenario as part of a campaign with more traditional Call of Cthulhu Investigators, Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? is not really suitable for use in such a campaign. Ideally, the players will create new characters, in general with relatively ordinary Occupations and develop some background as to who they knew at high school and what they have been doing for the decade since they graduated. This will come into play during the first part of the scenario. 

Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? is divided into two parts with an interlude in between. The first sees the Player Characters attend the reunion, an enthusiastic, if slightly down-at-heel affair. There is lots of scope here for interaction and roleplaying here—all to the music of the Player Characters’ youth, played very loud—with their former classmates, all of whom have their own backstories and post-school histories for the Player Characters to catch up with, as well as opinions of what happened to their former classmate, Alicia. With drinks flowing, the conversation is easy and the other guests share their histories and opinions freely, without the need for the players and their characters to roll Charm or Persuade skill checks. As the event winds down, the Player Characters have a chance to reflect and consider what they have learned over the course of the evening over a nightcap. This forms the scenario’s interlude between the two parts of the scenario.

The Player Characters become Investigators in the second half when they begin making enquiries into the disappearance of Alicia Thorne, themselves. Milo is a small town and Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? is a small scenario, so there are only a few places for the Investigators to look for clues—her family, her workplace, her last known sighting, and of course, her home. This also means investigating her partner, Ben. Whatever the police might say, both clues and local opinion point towards his involvement in his partner’s disappearance. 

When the Investigators do discover what has happened to Alicia, it is doubly shocking. Being a Call of Cthulhu scenario, Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? does involve the Mythos and being set in New England may suggest possibilities to veteran players of the roleplaying game and devotees of Mythos fiction. However, the other reason for its shock value is that the scenario does involve suicide. The scenario does carry a content warning, so a Keeper should be aware of this beforehand, and she should be aware of whether this would be a difficult issue for her players. An alternative option is included if neither the Keeper nor her players want to include this aspect in the scenario. 

Physically, Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? is a short—just eighteen pages long—scenario. The thirteenth entry in Stygian Fox’s series of Patreon releases, it is well presented and well written. In fact, it is a huge improvement upon other entries in the series in terms of its presentation, and hopefully future releases will maintain this standard. 

Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? is a surprisingly flexible scenario. It could easily be adapted to the Jazz Age of classic Call of Cthulhu or even the Purple Age of Cthulhu by Gaslight, but as written it would be easier to run at any time after World War II. Similarly, it is easy to shift in terms of location, with  somewhere near the coast being ideal. Designed to be played by between two and six Investigators, it can also be used as a campaign starter, a one-shot, a one-on-one scenario for a Keeper and single Investigator, and even as a convention scenario given its length. That said, if running it as a convention scenario, the Keeper will need to be up front about its themes. Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? would also work as a first scenario to introduce players to the Mythos and Call of Cthulhu, Seven Edition, again taking its mature aspects into account. 

As written there are no issues or problems with Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? It could though, have supported its flexibility with advice and suggestions for the Keeper. Whether that is moving it to a different time frame, running it for one player, or as a convention scenario. Some hooks to get each of the players and their characters involved would also have been useful too, not necessarily to Milo where their characters grew up, but to Alicia and her partner, Ben. This would not necessarily replace whatever details and background the players are encouraged to create and roleplay, but at least help if a player is short on ideas or the Keeper is preparing some pre-generated Player Characters. 

Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? is a solid, straightforward investigative one-shot with plenty of scope for roleplaying and interaction. Plotted more like a movie mystery with a horrifying revelation and shock ending, Whatever Happened to Alicia Thorne? is an excellent scenario to run for those new to the Mythos and Call of Cthulhu. Veteran players may well be just a little too jaded.

 

Mavens of Murder

The mystery—as opposed to the mysterious, which has always been there—has long been a part of roleplaying, all the way back to The Maltese Clue, the scenario published by Judges Guild in 1979.  It really came to the fore with roleplaying games like Call of Cthulhu, Gangbusters, and Justice, Inc. and more recently seen in the GUMSHOE System with roleplaying games such as Mutant City Blues, which combines superheroes with the police procedural. What these all do with the mystery is provide the Game Matron with a plot and a set of clues that the players and their characters investigate the mystery and hopefully piece together the clues to uncover the mystery. However, what if the mystery and its investigation was set up the other way around? What if there was no set solution and instead the solution to the mystery could be constructed from the clues uncovered by the players and their characters and would be, if not absolutely correct, then very nearly so? This is what Matrons of Mystery—and Brindlewood Bay, the roleplaying game by Jason Cordova it is derived from—both do.

Both Matrons of Mystery and Brindlewood Bay are Powered by the Apocalypse roleplaying games in which players take the roles of women of a certain age who investigate murder—often much to the consternation of local law enforcement. Brindlewood Bay has an American feel and behind the series of murders a Lovecraftian conspiracy, whereas Matrons of Mystery focuses entirely on the murder mysteries, employs a parred back version of the Powered by the Apocalypse mechanics, and has a decidedly British sensibility being inspired by television series such as Miss Marple, Rosemary & Thyme, Agatha Raisin, Queens of Mystery, Father Brown, and so on. This is not the world of the hardboiled mystery, or even mystery on a medium heat, but that of the ‘cozy’ mystery, set in a small town or village where everyone knows everyone—except that recently arrived stranger, and of course, everyone’s secrets—and there is a strong sense of community, and is of course, suitable for afternoon or Sunday night viewing with all of the family gathered round the television.

Matrons of Mystery: A cozy mystery roleplaying game is designed for three or four players, plus the Game Matron, and each mystery ideally takes a session to solve. This makes it good for one shots or convention games, and the familiarity of its genre means that Matrons of Mystery will be easy to grasp and familiar to most players. In Matrons of Mystery, players take the roles of ladies of a certain age, who are perhaps single, widowed, or divorced, certainly retired or have more than enough time to throw themselves into their community and various activities and charities. For example, keeping the parish church clean, attending meetings of the W.I., helping run Meals on Wheels, doing the village Christmas Pantomime, and so on. Of course, when murder strikes—as it invariably does in their surprisingly high murder count communities—it is the ‘Matrons of Mystery’ who take up their handbags, put down their trowels, and ever ready to make a nice hot cup of tea, discover whodunnit before the local bobby on the beat, Police Constable Plodd, and Inspector Witless from the nearest big town, can work it all out.

Character generation and game set-up in Matrons of Mystery is quite quick. First, the players name and decide on some details about their Matrons’ village. Then, every Matron has a name, a Personal Style, a Hobby, a Background, an Investigation Style, and a Contact. So a Name might be Audrey or Nettie, a Personal Style could be ‘Smart and Classic’, ‘Punk’, or ‘Twinset and Pearl’, and a Hobby Baking, Gardening, Collecting, or Amateur Dramatics. The Background consists of answers to three questions—the first is about a Matron’s former partner or whether or not she was married, what was her career before she retired, and whether she has any children, or if not, young relatives she is fond of. Her Investigation Style—Physical, Logical, Intuitive, or Gregarious—represents different approaches to solving mysteries, and the Contact is someone that the Matron knows well from her past and can rely upon to help out in a pinch. To create a Matron, a player decides upon all of these factors, answers the three questions for her Background, and then assigns +2 to her primary Investigation Style, +1 to her secondary Investigation Style, sets a third at 0, and assigns -1 to her least favoured Investigation Style.

Henrietta Wyndham
Personal Style: Punk
Hobby: Painting
Background: Divorced (to Nigel Wyndham, Stage name: Nasty Nigel), Former Record Producer, Children include Freddy, Pandora, Ned
Contact: Gordon Blythe-White (Record Exec)
Physical 0 Logical -1 Intuitive +1 Gregarious +2

Mechanically, Matrons of Mystery uses Powered by the Apocalypse. To undertake an action or ‘Move’, a player rolls two six-sided dice, adds his Matron’s Investigative Style and aims to roll high. The results fall into the ‘Yes’, ‘Yes, but…’, and ‘No and…’ Roll ten and more and the Move is successful; roll between seven and nine, and the Move is successful, but comes with a Complication; and roll six or less, and the Move not only fails, but adds a Complication. A Complication hinders the Matron’s investigative efforts, such as her slipping and injuring herself climbing in or out of a window or the suspect taking umbrage at one or more of the questions posed to him. This can lead to an ongoing Condition, such as a sprained ankle or being thrown out of a society dinner. (If there is one issue with Matrons of Mystery, it is that it could have done with a bigger list of Complications and especially Conditions to inspire the Game Matron.)

Rules are provided for gaining Experience Points and either using them in play to improve dice rolls or saving them to improve a Matron’s Investigative Styles. They do feel optional though.

Unlike most versions of Powered by the Apocalypse, the rules in Matrons of Mystery include an Advantage and Disadvantage mechanic. Thus when a Matron has the Advantage, which can come from her Personal Style, Hobby, Background, or the situation, three six-sided dice are rolled instead of two, and the best used. Conversely, when she is at a Disadvantage, her player rolls three dice and keeps the lowest two. Another difference between other roleplaying games using Powered by the Apocalypse and Matrons of Mystery is that it does not make use of Playbooks, each of which provide an archetypal character and its associated Moves. Instead, Matrons of Mystery provides a standard set of nine Moves that all of the Matrons can use. The first five Moves—‘Investigate’, ‘Interrogate’, ‘Take Action’, ‘Lend A Hand’, and ‘Ask A Favour’ are used to gain clues and conduct the Investigation. The next three, ‘Reminisce’, ‘Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down’, and ‘Go To Adverts’, enforce both the genre and the format of the genre. ‘Reminisce’ enables a Matron to recall something from her past which will help with the current investigation; ‘Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down’ lets two or more Matrons sit down, have a nice hot cup of tea, have a chat with each other, and in doing so, each remove a single Condition; and ‘Go To Adverts’ enforces a break in the story when a Matron is in danger, ends the scene on a cliffhanger, and lets the players discuss how the cliffhanger is resolved with the imperilled Matron unharmed when the adverts end!

The final Move is ‘Put It All Together’. This happens at the end or near the end of the game when the Matrons gather their collected clues and deduce the identity of the murderer. Instead of using an Investigative Style to modify the roll, the player uses the number of clues and secrets found out so far, minus the number of suspects involved in the murder. Typically, there are eight suspects per murder, so the Matrons will need to have gathered at least eight clues and secrets to negate this, plus more to gain a modifier to the roll. Roll ten or more and the Move is successful, the Matrons are correct in their deductions and have identified the Murderer and his motive; roll between seven and nine, and the Move is successful, the Matrons are correct in their deductions and have identified the Murderer and his motive, but there a Complication which the Matrons will need to overcome in order to apprehend the Murderer; and roll six or less, and the Move fails, indicating that the Matron’s deductions are incorrect. The Game Matron has to explain why and then sends the Matrons back off to continue their investigations and try again.

For the Game Matron, there is good advice on designing a mystery, from the theme and the set-up through to defining the secrets and listing the clues. There is also good advice on running the game—both online and at the gaming table, how to handle clues, secrets, Complications and Conditions, and so on, as well as optional rules for one-on-one play and playing away from the Matrons’ home village. A short bibliography provides some inspiration for the Game Matron. Then there are three ready-to-play Mysteries, complete with set-up, teaser, eight suspects, and a long list of clues. The first is ‘Gardner’s Question Crime’ in which the village hosts the popular radio show, Gardeners’ Answers in the grounds of Hatherly Hall. With most of the village present, the guest speaker, celebrity gardener and host of the television series, Gardener’s Life, Alan Jefferson, drops dead as he is about to take to the stage. This is followed by ‘Dicing With Death’ in which the village hosts a roleplaying convention (!) and award-winning game designer, Scott Sallow, is found dead on the last day of the convention with his mouth stuffed full of polyhedrals! Lastly, ‘Ding Dong Death’ is takes place just before national bell ringing championships and with the village wanting to put on a good performance, the bell ringing team is getting in some last-minute practice. Unfortunately, the lead bell ringer, Walter Bell, is found hanging upside down from one of the bell ropes. All three scenarios are great set-ups, though ‘Dicing With Death’ feels both improbable and a direct appeal to its intended audience.

Physically, Matrons of Mystery is a tidily done digest-sized book. The cover is appropriately rural, whilst the internal artwork, all publicly sourced, is there to break up the page rather than necessarily illustrate the game. The book is well written and easy to read—especially with the slightly larger fount size.

Matrons of Mystery is fun to play and it is simple to play. Having just the one set of nine Basic Moves eases play no end. Given the age of the Matrons, it is much more of a social game than physical game necessarily, although some sneaking around is probably going to be necessary and perfectly in keeping with the genre. Although it does present her with eight suspects to roleplay, the lighter nature of the rules do provide the Game Matron with the opportunity to really focus on her roleplaying and have fun with it too. The nature of the game and its ‘no given perpetrator’ set-up also strips Matrons of Mystery of any sense of stress or competition which might arise in the players and the Game Matron as they worry whether their deductions and solution to the crime is actually right. Instead, the players and their Matrons construct the murder solution and motive from the clues, thus emphasising storytelling—both the storytelling of the murder and the storytelling of it being solved.

Matrons of Mystery: A cozy mystery roleplaying game is cleverly cozy, taking the structure of Brindlewood Bay and parring it back to focus on its core game play. It is a smart, sprightly roleplaying game which delightfully evokes its genre from the page to the table. And if you are going to play this at the table, a nice hot cup of tea is an absolute necessity.