Catch a Fallen Star

Mutant Crawl Classics #2: A Fallen Star for all is the second release for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, the spirutual successor to Gamma World published by Goodman Games. It is the first adventure to be designed for use with player characters who are not Zero Level, being instead designed for player characters of First Level. What this means is that it is not a Character Funnel, one of the features of both the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game–and the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game it is mechanically based upon–in which initially, a player is expected to roll up three or four Level Zero characters and have them play through a generally nasty, deadly adventure, which surviving will prove a challenge. Those that do survive receive enough Experience Points to advance to First Level and gain all of the advantages of their Class. In terms of the setting, known as Terra A.D., or ‘Terra After Disaster’, this is a ‘Rite of Passage’ and in Mutants, Manimals, and Plantients, the stress of it will trigger ‘Metagenesis’, their DNA expressing itself and their mutations blossoming forth. So as A Fallen Star for all begins, each of the player characters will likely have their mutant powers, their Class abilities, and some equipment scavenged from their previous adventures.

Originally released as a Stretch Goal for the Kickstarter campaign for the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, the scenario does share something in common with ‘Assault on the Sky-High Tower’ in that the player characters are directed by their tribe to go out and scavenge an Ancients site for the artefacts that might still remain despite the effects of the apocalyptic event that destroyed the Ancients' world and society. This though, should be no surprise, since the player characters, having completed their Rite of Passage have been designated the tribe’s ‘Seekers’, those who go to find the technology of the Ancients which would both protect and make the life of the tribe better. As A Fallen Star for all begins, scouts have returned to the village with reports of a meteor strike to the north in the taboo crater country. The strike has opened up a huge chasm within which stands what could be the largely intact city of the Ancient Ones. If so, there will be more than one tribe or group interested in combing the site for old tech, so the player characters–the Seekers–need to get a move on.

After a short introductory scene, the scenario proper begins with the Seekers approaching the crater site. The scenario consists of two areas, the first a wilderness around the crater and the second the crater itself and the complex below the crater. The wilderness area consists of just five locations or encounters that the Seekers should run into on their way to the crater. These are all pleasingly straightforward and simple encounters that reflect the damage that the meteor did in the wake of it crashing to Earth. There is room here too for the Game Master to add encounters of her own, especially if the player characters have rivals or their tribe has a rival tribe. There is room here too for encounters with members of rival or even similar Archaic Alignment, the  semi-secret organisations with common belief systems, interests, and goals found in the world of Terra A.D. This is because they too would have an interest in what might be found in the crater.

The encounters with rival groups continue once the Seekers enter the complex, a mix of room and wandering encounters. Yet where the number of encounters outside of the complex felt reasonable, inside they feel cramped in just the fifteen locations described in the scenario. Indeed, the complex itself feels quite small, not large enough for the plot at the heart of A Fallen Star for all that the author is trying to tell. The plot of the scenario itself–essentially children wanting revenge–feels just a little similar to the plot of ‘Assault on the Sky-High Tower’, the scenario to be found in the back of the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, to be run quite so soon after completing that Character Funnel. Ultimately, what the scenario really needed is the space to develop the plot and perhaps expand the size of the complex, as after all, the Seekers are expecting to discover a whole ancient city. It is though, something for the Game Master to think about in preparing to run A Fallen Star for all.

Although there is not a great deal to be found in terms of loot to be taken away, the scenario presents plenty of opportunity for the players to make Artefact Checks for their characters and so work what the complex is and how it works. There are also quite a few NPCs for them to interact with rather than just fighting them, giving both them and the Game Master opportunities to roleplay. In particular, the Game Master has one NPC that she should really ‘nanny’ up–whether that is a la the films Mrs Doubtfire or Mary Poppins is up to the Game Master to decide–to get the most out of. Indeed, she should be the most memorable of all of the NPCs to be encountered in A Fallen Star for all.

Ultimately, the biggest issue with the scenario is that it explains the plot as it goes along. As with any scenario there is the plot that the players and their characters are aware of at the begining and then there is actually what going on–the true plot. A Fallen Star for all never gives the latter as a whole, but rather in a piecemeal fashion as the Game Master is expected to learn it at the same time as her players and their characters. It is a very frustrating way of learning said plot because it makes it all the more difficult for the Game Master to prepare the adventure. An experienced Game Master should not struggle with this, but an inexperienced Game Master may well do so.

Physically, A Fallen Star for all is nicely presented. The artwork is mostly good and does a decent job of imparting the weirdness of Terra A.D. The map of the complex is a little awkward to grasp in places, but a careful read through of the text should help the Game Master prevent that from becoming a problem.

As with Mutant Crawl Classics #1: Hive of the Overmind before it, A Fallen Star for all is a short adventure, running to just twenty pages in length. This should provide a playing group with two or three sessions worth of gaming, but A Fallen Star for all does feel as if it should have been longer, with a better explanation of what is going on and of what the plot is as well as room to develop the complex and perhaps plant more clues as to what the nature of the plot is. Perhaps it is because the plot is not explained as well as it should be that Mutant Crawl Classics #2: A Fallen Star for all feels underwhelming. Despite this, the scenario includes some decent enounters and opportunities for some fun roleplaying and in the hands of a good Game Master, Mutant Crawl Classics #2: A Fallen Star for all should provide a decent adventure.

Friday Filler: Action Cats!

Action Cats! – Spin Tales From the Secret World of Cat is a game in which the players take it in turn to be the Judge and pose questions to which the other players will provide answers from which the Judge will chose the most appropriate, the funniest, or simply the one that she likes. Now that means that it sounds like Apples to Apples or like its more adult and better-known cousin, Cards Against Humanity. Now whilst Action Cats! employs similar mechanics it does not have the often in poor taste humour of Cards Against Humanity, but it does have theme where Apples to Apples does not. That theme is cats, specifically the cats we keep as pets—or is that the cats that keep us as pets?—and the things they get up to that we have no idea about. Published by Twogetherstudios.com following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Action Cats! is designed to be played by three to six humans, aged nine and up, in no more than thirty minutes. 

Action Cats! consists of one-hundred-and-seventy-five full-colour cards. Four of these are rules cards, each of which explains how the game is played, but the bulk of the cards consist of the ‘Action/Cats’ cards. On the front of each of these is a photograph of a cat, each contributed by a Kickstarter backer, and they are in turns inscrutable, cute, majestic, funny, ugly, pretty, silly, surprised, but all individuals. The back of each ‘Action/Cats’ card is divided into a white section and a black section. The white section gives the first half of a sentence, the black section, the second half. The white section describes who the cat is, for example, “This cat is an innovator who “poops outside the box”… or “This cat is having a really bad…”. The black section describes what the cat does or how it reacts, for example, “…And they believe gravity must be constantly tested.” or “…And they just destroyed your favourite chair.”

To play the game, each player receives four cards. The Judge—the first Judge being determined by the amount of cat hair they are covered in*—draws the top card from the deck and shows the photograph of the cat on the front to the other players. The Judge then introduces the cat and asks each of the other players to tell a story about this cat. They then combine the white section and the black section from two of their cards to create a complete sentence, and when it is their turn, they tell a short story about the Judge’s cat based on that sentence. Once everyone has presented their Action cat story, embellishing and adding flair as necessary, the Judge picks the one that she liked. The winner receives cat card that the Judge drew and that everyone told stories about. Then the next player becomes the Judge and a new cat is drawn and new stories told, and so on and so on, until of course, nine cats have been played. The player with the most cat cards as trophies is the winner.

For example, as the Judge, Niamh introduces Trevor, a black and white cat with combination brush moustache and soul patch, who notably, is wearing a faux Viking helmet, complete with horns. She asks everyone to tell her something about Trevor. Alex explains that, “This cat is a heartbreaker… …And they’re always looking for a new challenge.” Louise says that, “This cat is a renowned expert on quantum mechanics… …On the sofa.” Dave explains that, “This cat makes the best biscuits in the county… …And has already sold the movie rights.” I say that, “This cat invented Dungeons & Dragons… And went directly to Gen Con.” Niamh replies, “Yeah… I can see Trevor having invested D&D. It’s the Viking helm.” She gives me Trevor as my trophy card.

Action Cats! is of course, simple to play, but it adds a tweak or two to the format. The first is that it uses both sides of the cards—essentially the front of each card and its photograph serves as the question, whilst the back provides the answers. The second is it provides a space—literally a grey space—for the players to improvise. In some card games like Action Cats!, spaces are left blank, typically in the questions, for the players to fill in. In Action Cats! the space to improvise is on the cards that the players give as answers, but they are not left blank. Instead, they are already filled in with a noun or term, such as “viking raider”, “the future”, or “kittens”, which is printed in grey rather than black or white. A player is free to use these as given, of course, but he is equally free to change them to fit the story he is telling. For example, in the winning story above, “This cat invented Dungeons & Dragons… And went directly to Gen Con.”, “Dungeons & Dragons” was in grey, as was the word “bank”, which I replaced with Gen Con in order to tell a better story. This is a nice feature, one that allows for player improvisation when they want to, whilst still leaving something there for players less comfortable with doing so—and of course, it enhances the storytelling aspect of Action Cats!

Physically, Action Cats! is nicely presented. The photographs of the cats are crisp and clear, the text on the cards is easy to read, and the rules are simple enough for the game to be pulled from the box and everyone to being playing in two minutes. The design of the answers on the back of the cards is obviously intended to make the players think about their stories as often the combination of the white section and black section on a card work better as an answer than does combining two cards. For example, “This cat was an infamous viking raider…” and “…But hates water.”. Which is a very good description of Trevor, but it never came up in play and nor can it because the answers are on the same card.

If there is an issue with Action Cats!, it is that it is very American in its terminology. Thankfully, the grey text provides room for a player to come up with something else, to adapt as well as to improvise. Otherwise, Action Cats! – Spin Tales From the Secret World of Cats is a fun, family game of feline fictions and fables with the right amount of pointers for both improvisation and simple storytelling.

A Fulcrum Broken

The Red Cow campaign for use with HeroQuest Glorantha consists of two parts. In the first part, The Coming Storm: The Red Cow Volume I, we were  introduced to the Red Cow, the clan famous for the red cows it breeds and trades that make it the envy of many of its neighbours. Part of the Cinsina tribe, itself part of the Jonstown Confederation, the Red Cow sits at the heart of the Kingdom of Sartar in Dragon Pass. In describing the Red Cow clan and its leaders and notable figures, its allies, enemies, and their aims, The Coming Storm: The Red Cow Volume I set up the clan on a knife edge, riven by factions with no single fiction dominating the clan—the Moon Winds have converted to the worship of the Seven Mothers and welcomed the Lunar occupation forces; the Free Sartar faction supports rebellion and its campaign of guerrilla warfare against the Lunar Empire and would kill the Moon Winds; the Conquering Storm concentrates on local matters, old feuds and slights, to keep the tribe strong and its neighbours weak; the Wolfskinners want to kill the Telmori, the werewolves to the east, even being prepared to work with the local Lunar general to wipe them out; and the Eye of the Hurricane which does not want the clan to involve itself in outside affairs, whether it is involvement in the rebellion against the Lunar Empire or the foretold Hero Wars which are to happen soon. Broddi Strong-Kin is both clan chieftain and head of the Eye of the Hurricane faction,  and so has the difficult task of maintaining the balance between the rivalries and politics of the factions, the clan, and the tribe.

It is into this rich, detailed set-up that the player characters come to the fore.  As members of the Red Cow, they are clan warriors, hunters, herders, healers, farmers, priests, and more, who through their decisions and actions have the potential to influence and eventually, even determine the future of the clan. The opportunity for them to do is is presented in the second part of the campaign, The Eleven Lights: The Red Cow Volume II. This is the campaign proper, chronicling the story of the clan from 1618 until 1625, covering the events, season by season, that lead up to the outbreak of the Hero Wars. These of course, include the Lunar campaigns throughout the period, the death of Orlanth and the Great Winter which followed, and the Dragon Rise which struck the death knell of the Red Emperor’s attempts to occupy Dragon Pass. Yet the story of the Red Cow clan is not about its involvement in these events, but how its people react to them, cope with them, and above all, survive them. It should be no surprise given the level of detail paid to the Red Cow clan and its allies and enemies in The Coming Storm: The Red Cow Volume I, that campaign is primarily location based. The player characters may travel far from their homeland—in one instance, very, very far—but they always come back and their ultimate concern is always the fate the clan. In the process, they will become involved in dealings with other tribes and clan, in dealings and death with werewolves, suffer under the yoke of the Lunar occupation, and worse—much worse, but again, it is their fellow clan members whom they have to return to deal, and they all have their own ambitions.

To get the very most out of The Eleven Lights: The Red Cow Volume II, the Game Master will need access to several books beyond just The Coming Storm: The Red Cow Volume I. Primarily, these are the Sartar Companion and Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes, which add wider background, but in the main provide further scenarios and heroquests that the Game Master can run in addition to those given in The Eleven Lights: The Red Cow Volume II. Also of note is Hamlet’s Hit Points, Robin D. Laws’ examination of story beats—actions and actions within a scene—to help with staging the campaign’s many episodes. Of course, the Game Master does not have to read Hamlet’s Hit Points before running the campaign, but it might be a helpful option all the same.

The majority of the book is devoted to years that the campaign covers, chapter by chapter. The first chapter introduces The Red Cow campaign, explains how the book is organised, and provides some advice for the Game Master on running the campaign. Each of the yearly chapters is organised into sections entitled Conflicts, The Ring, The Hero Wars, and Important NPCs. Conflicts details conflicts that threaten the Red Cow, both within and without; The Ring covers events concerning the clan’s leadership; The Hero Wars provides information on events which might affect the clan—both local and further afield; and Important NPCs lists everyone who has a role to play in that particular year. The chapters then give the various episodes which take place that year. Like the chapters themselves, these are organised in the same fashion. Each provides a starting point with ‘Begins With’, lists the Cast, explains the Situation and gives possible Twists, lists Connected Episodes as well as the Acts, Scenes, and Beats in the Episode, before going through the Episode, Act by Act, and finally, giving some advice on running the Episode and discussing how it might play out in ‘Play of the Game’. These two formats are adhered to throughout The Eleven Lights: The Red Cow Volume II and together help the Game Master run the campaign. Individual Episodes vary in length, some may take a session or less to finish, others may take multiple sessions to complete.

In addition to the various episodes in each of the year-by-year chapters, the first chapter also includes a number of ‘general’ Episodes. These cover common activities which the clan often engages in, such as conducting cattle raids, sending emissaries to other clans, feuding, patrolling, trading, and so on. These are designed to be slotted into the ongoing campaign as needed, with many being listed under the Connected Episodes section of each Episode. In comparison to the great events covered by Episodes in the year-by-year chapters, these are perhaps not quite as exciting, but they do add to ongoing drama. Also included in this chapter is a Heroquest particular to the Red Cow clan—‘The Stealing of the Giant’s Cow’, which the player characters are likely to undertake at least on one year in order to ensure the quality of the clan’s cattle.

The campaign opens in 1618 with ‘The Missing’, a crisis involving sickness among the clan and children having disappeared. It is a relatively gentle, and charming, introduction to the campaign, but it gets the player characters involved in clan affairs and it gets them dealing with other members of the clan from the off. It is followed by Episodes which push the player characters to make choices as events bring both them and the clan into conflict with its long-term enemy, the Emerald Sword clan of the Dinacoli. Episodes in later years continue this conflict to varying degrees, but the focus will shift to one of survival as events outside of the clan’s control impinge upon it again and again. Ultimately, circumstances will call upon the player characters to undertake a longer, much more involved heroquest which has great consequences for the wider world. This has a truly epic, magical feel to it and any player characters who return from it are heroes, ones ready for the difficulties the clan must face after the campaign (many of which would be worth exploring should The Eleven Lights: The Red Cow Volume II ever receive a sequel).

The challenge in running The Eleven Lights: The Red Cow Volume II is twofold. First, as a community-based campaign, it involves a lot of NPCs, not just those listed in The Coming Storm: The Red Cow Volume I, but also those added by the Game Master. There are a lot to keep track of in the campaign, but The Eleven Lights: The Red Cow Volume II gives advice on handling multiple NPCs and it limits the numbers involved from Episode to Episode. Second, there is a great deal to take in when preparing the campaign, nearly all of it in the pages of The Coming Storm: The Red Cow Volume I before the Game Master has got to the running of the campaign itself. Overcoming this is a matter of careful preparation and taking notes prior to running the campaign, and again, the episodic nature of the campaign means that the Game Master should be able to avoid being overwhelmed by too much information.

For the players, the challenge is knowing that the actions of their characters and the decisions they make will have consequences. Promises made, connections forged, alliances made, help rendered, and their reverse will have some kind of impact upon the outcome of the campaign. The many NPCs and factions have their own agendas and so will often require something of the player characters if they need support or assistance. Many of the decisions made will not have any consequences until much later on in the campaign when the player characters have a much larger role in the tribe. 

Physically, The Eleven Lights: The Red Cow Volume II adheres to Chaosium’s now standard, professional degree of presentation. Although a slight edit is needed here and there, the book is well written and well presented. The artwork, a mix of full colour and black and white, old and new, is excellent and helps to bring to life the fantastic world that is Glorantha.

For decades, the struggle of a Sartarite clan to win its freedom and throw off the yoke of the Lunar Empire has been one of the classic campaign set-ups for Glorantha. The Eleven Lights: The Red Cow Volume II together with The Coming Storm: The Red Cow Volume I, enables Gloranthaphiles to explore that set-up to its fullest with a superb community-based campaign. It provides a great, sometimes epic, storyline which the Game Master can tailor to her players and in playing through the campaign, it is their characters that will decide the fate of the clan and their home. Together The Coming Storm: The Red Cow Volume I and The Eleven Lights: The Red Cow Volume II form a great community-based campaign which give the player characters a home and a clan to care about.

The Other OSR: Into the Odd

From the outset, it is difficult to tell what Into the Odd actually is. Any other roleplaying game would give you a blurb or an explanation or a setting or some inspiration—or two, three, or all of these. Published by Lost Pages, its starting point is character generation followed by an explanation of the core rules. The former is done in two pages, whilst the later is done in one. So literally everything a player needs to know to get playing is done within three pages. All a player does is roll three six-sided dice for three Ability scores—Strength, Dexterity, and Willpower, a six-sided die for Hit Points, and three six-sided dice to determine a character’s Starter Package. This can be equipment, weapons, armour, weird powers, an appearance, or an Arcanum, the latter a magical and highly sought after device like Pain Sign, Heat Ray, or Phase Key. Rolling for type of Arcana is a separate roll. A character can rolled up in minutes.

Reginald Cremson
Strength 10
Dexterity 13
Willpower 16
Hit Points: 4
Equipment: Pistol (d6), Knife (d6), Unarmed (d4)
Ability: Telepathy if target fails Will save

Mechanically, if a character wants to undertake an action, his player rolls a twenty-sided die against the appropriate Ability, aiming to equal to or under to pass. For initiative in combat is handled with a Dexterity save. Combat is equally as simple. A player rolls the die for the weapon used to determine how much might damage be inflicted. The target’s armour is subtracted from this and the remainder is subtracted from first his Hit Points and then his Strength. Should a character lose all of his Strength, he dies. It takes only a Short Rest to recover lost Hit Points, but a Long Rest lasting a week to recover lost Ability points. Saves against Willpower are used for several things, maintaining morale of course, but also in a pinch, maintaining civil discourse with others, and more interestingly, to manipulate the powers of Arcana. Each Arcanum does one specific thing and does it well. Binding Strands for example, creates strands spreading between two surfaces twenty feet apart. A Dexterity save is required to move through them. To use a Binding Strands Arcanum in this way is automatic, but if a character wants to do something different, for example, to tie up and gag a recent captive using Binding Strands, then a Willpower save is required. Arcana come in three types of increasing magnitude—‘Powers You Cannot Understand’, ‘Powers You Can Barely Control’, and ‘Powers You You Shouldn’t Control’.

It is at this point that we begin to see what the point of Into the Odd is—to go on an Expedition, perhaps to explore a mysterious environment, to confront or escape a powerful threat, or to find ever more powerful Arcanum. The aim being at least to be successful, return to civilisation at least with a great story, if not an amazing artifact or a dangerous secret. By going on expeditions and surviving a character gains Experience Levels and thus more Hit Points, a reputation, and possibly increases to his Abilities. A character needs to survive an ever increasing number of expeditions as he rises in Levels. In between expeditions, a character might set up and run a business or establish a mercenary company. Quick and easy rules are provided for handling these, both of which can generate income for the character as well as create story and scenario ideas for the Game Master.

All of which is covered in barely a third of Into the Odd and that also includes a good example of play. The other two thirds of the book are for the Game Master. The main rule for the Game Master is the Luck roll for when a degree of randomness is required. This is a roll of a six-sided die with higher results favouring the player characters. Beyond this there are discussions of monsters to be encountered, treasure to be found—including some new Arcana, and traps and obstacles to be overcome. What is interesting about traps and obstacles in Into the Odd is that unless a character is in a rush, then he will always spot them. This is because the challenge for the character is not spotting them, but overcoming or avoiding them. So for example, a pit trap is easy to spot and with a bit of effort and time, easy to work around without the danger of falling in, having got past the pit, the characters later have to return past in a hurry. Now their players need to make Dexterity saves in order to get past safely in a hurry.

So far, with inclusion of pistols and muskets and strange powers and Arcanum, Into the Odd implies a strange Science Fantasy version of the early modern age—the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The latter half of Into the Odd introduces a setting, that of the Odd World, of which ‘Bastion’, ‘Hub of Mankind’ is the self-proclaimed capital of civilisation. It is a fog-palled city of huge factories, mobs crying out for vengeance, star cults vying for secrets and power, and an underground riddled with tunnels, vaults, and more. There are lands and cities beyond Bastion, even a Polar Ocean, but they are not Bastion. (It should be noted that the illustrations suggest Bastion and thus Odd World is more Dickensian then Georgian or Stuart-era London.)

In terms of specific playing areas, Into the Odd provides three locations. These are the scum-encrusted fishing town of Hopesend Port, the Last Port of the North; a dungeon, The Iron Coral, which lies off the coast off Hopesend Port; and the hexcrawl, The Fallen Marsh, the soggy stretch of coast which lies between them. Now these are presented in the order of The Iron Coral, The Fallen Marsh, and Hopesend Port, which feels counter-intuitive if the trio is run as a campaign, with the player characters starting out from Hopesend and then travelling through The Fallen Marsh to The Iron Coral. That said, the inclusion of The Iron Coral first essentially means that it is good for getting straight into play as it can be run with very little preparation upon the part of the Game Master. All three locations pack a lot of content into as a few words as possible with short descriptions and concisely written details. The designer here impresses with the amount of flavour he brings to these locations with such an economy of words. Both The Iron Coral and The Fallen Marsh are supported by random encounter tables that will help drive the action, whilst Hopesend is supported by table of events. Overall though, the trio form an excellent introductory mini-setting.

The ten or so pages are devoted to the ‘Oddpendium’, set of tables drawn from the designer’s website. They include tables for name generation, occupations, abilities, manner, connections, and important little life events, all for quick NPC generation. Others create the feel and atmosphere of a city street, its sample businesses, links to the Underworld that runs under Bastion, and more. Perhaps the pair of tables that get across the nature of the city the best are the ‘Insane Council Decisions’ and ‘General Public Reaction’ to them tables, which give a sense of governmental chaos, of desperate powers-that-be, and of mob rule.

Physically, Into the Odd is cleanly laid and in general, well written. The art is a good mix of new and public domain, serving to suggest both the weirdness and the banality of Bastion and its surrounds. The content could have been better organised, primarily to reorder the the three scenarios/locations in the book and if there was a second edition, perhaps a guide as to where to start and what to do next would be useful for player and Game Master alike. (In fact, a boxed set for the Into the Odd would be great.) Another issue is that an index would have been useful for finding particular elements of the book, although the book is short enough that it is not too much of a problem.

Into the Odd is quick and easy to play, players able to create characters in minutes and be ready to play. A little extra effort is required by the Game Master, but again she could read through the rule book in about half an hour and be ready to run The Iron Coral straight out of the book. Both the rules and the setting of Bastion are very light and very much open to interpretation by both players and the Game Master. This gives both a lot of freedom in deciding how elements of the setting and the rules work, and the Game Master a lot of freedom in building the elements of her Bastion. The tables of the ‘Oddpendium’ help in this, whether in preparing before a game session or during a game session.

How much play can be got out of Into the Odd is another matter. Certainly, the trio of the town, the hexcrawl, and the dungeon provide material for several sessions’ worth of play. Likewise, the tables will provide details and elements that a Game Master happy to improvise can develop into something more, but that will only go so far. Certainly support in terms of encounters and adventures which can be run with little preparation would be welcome, since that is the type of play that Into the Odd is designed to engender.

Mechanically though, Into the Odd is not necessarily a forgiving system. Combat in particular, is deadly as every attack succeeds and what matters is the amount of damage rolled. So hirelings or playing with multiple characters might be an option if a group wants to avoid a total party kill. In this, Into the Odd may initially have the feel of a Character Funnel as in Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game and Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, with its set-up of multiple Zero Level characters per player.

The simplicity of Into the Odd will attract some groups and put off others, the issue being  it not being really suitable for the Game Master who prefers to prepare her game rather than improvise in play. Yet this element of improvisation which provides ready scope for interpretation and judgement by the Game Master along with the unforgiving, often deadly, rules echo the play style of the Old School Renaissance. A brilliant combination of concision and flavour, Into the Odd is impressively easy to pick up and play with minimum preparation.

The Other OSR: Forbidden Lands

The Ravenland was once ours, lands beyond the mountains which represented virgins ripe for expansion and settlement, but then the savagery of the Orcs was unleashed on the settlers, forcing their leader, Zygofer the Spellbinder to turn to foul means to drive them back. He opened dark gates to let in the demon help he sort and set himself up as king of Ravenland, but in response the wise king walled off the lands and forbade all to talk about the Spellbinder’s domain which became known as the Forbidden Lands. For centuries, they have been under the demonic control of both Zygofer and his daughter, as well as under the curse of the Blood Mist, which sucks the life out of anyone who strays too far from their door. Yet now, even while Zygofer and his daughter remain still on the throne of the Forbidden Lands, the Blood Mist has lifted and men and women of all races have flooded into a realm untouched by their hands for centuries. They are not valiant souls, but scoundrels, treasure hunters, vagabonds, adventurers, fortune seekers, setting out to make their mark on the new land—there are dungeons to be plundered, great treasures to be found, and strongholds to be claimed!

This is the set-up for Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World, a fantasy roleplaying game published by Free League, following a successful Kickstarter campaign. It comes as an imposing boxed set which contains two hardback books with faux leather covers—the ‘Player’s Manual’ and the ‘Gamemaster’s Guide’, a large full colour map of the Forbidden Lands, and a sheet of stickers. The roleplaying game is described as a ‘Retro Open-World Survival Fantasy RPG’ and designed to be played in the style of the fantasy roleplaying games of the seventies and early eighties, with the player characters free to roam as they will across the Forbidden Lands as a sandbox. The stickers play a role in this too, for they can be applied to the map to mark the location of sites across the Forbidden Lands, whether they are villages, strongholds, or dungeons. In this way, Forbidden Lands becomes a legacy game, in that playing through a campaign means that both map and campaign will be unique to each gaming group, the same as playing through board games like Pandemic Legacy or Gloomhaven.

Forbidden Lands is a roleplaying game of exploration, in which the player characters, like others, set out to see a land which has long been forbidden to them, to escape the bonds placed upon them by the deadly effects of the Blood Mist. In doing so, the player characters will discover adventure sites—villages, castles, and dungeons. To varying degrees, at each of these will be found intrigue, horror, and treasure. Initially, villages will bases of operation for the player characters, but in clearing out both castles and dungeons, they can be turned into strongholds and developed into long term bases for the player characters. As they find more treasure and develop sources of income, this can be spent to restore and rebuild facilities that have fallen into disrepair, to build new facilities, and to staff the new stronghold. In the process, the player characters will discover both the history and the secrets of the land, revealing legends and investigating them further, perhaps ultimately to find one of the great artefacts that have been lost during the centuries in which the land was covered by the Blood Mist.

A character in Forbidden Lands is defined by his Kin, Profession, age, attributes, skills, talents, Pride, and Dark Secret. There are seven Kin—or Races—Human, Half-Elves, Dwarf, Halfling, Wolfkin, Orcs, and Goblins. Of these, Wolfkin are a bipedal wolf-like species who have a pack mentality and love the hunt and the wilderness. Each Kin has a key attribute, a talent, and typical profession, though when creating a character a player does not have to adhere to this. For Humans, the key attribute is Empathy; the Kin talent is ‘Adaptive’, which enables a player to substitute another skill in a situation by spending a Willpower point; and typical professions are essentially any… There are eight Professions—Druid, Fighter, Hunter, Minstrel, Peddler, Rider, Rogue, and Sorcerer. Each also lists a key attribute as well as skills; suggestions for a source of pride, a dark secret, and a relationship. A character has four attributes—Strength, Agility, Wits, and Empathy. There are just sixteen skills to choose from, but a player will begin play with either eight, ten, or twelve points depending upon his character’s age. 

Talents are tricks and abilities which give a character an advantage in play. Each Kin has its own talent, which has just the one rank, but the other two types, professional and general, have three ranks each. Each Profession has three talents given, except for the Sorcerer, which has four.  For example, the Fighter’s Path of the Blade enables a character to spend a Willpower point to bypass armour during an attack at Rank 1, spend a Willpower point to gain another attack at Rank 2, and multiple Willpower points to increase damage inflicted at Rank 3. A character begins play with a Kin talent, a Rank in a Profession talent, and a Rank in up to three general talents, depending on age, of course.

Lastly, each character has a Dark Secret and a source of Pride. The former is primarily a narrative aspect for the Game Master to work into the play of the game, earning the character Experience Points when it comes into play, whereas the latter can be invoked once per game session after a player has failed a roll—even if he has Pushed the roll—to roll a twelve-sided die and hopefully get some or more Successes. The larger die types have more Success symbols on them, including multiple Success symbols on some faces. However, should a character still fail after his Pride is rolled, he loses that Pride and must come up with a new one in a later session.

To create a character a player selects a Kin, Profession, age, talents, Pride, and Dark Secret and assigns points to the character’s attributes and skills. The process is relatively quick, a matter of making a few choices. Our sample character Solga, a Goblin who got thrown out of her tribe for her snide remarks and being suspected of poisoning her husband. She helped Gaverin escape when she made a run for it and they have travelling together ever since. He is interested in uncovering the legends and secrets of the Forbidden Lands, whereas Solga is along for the company.

Name: Solga ‘the Rat’
Kin: Goblin Age: 26 Gender: Female
Profession: Rogue
Attributes
Strength 2 Agility 5 Wits 4 Empathy 3
Skills: Melee 1, Stealth 3, Sleight of Hand 2, Move 1, Manipulation 2, Scouting 1
Talents: Sneaky (Kin), Path of the Poisoner (Rank 1), Fast Footwork (Rank 1), Sharp Tongue (Rank 1)
Willpower: 0
Pride: No one has a softer step than you
Dark Secret: You compulsively steal valuables you catch sight of
Reputation: 1
Relationship: Gaverin treats you like a child to be chastised . Very annoying.
Gear: Dagger, grappling hook, lockpicks, 3 silver
Resource Dice: Food d6, Water d6

Mechanically, Forbidden Lands uses the same mechanics as Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days, Coriolis: The Third Horizon, and Tales from the Loop – Roleplaying in the '80s That Never Was. Called the Year Zero Engine, which uses a dice pool system based on six-sided dice. These dice are divided into three types—Base, Skill, and Gear (or Weapon) Dice—and coloured white maroon, and black respectively in the custom set available separately for Forbidden Lands. Alternatively, a playing group can substitute dice of three different colours. Sixes—or crossed swords on the custom dice—are counted as Successes, whilst ones—or skulls on the custom dice which appear do not appear on the Skill Dice—are counted as Banes.

What matters is that when a player rolls dice for his character’s action, he needs to roll at least one Success to succeed. Successes rolled greater than those needed can used to achieve further effects, such as fully repairing gear back up to the number of dice they add in any action. If the dice are rolled and there are no Success, then this is considered to be a failure. Alternatively, a player can decide that he wants to push his character’s action. In this case, he reroll any dice that have not rolled Successes or Banes in the first roll. Even if a roll is successful, any Banes a player has rolled from either the first or second roll, are triggered and will damage or exhaust either the attribute used if rolled on the Base dice or the gear used if rolled on the Gear dice. Rolling Banes has a positive side though. For every Bane rolled on the Base dice after a roll has been pushed, a character receives one Willpower Point, which can then be spent to fuel a character’s Kin and Professional Talents.

What the Game Master does not do is set a difficulty number or target in terms of the number of Successes a player needs to generate in order for his character to succeed—one is enough, and of course, any extra go towards effects that benefit the characters. Intead, the Game Master can modify the number of Skill dice a player rolls, for example, a Hard task levies a -2 modification, reducing the number of Skill dice a player has to roll by two.

For example, Solga and her companion, Gaverin, were ambushed by bandits and Gaverin was captured. Solga managed to escape the ambush and has tracked the bandits to the ruined tower they are based and are holding Gaverin. After some hours, Solga has found a way into the tower—an embrasure high up on the wall. The Game Master states that this will not be a test to see if Solga can climb the tower, but to see if she can do it silently. Otherwise, this might be a Move check, but Solga’s player states that the Goblin will be taking her time. Solga’s player assembles his dice pool, which will consist of five Base dice for her Agility, three Skill dice for her Stealth, and one Gear die for her grappling hook. This gives Solga’s player nine dice to roll, but the Game Master states that this task is Demanding and modifies the number of Skill by one, so now Solga’s player only rolls eight dice. Unfortunately he only rolls one Bane on the Gear die and no Successes, so Solag’s player decides to Push the roll. Taking up the seven dice which came up blank—the Gear die cannot be rerolled because it rolled a Bane—he rolls again and gets two Success and another Bane, this one on a Base die!

To sum up, Solga’s player has rolled enough Success to succeed, but has rolled two Banes, one on the Gear die and one on a Base die. The Game Master rules that the Bane on the Gear die means that one of the tines on Solga’s grappling hook has broken, meaning that it cannot be used effectively until repaired. In other words, it will not grant the +1 bonus to all climbing rolls until then. The Bane on the Base die temporarily reduces Solga’s Agility to 4 and gives her a Willpower Point, but at least the Goblin has succeeded and is inside the bandit’s tower.

Combat uses the same core mechanics, but adds tweaks to both initiative and actions. Initiative is handled by both players and Game Master drawing from a ten-card deck, numbered one to ten. Initiative then proceeds in ascending order, though some Talent allow Initiative to be changed and players can swap initiative cards if one character needs to act before another. Otherwise it remains the same throughout a fight. In combat itself, a character can perform two actions—a Fast Action and a Slow Action. The first might be a dodge, a parry, a swing of a heavy weapon before an actual attack with a heavy weapon, run, aim, and so on, whereas the second might be a slash with an edged weapon, stab with a pointed weapon, a taunt or persuade attempt, and so on. Fast Actions typically do not require dice rolls, whereas Slow Actions typically do.

Advanced combat in Forbidden Lands makes use of the combat cards from the Forbidden Lands: Card Deck to bring a tactical element to the game with hidden combinations. Essentially the combat cards give manoeuvres and actions that a character might take his combat attacks and before each attack, both defender and attacker take two and decide in what order they will be played, so not only does this add a degree of tactical back and forth to a fight, it also adds a degree of uncertainty. (The Forbidden Lands: Custom Deck also adds Artifact Cards, Mount Cards, and a Reference Card as well as Combat Cards and Initiative Cards.)

When an attack is successful, the attacker inflicts damage equal to the weapon, plus any extra Successes rolled. Damage can be blocked by both armour and cover, the defender rolling a number of dice equal to the armour or cover value, with every Success rolled blocking a point of damage. Weapon damage typically affects a character’s Strength Attribute, but other forms of damage can affect the other Attributes. Notably, in social situations, characters can use their Manipulation skill against an opponent’s Insight; damage to Agility represents physical fatigue and exhaustion; damage to Wits represents fear, confusion, and misjudgement; and damage to Empathy represents callousness and distrust. Damage has two effects. First it reduces the number of Base dice a player can roll for the damaged Attribute, and second, if reduced to zero, it means that the character is Broken, the exact effects of which vary from attribute to attribute, but essentially it means that a character cannot act. In combat, it means that an enemy can attempt to deliver a coup de grâce.

Continuing the example, Solga has successfully climbed the tower where the bandits are holding her companion, Gaverin. She sneaks down a corridor, checking several rooms and eluding the guard before finding where the bandits are holding the prisoner.  Slipping into the room, the goblin grins at the bound and gagged Half-Elf, and quickly goes to work, loosening the ropes and the gag that hold him silent and immobile. Almost as she finishes the task, Gaverin snaps a warning to his liberator—the guard has swung back on his rounds and discovered the escape attempt. Solga has her blade drawn, but the Guard does not. Both react at the sight of each other and a fight ensues.

Everyone involved draws an Initiative card—the Game Master draws a 9, Gaverin’s player draws a 7, and Solga’s player draws a 4. This means that of the player characters, Gaverin will go first, but all the Half-Elf can do is escape his bonds, which means that the Guard could attack him before Solga can act. So, before the round begins, the players swap their Initiative cards, making the order now the Guard, Solga, and Gaverin. The Guard’s first action is ‘Draw Weapon’, a Fast Action which enables him to attempt a Slash’ with his axe as his Slow Action.

The Game Master rolls three Base dice for the Bandit’s Strength, two Skill dice for his Melee skill, and two Gear dice for the attack. She rolls two Successes and one Bane on the Base dice, though the latter does not count because the roll has not been Pushed. The hand axe inflicts two bonus Success, so Solga is about to take four damage to her Strength. This is a lot of damage, but Solga has the Fast Footwork Talent which gives her a Dodge beyond any Reactive action. Solga’s player rolls four Base dice for her Agility—it should be five, but she took damage during the climb into the tower—plus a Skill die for her Move. Since this is a ‘Slash’ attack, Solga’s player would two extra dice, but Solga wants to remain standing, which would penalise her by two dice, it simply negates the bonus. Solga’s player has to Push the roll, but eventually gets two Success and a Bane on a Base die. Since the two Success are equal to what the Game Master rolled for the Guard, Solga avoids the attack. In the process though, she bangs an elbow and reduces her Agility to 3. She also receives a single Willpower Point.

Now it is her turn to act. Solga’s first act is a ‘Feint’, a Fast Action which will allow her to exchange Initiative cards with the Guard. So on Round 2, Solga’s Initiative will be 9 and she will act first! Then her Slow Action is to ‘Stab’ the Guard with her dagger. Solga’s player rolls two Base dice for her Strength, one Skill die for her Melee, and a Gear die for the dagger. Her two Success are enough to hit and as the Guard has already acted, he cannot take a Reactive action. With the bonus damage from the dagger, this would inflict a total of three hits on the Guard, but the Game Master rolls for the Guard’s armour and gets a single Success. This means that Solga’s blade slips past the Guard’s armour and inflicts two hits. His Strength is reduced from three to two. As the Goblin darts in with the blade, Gaverin behind finally frees himself from his bonds and readies a spell…

Magic in Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World is organised into Talents and like other Talents, is organised into three ranks. A Sorcerer or Druid who knows one of these Talents at Rank 1 is able to cast all of the Rank 1 spells in that Talent. This is in addition to a number of general spells that all spellcasters know which typically have to do with the general manipulation of magic itself. Mechanically, a player never rolls a skill check for his spellcasting character to cast a spell, as it is automatic. Instead, he spends Willpower Points to charge the spell and then rolls to see if the spell can be overcharged. For each Willpower Point so invested, the player rolls a base die. Each Success rolled overcharges the spell, whilst each Bane indicates a magical mishap. Now this is open to abuse, the player of a Druid or Sorcerer attempting to Push every roll in order to generate Willpower Points, so a Game Master does need to keep a check on this as really, whilst magic is not a one-shot thing, it is powerful and it does take effort and its use should reflect this.

Name: Gaverin 
Kin: Half-Elf Age: 106 Gender: Male
Profession: Sorcerer
Attributes
Strength 2 Agility 3 Wits 5 Empathy 3
Skills: Crafting 2, Melee 1, Sleight of Hand 2, Lore 3, Insight 2, Manipulation 2
Talents: Psychic Power (Kin), Path of Signs (Rank 1), Fearless (Rank 1), Incorruptible (Rank 1), Lucky (Rank 1)
Willpower: 2
Pride: Whoever threatens you will die a painful death
Dark Secret: You are haunted by visions of the world beyond the veil
Reputation: 1
Relationship: Solga doubts your magical powers. The fool!
Gear: Knife, crystal ball, 7 silver
Resource Dice: Food d6, Water d8

It is now Gaverin’s turn to act. Not wanting the Guard to cry out or alert his fellow bandits, he casts the spell, Paralyse. This is a Rank 1 spell which causes a target to lose one or more of his next actions. Gaverin’s player decides to invest two  Willpower Points into the spell, but his Pyschic Power Talent adds another Willpower Point to the total, giving Gaverin’s player three Base dice to roll. He rolls two Successes and one Bane. The Successes increase the Power Level of the spell to three and prevents the Guard from taking his next Fast Action and Slow Action. The Bane though means that Gaverin’s player must roll on the Magic Mishap table. The result of this is that casting the spell causes the Half-Elf pain, his losing a point of Strength. As the guard suddenly finds himself unable to move, Solga looks back at the Half-Elf who is now slightly wincing in pain, and says, “Well, ‘e ain’t mivin’, we betta do though.” The two quickly move to tie the Guard up and make their escape.

Overall mechanically, characters in Forbidden Lands are not incompetent, but they do often have push themselves in order to succeed and that increases the possibility of a player rolling Banes. As deleterious as Banes are, they have a positive effect in also generating Willpower Points, which are necessary if a magic using character wants to cast spells or to activate some Talents. Thus, this is not forgiving system and it is one that reflects the harsh nature of the Forbidden Lands.

Two big aspects of Forbidden Lands are Journeys and Strongholds. Journeys covers not just travel, but also exploration. Each character on a journey undertakes a particular part of the trip, such as ‘Lead the Way’ or ‘Keep Watch’. All characters undertake the ‘Hike’ action. In keeping with the dangerous nature of the Forbidden Lands, there are plenty of mishaps that can befall travellers should the roll be failed for any one of the journey’s parts, though no rolls are necessary for the simple ‘Hike’ action. Strongholds are bases that the player characters find, clear out of foes, rebuild, defend, and improve. At its most basic, a stronghold provides a place to rest and sleep in relative comfort and safety to the point where a character can gain a Willpower Point, but different facilities provide different benefits. So a Bakery provides food if there is flour, a Library a bonus to Lore rolls, a Shooting Range somewhere to practise Markmanship and so gain Experience Points towards that skill, and so on. Instead of being a game of exploration and discovery, the addition of strongholds add economic, planning, and battle elements to Forbidden Lands as well as further opportunities for roleplaying. It enables a campaign to develop, the players and their characters to have a stake in the world, and because funds are needed to build more, provides further reason to go out and adventure.

All of this so far, has been in the ‘Player’s Handbook’ for Forbidden Lands. The ‘Gamemaster’s Guide’ essentially gives the deeper secrets and background to the setting. As well as advice on running the game right from the first session, it gives the history of the Forbidden Lands and how they gained such a name, presents the gods and faiths of the region, and provides more information about the Kin, much of which will only become apparent during play. The bestiary includes lots of classic fantasy monsters, from Death Knights and Dragons to the Undead and Wyverns, although there are plenty of monsters unique to the Forbidden Lands. Every monster gets a table of six attack actions which the Game Master can choose from or on roll on. In terms of treasure and loot, most of the time, the player characters will find coins and things that they can sell. Magic items are extremely rare, but can be very powerful. These are artefacts, of which there are eighteen described in the book, each with illustration, an associated legend, and a suggested location where they might be found as artefacts are not just some random loot drops. Many have drawbacks, but all have an associated Artifact die. This is a dice type larger than a six-sided die, with the faces higher than six being marked with Success symbols or even multiple Success symbols. When a character uses an artefact, his player gets to roll its associated die instead of any Gear dice. (All of the game’s artefacts, including those associated with the Raven’s Purge campaign, appear on the Artifact cards in the Forbidden Lands: Custom Deck.)

In addition to extensive and detailed encounter lists and tables for creating adventure sites, which a Game Master could use to create locations and adventures on the go if she wants to run her game like that, the ‘Gamemaster’s Guide’ describes three adventure sites in detail—a village, a castle, and a dungeon. The Hollows is a village which is just opening itself up to trade and the wider world, which has divided the villagers; the castle of Weatherstone stands atop a rock promontory that stands separate to the walls of the gorge it is in and is said to hide the war chest of its last lord; and the Vale of the Dead is said to be where Zygofer the Spellbinder practised his necromantic arts! Together these provide multiple sessions of play, the player characters first exploring the village and then going out to explore the other locations, perhaps claiming Weatherstone as their own as their first stronghold. Each location has their own plots, but much of the action and roleplaying will be very player-led. They also work as a campaign’s first adventure sites before a group beings playing the Raven’s Purge campaign itself.

Physically, Forbidden Lands is very presented and put together. Both books are presented as old tomes on off-white paper and illustrated in pen and ink throughout, which given that most modern roleplaying games are presented in full colour, gives Forbidden Lands the look and feel of a roleplaying game from decades ago. The artwork, primarily drawn by one artist, is excellent and helps give both the books and the setting a very uniform look. One lovely touch is that the same weapons are redrawn again and again, each time to illustrate the types typically used  by the different Kin in the setting. There are no mechanical effects to this—an Orc sword works exactly the same as an Elf sword—but it adds a degree of verisimilitude. The cartography, more illustrations than maps, is also good. Lastly, the game’s box is deep enough to hold both the Forbidden Lands: Custom Dice Set and the Forbidden Lands: Custom Deck as well as the two books, should the Game Master purchase them.

From the start, Forbidden Lands has certain ‘Old School’ feel. It comes in a box, like all good games of yore did and the look of the books similarly echo an old style look. The fantasy of Forbidden Lands also echoes that of the traditional fantasy of the first roleplaying games in the types of player characters, the monsters to be faced, and in the exploration of dungeons—though it expands that to take in exploration of the lands too. Mechanically, Forbidden Lands has an ‘Old School’ feel too in that the Year Zero engine is far from forgiving, enforcing the fact that life in the Forbidden Lands is cruel, and that any attempt to explore and claim them involves danger and the possibility of both failure and death. Yet while there is still room for heroism and even quests too given that artefacts in the setting are unique things of legend and grant their wielders great power, the tone of this game is not heroic fantasy, but rough, gritty, and bloody with more than a lingering sense of menace.

Superbly packaged, Forbidden Lands is a pleasing combination of ‘Old School’ nostalgia and fast, simple mechanics with unobtrusive narrative elements designed to bring aspects of the character into play. Its setting offers scope for the player characters to develop not just personally, but also in terms of their place in the world. Overall, Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World is a brutal and modern take upon ‘Old School’ play in a land still under the influence of a great evil.

The Star Trek X Starter

Over the past thirty years, the Star Trek franchise has been visited again and again, from Heritage Models’ Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier in 1978 and FASA’s highly regarded Star Trek: The Role Playing Game, the original Star Trek RPG in 1982 to 1993’s Prime Directive from Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc. and published by Task Force Games and 1998’s well received Star Trek: The Next Generation Role-playing Game from Last Unicorn Games. The very latest entry in the Star Trek roleplaying canon is Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game. Published by Modiphius Entertainment in 2017, this focuses on the Star Trek: the Next Generation era and employs the 2d20 System previously used in the publisher’s Mutant Chronicles: Techno Fantasy Roleplaying Game and Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of. Although the roleplaying game has been supported with a number of supplements and miniatures and dice sets, until now, the entry point for Star Trek Adventures has always been the core rulebook, but that changes with the release of the Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set.

The Star Trek Adventures Starter Set is designed to get a game and running with relatively little fuss. Open up the box—and it is a proper box rather than a tuck box—and you will find a set of dice, a set of three types of tokens, several poster maps for use with the campaign, six character sheets, and two booklets. The dice consist of two twenty-sided dice and four six-sided Challenge dice, the latter being marked with a star on one face, two stars on another, blank on two faces, and the Starfleet insignia on two faces. These are primarily rolled for damage in both personal and starship combat. The tokens consist of Threat and Momentum tokens, the former used by the Game Master to grant NPCs advantages and the latter by the players to grant their characters advantages, plus tokens for each of the player characters, the NPCs, and the starships used in mini-campaign which comes in the box. The two mini-poster maps are double-sided and depict areas aboard starships and on planets and are designed to be used in conjunction with the tokens.

The character sheets are double-sided, the character being on the front, the reference for what the character can do being on the back. The sixth character is actually the party’s starship, the USS Magellan, a Galaxy class explorer. The actual player characters consist of a male Bajoran First Officer, a female Human Conn Officer, a male Trill Chief Engineer, a female Andorian Chief of Security, and a female Vulcan Medical Officer. This is a good mix, but were a sixth character be needed, then there is room for a Science Officer. From the characters available, it should be obvious that the default setting for Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set is late season Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The first booklet in the Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set is ‘Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game Starter Rules’. The slimmer of the two books in the box and intended to be read by both the players and the Game Master, this explains a little of the background, what a roleplaying game is, the basics of characters, how to roll tasks and handle conflicts, including starship combat. A character is defined by Attributes, Disciplines, and Focuses. The six Attributes are Control, Daring, Fitness, Insight, Presence, and Reason, and these range between seven and twelve. The six Disciplines correspond to the six areas of training at Starfleet Academy and these are Command, Conn, Security, Engineering, Science, and Medicine. They range between one and five. Focuses, such as Quantum Physics, Warp Field Dynamics, Helm Operations, and Xenobiology, represent areas of specialised knowledge or expertise.

To undertake an action, a character’s player rolls two twenty-sided dice, aiming to have both roll under the total of an Attribute and a Discipline. Each roll under this total counts as a success, an average task requiring two successes. Rolls of one count as two successes and if a character has an appropriate Focus, rolls under the value of the Discipline also count as two successes. For example, Lieutenant M’kress, a Vulcan-Klingon hybrid Science Officer needs to take control of the Conn of a shuttlecraft in an emergency. The Game Master decides that this is a Daring+Conn check, so with a Daring of 9 and Conn of 2, M’kress’ player needs to roll 11 or less to get any successes. Later on, when Lieutenant M’kress needs to analyse some spectral phenomena, her player will roll 16 or under as her Reason is 11 and her Science is 5. She has the Astrophysics Focus, which means that rolls below her Science Discipline count as two successes.

Whilst rolls of 20 add complications to a situation, excess successes add to the Momentum pool shared by the players. Momentum can be spent to create an Opportunity and so add more dice to a roll—typically needed because more than two successes are required to succeed, to create an advantage in a situation or remove a complication, create a problem for the opposition, and to obtain information. It is a finite ever-decreasing resource, so the players need to roll well and keep generating it, especially if they want to save for the big scene or climatic battle in an adventure. Conversely, the Game Master has Threat which can be spent on similar things for the NPCs as well as to trigger their special abilities.

Combat uses the same mechanics, but offers more options in terms of what Momentum can be spent on. This includes doing extra damage, disarming an opponent, keeping the initiative—initiative works by alternating between between the player characters and the NPCs and keeping it allows two player characters to act before an NPC does, avoid an injury, and so on. Damage in combat is rolled on the Challenge dice, the number of star symbols and Starfleet insignia symbols rolled determining how much damage is inflicted. A similar roll is made to resist the damage, and any leftover is deducted from a character’s Stress. If a character’s Stress is reduced to zero or five or more damage is inflicted, then a character is injured. Any Starfleet insignia symbols rolled indicate an effect as well as the damage. In keeping with the tone of the various series, weapon damage can be deadly, melee or hand-to-hand, less so. Rules cover stun settings and of course, diving for cover.

Starships are treated in a fashion similar to characters, but have Systems and Departments instead of Attributes and Disciplines. The ‘Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game Starter Rules’ covers common starship actions like piloting and scanning, whilst starship combat is similar to that of personal combat. Instead of injuries for taking five damage in one hit, a ship suffers breaches which can knockout a ship’s systems. Her crew or a player character can repair them, but too many breeches and ship is disabled or even destroyed.

Overall, the ‘Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game Starter Rules’ gets through the rules at a fair pace, in just twenty or so pages, with an example or three. There is a handy reference guide to the mechanics on the back page and each of the character sheets has further reference tables on its reverse. 

The second booklet is ‘A Star Beyond the Stars’, which is a three-act scenario set in late season Star Trek: The Next Generation. It begins with the player characters’ ship, the USS Magellan being assigned to locate a missing Starfleet vessel. This is the USS Alcubiere, an Oberth-Class vessel testing a new Warp engine. The crew discovers the vessel adrift amidst subspace interference, so an away team has to go aboard and determine what has happened to both crew and ship. The plot of the adventure takes the crew of the Magellan along the frontier of Federation space and beyond, confronting foes that figured prominently in Star Trek: The Next Generation. As well as presenting both plot and NPCs, it takes its time to explain what rolls by the players need to be made and when, these increasing in complexity until the climax of the scenario which brings starship combat into play.

Overall, the scenario is well written, but if there is an issue, it is that is perhaps a little too much of an emphasis on combat. Now this is due to it being written more as a roleplaying scenario rather than as an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and this is not to detract from it as a scenario. Rather that a Star Trek devotee coming to the scenario may find the emphasis to not quite what they were expecting, especially given the lack of a Science Officer player character. Nevertheless, approach this as an action mystery taking into account the Prime Directive and Starfleet’s ‘shoot last, ask questions first’ attitude and ‘A Star Beyond the Stars’ should provide between three and four good sessions’ worth of play. There is even room for a expansion here and there for the experienced Game Master should she want to expand it.

Physically, Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set is an attractive looking package. Everything is done in full colour, whether it is the LCARS interface on deep black in the two booklets or white on the character sheets, the illustrations and the tokens, and of course, the mini-maps. The tokens are done on thick card and the dice are nice and sturdy. Of course, two twenty-sided dice are not quite enough, but more of these are easily obtained. All of which is packed into a sturdy box which has room for the Game Master’s notes. If there is a physical issue with the Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set, it is that the two booklets are slightly flimsy and could have done with some proper covers.

As a product, Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set has problems at the beginning and at the end. At the end, there is a missed opportunity for the publishers to really point out to the Game Master and her players where to go next, what to look at next, and so on, essentially to help them both take their next steps into playing Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game. At the beginning though, the stepping on point for Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set is not quite low enough. In other words, the Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set is better suited to those who have had some roleplaying experience under their belt—especially the Game Master—rather than those who have had none. This is not to say that somebody new to the hobby could not pick this up and run it, but it would be a challenge. In the hands of an experienced Game Master, both the running of ‘A Star Beyond the Stars’ and the teaching of the rules to Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game as presented here should proceed at a handsome pace.

For Game Master who is already running Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game, the Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set is far from a pointless purchase. To support her existing game, it will provide her with dice, tokens, maps, and the character sheets. The ‘Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game Starter Rules’ can serve as a quick reference guide to the rules at the table, whilst ‘A Star Beyond the Stars’ provides a scenario which would work in most campaigns focussing upon Starfleet. The scenario is also adaptable to other time periods with some adjustments.

The Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set is an attractive, solidly designed boxed set with decent production values. Although not written as an introduction to roleplaying in general, the Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game Starter Set, with its exciting adventure and supporting material, is the perfect package with which to introduce a group and get them playing the Star Trek Adventures: The Roleplaying Game.