Sorcery & Steel & Powder & Psionics

Civilisation is divided and in decline. Two great nations stand opposed to each other. Witch-hunters search the length and breadth of the Maloresian Empire for signs of sorcery and execute all those who tainted so as incense and the prayers from a thousand temples of the Church of Mendorf calling for salvation and damnation clash with the sound of hammer on anvil and smoke from the gunsmiths’ forges that pour forth blades, cuirasses, and wheel-locks. Just as the inquisitors of the Church of Mendorf would put the members of the Cult of the Star to the sword and the flame for their heresy, it would launch a crusade against the Urden, the realm of the Sorcerer King. Yet it is powerless to do so, for in the Empire’s ruined Senate Hall, twelve noble lords lie dead, their corpses twisted by powers that radiate malevolent energy even now. Rumour places their deaths firmly upon the sorcerers of Urden whose vile practices have seen them erect great towers of black stone that stab the skies. Their magics are powered by Star Dust, refined from the Star Shards that fell to earth long ago and found in the Borderlands between the two nations, and used in the crafting of all manner of magical concoctions and artefacts. Yet this power is not without is dangers, for it is highly radioactive and deadly. The greatest of the Star Shards is the Hope Star, divided in two, each half held by the Maloresian Empire and the sorcerous kingdom of Urden. There are other nations and powers, including the pirate Caliphate of Khalida and the Free-Trade Nations, in these Borderlands, but beyond lie the Wastes that encroach upon the bastions of civilisation. They are scarlet blights upon the landscape where stars fell in ancient times and breed horrors and monsters that to this day withstand sorcery and steel, powder and faith. Yet there are secrets and artefacts to be found in the Wastes and to this day, many set forth from the Keep on the Borderlands to explore the crystal-lined caves that lie nearby and face the horrors within.

This is the world of Firnum, the setting for Barrows & Borderlands, which describes itself as “A Weird Science Fantasy Old-School Style Role Playing Game set in a Dark Radioactive Wasteland of Magic, Black-powder, and Dragons!” Designed and published by Matthew Tap, it consists of four books—Book 1: Men & Mutants, Book 2: Psychics & Sorcerers, Book 3: Horrors & Treasure, and Book 4: The Underworld & Borderlands—and is unashamedly ‘Old School’ in its design. It is a Class and Level roleplaying game, it uses THAC0, and its various subsystems use different mechanics, but there are some modernisms, such as spellcasting not being Vancian, that is, cast and forget, but requires a casting roll and there is a chance of miscasting. Its primary inspirations are Original Dungeons & Dragons and Metamorphosis Alpha: Fantastic Role-Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventures on a Lost Starship, but set in a near-apocalyptic (or possibly post-apocalyptic) world that draws from the seventeenth century and a lot of the illustrations from the period rather than the medievalism of Dungeons & Dragons. Thus, you have magic and the worship of gods alongside gunpowder and steel and psychic powers and mutations. There are even elements of the Mythos within its setting, though that of Robert W. Chambers rather than H.P. Lovecraft with the inclusion of Carcosan aliens and the King in Yellow and Carcosa as rumours, as well as the inclusion of Greys, or Zeta Reticulans.

Barrows & Borderlands Book 1: Men & Mutants introduces the setting and provides the means to create characters. A Player Character has seven attributes—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and Radiation Resist—which range in value between three and eighteen. He will have a Race which grant some inherent abilities and Class that give him his abilities. He will also have a Star Sign that will grant him a single bonus, plus one or more skills, which divided between ‘Common’, ‘Middling’, and ‘Gentry’ which suggests a Player Character’s social origins. The skills are included for roleplaying depth rather than to support a skill mechanic, but a Game Master may allow a Player Character an advantage in a situation where they are being used or simply let the Player Character know a certain fact or attempt an action. The skills, such as ‘Beggar’, ‘Watchmaker’, or ‘Philosopher’, can also be used to determine the origins and type of character that the player s roleplaying. A Player Character will have a named relative who will inherit his wares and chattels should he go missing for long enough, and an Alignment, either Lawful (good or evil), Neutral, or Chaotic (good or evil).

The nine Races include traditional Pure-Strain Humans, Halflings, and Dwarves, and are joined by Kobolds, Starborn, Greenskulls, Mutants, Mycelians, and Fairies. Kobolds, Mutants, Greenskulls, and Starborn are demi-humans altered by the radiation of the stars and dark magiks. The dog-like Kobolds are said to have been once the slaves of dragons; Starborn are the living fragments of fallen stars given flesh and form, exiles from heaven that the Church would burn; Greenskulls are undead creatures of radiation appearing as either pale green skeletons or having green translucent skin; Mutants can be Humans, Animals, or Plants and continue to mutate; Mycelians are colonies of intelligent fungi with voices like rotting leaves that trade in prophecies and poisons; and Fairies are bewinged fey tricksters that promise wishes and enchantments. The Classes are Fighting-Man, Magic-User, Cleric, Half-Caster, Thief, Gamma, and Psychic. The Half-Caster is one-part Fighting-Man, one-part Magic-User, but is not as good at fighting or spell-casting; Psychics employ psionic powers; and Gammas have mutant powers—both beneficial and detrimental, and can have more.

The list of mutations for the Gamma is not extensive in comparison to other post-apocalyptic roleplaying games and its single table includes both beneficial and detrimental mutations. So, options include ‘Radiation Eyes’, ‘Wings’, and ‘Density Shift Self’, and ‘Carrion Odour’, ‘Non-Sensory Nerve Endings’, and ‘Bulbous Skull’.

Character creation in Barrows & Borderlands is a matter of rolling three six-sided dice and recording them in order for the seven attributes (though it does allow alternative means of generating them). The player selects a Race and Class for his character, rolls for a Star Sign and number and category of skills, and then picks skills from those categories.

Name: Billy Bones Bonce
Class: Psychic Level: 1
Race: Greenskull

Birthsign: Moon (tides/cycles) (+1 Firearms damage)

Hit Points: 6
THAC0: 19
Saving Throw: 19 (+2 versus Paralysis and Sorcery)
Alignment: Chaotic Good

Strength 8 (-1 Damage)
Dexterity 10
Constitution 16 (+1 HP, +1 versus Radiation (Death) Saves)
Intelligence 18 (+8 Languages Spoken)
Wisdom 14
Charisma 09 (Maximum Number of Retainers: 4)
Radiation Resist 12

Racial Abilities
Immune to Radiation. Does not need sleep. Starts with a 2:6 chance to form a human disguise from a fresh dead body. Has Infravision at a range of 60’.

Psychic Strength: 104
Psychic Abilities
Telepathy 3 (Know Alignment, Thought Influence, Empathy)

Skills
Common: beggar, domestic servant, paper-ink maker, apprentice
Middling: printer, apothecary, schoolmaster
Gentry: astrologer, lawyer, duellist

The equipment list is surprisingly short, but includes matchlock, flintlock, and wheellock black powder firearms. All firearms have a chance of misfiring and muskets ignore five points of armour, whilst pistols only do so at close range. (Presumably, this means that the defender’s Armour Class is reduced.) Basic combat is simple enough with rolls being made to hit on a twenty-sided die, the target number determined by comparing the attacker’s THAC0 value with the Armour Class of the defender. The combat rules cover options such as charging, mounted combat, spear charges, shield walls, and more. Shield techniques allow for shield bashes and cover for allies; defensive and aggressive stances, which will alter Armour Class and a character’s ‘To Hit’ chance; blocking and parrying and dodging for defensive techniques; having a shot ready and firing on the move for archery techniques; disarming and making double-feints in melee combat; and mounted shot and pike and shot formation for firearm techniques. These are not the only options, but there is a comprehensive list of them, allowing a Player Character to do more than simply hack and slash.

Barrows & Borderlands Book 2: Psychics & Sorcerers covers magic and psionics. Spells require a free hand and the freedom to speak to cast, and mechanically, a casting roll. This is done by comparing the caster’s Level with the Level of the spell and rolling two six-sided dice. The result can be that the spell is cast immediately, its effect delayed by up to six Rounds, or a chance that a Critical Miscast occurs. This always happens if two is rolled on the dice. It is possible for a caster to cast a spell that is above his Level, but this increases a chance of a Critical Miscast. When the possibility of a Critical Miscast is indicated, the player must make a Saving Throw versus Spells. On failure, he must roll on the ‘Magic-User Critical Miscast Table’, which at its worst obliterates the caster or changes reality so that he was never born. Other results include forcing the caster to cast every spell he knows at a random target (which includes the other Player Characters), the caster’s bones disappearing, suffering a random mutation, and so on. There is a Critical Miscast Table for the Magic-User, but not the Cleric. Learning a new spell, which can be from a scroll, tome, a master, or self-created, requires a roll under the Player Character’s Prime Requisite attribute, modified by the difference between the caster’s Level and the Level of the spell. Magic-Users and Clerics can also counterspell against another caster.

The spells for both the Magic-User and the Cleric will be familiar to anyone who has played plenty of Dungeons & Dragons. Only those of Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Level for the Magic-User are new. These are powerful spells, such as Adaptive Blast which sends a blast of energy at a target adapting to the type of energy to which it is most vulnerable; Jaws of the Snake God which summons a giant, spectral snake that bites a target for one-to-one-hundred damage and ignores armour; and Dark Forest, which summons a singe square-mile of forest with trees that grow to be a hundred feet tall and a population of up to one hundred Giant Spiders, up to one hundred Evil Shadows, and up to one hundred Orcs at the caster’s command.

One of the spells does stray into poor taste. Insanity Multiplied inflicts a form of mental instability on everyone within a one-mile radius for eight hours. These include being manic depressive, paranoid, schizophrenic, sexually perverse, and violently homicidal. Times and attitudes have changed and whilst this would have no doubt have acceptable in the roleplaying games of some forty years ago, it is not the case today. This is a spell that the Game Master may want to consider leaving out of her game.

It is possible for any Player Character to a Wild Psionic, but they have fewer points to invest in disciplines and there even the chance of their suffering Psycho-desynchronization when attempting to learn a new discipline and losing points from their attributes. The Psychic Class does not suffer this. There are twelve disciplines and they include Telekinesis, Cell Adjustment, Object/Aura Reading, Mental Assault, and Living Weaponry. Each Discipline has six different effects. For example, Telepathy has the effects, from one to six in ascending order of ‘Know Alignment’, ‘Thought Influence’, ‘Empathy’, ‘ESP’, ‘Commune’, and ‘Mind Control’. Each Disciple requires two points of Investment to gain the first effect, but after that, only one point is required to gain the next effect. To use a Discipline, a Psychic’s player rolls a single six-sided die. If the result is equal to or less than the Investment level, then the Psychic can the desired effect. If a one is rolled, only the base effect can be used and the Psychic cannot use the Discipline until the next day. However, with some disciplines, it is possible to push the roll again and again, improving the effect each time until the Psychic is able to use the desired effect. For example, if a Psychic has invested in the Pyrokinesis Discipline enough to know ‘Spark of Flame’, ‘Control Fire’, and ‘Heat Metal’, his player could attempt to push the roll three times to trigger ‘Immolation’ and set the target alight!

Several of the Disciplines provide means for a Psychic to attack others, but he can also duel with another Psychic. This is essentially the equivalent of ‘Rock-Paper-Scissors’ in which the duellists each select a Defence Mode and an Attack Mode and compare the results. These can be nothing or they inflict damage to the duellist’s Psychic Strength (to the point where they are unconscious), or hopefully stun them, which means they can do nothing and are at their opponent’s mercy. Overall, the Psionics rules are simple enough and provide a mix of spell-like and other effects that can make the Psychic Class flexible and powerful.

Barrows & Borderlands Book 3: Horrors & Treasure is the bestiary for Barrows & Borderlands. It includes many, many monsters and creatures that will be recognisable from Dungeons & Dragons—Black Puddings, Cockatrices, Gargoyles, Lycanthropes, Mimics, Owl Bears, Rust Monsters, Trolls, Will O’Wisps, and Yellow Molds. These are joined by the less familiar creatures such as Ladies of the Lake who offer a divine pact sealed with the gift of a weapon, Mirror Men that ape their opponent’s equipment and fighting style, the slow, but hard hitting Robots, the Silver Men of gleaming liquid metal that shoot eye-beams, and Dynaco Employees, mutants in synthetic work-suits that follow the diktats of a secret ancient organisation. There are a lot of entries as it also includes dinosaurs, dragons, giants, and golems.

The treasure also many items that will be familiar from Dungeons & Dragons, but also devices particular to the world of Firnum. For example, Sword +1 vs. Robots and Magic Gun +2, and swords as well as guns can be intelligent. Some weapons and devices are not magical, but technological. For example, the Dynaco Anti-Material Rifle which fires rounds that ignore armour; the Ray Gun powered by a Star Shard magazine; and Lukas’ Laser Sword, an energy blade that ignores damage reduction and five points of armour. Armour is treated in a similar fashion, all the way up to Dynaco Star Armour, a suit of powered armour. Similarly, the miscellaneous items are a mixture of the familiar and unfamiliar.

Barrows & Borderlands Book 4: The Underworld & Borderlands is the Game Master’s book for Barrows & Borderlands. It suggests two main ways of playing Barrows & Borderlands and exploring the world of Firnum—The Underworld and The Borderlands. It also suggests adhering to strict timekeeping of one real-world day being equal to one game day, which has consequences on play including time management and where the Player Characters are in the setting. It also demands more of the players and the Game Master, making Barrows & Borderlands more a commitment to play. The primary advice is about preparing for either style of play, designing The Underworld and filling it with features and traps and encounters, and working from a single village location to creating a wilderness landscape and adding locations and settlements and populating them. It gives guidance on how encounters are handled, including wandering monsters, and also on building domains and aerial combat. It also includes an example of play of a party exploring an Underworld.

What Barrows & Borderlands Book 4: The Underworld & Borderlands does not do is present Firmnum as a setting or explain any of its secrets or details of the setting. This is frustrating, because right from the start, Barrows & Borderlands has been suggesting and hinting as to what it is, telling the reader about elements of the setting, but going no further. Instead, author opens Barrows & Borderlands Book 4: The Underworld & Borderlands with, “Instead of creating my own version of the Borderlands for you to explore, I find it more pertinent to give you the tools necessary to make your own.” On the one hand, this is a laudable aim. It is telling the prospective Game Master that she has all of the tools necessary to create her own campaign, but her own setting as well. It means that Barrows & Borderlands emulates those early versions of Dungeons & Dragons that presented rules for playing in a fantasy realm whose inspirations—the works of Robert E. Howard or J.R.R. Tolkien—would have been familiar to the Game Master and the player. And if that is what the Game Master and her players want, then Barrows & Borderlands provides that. On the other hand, it is disingenuous. The issue is twofold. The first issue is that Barrows & Borderlands is not upfront enough about being a toolkit and leaving it until the fourth of its rulebooks to be clear that it is, is a mistake. The second issue is that Barrows & Borderlands is not explicit in telling the reader that there is no actual setting in the roleplaying game. What the introduction states is the following:

“The Borderlands is abstract, a land of mystery to be decided by the Referee and the Players. The core concepts are set, but specific locations, adventures, and battles are up to the emergent creativity of all at the table. A sampling of histories and lores exist within this book which suggest Nations and Powers exist outside the Confines of the Borderlands.”

The Borderlands—as presented in Barrows & Borderlands—are too abstract and whilst the presentation of histories and lores are suggestive of an interesting setting to come, it is a setting that the roleplaying game has no intention of delivering. Arguably, Barrows & Borderlands might actually be a better game without those histories and lores. As to the ‘core concepts’, they are very much not set. Fundamental questions such as, ‘What are the Borderlands?’, ‘What is the Dynaco Corporation?’, ‘What are Star Shards?’, ‘What are barrows in the context of the Borderlands?’, and even something as basic as, ‘What languages are spoken in and around the Borderlands?’ are left unanswered. If those elements were more sharply defined, then perhaps they would form a firmer basis upon which the Game Master and her players could build their version of the Borderlands through emergent play.

Physically, Barrows & Borderlands is presented as and looks like a roleplaying game from TSR, Inc. from the nineteen-seventies, but much cleaner, tidier, and sharper. The artwork, much of it drawn from the public domain, is not bad and together, the whole effect just says that this is an Old School Renaissance roleplaying game. In general—especially when it comes the rules, the roleplaying game is clearly written. However, elsewhere the writing is more opaque.

Despite its omissions, Barrows & Borderlands is very likeable roleplaying game. It has all the rules necessary to run a post-apocalyptic weird science fantasy campaign, and yet… whilst it describes itself as “A Weird Science Fantasy Old-School Style Role Playing Game set in a Dark Radioactive Wasteland of Magic, Black-powder, and Dragons!” and there can be no doubt that it delivers on being “A Weird Science Fantasy Old-School Style Role Playing Game… of Magic, Black-powder, and Dragons!”, what it fails to do is give the Game Master and her players the promised “…Dark Radioactive Wasteland…” Barrows & Borderlands is either a toolkit which hints unnecessarily at a setting or a desperately underdeveloped setting attached to a decent set of rules. Barrows & Borderlands really needs to be one or the other, rather than both. Or Barrows & Borderlands really, really needs Book 5: The Borderlands to give the Game Master and her players a starting point.

1984: PSI World

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

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Some time in the near future. Mankind has advanced into near orbit and beyond, establishing space stations and lunar bases. Regular shuttles run between them and the Earth. Crewed spaceflights have visited the inner planets and the asteroid belt, and great solar arrays beam power down to the surface. Advances have been made in terms of computer hardware and software. It could be ten years from now. It could be fifty years from now. In other words, it could be 1994 or it could be 2034. The world though riven in two and society has fragmented. The cause? Psionic powers. Whether to be seen as gifts or curses, to be celebrated or feared, society in general has reacted with fear and distrust. The Psis, those with the genetic quirk that grants them their powers, are few in number, so the Norms, those without, ostracise them, corralling them in ghettoes where they can be monitored and controlled. The government enacts laws that restrict their freedoms in the name of protecting the majority and will use force and even other Psis to track down and arrest those that hide or worse, resist.

This is the setting for PSI World: Role Playing Game of Psionic Powers, a roleplaying game published by Fantasy Games Unlimited in 1984. It is a roleplaying game in which either the Player Characters have psionic powers and fear being hated and persecuted because of them, but wanting to use them to benefit humanity, or they are hunting rogue or terrorist Psis. Inspiration would have come from books such as Stephen King’s 1980 novel, Firestarter, and the 1984 film of the same name, David Cronenberg’s 1981 Scanners, and the ‘Days of Future Past’ storyline from the Marvel Comics comic book The Uncanny X-Men issues #141–142, published in 1981. It is slim affair in several senses. The genre, that of near-future ‘dystopian otherness’ does not amount to very much, though that does not mean that familiar tales of resistance cannot be told using the roleplaying game. After all, the television miniseries V was released in 1983 and that drew parallels between the alien Visitors and the Nazis. The setting is very lightly defined, but it does leave more than enough room for the Referee to map it onto her own setting, perhaps even the one outside her window, or simply create one of her own. Lastly, the two books that come in the boxed set are slim themselves.

PSI World was published as boxed set. Inside can be found the thirty-two-page ‘PSI World: Role Playing Game of Psionic Powers’ rulebook, the thirty-page ‘The Psi World Adventure’, a Referee’s Screen, a character sheet, and two ten-sided dice and two six-sided dice. Bar the lid of the box, which is in powder blue with a very eighties cartoon-style cover by Bill Willingham, everything is in black and white. ‘PSI World: Role Playing Game of Psionic Powers’ rulebook opens with a three-paragraph introduction, two of which provide an overview of the setting, before leaping into character creation.

A Player Character in PSI World has seven attributes. These are Strength, Agility, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Will, and Psionic Power. These are rated between two and twenty. Various values are derived from these including Initiative Factor, Defence Bonus, Bonus to Hit, Damage Bonus, Hit Points, Shock Resistance, and Heal Rate. To create a character, a player rolls two ten-sided dice for each attribute, works out the derived factors, and then rolls for Hit Points, before rolling for educational background. The latter is a percentile roll, with a bonus for Intelligence. Non-Psis gain this and a general bonus. Options for educational background include General Education, Vocational Education, Military, Advanced Education, and Spacer. Advanced Education represents studying at college. Skills are divided between ‘Level’ skills and ‘Non-Level’ skills. ‘Level’ skills are straightforward percentile skills, whilst ‘Non-Level’ skills are those are either known or not known, and rely on the appropriate Attribute Saving Throw to use. If a Player Character has psionic powers, then he has either one Major discipline or two Minor disciplines, or they can be rolled for randomly.

Name: Rachel Rosen
Education: Military
Strength 08 (AST 32), Agility 14 (AST 56) Dexterity 16 (AST 64), Endurance 14 (AST 56), Intelligence 18 (AST 72), Will 12 (AST 48), Psionic Power 14 (AST 56)
Initiative Factor: +13
Defence Bonus: -7
Bonus to Hit: +10
Damage Bonus: +2 (Projectile) 0 (Hand-held Weapons)
Hit Points: 25 (Base), Head – 7, Chest – 14, Abdomen – 14, Left/Right Arm – 6/6, Left/Right Leg – 6/6
Shock Resistance: 60%
Heal Rate: 1½/day

Skills: Interrogation 50%, Police Techniques 50%, Police Weapons 50%, Drive Car, Gambling, Streetwise 50%, Unarmed Combat 50%, Stealth 30%, Swimming, Street Combat

Psionic Disciplines: Precog (Major), Time Shifter (Minor)

The core mechanic in PSI World is percentile, a player typically rolling against either a skill or an Attribute Saving Throw. For each complicating factor, the Referee applies a Level of Difficulty, a ten-point penalty. Regardless of the Level of Difficulty, a Player Character always has a minimum chance of success, equal to one twentieth of the skill level. A roll of 95% and above is always a failure. A failure can result in equipment or materials being damaged. To avoid this, the player will need to roll an Attribute Saving Throw, modified by the degree of failure. A roll of one hundred indicates a major failure and a major penalty to the Attribute Saving Throw. However, whilst there is scope for a major failure, there is no room in PSI World for its counterpart, a major success.

Combat is played out in a series of ten-second rounds and covers unarmed, melee, and ranged combat. The attacker’s skill is modified by his Bonus to Hit and the defender’s Defence Bonus. There are processes given each for Throws, Throws/Pins, Throws/Chokes, and Strikes, and then again for melee and ranged attacks. Where attacks affect specific hit locations, damage is applied to both them and general Hit Points. Damage that exceeds the Hit Point total for a location indicates a wound which will have different effect depending upon the location. This is followed by various weapons lists, most of which consists of typical weapons from the eighties like the .357 magnum revolver or the .44 auto magnum. They are joined by needlers, tangle guns, essentially Science Fiction weapons.

Between the combat rules and the skill lists are listed the psionic powers and their use. Psionic powers are divided between major and minor disciplines. All require the expenditure of Psionic Power Points to use, each Player Character possessing a number equal to double to his Psionic Power attribute. The major disciplines consist of Precog, Telepath, Teleport, Telekinetic, Self-Aware, Healer, and Empath. The minor disciplines include Time Shifter, Pyrokinetic, Ghost, Weakness Understanding, Psi Amplifier, and more. Some of the minor disciplines, such as Genius which adds extra points to the Intelligence attribute and adds more skill points, are permanent effects, but at a cost of permanent reduction in the Psionic Power attribute. Major disciplines have numerous sub-abilities. For example, Precog has Clairvoyance, Clairaudience, Sense Danger, Locate Danger, Detect Psi, all the way up to Augury, Vision, Combat precog, and Luck. Each of these costs its own amount of power points to use. For example, Sense Danger costs five points to use, but Psychometry on an object costs twenty points. The list of powers is compressive, though it should be noted that the Healer includes reverse effects. So, Harm and Heal, Reverse Major Wound and Cause Major Wound, Curse Disease and Cause Disease, and so on. However, the one aspect missing here which is integral to the genre, that of psionic duels of will and power.

The ‘PSI World: Role Playing Game of Psionic Powers’ rulebook comes to a close with a chapter called ‘The World’. Except, it really is not about the world. Rather that it takes a cursory look at some of the changes that might affect the neighbourhood where the Referee is setting her campaign, the suggestion being that the this should be her neighbourhood, only changed to account for the advances in technology and the presence of the psionically capable. The rest is devoted to a price list. The result is distinctly anaemic and indicative of the problem that pervades the roleplaying game as a whole.

The second book ‘The Psi World Adventure’ contains two scenarios. It also expands upon the setting. Three generations previously, the world was divided between two superpowers and a host of neutral nations. The two superpowers were the People’s Confederacy and the United Commonwealth, the former based on Communist China, the latter on the then modern U.S.A. The neutral nations formed trade blocs. The appearance of Psis disrupted society and led to the collapse of the People’s Confederacy into a patchwork of warring states, often led by Psis who set themselves as petty dictators and warlords. Similarly, a wave of psi-related crime swept across the United Commonwealth, but unlike the People’s Confederacy, it was able to survive this due to strong central government and effective police force. The United Commonwealth established the Psionic Protection Agency, a federal organisation dedicated to protecting the general population. Psionic crimes are subject to a warning and several years of probation on the first offence, and then psionic lobotomy on a second. Most who suffer this migrate to space. Violently opposed to the Psis is the League for Human Genetic Purity.

Both scenarios are set in the fictional commonwealth of New Arlin, in Bishop County, located on the heavily forested edge of a western mountain range. It is known for its furniture products and a range of breakfast cereals. In ‘Scenario I’, the former ghost town of Enclave has been opened up again and re-established its bauxite mine, and offered a sanctuary for Psis. The town council asks the Player Characters to travel to the nearby town of Bently where they have detected someone whose psionic abilities are beginning to express. The Player Characters are to monitor the situation, avoid any entanglement with the Psionic Protection Agency and the League for Human Genetic Purity, and in particular, avoid a radical psionic revolutionary known as ‘Bonzo’ and said to be in the area. In ‘Scenario II’, the Player Characters are recently graduated agents of the Psionic Protection Agency who are assigned to help local law enforcement investigate organised crime activity in the area.

Both scenarios are fairly open with the Player Characters free to go about their investigation. There is more advice about running ‘Scenario II’ than ‘Scenario I’, and both are supported by decent maps and lots of detailed NPCs. Neither scenario is all that interesting and neither develops PSI World in terms of a setting. This highlights the issue with the roleplaying game. PSI World does not have a setting except that of ‘tomorrow’, but with gifted individuals being persecuted and facing bigotry and violence. As the designers state in the ‘PSI World: Role Playing Game of Psionic Powers’ rulebook, “Background chrome has been kept to a minimum to the rules sections to allow more referee freedom in setting creation. For a closeup of part of the authors’ playtest world, see Book 2, The Psi World Adventures’ for scenarios and design ideas.” To be fair, the authors have kept ‘background chrome’ to a minimum in the rules sections, but to be equally fair, they have also kept it to a minimum in ‘The Psi World Adventure’ and both of its scenarios. It is frustrating because it leaves the Referee with a lot of work to do in developing her setting and it does not address any of the ideas or themes intrinsic to PSI World and its game play—resistance and rebellion, oppression and suppression by the government and hate groups, bigotry and misunderstanding, and so on. This is the core problem with PSI World. The Referee with left with all of the work to do, but given none of the advice with which to help her do it.

PSI World was supported by three supplements. Published in 1985, The Hammer Shall Strike contained new psionic powers and two scenarios, whilst Underground Railroad, also published in 1985 and Cause for War, published in 1986, contained five linked scenarios. These would do more to develop a setting to PSI World and explore some of its themes.

Physically, PSI World is decently presented. The writing and layout are clean and clear rather than adventurous. The artwork is good, much of it by Bill Willingham and Matt Wagner, and the cartography is decent.

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PSI World was reviewed in ‘Games Reviews’ in Imagine No. 21 (December 1984). Reviewer Chris Baylis wrote, “I would suggest that this is a system for the slightly more mature player, not for the young and blood-thirsty beat-’em-up brigade. Much thought and planning is required by both GM and player, and character interaction and party cooperation is a must for survival and enjoyment.”

Scott A. Dillinger reviewed PSI World in ‘Game Reviews’ in Different Worlds Issue 44 (November/December 1986). He was in general, positive about the game, but said that one “…[A]rea with which I have a bit of problem is the reverse healing. For every curative function listed there exists an opposite damage producing function. As a mental health professional I question the probability that anyone who is sensitive enough to the life force to be able to sense and restore it would under any circumstance harm another human being with such a power. I might concede that if such actions are used to save more lives, then the healer might harm someone but they would be loathe to do so. This is a matter for the individual gamemaster to decide but it does tend to put some limits on an incredibly powerful character-a character with the ability to literally give and take life at will.” Ultimately though he was positive about the open nature of the roleplaying game in that it did not tie the Game Master to a setting, but left room for her to create one of her own and awarded it three stars and said, “It’s a lot of fun for a little money.”

Stewart Wick reviewed PSI World in White Wolf #7 (April 1987), awarding it a rating of seven out of ten, and said, “Thru and thru, Psi-World is an interesting and pleasing game. It is fairly simple, but does not achieve this by sacrificing either playability or campaign development.”

—oOo—

There is no denying that PSI World is workmanlike and serviceable. It provides solid mechanics for both its then modern, near-future setting and its psionics. In fact, mechanics which are far less complex and much easier to comprehend than those presented in other roleplaying games from Fantasy Games Unlimited. However, that is all it does. The setting included is so underwritten and underdeveloped as to be no better or no more useful than the Referee could come up with herself. Without a fully realised setting, PSI World cannot even begin to address or explore any of the themes and storylines that it wants to lend itself towards. Ultimately, GURPS Psionics would do it better. The result is a roleplaying game that does not go out of its way to make itself distinctive, bar the simplicity of its mechanics in comparison to other roleplaying games from Fantasy Games Unlimited. PSI World: Role Playing Game of Psionic Powers is mechanically solid, but in every other way, is just too generic and simply underdeveloped for what it wants to do.

Psionic Potential

The year is 2123. The first Leviathan Jumpships have been launched and contact has been made with the extrasolar colonies founded in the previous century using Aberrant technologies and then lost contact with in the subsequent Aberrant War. Some have survived, some have been lost, and some find themselves under attack by Aberrants and alien species. Aberrants remain a constant threat. They attacked Sydney, Australia in 2105 and in 2120, they dropped the Esperanza, the ailing European Union’s space station which it hoped would revitalise its future, on France, leaving both France and Belgium as devastated and corrupted landscapes. The mark of Aberrants can be seen in the Blight, the explosion of an Aberrant in Nebraska, which corrupted everything within 200 KM and spoiled soil fertility within 1,000 KM, ravaging the USA’s agricultural belt and in the resulting chaos, saw a military coup, the establishment of the Federated States of America, and the occupation of both Canada and Mexico. In the bombed-out city of Bahrain, the headquarters of the Aberrants until they were driven from Earth and the Solar System by the Earth Strike Ultimatum. This was issued in 2067 by the Chinese government and forced every Aberrant to leave lest it launch every nuclear missile from the satellite missile platforms under its control. This ended the Aberrant War and the Nova Age. For the Aberrants had not always been monsters. From the 2020s until the 2050s, they were Novas, powerful superhumans who transformed societies, technologies, and the planet, enabling exploration and settlement throughout the Solar System and beyond. Then they turned on Humanity, resulting in the Aberrant War. In the wake of the war, the worldwide aid and development organisation known as Æon Trinity has worked alongside the United Nations to help rebuild Earth and a force of individuals with the powers to control their own body and its form, to see into past, present, and future, manipulate technology and the electromagnetic spectrum, alter energy and mass, control kinetic energy, heal, contact and read the minds of others, and even teleportation. They are Psions.

Each Psion possesses a primary Aptitude. There are eight Aptitudes, each one associated with a psi order or organisation. When this latent Aptitude is detected, he is approached by its associated order and his psionic abilities transformed from latency into full use by being placed in a Prometheus Chamber, a device which will activate his psionic abilities. Each order possesses a single Prometheus Chamber. The eight orders are The Æsculapian Order, Chitra Bhanu, ISRA (the Interplanetary School of Research and Advancement), the Legions, the Ministry of Noetic Affairs, Orgotek, Nova Força Nacional, and Upeo Wa Macho. The Æsculapian Order focuses on Vitakinesis, biological healing and enhancement, and operates primarily as an international emergency response and aid organisation. Chitra Bhanu studied the relationship between energy and matter, Quantakinesis, including noetic and Quantam powers. Quantam powers are what lay behind the abilities of first the Novas and then the Aberrants, whereas the abilities of the Psions are connected at the subquantum level. It was the study of Quantam powers and rumoured connection to Aberrants which led to the eradication of Chitra Bhanu Order. Members of ISRA are Clairsentients whose study of the past, present, and future is put to use helping each other and humanity. The Legions is a military organisation which uses Psychokinesis to help protect humanity from Aberrant and extraterrestrial threats. The Ministry of Noetic Affairs is an Order of telepaths that is also an independent division of the Chinese government, which studies the mind and provides humanitarian aid and research, often in pursuit of utopian ideals. The Sudamerican-based Nova Força Nacional is an environmentalist order whose members employ Biokinesis to control and alter their body and form, often to radical effect. Orgotek is a corporation in the fascist Federated States of America, which specialises in electronics and biotech, but also Electrokinesis, the ability to control technology. Upeo Wa Macho—Swahili for ‘the horizon’ is an Order of teleporters, its members capable to travel vast, even interstellar distances. In the wake of the eradication of Chitra Bhanu, Upeo Wa Macho expected to be targeted next and its members vanished from the Solar System, only having returned in the last six months. They are often distrusted by the other orders.

This is the setting for Trinity Continuum: Æon. Published by Onyx Path Publishing, it is update of the Trinity, originally published by the White Wolf Game Studio in 2000, the first of the three roleplaying games set in the Trinity Universe. The others being Aberrant and Adventure!, both set earlier in its timeline. Trinity Continuum: Æon is not a standalone roleplaying game and requires the rules in the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook. Trinity Continuum: Æon takes the cinematic action of the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook and expands it fully into the realms of Science Fiction and psionic powers. On its own, the Player Characters in the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook are exceptionally skilled characters known as ‘Talents’. It is entirely possible to play a Talent in the setting of Trinity Continuum: Æon and such a Player Character would have certain advantages, being unexpectedly skilled when everyone’s focus is upon Psions. For the most part though, the Player Characters will be Psions.

A Player Character—or Psion—in Trinity Continuum: Æon has the same stats and the same creation process as in the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook. For his Society Path, a Psion will typically choose his Order, which will also allow Order specific Edges to be chosen, but there is a new Origin Path: Oceanian (for Player Character originating in subaquatic settlements and societies) and new Role Paths which include Off-Earth Colonist, Spacer, and Space Military. The penultimate step in character creation is the application of the Psion Template, which provides a Psion’s Aptitude, Psi Trait, and Modes. Psi Trait is a Psion’s psychic strength, representing both the dice to be added to the pool for activating the Psion’s abilities, the number of Psi points used to activate and power abilities, and more. The typical beginning Psi trait is two, or three for the Quantakinesis and Teleportation Aptitudes. This can be raised as high as six or seven during long term play, which would be equal to a very powerful Psion or a head of one of the orders, or Proxies as they are known. Each Aptitude has three Modes, the actual powers that the Psion will be using. For example, Translocation, Transmassion, and Transportal for Teleportation and Psychometry, Psychlocation, and Psychocognition for Clairsentience.

Activating a psionic ability requires a roll of a dice equal to the Psion’s Psi Trait and the Mode rating. The default Difficulty is one Success to activate an ability, but this can go up or down depending on the Mode rating. This even enables a Psion to use a higher Mode ability that he does not yet have, but at a greater difficulty, with abilities lower the Psion’s current Mode ability will be easier to activate. The Psi Trait determines the duration, range, and radius of an ability, but can be boosted with Psi points. Favouring one ability or Mode over another can lead to psionic dysfunction and odd quirks of personality. However, it does give an advantage with the favoured Mode whilst levying a penalty upon the use of the other Modes. Other rules cover connections with people and objects and co-operating in the use of psionic powers. The rules in Trinity Continuum: Æon also cover hacking as well as a wide range of technology, including hardtech and biotech, all the way up to spaceships and starships of various sizes.

The Science Fiction of Trinity Continuum: Æon is intended to be positive. It is inspired by Babylon 5 and The Tomorrow People, Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke and Julian May’s Galactic Milieu series, and the Mass Effect series of computer roleplaying games. It provides a wealth of detail in terms of its background, which takes in a hundred years’ worth of history, details of the major powers and nations of the early twenty-second century, the remaining seven Psion Orders, the various extra solar colonies, the threats faced by mankind both within the Solar System and beyond. Not only is the background and setting detail immensely readable, but it is also immensely playable because of the differences between its various locations and organisations. It is in these differences where the brilliance of the background comes to the fore. They provide numerous options in terms of the games and campaigns that can be run within the future of the Trinity Continuum: Æon. The fascist Federated States of America with economic underclass, high crime rate, and a police response based on the economic status is perfect for a campaign of Cyberpunk style espionage. The Lunar colony of Olympus is perfect for future crime stories. The extrasolar colonies are intended for Space Opera, whilst miliary Science Fiction is perfect for the Chinese colony of Khantze Lu Ge, where Aberrants have invaded. The remains of France and Belgium are suitable for post-apocalyptic scenarios. Campaigns involving The Æsculapian Order focus on search and rescue missions, emergency response, and the politics of non-governmental aid, ISRA on secret missions to protect humanity, the Legions on military operations, Ministry of Noetic Affairs on intrigue and politics, Nova Força Nacional on espionage and small-scale operations—criminal, guerilla, or military, Orgotek on engineering projects, conducting counterterrorism missions for the Federated States of America government, investigating Aberrant cults, and Upeo Wa Macho on exploration and travel. It is important to note that the membership of each order does not solely consist of Psions with just the order’s associated Aptitude. Those with other Aptitudes can belong too. It is also possible to have a campaign with freelancers or even with the Player Characters from a variety of Orders, but working for the humanitarian agency, Æon Trinity, and that would lend itself to a variety of different scenarios and campaigns.

For the Storyteller, there is a discussion of the various genres possible with Trinity Continuum: Æon, and how to create optimistic scenarios and evoke the themes of the Trinity Continuum universe. These are Hope, Sacrifice, and Unity—the latter in particular for Trinity Continuum: Æon. There is good advice on handling discipline and rank in military campaigns, for example, if tunning a campaign based around the Legions, either discuss it with players and embrace it, run campaigns based on covert operations, or simply keep it more cinematic in style. There is advice too on how to incorporate Talents into a campaign. The Storyteller is also given stats and details of a wide range of NPCs and threats, including aliens and Aberrants. Lastly, there is a section for her eyes only on the secrets of the Trinity Continuum: Æon. It includes a projected timeline too for the setting, enabling the Game Master to plot out scenarios and events as her campaign progresses. Including this information is both generous and useful, as it really helps the Game Master understand the setting and thus create better scenarios and campaigns.

Physically, Trinity Continuum: Æon is very well written and easy to read. It is decently illustrated throughout, and really the only issue might be that the book’s map could have been better produced.

Trinity Continuum: Æon is a great expansion for the Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook. The Psionic abilities are not too complicated and are easy to use, but it is the background which really shines through. It is engaging and detailed, whilst at the same time offering a wealth of detail to bring into play and almost mini-settings in which to run the different genres of Science Fiction. Overall, Trinity Continuum: Æon is pleasingly optimistic in its outlook and generous in the types of Science Fiction games it can support.

[Fanzine Focus XXIX] Planar Compass #2

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

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

The Planar Compass series takes Dungeons & Dragons and the Old School Renaissance on a journey that out where it rarely goes—onto the Astral Realm and out between the planes. Of course, the option for travel in this liminal space has always been there in Dungeons & Dragons, most notably from Manual of the Planes all the way up to Spelljammer: Adventures in Space and the Planescape Campaign Setting. Whilst those supplements were for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition, the Planar Compass series is written for use with Old School Essentials, and it not only introduces the Astral Realm, but adds new Classes and rules for one very contentious aspect of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons—psionics! Planar Compass #1 introduced both the setting of the Astral Realm, presented Dreamhaven, a first calling point for the Player Characters to visit and explore, and provided details of several new Races found across the Astral Realm as well as the rules for psionics. Which turned to be easy to use and did not break the game. Planar Compass #2 takes the Player Characters further out onto the Astral Realms, or rather prevents everything that the Referee will need to take her campaign further out into the Astral Realms.

Planar Compass #2 was published in November 2021. Following on from Planar Compass #1, it promises strange sights, ever changing environmental dangers, and monsters the likes of which the Player Characters will never seen. Opening with a quick table listing all of the planes and explaining that the contents of issue are designed for mid-level play, Fourth Level and higher, and what titles are required to use it contents. It notes that the waters of the Astral Realms are the thoughts, hopes and dreams, and nightmares of all sentient beings of the multiverse, physical matter alien to it and are always either an intrusion or a traveller. Such waters are endless and there are many places that a good crew with a solid ship will be able to sail far and away to strange places—if both survive the dangers of the Astral Plane, many of which are intrusions and breakthroughs from other planes.

The dangers begin with the monsters—oddly placed before the sections on astral ships, astral sailing, and so on. These are all native to the Astral Realm and include Bubonic Barnacles which feeds on the wood ships and can grow into humanoid forms or algae blooms; the Astral Amphiptere, a semi-translucent dragon which dwells in island caves, and whose can cause planar tears which it can escape through or even others to use; Psychic Dugong, capable of telepathy, whose Psionic Milk restores psionic energy; and the Kear Imago. This last is a much-feared astral predator which scoops up ships and feeds on the psionic energy of their crews, leaving them husks ready for their larvae to occupy and grow in… A table of ‘Pirate Encounters’ is ready for the Referee to flesh out.

The rules for Astral Ships use the rules for water vehicles found in Old School Essentials, but adds five classes of Saving Throw similar to those for Player Characters and monsters. These are Storm, Collison, Fire, Water, and Plane Shift. These are rolled when a ship is subject to wind and gale forces, strikes an object or is struck by an object, is subject to flames or extreme heat, is subject to facing huge waves and torrential rains, and when transitioning between planes or suffering planar stress respectively. Two pieces of artillery are given to outfit ships on the Astral Plane—ballista and the Onauki fire thrower. Stats are given for ten types of astral ship, which include pirate ships and trading ships and warships, more or less what a Referee will need to run an Astral Sea campaign. They range from the Aldhelsi Drakkar and the Aldhelsi Knarr to the Tortuga and the Psionic Ship! Some of these, like the Human Catamaran, lie within the scope of a group of Player Characters purchasing the, rather than travelling on ships belonging to others. There are pirate ships and trading ships and warships

A handful of magical items are detailed too. The nastiest is the Sword of Astral Tether Cutting, a cruel, thin blade made from the remains of a meteor which can cut the tether between the physical and Astral bodies of the target, killing them instantly! The most interesting is the Sand from the Shores of Dreams, which can be sprinkled on someone so that the next time he sleeps, everyone nearby experiences his dreams. This presents interesting story possibilities, potentially another realm to explore and more.

The rules for astral sailing uses what it calls a ‘hex-flower’ or rosette to determine prevailing conditions around an astral ship, the direction of nearby encounters, and the direction of movement. Effectively, it sits under the astral ship as it sails from one hex to the next. Each turn of movement is handled through the same sequence of play in which the players roll for navigation, weather, and nearby planes, which the Referee uses to determine hazards and create encounters, and rolls to see if a Kear Imago has detected the vessel. The Referee and her players work together to describe the region the ship is sailing through.

Notably, the direction of movement is randomly determined, though the Onauk and Astral Sailors—both detailed in Planar Compass #1—have the ability to nudge the roll so that it is in the right direction. If the Kear Imago detects the ship, then the leviathan-sized creature will come hunting for it. Options for the encounters, weather, and planes near and far, are detailed separately along with a lovely set of hexes illustrated with icons that the Referee is going to want to be able to pull out and slip under the appropriate hex on the hex-flower. Large and small icons are used to represent everything from sighted vessel or signs of land, instruction of a plane, and more, with the size indicating distance away. Large are of course hear, small are faraway.

What is not made clear until the Referee gets to the adventure, ‘The Hunter Beneath the Waves’ is that the crew of ship needs to mask its ‘psychic load’ lest it be detected by a Kear Imago. This can be done by Astral Sailors or by consuming Psychic Ambergris, one of the magic items given earlier. If detected though, the Kear Imago will hunt the ship until either the ship and her crew get away or the leviathan swallows it whole. This lands the ship in its gut and the crew—that is, the Player Characters—have to navigate their way out of the beast. This is simulated using the hex-flower again, but here the crew are navigating the corporeal body of a beast rather than the Astral Sea, hoping to find the brain and engineer an escape. As you would expect it is nasty environment, the various descriptions of rooms such as the stomach, intestines, and waste chamber accompanied by optional tables for traps, NPCs, and location details. The rules are more or less the same for navigating the Astral Sea using the hex-flower, but instead of being able to nudge the direction roll through abilities innate to certain Classes, the Player Characters acquire ‘Travelling Points’ for encountering denizens of this ‘Kear Dungeon’, discovering and disarming traps, gaining information from friendly NPCs, and so on. The adventure is intentionally odd, surprisingly non-linear given its origins, and it does include some tough encounters. Plus although the players are unlikely to replay the ‘Kear Dungeon’ again, there is the possibility of their encountering a Kear Imago again. The fanzine does leave the Referee wondering what to do in that instance. Of course, there are always to get the Player Characters needing to climb back into a Kear Imago again, such as having to find a Wizard who has not been seen for years or go after a criminal. Lastly, the issue includes a table for ‘Astral Fishing’ and a set of adventure hooks waiting to be developed by the Referee as well a decent little comic strip which follows on from Planar Compass #1.

Physically, Planar Compass #2 is hit and miss. It is well written and it is gorgeous-looking. In places, individual hexes are are too dark and too murky, whilst the layout feels a bit tight in places and odd in others. Plus the organisation is odd with the monster descriptions placed up front. Nevertheless, it is engagingly written, the artwork is excellent, and all together, it is a lovely little book.

Planar Compass #2 is a solid set of rules taking Old School Essentials and almost any Old School Renaissance retroclone in an expected direction, out into the beyond of the Astral Sea. It does feel like a transition, going from the Dreamhaven of Planar Compass #1 to the somewhere else, but not telling you where necessarily. Ideally that will be revealed in Planar Compass #3. In the meantime, Planar Compass #2 has all the rules to enjoy boat trip or sail away to location of the Referee’s own devising across the Astral Sea and back again, effectively, ‘Astral-jammer’ for Old School Essentials.

The Al Amarja Quartet

Welcome to the Island is an anthology of scenarios for Over the Edge Third Edition: The Role-playing Game of Surreal Danger published by Atlas Games. It presents four lengthy, often complex scenarios designed to do six things. First, to show what a scenario looks like in Over the Edge, Third Edition. Second, to act as a campaign starters or slot into an ongoing campaign. Third, it is designed to present multiple story hooks and thus means to get the Player Characters involved in each of its scenarios, whether as agents of one faction or another, newcomers to Al Amarja, members of one or more of the conspiracies on the island, as street level gangsters or criminals, or as paranormals or mystics. Fourth, it is designed to showcase the island of Al Amarja and its people in all of their conspiratorial, counterintuitive, and corresponding weirdness. Fifth, it is designed to shake everything up by throwing a grenade into the room and upsetting the status quo. In other words, once the Game Master has run and players roleplayed any one of the four scenarios in the anthology, the situation on Al Amarja will not be the same as before. For example, by the end of the second scenario, ‘A Conclave of Chikutorpls, or the Winds of Change Are Blowing (Up), or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Multidimensional Convergence.’ Frank Germaine, owner of Sad Mary’s, the hottest bar on Al Marja, may have lost control of it, whilst at the end of ‘Battle of the Bands’, the biggest band on the island may or not have been reformed and even one of the Player Characters might be a member of it! The result, whatever the outcome, is to enforce the sixth thing and that is, make Al Amarja and thus Over the Edge Third Edition: The Role-playing Game of Surreal Danger the Game Master’s own and thus different from that of any other Game Master with an Over the Edge campaign.

Right from the start though, Welcome to the Island is a challenging set of scenarios. There is always homework for the Game Master to do as part of her preparation. Thankfully, each scenario references the very sections of the core rulebook that she needs to read, though there are multiples of them. There are usually a lot of NPCs to handle as well, often quite detailed in terms of their background and motivations, if not their stats. The authors of the anthology do go out of their way though to give advice and further explanation, including tips and playtest notes, with much of this supplementary information organised into sidebars and sections of boxed text. These are categorised by colour, so for example, advice and Game Master tips are always in red sections, NPCs in black, suggestions as where one scenario intersects with another in violet, and so on. Thus, Welcome to the Island is laid out in great blocks of colour that are easy on the eye.

Welcome to the Edge begins in relatively gentle fashion with ‘Battle of the Bands’. The Glorious Lords of the Edge are hosting the biggest battle of the bands on Al Marja, an event which anyone can participate in, but one in which Oblivion Function, an electronica trio, is tipped to win and win big, and so get to perform a victory concert. However, this will be a big win too for the backers of the Oblivion Function, the Movers, and there are plenty of other factions on the island who do not want that to happen. So, another band needs to be found to defeat Oblivion Function and there is only one band capable of doing that, Betwixt, one of the biggest and most critically acclaimed groups on the island. Only Betwixt split up over a decade ago and nobody knows exactly why. If somebody—by which we mean the Player Characters—is to get Betwixt back together, they are going to have to track down the four members, find out why they split, and get them to make up and put aside their differences enough to perform together once again. Which means a road trip back and forth across the island as the Player Characters track down one band member after another.

The four members of Betwixt are nicely detailed, each with their own views and revelations as to why the band broke up and reasons for getting back together (or not). Part of the scenario involves getting the old band tour bus back on the road too (although alternatives are suggested) as well as finding out what has become of the band members. There are some fun encounters to had on the road too, such as a big burrito-eating competition and an attack by a hit squad consisting of a Capella band whose singing has dangerously telekinetic heft to it, and the scenario will climax with the actual battle of the bands.

‘Battle of the Bands’ is the least weird and the least complex of the four scenarios in the anthology, in some ways more of a multi-character piece than the weird conspiracy shenanigans that you would normally expect with a scenario for Over the Edge. This makes it both a good introduction and a poor introduction to Al Amarja. A good introduction because the level of weirdness is relatively low, plus because the road trip format provides a really good reason for touring the island, but a poor one because the weirdness is low and because the introduction, at least for ordinary visitors to the island, as members of the Betwixt fan club, is underwhelming. As a scenario, ‘Battle of the Bands’ has an enjoyably languid, summertime, dust and tarmac feel to it, and as an interlude from the weirdness of Al Amarja, it is just perfect.

The second scenario, ‘A Conclave of Chikutorpls, or the Winds of Change Are Blowing (Up), or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Multidimensional Convergence.’ both turns up the weirdness and has an easier means of introduction. It opens with the car they are in—either they are driving or being driven—knocking someone down in the street and a woman known as Chikutorpl appearing almost immediately out of nowhere. Then they begin finding flyers announcing the reappearance of the Winds of Change, the high-stakes pop-up casino owned by Chikutorpl where it is possible to bet your youth, your beauty, your talent, a memory, even your life… When they attend, Winds of Change lives up to its reputation as a raucous, racy event filled with strange games like hyperbolic billiards and immortal combat. Throughout the host is in a highly mercurial mood and seems to change almost every time the Player Characters see her. Whatever the outcome of their attendance, the Player Characters receive invitations to the next opening and that is when it gets even weirder. It turns out that the host both sent and did not send the invitations, because there are multiple Chikutorpls, each pursuing agendas of their own and seeming to threaten reality in the process. Successive events get more chaotic, and this begins to ripple out as multiple Chikutorpls’ plans have a greater effect upon attendee after attendee. Ultimately, it comes down to a showdown when all of the Chikutorpls on the island host their events to outdoor each other. Throughout the Player Characters can pursue their own agendas or get caught up with those of every other attendee, but the end result is likely to change them in ways they did not anticipate at the start of the scenario.

ParaCon is the most important cutting edge scientific and technological event on Al Amarja, if not in the world, and it is hosted by the leading paranormal figure on the island, Doctor Chris Seversen. In ‘Seversen’s Mysterious Estate’ the Player Characters get to attend the most exclusive high-tech event of the year, whether as bodyguards, as inventors, or simply at random! The scenario is one big party with a lot of guests and a lot going on, including the event being gatecrashed by an astral vampire (note this is not a spoiler, the author advises to tell the players at the start of the scenario about it attending the party in order to ramp up the tension) and a Presidentials wet works strike team. This is not so much a big sandbox as a highly populated sandbox with twenty-three NPCs to weave in and out of the event and several sequences of events for the Game Master to handle and run. It comes with good advice to that end, and it also provides a great set of NPCs which can be used beyond the party (that is, if they survive).

The last scenario in Welcome to the Island is ‘Sympathy for the D’Aubainnnes’, which brings the Player Characters into contact with members of Al Amarja’s ruling family in a completely bonkers fashion. Everyone on the island receives a parcel containing a lifelike rubber mask of one of the D’Aubainnes, including the Player Characters. However, when anyone puts the mask on, they cannot take it off. Slowly the mask wearers begin to act like the D’Aubainnne family member they wear the mask off, so Jean-Christophe mask wearers starting teleporting short distances at random, Sir Constance mask wearers accrue wealth, and Sister Cheryl mask wearers become naturally disposed each other and feel stronger and better. The mask wearers also begin to hate the wearers of the other masks to the point that they will kill each other. As a rash of murders ripple back and forth across the island, it also becomes clear that someone is keeping a tally… ‘Sympathy for the D’Aubainnnes’ best works if one of the Player Characters dons one of the masks and the scenario includes multiple suggestions as to why one or more of them would do so. Once they do, then the scenario becomes one of survival and investigation, closer to a more traditional type of scenario found in other role-playing games. The result is a disturbingly surreal end to the quartet.

Physically, Welcome to the Island is a bright, colourful book with excellent artwork. It is also well written, and the cartography is decent.

Welcome to the Island provides four good scenarios that are all different and all easy to slot into an ongoing campaign. In fact, they work better as part of an ongoing campaign because all four will have long term effects upon a campaign, as the various factions and conspiracies work out their agendas. The is exactly what the Over the Edge Third Edition: The Role-playing Game of Surreal Danger needs, a showcase of just what the island of Al Amarja can deliver—stupendously surrealistic situations and wonderful weirdness backed up with good advice for the Game Master on how to handle all of that and run the scenarios too.

Over the Edge Again. Again.

Ever hear of Al Amarja? Yes, that Al Amarja. The island in the middle of the Mediterranean that everyone denies exists, ruled by president-for-life, Her Exaltedness Monique D’Aubainne, Historic Liberator and Current Shepherdess of Al Amarja? There is no way you would go there. After all, the state health care is mandatory, especially under Doctor Nusbaum’s experimental treatment programme, as is voting. Plus it is a brutal place with state control and overwatch, whether it is the seemingly ever-present members of Peace Force and their guard baboons (and if the baboons are not in Peace Force, they are everywhere), the nationalised state Total Taxis, and more. Sure, it is unrelentingly violent. There are fights on the streets and even organised in the middle of Roller Derby League matches, but nobody is allowed guns, and you really, really do not want to see what goes on in the ice skating—or maybe you do! (Since it is a full contact sport, baby, do I mean contact...) Then there are the public hangings as well as the Festival of Fate, the highlight of which is prisoners submitting themselves to Sister Cheryl’s Wheel of Fate at Temple of Divine Experience, the result of which possibly leads to the commuting of their sentence, but more likely death or torture and death. Of course, it is a commercial, trade, and scientific free-for-all, unfettered by all the regulation we have to suffer. So go to Broken Wings District for the best parties—whether to be seen amongst the elites or disrupt the event; Flowers District to party on the streets or experience that latest in Avant Garde artwork; spend time away from the island’s weirdness in the Sunken District with a fellow exile; and so much more… And there are supposed to be sorcerers and psychics on the island, Organ Grinders harvesting for their dead god, aliens, oh so many aliens, secret world bettering technologies which the corporations are hiding because they can and the same goes for cancer treatments, and more. Yes, that Al Amarja, which does not exist and never did because it is all some damned roleplaying game, Over the Edge: the Role-playing Game of Surreal Danger from back in the nineties, put out by some weirdly progressive little gaming company in Minnesota, Atlas Games. So, none of it is real.

Except it is.

Al Amarja is real. You can get there if you know how. Plus, if you are American, the state language is English and everyone takes dollars. They will take every other currency too, because it gets exchanged into the state currency, zlotys. So if it is real, where is it? Well, not where it was in the nineties. Now it is not in the Mediterranean, but rather in the Atlantic. Freedom is still valued above all, but the government monitors everything—for your safety of course. Weapons are outlawed—especially firearms, but everyone carries something. Medical care is free at the point of delivery, but so is medical malpractice and there are no laws against that. Drugs are totally illegal, but the barista will add a shot of something to your coffee. In the teensies and the twenties, you will need look harder though, as Al Amarja slipped down a parallel time stream where Donald Trump got elected president and he let Nazis walk the streets of America again. Which means that it is different from back in the nineties, but the same, right? So if you have been before, you still need to get ready for the heady rush of unreality, because this is a whole other unreality even if bits still look familiar. And the reason for Over the Edge: the Role-playing Game of Surreal Danger? Call it the ultimate in disinformation sponsored by the government of the Ultimate Democratic Republic of Al Amarja. And if a piece of propaganda worked the first time, why not do it again? After all you are never going there, you were never going there, and you never will go there—and Al Amarja was and is fake, is it really there?

Over the Edge Third Edition: the Role-playing Game of Surreal Danger is real though. Funded via a Kickstarter campaign is no mere update. Instead, this is a re-envisioning of Over the Edge with everything old, but new. It is still a roleplaying game of counter-culture conspiracy, weird science, and urban danger combining conspiratorial factions, strange fringe abilities, cutting-edge technology, and cross-reality incursions all under the watchful eye of an all-powerful anarchic State. The revision also includes the rules and the mechanics, which forgoes the complexities of the original WaRP system, in favour of a more luck-based system designed to drive the story with extra twists—good and bad. There is nothing to stop a Game Master from running Over the Edge Third Edition: the Role-playing Game of Surreal Danger using the original WaRP system, but it is not designed with that in mind. It should be noted that Over the Edge has always been cited as one of the progenitors of the storytelling movement in roleplaying and this latest edition very much draws from that movement. The result makes demands of both the Game Master and her players. It uses simple character creation that calls for strong conceptualisation and scope for storytelling over the course of one or more story arcs. It asks the players to be ready for said characters to encounter and accept random twists—both for good or ill—to the outcomes of their actions, whilst the Game Master has to be on her toes ready to create and suggest those twists. Lastly, the players are required to commit their dice to Over the Edge and no other campaign roleplaying game. (Fortunately, Over the Edge only uses a pair of six-sided dice each.)

A Player Character in Over the Edge can almost be anything, which includes paranormal and magical gifts. This excludes plot wrecking powers such as invincibility, invisibility, flying, phasing, mind reading, shape-changing, and others. So an ex-MMA fighter turned vigilante, a doctor searching for the cure to cancer, a burned out ex-FSB agent, a conspiracy theory seeking the truth, an extreme tourist, a would-be sorcerer with an intelligent rat sidekick, and more. A Player Character though, is always human, adheres to ‘Hollywood’ reality and tenacity of the everyman, described in broad details, fits in and interacts with the setting, and is new to the island. He is described in four features—a Main Trait, a Side Trait, a Trouble, and a Question Mark. The Main Trait is what the Player Character is or does, whilst the Side Trait is something that he can do in addition to the Main Trait. The Trouble is whatever will draw or force the Player Character to act in ways that are probably unsafe, if not dangerous, to him, but will always be interesting. The Question Mark is an aspect of the Player Character about which he is uncertain or he will break or he will transgress. For example, ‘Hard-Hearted-?’, ‘Friendly-?’, or ‘Fearless-?’. He also has a name, but this is chosen last and the other players can suggest ideas for it too.

Cheyanne Lovecraft
An ex-stripper turned sorcerer’s apprentice [Main Trait] who is Intuitive-? [Question Mark] and has a talking rat mentor [Side Trait].
Trouble: Cannot resist a sob story

In addition, a Player Character has a Level. In fact, everything in Over the Edge Third Edition has a Level, ranging from first to seventh. So this is not just a Player Character’s capabilities, but also locations, backgrounds, opponents, and story arcs. What the Level does is set the degree of challenge that a Player Character will face in comparison to his own capabilities, and a Player character will typically match that. So a First Level Story Arc is about ordinary people in over their heads, a Third Level Story Arc is about notable experts in their fields, even powerful, who can get into trouble as much as they can out, whilst a Fifth Level Story Arc is about characters beyond human. Sixth and Seventh Levels are godlike and out of reach of a Player Character. Typically, the default in Over the Edge Third Edition lies at the lower end of the scale. Opponents, or Game Master Characters, are on a similar scale as Player Characters, whilst locations and backgrounds get progressively weirder the higher up they are on the scale. Where a Player Character sits on that scale with regard to the world of Al Amarja around him has an influence on the mechanics of Over the Edge Third Edition.

Mechanically, in Over the Edge Third Edition, a player does not so much roll dice as ‘cast lots’, and lots are cast only when the outcome matters and then really to encompass everything in what the Player Character is attempting to do. Thus, sneak into a warehouse to obtain a sample of Voo, the drug that makes temporarily forget everything or get away from the Charters, the independent band of pirates that predates the United States and only men can join (so technically women are men in the Charters), that is one roll. If the roll is a success, then fine. If a failure, then maybe other rolls are called for. What a player needs to do in either situation is cast his lots and aim to get seven or eight, or more. That is a success.

If a Player Character is of a higher Level than the Game Master Character, location, or background, his player gets rerolls and he rerolls one or more dice, but must keep the result. If a Player Character is of a lower Level than the Game Master Character, location, or background, the Game Master gets rerolls that the player must make and keep the result. If the Levels are equal, then there are no rerolls. Casting lots also generates twists. Each three rolled when casting lots, generates a bad twist, whilst each four generates a good twist. So it is possible to roll one good twist or one bad twist; a ‘Lightning Bolt’ or two threes, which can a two bad twists or a double-bad twist; a ‘Twist Tie’, meaning a good twist and a bad twist’; or a ‘Crazy Eight’ and two good twists or a double-good twist. It is also possible to fail a casting of the lots and still have a good twist or succeed and cast lost with a bad twist. Whatever the nature of the twist, the Game Master brings something new and interesting into play, this perhaps being the capacity that the Game Master can have when running Over the Edge Third Edition: the Role-playing Game of Surreal Danger. In addition, the players can have access to Karma which is shared between them and also allows a reroll. Together they can only share one use of Karama, but since it can be regained whenever doubles are rolled, it is always better to use it than not.

Combat uses the same casting lots mechanic. The primary outcome of a bad twist in combat is damage. Three strikes and a Player Character is possibly dying, and unless it comes from a strange, alien, or paranormal source, healing is slow. Depending upon their status and potency, Game Master characters can have one or more Saves, Game Master fiats which enables them to shrug off damage.

A good third of Over the Edge Third Edition: the Role-playing Game of Surreal Danger is dedicated to Al Amarja. This covers Al Amarja and the outside world, the presence and role of the state, culture media and media, and more. Every district is detailed, including why somebody might go there and what can be seen there, before the book details the gangs, groups, organisations, and more. Each one comes with an expanded explanation and advice for the Game Master as to how they can be used because ultimately, the Game Master is free to use them as she chooses, to pick and discard them as needed, and in the process, make Al Amarja hers and thus different to that of another Game Master. On the downside, this does mean that the island and its weirdness is densely presented, but on the plus side, the Game Master can in part tailor the island, its conspiracies, and its weirdness to the Player Characters and what is driving them.

For the Game Master there is further advice on running the new edition of Over the Edge, this in addition to the advice that appears throughout the book, as well as on engaging the Player Characters, creating Game Master Characters, to what degree she should be preparing her game, and advice in general. Like much of the rest of the book, it is accompanied by commentaries from both of the authors and there is also a full scenario, ‘The Sun Queen Must Die’. It is designed as an introductory one-shot, in which the players should create characters coming to Al Amarja in search of a reclusive guru. Their chance to meet him takes place at Sad Mary’s Bar & Grill, known for its girl fights and radical arts performances, at the height of an unsurprisingly adult Passover celebration. Events outpace them though and potentially take a darkly weird turn…

Physically, Over the Edge Third Edition: the Role-playing Game of Surreal Danger brightly and colourfully presented. The artwork is excellent, the layout a little busy in places, and the index is great. However, it takes a while for the roleplaying game as written to click. The issue is that the first fifth of the book is devoted to rules which feel out of context and difficult to quite grasp until you get to the selling point of Over the Edge Third Edition: the Role-playing Game of Surreal Danger and that is Al Amarja, its setting and its weirdness.

Over the Edge Third Edition: the Role-playing Game of Surreal Danger is weird and weird. It is weird because of what the setting is and what it is made up of, but it is weird because its resolution mechanic, which is designed as much to throw something else, a good twist or a bad twist, into the mix as much as can resolve any one situation. It forces players to fall back upon roleplaying and their character’s story and motivation rather than whatever stats or numbers a Player Character would normally have to rely upon. The lack of stats and numbers do make character creation incredibly simple, but incredibly challenging in making a player create a character with story potential. There are examples, all of them fully worked out, but the resulting ready-to-play Player Characters are not immediately obvious at the back of the book. Further the designers push the weirdness further than might be found in another roleplaying game by having the Game Master reveal interior elements of that weirdness to the players which their characters would not be aware of. Thus, the play of the game takes on extra-narrative elements, an artifice that enforces the sense of unreality on Al Marja.

Over the Edge Third Edition: the Role-playing Game of Surreal Danger is a darker, faster-playing, even more improbable random return to the unreality of Al Amarja. Its even more storytelling-focus and ultra-light mechanics make demands of both the Game Master and her players and consequently the degree of buy-in, whether because of those rules or the unreality of the setting, is greater than might be expected. Still, what it comes down to is that just like Over the Edge: the Role-playing Game of Surreal Danger back in 1992, what stands out in Over the Edge Third Edition: the Role-playing Game of Surreal Danger is Al Amarja, and that is worth overcoming whatever reservations you might have about the mechanics.