Ours is the Anarchy

It is the Year of our Lord 1376. England is a land of unrest. The Great Mortality—the Black Death—has swept the country twice in the last three decades and now half of her people are dead. With half of the labourers and serfs who worked the land also dead, labour is much in demand and wages have risen, enriching the working man and so giving him the possibility of improving his life and that of his family. In response, the authorities have passed laws that fix wages at pre-plague rates and made it a crime to refuse work or break a contract, imposing fines and even branding and imprisonment should such laws be broken, in practice applying it to the labourer rather than the labourer and the employer. Sumptuary laws have even been passed to regulate the goods that the increasingly wealthier labourer can consume! In France, King Edward III continues to press his claim to the French throne, but as the French conduct cross-Channel commerce raids, the war is becoming increasingly more expensive maintain, Parliament levying poll taxes upon every adult in the country more than once and sending commissioners from one County to the next in search of those who refuse to pay. In London, the city’s populace resent the presence of foreigners, Flemish weavers in particular, and loath John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, for his support of the religious reformer John Wycliffe, whom they regarded as a heretic, and this will continue upon the death of King Edward III in 1376 and the accession of his grandson, Richard II. The new king is only ten years old and John of Gaunt will go on to serve as his regent for many years. The infamous Peasants’ Revolt led by Wat Tyler is five years away, yet England buckles under the authority of the Crown, the Church, and the Nobility and there are many ready to throw off the shackles of oppression and their desperate despair, to rise up and make England theirs. And when they do, when they drive off their feudal lords and officers of the King, their land is theirs, their land is ‘The Anarchy’.

This is the backdrop to Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG, published following a successful Kickstarter campaign by Three Sail Studios—whose previous roleplaying game was the joyous Mappa Mundi. Taking its name from the road junction where a set of gallows once stood in the old County of Essex where the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 rose, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is a storytelling game of struggle, hope, and community. Of struggle against the adversity of the environment and the enmity of authority, of hope for better future, and in connecting a community having the strength to survive. The players takes the roles of peasantry, tradespersons, and even the intelligentsia, natives to one of the counties of England, confronting the rich and the powerful, bettering the community, attempting to improve their Influence whilst reducing the Control that the authorities hold over the countries, and in the process acquiring retinues and retainers, and from their humble beginnings in a single hundred in one County, the Player Characters will travel to neighbouring hundreds and work to liberate them in a Point-Crawl keyed to themes based on verbs.

Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG, an alternative history roleplaying game, but one which does not ignore the grim realities of history. This means that violence against people and animals, arbitrary punishment, torture and execution, conflict at any and all levels of society, slavery and serfdom, refugee displacement, and sexual violence as a weapon are all part of the realities of the period. Whilst they are part of the setting for Gallows Corner, they are not the focus of it. Where they do factor, it should be as actions or the consequences of actions of the authorities, yet further signs—as if needed—of how little the authorities value the ordinary man or woman, let alone the Player Characters. However, Gallows Corner suggests setting boundaries (or Veils) during Session Zero and having any contentious issues happen off camera and make use of a stop sign (or X Card) in play).

A Player Character has three Experiences—Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual, but at the core of a Player Character is a Trade and a Job. Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG categories its forty-eight Jobs across eight Trades. ‘The Body’ represents those who work their muscles to earn their bread; ‘The Earth’ is made up of those who till the soil, grow the food, and tend to the animals; ‘The Flesh’ consists of those who see the inner workings of bodies and know exactly where to cut, either to kill or to cure; ‘The Hood’ are made up of those who work from the shadows; ‘The Market’ is where deals are made, goods are traded, and coin is earned; ‘The Masque’ is worn by performers and entertainers; ‘The Mind’ involves the learned and the clever; and ‘The Stranger’ is home to outlier, those that survive on the edge of society, often doing the unpleasant jobs that no-one else will. With Jobs such as Servant, Herbalist, Barber-Surgeon, Smuggler, Merchant, Minstrel, Scribe, and Gravedigger there is a distinct hint of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay to the options. Even the Rat-catcher is depicted with a small, vicious dog! However, there is a grimmer tone to Gallows Corner with inclusion of Jobs such as Sex Worker, Marshman, Dung Farmer, and Sin-Eater.

Each Job has four skills. For example, the Rat Catcher has the skills of ‘Cunning’, ‘Good with Traps’, ‘Knows Poisons’, and ‘Terrier Companion’, whilst the Butcher has ‘Anatomy’, ‘Cause of Death’, ‘Precision Cuts’, and ‘Tools of the Trade’. Each represents knowledge or an ability that a Player Character has learned and instinctively understands. Each encompasses only a small area of expertise, but they are open to interpretation and if the Narrator agrees with a suggested interpretation, then that is how they work. In general, they allow a Player Character to undertake a relevant action without the need to roll any dice for a Test, though the Narrator may sometimes state that a Test is required.

To create a character, a player assigns a single eight-sided die to one of his Traits, either Physical, Emotional, or Intellectual. A single six-sided die is assigned to the other two and then also to the character’s Trade and Job. He picks a single skill from the four listed for the Job. The die size for all of a Player Character’s Traits, Trade, and Job can all be increased with experience, but instead of a die increase, a player can pick another Skill. Player Character creation is quick and simple.

Name: Hugo Brackenridge
Trade: Mind d6
Job: Lawyer d6

EXPERIENCES
Physical d6 Emotional d6 Intellectual d8

SKILLS
Good in an Argument

Mechanically, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG uses a dice pool system. When a player wants his character to act and pass a Test, he forms a dice pool starting with one or more of his character’s Experiences and then adding dice for his Trade and his Job, if appropriate. A result of five or more is counted as a success, four or less a failure, and only a single success is required for the Player Character to succeed. Another Player Character can help. This can be to increase the size of the Experience die that the player making the Test is going to be rolling or if appropriate, add a Trade or Job die to his dice pool. Gallows Corner advises the player to advocate for as many dice as he can to form the pool, but since the roleplaying game is narrative-led, a player and his character should ideally rely upon roleplaying and Skills rather than attempting Tests.

The size of a die can also go down as well as up. This may be due to injury or illness and if it falls to a four-sided die, it means that the Player Character cannot succeed with that die and its associated Experience, Trade, or Job, because the minimum needed for a success is five. If the Player Character is solely relying upon that die for a Test, then he is in trouble. In such cases, the player should definitely be trying to increase the size of the dice pool, whether that is trying to use his character’s other Experiences and Trade and Job, along with help from his character’s Retinue and other Player Characters.

The players as a group can also spend ‘Opportunities’ to alter the world around or give an order to members of their Retinue. This might be to send a member of their retinue to scout out a village, to wait in ambush ready to strike at an enemy, or to gather resources or craftsmen to reinforce their camp or improve their community, but they can also be spent to allow a player to bring their character’s Job into play once again.

Combat is quick and deadly. It is played out as a series of opposed Physical Experience rolls, each combatant attempting to reduce his opponent’s condition from ‘Standing’ to ‘Knocked Back’ to ‘Down’, and then ‘Retreating’. This also applies an increasing penalty to the roll. The victor always chooses the outcome, but can also improve his own condition, aid an ally, kill or capture an enemy, and so on.

Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG also advises that a player rely upon his own abilities as much as those of his character, since he will be more aware of the world rather than the character, that collaboration is the key to success, death is likely and combat to be avoided—most of the time, and that they should embrace failure.

Chronologically, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is played out over a series of Seasons and Scenes with Clocks being used to track something that the Player Characters are struggling against, such as being hunted by a local Sheriff's soldiery, attempting to erect fortifications in a hurry, and so on. By undertaking acts of liberation and challenging the power of the state such as writing and spreading mocking songs, disrupting the activities of tax collectors, and even burning the manors of the landed classes, each Player Character garners ‘Influence’, a combination of their fame and notoriety that enables them to do greater and bigger things as it grows. As it rises from zero and ‘Unknown’, all the way up through ‘Spoken Of’, ‘Recognisable’, ‘Well Known’, and ‘Notorious’ to ‘Famous’ and one hundred, a Player Character gains Benefits that can be used once per season, whilst the Narrator gains Detriments or negative events that she can bring into play once per season. For example, a Player Character who has an Influence of ten or more is ‘Spoken Of’ and gains the Benefit that because rumours of his good name are beginning to spread and people are willing to help him, he can turn a failed Test to influence an NPC into a success instead. However, the Narrator can select an NPC known to the Player Character who rejects his radical ideas out of fear for his safety. A Player Character’s Influence can also fall due to failure or defeat.

In addition, the Benefit gained at each rank of Influence, a Player Character can recruit a Retainer to his Retinue, up to a total of five. Each Retainer is an NPC in his own right and created just like a Player Character. Once a Retainer is part of a Retinue, a player and his character gains access to his Experiences, Trade, and Job as well as his skills and in combat, a Retainer contributes his Physical die to the Player Character. Retainers can also be sent off on missions, though this costs ‘Opportunities’ to do so, with the outcome determined by a Test after two or more scenes. There is some scope for troupe-style play here and a player is free to roleplay a Retainer as necessary. However, a Retainer is always a secondary character to a player’s main or perspective character. Should a Player Character die, he can be replaced by a Retainer. Thus, a Player Character’s Retinue is not just a source of replacement characters, but also an extension of his physical capabilities and knowledge.

Whilst each Player Character has his own Influence, they are combined together as the party’s Collective Influence. It is this value that is measured against ‘Control’, which represents the power and domination that the state—the crown, the nobility, and the church—holds over the immediate County or Region and ultimately, over all of England. If the Player Characters’ ‘Collective Influence’ is increased above the ‘Control’ for a County or Region, a Showdown can be staged. This is a significant and ideally cinematic confrontation with the leading antagonist for the County or Region. Now the text suggests that ‘Control’ might be reduced by a single point for writing and spreading mocking songs about the local sheriff, two points for skirmishing soldiers, and four points for attacking and burning manorial holdings, but there is not a useful list that the Narrator can easily reference. Whilst this does allow a Narrator a lot of flexibility, arguably it is too much and some guidance could and should have been included.

Chronologically, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is played out as a ‘Point Crawl’ that scales up from the Hundreds and Liberties which make up each County, and then the Counties that make up a Region, and the Regions which make up England. Each Hundred, Liberty, County, and Region is a Point, a location where there is a problem or situation to resolve and several scenes will play out as the Player Characters attempt to resolve it. The ‘Point Crawl’ is set up by the Narrator. The Narrator selects a County and determines its degree of ‘Control’, based on the number of Hundreds and Liberties plus a die roll for NPC antagonist in charge, and then assigns a single ‘Verb’ to each of the County’s Hundreds. For example, ‘Destroy’, ‘Entertain’, ‘Fight’, ‘Grow’, ‘Organise’, ‘Play’, ‘Sin’, and ‘Steal’. These are prompts around which the Narrator can set up a situation or storyline and they can come from the players—indicating what type of stories they want to tell in playing Gallows Corner, chosen by the Narrator, or selected from the suggestions given and developed in the rulebook as potential related scenes. A Clock is also set up which tracks the reactions of the authorities to the Player Characters’ rebellious activities.

Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG includes descriptions of London and of the thirty-nine counties of England in the late fourteenth century. London and its districts are given more detail, whereas the counties receive a page each. This gives a broad overview and feel for the county along with an encounter that the Narrator can develop into something more and one or more reasons why the peoples of that county might want to revolt. Each region is also given a scenario for a total of eight. There is an NPC generator which can also be used to create potential Retainers as well as antagonists.

The Narrator will need to download the forms for the different Region and Counties she plans to use. These are not in the core rulebook itself, but it would have been nice if the boxed set for Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG had included them, perhaps in a forms booklet that would also be available separately.

Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG makes clear that the Player Characters are both custodians and victims of England and working towards becoming more of the former and away from the latter. That ‘Point Crawl’ is a way to explore England starting from the very small and local and scaling up, with the surrounding villages, towns, and counties reacting in response to the actions of the Player Characters, but also having their own stories going on. The advice suggests that the Narrator should not get too bogged down in the historical details of the period, since the roleplaying game is intended to be an alternate history. There is some detail in the London and County descriptions and there is a section describing the English which includes details of various NPC types by class, but nevertheless, Gallows Corner is a roleplaying game that will benefit from some historical research if just to add a degree of verisimilitude.

Physically, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is a stunning looking book. It is easy to read, and as good as the production values are, what shines is its artwork. It is brutally bright and beautiful in its depiction of the hope and hardship of the setting.

Unfortunately, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG does not feel quite complete as a roleplaying game. There could have been clearer and fuller examples of set-up and play and the guidance on handling certain aspects of the roleplaying game, such as the reductions in ‘Control’ for certain actions by the Player Characters, that would have made the roleplaying game easier to grasp and easier to run, could have been given. Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is not a complex roleplaying game by any means and anyone with any storytelling game experience will have no problems either running it or playing it. Anyone with less experience, perhaps attracted by the high production values of the roleplaying game, may have more of a problem. Overall, Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is just underwritten enough in places to make it not quite as accessible as it should be.

Gallows Corner – A Peasants’ Revolt RPG is magnificently ambitious in its scope and parochially English in its setting and tone. This is a gloriously brutal, beautiful roleplaying game that with the right Narrator and players is going to tell a great campaign of hardship and hope.

Memory & Magic

The coven is where the sisterhood is safe, where memories can be made, where its members can rejoice in the company of each other, where threats can be faced together, and dangers overcome, even if that is at the cost of memories. For memories represent power. But give up too many memories, use too much power, and the afterlife may become a dark and evil existence. This is the underlying story to Last Sabbath, a storytelling game of the history of a coven of witches and warlocks. The history will take them from their calling and formation of the coven through the appearance of a threat which imperils the coven, the discovery of how that threat can be defeated, and ultimately a confrontation with that threat and the aftermath of that confrontation. As the history progresses, the events and Memories are recorded in a diary. To defeat the threats and dangers they may face, the Witches may draw upon these Memories or their life sources to power charms, spells, and incantations. As a result, they will lose the Memories or age minutes, hours, or years, and potentially die in the process. They will have an existence in the afterlife, but the number of Memories lost determines the nature of that existence. A few and the Witch will return as a familiar to the next generation, too many and the Witch becomes an evil ghost!

Last Sabbath is from the Italian publisher, Officina Meningi. It is very rules light and can be played as a group or solo, and is designed to be played without a Game Master. As a solo roleplaying game, Last Sabbath is a journalling game, whereas in a group, the journal, or diary, is shared. It is played over the course of seven Scenes—‘The Calling’, ‘Initiation’, ‘Danger’, ‘Research’, ‘Revelation’, ‘Threat’, and ‘Epilogue’—which takes the Witches through their story and the story of the coven. There is no setting beyond the fact that there is a coven and a threat, the players being free to create their own during the first scene, whether that is Witches at a school of magic, a coven fleeing the Salem witch trials, or modern day coven protecting a small town.

The Scenes are further subdivided into Rounds, either three, five, or seven, depending upon the length of game that the players want to play. Each Scene is driven by three Leading Questions and six Prompts, the latter intended to be rolled on a six-sided die, or alternatively a Divination, of which four methods are given. The push here is to use the Divination means as six prompts is not enough and does not offer enough variability for repeat play. The Divination can also be used as means to suggest a resolution also. In each Round, the players take it in turns to narrate the Story from their Witches’ perspective, inspired by the Prompt or Divination. Interaction between the players and Witches is limited, a player and Witch only able to respond directly to the narration of another player and Witch when it is their turn. At the end of her narration for a Round, a player notes a Record of it in the diary, and at the end of the Scene, the player marks one of these Records, whether it is personal or pertains to the whole coven, as a Memory. As the coven faces greater dangers and the threat, these memories can be consumed to cast ever increasing more effective magic—Charms, Spells, and Incantations. Casting an Incantation has the greatest effect, such as regenerating the whole of a burned down forest, exorcising an ancient evil, or sending another Witch through time, but also the greatest cost, either terms of Memories or the Witch’s life itself. It represents the greatest sacrifice and will likely come in the penultimate Scene, ‘Threat’, when the coven will confront the danger at the heart of their story. The ‘Epilogue’ has only one Round, in which the players each narrates what happens to their Witches, including those who died, in a single Record.

The last quarter of Last Sabbath is devoted to divination methods. Four are given—Tarot, Rune Stones, Mikado, and Tea Leaves—along with instructions on how to use them and then interpret the readings as prompts for each scene. Some are easier to use than others, and some will take longer to use and interpret, and so may slow game play down. The latter is less of an issue in solo play, but in group play, it may become a problem. The Tarot cards are likely to be more familiar and easier to interpret, whilst the Runes are more flexible and open to interpret. The Mikado is likely the least familiar and will take some adjusting to. Which leaves the Tea Leaves, the most ambiguous and most open to interpretation, but also the most charming and relaxing since it involves making tea in a teapot and drinking the tea to find the results. All include examples of interpretations. What might have been useful is a bibliography of books consulted for these methods. That said, they offer a greater variability than most journalling games do, since the prompts they provide are open to wider interpretation.

Although Last Sabbath is described as being suitable for being played as a solo journalling game, this aspect of its play is not explored beyond a single paragraph. The lack of advice on this and other aspects of play is disappointing. Last Sabbath is not a long roleplaying game, especially given that its lats quarter is given over to alternative, but thematically appropriate means of generating prompts. Arguably, one of these means could have been dropped in favour of more advice and support, especially for solo play. Or simply, the page count increased from forty-eight to sixty plages.

Physically, Last Sabbath is boldly presented in splashes of red and black with stunning artwork. The artwork really is good, but it does not always feel appropriate. The artist—Loputyn—is noted as being part of the Lolita fashion moment, and this is reflected in the art style of Last Sabbath. It means that the witches depicted are young, and often nude. The artwork is not explicit, but because it only depicts the Witches as young girls and not a wide range of ages, the look of the roleplaying game does lean towards the prurient. This is in contrast to the writing which states that the Player Characters can be warlocks as well as witches and that each player is free to decide who her witch is. As a consequence, there is a dissonance between what Last Sabbath is about and how it looks, such that it is either going to put off the audience it is intended for or attract the attention of an audience for whom it was not intended.

Where Last Sabbath is at its best is in the inclusion of its four real-world divination tools as a means of creating prompts and driving the story forward, as they bring a physicality and a verisimilitude to the play and give the players something to interact with. Yet ultimately, Last Sabbath is underwritten as a roleplaying game and definitely as a solo journalling game. It does not provide enough structure or advice on how to set-up or play the game, relying instead upon the players to provide that, giving them more work than is really necessary. With that in mind, Last Sabbath is best suited experienced players who can overcome its issues.

Relatives at Risk

Nephews in Peril: A Collection of New Mysteries in BRINDLEWOOD BAY is a companion volume to Brindlewood Bay: A Dark & Cozy Mystery Game. Published by The Gauntlet, Brindlewood Bay upended the traditional concept of murder mystery scenarios in roleplaying and changed what we play. In the traditional murder mystery scenario, the Keeper has the answers to hand—the victim, the suspects, the culprit, the means, and the motive—and the players and their characters have to deduce which of these is correct. In Brindlewood Bay, there is no set solution, but there are plenty of suspects and motives, and it is up to the players and their characters to hypothesise who the culprit is and why he committed the murder, and put it to the test. If passes, the murder mystery is solved. If not, the players and their characters must continue their sleuthing. Plus, the players are doing this with elderly female amateur detectives as their characters, such as Jessica Fletcher and Miss Marple, for example. Brindlewood Bay changed how we thought about investigative scenarios in roleplaying and how we played them. Besides the rules, Brindlewood Bay: A Dark & Cozy Mystery Game also detailed numerous murder mysteries, the Dark Conspiracy behind them that threatens the future of the quiet New England tourist spot, and a little about the town itself. Nephews in Peril: A Collection of New Mysteries in BRINDLEWOOD BAY presents the Keeper and her players—and their Mavens—with even more of this.

Nephews in Peril: A Collection of New Mysteries in BRINDLEWOOD BAY gives the Keeper a total of twenty new Mysteries, seven of which are of a new type of Mystery, which change the way in which Brindlewood Bayy is played—ever so slightly, and details more of Brindlewood Bay itself. It does not waste any time beyond simply listing the contents and describing the first mystery. After all, the Brindlewood Bay Keeper already knows what she is getting as far as the content goes. Each follows the same format as the core rulebook, with sections labelled, ‘Presenting the Mystery’, ‘Moments’ for various particular scenes, ‘Suspects’ complete with their quotes, ‘Locations’ with a guide on how to ‘Paint the Scene’ at each, ‘Clues’, and ‘Void Clues’, the latter connecting the mystery to the Dark Conspiracy playing out behind the scenes in the town. Also included is a ‘Complexity’ value, which represents the number of elements of the solution that the players and their Mavens need to discuss and hypothesise before they can make the ‘Theorise Move’ without a penalty. Some of the Mysteries do include elements that only come into play once parts of the Dark Conspiracy have been revealed, so the Keeper will need to pick which ones she wants to run and when. Further, some also have special rules, such as that for Brindlewood County Charity Poker Tournament which the Mavens can enter in the first mystery, ‘Dead Man’s Hand’.

The mysteries vary in tone. So, ‘Dead Man’s Hand’ takes place at a charity poker tournament, whereas ‘Lies and Dolls, or A Very Brief Tenure’, in which a corpse is discovered at the Museum of Brindle-Dolls, home to a collection of historic, locally-made dolls, and is thus a bit creepy. There is a sequel to ‘The Great Brindlewood Bay Bake-Off’ , with the Mavens again judges, but this time at Faversham’s Favourite Fudge competition at a farmer’s market in a neighbouring town, in the process, expanding the world of Brindlewood Bay, if only a little. The title of the latter, ‘Fudge, Jury, and Executioner’ is in the running for the best named mystery in the book, although ‘The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soulless’ and ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Murder’ are almost as good. There are classic locations for murder mysteries too such as auctions, high school reunions, and carnivals, but also odder ones too, such as at a high school wrestling tournament. One of the most potentially fun is ‘A Throng of Vice and Liars’, set at the Mavens’ own headquarters, The Candlelight Booksellers which is hosting fantasy author, Herb L. L. Paxton, currently facing some criticism about how long it is taking him to finish the sixth volume of what was originally planned to be a trilogy. It very knowingly and amusingly pokes at fandom and fantasy, both onscreen and on the page.

Seven of the Mysteries are ‘Sweeps Week Mysteries’. These are designed emulate the type of stunt episodes of a television series in the USA in the eighties and nineties, typically involving a weird plotline or celebrity guest star, intended to attraction higher advertising revenue. In Nephews in Peril, ‘Sweeps Week Mysteries’ are intended to be played late in Dark Conspiracy campaign, as Mysteries after the campaign has been completed, or as one-off Mysteries. ‘Sweeps Week Mysteries’ emphasis the supernatural rather than murder, and to account for this, instead of solving a murder, the Mavens are answering key questions about the mystery. Further, there are limitations on the mechanics, most notably negating the effect of several Maven Moves, removing the Occult Move, and the replacement of the ‘Theorise’ Move with the ‘Answer A Question’ Move. Where in normal murder mysteries, there are Suspects, here there are Side Characters, and where in normal murder mysteries, solving a mystery would be enough, here the Mavens get rewards. These can come in the form of new Moves, recurring Side Characters, decorations for the Cosy Little Place, and so on.

The ‘Sweeps Week Mysteries’ start out with the amusingly named ‘The Hex Files’, which finds the Mavens on a road trip to Who Dunnit? Con, a mystery book convention in California when they discover an overturned car in a ditch outside of Devilwood, New Mexico—a New Mexico which looks surprisingly like Vancouver—and it so happens that there are bodies of two dead FBI agents in the vehicle with files about missing persons on the road on their person. ‘Dressed to Kill’ shifts the mystery to the Peak District in the United Kingdom, whilst in ‘Let the Night One In’, the Mavens are invited to visit another famous crime writer, this time living in an isolated town in the Canadian north in deep winter when the sun never rises and people are going missing… There is a good mix of mystery types to these ‘Sweeps Week Mysteries’ and they show off the flexibility of the Brindlewood Bay mystery format, though with some mechanical changes.

The third part of Nephews in Peril is devoted to ‘The Village of Brindlewood Bay’. This expands greatly upon the setting presented in the core rulebook that add a mixture of new and old businesses, old and new locations. So, there is Historic Brindlewood Congregational Church, The First Well Historic Restoration Trust, and Minuteman Memorial Statue versus the Foam coffee house and Nerdcore, which caters to nerd culture including players of Sorcery: the Coalescence! Each entry includes a description that explains what it does and its role in the community, details of its proprietors and employees, and with ‘Pose a Question’, a reason why a Maven might visit. The sense of Brindlewood Bay as a place is further developed in the last part of the supplement is ‘A Cozy Little Place’ which gives advice for the Keeper in bringing the town to live and playing up its cosy nature, developing each Maven’s attachment to both her home and community. The aim is to provide a counterpoint to the rash of murders that beset the town and the growing realisation that something else is going on with the Dark Conspiracy. The advice is optional, but if used it can enhance the setting of Brindlewood Bay.

Physically, Nephews in Peril is clean and cosy, and thus in keeping with the main rulebook. It is well written and engaging, but the illustrations by Cecilia Ferri are stunning, veering between showing the Mavens joyously having the time of their cosy lives, not just in Brindlewood Bay, but around the world.

Although entirely optional, Nephews in Peril: A Collection of New Mysteries in BRINDLEWOOD BAY can be both expand the play of Brindlewood Bay: A Dark & Cozy Mystery Game and continue its play even after the Dark Conspiracy at its heart has been confronted and thwarted and the campaign is over. Nephews in Peril: A Collection of New Mysteries in BRINDLEWOOD BAY simply gives you more. More mysteries and more cosiness and more of Brindlewood Bay itself, but also a slightly different way to way to play which remains faithful to the inspiration for the roleplaying game itself.

Jeffin’ Chaos

In 1994, Earth was under attack. A sociopathic physicist from World War II was sending creatures enhanced with psychic and biomechanical powers from the planet she had made her home, to wreak havoc and take control. Earth responded by psychically sending its own agents to strike at the physicist’s operations. However, due to the inaccuracy of the technology, the agents found themselves not in control of an alien body each, but rather in control of a single body collectively, constantly vying for control as they took the fight to the enemy. In 2026, the Earth is still under attack and under threat of invasion—and not all of the hive-mind aliens beamed from another world are not happy about it. They occupy the same body, they all have different objectives, but some want to go home and some want to stay once they have completed their missions. The body is called The Jeff. They do not have exact control of The Jeff and they do not fully understand the world where they have been sent. There is the possibility that the Humans around The Jeff will realise that The Jeff is not Jeff, but something else. Especially once Jeff starts using alien powers. Then chaos will happen. Humans will panic. Alien hunters will appear. The Jeff might fail.

So, this is not actually a description of the same roleplaying game. The first is a description of Khaotic, published in 1994 by Marquee Press. The second and more recent is The Jeff Paradox. This is a weird, alien invasion roleplaying game published by Critical Kit Ltd, best known for Be Like A Crow – A Solo RPG and Aces Over the Adriatic: A Solo RPG. In The Jeff Paradox, the players each controls a Node, a fragment of an alien hive mind, but with their own goals, hidden skills, and some of Jeff’s alien powers, such as Shape-Shifting, Enhanced Strength, Speed, and Memory Wipe. The Jeff has been sent to explore the Earth and finds itself in an area where there are a lot of Humans—a shopping centre, a railway station, a high street, a theatre, and so on. Each player will set his Node’s own secret agendas and from those the Game Master will sketch out an environment where those agendas can potentially be achieved. The Jeff Paradox is designed for three or more players, one of whom will be the Game Master, a six-sided die, and twenty-five Influence Tokens per player. The Jeff Paradox concludes when The Jeff dies, is fully exposed as an alien construct, returns home or permanently settles on Earth (as decided by the Game Master), or the players run out of Influence Tokens. It is possible for a player to win in The Jeff. This is based on the number of goals achieved by his Node.

A Node is simply defined. It has a mundane skill, an Alien ability, and is allied with a faction—Homeward or Earthbound—set by the Game Master. The Node also has three goals, Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary. These are worth three, two, and one points when completed respectively, and can actually be achieved multiple times, by any player. Which means that a rival Node can score points for another!

Node X&P*%X9

Faction: Earthbound

Alien Ability: Telekinesis

Skill: Administration

Primary Goal: Find out what the Chester-Perry Conglomerate actually does

Secondary Goal: Track everyone who goes into the stationary cupboard

Tertiary Goal: Eat Maccaroni Cheese

The Jeff also requires some set-up by the Game Master, who defines the environment which The Jeff will be exploring. This is based upon the goals that the players have set for their Nodes. The environment should be relatively small, but have scope for the goals to be achieved, hopefully with some crossover between the Nodes. In play, the Game Master tracks three factors. One is the Faction Alignment Slider, which tracks which faction is winning and done is in secret. The other two are the Chaos Counter and the Alien Exposure Level. The Chaos Counter increases for failed actions and when it reaches ten, The Jeff has a chaotic breakdown and the Alien Exposure Level increases. The Alien Exposure Level also increases when Humans witness the use of Alien Abilities or odd behaviour by The Jeff and may ultimately trigger the appearance of the Men in Black hunting aliens…

The Jeff Paradox is played in a series of scenes. Each scene, the players will bid for control of The Jeff with their Influence Tokens. The winner narrates what he wants The Jeff to do in that scene. If it requires a die roll, a roll of six automatically succeeds; a roll of three, four, or five only succeeds if it involves the Node’s Mundane Skill or Alien Ability; and a roll or one or two always fails—humorously, the Chaos Counter increases by one, and the Game Master narrates the outcome. Then the players bid for control again. Notably, unsuccessful bids do not mean that Influence Tokens are lost, so that players who do not take control early on have a greater chance of doing so later in the game.

As much as the players and their Nodes want to succeed, failure will push The Jeff Paradox forward. It raises the Chaos Counter and subsequently, the Alien Exposure Level. When the Chaos Counter is filled, the Game Master is encouraged to alter the situation, introduce chaos, increase the consequences, and so on. This is, of course, where much of its humour will come from.

Although The Jeff Paradox includes advice for the Game Master on set-up, there is little in the way of advice on running the game. It is a fairly simple storytelling roleplaying game, but the lack of advice here still makes it better suited to the experienced Game Master. The other issues with The Jeff Paradox are to do with game set-up. There is a break in the flow of the game between players creating Nodes with their goals and the Game Master sketching out an environment where those might be achieved. An example, ready-to-play environment (or two), complete with goals for the Nodes might have been useful and would have made game set-up faster. However, an experienced Game Master should be able to overcome these issues. For convention plays of The Jeff Paradox, the Game Master might want to prepare Nodes with goals, skills, and Alien Abilities and an environment ahead of time.

Physically, The Jeff Paradox is an easy read and cleanly laid out. It is printed white on black, so may not be easy to read for everyone.

The Jeff Paradox is an entertaining roleplaying game in which the players need to explore the Human world whilst balancing the need to hide his alien nature and continue appearing Human, but perhaps needing to use his alien abilities to achieve his goals. It is good for the occasional play through and with some preparation good for conventions too.

—oOo—

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

Therapy & Terror

What if the monsters today sent young men and women off on pointless wars of aggression and pride? What if the monsters today sat at their keyboards and spread hate and lies—and were even paid to do it? What if the monsters today printed or broadcast hate and division in the name of patriotism? What if the monsters today refused life improving and even life-saving medical care because it was deemed too expensive and people suffered because of it? What if the monsters today took hostages for political gain? What if the monsters today poisoned wells and befouled the waters because it was profitable? What if the monsters today were in positions of power and influence, what would happen to the monsters of old? The monsters from under the bed. The monsters from folktales. The monsters from legends. The monsters from just at the edge of the shadows? The monsters reduced to entertainment on screens big and small, in books on the bestseller lists? Would they even be monstrous at all? And if they cannot be monsters as they once were, what will they do?

In Mansters, you roleplay one of these monsters. Classic, even universal monsters. The Vampire, the Witch, the Werewolf, the Mummy, the Not-Frankenstein, the Ghost, the Zombie. Monsters who have lost what they once were, that is, scary, yet they still have the same powers for which they were known. Monsters who in attempting to understand why the world has changed and why humans are no longer scared of them, have lost part of what made them monstrous. And have thus become depressed at their loss of status and loss of opportunity to embrace their true, monstrous natures. Since they are trying to understand humans, they do what every human would do and that is to seek therapy. Fortunately, Doctor Lector runs Depressives Anonymous at which every monster can unburden himself and come to terms with the world that he finds himself in. He also finds an outlet for his monstrousness, seeking the evil men and women of the world and striking fear into them, to prove himself what he once was.

Mansters: Fight Against the Real Monsters of the World is a storytelling game, a satire upon horror stories and the modern political and financial worlds. Published following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is from Black Lantern, the Greek publisher best known for the Soulmist, the post-apocalyptic setting of a world literally divided into two by darkness and light, written for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. The aim of the Player Characters—or Monsters—in the game is restore balance in the world, both internally and externally. Externally, they want to return a sense of fear to the world, but keep themselves unknowable. There is a Veil between the ordinary world of humans and the world of Monsters, the Monsters living as ordinary humans on one side and unleashing, even revelling in, their monstrous nature on the other side. A Monster can draw upon his monstrous nature to achieve strange and arcane feats, but pierce that Veil too often and too readily, and a Doom may befall upon him. Internally, they want to understand humans better and restore their self-respect. So, they set out to stop those in power and control who spread fear, uncertainty, and hatred, and commit crimes that go unpunished, so that ultimately, humans will fear monsters.

A Monster in Mansters is first defined by his Abilities and Skills. There are three Abilities—Body, Mind, and Heart—and each Ability has four associated skills. Each Ability is represented by a circle, which is divided into four quarters, or Hacks, and each Hack into two Slices, so that an Ability has four Hacks and eight Slices. Similarly, each Skill can be divided into four Hacks and eight Slices. He will also have a Monster type—Ghost, Mummy, Not-Frankenstein, Vampire, Werewolf, Witch, or Zombie, a Charisma, and a Flaw, two more Banes, and a starting Monstrosity Level. The Charisma is the Monster’s positive quirk, ability, or power; the Flaw a negative, limiting trait; and Banes the aspects of the Monster which will impede him. Some Banes are mandatory, whilst the others a player can choose.

To create a Monster, a player selects a Monster type and then Charisma and a Flaw, two more Banes, and a starting Monstrosity Level. Each of his Abilities starts at two Hacks and he can then assign a further two Hacks. He then determines the number of Slices his Monster has in each Ability and assigns that number of Hacks to the four Skills associated with the Ability. The process is quick and simple.

Dirk Fordice
Type: The Ghost
Charisma: Mind Over Matter
Flaw: Incognito Window
Banes: It’s Cold Out There, Chatterbox

Body 2 (4) – Fight 1, Stealth 2, Shoot 0, Handle 1
Mind 3 (6) – Knowledge 1, Perception 2, Investigation 2, Politics 1
Heart 3 (6) – Manipulate 2, Insight 2, Intimidate 1, Streetwise 1

Mansters uses what it calls the Hack & Slice System. It makes clear that it is not a ‘hack & slash’ roleplaying game. To have his Monster undertake an action, a player will roll either a number of six-sided dice equal to the number of Hacks his Monster has in an Ability or the number of Hacks in an Ability and a Skill. The aim is to roll successes, that is, rolls of five or more. A Difficult task would require two successes for a Monster to succeed, whilst an ‘Are you insane?’ task would need four. To make a task easier, a player can spend Slices. A Slice spent from an Ability lowers the number of Successes required to succeed, whereas a Slice spent from a Skill a reroll of any dice that have not rolled Successes. A short rest will restore some, but not all Slices, whereas a long rest of several days under the care of Doctor Lector will restore them all.

Confrontations can be physical, mental, or social. They are opposed rolls, with the winner inflicting damage equal to number of Successes rolled more than the defender. Each point of damage inflicted removes one Slice, whether that is physical damage from Body, mental damage from Mind, and social damage from Heart. If a combatant rolls two Successes more than his opponent, he gains the Edge. This applies to both the Monster and the NPC, and gives limited narrative control to the combatant with the Edge. For the Monster, the plater decides what happens and for his opponent, the Doctor—as the Game Master is known—decides. If a roll is failed, it adds to the Monster’s ‘Skutendo’ clock.

When a Monster wants to use one of his Monster Superpowers, his player makes a Monstrosity roll. This is equal to the Monster’s Monstrosity Level. If the number of Successes rolled is equal to the Difficulty of the particular Monster Superpower, it is activated. However, this is not easy and it has consequences. A higher Monstrosity Level means that the roll is more likely to succeed, but a high Monstrosity Level will add even more to the Monster’s ‘Skutendo’ clock. A player can choose to lower the Difficulty by expending Ability Hacks, but this will lead to exhaustion if done too often. A player is thus forced to make a choice and as much as Monster strives for some kind of balance in game, there is no balance here. The consequence is to add to the Monster’s ‘Skutendo’ clock and also to the Doctor’s ‘D(oo)M’ Clock.

So what is Skutendo? It represents unlucky events that occur near the Monster, rolled randomly. For example, it could be ‘The Little Cousin’ in which the Monster’s aunt asks him to look after his cousin or a ‘Monster Movie Craze’ in which people start dressing up and acting as the monster, making it more difficult for him to intimidate anyone. It is triggered when the Monster’s ‘Skutendo’ clock is filled and then cleared again. When it is triggered it, it also adds to the ‘D(oo)M’ Clock. This tracks the likelihood of Hunters turning up to look for the Monsters, the Slices from the ‘D(oo)M’ Clock being spent by the Doctor to bring them into play.

They include the sibling monster hunters, the Losechester Sisters, Van Helsing, and Scrood-Be-U, a gang of monster hunters which travels in a van called the Misery Machine and whose members benefit from eating Scrood-be-Snacks. Antagonists in Mansters are talked about in terms of archetypes (as are the Player Characters). These consist of Mr. Moneybags, The Man in the High Chair, the Long Arm of the Law, the Underworld, and so on. These are supported by detailed examples, such as Elton Mask for the Mr. Moneybags. It is here in the naming references that Mansters best and most obviously shows its satire. There is some advice for the Doctor, but it is very light. There is, though, an introductory adventure in which the Monsters investigate a landlord who is evicting all of his tenants to turn a block of flats into short stays for Airbnb.

One issue with the scenario is that it does not fully showcase all of the roleplaying game’s mechanics since a Hunter is not intended to appear as the ‘D(oo)M’ Clock fills. This is disappointing, but it means that the Doctor can save Mansters’ Hunters for a scenario of her own. Oddly, it does introduce another mechanic, ‘Initiative Points’, which essentially tracks the effects of the Monsters’ actions and determines how well they have done at the conclusion. What this means is that it is not entirely the typical adventure the Doctor might expect as an introductory adventure for Mansters when it comes to showing the rules in action. This does not mean that the actual adventure itself is bad as it is otherwise enjoyable and nicely detailed. It also showcases how a typical adventure starts with the Monsters all attending Doctor Lector’s Depressives Anonymous sessions, which are as much social events as they are therapy sessions. Despite the name, the Doctor is not evil, but part of later therapy sessions will involve some reflection of the adventure or situation that just happened. These post-investigation/post-defeat the banality of evil session are also where the players expend Experience Points. This has the potential for some interesting roleplaying scenes if the Doctor and players want them.

Unfortunately, the rulebook does not list the experience point costs for improving the Monsters. Nor does it list the Monstrosity Levels for each type of Monsters. Nor does it really explore how a Monster’s Monstrosity Level goes up or down. In fact, only the Vampire has a Bane which can increase his Monstrosity Level. Instead, Experience Points are intended to be spent on permanently lowering the Difficulty of activating a Monster’s powers. Ultimately, it may be up to the Doctor to decide, depending upon a Monster’s actions, whether his Monstrosity Level goes up or down. Mansters should have explored this aspect of its design and developed mechanics for it.

Physically, Mansters is well presented. The artwork is fun, capturing the tedious normality of the Monsters’ lives versus their true nature. The writing could have been clearer in places and it is repetitive in others. The cover also suggests that monsters other than the ones given in the book can be played when that is not the case.

Mansters does come as a boxed set. In addition to the rulebook, the box also contains a set of dice, a deck of ‘Skutendo’ cards, Monster portfolios for each Monster type, and oddly, a set of Monster-themed coasters and a set of Monster-themed bookmarks! One advantage of the boxed set is that the Monster portfolios do give each Monster’s starting Monstrosity Level.

There can be no doubt that the intent of Mansters is good, a satire of classic monsters versus the banality of modern live and the banality of modern evil, and of old evil versus new evil. Unfortunately, Mansters does not quite achieve what aims for. Mansters can be played as is, but the lack of interplay with and of potential to shift the Mansters’ Monstrosity Levels means the roleplaying game’s intended imbalance between the Monsters’ everyday, humdrum human existence and their inhuman, monstrous nature cannot be explored as it really should.

Extra! Extra!

What initially stands out about Deadline – A Clockwork Press: A News-Chronicling & Map-Making TTRPG is its physical presence. It consists of what appears to be a tabloid newspaper that comes in an envelope of its own. So, it has a slightly rough feel to it, even a cheapness to it. However, because what that quality hides is a rather engaging storytelling in which the players get together and create a city and tell its story—or at least the stories that are reported in its newspapers. This is the simple set-up for Deadline – A Clockwork Press, a map-making and storytelling—or rather story reporting—game. In a single session, the players create a city whose origins are medieval and propel it forward into an age of steam-powered industry, corruption, and rebellion, plus a pinch of the arcane. Once that is done, they take it in turns to develop and report stories that explore the city, investigate the benefits and detriments of the new industries, uncover that corruption, and perhaps get a little ensorcelled along the way. It is published by The Wanderer’s Tome, best known for Flabbergasted!A Comedy Roleplaying Game inspired by Jeeves and Wooster and Fawlty Towers, and perhaps could be used to create a city for that roleplaying game as an alternate setting. Deadline – A Clockwork Press is inspired by cities such as Pratchett’s Ankh-Morpork and Lovecraft’s Arkham, and Dunwall and Midgar from the Dishonoured and Final Fantasy VII computer games respectively. It designed to be played by up to four players, but can be played solo. It can also be used to create cities where steampunk and magic is rife for other roleplaying games, to create a city that can have stories written about it, or it can simply be an exercise in creativity and storytelling with geography for a single afternoon.

Deadline – A Clockwork Press: A News-Chronicling & Map-Making TTRPG comes as a twenty-four page newspaper. The players will need one twelve-sided, two six-sided dice, and a twenty-sided die as well as pens and pencils in a variety of colours. In addition, the players will need a City Record (broad)sheet upon which they can record its political climate, power source, primary industry, and arcane influence along with its districts and factions. Plus, a sheet upon which they can draw the map of the city. It is played in two phases, the Establishment Phase and the Chronicling Phase.

In the Establishment Phase, the players discuss what elements of the city interest them and the tone that they want to set. Then they take it in turn to roll for the city environment, its eight districts, political climate, power source, primary industry, arcane influence, notable features, and lastly, they name it. Some prompt a player to draw another element on the map. For example, a crater city is located in the crater formed by an ancient meteor impact with the crater’s wall forming a natural defence and then the player is directed to draw the crater’s edge as the limits of the city. Others prompt a player to answer questions, such as for the city’s primary and trade being arcane research, explaining what areas of arcane research are conducted in the city. The arcane influence is where it begins to get a bit weird, with entries such as ‘Echoes of Past Lives’, ‘Eternal Fog’, and ‘Eldritch Horrors’. Possible notable features include gardens, bridges, fighting arenas, clock towers, and more, and the players add two of these. At the last step of process, there is a helpful table for naming the city. By the end of the Establishment Phase, the players will have created a fully fashioned city with notable buildings and geographical features and more, but none of this is set in stone, the players being free to adjust their creation to their satisfaction.

Then, in the Chronicling Phase, the players get to play with their city. They work as journalists, writing the headlines for events which occur in the city. They need to decide what type of newspaper they work for and what its outlook is and which group in society it usually aligns with. (This also lends itself to the possibility that each player could be writing headlines for a different newspaper rather than the same one, though this is not explored in Deadline – A Clockwork Press.) The Chronicling Phase consists of a series of News Cycles, typically one, two, or three on a playthrough. Each News Cycle consists of six headlines, beginning with an Arcane Headline, followed by four Minor Headlines, and finished with a Major Headline. The Minor Headlines can be political, environmental, unrest, culture & society, infrastructure & innovation, and outsider influence. For example, an Arcane Headline might be ‘Magic Users Hunted’, followed by the Minor Headlines of ‘Civic Protest’, ‘Aberrant Weather’, ‘Masked Vigilante’, and ‘World Showcase’, before ending with the Major Headline of ‘Public Execution’. At each stage, the players come up with headlines and sub-headlines for their newspapers and even though there is a table of suggested headline formats, this is actually not that easy. After all, this is normally the purview of professional journalists and editors, not someone sitting down to play a game and tell a story. This does not mean that it cannot be fun though.

Physically, Deadline – A Clockwork Press is very nicely, thematically presented as if it was a newspaper. Alongside the multiple tables of prompts there are engaging adverts that definitely feel as if they should be in an actual nineteenth century newspaper. The only issue with Deadline – A Clockwork Press is its physical nature. In newspaper format, it cannot avoid feeling flimsy.

What is interesting about Deadline – A Clockwork Press is that although by the end of a playthrough of its two phases, the result is twofold, one of which is not what you would expect. The obvious one is the creation of a city and its geography; the less obvious one is its history. The city has a history because it is being generated during the play, but only in the broadest of strokes and instead of the history being recorded as is, it is being reported upon and an opinion being formed on each and every incident. The play is not to create history so much as reportage. There is still room to create that history in detail, though perhaps away from the game itself, because that is not what the players are creating in play. Plus, more reportage in the game if the players want to continue with more playthroughs of the Chronicalling phase as many times as they want.

Deadline – A Clockwork Press: A News-Chronicling & Map-Making TTRPG combines an utterly charming physical presence with an intriguingly different approach to map-making and storytelling. It is an entertaining process and the results have potential to be explored beyond the confines of the roleplaying game’s headlines.

Grok?!ier

Grok is a monument to the folly of man. Technomancers pushed their study of the sciences and the arcane to its utmost and saw a way to harness the universe itself. For then Grok was a hollow world, formed around the rippling black mass of negative space known as the Voidstar from which the Technomancer were able to draw mana that in turn was used to develop trans-dimensional travel and contract the Simulacrum, a jigsaw-like spherical space station in turn encapsulated and revolved about the planet—just as Grok revolved around the Voidstar. Man entered a golden age of power and prosperity and Grok welcomed visitors from across the dimensions. Then a malfunction occurred in the harness that connected to the Voidstar, rupturing and unleashing untapped mana. In the Cataclysm, raw mana ruptured the planet and Grok cracked and split, marking enormous rifts in its surface, swallowing continents whole and ripping others free to float above the surface whilst the Simulacrum became unmoored. Parts of it snapped off and fell to the surface of Grok. The raw mana also rendered classical thaumaturgy unreliable and made technomancy inert or corrupt. In the Aether, the Domain beyond the planet’s atmosphere, bands of pirates and pillagers raid and pick over settlements often terrified by aliens discovered during colonisation. The Simulacrum—or the remaining parts of it—continues to revolve around Grok, the thrusters holding it up corrupting the surface of planet with the radiative phosphorescent twilight from recycled mana. The diverse inhabitants of the Simulacrum live under the merciless control of an A.I. to ensure their survival, though a few cyberpunks work to overthrow its control. The Hovering Isles are the lands formed from the parts of Grok’s floating crust after the Cataclysm, as yet not fully mapped, but home to the isolated Islanders who live on the underside to protect themselves from the radiation from the Simulacrum. This means that the Wastelands on the planet below form the Islanders’ sky. The Wastelands make up the planet’s surface, home to nomadic Vagabonds who trade with the Hovering Isles and often have mutations due to exposure to Simulacrum above. More corrupted are the Underlings who live in the Underworld of tunnels, caves, bunkers, research facilities, aquifers, and chasms that thread and shift throughout the subsurface of Grok. The worst of the monstrosities in the Underworld are found in the Underworld closest to the Voidstar, but on the inside surface of the Underworld facing the Voidstar is the Nether. This is a megacity home to Voiddwellers known as Lesser Ones who work towards to summoning the Great Ones from the obsidian spires of their city, The Nether. Grok is a broken planet.

Grok is the setting for Grok?!, a weird Science Fantasy roleplaying game of post-apocalyptic wonder and exploration. It was originally published as a fanzine in 2022, but has now been developed into a full roleplaying game. This includes sample Player Characters, advice for the Game Master, rules for playing solo, and guides to each of the regions of Grok, including adventure tips, sample locations, and tables to create more. None of the descriptions of the peoples or places are canonical so much as examples that the Game Master can use as is or alter as needed. All of which is accompanied by the same great artwork that sold the original fanzine.

A Player Character in Grok?! is simply defined. He has three Attribute dice, one each for Physical, Mental, and Social, ranging between a four-sided and a twelve-sided die. He has an Aspect—a word or phrase—each for his Personality, Motivation, Background, Trouble, and Appearance Traits, plus five Assets. These Assets are Outfit, Accessory, Weapon, Oddity, and either Magic, Vehicle, or Companion. A player is free to chose these as he likes, but he can also roll on the given tables for all of them. Grok?! includes twenty ready-to-play re-generated Player Characters.

Pythagoras Powell
Physical d8 Mental d4 Social d6
Personality: Bigoted
Motivation: Seize Power
Background: Gambler
Trouble: Hunted
Appearance: Illusory
Outfit: Extendable Kilt
Assets: Power Fist, Nanobot Shirt, Star Charts, A Pessimistic Hologram trained as a Torchbearer.

Mechanically in Grok?!, to have his character undertake an action, his player declares his Intention, narrates the Action, and if necessary, determines the Outcome with the roll of an appropriate Attribute die. If the maximum is rolled on the die, it explodes and can be rolled again and the result added to the current total. If the result is between one and two, the Outcome is ‘No, and…’ something Detrimental happens; between three and four and the Outcome is ‘No, but...’ something else Beneficial happens; five and six and the Outcome is ‘Yes, but…’ something else Detrimental happens; seven and eight and the Outcome is ‘Yes...’ and the result is as intended; and nine and over, the Outcome is ‘Yes, and…’ something else Beneficial happens. Grok?! employs the Advantage and Disadvantage mechanic as standard, each one which comes into play—up to five Advantages and five Disadvantages, with the two types cancelling each other out—must be based on an Aspect. Aspects can be the character’s Traits, Assets, or from the environment or situation the character is in. If a roll is failed, it can be pushed, and pushed again, until the roll is a success. However, each time the roll is pushed, the Player Character suffers a detriment. Whenever a Player Character suffers a detriment, whether due to a Pushed roll or a failure to prevent a Threat, he suffers a Condition. This occupies an Asset Slot, and when a Player Character suffers so many Conditions that all of his Asset Slots are full, one of his Attributes suffers a Debilitation and is reduced by one step. When an Attribute would be reduced below a four-sided die, the Player Character is dead.

Combat in Grok?! is an extension of these rules, except that Grok?! phrases it in terms of dealing with Threats. The aim is to apply a Condition, and even a Debilitation, to an opponent if attacking and avoiding them if being attacked. The rules for combat are underwritten in comparison to other roleplaying games, the roleplaying game talking about dealing with threats rather than adversaries. For some players, some adjustment may be required to switch to narratively driven combat. However, Grok?! does acknowledge this possible difficulty by including optional rules for Health Points and weapon effectiveness, amongst other rules. They include alternative attributes, Supply dice, NPC conversion from other roleplaying games, opposed rolls, and more.

There is advice and commentary on this edition of Grok?! as well as the previous edition, throughout the rulebook, but the specific advice for the Game Master begins with a short discussion of safety tools, how to use both Aspects and Assets in play, define NPCs (this can be as simple as a single Aspect or as relatively complex as a Player Characters), an examination of Benefits that can be gained and Detriments that can be opposed, and then how to define a scene with locales and events, motivations extending from the latter. There are tables for random locales and events or random locale and event prompts. The advice is relatively light and it is somewhat unbalanced by the rules and procedure for running and playing Grok?! solo. These are built around an adventure loop that initially revolves around establishing and playing a series of scenes before using them to formulate a plot and then check to see if the plot is true or not. If not, more scenes are played through and the veracity of the plot checked again. At this point a capstone scene can be played to bring the plot to a climax. More attention is paid to the solo rules, but at the same time, the Game Master can use them as a tool towards creating plots too.

More than half of Grok?! is dedicated to the world of Grok itself. Attention is paid to all of the planet’s six domains—the Aether, the Simulacrum, the Hovering Isles, the Wastelands, the Underworld, and the Nether—and how each caters to different styles and types of adventures. For example, adventures in the Aether, set in space beyond Grok’s atmosphere, are about survival, discovery, alien horror, and Science Fiction, whilst adventures on the Hovering Isles, set on floating islands lit only by the dim reflected light from the Wastelands above, focus on isolated islands, their cultures, and breaking their taboos. Every domain has adventure tips, sample regions and scenes, notable NPCs, tables to generate prompts and ideas, and touchstones. The latter comprises a list of books, films, games, and music that inspired the domain. It gives an abundance of potential further reading and watching for the whole of Grok and Grok?!.

Grok?! is rounded out with a scenario, ‘The Thesis of Mr. Person Hugh Mann’. This will take the Player Characters across Grok at the bequest of a shrimp piloted mechanoid known as Mr. Person Hugh Mann to locate and rescue his Field Teams, which happen to be small contingents of shrimp hiding in unique headpieces. It is fast-paced, over-the-top, gonzo affair that showcases the different Domains and playstyles of the planet.

Physically, Grok?! is stunning. The layout is bright and breezy, but the artwork is amazingly good, capturing the weirdness of the broken world, whether is the three-eyed, beaked and spike-tailed camel-like camel on the front cover, the fecund fungi, the broken canal city menaced by a tentacled monster who eyes cry black ichor, the shattered land amidst which a warrior swathed in a cloak surveys the chaos and a floating island, or a scythe-wielding Plague Doctor-like figure rides a bewinged jet bike down a street. The artwork is truly excellent and hopefully future releases will feature more of it.

What sold the original version of Grok?! was its artwork. However, as good as the artwork was, and as well as it showed the reader how fantastically weird and gonzo the world of Grok was, it did not leave enough room for the author to tell the reader what the world of Grok was like. Grok?! Second Edition—a full roleplaying game rather than a mini-roleplaying game—has the room for that. It can both show and tell the reader what the world of Grok is like, and it does. Grok?! Second Edition brings the roleplaying game’s weird post-gonzo apocalyptic setting to life and provides the tools with which the Game Master can make it her own. If you dismissed the original Grok?! as unfulfilled potential, then take a look again.

—oOo—

The Kickstarter for Grok?!, Second Edition can be found here.

Mavens, Mystery, Murder, & Mythos

Just occasionally, along comes a roleplaying game that makes you sit back and think. A roleplaying game that upends your expectations. Brindlewood Bay: A Dark & Cozy Mystery Game does exactly that. It changes how you think about how you roleplay investigation in mystery games and it changes who you roleplay. The mystery—as opposed to the mysterious, which has always been there—has long been a part of roleplaying, all the way back to The Maltese Clue, the scenario published by Judges Guild in 1979. It really came to the fore with roleplaying games like Call of Cthulhu, Gangbusters, and Justice, Inc. and more recently seen in the GUMSHOE System with roleplaying games such as Mutant City Blues, which combines superheroes with the police procedural. What these all do with the mystery is provide the Game Master with a plot and a set of clues that the players and their characters investigate and hopefully piece together the clues to uncover the mystery. In other words, there is always a set solution as to who did what to whom and why. And in such roleplaying games, the investigators are detectives and investigators, typically young and in the prime of their careers. Neither is the case in Brindlewood Bay. Instead, Brindlewood Bay asks what if there was no set solution and instead the solution to the mystery could be constructed from the clues uncovered by the players and their characters and would be, if not absolutely correct, then very nearly so? Very nearly so that when hypothesised and put to the suspects, turned out to be case solved? And instead, Brindlewood Bay asks the players not to roleplay police detectives or private eyes, but asks them to take the roles of elderly, retired women turned amateur sleuth in the manner of Miss Jane Marple or Jessica Fletcher.

There is more to Brindlewood Bay: A Dark & Cozy Mystery than just this, but at its heart, this roleplaying game is Murder She Wrote with a semi-improvised plot/mystery and everyone being Jessica Fletcher. Of course, Brindlewood Bay offers more options than just playing Jessica Fletcher, but the idea of roleplaying elderly female amateur detectives is utterly delightful. Published in 2022 by The Gauntlet following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Brindlewood Bay is designed to be played by between two and four players as well as the Game Master and casts the Player Characters—known as Mavens—as retirees in the eponymous small coastal Massachusetts town, a former whaling port that has long since transformed itself into a charming tourist spot. The Player Characters are members of the Murder Mavens, a mystery book club that meets weekly on the top floor of The Candlelight Booksellers every Saturday evening, and has done so for a decade now. Their favourite writer is Robin Masterson, the author of The Gold Crown Mysteries series by featuring the globe-trotting super-sleuth, Amanda Delacourt. As well as their own hobbies and activities, sometimes and much to the chagrin of the local authorities who resent their meddling, the Mavens stumble onto crimes and through a combination of astuteness, savviness, and the fact that old ladies often get overlooked, solve crimes. Brindlewood Bay can be played as a one-shot, but it is really set up to played as a campaign. The campaign unknowingly pitches the Mavens against a dark cult known as the Midwives of the Fragrant Void, Hellenic death cult working to summon the ‘Children of Persephone’, chthonic monstrosities that will bring about the End of All Things. As the campaign progresses, the Mavens and the cult conspiracy will become aware of each other, and ultimately, the Mavens will not only be solving murders, but saving the world too! (Though there are possible other outcomes as well…)

A Maven is defined by five Abilities—Vitality, Composure, Reason, Presence, and Sensitivity—each rated between ‘-3’ and ‘+3’, a name, a Style that reflects her outlook on life as much as how she dresses, and a Cosy Activity that is her favourite hobby. The Style might be ‘Alexis Carrington Colby’, ‘Hippy Dippy’, or ‘Office Hours’, whilst the Cosy Activity will be something like Cooking, Gardening, Knitting, Pointing, or Scrapbooking. It should be noted that Brindlewood Bay is a very American game, so some of the references, especially the Styles may not necessarily be familiar and may require a little research. A Maven also has a Maven Move, a special action or benefit that can be brought into play. For example, the ‘Frank Columbo’ Move means that society’s elite underestimates the Maven and whenever she is amongst the rich and famous, her Meddling Move will always grant her an extra clue; the ‘Dale Cooper’ Move increases a Maven’s Sensitivity and the Keeper—as the Game Master is known—will grant Void Clues in the form of a disturbing dream at the beginning of each session; and the ‘Jim Rockford’ Move means that the Keeper narrates an answering machine message that the Maven receives asking to undertake a task that if completed will earn her Experience Points and will get odder as a campaign progresses. Ironically—and self-admittedly—all of the Maven Moves are named after male detectives, highlighting the lack of strong female roles within the genre. That said, the extra and alternative Maven Moves do include some named after female detectives. All of the Maven Moves are delightfully clever, if not actually witty, and like any good Move in a Powered by the Apocalypse they tell a lot about the Mavens.

To create a Maven, a player chooses a name, Style, and Cosy Activity, as well as defining her Cosy Little Place. She assigns a single point to one of her Abilities and chooses one Maven Move. The creation process is simple and easy and made all the easier by fitting onto a third of the character sheet that is as much worksheet as character sheet and by the step-by-step process being explained by the section that takes both the Keeper and her players through the first session of Brindlewood Bay from set-up through safety tools and character creation to the first mystery and beyond.

Name: Pearl
Style: Jackie O
Cozy Activity: Charity Events

STATS
Vitality 0 Composure +1 Reason +1 Presence +2 Sensitivity -1

MOVES
Jonathan Hart

Mechanically, Brindlewood Bay uses a stripped down version of Powered by the Apocalypse, the mechanics first seen in Lumpley Games’ Apocalypse World. To undertake an action or ‘Move’, a player rolls two six-sided dice, adds one of his Maven’s Stats, adds his Maven’s Investigative Style and aims to roll high. The results are either ‘No’, ‘Yes, but...’, ‘Yes’, and ‘Yes and…’. A result of six or less is a ‘No’ and lets the Keeper add a Complication; roll between seven and nine, and the result is ‘Yes, but…’, and successful, but comes with a Complication; a roll of ten or eleven and the result is a ‘Yes’; and a result of twelve or more and the Move is ‘Yes and…’, indicating that there is a bonus to the Move. A Complication hinders the Maven’s investigative efforts and is primarily played by the Keeper as a Reaction to a Maven’s action. This Reaction can be environmental such as the Maven getting lost, aggressive and have the killer attack the Maven or sabotage her efforts, or social, like being threatened with being blackballed at the country club. A Reaction at night will place a Maven in greater danger than one in the day, and it even possible for a Maven to be killed. One special Reaction, allowed just once per mystery, is ‘Cut to Commercial’ when the Keeper lets the player of an imperilled Maven narrate a commercial of some kind (there are prompts), when the story returns, the Maven will have found a way to succeed.

Unlike most versions of Powered by the Apocalypse, the rules in Brindlewood Bay include an Advantage and Disadvantage mechanic. Thus, when a Maven has the Advantage, which can come from her Style, Cosy Activity, one of her Maven Moves, or the situation, three six-sided dice are rolled instead of two, and the best used. Conversely, when she is at a Disadvantage, her player rolls three dice and keeps the lowest two. Another difference between other roleplaying games using Brindlewood Bay and Brindlewood Bay is that it does not make use of Playbooks, each of which provide an archetypal character and its associated Moves. Instead, Brindlewood Bay provides a standard set of seven Moves that all of the Mavens can use. The first four Moves—‘The Day Move’, ‘The Night Move’, ‘The Cosy Move’, and ‘The Meddling Move’ are all to do with collecting Clues. The primary difference between ‘The Day Move’ and ‘The Night Move’ is that failure and Complications are likely to be more dangerous at night. ‘The Cosy Move’ is when the Mavens share a moment over a Cosy activity and in the process discover a clue that will help, but not conclusively, solve the mystery. ‘The Meddling Move’ is when the Mavens actively look for a clue.

The fifth and sixth Moves are more specialised. ‘The Gold Crown Mysteries Move’ occurs when a Maven says, “This reminds me of something that happened to Amanda Delacourt!” and together the players work out how the current situation recalls a scene from one of Robin Masterson’s mystery novels. It can only be done once per mystery and must refer to previously unmentioned entry in the series, but always results in a Yes and…’ outcome, whether an action or an addition to the mystery. It is thus a powerful move. ‘The Occult Move’ is used whenever a Maven attempts an action related to the occult and somehow tied to the Midwives of the Fragrant Void. This is unlikely to be used in the opening stages of campaign as the Mavens are unlikely to be aware of the Midwives of the Fragrant Void. It will often justification as why a Maven might attempt it and it is not without its dangers.

The seventh Move is the ‘Theorise’ Move. This happens at the end or near the end of the game when the Mavens gather their collected clues and deduce the identity of the murderer. The roll is only modified by the number of clues and secrets found so far, minus the Complexity of the murder. This is most radical and innovative element of Brindlewood Bay. The Keeper will have a body and then lists of locations, suspects, and clues that make up the mystery, but will know neither which of the suspects committed the crime and which of the clues are important. In fact, when the Keeper does give the players and their Mavens a clue, she picks a clue from the given list based not on which seems the most significant, but on which seems the most interesting. The Mavens are free to search for clues and talk to suspects and when clues are revealed, it is the players and their Mavens that assign them meaning and significance; effectively ‘play to find out what happens’ through the emerging story of the investigation.

There are two further actions which involve a Maven ‘putting on a Crown’. ‘The Crown of the Queen’ explores the femineity of the maven via a flashback to a scene involving the Maven’s late partner or a relative, a private moment, a recent romantic or sexual situation, and so on. Each can only be used once and enable a Maven to escape adversity or a dangerous situation as well giving the player to think about and roleplay a different side to his Maven. ‘The Crown of the Queen’ actions can be triggered in any order, whereas ‘The Crown of the Void’ must be triggered in order. There are fewer of them and they represent the growing influence of the Midwives of the Fragrant Void’s upon the Maven. If they are all ticked off, the last one forces the Maven to retire from play as she is lost to the Void…

Brindlewood Bay includes several ready-to-play mysteries. Each includes a description of the mystery, a way to present it, moments that the Keeper can use to set the scene or add tension, lists of suspects, clues, and locations, and a Complexity value. This ranges between six and eight and represents the number of elements of the solution that the players and their Mavens need to discuss and hypothesise before they can make the ‘Theorise Move’ without a penalty.

Now Brindlewood Bay can be played as a one-shot mystery in which the mavens investigate a mystery, but that mystery is always going to be mundane, because in the long term there is the greater mystery, the conspiracy and aims of the Midwives of the Fragrant Void. That conspiracy is the most detailed part of the Brindlewood Bay background, but unlike the clues of the mundane mysteries, the clues behind the conspiracy and its Mythos—known as Void clues—slip out inadvertently, sort of accumulating to the point where the Mavens and their players being to realise that something else is going on. It is likely at this point that the ‘Occult Move’ comes into play, it is likely that the Mavens being to dabble in occult in order to understand and stop the Midwives of the Fragrant Void, it is increasingly likely that a Maven might die, and it is even likely that a Maven might join the Midwives of the Fragrant Void. The descriptions of the Midwives of the Fragrant Void and The Children of Persephone do flirt with Lovecraftian influences, and perhaps one group might want to bring those into play more, but the Midwives of the Fragrant Void is more of cosmic threat than a Lovecraftian one. However without this conspiracy, Brindlewood Bay cannot be anything other than best suited for one-shot play as narratively it has no scope for development.

The advice for the Keeper in Brindlewood Bay is extensive and detailed, and particularly helpful in guiding the Keeper through the shift in perspective and playstyle that Brindlewood Bay demands. And then helpful in guiding her player through that same shift. Storytelling games have been around for over two decades now and when first published, they also represented a shift how a roleplaying game was played and considered, but the shift that Brindlewood Bay demands of its Keeper and player is even bigger. Not just how a roleplaying game was played and considered, but also how a mystery is investigated and played out and how the decisions of the players and actions of their Mavens determine the story and build the world around them. The advice also covers the structure of play and the structure of the campaign, it breaks down the anatomy of a mystery, and it gives an extensive guide on how to run the first session and thus first mystery of Brindlewood Bay. It takes the Keeper and her players through the Maven creation process, explains to them what to expect, and shows the structure of play, providing a template that the Keeper will return again and again.

There is not so much a learning curve to Brindlewood Bay so much as an adjustment, and the book does a fine job of helping everyone through that. However, the downside is that upon first reading Brindlewood Bay, the reader is left wondering how to create a Maven. Literally everything in the game—the situation, the Moves, the Conspiracy, and the given Mysteries—is presented before the actual process of Maven creation. This is given in the ‘Session One’ guide at the very back of the book. It is fine once you know it is there, but there is also nothing at the start of the book to say that it is. The character sheet for the Maven does help with her creation, but neither that or other sheets for the roleplaying game, like ‘The Dark Conspiracy’ worksheet is included in the book.

Physically, Brindlewood Bay is clean and cosy. It is well written and engaging, but the illustrations by Cecilia Ferri are stunning, veering between showing the Mavens joyously having the time of their cosy lives and the foreboding nature of the conspiracy at the heart of the roleplaying game.

There are moments in a roleplaying session when the players will say something about the current storyline or situation and the Game Master will think to herself, “Oh that’s good. That is so clever and better than what I had thought of, I am going to steal that.” Brindlewood Bay does not so much make that implicit as make it part of its play. It shifts the standard mystery roleplaying set-up from having to find the clues and work out what they mean with the Game Master knowing the answers to finding the clues, working out what they mean, and then giving them meaning. And then it hands the process of that deduction not into the hands of traditional action hero detectives, but to grannies and little old ladies, asking the players to roleplay from the perspective of the older woman and use charm and wits and insight to solve the crime rather than fists and guns. Both demands are radical, but delightfully so. Brindlewood Bay: A Dark & Cozy Mystery Game is a wonderfully cosy, brilliantly innovative game that genuinely asks us to think differently about how we play and who we play.