[Fanzine Focus XLI] LOWBORN Issue 3

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Most, but not all fanzines draw from the Old School Renaissance. Some provide support for much more modern games.

Lowborn is ‘An Independent Grim Perilous Fanzine for Zweihänder RPG’. As the subtitle suggests, this is a fanzine for the Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG, published in 2017 and thus modern, but actually a retroclone of another roleplaying game. That roleplaying game is the definitive British roleplaying game, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, published by Games Workshop in 1986.

Lowborn Issue 3 was published in November, 2020. It dives straight in with ‘The Spiral of Stress: An Alternative System for handling Disorders.’ Written by Irene D. B., it presents a different way of tackling the effects of shock and fear, avoiding the potential stigmatisation of mental health issues that more traditional rules systems do not always avoid. It even goes as far as using the Disorders section on the Zweihänder character sheet. Essentially, as a Player Character accumulates Chaos Ranks, his ‘Spiral of Stress’ also increases. When his ‘Spiral of Stress’ exceeds his Will Bonus, the Player Character is forced to retire. In between that, he will also gain general penalties to all of his actions. The suggested means of reducing a Player Character’s ‘Spiral of Stress’ is to go on a Personal Quest, which leads to interesting roleplaying and storytelling possibilities. The opening article is quick and dirty and could easy have been expanded to give some actual examples and perhaps to better explore the positive and (hopefully not) negative effects of undertaking a Personal Quest. This is interesting and useful where the fanzine’s regular cartoon, ‘Those Two Orx’ fails to do anything except take up space. Honestly, it if had to be kept, it could have been halved in size to double the humour, or if not, simply dropped and nobody would miss it.

Peter Rudin-Burgess’ ‘Drama Dice and Pools’ suggests another pair of alternative rules to handle the drama of play in a broad rather than a specific sense. The first is the sue of drama dice. Essentially, using a die to track the progress of the Player Characters’ failures and when the die number reaches a particular threshold, an alarm of some kind is triggered. The second is dice pools, the more challenging the situation, the fewer the number of six-sided dice in the pool. When a failure is rolled, the dice pool is rolled and any six rolled means that a die is removed from the pool. When it is emptied, the alarm is triggered. These are both quite serviceable, offering an alternative to the countdown clock device found in other roleplaying games and in the case of the dice pools, randomising it a little.

Later in the issue, Irene D. B. offers her own development of this with ‘Chaos Overclocked’. This is to roll percentile dice when the six face is revealed and an alarm is triggered, but instead of it being triggered, the Game Master rolls to see if its triggered. It is a counterpoint to the certainty of the alarm being triggered when the six face is revealed, but this really, is a boxed text for the first article given its own article, which seems unnecessary. Plus, ‘Drama Dice and Pools’ already provides a perfectly good random means of triggering an alarm or other effect with the dice pool idea.

The feature of the issue is ‘Cytoplasm’. This is a scenario by Ignacio M, a locked room mystery in which the Player Characters wake up to find themselves in the attic of a house which as they explore, they will find out that they are trapped. Designed as one-shot, but it could easily be added to any campaign, the Player Characters have to explore the house, examine its furniture and fittings, search for secret doors, and find clues as to where they are, what is going on, and how they get out. This is nicely detailed puzzle box of a scenario that includes decent floorplans of the house and good descriptions of each location. Although they do not know it initially, the Player Characters are up against the clock as the thing trapping them inside attempts to squeeze itself in through whatever gaps it can find. Fortunately, there are multiple ways of getting out if the Player Characters can find them or solve the puzzle. The scenario is let down by the fact that none of the rooms are marked with numbers to link them to their descriptions in the text, so it is just slightly more difficult to run than it should be. Anyway, good puzzle box adventure than relies on brains rather than brawn.

Irene D. B.’s ‘Perilous Tactics: The Death Hedge’ is the first in a series of article that examine the combat tactics for various creatures from the bestiary from the Zweihänder Core Rulebook. It breaks down and analyses the stats for the Death Hedge, an immobile, sweet-smelling rose bush, mutated by the Aether Winds into a deadly ambush predator. The author manages to get two tightly packed pages of material out of this one twisted plant, which surprising given that it only has the one attack, its flailing, thorny branches, does not tend to attack humanoids, and is otherwise, mindless. It is exhaustively overwritten and really could have done with advice on how to use it in a scenario as much as in combat. There are hints throughout, but really, this series could have better launched with an entry from the Zweihänder Core Rulebook that actually does use tactics and would be more of an interesting opponent than a flailing bush.

With ‘Elementalist Professions (Element Bending)’, Lilith Grishaw presents several Professions from her Homebrew Setting of Andelos. In the setting the Elementalist is an innate magic user who learns to harness control of abilities connected to a particular element— Air, Earth, Fire, or Water. Over time they can go on to embody their connected element as a Master of the Element, but their training also includes some martial skills too otherwise they would be vulnerable on the battlefield. As they further specialise, they become either a Master of Metal for an earth elementalist, a Moon Warrior for water elementalist, a Nomad of an air elementalist, or a Phoenix Lord for a fire elementalist. The article explores both the benefits and demands for each path and there is a lot to work with if the Game Master and her players want to have a combination of specialist spellcaster-warrior in their campaign. Further, despite it being taken from a specific setting, there is nothing to impede the Game Master adapting to her own campaign.

‘Grim & Perilous Mass Combat’ by A.R. Kavli gives rules for handling mass combat in Zweihänder, expanding upon a simple contested Warfare skill roll. It requires a small amount of effort setting up, considering scale, goals, the nature of the units and their Warfare values, and more, most notably the number of Success Levels required by each side in order to win. Exceptionally good and exceptionally bad rolls also necessitate a roll on the ‘Tides of War’ table that gives some random event. The Game Master is encouraged to narrate the outcome of any battle just as she would any individual brawl or skirmish, but the ‘Tides of War’ table gives a long list of options that will make the mass combat memorable.

Chuck Kranz’s ‘Random Sewer Encounters’ starts of silly with “Youthful sewer dwelling terrapin creatures” and “A rat-like master” and strays very far from that. The last quarter of Lowborn Issue 3 is devoted to ‘Grim & Perilous Saints of the Holy Roman Empire’ by A.R. Kavli which takes Zweihänder not back to its historical roots so much as the historical roots of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. It is an exhaustive list of the Catholic, Protestant, and Pagan saints found in the Germanic states of the Holy Roman Empire amidst the Thirty Years War. There is guidance on how to proclaim a saint and petition a saint, and a a list of over one-hundred-and-twenty-five saints! The idea is that every Player Characters will have been dedicated to a saint at birth, but gains no bonus from doing so. However, by attuning himself to a saint, a Player Character can petition his saint to gain Fortune Points. These can go into a group pool shared by all of the Player Characters or be linked to a particular attribute favoured by the saint, or the Player Character might have to petition directly for a boon or blessing. All this requires a roll using the Folklore Skill Focus for the saint. Every one of the saints is associated with a feast day, a Fortune Point-linked attribute or skill, and what saintly gift the saint might grant. For example, Reinold is the Patron of stonemasons, a monk placed in charge constructing an abbey at Köln, but murdered by jealous stonemasons. His feast day is January 7th and he grants Fortune Points via the Tradecraft skill, as well as the gift of being able to “Flip to Succeed all Scrutiny tests to find hidden passages, traps, or other mechanical secrets for 24 hours.” There is a delightful variety to the range of saints and their gifts listed and this could easily be ported into a Zweihänder that does not have the ties to the Thirty Year War. The likelihood is that almost no-one would notice, but if they do, it would only be a matter of changing a few names to make the list fit the campaign world. Overall, a very nicely researched article that will add to the background of any campaign as well as the individual Player Characters.

Physically, Lowborn Issue 3 is decently presented. The layout is tight in palces, but the artwork is decent.

Lowborn Issue 3 is solid support for the Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG. In particular, the scenario, ‘Cytoplasm’, is a testing puzzle box, whilst ‘Grim & Perilous Saints of the Holy Roman Empire’ can be used as is or as a model for the Game Master’s own campaign. Either way, it can add further depth and detail to a campaign and make it more interesting.

[Fanzine Focus XL] LOWBORN Issue 2

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Most, but not all fanzines draw from the Old School Renaissance. Some provide support for much more modern games.

Lowborn is ‘An Independent Grim Perilous Fanzine for Zweihänder RPG’. As the subtitle suggests, this is a fanzine for the Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG, published in 2017 and thus modern, but actually a retroclone of another roleplaying game. That roleplaying game is the definitive British roleplaying game, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, published by Games Workshop in 1986.

Lowborn Issue 2 was published in August, 2020. The content begins with with ‘The Dark Order’ by Peter Rudin-Burgess. This is a scenario set in the chancery of Edessa, below the city of Outremer. This is a murder mystery set below the city where single-sex work gangs labour at feeding the great steam turbines. Gang Master Zangi leads a gang of twenty-four free women who, in turn, drive sixty female mutant slaves, all loading city waste into the furnaces. Gang Master Zangi has disappeared, but now her skull has been raked out of Number 2 furnace. Shortly after, a new gang leader is appointed, and then it happens again when another gang master is found boiled alive and a new gang member is also appointed. This is followed by the murder of a bar owner and then another gang master. The scenario is presented with a lot of set-up up front and then followed by the plot hooks and the various genres in which the scenario might be used on. The scenario needs a lot of work to run effectively with clues to connect the murders to the culprits and it is also only halfway through the scenario is it mentioned that it is for Dark Astral: Chapbook for ZWEIHANDER Grim & Perilous RPG, the Science Fiction equivalent setting for the ZWEIHANDER Grim & Perilous RPG. It is mentioned on the cover, though. The map of the lair is by Dyson Logos, so good.

‘New Distinguishing Marks’ by Adrian Kennelly is literally that, a table of entries like ‘No chin’ or ‘Unbending knee’. Chuck Kranz’s ‘Random Space Encounters’ provides twelve encounters, again for Dark Astral: Chapbook for ZWEIHANDER Grim & Perilous RPG. For example, ‘Just like in the TV shows.’ expands to ‘A tear in space erupts of the port barely out of manoeuvring range, but a strong magnetic pull of the anomaly pulls your ship in. A voice in your head echoes, “I have such wonderful sights to show you.” The darkness takes you after being dragged through the event horizon. When you come to your ships nav-computers are not able to gain bearing on where you are… or when you are.” These are fine and again something that the Game Master will need to develop.

It is not quite clear what Sean Van Damme’s ‘Introduction to Assassinations’ quite is, initially, but what it turns out to be is a means of introducing options for the budding assassin. The Claw of Retribution is the largest guild of assassins in the great city and puts up notices on a board at the West Wind Pub, where the guild previously operated from, of small jobs, or rather, assassinations of minor folk that it has been hired to do. Its members can perform them, but it lets prospective members undertake them as a test. There are thirteen such tasks, not always hits or deaths, such as burning down a distillery that is not guild affiliated or forcing a member of the faith to stop preaching in the docks. The Game Master will need to develop the hooks, but there are some fun options here that will support a grittier, dirtier style of play for thug and thief type characters.

‘Order And Corruption: Purity Points’ by Lyle Hayhurst gives an extension to the Corruption Points of ZWEIHANDER Grim & Perilous RPG. Corruption Points are gained for immoral acts, giving in to personal weakness, and even being injured, and will potentially force a Player Character down a dark path. This article suggests another path that a Player Character can go up. By committing acts of goodness, being tolerant of those different to himself, protecting the innocent, giving to the poor, being merciful to a villain, and more, a Player Character can gain Purity Points. Like gaining Disorders for Corruption Points, he can gain Blessings for accruing enough Purity Points like becoming a ‘Friend of Animals’ or gaining a ‘Inner Glow’ of Purity. The article suggests that a Player Character can earn both Corruption Points and Purity Points and need to be tracked, and what this does is add some flexibility and complexity to the play and reward a player for good roleplaying whatever his character’s action.

Ignacio M. writes three entries in the issue. The first, ‘Learning from Different Arcanas’, suggests a way in which an Arcane Magick user can cast magick from a Wind other than his own. For each symbol that Player Character has to pass through to get between his Wind he has studied and the one he wants to cast from, there is a penalty to the Incantation test and if the Channelling test is failed, then extra Chaos dice has to be rolled. The rule is quick and simple and potentially dirty if thing goes wrong! He also suggests ‘New Combat Actions’ with ‘Oh No You Don’t’ which enables a Player Character to study the ebb and flow of the battle and interrupt the action of a foe; ‘Goad and Deter’ to slow a foe’s action down; and ‘Leave It Open’, in which he tricks a foe to gain a bonus on his next attack. These are decent additions.

Lastly, ‘Carnival II’ continues the description of a magical carnival—a common trope in roleplaying games inspired by Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay such as Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG—begin in Lowborn Issue 1. However, unlike in many cases what lies behind the magic in the carnival is not necessarily dark or dangerous, but that rather its various members are all anthropomorphic animals. They include a middle-aged anthro-rabbit who controls his perfect puppets though his voice alone and Priscilla, middle-aged anthro-hedgehog who is also a very skilled physician, alchemist, and herbalist, and exotic dancers that somehow entice audience to buy the overpriced drinks at their show. The latter is perhaps the only real danger in the carnival, but others might see it differently and act accordingly. This adds another three tents and their occupants to add to the three previously described, so there is yet room for expansion. If there is an issue for the article, it is the inclusion of the anthropomorphic NPCs and whether that fits a Game Master’s campaign. She, of course, has the right to change such details and the various NPCs could be hiding something else instead. Bar some scenario ideas or hooks, ‘Carnival’ offers an intriguing and different type of circus, one with plenty of room for expansion and development.

Physically, Lowborn Issue 2 is a bit untidy and rough around the edges, plus it needs a slight edit. The layout is also a little tight in places.

Lowborn Issue 2 is a mixed bag with some content more useful and more interesting than others. ‘Introduction to Assassinations’ is packed with great hooks for a bruising lowlife campaign and like ‘Order And Corruption: Purity Points’, has plenty of roleplaying potential. Elsewhere, several of the articles are rough and could be clearer in their set-up, let alone their execution.

[Fanzine Focus XXXVII] LOWBORN Issue I

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Most, but not all fanzines draw from the Old School Renaissance. Some provide support for much more modern games.

Lowborn is ‘An Independent Grim Perilous Fanzine for Zweihänder RPG’. As the subtitle suggests, this is a fanzine for the Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG, published in 2017 and thus modern, but actually a retroclone of another roleplaying game. That roleplaying game is the definitive British roleplaying game, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, published by Games Workshop in 1986.

Lowborn Issue I was published in April, 2020. The content begins with a handful of small articles. They include ‘New Doomings’ by Adrian Kennelly. These are ways in which a Player Character might die in Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG. There are four tables here, one for each season, and they offer alternatives to those list in the core rulebook. ‘Those Two Orx’ is the regular cartoon rather than cartoon strip, but at a whole page, it is taking up space that could have been put to better use, especially given the desperation of the humour. Ingacio M.’s ‘Reaction Spells’ provides a handful of spells that are variants of several Generalist Spells. For an Action Point, they can be cast as a reaction and require a spellcaster to know the original spell and then expend Experience Points to learn these ones. They include Cack-Handed Grasp, triggered when someone moves towards the caster and makes the floor in front of the caster slippery enough that the person approaching the caster might fall over and Magick Missile, triggered when someone runs away, which stuns that person, though it does not work in darkness. This is a solid section of spells, all nicely detailed, which can easily be added to a campaign.

Ingacio M. is also the author of ‘100 One Attribute NPCs’. This is not a second set of tables, but rather one table providing the very minimum of details of one hundred NPCs, including

name, archetype, attribute (value), ancestry, age group, complexion, build, and social class, and divided equally between male and female. The Game Master only has to roll once to have an NPC with a few details ready to roleplay without her having to decide a bunch of details on the spot. Or, of course, the Game Master choose one or even roll for each category to add further flexibility—if she has time. Overall, useful.

‘One Roll Combat’ by Petter Rudin-Burgess offers two things. One is an analysis of three different types of combat in roleplaying games and the other is an alternative to the complexity of combat in Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG. In turn, the author looks at Dungeons & Dragons with its use of Hit Points as a measure of combat skill rather than fortitude or endurance, the simulationist nature of combat in Rolemaster, and the slightly more abstracted nature of combat in Zweihänder. What it highlights at the end of this is the length of time that these differing means of handling combat can take. What the author suggests as an alternative in shorter or smaller combat scenes where the action does not need to play out blow by blow, is to have the player describe what he wants his character to do, the Game Master assess and set the difficulty, and then the player roll, adjusting the result with Fate and Fortune points as necessary. The outcome of the roll determines the narrative. Perhaps a little overwritten, this is nevertheless, a useful suggestion that is worth a Zweihänder Game Master taking the time to look at.

‘The Bailiff of the Problem’ is the first of two scenarios in Lowborn Issue I. Written by Sean Van Damme, it is a short murder mystery that can be prepared and played in a single session. Although it is suggested that the Game Master use the Villagers & Villains – 40 NPCs From Humble to Heroic, it is not absolutely necessary. All that is necessary, is that the Player Characters be in their Basic professions. It starts with the Player Characters having been hired by a magistrate to locate a tax collector who has gone missing whilst collecting taxes from the tiny community of Labarn. On the road to the village, they discover the tax collector’s body which has suffered some odd injuries. The scenario really consists of an investigation in Labarn, centred on interviews with several of the inhabitants. Like a classic murder mystery, they all had reason to hate the dead man. There may be a little combat involved, but this is mainly an interactive and roleplaying scenario. It is quite detailed despite its brevity and so should not be too taxing for the players and their characters to solve. It is also left up to them to decide how they resolve the situation. This is short and sweet, its brevity making it easy to add to a campaign.

‘Carnival’ by Ignacio M. is intentionally and magically odd. Descriptions of carnivals or circuses, typically the façade for a dark cult are a common trope in roleplaying games inspired by Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay such as Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG, but this is different. It is enveloped by magic even to the extent that the wagons and tents are arranged like a magical circle. What that magic hides and embraces is that the operators are all anthropomorphic animals. So, they are different and they are also not members of a dark cult. Many of the wagons and tents are, in their own way, expansive. One offers a library of thousands and thousands of books, and more—if one knows the right incantation to open up the stacks, whilst the House of Mirrors contains a labyrinth of mirrors that in turn can teleport the viewer to a desired location or give a view of a particular person and enable the viewer to cross over to them spiritually for a short time. Only three of the tents or wagons are described, so there is scope for expansion here and also, there are no stats for any of the NPCs. If there is an issue for the article, it is the inclusion of the anthropomorphic NPCs and whether that fits a Game Master’s campaign. She, of course, has the right to change such details and the various NPCs could be hiding something else instead. Bar some scenario ideas or hooks, ‘Carnival’ offers an intriguing and different type of circus, one with plenty of room for expansion and development.

The second scenario in Lowborn Issue I is Peter Rudin-Burgess’ ‘The Bloody Jack’. It takes place in the village of Gürdenstein where the inhabitants have become wary of strangers. This is not for usual reasons found in roleplaying games, but rather because they are being taken advantage. Recently, Erik Hecher arrived in the village with nothing more than a few coins in his pocket and the rough clothes on his back, but in the few weeks since, he has greatly improved himself—new tailored clothes, a haircut, and so on. He has taken up residence and similarly improved the house he has moved into. The monies for this have come from his successful gambling. There is something odd going on and it will not take much for the Player Characters to discover that Erik is in league with a demon! Upon this revelation, the villagers, incensed at their gambling losses, take their revenge on him in an act of mob violence. Unfortunately, this unleashes a curse, one that the Player Characters are in the best place to help lift. This involves a journey to a nearby monastery and the Player Characters will be plagued by demons who still want their revenge for Erik’s death. Puttng aside the question of quite where the villagers got the money that Erik was fleecing from them, the Game Master will need to provide stats and perhaps it would have been good if the Player Characters were given more of a chance to interact with Erik Hecher to learn his story. Otherwise, this is a decently dark and nasty scenario, very in keeping with the ‘Grim & Perilous’ tone the Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG.

Physically, Lowborn Issue I is a bit untidy and rough around the edges, plus it needs a slight edit. That said, it is a first issue, so there are bound to be teething problems.

Lowborn Issue I is an impressive first issue. It has decent content, which includes two, very playable adventures. And the truth is, both of those scenario would work just as well with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Fourth Edition (or whatever ‘Grim & Perilous’ roleplaying game the Game Master is running) and not just Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG.

An Ubersreik Quartet

The two great features of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set were twofold. First, in ‘A Guide to Ubersreik’, it introduced Ubersreik, the fortress-town in the south of the Reikland, and its surrounding duchy that are in turmoil after an announcement from the emperor that unseated the ruling House Jungfreud. It left the town’s burghers and minor members of the nobility spotting an opportunity to take control themselves and much of this was explored in ‘The Adventure Book’, which provided a five-part mini-campaign and more story hooks. This was the second great thing about the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set—lots to roleplay. Although Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set was in part designed to set the Game Master and her players up reader for the majestic The Enemy Within campaign—after all, almost everything is in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition is—what if instead of leaping into that campaign, the Player Characters wanted to stay in and around Ubersreik? Fortunately, and almost immediately, publisher Cubicle Seven Entertainment began publishing scenarios set in and around the Duchy of Ubersreik, so the Player Characters could not only continue their involvement in the political upheaval in the town, but also explore its surroundings.

Ubersreik Adventures III: Perilous Adventures And Grim Escapades In The Grand Duchy Of Ubersreik continues the series begun with Ubersreik Adventures: Six Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik and continued with Ubersreik Adventures II: More Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik. The four scenarios within its pages take the Player Characters around the edges of the Grand Duchy of Ubersreik, and then back to city itself, all the whilst involving themselves in the doings of the duchy’s nobility and thus skirting some of the machinations playing out in the region. In the process they will be employed to check on the attitudes of the staff at a hunting lodge whose ownership has been changed one from one noble to another, protect a village from marauding Orcs and Goblins as the inhabitants mumble about who gets to rule the village, uncover infection and ambition in a mining still suffering from a lingering sickness, and get caught up in the love affairs of the young nobility of Ubersreik.

In addition, the four scenarios in the anthology are connected and together form a sequence intended to be played in order as presented. The connections are most obviously familial in nature, taking the Player Characters from one noble relation to another and in the process encountering various members of the noble families feuding for control of the Grand Duchy. The other connections are obviously secret and link some of the nobles that the Player Characters will meet, but definitely not all, to the Ruinous Powers, some of which may come to light, some of which may not, and often when it does, the noble families want to kept it a secret lest it spoil their claim to the Grand Duchy of Ubersreik! Each of the four scenario includes advice on how to run under different circumstances, but ideally, they should be run one after another in sequence. However, the scenarios are not where the anthology begins.

Ubersreik Adventures III: Perilous Adventures And Grim Escapades In The Grand Duchy Of Ubersreik opens ‘A Tragic Tale Of Upheaval’. This charts the causes and machinations that have thrown Ubersreik into turmoil, unseated the ruling von Jungfreud family, and left both its future and its future governance up in the air. This collates information from both the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set and The Enemy Within campaign, so it does include background about both, even spoilers, so the reader be warned. The article covers the years 2509 to 2513 IC and beyond with the default period being the Occupation as detailed in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set, in each era—each era lasting a year or two—giving what is publicly known as well as what is going on behind the scenes, suggestions as what sort of adventures can be run, some scenario hooks, and rumours. Included too are lists of adventures from the differing periods and which sourcebooks they come from. There are descriptions of the various claimants to the Grand Duchy of Ubersreik too. All together, this provides a grand overview of the setting to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Station, so that the Game Master can create her own content.

The first of the four scenarios in the anthology is ‘An Eye For An Eye’. Lord Aschaffenberg, recently married into the von Bruner family, has come into possession of Grunewald Lodge, which was previously owned by Andreas von Bruner, a young scion who was subject to some unsavoury rumours. He has the Player Characters hired to surreptitiously check on the lodge staff. Once they arrive at the Grunewold Lodge, the Player Characters discover a mixture of surly and disaffected staff, only begrudgingly willing to accept the change in circumstances, and unwilling to discuss whatever happened to Andreas von Bruner. Although they do not know it, the Player Characters are up against a deadline, but the manor house is relatively small and the staff numbers low so the investigation is far from insurmountable. Ideally, they should be able to uncover some, if not all, of what has been going on at the manor house before the climax of the scenario.

Unfortunately, there is an error in the scenario. One of the NPCs gets nervous when the Player Characters lift a carpet in particular room to look for a trapdoor, but the room does not actually have a carpet or a trapdoor, or indeed anything built into the room that connects to the secret activities taking place at the hunting lodge. The Game Master will need to adjust as necessary. Nevertheless, the scenario is an entertaining manor horror mystery, playable in a single session or two. What though is really interesting about ‘An Eye For An Eye’ is that it is an adaptation to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Third Edition. In particular, it is an adaption of the scenario that first introduced Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Third Edition in its core boxed set in 2009. Hopefully, this will not be the only such adaptation as there some excellent adventures waiting to be given similar treatment.

‘Mutiny & The Beast’ is intended to be run directly after the events of ‘An Eye For An Eye’. Lord Aschaffenberg asks the Player Characters to travel to Ubersreik to deliver a letter to his wife, Ludmilla, but also stop off at the village of Geissbach where he believes there is a doctor who can attend to the wounded at the hunting lodge. A typical Reikland village, the Player Characters have the chance to alter its fate not once but twice. First, by influencing the politics of village, quietly split between the old ways of tradition and the new ways of supporting the recently built coaching inn and its support of a coach and trade route between Ubersreik and Bögenhafen. Second, by coming to its defence when it is threatened by marauding Orcs and Goblins. Bookended by an initial encounter with such creatures at the start and then rollocking fight up and down what the Greenskins is the ideal version of a Human siege tower at the finish, ‘Mutiny & The Beast’ is a good mix of roleplaying and combat. The effect on the politics in the village is nicely underplayed so that the players and their characters may not necessarily be aware of it.

‘Horror Of Hugeldal’ starts nasty and gets nastier. It is intended to be played after ‘Mutiny & The Beast’ with the Player Characters arriving in Ubersreik and successfully delivering the letter to Ludmilla Aschaffenberg. She asks them to deliver another message, this time to her cousin, Agnetha von Bruner, in the mining town of Hugeldal in the foothills of the Grey Mountains. Baroness von Bruner has recently been ill and Lady Ludmilla wants to send a message of support. The horror starts on the road when the Player Characters encounter the tail end of a very deadly bandit attack on a group of priests of Shallya. Renowned for the healing blessings, what kind of bastard would attack priests of Shallya? When they come to their rescue and aid, the Shallyans will also explain that they have been exiled from Hugeldal. Given how high the regard in which the priests of Shallya are held, who would exile them from any town, let alone Hugeldal?

One issue with ‘Horror Of Hugeldal’ is that Player Characters may already have visited the town in ‘Ash in the Wind’ from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set, so ideally the Game Master should have run several scenarios between the two. When she does run it, what the Player Characters will discover in Hugeldal is a depressed mining town which has lost many of its inhabitants to ghoulpox and most of the survivors have been marked buy it. They are all resentful for the failure of the priests of Shallya to treat the disease, but praise Doktor Vorsatz who was able to find a cure. Careful investigation will reveal that there is more going on than anyone other than the Player Characters might suspect, but who or what is behind the ‘Horror Of Hugeldal’ is revealed in a quite gloriously revolting climax.

The anthology comes to a close with ‘Mirror of Desire’, which returns the Player Characters to the city of Ubersreik and embroils them in the courtship of Esmerelda Fenstermacher by three young nobles. Ludmilla Aschaffenberg again asks for their help, this time to let the course of young love run its course, whilst fathers of two of the suitors want help in untangling their sons from the situation. Both are daunting tasks and neither potential patron is going to be happy if the Player Characters favour one over the other. This is Cyrano de Bergerac, but done Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay style, with eminently unsuitable suitors on all sides. The scenario is open ended as to how the Player Characters go about their tasks and similarly, there is scope for the Game Master to add her own content as well. Similarly, the scenario has the potential to be fairly open-ended if the Player Characters allow it to run to its conclusion. This leaves them with at least the one loose end to tidy up, and hopefully, it is one that the authors might return to, though there is nothing to stop the Game Master from writing her own sequel. If there is anything missing from the scenario it is an illustration of young Esmerelda Fenstermacher, so the Game Master may want to supply one herself. Overall, ‘Mirror of Desire’ is little clichéd in places given that it is a love story, but it is a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay love story after all, and its gets suitably grim and perilous.

Physically, Ubersreik Adventures III: Perilous Adventures And Grim Escapades In The Grand Duchy Of Ubersreik is a great looking book. The artwork is excellent and the maps are more than decent. However, it does need another edit and there are sections of text missing. Since this is a book for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, there numerous of puns such as ‘A Town Called Malaise’, but calling a pair of minor NPCs ‘Herman Vorst’ and ‘Osk Hessel’ is probably in questionable taste.

Ubersreik Adventures III: Perilous Adventures And Grim Escapades In The Grand Duchy Of Ubersreik nicely embroils the Player Characters in the web of connections between the claimants to Grand Duchy, revealing their humanity and occasionally, their inhumanity in the process. These connections give the quartet a neatly underplayed narrative that pushes the Player Characters’ involvement towards the climax of the Ubersreik plot. That though, it is yet to come. In the meantime, Ubersreik Adventures III: Perilous Adventures And Grim Escapades In The Grand Duchy Of Ubersreik is an entertaining quartet of scenarios with a good mix of combat, investigation, and roleplaying.

An Ubersreik Quintet

The two great features of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set were twofold. First, in ‘A Guide to Ubersreik’, it introduced Ubersreik, the fortress-town in the south of the Reikland, and its surrounding duchy that are in turmoil after an announcement from the emperor that unseated the ruling House Jungfreud. It left the town’s burghers and minor members of the nobility spotting an opportunity to take control themselves and much of this was explored in ‘The Adventure Book’, which provided a five-part mini-campaign and more story hooks. This was the second great thing about the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set—lots to roleplay. Although Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set was in part designed to set the Game Master and her players up reader for the majestic The Enemy Within campaign—after all, almost everything is in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition is—what if instead of leaping into that campaign, the Player Characters wanted to stay in and around Ubersreik? Fortunately, and almost immediately, publisher Cubicle Seven Entertainment began publishing scenarios set in and around the Duchy of Ubersreik, so the Player Characters could not only continue their involvement in the political upheaval in the town, but also explore its surroundings.

Ubersreik Adventures: More Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik continues the series begun with Ubersreik Adventures: Six Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik, by collecting the next five scenarios in the series—and more, in another handsome, if slim, hardback. The five take the Player Characters in and around the Duchy of Ubersreik, but do not stray very far from the river port at its heart. In the process, they will face an uprising by the recently dead, investigate a local legend, get caught up in a whodunnit, search for a serial killer, and find themselves wrapped in a con job. The scenarios are also flexible. All can be taken and dropped into the Game Master’s campaign, used in conjunction with the Rough Nights & Hard Days campaign anthology, or used as part of The Enemy Within. However, where Ubersreik Adventures: Six Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik felt like it constantly wanted to push the Game Master, her players, and their characters onto the path that would lead into the events of The Enemy Within, none of the scenarios in this anthology do. Instead, they are standalone affairs that can be run in episodic fashion in and around the duchy, all the better to be free of any connection to The Enemy Within. One thing missing from all five is the ‘Shaking Things Up’ appendix with advice for the Game Master on running the scenario, alternative hooks to get the Player Characters involved, and a list of possible connects to not only the other five scenarios in the volume, but also other parts of the Empire. Although the lack of suggested connections means that the five scenarios in the anthology are less obviously flexible, at the same it enforces their independence away from The Enemy Within, though of course, they do work better in conjunction with the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set.

The anthology opens with ‘Deadly Dispatch’ which opens with one of the Player Characters receiving a mysterious package. Opening the package reveals that it contains a puzzle box and opening the puzzle box—the scenario suggesting either Intelligence checks modified by appropriate skills and talents or brute force as possible methods—reveals its contents to be quite probably blasphemous. Of course, brute force also destroys some of the evidence, but not all of it. Investigating the address label reveals that it has been given to the Player Character in a case of mistaken identity and investigating the addressee reveals that it should have been sent to a local river woman. She turns out to be easy to find and nervous when she is found. This is because unfortunately, she has become the front woman for a necromancer who has designs on Ubersreik. This is all a good set-up, supported by two well written NPCs in the form of the river woman and the similarly reluctant, but undead Estalian duellist who is the necromancer’s bodyguard and servant. In comparison, the necromancer himself feels underwritten as does the fact that the plot ends with a zombie uprising. Nevertheless, zombie uprisings are invariably fun and ‘Deadly Dispatch’ is a serviceable scenario that can be played through in a single session.

If ‘Deadly Dispatch’ is straightforward, then ‘Fishrook Returns’ is just a bit obvious in its plotting. The whole of Ubersreik is talking about the return of Fishrook, a notorious highwayman who has been holding up and robbing coaches and wagons on the roads around the city. What is significant about the highwayman’s return is that he is dead, having been hanged for his crimes a century ago. But this Fishrook wears the same bird-like mask and dresses just as flamboyantly, so is this the real Fishrook returned, his ghost, or someone impersonating his legend. A local noblewoman, Gutele von Bruner, bored and enamoured by the legend is determined to find out and hires the Player Characters to find out. Unfortunately, there is not really much of a mystery as to the identity of who the new Fishrook is and it is likely that the Player Characters will very quickly put two and two together and realise that it is actually Gutele von Bruner. There is a bit of a run around to capture her, but where the scenario gets interesting is deciding what to do with her, because after all, she has committed several crimes. This is particularly tricky if the Player Characters are still part of the city watch as they are in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set. Do they upset the nobility by pushing for a trial and causing a bigger scandal, get a very reluctant town council involved, or upset almost everyone else by brushing it under the carpet and letting Gutele von Bruner get away with it? At this point, the scenario opens up and becomes much more Player Character driven as they try to negotiate the way out of the legal and social mess that Gutele von Bruner has landed them in and the Game Master will need to respond as necessary. Although there is advice for the Game Master, this second half of the scenario is much more difficult to run and so needs much more preparation time to understand the various possible outcomes.

The third scenario, ‘Double Trouble’, is a classic country house murder mystery. It begins with the Player Characters being invited to visit the home of a young poet because he wants to hear of their adventures and adapt them into verse. The atmosphere in the poet’s home is tense and nervous, and not because he has invited what his mother considers to be riffraff onto the family estate, but because of the other reason that he wants the Player Characters there. The poet is also worried about the rash of recent and sudden disappearances from amongst the staff on his family’s estate and the odd behaviour of his mother, and he wants the Player Characters to investigate. When they do, the Player Characters discover similarly worried and nervous staff, hear odd movements in the night, and so on, their efforts hampered by the attitudes of the staff who do not trust them and the efforts of the murderer. With a scenario being a murder mystery in a country house and having a title like ‘Double Trouble’, it would suggest that a twin is involved—and it is. Sort of. The scenario includes a good floor plan of the family estate and some well NPCs, though again, as in ‘Deadly Dispatch’, not the true villain of the piece. There is also good advice on what to do if the Player Characters accuse the villain too early on and pleasingly, it culminates in a scene in the drawing room in which the Player Characters will have to identify the murderer, explain his actions and motives, and convince everyone of their solution to the case. In other words, a classic ‘I suppose you’re wondering why I gathered you here today…’ scene and the scenario even uses that phrase for the title of the actual scene! ‘Double Trouble’ is a cracking little scenario that puts a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay spin on a classic genre to very entertaining effect.

The fourth scenario, ‘The Blessing That Drew Blood’, is another murder mystery, but this time more procedural in nature and set on the streets of Ubersreik, with the Player Characters undertaking a lot of detective footwork as they slog from one murder site to the next and from one witness interview to the next. In fact, there are a lot of witnesses to interview and a party of Player Characters without a decent Charm between them is going to be at a disadvantage from start to finish. This is something the scenario acknowledges, noting its heavy reliance upon the Charm skill and suggesting alternative interpersonal skills to use such as Gossip and Intimidate. Throughout the investigation, the Player Characters will be watched with keen interest by a strange trio that include a cat and a dog, and beset by incidences of explosive bodily expression or sleepiness at just the wrong moment… Are they connected and if so, what is their interest in the Player Characters and their investigation? It turns out that they are working to ensure that the culprit responsible, a musician famous across the empire, succeeds, because they are all in the service of Slaanesh. The strange trio willingly because they are former daemons attempting to get back into Slaanesh’s good books and the musician half-heartedly because if she fails to kill the required number of victims, she loses the musical ability that has made her rich and famous.

‘The Blessing That Drew Blood’ is another scenario with a good set-up and a great cast of well-drawn and colourful NPCs, including a veteran agitator and muckraker, a scared initiate of Morr—who may also serve as the Player Characters’ patron for the adventure if needed, a hail and brimstone Sigmarite Warrior Priest with shameful secrets, and a bartender who attempts to avoid answering every question lest he gains a reputation as an informer! And then there is the trio of ex-daemons whom the Game Master can have some fun with inflicting horrid, if temporary, afflictions upon her Player Characters. Unfortunately, the scenario is not as clearly laid out as it should have been and some of the information does not always match in the text. Nevertheless, this is a good adventure that fans of police procedurals will enjoy a great deal.

The fifth and final adventure in the anthology is ‘The Grey Mountain Gold’. The Player Characters are hired by an ambitious young man who believes that he has got hold of a map which shows the locations of the treasures rumoured to have been left behind when the Dwarven Clan Harataki had to flee the Karak of House Harataken from constant Greenskin assaults and wants their help to mount an expedition. Only it turns out that not only is he gullible, but he has been targeted by a gang of charlatans, because of course, the map is fake. How far the Player Characters are taken in by the conmen is another matter, but complicating the problem is that the remnants of Clan Harataki are based in Ubersreik and when Queen Vilda of Karak Branar gets to hear about it, she is less than pleased to learn that someone is going after treasures that rightfully belong to her and her clan. The other dwarves of Clan Harataki, in comparison, are incensed and with their ire up, are quite happy to give the culprits a good thumping, all of which sets up a scene where the Player Characters are chased through the alleys of Ubersreik by mob of disconsolate dwarves! This is an entertaining set piece, though one not helped by the lack of a map. One of the pleasures of this scenario is seeing a con in action with the Player Characters being caught up in it rather than being the target per se, whilst another is seeing a signature Career from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, that of the Charlatan, in action. Of course, if the players and their characters are unhappy at the end of the scenario because they did not actually have a chance to mount an expedition to Karak of House Harataken, then this scenario does actually show them why it might be a bad idea.

One of the aspects of Ubersreik which is not explored in full in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set or Ubersreik Adventures: Six Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik, is what happened to the ruling House Jungfreud after it was unseated by the Emperor. This, though, is explored in Ubersreik Adventures: More Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik. House Jungfreud has fled back to its ancestral seat of the neighbouring Duchy of Black Rock, a grim and gloomy place best known for its coal or ore mines, where Graf Sigismund von Jungfreud alternates between glowering and preparing for war, wary of the Emperor’s next steps. All of this is detailed in the penultimate section of the book, ‘A Guide to Black Rock’. This details the craggy, rock-strewn moorlands, it various town and settlements, mines along with a list if miner’s slang, the site of a ruined abbey which along with its monks and nuns was put to the torch for heresy and is still haunted by a tomb banshee who was the former abbess, the source of Neufaljung ink typically used to sign death warrants, Castle Neufaljung—seat of House Jungfreud—and its inhabitants, and the various plots whirling around the castle and the duchy. Alongside this are numerous hooks and sidebars that the Game Master can develop into scenarios and plotlines, and overall, this a good introduction to the duchy with plenty of information for the Game Master to work with.

Lastly, Ubersreik Adventures: More Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik does actually return to the subject of The Enemy Within, but in an unexpected fashion. This is as consequences of the campaign, as if there is another group of Player Characters involved in it rather than those in Ubersreik. This further divorces Ubersreik Adventures: More Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik and its events away from those of The Enemy Within beyond those consequences, whilst allowing the Game Master to take them into account even if she has no intent of running the campaign herself. Alternatively, a group of players could actually play both, but with different characters, so that the one set of characters experience the events of The Enemy Within and the other characters’ activities if only vicariously. It is a nice addition and interesting to the campaign from a different angle even if it does give away a lot of detail about The Enemy Within.

Physically, Ubersreik Adventures: More Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik is very well presented. The book itself is a handsome hardback and the book’s artwork—especially in its depiction of the NPCs—and cartography are both well done. However, the anthology needs an edit to fix final errors and to make sure that some of the plots and their information is clearer.

Ubersreik Adventures: More Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik is another solidly impressive set of scenarios that enables a group to continue playing the campaign begun in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set, whilst also being flexible enough to be set elsewhere in the Empire and the Game Master’s campaign. ‘A Guide to Black Rock’ very nicely expands upon the source material in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set, but really the two standout scenarios in the anthology both involve murder—‘Double Trouble’ and ‘The Blessing That Drew Blood’. Although it is a good anthology of scenarios in general, the Game Master who has set her campaign in Ubersreik is definitely going to want to run the scenarios in Ubersreik Adventures: More Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik.

Imperial Records I

There is a woman incarcerated in the Great Hospice who claims not only to be Princess Isabella von Holswig-Schleistein, sister to Emperor Karl-Franz I, but also to be in love with Duke Leopold von Bildhofen of Carroburg and a scholar herself, worthy of the title, ‘The Seer Princess’. Of course, his Imperial Majesty would likely refute such claims, but look upon kindly the efforts of the sisters of Shallya of the Great Hospice in tending to her well-being, just as Duke Leopold would deny any such relationship. What is in no doubt is that the women, simply known as ‘Isabella’ is of good stock and educated, given the papers that have been slipping out of the Great Hospice, which are of scholarly note and interest. The first of these has been collated as Archives of the Empire Volume I. This is a supplement for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition, published by Cubicle Seven Entertainment Ltd., which has since been followed up with further entries in the series—Archives of the Empire Volume II and Archives of the Empire Volume III. This slim first volume collates information about the Empire and the three major races living within and alongside its borders.

Archives of the Empire Volume I opens with a journal entry for Isabella before getting down its first subject matter. This is a presentation of the state of the Empire in the Year 2512 IC, notably before the events of The Enemy Within campaign play out and come to fruition with Empire in Ruins, the redone fifth, and final part of the campaign. It provides a one- or two-page description of each of the ten Grand Provinces—that is, those provinces which provide an Elector Count who has the right to elect the emperor—of the Empire, from Averland and Middenheim to Talabecland and Talabheim. These in turn list the official name, ruler, government, capital, internal provinces and notable freistadts (self-governing towns and cities), and primary exports for each Grand Province, as well as details of their lands, peoples, and significant places. The descriptions are broad in nature given the limited amount of space given to each, for example, Averland consists of floodplains, is known for its longhorn cattle and vineyards, feuds with neighbouring Stirland over three independent fiefdoms, and its peoples are seen as flighty and fickle, but still adhering to tradition, whilst Stirland has a reputation as a rural backwater and its peoples as being highly superstitious, being obsessed with both beer and their ancestry, a strong dislike for Halflings for the loss of the province’s good farmland to form Mootland, and a particular fear of vampires and the undead given that the County of Sylvania, the historic home of the Vampire Counts lies to the immediate east.

In places—and this is a feature of Archives of the Empire Volume I—the supplement clearly points to other supplements which have expanded treatments of their subject matters. For example, the description of Reikland points to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition and the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set for more information, and in the case of the latter, more information on the town and goings on in Ubersreik. Whilst this is undeniably all useful, but the problem is that the relative brevity of the information feels out of place in this supplement, where at just a page or two in length, they would have provided a good overview in the core rulebook. Or alternatively, these pages could have been expanded to take up the whole of Archives of the Empire Volume I rather than covering the number of subjects that it does. In meantime, these descriptions are still good introductions, but no more, and the likelihood is that they will be superseded by supplements dedicated to them of their own, such as Middenheim: City of the White Wolf. Individual maps of the Grand Provinces would also have been useful.

‘Halfling Clans of the Reikland’ explores the presence of Halflings—sometimes seen as the joke Player Character race in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay—in one of Grand Provinces of the Empire. Which begs the question, what are Halflings like in the other nine Grand Provinces? Followed by, could this have been saved for a big supplement on Halflings which covered the whole of the Empire? It feels as if there nine other articles to come dealing with Halflings in those other Grand Provinces, as if Archives of the Empire Volume I is some kind of partwork. Nevertheless, this is entertaining content, describing twelve of the most common clans to be found in Reikland. They include the Ashfield Clan, known for its Fieldwardens who patrol the borders of Mootland and its archers, many of whom join the imperial army; the Rumster clan, which specialises making pies and pastries; and the Lowhaven, thieves and racketeers who band together to stand up against the ‘big ones’ as Humans are known. These without a clan are known as Lostpockets. The clans and their predilections make for easy characterisation, whether that is of Player Characters or NPCs, and it is going to be up the Game Master and her players whether they want to embrace, at best, the archetypes, at worst, the clichés, that these clan descriptions present. One way to embrace these is to use the various skills and talents suggested for each clan that can be added to or replace those listed in the core rulebook.

Better still is ‘A Guide to the Grand County of the Mootland’, which describes its founding, history, politics—mostly a lack of them because Halflings are busy doing other things, tourism, and major locations. With its bucolic rolling hills, the inspiration for The Mootland is obvious, but the chapter gives a plenty of fun twists and tweaks to make it feel like the Old World. Thus, in the timeline, there have been several pie wars—mostly over the placement of pastry, the flan is illegal, and the sausage roll remains a symbol of lean times and looked upon with disgust! There are notes for the Game Master on how to speak Mootish or ‘Haffenaff’, which comes across as a rural version of Cockney; the Fieldwarden Jasperjohn Maskerline is using diversions and psychological warfare in the south to trick Goblin scouts that the Halfling forces are ten times the number that they actually are, which is a lovely historical reference; and the pranksterish nature of Halflings means that they bolster the region’s tourist industry with a ‘Grand Tour’ that is just one big joke on the ‘big ones’ visiting for a bit of Halfling exoticism. Where ‘Halfling Clans of the Reikland’ provided NPC examples for each of its twelve clans, ‘A Guide to the Grand County of the Mootland’ goes even further with lots of extra details and almost a scenario hook—literally given fish hook through each one on the page—on every page.

Then having done Halflings, Archives of the Empire Volume I does Dwarves, and does so in a similar manner to Halflings. Thus, you have Dwarves in the Empire and then Dwarves on home territory. ‘Imperial Dwarves’ examines the Dwarves who live across the Empire, highlighting the close links between the Empire and the Dwarves, and examining the not always cordial relationship between the Imperial Dwarves and their cousins in the Dwarf holds in the mountains, the nature of Dwarf society and settlements—the latter highlighting how they effectively build mini-fortresses with tunnels to hold supplies below, and so on. These are accompanied by three decent NPCs and story hooks for each. Contrasting this is ‘A Guide to Karak Azgaraz’, a Dwarf hold which is just south of, and has close ties with, Ubersreik, and is governed by relatively young Dwarven king—sone would say too young, whose council is riven by old grudges. The description focuses very much less on the clans to be found in the hold, and more on the locations in and around the hold, such as the skybridges which form the only point of access from the south, the fortified Argraz Trading Post built in Merchant Pass to control trade, the Under the Mountain Inn within the hold where outsiders can trade, the Erdinken Brewery which serves non-Dwarves weaker so as not to waste the good stuff, and the various Deeps where the dwarves actually live. Beyond this, it notes some of the threats faced by the hold, including bandits, Goblins, and Orcs. The accompanying adventure hooks involves the Player Characters dealing with these external threats as well as getting involved—carefully—in Dwarven politics within the hold itself. Given how close to Ubersreik the hold is, ‘A Guide to Karak Azgaraz’ is actually fairly useful, but what lets it down is a lack of maps. It would have been really useful to have maps of the hold to help the Game Master describe it to her players, and similarly, maps of the typical settlements of the Imperial Dwarves would have been useful too. Lastly, there is no proper illustration of Karak Azgaraz, so the Game Master is left wondering what it, and especially, its skybridges, look like.

Penultimately, for the Elves, Archives of the Empire Volume I simply presents ‘A Guide to the Laurelorn’. There is no discussion of Elves in the Empire, but instead this description of the Laurelorn Forest, an independent Eleven kingdom on the southwest border of the Empire, between Nordland and the Wasteland. The Wood Elves—or ‘Eonir’—are distinct from the Athel Loren—or Asrai—in that they are less isolationist and their spiritual ties to the trees are substantially weaker. The chapter includes a history of the Laurelorn Forest, a description of the three social classes, and a visitor’s guide. There is a definite sense of age to the region, evidenced in the three classes which make up the Elves’ society based on where they and their ancestors were during the War of the Beard. The upper classes reside in the restored ruins of the original Elven colony, the middle classes took refuge in the forest during the War of the Beard, and the lower classes entered the forest after the war. It should be noted that War of the Beard took place five millennia ago. Besides numerous scenario hooks, it is suggested that for Player Character Elves from Laurelorn Forest, High Elves and their associated Careers represent upper class characters and Wood Elves and their associated Careers the middle classes. It is suggested that none of the working-class Elves become adventurers. Overall, the description and details of Laurelorn are decent.

Rounding out Archives of the Empire Volume I is an appendix containing four new careers. Three of these are from the Ranger Class. The Ghost Strider is a forest warden for Elves; the Fieldwarden which patrols the borders of the Mootland and is for Halflings; and the Karak Ranger is for the Dwarves and patrols around a Dwarven hold above and below ground. The fourth career is an oddity, a bit of silliness that the Game Master can choose to include or not in her campaign. This is the Badger Rider for the Halfling. A member of the Warrior Class, the Badger Rider is typically a loner, akin to a questing knight, doing good deeds across the Mootland and protecting its borders. It does need stats and details of the badger, which are not given here or indeed suggested where they might be found. Overall, a good selection of new race-specific Careers along similar lines that will make Player Characters of those races standout for more than just being members of their races. This is followed by an appendix of new weapons particular to the three races discussed in the supplement. Halflings will, no doubt, want to ride into battle wielding either Nan’s Cleaver or an Iron Skillet, whilst every Dwarf Slayer will hope to be armed with a Slayer’s Axe, which is even more deadly than a standard two-handed axe.

Physically, Archives of the Empire Volume I is well presented. The artwork is excellent, the layout clean and tidy, and the maps decent, although there are not enough of them. The book does need an edit in places.

Archives of the Empire Volume I is companion to, and a medley of information for, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition and is very much hit and miss in terms of its content. Fortunately, more hit than miss. The primary miss is that the Grand Province descriptions feel like they belong elsewhere and will leave the reader wanting more, as will the description of the Halfling Clans, oddly confined to the one Grand Province. The hits though, include the descriptions and details of the three races, backed up the innumerable adventure hooks, which are all definitely more useful and can be brought into play much, much easier. In particular, the description of the Mootland is really very good, not just informative, but entertaining too. There is definite sense that the authors were having fun when they wrote this chapter.

Ultimately, if it leaves the Game Master wanting in places, the Archives of the Empire Volume I is a still a good supplement for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition, providing in particular, support and background for Dwarves, Elves, and Halflings that will enhance the Game Master’s campaign.

An Ubersreik Half-Dozen

The two great features of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set were twofold. First, in ‘A Guide to Ubersreik’, it introduced Ubersreik, the fortress-town in the south of the Reikland, and its surrounding duchy that are in turmoil after an announcement from the emperor that unseated the ruling House Jungfreud. It left the town’s burghers and minor members of the nobility spotting an opportunity to take control themselves and much of this was explored in ‘The Adventure Book’, which provided a five-part mini-campaign and more story hooks. This was the second great thing about the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set—lots to roleplay. Although Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set was in part designed to set the Game Master and her players up reader for the majestic The Enemy Within campaign—after all, almost everything is in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition is—what if instead of leaping into that campaign, the Player Characters wanted to stay in and around Ubersreik? Fortunately, and almost immediately, publisher Cubicle Seven Entertainment began publishing scenarios set in and around the Duchy of Ubersreik, so the Player Characters could not only continue their involvement in the political upheaval in the town, but also explore its surrounds.

Ubersreik Adventures: Six Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik is a handsome hardback which collects the first six scenarios in the series. These take the Player Characters across the duchy, facing monsters and villains, hunting beasts and employment, solving mysteries and secrets, and more. The scenarios are flexible. All can be taken and dropped into the Game Master’s campaign, used in conjunction with the Rough Nights & Hard Days campaign anthology, or again used as a lead into The Enemy Within. Ultimately, Ubersreik Adventures is designed to do that, but not necessarily, since it has a sequel of its own in the form of Ubersreik Adventures II: Grim and Perilous Adventures in the Duchy of Ubersreik, a further collection of scenarios previously published as a series of PDFs. In addition, every scenario in Ubersreik Adventures includes its own ‘Shaking Things Up’ appendix with advice for the Game Master on running the scenario, alternative hooks to get the Player Characters involved, and a list of possible connects to not only the other five scenarios in the volume, but also other parts of the Empire. This gives the Game Master set up each scenario as she wants and tie it into a campaign in and around Ubersreik. Lastly, the six scenarios in Ubersreik Adventures: Six Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik can be run on their own, but they do work better in conjunction with the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set.

The anthology opens with ‘If Looks Could Kill’. The Player Characters are tasked with helping deliver some supplies to the construction site of the new mill down river from Ubersreik. Unfortunately, a miasma has settled on the site and dampened the mood, but the situation turns ugly when the Player Characters are employed to clear some standing stones nearby—because that never goes well—and then one of the partners in the project turns up dead. Tracks point to much feared, legendary Beast of Orschlamm and the Player Characters are directed by the other partner to track it down. However, there is more going on than simple monster hunt as astute Player Characters will quickly work out. There is still the beast though, a fearsome creature, which fortunately is elderly enough that it will not kill them outright! It is a nicely judged and scaled encounter and the scenario fully explores the consequences of its death in no little detail. ‘If Looks Could Kill’ is an excellent starting scenario, with plenty going on, but not too much.

‘The Mad Men of Gotheim’ is the second scenario and although it involves a monster hunt, it is all together a different beast. It starts in classic fantasy roleplaying fashion with the Player Characters coming across a village which has been attacked and a monster remains on the loose, ready to attack again. The village of Gotheim lies in ruins and the villagers have all been driven mad to one degree or another. They hold vital information about the nature of the beast and possibly the means to help kill it, but Player Characters must work hard and fast in order to calm the villagers down, get them to reveal what has happened, and perhaps the means to kill the creature. ‘The Mad Men of Gotheim’ is short and surprisingly complex, and although the Player Characters may not know it, they are up against a time limit before the creature—which intentionally has the feel of Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky (both poem and film)—goes on another rampage. There is a brilliantly Lovecraftian feel to the horror in the devastation and derangement which the monster has left in the wake of its first attack in this scenario which is genuinely grim and perilous.

‘Heart of Glass’ is a murder mystery which becomes a bit of a romp. Ubersreik remains divided between those loyal to House Jungfreud and those favouring the new administration from the capital, Altdorf. So, when a corporal in the new town guard is found dead under mysterious circumstances, the Imperial Herald would like the cause and culprits found lest it leads to further unrest. Enter the Player Characters. Hired—potentially under duress—to investigate. The trail of clues leads in an odd direction, a direction so odd that it puts a Witch Finder on the Player Characters’ trail and then it gets even weirder. This is definitely a scenario where a Wizard, or at least a Wizard’s Apprentice, will have chance to get involved, if not necessarily shine. Like the other scenarios in the anthology, ‘Heart of Glass’ is not necessarily going to end very neatly, if at all, and it does leave a lot of questions unanswered as far as the Player Characters are concerned and a lot of loose ends for the Game Master to develop if necessary.

‘Slaughter in Spittlefeld’ is a locked-room affair. Well to be fair, the room is a ramshackle, squalid tenement block and although there is no murderer or murder victim, there is a disease. The scenario begins en media res with the Player Characters waking up in a tenement building in the worst slums in the town and the doors and windows are being nailed shut to keep the plague in! It is a brilliant set-up—even if the players are likely to grumble about their characters getting there—and once the Player Characters ferret a few clues out of the tenement’s tenants, perhaps with help of lumbering and very shouty Ogre landlord, they can work out cause of the disease. The situation is, of course, horribly prescient, but still an entertaining adventure. It will take them to the top of the tenement block and back down in a claustrophobically fraught affair race to save the day.

‘Bait and Witch’ begins with its clever title. ‘Slaughter in Spittlefeld’ could be played through in a single session, but ‘Bait and Witch’ is specifically designed to do that. It takes place in a few streets and buildings of Ubersreik as the Player Characters are asked for a favour by an apothecary—confront the two ne’er-do-wells watching her shop. This is a classic mix-up, if not of identities, then motivations and the Player Characters will have to come to the rescue if they are to untangle them all. If they do and they do save the day, the apothecary will prove a useful ally and contact in the long terms.

The last scenario in the anthology is ‘The Guilty Party’ and it begins with a bang before throwing the Player Characters into a classic Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay situation—a road trip! Or rather, a coach journey. After coming to the rescue of man set upon by some thugs, he offers them a job. Can they find proof of sabotage of the coaches running between Ubersreik and Altdorf? Of course, they can and before they know, they are on a trip into trouble. A coach trip means that the adventure is linear, but there are lots of extra scenarios for the Game Master to throw into the narrative along the way, making every stop an interesting encounter. In this way, ‘The Guilty Party’ prefigures the opening sessions of The Enemy Within campaign and indeed, is designed to get the Player Characters to the beginning of that campaign. Consequently, it feels forced, but climb aboard and this a fun affair, even if ultimately, it leaves them high and dry without really resolving the scenario or even getting paid. In fact, the lack of resolution is the point as it drives the Player Characters to look for other work and so onto one of the greatest roleplaying campaigns in the roleplaying hobby. However, if the Player Characters decide not to pursue that, then the scenario leaves the high and dry without really resolving the scenario to rather unsatisfactory effect. If it had explored the other option, the scenario would have been rounded and easier to use rather than the one application it suggests. (This is even more of an issue given that Ubersreik Adventures II: Grim and Perilous Adventures in the Duchy of Ubersreik is also available.)

Physically, Ubersreik Adventures: Six Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik is very well presented. The book itself is a handsome hardback and the book’s artwork—especially in its depiction of the NPCs—and cartography are both well done. The plotting could have been clearer upfront in some places, and although it needs a slight edit in places, the anthology is well written and enjoyable to read.

Ubersreik Adventures: Six Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik is a solidly impressive collection of adventures. None of them is overly complex in terms of structure or plot, making them easy to run for anyone new to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, but there are some pleasingly complex and subtle situations still, such as dealing with the unfortunate survivors of ‘The Mad Men of Gotheim’, driven mad by their encounters with the creature. In addition, the Game Master is given plenty of options to work the scenario into her campaign and in turn is given numerous NPCs, all of whom are decently portrayed, that she can add to her campaign. Ubersreik Adventures: Six Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik is a good book of sequels to the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set and a solid anthology of scenarios for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay in general.

—oOo—

Cubicle Seven Entertainment will be at UK Games Expo

from Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th, 2023.