The Third Doctor

With a certain panache and not a little bit of a swagger, Cubicle Seven Entertainment’s celebration of Doctor Who’s fiftieth anniversary leaps into action and full colour with The Third Doctor Sourcebook for Ennie-award winning Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. Having begun with The First Doctor Sourcebook and continued with The Second Doctor Sourcebook, the third entry in the series takes into the seventies to detail the full colour adventures of the Third Doctor as played by Jon Pertwee.

With arrival of the Third Doctor in the story, Spearhead from Space, the series underwent a radical series of changes whilst still looking back to the previous decade. Two of the Second Doctor’s adventures pre-figure the era of the Third Doctor. The first is Web of Fear, the story that marked Second Doctor’s encounter with the Yeti and the Great Intelligence in the London Underground along with his first with Colonel Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, which would lead to the establishment of UNIT—United Nations Intelligence Taskforce—to which the Third Doctor would find himself attached to as Scientific Advisor under the command of Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart. The second is his last adventure, The War Games, in which the Time Lords exile the Doctor to Earth, meaning that he would no longer be able to travel in time or space and that his adventures would initially be confined to Earth. Of course, this would change in later series. In game terms, what this means is that two of Cubicle Seven Entertainment’s previous sourcebooks serve as companion volumes to The Third Doctor Sourcebook. The obvious and more essential  one is Defending the Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook as it defines the organisation that the Doctor will be working for, whilst the The Time Traveller’s Companion is of use once the Time Lords begin to manipulate and use the Third Doctor.

Another way in which the Third Doctor looks back to the previous decade is how his adventures model those of the classic ITC adventure serials such as The Persuaders!, The Protectors, Department S, and so on. For the Third Doctor, a much younger incarnation of the Doctor, is a man—or Time Lord—of action. Unlike his forbears, the Third Doctor is prepared to fight for what he believes in, though usually only using his Venusian Aikido, and he gets involved in a vehicle chases in Bessie (his souped up vintage speedster), the Who Mobile, helicopters, hovercraft, and so on, lots and lots of times.

Although the Third Doctor introduced ‘aliens’ that would return in later incarnations—in particular the Silurians, the Sea Devils, and the Nestene Consciousness and the Autons, his stories also introduced a major new villain, one that would plague each of his subsequent incarnations. The Master, a fellow Time Lord, would work plans within plans, ally himself with the Daleks, all to rule the Earth or destroy it, rule the universe or humanity, or simply humiliate the Doctor. He wanted power, and even though he would be captured again and again, he would escape each time to continue his machinations. In some ways, the Master is the nearest that the Third Doctor comes to encountering true evil—barring the Daleks of course!

The Third Doctor Sourcebook takes us from the Third Doctor’s arrival on Earth and his first foiling of an invasion of the Earth whilst working for UNIT in The Spearhead from Space to his final encounter with an invasion attempt in The Planet of the Spiders, an encounter which would lead to his regeneration. Barring The Time Warrior, the Third Doctor’s adventures do not take place in the past. The majority deal with the themes of big authority and scientific hubris, of peace versus war, and of mysteries without real villains. For the most part, The Third Doctor Sourcebook presents an opportunity for the Doctor—or indeed, the player character Time Lord and his Companions to not be so much wanderers in the Fourth Dimension, as protectors of Earth and humanity, to form a family with UNIT, but still be a force for good and for truth.

The book is essentially broken into two parts. The first introduces us to Pertwee’s portrayal and explores his character, his Companions, the difficulties of his travels during this period—mostly the fact that he cannot travel, and the common themes and ideas. In particular that the Third Doctor’s character is rather patrician in nature and he only has the three Companions over the course of his adventures, though he is sometimes joined by members of UNIT. His adventures deal with the dangers of technological progress, diplomacy and attempts to bring about peace—both world and galactic, environmental concerns, and the possibility that a Companion might fall in love whilst travelling with the Doctor or even betray the Doctor.

As well as the stats and write-up for the Third Doctor himself, The Third Doctor Sourcebook includes stats and write-ups for all of his companions. The most notable changes in the Doctor are the addition of his ‘Hotshot’ Trait, to represent how good he is behind the wheel of any vehicle, and his ‘Reverse the Polarity of the Neutron Flow’ Trait which gives him an instinctive understanding of energy fields. Most of the new Traits come from Defending the Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook and The Time Traveller’s Companion. There are also write-ups of the Third Doctor’s notable foes—the Master, the Nestene Consciousness, and the Daleks. Rounding out this half of the book is an excellent discussion about the Third Doctor’s themes and the creation of adventures suited to his era.

As with every entry in the series, the second and longest part of The Third Doctor Sourcebook is further divided into chapters that travel chronologically in order through the Third Doctor’s adventures. For each of these there is a synopsis followed by a guide to running the adventure and a listing of any appropriate characters, aliens, and gadgets. The guide to running each adventure is not a straightforward adaptation, but rather a discussion of themes and ideas inherent to the adventure. So for example, in the discussion of The Claws of Axos, it is suggested that whenever the Doctor instructs Jo to stay where she is whilst he goes off to do something, as soon as he leaves, she should go exploring! Why? Well, because it is interesting and it pushes the story forward. Rounding the entry for each story is a selection of Further Adventures, hooks that could be run as possible sequels.

Physically, The Third Doctor Sourcebook is a slim hard back book, suitably illustrated throughout with photographs—now in colour! The volume feels solidly researched and well written, but if there is a downside to the book, it is that not going to appeal or be of use to everyone, and that is going to be an issue with each of the subsequent volumes in the series. After all, almost everyone has their favourite Doctor and also their least favourite Doctor, and that may be reflected in the Doctor Sourcebooks that they purchase. With The Third Doctor Sourcebook, the adventures presented here are even more dynamic, even more knowing, and even more exciting than those of The First Doctor Sourcebook and The Second Doctor Sourcebook. Yet in comparison with The Second Doctor Sourcebook, there is perhaps less depth to the writing in The Third Doctor Sourcebook, but that is likely down to how straightforward the stories are for the Third Doctor.

The Third Doctor is the first generation to have all of his adventures available to purchase and watch on DVD, but apart from the later stories when he manages to leave Earth, they will feel unfamiliar in terms of style and oddly constrained. That comes down to the Third Doctor’s exile on Earth, and anyway, they lend themselves to a very different style of campaign, one which The Third Doctor Sourcebook should make you feel very at home with (even if that home is Earth!).

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Psssh-ti-cooff Fun

If you have never watched Ivor the Engine, then you should watch this video before reading the rest of this review. Made by Smallfilms, also responsible for other classics such as The Clangers and Bagpuss, this BBC children’s television classic told the tales of the adventures of a small green locomotive who lived in the “top left-hand corner of Wales” and worked for The Merioneth and Llantisilly Railway Traction Company Limited with the help of his driver, Jones the Steam. Most of us will remember the colour episodes from the 1970s, but the original six episodes were made in black and white in 1959, making the series fifty-five in 2014. So it seems as good a year as any to celebrate the series by us helping Ivor the Engine out. Which is exactly what we get to do in Ivor the Engine, a new board game designed by Tony Boydell—whose previous game, Snowdonia, also involved trains and railways, and also happened to be set in Wales—and published by Surprised Stare Games.

Illustrated by Peter Firmin, the illustrator of the Ivor the Engine television series, the Ivor the Engine game asks the players to come to the aid of Ivor the Engine and Jones the Steam in rounding up lots of lost sheep and do any number of good deeds. Designed for three to five players, aged eight and up, Ivor the Engine is a game of tidying up sheep and fulfilling tasks that can be played in about an hour or so—arguably much quicker once the players know the game. The winner is the player who at the end of the game has the most sheep—gained in  rounding up sheep and completing jobs. 

It is played out over a map of forgotten corner of north Wales, with various locations such as Grumbly Gasworks and Gwynaudolion Halt, Mrs Porty’s House and Pugh’s Farm, Tan-Y-Gwlch and Dinwiddy’s Gold Mine, and towns like Llangubbin, Grumbly Town, and Tewyn. All of these locations are connected by branch lines. In addition, a main line runs between Llangubbin and Tewyn which allows direct movement between the towns. Most of these locations consist of a single large hexes, although some consist of two, so the players need to be careful with their movement.

Besides the board with its map, Ivor the Engine consists of a rulebook, several cardboard Trucks (the players' pieces), cubes of gold and coal, plenty of wooden sheep (sheep meeples or  ‘sheeples’!), wooden tokens to represent flocks of sheep, and various cards and cardboard pieces. The cards consist of Sheep Pens for the players and a mix of Job Cards and Event Cards. The cardboard pieces include lost sheep tokens, a pair of Sleeping idris tokens and a pair of Runaway Sheep Tokens, and an Ivor the Engine Token. 

At the start of the game, the map is seeded with sheep—the number on each location determined by the random placement of the lost sheep tokens; each player receives three Job Cards, a Sheep Pen and matching Truck, plus a single piece of gold and coal each. Each player also places his Truck on the board starting with the youngest player, who also receives the Ivor the Engine Token. Three Job Cards are laid out face up alongside the board in a Card Line.

On his turn, each player does three things. The first is to take a sheep from his current location and place it on his Sheep Pen. Second, he moves his Truck. He can move from his current location to an unoccupied adjacent location along a connected single-track branch line. He cannot move into a location if another player has his Truck there and he wants to move further, he must steam up and shovel more coal into the boiler, one piece of coal for each extra location. If a player starts at either the towns of Llangubbin or Tewyn, then a player can use two coal to travel from one to the via the main line. If a player needs more coal, then he can purchase more by spending gold.

Before or after a player has moved his Truck, he can play a Job Card. Each Job Card has a task and a location, a reward for completing the task—anyway from three to six sheep, and an action that a player can do instead of completing the task on the Job Card. For example, “Fetching  Mr Brangwyn’s pigeons from” … “Llangubbin” instructs a player to travel to Llangubbin where in return for fetching the pigeons, he will be rewarded with three sheep. Alternatively, the player can use the Job Card for the action, “Make 2 extra moves.” and discard the card. Other actions enable a player to take coal or sheep or gold, put sheep back onto a location (from the supply or another player’s Sheep Pen), or take cards from the Card Line. More special actions temporarily force another player to give up any sheep he collects as they run away—this is what the Runaway Sheep token denotes, or allow him to take extra Job Cards from the deck. He also takes a Sleeping Idris token to indicate that he misses a turn for taking this special action.

What is important to know is that a player cannot complete a Job Card on a particular town or village until it has been cleared of sheep—the player who does so, also receives bonus sheep. What is also important to know is that when a player completes a Job Card he must read out the details of the Job Card. (A Welsh accent is not required for this.)

Lastly, a player takes a new Job Card from the Card Line, which is then refreshed. If the new card added to the Card Line is an Event Card, it has an event that takes effect immediately, is seeded with a single sheep, and a reward that takes effect at the end of the game. To select an Event Card from the Card Line, a player must pay a single piece of gold. For example, the “Bani Moukerjee” Event Card forces each player to move his truck to Llanmad or discard a sheep—this is the only time that the players’ trucks can be on the same location. If selected, this Event Card will reward a player with an extra sheep for each Job Card completed.

The end of game is triggered when one player ends his turn with a certain number of sheep, the number dependant upon how many players there are. Then everyone else receives one further turn to ensure that everyone has the same number of turns. Once done, everyone counts up their sheep and the player with the most is the winner.

Physically, Ivor the Engine is a lovely game. The artwork is delightful—both on the cards and on the board; the rulebook—which initially looks intimidating—is well written and easy to grasp; and the wooden sheep are, of course, delightful.

There are exactly two things wrong with Ivor the Engine, both to do with the components. First, the cardboard pieces used to represent the players’ Trucks are disappointing and add little to the game—wooden locomotives would have been far more in keeping with the charm and feel of the game.  Second, the flat wooden pieces used to represent the flocks of five sheep are equally disappointing, not to say dull, and add nothing to the game. It would have been nice if larger wooden sheep had been included to represent sheep. Of course, including such components would probably have increased the cost of what is otherwise a very reasonably priced game, but then, there is nothing to stop the owner of Ivor the Engine from replacing them himself.

At first glance, Ivor the Engine looks like a children’s game—no surprise given the source material. It is not that though, although it can be played by children. Given its length and subject matter, it offers a surprising degree of complexity that adult gamers will enjoy. There are plenty of choices to make—what sheep to take, which places to visit, and what Job Cards or Event Cards to select. The game is primarily competitive, although one player can block access to a location and some of the Job Cards give actions that target other players, so adult games can get cutthroat...

Unsurprisingly, given its theme, Ivor the Engine is also a train game, but in terms of complexity it lies somewhere between Ticket to Ride and a more traditional route-building, pick-up-and-deliver game such as Canalmania or Age of Steam. Although in Ivor the Engine there is no route-building, in effect a player is building a route by rounding up the sheep—once the sheep have been rounded up deliveries, or rather Job Cards, can be completed. Whilst there is no ‘pick-up’ aspect to the game, there is certainly delivery in the game in the form of the Job Cards. 

The complexity of Ivor the Engine means that it is not quite an introductory game—the game is more complex than say Ticket to Ride or Settlers of Catan, but not much more. For younger players that may mean that it is is more of a challenge, but for seasoned gamers, Ivor the Engine is pleasing light filler. Utterly charming, Ivor the Engine  is a delight, offering enjoyable play for casual and enthusiast gamers alike.

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Your Westeros Primer

Having finally got round to watching Season #3 of A Game of Thrones and read both parts of A Storm of Swords, I can at last feel confident in avoiding spoilers in reading and then reviewing A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide. This is the first supplement for A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying: Adventure, War, and Intrigue , the RPG published by Green Ronin based on the series of best-selling fantasy books by George R.R. Martin.  I have already reviewed the second supplement, A Song of Ice and Fire Chronicle Starter, as that contains no spoilers from either the books or the television series and is much of more of a gaming supplement than A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide. This supplement though, is much grander affair, describing as it does Westeros in lavish detail, providing full details on all the major regions and principal players of the game of thrones.

So if you happen not to have watched season #3 of A Game of Thrones or read both parts of A Storm of Swords, you do need to know that it does contain some spoilers. For in detailing the places and personages of Westeros and beyond, it focuses on places and peoples that do not appear until towards the end of both. It should be made clear that for the most part, these are not plot spoilers, but rather setting spoilers. Nevertheless, at least one plot spoiler is illustrated late in the book.

In keeping with the A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying: Adventure, War, and Intrigue, the setting for A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide is in the immediate years before the events of Martin’s heptalogy—or is that octet?—begin. The Seven Kingdoms of Westeros are at peace under the reign of Robert Baratheon, who usurped the Iron Throne from the Targaryen dynasty, the last of the Targaryens are powerless exiles to the east, the wildlings beyond the Wall seem contained, and the first stirrings of winter have yet to come. The handsome hardback opens with a history of Westeros, covering from The Dawn Age through the Age of Heroes and Age of the Dragons to just beyond the War of the Usurper and Greyjoy’s Rebellion. It is followed by an examination of the culture of Westeros, covering laws and justice, customs, entertainments and pastimes, goods and trading, language, faith, and the Maesters—the latter the scholars of Westeros. Several sections here will be of interest to the GM wanting to run a standard campaign based around a house of the players’ creation as described in A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying: Adventure, War, and Intrigue. These include knighthood, social status and rank, and illegitimacy—the latter accompanied by the regional names accorded bastards in Westeros, Jon Snow of the North being the most obvious example.

This sets the stage for the bulk of the book. From King’s Landing and Dragonstone to The Stormlands and Dorne, the book details the history, geography and key locations, and the ruling House of its region, plus persons of note and notable personages, and the Banner Houses that owe fealty to the ruling House. So for example, the chapter detailing The Reach tells you how rich and fertile it is and of its rivalry with Dorne; of Oldtown, the city that is  home to the Maesters of the Citadel that was once Westeros’ premier city; and of the Maesters and how you would don the Chain to become one, before presenting House Tyrell. Some members of the House are simply given descriptions, but others are also given full stats according to the rules of A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying: Adventure, War, and Intrigue. In this case, they are Lord Mace Tyrell, his mother Lady Olenna Tyrell, and three of his four children, Ser Garlan, Ser Loras, and Margaery. Other persons of note are also given full write-ups, though these are less frequent. For the Reach, they consist solely of Samwell Tarly of House Tarly. Following the description of the Ruling House, the most notable Banner Houses are presented. These include major, minor, and landed houses as well as extinct ones. In some cases they are accorded a single line, others are a bit more detailed and thus interesting.

In each of the descriptions of the Seven Kingdoms, further aspects of Westeros are also given. In the case of The Reach, this is Oldtown and the Maesters, for the North, this the Night’s Watch, the neutral sworn brotherhood that mans the Wall against incursions by the Wildings, and for Dragonstone, it is background to the Targaryens, including write-ups and stats for Viserys and Daenerys, the surviving heirs. Accompanying the House descriptions and the Banner House descriptions are their castle names, coat of arms, and motto. In many cases, a very many of the Banner Houses have their coats of arms illustrated. Each of these chapters is accompanied by a decent map.

Having worked its way north from King’s Landing to the North and back down south again, the penultimate chapter in A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide is the eponymously titled ‘Beyond Westeros’ as it takes the reader across the Summer Sea to the Free Cities, the Dothraki Sea, and beyond. There are no game stats or character write-ups in this section.

Rounding out A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide is ‘Exploring Westeros’, a chapter of advice for the GM. This presents a look at the themes and feel of a Westeros campaign—noting that throughout, both are unlike traditional fantasy, either of certain novels and their bearing of rings or particular roleplaying games. It addresses the issue of running a campaign with a setting that has a particular plot—something that the A Song of Ice and Fire series has in abundance. There is a balance to be maintained the advice suggests between the players and their characters wanting to interact with the series’ signature characters and the influence and input from the player characters not derailing the plots and events that weave around the series’ characters. Essentially, what it comes down to is that a GM  and his players need to decide on the game that they want to play—one that unfolds alongside the events of the novels or want that goes off in another direction entirely. Completing the chapter is a number of campaign ideas that a GM could develop.

Physically, A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide is nicely presented with lots of full colour, painted art that presents another look and feel to that depicted in the television series. The book is nicely written and an enjoyably clear read, and the maps are good too.

There are one or two issues with A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide. As good as the maps are, the book could have down with more. In particular, no maps are given for the lands to the East. Given that they figure strongly in the novels, the lack of maps is a disappointing omission. Similarly, more maps of other locations would have been nice too. Maps are given for King’s Landing and the Red Keep, but not for many of the other castles or big towns in Westeros. To an extent, not all of them are detailed in the novels, but this is a roleplaying supplement after all, and some GMs like to have things quantified. Having already mentioned the plot spoilers in the art in the rear of the book, it should be pointed out that the choice of characters given full stats seems odd given that they are not connected with any particular character or House. This sort of heralds the importance of their roles in the novels.

If you happen to have read A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, and A Storm of Swords, and watched the first three seasons of A Game of Thrones, then there is much to be enjoyed in A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide. You could ignore the game game stats altogether, because really, they do not take up all that much space; if you did, then what you would have is a well written and informative sourcebook for both the books and the television series up to end of book #3 and season #3. One that complements them both, though the books more so than the television series. As written though, A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide is a roleplaying supplement and both the source material presented here and the accompanying stats ably support that aspect (the latter without being unobtrusive). The advice in the last chapter is a pleasing if concise counterpart to the material presented earlier in the book and is good corollary to the advice given in A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying: Adventure, War, and Intrigue.

Thus A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide is a good sourcebook for the A Song of Ice and Fire novels. It is also a good roleplaying supplement, expanding upon the information given in A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying: Adventure, War, and Intrigue. So A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide succeeds twice.

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Empire Building Filler Thriller

Eight-Minute Empire could be described as wargame. It has armies, their leaders contest for territory, and at the end of the game, the leader who holds the most territory wins the game. It is though not a wargame—certainly not in a traditional sense—but is instead a Eurogame that combines area control and card drafting mechanics with a set collection mechanic. It is a little game with big themes that can be played through in the eight minutes of the title with just two players, but just twenty minutes with the maximum number of five players.

Published by Red Raven Games, inside Eight-Minute Empire’s small, square box can be found one double-sided map board, a four-page rulebook, forty-two cards, and five sets of armies, forty-four coins, and ten Goods Tokens. The map board depicts various continents broken up into regions, connected by safe sea routes. At the centre of the map stands a city—this is the starting point for the game. At the top of the map is a line of numbers—[0], [1], [1], [2], [2], [2], and [3]. These are the costs that a player will have to pay for the cards placed in the corresponding line placed at the top of the board. The cards are marked with an order that the leader will give his armies and with a Good such as a Carrot, Pine Tree, or a Gem. A leader will gain more Victory Points if he has managed to collect these symbols in sets by the end of the game. The five armies—in blue, green, pink, red, and yellow—each consist of fourteen cubes (the armies) and three discs (the cities). The coin tokens are used to purchase cards and the Goods tokens replicated the symbols on the cards and are used as part of the game’s advanced options.

At the start of the game, the cards are shuffled and six laid out at the top of the board face up. Each player receives his armies and some coins. Initially he will use these to bid on who goes first in the game, but their primary use is to purchase cards. He will also place three armies in the starting region. On his turn, he will purchase one of the cards at the top of the board, the cost being determined by its position in the line. Cards towards the left are free or cheap and get progressively more expensive to the right.

Purchasing a card gains a player its Goods symbol and an order that he can give his armies. This order may be to place armies (from his reserve onto the board), move armies (already on the board), move armies by sea (already on the board along a sea route between continents), destroy armies (remove an army from the board), or build cities (in a region where a player has armies). Some cards give a choice of options, others two options, while others give the player the choice of Goods symbol at the end of game to add to the sets he is collecting.

Each player has two aims in the game. The first is to dominate as many regions as possible—a player needs to have the most armies in a region to hold it, though having a city in a region will also contribute towards the number of armies in a region. The second is to collect sets of Goods tokens. At the end of the game, a player will receive a Victory Point for each Region he controls and for each Continent he controls. He will also receive Victory Points for each set of Goods cards he has, the number varying from one Good to another. For example, three Carrots scores a player one Victory Point, five Carrots two Victory Points, seven Carrots three Victory Points, and eight Carrots five Victory Points, whereas one Gem scores a player one Victory Point, two Gems two Victory Points, three Gems three Victory Points, and four Gems five Victory Points. The player with the most Victory Points is the winner.

The Eight-Minute Empire rulebook does feel a little cheap, but it is clearly written. The other components are all of a high quality. It could be argued that the auction at the start for first player delivers little given its potential cost. One way to balance this would be to have an auction at the start of every turn, but the game does not include enough gold for this. If it did, it would also mean that the players might have too much gold with which to purchase their cards. Another issue might the game’s lack of theme. My suggestion would be that the Emperor’s sons’ rivalry threatens to erupt into civil war, so he directs his sons to take their armies and compete for dominance without course to open conflict.

Interestingly, the game’s feel and flow will be influenced by the cards drawn. For example, the lack of Sea movement cards would limit travel to other continents, concentrating the contest for territory to a limited area, whilst lots of them, would enable the players to spread their armies and vie for wider regions. Balance this against the need to collect Goods for sets and limited gold to spend, and a player has some tight choices to make over the course of cards he must choose—varying according to the number of players, more players means fewer cards. Eight-Minute combines tactical play in its armies and area control with strategic decisions in the Goods needed for sets in a pleasing presented and re-playable package. The result is that Eight-Minute Empire is a rather charming little filler.

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Command Arrows

Lords of War is a tactical fantasy battle game published by Black Box Games. The winner of the award for Best Strategic Card Game at UK Games Expo 2013, it pitches two armies into a fierce confrontation that can be played out in roughly thirty minutes. Designed for two players aged twelve and over, the original set consisted of Lords of War: Orcs versus Dwarves. It was quickly joined by Lords of War: Elves versus Lizardmen and then by Lords of War: Templar versus Undead which was funded via Kickstarter.

Each set is described as “Dual Deck Expandable Gaming Cards”, which means that the army decks from each set are interchangeable with those of another and that the cards in each army deck are also interchangeable with those of any other. This means that each army can be modified with cards from another deck and that rather than battles being fought between the armies in one set, they can be played out as 'Templars versus Orcs', 'Elves versus Dwarves', 'Lizardmen versus Undead', and so on. In this review, the Lords of War: Orcs versus Dwarves set will be under the spotlight. Not only because it is the first set in the line, but because a confrontation between Orcs and Dwarves is very traditional when it comes to fantasy battles.

Each set consists of two armies—represented by two thirty-six card decks, plus a rules sheet and a Battlemat. The latter is marked with a seven-by-six grid of spaces upon which the game’s cards will be placed and is done in a slightly mottled, golden brown. (The colour varies from set to set, so for example, the Battlemat in Lords of War: Elves versus Lizardmen is green, representing the swamps or forests that they fight over rather than the mountains or rough terrain of Lords of War: Orcs versus Dwarves). The rules sheet is large and double-sided, but is only done in black and white. It is easy to read and does a decent job of explain the rules. What stands out about Lords of War: Orcs versus Dwarves—and any of the three sets to date—are the cards that form each army and are the heart of the game.

All of the cards are done in full colour by artist Steve Cox, each one depicting a single warrior or unit in a style reminiscent of Games Workshop’s Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Which is no bad thing since it gives the game a certain familiarity. Besides its illustration, every card has a name; a number of Attack Aarrows that determine the direction in which the unit can attack—forward, back, to the sides, and diagonally out of the corners; and a Defence Value. Each Attack Arrow also has an Attack Value attached to it. The more Attack Arrows a unit has, the greater its flexibility on the battlefield, both in attacking enemy units and pinning them in place.

Every card also has a Class—Infantry, Cavalry, Spear, Ranged, and Berserker. Infantry units are generally balanced in terms of their Attack Arrows, Attack Values, and Defence Values; Cavalry units tend to have broad Attack Values, but low Defence Values; Spearmen have low Attack Values, but high Defence Values; Ranged units can attack enemy units at a distance; and Berserkers have limited Attack Arrows and high Attack Values, but low Defence Values. Every unit also has a Rank from Recruit and Regular up to Command and General. Six of the cards in a deck are Command units and one of these is the army’s general—unlike the standard units, they are all named. 

Throughout the game, each player will have a hand of six cards. At the start of the game, this hand will consist of five cards from his shuffled deck and his army’s General. Once each player has placed a unit in one of the Battlemat’s starting positions, the game begins. A turn consists of three phases.

In the Deployment phase, a player places a unit on the Battlemat orthogonally or diagonally adjacent to an enemy unit so that one of its Attack Arrows points at the enemy unit. A support unit like a Ranged or Spear unit can also be placed adjacent to any friendly unit so that its Attack Arrows do not engage it or it is not engaged by friendly Attack Arrows. This means particularly with Ranged units that they can be placed behind friendly units away from the front lines and enemy units that would attack them directly.

During the Elimination Phase, every unit on the Battlemat attacks—including those of both armies! Thus, if the combined Attack Values of the units attacking an enemy unit via their Attack Arrows exceed the enemy’s Defence Value, it is eliminated. This has to be done unit by unit until every unit on the Battlemat has been checked to see that it has not been eliminated. The result of this is that a player has to consider both how his unit can attack and how his unit might be attacked. 

The third and final phase is the Reinforcement Phase. During this, a player can either refresh his hand back up to six or have one retreat from the Battlemat into his hand. The latter unit must not have been placed or fought that turn, or be engaged by an enemy unit’s Attack Arrows. It is possible to pin an enemy unit to prevent it being removed from the Battlemat during the Reinforcement Phase.

The battle proceeds until one army can defeat four of its opponent’s Command units or any twenty of its units. Then it will have won the battle.

The key to Lords of War is positioning the units so that they make the best use of their Attack Arrows and avoid being subject to attack in return. Placement is all important to controlling the battlefield and as a game progresses, it becomes more and more difficult to find the weak spots in an opponent’s defences. The choice of army will also influence a player’s actions—with the Lords of War: Orcs versus Dwarves, each side has its own strengths. The Dwarves have better Defence Values, whilst the Orcs have better Attack Values.  

As good as Lords of War looks and as simple as the rules are, what it lacks is flavour. There is some that comes through in the cards, but there is none in the rules. For that the purchaser needs to visit the publisher’s website for the background to the game, where he will also find rules for multiplayer battles and more advanced rules. Whilst simplicity of the design does make Lords of War easy to play, the lack of flavour does leave the game lacking substance. Another issue is that there is a certain artifice to the game in that it does not feel as if you are fighting a battle except in an abstract way. This is fine in a game like Chess, but in Lords of War it feels as if you should be fighting each other for something rather than a simple stand-up confrontation because the art on the cards suggests so. Hopefully, the Terrain & Weather Expansion Pack will go some way to alleviate this issue and provide the game a bit more substance as well as variety.

Lords of War: Orcs versus Dwarves is a pleasingly simple combat card game that offers tactical challenges and thoughtful play without overwhelming the participants. The design is attractive and easily expandable and should also serve as solid introduction to wargaming fantasy battles too.

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The Unlikely Next England Captain

If you know me at all, you will know how passionate I am about football. I loathe it. I am bored by it. I take a particularly perverse pleasure in every single loss that the England football team suffers. As you can see, I am singularly passionate about football.

So what the hell am I doing reviewing a football-themed game when I am still trying to work out why my parents gave me Super Striker for Christmas when I was five? Which was in 1972.

So here is what happened. I was at Curry & Games, a local games meet that takes each month here in Birmingham. J-P Treen approached Chris and myself and asked if we would like to play a game of his. It was, he explained, a game about football titled Next England Captain. Given this theme, both Chris and I agreed with a certain reluctance. We played through it and much to our surprise, found that we had enjoyed ourselves and we had enjoyed the humour of the game. We did break the game though. Sort of.

Leap forward eighteen months and another game design or two and Next England Captain is not only being showcased at UK Games Expo this weekend, but it also being launched on Kickstarter. My name may or may not be in the credits because I helped J-P Treen with the game’s blurb, but the game itself is all his and this review is all mine. So read on and be surprised as I am to find myself reviewing a football-themed game.

The game in question is Next England Captain: The Anti-Football Game, published by Too Much Games. This is a meticulously researched card game for two to four players aged ten and up that can be played in twenty minutes. Each player controls the fate and dreams of a football player—he can make career moves, but sometimes his career is out of his control—who one day hopes to become the Next England Captain. The game is a satire, but a gentle one at that…

It consists of four Playing Mats—one per player; twenty Career Tokens—five per player, each representing a Career Move; and seventy-two cards. The cards are divided into six colour-coded types. Club (black) cards represent the football team that a player plays for—such as Flower Show F.C. or Leyton Occidental; Squad (blue) cards represent his position on the team from ‘Catastrophic Loss of Form’ to ‘He Scores When He Wants’; and England (red) cards are his position on the England national squad, usually ‘England Regular’, but if he is fortunate, ‘England Captain’. If he is unfortunate, it will be ‘Scotland Regular?’ and thus make him ineligible to play for the England team. Status (orange) cards represent a range of things, whether he has a ‘Girlfriend’, ‘Wife’, ‘Children’, or a ‘Car Crash Personality’; Money (yellow) cards are deals that the football player can make, such as ‘Coaching Ambassador’ or ‘Trademark Celebration’; and Final (black) cards represent what a player does after his career, perhaps ‘Foreign Move’ or ‘The Pundit’. Final cards can only be played on a player’s final turn.

Every card has a points value. At the end of the game, each player totals the values of his visible cards—some cards will add to, or modify the total—and the player with highest score will win the game.

Each Playing Mat has spaces for each card type when they played, one on top of each other—only the top card counts. The Playing Mat also has spaces in the middle for placing a player’s Career Tokens when played.

The first problem with the game—all right the second problem with the game, because the first is that it is after all, a football-themed game—is determining who goes first. According to the rules this is the person who last kicked a football. Which is a problem in some gaming groups as they collectively try and work out exactly how many years go any one of them actually kicked a real life football… Once that has been decided, each player receives a hand of four cards and the game can begin.

On his turn, a player can do one of two moves. The first is a Career Move. This allows him to play as many cards as he can, but only one of each type. Essentially, this is the football player doing his best to further his career. It also uses up one of the player’s five Career Moves. The second is to discard cards and refresh his hand. A player can discard as many as he likes, but he must take a ‘Penalty!’, drawing a single card and playing it if he can—this representing the fickle hand of fortune—before he refreshes his hand back up to four.

For example, Dave has the following hand: Woolwich Rovers (8) Club card, Chairman’s Toy (6) Squad card, Trademark Celebration (5) Money card, and Sponsored Boots (2) Money card. As a Career Move, he plays the Woolwich Rovers, the Chairman’s Toy, and Trademark Celebration cards, but not the Sponsored Boots card as it is not worth as much. The other advantage is that the combination of Woolwich Rovers Club and the Chairman’s Toy Squad cards make him eligible to play for the England.

On his next turn, Dave still has the Sponsored Boots card in his hand as well as the Aston Park F.C. (6) Club card, the Scotland Regular? (5) England card, and The Pundit (9) Final card. Of these, he decides to save The Pundit until the final turn because it is worth points and opt for a Penalty! in order to get a better hand. The card he draws is the Leyton Oriental (3) Club, which he has to play. Unfortunately, not only is the card worth fewer points, it also makes him ineligible to play for England! Oh well, Dave had better hope that his new hand of cards gives him a Club card that will make him eligible.

Two Career Moves grant a player certain benefits. ‘Write your own History’ allows a player to take a card from the discard pile before having a normal Career Move, while ‘This is your Year’ enables him to play two cards of the same colour instead of the usual one allowed. Both are useful because certain cards have requirements that need to be met before they can be played. The most basic is the need to have a strong combination of Club and Squad cards so that the football player is eligible to play for England and the player can play an England Regular card. These requirements grow the nearer a player gets to becoming Captain of the England Football team. To become that, he needs to be an England Regular and have the Children Status card, the latter also needing Wife or Celebrity Wife Status cards, and they each have their own requirements.

Why all of these requirements? Well, as the game designer has explained to me, no Captain of the England Football Team of the past seventy years has held the position and not been married or had children. As he has also explained, Next England Captain is meticulously researched, and who am I to say otherwise? (Anyway, saying otherwise would probably mean having to look up a bunch of tedious facts about a very tedious game—and no, I do not mean the one that I am reviewing).*

*(It should actually made clear that not all of the facts given in the previous paragraph is true. This was also relayed to me by the game's designer, which might not lend much credibility as to his reliability as an expert on the position of Captain of the England Football team. Neither does the fact he himself has never held the position of  Captain of the England Football team, but then again this may also prove to be untrue—how would I know? In the meantime, the designer discusses the subject of the position of Captain of the England Football team and marriage in a post here).

Once a player has conducted his last Career Move, everyone else has one more turn. This is the only turn in which Final cards can be played. Then everyone totals up the value of the top cards on their stacks and the highest wins the game. 

Next England Captain combines card drafting and hand management elements with press your luck and storytelling game play. Each player needs to discard cards and take a Penalty! several times in order to get the cards into his hand to make a Career Move a worthwhile move, but will often be forced to play Career Moves in order to keep up with his rival players. As a player puts his cards down, he is also playing out the career of his player and all its highs and lows. What makes this entertaining are the cards, which whilst all drawn from the lives of football players in the Premier League, are all absurd in one way or another, if they do not out and out poke fun at football players and the Premier League. For example, the Sports Drink Promo Deal Money card has the slogan, “Looks like wee. Tastes like sweat. Makes you awesome.”; the Car Crash Personality Status card has words “Why Always Him?” on it as well as the symbol of a sports car; and the ‘Super-Injunction’ Status card has no effect at all, not even a score value at game’s end! (It has been suggested that the latter prevent the other players from talking about the player).

So what do I think of Next England Captain: The Anti-Football Game? Well, first we need to deal with the Rooney in the room. So here goes… I HATE FOOTBALL. Nothing short of a lobotomy is going to change this. So what do I think of Next England Captain: The Anti-Football Game in light of the Rooney in the room?

I actually enjoy playing Next England Captain: The Anti-Football Game.

I actually like Next England Captain: The Anti-Football Game.

It is not quite a perfect design in some ways. Some cards are more important than others—the Status cards in particular. This though, is by design. The role of England Captain is primarily a public relations role and thus whatever football player has the role needs to project the right image—married, children, and so on. So it reflects the Premier League just as it should. 

Next England Captain: The Anti-Football Game can of course be played straight and its satirical elements ignored, but the ‘Anti’ of the game’s subtitle is very much part of the game’s enjoyment. Surprisingly, it is an enjoyable kick up the pomposity of the Premier League and a footballers’ life that in twenty minutes shatters what dreams you might have of being the Next England Captain.

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Wondrously More Than Magic

In the far future mankind will have done wonderful things. Travelled to other universes. Controlled the energies of stars. Constructed cities and structures that float in the sky. Harnessed the smallest of machines to undertake great tasks and more. Modified the appearance and genetics of not just the beasts around them, but of themselves to give endless form and function. All this and more over the course of eight aeons and eight great civilisations, but now, following the fall of the last civilisation, what is left of such great achievements are orbiting satellites that beam constant streams of inaccessible information, engines deep within the Earth whose thrumming can at times be felt on the surface, structures that hang in the sky without the means to access them, portals that occasionally open to other worlds that might lead to greater wonders or imminent death, clouds of swarming nanites, terraformed and modified landscapes that defy purpose, and of course, the 'numenera'. In this the Ninth World, people look upon the wonders of the past, knowing that it was achieved through technological means—not magic, but knowing that they have lost the means to create it or in many cases, to use it as it was originally intended.

The people of the Ninth World are humans, though some are abhumans—mutants, crossbreeds, the genetically engineered, and their descendants, or they are visitants, who have come to Earth, but are not native to it. They reside in the Steadfast, a collection of kingdoms and principalities that exist under the watchful benevolence of the Amber Pope, whose Aeon Priests of the Order of Truth revere the peoples of the past and their knowledge and technology. The Order of Truth not only studies the past and its technologies, it tries to find a use for them to the betterment of the peoples of the Steadfast. The peoples of the Ninth World make use of the technology that they can scavenge—and which the Aeon Priests tell them is safe to use, turning it into armour, weapons, and everyday devices and tools to enhance the medieval technology they currently possess. In particular they employ Numenera—artifacts, cyphers, and oddities— bits of technology leftover from past civilizations, that may have an obvious function; may have once had an obvious function, but what that was has been lost and the device is put to another use; or may have once had an obvious function, but what that was has been lost and can no longer be discerned.

This is the setting for Numenera, a Science-Fantasy RPG set a billion years into the future, designed and written by Monte Cook whose credits include Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition, numerous d20 System titles, and of course, his own campaign setting, Ptolus. Originally and very successfully launched on Kickstarter, Numenera is also a post-apocalyptic setting that embraces the weird, though not in the wacky sense of say Wizards of the Coast’s Gamma World or the arch-baroque decadence of Pelgrane Press’ Dying Earth role-playing game or the oppressively rich Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne. It does though, embrace a sense of wonder and the wondrous, but in its underlying play, it certainly draws parallels with Gamma World in that the player characters go out into the world and explore the ruins and devices of the past in the hope that they can use them to improve the society of today. In a sense, Numenera is a dungeon bash game, the characters delving across, down, up, and beyond into the wonders of the past to plunder its relics, but the technological and the fantastical elements of the setting push it away from that as does the fact that the characters are not delving necessarily for riches. As a game, Numenera is a contemporary design in that it embraces both rules light mechanics and light storytelling mechanics.

Characters in Numenera are primarily humans in one form or another—visitants are an advanced option and one of three Types—Glaives, Nanos, or Jacks. Glaives are warriors, either wearing heavy armour and wielding heavy weaponry or relying light arms and armour to give them movement and agility. Nanos are sorcerers, capable of tapping into the Numenera to alter reality or learn more about it, wielding ‘Esoteries’ to command nano-spirits. Jacks are somewhere in between, being flexible in what they can do, capable of learning to fight, using ‘Esoteries’, and more. At their core, each character is defined by three stats—Might, Speed, and Intellect, and a descriptive sentence. This sentence has the structure of “I am a [adjective] [noun] who [verbs]”, where the noun is the character’s Type; the adjective a descriptor, such as Clever or Swift, that defines the character and how he does things; and the verb is the Focus or what the character does that makes him unique. For example, “I am a Charming Jack who Murders”. A player will also need to assign some points to the three Stats and choose some options in terms of Background—how the character became a Glaive, Nano, or Jack—and select some skills from the Type. The choice of descriptor and the verb further defines and modifies the character, whilst the Background and the Connection help hook the character into the setting. Characters begin at Tier One and can advance as far as Tier Six, gaining skills and abilities along the way.

The three sample characters attempt to showcase what the system can do. The Glaive is intentionally basic, almost bland, primarily a fighting man in a strange world, so that the Nano and Jack have something to compare with. The Nano is capable of talking to machines and has an innate understanding of numenera, but the downside is that the people around think him odd. The Jack has implants from the past that enable him to manipulate gravity, but does not know where they are from and how they work. The answers might lie with his father, but he has gone missing.

Thre’un
“I am a Strong Glaive who Rages”
Tier One Glaive
Might 17 (Edge 1)
Speed 12 (Edge 1)
Intellect 9 (Edge 0)
Effort 1

Cyphers (2): (Two Cyphers selected by the GM)
Physical Skills: Breaking inanimate objects, Climbing, Jumping, Practiced with all armour, Practiced with all weapons
Fighting Moves: Bash (1 Might), Thrust (1 Might), Frenzy (1 Intellect)
Equipment: Great hammer, broadsword, shield, medium armour, explorer’s pack, 5 shins
Connection: Bouncer in a local bar for a while, the patrons recall me
Origin: Inborn Abilities

Huongsem
“I am a Mechanical Nano who Talks to Machines”
Tier One Nano
Might 08 (Edge 0)
Speed 12 (Edge 0)
Intellect 17 (Edge 1)
Effort 1

Cyphers (3): (Three Cyphers selected by the GM)
Esoteries: Distant Activation (1 Intellect), Hedge Magic (1 Intellect), Scan (2 Intellect), Sense Numenera, Ward
Skills: Identifying & understanding numenera, Machine Affinity, Practiced with light weapons
Equipment: Dagger, book about numenera, bag of tools, 4 shins
Connection: An experiment went wrong and the locals remember you 
Origin: Ports & Plugs
Notes: Unnerving aura

Kishiev
“I am a Graceful Jack who Controls Gravity”
Tier One Jack
Might 11 (Edge 0)
Speed 16 (Edge 1)
Intellect 11 (Edge 0)
Effort 1

Cyphers (2): (Two Cyphers selected by the GM)
Tricks of the Trade: Hedge Magic (1 Intellect), Hover (1 Intellect), Pierce (1 Speed)
Skills: Balance & Careful Movement, (Flexible) Skill, Perception, Physical Performing Arts, Practiced with light & medium weapons, Speed Defence
Equipment: Clothing, bow & arrows, explorer’s pack, pack of light tools, device for determining mass, 8 shins
Connection: Worked alongside his father who has since disappeared 
Origin: A Cobbled Jumble

Mechanically, Numenera uses a single mechanic—the roll of a single twenty-sided die against a Difficulty, ranging from zero up to ten. The actual Target Number is the value of the Difficulty multiplied by three, thus giving a range between three and thirty—any action with a Difficulty of zero is automatic. Modifiers, whether from favourable circumstances, skills, or good equipment, can decrease the Difficulty, whilst skills give bonuses to the roll. A character can also spend points from his Stat pools—on a one-to-one basis—to reduce the Difficulty, though a player should bear in mind that the Stat pools reflect his ability to act and take damage when attacked. The cost of spending points from a Stat pool is reduced by its associated Edge, as are the use of a Glaive’s Fighting Moves, a Nano’s Esoteries, and a Jack’s Tricks of the Trade. In some cases, this will reduce the cost to zero, thus reducing it to an innate action. For example, Huongsem has an Intellect Edge of 1, which reduces the cost of his Distant Activation and Hedge Magic Esoteries—both of which cost one point from his Intellect pool to use—to zero and so he can do them instinctively, whereas with his Scan estorie, he must still expend a point from his Intellect pool to use it, though its cost is reduced from 2 to 1. Results of nineteen indicate a success and a Minor Effect, which might be extra damage in combat or something listed for a character, such as ‘Hitting a Muscle’ for the ‘Carries a Quiver’, which inflicts Speed damage as well as ordinary damage. A roll of a natural twenty also inflicts extra damage as well as a Major Effect. 

While the system is simple enough—even if the GM adds any of the given options—the radical, even elegant aspect to the mechanics is that the GM never, ever rolls a die. So whilst a character rolls to attack as normal, when an opponent attacks him, the character rolls to avoid the attack. Essentially the mechanic focus of the game is always on the player characters and they are always the focus of the action and the story. At the same, the shift for the GM is on running and presenting the story, not the dice rolls, and as a development of this idea, player characters receive Experience Points in again, another radical fashion when compared to other RPGs. First and foremost, they are not earned for defeating opponents, overcoming challenges, and so on, but for finding interesting numenera and making discoveries. Secondly, a player character gains them when the GM ‘intrudes’ on the game in storytelling terms to present the character with a challenge or difficulty, such as his crossbow string snapping whilst in combat or the rope slipping whilst climbing. Accept this ‘Intrusion’ and the character earns two Experience Points, one of which he must give to another character. A player could reject this ‘Intrusion’, but that would cost him an Experience Point. If a character rolled a natural one at any time, the GM can give an ‘Intrusion’ that cannot be bought off. However it comes, a GM ‘Intrusion’ replaces the need for him to roll dice and encourages him to participate in the telling of the story.

Over a third of Numernera is devoted to the setting of the Steadfast, its environs and beyond, literally, The Beyond. This is anything that lies outside of the nine kingdoms of the Steadfast and the Beyond the Beyond is also detailed. One such location Beyond the Beyond is The University of Doors, a place of learning found in an alternate universe that can only be reached via one or more hidden doors—getting to the door could be an adventure in itself. These sections are full of interesting details and places—such as the ‘mud’ city of Nihliesh, built atop an ancient, but immobile city-vehicle; that the lady Anatrea of Castle Aventur hosts salons for scholars and nanos, such is her fascination with numenera; and that a sphere of an unknown black material is rumoured to constantly roll across the Plain of Kataru.  Several organisations besides the Order of Truth, including the Convergence, whose members value Numenera as much as the Order of Truth, but for themselves rather than for society itself; the Angulan Knights, who are dedicated to humanity’s advancement and have the blessings of Order of Truth and ride the great xi-drakes as mounts; and the Jagged Dream, a secret anarchist cult dedicated to engineering conflict on a massive scale, are also detailed. The chapter of critters continues the weirdness of the setting with some odd creatures indeed, like the Sarrak, an eight-foot long cat-like predator that has a three-foot diameter ball of energy as a head. A lovely touch is that for each of the creatures, the GM is given an ‘Intrusion’ which he can use to make the encounter more challenging. So for the Sarak, it can suddenly seize control of character’s device to switch it off or turn it against him as an ‘Intrusion’.

Of course at the heart of Numenera are the numenera themselves, the devices of the past that have been put to uses old and new. They come in three types—Cyphers, Artifacts, and Discoveries and Oddities. Cyphers are one-time use devices, such as a Density Nodule that attaches to a weapon and increases its density and damage capacity for a day or Stim, which decreases the Difficulty of a character’s next action by three steps. Common Cyphers are drugs, medicines, or grenades. More desirable are the Artifacts, as they have greater endurance and more obvious application. It might be an Automated Cook or a suit of Battle Armour, a Hoop Staff that projects images into the bronze hoop at its top that warn of danger, or a Telltale Glass that turns red if poison is ever poured into it. Artifacts are not always perfect and may have quirks that the GM can use as ‘Intrusions’. Lastly, Oddities and Discoveries are interesting finds that do not have in game terms any actual mechanical effects, such as crystal that reforms after being smashed or a ring that when warn, gives the feeling of being caressed by warm hands. They can of course, be sold, but they also add verisimilitude to the Ninth World, being essentially the ephemeral gewgaws and knickknacks of a past age.

Interestingly, the player characters are limited in the number of Cyphers that they can each possess by their Type (Glaive, Nano, or Jack). Possess too many and a character’s Cyphers begin to have side effects, sometimes dangerous ones. The people of the Ninth World know this and distrust those with too many. This limit is both a game mechanic and a setting mechanic. It both enforces the fleeting nature of Cyphers and the need to use—because using them is fundamentally cool—whilst at the same preventing any player from just hoarding them.

The GM is supported with his own section of advice that covers using the rules, creating stories, and bringing the Ninth World to life. All three chapters are well written as befitting the author of the highly-regarded Dungeon Master’s Guide for Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition. Rounding out the volume is a quartet of adventures that do a decent job of showcasing and helping the GM to showcase the mechanics and setting of Numenera. Physically, Numenera is a beautiful book. The artwork works very hard to bring the look and feel of the Ninth World to vibrant life. The writing is assured and the layout tidy. The book is also a pleasure to read and organised well—particularly in the early chapters where the author explains the basics of the setting, the basics of the rules, and so on. A nice touch is the author takes the time to explain to the reader the differences between the world of the twenty-first century and that of the Ninth World.

Despite its size and scope, there is a lightness of touch to Numenera that is not to be found in other post-apocalypse set roleplaying games. It shows most obviously in the ‘player facing’ mechanics, but it is the Ninth World itself that comes to dominate with its weird and its wondrous future displayed both in the art and the description. Numenera is a beautiful book and a beautifully realised and accessible, if alien setting that begs us to explore and discover its fantastical science to build a bright new future.

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