Friday Fantasy: The Grotesques’ Grotto

Up in the hills there is a grotto out of which a babbling spring rises where it is said that ghostly echoes of lurid ritual mania from millennia ago can be heard. Folklore says that the grotto hides a temple to Iakos, the ancient wild god who blessed the site and his followers with the power of delirium-inducing prophetic visions. The temple was sealed long ago after his worship was outlawed, but its hidden entrance was revealed two weeks ago when an earthquake hit the area. Drawn by the spreading news of the seal to the temple having been broken, four royal witch hunters—Aida, Crawe, Ric, and Oswin—arrived in a nearby town and set out to investigate. They have since entered the temple in an effort to suppress its heathen influence, but are yet to return. In response to this situation, perhaps the Player Characters are hired to go after them and rescue them; perhaps they are hired by a decadent noble to help bring about a prophecy associated with the temple and its destruction that would bring about a new world; or having learned of the temple having been unsealed and the witch hunters gone inside, the Player Characters simply want to follow them in and loot the place of its treasure and relics. This is the set-up and hooks for Quick Delve #2: The Grotesques’ Grotto.

Quick Delve #2: The Grotesques’ Grotto is an adventure for Old School Essentials from Necrotic Gnome and is designed to be played with six Player Characters of Second Level to Fourth Level. The scenario is the second in the publisher’s ‘Quick Delve’ series, following on from Quick Delve #1: Milk. Each is designed for one or two sessions’ worth of play and is intended to be perfect for side quests, one-shots, and conventions, as well as easily into any campaign. The scenario begins with the Player Characters outside the grotto. Inside is a temple that has long fallen into misuse, but more recently, extensively damaged by the earthquake. This also limited the Player Characters movement through the temple, effectively limiting them to edges before they can make their way into the middle. It has a strange, woozy atmosphere primarily because of three ‘Grotesques’ of the title, the servants of Iakos who have been trapped in the temple since it was sealed and desperately, monstrously welcome the arrival of interlopers after centuries. The creepy trio include Mu, Grotesque of Keeping, starved for new secrets to hoard; Thee, Grotesque of Disclosure, starved for new secrets to reveal; and Los, Grotesque of Revelation. The first of these has a hole where its face should be, the second has mouth framed by numerous empty eye sockets, and they both hate each other; whilst the third’s eyeless face sloughs off and regrows every five minutes (he is also the only one not to be illustrated). Their desires and rivalries will drive much of the Player Characters’ exploration of the temple and provide much of the scenario’s potential roleplaying.

Unfortunately, this leaves the rest of NPCs in the scenario—the surviving royal witch hunters and an NPC or two—markedly underserved in terms of roleplaying potential. They are sadly underwritten, leaving little for the Game Master to work from in terms of their portrayal, but possibly leaving lots of room to develop from that might fit her campaign. Another issue with the writing is the descriptions given of the various locations. The writing is sparse and punchy, but the boxes of descriptive text often veer into details that should not be initially apparent to the Player Characters. For example, the boxed text for the Crypt reads, “A large Martyr sits cross-legged atop an imposing stone sarcophagus. The east and south walls are lined with niches. Most are empty but 4 contain inanimate Martyrs. The archway north (to Area 12) is draped in strands of glowing moss, a humid, noisome atmosphere wafting through it.” It seems odd for this text to mention the presence of Martyrs when that instead should be information for the players and their characters to discover. What it also means is that what should be in other scenarios, boxes of descriptive text there for the Game Master to read out, fail to serve that function in Quick Delve #2: The Grotesques’ Grotto. As a consequence, Quick Delve #2: The Grotesques’ Grotto requires just a bit more effort to prepare than it really should—all of which could have been addressed during the development and editing process for the scenario.

Physically, Quick Delve #2: The Grotesques’ Grotto is generally well presented. Barring the issue with the boxed text, it is decently written. The cartography is good, but the artwork is better. In fact, the artwork is excellent and really capture the feel and atmosphere of the individual encounters in the dungeon. The depiction of two of the three Grotesques is appropriately disturbing, but the most unsettling illustration is of the near-cadaverous Nymph, Pity, as she preys on a victim ready to drown him.

Quick Delve #2: The Grotesques’ Grotto feels inspired by the Oracle of Delphi at the Temple of Apollo on Mount Parnassus, its trio of Grotesques echoing also the three Fates, but the scenario otherwise avoids being inspired by Ancient Greece. Its primary storytelling impetus for the Player Characters will be how they react to the drives of the three Grotesques. If they ignore them, the scenario is likely to be an underwhelming experience for the Player Characters. Engage in them and there are definite consequences, ones that are entertaining, but will not affect a campaign in a drastic way which would unpin it and send it in another direction. Quick Delve #2: The Grotesques’ Grotto is underdeveloped in places, but not fatally so, in what is otherwise a solid scenario easily dropped into a campaign.

Friday Fantasy: Milk

As the Christmas holidays approach, there comes bad news. First, the best truffle chocolates in the land—indeed, any land—have sold out everywhere. Second, when they do come back into stock, they are not sold reputable outlets and vendors, and although they all of the correct branding, they are far inferior to the truffle chocolates that everyone knows and loves. What has happened to the best truffle chocolates in the land—indeed, any land? Is the maker ill? Has his supply of milk gone sour? The makers are, in fact, a tribe of Merfolk, who live in a lake of pure milk under a mountain, and it is this milk that ensures the creamy quality of the best truffle chocolates in the land—indeed, any land, made together with the Dwarf servants to the King and Queen of the Merfolk under the mountain. And surely this calamity cannot be allowed to continue? Someone should be sent to check on the King and Queen, their tribe of the Merfolk, their Dwarf servants, and the production of the best truffle chocolates in the land—indeed, any land. Perhaps a chocolate connoisseur might employ such a useful party? Or a tribe of Merfolk want news of their fellow tribe that live under the mountain? Or perhaps a rival group of chocolate makers want the secret to the best truffle chocolates in the land—indeed, any land? Any or all of these could be used as hooks for Quick Delve #1: Milk.

Quick Delve #1: Milk is an adventure for Old School Essentials from Necrotic Gnome and is designed to be played with Player Characters of Second Level. The scenario is the first in the publisher’s ‘Quick Delve’ series. Each is designed for one or two sessions’ worth of play and is intended to be perfect for side quests, one-shots, and conventions, as well as easily into any campaign. The scenario starts outside the mountain factory in front of double doors on which has been scrawled, “All Hail the Chocolatier, Goddess of Chocolate!”. Which does not bode well for what ever is inside. Fortunately, the Chocolate Golems with their chocolate drop-shaped heads with glowing orange candy-coated eyes and smelling of rich dark, chocolate, will readily let the Player Characters in, and the cagey, if rather jolly and waggish Skeletons in their purple monastic robes would prefer to have a song and dance than fight. However, the deeper the Player Characters penetrate into the chocolate factory, the more the Chocolate Golems and Skeletons turn against the Player Characters. As the fights from encounter to the next escalate, the Player Characters quickly discover many things awry in the chocolate faction. One is that the chocolate can have magical effects, for both the best truffle chocolates in the land—indeed, any land—and the chocolate that seems to being made in the chocolate factory now. The latter is like to have more negative effects than eating the best truffle chocolates in the land—indeed, any land, though they can be additive. There is a pool of rancid milk. A distraught King of the Merfolk. And then there is the glum workforce. The Dwarves. Who are described as having “Orange skin, green hair, and white eyebrows.” In other words, they are not Dwarves, but Oompa-Loompas. The workforce in the factory in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. And yes, Milk in inspired by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Which all makes sense with its chocolate theme. Milk then, is a seasonal dungeon or adventure, one that the Game Master might run as a seasonal break from the rest of the campaign at Christmas. There is no Christmas theme to the scenario, but there is a tweeness and a sweetness. The problem is, there is not much else.

If you were to remove the sweetness and the tweeness from Milk, you would be left with a bland dungeon with no plot beyond ‘less skilled manufacturer takes over factory of much more skilled rival, imprisons their family, and puts out inferior product; Player Characters have to clean it up.’ Which would be fine if the NPCs had a character or personality, and if there is no personality, there is no roleplaying. Unfortunately, in Milk none of the NPCs have any personality, least of all the villain of the piece, ‘The Chocolatier’. She should at least get a cackle, if not a parcel of chocolate-themed puns, but nothing. A villain should be memorable. This one is not, at least not as written. The scenario leaves it up to the Game Master to decide the personalities and attitudes of the NPCs, so giving her yet more work to do.

Yet, Quick Delve #1: Milk is competently written in a mechanical sense. There is some play with the chocolate theme, especially in the random effects of eating the chocolates and the best truffle chocolates in the land—indeed, any land, the scalding hot chocolate-spitting chocolate worm in its molten chocolate pool, and the Chocolate Sceptre of Control—solid chocolate, encrusted with candied cherries—which can cast Charm Person. But there are no chocolate-themed spells or other magical items.

Then there is inspiration, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Roald Dahl’s writing was not sweet in its tone, it was sour too, veering into the grotesque and the comic. There is none of that in Milk. Just the sweetness. As something inspired by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the scenario only takes partial inspiration from it and is all the worse as a result. As a pastiche of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory it is barely half a pastiche.

Physically, Quick Delve #1: Milk is serviceably presented. The layout is clean and tidy, the map easy to read, the artwork reasonable, and if perhaps tending towards the succinct, the scenario is easy to run.

There is a market for seasonal adventures, whether set at Christmas or other times of the year, but Quick Delve #1: Milk is unsuitable for all of them. Whilst as a ‘Quick Delve’ scenario, it can be run in a session or two, but as a side quest or a convention scenario, why would you? The tone is unlikely to match any other scenario or setting and as a convention scenario, it does not showcase Old School Essentials in a very good light. The design is perfunctory at best, the tone is one note, and the villain viciously underwritten. Quick Delve #1: Milk is easily the worst scenario that Necrotic Gnome has ever published. Not because it it is bad, but because it is boring.

[Fanzine Focus XLIII] Carcass Crawler Issue #5

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Then there is also Old School Essentials.

Carcass Crawler is ‘The Official Fanzine Old-School Essentials zine’. Published by Necrotic Gnome, Old School Essentials is the retroclone based upon the version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons designed by Tom Moldvay and published in 1981, and Carcass Crawler provides content and options for it. It is pleasingly ‘old school’ in its sensibilities, being a medley of things in its content rather than just the one thing or the one roleplaying game as has been the trend in gaming fanzines, especially with ZineQuest. To date Carcass Crawler #0, Carcass Crawler #1, Carcass Crawler Issue #2, Carcass Crawler Issue #3, and Carcass Crawler Issue #4 have all focused on providing new Classes and Races, both in ‘Race as Class’ and ‘Race and Class’ formats as well as general support for Old School Essentials.

Carcass Crawler Issue #5 follows a similar path, but provides more general, but still character-focused content. The issue includes two ‘New Character Classes’ by Brad Kerr and Gavin Norman, one new, one not so new. The new one is the ‘Ratling’. This is an anthropomorphic rat which is difficult to surprise given its strong sense of smell, has Infravision and a prehensile tale, an affinity with other rats and knows the secret language of rats. Its skills include Climb Sheer Surfaces, Detect Poison, Hear Noise, Hide in Shadows, and Move Silently. The Class is categorised as semi-martial, being similar, but not like a Thief. The second of the Classes is not new, but old, having originally appeared in Carcass Crawler #0. The Changeling Class offers the chance for a player to roleplay a Doppelgänger! The Changeling’s ‘Beguile’ skill enables the Class to speak highly persuasively in an almost Charm-like effect, at least temporarily, and with ‘Shape-Stealing’ can mimic the forms of others, unconscious or slain, an effect lasting for one Turn per Level. The counterpart to the ‘New Character Classes’ are the ‘New Character Races’ by the same authors. It should be no surprise that the Changeling has the most potential as an Assassin as well as an Illusionist or Thief, whilst the Ratling can also be an Assassin, but will also be a good Acrobat or Thief.

‘Cantrips’ by Gavin Norman does exactly what it suggests and introduces minor, Zero Level spells for Old School Essentials. They still need to be memorised, but include cantrips such as Magic Quill, Open/Close Portal, Sense Magic, and Spark. There is an optional rule and cantrip for Read Magic, making scrolls easier to read without having to give up a more powerful spell slot. The cantrips have a very Middle-earth feel, including Rune (caster traces a sigil in the air or on a surface) and Smoke Rings for the pipe-smoking Wizard!

If ‘Cantrips’ looks back to Unearthed Arcana for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, then ‘Level 0 Characters’ by Brad Kerr and Gavin Norman is nod to N4 Treasure Hunt and N5 Under Illefarn, if not the ‘Character Funnel’ beloved of Dungeon Crawl Classics from Goodman Games. Such Player Characters start with fixed Saving Throws and low Hit Points. By default, they are Humans, but an optional rule allows for Demi-Humans with their inherent abilities. There is a guide to playing ‘funnel style’ adventures which clearly acknowledges the article’s primary inspiration, Dungeon Crawl Classics. A Zero Level Player Character also has a Background, the type depending upon his starting Hit Points. A Zero Level Player Character with more Hit Points tends to be physical and have a job that requires more strength, whilst a Zero Level Player Character with less has more sedentary Background. In addition to be used for Character Funnels, these rules and tables can be used to generate Zero Level NPCs and potential hirelings and be used to create a Background for a normal, First Level Player Character prior to the start of play.

Gavin Norman’s ‘Special Materials’ looks at both weaker and enhanced materials. For the former it lists the properties of weapons and armour made of bone, bronze, stone, and similar materials, and the perils and penalties of using broken or bent weapons, as well as cost of repairs. This opens up Old School Essentials to the possibility of cultures who lack metalworking knowledge, whether at all or enough to mark the iron and steel weapons that are the baseline arms and armour. For the latter, it does the same but for weapons and armour made of adamantine, mithril, and silver. In general, the bonuses provided are not as good as magical weapons, plus they are very expensive. This is followed ‘Expanded Poisons’, also by Norman. It expands upon the nine categories of poison given in Old School Essentials by naming them and detailing their effects. It gives cost, saving throw modification, chance of detection, onset time, and effect for each one along with a description. This adds some nasty flavour, especially if the campaign involves assassins.

In ‘Magic Swords’ by Brad Kerr with Chance Dudinack, the Game Master can create all manner of magical swords with quirky abilities. For example, a wavy wooden sword with an antlered pommel with the ‘Flavour’ quirk which when used to stir food can change its flavour or a blood-grooved blade of demon horn with a twitching eye in the pommel and the quirk of ‘Gloating’, meaning that it laughs evilly in combat, reducing enemy morale! Some entertaining quirks here, enabling the Game Master to create some memorable blades—the quirks could easily be applied to other weapons as appropriate—that will enhance (or ruin) the reputations of both the Player Characters and NPCs that wield them.

Chance Dudinack’s ‘Lake & River Monsters’ details eight new monsters found in freshwater lakes, ponds, and rivers. They include the Giant Beaver, the Freshwater Hag, Grindylow (aquatic prank-playing, but cowardly gremlins), Weretoads, Mudslingers (amphibious fish that hunt by spitting mud), Shellycoat (aquatic humanoids that feed on the corpses of the drowned), Snallygaster (reptilian birds with lamprey mouths full of tentacles that suck the blood of the living), and River Trolls. They are all decently done and are accompanied by decent illustrations, In addition, they appear in the adventure that follows.

‘Up Chaos River’ by Brad Kerr and Chance Dudinack is a two-part funnel adventure designed to be played using twelve to fifteen Zero Level Player Characters. The first part ‘The River’. By Brad Kerr, it is a rivercrawl that begins in the town of Blackwater that recently held its midsummer festival, but which since has fallen under a curse as ooze from the river mutates its inhabitants, including its warriors and wizards. With no-one else to investigate, it is up to a band of townsfolk—brave or foolish enough—to paddle or punt upriver to discover the source and put a stop to the problem. There are some nasty encounters along the way, such as a blade poking up out of the water that draws boats to it to slice them in half or a man yelling for help, stranded on a toad infested island, who if rescued, turns out to be a Weretoad(!), but there are good opportunities too, such as rescuing a mermaid. There is a great variety of encounters here, so it a pity that the players and their characters will not experience them all. There are rules given for river travel and worse, for the effects of the river ooze, should a Player Character touch it.

The second part is ‘Hag’s Lair’ by Chance Dudinack. This details the lair of the creature responsible, constructed by her giant beaver minions. It is thick with mud and chewed wood and festooned with traps. It is a mucky, murky adventure that will ultimately lead to a confrontation with the villain of the piece. She is a fiercesome opponent armed with her own magical wooden spoon. However, one disappointment is that combat is the only option considered for dealing with her. It would have been good if the adventure had included options for negotiating or reasoning with her.

‘Up Chaos River’ is an entertaining adventure, though ‘The River’ is the better of the two parts, having a eerie, weird feel. It will be challenging for the Zero Level Player Characters—let alone First Level Player Characters—and any who survive will be truly seasoned. It makes good use of the monsters in ‘Lake & River Monsters’.

Physically, Carcass Crawler Issue #5 is well written and well presented. The artwork is excellent and the cartography good.

Carcass Crawler Issue #5 is an excellent issue of the fanzine. There is a nice balance between new Character options and content supporting campaigns and scenarios. All capped by a good scenario that will challenge the most experienced of players and provide two or three good sessions’ worth of play. Carcass Crawler Issue #5 is good not just for Old School Essentials, but just about any retroclone.

[Fanzine Focus XLI] Carcass Crawler Issue #0

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Then there is also Old School Essentials.

Carcass Crawler is ‘The Official Fanzine Old-School Essentials zine’. Published by Necrotic Gnome, Old School Essentials is the retroclone based upon the version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons designed by Tom Moldvay and published in 1981, and Carcass Crawler provides content and options for it. It is pleasingly ‘old school’ in its sensibilities, being a medley of things in its content rather than just the one thing or the one roleplaying game as has been the trend in gaming fanzines, especially with ZineQuest. To date, Carcass Crawler #1, Carcass Crawler Issue #2, Carcass Crawler Issue #3, and Carcass Crawler Issue #4 have all focused on providing new Classes and Races, both in ‘Race as Class’ and ‘Race and Class’ formats as well as general support for Old School Essentials.

Carcass Crawler Issue #0 is an exception in one or two ways. Published as part of the Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy Kickstarter campaign in November, 2020, it focuses almost exclusively on new Races and Classes with relatively little general support for the retroclone and was only available as part of the Kickstarter. Primarily, it presents eight new Classes, but it does ask the question, “Too Many Classes?”. The combination of Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy and Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy offers numerous Classes, all of them the roleplaying game’s variations upon traditional Dungeons & Dragons-style Classes. From issue to issue, Carcass Crawler offers more and more choice, but is it too much? The answer to the question is a bit of a prevarication, suggesting out that lots of groups like lots and lots of Classes because they like the choice, whilst also suggesting that the choice could be restricted according to the nature and flavour of the campaign the Game Master is running. The latter is not a new idea, but it would be fascinating to see the idea put into practice for Old-School Essentials with a set of campaign frameworks that see and explain the use of both standard Classes for Old School Essentials and those drawn from the pages of Carcass Crawler.

Carcass Crawler Issue #0 offers eight new Classes and three new fantasy Races. The first of the new Classes is the Arcane Bard, surprisingly inspired by the version of the Class found in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition! It is less than a variant upon the Druid, but more of a jack-of-all-trades Class which combines the abilities of the Fighter, the Magic-User, and the Thief. The Class’s songs can have an ‘Anti-Charm’ effect, cast arcane spells from Second Level, has various Thief-like skills, and in particular, has the ‘Lore’ skill that enables the Class to know about monsters, magic items, or heroes of folktale and legend. The Beast Master is alternative warrior to the Ranger, the Class forging strong bond with animal companions coming to be able to view their eyes and communicate with them empathically. The Changeling Class offers the chance for a player to roleplay a Doppelgänger! The Changeling’s ‘Beguile’ skill enables the Class to speak highly persuasively in an almost Charm-like effect, at least temporarily, and with ‘Shape-Stealing’ can mimic the forms of others, unconscious or slain, an effect lasting for one Turn per Level. The Chaos Knight can ‘Command the Dead’, effectively the reverse of the Cleric’s ‘Turn Undead’, cast spells at high Level, gains an Infernal Steed, and daily, touch a victim to ‘Life Drain’ and heal himself with the drained Hit Points. Essentially, the Chaos Knight is the equivalent to the classic anti-Paladin concept.

Where the Classes in Carcass Crawler Issue #0 gets interesting is the Mage, which instead of Vancian magic uses a skill system like the Thief Class. It is inspired by Tolkien’s Gandalf the Grey, and has the skills of ‘Detect Magic’, ‘Open/Close’ doors and locks, ‘Rally/Fear’, ‘Read Magic’, and ‘Suggestion’, as well as a powerful Mage’s Staff and even a magical bonus to Armour Class and limited ability to heal others. Although the Class can cast spells from scrolls, it is much, much less of the artillery-style Class seen elsewhere in other iterations of Dungeons & Dragons, offering more flexibility overall, but less damage output. The Mutoid is an odd Class that mixes in some Thief skills with abilities granted by the mismatched body parts of various creatures. For example, ‘Beast Ears’ gives better hearing, ‘Clawed Hand’ an improved unarmed attack damage, and ‘Sticky tongue’, which enables a Mutoid to grab a nearby object and even attack with it. Of the eight Classes featured in the issue of the fanzine, this is perhaps the least interesting and feels more as if it should be in a post-apocalyptic setting.

The Mycelian takes a classic of Dungeons & Dragons fantasy and turns it into a character Class. This is the Mushroom Men found in underground caverns everywhere and as a Class is a maximum of Sixth Levels Class that can spray pacifying or hallucinogenic spores daily, has a Infravision, no need to eat or sleep only rejuvenate daily, and gains increased damage and Armour Class as it grows one foot Level by Level. At Sixth Level, its ‘Fungal Reanimation’ enables it to reanimate human corpses as fungal zombies! Lastly, the Warden is a non-magical version of the classic Ranger. The Warden has better ‘Awareness’ and less easily surprised, and is better at ‘Foraging and Hunting’, ‘Pursuit’, ‘Surprise Attack’ in the wilderness, and ‘Tracking’.

Of the previous eight Classes, the Changeling, the Mutoid, and the Mycelian have adhered to Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy and done ‘Race as Class’. In other words, there is no separation of Race and Class. The three fantasy Races Carcass Crawler Issue #0 offer the alternative which adheres to Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy and does ‘Race and Class’. This gives greater flexibility, choice, and greater skills for all three Races.

The ‘Expanded Equipment’ lists and describes thirty-three items, from Backpack, Barrel, and Bedroll to Whistle, Wine (two pints), and Wolfsbane (one bunch). Serviceable.

Physically, Carcass Crawler Issue #0 is well written and well presented. The artwork is excellent and the cartography good. It sets the template for future issues.

Ultimately, Carcass Crawler Issue #0 is a problematic issue of the fanzine. Not because it is bad, because it is not. It actually sets the template for the issues that have followed and its content is eminently playable. Rather, the problem is that it was an exclusive to the Kickstarter and is no longer available. Perhaps there is scope for an Old School Essentials Class Companion which would reprint the Classes in this effectively ‘lost’ issue and other issues to reach a wider audience? In the meantime, if you have access to Carcass Crawler Issue #0, the equipment list is useful and the Classes offers more choices for your classic fantasy roleplaying.

Friday Fantasy: Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands

Far from any frozen climes, from any mountains or tundra, or ice-churned seas, lies the strangest of lands. Qaasuitsup Nunaat, or Land of Polar Darkness, is inhospitable, ice and snowbound, its once life-giving lake frozen over, and where there were fields that settlers from far away came to till and make new lives, there are dunes and drifts of snow. The paradise that drew so many is long gone, frozen in a wasteland that stands in contrast to the surrounding jungle and warm coastal waters. Overhead nightly hangs the aurora borealis, bringing colour to the region where there is white of snow and black of ice. Ancient myths tell of the story of Imeq-inua, or Lake Spirit, who saw to it that the land was protected and made fertile and prosperous. Then the lake froze and the temperature dropped. In the crops, the trees and plants, and any animal that could not flee the region died. The settlers fled and the few that remained froze or starved to death. Now wolves have the run of region, howling and hounding intruders, whilst strange Iced-Blooded Mutants have been encountered by those brave—or foolish—enough to want to investigate what has become of the former paradise. Perhaps hired to restore the region to its original balmy climate or discover where the Iced-Blooded Mutants come from and if they are a threat, or cast ashore shipwrecked on the coast, or drawn by whispers of the Lake Spirit herself, the Player Characters found themselves in a strangely frigid land.

Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands is a mini-hexcrawl published by Angry Golem Games. Designed for Player Characters of between First and Third Level, it is the third in the publisher’s ‘Fortnightly Adventures’ series, begun with Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower, which is intended to provide a brand-new, original module every two weeks—each exploring a different biome, mysterious locale, and unique challenge. Having done a section of desert, a strange tower, and a mystery to uncover in The Hollow Tower and a volcanic island with a volcano, a temple with some hot springs, and more in Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact, the series switches to sub-polar region, all iced up and snowed under for Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands. It is written for use with Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy, published by Necrotic Gnome Productions, which is based on the 1981 revision of Basic Dungeons & Dragons by Tom Moldvay and its accompanying Expert Set by Dave Cook and Steve Marsh, and which together present a very accessible, very well designed, and superbly presented reimplementation of the rules.

What Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands details is an eleven-hexagon region of frozen tundra. Each takes roughly two hours to explore, so the region is not a large one overall and could easily be crossed in a day in any direction. In fact, it could actually be reduced in size without losing anything and it could easily be treated as a mini-location as a whole and placed in a single hex in a Game Master’s campaign. This might be to keep it as written as an oddly frozen location amidst much warmer climes or even move it to actual colder regions where its previous warmer and more fertile status would have been the oddity. 

The five locations in Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands consist of the ‘Experiments Base’, ‘Watchtower’, ‘Longhouse’, ‘Permafrost Caves’, and ‘The Lake’. Of these, only the ‘Experiments Base’ and ‘Permafrost Caves’ are fully mapped, but all are reasonably well detailed, bar ‘The Lake’ which is not detailed at all. ‘Experiments Base’ is where the scholars who brought about the changes to the valley with its radical climate change operate out of and continue to conduct research that their masters have since deemed unethical. The ‘Watchtower’ is home to a former guardian of the valley, whilst the ‘Longhouse’ is home to a gang of criminals desperately surviving after being washed ashore from the ship they were being transported in and attempted to take over. The ‘Permafrost Caves’ is home to a reclusive Frost Giant who prefers the company of the pack of wolves he keeps. The monsters and NPCs given full stats consist of the four scholars—two Wizards and two apprentices— and the new monster, the super-strong ‘Ice-Blooded Mutants’, who unarmed punches are so cold they inflict frostburn! The ‘Ice-Blooded Mutants’ are the result of another experiment by the scholars and are their servants and bodyguards.

There is a plot to Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands, the possibility that the Player Characters could discover the cause of how the valley became frozen and then perhaps reverse its effects. The problem is that as written, there is little in way of clues to find and little to really push either plot or Player Characters forward. It is as if the Player Characters are expected to wander around in the hope of finding something that might suggest a course of action. The few NPCs described—the scholars who are effectively the villains of the piece—are underwritten and lack both character and motivation. Similarly, beyond being reclusive, the Frost Giant residing in the ‘Permafrost Caves’ has no characterisation. In order to find a solution to the situation in the valley, the Player Characters do need to find why of dealing with him, but there are suggestions as how he might react to their presence. Lastly, the escaped prisoners at the ‘Longhouse’ will defend themselves, but that is about as much motivation as they are given.

Physically, Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands is decently done. The layout is clean and tidy and the illustrations are good. However, the scenario very much needs an edit.

Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands is disappointing. It is underwritten and it is underdeveloped. The plot concerning the current state of the valley and its potential reversal has been left for the Game Master to properly flesh out and the NPCs all need characterisation and explanations as to either what they know or what they want—and sometimes both. It does not help that the adventure is poorly edited with odd turns of phrase that make it jarring to read. Ultimately, Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands is a flaccid affair, an indication that the concept of releasing a complete mini-adventure every two weeks has got beyond the creators and run out of steam. At its very best, Fortnightly Adventures #2: On the Frozen Wastelands is something that the prospective Game Master might want to develop properly herself, as that is only way to get it into a ready-to-run state.

Friday Fantasy: Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact

Far from any regularly ploughed sea routes and any civilised coast lies the remote island of Enjin no Chi—or ‘The Land of the Fire God’. Every sailor who has set their eyes upon it will say it is a place to be feared and none would be willing set foot upon its shores, for at its most northerly point sits a great volcano that spews out lava that runs in rivulets down into the forests that dominate the rest of the island to set their trees alight and when not spewing out lava, it belches out great clouds of ash that fall upon the rest of the island that fall in dry showers of heat. There are said to be monsters that lurk in the perpetual gloom of these clouds, and that is in addition to the ‘Fire God’ itself. Sailors and scholars might scoff at such an idea, but there are those who genuinely believe that Enjin no Chi is the home of fire god. They are the Honō no Dōshi, or ‘Flame Guides’, and their fanatism has driven them to commit many atrocities and villainous acts in their preparation to fulfil their life’s purpose—reaching Enjin no Chi and summoning the Fire God! Thus, ‘The Land of the Fire God’ is the setting for The Flame Pact that all Honō no Dōshi devoutly promise to keep.

Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact is a mini-hexcrawl published by Angry Golem Games. Designed for Player Characters of between Second and Fourth Level, it is the second in the publisher’s ‘Fortnightly Adventures’ series, begun with Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower, which is intended to provide a brand-new, original module every two weeks—each exploring a different biome, mysterious locale, and unique challenge. For The Hollow Tower, this was a section of desert, a strange tower, and a mystery to uncover, but for The Flame Pact, this is a volcanic island with a volcano, a temple with some hot springs, the lairs of two types of beetles, and the cultists’ camp and ritual site. It is written for use with Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy, published by Necrotic Gnome Productions, it is based on the 1981 revision of Basic Dungeons & Dragons by Tom Moldvay and its accompanying Expert Set by Dave Cook and Steve Marsh, and presents a very accessible, very well designed, and superbly presented reimplementation of the rules.

What Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact details is a seven-hexagon rosette of island and volcanic terrain. Each takes roughly two hours to explore, so the region is not a large one overall. In fact, it could easily be treated as a mini-location as a whole and placed in a single hex in a Game Master’s campaign. This would have to be a sea hex, but also the name of a cult suggests that the island is located somewhere similar to the Asian half of the Ring of Fire, this need not to be the case. The details of the cult are the easiest thing about the scenario to change. Apart from the seven-hexagon rosette format, what Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact shares with Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower is that it has a roving environmental hazard. In the latter, this was a roving sandstorm that tore that the Player Characters and their possessions, whereas in the former it is the daily ash rains which strike a hex each for the day, burning anything and anyone there, and heating up any metal present. Thematically, it fits the setting, but one can only hope that it does not become a signature feature of the series. A handful of hooks are included to get the Player Characters involved, including the Player Characters being shipwrecked on the island, being hired to explore and map the island, forced to follow the cultists to the island and stop them from whatever they are planning, and hired to obtain the ‘Essence Seal’. These are not enthralling hooks and the Game Master will likely want to create her own that are stronger and likely tied to her campaign setting.

The four adventure locations in Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact consist of a ‘The Volcano’, ‘The Hot Springs Temple’, ‘The Cult’s Camping and The Ritual Site’, and the ‘Giant Beetle’s Lair’. Each is nicely detailed and has its own map, the more expanded maps being for the ‘The Hot Springs Temple’, ‘The Cult’s Camping and The Ritual Site’, and the ‘Giant Beetle’s Lair’—the latter having a sperate map and making it the longest entry. ‘The Volcano’s location is the simplest having a Lava Monster that roams its slopes guarding against intruders and part of the ritual preparations done for the summoning of the Fire God by the Honō no Dōshi. ‘The Hot Springs Temple’ is perhaps the oddest location since it is on the island and tended to by a group of monks without much explanation given that the island is all but unknown. Here is where the scenario could have benefitted from more detail. Similarly, the Magic-User leader of the cultists could have been given some indication as to his personality, but that said, the cultists are active in looking for further sacrifices needed for their rituals. So, the Player Characters need to approach their camp with care. Surprisingly, the most well developed encounter in the scenario is with a dead cultist, or rather his skeleton, in the ‘Giant Beetle’s Lair’. He is given some motivation, mostly self-pity, and the Player Characters can talk to him, though what is ultimate motive now is not made clear.

One major difference between Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact and Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower is that Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact has a plot in that cultists are working to summon their ‘Fire God’. It is suggested by the scenario that the Game Master use a ‘doomsday clock’ to count up to the point where the Honō no Dōshi cultists succeed in summoning their ‘Fire God’ and the volcano erupts explosively, destroying the island in the process. The scenario also suggests that this will take twelve days, but that really is too long a period given the amount of adventure in the scenario. Halving this time would lend the scenario a greater sense of urgency and push the Cultists to act with greater haste. It would have been good too, for the Game Master to have been given some idea as to what the Cultists need to do to, step-by-step, if necessary, to complete the summoning.

Physically, Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact is decently done. The layout is clean and tidy, the illustrations good, and the hexcrawl is an easy read.

Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact is much like Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower before it. Some parts are reasonably detailed, but in others it is underdeveloped, especially in terms of characterisation and motivation. Yet there is more of a plot than Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower and in places more motivation, giving something for the Game Master to build upon herself. There is a basis of a solid, useful encounter location in Fortnightly Adventures #1: The Flame Pact , but the Game Master will definitely want to flesh it out a bit more to give some much needed character.

Reviews from R’lyeh Post-Christmas Dozen 2025

Since 2001, Reviews from R’lyeh have contributed to a series of Christmas lists at Ogrecave.com—and at RPGaction.com before that, suggesting not necessarily the best board and roleplaying games of the preceding year, but the titles from the last twelve months that you might like to receive and give. Continuing the break with tradition—in that the following is just the one list and in that for reasons beyond its control, OgreCave.com is not running its own lists—Reviews from R’lyeh would once again like present its own list. Further, as is also traditional, Reviews from R’lyeh has not devolved into the need to cast about ‘Baleful Blandishments’ to all concerned or otherwise based upon the arbitrary organisation of days. So as Reviews from R’lyeh presents its annual (Post-)Christmas Dozen, I can only hope that the following list includes one of your favourites, or even better still, includes a game that you did not have and someone was happy to hide in gaudy paper and place under that dead tree for you. If not, then this is a list of what would have been good under that tree and what you should purchase yourself to read and play in the months to come.

—oOo—

Daggerheart

Darrington Press ($59.99/£59.99)

2025 was the year of the fantasy heartbreaker seeing the release of several roleplaying games written in wake of the Wizards of the Coast’s proposed re-writing of the Open Game Licence that underpinned so many of the industry’s titles. Designed to appeal to players of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, there can be no doubt that Daggerheart was the most prominent of these. It offers similar heroic fantasy roleplaying, but with an emphasis on the narrative as much as the action with its Hope die and Fear die mechanics. Both are rolled together, and when the Hope die is higher, it generates Hope that can be used to activate various character abilities, whilst when the Fear die is higher, it generates Fear for the Game Master who can use it to power up her NPCs and make things more challenging for the Player Characters. Actual Player Character creation is made easy by the roleplaying game’s cards that detail its Ancestry and Community cards that define background and culture, and Domain cards that define abilities and spells. These come with the core rulebook in their own box and enable easy reference in play as well. Daggerheart makes heroic fantasy roleplaying easy and fun once again.

Tales of the Old West
Effekt Publishing ($60/£48)
Tales of the Old West brings capital and community—as well as faith—to the American frontier of 1873, in a treatment of classic Cowboys & Indians that is more history than Hollywood. It uses the Year Zero engine and a simple lifepath system to create interesting and fully rounded Player Characters who can do all of the things that you expect of a Wild West roleplaying game. Duels, gambling, chases, cattle rustling, bank robberies, and more. However, where it really begins to shine is in its support and capacity for long term play, because it wants the Player Characters to generate Capital and then invest it in their community. The players get to choose the type of community, where their character invest, and how it grows. The community becomes the Player Characters’ home, somewhere to protect, and somewhere for the Game Master to build stories and hooks around, whether in the community or from outside it. Tales of the Old West can do one-shot scenarios, but is really designed for long term play where the Player Characters can live and die on the American frontier, so can their communities.

The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship
Z-Man Games ($79.99/£69-99)

Since it was first published in 2008, there have been numerous themes and threats applied to the classic co-operative mechanics against the game itself of Pandemic. In 2025, it has to face the biggest theme and biggest threat of them all—J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. In previous board games set in Middle-earth, one player has to control Sauron and the forces of Mordor’s shadow. In The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship, the forces of Sauron, the nine Nazgûl and the seemingly endless armies of Orcs, as well as his baleful, lidless eye, are controlled by the game itself. Just as in the trilogy, Frodo and Sam must set for Mount Doom and there, drop the One Ring into the volcano, returning to where it was forged, but the others of the Fellowship must set out hither and thither, essentially to run interference on Sauron’s efforts to find Frodo and Sam and invade Middle-earth. While someone always has to play Frodo and Sam, the other members of the Fellowship are not set in stone and further, every player controls two members of the Fellowship, giving everyone more options and greater ability to cover the threats posed by Sauron. As with other Pandemic titles, the same threats will keep appearing again and again over the course of play, but a mix of careful play and luck on the dice rolls—yes, this is a Pandemic game that involves dice rolls—careful play can thwart them. The best bit about the dice rolls is that you get to use the dice tower shaped like Barad-dûr that looms over the board, to roll the dice. There is a lot of depth and detail to this co-operative version of Middle-earth, along with the replay value of new attempts by Sauron and playing different versions of The Fellowship of the Ring.

Mythic Bastionland – Before Into the Odd
Bastionland Press ($69.99/£49.99)
Mythic Bastionland combines brutality and folklore in an Arthurian Age when knights, each knighted by a different seer, seek Glory, explore the Realm, and confront Myths. In a world of brutal and bloody medievalism, they must prove themselves worthy of their status, but that can only be done by resolving Myths, public duelling or jousting, entering tournaments, and fighting battles that history will remember. By proving themselves worthy of their rank, they be ready to prove themselves ready for greater duties, of taking a seat in Council or at Court, ruling a Holding, and even a Seat of Power. First, they will search their realm for its greatest myths and resolve them, perhaps at the point of a sword, by negotiating, or simply doing nothing, facing other situations and perhaps, brutal, bloody combat along the way. Mythic Bastionland details some seventy-two knights, including The True Knight, The Trail Knight, The Story Knight, The Rune Knight, The Mask Knight, and The Silk Knight, and every single one of them is different and interesting and will present a different way of playing a Knight. Mythic Bastionland details seventy-two Myths for the Game Master to populate the Realm with, including The Wurm, The Tower, The Spider, The Toad, The Hole, and The Rock, and every single one of them will present the players and their Knights with a different challenge. Each includes a simple description, a set of omens that trigger as the Knights discover more signs of the Myth, a set of NPCs, and a table of random details that the Referee can use to detail parts of the Myth. This gives Mythic Bastionland plenty of replay value in an age of glorious myth and brutality.

Dungeon Crawler Carl

Ace/Michael Joseph ($30/£22)

The LitRPG—or ‘Literary Role Playing Game’—comes of age in this first of this eight book series that asks the question, “What would you do if aliens had flattened everything on Earth and turned the inside of the planet into an eighteen-level dungeon, and the only way to save the planet is to fight your way all the way the down?” Fortunately, Carl the protagonist is not totally un-nerdy, so has played a few roleplaying games—both tabletop and computer—and so knows his way around the format. Unfortunately, it is not as simple as it sounds, because the dungeon-that-was-once-Earth is also a reality television series watched across the galaxy and so Carl has to play the fame game as well literally kicking dungeon denizen butt. However, although Carl is the main protagonist of the book, for the watchers of the reality television series, the real hero is Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk, the prize-winning show cat belonging to Beatrice, Carl’s late girlfriend, who has been magically uplifted from a pet into a Dungeon Crawler and an ace wizard! This is definitely a novel for the roleplayer and player of Dungeons & Dragons, who will get the most out of this knowing poke at traditional roleplaying.

Land of Eem

Exalted Funeral ($150/£110)

To be blunt, Land of Eem had the best elevator pitch of 2025—“The Lord of the Rings meets The Muppets”—and if that does not get your roleplaying juices going, then the question is, what will? This is a game of light-hearted fantasy based on the graphic novel series Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo, and the book series Dungeoneer Adventures, that is both family friendly and fun enough for the experienced roleplayer to play too. It offers the brave adventurers the opportunity to explore the Mucklands, a region once under the heel of the Gloom King, but barely had time to recover before the corporations moved in and began exploiting it and so giving the name it has today. There are opportunities to delve into dungeons and strike it rich, even find Magnificent magical items of yesteryore and become filthy rich. Alternatively, being heroes, the Player Characters could keep such items safe from those that would exploit them, or indeed, put them to good use and help the people of the Mucklands from being oppressed by the tycoons and perhaps save them if the rumours are true about the return of the Gloom King. Land of Eem is illustrated with delightfully whimsical artwork, has simple mechanics, fun character types, and a richly detailed hexcrawl to explore.

TACTA

The Op Games ($14.99/£14.99)

TACTA is a simple card game that simply looks great. Strong neon colours in dots, rectangles, squares, and triangles on jet black divided into six decks. It can be played on any flat surface and all a player has to do is place a card on the table so that one of its features, whether a triangle, square, or rectangle, covers up a feature on a card belonging to another player. Ideally this should with the dots showing and if it covers up another player’s feature with dots, then all the better, but a blank feature will still cover another player’s feature with dots and prevent them from being adding to that player’s final score. A player will also be thinking about how he can protect the features with dots on his cards from being covered over by the other players, so that there is defensive element to placement as well. There are few limits on card placement, the primary being that a card cannot cover another card when played and cannot connect to features that do not perfectly match. And that it is it to TACTA. Short, simple, and elegant, it is easy to teach and suitable for all ages.

Dolmenwood: Adventure and Peril in Fairytale Woods

Necrotic Gnome

Dolmenwood—consisting of the Dolmenwood Player’s Book, Dolmenwood Monster Book, and Dolmenwood Campaign Book—is another consequence of Wizards of the Coast’s proposed re-writing of the Open Game Licence that underpinned so many of the industry’s titles. Previously seen in the Wormskin fanzine and scenarios from the publisher, brings the setting together and presents it as a weird fairy tale adventure game, conjuring the wonder, horror, whimsy, and strangeness of British folklore in a land of standing stones, ley lines, lost shrines, fairy roads, Wood Gods, fairy nobles, and ancient history. All of this is brought together in a three volume set that presents this expansive woodlands in a style that William Morris, Aubrey Beardsley, and the ‘Arts & Crafts’ movement of the Victorian era with a shot of Lord Dunsay.

Dungeons & Kittens: Starter Set

Edge Studio ($39.99/£29.99)

Dungeons & Kittens: Starter Set is yet one more great starter set from 2025, this time perfect for introducing younger players to the hobby. Some time in the future, humans have disappeared following an apocalypse that has let nature grow back in its wake. In time, animals have evolved, including cats, rats, and dogs, who are beginning to explore the world, scavenge the technology left behind by humanity, and for the cats, command meowgic! The Player Characters are kittens exiled from the Kingdom of Cats who have set out to find their way and explore the world. The starter set includes lots of maps and dice and game accessories, as well as a total of five adventures. Three of these are learning adventures, each designed to be played in a single session or less, whilst the other two are full length adventures. The result is a light-hearted, even whimsical roleplaying game that can be run for the family or younger players, but also enjoyed by veteran players too. Plus it even came with its own colouring book!

Doomsong

Caesar Ink. ($65/£50)

The world of Painmye cries out in pain and screams for absolution as the Last Day draws near. Death has already closed the First Gate to Heall and turned the dead away, leaving the unquiet dead to wander… A crusade has been declared against the Traitor Gods and the Templars have already killed their first Traitor God. Day by day, more and more heretics give themselves up to or are thrown on the Pyre, but even those who have been given a chance for absolution for their heresies upon joining a guild by the Church of the Divine Corpse are being tempted once again by the gifts that Traitor Gods promise. Just as those who seek absolution join guilds for the safety in numbers they offer, so too do those who accept such gifts join cults for the protection they offer. This is Doomsong, an eschatological, pre-apocalyptic ‘Roleplay Macabre’ of heretical temptation and divine punishment and survival horror. It is a great looking book and like the best looking books makes the reader want to play on the art alone. The random character generation creates interesting, if desperate Player Characters that you want to find what happens to them. Doomsong does lack a scenario, so the Lord Have Mercy Upon Us campaign is a must.

DeadFellas
Chaosium, Inc. ($4.69/£3.48)
New York, winter, 1982. A black Cadillac, northbound. Four mafiosi inside. A body in the trunk. Their job? Get rid of the body and be home in time for Christmas. One wants to survive. One wants out. One wants to kill. One wants to avoid doing any crimes. One wants a victim. All have secrets. Highly atmospheric four-hander that plays out mostly within the confines of a car as something prods and pulls at the minds of the occupants and secrets and motivations are revealed and their consequences play out. A cracking one-shot scenario for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, this is best run in LARP fashion, with players sat in chairs placed in the same positions as their mafiosi are in the car to impart the claustrophobia and physical space in which they can act as the Keeper moderates the interplay and moves between them, whispering secrets and memories into their ears. Tense and unnerving, and perfect for a single evening’s worth of play, this scenario that showcases the creativity of the Miskatonic Repository community content programme.

Archeterica: The Invitation 

The Imago Cult ($45/£33)

Another late trend in 2025 was the release of starter sets, the biggest and most of which were the Dungeons & Dragons Heroes of The Borderlands Starter Set and the Stranger Things: Welcome to The Hellfire Club set, both from Wizards of the Coast, whilst elsewhere the Dungeons & Kittens Starter Set from EDGE looked the most fun and Free League Publishing’s Vaesen – Starter Set provided utility in the long term as well as a solid introduction. The starter set that outdid them all in 2025 was Archeterica: The Invitation from Ukrainian publisher, The Imago Cult. Described as The X-Files in an alternate Napoleonic era of magic and conspiracies and revolution, it comes with the means to create Player Characters, an introduction to the setting, and three scenarios, what really sets it apart are its production values. Archeterica: The Invitation is simply beautiful, an alabaster artefact that you are going to want to own for its looks alone, let alone the intriguing setting.

Friday Fantasy: Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower

Today the desert region is known only for the nomads that cross its sands, the tales of ancient myth and legends of what it once was, and the monsters said to lurk there. In times past, despite its dry environs, it was crossed by well-known trade routes on which the once-great Anhurak people—or the Children of the Burning Stone and the Wandering Stars, as scholar say they called themselves—grew rich and powerful ensuring the safe passage of goods and people. When they sought to build a settlement in the middle of the routes, they began by establishing a great tower for their leader, Mahrun Tal’Zahir, with the help of the group’s Cartographer. Yet legends say they turned on him soon after and fled the desert after the settlement began to sink into the sands. Now all that remains are half-buried houses and the tower itself, although only the top three of its five storeys are visible. This is the setting for ‘The Desert Forgotten by Time’ within which stands The Hollow Tower.

Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower is a mini-hexcrawl published by Angry Golem Games. It is the inaugural entry in the publisher’s ‘Fortnightly Adventures’ series which is intended to provide a brand-new, original module every two weeks—each exploring a different biome, mysterious locale, and unique challenge. For The Hollow Tower, this is a section of desert, a strange tower, and a mystery to uncover. It is written for use with Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy, published by Necrotic Gnome Productions, it is based on the 1981 revision of Basic Dungeons & Dragons by Tom Moldvay and its accompanying Expert Set by Dave Cook and Steve Marsh, and presents a very accessible, very well designed, and superbly presented reimplementation of the rules.

What Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower details is a seven-hexagon rosette of desert terrain. Each takes roughly two hours to explore, so the region is not a large one overall. In fact, it could easily be treated as a mini-location as a whole and placed in a single hex in a Game Master’s campaign. In that case, what would distinguish it from other hexes is the Eternal Sandstorm that rolls around the region, moving from hex to hex within the region. This is part of a curse said by the Anhurak people to have been laid on the region by their leader, Mahrun Tal’Zahir. A handful of hooks are included to get the Player Characters involved, including one of their number having “[a] dream about the sunken city and felt drawn to the mysterious place.” and being hired to investigate the region and make sure it is secure, primarily from the giant ants that plague it. These are not enthralling hooks and the Game Master will likely want to create her own that are stronger and likely tied to her campaign setting.

The four adventure locations in Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower consist of a ‘Giant Ant Lair’, ‘Mahrun’s Tomb’, ‘The Sunken City’, and ‘The Hollow Tower’ itself.

The ‘Giant Ant Lair’ is detailed, but not given a map. That said it is a simple encounter, more bug extermination that anything else. ‘Mahrun’s Tomb’ is singular in nature, consisting of single room under a cairn of white stone. He is though, still ‘alive’, and will plead his case with the Player Characters, telling them of how he was wronged. There is the possibility that the Player Characters discover his tomb and even aid him before his true nature is revealed when they discover the secrets of ‘The Hollow Tower’. (The point when the Player Characters confront him is both when they discover what a charmingly challenging foe he is, since he is actually powered by the stars, and when any NPC accompanying them turns out to a cultist dedicated to him.) ‘The Sunken City’ consists of ruins which the Player Characters can scavenge before ascending the spiral staircase with winds around ‘The Hollow Tower’.

The most detailed location in Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower is ‘The Hollow Tower’ itself where Mahrun Tal’Zahir once worked and studied. It inverts the exploration by making it from the top down, rather than bottom up, and is filled with secrets and the occasional monster. In comparison to other locations in the region, and barring the occasional random encounter, the focus is on exploration and investigation rather than combat or interaction. There is plenty to find, whether an indestructible chest which can either be opened with its key or cut open with a magical weapon, a pot plant with gem petals, and a ghost in the cells which wants help to move on to the afterlife. There is also ‘Anhurak’s Peculiar Library’ filled with potentially interesting books. These are listed by type and value, but the Game Master might want to develop them further to add detail and possible bonuses for their study.

What there is not in Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower is any plot or sense of story. There is no imminent danger in the region which threatens to spill over into the surrounds and Mahrun Tal’Zahir remains trapped in his tomb. Instead, the Player Characters will have to poke around to find out what is going on and potentially find out who Mahrun Tal’Zahir was and what he has become. However, there are elements here around which a plot can be strung in the setting with the addition of a rumour or two and some NPCs, perhaps some scholars or cultists with an interest in Mahrun Tal’Zahir and the civilization he left behind. These through, require development by the Game Master, but with their inclusion, the Player Characters might have stronger motivation to visit the region.

Physically, Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower is decently done. The layout is clean and tidy, the illustrations good, and the hexcrawl is an easy read.

Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower veers from overview to detail and back again. In places it feels underdeveloped, whilst in others, comparatively overly detailed. It leaves a lot for the Game Master to create herself to make it more useable and useful, but it at least provides the bare bones for that in what is attractive-looking minx-hexcrawl.