The Other OSR—7 Aboard the Schackel

The world is dying. It no more than a few scattered lands on the Endless Sea, the beleaguered inhabitants and other survivors scrabbling for one last scrum of comfort, even at the cost others, as the prophecies of the Two-Headed Basilisks are coming true. Seven Miseries as predicted in from The Calendar of Nechrubel – The Nameless Scriptures and the seventh Misery will herald the actual end of the world… In north-western Kergüs, Blood-Countess Anthelia cries out for colour and warmth from her white stone castle in the black glass city of Alliáns, yet in her ice-wracked lands, everything the fragile countess touches, looks upon, and breathes upon is drained of colour. Yet she remains on her throne, clinging to her throne, her youth, her power, and the traditions that ensure that all is right and proper. That includes the treatment of those at her court whom she would count as a rival. No ruler may sentence a member of their court to death. The death of a rival is the rise of the martyr. There are ways and means of treating and punishing a rival that leave him ruined, if not destroyed, rather than death. For the rivals of Lady Anthelia of Kergüs, the Blood Countess, there is Her Lady’s Schackel. This is a prison hulk, once a great ship of Kergüs’ navy, now adrift on the Endless Sea, scored by acid rain, haunted by ghosts and ghasts, and seemingly unwanted by the Endless Sea, but unable to come to shore. Worse, ‘the 7’, those who were once rivals or enemies of the queen and confined to Her Lady’s Schackel have mutinied and escaped their confines, if not the rotting hulk of their prison, their profanities constantly warping the cabins and hallways of the vessel so that no two decks are alike and every deck is different each time someone enters it… Everyone knows that there is an abomination aboard that will soon come ashore and when it does a Misery will fall on the world. Until then it waits aboard the prison barge floating on the Endless sea.

This is the set-up for 7 Aboard the Schackel, semi-randomly generated prison-crawl adventure published by Bite-Sized Gaming following a successful Kickstarter campaign. It is compatible with Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance retroclone designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing. It includes tables to create Player Character motivations, plots, room and location contents, random events and sounds, curses and trinkets, the state in which the surviving members of the former crew can be found, full details of the seven escaped inmates, and more.

Set-up for 7 Aboard the Schackel begins with the tables ‘2d4troubling Ties’ and ‘2d4 Conceived Plots’. For example, the ‘Lady’s Man/Woman’ entry in the former places the Player Character in fealty to Lady Anthelia who has tasked him with slaying the abomination aboard the barge, whilst the entry in the latter table places Förtära as the primary target abomination aboard, an obese woman who has entered into a bargain with a great beast from the depths of the Endless Sea and is ready to birth a cold foetus on the land which will inherit the remaining land… These two tables provide different motivations and primary enemy for any play-through of the prison-crawl, but in play, the Game Master rolls dice to populate and detail each deck of the Her Lady’s Schackel and does every time the Player Characters move from one deck to another. This includes returning to a deck that the Player Characters have already visited or explored. What the Game Master is rolling for is appearance and placement of a member of ‘the 7’, any ‘Servile Cretins’, ‘Covetous Souls’, ‘Crippled Captives’, and ‘Butchered Flesh’. Named creatures will not reappear if they are killed and the number of dice rolled each time a deck is re-entered if the Player Characters manage to clear a deck. There are five decks on the Her Lady’s Schackel.

The bulk of 7 Aboard the Schackel is dedicated to the denizens aboard the Her Lady’s Schackel. These start with ‘the 7’, monstrously fallen men and women sentenced to imprisonment aboard the prison barge. They include the ‘Falskhet, the False King’, able to command—temporarily—those he strikes with his sceptre, but also cause a target’s bones to snap and pop with his ‘Cruel Wrath’ and suffer any damage he would instead with ‘Egotistical Leech’. In his former life, he was a scapegoat for a failed uprising against Lady Anthelia and now unleashes his anger and resentment against her on anyone around him. All of ‘the 7’ are described in similar detail with clear stats and a background and an agenda. In addition, the denizens include ‘tenth-spirits’, the spectres of those given as a tithe to the Endless Sea and cursed to stay in its cold embrace rather than pass on. They include Thera, a young girl still clutching a seaweed doll and in a search of a parent and even Törgar, the dethroned and dishonoured captain of the Her Lady’s Schackel. The Servile Cretins are lingering, broken creatures which remain aboard the vessel, like the ‘Blick’, plucked eyes animated by profane magic which cast about their withering gaze.

One issue with 7 Aboard the Schackel is the focus upon its denizens, monsters, and creatures. It leaves relatively little room for the tools to help the Game Master detail the Her Lady’s Schackel. There are tables for rolling random room names and mostly useless trinkets for the Player Characters to find, but little else. This leaves the Game Master room, of course, to create her own descriptions, but more prompts and suggestions would have been useful. Another is that randomising each deck every time the Player Characters enter a deck is time consuming and potentially means more work for the Game Master. If that is the case, an option would be to create a deck’s layout and description just the once per playthrough. Lastly, one issue with 7 Aboard the Schackel is the use of the word ‘cretin’ to describe some of its denizens. It is derogatory and potentially offensive.

Physically, 7 Aboard the Schackel is presented in the artpunk style of Mörk Borg. It does mean that it places it is not easy to read and that may impede play. The artwork is decent, a dark, twisted swathe of the grim and the brutal.

7 Aboard the Schackel brings to life an almost living ship, its random elements giving it a flexibility that a standard scenario would not necessarily possess. In fact, not running it as a campaign scenario would mean not making the fullest use of this feature. It would work as a one-shot, with the Player Characters having different motivations for going aboard the Her Lady’s Schackel and possibly with a trimming of a deck or two, as a convention scenario also. In whatever way it is used, 7 Aboard the Schackel is a bloody and brutal grim dark prison crawl caught between the Endless Deep and the end of the world.

The Assassin’s Credo

The Assassin has always been a difficult Class in Dungeons & Dragons. Since its introduction in the Player’s Handbook for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition in 1978, the Assassin Class has always been the Class which crossed that moral no-man’s land from the grey to the black, because the Assassin did not just kill monsters, but men and women too, of all races—and worse, did it for profit. Consequently, its position in the game has been downplayed over time, until in the Player’s Handbook for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, it has been subsumed into the Rogue Class and treated as a Subclass. Consequently, it means that the ‘Assassin as Rogue’ Subclass is highly focused with little in the way of variety. Which means it is not necessarily going to be that interesting to play and it is not going to lend itself to the creation of interesting NPCs—at least mechanically—by the Dungeon Master. Fortunately, Dungeons & Dragons players are a resourceful lot and there are options. One of which is Den of Assassins.

Den of Assassins is a supplement for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, published by Bite-Sized Gaming following a successful Kickstarter campaign. It promises “Deadly new player options, villains, and game master tools for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.” It does this with a mix of new Subclasses, antagonists and minions, magic items, and more—the latter including a range of tools and support for the Dungeon Master. All of which is packed into a fairly slim book liberally illustrated in full colour that is accessible, easy to read, and easy to bring into a Dungeon Master’s game.

What Den of Assassins does first is present twelve new Assassin-themed Subclasses. These are not all for the Rogue Class, but instead there is one for each Class. Notably, they are not necessarily all ‘evil’ per se, but range in tone and ability and how they can be used, as they are not necessarily Assassins in the strictest sense. So, the ‘Oath of the Headhunter’ is a Subclass for the Paladin and more of a bounty hunter than an assassin, gaining on skills used to track and locate its quarry, gains spells such as See Invisibility and Hunter’s Mark, and becomes so charismatic or intimidating, that with the ‘Get Over Here!’ feature can command another creature to move immediately towards the Paladin. Similarly, the Lightbender Subclass for the Ranger seems to supernaturally bend light to hide with spells like Invisibility, deliver an ‘Unexpected Strike’ for extra damage, and so on, but it is all down to skill. The Monk, with the ‘Way of the Bonebreaker’ Subclass targets opponent’s weak spots to inflict devastating blows that can inhibit a target’s ability to wield weapons or move, strike the vocal cords and prevent speech temporarily, and more. Such a Monk could be a deadly killer, but equally could simply be a dangerous opponent from a rival school. Some Subclasses are unsubtle, such as the ‘Path of the Splatter’ for the Barbarian, which specialises in two-weapon fighting and delivering as many attacks as possible, whilst the Fighter’s ‘Gatecrasher’ Subclass specialises in shoving opponents, smashing doors and even breaking shields. The Rogue Subclass, the ‘Conspirator’ is conversely subtle, using words to distract opponents, ‘Raise Suspicion’ about them, spread rumours and sow confusion, and more, making it feel more like the typical Assassin. For the spellcasting Classes, there is ‘Decomposition’ Domain for the Cleric, which sees the Class use plagues and diseases to cleanse the world; the ‘Circle of Devouring’ for the Druid specialises in the darker side of transformation; and the Warlock becomes ‘The Urban Legend’, seemingly able to walk in and investigate from the shadows, guided by signs and omens.

In addition, there Assassin-themed Backgrounds such as ‘Former Crown Assassin’ (who never retired) or ‘Left for Dead’ (and accompanied by the ghosts who did not survive); Feats like ‘Ambush Planner’ and ‘Sleeper Agent’; and magic items such as ‘Assassin’s Garrotte’ and ‘Deck of Disguises’, all of which can round out and add to an assassin, whether Player Character or NPC. Having presented the dozen new Subclasses, Den of Assassins showcases them with an example of each. So Ketch the Headsmen follows the Barbarian Path of Splatter and is a Dragonborn who is a former executioner, now retired, but willing to become an agent of retribution should they require his services, whilst High Priest Dozart, the Cleansing Worm, is an adherent of the worm goddess Insitharra, who leads efforts to purify plague-ridden areas, but can be paid to completely remove someone from the world.

All of the examples are accompanied by minions, such as the Cleansing Worm Cultist—dressed in a classic plague doctor costume—for the worm goddess Insitharra. All twelve NPCs and twelve minions, the latter typically lesser versions of the ideas behind the NPCs are described in detail, most of the NPCs given a two-page spread which includes the various magical items they use as part of their tasks. 

In addition to the NPCs and monsters or minions, the Dungeon Master is also provided with a number of tools to help her run a campaign involving assassins. These include tables of reasons to have someone killed and locations where the assassination could be carried out, and an adventure seed for each of the NPCs. Given the wealth of detail accorded the NPCs, the hooks are underwritten and also the table entries are basic. More useful though are the Ambush Locations and Lairs. Ranging from a ‘Caravan Camp’ to ‘The Compound’, these consist of a decent, full colour map, description, and some hooks to use them. All are straightforward and easy to use, as are the lair locations, which include ‘Fort Frigid’, a mountaintop camp, and ‘The Omertá Airship’ out which assassin strikes as he travels the world.

Physically, Den of Assassins is well written and presented—for the most part. It is a little untidy in places, but is very nicely illustrated, with every NPC and minion presented ready for the Dungeon Master to show to her players. The maps at the rear of the book are also well done.

What Den of Assassins does lack is advice on running a scenario or a campaign involving assassins—whether as Player Characters or NPCs. What this means is that it is not the definitive guide to the Assassin in Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and the Dungeon Master will need to look elsewhere for any such advice. Put that aside though, and Den of Assassins provides the tools and means for a gaming group to bring them into its play. That includes creating interesting Player Characters and NPCs, introducing NPCs and enemies to the campaign, and then places to involve assassins. In doing so, it presents options arrayed across the moral spectrum, so that certain Subclasses can be labelled evil, others good, but many lie in between, and even then, none of them necessarily have to be treated as assassins at all, but simply Subclasses. Whether assassins or not, Den of Assassins presents an interesting, often darker-edged, range of Subclasses and NPCs for both the player and the Dungeon Master and their Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition game.