A Symbaroum Duology III

Adventure Pack 4 is the latest in series of ongoing scenario duologies for Symbaroum, the near-Dark Ages fantasy roleplaying game from Swedish publisher, Free League Publishing. From The Copper Crown to Adventure Pack 3, these duologies provide scenarios which place in and around the events of the Chronicle of the Throne of Thorns campaign, but which are standalone and are so easier to add to a Game Master’s own campaign.  Adventure Pack 4 itself presents two scenarios which highlight the internal strife and factional rivalry which runs through the young kingdom of Ambria. ‘Call of the Dark’ takes the Player Characters south and back into the northern territories on the very edge of the Lost Land of Alberetor in the company of a lowborn noble who is looking to recover proof as to the status of her family, whilst ‘Retribution’ begins with a hunt for a missing person in the city of Kurun before dropping the Player Characters into a conspiracy to antagonise relationships between Ambria and the Barbarian Clans.

Both of the scenarios in Adventure Pack 4 make use of content from the Advanced Player’s Guide and are designed for Player Characters between the levels of Experienced and Veteran, roughly one hundred Experience Points. Each consists of a three-act affair, plus a thorough introduction and timeline which explains what is going on and how to get the Player Characters involved. Each should take several sessions to play through and comes richly appointed with decent maps, some nice handouts, and not just their own background, but details that also add to the wider world of Symbaroum. Given their nature and setting, neither of these scenarios is suited to beginning characters or players, and both the Game Master and her players with some experience of the mechanics and setting will get the most enjoyment from them. 

‘Call of the Dark’ highlights the precarious existence of some of the minor noble houses in Ambria with limited land to hold as fiefdoms and in some cases, the inability to prove their right to be on the Nobility Register. In most cases, this is because such records were left behind or lost in the flight from Alberetor. House Sarli is one such noble house and in order to prove its rightful status, mounts an expedition to its ancestral lands back in Alberetor. The Player Characters are hired to help with the expedition, and in joining the expedition, ‘Call of the Dark’ will see them returning back to the site of their and their players’ first adventures in Symbaroum with ‘The Promised Land’. Thus they find themselves at camp just south of the Titans, the mountain range which separates Ambria from Alberetor. Here though, their aim is not to go north into the safety of a kingdom untouched by blight, but south into a land blighted by The Great War with the lords of the dead. Fortunately, their destination lies in the very north of the fallen kingdom, on the edge of the Blight, though this does not mean that the Player Characters will necessarily escape its corruptive influence…

Setting out from the Cliff of Korinda, the refugee camp in the southern foothills of the Titans, the expedition skirt the edge of the mountains and search the remains of the fiefdom for the necessary proof. In the process they will uncover family secrets, horrors from the past, and secrets which threaten to undermine current religious orthodoxy in Ambria—and beyond. The refugee camp is nicely detailed, as is each of the various locations within the House Sarli fiefdom. Throughout there is a strong sense of loss, desolation, and abandonment, whether that is in the once thriving, but now abandoned buildings in the fiefdom or the dreary state of the few remaining occupants of the region. Although the expedition, and thus the Player Characters, are free to explore the Sarli lands, there are several locations their employer wants to visit, so the likelihood is that they will do them in the order as written. This is no bad thing, since it both builds the story whilst engaging the Player Characters in discrete encounters, whether that is with a garrison of undead soldiers still driven to perform their duties in life despite their nature, a nasty monster hunting underground, and more. Although its plot is quite simple on the surface, there is actually quite a bit going on behind its scenes, and the Game Master will need to bring that out as play progresses for her players to get the most out of what is a very enjoyable adventure.

‘Call of the Dark’ gives the Player Characters the opportunity to do something different—that is, visit old Alberetor, if only the very outskirts. For two of Symbaroum’s character types, it also provides opportunities to explore their backgrounds. One is the Noble, who could actually replace the representative of House Sarli and thus make the adventure that much more personal. The other is a theurg of the sun god, Prios, who is likely to have his beliefs tested—physically and theologically! Overall, this is a thoroughly enjoyable if mournful adventure with lots of nods to previous adventures which is best run later in a campaign.

The second scenario, ‘Retribution’, takes place in Ambria, specifically the city of Kurun, the seat of the Duke of Berakka located to the west of Thistle Hold, the town from which many a treasure hunter’s fortune or failure has been launched into the Davokar Forest. It is a classic tale of unrequited and misplaced love which festers from resentment into revenge and given that it is written for Symbaroum, that revenge is dark and bloody! Set across five hills divided by a river which makes Kurun an important shipping port, the city itself is described in some detail such that a Game Master could easily have her campaign revisit it, and in addition to detailing its factions and notable establishments, provides a trio of adventure seeds to support that.

Where the emphasis in ‘Call of the Dark’ is on exploration and interaction, the emphasis in ‘Retribution’ is on investigation and interaction. This is a classic investigative scenario as one clue leads to another and a missing persons case leads into another missing persons case, and then a much bigger story. The players will have to work hard with their roleplaying to discover what is going on as the investigation moves from the low-class, even criminal parts of Kurun to its upper echelons and back again, taking in a tribe of Goblin exiles on the make and an increasingly dangerous response to the Player Characters’ activities as they digger deeper and deeper into the mystery. Ultimately, they should discover what lies at the heart of the mystery, which can lead to a very different third act. It all depends on what the Player Characters decide to do with the information they have discovered. Simply asking for help or leaving it for the authorities to deal with and the events play out without the Player Characters’ intervention. This is not only disastrous for all concerned as the plot the Player Characters were investigating comes to fruition, but it also truncates the scenario by a third. Simply, the players and their characters very much have to be proactive and certainly self-motivated to want to enter the third act, but if they do, the Player Characters have a desperate journey across country to make to stop the villains’ plans coming to fruition, all the while harried by the enemies they have made along the way. If they are in time, the Player Characters have a chance to save the day, if not, they may be able to stop their enemies’ plans from progressing any further, but the damage will most certainly have been done. The third act is then, a race against time, decently handled with sufficient detail to keep up both pace and flavour. Even if the Player Characters do race across the countryside they may not be necessarily in time and disaster can still ensue—so there is a higher chance of player failure with the scenario. Nevertheless, ‘Retribution’ does a fine job of taking its theme of unrequited love and giving a very dark Symbaroum twist and ultimately injecting it with the Blight and its corruptive influence.

In addition to the scenarios, Adventure Pack 4 is rounded out with an appendix of new rules, editions, artefacts, and more. The new rules cover ‘The Dangers of the Darkened Land’, the continuing effect of the corruption which has blackened Alberetor, ‘Forced Ride’, which handles continued horse rides over long distances in as short a time as possible, ‘Sleep Deprivation’, and more. Many of these rules, such as those for ‘Forced Ride’ or the ‘Bushcraft’ Ability, either replace or expand earlier rules, and most of them feature in one or the other of the two scenarios. Lastly, there are four new artefacts, and five handouts and nine maps for the players, all of the latter unnumbered.

Physically, Adventure Pack 4 is as well presented as you would expect for a Symbaroum supplement, done in full colour with atmospheric artwork and excellent maps. The handouts for the players are also good, though it would have been useful if the NPC thumbnails had been reproduced for player presentation. Similarly, despite the relative slimness of the book, an index would have been useful too.

Both of the scenarios in Adventure Pack 4 highlight that there is a lot going on elsewhere in Ambria and beyond than the continuing story of ‘The Chronicle of the Throne of Thorns’. However, both scenarios come with a lot of backstory and background which the Player Characters are unlikely to really uncover in their entirety, but which the Game Master will still need to digest and present to them should they need to know immediately, or they decide to dig into that background as much as they are able. This is especially the case with ‘Call of the Dark’, whether that is politics back in Ambria or in countries elsewhere on the continent which are barely touched upon by the Symbaroum line. There is potential for the Player Characters to explore some of this, but that would require no little development upon the part of the Game Master. In the case of ‘Call of the Dark’ this would work well if the scenario’s main NPC has been replaced by a Player Character. Adventure Pack 4 is worth coming back to once both scenarios have been played though, especially the scenario ‘Retribution’ as the consequences of its events—whether the Player Characters succeed or not, are likely to have greater ramifications for a campaign (that is, unless the Player Character replaces the NPC in ‘Call of the Dark’). The presentation of Kurun in ‘Retribution’ makes it as potentially as interesting a location as Thistle Hold nearby and its inclusion adds more to the setting.

For  all the complexities of their respective backgrounds, the two adventures in Adventure Pack 4 are not necessarily as complex to run. In the case of ‘Call of the Dark’ there is something joyously simple to the plot of its adventure—at least on the surface, and ‘Retribution’ feels like a classic Film Noir plot done for Symbaroum. In terms of theme and setting, the scenarios in Adventure Pack 4 are very nicely done and will be a lot of fun to run and play later in a campaign.

A Symbaroum Starter

The starter set for any roleplaying game is always designed as an entry point into that game. It has to do three things. First, it has to introduce the game—its settings and its rules to both players and Game Master. Second, it has to showcase the setting, the rules, and how the game is played to both players and Game Master. Third, it has to intrigue and entice both players and Game Master to want to play more and explore the setting further. A good starter set, whether City of Mist: All-Seeing Eye Investigations Starter Set, the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set, or the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set will always do that, whereas a bad starter set, or even a mediocre starter set, such as the Sixth World Beginner Box for Shadowrun, Sixth Edition, will not. Whilst a starter set is always designed to introduce a roleplaying game, it has another function, depending upon when it is published. A starter set published as a roleplaying game’s first—or one of its first—releases introduces the game and setting to everyone. A starter set published later or deep into a line’s run, when there are multiple supplements and scenarios available as well as the core rulebook, is designed to introduce the game, but not to those who are already playing it. That said, if it contains content which long term players will enjoy, then that is an added bonus. Of course, it is intended to introduce the game and setting to new players, at the time of its publication providing a means of getting into both when the range and number of books and supplements available might be daunting and there might not be an obvious point of entry. This is exactly what Symbaroum Starter Set – Treasure Hunts in Davokar does for Symbaroum from Free League Publishing.

Symbaroum Starter Set – Treasure Hunts in Davokar includes two sixty-four-page books, a Symbaroum Bright Davokar Dice Set, two double-sided maps, and six character sheets for the starter set’s pre-generated Player Characters. Everything is presented in rich colour, the artwork in particular, standing out as being awe inspiring and absolutely fantastic in depicting the mysteries and wonders to be found in Symbaroum. The books do need a slight edit in places and yes, much of the artwork will be familiar to anyone who has looked at any of the supplements available for Symbaroum, but for anyone new to the roleplaying game and its setting, the artwork very much sells the setting.

The first book is the Starter Rules. This introduces the concept of roleplaying and both the rules for and the setting of Symbaroum—all at a brisk pace. After a quick explanation of roleplaying, it goes over the key points about the setting—that Ambria is a young kingdom, its peoples forced to flee from the south over the mountains after their original home fell to the Dark Lords, how the military of the refugee kingdom defeated the indigenous barbarian tribes, and how some began to look for signs of ancient, long-lost kingdom to the north, under the canopy of the vast Davokar Forest. In doing so, they would penetrate ever further north, and in doing so, threaten the Iron Pact between the Elves and the Barbarian tribes that kept mankind from exploring too far north… In explaining the rules, the Starter Rules booklet is very much focused on the rules as they apply to the pre-generated Player Characters. So the Man-at-Arms and Iron Fist Abilities for the Knight and the Prios’ Burning Glass Power for the Theurg, explanations of their Races and their Traits, and so on. Abilities and Powers in Symbaroum come in three levels of skill—Novice, Adept, and Master—and whilst the pre-generated Player Characters all have Novice levels in theirs, the explanations of each Ability or Power covers the Novice and Adept levels. This means that the pre-generated Player Characters in the Symbaroum Starter Set – Treasure Hunts in Davokar can learn from their experiences and get better at their Abilities and Powers in between the adventures provided in the Setting & Adventures booklet. Ultimately, the Game Master and her players are going to need the Symbaroum core rules, but these options, along with a surprisingly lengthy equipment list, do allow for a playing group to get a goodly amount of play from the starter set before doing so. 

The explanation of the mechanics and how combat works emphasises how Symbaroum is player-facing in that the Game Master never rolls dice, the players do, and a nice touch is that the guide to combat is supported with a good example of it in play, also emphasising that there is a narrative to the play rather than making them simply mechanical and procedural. One aspect of Symbaroum which sets it apart from many other fantasy roleplaying games is that the Player Characters can suffer from Corruption. Temporary Corruption comes from casting spells, but cast too much magic and the Corruption can become permanent. Other sources of Corruption include using certain artefacts and encountering certain creatures and places in and under Davokar Forest. Too much Corruption and a person’s Soul is blighted, which the Witchsight Power can reveal. These rules show how both magic and the secrets of Davokar Forest can be dangerous and so should be handled with care.

The Setting & Adventures booklet is of course, for the Game Master’s eyes only, and it starts with some advice for her, before delving into the setting of Symbaroum with some specifics. In particular, presenting the fortified town of Thistle Hold on the edge of Davokar Forest as a launching point for any treasure hunts into its depths, as well as rules for and the dangers for making such journeys. The description of Thistle Hold is nicely done, having a ‘Wild West’ feel, but with Dark Ages flavour. Again it will be familiar to veteran players of the game and perhaps the only thing that might have made it better would have been the inclusion of a few NPCs that the Player Characters could have regularly interested with. Whilst there are rewards to be found on the treasure hunts, some of them listed on the included table, not all of these rewards are entirely safe, notably the handful of artefacts which inflict corruption when their powers are invoked. These do give their owners minor, but still powerful benefits, but their use needs to be weighed against the cost of that use. Other dangers are more obvious, such as the short bestiary of monsters and adversities that might be encountered under the eaves of the Davokar Forest. Including beasts, members of various cultures, and the undead, the dozen or so entries are certainly sufficient to support the two scenarios in the Setting & Adventures booklet, and a bit more.

The two adventure locations in the Setting & Adventures booklet are designed with new players in mind, being relatively short and straightforward and intended to give them a taste of the core activity at the heart of Symbaroum, and its accompanying dangers. They are designed to be played in order, although the two are not connected, with the second being more complex than the first and with each Player Character earning sufficient Experience Points that should his player want to improve him, then he can. The first is ‘Where Darkness Dwells’ and is the simpler of the two, the Player Characters having been informed that the corrupted lake of Kal-Halaran and the nearby cemetery of Kalea Ma-Har are both sites of interest to anyone wanting to further study the Darkness, and perhaps been hired to locate a missing noble who was last seen there. The adventure veers between being a scavenger hunt and a dungeon delve, although quite a short one. This can be peppered with a series of random events, but the scenario has it events and encounters as well as the site to explore. These include encounters with some interesting NPCs whose role in the scenario is to illustrate the dangers of exploring the Davokar Forest and hunting for treasure. This includes with Elves, who in Symbaroum distrust mankind at the very least since their incursions into the forest break the Iron Pact and meddle with dangers best left alone. The one issue here is that should the players and their characters handle the situation wrong, it may end in their being executed, possibly because of the players’ lack of awareness of the dangers of treasure hunting. So the Game Master may want to really warn the players and their characters ahead of time in game, because such an outcome is likely to end their playing experience with Symbaroum, let alone with the Symbaroum Starter Set – Treasure Hunts in Davokar. Otherwise, this is a solid introductory scenario which successfully imparts much the setting elements to Symbaroum.

The second, more sophisticated scenario is ‘The Gathering Storm’. The Player Characters learn of another location, Lafarda’s Tower, from some notes that come into their possession, and that the tower might hold another artefact, this time the Rod of Light and Darkness. Either having discovered them during the events of ‘Where Darkness Dwells’ or purchased whilst back in Thistle Hold, the notes suggest the tower’s location, in the middle of the Blasted Heath, leading to a nasty trek across lightning cracked land to find the tower in the fog. However, when the Player Characters arrive, they discover that a rival band of treasure hunters has already got there, but has come up against a problem that it is not strong enough to deal with. It is a classic situation of uneasy alliances complicated by the arrival of a second rival party, a party of innocents, the weather getting very, very frightening, and something nasty below the tower… This is the better of the two scenarios, and although it does not lack the potential for a total party kill (as opposed to execution), that potential feels less arbitrary. 

Both scenarios include notes on their set-up and potential developments, depending on the outcome. Both will need thorough read throughs as they are quite busy in places and there are events which the Game Master will need to prepare as well as the various locations. Beyond the suggested developments, the Symbaroum Starter Set – Treasure Hunts in Davokar is wanting in terms of further adventures. Given how much is included in the starter set in terms of background and rules, it would have been nice if there had been a few adventure hooks or seeds which the Game Master could have developed for herself. However, both adventures should provide two sessions of gaming each, especially if the Game Master develops the set-up a little more to involve some roleplaying and investigation in Thistle Hold prior to the Player Characters setting out on their expeditions.

The six character sheets for the starter set’s pre-generated Player Characters include a Human Ambrian Knight looking for redemption, a Human Ambrian Witch Hunter who has probably seen too much Darkness, a Goblin Treasure Hunter on the make, a Human Ambrian Theurg wanting a better understanding of Darkness, and an Ogre Wizard curious about the world who accompanied by a mystical companion. All six sheets are done on glossy paper and easy to read. The backgrounds for each of the Player Characters is given in the Starter Rules booklet. These backgrounds have sufficient ties between the Player Characters to explain why they are working together. However, the Game Master will need to do a little copying and pasting to make the background readily available to their prospective players.

The double-sided maps are done in full colour on stiff paper stock. One depicts the town of Thistle Hold—the start and end point for any treasure hunt into the Davokar Forest on the one side, and a map showing Ambria and the known Davokar Forest on the other. Both of these maps have been seen before, but having them separate is always useful as is the fact that various important locations are listed on the Thistle Hold map that the Player Characters can visit. The second map depicts the adventure locations for each of the two adventures in the Setting & Adventures book. Both are unmarked.

The Symbaroum Starter Set – Treasure Hunts in Davokar takes Symbaroum back to where it started—and where many of the early adventures take the Player Characters—treasure hunting under the canopy of the Davokar Forest. In doing so, it presents a robust and surprisingly detailed introduction to the setting of Symbaroum and its mechanics. For anyone interested in getting a taste and feel of the dark fantasy Swedish roleplaying game, The Symbaroum Starter Set – Treasure Hunts in Davokar is a solid entry point.

A Symbaroum Collation

The Symbaroum Game Master’s Guide is a supplement for Symbaroum, the near-Dark Ages fantasy roleplaying game from Swedish publisher, Free League Publishing. The supplement does two things. First, it collects and collates material from previous titles for the Symbaroum roleplaying line, but not only that, builds upon them. The titles include the Advanced Player’s Guide and Monster Codex, as well as Thistle Hold – Wrath Of The Warden, Karvosti – The Witch Hammer, and Yndaros – The Darkest Star. Second, it builds on and expands on this content as well as adding new content of its own. This has a number of consequences. First, in replicating content from previous titles, there is a sense of redundancy to it, more so if the Game Master already has those supplements. Second though, in collating the content, it brings it all together in one place for easy reference, and that does mean it is useful. More so, of course, if the Game Master lacks one or more of the earlier volumes it draws from

Intended as the capstone to the core books for Symbaroum, the Game Master’s Guide essentially explores the adventures, challenges, and rewards to be had in the setting, giving advice and practical suggestions  that the Game Master can bring to her game. It is divided into three sections, each of which is further divided into chapters. The first section, ‘The Adventure’ essentially covers the design and creation of game worlds, chronicles, and landscapes—the latter better known as scenarios or adventures. It begins with the primary building blocks such as theme—most obviously Symbaroum’s ‘struggle between civilisation and nature’, stories, and tone, before adding secondary building blocks such as history, nature, cultures, population, and more. It guides the Game Master through the process, and then it does the same for chronicles—better known as campaigns, from establishing a chronicle’s theme and the importance of the first adventure through the course of the chronicle to its climax. Adventure landscapes are treated in the same fashion. The opening chapters of the Game Master’s Guide narrow their focus again and again, going from an overview down to individual scenarios, throughout referencing various scenarios for Symbaroum, as well as the Crown of Thorns campaign begun with Thistle Hold – Wrath Of The Warden.

However, these opening chapters are not overly engaging, particularly early on when examining the base building blocks. The references, especially to roleplaying games from Free League Publishing for other than Symbaroum feel somewhat superfluous and the chapters feel overwritten. This is not to say that the advice is poor, but the writing becomes more engaging and to the point when subject being covered is more specific, for example, when discussing the concept of Troupe Play in Symbaroum, in which the players take the roles of more than one character, suggesting the roles that the players might take in particular organisations. Thus, for a Barbarian village, the first set of Player Characters would be the chieftain’s council, the second his guard warriors, and the third, common villagers. ‘Adventures for Heroes’ gives advice on presenting scenarios and encounters for experienced Player Characters, not just adjusting the enemy’s numbers, but also adapting the enemy’s tactics and altering the terrain. It also suggests weaknesses against particular character types, not necessarily to defeat them, but rather to present such characters with challenges. So for the giant berserker with a two-handed weapon, the Game Master might counter with ranged enemies, monsters which bind or hinder movement, and enemies using mystical powers.

More specific to the setting is ‘Under, Above, and Beyond’ which explore the realms beyond Ambria and Davokar—the Underworld, the Yonderworld, and the Spirit World. It covers what might be found in each as well as encounter tables, adventure suggestions, and more. None of this is intended to be definitive, but more a guide for the Game Master for the few occasions when her Player Characters have to visit or traverse such realms. Again, more specific, ‘Goal Oriented Roleplaying’ presents objectives that the Player Characters might want to achieve, such as a conquest or staging an expedition, and examines each through five phases, the problems and challenges that they might face. Here the Game Master’s Guide most obviously draws from, and builds on, content from Thistle Hold – Wrath of the Warden and the Symbaroum Monster Codex, so is much more a case of developing content further along with the straight reprint and presenting it in the one location.

The practicality of the second section, ‘Challenges’, means that the focus in the Game Master’s Guide strengthens further. ‘Advanced Traps’ is useful for adding to the tombs and treasure vaults know to be located in the Davokar Forest and comes with some rather nice illustrations reminiscent of Grimtooth’s Traps, whilst ‘Pitched Battle’ enables the Player Characters to take to the battlefield, whether as combatants or commanders. It is an abstract system which calculates battle odds via the ratio between attackers and defenders, adjusting for factor such as resistance levels and battle location, to determine the outcome and casualties suffered. It also allows for random events, such as waking amongst the dead or being saved by allies, whilst an adjacent article provides a good examination of the nature of Ambrian Wars. This covers the Great War, the invasion of Ambria, and the battles of Karo’s Fen, as well as discussing the tactics used by the Dark Lords, the Ambrians, and the Barbarian clans. However, what the ‘Pitched Battle’ rules lack are an example or two, not an issue with the ‘Managing a Domain’, which puts the Player Characters in charge of a small fiefdom, from a fortified farm to a small market town. It includes events and improvements which can occur over the course of a year, as well as ways to protect the domain should it come under attack.

Equally as well supported by examples are the rules for ‘Social Challenges’, which cover Player Character scheming as well as tracking the relationships between them and Symbaroum’s various factions. However, the Player Characters’ favour with any one of the factions will wax and wane, so it is not merely a case of doing a deed or conducting a task to gain a faction’s support, but doing more deeds and conducting further tasks to maintain that support.

Travelling through and exploring the Davokar forest comes under the spotlight in first ‘Expeditions in Davokar’, followed by ‘Exploring Ruins’. These are perhaps the most familiar chapters, covering content previously presented in Symbar – Mother of Darkness. ‘Expeditions in Davokar’ covers the dangers and travails of moving through the forest—planning, misfortunes, companions, treasures to be found, reasons to delve underneath the canopy, and more. ‘Exploring Ruins’ provides a set of tables for the Game Master to create various that might be found in the forest. The penultimate chapter in the section, ‘Ceremonies’, expanded from The Darkest Star, covers powerful rituals the casting of which comes with significant corruption and side effects, and which are outlawed by the Ambrians. Numerous examples are given, but for the most part, these remain the province of NPCs and likely events which the Player Characters will either have to investigate, prevent, or interrupt. Lastly, ‘Legendary Creatures’ draws on the Monster Codex to present legendary, climatic challenges for the Player Characters, such as Sakofal the Slaughterer, legendary dragon, recently awoken and emaciated, and very, very hungry…

The third section, ‘Rewards’, is the last and shortest, consisting of two chapters. The first, ‘Enhanced Rewards’ covers everything from thalers to artefacts as rewards, but there are some non-traditional options too, including ‘burdens as rewards’. The idea being that the Player Characters will have faced great, probably stressful challenges and dangers, and the likelihood is that they will come away hurt in body or mind, if not both. This is an interesting way of developing a Player Character, plus the ‘burden’ grants both roleplaying opportunities and Experience Points! The second, ‘Great Artifacts’ gives almost unique devices of a magical nature, such as Bunefor’s Death Mask, which enables the wearer to find gaps in an enemy’s armour as well emit a piercing scream under certain circumstances or Desdemorgos’ Iscohedron, a device which protects the user against environmental corruption, but which also allows the user to draw corruption and use it as an attack! Each of the artefacts comes an adventure hook ready to develop.

Physically, the Game Master’s Guide is up to the standard you would expect of the Symbaroum line. It needs a tighter edit perhaps in the earlier chapters, but is otherwise well written and the artwork is up to the usual standard.

As much as the Game Master’s Guide reprints content from previous titles, it also expands upon them and it collates them, all in one handy reference tome. In doing so, it supports whatever type of campaign set in Symbaroum the Game Master is running, whether that is the Crown of Thorns or one of her own devising, with advice on set-up and theme, handling traps and ruins, Player Character goals and rewards, and really, quite a lot more. It goes further though, in offering ideas and suggestions for running campaigns in Symbaroum other than that presented in the Crown of Thorns campaign. The chapter on troupe play lends itself to roleplaying and adventure opportunities aplenty, as does managing a domain, so that a campaign could be location-based rather than travelling hither and thither.

However, as good as much of the content in the Game Master’s Guide is, it is difficult to describe as a must-have title—and less so if the Game Master already has many of the other supplements and titles for Symbroum. As much as the content has been expanded upon, it is simply a case of being less useful if the Game Master already has it. On the other hand, it does collate as well as expand that content and that means that it is useful reference tome to have alongside the core rulebook instead of having to leaf through numerous supplements. So for the Game Master new to Symbaroum, the Game Master’s Guide is a worthy purchase, but for the veteran Symbaroum Game Master, the Game Master’s Guide is worth considering before making the purchase.

Friday Fantasy: Slaves to Fate

From Chaosium, Inc. with the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds) to Wizards of the Coast with the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons, publishers are seeing the benefit of fan-based content. Free League Publishing, the Swedish publisher best known for roleplaying games as Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days, Coriolis: The Third Horizon, Tales from the Loop – Roleplaying in the '80s That Never Was, Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World, and Symbaroum, has its own platform for user-made content in the form of the Free League Workshop.
Slaves to Fate: An Adventure of Endless Winter is a short scenario for the near-Dark Ages fantasy roleplaying game, Symbaroum. Published by Earl of Fife Games, it is a focused affair actually intended as an introduction to a new campaign, Forever Winter. Consequently, it is linear in structure, it requires a particular set-up, and places a big responsibility with one player. The set-up is quite simple. The player characters are slaves. Mostly Ogres and Goblins, but also a mix of other races and occupations, so the player characters then. They should all be beginning characters and their players should decide how and why they ended up enslaved in the first place—captured by slavers, sold into slavery, to pay off a debt, and so on. One of the player characters should be a Changeling, and whilst Slaves to Fate provides enough in terms of motivation and background for this character, his player is free to create whatever character type he likes and there is still room for him to add elements to his backstory if he so desires. Alternatively, the Game Master can simply create this character as an NPC.

As the scenario opens, the player characters, as part of the slave coffle, have been taken north into the Davokar Forest where they are being worked all but to death felling trees and preparing lumber for shipment south. As the temperature drops and the player characters try and cope with exhaustion and not enough food and water, there is opportunity for them to escape. Several methods are discussed, but whatever the means, the player characters find themselves hounded from their camp by marauding beasts. Ultimately, they will find refuge, but all too quickly it becomes a prison and again they must escape to confront the forest itself…

The scenario does call for a degree of buy-in upon the part of the players, not least of which upon whoever will be playing the Changeling. Some players may object to being pushed from pillar to post, and may just simply refuse to the trust the Changeling, whether a player character or an NPC. To an extent the scenario includes advice on what happens if either the Changeling or the player characters die, but to get the fullest out of Slaves to Fate, the Game Master may want to talk to her players about the expectations of the scenario before play begins. Certainly she will need to do that with whomever is playing the Changeling.

Physically, Slaves to Fate is a 4.63 Mb, fourteen page, full colour PDF. The layout is clean and tidy and the illustrations are good, and generally well written even if it needs an edit in places.

In fact, Slaves to Fate is not a new adventure, it having been adapted to Symbaroum from previous versions for Zweihänder – Grim & Perilous, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Demon Gate, and the Genesys roleplaying game. The grim, near apocalyptic nature of the scenario though, fits the Dark Ages feel of Symbaroum as much as it does Zweihänder – Grim & Perilous and Shadow of the Demon. The scenario can only work as a prelude, the set-up for the campaign to come, Forever Winter, it otherwise being too linear and too bleak to really work as a one-shot. As the set-up to a campaign, Slaves to Fate works well enough and will hopefully lay the groundwork for the Forever Winter campaign.

Symbaroum's Challenge

After a supplement, four scenario anthologies, and three parts of a campaign, let alone a core rulebook, it is surprising that the one thing that Symbaroum does not have and that is a monster book or bestiary. That changes with the publication of the Monster Codex. Published by Swedish publisher, Free League following a successful Kickstarter campaign—and distributed in English by Modiphius Entertainment—it presents thirty new threats, numerous old threats in an easy to reference section, new categories of flora and fauna, guidelines for creating new creatures and balanced combat challenges, and more for the near-Dark Ages fantasy roleplaying game. The Monster Codex is not just a monster book, but a book about making monsters, hunting monsters, and more.

To use the Monster Codex, the Game Master will need access to the Symbaroum core rulebook and the Advanced Player Guide. The book itself is divided into three sections. More than half of the bestiary is taken up by the first section, ‘Hordes of Eternal Night’. Named for work of the same title by the famous monster scholar and black cloak, Father Almagast, it describes just twenty-seven of the creatures described in that tome, but all with certain degree of verisimilitude. To that end, each entry draws from a letter, note, report, transcript of an interrogation, and the like to provide an in-world description, followed by information about the creature’s place in Symbaroum, and an adventure set-up, essentially a plot hook. The monster’s stats are almost an afterthought. For example, the Death Prince are undead warriors and would-be sovereigns who jealously crave power and possession of what was theirs when they were alive. Each was once a Death Lord, a dead body raised to life once again in a ritual which blackens and burns its flesh and bones into a suit of armour and binds them to a sorcerer. Once a Death Lord’s master dies, the now Death Prince is free to pursue his own ambitions. The entry’s story describes how a notary to Queen Korinthia encountered a loquacious bard and his mistress, a noble knight who remained silent and in her rune-engraved armour despite the heat and later fearsome blows in combat with bandits. The notary goes on to describe realising that this was slightly odd, only have it confirmed that the bard was discovered to be a sorcerer and that the knight was known to have died years before, and that since, the knight was acting on her after the death of her master, who had been posing as the bard. The entry lists known Death Princes and includes False Life, a ritual which makes the undead appear as they did in life the following day, whilst the adventure set-up sees the player characters come to a castle or estate as a Death Prince attempts to take it from within from the current owners who betrayed her family. 

Each of the entries is typically four pages in length and as well as the in-game piece of background or ephemera, comes with an excellent illustration—but then you would expect nothing less from a supplement for Symbaroum. They include the small, like the Ettermites, which swarm and bite, but which reside in pillars of a precious gemstone-like building material known as Ettercopal, which attracts treasure hunters. Ettermites can be temporarily put to sleep with a rare elixir known as Etter Sleep, giving treasure hunters just enough to harvest the Ettercopal before the creatures awaken and form a deadly, clattering swarm. They include the huge, like the Colossi, the legendary mounts of the Witches that are massive carnivores that appear to be wood as much as flesh. Many come with elements beyond their just being a threat. So the shapeshifting Bestiaals can actually be taken as a challenging player character Race, as can the Illgoblins, former Goblins who have entered pacts in order to live beyond their short lives; King Toads are amphibians which grow large enough to swallow small boats, but whose legs are a delicacy amongst the Ambrian elite; and Glimmers are undead spirits which appear from the gleam of light on metal, but when killed their souls can trapped in blood red amulet whose glimmering rays of light can distract opponents in combat when worn. There is a good range of threats here for the Game Master to use against her players’ characters, many of them quite nasty and sure to provide memorable encounters. The adventure set-ups do feel a little similar in places, but there are some interesting ideas amongst the mix.

The second section, ‘Monsters & Adversaries’ is much more straightforward and has a more immediately obvious use. It consists of some eighty or so entries, each a standard NPC, monster, or creature, either belonging to a particular organisation or found in a terrain or location type. These range from Champions of Prios, like Experienced Templars and Liturgs, and Artifact Crafters and Panzer Alchemists of the Ordo Magica to mountain’s Snow Wraith and Stone boar and the Pale Crawlers and Rakals of the Underworld. Each consists of a set of stats and a thumbnail description, all quick and easy to use, ready for the Game Master to add character wherever the player characters happen to be.

The last and smallest section of the Monster Codex is ‘Rules & Guidelines’. This covers a variety of different aspects of the rules as they relate to monsters and creatures. To Abominations, Beast, Cultural Beings, and Undead it adds Flora and Phenomena to increase the number of monster categories from one to six, whilst adding thirty-seven new Monstrous traits such as Bloodlust and Wrecker, listing them alongside those given in the Symbaroum core rulebook. Alongside the Infectious and Infestation Traits, it also adds rules for handling diseases in Symbaroum. These are workable enough, but although a few diseases are named, their individual symptoms are not, so the Game Master will have to be creative here. As well as guidelines for creating monsters, the section also expands upon the core rules by providing a more detailed guide to creating balanced combat encounters by scaling both their competence and their scope to the player characters. So limited adventures for beginning player characters, local adventures for experienced characters, regional adventures for veterans, and so on. This is a really useful section for the Game Master, and comes with a list of quick-pick preset of encounters built from the Symbaroum core rulebook and the Monster Codex. 

The penultimate article in the Monster Codex is a discussion of the campaign possibilities that it suggests—the Monster Chronicle, that is, monster hunting. What lies underneath the canopy of the Davokar forest, and of course underneath that, has long been a source of fascination for the monster and treasure hunters and scholars of the kingdom of Ambria, as well as the things that come out of them. This fascination means that there is money to be made from monster hunting, whether that is as trophy hunters, monster explorers—for the advancement of knowledge and science, or simply as pest control, dealing with monstrous threats to towns and outposts. Monsters are also wanted for the arena in Thistlehold, nobles want certain delicacies from the particular creatures, and parts are also in demand by alchemists, physicians, artificiers, and so on. Taking the Game Master through the four phases of monster hunting—preparations, tracking, the confrontation, and the journey back—this is an excellent companion to the monster entries earlier in the book, in some cases working with some of the adventure set-ups also.

Rounding out the Monster Codex is a semi-serious new player character race, the Andrik. These are the descendants of ducks deformed by dark powers into caricatures of cultural beings and consequently, there is a stigma attached to the Andrik. Thus they have the Pariah trait! They also have Paws and poor dexterity, but they have a knack for provoking others. The Andrik are playable, but they are slightly silly and yes, of course, they are an April Fools joke, but a knowing one to the appearance of Ducks in the late Greg Stafford’s Glorantha. They are optional though.

Physically, this being a book from Free League and for Symbaroum, there can be no doubt that the Monster Codex is going to be a fine-looking book—and it is. The layout for the most part clean and tidy, but the first section with the new monsters is perhaps a little cluttered with the letters and notes and so on, which does make its content not quite as easy to read or reference. Nevertheless,  the artwork is fantastic. 

The Monster Codex could have just been two hundred pages of monsters and that would have given the Game Master some fifty or so new creatures to bring to her campaign. Which would have been fine, but perhaps not as interesting, for the Monster Codex does more than just provide a list of monsters and creatures. Instead, by focusing on fewer monsters, it gives room for the authors to tell the Game Master more about them and to place them in setting of Symbaroum. It also does not overwhelm the Game Master with having too many monsters to choose from. Then it provides a ready selection of NPCs and other threats, useful rather than interesting. Lastly, with the advice and new rules, it brings everything else in the book together, helping the Game Master use the rest of the content—and use it in a particular way. That is to create and build challenges for her players and their characters, whether that is on the new monster hunting campaign set-up. As much a challenge reference book as a monster sourcebook, the Monster Codex adds more to a Symbaroum campaign than a simple bestiary would.

A Symbaroum Duology II

In the main, releases for Symbaroum, the near-Dark Ages fantasy roleplaying game from Swedish publisher, Free League, distributed in English by Modiphius Entertainment have been duologies, books containing two scenarios each. Thus, The Copper Crown contained two scenarios to complete a trilogy begun in the Symbaroum Core Rulebook, whilst Adventure Pack 1, which came packaged with the Symbaroum: Gamemaster Screen contained two single scenarios that could be slotted in an ongoing campaign, and Adventure Pack 2 which explored the ongoing dangers of investigating too deeply into the Davokar Forest.
Adventure Pack 3 continues this trend by including two scenarios, but two scenarios set very far away from the Davokar Forest.

‘The Third Episode in the Chronicle of the Throne of Thorns’, Yndaros – The Darkest Star highlighted the ongoing schism within the Sun Church since Prios, the Sun God, was adopted as the One in order to defeat the Dark Lords in lost Alberetor. On the one side of the schism are the Curia loyalists who are faithful to his role as Lawgiver and the one true god of Ambria. On the other are the Reformists who want to return to before Prios was adopted as the Lawgiver and worship in his role as the Lifegiver. The latter are viewed by the former as heretics and are hunted by an inquisition and both major role in Yndaros – The Darkest Star. Equally, they play a major role in Adventure Pack 3, whose two adventures can be run before or after the events of Yndaros – The Darkest Star, although neither take place in Yndaros, the Ambrian capital.

‘The Howling of Damned Gods’ takes the player characters back to the checkpoint on an island in the River Veloma and the refugee camp opposite which serves as the checkpoint and entry point into Ambria at the base of Prios Pass. It is likely that many of the player characters will have come through here as they fled Alberetor and into Ambria. Indeed, the Game Master could allow such characters to recall their first time to provide them with some familiarity, or if she has not run Symbaroum before and wants to run some experience of their arrival after their players have played through ‘The Promised Land’, the scenario in the core rulebook, then she could use the information included here. ‘The Howling of Damned Gods’ is not suitable to be run with beginning characters though, being written for characters with between seventy and hundred Experience Points.

At the beginning of ‘The Howling of Damned Gods’ , the player characters have come to Prios Pass after receiving a letter from a relative or friend who has only made the journey from Alberetor. Access is initially closed, but when several abominations appear and run amok, that friend or relative is likely to be in danger. It soon transpires that there is much more to this action packed opening than a simple attack by abominations—word spreads of a figure of near legend, the ‘Arch Witch’ of lost Alberetor having been spotted in the camp and there being at least two groups who are after her. The player characters, either intrigued or having been tasked with the job, will quickly be on their tail. After the initial flurry of combat and then the investigation, what follows is a chase back through the Titans, the mountains that separate Alberetor and Ambria, past a rather disgruntled troll, and to the Arch Witch’s hiding place, a bandit camp in a hidden valley. The player characters can approach the camp however they want and the scenario covers numerous options as well as the responses of the various factions to the reappearance of the Arch Witch.

Yndaros – The Darkest Star will be of useful reference for the Game Master when running ‘What’s Bred in the Bone’ as it takes place away from the Ambrian capital, but still in Ambria. Specifically, it takes place in and around the city of Revenia, the seat of the Duke of New Beretor, Ynedar, the nephew of Queen Korinthia. The city is different, if not unique, in the way that it accepts the presence of Barbarians living alongside Ambrians—much to the displeasure of the more militant factions in the Sun Church. Already suspicious of Ambrians and Barbarians living in the same city, the murder of one of their own is enough for them to act, and as the number of murders across the city grows, the player characters will have motive to investigate—either through personal links or by being engaged to do so. Initially, this is an investigative scenario, but it quickly becomes a chase again, and then at the end it does something different, which even the designers admit that the rules in Symbaroum are really designed to do, and that is, handle a pitched battle. Admittedly, it is against a relatively small force, so is really a pitched skirmish, but it requires some discussion of tactics upon the players’ part and their characters are likely to want to negotiate with various factions for their support in the battle.

Although different in plot, both of these adventures are decent affairs that highlight the widening religious schism in Ambria, with ‘What’s Bred in the Bone’ probably being the more personal in nature for the player characters. This scenario will, much like Yndaros – The Darkest Star, find the characters having dealings with the setting’s leading figures, but both force the players and their characters to make a choice when it comes down to which side of said schism they are on. This will definitely be much more challenging for any character who is loyal—or even dedicated—to the Curia and opposed to the Reformists. Other characters are less likely to be quite so conflicted. Much of this is covered in the extensive aftermath section which concludes each scenario with the likelihood being that the player characters will have made themselves some dangerous enemies.

Both scenarios are supported with more background about the world of Symbaroum. Thus ‘The Howling of Damned Gods’ presents the border checkpoint for Prios Pass in some detail along with a map, whilst ‘What’s Bred in the Bone’ does the same for Revenia. ‘The Howling of Damned Gods’ also gives a little more information about events before the fall of Alberetor, in particular, the establishment of the heretical Realm of Order. Adventure Pack 3’s Appendix also provides several new rules, such as the Earth Shot Mystical Power and the Whip Fighter Ability, the latter often combined with the use of the sword by Black Cloaks and Witch Hunters. Here also, Adventure Pack 3 expands upon the Young Gods, the pantheon of deities worshipped in Alberetor before the adoption of Prios as the one true god. There is background on each of the nine Young Gods, complete with the nature of their worship—now and then, so that a Game Master can bring their influence into her game.

Physically, Adventure Pack 3 is well presented, in full colour with atmospheric artwork and excellent maps. In particular, the painting of the troll in the first adventure is most eye-catching and it does feel as if better use is being made of the thumbnail portraits for the NPCs.

Both of the scenarios in Adventure Pack 3 highlight other locations across Ambria such that the Game Master can take her own adventures to either as well as adding more background and detail to the world of Symbaroum. The scenarios themselves are decent affairs for experienced players and their characters—as well as the Game Master who has some interesting NPCs to roleplay—with both possessing strong religious themes that make them bested suited to be run before or after the events of Yndaros – The Darkest Star. Whilst they do not directly support the campaign, they do highlight its ongoing themes in the wider world beyond the confines the developing plot of ‘The Chronicle of the Throne of Thorns’ and so are probably used in conjunction with the campaign.

—oOo—

Free League will be at UK Games Expo which will take place between June 1st and June 3rd, 2018 at Birmingham NEC. This is the world’s fourth largest gaming convention and the biggest in the United Kingdom.

The Symbaroum Campaign III

Yndaros – The Darkest Star is ‘The Third Episode in the Chronicle of the Throne of Thorns’, the campaign for Symbaroum, the near-Dark Ages fantasy roleplaying game from Swedish publisher, Free League, distributed in English by Modiphius Entertainment. Having been successfully funded via a Kickstarter campaign, it follows on from first part, Thistle Hold – Wrath Of The Warden and the second part, Karvosti – The Witch Hammer. The first part took place in and around Thistle Hold, the northernmost outpost of Ambria, from where a great many expeditions set out into the Davokar Forest just a few hundred yards from its palisades and which has grown rich on the finds that some survivors bring back, whilst the second was set in and around Karvosti, the great cliff settlement which rises from the forest and is home to the High Chieftain of all of the barbarian clans and chief witch or Huldra, the site of the twice-a-year market or Thingstead, and which worryingly for both the High Chieftain and the Huldra, has more recently become an important site for the Church of Prios. Where Thistle Hold – Wrath Of The Warden saw the player characters involved in a mystery concerning the fate of new patron, Karvosti – The Witch Hammer involved the characters in clan politics as well as sending them out into the Davokar Forest ultimately in race with several rival groups all interested in locating a great artefact. All this was against a background of a growing schism in the Church of the Sun, Ambria’s official faith and an increasing number of Barbarian clans who have united under the Blood Princess in order to destroy both Ambria and her Barbarian allies.

Yndaros – The Darkest Star does something that no supplement for Symbaroum has done before—it takes the player characters south deep into Ambria, the Promised Land, and to its very capital, Yndaros! Barring a short chapter in the core rulebook, all of the supplements to date have focused on the Davokar Forest and its surrounds, but the third part of the Chronicle of the Throne of Thorns changes all that. It presents a guide the new country and its capital, including a gorgeous map of the city that highlights the roleplaying game’s northern European roots, and to its counties and noble houses, before going on to reintroduce ceremonial magic, present multiple conspiracies and factions, and of course, the next part of the campaign itself. This is far more straightforward and direct than the previous two parts and involving a conspiracy of an apocalyptic nature, is much more investigative in nature. In carrying out the investigation, the player characters will be faced by the blight again and again, will encounter the great and the good—and the oh so bad—of both Ambria and lost Alberetor, and in doing so, discover and confront the biggest secret in both the setting and the kingdom.

As with the first two parts of the campaign, Yndaros – The Darkest Star is divided into three sections, the first is background, the second expanded background and rules for the Game Master, and the third, the campaign itself. The first part is ‘City of Contrasts’, which presents what is generally known about Yndaros, a city that some two decades on after the founding of the new kingdom of Ambria and the defeat of the Dark Lords in the last days of the kingdom of Alberetor, is still revelling in, and giving thanks for, that triumph. It gives some history to the city, in particular how Clan Kadizar surrendered to what were the invading Alberetor forces and how much of the city was built into and over the ruins of Lindaros, a city that may be as old as the lost kingdom of Symbaroum itself. This fact plays a major role in this chapter of the campaign and is actually the key reason why the player characters will have come to Yndaros if they have played through the Karvosti – The Witch Hammer.

Although mostly taking place in Yndaros, Yndaros – The Darkest Star does not include an extensive guide to the city—after all, that would take up the whole of the supplement, but it does include a reasonable overview and a guide to some of the city’s best known places to eat and drink, such as the Town Hall’s Loft with the somewhat egalitarian views of its owner and the shabby The Scratch & Rodent run by goblins; to stay, like Zoltar’s Inn, run by barbarians and so favoured by them; to go for entertainment, such as the Dome, where gladiatorial combats and other events are held; to trade, like The Chance, which specialises in objects brought across the Titans mountain range from abandoned Alberetor; and to learn, such as the Legacy Gallery, which which not only displays items from Alberetor, but famously, has exhibits of things and events from Great War against the Dark Lords. The section on the authorities not only covers the city’s administration, city watch, and the Cathedral of Martyrs, but it also examines the city’s underworld and its undisputed king, Nobleman Dastan. The section also goes beyond the capital to present information about Ambria’s counties and baronies and leading noble families. It includes a second map, this of Ambria, which is as good and as useful as the earlier one of Yndaros.

The Game Master’s Section builds on the preceding material, focusing in particular on the faction riven politics of Ambria which will fuel much of ‘The Third Episode in the Chronicle of the Throne of Thorns’ which appears later in the book. Karvosti – The Witch Hammer highlighted how both the barbarians to the north and the Sun Church are split, but where the threat of the barbarians of the Sovereign's Oath remains very much off screen in Yndaros – The Darkest Star, the schism within the Sun Church and the conspiracies within the nobility come to the fore. As well as detailing more of country’s noble houses—including guide to Ambria’s new heraldry—the section provides several good adventure seeds to be run in and around the city. These are useful should the Game Master want her players and their characters to learn some of the ins and outs of the city before moving onto the campaign proper. Lastly there are rules for ceremonial or ritual magic and one or artefacts, all of which play a role in one form or another in the campaign.

‘The Darkest Star’, the campaign itself, takes up half of the book. It is designed to be played with characters who have approximately one-hundred-and-eighty Experience Points each and again, have the reputation as bold and capable problem solvers. It can be played as a scenario in its own right, but is really designed to be played after having finished Karvosti – The Witch Hammer. Now where that had a disappointing hook to get the players and their characters involved, ‘The Darkest Star’ is the exact opposite. As with previous entries in the series, getting to that starting point is an issue, given that the player characters need to know something about the city rather than coming to it cold. This is where the adventure seeds come into play and ideally, the Game Master should run two or three of these so that the characters get the lay of the land before the campaign proper begins.

The campaign proper though, begins with a bang—literally. The player characters have at last found a contact who can tell them more about they found in Karvosti – The Witch Hammer. Then the sky falls on them and the Cathedral of Martyrs. The question is, what, who, and why? Answering all three is what drive the player characters throughout this part of the Throne of Thorns campaign. The campaign here is primarily investigative in nature and fairly linear in structure. Ideally, they should be driven to look into the matter themselves, but there are NPCs aplenty who will hire the player characters them to do so, and as the campaign progresses through its three acts, they will find themselves not only rubbing shoulders with many of the capital’s nobility, but running into some very strange, very weird characters too. There are a number of interesting places to investigate too, starting with the opening location where the sky fell in, but going on to take in the network tunnels which run underneath the city and are mostly used as smuggling routes—mostly, a noble’s estate which has been smited by blight, a crime lord’s den, and more. There are a few red herrings, but not many, and for the most part, ‘The Darkest Star’ is quite straightforward in terms of its investigative structure and so is both easier to run and play.

The campaign proper is, like the previous chapters in the series, followed by the ‘Aftermath’. This covers both the possible outcomes of the player characters’ actions as well as events which are happening offstage, but its primary focus is the former rather than the latter. Whilst the latter are a looming threat, the events close to home, those that form the campaign, are profoundly shocking in terms of the setting, and how the player characters handle them will affect the campaign. That said, should the player characters live up to their reputations as capable problem solvers—and if they can prove they can keep a secret or three—then they will gain some powerful patrons.

Although there is plenty of combat to be found in Yndaros – The Darkest Star, this third part of the campaign consists mostly of investigation and roleplaying—the later in particular being supported with scenes which really will astound long time players and fans of Symbaroum. The Game Master also has nicely done range of NPCs to roleplay. One issue the campaign does suffer from is the amount of information both Game Master and players need to know about Yndaros before play begins. It was an issue with both Thistle Hold – Wrath Of The Warden and Karvosti – The Witch Hammer before it, but not to same extent. Further, the adventure seeds provided means that the Game Master can move her campaign to the capital and run a few sessions for everyone to learn more about it before the campaign proper begins. One advantage Yndaros – The Darkest Star of course, has over Karvosti – The Witch Hammer, is the strength of its hook to get the player characters involved.

Physically, this being a book from Free League and for Symbaroum, there can be no doubt that Yndaros – The Darkest Star is going to be a fine-looking book—and it is. The layout is clean and tidy, and the artwork is fantastic. Putting aside the repeated use of artwork—less of a problem here than in other books—the artwork could have been better used, for example as a set of portraits to show the players of the campaign’s very many NPCs. Especially given the number of factions involved in the campaign that both the players and the Game Master has to keep track of. One big issue is that the book does lack an index, potentially something that will slow play down if the Game Master needs to look something up. The writing is better too, with fewer instances of the reader trying to confirm what they author intended. Lastly, Yndaros – The Darkest Star comes with some great maps, the one of the city of Yndaros itself, is really quite lovely.

Having focused on locations in the north of the kingdom, Yndaros – The Darkest Star brings ‘The Chronicle of the Throne of Thorns’ and Symbaroum to Ambria and its capital, Yndaros. It expands greatly upon the details given in the core rulebook, enough to run both the campaign there and the various adventure seeds included in the book. That still does not mean that a supplement devoted to Yndaros or Ambria would not be appreciated as both would most useful for the Symbaroum Game Master. Nevertheless, it it good to see that the publisher expanding the setting as as providing adventuring material built around the new locations.

More straightforward and linear, Yndaros – The Darkest Star is perhaps the most focused chapter of ‘The Chronicle of the Throne of Thorns’ campaign to date—and feels all the better for it. From its big bang get go, Yndaros – The Darkest Star is also a more driven and clearer chapter of the campaign for Symbaroum, with stronger motivations for the player characters and more astounding revelations for them to roleplay against too.

—oOo—

Both Free League and Modiphius Entertainment will be at UK Games Expo which will take place between May 31st and June 2nd, 2019 at Birmingham NEC. This is the world’s fourth largest gaming convention and the biggest in the United Kingdom.

The Symbaroum Campaign II

Karvosti – The Witch Hammer is ‘The Second Episode in the Chronicle of the Throne of Thorns’, the campaign for Symbaroum, the near-Dark Ages fantasy roleplaying game from Swedish publisher, Free League, distributed in English by Modiphius Entertainment. Having been successfully funded via a Kickstarter campaign, it follows on from Thistle Hold – Wrath Of The Warden, taking the player characters deeper into the great Davokar forest. With the inaugural part being set in and around Thistle Hold, the northernmost outpost of Ambria, from where a great many expeditions set out into the Davokar Forest just a few hundred yards from its palisades and which has grown rich on the finds that some survivors bring back, with the second part, the campaign’s focus switches to Karvosti, the great cliff settlement which rises from the forest. This is home to the High Chieftain of all of the barbarian clans and chief witch or Huldra, the site of the twice-a-year market or Thingstead, and which worryingly for both the High Chieftain and the Huldra, has more recently become an important site for the Church of Prios.

The format for Karvosti – The Witch Hammer is the same as Thistle Hold – Wrath Of The Warden. It is divided into three sections, the first is background, the second expanded background and rules for the Game Master, and the third, the campaign itself. The first part is ‘The Explorer’s Haven’, which presents what is generally known about Karvosti, a refuge against the darkness of the Davokar forest whose inhabitants agree on the need for a united front against the threats from the surrounding area, but cannot agree on much else. It takes us onto the plateau via the great entrance topped with a pair of boar statues and guarded by the ever-vigilant Wrathguard which patrol the settlement, and at which everyone is checked before being allowed to enter. Some history of Karvosti is given; as are plenty of places to eat and drink at, how its inhabitants—both permanent and the many transients in their tent city—entertain themselves, most notably the well-attended story nights held at the market; places to shop at, such as Crueljaw’s Traps where items needed for monster hunting can be purchased and Vearra’s Outpost, an outlier settlement serving those who prefer not to go up onto Karvosti; places to go for information—much in demand by explorers and fortune hunters; and the most notable figures on the plateau. Lastly, the two barbarian clans whose lands surround Karvosti, the Baiaga and the Odaiova, are also detailed, again examining their histories, culture, settlements—including notably, Arch Bridge, the Odaiova stronghold built around an ancient and massive bridge which spanned a river that has since moved several hundred metres away, their leading figures, and their response to the growing darkness from Davokar.

As with Thistle Hold – Wrath Of The Warden all of this initial information in Karvosti – The Witch Hammer is intended for both players and the Game Master. It is designed as either widely known information or easily researched information, but either way, readily available. It is a lot to take in for the players and it might well be worth the Game Master preparing a set of cheat sheets for her players. Ideally, these should be targeted at the type of character each player is roleplaying. So Barbarians, fortune hunters, Witches, and so on are likely to know more than Ambrians, Templars, and the like. This would give pointers for both that would serve as hooks to draw the players and their characters further into life on Karvosti.

The second section is the ‘Game Master’s Section’, which is divided into two parts. The first, ‘In Darkness’, builds on the preceding section, revealing the actual history of Karvosti and its current, fraught political situation, with rising tensions between High Chief Tharaban, the Iron Pact, House Kohimoor and Queen Korinthia, the Sun Church, the Barbarian clans, and the Witches. There is a lot of rich detail here and it is nicely supported with a dozen adventure seeds, ranging from disappearances on the plateau and a rescue mission to free two trapped fortune hunters to dealing with bandits on the road between Thistle Hold and Karvosti and an outbreak of Black Plague Termites, which can be used to add depth to ‘The Witch Hammer’ campaign itself or used in general as part of a Game Master’s campaign.

‘New Mechanics’, the second part, provides rules for creating ruins and detailing their original purpose, inhabitants, features, and so on. This set of tables can be easily used to generate a location—even mid game—and set up a small encounter. This can be during ‘The Witch Hammer’ campaign as there are opportunities for this, but the tables can also be used in general in any campaign. The rules for Scheming can also be applied to any campaign, setting up Symbaroum’s various factions, their likes and dislikes, and establishing the relations between them, before presenting a simple means to track the player characters’ interactions with each of them and how the player characters’ actions change their relationships with them. In general, the rules are quite simple, but the complexity comes in Game Master needing not only to track the relationships and effects of the player characters’ actions as a whole, but also do it for each individual player character because each player character will be different and how each faction views them will be different. As useful as this is, it does add to the task of being the Game Master. In addition, ‘New Mechanics’ gives new rituals and monstrous traits, artefacts, elixirs and diseases, and several new monsters all of which can appear in ‘The Witch Hammer’ campaign.

‘The Witch Hammer’ campaign itself takes up more than half of Karvosti – The Witch Hammer. It gets the player characters involved in the politics on Karvosti itself, between the Barbarian clans, and between Ambria and the Barbarians, as well as sending them out into Davokar and back again to investigate various leads and explore various locations—some of the latter being almost dungeon-like. Notably, it does require the use of the Advanced Player’s Guide and it is designed for a group of experienced player characters with roughly a hundred Experience Points each, with at least one player character being able to speak the Barbarian language, and with the group having a reputation for bold and capable. Guidelines are given for creating new characters of sufficient capability as well as some incentives to get them involved.

Yet those incentives are in a way a stronger means than the default means of getting the characters involved in the campaign. This has them at tavern where they—and everyone else—overhear the maudlin outburst of an NPC about how the authorities treated a friend, an explorer, who was suffering from Blight and who had with her a great artefact. Now this gets the interest of everyone in the tavern, then on Karvosti, and eventually, but all too quickly, across the region. Yet is it enough for the player characters to be involved? Well, yes and no. Yes, because each player character should have motivations enough and faction links enough to get involved on one side or another, but no because it is all too for any of the player characters to decide that their characters have no interest and walk away, leaving the Game Master with more work to do in order to get them involved in the campaign. Nor is this helped by the fact that there are no obvious links between Thistle Hold – Wrath Of The Warden and Karvosti – The Witch Hammer, so that the Game Master will need to develop those before running this part of the campaign.

Once the player characters engage with ‘The Witch Hammer’ campaign, they will find themselves on massive McGuffin hunt—first for the friend of the NPC, second for what she knew, and third, for the artefact. Divided into three acts, this continues with their searching for further clues on Karvosti, before going out to three very different locations where the explorer was last seen—a settlement of religious zealots, a ruined palace, and an island on the brink of the spirit world. Each of these has a different atmosphere and feel, the latter in particular feeling ancient and desolate, and more than a little creepy in places. The difficulty in visiting any one of them is compounded by the interest of rival groups and factions who are after the same information, but often for very different reasons. The three locations can be tackled in any order, not just by the player characters, but also by the other groups. Good advice is given here for the Game Master as to the status of each group at each of the locations in whatever order the player characters tackles them. The likelihood is that the player characters will need to ally with one or more of these groups if they are to succeed and this is where the Scheming mechanics come in because the player characters’ actions will influence these factions’ opinions of them. It all comes to a head as the player characters race back to find the final McGuffin. 

Rounding out ‘The Witch Hammer’ campaign is a discussion of its aftermath. Again, this is organised faction by faction depending upon what the characters do. Much like the involvement of the factions throughout the campaign this feels messy and devoid of any easy outcome, just one more sign of how nothing is easy in Symbaroum. There is also some advice on further leads and stories and potential rewards for the characters.

Like Thistle Hold – Wrath Of The Warden before it, there is a good mix of roleplaying and action involved in Karvosti – The Witch Hammer, especially in the second act where the player characters need to balance their need to find the information they want with having to negotiate with others in order to get it. The Game Master is again given a great cast of NPCs with which to roleplay and there are some decent handouts for the players. Yet Karvosti – The Witch Hammer also suffers from having a lot of information that first the Game Master needs to process and then get the relevant parts to her players and their characters, especially at the beginning where the player and their characters are expected to know a great deal about life on Karvosti. It does not help that the campaign does not make enough of that information itself to provide a really good hook to get the player characters involved at the start, especially given that the player characters are supposed to know it.

Physically, this being a book from Free League and for Symbaroum, there can be no doubt that Karvosti – The Witch Hammer is going to be a fine-looking book—and it is. The layout is clean and tidy, and the artwork is fantastic. Putting aside the repeated use of artwork—less of a problem here than in other books—the artwork could have been better used, for example as a set of portraits to show the players of the campaign’s very many NPCs. Especially given the number of factions involved in the campaign that both the players and the Game Master has to keep track of. One big issue is that the book does lack an index, potentially something that will slow play down if the Game Master needs to look something up. Lastly, Karvosti – The Witch Hammer comes with some great maps, but it also comes with some bland ones too. The one of Karvosti itself is particularly uninteresting and given how time the player characters will be spending there, it is a shame that a better one could not have been provided.

The Symbaroum core rules focuses on three important settlements. Two are Thistle Hold and Karvosti, the third, Yndaros, the capital of Ambria, the young kingdom set up in the wake of the fall of the Kingdom of Alberetor. With Thistle Hold – Wrath Of The Warden and Karvosti – The Witch Hammer, the ‘Chronicle of the Throne of Thorns’ campaign can be seen to expanding upon those locales and their immediate environs. So it good to see that the publisher is expanding upon these locations as well as providing adventuring material built around them.

In addition to presenting more information on Karvosti and the surrounding area, Karvosti – The Witch Hammer does a good job of involving the player characters in the politics of the region and bringing to a head the political tensions that have been simmering at the heart of the game. Yet as content rich as the book is, it is difficult to bring much of that information into play and it makes preparing the campaign that much more difficult—and that is for player and Game Master alike. At the same time, it provides a disappointing hook to get the players and their characters involved and does not tie this, ‘The Second Episode in the Chronicle of the Throne of Thorns’, back into the first, Thistle Hold – Wrath Of The Warden. There is undoubtedly some decent gaming to be got out of this part of the Chronicle of the Throne of Thorns, but bringing Karvosti – The Witch Hammer to the table will be a challenge for any Game Master.