Alas Vegas, Alas...

The truth of the matter is that Alas Vegas, a roleplaying game of bad memories, bad luck, and bad blood is all but unreviewable. Now this does not mean that Alas Vegas either cannot be reviewed or indeed will not be reviewed. Nor does it mean that Alas Vegas is in any way, shape, or form, bad. Instead, the reasons for it being in any way, shape, or form, unreviewable are as follows:

1. I know the author and publisher of Alas Vegas. Now I know lots of authors and publishers of roleplaying games—it is part and parcel of reviewing games after all—and this does not impede my capacity to write reviews of their games. It does though, add a certain hesitancy to the task.
2. Alas Vegas is both a complete game and a complete campaign, one with deep secrets and the author directly asks reviewers in the text of Alas Vegas not give spoilers as to what those secrets might be. Now I should point out that avoiding secrets and plot twists of a scenario or campaign is integral to the exercise of writing a review, but it is usually possible to refer to them obliquely. Not so with Alas Vegas.
3. I want to play Alas Vegas. This means that I have not read all of the book. I have read enough to understand what the game is about, its structure and it rules, its extra supplementary material, and most important of all—as will be revealed below—the first Act of the campaign.

What this means is that this review of Alas Vegas is as much an anti-review as it is a review and an exercise in writing a review.

—oOo—

So, the first question to be answered is, “What is Alas Vegas?” It is a roleplaying game designed by James Wallis, best known as the Origins Award winning designer of one of the first storytelling roleplaying games, The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, owner of Hogshead Publishing—publisher for many years of the archetypal British roleplaying game, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay as well the first storytelling roleplaying games, the designer of the storytelling card game, Once Upon a Time, and the designer of a forthcoming biscuit-based resolution system.* Published by Magnum Opus Press/Spaaace following a successful Kickstarter campaign and arriving just a little late—and if you think that is something to whinge at, then have some sympathy for the backers of Far West: Western/Wuxia Mashup adventure game—at its core, Alas Vegas consists of a complete roleplaying campaign—also called ‘Alas Vegas’, plus the rules to play it. The book also contains though, advice from an actual magician, a guide to cocktails in Sin City, newspaper cartoon strips from John Kovalic, guides to gambling on life and everything else in ‘The Gambling Capital of the World’, a discussion of grifting and scamming, suggestions on using Tarot in roleplaying games other than Alas Vegas, a complete storytelling game that takes the players back to the foundation of Las Vegas, and three separate campaigns using the core mechanics in Alas Vegas, in turn involving time travel, repentant paladins, and superheroes.

*This is probably not true, but the tea drinker in me sincerely hopes that it is.

Available via Indie Press Revolution, Alas Vegas is both the name of the game and the campaign. The latter consists of exactly four Acts—a beginning, two middle acts, and an end—with each Act lasting a single session of three to four hours. Essentially the equivalent of playing a television mini-series, which is all the more appropriate because it requires not one Dealer (director), as the Game Master is known in Alas Vegas, but four, one for each Act. Each Dealer is also a player in an Alas Vegas campaign. The game begins with everyone creating characters, including the Dealer, who will have read the both the game’s rules and the first Act. Once the play through of Act I is complete, the copy of Alas Vegas is passed to the next player, who becomes the new Dealer, reads the rules and both Act I and Act II before running Act II, and so on, and so on until the campaign ends with Act IV.

So ideally what Alas Vegas needs is four players who will to swap roles in order to complete the campaign, ‘Alas Vegas’. (The other campaigns in the Alas Vegas vary the number of players slightly.) It also needs a good, but not expensive Tarot Deck with illustrations on the cards. The Rider Waite deck is a good choice.

A game—or campaign—of bad bets, bad debts, and bad deaths, ‘Alas Vegas’ begins in Act I with the personae (as player characters are termed in Alas Vegas) waking up in a shallow grave in the desert. They are naked, have no idea of where they are, how they got there, and most importantly, of who they are. They are each, a blank sheet—in more than the one sense. In the distance though, a blister of neon lights the night sky. Perhaps the answers to their questions lie there? (None of this can be construed as spoilers. It is at the top of the blurb on the back cover.) What follows though is a voyage of discovery, self and otherwise, as they find out where they are, who they are, and what they do. In terms of who they are and what they can do, this is primarily discovered through flashbacks and what it will reveal is that they are ordinary men and women. Alas Vegas as a campaign is not a game in which the personae have super or supernatural powers. That is saved for the other campaigns in the book.

The setting for ‘Alas Vegas’ is Vegas, a hyper-real fabulation of every Vegas you have ever known—vice, crime, gambling, casinos, the Rat Pack, and more. As the back-cover blurb describes it, it is Franz Kafka’s Fear and Loathing, The Hangover meets The Prisoner, and Ocean’s Eleven as if directed by David Lynch. It is all this and more in which the personae must wend their way, make their way, and more if they are to discover who they are.

For its mechanics, Alas Vegas employs the Fugue System. This is a set of card mechanics which use a Tarot Deck to help and support the collaborative play of Alas Vegas. The mechanics begin, just as in Alas Vegas, with the personae suffering from amnesia and each player noting down the name of one randomly determined card from the Major Arcana—such as Temperance, The Moon, and The Hanged Man—from the Tarot Deck. This card has no influence on who a persona is or what he can do, but it serves as his mechanical Signifier during the game. As the personae play through a game, they find out who they are and what they are can do—their abilities—from flashbacks, but each persona is limited in the number of flashbacks he can have in each Act. A player can create one for his persona, one for another player’s persona, one for when his persona’s Signifier is drawn, and possibly if they meet a game character or game event, though this is usually as part of the game story.

When a persona wants to do something, the Dealer sets a difficulty number for the task, between three and twelve, with twelve being the most difficult. He then flips the top card off the Tarot Deck. If the persona has no relevant ability and the card is from the Minor Arcana and equal to or above the difficulty number, then he succeeds. If below, he fails; if the card is from the Major Arcana, then he also fails and the task cannot be attempted. If the persona has a relevant ability—which of course will have been relearned or regained during a flashback—and the card is from the Minor Arcana and equal to or above the difficulty number, then he succeeds. If below, he fails; if the card is from the Major Arcana, then he automatically and immediately succeeds. Alternatively, if a persona has a relevant ability, then the Dealer can simply let him succeed. This makes for much quicker play. Whatever the outcome, the player is responsible for narrating what happens.

The Fugue System is simple enough for straightforward skill or ability resolution, but for combat or contested actions it gets a bit more complex. It uses the game Blackjack as its basis, but as with the rest of the Fugue System, it uses a Tarot Deck for its cards. Both the players and the Dealer hands of cards as Blackjack, the Dealer for each of his game-characters—as NPCs are known in Alas Vegas—and the players for their personae. The aim of course, is to get twenty-one or as close to twenty-one as possible with as few cards as possible. Get more than twenty-one and a persona or game-character is stymied and cannot act further. A persona with a relevant ability gets a wild card which his player can use to replace one of the cards in his hand. Mixing and matching hands that can consist of Major and Minor Arcana provides a wider variety of results than is possible in a standard game of Blackjack and a wider array of narrative outcomes that the players will in turn narrate. This includes killing, wounding—both permanent and on-permanent, incapacitating, and even do something astounding, the latter the only moment when the rules stretch beyond human limits. Non-permanent wounds are easy to recover from, but permanent wounds take time and effort to heal and prevent a persona from using abilities that might be associated with the wound.

Like other storytelling games, the lack of character mechanics means that it is simple to kill the personae in Alas Vegas. The Dealer is advised against that, for it means that the personae and thus the players will no longer be involved in the campaign right to the very end. Although the rules look a little complex in places, they are supported by some fulsome examples of play and some good advice. As to the campaign itself, ‘Alas Vegas’, Act I does an excellent job of setting everything up, pulling the personae involved into the setting and their mystery, and driving the story up to beginning of Act II. As a player it should be noted that playing through the Act may be a frustrating experience, but that after all, is part of the situation their personae find themselves, and even if there are no easy answers yet, the campaign itself is short and finite—there will be answers. Again, just like the rules, Act I comes with advice aplenty to help the Dealer stage and handle each scene and plot thread.

Beyond the campaign, Alas Vegas includes a lot of supporting material and beyond the supporting material, Alas Vegas includes a lot of bonus material. This includes advice from an actual magician, Sean Smith, on forcing wagers, recipes to classic cocktails in ‘The Guide to Drinking Heavily in Vegas’ by John Scott Tynes, Mike Selinker and Matt Forbeck offer up different perspectives on gambling in ‘The Big Board at the Adelphi’ and ‘Alas Vegas: In-Game Gambling’ respectively, and Rich Dansky gives us a lengthy guide to grifts and scams in Vegas. John Kovalic also provides a newspaper strip which plays a role in ‘Alas Vegas’. Lastly, Robin D. Laws and Ken Hite write corollaries to the campaign. In ‘Tarot-Jumping Other Games’, Robin D. Laws explores how to use a Tarot Deck in other games as a storytelling aid, whilst Ken Hite offers up a separate game all together, ‘Killing Bugsy Siegel’. This is a storytelling game with similar mechanics to that of Paul Czege’s Bacchanal, which sees the players attempt marshal their forces and their powers for the right moment to take down the notorious gangster, murderer, and the founder of Las Vegas as a casino town, Bugsy Siegel. Whatever the players manage to do to him, the good news is that he deserves it. 

The bonus material also includes three separate campaigns to ‘Alas Vegas’ that employ the Fugue System and which all begin with the personae as amnesiacs. ‘Yet Already It Seems I Have Travelled Far’ by Gareth Hanrahan does time travel and memory loss with fractured memories being slotted into a timeline that is reconstructed over the course of the game. Johnstone Metzger’s ‘Warlock Kings’, based on an Allen Varney concept does very dark fantasy with the personae as paladins of light subverted by the Dark Lord and then freed from his control just as he expects them to ride forth and destroy the bright realm of Arborean. Lastly, ‘Remembering Cosmic Man’ by Laurant Devernay and Jerome Larre is a post-modern superhero story in which the players take on the role of two personae. One is that of the amnesiac Specials, the superpowered sidekicks to Cosmic Man, the world’s greatest superhero, whilst the other is the agents of Cosmic City’s Specials Intervention Unit, assigned to investigate what happened to Cosmic Man. These three campaigns nicely showcase what can be done with the format of the Fugue System and its set-up.

Physically, Alas Vegas is a thick, if surprisingly light book. It is well written, only needing a light edit here and there, and as a personal project, it should be no surprise that the author’s voice comes out in more than a few chapters. It does feel somewhat plain by modern standards, but there is art in there and is very, very good. You almost wish that artist John Coulthard would do a Tarot Deck based on the illustrations he has done for this book.

If there is a fault to Alas Vegas, it is its structure, its bravura nature, and its demands. Not every group of roleplayers is necessarily going to want to buy into its unknowns, its very light rules, its need for multiple Game Masters, and so on. So Alas Vegas is not a game for them, but to others, especially those who enjoy the storytelling games of the last fifteen years, then all of those negatives will be strengths, and Alas Vegas is a roleplaying game that will definitely appeal to them. If there is another fault to ‘Las Vegas’ it is that it can only played the once.

Alas Vegas: Flashbacks, Blackjack and Payback is a conceit and a cliché, one that the designer pushes to the furthest extent and asks us to place his trust in him as to what it is about and what will happen. After all, in most campaigns for most roleplaying games, both the Game Master and his players have some idea of what they are going to play, even if only the Game Master knows the exact details. In Alas Vegas, that luxury is taken out in the desert and buried in a shallow grave and unlike the personae of ‘Alas Vegas’ has no chance of coming back. Instead the players definitely know absolutely nothing and the Dealer only knows what he needs to know—and exactly that, no more. The designer also builds on that cliché and builds it directly into the mechanics to really create Alas Vegas, a roleplaying game of self-discovery, self-reflection, and perhaps redemption, which in ‘Alas Vegas’ (and its companions) comes to fruition as the ultimate one-shot roleplaying game.

Tales from your Childhood that never were

Roleplaying games and their genres run in cycles, typically drawing from other sources such as events and other media. For example, both Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 and Weird Wars: Weird War II appeared following the sixtieth anniversary of the USA’s entry into World War Two, and Skull & Bones and Pirates of the Spanish Main appeared following the release of the film, Pirates of the Caribbean. If for the last fifteen years or so, the trend in roleplaying has been the nostalgia of the Old School Renaissance, there is a whole new trend in 2017—and it is just as nostalgic. It is for the 1980s and specifically for being kids in the 1980s—and it is all due to one television series, Stranger Things. What this nostalgia—and indeed, Stranger Things—offers for a great many is a chance to revisit a familiar time, a time which was their childhood. For many, this will have a certain emotional resonance, and this is reflected in Tales from the Loop.

Released in English by Modiphius Entertainment following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Tales from the Loop – Roleplaying in the '80s That Never Was is based on the paintings of Simon Stålenhag. These depict the rural small-town Sweden of the 1980s, an alternate one, for its streets, woods and fields, and skies and seas are populated by robots, gravitic tractors and freighters, strange sensor devices, and even creatures from the long past. To the inhabitants of this landscape, this is all perfectly normal—at least to the adults. To the children of this landscape, this technology is a thing of fascination, of wonderment, and of the strangeness that often only they can see. In Tales from the Loop, it is often this technology that is the cause of the adventures that the children—the player characters—will have away from their mundane lives at home and at school.

Specifically, Tales from the Loop is set on Mälaröarna, the islands of Lake Mälaren, which lies to the west of Stockholm. This is the site of the Facility for Research in High Energy Physics—or ‘The Loop’—the world’s largest particle accelerator, constructed and run by the government agency, Riksenergi. In addition, the Iwasaka corporation of Japan has perfected self-balancing machines, leading to the deployment of robots in the military, security, industrial, and civilian sectors and these robots are employed throughout the Loop and its surrounds. Meanwhile, the skies are filled with ‘magnetrine vessels’, freighters and slow liners whose engines repel against the Earth’s magnetic field, an effect only possible in northern latitudes. There are notes detailing the particulars of life in Sweden in the 1980s, but the culture is radically different—especially in terms of its (almost Socialist) government—to that of the USA and so Tales of the Loop includes an American counterpart to The Loop, this time located under Boulder City in the Mojave Desert in Nevada, near the Hoover Dam. Here the particle accelerator is operated by the Department of Advanced Research into Technology and there is an extensive exchange programme in terms of personnel and knowledge between the staff of both ‘loops’. Similarly, the description of Boulder City and its Loop include plenty of notes on life in the 1980s and as much as the two cultures are different, there are plenty of similarities between the two.

In Tales of the Loop, the players take the role of Kids aged between ten and fifteen. They play archetypes—Bookworm, Computer Geek, Hick, Jock, Popular Kid, Rocker, Troublemaker, and Weirdo—who have two lives. In one they go to school, do homework, spend—not always happy—time with their family, and so on. In the other, they explore the landscape and its ‘mysteries’ around them with their friends. As thrilling and as fraught with danger as these mysteries are, the adults will never believe the children and the children will never actually die—although they can be hurt. Or as Tales from the Loop defines it, suffer from Conditions. In the main, this is an emotional hurt rather than a physical one, although it possible to be injured or broken. When this happens, a Kid can rely upon his friends, but he can also turn to a particular parent, teacher, neighbour, or other adult for comfort, care, and support. This will restore their emotional state.

Each archetype provides a Kid with three key skills, plus and options in terms of iconic items, problems, drives, pride, relationships to the other kids and NPCs, and an anchor. For example, the key skills for the Popular Kid are Contact, Charm, and Lead. An Iconic Item might be a pack of chewing gum or a diary with juicy secrets, the problem a crazy aunt living in the family basement or a parent having an illicit affair, the drive a hatred of secrets or to get away from being so popular, and the pride being that everyone likes him or knowing everything about anyone. A relationship with another Kid might be that he knows he is love with him or she is freaky and I like it, whilst a relationship with an NPC might be that a new girl has appeared at the Wildlife club and she is scary or that the school janitor hates him, but he knows that he is up to something. Lastly, an anchor, the source of emotional care and support might be an older sibling or a famous friend of the family.

To create a Kid, a player first chooses an archetype and then decides on his age, between ten and fifteen years of age—a Kid essentially retires from investigating Mysteries once past the age of fifteen. A Kid’s age determines how many points a player has to assign to his attributes, although the older a Kid is, the fewer Luck points he will have to spend on rerolls. A player has ten points to assign to his Kid’s skills. The maximum is three for the archetype’s key skills and one for other skills. The player then chooses the Kid’s Iconic Item, Problem, Drive, Pride, Relationships, and Anchor from those listed for the archetype, or makes them up himself. 

Our sample character is Barbara, a bespectacled redhead with a twin brother who is a Computer Geek. She prefers her books. She and her brother are rivals and from a one parent family; her father having died. Neither likes to say who the older is—only who is cleverer. She is from a game I played in at Spaghetti ConJunction 1b on Saturday, October 21st, 2017. The game was set on the outskirts of Derby and involved the theft of the full size Big Trak  military vehicle. 

Barbara
Archetype: Bookworm
Iconic Item: Encyclopaedia
Problem: Nobody tells me how my dad died.
Drive: I want to find answers to the big questions in life.
Pride: I’m one of the smartest kids in the school
Relationships: He is my competitor (twin brother); Mary, the school librarian, was my friend until she disappeared. I am sure that the school janitor knows more than he is saying.
Anchor: Teacher

Age: 12
Body 2 (Sneak 0, Force 0, Move 0)
Tech 3 (Tinker 0, Program 0, Calculate 1)
Heart 2 (Contact 0, Charm 1, Lead 0)
Mind 5 (Investigate 3, Comprehend 3, Empathise 2)

The creation process is collaborative, each player creating a character and then as relationships are decided upon, forging links between the members of the gang. In addition, each Kid has a favourite song and together the Kids have a Hideout, a place which the NPCs cannot find on their own and where the Game Master cannot put any of them in Trouble. It also works as a possible place to recover from Conditions if the Kids are mentally or physically close with each other. Lastly, the Game Master gets to ask the players some questions about their Kids and about their gang. These add flavour and detail to further define everyone.

Mechanically, Tales from the Loop is very simple. The roleplaying game uses a simplified version of the mechanics to be found in Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days, also from the same publisher, to handle what it calls Trouble.  To undertake an action, whether in Trouble or not, for example, slipping out of the grasp of a bully or working out what a machine does, a player adds the values of the relevant attribute and skills together and rolls that number of six-sided dice. Use of an appropriate Iconic Item will add two dice to the pool. Each six rolled counts as a success. In the main, a player only needs to roll one six to succeed. Tasks needing two or three successes are rare and represent almost impossible situations, though some situations, such as overcoming the final situation or bad guy, might require every Kid to get involved and roll successes. Excess successes can be used to purchase effects, which the player can decide upon with the Game Master.

Failing a task can lead to a Kid suffering a Condition—Upset, Scared, Exhausted, Injured, or Broken. For example, a Kid might be Upset if he fails to avoid the bullies and their taunts, or Scared when hiding from a robot that is acting strangely. If a roll is failed, a player has two choices, spending a point of Luck to reroll the task or pushing the roll. Doing the latter though will inflict a Condition on a Kid. For each Condition a Kid has, his player rolls one less die. If a Kid has the Condition of Broken, then he cannot deal with any Trouble without failing. Recovering from Conditions requires spending time with a Kid’s Anchor or with another Kid in the Hideout and roleplaying the scene out.

A Mystery, as Tales from the Loop calls its scenarios, can be divided into five phases—‘Introducing the Kids’, ‘Introducing the Mystery’, ‘Solving the Mystery’, ‘Showdown’, ‘Aftermath’, and ‘Change’. There is no limit to the scenes which can be run during each of these phases, but the first and fifth, ‘Introducing the Kids’ and ‘Aftermath’ are always grounded in the reality of the Kids’ lives at home. Their mundane nature counterpoints the reality of the Mystery and the secrets of the landscape around them. The sixth phase, ‘Change’, is really after the scenario, when the players have the chance to reflect on the Mystery and what their Kids did, spend any Experience Points and so on. The advice for the Game Master running Mysteries is excellent, covering mood, nostalgia, and getting the players involved in setting up scenes for the Kids as well as the Game Master.

Tales from the Loop includes six minor Mystery outlines that the Game Master can develop into fuller Mysteries as ‘The Four Sciences of Mad Science’, a four-part campaign. Together they provide hours and hours of play and really delve into the weirdness in and around the Loop. All of the Mysteries are set in Sweden, but notes are included to adapt them to the USA.

Phsyically, Tales from the Loop is a sturdy hardback, written in a light and engaging style. Of course, it benefits from and features the excellent artwork of Simon Stålenhag, which really highlights how the technology of the Loop has imposed itself on the landscape. One oddity of the artwork is that the children depicted are always looking into the picture and at the technology, never out as they alone are fascinated by it. The layout of the book is interesting in that it feels very much more like an architectural magazine of the period.

Tales from the Loop is any number of Spielberg-style movies from the 1980s, but is also any number of films from the Children’s Film Foundation also. It is about how amazing these adventures and solving the Mysteries in and around the Loop are, but always balanced by the ordinary, often emotionally fraught the lives of the Kids are away from their adventures. The importance of emotion in this game and how the Kids feel and are affected by their situation is for a certain audience—the gamers who were teenagers in the 1980s—further exacerbated because this is when they grew up, when their family situation would have been like it is depicted in Tales from the Loop, when they could have had these adventures and solved these Mysteries, and when they would have encountered many of items, songs, ordinary technologies, and so on, for the first time. So in effect there is both an emotional and nostalgic underpinning to the roleplaying and for many of its players, this is what they will be drawing upon in playing Tales from the Loop. This does not mean that players of other ages cannot play Tales from the Loop, but for some players it will have a certain emotional resonance. 

As to the horror of Tales from the Loop, it is twofold. One is the emotional horror, both in coming face to face with the dangers of the Mysteries in and around the Loop and in dealing the tensions and little things of mundane life—family and otherwise. The other is scientific horror, essentially the side effects and unexpected results of the research carried out of the Loop. 

Although very much packaged as a traditional roleplaying book, Tales from the Loop is really more of an ‘Indie’ roleplaying game, a storytelling game with its simpler mechanics and exploration of emotional nostalgia. Yet the combination of the repackaging with its theme and genre mean that this roleplaying game and its storytelling mechanics are wholly accessible and acceptable. Above all though, its exploration of emotional and scientific investigative horror in playing a Kid once again give Tales from the Loop – Roleplaying in the '80s That Never Was a surprisingly emotional heft which few roleplaying games achieve, let alone strive for. 

Bluff to Market

A royal visit is a big boost to any city and Nottingham is no exception. The forthcoming visit of Prince John has swelled the city’s population and thus the size of the potential purses to spend at the city’s market. With the increased demand for goods, merchants from far and wide have an opportunity to make big profits by shipping goods in, or really making big profits by smuggling illegal goods in! Unfortunately, the Sheriff of Nottingham wants to be seen to be doing his job—and that includes inspecting all of the goods coming into his city. If a merchant is found to be smuggling, then the Sheriff will definitely fine him and confiscate the smuggled goods, that is, unless the merchant bribes the Sheriff first!

This is the set-up for Sheriff of Nottingham, a game published by Arcane Wonders. It is a game of bluff, deduction, and trickery in which the players take turns being the Sheriff whilst the others are merchants shipping their goods past the Sheriff. Each turn a player fills a sack with goods and then declares how many and the type of goods that he has in a sack. The Sheriff can only guess at what might be in the sack. He has the right to inspect every sack for illegal goods. If he discovers any, the merchant is fined; if none are found, then the Sheriff must compensate the merchant!

Winner of the 2015 Origins Award for Best Board Game, Sheriff of Nottingham is designed for three to five players, aged thirteen and up. It primarily consists of two-hundred-and-sixteen goods cards, most of which are green and represent legal goods—apples, cheese, bread, and chicken. The rest are red and represent illegal goods—pepper, mead, silk, and crossbows! In addition, there are Royal Goods—they are illegal and marked with a banner and worth extra if a merchant successfully smuggles them past the Sheriff. The Royal Goods are an extra option not used in the base game. Each goods card is marked with two numbers, one that represents the reward gained at game’s end if it gets to a merchant’s Stand, the other being the fine paid if the goods card is confiscated or the Sheriff inspects legitimate goods.

Besides the cards, there are over a hundred coins in various denominations, five Merchant Stand and Merchant Bags in matching colours, the Sheriff marker, and the rulebook. Each Stand illustrates a player’s merchant as well as giving the game order and a place to store successfully shipped goods. the Sheriff marker is used to indicate which player is currently the Sheriff.

All of the components are of a nice quality. The cards look good and feel good in the hand; the money and Stand are of thick card; and the rule book is clearly written. The artwork is excellent, especially the illustrations of the Sheriff and the merchants. A nice touch is that the inner tray holding the game’s components can be taken out of the box and used to arrange them during play.

At game’s start, each player receives fifty gold and six Goods cards as well as a matching Merchant Stand and Merchant Bag. Once the cards have been thoroughly shuffled—and they do need a good shuffle—two discard piles of face-up cards are formed of five Goods each are formed either side of the deck. One player is the starting Sheriff.

Each turn consists of five Phases—Market, Load Merchant Bag, Declaration, Inspection, and End of the Round. All of the players must complete a Phase before moving onto the next and the Sheriff is only involved the last three Phases. In the Market Phase, the players can discard up to five Goods and then draw back up to six. These new Goods can be drawn from the draw pile or either discard pile. Drawing from a discard pile means that a player will have some idea as to what he might draw, but it also gives the Sheriff a hint as to what a merchant has in his hand.

In the Load Merchant Bag, a merchant loads his Merchant Bag with between one and five Goods, then snaps the bag closed. These are the Goods that a merchant wants to take to market. In the Declaration Phase, a merchant states aloud what is in his bag, but can only say the contents consist of Legal Goods, one type of Goods, and how many. For example, “My bag contains three Apples.” This of course could be true, but it might also be a lie. Instead the bag might contain illegal Goods or legal Goods different to those declared.

In the Inspection Phase, the Sheriff is free to open any or all of the merchants’ bags. Before that happens though, the Sheriff is free to demur and the merchants are free to bribe the Sheriff. They can offer him money or Goods from their Stands or their Merchant’s Bag—be they legal or illegal. They can persuade him to open the bag of another Merchant. The Sheriff is free to accept these bribes, negotiate for more, but once he opens a bag or hands it back to its merchant, then no more bribes can be made. The results are final. In the End of the Round Phase, fines are paid if illegal Goods have been found or legal Goods unnecessarily inspected.

Then the role of Sheriff passes to next player and another turn begins. This continues until each player has been Sheriff twice—or three times in a three-player game—and everyone totals up their money and the value of the Goods they successfully shipped. The two players who shipped the most of a Good are crowned the King and Queen of Cheese (or Apples or Bread or…) and score bonus Gold. The merchant with the most money is the winner.

Sheriff of Nottingham is not though, a board game. Its emphasis on social interaction—negotiation, bribery, and bluff—make it a party game. The quality of the cards and the fun of snapping the bags open also give the game a pleasing physicality. Its easy rules and engaging theme also make it an easy game to introduce to and play with non-gamers. This also means that its replay value is not as high and much of the game’s fun depends on who you play with and the game is not as satisfying to play with three players as it is with four or five. Another issue is that game can be won by playing it entirely safe, by not having to smuggle goods past the Sheriff or indeed, bribing the Sheriff and this runs counter to the point of the game. This can be a bit disappointing even as you are bluffing the Sheriff into believing that you cannot be smuggling illegal or mixed goods and forcing him to check your bag and take the consequences.

If you are looking for a well designed, fun party game, then Sheriff of Nottingham is a good choice. It is satisfyingly simple and engaging, perfectly suited to the non-gamer and the gamer looking for a lighter diversion.

Constant Cravings

Three Faces of the Wendigo—although you would not know that this was the title because it does not appear on the cover of the book, front or back—is an anthology of scenarios for use with The Cthulhu Hack, the light ruleset with player facing mechanics based on The Black Hack for handling quick and easy games of Lovecraftian investigative horror. Putting this oddity aside, the anthology presents three standalone encounters in the snowy, icebound climes of North America with the fearsome spirit of Algonquin legend—the Wendigo and the desperate anthropophagical cravings they engender. Each of the trilogy is a stark white, wilderness bound confrontation with the ultimate in cultural taboos. Long pig anyone?

Published by Just Crunch Games, the trilogy opens in media res with ‘Wolves in the Mountain’ by Richard August. The player characters—trappers, hunters, merchants, and residents of the town of Newcome, long left behind by the frontier—are heading into the mountains. Only a day before, a ragged, desperate stranger staggered into town, recounting a tale of treasure, an expedition into the mountains, and betrayal and bloody murder by the expedition leader, Marlowe. Now, the posse of player characters is heading back up the stranger’s path in order to bring Marlowe to justice (and if they find the treasure in the meantime, that is a bonus, right?). Having ascended up the side of the range, the player characters come upon a cave mouth, beyond which lies a set of charnel caverns, full of blood, decay, madness, and something else… Set some time in the nineteenth century—the exact period is never made clear—‘Wolves in the Mountain’ nicely builds a sense of raw horror, almost brazen in its sinewy muscularity. There is a sense also of something ‘Old School’ here in the vaguely dungeon-like caves which echos back to the very earliest of days of Call of Cthulhu when scenario writers had nothing but Dungeons & Dragons upon which to model their adventures. 

The cloying sanguine atmosphere of the first half is nicely contrasted by the scenario’s second half, a desperate pelt down the down the cold, white mountain, back to Newcombe. Only something has beaten them to it and this where the pacing of ‘Wolves in the Mountain’ becomes flaccid… There is no set ending to the scenario, the Game Master being provided with five potential endings, all of them suitably bleak. It also means that there are five unsupported endings, one of which the Game Master will need to choose and then develop himself if he is to keep up the energy and pacing of the scenario’s first half. He will also need to really provide the players and their characters with some kind of motivation at that point too, because the likelihood is that in comparison to the first half, they are likely to be left floundering, wondering what they should be doing.

The middle scenario switches to the Jazz Age of the 1920s and somewhere along the Saskatchewan River. In ‘Lonely, Dark, and Deep’ by John Almack, the Houghton party of Americans, is on a hunting trip. The scenario includes the members of the party as pre-generated characters—Judge Houghton, his wife, Ida, their friend, Doctor Sawyer, a dentist, Ian Corey, a cook, and Motega, a local guide. Echoing Alone Against the Wendigo—the solo scenario for Call of Cthulhu published in 1985—the party finds that at first, nature seems to be striking back at them, but then it does does seem so natural anymore, but rather more unnatural until… This is the simplest of the three scenarios in Three Faces of the Wendigo, being a wilderness set adventure of survival horror consisting of little more than a few scripted scenes. It is short, sharp, and easy to prepare for a one-shot or demonstration game.

The end scenario is ‘Tainted Meat’, written by the designer of The Cthulhu Hack, Paul Baldowski. It moves the trilogy into the modern day and back to Newcome—or at least a Newcome—where time and life seems to have passed the tiny town by. The player characters are travelling nearby when an accident renders their car in need of repair and in the coldness of midwinter, the nearest town is Newcome. The inhabitants seem odd, ill prepared for visitors, but seem to want to help even if their behaviour is a bit remote. The title of the scenario might suggest what is going on in Newcome, but the player characters will need to put no little effort into finding out what is really going on. This is because in the main, the scenario is set up to be reactive in its response to the actions of the player characters. They will be primarily exploring the town in an effort to discover what is going on in Newcome, essentially rendering the town as a ‘mini-sandbox’. 

In comparison to the first two scenarios, Tainted Meat’ is very different. Mechanically, it involves a lot more NPCs for the Game Master to keep track of and roleplay, but in terms of atmosphere, its horror is primarily creepy and odd, though there are plenty of scares too. Its pace is much slower, which lends itself to being played over more than the single session. Overall, this scenario is the most sophisticated in the book and brings it to a solid conclusion.

Physically, Three Faces of the Wendigo is a neat little book. The front cover is very nice and the internal illustrations are decent enough. The writing needs another editing here and there, and perhaps a little more development in terms of the endings. What the book could have done with, is maps. Now both the cave of ‘Wolves in the Mountain’ and the Newcombe of ‘Tainted Meat’ are described in some detail, but really a map of each should have been included for easy reference by the Game Master.

None of the ideas at the heart of the scenarios in Three Faces of the Wendigo are original, but they do not have to be in well designed and well executed scenarios. Which is, for the most part, what the scenarios are in this trilogy for The Cthulhu Hack. That other part—the not the ‘most part’—really comes down to the undeveloped ending(s) of ‘Wolves in the Mountain’, which otherwise starts strong. Of its companions, ‘Lonely, Dark, and Deep’ is a solid, straightforward piece of survival horror, whilst ‘Tainted Meat’ is as creepy and as dark as you would want a taboo busting scenario to be. Overall, Three Faces of the Wendigo is a decent trilogy of one-shot or demonstration scenarios.

An Original RPG II

Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel is the latest roleplaying game to explore the world of Tékumel, the linguistic and cultural setting developed by Professor M.A.R. Barker, which was originally published as Empire of the Petal Throne by TSR, Inc. in 1975, itself recently republished by The Tékumel Foundation. Published by Uni Games following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel is designed and illustrated by Jeff Dee, best known for his classic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons artwork and as the co-designer of the roleplaying game, Villains and Vigilantes, originally published by Fantasy Games Unlimited in 1979. Presented as ‘Rules for Science-Fantasy Role-Play on an Exotic Planet’, Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel includes new of rules for play on Tékumel, a different campaign framework, and a new setting, but, it nevertheless takes its cue and its template from the 1975 Empire of the Petal Throne—and that has implications for how accessible it is as a roleplaying game and how accessible it makes Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne.

Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel starts with a good introduction to the world of Tékumel, explaining what it is and giving it a solid timeline which runs from our near future into the very far future, explaining how Tékumel was originally discovered in 60,000 AD and subsequently terraformed into a tourist world before it was dragged into a pocket universe. Isolated for millennia, both the human and alien inhabitants regressed technologically and lost much knowledge, but adapted to the hot and resource poor world that is Tékumel, such as learning to harvest, cut, and harden cut the hide of the mighty chlén beast to shape into armour, weapons, ploughs, and more. In time, the peoples of Tékumel made contact with intelligences from the Planes beyond the plane—or ‘béthorm’—of Tékumel, some of whom were adopted by the Priest-Kings of Éngsvan Hlá Gánga as the Tlomitlányal, the Gods of Stability, and the Tlokiriqáluyal, the Gods of Change. Éngsvan Hlá Gánga is only one of many great empires that have arisen and fallen since Tékumel was isolated. Today the area once ruled by Éngsvan Hlá Gánga is occupied by five great empires—Tsolyánu, the Empire of the Throne; the Empire of Mu’ugalavyá; the Land of Sorcery, Livyánu; and Sa’á Allaqí and Salarvyyá. It is the first of these empires, Tsolyánu, that is the primary focus of Tékumel and any roleplaying game devoted to the setting concentrates upon this nation above any other. This is not to say campaigns set on Tékumel cannot be set elsewhere, but that takes a bit more effort and a bit more knowledge than is presented in any roleplaying game devoted to Tékumel, and indeed, is presented in Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel.

In terms of timeframe, the default setup for Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel is 2369 AS, after the civil war that has rent Tsolyánu the last five years. Prince Dhich’uné, who usurped the throne from his late father, Emperor Hirkáne, ‘The Stone Upon Which Rests the Universe’, has been dethroned by his brothers and fled, whereabouts unknown. Prince Mirusyía now rules as ‘The Flame Everlasting’ and despite rumblings from Prince Dhich’uné’s allies in the Temple of Sárku, there is relative peace in the empire as the war with Yan Kór has ended on good terms.

Now in Empire of the Petal Throne, the default setup was that of ‘Fresh Off the Boat’, foreigners or ‘country bumpkins’, distant cousins who sail ashore at the great Tsolyáni port city of Jakálla and set out to find a place in civilised society. Initially confined to the Foreigners Quarter, they seek employers, then patrons, and finally sponsors who will support their becoming members of a clan and so become citizens of Tsolyánu, the Empire of the Throne. Not so in Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel. Instead it offers up several campaign ideas, from being members of the same clan, worshippers of the same deity, and members of the same military legion to working as troubleshooters for the Omnipotent Azure Legion—the equivalent of the secret police in Tsolyánu and becoming the Heroes of the Age. It strongly advises against mixing characters of opposing faiths and widely diverging social levels, the latter because every good Tsolyáni clan members knows his or her place. Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel also suggests various adventure concepts, from the Underworld and its archaeology, wilderness exploration, and court intrigue to clan conflicts, administrative assignments, and the mysteries and puzzles of Tékumel. 

The default setup in Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel though, is not that of ‘Fresh Off the Boat’, but instead has the player characters as members of a Tsolyáni clan. Which means that Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel is much more a culture game than the default setup in Empire of the Petal Throne. Any player characters in Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel will likely be human and Tsolyáni—the good citizens of Tsolyánu are conservative by nature and distrust foreigners and nonhumans—though the rules presented in Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel do provide the means to create player characters who are not of the Five Empires or nonhuman should a campaign allow for such a possibility. That said, the Tsolyáni are tolerant of gender and sexual preferences, in particular a woman gains the same rights and responsibilities as a man if she officially declares herself to be of Aridáni status. More specifically though, the player characters are members of a clan which is either based in, or has a clan house in the Western city of Katalál. To that end, the character creation process includes a list of the primary clans found in the city, along with a list of personal and lineage names. 

A character in Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel is designed using Uni Games’ Pocket Universe system first seen in the Pocket Universe Basic Rules Set and Teenage Demon Slayer, both published in 2003. A character is defined by five attributes—Physique, Deftness, Intellect, Willpower, and Psychic Ability, though the latter is really only important for spellcasters; personal traits—advantages and disadvantages; and skills. It is a point buy system, a player being given three pools of points to spend on each. Elements such as date of birth, gender identity, gender expression, biological sex, and sexual attraction can all be rolled for or chosen as is a player’s wont. As can name and lineage. The character creation process is straightforward, though it does get slightly more complex when creating a spellcaster. It is also flexible, so that it is possible to create a wide array of character types, though the emphasis is on occupation within a clan, a temple, or military legion—which in Tsolyánu is how it should be.

Our sample character is Fssu’úma hiTurushán of the Clan of Black Monolith, native of the city of Katalál. She has declared herself Aridáni and been sponsored by her clan—to its great cost—to train in the secret city of Hmakuyal. Outwardly, she is learning to become an ecclesiastical lawyer in the temple of Ksárul, but secretly is training to become a ‘Maisur Hu’on Gual’, a practitioner of Hu’on, the unarmed martial arts known only to the Ancient Lord of Secrets. She is thus trained as an unarmed bodyguard to serve the priesthood of Lord Ksárul.

Fssu’úma hiTurushán
Clan: Black Monolith
Occupation: Administrative Priest (Maisur Hu'on Gual)
God: Ksárul
Age: 18 Gender: Female

Personal Wealth: 225 kaitars
Contact Points: 10
Clan Influence: 4
Personal Influence: 1
Prestige: 3

Physique 11 (+1)
Deftness 11 (+1)
Intellect 10 (+0)
Willpower 10 (+0)
Psychic Ability 02

Hit Points: 14
Unarmed Damage: 2/4/6
Initiative: 2/4/6
Melee Defence: 2
Missile Defence: 2
Magic Defence: –
Move: 7

Personal Traits
Advantages: Danger Sense (1), Quick Thinking (1), Strong (1), Training (2)
Disadvantages: Enemy (1), Skill Limitation (Performance) (1), Debt (2), Lower Lineage (1)

Skills
Administration 10 (1), Danger Sense 10 (1), Dodge 12 (3), Etiquette 10 (1), Insight 09 (1), Kick 12 (3), Language: Classical Tsolyáni 10 (1), Literacy (1), Oratory 09 (1), Punch 11 (1), Ritual 10 (1)

In terms of character design and creation, the Pocket Universe system as used in Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel feels like a streamlined version of Steve Jackson Games’ GURPS, or rather more like its forebear, The Fantasy Trip, published by Metagaming Concepts in the late 1970s. For example, skills are based directly off a character’s attribute, each initially being purchased at a base value equal to the skill and then improved above the base value in a fashion similar to that of GURPS. The given range of advantages, disadvantages, and skills provides a wide array of options in terms of character design, but any design will be quite tight and probably require a bit of juggling of points if a player is to get what he wants. Overall, once familiar with the rules, a character can be created in about twenty minutes or so.

The action resolution system is simple enough. A player rolls two ten-sided dice and tries to roll equal to, or under the skill or attribute. A result of two is always a success, a result of twenty a failure. Doubles count as a critical result, if under the target number as a critical success, if over the target number, as a critical failure. Difficulty modifiers apply, but the base unmodified target number represents a difficult task, whereas a routine task grants a +2 modifier. Modifiers can come from the situation, from equipment, extra time, and from roleplaying.

Combat adds some complexity, but not a great deal. Both Initiative and damage are handled in a similar fashion. Each is represented by a range of three numbers, every character having a range for their Unarmed Damage and Initiative and then for one each weapon he might wield, for example, 3/5/7, for a sword. They can be modified by Advantages and Disadvantages such as Quick, Slow, Strong, and Weak. A ten-sided die is rolled, a result of one or two indicating that the first number be used, a result of between three and eight indicating that the middle number be used, and a result of nine and ten indicating that the last number in the range be used. A character’s Melee or Missile Defence reduces the likelihood of being struck by an opponent and armour reduces damage inflicted. The combat rules cover most situations, including combat manoeuvres, multiple attacks, called shots, defensive fighting, and desperation.

For example, Fssu’úma hiTurushán is returning from an errand to the Armoury of the Bright Helm in the foreigners’ quarter of Katalál for her clan when she comes upon a fight outside the Residence of Akkéme the Yán Koryáni, Resthouse for Poor and Indigent Foreigners of No Status. A drunken brawl has broken out between two N’lüss warriors inside the building and spilled out onto the street. One of the brawling N’lüss is on the floor, battered and bleeding, having been subdued by the other N’lüss and a detachment of the city guard sent to keep the peace. Unfortunately, so are a number of the city guard, leaving just two to deal with a drunk N’lüss warrior. Worse, the still standing N’lüss warrior is a citizen, a member of the Clan of the Standing Reed.

First initiative must be rolled for both the N’lüss warrior and Fssu’úma hiTurushán. The Game Master decides that the N’lüss warrior is the equivalent of a medium warrior and assigns him an Initiative of 1/2/3. The Game Master rolls a die and with a roll of 5 sets the warrior’s Initiative at 2. Fssu’úma’s player rolls an 8 and gives her an Initiative of 4—she is definitely going first.

Fssu’úma calls out, “Hoi! What good citizen would be disturbing the peace?” The N’lüss looks over his shoulder and dismissively curls his lip at what he sees is just a good Clan girl. She answers this by saying, “Only nakome scum would smash up their home.” She figures that the N’lüss warrior will take this as a deadly insult and she is right, for he turns and lumbers towards her as the standing city guards look on in surprise. She enters a defensive stance, increasing her Melee Defence to 4, her player explaining that she wants to dodge the N’lüss’ attack and so put her in a better position to attack next round. The N’lüss attempts to grapple Fssu’úma. As a medium warrior, the N’lüss warrior has a Deftness of 10, but not the Grapple skill, which unskilled is equal to Deftness -1. So, the Target Number is 9, modified by Fssu’úma’s raised Melee Defence, lowering it to 5. The Game Master rolls 15, meaning that the N’lüss warrior has failed to grab her.

Now it is Fssu’úma’s turn to act. Her player decides that she will make a Hu’on kick attack against the N’lüss’ knee, the aim being to knock the giant warrior to the floor. The Game Master awards her player a +1 bonus for the roleplaying description and another +1 bonus for the N’lüss’ bad roll. Fssu’úma’s Target Number is 12, plus the bonuses awarded by the Game Master, but -2 for the N’lüss’ Melee Defence and -2 for the called shot on the leg. Fssu’úma’s Target Number is 10. Her player not only rolls a 10, but a double 5, meaning that Fssu’úma’s attack not only struck home, it is also a critical strike. Fssu’úma’s player rolls for her Unarmed Damage and with a result of 10, inflicts maximum damage or 6 points.

The N’lüss must make a Physique check to withstand the effects of this kick, equal to his Physique +2, but minus the damage. Armour would protect him,  but who drinks in their armour? The N’lüss has a Physique of 14, so with six damage, the Game Master’s Target Number is 10. A roll of 16 means he fails and he is forced down to one knee as the other leg gives out under him. His Hit Points, already reduced from 14 to 11 in the earlier brawl, are now 5. Then there is the matter of the critical strike. Fssu’úma’s player rolls a ten-sided die and consults the Combat Critical Tables. He rolls 2, which allows Fssu’úma a second attack. Her player says that as the N’lüss goes down, Fssu’úma will punch him in the face, as they are on the same level. The Game Master likes this, and says that whilst the N’lüss does have his helmet on, his Melee Defence will not count because he is on his knees. It is also a called shot with a -3 penalty. Fssu’úma’s Target Number is 8. Her player rolls 8, a hit, and then 9 for damage, for another 6 damage. The N’lüss’ helmet reduces this damage by one and the Game Master would need to roll to see if the remaining damage would be enough to knock him out, but since the N’lüss only has 5 Hit Points left, the point is moot.

At this point, Fssu’úma steps back, straightens the silver mask she wears as a priest of Ksárul, and calms herself a moment before saying to the body of the giant man before her, “I am so sorry for calling you nakome scum. That was rude of me. And sorry about your knee.” Then she pulls out a handful of coins and drops them by the prone figure. “I am sure this will cover the shamtla I owe.” With that, she walks past the two city guards who stand looking on agog.

The bulk of Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel is divided between three subjects—spells and spellcasting, monsters and NPCs, and treasure. In fact, almost a third of the book is devoted to spells and sorcery. Like the societies of Five Empires in general, spells and spellcasting are highly organised, highly codified, and highly restricted, students being taught at the temples, so that there is a religious aspect to the practice of sorcery. Inside the Five Empires, it is very rare for anyone to be taught spells who has not been a student at one of the temples and having potential as a sorcerer or sorcerer-priest is one way for someone from a low status to receive a high education and so bring prestige and glory to his clan. Both the rules and the setting divide its many spells into three phyla. Universal spells are known to all temples; Generic spells are advanced spells known to some temples, but not others; and Temple spells are unique to each priesthood—they may be known about by other priesthoods, but not enough to be taught, even if the subject matter and effect of the spells are acceptable to those other priesthoods. Which in the case of the spells known to the priesthoods of Sárku, Lord of Worms or Lady Dlamélish, the Green-Eyed Lady of Fleshly Joys, is unlikely. 

Spells are further divided into Psychic and Ritual spell types, the former cast purely through pure mental visualisation only, the latter requiring a mixture of precise movements and incantations to cast. So Minding Reading and Blessing are examples of Psychic and Ritual Universal spells; Beauty is a Generic Ritual spell known to the priesthoods of Avánthe and Dlamélish; and Frostbite is a Ritual Temple spell Unique to the priesthood of Hrü’ü, the Supreme Principle of Change, whilst Combat Mastery I is a Psychic Temple spell unique to the priesthood of Karakán, the Lord of War. 

To create a sorcerer character in Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel, a player will need to invest points into his character’s Psychic Ability as well as his other attributes. A good Intellect score is probably a good idea too and points will need to be put into the Sorcery skill. Points put into the latter also grant ‘Spell Purchase Points’, used to buy knowledge of certain spells and determine a sorcerer’s ‘Sorcery Level’. The latter also determines what rank of spells a sorcerer is granted access to. To cast a spell, a player must roll his character’s Sorcery skill and have him expend Psychic Energy or ‘NRG’ points. Although the rules for sorcery are slightly more complex than the rules found elsewhere in the book, they only take up a few pages of Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel, the rest of the section devoted to the subject consisting of spell after spell after spell. Each spell is quite detailed, allowing for a fair degree of flavour, in terms of both mechanics and setting.

Our sample Ritual-Sorcerer is Abáshu hiCháika, a member of the Clan of Eye of Flame, a clan of barbers, soldiers, and bodyguards. Crippled since childhood, he never expected to do more than follow in his father’s footsteps and work in the clan barbershop. His life changed when a priest of Vimúhla noticed the boy’s perspicacity and psychic potential. With his father’s blessing, he took him to the temple to be tested as a result of which he was inducted into the temple of the Lord of Fire. Being of a low status meant that Abáshu began his education late, but he has made up for it, having learned the great classical language, Engsvanyáli, and mastered the basics of ritual sorcery. Although he does not match the status of his fellow students, he is an assiduous and a willing study partner. His fellow students have learned that he is a canny kévuk player—he often supplements his limited funds by winning those of his fellow students. He requires a crutch to walk, but is keen to see the world beyond the walls of Katalál.

Abáshu hiCháika
Clan: Eye of Flame
Occupation: Administrative Priest
God: Vimúhla
Age: 21 Gender: Male

Personal Wealth: 150 kaitars
Contact Points: 13
Clan Influence: 3
Personal Influence: 1
Prestige: 3

Physique 08 (-2)
Deftness 08 (-2)
Intellect 12 (+2)
Willpower 10 (+0)
Psychic Ability 11 (+1)

Hit Points: 5
Unarmed Damage: 0/2/2
Initiative: 0/2/2
Melee Defence: –
Missile Defence: –
Magic Defence: 1
Move: 2

Personal Traits
Advantages: Connected (1), Reference Library (1), Talented (Sorcery) (1), Training (2)
Disadvantages: Hesitant (1), Lower Clan (2), Phobia (Snakes) (1), Slow (1)

Skills
Dodge 8 (1), Etiquette 12 (1), Gambling 13 (3), Language & Literacy (Engsvanyáli) 13 (3), Language & Literacy (Tsolyáni) (1), Melee 8 (1), Research 12 (1), Resist Sorcery 11 (3), Rituals 13 (3), Sorcery 14 (3)

Sorcery Level: 12
Spell Purchase Points: 2 (30)
Psychic Points: 55
Spells: Treat Minor Wounds, The Web of Kriyág, Lover of Spiders, The Cutlass of Dejection

The encounters and monsters section covers possible encounters outdoors, in the city, wilderness, on the great Sákbe roads, and in the Underworld. These encounters are supported by a lengthy bestiary of men, creatures, and alien races, each entry accompanied by a decent description as well as the stats. In many cases, several variations are given. So for example, the entry for the Ssú, the ‘Enemies of Man’, includes stats for civilian, light skirmisher, medium soldier, elite/heavy soldier, and Universal, Generic, and Temple spellcaster—for both the Grey and the Black Ssú. The entries are each illustrated nicely by the author. The bestiary is followed by a lengthy section on the treasure to be found on Tékumel. Of course, this focuses on the Eyes, the mechanical devices of ages long past which store the same effects as many of the spells of current day, but lists numerous items that help impart flavour and detail to Tékumel.

Rounding out Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel are maps of Tsolyánu, of the area around the city of Katalál, and of Katalál itself. The latter is particularly good and is accompanied by a list of the places of note in the city, but no more. Physically, Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel is a black and white hardback, cleanly laid out, and nicely illustrated. The maps are good and the artwork is very nice. Unfortunately, Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel, by modern standards, physically disappointing. The artwork is good, but there is not enough of it and what there is, is often too small. The organisation is hampered by its adherence to wargames or technical manual layout, with everything numbered in sequence, rather than in chapters. It is not only outdated, it is a hindrance to the easy use of the book, and this is only exacerbated by a lack of index. All right, so the contents listing is decent, but by modern standards, the lack of an index is frustrating and inexcusable, if not downright silly. 

The contents could also have been better organised. In several places, background information is not placed in a background section for easy reference, but as part of character creation. In particular, the listing and explanations of the gods, the Tlomitlányal and the Tlokiriqáluyal, the clans to be found in the city of Katalál, and so on. Certainly, making choices from these is part of the default character generation process in Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel, but it makes them difficult to reference. It also highlights the fundamental problem with Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel—a lack of support for the Game Master. The map of Katalál is useful, the list of clans to be found in Katalál is useful, but there is no virtually background to the city, no adventure seeds, let alone an adventure. What background there is, is very much buried in the text. So what this means is that the Game Master is given all of the tools to run the Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel in mechanical terms, but not enough in terms of the setting.

The fundamental problem with Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel is design wise, is that it uses the original Empire of the Petal Throne from 1975 as a template and does not deviate from it. It has some background, it has rules and mechanics, it has a default setup, just like Empire of the Petal Throne, and just like Empire of the Petal Throne it does not go beyond that. The background is good, the rules are good, and the default setup is rife with potential, but Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel does not take that one good vital step that would aid anyone new to Tékumel into running a game.  

That said, if the Game Master is not new to Tékumel, then there will be a good deal of information in Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel that will be familiar and when coupled with the solid Pocket Universe system, said Game Master will have no issue running a game. For a Game Master new to Tékumel, Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel will be much more of challenge to run. Although the background material is decent and the rules light and accessible, the lack of support is likely to be daunting.  As a set of rules for anyone familiar with Tékumel, Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel is an excellent choice, but as an introduction to Tékumel and certainly gaming on Tékumel, Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel is a misstep.

Fear and Loathing in the Fenlands

Fever Swamp is a sandbox adventure published by the Melsonian Arts Council following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Designed for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay—but compatible with other retroclones—Fever Swamp is a hexcrawl which takes the player characters into the thousand square miles of a foetid, forsaken, disease ridden swamp, itself known as the ‘Fever Swamp’. Perhaps to gain the reward for the safe return of the imperially sanctioned occult scholar, Gert von Hemmer; possibly to confirm the fate of the lost imperial river galley, the Wasser Koenig; or even go in search of a great evil rumoured to stalk the waterways and mires of the fever swamp. They will face constant moisture, unrelenting heat, droning insects, the danger of disease and wounds that fester rather than heal, strange tribes, and the dregs of society.

The player characters will first come to Clink, the village on the edge of the swamp and the last bastion of civilisation for many, many miles. It is riven by undercurrents of religious tension and potential heresy, rampant alcoholism, and fear of what the swamp hides. Here a party are likely to hire a boat, find a guide, and pick up what few supplies they can before punting and rowing into the mire. Out there, there are ‘The People’ to encounter, the native inhabitants of the swamp with their strange practices—from wearing masks of animal totems or deities dedicated to the plague, sharpening their teeth, and being constantly pregnant (men, women, and children) to hiding their skin, missing all the same limb, and never talking. Each tribe of The People is different. There are the corpse bodies of gods to plumb, mad men and mad women to run afoul of, strange ruins to explore, and something out there in the damp, sweaty, sodden flora that threatens to shamble out of the Fever Swamp…

Unlike the first scenario published by the Melsonian Arts Council via Kickstarter, Crypts of Indormancy, there is no hinterland, no world beyond the limits of Fever Swamp. What Crypts of Indormancy hinted at was a world beyond its island archipelago setting, once a colonial possession of an empire of Elves, now occupied by twelve tribes of Island People. The Elves lost their empire long ago, whilst the folk memory of the Island People leaves them with a cultural dislike of the Elves. In comparison, Fever Swamp suggests the existence of the Nilfenberg empire from where settlers and fugitives have come to the village of Clink, either to stay, or make their way into the swamp. Plus of course, the scholar, Gert von Hemmer, and the lost imperial river galley, the Wasser Koenig. No details of the Nilfenberg empire are given, but it could easily be the Empire of the Old World, so that with some effort upon the part of the Game Master, Fever Swamp could be adapted to run with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay or the ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG. Whatever setting a Game Master uses, the Fever Swamp needs to be placed suitably far away from the empire itself.

Fever Swamp is slim, twenty-six page hardback done in full colour—mostly green. It has no given guide for the character Levels required to play the scenario, though most foes they will face are of low levels. That said, push too far, explore too far, and there are some truly monstrous creatures to be encountered in the Fever Swamp. Besides describing the fifteen or so locations, it details the various NPCs, encounter tables, new monsters, and rules necessary to handle boats and disease in the swamp. Boats are the only viable means of getting around the swamp and the chances of catching a disease in the swamp are unfortunately high. In addition, Fever Swamp includes two new Classes. One is the Transfiguration Host, a Specialist-type character who is host to a Transfiguration Worm, a creature which seeks new experiences and which grants the host a new ability each time he acquires a new Level. This might be for example, learning a random arcane spell, acquiring razor sharp canines, growing a toxin gland, which enables the host to spit poison, and reversed knees like a bird giving the bird increased speed. The Transfiguration Host is a random character Class in effect, but hosting the Transfiguration Worm and its desire for new experiences does mean that the character has reason to want to leave the swamp, unlike its other inhabitants. The second Class is a treatment of the Shaman, a Cleric-type Class who binds a randomly determined spirit to his service each Level. Each spirit can perform a service for the Shaman once per day, for example, a Tree Spirit who will read the bark of nearby trees to learn of events in the past or recently passed by animals, or a Rot Spirit capable of decaying wood utterly or warding against decay. These Classes are a source of fresh player characters should any die in their exploration of the Fever Swamp as are possible inhabitants of the village of Clink.

If there is an issue with Fever Swamp, it is the way into the sandbox, what gets the player characters involved, is underwritten. The likelihood is that the Game Master will need to create his own and strengthen the ones suggested in the opening pages of the book as the player characters very much need a reason to visit and explore the Fever Swamp. 

Like any sandbox or hex crawl, Fever Swamp is a player-led mini-campaign, which means that the Game Master will need to put a bit more in effort into adjusting to what the players want their characters to do. The small size of Fever Swamp—both as a book and a geographical area—and the self-contained nature of its foetid, boggy, environment, means that this is not as daunting a task as it might have been. The small size also means that Fever Swamp is easy to drop into almost any campaign and with a little preparation, ready to take the player characters into a heart of darkness.