Miskatonic Monday #398: Up on the Rooftop

Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

—oOo—

Name: Up on the Rooftop

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: James Cross

Setting: Vermont, 2018

Product: One-shot
What You Get: Forty-eight page, 9.69 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: For every child, there is a Christmas when they lose their innocence

Plot Hook: Christmas holiday becomes Christmas horror, Christmas cheer become Christmas fear

Plot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, six NPCs, ten handouts, two maps, one Mythos tome, four Mythos spells, and one Mythos monster.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Nicely detailed cinematic horror scenario

# Includes advice for convention and campaign play

# Builds from creepy to whiteout worriment (and worse)
# Pleasingly unsettling cover

# Teraphobia

# Clausophobia

# Tarandophobia

Cons

# Can include the death of a child

# No Sanity rewards (for campaign play)

Conclusion

# Well done, holiday horror that adds a new twist on an old staple

# Ruins Christmas for Floridians everywhere

# Reviews from R’lyeh Recommends

Crime at Christmas

It is the time of year when a man’s mind turns to murder. Not because he have had enough of his family and his relatives for one year—and just in one day—but because it is traditional to enjoy murder mysteries, whether on the page or one the screen. And of course, such murders should be as cozy as possible. Then, if that murder is cozy, the detectives need to be equally as cozy. When not cooing and aahing over the very latest tragic death that has occurred under their noses, they like attending to their gardens, participating in the Women’s Institute, reading the next title to discuss as part of their book club, knitting something suitable for a grandniece or nephew, organising the next village fete, and singing in the church choir. These are the Matrons of Mystery, older ladies of leisure whose surreptitious and unobtrusive nature means that they get overlooked when investigating crimes and searching for clues, and eventually putting together a solution which unmasks the perpetrator! Matrons of Mystery is an investigative roleplaying game in which there are mysteries and there are clues to be uncovered, but there is no set solution. And if the Matrons do not get quite get their solution right the first time, they can investigate further and propose another solution!This is what Matrons of Mystery: A cozy mystery roleplaying game—and Brindlewood Bay, the roleplaying game by Jason Cordova it is derived from—both do.

Christmas Crime: Three festive mysteries for Matrons of Mystery presents three more mysteries for the Matrons to solve, but all with a Christmas theme. Each of the three comes with a description of the theme, sets the scene with a set-up, details of the victim, suggests ways in which the Matrons can get involved, and the Teaser, essentially that scene before the opening credits when everyone’s obvious relationships are established and then the dead body of the murder victim is dramatically revealed (cue dramatic music!). This is followed by seven or eight possible suspects, each with a description and reason to want to murder the victim. Lastly there is a lengthy list of clues to be found.

The trilogy starts with ‘Oh No They Didn’t’, which opens with the dress rehearsal for the village amateur dramatics society’s annual Christmas pantomime at the village hall coming to an abrupt halt when Willow Jackson, the lovely young actress playing the lead role of Cinderella, is found lying in the middle of the stage in a pool of blood! Ideally, one of the Matrons should be playing the role of the Fairy Godmother, but the murder mystery suggests other roles too. The second mystery, ‘Bake or Death’, takes place at the village’s annual baking contest with three contests being of note—best mince pie, best biscuit, and best cake. Of these, the best cake competition is subject to the fiercest rivalries. The victim is Lisa Monroe, relative newcomer to the villager and winner of the contest three years in a row. Unfortunately, she is unlikely to winner a fourth time after she is found dead with a cake ribbon wrapped around her neck! The Matrons can be the Judges, contestants, or the organisers. The trio comes to a close with ‘Slay Ride’ in which Bob Chandler, the owner of the local stable yard, who every year plays Santa Claus and provides a carriage as Father Christmas’ sleigh for the village Christmas fete, is found dead in the stables. The Matrons can be organisers of the fete, friends of Bob Chandler, or simply like horses. The teaser as a somewhat gruesome tone when it turns out that Rudolph the Horse’s nose is not red simply because, but because it has something red on it…*

* “Why Rudolph, you’ve got red on you.”

All three cases, the various suspects have secrets and reasons to kill the respective victims. Most of them are not all that nice and all of them are rampant stereotypes typical of the genre. So, there is scope aplenty here for the Game Master to ham up her portrayal of the NPCs, since these episodes—as per the genre—is being broadcast in the middle of the afternoon or the middle of the evening, the perfect cozy, easy spots for the genre. Further, the mysteries themselves are stereotypical, even clichés, of the genre. Or rather as they are properly called, classics. What lifts these classics up above the ordinary is the fact that there is not set solution to the murders. The players and their Matrons can discover the clues, question the suspects, verify alibis, and deduce the identity of the culprit and his or her motivations, and in the process provide a comfortably cozy entertainment, whilst the Game Master gets to portray a cast riddled with jealousies, insecurities, and secrets. Plus, just like the cozy murder mysteries themselves, the murder mysteries in Christmas Crime are just as undemanding when it comes to set-up.

Physically, Christmas Crime is neatly and tidily laid out. It is not illustrated bar the Christmasy front cover. The only that it lacking is some locations for the mysteries to play out in, but the Game Master and her players should be able to improvise those.

What could be cozier than death at Christmas, than the comfortable clichés and mild murders of Christmas Crime: Three festive mysteries for Matrons of Mystery?

Unseasonal Festivities: Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2024

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unseasonal Festivities: Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2023

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

Published by Harper Collins Publishers, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2023 moves on from the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 in a surprising nod to recent events—it acknowledges the effects of COVID-19 and the Lockdown, and how that changed our gaming practices, many of us moving online to play Dungeons & Dragons and other RPG, for example, via Zoom. It suggests means of doing so and what those means offer in terms of play and interaction, making the point that it is still a viable option even though in-person play has returned. This is explored a little further in ‘Virtual Play Weekend’, which looks at events organised online by Wizards of the Coast.

However, where the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2023 starts with ‘Welcome to the Multiverse’, an overview of some of the settings explored in official releases for Dungeons & Dragons from Wizards of the Coast. This itself begins with the Forgotten Realms—because it always does—but it includes some of the lesser know worlds such as Exandria of Critical Role and both Strixhaven and Ravnica from Magic: The Gathering. These are only thumbnail descriptions, so they are all too brief, leaving the reader wishing that any one them of had pages of their own in the book. Thankfully, several of them do, but not all. The three that do each receive this attention via a series of articles, sometimes paired, sometimes not. One is from the ‘Heroes & Villains’ series and the other is from ‘Mapping the Realms’. The first is Ravenloft, and its ‘Heroes & Villains’ entry is a description of Strahd, the Darklord of Barovia, one of the lands of Shadowfell. Included here too, are descriptions of his allies and enemies, such as the vampire hunter, Doctor Rudolph Van Richten, and Strahd’s rival, the Sun Elf vampire, Jander Sunstar. Van Richten receives more attention in the accompanying, paired ‘Mapping the Realms’ entry which also highlights Castle Ravenloft and its location on the map. Acerak, the villain of Tomb of Annihilation is given similar treatment, whilst the other ‘Mapping the Realms’ entries explore ‘The Feywild’ and its unpredictable, primal magic—later detailed in its own section in ‘Wild Magic’, ‘Gewhaawk’, the original campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons, and ‘Avernus’, the first level of hell explored in Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus. The heroes described in the ‘Heroes & Villains’ series are Mordenkainen and Volothamp Geddarm.

Community is not ignored in the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2023 as it highlights the generosity of players in playing and donating to good causes. Being British means that one of these covered in the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2023 is Comic Relief, a big event very other year in the United Kingdom. It is a sign of just how far Dungeons & Dragons has been accepted into the mainstream that it is part of such a big event. Other events highlighted are Extra Life and Playing D&D for Mermaids. The spotlight here is on the ‘Three Black Halflings’ podcast, ‘Girls Guts Glory’ streaming group, and even an interview with renowned Dungeon Master, B. Dave Walters in ‘Meet the DM’, which together showcases the appeal and diversity of the Dungeons & Dragons community.

Even if the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2023 has no stats or adventures or anything mechanical for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition in its pages, it does talk about the basics of getting ready to run the game. ‘Planning a Dungeon Delve’ looks at all the elements of an adventure, whilst ‘A Beginner’s Guide to Homebrewing’ suggests ways in which Dungeons & Dragons can be modified, including characters and worlds. There is a guide too, to ‘Writing a Backstory’ as part of a character creation checklist, whilst ‘Session Zero’ examines how a pre-campaign session works and sets out eveyone’s expectations, and ‘One-shots’ suggests alternatives to longer multiple sessions of play and how they work. That said, describing a one-shot as a self-contained campaign is absurd. Lastly, ‘Level Up Your Table’ suggests ways to enhance play, such as using maps and miniatures and secret messages and even physical puzzles. Thus there is a mix of advice and suggestions for both player and Dungeon Master across the volume.

Beyond play, the ‘D&D Bookshelf’ suggests fiction to read, starting with the adventures of Drizzt Do’Urden, but also mentioning the Dragonlance and Ravenloft series. ‘Loot Table’ suggests gifts and collectible that a Dungeons & Dragons devotee might like beyond the core rulebooks and dice. This notable for the inclusion of ‘Crocs Jibbitiz’, official Dungeons & Dragons-themed adornments for your crocs. Thankfully, there are no official Dungeons & Dragons Crocs, but the Jibbitz are daft enough as it is.

The ‘Bestiary’ series covers otherworldly creatures. So, in ‘Fiends and Celestials’, it is Imps, Balor demons, Pegasi, and Solar Celestials. ‘Aberrations and Undead’ such as the Intellect Devourer, Aboleth, Ghoul, and Death Tyrant, and ‘Elementals and Fey’ like Mephits, Fire Elementals, Dryads, and Quicklings, are given quite detailed descriptions. Conversely, the ‘Gem Dragons’ only receive descriptions in comparison, so there is not really enough of an idea who they might be used in a scenario.

Of course, Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2023 being a British annual, it is not without its puzzles. So there are mazes, spot the difference, word searches, and more. In comparison to previous annuals, the theming is more generic Dungeons & Dragons than a specific campaign world or characters, so not as engaging as in past years.

Physically, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2023 is snappily presented. There is plenty of full colour artwork drawn from Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, and the writing is clear and kept short, so is an easy read for its intended audience.

In past years, entries in the Dungeons & Dragons Annual series have proven to be decent introductions to Dungeons & Dragons, but the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2023 is beginning to push against the limits of what it can explain and showcase without actually showing what Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition actually looks like. It has moved on since the earlier introductory annuals to look at more advanced aspects of character creation with character backstory and play with a discussion of Session Zero, but it constantly feels as if it is preparing the reader and potential player for something that it can never show. Which is any actual element of the doing of Dungeons & Dragons, so consequently, it is all description, all tell, and no show. Of course, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2023 is intended to showcase the numerous aspects of the roleplaying game and its setting, and this it does, but it constantly leaves the reader wanting to take the next step and not quite sure what that is. Taking that step is big one and perhaps a solo adventure would give the reader a better idea of what play is like?

To be fair, this is not a book or supplement that a dedicated player or Dungeon Master is going to need, or even want, to read. After all, much of this will be familiar to either. For the casual reader, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2023 is reasonable starting point, but the casual reader will quickly want more. For the collector, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2023 is an attraction addition to his bookshelves. Still as something to receive at Christmas (or not) in your Christmas stocking (or not), the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2023 is an attractive product, informative about Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, and whilst its own limitations can only help the reader so far, a stepping stone from they can look for further starting points from which to play.

Friday Fantasy: Claus for Concern

Almost like films on the Hallmark channel, Christmas brings with it festively-themed scenarios for Dungeons & Dragons. Typically, they involve Santa Claus getting kidnapped or Santa’s grotto or toy workshop at the North Pole being invaded, and the Player Characters having either to rescue him or deliver presents down all of the chimneys in the world and into children’s stockings everywhere. And the whole affair is wrapped in a kitsch swathe of red, green, and white, whether that is wrapping paper, bows, candy cane sweets, baubles, and whatnot, all of which is being invaded by someone who is monstrously grey and wants to spread misery rather than joy, but who only needs to be shown some love and the error of their ways so that they once again enjoy the bonhomie of Christmas. It is both a well-worn cliché and extremely American. Claus for Concern: A Holiday One-Shot for Christmas is no different. Published on the Dungeon Masters Guild, it is a scenario for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition.

Claus for Concern: A Holiday One-Shot for Christmas is designed to be played by Player Characters of between First and Fifth Level. However, it will require some scaling up and down to be suitable for the extremes of that range, whereas as written it is designed for Player Characters of Third to Fifth Level. It is intended to be completed in one session, but depending on the players could last as long as two. Although there are maps—drawn by Dyson Logos—for both the players and the Dungeon Master, it is a pity that there are no ready-to-play pre-generated as that would have supported the scenario as a one-shot and would have made it easier to set up and run.

The scenario begins with the Player Characters being approached by several Kringle Elves looking shell-shocked. They implore the Player Characters for help—they have escaped from Santa’s Workshop after it has been invaded by Frost Goblins, Ice Sprites, and Snowy Bugbears, and both Santa Claus and his wife Myra Claus are missing. They implore the Player Characters to come to their aid, return with them to the North Pole, investigate what has happened, and save the Workshop—and in the process, Christmas! What follows is a linear affair. The Player Characters arrive at the North Pole, make their way through the gingerbread and candy-styled North Pole Village, its byways scattered with various gift-wrapped presents (which the Player Characters are free to open), and into the Santa’s Workshop. It is not until they begin to descend into the workshop below the Player Characters encounter any opposition. Technically, what the Player Characters are doing is descending an inverted tower, so the stairs are actually backwards on the map, but everything they find is festively themed, but smashed to bits. Someone definitely does not like Christmas.

Ultimately, the Player Characters will encounter the villain of the piece—a very icy ‘Christmas Witch’. She is a fairly tough opponent and the scenario does warn the Dungeon Master that there is the danger of a ‘Total Party Kill’ if she is not careful. She has a very frosty feel and that follows through on her choice of spells. In addition, the scenario follows through on the ice theme in terms of its monsters. These include Mimics as both presents and Christmas trees, Snowy Bugbears armed with Frosty Morningstars and Icicle Throws, Ice Sprites, Frosty Winged Kobolds with Icicle Spears and Chill Wind from their buffeting wings, and others. Stats are also included for Santa Claws and Myra Claws. The invention also a stocking full of magical items, all themed, such as Rudolph’s Nose of Everlasting Light, Fruitcake of Greater Healing, Red Fur-lined Coat, and Santa’s Holiday Bag of Holding, the latter which might just be a Bag of Holding.

Physically, Claus for Concern: A Holiday One-Shot for Christmas is a neat and tidy affair. Bar the cover it is not illustrated, but as you would expect, the maps are excellent. The scenario is well written, but as a consequence of being linear, there is one moment where if the Player Characters cannot get through a door—which they need to in order to reach the climax, the monsters break it down from the other side. Which undermines player and character agency.

To be clear, Claus for Concern: A Holiday One-Shot for Christmas is Christmas cliché from start to finish. It is a turducken stuffed with mince pies, studded with bow-tied candy canes, slathered with bread sauce, soaked in egg nog, and covered in brandy and set alight whilst pulling two Christmas crackers with an equally festively anointed turducken Dungeons & Dragons Christmas cliché. However, it is a decently done cliché and perfectly playable, and there is even some invention involved that makes it stand out from the traditional Dungeons & Dragons Christmas fare, not least of which is the almost pun of a title. So if a Dungeon Master and her group want to play a Dungeons & Dragons Christmas-themed scenario, then Claus for Concern: A Holiday One-Shot for Christmas is definitely what they want for Christmas.

Friday Fantasy: A Yuletide Snowball Massacre

A Yuletide Snowball Massacre: A Ridiculously Festive Battle Royale for 5E is an adventure for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Published by Critical Kit, it is designed for a party of six Player Characters of Third to Fifth Level and is intended to be played in a single session, either as a one-shot or as part of an ongoing campaign. As the title suggests, this is a very different type of scenario, a Player versus Player battle in a snowbound arena for the entertainment for others, last one standing wins the battle and a prize! Although nominally set in the same campaign world of the Western Lands as the publisher’s other scenarios for Dungeon & Dragons, Fifth Edition, the scenario is really setting agnostic. All it needs is a winter with plenty of ice and snow and some kind of midwinter festival—it need not be Christmas, and the setting have a court of winter fey. Other than that, the scenario does require some set-up. The only given background is that Queen Mab of the Winter Court desires some entertainment and this time it is the Player Characters’ turn to fight each to death in the Perpetual Winter Arena. So the Player Characters may have come to the attention of Queen Mab before and be selected because of that or they may simply be selected at random. In whatever way it is set up, the scenario is easy to slot into a campaign, whether between adventures or an interlude or even dream sequence during an adventure. The scenario can even start en media res with the Player Characters suddenly waking up in the arena and having to fight.

The scenario does begin with some advice about player expectations. This revolves around things—Player Character death and Player Character interaction. For the former, it suggests that the players be made aware that death in the arena is not necessarily final—although if run as a one-shot, that may not be the case, since the players will not be as attached to their characters. For the latter, it suggests that the players embrace the fun. There are guidelines too, for the Dungeon Master on handling certain spells, but these are kept short, and for the most part, the Dungeon Master will need to make rulings at the table as normal.

A Yuletide Snowball Massacre takes place in the Perpetual Winter Arena. This is a snowbound forest glade and marked with spawn points, an icesheet where everyone can lose their footing, and present boxes that the Player Characters can open Present Boxes to find potions of healing, Candy Cane Wands, and the dread Snowbody! The latter is an evil snowman which is stealthy in snow, has sharpened twigs to attack with, and frost breath. They can also be summoned when a Player Character activates the one-shot Candy Cane Wands, which can also fling snowballs, an Ice Mephit at a target, turns the caster’s nose into a carrot or forces him to make snow angels for a round, or covers the caster in glitter and makes them look fabulous and thus, difficult to attack. There is a table of effects which the player can roll whenever his character uses a Candy Cane Wand. As a bonus action, the Player Characters can also throw snowballs at each other.

As an arena scenario, A Yuletide Snowball Massacre comes with a twenty-four by sixteen-inch poster map on sturdy paper and in full colour. This is a scenario which definitely requires counters or miniatures. There are also stats for the Snowbody monster, plus details of the Candy Cane Wand, Boompowder Baubles, and the Snowbody Stone, the latter the ultimate prize for the winner standing at the end of the battle royale.

Physically,  A Yuletide Snowball Massacre is decently presented, everything is easy to grasp, and the map is rather nice. It is an easy scenario to use, but it would have been useful if there had been stronger advice on the set-up or the ways in which the scenario could be used.

A Yuletide Snowball Massacre is not going to be suitable for every gaming group or campaign, at worst being a frivolous diversion, at best a frivolous and festive diversion, some light-hearted Player Character versus Player Character action. However, as more than a one-shot, the inventive Dungeon Master could doubtless find a reason to work A Yuletide Snowball Massacre: A Ridiculously Festive Battle Royale for 5E into her campaign.

Unseasonal Festivities: Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022

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

Published by Harper Collins Publishers, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 moves on from the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021. It is not so much an introduction to Dungeons & Dragons itself, but rather an introduction to Faerûn and the Forgotten Realms, the principal setting for the current iteration of the roleplaying game. The slim volume begins with the first of several entries in the ‘Peoples of the Realm’ series. This is ‘Exploring Elves’, which highlights the various different types of Elves to be found in the Forgotten Realms, noting their special skills and key Classes, as well as some background and some trivia. Included here are the Drow and the Eladrin as well as the High Elves and the Wood Elves. Also mentioned here are the various types of Gnomes, Dwarves, and Halflings, the latter with the comment, “Overlook these diminutive folk at your own risk!”, which the entry and the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 promptly does by consigning all three peoples to a sidebar rather than their own entry in the ‘Peoples of the Realm’ series. It is continued with ‘Think Big’ which suggests with Goliaths, Firbolgs, Orcs, and more as other character options, refencing Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. ‘Plane-Touched’ does a similar thing with races such as the Tritons, Genasi, Tabaxi, and more.

The first of the two ‘Campaign Spotlight’ entries in the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 is on Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, the 2020 campaign published by Wizards of the Coast. This covers the campaign’s key features—its entry points, secrets, new rules, locations, and of course, stats for ‘Three Kobolds in a Trenchcoat’. None of it in any detail, but enough to intrigue the reader. Further, this ‘Campaign Spotlight’ is supported by other articles in the annual. The first of the ‘Across Faerûn’ entries looks at Icewind Dale, which of course is the setting for the campaign, and provides more details such as typical monsters—snowy owlbears and frost giants being the most obvious, along with a gorgeous map of the region. The theme of Faerûn and Icewind Dale even continues in ‘Beyond the Tabletop’, the series which looks at Dungeons & Dragons beyond it being just a roleplaying game. The first of these gives attention to Dark Alliance, the Dungeons & Dragons computer in which the Drow Ranger, Drizzt Do’Urden leads his companions into Icewind Dale in search of the magical shard, the Crenshinibon. Drizzt Do’Urden himself is given the spotlight in the next two articles. First in ‘Heroes & Villains’ which introduces him, his companions, and enemies, and second, in ‘Talking D&D: R.A. Salvatore’, an interview with the author of The Crystal Shard and its many sequels which feature Drizzt Do’Urden. Of course, much of this will already be familiar to fans of Dungeons & Dragons—as is the case for the whole of the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022—but from the ‘Across Faerûn’ entry on Icewind Dale through the spotlight on Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden to the spotlight on Drizzt Do’Urden and interview with his creator, there is a lovely sense of a theme or thread running through the initial handful of articles in Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 and it feels much more thought out.

Whilst ‘Explaining the Planes’ takes the reader beyond the Forgotten Realms to look at the Elemental Planes and the Outer Planes, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 quickly returns to ‘Across Faerûn’ and ‘The Feywild’ in particular. There is a connection between the two in that the Feywild is a reflection of the Prime Material Plane and also back to the ‘Exploring Elves’ article for Eladrin who come from the Feywild. However, ‘Beyond the Tabletop’ continues the journey away from the Elemental Planes and the Outer Planes by looking at the computer game, Baldur’s Gate III, which mentions Avernus, the first layer of the Nine Hells. The other connection to Baldur’s Gate is a two-page spread dedicated to Minsc (and Boo) in ‘Heroes & Villains’ (his counterpart in the annual, is the villain ‘Xanathar’, whilst if not the Forgotten Realms, but still in the annual, is ‘Vecna’), but the connected ‘Campaign Spotlight’ is Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus. This does as good a job as that devoted to Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden.

The ‘Bestiary’ first highlights ‘Common Foes’, so the lowly Kobold at Challenge Rating of 1/8 up to the Manitcore at Challenge Rating of 3, and then ‘Boss Fights’, which includes the Lich, the Tarrasque, and the Kraken, all with a Challenge Rating of twenty or more. ‘Oddities’ add a mix of the different and the weird, like the Gelatinous Cube, the Flumph, and the Modron. Dragons’, the last of these is devoted to iconic monsters and their minions.

There is very little about the play or rules of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition in Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022, especially in comparison to the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021. ‘Roll for Inspiration’ though focuses on advice and help. First with ‘Combat 101’, which explains the basics of that aspect of the game, whilst ‘Where To Start?’ looks at ways of starting a campaign for the Dungeon Master and ‘Learn From The Dungeon Masters’ gives advice from several Dungeon Masters on how to run Dungeons & Dragons. It is solid, if basic advice. The last entry in ‘Roll for Inspiration’ is ‘Creating NPCs’, which like the others contains solid, if basic advice.

‘Podcasts’ gives space to just the two long running series—How We Roll and Adventure Zone. The former again has a nice callback to Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, but both are given good introductions here. Again, just the two are covered, High Rollers and Acquisitions Incorporated, but ‘Live Streams’ reflects the move from the podcast as a means of presenting actual play to Twitch streams, from audio to visual. The look at the hobby comes up to date with ‘Find Your People’, which give two community groups—No More Damsels and Three Black Halflings—which work to build communities which are more inclusive and welcome greater representation in the hobby.

Elsewhere in Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022, ‘Where It Began: First Edition’ looks back at Dungeons & Dragons from 1974. It is a very basic examination, with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons given only a paragraph. ‘Classic Campaigns’ similarly looks at older scenarios, again in thumbnail fashion, but the tie into Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition is definitely highlighted here. ‘Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything’ looks at everything from character options, magic items, and spells, whilst ‘It Spells Trouble’ examines a variety of spells, from Magic Missile to Wish. Rounding out Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 is a quiz and a glossary.

Of course, Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 being a British annual, it is not without its puzzles. So there are mazes, word searches, spot the difference, and more. All themed around Dungeons & Dragons. The maze for example, has you attempt to escape from Count Strahd von Zarovich’s clutches, whilst ‘Volo’s (Scrambled) Guide to Monsters’ is an anagram puzzle.

Physically, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 is snappily presented. There is plenty of full colour artwork drawn from Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, and the writing is clear and kept short, so is an easy read for its intended audience. It would have been nice to seen a little more artwork from the earlier versions of the roleplaying where they are mentioned.

Over the years, there have been plenty of introductions to Dungeons & Dragons, some of them decent, some them of utterly pointless and useless, such as the Dungeon Survival Guide and the ‘What exactly were you thinking, Wizards of the Coast?!’ Wizards Presents: Races and Classes and Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters books that heralded the arrival of the Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. Fortunately, like the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021, its predecessor, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 is far superior to any of those.

The Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 is not so much an introduction to Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, as Faerûn and the Forgotten Realms. There is much less of a focus on the rules and mechanics in the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022, but in terms of background and setting is genuinely an interesting and informative read. To be fair, this is not a book or supplement that a dedicated player or Dungeon Master is going to need, or even want, to read. After all, much of this will be familiar to either. The Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 is very much a step on from Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021, and that does mean that some of the introductory elements of the roleplaying game as it is played have been lost, but still as something to receive at Christmas (or not) in your Christmas stocking (or not), Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2022 is a good introduction into Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, and especially, Faerûn and the Forgotten Realms.

Unseasonal Festivities: The Doom That Came to Christmas Town

Every year Goodman Games publishes a holiday-themed scenario. Some years it is for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, other years it is for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic. For 2020, the scenario is for the former rather than the latter. Dungeon Crawl Classics 2020 Holiday Module: The Doom That Came to Christmas Town is a Level 2 adventure, that is, it is designed for Player Characters of Second Level. Which means 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—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. Dungeon Crawl Classics 2020 Holiday Module: The Doom That Came to Christmas Town is not even a scenario which can be easily slotted into a campaign. This is due to two factors. First, it thoroughly embraces its Christmas theme and second, it is intended as a one-shot.

Dungeon Crawl Classics 2020 Holiday Module: The Doom That Came to Christmas Town takes place in The Frozen North, home to Christmas Town where Lord Claus and Mrs. Claus resides together, a Peppermint Mine, Christmas Tree Forest, and more. At the centre of Christmas Town, atop a majestic pine tree, sits the Yule-Light, casting its joyful and life-enhancing light over the small town and its inhabitants. Yet its radiant light, a symbol of goodwill and hope to all, has of late, waned, and in its dim glow, a gloom has fallen over Christmas Town, just on Christmas Eve. At the same time, a sickly-sweet wind has begun to blow from the north, and Lord Claus himself has been stricken. Elsewhere, there are rumours that the Abominable Snow Monster of The North has returned from beyond the Polar Wastes in search of food, and Lord Claus’ trusted champions—Yukon of Cornelius, Rudolph the Red, and the powerful dental-mancer, Hermey, have all gone missing. Yet these pale into significance given the possibility of the Yule-Light being extinguished and allowing evil seep into the world… 

As Lord Claus lies sick in his bed, he urges a band of doubty adventurers, including an Elf Toymaker, a Who-Ville Halfling, Fledgling Reindeer, Mrs. Claus, a Snowman, a Special Delivery Courier, and a Lamplighter, to go forth and look for his missing lieutenants, before warning them that the Grinch has awoken, and that perhaps the true spirit of Christmas may be found in his lair… Wherever that is? Inspired by classic Christmas stories like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town, and especially How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Dungeon Crawl Classics 2020 Holiday Module: The Doom That Came to Christmas Town comes with numerous maps, a puzzle or two, seven pre-generated Player Characters, and an eight-location sand-crawl. Initially, the Player Characters will have only a little idea as to which location to go to first, relying at first on what little knowledge they possess and rumours they can learn in Christmas Town, and then at each of the scenario eight locations. These include Christmas Tree Forest, the Isle of Misfits which is home to King Moonracer, a Peppermint Mine, the Winter Warlock’s Tower, and more. At most these, none of which run to more than a handful or two of entries, the Player Characters should be able to find not just clues, but also magical items which will help them elsewhere.

There is a duality to the tone of Dungeon Crawl Classics 2020 Holiday Module: The Doom That Came to Christmas Town. The most obvious is humorous and light-hearted, playing up the elements of traditional Christmas stories and especially How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, for this is very much an American Christmas. This is seen especially in the pre-generated Player Characters, which are Christmas-themed versions of traditional Dungeon Crawl Classics Classes. For example, Fireball the Reindeer is a Warrior who attacks with antlers and hooves, and has limited flight, and Mrs. Claus is actually a Cleric armed with a rolling pin and in addition to divine spells, can rustle up delectable dishes with ease. And of course, the choice of monsters drawn from Christmas stories are fairly humorous, as are some of the encounters, such as the Strange Metal Pole which the Player Characters are compelled to lick and have their tongues stuck which is not good for spellcasters). Conversely, the other side to Dungeon Crawl Classics 2020 Holiday Module: The Doom That Came to Christmas Town is fairly grim. Such as with an Abyssal Reindeer Demon armed with a crossbow capable of pecking out the eyes of his targets! Thankfully the grim bits counter the sugary sweet bits in the module.

Ultimately, the likelihood is that Dungeon Crawl Classics 2020 Holiday Module: The Doom That Came to Christmas Town will be completed in a single session—perhaps two at the very most. This can be done using two approaches. One would be to play through it like a typical sandbox adventure, primarily using brute force, and there is a lot of opportunity for that, but the other approach would be to play to the scenario’s Christmas theme, which when combined with good roleplaying will work in places. Similarly, the scenario’s puzzles, of which there are two, can be dealt with using either of these approaches. Both are fairly silly affairs and depending upon the play style of the group, may be accepted as is or considered to be just a little frustrating. That said, the scenario might have been improved with a third puzzle to really round it out a little—a trio of puzzles is more fitting than just a pair.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics 2020 Holiday Module: The Doom That Came to Christmas Town is decently done. The artwork is fun, but the maps are perhaps a little dark and a lighter look might have suited the tone of the scenario better.

Dungeon Crawl Classics 2020 Holiday Module: The Doom That Came to Christmas Town is a thematically fun one-off, working best when players and Judge alike embrace and play up to its themes. It is good for that end of year palette cleanser, a change of pace and tone between campaigns or breaks in campaigns.

Unseasonal Festivities: Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021

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

Published by Harper Collins Publishers, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021 opens with a history, done as a timeline, which runs from the Dungeons & Dragons of 1974 to the recent release of the Baldur’s Gate III and Dark Alliance computer games. It includes each of the roleplaying game’s various editions, and highlights their best features, plus notable highlights such as the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon and the estimated number of players. The ‘D&D Quick-Start Guide’ suggests the first steps that a prospective player take to get into the game, from choosing the party and deciding who would be Dungeon Master to grabbing pencil and paper and selecting a campaign. Then it is onto ‘Creating a Character’, which actually serves as an easier to grasp guide to the process, and actually better than that given in the Player’s Handbook. As you would expect, it neatly breaks the character sheet down and takes the reader through the process step-by-step—though of course, the reader will still need to refer to the full rules.

The would-be Dungeon Master receives a similar treatment, beginning with ‘Master Dungeon-Mastering’, looking at a possible next step the player might want to take after playing a few games of Dungeons & Dragons. This takes her from ‘Choosing your Campaign’ and ‘Setting the Scene’ through to ‘Planning Encounters’ and ‘Roleplaying’, and includes a quick guide to running combat. The one issue with this article is really the choice of illustration for when choosing the beginning campaign—Dungeons & Dragons Essentials rather than the Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set. There is nothing wrong with including the illustration of Dungeons & Dragons Essentials, but the Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set is the more obvious entry point. The next step for the Dungeon Master is ‘Tips for World-Building’ which poses her several questions should she want to begin creating her own setting, her own campaign world. Unsurprisingly, it is fairly basic, but it serves as a set of beginning pointers.

One of the best features about any new roleplaying game is an example of play since it showcases how the game is intended to be played and be played. ‘A Tale of a First Encounter’ is a lengthy, three-part example of play which is set in an inn where several adventurers come together to form a party before an unexpected showdown with a bunch of bandits. It weaves in and out of game play and table talk and ultimately shows how dangerous combat can be as well as giving some idea of how Dungeons & Dragons can be played. Unfortunately not set in a dungeon, it does however show it is very much a social game, a game played by a diversity of players. If ‘A Tale of a First Encounter’ shows how the game is played, two other articles showcase how Dungeons & Dragons can also be consumed. The first is ‘Spectator Mode’ which features the seven most well-known real-play live streams, with Critical Role at the top of course. The second is ‘Audiophile’, which does the same for podcasts. Although there are no links, but they point to another way in which a prospective player can learn how the game can be played and enjoyed if he cannot immediately begin playing, and so ease himself into Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition vicariously. ‘Beyond the Tabletop’ does a similar thing, but points towards some of the card games, computer games, and comics currently available for Dungeons & Dragons.

Once a player begins play, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021 suggests options to improve both his gaming experience and that of his fellow players. ‘Level Up Your Table’ gives a host of accessories that he can add, such as DM Screens, maps, miniatures, apps, and more. Similarly, ‘Adventurers League’ and ‘Extra Life’ point to how a player can take his Dungeons & Dragons away from home and into the gaming community itself. The former with regular events at his local games shop (and ‘Your Friendly Neighbourhood Game Store’ points to just a very few of the very many available, as well as giving a player an idea of what they look like), whilst the latter tells the player how the gaming he normally does for fun can mean a bit more by raising money for charity through playing Dungeons & Dragons, and is a worthy inclusion in the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021.

Much of the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021 can be divided into four strands, including ‘A Tale of a First Encounter’, that run throughout its pages. The first of these is ‘Xanathar’s Classes 101’, which provides an overview of each of the twelve Classes from the Player’s Handbook. Each profile states what a Class is good for, what Proficiencies and Special Skills it has, and why a player should select that particular Class and why he should avoid it. Thus a Bard is described as a jack-of-all-trades, has boosts to his Performance-based skills, and his special skill is Inspiration, used to boost the attacks and saving throws of his allies. Lastly, the descriptions suggest that a player chose the Bard if he wants a character who can perform, persuade, and strategise, but avoid if he instead wants to inflict lots of damage. The counterpart to this is ‘Folk of the Realms’ which does the same for the Player Character Races in the Forgotten Realms and thus the Player’s Handbook. ‘Adventures Across the Multiverse’ guides the reader round some of the most notable worlds and locations in Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Thus for ‘Adventures Across the Multiverse: Forgotten Realms’ it identifies Icewind Dale, Neverwinter, and the Lost Mine of Phandelver, whilst Waterdeep is linked to the campaign, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Baldur’s Gate to Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus, and Chult to Tomb of Annihilation. The series does the same for Ravenloft and Eberron, although there are very few actual campaigns and supplements associated with them for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition in comparison to the Forgotten Realms. Later on though, the ‘Adventure Collection’ highlights all of the releases and campaigns for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition to date.

If ‘Xanathar’s Classes 101’ showcases the Classes of Dungeons & Dragons, then ‘Volo’s [Abridged] Guide to…’ does the same for its monsters. It covers the classics, including Rakshasa, Mimics, Wights, Liches, Beholder, and Duergar, telling the reader what they look like, what their favoured attacks are, how to defeat them, and other pertinent facts. This is a decent enough strand, but perhaps the choice of monsters is not as interesting as it could have been, but with so many to choose from…

Scattered throughout the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021 is a handful of puzzles and games. This includes ‘Scrambled Spells’, anagrams of spells taken from Player’s Handbook, Sudukos for both spells and Player Character details, a treasure hunt set on the Sword Coast of the Forgotten Realms; a wordsearch of Dungeons & Dragons monsters, a spot the difference puzzle, a maze, and more. They are clearly designed for a younger audience—as is the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021—but do show whatever theme you apply to them, the puzzles themselves have hardly changed, if at all, in decades.

Physically, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021 is snappily presented. There is plenty of full colour artwork drawn from Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, and the writing is clear and kept short, so is an easy read for its intended audience. One nice touch is the inclusion of photographs of game shops and people playing, showing that the game has a broader appeal than just at the potential player’s table and that they are having fun at the table. In comparison to the annuals past, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021 is slim, but still packs a lot into its pages.

Unfortunately, the two elements that are missing from the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021 are those of the very title of the roleplaying game itself—no dungeons and no dragons. As inclusive and as well written and as well presented as the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021 actually is, that really is a major omission.

Over the years, there have been plenty of introductions to Dungeons & Dragons, some of them decent, some them of utterly pointless and useless, such as the Dungeon Survival Guide and the ‘What exactly were you thinking, Wizards of the Coast?!’ Wizards Presents: Races and Classes and Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters books that heralded the arrival of the Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. Fortunately, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021 is far superior to any of those.

The Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021 is genuinely an interesting and informative read. To be fair, this is not a book or supplement that a dedicated player or Dungeon Master is going to need, or even want, to read. After all, much of this will be familiar to him or her. However, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021 provides a good introduction to the roleplaying game, especially as a next step after reading the Dungeons & Dragons Young Adventurer’s Guides series and playing the Endless Quest series. It provides a broader overview than either of those two series and better showcases the next steps that a player and a Dungeon Master take should he or she want to start playing. And like all Christmas annuals, the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021 is a good gift to the younger reader, especially one with an interest in fantasy and games, but better than those Christmas annuals of old, for there is much, much more fun to be had beyond the pages of the Dungeons & Dragons Annual 2021.

Reviews from R'lyeh Post-Christmas Dozen 2017

Since 2001, Reviews from R’lyeh have contributed to a series of Christmas lists at Ogrecave.com—and at RPGaction before that, suggesting not necessarily the best board and roleplaying games of the preceding year, but the titles from the last twelve months that you might like to receive and give. Continuing the break with tradition—in that the following is just the one list and in that for reasons beyond its control, OgreCave.com is not running its own lists—Reviews from R’lyeh would once again like present its own list. Further, as is also traditional, Reviews from R’lyeh has not devolved into the need to cast about ‘Baleful Blandishments’ to all concerned or otherwise based upon the arbitrary organisation of days. So as Reviews from R’lyeh presents its annual (Post-)Christmas Dozen, I can only hope that the following list includes one of your favourites, or even better still, includes a game that you did not have and someone was happy to hide in gaudy paper and place under that dead tree for you. If not, then this is a list of what would have been good under that tree.

—oOo—

Starfinder Roleplaying Game
(Paizo) $59.99/£49.99
The biggest roleplaying game of GenCon 50 and the biggest roleplaying game of the year almost did not make the list because for half of the year it has been out of print! Back in print, Starfinder is the sequel to highly popular fantasy roleplaying game, Pathfinder. It pushes the setting of Golarian—the campaign world for Pathfinder—thousands of years into the future and into space, but in the process, loses the world of Golarion and all memory of how it was lost… Now as citizens of the Pact Worlds, the player characters can delve into mysteries—ancient and modern, explore new worlds, fight ancient threats from deep space, and more. The setting combines technology and magic, mixes old Races with new, and more in setting that is much more than just Dungeons & Dragons style roleplaying in space.

Century Spice Road
(Plan B Games) $39.99/£34.99
Simple and elegant mechanics are at the heart of Century Spice Road, the first in the trilogy of the Spice Road themed board games from Plan B Games. Players take the role of merchants dealing in spices, trading them up and down in order to make the right sales which will them the most monies (or Victory Points). This is done by playing cards and each player only has a limited few. Further, a player can only do one action per turn—play a card, add a new card to his hand, purchase a Victory Point card, or refresh his hand of cards. Essentially, Century Spice Road is a very slow deck building game, but with limited choices and actions it plays quickly and easily—for two players as well as five and for both family gamers and hobby board gamers too.

Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne
(The Tékumel Foundation) $38.95/£28.95
If you are going to go Old School, then really go Old School with this reprint of the second roleplaying game to be published. The linguistic and cultural creation of Professor M.A.R. Barker, this is as arcane and as baroque a roleplaying game as you would ever want, but at the same time it introduces players and referees to the strange and fascinating world of Tékumel. This is a science fantasy world based not on traditional Western fantasy and history, but on that of Meso-America, India, South-East Asia, and Egypt. This gives the roleplaying game a very different feel and flavour, unlike any other setting you can possibly imagine. Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne is genuinely unique in comparison to other roleplaying games, as much a ground-breaking design in its day as Dungeons & Dragons was the year before. If you are ‘fresh off the boat’ and new to Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne, this is the perfect place to start.

The Forest Dragon: A Card Adventure Game
(The Forest Dragon) $18.99/£14.50
From one year to the next, there are more and more board games released such that it is almost impossible to keep up with the exceptional ones, let alone the merely good ones. So you probably missed The Forest Dragon, a simple fantasy card game designed and drawn by a nine year old boy named Rory (plus illustrations from his younger brother, Ben). It is a game of testing your luck as you explore the forest, searching for treasure, and hoping to avoid any of the monsters that make the forest their home—including the dreaded Forest Dragon! Will you pick up Sticks or Berries, Golden Coins or the Crystal Compass, a Bow or a Friend, or encounter monster like the Sinister Cloaked Gentleman or the Cursed Crocodile Knight. If you do, do you have something in your backpack to face them bravely or will they send you fleeing from the forest, dropping everything you picked up? The Forest Dragon is a thoroughly simple, but thoroughly charming game that can be used to tell the story of your forest adventures as you play.

Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game
(Pugsteady/Onyx Path Publishing) $49.99/£37.99
The first of the anthropomorphic games on this year’s list is Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game, a Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying game set in a post-apocalypse fantasy world in which Man has long disappeared and the Dogs have inherited the Earth. This is fantasy with a canine cast in which the players take the roles of good Dogs, serving the Kingdom of Pugmire to make it and the world a better place, not just for all Dogs, but for Man returns, even if that means dealing with rogue members of the pack, the Cats of the Monarchies of Mau, and banditry of the Badgers and their brethren. This is a light implementation of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition which when combined with an engaging setting and a positive outlook makes Pugmire suitable for audiences of all ages and a good introductory roleplaying game. 

The Two-Headed Serpent: An Epic Action-Packed and Globe-Spanning Campaign for Pulp Cthulhu
(Chaosium, Inc.) $44.95/£33.99
The Two-Headed Serpent takes the classic Call of Cthulhu campaign of globe-trotting Lovecraftian investigative horror and turns it all the way up into the 1930s for a campaign of globe-trotting, fist-swinging, hipflask swigging action and horror when men were real men, women were real women, fiends were real fiendish, and scientists were men (and women) of Science!. This is the first campaign for the long-awaited Pulp Cthulhu: Two-Fisted Action and Adventure Against the Mythos and it makes no bones about putting the investigators right into the action and doing so for a Mythos-busting organisation. It is a radical set-up which will see the players thrill as their heroes uncover conspiracies, get involved in organised crime, encounter the dark secrets of a benevolent preacher, find themselves dodging dinosaurs deep in the jungle, sneaking into volcano lairs, experimenting with ancient advanced technology, engaging in a MacGuffin hunt in the ‘City of Joy’, possibly undergoing a transformative experience, racing across an old, old continent to save the world, and of course, cheating certain death.

Veins of the Earth
(Lamentations of the Flame Princess) $64.99/£49.99
Take your fantasy campaign into the darkest of realms where the Sun has never shone, where light is a rarity, where food and water are resources to be fought over, and where civilisations do not think like any of those to be found on the surface. Since 1978 and D1-2, Descent Into the Depths of the Earth, there has always been an Underdark, an underworld of tunnels and caverns far below the ordinary dungeon, leading down, deeper and down… With Veins of the Earth, that world, whether an ‘Underdark’, a dream world, a dimension of the dark, the Referee is given everything he needs to create as alien and as strange a world as he and his players have never imagined. Races are reimagined, rules cover the dangers of both exploration and survival in the near perpetual dark, a bestiary of creatures scratches its way into the light, a hundred caves are described as well as a whole cave system, and more… The Veins of the Earth are dark indeed.

Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate
(Avalon Hill/Wizards of the Coast) $49.99/£44.99
So in Betrayal in the House on the Hill, you explored the halls, rooms, and cellars of a haunted house, never knowing what you might encounter and never knowing if one of your number might betray you, forcing you to confront both the horrors and the person who betrayed you! Now that concept comes to Baldur’s Gate, the city in the Dungeons & Dragons setting of the Forgotten Realms. You are stalwart adventurers in the city, a city upon which Bhaal, god of assassination, murder, and violence has unleashed monster after monster. It is up to you to search the buildings, alleys, and catacombs of the city to put a stop to this infestation, but beware, one of your number might stab you in the back! Exactly why and how varies from game to game, but Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate includes fifty different situations or ‘haunts’ so that it can be played again and again. Of course, since this Dungeons & Dragons, always remember to never split the party—unless of course you are the betrayer. In which case, split the party and kill them!

Alas Vegas: Flashbacks, Blackjack and Payback
(Magnum Opus Press/Spaaace) $39.99/£44.99
One part a set of game mechanics built around the recovery of memory and character through flashbacks, one part a campaign to discover who you are waking up in a shallow grave outside of Vegas, Alas Vegas is a storytelling game which requires four Game Masters, the rules of Blackjack, and a Tarot deck. It is also a campaign in four distinct acts and ruminations upon gambling, grifting, Tarot cards, cocktails, and more. Plus, it includes three other campaigns involving memory loss and repentant paladins, time travel, and time travel as well as game about murdering Bugsy Siegel. Alas Vegas is a surprisingly light book, but packs a lot into its pages—and a very memorable lot it is too.

Cthulhu City
(Pelgrane Press) $34.95/£26.95
There can be no doubt that the Mythos has gained a tentacle-hold in the town of Arkham, the heart of Lovecraft Country, but what if it fell to the worshippers of the Mythos, the cults and covens whose lineages go all the way back to the Colonial Era and beyond…? Some when in the future or perhaps somewhere in dreaming, the greater Arkham conurbation is the USA’s newest and darkest metropolis. As the cults manoeuvre their way to a great ceremony that none of them can agree on, the populations of Arkham, Dunwich, Kingsport, and dozen or so former towns cower under the alien influence upon their lives. Yet they have learned to look away, to give mundane meaning to the madness that lurks just a glance away. Can the investigators determine the true nature of Great Arkham? Dare they look beyond the façade of the desperate ordinariness? Will they be able to restore a Lovecraft Country fractured by the Mythos in this dark and refreshingly different spin on Lovecraftian investigative horror?

Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game
(River Horse Games) $34.99/£24.99
The other anthropomorphic roleplaying game on this list is based on My Little Pony—popular with girls and bronies alike. In Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game you do not play the characters from My Little Pony—Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Spike the Dragon, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and so on—but create your own and go on adventures just like they do. The book is bright and colourful, the rules easy to grasp, and the included adventure is fun. Even better, the rules are easy to teach and encourage acts of friendship, such that an experienced roleplayer can pick this up, read it through, understand the rules, and sit down to run it with those new to roleplaying or new to My Little Pony. Friendship is never more magic than with Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game.

Tales from the Loop – Roleplaying in the '80s That Never Was
(Modiphius Entertainment) $39.99/£34.99
To describe Tales from the Loop as the Stranger Things roleplaying game would be far from accurate, but it at least would acknowledge the television series’ influence. This roleplaying game of scientific investigative and emotional horror is set firmly in the 1980s with the players as young teenagers exploring the mysteries their surrounding landscapes dominated by a high energy research facility—The Loop—and its associated technology, which is inspired by the stunning artwork of Simon Stålenhag. The kids also have mundane lives, not nearly as fun, but just as difficult as their adventures and just as emotionally wrought, nicely counterbalancing the weirdness of those adventures. Both fantastic and mundane, Tales from the Loop is a genuinely engaging storytelling roleplaying game which will be all the more poignant if you were a teenager in the 1980s. 

—oOo—

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay First Edition - Shadows Over Bögenhafen The Enemy Within Part 1
(Cubicle Seven Entertainment) $9.99/£7.40
Fans of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay got some great news in 2017. First, Grim & Perilous published ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG, the bloodier, grimmer and grittier retroclone of the classic tabletop role-playing game. Second, Cubicle Seven Entertainment not only announced the forthcoming publication of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition and Warhammer Age of Sigmar Roleplaying Game, the publisher also began to bring back the first edition books in PDF. There is no better place to start than Shadows Over Bögenhafen, the first part of The Enemy Within campaign, one of the best fantasy campaigns ever written. An epic confrontation against a demonic conspiracy starts here. This is Warhammer adventuring at its finest—grim, gritty, blood-spattered, and covered in shit (what, you did not think that was mud, did you?) and if one old book released anew in PDF deserved to be on any list, it is Shadows Over Bögenhafen.