An Esteren Starter

Just as with everything else, the English language dominates the hobby industry. For the most part this means that most RPGs are translated from English into a nation’s own language, but the passage of RPGs from the English language to another is not wholly one way. Some RPGs do get translated into English, for example, Siroz’s In Nomine Satanis/Magna Veritas was translated by Steve Jackson Games as In Nomine in 1997; Cubicle Seven Entertainment publishes Kuro, Qin, and Yggdrasill, all French RPGs from Le Septième cercle; Ulisses Spiele GmbH’s Adventures in Kaphornia 01 – Draconian Rhapsody: A Fantasy Movie For Your Game Table is a German RPG published by Chronicle City; and Maid the Roleplaying Game is a rare Japanese RPG to be translated into English. What these all have in common is that English language publishers have translated and had them published. Not so Les Ombres d'Esteren or Shadows of Esteren, a new French RPG whose publisher, Agate RPG, is bringing the RPG to the English speaking world following a successful Kickstarter programme.

Shadows of Esteren is a low, dark fantasy RPG set in a world on the edge of great change, but still looking to older traditions and still fearing that something unspoken lurks in the dark beyond man’s understanding… The setting is the Tri-Kazel peninsula, an isolated and hilly, heavily-forested spit of land cut off from the rest of the Continent. It is divided into three countries, all descended from the same tribes, but now following own their paths. Tol-Kaer adheres to the old tribal ways and the Demorthèn spiritual cults; missionaries from the Great Theocracy 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. Although these ideologies predominate in each of the three countries, they are not exclusive to any of the three countries despite their being inherently antagonistic towards one another.

What is common to all three countries 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.

Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue is the first title released for the game. It is not the full RPG, but rather an introduction to both the rules and the setting. It comes complete with a description of the setting, a discussion of its themes, an overview of the game system, six pre-generated characters, and ‘Omens’, a trilogy of three complete scenarios that serve as a prologue to the game’s overarching campaign. What strikes the reader first about Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue is how good the book looks. Eighty pages of full colour, painted artwork that both inspires and awes the reader.

Mechanically, Shadows of Esteren is simple and straightforward, at least in 0-Prologue. The core traits of a character’s personality are defined mentally by five Ways – the Way of Combativeness, the Way of Creativity, the Way of Empathy, the Way of Reason, and the Way of Conviction. Each Way possesses Qualities and Flaws – positive and negative aspects, 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. Each Way is valued between one and five. Similarly, Domains, the system’s broad skills, such as Craft, Close Combat, Erudition, Magience, Prayer, and Science, are also valued between one and five. Beyond a 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 Bastard Sword 9, meaning that his rating with a knife would be 5 and 9 with a Bastard Sword.

To undertake an action, a character totals the value of an appropriate Way, Domain, and Discipline and adds them to the roll of a ten-sided die to beat a set Difficulty Threshold – the standard being eleven. It should be noted that all six of the pre-generated characters have their values pre-totalled for ease of play. The same mechanic works with both in combat – which is short and brutal, and the Sanity system. Rolls for the latter are made with only the Game Leader – or Game Master – only knowing the Difficulty Threshold. The full rules for Sanity are not presented in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue, but rather presented on a case-by-case basis in the three scenarios.

To play through the three scenarios in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue, a total of six pre-generated characters are provided. They include a female Varigal, a courier and messenger for hire; a female warrior in training; a male spy turned archer; a male Demorthèn trainee; and a male Adept of the Temple. By playing through ‘Omens’ using these six, the intent is that the players can transition onto ‘Dearg’, the Shadows of Esteren campaign, though the Game Leader could instead have them use the characters given in Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe or have the players create their own. The six in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue have ties of varying strength to the region and to each other, though this need not be established before play begins of the three scenarios as if played in order as presented, they begin in media res.

‘Omens’ consists of ‘Loch Varn’, ‘Poison’, and ‘Red Fall’. Throughout, the authors use icons to highlight certain elements of particular moments and scenes – Gore, Psychology, Supernatural, and Suspense, as well as tips for the Game Leader and suggested musical cues. Many of the latter come from Of Men and Obscurities, a CD of music specifically written for use with Shadows of Esteren, but cues are given for other soundtracks also.

‘Omens’ takes place in Loch Varn’s Vale. It opens with a bang in ‘Loch Varn’, the characters under attack and unsure of where they are. The situation is intentionally unsettling for both players and characters, and the aim of the adventure is for them to uncover where they are and how they came to be there. Equally, this is not an easy scenario for the Game Leader to run and quite possibly a frustrating one because the players are not necessarily in full control of their characters. Further, as the initial scenario of the trilogy, it is probably too difficult an affair for the inexperienced Game Master. One suggestion made is that the scenarios of the trilogy be run in a different order, but this feels at odds with the intent of Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue and certainly defuses the impact of playing ‘Loch Varn’ first.

The second and third scenarios in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue are shorter and more traditional affairs. ‘Poison’ sees the characters investigate an outbreak of illness that sees many of its victims sent into a murderous rage before they die. The characters are caught up in this as they investigate and there is even the possibility of their coming down with the illness and suffering its effects. ‘Poison’ is the most straight forward adventure of the trilogy, such that it works as an easier introduction to Shadows of Esteren for both the Game Leader and his players. Initially, the third and final scenario, ‘Red Fall’, feels very similar to ‘Loch Varn’, but rather than every character beginning the adventure in an unexpected situation, it is just the one. Despite the reuse of amnesia to set up a scenario, ‘Red Fall’ is a murder mystery that adds a greater complexity over ‘Poison’.

Physically, Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue is beautifully presented. At its worst, the book reads a little oddly in places, but that is an issue with the translation. Nevertheless, it is an engaging read.

One complaint about Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue is the lack of explanation as to its secrets and an explanation of what the Feondas actually are. Certainly there is no explanation in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue or indeed in the next book, Shadows of Esteren 1-Universe. Rather the explanation is saved for a later book. Some readers or Game Leaders will be disappointed by this, but for Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue, this is not an issue. The mysteries presented here have as much explanation as is needed.

There is much pleasure to be had in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue. It comes from the obvious love put into its presentation, from the effort put into presenting a world in a relatively small page count, and from the triptych of scenarios that work hard to immerse the player characters in the setting. Lastly it comes in the presentation of the mysteries in Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue, not just in the individual scenarios, but in the feel that there is more to this RPG. Atmospheric and engaging, Shadows of Esteren 0-Prologue is a well done introduction to the mysteries and setting of Shadows of Esteren.

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Who's got game RIGHT NOW?

For the most part, roleplaying requires preparation – which can be problem. Roleplayers, just like everyone else, have at their fingertips any number of other forms of entertainment, often quite literally. Whether it is a computer game, a television programme, or a movie, they do all of the preparation for the player, the viewer, and the cinema goer. Roleplaying does not work that way – the referee or Games Master has to prepare the adventure, understand its ins and its outs, and give some consideration to what the players and their characters might do. What though if there was the roleplaying equivalent of the movie? Well, thanks to Chronicle City, there is – Adventures in Kaphornia 01 – Draconian Rhapsody: A Fantasy Movie For Your Game Table.

Originally published in German by Ulisses Spiele GmbH, Draconian Rhapsody is not an RPG, but more of a scenario that comes complete with all of the rules to play it. It promises to have done all of the work for the GM, to provide simple rules, and of course an adventure that everyone can jump straight into. Designed for play by between three and four players, plus the GM, it comes with those simple rules, eight pre-generated adventurers, and an adventure that should provide an evening’s worth of gaming – all for the price of two movie tickets.

Where a traditional RPG starts with the rules for character generation, Draconian Rhapsody starts with an explanation of the sample heroes. Each character is defined by his Skills – of which there are twelve, from Close Combat and Ranged Combat to Strength and Willpower; plus his Special Ability, and his Stamina and Fate Points. For the eight pre-generated adventurers, the Skills range in value between eight and thirteen and have either four or five Stamina points. All have five Fate Points. All have a Special Ability, some more than one. For example, Gragg the Barbarian has ‘Battle Frenzy’, which enables him to roll an extra die in combat if he continues to attack an opponent for more than a single round. Some Special Abilities require a player to expend Fate Points. Flamelet the Fairy, for example, has ‘Flying’, which allows her to circumvent a Climbing or Running challenge by expending a Fate Point and so moving by flying. Besides being expended to activate Special Abilities, a Fate Point can be used to gain a ‘Adrenalin Boost’ to recover in combat from having lost all Stamina and to ‘Raise the Ante’ to gain bonus dice to roll and add the results to a failed challenge.

To undertake a Challenge in Draconian Rhapsody, the Narrator states the Challenge – for example, to out-run a boulder that is rolling down the tunnel towards them, the heroes each face a Running [4] Challenge – which means that each character needs to roll four successes to overcome the Challenge. Everyone then rolls a number of six-sided dice equal to their Running skill. Each five or six rolled counts as a Success. If a character fails to get enough Successes, then he can ‘Raise the Ante’ and try to get more Successes. In combat, successfully overcoming an Attack Challenge and gaining a number of Successes equal to the opponent’s Defence inflicts a point of Stamina loss on an opponent, but it is possible to inflict a Severe hit and thus more damage.

Playing the game is particularly player-facing. In combat, the player characters always act before the opposition; a character never dies, but if down always recovers back up to one Stamina at the end of an Act; and when it comes to the action in each Act, the Narrator presents the various Special Actions that the players can undertake and the Challenges involved. For example, the heroes are being chased through a mine by an Orc horde and have just raced across a rope bridge only to find their way blocked by an Ogre guard and a barred door! Having described the situation, the Narrator reads out the following:

During the combat you may choose from the following Special Actions:

1. Hack through the ropes supporting the bridge, a Strength Challenge
2. Face off the horde coming across the bridge to give everyone time, a Close Combat challenge
3. Swing out on ropes to strike at the horde coming across the bridge, a Reflexes challenge
4. Get the Ogre to lift the bar on the door, a Persuasion challenge

Not all of the game or its rules favour the players. The Narrator gets his own Fate Points, but he has to earn them by taking his own actions that make things more difficult for the players. For example, in the situation above, the characters might face a Reflexes [4] Challenge as orcs swing out madly on ropes to attack them. In return, the characters will receive extra Experience Points come the end of the adventure for this and any other Narrator Action that gets thrown at the players.

The adventure in Draconian Rhapsody is a five Act affair – or to be fair, a four Act affair and an epilogue. The adventurers arrive in Kaphornia and through circumstances beyond their control discover that Countess Esmeralda of Belzheim needs a dragon, alive and inside of a week. Of course, who gets to go in search of such a beast? The subsequent adventure is humorous, if not silly in places, and very like a movie, is very much a pre-determined affair. That though, should not be held against Draconian Rhapsody, it is the point of the book after all. Were it not as pre-determined, even as heavily scripted compared to the traditional roleplaying scenario, then it would require more preparation time, and that is not the point of Draconian Rhapsody.

In addition that point – the minimal preparation time required to get it ready to play – Draconian Rhapsody can also do something else. It can serve as an easy introduction to roleplaying. After all, the rules are light enough, the adventure is straightforward and intentionally cinematic in tone, and everything is presented and explained to the characters during play. If the adventure proves popular enough, then there is a sequel, Adventures in Kaphornia 02 - The Island of the Piranha Men, already available which uses the same characters. Of course, having done for fantasy, it would be interesting see the format and the simple mechanics used in other genres – could you do A Science Fiction Movie For Your Game Table, A Horror Movie For Your Game Table, or – gasp – A Call of Cthulhu Movie For Your Game Table?

Rounding out Draconian Rhapsody is a nine-page, detailed example of play. It does a good job of showcasing the rules, although it is a pity that it never gets as far as the roleplaying scenes given in the adventure. Physically, Draconian Rhapsody is reasonably well presented with decent illustrations that have a slightly cartoonish feel that matches the tone of the adventure. Although it is readable, Draconian Rhapsody does need another edit as the presentation and the writing is slightly rough in places.

On the back cover of Draconian Rhapsody it suggests that can be prepared and made ready to run within half an hour. This is the case, but an experienced Narrator should be able to prepare this much more quickly. The rules are light and easy to understand, the setting and the adventure are light and familiar, and the whole package has an immediacy that few RPG titles ever achieve. Draconian Rhapsody: A Fantasy Movie For Your Game Table is a nicely done, all-in-one package that delivers a scripted fantasy movie that you play.

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By the Jaws of the Six Serpents!

Fantasy is well served by the roleplaying hobby. After all, it is the hobby’s premier genre, Dungeons & Dragons being both the first RPG and the first fantasy RPG. Yet some variations upon the fantasy genre – subgenres, if you will – are not quite as well served as others, and that includes the low and gritty fantasy of the Swords & Sorcery genre. This is a subgenre in which the stories are more personal, in which the heroes are anything other than idealistic, in which the heroes must face dangers using their wits and their swords rather than some great magics or enchantments, and in which the threats are not as epic as those of the ‘High Fantasy’ of Dungeons & Dragons and Lord of the Rings.

One RPG that specifically sets out to do the Swords & Sorcery genre is Jaws of the Six Serpents, published by Silver Branch Games. It comes complete with both mechanics designed to emulate the genre, a guide to creating your own games, and a complete setting of its own.

The setting is the lightly sketched World of the Six Serpents. It is a world of humans in a “Dark Age” in which sorcery and alchemy represent the limits of known science. Sorcery though is a dangerous science, and the use of charms and divination are better known and more trusted. The lands – harsh wildernesses dotted with the occasional town or city and bisected by the Blackworm River – are populated by nine Peoples, including the Devilfolk of Ahaan, the Witchfolk of Belimaur, the Earth Tribes of Kalet, the Cliff People of Narrowhome, the Masked Folk of Nilsomar, the Freemen of the River Towns, the Citizens of Sartain, and the Owl-men of Temisarum. Each of these peoples is given a solid description with strong pointers towards playing a member of that culture.

Many of the peoples of the World of the Six Serpents are governed or influenced by the Urges that make up the world. There are six of these – Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind plus Metal and Wood, each represented by a serpent biting the tail of the next in Ouroboros fashion. In addition, each Urge can be called upon for aid whilst sorcerers also draw upon the Urges to fuel their magic. Necromancers and practitioners of the darker magics are suspected of drawing upon a seventh, “Dark” Urge if not actually of consorting with the “Dark Below.”

The system that Jaws of the Six Serpents uses is the PDQ System or Prose Descriptive Qualities System. This is a Fudge-derived set of mechanics that focuses on what a character is capable of and allows a player the room to freely define every aspect of his character, each given as a Quality. The Qualities range from Poor [-2], up through Average [0], Good [+2], and Expert [+4] to Master [+6]. So a character might have the Qualities, Good [+2] Accomplished Thief, Expert [+4] Slippery as a Snake, Master [+2] Venomous Blade, and Poor [-2] Profession – Notorious Assassin. Each Quality acts as a modifier to any rolls – made on two six-sided dice – when a player wants to do something and made against a target between five and thirteen. A player can combine Qualities and a Quality that is a Weakness can work as a Strength and vice versa. For example, Herluin is a notorious thief from the city of Sartain who wants to find out who is trying to sell him out to the authorities. He is interrogating a merchant, who knows that if he tells Herluin anything he will be killed. The GM sets the base target at Good or 7, but Upshifts the difficulty to Expert or 9 because the merchant is frightened. Herluin threatens the merchant with his Venomous Blade, so gets +2 to the roll, and tells the merchant about his reputation arguing that instead of it being a Weakness, it should work as a Strength instead. So this gives him Master [+2] Venomous Blade and Poor [+2] Reputation as a Killer to add to his roll.

Combat in the PDQ System is perhaps its most radical feature. Instead of Hit Points, a character takes damage directly to his Qualities. For each level of Failure Rank or damage done, a character suffers a step loss or Rank downshift to one of his Qualities. Thus if Herluin got into a brawl and takes a rabbit punch to the kidneys, his player decides that he will reduce his Expert [+4] Slippery as a Snake to Good [+2] to reflect a loss to his suppleness. In addition, a Story Hook must be attached to the first Quality that takes damage in a fight. In this instance, Herluin attaches a Story Hook to his Slippery as a Snake Quality called “A need to escape”.

A character who has all of his Qualities reduced to Poor [-2] and then loses another Rank, zeroes out and is out of the scene. Although it has always been a feature of the PDQ System, this means of handing damage intentionally abstract. The attaching of a Story Hook ameliorates this to an extent. Otherwise, the PDQ System is light and easy, suitable for handling narrative orientated action. Further, Jaws of the Six Serpents adds both rules for attacking multiple opponents and for fighting against minions.

Character generation in the PDQ System is a matter of assigning eight Ranks to various Qualities, mostly Strengths, but also a singular Weakness. In the World of the Six Serpents  three of these Ranks must represent a Quality of a character’s people, an innate Faculty or talent, plus a Driver, a motivation. In the setting of Jaws of the Six Serpents, a character can also have an Urge as a Quality. A series of tables provides Occupations, Talents, Skills, and Personality Traits that can either be rolled for or serve as inspiration.

Our sample character is Herluin, a man wanted for killed Jourdain the Jewel Master to whom he was apprenticed. Since that night when he discovered his master’s body, he has been either on the run or been lying low. This has forced him to make an alternative living for himself and that includes stealing things. (Of course, the truth might also be that he really is an assassin and Jourdain was his first, botched mission as he almost got caught…)

Herluin

People: Citizens of Sartain

Strengths: Good [+2] Streetwise, Good [+2] Urge – Metal, Good [+2] Prove that he is not an assassin, Expert [+4] Slippery as a Snake, Good [+2] Accomplished Thief, Expert [+2] Venomous Blade, Good [+2] Profession – Jeweller

Weakness: [-2] Profession – Notorious Assassin

Magic in Jaws of the Six Serpents comes in four types – Sorcery, Charms, Alchemy, and Divination – and is all about achieving an effect or Quality. Yet where Charms, Alchemy, and Divination all have focused or specific effects or Qualities – for example, a Charm or an Alchemical potion that provides a healing effect, Sorcery can do that and more. Essentially Sorcery is free-form magic in which the caster sets out what he wants to achieve. The more that he wants to do with the spell, the greater the Quality of the desired Sorcery effect or spell—and thus the greater the Quality that the sorcerer has to roll against. It is possible for a player character to be a sorcerer—or know other forms of magic, but the initial Quality level for the magic is always Average [+0] when first bought.

Our sample sorcerer is Arraffa, one of the Masked Folk of Nilsomar. Betrothed to a merchant in Sartain, she is currently on the run after being accused of hiring someone to murder him! Well, she did run off with the suspected murderer!

Arraffa

People: Masked Folk of Nilsomar

Strengths: Good [+2] Inscrutable, Good [+2] Urge – Fire, Good [+2] Sorcery, Good [+2] Knows the healing arts, Good [+2] Urge – Wood, Good [+2] A noble’s daughter, Good [+2] The mask hides a brain as well as looks

Weakness: [-2] Used to the finer things of civilisation

For example, Arraffa and Herluin have been chased into a room. There is another exit, but it will take time for Herluin to pick the lock. In the meantime their pursuers draw near. In order to dissuade them from entering the room, Arraffa decides to heat up the door hand and so stop anyone from entering. The GM decides that this is a small, single target that Arraffa wants to affect, so what really determines the Quality of the spell is the energy that Arraffa wants to impart. Her player decides that it has to be hot, like a forest fire. This makes it an [+4] Expert effect, which gives Arraffa a target of 11 to beat. She rolls two six-sided dice and adds Good [+2] Sorcery and Good [+2] Urge – Fire. In order to ensure that it works, Arraffa also draws directly from one of her Urges and temporarily reduces it to Average [+0] Urge – Wood to gain another six-sided die to the roll. So she gets to roll 3d6 and adds 4. (Alternatively she might get this extra six-side die from spending a Fortune Point, which player characters and some villains get).

The world of Jaws of the Six Serpents also adds another ‘type’ of magic – Intercession. This is practised by the Intercessors who worship the Spirits of the Worthy and who are capable of calling upon these spirits for aid and advice, even drawing them into physical hosts – alive or dead. In addition, the setting includes a more detailed guide to its peoples; a short bestiary* that breaks them down into Strange Peoples, Fierce Creatures, the Unquiet Dead, and Things from the Dark; plus an adventure. The bestiary is more a set of examples to support the guidelines for the GM to create his own, while the short adventure, “The Tower of Emeth Tol” serves as an example for the GM’s advice. It is also, of course, a nod to the classic Conan short story, “The Tower of the Elephant”.

*This includes the best description of a ‘monster manual’ ever – “like a dating agency, but with more gore”.

Physically, Jaws of the Six Serpents is a buff little book illustrated with a range of genre appropriate pen and ink pieces of artwork. The map of the World of the Six Serpents feels somewhat threadbare, but as a setting it leaves plenty of the room for the GM to add his own details.

Jaws of the Six Serpents pleasingly manages to provide the means to emulate the Swords & Sorcery genre. It provides the rules to do so, a setting to do so, and the advice for the GM to do so with a setting of his own creation. The PDQ System supports the means with light mechanics that encourage character design and player input by allowing the players to simply design and define their characters’ abilities or Qualities. Overall, Jaws of the Six Serpentsis a light, but gratifying package for anyone wanting to play the Swords & Sorcery genre. 

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Fighting Fantasy Undead

Nostalgia is a wonderful thing, especially if the things that you love can be brought back. When it comes to being a British gamer of a certain age, there is nothing to be more nostalgic about than the Fighting Fantasy series. Launched in 1982 with the release by Puffin Books of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, co-authored by the founders of Games Workshop, Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, this series of “choose your own adventure” books holds a special place in the hearts of British gamers — The Warlock of Firetop Mountain in particular. It would run to some fifty-nine titles in the initial line-up, and in the process, sell millions of copies and popularise the concept of roleplaying, spearheading its presence in bookshops everywhere.

Since 2002, the Fighting Fantasy series has been published by Wizard Books under whose aegis two anniversaries have been celebrated. The first was series’ twenty-fifth anniversary, for which a special hardcover edition of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was published; the second was the thirtieth anniversary, in 2012, for which Blood of the Zombies was released. This is the first Fighting Fantasy title by Ian Livingstone since 2005’s Eye of the Dragon. It brings the series up to date, not just in terms of mechanics, but also terms of subject matter. After all, no threat is as contemporary and in vogue as zombies were in 2012 – and still are in 2013.

In Blood of the Zombies, the hero – as controlled by the reader – can be best described as “field researcher” with an interest in myths and legends, or at least a student of beasts mythological. As this hero, travelling across Europe in search of one beast after another, you find yourself taken captive in Transylvania and imprisoned in Goraya Castle. Its owner, Gingrich Yurr, is an insane megalomaniac who has plans for both you and the others he holds prisoner – that is, to turn you and everyone held captive into a zombie and then unleash the undead horde on the world. Being the resourceful type you have managed to escape, so all that stands between you and the end of the world are four hundred paragraphs of exploring, gathering the weapons and resources necessary to defeat Gingrich Yurr, and holding off one wave of the corpse cortege after another…

To handle the action, Blood of the Zombies presents a stripped set of rules. In the original Fighting Fantasy titles each hero had three statistics – Skill, Stamina, and Luck. The first of these represented a hero’s fighting ability, the second his health, and the last, his good fortune or otherwise as he proceeded through each adventure. In Blood of the Zombies, the hero has a single statistic – Stamina, essentially the number of attacks the hero can withstand before being overcome and killed. Combat is kept simple with the hero always being able to attack first – zombies after all, are notoriously slow; the hero always hitting and inflicting damage, each hit putting down a zombie, so the better the weapon the more zombies it destroys; and when it is the zombies’ turn to attack, the hero loses a point of Stamina for each zombie he faces – so it is a good idea to find the biggest weapon possible as quickly as possible! The reader will also need to note exactly how many zombies he kills in his escape attempt, otherwise the undead are still a threat to both himself and the world.

Creating a character is simply a matter of rolling two six-sided dice – which is all that a player will need along with a pencil – or flicking through the page and randomly stopping on a page, each of which has dice symbols marked between one and six and adding the result to twelve. This is the hero’s beginning Stamina. Besides the dice and pencil, a player will also need scrap paper, although the book does come with a character sheet.

As much as the adventure has a contemporary setting, in true “Grand Guignol” style, Blood of the Zombies takes place in a castle. Well of course, it is set in Transylvania! As the hero, the reader will find himself working his up from the depths – or the dungeons – of the castle to its living areas to face his gaoler, Gingrich Yurr himself! Along the way, he will encounter members of Yurr’s staff, strangeness and oddities, death-traps, and of course, members of the cadaver cavalcade.

Playing Blood of the Zombies is tough! It is not just a matter of collecting the gear necessary to defeat the zombie threat, but one of collecting the right equipment – though of course, the reader never knows ahead of time what exactly he will need. Beyond the decisions as to what to pick up or leave behind, which door to open and which to ignore, and so on, Blood of the Zombies is all about making the right dice rolls. For combat these are primarily high rolls – the higher the roll, the more zombies are wiped out – but the adventure’s design mixes the rolls up so that the reader never knows the outcome ahead of time. The likelihood is that if the reader manages to survive the rigours of escaping from Goraya Castle and its undead hordes, then it will be by the skin of his teeth.

The downside is that if the reader fails on his first time, then having to play through again is more time consuming than challenging. It does not help that there are moments in the adventure where its linear nature becomes apparent – the preponderance of long corridors makes this unavoidable. Thankfully once the reader towards the end, the various scenes and locations seem to come crashing down onto the reader, one after the other, leading to cinematic ending. The character of the hero is something of an 'everyman', an ordinary fellow, who is driven to undertake extraordinary feats in saving the world and more. He is not necessarily a capable fighter as the human opponents he may well face during the course of Blood of the Zombies are more capable than he is. This should be seen as a reflection of his weakened state as much as it is the fact that he is an ordinary man and not the trained fighter that would instead be treading the caves and passageways of Warlock of Firetop Mountain. He can of course, blast zombies away with the best of them… that is, unless his dice rolls let him down.

Throughout, the design and writing in Blood of the Zombiesis decent. It is not overly descriptive, but the tension is kept high at the right points, and the few personalities that the hero meets are more than mere bodies waiting for death at the hands of said hero. In addition there are numerous in-jokes scattered throughout the halls of Goraya Castle, though some of them might be a little obscure to younger readers.

Blood of the Zombies is an enjoyably nostalgic trip back both an older style of game and and older style of adventure. It updates the format to provide a contemporary cinematic blast of an adventure and a few tense hours alone...

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Dungeoneering & Dragon Hunting

Roleplaying is all but forty years old, and thus, so is Dungeons & Dragons. As evidenced by the recent number of books that detail the hobby’s history, role playing has become something more than just a silly game. Mongoose Publishing’s Designers & Dragons, MIT Press’ Second Person – Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media, and McFarland’s The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games are all testament to that. Further, they have also become collectable, and none more so than Dungeons & Dragons. Collecting Dungeons & Dragons has always been something of challenge, for although sites like eBay and The Acaeum have made the task much, much easier, what collecting has always lacked is a guide. That is, until now.

Published by Italian publisher Wild Boar Edizioni srl through Chronicle City, Hunter of Dragons – The Original Dungeons & Dragons Collecting Guideis the complete guide to collecting Dungeons & Dragons. It is important to note this because its focus is entirely on Dungeons & Dragons and what that game became, Basic Dungeons & Dragons, rather than its bigger, bolder, better supported, if not bloated, younger brother, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Its time frame is also thus limited to just a nineteen-year time frame from 1974 to 1993. Within that span it not only covers the various editions of the game, adventures and accessories, miscellaneous items and unreleased products, but also titles from Judges Guild too! It is even more important to note that Hunter of Dragons is not a price guide. That would be impossible to accurately report given that such prices are constantly changing. So instead, it gives a rarity value for each entry.

Hunter of Dragons opens with “The History of Dungeons & Dragons” before discussing “The various editions of Dungeons & Dragons.” What is surprising to note is that there are as many editions as there are – six all together. Each edition is given its own entry with each entry giving the book or product name, its publication date, the names of its designers, its contents, its rarity, some notes, and whether there were any foreign editions. These include the Australian and British editions as well as those in French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish, and even the Japanese and Hebrew books! Some entries also include a trivia entry, for example that B3 The Palace of the Silver Princess Orange version is one of the few TSR titles to have been written by a woman and is one of the most sought after items for Dungeons & Dragons – more so than the fabled ST1 Up the Garden Path. Each section ends with a thumbnail illustration of each of the entries it includes.

Although the book has no index, it is neatly organised. Each section is broken down by edition of Dungeons & Dragons. So that for the Accessories section, the entries are from the game’s first through fifth editions, while for the Boxed sets the entries come from the fourth and fifth editions. Some ranges receive a section of their own, for example, that devoted to the Hollow Earth line. The “other products” section covers the 10th Anniversary Products, the Endless Quest books, novels, Calendars, Electronic Games, licensed items, magazines, and more.

Judges Guild receives a section to itself. This is almost a mirror of Hunter of Dragons, including as it does a history of the publisher as well as the listing of products that it released. The trivia sections for each of these entries are consistently more extensive than those for entries elsewhere in the book and makes for interesting reading.

Rounding out Hunter of Dragons is a trio of interviews, each appearing in print for the first time. These are in turn with Gary Gygax, David Arneson, and Larry Elmore. The one with Gary Gygax dates from 2002 and is the more noteworthy of the trio, being a lengthy piece that covers Gygax’s complete history – before, with, and after his time at TSR. Gygax takes the time to answer each and every question, and does not avoid the difficult subject of the financial difficulties and other problems that he had during his time at TSR. In many ways it is actually the most interesting read in the Hunter of Dragons, to an extent because it really offers the book’s strongest narrative, but mostly because five years on from his death, it presents a retrospective on the father of Dungeons & Dragons, if not the hobby itself, one in his own voice. In comparison, there is a certain reluctance to the interview with David Arneson and an obvious ebullience to the one with Larry Elmore, and as a consequence neither is particularly interesting.

As much as Hunters of Dragons describes itself as the “Collecting Guide” to Dungeons & Dragons, one aspect it does not address is the actual “collecting.” To an extent, this is understandable, for just like the notion of including an actual price guide, it can be countered by the fact that either is by their very nature, ephemeral. Prices change and fluctuate just as the sources that a collector goes to for the titles that he is after will also alter and vary. Nevertheless, some general guidance would have been useful.

Physically, Hunter of Dragons comes as a thick digest book, its vibrant red cover evoking Larry Elmore’s illustration for, and the trade dress of, the classic Red Box Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. In addition to the illustrations for each of the book’s entries, Hunters of Dragons is illustrated with a range of surprisingly interesting TSR adverts. It is a pity that that the book’s many illustrations could not been in colour, as that would aided the collector’s visual identification of any of the books that he is after, but the fact that it is not, is understandable. Another issue is the language. Hunter of Dragons is written in English, but he is Italian and it does show in paces. That said, the author’s English is better than this reviewer’s Italian, and this could have been addressed with a closer edit.

The release of Hunters of Dragons is a timely one in light of Wizards of the Coast’s re-release of its extensive back catalogue for both Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in PDF and thus making them available to all. That said, the re-release of those PDFs by Wizards of the Coast has to an extent superseded some of the details given in Hunters of Dragons, essentially the history and the trivia, thanks to the efforts of Shannon Appelcline, the author of the aforementioned Designers & Dragons. That said, the focus and remit of Hunters of Dragons is much, much tighter and certainly successfully fulfilled by its author. Hunters of Dragons is a well-written, solidly researched, treatment of what to collect when it comes to Dungeons & Dragons that will with any luck be joined by companion volumes devoted to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

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A Restricted Dig

The Archaeologist's Handbook: A Guide to Archaeology for Roleplaying Games is a curious beast. It reads in part like a supplement for Call of Cthulhu, but is not written for that RPG despite the significance of that role in both the RPG and the fiction that inspired it. It also reads and feels like one of the Miskatonic University Library Association monographs that Chaosium, Inc. publishes in support of its primary RPG, Call of Cthulhu, but is instead published by Innsmouth House Press, an imprint of the website, yog-sothoth.com, which is specifically devoted to all things Lovecraftian, role playing in particular... Thus it feels like it should be a Call of Cthulhusupplement, but is not, and it feels like it should have been published by Chaosium, but was not.

So the questions arise, just what is The Archaeologist's Handbook: A Guide to Archaeology for Roleplaying Games, and who is it written for? As the title suggests, its presents an examination of the study and practice of Archaeology, its history, notable techniques, a discussion of noteworthy proponents of the science, as well as sites and forgeries, and so on, with the aim of making this information useable by roleplayers. In the main it covers the Victorian period, the 1920s, and the roughly contemporary here and now – the three eras that dominate Lovecraftian investigative horror.

The history begins in the antiquities before coming up to speed with archaeology’s founding as a field of study and its practise since the eighteenth century. Although it comes up to the modern day, it is a pity that it does not cover the rise in popularity for all things archaeological in the wake of television coverage – essentially the Time Team effect. Thus it covers both the Grand Tour and the research conducted in Egypt during Napoleon’s occupation; the archaeological scholarship that would lay the foundations for Darwin’s theory of evolution and the Ordnance Survey work that would reveal much of Great Britain’s hidden history; and how archaeology has moved from the province of the scholarly gentleman and his wealthy patron to the aegis of museum, university, and government. Numerous techniques used to dig and excavate a site are described, as are various means of scientifically dating a site and its finds. This is followed by descriptions and histories of some of the world’s more notable museums along with some of their exhibits. None of these are covered in extensive detail, but the balance is about between having enough information to make use of in-game and having enough to serve as pointers should further research be required. Of more practical use is the guide to actually running an archaeological excavation which gets into the logistics of the affair, period by period.

Up until this point, the tone The Archaeologist's Handbookis a little dry and technical, but this changes with a discussion of infamous fakes and forgeries, such as Glozel and The Cardiff Giant. The lighter tone continues as the book begins to support its roleplaying aspect – for example, each notable site, from Stonehenge and Pompeii to Petra and Great Zimbabwe is accompanied by a juicy plot hook that a referee could easily develop into something playable. It is a pity though, that the array of notable sites and accompanying plot hooks ignores Asia. Rounding out The Archaeologist's Handbookare some diary entries that nicely capture the life of an archaeologist in each of the book’s three eras, a list of notable archaeologists – none are given stats though, and a list of possible equipment for each era.

Although not written specifically for Call of Cthulhu, the contents of The Archaeologist's Handbook are probably more applicable to that game than any other. After all, the archaeologist is one of the game's signature Occupations, which means that Call of Cthulhu players and Keepers alike will probably get the most out of the book’s contents. Plus there is plenty of evidence in the book to suggest that it was written with Call of Cthulhu in mind. In particular, it focuses upon the RPG’s three core eras – the Victorian period, the Jazz Age of the 1920s, and the modern day, plus the sample NPCs its provides for each era are written up in a fashion that apes Call of Cthulhucharacters rather than matches them exactly. Thus you have Stamina instead of Constitution, Willpower instead of Power, Library Usage rather than Library Use, Take Notice rather than Spot Hidden, and so on. Adapting any one of the three NPCs to Call of Cthulhu, Cubicle Seven Entertainment’s The Laundry RPG, or any Basic Roleplay RPG is anything other than a challenge. That said, given the fact that both skills and the stats for all three characters are expressed as percentile figures actually makes them more compatible with the forthcomingCall of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition rather than the current Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition. Adapting the characters to Pelgrane Press’ Trail of Cthulhu or RealityBlurs, Inc.’s Realms of Cthulhu is more challenging, but certainly within the bounds of possibility.

The Archaeologist's Handbook comes a seventy-six page A5 sized spiral bound book. This format makes it easy to flip through and read, the former necessary due to the lack of an index. That said, the format does not withstand much in the way of handling, and perhaps a plastic cover could have been included for the back cover as well as the front. The book is illustrated throughout with a range of black and white drawings and photographs, all of them appropriately selected. It is a pity that the book does not come with any maps as subject matter certainly lends itself to those. The writing is a also perhaps a little dry in places, but once the author begins to talk about sites and museums and forgeries, she warms to her subject and is more engaging. Still the book could have done with a closer edit.

More of an issue is that The Archaeologist's Handbook is underdeveloped in places. As a consequence its stance is strongly Anglophile in places. This is understandable given that the author is English, but that does mean that this guide to playing an archaeologist is tailored to English characters. Given that the Call of Cthulhu playing audience for this book is primarily American, it would have been useful if the author had been able to present information on how to play an American archaeologist, let alone say a French or German one.

Where The Archaeologist's Handbook is at its weakest is the fact that it is a generic supplement. Had it been specifically written for Call of Cthulhu then it could have better explored its subject and thus have better applied it to excavating the Mythos. Or least reference any one of the innumerable scenarios written for that the game that involve Archaeology or an Archaeological dig of some kind. Whether that is “The Clive Expedition” from Chaosium, Inc.'s Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep, TOME's Glozel est Authentique, and “Darkness, Descending” from Cubicle Seven Entertainment's Cthulhu Britanniaanthology. Of course, it could also have covered how to create an Archaeologist character in each of RPG’s three core eras.

Had it been allowed to develop that much further – with maps and more scope than its current Anglophile stance as well as applied its subject to Lovecraftian investigative horror, then there is no doubt that this supplement could have been a very useful sourcebook for Call of Cthulhu. Despite these limitations, there is no denying that The Archaeologist's Handbook: A Guide to Archaeology for Roleplaying Games is a meaty introduction to its subject – and is thus of use to players and Keeper referee alike.

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Adventure to the MAX!

Over the years the roleplaying hobby has thrown up a number of games specifically designed to be played by kids and in the process, actually introduce them to the hobby. Whether that is uncovering mysteries in PandaheadProductions’ Meddling Kids, exploring the magic of the woods and its denizens in Firefly Games’ Faery's Tale, adventuring in, beyond, and above the Atlantis of Third Eye Games’ Mermaid Adventures: An RPG of Undersea Fun, or protecting society from the dangers of big nature in Mouse Guard RPG from Archaia Studios Press, they invariably combine relatively simple mechanics with a setting that will spark the imagination of the younger, neophyte player. In each case, their aim is to help the parent who wants to introduce his child to his hobby and thus help the child who is curious about the fantastic adventures that he hears about, or sees, his parent playing. 

The latest RPG to aimed at kids is Adventure MAXIMUS!, a traditionally themed game published by Eden Studios, Inc. and set in a fantasy world. This can be the fantasy world of the Game Master or Maximus Master’s own devising, or can be the one lightly sketched out in the pages of Adventure MAXIMUS! This is the world of “Ex-Machina,” once known as Magisterica before the Reign of the Wise Wizard Kings ended. Following this apocalypse is a world in which mythical creatures roam the lands and both food and trees can talk. As much as the setting is traditionally themed in its fantasy, what sets it apart from others is a vein of light-hearted, if not slight silly humour, that runs through it. This shows in the setting, for example, there is a nation called The Take-Out Kingdom, in some of the actions that characters can take, each of which has a card of its own, and in several of the monsters that the adventurers will face. The presence of this light-hearted humour is intentional, as it is designed to engage the younger player’s imagination and to encourage him to think and engage with the world.

For the most part, the elements of the setting that the players and their characters interact with during play are represented by cards which are drawn from several decks. These include a Blue Race deck, a Green Class deck, an Orange Action deck, Purple Spell deck, a Red Item deck, a Black Monster deck, and a Gold Map deck. A character is comprised of a Blue Race card and a Green Class card, and will be equipped with cards from the Orange Action deck, the Purple Spell deck – if the character can cast spells, and the Red Item deck. The cards from the Black Monster and Gold Map decks are used to create adventures in conjunction with the game’s Adventure Sheet. (There are ten cards in the Green Class deck, eight in the Blue Race deck, ten in the Orange Action deck, thirteen in the Black Monster deck, eighteen in the Purple Spell deck, thirty-four in Red Item deck, and fifteen in the Gold Map deck.) In addition, Adventure MAXIMUS! uses its own “Maximus” dice as well as needing numerous tokens to represent Action Points, Damage Points, and Experience points. 

To create a character in Adventure MAXIMUS! a player draws three Blue Race and three Green Class cards, choosing one of each as his character’s Race and Class. Both provide special abilities whilst the Green Class card sets the number of Orange Action cards, RedEquipment cards, and Purple Spell cards – if a spellcaster, that the character can have. These are randomly drawn. The Adventure MAXIMUS! character sheet has specific places for all of these cards.

So for example, Louise creates her first character. She draws three Blue Race cards and gets Elf, Giantkin, and Food-kin. She chooses Giant-kin she wants to play a big fighting type and Giant-kin can use “Close Attacks” at “Far Range.” For her three Green Class cards she draws The Guard (a warrior who protects others), The Officer (a true warrior and leader of men), and The Sparklemancer (who is all about making friends). She decides to choose the latter, if only for the fact that not only is the idea of a Giant-kin running around in a gown and wielding a wand funny, but so is her Class Power, “Jazz Hands” which lets her dazzle her opponents with this dance move. Of course, this is a “Close Attack,” but since she is a Giant-kin, she can do “Close Attacks” at “Far Range” or “Jazz Hands from Afar”! The Sparklemancer also gives her Close Attack +1, Far Attack +2, one Action Card, three Equipment Cards, and three Spell Cards. For her Action Card, Louise chooses one which gives her “Double Flip!”, “The Naked Goblin!”, and “Lippy-Hippy-Shake!”. The first forces her enemies to lose an Action Point if they see her “Double Flip!” with her sword; the second gives her a +3 Scary bonus and if her enemies fail a Fear Test they must flee because of her big armour (or in her character’s case, her big gown as she is a Sparklemancer); and the third forces all of her enemies to dance as Louise actually gets up from the table and dances! These three actions cost her two, three, and three Action Points respectively.

For her spells, Louise receives “Banana Slips” (makes the floor slippery with the essence of banana peel), “Jared's Reducer!” (because she can shrink both herself and others, and sometimes she wants to be smaller), and “Feel the Heal!” (to make her friends feel better if they get hurt). For her equipment, Louise gets a pillow, a pot of super glue, and a length of rubber hose.

Louise the Sparklemancer

Weapon: Wand Armour: Gown

Attacks: Close A­ttack +1, Far A­ttack +2

Class Skills: Fast Talk +3, Notice +2, Crime +4

Willpower 2

Class Power

(1AP) Jazz Hands: +1 Willpower against one target's Willpower, if successful the target is Dazed for one round.

Race: Giant-kin

Giant-kin ability – Reach! You can use Close A­ttacks on things that are in Far range. Big, tough, and kind are words used to describe Giant-kin, but many prejudiced people will run in fear from you.

Action Card:

(2AP) Double Flip!: You can Dazzle your enemies with your sword play, they lose an Action Point if they can see your Double Flip!

(3AP) The Naked Goblin!: Your armour makes you look a lot bigger than you really are, you get a +3 Scary bonus. Enemies that can see you must make a Willpower test or flee in fear. Any enemies who win the test are immune to this effect for the rest of the encounter.

(3AP) Lippy-Hippy-Shake!: You have the uncanny ability to make your enemies dance when you dance. Get up from the game table and dance, enemies dance until you stop.

Spells: Banana Slips (1AP), Feel the Heal! (2AP+), Jared's Reducer! (4AP)

Equipment: Pillow, pot of super glue, rubber hose.

Adventure MAXIMUS! is designed to be an action orientated game. Once the action – or a “Courageous Situation” starts, whether that is getting into a fight, climbing a mountain, or entering a competition to bake a pie, then the Maximus Dice come out. What a character can do over the course of a single Round is determined by the number of Action Points he has, these being set by his Blue Race card. These are spent not only to undertake normal actions such as walking, running, looting, attacking, charging, using a skill, and so on, but also to undertake the options given on the character’s Orange Action cards and his Purple Spell cards – if he has any. A character can spend as few or as many Action Points as he likes and they always refresh from one Round to the next.

When it comes to skill rolls and other actions, a character rolls a number of Maximus dice equal to his skill. Each Maximus die is a six-sided die marked with three blank sides, one side with a single sword, a second with two crossed swords, and a third with a Maximus symbol. Each sword represents a success, so the crossed swords represent two successes. The Maximus symbol also represents two successes, plus it allows a character to roll another die and add its success to his total. As long as a player keeps rolling the Maximus symbol, he can keep rolling and adding successes. 

At its most basic, as a player rolls a single success on the Maximus dice, then his character succeeds at the desired action. Some skills require a player to roll two or more successes to achieve his desired aim. For example, the First Aid needs two successes to be rolled if a character wants to restore healed one dot on his or another character’s Health Track. Opposed skill rolls require one participant to roll more success than the others if he is achieve his desired aim. 

Combat though, is kept even simpler. Initiative is determined by the highest number of successes as you would expect, but only in the first round. In subsequent rounds, initiative order actually passes to the left, so that the player who acts first moves round the table rather than being randomly determined. Simple and for the most part a fair means of handling it, although there is nothing to stop the players rolling for initiative each round as is traditional. Actual combat is a matter of rolling the Maximus dice and rolling as many successes as possible. Armour negates these successes, so whatever gets through is taken as damage to the defender’s Health.

In keeping with the light nature of the rules, the advice for the Maximus Master is kept quick and simple. First and foremost, it adheres to a simple rule that applies to the Maximus Master as much as it does to the players – “Have FUN!” Second, that he should keep the game going by saying “Yes, and…” to all of the impossibly inventive ideas that his players might come up with. For example, heroes have tracked down the thief who stole the Frog God’s favourite jewelled eye and are racing after them along a steep path down the side of a mountain. Louise the Sparklemancer tells her Maximus Master that she wants to cast Banana Slips to make Barry the Burglar lose his footing. Of course, her Maximus Master says, “Yes,” and then describes how Barry the Burglar not only loses his footing, but also loses hold of the stolen jewel which goes flying through the air only to land on the gas bag of the aerial steamship that was passing below…! 

In addition, preparing an adventure is made all the easier for the Maximus Master with the inclusion of the “Who-What-Where-How Adventure Creation System.” By following its simple step-by-step instructions in conjunction with the Black Monster and Gold Map decks, plus some input from the players in form of names and descriptive words – or if preparing the adventure ahead of time these can come from the rulebook’s “Courageous Maxi-Libs List” – the Maximus Master can create a whole adventure. First, he draws a Boss Monster card from the Black Monster deck and equips him with Action, Item, and Spell cards as necessary. This is the “Who” or villain of the “Who-What-Where-How Adventure Creation System,” whilst another Red Item card is the “What” and a Yellow Map card forms the “Where.” Together these elements form the Climax Map of the adventure. These steps need to be repeated two more times to create two more Adventure Maps that the player characters must travel through in order to get to the Climax Map, although neither of the Monsters faced in these Adventure Maps will be Boss Monsters. 

The Maximus Master also needs to fill out the following statement using the players’ suggestions or the “Courageous Maxi-Libs”: “A message has been delivered to your Adventure Call Box. ‘________’ has asked for your help! ‘________’ has the ‘________’, you must travel to the ‘________’ in the “________.’ Bring back the ‘________’ and you will be rewarded!” So for example, “A message has been delivered to your Adventure Call Box. The Wizard Of Zoz has asked for your help! Sweet & Sour and Sweet & Spicy!* have the Clean Underpants, you must travel to the ruins in the Forest of Doors. Bring back the Clean Underpants and you will be rewarded!” In order to get through to the Forest of Doors, the player characters will have to travel through Teddy Bear Junction and then to Gum Drop Falls. 

* Twin chicken chunks from the Take-Out Kingdom that were just born bad. 

What is so good about the “Who-What-Where-How Adventure Creation System” is not just the ease and speed with which the Maximus Master can create an adventure, but also the fact that it can be picked up and used by the very players that the game is written to be run for. In other words, kids can run this as much as adults can. In combination with the card-driven means of creating characters, the “Who-What-Where-How Adventure Creation System” gives Adventure MAXIMUS! a strong capacity for "Pick Up and Play." Not necessarily such that the game can be played straight out of the box – though the RPG is easy to learn in terms of its mechanics, but the preparation time for an adventure is mere minutes rather than the hours it might be with other RPGs. Just as it is for character creation. 

Adventure MAXIMUS! could be run as a fairly straight forward fantasy RPG, but that would be to ignore its potentially rich vein of humour and silliness. This shows more in the decks of cards that support the game – the Black Monster deck, the Purple Spell deck, the Yellow Map deck, and the Red Item deck than the Blue Race deck and the Green Class deck. In fact, with just the one humorous or silly option in each of the latter two decks – the Sparklemancer in the Green Class deck and the Food-kin in the Blue Race deck – the game feels disappointingly traditional in terms of what characters it offers the players to play. In fact, the choices can be best described as “fantasy vanilla” and it would have been nice if some other choices had been included, preferably ones that matched the game’s humour. Yet once past the Blue Race deck and the Green Class deck and the options and choices for the Maximus Master are a lot more varied and mine much more of the vein of silliness. Whether that is the Bunny Mummy!* from the Black Monster deck, the Foothills of Fungus** from the Yellow Map deck, or the Bunny Borough Bow*** from the Red Item deck, they all show that Adventure MAXIMUS! is intended to be anything than wholly serious in its feel and style. 

* My favourite monster! 

** Actual hill-sized feet upon which grows fungi!!

*** Also known as the Velveteen Wackit because an arrow fired from it never inflicts damage, but anyone hit is turned into a bunny!!! 

Physically, Adventure MAXIMUS! is neatly presented in full colour. In its current form it does need another edit, but it has two more pressing problems. The first is that it fails to state up front what it is, not what a roleplaying game is, but what Adventure MAXIMUS! is and how it is intended to work. It becomes apparent after reading through the whole of the short rule book, but this seems at odds with the “pick up, get playing” intent of the design. The other issue is that there is not enough background, though that said, this lack allows plenty of room for the Maximus Master and his players to create as they go. A lesser issue would be that there might not be enough cards for long term play, though there is nothing to stop anyone from creating their own cards. 

As much as the origins of Adventure MAXIMUS! as a fantasy RPG lie in Dungeons & Dragons, its tone and feel have a more contemporary source – contemporary television animation. It recognises that it is silly, but it embraces this aspect in a joyous fashion whilst referencing this, that, and the other in postmodern “reference anything and everything” fashion. Adventure MAXIMUS! is not necessarily the Adventure Time RPG and certainly is not based on the Cartoon Network Studios animated series of the same name, but it is not impossible to suggest it as an inspiration. The combination of the two in Adventure MAXIMUS! results in an RPG that can be played as a traditional fantasy RPG akin to Dungeons & Dragons, but by design is much lighter in tone, with a setting and means of adventure creation that allows room aplenty for player input and player imagination.

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