Your Vaesen Starter

A good starter set has to do a number of different things. It has to introduce and explain the roleplaying game it is a starter set for, whether that is the roleplaying game’s setting, mechanics, or both. It has to both tell and show what the players and their characters are expected to do in the setting and how they do it, first with the rules and then with a scenario. It has to provide everything that a group needs to play—rules, scenario, pre-generated Player Characters, and dice—and ideally more. Maps, handouts, tokens, and the like are all items that will help bring the world of the roleplaying game’s setting to life and give the players something to look at and interact with. Above all, a good starter should showcase the roleplaying game and entice both Game Master and her players to want to roleplay more with the rules and in that setting by picking up the core rulebook, and if the contents of the start set support continued play, whether that is providing an extra set of dice or maps for the setting, then all the better.

—oOo—

The Vaesen – Starter Set is the introduction to Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, the roleplaying game based on Vaesen: Spirits and Monsters of Scandinavian Folklore as collected and illustrated by Johan Egerkrans, and published by Free League Publishing. It is an investigative horror game set in Scandinavia during the nineteenth century, using the Year Zero engine first seen in Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days, and subsequently a wide array of roleplaying games. It is set in the Mythic North of Scandinavia in the nineteenth century, a time when old traditions and secrets of the past clash against modernity and industrialisation. In dark forests and deep valleys, along brown rivers and at the edge of forgotten groves, in the eaves and in the shadows, there lurk creatures and monsters called ‘Vaesen’ that have begun to hate man. In ages past, everyone knew how to interact with Vaesen so that both could live alongside each other. Now many of those that knew have died or left to find work in the cities, whilst others have come to the mountains and the rivers and the forests to plunder and exploit what they want in the name of progress, so destroying the homes of the Vaesen and making them feel unwanted and unloved. In the past, a secret organisation known as The Society investigated both the Vaesen and their clashes with mankind, but it has long dissolved, its members retired or confined to an asylum, and its headquarters, Castle Gyllencreutz, in the Swedish city of Uppsala, shut up. Yet there are still those who have the Sight, those Thursday’s Children, who can see Vaesen, and perhaps they need a purpose worthy of their gift?

This is the set-up for both the Vaesen – Starter Set and Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, but the Vaesen – Starter Set is designed to be an introduction to not just the rules and the setting for Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, but also to its set-up. This will involve both players and their characters learning about the Vaesen, The Society, and Castle Gyllencreutz, and preparing for further investigations and more mysteries. It designed for play by five players and the Game Master and will provide them both one or two sessions’ worth of play.

Open up the Vaesen – Starter Set and what the Game Master will find first is a set of ten Vaesen dice and Initiative cards. Below that is the ‘Getting Started’ sheet which provides a quick introduction to Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, what to do first with the contents of the Vaesen – Starter Set, and what to do after a group has played through its contents. Below that are three books. The first is the sixteen-page ‘Rules’ booklet, the second is the twelve-page ‘The Haunting of Castle Gyllencreutz’ scenario book, and the third is the forty-four-page ‘Codex Occultum’. Underneath that is a set of five Reference Sheets—one per player, three handouts for the ‘The Haunting of Castle Gyllencreutz’ scenario, five pre-generated Player Characters, and two maps. One of the maps is a particularly good cutaway map of Castle Gyllencreutz, which is new to Vaesen, whilst the other, larger map is double-sided, one side showing the Mythic North, the other the city of Uppsala, home to Castle Gyllencreutz.
Anyone who has played a Year Zero roleplaying game will instantly grasp the rules for Vaesen, but they are quickly and easily explained in the ‘Rules’ booklet. To have his character undertake an action, a player will roll a number of six-sided dice equal to a combination of his character’s Attribute and Skill, plus whatever bonus or penalty dice the Game Master awards, such as from the situation or a Talent. To succeed, all he needs to roll is typically one Success or six—though sometimes it may be more—on any of the dice. Extra Successes can be expended to gain various effects. In combat, this will be more damage, but in other situations it will usually mean learning more information. These are tailored to the scenario in the Vaesen – Starter Set, but are further expanded upon in Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying.

If a player fails a roll, he can instead choose to Push the roll. This enables the player to reroll the dice which did not result in Successes in the hope of getting some or more Successes. Doing so will inflict a Condition on the Player Character, either Exhausted, Battered, or Wounded for Physical Conditions, or Angry, Frightened, or Hopeless for Mental Conditions. Suffer too many of either Physical or Mental Conditions and the Player Character will be Broken, meaning that he cannot act. Damage from combat is also inflicted in terms of Conditions. The Initiative Cards, numbered from one to ten, determine when a Player Character, NPC, or Vaesen acts each round, though it is possible to swap Initiative cards between Player Characters and/or friendly NPCs each round, and in each Round, a Player Character has a Slow action and a Fast action. A Fear test is required if a Player Character encounters a Vaesen or magic, the number of Successes required determined by the Fear value of the creature, magic, or situation. Overall, the explanation of the rules in ‘Rules’ booklet is brisk, but covers most situations and is backed up by examples of play. It also provides explanations of what roleplaying is and what Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying is.

The ‘The Haunting of Castle Gyllencreutz’ scenario book opens with the Player Characters being invited to a tavern in the poor part of Uppsala where they will meet the elderly Linnea Elfeklint. She will tell them that like herself, they are one of Thursday’s Children and have Sight, which means that they can see creatures known as Vaesen that most people cannot. She will also tell them about The Society and Castle Gyllencreutz and that she wants to restart The Society. However, she will explain that she does not have access to Castle Gyllencreutz as her ex-fiancé possesses its deeds and that recently other Thursday’s Children have gone to the castle and not returned. This half of the scenario sets up its mystery, whilst second half involves investigation in the castle itself. The castle is in a dilapidated state inside and out, and is haunted by strange lights. The final confrontation is ethereal in nature and players who are prone to fight may be at a disadvantage. The scenario is short, but it set the Player Characters with ready access to Castle Gyllencreutz and further play of Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying.

The five pre-generated Player Characters consist of a Hunter, a military officer, a priest, a writer, and a vagabond. All five have an illustration and some background as well as full stats and game details, including notes on what each think of the other four Player Characters. Each player will have a Reference Card, which neatly summarises the rules for ease of play.

The third booklet in the Vaesen – Starter Set, the ‘Codex Occultum’, is actually the thickest and is effectively the players’ own copy of Vaesen: Spirits and Monsters of Scandinavian Folklore as collected and illustrated by Johan Egerkrans and their characters’ guide to the Vaesen. From the Ash Tree Wife to the Wood Wife, it illustrates and describes some twenty-two Vaesen and how they might be banished, appeased, or otherwise dealt with. This is lovely little reference work—both in game and out—and it is highly likely the one item in the Vaesen – Starter Set that the players will return to over and over. Lastly, the maps of both Uppsala and Mythic North are excellent, whilst the one of Castle Gyllencreutz shows it in its prime, potentially a status that the Player Characters cab return it to in the long run. It certainly gives the Player Characters some idea of what the castle was like and what might be behind the locked or otherwise inaccessible parts of the castle.

Physically, the Vaesen – Starter Set is very well presented. Both the ‘Rules’ booklet and ‘The Haunting of Castle Gyllencreutz’ are easy to read and grasp, whilst the physical components are of a high standard, particularly the maps and the ‘Codex Occultum’.

The Vaesen – Starter Set is a good starting package for Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, except for one thing and that is the depth of play it offers in the box. A single scenario is less than what is expected of a good starter set today, yet the straightforward physicality of the Vaesen – Starter Set actually makes it a worthwhile purchase. Not just the Vaesen dice and the Initiative cards, but also the maps, especially the one of Castle Gyllencreutz, and of course, the ‘Codex Occultum’ handout will all support continued play of Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying long after the players have roleplayed the scenario in Vaesen – Starter Set. Arguably, the Vaesen – Starter Set is a better accessories kit than an actual starter set, but its scenario is by no means bad, and will get a Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying campaign off to a good start.

Zombies on the Thames

It is the year 1829 and polite society’s horror and disgust at the poor and the great unwashed is once again being stoked by reports of them shambling about at night, faces ashen, and looming out of the miasma along the River Thames to scare anyone and everyone, whether going about legitimate business or not. In sordid South London, in the notorious slum that is Jacob’s Island, right on the banks of the Thames, people are going missing—and worse, they are coming back very much in discombobulated fashion! It is a very strange matter indeed, and despite it having been brought to the attention of Sir Robert Peel and his recently founded Metropolitan Police Force, there is not the manpower, or indeed, the political willpower to do a great about it. Which is why the Apollonian Society, whose members investigate the unseemly and the unnatural, is approached to look into the matter.

This is the set-up to Mists of Old London, a scenario for use with Vaesen – Mythic Britain & Ireland, the campaign supplement for Vaesen – NordicHorror Roleplaying, which details the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in the nineteenth century and the clashes the arose between the old ways and the new with rapid industrialisation. The scenario is set primarily in the rotten rookery and sodden slum of Jacob’s Island, home to some of the city’s poorest inhabitants, on the south bank of the river, notable as being the home of Bill Sykes in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Investigation will reveal the are is rife with tension. There has been a recent influx of immigrants from Jamaica into the slum as well as the people vanishing into the mists and then reappearing at their homes, as cold as the grave. There are also strange figures stalking the streets. One is hooded in rags and mutters curses and incantations as she clambers across the rickety walkways and bridges that connect many parts of Jacob’s Island, whilst the other strides purposefully, a gentleman in frock coat and top hat as well as a mask. She is Madame Otay, he is Monsieur Thursday.

It should be pretty clear that to the players that what their characters are facing is an infestation of zombies, appropriate for the threat that the Player Characters face, though since the word would have been little known at the time when the scenario is set, it is very unlikely that the characters will initially know they are facing and extremely unlikely that they will have come across the term before. There are opportunities for both Madame Otay and Monsieur Thursday to educate the Player Characters though. Being a scenario for Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, there is a countdown in which things get worse, the mists will rise and worsen, and the zombies will walk the streets of Jacob’s Island openly. There are a limited number of lines of investigation, but the Player Characters should get enough clues to work out what is going and where they need to go—whether either of the major NPCs want them to, or not. All of which will lead to classic showdown at a summoning by the villain of the piece and the Player Characters in position to stop it.

This is a most serviceable scenario with a pleasing tense and strong, if sodden atmosphere of fear, tinged just a little with a fear of the unknown. Smart or experienced players will probably crack on through and complete it in a single session, though it should take no more than two sessions’ worth of play at the most for other. It could work as a convention in the case of the former, but it is not really set up for that. Thematically the plot could work with the Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game or period wise with Regency Cthulhu: Dark Designs in Jane Austen’s England, both from Chaosium, Inc. In fact, retooling it for the latter for the Miskatonic Repository would work rather well.

Mists of Old London is not without its issues and the likelihood is that the complaints about are going to come from both end of the spectrum. One is that the scenario makes use of African diaspora religion of Obeah as a feature of its plot. The other is that one of the NPCs is called ‘Nigel Barrige’, who as MP for Southwark, “…[N]ow seeks to consolidate his power by stoking parliaments [SIC] fears of the working class and social revolution.” The author goes further than this though, in what is a parody of a contemporary British political figure. To be fair, the first of these is more of an issue than the second, but the author does make clear that it is not intended faithful representation of the religion, but stick to being a Western, dramatised version for the sake of the scenario’s plot. The author also suggests that if the Game Master is unhappy with this, then it is possible to some research and adjust as necessary. A link is provided should the Game Master want to get started. As to the second, it is parody, and parody is fair game.

Mists of Old London is published via the Free League Workshop, the community content programme for Free League Publishing, so not professionally produced. As a consequence, physically, Mists of Old London is rough. The layout and the few pieces of illustration are fine, but it really, really needs a good edit. There are also no maps.

Mists of Old London is far from a bad scenario. It just needs to be more clearly and tidily presented and supported with a map or two. Otherwise, Mists of Old London is eminently serviceable, enjoyable scenario.

Burns So Very Very Brightly

It begins with an interview deep in the Rep-Detect Unit headquarters of the LAPD Tower. On one side of the table is a ‘Blade Runner’, an officer belonging to the unit dedicated to apprehending and retiring rogue replicants. On the other is a suspected replicant, a service technician at the headquarters of the Wallace Corporation apprehended after breaking into the company’s Replicant Memory Vault. The suspect lacks a serial number which would indicate that he is a registered Nexus-8 or Nexus-9 model. Surely there cannot be any Nexus-6 models still surviving? Unable to determine if the suspect is a Replicant, the officer has turned to an older method to detecting his status. A Voight-Kampff wheezes between the officer and the suspect. On the table is a list of questions the officer will put to the suspect. Quickly though, the suspect’s brazen refusal to engage with the emotional nature of the questions turns to violence and the interviewee turns on the interviewer. A bruising, bloody fracas ensues. The interviewer is bruised and battered, but his colleagues on the other side of the glass to the interview room were able to come to his help. The suspect is dead, his status is uncertain. Is he an aberration, or there unregistered Replicants on the starts of LA?

This is the set-up to Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game – Case File 02: Fiery Angels—and it is a great set-up, one that clearly echoes the begin of the film, Blade Runner, itself, when Blade Runner, Dave Holden, is seen conducting a Voight-Kampff test on Leon Kowalski. Dave Holden is, of course, by this time, the head of the Rep-Detect Unit, huffing and puffing through the replacement lungs for the ones that Kowalski shot out of him. Further, this is not the only reference to Blade Runner to be found during the course of the investigation. For example, the officers pay a visit to the Yukon Hotel on Hunterwasser Street where Leon Kowalski stayed, and both Ray McCoy and Runciter’s Live Animals appear from the 1997 Blade Runner video game from Westwood Studios. The Case File is littered with such references which the fan of Blade Runner will appreciate and which will also help to pull the players into the future of 2037. Such refences are not the only immersive elements in the Case File either, for just like ‘Case File 01: Electric Dreams’ in the Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game Starter Set, the investigation is supported with numerous handouts that give points of reference and clues to the players and their characters. 

Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game – Case File 02: Fiery Angels is a scenario for Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game, published by Free League Publishing. Although it can be run on its own, it specifically designed as a sequel to ‘Case File 01: Electric Dreams’ in the Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game Starter Set, being part of ‘The Immortal Game’ campaign arc. Even then, the Game Master may need to make some alterations to this new Case File as some NPCs who appear in ‘Case File 01: Electric Dreams’ may have died. Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game – Case File 02: Fiery Angels comes as a boxed set which contains not only the sixty-page book for the case file, but also a set of fourteen Mugshot cards, seven maps depicting locations pertinent to the case, and a sturdy, buff envelope marked ‘RDU – LAPD REP–Detect’. This contains another eleven clues and Esper images that the Player Characters can search for clues. 

The interview and subsequent death of the service technician triggers an investigation into the possibility of there being rogue Replicants at large in LA and if so the possibility that someone else is using technology stolen from the Tyrell Corporation, technology that is now solely owned by the Wallace Corporation. The investigation is against the clock, just four days before the antagonists’ plans come to a fruition, with numerous leads to follow. As in Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game, the investigation is carried out in shifts—four per day, with one required for Downtime—with the Player Characters, not just encouraged, but actually needing to split up to cover everything and everywhere. Information can be shared and updated between the Player Characters via their KIAs, Knowledge Integration Assistant units. The investigation is very well organised by NPCs and locations, clearly listing what the Player Characters might find should they interview the persons there and look at scenes. Some of the locations are not directly linked to the investigation, but may be places that a Player Character might go to speak to a contact.

In terms of structure, there are scenes in Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game – Case File 02: Fiery Angels where the action and story are quite directed, even forced. This is intentional, designed to ramp up the tension and even set up events in the sequel to the scenario. One Player Character, ideally a Human, will also find himself in the spotlight for much of the scenario, his integrity and humanity much tested. Other than that, there are tables of Downtime Events for Player Characters, including a special set for the Player Character in the spotlight, plus a list of Promotion and Humanity awards. The Case File is designed to be played by between one and four Player Characters and if played by one, the single player will find his character placed in the spotlight in more ways than one. 

Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game – Case File 02: Fiery Angels should provide two or three sessions’ worth of grim, grimy, and uncertain play. Although its Case File could be run as a standalone investigation, it works best as a continuation of  ‘Case File 01: Electric Dreams’ from the Blade Runner – The Roleplaying Game Starter Set, and as such, this is an ‘in between’ scenario, which continues the overall plot, but does not finish it. The only difficulty really is making adjustments to take account of the changes between this Case File and ‘Case File 01: Electric Dreams’, primarily if certain NPCs were killed in ‘Case File 01: Electric Dreams’.

Physically, Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game – Case File 02: Fiery Angels is superbly presented. It is a fantastic boxed with great handouts and good maps, many of which could easily be used by the Game Master again for her own scenarios. The scenario is well written and organised and the artwork throughout is stunning, everywhere and everyone seeming to step out of the shadows in Film Noir fashion. 

The unfortunate truth is that there is not great deal of support for Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game, but there can be no doubt that Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game – Case File 02: Fiery Angels is a brilliant addition to what is a very short line. It explores identity and the nature of what it is to be human from start to finish, really placing one Player Character in the spotlight, and does so in an incredibly good looking package.

Year 1873

The year is 1873. Ulysses S. Grant begins his second term as President of the United States. There is no let up in the Indian Wars on the new American frontier as barbed wire, denim jeans, and the 1873 model Winchester rifle, ‘The Gun That Won the West’, are all invented. Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer clashes for the first time with the Sioux and P.T. Barnum’s circus, The Greatest Show on Earth, debuts in New York City. The wounds of the Civil War remain and in the wake of the economic crisis that followed, an ever growing number of people have fled west into the newly American territories of Arizona, California, Nevada, Texas, Utah, along with parts of New Mexico and Colorado, looking to find new lives for themselves in what were once part of Mexico. Settlers, prospectors, miners, cattlemen and herders, businessmen and women, farmers, outlaws and lawmen, all seeking their fortune one way or another in the new lands. There they bring strife and they find strife, with each other and with the peoples already there, which includes the Native Americans and the Hispanics. Greed and prejudice still drive some men. Others want to avoid such concerns and to live a good life, to make a good life for their families and for others, and to protect themselves and their homes.

The American frontier of 1873 is the setting for Tales of the Old West. Funded via a Kickstarter campaign and published by Effekt, this is a roleplaying game which returns to old genre, that of ‘Cowboys & Indians’, combining a mature approach to both the subject matter and the history with the application of the Year Zero engine. This means that it uses the same mechanics first seen in Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days, the Alien: The Roleplaying Game, and Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, all roleplaying games published by Free League Publishing. It also means that it has a familiar mechanical structure and design. It uses six-sided dice—here of two colours, one for Trouble dice and the other for standard dice—with the aim being to roll a single six as a success. Each Player Character has an Archetype, an Age which determines the points to be assigned to the four Attributes and Abilities, which is what Tales of the Old West calls skills (a younger Player Character have higher Attributes and lower Abilities, older have lower Attributes and higher Abilities), one or more Talents derived from the Archetype (there are other generic Talents available when a Player Character gains experience), a Faith or belief that sums up their outlook on life, a Dream which will drive the Player Character to act, and together with other Player Characters, a town or settlement where they live and which they try to improve. Each Player Character will also have Relationships with his fellow Player Characters, one of whom he will regard as his Pardner. Talents, Relationships, and Faiths are all suggested by the Archetypes. Then, Tales of the Old West has a set of community rules which first see the Player Characters invest in a business and then in the long term, are used track the growth and prosperity of the town or settlement where the Player Characters live. As the seasons pass, the town provides hooks and opportunities for adventure and roleplaying and can be used to drive the ongoing campaign forward.

A Player Character in Tales of the Old West has four attributes—Grit, Quick, Cunning, and Docity. Of these, Docity is the ability of a character to learn. He has an Archetype, of which there are ten. These are Gentlefolk, Grifter, Homesteader, Labourer, Lawman, Outlaw, Prospector, Ranch Hand, Tracker, and Trader. Some of these are quite broad. So, Gentlefolk includes artists, journalists, teacher, entertainers, politicians, and so on, whilst Grifter covers swindlers, cardsharps, thieves, and the like. The Archetype sets the base value for attributes and skills, and provides options in terms of Talents, Dream, and Faith. For example, the Prospector suggests the Talents of Brawler, Engineer, Guard Dog, and Herbalist, whilst his Dream might be ‘“There’s gold to be found in them thar hills” and it’s all going to be yours’ or ‘The railroad will build a new civilisation in the west, and you will be the architect’, and his Faith, ‘God’s design is all around me, and he has a design for my fate too’ or ‘The Strength of the land itself keeps me on my feet.’ Faith need not be religious faith—although religious, Christian faith, prevailed during this period and often drove the expansion west, but can instead be a firmly held belief.

Tales of the Old West provides two means to create a Player Character. In the quick method, a player selects an Archetype and modifies it according to the age—Greenhorn, Tested, and Old-Timer—of the Player Character. He then selects one or more Talents, according to age, and then a Faith and a Dream, chooses some equipment. Lastly, he decides on the Relationships his Player Character has with the others.

Name: Virgil Bruce

Archetype: Trader

Age: Greenhorn

Grit: 04 Labour 1 Presence 1 Fightin’ 0 Resilience 0

Quick: 03 Move 0 Operate 0 Shootin’ 0 Light-Fingered 0

Cunning: 04 Hawkeye 0 Nature 0 Insight 2 Animal Handlin’ 0

Docity: 04 Performin’ 2 Makin’ 2 Doctorin’ 0 Booklearnin’ 2

Talents

Lawyer

Big Dream

‘Where there is opportunity, so comes law, and by the Lord this town needs a judge in good standing—that will be you.’

Faith (4)

‘Money talks. Always has, always will.’

Gear

$45

Ounce of gold

Roper repeating shotgun and D6 rounds

The other method is to use the Lifepath system included in Tales of the Old West. This provides a more detailed Player Character, determining where he comes from and what his family is like, and then what he has done. This is how he has made his Living, up to three times, depending upon his age. This provides far more flavour and detail.

Name: Deborah Leung

Archetype: Trader

Age: Tested

Place of Birth: China

Upbringing: “You come from an old sea-faring family. It is said your forefathers traded across the Pacific long before the Europeans discovered that coast. If it’s true, it made them rich. Gain +1 point of Capital.”

What Of The Family You Left Behind?: “Your family was big until the curse. Death, madness, and foolishness reduced them all to ruins, and you had no choice to leave those who still survived behind.”

Livings: Frontier Folk (‘You used to come into town just to sell your furs. But it’s warmer to sit and sell those furs. So now you sell clothes for the discerning outdoorsman. Make your next Living roll on the Trader Living Outcome Table.’)

Trader (‘You make the most of the influx of single men coming to the town by advertising “employment opportunities for young women” back east. Your successful bordello earns you the respect of a town elder. Make your next Living Roll on the Gentlefolk Living Outcome Table.’)

Grit: 04 Labour 0 Presence 4 Fightin’ 2 Resilience 1

Quick: 02 Move 0 Operate 0 Shootin’ 0 Light-Fingered 0

Cunning: 04 Hawkeye 2 Nature 0 Insight 3 Animal Handlin’ 0

Docity: 04 Performin’ 4 Makin’ 3 Doctorin’ 0 Booklearnin’ 1

Talents

Knife Fighter

Charming

Big Dream

‘Where there is opportunity, there is a woman. I will make my way to respectability in this town and beyond.’

Faith (4)

‘Money talks. Always has, always will.’

Gear

Knife

Outfit: Store with 1 Capital

Outfit: Salon with 1D3 Capital

Capital: 1

Harford Coach Gun & 2D6 Cartridges

$28

Mechanically, Tales of the Old West uses the Year Zero engine. To have his character undertake an action, a player rolls a number of dice equal to a combination of Attribute and Ability. The pool of dice consists of ‘Trouble’ dice and standard dice. There will always be ‘Trouble’ dice in the dice pool, up to five. A single roll of a six on either die type indicates a success. Multiple successes improve the outcome and allow the Player Character to perform stunts. In combat, these might be to inflict extra damage or inflict a critical injury, but for other Abilities, Stunts include giving a bonus on subsequent rolls, completing a task quicker, impressing someone, and so on. If no sixes are rolled, the action fails. If ones are rolled on the ‘Trouble’ dice, these have no effect unless the player decides to ‘push’ the roll. This enables him to reroll any dice that did not roll a one or a six. However, if there are any ones remaining after the roll has been pushed, even if the Player Character has succeeded, they trigger a check on the ‘Trouble Outcome Table’. There is a ‘Trouble Outcome Table’ for conflict and physical situations and for social and mental situations. The effects vary depending how many ones have been rolled.

For example, if a Player Character has generated three ones in a conflict, the outcome might be “You’re shaken and shocked. For the rest of the scene, you suffer -2 to all rolls using the ability that suffered the Trouble” or “Your gun explodes, your weapon breaks and slices into you, or your blow catches something sharp. You suffer a 6 dice attack, either with Damage and Critical rating of your weapon or Damage 1, Crit 1.” The roll can have a straightforward outcome, but it can also escalate from one column to the next if a player rolls high enough.

Pushing a roll costs a Player Character a point of Faith, of which he has four at the start of every scenario, and ideally, the reason for Pushing a roll should tie in with the Player Character’s Faith statement. Faith can also be spent to buy off Trouble dice showing a one. It is better to do this before a roll is pushed as it still allows the dice to be rolled as part of the Push attempt, but negates the dice if done after the Pushed roll. Faith can be recovered for making good rolls without Pushing, or for undertaking actions such as a Player Character saving his Pardner, praying, or taking revenge, and for performing rituals like cleaning a weapon, grooming a horse, going to church, and so on. Faith can be lost, though this is a roleplaying choice rather than a mechanical one.

Conflict in Tales of the Old West uses the same core mechanics. Initiative is determined by drawing cards from a deck of ordinary playing cards, whilst in combat, a Player Character can act twice per round. This is either a fast action and a slow action, or two fast actions. A Slow Action might be ‘Shoot’, ‘Melee Attack’, and ‘Mount’, whilst a ‘Fast Action might be ‘Quick Shot’, ‘Aim’, and ‘Draw Weapon’. The rules cover brawling, the use of the lasso, as well as gunfights, including, of course, duels. As expected, duels are a step-by-step process, beginning with the face-off and then going through the draw and the shoot-off to see who is left standing. Other combat rules cover fanning, overwatch, cover, and ammunition. All weapons inflict a minimum amount of damage, applied directly to the defender’s Attributes. Damage done to Grit is called Hurts, if to Quick it is Shakes, to Cunning it is Vexes, and to Docity, it is Doubts. If reduced to zero, an Attribute is Broken. However, if the number of Successes rolled on an attack equal the Crit Rating of the weapon used, then a critical attack has been made. Critical hits are inflicted if either Grit or Quick is Broken. Overall, combat is fairly quick and brutal. Weapons are quite detailed and include a variety of historical models, noting in particular the difference between single action and double action pistols, the former being slower, but lighter and more accurate, the latter being heavier, but faster.

So far, so good. Tales of the Old West can do all of the things that you expect of a Wild West roleplaying game. Duels, gambling, chases, cattle rustling, bank robberies, and more. However, where it really begins to shine is in its support and capacity for long term play. This can start during Player Character creation with the players deciding upon a group concept. Suggestions include lawmen and bounty hunters, outlaws, ranchers, farmers, business owners, vaqueros & cowboys, and mountain folk. Selecting a concept suggests the type of campaign that the players want to roleplay as well as granting their players bonuses in terms of equipment and money. Whatever the campaign concept, what Tales of the Old West really encourages the players and their characters to do is to earn sufficient dollars to make enough Capital, which can then be invested in a business. This can then generate further monies to make more Capital and so on. This gives both the players and their characters a personal attachment to the town. Alongside this, with the Turn of the Season, as well as potentially, from scenarios, the players earn Settlement Points, which can also be invested in the town. The progress and growth of the town itself is tracked in six ratings—Farming, Mercantile, Natural Riches, Law, Civic, and Welfare. The Settlement Points are spent on amenities that will adjust the various ratings. For example, holding a Season Fair will increase Farming and Mercantile both by one, Civic by two, but reduce Law by one. The combination of town prosperity, the Player Characters’ business outcome, a personal fortune roll, and the amenities added with the expenditure of Settlement Points, and what the Game Master has is a set of prompts around which she can design adventures, roleplaying opportunities, and themes. However, whilst a town can grow and prosper, it can also decline and fail, as can a Player Character’s business, the latter especially if the Player Character gets into debt, whether through gambling or other causes.

This is supported by a discussion of possible themes for a campaign and fifteen detailed story seeds. In terms of setting, Tales of the Old West provides an overview of the Wild West and its frontier, but focuses very much on the New Mexico territory, presenting a description and a history as well as a campaign framework set in the southwest of the territory. This is ‘The King of Santa Fe’. Set across three fictional towns, it focuses on the machinations and corruption in the Santa Fe Ring, the cadre of politicians and businessmen which dominate the corrupt politics of the territory and circle the governor, Marsh Giddings. All three towns are described, including the mining and lumber town of  Steaming Rock, the hunting town of Carson’s Folly, and ranching and mining town of Jornada Springs. All three towns include descriptions of its most notable citizens, and come with several campaign adventure outlines, two of which are the campaign starters and the campaign finishers. This is in addition to the descriptions of the territory’s major towns of cities of Albuquerque, Lincoln, Silver City, and even Las Vegas. Rounding out the support is a starting scenario, ‘Patience is a Virtue’.

In terms of tone, Tales of the Old West advises player and Game Master alike that the American West of the period is challenging in terms of both history and roleplaying, given the social attitudes of the period. It addresses in turn the status of women, Native Americans, the Hispanics, Chinese, and African Americans, clearly stating that participants should be respectful of the history and the diversity of the various peoples living in the setting it depicts, acknowledging the prejudices of the period, rather than embracing or revelling in them.

Physically, Tales of the Old West is a buff-coloured hardback with spots of muted colour that echoes classic depictions of the Old West. It is well written, easy to read, and a good looking book.

Respectful of the history, Tales of the Old West gives players and Game Masters alike the means to run and play more than a black and white, Cowboys & Indians game, a detailed, roleplaying campaign where the Player Characters are part of a community and building a better place. Modern, accessible, and playable, without being overly complex, Tales of the Old West is a thoroughly engaging and earnest treatment of the Old West.

The Other OSR: Book of Beasts

With Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts, the number of creatures and threats with which to menace the Player Characters doubles! Published by Free League Publishing, Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts provides twenty-eight descriptions of monsters fierce and fearsome adding to the twenty-three given in the core rulebook for the ‘Retro Open-World Survival Fantasy RPG’, Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World. Every entry comes with a short piece of colour fiction, full stats and abilities, and a table of Monster Attacks. That though is not all. For there is also a table for the player to roll his character’s Lore skill and so determine what Insights he might have into the creature. Then there is not one but two random encounters, each with some flavoursome description and an indication of the terrain types where the monster might be found. Lastly, there is a description of the ‘Resources’ that might be harvested from a monster if the Player Characters manage to kill one. Last, but least, there is a superb illustration. Beautiful, rich, and detailed, every image of a creature in Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is captivating. Any time that the Game Master shows one of these to her players, she really is going to amaze them.

So the Mummy is depicted as a dried husk of a warrior, grinning as it holds a victim by the throat in one hand, whilst readying a sword in the other. It is described as being in life a great lord who lusted after power, a lust that was not dimmed by the cold death of the crypt. In its unlife, it reigns over the steel and gold it was buried with and now jealously guards. Its body is hollowed out and empty and it hungers for the salts and juices that flow through the bodies of the living, having become a predatory cannibal in death. Some of this will be revealed in a Lore roll, but there is more that the Player Characters can learn. One of the random encounters is just a simple tomb description, whilst the other is a bit more exciting—a Mummy’s tomb that is already open and would have been plundered by some graverobbers were it not for the fact that they are being attacked by a Mummy and its servants!

In terms of stats, the Mummy is incredibly strong, but otherwise slow. It is unnaturally drawn to human entrails, but bound to its tombs. Its attacks include ‘Lordly Strike!’, which inflicts such a heavy blow that the defender is knocked prone, whilst with ‘Heart Constriction’, the Mummy makes a crushing genre with his fingers at an opponent who suffers a sudden and terrible pain in his chest and is potentially overcome with mortal terror! This is of course, in addition to the other four attacks listed for the Mummy, whilst the last entry in the monster description suggests the only Resource that can be harvested from a Mummy is the powder ground from its bones that when swallowed grants a bonus to the imbiber’s Strength.

So every monster and every creature in Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is given this treatment to great effect. The entries are all easy to read and easy to use, and include things such as a Dread Raptor, Giant Spider—which has descriptions of hatchlings, adults, and elders, the Iron Dragon, the Nature Spirit, Rat King, Twisted Ent, and more. There are some great monsters here and they provide the Game Master with some fantastic new options in terms of presenting challengers to her players. However, that is not all that there is in the pages of Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts, although they do take up nearly two thirds of the book.

The content beyond the monsters in Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts begins with a random encounter table for the thirty-six encounters that follow. All of these again, have a single paragraph of colour fiction, suitable to read out to the players, and typically a half page of detail, though some have more. Stats are included where necessary, but there is always a list of the terrain where the encounter can take place. They range from finding a man locked in a hanging iron cage pleading to be let free and coming across an old battlefield that could be salvaged to going to the aid of a legendary brewer and being employed to track down the bandits that attacked him and having to placate the spirit of an orc lord after sitting on his somewhat bedraggled stone throne. Some are as simple as coming across a piece of statuary and the opportunity to learn some lore about the history of the region, whilst others are more complex like discovering a length of a Dwarven wall and with the aid of an expert on its history finding a way to the tomb of an ancient chieftain. Not all of them are quite ready to run though, so there are several which require more development than others, such as the meaning behind a coded message that is found on a dead pigeon. This is though, a good selection of encounters and scenario hooks.

Oddly, Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts has its own section of ‘Game Master Tools’ as if none of the previous content was for the Game Master and this section is for her eyes only. Of course, the whole book is for the Game Master. The section contains a list of traps, from nets, poison darts, and crusting boulders to domination, magical traps, and teleportation, which can be rolled for or selected, whilst ‘Books, Ballads, and Grimoires’ expands upon the ‘Carried Valuable Finds’ and ‘Carried Precious Finds’ from the Game-master’s Guide. These can all be studied and in return, a Player Character can gain a bonus, which can be a Talent or a skill increase. For example, ‘Easy Little Dwarfling’, a lullaby by Yendra grants the Lightning Fast Talent, whilst ‘Sweet, Courage, and Leverage’ by Nilia Trollvälte is a manual that increases the Might of anyone who studies it. Between the various categories, there are over seventy entries here and even just having the names of either the manuals and ballads, and their authors, adds to the immersive nature of the Forbidden Lands setting. A similar set of tables adds new artefacts to the roleplaying game, though they lack the description and detail given to those in the core rules.

‘Journeys’ adds further tables, but this time for nature of different locations or terrain types, ranging from plains, forests, and dark forests to quagmires, marshlands, and ruins, and then it does the same for camps, plus there is trio of quick and dirty weather tables. In general, the ‘Journeys’ only adds a little extra detail and the tables are limited in their number of entries. Strongholds form a major part of play in Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World, whether that is the Player Characters needing to investigate one, either to take and hold it as a base of operations or explore and scavenge its contents, or as a base of operations, work to make the surrounding area safer. ‘Rules for Strongholds’ adds to the rules found in the Player’s Handbook with a short table of events and a long table of potential servants, their personalities, and secrets. The table of events could have been much, much longer, whereas in a campaign, the Game Master will get much more out of the table of servants.

‘Potions & Poisons’ opens up a new aspect of play, especially for the Player Character with the Herbalist Talent. It allows a Player Character with this Talent to forage for herbs and with the addition of the new Alchemist Talent, him to brew and concoct various potions, tinctures, and more. There are rules here for a new function that can be added to the Player Characters’ stronghold, a Laboratory, which adds a bonus to brewing potions and poisons. In addition to the list of various alchemical potions, there is a list of poisons too, which is useful for the Poisoner Talent. There is a new rule what happens if too many potions are consumed in too short a time.

Lastly, Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts includes ‘Solo Rules’. This addition to various roleplaying games has become popular since the advent of COVID-19 and the extended periods of lockdown, enabling players to play face-to-face gaming at the table proved impossible. The rules here give the player, which of course, can be the Game Master, the means to explore the Forbidden Lands alone. The Player Character needs to be a little more powerful than a standard Player Character, and suggests that Lucky be taken as an extra General Talent. There are rules here for including a companion character, potentially a replacement Player Characters, and tables for the creating encounters and providing answers that the Player Character might have about the world around him. An ordinary deck of playing cards is required to generate the answers from what the rules call ‘Oracles’, covering simple ‘Yes/No’ questions, ‘Helpful/Hazardous’ situations, and more. As with other solo rules, the ones presented here make play more procedural than standard play and of course, they lack the capacity for roleplaying. Nevertheless, they are a useful option.

Physically, Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is a black and white book, but an absolutely fantastic-looking one. The artwork is exquisite. Otherwise, the book is very well written and easy to read.

Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is great addition to Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World and so much more than a simple bestiary. In fact, as a bestiary, it is not even simple. The monsters and creatures described are things out of nightmare and folklore, memorably menacing and dangerous. There is more to them than just encountering a gaggle of Goblins as in other roleplaying games, aided by the uncertainty of their different and random attacks, their lore, and of course, the encounter descriptions which accompany each entry. Then, there is the rest of the content in Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts—encounters, traps, alchemy and potions, and quite a lot more. Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is not just a great bestiary for Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World, but a good companion to its rules as well.

Quick-Start Saturday: Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure

Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she can still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

—oOo—

What is it?

Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure is an introduction to Tales of the Old West, a historical roleplaying game set on the American frontier using the Year Zero mechanics.

It is a sixty-four page, primarily black and white book with colour maps.

The quick-start is nicely illustrated with some decent maps.

How long will it take to play?
Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure can be played through in a single session, or two sessions at most.

What else do you need to play?
Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure requires multiple six-sided dice. These should be divided between two different colours.

Where is it set?
Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure is set in and around the town of Carson’s Folly, a hunting and trapping town in Colfax County, New Mexico.

Who do you play?
There are five ready-to-play Player Characters given in Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure. They consist of an African American fur trader, a Caucasian grifter, a Native American Ranch Hand, an Irish Settler Homesteader, and a Mexican Cibolero Tracker.

The diversity of the ready-to-play Player Characters reflects the efforts of the authors to make the setting as accessible as possible, without resorting to stereotypes. This is balanced against the need to make the game fun. There is no general advice and certainly mention of the X-card that might be appropriate given the genre.

How is a Player Character defined?
A Player Character has four attributes—Grit, Quick, Cunning, and Docity—and a single stat, Faith, plus several skills. Faith need not be religious faith, but can instead be a firmly held belief. Examples include ‘I want to make my father proud’ or ‘I will find myself a family on the frontier’ or ‘the Lord is my shepherd’. He also has two Talents, a big dream, some gear, and some background. Of the four stats, Docity is the ability of a character to learn.

How do the mechanics work?
Mechanically, Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure and thus Tales of the Old West, uses the Year Zero engine, first seen in Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days. To have a Player Character undertake an action, a player rolls a number of dice equal to a combination of attribute and skill. The pool of dice consists of ‘Trouble’ dice and standard dice. There will always be ‘Trouble’ dice in the dice pool, up to five. A single roll of a six on either die type indicates a success. Multiple successes improve the outcome and allow the Player Character to perform stunts. In combat, these might be to inflict extra damage or inflict a critical injury, but the players are free to create other effects as well.

If no sixes are rolled, the action fails. If ones are rolled on the ‘Trouble’ dice, these have no effect unless the player decides to ‘push’ the roll. This enables him to reroll any dice that did not roll a one or a six. However, if there are any ones remaining after the roll has been pushed, they trigger a check on the ‘Trouble Outcome Table’. There is a ‘Trouble Outcome Table’ for conflict and physical situations and for social and mental situations. The effects vary depending how many ones have been rolled.

For example, if a Player Character has generated two ones in a conflict, the outcome might be “You stumble, slip or trip. Lose your next slow action.” or “Your attack is underpowered, or your action is weak. Lose a 6 from your pool of successes.” This is a pleasingly random set of effects, and it is a pity that there is not a corresponding set of tables that can be used when a player rolls multiple successes, if only as inspiration.

However, it costs a point of Faith to trigger a Pushed roll and in roleplaying terms, it should ideally tie into the Player Character’s Faith statement as this is a way of gaining Experience Points, but it need not do. Faith can also be spent to negate the effects of ‘Trouble’ dice, on a one-for-one basis. In Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure, a Player Character starts play with four points of Faith, but they can go up to ten. It is possible for a Player Character to lose his Faith and be Shaken.

How does combat work?
Conflict in Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure uses the same core mechanics and allows a Player Character to act twice per round. This is either a fast action and a slow action, or two fast actions. A Slow Action might be ‘Shoot’, ‘Melee Attack’, and ‘Mount’, whilst a ‘Fast Action might be ‘Quick Shot’, ‘Aim’, and ‘Draw Weapon’. The conflict rules cover social situations as well as fist fights, shootouts, and of course, duels. The latter covers the face-off at the start of the duel followed by the duellists going for their guns. Along with a ‘Critical Injury Table’, the rules are fairly compressive and cover most situations in the accompanying situation.

What do you play?
The adventure in Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure is ‘The Last Cibolero’. A ‘Cibolero’ is a Mexican buffalo hunter and the scenario is all about buffalo hunting. The Player Characters are involved in the fur and trapping trade, but like the rest of the townsfolk, do not hunt the herds of buffalo indiscriminately and this is the issue at the heart of the scenario. When the New Mexico Mercantile Cooperative, a well-backed outfit working out of Santa Fe, moves into the town to take as many hides as it can, it sets up a tension between the locals and the outsiders. As first one Cibolero and then another is found dead, this tension ratchets up and civility breaks down until the town is on the verge of open conflict...

The scenario includes four maps and floorplans. These are all well done. Besides the scenario, there is background information upon the local area and the town of Carson’s Folly and its inhabitants. The Game Master can develop more stories based on some of the secrets and wishes of the inhabitants with some effort.

Is it easy to prepare?
The core rules presented in Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure are easy to prepare, especially if the Game Master has any experience with the Year Zero engine. The scenario itself is quite straightforward and overall, it requires relatively little in the way of preparation.

Is it worth it?
Yes. The Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure are a solid introduction to both its setting and its concepts, which are very easy to grasp as everyone is familiar with the Wild West, although the included scenario, ‘The Last Cibolero’, will be unfamiliar and unlike almost any tale of the Wild West seen on screen.

Where can you get it?
The Tales of the Old West Quickdraw Rules and Adventure is available for purchase here.

The Kickstarter campaign for Tales of the Old West can be found here.

Your Walking Dead Guide Book

It seems surprising to realise that The Walking Dead is over two decades old. The comic by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore first appeared in 2003 and the resulting television series from AMC first aired in 2010 and has been followed with numerous spin-off series since. Both revitalised the zombie horror subgenre and the television series in particular, made zombies and horror acceptable to mainstream broadcasting like never before. Both comic book and television series tell the story of Rick Grimes, a sheriff’s deputy from Cynthiana, Kentucky, who after being wounded in the line of duty, awakes to find his wife and family missing and the world very much changed. Society has collapsed, the dead walk and hunger after our flesh, a virus means that everyone will rise as a walker after death, and the survivors huddle together, co-operate and scavenge for supplies, and somehow make choices that will keep them alive. The walkers are everywhere, a menace that cannot be vanquished, but they are not the only threat. Some survivors are prepared to kill and steal from other survivors—and worse. It is into this post-apocalyptic world where the dead walk—there are no such things as zombies—that the Player Characters are thrust into The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game.

The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Core Rules, published by Free League Publishing following a successful Kickstarter campaign, provides everything that a gaming group will need to roleplay in the world of The Walking Dead. The means to create characters, rules for scavenging and surviving in this post-apocalyptic world, dealing with encounters with the Walkers, building a community and sanctuary, and more. The community and sanctuary rules come into play in the second of the roleplaying game’s two modes—Campaign Mode. Where that is intended for long term play, the other mode, Survival Mode, is designed for one-shots, was presented in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set. So far, so good, but the obvious question that anyone is going to ask is, “What does The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game offer that other zombie-themed roleplaying games do not?” The most obvious answer would be that it offers the opportunity to roleplay in a setting that is not that far removed from our own and one that is familiar to anyone who has watched any of the television series. Much like any other licensed roleplaying game, but in terms of a zombie-themed roleplaying game, what The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game focuses on is survival against threats from without and within. The threats from without can, of course, include the Walkers, but in terms of storytelling, the real threats from without are other survivors outside of the Player Characters’ own group. Examples from the television series include the inhabitants of the town of Woodbury, the group called the Wolves, and, of course, the Saviors led by Negan. The threats from within are, of course, fellow survivors and what they might do to jeopardise survival of the group they belong to. The Walkers do remain an ever-lurking, constant threat, but unless their attention is aroused, they are not an active threat, more a passive one that is never going to go away. To that end, the roleplaying advises that the principles of the roleplaying game be made clear to new players, including, “Do whatever it takes to survive”, “Death is inescapable”, “You are never safe”, and so on. Make no mistake, The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game is not like other ‘zombie’ roleplaying games in which the Player Characters go around slaughtering the undead.

A Player Character in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game is first defined by an Archetype. This defines what the Player Character did prior to the apocalypse, as well as also the Player Character’s key Attribute and Skill, possible Talents to choose from, an Anchor, an Issue, and a Drive, plus starting Gear and relationship to other Player Characters. The Archetypes are Criminal, Doctor, Farmer, Homemaker, Kid, Law Enforcer, Nobody, Outcast, Politician, Preacher, Scientist, and Soldier. He has four Attributes—Strength, Agility, Wits and Empathy. These range in value between two and four, as do skills, but the key Attribute and key Skill can be five. Health Points represent a Player Character’s physical health and cannot be higher than three. A Player Character also has an Anchor, an Issue, and a Drive. An Anchor is another person—Player Character or NPC—that the Player Character cares about and who is used narratively to ‘Handle Your Fear’ and when attempting to relieve Stress. The Issue is a roleplaying hook, such as ‘You think you are better than them’ or ‘Unable to sit down and shut up’ that the Game Master can use to create interesting, typically challenging situations. Drive is what pushes a Player Character to grit his teeth and withstand the pain, like ‘You love your mother’ and ‘God put me here to save their souls’. Once a session, a Drive can be invoked to gain extra dice on a test. The Drive can also be lost, which triggers a ‘Breaking Point’ and if not regained or replaced, it can result in the Player Character being ‘Shattered’.

To create a character, a player selects an Archetype, distributes thirteen points between the four attributes, twelve between skills, and choses Issue, Drive, and Anchor.

Name: Brady Ferrell

Archetype: Farmer

Strength 5 Agility 3 Wits 2 Empathy 3

Skills: Close Combat 1, Force 4, Manipulation 1, Ranged Combat 2, Scout 2, Tech 2

Talents: Tough as Nails

Drive: I do what is right
Issue: Dogmatist

Gear: Toolbox, Jeep, Survival Equipment

Relationships: You are family

Mechanically, as with other Year Zero Engine roleplaying games, whenever a Player Character wants to undertake an action in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game, his player roles a number of Base Dice equal to the attribute plus skill plus any modifiers from gear, Talents, help, or the situation. If a single six, a Success, is rolled on the Base Dice, the Player Character succeeds, although extra Success will add bonus effects. However, if no Successes are rolled and the action is failed, or he wants to roll more Successes, the player has the choice to Push the roll. In which case, the Player Character suffers a point of Stress and gains a Stress Die. The player must also explain what the character is doing differently in order to Push the roll. For the pushed roll, the player will roll all of the Base Dice which did not roll success and the Stress Die. In fact, until the Player Character finds a way to reduce his Stress points, his player will continue to add Stress Dice equal to his character’s Stress Points on every roll. Only one pushed roll can be made per action, but the danger of having Stress Dice is if their results should be a one or ‘Walker’ symbol. It means two things. First, if the player has not yet pushed the roll, he cannot do so. Second, whether or not he has pushed the roll, it means that the Player Character has ‘Messed Up’. Typically, this means that he increased the numbers of Walkers nearby and attracted their attention, turning up the dial on the Threat Meter. In other situations, a ‘Messed Up’ might mean the Player Character has got lost, lost his footing, said the wrong thing in a tense standoff, and so on. Other sources of Stress include being short on food and water, getting shot at, seeing someone in the group get bitten by a Walker, killing someone in cold blood, and so on.

There are several means of getting rid of Stress. Primarily, these consist of a Player Character connecting and interacting with his Anchor, and at the end of the day, simply getting a good night’s sleep and plenty of rest. Whilst interacting with an Anchor can be during play, at the end of each session, a Player Character has to deal with the dreadful things that he has seen and done that session. This is done via the ‘Handle Your Fear’ mechanic and is triggered if the Player Character has suffered a Breaking Point like his Anchor being killed or disappearing, brutally killing or beating someone who is defenceless, is Broken by damage, suffers five Stress Points, and so on. At this point, the player rolls Base Dice equal to either his character’s Wits or Empathy, with a bonus for any Anchors who are still alive. This roll cannot be pushed, needs only one Success to succeed, but if failed, causes the Player Character to become Overwhelmed, meaning that he loses his Drive, becomes mentally Shattered, or his Issue is changed or added to.

Combat scales in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game depending upon who or what the Player Characters are facing. Duels are one-on-one attacks handled via opposed rolls, each combatant hoping to gain more Successes than the other. Brawls handle combat between multiple participants in which the Leadership skill can be used to hand out bonuses to allies in the fight. Combat is deadly though, a Player Character only possessing three points of Health and once they are lost, the Player Character is Broken, gains a point of Stress, and his player must roll on the Critical Injuries table. The lack of Health in comparison to other roleplaying games is compounded by the limited access to medical care. Make no mistake, The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game is deadly.

A setting which is already deadly due to low health and lack of healing, is compounded by the presence of the Walkers. They are a constant, lurking presence in The Walking Dead Universe, in game terms that presence is typically written into a scenario at a particular location or encounter, as you would expect, but also brought into play randomly whenever a player rolls a ‘Walker’ symbol on a Stress Die. Narratively, this could be as simple as the Player Characters opening a door to discover a room full of Walkers or a Walker bursting out of a bush to attack the Player Characters. The presence of the Walkers is tracked by the Threat Meter, which ranges from zero and ‘You are in a cleared area and safe. For now.’ to six and ‘The dead are in your face, surrounding you.’ The Threat Level is raised by rolling a ‘Walker’ on a Stress Die, failing a skill roll to avoid Walkers, doing something in the game to attract their attention, and so on. Ideally, the Player Characters will sneak around them as they scavenge buildings and search locations, but of course, that is unlikely. At low levels on the Threat Meter, it is possible for the Player Characters to go quiet and wait it out until the Walkers have either wandered off or gone quiet themselves. At higher levels, the Player Characters will need to find a way to distract the Walkers and make them go elsewhere or fight them. Encounters with a few Walkers are possible and these can be engaged in ‘Single Walker Attacks’, but Walkers congregate and then they fight as Swarms. Fights against Swarms are group endeavours, the aim being to roll more Successes than a Swarm to first reduce its size and then escape it. If a Player Character or Player Characters lose against a Walker attack, there is a table of very nasty and brutal ‘Walker Attack’ effects which will have the players wincing when they hear the results. The rules cover sacrificing another, brawling amidst a Swarm, clearing out an area, and lastly, amputation, the latter the last desperate result to resolve after a Walker bite…

One of aspects of The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game that it shares with many other Year Zero roleplaying games, and that is its community rules. In roleplaying games such as Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days and Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, the Player Characters begin with a community that they can improve through play and so gain rewards and advantages that will benefit both the community and further play. In The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game, the Player Characters have a Haven rather than a community. It is where as survivors, they can live protected from both Walkers and predatory humans, grow food, undertake projects to improve the facilities, and go out on supply and scavenging runs. A Haven is defined by its characteristics, its Capacity and Defence, and its Issues. The characteristics are its description, answers to questions such as “Where can you post lookouts?” or “What characteristics of the haven annoy you or make people irritated?”, whilst Capacity measures the maximum number of people who can live there and Defence its ability to withstand an attack—whether from Walkers or other humans. Within the Haven, both Player Characters and NPCs can pursue projects such as creating an apiary or setting up a simple alarm system, teach skills to NPCs, and build and repair gear. However, all Havens have at least one Issue that will cause problems for the inhabitants, such as “Something regularly draws walkers to this location” or “Rats everywhere”. Worse, some Issues will be secret and can only be discovered during play. Issues will drive some of the story and plot to any campaign of The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game. How these play out will affect the Haven’s Capacity and Defence—for good or ill—and ultimately, whether both it and its inhabitants will fall.

The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game offers two modes of play. One is Survival Mode, suitable for convention play or one-shots. The other is Campaign Mode, further divided into two sub-modes. In Free Play, the game is a played as a standard campaign, dealing with the survival of both the Player Characters and their Haven in the long term over a wide area. Season Mode is designed to emulate the television series more than Campaign Mode, structuring the campaign story around particular threats, locations, issues, and in particular Challenges, all of which will change from one Season to the next. Of course, the Player Characters will face Challenges in all three modes and there is advice for the Game Master on how to create and escalate them as needed. Similarly, there is good advice for the Game Master on running the game, creating factions, handling NPCs, scenes, and the horror at the heart of the game. This is all supported with numerous tables of content and possible encounter ideas, as well as two scenarios.

Both scenarios complete with pre-generated Player Characters, detailed descriptions of their set-ups, and good write-ups of the various NPCs and factions and they want. The Survival Mode scenario is ‘The Golden Ambulance’, which is set between Seasons Two and Three of The Walking Dead. The Player Characters go out in search of much-needed medicine and discover an abandoned ambulance which seems to contain some ready to scavenge medical supplies. Is it too good to be true? Add in the tensions between the pre-generated Player Characters and this is a tight, fraught affair. For the Campaign Mode, the ‘Atlanta Campaign Set-Up’ provides the Game Master with everything she needs for a campaign set after the events of The Walking Dead.

If there is one thing missing from The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game, it is the stats and write-ups of the NPCs from the various television series. Some do appear in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set, but anyone coming to this roleplaying game from the television expecting to see the heroes and villains from the series will be disappointed. That said, this is a roleplaying about The Walking Dead Universe, not any one television series and its cast. The setting content in the roleplaying game is also post Series Eleven after the protagonists of The Walking Dead have left the Atlanta area.

In addition, there are rules for Solo Play in which the player works to ingratiate himself in a Haven that he has recently arrived at. A Player Character for this is slightly more skilled than standard beginning Player Characters. The Player Character will also be accompanied a Companion NPC. The rules are very serviceable and even suggests that the player play himself as a Player Character, but given the brutality of the roleplaying game, the player had best get used to the idea that he might die in the process!

Ultimately, the issue with The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game is its brutality and the grim nature of the world it depicts. By design, neither this brutality nor the grim nature are wholly externalised as you would expect in a survival horror roleplaying game. They occur within the Haven where the Player Characters have taken sanctuary as well as the outside world. Issues within the Haven—both personal and integral to the Haven—will instigate and drive conflict, not just between the Player Characters and NPCs, but also between Player Characters. This is even shown in the examples of play that run throughout the book, which from a reading standpoint, will make you hate the character of Hannah. In terms of play, it demands a maturity of player to handle that and the necessity of Safety Tools. The discussion of the latter and of the possibility, even likelihood, of Player Character versus Player Character conflict and Safety Tools could have been better handled.

Physically, The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game is a superb looking book, although no photographs are used from The Walking Dead television series, so fans may be disappointed. That said, the artwork, done in the house style for Free League Publishing is very good and fits the world very well.

The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game is a really tight, sparse design, feeling quite light in comparison to other core rulebooks and more so in comparison to core books for other licensed roleplaying games. That though, is really due to the lack of background or setting material, and the need for background or setting material. After all, this is a roleplaying game set in our world just a few months from now and it is both a genre and a setting that we are familiar with. Thus, the Game Master has everything that she needs to run a post apocalypse game, whether that is as a one-shot or campaign, or even a solo game. A gaming group had better be prepared though, for The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game and the world it depicts is bleak, unforgiving, and brutal, forcing the players and their characters to make some very tough choices.

Your Walking Dead Starter

It seems surprising to realise that The Walking Dead is over two decades old. The comic by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore first appeared in 2003 and the resulting television series from AMC first aired in 2010 and has been followed with numerous spin-off series since. Both revitalised the zombie horror subgenre and the television series in particular, made zombies and horror acceptable to mainstream broadcasting like never before. Both comic book and television series tell the story of Rick Grimes, a sheriff’s deputy from Cynthiana, Kentucky, who after being wounded in the line of duty, awakes to find his wife and family missing and the world very much changed. Society has collapsed, the dead walk and hunger after our flesh, a virus means that everyone will rise as a walker after death, and the survivors huddle together, co-operate and scavenge for supplies, and somehow make choices that will keep them alive. The walkers are everywhere, a menace that cannot be vanquished, but they are not the only threat. Some survivors are prepared to kill and steal from other survivors—and worse. It is into this post-apocalyptic world where the dead walk—there are no such things as zombies—that the Player Characters are thrust in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Core Rules and The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set.

The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set is published by Free League Publishing and provides an introduction to roleplaying in The Walking Dead Universe, with a simplified version of the rules, a complete scenario in the Survival Mode, and everything necessary to play that scenario. This includes two sets of dice, four maps, ten pre-generated Player Characters, and the Threat Meter. Everything is presented in full colour, though no photographs are used from The Walking Dead television series, so fans may be disappointed. That said, the artwork, done in the house style for Free League Publishing is very good and fits the world very well.

So opening up the box, the first things to be found in the box are the dice and the Threat Meter. The dice consist of two different sets. The black Base Dice are marked with a ‘target’ symbol on their six faces to indicate a Success when rolled, as are the red Stress Dice. However, Stress Dice also have a ‘hand’ symbol on their one faces. When these are rolled after a Pushed dice check, they indicate that the Player Character has ‘messed up’ and attracted the attention of the Walkers. This, of course, is a bad thing. The Threat Meter is a simple dial that goes from one to six—it should actually go from zero to six—that is used to indicate how active the Walkers are and how many are present. The higher the number on the Threat Meter and the greater the number of Walkers and the more active they are. Below this are the pre-generated Player Characters. Six of these are standard Player Characters as you would create using The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Core Rules. Each has full stats, skills, a Talent, an Issue and a Secret which could get them into trouble, as well as some background. These six—plus one for an NPC—are designed to be used with ‘The Wolves’ Den’, the scenario in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set, and are given both male and female names to give the players the choice. The other four are characters from the television show, and they consist of Carol Peletier, Glenn Rhee, Michonne, and Gabriel Stokes. These four are done in full colour as opposed to tan tones of the other six. The four maps are done in full colour on very sturdy paper. One is double-sided and depicts north-east Georgia on one side and south-west Virginia on the other. The other three depict locations for ‘The Wolves’ Den’ scenario.

The ’Rules’ booklet explains everything about characters, combat, and Walkers. Anyone who played a year Zero Engine roleplaying game will be familiar with most of its contents. A Player Character has four attributes—Strength, Agility, Wits, and Empathy—rated between one and five, and each attribute has three associated skills, for a total of twelve in the game. These are rated between one and six. In addition, a Player Character has a Talent, such as ‘Eye on the Ball’ which enables a Player Character to relieve a point of Stress when a threat or enemy is defeated or overcome or Scavenger, which enables the Player Character to find more rations or food when scavenging. Health Points represent a Player Character’s physical health and cannot be higher then three. A Player Character also has an Anchor, an Issue, and a Drive. An Anchor is another person—Player Character or NPC—that the Player Character cares about and who is used narratively to ‘Handle Your Fear’ and when attempting to relieve Stress. The Issue is a roleplaying hook, such as ‘You think you are better than them’ or ‘Unable to sit down and shut up’ that the Game Master can use to create interesting, typically challenging situations. Drive is what pushes a Player Character to grit his teeth and withstand the pain, like ‘You love your mother’ and ‘God put me here to save their souls’. Once a session, a Drive can be invoked to gain extra dice on a test.

Mechanically, as with other Year Zero Engine roleplaying games, whenever a Player Character wants to undertake an action in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Core Rules, his player roles a number of Base Dice equal to the attribute plus skill plus any modifiers from gear, Talents, help, or the situation. If a single six, a Success, is rolled on the Base Dice, the Player Character succeeds, although extra Success will add bonus effects. However, if no Successes are rolled and the action is failed, or he wants to roll more Successes, the player has the choice to Push the roll. In which case, the Player Character suffers a point of Stress and gains a Stress Die. The player must also explain what the character is doing differently in order to Push the roll. For the pushed roll, the player will roll all of the Base Dice which did not roll success and the Stress Die. In fact, until the Player Character finds a way to reduce his Stress points, his player will continue to add Stress Dice equal to his character’s Stress Points on every roll. Only one pushed roll can be made per action, but the danger of having Stress Dice is if their results should be a one or ‘Walker’ symbol. It means two things. First, if the player has not yet pushed the roll, he cannot do so. Second, whether or not he has pushed the roll, it means that the Player Character has ‘Messed Up’. Typically, this means that he increased the numbers of Walkers nearby and attracted their attention, turning up the dial on the Threat Meter. In other situations, a ‘Messed Up’ might mean the Player Character has got lost, lost his footing, said the wrong thing in a tense standoff, and so on. Other sources of Stress include being short on food and water, getting shot at, seeing someone in the group get bitten by a Walker, killing someone in cold blood, and so on.

There are several means of getting rid of Stress. Primarily, these consist of a Player Character connecting and interacting with his Anchor, and at the end of the day, simply getting a good night’s sleep and plenty of rest. Whilst interacting with an Anchor can be during play, at the end of each session, a Player Character has to deal with the dreadful things that he has seen and done that session. This is done via the ‘Handle Your Fear’ mechanic and is triggered if the Player Character has suffered a Breaking Point like his Anchor being killed or disappearing, brutally killing or beating someone who is defenceless, is Broken by damage, suffers five Stress Points, and so on. At this point, the player rolls Base Dice equal to either his character’s Wits or Empathy, with a bonus for any Anchors who are still alive. This roll cannot be pushed, needs only one Success to succeed, but if failed, causes the Player Character to become Overwhelmed, meaning that he loses his Drive, becomes mentally Shattered, or his Issue is changed or added to.

Combat scales in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Core Rules and The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set depending upon who or what the Player Characters are facing. Duels are one-on-one attacks handled via opposed rolls, each combatant hoping to gain more Successes than the other. Brawls handle combat between multiple participants in which the Leadership skill can be used to hand out bonuses to allies in the fight. Combat is deadly though, a Player Character only possessing three points of Health and once they are lost, the Player Character is Broken, gains a point of Stress, and his player must roll on the Critical Injuries table. The lack of Health in comparison to other roleplaying games is compounded by the limited access to medical care. Make no mistake, The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Core Rules and The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set is deadly.

A setting which is already deadly due to low health and lack of healing, is compounded by the presence of the Walkers. They are a constant, lurking presence in The Walking Dead Universe, in game terms that presence is typically written into a scenario at a particular location or encounter, as you would expect, but also brought into play randomly whenever a player rolls a ‘Walker’ symbol on a Stress Die. Narratively, this could be as simple as the Player Characters opening a door to discover a room full of Walkers or a Walker bursting out of a bush to attack the Player Characters. The presence of the Walkers is tracked by the Threat Meter, which ranges from zero and ‘You are in a cleared area and safe. For now.’ to six and ‘The dead are in your face, surrounding you.’ The Threat Level is raised by rolling a ‘Walker’ on a Stress Die, failing a skill roll to avoid Walkers, doing something in the game to attract their attention, and so on. Ideally, the Player Characters will sneak around them as they scavenge buildings and search locations, but of course, that is unlikely. At low levels on the Threat Meter, it is possible for the Player Characters to go quiet and wait it out until the Walkers have either wandered off or gone quiet themselves. At higher levels, the Player Characters will need to find a way to distract the Walkers and make them go elsewhere or fight them. Encounters with a few Walkers are possible and these can be engaged in ‘Single Walker Attacks’, but Walkers congregate and then they fight as Swarms. Fights against Swarms are group endeavours, the aim being to roll more Successes than a Swarm to first reduce its size and then escape it. If a Player Character or Player Characters lose against a Walker attack, there is a table of very nasty and brutal ‘Walker Attack’ effects which will have the players wincing when they hear the results. The rules cover sacrificing another, brawling amidst a Swarm, clearing out an area, and lastly, amputation, the latter the last desperate result to resolve after a Walker bite…

There is good advice for the Game Master including how to make it scary and how to include the characters from the television series as NPCs, and to not cheapen the lives of the Player Characters and the NPCs. All this complements the Principles of the Game given at the start for both players and the Game Master. These are to do whatever it takes to survive; death is inescapable, the Player Characters are never truly safe or alone, and that in terms of game play, everyone is telling a story and fiction comes first. There is advice too on running the game mode for the scenario in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set. This is Survival Mode, typically a scenario with pre-written events and locations which can be played in a session or two, as opposed to Campaign Mode, played in multiple sessions with a more open storyline.

The scenario in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set is ‘The Wolves’ Den’. This is written around two other aspects of The Walking Dead Universe—that the stories are not about the Walkers, but about the survivors and often, other survivors are more of a danger than the Walkers. It is written around the six pre-generated Player Characters included in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set and opens with them searching for two of their number who have eloped, breaking up a relationship in the process and taking some valuable equipment, including a vehicle and weapons, with them in the process. The scenario gets nastier and nastier as it progresses, building from creepy to in-your-face horror, culminating in a confrontation with a band of The Wolves, the violent group of survivors encountered in the fifth and sixth seasons of The Walking Dead television series.

Physically, The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set is very well presented. Everything is of a very high quality, especially the maps which can be used beyond the play of ‘The Wolves’ Den’, as can the Threat Meter. However, the books need a slight edit in places and not everything is quite as clearly explained as it should, such as handling NPC skills.

If there is a problem with The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set, it is that it only has the one scenario, ‘The Wolves’ Den’. Essentially, once the scenario has been played through, the obvious value and utility of The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set is not as great as it should be. However, look at The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set instead as a toolkit and it is actually more useful than it first appears. It has official dice for The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Core Rules and the Threat Meter is a useful tool to have sat on the table, the maps are great, and the pre-generated Player Characters are useful for when running The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Core Rules. It is disappointing that there is only one scenario in The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set, but there is a lot that is useful too.

The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Starter Set is a very good introduction to The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Core Rules and roleplaying in the brutal world of The Walking Dead.