Conflicts & Clearings

The Woodland is a world of strife and conflict in the wake of first the Grand Civil War between the avian factions of the Eyrie Dynasties, then the Interbellum, when an army led by the Marquise de Cat invaded, and lastly the return of the resurgent Eyrie Dynasties and the rise of the Woodland Alliance in response to the feline invaders. This has left Clearing after Clearing, or settlement, across the Woodland rife with factions wanting to ally with one side or the other, facing problems caused by conflicts across the forest, and their inhabitants at loggerheads with each other as to what solutions they should apply to one problem, situation, or another. Into the Clearings slip the outsiders and travellers known as Vagabonds, often outlaws who wander the Woodland without a home, and although no upstanding member of a Clearing’s community would trust a Vagabond, together a band of Vagabonds, might have the nous, the chutzpah, the slipperiness, and the skill, to solve the problems that beset a Clearing and tip it one way or another. Often this will mean that the Vagabonds will do so in favour of one faction, for they have their own biases, which means that there is even less reason to trust them! So bands of Vagabonds slip out of one Clearing and into another, sometimes changing the situation they discover, sometimes not, occasionally to the acclaim of one faction and the dismay of others, but rarely ever trusted even as they are barely tolerated.

This is the set-up Root: The Roleplaying Game, the game based on Root: A Game of Woodland Might And Right, the anthropomorphic asymmetrical boardgame from Leder Games, published by Magpie Games. The players take the roles of the Vagabonds, but it is up to the Game Master to create a network of Clearings, each with interesting NPC denizens and general conflicts and issues rather than ready-to-play plots. Root: The Roleplaying Game includes a set of tables to help her design her first set of twelve Clearings, including their denizens, the paths between the Clearings (which themselves can often be difficult and dangerous to travel), and which faction controls each Clearing. Since this is done randomly, the resulting Woodland will differ from that created by another Game Master and had there been a pre-written set of twelve Clearings proscribed by the authors of Root: The Roleplaying Game, it would have differed from that too. Root: The Roleplaying Game does come with an example Clearing called ‘Gelilah’s Grove’ which neatly shows off the concept. However, if the Game Master is short on inspiration or ideas and wants further examples or wants a Clearing which can be run as a one-shot, then there is a ready set of Clearings in the supplement, Root: The Roleplaying Game – Clearing Booklet.

Root: The Roleplaying Game – Clearing Booklet provides a quartet of Clearings ready for the Game Master to add to her Woodland. The format for each entry is the same. This includes a ‘Description’, ‘At First Sight’, ‘Conflicts’, details and stats for ‘Important Residents’, ‘Important Locations’, ‘Special Rules’, and ‘Introducing the Clearing’. The latter provides advice and guidance, whilst the ‘Conflicts’ starts off with a ‘Core Conflict’ and adds several more, all of whom come with a ‘How It Develops’ section which examines what happens if the Vagabonds never get involved. Each of the Clearings in the supplement comes with four such Conflicts, and though the listed playing is two to four hours for each Clearing, the likelihood is that it will take more than one session for a band of Vagabonds to deal with all of them. Either way, whether the Vagabonds involve themselves in a Conflict or not, there are consequences to their actions or their inaction respectively.

The first Clearing in Root: The Roleplaying Game – Clearing Booklet is ‘Hookfoot Bog’, the name of a swampy, smelly settlement best known as a source of peat which the local Hookfoot Clan of mice dig out using harvesting machines and which the Marquisate governs as an important resource. From the off, it is clear that the Marquisate is not necessarily the bad cat here. The local commander governs with a light paw, but its now monopoly on the digging out and sale of peat has led to increased prices and tension, as well as changes to the Clearing as the Cats and their allies have constructed wooden buildings and homes in the settlement centre. This has divided the settlement into the old town and the new town, between collaborators who welcome, if not a newfound wealth, then at least job security. However, some within the Hookfoot Clan resent the Marquisate’s presence and are finding ways to resist, including purchasing weapons from smugglers who in turn smuggle out Nip, a powerful narcotic regulated by the Marquisate, which requires peat to manufacture. The Conflicts are all nicely interconnected, and supported with details of the Clearing’s important NPCs, interesting locations, special rules—the latter covering the swampy, peat fuelled smoky environment and peat harvester operations, and guidance for the Game Master on how to get the Vagabonds involved in the Conflicts in Hookfoot Bog. The latter includes the governor asking the Vagabonds to infiltrate the resistance; a local merchant wants them to stop the vandalism on the peat harvesters, but others want to help it; they might be recruited by the resistance or tested by the smugglers to see if they support or oppose their operations; and more. Plus, there are tips on how to escalate the situation and keep the action going.

The other three Clearings follow the same pattern. ‘Sixtoe Stand’ is named for a hero who drove off a wolf attack many years ago, but a more recent wolf attack has left it ill-prepared to survive the winter. So, it needs an ally, but which faction will it side with? ‘Limmery Post’ details an ancient fortification on the edge of the Woodland occupied by the Marquisate much to the dismay of the inhabitants, who want the invaders gone, but camped outside the settlement is a contingent of the Woodland Alliance, ready to lay siege to Sixtoe Stand. Some in Sixtoe Stand want to keep the peace with the Marquisate, others would welcome their being driven out by the Woodland Alliance, but many want to remain in isolation as they have for many years. Which of course is not possible given the situation. Lastly, ‘Coolclaw Mine’ details an important iron mine under Marquisate occupation, but ill prepared to deal with the influx of soldiers and refugees and so the threat of starvation looms. Here the Marquisate Lord Scowl is much more of an openly oppressive presence and so is closer to the classic rebellion versus authority set-up, although it does throw a rival Vagabond group into the situation.

Physically, Root: The Roleplaying Game – Clearing Booklet is well presented, well written, and of course, illustrated with the same great art as with Root: The Roleplaying Game and Root: A Game of Woodland Might And Right. The worst that could be said of it is that there is not enough!

Root: The Roleplaying Game – Clearing Booklet is a solid supplement for Root: The Roleplaying Game. It complements a Game Master’s Woodland, whether of fully worked Clearings ready to add to her campaign or bring to the table as a one-shot. Or simply as a book of examples to take inspiration from and develop Clearings of her own.

Alimentary Now

There is no dungeon as queasy, bilious, or tumorous than Genial Jack Vol. 2. It also throws in swollen tongued pestiferous thrushspawn, toxically affectionate amoeboids, a true vampire squid, and Dog-Nymph Skulla, the Swallowed Sea-Devil, along with Gutreavers, Tapeworm swarms, shivers of Septic Sharks, lost and swallowed cities, wrecks aplenty, and more—all in the longest, most linear dungeon possible and all in the strangest location possible. The location is ‘Genial Jack’, the Godwhale, a levianthine Blue Whale which for centuries has been home to the teeming town of Jackburg built across his thick skin and in his stomachs and deep into his intestines, much of it made up of the ships he has swallowed and those that have sailed into his maw and permanently moored inside of him. Jackburg is home to peoples and islands that the whale—the ‘Genial Jack’ of the title—has swallowed, from the Draugr to the Fomorians, and today it serves as a roaming free port, from which merchants sell the strange and exotic goods they have acquired in distant lands as well as the ambergris constantly formed deep in his gut. Yet beyond—or rather behind—the public spaces of Jackburg, lie ancient wonders of swollen cities and partially digested Jackburgs past, the Ambergris Consortia and its tight control of perhaps the most precious substance found within the Godwhale, Gutreavers ready to attack vessels travelling deep into Genial Jack—plundering cargo and enslaving passengers and crew, and a refuge for its outcasts, such as criminals who have fled the reach of the Whaleguard and Jacksblood-Addicts who find a way to slice at the intestinal walls and feed their addiction to the whale’s blood. All this whilst the Gutgardeners, combining druidic magic and ancient technoscience, labour to keep Genial Jack’s digestive microbiome as healthy as they can. Essentially, in presenting the ‘Entrails’, Genial Jack Vol. 2 explores the Godwhale’s outback and hinterland... 

Genial Jack Vol. 2, published by Lost Pages, continues the description of the Godwhale begun in Genial Jack Vol. I, a serialised setting of nautical weirdness and whimsy written for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, but with an Old School Renaissance sensibility and tone combined with elements of steampunk and grotpunk. Where the first issue introduced the setting of the Godwhale from its city of Jackburg to The Gutgardens at the bottom of the whale’s main stomach, and its varied inhabitants such as the drowned Draugar, the shapeshifting Finfolk, the crafters that are the Formorians, Jackburg’s literal underclass the Urchins, the mercantile Octopoids, the vicious shark-men Selachians, and more.

Genial Jack Vol. 2 begins with reasons for entering the Entrails—Jackburg University being willing to pay for artifacts found there, mounting an ambergris mining expedition, investigating the loss of workers for the Ambergris Consortia, collecting a bounty on Ericius, the Urchin assassin, and more. The Dungeon Master can easily mix and match—or mismatch—these or keep them separate to provide motivations for multiple expeditions into the back end of the Godwhale. Since the Player Characters will be mounting an expedition, they will need equipment, so the next stop is shopping, and so a fully illustrated list of items particular to expeditions into the Entrails is also given, like the Fumehound, a tiny dog with a superb sense of smell which will bark in the presence of ambergris, or Anglerfish Lanterns, consisting of glass globes containing an ugly fish which will provide a light if fed. The circle of Guntgardeners is also described, an alternative organisation of Druids dedicated keeping the Godwhale’s guts contracting and relaxing, along with its commonly taught spells. Then the natural perils of the Entrails are detailed—the stench, the slipperiness, miasmas, and a whole lot more. Make no mistake, the Entrails are literally a stomach churning, pulsating, pustulent environment and not for the faint hearted.

As well as a decent table of random encounters, Genial Jack Vol. 2 details some fourteen magical items and artifacts to be found in the Entrails, many of which form the basis of quests and sidequests once the Player Characters have begun interacting with the denizens of Genial Jack’s bowels.  Some of them are highly entertaining, such as the skulk-marked Thanometer or Scavenger’s Compass, which detects the nearest dead humanoid; The Rude Shield, which has leering grotesque features and maintains an insulting running commentary on anything and everything it sees, and whilst it hinders attempts at stealth, it can cast Vicious Mockery; and The Bristling Blade, a boar-headed heavy scimitar which inflicts savage wounds out of which sprouts greasy bristles!

And then it is into the Entrails themselves, a tangled, colonic mass of the Small Intestine and the Large Intestine separated by Herniaheim. From the Duodenum Docks, the Player Characters will set out on a journey into darkness, their senses assaulted by musky, feculent, effluent, rotten, acrid, and bilious smells, and queasy sucking, whispering, rustling, and susurrating sounds. Every location begins by telling the Dungeon Master what her players can see, smell, and hear before presenting the  people to be found and the perils faced. So at the Filthfalls, the Player Characters will hear the rushing sound of debris and effluence, smell a combination of raw sewage, rotten fish, and ripe flesh, and whilst they will not encounter anyone, the Player Characters must work to avoid the foul falls, though if they can lower themselves into the pool below, they may find some plunder! Halfway down, they will find Hernaheim, a protrusion of the intestinal walls in which sits a cannibal fortess-town, ruled over the for the moment, by the Corsair Queen, Amaranth ‘Falsebeard’ Leech’, until such times as she is killed a pretender to the throne in the annual battle to the death in the Orifice. This is a fighting pit with a central pool filled with septic sharks and other intestinal creatures, which can be crossed using the flimsy rope bridges. In Hernaheim, septic sharks are farmed for food by Canness Sharpnose and her heretical order of Sawtail Nuns dedicated to the Sharkfather, all manner of ghastly fun can be found in Slimeside, Hernaheim’s ‘oozing’ pleasure district, and a previous version of Jackburg, long swallowed by Genial Jack hides secrets amidst its infestation of Jacksblood addicts.

Beyond Hernaheim stretches the Large Intestine, home to a Narwhal Skeleton, the Swallowed Sea-Devil Shrine, and the Elder Ruins. These are perhaps the final destinations for any venture this far deep into Genial Jack, and will likely require the Player Characters to have made multiple journeys into the depths. Many of the locations come with encounters and NPCs which will often spur the Player Characters to travel further. This is all backed up with a Colonic Bestiary containing sixteen entries, like the Corsair Queen, Gutreavers, Jacksblood-Addicts, Septic Sharks, Skulla, the Swallowed Sea-Devil, and even a True Vampire Squid, the latter of which takes a two whole pages!

Physically, Genial Jack Vol. 2 is a content-packed, well-written A5-sized fanzine style publication. The dungeon is fantastically illustrated and mapped out in thematically squidgy and convoluted detail.

Unfortunately, Genial Jack Vol. 2 has a problem—or rather a perceived problems, and this is that the fact that it is written for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Which is not to everyone’s taste and further, they may reject Genial Jack Vol. 2 out of hand because of it. Now not only is that their problem rather than one with Genial Jack Vol. 2, but they would also be completely and utterly in the wrong and it would be their complete and utter loss were they to do so. Whether or not you dislike Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, the fact is, the tone and style of Genial Jack Vol. 2 is such that it feels an Old School Renaissance scenario. It places an emphasis on exploration and dungeoneering, and does so on an unforgiving environment with lots of nasty features and creatures lurking about. It also has a great sense of the unknown and of being far from acceptable society, with even the few outposts of civilisation being strange and alien. In terms of tone and content then, it would be relatively easy to the adapt the content of Genial Jack Vol. 2 to the retroclone of the Game Master’s choice, and to be honest, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition shares a lot of terminology with other roleplaying games. Further, Genial Jack Vol. 2 also has a ‘Grim & perilous’ feel to it, so a Game Master could run its scenario using Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay or even ZWEIHÄNDER, Grim & Perilous, although it would require a lot more adaptation than a mere retroclone of Dungeons & Dragons would.

Genial Jack Vol. 2 is a wonderfully thematic dungeon, but it really fully works as a counterpart to Genial Jack Vol. 1. Essentially, they complement each other. If you want a wholly original, but foul and fetid, tumorous and peristaltic, desperate and dangerous dungeon, then Genial Jack Vol. 2 certainly delivers that, but together, Genial Jack Vol. 1 and Genial Jack Vol. 2 make up a fantastic grim and grimy ‘Whalepunk’ campaign.

All Aboard the Godwhale

Published by Lost Pages, Genial Jack Vol. I is the first issue of a serialised setting that is one-part the Book of Jonah, one-part Green Ronin Publishing’s Freeport, one-part Swift’s Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships or Gulliver’s Travels, one part Baron Munchausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia, but all weird nautical urban fantasy that can be best described as ‘whale-punk’. This is because Genial Jack Vol. I details a levianthine Blue Whale which for centuries has been home to the teeming town of Jackburg built across his thick skin and in his stomachs and deep into his intestines, much of it made up of the ships he has swallowed and those that have sailed into his maw and permanently moored inside of him. Jackburg is home to peoples and islands that the whale—the ‘Genial Jack’ of the title—has swallowed, from the Draugr to the Fomorians, and today it serves as a roaming free port, from which merchants sell the strange and exotic goods they have acquired in distant lands as well as the ambergris constantly formed deep in his gut.

Designed for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition—but very easily adapted to the retroclone of your choice—Genial Jack Vol. I focuses very much on the peoples and places of Jackburg. The former includes over thirteen new player character Races. These start with the undead Draugar, drowned corpses from the north who dwell in longships and a reputation for fell curses and trading in people, and Finfolk, sly, shapeshifting merfolk who are known for their illusions and the indentured workers they mark with their bloodsucking maws; and Formorians, giants banished from Faerie by Queen Mab who can cast an evil eye about, but are skilled crafters of magical devices and weapons and armour, to Sirens, who have reputations as malicious seductresses, but are highly charismatic and help in Jackburg’s aerial defence; Undines, water elementals who can turn into water and back again and work in Jackburg powering waterwheels, serving as living air-suits, and moving vessels and cargo; and Urchins, Jackburg’s underclass, beggars—Urchin Beggars?—who will happily eat rubbish, but who are considered to be lucky. The others do include Humans, but also the hive-mind Jellyfolk, the Karkinoi crustacean warriors, tentacular mercantile Octopoids, the sentient and artistic coral Polypoids, the bankers and thieves who make up the Ratfolk, and the often vicious shark-men raiders known as the Selachians, who include an individual casino-owner and moneylender who is called, of course, the Loan Shark. All of these Races have adapted to an amphibious life aboard Genial Jack and inside Jackburg, including being able to see in dim or low lighting, many need to be submerged at least once per day.

Genial Jack Vol. I then examines each of Jackburg’s districts in both Outer Jackburg and Inner Jackburg, the former being on the exterior of Genial Jack, the latter inside him. Each is given a full page which includes a short description and a handful of encounters and locations. So along the great whale’s flanks can be found Barnaclebank, the series of barnacles which have been hollowed out and linked via tunnels of reinforced glass and iron, then carved and reshaped, many of them into gun emplacements, harpoon launchers, and torpedo bays manned by the Whaleguard, Jackburg’s guard and security forces—unsurprisingly, Genial Jack has a decent navy to protect both himself and Jackburg. The encounters include an emergency as a porthole has cracked and is letting in water with the player characters being the nearest ones who can fix it before the Whaleguard can get there and the discovery of an enormous crimson pearl brought ashore by Jackburg’s fisherfolk, which might be anything from a mermaid lich’s phylactery to a resurrection stone. The locations given thumbnail descriptions are the Barnaclebank Fish Market which operates on the extendable docks on Genial Jack’s starboard flank, and the Sea Star Saloon, a tavern inside a single, huge barnacle-shell which is run by a man with the lower body of a starfish and which caters to Whaleguard officers and fishermen alike.

At the other end is The Gutgardens at the bottom of the whale’s main stomach. Here fish and krill is received from Genial Jack’s maw via canals and tubes and cultivated into gut bacteria and symbiotic algae which soothes his innards. They are worked by Gutgardeners in signature green and black uniforms with gas masks and heavy-duty work boots and gloves. The encounters include coming across a pair of Bloodskulls gang members about to dunk a debtor in Acid Lake; an invasion of Feral Fungoids driven into frenzy after feeding on Genial Jack’s blood; and a poisonous miasma that will leave all who breathe it in with a lung infection. The locations include an abattoir where a Jellyfolk mentalist humanely stuns livestock before their slaughter; the aforementioned Acid Lake, where enclosed and perfumed domes provide popular picnic spots for those from Inner Town; and the Digestive Reserves, areas kept entirely free of buildings and people to aid in Genial Jack’s digestion.

Some twenty or so districts are described in this fashion, along with a centre spread illustration/map of Genial Jack and Jackburg, as well as a list of city slang. So far, so good, but so far this is forty pages into Genial Jack Vol. I and the reader is left wondering how all of this works, who is in charge, and so on. At this point, Genial Jack Vol. I does cover the authorities of Jackburg, including The Captains’ Conclave held at Mysterium Tremendum, a massive ship and alehouse, where every captain and depending on the size of their constituent populations they represent, ship’s mates too, express their opinions and suggest where the Whale journeys next. Such are directions are imparted by the Navigators, the divine intercessors between the peoples of Jackburg and the ‘Godwhale’ that is Genial Jack, who are descended from those first shipwrecked inside him. Lastly, the Whaleguard is Jackburg’s navy and police force. Rounding out Genial Jack Vol. I are some details of Jackburg’s laws and criminal organisations as well as a list of some twenty interesting Jackburgers, inhabitants of Jackburg.

Physically, Genial Jack Vol. I  is more of a magazine rather than a book. Down in black and white throughout, this first issue is richly illustrated with some fantastic cross sections of Jackburg’s twenty districts. Use of the art does veer into the repetitious, but it has to be said it is good art. On the downside, the twelve new Races are only given portrait illustrations rather than full body shots, so players and Referee alike will need to use a little imagination there. The cover though is absolutely fantastically fantastic, a piece of artwork which just grabs the reader. Elsewhere, the writing is decent, as is the editing.

Genial Jack Vol. I  still feels as if it is missing one or two things. Obviously a scenario, but then it has almost forty encounters across the various districts it describes, but more problematically there is no discussion of what Classes are suitable or found in Jackburg and there are no new Classes. Yet, the one thing that is really missing is a discussion of the technology found on and in the Godwhale. Gunpowder definitely, but also an overhead tram which runs from Genial Jack’s Maw down its oesophagus, and working of iron and glass into tunnels, all of which suggests advanced technology of a kind. Exactly what though, is another matter. Hopefully, it will be covered in a later issue.

Although written for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, the rules content in Genial Jack Vol. I is very light being confined to the various abilities possessed by each Race. This means that it is very easy to adapt to the retroclone of your choice and it is very much a case of Genial Jack Vol. I being imaginative enough to transcend any limitations a Referee or player should have with regards to their roleplaying game of choice. Not only could this be adapted to the retroclone of your choice, it could be adapted to the setting of your choice, whether that is Green Ronin Publishing’s Freeport: City of Adventure or the world of 50 Fathoms for use with Savage Worlds or the Referee’s own campaign world.

Although just the first issue, Genial Jack Vol. I is a satisfying appetiser for what promises to be an imaginatively weird and wonderful setting. It can absolutely be described as unique, the first ‘whalepunk’ setting. Genial Jack Vol. II is eagerly awaited.

Mapping the Third Horizon

Surprisingly, Coriolis: The Third Horizon is just supported by two supplements. The Middle Eastern influenced Science Fiction roleplaying game, originally published in Swedish by Fria Ligan, but since published by Modiphius Entertainment following a successful Kickstarter campaign, is supported by The Dying Ship and the Coriolis Atlas Compendium. Both were funded by the Kickstarter, the first being a short scenario, the second an expansion of both the setting and the core rules—and the subject of this review.

The Coriolis Atlas Compendium can roughly be divided into three sections. The first is an examination of the major systems of the Third Horizon—the setting for Coriolis: The Third Horizon, the second explores two aspects of the setting’s deeper history, and the third provides several sets of tables to help the Game Master run her game. Of these, the first section can be read by both the Game Master and her players, whilst the second and third are for the Game Master’s eyes only. As with both the core rule book and The Dying Ship, this supplement is beautifully illustrated with grand vistas and panoramas against the black backdrop of space to give it quite a dark look and a lot of wide margins.

The first section presents details on six worlds and their systems—Algol, Mira, Dabaran, Sadaal, Zalos, and Odacon. Given the few pages devoted to each, it is no surprise that the description of each is really quite broad, never getting down to specifics. Most of the planets bear the scars of the Portal Wars and their populations are often rent by tensions between the Firstcome and the more recently arrived Zenithian Hegemony, mostly because the Zenithian Hegemony is seen to be exploiting natural resources. In places this has broken into armed conflict—of varying intensity—whilst on other worlds there is barely a whisper of dissent. Some cultural elements, such as the tradition of wearing masks on Sadaal, but on whole, these descriptions feel very light, more flavour than detail.

The light treatment continues with the ‘History of the Horizon’, which explores the backstory to the First, Second, and Third Horizons—something which the Coriolis: The Third Horizon did not. It covers a thousand years in a few pages, from man’s first leaving Terra (the First Horizon) to settle the first colonies (the Second Horizon) and eventually a war between the two which would force the next wave of colonies (the Third Horizon) to isolate themselves. Knowledge of much of this has been lost to history, but it provides the Game Master with much needed context for the setting as a whole that you really wish that it could have been in the core rulebook. The same section also reveals a major secret about the identity of the Emissaries, but little more than that is given. So what exactly the ‘aliens’ are up to and what their objectives is left up to the Game Master to decide or a future supplement.

Comparatively, the examination of the Portal Builders is much longer and more detailed. Primarily, this focuses not on who they were, since no-one knows and numerous theories abound, but on what they left behind in terms of ruins, such as the Monoliths of Kua—either ancient city or monument, but now settled by humanity; the Eye of Ekharan, a perfect ellipse orbiting the Amedo-B star, inaccessible due to the star’s gravity and radiation; and the Awadhi Sun Fan above the boiling planet of Denebula, whose blades shade and cool the atmosphere enough for foolhardy prospectors to mine it of its hargium gas. These add flavour without giving anything away about the setting. Not an issue for the Game Master wanting to make her own content up, but for anyone with a deeper interest in the setting, possibly a little frustrating.

A good half of the supplement is dedicated to sets of table. One set is for generating worlds and systems, since not all of the thirty-six systems and their worlds are fully explored. As well as a planet’s physical characteristics, there are tables for factions, inhabitants, and hooks which greatly flavour the world. A second set is for generating missions and rather nicely, these are broken down according to type, including agents, mercenaries, explorers, pilgrims, and free traders. The mission generator is not designed to provide a full blown adventure, but rather a solid hook and two or three elements that the Game Master can develop herself. The third and last set is the shortest and probably give the longest explanation. It is for generating interesting things to happen when travelling between systems. It covers encounters on planet too, and again, serves very much as a spur for the Game Master’s imagination rather than providing her with ready made content.

Physically, Coriolis Atlas Compendium is well presented, an attractive looking book with lots of good artwork. Unfortunately it feel as if there is a lot of empty space, and the fact there is, the blackness of space backdrop with occupies much of the margins. Now they are used in some places for sidebars and sideboxs of supplementary information, but often the reader is left wanting more in terms of content. What he gets instead is pretty space. One of which could have been used to list the book’s content , or indeed, its index.

Unfortunately, the Coriolis Atlas Compendium is a better compendium than it is an atlas. At the very least, an atlas implies the inclusion of maps and it is very much the case that the supplement has none. Even as a compendium, there is a definite sense of the ineffable about the contents of the Coriolis Atlas Compendium, as if it is going to  change the next time you open the book. Of course, the tables and their content is absolutely all there. The rest of the feels as if it is definitely not there and definitely not enough of it. The Coriolis Game Master is definitely going to want to have this supplement, as it expands upon the setting—though not too much, reveals some secrets, and provides a useful set of tables. Unfortunately, anyone wanting more detail about the setting of the Third Horizon will have to wait until the next supplement.

Lost on the Gods

Published by Apollyon Press, LLC, following a successful Kickstarter campaign, On the Shoulders of Giants is a setting sourcebook for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying and other Old School Rennaisance retroclones. It presents an intriguing setting, four new Classes, associated spell-like abilities, a short bestiary of strange beasts, a location ready for adventure, and more, all illustrated by Scrap Princess, the artist whose artwork has graced the pages of other titles for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying, most notably the Ennie Award winning Veins of the Earth and Deep Carbon Observatory.

The setting for On the Shoulders of Giants is not the body of one dead god, but twelve. In ages past, the twelve gods of the Greek pantheon—Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Dionysius—warred against each other over the imperfections they saw in one another, and one by one they died at the hands of their fellow gods until only Apollo lived. In anguish at what he had wrought, Apollo stabbed himself in the heart, and he too, died. Their divine caracasses did not remain inviolate however, and from their bodies were born maggots and as these maggots feed upon the godly flesh, they first formed mannish faces, before transforming into men, each with behaviours and attitudes born of their source flesh.

In time these men learned to make their way on the bodies of these gods. They farm the maggots for food and crafting materials; they draw the gods’ blood from their giant veins and distil, filter, and separate into humours for use in draughts and potions; they extract bone marrow and harden it with fire to make arms and armour; they take god-flesh and smelt it into metal or grind it into a paste; and they seek out the organs of the gods for the untold riches they might hold—although the stomach is known to be home to daemons!

On the Shoulders of Giants offers four Classes—the Conspirator, the Corpse Worker, the Prize Fighter, and the Witchdoctor, each of them quite simple. At each Level, the Conspirator gains Planning Points which he can use in an adventure to modify the results of the twenty-sided die, roll twice for damage and take the best result, and reduce damage taken on a point for point basis. When a Planning Point is spent, the player has to explain what he did before the start of the adventure in order to prepare for such a situation. This is a nice and simple mechanic, allowing a player to add to the narrative. The Corpse Worker extracts vital memories, the four humours, and more from the bodies of the dead gods, supplying Witchdoctors with ingredients for their experiments and more. Corpse Workers are skilled in Climbing and Architecture as well as being hardier and having good Saving Throws.

Prize Fighters are bruising fighters and can withstand the Witchdoctor’s ability to graft limbs more easily than others, but they cannot take much in the way of punishment. Witchdoctors research and conduct Experiments using reagents and ingredients mined from the bodies of the gods. Some thirteen Experiments are described in On the Shoulders of Giants, for example, Bloodletting involves humours being sprinkled on an open vein to actually heal someone (though there is the chance it may inflict more damage); Pick Up the Scent requires the use a nose which will twitch in the direction of the intended quarry; and with Viscous Membrane, a phlegm-coated leather scrap can be turned into an impenetrable barrier for a few rounds. It should be made clear that Experiments are not spells, but rather vile tests and procedures using godly ingredients.

By default the only available Race in On the Shoulders of Giants is the Human-like men transformed from maggots born of bodies of dead gods. It is suggested that depending on what body a maggot was born from, certain residues might carry over and influence certain attitudes and behaviours. For example, someone born of Artemis would know great precision and accuracy, but have skin possessing a silvery sheen, whilst those born of Hera are loyal to a fault, but wrathful when betrayed. Oddly, there are no bonuses or penalties provided for these, especially when it would have been easy for the author to provide them. Indeed, the Game Master can easily create them himself. For example, a man born of Hermes, who values and takes great pride in physical prowess, might gain a +1 bonus to physical actions, but a -2 reaction towards anyone who does not.

A few monsters are detailed in On the Shoulders of Giants, such as the stomach-born acidic Daemons who slide out of the noses of the gods to offer binding contracts which exchange baubles and trinkets in return for men’s souls; Flesh-eaters are men who have been transformed into mindless husks after having consumed far too much god-flesh, but who can recover if allowed to gorge on adequate food for days and days—some cults force initiates to undergo this process to prove their devotion; and Sky Squids, tentacular creatures that will convey those who ride inside them to the body of another random god. This is in addition to a set of tables for creating random monsters. In terms of specific settings, the supplement describes ‘The Gray Pools’, an adventure outline. A Gray Pool is a site where a god’s brains have seeped to the surface through his shattered skull, the liquid having a variety of results when consumed, including psychic powers. An NPC or two who possess an interest in controlling such sites are also described as are some adventure ideas. Rounding out On the Shoulders of Giants are appendices providing a bibliography, conversion of the four Classes to The Black Hack, the Maggot Farmer as an NPC Class, and a table of names.

Physically, On the Shoulders of Giants is decently produced, a somewhat thin, if sturdy hardback. The writing is decent, but the artwork is fetchingly grimy and menacing.

Now the idea of adventurers plundering the body of dead gods is nothing new. After all, Malhavoc Press published a supplement devoted to it for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition in 2002, called Requiem for a God. But living on the gods and mining them is an interesting idea and suggests possibilities aplenty. Unfortunately, as intriguing a setting as presented in On the Shoulders of Giants actually is, the supplement fails to do two fundamental things. First, it fails to  answer some very basic questions. Who lives on the bodies of the twelve gods, what peoples, what towns, and so on? What do they do? Where are the bodies of the twelve gods located? How can outsiders get there—a possibility suggested in the text? What do adventurers—or the player characters—do on the bodies of the twelve gods? Second, it sets up some interesting facts and then utterly fails to support them. So if the Conspirator is the brains behind daring heists and organisations, then what heists and what is he stealing, and what organisations? Where does the Prize Fighter fight and what for? If some cults force feed initiates godflesh, what are these cults and what do they want? And more importantly, where is the rest of On the Shoulders of Giants with these answers?

As it stands, this supplement is incomplete or unfinished. Either way, as much as a setting based on the dead bodies of the Greek gods is rife with possibilities, On the Shoulders of Giants fails to flesh out its setting, leaving the Game Master to do the development work and answer some very basic questions that the author should have done. It is a book of ideas rather than the setting it should have been.

The Thousand Suns Signal

Thousand Suns from Rogue Games is perhaps the best emulation of Imperial Science Fiction – the subgenre best seen in the writings of Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, and Jerry Pournelle – in RPGs since your preferred version of Traveller. It offers a pleasingly simple approach to the subgenre that is relatively easy to modify to a setting of the GM’s choice, and for the players offers a means to create characters without the chance of their dying. Foundation Transmissions is a companion volume for the game, bringing together a number of short articles that either expand upon aspects of the game and its provided setting or detail an aspect of the game not covered in the core rulebook. The other notable fact about Foundation Transmissions is that it has attracted a number of first time writers and artists.

The first of Foundation Transmissions’ eight chapters is “Moving Through The Ranks,” which presents a means of handling rank and promotion in military Science Fiction games in the mode of Babylon 5, Star Trek, and Starship Troopers. It works by assigning three ranks to each of the Career Levels – Novice, Experienced, Veteran, given for the military paths in the game. Thus for the Navy career, the three given at Novice level for the Enlisted are Recruit, Able Spacehand, and Senior Spacehand, and for the Officers, Cadet, Subaltern, and Sublieutenant. During character creation, each rank grants the player extra Skill Ranks to assign, but their main purpose is to handle eligibility for promotion during play.

As a campaign progresses, a player tracks his character’s earned Experience Points and once he has accrued enough, the character is eligible to be promoted from his current rank to the next. This need not be automatic and so presents opportunities aplenty for roleplaying. For example, why is a character not being promoted when he has accrued enough Experience Points or in-game, enough time in service? Or it can act as a reward for heroic action during play. In addition, the gap between each Career Level acts as a natural break between ranks. For example, Sublieutenant Matsue Nioko cannot be promoted to the rank of full Lieutenant, which is at the Experienced Level for the Navy, unless he has, as a character, increased his skills to a required minimum.

The second chapter is devoted to the art of the con trick. “The Ways of Scheming” is all about pulling the long trick from a planetary to the galactic scale, much in the mode of Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat series or the television series, Firefly. It builds on Thousand Suns’ Social Combat mechanics, with the players needing to set their objectives – rig an election, bring down a government, or conduct corporate espionage, for example; their methods – bribery, extortion, infiltration, surveillance, and so on; and their assets – people, adoration, and so forth before the GM. These factors are used to generate the modifiers that will affect the rolls for the final skill checks. Unfortunately, the article leaves the reader wanting, the problem being the lack of application and the lack of examples, so we never get to see the mechanics working and the author’s intent brought to fruition.

Where the previous “Moving Through The Ranks” is easy to apply to a game, “The Ways of Scheming” is less so, being in places a touch obtuse. There is the obvious use in that any scheme can used as a framework for a campaign, perhaps with the players gaming out individual parts of the scheme, such as breaking into a bank to place a certain piece of evidence. Yet it could have been made obvious and easier to use if there had been a full example provided so that the GM could see a full scheme as the author intended. There is clever intent here, but poor editing has prevented it from being brought to the fore.

With “The Aurigan: Nomads of the Thousand Suns,” Chapter three introduces us to a new alien race. They are a biomechanical arthropod, upright turtle-like species fleeing the death of their home world and travelling aboard their massive starships through Thousand Suns space. Renowned tinkerers with a love of mechanical devices and particularly pocket watches, little is really known about the species and interaction is rare, except the occasional Aurigan which signs on as a passenger aboard commercial vessels. Although details are provided that they can be played as player characters, Aurigans are intended to be used as an NPC encounter, their being too alien for some players to roleplay. To that end, some encounter ideas would have been welcome.

The title of the fourth chapter, “Planets of the Core,” is pretty much self-explanatory, detailing the twenty or so worlds of the Meridian sector. Every planet is given its primary terrain, gravity, climate, atmosphere, government, tech level, and population as well as a quick thumbnail description. The planets themselves are a varied lot, with a cliché or two included, and perhaps could have done with a bit more description than is given. Still, this sector is easy enough to add to an existing game.

Chapters five and six, “Custom Weapons” and “Custom Protection,” are essentially the two sides of the same coin. Their rules enable a GM or player to design new arms and armour, customised or otherwise, beginning with the base concept and technological base before adding refinements. Together these determine cost, weight, damage, rate of fire, and tech level as well as a new value, concealment, for weapons, and armour value, dissipation value (protective against energy weapon fire), weight, bulk, and cost for armour. The system is really easy, so melee weapons and leather armour can easily be created as can advanced plasma rifles and powered battle armour. So for example, here is an attempt to do “Vera,” Jayne’s Callahan full-bore autolock from Firefly. It uses the assault rifle as the basis with the Assault Rifle, Spread Shot, Barrel Extension, and Revolving Magazines refinements to reflect the fact that it can fire both rifle and shotgun ammunition. Its magazines do not revolve, but rather the ammunition type is changed. This is reflected with two sets of stats for the gun. The first is for when it is fired as a rifle, the second when fired as a shotgun.

Callahan full-bore autolock, “Vera”
Damage Value: 6-4
Maximum Damage: 75-/70
Range: 32m-6m
RoF: S/A-S/A
Cost: $2975
Concealment: +5

What the previous chapters did for arms and armour, the seventh, “Robots and Androids,” does for all things robotic. Again it works much the same way, but here the GM selects a technological level or Class for his robot, from the Class V semi-autonomous models up to the synthetics of Class VII and the metallic liquid metal models of Class VIII. The obvious cues for the latter two are the Tyrell Corporation’s Nexus-6 model of Blade Runner and the T-1000 Terminator of the later Terminator movies. These are not just rules for the GM to create and design his own robots and androids, but for a player to create and play a robot character, either a mechanical android or a biological synthetic. Still, ready to play fully designed examples would have been useful.

Chapter eight, “A Space Farer’s Introduction to Lingua Terra,” rounds out Foundation Transmissions. It presents a short guide to the pronunciation of the constructed international language, Esperanto, along with five pages of common words and words pertaining to the Thousand Suns setting. The aim here is not teach either the GM or his players how to speak Esperanto, but rather to help add flavour to said setting with just a little detail.

Physically, Foundation Transmissions is a nice little softback book, with a neat and tidy layout and an array of decent artwork. What lets it down is the editing. Some of the writing should never have made it this far and really should have been sent back to the relevant authors for clarity.

There is a great deal to like about Foundation Transmissions. “Custom Weapons,” “Custom Protection,” and “Robots and Androids” round out the technical aspects of Thousand Suns, whilst other chapters such as “Planets of the Core” and “A Space Farer’s Introduction to Lingua Terra” add to the setting. Although there are places where both a better edit and more detail and examples would have been both welcome and useful, Foundation Transmissions still provides the GM with plenty to work with and use in his game.

Without the West?

The publication of Basic RolePlaying in 2007 by Chaosium, Inc. brought together a number of different rules variants using the Basic RolePlaying System that had long out of print. Together, they provided a set of tools for the GM to do what many had been doing for years – create their own settings using the percentile mechanics. In its trail came a number of setting sourcebooks, many of them only available direct from Chaosium as monographs. Some though, have made it onto the shelves at your local gaming store, of which the latest is Devil’s Gulch: A Basic RolePlaying Historical and Supernatural Wild Western Supplement.

This slim eighty-six page supplement describes a Wild West location typical of the period between 1870 and 1885. More specifically, it describes the main buildings and their inhabitants along the single dirt road that runs through the town. Beyond this it describes the railroad and train station that lie on one border, whilst on its outskirts can be found a mine, a ranch, and a box canyon. The inhabitants include the law, gunfighters, a preacher, the undertaker, various outlaws, the saloon owner, and its resident “soiled dove.” Each location is fully detailed and given a full map and every inhabitant is given a full write-up.

The setting is supported with a set of rules that enable Devil’s Gulch to be run with Basic RolePlaying System. These cover the type of archetypes to be used with the Old West, plus new skills that let a player do all of the type of things he has seen on screen. Primarily this the Gun Spinnin’ and Quick Draw skills, but a variety of manoeuvres are also detailed, from using Two Guns and Fannin’ Your Gun to the Road Agent Spin and the Rifle Spin. Other rules cover the effects of gun smoke, horse and wagon chases, and showdowns. The various weapon types are also discussed. That said, anyone familiar with the Basic RolePlay system via another version of the rules, such as Call of Cthulhu, could run the scenarios included in the supplement.

In addition, Devil’s Gulch is flexible enough that it can be dropped into other genres. The suggestions given include placing it in a steampunk setting on Mars, but it could easily be placed on a frontier planet and be visited by the crew of the Serenity.

At face value, Devil’s Gulch is a very atypical setting. Yet the book gives the option for the GM to move the town from the Old West to the Weird West. This allows him to add elements such as mad science and magic to the setting and thus the players to take roles such as hex masters, mad scientists, medicine men, preachers, and snake oil hustlers. Each has their set of powers, whether it is the preacher’s holy book, the mad scientist’s clockwork and steam driven devices, or the snake oil hustler’s elixirs. In addition, both scenarios have similar options that allow them to be run in the Old West or the Weird West.

The two scenarios are “Wealth & Privilege” and “The Medicine Show.” The first deals with a spoiled brat on the run, while the second exposes a dark period of Devil’s Gulch history. Both scenarios are lengthy and should provide two or three sessions’ worth of gaming. There is also a separate pull out that provides a handout for the second scenario. On the other side of the pull out is shown the map of the town as well as an accompanying illustration. The map is a little difficult to reconcile with the illustration, and it is a pity that the map is done in simple silhouette.

Physically, Devil’s Gulch is clearly written by Troy Wilhelmson. Stef Worthington’s maps are nicely done, if perhaps a little too dark. Where the look of the supplement really shines is in its artwork, Thomas Boatwright’s slightly scratchy style echoing that of the Franco-Belgian comic series, Lucky Luke.

Now whilst Devil’s Gulch contains everything needed to run its scenarios, it is perhaps a bit too concise in other areas. One might suggest that in covering just Devil’s Gulch’s one street is not giving the GM enough information, but that does leave enough room for the GM to develop its side streets. If the GM wants to do that, then I can absolutely recommend The Knuckleduster Cow Town Creator. Yet there are aspects in which the supplement is lacking – primarily historical ones as they relate to the characters. There is no information on the why of character creation, leaving the players and GM to look for the verisimilitude. If I had a recommendation as an easy source for that type of information, it would be the article “Call of Cthulhu in the Wild West: The Good, the Bad, and the Utterly Insane” from Worlds of Cthulhu #2. It is entirely compatible with the Basic RolePlay System mechanics of Devil’s Gulch and has the degree of detail missing in this supplement. Similarly, it needs more rules if the GM wants to handle such Western staples as cattle driving, handing out frontier justice, panning for gold, and so on – and that before you consider the setting’s alternate Weird West possibilities.

Devil’s Gulch: A Basic RolePlaying Historical and Supernatural Wild Western Supplement is not an unlikeable supplement, but it is not a full supplement or a full RPG in the sense that you could run a full Old West campaign with it. For that it needs not just more input from the GM, but more information from other sources. Until then, a GM and his players will get several sessions of entertaining play from the contents of Devil’s Gulch: A Basic RolePlaying Historical and Supernatural Wild Western Supplement.