Free RPG Day: Free RPG Day 2017 – Swords Against Owlbears/Font of Knowledge

Now in its tenth year, Saturday, June 17th is Free RPG Day  and with it comes an array of new and interesting little releases. Invariably they are tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quickstart. One of the regular pieces of support for an existing roleplaying game in 2017 is Free RPG Day 2017 – Swords Against Owlbears/Font of Knowledge flipbook. Published by Pelgrane Press, best known for 13th Age, the dramatic Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying game, and Trail of Cthulhu, the clue-orientated roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror. Like previous releases from Pelgrane Press for Free RPG Day, the Free RPG Day 2017 – Swords Against Owlbears/Font of Knowledge flipbook presents two adventures for two different systems. The first is for 13th Age, whilst the other is for TimeWatch, the roleplaying game of time travel investigation and action. Each adventure is relatively short, playable in roughly a session or two.

The first of the two scenarios is for TimeWatch, the roleplaying game in which the player characters are members of the eponymous agency, policing and repairing the time stream from natural chronological disasters and meddlers. The plot to ‘Font of Knowledge’ is very much a play on words, involving the mass extinction of humanity and weirdly, an inappropriate use of the font, Comic Sans. To foil this plot, the agents will need to operate in their own time bubble, passing up and down the time stream to determine what caused the extinction of the timeline and why a thirteenth century religious tract now appears to have been originally in one of the most reviled fonts of all time. The scenario consists of a few scenes, but they provide a good mix of investigative, combat, and roleplaying opportunities. This being a time travel adventure, there is also the chance to meet a historical figure, this time Leonardo de Vinci.

The scenario is deadly in places and it should be made clear that the fate of humanity is on the line. So the Game Master may not want to throw such responsibility at his player characters, but there is nothing to stop ‘Font of Knowledge’ being dropped into an ongoing campaign and it is in fact, easy to do so. Otherwise, it serves as a good one-shot. To that end, the scenario is supported by six pre-generated agents, a mix of historical figures, both real and fictional, and the slightly pulpy Science Fiction agents. So the real historical figures include Colonel Thomas Blood and Julie d’Aubigny, whilst the historical includes a near ageless African immortal. The others include an uplifted gorilla and a health monitoring robot. Overall, a good mix and some fun characters.

The second scenario is for 13th Age. ‘Swords Against Owlbears’ is an excuse to write a scenario involving owlbears, especially one explaining where the strange hybrid creatures come from. Unlike ‘Font of Knowledge’ this is a much more difficult scenario to run with an existing group since it begins with the player characters trapped and altered beyond all recognition. The question is, who imprisoned them and what has been done to them? In the fact, the person responsible is known as the Maker of Many and she is a true Frankenstein, constantly pushing at the boundaries of life, art, and death, all in the name of knowledge. Once the player characters have smashed their way out of their vats, they will quickly find out two things--and after that, they will find out a third. First, they are mutagenic, which means that one from encounter to the next, they will be swapping mutations with each other and just every creature they encounter. So they might find themselves mutating into a half-monkey better Armour Class and climbing skill, lots of curiosity, or a half-moss thing which can collapse to the floor to avoid an attack, but which suffers from depression. The scenario includes some twenty or so mutation cards to spread around and swap from one encounter to the next, ranging from chicken and hydra to squirrel and rosebush, each with advantages and quirks.

Second, they are in the Twisted Gardens, which can be best described as ‘Moreau’s Murder Island’. Third, there is a way out of their predicament, but it involves more murder and danger and having to make a deal with the Maker of Many. ‘Swords Against Owlbears’ is a mix of the fun house and the murder house and should provide good session of bonkers fighting. It does come with six pre-generated adventurers, all Sixth Level, including a Tielfling Paladin, a Human Rogue, a Gnome Barbarian, a Half-Elf Sorcerer, a Dark Elf Ceric, and a Halfling Druid. These all need their ‘One Unique Thing’ which defines them to be decided upon as well as their Icon relationships and exactly why they are in the Twisted Gardens. The characters are just the bare bones, so anything beyond this will have to be created during play.

Of course, Free RPG Day 2017 – Swords Against Owlbears/Font of Knowledge flipbook is not really a flip book. One scenario follows the other rather than having to flip the book over and around to get to the other scenario. Unfortunately, as it appeared on Free RPG Day, Free RPG Day 2017 – Swords Against Owlbears/Font of Knowledge flipbook does have problems with both adventures. Most notably for ‘Font of Knowledge’, none of the pre-generated agent came with any stats, and for ‘Swords Against Owlbears’, some stats for both monsters and pre-generated adventurers needed updating. Fortunately, the PDF version has since been fixed and the errata for both adventures is available from Pelgrane Press. One other issue with ‘Swords Against Owlbears’ is that the map is not the easiest to work out what is where and it could have done with a better key, so careful study of the map is required. The overall effect of these issues is to make Free RPG Day 2017 – Swords Against Owlbears/Font of Knowledge flipbook feel just a little rushed.

Although not as good as it should have been on the day, the good news is that Pelgrane Press has fixed Free RPG Day 2017 – Swords Against Owlbears/Font of Knowledge flipbook. The result is an entertaining pair of adventures, both suited to one shot play, even convention play, and do a nice job of showcasing both systems.

Free RPG Day 2017: Familiars of Terra – Dissonant Notes

Now in its tenth year, Saturday, June 17th was Free RPG Day and with it came an array of new and interesting little releases. Invariably these are tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quickstart. The scenarios are of course for existing games, but whilst the quickstarts may likewise also be for existing games, many are for forthcoming games, giving gamers a chance to experience a new game or setting before they are released. One such title is Familiars of Terra – Dissonant Notes, published by Angry Hamster Publishing.

Familiars of Terra is set in a world not unlike our own, perhaps a few decades ahead and not long after a nasty war which left areas of badlands to be scavenged or avoided. What marks it out as being particularly different is that everyone has a familiar or animal companion who bonds with them and grows with them. A Familiar cares for and helps its human companion, but for certain heroic humans—known as Seekers—Familiars will not only grow and bond with them, but also evolve. So, a snake companion might grow wings and an electrical strike, whilst a cat might gain size to rival that of a leopard or lion. This is a setting inspired by the Pokémon video games and animated television series and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.

Players in Familiars of Terra play not one, but two characters. One is a Seeker, the other is his Familiar. Both are defined by five attributes—Agility, Awareness, Charm, Might, and Wit, plus Health. The five attributes range between five and ten for humans, slightly lower for Familiars. Humans have traits like Nerdy (Music) and Acrobatic, a mix of skills and advantages, whilst Familiars have both combat manoeuvres and traits. Combat manoeuvres grant advantages in fights, like Bleed, which inflicts extra damage, and Shield, which blocks all damage. Each combat manoeuvre has a limited number of uses in each battle. A Familiar’s traits tend to be more fantastic than those of his human, so they might be ‘Hover’, ‘Quills’, ‘Blue’ (has blue skin and fur and can freeze an object with its icy breath once per session), and so on.

The mechanics of Familiars of Terra are simple enough. Each player requires his own deck of playing cards minus the Jokers. Each time a Seeker or a Familiar wants to take an action, his player draws a card and if it is equal to or lower than the value of the attribute, then they succeed. The Game Master can adjust the attribute value up and down depending upon the difficulty of the task. Combat is equally as simple, each player having a hand of cards that he can discard and redraw if he has a bad hand, though this is at the loss of a turn. On his turn, a player selects a card and reveals it simultaneously—usually with the Game Master—and the winner inflicting one point of damage on an opponent. Combat manoeuvres add greatly to combat, giving more options and adding a dynamism to the action.

In addition, a Seeker and his Familiar has Familiar Points. These are awarded for inventive and descriptive play and enable a Familiar to draw two cards for an action and choose one, to discard and draw cards in combat without losing a turn, to play an extra card for an action or in combat, and to declare combat manoeuvres at the end of a round rather than in order of Agility.

The scenario included in Familiars of Terra – Dissonant Notes is the eponymous ‘Dissonant Notes’. Designed for three to five players, it takes place in the town of Rockingchair where the Seekers and their Familiars are attending Wenlii, a local music festival. Unfortunately, half way through the event there is a stampede and several people and their familiars get hurt. The Seekers and their Familiars have the chance to intervene and save some of those caught up in the stampede, but not stop it. Their bravery and intervention identifies them as Seekers to the Wenlii organisers who hire them to find out why the stampede occurred and to prevent it from happening again. The investigation will see the Seekers and their Familiars looking round the rest of the festival, dealing with rival bands, negotiating with the police, and more, all before solving the mystery. It is a decent scenario and should give the Seekers and in particular, the Familiars, plenty of opportunity for investigation, interaction, and combat.

Familiars of Terra – Dissonant Notes is generally well presented and well written, if somewhat plain. Certainly, illustrations of the provided Familiars would have been a nice addition, but the main problem is that the Seekers do feel somewhat bland in comparison to their Familiars. This is not helped by the fact that some traits are repeated between different Seekers, meaning that they are not really very different at all. A nice touch is that the scenario does include a short glossary, which explains some of its more obscure terms.

Familiars of Terra – Dissonant Notes nicely does what it sets out to do and what a good quickstart should. This is present the setting, the mechanics, and a scenario as efficiently as it can in the space available. The mechanics are simple and playing both Seeker and Familiar provides opportunity to roleplay. Familiars of Terra – Dissonant Notes is a solid quickstart and should provide a good session’s worth of game play.

Join Us

Cult Following: The One True Game is a storytelling game in which the Cult Leaders use random cards to create cults, potential Recruits ask them random questions about their cults and philosophies, and the Cult Leaders win the game by recruiting the most cultists. Published by Bravely Told Games following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Cult Following: The One True Game is an adult themed game for at least three players. Ideally there should be at least five players. It comes as a relatively small, square box containing some three hundred plain cards, which makes it easily portable, whilst the ease of the rules means that a game can be started without any preparation and played through inside thirty minutes.

The cards are divided into two types, both types having two options on them. The first card type is the ‘Sign’ card, which is used to create the cults. The signs on these cards include things such as ‘Social anxiety’ and ‘Everyone needs to calm down’, ‘Talking like a pirate’ and ‘Killing two birds with one stone’, and ‘Having lots of kids’ and ‘Racist Grandmothers’. The second card type is the ‘Question’ card and these are put to the Cult Leaders. Typical questions include ‘Why won’t the cult on your right last the week?’ and ‘Describe the radical wing of your cult.’, ‘What ceremonies do children have in your cult?’ and ‘Where do you see your cult in five years?’, and ‘Explain how the “buddy system” work in your cult.’ and ‘What do your cult members look forward to?’.

A round begins by dividing the players into Cult Leaders and Recruits. There should be three Cult Leaders, but with just three players, there should only be two Cult Leaders. Each Cult Leader receives five Sign cards, whilst the Recruits each receive two Question cards. Then each Cult Leader reads the Signs and selects three of them around which he will create a background about his cult. Each Cult Leader presents this background with as my style and flourish as he can muster. Once done, the Recruits take in turns to pose a Question from their Question cards which the Cult Leaders must answer. Once they have finished, the Recruits selects their favourite answers and presents their Question cards to the successful Cult Leader of their choice. Once one Cult Leader has accrued two Question cards, the round ends, everyone changes roles, and a new round begins.  Throughout, both Cult Leaders and Recruits are expected to heckle and interject to add some energy to the recruiting drive. The game ends after an agreed number rounds, a time limit has been reached, and so on, at which time, well, the game is not exactly sure who has won—though perhaps it is the player who has won the most Question cards wins.

For example, Louise, Dave, and Alex are playing Cult Following: The One True Game. Louise and Dave will be the Cult Leaders attempting to recruit Alex.

Louise has the following Signs cards: 

• ‘The lesser of two evils’ and ‘Angry seniors’
• ‘Tight fitting clothing’ and ‘It gets better’
• ‘Happily ever after’ and ‘Tavern wenches’
• ‘A very special rock’ and ‘Legal in twelve states’
• ‘Looking on the bright side’ and ‘They’re not really dead’

 Dave has the following Signs cards: 

• ‘The pointlessness of it all’ and ‘Willful ignorance’
• ‘Never admitting you’re wrong’ and ‘Well, this explains everything’
• ‘Fish people’ and ‘We don’t care’
• ‘Violent video games’ and ‘Halloween candy’
• ‘Nap time’ and ‘Abandonment issues’

 Louise reads the Signs and explains, “As society seems to be getting worse, there is only one group to blame—‘Angry seniors’. They are responsible for the bad things that happen because politicians are either ‘Angry seniors’ or they only listen to them. We say ignore them and wait until the time when you can transmogrify into one of the ‘Angry seniors’. Then you will have the influence and power. Until then, there is something that you can worship who will bring you happiness and make you forgot your cares—‘Tavern wenches’. Worshipping as a member of ‘The cult of she who brings you beer’ ensures that you will be ‘Looking on the bright side’ until you are ready to join the ‘Angry seniors’.”

Dave reads the Signs and explains, “The end is nigh. We are not sure how and we are not sure why. We are sure that it is. Until the time when it is nigh, we want to shield you all from the ‘The pointlessness of it all’ through ‘Willful ignorance’ and ‘Nap time’. By ensuring a plentiful supply of both, we can keep you from worrying and wondering… The ‘Cult of the pointlessness of it all’ is here to protect you from knowing too much.”

Having heard the descriptions Alex has two Question cards: 

• ‘Why doesn’t my cat like your cult?’ and ‘New cults are full of passion. Describe the middle aged version of your cult.’
• ‘What behaviours clearly identify your cult members?’ and ‘How does your cult stay on good terms with groups that have different values?’

 Alex is a cat lover and so asks, “Why doesn’t my cat like your cult?”

Louise answers, “Probably because our members are too busy worshipping Tavern wenches to remember to feed and water them.” Dave explains that, “Cats know that the end is nigh and resent us hiding it from their human servants. They want to be the ones that induce ‘Nap time’ in humans and keep them in ‘Wilful ignorance’.  Taking a moment to think about the answers, Alex decides that she would rather be recruited by a cult that does some of the tasks that cats do rather than one which neglects them. She decides that The ‘Cult of the pointlessness of it all’ is the better choice and awards Dave with the Question card.

Physically, Cult Following: The One True Game is a square box containing some three hundred odd cards and a small rulebook. The latter is a quick and easy read and contains both advice and options for game variants. The cards themselves are plain and simple and easy to read. A nice touch is that the box does include six Practice Cults, extra cards that provide fully worded example cults that a player could use if he new to this type of game or shy.

As a game, Cult Following: The One True Game is a bit too simplistic and underwhelming. The lack of an objective in terms of winning the game points to that, but… As a social game and a storytelling game, Cult Following: The One True Game is pleasingly themed, with a decent variety given in the Question cards and even more in the Signs cards to generate ideas and stories and interactions between Cult Leaders and Recruits. This capacity for storytelling combined with the spurs for player creativity in the cards is where Cult Following: The One True Game shines and what it makes a good social game.

Wreck on the Borderlands

Borderlands Adventure 1: Wreck in the Ring is a Science Fiction adventure for three to five players published by Stellagama Publishing. Designed for use with the Cepheus Engine Core Rules and other 2D6 OGL SciFi mechanics, what this means is that it can be run using any version of the Science Fiction roleplaying game published by Game Designers’ Workshop in 1977, from Classic Traveller and MegaTraveller to Mongoose’s Traveller and Traveller 5. Although the plot of the scenario can be stripped out and run using Science Fiction roleplaying game where space travel is common, Borderlands Adventure 1: Wreck in the Ring is set in Stellagama Publishing’s These Stars Are Ours! campaign setting. This is a near-future setting which begins in 2260 AD in the aftermath of Terran Liberation War against the occupying Reticulan Empire. A cold war exists between the new United Terran Republic and the Reticulan Empire, played out in the badlands between their territories, home to client states, pirates, petty warlords, rogue colonies, greedy merchants, brave explorers, and more. It is in these badlands that Borderlands Adventure 1: Wreck in the Ring takes place.

Almost a quarter of a century ago, the interstellar transport Tallmadge’s Splendor was lost, fate unknown. Now, a belter has located her, on an asteroid moonlet of a remote gas giant in a barely-explored frontier system, and wants to hire a team of adventurers—preferably with a ship of their own—to help him salvage the ship. This is a challenging task and ideally, the player characters should possess a variety of shipboard skills, in particular, the Mechanical, Engineering, and Zero-G skills. Getting to the wreck of the Tallmadge’s Splendor—located in the Parvati system on the very edge of Terran space—is the easy part, getting the salvage out is the difficult part. This definitely requires the characters’ technical skills as they will be operating in micro-gravity and the ship is shattered and open to the vacuum of space. 

The technical aspects of the adventure are not its only challenge. There is at least one NPC who has ulterior motives and two NPCs who have motives other than salvage. In fact, one of the interesting NPCs is a member of the Brothers of St. Cuthbert, which is dedicated to recovering the bodies of those lost in space and returning them home for proper burial. This nicely adds a degree of faith and purpose not always present in adventures for the Cepheus Engine Core Rules and other 2D6 OGL SciFi mechanics. There is one other danger in Borderlands Adventure 1: Wreck in the Ring, one that suffuses both the ship and adventure with a sense of unease. Now, in scenarios like these, the cause of this unease, perhaps paranoia, might be some alien thing or crazed survivor, either ready and hungry to stalk and slaughter first the NPCs and then the player characters. And so it is here, but in Borderlands Adventure 1: Wreck in the Ring it does not feel like a cliché because it does not have to play out like a survival horror movie in space. Only if the player characters make every effort to interfere will the scenario turn into one of survival horror in space rather than one of salvage and recovery.

Borderlands Adventure 1: Wreck in the Ring comes as a full colour, twenty-page, 1.91 MB PDF document. Besides the adventure itself, basically the wreck of the Tallmadge’s Splendor and its environs, the scenario provides some background detail to the These Stars Are Ours! campaign setting, stats and write-ups for its NPCs, and a description and a full set of deckplans for the ship. It also includes a glossary. 

Physically, Borderlands Adventure 1: Wreck in the Ring is decently written and presented, although the editing could have been better as it does feel a bit tight in places. The artwork is decent, though not wholly necessary. The deckplans are good, though perhaps they could have been larger.

Borderlands Adventure 1: Wreck in the Ring is not quite perfect though. If the player characters lack a ship, it would have been nice if more detail had been provided about the ship belong to the belter who hires them. It would also have been to seen the NPCs given a little more development perhaps to make them easier to roleplay by the Game Master. That said, what Borderlands Adventure 1: Wreck in the Ring lacks are two vital player handouts—both showing the ship’s manifest. One for the passengers and one for the cargo. Both would have been great handouts and both would really act as good cues for both the players and their characters as well as providing possible plot lines for the Game Master to develop. The inclusion of some NPCs on the nearest planet or space station would not have gone amiss either and their use would have fleshed out the scenario just that little further. 

A nice, little adventure, Borderlands Adventure 1: Wreck in the Ring should provide two good sessions of play, whatever game system the Game Master runs it in. It has a pleasing workmanlike, blue collar sensibility which should make for an interesting and low key change of pace. Even when the ‘monster’ does appear, it is done in a low-key fashion such that it feels like one possible consequence of the players’ actions rather than the whole point of the scenario. Not every Science Fiction adventure needs to feel as if the crew are just going to work, but when the Game Master knows that it is what his campaign could deal with, Borderlands Adventure 1: Wreck in the Ring is a good choice.

Free RPG Day 2017: The Ninja Crusade, Second Edition QuickStart

Now in its tenth year, Saturday, June 17th was Free RPG Day and with it comes an array of new and interesting little releases. Invariably they are tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quickstart. One of the regular pieces of support for an existing roleplaying game in 2017 is The Ninja Crusade, Second Edition QuickStart. Published by Third Eye Games, best known for roleplaying games such as Apocalypse Prevention, Inc. and Mermaid Adventures, The Ninja Crusade, Second Edition is a game inspired by anime and movies such as Naruto and Kung Fu Hustle in which the Emperor of Izou has declared war against the ten Ninja clans, forcing once rivals to co-operate as the Lotus Coalition to ensure their survival. Players take the role of these ninja, whose role in this setting is as honourable if stealthy warriors, since this is not a world with samurai.

Characters in The Ninja Crusade belong one of the ten ninja clans, each of which has its own speciality. So the Blazing Dancers are performers and acrobats, the Pack of the Moon are farmers and herders known for their specially bred ninja-dogs, and the Living Chronicle are historians who keep stories and knowledge on their bodies and in their minds. Besides a Clan, a Ninja is defined by twenty or so skills, plus an Element, Profession, Tragedy, Wartime Role, Clan, Contacts, Martial Training, and two ‘Ways of…’, the latter paths of training. Each of the Element, Profession, Tragedy, Wartime Role, and Clan provides a Gift and a Trigger. The Gift grants a bonus, whilst the Trigger gives Karma under certain conditions. For example, the Water Element with its Devious Temperament gives an underhanded Ninja a bonus to his Fighting when attacking in unsportsmanlike way and earns him Karma when he cheats the wrong person and it comes back to haunt him. 

To undertake an action, a character combines two skills appropriate to the action and then rolls a number of ten-sided dice equal to the combination. For example, to go on a lengthy journey a Ninja might need to roll a combination of his Travel and Fortitude skills, to quickly draw and throw a blade, he would roll a combination of Speed and Marksmanship skills. Rolls of seven, eight, and nine count as successes, whilst rolls of ten count as two successes. A simple task requires the one success, a moderate task two successes, and so on all the way up to five successes for a legendary task. If three or more successes are rolled above the difficulty, then a boost is gained, which can be a damage bonus, extra opponents being targeted, bonus information being earned, halves a task’s time, complete a task with style, trigger a weapon’s condition—for example, a brutal weapon inflicts extra damage whilst a piercing weapon ignores a level of armour—and so on. A critical failure appears to be any failure in which ones are rolled, the more ones rolled, the worse the result, though neither is clearly explained in The Ninja Crusade, Second Edition QuickStart.

In combat, a Ninja gets one action plus one for each success rolled on his dynamic dice. These can then be spent to conduct various dynamic actions—inflict harm (make an attack), plan an attack (aid a friend), increase damage inflicted, knock an opponent back or down, mold Ki to regenerate it, dodge or block an attack, and so on. Ki can be spent as part of dynamic actions to do various things to temporarily gain certain effects, for example, counter attack, deeper cuts, deflect attack, and thicker skin. Now exactly how much Ki a player begins play with is not made clear in The Ninja Crusade, Second Edition QuickStart as none of the pre-generated ninja have any. Perhaps a ninja needs to mold his Ki to generate it before it can be used? Attacks appear to be resolved as opposed rolls, for example, an attacker’s Perception plus Marksmanship versus a defender’s Athletics plus Speed, but again, this is not spelled out in The Ninja Crusade, Second Edition QuickStart.

The basic damage inflicted in any attack is modified by the number of successes rolled, the weapon used, and any dynamic or boost damage. It can be quite deadly given that the sample pre-generated Ninja have a Health of between five and eight. To forestall a ninja taking too much damage, whether this is to their Health or their Pysche, a Ninja can instead suffer a Condition, equal to the value of the damage taken. This might be Bleeding, Bruised, Burned, Slowed, Afraid, Confused, Scarred, and so on. There is a limit to the level of these Conditions and how many a Ninja can have, so it is not possible for a Ninja to accumulate Condition upon Condition—eventually he will suffer actual damage, whether physical or mental. Each Condition has, of course, a negative effect, and depending on its severity, it may take a scene, days, or even weeks to recover from a Condition.

Accompanying the rules is a scenario, ‘Trial of the Lotus’, and six pregenerated Ninja.This sees them sent on a mission under of the guidance of MasterDaiku, whose approval they need to work for to successfully complete the mission. This is to infiltrate a neighbouring region, get past various guards and soldiers, and then sneak into the Autumn Brand Festival. It includes lots of tests of skill as well as of character and should provide a good session’s worth of play, if not two.

Technically, ‘Trial of the Lotus’ requires four Ninja, not six. Which begs the question as why there are six pre-generated Ninja included in The Ninja Crusade, Second Edition QuickStart. The given answer is so that the adventure can be played again, but with different characters. This is problematic since it is unlikely to happen and because although it showcases more character types, they take up extra space that could have been better devoted to explaining the rules, because ultimately, it is the rules that suffer in The Ninja Crusade, Second Edition QuickStart. Or rather their explanation does. Another page or two, perhaps including an example of play, a fuller explanation of the core mechanics, an explanation of Ki, and so on, would not have gone amiss.

Well presented, if not well developed, The Ninja Crusade, Second Edition QuickStart is not as good as it should be. The essential problem is that it is ill suited for beginning players and game masters alike because it does not explain enough of the rules or guide them through how the game should be played. This should not be as much of a problem for the experienced player or game master who will be able to make the connections between the rules given in The Ninja Crusade, Second Edition QuickStart and so be able to play or run the given adventure. Another two pages—or rather, two fewer pre-generated Ninja—and The Ninja Crusade, Second Edition QuickStart could have been the quickstart it should have been.

Fanzine Focus VIII: The Grognard Files – Annual 2017

On the tail of 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 another DM and 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 is Swords & Wizardry. Not all fanzines can be considered to be part of the Old School Renaissance though...

The Grognard Files is a fanzine of a different stripe. First off, it is only available to patrons of The Grognard Files, a North of England podcast dedicated to the games of the late seventies and early eighties, in particular, RuneQuest. (Alternatively, it is also available to attendees of Grogmeet a one-day convention in Manchester, again in the North of England.) Second, just as with The Blasphemous Tome, it is literally is an annual thing, that is, available once a year. British gamers of a certain age will very much recognise the style and layout of White Dwarf from the mid-eighties in The Grognard Files – Annual 2017 and this behind a great cover by Russ Nicholson, whose art graced the pages of many a Fighting Fantasy title and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay supplement. So just from the look, we are all ready for a heavy dose or two of nostalgia.

The issue opens with ‘Do you remember the first time?’, a lengthy remembrance of gaming past and how the presenters of the Grogcast got their start in the hobby. It is very personal and at the same time, very parochial, so there is a lot here that both younger gamers and non-British gamers will find to be beyond them. So if you grew up with White Dwarf during its first hundred issues in the Great Britain of this period, then there is much here that will be familiar. Getting your first game and getting others to play it, exploring one game after another, and so on. Of course, the reader is unlikely to find the specifics all that familiar, unless he grew up in Bolton in the 1980s, but even if the reader is not British, not from Bolton, not from the North, there are memories here that will resonate—certainly memories of taking your first fumbling steps into the hobby with little in the way of guidance. Much of it of course, will be familiar to listeners of The Grognard Files.

Just like the White Dwarf issues of old, The Grognard Files – Annual 2017, leaps into ‘Open Box’, its reviews department. Four reviews are presented, all of older games—Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game from West End Games—recently announced as going to receive a thirtieth anniversary reprint, Shadowrun from FASA, and both Boot Hill and Gangbusters from TSR, Inc. Although longer than the reviews that appeared in the original Open Box, they are as much reminisces as they are reviews, exploring each reviewer’s memories of playing the game as well as what they think of them now.

Written by Eddy Fielding, the next department, ‘Return to Grognardia’, also looks at an old classic, this time a campaign for Call of Cthulhu. The campaign was also my first for Call of Cthulhu—The Fungi from Yoggoth, a pulpy world-spanning affair set on the eve of the Great Depression. Again, there is a fair degree of reminisce in this examination, but also advice on running it, which version to pick up, and so on. It is an enjoyable piece if a little slight.

What is so surprising about ‘Safe Word’, the scenario in The Grognard Files – Annual 2017 is that it is not for an old game, but a new one. Further, the set-up for the game is also very modern. That said, the subject of the scenario is very in keeping with the ethos of both the podcast and the annual. That subject is the stories of Jerry Cornelius, the poly-amorous anarchist super spy created by Michael Moorcock. The plot casts the player characters as super spies themselves in the style of seventies television shows, Department S and Jason King, suddenly assigned to track down rogue monetarist economists amidst riots in London. Written by Chris Hart, the scenario involves a very private club, a sex dungeon—or two—a game, and of course, a villain’s lair. Plus, a lot of tongue in cheek tone… The system for all of this is FATE Accelerated, the light version of Evil Hat Games’ FATE Core designed for narrative driven action. Which is a very twenty-first century game for the team behind the Grogcast to be running and writing about. Yet, it is a perfect fit for the scenario’s subject matter with its interactive mechanics and narrative, just as can be seen in Agents of S.W.I.N.G. The other modern aspect to the scenario is its set-up, not to the scenario, but to the game system. This has the players create characters not for a freewheeling seventies spy game, but a traditional swords and sorcery roleplaying game. Then discard them—and then create spy characters. There is no need to worry. The players do get to use both characters.

Now the character of Jerry Cornelius has been visited in gaming several times over the years, but never in a roleplaying game or supplement of his own. Rather he was the subject of discussion in fanzines and magazines, so bringing back here is another dose of nostalgia. The scenario is entertainingly bonkers, but might be beyond players of a certain age if only for its heavy seventies references and humour. The author also follows the scenario up with ‘Inn Space’, a playtest report of the scenario, which is a nice addition.

Justin Hill provides ‘To Run with Brother Dog’, a short piece of fiction set in Glorantha which should keep RuneQuest fans happy, whilst Chris Hart remembers his experiences with Play By Mail games which became popular in the mid-eighties. ‘Those who are about to die…’ focuses upon the one PBM, a game called Gladiator. The real interest here is how the game and its associated fanzine, Gladiator’s Gazette grew and changed. Again there are parallels to be had with the gaming experience of those of a similar age and how they got into PBM games as well roleplaying, and how once the craze spread, gamers would run their own. For example, Game Designers’ Workshop’s En Garde! was a popular choice back in the day because a lot of mechanics could be run during the game’s downtime. One pleasing corollary to the article is ‘Form the FLAMES of Hell!’ in which Chris Hart catches up with the creator of Gladiator’s Gazette and interviews him. Rounding out the issue is Alan Gairey’s ‘Small Ads’, a celebration of the small ads section in White Dwarf as well as its letters page. Anyone reading how we communicated in the days before the Internet and e-mail will wonder how we survived.

Physically, of course, The Grognard Files – Annual 2017 lacks the gloss of White Dwarf, but then it is not intended to be a glossy magazine, but a fanzine. So it has the mixed production values and the mixed content of a fanzine, intended as it is to celebrate the amateurism of the hobby. That said, there is denying that it captures the style of White Dwarf back in the day and even the adverts feel appropriate to the time and the issue. A tighter edit would not have gone amiss, but this is technically a ‘first’ issue, so there is always going to be room for improvement.

Ultimately, The Grognard Files – Annual 2017 is one of those publications that captures a little bit of history, essentially a memory of gaming in the 1980s. It is a light chatty affair, which simply serves up a big lardy dollop of nostalgia and if you are British and of a certain age, there is more than enough to reminisce about in its pages.

—oOo—

Previously unavailable, the publishers of The Grognard Files – Annual 2017, Armchair Warriors, have kindly made the issue available as a ‘Pay What You Want’ PDF available to download. Even better, the proceeds of the sale of the fanzine will donated to continue the running of Yog-sothoth.com, the best site dedicated to Lovecraft and Lovecraftian investigative horror.

Fanzine Focus VIII: The Twisting Stair #1

On the tail of 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 another DM and 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.

Published by The Twisting Stair Partnership, The Twisting Stair is different. Not only in terms of its format—it comes in A4 size rather than the digest size which is standard for most fanzines then and now—but also in terms of the retroclone it is written for. The Twisting Stair is written for use with OSRIC, the Old School Reference and Index Compilation roleplaying game which emulates the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. This is of course, the version of choice for retroclones which emulate Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, though the majority of retroclones do derive from Basic Dungeons & Dragons or just Dungeons & Dragons.

The Twisting Stair #1 is organised in a simple fashion. Beyond the editorial, it contains just the three articles, penned by Allan T. Grohe Jr. and Tony Rosten. Each writer has his own lengthy column, Grohe’s ‘From Kuroth‘s Quill’ and Rosten’s ‘Down the Twisting Stair – An ongoing exercise in megadungeon design’, which bookend the issue. Between them is the simple ‘Critters & Glitters’, a combined monsters and magic items column. Here in the first issue, ‘Critters & Glitters’ provides an interdimensional, almost Lovecraftian interpretation of the Sasquatch, akin to the Dimensional Shambler, as well as the Ring of Reflection, a magical item which hides the wearer’s Alignment and enables him to cast the spells Mirror Image, Gaze Reflection, and Undetectable Lie, as well as Projected Image and Shadow Door if the wearer is an Illusionist. Of the two, the Ring of Reflection is an item that any Illusionist would want, but the Sasquatch feels underwritten and challenging to use in a game.

‘From Kuroth‘s Quill’ is Allan T. Grohe Jr.’s regular column and opens with ‘Combined Hoards as Adventure Hooks: Treasure Maps in the Mega-Dungeon (Part 1 of 2)’, an examination of the role and use of treasure maps in Dungeons & Dragons. It takes its cue from both Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Dungeons & Dragons in playing up the frequency of appearance, importance, and use of treasure maps in hoards. This has the potential to set up a chain of treasure maps as one treasure map leads to a hoard containing a treasure map, which leads to another hoard containing a treasure map, and so on. The article explores how they can be used, essentially setting up a mystery or chain of clues that serve to pull the player characters deeper into the game and provide satisfying game play as clues are uncovered and the mystery revealed. It supports this with a set of treasure tables to replace those found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide that place much more of an emphasis on treasure maps. This is a thoughtful article, that perhaps could have benefited from an example or two, but perhaps those might appear in a future issue?

As its title suggests, Tony Rosten’s ‘Down the Twisting Stair – An ongoing exercise in megadungeon design’ explores that singular feature of the Dungeons & Dragons game—the mega-dungeon. The aim of each issue of The Twisting Stair is to present a new, lower level of an example mega-dungeon—or at least a centerfold map of it. There is just not the room in the pages of The Twisting Stair to present a complete level of a mega-dungeon and that is very much a shame. Although the column discusses the nature of the mega-dungeon and the role of the first level, the meat of the article are three mini-maps or geomorphs. These are mini-encounters or dungeon room complexes which can be slotted into the ‘Place Geomorph Here’ blank spaces on the main map. Several more undescribed maps are given, but the three written up affairs are delightfully inventive and challenging which can be encountered again and again. ‘Dolores the Harpy’ details a trap-style encounter with a harpy that looks quite complex, but it makes sense upon a detailed read through and breathes life into a monster which is normally just something to kill. The encounter is perhaps too lethal for First Level characters, so the Dungeon Master might want to tone down the damage inflicted and the reward does feel a little underwhelming. This is followed by ‘The Crypt of 171 Skeletons’, a crypt protected by skeletons which form phalanxes and reform later if destroyed. There is more of a puzzle aspect to overcoming these undead which means that a party could attempt to solve it again and again. The third geomorph is by Allan T. Grohe Jr. ‘Pennies from Hell’ combines reward with danger, an inexplicable font of monies and more, but as the value of treasures it drops, the nature of the accompanying dangers grows and grows. This is one of those odd dungeon features that are just ‘because’ and will doubtless mystify the player characters they move on.

All three of these geomorphs are inventive and interesting and the fact that they are included as part of the issue’s mega-dungeon map is all but irrelevant. They can easily be pulled out and inserted into a dungeon of the Dungeon Master’s design with ease, but they also highlight how disappointing it is that the rest of the mega-dungeon is not detailed or described. The authors’ design inventiveness needs to be given a larger platform and a mega-dungeon could be such a platform.

Physically, The Twisting Stair #1 runs to just sixteen pages. This, in combination with the larger, A4-size, means that the issue feels a little thin. Had it been digest size, this might not have been a problem as the resulting booklet would definitely be thicker. That said, the larger format allows for a larger, more spacious layout and for larger maps, but more importantly, it allows the publisher to expand the fanzine into an actual magazine should the scope and demand exist for it. This inaugural issue is very lightly illustrated, but it comes with a profusion of dungeon floorplans and these are nicely done, especially the dungeon geomorphs. The writing requires a light edit here and there, but is overall, a very readable first issue.

The Twisting Stair #1 cannot escape feeling slim and flimsy and perhaps a little text heavy. Yet, the content is enjoyable and thoughtful and useful. At just four articles, the inclusion of a monster and a magic item feel very much like garnish to the solidly done, longer articles that bookend the issue. Both of these, ‘From Kuroth‘s Quill – Combined Hoards as Adventure Hooks: Treasure Maps in the Mega-Dungeon (Part 1 of 2)’ and ‘Down the Twisting Stair – An ongoing exercise in megadungeon design’ are good meaty pieces that leave you wanting more. Perhaps just too light to really warrant being a single purchase, The Twisting Stair #1 is a fine start, but better value if picked up with The Twisting Stair #2.