[Fanzine Focus XLIV] High Passage Number Two

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showcased how another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. As new fanzines have appeared, there has been an interest in the fanzines of the past, and as that interest has grown, they have become highly collectible, and consequently more difficult to obtain and write about. However, in writing about them, the reader should be aware that these fanzines were written and published between thirty and forty years ago, typically by roleplayers in their teens and twenties. What this means is that sometimes the language and terminology used reflects this and though the language and terminology is not socially acceptable today, that use should not be held against the authors and publishers unduly.

High Passage Number Two was published by the High Passage Group in 1981, providing content for Classic Traveller published by Game Designers’ Workshop. Its content focuses on the Old Expanses sector of the Third Imperium between Terran and Vilani space. Where the first issue was written by fans and that showed in its quality, the second issue displays a marked improvement in quality, both in terms of the writing and the presentation. Some of this is reflected in the increase in price ($3.50 to $4.50), but what it was really due was the involvement of the FASA Corporation which was now publishing the fanzine. This gave the editors access to the artwork of William H. Keith Jr. and the layout skills available at FASA..

The featured content in High Passage Issue Number Two is ‘FEATURE Adventure: The Cobra Conspiracy’. The Player Characters are pirates, the crew of the corsair, Iron Hand, operating out of Ehart in the So Skire subsector of The Old Expanses sector. A representative from the Solomani rebels hires the Iron Hand and its crew to break into the DDD&S test facilities on Tama in the So Skire subsector and steal the FZ-72 Cobra, the new high performance fighter being tested for the Imperial Navy. Security is relatively light given the high incidence of pirate activity across the subsector, but the facility has hired mercenaries to beef up security.

This is the set-up to what is effectively a ‘snatch & grab’ mission and it is very fully supported. There is a full set of stats for the pirate crew of the Iron Hand and the equipment in their ship’s locker, as well as details of the fighter and the test facility. This is quite large and has a runway, fuel storage depot, heliport, and main complex, all separate. All four areas are mapped and some forty personnel are given stats and armament as needed. The duty rooster is accompanied by a daily schedule which indicates where each individual will be at any one time.

There are rumours for the subsector, some of them linked to the I.S.C.V. King Richard deck plans and Action Aboard: Adventures on the King Richard supplement from the FASA Corporation. Many also express anti-Imperial sentiment. There are more rumours that are specific to Tama, the site of the testing facilities. In addition, the Library Data aboard the Iron Hand will inform the Player Characters about the AK Mercenary Corporation, which has the contract at the DDD&S test facilities, as well as Diversified Dynamics Design and Shipyards (the first time that the name for DDD&S is explained), and more. In fact, the Library Data is good for The Expanses sector in general.

The advice for the Game Master covers the theft of the fighter and both refuelling it and launching it and how the staff at the facility will react, plus a rough breakdown of how the heist may play out. The Player Characters’ corsair may run into opposition on the run out from Tama. There are options too, for adding a twist or two and what might happen next if the scenario is being run as part of a campaign or the start of one. To run the adventure, the Game Master and her players require Basic Traveller, Book 4: Mercenary, and probably Book 5: High Guard. If the players want to create their own pirates, then Supplement 4: Citizens of the Imperium will be useful. Supplement 7: Gunboats & Traders will provide starship encounter tables.

‘The Cobra Conspiracy’ is a superbly detailed scenario, quite technical in its approach, but there are opportunities for roleplaying when researching the facilities and dealing with rumours on Tama in the lead up to the theft attempt. The scenario feels influenced by the technothriller novel Firefox, published in 1977 (and subsequently made into a film with Clint Eastwood in 1982), and that is no bad thing.

Further support for ‘The Cobra Conspiracy’ as well as play beyond or any campaign involving pirates, comes in the form of ‘STARSHIPFILES: Iron Fist Class Pirate Corsair’. This the model that the Player Characters will crew in the scenario and is a four hundred tonne design created using Traveller Book 2: Starships and based on the description given in the Pirate occupation in Supplement 4: Citizens of the Imperium. The design has three turrets each with three beam lasers, a cargo deck with doors large to admit a one hundred tonne vessel, and variable identification features. It includes deck plans too. The ‘Grav APC’ and the ‘AH-15 Aggressor Attack Helicopter’, both of which appear in the scenario, are detailed in ‘In Transit’.

The ‘Special Feature’ for the issue is the ‘Marc Miller Interview’. Conducted by Craig Johnson, it covers Miller’s background, gaming and design experience, the origins and influences of Traveller. At four pages long it feels lengthy and detailed, but is not complete, the second part coming in the next issue. Otherwise, a very good read, informative and interesting. ‘The Armoury’ provides illustrations for ‘Book 4 Small Arms’ or rather for Book 4: Mercenary, but is really filler. The ‘Star Atlas’ returns to the location for the scenario with a breakdown of the data for and map of the ‘SO SKIRE Subsector’.

Physically, High Passage Number Two is very nicely presented. The artwork is excellent and the cartography is good. The issue is so good in terms of presentation that is more akin to an actual supplement for Traveller.

High Passage Number One was a good first issue, but High Passage Number Two is a really good issue. Its scenario is fantastically well supported and much of its content can be used beyond the events of the scenario, whilst the interview is good enough to want to read part two. High Passage Number Two is simply excellent support for Traveller.

[Free RPG Day 2026] Rescue on Raxil

Now in its nineteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2026 took place on Saturday, June 27th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Unfortunately, due to vagaries of International Customs, Free RPG Day in the UK did not take place until Saturday, 22nd August.

This review is possible due to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham.

—oOo—

Since its original publication in 2017, titles for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game—the Science-Fiction/Science Fantasy role-playing game published by Paizo Publishing—have been a regular feature of Free RPG Day. Free RPG Day 2026 is no exception, but this year, the scenario is for Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Second Edition. This is Rescue on Raxil, a short scenario for five Third Level Player Characters. Its plot and set-up are simple. Raxil is a peaceful, fertile world with a delicate ecology, which is suddenly threatened by the arrival of a clandestine expedition from Absolute Zero, an augmentation research group with little regard for both the effect of their research on the environment and the ethics when it comes to its experiments, and even worse secret backers, Frozen Trove! Despite the best attempts of Absolute Zero, word has got out about its operations and contact has been made off world with the mystical protectors known as the Xenowardens. They have dispatched a team of operatives to land on Raxil, get as close to the Absolute Zero laboratory as possible, and then shut its operations down as well as gathering proof of the connection between Absolute Zero and Frozen Trove.

The scenario is short and so throws the Player Characters into the action in the first of three scenes. They are dropped deep in the forest near the Absolute Zero where they suddenly see two strange creatures. These are Dracotoads, the first signs of Absolute Zero’s activities, two toads spliced with modified dragon glands. The Player Characters can fight them, but two of them have Wildwise Grafts which allows them to talk to animals, so they can use other means to get past the Dracotoads. They can do the same with the next encounter too. The scenario will climax in the laboratory with Player Characters confronting the leader of the Absolute Zero expedition, Feskagazar, a non-binary dragonkin genetic scientist. This is a nicely staged affair with the Player Characters needing to decide whether they want to fight Feskagazar or save the research data they have set to delete.

Rescue on Raxil includes five pre-generated Player Characters. They consist of an Elf Envoy, a Skittermander Witchwarper, a Raxilite Mystic, a Ryphorian Operative, and a Dragonkin Solarian. All are Third Level and all are given a two-page spread which includes a background, advice on playing the character in and out of combat, and relationship to the other Player Characters. Besides the Starfinder Player Core, the scenario also makes use of the Starfinder Galaxy Guide and Starfinder Galactic Ancestries. Maps of the two locations in the scenario are placed inside the front and back cover.

Physically, Rescue on Raxil is as professionally presented as you would expect for Paizo, Inc. It is in full colour, the art and cartography are excellent, and the adventure is well written.

Rescue on Raxil is a straightforward Science Fiction adventure. In fact, too straightforward. Even simplistic. Two of the encounters can be solved by talking and it ends with a big fight at the end. There is not enough variety in the game play or the challenges and it could have done with another encounter to give it some variety and perhaps a little less in the way of character backgrounds for what is a short adventure. Rescue on Raxil is as professional a product as you would expect from Paizo Publishing, but just too short and lacking variety to make it a good one-shot or demonstration scenario.

Grey City Future

With its near future setting of a San Franciso ravaged by climate change and protected from the sea by seawalls, the bulk of its population having moved off-world  in ‘The Scramble for Stars’ to start again on the megacorporate-sponsored colonies, and the use of Synths or biological androids as a pliable workforce in their stead, Carbon 2185: A Cyberpunk RPG feels very much inspired by Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049. Published two years after the latter film by British publisher, Dragon Turtle Games, Ltd., Carbon 2185: A Cyberpunk RPG is also noticeable for the fact that its mechanics are derived from those used for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Although San Francisco is the default city setting in Carbon 2185 and the one detailed in the core rulebook, there are other cities around the world. The cities of London, Manhattan, and Tokyo are detailed in the Carbon 2185 | Cities Sourcebook, mapping out their glittering highlights and grungy lowlifes, whilst Berlin 2185 explores what could be a brighter future.

The Berlin of Berlin 2185 is different to other cities of the late twenty-second century. Whilst their response to environmental collapse has been to cede control to the corporations and slide into a cyberpunk dystopia, the Berlin Mandate Group, at the direction and donations of the Philanthropist has instead sought to share the city’s wealth. To use to protect the city, preserving the old buildings for prosperity whilst constructing more sustainable ones; to introduce a Universal Income and eliminate homelessness; and to establish a drone-driven energy dome over the city, protecting its citizenry, flora, and fauna from the worst effects of UV radiation and other contaminants—effectively, cutting edge weather control. Free from corporate control and capitalist drives, Berlin has become both a scientific and technological paradise and powerhouse.

Another big difference between Berlin and the other major cities of the world is the limited presence of the big corporations—Tusk in particular. The anti-corporate attitude is not just Berlin Mandate Group policy, but deeply woven into Berlin society. In particular, its Punk scene, heavily influenced by the Punk scene in London, but given a German twist in the form of NuWave Punk. A popular slogan of the Berlin Punk movement is, “Keine Unternehmen mehr, keine Lügen mehr!” or “No more Corporations, no more lies!”. The music and associated underground scene are nicely detailed, noting the degree of crossover between London and Berlin whilst emphasising the differences, that it is more accepting of LGBTQA+ members and LGBTQA+ bands as the ‘Gay Capital of Europe’, and that the authorities in the city have a grater tolerance towards the scene than might be found in other cities.

In general Cyberpunk terms, the description of Berlin amounts to a paradise. It is well organised and divided along need, not greed, the roads are uniform, the public transport system non-obtrusive, there are actual trees growing in the city, and at night, one can see the see the stars—unlike any other city in 2185. So where then are the tensions that will bring the Player Characters—or Cyberpunks as they are known—to Berlin and help the Game Master create plots and stories for her campaign. Obviously, one scale there may be tensions one band and another in the city’s punk scene, but on another, the corporations, with their limited presence in the city, would like to know the secrets of Berlin Mandate Group and how the city is run so effectively, let alone steal the flora of the city found nowhere else quite so obviously. For the most part there are jobs that most of the roles in the city legitimately. Docs are in high demand in the city’s medical sector, whether in emergency response teams operating in the city or beyond it or in medical research; Enforcers can find work as bodyguards, and even do clandestine work for the Berlin Mandate Group; Hackers can find work protecting from net-based and Sphere-based corporate intrusion; and the net-based and the Berlin Mandate Group might even employ a Scoundrel.

Some of these tasks are reflected in the new character options included in Berlin 2185. They include a Public Enforcement Officer highly trained in de-escalation and non-lethal resolution, but also heavily scrutinised  by their precincts and the Berlin Mandate Group for wrongful use of violence, and then Media Officer, Scientist, and Agent for the Berlin Mandate Group. The Media Officer will be covering up details as well as presenting them to the press; the Scientist will have access to some of the most advanced technology on the planet; and the Agent does the dirty work that the Media Officer for the Berlin Mandate Group avoids doing. The others include the Eco-Punk Ganger—an environmentalist punk rocker, Drone Operator—much in demand in the skies above Berlin, Media Personality, and Construction Engineer. There is also a discussion of Origins for Cyberpunks appropriate to Berlin, of which Korporate Kids and Badlanders are rare and High Flyers and Sleekers uncommon. The most common are Regular Joes and Gutter Punks.

The various sectors of the city are also described, including a few notable locations, the feel of the place, what food and drink options are available, and what secrets are hidden there. This is followed by a table of encounters. For example, the feel of the Science Park is dominated by the smell of actual live plants and clean water in the fountains, there are vending machines from the city ubiquitous currywurst can be purchased, but few restaurants, and the area is home to Research & Development Labs, Tech Facilities, and the Berlin Mandate Group’s Science Division, as well as the Foresters Houses. The latter is where the city’s foresters live, their job to protect the city’s flora—with prejudice. The secrets here include the Berlin Mandate Group’s complex here, hidden by trees, and rumours of access to an old botanical garden from before Berlin was built over. Compare that to the Construction Sector with its Drone Stations, Barge Launches which launch the huge vessels that do the heavy construction across the site, often deploying massive 3D printers to manufacture on site whole buildings and parts of buildings, and the Observation Watches from their launch can be safely viewed. Its atmosphere is of low hum from all of the devices across the vast maintenance and construction complexes, the air filled with drones and transports. Food and drink are available via vending machines or at canteens, whilst alcohol is forbidden. There is a secret construction project going on here, one that requires printers and factories to operate day and night. All of the nine sectors come with a set of encounters that serve as prompts for the Game Master to develop.

Berlin 2185 does include a section on the Undercity, the dark underbelly of what is old and new Berlin in 2185. Out of the old buildings and tunnels formed through collapse and being built over, long poisoned and irradiated by war and pollution, a nascent organisation called the Cabal is trying to establish itself in the city above. It has corporate connections, but mostly consists of bully-boy asshole white-supremacist fanatics. The Undercity is the Cabal’s territory, but it is home to mutated plants and animals and former humans. (The supplement suggests appropriate monsters from Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition.) It is quite a short section in comparison to the descriptions of the sectors in the upper city and the city as a whole. Plus, as  really only the main antagonist in Berlin 2185, it does lack advice on how to use it and on how to interface its plans with the upper world, as well as possible hooks that the Game Master could develop into something playable. It leaves the Game Master to handle that.

Another issue with Berlin 2185 is its treatment of its secrets. Some it does tell the Game Master what they are and others not. Whilst the main two threaten to change the nature of Carbon 2185 towards a more Science Fiction genre rather than a Cyberpunk one. It is never quite explicitly explained what they and certainly the ramifications of their discovery are never explored. This would not be so much of a problem if Berlin was not so much of paradise and had a bit more conflict that the Game Master could work from.

Physically, Berlin 2185 is well presented with plenty of artwork to get across the idea that Berlin is a radically different, all but utopian city comparison to the others of Carbon 2185. Sadly, this leaves less room to depict the seamier side of the city where the Cyberpunks are likely to congregate. There is no map either and the layout is untidy.

Berlin 2185 presents something radically different for Carbon 2185. A city with a positive outlook and a sense of hope. The result is engaging, even fascinating in comparison to the other cities in this future, but it does leave the Game Master with a lot of work to develop content and story lines given the lack of conflict in Berlin. There is possibility in the well done section on Punk and the underground music scene, but the remainder feels as if the content could have been developed a bit more, made that bit more engaging. Berlin 2185 is a welcome addition to the Carbon 218 setting, but the Game Master is going to work harder to bring more than its utopia to life and tell interesting stories.

Solitaire: Ion Heart – Pilot’s Handbook

It is fifteen hundred years since the Astral Union was formed and sixty-five years since the Emergence Catastrophe occurred. Nephilim Strand Fleets emerged from the Galactic East and for a decade the Emergence War was waged across the galaxy. Over five decades have passed since and signs of the conflict can be found only almost every planet and in the spaces between. Remnants of the original invasion force, as well as individual Nephilim, can still be found lurking at the furthest reaches of the spatial translation Snap Rifts that bind the planetary systems of the Astral Union together. Bandits and pirates are a threat still, as are corporations running rogue operations. One icon of the war that can still be seen today is the Mech. Before the war, it had been designed as an industrial machine for use in construction and mining, and later developed as a combat vehicle, but the Mech rose to prominence during the defence of the Astral Union. Ion Core technology harnessed the latent psionic ability of all sentient beings using advanced A.I. systems to create a Sync-Bond between a mech and its user, enhancing the precision and dexterity of the Mech and enabling the Mech itself to develop a personality of its own and operate independently, but still linked to its Pilot. Today, Mechs are seen far and wide across the Astral Union, the bond between Pilot and Mech celebrated as if they were a knight and the Mech his steed of old. Together, they adventure and explore, help and hinder, protect and perform, often helping where they can, like itinerant, if hyper-armed, ronin of old.

This is the set-up for Ion Heart: Solo Mech Exploration RPG – Pilot’s Handbook. It is a solo journalling game published by Parable Games, best known for the horror roleplaying game, Shiver – Role-playing Tales in the Strange & the Unknown. In the roleplaying game, the player will take the roles of both Pilot and Mech, who together explore a universe ravaged by war and now recovering, growing together and strengthening their bond. The roleplaying game provides prompts that will drive the story of their adventures that the player will record in short mission logs. These missions typically take the form of an ‘Exploration Loop’—arriving on a planet, discovering a settlement, encountering a Story Circuit, and engaging in combat and travel encounters, as necessary. A Story Circuit is a narrative arc consisting of six parts. The player needs to play through a minimum of three of these before his Pilot and Mech can play out the finale of the Story Circuit, and so complete its narrative before moving. The Story Circuit is pre-written, but the rest is created at the beginning of each loop. To play, Ion Heart: Solo Mech Exploration RPG needs nothing more than some six-sided dice and a means to record a journal.

Ion Heart: Solo Mech Exploration RPG – Pilot’s Handbook includes some background to the setting really intended to provide flavour and detail, rather than mechanical support. This includes the history of the Astral Union, its organisations and what ordinary life is like, an explanation of the Emergent War and who the Nephilim are, and a timeline. Surprisingly, this also includes the various species which a player can chose from. These include Apollonians or humans from the Apollo-Theta system, the reptilian Varziss of the Varziss Triarchy, the bear-like Urvons of the League of Urvo, the winged and nocturnal bat-like Chiros of Chiros Coalition, the centaur-like Kirvae of the Kirvaen Prefecture, and the cat-like Mo’nau of the Mo’nau Republic. In addition to selecting one of these species during character creation, all of this material can be drawn upon when a player is recording in his journal.

The character creation is for both the Pilot and the Mech. The Pilot is defined by Pilot Body and Pilot Presence, whilst Mech is defined by Mech Brawn and Mech Reflex. Pilot Body is his physical capability and toughness, whilst Pilot Presence is his mental fortitude and reasoning skills. Mech Brawn is the Mech’s strength and toughness, whilst Mech Reflex is his speed and agility. All of these start at zero, but are first modified by the Pilot’s Temperament and the Mech’s Weight Class. The Pilot has an Origin—one of the species listed above, a Pilot Goal such as ‘Adventure Forth’, ‘Escape Past’, and ‘Fulfil Destiny’, and Pilot Temperament, which can be ‘Outgoing’, ‘Reflective’, ‘Analytical’, ‘Intuitive’, ‘Mercurial’, or ‘Rigid’. Each of these provide a benefit. For example, ‘Reflective’ means that the Pilot prefers to keep himself and thinks carefully before committing to anything, which grants ‘+3 Max. Mech Shielding’ and ‘+1 Pilot Body’, whilst ‘Intuitive’ means that the Pilot is empathetic, has a poet’s soul, and makes judgements based on what he feels to be right, and that allows his player can ‘Re-roll two failed Pilot Presence Checks per day.’

Creating or building a Mech is slightly—but only slightly—more complex. The Mech has a Class that can either be Light, Medium, or Heavy. This determines whether it favours speed, durability, and powerful weapons, or a balance between the two, and thus its starting values for Mech Shielding and Brawn and Reflex modifiers. Each Mech has a Ranged Weapons System, Melee Weapons System, and an Auxiliary System, which will also help in combat. Since the end of the war with the Nephilim, all Mechs have been reconfigured or designed to have a civilian Specialisation and thus the capacity to be useful out of combat. This can be ‘Shepherd’, ‘Harvester’, or ‘Bridgebuilder’, for example. All of this—for both Pilot and Mech—can rolled for or chosen by the player. Lastly, there is the Ion Core Sync Bond, which represents the connection between the Pilot and his Mech, and in play, determines how many Heroic Actions or Ion Core engagements that can be conducted per day.

Pilot Name: Makwa

Pilot Origin: Urvon

Pilot Temperament: Analytical (+1 to hit in first Ranged Step of any combat)

Pilot Goal: Save Others

Pilot Presence 0 Pilot Body 0

Mech

Origin: Working Relationship

Weight: Heavy

Ion Core Sync Bond 2

Mech Shielding 46

Battle Scars: 0

Mech Brawn +1

Mech Reflex -1

Attacks: 3

Weapons: Scattergun (Damage: 4+D6) [Buckshot: For every hit with this weapon, make an extra free attack with it]; Forge Hammer (Damage: 6+D6) [Crushing Smite: The Meteorite Thunderstrike Ion Core does an additional +4 damage]

Auxiliary system: TN Field Projector

Mech Specialisation: Repair & Rescue

Mech Quirks: 0

Mechanically, Ion Heart is simple. When a player wants either his Pilot or his Mech to succeed, he rolls a single six-sided die and rolls of four or more means the attempt is successful. A roll of one is always a failure, whilst a roll of six is always a success. For the Pilot, bonuses can come from his Presence or Body as appropriate, but if he fails, the player can decide to have his Pilot undertake a Heroic Action. This automatically succeeds, but at the cost of a Sync Bond slot for that day. The Mech can operate by itself when the Pilot is not in the cockpit. In which case the bonuses for the Mech’s own Mech Brawn and Mech Reflex are used, and the roll required to succeed is still four or more. When a Mech has no instructions, it will revert to the Specialisation it has been programmed with.

Combat uses the same core mechanic, but on attacks, a roll of six is critical hit and inflicts more damage. Similarly, a roll of six to defend against an attack is a critical and deflects part of the damage back at the attacker. A round consists of three steps—Ranged, Melee, and Disengage. A Mech’s Level determines the number of attacks per round, but if the Pilot or Mech decides not to attack, they receive a bonus to the rolls to defend themselves. Damage reduces the Mech Shielding, and this is both when the Pilot is out of the Mech and in the Mech. If the Pilot is out of the Mech, it means that Pilot is not taking damage as such, but his ability to pilot the Mech is being affected.

The Ion Core of a Mech and its A.I. means that it can learn over time as it synchronises with the Pilot and it can also overcharge the Mech’s systems. There is no truly safe way to do this, as even if the Pilot and Mech have enough Sync Bond points—which determines the number of times it can be done per day—engaging the Ion Core can still damage the Mech and will damage the Mech if the number of times it is used exceeds the Sync Bond points. When the Ion Core is engaged, it provides the player with a number of choices, such as the aforementioned ‘Heroic Push’, which allows a failed Mech Brawn or Mech Reflex check to succeed; ‘Shields! Full Power!’, which partially restores Mech Shielding; and ‘Meteoric Thunderstrike!’ which enables a single attack that round and has it automatically succeed with extra damage inflicted. In the long term, through play and combat, the latter if the Mech Shielding is reduced to zero and the Mech is disabled, the Mech can acquire Mech Quirks such as ‘Gallant Protector’, which grants a bonus to Defence rolls if Mech Shielding is seriously reduced, and ‘Ocular Misalignment’, damaging its targeting optics! If there is an issue with the Ion Heart: Solo Mech Exploration RPG, it is that it is hard for the Pilot to improve in comparison to the Mech and the Mech is always more interesting than the Pilot as he has no special abilities or skills.

The play of Ion Heart—the ‘Exploration Loop’—begins with the creation the next destination for the Pilot and his Mech. This includes world building, which drills down from system creation through world creation to settlement design. Examples are provided to choose from, but there are tables which a player can use to create his own. The tables are used to create systems, planets, biomes, and settlements as well as encounters that can be friendly, mysterious, or hostile. The latter are backed up with a range of threats that includes other Mechs and Nephilim enemies. What this provides is a broadly drawn environment that a Pilot and Mech can explore and adventure across. It is also the environment upon which the player will map and tell the tale of one or more Story Circuits.

Eighteen of these are detailed in Ion Heart: Solo Mech Exploration RPG – Pilot’s Handbook, taking up half of the book. There are six each of Peaceful, Protective, and Dangerous Story Circuits, and each one is broken down into five scenes, plus a finale. The player has to play through three of the scenes before playing the finale. The Peaceful Story Circuits include ‘The Remembrance Festival’ and ‘Mech’s Birthday’; the Protective Story Circuits include ‘An Ecologist’s Dilemma’ and ‘Volcanic Chaos’; and Dangerous Story Circuits include ‘Our Fight is Not Over’ and ‘Contested Territory’. This is a great mix of story ideas and gives the game a greater longevity than the average solo journaling game.

In addition, Ion Heart: Solo Mech Exploration RPG – Pilot’s Handbook includes guidance on playing it as a two-player game. Instead of each player controlling his own Pilot and Mech, one player roleplays the Pilot and the other player the Mech, and it suggests the players divide responsibilities between journalling and rules referencing, as well as working together to decide on the actions of their shared Pilot and Mech.

Physically, the Ion Heart: Solo Mech Exploration RPG – Pilot’s Handbook is a nicely done roleplaying game. It is fetchingly presented in swathes of soft colours and easy to read and understand.

Initially, Ion Heart is a challenging given that until a Pilot and Mech survive a Story Circuit and can go up a Level, there is not much in the way of modifiers to affect the dice rolls needed for many actions. This is why the Sync Bond and engaging the Ion Core is so important as it can get the Pilot and Mech out of a tight scrape, but it is more important early on in the game when there are fewer modifiers to skill rolls and fewer chances to engage the Ion Core with any degree of safety. However, careful play and some luck will get the Pilot and the Mech through most situations, and it may help if the player goes through a Peaceful Story Circuit first so that his Pilot can gain a Level.

Ion Heart: Solo Mech Exploration RPG – Pilot’s Handbook explores the relationship between Pilot and Mech, much like a knight and his horse. They are both bonded, literally in the case of the Pilot and Mech with the Sync Bond mechanic. What is so attractive about Ion Heart is that although there is danger to be found and threats to be confronted across the Astral Union, the universe it depicts is not a dark one, but one of hope and restoration, as the Pilot and Mech wander from place to place, in peripatetic fashion, ronin-style. Then unlike other solo journalling games, Ion Heart not only comes with eighteen Story Circuits to tell, but leaves the world open. There is no set ending that the player is striving for and when he has completed the eighteen Story Circuits, he is free to create his own and continue the story of his Pilot and Mech, or wait for expansions from the publisher. In other words, it is up to the player to decide when the story of his Pilot and Mech ends.

Ion Heart: Solo Mech Exploration RPG – Pilot’s Handbook is a rather charming journalling roleplaying game, enjoyably optimistic in tone, and with richness of stories to tell.

Cyber-Dungeon Classics I: Arcolgies

Zapped by a hi-res laser. Take the red pill. Plug in. Within seconds and the Player Characters are no longer in their world, but another. Somewhere in between, a liminal space of data and information, infinite realities and variations, where corporations hold and protect their data in fortresses and millions work, and even more flock to explore worlds that previously they could only imagine. They no longer are Player Characters, but ‘Users’, shifted out of ‘Reality’ and into ‘Cyberspace’ as ‘Avatars’. Inside this virtual world, this WorldNet, they face not I.C.E. or Intrusion Counter Electronics per se, but Intrusion Counter Entities. Their new world is not so much a virtual world as a cyberdungeon. ICE are not the only dangers the Avatars will face. There is a chance of being detected and worse being noticed by the deities that are the A.I.s. This is the setting for Netcrawl, the cyberspace setting and supplement for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, both published by Goodman Games. Published by Horse Shark Games, it works with other third-party settings such as Cyber Sprawl Classics, Crawljammer, Umerica, Terror of the Stratosfiend, and Star Crawl Classics. Plus, of course, it can simply be a roleplaying setting all of its own. Once zapped into this virtual world, what exactly does it look like?

Netcrawl: Arcologies is a supplement that attempts to address the infinite number of possibilities when it comes to what the virtual reality environments of Netcrawl and the WorldNet look like, what might be found there, and what threats that the Avatars might encounter. It is in effect a dungeon generator for a cyberpunk and virtual world setting that the Judge can use as prompts to develop the space into which the Avatars are cast and bring it to (virtual) reality. The first part of Netcrawl: Arcologies looks at its namesake with a set of tables for defining what a particular arcology is like. The generator determines an arcology’s tone and theme, functionality, appearance, and style, plus the primary form of travel to and within the arcology. So its tone might be disorientating or entertaining, its theme lines and vertices or grimy, functionality a beta release or fortified, and its appearance a polygon or shaped like a vehicle, and so on. In style it could be gridded or circuitry and if a polyhedral shape, a cylinder, cone, or rhomboid prism.

Thematically, one area that the supplement does not do is provide a means of determining who built the arcology and who runs it now. In the introduction, it acknowledges that an arcology can be run by numerous organisations, where that is corporate, governmental, or some other body, and that further this will suggest branding, function, and appearance. The inclusion of such details would have added further depth and detail to any arcology and help the Admin in the creation process.

The ‘System Raid’ tables set up a target and thus the basis of an adventure for Netcrawl. It sets the target as a random system building that is then layered into grids of nodes that are populated with agents or random I.C.E. These include connections, firewalls, agents, security portals, systems, and servers. This provides the target environment to be explored and worked through, but the look and feel of this space should be dictated by the previous Arcology Generator tables. Of course, the target can be determined wholly randomly by simply rolling on the tables, but the advice is to combine it with design choices. The process is not easy in part because although it is creating the equivalent of a virtual dungeon, it does not have the structure of a dungeon traditional to Dungeons & Dragons. So, it is harder to visualise.

The Admin can also personalise the A.I.s in charge of the arcology—or parts of it—with plans and personalities, and even give them hobbies to perhaps give them a weakness that can be exploited. Arcologies can further be populated by rolling the I.C.E. Generator that determines type, general appearance, colour, and form, and even allows for the possibility it could manifest in the outside world, from as ordinary a defence as a swarm of nanobots to a synthetic android.

The supplement takes the Admin to the seamier side of the virtual world with the Undernet, the equivalent of the Dark Web, but here treated like the back streets and alleys with a handful of encounters. Further, it is a bestiary of sorts, if the monsters and other threats are digital. There is Malware, virulent code that compromises a victim’s defences and can alter an Avatar’s appearance temporarily and even permanently reduce his stats, depending upon how badly the player fails his Avatar’s saving throw versus. Some of these are quite complex. For example, once installed, the reactive defensive code attack ‘Heartstopper’ automatically activates under certain circumstances and forces constant heart attacks on the victim, whilst ‘JOBE’ or ‘Joyous Omnipotent Brain Evolution’, grants a bonus to program activation checks and Wits check or Wits-based skill checks. However, if an Avatar succeeds by these bonuses only, it reduces his Hack stat and if reduced to zero, the sufferer is turned into a megalomaniac! In many cases, Malware can be removed with reversion control or quarantine.

The ‘Code’ rules get under the structure under AI, arcology, and Avatar, whilst ‘Exploits’ are malicious code that can be injected into an Avatar. Again, like the Malware, there are basic and more detailed versions. For example, ‘Couch Pirate 3000 (CP3K) – The Slacker Hacker’ is whispered about in encrypted chatrooms or foreshadowed by icons of a worn-out couch appearing on dead servers, and asks the question, “Why burn the system when you can break

it lying down?” Sufferers are forced to lie down on the couch and lose all speed (moving 0#) and suffer a -4 penalty to their Hack. That said, the couch can be moved, so making the Avatar’s allies do yet more hard work! The ‘Zap Generator’ creates Zaps, virtual drug-like experiences that provide temporary boosts, but which can be addictive. They fit the setting, but they do feel like way to get drugs into the WorldNet, whereas ‘Abends’ enforce the weird nature of the setting, all being code written to crash in unusual ways, ending in critical errors and other unexpected ways. For example, ‘nessuna.tmp’ causes intense drowsiness and an hour-long dream state that renders an Avatar vulnerable. Effectively, ‘cybersleep’, it has transcendent effects that make many ciphomorph shamans actually infect themselves and gain prophetic abilities and access to ‘spirit’ realms. Mechanically, after waking up from this state, users are slowed to a zen-like state that means they go last in combat and are slowed to a single action, but do gain access to insight that grants a bonus to an action die, saving throw, or Armour class, which can be changed from round to round. There are only three of these Abends, but these add depth and feel to some of the software to be found in the WorldNet.

Rounding out Netcrawl: Arcologies is a ‘Guide to the WorldNet’ that further develops ideas for its many, many virtual reality environments. This gives tables of rumours, events, and news items to use across various ‘neighbourhoods’ of the WorldNet. They include locations such as ‘The Spine’, the main highway of the WorldNet; the hedonistic, yet upscale VR playgrounds known as ‘Les Loisirs’; and the ‘Nightzone’ is the always-on, always-dark, nightlife district. There are nine such locations, not so much detailed, as brought to reality through the rumours and news in their associated tables. These are full of lots of detail that will help the Admin bring them to life using the tables earlier in the supplement to give structure to her WorldNet.

Physically, Netcrawl: Arcologies is a vibrantly, neon affair. It is not illustrated, but the colours more than make up for it.

Netcrawl: Arcologies starts by selling itself as the equivalent of the dungeon generator for Netcrawl, but it is not as an expansive as traditional dungeon generators are for fantasy roleplaying. It is more focused on limited structures, though these can still be quite large. However, the supplement does not limit itself wholly to that, but adds general details and elements that can be brought easily into play and expand the setting. Ultimately, Netcrawl: Arcologies is more of a companion to NetCrawl providing general support rather just location-building, but that does not mean that it is bad support.

City in the RED

Almost all of the famous cities in roleplaying are fantasy cities. Waterdeep, the ‘City of Splendours’ from the Forgotten Realms, and Sigil, the City of Doors from Planescape, both for Dungeons & Dragons from Wizards of the Coast; Freeport: The City of Adventure from Green Ronin Publishing; and Pavis in Glorantha for RuneQuest from Chaosium, Inc. Conversely, famous cities in roleplaying in the Science Fiction genre are few and far between. Both come from the Cyberpunk genre. One, of course, is the real world city of Seattle in the Sixth World of Shadowrun, whilst the other is the fictional Night City of Cyberpunk 2013, Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0., and Cyberpunk RED. Night City began life as Coronado City, incorporated in the early nineties and envisioned as a planned urban community by Richard Night on the coast of northern California. After his murder, it was renamed in his honour, but crime moved in and the city was dominated by mob wars for a decade, before corporate interests disrupted the activities of the various criminal organisations. Night City became notorious as a battleground between Militech and Arasaka during the Fourth Corporate War, which came to a head with the detonation of nuclear device atop Arasaka’s Night City headquarters which devastated the city’s Corporate Centre, allegedly placed by the famous Rockerboy, Johnny Silverhand. The reconstruction efforts, led by Richard Night’s widow and corporate interests, under a new charter, have been ongoing now for twenty-five years, disrupted by an earthquake, a terrorist attack by cultists who believe the nuclear detonation is sacred, and a near-war between Nomad groups that run the transport of passengers and goods in and out of the city. None more so than in the ‘Hot Zone’, the site of the city’s original corporate centre where the bomb went off. It is 2045, the Time of the Red, and Night City remains a heavily armed, corporate-run city-state in the south of the Free State of Northern California, a Free Port serving as the gateway to the Pacifica Confederation that consists of Northern California, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and British Columbia.

Night City 2045 is an update of the Night City supplement, covering its history and current status for use with Cyberpunk RED. It is comprehensive guide to the city, an in-world handbook for the tourist or other visitor which they could purchase and download to their Agent called An Outsider’s Guide to Night City, compiled by independent Medias, each describing one of the city’s different districts. As the introduction makes clear, what this means is that the not all of the information in the supplement is true, so the players and their Edgerunners cannot wholly rely upon it and the Game Master is free to determine the veracity of any one detail or another. In terms of timeframe, apart from it being set in the year 2045, Night City 2045 is set during the events of Tales of the RED: Street Stories and Tales of the RED: Hope Reborn. This does mean that there will be spoilers present. The reader will also spot locations from other supplements such as Danger Gal Dossier – A Faction and NPC Guide for Cyberpunk Red and also elements from the computer game, Cyberpunk 2077. For example, players will recognise the Tyger Claws gang which they will encounter early in the computer game and will recognise the Royal Blue Radio, The Dirge, and Night FM radio stations. Long-time fans of Cyberpunk will recognise some of the in-jokes too, such as the descriptions of the Petrochem Plastics Plant and the SovOil Plastics Plant being all but identical—two sides of the same coin.

Besides a history and timeline of Night City, there is a guide to its weather, how to gain its citizenship (including a State Identification Number or SIN), getting there and getting around the city and how much that costs (including getting a driving licence and registering vehicles at the DMV), government, legal framework (justice tends to be summary, the arrested are presumed to be guilty, The Judge is an A.I., and fines can be reduced by public flogging(!) with an electro whip), public services from 911 (also A.I. run) and Backing to medical care and education, utilities and their provision, and media. There is a complete guide to the city’s factions—gangs, criminal organisations, and security providers. Be sure to avoid the Bozos, the faction-driven clown gang whose pranks are deadly; never busk without the Julliard Guild’s permission; and go to the Piranhas if you want the best party in the city. All of the factions have their badges or patches on show and these are used to mark their territory on the supplement’s maps.

There is also a full set of maps for the whole of Night City which show the various elements of the city are. These include its NCART and Rail Lines, bars, brothels, casinos and clubs, housing sites, and medical vendors and markets, with each map also serving as an index of sorts.

Two fifths of Night City 2045 is devoted to mapping and detailing its twenty-four districts from Little Europe, Upper Marina, and the Old Combat Zone on the Island and the Pacifica Playground and Rancho Coronado in the South Side. Each follows the same format. An introduction by a noted Media who provides an overview of the district, followed by details of its city manager and his politics, security provider, recent history, then its locations, and lastly personalities. It is rarely for any location to be given a simple, one paragraph description, most of them are fairly lengthy, and in cases of locations such as markets and high-rises, expanded to give the businesses and persons working and selling out of them. Similarly, the ‘McCartney Field Stadium’ details all of the teams and franchises based in its facilities. The descriptions are written in character, so Leon Vetti, writing about Downtown tells you that whilst ‘Europa Meatworks’ might be the best artisanal butcher’s shop in the city, beloved of foodies and sometimes offering some exotic cuts of meat, he wonders where the meat comes from, offering several suggestions in a conversational tone, whilst next door, ‘Folio’, might feel like a genuine fortune tellers, but that is all drug-laced herbal tea, laser-focused cold reading, and Garden Patch research! Nearby, ‘Goosetopia’ sells collectible vinyl models of geese in different costumes in limited editions. Utterly absurd of course, but in each these there is enough detail that a Game Master can develp a hook or plot. Maybe someone wants to know where ‘Europa Meatworks’ is sourcing its raw cuts, someone’s grandmother is spending too much money at ‘Folio’, and how far will a collector go to complete his collection of vinyl geese? And that is just from a single page. Just about every location description suggests something that a Game Master can develop.

Of course, there really is too much to go through in Night City 2045, but one district that most readers and Game Masters will be interested in is the ‘Hot zone’, what is left of the corporate zone shattered and irradiated by the Fourth Corporate War. So bad its Utility Code is 10. At the heart is the crater where the Araska headquarters once stood, surrounded by buildings in various states of disrepair, some barely standing, others shedding parts and materials like deadly rain. On the edge stands ‘Dark Zone One’, a black zone where any drone flown over it cannot record any footage, snipers shoot anyone who enters, and the urban explorers steer clear; ‘The Dump’ where cleared wreckage from the district is stored (and unofficially picked over by scavengers); and Father Grace, a pastor for the ‘Global Church of Elvis’, lives in ‘Graceland Medical’, out of which he operates an armoured mobile clinic, dispensing healthcare to the nearby scavenger camps for free. The district description is shorter than most, but it is the most different and environmentally at least, the most dangerous.

Night City 2045 does not confine itself solely to within the city boundaries. It goes beyond them to detail the Outskirts where the ‘Municipal Landfill’, ‘Night City Spaceport’, and ‘Militech Ballistics and Explosives Range’ are all located. Night City 2045 finishes on a wacky note, one that presents ‘The Happiest Place in Night City’. This is ‘Playland by the Sea’, a theme pack not part of the city, but just off the coast and with ‘Six Lands of Happiness’. It gives the kitsch banality of a theme park a sharped-edged twist of being run in the dark future of 2045, with the Piranhas gang running security and dealing drugs because anything else would be worse! Its six zones, such as Lovers Lane, Haunted Woods, and Grand Junction with its recreation of San Francisco in 1851, all lend themselves to some weird places to business or simply just run some downtime on a day out! The map of ‘Playland by the Sea’ is a really great, just getting its slightly cheesy feel right.

What does surprise about Night City 2045 is the lack of new rules or mechanics. The two primary additions handle security response to alerts or difficult situations and the service status of the local utilities. Every district in Night City 2045 and every building is given a Security Code. This gives a number representing the likelihood of designated security—appointed or self-appointed—responding to an alert, the faction (gang, Night City Olice Department, or security contractor) which will respond, and an Intensity descriptor—‘Light’, ‘Medium’, or ‘Medium’—which indicates the degree of that response. A Utility Code indicates whether or not the location or district has working access to power, water, and CitiNet, the latter the city’s information network. A Utility Code is given per district rather than per location. When narratively appropriate, the Game Master can roll against the Utility Code to see if the utilities are working, and of course, this can the situation the Edgerunners are in either easier or more difficult. The Security Code is the same whether the Edgerunners want to avoid security entanglements or alert local security. Both mechanics are incredibly simple and easy to use.

Apart from these two rules, Night City 2045 only includes stats for various NPCs found in particular districts. For example, Biotechnica Guards and Night City University Guards in University District, Night City Plaza Busker in The Glen, Combat Cabb Driver in South Night City, and Forklift Driver in Port of Night City. Many of these could appear elsewhere, the Night City Plaza Busker on a street corner or the Forklift Driver in any warehouse, for example.

As much information as there is in Night City 2045—and there is a lot—the supplement is not perfect. The problem is with the maps. The issue is that the orthographic maps in the original Night City supplement were great, whereas in Night City 2045 they are not. They are not terrible maps and they are serviceable, but anyone expecting more will be disappointed.

Physically, Night City 2045 is tidily presented. The artwork is used to depict each district at the head of each chapter and so capture some of the flavour described later. The maps are clear and simple, if unexciting.

Whether it is places where they live, places they want to go, places they have to go, Night City 2045 provides the Game Master with details and descriptions that she can use to bring the experiences of the Edgerunners to life. There are plenty of hooks too, which the Game Master can winkle out and develop, or perhaps let lie for the players and their Edgerunners to discover when perusing An Outsider’s Guide to Night City on their Agents. Versatile and packed full of lore, Night City 2045 is a supplement that the Cyberpunk RED Game Master will find very useful.

Convict Conscript Combat

It should be no surprise that the future is a corporate future despite our aspirations. So, governments and agencies might do all the scouting and exploration, but the corporations have the money to invest and they expect a return on that investment. In the Corealis System, the conglomerate known as the Corporate Echelon is attempting to squeeze as much profit from the system and that includes protecting their facilities, let alone the colonies. There are reports of bug infestations and scab pirates attacking ships and outposts. In response the Corporate Echelon has instructed its Military Foundation to find a cheap solution to the problem. The result is the Rehabilitation Incentive Program (R.I.P.), a programme of enforced conscription from the Corporate Echelon’s private prisons. Convicts are given basic training and sent off on relentless tours of duty. They will eradicate bug infestations, assault pirate bases and spaceships, conduct salvage missions, run supply missions, and more, but no matter the type and nature of the mission, the Convicts, known as ‘Dirtbags’, are expendable. However, if a Dirtbag survives long enough, there is the promise of freedom and reintegration.

This is the set-up for Dirtbags! A Sci-Fi Shooter RPG, published by The Dungeon’s Key following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Inspired by films such as Starship Troopers, Tank Girl, and Aliens, plus The Dirty Dozen and an unhealthy dose of the Borderlands video game franchise, it is a satire on corporate greed and capitalism and deals with a lot of mature themes. The dystopian satire starts with the look of the rulebook, which is heavily graffitied in a running commentary upon service in the Rehabilitation Incentive Program, the Convict Conscripts sticking two fingers up in punk attitude at the corporate commanders and masters.

To create a Convict Conscript, a player divides five points across three abilities—Bones, Cunning, and Nerves, rolls for his Convict Conscript’s Pardonable Offence and the Fallout, and then selects a role assignment, loadout, and trait. The Convict Conscript’s upbringing, personality trait, and appearance can all be rolled for. Each Convict Conscript also receives a fifty-credit signing bonus. The roles are Ape (Infantryman), Pill (Combat Medic), Tech (Combat Engineer), Hen (Reconnaissance), and Muscle Head (Support Gunner). Each provides three options in terms of Loadouts and Traits. Both the Pardonable Offence and the Fallout provide an extra bonus. In addition to his loadout, a Convict Conscript wears a Prisoner Identification Collar, which of course, is fitted with a small amount of explosives which can be detonated remotely, as a deterrent against escape attempts.

Name: Louise Kincy (MD)
Bones 1 Cunning 2 Nerves 2
Pardonable Offence: Medical Malpractice (75 years)
Fallout: High-Strung (No breathers in combat)
Role Assignment: Pill
Traits: Field Surgeon
Upbringing: Water Carrier in the circuit city sweatshops
Personality Trait: Petty
Appearance: Old World Prosthetic Hand
Loadout: 350-SI Service Pistol (three magazines), Surgery Kit, Juice Box Energisers (two), Tourniquet (one)

Mechanically, Dirtbags! uses a dice pool system. In fact, it uses three dice pools. These are Action, Ammunition, and Reserve. The Action pool is based on the Convict Conscript’s abilities. It is the number of dice that a player can assign to any one action. Using six-sided dice, any result of a four, five, or six is a success, although this range will increase or decrease depending upon if the Convict Conscript has Advantage, Disadvantage, or Severe Disadvantage. Any failed results go into the Convict Conscript’s Reserve where they cannot be used. Various traits will restore dice from the Reserve to the Action pool, but the primary means is to ‘Take a Breather’. Out of combat, this takes fifteen minutes, but in combat, it takes a whole turn in which the Convict Conscript can nothing else. A critical success, a roll of two sixes on an action will also restore a single die from the Reserve to the Action pool.

The number of actions that a Convict Conscript can undertake in a round is determined by his Ability values. For example, a Convict Conscript with a Bones of two has two physical actions in a round. So, his player might describe his actions in cleaning out a bug nest as first throwing a grenade at the hole out of which a bug swarm has erupted and then charging to its lip. Whilst a Convict Conscript with Cunning of two operating a drone might send it to hover over the hole and then scan for movement. In either case, the Convict Conscript’s player needs to roll a success for each action. Notably, none of the actions involve shooting or attacking. This is a free action. Nor does a player roll to hit. Instead, he rolls the Ammunition pool for his Convict Conscript’s weapon. The Convict Conscript can fire as many times as he wants. The only limits are the ammunition capacity of the weapon and its firing mode. Firing at targets beyond a weapon’s range reduces the number of Ammunition dice the player rolls. Every success is a hit, but if two ones are rolled, it means that the weapon has jammed. All dice rolled from Ammunition pool go into the Reserve pool and can only be refreshed when the Convict Conscript takes a turn to reload.

When hit, a Convict Conscript can defend using his Action pool or his Ammunition pool and every success negates a hit. Armour negates hits and can be destroyed. Damage is inflicted per location and if a hit location suffers two more points of damage, it is bleeding and will suffer more damage loss. Limbs can be ruined and amputated; if the torso is reduced to zero Hit Points, the Convict Conscript cannot ‘Take a Breather’, but can talk and still take free actions like shooting; and if a Convict Conscript’s Hit Points in his head are reduced to zero, he is dead. In addition to possible access to a Pill or Combat Medic, every Convict Conscript carries at least one ‘Muscular Intravenous Liquid Koka’ (M.I.L.K.) Energiser in his Prisoner Identification Collar. This can be automatically injected to negate hits of damage, ignore Ability limits, gain advantage on the Convict Conscript’s next roll, reroll any number of dice with disadvantage, and spend a success to gain an extra action. However, consume too many Energisers and a Convict Conscript can suffer an emotional outburst, such as hyperventilating, suffering a nervous breakdown, fleeing, and so on. Similarly, witnessing another Convict Conscript’s death, suffering an amputated limb, and other dire situation may also result in an emotional outburst. An emotional outburst is resisted with a Nerves roll.

Mechanically, Dirtbags! is simple and it does give a player plenty of freedom in terms of how and what his Convict Conscript does. Primarily this is because it removes the need to declare an attack as action and have it happen automatically if the player declares it. All the player has to do is roll for the effect. It means that the player can focus on his Convict Conscript moving and taking other actions. The limits are his Ability values and the size of his Action pool and the flow of the play is going to be from action to rest and back again from running and gunning and hiding and ducking to needing to ‘Take a Breather’ and back again. The Action pool and the Ammunition pool are both resources that need relatively careful handling.

Dirtbags! A Sci-Fi Shooter RPG is played out as a series of tours of duty, each of which consists of several operations, the number randomly determined reflecting the difficulty of a campaign. Effectively, length of play determines the campaign difficulty. A completed operation reduces a Convict Conscript’s sentence by five years and for every twenty years his sentence is reduced, he can improve an ability, take a Retinal Curriculum Projector course which grants a trait, or take a trait from his role. Between tours of duty, a Convict Conscript can take Shore Leave, which may be a relaxing time or it may leave the Convict Conscript without an internal organ, which reduces his torso’s Hit Points. The Convict Conscripts also have access to a wide range of military surplus that they can purchase and in return they can sell their military surplus and salvage. A sample mission, ‘Occam’s Razor’, a training mission that goes to hell with a bug invasion!

Dirtbags! A Sci-Fi Shooter RPG does not feel quite complete. There is background to the setting, but no advice for the Game Marshal and it could have done with a random mission generator at the very least. There is content sufficient to inspire the Game Marshal, but such a table would have been useful. It also does not address what happens if a Convict Conscript manages to reduce his sentence to zero, which is possible, but difficult after ten to fifteen operations. Whomever has amended the training manual that is Dirtbags! A Sci-Fi Shooter RPG calls it a return to slavery. The Corporate Echelon states that the Rehabilitation Incentive Program has an eighty percent success rate. One option here might be to look at Gangs of Titan City, a roleplaying game of criminal gangs and life in a spire city, as to what happens next, but otherwise, the Game Marshal is left to decide what happens next.

Physically, Dirtbags! A Sci-Fi Shooter RPG is a scrawling mess of a book and intentionally so. It is all punk attitude verses corporate bullshit and sometimes that does get in the way of what is relatively simple, straightforward roleplaying game. The example of play is actually the easiest and quickest means of learning the roleplaying game’s rules. The artwork is decent though.

Dirtbags! A Sci-Fi Shooter RPG has the potential to be manically chaotic fun, throwing it as it does a disparate, desperate group of poorly trained conscripts into one dangerous mission after another, whilst the Game Marshal throws every military movie cliché into the mix. It would be interesting to see what happens if the Convict Conscripts are actually rehabilitated, but that will have to wait for a supplement or another roleplaying game. In the meantime, the Dirtbags have one last chance to prove they are not scum in a light, but surprisingly detailed military Science Fiction shooter.

Dungeons & Disapora

For centuries, the Third Horizon—a system of thirty-six star systems—and a wave of colonial expansion and exploration reached through a series of portals built and abandoned long ago by an alien species now known as the Portal Builders, has existed in a state of peaceful isolation. Contact had been long lost with the First Horizon and the Second Horizon following an interstellar war which ended in the portals being permanently closed to the previous Horizons. Yet the Third Horizon was never without its tensions—tensions that would be exploited from within and without. Most notably the latter as the First Horizon fought to take control of the Third Horizon and the Second Horizon fought to prevent it, their proxies continuing the conflict across the ribbon of the stars that made the Third Horizon and changing it for ever. Some fled the war and never saw its outcome. Their ragtag fleet went in search of a signal emanating far from the Third Horizon, said to be from the Nadir, sent with its sister colony vessel, the Zenith, from Earth to Aldebaran, centuries before. The Zenith made contact with, and reinvigorated, the Third Horizon. The Nadir disappeared into the Dark Space between stars. The twelve year journey, known as the Long Traverse, brought the fleet to a system with only two gas giants it called Jumuah where the signal was lost and that was its final stop. The star portal which would hopefully have led onward, hopefully to more prosperous worlds was dead. The fleet was stranded. The survivors were forced to adapt. They labelled their new home the ‘Lost Horizon’ and founded ‘The Ship City of Coriolis the Eternal and Jumuah the First and Last’, or Ship City, in a hollowed out asteroid which they expanded with the hulls of ships no longer space worthy. That was two hundred years ago.

Almost a century after its founding, prophet-physicists made a startling discovery—the ‘Slipstream’. It enabled Greatships, gigantic, sturdy vessels capable of withstanding the buffeting ripples of the Slipstream, to navigate at near Faster-than-Light speeds to other systems. In time, following the River of Stars, the people of Jumuah and the Ship would expand beyond the Lost Horizon and establish eleven settlements and outposts across what is called the Charted Sphere. Now, despite its dangers, travel aboard the Greatships has become almost routine. In addition to new worlds and new systems, the explorers also made discoveries.

They found ruins. They found signs that Humanity was not the first to settle the Great Dark and the region around Charted Space. They found Gardens, Shallows, Structures, and Deep Vaults. They began to learn about them by translating the glyphs left on the ruins and the artefacts the explorers and archaeologists found. They also found the Blight. Whether it appears as blooms, as frost, as dust, or as ice, Blight is a plague that corrupts both structures and biology, that can kill and destroy, but also leave its sufferers with strange visions. And the deeper that explorers and archaeologists delve, the greater the danger of Blight. Today, almost two hundred years after the Long Traverse began, the Explorers’ Guild has risen to direct expeditions to the twelve most significant sites discovered to date and to search for other ruins.

This is the setting for Coriolis: The Great Dark. Published by Free League Publishing following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is sequel to Coriolis: The Third Horizon, a more traditional Science fiction roleplaying game with strong Middle Eastern themes and flavour. It marks a radical departure in terms of style and tone as well as what you play in Coriolis: The Third Horizon. In Coriolis: The Great Dark, the Player Characters are not the crew of a spaceship, travelling from one world to the next, trading, investigating, fighting, and running, as they would be Coriolis: The Third Horizon and many other Science Fiction roleplaying game. Instead, they members of, or working for, the Explorers’ Guild. As teams, they will travel aboard a Greatship on the Slipstream, be dropped off in system before the Greatship departs, and make their own way to a world or moon or asteroid and explore a ruin, delving deep into its reaches, looking for discoveries, artefacts, and information. However, time is short, resources are limited, and there is the constant threat of the Blight. It feels like the Player Characters are delving into dungeons in deep space, but if this is dungeoneering Science Fiction style, it is a style—and setting—that is inspired by nineteenth-century expeditions, deep-sea diving, and pulp archaeology. The dangers of the unknown are not the only threats that the explorers face in entering the ruins. The criminal organisation known as the Black Toad sends teams into ruins to harvest the Blight and turn it into a drug that is smoked for its hallucinogenic properties. Acts of piracy have been attributed to a group known as the Wreckers and there are creatures and other things lurking in the ruins.

A Player Character is defined by his Profession, attributes, Health, Hope, and Heart, Talents, Quirk, and Keepsake. The Professions are Artist, Enforcer, Esoteric, Odd Jobber, Roughneck, Scholar, Scoundrel, and Traveller. Each provides sample names, gives a key attribute and Talents, some equipment, and a Speciality, which grants an extra Talent. Of the Professions, the Esoteric is a mystic or prophet driven reshape the peoples of the Lost Horizon and the Odd Jobber covers a range of roles such as Guild Clerk, Alley Cook, or Artefact Dealer. All of the Professions provide a variety of roles and associated Talents each of which expand a Player Character’s background. Most Talents can be taken up to three times and add a bonus base die for each level. For example, ‘Streetwise’ adds a bonus base die per Talent level to locate stolen goods, find a contact, or learn rumours, which ‘Jury-Rig’ does the same for crafting or repairing mechanical devices and components. A Player Character has six attributes—Strength, Agility, Logic, Perception, Insight, and Empathy—and three stats—Health, Hope, and Heart—which measure how much trauma he can suffer before he is broken. The attributes range in value between one and five, except the key attribute for a Profession. His Quirk represents a flaw that when roleplayed will earn a Player Character Experience Points and a Keepsake his means of recovering Hope.

To create character, a player selects an origin, chooses a Profession and Speciality, divides twenty-four between his character’s attributes, chooses three more levels of Talents from the Profession, choose a Quirk, a Keepsake, and some equipment, and then a name, appearance, and a reason why the character became an Explorer. Many of these elements can be rolled for as well.

Name: Chandra Koulidis

Profession: Odd Jobber

Speciality: Stair Peddler

ATTRIBUTES

Strength 2 Agility 4 Logic 4

Perception 3 Insight 4 Empathy 5

Health 6 Hope 9 Heart 7

TALENTS

Actor (1), Charmer (2), Cultural Savant (1), Mentalist (1), Streetwise (1)

Origin: Among the Alleys and Shanties of Aluminium Bay

Associated Faction: The Black Toad

Contact: Cook Lissa Losoi

Quirk: Wears makeup

Keepsake: Piece of a Builder shard

Appearance: Unruly hair

Reason for becoming an Explorer: To escape the drudgery of everyday life

Equipment: Fancy clothing, waking pills, bottle of shroom brandy

Mechanically, Coriolis: The Great Dark, uses the Year Zero engine, first seen in Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days. To have a character undertake an action, a player rolls a number of Base Dice equal to a combination of attribute and applicable Talent, plus Gear Dice. A single roll of a six (or the symbol on the custom dice for Coriolis: The Great Dark) indicates a Success. Multiple Successes improve the outcome, especially in combat and conflict. If the roll is a failure and no sixes are rolled, or a player wants more Successes, he can Push the roll. This enables him to reroll any dice which did not result in a one or six. A roll can be Pushed once and any rolls of one on the Base Dice indicate that the Player Character loses a point of Hope, whilst any rolls of one on the Gear Dice indicate that the item of equipment used is damaged and needs to be repaired, and if happens multiple times, it will break. Other Player Characters can help another on a task, each one contributing an extra Base Die to the player making the roll.

Conflict in Coriolis: The Great Dark uses the same core mechanics. Initiative uses a deck of cards numbered from one to ten and the rules for conflict cover both ranged and close combat, plus social conflict. A combatant can move once and do one action per round. Reactions, such as blocking or dodging, are counted as actions and so use up a Player Character’s action in a round. A single Success is required to inflict the base damage for an attack, but extra Successes can be expended to increase damage as well as other effects. In close combat can be used to wrestle an object from an opponent, trip him, or push him away. Ranged combat allows for aimed fire, full auto, cover, and so on. Armour has the potential to protect against damage, requiring a roll and Successes to be rolled, to be effective. If a Player Character suffers more damage that reduces his Health to zero, he is Broken and cannot act. Critical damage is inflicted if the number of successes rolled are equal to, or exceed, the ‘Crit Threshold’ for the weapon. This necessitates a roll on the ‘Critical Injuries’ table. Two critical injuries will both NPCs and Player Characters.

Social combat is handled via rolls versus an opponent’s Empathy or Strength attributes. The rules also cover chases and vehicle combat, including spaceship combat. The rules for both are simply handled and overall, the rules for Coriolis: The Great Dark are a very traditional version of the Year Zero mechanics.

The play of Coriolis: The Great Dark switches back and forth between life and intrigue in Ship City and exploring the Ruins in the Great Dark. To support the former, there is a detailed description of Ship City, its districts and the powerful guilds—the Navigators Guild, the Machinists Guild, the Gardeners Guild, and the Coriolites, the families that adhere to the traditions of the Third Horizon, and the Black Toad, the shadowy criminal cartel operating throughout the Charted Sphere, as well as the less powerful, though still influential Explorers Guild. The background on the rest of Charted Space is not as detailed, but there is more than enough information to bring it to life on the Player Characters’ expeditions.

Expeditions form the second part and primary focus of play in Coriolis: The Great Dark and that starts with the creation of a Crew. There are five positions on the Crew—Delver, Scout, Burrower, Guard, and Archaeologist. The Delver leads the way into Ruins; the Scout looks for hidden dangers ahead; the Burrower digs paths and secures routes through tunnels and caves; the Guard protects the Crew; and the Archaeologist interprets the Ruins, as well as glyphs and artefacts found. The Explorers Guild trains Crew members in particular Manoeuvres. For example, the Burrower can use ‘Destabilise’ in conjunction with an explosive charge to destroy a wall or blockage to either open up a route or block it, whilst the Delver can use ‘Rally’ to restore Hope or remove a Condition for all nearby Explorers. These are extra combat actions that can be used specifically during a delve.

In addition to some personal equipment, the Explorers Guild provides the Crew with a rover and an interplanetary shuttle. Both will be carried aboard the Greatship that ferries the Crew to the system destination where it drops the Crew off. The oddest item that the Explorers Guild loans the Crew is a Bird, also called a ‘Garuda’, which serves as a guardian spirit and Blight-finder. They are actually bioengineered artifacts discovered in the Ruins and awakened, willing to co-operate with the peoples of Ship City. Many are kept as companions and there is specific Bird Market in Ship City. In the illustrations, the Birds have a hawk-like appearance. Although they vary in terms of type and ability, the Birds are indispensable when it comes to exploring Ruins. In particular, their ‘Clear Blight’, ‘Blight Scan’, and ‘Soak Blight’ powers help a Crew keep safe on a delve. Whilst the individual Player Characters will earn Experience Points, collectively as a Crew they can earn Crew Points for taking on a challenge, going on a trek or delve, making discoveries, and so on. These can be spent to learn new manoeuvres, as well as to improve the vehicles and the Bird. Effectively, improving the vehicles and the Bird are the equivalent of the community improvement rules found in other roleplaying games from Free League Publishing. Plus, there are Talents which help a Player Character interact with his Crew’s Bird more easily. Choosing a Bird and both a rover and a shuttle is a collective endeavour that comes at the end of Player Character generation.

Name: Fench

Type: Guide

Health: 4 Energy: 3

Appearance: Ink black with a long beak and bold personality

Special Power: Farsight

Basic Powers: Attack, Defend, Clear Blight, Blight Scan, Sock Blight, Glow

Expeditions can be mounted for many reasons, such as finding new sites to colonise, prospecting for new resources, and even to find new Slipstream routes, but the iconic type of expedition is the ‘Delve’ into Ruins. There are rules for land exploration, which essentially covers the Crew touching down in its shuttle and then making its way to the Ruin site by rover. Once there, the rules shift. Not just in intensity, but also in their axis. If the journey to a Ruin is horizontal across the landscape, the Delve swings through ninety degrees into the vertical. Not every Delve has this verticality, but most do, and it makes a Delve feel more like spelunking or potholing. Of course, one of the inspirations in Coriolis: The Great Dark is deep-sea diving and this is reflected in the heavy suits that the Crew members wear and are depicted in the art. A Delve also has the feel of a mountain climbing expedition and mechanically by the journeying rules in other roleplaying games from Free League Publishing. Mountain climbing because a Crew has to keep track of Supply—consumables including oxygen, water, food, energy, ammunition, and light—and establish camps where Supply caches can be laid up, and the journeying rules because the Player Characters will have specific roles on an expedition or Delve.

Like those journeying rules, in a Delve a Crew is trying to get to a key location or locations. This has a specific procedure, first making a Delve roll to move into the next area, then dealing with any hazards, and dealing and suffering from any Blight. Blight can be encountered anywhere, but is primarily associated with Ruins and often with the strange creatures and things discovered there. The Delve suits that each Crewmember wears provides some protection against the Blight, but if a Crewmember does suffer from Blight, it reduces his Heart stat. If this is reduced, his player rolls on the ‘Blight Manifestation’ table to represent its direct effect, which can be temporary or permanent. For example, the Crewmember might be stricken with uncontrollable shivering that leaves him Exhausted; temporal dissonance that causes lapses in time perception such that the Crewmember always goes last in combat; crystalline blooms grow from the Crewmember’s skin causing pain and piercing his Delve suit; and even ‘Wander the Pale Halls’ after the Crewmember falls into a coma, experiencing vivid hallucinations of the Pale Halls, leaving him permanently Broken.

The play switches to more traditional exploration once the Crew reaches a location. Here its members can search for artefacts, shards, and secrets. The Game Master has a good set of tables for creating Delves, defining its age, purpose, type, depth, theme, quirks, discoveries to be made, Blight levels encountered, and more. She can populate it with threats and creatures, the latter from the roleplaying game’s extensive bestiary, and even rival parties also exploring the Ruin. This is supported by an extensive discussion on the nature of the Ruins and the themes of the roleplaying game—Space as a wild sea, a sense of wonder, the mystery and enigma of the Builders and who they were, as well as intrigue, hope, and teamwork. The advice for the Game Master is excellent, covering not just running the roleplaying game, but also creating her own content for it. The Game Master is also supported with a sample scenario, ‘The Black Ziggurat’ in which the Explorers Guild sends the Crew to look for a missing Navigator near the eponymous site. The scenario emphasises the Delve aspect of play, but adds some intrigue into the mix as well.

Lastly, ‘The Outcast Explorer’ presents the option to play Coriolis: The Great Dark in solo mode. In these rules, the player still roleplays an Explorer, but one who has been spurned by everyone except the Explorers Guild. It sponsors the Outcast to explore the Red Garden, a vast valley located on Ilum, one of the moons of the two gas giants in the Jumuah System, which is dotted with labyrinthine Builders ruins. However, the Explorers Guild does not care how the Outcast conducts his expedition or if he survives. If he does, the Explorers Guild will simply sponsor him again. The rules are solidly serviceable for what you would expect for solo play, though of course, they do lose that shared sense of trepidation and wonder and awe at exploring the unknown. In the meantime, there is nothing to stop the Game Master visiting some of the tables for ‘The Outcast Explorer’ for further inspiration for Delves of her own.

If there is a downside to Coriolis: The Great Dark, it is that it does not explore the aftermath of expeditions and Delves as well as it should. What the Player Characters are rewarded with by the Explorers Guild and how their discoveries might change perspectives on who and what the Builders were and so on. The likelihood is that some of the ramifications will be explored in future releases, such as the campaign, The Flowers of Algorab.

Physically, Coriolis: The Great Dark is very well presented. It is well written and the artwork is excellent, capturing that sense of wonder almost at the end of the universe and the strangeness of what the Player Characters might find below, coupled with the slightly ramshackle feel of Ship City.

There can be no doubt that Coriolis: The Great Dark is a radical shift Coriolis: The Third Horizon. Where the setting of Coriolis: The Third Horizon was more open and traditional in what the Player Characters could do and more obvious in its Middle Eastern inspiration, Coriolis: The Great Dark is constrained and less obvious in its inspiration. There still is a Middle Eastern inspiration, but less is made of it, as if the culture of Ship City has evolved and changed in response to its change of circumstances, giving it a refreshing unfamiliarity. There is grime and grit to the setting too, its ramshackle nature have less of the sheen of Coriolis: The Third Horizon and more of a Blue Collar Science Fiction look and feel. There are likely more types of stories that can be told and roleplayed in the setting of Coriolis: The Great Dark, but its core activity is Delving and exploration, discovering secrets, revealing mysteries and experiencing the wonder and awe of both the past—what the Builders left behind—and Charted Space. Coriolis: The Great Dark brings a sense of cosmic curiosity and the mystery of the unknown to Science Fiction roleplaying, ready to be experienced, for discoveries to be made, and secrets to be revealed.