Snæland Sagas #02: The Darkest Day

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, and The Companions of Arthur for Pendragon, Sagas of the North is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Iceland the other lands that the Vikings travelled to. It enables creators to sell their own original content for use with Age of Vikings. This can be original scenarios, background material, alternate Icelandic settings, and more, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Vikings Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Age of Vikings campaigns.

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What is the Nature of the Saga?

The Darkest Day is a scenario for use with Age of Vikings.

It is a full colour, seventeen page, 858.72 KB PDF.

The layout is tidy, but it does need an edit in places.

Where is the Saga set?

The Darkest Day takes place in and around the Vatnsendi farm owned by Ásmundur, near Lake Vesturhóp in northern Iceland. It takes place over the Yule period.

Who should be the subject of this Saga?

Any type of Player Character can take part in this sage. At least one Player Character with good Mythic skills, such as Second Sight and being able to cast the Runes, is recommended, but a diverse range of skills is better than focused ones.

It is written to be played by beginning Player Characters. The only limit on the scenario is the time of year at which it is set, but that can easily be changed.

What does the Saga require?

The Darkest Day only requires the Age of Vikings core rulebook.

Where will the Vikings go in this Saga?

The Darkest Day is a story of grief, greed, and revenge which takes place over Yule at the end of Ýlir. The Player Characters are invited to spend the festivities with their friend, the farmer Ásmundur Ívarsson. As they journey there through the harsh winter, they make a terrible discovery. Someone has placed a local family under a curse! The person responsible is nearby and easily found, one of the Hidden People, hiding in a cave with her children. She not only confirms that she laid the curse and did so because a local farmer killed her husband, but promises to lift the curse if the murderer is brought to justice. If not, she promises that worse is come…

The scenario hinges on identifying the murderer and whether the Player Characters will pursue the course of justice or protect the accused farmer, who of course, is the one they are due to stay with. Ásmundur is rigid in his pride, whilst his wife, Ragna, who is the local midwife, is stricken by grief, for her touch strikes blind any newborn she delivers. Caught between the customs of hospitality and the nature of the curse, the Player Characters can conduct a little investigation before ultimately confronting Ásmundur over his actions.

How the situation is resolved is entirely down to the Player Characters. The presents and explores several options, including persuasion, confrontation, and revenge. Of course, there is one true path that will lead to justice, but if the Player Characters follow it, they will be suitably rewarded.

What will the Skalds sing of this Saga?

The Darkest Day is a short, one session scenario that can easily be run as a demonstration or convention scenario, just as it can be used as part of a campaign. Its length and its directness—the fact that the players and their Vikings know who the villain is from the start—make it is easy to prepare and add to a campaign. The Darkest Day is a solid, serviceable scenario strong on justice, roleplaying, and magic, with a little (or great depending on the choices that the Player Characters make) opportunity for combat.

Snæland Sagas #01: Hulda’s Last Song

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, and The Companions of Arthur for Pendragon, Sagas of the North is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Iceland the other lands that the Vikings travelled to. It enables creators to sell their own original content for use with Age of Vikings. This can be original scenarios, background material, alternate Icelandic settings, and more, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Vikings Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Age of Vikings campaigns.

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What is the Nature of the Saga?

Hulda’s Last Song is a scenario for use with Age of Vikings.

It is a full colour, eighteen page, 1.50 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy, but it does need an edit in places.

Where is the Saga set?

Hulda’s Last Song takes place in the hreppur, or settlement, of Raufarhöfn, in the very far north and remote Norðurþing region of Iceland.

Who should be the subject of this Saga?

Any type of Player Character take part in this sage. A seiðkona may be useful or alternatively a Player Character with the Skaldic Poetry skill.

What does the Saga require?

Hulda’s Last Song only requires the Age of Vikings core rulebook.

Where will the Vikings go in this Saga?

Hulda’s Last Song opens with the funeral for Hulda, the respected seiðkona of the village of Raufarhöfn. Unfortunately, it is disrupted by the unexpected appearance of a frenzied polar bear that attacks Vigdís, another visiting seiðkona. Once the Player Characters have dealt with the polar bear and helped protect the mourners attacking the funeral, Vigdís will reveal that the future survival of Raufarhöfn is threatened because Hulda died before she could pass on the details of a ritual obligation that kept the hreppur protected. The Player Characters are asked to investigate and find out what the ritual was, what it requires, and if can be performed again, with or without the help of Vigdís.

In this way, the scenario is quite straightforward. The Player Characters will visit Hulda’s hut to learn more information and go on to perform the ritual. Of course, it is not quite as simple as that and there are some engaging ornithologically mystical encounters along the way and the Player Characters will need to answer some riddles to get all of the answers they need. These can be answered with the players’ own knowledge or guesswork or simply rely upon Skaldic Poetry skill checks. (If the players rely on the former rather than the latter, then they should receive a chance to improve their characters’ Skaldic Poetry skills.) Once armed with the necessary knowledge, the Player Characters can attempt the ritual, which is nicely detailed and includes options for every Player Character to participate, not just a Player Character seiðkona. If successful, any Player Character seiðkona will be tied to the hreppur, although another option is suggested if Raufarhöfn is not the Player Characters’ home.

Hulda’s Last Song is more of a convention scenario than not. Its set-up and more so, given that its remote location makes it more challenging to add to a campaign. Even a one-shot or convention scenario, the Game Master may want to flesh out the scenario little by detailing some NPCs and their personalities in Raufarhöfn and perhaps add a combat encounter along the way if there is time. The scenario already includes optional encounters for travel to the ritual site. If run as part of a campaign, the Game Master could use Raufarhöfn as the starting point for her campaign or move it elsewhere. Again, she may also want to flesh out the NPCs and add further encounters. If the Player Characters are not native to Raufarhöfn, the likelihood is that they have been sent as representatives from their hreppur and/or their hreppur’s seiðkona to pay respects to Hulda.

What will the Skalds sing of this Saga?

Hulda’s Last Song is a good convention or one-shot scenario for Age of Vikings, that with some adjustment can be used as part of a campaign. Its mystical focus makes it a challenging scenario for a seiðkona, but if successful, all the Player Characters will be nicely rewarded, not just the seiðkona.

Companion Chronicles #23: A Guide to Arthurian Britain

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, The Companions of Arthur is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon. It enables creators to sell their own original content for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition. This can be original scenarios, background material, alternate Arthurian settings, and more, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Pendragon Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Pendragon campaigns.

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What is the Nature of the Quest?

A Guide to Arthurian Britain is a supplement for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition. It describes itself as ‘A Resource Supplement for Pendragon’.

It is a full colour, fourteen page, 65.38 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy, but it does need an edit in places.

Where is the Quest Set?

A Guide to Arthurian Britain is a supplement for Pendragon, Sixth Edition that provides an introduction to, and an overview of, Britain in the Anarchy, the period of chaos between the death of Uther Pendragon and Arthur pulling the sword from the stone and being proclaimed king and before the chronicles of King Arthur begin.

Who should go on this Quest?

Any type of Player-knight can go on this quest.

What does the Quest require?

A Guide to Arthurian Britain requires the Pendragon, Sixth Edition Core Rulebook and the Pendragon: Gamemaster’s Handbook in the long term, but also works with the Pendragon Starter Set.

Where will the Quest take the Knights?

A Guide to Arthurian Britain can be divided into three parts. The first, ‘Britain, Your Home’ is ‘A Handout for New Knights’ that summarises the history and geography of the land at the end of Anarchy. This is one-page primer that focuses upon the history of Britain after the Romans have left and the resulting conflicts between the Britons and the Picts and Saxons as well as an overview of the country’s geography and politics. Particular attention here is paid to Logres as the main kingdom of Britain and Salisbury, the default starting point for The Great Pendragon Campaign. It is short and snappy and provides a decent introduction without miring the prospective player in detail.

The main part of A Guide to Arthurian Britain is for the Game Master and presents a guide to the ‘Lands of the Cymri’, from Cambria in the west, Essex in the east, from Cumbria in the north to Cornwall in the south. In each it gives a breakdown of each region politics and history, lists its significance during Arthur’s reign, suggests some story themes and hooks, and recommends further ‘Reading and Viewing’. For example, it explains that Cornwall was split between the Duchy of Cornwall and Kingdom of Cornwall, but following the death of King Uther, King Idres of the Kingdom of Cornwall conquered the Duchy of Cornwall and given his support in battle to the Saxons. Thematically, Cornwall remains a thorn in King Arthur’s side even when openly resisting his rule for much of his reign. King Idres also rules Britanny, which many Bretons are opposed to, and so there are seeds for rebellion there as well as the suggestion that an adventure in Cornwall might involve Wreckers—a very Cornish theme—and giants, many civilised, and fairies may be found in the region. In terms of ‘Reading and Viewing’, it suggests the classic film Excalibur, since Cornwall is Arthur’s birthplace (and source of his accent), as well as the film Tristan and Isolde and the poems it is based upon.

In general, more detail is given the kingdoms and regions that surround Logres, whilst the Saxon kingdoms are only given a paragraph each and their primary suggested ‘Reading and Viewing’ is Beowulf. Other lands are not ignored, the supplement providing introductions to the Picts and their lands north of the Two Walls, Ireland, and even further beyond. Lastly, A Guide to Arthurian Britain includes a handy timeline from 410 CE when the Romans leave Britain to the Sword Tournament in Londinium in 510 CE.

Should the Knights ride out on this Quest?

A Guide to Arthurian Britain is a good introduction to the Britain of Pendragon, Sixth Edition, the ‘Britain, Your Home’ handout being a most useful and excellent introduction for players with relatively little knowledge of the setting, that works for a convention game or a home campaign. A Guide to Arthurian Britain is good for forearming both player and Game Master alike and getting them ready for their Arthurian saga.

Companion Chronicles #21: An Arthurian Gaggle of NPCs

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, The Companions of Arthur is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon. It enables creators to sell their own original content for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition. This can be original scenarios, background material, alternate Arthurian settings, and more, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Pendragon Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Pendragon campaigns.

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What is the Nature of the Quest?

An Arthurian Gaggle of NPCs is a supplement for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition.

It is a full colour, eighteen page, 1.23 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy.

Where is the Quest Set?

An Arthurian Gaggle of NPCs is a supplement for Pendragon, Sixth Edition. It is a collection of NPCs complete with between three and six adventure hooks that the Game Master can develop into full blown encounters and longer term content for for her campaign.

Who should go on this Quest?

Any type of Player-knight can go on this quest.

What does the Quest require?

An Arthurian Gaggle of NPCs requires the Pendragon, Sixth Edition Core Rulebook and the Pendragon: Gamemaster’s Handbook.

Where will the Quest take the Knights?

An Arthurian Gaggle of NPCs presents fourteen NPCs for Pendragon, Sixth Edition, each of whom can be used in a variety of ways and developed from a single encounter into a longer storyline. Each is simply presented on a single page with their background, anywhere between three and six story hooks, and a stat block. Some are name, others are presented as generic figures that the Game Master can easily adapt to her campaign. For example, ‘The Vengeful Squire’ is unnamed and can be former or current squire who could be spreading rumours about the Player-knight, accuses him of crimes—whether true or not, sowing discontent amongst his fellow squires, or even attempting to seduce the Player-knight’s spouse! Whereas ‘Sir Malcolm de Deux Visages’ is a knight well known and popular because he supports good causes, the church, and sponsors the knighthood of worthy squires. In private though, he is an entirely different character, cruel, greedy, and ambitious. He might persuade the Player-knights to do his bidding based on his reputation, plot to discredit a Player-knight to take possession of his land, and so on. As the entry notes, Sir Malcom’s reputation makes him a good recurring villain.

Many of the entries are magical in nature. For example, ‘Glutoniére, the Knight Giant’ details a French giant who after facing and defeating so many knights sent to kill him has developed a fascination with chivalry and comes to England to investigate and attempt to become a knight! The hooks suggest that he might develop an ardour for a young lady—much to the family’s dismay, actually ask to serve a Play-knight as his lord or squire, and more. The gender-flexible ‘The Knight of the White Hare’ might taunt and trick the Player-knights and ‘Pegleg, the Wooden Horse’ really is a wooden horse, but one who will serve the worthiest of the Player-knights until he returns to the fairy land of Gwneuthurwr Ceffylau!

Should the Knights ride out on this Quest?

An Arthurian Gaggle of NPCs is both a useful and an enjoyable supplement, providing the Game Master with a range of interesting NPCs that will add colour and flavour to her campaign. Many of their accompanying hooks are simple enough that the Game Master can easily prepare a quick encounter, whether to foreshadow later events or simply run something in the here and now when there are fewer players available or between longer scenarios.

Companion Chronicles #20: Sicut Corvus Volat

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, The Companions of Arthur is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon. It enables creators to sell their own original content for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition. This can be original scenarios, background material, alternate Arthurian settings, and more, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Pendragon Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Pendragon campaigns.

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What is the Nature of the Quest?

Sicut Corvus Volat: Being a Wayfarer’s Companion for Sarisberie is a supplement for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition. It describes itself as ‘A Resource Supplement for Pendragon’.

It is a full colour, eighty-six page, 18.60 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy.

Where is the Quest Set?

Sicut Corvus Volat: Being a Wayfarer’s Companion for Sarisberie is a supplement for Pendragon, Sixth Edition. Its title is Latin for ‘as the crow flies’ and it fulfils this by providing a gazetteer of the immediate twenty miles around the city of Sarum, the Castle of the Rock, seat of power for Earl Robert of Salisbury, and thus the default set-up in both the Pendragon Starter Set and the Pendragon Gamemaster’s Handbook.

The supplement very much falls under ‘Your Pendragon Will Vary’ as it suggests that in that it is placed in an alternate timeline in which the connection between the world of men and the Land, caused by an imbalance in reality or ‘The Enchantment of Britain’ by the Great Betrayal of Vortigern on the Night of the Long Knives. The Player-knights are to play a role in Merlin’s plan to heal this imbalance. To reflect this, the supplement uses a fictional narrator of the time, ‘Gregory the Watcher’, who that also serves to strengthen the period worldview. However, this is an overview particular to this supplement and the Game Master is free to use it or not.

Who should go on this Quest?

Any type of Player-knight can go on this quest.

What does the Quest require?

Sicut Corvus Volat: Being a Wayfarer’s Companion for Sarisberie requires the Pendragon, Sixth Edition Core Rulebook and the Pendragon: Gamemaster’s Handbook.

Where will the Quest take the Knights?

The majority of Sicut Corvus Volat: Being a Wayfarer’s Companion for Sarisberie consists of a gazetteer of the immediate twenty miles around the city of Sarum , encompassing much of the County of Salisbury and as far as a knight can ride in a single day. The circular area ranges from the tiny village of Huish in the north to Bisterne in the County of Dorsette in the south, said to be a large hall built from a single tree by the Queen of the Fair Folk for one of her knights and from hamlet of Littleton in Hantonne County in the east to the dwelling of Kingston Deverill in the west in the County of Summerland. The map and gazetteer, inspired by King Arthur’s Round Table in The Great Hall in Winchester, is organised into sixteen arcs and within each arc, towns, villages, hamlets, and places of interest are described in turn. All of the places are taken from the Domesday Book of 1068. (That said, not every location in the region given in the Domesday Book is included. For example, Blaneford, now Blandford Forum, is absent.)

Primarily what this provides is a sense of the geography surrounding Sarum. Many of the details are mundane, but there are locations with interesting hooks that Game Master can develop, such as the aforementioned Bisterne in the County of Dorsette. The Player-knights might be given manors in these locations to manage and live in as well as raise a family, and of course, they might find themselves fighting against invading armies across this land too.

The second half of Sicut Corvus Volat: Being a Wayfarer’s Companion for Sarisberie is dedicated to ‘The Book of Days’, a great calendar that that explores different ways of looking at time and the year throughout this period. Specifically, this includes the years leading up to ‘The Arthurian Break’ when its history breaks from ours, followed by overviews of the Pagan Year, both solar and lunar, including dates of the full moon throughout the Pendragon Era, as well as the Christian Calendar. This includes important dates of celebration and religious observance, which can be effectively used in conjunction with the chapter on religion in the Pendragon: Gamemaster’s Handbook.

Should the Knights ride out on this Quest?

Sicut Corvus Volat: Being a Wayfarer’s Companion for Sarisberie is a useful supplement for the Game Master whose campaign focuses on Sarum and the County of Salisbury and wants to add verisimilitude and bring the region, its geography, and its year to life.

Friday Fantasy: The Land of the Eight Cities

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #8: The Land of the Eight Cities is a bit different, just like the previous entry in the line, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #7: A Dozen Lankhmar Locations. Unlike the majority of the releases for Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and the releases for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, both of these are supplements rather than scenarios, although Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #8: The Land of the Eight Cities does actually include a scenario. Where Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #7: A Dozen Lankhmar Locations provided the Judge with a wide range of locations and businesses and NPCs that she can use to bring the city of Lankhmar to life, what Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #8: The Land of the Eight Cities does is open up the wider world of Nehwon to what is at heart a city campaign. It follows in the footsteps of the heroes of author Fritz Leiber’s tales of the adventures, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, as they struck north across the Inner Sea and into The Land of the Eight Cities. Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #8: The Land of the Eight Cities is both a guide to the country and to playing in that country, as well as a guide to how it was developed from original source material. Plus of course, it comes with its own scenario to get the Player Characters there.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #8: The Land of the Eight Cities introduces The Land of the Eight Cities, located in and on the edges of the Forest Land, across the Inner Sea from the city of Lankhmar. Six centuries ago, it was settled by Lankhmarts who came searching for resources including lumber, ores, and gems, who established its first cities and effectively turned the region into a colony of the city. That changed three centuries ago, when eastern nomads filtered through the gap between the Barrier Mountains and the Inner Cities and assaulted city after city, eventually capturing all of them. Yet they did not sack the cities, but instead occupied them and adopted their ways! In the centuries since, The Land of the Eight Cities and the city of Lankhmar have become uneasy trading partners, The Land of the Eight Cities trading its ready supply of lumber, ores, and gems in return for the grain and meat farmed around Lankhmar. Despite this strong relationship, the lords of the Eight Cities still fear invasion by the Overlords of Lankhmar. It has also a similar relationship with the barbarian tribes of the Cold Wastes, trading for their furs, amber, and ivory via the cold city of No-Ombrulsk, but constantly needing to patrol against the pirate ships from the north. The supplement also presents details of the peoples of The Land of the Eight Cities, its government, and its gods. The latter consist of the Gods of the Forest and the Red God. The Gods of the Forest are worshipped by the majority of inhabitants of the region and personify their belief in the inherent spiritualism of the ancient trees and verdant wildlife. The Red God is a deity of blood and slaughter, and is worshipped by soldiers across the region and in particular, by the gladiators who fight in the arena in the palace-house of Lithquil, the Mad Duke and ruler of the city of Ool Hrusp.

All eight cities of The Land of the Eight Cities are detailed, most of which are cramped settlements of close-set, steep-roofed wooden buildings threaded through by narrow alleys which are set in forest clearings where the forests literally come right up to the edge of the settlement. Few have walls or the fortifications found in the south, the surrounding areas being laced with traps and treetop watch posts with troops also keeping a hardy eye on the narrow roads to and from the cities.

The secrets of forest around the cities include stats for a typical gladiator of the Mad Duke, a Kilyolsho tribesman, a member of the desert tribe to be found on the other side of the Barrier Mountains, Ool Hruspian Marine who serves aboard the Ool Hruspian ships assigned protect the city’s merchant fleet from pirates and Sea Mingols. Two new creatures are given, the bear-like Luhr-beast and Pack Bear, the latter of which can be trained to carry items for a master, as well as fight for him. There are new Bensions and Dooms too. ‘Bear-blooded’ is a Benison which gives a Player Character bear blood, not only enabling him to roar like a bear and scare off animals in the forest, but also allowing him to have a trained pack bear that can understand commands and fight for the Player Character. The other Benison is ‘Mining Claim’, whilst the Dooms are ‘Blasphemer’, which makes the Player Character an apostate in the eyes of the priests of the Gods of the Forests, and ‘Treader in Ancient’ which curses the Player Character to followed by something discovered in the ancient black ruins deep in the forest, though he cannot recall the exact events of his first encounter with it or what it is. Both of these Bensions and Dooms are designed initially for natives to The Land of the Eight Cities, but outsiders who live there for some time may also gain them. Both the Gods of the Forest and the Red God are described in terms of being patrons, and there is a table for carousing in The Land of the Eight Cities instead of using the one given in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set.

The included adventure in Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #8: The Land of the Eight Cities is ‘Introductory Adventure The Tooth of No-Ombrulsk’. Designed for Player Characters of Second Level and Third Level, it begins with them coming into possession of a treasure map, pointing to the location of a stolen artefact. This is The Tooth of No-Ombrulsk, sacred to a whale-god worshipped in the northern city of No-Ombrulsk. The adventure is more of a mini-adventure, consisting of just eleven locations and describing a long-abandoned and ruined watchtower where the artefact has been hidden. It has a tomb-like quality, being laced with a number of traps, those these are not the only threats that the Player Characters will face. There are some sea-themed monsters as well as another pair of factions also after the artefact, including a very nicely done, desperate and vengeful priest of No-Ombrulsk. ‘Introductory Adventure The Tooth of No-Ombrulsk’ is nicely detailed as you would expect for Dungeon Crawl Classics, and the consequences of the Player Characters successfully gaining possession of the artefact are well thought out, but it only gets the Player Characters to the very tip of The Land of the Eight Cities and does not actually engage with the content presented elsewhere in the book. Thus, the Judge and her players will have to wait for something more definitive that will take their characters into The Land of the Eight Cities.

Rounding out Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #8: The Land of the Eight Cities is ‘Appendix A: The Fritz Leiber Papers Collection’. This details Michael Curtis’ trip to the University of Houston and its Special Collection department to examine the Fritz Leiber Papers it holds as part of the research to create the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. In particular, it looks at the draft version of ‘The Tale of the Grain Ships’ which would ultimately become The Swords of Lankhmar. It is this draft which Curtis draws on heavily for Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #8: The Land of the Eight Cities and he discusses this before delving deeper into the many items in the collection. This includes swords, early maps, screenplays, and even correspondence with E. Gary Gygax. For fans of Fritz Leiber and Lankhmar, and both Gygax and the Appendix N, this is a fascinating read and a great addendum to both the scenario and the box set.

One of the issues with Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #8: The Land of the Eight Cities is that it has relatively little source material upon which to draw from. Consequently there is a brevity to the content of the supplement, though some Judges will see this as a boon as it gives them room aplenty to develop their own content. However, the supplement is missing content which would have been useful. This includes maps, both of The Land of the Eight Cities and the Eight Cities themselves, and whilst the inclusion of the two Patrons, the Gods of the Forest and the Red, is more than useful, the lack of spells particular to them is not. Similarly, the supplement mentions several times that strange, ageless structures are to be found in the forests of The Land of the Eight Cities, but these are not detailed beyond suggesting that they might have been built by the same people who built the black temples upon which Lankhmar is built. Of course, this leaves plenty of room for the Judge to develop her own, but something beyond mere hints would have been useful.

Ultimately, the problem with Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #8: The Land of the Eight Cities is the paucity of information. There is always the feeling that there should be more information, but this is not the author’s fault, as there is relatively little information about The Land of the Eight Cities for him to draw on. Nevertheless, he has been able to develop a fair amount of detail and add to it, from what was available. The rest is up to the Judge to develop herself.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #8: The Land of the Eight Cities is well presented. The artwork is good and the one included map for the scenario is likewise good. One oddity to note is that the illustration of the Pack Bear is included on the previous page below the description of the Luhr-beast, a bear-like creature. Which suggests the possibility of there being a non-human anthropomorphic bear-like species in The Land of the Eight Cities. Which is not the case, and will only become clear when the reader flips over the page and continues reading.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #8: The Land of the Eight Cities opens up the possibility of the Player Characters—thieves, pickpockets, burglars, cutpurses, muggers, and anyone else who would skulk in the night—escaping the City of the Black Toga and going on wilderness adventures and visiting other cities. It is unfortunate that the included adventure, as decent as it is, does neither. Similarly, whilst the rest of the information in the supplement is also decent, especially given the constraints faced by the author in terms of source material, it is only a starting point. This limits its usefulness for the Judge, whilst also leaving the setting open for her to develop as part of her own campaign. Thus, whilst there is a lot of interesting information in Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #8: The Land of the Eight Cities, none more so than in the appendix, this is not a supplement that the Judge needs to have as part of her campaign. Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #8: The Land of the Eight Cities is very much an option, if then, an interesting option.

Friday Fantasy: A Dozen Lankhmar Locations

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #7: A Dozen Lankhmar Locations is a bit different. Unlike the majority of the releases for Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and the releases for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, it is not a scenario. Instead, it is a supplement designed to help the Judge bring the darker, grimmer, and even pulpier world of the City of the Black Toga, Lankhmar, the home to the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, the creation of author Fritz Leiber, to life. The city is described as an urban jungle, rife with cutpurses and corruption, guilds and graft, temples and trouble, whores and wonders, and more. Under the cover the frequent fogs and smogs, the streets of the city are home to thieves, pickpockets, burglars, cutpurses, muggers, and anyone else who would skulk in the night! Which includes the Player Characters. Since the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set presents a city setting, what a campaign set there needs more than anything is locations. Places that the Player Characters will visit, whether that is somewhere to fraternise and carouse, worship, case and then burglarise, buy goods and fence their stolen booty, or simply to sleep. Together, such locations and the NPCs found there are places around which a campaign can be built as the Player Characters visit them again and again and they become part of their lives. Scenarios for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set provide their own locations, starting with Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #1: Gang Lords of Lankhmar, which provides a gang of fellow thieves and desperate men and women to lead as well as a hideout to use as a base of operations. Subsequent scenarios have provided further locations, such as the theatre in Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #3: Acting Up In Lankhmar. Each of these scenarios provides just a handful—at the very most—of such locations, whereas, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #7: A Dozen Lankhmar Locations goes much, much further.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #7: A Dozen Lankhmar Locations does exactly what its title suggests. Describe and detail a dozen locations in the City of the Black Toga. None of the locations are generic. All of them are specific locations, some part of the city as detailed in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, whilst others are directly inspired by the stories of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. That said, names and details can be changed increasing the versatility of the locations and in some cases, there is some variation included. The majority of the important NPCs are named and given some details so that the Judge can portray them in play. The selection opens with the ‘Crafts Street Watch House’, a better manned and equipped watch house, complete with barracks, armoury, constables’ office, bedrooms for the sergeants, and so on. The interesting rooms for the Player Characters are going to be the vault which holds several chests’ worth of potential loot and evidence and downstairs the interrogation room and the cells where they might end up! Of course, the Watch House need not be on Crafts Street, but could be relocated to wherever the Judge desires. The ‘Fence’s Business’ is a nice combination of secret business, ordinary business, and board rooms.

More expansive and detailed is the ‘Pleasure House’ between the Carousing and the Pleasure Quarters. One of four larger locations in Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #7: A Dozen Lankhmar Locations, this is a high-end house of ill repute, its proprietor, Lady Minx, taking great care of her staff and their children, catering to certain clientele in secret, yet of course, keeping their secrets just in case something goes wrong. There is a little nudity to the artwork here, in keeping with the swords & sorcery genre, but otherwise there is nothing prurient here and it feels like a working establishment. The idea of the ‘Rented Temple’, placed on the Street of the Gods, is particular to Lankhmar and the example is dedicated to Miska, Lord of Cats, a parochial and quirky choice, and there are alternative suggestions as possible uses for its inner rooms. Similarly, the ‘Second-Rate Sorcerer’s House’ is also quirky and particular to Lankhmar, filled with magical knick-knacks and gewgaws—mostly for shore—which is home to a competent, if middling wizard. The ‘Shop with Attached Living Quarters’ expands upon the alternative use with for options for what is upstairs above the shop. One is a family home, the other a pair of rented rooms, and an open loft area which could be put to various use, including storage, sparring room, dovecote, and others. Thus, this building could have two or three storeys.

The Cuttlefish is given as an example ‘Sailing Ship’. This is a cramped caravel of a type popular amongst Inner Sea traders and similar to the Seahawk, the vessel that the Gray Mouser commands later in his career. Presented as more of a cutaway, the inclusion of the Cuttlefish has lots of gaming potential. The Player Characters might need to sneak aboard or prevent another gang from doing so and the ship will enable them to travel abroad from the city of Lankhmar and explore the wider world. Depending upon their wealth and influence, they might even take command of the vessel and engage in trade, and even a little smuggling. The ship has a smuggling hold—just a small one—which could be used to smuggle goods or passengers or even the Player Characters themselves in secret. Like a lot of lot of the entries in this supplement, the ‘Sailing Ship’ entry is flexible and utilitarian.

Several locations are tied to the stories of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. These include ‘The Silver Eel’, the tavern on Dim Lane where the two adventurers are known to be regulars and the ‘Thieves’ House’, home to Lankhmar’s most notorious and one of its most powerful guilds. It is so powerful that it publicly occupies a whole block in the city and it is rumoured that the surrounding buildings and the cellars and sewers blow are part of it too. Arguably, a whole supplement could have been dedicated to the city’s Thieves’ Guild, but there is room in Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #7: A Dozen Lankhmar Locations for just two floors to be detailed. This is still the largest entry in the supplement and it portrays the Thieves’ House during the tenure of Korvas as guild master when the warlock, Hristomilo, was in residence. His laboratory is described in some detail and there are suggestions as what his laboratory might be used for following the events of the novella, Ill Met in Lankhmar. Likewise, the ‘Wealthy Villa’ describes the ‘House of Muulsh the Moneylender’—as previously detailed in Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set—home to Muulsh and his wife, Atya, although it also includes the slight differences to the richly appointed, three-storey villa, after Atya disappears. The location, of course, is just demanding to be burglarised by the Player Characters.

Other locations in Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #7: A Dozen Lankhmar Locations include ‘Street Market’ and ‘Warehouses and Rooming House’. The ‘Street Market’ details the ‘Five Knife-Points Market’ with numerous vendors and NPCs that the Player Characters can interact with, selling and buying goods, menacing the vendors for protection money, rob, picking pockets, and so on. ‘Warehouses and Rooming House’ present a rooming house, ‘The Weary Sailor’, and its adjacent buildings. These include several warehouses, including one abandoned, one being run profitably, and one turned into a pit-fighting venue. This small neighbourhood has a delightfully seedy feel to it and certainly worth adding to the Judge’s campaign should her Player Characters want to check out the monies to be made down by the docks in the River Quarter.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #7: A Dozen Lankhmar Locations is as decently presented as you would expect from Goodman Games. It is well written, but the cartography really stands out, clearly depicting its numerous buildings in all of their opulence and seediness.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #7: A Dozen Lankhmar Locations is a very useful supplement for the Judge running a campaign set in Lankhmar. It presents her with ready-to-play locations that instantly add to the city and bring it life, whether iconic places such as ‘The Silver Eel’ or the ‘Thieves’ House’, or more generic and easily adjusted places such as the ‘Shop with Attached Living Quarters’. In the process, the contents of Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #7: A Dozen Lankhmar Locations will make both the city of Lankhmar and the activities of the Player Characters all the more believable and memorable.

Arms & Armour

Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury is a supplement designed for Metamorphosis Alpha: Fantastic Role-Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventures on a Lost Starship. The first Science Fiction roleplaying game and the first post-apocalypse roleplaying game, Metamorphosis Alpha is set aboard the Starship Warden, a generation spaceship which has suffered an unknown catastrophic event which killed the crew and most of the million or so colonists and left the ship irradiated and many of the survivors and the flora and fauna aboard mutated. Some three centuries later, as Humans, Mutated Humans, Mutated Animals, and Mutated Plants, the Player Characters, knowing nothing of their captive universe, would leave their village to explore strange realm around them, wielding fantastic mutant powers and discovering how to wield fantastic devices of the gods and the ancients that is technology, ultimately learn of their enclosed world. Originally published in 1976, it would go on to influence a whole genre of roleplaying games, starting with Gamma World, right down to Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic from Goodman Games. And it would be Goodman Games which brought the roleplaying game back with the stunning Metamorphosis Alpha Collector’s Edition in 2016, and support the forty-year old roleplaying game with a number of supplements, many which would be collected in the ‘Metamorphosis Alpha Treasure Chest’.

Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury is written by James M. Ward, the designer of Metamorphosis Alpha and simply gives descriptions of over one hundred and fifty weapons and armour. It also reveals a minor secret—or three—about the Starship Warden and the way it was stocked prior to it leaving the Earth. It is well known that as well as stocking the vast generational ship with assorted supplies and devices to ensure that the crew and their passengers would survive the long interstellar journey, the Starship Warden had whole cargo holds filled with everything necessary to help the colonists set up their new home on the destination planet. The colonisation was entirely peaceful and civilian-led, but what is not known is that a pair of secret holds were filled with powerful military weapons by Earth’s military. The locations of these secret caches are known only to the military command back on Earth and to the military commanders assigned to the Starship Warden. Like other high-ranking members of the ship’s crew, they remain in hibernation, their cryrogenic pods also hidden. Yet despite the locations of these caches remaining hidden, this does not mean that they cannot be found, and what happens if others find either cache before the Player Characters? What if a rival band of mutants found them and start attacking the Player Characters and their allies in their powerful suits of armour, wielding deadly weapons they have never seen before? Or robotic dogs and serpents that rampage across a deck? Well, either the Player Characters have to stop them, find their source, or steal them all for themselves—if not all three!

Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury details the content of both caches. In the Secret Military Armoury Cache can be found four types of weapons. These are Bio-Heavy guns, Gamma guns, Kinetic guns, and Plasma guns. They all include grenades, pistols, rifles, throwers, blasters, and artillery. The Bio-Heavy guns fire spheres of bio-material, which when it explodes paralyses and then kills anyone who breaths it in or is touched by it; Gamma guns fire spheres of radiation; Kinetic weapons fire pellets at high velocity; and the Plasma guns, balls of well, plasma. This is a somewhat underwhelming start to the supplement, the weapons being deadly if not all that inspiring and possessing a similar feel. How some of them are fired is slightly more interesting, such as the helmet which has to be worn to fire the Gamma Blaster. Similarly, the suits of mobile armour are not that interesting, although the inclusion of various types of drone provides more of a contemporary feel.

Fortunately, the contents of the Colonisation Weapons & Armour Cache is where Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury gets interesting. Especially with the list of non-lethal weapons, because here the designer really has to get inventive. For example, the ‘Anti-Energy Sparkle Dust’ is thrown in the air and negates energy rays and blasts; ‘Battle Gloves’ let the wearer handle energy, radiation, and poison safely, and even provides a pressure-based force field for protection in space or the deepest of oceans; ‘Electric Bolos’ stun targets; ‘Slippery Marbles’ create uneven surfaces; the Blind Pistol’ fires pellets of manganese which explode blind targets; and ‘Tagging Pistols’ fire darts which can be tracked from a thousand miles away. There are lethal weapons, such as lasers and slug throwers, and even caltrops, but again not all that interesting. More fun perhaps will be had with the Player Characters attempting to figure out what the various types of grenades, from Slippery Grenades to Sticky Mist Grenades, and various types of claymore mines, from Freeze to Nano-Cutter versions, can be found in the cache. The Colonisation Weapons & Armour Cache also contains explosives and battle armour, as well as a selection of droids, such as the battering Droid, used for well, battering, and vehicles all the way up to a Force Sphere, which can transport forty troopers into space or the deep ocean whilst providing plenty of protection.  The Special Colonisation Equipment includes a very useful Emergency Hip Container, essentially a survival kit, and a bit with a robot dog.

All of the entries in Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury include a short description and ratings for damage, Armour Class, and Weapon Class as necessary. They also include an ICR or Item Complexity Rating to indicate how difficult an item is to understand. The tables explaining these ratings are reprinted from Metamorphosis Alpha, whilst the tables at the back of the supplement combine their rating with an index. All nicely done in one.

Physically, Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury is cleanly presented. The illustrations are decent, but the writing is sparse in places.

In a roleplaying game like Metamorphosis Alpha where there no Classes or Levels, and the only way in which the Player Characters get more powerful is through acquiring more mutant abilities or bigger and better weapons and armour, there is always going to be a call for a supplement such as Metamorphosis Alpha: The Warden Armoury. So there is no denying that the supplement is useful, although it does mean that the Player Characters may be capable of dealing out huge amounts of damage whilst wearing armour cable withstanding similar amounts, ultimately upping the scale at which combat takes place. So this may well be a supplement for later in a campaign when the Player Characters are ready to face bigger and deadlier threats.

—oOo—

Goodman Games will be at Gen Con 20220 which takes place from Thursday, August 4th to Sunday, August 7th, 2022.

An Almanac of Anomalies

Metamorphosis Alpha: The Mutation Manual is a supplement designed for Metamorphosis Alpha: Fantastic Role-Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventures on a Lost Starship. The first Science Fiction roleplaying game and the first post-apocalypse roleplaying game, Metamorphosis Alpha is set aboard the Starship Warden, a generation spaceship which has suffered an unknown catastrophic event which killed the crew and most of the million or so colonists and left the ship irradiated and many of the survivors and the flora and fauna aboard mutated. Some three centuries later, as Humans, Mutated Humans, Mutated Animals, and Mutated Plants, the Player Characters, knowing nothing of their captive universe, would leave their village to explore strange realm around them, wielding fantastic mutant powers and discovering how to wield fantastic devices of the gods and the ancients that is technology, ultimately learn of their enclosed world. Originally published in 1976, it would go on to influence a whole genre of roleplaying games, starting with Gamma World, right down to Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic from Goodman Games. And it would be Goodman Games which brought the roleplaying game back with the stunning Metamorphosis Alpha Collector’s Edition in 2016, and support the forty-year old roleplaying game with a number of supplements, many which would be collected in the ‘Metamorphosis Alpha Treasure Chest’.

Metamorphosis Alpha: The Mutation Manual is written by a variety of authors, including James M. Ward, the designer of Metamorphosis Alpha and simply gives descriptions of over two hundred mutations. Metamorphosis Alpha: The Mutation Manual is a character sourcebook divided between lists and descriptions. Both lists and descriptions are divided into six categories—physical mutations, physical defects, mental mutations, mental defects, plant mutations, and plant defects. There are more of the mutations than the defects in each category. So typically, there are eighty to ninety entries for the mutation categories and between two and twelve entries for the defects. They are joined by a full complete mutation list at the end of The Mutation Manual, which lists all of the mutations in the roleplaying. Neatly, this list references not just the entries in this supplement, but also all of the mutations and defects listed in Metamorphosis Alpha—both the original version published by TSR, Inc. in 1976 and the more recent edition published by Goodman Games in 2016.

 

One of the features of Metamorphosis Alpha is that Player Characters do not intrinsically get better. They do not acquire Levels, improve their attributes, or increase their Hit Points through being rewarded Experience Points. Which begs the question, how does a Player Character improve himself? There are two main ways. One is to find better and often deadlier arms, armour, and equipment, the other is gain new mutations. Both are relatively easy to come across in play. There are always stores of forgotten or dropped gear to be found, and across the various decks of the Starship Warden are to be found sources of radiation and other mutagenic agents. So the former will equip a Player Character, whilst the latter will alter him, granting wondrous new powers and abilities. Of course, there comes a point when the equipment and mutation lists in Metamorphosis Alpha begins to feel a bit stale and over used. Fortunately, the contents of the ‘Metamorphosis Alpha Treasure Chest’ provide plenty of source material in terms of both—and thus plenty of other source material for other Post-Apocalyptic roleplaying games. Of course, Metamorphosis Alpha: The Mutation Manual adds the new and needed mutations.

So for the physical mutations, there is ‘Anaerobic’ which enables a mutant to breathe any gas bar oxygen, ‘Detonating Fingers’ with which a mutant can generate and miniature bomb blasts from his fingers, ‘Holographic Skin’ grants a low Armour Class and near invisibility when he is partially dressed, and ‘Physical Flinging Back’ which throws the effect of an attack back at the attacker. Some of the Physical Mutations have a superhero power feel to them, like ‘Duralloy Skeleton’ or ‘Metallic Skin’, but others odd, even bonkers, such as ‘Edible’ which makes the mutant’s body produce edible fruit or nuts which have special effects, such as pistachios which temporarily increase radiation resistance for imbiber or makes him a scientific genius for anything up to day. The mental muations include ‘Aerokinesis’ for control of the air currents all the way up to tornados and ‘Technology  Amnesia’ for making a victim forget how to use a piece of technology, whilst ‘Total Healing’  enables to heal all damage once per every two days. Plant mutations include ‘Control Sap’ which renders anyone who touches the sap of the plant with this mutation suggestible and ‘Insect Monarch’ which marks the mutated plant out as both home and food source for a group of insects which the mutated plant can direct to do its bidding.

However, what is not immediately obvious is that Metamorphosis Alpha: The Mutation Manual does not contain any new defects. Instead, their inclusion—or at least mention—is confined to tables listing those available in Metamorphosis Alpha itself. Which is a shame as they are far and few between, and given the fact that any Player Character with mutations will also have defects, it means that whilst there will be a high degree of variation between mutations possessed by the Player Characters and NPCs, there will far less variation in terms of defects.

Physically, Metamorphosis Alpha: The Mutation Manual is cleanly presented. The illustrations are quirky—especially the one of E. Gary Gygax alongside that of his much-desired mental mutation of ‘Total Healing’—and in general, the entries are well written and easy to read. This is a supplement which will may of use to a lot of other Post-Apocalyptic settings or roleplaying games, such as Mutant Crawl Classics or Gamma World. Though for the former, the Judge will need to develop the respective mutation tables for each mutation incorporated from this supplement into her campaign. Overall, despite the lack of new defects, Metamorphosis Alpha: The Mutation Manual is a serviceable supplement for Metamorphosis Alpha: Fantastic Role-Playing Game of Science Fiction Adventures on a Lost Starship or the PostApocalyptic setting or roleplaying game of your choice.