Steampunk Soldiery Spotter's Guide

After the Great Meteor Shower of 1862, the world would never be the same. For the meteorites contained a substance that turned out to be an incredible energy source—Hephaestium. Its discovery and refinement would lead to unprecedented technological development and innovation, each of the Great Powers harnessing both Hephaestium and the technological advances to their own ends. In particular, to protecting their empires! Thus Great Britain enhanced its railway network with the Ulster Bridge and Shetland Run, built the first circumnavigation cruisers, and of course, strengthened her Royal Navy. Bismark fielded first Prussia’s and then Germany’s new armoured Sturmtruppen and Kaiser-class armoured infantry in a lightening series of wars that saw him cow Denmark and then in turn defeat each of the little Germanic kingdoms, princedoms, duchies, and so on. While her domestic armies were often mutinous, France had great success in her colonies, for example, the Peugeot-built steam-powered exoskeleton-equipped Foreign Legion units lived up to their ‘March or die!’ motto in driving the Chinese out of Indochina in a counterattack that would be followed by an invasion of China in 1876. Russia experimented with both the chemical properties of Hephaestium and submarines, the Ottoman Empire with automatons derived from German designs, the Austro-Hungarian Empire lured Nicolai Tesla back to develop a variety of Hephaestium-powered electro-weapons, while Italy, with no access to the precious meteorite, became Europe’s rogue state. Its intelligence services have stolen blue prints and prototypes, sabotaged others, and kidnapped scientists—they may be perfidious, but they are extremely capable. Perhaps the most radically changed country is the USA where at the height of its Civil War, General Lee’s land ironclads forced back the Union forces and held them to a stalemate until hostilities ceased in 1869. Thus North America has remained divided between the USA, the Confederate States of America, and Canada ever since…

This is the background against which the forgotten British artist, Miles Vandercroft travelled the sketching and painting the soldiery of the age. This artwork has been rediscovered and brought together in a handsome book published by Osprey Books under its Osprey Adventures line, Steampunk Soldiers: Uniforms & Weapons from the Age of Steam. It purports to be a guide to the vivid and striking uniforms worn by the armies and the steam-powered weaponry and equipment fielded by these armies in the years between the fall of the meteors and the Great War of the Worlds. The descriptions of these uniforms, the arms and armour, and the units and the battles they fought, do much to capture some of the period’s pageantry and both honour and dishonour!

Of course, Steampunk Soldiers: Uniforms & Weapons from the Age of Steam is anything but this. It is not a pictorial guide to the past, but a past that never was. A Steampunk Age of fantastic invention, intrigue, and warfare that is captured in this collection of gorgeous colour plates each accompanied by an intriguing description. For example, where did the 24th Regiment of Foot disappear to from Portsmouth in 1886? What brought Austria and France to war in which the French 6th Engineers used steam-powered drills to break into the supposedly impregnable Austrian castle of Hochosterwitz? There are hints and mentions of events like this throughout the book.

In places the authors have their tongues firmly ensconced in cheeks. For example, the be-kilted Highlander Battlesuits worn by the members of The Black Watch not only comes with a claymore sword, but automatic bagpipes that play Scotland the Brave! One interesting aside about the artwork in Steampunk Soldiers is that it has a certain familiarity to it. Many of the art is posed in a similar fashion to pieces used in a range of other Osprey Books.

There is an undoubted pleasure to be had in reading through the pages of Steampunk Soldiers, but its intriguing nature irks as much as it delights. For the reader is very much left wanting more; if not necessarily more images and more descriptions, but very much more background, more backstory, more detail. The implied background of this new Age of Steam begs for a second book, one with more explicit history. For what Steampunk Soldiers begs for is something that can be gamed—either as roleplaying or a wargaming setting. Naturally, there is nothing to stop a gamer from building such a setting from the material and background included, but it will take no little effort. (Of course, it is a pity that no suggestions are given as what games might be used to this end, but that would break conceit at the heart of Steampunk Soldiers.)

Ultimately, this is one book whose content is something that you want to a read a little more about. Easy to dip into and peruse for ideas, Steampunk Soldiers: Uniforms & Weapons from the Age of Steam is a charming and engaging book that begs for a sequel or more information.

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Your Vampire Primer

There are some people who contend that the United Nations is fighting a secret war on sovereignty and democracy in its pursuit of a ‘one world government’. This is not true. It is fighting a secret war, not against sovereignty and democracy, but a threat insidious and hidden that preys upon humanity–vampires. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) fields ‘Special Action Units’ (SAUs) dedicated to the study, location, and eradication of vampires. Armed with automatic shotguns and assault rifles that fire blessed and consecrated rounds of wood, silver, and graphite, and wearing armour incised with religious iconography and inscriptions, once these teams have a target, they are sent out aboard ‘black helicopters’ to strike at the horridly implacable creatures that are vampires.

This is the set-up for Vampires: A Hunter’s Guide, published by Osprey Books as part of its Osprey Adventures line. Best known for its its military history books, each diligently researched and meticulously illustrated with period photographs and fully painted colour plates, entries in the Osprey Adventures series goes beyond the facts to meld it with fiction. The result is a sourcebook of ideas for a gamer’s current game or a background for a whole new game. All a gamer needs to do is add the rules of his choice. The series has already looked at The Nazi Occult and given us Zombies: A Hunter’s Guide–amongst others... 

Vampires: A Hunter’s Guide most resembles Zombies: A Hunter’s Guide, being an examination of several types of vampire, their creation, their feeding and hunting habits, their relationship to humanity, and humanity’s response to each of these horrors. It does these for five continents–Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, and South America. In doing so, it focuses upon five types of vampire–the Strigoi, the Asanbosam and the Obayifo, the Jiangshi, and the Chupacabra. Of course, the various chapters are nicely illustrated with pieces of period art, photographs of various artifacts, and full colour artwork.

It begins with the Strigoi in Europe and a raid on a nest during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, before delving into the history and types of the Strigoi. They are closest in type to the vampire of the modern era, typified by Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but other types exist in the Balkans and beyond. The Strigoi of course feeds on blood, is capable of transforming themselves into bats or wolves, and possess a certain sexual allure. The Papacy was the first organisation to recognise the ‘satanic’ threat and attempt to deal with it, such that many of the creatures took the opportunity to flee to the New World. Here the only rivals they had were each other, for North America had no vampiric tradition, and so they hid themselves and through wise investments, managed to protect themselves with great wealth. This makes them extremely difficult to track down and identify–it can take years of careful work by the FBI before an SAU can strike.

Less familiar will be the Asanbosam and the Obayifo, the vampiric creatures native to modern day Ghana and the historical Ashanti Empire. The Asanbosam is an arboreal bat-like hunter that reaches down from the trees for its prey, which is driven to mankind when they enter and then cut down the forest. In response, vampire hunters would train to enter the canopy, armed with short, gold-tipped spears and knives, and often protected by the juju or magic of the Marabout. Where the Asanbosam feeds on blood and flesh, the Obayifo, a spirit vampire, feeds off negative empathic energy. There is the possibility that the Obayifo are capable of controlling the Asanbosam, but where the Asanbosam seems confined to the diminishing forests, the Obayifo seems to have spread beyond Ghana’s borders.

Conversely, the Jiangshi will be familiar to devotees of Hong Kong cinema. The ‘stiff corpsed’ hopping vampire takes decades to form after it was improperly buried and grows tougher, stronger, and develops a more potent breath over time. It is an empathic vampire that can track its prey by their breathing. Again a group trained to deal with the threat, this time of the monks of the Shaolin Temple, who would use their martial arts skills and meditative calming techniques to prepare themselves against the Jiangshi. Lastly Taoist magic is used to still the vampires so that they can be led away for a proper burial. Of course, with founding of Chinese communities around the world, there are innumerable cities where the knowledge and ability to deal with a Jiangshi has been lost.

The last vampire detailed in Vampires: A Hunter’s Guide is the Chupacabra, a large bat-like creature that in recent years has spread out of the cenotes found across the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico into the great cities of North America with their extensive subterranean infrastructure. In rural areas the dreaded ‘goat sucker’ is known to feed on large livestock, but in built up urban areas, the primary prey is humanity–particularly its dregs.

In addition to these five or so vampires, various other types are also discussed. For example, other types of Strigoi include the Balkan/Czech Pijavica which preys upon former family members and the Polish Vjesci which can be recognised by the caul its head. Similarly, the Dhampir human/vampire hybrids, hated by their parents, are said to have found a home with some SAUs. As much as Vampires: A Hunter’s Guide discusses its monsters, it is small details such as this and the fact that SAUs work with FBI forensics and behavioral analysts that provide hooks upon which to hang the role of SAU members or support staff, for example in creating a roleplaying campaign.

Unfortunately, a GM will need to extract such details if he wants to use them for his game. In a traditional Osprey Books title there will be colour plates depicting what an SAU operative wears and is equipped with, accompanied by suitable descriptions. Sadly, this is not included. Equally as disappointing is the lack of a bibliography in Vampires: A Hunter’s Guide. Where Zombies: A Hunter’s Guide had a short if imperfect section entitled ‘Further Reading, Watching, and Gaming’, but this is absent in Vampires: A Hunter’s Guide. There are some very obvious inspirations for many of the vampires presented in its pages–for example, the movie Encounters of the Spooky Kind for the Jiangshi and the ‘El Mundo Gira’ episode of The X-Files for the Chupacabra. Others like the Asanbosam will be more difficult to provide inspiration for, but it would certainly help the reader with his further research. Similarly, a list of games would help in applying the content of  Vampires: A Hunter’s Guide. Obviously, Pelgrane Press’ Night’s Black Agents is the go-to RPG for fighting vampires, but Pinnacle Entertainment Group’s Savage Worlds, White Wolf Inc.’s Hunter: the Vigil, Evil Hat Publishing's FATE Core, and even the recently released Cryptworld from Goblinoid Games would all work.

Vampires: A Hunter’s Guide is readable and a decent source of material to apply to the vampire hunting game of your choice. The lack of application to that end–no bibliography and no immediate material upon which to hang campaign, for example, does mean that it is just background when it could have been just a little more supportive.

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An Esteren Companion

To date, the French RPG, Les Ombres d'Esteren or Shadows of Esteren, published by Agate RPG, remains an intriguing game. This low dark, fantasy setting with Lovecraftian overtones has been explored in just two releases in the English language—Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue provided us with an introduction to the setting as well as a set of player characters/NPCs and three ready-to-play scenarios, while Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe presented that setting, the Tri-Kazel peninsula, in more detail. Both were beautiful books, but they also left much unsaid about the setting, in particular its secrets and the true nature of the world and the Feondas, the strange and hideous beasts that threaten the inhabitants of the peninsula. In addition, the books have their own problems. In places their writing has been obtuse, a problem that comes from their being translations of books in another language. This is not to say that the translations are poorly done, but they are not done by native English speakers and that does show in places. The other problem is the sheer density of text, typically written in character. This gives the world flavour aplenty, but it does sometimes make the setting inaccessible and details difficult to find.

The third release, Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels, suffers from similar issues, but not to the same extent. It does though, have problems of its own. Its structure heavily weighs in upon those problems. The original French version began life as two chapters—‘Cartography’ and ‘Canvasses’, but to these have been added three more chapters in the English edition of Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels. The first of these new chapters provides a full length, detailed adventure, the second gives yet more NPC/player characters, and the third some actual secrets to the setting.

Initially, the contents of ‘Cartography’, the first chapter, is difficult to digest. It consists of descriptions of different places around the Tri-Kazel peninsula. Little more than snapshots,  together they initially feel slightly incoherent, but it quickly becomes apparent that these are the reminiscences of a Varigal, one of the travellers and messengers who spread news and stories via the secret ways each apprentice learns. They are full of little details such as that narrow pass known as ‘Faol Ròd’ or ‘Wolf’s Breach is said to be haunted by a giant barbed wolf appeased every twenty years by the sacrifice of a hero or that the previous villagers of Aimliù were said to hear things upon icy winds of the sea and shied away from sunlight, which is why they were put to the sword before the War of the Temple. Eventually these reminiscences switch to providing more detail about particular places, such as the newly rebuilt city of Expiation, constructed by the Temple on the site of vile heresy  as a model of the perfect town should be, and the Carmine Chasm, a maze-like canyon uniquely home to blood red flora and known for its lamenting wind and the ‘white cross widows’, the small spiders that collectively weave great webs. These longer descriptions are more accessible, and thus for the Game Leader—the Referee in Shadows of Esteren—are much easier to bring into his game. Rounding this chapter are notes the geographical features of the Tri-Kazel peninsula and travelling them, including a nice guide to the ‘Stermerks’, the ideograms used by the Varigals to mark the dangers and difficulties upon the road.

Chapter 2, ‘Canvases’, presents five short adventures intended to be played in an evening or a single session. They are more like extended encounters as they do require the Game Leader to flesh them out and provide game stats for each the NPCs, which means that they are easier to adapt to a particular playing group. Unfortunately, the quintet is an uneven lot in terms of quality. They begin in uninspiring fashion, with a pair of familiar plots. In ‘Blood Feathers’, an exiled family has turned to preying on lonely and lost travellers, while in ‘The Disappearance’, the player characters fall in with the Tarish—the equivalent of the Gypsies in Shadows of Esteren—and are honour-bound to find out happened when both their companion and a beautiful girl disappear. The fourth Canvas, ‘Say it with Flowers’ is a murder mystery and again uses a rather familiar plot. This is not to say that a Game Leader could not run these three encounters well enough, but more that their plots do not evoke the game world as well as a Game Leader might like. 

Fortunately, this cannot be said of the third Canvas, ‘Night of Fright’, which finds the player characters in a village, unexpectedly and oddly alone. It is a terrific set-up and needs relatively little in the way of preparation compared to the others. The Game Leader should have plenty of fun with it and once he has run it for one group, it worth running again for another. Or indeed stealing it for another game and setting! The fifth and last Canvas, ‘The Shipwreck’ is not as fun as ‘Night of Fright’, but it does bring out much of what is interesting and unique to the setting of Shadows of Esteren—the tension between progress and tradition, and in particular , the ecological dangers of that progress. In ‘The Shipwreck’ the player characters come across a seaside village poisoned by the wreck of a Magientist ship.

The third chapter, the first of three wholly new ones to the English edition of this supplement is devoted to a single, lengthy scenario, ‘A Life Choice’.  It has the player characters hired to accompany a Magientist to reclaim her son whom she thought dead, but who was actually kidnapped by his father and taken to join what is essentially the equivalent of religious fundamentalist cult. Unsurprisingly, neither the father nor the head of the cult want the boy to go, and worse, the boy thoroughly hates his mother. There are though those within the cult that want out and are prepared to reveal its secrets, secrets that may aid the player characters in rescuing both the boy and those that want to leave. What ‘A Life Choice’ boils down to is a custody battle, and quite a meaty one at that. There is a lot of detail to the scenario and certainly plenty for the Game Leader and player alike to get their roleplaying teeth into. The initial parts of the scenario have room to expand it a little with other adventures, possibly with some of the Canvases given earlier in the book. The intent here is to turn it into a campaign of sorts, but even with the addition of those canvasses, or others of the Game Leader’s own devising, ‘A Life Choice’ is not quite long enough to be a full campaign. One issue with the scenario is that the writing is not quite as clear as it could be, so the Game Leader will need to give ‘A Life Choice’ a more careful read through than is the norm. Otherwise, this is a good, challenging scenario for all concerned.

‘Figures of Tri-Kazel’, the fourth chapter, describes and illustrates eighteen new NPCs. At least one of these appears in the previously presented chapters, but this is not followed through with the rest, though is nothing to stop the Game Leader from adding the NPCs to one location or another. The chapter also includes some details on the setting’s ‘Mysterious Powers’, in particular how they are used by some of the NPCs given earlier. Whilst useful for those NPCs, in the long term, these powers are limited in their application as just how often can a Game Leader use them in his campaign? In general though, as well designed as these NPCs are—including stats, personality, description, and associated rumour—and as beautifully illustrated as they are, they do feel out of place in Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels.

Rounding out Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels is ‘Bestiary’, the fifth chapter which presents a mini-menagerie of monsters. Stats are provided for several mundane creatures, but what will be interest to the Game Leader will be the full stats and full write-ups of ten the strange and deadly Feondas! Of course their inclusion is only to support the scenario and Canvases that appear elsewhere in the book, but they do provide us with a glimpse of the distantly forthcoming supplement, Shadows of Esteren 4-Secrets. As with the NPCs, each creature write-up includes the stats and general description. Each creature also has its own particular powers and several come with supplementary information or associated rumours. All are nicely detailed and even those that feel a little unoriginal, like the Vampire Bats, are well done and come with more flavour than they might have done in any other horror RPG. Most though are original and interesting and should test the player characters. Of course, the problem with it being a glimpse is that we are left wanting more and there is at least one more book  to come before the publication of Shadows of Esteren 4-Secrets. That wait is frustrating, more so given that no ‘real’ secrets are given away, we are not told the true nature of the Feondas, but we are least given the opportunity to examine some in detail—and a very welcome opportunity it is too...

As with the first two releases for the game, Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels is a full colour book that is beautifully illustrated. The artwork is excellent, being evocative and eerie throughout. Surprisingly, the writing is better than in the previous two supplements. It is not as dense or obtuse as in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue or Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe. That is primarily due to shorter pieces, especially in the snapshot descriptions of the various locations given in Chapter 1, ‘Cartography’, though not in the full scenario, ‘A Life Choice’, which as has already been mentioned, will need a careful read through before being run.

Although lacking access to the original French version of this supplement, from examining just the contents of the first two chapters of the English language version of Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels, it suggests that the original version had more of a focus. With three extra chapters, the English edition loses some of that focus and has a disparate feel to it. This is not to say that the new content is not useful or interesting. Some of it, particularly the secrets at the end of ‘Figures of Tri-Kazel’ and the  ‘Bestiary’ of chapter 5 support both the scenario outlines of ‘Canvases’ and the longer scenario that is ‘A Life Choice’. The NPCs are another matter and they do feel lost amongst the rest of the book.

Overall, Shadows of Esteren 2-Travels is more accessible than previous releases for Shadows of Esteren, but not as focused or as detailed. This makes it more of a companion supplement than one that concentrates on the single subject. It also means that there are several sections of the book that contain material that will need the Game Leader’s attention and development in order to be of full use. As to the parts of it that are good—‘Cartography’, ‘A Life Choice’, and the ‘Bestiary’, not forgetting ‘Night of Fright’ from ‘Canvasses’—they are more than worthy of a Game Leader’s attention.

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By evening's Dead Light

After the underdeveloped and uninteresting Canis Mysterium: A Scenario with Bite, the good news is that the second entry in the ‘one night of horror’ series of scenarios from Chaosium, Inc. combines Call of Cthulhu with survival horror to deliver both an ominous sense of the unknown and shocks and scares aplenty. Dead Light: Surviving One Night Outside Of Arkham can be run as a one-shot and is playable in an evening or single session, or it can be easily slotted into an ongoing campaign as a short side-track adventure. Further, and notably, it is written for use with the forthcoming Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, so can be used as a taster for the new mechanics, but like all Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition titles, Dead Light is relatively easy to convert back to previous versions of Call of Cthulhu. It can also be used as an introduction to Call of Cthulhu and to horror roleplaying in general, as the threat faced in Dead Light is something other than the traditional creatures and entities of the Cthulhu Mythos. Does this mean that Dead Light is not a Call of Cthulhu scenario? Of course not, for the tone, sense of desperation, and the fact that the ‘investigators’ can be still be driven mad all firmly place it within Lovecraftian investigative horror.

Written to be played by between three and six player characters—who may or may not yet be investigators—Deadlight opens with them on the road out of Arkham, heading for the town Ipswich. The weather has drawn in and the car has been forced to slow in the face of the heavy storm. Coming to the rescue of a dishevelled and bewildered girl on the road the travellers take refuge at the roadside Orchard Run Gas and Diner. Here they find succour and shelter as well as another mystery in addition to where the girl came from. What caused a local farmer to swerve his truck so leaving the road all but blocked and left him incoherent with shock? What follows should be a nasty night and in nasty weather, the threat revealing itself as it comes hunting for those trapped in the cafe by the storm, ratcheting up the tension between the investigators and the NPCs as their lives are threatened.

Where a traditional horror scenario might have achieved this with vampires, zombies, or serial killers, Dead Light does it with something unknowable and unworldly, even ineffable. The threat almost has a Science Fiction feel to it and that is perfectly in keeping with the nature of Cosmic horror. Even its origins are horribly rational and thoroughly in keeping with the wider miscegenation found in Lovecraft Country.

Whilst Dead Light is essentially a survival horror scenario, mechanically it is quite survivable. There are relatively few dice rolls to be made throughout the scenario and it is not particularly heavy in terms of investigation or the need to make investigative rolls. What this means is that the investigators still have their supply of Luck to spend when it really matters—encountering the threat in the woods! This does not mean that Dead Light is no less deadly or lethal, indeed the threat the investigators face is not just implacable, it is all but unstoppable by conventional means. Thus investigator who attempts to use brute force to stop it is going to end up sorely disappointed and quite possibly dead. What this means is that the investigators will need to look for the means to stop the threat—and doing so will reveal the origins of the threat and perhaps the human folly that led to its release.

The issue with survival horror and with a threat as deadly as that in Dead Light is that it is too easy to kill the investigators. Whilst the thing is hunting them and everyone at the cafe, the Keeper needs to pace the scenario and not have it hunt down and kill everyone. This does not mean that he should be lenient should a player have his investigator act foolishly, but with plenty of NPCs around to show how the monster works, the Keeper should sacrifice them and so hint at the thing’s lethality and give time for the investigators to uncover what is really going on. The danger here is that in the hands of an inexperienced Keeper, Dead Light has the potential to result in the death of everyone at the Orchard Run Gas and Diner—including the investigators. A more experienced Keeper will know to play and draw the events of the scenario and the deaths of everyone present out over the course of the evening.

Although ostensibly set in the early 1920s and in Lovecraft Country, Dead Light is not location or time specific. It would work in any period from the 1900s onwards. Likewise, it can easily be relocated to almost any country. All it needs is a stretch of road that runs through heavy woods alongside which stands a petrol station and a roadside cafe. The NPCs may well need some adjusting here or there so that they are not American, but such adjustments are minor and they are well drawn enough to fit any other desired location.

Included with Dead Light is a four page guide to using it with earlier versions of Call of Cthulhu. That said, even the possession of the rules for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is unnecessary to run Dead Light as it could be run using the Quick-Start Rules available from Chaosium. Further, Dead Light could easily be run before or after the investigators’ strange experiences in the classic scenario, ‘The Haunting’.

Unfortunately, what Dead Light lacks is a set of pre-generated investigators. Their inclusion would have provided a ready reason for the player characters to be on the road to Ipswich and with the inclusion of integrated backgrounds, it could have added an extra degree of tension and interplay between the travellers that would come into play as events of the scenario play out. Possible ideas might be a family visiting relatives, college students returning home, mobsters on a job, and so on. This would bind the investigators together and make use of the guidelines on organisations to be found in the Investigator Handbook for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition. It would alleviate the need to come up with reasons why newly-created random characters—an antiquarian, a dilettante, a doctor, and a private detective—know each other and are on the road together. Of course, this is not an issue for experienced role-players or when using previously played characters.

Physically, Dead Light is well presented. An edit is needed here and there, but the scenario is well written, the NPCs decently done, and the threat clearly explained. The maps are also good and much of the artwork can also serve as good hand-outs. If there is an issue with Dead Light physically, it is that the cover does not fit its threat as it is supposed to. It feels all too solid, too defined, whereas the descriptions given of the threat feel otherwise…

Although not quite suitable for an inexperienced Keeper, Dead Light is more than suitable for new players, whilst experienced players will enjoy an evening’s play up against something other than a traditional threat, whether drawn from traditional horror or that of the Cthulhu Mythos. Containing (almost) everything necessary to play an evening of survival horror tinged with Cosmic Horror, Dead Light: Surviving One Night Outside Of Arkham is a solid scenario and the best title released by Chaosium in years.

A case of the 'Curse of  Chaosium' crack’d…?

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A Norman Whirl

Originally published in 1984, Maelstrom is probably the first British RPG to receive critical acclaim and be successful. It helped that it was published at the height of the Fighting Fantasy craze and that it was released by the same publisher—Puffin Books, an imprint of Penguin Books. The slim paperback offered a semi-historical RPG set in the late Elizabethan Age, one in which nobles, professionals, craftsmen and artisans, tradesmen and labourers, as well as mercenaries, priests, mages, and rogues investigated the supernatural and had other adventures. Although the book went out of print, it was welcome news when it was announced in 2008 that Arion Games would not only be republishing the game, but would be supporting it with supplements such as The Maelstrom Companion and Beggars Companion. In 2013, Arion Games released the second edition of the game.

Maelstrom Domesday is that second edition, but it not a simple reprint of the Elizabethan-era set Maelstrom, but rather a prequel, still set in England, but the eleventh century rather than the sixteenth. Set in 1086, just twenty years after the Norman invasion, it presents a country still recovering repeated invasions—by the Scots and the Danes; from repeated rebellions and suppressions within; and finally from the ‘Harrying of the North’, the violent suppression of not just a series of Anglo-Saxon uprisings, but of the Anglo-Saxon peoples in the region, resulting in the death of tens of thousands. This is the year in which the Domesday Book, a great survey of the men and lands of the King William the Conqueror is completed, even as the king’s attention continues to be divided between consolidating his rule over England and holding off the French king’s designs upon Normandy. Thus the king’s men cannot be everywhere and when his peace is disrupted, the taxes cannot be collected,, there are further signs of rebellion, or things that cannot truly be explained, other powerful men of the kingdom are prepared to step in to support both king and church. Often they cannot act directly and arrange to have their agents act for them—agents such as the player characters, who each have had some kind of encounter with the supernatural that is the Maelstrom…!

Characters in Maelstrom Domesday are ordinary men and women—they can be archers, beggars, craftsmen, huntsmen, knights, ladies, men-at-arms, outlaws, peasants, priests, squires, and wisemen/wisewomen. It should be noted that this is historical game, which means that there are many occupations that will not be available to female characters. Further whilst magic using characters are possible, it is rare that one will be rolled up during character creation and if a player wants to specifically play one, then it should be by design rather than roll of the dice.

The creation of characters—a process which owes much to Traveller via Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay—starts with Attributes such as Attack Skill, Will, and Perception. These start out at the base level bar some minor adjustments for each character’s adolescence. Each player will then roll for his character’s Racial Origins—Norman, Anglo-Saxon, Irish, Welsh, or Dane, and his Social Class—Outcast, Peasant, Townsman, or Lesser Nobility. A character also has three characteristics, such as Education, Strong Grip, or Wise, also rolled for, with most of them being advantages. Then, at the age of thirteen, the character begins his first Career, again rolled for.

The Careers available to a character are dependent on his Social Class. Outcasts have a high chance of being Rogues, Outlaws, or Beggars; Peasants of being Peasants; Townsmen of being Craftsmen or Traders; and the Lesser Nobility of being Squires. Each Career lasts between three and five years, grants bonus points to a character’s Attributes, gives a Rank in two Abilities, the chance of receiving certain resources, some monies, and a table of Career Exits. At the end of each Career, unless the character rolls under his age and brings the creation process to an end, this table is checked to determine what Career the character will take next. Lastly, the Career indicates the table on which the character should roll for a Random Event. For the most part, a character will remain in the same Career for some time.

For example, each term in the Priest Career lasts five years. The character receives dice rolls to add to his Persuasion and Will Attributes, plus a die roll of points to assign to any Attributes; a rank in each of Religion and Literacy Abilities; and a few silver pennies and the chance of being given a Latin Bible. On the Career Exit table, the Priest will probably remain as a Priest, but might be promoted to a Deacon or Chaplain, or become a Monk, Wiseman, Clerk, or even an Outlaw. A slim chance allows a random roll on the First Career table or a player to choose. For that term, the Priest should roll on the Sedentary table for his Random Event, which might give the result that he falls madly in love, finds an ancient tome of knowledge—and improves his Knowledge Attribute, or his house is burnt down and he loses his accumulated possessions.

At the end of the character creation process, a player can freely select a Rank in any Ability for each of the two terms served. The character also ages if over thirty years of age, and can roll his name if so desired. Lastly, he needs to roll for a supernatural encounter that will bring him to the attention of his Patron, which must also be rolled for. Lastly, the player should work his character’s history using the game’s timeline along with the Random Events that have occurred to the character. Lastly, each character two further statistics; one is Favour, a measure of his Patron’s regard for him, the other is Imbalance, a measure of mental well-being.

Thus character creation is quite a lengthy process, with the results ranging from a teenage peasant to a forty year old veteran. Our sample character is Eirik Thorgestson, the son of merchant, a cousin of Sweyn Forkbeard, the first Danish king of England. He grew up strong and arrogant, ugly and ill-liked were it not for his father’s wealth and his willingness to use his fists. Apprenticed to his father’s trading house, a mentor took the young under his wing and managed to smooth some of the rougher edges of his character as well as allowing him to make some interesting contacts. He signed on with one of these contacts, a merchant who made journeys down to London and then beyond to Paris. Not though just as a merchant, for he had to help defend the merchant’s caravans and so he trained as a soldier, first as a mercenary before becoming a sergeant-at-arms. A fall from a horse, caused by the appearance of a fireball in the sky, resulted in his fracturing his right leg. The long months necessary to his recovery led to his being discharged from service.

Eirik Thorgestson is not a good looking man, but he has learned not only to overcome his ugliness, but to use to his advantage. This he can back up with his martial prowess if necessary. Currently he hopes to make more money trading, or at the least gain a better income for his sword skill. If necessary, he can survive off the land. 

Name: Eirik Thorgestson Age: 40 Gender: Male
Race: Dane Social Class: Townsman
Imbalance: 0 Favour: 10

Attack Skill 62
Missile Skill 41
Defence Skill 67
Knowledge 46
Will 44
Endurance 57
Persuasion 61
Perception 50
Speed 46
Agility 51

Characteristics
Hale (+20% to Endurance tests for disease, starvation, & poison), Hog-Head (-10% persuade, +20% intimidate), Well-Born 

Abilities
Barter II, Combat Training IV, Gossip II, Intimidation II, Riding III, Survival II

Living
Trader (8 years), Mercenary (4 years), Sergeant-at-Arms (15 years)

Resources: Mail Byrnie, Sword, 
Cash: 246 d

Events
Superlative teacher, good contact, physical training, garrison duty, fractured leg

Supernatural Event
Fireball in the sky

Unlike the majority of other RPGs, Maelstrom Domesday is not a skill-orientated game. For the most, to do anything, all a character has to do is make a Saving Throw against one of his Attributes. To swing a sword at a bandit, a character would roll against his Attack Skill, to recall a quote from the Bible would require a Saving Throw against the Knowledge Attribute, and so on. Nevertheless, from one term to the next, a character will acquire Ranks in Abilities, each Ability representing professional expertise and knowledge. For most Abilities, such as Gossip or Stealth, each Rank grants a bonus to a relevant Saving Throw. Initially, most grant the simple permission to use the Ability, for example, Woodlore at Rank I enables a character to perform basic tasks, before granting simple bonuses at greater Ranks. Others grant permissions at each and every Rank. Thus at Rank I, Religion lets a character lead common services, at Rank II have him know specific services and be able to preach, and so on. Combat Training improves a character’s expertise at inflicting damage and withstanding it, whilst Strong Draw increases damage done with the Missile Skill Attribute.

Combat itself maintains the simplicity of rules in Maelstrom Domesday, with characters making opposed Saving Throws of their Attack Skill and Defence Skill Abilities, or alternatively, their Missile Skill. Weapons are quite deadly, with both wounds and blood loss tracked separately—accumulated damage in excess of a character’s Endurance causes unconsciousness and death occurs at twenty points above that. It is possible for a character to inflict Serious and Critical Wounds, their effects being determined by weapon type. It takes time though, for a character to recover from any damage taken and the RPG’s advice is that combat be used sparingly. What combat in Maelstrom Domesday does model is that training will invariably triumph over the unskilled, character creation not allowing easy access to the Combat Training Ability.

Similarly, Magick is treated in a light fashion in Maelstrom Domesday. It is first based first around a Characteristic—either Hedge, Low, or High Magick. This indicates the degree to which a character has a natural link to the Maelstrom and limits the Rank in his Magick Ability. Unlike other Abilities, the Ranks run only from I through V rather than VI, as do the Grades of the desired spell effects, for it should be noted that Maelstrom Domesday foregoes the spell lists of other RPGs. Instead, the Referee determines the Grade of the effect that the mage or wisewoman desires, the Grade depending on its likelihood of occurring. So getting a guard dog to bark would be very likely and thus Grade I, whilst trying to run across a river would be highly improbable and so be Grade V. To cast the ‘spell’, the mage would need to make a Will test to see if he knows the spell and then a Will test for each Grade of the spell. So one Will test for Grade I spell and three for the Grade III spell.

The effect of multiple Will tests is not just that it makes spells of a higher Grade more difficult to cast, it also increases the chances of the caster rolling a ‘0’ on the roll. Each ‘0’ increases the chance of a breach in the Maelstrom, perhaps a foul miasma is released or some horrid creature is able to enter the mortal world. Will is also used to withstand mental shocks such as witnessing a violent death, starving to death, or seeing certain creatures that have from the Maelstrom. Fail these Will Saving Throws and a character acquires Imbalance, which if exceeds his Will Attribute causes him to go insane. Unlike Endurance, Imbalance is particularly difficult to recover from.

In terms of support, Maelstrom Domesday provides a short bestiary that includes a mix of ordinary and outré beasts, appendices devoted to diseases and herbs—the latter in particular a nod to the original Maelstrom, and a complete setting. This is the city of York and its surrounds, the heart of the Harrying of the North, the population still not quite accepting of their new Norman overlords and still subject to the occasional cross-border raid by the Scottish king. Over thirty manors are described, as well as the town of Selby and the city of York itself. York in particular is accompanied by numerous NPCs, 

Physically, Maelstrom Domesday is a simple black and white book, cleanly and tidily presented. Although it needs another edit here and there, the writing is solid and the game is supported with well-done examples of the rules. The sometimes poor handling of the period art is fortunately offset by the new artwork, especially that of the figure work done to illustrate each of the game’s careers and the thumbnail portraits done of the many NPCs in the game’s setting of York. The descriptions of the villages, the town, and the city are accompanied by sections devoted to local folklore as well as an adventure hook. Although there are plenty of these throughout Domesday Maelstrom, they are each quite slight and do not give the Referee all that much to work with.

As simple as the rules are in Domesday Maelstrom, the RPG is neither a simple game nor a game suited to beginners—particularly for players. The background information necessary to play is not as upfront and as accessible as it could be, the result being that some of the nuances of, and the tensions within the setting are not as immediately obvious. Further, although the advice for the GM on the game’s mechanics and on running the game is decent enough, it could have been stronger in terms of handling and running investigations, let alone creating them. Certainly the inclusion of a good scenario as an example would have gone some to alleviate this issue. In the long term, a timeline beyond 1086 would have useful, as would a more extensive and prominent bibliography than the one included.

These all are, it should be noted, relatively minor issues, ones that should impede the creation and running of a good game in the hands of a competent Referee. In presenting a second edition of the original Maelstrom rules, Domesday Maelstrom benefits from a cleaner and tidier ruleset, an engaging means of character generation, and a setting that possesses more depth than the game might suggest at first sight.

-oOo-

The publisher recently made available a Quickstart version of the rules. The Maelstrom Domesday Quickstart can be downloaded for free from RPGnow.

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Big Easy Fears

Tales of the Crescent City: Adventures in Jazz Era New Orleans is the second offering from Golden Goblin Press for Call of Cthulhu, following on from Island of Ignorance – The Third Cthulhu Companion. Again funded via Kickstarter, Tales of the Crescent City is a companion volume to Chasoium, Inc.’s Secrets of New Orleans: A 1920s Sourcebook to the Crescent City and a sequel of sorts to Miskatonic River Press’ anthology of scenarios set in New York, Tales of the Sleepless City. It presents an introduction to, and an overview of, the city of New Orleans; an examination of both a major figure in the Mythos and a major Mythos influence upon the city; and a septet of scenarios, including a revised reprint of a classic adventure. The latter, like the rest of the scenarios in the collection are written for use with Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition, though as with all Call of Cthulhu scenarios, they are compatible with the forthcoming Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition.

The first good news about Tales of the Crescent City is that it is a better book than Island of Ignorance. It is physically neater and better designed, the editing is clean and tidy, and of course, the subject matter and setting give the anthology focus. It feels closely modelled upon the aforementioned Tales of the Sleepless City and as a result, is an assured product that bodes well for future releases from Golden Goblin Press.

Although the Keeper and his players will get the most out of Tales of the Crescent City if they have access to copy of Chaosium’s Secrets of New Orleans—previously printed as The New Orleans Guidebook, it is not absolutely necessary for either to own a copy of that supplement. Included in this new anthology is an introduction to the Big Easy, one that nicely sums up the key points that everyone needs to know—the matter of race and colour, the rampant corruption, the endemic presence of crime and gangsters, the importance of civility and thus the Credit Rating skill, and the fact that the city is below sea level. This is accompanied by a thorough overview of the city’s various neighbourhoods and parishes, including floor plans for its typical dwellings. Illustrated throughout with period photographs, there is enough information here that a Keeper need not refer to Secrets of New Orleans when running Tales of the Crescent City.

Readers familiar with H.P. Lovecraft’s fiction will know that New Orleans is home to Étienne-Laurent de Marigny, America’s most knowledgeable mystic, mathematician, and orientalist. It is fitting that he is accorded a lengthy article all to himself, providing an autobiography of the man as well as hinting at what he knows about the Mythos—which is actually quite a lot given that he is not actually insane. There is the danger in having a figure such as de Marigny present in a campaign—and that is what Tales of the Crescent City is really intended to be part of—in that he becomes a crutch the players and their investigators come to rely upon when their investigations fail. Offsetting that possibility is one of the key points raised earlier in the book, that of the need for civility and thus the Credit Rating skill in their dealings with de Marigny. As fascinated as he is with the outré and the occult, he has no desire to be involved in scandal or criminal activities, both of which the investigators are likely to find themselves involved in. Rounding out this short series of articles are some notes on the Yellow Sign and The King in Yellow, yet more support for the scenarios that follow in Tales of the Crescent City. 

The support is certainly required in the case of said notes on the Yellow Sign, since the septet of scenarios is bookended by appearances of the Yellow Sign and The King in Yellow. The first of these is a reprint and update of Kevin Ross’ classic ‘Tell me, have You Seen the Yellow Sign?’ originally published in Chaosium’s long out of print The Great Old Ones. Like many scenarios that deal with the Yellow Sign and The King in Yellow, at the heart of ‘Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?’ is an attempt to bring to Earth both Hastur and the city of Carcosa; thus it feels like a cliché. Yet that is unfair, as arguably, ‘Tell me, have You Seen the Yellow Sign?’ set the pattern for such scenarios to come and what matters is the story built around the cultists’ plans to bring Hastur to Earth. In this case, ‘Tell me, have You Seen the Yellow Sign?’ draws the investigators into a richly portrayal of New Orleans life and culture, in particular, that of Mardi Gras. This is carnival season, a big celebration, in which it is socially acceptable to join ‘Krewes’ and participate in big masked parades.

The investigators find themselves asked by Étienne-Laurent de Marigny to investigate an occult symbol found clutched in the hand of a recently deceased reporter. The police think it was suicide, but his editor thinks otherwise, especially after the reporter told him that he believed that one of the krewes he was writing about was involved in the occult. De Marigny does not have the time to investigate, which is where the player characters come in. Experienced Call of Cthulhu players will recognise the symbol, but they will enjoy both the investigation into the reporter’s death and into identifying the symbol. Both will take the investigators to the heights of the city’s high society and deep into the sodden wilderness. As the investigators draw ever closer to identifying the symbol, the symbol seems to draw closer to them and the city… This is a richly detailed scenario, with lots of investigation and atmosphere with a pleasingly personal element to the story.

As the title of C. Michael Hurst’s ‘Bloodlines’ suggests, this is a scenario about questionable parentage and the degeneration of the species, classic Lovecratian themes both. The investigators are hired by a researcher to confirm the lineage and wealth of his employer’s fiancée—what the researcher has learned threatens what is his only source of income. By the time they go to meet him, the researcher is dead and his mother begs them to continue the task lest she be made destitute. How did the researcher come to die and did it have anything to do with the family history of Cora DeCroix? Once again, this takes the investigators from the heights of society to swamps beyond the city, though the society is somewhat dissolute… In comparison with the previous scenario, ‘Bloodlines’ is a more restrained affair, the Mythos not as intentionally malign in nature, and morally, more grey than black and white. Indeed, distinguishing the villains of the piece may leave the investigators with a dilemma on their hands. That said, the Egyptian-themed Great Old One feels a little out of place in the city and almost incidental to the plot, although its use explains the supposed ‘monsters’ of the piece, plus of course, it has been used in other scenarios.

By coincidence, the third scenario, ‘Needles’, also has an Egyptian theme. By Daniel Harms, it also begins with the investigators coming to the aid of someone else, though not at his request. Instead, they respond to a scream in the night to discover a local doctor in deadly peril from a trio of dark, surgically masked men. Coming to his aid, they will soon learn that the doctor is a wanted man, but by whom lies at the heart of the scenario. This is not a scenario for anyone suffering from Trypophobia, and makes an interesting use of Glaaki, even though that Great Old One does not make an appearance. The scenario very much has a pulp sensibility, which makes it quite a lot of fun especially in its ‘house of horrors’ denouement, but this also means that some of the cult’s motivation is underwritten rather than being fully developed as it should be. At its heart though is the Mythos fuelled interpretation of the ‘Night Doctors’ of both African American and New Orleans folklore, an aspect that may not necessarily come to the fore as much as it should—unless the investigators have contacts with the Black community of the Crescent City or one of their number is Black.

Almost as if one theme is being carried over from one scenario to the next, there is a medical aspect to Stuart Boon’s ‘The Quickening Spiral’ in which the investigators must race against the clock to prevent a deadly contagion known as Red River Fever from overwhelming first New Orleans, then Louisiana, and beyond! The investigators are asked to look into the possibility that it might have been caused by something unnatural—could it be the result of a Voodoo curse? What is curious about this scenario is that its human plot—a heady mix of small ‘conspiracies’, Voodoo, and revenge—is very much more pulpy than the almost incidental Mythos plot. Nevertheless, this is a pacier affair the presents a potential threat to the world on a relatively small scale.

Oscar Rios’ own contribution to Tales of the Crescent City is ‘Song and Dance’ and concerns the effect of the subversion and its effect by one god of another. The first is the Great Old One is Y’Golonac, who subverts not other figures of the Mythos, but figures from a real world mythology. This is a big audacious piece, assured in its aims, but one that might be seen to veer away from the Mythos in its use of real world mythology figures and perhaps in its tone as the ending feels more like that of a James Bond movie as the investigators have to stage a rescue from the villain of the piece’s lair. Set in 1925, it opens with a wave of depression that sweeps the world, driving artists and performers into depression and then suicide, but then the reverse happens—mania!  This manifests at yet another of New Orleans’ great celebrations, at which the investigators are present, but it works all the better if they become more intimately involved and one of their number be an affected artist. The downside to the mania is not just debilitating, but drives its sufferers to the grave giving the scenario a desperate deadline. To be fair, there is relatively little plot to ‘Song and Dance’, but it oozes atmosphere and at times menace. 

The penultimate adventure in Tales of the Crescent City is Jeff Moeller’s ‘Five Lights at the Crossroads’, which is a much slighter affair then the other six in the anthology. It begins with the investigators’ discovery of the body of a well-dressed black man, seemingly crushed where he lies. If the investigators do the decent thing and go and tell his employer about his death, he is nowhere to be found and his other servants are oddly evasive. Where is he and how did his servant come to die under such odd circumstances? Unfortunately, whilst the scenario does involve a decent amount of investigative legwork to get to its climatic confrontation, at its heart it does something that may frustrate the players—keep them from their quarry until it is all but too late. Given the grave, not to say, deadly consequences of their failure, their efforts may seem out of all proportion to said consequences… Nevertheless, the scenario can be said to be about gathering the clues and information enough to get to its confrontation. It is disappointing though, and the least interesting scenario in the anthology especially given that the author has written better scenarios. 

Rounding out the scenarios is the other bookend to ‘Tell me, have you seen the Yellow Sign?’. Again written by Kevin Ross, ‘Asylum: The Return of the Yellow Sign’ is a sequel of sorts that takes place two years after ‘Have you seen the Yellow Sign?’ and notes are included to that end. Much like in the previous ‘The Light at the Crossroads’, the investigators will find themselves chasing after someone, in this case the strangely pallid figure who gate-crashed the high class soiree, the Disabled Veterans Benefit Ball and confronted swell about town, Alan Leroy. What did the stranger want with the charismatic young man who fled in the turbulent aftermath of the confrontation? As the investigators look for clues, they will also find themselves on Leroy’s trail and as their efforts progress, not only will the stranger come to them, but New Orleans begins to fall—perhaps once again?—under a curious madness…

This is a less heavily plotted affair than the earlier ‘Tell me, have you seen the Yellow Sign?’. It is potentially no less atmospheric, for it is expected that the Keeper build much of the minor, though no less weird or creepy, details around the investigators’ efforts. At its heart the investigators are caught up in the effort by the infamous play, The King in Yellow, to reassert its inevitability. Of course, the outcome of ‘Asylum: The Return of the Yellow Sign’ is not necessarily inevitable, but attempting to achieve any other outcome presents a difficult challenge. Overall, despite it needing careful handling upon the part of the Keeper, ‘Asylum: The Return of the Yellow Sign’ is an excellent scenario that brings Tales of the Crescent City to mature and malign climax.

Physically, Tales of the Crescent City is well presented. The layout is clean and very readable, whilst the book is solidly edited. If there is a downside to the book’s look, it is that the art is perhaps a little too cartoon-like in places. Elsewhere the art is well done, as is the cartography.

Undoubtedly, the material supporting the septet of scenarios in Tales of the Crescent City is excellent given the relatively few pages devoted to the setting. Unfortunately, as a whole, the scenarios are not excellent, being uneven in tone and plot, perhaps even flat in feel in the one case. The septet does have a pulp feel, especially the middle scenarios—and they also have another weakness. As much as the scenarios in Tales from the Crescent City present a broad swathe of challenges and foes to contend with and investigate, what it does not do is present much in the way of depth. It dwells too much upon high society and its mores as well as Voodoo and Mardi Gras, and so never gives the investigators the opportunity to explore a fleshed out view of the city. Nevertheless, the addition of notes in each of the scenarios to help turn the seven into a loose campaign set within the Big Easy are a very welcome addition.

Uneven in places, Tales of the Crescent City does a fine job of presenting the public face of New Orleans and the insidious influences that lurk behind the joyously bravura façade. It brings back a classic scenario and gives it a much deserved sequel—could there be a sequel to make ‘Tell me, have you seen the Yellow Sign?’ and ‘Asylum: The Return of the Yellow Sign’ part of a trilogy? Perhaps in a second volume of scenarios set in New Orleans, one that delves deeper into its secrets and themes…? Tales of the Crescent City: Adventures in Jazz Era New Orleans is a solid anthology that shows Golden Goblin Press' books are getting better and better.

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An Esteren Primer

Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue provided us with an introduction to the French RPG, Les Ombres d'Esteren or Shadows of Esteren, published by Agate RPG. In its few pages we first learned about the setting of this low, dark fantasy RPG—the Tri-Kazel peninsula, populated by the descendants of the same tribes that have long since coalesced into three countries and begun to follow their own paths. Tol-Kaer adheres to the old tribal ways and the Demorthèn spiritual cults; missionaries from the Great Theocracy from the rest of the continent to the north have converted Gwidre to the Temple of the One God and adopted feudalism; whilst Reizh, fascinated by the machines and ‘toys’ of the Confederation, has taken up the science of Magience, developing and creating devices powered by ‘Flux’, an energy derived from matter itself, though not without its cost to the environment and land itself.

Although the peoples of this an isolated and hilly, heavily-forested spit of land are divided by nation and by ideologies and traditions, what binds them together is a fear of the Feondas, an enemy that the Demorthèn consider to be the expression of death and destruction unleashed by chaotic nature spirits; the Temple see as demons; and the Magientists regard as a natural predators to be neutralised. The exact nature of Feondas remains undetermined, but all fear their predations and what their corrupting influence might turn human nature to… It is this, combined with the facts that the rules for Shadows of Esteren do not quantify or necessarily stats for the Feondas, that the rules include a solid Sanity mechanic, and that the rules possess a certain brutalism have led some to describe the RPG as at least being Lovecraftian, if not actually Cthulhu Dark Ages done right.

In addition to introducing the setting of Esteren and the Tri-Kazel peninsula in particular, Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue also provided the Game Leader and his players with everything necessary to start playing Shadows of Esteren. That included an explanation of the RPG’s mechanics as well as a sextet of pre-generated player characters and ‘Omens’, three complete, ready-to-play adventures. The trilogy is essentially the prologue to the game’s overarching campaign as well as an introduction to its themes of tradition versus progress, of fear of the unknown, and having to come to face to face with your own fears and faults.

What Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue did not include was an expanded exploration of the setting, rules for character creation, rules for any of the setting’s magics and sciences, or indeed, an explanation of what exactly the Feondas are. Indeed, we will still have to wait for the latter, for there is no such explanation in the next book in the line, Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe. It does though, give hints as to what they may be and it does include the rest—an expanded exploration of the setting, rules for character creation, rules for the setting’s magics and sciences—plus advice on running and playing Shadows of Esteren.

Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe introduces us fully to the setting of Esteren, devoting almost two thirds of its content to this description over the course of three chapters. These cover the Tri-Kazel peninsula—its geography, history, peoples and their attitudes, its would-be capital city, Osta-Baille, the three nations that dominate it, Gwidre, Reizh, and Taol-Kaer; the lifestyles of its peoples—habits and customs, crafts and foods, architecture, societies, mercantile practices, and its arts; and its factions—the Demorthèn, the Temple, the Magientists, the Varigals, and the Hilderin Knights. The last of these three chapters is rounded out with a page or two of rumours. All of this information is presented in a series of letters, journals, and reports, as well as sections of fiction, and is full of detail and colour. For example, on Tri-Kazel’s south-east coast, the beaches are flat and wide enough that it is common enough to travel their length by sail wagon; that the Bent Tree, an inn in Reizh built inside the trunk of a slumped, giant sequoia tree, serves alcohol sparsely lest its clientele suffer a terrible fall over its raised floors; and that the tenets of the Temple revere austerity to the extent that its worshippers value snow and the cold as signs of purity!

For players and their characters, the sections on the factions of Tri-Kazel will be of particular interest as they provide patrons, enemies, rivals, and inspiration. The Demorthèn, the Temple, and the Magientists receive the most pages each, while the Varigals and the Hilderin Knights receive fewer. Of these, the Demorthèn embrace nature and value balance, learning and guarding the secrets of the deep woods of the peninsula, and are capable of mastering the ancestral art of Sigil Rann and thus command the powers of nature through the Ogham Stones—Air, Water, Vegetal, Life, Animal, Fire, and Earth. Together with the Varigals, travellers and messengers who spread news and stories via the secret ways each apprentice learns, the Demorthèn impart much of Shadows of Esteren’s Celtic feel. The Temple worships and proselytizes the One, organised into six orders, adhering to six ordinances and six daily prayers, and worshiping in and building hexagonal buildings. Through prayer and chanting, the devout of the Temple may learn to invoke miracles that can castigate, protect, bring down divine wrath, induce faith with stanzas, and even miraculously heal. Magientists build and operate devices and artefacts, searching for and extracting Flux from mineral, flora, and fauna. This takes time and effort, but they think it worth it in the name of progress. Lastly, the Hilderin Knights is an independent order dedicated to destroying Feondas. They and the Temple invoke parallels of the Crusades, just as the Magientists lend the setting the feel of the Age of Enlightenment, although one with a steampunk-like sensibility.

Like Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue, six pre-generated characters are given in Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe. The six, which include a male Varigal, a male warrior, a female Demorthèn, a male Theologian of the Temple, a male Magientist, and a female Bard, are different to those given in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue. They are written as a group and are included as samples, as inspiration, and as ready-to-play characters. Indeed, it would be possible to play through the ‘Omens’ trilogy from Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue using these characters, or those created using the rules in Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe.

Character generation in Shadows of Esteren involves selecting the character’s ethnicity, profession, birthplace, and social class before assigning to various factors. First to the core traits of a character’s personality or the five Ways—the Way of Combativeness, the Way of Creativity, the Way of Empathy, the Way of Reason, and the Way of Conviction. They are not attributes as such, but ‘ways’ of thinking and acting to which ratings of one, two, three, four, and five are assigned. Each Way possesses Qualities and Flaws—positive and negative Traits, so for example, possible Qualities and Flaws for the Way of Combativeness include assertive, optimistic, brash, and stubborn if high a high value, but calm, level-headed, pessimistic, and sad if a low value. A character needs to choose two Traits—one Quality, one Flaw—attached to his Ways.

Choice of Profession grants a character a primary Domain and a secondary Domain. Each represents a broad skill, such as Craft, Close Combat, Erudition, Magience, Prayer, or Science, and is valued between 1 and 5. For example, the primary Domain for a Knight is Close Combat, the secondary Domain either Relation or Travel. Beyond a Domain value of five, a character must specialise in one or more Disciplines, each of which is valued between six and fifteen. Thus a character might have a Domain of Close Combat 5 and a Discipline of Axe 9, meaning that his rating with a knife would be 5 and 14 with his Axe. A character also receives levels in other Domains, these based on other pursuits as well as birthplace and social class.

All characters start between the ages of sixteen and twenty, but can be older. This grants them bonus Domain levels, but will also give them Setbacks, randomly rolled events that have a negative effect on the character. Every character receives one hundred Experience Points to further develop his Ways, Domains, and Disciplines. He can also select Advantages and Disadvantages, though there are relatively few of these in the game. There is also a wide range of derived statistics to work out before play begins.

Our sample character is Alane, the younger son of a wealthy Reizh merchant who was enrolled at university to study Magience. Traumatised as a child by the fire that killed his mother, Alane grew from an introverted and bookish boy to a studious man who relished every chance to learn and works hard to be personable. His father wanted Alane to enter the family business, but his tutor persuaded his father of his son’s scholastic brilliance and suggested that he take the examinations to enter university. These he passed with ease and for the next few years he engrossed himself in his studies, progressing at a prodigious rate, often finding himself distracted because he was outpacing his fellow students. Becoming bored he began to read other books and scrolls on a variety of other subjects—this eventually would be his downfall.

Since he found the study of Magience relatively unchallenging and he found other subjects to fill his time and intellect. Thus he discovered Occultism and became obsessed with it to the point that although he passed his final examinations, it was not with the distinctions expected of him. Without these, Alane found himself posted to more mundane tasks that he found unchallenging and eventually boring until he drifted off into studying Occultism. The Council of Baldh-Ruoch has no idea where to send him and so he went back to his family, but there he found no welcome. Instead, he was thrown out, his father refusing to fund his studies further. 

Currently Alane tries to find work in the university libraries, but this is not quite enough to support him or the life of reading and study that he wants. He has begun doing small tasks and helping others find things, answer their questions, and solve their problems. This brings himself some funds and on occasion he can be challenged.

Alane is a sparse looking youth, slightly unkempt, with a penetrating look. His clothes have been patched again and again, but he tries his best, if only for his mother’s sake. He will undertake many tasks, each one being given his undivided attention. Physically he is less capable, even cowardly, and barely knows how to handle the dagger he carries in his belt.

Alane, Scholar & Investigator
Age: 25 Ethnicity: People of Tri-Kazel (Reizh) Social Class: Middle Class
Profession: Investigator

Ways: Combativeness: 1. Creativity: 4. Empathy: 3. Reason: 5. Conviction: 2.
Skills: Close Combat: 2. Erudition: 4. Magience: 5. Occultism: 3. Perception: 5. Relation: 2. Science: 2. Travel: 1.
Advantages: Brilliant (+2 with Magience, Occultism, & Science)
Disadvantages: Pyrophobia 
Sanity: Mental Resistance: 7. Trauma: 0.
Consciousness: 7. Instinct: 5.
Orientation: Rational. 
Combat: Attack: 3 (Dagger Damage: 3), Defense: 13 (Protection: 4). 
Speed: 4. Potential: 2.
Stamina: 10.
Survival Points: 3.

Personality
Character Traits: Ingenious/Eccentric
Latent Disorder: Obsession

Mechanically, Shadows of Esteren is simple and straightforward. Whenever a character wants to undertake an action, he rolls a ten-sided die and adds it to the total of a Way, a Domain, and a Discipline. Typically, a character will be rolling against a Threshold of 11 (Standard), 14 (Complicated), and 17 (Difficult), with characters not needing to roll if their total is higher than the Threshold. The same mechanic is used throughout Shadows of Esteren—it is simple and it is direct, working well with the combat mechanics that have the potential to be short and brutal, the Sanity system, and Shadows of Esteren’s magics. The Sanity system has the characters making rolls against a Threshold set and kept hidden by the Game Leader as is each character’s mental state in game terms. The mechanics for the Sanity system are perhaps the more complex of those found in Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe, as are those for the Demorthèn Art and the Miracles of the Temple. The systems for both present a similar and flexible means of handling the ‘magics’ of the setting, that start off with quite small effects and build up with an accompanying rise in Threshold difficulties. For example, using a Vegetal Oghamic Stone, a Demorthèn might camouflage himself in the surrounding undergrowth with a Difficult (17) Threshold for a minute, but if he succeeds at a Heroic (30) Threshold, he might even cause plants to bloom, trees to grow, and thickets to spread for miles around. Essentially the mechanic requires to the player and Game Leader to agree upon a Threshold for the desired effect rather than presenting a set of ‘spells’.

In contract, the section on Magience is something of a disappointment, primarily because of its limited focus. This is essentially on the extraction and refinement of Flux, the substance that fuels the artefacts and devices built by the Magientists. A list of common devices is included in the book, but there are no rules that allow the player character Magientist to devise and build items of his design. To be fair, there is enough here to get a campaign started involving the Magientists. Advice is given on allowing player characters to start with the Demorthèn Art and the Miracles of the Temple.

The advice for players and Game Leader alike is excellent. At the heart of said advice is that they ‘role’ with the system rather than roll it. The good news is that the system is light enough and unobtrusive enough that it supports this advice, though it does very much means that Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe is not a book for anyone new to roleplaying. Elsewhere, the advice covers character creation and play, types of player character group set-ups, and so on. The advice presented here is always straight forward and it is always useful. 

As with Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue, the look of Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe is incredibly well done. The artwork is rich and detailed, and adds a great to the look and feel for the setting. The book is also well-written—to an extent. The problem is one of translation, Shadows of Esteren originally having been Les Ombres d'Esteren, so occasionally some oddities in terms of phrasing do slip through. More of a problem is the density of the text and its presentation. With the setting presented through in-game means through letters, reports, and so on, it becomes quite difficult to assimilate it—let alone finding any particular fact or aspect of the setting in the book. This impedes both the imparting of the setting of Esteren to his players by the Game Leader and his making use of it to write material of his own for a game or a campaign. In this it does not help that the book is very much organised to keep its setting material and its mechanics very much apart from each other, so often there is not the immediate correlation between the two.

If you have seen Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue and liked it—and why not when it is available to download for free?—then Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe is your next step. Beautifully presented, it pulls you further into the rich and detailed world of Esteren and the Tri-Kazel peninsula, immersing you with detail after detail. It presents a low fantasy and grim fantasy world with just a hint of horror and the unknown—details of both will have to wait for later books—that offers quite a lot of options in terms of what can be played. There is still yet plenty of information about the setting that has not yet been given and will have to wait for later books, but Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe is an excellent introduction to its setting and mechanics that do require more attention than most fantasy RPGs.

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