Age of Athena II

It is an age of chaos. The once mighty city-states of Greece have become isolated refuges, sanctuaries against the monsters and creatures and bandits and undead that roam beyond their walls, preying upon the weak and ravaging the land. In response, the people cry out for help and beseech the gods of Olympus. Yet only one of their number hears their cries and only a handful of men and women answers her appeal for heroes. She is Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, strategic war, handicraft, and the city, the daughter of Zeus who sprang from his head fully formed. They are the Demigods, born of divine and mortal parentage and so granted some of the gifts of the gods and they stand fast, ready to answer the hollering for help, the need to fight the legendary monsters of the age, to protect the innocent and the helpless, and to seek out adventure. This is the set-up for Warriors of Athena, a skirmish scale miniatures wargame from Osprey Games. Written by the designer of the highly regarded Frostgrave: Fantasy Wargames in the Frozen City, it is a game in which a player creates a Warband, consisting of a Hero and several Companions, the number ranging between one and seven (depending upon the number of players, the more players, the fewer the number of Companions in a Warband), and takes them on quests set by Athena. What is notable about Warriors of Athena is that it is not designed to be adversarial, that is, one player or more players playing against each other as is traditional in miniature wargames. Instead, it can be played in one of four modes. First, it can be played in Solo mode against the game itself, with the player controlling his miniatures and the actions of the monsters and other threats as well as when random events taking place being determined by the rules. Second, it can be played co-operatively, with two or more players and their Heroes and Warbands working together to complete a quest. Third, it can be played with an Oracle. This is another player who will control the actions and movement of any threats as a referee. Fourth, the Oracle not only controls the actions and movement of any threats as normal, but also runs scenes in between which do not take place on the table of terrain where all the action happens. Instead, they are run in the theatre of the mind in the same way that a roleplaying game would be run. In the latter mode, Warriors of Athena develops one of the particular aspects of skirmish level miniatures wargaming, which is the strong identification that a player will develop with the members of his Warband. The Hero and his Companions will grow and change as result of their successfully fulfilling Quests and so will a player’s investment in them.

At the core of the game are two books, both needed to play. Warriors of Athena: Heroes gives the core rules for the game, including how to create a Warband consisting of the Hero and his Companions, running combats, and handling campaigns and rewards. Warriors of Athena: Quests explains how to create and run Quests, and provides a bestiary of threats and four ready-to-play multi-scenario campaigns.  In addition to the rules, a player requires miniatures, both to represent his Warband and monsters and creatures, some terrain and buildings such as temples, a pack of ordinary playing cards, a twenty-sided die, and a play area, roughly thirty inches square. Warriors of Athena can be played using any scale miniatures and miniatures from any manufacturer (though North Star Military Figures does manufacture a range of miniatures to support the rules). The introduction explains all of this and a bit more, gently pushing players to play the game with an Oracle to the full effect, whilst still acknowledging that playing Age of Athena as a straightforward wargame without the roleplaying element is perfectly fine too.

Each Quest follows the same format. This includes a summary that gives an overview and lays out what the Heroes are attempting to do, how many scenes there are, a list of the miniatures required and set-up needed, a short narrative passage to be read out by the Oracle, actions that the Heroes can take before the scenario starts, special rules involved, the Challenge Level that be adjusted to make the scenario more difficult, the rewards to be gained if the Heroes are successful, and a narrative in the epilogue if the Heroes are successful. There are also scenes that the Oracle can insert into the scenario to enhance the narrative elements of play. These are of course optional, much more like those in a roleplaying game, and do not actually require the miniatures. The special rules typically involve seeding the playing area with clue markers and then the possible results that can be drawn when a hero moves adjacent and can examine them.

The quests open with ‘The Golden Hives’, designed for beginning Heroes. It introduces them and their players to Athena when she asks the former to exact her revenge against a trio of murderous cyclops, who have killed their father and eaten the honey that would have been paid as tribute to the gods of Olympus. The Heroes will fight through a field of aggressive mythic bees and then face the trio of cyclops. If they find a bloodied stone axe in the first scenario, this can be carried over into the second and will give the hero wielding it an advantage against the cyclops as it was the one they used to kill their father. This adds a nice narrative element to the paythrough of ‘The Golden Hives’, but there is only a small chance of this happening. So, the Oracle might want to increase the chance of the Heroes finding the weapon to enhance the narrative—and if they want to carry on to the next scenarios, perhaps provide it with a permanent ability. If the Heroes fail the first time, the quest allows for a second attempt—as do the other quests—though the Heroes will only earn a limited amount of Experience Points.

In the second quest, ‘The Imprisoned Oceanid’, the Heroes are directed to rescue an Oceanid who has been kidnapped by an evil cult called the Sons of Poseidon. Over the course of three scenarios, the Heroes will fight their way up a steep cliff under a hail of arrows from the cult’s archers and into the flooding caves where is being kept prisoner. The Heroes discover a defiled and pillaged temple dedicated to their patron, Athena, in the third quest, ‘The Rampage’, and chase down the group of marauding centaurs and satyrs. The number of scenarios is increased from three to four and which of the centaur ringleaders appear in which scenario is randomly determined. Those that do not appear in the first three, will all appear in the fourth and final part. The Heroes will chase the marauders over rocky hills, encountering signs of their activity as they cut a swathe of bloody horror across the countryside, ultimately to face the sorceress they serve, deep in the forest, at night, at the witching hour. There a chance that Ares, the God of War, will be attracted to the series of running battles in this quest and the Heroes will have to fight him! The last quest, ‘Tartarus Unbound’, is designed for experienced Heroes. The number of scenarios increases to five and takes the Heroes to the city of Aketra, recently split asunder in anger by the god, Hades, because its king refused honour after the death of his wife. As the city burns, a dragon has slithered up out of the ground and hatched a clutch of eggs and if neither of these are destroyed, it does not bode well for the nearby cities. The Heroes have to fight their way into the city, across a narrow bridge, and through its burning ruins, facing undead along the way (including the king who rejected Hades), to finally face-off against a fire-breathing dragon across building divided by streets flowing with lava! It is a great climatic scene for the end battle and if they do manage to defeat the dragon, the Heroes will be truly worthy of that title.

The last third of Warriors of Athena: Quests consists of advice and content supporting the player (or Oracle) who wants to create his own Quests. This breaks down the elements of a quest and a scenario, examining them in turn in terms of design rather than play. In turn, it discusses the goal of the quest and its structure, scenarios and their structure, but it also talks about the role of recurring characters, how to create an event table, design skill and stat rolls, and more. For the group that wants them, it discusses how to design and create scenes too. The advice is good and worth reading through even if the players have experience of writing content for games like this. Certainly, it will help if they have experience with roleplaying games, but is not wholly necessary.

Mechanically, the support includes a bestiary that covers animals, uncivilised races, undead, gods and goddesses, and monsters. So, boars and bulls, Amazons and Satyrs, skeletal archers and champions, Apollo and Artemis, and Gorgons and Minotaurs. The bestiary includes a list of creature traits too. The book comes to a close with a reference sheet for use during play.

Physically, Warriors of Athena: Quests is much like Warriors of Athena: Heroes. It is an easy read, but there are relatively few shots of the game being played, that is, photographs of miniatures on the table, in the book, in comparison to normal artwork. That artwork is excellent though, often depicting scenes of action and combat that you would want to see enacted on the table. The four quests are well written and easy to understand.

Of course, Warriors of Athena: Quests is only half of Warriors of Athena, that half being the rules in Warriors of Athena: Heroes. If the latter tells you how to play, then Warriors of Athena: Quests shows you not only how to play, but also how to design what you play. Each of the four quests is a mini-campaign in itself, but they are intended to be played in order, the Heroes gaining in experience to face ever tougher foe and more challenging situations. This is more like a roleplaying game than a traditional wargame—even a skirmish one. Whilst the optional addition of scenes and narrative also make the wargame much more like a roleplaying game, even if they are ignored, Warriors of Athena still feels like a roleplaying game in its focus upon individual characters, their growth from scenario to scenario, and in the multi-part structure of the quests. In fact, it would actually be possible to run the quests in Warriors of Athena: Quests without the miniatures as the theatre of the mind of a roleplaying game. That though, is not the point of Warriors of Athena. The point of Warriors of Athena is to present a skirmish wargame with roleplaying elements set in an age of Greek myth and legend when the heroes can become great warriors and figures of the age, and this it does well with rules and content that support both styles of play—wargaming with roleplaying or roleplaying with wargaming.

—oOo—

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

Age of Athena

It is an age of chaos. The once mighty city-states of Greece have become isolated refuges, sanctuaries against the monsters and creatures and bandits and undead that roam beyond their walls, preying upon the weak and ravaging the land. In response, the people cry out for help and beseech the gods of Olympus. Yet only one of their number hears their cries and only a handful of men and women answers her appeal for heroes. She is Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, strategic war, handicraft, and the city, the daughter of Zeus who sprang from his head fully formed. They are the Demigods, born of divine and mortal parentage and so granted some of the gifts of the gods and they stand fast, ready to answer the hollering for help, the need to fight the legendary monsters of the age, to protect the innocent and the helpless, and to seek out adventure. This is the set-up for Warriors of Athena, a skirmish scale miniatures wargame from Osprey Games. Written by the designer of the highly regarded Frostgrave: Fantasy Wargames in the Frozen City, it is a game in which a player creates a Warband, consisting of a Hero and several Companions, the number ranging between one and seven (depending upon the number of players, the more players, the fewer the number of Companions in a Warband), and takes them on quests set by Athena. What is notable about Warriors of Athena is that it is not designed to be adversarial, that is, one player or more players playing against each other as is traditional in miniature wargames. Instead, it can be played in one of four modes. First, it can be played in Solo mode against the game itself, with the player controlling his miniatures and the actions of the monsters and other threats as well as when random events taking place being determined by the rules. Second, it can be played co-operatively, with two or more players and their Heroes and Warbands working together to complete a quest. Third, it can be played with an Oracle. This is another player who will control the actions and movement of any threats as a referee. Fourth, the Oracle not only controls the actions and movement of any threats as normal, but also runs scenes in between which do not take place on the table of terrain where all the action happens. Instead, they are run in the theatre of the mind in the same way that a roleplaying game would be run. In the latter mode, Warriors of Athena develops one of the particular aspects of skirmish level miniatures wargaming, which is the strong identification that a player will develop with the members of his Warband. The Hero and his Companions will grow and change as result of their successfully fulfilling Quests and so will a player’s investment in them.

At the core of the game are two books, both needed to play. Warriors of Athena: Heroes gives the core rules for the game, including how to create a Warband consisting of the Hero and his Companions, running combats, and handling campaigns and rewards. Warriors of Athena: Quests explains how to create and run Quests, and provides a bestiary of threats and four ready-to-play multi-scenario campaigns. In addition to the rules, a player requires miniatures, both to represent his Warband and monsters and creatures, some terrain and buildings such as temples, a pack of ordinary playing cards, a twenty-sided die, and a play area, roughly thirty inches square. Warriors of Athena can be played using any scale miniatures and miniatures from any manufacturer (though North Star Military Figures does manufacture a range of miniatures to support the rules). If a player is new to wargaming as a hobby, the advice on the set-up and play area might be a bit light, but an experienced player will have no problems.

A Hero has six stats—‘Move’, Fight’, ‘Shoot’, ‘Armour’, ‘Will’, and ‘Health’. He will also have a Parentage, which will determine who his divine parent is and what his Gifts are, as well as potential Weaknesses. Gifts can a Heroic Ability, such as ‘Call Curse’, ‘Limited Flight’, or ‘Lunge’, bonuses to Stats or skills, or a mixture of all three. A Weakness can be an Enemy, Madness, Inhuman Appearance, and so on. Many of the Gods provide multiple different Gifts and Weakness. In Co-operative mode, this means that different Heroes can be half-brothers and sisters as they share the same divine parent, but a different mortal parent means different Gifts. Given the philandering ways of many of the gods, this is perfectly in keeping with Greek myth. All Heroes start off with same values for their stats, a player increasing his Hero’s Fight or Shoot and Will or Health by one each. He then rolls on the ‘Hero Parentage Tables’ to determine his Parentage, Gifts, and possible Weaknesses. He selects another five Gifts (the option is given to roll for them and in-keeping with the setting, let fate decide) and then divides fifteen points between eight skills—Artistry, Athletics, Diplomacy, Hunt, Navigation, Perception, Strength, and Trickery. A player also has some Wealth with which to equip his Hero. Lastly, a Hero has a Fate Pool of Threads which lets his player to reroll any die roll. He starts with two Threads.

A player has a pool of Recruitment Points to spend on purchasing Companions to complete his Hero’s Warband. A Companion has the same Stats as a Hero, though their values will vary wildly. They include warriors such as Archers, Barbarians, and Slingers, other Companions like Hunters, Thieves, and Songmasters, members of uncivilized species such as Centaurs and Satyrs, and even animals like Boars, Raptors, and Weasels!* Not all of a Hero’s Companions are going to accompany him on a Quest, but a player is free to choose which ones he wants to accompany his Hero. This allows a player to build up a stable of Companions he can choose from each time his Hero undertakes a Quest.

* Sorry, but I just want to shout, “Go! Go! Battle-Weasel!”

Name: Dionysodoros
Parentage: Dionysus
Gifts: Burning Eyes, Deadeye, Command Undead, Backswing, Ironskin, Waterlung
Weaknesses: Beauty

STATS
Move 6 Fight +4 Shoot +1 Armour 9 Will +3 Health 19

SKILLS
Artistry +4 Athletics +4 Diplomacy +1 Hunt +1 Navigation +0 Perception +1 Strength +4 Trickery +0

Once a scenario has been set up—and Warriors of Athena: Quests covers that in more detail—a game is played as series of turns. A turn consists of four phases. These are the ‘Hero Phase’, the ‘Creature Phase’, the ‘Companion Phase’, and the ‘Event Phase’. When activated, a miniature can take two actions, a standard action and a simple action. A simple action typically involves movement, whilst standard actions include attacking and any other thing that a Hero might want to do when activated. There are no hard or fast rules on this. Stat or skill checks are made by rolling a twenty-sided die and adding the appropriate Stat or skill, the aim being to roll equal or exceed a given Target Number. A roll of a one is always a failure, whilst a roll of twenty is always a success.

Combat is handled as a series of opposed rolls. Both combatants roll the die and add their Fight Stats, plus any other bonuses, whether from magic, reach, and so on. The combatant who rolls the highest Combat Score is the winner. Damage modifiers, typically from weapons, are added to the winner’s Combat Score and the defender’s Armour value is deducted from it. The resulting value indicates how much damage is inflicted and deducted from the defender’s Health. Some weapons and monsters will multiply this value two or three times. The combat rules also allow for critical hits which do more damage, weapon reach, breaking weapons, and more. Ranged attacks work the same way, but use the Shoot Stat.

One important action that a Hero can do is to activate a Heroic Ability. Every Heroic Ability has a Utilisation score, which a player rolls against to activate the Heroic Ability. Successfully activating a Heroic Ability costs Strain, typically a single point, which is deducted from a Hero’s Health.

If Warriors of Athena is being played with an Oracle, then that player controls the actions of the evil creatures in the scenario. Otherwise, there is a simple chart for determining their actions, typically either to try to attack or move to a target point representing some kind of objective. The advantage of the solo and co-operative modes is that they are easy to set up and play, but the disadvantage is that the player or players will know what the scenario involves and who the enemy are. However, the advantage of playing with an Oracle is that the player or players have no idea what their Warbands are going to be facing. The other advantage is that if the players want to—and Warriors of Athena: Heroes makes it clear that it completely optional—the Oracle can run Scenes in which the players can roleplay their Heroes.

Warriors of Athena: Heroes also covers injury and death—Heroes can suffer permanent injuries, and Experience rewards gains for completing objectives within a scenario. These can apply to both Heroes and Companions, but in terms of Experience, progression and benefits accrue at a slower rate for Companions. During play, a Hero may be searching for and find various types of tokens. These are Food Tokens, Clue Tokens, and Treasure Tokens. Clue Tokens will help progress the scenario, but treasure Tokens allow for a roll for treasure at the end of the scenario. This will typically result in wealth, but magical items, including potions, talismans, arms, armour, and more can be found. Another way gaining a magical item, invariably a talisman of a god, is by making a sacrifice to the gods. Fans of Jason and the Argonauts will be pleased to find included is the Dragon’s Tooth, which can be thrown to the ground and sown to have a warrior grow on the spot!

Physically, Warriors of Athena: Heroes is cleanly and tidily presented. It is an easy read, and everything is well explained. There are surprisingly few shots of the game in play, that is, photographs of miniatures on the table, in the book, in comparison to normal artwork. That artwork is excellent though, often depicting scenes of action and combat that you would want to see enacted on the table.

Warriors of Athena: Heroes is only one half of Warriors of Athena, but the rules its presents are simple, fast-playing, and easy to understand. Its skirmish scale makes it all the more accessible, as does the fact that it draws upon the familiar Greek mythology. Its scale allows for greater investment in the adventures and successes and failures of a player’s Hero and his Warband, but also allows for the possibility of some roleplaying too with the addition of an Oracle. Warriors of Athena can be played a simple skirmish scale miniatures wargame, but with the presence of the Oracle, it becomes a wargame with light roleplaying elements or a very light roleplaying game with strong wargaming elements. Effectively, a roleplaying/war game hybrid.

Suffrage & Survival

It is two-hundred-and-fifty years since the nations and corporations of Earth and the solar system unified under the United Inner Systems Alliance. It is two-hundred-and-thirty-six years since I-Werks Solutions developed and demonstrated the Jump Drive which made interstellar travel possible. It is two-hundred-and-twenty-eight years since the first A.I. went rogue and the first uplifted animal was created. It is one-hundred-and-ninety-five years since the first interstellar jump was made between Jupiter and Proxima Centauri. It is seventy-seven years since the relaxation of the Cornelius Accords leading to the rapid development of Uplifted species as labourers and companions. It is fifty-six years since the Bugs, a previously unknown insectoid alien species attacked and overran human settlements. It is forty-six years since the United Inner Systems Alliance established the United Expeditionary Force, a paramilitary organisation to target threats to and protect the interests of humanity in the Untamed Worlds that lie at edge of—and beyond—the United Inner Systems Alliance. Bar a few Human officers, it is entirely staffed by Uplifts. Despite the dangers they encounter as members of the United Expeditionary Force, Uplifts are rarely recognised for their service or their bravery, especially in comparison to their Human officers and counterparts, and throughout the United Inner Systems Alliance, Uplifts are classified as ‘domestic dependent life forms’ and thus second class citizens with limited rather than full rights.

This is the set-up for Untamed Worlds, an anthropomorphic military Science Fiction roleplaying game published by Osprey Games. It is inspired by such things Band of Brothers and Babylon 5 on television, The Dirty Dozen and Starship Troopers on film, and Albedo and Justifiers in roleplaying. The Player Characters are Uplifts (or the rare Human) who are members of United Expeditionary Force. Theirs is not an entirely happy lot. They have a family in their brothers in arms, but they have limited rights, including the fact they have to seek permission to procreate, are seen as inferior, and ultimately, expendable. The roleplaying game can be played in one of two ways. First, as a straightforward, bullets and bravado military Science Fiction roleplaying game in a series of mission-based scenarios. Second, as a straightforward, bullets and bravado military Science Fiction roleplaying game in a series of mission-based scenarios, until such times as the Player Characters begin to chafe at the inequality of their situation and begin to seek a way out of it or a way to change it. In this it changes to objective-based scenarios with the aims of the Player Characters driving much of the play. However, Untamed Worlds does not support this objective-based play as much as it does the mission-based play, including as it does more detailed advice on creating and running missions and their consequences, as providing several example mission outlines. As a consequence, Untamed Worlds has a lopsided feel, emphasising one style of play over another, whilst leaving the other in the hands of the Game Master to develop in response to her players and their characters. In this way, the mission-based style of play is better suited to the less experienced Game Master than the more experienced Game Master. To be fair, the objective-based style of play is much less structured and open, so is harder to explore, but still, at just about a page in length, it is not up to the task. In the meantime, they will face marauders, pirates, dissidents, terrorists, the insectoid Bugs, and arachnoid Nids, as well as the poor regard of the United Inner Systems Alliance.

A Player Character or Uplift in Untamed Worlds has a Heritage, a Background, and two Specialities. The Heritage is the species from which he is uplifted and Untamed Worlds offers some twenty-four broad species types, from amphibians, bats, and birds to ungulates, ursines, and xenarthra. Within these broad categories, there is room for a player to be more specific. Thus, for the xenarthra, the Uplift could be a sloth, an armadillo, or an anteater. A Heritage provides skills , Tricks, and Permissions, whilst a Background grants more skills and a Trick, and the Specialities, just skills. The Backgrounds consist of ‘Fostered’, ‘Farm’ (an educational facility rather than an agricultural one), or ‘Feral’ for Uplifts, and ‘Troublemaker’, ‘Dissident’, and ‘Volunteer’ for Humans. The Specialities all consist of military training packages, such as ‘Communications’, ‘Infantry’, ‘Ranger’, ‘Sniper’, ‘Space Operations’, and Vehicle Operations’. There are thirteen skills, each rated between zero and eight, of which twelve are obvious. The less obvious one is ‘CQB’ or ‘Close Quarters Battle’, which covers close range combat using guns, and armed and unarmed combat, whilst ‘Marksmanship’ is for long range combat.

Tricks are one of two things. First, they are innate things that an Uplift might have because of his Heritage. For the xenarthra, these are ‘Armoured Hide’, ‘Hardy’, ‘Keen (Smell)’, ‘Resistant’, ‘Second Skin’, ‘Strong’, and ‘Smol’ (small). Second, they are special abilities that the Uplift is good at such as ‘Ace’, ‘Charmer’, and ‘Trauma Doc’. In some cases, Tricks are mandatory, but most are not. Then there are Permissions. These are simply things that the Uplift can do because of his Heritage. For example, the Hyena has the Permissions of “Sense of smell and hearing well outside human ranges. Excellent night vision. Natural Scavengers.” Permissions are not detailed in the roleplaying game any more than this and there is no mechanical benefit to them. The Uplift simply has them. Yet there is some crossover between Permissions and Tricks. For example, the Hyena Uplift could have ‘Keen (Smell and Hearing)’ Trick, which does provide a mechanical benefit, but definitely does have the “Sense of smell and hearing well outside human ranges.” Permission. The Trick provides an Advantage when used, but what does the Permission provide? Does it mean that the ‘Keen (Smell and Hearing)’ Trick is better than the Permission? Ultimately, it leaves it up to the Game Master to adjudicate when instead Tricks could have been categorised between those available to just the Uplifts from their Heritages and those available to both Humans and Uplifts rather being left in a muddle between what is a Trick and what is a Permission.

Uplift (or Human) Player Character creation is not difficult. It is simply a matter of making choices in terms of Heritage, a Background, and two Specialities, and then choose from the options they give. Lastly, a player picks some gear for his Uplift.

Name: ‘Baby’
Rank: Trooper 2nd Class
Heritage: Shark
Background: Feral
Specialities: Infantry, Special Operations
Tricks: (Aquatic) Adept, Hunter, Keen (Smell), Natural Weapons (Bite)
Permissions: Adapted to aquatic life (including cold and high pressure). Extremely acute sense of smell. Possesses electroreceptors capable of sensing electric impulses and magnetic field (enhanced by Tricks/modifiers that affect smell).
Skills: Athletics 5, CQB 7, Demolitions 1, Espionage 1, Marksmanship 4, Mechanics 1, Recon 4, Survival 4
Hits: 7
Defence: 6
Carrying Capacity: 9

Mechanically, Untamed Worlds uses what it calls the Lucky 7 System. Any time a player wants his Uplift to undertake an action, he rolls two six-sided dice. Any result of seven or more is a success, whilst a result of six or less is a failure. To this roll, the player adds the appropriate skill, whilst subtracting the difficulty modifier set by the Game Master. The levels of difficulty range from ‘1’ and ‘Easy’ to ‘9’ plus and ‘Hellish’, which means that even the easiest of tasks levies a penalty. Having an Advantage means that the player rolls three dice and keeps the best two, whilst having a Disadvantage means he rolls three dice and keeps the worst two. Having multiple incidences of Advantage adds a ‘+2’ bonus each extra incidence of Advantage, whilst having multiple incidences of Disadvantage adds a ‘-2’ penalty each time. Getting a result of above or below seven generate Effects for each point above or below. Good Effects include increasing damage inflicted on a target or another target, moving to a different zone, adding new information to a scene, shaking off a Hit, and so on. Bad Effects include suffering an extra Hit, running out of ammunition, being a bad spot and suffering a Disadvantage, having some bad information come to light, and so on.

Both players and the Game Master have access to their own pool of Momentum. A player can spend the players’ Momentum to add bonuses to his Uplift’s rolls, but levy them on the Game Master to inflict penalties on an NPC’s dice roll. Conversely, the Game Master can spend her own points of Momentum on improving her NPCs’ dice rolls and levying penalties on the players for their Uplifts’ rolls.

Combat in Untamed Worlds uses the same core mechanic. Initiative is handled narratively with the Game Master deciding who goes first—the NPCs or the Uplifts, and then after each combatant has acted, their player or the Game Master deciding who acts next. The rules also scale up to enable combat between vehicles and spaceships. Each combatant has a pool of Action Points to spend during his turn, typically two for a player Uplift. Actions costing one Action Point include ‘Aim’, ‘Assist’, ‘Attack’, ‘Evade’, ‘Reload’, and more, whilst ‘Full Evade’ is the only action which costs two Action Points. Optional rules enable a player to spend Momentum to seize initiative; costly success for more heroic style of play; critical rolls and fumbles; wounds; non-lethal attacks; and more.

Armour reduces damage, but most armour is ablative. Most NPCs die when their Hits are reduced to zero, but Uplifts and major NPCs suffer a Down status and subsequent Death task checks. It only takes one successful Death task check for an Uplift or major NPC to recover, but two failed ones or a Death task check failed by five or more and they are dead. An Uplift or major NPC who has suffered the Down status can take a Last Stand and take one more action, and as long they keep making the rolls to do so, they can continue making a Last Stand. However, it does get progressively more difficult to do this.

As expected for a military roleplaying game there is an extensive list of arms and armour as well as gear and vehicles, with most modern weapons being electromagnetic slugthrowers, though there are laser weapons available as support weapons. Vehicles include land, air, and watercraft, plus spaceships of various kinds. For the Game Master, there is a wealth of background details that detail the United Inner Systems Alliance, its culture, corporations, enemies (such as Moreau’s Children, the New Reich Conglomerate, and the Blue Skull Brotherhood pirate gang), and more. Worlds both in United Inner Systems Alliance and in the ‘Untamed Worlds’ beyond are described and several secrets of the setting are given ready for discovery by the Uplifts, likely furthering their disillusionment with the United Inner Systems Alliance when they do find out. The duties and structure of the United Expeditionary Force are also covered, and there is not only advice on running the roleplaying game, but also several missions ready for the Game Master to develop.

There is much to like in Untamed Worlds. Both the setting and the military Science Fiction genre are accessible, there are a lot of options in terms what species types that the players can roleplay, and the Game Master is provided everything she needs in terms of a set-up. The rules for the Lucky 7 System are surprisingly uncomplex for what is a military Science Fiction roleplaying game and they are also fast playing. Yet Untamed Worlds hampers this with mundane presentation and annoyingly poor organisation. The rules are simple enough, but they are not organised in a wholly coherent fashion, with the general rules being mixed with the combat rules. The rules also come immediately after the setting explanation and before the character creation rules, so they are talking about elements before they are explained.

Physically, Untamed Worlds is uninspired. It is text heavy and there is not a lot of art to either break up the text or help bring the setting to life. The majority of the art, all done in a cartoony style that really is quite good, consists of depictions of Uplifts in the United Expeditionary Force service, and that makes sense. Yet that also means that very little of the arms, armour, and other gear is illustrated and certainly none of the vehicles or spaceships are illustrated. Lacking such illustrations means it is difficult to get a feel for what the future of Untamed Worlds looks like.

Untamed Worlds takes a cartoonish concept, that of anthropomorphic military Science Fiction, and pushes it towards an intriguing consequence, essentially that of indentured soldiery coming to the realisation as to the inequalities of their situation and aspiring to do something about it. Unfortunately, the roleplaying game does not explore this consequence in as much depth as it should, especially in comparison to its focus on the anthropomorphic military Science Fiction. Couple this with a dreary layout and confusing rules, and Untamed Worlds is simply not as well realised as it could have been.

Winning is the Name of the Game

Subtitled ‘A Co-operative Roleplaying Game (with only one winner)’, Two Sides To The Coin is a light storytelling roleplaying game that can be pitched as ‘being like a LARP, but played at the table’. It is a simple game, best suited to one-shots and convention games in the players will roleplay through a particular story, whether that is robbing the train coming into town, stealing a painting before it can go on display at a museum, solving a murder at a country house, conduct peace negotiations, or surviving long enough being stalked by a monster from outer space which is slowly killing off your crewmates to escape the spaceship and escape certain death. It is played just like a standard roleplaying game with everyone sat round the table, roleplaying their characters as they work towards a shared objective, but played like a LARP—or ‘Live Action Roleplay’—in that every player and every character has multiple motives and personal objectives. Some in game, some out of game. Achieving some will score a player points at the end of the game, but achieving one, his character’s ‘Ulterior Motive’ will not only score the player more points, but will win him the game. Yes, this is a roleplaying game in which there is a winner, so it is unlike almost any other roleplaying game. However, the group’s overall objective must be completed as well for there to be a winner!

Two Sides To The Coin is published by Osprey Games, better known for its more traditional roleplaying games such as Hard City: Noir Roleplaying and Jackals – Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying, so it is different in comparison to the roleplaying games it usually publishes. To play the game, at least one eight-sided die is required as well as ten Coins per player and some pens and notepads, as the players will be passing notes back and forth between each other and themselves and the Narrator. (This aspect makes it more difficult to run online.) The Narrator will decide upon a scenario—there four included in the book—and decide what Motives use and negotiates with her players as to what Motives their characters will have for the scenario.

A Player Character is simply defined. He has eight stats. These are Academics, Alertness, Close Combat, Dexterity, Ranged Combat, Resolve, Social, and Streetwise. He has ten Coins, one Ulterior Motive, and six Lesser Motives. To create a character, a player divides thirty-five points between the eight stats and rolls randomly to determine what his character’s Lesser Motives. These are in game and out of game Motives. The Ulterior Motive is decided upon through negotiation between the player and Narrator to fit the set-up that the Narrator has created for her scenario.

Ruud van der Aar
Occupation: Fraud Investigator
Academics 5 Alertness 4 Close Combat 4 Dexterity 4
Ranged Combat 4 Resolve 5 Social 5 Streetwise 4
Coins OOOOOOOOOO
ULTERIOR MOTIVE
Prove that the painting is real, because you already replaced it with a forgery!
LESSER PLAYER MOTIVES
Get a player to give you something to drink
Get a player to say the word ‘umbrella’
Get a player to pass a note to you
LESSER CHARACTER MOTIVES
Get a character to sing something
Get a character to give your character something to eat
Get a character to lie to another character

Mechanically, Two Sides To The Coin is simple. To have his character undertake an action, his player rolls an eight-sided die and adds the appropriate attribute to beat a Difficulty Number, ranging from eight for Simple to fifteen for Arduous. A player can expend Stat points to boost the roll and make sure that he beats the Difficulty Number. There are no set means of determining how good or how bad the outcome is, but the Narrator is encouraged to reward really good and punish really bad rolls. In addition, each player begins a session with ten Coins. These can be played heads up to add one to a roll or tails up to subtract one from a roll. They can be played after the roll and after a player has decided to spend Stat points on the roll, but they can only be spent by a player to affect the actions of another player’s character that his character is watching. In other words, a player can use his Coins if his character is in the room with the other character. There is nothing to stop the players negotiating the expenditure of Coins, whether that is for promises of help later on, the lending of equipment, suggesting the formation of an alliance, and so on. The Coins are way to signal a Player Characters intent, as in, “I need you to succeed right now, probably for all our sakes, or least mine” or “I need you to fail, because I need to succeed where you must not”.

Where Coins spent cannot be recovered, Stat points spent can be. This requires the Player Character to fulfil his Motives, gaining two points for each Lesser Motive Point fulfilled and five points when his Ulterior Motive is fulfilled. However, no other player can suspect or have reason enough to point out that a player and/or character is attempting to fulfil either type of Motive. If a Player Character does fail a Motive, whether from a bad die roll or another player pointing it out, the Player Character loses a Stat point. If a player points out that another player is trying to fulfil a Motive and it is not actually true, he will lose Stat points. Stat points can also be awarded for good roleplaying.

There are barely any combat rules in Two Sides To The Coin. Primarily because the focus of the roleplaying game is not combat, but interaction between the Player Characters in their push to achieve their overall objective and then their personal objectives. When combat occurs, the amount rolled above the Difficulty Number, modified by the weapon used, determines how much damage is inflicted. This is deducted from a ten-point track and it gets lower, the greater the effect the damage has on the Player Character.

Lastly, a player can flip a Coin once per session to attempt an action. If successful, the Player Character succeeds and gains a bonus to all attempts to do it again that session. If a failure, a Player Character cannot attempt it again and suffer a penalty to a stat. An alternative rule is the ‘Rule of Sabotage’ which turns one of the Player Characters into a saboteur, attempting to undo or prevent the objective of the other Player Characters being fulfilled.

All four scenarios in Two Sides To The Coin include a main objective and a winning condition, as well as several character concepts and their ‘Beginnings’ or introductions for the players and their characters. Some sample Ulterior Motives are also suggested. The scenario details follow, including plot, maps, NPCs, and so on. There are pointers too—on ‘Post-it Notes’—for the Narrator on how to run each scenario. The four scenarios include ‘Moving a Masterpiece’, in which the Player Characters must move a painting from a museum to a storage facility; ‘Finding Fluffy’ casts the Player Characters as an adventuring band commissioned to find a wizard’s missing pet; in ‘Stranded’, the Player Characters are Starfield Industries recruits assigned to recover a missing merchant starship and her crew; and in the Edwardian-era set ‘The Mansion of Murphy Mahoney’, the Player Characters need to find an heir for Lord Mahoney. The second first two scenarios are lighter in tone than the second two, but show off some of the situations and genres that the roleplaying game can handle.

Physically, Two Sides To The Coin is decently written and nicely illustrated with some cartoon artwork that tell the stories of several capers. There is advice and examples of play for the Narrator throughout, all of it appearing on more ‘Post-it Notes’.

Two Sides To The Coin is written to be a relatively easy introduction to roleplaying, taking its time to give an example of play and notes for both player and Narrator as to what they are expected to do. In the case of the Narrator, this includes keeping track of the machinations of both the players and their characters, determining whether their Motives have succeeded or failed, in addition to what you would expect of a Narrator. For the player, the book extolls the pleasures of roleplaying as much as roleplaying Two Sides To The Coin.

Two Sides To The Coin is not quite the perfect introduction to roleplaying as it could have been—as written. It is a better introduction for the player than the Narrator, who ideally still needs some experience of the role, but taking that into account, Two Sides To The Coin is light enough in terms of its mechanics and familiar enough in terms of the stories it is designed to handle, to introduce a player to the hobby. Or introduce an experienced roleplayer to storytelling style roleplaying. In general, experienced roleplayers will be able to pick up and play Two Sides To The Coin without any problems. Light and easy to prepare, Two Sides To The Coin is perfect for one-shots and convention scenarios, and can even be added to a Narrator’s library of pick-up games.

Machenesque Mysteries

In the wake of the Great War, men brought the horrors of the trenches on the Western Front home with them. Yet there was no respite, for there were horrors on the home front. As the Jazz players trumpeted a new golden age and the Bright Young Things danced into the light, some returned to the dark, bucolic wilds of Wales. Promises of sleep free of terrible memories lead to labour of another kind to build edifices deep mountains, of solitary walkers dragged away by creatures out of legend never to be seen again, of young girls playing with new friends in the woods only to return the following day having aged years, of witch-driven cults dedicated to ancient practices that promise healthy harvests. Others returned to the metropolis to become ensnared in dark doings in grimy alleys and fog-shrouded back streets, dank basements, and behind the façades of genteel clubs and societies. Scientists explore beyond the rationality of reason in pursuit of knowledge that only their ancestors understood the dangers of. The Cult of Dionysus spreads its influence as it inducts civil servants and other officials into its ranks. Creatures out of myth and legend prey on the lonely and the lost, unnoticed amongst the city’s teeming masses. There are signs of the occult and weirdness everywhere if you know what to look and have had your eyes opened. There is worse beyond, for on the other side of the Veil lies the Otherworld, which goes by many names—‘TírnAill’ in Ireland, ‘Annwn’ in Wales, ‘Avalon’ in Arthurian legend—and is a strange and twisted domain, home to gods whom our ancestors gave form and name, such as Arawn, Pan, Nodens… There are points where the Veil between this world and the Otherworld is at its weakest and that is when the influence of the Otherworld begins to seep through and worse, even let its gods in.

Fortunately, there is a group of people who know about the Otherworld and investigate signs of the weird and the horrific and the terror it triggers. The Gold Tiberius Society was founded in 1906 as a collective to investigate such occurrences and as these took their toll upon the founding members, it began to look for new members at the beginning of the Jazz Age. Those it invites are of independent means and have the time and inclination to investigate, delve deep into the society’s archives scattered across London, and continue working on the Scarlet Map, a geographical representation of the Veins that seem to connect and criss-cross the capital as well as lead back into the Welsh countryside.

This is the set-up for The Terror Beneath: An Investigative Roleplaying Games of Weird Folk Horror. Published by Osprey Games, best known for roleplaying games such as Hard City: Noir Roleplaying and Jackals – Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying, it is written by the author of Romance of the Perilous Land: A Roleplaying Game of British Folklore. It is roleplaying game based on the works of Arthur Machen, the Welsh horror writer, author of books such as The Great God Pan, The White People, and The Inmost Light, who explored themes such as decadence, the degeneration of the human soul, the corruption of the innocent, scientists combining technology with the occult, the revelation that murderous beings from the other side lie behind common folklore, pagan practices to ancient deities, and more. There are elements of folk horror here, but also eldritch horror, such that Machen’s work is seen as a precursor to and influence upon the works of H.P. Lovecraft. The latter is important in The Terror Beneath in several ways.

The Terror Beneath is written for use with The GUMSHOE System, most notably used in the roleplaying game Trail of Cthulhu, published by Pelgrane Press. Originally designed for the roleplaying games, The Esoterrorists and Fear Itself, the concept behind The GUMSHOE System is that investigative scenarios are difficult to run with most role-playing games. What it does is make sure that not only are the clues needed to push the story and the investigation forward easy to find, but also that the Investigators are competent to find them. Further, if the players and their Investigators want more information, they can look for it and if they have the area of expertise and the points to pay for it, they find that too. Then it is up to the players to interpret what their Investigators have found. The Terror Beneath uses the most recent version of The GUMSHOE System, most recently seen in Cthulhu Confidential and Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops. What this means is that Investigative Abilities do not have points, but instead have Pushes, which the player can spend to gain the extra information or a benefit. Nevertheless, this means that The Terror Beneath is compatible with Trail of Cthulhu, Pelgrane Press’ roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror, and as its inspiration is the precursor to much of Lovecraft’s fiction, it has links to Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition published by Chaosium, Inc.. For example, Noden appears in the Keeper Rulebook for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, and Machen’s ‘Little People’ appear in the scenario, ‘Plant Y Daear’, in the anthology, Sacraments of Evil.

In terms of framing, The Terror Beneath is set during the 1920s though much of Machen’s fiction was written and takes place before the Great War. The Gold Tiberius Society is a device designed to facilitate investigations and provide a reason for the Investigators to delve into the horrors that lurk in the shadows. It is thus set a decade before Trail of Cthulhu, which takes place in the Desperate Decade of the thirties, but it shares the same squalid metropolis as Bookhounds of London and perhaps a reverence for Britain with Fearful Symmetries. Perhaps as the Roaring Twenties draws to a close, a campaign for The Terror Beneath could dovetail into one or the other, if not both?

What The Terror Beneath does share with Trail of Cthulhu is Modes of Play. In Trail of Cthulhu, these are ‘Pulp’ and ‘Purist’. In The Terror Beneath, they are ‘Terror’ and ‘Pulp’. In ‘Terror’ mode, the Investigators can suffer less Shock and fewer Injury Cards than in ‘Pulp’ Mode, which is slightly more forgiving. That said, The Terror Beneath draws a distinction between ‘Terror’ and ‘Horror’. Terror is the feeling of dread and uncertainty before the actual horror is revealed, and it is this terror that the Game Master should be striving to invoke in her players and their Investigators.

An Investigator in The Terror Beneath is defined by two types of Abilities—Investigative Abilities and General Abilities. Investigative Abilities, such as Assess Honesty, Essayist, Folklore, Occultism, and Streetwise, are used to gain information. If the Investigator has the Investigative Ability, he receives the information or the clue. General Abilities, like Driving, Fighting, Health and Sense Trouble, are more traditional in that their use requires dice to be rolled and a test passed to determine the outcome. He also has a name and a Drive, which motivates the Investigator to expose himself to the terror of the horrors that lie out there, such as ‘Adventure’, ‘Duty’, or ‘Morbid Fascination’. Investigator creation is actually easy and fast. A player selects an Occupation Kit like Antiquarian, Museum Curator, and Scientist, and combines it with a Background Kit such as Conscripted Soldier, Farmhand, Munitions Factory Worker, and Shipbuilder. The Occupation Kit provides the Investigative Abilities, whilst the Background Kit provides the General Abilities.

Name: Winifred Messam
Drive: Show-Off
Occupation Kit: Bright Young Thing
Background Kit: Silver Spoon
Investigative Abilities: Charm, Culture, Inspiration, Society
General Abilities: Athletics 5, Composure 7, Driving 4, Fighting 5, First Aid2, Health 6, Mechanics 0, Preparedness 2, Sense Trouble 1, Sneaking 0

There are some notably different Investigative Abilities. ‘Dérive’ is the ability to notice the strange changes and differences in London from walking the streets regularly, whilst ‘Essayist’ represents the writer's ability to navigate literary London, understand its numerous figures and their relationships, and present a coherent argument on the page and in person.

Mechanically, an Investigator in The Terror Beneath only spends Pushes for Investigative Abilities to gain extra clues beyond the basic, and then points from the General Abilities to perform actions. In general, an Investigator does not necessarily fail in a task, but instead fails forward, perhaps finding another way to approach the task or succeeding with a complication. A Push is used in conjunction with an Investigative Ability. For example, if used in conjunction with Linguistics, the Investigator might acquire an occult tome for a better price, set up a working relationship with an expert philologist, notice that a tome is a palimpsest, and so on. Once spent, there will be moments in play when the points from General Abilities and Pushes can be refreshed.

Combat in The Terror Beneath is designed to have a narrative flow and be brutal. Initiative order is determined by the number of points from the Fighting General Ability invested in the fight and then the progress of the fight is tracked by the margin between the Difficulty number for the foe and the die result each player rolls. Individually, if the result is less than the Difficulty number, then the Investigator will suffer the effects of the foe’s Minor Injury or Major Injury Card, depending upon how low the margin is. If the result is equal to, or higher than, the Difficulty number, then the Investigator succeeds and the player can narrate how his Investigator carries out the objectives set out at the beginning of the fight. If it is three or more, it is kept at three and the Investigator will receive a Fight Benefit, such as a Push or a refreshed General Ability, at the end of the combat. Even if the Investigator succeeds, he still suffers a Toll, the effect of actually fighting the foe. Typically, this will be a levy of a single General Ability Point, which can come from Athletics, Fighting, or Health. At the end of the round, the running total the margins determines if the fight is going in the Investigators’ favour or against them.

Injuries are handled as Injury Cards, which can be Major or Minor. For example, the Minor Injury Card for a Hound of Annwn is ‘Annwn Bite’ and the Major Injury Card is ‘Annwn Paralysis’. Mental hazards require a Composure test and, on a failure, the Investigator will suffer a Minor Shock or a Major Shock. For example, when the Investigator enters a foreboding place, the Minor Shock is ‘Foreboding Place’, but the Major Shock is ‘Terrible Place’. These typically last for the length of an investigation, and impose penalties upon an Investigator’s actions. An Investigator cannot have three Injury Cards or three Shock Cards, although he could have two of either. However, if the third and final Card is an Injury Card, the Investigator is dead, or loses grip on reality if a Shock Card. Either way, the player has the opportunity to narrate the outcome. The Terror Beneath lists all of the Shock and Injury Cards in the back of the book.

Combat focuses on brawling rather than shootouts. In fact, there are no stats for guns in The Terror Beneath, but this does not mean that they are not present in the Roaring Twenties it portrays. Rather they are in the hands of NPCs rather than the Investigators. For example, the Gangster is armed and it is possible for an Investigator to be shot. This is represented by a Minor Injury Card and a Major Injury Card, ‘Grazed’ and ‘Shot’ respectively. Melee attacks are handled in the same way, such as the ‘Cudgel Blow’ and ‘A Thorough Thrashing’ Injury Cards. There is thus a brutality to combat and the Investigators are trying to avoid suffering damage and its deleterious effect as much as inflicting it on their foes or stopping what they are doing. Combat in The Terror Beneath is something to be avoided.

Similar to a Mental hazard, it takes a Composure test to perform sorcery and if failed the caster suffers a Major Shock. There may also be a Toll on the caster’s Athletics, Fighting, or Health, even if successful. This can be one, two, or three points, so it is often better to cast spells as a group. Some spells require a higher Bleed value for the spell to be cast without penalty. The list of spells in The Terror Beneath is not extensive, but this is not a roleplaying in which the Investigators will be casting a lot of spells.

In terms of setting and background, The Terror Beneath presents a broad overview, that over the course of the book looks at Arthur Machen’s fiction, weird folk horror investigations, the Gold Tiberius Society, and both London and Wales, the two contrasting locations for Machen’s fiction. For London there are descriptions of the various cults and secret societies in the city, whilst for Wales there are the places of power in the rural countryside and the pagan cults found there. Both cults and societies provide numerous human threats with links to the Otherworld and the terrors that the Game Master can develop as the basis for her scenarios. Besides the gods of the Otherworld and numerous creatures drawn from folklore and definitely dark and dangerous, there is advice for the Game Master on handling both Terror and Horror, primarily by building points where Terror might strike into a scenario, building backwards from the horror to create the mystery and basis of the investigation, laying out clues, and so on.

The Terror Beneath includes a scenario, ‘Mystery: Don’t Sleep’. The Investigators are called in to look into the sudden disappearance of a London dock worker. This is set in the capital—there is no mystery set in rural Wales in The Terror Beneath—and takes the Investigator into the communities of London’s docks and veterans of the Great War to discover the consequences of a secret military project conducted during the war. It explores Machen’s theme of misused science and its vile consequences.

Physically, The Terror Beneath is a relatively slim book. The book is well written, though lightly illustrated with dark, murky artwork which swirls with threat and peculiarity.

The Terror Beneath is published at a time when the interest in folk horror continues to grow and grow, yet it offers more than that. Its horror is eldritch and ancient, verging on the unknowable, yet rooted in folkloric explanations for the unknown, so there is a familiarity to elements of it. This is more cultural in origin as opposed to the unknowable we have learned from the pen of H.P. Lovecraft and through roleplaying games such as Call of Cthulhu and Trail of Cthulhu. Setting The Terror Beneath in the Roaring Twenties means that we can explore a period normally associated with Lovecraftian investigative horror and do so without the negative aspects of Lovecraft’s writings. Ultimately, The Terror Beneath: An Investigative Roleplaying Games of Weird Folk Horror enables us to explore the horror of Arthur Machen, his precursor, primordial and peculiar, veiled and vile, and regarded as the first modern writer of the genre.

Big Boss Beat ’Em Up

The city is not what it once was. As darkness falls, those that lurk in the shadows by day step out to make the city theirs. The gangs rule. Intimidation and violence are their game. They sell drugs and make millions for their bosses. Anyone who stands in their way is left battered and bruised—or worse, their blood running in the gutters. The police do what they can or just what they paid to do. They are underfunded and undermanned. They are paid to look the other way. They are paid to make it easy for the gangs. The authorities are underfunded and barely listening to the city’s inhabitants. The authorities’ search for improvement and perhaps for regeneration means they listen to the voices of the wealthy, the latest in a succession of ‘great’ developers, men and women who make great promises that only seem to add one more gleaming edifice to the city, and even if their plans come to fruition, their benefits rarely reach the average citizen, let alone anyone on the streets. For the city’s citizens, life no longer feels safe, there is no sense of a future, and if they cannot flee the confines of city, their lives are ones of despair. Behind it all lurks a powerful presence, working the levers of power and pulling the strings, perhaps sat atop one of those gleaming towers… Yet for some, this is too much. They can tolerate the situation no longer and have banded together with like-minded men and women to stand up to the gangs, to protect their neighbourhoods, and to face down the head of the criminal conspiracy that has knotted itself around the city. Can they prevent the Urban Decay?

Urban Decay is a roleplaying game of beat ’em up action inspired by classic arcade video games, movies, and comic-books. Streetfighter and Mortal Kombat, The Warriors and Big Trouble in Little China, The Old Guard and Daredevil. Published by Osprey Games and designed by the author of Jackals – Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying, this is an investigation and action roleplaying game that focuses on the brawls and the martial arts, designed for short campaigns in which the Player Characters clean up the streets, take down the thugs and the mooks, punch out the gang leaders, and duke it out with lieutenants, all before confronting the big boss and putting an end to the real threat to their neighbourhood and of course, the city. This is a roleplaying game in which a story of vengeance and vigilantism is going to be told, the action played out in its bloody, bruising glory, and then its pages closed. This is not a roleplaying to play in the long term, but more as a one-off, the occasional in-between popcorn and soda mini-movie marathon as a respite from the longer, more involved campaigns.

A Player Character in Urban Decay has six attributes. These are Damage Bonus, Initiative, Move, Guts, Clash Points, and Wounds Per Row. To this are added twenty-one skills. The creation process is a nine-step process. This begins with deciding upon a concept and recording the basic stats, which includes points in all skills except guns. Urban Decay is a roleplaying game about punches, kicks, sweeps, grapples, two-by-fours, katanas, and so on, but not guns. They have a role in the game and a Player Character can start play with one, but they are not the focus of the game. This is further enforced by the fact that the Guns skill does not have an associated trait, so although the John Wick series of films are an inspiration for the roleplaying game, there is no scope for gun-fu. Once the concept and the basic stats are done, the player then chooses an Archetype, Background, Training, and a Code before customising the character with extra points, selecting some equipment, and penultimately selecting a Crew Type. Lastly, a player answers a few questions about his character to ask why he is getting involved in the story to come. So, an Archetype could be Charismatic or Skilful, a Background Law Enforcement or The Street, Training the Face or the Fighter, and a Code the Agent or the Killer. In each case, these options add bonuses to attributes, skills, and traits, the latter granting various bonuses and effects in play.

The Crew Type represents how the Player Characters work together and how they know each other. Each Crew Type, such as Fighting Stable or Thieves, offers a bonus to a particular skill for one Player Character and a general skill bonus based on the relationship between one Player Character and another. Ideally, the Crew Types are set up for four players, although adjustments can be made if there are more or fewer players.

Maja Wincenty
Archetype: Strong Background: The Street Training: The Finder
Code: The Local Crew Type: Street Squad

Damage Bonus: +1
Initiative: 10
Move: 14
Guts: 11
Clash Points: 4
Wounds Per Row: 6

Traits
Rippling Muscles: Influence for Intimidation
Word on the Street: Streetwise for finding the rumours
A Port in Every Storm: Streetwise for finding people
Home Field Advantage

Skills:
Athletics: 30%, Craft: 30%, Deception: 30%, Dodge: 45%, Drive: 35%, Endurance: 45%, First Aid: 50%, Grappling: 35%, Guns: 00%, Influence: 50%, Kicking: 40%, Mechanics: 30%, Melee Weapons: 25%, Perception: 65%, Scavenge: 60%, Stealth: 35%, Streetwise: 85%, Striking: 75%, Thievery: 30%, Thrown Weapons: 35%, Willpower: 55%

Equipment: Leather jacket (Protection 2), flashlight, mobile phone, $50

Mechanically, Urban Decay employs the Clash system, the same as in the author’s Jackals – Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying. This is a percentile system in which rolls of ninety-one and above is always a failure, even though skills can be modified or even raised through advancements above one hundred percent. Rolls of doubles rolls under a skill are a critical success and rolls of double over are a fumble. Opposed rolls are handled by both parties rolling, with the participant who rolls higher and succeeds at the skill check winning. If a Player Character has a trait associated with a particular skill, then his player can roll an extra for the ‘one’s or units die. This enables a player to reroll the dice and turn fumbles into failures and successes into critical on their character’s signature skills.

Between them, the players also have access to a pool of Momentum points. These can be spent to re-roll failed checks, damage rolls, to add narrative twist to a scene, to invoke an Advanced Talent that a Player Character does not have, to prevent death occurring if a Player Character is reduced to zero wounds, and so on. The Momentum pool size is equal to the number of players plus two and resets at the start of every adventure or ‘Level’. It can be earned for rolling criticals.

For example, Maja is looking for a runaway girl. She approaches ‘End Row’ Ernie, a street corner dealer to ask if he has seen the girl. Maja’s player rolls her Streetwise skill. The result is eighty-eight. This is not only above her skill, but a fumble too. Maja’s player invokes her ‘A Port in Every Storm’ trait for her Streetwise skill and rerolls the eight on the ‘one’s die. The result is a six, so the total roll is eighty-six, a failure, but not a fumble. Maja’s presence attracts the attention ‘Endrow’ Ernie’s boss, who draws up at that moment in his car and as he climbs out of the tells her to buzz off…

If in terms of skills and skill checks, the Clash system in Urban Decay is simple and straightforward, combat by comparison, is not. Every combatant typically one main action in a combat round, often a standard type of attack, but with the addition of Clash Points, combat becomes more dynamic, more heroic. Attacks are made using the appropriate combat skill—Grappling, Kicking, Melee Weapons, Striking, or Thrown Weapons—and a successful roll means that the target has been attacked and damage will be inflicted. However, the target can spend Clash Points to turn into an exchange of blows or taunts or a Clash of wills. It then becomes an opposed roll. Clash Points can also be spent on minor actions in addition to an attacker’s main action, such as opening or closing a door, switching weapons, diving into cover, and so on. Clash Points can be spent to improve an attack, to make a Feint or Power Attack, to do a Grapple or a Sweep the Leg move with a Kick.

Maja is on the street corner, having got nowhere with ‘End Row’ Ernie, and Ernie’s boss—Dwayne—has arrived by car and wants to get her away from the corner because she is disrupting business. Dwayne also wants to teach ‘End Row’ Ernie about talking to strangers. ‘End Row’ Ernie is a Melee Mook and Dwayne a Melee Soldier. Each has an Initiative of twelve, whereas Maja has an Initiative of ten. ‘End Row’ Ernie has one Clash Point to share with his fellow Mooks—if they turn up—and as a Melee Soldier, Dwayne can have up to five. The Game Master does not rate Dwayne all that highly and gives him two, whereas Maja has four. This is the number that both will have each round to spend.

The Game Master rolls five for ‘End Row’ Ernie and Dwayne and their joint Initiative is seventeen. Maja’s player rolls six, which sets hers at sixteen. Still, Dwayne and ‘End Row’ Ernie. Dwayne acts first. He snarls at Maja and says, “We don’t like people shoving their noses where they don’t belong. We’re gonna learn you a lesson.” The Game Master spends the one Clash Point the two share to have Dwayne draw a club and then she rolls Dwayne’s Attack Line to determine the options that Dwayne will have. She rolls twenty-three and the options are ‘Savage Blow’, which will inflict damage and the target will also possibly lose Clash Points, or ‘Hack & Slash’, which lets Dwayne attack, break from cover, and then retreat. She chooses ‘Savage Blow’ and rolls forty-eight to hit, which is enough. Maja’s player decides to spend a Clash Point and turns it into a Clash. He rolls sixty-three. This is below his Striking skill and higher than the Game Master rolled, so Maja succeeds, and blocks the attack. Now it is her turn to react. Maja’s player selects ‘Strike: Perfect Strike’ as an option. It costs Maja her three remaining Clash Points, but ignores any Protection. Dwayne has no Clash Points to spend until the next round. Maja’s player rolls thirty-three—a critical. This will double damage. An unarmed strike is eight-sided die plus a six-sided die for Maja’s damage bonus. A Critical attack versus a Failure means that Maja inflicts maximum damage—fourteen points—and earns a point of Momentum, and it ignores the three points of Kevlar that Dwayne is wearing. It is a cracking blow and it almost, but not quite reduces Dwayne’s Health by half. With a look of a surprise on his face, he really felt it though…

In the long term, a Player Character can advance any skill beyond one hundred. This opens up the possibility of selecting Advanced Skill Talents. These include ‘Kip-up’ for Dodge which enables a Player Character to stand from prone as a free action for a Clash Point or ‘Skilled Fighter’ for ‘Striking’, which permanently reduces the Clash Point cost for a specific combat action, enabling it to become a signature move. There are Advanced Skill Talents for all skills except Guns and there some for Momentum use as well.

For the Game Master there is short, but solid advice on the genre, keeping the action high, having the boss gloat, and so on. In terms of tools, she has the Domination Pool, which is like the Momentum Pool, but for the bad buys. In terms of campaign design, Urban Decay is built around a series of linked districts across the city, which the Game Master seeds with plans and secrets, lieutenants in charge, and clues to the next district. This will all lead to a final showdown with the gang boss. Each district requires further design and choices, and the Game Master is given a ready list of places and people to chose from with which to populate a district, plus effects which the Player Characters can take advantage of or be hindered by. Each district has links to other districts that make them easier to travel to, but travel between district is difficult because the further a district is from home, the more unfamiliar it is. Within each Level/District, the Game Master also designs the path through it, with encounters and all of the opposition. In terms of opposition, the Game Master is given the options to design the Boss for her campaign, much in the mode of Player Characters, including an Archetype, such Rich or Mastermind; Resources including political Power or Esoteric Secrets; Fighting Style like Brazilian Jujitsu or Duellist; and Local Plan, what the Boss plans for the Crew’s neighbourhood. Then the Game Master is given to do something similar with Lieutenants, applying templates such as Alluring or Cruel to a base template, whilst Elites such as Brute, Martial Artist, and so on, all the way down to Soldiers and Elites are all standardised.

Lastly, for the Game Master, there is ‘Blood in the Streets’, a starting scenario. It is really a prelude to a full campaign, taking the heroes through the one path of a Level. It is a showcase for the roleplaying game’s mechanics and gives a chance for the players to show off their moves.

Physically, Urban Decay is very nicely presented. The artwork is excellent of anime punk and really moody painted scenes. It is also well written and easy to read.

Urban Decay is a roleplaying game about getting down and dirty in the streets and taking the fight to the gangs and the scum and working their up the chain. Battling their way through mooks and soldiers and lieutenants, all the way up to finally confronting the boss—and this can be in the players’ home city or the city of their choice. The rules allow for plenty of dynamic action as the Player Characters throw punches, sweep the feet out from under the enemy, and smack down the big boss. Urban Decay is your direct to video, gritty urban thriller that is going make enough to get not one, but multiple sequels, each time going up against a different boss—until an old one decides to come out of retirement. So, pick up Urban Decay, play a campaign, play something else, then come back for the sequel.

—oOo—

Osprey Games will be at UK Games Expo which takes place on Friday, May 31st to Sunday June 2nd, 2024.

A Hoard of Heresies

In 1307, the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, commonly known as the Knights Templar, were summarily attacked and arrested by French forces, on orders from King Philip IV of France with permission from Pope Clement V. It marked the beginning of the end of the order, which for two hundred years had dedicated itself to protecting Christians making their pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Its leaders would be tried for heresy, but before the arrest their arrest in Templar’s Parisian stronghold, the Enclos du Temple, they would issue one final set of orders: the last Templars were to take the secrets of the order to safety. They would be the last thirty to escape the fallen stronghold and theirs would be a perilous journey across Europe in search of sanctuary, harried all the way first by forces loyal to King Philip, and then the Inquisition. Their story and their efforts to find sanctuary, perhaps in the process discovering the true secrets of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, are told in Heirs to Heresy: The Fall of the Knights Templar, a roleplaying game published by Osprey Games.

Heirs to Heresy: Faith & Fear is the first supplement for Heirs to Heresy. That roleplaying game is essentially a toolkit to run a single type of campaign, one that tells of the Player Character Templars’ flight away from Paris to a sanctuary, whichever one that is… Heirs to Heresy: Faith & Fear is a companion volume, providing a range of support and content that adds to that toolkit, thus giving the Grand Master more options to enhance her campaign or even run a new campaign. The supplement includes the advice and warning from the core rulebook about dealing with the negative aspects of both history and the portrayal of the Knights Templar, before getting on with the new content. The first of which is three new knightly orders—the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, which was concerned with protecting and ensuring the sanctity of the holy sites; the Knights Hospitaller, which operated hospitals for the benefit of pilgrims; and the Order of Saint Lazarus, Leper Knights who aid commoners who have been harmed or hurt. Each Order has two special abilities. For example, a Knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre has ‘First Among Equals’ and ‘Secure the Holy Spaces’. The first of these gives the knight an advantage when dealing with other orders because the Order of the Holy Sepulchre is the oldest order, has precedence, and reports directly to the Pope, whilst the second increases their Damage Reduction when defending a sacred or consecrated sites. The inclusion of these three orders open up Player Character and NPC options, and perhaps because none of the three orders have been arrested by the French King and accused of heresy, also perhaps as a more general roleplaying game involving militant orders rather than one dealing with the last actions of the free Templars.

Heirs to Heresy: Faith & Fear does include a fourth order, the Teutonic knights. They are not, though, included as a Player Character option, but as NPC villains. Several options are suggested as to why, from Teutonic Grand Master simply coveted the Templar wealth to the Teutonic Order having been corrupted by some dark influence. However, as a possible ally, a location somewhere in the Teutonic Order’s lands might become the sanctuary that the Player Characters are trying to reach and that lends itself to a campaign with a Gothic feel located in Eastern Europe.

‘Modes of Play’ gives rules for solo play or play without a Grand Master. This includes the ‘Yes/No Oracle’, a simple means of resolving player choices, and tables of Action and Theme options to inspire and prompt the player. A set of tables, based on their Health level, whether Full, Halved, or Quartered, provides random actions in combat for NPCs, whilst another provides reactions out of combat. A further set of tables enable the Grand Master to create a conspiracy and the basis of a campaign using the content in this supplement and the core rulebook.

In Heirs to Heresy, a Player Character Knight can bring his faith and commitment to bear on a situation. To reflect this, he has Faith points to spend on various effects, including adding his Faith Attribute to a single Test, damage total, or reducing incoming damage by the same, to reroll a single Test, and if they factor into a campaign, power esoterica, Gifts, and Relics. Heirs to Heresy: Faith & Fear adds an option for using Faith called ‘Acts of Faith’. These include ‘Acts of Exorcism’, ‘Acts of Foresight’, ‘Acts of Healing’, and ‘Acts of Sacrifice’, the latter enabling the Player Character to protect a fallen ally against a grave threat. All four ‘Acts of Faith’ require the expenditure of a point of Faith and a may require a Religion skill test. The converse, ‘Acts of Fear’, including ‘Acts of Deceit’, ‘Acts of Incitement’, and ‘Acts of Violence’, require Corruption points, which are gained for committing sins, to be used. It is possible for a Player Character Knight, to be corrupt and have fallen from the Grace of God, and use these ‘Acts of Fear’. However, should such a Knight become too corrupt, there will be no way back for him to the Grace of God, and he becomes an NPC under the control of the Grand Master and likely a major threat to the Player Characters.

‘Strongholds and Sieges’ adds rules for building bases, such as castles and fortifications, and then laying siege to them. These include natural caverns, towers, and new fortifications, and a stronghold has actions of its own that the players can trigger. This can be to Fortify, Repair, or Upgrade the structure, Hire an employee (such as a Blacksmith, Builder, or Priest), Rest, or spend time in Introspection. Rest grants temporary Stamina points and Introspection points to spend on advancing Faith. Strongholds have Traits of their own, such as Famous, Gnostic Monastery (which grants an esoteric benefit), Living(!), and even Religious Sanctuary. The Siege rules are an addition to the Mass Battle system and are fairly quick and dirty, the aim being to reduce the Army Strength of one side to zero. Both Attacker and Defender have a limited number of options—Assault, Resupply, Sabotage, or Starve Out for the Attacker and Fortify, Repair, Sally Forth, and Smuggle in Supplies for the Defender, but can undertake four actions per day. There is room too for Player Character actions and roleplaying too, but the rules are quick and simple.

At the core of Heirs to Heresy are the relics, one of which the Player Characters are attempting to get from Paris to sanctuary. The choice can determine certain aspects of the campaign, such as how Faith interacts with the Player Characters. The four here are the Ark of the Covenant, the Head of Saint John Baptist, the Turn Shroud, and the Spear of Longinus. For example, the Ark of the Covenant will slay the unfaithful, grant insight and Faith for a battle, and if unlocked, that is, a Player Character attunes to it, it grants further Faith. Of course, it is relatively large and so not easy to transport. Each one of these four is major Christian relic and will really affect the nature of a campaign.

As well as the relic they are charged with protecting, the Player Characters may have access to another resources, that of the Templar spy networks to be found in the cities and towns across Europe. Most obviously, they could be used to provide safehouses as the Player Characters flee from Paris, but they can also provide supplies and information, and perhaps they can actually be made greater use of if the Player Characters establish a stronghold and want monitor or weaken the forces hunting for them. There are tables too for creating NPCs and their personalities, for exploration and the weather, and a host of new enemies, mobs both supernatural and mundane, and supernatural foes such as the Basilisk, Maddening Mist, and Warlocks or Witches.

The supplement also comes with four adventures of varying length and complexity. ‘The Wolfcairn’ finds the Player Characters camping somewhere deep in the forest when they begin to be stalked by a massive wolf that is more than it seems; in ‘The Basilisk’s Den’ they visit a tavern of that name looking for a connection to the local Templar spy network and run against all manner of NPCs with their own interests; in ‘Last Stand’, the Inquisition has caught up with the Player Characters who will have to hold them off, perhaps giving one of their number to make a desperate final defence of the others; and lastly, the ‘Cursed Brothers’ interlude gives the Player Characters a chance for respite at a Templar castle, but their fellow brothers turn out to be as bad as King Philip IV of France claimed the order to be. All four scenarios are easy to run and include pointers on their set-up descriptions of locations and NPCs, and both consequences and possible complications. They are all relatively easy to drop into a campaign. Lastly, the supplement includes another three pre-generated Player Characters, one for each of the new orders given at the start of the book.

Physically, Heirs to Heresy is cleanly and simply presented. The book is easy to read and the artwork is excellent.

Heirs to Heresy: Faith & Fear is not absolutely necessary to play a campaign of Heirs to Heresy. What it does do though, is provide a range of options and rules that can be used to expand the Grand Master’s campaign. The new scenarios are the easiest to use, each one readily dropped into a campaign, whilst the rules for spy networks, sieges, and ‘Acts of Faith’ require more effort and perhaps certain situations to arise to be fully useful. Overall, Heirs to Heresy: Faith & Fear widens the number of options that the Grand Master can choose from when planning her campaign and when making it more exciting in play, so making it useful for any Heirs to Heresy: The Fall of the Knights Templar campaign.