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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Big Easy Noir

Deadlands: The Weird West, the alternate history Wild West/horror RPG published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group is so good that it merited an Origins Award—twice. First for the original RPG in 1997, and then again in 2007 for Deadlands: Reloaded, the latter employing the Savage Worlds RPG rules that were derived from Deadlands: The Great Rail Wars, the skirmish rules that were themselves derived from Deadlands: The Weird West. It has been subjected to a pair of sequel RPGs, both set in the far future. The first was Deadlands: Hell on Earth, published in 1998 and more recently re-released as Hell on Earth: Reloaded; the second was Deadlands: Lost Colony, published in 2002. More recently though, the Deadlands franchise received another entry that explored the future of a North America in which the old United States of America were divided by the Civil War, California was cracked into a maze, the mysterious ‘Ghost Rock’ literally fuelled an explosion of inventions, and magic was known and feared. This future is not one to come, but one that pushes the Deadlands: The Weird West setting forward by fifty-five years into something not a little familiar. That entry is Deadlands Noir.

Published in 2012 via Kickstarter, Deadlands Noir is a Savage Worlds setting that takes the Deadlands setting way down south and along the shadow framed streets of the Big Easy. As a setting, New Orleans is perfectly ripe with gaming possibilities—it has all the exoticism of a European city on American soil, it is the heart of the practice of Voodoo, its politics come as dirty as they can, corruption is a way of life, and it has the gentility of a Southern city.  Which is exactly what the New Orleans of Deadlands Noir is, for it lies south of the Mason-Dixie Line in the Confederate States of America. It is a city in which the dead do walk at night, as well as many nastier things in the shadows. Worse, it is 1935 and like the rest of the world, New Orleans is deep in the Depression. Making a dishonest living, let alone an honest one, is a real struggle. Nevertheless, there are mysteries to be uncovered, truths to be told, people to be conned and robbed, entertaining to be done—now that Prohibition is over (though some states and counties are still dry), and new devices to be patented. That is if you do not fall foul of the law—like the C.S.A.’s Texas Rangers and their campaign against magic or the city’s organised crime—such as the Sicilian Mafia, the Black Hand, or the Voodoo gang known as the Red sect…

Apart from the shift in time and tone—from 1880 to 1935, from Weird West Horror to Pulp Noir Horror, the obvious differences between Deadlands Reloaded and Deadlands Noir are its character options. Bootleggers, members of the clergy, con artists, dilettantes, doctors, entertainers, escorts, lawyers, parapsychologists, private investigators, reporters, vagabonds, and writers all point to a distinctly urban setting. The Arcane Backgrounds available are also different. Grifters are supreme swindlers, capable of conning arcane power from dark spirits, though not without daily indulging in a vice such as alcohol or dice. Houngans and Mambos practise strange rituals that pay tribute to the loa and in return, can create small miracles. Patent Scientists are inventors, constantly striving to create and sell new devices that will make their name and reputation, although they are unknowingly tapping into the otherworld for their inspiration. They are renowned not just for their creations, but for the delusions they typically suffer.

What is not available to play is Deadlands Reloaded’s Huckster, their having been hunted to near extinction by the Agency in the North and the Texas Rangers in the South. Grifters have taken up their legacy. Faith has been driven to an all-time low by the events of the Great War and the Depression, so preachers capable of casting true miracles are all but unknown. Mad Scientists are now Patent Scientists, whilst Indian Shamans are very rarely seen in cities like New Orleans and the practitioners of Eastern martial arts have gone underground. Similarly, two Arcane Backgrounds are rare in New Orleans—the Blessed and the Syker, but both are described in the Deadlands Noir Companion. (It should be noted that the latter volume has a higher page count and is more expensive than Deadlands Noir itself).

Other new Edges that Deadlands Noir adds to fit the setting include Comfortable, Veteran of the Concrete Jungle, Hitman, Sleuth, and Grit. New Hindrances include Corrupt, Grim Servant of Death, Night Terrors, Schmuck, and Smart Mouth. It should be noted that all characters start with the Poverty Hindrance to represent the economic difficulties of the Depression. Plus a character also needs to describe his worst nightmare.

One last option available is the Weird Edge, Harrowed. A member of the Harrowed is all but dead, having refused to give up on this mortal coil. What keeps a Harrowed from finally dying is the pact he enters with a demon from the Hunting Grounds to enable him to keep his body moving. The Harrowed has not only suffered in hell, he must constantly battle with demon for control of his body, is marked by the wound that killed him, must consume meat to heal, and can actually pickle himself with alcohol as a means to preserve his body. A Harrowed can use other Arcane Backgrounds, though not faith-based ones like Voodoo if the demon is in control…

Our sample character is such one Harrowed. Antony Delvecchio never wanted to get involved with the Black Hand, New Orleans’ mafia family, but when your father is a ‘made man’, you have little choice. Antony though, wanted to be something else—to be a writer. This was much against the wishes of his father, and whilst he had the support of his mother, he could not avoid being forced to study law at Tulane. Antony was a good student, but still wanted to party and that took him deep into New Orleans. It was on one of these off-campus jaunts that he came to the attention of the Red Sect, who saw in him an opportunity, one that might see him turned against their criminal rivals. Antony found himself drunkenly inducted into the worship of the loa. It was something that he fought hard to keep from his father, but he could not hide his decision to not practice the law after graduating, despite passing the bar. His father called him a wastrel and resolved to bring back into the family fold, but despite his mother’s attempts, relations with his father and the rest of the family broke down. Antony found himself cut off and penniless, struggling to make ends meet through his writing. Who exactly fired the shot and why, Antony does not know, but it might have been one his father’s button men or someone from the Red Sect because he proved to be not as useful as they had hoped. Right now Antony is looking for his killer while he supports himself from submissions to the Tombstone Epitaph about the outré side of life in the Big Easy.

Name: Antony Delvecchio Nationality: American 
Rank: Novice Occupation: Revenant Writer
Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6 
Skills: Driving d4, Fighting d4, Intimidation d8, Knowledge (Law) d6, Knowledge (Occult) d4, Notice d4, Perform (Writing) d6, Persuasion d6, Shooting d4, Voodoo d6 
Charisma: 0
Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5
Power Points: 10 Dominion: 0
Hindrances:  Night Terrors (Major), Obligation (Minor), Short Temper (Minor)
Edges: Arcane Background – Harrowed, Arcane Background – Harrowed, Talented
Harrowed Edge: Spook
Spells: healing, warrior’s gift

Mechanically, it no surprise that Deadlands Noir uses Pinnacle Entertainment Group’s latest edition of Savage Worlds. What this means is that Deadlands Noir is a Pulp action game as well as a Pulp Noir one, and to support the latter, rules are provided to handle detective work—both hitting the books and legwork, knockout blows, gaining a second wind in a fight, tailing a suspect, and social conflict and interaction. In particular, interrogations and using patter; the latter nicely underlining the genre convention that any good shamus should be able to talk his way out of trouble—at least sometimes.

Beyond character creation and the new genre mechanics, Deadlands Noir supports its setting with an extensive description of the city and its neighbourhoods, from Tremé and the Lower Ninth to the French Quarter and the Garden District. Each of the descriptions of the city’s neighbourhoods is expanded upon in the GM’s section, itself some two thirds of the book. These descriptions include numerous individual locations and persons of note—many of the latter illustrated with images of those who pledged towards the Kickstarter for Deadlands Noir. (This does result in a lot of NPCs having beards which feels slightly out of keeping with the 1930s). What is mechanically interesting about descriptions of these neighbourhoods is that each is assigned a Fear Level, from normal and ordinary (Fear Level 0) to Deadlands (Fear Level 6). This is a measure of how weird each district is and how scared the inhabitants are of where they live. It also affects any Fear check that a character has to make whilst in the neighbour. One of the player characters’ aims in Deadlands Noir is to lower these Fear Levels, though this should not be obvious to the characters or their players, but rather should come about by their doing good—solving mysteries, rescuing dames, and so on.

The GM’s section also includes an explanation of the setting’s secrets, an array of its monsters and NPCs—major and minor; advice on running the game and handling mysteries. The latter is accompanied by a set of lists with which a GM can create a case with the roll of a few dice and some thought as to what clues might be found. These consist of five rolls to generate the Hook, the Event, the Perpetrator, the Motive, and the Evidence, with optional rolls for the Location and the Twist. Our sample Mystery begins with this set of rolls:

1. The Hook—Stranger
2. The Event—Kidnapping
3. The Perpetrator—Friend
4. The Motive—Political Gain
5. The Evidence—Testimonial
6. The Location—Riverside
7. The Twist—Dark Secret (Silent Patron)
   
   A woman comes to the player characters. She wants help that she cannot gain from the police. Her husband, the project commissioner for the James McKendrew Memorial Bridge, has been kidnapped and she has been given the characters’ names as being of those who might be able to help. The kidnappers want a package which they claim her husband has, but she knows nothing about it or where it is. (The truth of the matter is that her husband has been kidnapped by her boyfriend, who is also his business partner. What they are after is a recording of Mayor McKendrew accepting bribes in return for the position of project commissioner, but in reality, the kidnapper is in league with the Mayor in return for something else).

Deadlands Noir includes not only fourteen individual Savage Tales, each tied to one of the locations described earlier in the book. These follow a full campaign adventure—‘Red Harvest’. It begins with a missing woman, a large debt, and a big score, before going onto reveal at one of Deadlands Noir's big secrets. It is a solid affair, with room aplenty for the GM to insert individual Savage Tales of his own, or the ones included in the book.

Physically, Deadlands Noir is by contemporary standards, a slim hardback. It is done in full colour and illustrated throughout. The artwork is decent, though occasionally it slips into a cartoon-like style. The map of the city is slightly difficult to read in places, but the other maps in the book are clear and easy to read. One nice touch is how the sidebars are each framed against a strip of film that with their black-silver wash emphasises the book’s noir theme.

One obvious use for Deadlands Noir would be to unplug the ‘Deadlands’ element and in its place put the Cthulhu Mythos of Reality Blurs’ Realms of Cthulhu. The result would be a Pulpy mish-mash of genres, but it could certainly handle something akin to HBO’s Cast a Deadly Spell. That is one option of course, but with the ‘Deadlands’ element kept in, Deadlands Noir feels complete in and of itself, presenting a well-written continuation of Deadlands Reloaded without repeating itself—a problem that Deadlands has not always avoided in the past. Above all, Deadlands Noir is as enjoyable a genre mix of pulp horror with Film Noir as the original Deadlands was of Wild West and horror.

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Your Zombie Primer

Zombies: A Hunter's Guide is an entry in Osprey Publishing's Osprey Adventures line of sourcebooks. To date the line includes Ken Hite's treatment of the Nazis' esoteric interests in The Nazi Occult, the truth behind the Templars in Graeme Davis' Knights Templar: A Secret History, and an examination of what the 'Greys' really want in We Will Destroy Your Planet: An Alien’s Guide to Conquering the Earth by David A McIntee. What each title in the line does is blend the fact and the fiction of their respective subject matters, but without providing either game mechanics or game stats - these the Game Master has to provide himself. Essentially, what each entry in the line is, is a systemless sourcebook, a background to which the Game Master adds the rules of his choice. Although an entry in the Osprey Adventures line, Zombies: A Hunter's Guide pre-dates the line, beginning life as a parody of the traditional history books that the publisher is better known for. Originally published in 2010, in 2013 it was reprinted as a deluxe edition and that is the version that is being reviewed here.

Take any number of treatments of the zombie, from The Walking Dead and The New Deadwardians to All Flesh Must Be Eaten and Zombicide, and the common theme between them is that the dead have arisen and civilisation as we know it is doomed... Not so in Zombies: A Hunter's Guide. It posits a world in which zombie uprisings are a known threat, in which Zombie Wars have been fought by military units, in which the zombie hunter is a recognised profession, and in which the zombi phenomenon is common enough to be the subject of academic study. Once myth and conjecture, the number of zombie outbreaks have increased year by year since the end of World War 2, despite the attempts of numerous governments to cover them up. Zombies: A Hunter's Guide is also an actual book that could be purchased in this alternate Earth, so barring the suggested 'Further Reading, Watching, and Gaming', the contents of this book can be accessed by both the GM and his players - and even referred to during play!

Over the course of several chapters, Zombies: A Hunter's Guide presents everything that the prospective zombie hunter will need to know in order to combat the corpse challenge. Over the course of several chapters, the fictional author of Zombies: A Hunter's Guide examines the origins of the zombies, the types of zombies that might be encountered, their strengths and weaknesses, and not only how to recognise them, but also eliminate them. These include necromantic zombies, voodoo zombies, Nazi zombies, revenants, atomic zombies, viral zombies, zombie masters, and viral hounds and zombified animals. Other chapters cover the matter of zombie hunters themselves, as well as zombie hunter weapons and equipment, and zombie hunter tactics.

In describing these various members of the corpse cortège and the means to combat them, the author draws deeply on the pop culture of zombies and the history of that pop culture. The combined effect of this is to make the contents of Zombies: A Hunter's Guide very familiar, for example, the island of Haiti is given as the home of the Voodoo zombie, Wade Davis exposed the secrets of the Voodoo zombie in his The Serpent & The Rainbow, and Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier used Voodoo and zombies to keep himself in power as president of Haiti. So far, so good, but what Zombies: A Hunter's Guide does is add elements of a secret history. For example, the USA sent the US Marines in not to keep the peace in 1915 after the assassination of the president, but to engage in a war against the threat represented by zombies. Of course, Haitian refugees and immigrants have since brought Voodoo and Voodoo zombies to America...

It does this over and over with each type of zombie. For example, both the Miskatonic University and the Bodleian Library are known centres for 'Necromantic and Animate Necrology Studies', and the best-known revenant, a particular type of zombie that is driven to perform a particular task, is William Bonnet, better known as 'Billy the Kid'. Which is why his grave is caged off! For the Game Master and his players there are organisations to join, such as 'Bureau 9' (founded by Allan Pinkerton during the American Civil War), the Vatican's Corpus Mortuambulanticum, and the mercenary unit,Command: The Blue Unit. Also included are discussions of the contemporary weapons and tactics needed to fight zombies in general.

Physically, Zombies: A Hunter's Guide is a slim hardback. It is well written and as you would expect with an Osprey Publishing book, it is well presented with a good mix of full colour and black and white artwork. If there is an issue with the book it is the options given in 'Further Reading, Watching, and Gaming' for gaming are all war games and board games. There is nothing wrong in the choices given and none of them are surprising given that war gamers purchase Osprey Publishing titles, but no role playing games are suggested, which is a major omission. Certainly, All Flesh Must Be Eaten deserved a place on the list of suggestions.

At its gaming core, the concept behind Zombies: A Hunter's Guide is a world in which zombies are a known threat and outbreaks are dealt with by sanctioned organisations as well as the foolish amateur. This is an incredibly easy set-up to do for the RPG of your choice -- Savage Worlds from Pinnacle Entertainment Group and Evil Hat Productions' recent FATE Core would work very well with the setting material presented in Zombies: A Hunter's Guide. Lightly drawn -- after all, who needs depth when dealing with the cadaver cavalcade? -- Zombies: A Hunter's Guide gives a juicy setting that is easy to add the rules to.

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The Lion After The Serpent

If you were wondering what had become of The Day After Ragnarok, the 2009 Savage Worlds setting created and written by Ken Hite and published by Atomic Overmind Press, then you are not alone. The award-winning post-WW2, post-apocalypse, post-Ragnarok campaign setting, which has since been adapted for use with Hero Games’ Hero Sixth Edition and more recently for use with Evil Hat Games’ Fate Core, has not received the support that it truly deserves. Ideally, that would be a Plot Point campaign, but in the meantime, the setting has been supported with a half dozen ‘One-Sheet’ adventures and three entries in the Serpent Scales: Fragments From The World After The Serpentfall series. To date, these have visited the rise of the Klan in Serpent Scales #1: The New Konfederacy; examined the STEN Gun in Serpent Scales #2: (Happiness is a) Sten Gun; and even gone ashore in Serpent Scales #3: Return to Monster Island. Now there is a fourth entry in the series, one which comes with a little bit of history of its own.

Available for Savage Worlds and Fate Core, Issue #4 in the Serpent Scales: Fragments From The World After The Serpentfall series is The Lion in Fimbulwinter: Sweden After the Serpentfall. It began life as a Ken Hite authored contribution to the Swedish gaming magazine FENIX for its ‘post-holocaust’ issue, and after all, there is no post-holocaust setting like The Day After Ragnarok. Atomic Overmind Press has taken Hite’s original article and developed it into this fourth entry in the Serpent Scales series. It describes the events in the July 1945 Serpent Fall as they fell upon Sweden, taking them up to the current situation in Sweden in 1948.

Of all the countries of Scandinavia, Sweden is the only one to survive nearly intact. To the west, Denmark and Norway took the brunt of the tsunami that flowed east and west in the wake of Jörmungandr’s atomic-fire induced plummet to earth. Sweden could not avoid the earthquakes or the torrential rain that followed, but despite hundreds of thousands that died, Sweden survived as a nation, although a politically unstable one. Placed east of the Serpent Curtain, Sweden is almost but not quite a client state of Moscow, which cannot be said of its neighbours – Norway and Denmark are both People’s Republics garrisoned by Soviet troops, whilst Stalin incorporated Finland into the USSR directly as the Karelo-Finnish SSR. At home, Sweden remains a monarchy although King Gustav VI Adolf or ‘Comrade G’ was forced to retreat from public life by a Communist government that has since been replaced by a left wing alliance that avoids making radical decisions that might break the government and force external intervention…

Meanwhile, the king’s son, Crown Prince Gustav Adolf, has decamped to the once-German island of Heligoland in the North Sea with much of the Swedish Navy and air force, and declared himself the Royal Governor of Heligoland. It has become a major staging post for ships of the British Royal Navy and for refugees getting out of Soviet occupied Germany – whatever their ‘former’ political allegiances. The British Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, supports anti-Communist activities in Sweden, the country serving as the perfect jumping off point to get spies through the Serpent Curtain and back out again. This activity includes research into the oldest runic symbols in Europe; the very ones that the Ahnenerbe scholars are said to have used to summon the Midgard Serpent! Monsters are everywhere, just like the rest of the world, whether that be sinuous serpents newly returned to Sweden’s lakes or the trolls and even more fearsome troll wives that do the bidding of their Frost Giant masters.

Just ten pages long, The Lion in Fimbulwinter is a 2.42 Mb, black and white PDF. It not includes a succinctly written, but nevertheless rich description of a country that is rarely visited in gaming. This presents a fraught nation, desperately trying to rebuild following the Serpentfall whilst staving off the seemingly inevitable Soviet annexation. Although it maintains the high quality in terms of content – content that should spark ideas aplenty for the GM – seen in previous The Day After Ragnarok titles, barring a somewhat silly final scenario seed, what The Lion in Fimbulwinter really lacks is ‘the Top Five’ lists begun in The Day After Ragnarock – such as Top Five Places To Stomp Nazis and Top Five Secret Bases. That said, it is a shorter piece than other titles in the series.

What Serpent Scales #4: The Lion in Fimbulwinter – Sweden presents is the Berlin of the post-Ragnarok world. Which is a little odd given that Hite has already described the city of Tehran, as detailed in his Tehran – Nest of Spies, as being Berlin’s equivalent in The Day After Ragnarok setting, it being the closest non-Soviet capital with an accessible border to the Soviet Union. Perhaps the Berlin of the North of the post-Ragnarok world? If there is a thematic similarity, then the flavour and the tone of The Lion in Fimbulwinter are very different, not as exotic, much dryer, even starker, and colder than Tehran – Nest of Spies. 

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Heavy Metal Chanbara

Two decades ago the last Empress of the Bright Empire vanished, possibly spirited away by the darkness that literally spread from the coronation gift presented to her by her uncle, the Witch-King. The Empress' Honour Guard stepped forward to govern the regions of the empire in her stead, but as the darkness spread so it seemed did a madness… It warped the land of Konoyo and isolated her peoples, disrupted the social order, and drove each ruling member of the Honour Guard, now calling themselves the Lord Generals to push for their territories’ independence. New technologies, once the province of the Onji-Kaji, the craftsmen of the gods, further weakened the social order. The Witch-King had already commanded Kikai, the machines known as war-walkers in battle, but engineers developed black powder and from there, bombs and grenades, repeating pistols and rifles, placing great firepower within the ownership of the peasant and noble alike. In the Age of the Akigara, that of the Empty Throne, there is opportunity aplenty for samurai and scholar, noble and peasant, ronin and ninja, kensei and kikai driver, onmyoji and yakuza alike to make a name for himself, even as the world seems to be turned upside down…

This is the setting for Iron Dynasty: Way of the Ronin, an RPG published by Reality Blurs, Inc. Employing the Savage Worlds rules published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group, it promises “Oriental Action! Savage Style” and ‘heavy metal chanbara’, something that the slightly cinematic mechanics of Savage Worlds can deliver. It combines Japanese style fantasy with its myth as well as a fantasy take upon a classic element of Japanese anime – mecha. It offers numerable character options – Artisan, Ashigaru, Bandit, Bodyguard, Entertainer, Kensei, Ninja, Noble, Priest, Ronin, Scholar, and Yakuza will be familiar to most gamers. New to Iron Dynasty are the ganso, masters of machinery; kikai driver, war walker pilot; makoto, chosen by the kami; onmyoji, capable drawing and commanding the energies from the around them; and yamabushi, mountain warriors who have come down from remote temples. 

Character creation is a simple process, adhering to the given rules for Savage Worlds. A player purchases dice levels to assign to his character’s Attributes and Skills, selects his Defining Interests and Languages as well as Edges (advantages). If he wants more Attributes, Skills, or Edges, he selects Hindrances (disadvantages). All characters are human, so all characters receive a free Edge. The process is easy, but this being a Savage Worlds setting, the best way to create a character is to select a character type and any associated Edges and work backwards to ensure that the character qualifies. (It should be pointed out that this is common of many RPGs, but is particularly so of Savage Worlds because the Edges define a character so). So for example, the Geisha requires a character to be female and have Smarts d6 and Persuade d6, whereas Close Fighting requires Novice, Agility d8, and Fighting d8. 

Our first sample character is closest to what most people would think fits the Chanbara genre. She is a Ronin, an honourless swordswoman forced to take up her father’s katana after he is killed in a border skirmish that became an invasion from a rival region. Rather than be captured by the invaders, Tsutaro fled and has been wandering the land ever since.

Tsutaro, Ronin
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d4
Skills: Fighting d10, Climbing d6, Notice d6, Persuade d6, Stealth d6, Survival d4, Tracking d4
Defining Interests/Languages: Classical Literature, Etiquette, Folklore 
Charisma: +1
Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 5
Hindrances: All Thumbs (Minor), Hero (Major), Loyal (Minor)
Edges: High Born, Quick, Signature Moves (Katana)
Gear: Katana (Str+d8)

In supporting both roles traditional to the chanbara genre and newly presented to this setting, Iron Dynasty introduces innumerable Edges as well as a few Hindrances. Many of these are combat related, for example, ‘Arrow Cutting’ enables a character to block missile weapons, ‘Empty Hands’ makes a character’s unarmed attacks deadlier, whilst ‘Shadow Arts’ grants a bonus to tricks when using the interplay between light and dark. The latter of course is perfect for ninja characters. Others also support the traditional elements necessary to a Japan-like RPG setting, such as ‘Geisha’, ‘Disgraced/Dishonourable’, and ‘Cultured’. Many of the new Edges support aspects particular to the setting, including Arcane Background (Ganso), which enables a Ganso to craft wondrous devices capable of simulating the effects of Powers such as armour, bolt, fly, healing, and stun. In addition to selecting more Powers to emulate, a Ganso could select other Edges and take Craft Device to grant a bonus to one of his Attributes or Gadget to simulate another Edge. For example, the Ambidextrous Edge could be simulated with a Gadget called ‘A Two-Handed Approach’, the character being free to name the device as he wishes. Plus a character can lend his devices to the other player characters.

Both Arcane Background (Makoto) and Arcane Background (Onmyojio) are supported in similar fashion with further Edges that enhance their effects. Where those effects are primarily external, those for Ki Control are internal as the character exerts control over his own life energy. These include armour, boost trait, deflection amongst others, and again, there are further Edges that enhance the core Edge. Unlike Edges like Arcane Background (Ganso), Arcane Background (Makoto), and Arcane Background (Onmyojio), the Ki Control Edge is not an Arcane Background and cannot be combined with an Arcane Background. That said, the Sensei (or GM) can allow a character to select the Ki Control Edge after character creation as a result of play. Combining the Ki Control Edge with other Edges, for example, with ‘Shadow Arts’ to make an interesting Ninja or ‘Signature Moves (Katana)’ to create a Wuxia style samurai.

Our sample Ganso is a peasant miner who discovered his ability to work with machines after helping the mine’s engineer. He dreams of building his own kikai, but so far he has only managed to build a rope launching device that allows him to climb up and down and because the rope can be stiffened, to launch himself into the air. The rope can also be launched to entangle others. 

Bachida, Peasant Engineer
Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Climbing d4, Fighting d4, Gearcraft d8, Notice d8, Repair d8, Persuade d4, Shooting d4, Survival d4
Defining Interests/Languages: Lantern Making, Kikai Lore, Mining
Charisma: -2
Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5
Hindrances: Clueless (Major), Combat Novice (Minor), Low Born (Minor) 
Edges: Apprentice Engineer, Arcane Background (Ganso), Student of the Way
Powers: entangle, fly
Gear: Katana (Str+d8)

Characters are supported by setting appropriate Defining Interests, as well as a nicely done and nicely illustrated armoury. New rules allow existing skills to be used in new ways – Intimidation as Interrogation and Persuasion as Seduction, for example, whilst Reputation rules provide a means of measuring character standing and progression within the setting. Within the setting it replaces the Honour System that was broken when so many noble houses collapsed and many of those remaining used the new technology to make themselves independent. A character’s Reputation starts at zero and can go down to -100 and up to +100. There are benefits to be gained, not all of them positive, as a character alters his Reputation. Despite the loss of the Honour System, the Caste System persists. Rules for Duelling also work in conjunction with the Reputation rules and they work whatever form of duelling the character engages in – swordsmanship, firearms, or other…

For the most the rules and character generation in Iron Dynasty are well done. One issue is that character generation does not tie characters into the setting as well as it should. Each player is expected to select a home province for his character. It would have been nice if there had been small mechanical benefit to help a player make this selection. One obvious omission from amongst the numerous Edges and options is that of Legendary Edges. What this means is that progression for the characters is limited and they cannot be truly heroic within the setting, at least not mechanically. Another issue is that it is all too easy to be overwhelmed by these options, but the rulebook handily suggests the roles that a party in Iron Dynasty should fulfil – Healer, Infiltrator, Talker, Thinker, and Warrior. 

For the Sensei, Iron Dynasty gives a more detailed examination of Konoyo and its nine provinces. This includes places of interest and whispers and rumours. There is also a guide to creating monsters and the corrupted – men who have been tainted by mad kami or the land itself. This is in addition to the bestiary, but idea here is that the true threats and enemies faced by the player characters should be truly unique. Along with the very useful set of Plot Generation tables, the Sensei is given not just one, but seven Campaign Frameworks that in turn deal with different aspects of the setting. Just because the author can, the first of these is a ‘Heroes of the People’ style campaign entitled ‘The Seven, Oh, Y'Know…’, in which our heroes help defend a village against ever more dangerous foes… Rounding out the book is a description of three of the setting’s legendary Kakai and descriptions of various mystical artefacts.

Physically, Iron Dynasty: Way of the Ronin is well presented and nicely illustrated. The setting of Konoyo feels underwritten though and it does not help that the book itself could have been better organised. The issue is that the author does not pitch the book and the setting as clearly and successfully as he could have done. It needed to be more up front about what the book and the setting is about. Nevertheless, once the reader gets into the book the setting, at least in terms of character options and the adventuring possibilities as presented in the Campaign Frameworks, more than make up for the lack of a pitch upfront. 

The elements that Iron Dynasty introduces to feudal Japan may prove to be unpalatable to the purist, the player or GM that does not want their Far East to be quite as fantastical as that presented in Iron Dynasty: Way of the Ronin. Nevertheless, what the rules do is provide for some great character concepts and the means to play them as well as foes and stories that the Sensei can present to the players and their characters. The result is that Iron Dynasty: Way of the Ronin is a very playable fantastical version of chanbara Japan.

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Nazis & Nasties II

By the time that Heroes of the Sea opens, the hostilities have begun, the Phoney War is over, and World War Two is in full swing. It is the summer of 1940, and in an unprecedented and daring series of manoeuvres, the Wehrmacht has driven through the Low Countries and deep into France, isolating the British Expeditionary Force, the French 1st Army, and the Belgian Army in a pocket around the port of Dunkirk. The British high command already knows that the game is up in France and the Admiralty has already announced OPERATION DYNAMO, the complete evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force and whatever Allied forces can be accommodated by sea to south-east England. As news of this comes, so does word from Agent WOTAN, a British agent deep behind enemy lines – the Nazis have another plan in addition to the mere conquest of France – and if the British Secret Intelligence Service is determine what this plan is, identified as FALL NADEL, its needs to make contact with this agent before OPERATION DYNAMO is concluded.

This is the set up for Heroes of the Sea, the second part of Zero Point, the first campaign published by Modiphius Press for its Achtung! Cthulhu line. Where Three Kings took place before the outbreak of war with Germany and British intelligence knew nothing of the outré ambitions of some parts of the Nazi organisation, the experiences of its agents in occupied Czechoslovakia gave it more than an inkling of, if not Heinrich Himmler’s intentions, then at least those of his subordinates. So as the adventure begins, the heroes have been ferried to Dunkirk and from there are making their across the bridgehead, dodging German attacks and the holdout defences of the British Expeditionary Force, all the while hampered by Allied soldiery desperate to make their way to the beaches and columns of civilian refugees desperate to find a place of safety.

When the investigators do finally locate Agent WOTAN, they will find not the answers that they seek, but a mystery. Unravelling this mystery and then stopping it forms the focus of Heroes of the Sea. In doing so, the investigators uncover the plans of a distinctly ugly Nazi and her cohorts that if brought to fruition will not only stop the Allied forces from being evacuated from the beaches, but will also see the geological clock turned back many millennia and an alliance formed between the Nazis and a race ancient before the first men walked the earth.

To say anything more would be to divulge the details of both Agent WOTAN’s fate and the Nazi’s Operation FALL NADEL. What can be said about the latter is that it draws heavily on an interesting historical fact which the author then gives a batrachian twist to infuse the scenario with its Mythos menace. This is in addition to the perilous situation in which the investigators find themselves – a warzone that is slowly shrinking around them…

Throughout the scenario the investigators will be threatened by menaces both man and Mythos, both of which are given in pleasing detail. This includes the arms and armour of the Wehrmacht, so that the investigators will often find themselves facing tanks and half-tracks, as well as the terror inducing scream of being dive bombed by Stukas. The inclusion of both German and Allied armour allows for the possibility of the investigators commandeering a vehicle of their own and careering across northern France in pursuit of their goals. This may well be necessary as the scenario does involve a certain amount of toing and froing across the Dunkirk bridgehead, all of which will require the Keeper to make use of the scenario’s extensive random encounter tables.

The staged encounters do require careful handling upon the part of the Keeper, more so because what they require upon the part of the investigators is not represented by their skill set. At least not in the pre-generated investigators provided in the adventure, which are carried over from Three Kings. This is less of an issue in other versions of the scenario that use Savage Worlds or the PDQ system for their mechanics, as these rules allow for much more give when player characters lack the necessary skills for a certain situation.

In comparison with the earlier Three Kings, this scenario is not as structurally straightforward and makes more demands upon the Keeper. In particular, he will need to make extensive use of the random encounter tables and find a way to effectively handle the scenario’s almost heist-like scenes towards its end. If the final scenes of the Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep echo those of the James Bond film, You Only Live Twice, then those in Heroes of the Sea echo Thunderball. Unfortunately, the scenario disappoints when it comes to advice for the Keeper on the handling of these scenes and what results from them. This is not to say that they cannot be exciting, just that they are not as well supported as they could have been in terms of advice.

Mechanically, Heroes of the Sea is well supported, with new rules including skills, spells, and occupations. Given the opportunities for battle in the scenario, it is no surprise that various armoured vehicles are described and rules are provided for running skirmish level combat. These are useful additions and will doubtless find their way into other scenarios and situations.

Physically, Heroes of the Seais equally as well supported and well done. The layout has been done as a secret operation file complete with sections taped and photographs and maps held in place with paper clips. The handouts have the feel of in-period documents, as do the maps, which have a pleasingly vibrant feel, again suitable to the period and many a war map. The scenario is illustrated in a photographic style, feeling all aptly grim – and that is just the ordinary rather the outré war!

Where Achtung! Cthulhu - Zero Point Part 1 – Three Kings was a pulpy affair much in the mode of Where Eagles Dare, although with a Grand Guignol finale, Heroes of the Sea feels much more like a traditional Call of Cthulhu scenario though still one with a Pulp rather than Purist tone. It has a more interesting mystery behind it and it is more sophisticated affair all round. Despite the underwhelming advice for the Keeper in places and containing scenes that the investigators will probably be underskilled to deal with, Achtung! Cthulhu - Zero Point Part 2 - Heroes of the Sea is a well written, exciting, and engaging affair.

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Pulp Cthulhu

It should be remembered that for twenty years, the only way to play Lovecraftian investigative horror was Chaosium Inc.’s Call of Cthulhu. In 2002, Wizards of the Coast’s d20 Cthulhu

 offered another option, and in the last decade we have been offered PelgranePress’ clue orientated Trail of Cthulhu; Reality Deviant Publications’ more structured Shadows of Cthulhuusing the d20 System distilled True20; CthulhuTech, a combination of science-fiction and horror roleplaying from Wildfire LLC; Cubicle Seven Entertainment’s bureaucratic approach to fighting the Mythos with The Laundry; as well as Reality Blurs’ Realms of Cthulhu, which in being written for use with Pinnacle Entertainment Group’s Savage Worlds, actually pre-empted the arrival of Pulp Cthulhu, a supplement that is yet to arrive for Call of Cthulhu. That supplement promises a new approach to playing Call of Cthulhu, one that is more action orientated, more cinematic, more adventurous… In the absence of that supplement, Realms of Cthulhu is quite possibly the pretender to its throne.

First published in 2003, Savage Worlds is a light, fast playing RPG that sets out to do two things – cinematic action and mass combat as well as handle roleplaying. In the past ten years, it has been used to power an array of settings and campaigns, the best known being Fifty Fathoms and Deadlands Reloaded, both also from Pinnacle Entertainment Group. For much of that time, Savage Worlds has been available in an Explorer Edition, a handy sized, inexpensive rulebook that provided the basics of the rules. The rules have since been republished in a new ThirdEdition, which saw some changes that do mean that Realms of Cthulhu is slightly incompatible with the new version of the rules, since Realms of Cthulhu was published in 2009. That said, the differences are slight.

The changes to Savage Worlds in order to make it one of Lovecraftian investigative horror start with character generation. The process in Savage Worlds involves assigning points to improve the die types for a character’s five traits and then more points to purchase skills, which are again measured by die type. Thus a skill of Shooting d8 is better than a Shooting of d6. In addition characters can have Edges and Hindrances – the equivalent of Advantages and Disadvantages in other RPGs – that set them apart from ordinary men and women. Apart from the addition of the skill, Knowledge (Mythos) – the equivalent of the Cthulhu Mythos skill in Call of Cthulhu, the major addition to character creation in Realms of Cthulhuis that of “Defining Interests.” In Savage Worlds a character usually speaks a number of languages equal to half of his Smarts die type, so three languages for Smarts d6 and so on, but in Realms of Cthulhu a character has a number of “Defining Interests,” hobbies, knowledges, crafts, and so on, again also equal to half of his Smarts die type. This factor also has to take a character’s languages as well, and for each Defining Interest, for example, Archaeology, City Knowledge (Boston), Electrical Repair, Oratory, and so on, he gains a bonus to his Common Knowledge rolls (this being the equivalent of a character’s Know roll in Call of Cthulhu). Now a character’s Defining Interests also encompass what languages that he knows, which does mean that a character has to choose between focusing on one or the other. That said, the addition of these Defining Interests takes into account the fact that Lovecraftian investigative horror is primarily about what you know, rather than what you can do. In contrast, Savage Worlds tends to be more about what you can do than what you know, which is the case with Call of Cthulhu.

The sample character is Henry Brinded, one of my signature characters that I have used several times over the last decade or so. Indeed, he will be appearing as one of the starting pre-generated investigators in the forthcoming Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion for Call of Cthulhu. Of Boston Brahmin stock, Henry Brinded is a former Classics scholar at Yale who served as an artillery officer in the Great War. He returned partially deaf and with an aversion to loud noises, and unable to withstand the stress of continuing his studies, used his inheritance to open a small, antiquarian bookshop in his native Boston. He enjoys painting and sailing where he used to enjoy hunting, and employs one member of staff, Mrs. Rutherford, to help source and restore rare books.

Henry Brinded

Agility d6 Smarts d8 Spirit d6 Strength d4 Vigor d6

Edges:Linguist, Noble, Scholar

Hindrances:Curious (Major), Hard of Hearing (Minor), Pacifist (Minor)

Skills:Boating d4, Guts d6, Investigation d4, Knowledge (Ancient Greek) d6, Knowledge (History) d8, Knowledge (Latin) d8, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Shooting d4

Defining Interests:Archaeology, Book Restoration, Etiquette, Painting

Languages:Arabic, French, German, Hebrew

Pace 6

Parry: 4 Charisma+2 Toughness 5

Sanity 5 Corruption0

The second addition is the Sanity factor, which works much like Toughness. When inflicted physical damage exceeds a character’s Toughness, he can be “Shaken.” If the damage exceeds a character’s Toughness by a large amount, then he can be Wounded. When faced with a shocking incident or entity, a character will often be asked to make a Guts skill check. This is modified by the Terror or Fear strength of the situation or entity faced (Terror is actually explained on p.117 of Realms of Cthulhu, a fact that should be noted as it is not mentioned in the index and it is mentioned long before this). For example, encountering a Deep One forces a Guts skill check at a Terror penalty of –1. If the Guts skill check is failed, the mental damage inflicted on the frightened character is called Mental Anguish, which for the Deep One is “Spirit+d4” with the Deep One Spirit trait being d6. This means that both dice are rolled and result compared to the character’s Sanity. For every four points that the Mental Anguish roll exceeds his Sanity by, then the character suffers a point of Madness. A player character can suffer no more than four points of Madness before going insane. Each point of Madness inflicts a –1 penalty on a character’s Pace (movement) and all trait and skill rolls. This Madness can be addressed within the hour with immediate rest, reassurance, and the application of the Knowledge (Psychology) skill, success leading to the positive loss of points of Madness, or in time with recuperation. If driven insane though, a base Spirit roll is required by the character. Essentially, this roll is in effect made to determine how long the Mental Disorder suffered lasts for.

Although Realms of Cthulhu adds a number of new skills, edges, and hindrances, perhaps the most important addition is Knowledge (Mythos) – the equivalent of the Cthulhu Mythos skill in Call of Cthulhu. The treatment of knowledge of the Mythos in Realms of Cthulhu is perhaps where this version of Lovecraftian investigative horror roleplaying begins to diverge radically from the base line that is Call of Cthulhu. In Realms of Cthulhu, Knowledge (Mythos) is treated like any other skill, except that it is initially gained through certain circumstances during the play of the game, such as being sent insane for the time after encountering a Mythos entity or reading a Mythos Tome. Just as in Call of Cthulhu. Yet where in Call of Cthulhu an investigator receives “Cthulhu Mythos 05%,” in Realms of Cthulhu, he receives Knowledge (Mythos) d4. This does not sound like much, but when you consider that the base target for any skill roll in Savage Worlds

 is 4, then the character has a 1 in 4 chance of rolling that on his skill of Knowledge (Mythos) d4. This high degree of knowledge is further exacerbated because of how player characters make rolls in Savage Worlds. In the game, player characters are special and known as Wild Cards, and Wild Cards always roll an extra d6 – known as the “Wild Die” – and the highest die roll counts towards the total, then it is clear that even for a relatively minor encounter with the Mythos, an investigator can gain an awful lot of knowledge. This is further confirmed by the Realms of Cthulhu/Call of Cthulhu conversion guide, which lists a skill of d4 of being equal to 25% in Call of Cthulhu. That is a lot of Cthulhu Mythos…!

By reading further Mythos tomes or critically failing a Guts skill check as a result of an encounter with the Mythos, a character can gain further points of Knowledge (Mythos). Initially this will grant him a +1 bonus to any Knowledge (Mythos) check, but each time the bonus rises to +2, it changes the die type of the skill, from d4 to d6, to d8, and so on. Each rise in die type increases an investigator’s Corruption. Each point of Corruption decreases an investigator’s Sanity, further weakening his resolve against the Mythos. It is possible to increase an investigator’s Sanity, but it is difficult.

The given means of handling shock and horror in Savage Worlds has never been truly satisfying, and the Sanity mechanic in Realms of Cthulhu provides a more robust treatment of the subject. What the acquisition of the Knowledge (Mythos) skill demonstrates is the effect on Lovecraftian investigative horror from one system to another, from one ethos to another, from one style to another. The move from Call of Cthulhu to Savage Worlds is one of Purism to Pulp, of a binary yes/no realism to something a little more forgiving in terms of mechanics and player character survivability, and most of all, one of a granular mechanic and feel to one that is broader, but with a corresponding loss of detail. Which to be fair, is to be expected, given that Savage Worlds is a cinematic, Pulp genre, action orientated RPG. Yet the designer of Realms of Cthulhu gives the very means to counter this shift in tone and ethos.

Realms of Cthulhu gives the Keeper the tools to set the tone of his campaign, by setting its Physical and Mental play factors, either Gritty or Pulpy. The Pulpy option is essentially the Savage Worlds default, but the Gritty option gives a more Purist, harsher, and less survivable gaming experience. By setting the two play factors, a Keeper can access four different play styles, from the Physical Pulpy/Mental Pulpy of Heroic Horror with its high action adventure to the Physical Gritty/Mental Gritty of Dark Spiral, with its dangerous descent into madness and maiming when faced with the Mythos. Obviously, the first represents the Pulpy style of play, whilst the latter is Purist. Between two are the Slippery Slope (Physical Pulpy/Mental Gritty) and Dangerous Action (Physical Gritty/Mental Pulpy) styles. The first of these allows for investigators who can take a punch or two, but not the stress of encountering the Mythos, whilst the second is deadlier, but the Mythos has a less deleterious effect. These are only the base lines for the four campaign style, the Keeper being given a number of further options with which to tweak his campaign’s style.

The four styles are further discussed in the Keeper’s Section, primarily in the context of period – the 1890s, the 1920s, and the here and now – and the bond which brings the investigators together. Supporting this discussion is a quartet of Campaign Frameworks, one for each of the three eras and one that could be run in any era. The more original of the four lie at the extremes. The Heroic Horror framework is “Seekers of Lost Fortune,” in which the investigators must obtain and destroy dangerous artefacts in the 1920s; while the pleasing “The Frequency of Madness” is a Dark Spiral framework that can be set in any period and casts the investigators as incarcerated asylum inmates who have experience of the Mythos and escape to save not just mankind, but themselves too. Every character in this framework starts play with both the Knowledge (Mythos) skill and a mental disorder.

As expected for an RPG of Lovecraftian investigative horror, Realms of Cthulhu includes the expected sections on magic and spells, tomes, and Mythos entities. Oddly the spells section includes those such as Armour, Bolt, Greater Healing, and Stun, all listed under Combat Spells and all taken from the Savage Worlds rules. Unless the style of game is extremely Pulpy, these are really out of place within Lovecraftian investigative horror, and even if the Keeper deems them appropriate, it is suggested that they are kept well away from player access.

Where Realms of Cthulhu is really useful for the Keeper is in the next set of tools it gives him. These are Mythos generators, which with a few rolls, a Keeper can create a Mythos Tale, a Mythos Creature, and a Mythos Tome. Or rather the broad outline, as the Keeper still has to flesh each of these out. For example, generating a Mythos Tome, which is detailed first in Realms of Cthulhu has the Keeper roll for its language, period of publication, Arcane Lore (essentially how easy it is to learn from it), and possible number of spells and type of spells – the Keeper will need to refer to the book’s chapter on magic for actual details of the tome’s spells. Beyond these basics, the Keeper will need to decide the book’s author, year of publication, title, and content. The Keeper will need to do the same when generating a Mythos Tale or Mythos Creature, the latter covering not just “Tainted” humans (as in my example), complete with “Dark Gifts,” but also Servitors and Independent Races, and who if at all, they serve. Pleasingly, with a few rolls and a bit of thought, a Keeper can switch back and forth between the three sets of tables using the results of each create a Tome, a Creature, and a Tale. 

The Lure of the Long Beasts

Hook: Caught up in Events

Lynchpin: Person

Location: Important Building/Landmark
Plot Type: Descension
Ally: Policeman
Plot Complication: Discovery
The investigators are on holiday in the county of Derbyshire. Following a tourist guide they decide to visit the world famous Blue John Caves near the town of Castleton, but get caught up in a disagreement between the locals and a visiting team of archaeologists from nearby Victoria University of Manchester, led by Professor Terence Chile Oakley. The professor is interested in the folklore and pre-Christian history of the area after reading a monograph entitled Secretis Druidum. The locals object to the professor’s interests and his plans to enact Druidic rites near the caves and the situation has developed into a stand-off between the two groups. The archaeologists have reported attacks in the night and possessions being stolen, and some of the students report suffering from headaches, but the local constable, Herbert Atteberry is at a loss as to what is going on.

Secretis Druidum: Trans Specubus veracis Populis Western Britanniam
Privately published in 1912, this monograph describes the folklore of the rural inhabitants of the British Isles, particularly around mountainous or hilly regions known for their network of caves. It includes several legends about enormous serpents that live underground and who worship one giant serpent, and how in the past the druids actually worshipped and sacrificed to both. The author lists several chants that he states that he was warned against uttering at particular cave mouths at certain times of the year. The author was last seen in the Derbyshire Peak District in England in 1914. The book is bound in oddly translucent leather. The only copy known to exist can be found in the anthropology section of the library of Victoria University of Manchester.
Author: Nicholas Checkley

Language: Latin

Year: c. 1912

Arcane Lore: +2

Spells: Claudens diu bestia (Elder Sign), Fascino lamina (Enchant Blade), Vocate ad diu bestia (Contact Chthonian), Longa ferae Domini invocabo (Contact Shudde M’ell)

Jack Royse(Seasoned)

Agility d8 Smarts d4 Spirit d4 Strength d8 Vigor d8

Edges:Brawny, Mighty Blow, Quick

Hindrances:Death Wish, Mean

Gifts:Immunity to Cold (Minor), Low Light Vision (Minor)

Skills: Climbing d8, Fighting d8, Guts d4, Intimidation d8, Knowledge (Mining) d6, Knowledge (Mythos) d6, Repair d4, Stealth d6

Pace 6

Parry: 6 Charisma-2 Toughness 7

Sanity 2 Corruption2

A native of Derbyshire, Jack Royse is a “Tainted” human who worships the long beasts below and follows their directives exactly. A miner by trade, under his masters’ influence he will do anything. Some would say that he has spent too much time in the caves below, but not to his face. He almost never seems to blink, but dislikes bright light and he seems unnaturally muscular.

In terms of actual Mythos Tales, Realms of Cthulhu is a mixed bag, consisting of four short two-page Tales and one long twelve-page one. The first two-page tale is “Fragments of Mu,” which is nothing more than an slightly extended encounter in purely Pulp vein, whilst “Paradise Lost” is a more pleasing Lovecraftian encounter with a classic feel, though despite what it says, it is set in the Arctic – no Eskimos in the Antarctic! “False Idols” feels more like a modern, grittier affair, but at two pages feels like it was shoehorned into place. The last of the quartet of shorts is the best, “Bayhaven Lights,” a still slight tale, but one with a weird vibe and a subtlety that is missing from the others. The Mythos Tales are rounded with “Mysteries of Drake Manor,” which describes the estate and inhabitants of Drake Manor, as well the mysteries that surround both before describing a few short tales that suggest how the set up can be used. Unfortunately, there is no subtlety to “Mysteries of Drake Manor” which overeggs both the mysteries and the Mythos content. If there is a real issue with these Mythos Tales, it is that apart from “Paradise Lost” all are set in Charleston, South Carolina. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this, as Lovecraftian investigative horror only infrequently strays below the Mason–Dixon Line, and visiting a new city is always interesting. What is wrong with this choice is that the designer tells us nothing about Charleston whatsoever when a single page of information could have covered all three periods…

Physically, Realms of Cthulhu is a relatively thin if sturdy hardback. The book on the whole is well written and decently presented in full colour with some nice illustrations. Some of the content could have been better organised though, some terms and elements being mentioned far before they are actually explained, this not being helped by a sometimes unhelpful index.

Overall, Realms of Cthulhu is a likeable, if far from perfect product. One of the issues with Realms of Cthulhu is the lack of advice on investigator generation. This is necessary because creating and playing an investigator is very different to doing either in most other RPGs. There is advice, it is true, but it amounts to list of roles that a player could create rather than actual, useful advice on doing so. The most useful advice on investigator generation is placed some twenty pages away from the rules on actual character generation, all but an afterthought. Another issue is that it is Americentric when Lovecraftian investigative horror tends to be more Anglophile in outlook. Realms of Cthulhu does feel in places as if it is written solely with an American audience in mind.

Perhaps the biggest issue with Realms of Cthulhu is in its choice of rules system. This is not denigrate the Savage Worlds rules, as they offer solid mechanics that emulate a slightly Pulp style, cinematic style of play, and there is, of course, nothing wrong in that. The issue is more whether or not the Savage Worlds rules can handle Lovecraftian investigative horror, and arguably, they cannot. At least not without a degree of tweaking and adjustment to advance the rules to a grittier style of game, and with that tweaking and adjustment comes more rules and more complexity, both of which are at odds with the “Fast! Furious! and Fun!” the Savage Worlds rules. Even with said degree of tweaking and adjustment, Realms of Cthulhu is still not a wholly Purist RPG of Lovecraftian investigative horror. There is still a little of the Pulp left, which is unsurprising given that it is written into the soul of the Savage Worlds rules.

Yet when Realms of Cthulhu reins in Savage Worlds back towards its natural inclination, the result does not feel as forced. In its natural state it can do “Pulp Cthulhu” and do it well, offering a means handle a more action orientated game that offers its player characters a degree of survivability and elasticity in their actions that the binary mechanics of Call of Cthulhulacks. The investigators are no longer ordinary men and women, but more special, more heroic. In addition, for the Savage Worlds GM, Realms of Cthulhu also grants access to the Cthulhu Mythos, its contents easily plugging into Pinnacle Entertainment Group’s Weird Wars: Tour of Darkness and Weird Wars: Weird War II supplements, as well as the Savage Worldsversions of Modiphius Press’ Achtung! Cthulhu line. And of course, Realms of Cthulhu does give Savage Worlds a bona fide Sanity mechanic, something that it has lacked since its first edition.

In terms of support for the Keeper and the player, Realms of Cthulhu is underwhelming, this most obvious in the given Mythos Tales and the advice for the player. Where Realms of Cthulhu works is not just as a cinematic, action-orientated treatment of Lovecraftian investigative horror, but as a set of tools to create and run a roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror in the Pulp mode.

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