[Free RPG Day 2024] The Great Toy Heist

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally 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. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

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One of the perennial contributors to Free RPG Day is Paizo, Inc., a publisher whose titles for both the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Starfinder Roleplaying Game have proved popular and often in demand long after the event. The emphasis in these releases have invariably been upon small species. Thus, in past years, the titles released for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game have typically involved adventures with diminutive Player Characters, first Kobolds, then Goblins, and then with the release of A Fistful of Flowers for Free RPG Day 2022 and A Few Flowers More for Free RPG Day 2023, and now for Free RPG Day 2024, it is the turn of toys with The Great Toy Heist! This is a short adventure for Second Level Player Characters—of which four pre-generated examples are provided—who are all one of Golarion’s rare ancestries. This is ‘Poppet’. Usually in Golarion and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, a poppet is a small, mindless magical construct designed to serve as familiars and help with simple tasks. However, with The Great Toy Heist, all four pre-generated have achieved magical sentience and so can go adventure on their own.

To get the most out of The Great Toy Heist, the Game Master will need access to the Pathfinder Player Core, Pathfinder GM Core, Pathfinder Monster Core, Pathfinder Lost Omens Grand Bazaar, and Pathfinder Lost Omens Worlds Guide. However, a Game Master should be able to run the adventure with the core rules and further references found in the Pathfinder Reference Document.

The setting for The Great Toy Heist is the Chelish capital of Egorian, notorious for its inhabitants engaging in the practice of devil-worshipping. Not everyone is a devil-worshipper though and in-between the gothic buildings of the temples to Asmodeus, there are ordinary businesses such as The Terrific Toybox. It is famous for the quality of the toys its owner, Gettorio Galla, makes and sells. The shop is sat atop a source of occult magical energy, some of which seeps into some of those toys and so awake them to sentience. These Poppets revere their creator and help her about the shop as well as keeping an eye on when she is not there or asleep. However, a greedy, unprincipled, and wealthy noble, Baron Falgrimous Vreen, has learned about the magical source and decided to take for himself. He found a loophole in the diabolically complicated laws of the city and exploited it to seize the deed to the toyshop and now plans to evict Gettorio Galla and her fantastic creations—including the Player Characters. Loyal to Gettorio Galla, the four Player Characters have decided to break into the mansion of Baron Vreen and steal back the deed to The Terrific Toybox!

The Great Toy Heist opens en media res. The Player Characters have had themselves shipped into Baron Vreen’s mansion and can take the advantage of the head of the house holding a party, to search the for the deed. As players, the scenario gives them time here to go over their characters and introduce themselves to each other before beginning the scenario proper. The first encounter is combat driven, a fun battle with a pair of Imps engagingly called ‘Tsk’ and ‘Tut’, who will taunt and tease the Player Characters throughout the fight. The guidance for the fight suggests making it a very physical affair that takes in the environment, such as climbing and pulling down bookshelves, dropping chandeliers on the Imps, and so on.

The battle, which takes place in the mansion’s sitting room, is the first of the scenario’s three acts. The second is the ‘Manor Infiltration’ in which the Player Characters sneak about the mansion. This is handled not room by room, by more narratively as a montage of scenes in which the Player Characters overcome obstacles and take advantage of opportunities. Through rolling successes and failures, the Player Characters accrue Infiltration Points and Awareness Points, and these can be used by the Game Master to trigger Obstacles, Complications, and Opportunities, such as a ‘Messy Office’, ‘Drunken Guest’, ‘Not Like That!’, and ‘Lucky Break’. Eventually, the Player Characters will find the vault, deal with its guardian, and having found the deed to the land under The Terrific Toybox, escape back home with its future ensured.

Whilst half of The Great Toy Heist is dedicated to the scenario, the other is decided to its four pre-generated Player Characters. These consist of Cutie Killstuff, a pink, fluffy bunny rabbit Barbarian; Hellpup, a hellhound toy and Witch done in leather; Marcella the Marionette, a classic Domino puppet and Rogue; and The Tin Wizard, a clockwork toy Wizard. All four are given a two-page spread complete with background, a guide to playing them in terms of combat, exploration, and healing, , relationships with the other three Player Characters, and the full stats along with a good illustration. These are really very well done, though quite a lot of information for a one-shot scenario.

Physically, The Great Toy Heist is as well presented as you would expect for a release from Paizo, Inc. Everything is in full colour, the illustrations are excellent, and the maps attractive.

The Great Toy Heist is a fun scenario, though very short. The only problem perhaps is the inclusion of Cutie Killstuff, a pink, fluffy bunny rabbit Barbarian. Everyone is going to want to play them and only one player can! The Great Toy Heist is a great release for Free RPG Day 2024, just as you would expect from Paizo, Inc.

Friday Fantasy: Unholy Nights in Lankhmar

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #10: Unholy Nights in Lankhmar is a scenario for Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and the tennth scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. Scenarios for Dungeon Crawl Classics tend be darker, grimmer, and even pulpier than traditional Dungeons & Dragons scenarios, even veering close to the Swords & Sorcery subgenre. Scenarios for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set are set in and around the City of the Black Toga, Lankhmar, the home to the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, the creation of author Fritz Leiber. The city is described as an urban jungle, rife with cutpurses and corruption, guilds and graft, temples and trouble, whores and wonders, and more. Under the cover the frequent fogs and smogs, the streets of the city are home to thieves, pickpockets, burglars, cutpurses, muggers, and anyone else who would skulk in the night! Which includes the Player Characters. And it is these roles which the Player Characters get to be in Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #10: Unholy Nights in Lankhmar, small time crooks trying to make a living and a name for themselves, but without attracting the attention of either the city constabulary or worse, the Thieves’ Guild!

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #10: Unholy Nights in Lankhmar is a slightly longer and slightly different scenario to others released for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. It is also a whole lot weirder, because it involves encounters with an extraplanetary traveller who comes dressed in red and runs around on rooftops, which sounds exactly like you think it does. After all, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #10: Unholy Nights in Lankhmar is a ‘A Level 2 Holiday Adventure’ and there really only one holiday where a traveller dressed in red runs around the rooftops. So you have you know who running around on the rooftops of Lankhmar, which to be honest, sounds goofy. It is. However, it is not quite what you expect, so it just about works. Expect the players to groan at you or at least roll their eyes.

Designed for two or three Player Characters of Second Level, the other reason why Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #10: Unholy Nights in Lankhmar is different is because it is an investigation. This is not a type of adventure that the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game is known for, but the one thing that the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set has encouraged is a wider range of scenario types. Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #10: Unholy Nights in Lankhmar begins with the discovery of the body of one of the Player Characters’ contacts in strange circumstances—they find him dead on the roof of his building with a living pine tree growing through him! All of which occurs under even weirder skies, as only tens days before, thick clouds settled over the city and have yet to move, plunging Lankhmar into a perpetual, unnatural darkness that means it remains gloomy even in the middle of the day. The clouds have yet to move and no one has any idea why!

The scenario is split into two parts. The first is the investigation. This leads the Player Characters back and forth across the city, first attempting to discover what the strange tree is and where it comes from and the rash of victims whose deaths have occurred in exactly the same fashion. In the process, they run into some surprisingly useful and interesting NPCs. This includes a gardener and a member of the city constabulary who actually thinks that the Player Characters can help, though of course, his boss wants to pin the murders on the Player Characters and throw them in gaol! Which should not be a surprise, since they do keep hanging around murder sites. Then there is the strange figure in red on the rooftops...

The investigative process is eased for the Judge with the inclusion of an ‘Investigation Map’ which handily links all of the clues together and for the players and their characters with ‘The Rumour Mill’, a list of possible rumours that the Player Characters can easily pick up by visiting their usual haunts and plying their fellow patrons with a few drinks. Pleasingly written in the vernacular and sounding just a little English with the use of words such as ‘tosspot’, these are handy means of directing the players and their characters back on track. The investigation process though, is not all talk and looking for clues. The likelihood is that there will be a couple of fights along the way, a possible confrontation with the city constabulary, and if that is not enough, the Judge is given two combative events to throw into the mix. One of these, ‘New (Possibly Old) Friends’, can be tied back to previous scenarios, such as Masks of Lankhmar or Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #1: Gang Lords of Lankhmar.

Completing the investigative half of Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #10: Unholy Nights in Lankhmar leads to the second half, the ‘Confrontation’. This is where the action really happens as the Player Characters locate the lair of the culprit behind both the murders and the strange weather and attempt to stop him. It is a classic Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar ending, the Player Characters having to sneak into the building and ascend to the scene of the final confrontation, the likes of which we have seen before from the author. This is not to say that it is not either badly done or detailed, as it is nicely detailed and a fitting culmination to the investigation, just similar to ones we have seen before.

The scenario does come with a nice pay-off for the Player Characters and as well as gaining the satisfaction of saving the city, should earn a contact or two in the process. Rounding out Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #10: Unholy Nights in Lankhmar leads is a pair of appendices. The first is the aforementioned ‘The Rumour Mill’, whilst the second is ‘Khahkht of the Black Ice’. This details the villain behind the scenario, a god-wizard from Nehwon’s far north, around the Frozen Sea, much feared and whispered of by the Mingols. In fact, any Mongol Player Character may be already be aware of him. ‘Khahkht of the Black Ice’ presents him as a possible Patron, along with the benefits of invoking him and suffering taint from him, as well as his three spells, Ray of the Anti-Sun, Craft of the Chill Smithy, and Khahkht’s Icy Breath. Khahkht is definitely a cruel and uncaring Patron, even evil, and certainly a wizard would have to be similarly evil or desperate to pledge himself to him. His inclusion then is suited for use with NPCs rather than Player Characters.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #10: Unholy Nights in Lankhmar is well presented. Both artwork and cartography are good, with some entertaining action scenes depicted.

If there is an issue with Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #10: Unholy Nights in Lankhmar, it is in its set-up. This requires the Player Characters to know the victim at the start of the adventure and to have his death be meaningful at the start of the start of the adventure, the Judge needs to add him to an earlier scenario. Given that this is the tenth scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set that makes it a bit difficult to set up unless the Judge is waiting to have every scenario to hand before running her campaign. Another issue is the ‘holiday’ or ‘Christmas’ element of the scenario which feels as if it was levered in almost sufferance rather than willingly. There is no denying that it is silly, but fortunately, it is not particular intrusive.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #10: Unholy Nights in Lankhmar is an engaging mix of investigation and action, as well as roleplaying, which under the unnaturally cloudy skies over the city of Lankhmar, feels just a little like film noir.

Unseasonal Festivities: Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024

The Christmas Annual is a traditional thing—and all manner of things can receive a Christmas Annual. Those of our childhoods would have been tie-ins to the comic books we read, such as the Dandy or the Beano, or the television series that we enjoyed, for example, Doctor Who. Typically, here in the United Kingdom, they take the form of slim hardback books, full of extra stories and comic strips and puzzles and games, but annuals are found elsewhere too. In the USA, ongoing comic book series, like Batman or The X-Men, receive their own annuals, though these are simply longer stories or collections of stories rather than the combination of extra stories and comic strips and puzzles and games. In gaming, TSR, Inc.’s Dragon magazine received its own equivalent, the Dragon Annual, beginning in 1996, which would go from being a thick magazine to being a hardcover book of its own with the advent of Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. For the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024—as with the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022, and the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2023—the format is very much a British one. This means puzzles and games, and all themed with the fantasy and mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons, along with content designed to get you into the world’s premier roleplaying game.

Despite what it says in the introduction, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 is not quite a book for everyone. This is because its content is really geared to towards players new to roleplaying and Dungeons & Dragons, with lots of advice on how to get started and what choices to make, and overviews of many different aspects of the roleplaying game, its settings, and history. This is not the only content in the book though and there is some of it that will be of interest to more experienced players, especially the community creators content. As usual the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 is replete with excellent artwork drawn from the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons, a handful of puzzles, and spotlights thrown on some of the baddest villains in Dungeons & Dragons.

Published by Harper Collins Publishers, Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 opens with a ‘Quick Start Guide’, a flow chart that takes the reader step-by-step how to get into the hobby and start playing. This begins with finding your people and deciding who will be the Dungeon Master before moving on through character creation, session zero, and all the way to the first session and afterwards. It is simple and it is clear, and it begins a guide that runs through the pages of this annual. It continues with ‘A History of D&D’, a fairly broad timeline that brings the roleplaying game up to today, when its future remains unknown as we await the arrival of a new edition later this year. ‘Finding a Game’ under ‘Roll for Inspiration’ suggests options for finding other players, such as playing by post, playing at a games store, or playing online, again giving each option a thumbnail description, a starting point rather than full advice. ‘Roll for Inspiration’ also suggests ‘Playing in Alternative Settings’, including Science Fiction, Steampunk, Noir, and more. Some of these suggestions point to actual Dungeons & Dragons books such as Curse of Strahd for a Gothic setting. Other entries under ‘Roll for Inspiration’ give a guide to combat, creating your own campaign settings, and more.

The guide to playing and getting ready to play, really begins with ‘Character Creation’, which breaks down the character sheet for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and details the very basics of the process, whilst the ‘Classified’ feature examines the various Classes in the roleplaying game, explaining what they do, their skills, why they are so good, and so on. Thus ‘Casters’ does this for Arcane spellcasters, ‘Tanks’ for fighting types, and ‘Utility’ does it for the Bard, the Rogue, the Ranger, and the Cleric. The descriptions are basic, but their aim is to sell what playing a member of each Class is like and in that it succeeds.

The ‘Heroes & Villains’ section begins big with ‘Vecna and Kas’, the first look at some the signature figures in Dungeons & Dragons. The descriptions are short, but to the point, and richly illustrated, but each comes with his or her own story, a fact file, pertinent points, and so on. In the case of ‘Vecna and Kas’, this includes both the Eye of Vecna and the Hand of Vecna, and his cult. What is really great about the description of Vecna is that it includes a sidebar about the ‘Head of Vecna’, a non-magical item that would lend itself to a great gaming story and gaming legend. It is a great story, but it is not necessarily a familiar one. So, what it shows about Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 is that its author knows or understands the world of Dungeons & Dragons—or at least, has done his homework. Of course, ‘Vecna and Kas’ is also looking forward to the now recently released Vecna – Eve of Ruin. ‘Tasha’ does the same for the Witch Queen, famed for her spells like Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, as does ‘The Raven Queen’ for the divine interloper from the Shadowfell.

‘Mapping the Multiverse’ explores some of the major locations and settings for Dungeons & Dragons. The first location is ‘Candlekeep’ in the Forgotten Realms, presented in rich colour and nicely annotated. It does seem an odd place to start, just a single location, as none of the other entries copy this. Thus, ‘Eberon’ includes a full map of the continent, again nicely marked up, whilst ‘The Sword Coast’ returns to the Forgotten Realms in similar fashion. The world of ‘Krynn’ is treated in similar fashion. ‘Anthologies’ looks back at the last decade of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition by highlighting some of the scenario collections that Wizards of the Coast has published, such as Keys from the Golden Vault or Tales from the Yawning Portal, whilst ‘Shadow of the Dragon Queen’ in ‘Campaign Spotlight’ looks at the return of Dungeons & Dragons to the world of Krynn and Dragonlance. The other entry in the ‘Campaign Spotlight’ sort of brings the numerous settings together with ‘Spelljammer: Adventures in Space’ which takes Dungeons & Dragons into deep space, and potentially to anyone of the settings presented in Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024.

The ‘Bestiary’ feature looks at numerous types of monsters in Dungeons & Dragons. Every entry tells the reader how dangerous the monster is, where it is found, what to watch out for, and their battle plan. The monsters covered include the undead, Illithids—Mind Flayers and the like, giants, and what it terms ‘The Classics’. These consist of the signature creatures of the Dungeons & Dragons game, the Gelatinous Cube, the Mimic, and the like.

The biggest features in the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 are ‘Meet the Creators’. These profile and interview players and creators who have taken their hobby and brought into the public sphere with a podcast. They include Shamini Bundell of RPGeeks, a podcast which combines Dungeons & Dragons with science and Science Fiction; Daniel Kwan from The Asians Represent Podcast is interviewed about Asian creators, representation, and what an Asian perspective brings to Dungeons & Dragons games that he runs; and Connie Chang, of the all-transgender, Person-of-Colour-led podcast, Transplanar, talks about running a campaign about love, yet set in a dark, apocalyptic world. All three of these podcasts have lasted more than the one season and the interviewees have a chance to reflect on how they started, the Player Characters, games played, and their opinions on Dungeons & Dragons. At four pages each, these interviews are the longest features in the annual—and easily its highlight, providing a different and far from unwelcome aspect on playing and creating for Dungeons & Dragons.

Elsewhere, ‘Beyond the Tabletop’ does what it says and look at the hobby away from the table. So ‘Conventions’ gives a very quick guide to the hobby’s big events like Pax and Gen Con, and though it is nice to see Dragonmeet, a convention in the UK, it seems curious not to include UK Games Expo, and ‘More Than a Game’ looks at aspects of the hobby in a similar fashion—cosplay, listening to actual play, miniatures, and more. Perhaps one of the most entertaining entries is ‘D&D in a Castle’, which looks at the event which takes places three times a year at Lumley Castle, a fourteenth century, hosting a long weekend of playing Dungeons & Dragons. It looks a lot of fun and perhaps the apogee of the progress made by the reader of Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 from his reading the first few pages, starting with ‘Quick Start Guide’. ‘Level Up Your Table’ suggests ways to enhance play, such as including ‘The Deck of Many Things’, though it does come with a warning about the derailing effect of its cards. It also ties into The Deck of Many Things release from Wizards of the Coast.

Like all British annuals, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 has puzzles. In previous editions, such puzzles—or ‘Activities’ as they are titled here—have been the simplest of retheming of perennial standbys, such as having to move the minimum number of matchsticks around to solve a puzzle or a maze or… To be blunt, they did not look much different to the puzzles found in other annuals for other intellectual properties. The puzzles in the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 are better and more strongly themed. They begin with ‘What Type of Player Are You?’, a classic quiz which determines what type of person you are, or this case what sort of roleplayer you are. It is a bit broad in its definitions, but that is the nature of such quizzes. There is also a maze, which is not easy, the wordsearch is done as a ‘Hex Crawl’ in which spell names have been hidden, the Sudoku-style puzzle substitutes symbols rather than numbers and comes in two levels, ‘Cryptograms’ provides a Dungeons & Dragons code-breaking task, and there is an ‘Intelligence Check’, a quiz about the roleplaying game’s lore, much of which is previously detailed in the book. In comparison to previous editions of the Dungeons & Dragons Annual, there are fewer puzzles and not only are they of higher quality, but they are also better themed. In the past the puzzles have always felt like a waste of space, but that is not the case here.

Physically, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 is solidly presented. There is plenty of full colour artwork drawn from Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, and the writing is clear and kept short, so is an easy read for its intended audience.

In past years, entries in the Dungeons & Dragons Annual series have proven to be decent enough introductions to Dungeons & Dragons, but did not always feel as if they were not written by authors who knew the world of Dungeons & Dragons very well. Fortunately, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 feels different. There is a strong focus on the worlds and worlds of Dungeons & Dragons, its settings and its villains, but coupled with a decent guide to getting started and taking the first steps. The interviews with the podcast creators really standout as showing how the hobby embraces and has the space for such a diverse range of creators, which means that players of different backgrounds can see themselves reflected in the hobby. Of course, for the veteran there is less in the pages of the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 that will be new and unless they are a collector of all things Dungeons & Dragons, this is not a book that they need on their bookshelves. As something to receive at Christmas (or not) in your Christmas stocking (or not), the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024 is the best yet to be published by Harper Collins Publishers. It is informative and it is engaging, providing more and more useful details about the world of Dungeons & Dragons before the reader takes his first steps into actual play. It will be very difficult for the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2025 to improve on the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024.

Jonstown Jottings #91: Skull Ruins: Tusk Riders Need Blood!

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s mythic universe of Glorantha. It enables creators to sell their own original content for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, 13th Age Glorantha, and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.

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What is it?

Skull Ruins: Tusk Riders Need Blood! is a scenario for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha which details an escort mission in which the Player Characters are tasked with guiding a Tusk Rider ‘ally’—or intelligence asset—of Queen Leika, along with his unruly boar tusker deep into unfriendly territory along the new border between Sartar and the Lunar Empire, where a blood sacrifice can be made.

It is a possible sequel to the scenario, ‘Defending Apple Lane’, from the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack.

It is also a guide to the Boarsbeard Clan, a clan whose members have either been kidnapped by Tusk Riders and instead of being sacrificed, were offered to the Dark Spirit of the Bloody Tusk cult, or whose ancestors were. Many of them are not simply Pig-Hsunchen, but Tusk Brother Wereboars! Plus, the Cult of Sawtooth, dedicated to a legendary renegade guardian of the Stinking Forest, whose members consist of a weird mix of Aldryami, Trolls, and Tusk Riders, many of whom serve as scouts.

It is a full colour, seventy-six page, 59.91 PDF.

The layout is tidy and it is very nicely illustrated.

It needs a slight edit.

Where is it set?

Skull Ruins: Tusk Riders Need Blood! begins in Clearwine, but will take the Player Characters north to cross The Creek and from there make their way to Skull Ruin in the Bone Hills near the boundary of the territory between Alda-Chur and Herongreen.

Who do you play?
Skull Ruins: Tusk Riders Need Blood! does not require any specific character type, but Player Characters who are capable warriors and a skilled negotiator are recommended, as is an Earth priestess.

What do you need?
Skull Ruins: Tusk Riders Need Blood! requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack, and the RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary.

What do you get?

Skull Ruins: Tusk Riders Need Blood! sets up an interesting moral quandary for the Player Characters. They are chosen by Queen Leika Blackspear of Colymar to escort a very strange ‘intelligence asset’ deep into the territories between liberated Northern Sartar and pro-Imperial Alda-Chur, newly disputed as a result of the Dragonrise. This ‘intelligence asset’ is Penjurlhi, a Tusk Rider, an ‘Aramite’ held captive by the Queen. (One option here is for Penjurlhi to have been captured by the Player Characters as a result of playing through ‘Defending Apple Lane’ from the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack.) Penjurlhi has knowledge of the secret routes that the Tusk Riders use to conduct their raids which he is willing to share with the Queen. Unfortunately, Penjurlhi is losing the connection he has with his Tusker and the giant boar is growing increasingly erratic and dangerous. The connection can be reforged, but this requires a sacrificial rite—including a blood sacrifice—at a secret location known as Skull Ruin. This is a series of caves in a snake-like hill and it is in possession of an infamous bandit called Gornorix.

The Player Characters have a chance to discuss the mission with the queen and her advisors before they leave as well as Penjurlhi. They must then travel their way north, arrange means of crossing The Creek, and from there make their way to Skull Ruin. Along the way, an encounter with a Troll warband reveals that the Player Characters are not the only ones interested in Skull Ruin, as Gornorix is holding one of their number captive. It is this Troll captive who will be the unwilling victim sacrificed as part of the ritual to reforge the connection between Penjurlhi and his Tusker.

The quandary for the Player Characters depends upon their views on blood sacrifice. Many cults practice it, but not necessarily with a sentient being. So do the Player Characters follow through with Queen Leika’s orders and let the Troll captive be sacrificed? Do they instead side with the Troll warband and antagonise first Gornorix and then Queen Laika? Or do they find another way of resolving the situation? Numerous options and their possible outcomes are discussed in some detail, helped by the clearly presented motivations of the various NPCs. Full stats are provided for all of the inhabitants of Skull Ruin and the Troll Warband, along with a guide to running the assault/defence of the Skull Mountain, depending upon whom the Player Characters side with. There is also a full list of random things to be found in the caves if the Player Characters have the opportunity and more importantly time—searching some locations can take hours!—to comb through every location. That said, there is a lot of treasure held at Skull Mountain and the adventure includes some nicely done magical items, such as the Plinth Stone Club, made from a piece of a shattered Dragonewt plinth stone, that either drains or transfers Magic Points or drains Rune Points!

The scenario is rounded off with a set of scenario hooks that the Game Master can develop as sequels. In addition, the scenario details the Boarsbeard Clan, whose members are tolerated by both Heortlings and Tusk Riders and are often used as intermediaries between both. The strange Cult of Sawtooth, based in the Stinking Forest, is also fully detailed. Both Boarsbeard Clan and the Cult of Sawtooth should provide a ready source of interesting, often powerful NPCs. The very full Cult of Sawtooth write-up is accompanied with some advice on how to use it and some adventure ideas as well.

Is it worth your time?

Yes—Skull Ruins: Tusk Riders Need Blood! is an excellent scenario which requires careful roleplaying and negotiation upon the part of the Player Characters, whilst still having plenty of scope for combat and action, as well as a moral dilemma at its heart. (The extra background is a bonus.)

No—Skull Ruins: Tusk Riders Need Blood! is a challenging scenario morally and the Player Characters may not want to have to deal with blood sacrifice. Plus the Game Master may not be running a campaign in Sartar.

Maybe—Skull Ruins: Tusk Riders Need Blood! is a challenging scenario morally and one reason it may not be easy to set up because the Player Characters did not capture a Tusk Rider in ‘Defending Apple Lane’ from RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack, and instead killed them all!

Miskatonic Monday #291: Fruit from the Dust

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 Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the 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 depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

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Name: Flash Cthulhu – Fruit from the Dust

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Michael Reid

Setting: Oklahoma, 1936

Product: One-Location, One-Hour Scenario
What You Get: Eight page, 1.61 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “Cherry trees will blossom every year; But I'll disappear for good, One of these days.” – Philip Whalen

Plot Hook: Is the tree growing in the Dustbowl a miracle?

Plot Support: Staging advice, three NPCs, and four pre-generated Investigators.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Short, sharp confrontation

# Fructopobia

# Dendrophobia

# Kerasiphobia

Cons

# Needs a slight edit

# Feels like the culmination of a fuller investigation

# Violence the likely outcome

Conclusion

# Short, sharp bloody hour of horror over hope

# Not effective as other Flash Cthulhu titles because the Investigators start from outside the situation rather than from within and are less emotionally invested

Far West... Finally

The fortunes of the Empire have always ebbed and flowed with rebellion and repression and restoration. An Imperial Governor deciding to throw off the shackles of Imperial control and declaring independence, only for his rebellion to be crushed and he be replaced by a political opponent. Always on the Periphery of the Empire and always following this pattern until a cascade of rebellions began The Session Wars. The Imperials had industrial and economic might manifested in superior training and technology, the Periphery had numbers and zeal. The August Throne also had time and it picked and pecked at the alliances between the rebellious new states, defeating each in turn until years later, the last free Kingdom of the West, Orinost, stood alone, the engineering geniuses at the Engineering school at the University of Alsdolan, the so-called Circle of Iron, used their advances in technology, especially Cog Science, to withstand the Imperial assault. This, combined with the efforts of the Clever Folk of the Far West and the Grand Masters and Legends of the Dust Road, to harry and undermine the efforts of the Imperial forces, enabled Orinost to hold out for three more years and so create its own legend along those of many of its great defenders. Ultimately, the two sides would clash at the battle of Ash Ford which would see men and women capable of shattering mountainsides with their bare hands battle each other, thousands killed, and Orinost defeated, yet the Emperor, in his wisdom, came to terms. The rebels were allowed to enter exile on the condition that they never took up arms against the Emperor again. So they fled West as far as they could from the Empire back East. They took the Dust Road over the border beyond the Periphery and the Last Horizon, and so into the Far West.

Yet the Far West is not quite as wild and barbarous as Imperial propaganda might say it is. The trains of the Chartered Houses, each led by a great Steam Baron, run far to fortified towns within territory, bringing goods and people to the new land; the people value their honour and courteous to a fault lest they insult one another; and the Marshals, empowered by the Chartered Houses to bring Imperial Law and ‘justice’, are known for the masks they wear which keep their faces hidden as much as for hunting down and executing the bandits which infest the region, though their reputation for ruthlessness has made them equally as feared. Then there is ‘The Dust Road’, a path rather than a road, walked by the Clever Folk, those whose knowledge and skill, whether in the arts, engineering, or sciences, and especially in the martial arts of kung-fu, transcend that of ordinary men. They can manipulate ink to blind their opponents, stand upon one spot unmoving no matter how much force is brought upon them for they will shatter first, make any object as sharp as a sword or as strong as steel to withstand a blow from a sword, target the humours of an opponent and so upset his equilibrium, shoot opposing bullets out of the air, and so on. Heroes or villains, they upset the natural order of things and so are not to be trusted, as thirty years since the battle of Ash Ford, the Empire eyes the lands beyond the Periphery with greed, the Chartered Houses plot to expand their economic grasp, and bandit armies strike fear into settlements large and small in the Far West.

This is the set-up for Far West: Western Wuxia Mash Up Adventure Game. Published by Adamant Entertainment, it is undeniably one of the most notorious roleplaying games of the modern age. Not because it is bad or its subject matter is contentious or its designer has expressed himself or done anything that could be regarded as inappropriate. No, it is notorious because it is late—and not just late, very late. In fact, to fair, very, very late. A decade late. In the past this would not have been an issue, but Far West was among the first roleplaying games to be funded via Kickstarter and to raise what was then a lot of money in doing so. In other words, its supporters put their money into the project and did not receive the much-promised book—until now, that is. Funded via Kickstarter on August 25th, 2011, it has taken almost thirteen years to bring the book to fruition. In that time, the designer, Gareth-Michael Skarka, has suffered illness and difficulties, least of which is the damage to his reputation, the roleplaying game has undergone a drastic redesign, and there have been numerous delays. Finally, with the assistance of Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Far West has seen print. To say all of this is not to attack the designer, but rather to give context and an understanding of the history of Far West. Yet the author barely addresses the issue in the book and certainly does not go so far as to apologise or offer a mea culpa for those delays, though his introduction to Far West would certainly have been the place to put that on record.

If anyone has had the patience to wait the thirteen years for the book, then they certainly owe Pinnacle Entertainment a debt of gratitude for helping the designer get Far West into the hands of the remaining Kickstarter backers and to T.S. Luikart, for working with the designer to complete the roleplaying game. Then with the book now out, the designer can at least put the project behind him, and those who waited for it, discover whether that wait has been worth the final product.

As the title suggests, Far West: Western Wuxia Mash Up Adventure Game combines two genres. One is the Old West of the post-Civil War United States, the other the Jianghu, the world of martial artists and the Wuxia genre of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Warring States period of Chinese history. More specifically for the first genre, it draws upon the Spaghetti Western rather than the Wild West, with stories set along the border between Mexico and the United States of America. This brings what is called a Castalan—in other words, a Hispanic—aspect to the setting. The combination of the Spaghetti Western and Wuxia genres also means that the traditional displaced native peoples typically found in the latter do not appear in Far West. In some ways Far West feels tonally very much like the television series Firefly, although without the Science Fiction elements. However, with the addition of Cog Science, Far West is also a Steampunk roleplaying game.

A Hero or Player Character, one of the Clever Folk, in Far West is defined by his Rank, Attributes, Background, Occupation, Skills, Spirit and Aspects, Edges and Flaws, and Allegiance. Rank, from Novice to Legend determines how many dice a player has to assign to Attributes and Skills, the number of Kung Fu Forms he knows and how much Spirit he can have. The seven Attributes are Reflexes, Strength, Wits, Toughness, Presence, Knack, and Kung Fu. Of these, Knack is a measure of aptitude with tools and technology, whilst Kung Fu represents how good he is in the special forms of martial arts. Background, such as ‘Back East—The Empire’ or ‘The Rolling Steppes’, and Occupations like ‘Artist’, ‘Gambler’, ‘Hired Gun’, ‘Lotus Girl/Willing Lad’, and ‘Wrangler’ all provide bonuses to skills.

Aspects are descriptive elements of a character. They can include relationships, beliefs, descriptions, catchphrases, distinctive possessions, tied to Advantages and Disadvantages. In play, a player can spend Spirit to Tag an Aspect, bring it into play and gain two bonus Wild Dice to a roll, whereas the Narrator can compel an Aspect, bring it into play, forcing the Player Character to act against his best interests or simply earn a penalty to roll. In return, the Player Character is rewarded with Spirit. It is possible for one Player Character to Tag another and so gain the Wild Dice bonus. One advantage of tagging an Aspect is if the roll is successful. If so, the Spirit spent to Tag the Aspect is refunded, but if the roll is a failure, the Spirit is lost. A player can refuse an attempt to Compel an Aspect, but this will cost Spirit to do so. Aspects can also be built into scenes to be Tagged or Compelled. An Aspect can also be Tagged after a roll, but this does not gain the two extra Wild Dice, instead allowing a reroll.

Spirit is a Hero’s inner power or life force. It is based on the value of his Attributes and Kung Fu dice. Divided into Permanent Spirit and Temporary Spirit. Permanent Spirit is reduced to learn Kung Fu styles, whilst Temporary Spirit is used to add dice to rolls, Tag Aspects, and so on. A Hero has an Aspect each from his Background, Occupation, highest and lowest Attributes, and Rank. The Background and Occupation Aspects must be selected from virtues of the Dust Road. These are altruism, justice, individualism, loyalty, courage, truthfulness, disregard for wealth, and desire for glory, and one must be negative and one positive. Edges, such as ‘Blinding Speed’, ‘Deadly Aim’, and ‘Fortune Of The Celestial Monkey’, are purchased by spending Skill dice, whilst a Hero can add to his Skill dice by choosing Flaws like ‘Addlepated’, ‘Debt’, and ‘Thick As A Stump’.

Kung Fu is different in that its four skills are determined by the Kung Fu Attribute. The four Skills are External Kung Fu, which focuses on physical power and agility with direct, explosive attacks; Gateways Kung Fu is about the flow of Spirit along meridians within the human body to the points where they intersect at gateways or pressure points, which can be disrupted to cause paralysis or even death; Internal Kung Fu is about the flow of Spirit within the practitioner’s own body to harden the flesh against attacks, expel Spirit as attacks, and master balance and leverage; and Lightness Kung Fu is about the manipulation of the practitioner’s own body weight to be able to walk along walls, leap over roofs, and move swiftly and lightly.

Allegiance can be to an organisation, a belief system, nation, or a philosophy, and in play, mechanically, it can be Tagged or Compelled like any other Aspect. The default Allegiance is to a Clan, but a Hero can also be a Drifter in which case he suffers interaction penalties when dealing with any Clan. Some Clans are secret like the ‘lotus girls’ and ‘willing boys’ of the Foxglove Society, a clan of assassins, or secretive, such as the ‘Brotherhood of Steel and Song’, the solitary Mariachi. Others are more obvious, such as the Iron Dragons, which work the rails back and forth across the Far West, whilst the Jade Family are nomadic con artists, beggars, thieves, entertainers, and fortune-tellers who take ‘Jade’ as their surname to indicate membership. Every Clan is described in some detail, including its background, philosophy, fighting styles used, organisation, symbol, and benefits.

The actual process of creating a Hero is a matter of assigning dice to both Attributes and Skills, and making choices. It is not a difficult process, but it is a daunting one because of the array of choices possible and the lack of advice when it comes to those choices. There are templates at the back of the book, but they are bare bones and there is no complete example of the Hero creation process—there are lots of little examples—and then the player has the problem of tying his Hero into the setting. This is compounded by the sheer number of Kung Fu styles to choose from—there are over eighty! The question is, which Kung Fu style goes with what concept or background? Which Kung Fu styles can be used with melee weapons or firearms? Perhaps it would have been helpful if some archetypes had been given, complete with Aspects, Kung Fu styles, and origins to tie them to the roleplaying game’s setting, both to illustrate and sell the setting?

Name: Mathias Pouke
Rank: Initiate
Background: Back East—The Empire
Occupation: Artist (Journalist)
Allegiance: The Wandering Stars
Spirit: 16 Permanent, 9 Temporary
Aspects: Individualism (Not From Around These Parts), Desire For Glory (Something to Prove), Fingers & Thumbs, A Way With Words, The Cat’s With Me
Edges & Flaws: Animal Ally (Cat, her name is Fence), Famous (Chronicler of the Far West), Debt
Kung Fu Styles: Brushless Sight Stroke, Fluttering Fist, Quivering Palm)
Reflexes 4D (Dodge 1D)
Strength 2D (Running 1D)
Wits 4D+2 (Artist 2D+2, Bureaucracy 1D, Gambling 1D, Investigation 2D, Scholar 1D+1, Streetwise 1D)
Toughness 3D
Presence 4D+2 (Animal Handling 1D+1, Bargain 1D+1, Charm 1D+1, Persuasion 1D)
Knack 2D (Lockpicking 1D)
Kung Fu 4D (External 1D, Gateway 1D, Internal 2D)

In terms of rules, Far West: Western Wuxia Mash Up Adventure Game is also a combination of two mechanics. The core rules are the D6Plus system, which uses pools of six-sided dice and which is a development of the mechanics first seen in Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, published by West End Games in 1987. The other is the storytelling or narrative Tagging and Compelling of Aspects as seen in FATE. The D6Plus system measures everything in terms of how many six-sided dice it has, primarily attributes and skills. It can have a bonus of +1 or +2, but never +3 or more. If an attribute or skill has a bonus increased to +3, it is instead increased by a whole extra die. A player will be typically rolling a number of dice equal to the rating of the attribute or skill, adding the results of all the dice, aiming to beat a Difficulty Number. An Easy Difficulty Number is roughly five or more, Easy ten, Moderate fifteen, Difficult twenty, and so on. Bonuses and penalties can apply from the situation, equipment used, or other factors.

When the dice are rolled, one die must be of a different colour. This is the Wild Die. If the result on the Wild Die is a one, it indicates a Critical Failure, whilst a roll of six on the Wild Die is a Critical Success and the player can roll the Wild Die again and keep adding as long as the Wild Die result is a six. If a Critical Success is rolled and a roll of one occurs, it does not mean that a Critical Failure has been rolled. A Critical Failure either negates the result of the highest die rolled or a complication occurs, the severity of which is determined by the Narrator, the suggestion being to make it lean into comic relief rather than necessarily being deadly. There are some suggestions for complications for the Narrator to use, such as “One of the characters kills a bandit. Unfortunately, the bandit was preparing to throw a stick of dynamite. The characters have only a few seconds to act before the dynamite explodes...” and it is suggested that the Narrator also write possible Complications into scenes and encounters in her scenarios. Additional Wild Dice can be added to a dice pool by spending Spirit.

An optional rule allows for ‘Joss’ or extra luck in a dice roll, but after the roll has been made. This counts doubles in the roll. If the doubles are low, the Hero suffers ‘Bad Joss’ and the situation does not turn out in his favour, whilst if they are high, the Hero has ‘Good Joss’ and the situation does turn out in favour. Where the ‘Joss’ rule is interesting is that it is possible to fail a roll and still have ‘Good Joss’ or a roll to succeed and suffer ‘Bad Joss’. This is the equivalent narratively of ‘Yes, but’ and ‘No, but…’.

If a roll is a success, the amount by which the roll succeeded is called ‘Result Points’. These are used to add bonuses to future rolls, like damage and defensive rolls, sets the length of time for an effect or the complexity of later tasks. In some cases, the whole value of the Result Points is not used. For example, it is halved as a bonus for the Hero’s next roll and divided by five for the damage bonus.

For all the simplicity of the D6Plus system, combat in Far West is comparatively complex. Ranged combat is straightforward enough, a simple skill roll versus range, but close combat is not. Skills rolls are made against the difficulty of wielding the weapon used, brawling attacks are always very easy, whilst each Kung Fu style has its own Difficulty value. However, all of these Difficulty values can be replaced if a defendant decides to use the Dodge skill to avoid the blow, the Melee or Brawling skill to parry, or a Kung Fu style with a defensive element. This turns combats into a series of opposed rolls. Modifiers adjust the number dice to be rolled due to range, cover, protection, the type of manoeuvre, and hit location. There are also penalties for multiple actions, these being very likely if a defendant wants to avoid or stop an attack. Add into this the some eighty of so Kung Fu styles and that is a lot to take into consideration. Obviously, not all eighty Kung Fu styles are going to be used in single combat, but with four Heroes, which is twelve that the Narrator needs to be aware of before she even considers those for the NPCs.

Duels—which work for both the Western and the Wuxia side of Far West—are actually neatly done with ‘The Showdown’ rules. This is divided into two phases. In the ‘Stare-Down’ phase, in which the participants make opposed Intimidation (or Prescence) rolls. The ‘Stare-Down’ can last multiple rounds during which the participants attempt to roll higher than the other. The loser always chooses when the ‘Stare-Down’ ends and the winner then uses the Result Points from his total rolls to modify his initiative roll in the ‘Quickdraw’ phase. This gives the winner an advantage as otherwise he would have to use dice from his weapon skill to modify his initiative.

Damage comes the weapon used, plus the Strength Attribute if a melee weapon, and Kung Fu style if appropriate. This is opposed by the defending combatant’s Toughness, with Result Points determining the effect of the damage done. A stunned combatant suffers a die penalty to all actions, a wounded one is knocked to the floor, and if the Result Points are sufficient, the defender can be killed. Damage options include substituting severe injuries instead of outright killing someone and there are descriptions given for narrative damage. Combat is surprisingly deadly, and a player may want to spend Spirit Points to temporarily increase his Hero’s Toughness or he can reduce damage on a one-for-one basis.

The setting itself is supported with a solid section of arms, equipment, goods, and services, and it is here that the Cog Science is covered. Each device has a Scale ranging from Character to Huge, plus the various dice bonuses it provides, bonuses and limitations, skill required for its use, and so on. This can include adding Aspects to the Cog device. The Cog Science skill is required to build any device and a player works with the Narrator to determine what it does and what its total value is. The value indicates how many days the device will take to complete, whilst the Narrator works out how much it will cost based on the cost of other devices given in the book. To compare, a Pocket Tracker has a value of twenty-three versus the fifty-one of a Repeating Rifle. Numerous example devices are given, but the few pages here—just eight—barely scratches the surface of this aspect of Far West. The guidelines are serviceable, but not spectacular. Arguably, Cog Science could have done with a chapter all of its very own.

A fifth of the book is dedicated to the setting of Far West, its history, geography, culture, common means of travel and communication, and more. This includes how the peace is kept, how business is done, what entertainments and medicines are available, what faiths are followed, festivals celebrated, and so on. There is quite a lot here and it also includes a Far West lexicon. It is, however, all quite broad in its detail, as there is a lot to cover. The Narrator is given a chapter of her own which really introduces the two genres of the roleplaying game properly and gives some pointers as to the elements of both. The advice highlights the parallels between the Wuxia and the Spaghetti Western genres and it is these parallels which bring the two genres together. There is decent advice on what types of adventures can be run in the setting as well as campaign ideas, and some suggestions on legendary weapons and Kung Fu manuals—the latter being one of the primary ways in which to learn more Kung Fu styles, the creation of other Clans, and a random adventure generator as well as some hooks throughout the Narrator section. Add in the random settlement generator and the Narrator is given the tools to create the bare bones of her own scenarios. That said, a starting adventure would not have gone amiss.

Overall, the rules for Far West are at best serviceable, rather than exciting. The D6Plus system is generic and leaves the Tagging and Compelling of Aspects to do a lot of work in terms of bringing the setting to life mechanically. In fact, the combination of a nearly forty-year-old game system with a more modern one—and even that is a decade old—feels creaky. It does not help that Critical Successes are undeveloped, doing no more than allowing extra dice rolls, in comparison to the attention paid to Critical Failures. The Hero creation process is hindered by a lack of a fuller example and archetypes which could have showcased what was possible in terms of character types. Similarly, whilst there are lots of little examples of the rules and combat, there is no one big example of play or combat which would have showcased everything in action, which in the case of the latter would have helped the Narrator understand the complexities of the combat system.

Physically, Far West is, in general, well presented, being vibrant and exciting in terms of much of its art. Yet the editing could have been tighter and the artwork is not without its problems. Notably, one of the pieces that illustrates Cog Science is directly inspired by Lego Technic. Then there is the issue of representation, of which Far West is a victim of its own Kickstarter campaign. One of the pledges, ‘Grand Master of the Dust Road’, enabled backers to submit a photograph which would be turned into a portrait in the setting and book. Consequently, the resulting artwork reflects the backers and reflects the gaming hobby as it was in 2011, so there are a lot of Caucasian faces and there are a lot of stocky, bespectacled male faces* within the book. This does not mean that Persons of Colour, whether Black or Chinese, or as well as women, are not represented in the artwork. They are. However, whether they are represented enough is another matter. What is clear is that a lot of the better artwork—and there is a marked divide in quality—does depict male Caucasian faces. Again, this is not intentional, but rather the consequences of the Kickstarter campaign.

* To be fair, I am one of them.

Ultimately, it is great to have Far West: Western Wuxia Mash Up Adventure Game in the backers’ hands. They have waited a long time. Has the wait been worth it? With regard to what they may have pledged for on the Kickstarter campaign, probably not, since the book itself does not feel very special. Mechanically, arguably not, since Far West underwhelms and simply does not do enough in terms of its rules to bring the setting and game to life, and against that, there are a lot of little aspects of the game, primarily the many styles of Kung Fu, which complicate play and make it just a bit more fiddly. In terms of look, debatable, but then to be fair, there are mitigating circumstances. In terms of setting, arguably, yes. The concept of a Western/Wuxia mash-up is still an intriguing, even enthralling combination, a great vehicle for action and storytelling even thirteen years on. That is perhaps where Far West: Western Wuxia Mash Up Adventure Game shines, in its core concepts and parallel genres rather than its execution. Overall, Far West: Western Wuxia Mash Up Adventure Game is not a disaster ten years in the making and it is playable with some effort upon the part of both the Narrator and her players, but it does show its age in very many ways.

Heaven & Hell

The Religious Crimes Task Force is a shitshow, a dead end for any federal agent with ambitions or hopes of a better career. Established by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to investigate and prosecute fraud and abuse in tax-exempt religious institutions, in effect it does no such thing. Instead, it alerts religious organisations that they are running foul of the law and might be in danger of having charges brought against them by the Federal authorities. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the head of the taskforce would not have it any other way as it prevents the government’s ‘persecution’ of white Evangelical Christians. For its investigators, it means rolling into small towns across the USA, investigating some small church and its congregation, and discovering that yet one more fringe, possibly cult-like organisation is effectively harmless. The Religious Crimes Task Force is effectively a smokescreen, but it is a smokescreen that Delta Green can take advantage of. It can flag up reports that suggest a religious organisation might be breaking the tax laws, but which to its analysts’ eyes might be connected to an Unnatural threat, and then have Federal agents wholly unconnected to the Delta Green program investigate, and if they uncover anything worthy of Delta Green’s attention, then it can send in its own experienced agents to deal with the issue. If the investigating agents survive the experience and are judicious in their reporting of it, then they may be suitable for recruitment. It is thus a smokescreen not once, but twice.

This is the set-up for Meridian, a scenario published by Arc Dream Publishing for Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game. This is the modern roleplaying game of conspiratorial and Lovecraftian investigative horror with its conspiratorial agencies within the United States government investigating, confronting, and covering up the Unnatural. It is ideally used as an introductory investigation with perhaps two or three Player Characters. To that end it includes three pre-generated Player Characters—two Agents and an optional character. The Two Agents consist of an FBI agent and an IRS investigator, whilst the optional character is a local social worker, who can either be a Player Character or an NPC. All three are possible recruits to Delta Green, the social worker as a Delta Green friendly. This set-up is not dissimilar to Control Group, the anthology of scenarios designed to create a pool of diverse Delta Green agents with varied origins and introductions to the Unnatural who can then go on to conduct investigations in secret for the conspiratorial organisation. So, Meridian can be used as an addition to that supplement or as a means to explain the addition of new agents to a campaign. To that end, the Unnatural element to the scenario is surprisingly low key.

The scenario is nominally set in the summer of 2018 as the Agents roll into Joplin, Missouri where the Kansas-Missouri-Oklahoma borders meet. They have been assigned to investigate Holy Light Ministries, which files taxes as both a church and shelter for troubled youth, but does not own any property, has just the one officer, the church leader, Daniel Boone Keeler, and uses a mailing address that is actually that of Keeler’s mother. Keeler himself has a criminal record of petty offences going back years, but that halted in 2011. The question is, is Keeler just some small-time preacher and hustler on the make or is there actual legitimacy to his church. The answer to that is yes, there is actual legitimacy to his church, but this being a scenario for Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game, not in any way that you would think was anything other than Unnatural.

Just as the three states of Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma seem to overlap, so do the jurisdictions that the Agents have to work. So not just Federal law enforcement, but also local and possibly state, and then Missouri Department of Social Services, because not only does Keeler have a long record with both, but his Holy Light Ministries seems to be primarily concerned with ‘troubled’ youths—teenagers and young adults. A malaise lingers over Joplin, a miasma of economic deprivation, hopelessness, improvidence, and drug addiction which the Agents must navigate in the course of their investigation, but as they make progress, they discover that Holy Light Ministries does offer something. Possibly hope, possibly respite, and a sense of joy in god that transcends earthly, pharmaceutical addiction. Not necessarily though a Christian joy in god, since Keeler does not proselytise in the traditional fashion. Even the run down and dilapidated church he operates out of is more a refuge than a place of worship. As the Agents conduct interview after interview, what also comes up is the mention of the ‘Ghostlight’, a local legend which dates back to the 1940s, red-orange ball of light that appears in the skies at night over the woods on the Oklahoma-Missouri border. Is this what Delta Green wanted investigating? Is the ‘light’ of Holy Light Ministries one and the same as the ‘light’ of ‘Ghostlight’?

The underplayed nature of the investigation in Meridian also means that there is a passivity which runs throughout the scenario. In part, this includes the authorities, but it definitely includes Keeler and the Holy Light Ministries as well as the nature of the Unnatural in Meridian. Unlike in other scenarios for Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game, the Unnatural in Meridian is not an active force, but rather one that welcomes you to it and embraces you in hope. This makes it no less dangerous and frightening.

Physically, Meridian is well done. The artwork is excellent, though unfortunately the maps, done on aerial photographs with swathes of green forest are difficult to read.

Meridian is an easy scenario to run, though more so as an introduction to the conspiratorial world of Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game rather than as a campaign addition. It is run through with a meek malleability and horrific hopelessness, both in the Agents’ current assignment and the teenagers of Joplin, that will ultimately lead the Agents coming to realise that any sense of hope is hideously tied to the Unnatural.