[Free RPG Day 2026] All Bets Are Off

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—

With Everyday Heroes, publisher Evil Genius Games did for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition in 2022 what d20 Modern did for Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition in 2002. That is, facilitate and handle roleplaying in the here and now, in the world we see outside our windows, on our television screens, and at the cinema. It went even further though by doing something not actually included in the rulebook. This is providing access to a number of source and scenario supplements all based upon a surprising range of films. In fact, a range of films which nobody expected to see turned into roleplaying material despite their popularity in the hobby such as The Crow™ Cinematic Adventure and Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure. For Free RPG Day 2026, the publisher has contributed the scenario, All Bets Are Off.

All Bets Are Off carries the subtitle ‘A Free RPG Day adventure that proves every great heist fails at the escape’ and whilst the scenario does involve a heist, it remains to be seen if the escape fails. The scenario is designed for gang of four or five First to Second Level Heroes who together make up a professional heist team known in criminal circles as the ‘Stacked Deck’. However, since Everyday Heroes casts its protagonists as Heroes, the protagonists in the scenarios are only ‘technically’ criminals. Or rather, the Heroes are criminals with a heart who research organized crime money laundering locations, plan elaborate heists, and steal veritable fortunes from them. The money is then split between the members, their helpful associates, and their two clandestine benefactors, the Always sisters, Grace and Charity.

At the start of this adventure, the Stacked Deck has just performed a perfect, by-the-numbers hit on the Cold Cash Castle, a local casino well-known to be a front for the Rasmussen organized crime syndicate. The heist has gone off perfectly, and the team made it out of the casino, and is making a dash for its getaway van. All Heroes need to do is clamber aboard, but as soon as the vehicle is in sight, its tires are screaming and belching smoke as it drives away! Which leaves the Heroes in the lurch and needing to make their way across twenty blocks of the city to get to the planned pick-up point.

All Bets Are Off is a chase scenario. The Heroes have exited the casino, clown masks on in true American heist fashion, guns in hand, and black holdalls full of cash slung over their shoulders, with Syndicate Agents on their tail. How exactly they get across the city is detailed in numerous scenes, in turn using the environment and overcoming any number of challenges. These include diving down alleys and climbing fire escapes, dodging barely leashed guard dogs, facing down corrupt cops on their tail (how did they find them so fast?), and getting out from under the sight of a red sight dot, before finally trying to get past a police blockade. This is one of two scenes where the Heroes get to be inventive in how they overcome the problem, along with an encounter with a restaurant line chef as she steps out of the kitchen and is surprised at their sudden appearance. 

The scenario is intended to be played in a single session and comes with multiple endings depending on how well the Heroes have done. It includes notes on how to use it with ‘E.G.O.’, the Evil Genius Organized-Play Programme and also comes with six pre-generated Heroes. They are all Second Level and include an ex-MMA fighter, a sharpshooter, a bodyguard, a sleuth, and a leader. They all come with some background, fairly broad in detail. The inside front and back cover include a map of the streets that the Handler can use if she wants to employ miniatures.

Physically, All Bets Are Off is decently presented. The artwork is excellent and the Handler should use it to show her players various scenes in the scenario.

All Bets Are Off is short and simple. Arguably, it is not just simple, but simplistic too. Although its various scenes are thematically appropriate, too many of them come down to simple dice roll and beyond that, there is not a lot for the Heroes to really do. The scenario could easily be played through in a couple of hours and the Handler may want to add another encounter or two, perhaps have the Heroes hide out in a department store as Syndicate agents from the casino they just robbed stalk them or a race through a restaurant kitchen where an appropriately cinematic fight can take place. For a quick and easy-to-prepare demonstration game, All Bets Are Off is fine, but will need more if a Handler wants to better show off Every Day Heroes or use it her campaign.

Tactics & Tales (Part II)

13th Age Second Edition Gamemaster’s Guide is not the companion volume to the 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook. Published by Pelgrane Press, it is instead a direct continuation, literally picking up with chapter eight following on from the character seven at the end of the 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook. Together, they make up the core rules for 13th Age Second Edition, the ‘Fantasy 20’ or ‘F20’ roleplaying game derived from different editions of Dungeons & Dragons which combines the crunch of epic battles with narrative or story-telling aspects for grand adventures where the Heroes are special because of their individual ‘One Unique Thing’ which sets them apart from the inhabitants of the Dragon Empire. They are true heroes, each linked to two or three of the Icons, the great powers of the Dragon Empire in 13th Age, whose influence over the story can be positive or negative, depending upon the nature of the relationship. The 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook contains everything necessary for the players, including rules for character creation, the place of the characters in the world and their relationships with the Icons, the great powers of the age, the core mechanics, and combat, plus a fantastic example of play and character creation. The 13th Age Second Edition Gamemaster’s Guide contains everything else, including a description of the Dragon Empire, the setting for 13th Age, advice on running the game, a bestiary, a treasury, and an introductory scenario.

The 13th Age Second Edition Gamemaster’s Guide starts with a description of its setting, the Dragon Empire. This is located at the centre of a large disc-shaped land surrounded by ocean and consists of the Land, the Underworld, and the Overworld. Seven cities line the shore of the stable Midland Sea, enabling easy travel between them, and each associated with one or more of the Icons. For example, Axis, the City of Swords, is home to the Emperor, but also has links to the Archmage, Crusader, and Great Gold Wyrm, whilst Glitterhaegen, the City of Coins is linked to Prince of Shadows, the Emperor, and the Dwarf King. It dips in and out subject matter, highlighting interesting elements of the setting, such the fact that the magic that causes the calmness of the Midland Sea forces monsters onto the nearby shores; that nobody likes to live too near the Imperial roads because they are haunted; and dungeons claw their way out of the earth and roam the land until stopped! Particular attention is paid to these dungeons as they are important and potential adventuring sites in a campaign, but for the most part, the write-up of the Dragon Empire is described by the authors as being ‘half-designed’. This is intentional as it leaves room for the Game Master to add her own details. There is a gazetteer which adds more specific details, whilst still leaving room aplenty for the Game Master’s own input.

This even applies to the history of the Dragon Empire with just a whole two pages devoted to it; or rather to the 13th Age and the past twelve Ages. Each Age began, rose and prospered before collapsing due to some catastrophe, and was replaced by a new Age. Each Age is associated with particular Icons and some Icons my appear in some Ages and not others, and so on. The overall description is brief at just two pages and so the Game Master may want to refer to one of the best supplements for the first edition of the roleplaying game, The Book of Ages.

Campaign advice discusses various topics—campaign identity, the ten-arc structure for the shorter campaign, customising the Icons to fit the campaign, and some examples. Campaign identity offers up a few other suggestions beyond the classic ‘Heroes on a Mission’, but clearly states that the ‘Forbidden Theme’ of a bait and switch theme to an Icon should never be done. The ten-arc structure is tailored to the maximum of ten Levels that a Hero in 13th Age can achieved, essentially one arc per Level, this replacing the Ten-Session Campaign concept from 13th Age First Edition. Customising the Icons to fit the campaign is intended to be a collaborative process between the Game Master and her players, starting with the Game Master selecting the Icon to her campaign’s main focus, whether as patron or villain, the players adding the Icons they want to see, and the Game Master deciding on the involvement of the unnamed Icons. This is supported by examples from each of the book’s authors. For example, ‘Servants of the Court’ sets up the Elf Queen as the primary heroic Icon with more powers and purviews than the Heroes suspect as she was also the Prince of Shadows with a combination of Archmage and Diabolist as the Icon villain. Of the other Icons, the Dwarf King had died whilst killing the Orc Lord; the Priestess championed civilisation whilst propping up a weak Emperor and was also the Dawn Captain, prophesised to die and become the Crusader; and both the High Druid and Lich King were involved elsewhere. These four examples actually better explain the concepts the customising process than the advice itself, showing the flexibility of the Icon roles in a campaign, whether that is in the 13th Age or a previous Age.

13th Age is played out in arcs, each consisting of three or four combat scenes or battles leavened with narrative scenes in between. The 13th Age Second Edition Gamemaster’s Guide discusses in detail how to design battles per arc, primarily adjusting them for the Level and number of Heroes. There is an optimal balance for the Monster Level versus the Hero Level, but the advice suggests ways in which this can be adjusted up or down, usually to fit a narrative. This might the Game Master wants the Heroes to wade through one or two hordes of monsters before they confront a bigger threat at the end of the arc, but there is plenty of scope to vary this or just simply balance all three or four of the battles that make up an arc. The advice also covers balancing the roles of monsters on the battlefield, such as archers, blockers, casters, troops, and so on; fighting a single monster type versus a single monster; ways making an encounter unfair and thus more challenging; and even making the battlefield itself dangerous as well as adding traps.

The process of designing a battle is not complex if the Game Master decides to use the suggested optimal Monster Levels, simply choosing the appropriate foes and their roles from the bestiary. However, the process does involve a little bit more arithmetic if the Game Master wants to create a battle where the Monsters Levels are not optimised to make a battle less challenging or more challenging. Fortunately, the designers have worked out the adjusted values beforehand and provide them for the Game Master in a handy table. That said, the Game Master should probably stick to the optimised Monster Levels for the first few battles and tinker with the battle design on subsequent ones. The process is pleasingly supported with a lengthy example of a Game Master designing multiple battles across the whole progress of the Heroes for First Level to Tenth Level.

Having discussed how to fit the monsters into arcs and monster roles, the 13th Age Second Edition Gamemaster’s Guide devotes half of its pages to talking about its monsters. The monster stat block is kept streamlined and as well as an explanation of the various monster abilities, there are lists of the monsters themselves by Level, strength (standard, mook, double strength, and elite), and Role. In comparison to other fantasy roleplaying games, one obvious addition to a monster stat block for 13th Age is that of an Icon symbol, indicating a specific link or relationship between a monster and an Icon. These can be positive, negative, or mixed, and not all of the Icons in 13th Age have relationships with the monsters in the 13th Age Second Edition Gamemaster’s Guide, but where they do, it enables the Game Master to tailor encounters and battles to the Icons featuring in her scenario or campaign. It is followed by more guidelines on tinkering with monsters, this on adjusting the stats of an existing monster or designing one from scratch.

The actual bestiary itself runs from Dire Rat, Giant Beetle, and Wolf to Wraith, Wyvern, and Zombie, including Demons, Dragons (notably the chromatic ones rather than the metallic ones, since the Heroes are more likely going to be fighting the former, Ghouls, Goblins, Kobolds, Oozes, Sahuagin, and Stirges, it is for the most part, very much a classic ‘F20’ style bestiary. The only new addition is the Hungry Star, but there are plenty of variations within many of the monster entries, and many have sections titled ‘Icons’, ‘In Play’, ‘In Your Campaign’ and ‘At Your Table’. For example, the Kobold entry has stats for the Kobold Recruit, Kobold Hero, Kobold Warrior, and Kobold Archer. The ‘In Your Campaign’ entry asks lots of the questions of Game Master as to the character of Kobolds in her campaign and notes that several variations appear in the 13th Age Bestiary and 13th Age Bestiary 2. The ‘Icons’ entry for the Ettin suggests that if one head has been swayed by the Diabolist, the other has been influenced by the Three. ‘In Play’ for the Otyugh states that it lives in filth and slime near the entrance to enemies’ caverns, so that it is close enough to alert the enemies if it attacks the Heroes or it joins the enemies if they are fighting the Heroes, before stating that, “Oytyughs were more common in an ancient age, when adventurers were so poor they used 10-foot poles to turn over dung heaps in search of loot.”

Some monsters get extended entries, for example, the Dragons. This makes entire sense, since as their entry notes, they are the Heroes of the monster world! Besides standard abilities, they are tough and have their own personalities, and they have dragon-ticks and campaign abilities. A dragon-trick can be used once per turn, such as its godlike reflexes that let a dragon reroll initiative or its magnificent scales to force a player to reroll an attack against its Armour Class. In comparison, campaign abilities like humanoid form or spells are intended to be used when appropriate rather than in every single battle that a dragon appears. Demons and NPCs are treated in a similar fashion adding further flexibility.

The treasure chapter divides its items into two types. These are one-use items and true magic items which are essentially alive, have their own personalities, and need to be attuned to. One-use items are typically potions—healing and resistance—and runes that apply bonuses to armour or a weapon or spellcasting, and there is a guide to their discovery per Hero Level. Similarly, the availability of magic items is tracked according to the Hero Level and by the tier of the campaign—Adventurer, Champion, or Epic. The personalities of magical items are reflected in quirks, quips, and quiddities. Quirks push the wielder of a magic item to act a certain way, such as dressing nicely at every social occasion or spouting puns; quips are phrases or comments that a magic item wants to hear its wielder say or a phase it wants the wielder to do; and a quiddity is its personality, effectively turning a magic item into a mini-NPC. A true magic will typically have one or more of these and they add individuality to each and every item. In many cases, magic items have more interesting mechanical effects than they do in other ‘F20’ roleplaying games and many are also linked to particular Icons. For example, the Boots of Elvenkind are linked to the Elf Queen and Prince of Shadows and require a skill check for the wearer to move quietly, but the player rolls twice an uses the higher roll, and in game needs a Quip such as ambiguous smile or mouthing the word ‘silent’ in Elvish. The list of magic items and also of wondrous items, is not extensive, but it is more than sufficient multiple arcs and campaigns, especially when it comes to weapons, since these are not listed by sword or spear or mace, but by the magical effect, so that weapons can be tailored to the campaign and the weapons wielded by the Heroes.

The 13th Age Second Edition Gamemaster’s Guide is rounded out with an introductory adventure, ‘A Bad Moon & The Wrong Stars’. It takes the classic ‘F20’ set-up of a ‘village-in-peril’ and gives it the 13th Age twist along with plenty of room for the Game Master’s input in form of Icon links and the details of the village. That village is Longmeadow, built on some ancient ruins. The Heroes are escorting a scholar of past Ages to Longmeadow when they are attacked by strangely dressed Elves. Investigation, again tailored to the Icons, will reveal the presence of a Living Dungeon nearby. This is the site of the adventure’s climax and what is interesting here is that the dungeon design is tiny at just four locations. In another ‘F20’ roleplaying game this would probably not be enough, but in 13th Age each room is battle, so a big encounter that all together with the fight on the road makes up a whole arc. In story terms, the play of this Living Dungeon, as much as it is in 13th Age, is not about lengthy exploration, but about getting to the action and the exciting bits. Each of the locations and the battles is detailed, some quite extensively so. Overall, ‘A Bad Moon & The Wrong Stars’ is a good introduction to the play of 13th Age and its key setting feature of Living Dungeons whilst having a lot of flexibility for the Game Master to adjust it to her players and their Heroes.

The 13th Age Second Edition Gamemaster’s Guide comes to a close with an array of appendices. These include a guide to using content from 13th Age First Edition, more options for the Game Master, a price list (if the Game Master and her players want to track Gold Pieces in their campaign, though 13th Age usually avoids this), tables for Game Master, a list of 13th Age First Edition resources, an excellent combined glossary and index, and more. All very useful.

Physically, the 13th Age Second Edition Gamemaster’s Guide is well written and an enjoyable read, though there is less input and commentary in this book than their was in the 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook. The artwork is suitably heroic for the Heroes and monstrous for the monsters and all together, very good.

Despite its origins in two earlier editions of Dungeons & Dragons, it takes some adjustment to both play and run 13th Age since its combination of crunch and story is quite structured. The 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook eased that process for the player and the Game Master, whilst the 13th Age Second Edition Gamemaster’s Guide does the same specifically for the Game Master in helping her in the process of setting up and running battles, arcs, and campaign.

Tactics & Tales (Part I)

Let us be clear. 13th Age is Dungeons & Dragons. It offers a Dungeons & Dragons style of play. It is a Class and Level roleplaying game. It has the six traditional attributes, the traditional different Races of Dungeons & Dragons, and the various Classes of Dungeons & Dragons. It is even designed by the designers of Dungeons & Dragons. Not one edition of Dungeons & Dragons, but two editions of Dungeons & Dragons. It might even be called ‘Dungeons & Dragons 4.5’. What it calls itself is an ‘F20’ or ‘Fantasy 20’ roleplaying game, a roleplaying game derived from the family of Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying games. Yet it is also very much its own thing and has been from the start. When 13th Age was published in 2013, the hobby was in an uncertain place as it always is when it is between editions of Dungeons & Dragons. In 2013, Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition was done, never having been as well received as its predecessors, and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition had yet to appear, yet to make the splash that it did on Dungeons & Dragons’ fortieth anniversary in 2014, and yet to make its glorious ascent into the mainstream and acceptance as legitimate pastime. What was available then, was D&D Next, the playtest version of the next edition. It was into this liminal space that 13th Age slipped in 2013. Published by Pelgrane Press, 13th Age did what Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition also did. Which was to take the best features of the previous editions of Dungeons & Dragons and rework them. In the case of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, that would be to create the next edition of the venerable roleplaying game. In the case of 13th Age, that would be to combine its style of play with a style of play that had come from another wing of the hobby, one that was radical and all but anathema to Dungeons & Dragons—storytelling games. Certainly, not a direction that Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition was ever going to go in. The aim with 13th Age was to provide story and crunch, and so it is with 13th Age, Second Edition.

13th Age, Second Edition comes in two books, one a direct continuation of the other. The first is the 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook, which provides everything necessary for the players, including rules for character creation, the place of the characters in the world and their relationships with the Icons, the great powers of the age, the core mechanics, and combat, whilst the 13th Age Second Edition Gamemaster’s Guide contains a description of the Dragon Empire, the setting for 13th Age, advice on running the game, a bestiary, a treasury, and an introductory scenario. The emphasis in 13th Age is on the Player Characters and their exploits as heroes and legendary heroes to be, not just in the epic battles they will fight—and fight from First Level to Tenth Level, but on the epic stories that will be told in the process. The battles are the focus of the roleplaying game’s self-confessed ‘crunch’, providing detail and flavour whilst also making the battles fast-paced and exciting. The epic narrative or story-telling aspect of 13th Age is handled by making every single Player Character special with his own ‘One Unique Thing’ which sets him apart from everyone else in the Dragon Empire; by replacing skills with Backgrounds that broaden player choice, add depth to the setting, and enable flexibility in how they are used; and in linking each Player Character to two or three of the Icons, the great powers of the Dragon Empire in 13th Age, whose influence over the story can be positive or negative, depending upon the nature of the relationship.
One of the great things about 13th Age, Second Edition is that it compatible with 13th Age, First Edition, which means that the Game Master and her players have access to some great supplements, such as the Book of Ages which opens up the history of the Dragon Empire and the killer dungeon, Eyes of the Stone Thief. However, 13th Age, Second Edition is a new edition and that does mean changes. Pelgrane Press actually includes a list of the major changes here for the benefit of Game Master of 13th Age, First Edition. Much of it has been to clarify the rules as much as streamline them. For example, instead of using days as a time unit to indicate the period in which certain powers work, the term is now ‘arc’. This allows the period to be used narratively rather than being constrained by time. The number of Icons has been reduced from thirteen to twelve (actually making it easier to roll for them randomly), the Orc Lord having been killed in a recent war—exactly how is up to the Game Master and her players to decide. This is the major change to the Dragon Empire and is connected to another change, which is the removal of the Half-Orc as a player choice in terms of Race—or rather Kin as 13th Age calls it. This is intentionally done to avoid the controversy surrounding the nature of the Half-Orc, and is instead replaced by the Troll-kin. It serves a similar, combat-orientated, brutish role, but is connected to the High Druid or the Emperor Icons rather than the Orc Lord. Other changes to Kin include more choices in terms of Kin powers, the removal of ability bonuses based on Kin, and the making of Player Character Kin special. The removal of ability bonuses based on Kin means that a player can place them wherever he wants—though he will probably want to place them to benefit his choice of Class, and by making Player Character Kin special, that is, they possess the special Kin Powers rather than having every member of their Kin do so, avoids stereotyping and widens player choice.
Then all of the Classes in 13th Age have been adjusted, from minor tweaks to major overhauls. For example, the simplest and easiest of Classes to play, the Barbarian and the Paladin, receive minor tweaks, the Barbarian Rage feature changed to be a wider critical hit range rather than roll two twenty-sided dice to attack and the Paladin’s ‘Lay on Hands’ becomes a feature of the Class rather than a talent, ‘Smite’ inflicts more damage, and so on. Major overhauls include the Bard Class, whose features and talents are based on the type of performance—Brass: Horn & Trumpets, Dance: Poise & Motion, Drums: Rhythm & Percussion, Flutes & Pipes & Ocarinas, and Strings: Lutes & Harps & Guitars—which also presents a greater choice for the player. The Sorcerer retains its Breath Weapon, the type of damage depending on the Dragon-type, and gaining bonuses to both to hit and Critical Range from the Escalation die, and can empower his spells in one round to cast for double the effect, including damage, the next. There are a lot of changes here of varying magnitude throughout 13th Age, Second Edition, affecting everything from Icons and Icon connections and combat rules and more, all based on a decade’s worth of play of, and feedback about, 13th Age, First Edition. The aim is to streamline and ease play, especially for the player new to 13th Age.
To that end, one big change that the roleplaying game does make to 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook in order to help the neophyte player and Game Master is to give an extensive example of play right after the introduction. Most examples of play run throughout a rulebook, but here 13th Age frontloads it in one go, taking the reader through the process, step-by-step, of creating a character—selecting Icon connections and determining their relationships, choosing a Class and Kin, designing a One Unique Thing, setting ability scores, selecting gear, picking Talents and a Feat, creating Backgrounds, and so on. At each stage, particularly in relation to the Icon connections, One Unique Thing, and Backgrounds, the example of play shows how they can tie into the setting and into the campaign that the Game Master is running. Once done and the example Player Character is presented on a character sheet, the Player Character is taken through her first arc, her first series of battles, in the process showcasing combat and suffering damage, resting, bringing Icon connections into play, and more. It is annotated with pointers as where to learn more about each aspect of the creation process and the play, further, like any good example of play or any good example of the rules, what 13th Age is doing here is showing the reader how the roleplaying game is first intended to be set up and then played. It saves the telling of how this is done for afterwards, the reader having been prepared for it by that point.
A Player Character in 13th Age has the traditional six abilities—Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma—plus a Kin, Class, One Unique Thing, and Backgrounds. There are fourteen Kin, which are Human, Dwarf, High Elf, Silver Elf, Wood Elf, Forgeborn, Gnome, Half-Elf, Halfling, Holy Ones, Troll-Kin, Dragonic, Holy One, and Tielfling. Of these, the Silver Elf is also known as the Drow, and the Dragonic, Forgeborn, Tielfling, and Holy One are by default less common. The nine Classes are Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, and Wizard. Some obvious Classes, the Druid and the Monk, are not included, their details being in 13 True Ways, though not yet for 13th Age, Second Edition. The process is a matter of making choices rather than rolling dice, including selecting ability values.
Lottie Custard
Class: Rogue Level: 1
Kin: Halfling One Unique Thing: There isn’t a lie I haven’t heard and a truth that I haven’t hidden
Connections: Prince of Shadows (Conflicted/2), Emperor (Negative/1)
Backgrounds: I’m a Halfling, of course I can bake pies +2, My tongue is not so much silver, as golden +4, If I don’t know, I know man who can +1, Old Town Valley Girl +1 Strength 12 (+1) Constitution 15 (+2) Dexterity 17 (+3)
Wisdom 14 (+2) Intelligence 14 (+2) Charisma 17 (+3) Armour Class 15 (Light)
Physical Defence 15
Mental Defence 15
Hit Points 24
Weapons: Mother’s Third Best Flat Iron (d8), It’s just a fruit knife (1d6)
Kin Power: Evasive
Class Features: Bravado, Sneak Attack, Skulduggery
Class Talents: Shadow Walk, Shift, Wriggle, and Roll, Tumble
Class Powers: Evasive Strike (At-Will), Deadly Thrust (At-Will/1 Bravado), Flying Blade (At-Will)
Feat: Smooth Talk 13th Age is played out in arcs, each consisting of three or four combat scenes leavened with narrative scenes in between. The most basic of mechanics involves the Backgrounds, which work as skills in other roleplaying games, but narratively more flexible. A character’s Icon connections can also affect the narrative by providing knowledge, adding detail, securing help, triggering flashbacks, and other options, his player deciding what the actual effect is by working with the Game Master. This does not automatically happen every arc, a player needing to roll to see if it does for each Icon connection, and if it does, it can only happen once per arc. When an Icon comes into play, there is a chance that it will come with a ‘Twist’ and as the 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook states, that is when, “The GM also gets to have some fun, adding a twist that improves the story by making the heroes’ lives a bit more interesting… but not so complicated that the connection turns bad for the heroes.” A twist will also occur if a player does not roll successfully to involve his character’s Icon connections, in which case the Game Master rolls for a random Icon to be involved. This is all backed up by detailed descriptions of the Icons—even the Orc Lord, helpful advice and plenty of examples and suggestions which will make the game play interesting and engaging.
Combat is comparatively much more complex and where the crunch occurs in 13th Age. It is also the focus of most of a Player Character’s Class talents, features, and feats, as well as spells for the spellcasting Classes. A Class’ talents are divided into three types that indicate their usage—at-will, once per battle, and once per arc. For example, at First Level, the Cleric Class can cast spells such as Combat Boon, Javelin of Faith, and Sacred Violence at will, Mark of Enmity and Spirits of the Righteous once per battle, and Mighty Healing and Hammer of Faith once per arc. The effects of talents increase as a Player Character rises in Level, as does total Hit Points, number of Recoveries (used for healing Hit Points) and feats, and so on up to Tenth Level. 
Where combat in 13th Age gets exciting, even exhilarating, is in the use of the Escalation Die. This sits in the middle of the table and comes into effect on the second round of the combat and then on subsequent rounds. On the second round, it gives a ‘+1’ bonus to all of the Player Characters, on the third round it gives a ‘+2’ bonus, on the fourth round, it gives a ‘+3’ bonus, and so on all the way up to the seventh round and after. It applies to the Player Characters only, not the monsters or NPCs, it can de-escalate or temporarily freeze, and it can trigger the powers of some Classes depending upon the number it is at or whether it is odd or even. The aim is to push combat forward and give it momentum once past the initially difficult rounds, rather than have it bog down in detail and unnecessary crunch.
All of the content in the 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook (and also in the 13th Age Second Edition Gamemaster’s Guide) is supported by helpful examples, suggestions, and advice, some of which takes the form of commentary and interjections from the authors. This is where they talk directly to the players and to the Game Master, telling them how they ran their games, what worked, what did not work, what they think of some of the feedback on the changes to the new edition, and more. It adds a personal touch to what is very much not a drily academic-in-tone rulebook and escalating, a little, its engaging style.
Physically, 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook is a great looking book. The artwork is solidly heroic fantasy, apart from the Icons, which are drawn as a cross between the decoration on Greek vases and icons for the Greek Orthodox Church. The book is well written and despite the complexity of its crunch, never less than readable. It is supported by a very decent combined index and glossary.
It is difficult to truly criticise the 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook. The main issues are perhaps that some of the Classes are still too complex to play with ease, especially in comparison to other ‘Fantasy 20’ roleplaying games and that some fans of 13th Age, First Edition are not necessarily going to be happy with all of the changes. Yet even the designers acknowledge this and even applaud some groups that want to keep playing 13th Age their way.
The 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook is the players’ book and the core book for 13th Age, Second Edition. It does what a new edition of a roleplaying game should do and improve and tweak the rules and the game to make it play better, in this case based on lengthy playtesting and feedback, and then make it accessible. In particular, it does this with its lengthy example of campaign set-up, character creation, and play that showcases how 13th Age is intended to be played and readies player and Game Master for the rules that follows. Yet it goes even further by having the designers explain their decisions and give alternative suggestions. 13th Age Second Edition Heroes’ Handbook is everything that the 13th Age player is going to need to help set him and his character up for some heroic fantasy.

The Horror of the Hum

The Hum has been heard for weeks now, a near-constant source of pain that has been affecting the tribe’s hearing-sensitive mutants and manimals and impeding their ability to invoke their divine gifts. The leaders of the tribe sent out parties of its young Seekers to locate the source and whilst they failed to find it, what one Seeker learned revealed an even bigger threat to the tribe. Her party was ambushed by a gang of Ascended Ones—a violent sect of three-eyed mutants who believe that Pure strain humans were responsible for the destruction of the planet and bringing about Terra A.D. She learned from them that the Ascended Ones were on a quest of their own, to find The Temple of Mutant Alpha: the first known mutant on Terra A.D. or ‘Terra After Disaster’. Does The Temple of Mutant Alpha really exist? If so, if the Ascended Ones find it, there can be no doubt that they will turn it into a site of holy pilgrimage that will further their aims. In response, a stronger and more experienced party of Seekers is to follow up on the information. This is the set-up for Mutant Crawl Classics #15: The Mutant Menace of Lab 47, the fifteenth release for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, the spiritual successor to Gamma World published by Goodman Games. It is designed for Third Level Player Characters and will take deep into the history of Terra A.D. to reveal some of its secrets with a big dose of Area 51-style ufology thrown in.

Mutant Crawl Classics #15: The Mutant Menace of Lab 47 begins with Player Characters near the source of the Hum in the glow desert, an oasis of the Ancients. After some exploration of what are nearby tourist facilities a la Rachel, Nevada (the nearest settlement to Area 51), the Player Characters can break into the facility, which reveals itself through notices and announcements to be the Trevino Research Base. There is some knowing fun to be had here, since the adventure assumes that any Player Characters of the Shaman Class or of sufficient Intelligence will know the Ancient Tongue. This means that the players will quickly grasp what is going on at the facility, but their characters will not, effectively adding an element of metaplay as the players have their characters explore the facility in search of conformation of what they know and their characters can understand. The adventure also emphasises classic Gamma World-style play in which obtaining the correctly collared com-badges will allow the Player Characters access to different areas of the facility. Alternatively, the Player Characters can use brute force or Security Systems checks of various difficulties, but the simplest and easiest method of exploring the facilities is to find and use the com-badges.

What the Player Characters find in the Trevino Research Base are clear signs that the Ancients obtained—from a place called ‘Glossop’—alien technology and survivors that scientists were conducting research on, including gene research. Plus, the results of the research may well indeed, have led to the creation of the first Mutant. This research was kept well hidden from the outside world, although of course, conspiracy theorists and UFOlogists thought otherwise, hence the UFO-themed tourist facilities outside of the base. The Player Characters do have plenty of opportunity to learn about this research and even conduct a little of it themselves, but perhaps the most entertaining part of the scenario is the fact that they discover living results of that research begun long ago that will trigger their parental instincts. Consequently, the latter half of the scenario is likely to consist of the Player Characters exploring the rest of the Trevino Research Base whilst caring for squalling, wailing, defecating babies! Although their players will have been alerted much earlier in the scenario, eventually their characters will discover that the base’s self-destruct system has been triggered and they will need to find a way to deactivate it. The scenario ends in a genre classic showdown t the bottom of a missile silo!

In addition, Mutant Crawl Classics #15: The Mutant Menace of Lab 47 suggests some possible sequels if the Player Characters survive the scenario and three appendices. One details the various artefacts that the Player Characters can find in the scenario and make use of, such as the Biomesh Com-Badge Jumpsuit—colour-coded, of course, Illuma-Drones for lighting, and NuEarz, jaunty, animal-shaped hearing devices with various modes, some of them useful. The others describe the new monsters in the scenario and the new Mutation, ‘Binary Voice’, similar to Achroma’s Artificial Intelligence Hack, but without the need to bond with the A.I.

Physically, behind a very suggestive cover, complete with a metallic logo, Mutant Crawl Classics #15: The Mutant Menace of Lab 47 is cleanly and tidily laid out, clearly written, and decently illustrated. The maps are decent too, although a little scratchy towards the end.

Mutant Crawl Classics #15: The Mutant Menace of Lab 47 is a short adventure with an emphasis on exploration and combat. As with other scenarios for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, it is self-contained, but with plot strands to develop, and so is easy to add to a Judge’s campaign. Overall, Mutant Crawl Classics #15: The Mutant Menace of Lab 47 is solid and entertaining.

—oOo—

Goodman Games will be at UK Games Expo

from Friday 30th May to Sunday June 1st, 2025.

Dune Dénouement

If a licensed roleplaying game is based around a big story, the question is, how does its publisher address that story? Does it ignore it in favour focusing upon the setting instead? Does it incorporate it into the roleplaying game and make it a feature? The problem being that the events of the big story are inviolate and no matter what the players and their characters do, they cannot change them. Does this then undermine character agency? The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings from Free League Publishing sets its stories between the two pillars of the intellectual property it is based upon, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, giving it a sixty-year window in which a campaign can be set. Similarly, Green Ronin’s A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying: A Game of Thrones Edition, based on George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy series is set a century before the events of the books. Victory Games published multiple scenarios for James Bond 007: Role-Playing In Her Majesty’s Secret Service, most of them quite tightly based on a particular film, but written in such a way that if the players followed the actions of James Bond in the films, their characters would fail. Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Game, published by Modiphius Entertainment, does all of these—and more, for it has a more difficult path to tread.

Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Game enables the players to create characters who are members of a noble house and roleplay them as they work to improve the fortunes of their house. Those fortunes are bound up in Arrakis, the desert world that is the source of the Spice Melange that underpins the economy and structure of the Known Universe. Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune began their story with a big ‘what-if?’. What if the Player Characters’ was appointed control of Arrakis instead of House Atreides and so supplanted House Harkonnen? The consequences and ongoing story were explored in Masters of Dune, but with the Fall of the Imperium Campaign Sourcebook, the players, their characters, and the campaign collide head on with the events of Dune—as depicted in the book and on screen—and ride that sandstorm all the way through to the unleashing of a great change. Their story will weave in and around the secret compact between the Emperor and House Harkonnen to unseat House Atreides, the rise of Muad’Dib, the fall of the Imperium, and the Jihad that followed. The Player Characters cannot change any of these events through their actions, but what they can do is explore some of the consequences to what happens on Arrakis that would otherwise take place in the background, participate in them, in the process tell their own story. That is their agency.

The Fall of the Imperium Campaign Sourcebook requires some set-up if run as a sequel to Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune and Masters of Dune. The Herald of Change will come to the Player Character’s house and announce that the Emperor has awarded stewardship of Arrakis to House Atreides. This still sets up the events of Dune since House Harkonnen hates House Atreides and the Emperor can use that hatred to destroy a rival. The Player Characters will also maintain a presence on Arrakis, though no longer a major one, and will likely have formed a relationship with House Harkonnen—whether as allies or enemies—especially if their house replaced the Harkonnens in Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: Agents of Dune. The relationship between the Player Characters and House Harkonnen, and possibly with the Emperor himself, is important throughout the plot of the Fall of the Imperium Campaign Sourcebook. This is because it is one way in which the characters—and more importantly, the players—are forced to make choices that do not adhere to the plot of the novel as the characters are only aware of the obvious events rather than the secret events. So, what the Player Characters are aware of is that House Atreides has lost and House Harkonnen has won, and thus the question is—even though they as players know that Paul Atreides has survived—who does their house ally itself with? And then in the aftermath of the fall of House Corrino, how closely and openly do they ally with the new Emperor?

Fall of the Imperium consists of four parts which will take the Player Characters and their House from the Imperium through to the Ascension of Paul Muad’Dib. It opens with ‘The Gathering Storm’ with the replacement of House Harkonnen as the siridar governor of Arrakis by House Atreides and with the perceived weakening of the Harkonnens, House Ecaz seeks the Player Characters’ aid in taking its revenge for a past feud. Here, for the first time, there appears a theme that runs throughout the campaign—making alliances. There is always a choice of choosing between an alliance with or against House Harkonnen, but this like so many of the other choices throughout the campaign is never morally black or white. There are always advantages and disadvantages to any choice that the Player Characters have to make, which will extend from their dealings with House Harkonnen in the opening and middle parts of the campaign to their interaction with Emperor Shaddam IV in its climax and Emperor Paul Muad’Dib in the aftermath. Either way, the Player Characters will initially discover evidence of House Harkonnen’s stashing away Spice, but there is little that they can do with the information before events get out of control as the Player Characters trace a killer in the desert—with the unexpected help of the Spacing Guild—all the way to Kaitain. Yet before the Player Character can do anything with information they have gained, they return to Arrakis and get embroiled in the swirling mass of Harkonnen troops, backed up by the Emperor’s dread Sardaukar, as they assault House Atreides on Arrakis.

If ‘The Gathering Storm’ funnels the Player Characters down onto Arrakis in a maelstrom of death and destruction, ‘Muad’Dib’ opens up both the campaign and the Known Universe. As House Harkonnen takes control and then ever tighter control of Arrakis, the flow of Spice lessens and house after house is forced to look to other sources. In their hunt for a secure source, the Player Characters will find themselves visiting a variety of locations, such as a ski lodge, where when assassins strike, they will have to escape via ski bikes in James Bond style! The other way in which the campaign opens up is strategically, as play switches to Architect mode, the Player Characters directing house agents on a variety of missions. Although not discussed, these are easily expanded so that the players could roleplay these missions rather than handling them as straightforward dice rolls. After the Player Characters gain proof of how extensive House Harkonnen’s coverup of its Spice mining and reportage, they find themselves the subject of Imperial interest. This is nasty fraught situation and there is no option in terms of what to do with it, as the Player Characters find themselves entertaining the Emperor’s most dangerous representatives—Count Fenring and Lady Margot—and even negotiating with Baron Vladimir Harkonnen!

Events hurtle towards a climax as the flow of Spice from Arrakis dwindles and the Landsraad Council is divided over what to do about House Harkonnen’s growing mismanagement of Arrakis. The failure forces everyone to act, the Emperor coming directly to Arrakis and the Player Characters manoeuvred into intervening on their own. ‘Fall of the Imperium’ will culminate in the scenes in the Imperial throne room as Paul Maud’Dib confronts Emperor Shaddam IV and reveals himself as Duke Paul Atreides. The campaign takes an interesting change of tone as a regime change institutes a degree of uncertainty in how the Imperium works. Loyalties old and new are tested again and again as the old order faces a whirlwind of change, part of its fuelled by the new Emperor’s desire for revenge. In turn, the Player Characters are ordered to enact that revenge on an ally, scour the old Imperial capital in search of art, secrets, or people—or a combination of all three before the jihad falls upon it, even clear their names. If the Player Characters have more choice in this last part of the campaign, then their actions have more consequences, potentially leading to their own deaths or even the destruction of their house.

Rounding out Fall of the Imperium is ‘Adventures in the Era of Muad’Dib’. This is guidance on running and playing Dune – Adventures in the Imperium: The Roleplaying Game in the era of the new Emperor. This includes advice on portraying Paul in this period, on what the altered priorities are of the Bene Gesserit and the Spacing Guild, and the role of Paul’s new faith. This is represented mechanically by a faction template for the Qizarate and a number of associated Talents. The advice for the Game Master highlights the dangers of the Jihad, the autocracy of Paul’s reign as Emperor, and the possibilities of conspiracy and counter-revolution. The advice short, but solid, and doubtless, a whole supplement could be devoted to this. There are also some scenario hooks for the Game Master to develop.

The is very much a book of two halves, one half consisting of acts one and three—‘The Gathering Storm’ and ‘Fall of the Imperium’—and other half acts two and four—‘Muad’Dib’ and ‘War Across a Million Worlds’. In ‘The Gathering Storm’, the Player Characters are being pushed towards history and then in ‘Fall of the Imperium’, they are riding its waves, whereas in both —‘Muad’Dib’ and ‘War Across a Million Worlds’, they have far more freedom to act. The consequences are greater, especially in ‘War Across a Million Worlds’, but they do have more freedom to act. Similarly, in ‘War Across a Million Worlds’ the writers have greater freedom in their writing, no longer quite hemmed in by the plot of the novel. Whereas in ‘The Gathering Storm’ and ‘Fall of the Imperium’, the Player Characters are constantly coming up against that plot, encountering events portrayed in Dune, but at a distance or being involved in events that take place offscreen. The latter are more effective then the former, but in places it feels as if the Player Characters are there to witness what was not explicitly written down. The worst example of this is the attack on the sietch by the Sardaukar in which Paul’s first son, Leto, is killed, which the Player Characters are forced to accompany. There is almost nothing that the Player Characters can do to change the outcome, effectively meaning their agency is undone by plot immunity. Fans of Dune may well enjoy having their characters present at many of these scenes, but too often they feel like exposition that only serves to highlight the difficulties of writing a campaign set in and around the events of a great novel.

Physically, the Fall of the Imperium Campaign Sourcebook is very well presented. The layout is clean and tidy and the artwork is excellent.

The Fall of the Imperium Campaign Sourcebook is an ambitious attempt to do the impossible—write a roleplaying campaign based on the events of the seminal novel that the roleplaying game is based upon. Fortunately, that ambition is fulfilled and the result is a campaign, that at its best, is often morally difficult and full of challenging situations, which takes the Player Characters through the events of Dune and beyond. At its worst though, are the situations with a lack of agency which relegates the characters and their players to the role of spectators. Nevertheless, if the Player Characters and their House survive the events covered in the Fall of the Imperium Campaign Sourcebook, then they really will have awoken.

2003: Book of Erotic Fantasy

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

—oOo—

It is curious to note that in 2003, two supplements were published which addressed the subject of romance, sex, sexuality, pregnancy, and more in roleplaying games—or rather, fantasy roleplaying games. One would pass by almost unnoticed, was written under the terms of the Open Gaming Licence, and was one that I was able to review. The other caused no little controversy, forced Wizards of the Coast to rewrite the terms of the d20 STL forcing publishers to comply with ‘community standards of decency’, has since passed into legend as one of the most notorious books of the roleplaying hobby, and was one that I was not able to review at the time. Indeed, it would take over a decade before a copy could be found and imported into this country—thank you Brendan LaSalle—to enable me to not only own a copy, but review. The one that I could and did review was Naughty And Dice: An Adult Gamer’s Guide to Sexual Situations, published by Sabledrake Enterprises. The one I could not review was the Book of Erotic Fantasy, published by Valar Project. Having forced a rewrite of the d20 STL to prevent Wizards of the Coast from being directly connected to the project and so tarnish its image and reputation, the Book of Erotic Fantasy would eventually published without the d20 System trademark of the Open Gaming Licence, but with the words at the top of the front cover, “This product is compliant with the Open Gaming Licence and is compatible with the world’s best selling Fantasy Roleplaying Game”. Thus, it arrived ready for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition, but was not specifically written for Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition.

The Book of Erotic Fantasy does not only cover sex and sexuality, but also conception, marriage, love, relationships, and more. That more includes relationships between different species, new Classes and new Prestige Classes, monsters, and organisations. It begins though, by discussing sex. The authors advise that, “Believing it acceptable to expose our audience to a variety of lifestyle choices, we did our best to include the broadest possible array of sexual choices, including celibacy, in the book.” But warn that, “At times, we found it a challenge to keep our own preconceived ideas from creeping in.” As a consequence of this, there is an open attitude to the subject that runs throughout the book, one reflected in a lot of the new mechanics and in some of the choices made by the authors. Further, despite the authors stating that “The world has changed and it is time for fantasy roleplaying to change and mature.”, theirs is not an attitude or outlook that was shared by all, even by their own society. Criticism from those what did not share that outlook was certainly one motivating Wizards of the Coast to rewrite the terms of the d20 STL, despite the authors warning over and over that the Book of Erotic Fantasy is aimed at mature adult audiences.

The supplement really gets underway with a discussion of why sex should be included in the game, how to handle it and roleplaying, and covering subjects such as romance, sex, seduction, sex and humour, and a lot more. It states that the point is not necessarily the sex itself, but rather that sex and romance can be used as means to add spice or flavour to campaign, to help create memorable plots and NPCs, to make it part of the story, and so on. Acknowledged here is that the bawdiness of sexual humour is okay, as it helps keep everyone relaxed, but it has its place. It suggests using the Motion Picture Association film rating system (of 2003) to measure the amount of sex in a campaign, and acknowledges the difficulties of bringing the subject into a game, clearly stating that, “Just as in real life, no means no.” and that relationships between Player Characters can become as fraught as those between adults. It means clear also, that mechanically, sexual orientation has no bearing on game, but like prostitution and marriage, it can have a cultural bearing. How a culture views sexual orientation, prostitution, and marriage varies from one to the next. So, one, two, or more of them might be venerated in one country, even sacred, whereas they might be reviled and even outlawed in another. Again, such attitudes can be used to enforce the cultural outlook of different countries, to bring the world to life, and be the basis of a plot or storyline.

Also worth noting is that any emphasis placed upon sex in a campaign is likely to affect the design of Player Characters and NPCs and that the contents of the Book of Erotic Fantasy are not aimed at the combat veteran or highly skilled wizard. Instead, the need to optimise the Player Character in Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition will require a campaign of its own, a campaign focused more on social (and now sexual) interaction. In general, the advice and discussion here is decent and mature.

Where the Book of Erotic Fantasy goes slightly awry is in illustrating the views on sex according to the Alignments of Dungeons & Dragons. So, a Lawful Good values honesty and respect and can be celibate or chaste, but when an adherent does have sex outside out of marriage, he is clear in what he expects and is offering, whereas a Lawful Evil simply uses as a means to accrue power. So, the paladin in the accompanying text engages in a romantic encounter, but leaves room for the other participant to withdraw, whereas for Lawful Evil, the character is bloody tyrant engaging sadomasochistic torture. It feels such a shame to have decent advice followed by such clichés. Chaotic Evil does not even get any accompanying text, but then the included quote sums the Alignment up nicely: “Fuck You! No, Fuck You! Fuck You All!” Similarly, though the attitudes of the various Races of Dungeons & Dragons follow expected patterns—Dwarves are conservative, but enduring; Elves are bisexual, adventurous in that they like to share, and have transitory relations over their long lives; Gnomes are even more adventurous, using self-built toys, and writing manuals like the Gnomish Kama Sutra(!); Half-Elves have problems because they mature too early for Elves and too late for Humans; Half-Orcs like it rough; and Halflings view sex like a party. Other Races are covered too, along with how pregnancy and childbirth occurs for each Race, even the Undead and Dragons. These are a bit more inventive though than the sexual backgrounds to the standard Player Character Races.

In terms of new rules, the Book of Erotic Fantasy starts with the addition of Appearance, a new attribute for Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition, at least, including adding it to all of the Races and species discussed so far. There are rules for sustaining sex, with a rising Constitution Difficulty Check after every ten minutes, and a list of new skills. There is the alternate use of Appraise and Bluff, along with new Knowledge skills and Perform (Sexual Techniques), complete with a table of possible results. Having already looked at the social and biological consequences of sex—marriage and pregnancy—another consequence, the possibility of disease is also discussed, along with a list of fantasy sample diseases. Included among them are Ghoul Fever, Lycanthropy, and Mummy Rot, essentially providing new vectors for old diseases. The others are equally unpleasant, such as Whore’s Delight, which causes the sufferer to excrete a paralysing poison and so freeze the other partner in place (obviously having acquired immunity to it in the meantime), allowing them to be robbed or taken advantage of… Here also, is a table indicating which Race can interbreed with which Race and a variety of new Feats. These are mix of Sexual Feats, such as Dominating Demeanour, Limber, and Quick Recovery; General Feats, like Chaste Life, Seductive, and True Submissive; and Background Feats, for example, Sexually Open Society and Sexually Private Society.

The Classes in the Book of Erotic Fantasy begin with the Imagist, a spellcaster who is both beautiful and reveres beauty itself, wanting to make the world a more beautiful place. The Class casts spells like a Sorcerer, but instead of Charisma, uses Appearance as the spellcasting characteristic. The Class’ spells are a mix of the arcane and the divine. The Kundala Class is similar to the Monk, but with spellcasting abilities derived from its sexual practices. Again, these are a mix of arcane and divine spells, but they can only be cast by a Kundala on others with great difficulty. Where it is not exactly clear how the sexual practices of the Kundala Class affect its spellcasting ability except being presumably lost if not engaged in, the Tantrist Class is more obvious. An arcane spellcaster, the Tantrist inscribes spells as runes on the practitioner’s body and must engage in sex to renew its magical ability, at least for an hour. Which of course, requires a willing partner and a ‘Sustain Sex’ endurance check. The Perform (Sexual Techniques) skill and Endurance Feat add bonuses of course, to the check, as does a high Constitution. Of the three, the Imagist feels underwritten, if not slightly flat; the Kundala Class underwhelming and too similar to the Monk; and the Tantrist, the best explained and possibly the most interesting to play as a flashy spellcaster.

The supplement’s Prestige Classes are the Disciple of Aaluran, the Divine Celibate, the Dominator, the Fey Enticer, Frenzied Disciple, Harem Protector, Knot Binder of Kaladis, Metaphysical Spellshaper, the Pierced Mystic (complete with a eyewatering list of piercing locations), Rake, Sacred Prostitute, and Voyeuristic Seer. The mix manages to be interesting in places as well as both good and bad. It is even unintentionally amusing in places, such as the box of text labelled ‘The Divine Celibate’s Mount’ (which of course, is the unicorn). However, the bad includes the Dominator and the Voyeuristic Seer, both of which are as clichéd and as distasteful as their names suggest. The Voyeuristic Seer is described as “Profoundly visionary or merely prurient, voyeuristic seers might be either or both.”, but definitely feels like the latter and is essentially a specialist in divining and scrying spells, so not that much different to a Wizard that specialises in either. The good includes the Frenzied Disciple, essentially a whirling Dervish-type which uses dance to enhance magical and combat abilities, and the Rake, a classic figure with plenty of roleplaying potential. Most though feel as they are better suited to NPC rather than Player Character use. This includes the Dominator and the Voyeuristic Seer, but is joined by the Harem Protector, which not only needs the Sterile Feat, but be castrated as a eunuch. This is not to say that none of the Prestige Classes in the Book of Erotic Fantasy can be taken by a Player Characters, but rather that some of them cross that line from tasteful to distasteful.

Magic in the Book of Erotic Fantasy includes new Domains, new spells, and new uses for old spells. The Body Domain and the Pleasure Domain are obvious, whereas the Perversion and Voyeur Domains, again, like some of the Prestige Classes seemed suited to NPCs rather than Player Characters. And there are the spells, some of which are amazing, though not in a good way, because this is where the Book of Erotic Fantasy goes awry, not badly awry, but seriously awry. Command can be used to force someone to masturbate or have an orgasm; Cursed Orgasm inflicts damage on the target whenever he has one; Disrobe undresses the target; Grope works in way that Mage Hand does not; Infestation inflicts a sexually transmitted disease on the victim and is accompanied by a ‘delightful’ image of a crotch infested with lover’s lice; Orgasmic Vibrations that can daze a target and force him to miss an action; and Wet Dreams… The problem with all of these spells is that they run counter to the supplement’s opening advice that “Just as in real life, no means no.” as the levels of consent required to include them in a game make their inclusion beggar belief. As does the fact that they are even included in the supplement since without that consent, they all have the potential to amount to sexual assault in one form or another. That potential would vary according to the context and degree of consent, but as written all of these spells are cringeworthily unpleasant. Yet there are spells in the selection which avoid any of this and would even be useful in a standard Dungeons & Dragons game not using the Book of Erotic Fantasy. Mirror Talk and Mirror Walk, for example, as well as Pleasant Dreams to give the target a restful and safe night’s sleep.

The equipment section covers everything from sex toys and aphrodisiacs to birth control devices and services. There are magical items too, including a Ring of Disease Detection, Staff of Holy Pleasure, Ghost Sheath (so you have intercourse with the incorporeal!), and more. It even lists the Book of Erotic Fantasy as an artifact in its own right! The Book of Erotic Fantasy should perhaps, have been on surer ground when it comes sex and deities, since the sexual activities of the gods have always provide fertile grounds for good storytelling, except that the book goes its decided way. Some of the gods, or versions of them, would have a place in many a campaign. For example, Alilial the Childbringer, Midwife to the Gods, Cevelis the Chaste One, Lady of Denial, and Kaladis the Binder, Guardian of the Sacred Vow, all of which are nicely done, but then there is Zanbos the Defiler, the Abusive One, who is the “[D]eity of wanton rape, brutality, and sexual cruelty.” Now it is stated that he is rarely worshipped, but that does not excuse his inclusion because again, it crashes into the supplement’s opening advice that “Just as in real life, no means no.” In a sex-based campaign, like the one that the Book of Erotic Fantasy, there is undoubtedly going to be a need for a dark or villainous or evil god, but the inclusion of Zanbos in this role so obviously, is horrifying.

The bestiary also adds creatures of passion such as Bliss Motes, Cherrubs—both Celestial and Fallen, and templates for variants such as Demonbreed, Devilblooded, Felids (essentially cat people), Feykissed, and more. Some of these do feel more developed than others. Penultimately, the book includes a list of one hundred adventures, all no more than a sentence and all very much in need of development by the Dungeon Master, followed by a handful of sample organisations, such as ‘Damio’s Companionship Service’, an escort service dealing in the exotic, ‘The Velvet Room’, a sample brothel complete with floorplans, and the ‘Seekers of the Eternal Sensation’, a cult of hedonists. All are quite well developed and include NPCs too. The Book of Erotic Fantasy is rounded out with a list of Appearance values for the creatures found in the Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition core rules, and a ‘What’s New with Phil & Dixie’ comic strip by Phil Foglio, which turns the opinions of games rules lawyers to the subject in hand…

Physically, the Book of Erotic Fantasy is cleanly and tidily presented. Then of course, there is the artwork, which includes photography, much of photo-manipulated, and which does involve a lot of nudity. Whether or not any of its is erotic is in the eye of the beholder, but none of it would have been regarded as being extreme in 2003, though not exactly tasteful, perhaps even a little boring and a little creepy in places, is the worst that can be said of it. Today it all looks a bit tame.

The Book of Erotic Fantasy is definitely a curate’s egg. The advice, given at the beginning of the book, is good. The rest varies wildly in tone and content, but ultimately it comes down to the spells in the book. All too many are distinctly unpleasant in their use and connotations, and indicative of how times have changed where those spells might have been acceptable then, they would not be in the here and now.

In the twenty years since the Book of Erotic Fantasy was published, there can be no doubt that attitudes towards sex and sexuality have changed—both in general and in the gaming hobby. In general, there is a wider acceptance of both and within the hobby, numerous roleplaying games, such as Green Ronin Publishing’s Blue Rose: The Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy and Bully Pulpit Games’ Star Crossed have explored romance and accepted LGBTQ+ characters into the hobby. Yet there really has been no other supplement like the Book of Erotic Fantasy or Naughty And Dice that has reached a wider gaming audience, for the subject of sex—especially in roleplaying—still remains a taboo subject, a subject matter or activity that we rarely want to cross over into and bring into our games. So, in that regard, little has changed. What it would take is a brave group of players—Dungeon Master and players alike—to want to explore and fully embrace what the Book of Erotic Fantasy presents, and it would mean all of the players and the Dungeon Master. After all, the Book of Erotic Fantasy is an ‘all-in, or none in’ kind of supplement. How many such groups there were prepared for what the Book of Erotic Fantasy offered at the time of its publication is debatable, and the same can be said of today. Which leaves the reader to wonder how many actually bought the Book of Erotic Fantasy to use and how many simply bought it for its notoriety? And then to hope that they never learn the answer to that question.

Ultimately, the Book of Erotic Fantasy has three problems. One is its subject matter, which not everyone is comfortable with, which in places is exacerbated by the second, that some of the content is more than enough make the reader recoil in distaste, let alone think about bringing it into play. The third is that its subject matter is very personal, even if the personal is via the construct of a Player Character in a roleplaying game. Not everyone, arguably very few, are willing to engage in the kind of intimacies that the Book of Erotic Fantasy calls for, even if they are the kind of intimacies involving a Player Character rather than the player, in the semi-public sphere of a roleplaying group. So, in 2003 the Book of Erotic Fantasy presented a final frontier that few were prepared to cross, which is understandable given that although it did include a basically mature treatment of sex and sexuality that for the most part belies its reputation, elsewhere its content crossed over into the unpleasant and distasteful for which the supplement fully deserved its reputation for tawdriness and unsavoriness. Ultimately, whilst some of its writing is mature and helpful, the Book of Erotic Fantasy is as unpleasant a book and as useless a book in 2023 as it was in 2003. It was a supplement that whilst fantasy, was very few gamers’ idea of erotic, and that nobody wanted in 2003 and nobody would want in 2023.

Escape to New York

With Everyday Heroes, publisher Evil Genius Games did for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition in 2022 what d20 Modern did for Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition in 2002. That is, facilitate and handle roleplaying in the here and now, in the world we see outside our windows, on our television screens, and at the cinema. It went even further though by doing something not actually included in the rulebook. This is providing access to a number of source and scenario supplements all based upon a surprising range of films. In fact, a range of films which nobody expected to see turned into roleplaying material despite their popularity in the hobby. These consist of The Crow™ Cinematic Adventure, Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure, Highlander Cinematic Adventure, Kong: Skull Island Cinematic Adventure, Pacific Rim Cinematic Adventure, and Total Recall Cinematic Adventure. These showcase at least, what Everyday Heroes can do and are, equally, six good reasons to play Everyday Heroes. Each entry in this Cinematic Adventure series draws on the core film it is based upon as well as extra source material, to provide background material for the setting, new options for Player Characters, advice for the Game Master, and a full-length adventure, ready to play.

Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure is the second cinematic adventure sourcebook for Everyday Heroes. It is based on the 1981 film directed by John Carpenter, in which a convicted criminal has to rescue the president of the USA from the maximum security prison that the prisoner is about to be incarcerated in and get out again in order to save the world. The prison is the whole of Manhattan Island, the convicted criminal is decorated war hero turned cynical criminal Snake Plissken, and once you go into New York Max, you never come out again. The film combines fantastic world-building, radical anti-authoritarian themes, and hard-bitten cynicism in a post-apocalyptical setting of a late seventies style New York left to fend for itself. Plus, it has to be said, a really rather good soundtrack. However, the film leaves the Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure with a problem. This is that there simply is not enough information in the film to build a world, so the authors have, for example, created a timeline that fits both the world and Snake Plissken’s background. In this, the supplement does draw upon the sequel, Escape from L.A., but that is extent to which the sequel is referenced. Thankfully.

Although the focus of the Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure is on the Manhattan of New York Max, it extrapolates a world in which successive Republican presidents intervene heavily in the Middle East, pushing the USA and the USSR into direct conflict with each other, though not a war. War is declared in 1987 when a disguised Soviet tanker explodes and unleashes the Reagent 18 nerve agent. It will kill millions, but many more are turned into psychopathic ‘crazies’ after exposure. There is no cure and when martial law is declared due to the subsequent unrest and the United States Police Force founded to deal with it, both the crazies and criminals beyond rehabilitation from across the USA are incarcerated in the newly established and blockaded New York Maximum Security Prison. This takes place a decade before the events of the film and the Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure fills in details here and there, pushing the timeline all the way to 2013 and the end of Escape from L.A. This gives plenty of room still for the Game Master add her own stories and details to the broadly drawn background.

This is supported by details of the US government, the United States Police Force (USPF), and the US military, plus two revolutionary groups—the Guiding Star Family and the National Liberation Front of America (it is the latter that triggers the events of Escape from New York), before moves on to describing New York Max. This covers everything from the levels of security around it and the economy—mostly barter, to the crazies and organisations in the prison. ‘A Number One’, of course, is The Duke, but there are numerous street gangs in the old city too. These are given thumbnail descriptions, as well as their colours and territories. Some of the gangs are more than the traditional idea of gangs—like those depicted in The Warriors—in New York. For example, the Hippies, of course, manufacture recreational drugs, the Flying Dragons are renowned as skilled tailors, the Broadway Boys promote the arts and culture, and the Nightshades have cleared parts of Central Park and its soil of Reagent 18 to grow food. There is good range and variety of gangs given here. A map of Manhattan is marked with their respective turfs along with notable locations of the island, including Broadway, the Empire State Building, and the World Trade Centre. Overall, it is not a huge amount of detail, but it is enough for the Game Master to work with and again, leaves room for her to add her own details.

The new Hero options in the Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure include a number of new Backgrounds and Professions. The former consists of Convict, Legend (such as Snake Plissken, despite the fact that everyone thinks he is dead), New York Native (like Cabbie in the film), and War Veteran (like Bob Hauk in the film), whilst the latter consists of Nightshade Druid, Drug Cook, Fixer, Gang Soldier, Prison Gladiator, and Rat Catcher. Most suggest roles, like Nightshade Druid, a member of the Nightshades gang, on New York Max or why the character is there in terms of the crimes he committed. The Revolutionary Soldier and the USPGF Soldier lend themselves to other origins and explanations for why they are involved with the prison. Three Classes are given. The are the Gutter Rat, Motorhead, and Street Warrior. The Gutter Rat is an Agile Hero who uses a mixture of tricks, charm, lies, a certain slipperiness, and vicious attacks to get what he wants. For example, he has Play the Fool to distract others and Slippery which gives Advantage on checks to escape bonds and grapples, as well as Tricks such as Gloat and Hobbling Strike. The character of Romero, the lieutenant of The Duke, would be a Gutter Rat. The Motorhead is also an Agile Hero, but modeled on the character of Cabbie—as played by Ernest Borgnine. So the Class specialises in driving and piloting, in and out of combat, and his Motor Pool abilities include Daredevil Driver, Quick Fix, and Repo Man. His suggested equipment includes Molotov Cocktails! the Street Warrior is a Strong Hero and is essentially good at fighting, but not more than that. All three Classes are quite specialised, the Street Fighter in particular, but all fit the feel of the film.

As a then alternate future, the technology of Escape from New York looks and is clunky and this is embraced in the Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure. It notes the fact that firearms are rare in New York Max and many weapons are improvised or constructed from what was available, such as crossbows and spiked clubs. One notable inclusion is the Fun Gun, tranquiliser pistols firing darts loaded with designer drugs that cause confusion and euphoria in a target. Despite the lack of petrol, vehicles feature heavily in Escape from New York, leading to the possibility of vehicular combat using the rules from Everyday Heroes. The supplement gives a list of modifications such as body spikes, oil slick devices, and spike droppers which lend themselves to Car Wars or Mad Max style combat, for which the Motorhead Class would be very useful. And course, the list of modifications includes Decorations, so yes, you too, can mount chandeliers on your 1977 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham if you want to. Which you do—and not just because they give the owner advantage on the first Charisma check in an encounter. Other equipment in the Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure includes details of Reagent 18, the Survival Pod used by President Harker to escape Airforce One, and the Vascular Explosive Shot implanted in Snake Plissken to force him to complete the mission.

The new rules are limited to adding Street Cred as a means of handling reputation and trade and the effects of Reagent 18 on the poor unfortunates who would become the crazies. For the Game Master there is advice and discussion of the themes to Escape from New York—the authoritarianism, anarchy versus freedom, street gangs, Science Fiction, and of course, New York itself. This is not in great depth, but it makes the point clear for each theme and it is supported by a series of scenario hooks and a three-act adventure. This is ‘Liberty lost’, a prequel to the film set in 1993 in which a team of five convicted criminals are about to be incarcerated onto New York Max, when they are pulled aside and given a mission which if completed successfully will grant them a presidential pardon each for their crimes. The mission is of course, against the clock. Revolutionaries of the National Liberation Front of America have infiltrated Liberty Island—the base for the USPF’s operations in maintaining the blockade of New York Max—and stolen the arming device for the nuclear bomb planted in the Statue of Liberty that is only meant to be detonated if the walls of the prison completely fail. The revolutionaries have fled on Manhattan Island and are threatening to detonate the bomb in twenty-four hours unless their demands are met. They are shot onto the island via a submarine and once on New York Max, must find their find and fight their way through crazies and gangs, assault the Empire State Building (because), and engage in a street race that is mostly to the death. It is a fairly tightly plotted scenario, but it is attempting to emulate the style of the film and it is to the sound of ticking clock, the countdown to the detonation of the nuclear bomb. The scenario makes use of the various elements and rules presented in the supplement, though only Romero from the film makes an appearance in the scenario. Thematically, the potential destruction of the Statue of Liberty illustrates the limits to which the authorities will go… There are notes too on running a shorter version of the scenario, possibly for a convention, but that would be to miss out on a lot of the fun of the action-packed adventure.

Lastly, ‘The Cast’ chapter provides stats and details of a variety of NPCs and more. They start off with the antagonists from the film including The Duke, President Harker, and Romero, though there are no stats for The Duke’s champion Slag, who is killed by Snake Plissken in a deathmatch. Although there are details for Bob Hauk, USPF commissioner and Rehme, the USPF captain, the Game Master is advised to use stats taken from the Everyday Heroes core rulebook. These are followed by the stats for various NPCs from the scenario, ‘Liberty lost’, then those from the cast of the film—Plissken, Cabbie, the Brain, and Maggie—and lastly, five pre-generated Player Characters for use with ‘Liberty lost’.

Physically, Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure is cleanly, tidily presented. Unfortunately, the sourcebook is not illustrated with images from the films and does not illustrate all of the characters from the film. Whilst the artwork instead of using photographs is serviceable enough, they are only approximations of the characters in the film.

The Escape From New York™ Cinematic Adventure is about as a close to a sourcebook for the film as is possible. That it is not more than this, is down to the lack of wider information and background about the setting than the fault of the authors. In fact, the authors have squeezed as much potential out of Escape from New York as they possibly could in the presenting the great world-building of the film and adding to it in order to make it gameable. This is definitely a gaming supplement for fans of Escape from New York and of eighties action and Science Fiction cinema.