I don’t see the city anymore...

"I don’t see the city anymore. All I see are its dark corners."

Karen Page, Daredevil S1E2

 

Arcade Club (Leeds)

Atari Star Wars

I took the last Friday of the school holiday off, and took the youngster out for a trip to Arcade Club in Leeds. It’s a bit of a run for us (the opposite side of the city) but it turned out to be a fun afternoon. Arcade Club has three floors packed with a huge number of arcade consoles from the 1970s onwards. The ground floor has machines from the 1990s onwards, including rhythm games, pin ball and the classics like Daytona and Sega Rally. The mezzanine floor is filled with all the classic coin-ops I remember from the 1980s, and the top floor has fighting games, VR, consoles, and more Japanese style sit at consoles.

You play a flat entrance fee, and all the games are on free vend. We were hit with a wave of sound as we came in; the ground floor is a storm of noise. The staff were friendly, and we also had a break at the cafe, which wasn’t overpriced at all. There is a reasonable bar selection, probably aimed at catering for the crowd after the post 6pm ‘no kids’ cut off.

We tried a couple of games on the ground floor; Ridge Racer, Sega Rally and a flying game called Afterburner, but quickly went upstairs. The youngster wanted to try some of the classics. Immediately after we got upstairs he was in the Atari Star Wars pod. This was the classic wire-frame Death Star attack (which he’d played as a kid on my old iPad). He loved it.

We then went around and played loads of machines. 

• Space Invaders (where I got asked why they were getting faster!)
• Galaxian (we played this one a fair bit)
• Galaga
• Frogger (he thrashed me at this)
• Pac Man (I thrashed him at this)
• Moon Patrol (he loved this)
• Centipede (he loved this)
• Millipede
• Battlezone (I found the excitement I had over this has been eclipsed by World of Tanks)
• Missile Command (he got good at this quickly but we all died)
• Paperboy (he loved this)
• Asteroids (this was one he struggled with)
• Robotron
• Defender (he wouldn’t touch this - said it looked too complex)
• Star Gate (same as Defender, which it’s an evolution of)
• Tempest (my favourite but he wouldn’t play it as he didn’t like the look of the controller)
• Scramble (looked very much like the BBC Model B version in a cabinet)
• Return of the Jedi (looked very much like a game I vaguely remember on the ZX Spectrum with Speeder Bikes)
• Hot Rod (an up-to four person game where he thrashed me)

I’m sure that I missed some out. The youngster made a joke that I loved the Atari corner, but I also seemed to like games with odd controllers (track balls, rotary or spinning action). Tempest was the highlight of my visit; I’ve never played it for real in an arcade, but absolutely loved Tempest 2000 on the Atari Jaguar.

We spent nearly four hours there, so it was a good afternoon out. It’s work noting the car parking is only 90 minutes, but you can park for free for an unlimited time at the Morrisons/Retail Park opposite. 

Definitely recommended. There are other sites (eg Bury) that friends have also said good things about.

13 April 2024

Eternal Lies - like a rising tide

Screen shot of Eternal Lies on iPad

I'm over three years into Eternal Lies, the epic Trail of Cthulhu campaign from Pelgrane Press. There's three of us involved, all of us forever GMs. It all came about because we were talking about how much we'd enjoyed reading the campaign and how it would be challenging to get a group together to commit to such a long form adventure. Until Rich pointed out that we'd all done this before (we've played through pretty much every Esoterrorists campaign together) and we all wanted to do it. Naturally, as our resident Gumshoe GM, he also offered to run the game. We immediately said 'yes'.

We couldn't find another player, but we didn't let that daunt us. Gumshoe lets you design a group of investigators to cover all the bases based on the number of players. So Ben and Lotte were created. Ben being Dr Mitch's character, an American Antiquities Dealer, and Lotte, a German refugee journalist who had married the editor of one of the New York Dailies. Both very different, but with very complementary character builds. Between them they had a solid balance of skills, both general and investigative. We talked this through during character creation and where there was overlap we agreed who would lead on this. Effectively we were agreeing who would get the spotlight for that kind of moment in the game. We also picked drives that very much enable Rich to push our characters along the path of the scenario should he want to (Lotte has 'Duty' as a drive and Ben has 'Curiosity'). Trail of Cthuhu has a mechanic that rewards you for following a drive or damages your stability if you act against your nature.

Playing with a duo of investigators is pretty intense. Typically, half the time you have the spotlight and need to be on form. The other half, you need to be thinking how you can compliment the other character. You don't really have time to be a passenger, so coming into the game if you've been behind on sleep or after a long day at work can be pretty daunting. However, it pays off in spades. That's not to say that we don't get distracted and break off into asides and reminiscences, of course we do. But generally, the immersion levels are high. We did have a third investigator for a while, but ill-health on the player's part meant that they dropped out. I also suspect that it may have been challenging joining the game part way through when there was such an established dynamic, despite being a regular player in some of our previous games. While he was with us, I did feel that the pressure I'd felt being in a duo fell off, and that I missed it.

Having read the campaign before, I knew what we were in for. However, by the time we started I could only remember what was going on in broad brush strokes and neither of us playing have let it influence what we've been doing. What has surprised me is how the tone of the campaign has shifted at each location that we've visited, starting from the creeping corruption Southern-Gothic horror of Savannah, then moving to the grubby noir of Los Angeles before a brief respite back in Boston and New York. Mexico City had a flavour of its own, and the expedition to the Yucatan was humid, wet and hot. Malta left us feeling the weight of the threat we faced, but helped us to realise that we couldn't back down. We've  just arrived in Africa under Italian occupation, and are facing into the need to go deep into the desert and check something that we really don't want to explore.

Each chapter has had its own beats. They all start slowly, and the horror begins to emerge. Sometimes the game has slipped into what has felt like a pulp mode*, as we've desperately acted to try and stop the threat. With the intensity the game is played at, it really feels like you are putting life, limb and sanity at risk. Success, even partial, is a relief. It does feel like we are standing on a beach as the tide rises, and waves break closer and closer to us. Like kids playing, we get tempted to go deeper into the waves, while all around us the sea is rising up the beach. There are moments of respite when the waves fall back for a moment of calm, but you realise that the sand you're standing on is still water-covered when before it was dry.

[*Trail of Cthulhu has different modes; pulp games are more survivable and purist games more deadly. Eternal Lies defaults to the purist end of the spectrum.]

Our characters are definitely changing. They're becoming closer to each other, an unavoidable side effect of the threats and knowledge they've been exposed to. Lotte is probably facing the slow failure of her marriage as her husband Jack does not understand what is going on and why she wants to travel the world 'after this story' with another man. She's drawn closer to Ben, but so far they've remained completely professional. I'm not sure if that can last, with the pressures they face and the lack of anyone else who understands. However, for now,  Lotte's duty drive holds a line in her mind.

I do see a future when I (or Dr Mitch, depending upon circumstances) brings in Jack to investigate what has happened to his wife and/or the person she was exploring with, after news of their deaths reaches the United States. 

We've also noticed that the characters are becoming harder and more brutal. It started in LA, when Lotte was threatened at gunpoint by a thug in her hotel room. They've both become more and more hardened; both have been injured, and both have killed in the pursuit of this quest. Neither have a real understanding of what is going on; they know the organisation (cult) that they face is spreading corruption with the drug they distribute, but they aren't completely certain what the deeper objective of the cult is. Lotte has touched infinity when they communed with an entity outside time and space; she has a spell in her mind that touches on the hyper-geometry** of existence. It does still feel like we are stumbling through a web of corruption and lies, trying to get a clear vision of what is going on and what we need to stop.

[** Yes, I know 'hyper-geometry' is a Delta-Green term, but it perfectly fits Lotte's scientific background and what we experienced in-game.]

Inherently, Gumshoe's point spend mechanic also ratchets up the tension; as you spend pool points, your resources are falling and you constantly need to make decisions whether you want guarantee success on a roll, or risk failure.

The campaign and game is an incredible experience; I think that playing in the smaller group has made this more so. However, if you want a different look at this, check out the Alexandrian's thoughts on the campaign. I think that this may be the finest traditional Cthulhu campaign that's been written, and has an arguable case to be seen as one of the best campaigns around. 

We shall continue into the investigation and play to find out if we drown or get swept out to sea in the rising tide, or perhaps eventually return home with memories that are hard to forget.

12 April 2024

Games in March 2024

The doughnut update for March 24

March 2024 was a slow month, as I had to cancel a session for Achtung! Cthulhu at short notice as I couldn't get away early from a work event in Bury St Edmunds. I had to be realistic and accept that I wasn't going to be back in Yorkshire for an 8pm kick off if I didn't get away until 5.30pm. Even if I had, I suspect tiredness would have marred the game. We only got a single session in this month. However, I've had two lovely sessions of Eternal Lies (Trail of Cthulhu), so these two games are tied for session count this year.

I'm seriously toying with the idea of offering a one-shot of Old Gods of Appalachia as I've just read one of the recent scenarios from Monte Cook Games that looks like a good introduction, and was prepared for convention use so it has all the characters available.

I'm also starting down a Dune RPG rabbit hole, which is probably good as the books have been building up in my to-read pile. That's thanks to the Fall of the Imperium sourcebook.

I should be doing preparation for North Star in May. Dr Mitch and I are doing a sequel to Echoes from last year with Star Trek Adventures and I need to re-read Across a Thousand Dead Worlds to get my head around what scenario I will run.

Longer term, I need to start to work my way through The Stealer of Souls and The Black Sword in preparation for hacking them to Tripod for Longcon later in the year. This will also involve a re-read of the Elric books for the first time in years. I'm not certain if I will re-read the books in the lovely compilations I've picked up in hardcover or perhaps using the Kindle versions to increase my book count for the year. I have both, so it will be interesting to see where that ends up.

3 April 2024

First Impressions - Fall of the Imperium Campaign Sourcebook (Dune RPG)

The Fall of the Imperium

The Fall of the Imperium sourcebook for the Dune Adventures in the Imperium RPG is the book that I've been waiting for in the line. I was disappointed that the focus on the main canon storyline in the initial QuickStart was replaced with an alternative timeline where House Nagara took over the Governorship of Arrakis rather than House Atreides. The material was excellent, but I hadn't bought the game to play in an alternative timeline. That said, the weight of canon is heavy and it is challenging to set adventures where the characters' actions feel meaningful. Fall of the Imperium rises to that challenge, and doesn't shy away from the brutality of the rise of the Atreides as the Fremen Jihad sweeps out across the ten-thousand worlds of the Imperium.

TL;DR: Fall of the Imperium is an epic campaign that will see the characters rubbing shoulders with the key movers and shakers in the Imperium. It doesn't shy away from the hard choices and horror that the Atreides victory brings with it. Choices have consequences, and the fate of billions will be in their hands. The scenarios are sufficiently open to allow them to be adjusted based on the decisions of the players. The writing is strong, and the book is beautifully illustrated. It is let down by poor proofreading, with too many errors that should have been trapped before production marring what would otherwise be a stellar product.

The book is a 144-page full colour hardback with excellent, evocative artwork. The layout follows the same lines as other books in the product line, so is clear and easy on the eye. However, the book feels rushed and there are multiple typos (from the hard-to-spot 'Brain Herbert' through to easily-spotted gibberish words) and layout faults where text from previous headings or stat-blocks has been duplicated. This leaves a sour note, detracting from what is otherwise a strongly-written and quality product. I wonder if Modiphius rushed this out to make sure that it hit the stores while the film was showing? If they did, it's a shame as it wouldn't have taken much time to have sorted this out.

The campaign consists of twelve scenarios across four acts. The first act addresses the arrival and fall of House Atreides on Arrakis. The second act deals with the rumours and rise of Muad'Dib, as spice production starts to collapse. The third act sees the Emperor and Landsraad act, and all eyes turn to Dune. The final act deals with the aftermath, as Emperor Paul Muad'Dib Atreides secures his throne and the Fremen Jihad sweeps across the Imperium. It is entirely possible that the characters and their House could end up wiped out or forced to go renegade and flee. There is brief guidance on how to use the campaign if you've been playing with House Nagara from Agents of Dune and Masters of Dune.

The tone is set immediately with some boxed text about 'Goodies and Baddies'. It points out that while the Atreides are far better than the Harkonnen in how they treat their subjects, they still live in a life of luxury, exploiting their followers in the feudal system of the Imperium. The characters represent a House that has similar advantages and will have to make decisions about who they ally with and how they behave. There is no correct way through the campaign, and decisions matter. The players will make choices which will hopefully mean that their House can thread the eye of the needle and avoid falling from favour with the Emperor or having their homeworld absolutely destroyed with atomics and the arrival of the Fremen Jihad. Their people will suffer from the mistakes that they may make.

The first two Acts can easily be fleshed out with some of the additional scenarios that have been published; I think that I would be tempted to use a few to get the players more invested, but the actions in the final two acts accelerate as the nexus point is reached and House Corrino and House Harkonnen fall. 

The initial act, 'The Gathering Storm', is focused around espionage around Arrakis as the character's House is asked to support House Ecaz in covert action against. The players will be forced to make decisions; it may be easier to side with the Corrino/Harkonnen plot against the Atreides than walk a path of opposition or neutrality. The end of the Act sees the assault on Arrakis, and the characters will have to work hard to survive and make choices who they support. These choices are the way that the players will start to feel that their actions mean something. Will they help Gurney Hallack escape? Will they assist Rabban the Beast as he takes his revenge? Will they try and protect their retainers and allies on planet? This sets the scene the rest of the campaign; they will meet the both the Emperors of House Corrino and House Atreides, and they will have to make decisions on how they respond that will have consequences. How will they deal with the dangerous secret that they learn from their operations?

The second act, 'Muad'Dib', has the characters trying to secure spice for their House. Most of the Act takes place away from Arrakis. Whispers of a new Fremen leader are heard, and it becomes apparent that something is wrong on Arrakis. The characters are drawn into covertly trying to find out what has happened on behalf of CHOAM, the truth of which will again put them at risk. Once they find the secrets, they become the focus of the Emperor through Count Fenring and his Bene Gesserit wife, Lady Margot and will have to decide what to do with the knowledge. A mistake could put them out of favour at the Imperial court.

The third act, 'Fall of the Imperium', sees the drop in spice production causing discord in the Imperium. The Bene Gesserit approach the character's house to try and find out more about who this 'Muad'Dib' is, while at the same time House Ecaz try to get the Harkonnen governorship of Arrakis removed in the Landsraad. This escalates, and the characters are despatched to assassinate Rabban, arriving to find Arrakeen and Carthag in chaos. The act concludes with the landing of the Emperor at Arrakeen, where the uprisings are brutally put down by the Sardaukar. However, this is the moment that Paul Atreides strikes and the characters will have to choose who they ally with.

The final act, 'War Across a Million Worlds', is brutal and challenging. The opening scenario sees them told to give an allied house notice of their upcoming eradication by the forces of Muad'Dib. Will they just deliver the notice (being seen as lapdogs of the new Emperor) or will they try and save the noble family or even their people? You rarely see this level of moral challenge being thrown at players; the Fremen legion's leader just wants to execute the will of Muad'Dib, a matter of faith. The second scenario was the one in the book where I felt I'd need to find a better hook than that presented; the characters arrive at Kaitain, the former capital, as the Fremen arrive to suppress the unbelievers. What will they do? Will they rescue people, recover priceless artefacts that will likely be destroyed, or just try and escape? I can see what the objective is (putting the characters in the middle of a planet being sacked and having to make decisions) but I think this once needed a little bit of focusing. 

The final scenario sees false evidence planted against the character's House, for which they are condemned. Will they be able to prove that there's a conspiracy against their house, or will they try to escape as a renegade house? Will they leave their subjects behind to face the wrath of Muad'Dib. Their choices in the previous scenarios will influence who will help them and the likelihood of convincing Paul Muad'Dib that they are loyal to his regime.

Overall, it's a fantastic campaign arc which cleverly allows players to make the choices who they ally with  and then live through the consequences. They may want to play the meta-game and stay loyal to the Atreides, but this will cause problems and also be seen as odd to the other factions in the Imperium as loyalty to an eradicated House makes no sense. They may ally with the Harkonnen, but the Emperor doesn't trust them, and the pendulum will swing back against the Baron and his House. The challenge is to try and find a way through this so their House survives, finding their own Golden Path without the benefit of prescience. 

The book concludes with a chapter that describes the changes to the Imperium once Paul ascends, which will help the GM to identify hooks and plot ideas.

In conclusion, this is an epic campaign that will see the characters rubbing shoulders with the key movers and shakers in the Imperium. It doesn't shy away from the hard choices and horror that the Atreides victory brings with it. Choices have consequences, and the fate of billions will be in their hands. The scenarios are sufficiently open to allow them to be adjusted based on the decisions of the players. The writing is strong, and the book is beautifully illustrated. It is only let down by the poor proofing. There are too many errors which should have been trapped before production; none of them affect the usability (except in one stat block) but they mar what would otherwise be a stellar product.

Recommended

2 April 2024

Books in March 2024

 

Pages read in March 2024

March 2024 was a good month for reading, with 11 books and 2715 pages read. Year-to-date, that puts me at 27 books and 7632 pages, or as the target tracker says, "Brilliant, you are ahead by 14 books". I set myself a target of a book a week (something I've done for a long time), but do expect to beat that based on past years.

I read 3 roleplaying games, 1 graphic-novel, and completed 1 non-fiction autobiography. The balance were  a range of novels.

The roleplaying games were Old Gods of Appalachia (link to review), Comrades, and Heart. I think I will be running the first two of those at some point. Comrades is a Powered-by-the-Apocalypse engined game of revolution, in which the players take the role of the revolutionaries against an oppressive state. Heart is a fun game, built off the same setting as the Spire roleplaying game, but I came to the conclusion that it just wasn't going to get to the table as there were multiple other fantasty games that I wanted to play before it.

The graphic novel was the second volume of the 2039 Blade Runner spin off, which is providing much of the back-story fill in that the roleplaying game really doesn't. That's not to say that the game isn't great, just that it's a little lighter in content than I expected.

The autobiography was Rory Stewart's Politics on the Edge, which talks about his time as an MP. In some ways, its pretty depressing as it really explains how the UK parliamentary system works and how bad the fast rotation of ministers through departmental roles gives a huge challenge to any of the departments that they are to maintain consistency and focus. I already understood Stewart's opinion of Boris Johnson, but this also expands out on how he came to the view that he regularly expresses on The Rest is Politics. Speaking of which, I had to speed up the narration (I was listening to this on Audible during work trips) as Stewart reads his book at a much slower pace than he talks in the podcast, and it was frustrating. I usually listen to podcasts and audiobooks at 1.1x speed, but had to go higher. Definitely worth a read, but his colleague Alastair Campbell's last book (But What Can I Do?) is a more hopeful companion.

The novels included the third book in the Prefect Dreyfus sequence by Alastair Reynolds, Machine Vendetta. This does draw upon elements of the first two books, but I didn't feel a need to re-read them despite it being quite a while since I read either. I enjoyed the story, especially as it shows more of the Glitter Band (a democratic anarchic collective of space stations and asteroids) first mentioned in Revelation Space. The book comes to a satisfying end and reminded me why Reynolds has remained one of my favourite authors.

I finally got to Aliette de Bodard's excellent A Fire Born of Exile, a story set in the Xuya universe. It's a love story, a revenge story, and a story of unrest and repression. I enjoyed it a lot; there's a beauty to the author's writing which draws me through.

Speaking of that, I feel very much the same about the two Emily St. John Mandel books I read, The Glass Hotel and Sea of Tranquility. The former is more traditional, following the life curves of two half-siblings, Paul and Vincent, against the backdrop of a Ponzi scheme. I loved the writing style the story drew me through. Sea of Tranquility is literary SF; it takes a science-fiction concept and uses it softly, exploring time travel. Initially, the connections between the stories aren't obvious, but as the story builds they become apparent. There's also a link back to The Glass Hotel, and for a moment I wondered if Vincent would escape her fate, but it was a delightful easter-egg. I suspect it made me enjoy the book more than I would if I hadn't read the first book immediately before.

I also completed Len Deighton's London Match (the first of the three trilogies about Bernard Samson). I really enjoyed how it played out, but decided to change gear for a bit before I read the next three books. Finally, I read the latest Kevin Wignall, The First Death of Winter, which was a slight change of gear from his normal novels. If anything, if felt more like an Agatha Christie story. Matt, the night supervisor of a Swiss Tourist hotel in the mountains, faces the arrival of a group of teenagers and teachers out of season, when the mountain is closed for bad weather and the hotel is also not open. Soon after they arrive, one of the kids is murdered, and Matt is forced to do the initial investigation for the police as they cannot access the hotel as the cable car cannot run safely in the storm. However, he also has a secret from his past that he doesn't want to come out. It was a fun yarn and avoided being predictable. 

Overall, a good month of reading.

1 April 2024

Morally ambiguous - the Dune RPG

While Paul Atreides is certainly more pleasant and decent than Vladimir Harkonnen, neither of them are good guys nor bad guys. While Vladimir is selfish, greedy, and hungry for power, Paul still starts a brutal and bloody religious war. Both are the leaders of noble Houses who profit to an extortionate level from the work of their population.

While the people of Caladan live far more pleasant lives than those of the people of Giedi Prime, none live even close to the same luxury as the nobility who rule them.

Throughout this campaign, the player characters must decide who to side with, as their peers will judge them for it. But make no mistake: there are no clearly correct moral choices. There is darkness and light everywhere you look, and the player characters will have to develop their moral compass and decide on which path it leads to.

I love that the Dune roleplaying isn’t afraid to grapple with the moral ambiguity of the protagonist unleashing a holy war to have his revenge on those that tried to wipe his family out. 

I also love that the sequel to the first book isn’t afraid to start exploring what that act does to Paul. 

The quote is from the new Fall of the Imperium sourcebook which looks fantastic on an initial skim. 

25 March 2024

Update 2 April 2024: I’ve now reviewed the book here on the blog.

First Impressions - Old Gods of Appalachia RPG

The Thing Whose Name Sounds Like Horned Head But Is Not
dominates the front cover of the book.

I finished the Old Gods of Appalachia roleplaying game today; it's been one that I've been nibbling at in the background, and tended to get put to one side when reading for conventions or the hot, new, shiny arrived. Like a lot of the Monte Cook output, it's high quality and large in size (a 414-page full-colour hardback). Unlike most of their output, it's tied to a third party property, the podcast of the same name. I picked it up on impulse at Furnace back in October last year, as I'd been enjoying the first season of the podcast (which is refreshingly not Cthulhu-based horror and properly spooky in parts). The podcast is set in Appalachia in the early 1900s and before, so covers a broad range of time. The railroads drive through the land, and coal and other materials are extracted, as men dig deep towards the darkness in company towns. The setting is witchy, earthy, creepy and in some places really nasty, and doesn't feel at all Lovecraftian. 

The artwork is lovely. Extensive cross referencing is used in the book (something common in other MCG books, effectively hyperlinking for paper books) - if that wasn’t in I suspect that they’d save 40-50 pages as there’s a half-width column on every page that carries this.

Old Gods of Appalachia uses the Cypher System, which I've never played but seems pretty straight forward. You roll a D20 trying to beat a target number based upon on the level of the opposition (challenge, creature, or NPC) multiplied by 3. You don't get dice modifiers; rather the level used can be shifted based on skill, equipment (assets) and by spending 'effort' from the appropriate attribute pool. This means the game falls into the same kind of narrative space that lighter engines such as Tripod do.

However, character design is more involved and nearly put me off the book. There's a lot of reference material; my advice for the first time reader is not to bother; most of this only needs to be read if you want to create a character and are choosing what kind of long term path you want to take. It's detail the GM doesn't need to know and is for the player to bring to the table. Having skimmed Numenera and the Cypher System core book elsewhere, in the future I'll feel free to read a couple of examples and move on until I need to use the character generation in anger.

Character creation feels an evolution of the D&D3e Feats and abilities growth model, linked to your initial character concept. Characters are defined with three different stats: Might, Intellect and Speed. These primarily act as pools for you to modify rolls.

Each character can be one of four character types; think classes here. This the 'noun' that describes what your character is. They are:

1) Protector (physically action and combat orientated)
2) Sage (has some form of magic ability)
3) Explorer (fits in the space between the Sage and protector - action orientated but can have magic)
4) Speaker (the face - someone who has the charisma and influencing skills)

All of these have plenty of examples of the kind of characters which fall into each type. This is effectively a life path and sets your ongoing character development - you will get abilities in these related to your character type as you gain experience.

The character type you choose sets your intial stat pool (although you get some points to tailor it) and it also gives you an edge in one of these (which means that spending pool points for effort is less costly). Effort spend either makes tasks easier or means you can boost damage.

You also get initial equipment, areas of knowledge (effectively a skill set), weapons, magic abilities (or not) and some character type abilities. These may involve a pool point spend to use. As you increase the tier (level) of the character, you can change the abilities a little. There are six tiers, and you have to make 4 sets of XP spends to climb a tier. 

You then have to select a character descriptor - this is the flavour for the character - the 'adjective' if you will - and can be positive or negative. These give you a stat pool mod, for example if I am Beholden, I may be Wary (+2 Speed) or if I am Curious I will be Smart (+4 Intellect). You also get some skills, and something more negative. You will get some equipment as well, along with a link to the starting adventure (think of this as a bond in a Powered-by-the-Apocalypse game). It does nothing mechanically but is a hook. There is no progression of the descriptor. 

The final part of building your character is to select your focus. This describes what your character does. This is the 'verb' that describes your character concept. Whereas the game lets you have overlaps with character type and descriptor, it recommends that every character's focus is unique. Foci include 'Applies themselves' (good at skills and solving problems), Becomes the Beast (can take a beast shape or talk to beasts etc), Cannot Escape the Darkness (haunted by dark forces), Defends what matters (good at protecting community and friends) or Fears no Haints (can talk to spirits). Your focus gives you a link to another PC and the GM some ideas for intrusions (where they can do bad things to you in return for XP for you and another player). The abilities for your character focus do grow with tier, but usually there are at most two options at each tier to choose from. There's no formal scope to change these.

You can also use character arcs, which are structured ways to grant XP (however these are optional).

Fundamentally, you have a character concept in the form

[Name] is an [Adjective] [Noun] that [Verbs]

or more clearly: 

[Name] is a [Descriptor] [Type] that [Focus]. 

The game is asking you to chose a character concept from the start and develop it, so although there is some wriggle-room on development, there's not a lot. You aren't going to grow as organically as some other games (for example Trail of Cthulhu or Liminal).

The setting is mapped over wonderfully; different parts of the dark and twisted Appalachia are explored with references back to the series episodes when appropriate, and the players can have their characters drawn into the ongoing conflict between the Inner Dark and the Green. The creatures are truly horrific and different too. The game concludes with two scenarios; one is very much built for a starter GM, whereas the second is a more involved open-ended scenario which could kick off a game.

Old Gods of Appalachia is a long book, and perhaps could have been expressed a little more succinctly, but it’s worth noting that this is the entire setting. I don’t think that you’d need to get another book for this ever. The scenarios and the section on consent in gaming (which I think is a good thing to have in a horror RPG to you at least know what may make people uncomfortable) do add to the book length. 

I had been wondering whether I'd keep this or not, but the creatures and scenarios tipped the balance for for me to make it a keeper. I may well run a session to see how it feels in play. It's a nicely different creeping occult horror sitting, with some really evocative source material. Some of the illustrations had me remembering Carnivale, which can only be a good thing.

Best source for the background is https://www.oldgodsofappalachia.com/ which links to the podcast and other materials. It's done very well and I find the performances creepy. Definitely worth a look if you want a feel for the setting.

Recommended.

10 March 2024 (but posted later as it was originally a set of three separate posts discussing the game of a forum).

WOTB - 3 recent Masteries (Grille 15, Bourrasque, Groundtank)

Grille 15 on Himmelsdorf

BC Bourrasque on Himmelsdorf

Groundtank on Yukon

Returning to Daredevil S1

 

Daredevil

I started re-watching the first series of Daredevil recently, having not seen it properly since it screened in 2015. It has reaffirmed that this is the best Marvel TV done in recent times. I'm five episodes in, and what strikes me is how adult and direct this is. The violence is brutal, nasty and visceral, and you really feel the struggle in the combat sequences. Hell's Kitchen feels like a real location, with real people, which makes the stakes that the conflict with organised crime raises all the more effective.

In the first two episodes the show establishes itself and the characters and then doesn't deviate. It's very much character-led. I intend to work my way back through the various related series that first aired on Netflix, especially now that they've returned to the Marvel fold and are officially part of the MCU. That said, the tone is much darker and more gritty, which is why I love it.

In gaming, my love of these series manifests itself in my love of Son of Oak Studio's City of Mist roleplaying game which can build a similar feel with ease. It's no surprise that this is a game I've run repeatedly at conventions.

16 March 2024

Books to February 2024

 

Books read year to date - 18
Pages read - 5229

I'm writing this three days into March so the numbers are slightly inflated as I finished two books at the very start of the month. Both fiction and non-fiction reading was influenced by the game of Berlin 87, as I really wanted to get a feel of Berlin's geography, culture and locations in my head before Revelation.

Fiction

I opened the year with two books by Silvia Moreno-Garcia; Silver Nitrate and The Lover. Both were great fun, and I need to read more by her as I previously enjoyed Mexican Gothic.

Sara DiVello's Broadway Butterfly was an interesting and gripping exploration of a murder case in New York in the 1920s.

I then returned to some books I've probably not read in four decades - Len Deighton's murky and delightful Game, Set and Match trilogy (Berlin Game, Mexico Set, London Match). I loved these when they first came out (and enjoyed the banished TV version). I was reading them for the 80s ambience for the Berlin 87 hack of Cartel that I was running, but I'm going to have a short break away from them and read the next trilogy as well.

If I had to pick a favourite, it would be Silver Nitrate, but only by a whisker.

Non-Fiction

David McCormack's Berlin Cold War 1945-1989 Companion was interesting but felt like it lacked Berlin as a character. Lots about the DDR but the city had a cameo.

Andrew Long's Secrets of the the Cold War was excellent, and gave me lots of ideas to draw on for my game at Revelation.

The Divided Berlin, 1945-1990 - Historical Guidebook by Oliver Boyn was the most useful reference I consulted for my game of Berlin'87. It really gave a feel for the city and the way things were.

Helen Czerski's The Blue Machine - how the ocean works was delightful, and probably my overall favourite book of the last two months. A clear exploration of how the ocean works and how we are impacting it, to our own peril. Fantastic and recommended.

Roleplaying Books

Comrades: A revolutionary RPG - this is a Powered by the Apocalypse game built to explore revolutions. I'm very tempted to give it a roll-out as it looks excellent.

Dragonbane Core Rules and Dragonbane Bestiary have been covered elsewhere, as has Shadowdark and Orbital 2100. I finally read Cartel, which was excellent. I've chased the shadows of the delayed kickstarter away.

I also read Across a Thousand Dead Worlds - very pretty and a slick game that has echoes of Pohl's Gateway. I'll be running this at North Star. Along with that, I read Under Ashen Skies, which is a horror based single player RPG from the same publisher. I do like it but I'm not certain it will get to the table.

I continue to grind through Old Gods of Appalachia - it's good but something isn't quite landing for me at the moment.

Of the roleplaying games, Cartel was my favourite.

3 March 2024

Games to February 2024

 

The doughnut returns

The end of February brought an interesting mix, thanks to Revelation. I have a balance between face-to-face and online games for the first time that I remember.

The most played game is Achtung! Cthulhu, where we continue with the Shadows of Atlantis campaign. We've lost a few sessions this year because of technology and schedules, but we're two parts into the campaign and about to head into Egypt. The second part, Rome, had the game really let its hair down, especially once Graham got hold of a MG42. The only thing I need to resolve with this game is notes. As I'm running fortnightly, if we miss a session then it means that there's a lot to remember. Initially, the players were doing this but I think I may have to do some pertinent bullet points at the end of each part as the player journal has fallen by the wayside. 

The biggest challenge we're all facing is 2d20 bleed, as the slight variances in the game engines between genres comes into play and causes confusion and scrambling for the rulebook. I would like to get this weekly if I could, but two of the other players have games on the alternative weeks.

After that, Eternal Lies for Trail of Cthulhu continues. We're around three years into the campaign, and have reverted back to a GM and duo of players after Nigel had to drop out for medical reasons. This means that it has become increasingly tense and we've come close to death as we explore the Malta leg. The sessions have tipped a little more towards pulp rather than purist noir, mainly as we've ended up having to push our luck to resolve things. The possibility of character death has become much more real.

The rest of the games played and run were at Revelation, which I've covered elsewhere.

I did try to get a game of Orbital 2100 off the ground over Christmas, but scheduling sabotaged us.

3 March 2024

First Impressions - Shadowdark RPG (D&D 5e OSR emulator)

Shadowdark. Lurking on my desk.

So I told myself that I didn't want to back Shadowdark when it was crowd-funded; I have (and love) OSE and the most recent version of Swords & Wizardry, not to mention Blueholme. Why would I want a D&D 5e hack when I have the originals in nicely written and cleaned up forms?

The funding ended, but then the whispers began. People I knew tried the Quickstart and later the initial PDF release and loved it. Bloggers I followed were running campaigns and that curiosity arose, the same curiosity that tempts me to buy another mega-dungeon or short adventure 'just to see what they're like'. Eventually, I cracked and skimmed the Quickstart and saw a game closer to the OSR than fifth edition, with a cleanliness and focus to the mechanics. I ended up ordering the core book and the screen.

TL;DR: Shadowdark takes elements of the post D&D 3e game engine, building a delightfully light & coherent take on the original D&D games, in a similar vein to the Black Hack. It is very well done, and emulates the style of play strongly, stripping everything back and building it up again. OSR compatible modules should be a breeze to run on the fly. I like what I see, and I'd like to try it out. 

Despite being a cleanly laid out 326-page black-and-white hardcover with a further four reference pages printed in the inside cover pages, Shadowdark is a quick read, taking me just an evening to complete. There are lovely illustrations throughout, and the text is laid out in a sans-serif font that does the trick of being large but not-quite too large.It's clean and easy to reference. There's a single ribbon. 

Comparing the size of Shadowdark and Old-School Essentials

Shadowdark is just a little bit bigger than Old-School Essentials' Classic Fantasy Rules tome. OSE feels more information dense because it uses a smaller serif font so needs less pages. I find the layout of OSE better to read personally, but both are good.

Shadowdark has the classic six stats, rolled on 3d6 in order, with the usual modifiers applying. There's an option to re-roll if no stat is higher than 14. There are six ancestries: Dwarf, Elf, Goblin, Half-Orc, Halfling and Human. Each ancestry gives you an advantage. Humans get an additional starting talent, Halflings can become invisible and hide once a day. Elves get a bonus for being far-sighted and so on. There are no stat modifications.

I'd be tempted to go back to rolling 4d6, discarding the lowest and swapping a pair around if wanted.

Hit points are scaled back from fifth edition, matching the more traditional hit dice per level of 1d4 for Thieves and Magic Users, 1d6 for Priests and 1d8 for Fighters. These are rolled randomly, so the fragility of OSR games is in place.

I'd be tempted to give maximum hit points for starting characters, unless I wanted to go full survival horror. Again, very much how I played in the 1980s.

Character class descriptions give what armour and weapons can be used and some basic class abilities. There's a table of talents. You get one at first level and more as your progress. These replace the proficiency bonus usually seen in D&D 5e and are rolled on 2d6. You can get improvements on class abilities, bonuses to attack or to stats and other benefits. Priests do get spells at first level (unlike B/X), with two available. Wizards get three spells at first level.

Spells are cast by rolling using the intelligence (wizard) or wisdom (priest) modifiers vs a DC of 10 plus the spell's tier (level). A fail means that the spell doesn't work and you can't cast it again until you rest.

Conflicted by this; a starting spell caster has perhaps a 50% chance of the spell working. I think I'd probably rule that a spell roll failure still has it going off, but you lose it as described.

Spells always fail on a roll of 1 and wizards get to roll on a mishap table which gets more dangerous by tier. Priest just end up annoying their deity and needing to do penance to be able to case that spell again. However, rolling a 20 doubles one of a spell's numerical effects. The spell lists follow and should be recognisable if you've ever played D&D. There's no call out to whether a spell needs verbal or somatic elements. 

Characters also get a background that gives them advantage on skill rolls or in situations when it may be helpful for you. Alignment is a thing, but limited to chaotic, lawful and neutral. Again, very much in line with B/X and its predecessors. There's a two-spread with some gods for characters to draw upon. Each level and class combination has a different title based upon alignment. There's a list of languages for wizards and priests to draw upon. 

There is an option to use a funnel approach and start with 0-level characters.

Armour class is ascending, starting at 10+Dex modifier. You get starting gold to equip and can carry 10 items of equipment (or your strength stat's worth if that's higher). There's a basic dungeon crawling kit and all the classic equipment and weapons. No table of pole-arms though. Experience to level up is 10XP per level, so second level is 20 XP, fourth 40XP etc. Treasure is categorised from poor through to legendary, and is the way that you gain most of your experience. You can get 1XP for clever thinking, and also the GM has the flexibility to give more for oaths, secrets and blessing and meaningful tokens and trophies.

Character generation is followed by a set of tables to generate random characters.

Core game engine is 5e d20 roll high with advantage/disadvantage, and auto-success for 20 and auto-fail for a roll of 1.  There are four standard Difficulty Classes, starting with Easy at DC9, then increasing in steps of 3 to Extreme at DC18. Contested rolls are resolved by the highest roll. 

There's no skill system as such, as you roll with stat modifier, but you do get advantage if your background supports the action. It's recommended that you succeed at what you are trained to do in most cases (including look for secret doors, reading magical runes if you're a wizard). Social encounters only use a Charisma based roll if there are particular negative consequences, a need for skill or time pressure. Otherwise you base it on the interaction at the table.

A new mechanic is a luck token. Players can only have one of these each at any time, but can pass them to a companion. They allow a reroll of any roll that you've made. The rate that players get these is at the GM's whim. 

There's a guidance on just rolling a d6 when it's really a random choice (high is better, low is worse)

Time is tracked in real time except when the plot moves on. Each player takes a turn, and when all players have done so, a round has happened. There are ten rounds in an hour. Torches also only last for an hour. 

Initiative is a d20 roll with the dexterity modifier, highest roller goes first, then move clockwise around the table. Alternatively, you can do it narratively freeform. In a turn, players can move and act, or move twice, so the action economy is much more simple than core fifth edition. Surprise gives advantage and a free turn for those doing the surprising.

A roll of 20 will do double damage as a critical or double a spell attack. If you reduce a creature to 0 hit points you can decide to knock it out instead. Opponents who lose half their number (or hit points for a solo opponent) will make a moral check (wisdom based) or flee. Characters hitting 0 hit points are unconscious and dying. This triggers a death timer of 1d4 + CON modifier rounds (minimum one round); if you aren't healed or stabilised in that time you die. Each round, a player can roll a d20 and will gain a hit point back and recover on a roll of 20. Stabilisation is an intelligence-based check by another character.

Light is important; the GM is encouraged to be strict on tracking light and emphasising the danger. If you run out of light sources, you're at disadvantage and the environment and encounters will become more deadly and frequent.

Hiding and sneaking is dexterity based, and usually hidden creatures will be spotted if looked for in the right place. A wisdom check will be needed if someone has successfully snuck or hidden.

Resting requires rations and an uninterrupted 8-hour period of sleep and recovery. If undisturbed, all stat damage and hit points, along with any talents or items that reset. The environment influences the change of a stressful encounter that will interrupt rest, so total darkness means there will be an encounter check every hour. 

Downtime allows a number of actions; you can carouse (a way to convert your treasure into XP) or learn new skills. You can't earn another classes skill but you can learn auxiliary things they do.  To carouse, you pick an amount of money ranging from 30 gold to 1,800 gold (a night out through to a two-week bender). This gives a modifier to a roll on the carousing table which gives XP, contacts and potential elements to influence the story going forward. There's an example game of chance, and then the section rounds out with an extended example of play.

The GM section opens with strong guidance on the core ethos and reminders about how the style of play here differs from fifth edition as written. You're reminded to telegraph danger, give meaningful choices and the clues to understand them, and to be unpredictable. Character vs player skill is discussed, along with moving from rules to rulings. You're there to have fun, but you are a neutral arbiter. This is very much the agenda/principles section that is common with other games today. 

There's discussion about how to attack the character's sources of light, and how to tweak the game so it plays differently. For example, in pulp mode you can have any number of luck tokens and used them to create critical hits, get extra actions or force the GM to re-roll. In deadly mode, you have a single round to stabilise or heal and the roll needed to do so is higher. 

There's a long section of random encounters, traps, hazards and rumours, followed by an extensive bestiary. The only notable difference for the monster descriptions compared to OSR sources is the addition of modifiers for stats. A number of the creatures are unique. I started to do some analysis of the spread of these so I could convert creatures that weren't included on the fly, but then realised someone on Itch.io had already done it. In truth, unless a scenario has a unique creature you won't need these. There's a random monster generator if you want to roll your own. 

The treasure section includes random tables, more mundane treasures like luxury items and painting, an extensive list of magic items and how to created them, and the more intangible boons (oaths made to with you, secrets and blessings).

The end papers are packed with useful references.

The screen is a four panel portrait screen the same size as the book. It has a focus around encounters and treasure and complements the end papers. The artwork is great too.

So what do I think?

I don't that Shadowdark is a fifth edition game as such. Most fifth edition games are built as heroic fantasy variant. Rather, Shadowdark takes elements of the post D&D 3e game engine, building a delightfully light & coherent take on the original D&D games, in a similar vein to the Black Hack. It is very well done, and emulates the style of play very well. Whereas OSE and other retro-clones maintain the quirks of the original game, this strips everything back and builds it up from the start. I'm pretty confident that I could pick up an old module or something written for the OSR and run it while converting on the fly. I like what I see, and I'd like to try it out. 

Recommended.

2 March 2024

You may notice that some of my comments in italics stray away from the more brutal take that some OSR GMs take; I've never enjoyed games where the characters are so vulnerable that they are unlikely to survive the first blow they take. I am happy to be a neutral arbiter, but I'm enough of a fan of the characters that I want them to start their journey with a chance.

WOTB - T30 - Mastery - Oasis Palms

 

5957 damage, 5 kills, 920 assistance, 460 blocked, 1651XP

#wotb #wotblitz

Revelation 8 (2024) - after action report

A tense moment at Revelation, as the Chief of Berlin Station discusses the fate of the Mole with the CIA Operator in Magpie Games' official hack of their Cartel game to Cold War Berlin.

The weekend of 17th/18th February brought the eighth run for Revelation at the Garrison Hotel in Sheffield. This is a weekend of gaming dedicated to games which use the 'Powered by the Apocalypse' (PbtA) engine, a group that includes 'Forged in the Dark' engined games. We often also have a guest game (usually because someone has blagged it past one of the con team) but these are like guest-ales, welcome and a refreshing change.

This year, we responded to feedback in the various forums and tried to make the Garricons more approachable to those who haven't attended before. Graham delivered a refocussed opening speech (which is on YouTube) and we innovated with QR codes for the timetable on badges and around the venue. Both seemed to get a good response but we're open to more feedback. As an organiser, the big change for me was that no-one asked me for the timetable throughout the con (which is normally a regular thing).

We'd thought we were going to be at the lower end of players, but had around 40-people, which is the best that this has been since the pandemic. We had enough games running so everyone could be involved. The trend to later sign-ups by players and later offerings of games continued. Because we thought we'd be low in numbers, we hadn't asked Patriot Games to attend but instead opened up a bring-and-buy. I brought two large boxes and was pleased that quite a few things went. All Rolled Up did a delivery service at the convention, with Paul Baldowski bringing pre-ordered items.

Candela Obscura - Slot 1

After the convention opened, my first game was run by Declan. I'd signed up for this as Candela Obscura is a game that has intrigued me. I'd looked at it in Travelling Man in Leeds but didn't buy it as I couldn't see what it offered that Vaesen didn't. I was still interested in finding out more, as it would have been a potential purchase if Patriot Games were present. It was a delightful game, with a lovely winter-festival theme, and a hint of the ghostly. It was challenging to run in such a short slot (the first slots of the day are three-and-a-half hours), as the scenario probably needed 5-6 hours to be run with space to breathe. That said, the whole table became focussed to push the game to a conclusion, and we concluded bang-on-time. Declan did a fantastic job of explaining the system and running an evocative game and the other players were fantastic and engaging. I'm still in the camp that I'm not going to buy Candela Obscura, but I will definitely play this again if the opportunity presents.

Slot 2 brought the first of three games which I was running. This was actually the third game that I'd pitched when we were light on GMs, one of two outings for City of Mist. As one of the players didn't arrive, I had three players for the session. The scenario was taken from the forthcoming "Local Legends" book and was called 'The Maestro of Chalk'. A street artist in the Tourist Trap district of boardwalks, beaches and entertainments suddenly develops the ability to create extremely realistic chalk images that can come to life, and their mythos is compelling them to recreate the 12-Labours of Hercules. Other factions want to exploit the new Rift's powers and are hunting for him. Meanwhile, people are disappearing and the crew get drawn in to investigate.

Lunch from Morrisons.

Overall, the scenario went well; I offered all the pre-made folios for characters and let the player choose who they'd like to be. This does mean that I need to get them to capture their mysteries, identities and weaknesses at the start so I can reference in the game. My one regret was that one of the players selected 'Post-Mortem', which is effectively an undead killer assassin and very much focussed on combat. That did leave me concerned during the game as the spotlight opportunities for that player were quite reduced as they were limited with the power tags they had. That said, when it came to combat, they were very effective. However, I felt like I'd let them down by failing to to warn them about the limitations of the character build. I hope that they enjoyed the game. This was very much a more traditional neon-noir investigation that the game is sold on. Sunday's game was to be far more epic in scale. Foolishly, I forgot to take any pictures.

Dinner was the traditional KFC with Keary where we caught up on books, games and putting the world to right.

I had five excellent players who all got the aim of the game and understood that this was 'character-vs-character' not 'player-vs-player'. I had an open table; all the players knew each other's secrets, but their characters didn't. I must give shout out to Will, who has run Cartel much more than me (I've played it once before this session), and gave sound advice on how the game works throughout to the players and myself. We eased ourselves slowly into using moves against each other, but it got increasingly messy. The ending saw the Mole shot and killed by the Operator, after they'd tried to kill the CIA agent in a car crash. The Chief managed to retire with honours, leaving with a former lover who was an agent. The Spycatcher leveraged the situation into becoming the Chief of Station. The Prize (KGB agent) did everything they were asked to but realised the Americans weren't going to fulfil their promises of exfiliation any time soon.  Both the Prize (Will) and the Mole (Jag) played an excellent game. The nature of those roles means they can feel isolated, and they were great sports and pushing the narrative. This is a great game, and I'm half tempted to bring it back at Furnace later this year.

The Berlin'87 players - thanks for a great game

I spent a bit of time in the bar chatting to Jag, but headed to bed reasonably early.

The morning saw the usual lovely Garrison breakfast, and a chance to say 'hi' to some of the staff that have been there the last 19 years!

Impulse Drive with Table bling

The morning saw me play my second game. This was Graham's run of Impulse Drive, a game I've both played and run in the past. I took the role of the Scoundrel, Drake Valentine. She was from a 'scum' backgrounds and had her childhood friend (a bounty hunter, Gaen Frith) onboard, along with a renegade mystic Knight (Dromon) and a youngster who had been experimented on and had anger-management problems. We had a tangled web of bonds and then jumped into a system on 'a milk run' and things obviously got very complicated. Graham was drawing on a book he's published for the Cepheus Engine, and we had a fun time! My dice were absolute traitors throughout the scenario; I rapidly accrued enough XP to gain another move! A fun game.

Jamie's cake!

Before the final session started, we had a cake to celebrate Jamie's 68th birthday. We were delighted she could attend, as she has been suffering from an inoperable cancer prognosis. The fantastic news we got was that a surgical pathway has opened up, which will hopefully remove this threat.

The second game of City of Mist

The last session for me was my second City of Mist game. This drew upon a City of Mist Garage book which has a scenario in called 'The Nightmare Underground'. The crew got drawn into the mystery of a missing subway train. Very soon they realised that bad things had happened and the World-Serpent, Jörmungandr, had been released and that Ragnarok threatened. Working with the Rift of Freyr, the party were caught up in a desperate race to trap the Serpent back into the realm of dream. They prevailed spectacularly (well, there was at least one loose end) and the threat of the end of the world was put off. This was City of Mist in its epic mode, rather a tight noir-procedural. I enjoyed the game a lot; I had been worried that the plot was possibly too linear, and that it may not work, but in practice it was great fun, and everyone got involved.

And then the eighth Revelation was over and we all headed home. We will be back next year. We are considering broadening the Guest Ale selection in the future to encompass more story games (and no Graham, D&D 4e doesn't make that cut) but more on that to follow.

Thank you to all the players, GMs, the Garrison Hotel and my fellow organisers Graham and Elaine. Also a hat tip to both Jag and Faye who I seemed to be on the same track with for the games we played!

A fun convention.

25 February 2024

First Impressions - Dragonbane RPG - Bestiary

The Dragonbane Bestiary

This will be a short one, as this is a simple book. The Dragonbane Bestiary is a 148-page full colour hardback illustrated gorgeously by David Brasgalla. The artwork is in a similar style to the cover and other material provided by Johan Egerkrans for the core rules. This is the expanded monster manual for the Dragonbane roleplaying game; there is some overlap between the two books, but the entries in the Bestiary are significantly expanded. In addition, the book provides the information to make some of the kin usable as player characters. Goblins, Hobgoblins, Ogres, Orcs, Cat People, Frog People, Karkions, Lizard People and Satyrs are now available to join your adventuring party!

The conceit of the book is that it is the work of one Theodora Sneezewort, a halfling scholar who may have been lost in crevice while trying to enter the lair of Arknarath, the Father of all Dragons. The entries reflect this, starting with Theodora's commentary on the creature or kin, before being followed with an example random encounter and then a more extended adventure seed. There's an evocative illustration, and then the stat blocks plus details of the ability the kin would get if used by a player.

The general categories used are Nightkin (Goblins, Orcs etc), Rare Kin (the likes of Cat People and Satyrs), Insectoids, Beasts, Trolls, Giants, Undead, Dragons and Demons. Whereas the core book has one Demon example, the Bestiary gives six different types. Similarly, there are five different dragon examples (differing ages and the wingless Lindworm). Trolls and Giant have similarly expanded entries with several different flavours.

This is an unpretentious book; it delivers exactly what you'd expect, a large selection of potential allies and opponents. It isn't essential, but if you plan to run Dragonbane it will add some great options and flexibility to your game.

Recommended.

25 February 2024

First Impressions - Dragonbane RPG - Rulebook

Dragonbane core rulebook.

I backed the original Dragonbane Kickstarter and really liked the boxed set that arrived, but was loathe to read the softback books (because I reckoned I’d trash them), so I was delighted when Fría Ligan announced that they were producing a hardcover of the core rules and a bestiary. Here’s my first impressions of the core rules, only tempered by the fact that I read the QuickStart at the time of the initial release and also the influence of First Age, whose boundless enthusiasm for the game is somewhat catching.

TL;DR: Overall, I’m impressed with Dragonbane. It’s mechanically light enough to fade away but provide lots of fun. The boxed set promised mayhem and mirth, and this polished, well written, simple and beautifully illustrated rulebook gives you the tools for a lot of fun time adventuring. It reminds me of the old-school, but it takes the BRP-heritage and hones it to a sharp and effective modern point.

Dragonbane is a 124-page full colour hardback book which presents a full game system with introductory adventure. The interior art is gorgeous, produced by Johan Egerkrans and Niklas Brandt. It’s printed on matte pages rather than gloss, and feels nice. Layout is very clear and the text is easy to read. This is the second printing of the rules, so there is a list of errata changes at the front, something that reminds me of reading RuneQuest 2 back in the 1980s.

You can see the BRP (Chaosium’s Basic Role Playing percentile engine) lineage in the game engine. But, Dragonbane uses D20, you say… BRP does step into the D20 space; it was only after the first two editions of RuneQuest that the game moved away from 5% skill steps, and Pendragon was always a D20 version of the engine. However, Dragonbane is a fast and slick version of the game engine, married with some modern design concepts.

Characters are described with six attributes (Strength, Constitution, Agility, Intelligence, Willpower and Charisma) rolled on 4D6 with the worst die dropped. You can swap a pair around at the end of the rolls. They may be modified by the Kin that you select at the start. This are pretty traditional (Human, Halfling, Dwarf, Elf) until you get to the Mallard and Wolfkin. Mallards are very much a nod to the RQ heritage of Ducks. Each Kin is described, and has at least one heroic ability activated by spending Willpower points. You then choose (or roll) a profession for your adventurer, and there are ten on offer. They cover most of the fantasy tropes, and at least half of your skills must come from those in the profession. You also gain an additional heroic ability and a selection of starting gear builds. You can generate a name by using the name table for kin and the nickname table for profession. The number of skills depends on the age of your characters (with bonus attributes and less skills for the young and lowered physical attributes and more trained skills for the old). 

Derived attributes give movement (based on Kin and Agility), Hit Points, Willpower points (which fuel magic and abilities) and a damage bonus. Skills either start at a base derived from the governing attribute or are doubled if you are trained in them. An average character would have a skill of 5 for untrained skills and 10 for trained skills. Favoured attributes could push this as high as 6/12 or 7/14.  Characters can also chose to have a weakness; playing to it will give you a bonus on experience checks at the end of a session, and resisting it can gain you more in the short term, and end up causing a change. As well as the starting gear, you’ll have a memento that’s important to you that you can use once per session to recover an additional condition. 

Character generation rounds out with simple encumbrance rules and some ideas for appearance. Experience comes from rolling a Dragon (1) or a Demon (20) when making a skill roll. You also get it for answering certain questions at the end of a session. Each question answered or dragon/demon rolled gives you an attainment mark which can be placed against skill. You roll a D20 for each, looking to get more than the existing skill. If you do this, you can raise it by 1, up to a maximum of 18. Any skill raised to 18 gives an additional heroic ability. 

The game engine is a D20 roll equal-to or under, usually against skill but attributes can be an option in some limited cases. Rolling a Dragon is a critical, with extra damage, higher achievement etc. Rolling a Demon can’t be pushed and a fumble of some sort happens. Generally, you get a single chance to roll. Rather than having modifiers to the roll, you can have boon or bane.Unlike D&D, these can stack, so you can roll more than two D20s for task. Generally, one person can help, giving a boon. 

If it goes badly, there is an option rule to push rolls (like in the YZE engine); however, this gives you a condition which imposes bane on skill groups derived from the same attribute. If you get all six conditions you can no longer re-roll. You have to re-roll all the dice. 

Combat initiative is derived by drawing cards (much as used in most YZE games). When it gets to your turn, you can chose to wait, and swap your card with someone who hasn’t been. Monsters will often have multiple initiative cards. The action economy is simple. You get one action and can move. If you are forced to react to defend yourself (for example by parrying or dodging) then it uses your action if you still have one or cannot be done. There are a limited number of free actions like swapping weapons, shouting, getting off the ground or getting down to the ground. 

Melee combat is by a skill roll, and success means you deal damage (less armour). A Dragon means that you can roll double base damage, do a second attack against another enemy or bypass armour with a piercing weapon. When facing a non-monster, if your damage bonus is higher than theirs and you hit then you can shove them away from you. Demon rolls have a simple fumble table ranging from dropped weapons through to hitting yourself. If you use a reaction and parry an attack, your weapon can be damaged if the damage exceed the durability of your equipment. Mostly, you can’t parry monster attacks. However, you can dodge monster attacks. Ranged combat works similarly, but has a more limited set of options for rolling a dragon. You can parry a ranged attack with a shield (and with a weapon if you have the right ability) or you can dodge it. 

When your hit points reach 0, you fall to the ground and start to make death rolls versus your CON attribute. These work a bit like D&D5e and 3 successes see you recover D6 hit points and return to combat. Three failed rolls mean you are dead and gone. Demons and Dragons count double. Additional damage is treated as a failed death roll. If you ever take damage in a single attack that takes you to the negative score with the same magnitude as your hit points, you die instantly.

Other characters can help you: you can be rallied back to your feet to fight on at zero hit points (but you still make death rolls), or someone else can try to save your life with a healing roll. If you survive death rolls, you need to make a CON roll or suffer a long term injury. 

Magic is presented as resting in three schools; animism (deals with nature and the world), elementalism (deals with the elements) and mentalism (control of mind and body). There are lists of spells and magic tricks for each school. There is also a group of core spells and tricks. Mages have prepare a spell to use, with limits set by INT. Spells are also recorded in the mages’ grimoire, and at a push can be cast from there. Metal interferes with casting and enough can stop spells being used. Spells have power levels, needing Willpower points to activate. At a push, you can take damage to your hit points to gain Willpower to cast a spell, except for healing magic. Rolling Dragon boosts your spell, rolling a Demon causes a mishap. 

This section is followed by a decent equipment list, and then the bestiary which gives a small but interesting selection of monsters that cover the basics for most fantasy games. Some creatures are treated as NPCs; they follow the same basic rules as player characters. Goblins, Orcs and Skeletons are examples of these. More scarily, some creatures are Monsters. Monsters typically have multiple attacks and always hit, with the GM rolling or choosing from a table of nastiness (shades of Forbidden Lands and Alien). As Monsters will typically have more than one attack, they are to be feared. Monsters can also cause Fear, which needs a Willpower roll to resist, and a failure can cause conditions to be inflicted or a character to flee or freeze.

The book draws towards its close by covering Journeys, GM advice and Treasure. Characters take roles on when travelling; pathfinders will lead the party through, with others taking the action to make camp or hunt and forage for food. The GM section focuses heavily on using NPCs and creating adventures with some light guidance and random tables for adventures, treasures and NPCs. The book rounds out with a short introductory scenario (The Castle of the Robber Knight) which will reward thinking around the problems faced rather than a straight line combat solution.

The book concludes with a short selection of tables, the character sheet and a functional index.

Overall, I’m impressed with Dragonbane. It’s mechanically light enough to fade away but provide lots of fun. The boxed set promised mayhem and mirth, and this polished, well written, simple and beautifully illustrated rulebook gives you the tools for a lot of fun time adventuring. It reminds me of old school, but it takes the BRP-heritage and hones it to a sharp and effective point. Recommended. 

12 February 2024