One Bad Lock-In

If they are very lucky, for the agents of Doctor John Dee, it will be an evening like any other. Unluckily—rather luckily, for were they not such agents serving the crown, Walsingham would have not spared them their sentence for heresy—it is not going to be an evening like any other. Their employer, Mister Garland, sends the agents on what should be a simple collection task at The Admiral’s Compass, an inn in the once great port of Winchelsea, its once busy harbour silted up and its status as one of the Cinque Ports long since lost. Take possession of a valuable package and safely transport it Dee at Mortlake, they are told. Unfortunately, the contents of the package are far more dangerous than the Agents might suppose and certainly far more dangerous than the unfortunately greedy and larcenous stable boy at the inn could ever imagine. However, a furtive delivery and collection and a foolish theft are not the only events that are going to take place and be resolved at The Admiral’s Compass that night. This is the situation as laid out to the Agents in The Admiral’s Compass, a scenario for Just Crunch Games’ The Dee Sanction, the roleplaying game of ‘Covert Enochian Intelligence’ in which the Player Characters—or Agents of Dee—are drawn into adventures in magick and politics across supernatural Tudor Europe.

TheAdmiral’s Compass is a short, single session scenario, published under the ‘Sanction Community Content Creation Licence’, that is location-based and could easily be run as a convention scenario, but just as simply slipped into an ongoing campaign. Its events all take place within the confines of the inn over the course of a single evening. Besides the collection of the package, the other threads—appropriately—involve a prisoner exchange with a Spanish envoy and the sad story of a young sailor whom came home scarred by his experiences serving aboard the Counter Armada launched by Sir Francis Drake in April, 1589, following the defeat of the Spanish Armada the previous year. Initially, the three strands are separate, but by mid-evening, they will crash into each other and become increasingly intertwined and involve the Agents more and more. This all takes place against the backdrop of a storm that keeps the inn isolated and its staff and patrons reluctant to step outside, plus the growing realisation that something is stalking them both. Mixed into this are at least a couple of creepy scenes, more so if either player or Agent is an arachnophobe!

Physically, The Admiral’s Compass is short, but decently organised and illustrated. Everything is clearly laid out and easy to find and there is both a floorplan and a description of the Inn. Overall, a nice-looking scenario.

The Admiral’s Compass can be run as a standard or a convention scenario or one-shot. As either of the later, the Game Master will need to prepare some ready-to-play Agents, complete with agendas of their own and agendas tied to the various members of staff and patrons at the inn. Otherwise, The Admiral’s Compass is a neat little horror scenario which takes place on a dark and stormy night.

Miskatonic Monday #398: Up on the Rooftop

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

—oOo—

Name: Up on the Rooftop

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: James Cross

Setting: Vermont, 2018

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

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

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

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# Nicely detailed cinematic horror scenario

# Includes advice for convention and campaign play

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

# Teraphobia

# Clausophobia

# Tarandophobia

Cons

# Can include the death of a child

# No Sanity rewards (for campaign play)

Conclusion

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

# Ruins Christmas for Floridians everywhere

# Reviews from R’lyeh Recommends

Magic in the USA

Just as with the works of fiction it is based upon, the Rivers of London series of novels and graphic novels by Ben Aaronovitch, the Rivers of London: the Roleplaying Game, focuses upon the demi-monde of the city of London and the wider British Isles. However, the novel Whispers Under Ground and the novellas The October Man and Winter’s Gifts, opened up the wider world to suggest that magic and the activities of the genius loci—or river spirits—and the fae are on the rise in as faraway places as Germany and the USA. Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow: A Guide to Case Files in the USA does exactly the same for the roleplaying game in the USA. It primarily explores two things in the USA. One is the history of the magic and magic practitioners in the USA and the other is law enforcement in the USA, supporting this with factions and scenarios and more. Together this highlights the differences between the United Kingdom and the USA, as well as suggesting options and ways as who the Player Characters are and how they investigate case files that deal with magic and the demi-monde. It supports this with plenty of advice and case file hooks for the Game Master, a pair of scenarios of differing complexity, and a set of ready-to-play Player Character investigators.

Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow: A Guide to Case Files in the USA starts by explaining the cultural differences between the United Kingdom and the USA in terms of magic. The most obvious is that there is no equivalent of the Folly in the USA, so no equivalent of ‘magic cops’, and no Federal oversight of magic. This does not mean that there is no Federally-connected organisation that deals with magic and magic-related crime. One is the Critical Incident Response Group of the FBI, to which Special Agent Kimberley Reynolds belongs, the other is Alderman Technical Solutions, previous incarnations of which were the de facto magical law enforcers for the US government, but which is now a private military contractor whose primary remit remains the investigation and suppression of hostile genii locorum. More common are lone practitioners or independent organised groups. One such is the ‘Librarians’ of the New York Library Association from False Value, which are fully detailed and statted here. Others include a variety of hedge wizards, monster hunters, and so on, including a coven of New Orleans witches; the luchador-inspired Las Serpientes vigilantes which hunt vampires and street gangs in Southern California; and the Cryptid Kickers, a team which makes an online paranormal reality show. Also described is Mr. Sunday, a magical fixer who can be used to bring disparate Investigators together, and last, and definitely worst, the ASU or ‘Against Spiritual Usurpation’, who most radical members hunt practitioners because they believe them to leeching magic from the natural world.

All of this is written as if a report put together by Special Agent Kimberley Reynolds, including—as she wryly notes—her own Critical Incident Response Group. She notes that the origins of Newtonian practice in the USA were in the craft that Benjamen Franklin and Thomas Jefferson learned in and brought back from Europe. Their different philosophies, culturally divided along the Mason-Dixon line, saw the founding of two societies, Franklin’s ‘Virtuous Men’ and Jefferson’s ‘Virginia Gentleman’s Company’, which would clash in the American Civil War and refuse to serve alongside each other in the Second World War. The ‘Virtuous Men’ were disbanded following revelations made to the House Un-American Activities Committee, whilst the ‘Virginia Gentleman’s Company’ was re-founded as Alderman Technical Solutions.

The consequences of all of this is that magic and its practice in the USA—and the demi-monde to some extent due to the suppression programmes conducted by the ‘Virginia Gentleman’s Company’—is steadfastly disorganised and disparate in feel and nature. In comparison to Player Characters in Great Britain, those in the USA will have no official police (or federal) law enforcement authority and little to no official magical training. There will also be no ‘official’ telephone call in the night instructing the Player Characters to investigate a strange incident, though there may unofficial ones from a journalist or law enforcement officer aware of the Player Characters’ interest in such matters. Player Characters will often have no back-up and have to work alone, often avoiding entanglement with the authorities, and perhaps going as far as using forged identification to pass themselves as members of law enforcement. If they are magic practitioners, they are likely to be hedge wizards or strongly allied with the Librarians. One option discussed as a possibility is an Indigenous practitioner, but this is not developed and left very much in the hands of the player to develop with the help of the Game Master.

The disadvantage of this is that it is more difficult to set-up a game in the USA because there is less of a readymade structure and the Player Characters will be less capable. The advantage is that there is less of a stricture as to who the Player Characters might be and how they might go about conducting an investigation. The Game Master also has more options in terms of the type of campaign she wants to run and where she wants to set it, and lastly, the players are going to know less about the setting and its American demi-monde than they might in a Rivers of London campaign set in the United Kingdom.

Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow: A Guide to Case Files in the USA is rounded out with five appendices. The first details the six members of the Cryptid Kickers, an online paranormal reality

Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow: A Guide to Case Files in the USA does include a decent explanation of American law enforcement from local to federal, plenty of case seeds for the Game Master to develop, and details about the demi-monde in the USA. The most amusing of which is where nazareths, or goblin markets, are held. This is at gun shows, which brings its own challenges, of course, and at Science Fiction & Fantasy Conventions, which lends itself to members of the demi-monde openly being themselves as cos-players! Either way, the Player Characters are going to have approach either type of event with such care lest they stick out from the crowd to both the mundane and the outré attendees.

Almost half of Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow: A Guide to Case Files in the USA is dedicated to a pair of highly detailed case files. The first, ‘Woolly Bully’ takes places in the depths of Red Cedar Forest in Montana where the body of a local meth dealer has been found dead after a bear attack, although there is speculation that it as a bigfoot attack! The scenario involves some investigation in the nearby town of Merriweather, but is primarily focused on what lies in the woods and what secrets are hidden out there. The Player Characters will need to conduct at least one excursion into the woods, which the local sheriff will discourage. Once the Player Characters do go into the woods, the scenario is fairly linear, the Game Master having the option to add further encounters. There is advice too, on how to get the Player Characters involved, depending on who they work for or if they are independents, and lots of advice on how to stage various scenes to the extent that the ‘Woolly Bully’ is good introductory case for a Game Master to run. However, the scenario does have the potential to turn violent and end up with the Player Characters facing a tough opponent, so does not quite feel like a traditional Rivers of London case file in that way. Otherwise, a straightforward, but well done case file.

The second case file is just as detailed, but switches the mystery to the West Coast of Los Angeles as well as keeping it in Montana. ‘A Regular Picture Palace Drama’ is a more complex affair than ‘Woolly Bully’, but it can be run as a sequel. It is a MacGuffin hunt, one which concerns a very magical piece of Hollywood and which some desperate people and organisations are desperate to get hold of, and will literally chase people down to do so. The investigation begins with news of a magical artefact, a revolver known as a buntline special, has surfaced and set the demi-monde gossiping. Attempting to track it down in Bozeman, Montana, where it was seen at a gun show, reveals the efforts to which some people will go to obtain it, including robbery and murder and car chases, but by the end of the first act, the Investigators will have learned that the artefact has been taken to Los Angeles. This being Hollywood, this is where the scenario gets weirder and where the authors being to have their fun, as the Player Characters begin experiencing oddly spectral recreations of old Hollywood films leading to a showdown with whichever one of their chasers has survived so far. Despite the increased complexity, the case file comes with plenty of staging advice and could be used to set up a campaign in Los Angeles, perhaps a new West Coast Critical Incident Response Group office after the outbreak of even weirder weirdness or one involving the Arrowsmith organisation which deals in the preservation of rare Hollywood films and relics. The scenario closes with eight case file seeds, some of which do include Arrowsmith, others some of the factions detailed elsewhere in the book.

‘A Regular Picture Palace Drama’ is definitely the more interesting and more entertaining of the two scenarios. If there is anything missing, it is an opportunity for the Player Characters to actually go to a gun show as described earlier in the book as an American nazareth.

Rounding out Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow: A Guide to Case Files in the USA is a set of five appendices. The first details the members of the Cryptid Kickers paranormal online series investigators as Player Characters, potentially ready to play the two scenarios in the supplement. There are four members of the Cryptid Kickers, plus a couple of friends who help out. Two of the Cryptid Kickers are practitioners, though in secret. The second appendix details several new spells. For example, Treaclefoot is used to stick two things together temporarily, people’s shoes to the floor most obviously; Casus Levis, softens a person’s landing after a fall; and Winter’s Breath is cast to radically drop the temperature in a small sphere, including causing a violent bronchospasm if cast on a victim’s head. The ‘New Creatures’ appendix introduces malignancies and despairs, types of hostile spirits; ‘Talking Racoons’ as the American equivalent to Foxes; and ‘Old Soldiers’, lower fae with an affinity for conflict having been reborn on a battlefield after extended fighting. They are available as a Player Character option. The fourth chapter lists and describes the most notable cryptid in most of the states. It is only marginally useful since it leaves the Game Master to create the stats for them and the lack of those is really the only shortcoming to Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow: A Guide to Case Files in the USA. The last appendix consists of an extensive list of inspiration from books, graphic novels, films and television series, podcasts, and more.

There are some limitations to Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow: A Guide to Case Files in the USA. The lack of further cryptid stats and the limited options if a Game Master wants a more organised set-up for her campaign. They are understandable, since not everything has been detailed in the Rivers of London series of novels and books. Plus, they do leave a lot of room for the Game Master to create her own content for her campaign.

Physically, Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow: A Guide to Case Files in the USA is very well presented. The book is an engaging read, full of interesting details, and there is a Ben Aaronovitch vignette at the start—sadly too short. The artwork is also good, although one has to wonder what it is that Bob Ross was going to paint.

There is very likely much more to explore in the USA in the world of Rivers of London as Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow: A Guide to Case Files in the USA is a not a complete guide to the setting. It is, however, a solid introduction that presents the Game Master with both plenty to use in her campaign and room to develop her own, backed up with two entertaining scenarios.

Cthulhoid Choices: Cryptid Creeks

Call of Cthulhu is the preeminent roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror and has been for over four decades now. The roleplaying game gives the chance for the players and their Investigators to explore a world in which the latter are exposed, initially often indirectly, but as the story or investigation progresses, increasingly directly, to alien forces beyond their comprehension. So, beyond that what they encounter is often interpreted as indescribable, yet supernatural monsters or gods wielding magic, but in reality is something more, a confrontation with the true nature of the universe and the realisation as to the terrible insignificance of mankind with it and an understanding that despite, there are those that would embrace and worship the powers that be for their own ends. Such a realisation and such an understanding often leave those so foolish as to investigate the unknown clutching at, or even, losing their sanity, and condemned to a life knowing truths to which they wish they were never exposed. This blueprint has set the way in which other games—roleplaying games, board games, card games, and more—have presented Lovecraftian investigative horror, but as many as there that do follow that blueprint, there are others have explored the Mythos in different ways.

Cthulhoid Choices is a strand of reviews that examine other roleplaying games of Lovecraftian investigative horror and of Cosmic, but not necessarily Horror. Previous reviews which can be considered part of this strand include Cthulhu Hack, Realms of Crawling Chaos, and the Apocthulhu Roleplaying Game.

—oOo—

Shingleford is in danger from manipulation and catastrophe. It is not the first time that this happened to the town which stands on the mouth of the Clawfoot estuary. It happened in the autumn of 1962 and was stopped, but can it be stopped this time? The enigmatic, if friendly, figure of the Peddler has come to town, selling the townsfolk what they want in the form of little Trinkets he takes from his travelling case. When the owners of these Trinkets sleep, the Trinkets take their deepest resentments and twist them into Curses, and in this way, their owners become Cursekeepers, exhilarated by the eldritch power granted by their Trinkets and now capable of casting their Curses on others, whether that is an individual, their family or other group, or an establishment. These curses will grow and threaten to overwhelm the community. If these Curses and the influence of the Peddler were stopped in 1962, how can they be stopped today? Simply through the efforts of the River Scouts, the stories of Hilda Buckle, and the careful eye of The Watcher. The Watcher is an intelligent animal or cryptid, a spirit of the river who will inform the River Scouts of new Curses and keep a watch over them. Hilda Buckle is an old woman who lives in a shack on Bulrush Island further upriver and who has a reputation for telling fanciful stories, fanciful stories that begin to look very much the events that are occurring in Shingleford and up and down the river. The River Scouts are local teenagers who discovered the old River Scouts clubhouse, abandoned after the events of 1962, and upon turning it into a den, were visited by the ghost of a young girl who told them of how she helped lift the Curse in 1962. Other ghosts asked them to read the River Scout Pledge and provide protection for the Clawfoot and Shingleford once again, presenting them with Sashes that will help them defeat the Curses.

This is the set-up for Cryptid Creeks, a roleplaying game of eldritch investigative horror, that takes its inspiration from films such as The Goonies and Stand by Me, television series like Gravity Falls and Stranger Things, and graphic novels such as The Lumberjanes. Although a roleplaying game of eldritch investigative horror, and thus adjacent to it, Cryptid Creeks is not a roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror and does not involve the Cthulhu Mythos. Which means it offers a similar style of play, but without the familiarity with or issues of anything Lovecraftian. Further, in keeping with its inspirations and with the age of its protagonists, it is designed to be played, if not necessarily run, by a teenage audience. This does not mean that it cannot be enjoyed by more mature playing group, but it is in keeping with the publisher’s other roleplaying game, Inspirales, aimed at a similar age group. Published by Hatchlings Games following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is described as ‘Cosy Horror’, meaning that it is suitable for a family audience. Cryptid Creeks is also ‘Carved from Brindlewood’, which means that it is a Powered by the Apocalypse system roleplaying game, but one using the lighter, more investigative-focused variant of Brindlewood Bay.

A River Scout in Cryptid Creeks is defined by five attributes—Athletic, Smart, Cool, Smooth, and Attuned—which range in value from ‘-3’ to ‘+3’, and are used to modify dice rolls. He will be defined by a Playbook, which defines the base value for the attributes, a gift from the Watcher, provides Moves or actions particular to each Playbook, gives Setback and Perks, and offers ways in which the River Scout can improve himself. The six Playbooks are Athlete, Medic, Musician, Bookworm, Sailor, and Misfit. For the most part, they conform to high school type roles, though with a couple options which fit the setting of Cryptid Creeks. These are the Sailor, who will help the River Scouts get up and down the Clawfoot, and the Misfit, who is a little bit special because he is the Watcher’s champion and can work with the Eeries, the chaotic, tiny cryptids which watch over Shingleford for Curses and deliver messages to and for the Watcher. Each Playbook also suggests touchstones, or characters from films and television, that fall within the Playbook.

To create a River Scout, a player selects a Playbook and assigns one point to his attributes. He also picks one ability as well as the Watcher’s Gift. The process is simple and straightforward.

Every Scout has access to six Basic Moves in addition to the Moves of his Playbook. The Scout Move is carried out when a River Scout wants to do something risky or face a fear; the Eldritch Move is rolled when facing or dealing with the supernatural; the Snoop Move is for searching for Clues or conducting research; the Crew Move is for clearing Misfortunes and for strengthening bonds between the River Scouts; the Hilda Move is used when a River Scout wants to do something based on a story that Hilda has told him; and lastly the Answer a Question Move is made when the players feel that their River Scouts have gathered enough clues to discuss and then attempt a hypothesis about the nature of a Curse. As Cryptid Creeks is an investigative roleplaying game, the Snoop Move is a strong focus of the game, there is a certain delight in the Hilda Move which enables a player to add detail to the setting through play.

Mechanically, Cryptid Creeks is quite straightforward. To have his River Scout undertake an action, a player rolls two six-sided dice. On a roll of six or less, the result is a miss with a reaction; a roll of seven to nine is a hit with a complication; a roll of ten or eleven a straight hit; and a roll of twelve or more a triumph with a benefit. A player can also roll with Advantage, meaning he rolls three dice and uses the two highest, or Disadvantage, meaning that he rolls three dice and uses the two lowest. Advantage may come from a Move, the situation, or a useful item from the Clubhouse Collection. Disadvantage can come from the situation or a Misfortune.

In addition, each River Scout has access to a Sash, given to him by the ghosts in the Clubhouse. These can be used—and the roleplaying game advises that the players use them when a Curse is near its peak and the situation is much tougher—after a roll has been made to increase the success rating rolled. Narratively, a Sash has two effects, one that is out of game and one that is in game. The out of game effect is that it enables a player and his River Scout to view one dangerous path, represented by the poor roll, but as advised by the ghost who gave it to the River Scout, chose a path with better outcome that pushes them towards defeating the Peddler. The in-game effect depends upon whether the player chooses to lift his River Scout’s Sash as ‘The Sash of Ages’ or ‘The Sash of Endings’. When ‘The Sash of Ages’ is lifted, it invokes a nostalgic memory of a time before the character joined the River Scouts, whilst when ‘The Sash of Endings’ is lifted, the River Scout suffers from dark visions. For example, a ‘Sash of Ages’ for the Sailor Playbook is ‘A flashback showing your earliest memory in a boat’, whilst a ‘Sash of Endings’ might be ‘Ends in Ruins’ in which, ‘The townsfolk desperately search through the charred remains of the dinghy, even as the mast collapses.’ Each Playbook lists several of both types of Sashes which are crossed off as they are lifted. When a player crosses off the last Sash, his River Scout must retire.

Given its ‘Cozy Horror’ genre and the age of the River Scouts, it is no surprise that Cryptid Creeks has no combat system. Technically, it does not even have a damage system. Instead, a River Scout can suffer Misfortunes that can be physical, psychological, or supernatural, such as an allergic reaction, sprained ankle, being confused or horrified, or feeling a buzzing in the brain or being drawn to the Peddler. These can come about because of a player’s roll, of a River Scout’s action, and so on. A Misfortune means that River Scout’s player rolls with Disadvantage, and worse, when a River Scout suffers his fourth Misfortune, his player must mark off a Sash without the benefit of Lifting it. Narratively, Misfortunes and their mechanical effect can be negated by the Crew Move, played whilst travelling or at the Clubhouse.

Cryptid Creeks is played in four phases—the ‘Beginning of Episode’ Phase, ‘Investigation’ Phase, the ‘River’ Phase, and ‘End of Episode’ Phase. The ‘Beginning of Episode’ Phase includes a recap, a clubhouse montage, and the Navigator—as the Game Master is known—introduces a new Curse. In the ‘Investigation’ Phase, the River Scouts search for clues and gather information, which takes up the majority of play. The ‘River’ Phase is triggered whenever the River Scouts travel up and down the Clawfoot and enables the Navigator and players to expand the setting by adding and detailing new locations, the Navigator to showcase the setting and its eldritch elements, and the River Scout to share more emotionally touching scenes. In the ‘End of Episode’ Phase, the River Scouts claim the rewards for breaking a Curse, play out any scenes linked to Sashes lifted during the session, gain Experience Points for answering ‘End of Episode’ Questions, and in the appropriately named ‘Smores & Dreams’, the players can discuss that they liked about the episode and want to see more of.

For the Navigator, there is good advice on running the four different Phases, how to handle clues, locations, and side characters, and how to interpret the various Moves. There is also a breakdown of what a Curse looks like and the principles of being a good Navigator. These include rooting for the River Scouts, following their lead as they explore and expand the setting of Clawfoot and search for Clues, shift the spotlight between River Scouts, balance the cosy versus the eldritch, bring the world to life, embrace the otherworldly nature of Clawfoot, and keep collaboration with the players in mind. Although there is advice on how to run Cryptid Creeks as a one-shot, it is made clear that the roleplaying game is not intended to be run in a ‘monster-of-the-week’ format, but rather as a series consisting of several episodes. What this means is that although the River Scouts will initially be facing one Curse, the likelihood is that they will be facing two or three as the campaign progresses. A Curse consists of a main threat and several ‘tendrils’, associated dangers such as eldritch horrors and difficult Side Characters that typically want to stop the River Scouts. A Curse also has its own Sash, which can be Lifted like the River Scouts’ own, but without needing to tick their own off.

Beyond this, Cryptid Creeks provides the Navigator with tools and advice to create her own Curses, from concept and themes to presenting the Curse and clues to it and more. Almost half of Cryptid Creeks is devoted to the eight-part campaign or series, ‘The Peddler’s Revenge’ in which the River Scouts discover the threat to Shingleford and Clawfoot, investigate the Curses being laid upon the region, and ultimately uncover the secrets behind the Peddler. The campaign is supported by descriptions of various places in Shingleford and along the Clawfoot, but best of all, there is a pilot episode that the Navigator can use to kick-start her campaign. It provides a step-by-step guide that helps the Navigator teach the rules of Cryptid Creeks and explain what the roleplaying game is about to her players and then again, step-by-step, shows the Navigator how to show her players how to play and the flow of the game. Up until this point, Cryptid Creeks looked to be a good roleplaying game to run for a group of younger players who were new or relatively new to roleplaying games, ideally by a Game Master with some experience under her belt. Yet, the ‘Pilot Episode’ really shifts Cryptid Creeks away from this. It is very well done and really helps the neophyte Navigator—whether new to being a Game Master or new to Powered by the Apocalypse—grasp how Cryptid Creeks is run. The advice and step-by-step introduction of the ‘Pilot Episode’ make what was already a good starting roleplaying game for the players, into being a good one for the Navigator too.

Physically, Cryptid Creeks is brightly, breezily presented with engaging cartoonish artwork. The depiction of the Peddler in particular, looks like a version of David Tennant’s Doctor Who, but with tentacles coming out of his Mod suit! The roleplaying game is also well written and far from a difficult read.

Cryptid Creeks is not an introductory roleplaying game, but it definitely can be used to introduce players to the hobby and it can be a Navigator’s first roleplaying game as a Game Master. The advice to that end is very well done and this is combined with the accessibility of both the Powered by the Apocalypse mechanics and the setting of Clawfoot with its cosy familiarity and the unsettling nature of the threat that the River Scouts and their home face. If looking for a ‘Cosy Horror’ roleplaying game or a Game Master’s first roleplaying game, Cryptid Creeks is a good choice. If looking for both, Cryptid Creeks is the perfect choice.

Quick-Start Saturday: Midnight of the Century Primer

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 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?
Midnight of the Century Primer is the quick-start for Midnight of the Century, a mid-’90s pre-apocalyptic serial killer investigation roleplaying game inspired by ’90s films and television shows like Manhunter, Millennium, Silence of the Lambs, Twin Peaks, and Homicide: Life on the Street.

It is a twenty-four page, 9.38 MB full colour (but mostly black and red) PDF.

It is decently written and the artwork is excellent. It does need an edit in places.

How long will it take to play?
Midnight of the Century Primer is designed to be played through in a single session, two at the very most.

What else do you need to play?
The Midnight of the Century Primer needs a standard set of polyhedral dice, including percentile dice, per player.

Who do you play?
The Midnight of the Century Primer includes two pre-generated Player Characters. They are the Profiler and the Occultist. They are consultants for the OROBORO GROUP, which offers services in criminal investigation, risk and threat management, crisis management, corporate and private security, and intelligence gathering. The Profiler previously worked for law enforcement, whilst the Occultist may have consulted for law enforcement.

How is a Player Character defined?

A Player Character in the Midnight of the Century Primer has three stats. These are Body, Mind, and Will, and range in value between three and eighteen. In addition, a Player Character will have a personal Connection, a loved one that keeps him grounded and focused; a Haven where he feels safe; plus a vehicle, name, and traits. These are also rolled for.

Both Player Characters have a set of general skills. These are Investigate, Interview, Research, Bluff, Force, and Publicise. There are equal to one of the three attributes. A Player Character has a Specialism which grants specific skills. For the Profiler they are Glimpse, in which he can gains an involuntarily vision of the killer, and Profile, which enables him to generate a psychological profile of the Unknown Subject and gain more details for the Investigation Dossier. The Occultist can Commune with the dead and ask questions of the deceased, or Herald a vision of the past, present, or future. This requires the Occultist to touch the item, surface, or person.

The use of a Specialist skill inflicts Stress on a Player Character.

How do the mechanics work?

Mechanically, Midnight of the Century is straightforward. To have his character act or avoid a risky or dangerous situation or sue a skill, the player rolls a Save against the appropriate stat. A result of one is a critical success, but a twenty is a critical failure. The mechanics use Advantage and Disadvantage.

During play, a Player Character can suffer Stress. This occurs when a Player Character fails a Save, uses a Specialist skill, is engaged in a pursuit, or encounters the Uncanny. Stress also reduces a Player Character’s Will.

A Player Character can also suffer Fracture. It occurs when a critical failure is rolled, a crucial Save is failed, confront the killer one-on-one, and when the Player Character’s Will is reduced to zero. A Fracture check is a Will Save. If failed, the Player Character suffers Fracture, gains a Condition, and a roll must be made on the Fracture table. For example, ‘‘Tip of your Tongue’ doubles the amount of time it takes to conduct research and any roll is made at a Disadvantage and ‘Not Quite Home’ means that the Player Character feels that something is off, but cannot work out what it is and the amount of Mind restored for resting in a Player Character’s Haven is reduced.

The Doom Phase—Dawn, Midday, Dusk, or Midnight—of the Investigation determines how much Stress is suffered during an investigation.

The Midnight of the Century Primer includes an example of play.

How does combat work?
There are no specific combat mechanics in the Midnight of the Century Primer. By intent, a Player Character is fragile and the rules state that the Player Character is no good in a fight and if he comes face-to-face with a killer, suggests that he had better run or he is going to be the killer’s next victim.

How does Doom work?

Doom tracks the ratcheting up of tension and pushes the investigation towards a confrontation. Doom ticks increase the effect of the Doom Phases and the Killer may kill again, taunt the press, taunt or stalk the Investigator, or even target an Investigator’s Connection.

How does Chaos work?

This is left for the Midnight of the Century core rulebook.

How does the Uncanny work?

This is left for the Midnight of the Century core rulebook.

What do you play?

The scenario in the Midnight of the Century Primer is ‘On The Edge Of Apocalypse’. This takes place in the very rainy northwest, either Seattle or Vancouver. There are some nice notes on the technology of the period to capture part of its feel. The Player Characters are called in by the Oroboro Group on their first consultation. The case is neatly broken down and nicely detailed, enabling the Game Master to run it with ease. This is a well done mystery which feels right for the period and could easily have been an episode of a television series from the nineties.

Is there anything missing?
No. The Midnight of the Century Primer has everything the Game Master and her players will need to play, including advice on tone, safety tools, and a good example of play.

Is it easy to prepare?
Yes. The Midnight of the Century Primer is relatively easy to prepare.

Is it worth it?
Yes. There a lot to like about the Midnight of the Century Primer. It is a rare quick-start designed for one or two players and provides a decent introduction to the setting with a good scenario, though it leaves a lot of the weirder content for the core rulebook. Anyone who remembers and enjoyed the occult and serial killer media of the mid- to late-nineties will get a nostalgia hit from this quick-start.

The Midnight of the Century Primer is published by By Odin’s Beard and is available to download here.

Friday Fantasy: 365 Adventures: The Dungeon – 2025

A calendar is useful, if boring. Start of the month, check for appointments and things you are planning to do. Cross off the days as they pass, and when you get to the end of the month, flip over the page and start on the next. Either that or you are ripping off one page, day-by-day, month-by-month, all the way to the end of the year when you will start all over again with a fabulous new calendar. Of course, a calendar can be themed or display pictures from your favourite series of books or television series, or whatever you like, as there is probably calendar for it. What though if you wanted to go an adventure, fight monsters, find treasures, be a hero? Well, you would think that you were out of luck, except that is for the 365 Adventures: The Dungeon – 2025. This is a calendar on which you can face challenge nearly every day, whether it is battling goblins, facing mushroom men, avoiding a trap, and fighting a boss like a two-headed giant or a minotaur! As you play from one month to the next, there will be rewards, but also greater challenges, and as you cross one defeated monsters or overcome challenge after another, you can keep track of your score on the 365 Adventures app, compare your score with others, and at the end of the year find out what your overall score is for the year.

Published by the amusingly named Sorry We Are French, the 365 Adventures: The Dungeon – 2025 is a desk calendar that you can play once a day for two minutes for the whole of the year. Alongside the fliptop calendar itself, the 365 Adventures: The Dungeon – 2025 comes with a rules leaflet, five six-sided dice—four red, one blue, and Marlow. Marlow is the hero of the story, a brave and mighty warrior, ready on January 1st, to enter the dungeon labyrinth of monster-infested rooms and trap-laden corridors, fight monsters big and small, face down bosses of increasing toughness, and put what treasures he can find to use to defeat yet more monsters! Marlow is represented by a flat metal enamelled figure, armed with sword and shield, and always moving to the right, deeper into the wing represented by the current week, and down to the next level, each one represented by a whole month. There is a challenge every day and a boss monster to defeat on Sundays! Marlow does not have to defeat every monster to keep moving forward, but the more he defeats, the greater his score at the end of the year.

Each day player gets to roll the dice to defeat one monster or the boss monster at the end of the week/wing. The have a value of between one and six, whilst the boss monsters have values ranging from sixteen to thirty, the values for the boss monsters varying across the week. The values for both monsters and boss monsters rise over the course of the year. Each day, the player rolls the dice up to three times, the aim being to roll slightly different whether facing a monster or a boss monster. To defeat a monster, a player has to roll three of the same value as a monster. Thus, for monster rated as a four, he must roll three dice with the number four on them. To defeat a boss monster, the total number on all of the dice must equal or be greater than the value of the boss monster. The player does not have to select the monster he wants Marlow to attack prior to rolling, which means that he can match the dice results to any monster for the week. If a player fails the roll for any monster, nothing happens, but if defeats a monster or the boss monster, he crosses that monster’s shield out, and will add it to his total for the month. A player does not have to defeat everything in a week/wing and Marlow is going to go onwards anyway, just as the days are going to pass. However, the fact that a player can attempt to defeat any monster and/or the boss monster at any time in a week feels like Marlow is moving back and forth through a wing rather than constantly moving forward.

So far, so good. At the end the month, the player gets to flip the month over and move Marlow down into a new level of the dungeon. What this reveals is a nice piece of colour text as well as a new element to the game play of 365 Adventures: The Dungeon – 2025 added for the new month/dungeon level and going forward. For example, February adds a new rule. This is for traps which can only be overcome by rolling numbers that do not match the value of the trap. For March, Marlow discovers a magic sword, which once a month, allows the player to flip the blue die to its opposite face, and there is a magic sword box at the top of the month to remind the player that he has used it. Later months and levels add elite monsters, invisible monsters, monsters that provide a bonus score and reduce a boss monster’s value, and so on, all the way to December, where everything gets much tougher!

365 Adventures: The Dungeon – 2025 is a day-by-day monster beat ’em. Like any commitment for a year, a player is going to start out strong, playing it and rolling dice day-by-day, but whether he can stick it out for a year is a matter of his willpower. Likely he will lapse occasionally and race to catch up. Beyond tracking the passing of the days, the 365 Adventures: The Dungeon – 2025 is not much use as a calendar as the boxes for each day is occupied by a monster or trap, but it is not designed as such, being more game than calendar. The game play is not particularly detailed or deep, and so not particularly challenging either.

Physically, the 365 Adventures: The Dungeon – 2025 is nicely presented, full of colour and detail that make you wish some of the creatures were available as card standees for your proper roleplaying game. There is a touch of humour to the art as well, like the cap-wearing pink teddy bear with dynamites trapped to its belly and the generally cranky monsters. Both the basic rules and the monthly additions are clearly written and easy to understand. The only problem is Marlow. Marlow is meant to adhere to the calendar with its magnet, but this does not work, making tracking Marlow’s position day-by-day difficult.

365 Adventures: The Dungeon – 2025 is a silly product, what you would call a ‘stocking filler’. However silly it is, it is well executed and actually quite clever in its design. For the player prepared to stick it out, it offers a little respite from the world everyday with a little dice rolling and some monster bashing.

—oOo—

Sorry We Are French has expanded the range for 2026. There is another fantasy adventure for Marlow, now joined by Mira, with 365 Adventures: The Dungeon – 2026, but 365 Adventures – Cthulhu 1926 expands into a new genre as private detective John Miller discovers mysteries and age-old secrets on the streets of Arkham.

The Other OSR: Candle

The Player Characters know that they are in trouble when they appear somewhere different than to where they were. The Player Characters know that they are in trouble when they appear somewhere to the stench of incense, blood, and burnt hair, and the sounds of screams echoing around the high-vaulted ceiling of the room lit by blood red candles. The Player Characters know that they are in trouble when they appear in a summoning circle, one marked with lines filled with salt and powdered silver, and two of the five cultists in the room dead on the floor, their throats cut. The Player Characters know that they are in trouble when they appear somewhere and towering over them is a devil, skin like blackened iron, his horns craping the ceiling, and steam rising from every one of his pores. He is looking down on them and he is furious. As well as knowing that they are in trouble, the Player Characters have no idea where they are, how they got there, and even if there is a way out of where they are, let alone the reason why the devil is angry at them. And they definitely have no idea that the situation they are in is entirely their own fault.

This is the set-up for Candle: A Reverse Dungeon Crawl. Published by Loot the Room, this is a scenario for Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance style roleplaying game designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing. Although the scenario can be run at almost any time, it actually requires a bit more set-up, ideally in several adventures run before Candle. This is because of the ‘candle’ of the tile, which is what puts them in their new and terrifying situation. The candle, or Taper, consists of two feet of thin, twisted wax with a goat’s hair wick. When lit it provides light equivalent to a candle visible to the person holding and anyone touching the wielder. Although it burns with the strong smell you would expect from burning hair, the wax never melts and the candle burns indefinitely, and its light is only visible to the wielder and those touching him. The intent is that Player Characters get used to benefiting from it, being able to move in the dark without being seen—although the smell will be a giveaway. At which point, the Game Master runs the scenario and the Player Characters suffer the unforeseen consequences of the Taper’s use and origins.

The devil’s name is Gomduloch. Not only does he hate being summoned, he thinks the Player Characters are somehow connected to his being summoned, and now he hates them. Having butchered some cultists—and definitely willing to butcher more—he is coming for the Player Characters. So not only do the Player Characters have to find their way out of a dungeon filled with cultists, dead bodies, roaming imps and devils, and all the perversity and horrors you would expect of a cultists’ lair, but they have to do that whilst being chased by a very angry devil.

The scenario begins in what would be the last room in any other dungeon, the room where the summoning would be about to take place were this any other dungeon. Then it proceeds to present its rooms backwards, from thirty-three counting down to one, and the exit. Divided over two Levels, one above ground, the other below, the dungeon is relatively linear, but instead of the Player Characters going in and discovering its secrets as they get to towards the end of the dungeon, here they begin by discovering those secrets on the way out. There are plenty of secrets to be found and discoveries to be made. The secrets will help the Player Characters, often to withstand, at least temporarily, the influence and reach of Gomduloch, whilst the discoveries tend towards the gruesome. What else would you expect though, it is a scenario for Mörk Borg after all. The challenge, ultimately, is to discover a way to banish Gomduloch and get away. In the case of Candle, survival is its own reward, so the players and their characters should expect very little reward beyond that.

Physically, Candle: A Reverse Dungeon Crawl is well presented. Each location is given a one-page description and the map for the relevant Level is also included on the two-page spread. Bar the Taper itself, there is no artwork in the book. The only issue with the presentation is in the choice of fount for the sidebars, which is too fine and too light to be read with any ease.

Reverse dungeons are not new. In most cases, they set up the Player Characters as prisoners and expect them to escape their confinement, making them about breaking out, not breaking in, but others flip the dungeon by making the Player Characters the monsters not the heroes. Reverse Dungeon, published by Wizards of the Coast in 2000 is an example of the latter, whilst Escape from Astigar’s Lair, published by Judges Guild in 1980, is an example of the former. Of course, Candle: A Reverse Dungeon Crawl is definitely an example of the former, but given the nature of the Player Characters in Mörk Borg, it could also be argued as being an example of the latter. That said, as much as the Player Characters are monstrous in Mörk Borg, they face worse monsters in Candle.

The problem with Candle: A Reverse Dungeon Crawl is the Taper. The Game Master has to set the scenario by luring the Player Characters not only into finding it, but also using it and coming to love. Without that, the scenario is far less effective. There is no advice for the Game Master to ease or overcome that problem. Nevertheless, once set-up, Candle: A Reverse Dungeon Crawl opens with a bang and keeps the horror going with the desperate Player Characters going to be so glad to have escaped their imprisonment in the cultists’ lair, let alone the anger of Gomduloch!