Miskatonic Monday #19: The Premiere of the King

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

—oOo—

Name: The Premiere of the King

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Jonathan Baxter

Setting: Jazz Age Hollywood
Product: Scenario
What You Get: 1.09 MB, 19-page full colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Double ‘Yellow’ Peril in Hollywood Babylon.

Plot Hook: A missing ingenue gets lost behind Hollywood’s bright lights
Plot Development: Sleazy producers, a driven matinee idol, the fate of a nation, and a cloud of opium smoke.
Plot Support: Straightforward plot, four vibrant maps, four lurid handouts, and a rooftop chase.
Production Values: Decent beyond a slight edit.

Pros
# Familiar setting
# One-session scenario
# Needs little preparation
# Adaptable to other modern periods with mass media
# Low suggested price
# Atmospherically sleazy

Cons
# No final Sanity losses
# Underwritten Sanity rewards
# Plot all too obvious
# Atmospherically sleazy
# Keeper may want to check for stereotyping

Conclusion
# Sleazy, one-session scenario
# Low suggested price

A Beta Supplement?

The Beta Quadrant Sourcebook is the first setting supplement for Modiphius Entertainment’s Star Trek Adventures roleplaying game. It covers the quarter of the Milky Way Galaxy where the Federation was founded and expanded out into, encountering species like the Orions, the Nausicans, and the Gorn, and of course, coming up against the major powers, the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire. Over the course of two centuries, relationships between these powers have waxed and waned, sometimes escalating into outright war, sometimes entering periods of peace and diplomatic relations. Currently, the Federation has ventured out past the Klingon Empire into a region of virgin space known as the Shackleton Expanse. Here in co-operation with the Klingons, the Federation has established the Narenda III starbase—named after as the system where the USS Enterprise-C came to the defence of a Klingon colony under attack by Romulans—and is beginning to explore the region. This is the default setting for Star Trek Adventures and is supported by the publisher with an ongoing ‘Living Campaign’. This is in the roleplaying game’s default period of 2371, during the era of  Star Trek: The Next Generation, the middle of Star Trek: Deep Space 9, and before Star Trek: Voyager—just like the Star Trek Adventures core rulebook. Of course, advice is given throughout n how to use supplement’s content during the time of both Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: Enterprise, but what it does mean is that the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook has a lot to cover, both geographically and chronologically.

The book’s introduction sets everything up, explaining how the exploration of the Beta Quadrant has been primarily politically driven given how it is dominated by a number of major powers, how the supplement focuses on the quadrant’s major powers, and how its contents can be used as part of a campaign. Here it highlights the differences between the default period of 2371 and those of the earlier periods of Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: Enterprise. From the outset though, the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook is written as a briefing to a prospective ship’s captain being posted to the Narenda III, and when not directly addressing the players or the Game Master, this voice is carried throughout the book.

It gets down to its remit proper with an examination of the Federation, from its founding, astrography, and political structure to its culture, new word economy, and science and technology. It highlights its particular executive agencies such as the Federation Archaeology Council, Federation Science Bureau, and Department of Temporal Investigations—all of which should interest the Star Trek Adventures Game Master and provide her with some potentially interesting allies and a source of possible missions. The culture section showcases how not just how the Federation embraces a wide variety of cultures, but also how cultures mix, thus both the Klingons and Andorians enjoy ice hockey, Klingons appreciate Moby Dick, Vulcans and the Japanese have swapped tea ceremonies, Risan event planners are engaged everywhere, and so on. Other sections cover how a post scarcity, moneyless economy works, where and how free traders and cargo ships operate, how various planets control their weather using satellites, and more. Throughout, there are commentaries from luminaries such Doctor Carol Marcus and speeches from Andorian General Shran, whilst various reports from various Starfleet officers, Tal Shiar operatives, Klingon captains, and others all serve to give an array of different points of view. They also serve to add a lot of colour alongside the description of the Federation.

This is followed by descriptions of various Federation planets within Beta Quadrant, some of them obvious, others less so. So Andoria, Earth, and Vulcan are covered in quite some detail, as you would expect, whilst Benzar is an odd choice for such treatment. As with the previous section, these descriptions are accompanied by extra sections which focus on particular subjects, like the Kolinahr for Vulcan and the Ten Virtues of Andoria, though there are not as many. Lastly, minor worlds such as Risa, Corridan, and Nausicaa are given a few paragraphs each. One obvious omission here given that Andoria, Earth, and Vulcan are three of the four signatories of the Federation, is that of Tellar Prime, the homeworld of the Tellarites. This is easily explained by Andoria, Earth, and Vulcan all being in Beta Quadrant whereas Tellar prime is in Alpha Quadrant. This of course highlights the fact that the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook is not the Star Trek Adventures Federation Sourcebook. Yet even for the Beta Quadrant, this is an odd mix of worlds. The inclusion of Andoria, Earth, and Vulcan makes sense, whereas none of the others really quite do. 

Fortunately, the treatment of both the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire, feels a little more balanced, with more information and fewer of the boxed out sections. Both cover each empire’s astrography, history, conflicts between other powers, political structure, military and culture, and science and technology, as well as various worlds within each empire. So for the Klingon Empire, it covers its founding by Kahless the Unforgettable, how Qo’noS was invaded by the Hur’q, the empire’s Great Houses and High Council, along with aspects of Klingon culture such as marriage ceremony, followed by good write-ups of worlds including Qo’noS, Boreth, Khitomer, Narendra III, Rura Penthe, and Ty’Gokor. For the Romulan Star Empire, the section explores its origins lie on Vulcan and focuses on its labyrinthe politics and the role of the Tal Shiar. Only two worlds are covered here—Romulus and Remus.  In technological terms, the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire are of course, linked by their use of the Cloaking Device, and full rules are given its use by either Klingon or Romulan foes.

Rounding out the first section of the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook are two shorter write-ups of the Orion Syndicate and the Gorn Hegemony. Part of the pleasure of reading these two sections is seeing what both are doing in eras other than when they appeared on screen, so the Orion Syndicate seen in Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: The Original Series, has both expanded and made greater efforts to keep hidden its criminal activities, so the Gorn Hegemony seen in Star Trek: The Original Series have continued to reinforce its borders. Nothing particularly radical, but the Orion Syndicate is probably easier for the Game Master to use than the Gorn Hegemony, given the isolationist nature of the latter and the fact that the criminal  and conspiratorial nature of the former means that the Orion Syndicate can be encountered everywhere. 

The second section, ‘Species of the Beta Quadrant’, adds several new species as New Lifepath Options, broken down by particular television series and era in which they appear as playable character species. Thus the Ardanan, Deltans, Erfrosians, Rigellian Chelons and Rigellian Jelna are from Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation; the Benzites, Bolians, Klingons, the Xindi (Arboreal, Primate, Reptilian, and Insectoid), and Zakdorn from Star Trek: The Next Generation; and the Risians are from all eras of play. It should be noted the Klingons are here intended to be Starfleet officers rather than soldiers of the Klingon Empire (and similarly, the Romulans are not included because none of them join Starfleet like Worf does). This is a good mix of classic and new species, although some like the Ardanans, are likely to require the Game Master and or her players looking them up before bringing them into play, as they are really quite obscure.

The selection of starships in the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook provides support for the Game Master rather than the players, presenting a mix of vessels from the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire, the Gorn Hegemony, and the Orion Syndicate, as well as civilian craft. So no Starfleet vessels, but really most of the Starfleet starships the Game Master and her players are going to need are to be found in the pages of the Star Trek Adventures core rulebook, and anyway, the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook is neither the Federation Sourcebook nor the Starfleet Sourcebook. The starships include the D5-class cruiser, Raptor-class scout, K’t’inga-class battle cruiser, and Negh’Var-class warship of the Klingon Empire; the Romulan Star Empire’s Bird of Prey and Scout Ship of Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: The Original Series, and Star Trek: The Next Generation respectively; whilst for the Orion Syndicate, a Scout Ship, Interceptor, Blackguard, and Pleasure Barge are given, and for the Gorn Hegemony, just a raider and a Varanus-class battleship. Lastly, civilian ships such as generic freighter, transport, colony, and survey vessels are given, the sort of working vessels that fill the space routes, whilst the inclusion of a Vulcan Science Academy vessel is a nice addition for the Game Master running a campaign in the Star Trek: Enterprise era.

Lastly, the ‘Encounters and Adversaries’ chapter provides the Game Master with a new cast of characters and NPCs and adventure seeds. These are arranged area by area, so for the Romulan Neutral Zone, the NPCs include the Tal Shiar Saboteur, Lead Scientist, Warbird Commander, and more, either minor, major, or notable NPCs. The encounter seeds have the player characters’ starship answering a distress call within the Neutral Zone, making contact with the Romulan underground, and hosting a diplomatic event involving the Romulans. They are accompanied by potential plot developments, but the Game Master will need to develop them further herself. Then the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook does the same with the Briar Patch, a rough area of space inside the remnant of an ancient supernova, giving stats for Orion NPCs (and potential player characters) and multiple notable NPCs, though only player character stats for playing Gorns! Then it does the same for the Klingon Border—though not quite to the same extent, before exploring the Shackleton Expanse in much greater detail and with much better support for the Game Master.This includes lists of colleagues, allies, and adversaries, as well as plot components broken down by Starfleet department—Command, Operations, and Sciences, which although far too brief, is an excellent way of handling this information.

Physically, the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook is a decent looking book. There are some inconsistencies in the layout, but otherwise the book is generally well-written and decently illustrated with a fully painted images. The layout is done in the style of the LCARS—Library Computer Access/Retrieval System—operating system used by Starfleet. So everything is laid out over a rich black with the text done in soft colours. This is very in keeping with the theme and period setting of Star Trek Adventures, but it is imposing, even intimidating in its look, and it is not always easy to find things on the page because of the book’s look. The other issue is that the none-more black pages are easy to mark with fingerprints. 

Ultimately, considering just how much the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook has to cover—and it is a lot—it is not quite up to the job. The problem is that any one of the governments and organisations, from the Federation and the Orion Syndicate to the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire could have had whole sourcebooks of their own devoted to them, some of them much bigger than the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook. Then there are the locations detailed in the last section, the Briar Patch and the Shackleton Expanse could have had whole campaigns devoted to them rather than the few scant pages here. So it is not difficult to come away from this supplement and feel slightly disappointed for many different reasons—because it does not cover a particular aspect of the Star Trek universe in more detail, does not mention a particular planet, event, or species, and so on.

Yet there is no denying what is in the Beta Quadrant Sourcebook is solid, much of it useful material, whether that is descriptions of certain worlds, stats for particular starships, details of a new species, and so on, all of which can be brought to a Star Trek Adventures campaign—depending upon era of course. The Beta Quadrant Sourcebook does not though, amount to more than a broad overview of each of the subjects it covers and doubtless, most Game Masters are going to want more information.

Panel Stripping

Published following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Comic Turns is a storytelling game which uses comic Panels as a means to create and build stories. Published by Jokercrow, it is designed to be played by between one and six players, aged seven and up, in twenty minutes or less. The game comes with a fifty-two card deck of comic Panels, two cards detailing the ways in which Comic Turns can be played, and a blank card. Each comic Panel card shows the one Panel, done in dark blue and white line, but without any words. Not being language dependent means that play is not dependent on the player’s reading ability or native language (the game only comes with the rules in English, but they are available in other languages). The images on the cards do though, often indicate emotions and feelings, but these are typically open to interpretation—which is the point of Comic Turns. The Panels also use the same cast of three characters—one male, two female—enabling further continuity between Panels as a story develops.

Comic Turns comes with two means of warm-up in preparation to play and three different means to play. In ‘Story Structures’ and ‘More Story Structures’, the players collaborate to create a three Panel comic strip story with a beginning, a middle, and an end, and then a six Panel comic strip story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. These warm-up exercises really only need to be done once or twice with a group to get an idea of how Comic Turns works, and then perhaps again with new players, but being collaborative, either is a quick exercise before going onto one of the three other games described in the rules. These are ‘Connections’, ‘What If?’, and ‘Parallel Lives’. Both ‘Connections’ and ‘What If?’can be played as collaborative or solo games, but ‘Parallel Lives’ is competitive and cannot be played as a solo game.

In ‘Connections’, each player receives five cards. Then the dealer draws a card from the deck and places it on the table, describing what is going in the Panel, who is present, and so on. Then the players take it in turns to add another Panel after the first, describing what is going in the Panel, who is present, and so on. This continues until everyone has added two Panels to the story and the ‘Connections’ comes to an end, the aim being to create a satisfying story together.

In ‘What If?’ twelve cards are dealt out equally between the players. The dealer draws another three and places the Panels in whatever order she likes, describing what is going on in each Panel, who is present, and so on, in the process telling a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Then the players take turns to replace a Panel in this story with a Panel from their own hands, and in doing so, altering the story and the events affecting the characters within the Panels. Play continues until everyone has used all of their cards or everyone agrees that the ultimate story has been created. 

Lastly, in ‘Parallel Lives’, each player receives seven cards. The dealer draws two cards and places them on the table with space between them for three cards. These represent the beginning and the end of a story. Each player uses three of his cards to create a story using the beginning and the end already on the table. This need not be done in turn order, but as soon as each player is ready. Once everyone has told their story, they have a chance to give a recap it before everyone votes on what they think is the best story. The winning player receives one card as a victory token. Then another round is played, and another, until either an agreed number of rounds have been played or the deck has been exhausted.

For example in the top story Dave tells the story of Jenny, Alison, and Michael. It opens with an interrogation by a policeman, the questioned party explaining how she and Michael were to be married, but when she thought Alison was interfering and attempting to split them, she got angry and confronted Michael. In a jealous rage she stabbed Michael and killed him! Now they will never be together as they had planned.

Louise’s story begins with Roger being angry at Bob for his lack of focus that week because sales figures were down. Bob did not care though, because he was going on holiday somewhere warm and sunny, where he could dance all night, meet the girl of his dreams, and perhaps sail away with her on a cruise...

Physically, Comic Turns is nicely, but simply done. The cards are clearly drawn, expressive, but open to interpretation. They are not just random illustrations. They share the same cast of characters and it would be very easy to assemble them in multiple strips of Panels to tell a story. In Comic Turns turns though, the player do not have the luxury of an endless supply of cards, but instead must create or develop a story with limited means, thus pushing them to make the connections, exercise their imaginations, and so on. The use of the same cast though, means that there is emphasis upon the relationships between them as part of the storytelling exercise.

Comic Turns is not really a game in the sense of rolling dice, playing cards, attempting to beat everyone else, and so on. It is though a creative exercise for the imagination, the Panels on the cards pushing the players to think about how a story can be told using just images—and a limited number of images—each time. Often they will find themselves forced to think how they can move the story onwards from one unconnected Panel to another and then another. Of course, there is luck element in that sometimes the Panels a player will have to use do not fit, but again, that should be a further spur to the player’s imagination.

Another aspect of Comic Turns is that its format is simple enough to allow you to come up with your own rules or game using the Panels. ‘Connections’, ‘What If?’, and ‘Parallel Lives’ are all simple enough, but there is scope here for the budding game designer or experienced one to come up with something of his own. Indeed, the publisher has included other rules on its website. That said, the Panels could easily be used with any number of Indy-style roleplaying games, such as Dog Eared Designs’ Primetime Adventures, or indeed used as an aid to creative writing

Comic Turns is not dissimilar to Rory’s Story Cubes in feeling more like a tool or a toy to encourage players to exercise both their imagination, their creativity, and their storytelling. There is though, more of structure to Comic Turns than Rory’s Story Cubes—both in the rules and in the images in the Panels—and so is not quite as freeform. Nevertheless, there is potential in Comic Turns for it to be used as an educational tool

Overall, Comic Turns is a charming set of cards or Panels, which works as both a means to explore how stories are told in comic form and as means to actually tell the stories. Both imaginative and an aid to the imagination.

1978: John Carter: Warlord of Mars – Adventure Gaming Handbook

For over a century, fans of Science Fiction and planetary romance have been thrilling to the adventures of John Carter, American Civil War veteran and prospector on the alternate Mars known as Barsoom as he won himself a place as a warlord—or Jeddak—and won the hand of a Martian princess, Dejah Thoris of Helium, as well as delving into the mysteries of the dying planet. This is a world at war, between the city states of the Red Martians, each of which stands guard against attacks by the barbarous, four-armed Green Martians, whose great tribes fight amongst themselves. It is also a world of mysteries, much of it dating back into Barsoom’s long past and ancient civilisations. The eleven books in the series, penned by Edgar Rice Burroughs and starting with A Princess of Mars, have long had an influence upon gaming, most notably its inclusion in E. Gary Gygax’s ‘Appendix N’ of the Dungeon Master’s Guide for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, but also upon roleplaying games set on Mars such as Game Designer’s Workshop’s Space 1889, Adamant Entertainment’s MARS: The Roleplaying Game of Planetary Romance, and Onyx Path Publishing’s Cavaliers of Mars. Plus of course, it serves as the direct inspiration for Modiphius Entertainment’s John Carter of Mars - The Roleplaying Game, the recent roleplaying game to be based directly on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ stories. It was though, not the first.

The influence of A Princess of Mars on E. Gary Gygax cannot only be seen in its inclusion in the famous ‘Appendix N’, but also five years earlier with TSR, Inc.’s The Warfare of Barsoom in Miniature, Rules for individual and large-scale land and aerial conflict, co-written with Brian Blume. This though, was an unlicensed game, and as much as the book has become a collector’s piece, it was always an unofficial set of rules and it would be another publisher who released the first set of official rules for gaming on Barsoom. Two years later, in 1976, Grenadier Models, Inc. also released a line of ‘John Carter Warlord Of Mars’ miniatures, but they too were unlicensed. It would be Heritage Models, Inc. in 1978 which published the actual first, official gaming product based on the John Carter of Mars series of books. A year later, SPI (Simulations Publications, Inc.) would publish its highly regarded John Carter: Warlord of Mars board game.

Now better known for publishing Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier, the first Star Trek roleplaying game—also in 1978, and later the fantasy roleplaying game, Swordbearer, in 1982, Heritage Models, Inc. was primarily a publisher of wargames and miniatures. Indeed, it would also release a line of miniatures to support not the one new set of rules, but two. One was the Barsoomian Battle Manual: Wargame Rules For Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Classic Science-Fiction Series, which provided rules for mass combat on Barsoom and aerial combat between the flyers used on the planet by all nations. The other was the John Carter, Warlord of Mars: Adventure Gaming Handbook.

The John Carter, Warlord of Mars: Adventure Gaming Handbook offers ‘Miniature Man-to-Man Adventure Gaming’ stating that, “Here is action with a single man or small group of men pitting their abilities, skills, and courage against other men or fearsome Beasts in settings from dank, poorly lighted underground dungeons to the swirling, desperate hand-to-hand battle raging on the deck of the flyer a thousand feet above the ground. The clash of naked steel. . .the test of manhood and courage. . .this is the essence of a life on Barsoom!” Certainly this sums up life on Barsoom for its brave men and women, the planet being filled with dread creatures like the Great White Apes, the Apts, and the Banths, let alone attacks by the barbarous Green Men, whilst the dungeons mentioned are the little known mazes of tunnels and rooms beneath the planet’s many cities—inhabited and abandoned—built long ago by the ancients. It also provides help with ‘Painting and Organizing Your Miniatures’. What you have here then is not a roleplaying game per se, but more of a set of wargames rules with rules for single figure or character action, whether that is combat, exploration, or roleplaying. In this, it echoes roleplaying’s first steps with the original Dungeons & Dragons from 1974.

The sixty-four page John Carter, Warlord of Mars: Adventure Gaming Handbook begins though with a guide to the inhabitants and creatures of Barsoom. In turn, the Red Men, First Born, Therns, Yellow Men. Assassins, Green Men, and more are described in detail, as are many of the planet’s dangerous wildlife. The descriptions vary wildly in length and depth, for example, the Red Men and Green Men of Mars have three and four pages devoted to them, whereas the Yellow Men and Toonolian Marsupials barely two paragraphs each. This though, reflects their prominence in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ stories rather than lack of diligence upon the part of the author. What is noticeable about each of the entries is that they are all prefaced by listing describing their appearance. So for the Red Men this includes the colour of their skin, hair, and clothing, their boots and harnesses (from which they hang their awards and medals), and what weapons they carry. These details are not just included for colour, but serve as the painting guide for each of the different races and creatures upon Barsoom. Along with a guide to the Barsoomian environment, weapons of Barsoom, flyers—the main form of transport on the planet, and its cities, this all takes up roughly half of the John Carter, Warlord of Mars: Adventure Gaming Handbook.

Characters in the John Carter, Warlord of Mars: Adventure Gaming Handbook are defined by seven attributes: Swordsmanship (Attack and Defense), Strength, Finesse, Luck, Accuracy, Constitution, Morale, and Quickness. Swordsmanship is rolled on three six-sided dice—both Attack and Defense, as Constitution, but everything else is rolled on two six-sided dice. Modifiers from Strength, Finesse, and Luck adjust a character’s Swordsmanship values. There is little acknowledgement of race in the process except for adjustment of the Accuracy value for Red Men and Green Men. Indeed, selecting a race is not actually part of the process. 

Parthlan of Manatos

Swordsmanship: Attack 20/Defense 20

Strength: 9 (+2)

Finesse: 9 (+2)

Luck: 9 (+2)

Accuracy: 7

Constitution: 14

Morale: 10

Quickness: 6 (-1)

In terms of rules, the John Carter, Warlord of Mars: Adventure Gaming Handbook does not provide a skills system or a resolution mechanic, instead focusing on combat. This includes movement with a surprisingly high chance of tripping over and the use of a Combat Results Table to determine attacks. This requires Swordsmanship ratings to be compared, the values modified by the combatants’ stance, position when attacking, wounds suffered, and so on, the difference determining which column is rolled on using just two six-sided dice. If successful, this generates a modifier which is added to the result of two ten-sided dice (or percentage dice as the John Carter, Warlord of Mars: Adventure Gaming Handbook puts it) and the outcome determines how many Wound Points and what type of wound is inflicted. If Wounds are inflicted, then the defender rolls on the Swoon Chart to see if he is incapacitated, the chance determined by how many Wounds he has lost.

For example, Parthlan of Manatos is aboard a flyer which has been successfully boarded by pirates. So far he has cut down several pirates, but as the battle on the deck swirls around him, the lead pirate raider steps forth and singles him out. Fighting stalls as this duel plays out. The raider leader has a Swordsmanship of 16, so comparing that to Parthlan’s Swordsmanship gives him a difference of +4 and rolling a 9 on that column on the Critical Results Table gives a modifier of +1. A roll of 6 and 6 plus the modifier for a total of 13 and the raid leader has suffered a moderate wound to the head and five Wounds.

The raid leader has a Constitution of 13 and so can suffer 13 Wounds before definitely being knocked unconscious and potentially dying. So far, he has suffered 5 wounds, or 38% of his Constitution. The Judge rolls a ten-sided die and the result of 2 indicates that the raid leader is stunned and at a -1 penalty to attack and defence on the next turn. This means that the raid leader is at a disadvantage when it comes to his attack and may need to be more aggressive to counter the effects of the wound he has suffered. Either that, or retreat…

Some tactical options are provided, such as stance—Attack, Defence, Normal or Web of Steel—and position when attacking, enabling combatants to counter better opponents or the effects of wounds. Missile combat uses similar mechanics, as does mounted combat, the latter allowing for loss of control of the notoriously surly Thoats in combat, whilst the rules for flyer allow for simple aerial engagements but still focussing upon the characters.

The objective in John Carter, Warlord of Mars: Adventure Gaming Handbook for the player characters is two-fold. One is to get better, primarily by accruing Adventure Points which can be spent to improve a character’s attributes. The other is to achieve status. This is done by achieving military rank, rising from nothing up to Jeddak’s Chamber Guard, by achieving social status as a prince, and then by further adventuring, by improving his appearance with jewels and medals, and so, he can accrue ‘Princess Points’. The aim here is to make a good impression, but the random events when meeting her, such as dancing with her and repeatedly stepping on her foot, singing her a sweet love song, staring and drooling at her, belching loudly, or getting to dance with her repeatedly, will temporarily modify a character’s total Princess Points. Then of course, a roll is made on the ‘Princess Response’ table, the results ranging from “Who are you, have we met before?” to the eye-opening “MY PRINCE, FIREWORKS, THE BIG TIME, HUBBA HUBBA!!”.

By modern standards, these mechanics are both clumsy and misogynist. Yet they are both a product of their time—after all, the John Carter, Warlord of Mars: Adventure Gaming Handbook was published forty years ago, and based on a source of its time, A Princess of Mars having been published sixty years earlier. So romancing, even wooing a princess would be perfectly in keeping with the planetary romance genre of the books. Yet just as in the four decades since the publication of the John Carter, Warlord of Mars: Adventure Gaming Handbook, sensibilities towards the genre and how it should be approached have changed, so has game design, with roleplaying games like Chaosium, Inc.’s King Arthur Pendragon handling both the male and female roles within its genre with subtlety and consideration. Here the approach feels immature, at least in some of the writing.

For the Judge—as the John Carter, Warlord of Mars: Adventure Gaming Handbook terms the Game Master—there is advice on the types of scenario which can be run, such as protecting a cultivated area, going on a Banth hunt, or looking for an assassin in Jeddak’s palace, but there is an emphasis on interacting with the Princess. Whether that is rescuing the Princess from the villain who has kidnapped her, rescuing the Princess from Green Men who have captured her, rescuing the Princess from the villain who has kidnapped her and plans to marry her, and— None of which should be seen as the Princess’ fault, but of course, it is up to the player characters to rush after her in order to rescue her. So that she can get kidnapped again. Then rescued again. Then kidnapped again. Then wooed. Kidnapped and rescued again. Wooed again, and so on, until her fair, red hand is won. Which will still not prevent her from being kidnapped and needing rescuing again.

One option not covered in all of this is playing men of Earth. Now stats are given for the eponymous character of the John Carter, Warlord of Mars: Adventure Gaming Handbook—John Carter, but is here presented as the only NPC in the book. He is also invincible in that he cannot be killed. Nevertheless, no means are provided for playing characters from Earth, and really, there is all but no advice on playing any of the different races in this game.

Physically, the John Carter, Warlord of Mars: Adventure Gaming Handbook is a book of two halves. The first half, the source material and the painting guide is reasonably written and in general a good guide to Barsoom. The second half is a muddle, the rules written with little, if any clarity, and little in the way of proper organisation. The need to flip back and forth to access both rules and tables can only hamper play. Beyond the book’s vibrant colour cover, the John Carter, Warlord of Mars: Adventure Gaming Handbook is completely unillustrated.

At the time of its publication, John J. Nutter reviewed the John Carter, Warlord of Mars: Adventure Gaming Handbook in ‘Barsoomian Options: System Additions & A Review of John Carter, Warlord of Mars’ in The Space Gamer No. 24 (September-October, 1979), stating that, “Mr. Matheny has built a sound combat system and role-playing game which captures much of the flavor of the novels.” Hindsight was less kind though, Lawrence Schick in his Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games (Prometheus Books, 1991) describing the rules as “poorly organized”, adding that “Players unfamiliar with the concepts of role-playing games would probably be unable to use them”.

By the standards of the day, the John Carter, Warlord of Mars: Adventure Gaming Handbook was unsophisticated, one note, and clumsy. Today, it feels too grounded in its wargaming roots and undeveloped even in comparison to the Dungeons & Dragons of 1974 with the constant focus on rescuing the princess never less than jarring. Ultimately, the John Carter, Warlord of Mars: Adventure Gaming Handbook is a gaming curio, an attempt to create a hybrid between roleplaying and wargaming, but one that fails to succeed at either.

Death from Above

A Victim of the Art is a scenario for Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game, the roleplaying game of conspiratorial and Lovecraftian investigative horror published by Arc Dream Publishing. It originally appeared in Delta Green: Countdown, the first supplement released in 1999 for the original iteration of Delta Green, back when it was a Call of Cthulhu supplement, and it was at the time, one of the largest supplements then published for Call of Cthulhu—or any other roleplaying game. It has been updated to use the new mechanics and setting of Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game, but it can also be used with the rules and characters from Delta Green: Need to Know, meaning that it could be run as the investigators’ first ‘real’ case after the weirdness of the fun in the scenario that accompanies the screen.

The player characters—or Agents—are called in to help an ongoing murder case in the sleepy town of Glenridge, Long Island. A serial killer with a bizarre modus operandi has been taking victims in the town, leaving then coated in a pulpy, organic substance which defies analysis and inflicting upon them inexplicably weird mutilations which have led the national news to dub the perpetrator, the ‘Glenridge Chiropractor’. This has been picked up elsewhere, attracting wider coverage, including conspiracy theorists and Phenomen-X, which will make the involvement of the Agents in the case all the more complicated. Assigned as FBI advisors—whether they are or not—to the lead investigator, this though, is the least of the Agents’ problems…

A Victim of the Art or the case of the ‘Glenridge Chiropractor’ involves an investigation into three seemingly unconnected deaths. They all died by the same method, their bodies left in strange places, but the police have been unable to determine what connects them. Now there is connection and this being a Delta Green investigation, it does involve the Mythos—or the  ‘Unnatural’ as the Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game terms it, but getting to that connection is actually simple—it all comes down to the one skill roll. The problem is if that roll is failed, or rather, what happens if that roll is failed. Now there is advice to that end, essentially that there will be more victims, but it is left up to the Handler to determine who the next victim or victims will be as well as why they are murdered. Coming up with either is challenging because there is not really any information on the town itself or on the perpetrator’s potential victims. So the Handler is literally making it up at this point, when really, it would have been a simple matter for the author to provide the Handler with a list of future potential victims and a timeline for them. Especially when there is room for it in the book.

Now when the connection is made between the victims, it is actually not that difficult to solve the case, even if does involve the Unnatural. The complications in the scenario are twofold. First, there is the matter of the footage taken by Phenomen-X should the Agents act suspiciously, but then there is the matter of which faction—‘official’ Program or disavowed Outlaws—the Agents belong to when Delta Green’s technological allies take an interest in the case. Do they let the allies take samples regardless of what they developed into? Extensive notes are provided to that end, and there are even notes on running A Victim of the Art back in the good old days of 1999, but the scenario is primarily written to support the internal conspiracy within Delta Green.

Unfortunately, the production values on A Victim of the Art are not as high as they could be. Done in full colour, including several pieces of wholly new art commissioned for this new edition of the scenario, which are rather nice additions, where the book fails is in its maps, which lack the resolution that they warrant. 

Although Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game is no longer as grounded in the Ufology, little green (grey) men, The X-Files-style mythos of the Delta Green of 1997, there is no denying that its influence can be seen in the feel of the investigation in A Victim of the Art, as it feels very much like an X-Files investigation. A Victim of the Art is not unplayable, but whilst its update from Delta Green to Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game is well-handled, the plot development in the scenario is not, leaving the Handler with some extra preparation that feels as if it should have been included. A Victim of the Art is not a bad scenario, but it does feel as if it could have been made a little easier to run.

[Free RPG Day 2019] Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure

Now in its twelfth year, Saturday, June 15th is Free RPG Day and with it comes an array of new and interesting little releases. Invariably they are tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Like the support for Free RPG Day in 2017 and 2018, Goodman Games has released the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure, which provides an introduction to the publisher’s Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. It takes its cue from the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Adventure Starter published in 2011, but has been expanded enough for the rules to cover characters from Zero Level to Second Level, provide two adventures, and introduce the key concepts of the roleplaying game. In the process, it has grown from sixteen to forty-eight pages. As with the previous versions from 2017 and 2018, the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure can be divided into three parts. The longest are rules, followed by a short introductory adventure and then by flipping the booklet over, a longer adventure.

Derived from the d20 System, the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game sits somewhere between Basic Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in terms of its complexity. The most radical step in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game is the starting point. Players begin by playing not one, but several Zero Level characters, each a serf or peasant looking beyond a life tied to the fields and the seasons or the forge and the hammer to prove themselves and perhaps progress enough to become a skilled adventurer and eventually make a name for themselves. In other words, to advance from Zero Level to First Level. Unfortunately, delving into tombs and the lairs of both men and beasts is a risky venture and death is all but a certainty for the lone delver… In numbers, there is the chance that one or more will survive long enough to go onto greater things! This is what the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game terms a ‘Character Creation Funnel’.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure provides rules for the creation process, a player rolling for six Abilities—Strength, Agility, Stamina, Personality, Intelligence, and Luck—in strict order on three six-sided dice, plus Hit Points on a four-sided die and an occupation. The latter will determine the character’s Race—Race is a Class in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game just as it was in Basic Dungeons & Dragons, a weapon, and a possession related to his occupation.

Peasant Grizzel
Zero Level Human Mendicant
STR 17 (+2) AGL 11 (+0) STM 10 (+0)
PER 12 (+0) INT 17 (+2) LCK 10 (+0)
Hit Points: 4
Saving Throws
Fortitude +0 Reflex +0 Willpower +2
Alignment: Lawful
Birth Augur: Pack Hunter
Luck Benefit: Attack & Damage Rolls with Zero Level Weapon
Weapon: Club (1d4)
Equipment: Cheese Dip
13cp

Of the stats, only Luck requires any explanation. It can be used for various skill checks and rolls, but its primary use is for each character’s single Luck Benefit—in Peasant Grizzel’s case, when rolling  her attack and damage rolls with her Zero Level weapon. It is burned when used in this fashion and can only be regained by a player roleplaying his character to his Alignment. The Luck bonus also applies to critical hit, fumble, and corruption rolls as well as various Class-based rolls. For example, the Elf receives it as a bonus to rolls for one single spell and a Warrior to rolls for a single weapon such as a longsword or a war hammer. Further, both the Thief and the Halfling Classes are exceptionally lucky. Not only are their Luck bonuses doubled when they burn Luck, they actually regain Luck each day equal to their Level. In addition, if a party has a Halfling amongst its numbers that Halfling can pass his expended Luck to other members of the party!

Mechanically, for a character to do anything, whether Sneak Silently, cast a spell, or make an attack, a player rolls a twenty-sided die and after adding any bonuses hopes to beat a Difficulty Class or an Armor Class. Rolls of one are a fumble and rolls of a twenty are a critical. The Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure includes a Fumble Table as well Critical Hit Tables for each of the Classes. Famously, the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game also uses a multitude of dice, including three, five, seven, fourteen, sixteen, twenty-four, and thirty-sided dice as well as the standard polyhedral dice. Although penalties and bonuses can be applied to dice rolls, the dice themselves can get better or worse, stepping up or stepping down a size depending upon the situation. For example, a Warrior can attack twice in a Round instead of attacking and moving, but makes the first attack using a twenty-sided die and the second attack using a sixteen-sided die. Fortunately, neither of the scenarios in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure make much use of this full polyhedral panoply, but if necessary, dice rolling apps can be found which will handle such dice rolls.

Magic works differently to the Vancian arrangement typically seen in Dungeons & Dragons. Magic is mercurial. What this means is that from one casting of a spell to the next, a spell can have different results. For example, the classic standby of First Level Wizards everywhere, Magic Missile, might manifest as a meteor, a screaming, clawing eagle, a ray of frost, a force axe, or so on. When cast, a Wizard might throw a single Magic Missile that only does a single point of damage; one that might do normal damage; unleash multiple missiles or a single powerful one; and so on. Alternatively, the Wizard’s casting might result in a Misfire, which for Magic Missile might cause the caster’s allies or himself to be hit by multiple Magic Missiles, or to blow a hole under the caster’s feet! Worse, the casting of the spell might have a Corrupting influence upon the caster, which for Magic Missile might cause the skin of the caster’s hands and forearms to change colour to acid green or become translucent or to become invisible every time he casts Magic Missile! This is in addition to the chances of the Wizard suffering from Major or even Greater Corruption… Some ten spells are detailed Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure, taking up roughly, a quarter of the booklet.

One notable difference between the 2018 version of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure and previous versions is the inclusion of different spells. So no Magic Missile, but Choking Cloud and Colour Spray for the Wizard, for example. Certainly, the lack of any healing spells would have changed the players’ approach to either adventure in the 2018 version of Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure. The 2019 version adheres to that lack of healing spells, but does restore Magic Missile for the Wizard.

Once past the funnel, the characters can move up to First Level and acquire a proper Class—either Cleric, Thief, Warrior, or Wizard, or one of the Races, Dwarf, Elf, or Halfling. Further information is provided so that a character can progress to Second Level. The adventures in Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure should be enough for a character to reach First Level. Getting to Second Level and the second adventure is another issue, at least with this version of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure includes two adventures. The first, which immediately follows the rules is ‘The Portal Under The Stairs’, which appeared in the original Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Adventure Starter back in 2011. This has the would-be adventurers venturing into an ancient war-wizard’s tomb after its entryway becomes open when the stars come right. Designed for Zero Level and First Level characters this is a short, just ten location dungeon primarily consisting of traps and puzzles with some deadly combat encounters thrown in. Its three pages are short enough that a group could roll up their characters and funnel them through the adventure to see who survives in a single session. The second scenario, located on the opposite side of Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure is ‘Geas of the Star-chons’.

Now in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventuree from 2017, the scenario included was ‘Gnole House’. Inspired by the writings of Lord Dunsany, this presented a bucolic, genteel demesne, a lonely house full of detail and hidden horrors. Designed for characters of First Level, it provided a good mix of exploration and examination with some combat and a little roleplaying which could easily be run after the players have funnelled their characters through ‘The Portal Under The Stairs’ with some of them hopefully have survived to First Level. ‘Man-Bait for the Soul Stealer’, the scenario in the 2018 version of Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure was a little different.

‘Man-Bait for the Soul Stealer’ was a classic dungeon rather than the ‘house of horror’ that is ‘Gnole House’. It was also designed for characters of Second Level, so getting the characters who survived ‘The Portal Under The Stairs’ and thus went from Zero Level to First Level needed to be further adjusted upwards without playing through their First Level in order to be Second Level and thus suitable for ‘Man-Bait for the Soul Stealer’. Fortunately, the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure for 2019 does not repeat that error.

‘Geas of the Star-chons’ is an adventure for First Level player characters, one which could be literally straight after the events of ‘The Portal Under The Stairs’. It opens with the player characters being selected—or rather being placed under a geas—by the Star-chons, guardians of fate from beyond time and space, to stop Yndrkalla, an ambitious wizard from escaping the fate which has been written for her. This selection process takes place in a tavern, so it could take place the same day that the player characters are celebrating making First Level. The Game Master can add any adventure that she wants between the tavern and Yndrkalla cliffside lair, or indeed none at all, and just transport the player characters to the base of the cliff.

Getting into Yndrkalla’s lair is a challenge in itself, but inside what they find is a relatively straightforward, all but linear complex consisting of just twelve locations. For the most part, Yndrkalla’s minions are a distraction and the complexity of the adventure comes in dealing with the high magic that she is casting, as well as its consequences. The final confrontation is an over the top confrontation with a wizard who is about to unleash powers that the player characters definitely do not understand—though there is definitely an opportunity for them to do so, especially Elves, Thieves, and Wizards. This scene requires careful preparation upon the part of the Game Master, but it is clearly written and it does a nice job of illustrating the dangers of meddling with powers beyond the ken of mortals. Although not necessarily as gonzo in its fantasy as other adventures for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, there is definitely a strong element of ‘damned if you don’t, damned if you do’, so survival is not guaranteed. Then again, that just carries on the ethos of ‘The Portal Under The Stairs’ into First Level.

Physically, the 2019 version of Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure is well presented, the writing is clear, and artwork is in general excellent throughout, echoing the style and ethos of the three core rulebooks for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

As in past years, the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure is a good package. The rules are nicely explained, the style of game is nicely explained, the artwork is good, the two adventures are good, if disconnected. Any player or Game Master with any experience of Dungeons & Dragons will pick this up with ease and be able to bring it to the table with relatively little experience—and once the first adventure is complete, quickly graduate onto running the second. Overall, ‘The Portal Under The Stairs’ might be getting somewhat long in the tooth, but ‘Geas of the Star-chons’ is a fun one session adventure of high magickal weirdness, together serving to make The Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure simply a good introduction to the game and a bit more.

Miskatonic Monday #18: The Titan Incident

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

—oOo—

Name: The Titan Incident

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: William Adcock

Setting: Near Future
Product: Scenario
What You Get: 5.35 MB, 24-page full colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: Outland meets Aliens meets the Mythos.

Plot Hook: Production cuts and a suspicious death send an investigative team to a mining colony 1,275,000,000 miles from Earth.
Plot Development: Overly helpful staff, surly workers, corporate malfeasance, and an eschatological mystery to the song of my people.
Plot Support: Solid, workmanlike plot, six pre-generated investigators, several NPC descriptions, a new Mythos space species, a new Mythos entity, and two handouts.
Production Values: Decent beyond a slight edit.


Pros
# Familiar feeling setting
# Good sense of a mystery
# Easy to run with little preparation
# Solid one-shot
# Well written
# Environment versus the Mythos
# Showcases need for a Call of Cthulhu Science Fiction setting

Cons
# No final Sanity losses
# Maps could have been better
# No pre-prepared investigator sheets and briefings
# Showcases need for a Call of Cthulhu Science Fiction setting

Conclusion
# Solid one-shot adventure
# Blue collar Science Fiction