Free RPG Day 2018: Kids on Bikes Free RPG Day Edition

Now in its eleventh year, Saturday, June 16th was Free RPG Day and with it came 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 quick-start. The contribution from Renegade Game Studios is Kids on Bikes Free RPG Day Edition, a version of the collaborative storytelling roleplaying game just for Free RPG Day 2018. Funded via Kickstarter, Kids on Bikes RPG - Strange Adventures in Small Towns is a roleplaying game of small town life before there were smartphones in everyone’s pocket—so no access to cameras, the internet, and GPS which would make investigations into the mysterious and the unknown all the easier. Although the mysterious and the unknown may found around any corner and behind any door, it is the kids who are ready to believe and ready to investigate. The only way for them to investigate and confront such mysteries and unknowns is to work together, know their strengths, and be prepared to ride like hell when the mysteries and unknowns turn on them and their meddling!

The Kids on Bikes Free RPG Day Edition presents a cut down version of the full game. It starts by discussing the setting of boundaries, the Game Master and her players being expected to agree on what they want and do not want in their game—what they want to see, what they are okay with, what they want to gloss over, and what they want to avoid. The point is all about be being respectful to each other, especially in light of the fact the players are going to be roleplaying children. Kids on Bikes Free RPG Day Edition omits though, both rules for setting creation and character creation. In the full version of Kids on Bikes RPG - Strange Adventures in Small Towns, everyone collaborates on creating the small town where their kid characters will have their adventures. Here it presents a town called Undecided—sic!—so named because nobody could agree on an actual name and then on what to change it to. Undecided stands amidst miles of forest whose only other feature is a lake. On the edge of the town stands a mine entrance with a cemetery and pet cemetery on either side, whilst teenage life in town seems to revolve around the Space Lanes Bowling Alley and Flying Robot Arcade. Then with spring coming, so will the fair and its Fabulous Freak Show. That said, every player gets to add a single rumour to Undecided, the veracity of which may—or may not—be proved in game.

In place of character creation rules, Kids on Bikes Free RPG Day Edition includes four pre-generated Kids, four pre-generated Teens, and four pre-generated Adults. Each has six stats—Brains, Brawn, Charm, Fight, light, and Grit—which are attached to a die type, from a twenty-sided die for the character’s best stat down to a four-sided die for his worst stat. The ten-sided die represents an above average stat, whereas an eight-sided die represents a below average stat. A character also has a pair of Strengths, such as Lucky, which allows a player to spend two Adversity Tokens to reroll a stat check, or Treasure Hunter, which allows a player to spend one Adversity Token for his character to find a useful item. Each of the twelve characters also has two questions, such as “What do you remember most about your father?” or “What are two of your go-to jokes?”.  

In this quick-start, each player chooses a character and answering a question about the relationship his character with the character of the player to his left—good or bad (a list of twenty questions for each is included at the back). Then each player notes down his character’s motivation, fear, and what might be found in his backpack. Given that this is a quick-start, there is a surprising amount of advice for all four of these final steps, reflecting the complexity of the characters, whether Kids, Teens, or Adults.

Mechanically, Kids on Bikes RPG - Strange Adventures in Small Towns uses the full polyhedron panoply, with of a character’s stats being represented by a single die type. For a character to do something, player rolls the appropriate die for his character’s stat and attempts to roll over a difficulty number set by the Game Master, for example, between ten and twelve for an impressive task that a skilled person should be able to do. When a die is rolled and its maximum number is rolled, the die explodes and a player gets to re-roll and add to the total. A player only has to keep rolling exploding results until his character succeeds. The Game Master also decides whether an action is a Planned Action or a Snap Decision, although a player can attempt to persuade her either way. Primarily, a Planned Action allows a player to take the average of a character’s stat and so forego the need to roll, whereas with a Snap Decision, this is not possible. 

It is possible to roll critical successes and failures as well as easy successes and failures. The former have long term consequences, whereas the latter have short term consequences. In general though, successes enable the player to collaborate with the Game Master to narrate the outcome, whereas the Game Master mostly gets to narrate the outcome if the roll is a failure. One other consequence of failure is that a player earns Adversity Tokens for his character. These can be spent to provide bonuses in stat checks, other players being able to spend theirs on another player’s stat check if it is a Planned action, as well as to trigger particular strengths. Combat employs these same mechanics, but for the most involves Snap Decisions and characters rolling against each other or NPCs to gain narrative control.

So far so good. If Kids on Bikes Free RPG Day Edition—and thus Kids on Bikes RPG - Strange Adventures in Small Towns—had been released prior to 2016, then its inspiration would not have been so obvious, but that is not the case and so the inspiration is obvious. That inspiration all but announces itself with the rules for ‘Powered Characters’. The Powered Character is not a player character though, but then nor is she or he an NPC solely roleplayed by the Game Master. Instead, the Game Master creates the Powered Character, deciding their reactions, powers, personality, and so on, but apportions each of these aspects out to the players so that they collectively control the Powered Character together with the Game Master. This further emphasises the degree to which the players have narrative control over the flow of events in a game of Kids on Bikes, but the Game Master can use the Powered Character to nudge events here and there. A few sample Powered Characters are provided for the Game Master to use—they include others besides the young subject of government experimental program, as well as places of interest in the town of Undecided, some NPCs, and plot hooks.

Kids on Bikes Free RPG Day Edition is plainly and simply presented, with just the single internal illustration. The writing in general is pretty good and it is all very readable. Overall, a good showcase what for what the Kids on Bikes RPG - Strange Adventures in Small Towns can do, there being plenty of gaming potential to be had in the pages of Kids on Bikes Free RPG Day Edition.

Miskatonic Monday #11: Tomes of Terror

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

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

—oOo—

It is usual practice for entries in the Miskatonic Monday series to be laid out as series of quick to read and understand bullet points, the aim being for the reader to get the gist of the review and make an informed purchase decision as easily as possible. Although this review is of a title released via the Miskatonic Repository and is thus part of the Miskatonic Monday series, it adheres to the discursive format used for other reviews. This is because the title being reviewed is no mere single scenario, but rather a mini-campaign comprised of multiple parts.

Tomes of Terror: A Quest for Forbidden Knowledge is a campaign for the modern day set in and around Arkham in Lovecraft Country. Although designed to be used with Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the campaign can be enhanced with the use of the Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition supplement, Arkham Now. Reference may also be made to Miskatonic University: Dire Secrets & Campus Life, although that supplement is really set in the Jazz Age. Suggestions are also included should the Keeper want to run Tomes of Terror in conjunction with Delta Green, the setting from Pagan Publishing for use with Call of Cthulhu, Fifth Edition and later editions or the more recent Delta Green roleplaying game from Arc Dream Publishing.

The default set-up for the campaign has the investigators as employees or investigators working for the Eagle Bond private investigation agency in Boston. Their latest assignment is to investigate the theft of four valuable and rare books from the Restricted Section of the Jeremiah Orne library at Miskatonic University in Arkham. The Dean dissatisfied with the progress of the investigation by Arkham PD has hired the agency to locate and recover the books. Not only does he emphasis the danger of the books falling into the wrong hands, he provides details of those who have and have had access to the Restricted Section.

From this introduction of the case, the investigators have free reign to follow the clues as is their wont. They can do this overtly, covertly, or a mix of the two, but may need to come up with a cover story or two to explain why they are investigating the thefts rather than the police. The four books are The Necronomicon, Cultes Des Ghouls, The Book of Eibon, and The Revelations of Glaaki (Volume IV), which is a powerful and perilous quartet of titles to steal. Who would benefit from stealing such diverse and such dangerous tomes? All the evidence points towards an inside job given the nature of security measures installed at the Jeremiah Orne library, so the academic staff, the student body, and the university staff. Initially, there are relatively few clues, especially physical ones, and much of the investigation in Tomes of Terror will involve interviews, interrogations, and other forms of interaction, though these will often be punctuated by periods of surveillance. The campaign allows for modern means of investigation too, including the use of mobile phones, the Internet, and so on, most notably here though, the use of the credit check (the latter means is supported by the handouts, as are a sheaf of emails).

The campaign is divided into five scenarios, all with a suburban feel to them. It opens with ‘Cthulhu 101’, before expanding out to encompass ‘Overdue’, ‘Manuscripts Don’t Burn’, ‘Rare Finds’, and ‘The Calling’. The clues found in ‘Cthulhu 101’ will point towards the separate lines of enquiries in the other four scenarios. Each of the four involves a different cultist and different aspects of the Mythos—which the four tomes hint at if you are a student of Call of Cthulhu in any incarnation—but all four are linked through the initial scenario. The second, third, and fourth scenarios can tackled in any order, as can the fifth if the investigators prick up on certain clues. That said, each of the four scenarios has its timeline and these run in parallel to each other, so the likelihood is that if the investigators make progress with their enquiries in one, the likelihood is that events will be getting away from them in the remaining scenarios. As time passes, the new owners of the tomes are learning more and more, their madness growing as they work to put their ghastly ambitions into practice. Clever play and luck though, may result in the investigators preventing these antagonists from progressing too far with their plans, but the likelihood is that they will be too later and the investigators will find themselves confronting some very nasty things… As the author points out—and as a result of Tomes of Terror being mainly set in suburbia—his players quickly learned to be wary of basements.

With multiple lines of enquiry, each represented by a scenario, the Keeper is left with a lot to keep track of. Not just the activities of the antagonists as they pursue their respective plans, but also some sixty-four NPCs! Many of them play minor roles in the five scenarios, some are red herrings, but many provide information that will help with the investigators’ efforts. Likewise, the players will find their investigators confronted with several dozen persons to question and follow and look into… Keeping tracking of who their investigators have talked to and what they have found out are challenges in their own right.

The Keeper is supported by a timeline tracker—the players are provided with a blank one too, but the Keeper should be wary of letting them have it lest it indicate that their investigators are up against some hidden deadline. She also has access to some nine pages of full colour maps and thumbnail portraits for each NPC, plus nine pages of handouts. She is also given advice on how to run each scenario, noting the weirdness of Arkham even in the modern age and including good advice on what happens if there is a Total Party Kill. She will need to read the campaign with care to keep track of everything. If there is an issue with the advice, it is that there is little as to how the investigators go about their enquiries, especially given that they lack the authority to conduct such enquiries and that there is a duty of care to be accounted for when it comes to many of these being questioned. That is, the student body. A set of pre-generated investigators would have been useful too.

Physically, Tomes of Terror: A Quest for Forbidden Knowledge is simply and cleanly presented in full colour. The portraits for the NPCs are nicely done, though the clip art often feels like placeholders or text breaks. Some of the fuller pieces are decent though. Overall, the campaign is well presented given its amateur origins.

Tomes of Terror: A Quest for Forbidden Knowledge is challenging investigation with the players and their investigators having to work through a multitude of clues, witnesses, and suspects. It presents these in an interesting structure of parallel investigations which although they do exacerbate the challenge, they also serve to give the campaign a sophisticated, more modern feel. Overall, Tomes of Terror: A Quest for Forbidden Knowledge is a solid mini-campaign worth downloading from the Miskatonic Repository.

A Proper Paw & Pack Play Starter

Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers is the first scenario to be released for Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game, the post-Man, post-apocalypse fantasy roleplaying game in which every plays a dog. Ideally, they are ‘good’ dogs, aspiring to join the Royal Society of Pioneers and so serve the Kingdom of Pugmire. The Pioneers are dedicated to protecting the kingdom from threats such as rats and badgers as well as the cats of the Monarchies of Mau and to exploring beyond the boundaries of the kingdom, perhaps to find clues as to what happened to Man. Published by Pugsteady via Onyx Path Publishing, Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game uses the Open Game Licence for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition to provide its mechanics, the result being that the roleplaying game is easy to pick up and play—and that in addition to its fun and engaging themes. As the first scenario for the roleplaying game, Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers goes not one step further in making it easy to pick up and play, but several.

First and foremost, Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers provides a full scenario to play through, but then it divides each chapter into two—scenario and rules. The first lays out the events of each chapter, whilst the latter explains the rules to be used in the preceding scenario. The scenario comes with six First Level pre-generated adventurers to support the adventure. Then alongside the adventure appear excerpts of the journal of Pan Daschund, which can be read by the Guide—as the Game Master is known in Pugmire—and their contents used to help her in describing events in the following chapters. Lastly, there are links to a solo adventure on Youtube which parallels the plot of Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers and which can be played through as a choose your own adventure affair.

Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers begins with an introduction to both roleplaying and Pugmire, explaining what both are and providing a decent example of play, and guiding the prospector player and Guide as to how to use the book. This includes taking the first few steps—finding players, a venue, reading the book, and so on. This all helps, as does watching the video. This has twenty or so parts, each roughly a minute in length which allows the viewer to play out the events as described in the journal of Pan Daschund. At the same time, the prospective Guide should gain some idea as how the scenario’s plot runs and how to stage certain events. Staged in dramatic tones, the only thing missing perhaps is some animations showing how the dice roll and the mechanics work, but then that is covered in part by the extended example of play.

Similarly, Pan Daschund’s journal provides another narrative as an aid for both the Guide and her players. Again, the Guide can read through this, each excerpt preceding the next chapter, to gain some idea of how to present the encounters the player characters will have in that chapter. However, it also works as a journal that the good dogs can refer to in-game, Pan Daschund having already been part of the way and reported back to the Royal Society of Pioneers. Each excerpt is a page in length so could be read out to the players ahead of their playing through a chapter.

The scenario itself takes place in the autumn, after a spring and summer of hard rains, flooding the farmlands to the east, driving the farmers into the city of Pugmire and presenting all manner of bad dogs, opportunistic rats, and manipulative cats take advantage of the situation. At first thinking they being hired as prospective members of Royal Society of Pioneers to deal with some rat bandits, Pan Daschund instead hires them to deal another problem—missing dogs! Eager young pups have been heading east past Mutt Town in search of a legendary site of Man, rumoured to be where Saint Akbash, a holy dog of yore, gained his healing powers. Pan Daschund  wants to the good dogs to find these missing pups, map their journey, and perhaps search for the site.

Offered good plastic, the investigation takes the good dogs from the city of Pugmire south to Wooford where they can cross the swollen river and head east. Along the journey, they will encounter good dogs, crooked rats and creepy cats, big bad badgers, strange beasts, and ancient mysteries. Each of these encounters is neatly organised into discrete chapters, divided into two sections, one the scenario, the other the rules. The first gives the narrative and pushes the plot along, whilst the latter explains the rules to be used in the preceding scenario as well as presenting any necessary stats. Both scenario sections and rules sections are kept short throughout, typically no more than a couple of pages in length for the scenario sections and a page in length for the rules sections. The compartmentalisation of the scenarios and rules sections into discrete chapters is nothing new, going all the way back to the ‘Combat Encounters’ pioneered in the 2006 adventure Scourge of the Howling Horde  for Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition. The encounters here are clearly delineated, but unlike previous iterations of the format—for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition especially—without the constraints upon the story or mechanics. The adventure consists in total of chapters, plus an epilogue, so Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers should provide four or five good session’s worth of play.

Rounding out Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers is a set of ready-to-play good dogs and prospective members of Royal Society of Pioneers. Each comes with a full background as well as a character sheet and an illustration. There is also a full explanation of each dog’s tricks and spells at the back of the book for easy reference.

Physically, Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers is a fetching hardback done in the same style as the core rules for Pugmire. It is in full colour, every effort has been made to make the layout easy to use, and the illustrations are really very good. There is but one issue and that is the numbers on the map at the end of the scenario are wrong.

The other scenario available for Pugmire is, of course, ‘The Great Cat Conspiracy’, from the core rules. Like most scenarios in the core rules, it is a bit short and really, it focuses on politics in Pugmire than it does the wider world. The wider world is what is addressed in Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers. It is a mini-epic in the making, providing good dogs with the opportunity to see the world and encounter some of its dangerous denizens, some of whom can just about be trusted. One aspect of the world of Pugmire that it does focus on is that of the post apocalypse and what Man left behind. Unlike say Gamma World or Metamorphosis Alpha, this focus is not on the wacky or the weird, but on the mysterious and the weird, essentially embodying the Arthur C. Clarke adage that ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ Along the way, there is plenty of opportunities for the dogs to be heroic, to fight, and to use their wits. 

An experienced Game Master will able to pick up Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers and start running it with very little difficulty and without reference to Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game, such is the helpful organisation of both contents and the adventure. An experienced Pugmire Guide will be able to run Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers with almost no difficulty and could run it straight out of the book with relatively little preparation, again for the same reason. The less experienced Game Master—or Guide—will find it more challenging, primarily because of the preparation. Again, the organisation of the adventure into discrete chapters helps. For the new player, the book keeps everything clear and simple, provides reference material where wanted, and does not overcomplicate the flow of the game though the use of the discrete chapter organisation.

Overall, Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers is designed to be as well organised and helpful as it can be and it certainly succeeds in being both. These though are just the bonus factors for a great adventure which presents a good mix of mystery and intrigue, combat and roleplaying whilst opening up the world of Pugmire just a bit more. Every roleplaying game needs a good first adventure, and Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers is more than helpful in fulfilling that function for the Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game.

Free RPG Day 2018: Numenera: Ashes of the Sea

Now in its eleventh year, Saturday, June 16th was Free RPG Day and with it came 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 quick-start. One of the regular pieces of support for an existing roleplaying game in 2018 is Ashes of the Sea, a scenario and quick-start use with Monte Cook Games’ highly regarded and award-winning Numenera roleplaying game.

Numenera describes a world a billion years into the future in the Ninth Age, drastically changed by huge advances in science, but whilst the evidence of those changes is all around, the understanding of the science has long been lost. This does not mean that it cannot be regained and Numenera is all about discovering the great secrets of the past and using them to make a better world. Examples of this technology include Cyphers, one-use devices that the player characters can freely find and use for strange magical-like effects and there are lots of Cyphers to find and use, so the player characters are encouraged to use what they find—there will always be more. In essence, Numenera re-invented Dungeons & Dragons-style play, but in a Science Fantasy setting and combined it with accessible, player facing mechanics that allowed the GM to focus on storytelling. With the inclusion of some fantastic artwork—and every release for Numenera is superbly illustrated in full colour—that beautifully portrays the far future world of Numenera, you have an RPG setting with both scope and grandeur.

Ashes of the Sea opens with the player characters exploring a prior-world ruin in search of numenera. It is clear that the ruins have been picked over by previous explorers, but when they unseal and explore a previously unexplored room, they accidentally activate a machine which sends them far away. They awaken to find themselves in a ruined building on the side of a mountain far above a green valley. The room has similar machinery, but it needs to be repaired before there is any hope that the explorers can transport themselves back to where they were. With no other obvious clues as to where they are or the means to make such repairs, perhaps answers and means lie in the valley below. Here the explorers discover the village of Bardak, its insular if friendly inhabitants, and the legends of how the village came to be. They also learn of the great six-armed icon to the north, which villagers describe as sitting above an entrance to the underworld and speak of as their protector.

With nothing in the way of technology—or cyphers—available in Bardak, the nearest place of interest for the explorers will be the Icon. Getting to the Icon will be relatively easy, whereas persuading the villagers, and especially the village Elders, to let them go to the Icon is another matter. This will require a fair degree of persuasion, setting up some side quests that if completed, may influence any negotiations in the adventurers’ favour. Of course, the explorers could just off without seeking permission, but that will probably make the trip just a little more difficult. Once there, it is matter of finding the right equipment, overcoming dangers, and thence home for tea. Or at least home to wherever they left from…

Ultimately, the ‘Ashes of the Sea’ adventure is a sidetrek, a diversion from whatever the player characters were doing in the first place. It does not involve anything in the way of villains or enemies and the main problems are really environmental and technological, although the player characters will need to use their powers of persuasion too. As an introductory adventure, it showcases the uses to which technology can be—and been in the past—put to make the world a better place, but it also highlights the dangers of meddling just a little too much. As a sidetrek adventure for an ongoing campaign, it does whilst also providing the explorers the chance to stock up with more cyphers and other numenera.

Throughout the adventure there are notes for Game Master to help her make GM Intrusions—a way of making life more awkward for the player characters, but also a way to reward them with Experience Points—and to adjust the difficulty as necessary. These are primarily aimed at ongoing campaigns, not being as suitable if ‘Ashes of the Sea’ is being used as an introductory adventure or as a one-shot.

The second half of Ashes of the Sea presents an explanation of the rules to Numenera. It is a good explanation and it will be familiar to anyone who has The Numenera Starter Set. In fact the material from The Numenera Starter Set is more than enough to play though this scenario. Physically, Ashes of the Sea is as well presented as you would expect from a book from Monte Cook Games. The layout is clean, the writing clear, and the artwork, although recycled from other products, is excellent.

If The Spire of the Hunting Sound for Free RPG Day 2017 was not an easy scenario to use, focusing a little too much on puzzles, then ‘Ashes of the Sea’ strikes a more balanced note. Less puzzles and more of a focus on exploration and technology with some good social and roleplaying elements along the way. Overall Ashes of the Sea is a solid introduction to the Ninth World of Numenera, but one that really works well as a sidetrek adventure.

Free RPG Day 2018: T&T Japan

Now in its eleventh year, Saturday, June 16th 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 quick-start. In the past, Flying Buffalo Inc.  has released support for Tunnels & Trolls*  on Free RPG Day, but like Tunnels &a Trolls Featuring Goblin Lake Solitaire Adventure, the result has not been of the highest quality or content. For Free RPG Day in 2018, Flying Buffalo Inc. has released something to tie in not with Tunnels & Trolls, but with a supplement for the venerable roleplaying game—T&T Adventures Japan.

* Note that this link is for a review of previous version of Tunnels & Trolls. A review of the latest edition, Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls will appear at some point in the future.

It appears that Tunnels & Trolls is big in Japan, where it appeared before Dungeons & Dragons. Group SNE not only publishes a translated version of Tunnels & Trolls, it also publishes its own content as well as a magazine in the form of TtT Adventures Japan. The supplement, T&T Adventures Japan collects some of the content from the magazine and translates it into English. Free RPG Day T&T Adventures Japan presents some of the Manga from TtT Adventures Japan, the mini-rules, a quartet of pre-generated characters, and a complete solo mini-adventure.

It opens with an excerpt from the manga, ‘Adventures in Tunnels with Trolls’, in which Laila the Elven Wizard breaks the fourth wall and introduces Tunnels & Trolls. It is all rather charming even if the goblins look weird, more like Deep Ones than goblins. Art from the manga is used throughout the Free RPG Day T&T Adventures Japan to illustrate various rules and situations and it all adds a bit of whimsy to the booklet. The mini version of the Tunnels & Trolls rules cover character creation, including attributes, kindred (Human, Elf, Fairy, or Dwarf), and Class (Warriors, Wizards, and Rogues). It then explains combat and magic, as well as the core mechanic for doing just about everything else—the Saving Roll. This is a simplified version of what is one the earliest roleplaying games and one of the least complex, more so given that Tunnels & Trolls only ever uses six-sided dice.

To roll up a character, a player rolls three dice for each attribute and assigns the results as he wants. Dwarves, Elves, and Fairies all get to add bonuses to various attributes. Humans are just lucky and get to roll failed Saving Throws a second time. Of the three Classes, Warriors are great in combat, Wizards get to cast throw spells, and Rogues get to do both, just not with as much proficiency. Rogues are not anything like the Thief Class of other roleplaying games. So Rogues and Wizards will also need to choose some spells, but all Classes need to determine their Combat Adds. These are the bonuses to any combat roll derived from a character’s high Strength, Dexterity, Luck, and Speed attributes.

Haruto
Class: Warrior Level: 05
Race: Human
Strength 51 Constitution 13
Dexterity 12 Speed 14
Intelligence 12 Luck 14
Wizardry 08 Charisma 15

Combat Adds: +43

Equipment:
Samurai sword 4d6
Dagger 2d6
Samurai armour 9 Hits

Tunnels & Trolls is not a game that relies heavily on skills and skill checks. What the game has instead is Saving Rolls, usually made against a set attribute, for example, Luck or Dexterity. Simply, two dice are rolled—doubles roll over and add—and added to the attribute in question to beat a set target. For a Level One Saving Roll or ‘L1SR’, this target is twenty, and then goes up by five for each level. So Haruto would really be in trouble if he had to make a L1SR on Wizardry, but then he is not a Wizard or a Rogue. For most of the other attributes, Haruto would be able to pass an L1SR with greater ease.

Combat in Tunnels & Trolls has changed relatively little in thirty five years. Each side involved rolls up their dice and adds the results to get a total. This total is compared with the opponent’s, the highest winning that round. The difference between the two rolls is inflicted on the loser! In fact, this was always so easy that it was very straightforward to write computer programs that would handle the process for you. Then again, rolling the handfuls of dice was always much more fun.

While monsters can have full statistics similar to that of player characters or NPCs, they can also be simplified to a Monster Rating or MR. A creature’s MR is rounded by the nearest ten to get the number of dice rolled each round, while half the MR is the value added to the roll as its ‘Adds’. So Waakeg the Ogre Magi with an MR of 44 rolls 4d6 and adds 22. When a player character suffers damage he takes it from his Constitution, whereas a monster takes it from its Adds, in effect, both reducing the equivalent of its Hit Points and its ability to bring its best to any fight. Think of this as the monster growing fatigued as a fight continues.

So for example, Haruto, comes across Waakeg the Ogre Magi menacing a caravan. With an MR of 34, we already know that the Ogre Magi rolls 4d6+22 in combat, while Haruto rolls 9d (for his sword and an extra die per Level as a Warrior) and adds 43. The Game Master rolls 2, 4, 5, and 6 for Waakeg the Ogre Magi, which with the Adds, gives a total of 51. Things are not looking good for the Ogre Magi as Haruto’s player rolls 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, and 5, when combined with Haruto’s Adds, gives a total of 72. Deducting Waakeg’s total of 51 from Haruto’s 72, gives a result of 21. This is deducted from Waakeg’s Adds, so that on the next Round, the Game Master will roll 3d6+1 for the Ogre Magi. Might be time for Waakeg to run for his life or surrender…

Magic in Tunnels & Trolls is a point spend system, a Wizard or Rogue spending Kreem—the energy which fuels spells in Trollworld—represented by points of their Wizardry attribute to cast their spells. The main difference between Wizards and Rogues is that Rogues know fewer spells, so need to be more careful in what dweomers they learn. Most spells also have a minimum Intelligence and Dexterity requirement before they can be cast. Famously, the name of the spells in Tunnels &Trolls are somewhat tongue in cheek and some of the more well known ones are listed here in Free RPG Day T&T Adventures Japan, such as It’s Elementary, Take That, You Fiend, and Poor Baby.

Free RPG Day T&T Adventures Japan also includes four sample player characters—the four from the manga and the examples earlier in the booklet, a little advice for the Game Master, and a treasure generator. Almost half of Free RPG Day T&T Adventures Japan is made up of ‘Coming Down the Mountain; a Mystic T&T adventure’ written by the roleplaying game’s designer, Ken St. Andre. It is designed for use with Warrior character of Third to Seventh Level, which really sets up the only real issue with Free RPG Day T&T Adventures Japan. There is no advice on creating a character for it. To be fair, it is a simple matter of creating a Warrior character and then adjusting it up from First Level to Third—or greater—Level, but the advice should have been included. If a player decides not to create a character, then one is provided although the adventure will be a tough challenge as it is only Third Level.

Consisting of some seventy nine entries, in ‘Coming Down the Mountain; a Mystic T&T adventure’, the player character is a samurai who is sent up Mount Kitsune by his daimyo to bring back a holy man who live atop the mountain. It contains a decent mix of martial and mystic challenges as well as matters of honour too. Overall, this is a decent solo adventure which should provide half an hour’s worth of play.

Decently presented, Free RPG Day T&T Adventures Japan gives a good explanation of the Tunnels & Trolls Mini Rules, an engaging introduction to Tunnels & Trolls Japanese style, and an enjoyable solo adventure full of Chanbara flavour. Of course it is a pity that no group adventure could have been included, but that down to a design decision and space. One other issue is that it never quite really identifies what makes a Japanese Tunnels & Trolls game different from an American one, but the adventure more than makes up for that by showing that it can be done. Overall, a good taster for Tunnels & Trolls and T&T Adventures Japan, but really only for the one player.

The Greatest Roleplaying Campaign Ever?

Masks of Nyarlathotep is widely regarded as the greatest campaign ever written for any roleplaying game, let alone Call of Cthulhu. If not that, then by any stretch of the imagination it rightly deserves to be in the top three, for it is truly epic in scale—on any scale. Its scope is epic, being a global campaign which takes in seven locations, from New York to Shanghai via London, Egypt, Kenya, and Australia. Its antagonists are equally as epic, consisting of multiple cults dedicated to the various aspects or ‘masks’ of the Crawling Chaos himself, Nyarlathotep. Its plot is thus also as far reaching to match that scale. Likewise, the players and their Investigators will be faced by a huge number of clues that will enable them to deduce the true nature of the foes they face and what they are working towards. Which is of course, to bring about a Great Plan that will see the Great Old Ones walk the Earth once again. Masks of Nyarlathotep presents challenging foes, challenging investigations, and challenging game play which can last for some seventy hours—and more. If the first campaign for Call of Cthulhu, 1982’s Shadows of Yog-Sothoth set the blueprint which all subsequent campaigns for the roleplaying game would follow, then 1984’s Masks of Nyarlathotep set the standard by which every single one of those subsequent campaigns would be measured.

The campaign itself concerns the fate of the Carlyle Expedition. In 1919, notorious playboy Roger Carlyle left New York on an archaeological expedition to Egypt by way of London to conduct some research. He was accompanied by Hypatia Masters, society photographer, Doctor Robert Huston, psychiatrist to the rich, and Jack Brady, his bodyguard and confidante. In London, the party was joined by famed archaeologist, Sir Aubrey Penhew, and together they went on to Egypt where it is claimed that they made great archaeological finds. After some months the expedition decamped to the Crown Colony of Kenya, ostensibly to allow Roger to rest and the party a chance to get away from the glare of the press. Unfortunately, tragedy struck, as the entire expedition was first thought to lost on safari, but then then discovered to have been massacred by local tribesmen.

Five years pass and enter globetrotting author, Jackson Elias. In the January of 1925, he contacts a number of reliable friends—the investigators—and asks them to meet him in New York as he has information concerning the fate of the Carlyle Expedition. Jackson is able to provide the first in what will become a profusion of pointers: cult activity in New York, the trail left behind by the Carlyle Expedition as it travelled east, the trail left by Jackson himself as he followed the route taken by the Carlyle Expedition and beyond, building into a web of connections that will ultimately reveal a threat to mankind. Over the course of 1925, the investigators will travel the world, researching, uncovering, and encountering dangers both large and small, suffer losses in terms of their well-being, their sanity, and their friends. If they prevail—and enough of them survive—perhaps the investigators can thwart the plans of the Dark God and his minions, and so save the world!

Yet for all the high regard in which Masks of Nyarlathotep is held—it would win the Origins Award for Best Role-Playing Adventure in 1996—it is not a perfect campaign by any means. First and foremost, it is a large campaign and it is a complex campaign, with multiple threads and numerous clues and NPCs for the Keeper to keep track of. Second, the campaign is correspondingly complex in terms of its multiple thread, plots, and clues for the players to handle. Third, it sets up an NPC—Jackson Elias—as a friend and makes that motive enough for the investigators to become involved in the campaign. Yet it never really identifies who he is and what his relationship is with the investigators, so he never really rises above being plot hook. Fourth, it never addresses how the investigators are expected to go around the world, let alone pay for it. Fifth, it cannot escape the fact that in many cases its depiction of the cultists at the heart of each chapter is as stereotypes, which some have found uncomfortable. It should be clear that this is neither intentional nor is it a case of racial stereotyping, but rather that all too often they often come across as skeevy natives, mad with dark power and knowledge. Much of this is really due to the sixth issue with the campaign, which are its Pulp undertones. Such stereotypical depictions are often part of the Pulp genre. That said, Masks of Nyarlathotep is not explicitly a Pulp campaign, but it certainly leans that way, though without really supporting it.

Masks of Nyarlathotep remains a great campaign though, great enough for many a Keeper to attempt to fix these issues herself in preparing to run it. Indeed, the Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion is an attempt to address and answer many of the questions which have been asked over the years about Masks of Nyarlathotep and how to run it. That tome though, remains a fan-based corollary to the campaign and not the official answers to such questions. (This does not stop it from being a useful reference work running the campaign though.) However, such official answers do exist, for Chaosium, Inc. has undertaken the ambitious and daunting task of updating the campaign.

Masks of Nyarlathotep: Dark Schemes Herald the End of the World, the fifth edition of the campaign, has been redesigned for use with Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition. The most obvious change to it is its size, up from of the two-hundred-and-twenty-four pages of the fourth edition of Masks of Nyarlathotep, released in 2010, to a total of six-hundred-and sixty-nine pages for this the fifth edition of Masks of Nyarlathotep. Almost three times the length. In fact, it is so large that it has been split into two volumes, the first covering up as far as Egypt, the second the rest of the campaign, with the resulting print version coming in a slip case. The other obvious change is that like all releases from Chaosium, Inc. now, it comes in full colour, including both layout and illustrations. This has enabled the artists to approach the campaign anew and provide some effective new illustrations, whether of the members of the Carlyle Expedition, the infamous scene in Jackson Elias’ hotel room, of Shantaks at Misr House, Miles Shipley’s paintings, or the Dark Pharaoh in all his menacing majesty. The result is sure to be a handsome and heavy pair of tomes, but these are the very least of the changes to Masks of Nyarlathotep: Dark Schemes Herald the End of the World.

Fundamentally, Masks of Nyarlathotep consists of a sandbox adventure which contains several smaller, though still large sandboxes. Within each of these ‘smaller’ sandboxes—the individual America, England, Egypt, Kenya, Australia, and China chapters—the investigators are free to follow what clues and lines of enquiry they have as is their wont, though of course, certain clues will reveal certain information and so take them down certain paths. Yet the larger, overarching nature of the campaign also means that the investigators are free to go where they want. The investigation will start in New York in the America chapter, but the clues point to locations far and wide, and whilst there is a natural path to the campaign—the aforementioned order of chapters—the investigators are free to go where they will and to whichever chapter they want. Every campaign needs a beginning though and that is the first of the changes to the Masks of Nyarlathotep, Fifth Edition campaign.

In previous editions of the campaign, events began with the investigators arriving at Jackson Elias’ hotel door. That still happens in this edition at the start of the America chapter, but it also includes a prologue where the investigators can come together on an expedition of their own and first meet Jackson Elias as a fellow expedition member. This takes place in Peru in 1921. Here each investigator, for their own reasons—ten pre-generated investigators are provided to that end—has signed up with Augustus Larkin to locate and conduct an archaeological examination of a lost pyramid in Peru’s southern highlands. Larkin seems an odd sort, sweaty if enthusiastic, whilst his assistant, Luis de Mendoza, is gloweringly taciturn, but the other expedition member, Jackson Elias, is friendly and curious. If the investigators do not note the oddities concerning the expedition then Elias certainly will, for it seems that someone—or something—is taking a keen interest in the expedition and in preventing anyone from learning too much about it. Just who is stalking them and what does this have to do with the local legends of white vampires?

What the Peru prologue is, is a rehearsal for the forthcoming seven chapters of the main campaign. Like those, it does involve a ‘mask’ of Nyarlathotep, but a relatively minor one in comparison to the Bloody Tongue, the Black Pharaoh, the Horned Bat, and the Bloated Woman. Similarly, its scale is regional, rather than global, and it is all together a much smaller affair. It adheres to the template set by those seven chapters though—a distinct locale, a indigenous cult of a singular nature, locals afeared of said cult, academics will help with some persuasion, and so on. Then by introducing Jackson Elias it lays the groundwork for the campaign to come and forges the link that is fundamental to the campaign. The scenario itself is a nice play upon a traditional monster given a Mythos twist, which is accompanied by some well done illustrations. Throughout there is also good advice on handling Jackson Elias and keeping him friendly without becoming too overbearing, as well as how to keep him alive ready to request the investigators’ aid four years later.

There is one other thing that the Peru chapter and Masks of Nyarlathotep, Fifth Edition does for Jackson Elias and that is to define him as a character. Notably this includes making him an African American. Previously, the assumption was that he was Caucasian like his inspiration, Percy Harrison Fawcett, but this decision is an interesting one and it explains how Elias Jackson was able to go where other explorers might not have been able to. The following chapter, America, will also list Elias’ books. With the expedition in Peru having formed the basis for, and cemented their friendship, the investigators and thus their players do have a motive, an actual sense of friendship instead of a supposed one, for them to aid Jackson in his enquiries. It helps of course that Jackson, thanks to treasure found in Peru, can fund their investigations. This is the first of many additions to the campaigns.

These changes continue with more background on Harlem in the America chapter and expanding upon the activities of the Cult of the Bloody Tongue in Harlem. The inclusion of a scapegoat for the cult’s predations provides another plot strand to follow in New York and shows more of the cult’s machinations in the city. This extension of the background continues in the England chapter, with the authors revisiting ‘The Derbyshire Monster’ set in Lesser Edale. One of a number of sidetrek scenarios in London, this one always felt out of place because of its non-Mythos antagonist. In Masks of Nyarlathotep, Fifth Edition, the scenario is renamed ‘The Derbyshire Horror’, the nature of the threat is changed in a nice piece of ‘bait and switch’, and a second reason is provided for the investigators to go to Derbyshire with the introduction of Henson Manufacturing, which has been making the components necessary for the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh to complete its dastardly plan. The additions in the America chapter to Harlem and to Derby in the England chapter are more than welcome as they add depth and detail to their respective cult’s doings, serving to make them more than just murderous thugs.

The authors address the perceived stereotyping by emphasising the fact that cult membership is open to all, not just those native to a region and that if they can, the cults at the heart of campaign will prey on anyone, no matter their background or status. Also, changes are made to two important NPCs. In England, Tewfik al-Sayed, the proprietor of the Soho spice shop and rival priest to Edward Gavigan, is now Zahra Shafik, proprietor of Empire Spices and rival priestess to Edward Gavigan. Her motives and plans are also provided. In Kenya, the sadly named Tandoor Singh, proprietor of a Nairobi tea emporium and agent of the Bloody Tongue, is renamed Taan Kaur, female proprietor of a Nairobi tea emporium and agent of the Bloody Tongue. As well as avoiding stereotyping, this redesign enables the authors to re-examine these NPCs and their motives, making them more interesting, more rounded, and easier to bring into play.

To help and aid the Keeper run Masks of Nyarlathotep, advice is provided throughout the campaign. This starts with preparation and goes on to cover the campaign’s famed lethality, how to handle both its history and settings, and creating and replacing investigators. Within each chapter, connections are made to the greater campaign, clue diagrams show where each clue leads to, and at every location, the clues which lead to that location are listed. Which all helps the Keeper to keep track of the campaign’s very many clues. Similarly, all of the NPCs who will appear in a chapter are listed at its start, each accompanied by a thumbnail portrait in frame coloured according to their allegiance. Four appendices also cover travel in the period, as well as collating all of the campaign’s artefacts, spells, and tomes. There can be no doubt that there is a lot of things to keep track of in Masks of Nyarlathotep, but these changes address this challenge and make it easier to deal with. Another nice touch is that at the start of each chapter suggestions are given as to what books to read or television shows or movies to watch to get the feel of the forthcoming chapter.

One other aspect of the campaign is addressed throughout its very many pages—Pulp or not? With previous editions of the campaign and of Call of Cthulhu, this was not a question that a Keeper could have made with anything other than great difficulty. With the long-awaited publication of Pulp Cthulhu: Two-fisted Action and Adventure Against the Mythos, not only could the question be answered, it was a question that had to be answered. Thus, Masks of Nyarlathotep, Fifth Edition includes numerous options and suggestions for running the campaign in Pulp mode. Not just adding Pulp Talents to both the pregenerated investigators and a great many of the campaign’s NPCs, but also suggesting how to up the ante in a situation, whether that is arming cultists of the Bloody Tongue with African throwing knives, foregoing customs inspections when entering certain countries, moving the more dangerous aspects of Miles Shipley’s paintings to the Pulp mode, adding an NPC from a pair of Cthulhu by Gaslight supplements, or suggesting that of course, the best way to stage the events aboard the Mombasa to Nairobi journey is atop the flaming train! These all help the Keeper run the campaign in Pulp mode.

Rounding out the campaign is the ‘Grand Conclusion’, examining what happens in the wake of the campaign’s climax at the end of each of its seven main chapters. It also provides ‘The Ultimate Outcome’, a means to track the investigators’ progress and the outcome of their actions, so that ultimately, the Keeper can determine how well they and their players have done. This is a handy tool providing a concrete means of measuring their actions where previously it was down to the Keeper to judge.

Masks of Nyarlathotep: Dark Schemes Herald the End of the World always was a campaign of herculean proportions, but now it becomes physically herculean in terms of its format. So what accounts for the huge increase in page count—by some 298%—from the previous edition? Obviously, the new chapter and scenario detailing the investigators first encounter with Jackson Elias in Peru, but also the additions to each of the seven main chapters and locations. Then there are the appendices—nine pages of spells, ten pages of tomes, and six pages of artefacts—and an index nine pages long! Across the campaign whole, there are forty-five pages of thematic handouts, thirty-eight pages of maps, thirteen pages of portraits, and eighty-five pages of NPC stats. (It should be noted that the handouts, maps, NPC portraits, and pregenerated investigators are available as separate PDFs for ease of reference.)

In terms of production values, Masks of Nyarlathotep: Dark Schemes Herald the End of the World has never looked like this and has never looked as good. As with all new titles from Chaosium, Inc., it is done in full colour with some excellent, often dynamic new illustrations and maps. That said, some of the full colour illustrations are really rather ordinary in comparison to the sepia ones. The full colour cartography, in general, is also very good, especially of the various countries and regions, but there are maps which could have been better done. For example, the maps of M’Weru’s Cavern and The Great Temple in the Mountain of the Black Wind in the Kenya chapter are murky messes, whilst the map of the Great Chamber of Nyarlathotep in the Egypt chapter is just a bit too small for easy reference. Another issue with the maps is that locations on many of them are numbered in an odd order, making them a little cumbersome to use. The campaign though is well written, though a minor edit is needed here and there. Overall though, these are all minor issues in what is a well produced and presented pair of volumes.

In many ways, Masks of Nyarlathotep: Dark Schemes Herald the End of the World, the fifth edition of the campaign, is the first major change to the campaign in some twenty years, following the addition of the scenario, ‘City Beneath The Sands’ from the supplement Terror Australis, to create 1996’s award winning The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep. But that was one substantial change, whereas multiple substantial changes have been made to Masks of Nyarlathotep, Fifth Edition, but like that change twenty years ago, these changes are all for the better, with many of them coming from the authors having run or played the campaign multiple times. As a result, the Keeper knows who Jackson Elias is and the players and their investigators can learn who he is by actually encountering him; there is more advice on running the campaign, whether in Pulp mode or not; there is more detail to add depth where needed; there is more structure for handling the campaign’s many clues and links; and the treatment of its huge cast is more balanced.

At the heart of all of the changes there remains the campaign itself. Masks of Nyarlathotep always was the ‘Grand Master’ of campaigns for Call of Cthulhu. The updates and adjustments to the campaign which take account of over thirty years of campaign design and play, ensure that the fifth edition, Masks of Nyarlathotep: Dark Schemes Herald the End of the World, not only maintains that status, but is more accessible, easier to run, and better presented. If Masks of Nyarlathotep is the campaign by which all other Call of Cthulhu campaigns are measured, then Masks of Nyarlathotep: Dark Schemes Herald the End of the World just raised the bar.

The Ubiquity of Lovecraft

Winner of the People’s Choice award for Best Role-Playing Expansion at UK Games Expo 2018, Leagues of Cthulhu is a supplement for use with Leagues of Adventure: A Rip-Roaring Setting of Exploration and Derring Do in the Late Victorian Age! and its expansion, Leagues of Gothic Horror. Published by Triple Ace Games following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Leagues of Cthulhu is written for use with the Ubiquity System,  and draws on the writings—but not the attitudes—of author H.P. Lovecraft to present new skills, talents, and flaws; leagues and archetypes; sanity mechanics, magic, and manuscripts; and a gazetteer of Mythos threats and locations, plus Game Master advice. All together, Leagues of Cthulhu not only brings the Cthulhu Mythos to the 1890s of Leagues of Adventure and Leagues of Gothic Horror, because it employs the Ubiquity System—first used in ExileStudio’s Hollow Earth Expedition—it also brings the Cthulhu Mythos to other roleplaying games which uses those mechanics. So, want to bring Cosmic horror to the Hollow Earth of Hollow Earth Expedition, the Mars of Space: 1889, the seventeenth century France of All for One: Régime Diabolique, or the post-apocalypse of Desolation, then Leagues of Cthulhu is the obvious supplement to refer to.

The starting point for any Roleplaying Game of Lovecraftian investigative horror is of course, the works of H.P. Lovecraft—and that is where Leagues of Cthulhu begins—and ends. The focus is thus on a limited number of entities—gods and creatures—as well as tomes and spells, with an emphasis on forbidden knowledge, the advancement of science without moral guidance, and dangerous secrets. This means that both focus and supplement possesses a certain purist approach. That said, the use of the Ubiquity System means that the mechanics pull Leagues of Cthulhu towards a Pulp feel and sensibility. It also keeps contents of the supplement quite trim.

This all starts with the addition of a single skill to Leagues of Adventure and Leagues of Gothic Horror, but it is the only pertinent skill. ‘Elder Lore’ covers knowledge of the Great Old Ones, the alien races associated with them, and more, and is divided into five specific Disciplines—Artefacts, Creatures, Great old Ones, Locations, and Tomes. It is learned through exposure to the Mythos, the reading of Forbidden Books, and going mad, each of which earns a globetrotter—as player characters are known in Leagues of Adventure—Eldritch Experience Points. These can only be spent on improving the Elder Lore skill and their expenditure is mandatory, which means that if a globetrotter has accrued enough Eldritch Experience Points to purchase a Level in the Elder Skill, then he must. Of course, this will have a deleterious effect upon the globetrotter’s Sanity. Elder Lore can be used just like any skill, but given that it deals with knowledge beyond the understanding of man, such knowledge is far from exact… (which enables the Game Master to be deliberately vague.) 

In general, the mechanic scales the range of a player character sanity to between one and ten, in line with the skill range, but still manages to keep it relatively nuanced, especially with the specialisations for the Elder Lore skill. This goes hand-in-hand with an increase in the Horror rating from between one and five to between one and ten. This reflects the greater scope and overwhelming impact of the Mythos and its entities. 

In terms of Talents, those new to Leagues of Cthulhu are mostly Flaws as much as they are Talents, so are perfectly Lovecraftian. They are Bloodlines, such as Jermyn and Pickman, and they all have their advantages, but they have their downsides too. The exact nature of their negative side is kept hidden in the Game Master’s section. This being a Leagues of Adventure supplement, there are also new leagues, essentially clubs or societies focussed on particular interests. The Aeon Club is for those who have had encounters with the Mythos and is primarily a support club for survivors, although it does conduct and collect some knowledge, whereas the Hounds of Nodens will take some proactive against the Mythos. Several new pieces of weird science are given, each intended to aid in facing or recovering from facing the Mythos. Three sample characters are described in detail—Book Dealer, Fearful Academic, and Questing Mariner—and done in rather nice detail. It is a pity that there are just the three of them. 

Where in Leagues of Adventure, the Magical Aptitude Talent is required to cast magic, in Leagues of Cthulhu magic is wholly democratic. Anyone can learn it, that is if they are foolish or desperate enough to want to, have access to a mentor, or can study from a tome. Certain rituals, such as Augury, Healing, and Rewind Time, from Leagues of Gothic Horror do not fit the Cosmic Horror of Leagues of Cthulhu, and so are not used. Instead, most of the given rituals consist of Call, Commune, and Summon type spells, and these are joined by the expected rituals such as Elder Sign and Voorish Sign. Leagues of Cthulhu greatly parrs the spell list down in comparison to other Roleplaying Games of Lovecraftian investigative horror. This does mean that the Call, Commune, and Summon spells are genericised somewhat, but the Game Master should add elements and aspects to made the demands of such casting, if not more demanding, then more flavourful.

In comparison, the treatment of Eldritch Tomes is more detailed and flavoursome. All of the classics are included—the Necronomicon (of course), Cultes des Ghouls, Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten, The King in Yellow, Nameless Cults, and so on—as well as some interesting new ones, such as My Journey to the Inner World by Jeff Combos-Tower and the Winkelgleichungen Zum Queren Der Dimensionen by Patric Götz. These are all drawn from Lovecraft’s own fiction, and this continues with the gazetteer and bestiary. The former takes the reader from Africa and the Americas to the Ocean Floor and Other Worlds, and at twenty-five pages in length, is the longest section in the volume. In each case, it provides a continental—or larger—sized overview, before focusing on specific places. So, in Africa, the Ugandan Ruins from the short story ‘Winged Death’ and Queen Nitocris’ Tomb from ‘The Outsider’ and ‘Imprisoned with the Pharaohs’; Arkham and The Witch House from ‘Dreams in the Witch House’ in the Americas; the eponymous cities from ‘The Nameless City’ and ‘The Doom that Came to Sarnath’; the Black Museum from ‘The Hound’ and Kilderry Bog from ‘The Moon-Bog’; and so on. It does deviate a little by including The Black Monolith from Robert E. Howard’s ‘The Black Stone’, but every location is accorded a solid description as well as an adventure hook.

For its treatment of the Great Old Ones, Leagues of Cthulhu takes a leaf out of Trail of Cthulhu, Pelgrane Press’ roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror, by giving them but a single stat. Here it is their Horror Rating, the point being that such entities cannot be killed in the material sense. They can be contacted, communed with, and summoned, necessitating the learning of the spells earlier in the supplement. The horrors themselves, the lesser entities, creatures, alien races, and servitors, from the Black Spawn of Tsathoggua, Black Winged One, and Colour Out of Space to Shoggoth, Spawn of Cthulhu, and Spawn of Shub-Niggurath, are given stats, since they can be affected on the material realm. Less dangerous foes, mainly because they lack a Horror Rating, come in the form of cults and their leading proponents, for example, Pierre Deveraux for the Church of Starry Wisdom. Rounding this out are write-ups of various notables of the Mythos, some anathema to the Mythos, such Doctors George Gammell Angell and Henry Armitage, others anathema to mankind, such as Keziah Mason and Lavinia Whateley.

Lastly, as well as listing the skeletons in the closet for each of the Bloodline Talents given earlier in the supplement, Leagues of Cthulhu closes with some advice on running a game of Lovecraftian investigative horror for the Leagues of Adventure and Leagues of Gothic Horror Game Master. It sets the default Style of Play as Dark, emphasises how Leagues of Cthulhu is very much an investigative game rather than one of action or exploration, and provides guidance as to how clues should be used to help rather than hinder the player characters. It also points out that being set in the Mauve Decade of the 1890s, the Leagues of Cthulhu setting is set before and therefore not bound by the canon of Lovecraft’s writings, so the Game Master has more of a free rein when creating investigations and mysteries of her own. The advice is borne of years of experience with other roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror and so both useful and to the point.

Physically, Leagues of Cthulhu is slim hardback done in full colour with some rather nice pieces of artwork. The writing is to the point and in keeping with the supplement’s trimmed down treatment of the Mythos. 

One issue with Leagues of Cthulhu is that it is a supplement of a supplement, so to get the fullest out of it, the Game Master will need Leagues of Gothic Horror as well as Leagues of Adventure. To counter that, Leagues of Cthulhu does not repeat anything from either the roleplaying game or the supplement. This leaves Leagues of Cthulhu to focus on the Mythos without any extraneous content which would have increased its page count unnecessarily—though the Easter Eggs might count.

If Leagues of Cthulhu is missing anything, it is a mystery, a scenario, for the globetrotters to investigate and discover the dangers of Cosmic Horror which lurk beyond all that this good and wholesome. That though is a matter of space, though hopefully Triple Ace Games will rectify this soon. If there is an issue with the treatment of the Mythos in Leagues of Cthulhu, it is in the inclusion of the spell, True Name of Azathoth, which when uttered has the power to drive even the Great Old Ones from the Material Plane, if only temporarily. It is a potent spell and perhaps the ready answer to confronting any Mythos entity, but whilst both difficult and horrifying to cast, its inclusion not only partly negates the threat that is Cosmic Horror, it makes it ever so slightly mundane. This is because once a group of investigators has used it once, what is to stop them from using it again? After all, this is what a group of players would really have their characters do...

Ultimately, what Leagues of Cthulhu does is shift Leagues of Adventure: A Rip-Roaring Setting of Exploration and Derring Do in the Late Victorian Age! and Leagues of Gothic Horror further away from scenarios focusing on exploration and adventure to those focusing on investigation, specifically investigation into the manifestations of Cosmic Horror which threaten the globetrotters’ sanity, let alone the future of mankind and the planet! It does this with a neatly trimmed down treatment of the Cthulhu Mythos that draws primarily on Lovecraft’s own writings to provide a Purist approach for use with what would otherwise be the Pulp mechanics of the Ubiquity System. Leagues of Cthulhu opens up the Cthulhu Mythos to Leagues of Adventure and the Ubiquity System in both an efficient and effective manner, ready to drive us insane whatever the setting.