Lizards & Birds & Pirates, Oh My!

The Ages of Man have long since passed and the Old Ones are no more. They bequeathed the world and their relics to the ones… Well, whether it was the ones they worshipped or the ones that served them, it does not matter. For the beliefs and attitudes of the ones they worshipped and the ones that served them—in the Monarchies of Mau and the Kingdom of Pugmire respectively—matter little when you are far out on the Acid Sea, with only the plastic hull of your to protect you from the corrosive waters and your shipmates to rely upon. As pirates, sailors, and treasure hunters you set out from the ‘safety’ of pirate havens such as Waterdog Port, whose ownership has long been disputed between the Monarchies of Mau and the Kingdom of Pugmire or Port Matthew, the trade port in Monarchies of Mau, ready to keep your ship from being eaten away, hoping you do not encounter Acid Sharks or one of the dread Kraken, or worse have one of your crew possessed by a Stormcaller, a demon of the weather, but hoping that you do discover new lands, buried treasure, or a ship to capture! On your hip you have strapped a sturdy cutlass, whilst stuffed in your belt is one of the new gunpowder flintlock pistols, intricately carved from butt to the end of the barrel, and when that is not enough, your crew’s Alkalist can throw bombs that explode or heal, and your crew’s Rimer will sing you a song or tell you tale that will keep your spirits up. Many a Dog from the Kingdom of Pugmire and Cat from the Monarchies of Mau has sailed the Acid Sea, but few truly answer its call. More ready to heed the call are the transient Species, itinerant travellers and traders. They are Lizards—Geckos, Serpents, and Turtles—and Birds—Parrots, Crows, and Sparrows—and together they are the Pirates of Pugmire.

Pirates of Pugmire is not a standalone roleplaying game, but is rather described as a ‘Chronicle’ book that works with Monarchies of Mau and Pugmire—either separately or together. Published by Onyx Path Publishing following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it expands upon the world of Pugmire, best described as a combination of the anthropomorphic, the apocalyptic, and the fantastical genres, adding new Species and Callings to play, new Knacks, plus an entirely new environment—only hinted at in either of the core books—to explore and experience. Part of that experience includes a mini-campaign set on the high seas which takes the Player Characters from First Level to Sixth Level. Like both core settings, Pirates of Pugmire does involve action, intrigue, and very much exploration, but this is an expansion setting where the Player Characters (and others) make their own families formed of different species rather than the packs of dogs or the clowders of cats. Where on land, the cats and dogs take an interest in the legacies and artefacts of the Old Ones—of Man—they do so from a primarily scientific or academic point of view. Nothing quite so dry in Pirates of Pugmire. Pirates are only interested in treasure and there is plenty of treasure to be found—and if not found, squabbled over and stolen—if the pirates sail far enough, but in addition to facing the fearsome monsters of the Acid Sea, every treasure has a dangerous legacy and legend to it. So, the pirates had better hope that there is only a grain of truth in some of these legends.

Pirates of Pugmire includes plenty of fiction to get the tone and style of the setting—swashbuckling action, intrigue and squabbling, and so on. The book is illustrated with full colour painted artwork and the text is accompanied by commentaries from three in-game characters. These are Polly of the Seven Blazing Feathers, who is new in the Pugmire setting, and Princess Yosha Pug and Sabian Sphynx von Angora, who will be familiar from Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau, respectively. The first of the two families introduced as playable Species are the Lizards, who are primarily desert nomads, known as traders and excellent storytellers and the high value they attach to salt. This mineral is used in cooking, to aid water retention in their arid homes, in their religious rites, and as a component to their Akalist’s magics. The three Lizard families are Geckos, charismatic, agile, and able to blend into different cultures with their Chameleon Knack; Serpents are reserved, strong, and intelligent, and able to cross different terrain with their Slither Knack; and Turtles are slow and wise, but can take partial cover their Hunker Down Knack by withdrawing into their shell. All Birds dress to show off their plumage, yearn to return to the Sky Kingdom, a real place to some, more metaphysical to others, and have a difficult relationship with Cats. They are divided into three ‘nestes’ and the closer a neste is to the Sky Kingdom, the greater its influence in Bird society. Parrots are talkers and performers who Spin any tale or story to their advantage with their Spin Knack; Crows are tough and quiet, with a love of trinkets and ornaments, and have the Glide Knack; and Sparrows are flighty and prefer song as the means to tell stories, and with their Soar Knack, the only Bird capable of actual flight.

Besides new Knacks such as Sailor and Marine, Pirates of Pugmire introduces six new Callings. These are Alkalist, Crusader, Gundog, Mystic, Rimer, and Torpedo. The Alkalist devises potions and concoctions as both balms and bombs that can both be thrown; the Crusader is a warrior with strongly held beliefs who fights for what is right; the Gundog is a warrior who uses the new gunpowder weapons and treats his weapons with reverence; the Mystic draws upon the power of the sea for his magic; the Rimer uses song and dance as misdirection; and the Torpedo uses stealth to strike hard and fast. There are some limitations in terms of Species and Calling. A Dog can only be a Crusader or Gundog and a Cat a Mystic or Torpedo, but any of the Callings from either Pugmire or Monarchies of Mau. There are no such limitations on Lizards or Birds and both have a different view on each of the Callings as explained by Polly of the Seven Blazing Feathers. All six Callings give a general view of what each thinks of the other five Callings and some sample Backgrounds.

If the mix of Species, Callings, and Knacks are engaging and fun, and make you want to play a Pirate Parrot or Gecko, the new mechanical elements of Pirates of Pugmire are not always as successful. The good include Signed Knacks, such as the Signed Captain Knack which enables a Signed Captain to command a fellow crew member to reroll a die once per day aboard ship or the Signed Sailing Master Knacks which grants Advantage on all navigation rolls. Signed Knacks become available when the members of the crew sign the ship’s Articles and become Signed. Ship’s Articles are a way of enforcing the attitudes of a captain and his crew. Thus, Articles such as ‘Every pirate of the crew gets an equal share of the spoils’ and ‘This ship is a democracy, except when boarding or being boarded.’ represents a very different ship to one whose articles include ‘Prisoners are dead weight’ and ‘Never give an enemy comfort or mercy’. There are new seafaring spells such as Briny Deep which inflicts the sense that one is drowning on a target, Rough Seas which makes the seas around a target vessel or kraken choppy and the equivalent of rough terrain, and Suppress Gunpowder, which temporarily makes all gunpowder nearby inert. These are all great spells, flavoursome and genre suitable, as is the way that Pirates of Pugmire treats gunpowder. Originally seen as an Alkalist novelty, gunpowder and gunpowder weapons have been taken up by pirates everywhere—but not all pirates. The Gundog and Torpedo Callings are immune to the effects of Gunpowder Panic. Anyone within hearing of a gunpowder weapon being discharged who does not have the Exotic Weapon Aptitude Feat or Pistoleer Feat must make a Charisma saving throw to avoid gaining the Deaf and Scared Conditions. This keeps gunpowder scary and powerful and meaningful for the Callings that have it, without every Player Character having access to it.

Also detailed are the dangers of the Acid Sea, which constantly corrodes a ship’s plastic hull, sometimes reducing its Seaworthiness to the point where the ship is unsafe, hobbled, or simply adrift. If its Seaworthiness is reduced to zero, the ship will sink. Not every ship has a plastic hull and in game terms, a ship will need to have its Hull or Seaworthiness improved when built will outfitted with one. Ships are treated like a Player Character except their only stats are Artillery, Hull, Seaworthiness, and Speed. Only a few ships and ships weapons are detailed, but what is apparent is that these ships are small with crew numbers ranging between six and twenty, so the scale of them in Pirates of Pugmire is actually quite small compared to that of the actual Age of Sail. As good as the other mechanical details are here, the ships are themselves underwhelming and the rules for ship-to-ship combat glossed over, relying on narrative detail perhaps more than the other rules in Pirates of Pugmire actually do. There are, however, lots of good explanations as to why a Cat, Dog, Lizard, or Bird might take up the life of a pirate or sailor, as well as what the various roles are aboard ship and what they do. In terms of piracy, Pirates of Pugmire is very much less “Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.” and more swashbuckling and storytelling. The intent is that the Player Characters are adventurers and explorers rather than dangerous, lawless buccaneers.

One pleasing mechanic which pulls the Player Characters together in Pirates of Pugmire, is how Fortune is used. Fortune in the game can be spent for various effects, such as rerolls or to cast a spell if the Player Character has no spell slots. In Pugmire, Fortune is a collective resource shared between the party, but in Monarchies of Mau, a Cat can have his own Fortune as well as access to collective Fortune. This remains the same in Pirates of Pugmire, which adds separate Fortune resources for Birds and Lizards, but once a ship’s crew has signed the ship’s Articles, then Fortune can become a collective resource between all of them. In this way, Fortune models the Player Characters becoming a family.

In terms of background, Pirates of Pugmire adds a host of new creatures, such as the Acid Shark, the Globster, rotting sea life infused with necrotic magic, and Stormcallers, weather demons which possess crewmembers during storms, and crew like the Crow Lookout, Mouse Gunner, and Otter Boarder. Colossal Foes are added too, for example, the Kraken, which has two hit locations—Kraken Tentacles and Kraken Head, complete with different Hit Points and attacks. Treasure is important in Pirates of Pugmire because every artefact—major and minor—has its own legend and notoriety. Ranging between one and three, the latter represents both how well each treasure and its legend are widely known and the Notoriety that its discovery, recovery, and possession will grant a pirate. Effectively, the greater the Notoriety of an item of treasure in a pirate’s possession, the more widely known and recognised and easy to find he is. Beyond the magical effect that the treasure may bestow, this Notoriety is the only way a Lizard or Bird can benefit from a treasure. Neither can absorb a masterwork item or treasure like Cats can or Dogs can improve. Not every treasure has a beneficial effect, and as you would expect, many are also cursed.

In terms of setting, Pirates of Pugmire describes several locations. These start with two ports. The first is Waterdog Port, whose founding triggered the War of Dogs and Cats and after numerous vicious Alleyway Skirmishes, the city’s leaders tired of the war, established the city’s independence, and made every species welcome. This includes Rats and Mice, Otters and Weasels, and Badgers, although none of them are particularly detailed in the setting. The other is Port Matthew, the Monarchies of Mau’s shipping capital, designed with a warren of tunnels and bridges to prevent successful assault by outsiders. Port Matthew is less welcoming as a city, especially to Birds, although in both cities, the Lizards have gained a reputation as arbiters when issues want to be settled. Both cities are nicely detailed, and include their history, species found there, politics and prominent leaders, and various locations. Beyond the waters of both harbours, Pirates of Pugmire details several locations far out to sea. Most notably, the more lawless archipelago of Dalmatian Cove, consisting of several islands of different character and all together shaped like a crab. In many cases, it is possible to get from one island to another via ships, ropes, and wrecks held fast between them. Several other locations are also detailed and they are followed by a number of story hooks using the previously described locations.

The three scenarios at the end of Pirates of Pugmire, together called ‘Going on Account’, make further and more detailed use of the locations as well. Together, ‘Rotten Rats’, ‘The Race’, and ‘Heart of the Storm’ make up a loosely connected campaign that takes the Player Characters from First Level to Sixth Level. The looseness means that the Game Master will need to develop some adventures of her own, but all three scenarios end with a ‘Future Stories’ section which add more story hooks for her to use in addition to those earlier in the book. ‘Rotten Rats’ is a land-based adventure, set in Waterdog Port, in which the Player Characters are hired to recover a treasure—the Lost Flask of Bobby Golden—which can transform any liquid into something beneficial. The problem is that the city’s Rats are said to have it and they are not dealing with anyone as tensions are high in the city between the rodents of Waterdog Port. The Player Characters will need to work out the cause of the tension and perhaps ease it if they are to learn any clues. This is an investigative scenario, whereas ‘The Race’ takes them to sea—whether in their own boat or one they hired—to get to an island which is said to appear only once every ten years, find the treasures hidden in it, and come back. Of course, there are rivals racing with the Player Characters as well as those not ready to race, but ready to steal what the Player Characters have already found. Lastly, in ‘Heart of the Storm’, the Player Characters’ ship is caught up in the worst weather possible on the Acid Sea, almost shipwrecked, and forced to land on Stormheart Island where they find more shipwreck victims. The Player Characters need to delve into the island’s history to find out what is going on and perhaps a way of getting off. At the end of ‘Going on Account’ the Player Characters will be able to return with the treasure they were seeking and perhaps more. Although it does need fleshing out with extra content between the three adventures and the adventures themselves are fairly linear, ‘Going on Account’ is a nicely detailed and fun mini-campaign.

Physically, Pirates of Pugmire is well presented. The artwork is excellent, whilst the cartography is okay. Perhaps the only thing really missing would have been maps of Waterdog Port and Port Matthew.

It does feel as if there is something missing from Pirates of Pugmire. Perhaps it is that mechanically, it feels underwritten in places, and that it would have been fun to see Fortune used to help the Player Characters swashbuckle some action or the ship’s combat rules developed a little more. Nevertheless, Pirates of Pugmire expands the world of Pugmire in pleasing fashion, sending it out to sea and into another genre where the Player Characters have a bit more freedom and are less beholden to their families. Once aboard a plastic-hulled vessel, together with content developed herself, the Game Master has everything she needs to run anthropomorphic action adventures on the Acid Sea and let the Player Characters become Pirates of Pugmire.

Pawsome Action!

The Ages of Man have long since passed and the Old Ones are no more. They bequeathed the world and their relics to the ones that they worshipped, rather than the ones that served them. Thus to the Cats rather than the Dogs. Where the Dogs have the one kingdom, that of Pugmire, the cats have six fractious Monarchies, scheming and plotting to outdo each other. The Cats of these Monarchies sent explorers hither and thither, often looking for the Relics left behind by Man, even over the mountains to the north—though none go there today, and once the means to sail the Acid Sea was discovered, over the horizon. Trade would flourish initially between the Monarchies via House Korat and the Kingdom of Pugmire, but differences led to the relationship breaking down and war being declared. The War of Dogs and Cats could not be fought effectively, thus Trillani Persian von Mau convinced the six Monarchies to come together, sign a Treaty of Unification, and become six dynasties governed by a Ruling Council with Trillani elected as Monarch. Thus the Monarchies of Mau was formed. The Kingdom of Pugmire is its greatest rival, but despite the many differences between the two kingdoms and Cats and Dogs, there is peace. The war ended in stalemate, with Waterdog Port, the source of the initial dispute ending up a neutral city. The Monarchies of Mau still faces enemies from without and from within. Badgers raid and plunder, and monsters of all sorts are constant danger, the worst being the demons and the Unseen that threaten the existence of Cats—even impersonating them, whilst the individual Monarchies still attempt to learn each other’s secrets, and the Cult of Labo Tor, consisting of fanatical Rats and Mice—who otherwise live peacefully in the gaps between Cat society—steal the artefacts of Man to study and so discover the path through the Maze of Ignorance and so become like Man. In response to these dangers, to learn more about the world, and to foster co-operation and learning between the six Monarchies, Trillani’s Trailblazers was formed. Teams made up of Cats from all six Monarchies as well as from the unaffiliated Cats of the Shadow Bloc serve in Trillani’s Trailblazers.

The Cats of the six Monarchies of Mau are all different. House Angora is one of scholars and intellectuals, House Cymric of diplomats and negotiators, House Korat of soldiers and tacticians, House Mau of leaders and judges, House Rex of explorers and outsiders, and House Siberian of traditionalists and medics. All of these Houses have held a monarchy before Unification, but there are still many minor Houses, organisations, rebels, and outsiders who have a voice in the kingdom, and they are represented by the Shadow Bloc. However, all Cats of the Monarchies of Mau are the same. They value privacy and secrecy, they commonly believe in reincarnation and are by nature spiritual, and they fear and have a common enemy in the evil that is the Unseen. They also adhere to the Precepts of Mau—Always trust our instincts, always reward loyalty, always respect an honest duel, and always pounce upon minions of the Unseen. Without these tenets, the Cats of the Monarchies of Mau are no longer worthy of the adoration of Man.

This is the setting for Monarchies of Mau, the feline sequel and companion roleplaying game to Pugmire. Published by Onyx Path Publishing following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Monarchies of Mau, like Pugmire before it, employs the Open Game Licence for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. This makes Monarchies of Mau easy to pick up and play, which should be no surprise given the delightful accessibility of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Like Pugmire, it presents a streamlined version of the rules, takes Player Characters from First to Tenth Level, and it can also be played in tandem with Pugmire, so that group could play an all-Cat game, all-Dog game, or a game of Cats and Dogs.

Cats in Monarchies of Mau have a Calling, a House, and a Background. A Calling is what a Cat does and is the equivalent of a Class. Six are given—the charismatic Champions (Fighters), intelligent Footpads (Rogues), wise and intelligent Mancers (Wizards), charismatic and enduring Ministers (Clerics), wise and enduring Trackers (Rangers) who hunt the Unseen, and strong and dextrous Wanderers (Monks). Now these Classes are not the exact equivalent of those in Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, for example, Mancers do cast necromantic spells and Ministers are almost bardic in their means of spellcasting. Unlike the Dogs of Pugmire, the Cats of do not have a Breed as such, but rather the vocations of the six Houses. This neatly avoids Monarchies of Mau having to detail each and every contemporary breed and also establishes the various noble families within the kingdom. A Background is what a Cat did before becoming a hero and answering his Calling. Just eight are given, ranging from Common Folk and Criminal to Scholar and Soldier. Lastly, a Cat will have an Ideal, a Mystery, and a Flaw.

A Cat’s Calling will provide him with a view on the other Callings, on the Precepts of Mau—each Calling favours a different part of the Precepts, his Stamina Points, skills, and rucksack (equipment), plus his first Secrets. The latter are of course, a Cat’s special abilities and powers and are akin to the proficiencies or feats of Dungeons & Dragons. Another Secret and an ability bonus will come from a Cat’s House, and then more rucksack contents and skills from his Background. Six examples of each Calling are given as well as six possible Unusual Circumstances by which a Cat gained a particular item in his rucksack.

Creating a Cat involves selecting a Calling, a House, and a Background, plus skills and Secrets. Mancers and Ministers also have spells. Unlike in other roleplaying games, the core abilities are not rolled for, but assigned from a given set of values. The creation process is generally straightforward and a player is nicely guided through the process, step-by-step. One noticeable absence is that of Alignment, instead replaced by how each Calling favours a different Precept, but without laying too heavy a paw on the player’s shoulder.

Our sample character is Philomena von Angora, a Mancer who after completing her training continued conducting research in her House’s extensive libraries. Recently she was assigned to shepherd a visiting researcher from the Shadow Bloc, a Minister named Winifred von Forest. Together they conducted extensive examination of the ancient papers and they became friends, and then Philomena found herself falling in love with her. Before she could express her feelings, Winifred disappeared and nobody seemed to recall that she had been at the library. All was that left was the bone focus which Winifred von Forest said belonged to her father. With her friend missing, Philomena has left the library and joined Trillani’s Trailblazers.

Philomena von Angora

Level 1
Calling: Mancer
House: Angora
Background: Scholar
Proficiency Bonus: +2
Stamina dice: d6
Stamina Points: 6
Defence: 12
Initiative: +1
Speed: 30
Abilities: Strength -1 (08), Dexterity +1 (12), Intelligence +3 (17), Wisdom +2 (14), Constitution +0 (10), Charisma +1 (13)
Skills: Know Arcana, Know History, Know Spirituality, Search, Sense Motive
Secrets: House Secrets (Angora), Light Armour Aptitude, Mancy, Simple Weapons Aptitude, Voracious Learner
Spells: Chill, Eldritch Blast, Feather Fall, Prestidigitation, Unnatural Rebuke
Rucksack: Spear (1d8), padded light armour, Bone Focus (Borrowed from a friend who disappeared), common clothes, bottle of ink, ink pen, parchment, small collection of books, belt pouch with plastic coins

Ideal: …Studying the Unseen
Bond: …My love for a Cat of another House.
Flaw: …Return the item I know not be in my possession.

Given its Dungeons & Dragons-derived mechanics, it should be no surprise that Monarchies of Mau is a Class and Level system. Unlike Dungeons & Dragons, the Levels only go up to Tenth Level, at which point a Cat is considered to have Grey Fur and cannot advance any further, although he can still go adventuring. Unlike Dungeons & Dragons, a Cat who goes adventuring in Monarchies of Mau does not earn Experience Points, but is awarded a new Level after a few good stories and when the Guide—as the Game Master is known in Monarchies of Mau—decides is appropriate. When he does go up a Level, a Cat gains both Stamina and Stamina dice, spellcasters—Mancers and Ministers gain more spells and spell slots, and at every other Level, a Cat’s Proficiency Bonus increases. Every Level, a Cat gains an Improvement, which can be to improve an Ability score, select a new Aptitude or House Secret, or to refine a Secret the Cat already possesses. For example, a Champion can refine his Honour Challenge Secret, which enables him to force an opponent to engage in an honour duel, by using both Charisma and Strength rather than just Charisma to force the associated Saving Throw or allowing an opponent to decline and take a penalty to his Saving Throws. These tweaks and refinements give Monarchies of Mau a sense of the cinematic and heroic action as well as providing some variability in terms of Cat design.

Mechanically, Monarchies of Mau looks much like Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, but on a closer look, there are tweaks and refinements to the rules too. The most feline of tweaks is the Pouncing rule. When a Cat takes the Ready action and studies a situation, his player rolls the resulting action with Advantage! Perhaps the most notable addition is that of Fortune and the Fortune Bowl. A session begins with the Cats in an adventuring party having two Fortune in the Fortune Bowl. A player can earn more Fortune for the Bowl by roleplaying to his Cat’s personality traits in a way that makes the game interesting, by being an entertaining player, coming up with a good plan, and by playing to his Cat’s instincts. Much of this is up to the discretion of the Guide, but a player can force the Guide to add Fortune to the Bowl by having his Cat intentionally fail. However, where in Pugmire any Fortune Points acquired by a Dog are automatically added to the shared Fortune Bowl, in Monarchies of Mau, a Cat can favour himself rather than the group and keep it in his own Fortune Pile. Fortune in the Bowl can be spent—and this is a permanent spend—to gain a reroll on any dice roll and keep the higher result, to allow a spellcaster to cast a spell if he has run out of spell slots, and to interrupt the initiative order and take their turn now. Further, some Secrets require Fortune to be activated.

Again, magic in Monarchies of Mau looks like Dungeons & Dragons, but with a tweak or two. In terms of flavour, the magic of Monarchies of Mau has a darker edge, involving the unusual and the unnatural, for example, the Mancer employing necromancy. Mechanically, magic in Monarchies of Mau can go wrong. If a player rolls a botch—a critical failure—on a spellcasting roll for his Cat, intentionally fails a spell to gain Fortune, or an opponent rolls a Triumph—a critical success—on a Saving Throw, then a spell backfires. It is up to the Guide to determines the outcome and effect when this happens. Lastly, besides the Mancer and the Minister, Cats of other Callings can take the Magic Aptitude Secret and thus become a Dabbler, knowing just a handful of spells.

Another major difference between Monarchies of Mau and Pugmire is the way in which Cats and Dogs treat Masterworks, the Relics left behind by Man. They are still divided into ‘Relics’, such as the Boots of Climbing or Chameleon Cloak; ‘Fixes’ like Explosive Eggs or Potions of Haste; and ‘Wonders’, such as the Flame Twig or Picture of Health. Now, just as with Pugmire, the world of Monarchies of Mau is being a post-apocalyptic world, the conceit is that what these items really are, is items of Old-World technology. However, they cannot so easily be mapped back onto our own technology, but then the conceit is not necessarily that important in play. The big difference between Pugmire and the Monarchies of Mau is that Dogs share and even revere Masterworks, whereas Cats study them, attune to them, and they break them in just the right way so that they can absorb the powers they contain. For example, the Charged Collar provides a temporary defence against bludgeoning attacks, but when broken down in the right way and absorbed, the Cat is Resistant to such attacks. Further, when refined, the effects of the absorbed Charged Collar can make a Cat immune to bludgeoning attacks and can even manifest a lightning barrier! This has a number of effects. It both makes Masterworks more powerful and more personal to a Cat, and mechanically it partially offsets the fewer number of Secrets a Cat has versus the number of Tricks a Dog has in Pugmire. The combination of this is drive a player and his Cat to explore the ruins of the Monarchies of Mau and beyond in search of the Masterworks, providing a base motivation in addition to those born of a Cat’s Ideal, Motivation, and Flaw. However, the Masterworks section is quite small and is very likely going to be exhausted relatively quickly.

The setting for Monarchies of Mau is explored in some detail, explaining Cats and their Houses, culture, technology, and more in some detail, as well as their enemies and rivals. It also looks at the Ruling Council as well as Trillani’s Trailblazers, the organisation which by default the Player Characters are expected to join and thus adventure. Notably, it takes the reader inside the Lounges where Cats of all stripes gather over mugs of catnip tea and saucers of milk close by the fire, whilst Rats and Mice stick to the shadows of the corners. Whilst various locations in both the lands of the six Dynasties and beyond the Monarchies of Mau are described as well, there is plenty of room for the Guide to add her own setting material. Some of the secrets of the setting are explained here and also in the chapter for the Guide, which is well written and includes suggestions for running Monarchies of Mau and Pugmire together—and even for adapting the setting to other rules systems!

In addition to the advice and further examination of the setting, the Guide is provided with a decently sized Bestiary, covering Animals, Bandits, Cats, Dogs, Badgers, Rodents, and more. That more includes monsters and the Demons of the Unseen, and some of these are nasty indeed. For example, the Breathtaker steals into camps at night and steals the breath of Cats, Bone Burrs are insect-infested skulls which attack Cats, and Witch Demons possess Cats and has the power to reflect or even absorb the spells of Mancers and Ministers! Lastly, Monarchies of Mau includes an introductory adventure, ‘All Hail the Rat King!’, in which the Player Characters are sent to investigate a sudden wave of Rat immigration in the town of Strudniksburg. Designed for First Level Player Characters, it can be played using the players’ own or the six pre-generated characters given as examples at the beginning of the book.

Physically, Monarchies of Mau is, like Pugmire, a lovely book. Again, it is full colour and illustrated with some fantastic artwork. In keeping with the darker tone of the setting, the artwork also has a darker feel to it. The book is also well written and like Pugmire, commentary is given by a pair of in-game characters. One to provide guidance for those new to Monarchies of Mau, the other to explain how it differs from other roleplaying games.

Pugmire was a roleplaying game about being a ‘Good Dog’ and gaming with a pack, but Monarchies of Mau pulls away from that. There is greater sense of individuality to the Cats in Monarchies of Mau, in terms of roleplaying, the mechanics, and the setting. The Cats are caught between this individuality and the collective need for co-operation. At a personal level, this can be seen in the choice between choosing to add Fortune to his Personal Pile or the group’s Fortune Bowl, but at a national level it can be seen in the necessity of the six Monarchies of Mau to co-operate despite their scheming against each other. This scaling means that Monarchies of Mau can do dungeoneering and exploratory adventures as much as it can inter-House rivalries and politics. There is a darker tone to the roleplaying game too in the monsters the Cats face, and also in the magics, especially the necromantic magics of the Mancer, they employ. There is thus much more of the horror genre to Monarchies of Mau, and that in combination with the darker tone, makes less suitable for a younger audience. These are of course, elements which the Guide can choose to adjust up or down as is her wont.

The darker tone and horror elements of Monarchies of Mau mean that it is not quite suited to being a beginning roleplaying game, despite its Cats being cute, and the individual versus group dynamic may divide a group as much as it sets up some interesting roleplaying choices and dynamics. Monarchies of Mau is not quite as accessible as Pugmire, or necessarily as easy to play, but it does present an entirely different, but still exciting and fun point of view from which to roleplay and explore their shared world.

The 'Whose a Good Dog?' Guide

Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire is a supplement for the trilogy of post-Man, post-apocalypse fantasy roleplaying games—Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game, Monarchies of Mau, and Pirates of Pugmire. It is something of an odd product, not being the Realms of Pugmire Guide’s Handbook, for an example, and not really possessing a singular focus. Now it does contain advice for the Guide—as the Game Master is known in the Realms of Pugmire roleplaying games—but it also contains a whole lot more. This includes the Realms of Pugmire Style Guide, useful for example for wouldbe authors wanting to create content for the Canis Minor Community Content Program; a number of blog posts which explore the setting and reveal some of its secrets; a conversion guide between the OGL for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and Pugmire; and a FAQ.

Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire opens with the Style Guide for the Realms of Pugmire roleplaying game. This not only lists the lexicon of game-related terms and their correct spellings, but also covers the game line’s tone, how magic and religion is handled, that it is ‘Inclusive Fantasy’, and it uses ‘Gendered Language’. For example, Pugmire is game of adventure and quiet morality, light-hearted with implied humour rather than out and out humour; never revealing to the characters that their magic is actually lost technology; that it is best in general to default gender-neutral terms like ‘dog’ and ‘cat’ rather than ‘he’ and ‘she’; to avoid both binary and non-binary gender terms; and so on. In some ways, this is a dull start to Buried Bones and of limited use. However, as an editor and reviewer it is interesting to see a Style Guide in print, it is actually of use to the Realms of Pugmire Guide. Especially if she wants to create content for the Canis Minor Community Content Program, but also if she wants a more explicit guide to how the designer wants Pugmire and its companion roleplaying games to feel.

‘Claws and Effect’ draws from a series of blog posts to explore various topics not necessarily explored in Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game, Monarchies of Mau, or Pirates of Pugmire. In the process, it addresses a number of topics are commonly raised when it comes to both games and setting. Most notable amongst these are the question, ‘Is this a Joke?’ and the description of Pugmire as ‘Just D&D with Dogs’. In addressing the former, it makes clear that although Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game is not necessarily a serious game, it is not a jokey one despite there being elements of implied humour in the setting. In fact, it does explore serious issues, such as loss—particularly of every Good Dog’s Master, the ethics and dogma of being a Good Dog, both cultural and racial (or rather, species) differences. Now when it comes to the latter, I have been guilty of giving Pugmire that description, but essentially not what the game is about, but rather as an elevator pitch to sell the game (verbally rather than in a written review). The chapter also discusses the nature of the different Breeds and Callings in Pugmire—the equivalent of Race and Class in Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Here Buried Bones begins to dig into the author’s design decisions, why he created the game as he did, not just for Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game, but also for Monarchies of Mau and Pirates of Pugmire.

Other elements of the setting and rules are also explored—how money or ‘Plastic’ is handled in the setting, the implied rules of the Fortune mechanics, and the dynamics between the various species in the setting. All of this is designer commentary, giving the Guide a peek behind the curtain, answering what turns out to be not-so important questions such as, ‘Where is Humanity?’, ‘What exactly happened in the War of Cats and Dogs?’, ‘What is the exact nature of Nine Lives in Mau?’, and ‘What lies in the Lands Beyond?’. What is so pleasing here is the designer’s honesty. This is not to say that other designers are not honest, but rather that here where the designer says that he does not know something or has not decided something about the Realms of Pugmire setting, then he simply says so. There is Guide Advice too, covering different types of play like long-term and troupe play, styles of play including silly, gritty, and epic, and creating adventures. The advice emphasises the importance of the player characters, balancing types of scenes, setting jokes and humour within the setting, but letting the players get the punchline rather than have the author or scenario deliver it, and making every NPC important. All of this is solid advice, not just for the Guide wanting to create adventures for her own group, but for the Guide wanting to publish and submit them as part of the Canis Minor Community Content Program. Lastly, there is an ‘Appendix P’—the equivalent of the ‘Appendix N’ of inspiration found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons—but for the Realms of Pugmire setting. This includes books such as The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents and The Tao of Pooh, comics like Mouseguard and Maus, roleplaying games and supplements such as S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and Tales of the Floating Vagabond. It is a good selection of books and titles and more, and there is even little explanation with some of the entries.

Rounding out Buried Bones is ‘5e OGL Changes’ and ‘Frequently Asked Questions’. The ‘5e OGL Changes’ enables a Dungeon Master to run a Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition game of Pugmire. It also highlights the differences, useful if a playing group or would be author is moving between the two. The ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ does exactly what you would expect.

Physically, Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire is a slim book, easy to read, and illustrated with several fully painted pieces. None of the artwork is new, having appeared in previous Realms of Pugmire titles, but that does not mean that it is not good. Overall, Buried Bones is as good looking a book as you would expect for the line.

However, Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire is not a book that the Pugmire Guide absolutely must have. She can run or write adventures for own playing group without it, but it does contain plenty of interesting information, working as it does, as the equivalent of the Guide’s Companion—the referee’s handbook, the designer’s notes, and the style guide all in one. So not only interesting, but also useful if the Guide wants to know a little more of the context and the secrets to the setting. However, if a Guide or an author wants to write her own scenarios or content for publication as part of Canis Minor Community Content Program, Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire is a must-have. 

A Proper Paw & Pack Play Starter II

The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb: A Pugmire Jumpstart is something of an odd product. Published by Pugsteady via Onyx Path Publishing, it is as the title suggests, a ‘jumpstart’ or quickstart for use with Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game , the post-Man, post-apocalypse fantasy roleplaying game in which every plays a dog. Ideally, they are ‘good’ dogs, aspiring to join the Royal Society of Pioneers and so serve the Kingdom of Pugmire. The Pioneers are dedicated to protecting the kingdom from threats such as rats and badgers as well as the cats of the Monarchies of Mau and to exploring beyond the boundaries of the kingdom, perhaps to find clues as to what happened to Man. The oddness is that Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game already has a starter scenario in the form of Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers.

Fortunately, the publication of The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb: A Pugmire Jumpstart does not invalidate Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers. What the latter provides in addition to Pugmire’s rules—which use the Open Game Licence for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition to provide its mechanics, the result being that the roleplaying game is easy to pick up and play as well as an introduction to roleplaying and six pre-generated characters—is more background information on the world of Pugmire and a lengthy scenario that will provide five or six sessions’ worth of play. The former though, simply provides a short explanation of the rules, six pre-generated characters, and a short scenario which can be played through in a single session, or perhaps two at the very most. In fact, both The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb: A Pugmire Jumpstart and Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers use the same set of six pre-generated characters. So The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb: A Pugmire Jumpstart could very easily be run before Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers, with The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb: A Pugmire Jumpstart being used as a taster to Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers. Further, The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb: A Pugmire Jumpstart serves to introduce the fantasy of the Pugmire setting, whilst Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers develops the world further by revealing more of its post-apocalyptic past.

In actuality, whilst both The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb: A Pugmire Jumpstart and Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers are designed to introduce the world of Pugmire and Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game to prospective players, they are aimed at different groups. With its videos and in-game journal, Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers is aimed at those new to roleplaying as well as the world of Pugmire, whereas with its quicker explanation of the rules and the world, The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb: A Pugmire Jumpstart is designed for experienced roleplayers and Game Masters—especially if they have played Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition.

The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb: A Pugmire Jumpstart is divided into three parts. The first part presents the rules. These are are very simply and clearly explained, and easy to grasp. Anyone who has played Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition will pick up and understand the rules to Pugmire almost immediately, and of course, anyone who already has the Pugmire core rulebook will be able to run the scenario in The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb: A Pugmire Jumpstar with only a little preparation.

Pugmire derives its mechanics from Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and that means its core mechanic is the roll of a twenty-sided die to beat a given target number with bonuses being added to the result from a character’s attributes, skills, and proficiencies—and occasionally a trick. A trick is a special ability or power, like ‘Shield Aptitude’ which gives a dog a +2 bonus to his defence when using a shield or ‘Focus Magic’, a masterwork device through which an Artisan Class character can cast arcane spells. Pugmire also uses the same Advantage and Disadvantage mechanics as Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Beyond the core rules though, it adds tweaks and refinements to those mechanics of its own. The most notable of which is Fortune and the Fortune Bowl. A session begins with the Dogs in an adventuring party having two Fortune in the Fortune Bowl. A player can earn more Fortune for the Bowl by roleplaying to his Dog’s personality traits in a way that makes the game interesting, by being an entertaining player, coming up with a good plan, and by playing a ‘Good Dog’. Much of this is up to the discretion of the Guide—as the Game Master is known in Pugmire, but a player can force the Guide to add Fortune to the Bowl by having his Dog intentionally fail. Fortune in the Bowl can be spent—and this is a permanent spend—to gain a reroll on any dice roll and keep the higher result, to allow a spellcaster to cast a spell if he has run out of spell slots, and to interrupt the initiative order and take their turn now. Further, some Tricks require Fortune to be activated, for example, ‘Odds and Ends’ grants a Dog a mercantile background and thus a Wisdom check to see if the Dog has a particular piece of equipment, but by spending a point of Fortune, the Dog’s player can declare a newly met NPC to be a former customer of said Dog and on good terms with the Dog.

Consisting of just six scenes, the adventure itself takes place in and around the city of Pugmire. As members, or prospective members of the Royal Pioneers Society, the player characters are asked to investigate the disappearance of One-eyed Molly, a cat who provided the authorities with information about feline criminal activities in the kingdom. When last heard of, she was supposedly on the trail of a cache of Masterworks—the lost devices or relics left over from the rule of Man. Either the missing Cat has located the trove, been abducted or killed by a rival treasure hunter, been abducted or killed by a member of one of the criminal clowders known to be operating out of the ‘Cat Quarter’, or worse, her supplying information has been seen as a betrayal by the Monarchies of Mau and she has been abducted or silenced prior to an invasion by the Kingdom of Pugmire’s greatest enemy!

Following the scenario’s couple of lines of investigation—either by going to the see the police dogs or a shady merchant in the Cat Quarter by the name of Mister Meow— will reveal two things. One is that One-eyed Molly was interested in the location and contents of the tomb of the first king of Pugmire. The second is that someone else is also interested in her activities. By consulting with the right expert the player characters will learn the exact location of the tomb and how to get there. Unfortunately, someone else has already got there ahead of them and is already ransacking its rooms… The question is, just what are they looking for?

The scenario, The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb is short and sweet. It is more interesting in the first half where the player characters get to interact with the inhabitants of the world of Pugmire, especially the scenes with Mister Meow as that nicely contrasts the canine nature of the city of Pugmire. The tomb section feels suitably constrained without sprawling into dungeon territory. Throughout, there is plenty of advice for the Guide delivered by a couple of familiar figures from the Pugmire setting.

Rounding out The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb: A Pugmire Jumpstart is a set of six ready-to-play good Dogs and prospective members of Royal Society of Pioneers. These are the same six as in Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers, all First Level, and thus suitable to be used in the scenario in The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb: A Pugmire Jumpstart, the core rulebook for Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game, and Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers. Each comes with a full background, a character sheet, and an illustration as well as a full explanation of each dog’s tricks and spells (if he has any). This enables a player to roleplay any one of these six Dogs without the need to refer to the core rules, which is undeniably useful as a facilitator of quick play.

Physically, The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb: A Pugmire Jumpstart is an attractive softback book, illustrated with full-colour, painted artwork. Much of it has appeared elsewhere, but it brings the world to life and can be readily be shown to the players as what their Dogs are seeing. The writing is engaging and easy to understand, and although there are no examples of the rules or play, the game is not difficult to understand just from the pages of this quick-start.

One possible issue with The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb: A Pugmire Jumpstart is that it is short, possibly too short if the Guide wants to use it as a convention scenario. This is primarily due to it being fairly direct and linear in its plotting, the likelihood being that an experienced group of players will play through the scenario in a fairly smart order. Yet it is also due to the straightforward and fairly simple nature of the plot. Now the author does suggest that as an option, the Guide can insert an extra encounter as the player characters travel from the city of Pugmire to Vinsen’s Tomb and that this encounter should be an ambush of some kind. No stats are provided for the ambushers, the author suggesting that stats from an earlier encounter be used instead. Now if the Guide has access to a copy of Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game, there is another option here. This is to bring in a faction other than that already encountered in the adventure. So possibly a gang of tomb raiding or treasure hunting Dogs, a gang of Cat crooks, or a strike team from the Monarchies of Mau, all on One-eyed Molly’s tail. This would present the Guide with more NPCs to roleplay and the player characters to interact with, and it would add a little more to the world for the players and their characters.

Nicely put together, The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb: A Pugmire Jumpstart gives Guide and players alike with the roleplaying game’s equivalent of a doggie treat—and no more. It should provide both with enough of a taster to pick up the full game and perhaps move onto to Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers. Or the Guide can simply pick this up to slot into her ongoing campaign. Overall, The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb: A Pugmire Jumpstart is a short, sharp introduction to the world of Pugmire and Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game.

—oOo—

Pirates of Pugmire - A Realms of Pugmire Tabletop RPG—the third roleplaying game to be set in the world of Pugmire is currently being funded on Kickstarter.

A Proper Paw & Pack Play Starter

Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers is the first scenario to be released for Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game, the post-Man, post-apocalypse fantasy roleplaying game in which every plays a dog. Ideally, they are ‘good’ dogs, aspiring to join the Royal Society of Pioneers and so serve the Kingdom of Pugmire. The Pioneers are dedicated to protecting the kingdom from threats such as rats and badgers as well as the cats of the Monarchies of Mau and to exploring beyond the boundaries of the kingdom, perhaps to find clues as to what happened to Man. Published by Pugsteady via Onyx Path Publishing, Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game uses the Open Game Licence for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition to provide its mechanics, the result being that the roleplaying game is easy to pick up and play—and that in addition to its fun and engaging themes. As the first scenario for the roleplaying game, Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers goes not one step further in making it easy to pick up and play, but several.

First and foremost, Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers provides a full scenario to play through, but then it divides each chapter into two—scenario and rules. The first lays out the events of each chapter, whilst the latter explains the rules to be used in the preceding scenario. The scenario comes with six First Level pre-generated adventurers to support the adventure. Then alongside the adventure appear excerpts of the journal of Pan Daschund, which can be read by the Guide—as the Game Master is known in Pugmire—and their contents used to help her in describing events in the following chapters. Lastly, there are links to a solo adventure on Youtube which parallels the plot of Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers and which can be played through as a choose your own adventure affair.

Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers begins with an introduction to both roleplaying and Pugmire, explaining what both are and providing a decent example of play, and guiding the prospector player and Guide as to how to use the book. This includes taking the first few steps—finding players, a venue, reading the book, and so on. This all helps, as does watching the video. This has twenty or so parts, each roughly a minute in length which allows the viewer to play out the events as described in the journal of Pan Daschund. At the same time, the prospective Guide should gain some idea as how the scenario’s plot runs and how to stage certain events. Staged in dramatic tones, the only thing missing perhaps is some animations showing how the dice roll and the mechanics work, but then that is covered in part by the extended example of play.

Similarly, Pan Daschund’s journal provides another narrative as an aid for both the Guide and her players. Again, the Guide can read through this, each excerpt preceding the next chapter, to gain some idea of how to present the encounters the player characters will have in that chapter. However, it also works as a journal that the good dogs can refer to in-game, Pan Daschund having already been part of the way and reported back to the Royal Society of Pioneers. Each excerpt is a page in length so could be read out to the players ahead of their playing through a chapter.

The scenario itself takes place in the autumn, after a spring and summer of hard rains, flooding the farmlands to the east, driving the farmers into the city of Pugmire and presenting all manner of bad dogs, opportunistic rats, and manipulative cats take advantage of the situation. At first thinking they being hired as prospective members of Royal Society of Pioneers to deal with some rat bandits, Pan Daschund instead hires them to deal another problem—missing dogs! Eager young pups have been heading east past Mutt Town in search of a legendary site of Man, rumoured to be where Saint Akbash, a holy dog of yore, gained his healing powers. Pan Daschund  wants to the good dogs to find these missing pups, map their journey, and perhaps search for the site.

Offered good plastic, the investigation takes the good dogs from the city of Pugmire south to Wooford where they can cross the swollen river and head east. Along the journey, they will encounter good dogs, crooked rats and creepy cats, big bad badgers, strange beasts, and ancient mysteries. Each of these encounters is neatly organised into discrete chapters, divided into two sections, one the scenario, the other the rules. The first gives the narrative and pushes the plot along, whilst the latter explains the rules to be used in the preceding scenario as well as presenting any necessary stats. Both scenario sections and rules sections are kept short throughout, typically no more than a couple of pages in length for the scenario sections and a page in length for the rules sections. The compartmentalisation of the scenarios and rules sections into discrete chapters is nothing new, going all the way back to the ‘Combat Encounters’ pioneered in the 2006 adventure Scourge of the Howling Horde  for Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition. The encounters here are clearly delineated, but unlike previous iterations of the format—for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition especially—without the constraints upon the story or mechanics. The adventure consists in total of chapters, plus an epilogue, so Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers should provide four or five good session’s worth of play.

Rounding out Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers is a set of ready-to-play good dogs and prospective members of Royal Society of Pioneers. Each comes with a full background as well as a character sheet and an illustration. There is also a full explanation of each dog’s tricks and spells at the back of the book for easy reference.

Physically, Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers is a fetching hardback done in the same style as the core rules for Pugmire. It is in full colour, every effort has been made to make the layout easy to use, and the illustrations are really very good. There is but one issue and that is the numbers on the map at the end of the scenario are wrong.

The other scenario available for Pugmire is, of course, ‘The Great Cat Conspiracy’, from the core rules. Like most scenarios in the core rules, it is a bit short and really, it focuses on politics in Pugmire than it does the wider world. The wider world is what is addressed in Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers. It is a mini-epic in the making, providing good dogs with the opportunity to see the world and encounter some of its dangerous denizens, some of whom can just about be trusted. One aspect of the world of Pugmire that it does focus on is that of the post apocalypse and what Man left behind. Unlike say Gamma World or Metamorphosis Alpha, this focus is not on the wacky or the weird, but on the mysterious and the weird, essentially embodying the Arthur C. Clarke adage that ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ Along the way, there is plenty of opportunities for the dogs to be heroic, to fight, and to use their wits. 

An experienced Game Master will able to pick up Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers and start running it with very little difficulty and without reference to Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game, such is the helpful organisation of both contents and the adventure. An experienced Pugmire Guide will be able to run Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers with almost no difficulty and could run it straight out of the book with relatively little preparation, again for the same reason. The less experienced Game Master—or Guide—will find it more challenging, primarily because of the preparation. Again, the organisation of the adventure into discrete chapters helps. For the new player, the book keeps everything clear and simple, provides reference material where wanted, and does not overcomplicate the flow of the game though the use of the discrete chapter organisation.

Overall, Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers is designed to be as well organised and helpful as it can be and it certainly succeeds in being both. These though are just the bonus factors for a great adventure which presents a good mix of mystery and intrigue, combat and roleplaying whilst opening up the world of Pugmire just a bit more. Every roleplaying game needs a good first adventure, and Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers is more than helpful in fulfilling that function for the Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game.

Proper Paw & Pack Play

When mankind is long gone, popular wisdom has it that the cockroaches will survive and inherit the Earth. Not so according to the Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game. In the far future, long after an apocalypse that led to the disappearance of Man, it is his best friend that inherits the Earth. That is, dogs! Long uplifted to use tools, read, and improve the world around them, dogs have founded the Kingdom of Pugmire and now strive to live up to the ideals of their long-gone masters—the Code of Man. These are Be a Good Dog, Obey the Master, Bite only those who endanger you, Defend your home, Stay loyal to those that are true, Protect all from the Unseen, and Fetch what has been left behind. Currently, the Kingdom of Pugmire is roughly equal to a medieval world, but Mankind also left behind caches and troves of ‘magical’ artefacts which the dogs constantly search for. After all, the fact that dogs can use them is surely a sign of Man’s faith in them. Of course, Dogs are not the only species to have been uplifted by Man or the Old Ones. Only decades ago, the Kingdom of Pugmire fought a war against the Monarchies of Mau—a confederation of Cats, whilst tribes of Badgers, Rats, and Lizards can be found inside and outside of the kingdom’s borders. Indeed, the Monarchies of Mau is the subject of its own roleplaying game. Besides sharing a setting, Monarchies of Mau and Pugmire both have the facts in common that they were funded via Kickstarter and both are published by Onyx Path Publishing.

Now anthropomorphic, post-apocalypse roleplaying games are nothing new. See Mutant: Genlab Alpha and After the Bomb, the supplement for Palladium Books’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness, as well as Metamorphosis Alpha, originally published by TSR, Inc., but most recently reprinted by Goodman Games. In comparison to the earnestness of the first and the wackiness of the latter two, Pugmire is different in that it is essentially Dungeons & Dragons, but ‘Dungeons & Dragons with Dogs’ because it employs the Open Game Licence for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. This makes Pugmire easy to pick up and play, which should be no surprise given the delightful accessibility of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. There is more to Pugmire than ‘Dungeons & Dragons with Dogs’ though…

Dogs in Pugmire have a Calling, a Breed, and a Background. A Calling is what a Dog does and is the equivalent of a Class. Six are given—Artisans (Wizards), Guardians (Fighters), Hunters (Rangers), Ratters (Rogues), Shepherds (Clerics), and Strays (Barbarians). Notable of these are the Artisan and Shepherd Callings. The Artisan specialises in the use of artefacts for magical effects, whilst the Shepherd belongs to the Church of Man, both spreads and uses the word of the Code of Man to guide others, and generally espouses being a good dog. A Breed is essentially a Dog’s Race. These are grouped into six types—Companion, Fettle, Herders, Pointers, Runners, and Workers, plus Mutts. The Breeds are more generalised than specific breeds of dog, but within each Breed there are several notable families, such as the Pug for Companions, Corgis for Herders, Greyhounds for Runners, and so on, which more correspond to the specific breeds of today. This neatly avoids Pugmire having to detail each and every contemporary breed and also establishes the various noble families within the kingdom. A Background is what a Dog did before becoming a hero and answering his Calling. Just eight are given, ranging from Acolyte and Common Folk to Sage and Soldier.

A Dog’s Calling will provide him with a view on other Callings, on the Code of Man—each Calling favours a different part of the Code, his Stamina Points, skills and rucksack (equipment), plus his first Tricks. The latter are of course, a Dog’s special abilities and powers and are akin to the proficiencies or feats of Dungeons & Dragons. More skills, rucksack contents, and another Trick will come from a Dog’s Background, whilst his Breed provides another Trick and an Ability (attribute) bonus. Running through the Callings ad the Breeds is the ‘Rule of Six’, lists of six aspects about the Breed or Calling. So there are six families per Breed and six views on the other Callings, six Calling types, and six unusual circumstances by which a Dog acquired something in his rucksack.

Creating a Dog involves selecting a Calling, a Breed, and a Background, plus skills and Tricks. Artisans and Shepherds also have spells. Unlike in other roleplaying games, the core abilities are not rolled for, but assigned from a given set of values. The creation process is generally straightforward and a player is nicely guided through the process, step-by-step.

Our sample character is Rupert Dachshund, an Artisan Pointer who has recently finished his apprenticeship to his uncle who owns and runs the family business, Object d’artefact, which trades in, and auctions, artefacts. He also sends out packs of adventurers to search for and recover artefacts. Now that Rupert Dachshund has completed his training, he wants to see more than just artefacts under glass, being evaluated, or going under the hammer. He wants to see artefacts in the wild! He wants some experience and perhaps he might even join the Royal Pioneers.

Rupert Dachshund
Level 1
Calling: Artisan
Breeding: Pointer
Background: Sage
Proficiency Bonus: +2
Stamina dice: d6
Stamina Points: 7
Defence: 13
Initiative: +2
Speed: 30
Abilities: Strength -1 (08), Dexterity +2 (14), Constitution +1 (12), Intelligence +3 (17), Wisdom +0 (10), Charisma +1 (13)
Skills: Know Arcana, Know History, Perform, Search
Tricks: Simple Weapons Aptitude, Light Armour Aptitude, Focus Magic, Voracious Learner
Spells: Elemental Ray, Feather Fall, Magic Missile, Magic Paw, Smell Magic Rucksack: Spear (1d8), padded light armour, masterwork artisan focus (googlepixle), bottle of ink, ink pen, parchment, books

View on the Code: Fetch what has been left behind
Idea: What is most important to me is finding the secrets of the Old Ones
Bond: I am inspired by my bond to Pugmire
Flaw: No matter what, I just can’t resist my insatiable curiosity

Given its Dungeons & Dragons-derived mechanics, it should be no surprise that Pugmire is Class and Level system. Unlike Dungeons & Dragons, the Levels only go up to Tenth Level, at which point a Dog is considered an Old Dog and cannot advance any further, although he can still go adventuring. Unlike Dungeons & Dragons, a Dog who goes adventuring in Pugmire does not earn Experience Points, but is awarded a new Level after a few good stories and when the Guide—as the Game Master is known in Pugmire—decides is appropriate. When he does go up a Level, a Dog gains both Stamina and Stamina dice, spellcasters—Artisans and Shepherds gain more spells and spell slots, and at every other Level, a Dog’s Proficiency Bonus increases. Every Level, a Dog gains an Improvement, which can be to improve an Ability score; take a new Calling, Breeding, or Aptitude Trick; or refine an existing Calling or Masterwork Trick. The latter is possible because beyond the basic effect of a Trick, it can be refined or upgraded. For example, Focus Magic is a Calling Trick for the Artisan which allows a Dog to cast spells via a focus. One refinement allows the Artisan to select four more spells from the spell levels that he knows, whilst the other enables him to choose spells from the next spell level. The Archery Trick for the Hunter Calling gives a Dog a bonus on ranged attacks, whilst refinements can give him the Advantage on ammunition saving throws, allow him a bonus attack on the same target, and reroll damage rolls if a one is rolled. These tweaks and refinements give Pugmire a sense of the cinematic and heroic action as well as providing some variability in terms of Dog design.

Mechanically, Pugmire looks much like Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, but on a closer look, there are tweaks and refinements to the rules too. The most notable addition is that of Fortune and the Fortune Bowl. A session begins with the Dogs in an adventuring party having two Fortune in the Fortune Bowl. A player can earn more Fortune for the Bowl by roleplaying to his Dog’s personality traits in a way that makes the game interesting, by being an entertaining player, coming up with a good plan, and by playing a ‘Good Dog’. Much of this is up to the discretion of the Guide, but a player can force the Guide to add Fortune to the Bowl by having his Dog intentionally fail. Fortune in the Bowl can be spent—and this is a permanent spend—to gain a reroll on any dice roll and keep the higher result, to allow a spellcaster to cast a spell if he has run out of spell slots, and to interrupt the initiative order and take their turn now. Further, some Tricks require Fortune to be activated, for example, ‘Nearby Expert’, a Background Trick, allows a player to spend Fortune for his Dog to know someone close by who has the knowledge or expertise that his Dog needs.

Again, magic in Pugmire looks like Dungeons & Dragons, but with a tweak or two. One is a matter of flavour or two, which has a canine cast to it. So, Magic Paw instead of Mage Hand, Smell Magic instead of Detect Magic, and so on. Basic spells like this—there are three each for both the Artisan and the Shepherd, can be cast freely by a Dog of the correct Calling. Spells of Level One and above cost a caster Slots to cast, equal to the Level of the spells. Thus, one Slot for a Level One spell, two Slots for a Level Two spell, all the way up to Level Five. Fitter Artisans and Shepherds—those with a higher Constitution—have more Slots. What this means is that a spellcaster is free to cast what he wants and however many times he wants as long as he has Slots left.

The setting for the roleplaying game is Pugmire, both a kingdom and a small city, the latter built around a castle and on what was once swampland. The kingdom is currently ruled by King Puckington Pug with the support of the Church of Man and dominated by great breeds and families who each own an ancient relic as indication of their nobility. One relic of Man is used as currency in the kingdom—plastic! It is literally dug from the ground and melted into coins. It is also useful in the construction of the plastic hulls needed for any ship wanting to sail the Acid Sea, although the kingdom’s access to the sea is limited. The kingdom maintains a testy relationship with the Monarchies of Mau; dislike the Rats—which include Rats and Mice—as they covet the same relics or ‘shinies’; and hate the Badgers—which include Otters, Polecats, Weasels, Ferrets, and Wolverines, as well as Badgers—for the raids they carry out on the kingdom and relic caches. The nomadic Lizards are tolerated for the stories and goods from foreign lands they trade in. Within the kingdom, the Royal Pioneers of Pugmire is an organisation of adventurers, whose members are Pugmire citizens—so it accepts strays, criminals, and bandits—and who are dedicated to protecting the kingdom, recovering relics, and uncovering knowledge. It is organised into parties who report to and are assigned tasks by a trustee. One of the benefits of being a Pioneer is that a Dog gets to keep and use whatever relics he recovers. Essentially, the Royal Pioneers of Pugmire is the default organisation for the player characters or Dogs to join and serve in, and so go adventuring.

One of the reasons that the Dogs are adventuring is relics. These include items which Dogs call ‘Masterworks’; consumable oils, dusts, and potions they call ‘Fixes’; and bizarre items such as a Bowl of Endless Water or the Ticking Rose, they call ‘Wonders’. From the Amulet of Health and the Bag of Holding to the Ring of Resistance and Robe of Scintillating Colours, these do look standard magical items a la Dungeons & Dragons. Yet Pugmire being a post-apocalyptic world, what they really are, is items of Old World technology. Some of the items are easy to map back onto items of contemporary technology, for example, a Lantern of Revealing could be some kind of scanner, Boots of Silence actually rubber-soled shoes, and a Potion of Heroism, some kind of drug. Others though are less obvious and may take some imagination to determine.

A Dog does not just own a relic. In the case of some Masterworks, a Dog not only has to attune himself to an item, he can also refine it with an improvement when he acquires a new Level. So the Gauntlets of Power raises a wearer’s Strength to 20 instead of 18 if attuned and refined and a Ring of Protection provides a +1 bonus to Defence and saving throws, but can be refined twice to increase the bonus for each to +2. The list of Masterworks, Fixes, and Wonders is limited, but beyond Pugmire, the number of magical items and sourcebooks thereof for the various iterations of Dungeons & Dragons is all but inexhaustible.

Like its treatment of magical items, Pugmire presents its monsters and enemies in a different fashion. There are of course other animals—Dogs, Cats, Rats, Badgers, and Lizards, but these are joined by more traditional monsters like Giant Ants and Zombies as well as some quite odd particular to the world of Pugmire. This includes the Kapatapa, a metallic thing with wheels which drags unaware Dogs into rivers and lakes it hides in; the Two-Headed Giant, which has the head of a Dog and the head of a Cat, which argue with each other, but hate their parent species; and the Mementomorian, a Dog-like creature which constantly harvests the memories of Dogs dead in the graveyard and on the battlefield. The most interesting monsters in Pugmire are the demons. They are also the most terrifying, for they are the demons of the Unseen, the demons that only Dogs can see and the demons that the Dogs warned Man about. Which of course Man took no heed of, for Dogs can only bark. Which is a lovely conceit.

For the Guide there is a well written chapter of advice and suggestions for running Pugmire. This covers everything from hosting the game to running it and more, including helping with character generation, being a storyteller and pacing scenes, handling the rules and creating a Chronicle—a campaign, ideas for Chronicle types other than the Royal Pioneers of Pugmire, and even suggestions for other game systems that the setting of Pugmire could be run under.

Rounding out Pugmire is a short adventure, ‘The Great Cat Conspiracy’. Designed for beginning characters, in which the Dogs are hired by the Doberman family to rid its iron mines the cat bandits which have raiding them. Involving a good mix of social interaction, wilderness adventure, and dungeoneering, the scenario is a fairly straightforward affair. It nicely introduces the players to the setting and its social mores as well as giving them a good taste of the mechanics.

One aspect where Pugmire definitely differs from Dungeons & Dragons is that of Alignment. In Dungeon & Dragons there are various Alignments or ethical and moral outlooks on life, such Lawful Good, Neutral, and Chaotic Evil. Pugmire does not have such varied outlooks or Alignments and it is in fact much more like the Code of Bushido in Legend of the Five Rings. In the setting of that roleplaying game, Rokugan, every samurai believes in the Code of Bushido, but each clan values a different tenet of the code more highly over the others. So it is with the Callings in Pugmire, and thus in effect, what you have is the single Alignment, but with variations. That said, the approach to the Code of Man, although important to just about every Dog is not as earnest as that of a samurai to Bushido—unless of course you are devout worshipper of the Church of Man.

In embracing the Code of Man, Pugmire is positive roleplaying game about bettering the lives of every Dog and safeguarding the kingdom, if not making it better for your pups. It is about doing this together, since Dogs are pack animals and like to work together. What this means is that Pugmire is not really a game about the divisive individual. As written, there is no element in Pugmire of, “I can do anything I want, so my character is going to go off and do this—and screw you!” as was in your early games of Dungeons & Dragons. This is not say that there is  or was this element in Dungeons & Dragons necessarily—but again, remember that game back in the day where the Thief betrayed you, stole all of your loot, and got you all killed?—and it is not to say that this could not happen in Pugmire, but rather that Pugmire makes it implicit that it is game of cooperation and working together. Of course, being a post-apocalyptic fantasy game, Pugmire is also a game of exploration and mystery. Exploration because the kingdom does not know what lies beyond its borders and mystery because who knows what lies out there and who knows what happened to Man?

Physically, Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game is a lovely book. The slightly undersized hardback is done in full colour and the artwork is absolutely great. If you want pictures of Dogs in medieval armour and wielding swords and fighting monsters, then this book is perfect for you. A slight edit is needed here and there, but the writing is light and engaging, with the rules being very well explained. One nice touch is the inclusion of advice in separate boxes, both from characters within the setting. One provides further explanation, whilst the other gives advanced options.

As much as it employs the mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, what Pugmire is not, ‘Dungeons & Dragons with Dogs’. One reason is the (fantasy in a) post-apocalyptic setting, but really it is the positive nature of the character or Dog design and their embracing of the Code of Man and the cooperative style of play that it encourages which pulls it away from Dungeons & Dragons.

One thing Pugmire is not, is an introductory roleplaying game. As well written as it is, it is perhaps a bit too dense a book to serve as that. One element that it does lack to that end, is an example of play. On the downside of course, you almost wish that Pugmire had been written as an introductory roleplaying game, perhaps a boxed set. (In fact, it would be nice to see an introductory boxed set written using the same mechanics and in the same tone as Pugmire, but perhaps with three different settings a la Chaosium’s Worlds of Wonder roleplaying game.) Now what Pugmire works better as, is a first roleplaying game, a roleplaying game that the Guide can run for others who are new to roleplaying, whether they are younger players or adults. For either age, both the tone and the setting of the game are positive and inclusive, and the idea of playing anthropomorphic Dogs is fun and engaging, which is refreshing and something that more experienced players are likely to enjoy too.

Inspired by his own dog—the late and much-loved Pug, Murray—the author of Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game brings a canine cast to roleplaying fantasy and does so in a well written, beautifully presented, and engaging fashion. Pugmire is the roleplaying game for Good Dogs everywhere.