Miskatonic Monday #332: Heart of Horror

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. 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.

—oOo—

Name: Heart of Horror

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Wojciech J. Szpytma

Setting: Congo, 1890s

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Twenty-one page, 111.54 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster...” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Plot Hook: A missing shipment means going up river... into the ‘heart of darkness’.

Plot Support: Staging advice, four (five) pre-generated Investigators, two handouts, two NPCs, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Adapts Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness to Call of Cthulhu

# Pre-generated Investigators with decent motivations

# Xylophobia

# Teraphobia

# Thalassophobia

Cons

# Adapts Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness to Call of Cthulhu

# Sanity losses high

# No stats for the actual villain of the piece

# Linear

# Ignores the horrors of the Congo

# Underdeveloped conclusion
# No Sanity rewards

# Needs an edit

Conclusion

# Serviceable if linear adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

# Lots of trigger warnings, but ignores the horror of the Congo

The Fourth War

They said the Cold War would end when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. It didn’t. The Warsaw Pact might have been dissolved and Germany united, but The Gang of Eight restored Communism in Russia. Not only that, but it revived the Soviet economy and retrained the Red Army. We didn’t find out how good it was until 1996 when the USSR decided to reoccupy Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Then Poland a year later to prevent it becoming a Western ally. Within months, even after a sustained bombing campaign, U.S. and NATO forces are fighting a Soviet invasion on the ground all across Europe, from Sweden in the north to Romania in the south, and when the Red Army is forced to retreat, the head of the Soviet Union authorises the use of tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield. It shatters NATO forces and escalates into a devastating exchange of nuclear missiles that destroy military, industrial, and civilian sites on all sides. Communication networks and transportation routes break down, the food supply chain collapses, and first famine, then disease, hits Europe and elsewhere. By the end of 1999, billions are dead. Even as federal authority crumbles in the USA, NATO launches one last desperate attempt to capture Warsaw and Stockholm, the capitals of Poland and Sweden. Operation Reset is stopped by unexpectedly determined Soviet defence and the last offensive of the war is done. What survivors there are, are told, “Good luck. You’re on your own now.”

This is the situation at the beginning of Twilight 2000: Roleplaying in the World War III That Never Was. It is the classic situation that dates all the way back to the first edition of Twilight 2000, published by Game Designer’s Workshop in 1984. Where the original, written at the height of the Cold War, was set in a much-feared future, the new fourth edition, published by Free League Publishing following a successful Kickstarter campaign, takes place in an alternate past that hinges on the success of the coup d’état against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991 by the Gang of Eight that saw the restoration of Communism. The result is same. A mixture of U.S. and Allied forces, the last remnants of US 5th Mechanized Infantry Division, struggling to survive in a Europe that has been shattered by war and poisoned by weapons of mass destruction, at the mercy of marauders and petty warlords, the potential hope of survivors who want protection, and in search of a home. That may well be the true home of the US 5th Mechanized Infantry Division, the USA, as it has been in the previous editions of Twilight 2000. However, Twilight 2000: Roleplaying in the World War III That Never Was also offers another starting option and another option for long term play. Traditionally, the last hurrah of the US 5th Mechanized Infantry Division has always been the city of Kalisz in central Poland, but Twilight 2000: Roleplaying in the World War III That Never Was offers the alternative starting point of Sweden, near the central city of Örebro with US 2nd Marine Division. The situation is not much changed otherwise, for whilst the terrain and the people are different, the invaders are not. In both case, they maintain a strong military presence, though not a co-ordinated one. The broken infrastructure and communication links have prevented that.

Twilight 2000: Roleplaying in the World War III That Never Was is more expansive in other ways. It is upfront about what the Player Characters are expected to do. One option is find a way home, but others include surviving, helping others in need, gathering information, finding a safe haven, staking a claim, and even helping to reset the world. With the last three, the roleplaying game gives objectives which will be later supported by the community building rules, these being a common feature to many roleplaying games from Free League Publishing. In many of these objectives, there is a moral imperative, one of making the world a better place despite the damage done to it. How they do it is up to the Player Characters, who can of course, be soldiers as the default set-up, but Twilight 2000 also suggests campaign frameworks involving civilians, members of law enforcement, and even prisoners! These are not explored in any detail, but they are intriguing possibilities. They are, though, presented as options in terms of characters that the players can roleplay.

Like the First Edition, Twilight 2000: Roleplaying in the World War III That Never Was comes as a boxed set. This contains a one-hundred-and-fifty-two page ‘Player’s Manual’, a one-hundred-and-twelve page ‘Referee’s Manual’, a large 864 × 558 mm double-sided full-colour map which depicts central and northern Poland on one side and central and southern Sweden on the other, a set of fifteen dice, eight double-sided battle maps, two double-sided scenario-specific maps, one-hundred-and-eight cardboard counters depicting various figures and vehicles, sixteen dice, ten Initiative cards, fifty-two Encounter cards, five character sheets, and two player handouts. The fifteen dice consist of two sets of Base Dice—six-, eight-, ten-, and twelve-sided dice marked with crosshair symbols for successes and explosion symbols for failure and damage, six six-sided Ammo Dice used to roll for ammunition use and possible damage to a firearm, and a six-sided Hit location die. The two double-sided scenario-specific maps are larger than the eight double-sided battle maps which are designed to be modular and used with the Encounter cards and the counters. The maps depict a variety of urban and rural terrain. The player handouts are briefings for Operation Reset and the default start of play, giving intelligence data on the NATO and Soviet military deployment at the start of the offensive, one for Poland and one for Sweden. The whole set has a sturdy handsomeness to it and a solid physical presence.

A Player Character in Twilight 2000 is defined by his Nationality, Branch of Service, and Military Rank (as much as it holds sway in the post-war collapse). He has four attributes—Strength, Agility, Intelligence, and Empathy—each represented by a letter, with ‘A’ representing the most capable, ‘C’ average, and ‘D’ weak. Each letter also corresponds to a die type. Thus, A to a twelve-sided die, B to a ten-sided die, C to an eight-sided die, and D to a six-sided die. There are also twelve core skills, three per attribute, and these are also by a letter and a die type, from ‘A’ and a twelve-sided die for Elite to ‘D’ and a six-sided die for Novice, with ‘C’ and an eight-sided die for Experienced. A rating of ‘F’ does not have an associated die type and it represents being untrained in a skill. Skills can also have specialities. In addition, a Player Character has a rating for his ‘Coolness Under Fire’, again rated from ‘A’ to ‘D’, as is the Player Characters’ Unit Morale. Whilst ‘Coolness Under Fire’ is important for a Player Character to not panic when the bullets start flying, in the long term it can have detrimental effects upon him, for every time it goes up, there is a chance that the Player Character’s Empathy goes down and thus his ability to interact with others as he becomes hardened to the loss of human life. Which is good balancing factor in play, as the Player Characters try to survive and still keep their humanity.

Beyond the stats, a Player Character will have a Moral Code, such as ‘You have a moral obligation to help those worse off than you.’, which can grant bonuses to skills if the Player Characters acts in accordance with it or cause Stress if acted against; a Big Dream that will give extra Experience Points if the Player Builds towards it; and a Buddy, who will also give a Player Character a bonus to a skill if coming to his aid and Stress if he is injured or killed. Every Player Character has some base equipment and access to starting group equipment, and potentially, a vehicle shared by the group, which could be an ordinary car, a jeep, or even a main battle tank! Important amongst this gear is ammunition, which can be used as a currency as well as in weapons. Lastly, every Player Character begins play with one or more points of permanent Radiation damage.

In terms of character creation, Twilight 2000 offers two options. One is to select and modify an Archetype, of which there are nine. These are the Civilian, the Grunt, the Gunner, the Kid, the Mechanic, the Medic, the Officer, the Operator, and the Spook. Of these, the Operator is the Special Forces operative. The other option is to follow a Lifepath. Beginning with the character’s childhood, the player takes him through a series of terms, rolling to see if he gains specialities, is promoted, how many years he ages, and whether or not war breaks out during the process or at the end. When this occurs, he receives some military training and experience. Civilian characters will have a wider range of skills, whilst soldiers will have better military skills and are more likely to have been promoted. In terms of background, Twilight 2000 supports Americans, Swedes, Poles, and Soviets, whilst there are tables for various careers, including law enforcement and criminal, education, blue collar and white-collar occupations, as well as the one for a military career and lastly, the ‘At War’ career, which covers both conscripts for Player Characters from nationalities involved in the war and civilians if not.

Nationality: Quinn McConnell
Branch of Service: Infantry
Military Rank: Private
Age: 24
Childhood: Streetkid
Career: Burglar, Prisoner, Conscript
Moral Code: Freedom is everything. No one tells you what to do. Ever.
Big Dream: Find a place to settle down with your friends, and defend it with our life

Coolness Under Fire: C
Hit Capacity: 5
Stress Capacity: 6
Radiation: 2

ATTRIBUTES/SKILLS
Strength: B [Close Combat B (Brawler)]
Agility: B [Ranged Combat D, Mobility D (Mountaineer)]
Intelligence: A [Recon B (Infiltrator), Survival D (Scrounger), Tech D (Electrician, Locksmith)]
Empathy: B

Gear
Assault rifle (1 reload), flak jacket and helmet, knife, personal medkit, basic tools, vehicle tools, backpack

Mechanically, Twilight 2000: Roleplaying in the World War III That Never Was uses the same variant of the Year Zero Engine that has since been seen in the Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game. To have his character undertake an action, a player rolls one Base Die the Attribute and one Base Die for the Skill. Rolls of six or more count as a Success. Rolls of ten or more grant two Successes, which can grant extra benefits. In general, unless rolls are opposed, only one success is required to succeed at an action. Modifiers, whether from equipment, a skill-related speciality, or the situation will increase, or sometimes in the case of the latter, decrease the size of the die rolled. If the roll is failed and no successes are rolled or the player needs more successes, he can push the roll. This enables him to reroll any dice that do not already show Successes or Explosions, but whilst this means that he might roll Successes to succeed or succeed better, it is not without its dangers. Every result of an Explosion inflicts damage on the Player Character, either physical and deducted from the Player Character’s Hit Capacity if rolled with Strength or Agility, or mental and deducted from the Player Character’s Stress Capacity if rolled with Intelligence or Empathy. Actually, rolling is thus potentially dangerous to the Player Character and the rules advise that the players should not roll too often as a consequence.

Combat uses these basic rules and expands greatly upon them as you would expect for a military-based roleplaying game with an emphasis on combat. Combat in Twilight 2000 is fought on the roleplaying game’s hex maps using its counters. Initiative is handled by drawing cards from a deck of ten cards, numbered one to ten and then counting up. It is possible to swap initiative cards if a Player Character needs to go first. When a Player Character acts, he can conduct one fast and one slow action, or two fast actions. A slow action might be to break free of a grapple, fire a gun, or exit a vehicle, whilst a fast action could be to seek cover, run, aim, or reload. Combat covers a multitude of situations and rules—cover and line of sight, ambushes, overwatch and suppressive fire, close and ranged combat, explosives—both landmines and IEDs, heavy weapons, and more. Notably, when an attack with a firearm is made, a player does not just roll the Base Dice for his character’s Attribute and Skill. He can also roll Ammo Dice, the more shots fired, the more Ammo Dice rolled. These also have Success icons on them, marked by bullet symbols rather than Target symbols, as well as Explosion symbols. Successes on Ammo Dice can be used to increase the damage done beyond the base damage inflicted by the weapon or to inflict a second hit on the same or a second target. An attack roll can fail and the attack miss, but Successes on the Ammo Dice will still have the effect of suppressing the target. When an attack roll is pushed, the Ammo Dice are also rolled and enough Explosion symbols means that the weapon is jammed and possibly damaged. Successes on Ammo Dice also determine how much ammunition is used in an attack and a player is expected to track the amount of ammunition used.

The other die rolled with an attack is the Hit Location die. This determines where damage is inflicted, which is important because bodily locations can be protected by both armour and cover. Armour can stop small amounts of damage and it can suffer damage itself (and be repaired), but damage can be deadly. Suffer total damage equal to Hit Capacity and a Player Character is incapacitated, but suffer damage equal to or greater than a weapon’s ‘Crit Threshold’—for example, the Crit Threshold for a Beretta M9 is two and three for the M16A2—and a critical injury is suffered. Critical injuries are determined by location and can be lethal, requiring a player to make Death Saves for his character until someone can render medical help. In addition, there is a chance of infection… Few of the critical injuries are permanent, but they all take time to heal and they do require medical attention. Having access to a doctor or medic is a necessity in Twilight 2000. It also possible to be incapacitated via mental stress.

The devastated world of Twilight 2000 has its own additional dangers—the residue from chemical warfare and of course, the lingering effects of radiation. Each time a Player Character encounters a radiation hotspot, there is a chance he gains a point of Radiation, which can become permanent, and also suffer from radiation sickness. If he does, there is the possibility that unless treated, as with other diseases like dysentery or cholera, that the Player Character will die.

The scale of combat in Twilight 2000 is at the skirmish level and that also applies to vehicle combat. For the most part, due to the lack of fuel, parts, and ammunition, a group of Player Characters will only be operating a vehicle or two, so vehicle combat will typically consist of one-on-one vehicle engagements or small and fire and anti-armour weapons deployed against vehicles of various types. The rules for vehicle combat in Twilight 2000 are quite straightforward and the aim in general is not necessarily to destroy opposing vehicles as much as render them inoperable so that they are no longer a danger. A good quarter of the ‘Player’s Manual’ is dedicated to the arms, armour, and equipment that the Player Characters might find and deploy as they make their way across Poland or Sweden. Although there are some weapons and equipment deployed by other NATO forces described, the descriptions are mostly that of jury-rigged and civilian weapons, as well as American, Soviet, Polish, and Swedish gear reflecting the change in location offered by Twilight 2000: Roleplaying in the World War III That Never Was.

One feature of roleplaying games from Free League Publishing is that they include rules for establishing, developing, and protecting a community, and Twilight 2000 is no exception. More so given that doing so is written into what the Player Characters are expected to do in the game. A base of operations provides the Player Characters somewhere to rest without the need to make Survival rolls to make camp, and not only they can make use of existing facilities, but also add to them. These can be as basic as cultivating cropland or building a cow pen, but then facilities like these are going to be a necessity. In comparison to other roleplaying games from Free League Publishing, such as where they originated in Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days, the community rules are not as detailed or as expansive, but in providing facilities for the Player Characters to build and protect, they can serve as the basis for storytelling and events. Further, a base-focused campaign means that the area around it becomes the space in which stories and events can be told and developed. The rules for travel also cover foraging and scrounging as well as difficulty of travel in the post-apocalyptic world of Twilight 2000.

Where the ‘Player’s Manual’ presents the rules for Twilight 2000, the ‘Referee’s Manual’ presents the setting. This includes how the world slides into the war and the state of both Poland and Sweden as the primary starting points. There is some background on other countries such as France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the USA, but only in the broadest of details. There is good advice for the Game Master on starting a campaign from the collapse of Operation Reset and beyond, really developing a campaign driven by what the players and their characters want to do, whether that is to try and find a way home back to the USA or establish a base and even a future where they are. To back this up, the Referee is a given details of the remaining factions, forces, and their goals in both countries, as well as fifty-two encounters to add to her campaign. Each of the latter can be drawn from the ‘Encounter Deck’, which can be anything from encountering a band of refugees, a village ready to barter, or a marauder roadblock to a simply the weather getting better, finding an ambushed Soviet vehicle, or a burnt-out bus, ready to be scavenged, but home to a poisonous viper! They are all easily adjusted so that they can be used again. Four specific scenario sites are described in some detail, including a prison, a town that has fallen under the ‘protection’ of American forces, a military academy turned into a fortress by the surviving cadets, and a burnt-out town whose inhabitants are only beginning to come to terms with what happened. All are nicely detailed and include rumours and hooks that ideally should get the Player Characters to want to stick around and investigate a little further. Lastly, the ‘Referee’s Manual’ includes solo rules, conversion notes from previous editions of Twilight 2000, and most interestingly, designer’s notes. This explains how and why the new edition came about and some of the design changes made.

Physically, Twilight 2000: Roleplaying in the World War III That Never Was is very well produced. Both books are well written and the illustrations really do capture the look and feel of the desolate and damaged world broken by mankind’s worst fears. The production values of the maps, cards, and counters are also very good.

The Twilight 2000 of 1984 was the military roleplaying game of its day and Twilight 2000: Roleplaying in the World War III That Never Was is the military roleplaying game of the early twenty-first century. As much as this new edition is a fantastic update of the original, retaining all of its scope, it better emphasises its potential as it makes explicit that it is as much a military survival game as it is one of rebuilding and resetting the world. Whilst the setting is bleak and the rules often brutal, this gives Twilight 2000: Roleplaying in the World War III That Never Was a sense of hope that makes it worthwhile taking a look at beyond simple nostalgia.

Goodman Games Gen Con Annual X

Since 2013, Goodman Games, the publisher of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic has released a book especially for Gen Con, the largest tabletop hobby gaming event in the world. That book is the Goodman Games Gen Con Program Book, a look back at the previous year, a preview of the year to come, staff biographies, community content, and a whole lot more, including adventures and lots of tidbits and silliness. The first was the Goodman Games Gen Con 2013 Program Book, but not being able to pick up a copy from Goodman Games when they first attended UK Games Expo in 2019, the first to be reviewed was the Goodman Games Gen Con 2014 Program Book. Fortunately, a little patience and a copy of the Goodman Games Gen Con 2013 Program Book was located and reviewed, so since 2021, normal order has been resumed with the Goodman Games Gen Con 2015 Program Guide, the Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book, the Goodman Games Gen Con 2017 Program Book, and Goodman Games Gen Con 2018 Program Guide: The Black Heart of Thakulon the Undying, and Goodman Games 2019 Yearbook: Riders on the Phlogiston.

With both Goodman Games Gen Con 2018 Program Guide: The Black Heart of Thakulon the Undying, and Goodman Games 2019 Yearbook: Riders on the Phlogiston, the series had begun to chart a new direction. Each volume would contain a mix of support for the various RPGs published by Goodman Games and the content published by the Goodman Games community, but the major feature of each volume would be a tournament scenario, staged the previous year at Gen Con. Unfortunately, events caught up with the eighth entry in the series, Goodman Games Yearbook #8: The Year That Shall Not be Named, as the Covid-19 pandemic forced the world to adjust, which of course, included Goodman Games. The result was that the traditional Gen Con Program Guide became a ‘Yearbook’ and this trend has continued since with the Goodman Games 2021 Yearbook and the Goodman Games 2022 Yearbook.

The Goodman Games 2022 Yearbook opens with a traditional look back at the previous year, which saw the continued return to Gen Con and the expansion and professionalisation of the company and also company owner, Joseph Goodman’s philosophy of Gen Con as “the full expression of the Goodman Games brand.” and the fun of playing games. This includes the creation of the Ziggurat and the Wizard Van, both of which have become features of the company’s presence at both the Gen Con and Origins gaming conventions. They also have their own features elsewhere in the book. In turn, Joseph Goodman, Michael Curtis, Chris Doyle, and Brendan Lasalle take a look back at the year, highlighting what the publisher put out in the last twelve months and the company’s return to the convention stage, marking what was a return to form with titles as Dungeon Crawl Classics #101: The Veiled Vaults of the Onyx Queen and Dungeon Crawl Classics #100: The Music of the Spheres is Chaos, funding Original Adventures Reincarnated #7: Dark Tower, and organising Dungeon Crawl Classics #104: Return to the Starless Sea as a tournament. ‘Returning To The Community Of Gen Con DCC’ by Harley Stroh follows this strand in celebrating the joy of returning to play at the event.

Art and how they look has always played a big part of the books that Goodman Games publish and highlighting this has always been part of the publisher’s Gen Con Program Guides and the Gen Con Year Books. The Goodman Games 2022 Yearbook is no exception, but there is an element sadness in the fact that it mirrors the artistic content in the previous volume in the series, the Goodman Games 2021 Yearbook, as it both notes the death of an artist who contributed numerous covers to its books and interviews another artist. Thus it says, ‘Goodbye, Ken Kelly’ to the late Ken Kelly and conducts ‘An Interview With Sanjulián’, in both cases showcasing their art and their contribution to the Goodman Games look.

Goodman Games is also well known for the extra dice it uses in both the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game and Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, as well as the more recent Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game. The Goodman Games 2022 Yearbook embraces this as it takes a silly turn and suggests ways in which the eleven-sided die from Impact Miniatures can be used. Thus, in ‘Take It To 11!’ by Michael Curtis gives two new tables, one ‘The Quick And Dirty Foe Description Table’, the other, ‘The Weird Property Of That Thing You Just Found Table’, whilst separately, Chris Doyle offers two further tables in ‘d11 Fates for 5E’. These two include the bonuses to be gained from inserting coins into an altar dedicated to Myna, the Goddess of Luck, with better coins donated increasing the likelihood of a blessing rather than a curse, whilst ‘The Pool of Life’ has table of healing results for a fountain found in ancient ruins. To be fair, all four tables will work with both the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, though the entries in ‘d11 Fates for 5E’ require a little bit of set-up to use. Of course, four tables dedicated to an eleven-sided die does not seem sufficient. Surely, the number of tables should also have gone up to eleven?

‘When Tolls the Bell of Ruin’ is the first of two adventures in the Goodman Games 2022 Yearbook. It is a scenario for a party of four to six First Level Player Characters for Dungeon Crawl Classics which begins with the Player Characters responding to the ominous tolling of a bell that has rung out across the land and instilled a sense of dread in all. It has been traced to an ancient monastery of muted monks and as the Player Characters investigate this isolated facility, they will potentially trigger the further tolling of the bell. The bell is actually the Bell of Ruin and whenever it rings, the monastery and the surrounding land are beset by a calamity. These begin with a constant chill and greyness enshrouding the land in a permanent twilight and escalate into everyone suffering rashes of boils, flames randomly striking the ground, and so on. The fun here is that the players will be rolling to see when the bell actually tolls. In between the peal of the bell, the adventure has a pleasingly quiet eeriness to it, the monastery silent and monks strangely missing. Inspired by the Conan the Adventurer cartoon, this is a solid adventure that is easy to add to almost any campaign.

The Goodman Games 2022 Yearbook details four monsters, not once but twice. First for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game and then for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. They include the Humming-Wasp Swarm, a creature actually from the Terra A.D. setting of Mutant Crawl Classics whose drone stupefies and then enslaves victims into collecting harvests for the insects; the Shroud Ghoul which shoots gobs of caustic bile from its nose; the Shroud Phantom, undead that looks like burial shroud and suffocates it victims; and the Tri-Crystalline, a crystalline humanoid with three faces, each one of a different alignment that performs particular missions according to the alignment of the face that is awake. The Humming-Wasp Swarm is done as a fantasy version for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, but even the Mutant Crawl Classics version can be used in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. Otherwise these are very serviceable monsters.

The Goodman Games’ creative efforts at Gen Con in the past have shown us how the famous Ziggurat was created. Here, ‘A Wizard Van Is Summoned...’ shows how the infamous Goodman Games Wizard Van was modified, reupholstered, and fitted with furniture so as to be suitable to host games at the events where it appeared, whilst in ‘The Original Doom Beard’, Dieter Zimmerman not only provides stats for the Wizard Van (as ‘GG Joe Wizard Vandroid’), but also for its creator! This is followed by ‘Interview With The Mask Maker’ by Tim Wadzinski, who talks to professional mask maker Jordyn Boci, the creator of the masks worn at the convention by some of the Goodman Games staff. ‘The Original Doom Beard’ is, of course, another piece of silliness, but together these three pieces show some of the thought and processes that go into the creation of these items that at the show add to Goodman Games’ presence.

The second scenario in the Goodman Games 2022 Yearbook is ‘Secret of the Slayer’s Sword’ by Alex Kurowski. This is designed for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and a party of four to six, Twelfth Level Player Characters, and it can be run as a sequel to Fifth Edition Fantasy #5 Into the Dragons Maw. However, it does have quite a complicated backstory that the Player Characters will need to be aware of, but what it boils down to is that Dracusa, a half-green Dragon Medusa, in her continued attempt to prove herself worthy of her draconic half, is hunting for a legendary sword, Vritrastrike, capable of delivering a mortal wound to any dragon. The adventure, set in a Mesoamerican style country, quickly gets the Player Characters to the shrine where the sword rests. The shrine consists of two big encounters, one quite a challenging puzzle, the other a big bruising battle with Dracusa. Success will reward the Player Characters with some fantastic treasure. ‘Secret of the Slayer’s Sword’ is a short, one session affair though nicely detailed. Given its detail and setting, it will require some adjustment to fit into a campaign, and although it states that it does not have to be run after Fifth Edition Fantasy #5 Into the Dragons Maw, to get the best out of the scenario, it really should be as it does feel like the second and concluding part.

Goodman Games has always been highly supportive of its community and showcases their activities in every issue of the ‘program guide’ or ‘yearbook’. The Goodman Games 2021 Yearbook is no exception and dotted throughout its pages are numerous photographs from the events at which there was a Goodman Games presence. These include Gary Con 2022, Kublacon 2022, Origins 2022, and others, as well as Gen Con 2022 itself. There is also the results of the ‘2022 Bumper Sticker Design Contest’, ‘Gen Con Signage’, and in ‘Inkburn!’, even shows how Hector Cruz, a fan of regular Goodman Games artist, Doug Kovacs, got him to draw a tattoo for him, and the ‘Twitch Shows Of 2022’, in which Alana Thompson encapsulates some of the best media streams dedicated to Dungeon Crawl Classics. Lastly, ‘The 2022 Goodie Awards’ spotlights the contributors to the Goodman Games community over the course of the previous year around the world. Lastly, the Goodman Games 2022 Yearbook comes to a cozy close with the return of ‘Dear Archmage Abby’ and some gaming advice.

Physically, the Goodman Games 2022 Yearbook is a slim affair, in keeping with the current reduced format of the series. It is well presented, a pleasing read, and full of very good artwork.

With the Goodman Games 2022 Yearbook gone is the uncertainty of the Goodman Games 2021 Yearbook that chronicled Goodman Games’ adjusting to life after the Covid-19 Pandemic and returning to gaming and a convention presence as was before the events of 2019 and 2020. In fact, with the arrival of the Wizard Van, it is as if Goodman Games are screaming, “We’re back and we’re doing bigger and better things!!” Yet in comparison to the grandeur of the earlier Goodman Games Gen Con 2018 Program Guide: The Black Heart of Thakulon the Undying, and Goodman Games 2019 Yearbook: Riders on the Phlogiston, that does not really apply to the Goodman Games 2022 Yearbook, which feels restrained and not quite as adventurous in the slimmer format. Fans of Goodman Games will undoubtedly enjoy the Goodman Games 2022 Yearbook, but perhaps regret that there is not quite as much to enjoy as there once was.

Solitaire: Death in Berlin

Between 1961 and 1989, the city of Berlin was divided by more than ideology. It was divided by the Berlin Wall, built in August, 1961 by the Deutsche Demoktratische Republik to stem the flow of citizens from the East to the West. It focused the world’s attention upon the divide between East and West Germany, between the capitalism of the West and the Communism of the East, embodied by the permanent border constructed of brick, explosive mines, sentry posts, machine guns, and so on. The ‘Grey City’ had been divided between the four Allied powers since the end of World War 2, but the Berlin Wall extended the Iron Curtain between East and West through the city rather than just around it. Both sides—the Soviet and the Allies—operated networks of spies and conducted operations in each other’s territories in an effort to discover what the other knew and what secrets they held, and in return, attempted to prevent secrets and other assets from falling into the enemy’s hands. This secret conflict between the NATO Allies and the Soviet Union and its proxies in the Warsaw Pact had been ongoing since before World War 2 and it would inspire films and fiction, such as that of Len Deighton and John le Carré, throughout the Cold War—and since. It would also inspire roleplaying games such as Top Secret, Spione, and Project Cassandra: Psychics of the Cold War. One of the aspects of espionage and the Cold War is the loneliness and that is ripe for exploration in solo roleplaying such as Numb3r Stations – A Solo RPG and Death in Berlin: Spy Games During the Cold War 1961-1989.

Death in Berlin: Spy Games During the Cold War 1961-1989 is a solo roleplaying and journalling game published by Critical Kit Ltd., best known for its solo journalling game, Be Like a Crow: A Solo RPG and its scenarios for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, such as A Yuletide Snowball Massacre: A Ridiculously Festive Battle Royale for 5E and The City of a Hundred Ships. In Death in Berlin, the player will be telling the story of a spy in service to one of the agencies from either the Western Bloc or the Eastern Bloc. Thus, he can be a member of the Central Intelligence Agency or MI6 as much as he could be a member of the Komitet gosudarstvennoï bezopasnosti or the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit. His role is counter-espionage, uncovering conspiracies and operations conducted by the other side.

Death in Berlin is really divided in two parts. The first part is a source book which describes the setting for the game, Berlin and the Cold War. The latter begins with George Orwell’s first use of the term and runs through the history in brisk fashion, and is accompanied by a guide to Berlin across all four sectors. There are maps too, showing the various checkpoints through the wall—there were far more than just Checkpoint Charlie—and the city’s various districts. There are cultural elements covered too, such as the Trabant and the symbolic figures known as the Ampelmännnchen on the pedestrian crossing lights. There is discussion as well of the various agencies, equipment that the player and his opponents might wield in the field, and the language of spycraft. The discussion of the espionage world is shorter than the coverage of the city though. The author states that this material is not designed as a sourcebook for the period and even suggests further reading for the benefit of the reader. However, this potentially still leaves a younger player with more work to do to familiarise himself with the period.

In terms of game play, Death in Berlin requires a full set of polyhedral dice and an ordinary deck of playing cards, of which, only cards valued from seven to Ace are used. An Agent is simply defined. He has two stats, Rank and Heat. Rank represents his progress through the agency and starts at one, raises by one for each conspiracy he foils (that involves a Queen, King, or Ace card), up to a maximum of five. Heat is a measure of how many risks the Agent has taken and how much of a liability he is becoming. It ranges in value from zero to six. It rises by one each time the player identifies what connects two members of a conspiracy. Should it rise to six, the Agent’s cover is blown and the game ends. An Agent also has a Motivation, such as Ideology or Ambition.

Death in Berlin uses a set of tables to help set up and run the game. One provides a narrative arc for what is effectively a season, such as the ‘Monitor’ Mode of Operation, ‘An Artist’ as the Target, and ‘Space’ as the Goal. Further tables can provide a yes or no answer to a question—qualified, if necessary, a suspect or two, names for NPCs of various nationalities, as well as places, weather, items, and possible codenames. Some of these will be useful at the start, some of them in play. Either way, the player is free to roll or pick from them as is his wont. The structure of play is formed by a pyramid of the playing cards, representing the whole of the conspiracy with each card representing a Suspect, four wide at the bottom, then three wide, two wide, and lastly the single card at the top. At least one seven is placed on the lowest level and cards are drawn and placed in the pyramid, ensuring that each card’s value is equal to or greater by a few points than its neighbouring cards. Initially, this is only horizontally in the lowest row, but switches to vertical for the upper levels. This creates a pyramid of ascending values. The top, most valuable card will be the big target or Suspect. The suit for each card, Spade for the military, police, and intelligence, Clubs for politicians and civil service, Diamonds for business and finance, and Hearts for the arts and vice, determines the area in which field, a Suspect works or is employed, whilst the value of the card is his rank. A random roll determines if he works for the West or the East.

Each individual card and thus Suspect is a target for surveillance upon the part of the player. The surveillance is rolled against the value of the card. If the player fails, he is spotted and gains a point of Heat. For each Rank at Rank Two and above, a player has a Silver Bullet—narratively, a disguise, a weapon, a sidekick, and so on—that sets the roll to ten plus the player’s Rank or enables him to succeed, but also increase his Heat. Heat can be lowered, but it has its own consequences.

If he succeeds, the player draws a new card and consults the Narrative Prompt table. This card determines the basics of the connection between this Suspect and another, adjacent one in the scenario. Each successful roll, each drawing of a new card, and consultation of the Narrative Prompt table is what pushes the story of the player’s investigation forward. For example, “The suspect likes gambling. And this often gets them in trouble. Someone is acting around them. Who is it? What is their relationship?” and “The target meets with one of the known suspects in the conspiracy. This takes place in a cinema in (West sector). You manage to get close enough and hear a sentence. What is it?” It is in this space, using the prompts, that the player is writing his journal and telling the story of his investigation.

Physically, Death in Berlin is simply and cleanly presented. The illustrations evoke the stark world of Berlin in the sixties and seventies, giving a feel for the city. The maps are decent too.

Play through of Death in Berlin, from the beginning investigation of the conspiracy through to the unmasking of the mastermind at its heart will take an hour or more, being dependent on the depth and detail that the player wants to work into the story. It has a slightly grubby feel, but how grubby is again dependent on the player and the style of espionage he wants to write about. The default is definitely le Carré rather than Fleming and there is nothing to stop a player from pushing into the territory of Mick Herron—at least in tone rather than period. Similarly, how much a player will get out of Death in Berlin in writing a journal is dependent upon his knowledge and appreciation of both the genre and the period when it is set.

Death in Berlin: Spy Games During the Cold War 1961-1989 is a very serviceable journalling game, one whose enjoyment and creativity very much depends upon the knowledge and interest of the player.

Friday Fantasy: Till Death Do Us Part

Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part is notable for one particular fact. That it is written and published by Heidi Gygax Garland—yes, the daughter of E. Gary Gygax—and her husband, Erik Gygax Garland. Published by Gaxland Games, it is a module written for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and Player Characters of First Level. Conversion, of course, to the rules of the Game Master’s choice is far from challenging, but the PDF version of the scenario is accompanied with conversions for both Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition and Castles & Crusades. In addition, the PDF version includes some setting background that the module itself does not. This details Sørholde, a warm, dry, and fortified Dwarven port-city sitting on the island of The Dundel. In Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part, the Player Characters are hired by a famed auctioneer to rescue a local noblewoman, the Lady Heiress. She has been kidnapped by Crikpaw and is being held hostage on Governor’s Island, which lies north of Sørholde. In addition to returning with the Lady Heiress, safe and sound, the Player Characters are expected to return with the signet ring from the house of Ukoh An—which Crikpaw is searching for—and ideally with Crikpaw. Dead or alive.

Unfortunately, Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part starts by committing a cardinal sin. It leaps straight into the set-up for the Player Characters with a lot of exposition and absolutely no explanation for what is going on for the Dungeon Master. Nevertheless, it quickly moves to the action with a strange encounter just off Governor’s Island. A Septopus—a seven-tailed Octopus—will approach the boat the Player Characters are on and it will await their reaction. If they attack, the Septopus will respond in kind and then descend into the depths never to return, but if they are receptive to communication, it will tell them some of the secrets about Governor’s Island and give them some keys to doors on the island and some treasure. The treasure is nice enough, but cannot be used in this scenario. It is a nicely done encounter and rewards the Player Characters with a little useful information.

After this first encounter, though? There are some truly pointless encounters in Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part. The second encounter is with a beached pair of adventurers, the last survivors of an encounter with the first encounter, the one with the Septopus that the Player Characters have just survived, either by driving it off or by actually learning something useful from it. Both of them want to leave Governor Island and will negotiate with the Player Characters for help in getting to the ship that the Player Characters arrived on. This, though, is not before both adventurers explain to the Player Characters what happened to the rest of their comrades in what is a detailed splurge of exposition that takes up two pages, and apart from this, neither adventurer has anything useful to tell the Player Characters. The encounter will either show the Player Characters what would have happened if they got the first encounter right or show them that they were not the only ones to get it wrong, but how exactly does this help either them or the story? Logically, perhaps this encounter should have been first, with the adventurers clinging to wreckage rather than washed ashore, thus foreshadowing the encounter with the Septopus, rather than the illogical four pages devoted to it to no purpose.

There is a mad goblin who is dressed as a bridegroom and will beg for news of his bride, and when he does not get it, he will attack the Player Characters. He knows nothing that will be of any help to the Player Characters and although there are the scraps of a torn letter to be found in the same room, there is no explanation as to what the contents of the letter actually mean. Another room consists of a paddling pool in which floats a rubber duck and which contains surprisingly deep water at the bottom of which is a locked gate. There is nothing else in the room. The adventure states that there is no way to get to the gate and the Dungeon Master is expected to advise her players that, “It becomes obvious that the gate is unreachable at this time”. Which begs the question, when will it be reachable and what does it actually add to the adventure? It is bad enough that the description of the room fails to mention its exits—one obvious, one secret—but having the central feature of a room do nothing and add nothing…? Another has two ‘Apocol-imps’ that walk around in a circle each wearing a sandwich board and declaring the end is nigh and again, there is no explanation as to how this relates to the plot, if at all.

Continuing the pointless encounters with containers of water is a room with the magical artefact known as the Bucket of Fish. Its waters contain visions of ethereal figures swimming in the mist and if a Player Character stares into waters and fails a Saving Throw, he will see the ‘partner of his dreams’, will find himself cursed, and loses points of either Intelligence or Wisdom until the curse is removed. According to legend its appearance is a terrible omen, but an omen of what? If the curse is lifted, and that is a challenge all of its own, the person lifting the curse automatically knows where the Bucket of Fish is and knows that he must return to the Bucket of Fish himself to rescue his beloved from the bucket. Further, the Player Character who suffered the curse, will lose half of his wealth, including his possessions and any treasure gained from the adventure. So doubly punished for failing a Saving Throw. Lastly, if a player states that his character is going to ‘kick’ the Bucket of Fish, he has to make a Saving Throw versus Death. He does receive a bonus, because as the adventure states, “[T]he writers of this adventure aren’t complete dicks.” However, if the character does die, the writers do give permission for his player to be teased by his fellow players. Which is fine, because as the adventure states, “[T]he writers of this adventure aren’t complete dicks.”

The encounter ends with further advice that, again, the Dungeon Master is expected to advise her players that, “It becomes obvious that the Bucket of Fish cannot be affected by your actions at this time” as the bucket cannot be moved or damaged by their characters. So again, what is its purpose? The only thing it can do is punish the Player Characters and not only punish the Player Characters, but also a player too, all for asking to do the most obvious thing that you would do with a bucket.

There is another hint as to what is going on some twenty-four pages into Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part. After saving Heiress’ best friend, she will tell them that she came with Heiress to Governor’s Island in order to save her friend, Crikpaw, and she will also explain where the love-besotted Goblin came from. This is from the Bucket of Fish, which begs the question why did it work differently for Heiress and her best friend than for the Player Characters?

The scenario comes to an end with a big fight with a demon, the discovery of a sealed letter that the Player Characters are not expected to read, but give to their employer, and the Player Characters failing to find Heiress, Crikpaw, or the signet ring of the house of Ukoh An. They do see a ship sailing off, presumably with Heiress and Crikpaw aboard, but ultimately, everything is fine, as although the Player Characters’ employer is angry, he will still pay them despite their failure.

Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part is designed as the first part of an eight-part series, so obviously, in later parts, the Player Characters will find Heiress and Crikpaw and presumably find out what is actually going on. This though, does not excuse or stop Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part from being a frustratingly stupid adventure. To begin with, the Dungeon Master does not learn the identity of the actual villain until after the adventure has finished and worse, even if she had known at the start of the adventure, it would not have affected the running of the adventure. It certainly would not have affected the plot, as effectively there is no plot to Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part and even if there were, there is nothing that the Player Characters can do to affect it. So, it almost does not matter that nowhere is there an explanation of the overall plot to the series, let alone this single adventure. Except, of course, such an explanation might have persuaded the Dungeon Master to want to look at the sequels to Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part.

Further, only three encounters matter in the whole of Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part. The first is the encounter with Septopus, which will provide the Player Characters with some useful information as to what they might find in the dungeon; the second is with the Heiress’ best friend, who will tell them a little of what is actually going on; and third, discovering that Heiress and Crikpaw have already left. Between the first and last encounters, it does not matter what the Player Characters do in this linear dungeon. In fact, the best thing that the Player Characters can do is touch nothing and just get to the end as quickly as possible, because almost everything they encounter is either pointless or designed to punish them, if not both. The last thing that these encounters are not designed to do is engage in the plot to Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part, putting aside the fact that there is actually very little plot to Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part.

Physically, Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part is not a bad looking product. It apes the classic booklet in a card folder with a white on blue map on the inside format of many of the modules from TSR, Inc. The map is incredibly large given that it has to depict twelve locations one after another. The scenario needs a slight edit in places, but the artwork is decent and it is tidily laid out.

There are encounters in Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part which are interesting and playable—the encounter with the Septopus and another with some Leaf Spiders. They suggest that the authors can write encounters that are either interesting or playable—or even both, but two interesting and playable encounters out of twelve do not make for a good adventure. The rest really are dreadful, often managing to be just randomly pointless and punishing, taking up time until the Player Characters can discover that all of their efforts have been to naught. To be fair, that is often the way of stories, the protagonists failing to achieve their objectives in this part, but making another attempt in a later part. Yet that failure should be interesting in itself and the protagonists of the story—in this case, the Player Characters—should learn something that will help in the subsequent parts. Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part fails to do this. It also fails to tell the Dungeon Master its own plot, let alone that of the series as a whole. So, it fails to sell the whole series too.

Lastly, Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part costs $35.

Dungeon Module GG1: Till Death Do Us Part does not provide the purchaser with $35’s worth of entertainment. As to the amount’s worth of entertainment it does offer, it is difficult to determine how much this exercise in frustration and pointlessness is actually worth, but $35 it is not by any stretch of the imagination.

The Other OSR: Knave, Second Edition

There can be no doubt that Knave, Second Edition succeeds at two things. First, it is definitely the prettiest microclones you can buy, and certainly one of the prettiest Old School Renaissance-style roleplaying games you can buy. Second, it is one of the most accessible of microclones you can buy, and certainly one of the most accessible Old School Renaissance-style roleplaying games you can buy. It is pretty because it uses just the one artist and that gives it a look all of its very own. Peter Mullen’s artwork is excellent. It is accessible because the play style of Dungeons & Dragons is incredibly familiar and because the core rules take up two pages and because every aspect of the rules is neatly and concisely presented on a single page. The rules for Ability Checks and Character Creation together take up a single page; for handling Checks, a single page; Delving, a single page; Combat, a single page; and so on. The core of these are even presented in the inside and back covers for easy reference. Barely thirty of the eighty pages that make up Knave, Second Edition are dedicated to rules, and that is including the author’s own commentary, advice on play, and an example of play and maps that the Game Master can develop as her own adventure sites. The rest of the book consists of tables. Tables for signs, locations, structures, and place traits, tables for delve shifts, rooms, room details, and room themes, tables for mutations, delusions, disasters, and magic schools. Each of these tables has a hundred entries and each of these tables is designed for two elements of play. One of course, is preparation prior to running the game by the Game Master, the other is to generate content through emergent play, the book itself is slim enough, short enough to make it easy to use at the table.

Knave, Second Edition is a toolkit designed and published by the author of The Waking of Willowby Hall, the earlier Maze Rats, and host of the YouTube channel, Questing Beast, following a successful Kickstarter campaign. The toolkit begins with advice on the duties of both the Game Master and the Player. The tasks of the Game Master are to create locations to explore, flesh out the cast, let the players guide the action, keep the game moving, immerse the players, reveal the world, signpost danger, reward smart plans, and so on. The task of the player are to create and play a character, take initiative and ask questions in driving play forward, apply tactical infinity—that is, treat the world as if it was real and turn any and all aspects of it to his character’s advantage, scheme and fight dirty, but be prepared to die! It is really simple and direct advice, in keeping with the concision of Knave, Second Edition. The advice also fits the play style which has each Player Character as a “tomb-raiding, adventure-seeking ne’er-do-well who wields a spell book just as easily as a blade.” Some aspects of the Game Master’s role, certainly when it comes to the ‘Edit the Rules’ set down at the beginning of the book is expanded upon in the Designer’s Commentary at the end of the book.

A Player Character in Knave, Second Edition has the six standard attributes—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma—of Dungeons & Dragons and other retroclones. Each is rated in value between one and ten, and each one has a specific role in play and is associated with a specific role, or Class, from Dungeons & Dragons. Strength is the Fighter ability and is used for melee combat checks and physical activity. Agility is the Thief ability and covers any action involving reflexes or dexterity. Constitution is the Adventurer ability and is used to resist poison and diseases, but also determines how many item slots a Player Character has and how much damage a Player Character can suffer before dying. Intelligence is the Magic-User ability and is used for cunning, lockpicking—surprisingly not Dexterity, and spell use. Wisdom is the Ranger ability and is used for ranged combat, perception, and willpower. Charisma is the Cleric ability and is used to determine initiative and persuasion. What this means is that there is some shifting of what traditional Dungeons & Dragons attributes do and are used for in Knave, Second Edition, and that in addition, every attribute is useful. In other words, there is no dump stat! In addition, a Player Character has one or two previous Careers which determine his extra equipment in addition to the standard items that every Player Character receives. If his Intelligence is high enough, he can have a random spell book as well.

Character creation is fast and easy. The player distributes three points between the six Attributes (or he can roll), rolls for Hit Points, and two Careers. He also receives some coins with which to buy arms and armour. What he does not do is pick a Race or Class. Knave, Second Edition does not use either. A player is free to decide upon the Race of his character, but there are no mechanical benefits to doing so. Instead of a Class, a player can can choose to have his character specialise in one of his Attributes and its associated role. So, for example, to play a Magic-User type, a player would put points into his character’s Intelligence Attribute so that he knows more spells and is better at casting them or to be a Ranger type, he would put points in the character’s Dexterity and Wisdom Attributes. Alternatively, a player does not have to have his character specialise and can mix and match roles. For example, he could increase his Intelligence to cast spells and his Strength to be a better warrior. Although a Player Character only starts with three points to assign to his Attributes, he will be given more as he goes up in Level.

Crispin Cromditch

Level 1

Careers: Cobbler/Cultist

Hit Points: 1

Armour: Gambeson (AP 1) Armour Class: 12

Helmet: None Shield: None

Weapon: dagger (d6)

Personality: Dogmatic

Goal: Serve the Needy

Mannerism: Slow Speech

Strength 1 Dexterity 1 Constitution 1

Intelligence 0 Wisdom 0 Charisma 0

Equipment: leather roll, fancy shoes, tacks, dagger, ritual robes, amulet, day’s rations, 50’ rope, gambeson

Mechanically, Knave, Second Edition calls for checks to be made against specific attributes on a twenty-sided die. The base difficulty is eleven and may be as high as twenty-one. In combat the difficulty number is the defender’s Armour Class, which is based on the number of Armour Pieces the defender is wearing. In comparison to other roleplaying games, including Dungeons & Dragons, Advantage and Disadvantage is not handled by rolling extra dice, but applying a flat ‘+5’ bonus or ‘-5’ penalty per modifying factor. Beyond this, checks are used sparingly. There are no Lore checks, the Player Characters will know common knowledge and the knowledge granted by their careers, but anything else is waiting to be discovered. Similarly, there are no Search checks, but finding hidden things is handled narratively and through Player Character action.

Initiative in combat is handled by an opposed Charisma check and if the player rolls twenty-one or more on the attack check, his character can perform a manoeuvre such as disarming, blinding, tripping, and so on. Sneak attacks always hit and bypasses Hit Points to Wounds, and power attacks do double damage, but break the weapon. Damage is taken from a defender’s Hit Points and then in the case of a Player Character, from his Inventory Slots, which effectively serve as wounds. As his Inventory Slots are filled, his capacity to carry objects is reduced and if they are all filled up, the Player Character is dead.

Spellcasting is not just done spell by spell, but spellbook by spellbook. A spellbook holds a single spell and takes up a single inventory slot. Spells are not taught, but found, so that a spellbook is a treasure all of its own. Spells are automatically cast, but their effects can be saved against to avoid them. The rulebook includes one hundred spells, each consisting of a short, one or two sentence description. There are some fun spells here, like Astral Prison which temporarily freezes the target in time and space; Catherine, which makes a woman dressed in blue appear and fulfil any polite, safe requests; and Shroud which makes the affected creatures invisible for as long as they hold their breath! In addition, there is a set of tables to create even more spells.

Divine magic is called Relic Magic and is granted by patrons, such as gods, spirits, and saints, through relics. Rather than finding a scroll with a divine blessing on it, a Player Character will visit a shrine to communicate with a patron whose favour he has, and be given both a relic and a quest. Fulfil the terms of the quest and the relic will be imbued with a Blessing which can be performed multiple times per day. Of course, a relic takes up an Inventory Slot just as a spellbook does. The various tables for magic, potions, and powers are intended to provide inspiration for what these blessings might be.

Beyond these basic rules and those for delving, Knave, Second Edition scales up to encompass travel and weather, really simple and easy rules for alchemy, buildings and warfare, and of course, monsters. The bestiary itself, is short, at thirty-five entries, but enough to get started. Their format is close to that of monsters in Dungeons & Dragons, so it is easy for the Game Master to import and adapt monsters from other sources. Outside of adventuring and delving, there are rules too for downtime. The latter includes carousing and gambling, but also career training for everything from carpenter and hunter to lawyer and assassin. The rare careers take a lot of time and are very expensive.

Knave, Second Edition is round out with an example of play—which probably should have been more up front—and the ‘Designer’s Commentary’. Here the designer explains the decisions he took in redesigning Knave for this new edition. His voice comes through here most obviously—the reader can imagine him actually saying all of this—and pleasingly, he acknowledges the inspirations for each of those decisions. There are some interesting choices made here and the ‘Designer’s Commentary’ brings Knave, Second Edition to a close with a personal touch. Lastly, there is a map of a dungeon and a wilderness area that the Game Master could develop into actual adventuring material.

Physically, Knave, Second Edition is very well presented, the layout done in ‘Command’ style so that everything needed for each aspect of the rules is presented concisely on the one page (two at most). This makes everything accessible and easy to grasp. The artwork is excellent.

From start to finish, Knave, Second Edition has been clearly designed for use and accessibility. The layout is great, the mechanics combine simplicity and brutal Old School Renaissance play with player choice, and the tables provide the Game Master with hundreds of prompts. Knave, Second Edition is the microclone’s microclone, a superb little roleplaying game and toolkit, perfect for playing fast and light in the Old School Renaissance.

Miskatonic Monday #331: Trouble At Scarrick Isle

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. 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.

—oOo—

Name: Trouble At Scarrick Isle

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Man Of Thousand Hobbies

Setting: Jazz Age Massachusetts

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Ten page, 778.23 KB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: One goes missing off Innsmouth Island?

Plot Hook: Missing off Massachusetts

Plot Support: One map, eighteen NPCs, and two Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Plain

Pros

# A project for the Keeper to rework

# Batrachophobia

# Sanguivoriphobia

# Thalassophobia

Cons

# Is it a sequel or isn’t it?

# Deep Ones and vampires

# Not enough set-up

# Needs an edit

Conclusion

# Too bare bones, too many NPCs, and not enough clarity

# The Keeper needs to pull it apart and put it back together again
# Reviews from R’lyeh Discommends