Meddling Mysteries

It could be the seventies. It could be the eighties. It could be nineties. It could be now. Whatever the decade, the world is in danger and refuses to believe it. Creatures of the night stalk the darkness and only you have the knowledge and bravery to face their danger head on. So ready your UV torch, sharpen your stakes, bless your holy water, and load up the mystery wagon, because tonight you are going monster hunting! Are you ready to save the world and have nobody notice? Then that makes you a vampire hunter—fearless or otherwise! This is the simple set-up to Bite Me!, a scenario and mini-supplement for ACE!—or the Awfully Cheerful Engine!—the roleplaying game of fast, cinematic, action comedy, published by EN Publishing, best known for the W.O.I.N. or What’s Old is New roleplaying System, as used in Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD and Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition. Some of the entries in the series have been expansive, such as Orcs & Oubliettes and Strange Science, providing a detailed setting and an scenario, whilst others in the series have tended to be one-shot, film night specials. Bite Me! falls into the latter category.

As with other supplements for ACE!, both the genre and inspiration for Bite Me! are obvious. However, there is a twist. The genre involves vampires and vampire-hunting, so the obvious inspiration is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is not though, the only inspiration for Bite Me! and the other adds very tongue (or is that fang?)-in-cheek tone to the whole affair. That inspiration is the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series, Scooby-Doo. So, this injects an extra dose of cheesiness into the play of the Awfully Cheerful Engine!. The bulk of Bite Me! is dedicated to a single adventure, ‘Darkness, BITES!’ and to that end, it provides four pre-generated Player Characters. However, it also gives the means for the players to create their own characters. These include suggested Roles such as talking Animals, Clerics, Druids, Slayers, Vampires, and Werewolves. To these are added the new Roles of Fortune Teller and Paranormal Investigator. The Fortune Teller gains the Power stat and can cast magic, but to begin with, does not know any spells. The Role also grants a bonus when using a tarot deck and knows if spirits are harmful. The Paranormal Investigator begins play never having encountered the supernatural, but has unveiled a lot of hoaxes. The Role gains a bonus when looking for clues and interacting with the authorities, and starts play with the Mystery Wagon, a mid-sized van.

In addition, various items of equipment are listed as being of use. These include garlic, holy symbol, tarot deck, EMF meter, pure salt, and more. In addition, there are stats for various things that the Player Characters might encounter, such as devil, mummy, poltergeist, and wolfman. The most amusing of these are the Crooked Property Developer (all together now, “And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!”) and the Pirate Ghost.

The four pre-generated Player Characters consist of Fluffy Winters, reluctant vampire slayer; Lilo Thornberg, witty fortune teller; Rooby Roo, faithful dog; and Ted Bones, cheery paranormal investigator. All of whom are very knowingly tongue-in-cheek in being drawn from their sources.

The adventure, ‘Darkness, BITES!’ begins with news reports of strange occurrences at a rundown amusement park. It could be ghosts or it could be something else! In fact, it is both, because the adventure really leans into both of its inspirations. So, if the players are expecting there to be a Crooked Property Developer, they will not be disappointed, and if they are expecting ghosts, they will not be disappointed either. That though, is not the end of the scenario. The Crooked Property Developer is hiding something and that tips the Player Characters into a much darker storyline, which will see them race around town to find signs of occult and even vampiric activity—helped by a local psychic and chased by another classic monster—before finally tracking the evil down and confronting it in its lair. Not so much Transylvania, as Transylvania USA! The scenario is nicely detailed and plotted out and easy to run. It is not set in a specific city, so can be set anywhere the Game Master decides. It just needs to be big enough to have an abandoned amusement park. The play of it should take two sessions or so to play through.

Physically, Bite Me! is well presented with reasonable artwork. It needs a slight edit in places.

Bite Me! is very light in terms of its treatment of its inspirations—but then it has to be. The aim is to make those inspirations easy to grasp by Game Master and player alike and enable the players to engage with them as little or as much as they would like. Which is all part of making the main focus of Bite Me!, the adventure ‘Darkness, BITES!’, just as easy and as quick to prepare. Bite Me! should provide the Game Master and her players with a session or two’s worth fang-tastic and snacka-licious fun. All they have to is provide the snacks.

—oOo—

EN Publishing will be at UK Games Expo which takes place on Friday, May 30th to Sunday June 1st, 2025.

Friday Fear: The Blood Countess

A monster stalks the streets of Los Angeles as a series of bodies of young men and women are found in bodies of water—although the authorities do not yet truly know it. Are these deaths due to the ‘Shoreline Slasher’ or something worse, something out of history, one of the most prolific murderers of the early modern period? Of course, it is the latter. This is the set-up for The Blood Countess, a scenario that is pretty much upfront about who or what is responsible for the deaths, who or what the Player Characters will be investigating, and who or what they will have to defeat. Anyone who knows their history, certainly their bloodier history, and their macabre history, will know who the Blood Countess is. This is Countess Elizabeth Báthory of Ecsed, who was accused of the torture and murder of hundreds of peasant girls and sentenced to immurement. Over the centuries her reputation as a monster has not only grown, but also become associated with vampiric lore. If Dracula is the preeminent vampire, then the Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Báthory is his female counterpart. Published by Yeti Spaghetti and Friends, The Blood Countess is a short, one-night horror scenario, part of and second in the publisher’s ‘Frightshow Classics’ line. Ostensibly written for use with Chill or Cryptworld: Chilling Adventures into the Unexplained, the percentile mechanics of the scenario mean that it could easily be adapted to run with Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and similar roleplaying games.

The Blood Countess initially focuses on the most recent death, that of Michael Ventnor, his body found with many puncture wounds, and the disappearance of a student, Veronica Brookes. A nicely detailed and laid out investigation, involving a good mix of persuasion and sidestepping the authorities, as well as sneaking into back offices to look at security footage, plus a trip to the city museum to look at some ghoulish torture implements from the European Middle Ages, will ultimately point to a modelling agency, recently founded in the city, and an address in a neighbourhood full of ‘McMansions’. The name of the agency is the De Ecsed Agency and research into the name of the owner, Bethany De Ecsed, will give the players and their character some intimations as to who might be responsible and what they might be up against. Although not subtle, it should add a little shiver to the scenario for the players. The scenario will culminate in the Player Characters breaking into the home of Bethany De Ecsed, making some unsurprisingly bloody discoveries, and hopefully getting away following a nasty confrontation with the murderess.

The scenario is supported with maps of the McMansion, a handout giving a detailed description of the life and legend of Countess Elizabeth Báthory, and an autopsy report for Michael Ventnor. It also comes with eight pre-generated Player Characters, two of which have Paranormal abilities. None are members of law enforcement, though one is an ex-police detective, and some have interests in the occult or weird crimes. The biggest challenge in the scenario is really getting these Player Characters together in order to co-operate on the investigation. Although there are some suggestions, this is where the scenario is at its weakest. Although set in Los Angeles, the scenario is easily relocated to any big city with a body of water where the bodies can be dumped.

Physically, behind its suitably bloody cover, The Blood Countess is decently presented. The artwork is reasonable, the floorplans of the McMansion are clear and easy to use, and the scenario is well written.

The Blood Countess is not a subtle affair, but it is fun, combining a solid, often sympathetic investigation with the lurking threat of a monstrous murderess that the players are going to be aware of almost right from the start of the scenario, adding a little frisson of anticipation as to how ghastly and how dangerous she is actually going to be when the confrontation comes. The investigation itself feels reminiscent of an episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker—and there is an episode of that series involving a vampire in Los Angeles—and playing the scenario in the style of that series could work quite well. Overall, The Blood Countess is a very solid addition to the ‘Frightshow Classics’ line, offering a good session of American pulp horror that pitches the Player Characters up against a tough version of a classic monster.

Miskatonic Monday #283: The Last Dance of Lola Montez

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—

Name: The Last Dance of Lola Montez: A Call of Cthulhu Modern Adventure

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author David Waldron

Setting: Ballarat, Modern day

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Forty-three page, 11.64 MB PDF

Elevator Pitch: Who suffers for their art? The artist or the aesthete?

Plot Hook: Grief isn’t something to be exploited. Until it is.
Plot Support: Staging advice, five pre-generated Investigators, eight handouts, and three NPCs.

Production Values: Reasonable.

Pros

# Engaging historically based scenario

# Opens with great roleplaying scenes

# Great historical handouts

# Decent period handouts

# Sanguivoriphobia

# Hemophobia

# Thanatophobia

Cons

# Designed for experienced Investigators

# Emotionally wrought scenario

# Overwhelms the Keeper with documents
# No maps or floorplans

# More Hammer Horror than Mythos scenario

Conclusion

# An emotionally charged wicked web of a scenario

# Narcissism and vampirism intersect in a tale of a Spanish dancer’s revenge

Solo Stakes

You wake. You are in a hospital bed. There is an IV in your arm and you are pretty sure you have been shot from the injury in your side. From the voices and the view from the window, you think you are in Hungary. You have no idea how you got here… Do you have amnesia? You can recall the sharp taste of blood, running through some woods, something swooping down at you and shrieking… Did you bite your tongue? Were you chased? And if so, by what, a bird? This is the set-up for ‘Never say Dead’, the first of three scenarios, which together form the basis of a mini-campaign for Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops. Published by Pelgrane Press, this a campaign framework for Night’s Black Agents: the Vampire Spy Thriller RPG, the roleplaying game in which the Player Characters are ex-secret agents who have learned that their former employers are controlled by vampires and decide to take down the vampiric conspiracy before the vampires take them. Night’s Black Agents offers a range of tools which the Game Master, or Director, can design the vampire conspiracy and the vampire threat, from psychic alien leeches to the traditional children of Transylvania, and set the tone and style of the espionage, from the high octane of the James Bond franchise to the dry and mundane grittiness of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. What Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops does is combine Night’s Black Agents with the GUMSHOE One-2-One System first seen in Cthulhu Confidential. This enables the Director to run and the player to experience the intensity and intrigue of an action-horror film.

Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops is more than just the set-up for a trilogy of scenarios. It provides the rules for the GUMSHOE One-2-One System—adjusted to fit the setting of Night’s Black Agents—and the means for the Director to create her own. Just like Night’s Black Agents and the GUMSHOE System, an Agent in Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops and the GUMSHOE One-2-One System has two types of Abilities—Investigative Abilities and General Abilities. Investigative Abilities, such as Cryptography and Negotiation, are used to gain information. If the Investigator has the Investigative Ability, he receives the information or the clue. General Abilities, like Driving and Sense Trouble, are more traditional in that their use requires dice to be rolled and a test passed to determine success or failure. Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops then deviates from this in order to account for the fact that there is only the one Investigator rather than many as in Night’s Black Agents. With multiple players, all of the Investigative Abilities would be accounted across the Investigators. Not so in Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops. So, when an Agent lacks an Investigative Ability, he can instead turn to an NPC or source for help as a Contact. A Contact can be written into a scenario, but an Agent can convert an NPC into a Contact or a player can create one during play. In Night’s Black Agents, Investigative Abilities have pools of points which can be spent to gain extra clues about a situation, but in Night’s Black Agents, the Agent has Pushes, which the player can spend to gain the extra information or a benefit. This applies to any Investigative Ability and could be used to gain the Agent extra information using the Interrogation Investigative Ability, gain greater insight into a suspect using the Detect Bullshit Investigative Ability, and so on. An Agent begins a scenario with three Pushes and can earn more through play.

In Night’s Black Agents, General Abilities also have pools of points, which are then expended to modify dice rolls for tests. In Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops, General Abilities have two six-sided dice, which are also rolled on Tests. Tests are rolled when there is the possibility of failure in a situation, such as getting past a doorman to break into a suspect’s office or fleeing from the inhuman monster found in said suspect’s office, and are divided into two types. In either case, the player rolls the dice one at a time and totals their values. This is important because some Tests can be overcome with the roll of the one die rather than two dice. The Challenge is the more complex and more interesting of the two.

A Challenge gives three results—‘Advance’, ‘Hold’, and ‘Setback’. The ‘Advance’ is the equivalent of ‘Yes, and…’ and indicates a successful attempt with an extra benefit. This benefit is called an Edge and can prove useful later in the investigation. In addition, if the Challenge was overcome with the roll of a single die, then the Investigator is rewarded with an additional Push. The ‘Setback’ is the equivalent of ‘No, and…’ and indicates a failed attempt with an added Problem that will hamper the investigation. The ‘Hold’ lies somewhere in between with the Investigator no better or worse off, and also without an Edge or a Problem. It is also possible for the Investigator to suffer an Extra Problem in order to gain an additional die to roll in the hope of gaining an ‘Advance’. A player can gain extra dice for a Challenge by accepting an Extra Problem or having his Agent perform a Stunt, which uses dice from another General Ability. This requires a little explanation of how it works and it depletes the use of that General Ability until the Agent effectively rests. Effectively, what a Challenge does is codify a set of narrative outcomes that can help or hinder an Agent, whilst still pushing the narrative of the scenario forward.

In comparison, a Quick Test requires a simple roll to gain an ‘Advance’ result. The structure of Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops and its scenarios presents Challenges in clear test boxes, and both Edges and Problems as essentially cards that are given to the player to add to his Agent. Fights, chases, infiltrating a base, and so on, are all handled as Challenges. Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops is action-orientated, so there is the possibility of an Agent getting killed. The consequences differ greatly between Night’s Black Agents and Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops. In Night’s Black Agents, the death of an Agent can easily be replaced whereas in Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops, the death means the end of the investigation and the scenario, so whilst fights are dangerous, they are not lethal—and that applies to the NPCs or vampires as much as the Agent. The Agent can suffer debilitating injury or loss, but can recover through the ‘Take Time to Recover’ action. Similarly, the antagonist, whether mundane or monstrous, is not killed, but suffers a loss that will benefit the Agent in some way, represented by an Edge. However, this only applies in the early scenes of a scenario, and as a scenario progresses, fights and confrontations become increasingly deadly.

An Agent also has Mastery Edges which are attached to specific General Abilities. These reflect both the Agent’s intensive training and experience, but also how capable the Agent is in terms of the cinematic genre of Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops. They typically provide a one-time effect which ignores the rules in a particular situation or grant a bonus to the dice rolls on a Challenge. For example, ‘The Nick of Time’ is a Preparedness Edge that enables an Agent to have done something retroactively that helps him in his current situation, such as planting a bomb, bribing a custom official, reconnoitring an avenue of escape, and so forth, whereas ‘Intuition’ for the Sense Trouble General Ability grants an extra die on a Challenge. An Agent begins play with three Edges and discards them after use.

As in action films, there are consequences to an Agent’s activities. These are tracked by three cumulative factors. Heat is gained for public fights or explosions, people getting hurt, and committing criminal acts, and as it rises, it can trigger Problems that affect an Agent’s progress or actual Challenges. Injury represents physical impairment, whilst Shadow determines how aware the supernatural threat is of the Agent. It is gained by encountering supernatural entities, attracting their attention, thwarting their conspiracies, and recalling previous encounters with vampires. The latter is important for the Agent for the three scenarios in Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops, since she begins play suffering from amnesia. Shadow will also Problems to an Agent’s progress, but can be lost by killing vampires or fleeing to another city, or suppressed by using garlic or crossing running water. Both Heat and Shadow can also trigger another effect, and that is Blowback. This can be a repercussion, retaliation, or unintended consequences of an Agent’s actions and is typically framed as a Blowback scene that the Director inserts into the narrative.

In Night’s Black Agents, an Agent has the Stability General Ability, which is used to measure an Agent’s ability to withstand the supernatural abilities of the vampires he will face, as well as those of the other monsters that he might encounter—demons, ghosts, and ghouls, as well as Renfields. In Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops, the Agent instead has the Cool General Ability. This is used to overcome stressful situations and resist the compulsions that a vampire might place upon an Agent. Mechanically, it will use Challenges in most situations and poor results will trigger problems for the Agent. Many of the powers and effects that a vampire can have on an Agent are modelled through Problems.

For the player, Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops presents a good explanation of how an Agent is presented, how the rules work, and on how to play. This includes details on tradecraft and notably, the ‘Bucharest Rules’. These are akin to the ‘Moscow Rules’ that guided Cold War operations in Eastern European and they are similar, but given a suitably vampiric twist for Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops. They emphasise that although the situation is dangerous and that the Agent can die, he can win, that he needs to be proactive, he should follow the money and use HUMINT, build networks of contacts and allies, and always know where the exit is. This is supported by several factors. First, that the play is more about interpreting the clues found rather than the finding of them (and that if unsure of where to go next, looking for more clues is always a good choice), and second, that the Player Character, the Agent, is the hero of the story. This is contrasted by the fact that Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops literally pulls the safety net out from under the player. No longer can he rely upon his fellow players and their Agents for advice or help. Barring contacts and allies within the game, the player and his Agent is on his own. That is a scary situation for the player—in addition to his Agent facing vampires—and the player is being asked to be proactive from the start of a scenario to the end. In other words, he is always in the spotlight.

For the Director, Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops explains how the rules work and gives advice on how to run the game. This applies not just to the three scenarios in Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops, but also in general as the advice includes a guide to creating and designing vampires, conspiracies, scenes, Challenges, Problems, and more for her own scenarios. This includes a full range of sample Challenges. Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops still employs the ‘Conspyramid’, the pyramid structure used to map out the vampire conspiracy, with the vampire leaders of the conspiracy sitting atop both the structure and the organisation and the base containing the outer edges of the conspiracy. However, here it is much narrower, reflecting the tighter focus upon the single Agent and his investigation in Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops. The advice throughout the section for the Director is fulsome.

Half of Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops is dedicated to its three scenarios. The protagonist for these is Leyla Khan, an ex-MI6 officer who has been a thrall of the vampires of the vampires for several years at the start of the first scenario. Not only will she have to confront her former masters, but she will also have to deal with the consequences of her own half-remembered past and its own monstrous activities. The antagonists are vampires, Linea Dracula, descended from Vlad Tepes and surprisingly ‘vanilla’ in terms of their design and abilities. This, though, works for an action-horror like that of the three scenarios in Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops because it does not complicate the story or the antagonists. Plus, there is plenty of scope for the Director to modify them if she so chooses. That said, the Director could easily ignore the vampire aspect of Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops and create scenarios focusing on more traditional espionage stories and they could be as tense and as exciting, though not necessarily as horrifying.

The mini campaign opens in classic The Bourne Identity style in ‘Never Say Dead’. Leyla Khan is in hospital with no memory of how she got there and very quickly she receives a message that someone is coming for her. ‘Never Say Dead’ is about escape, discovering the first hints of the vampiric conspiracy that Leyla has been enthralled in for the past few years and a conspiracy within the vampiric conspiracy, and perhaps arm herself to take the conspiracies down. Having escaped Hungary in ‘Never Say Dead’, Leyla Khan begins to do what she is trained to do and that is follow the money. In ‘No Grave For Traitors’ this leads her to Spain where she gets caught up in a drug war and from there follows a courier to London and an auction for a number of odd antiquities, and ultimately to their strange origins in Transylvania. Although there is plenty of action, there is more of an emphasis on investigation in this second scenario. The third scenario, ‘The Deniable Woman’, Leyla is given a mission by her former employer, MI6, to look for a missing agent in Moscow who has his own preoccupations. The investigation leads in another direction away from the central conspiracy, though it is tangentially connected. All three scenarios are very good, being tense, fraught affairs with a mix of exciting action scenes and tight interactions. Some of the scenarios are truly memorable and consequently, definitely not worth spoiling. All three are part of the same conspiracy involving Leyla Khan, but together, they do not form a beginning, a middle, and an end. They are definitely a beginning, perhaps with a middle, but leaving the end for the Director to create.

All three scenarios in Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops are well organised. They include a backstory and an overview of the objectives that Leyla will be aiming to attain—even though she may not be aware of them at the beginning of a scenario, entry vectors for Leyla, a flowchart of the scenes, its cast, and then the various scenes with their associated Challenges and Problems and Edges to be gained through play. Each scenario’s range of Problems and Edges is given after the end of the scenario. Each scenario ends with a discussion of its aftermath and possible Blowback scenes and consequences. ‘No Grave For Traitors’ and ‘The Deniable Woman’ also add starting problems which the player can choose from as a consequence of her ongoing story and confrontation with her past.

One aspect of Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops—and also of Cthulhu Confidential—is that the GUMSHOE One-2-One System and having a single player and a single Game Master, is that it can be played online just as easily as it can face-to-face. Playing online means losing a certain degree of interaction between the players and the Game Master, both because of the technology and the loss of visual cues that act as a buffer, but Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops and GUMSHOE One-2-One System ameliorates that because its focus is always on the one player and the one Game Master and their focus is on each other.

As good as it is very much all about Leyla Khan and it does leave her story hanging, unfinished. There are rules for a player to create his own Agent, but that really, is the focus of missions created by the Director rather than those in the book. It is possible for the three missions to be played using a player-created Agent, but this will require some adjustment upon the part of the Director. The three scenarios in Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops are really the start of a campaign, rather than a complete one. Essentially, it is up to the Director to create the next parts of the campaign. She is given all of the tools and advice to do that, but at the same time, it is disappointing not to be able to pick up where ‘The Deniable Woman’ left off and quickly find out what happens next. There is another scenario for Leyla Khan, ‘The Best of Intentions’, but that is all so far. There can be no doubt that a sequel to Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops, bringing her story to a close would be more than welcome.

Physically, Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops is very well presented and written, and the artwork is decent. The book itself is a pleasure to read.

In comparison to the earlier Cthulhu Confidential, Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops is a much tighter, more focused affair. This is due to it being focused on the one protagonist and the one antagonist, essentially, the single Agent and vampires. This also has the consequence of making Leyla Khan’s story more personal for the player and more involving. The result is that Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops provides a great playing experience, tense and exciting, telling the player to, “Buckle up, you’re in the spotlight now and your fate truly is in your hands” all in readiness to make his Agent the star of their own action-horror film.

[Free RPG Day 2023] A Taste of the Moon

Now in its sixteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2023 took place on Saturday, June 24th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Fil Baldowski at All Rolled Up, and others, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

—oOo—

A Taste of the Moon is a story for Vampire: The Masquerade, Fifth Edition suitable for a coterie of four to six neonate Anarchs. It is the second title to be released for Free RPG Day by Renegade Game Studios after Cobra/Con Fusion for use with its G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game and its Transformers Roleplaying Game. It can be played through in a single session as a one-shot or worked into the Storyteller’s own chronicle. It is set in a city large enough to have had a meat-packing district, nominally an American one—but could easily be adjusted to the city of the Storyteller’s choice, whether that is in the USA or elsewhere. The scenario requires some set-up in determining the Sires of the particular Player Characters, but beyond that, nothing extra is required other normal preparation upon the part of the Storyteller. The core rules for Vampire: The Masquerade, Fifth Edition are required to play A Taste of the Moon.

A Taste of the Moon opens en media res. The Player Characters are together, waking to find themselves in a night club, the Velveteen Bunny, felling slightly strung out, the body of a ghoul in the same room with them. Did one of them kill the ghoul? Well yes, and which of their vampires exactly it was, is for the players to decide between themselves. Worse, the ghoul belonged to the sire of one of the Player Characters, so they have to go before the sire and seek absolution. The sire will forgive them in return undertaking a task for him, and that is finding samples of Cherry Moon, a new type of blood that does not spoil and gives the imbiber a fantastic rush. Blood spoils a few hours after being drawn from the source, so having a type which does not is huge advantage. The investigation will lead the Player Characters back to the scene of their crime, the Velveteen Bunny. The problem is that finding a source is difficult, but finding the actual source is a whole lot more difficult.

A Taste of the Moon is primarily set-up. There is good advice on how to set the scenario up and how to use it in play, and there is not one opening scene, but several. There are four alternate opening scenes which could be used instead of the given one, plus there are hooks which the Storyteller can develop if she wants to use the scenario as part of her Chronicle. These are followed by numerable complications, ranging from the various Player Characters’ sire wanting a sample of Cherry Moon, and as word spreads of the Player Characters’ interest, more and more local Kindred come out of the woodwork wanting some too. With the addition of a complication or three and a handful of further adventures, along with the stats for the antagonists, and what A Taste of the Moon actually is, is a toolkit to run the adventure. The plot kept short and simple, a couple of locations are described, and the bulk of the text is dedicated to NPCs that the Player Characters will run into and have to deal with as their investigation proceeds.

Rounding out A Taste of the Moon is the coterie of pre-generated Player Characters. There are six, a mix of thirteenth and twelfth generation vampires, consisting of two Brujah, a Caitiff, a Malkavian, a Gangrel, and a Toreador. Unfortunately, this is where A Taste of the Moon is disappointing. There are points where the dots in a Player Character’s skills does not match his description. For example, Melika Red is described as charming and brutally honest, but has no Persuasion skill and does have the Subterfuge skill. Then she has a single level in Presence, but it is attached to ‘Lingering Kiss’, a power not available at just the single level. Cassandra Barrantes has the roleplay hook of “Use Obfuscate to leave an awkward situation you don’t want to be part of.” but no dots in Obfuscate. The problem is that the mechanical design of the characters has been rushed and so they are full of inaccuracies. Now, this is not difficult for the Storyteller to fix—indeed, Renegade Games Studies has done exactly that with the PDF version of the scenario—but she should not have to. 

Physically, A Taste of the Moon is well presented. It is clean, bright, and tidy. The artwork is excellent. Barring the issues with the pre-generated Player Characters, A Taste of the Moon is a good set-up for a scenario—in fact, several good set-ups for a scenario—which are followed through with the plot. Once past the set-up, the plot itself is quite straightforward. Overall, A Taste of the Moon is solid support for Vampire: The Masquerade, Fifth Edition.

Miskatonic Monday #236: A Red Red Rose

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—

Name: A Red Red Rose

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Keith DEdinburgh

Setting: Modern Day Edinburgh

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Sixty-eight page, 4.40 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Romeo & Juliet, Vampires & Ghouls & Ghosthunters! Oooh MY!

Plot Hook: Taking the tram leads to terror (it probably would have been nicer for everyone if you had all driven)
Plot Support: Staging advice, eleven handouts, three maps, five NPCs, one Mythos artefact, and twelve Mythos creatures.

Production Values: Excellent

Pros

# Modern day monster on monster action (and love)

# Falls under ‘Your Monsters May Vary’

# One-shot maggot mystery (or campaign starter)

# Excellent handouts, maps, and portraits

# Detailed discussion of possible outcomes 

# Includes an optional ghosthunt with nice link to The Pharaoh’s Sacrifice (Jumpity, Jumpity, Jumpity)

# Scoleciphobia

# Sanguivoriphobia

# Hevimetaruphobia

Cons

# Needs a slight edit

# Non-Mythos scenario

# No pre-generated Investigators

Conclusion

# Well done, monstrous treatment of a classic set-up

# Detailed and very well supported scenario

Quick-Start Saturday: The Gaia Complex

Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

—oOo—

What is it?

The Gaia Complex – Quick Start is the quick-start for The Gaia Complex – A Game of Flesh and Wires, the Science Fiction, Cyberpunk roleplaying game published by Hansor Publishing.

It includes an extensive explanation of the setting, rules for actions and combat, details of the arms, armour, and equipment fielded by the Player Characters, two ‘Data Seeds’ (or scenario outlines and hooks), and five ready-to-play, Player Characters, or Agents.

It is a fifty-two page, full colour PDF.

The quick-start is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is decent. The rules are a slightly stripped down version from the core rulebook, but do include examples of the rules which speed the learning of the game.

How long will it take to play?
The Gaia Complex – Quick Start and its two ‘Data Seeds’ are designed to be played through in two or so sessions.

What else do you need to play?
The Gaia Complex – Quick Start requires two twelve-sided dice and three three-sided (or six-sided) dice per player.

Who do you play?
The five Player Characters a Human Operator, an ex-cop, made redundant, turned mercenary, a Human technician and drone operator, Human Operator, an ex-gang member and corporate enforcer, a Feral with his partner dog, and a Human Hacker.

How is a Player Character defined?
An Agent has seven stats—Brawn, Reflexes, Guts, Brains, Allure, Perception, and Grit. Stats are rated between one and ten. There are multiple skills. These do not have a value. A Player Character either has them or does not have them and his proficiency in them is determined by their associated stat. Endurance represents his physical health and Pressure his mental health.

How do the mechanics work?
Mechanically, The Gaia Complex uses two twelve-sided dice to determine the outcome of a skill attempt. A roll equal to or below the skill’s associated stat, after any modifiers for complexity, counts as a success, on either die. If both succeed, the Player Character will succeed at the skill attempt, whether he has the skill or not. If both roll higher than the modified stat value, the attempt is a failure, and if both are equal to twelve, it is a critical failure. If the stat value is below the difficulty rating of the skill test, the player has to roll the dice, but if higher, his character automatically succeeds. A specialisation in a skill allows the reroll of a single die if the result was not a twelve. Grit can be spent by the player to modify the die result.

How does combat work?
Combat in The Gaia Complex uses the same mechanics. It includes support actions such as ‘Jack Into a Hacking Rig’, ‘Perform a Hacking Action’, ‘Perform a Drone Action’, and ‘Meld – Feral Only’ which fit the setting. The range of other options are what you would expect for a modern modern game with firearms, included aimed shot, snapshot, and burst fire. Burst fire enables the attacker to reroll a single damage die. Combat is deadly, with Endurance reduced to zero indicating death, whilst Pressure reduced to zero, either from a Vampire special ability or the effects of a program in the Core.

In addition to the rules for combat, there are rules for drone use and access and hacking The Core, a virtual space akin to Cyberspace. Hacking usually targets secret data stores and other locations below the extensive data archives of The Core. It requires a hacking Rig and Jacking in and in combat, a hacking Player Character can only do one action per round. Out of combat, hacking is handled in narrative fashion rather than rolling for every encounter. Several dangerous countermeasures are detailed to ward off any hacking attempt.

How do Vampire and Feral abilities work?
A Feral can Meld with a ‘partnered’ animal, which requires the use of the Meld skill. This enables him to imprint his consciousness into the animal and see through its eyes and act as if he is the animal. Damage suffered by the animal is suffered as Pressure damage by the Feral.

Vampires are not included in The Gaia Complex – Quick Start.

What do you play?
The setting for The Gaia Complex – Quick Start is the year 2119. Following the Resource War of 2039 and the damage done to the environment, humanity was forced to retreat into sealed metropolises. New Europe, which covers most of the European continent is the largest. in addition to the development of atmospheric processing and other meteorological protective technology, cyberware was developed and spread, true A.I.s came online, including in new Europe, Gaia. Her technological developments would revolutionise society, including heavy surveillance and increasingly, robotic law enforcement. The streets exploded into guerilla warfare as a resistance, augmented by cyberware, arose against the surveillance and law enforcement as hackers attempted to stop the influence of the A.I.s. In between horrors out myth have swept onto the streets—vampires! Eventually, a synthetic blood source was developed as food for the vampires, but that does not stop vampire gangs in search of real from being a problem. Another species are the Feral, which are capable of melding with the consciousness of an animal, which are mostly biogenetic closes in 2119.

The Gaia Complex – Quick Start includes two of what it calls a ‘Data Seed’. This is not a scenario as such, but rather an expanded hook that includes an idea, one or more suggested scenes, and more. In ‘The Raid’, the Player Characters are hires to infiltrate and steal a file called ‘Hivemind’ from a research facility in Bruss (old Brussels). The three suggested scenes describe the research facility and what might be found inside and below it, followed by a difficult escape. The second ‘Data Seed’, ‘The Hack’, the Player Characters are hired to kill a mercenary hacker. Its suggested scenes involve the Player Characters hunting down the hacker and confronting him in his base.

Is there anything missing?
The Gaia Complex – Quick Start is complete.

Is it easy to prepare?
The core rules presented in The Gaia Complex – Quick Start are relatively easy to prepare. However, the Game Master will need to do some extra preparation in order to have either ‘Data Seed’ ready to play.

Is it worth it?
Yes and no. Anyone wanting something that can be run with relatively little preparation, including a read-to-play scenario is advised to look elsewhere as each ‘Data Seed’ in The Gaia Complex – Quick Start requires more preparation than a standard scenario would. So, no. However, a Game Master happy to undertake that preparation or run either ‘Data Seed’ from the given information will have no issue with The Gaia Complex – Quick Start. So, yes.

Where can you get it?
The Gaia Complex – Quick Start is available to download here.

Miskatonic Monday #94: What Rough Beast

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was a Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—

Name: What Rough Beast?

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Andy Miller

Setting: Deep South Alabama

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Ninety-two page, 38.65 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Southern Salem’s Lot

Plot Hook: What sickness causes those in Sanguis to suffer?

Plot Support: Detailed plot, staging advice for the Keeper, eight maps, six elevations and floorplans, six handouts, thirty-two (including a dog and two turtles) NPCs and their associated photographs, and six pre-generated Investigators.

Production Values: Reasonable.

Pros

# Non-Mythos Folkloric horror scenario

# Teenage Southern Gothic

# Good staging advice for the Keeper
# Highly detailed scenario

# Horror comes close to home

# Strong sense of rural isolation

# Interesting cultural and religious challenges

# Epic several session one-shot

Cons

# Non-Mythos Folkloric horror scenario

# Obvious threat

# Requires a slight edit

# Floor plans difficult to use

# Challenging player versus Investigator knowledge 

# Pre-generated Investigators punchy and underskilled 

Conclusion

# Isolated, non-Mythos Folkloric horror one-shot

# Epic several session one-shot

# Different take and setting for a confrontation with a classic monster

Liminal London

Pax Londinium is a supplement for Liminal, the urban fantasy roleplaying game set entirely within the United Kingdom, a United Kingdom with a Hidden World populated by the strange and the otherworldly, in which magic and magicians, vampires, werewolves, the fae, and many myths of the British Isles are real. The United Kingdom of Liminal is riven by factions, such as the conservative Council of Merlin, the scheming vampires of the Soldality of the Crown, the Fae lords, the Queen of Hyde Park and the wife-hunting Winter King of the north, whilst the Order of St, Bede, a Christian order, is dedicated to protecting the mundane world from magic and the supernatural and keeping it and the existence of magic a secret. Where Fortean or inexplicable crimes occur, P Division, a national agency of the British police, are likely to investigate, but cannot mention magic, for fear such knowledge might leak… The players take the role of ‘Liminals’, able to stand astride the mundane and the Hidden World, working as a Crew—which the players create along with their characters—which has its own objectives and facilities, to investigate the weirdness and mysteries that seeps into the real from the Hidden World. 

As its title suggests, Pax Londinium takes the Crew to the capital of the United Kingdom and steps back and forth across the Liminal to explore its strange and long history, its factions and personalities, its diverse cultures and their place in the Liminal, and more. In doing so, what it is not, is a London source book per se—either mundane or magical. There is so much to mundane London that the pages of Pax Londinium would be overflowing before it even made the crossing of the Liminal and back again—and anyway, there are available numerous books on mundane and magical London (many of which are listed in Pax Londinuim’s bibliography in the introduction). There is also plenty that is magical or mystical in London, whether that is Jack the Ripper or Doctor John Dee, but Pax Londinium steadfastly avoids such obvious elements—and is very much the better book for it. The book also wears its influences upon its sleeve—the fiction of Ben Aaronovitch, Paul Cornell and Neil Gaiman—and both acknowledges and is unapologetical about doing so, most obviously in the inclusion of the Hidden, the homeless folk of the city who have slipped across the Liminal, to be in the city, but never seen by its mundane inhabitants.

Pax Londinium begins by stating what makes the city of London different, highlighting the differences between Greater London the City of London, that it is multicultural and constantly changing, and that its history is both obvious and obfuscated. It also states that it is home to lots of Liminal beings—ghosts, gods and goddesses, trolls, the fae, magicians, and more. What keeps them from acting against each other is the ‘Pax Londinium’, which divides the city in two, north and south, the dividing barrier being the River Thames. North of the river and the Hidden are free to act and plot as they will, but south, such Liminal activity is all but forbidden. In fact, the Hidden are often prevented from crossing the river, whether this by a taxi driver telling that he won’t go south of the river—in fact, this is the Knowledge, a neutral manifestation of the genus loci of the city; the Trolls of the Duchess of Bridges physically stopping you; or P Division suggesting that you had best be moving on.

As you would expect, the supplement covers the presence of the core factions in Liminal in the city. So the Council of Merlin somewhat reluctantly maintains a private members club, often accessed by its members via their privately created and maintained Thriceway Gates. The Court of Queen of Hyde Park is a powerful presence, but must contend with the thieving Boggarts ruled by King Pilferer which infest the Hidden city and Temese, the River Spirit of the Thames who would have her throne. She has the support of the Duchess of Bridges who commands the Trolls found on very many bridges and in as many tunnels and the Lady of Flowers, the spirit of the city’s trees and plants whose fortune and presence wax and wane with the seasons and whose Flower Knights act to protect all women. The Mercury Collegium has four guilds in the city—one of which, the East End Guild, is a firm of magical gangsters! The Order of St. Bede cannot prevent London being home to a multitude of the Hidden, but attempts to curb their influence, whilst also maintaining the Pax Londinium. P Division does the same, but is more proactive as its branch, working closely with the Order of St. Bede to stamp out any vampire presence in the city. Thus, the Sodality of the Crown keeps out of city—despite its obvious attractions for any vampire, though it fears that there might be rogue vampire at large. Similarly, the werewolves of the Jaeger Family are rarely seen in the city.

Of course, Pax Londinium adds new factions. These include the aforementioned The Knowledge and the Hidden, but also add numerous guilds, such as the Guild of Water and Light—or Lighters, who guide fallen Visible Londoners back to the mundane world, the Guild of Sewer Hunters, which hunts the horrors below, and the Guild of Toshers, which scours the city’s sewers and tunnels for lost things. The sewers are home to Queen Rat, who takes secret lovers and grants them incredible luck—as long as they keep their liaison a secret. There is a handful of mysteries too, some obvious like the Ravens and the Raven Master and his duties—and who he might report to, and the Ancient Livery Companies, but others less so, like the Pig-Headed Woman of Maida Vale and the Bleeding Heart which sometimes plays a big role in swearing pacts and agreements.

London is also a city of both gods and the dead—no surprise given its history. The gods include a mixture of the native and the non-native. The former includes the Guardian Head of Bran the Blessed, who watches over Britain and whose head is buried under the Tower of London, as well as Branwen, the actual goddess of Britain, her fate tied to the land. The latter includes the Cult of Diana the Hunter, a ruthless cult dedicated to the ambitions of its female members; the Children of Ra, which is attempting to increase the city’s connection to Egyptian magic and so dominate the Council of Merlin and the Mercury Collegium; and the spirits known Orisha, which accept Liminal from around the world with the Queen of Hyde Park’s blessing, in ‘Little Lagos’, south of the river. In general, that non-native gods are the more interesting of the two and the more developed. The dead make their presence felt through the negative magical energy released in the spiritual disruption caused by the excavations for the Underground and Eurostar, which now seethes through the London Underground, while Mr. Killburn’s Acquisitions Association keeps bodysnatching very modern and the #7 Ghost Bus, which runs round London, even south of the river unimpeded and into the Ghost Domains where Ghost Courts meet.

Pax Londinium comes with a number of encounters, including ‘Ahmed’s VHS Wonderland’, a grimy VHS video equipment and cassettes which is actually a cover for an emporium of magical artefacts, spell components, and more, and New Aeon Books, a trendy magical crafts shop which is gleefully treated as a joke by the Hidden. These are all easy to use and drop into a Liminal game set in the capital, or simply serve as inspiration for the Game Master. Similarly, ‘The Worshipful Company of Investigators’, a Crew which investigates instances of the Hidden seeping into the mundane at the behest of its anonymous benefactor, The Professor, can work as a Player Character organisation for a Liminal game set in London, as an example, or a rival organisation. It includes writeups of several read-to-play would be Player Characters or NPCs. Lastly, the new rules add Chronomancy as a power for a Mage.

There is a lot to like about Pax Londinium. Primarily what it does is add a lot to the city, whilst leaving more than enough space for the Game Master to develop her own ideas. Plus, for the most part, a great of the content is new and original. It could have gone for the cliché, but mostly avoids that, so that when it includes the Ravens of London, its familiarity grounds the setting rather than overegging it. Which would have happened if Jack the Ripper had been included for example. Perhaps one element which is left unexplained is why London was divided north and south by the River Thames as part of the Pax Londinium—the reason why the Pax Londinium was made is given, the reason for the exact terms is not. What it amounts to though, is a means to control the Hidden and magic in the city by the factions north of the river.

Physically, this book is both simple and beautiful. The layout is the former, clean and easy to read. The art is the latter. It consists of a mix of stunning depictions of London vistas and London Liminal. The artwork throughout Pax Londinium is in turns weird and wonderful, mystical and majestic, intriguing and inspiring. This is award-winning artwork.

At just eighty pages, Pax Londinium is a short book, but it uses its space in a very economical fashion. It sketches out Liminal London in broad details before narrowing its focus again and again, first on the city’s factions, then its gods, right down to individual locations and elements which the Liminal Game Master can bring into her game. It makes the content both easy to access and bring to the table, and it is backed up by an excellent bibliography should the Game Master want to conduct research of her own. Pax Londinium showcases how to do a city book for Liminal and showcases not the capital as we see it, but the peace of London on the other side the Liminal.