[DCC Day #7] DCC Day 2026 Adventure Pack

As well as contributing to Free RPG Day every year Goodman Games also has its own ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day’. The day is notable not only for the events and the range of adventures being played for Goodman Games’ roleplaying games, but also for the scenarios it releases specifically to be played on the day. For ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2026’, which took place today on Saturday, July 18th, 2026, the publisher is releasing not one, not two, but three scenarios, plus a limited edition printing of Dungeon Crawl Classics #112: Mother of M0nsters. Two of the scenarios, ‘The Temple of Fluttering Terror’ and ‘The Crawl is Not Always Greener’, appear in the duology, the DCC Day 2026 Adventure Pack. ‘The Temple of Fluttering Terror’ is written for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, the spiritual successor to Gamma World, ‘The Crawl is Not Always Greener’ is for use with Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game, which combines Dungeons & Dragons and World Wrestling Entertainment, turns it into a blood sport, televises it, and throws in celebrity culture in an alternate dystopia shot through with a knowing black humour. Lastly, both Dungeon Crawl Classics #112: Mother of M0nsters and DCC Day #7: Pestilence at the Peak of Law are written for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics.

—oOo—

As in past years, the DCC Day 2026 Adventure Pack contains two adventures. The first and longest of the two is ‘The Temple of Fluttering Terror’ are written for use with Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, the spiritual successor to Gamma World. It is designed for a party of three to six Player Characters of First Level and begins with them in the jungle on the back of a fast-flowing river on the other wise of which is an island with some pre-disaster ruins on it.

The Player Characters—or Seekers—have been sent by their respective tribes to rescue a much-fabled artefact, called AESOP, from the ruins. AESOP is rumoured to be a learning device from before the disaster used to teach children. If it can be brought back, it will be a great asset to the confederation of local villages. Unfortunately, the weather has taken a turn for the worse and a series of storms has led to widespread flooding and the rising waters threaten the buildings in which AESOP is located. Thus, the Seekers have to survive the environment and the weather, explore the buildings, find AESOP, and then haul it back! The dangers of the floods are represented by a ‘Deluge Effects’ table which is triggered when a natural roll of one or twenty is rolled. The waters can swell and surge, the winds rise, wildlife flee, and more, plus some effects also increase the die size by a step for subsequent rolls. Which means that as the scenario progresses, the effects of the storm get worse and worse. Then if a Seeker gets caught in the waters, then is a ‘Fighting the Flood Waters’ table to be rolled on, the greater the strength of the Seeker, the less likely he will be swept away.

The ruins on the island are those of Pennsville Learning Academy, so the Seekers are exploring the ruins of an ancient school. As you would expect, there are classrooms dedicated to different subjects, including history, science, and art, a cafeteria, and so on. Each location contains a mix of things to experience and lots of things to loot. For example, in the history classroom, the Experio5400 is a teaching device that beams a holographic, immersive experience straight into the eyes of nearby pupils. One experience is given, but the Judge can be inventive here too, adding her own historical scenes, whether from actual history or the history between now and the events of the disaster that led to Terra AD. However, it is loot where the author gets to be inventive. Items to be looted include a Cheat Lens that when worn provides answers to written questions; a chemical cabinet in the science classroom full of ingredients to be mixed for various effects; school lockers containing things such as a Jet Board, a Dysfunctional Robotic Playmate, Acks Body Spray (incites attacks from nearby feral creatures!), and more.

Finally, there is AESOP itself. It is a A.I. with a pleasing personality—though for entertainment value, the Judge could readily change it—that the Seekers can talks to and ask questions of. The Judge has a list of questions and answers to facilitate any interaction. AESOP is easy to find, but rather than challenging to deal with, it is challenging to move! The seekers must find a way of transporting it out of the ruins, across the island, and then over the river with its raging waters. ‘The Temple of Fluttering Terror’ is a good mix of exploration and combat, twisting a familiar location and making it a dangerous and rewarding in equal measure, before escalating the danger with the weather. The result is an excellent, entertaining scenario for the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game.

The second scenario is ‘The Crawl is Not Always Greener’, which is designed for the Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game and for party of four to six Player Characters of First Level. Their Agent informs them that they have been invited to participate in a new gig—an Xcrawl designed by a first-time Dungeon Judge. Not just any first-time Dungeon Judge, but Tiger Silva, the world’s most famous and accomplished pro-golfer, who wants to try his hand at a different sport. Apart from the fact that it being organised by one of the most famous sportsmen in the North American Empire, it is meant to be a low-key affair. It is a chance for the Player Characters to pick up some new sponsors, look good in a celebrity-driven event, and perhaps move into the orbit of the rich and famous by association.

As you would expect, this Xcrawl is entirely Golf-themed and that starts with the sponsorships on offer, which include the Ultra Whack Golf Clubs and Golfing Gear and Super Aid Sports Drinks. It continues with the individual locations in the Xcrawl, a giant miniature putt-putt golf course, which include woad-painted Goblin Picts which attack to the sound of bad bagpipes being played (and unfortunately the bagpipe-player is a non-combatant, so cannot be attacked and the Player Characters will need to find another way to stop the playing) reflecting Golf’s Scottish origins; a giant sand trap and a even bigger windmill with deadly spinning blades; and a battle with a giant gopher! All of which is confronted whilst attempting to whack a giant Golf ball through the dungeon and into the cup at the end of each room. Being a dungeon for the Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game, the adventure is straightforward and linear, that feel exacerbated by the need to drive the giant Golf ball from one end of the dungeon to the other, room by room. However, it is ever so tongue-in-cheek and fits with the absurdity of the world of Xcrawl.

The absurdity of setting and the scenario are made all the more so by the satirical elements worked into it. These dig at the theme of Golf and at the contemporary politics surrounding Golf. These are likely to amuse or irritate in equal measure, but given the theme, it is no surprise they are included. ‘The Crawl is Not Always Greener’ is a silly, but fun adventure and there are notes too if the Judge wants to add it to her campaign.

Physically, the DCC Day 2026 Adventure Pack is as well done as you would expect for a release from Goodman Games. The artwork is decent, but a little cartoonish in places—which actually suits the Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game.

The DCC Day 2026 Adventure Pack delivers two good scenarios for two different games, but of the two, ‘The Temple of Fluttering Terror’ is the most inventive and interesting, but ‘The Crawl is Not Always Greener’ is sillier and more immediately entertaining. Both are fun to play and both are easy to add to a campaign as they are to run as one-shots.

Friday Fantasy: Dungeon Crawl Classics #81: The One Who Watches From Below

We are all fascinated with what is to come, what will happen in our futures, such that many consult horoscopes and seek out fortune tellers and pray to the gods for answers. Such means are rarely reliable, but what if there was a source of true prophecy? A place where answers of true meaning and accuracy can be gained for those willing to seek out its location and pay the price? There have always been rumours and stories of such places, but it one case they are actually true. The Cave of Secrets does exist and if the seeker of his future can find it and pay coins, gems, or magic items as tribute, he can ask the questions that he wants answers to. There are other rumours about Cave of Secrets though… So many men and women have sought answers that a great hoard of treasure has been amassed down the ages. Enough to buy whole kingdoms! Razor-edged swords and powerful wands! Precious gems and jewels that rain through your fingers! Which means that the Cave of Secrets has attracted an entirely different class of person  interested in what it contains! Mercenaries! Robbers! Raiders! Treasure hunters! Adventurers! Now the adventurers have followed the map with an ‘X’ marked ‘Cave of Secrets’ and stand before the cave entrance with its wooden sign which reads, ‘ENTER’.

This is the set-up for Dungeon Crawl Classics #81: The One Who Watches From Below, a scenario published by Goodman Games for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. Designed for a group of six to eight Player Characters of First Level, the scenario is notable for three things. The first is that it is the winner of the Mystery Map Adventure Design Competition that was included in the pages of the Free RPG Day 2012 adventure module and the second is that as the competition winner, the scenario is actually good. The third is the nature of the curse that dominates the scenario and for the length of the scenario at least, will change how the players roleplay. The curse is triggered by the Player Characters’ greed when they touch the wrong items. Anyone who suffers the curse collapses to the floor, comatose, as his eyes tear themselves from their sockets and flesh grows back over the sockets, and then…! Then, the victim’s eyes move across his body and slide onto the floor and across the walls. The player is no longer roleplaying his character’s body, but just his eyes and he can send them hither and thither. However, the eyes can be attacked and there are some things, like the Eye Slime, which actively hunt these cursed eyes. Further, the only way in which the Player Character can communicate is by blinking or other eye moment and by tracing letters in the air or writing them down, which takes time. To facilitate this, the scenario includes a handout which the Judge can copy and cut out so these is a gap which the Player Character’s eyes can be seen. On the plus side, the Player Character can dominate unintelligent creatures, but this is not easy and the Player Character still cannot communicate using his voice, only the growls and howls of the creature dominated. Ways to remove the curse are suggested, but they are challenging, and ultimately, so is having to roleplay without being able to speak. This does not mean that it will not be entertaining though!

The theme of eyes runs all the way through Dungeon Crawl Classics #81: The One Who Watches From Below. Sets of eyes slide across the walls, blinking and spying on the Player Characters, they bounce down from looming stalks to batter and bruise them, and in one case, they even attempt to blink a message to them! The Player Character Eyes can slide through pipes and cracks and the scenario facilitates this, though the party will need to penetrate beyond the Cave of Secrets that make up the first part of the dungeon. Beyond lies the Temple, clearly a working area, although oddly devoid of its inhabitants. This does not mean that it is free of any dangers. For example, the Player Characters will be able to scour the library for the means to result the eyes to victims of the Cure, but it triggers an attack upon them by every single book in the library! They will likely also discover references here to ‘Shigazilnizthrub’ and ‘The One Who Watches From Below’. There is a room containing ‘Guard Pillars’, eyestalks of a gargantuan subterranean beast that pierce up through the floor and once aware of intruders, bounce up and down on them and rolling over them. The Temple level is the most detailed of the scenario’s four levels and there is a lot here for the Player Characters to discover and examine.

Underneath the Temple are the Brood Pit and the Undertemple. The former injects an arcano-technological element into the scenario as the location of the birthing pools of the abominable Halfling Hybrids that work and protect the complex. The latter is the location for the scenario’s finale and what a finale it is! For players who feel that they have not had enough combat up until now, will certainly get in the final scene. It takes place in ‘The Vault of Eyes’, a massive cavern marked by an abyssal central pit surrounded by mounds and mounds of treasure! There are even wheelbarrows nearby that the Player Characters could use to ferry treasure out of the cavern. Fortuitously, this is one of the treasure vaults of Shigazilnizthrub. Fortuitously, Shigazilnizthrub objects to thieves. So, before the Player Characters have time to go over treasure there is, a titanic black rubbery mass of tendrils, fins, and eyestalks shoots up from the depths of the cavern and surveys all before it. At the same time, the eyes on the walls of the cavern all open and look at the Player Characters. It is a sweet moment of cosmic horror… and choice. Do the Player Characters stay and fight? Do the Player Characters make a run for it? Do the Player Characters make a run for it and attempt to take as much treasure as possible? Make no mistake, this a very challenging, deadly encounter that could end in a total party kill. Or they could defeat Primordial Titan and make off with everything, and become legends. It is possible. More likely, the scenario will end somewhere in between as the Primordial Titan thrashes its tentacles up and down, and the Player Characters make a run for it with what treasure they can carry, chased all the way through the dungeon to the cavern exit by eyes sliding along the walls. It is a memorably great finale.

To support the Judge, Dungeon Crawl Classics #81: The One Who Watches From Below includes notes on how to run the final scene, in particular how to use the Primordial Titan’s ‘powerful suggestion’ which has been changed from ‘domination’ to make for a more interesting and less player agency-denying encounter. There are playtest notes too and a bonus encounter that that did not appear in the original printing of the scenario. There are also another three handouts, images of various locations. It is a pity that there are not more of them as they really help the players visualise the dungeon.

For the long term, Dungeon Crawl Classics #81: The One Who Watches From Below details Shigazilnizthrub as a Patron. This includes his Patron Taint, three Patron spells—Remote Seeing, The Crawling Eye, and Book of the Dead, and his Spellburn. This is an entertaining addition to Dungeon Crawl Classics canon and would work well with Player Character and NPC wizards.

If there is an issue with Dungeon Crawl Classics #81: The One Who Watches From Below it is that the treasure rewards do feel very light. At least in terms of what the Player Characters can carry in terms of coin and gems and thus carry out of ‘The Vault of Eyes’. The scenario is supposed to be giving the Player Characters life-altering amounts of treasure, but the scenario does not allow for that and effectively, the encumbrance rules feel as they limit what can be carried.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics #81: The One Who Watches From Below is as well presented as you would expect for a scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. The writing, the artwork, the cover in particular, and the cartography are all excellent.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #81: The One Who Watches From Below is a great dungeon crawl infused with a sense of cosmic horror, given lots of detail and entertaining encounters, and topped off with brilliantly weird gimmick of a curse. The combination will not only present a challenge to any player, but also really make for a fun playing experience.

—oOo—

Dungeon Crawl Classics #80.5: Glipkerio’s Gambit was the previous scenario •

The next scenario is Dungeon Crawl Classics #82: Bride of the Black Manse.

The Other OSR: THREE from the LOCKER

THREE from the LOCKER is a ‘Pamphlet Bundle’ for Pirate Borg, the self-described, “Worst Pirate RPG Ever Made™!”, published by Limithron. It is published by SkeletonKey Games, which previously released the excellent fanzine, Tales from the Locker #1, and consists of a mini-adventure, Sweet Tusk, and two mini-supplements, Blood in the Water and Raise the Black, that are also available separately. In turn, they give the Game Master a location-based scenario that combines H.G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau with George Orwell’s Animal Farm in the Dark Caribbean; six possible situations when the ship that the Player Characters are aboard is rendered into a derelict, whether from a ship-to-ship engagement, a terrible storm, a run in with sea monsters, or other threat, and about to sink; and what might happen when a pirate captain orders his crew to ‘raise the black’ and hoist the jolly roger! All pamphlets are available on their own as well as a bundle (or pack if physical). They do share the same trade dress, so definitely feel as if they should be bought together!

Sweet Tusk promises ‘Pigs Plot, Rum Flow, Adventure Awaits’ in detailing a costal rum plantation and rum distillery that was once home to a necromancer and his cult, but is now home to a passel of pigs, some sentient, some feral, many bipedal, most of them anthropomorphised. The Player Characters could simply wash ashore at the plantation a la Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau, but the adventure’s own hooks include looking for a new source of rum, being sent to exterminate ‘feral’ pigs to prevent them from spreading across the Dark Caribbean, or being hired to retrieve an item from the plantation for its previous owners. To get the best out of the location, the Game Master should ideally combine the latter with one of the first two as that will drive the Player Characters to interact with most of the inhabitants of the plantations, its plot threads, and explore its depths.

The plantation is dominated by two factions. One is lead by Lord Wembly Trembleton and wants to restore the rum distillery and sugar mill with the aim of becoming self-sufficient, whilst Scrofa, the plantation’s spiritual leader, her sorcery twisted by the necromantic studies she found that belonged to the previous owner, is becoming increasingly and brutally isolationist. The Player Characters will need to deal with them and explore the plantations—including the tunnels that have been dug under the plantation (and make it feel like a Vietcong tunnel network)—to achieve their given objectives. Alternatively, the Player Characters might ignore them altogether and clear out the whole of plantation and take it over and run it themselves as a going concern.

Sweet Tusk has a hot, sweaty feel, sticky with perspiration and sugar and piggy peculiarity. The latter is probably the only reason why the Game Master might not want to run Sweet Tusk, talking pigs not necessarily going to suit every campaign. As written though, it adds an off-kilter element that the Game Master can throw at her players and their characters and have fun portraying a passel of pigs in the process.

Blood in the Water gives the Game Master ‘Six Sinking Ship Scenarios’. The Game Master can use this when the Player Characters’ ship, or the ship that they are on, either selecting one of the options or rolling for it. Each one has events happening on deck and three zones surrounding the vessel, out to thirty feet and beyond. The six options include the ‘Feeding Frenzy’ of a shark attack on the ship going down; ‘Tentacles from the Deep’ that flail at the ship and its crew and passenger; a ‘Powder Magazine Explosion’ that sends fire and shrapnel across the deck and beyond; the ship and floating wreckage being thrown about by ‘Angry Seas’; ghosts that come looking for new crewmembers in ‘Revenant Recruitment’; and potentially the crew and passengers being saved with a kiss by ‘Meddling Mermaids’! Since the action in each divided into four zones—three plus the deck—where different things will happen, there is a degree of procedure to running any one of these post-disaster ship encounters. Not a lengthy procedure, but quite a simple one, and they all do add a bit of flavour to a sinking ship situation beyond the Player Characters abandoning ship and racing for the boats. Added to this is a sea shanty, Sharks in the Water, that a ship’s crew can sing to give its members bonuses to tests in the first few rounds of the sinking ship. The Game Master might want to have her players and their characters learn this in response to having been in a sinking ship the first time and so learn from their experience. Blood in the Water is quite specific in the situation it needs to trigger its use and that trigger is not going to happen that often, but definitely useful to have on the shelf though.

The third pamphlet is Raise the Black. This expands upon the various effects of the jolly roger in play. First, when ‘Raising the Black’, that is, hoisting the jolly roger and its effects upon the crew of the vessel being targeted by the pirate ship. In play, the ship’s captain of the pirate ship tests his Presence and result, which depends upon the size of the targeted vessel in comparison to the pirate vessel, may leave the crew plucky still and laughing off the threat or feeling doomed and wanting no part of the battle. There are plenty of options in between and effectively determines the morale of targeted vessels. ‘Witchjacks’ are special flags, ensorcelled versions of the jolly roger, that grant special powers that can be used once per day. For example, the Banner of the Black Whale grants an extra die of damage in ramming attacks and extra damage the further it has travelled, whilst the Pennant of the Mermaid grants an extra Crew Action. A pirate captain is unlikely to want to fly a flag other than his own, so there are rules included that enable to cut up a Witchjack and sew the resulting parts and its magic into the pirate captain’s own flag. This does not always work, but it destroys the original flag. Minor, but optional rules beyond this are included to help speed up naval combat and ‘D20 Pirate Flags’ give options for both a Player Character or an NPC crew if the Game Master needs to a pirate flag quickly. Given that a third of the pamphlet is taken up illustrations of jolly roger flags, Raise the Black is the least useful of the three pamphlets in THREE from the LOCKER and add the least to the play of Pirate Borg.

Physically, the three pamphlets of THREE from the LOCKER are all decently presented. They are clearly and simply laid out and all easy to read and use. Sweet Tusk is the busiest, so is harder to read, but only slightly so, and nothing that is going to impede the Game Master running the scenario from the page. The artwork is light, but the cartography is decent.

THREE from the LOCKER is solid support for Pirate Borg, the scenario Sweet Tusk being the highlight of the three, entertaining and enjoyable, a Player Character-driven plantation-crawl that is easy to add to a Game Master’s campaign. The other two pamphlets are shorter and not quite as entertaining as Sweet Tusk and Raise the Black not quite as useful, but in the right circumstances, still good to have in the ship’s locker.

The Other OSR: Another Bug Hunt

It is curious to note that since its original publication in 2018, the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG from Tuesday Knight Games has been reliant upon the single rulebook, the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG – Player’s Survival Guide. First as a ‘Zero Edition’ and then as an actual ‘First Edition’. Curious, because despite the horror roleplaying rules detailing no alien threats and giving no advice for the Warden—as the Game Master is known in Mothership—the has proved to be success, with numerous authors writing and publishing scenarios of their own as well as titles from the publisher. What the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG offered was a stripped down, fast playing Science Fiction system that supported a number of sub-genres. Most obviously Blue Collar Science Fiction with horror and Military Science Science Fiction, the most obvious inspirations being the films Alien and Aliens, as well as Outland, Dark Star, Silent Running, and Event Horizon. Yet the authors of third-party content for the roleplaying game have also offered sandboxes such as Desert Moon of Karth and Cosmic Horror like What We Give To Alien Gods, showing how the simplicity of Mothership could be adjusted to handle other types of Science Fiction. This combination of flexibility and simplicity has made it attractive to the Old School Renaissance segment of the hobby, despite Mothership not actually sharing roots with the family of Old School Renaissance roleplaying games derived from the different editions of Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, at best, Old School Renaissance adjacent.

With the publication of the Mothership Core Box and the Mothership Deluxe Box following a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2024, the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG has a complete set of rules for what is its first edition. The includes rules the construction and option of spaceships with Shipbreaker’s Toolkit, monstrous threats with Unconfirmed Contact Reports, and a guide for refereeing the roleplaying game in the form of the Warden’s Operations Manual.

—oOo—

Contact has been lost with Samsa IV. A survey detected signs of biochemistry on the planet and the Company assigned a team of researchers, engineers, and marines to establish a base of operations, a terraforming station, and investigate the signs. Doctor Edem, the team xenobiologist reported finding a species of arthropods on the planet, nicknaming them ‘carcinids’ or ‘carcs’. A subsequent report informed the Company that one had been captured for further study and examination. That was nine months ago. Six months ago, communication ceased with Gretna Base on Samsa IV. Three months ago, the crew was hired to investigate the loss of communication and reestablish contact. Specifically, they are to rendezvous with the marine commander, Second Lieutenant Kaplan, re-establish satellite communication and restore the terraforming machinery to full operation, and if that fails, evacuate Doctor Edem and the colony’s synthetic science officer, Hinton, or at his logic core. After several weeks in cyrosleep and following a briefing by Company representative, Maas, the Crew finds itself dropped at the landing zone for Gretna Base, surrounded by jungle and in the pouring rain, the rusty, scarred, base ahead along the muddy path.

This is the set-up for Another Bug Hunt, which describes itself as ‘The Introductory Adventure for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG’. As an introductory scenario to the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG, what Another Bug Hunt does is almost exactly not what you want it to be doing, but the good news is that it does it well. In fact, very well. What Another Bug Hunt does is take direct inspiration from the most obvious of influences over the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG, which are the films Alien and Aliens. That would seem too obvious, too easy, too derivative. Whereas what you would expect the scenario to do is show how Blue Collar Science Fiction horror can be done without any reference to either film. Especially since the Warden’s Operations Manual was about running the game and creating your own content and Unconfirmed Contact Reports contained numerous examples of threats that the Player Characters might contend with in Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG. Instead, what Another Bug Hunt does is take that inspiration and show how it can presented as playable content without being derivative and does so as an extension of the Warden’s Operations Manual.

The Warden’s Operations Manual is the best of the core books for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG. It takes the reader and prospective Warden through the first steps of getting started the roleplaying game, helping her think about the sort of scenario and horror she might want to run, decide what obstacles to present, what she wants each of the roleplaying game’s four roles to do, and so on. It is obvious advice, but that does not mean that it is not helpful. It is, because the scenario is an introductory scenario, written to be run and played by those new to the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG at the least. If the Warden’s Operations Manual tells the Warden how to run the roleplaying game, then Another Bug Hunt extends that advice by showing her. It goes beyond simply telling the Warden what she needs to run the scenario, but also calls out rules as needed, such as how to handle Fear Saves, how to describe locations, handle pacing and tensions, how to handle searches in locations, and asking something as basic as when should the players roll dice? At every stage of Another Bug Hunt, there is useful, helpful advice on how to handle the different aspects of the scenario, from set-up to the climax and then into the aftermath. This does include advice on running the individual parts of the scenario as one-shots, but doing so does mean that the players and their characters will not get the full story or the plot to the scenario.

The Warden’s Operations Manual is the best of the core books for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG. It takes the reader and prospective Warden through the first steps of getting started the roleplaying game, helping her think about the sort of scenario and horror she might want to run, decide what obstacles to present, what she wants each of the roleplaying game’s four roles to do, and so on. It is obvious advice, but that does not mean that it is not helpful. It is, because the scenario is an introductory scenario, written to be run and played by those new to the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG at the least. If the Warden’s Operations Manual tells the Warden how to run the roleplaying game, then Another Bug Hunt extends that advice by showing her. It goes beyond simply telling the Warden what she needs to run the scenario, but also calls out rules as needed, such as how to handle Fear Saves, how to describe locations, handle pacing and tensions, how to handle searches in locations, and asking something as basic as when should the players roll dice? At every stage of Another Bug Hunt, there is advice on how to handle the different aspects of the scenario, from set-up to the climax and then into the aftermath.

In terms of that story, Another Bug Hunt is just another bug hunt. There is an isolated planet, contact has been lost with the team sent there, the Player Characters will find signs of chaos and discover a desperate situation on the planet, and the primary threat they face does consist of bugs, the aforementioned carcanids. Much like the Xenomorph of the Alien universe, the carcanids have a lifecycle which involves infecting victims—which it does with a shriek—and transforming them physically and mentally. The process gives a player with an infected character some interesting symptoms to roleplay before they completely transform and become an NPC for the Warden to control. If the parts of Another Bug Hunt are run as a one-shot, the Warden will need to speed the process up as it is more suited to the length of the whole scenario. Fortunately, there is scope for replacement Player Characters.

In terms of structure, Another Bug Hunt is divided into four parts. These start out simple and get increasingly more complex as the story progresses. The first part, ‘Distress Call’, is an exploration of the battered and chaotic ruins of Gretna Base, a mini-room crawl containing hints of the horrors to come. It ends with the first encounter with the carcanids, a surprisingly tough encounter that unnerve the players, let alone their characters. The Player Characters are free to move around wherever they want, so it is possible for them to encounter the carcanids very quickly. In ‘Hive Mind’, the Player Characters make contact with the survivors of the team sent by the company to investigate the biochemistry signals on Samsa IV. Here, the Warden has several NPCs to keep track off, three of whom give the Player Characters sub-missions to try and complete. These take place in and around the terraforming station, effectively a dam and pumping station, and they include attempting to call the dropship for evacuation, recover the team’s research from the laboratory, and rescue a squad sent to prepare the reactor against the oncoming storm. The latter, combined with the rising waters, is a growing threat in the scenario, especially when the Player Characters discover that the carcanids can swim! The Player Characters can tackle the three in any order, but the flooding makes them increasingly difficult to do. In addition, they have to deal with the tensions between the survivors and their clashing demands.

Each of the three missions has a cinematic feel to them, whether it is the drive and flight along the top of the dam; the creepiness of the laboratory which is completely in black; and descending down the chimney to cooling room of the reactor. If the first two parts take their cue from industrial spaces of Aliens, then the third part, ‘Mothership’, draws from Alien and Prometheus as the Player Characters ascend into the mountains and discover the carcanid mothership and clamber inside. The inside of the mothership is the setting for the scenario’s grand finale and showdown with its actual villain. It is great scene that the Warden should play for all its worth, terrifying and awe-inspiring, that should with a tense finale as the Player Characters flee for their lives! As the storm breaks and the carcanids swarm towards them in the fourth and final part, ‘Metamorphosis’, the survivors and the Player Characters race to evacuate the planet. This should be narratively exciting encounter as the Player Characters hold off wave after wave of the carcanids, now better equipped to deal with them—at least temporarily—as they make a run for it. This can end in a bang and a total party kill, but the subsequent scene has a sting in the tail and the final scene is a bit of an anticlimax as it purports to be a scene in which the spaceship combat rules for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG can be taught. As the scenario makes clear, the spaceship that the Player Characters are aboard is not capable of defeating the alien spaceship, so the best option is for them is to flee.

There are elements of the scenario that could have been better handled. For example, the flooding element lacks mechanical support, forcing the Warden to make up something to cover the omission. Which is pity since the scenario is designed to teach the Warden. The aforementioned spaceship encounter is a disappointment.

Physically, Another Bug Hunt is a busy affair. The layout is clean and tidy, accessible, but a little tight in places, but there is a lot going on. The artwork is decent and the cartography serviceable. It is well written and the use of the ‘Warden Educational Support’ to give out the advice is an entertaining touch.

Another Bug Hunt is not just ‘another bug hunt’. It is more than that. It is essentially a tutorial scenario for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG that draws from its primary inspirations and combines our familiarity with those inspirations with the unfamiliarity of its own story in a pleasing balancing act. Another Bug Hunt is well designed, it does a good job of showing where the rules come into play and where they do not, and it is a great introduction to both the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG and its genre.

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 OldSchool 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.

Quick-Start Saturday: ShadowSun Revised

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

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

—oOo—

What is it?
ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart is the quick-start for ShadowSun Revised, a dark, post-apocalyptic desert setting which uses ShadowDark as its rules. It is inspired by, and implements, the world of Athas, the setting for Dark Sun, the ‘Swords & Planet’ Conan-meets-John Carter-style campaign for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition, published in 1991. It is one of the few Dungeons & Dragons settings not to have been updated to Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition despite it being a fan favourite. Further, the differences between Athas and traditional fantasy roleplaying, both mechanically and thematically, especially given its inclusion of psionics, has meant that there has been relatively little drive within the Old School Renaissance to recreate Athas or Dark Sun.

It consists of two separate books.

The ‘Player Quickstart for ShadowSun’ is a seventy-six page, 15.37 MB full black and white PDF. The ‘GM Quickstart for ShadowSun’ is a sixty-two page, 12.81 MB full black and white PDF.

How long will it take to play?
ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart includes the scenario ‘Colossi’s Rest’. This will take a session or two to complete.

What else do you need to play?
The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart needs a standard set of polyhedral dice and the ShadowDark rules.

Who do you play?
The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart does not include any pre-generated Player Characters, but shows off eight Ancestries and eight Classes. The eight Ancestries consist of Dwarf, Elf, Goliath, Hawkfolk, Human, Lizardfolk, Mantisfolk, and Mule. Of these, the Dwarf and Human Ancestries are what you would expect, whereas the Elf Ancestry differs from Dungeons & Dragons (or ShadowDark), and the rest are new. Elves are nomads, moving from one oasis to another, with limited views on property, so they are often mistrusted in the city-states and the worst of them become raiders and bandits. Goliaths are giant humanoids, but not actually Giants, created as a race by the Mage-Kings. They are fascinated by other cultures and adhere to personal aesthetics which influence their outlook. Hawkfolk have wings, and whilst they prefer to live in high places, cannot truly fly, only hover. Lizardfolk hunt the dusk sinks and Black silt seas for food and construct most of the ships sailing the Black. Mantisfolk are semi-nomadic insectoid humanoids who are absolutely loyal to their clutchmates. Mules are the infertile offspring of Humans and Dwarves, often born into slavery and thrown into the arena as pit fighters and gladiators.

The eight new Classes are the Enforcer, Explorer, Gladiator, Infiltrator, Mentalist, Shaman, Sorcerer, and Warrior. The Enforcer is trained to subdue and capture others rather than kill them, can cause others to freeze on the spot with a look, can place a subdued opponent in manacles, and has Advantage when questioning a captive for information. The Explorer is a scout with Advantage on navigation and tracking checks, knows how to deal with poison, and oddly, knows how to take advantage of others if he wants to betray them. The Gladiator is good at brawling and cheating at gambling. The Infiltrator can knock a target out with a blackjack, has an ear for conversation, and is skilled at Thievery. The Mentalist has a calming presence, has access to psionic powers, knows the silent language of Vedinal. The Shaman can affect undead, has an elemental affinity which protects him against that element and can temporarily create a handful of it, and specialises in nature spellcasting. The Sorcerer is an arcane spellcaster that when spellcasting check is failed, results in defilement and the loss of Hit Points to either the caster or an ally or a captive, which can kill them. The Sorcerer can easily understand languages and learn spells by studying tablets. Lastly, the Warrior is a skirmisher, spurred on in the first few rounds of combat, knows how to use the environment to his advantage with dirty tricks, and is skilled with throwing weapons.

Both the Ancestries and the Classes are clearly inspired by Dark Sun and fans of the classic setting will recognise those inspirations here. One issue clearly implied in the ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart—and thus in ShadowSun Revised itself—is that of slaves and slavery. For example, the Mule is typically born into slavery, the encounter tables include slavers, and both the Enforcer and Gladiator Classes are connected to slavery within the setting. The Enforcer may be capturing them and the the Gladiator may well be a slave. Slavery is a facet of the pulp fantasy and ‘Swords & Planet’ genres that ShadowSun Revised draws from. As an emulation of those genres, it is not unreasonable to include it as part of the setting, but only if handled in a mature fashion. That said, not every player or group is going to want to accept that as part of their campaign.

How is a Player Character defined?

A Player Character in the ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart—and thus in ShadowSun Revised—is defined as a standard ShadowDark Player Character. However, there are three notable additions. The first two relate to the Ancestries. Each Ancestry has a means to regain Luck tokens and a Refusal. For example, if an Elf spends a week or more alone in the wilderness or a Mule spends a week performing hard labour, each will gain a Luck token. The Refusal reflects an outlook that the Ancestry does not have, such as the Mule’s rejection of metaphysics and any idea of an afterlife or an inability, like the Mantisfolk inability to swim in water, dust, or the Black due to a lack of buoyancy. The third is the fact that every Player Character has a Psionic power, called a Wild Talent, not just the Mentalist Class.

In addition, the traditional Alignment of Dungeons & Dragons is replaced by Apathy, Empathy, and Tyranny. As well as being an outlook, these also provide a possible means of gaining Luck tokens.

How do the mechanics work?

The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart—and thus in ShadowSun Revised—uses the standard d20-based rules of ShadowDark.

How does combat work?
There are no specific combat mechanics in the ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart.

How does magic work?

Magic is formed from six Elements. These are Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Life, and Void. A spellcasting check is required to cast a spell. This can be rolled at Advantage or Disadvantage if an element is particularly strong in an area.

The arcane magic of the Sorcerer has potentially dangerous side effects. If a spellcasting check is failed, it will result in the loss of Hit Points in the caster, an ally, or a captive, and this loss can kill. A Critical Success allows one of a spell’s numerical effects to be doubled, whilst a Critical Failure means a magical mishap has happened. The caster loses the spell and a roll must be made on the Arcane Mishap table. At worst, this can result in a ‘Defilement Surge’, destroying all nearby plants and killing all nearby small creatures, and doing minor damage to all living creatures and inflicting heatstroke on them. If they are already suffering heatstroke, they die!

The nature magic of the Shaman has its own potentially dangerous side effects. However, being nature-based, they are not quite as dangerous.

How do Psionics work?

All Player Characters have a ‘Wild Talent’. This is a natural, but minor psionic ability. It does not include classic psionic abilities such as telepathy or teleportation or clairvoyance. Instead, a Player Character might be ‘Nimble’ and take half damage from falling and less damage from ranged attacks or have ‘Affinity’ with domesticated animals and all riding beasts are reliable. In a traditional roleplaying sense, these are more akin to advantages, but here they can still be interpreted as psionic abilities.

The Mentalist Class is the main user of Psionics, although some powerful NPCs and many creatures and monsters on Althea have them too. Where spells require a spellcasting check to cast them, psionic powers require Psionic Power check to activate a psionic power. The Critical Success and Critical Failure rules apply as normal and there is a Psionic Mishaps table for the latter. The psionic powers are organised into tiers just like the spells for the Sorcerer and the Shaman, but many of the higher tier psionic powers have prerequisites in terms of lower tier psionic powers. For example, Repel is a Tier 2 psionic power that can force opponents away from the user and potentially crush them against walls and other objects. The psionicist cannot learn it until he has mastered the Tier 1 power of Lift, which he uses to lift targets up off the ground and prevents them from moving or making melee attacks.

What do you play?

In addition to its scenario, ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart provides a lot of information about its world of Althea and the rules for ShadowSun Revised. From the start it makes clear that Althea is grim setting in a harsh world where everyone struggles for food, water, and shelter, and might is right. This is reflected in rations containing food and water being treated separately for purposes of survival, and a lack of water will lead to heatstroke, when every roll is made at Disadvantage, and Hit Point loss, which cannot be healed by magic. Extended deprivation like this will kill a Player Character.

The background to the setting explains how the once verdant world of Althea was transformed first by the Shadow Fall of its ancient moon of Sheera, from which the original inhabitants—the Wee Folk—of Althea stole its magic and transformed into many of the Ancestries known today. Second, by the ShadowSun which twisted the magic so that its use would defile the land and the sea, rendering them in deserts and silt. The ShadowSun also melted the metals causing them to flow into the depths, and now metal is rare, with arms and armour and other equipment constructed of wood, bone, and rock. This is reflected in the equipment list.

The travel rules account for the harsh nature of Athlea’s terrain and climate. Any distance travelled means that a Player Character will gain points of Exhaustion, the amount varying depending on the harshness of the terrain. Gain too many points of Exhaustion and a Player Character will suffer from deprivation, which again, is potentially lethal.

Most of what the Game Master and her players needs to run ShadowSun Revised is in the ‘Player Quickstart for ShadowSun’. The ‘GM Quickstart for ShadowSun’ covers terrain types, hazards, random encounters, dungeon types on Althea, and treasure as well as giving an extensive bestiary. It also includes the scenario, ‘Colossi’s Rest’. This is a dungeon adventure set in the body of a fallen golem that has been dug out by giant ants! The rumour tables will provide motivation and the Game Master might want to expand it little with some wilderness travel to show off the travel and survival rules, but the dungeon itself is very nicely detailed, a good mix of natural and the unnatural, both of which are a little weird.

Is there anything missing?
No. The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart has everything that a Game Master needs to run the included scenario. Probably more than she needs to run the included scenario.

Is it easy to prepare?
No. The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart contains a lot of information, and the players will need to create their own characters as well as the Game Master preparing the adventure.

Is it worth it?
Yes. The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart contains a wealth of information about the setting of Althea and the ShadowSun Revised rules. Arguably too much information in comparison to a traditional quick-start, being a lengthy and surprisingly detailed preview of what will be in the main rulebook rather than a quick-start. This does mean that preparing to run the scenario takes longer since the players actually need to create characters rather than choosing them, but it also means that it provides a very good feel for the world and shows you how its play will differ from that of traditional ShadowDark.

The ShadowSun Revised – Quickstart is published by Chubby Funster and is available to download here.

Friday Fantasy: Glipkerio’s Gambit

In aspiring to great power and in obtaining the patronage of a great power, perhaps a god, a demon, or a celestial, there is sometimes a cost to be paid, a service to be rendered in return such patronage. So it is that the Three Fates, patron to the wizard in the party, call upon his aid and thus the aid of all in the party. There is no denying that is a great hook. It gets the Player Characters involved immediately because the wizard owes his patron a great deal and he stands to lose much, starting with his reputation and standing with the Three Fates, if he says no. What the Three Fates want him and the rest of the party to do is to recapture their temple, the Temple of Destiny. They can tell the Player Characters that it has been captured by the forces of Chaos, but no more, for something blocks their vision of it. To do so, the Player Characters must ascend Mount Tyche, in particular, the Staircase of Fate, close to the top of the mountain, in order to enter the Temple of Destiny and determine who leads the forces of Chaos in its takeover and defeat them.

This is the set-up for Dungeon Crawl Classics #80.5: Glipkerio’s Gambit, a scenario published by Goodman Games for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. It is designed for a party of Second level Player Characters and it can be played through in one or two sessions. What has happened is that the wizard, Glipkerio, emboldened by his dark patron, Obitu-Que, has brashly seized the Temple of Destiny and turned it into his own lair, tapping into the Fates’ wellspring of power to fuel his own magical research. In particular, he has been able to infuse an amulet with enough power to control time and will use that against the Player Characters in what is the best scene in the scenario. However, to get to that scene, the Player Characters have to get through the rest of scenario and the scenes and encounters that make up the rest of the scenario are not bad, they are far from inspiring or exciting. The scenario begins well, with the Three Fates summoning the Player Characters when they return home from a night out and asking for their help. It does not have to be the Three Fates and they could instead be replaced by a Player Character’s own patron, but in this instance, it is the Three Fates and they give the Player Characters a magical artefact, a thread from their spinning wheel to protect the wearer from the forces of Chaos. Once the Player Characters accept the task and are transported near Mount Tyche to bring their ascent. The Player Characters can follow the path that winds round the steeply conical mountain, climb up the side, or fly, but pretty much, after a handful of fights, they get to the top.

If the encounters up the mountain underwhelm, the random events do add some colour and many feel a bit more ominous. For example, the phrase ‘Turn back now’ has been chiselled into a rock wall in gigantic letters and the Player Characters can discover the severed head of a Dwarf propped up on a rock which will croak the same phrase again and again, “You-ooo go-ooo noooooow.” The scenario picks up a pace when the Player Characters reach the Staircase of Fate just below the entrance to the Temple of Destiny. There is a fun puzzle here for the Player Characters to crack, though it has the potential undermine the gift that the Fates gave them, and between that and the Temple of Destiny has turned the temple entrance into a Corpse Gate, a gate of undead flesh, all grabbing arms, formed from the corpses of the villagers who lived below the mountain. If the Player Characters get too close, they will be grabbed, but a Cleric’s Turn Unholy ability will release them or do damage, and if a Thief wants to pick the lock, he has to reach into a gaping mouth!

The finale sees the Player Character confront the wizard, Glipkerio, not just once but multiple times. This is because he has used his newly infused Chronomantic Amulet to reach back in time and recruit younger versions of himself. Fortunately, these younger versions of himself are not as powerful as he currently is, though there are more of them. The number of duplicates also limits his (or their) spellcasting ability, but the Player Characters will need to kill them multiple times before they stop reappearing, and eventually, they will only be facing one, which transforms into the strange cat-headed, partially furry, one tentacled arm creature depicted on the cover. It is a cinematically fun final boss battle which brings the scenario to an entertaining climax.

Unfortunately, an exciting climax does not make up for an otherwise unexciting and underwhelming scenario. There are few opportunities for roleplaying, but worse, the scenario mostly ignores its themes of fate and the Fates with the Three Fates and time travel and manipulation with Glipkerio’s newfound powers. There are elements of both in the scenario, but not enough. Some of this can be explained by a lack of space, the scenario barely running to nine pages in length, but it would have been interesting if the Player Characters had been given the option of exploring three possible Fates somehow and perhaps been flung around in time as well. There is some element of time manipulation in the scenario at the start of the Player Characters’ ascent of the mountain with a strange encounter that foreshadows the scenario’s finale, and whilst a neat set-up, that again could have been  a stronger encounter.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics #80.5: Glipkerio’s Gambit is as well presented as you would expect for a scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. The writing, the artwork, and the cartography are all excellent

Dungeon Crawl Classics #80.5: Glipkerio’s Gambit is a serviceable adventure and no more—as written. It feels constrained by its slim page count, so if a Judge wants to take it and develop its themes and create some engaging encounters and events around them, whether that is the Player Characters chasing Glipkerio through time or deciding between their fates, then Dungeon Crawl Classics #80.5: Glipkerio’s Gambit could live up to its ideas and its potential.

—oOo—

Dungeon Crawl Classics #80: Intrigue at the Court of Chaos was the previous scenario •

The next scenario is Dungeon Crawl Classics #81: The One who Watches from Below.

The Other OSR: Down Among the Dead

Down Among the Dead describes itself as ‘A Terrible Expansion’ for Pirate Borg, the ‘Worst Pirate RPG Ever Made’. In the case of the latter claim, Pirate Borg is actually highly accessible, especially in the form of the Pirate Borg Starter Set, an Old School Renaissance-style roleplaying game is set in the Dark Caribbean, a sea of tropical islands marked with European towns and fortresses and ruins of civilisations long gone, of shipwrecks with rich cargoes and even richer treasures, and of the Scourge. The Scourge made the dead walk once again, ghosts return to haunt the living, and monsters lurk ready to smash the foothold that the Europeans have established in the region. The governors and the viceroys, representatives of kings and queens, have forced to adapt and rule with no contact from home following the Scourge and even take advantage of the situation, especially since the discovery of the abilities and addictive nature of ASH, the ash of the burned and ground undead. Some seek to make money from the trade in ASH and some seek to control it, whilst others seek to repress it. This is another cause of the conflict in the Dark Caribbean. Pirate Borg casts the players as members of a crew who will sail the ASH-tinged waters the Dark Caribbean, raiding and smuggling, carousing and drinking, adventuring, and exploring. In the case of the former, Down Among the Dead is the first official supplement for the roleplaying game, providing four adventures, three new Classes, skills, motivations, even house rules, and a lot more.

Down Among the Dead is published by Limithron via Free League Publishing following a successful Kickstarter campaign. It contains three new Classes, new skills, adds motivations for Player Characters, four sets of tables for generating different aspects of the setting and game, and three lengthy adventures, all of which can be added to an ongoing campaign. The first new Class is ‘The Antiquarian’, which is essentially Indiana Jones (or other swashbuckling archaeologist of your choice) for the Age of Sail, complete with a phobia, a holy grail—perhaps discovering lost temples or ruins and ancient treasures or the origins and dark secrets behind the creation of ASH, and an ’Expertise’ such as ‘Theology/Arcana’, ‘Athletics’, or ‘Occultism’. The ‘Deep One’ brings a Lovecraftian touch to Pirate Borg, its origins such as ‘Hybrid’, ‘Bathyal’, and ‘Abyssal’—the type and depth of water it comes from—determining starting stats, and its options include either ‘Shaman’ or ‘Warrior’. The former learns Pelagic Sorcery Spells, whilst the latter is armed with a cultural weapon like a coral and seashell long knife or a piece of driftwood with stingray spikes and learns combat techniques. Lastly, the ‘Unlocked Soul’ is resurrected spirit who has returned to the surface after dying and being cast into Davy Jones’ Locker. This Class is living on borrowed time as there is a increasing chance that Charon will reclaim his soul, but in the meantime, he can regenerate wounds and regrow limbs, ask questions of the dead, become like transparent water, and more, though his skeleton might itch from within because it is made of coral or his head might be able to spin right round and he cannot see a particular colour.

All three Classes are good, bringing fun archetypes into Pirate Borg. All three can be played as written, but the ‘Unlocked Soul’ is best used for an NPC or for Player Characters who have also escaped Davy Jones’ Locker—perhaps after playing through ‘Lost to the Locker’ later in the book—and wanting to multi-class upon returning to the surface.

One possible negative aspect of Pirate Borg is the limited number of Class features that a Player Character can have. A Player Character gains one per Level, so typically by Fifth or Sixth Levels, there are no more abilities to choose from. ‘d66 Skills for the Seasoned Sea Rover’ remedies that with a list of alternative skills that a player can select from instead of taking a Class feature, and not once, but twice for each skill. For example, with ‘Gunsmith’, a Player Character can repair black powder weapons, lower their chances of misfires, and improve their accuracy and damage inflicted, and if taken a second time, improve their accuracy and damage inflicted again. With ‘ASH Apothecary’, a Player Character can cook ASH down to a potent crystallised form that when consumed has a greater effect, but also sells for triple the price, and if taken again, these effects are doubled! From ‘Deadshot’, ‘Barrelman’s Eyes’, and ‘Font of Chaos’ to ‘Salvage Diver’, ‘Agile Amputee’, and ‘Siren’s Tongue’, this is an entertaining selection and there are a lot here that a player will want to choose from rather than one of his character’s Class Feature. There is the option to roll randomly, but the Game Master could also use these skills as rewards during play or simply allow Player Characters to have both these skills and their Class Features to make them more capable and heroic.

The ‘Motivations During the Apocalypse’ can be used for both the Player Characters or NPCs, whilst ‘House Rules’ gives options for the Game Master in terms of design notes, examples, and tips. These range from rerolling initiative each day and adding Armour Class to the game when one Player Character fights another (instead of rolling to defend) to having damage dice explode and playing Pirate Borg in either Nightmare or Heroic modes! Many of these address issues that a Game Master might have with the roleplaying game and some of them push Pirate Borg away from the Mörk Borg model and closer to a Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying game. All though are options that enable a group to play the roleplaying game in the style it prefers. The other general support for Pirate Borg includes four sets of tables for generating elements of the Dark Caribbean setting, including a ‘Jolly Roger Flag Generator’, ‘Dark Caribbean Island Generator’, ‘Coral Reef Generator’, and ‘Coin Generator’. ‘Dark Caribbean Island Generator’ and ‘Coral Reef Generator’ both come with examples, but all four are useful adding further details to the Game Master’s Dark Caribbean campaign.

The first of the four scenarios in Down Among the Dead is ‘Anchor Drop Falls’. It is a short, two-page location detailing a set of caves behind a five hundred foot high waterfall where pirates and/or conquistadors are said to have buried their treasure, Deep Ones have made a home, and then been driven out by a hungry, giant crab. It is a plain and simple affair, with the location descriptions placed around the map, that is very easy to run from the page and just as easy to slot into a campaign. ‘Anchor Drop Falls’ can be played in a single session, whereas the other three scenarios are much longer and much more detailed.

‘Lost to the Locker’ is a seabed, sandcrawl in which the Player Characters awaken to find themselves dead in a purgatory of small islands and shipwrecks, and will very likely do so again should they die again. The aim is for the Player Characters to escape back to the realms of the living, requiring a vessel and an exit, as well as several coins called ‘Obols’. Finding all of these forms the focus of the scenario. Once they freed themselves from the floating rocks they have been chained to, the Player Characters will be ferried by Charon to the liminal space of ‘The Locker’. Overseen by Lady Oblivion—ethereal, watery Egyptian priestess or Reef Ghoul?—this region consists of just eight locations, including the pirate-town-like Port Oblivion with its wrecks and boulders home to Lost Souls like the Player Characters; the Pellucid Palace of volcanic glass where Lady Oblivion holds court; and the Inverted Galleon, capsized and chained to the seabed. Every location details vessels that might be repaired or stolen, how Obols might be gained, as well as numerous NPCs, random encounters, and more. There is a lot of detail to this concentrated sandbox and a lot of elements that the Game Master can bring into play. It is fantastically liminal place with plenty for the players and their characters to do and plenty of random elements that Game Master can use to enhance the undersea unreality. ‘Lost to the Locker’ can be used as written, following a ‘Total Party Kill’, but it could also be used as a non-standard campaign starter.

The second scenario veers towards the fantasy horror of Robert E. Howard, rather than the Lovecraftian horror of ‘The Deep One’ Class, with its use of Serpent Men as the villains of the piece. ‘Venom in the Veins’ details an ancient shrine to the Slithering One, rumoured to be the last known location of a missing conquistador, to hold ancient knowledge, to be target of French spies and revolutionaries, to be source of a deadly venom, and so on. Overseen by a once-human shaman corrupted by necromancy and his undead serpentfolk guardians, this is snake-infested, trap ridden, but nicely detailed dungeon that requires some set-up to get the Player Characters to explore its depths. There is plenty of treasure to be found and no little forbidden knowledge, but lingering over that has its own consequences. Particular attention is paid to the traps and puzzles, which makes running it easier. ‘Venom in the Veins’ would be a perfect adventure for the Antiquarian Class given at the start of the supplement.

‘Into The Maelstrom’, the third scenario in the supplement requires more experienced Player Characters and takes a classic Gothic set-up and gives it a piratical, nautical twist. Instead of a haunted house, the setting is a haunted galleon, The Maelstrom, a galleon with blood-red sails of flesh that is home to  Albrecht the Tideborn, a Deep One vampire, and his vampiric crew. The Player Characters are hired to sneak aboard and rescue an important VIP that Albrecht the Tideborn is holding prisoner and also to slaughter as many of the vampires as they can. However, that is not the only reason the Player Characters to want to board The Maelstrom. They will each have their reasons. All of this is set up ahead of time, using a deck of ordinary playing cards and the rules for ‘Three-Eyed Parrot’, a game provided prior to the scenario. This includes the identity and location of the VIP being held prisoner, the identity of the Player Characters’ Patron, the location of a powerful ritual, the location of an artefact, and so on. The cards are then divided into their suits and then used as decks to determine random prisoners, mundane items, treasure, and encounters. The scenario is played against the clock and there is a strong chance that prisoners will be sacrificed before the Player Characters rescue them—the scenario even suggests that the Game Master tear up the card for a particular NPC if the Player Characters fail to save him!

The main feature of the scenario is The Maelstrom, but also detailed are ‘The Dead islands’, the former Virgin Islands in the Lesser Antilles, infested by ASH addicts, cannibalistic pirates, and the undead, its coats marked by numerous derelict ships and wrecks waiting to be picked over. Several locations are detailed on the island, including Charlotte’s Cove, the main settlement now overrun with vampires, the swamp encroached Ruins of Whitby Abbey, Sanctum of the Feathered Tree—home to an orangutan sorcerer, and other locations. This gives the setting longevity beyond the scenario itself, and there are notes too, if the Game Master wants to run it as a one-shot, short campaign, or a long campaign, and even includes tournament mode and scoring! As such, ‘Into The Maelstrom’ is a tool kit that the Game Master needs to adjust fit her players and for full effect is best run over multiple sessions. This brings all of the brine and rot of the sea to the Gothic and the doomed romance and horror of the Gothic to the Dark Caribbean. When their characters  have enough experience to play it through, ‘Into The Maelstrom’ should be a grand, memorable scenario for the players.

Physically, Down Among the Dead is very well laid out, and the artwork and cartography are excellent. Everything is very easy to use.

Down Among the Dead has everything a Pirate Borg Game Master would want. Three good scenarios, two of which have really memorable locations, content that the Game Master will still come back to, and options that the Game Master and her players can pick and chose from to make Pirate Borg theirs.

Friday Fantasy: Altar of Madness

Altar of Madness is not a scenario per se. It is definitely not an adventure. It is definitely a book for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay published by Lamentations of the Flame Princess. It is definitely a place that the Player Characters are likely to visit again and again and it can be placed almost anyway in the known multiverse. So, what it is, is a single room. A large room, but a single room. A single large encounter that the Game Master can add to any dungeon. Given what it is though, it really works as an addition to a large dungeon. So good for a megadungeon. Or actually two megadungeons. This is because the room can move and as they explore a megadungeon, the Player Characters find might the entrance to this room on more than one dungeon level and later on, they might find the entrance in another altogether. So far, so many generalities. Which is entirely the fault of the encounter, because Altar of Madness has no plot, no beginning, middle, or end, and so none of that can be reviewed. Which leaves the description of what is a very detailed room to review and that is going to be difficult to review without giving away any spoilers because there is a great deal to spoil in Altar of Madness.

Altar of Madness is the final resting place of the mythical First Wizard and the good news is that it has been found. Who or what the First Wizard was is not known, but what is known is that he was interred with a splendid variety of magical treasures ripe for the taking. To which the blurb for Altar of Madness adds, “You are so, so fucked.” Which is entirely accurate, because what Altar of Madness actually is a deathtrap dungeon, or rather a deathtrap room. A room filled with features that are going to entice the players to have their characters investigate and search and play around with and have things go wrong, oh so wrong, that their characters are going to walk away changed. Changed. Cursed. Poisoned. Maddened. Scarred. Aware. Altered. Infested. Bleeding. Incensed. Undead. Armoured. Prescient. Bejewelled. Blinded and blinding. Unlucky. Colourblind. Deviated. All of these are entirely possible conditions that a Player Character can suffer in Altar of Madness. Essentially, this is a tomb with not so much traps as items and objects and spaces which if the Player Characters interact with them, they are going to suffer. This is one giant ‘screw you’ for the players and their characters if their curiosity and greed get the better of them—and it will because there are good magical items to be found—and touch things.

The Altar of Madness is a room one hundred feet in diameter and twenty feet high, with a five foot wide ledge running round the edge. Steps lead down to a bowl of thick phosphorescent mist out of which rises in the centre of the room is fountain topped with demonic skulls and filled with an oily black liquid. A ten foot high diameter hangs over the fountain. Spaced around the room is a statue of a naked woman holding aloft an actual bolt of lightning and a chain hangs straight up from the floor to a hole in space. To the left, there is writing in an unknown language on the wall, whilst to the right, there is a mural of a star-filled sky. In alcoves dotted around the room is an altar carved with human faces, a skeleton dressed in fine clothes lying on a couch, two sarcophagi in separate alcoves, and an eyeball floating in a jar, sitting on a table. There is more, but this is what is visible from the door.

All of this can be interacted with and all of it is described in a very great detail. As are the effects of what happens when the Player Characters do, those effects being rolled on the tables that are associated with each piece of furniture or dressing in the room. Some of the features in the room are connected, primarily through the treasures that they hide, but most are not. The result is that actually many of the features are more installations, almost pieces of art that are designed to screw with the Player Characters. They do not feel out of place as such, but they could be used in a dungeon of the Game Master’s design without any real issue.

This being a design for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay, it should be no surprise that the content is intended for mature players. That said, some of the descriptions of what the Player Characters could do and what the consequences are, is prurient, if not distasteful, concerning as it does the molestation of a highly anatomically accurate statue and a pliant woman. To be clear, the author is not encouraging or condoning such actions, but rather explaining the consequences if a player has his character undertake such actions. The first reaction is to wonder quite who you are roleplaying with if a player does think of these actions and voices them, and then the Game Master allows it. The second reaction is to wonder if that content should have been in the book at all, to which the answer is no. Of course, the Game Master can ignore such content if she wants and not allow for the possibility of the players suggesting such ideas, but still… No.

Physically, Altar of Madness is well done. It has an arcane look to it with just the sigil on its front cover and no title or blurb. Inside the book is in black and white and full of dense text. This encounter does need a careful study to understand how each item in the room works.

Altar of Madness is an amazingly inventive exercise in ‘screw the characters, screw the players’ in deathtrap dungeon design. A comical circus of consequences for the overly curious.

—oOo—

Lamentations of the Flame Princess will be at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, 29th to Sunday 31st of May.