Another Keep on the Borderlands

Hell’s Throat is a seventeen-mile long river gorge that cuts through the Krond Heights. In the past century it has been used as means for orc and goblin tribes to invade settled lands of the city-state of P’Bapar below. A decade ago, a great confederation of Orc tribes flooded through the pass and sacked the keep that had been built on an island above Tanara Falls. In response, the Earl of Reyifor constructed Frandor’s Keep, a larger and more impressive fort intended to monitor and curtail any further incursions down Hell’s Throat, on the same site. In the years since, it has become a base for hunters and trappers, lumberjacks and prospectors, as well as a focus for bandits and thieves and orcs and goblins that have snuck into the region to prey upon the merchant traffic that passes through the Borderlands to Frandor’s Keep and back again. Such is the threat that they represent that the Earl has established a bounty on the heads of all non-humans and non-demi-humans in the region. In the keep itself and in Quarrytown—the shantytown outside it—rumours abound of ghosts on Hell’s Throat Trail, of missing trappers, and more…

Frandor’s Keep: An immersive setting for adventure is a mini-campaign setting for HackMaster Basic published by Kenzer & Co in 2009. One reason that I did not review it at the time was because of how irritated I was by certain parts of HackMaster Basic, though my intention had been to review it as part of the mini-series of reviews devoted to B2, Keep on the Borderlands. Putting aside my dislike of HackMaster Basic—or least certain parts of it—I finally picked up Frandor’s Keep and decided that I wanted to review it. The good news is that I was more than pleasantly surprised by how good it is.

Designed for characters of levels one through five, Frandor’s Keep takes its cue from the classic Basic Dungeons & Dragons scenario, B2 Keep on the Borderlands. Its set-up is that of a lonely outpost located in the hinterland between civilisation and orc or goblin infested wilderness. Unbeknownst to the soldiery and inhabitants of the keep, dangers lie close by and a serious threat is readying itself to sack the keep and sweep down on the civilised lands—just as the orcs and goblins did years ago. It is to this keep that the adventurers will come and in the course of interacting with its inhabitants will learn rumours and pick up small tasks that will eventually lead them to not only uncovering this threat, but thwarting it too. So saving the keep, its inhabitants, and the civilised lands behind the keep.

Much of Frandor’s Keep’s one-hundred-and forty-four pages are devoted to describing the keep’s history and the region around it, before focusing specifically on the keep itself. The setting is that of the Kingdoms of Kalamar, Kenzer & Co.’s house setting for HackMaster. Thus it moves from B’Par to the Earldom of Reyifor to the vicinity of Frandor’s Keep and the series of watch towers mounted on the peaks above Hell’s Throat. Frandor’s Keep really consists of two locations. The first is Quarrytown, the former quarry the mined stone from which was used to build the keep, the second the keep itself. No longer mined, Quarrytown has become a shantytown, home to outcasts from Frandor’s Keep itself, its continued existence allowed by the Earl so that he can keep an eye on its inhabitants. It is a lawless place, though a gang known as the Ravens maintain order and exact taxes of their own. The Ravens serve as the supplement’s primary antagonists.

Frandor’s Keep consists of an Outer Bailey, Lower Bailey, Middle Bailey, and Upper Bailey. Its various buildings and inhabitants are described in some detail, but the buildings themselves are not individually mapped. Two aspects of the supplement stand out throughout the descriptions given. The first of these aspects is the book’s cartography. Where possible, an isomorphic view is given of the layout of the buildings. This provides a three dimensional view of the buildings, the effect being to make them stand out and bring them to life. The other maps in the supplement are clear and simple, but lack the sophistication. The second aspect is effort made to integrate the NPCs into the setting of Frandor’s Keep. This is done through their knowledge of the keep and its surrounds—several lists of rumours and commonly known information being included in the bok, and by providing story hooks designed to get the players and their involved in the life and events of the keep and its surrounds. Each is also accompanied by a story award of several Experience Points.

For example, when the adventurers enter the keep for the first time, they see a man manacled to the pillory. He is a hunter who has been whipped because it believed that he committed a murder—he brought in the head of his victim saying that it was that of a centaur in order to claim the bounty placed by the Earl of Reyifor on the heads of non-human humanoids. If the adventurers can find the body of the centaur and prove to the officials at the keep that hunter was telling the truth, then they will have gained an ally and earned themselves 200 Experience Points.

Opportunities for story awards are seeded throughout the supplement. As long as the players engage their characters in the setting beyond the desire loot and pillage—though there is opportunity to do that too—all the GM has to do is work them into the game and the events of the campaign should all but drive the play of game forward. This is in addition to six named, larger encounters in the book and three multi-session adventures that round it out. Of these three, it is the first—‘The Ransom’—that stands out and is the most interesting. The other two, ‘The Kobold Brambles’ and ‘Mine of the Goblin King’, feel like more traditional Dungeons & Dragons-style adventures and are not quite so tightly bound into the setting of Frandor’s Keep. Lastly, player characters from the keep and up to one of the watch towers overlooking Hell’s Throat. Both The Mysterious Shrine and White Palette, Ivory Horns are available for free, whilst In the Realm of the Elm King serves a similar function and is available for purchase.

Physically, Frandor’s Keep is well presented. It is clean and tidy, and reasonably illustrated in a fairly simplistic style. Bar a single map of the greater region that lacks detail, the maps in the book uniformly good. What is particularly pleasing after having read and reviewed HackMaster Basic, is that the writing is straight and to the point. There is none of the silliness and missed opportunities that marred the pages of that book.

Still, Frandor’s Keep is not perfect. Both ‘The Kobold Brambles’ and ‘Mine of the Goblin King’ could have been better woven into the campaign built around the keep and lastly, it is missing the one element key to B2 The Keep on the Borderlands and its various iterations—that is the equivalent of the feared Caves of Chaos. That equivalent is actually the Mines of Chaos as described in the adventure supplement, The Mines of Chaos. Intended for use with higher level characters and HackMaster Fifth Edition, the sad news is that five years after the publication of Frandor’s Keep, its sequel campaign is yet to see print.

Frandor’s Keep: An immersive setting for adventure lives up to subtitle. It works very hard to involve the players and their adventurers in what is a low fantasy setting—one that could easily ported over to another setting or ruleset, the Kingdoms of Kalamar not being absolutely necessary to play through Frandor’s Keep. It works hard to involve the adventurers and it presents them with plenty of story and plenty of opportunity to create stories. It is this that makes the HackMaster Basic iteration of B2 Keep on the Borderlands a surprisingly mature and contemporary approach to a classic set-up and format.

Read More

NBC Mañana

Tomorrow: an apocalyptic nightmare, published by Conquistador Games, is one of the most challenging games to be crowd-funded via Kickstarter in 2013. It is challenging in two ways. First, in its subject matter, and second, in its game play. It takes as its subject matter, the idea that humanity is in the process of killing the planet and thus ultimately, itself. The solution, as devised by the world’s great scientists and leaders, is a radical one—reduce the planet's population in order to save the Earth and the survivors. Tomorrow's game play involves the culling of humanity, 70,000,000 people at a time... At game's end the players will score points not only for the survivors they control, but also for those that they killed during the game. Such slaughter may not be to everyone's liking.

In order to conduct such slaughter, each player takes the role of a global superpower that will employ cyber warfare, and biological and nuclear weapons to whittle away at the world's inhabitants. Although it looks like a standard game of strategic global domination, Tomorrow is anything but that, and to play it as such would be at odds with the game's intent. Tomorrow is in fact a semi-cooperative game with a time limit. The players have to cooperate in order to kill the required population, but must do so before the world ends. If they fail to do so before the world ends, then everyone loses. Yet even if the players succeed in annihilating the required numbers, this does not mean that everyone has won as it might in any other cooperative game, for in the desperate future of Tomorrow, there can only be one winner, that being the player who has killed the most and has the most survivors and has thus acquired the most points of Political Capital. Tomorrow is in effect, a sort of anti-Risk.

Designed for four to six players, Tomorrow carries an a suggested minimum age of seventeen plus, which is not surprising given its subject matter. Each player is the leader of a global superpower—China, the European Union, Russia, and the USA  in a four-player game, plus the Arab Caliphate in a five player game, and India in a six-player game. Each superpower begins the game with a nuclear and military arsenal, the size varying from superpower to another. Both Russia and the USA have the largest nuclear arsenals, whilst the USA has the largest military. Each superpower has the ability to deliver these military and nuclear attacks as well as biological attacks. It can also conduct espionage missions and it also has a special ability of its own which is invariably useful and thematic.

Game Set-Up for six players.

China begins play with control of Cyberspace, which enables it to draw Strategy Cards, steal Strategy Cards from other superpowers, or dictate play order each turn, and as a ‘Closed Society’ can once per game regain control of Cyberspace if it has lost it. The European Union holds the position of ‘Secretary-General’ and determines play order each turn unless overruled by whomever controls Cyberspace. Russia suffers from ‘Desolation’, its home territory being so large that diseases caused by Biological Attacks do not spread into or out of Russia. With ‘CDC’, USA controls the Centre for Disease Control, which means that sometimes a biological attack on its home soil can be stopped. The Arab Caliphate can conduct acts of ‘Terror’, either to prevent another superpower from taking one of its actions or once per game, to sneak into a rival superpower’s virulent disease store and unleash it on that superpower’s home territory. Lastly, India possesses ‘Peaceful Oversight’, which enables it to protect minor powers it occupies more effectively. Of these special abilities, only ‘Terror’ requires a player to use it as an action—the others are all permanent effects.

At game’s start, each player receives his arsenal of military and nuclear missile tokens, a set of Action Cards, three diseases for use in Biological attacks, and his population pawns. These are set up according to the numbers on the board. Population pawns are also added to the regions of the world occupied by the minor powers—Canada, Central America, South America, North and South America, South Korea and Japan, Southeast Asia, Australia, and Oceania, again according to the numbers marked on the board. The minor powers also have their population pawns. They also have their own armies and nuclear missile tokens, though they come into play with certain Event Cards. The game’s Strategy Cards are shuffled as are the Event Cards. There is a set of Strategy Cards for each of the game’s three Threat Levels—Yellow/1, Red/2, and Black/3. Each card provides a benefit and many also provide a player with extra points of Political Capital at game’s end. For example, the Yellow/1 ‘Antidote’ Strategy card can be played to prevent a disease spreading into a territory that you control and is worth +1 Political Capital; the Red/2 ‘War Crimes’ Strategy Card is played on a superpower when it removes the final population pawn from any power to levy a penalty of -3 points of Political Capital; and the Black/3 ‘Defense in Depth’ Strategy card gives a bonus to support the defence of a minor power that is being invaded. Most Black/3 Strategy cards simply award points of Political Capital (which are somewhat lacking in flavour, but this offset by the fact that they mainly drawn once play has ended and scoring begins).

The Event Deck represents tomorrow’s news that will affect one or more of the superpowers. Each Event Card describes three events, one for each of the game’s three Threat Levels. Only one of the events on an Event Card will apply that turn, this depending on what the current Threat Level is. At Yellow/1, an Event Card gives ‘For Israel!’ which awards any superpower that nukes the Arab Caliphate with a Strategy card and a +5 Political Capital bonus; at Red/2, ‘Religious Radicals’ in India award anyone that nukes India with a +5 Political Capital bonus; and at Black/3, ‘Panicked Bloodlust’ forces everyone to launch a nuclear or biological attack that turn or be unable to act. With twelve Event Cards in the deck, there is plenty of variety here, but only nine are used to form the Event Deck in play. This Event Deck is the timing mechanism in Tomorrow. With an Event Card being drawn at the beginning of each turn, the superpowers have only nine turns before in which to deplete the world’s population or the world ends...

Lastly, the Death Marker is placed high on the Yellow/1 Threat Track, which runs parallel to the Red/2 and Black/3 Threat Tracks. As the game proceeds and the world is depopulated of Population pawns, the Death Marker is moved down the Threat Track, moving from the Yellow/1 Threat Track to the Red/2 Threat Track and then the Black/3 Threat Track. The aim is to get it right down to the bottom of the Black/3 Threat Track by game's end.

Each of the game’s nine turns consists of five phases. First, an Event Card is drawn and its effect is noted for that turn. Second, the current controller of the Cyberspace card chooses either to take a Strategy card from the current Threat Level, steal another superpower’s Strategy Card, or override the European Union’s Special Ability to determine the play order for that turn. Third, each superpower chooses two of his Action Cards that will represent what it will do that turn. Fourth, the European Union (or the superpower that controls Cyberspace) determines play order, one superpower at a time. As each superpower is revealed, it chooses either to pass or use an Action Card. Once every superpower has played or passed, they get to do it a second time in the same order. Last and fifth, all tokens are refreshed and new diseases acquired if any Biological attacks were launched.

Each turn a superpower can undertake up to two actions using its Action Cards of which it has a hand of five. The ‘Biologicals’ Action Card enables a superpower to attack a minor or major superpower with a disease such as ‘British Hugging Duckling Syndrome’ or ‘Beubonic Wrath’. Each disease will typically kill one or two Population pawns in the targeted region and usually has a chance of spreading to adjacent regions as well—Russia being the exception to the latter. Alternatively, the ‘Biologicals’ Action Card enables a superpower to gain two new diseases. The ‘Cyber’ Action Card lets a superpower attempt to wrest control of Cyberspace from the superpower that currently holds the Cyberspace card. When played, the ‘Espionage’ Action Card prevents another superpower from using either the ‘Biologicals’ or ‘Espionage’ Action Cards as well as the Arab Caliphate from using its  ‘Terror’ Action Card. The ‘Espionage’ Action Card is the only card that can be played reflexively and out of turn. The ‘Military’ Action Card is used to launch a conventional attack on a minor power such as Canada or South Korea & Japan—such attacks cannot be launched on other superpowers. Such an invasion can be countered or supported by other superpowers and temporarily exhausts the army units until the next turn. If a superpower successfully invades a minor power, it must maintain an army in the region and will be rewarded with a Strategy Card when the Death Marker moves from one Threat Track down to the next (from Yellow/1 Threat Track to the Red/2 and then the Black/3 Threat Track). A superpower can launch a nuclear attack with the ‘Nukes’ Action Card. Only China, the European Union, Russia, and the USA possess missiles that can target any region on the planet, while the Arab Caliphate and India have missiles that can only strike adjacent regions. Launching a nuclear attack has a negative effect. It only kills one Population pawn and levies a penalty of -3 Political Capital upon both the attacking superpower and the superpower in possession of the targeted region. Further, it drives up the Death Marker on the Threat Track, not down it, and nor does the attacking superpower points score points for it at game’s end. The ‘Nukes’ Action Card cannot be blocked though…

Africa, the Arab Caliphate, and European Union have suffered biological attacks.
China has invaded Canada before the USA does and declared the Canadian Communist Republic.
India has initiated a peacekeeping mission in  Australia.

When Population pawns are removed from the board, the Death Marker on the Threat Track is driven ever lower. How much by depends on where the Population pawns come from. For each Population pawn from Russia and the USA, it is moved down by three spaces, by two spaces if from China or the European Union, and by one space from anywhere else. This feels a little odd, but essentially, the value of each Population pawn represents not just  70,000,000 people, but also the impact they have on global resources.

The USA strikes back—successfully invading the Canadian Communist Republic and then Japan & South Korea.
Russia has launched two invasions. One in Central America, mostly unsuccessful due to the population having been devastated by a biological attack, and in the other in South-East Asia, which is much more successful.
Elsewhere, the populations of the Arab Caliphate, European Union, India, and Russia have been seriously depleted. The end of the game is near...

 Tomorrow ends after nine turns have been played. If by this time the superpowers have failed to drive the Death Marker down to the end of the Threat Track, then the world ends and nobody wins. If they have, then each superpower adds up the Political Capital to be gained from the Population it still has, the Population it killed, any Strategy or Event Cards, and then deducts points from the devastating effect of nuclear attacks. The superpower that comes out of the depopulation campaign with the Political Capital is the winner.

End Game. 
China has driven the USA out of Japan & South Korea—and launched a nuclear strike on Russia.
The Middle East, Central Asia, and northern India have been devastated.
The game was not a loss—sufficient numbers of the population were annihilated. 
Despite having suffered a nuclear strike, Russia won.

Physically, Tomorrow is a beautiful game, sober and austere, with the look of an actual global threat assessment map like that found in the film Doctor Strangelove. The Population pawns are solid pieces of coloured wood, the cardboard tokens are thick and colourful, and the cards are easy to read and understand. The Kickstarter.com version of the game may include wooden tokens for the armies in the form of tanks and thick and heavy mushroom clouds for the nuclear missiles. Although not necessary to play, they add much to the theme of Tomorrow. The good news is that these wooden pieces are now available from the publisher. The rules themselves need a good read through as although the game is actually much simple than it looks, there are one or two little elements that can be lost when first playing. Some advice is given alongside the rules, necessary because essentially the theme of the game is at odds with the look and style of the game. 

Throughout the rulebook, one piece of advice is given again and again—‘Negotiate!’ Tomorrow is a cooperative game and the players have to work together if there is the chance that one of them will win, but that said there is no means or a mechanic in the game that would prevent a player from working against this aim. If a player wanted everyone to lose, then he could certainly cause that to happen. This may well be the game’s Achilles’ heel. Nevertheless, the players really should work together if they are not to lose, and there are plenty of opportunities to bargain throughout the game. In support of, or against, a ‘Military’ Action Card, on whom to use an ‘Espionage’ Action Card, and where to target a ‘Biologicals’ Action Card for example. Throughout, agreements and promises can be made between the superpowers, but these do not have to be adhered to, but such betrayal may lead to repercussions…

One advantage of negotiating is that it can offset each superpower’s disadvantages. For example, the Arab Caliphate is relatively weak, has a small military, and its nuclear missiles are few in number and of limited range. It has the ‘Terror’ Action Card though, which is a powerful threat as it can limit the actions of another superpower. Promising to direct the ‘Terror’ Action Card elsewhere may redirect the attention of an superpower that might otherwise attack the Arab Caliphate. Similarly, whilst Russia and the USA possess the largest nuclear arsenal, there is almost no point in actually using them—the penalty in terms of Political Capital and the fact that their use drives the Death Marker up the Threat Track not down, should be deterrent enough. This does not discount their use as a big stick with which to police the depopulation of the world, that is a deterrent. Such negotiation should of course be accompanied by plenty of ‘table talk’—preferably in character!

Similarly, each player needs to learn how to use effectively each superpower’s Special Ability. For example, both China with its control of Cyberspace, and India with its ‘Peaceful Oversight’, both grant the means to gain Strategy Cards which will give them advantages or Political Capital. Both Russia and the USA possess defensive Special Abilities, whilst the Arab Caliphate can use the ‘Terror’ Action Card to deny another superpower an action each turn, and the European Union can control play order and that can also be negotiated for!

So what of Tomorrow's subject matter? Is it really as controversial as the outcry suggests? Arguably it does call for the players to cooperate in committing mass genocide, but this is simulated genocide after all. Further, is this subject matter as bad as that of many other games, whether that is the death and pillage at the heart of Dungeons & Dragons, the forced labour of the plantation workers in Puerto Rico, or the grisly combat of Advanced Squad Leader? Arguably, it is not as controversial because it is asking players to do no more than they might in any other game. The controversy comes in Tomorrow being explicit about about its subject matter, in being upfront about what the players are expected to do, in making it the point of the game rather than the ‘side effect’ of winning...

Tomorrow is a beautifully presented game with engaging theme aplenty that should drive the game’s table talk. Whether or not a playing group will enjoy Tomorrow will depend upon how they take to that theme. The gameplay is relatively simple, but there are nuances in the design that run counter to the atypical global-political game and such nuances will vary between the superpowers and their Special Abilities. These do provide the game with some replay value, but in the long term, Tomorrow: an apocalyptic nightmare may not outlive its nouveau notoriety despite it being an interesting design and an interesting idea.

[Photographs courtesy of Debbie Leung. Thanks to attendees of Afternoon Play for helping me test out Tomorrow: an apocalyptic nightmare as preparation for this review.]

Read More

Cthulhu Classics III

These days Grenadier Models, Inc. is better known for its miniatures, whether for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons or Call of Cthulhu. What is oft forgotten is that the company also branched out into becoming a publisher. These included the adventure Cloudland and the bestiary, the Monster Manuscript, both lesser known releases for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons; Raid on Rajallapor for Flying Buffalo’s Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes RPG; Disappearance on Aramat for GDW’s Traveller RPG; and of course, The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island for Chaosium, Inc.’s Call of Cthulhu. As with the previous entries in the 'Cthulhu Classics' series, spoilers abound in this retrospective.

The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island was published in 1984. This was a year in which four of the eight titles published for Call of Cthulhu were not released by Chaosium, Inc. This should not diminish Chaosium’s output by any means—after all, those four included the classic campaigns, Masks of Nyarlathotep and Fungi from Yuggoth as well as the lesser regarded Curse of the Chthonians and The Trail of Tsathogghua anthologies. A slim, a forty-eight page book, The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island is actually an anthology, consisting of two scenarios. The first is ‘The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island’, the second, ‘The House in the Woods’. Both are short affairs—‘The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island’ can be played through in two sessions at most, whilst ‘The House in the Woods’ will last no more than a single session. Each is also heavily inspired by a single H.P. Lovecraft story. In the case of ‘The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island’ it is ‘The Shadow over Innsmouth’, whilst the inspiration for ‘The House in the Woods’ is ‘The Whisperer in Darkness’. For veterans of Lovecraftian investigative horror, the menace at the heart of either scenario should be obvious—Deep Ones in ‘The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island’ and the Mi-go in ‘The House in the Woods’.

Remember though, The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island was published in 1984. Such inspiration would not have been familiar as it is today when Lovecraft’s influence is near ubiquitous and his fiction is deemed worthy enough to published as part of the Penguin Classics imprint. Thus what could be seen as derivative, even unoriginal, with the benefit of three decades’ worth of hindsight, would have seemed fresh and original at the time of publication. Further, and with four decades’ worth of hindsight, ‘The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island’ feels derivative of something else, but we will get to that…

As its title suggests, ‘The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island’ takes place on Monhegan Island, an isolated and insular community just off the coast of Maine. In June, 1924, a young girl is reported missing, but the Maine State Police has been unable to do no more than report her as “missing and presumed drowned”. Nevertheless, the head of the island, Roger Martinson, believes that the girl was murdered and wants her disappearance investigated further and so hires the player characters. They have little time to conduct their investigation on the mainland—and this does feel rushed—before being whisked away to the island where they find that the dissipated lifestyle of both Martinson and his lady companions seems at odds with his interest in determining the girl’s fate. 

The investigation process is relatively slight. By the time the investigators get to Monhegan Island, they should have done the bulk of the investigative paperwork. This leaves the physical process and here the investigators come up against the bulwark of the insular nature of the islanders. Few if any of them will talk and the likelihood is that the physical investigation will end up with the investigators being led on a wild goose chase before being herded to the scenario’s denouement. The truth of the matter is that the islanders are making human sacrifices in return for bountiful harvests from the sea—and guess who the islanders plan to sacrifice next? 

This is not an original idea. In fact it is all but a ‘pulp’ trope, but ‘The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island’ feels like the plot of the 1973 film, The Wicker Man. Admittedly, this is as fine an inspiration as you could wish, but here it feels leaden and somewhat plodding. The problem is that there is relatively little for the investigators to do and the effect is likely to be frustrating for many. The other issue with ‘The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island’ is a problem endemic to early Call of Cthulhu scenarios—the need to award the player characters with physical treasure. A hangover from Dungeons & Dragons, a game in which loot is everything, what the investigators receive in ‘The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island’ is a tumult of tomes. Three classic Call of Cthulhu Mythos tomes can be found in the scenario and that in addition to the other texts to be found.

Again set in 1924, ‘The House in the Woods’ takes place in Maine. Jeffrey Winter, a Professor of American Indian Archaeology has gone missing. Recovering from a nervous breakdown, he has not returned from a weekend away at his doctor’s holiday home and the Maine State Police have pronounced him a missing person. The investigators are hired by one of Professor Winter’s friends to determine what has happened to him. If the degree of investigation required in ‘The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island’ is slight, then it is absolutely brief in ‘The House in the Woods’. This is no surprise. ‘The House in the Woods’ is intended to provide a beginning encounter with the Mythos for Keeper and players alike, and this it does reasonably well. There is the opportunity for a little investigation, the Keeper to ham it up with an NPC, and then short creepy encounter. 

Where ‘The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island’ definitely comes to strong and definite denouement, the climax to ‘The House in the Woods’ is underwritten and gives a somewhat fleeting experience. That said, this ‘fleeting’ experience befits the scenario and the foes that the investigators face.

Accompanying The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island is a set of pre-generated investigators. What is interesting about the six is that they are written, as are the scenarios, for Call of Cthulhu, First Edition, and this shows most clearly in the pre-generated investigators. For example, each has ‘POW POINTS’ rather than Magic Points, and the skills are listed not in alphabetical order, but by type—Knowledge Skills, Perception Skills, Manipulation Skills, Stealth Skills, Communication Skills, and Agility Skills. The six point to an age when investigators were slightly more powerful and physically capable, this time a hangover from the Basic Roleplay mechanics of the period from which the Call of Cthulhu rules are derived. Of course, this is before the paring down of investigator skills and capabilities that would come with Call of Cthulhu, Third Edition and subsequent editions. Of course, rounding out the book is an advert for Grenadier Models, Inc.’s Call of Cthulhu miniatures.

Physically, The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island feels well-produced. In particular the artwork has a pleasingly oppressive feel to it and the maps have both character and detail. Advice for the Keeper is light, but what is given is in keeping with that given for scenarios and campaigns of the period. Notes are included should the Keeper want to run other scenarios after running ‘The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island’ and ‘The House in the Woods’, though those for the latter are slight at best.

At the time, Stephen Kyle, writing in White Dwarf #59 (November, 1984) described The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island as being “more down-to-earth” and that ‘The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island’ “shows that simplicity can work to a story’s advantage, and manages to reproduce that strangely disturbing atmosphere of such Lovecraft tales as The Shadow Over Innsmouth.” Pointing out the relative cheapness of book, Kyle suggested that The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island presented “a very useful package”. Conversely, John Dark, writing in Different Worlds #40 (Jul/Aug 1985) was less kind, stating that, “Sadly, these scenarios are just not very interesting.” and that “To sum up, Monhegan Island has nothing outstandingly bad with it.  But there's nothing outstanding about it at all.” (Thanks to Allan Grohe of Black Blade Publishing for providing access to the relevant issue of Different Worlds).

The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island is neither a forgotten gem nor instantly forgettable. That said, it has none of the arch, sometimes absurd, Pulp propensities of the T.O.M.E. titles of the period. Neither of its scenarios is without its faults, but both do work as introductions to playing the game. Of the two, ‘The House in the Woods’ feels better for its ‘fleeting’ nature—indeed it would make for a suitable prequel to the scenario, ‘The Madman’ from the Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition rule book. Overall, The Horrible Secret of Monhegan Island is a pairing of the serviceable with the familiar, notable more for its publisher than for its content.

Read More

Cogs in the Sky

As delightful a little game as Cogs, Cakes & Swordsticks: Cracking Adventures in the Empire of Steam is, one of the issues with it is that it is a little too polite, lacking shall we say, any sense of menace, of threat, and of perfidy. Pleasingly, such concerns with this roleplaying game of Steampunk pulp are addressed in Atlantis City in the Clouds: A Supplement for Cogs, Cakes, & Swordsticks. Published by Modiphius Entertainment, it details a complete setting—one mentioned in the core rules, an adventure involving a threat to this setting, and supporting materials.

Her Majesty’s Flying Steam City Atlantis is the wonder of the age. Designed by the combined talents of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and George Stephenson and completed by Brunel’s son, Henri Marc, as the late Prince Albert’s last wish, it floats in mid-Atlantic, chained to the artificial island of Monturiol. This second jewel in Her Majesty’s Empire—as opposed to the Jewel in her Crown that is the Indian subcontinent—has become a noted tourist destination, a port of call for transatlantic dirigible flights, and of course, a target for England’s enemies, as well as the Balloon City Sky Pirates!

A slim volume—much like its core rules, Atlantis City in the Clouds is divided into just two chapters, plus a pair of appendices. The first chapter details Atlantis itself, the second presents a full adventure, whilst the first appendix, ‘Dramatis Personae’, provides a full set of pre-generated adventurers that can be used as player characters or NPCs and the second, ‘New Attributes’, lists and explains all of the Cogs, Cakes, and Swordsticks attributes that appear with the NPCs in Atlantis City in the Clouds.

Her Majesty’s Flying Steam City Atlantis consists of an upper and a lower ring. The latter is home to the six Directional Steam Assemblages, the mighty, ever thrusting engines that keep the city, itself known as ‘The Cog’, aloft. Each is fed a steady supply of coal—dug from the mines that run from underneath sea surrounding Monturiol below—around the clock. Their engineers and stokers work shifts, the stokers receiving one shift off a week to spend at their leisure on Monturiol, officially the only place where they can purchase alcohol. Monturiol primarily consists of the mine, surface docks, and an army and navy base.

In comparison to the shadowed enshrouded works below, the upper ring has all the conveniences and attractions of a genteel small town—hotels and boarding houses, covered markets, shops and arcades, police boxes (sadly green and octagonal rather than square and blue), parks and teahouses, and even a museum, though that is housed in the Pinnacle, the residence of Atlantis’ governor. Overall, it has the feel of a small English seaside town, perhaps Bournemouth or Scarborough, though only if either such towns could be reached by dirigible and had their own diplomatic attaches posted there by Canada, France, Prussia, and the USA. Accompanying the descriptions of the various locations and establishments are numerous NPCs, from businessmen and proprietors to pirates and members of the military via workers, diplomats, and engineers.

The adventure, titled ‘Adventure in the Clouds’ is a three act affair which begins with the adventurers receiving tickets to travel to Her Majesty’s Flying Steam City Atlantis as tourists. There is plenty of time for the adventurers to interact with their fellow travellers before they arrive and even explore Atlantis a little. Yet when a murder victim dies with the name of a player character on his lips, their trip takes a dark turn. Was this a simple case of robbery gone wrong or a murder with a deeper motive. Uncovering both the motive and the culprit reveals dark plans are afoot…

Atlantis City in the Clouds is neatly presented with an array of illustrations done in a slightly cartoonish style. It even comes with an index, a surprising inclusion for a book of its length. As much as the book’s description will suggest adventure ideas to the GM, what the book lacks is more story hooks. The five included under the heading, ‘Not What It Seems’, do feel underwritten, though this is the supplement’s only real weakness. In keeping with the Steampunk genre, the setting of Atlantis City in the Sky is a slightly more of a cosmopolitan, politically correct place, such that positions of power and influence are not wholly dominated by Caucasian men.

Atlantis City in the Clouds provides Cogs, Cakes, & Swordsticks with much needed support. The book as a whole is a quick, but quite detailed read. Hopefully Modiphius Entertainment will follow this up with further supplements as there must be numerous places to visit in the world of Cogs, Cakes, & Swordsticks and take tea. In meantime, Atlantis City in the Clouds: A Supplement for Cogs, Cakes, & Swordsticks brings peril and perfidy to Cogs, Cakes, & Swordsticks, perfect for an assignation’s game over tea.

Read More

Pagan Publishing's Peculiar

The early years of the 21st century was a fallow period for Pagan Publishing with no new material for Call of Cthulhu from the highly regarded publisher until the publication of the scenario, Final Flight, in 2007. That one-shot would be followed in 2009 by a sourcebook, which if it had been released by its intended publisher, would have meant that Pagan Publishing would have gone the whole decade without releasing any new material, let alone a sourcebook. The Mysteries of Mesoamerica began life as a project for author and illustrator, by Blair Reynolds’ RM308 Graphics & Publishing. Unfortunately, RM308 was unable to complete The Mysteries of Mesoamerica and it would be Pagan Publishing that brought the sourcebook to fruition, though five years on, the same cannot yet be said of The Mysteries of Mesoamerica’s sister book, Mysteries of the Old West. Despite his not publishing the book, Blair Reynolds’ touch is indelibly worked into every one of the sourcebook’s pages—The Mysteries of Mesoamerica is beautifully and thematically illustrated and laid out. This should be no surprise given the visual quality of Pagan Publishing’s earlier The Realm of Shadows, but to date, certainly no English-speaking Call of Cthulhu publisher has managed to release a book as visually appealing and as visually well designed as The Mysteries of Mesoamerica—though certain titles from Miskatonic River Press have come close.

The Mysteries of Mesoamerica: 1920s Sourcebook and Mythos Adventures for Mexico and Central America is a supplement devoted to the burgeoning field of Mesoamerican archaeology during Call of Cthulhu’s classic period of the Jazz Age. It has thus a diverse number of subjects to cover, both ancient and modern. These subjects include the various cultures that dominated the region of Central America prior to the coming of Christopher Columbus—the Olmecs, the Toltecs, the Mayans, the Aztecs, and others; their numerous deities and their religion—with its fixation upon blood, sacrifice, and death; their weapons of war and how they fought their wars; and calendrics, the highly involved means used by the pre-Columbian inhabitants to keep the time and organise their society. It brings the history up to date, covering the status of the countries of Central America—British Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico—during the first three decades of the twentieth century, as well as their geographies and politics. The Mysteries of Mesoamerica also details various figures of note that travelled throughout the region and brought to light the fantastic historical finds long left hidden under the region’s thick jungle canopy.

So what of the Mythos and The Mysteries of Mesoamerica? Right from the outset, its intent, as made clear in the introduction, is not to equate the deities of the ancient Mesoamerica with those of the Cthulhu Mythos. Rather, as the introduction also states, this is left up to individual cults and cultists to interpret however the Keeper wants. Examples of this underwrite several of the supplement’s scenarios. The supplement though, does present a means of combining Mesoamerican archaeology with Mythos in the form of glyphs for seven of the most notable deities of the Mythos. These can be used add flavour and detail to a Keeper’s scenario without his having to equate the deities himself.

The setting material in The Mysteries of Mesoamerica is supported by four scenarios. Three of these are set during the 1920s, so can be slotted into an ongoing campaign with little difficulty. The first though, is set in 1914, so is more difficult to run as more than a one-shot, though it might work as a prequel adventure that introduces a group to the dangers of, if not the Mythos, then at least that there is something outré out there and that it is very, very dangerous. (Indeed, it would make for an interesting first encounter for the investigators with the late, much lamented, Jackson Elias of Masks of Nyarlathotep fame). This first of the four is ‘The Well of Sacrifice’, which in the years since has gained a reputation as a sanguinary party killer. Written by John H. Crowe III—an author best known for the campaign’s Walker In The Wastes and The Realm of Shadows as well as the recent anthology, Bumps in the Night—it initially feels underwhelming with the investigators having already arrived in Mérida, the capital of the Yucatán in Mexico, having already worked at various archaeological sites in the region. The investigators have the opportunity to explore and catalogue a previously unknown city, but its ruinous condition leaves only one site of interest. Shorn of the Mythos, ‘The Well of Sacrifice’ is a survival horror scenario, one that is short and sweet, so it would actually work well as a one-shot or convention scenario.

Essentially, ‘The Well of Sacrifice’ sets the pattern for the following three scenarios—the investigators visit somewhere ancient, investigate the site, and then discover something inordinately evil that will probably be their undoing. Now to extent, this is symptomatic of the archaeologically themed scenario and whilst it is difficult to get away from, at least one of the other scenarios offers a variation upon this.

Brian Appleton’s ‘Menhirs in the Grotto’ moves the quartet on to 1923 and a dig near Texcoco, not far from Mexico City. Here a new Aztec site has been uncovered and the investigators and their employers have been permission to excavate it, although under the close supervision of the University of Mexico City. In comparison to ‘The Well of Sacrifice’, this is much more of a traditional Call of Cthulhu scenario, complete with strange deaths, curious lights over the site, and a cult with its own agenda. It is a well-executed affair, with much more going on around the site than in the other scenarios, but it is not quite as interesting as the third scenario, ‘The Heretics’. Written by John H. Crowe III, it is set in 1925 and as the title hints at, it casts the investigators between two rival Mythos sects, each with a radically different interpretation of a certain deity. It begins in the city of Mérida, where unlike ‘The Well of Sacrifice’, the investigators have time to conduct some research and enjoy some local colour—and are given the detail to do so—before moving off into the jungle. Once at the site, the ancient city of Mayapán, the investigators will eventually find themselves caught between the two cults as they battle for possession of a certain sacred site… Like ‘Menhirs in the Grotto’ before it, ‘The Heretics’ is an involving scenario, one which has a good build up to its hectic climax.

Rounding out the quartet is ‘The Temple of the Toad’ by Brian Appleton. A sequel to the Robert E. Howard story, ‘The Thing on the Roof’, it is set in Honduras in 1927. The investigators are asked by a colleague to join him in the search for the Temple of the Toad. A short if somewhat linear affair, it has some pleasing connections to the Call of Cthulhu canon, and a pulpier feel than the previous three scenarios. The scenarios in the quartet are a bit too spread out to be run as a continuous campaign and probably too similar in structure.

As good as the background information is and the scenarios are in The Mysteries of Mesoamerica, it is not a perfect sourcebook. The problem is one of support for the Keeper in helping him run scenarios and campaigns set in Central America during the period. There is no guidance as to how to set up a campaign in the region and no advice as to how to involve the investigators in general, let alone information about how they might reach the region. Some of this appears in individual scenarios, just as information about how to set up an archaeological expedition and its requirements are covered in one of the scenarios, but not in any campaign or setting advice. Outside of this, there is no advice as what types of characters are needed to play The Mysteries of Mesoamerica or what Occupations would be appropriate for the setting. Certainly, there is no advice on playing investigators or portraying NPCs from the region, whether of Hispanic or native origins.

This lack of application also applies to the scenarios themselves. All four do take place in Mesoamerica yes, but they feel isolated from their contemporary settings. There is little within each of the four scenarios to indicate what is going on in the countries when and where they are set. Which seems a pity given the setting material presented earlier in The Mysteries of Mesoamerica.

Physically, The Mysteries of Mesoamerica is, as has already been mentioned, a beautiful book. Its layout is thematically crisp with rich detailed artwork. A nice touch is the R.I.P. notices for the investigators who died in the process of playtesting the four scenarios; each includes illustration of the investigator—or investigators, the dates of his or their deaths, and a poignant quote. The only downside to the layout is that the boxed text is slightly difficult to read, especially if the Keeper needs to refer to it in a hurry. The book includes an extensive bibliography, but sadly not an index.

The Mysteries of Mesoamerica is thus incomplete. Its source material is excellent, its scenarios are solid, and it is beautifully presented, but its lack of application, its lack of advice, and its lack of support for the Keeper, all undermine the intent of the designers and the publishers. Perhaps the most disappointing book published by Pagan Publishing, it nevertheless contains content that is solid and useful. Thus, The Mysteries of Mesoamerica: 1920s Sourcebook and Mythos Adventures for Mexico and Central America is Pagan Publishing’s curate’s egg.

Read More

The Unforgiven

I begin this review with disclaimer. I edit books for Lamentations of the Flame Princess—not all of them, but enough to explain that I am involved with the publisher before I begin a review of one of its latest books, Forgive Us. I was not involved in the publication of Forgive Us, whereas I was involved in the publication of Scenic Dunnsmouth. Understandably, I am not reviewing Scenic Dunnsmouth, but you can read a review of it here. In the meantime, I feel qualified to review Forgive Us, a new scenario for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying and other ‘Old School’ fantasy roleplaying games.

Written and illustrated by Kelvin Green, Forgive Us – Being A Chronicle of the Events Surrounding the Mysterious Disappearance of the Notorious Criminal Gang Known as the Tenebrous Hand. And Other Stories. is written for a party of characters of fourth level and above. It actually consists of three scenarios—‘Forgive Us’, ‘In Heaven, Everything is Fine’, and ‘Death and Taxes’. All three take place in the year 1625, in Norwich, a city that has grown prosperous from the manufacture of textiles. Thus unlike most Old School fantasy RPGs and in line with Lamentations of the Flame Princess’ recent releases—Better Than Any Man, Death Love Doom, The Magnificent Jan Van Ooms, and Tales of the Scarecrow, the trilogy is set during early modern period and does involve the use of firearms. None of the three adventures are connected and there is no advice as to how to connect them, although reasons are given for involving the player characters in each. One oddity is that only the first scenario, ‘Forgive Us’, is mentioned in the back cover blurb. A map of Norwich accompanies the book.

History tells us that Norwich was struck by the plague in 1625, but ‘Forgive Us’ gives an alternative to this outbreak of the Black Death. The scenario revolves around the activities of the Tenebrous Hand, a band of thieves who have grown so successful preying on the activities of Norwich’s rich merchants that it has taken over a single block of buildings in the city. Now something curious has occurred—it appears to be locked up and deserted. Certainly those who work in the legitimate businesses based in the block appear not to have gone into work of late.

Which depending upon the motivations of the player characters, is convenient—if they want to rob the Tenebrous Hand, or inconvenient—if they need to contact someone inside. Once the characters have gained access, the various businesses and buildings under the thieves’ protection are mapped out in some cartographic detail. The Referee will need to make up the particulars of each room as he goes, for only the most information is alluded to in the text.

In presenting an exploration of these buildings, the author presents a ‘dungeon bash’, but a ‘dungeon bash’ in which almost nothing happens and which feels all the more natural for not actually being set in a dungeon. It takes its cue here from Lamentations of the Flame Princess’ inaugural scenario, Death Frost Doom, being primarily driven by the players’ curiosity and the adventure’s presentation by the Referee. This is not to say that the scenario is without incident, but to an extent, the players will need to work hard to reach them. When they occur, they are quite, quite nasty…! There is every chance that the scenario will go wrong for the player characters, especially if it plays out like the movies that the author draws upon for inspiration.

‘Forgive Us’ is followed by two shorter scenarios, each suitable for single sessions. In ‘In Heaven, Everything is Fine’ something is not quite right in the village of Ashmanhaugh. The player characters travel there because they have heard that it is haunted or perhaps because they are looking for someone. There is, of course, nothing untoward in the village—everyone seems happy, prosperous, and pleased to see the characters. Then strange things seem to happen and the characters feel unwell. Does the strange tower in the woods have something to do with this? Despite its short length, ‘In Heaven, Everything is Fine’ calls for more effort upon the part of the Referee. Especially if the player characters visit the strange tower in the woods.

Lastly, in ‘Death and Taxes’, the player characters are asked to attend the funeral of a friend. Oddly, their friend’s daughter has gone missing and tax collectors have arrived to collect unpaid revenue that their friend should have paid. This is a short affair that easily slips in between other scenarios. 

Physically, Forgive Us is a pleasing black and buff book. The author not only writes the book, but is also its illustrator and cartographer. Not all of the artwork quite works, but the cartography is excellent, providing a level of detail that the Referee can work from to give descriptions of each—something that the text does not. This should not impede the experienced Referee though. If the editing needs a little tightening here and there, that is more an editor’s pedantry than anything that mars the book which is otherwise solidly presented.

What Forgive Us highlights are the parallels between Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay—particularly in the former’s aforementioned more recent releases set in the early modern age. After all, they share the same historical period, the same grim and gritty tone, and the same perilous sense of doom. Of course, it took an Englishman to bring these parallels to the fore. Thus it would be far from insurmountable for a GM to adapt the scenarios from Forgive Us to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay—at least for the First and Second Editions of the game. Adapting Forgive Us to Fantasy Flight Games’ Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Third Edition presents more of a problem. There is also the matter of Forgive Us’ English setting, as Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay never visited its British Isles analogue of Albion, but then any of the three scenarios in Forgive Us can easily be relocated to The Empire of the Old World.

Forgive Us would also work with another two British RPGs— one is Arion Games’ Maelstrom. It is set during the same period as the RPG and shares a little of the same tone, although its use of magic and monsters may be too over the top in comparison with Maelstrom’s restrained treatment of its outré elements. The other is Cakebread & Walton's Renaissance Deluxe, the Black Powder era RPG that covers the period between 1500 AD and 1800 AD.

Of the three scenarios in Forgive Us, it is the eponymous ‘Forgive Us’ that stands out. ‘In Heaven, Everything is Fine’ and ‘Death and Taxes’ are decent enough fillers, but ‘Forgive Us’ benefits from its detail and its scope being given the space. It presents a mysterious malodorous situation in a quietly entertaining fashion, punctuated by some short sharp shocks that work all the better for the scenario’s very ordinary setting. Overall, Forgive Us presents us with a trilogy of scenarios that are in keeping with the recent scenarios for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying, but which are not authored by its publisher and are thus more like traditional scenarios and less belligerent towards the players.

Read More

Playing Fireworks Blind

Most co-operative board games have the players working against the clock or the game itself, sometimes with a traitor amongst the players trying to thwart their efforts. Battlestar Galactica, published by Fantasy Flight Games, and Grosso Modo Éditions’ more recent Nosferatu are typical of cooperative games with a traitor mechanic, whilst Z-Man Games’ Pandemic and Indie Cards and Games’ Flash Point: Fire Rescue are typical of co-operative board games without a traitor mechanic. These games have made the co-operative style of play popular and accepted, the board game Pandemic having made the breakthrough in 2008. Most co-operative games revolve around the players attempting to cope with limited information that they all share. In Hanabi, the players must share information about what each other has on their cards, but they will never know exactly what they have on their own cards.

Named for the Japanese word for fireworks, Cocktail Games’ Hanabi was the 2013 Spiel des Jahres Game of the Year Winner. The players are apprentices who are attempting to put on a firework display for the emperor, but have managed to mix up the powders, fuses and rockets. To succeed, they must launch the fireworks in the correct sequence, and if they do, they please not only the emperor, but their master too.

Designed for two to five players, aged eight and up, Hanabi consists of five sets of coloured cards—red, blue, green, white, and white, plus three red tokens and eight blue tokens. Each set consists of ten cards, each containing three cards numbered one, two numbered two, two numbered two, two numbered two, and a single card numbered five. The red tokens are failure tokens, indicating a poorly displayed firework; the blue tokens are clue tokens, used to impart information to another player about the cards in his hands.

A complete firework consists of a single colour that contains cards played in order, from one up through two, three, four, and finally, five. Completing a firework gains the players a blue token; playing a card out of sequence onto a firework, for example, playing a white-4 card onto a white-2 card, would earn the players a red token. If they gain all three red tokens, the game is over.
At game’s start, each player receives a hand of cards, either four or five, depending on the number of players. A player cannot look at his hand, but instead holds them face out so that the other players can seem them. Thus each player can see everyone else’s cards, but not his own.

On his turn, a player can undertake a single action. He can discard card to gain a blue token; he can play a card, either to an ongoing firework or to start one if there is not yet one of that colour; or he can expend a blue token to give a clue; giving clues lies at the heart of Hanabi. To give a clue, a player points to another player’s hand and imparts certain information about that hand. This can be about the cards of a single colour in a player’s hand, such as “You have a green card here” or “You have two white cards here and here”; or about the cards of single number in the player’s hand, such as “You have a three here” or “You have a four here and here”. The clues given must be complete—so if a player has two four cards, the informing player must indicate both of them. If a player discarded a card or played one onto a firework, then he draws a new card.

Play continues until either the players have acquired all three red tokens and thus lost the game; or all five fireworks have been completed in the correct order and the players have scored maximum points, or the deck has been exhausted. In the case of the latter, points are awarded based on the fireworks completed, the top card on each firework adding to the final score. A maximum of twenty-five points can be scored, with scores of between sixteen and twenty-four at least being memorable.

Hanabi is as simple as that. During play, a player is free to arrange his cards how he likes and to an extent can talk about his hand in general terms—only the other players can be specific about his hand and only after having expended a blue token. For a game as simple as Hanabi, it requires a great deal of thought and no little care, because it is a game about memory and deduction, that is remembering where your cards are in your hand and deducing which card to play next from the clues previously given. Essentially though, it is a game about communication and understanding that communication, and about remembering that communication. Get the communication wrong and potential points are lost as the wrong cards are discarded or played onto a firework.

Hanabi is also a filler game, play being expected to last no longer than twenty minutes or so. Unlike more recent filler games, for example, Coup or Love Letter, this one is not combative. Indeed, in comparison to many other co-operative games, Hanabi is benign, the players are not really playing against a game that is set up for them to fail, as in Pandemic or Battlestar Galactica. Even its subject matter is benign, but despite that and its benign mechanics, it is actually more challenging than your average filler game because it is asking the players to think and communicate. Also, where another co-operative bears repeat play by increasing the difficulty level of the game the players have to beat; Hanabi bears repeated play if a group wants to improve its score.

Despite its simplicity, Hanabi is clever because it gives us a new playing experience. One that emphasises communication and deduction to support its co-operative play.

Read More