Aurican's Lair's "The Great Big Random d100 Table of Interesting NPC's (5e)" isn't exactly random, and can be used for more than D&D. The free supplement is a table of 100 NPCs. Each NPC has the expected description and stats, but also a relevant plot hook and carried equipment, as well as a link to a picture of the NPC. (I haven't checked if all the pictures work.) Entries were made by individual redditors. Most of the NPCs are better in villages and urban environments, rather than as adventurers on the road.

I was browsing DriveThruRPG for random encounter ideas for Dungeon World (a narrative rule-light game where the players are involved in worldbuilding), and found Joran Heimering of Windmill Slam Games' Random Encounter Compilation. I particularly recommend it if your narrative games are high on improvisation, namely asking the players to flesh out the background "what and why" of a seed, rather than having you do the work.

The booklet is only six pages long, but each of the five terrain encounter charts, each on one page has 100 entries. Each entry is a brief but often intriguing description. The download is for the On the Shoulders of Heroes campaign setting, but can be used for any generic fantasy world.

Frex, from the Forest, Moors, and Bogs section:

1. Entrance of strange flooded crypt
2. Elf wizard with human apprentice
3. Tipped over halfling cart in ditch
4. A suspicious scarecrow by road side
5. Carpenter shop owned by old elf
6. A wounded unicorn

If you're a fan of Sentinel Comics, pick up this game! The PDF version is a few dollars cheaper than the printed version, so consider buying the print. The mechanics do a good job of supporting superhero cinematics, particularly the GYRO (Green-Yellow-Red-(Knocked) Out) mechanics, which support more abilities as combat becomes more intense. Other mechanics support superhero roleplaying, including roleplaying, itself. My only minor complaint is that you'll often take, after rolling three dice, the middle die result, which is normative, but doesn't feel superheroic (various abilities will allow you to use the other dice, though). I prefer it to the Marvel Cortex system, since the rules are easier to understand, yet still support superhero roleplaying. As for gamers looking only for a superhero system, wait for the core rules. The Starter Kit, as the name suggests, doesn't include character generation, and only uses premade characteres from the Sentinel Universe. Myself, I'm not a fan of the card game, so didn't feel much attachment to the characters.

Paranoia: Forms Pack consists of a pad of 60-some color sheets. The pad is the same size as the Paranoia rulebooks, and fits in the boxed set. Besides the character sheet, the forms consist of, and have five copies of:

• ALPHA COMPLEX IDENTITY FORM - 1 page, identical to the wipe-off character sheet in the boxed set
• ACCUSATION OF TREASON / TERMINATION PERMIT REQUEST - 2 pages
• XP POINT ASYNCHRONOUS CLAIM REQUISITION - 3 pages
• CEREBRAL CORTECH ISSUE REPORT - 3 pages
• SECTOR TRAVEL PERMIT - 3 pages

Forms can distract play by diverting attention, but they can greatly enhance the chaos of the game. Rather than handing a player and waiting for him to fill it out, give the sheets out without the intention of them being filled out. Start off by giving only the first page of a form, then call them out when they haven't filled out the other pages. Or give one page per player, and demand a copy of each form per player. Design a subplot (or adventure) where the players find out the previous troubleshooter party was terminated because they didn't have the right form. The players now must scrounge, threaten, or even turn to the black market or Secret Societies for remaining form or pages. Then there's the ol' giving out the wrong form and demanding the correct one, as well as scribbling Secret Society messages or other important information on the back of a form. And, if you can't think of what to do when the Computer icon shows up on the Computer die, give out (or demand) a form.

The PDF contains the same forms as the physical product. The PDF replicates the entire pad, however, meaning that it's sixty-pages plus a cover page long, rather than only having one copy of each form. You might still want the PDF, since you can then print out all the sheets, hand them to the Team Leader, and have him distribute all five copies of each form to all six Troubleshooters. Should be a little surreal when coming to generating characters. Then have the Team Leader berate the troubleshooters for submitting A5-sized forms on letter-sized paper. Then berate the Team Leader for submitting five copies of A5-sized forms on letter-sized paper. And execute him (after he's executed the rest of the troubleshooters for filling out the forms incorrectly, of course).

The character sheet can also be found on the Mongoose website, in the downloads section. This sheet is a form-fillable PDF.

Have a nice daycycle, Citizen.

INTRODUCT-I-ONN: I usually find gamemaster screens a waste of money. One side has reference sheets I rarely use, and the other side has art that nobody cares about.

INSERT TONGUE HERE: Rather cleverly, though, one side of the Paranoia screen is actually a play area where, during the combat phase, players place their cards on various areas of the screen for both a bonus as well as side effect. Play? I meant more like slam since some slots are better than others. This, of course, means quick play, fast thinking, and hilarity ensuing. The spots have cryptic "labels", such as HELP, CONTROL, and the ever-present INSERT TONGUE HERE -- and, if a certain one of the spaces is selected, the spaces have entirely different meanings, though still related to their unhelpful labels. (I'm not sure how well this plays with the screen at its usual vertical standing, so I'll assume you just lay it flat.) A sheet included with the gamemaster screen explains these effects, such as TROUBLESHOOTER IS TERMINATED, START SINGING THE BATTLE HYMN OF ALPHA COMPLEX, and TROUBLESHOOTER GETS INJECTED WITH HAPPY DRUGS. I would have preferred the sheet itself printed on stiffer paper.

ITEMS OF QUESTIONABLE PROVIDENCE: The gamemaster's side, meanwhile, is part obligatory reference sheets, and another part new material.

The reference sections are: /// PART ONE: DETERMINING NODE >>> Add STAT plus SKILL. NODE Difficulty levels. /// PART TWO: ACHIEVEMENT REWARD LEVELS >>> How much XP for what mission level of achievement. /// PART THREE: IMPROVEMENT >>> XP cost to recover or increase moxie, boost stat, boost skill, acquire new specialist skill. /// PART FOUR: INCREASING SECURITY CLEARANCE >>> You're not cleared for that. /// PART FIVE: EQUIPMENT >>> XP cost for various equipment. Equipment obtained at each level of security clearance.

The new material are lists of ideas the gamemaster may find handy. These ideas are categorized into groups. /// PART SIX: CONSPIRATORIAL MOTIVATION >>> SINISTER / COERCED / IDEALOGICAL /// PART SEVEN: ALPHA COMPLEX LOCATIONS >>> DANGEROUS / UNPLEASANT / ABOVE YOUR SECURITY CLEARANCE /// PART EIGHT: ITEMS OF QUESTIONABLE PROVENANCE >>> TREASONOUS / EQUALLY QUESTIONABLE UTILITY / BIZARRE /// PART NINE: ACHIEVEMENTS >>> SOCIAL ENGINEERING / VIGOROUS TROUBLESHOOTING / WHIMSEY OF THE HIGH PROGRAMMERS

Here're some examples of these lists. Which part they belong to is left as an exercise to the reader.

OVERMEDICATED AND HALLUCINATING / HACKED CEREBRAL CORTEX / OLD-SCHOOL BOMB-THROWING COMMIE WARBOT FOUNDRY / LOYALTY CHOIR PRACTICE HALL / STATELY PLEASURE-DOME DATA DISK JUST FULL OF SECRETS / LEFT BOOT. RATTING NOISE SUGGESTS A SECRET COMPARTMENT IN THE HEEL / BRAIN IN A JAR. DEMONSTRATE EXCESSIVE LOYALTY. / TRUST NO ONE! / DO 500 JUMPING JACKS

PDF VS. PHYSICAL PRODUCT: With the PDF, you could make a flat playing surface for the Action cards, and separate reference sheets for the GM, either as a gamemaster's screen, or other reference use. Plus, you wouldn't want to get that pristine gamemaster screen touched by those grubby player hands, would you? Review the Discussion comments to the PDF, though. Personally, I'd pick up the physical product.

CONCLUS-I-ONN: The Paranoia Gamemaster screen is certainly cleverer than other gamemaster screens, and a useful game aid for those who want even more [REDACTED] with their Paranoia.

INTRODUCT-I-ION

I'll admit that I was backer #1 for the Mongoose Paranoia KickStarter campaign -- and dropped my pledge several days later. None of the original game designers? No James Holloway art? Cards?? I was quite happy with my first edition Paranoia, with its Falls from Great Height chart and specialized skill trees. And, I'd like to think that Paranoia isn't a game where you know all the rules. It's an atmosphere you create with the game as a framework. So, with that level of skepticism, I passed on the KickStarter, thinking that I pretty much had a High Programmer's trove of Paranoia, from first edition through XP.

Well, you know how dangerous thinking is with Paranoia.

OUT OF THE BOX

The boxed set comes with three softcover digest sized books: Player Handbook, Gamemasters Handbook, and Mission Book. Additional Player Handbooks can be purchased separately. The set also has 110 cards, four regular dice, one Computer die, and six wipe-off character sheets. The graphic design and art are perfectly fine (and the books are entirely in color), with the artwork a splended "next generation" of uncomfortableness suited for the complex of Paranoia.

PLAYERS HANDBOOK

The Player's Handbook covers character generation, basic actions, moxie, and combat. The game is appropriately rules-light and don't expect the gamemaster to follow them, either.

Character Generation: You have Attributes, and you have Skills. Random generation? Spending points? You may have remembered the Amber roleplaying game (okay, you didn't), where you bid against the other players to rank your ability score against them. Well, Paranoia has another "meta-generation" mechanic, where you screw your buddy before your character is made. Starting with the player to the left of the gamemaster, you pick a Skill (not Attribute) at level 1. Okay. Except that the player to that player's left gets the same Skill at NEGATIVE level 1. Then, it's that person's turn to pick a different Skill at +1. Once every player has a +1 and -1 Skill level, it goes to +2 and -2. Then +3 and -3. You get the idea. And, nope, you can't select a skill you already have (no adding a positive to your negative skill), and, double-nope, the direction of skill chargen is to the left, you're not going to get back at the player who gave you the NEGATIVE skill level -- at least not yet!

Okay, you do, thank The Computer. From the Skills you will generate your Attribute values, except that, yep, the player to the left, the same player who's received all these negative skill levels, gets to assign the values to the attributes. And, also, before you met your frienemies, you picked three adjectives to describe your character, such as "handsome, brave, loyal", and that player to your left gets to change one of the adjectives to its opposite. So you could be "ugly, brave, loyal", "handsome, chicken-hearted, loyal" or even "handsome, brave, traitorous filthy terrorist mutant scumbag". (Oh, and any rumors you have have heard about ditching Communists for Terrorists are untrue. Report to re-education for brainscrubbing.)

You can, of course, create characters in the boring conventional way (or use, gasp, pre-gens). Players can improve their stats by burning their Moxie and even Clone lives, but tell 'em later, once you and your bretherin find your comfort (or at least dead traitor) zone with the system. (I think the record number of clone executions in a briefing I've had was five. For a single player.)

Basic Action: Roll dice. Specifically, the GM tells you what Attribute and Skill, equipment, and other modifiers you will use, and you roll that number of dice. This is called your NODE, which is short for "Number of Dice [You're still not cleared for that]". For every five or six, you succeed. You need blah number of successes depending on the difficulty level. Huzzah! But, wait. What if your total number of dice is negative because your CHUTZPAH attribute is 0 and your STEALTH skill is -3 and you're sneaking past two Blue IntSec guards with neuro whips and too much free time? The Computer, in its infinite glory, encourages troubleshooters to try new challenges, and allows you to still roll the absolute value (hah! you thought you'd only use it once in that other RPG) of dice. Except that, for every one through four, you subtract a success. Huzzah! Oh, and did we mention that The Computer has blessed you with an additional credit-free die you roll with the six replaced with an icon of our beloved Computer (and not a Ghostbusters symbol)? The result of rolling this icon is that you lose one Moxie of stress and also [you're not cleared for that]. And the regular dice you roll are a combination of white high-programmer plastic with black infrared pips, so make sure you don't touch the white part when rolling the dice.

Moxie: So we've mentioned Moxie twice, and it's (ugh) hit points. But it's roleplaying hit points! Much like Call of Cthulhu's Sanity Points, where the more earnest players would say, "Hey, pass the Necronomicon", when you run out of Moxie (you can also spend it on stuff like rolling an extra die and [you're not cleared for that]), you can play one of your adjectives to the hilt, or the GM can roll your roleplay on the Losing It table. (Strangely enough, the text says that when you've lost all your Moxie, you may feel "All-consuming hatred of something or someone in the immediate area" which seemed to be SOP for most Paranoia players I've encountered even before combat.) You can regain Moxie through stimulants, spending XP, or activating a new clone. (You gain XP through surviving missions, achieving other objectives, and other Alpha Complex carrot sticks. You can spend XP on Moxie, Equipment, Clearance Level and... what happened to credits? What do you mean by "credits", Citizen??)

Combat: Combat consists of rolling a number of dice based on your VIOLENCE and GUNS, and saying "I hit it". Well, not just that. Each combat, player will receive a hand of shiny color cards, called Action Cards, typically one hand of four for the entire combat. Each round, each player chooses an Action card. After every player places their card face-down, the GM counts down, from high to low, and a player reveals his Action card at the Action Order number on the card. Okay, not just that. A player claims his Action card is at such-and-such a number (preferably higher than the other player pointing his laser barrel at them), and any other player may challenge him. If the challenger is wrong, the challenger loses an Action card. If the challenger is right, the challenging player immediately gets to make an action (so can have more than one action during a combat round), and the challenged player discards the card and takes a Basic Action at the end of the round. (So look forward to claims and challenge cards when players only have Action Order 0 cards in their hands!) You can always perform a Basic Action instead of playing and discarding what's written on the card. Yes, I do think that player wielding a Megaphone that lets him to act at Action Order CHUTZPAH +3 works in tandem with his laser pistol (until somebody like the GM gets tired of it and shoots him). Equipment cards and Mutant Powers cards are also Action cards. (Although they have no Action Order number, I suppose you could use your Secret Society and Bonus Duty cards as Action cards if your real-life Chutzpah was high enough...). And some of the Action cards are Reactions, used only during another player's turn (including GM). You can still play Paranoia with just Basic Action roll. But I think the cards do a good job as inspiration to do crazy things you might not think of at the moment. The cards certainly don't restrict options during combat. (Myself, I'm thinking of sticking post-its over the text of each card to encourage good roleplaying.) Paranoia also has wounds, which are entirely different from hit points (of course not). For every additional success rolled during combat, the target suffers a wound. Wound states are Hurt, Injured, Maimed, and Dead. Sadly, "vaporized" is no longer a status (and the Falling From Great Heights table seems to be misplaced), but, hey, there's always that computer icon on the red die when that character is out of Moxie...

GAMEMASTERS HANDBOOK

Much like previous editions of Paranoia, the boxed set does a very good job of providing the gamemaster helpful advice -- including for breaking rules -- to help him run a game of Paranoia. The handbook also tells us about Alpha Complex: Alpha Complex itself, The Computer, DAIVs, the Cerebral Cortech and Data Feed ("All data is recorded and stored. Not analyzed, however."), XP points (treason stars are still used, but gasp credits are now gone -- and, yes, Free Enterprise has something to say about that!), while service groups and societies have pretty much been relegated to a mention. Wait. Credits are gone?? Among other changes, Paranoia uses XP instead of credits to purchase equipment, luxuries, and higher security clearance levels. DAIVs are Deviant Artificial Intelligent Viruses, which the Computer is naturally afraid of, and will shut down entire sectors to get rid of. And, of course, DAIVs can infect a clone's Cerebral Cortech and Data Feed. The Cerebral Cortech and Data Feed is a HUD-slash-augmented virtual reality that every clone has (specifically every clone has Cerebral Coretech hardware on the inside of his skull). It's a useful way for the Computer to transmit data, and slow burn way for the Computer to helpfully interfere with troubleshooter activity. Alpha Complex does have "dead zones" which a gamemaster can conveniently use whenever troubleshooters need to or otherwise can do treasononus acts, like Secret Society shenanigans. Speaking of which...

About a fourth of the book are the secret societies (including Communist, which I though was announced as [REDACTED]). Personally, I thought the Secret Societies didn't get enough attention in previous editions (about half a page in first, second, and XP editions). Here, the gamemaster is provided specific tasks he can drop into an adventure, and bennies he can hand out to secret society members. We're also given some paragraphs of several High Programmers involved in their secret societies, as well as an "alignment graph" so gamemasters have a high-level view of how the secret societies have overlapping and opposing interests.

With Paranoia being a rules-light game system with its own uniquely absurd atmosphere, the Gamemasters Handbook also encourages you to modify and even relegate to heresay and rumor any aspect of Alpha Complex that you wish. It shouldn't be too difficult to bring back CBay (or, at least, Free Enterprise's attempts to bring it back!) or the ever-popular tongue-tattoo ID. ("Show me your ID." "NYAAAHH..." Fun times.)

MISSION BOOK

Although conventionally last, this book actually should be read first. The book consists of three related missions, and a new version of the classic White Wash scenario. The first mission actually starts the players at Infrared level (completely with bossy Red troubleshooter), and gradually introduces the game mechanics. Given Paranoia's rules-light game system, a gradual introduction isn't necessary, but not all gaming groups will be used to its game style, and it's novel for regular Paranoia players to play as Infrareds. The next two missions are of the more conventional SNAFU side. I did feel that, compared to first edition Paranoia adventures I own, NPCs took a greater role in the missions, and the missions were not as detailed as other adventures (not that a rules-light game system has to be). The missions do have more involvement by Secret Societies, which I felt was overlooked in adventures from previous editions. So, overall, while relatively lightweight, you do get four missions versus one in (some) previous versions.

CARDS

One reason I overlooked the KS was that I thought the cards were going to be the focus of the game. They're not. Think of them as mini-supplements, player inspiration, that sort of thing. Whee.

EQUIPMENT CARDS: The boxed set comes with twenty-two Equipment cards. Paranoia has three categories of equipment: Regular, Non-Standard, and R&D. Regular equipment, such as laser pistols and armor, don't have cards, nor does R&D equipment (you know what this stuff is). Non-Standard equipment includes combat-oriented stuff like The Minigun and Grenade X3, with some odd but usefull stuff like a Friction Enhancer and Fake Moustache. Their Action Order (see Combat) is an attribute plus a number, such as CHUTZPAH + 4 for the Fake Moustache. The add NODE dice based on their level, such as SMALL Level 1 for the aforementioned Fake Moustache. Equipment cards have additional text, which can be easily covered up with a small Yellow clearance Post-It if the Gamemaster so desires. In the meta-spirite of Paranoia, you could make additional Equipment Cards, hand them to players you don't like, then, later in the game after they've used the cards, question them why their Equipment Cards look like some gamer scrawled on them when they shoule using official shiny color Paranoia boxed set cards.

SECRET SOCIETIES: The boxed set comes with fifteen Secret Society cards, two printed with "NO SECRET SOCIETY" and two of the Computer's own Internal Security Secret Society (yep, it's official). During character generation, the Gamemaster deals each player a card. This assists character conflict, since each player will be in a different Secret Society (the Gamemaster Handbook's Secret Society chapter does give suggestions for faction play.) If you do enjoy factions (always fun to root out the competing splinter group, or participate in a friendly competition against your fellow Death Leopards), just make photocopies or use the PDF version. Use treasonous Magic the Gathering cards as backs, slip the card and photocopy into the card sleeve, slip the secret message from the player's Secret Society also into the card sleeve, maybe or not maybe tell the player that he has a secret message, and have his secret society chew him out when he doesn't find it. The cards are essentially player aids, to give them something sneaky to do. That's always a good thing.

BONUS DUTY: A set of six cards, either the team leader or The Computer assigns the role of each party member to their duty during the mission: Team Leader, Science Officer, Happiness Officer, Combat Officer, Equipment Officer, and Loyalty Officer. Again, these cards are player aids, assisting overt roleplay, as troubleshooters obstrusively abuse their role to annoy their fellow party members.

YOU ARE NUMBER ONE: A single pretty card that the troubleshooters will compete for to be The Computer's special [REDACTED] to receive special treatment from NPCs and The Computer. Use arbitrarily. Reassign favor when warranted and/or bored.

PDF SECTOR vs. PROCESSED DEAD ORGANIC MATTER WITH SPLENDED BINDING

Paranoia also comes in PDF format, but the cards and computer die make me recommend the boxed set. The Players Handbook, GM handbook, and Mission Book are separate books so there's none of that icky sharing stuff (at least between the GM and the riff-raff). The boxed set also comes with wipe-off character cards, or you can download an editable PDF from the Mongoose website. You're entirely welcome, citizen.

CONCLUSION

Paranoia's latest incarnation is a streamlined, rules-light, game system with new mechanics that should be easy to follow, and additional ideas you can add or ignore at your leisure. The missions were, imo, a little light, but, considering how much I ignored and faked my way through earlier edition adventures, I'm not going to worry about that. There is nothing to worry about. The Computer has everything under [REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED].

Introduction: Savage Tales of Horror is a three-volume set of independent adventures for the Savage Worlds roleplaying game. Even though Savage Worlds has its Savage Worlds Horror Companion, these scenarios can be played with just the core rules. The adventures are based on different Savage World settings, but, again, only the core rules are necessary. This is definitely an unusual approach for adventure collections, which typically center around only one roleplaying game setting. However, given the mortality rates in horror, and gaming groups who can only meet for a one-shot game, these collections are an excellent way for roleplayers to play a variety of horror settings without having to learn another roleplaying game system. They also introduce the gaming group to Savage World's other game systems, which they might not otherwise be exposed to. Many foes have special abilities, so you should be familiar with combat in the Savage World game system. Spoilers ahead, of course. (fwiw, The reviews of the Savage Tales volumes were written in reverse order. Comments common to all three tales are included in all three reviews.)

Face Snatchers: A witch! A witch! Burn her! This generic fantasy adventure finds the players forced by the town to judge a poor elderly woman to be burned at the stake. The mayor says she's a witch, the priest doesn't, and the only witness is a young child. The night turns into chaos as the real witch(es) take vengeance against the town with their minions, former villagers with no faces. Townsfolk are captured, and, as the Mayor proclaims, it's up to the heroes to "track the fiends". While there's plenty of activity before the Final Boss Fight, the gamemaster might wish to add a few encounters in the lair (with root-based monsters) before the final scene. The climax has some creativity, as the witches and their familiars can try to dupe the heroes in various ways.

Cold Storage: Written by Savage Worlds game designer, Shane Lacy Hensley, Cold Storage takes place in 1965, and the players are "all young and beautiful actors and actresses looking for their big break." They'll be attending a party on a great ship to "hobnob with directors, casting agents, movie stars, and other hopefuls." Except they find themselves in the cold freezing water of Alaska, as they see the ship behind them, inverted, and sinking into the water. The survivors enter the only building in the area, whose only activity is a Christmas party held at... 34 degrees Fahrenheit. The party starts off with several eccentric NPCs treating the characters very strangely, ending with a repentant NPC who tells one of the players what's going on and how they can escape. Myself, I would have preferred the players becoming suspicious, but gradually building up the creepiness, and finding out the situation and escape routes on their own. The adventure bills itself as an homage to EC Comics, so I guess that's an explanation for the unsubltety of the adventure.

The Retreat: The Retreat starts off with an homage to The Evil Dead, then turns into monstrous not-exactly zombiefest, including fractious survivor factions that must be dealt with. Rather than ally with any particular faction, event-driven encounters move the party from one faction to another, until they finally find the key to their escape. The adventure is on the linear side and assume the players act as heroes, but, otherwise, quickly executes its novel encounters, and includes some story seeds the gamemaster can further develop. Of the Savage Tales of Horror adventures, I like this one the most, although I still recommend volume three's LARP adventure for beginning gamemasters and players.

Manor of Blood: Set in London, in the early 1900's, the players are members of the Society for Psychic Truth, something of an agency of occult detectives. Sir Findley has inherited his estranged father's house, rumored to be haunted. The members must either prove the house is safe, or put the spirits to rest. The ending could have used a few more hints, but, at least it's a change from the usual ghostly tropes. I think I would have liked more adventures similar to this one.

Moonshine Blues: The suspicious death of bootlegger Whitey leads to more pulp action than pulp horror as the investigators are soon hired by pristine personality, Ruby Ray, to track down the man's killer. Ruby insists his bodyguard, former Boxer "Locomotive" Mike, accompanies them. Assuming the party is heroic (or foolish) enough to accept Ray's temporary employment, they will encounter icthynites, transforming swamp people, a mad scientist, the Black Hand mob, a roomful of undead guests, including one that only speaks Spanish. The adventure is set in Deadlands Noir, with notes on how to convert it to non-Deadlands noir settings.

Conclusion: I would describe these Savage Tales of Horror as adventures, as much as horror. Characters can fight off most of the threats, though the foes are often flexible enough for a game master to adjust ad hoc. Some investigation and stealth is necessary. Some of the adventures are on the linear side and assume heroic action by the characters. And, as said, the adventures are for different Savage Worlds, so they're best played by players who prefer or can only play one-off adventures. The Retreat stands out as, I think, easier to run and action-packed enough for players. The LARP adventure from volume three I would recommend for new gamemasters and players.

Introduction: I find it somewhat ironic that Savage Worlds, an RPG game system that supports miniatures, has unique game settings that, if you play several of them, become expensive if you wanted miniatures for each of the settings. That is, while you'd be able to use your generic western miniatures in both Deadlands and Sixth Gun, it's unlikely you could use them for Deadlands: Noir or Last Parsec. So, while Pinnacle Entertainment Group has miniatures for soem of their settings, they also have 3D fold-up "figure flats" so you can have inexpensive paper miniatures for your games -- and you don't have to paint them, either!

The illustrations on the figure flats are typically front-views with a silhoutte for the back of the figure. The figures only have a white background, and the same illustration is used for a non-unique figure (ie. all the cowboys in the Sixth Gun figure flat have the same picture). The artist is Cheyenne Wright, although you should expect a comic book image, rather than the full art of his other Savage Worlds illustrations. The miniature size defaults to about 25mm, but you can change the scale for larger miniatures. The preview pics should give you a good idea of the miniatures.

Of the eight page PDF, one page is a cover illustration, three are of human-sized miniatures, and three are one-page overhead views of gigantic creatures. The PDF comes with singles of the unique characters, and five to twelve copies of non-unique ones.

Unique: Becky Montcrief Drake Sinclair Billjohn O'Henry Brother Roberto Kirby Hale Gord Cantrell General Oliander Hume Missy Hume "Filthy" Ben Kinney Silas "Bitter Ridge" Hedgepeth "Bloodthirsty" Bill Sumter "Old" Will Arcene Asher Cobb Griselda

Non-Unique: Cowboys Pinkertons Husks Indians Griselda Serpent Men

Gigantic creatures: Thunderbird The Winter Wolf Great Wyrm

As a miniature painter, I found these flats to be useful for reference in painting the Savage Worlds Sixth Gun RPG metal Miniatures Set (Becky Montcrief, Drake Sinclair, Gord Cantrell, Brother Roberto, Billjohn O’Henry, Missy Hume, Asher Cobb, and General Oliander Bedford Hume). However, if you don't paint or don't plan to play with these personalities in your Sixth Gun games, you're better off with the figure flats. You can use many of these miniatures in weird west and generic western games, and make multiple copies.

Introduction: Savage Tales of Horror is a three-volume set of independent adventures for the Savage Worlds roleplaying game. Even though Savage Worlds has its Savage Worlds Horror Companion, these scenarios can be played with just the core rules. The adventures are based on different Savage World settings, but, again, only the core rules are necessary. This is definitely an unusual approach for adventure collections, which typically center around only one roleplaying game setting. However, given the mortality rates in horror, and gaming groups who can only meet for a one-shot game, these collections are an excellent way for roleplayers to play a variety of horror settings without having to learn another roleplaying game system. (LARP of Horror can also be played as an origins chapter of modern-day heroes.) They also introduce the gaming group to Savage World's other game systems, which they might not otherwise be exposed to. Many foes have special abilities, so you should be familiar with combat in the Savage World game system. Spoilers ahead, of course. (fwiw, The reviews of the Savage Tales volumes were written in reverse order. Comments common to all three tales are included in all three reviews.)

Love on the Mountain: Set in the Deadlands, Love on the Mountain has the party on a lovelorn adventure to help out the tenderfoot Merle King find his beloved Jo Ann in the mountains, "captured" by the bearlike Claude Clifton. With this being the Deadlands, a the posse discovers, soon enough, that this is not a mundane adventure. The "hook" of the adventure, I thought, was a little forced, assuming the players would side with the romatic Merle without doing some investigation and fact-checking ahead of time. The NPCs, however, are quite colorful, so, if you or another player enjoy personalities (both major and minor NPCs) in your adventures, you'll find plenty of opportunities. Also, for those gamemasters who enjoy chewing the scenario, the encounters of the mountain path do a good job building up the atmosphere. (Practice a little sleight of hand when you draw cards from the playing deck, or preselect the cards -- BLACK cards -- ahead of time!) For those gamemasters who like to pillage adventures, Love on the Mountain has a gang of disreputable cowboys he can use as enemies for other old west adventures, as well as those spooky mountain encounters I mentioned.

Skitters: A modern-day adventure, Skitters has the players as a cast of researchers in a small town (it's not Mayberry RFD, but it sure comes to mind!), investigating sheep disappearances that have no sign of wolf or other activity. As minor characters, the NPCs have easily run personalities, so you can let players play the town gossip, the excited farmer whose sheep have disappeared, the mayor who doesn't want a town panic, and so on. Inevitably, the local air force is called in, but the adventure has hooks to keep the researchers involved as key support in defeating the menance, as well as following up on its demise. Strange that the bones of the sheep still can't be found. Oh, and did anyone check that the cave network of the spider is attached to the town sewers? You'll have to set up the town vs. spiders miniature battle if you want, but stats are provided. The adventure comes with NPC townsfolk and a research team of pregenerated characters.

Blood on Ice: The adventure opens with the characters as members of Artemis Security and Intelligence, escorting four American university prfessors to a conference on democratic governance. The party is overworked, stressed, and tired, but this is just the opening of the adventure, as militants attack the escort. The co-founder of ASI himself offers the party a rest in Washington, followed by a security investigation job at Jukkasjärvi, Sweden’s famous Frozen Hotel. At the Frozen Hotel, the party is greeted by Sven Helvete, the CEO/Owner, and Axel Nyquist, Chief of Security. Helvete discusses how nine of his security staff members have been murdered over the past two weeks. The killers seem to be using some kind of trained wolf or bear in their attacks. Helvete thanks the team for taking this job, while Nyquist resents the outsiders. Helvete suspects his neglect to maintain the Kyrka, a rarely used local religious building and former tourist location, has something to do with it, since a protest by some locals happened a few months before the strange attacks around the Kyrka grounds. The adventure has some good ideas on how modern-day supernaturals would function in today's world, but I thought the second half of the adventure was too linear, assuming the players would act a certain way, and lacking subtlety, with the supernaturals revealing their hand rather than erring on the side of caution and secrecy. Still, if you want an action movie rather than a guarded secret, then this adventure should work for your group.

LARP of Horror: "To Arms, defend the town!" Or, at least the barn. A LARP ritual goes awry, as a demon is released, subjugating our poor heroes into a series of teenage horror movie and vampire slayer tropes. The scenario is linear, with NPCs often telling the players what to do, but, since the characters are desperate newbies, not experienced adventurers, this shouldn't be a problem. The adventure itself is a good introduction to Savage Worlds, and could be a good origin for a modern day supernatural setting, including Savage World's mystical East Texas University. (Remember to add a curse from the evil bad guy for the party to stumble upon supernatural threats for the rest of their lives!) It presents a variety of encounters not found in most generic fantasy adventures (eg. non-lethal combat, supernatural traps), with simple mechanics resolution. Characters also gain supernatural abilities as they survive, a subtle way to introduce experience to the game. The game comes with pregenerated characters, including why they're playing a LARP.

Rosewood: "Shortly after the 2056 supply run, radio communication with Ares I was lost." Your players are the second emergency team investigating Ares I, a permanent Mars colony. The green material showing on the long range cameras suggest that Ares I was built on an oasis. But certainly that's impossible. What's also odd is that the commander of Ares I has no idea of the first emergency team. Let's hope that the second emergency team is more wary than the first. The adventure has the Ares I crew as additional NPCs which gamemaster assistants could play.

PDF vs. Hardcopy: For adventures, I typically recommend PDFs over hardcopies. With a PDF, you can print out the adventure you're playing for the night, rather than bring the entire book with you. You can print pages on color, then cut them out as visual handouts (some of the Tales of Horror adventures also have handouts). You can cut out and give the players any pregenerated characters (although I would have preferred them to be on half-pages, rather than across a two-column format). You can take notes on the printouts. And, of course, the PDFs are less expensive.

Free Test Drive: I should note that Savage Worlds has a free Test Drive modern-day horror adventure, The Wild Hunt, originally given out on Free RPG Day 2011. The sixteen-page PDF has a short four-page adventure, pregenerated characters, figure flats, and six-page core rules including character generation. A review can be found on RPG.net : https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/15/15319.phtml

Conclusion: I would describe these Savage Tales of Horror as adventures, as much as horror. Characters can fight off most of the threats, though the foes are often flexible enough for a game master to adjust ad hoc. Some investigation and stealth is necessary. Some of the adventures are on the linear side. And, as said, the adventures are for different Savage Worlds, so they're best played by players who prefer or can only play one-off adventures.

LARP of Horror stands out as a scenario new gamemasters and players should try for their first games of Savage Worlds. It introduces them to the Savage World game system, without overloading them with the mechanics, yet uses situations that are uncommon in generic fantasy roleplaying. Blood on Ice and Rosewood are better suited for gamemasters who can play various NPC roles, or have assistants to help him. Love on the Mountain would work best with "romantic" players who believe in uniting lost loves. Skitters should be fun for a "giant insect vs. small town" B-movie session, with optional miniature skirmishes for all those plastic spiders from your dungeoncrawl miniatures game or last Halloween party. I've reviewed volumes two and three, and would recommend whichever has settings you and your players would like to play, or volume two for its newbie-friendly LARP of Horror adventure.

Introduction: Savage Tales of Horror is a three-volume set of independent adventures for the Savage Worlds roleplaying game. Even though Savage Worlds has its Savage Worlds Horror Companion, these scenarios can be played with just the core rules. The adventures are based on different Savage World settings, but, again, only the core rules are necessary. This is definitely an unusual approach for adventure collections, which typically center around only one roleplaying game setting. However, given the mortality rates in horror, and gaming groups who can only meet for a one-shot game, these collections are an excellent way for roleplayers to play a variety of horror settings without having to learn another roleplaying game system. They also introduce the gaming group to Savage World's other game systems, which they might not otherwise be exposed to. Spoilers ahead, of course.

Isle of Death: This adventure takes place within Savage World's Weird War II setting. The players are on a routine mission, which crash lands on a Nazi testing island. Up until the lab, much of the adventure is novel for gamers mostly used to generic fantasy or Cthulhu Mythos roleplaying. Players will involve themselves in a dogfight (read up on the Dogfight Chase rules!), encounter zombie soldiers while in a crashed plane, and skulk around a POW camp to free some prisoners. However, once in the lab, most of the encounters just end with a monster of the week fight. Gamemasters with some experience should be able to change the mood of the adventure and NPCs to focus more on stealth, or interacting with prisoners and staff who'd rather escape. If you like Savage Worlds as a miniatures game, the adventure has plenty of opportunities for miniatures combat. No pregenerated characters are included, but most players should have an idea how to create a World War II allied soldier.

The Final Page: This adventure takes place in Morden Savage Worlds setting. "The world of Morden is part of a setting book for Savage Worlds named Accursed, a place of dark fantasy where the themes and tropes of Hellboy meet those of Solomon Kane. Only those bearing the forms of monsters can stand against the tide of the Witches’ evil. The Accursed are this world’s only hope — they must learn to embrace their curse or fight against it in order to free their world from the grip of darkness." As someone not familiar with The Accursed, it's a little unclear from this sidebar what sort of character should be generated. I think pregenerated characters would have helped. The Accursed roleplaying site, accursedrpg.com, has a wealth of information about this setting, more than enough to run this adventure. You should also be able to run the adventure with generic fantasy heroes, treated as outsiders sent by an unwelcome body. The adventure primarily happens in a mansion, so it's not too difficult to modify it to a Gothic adventure. With some editing and scaling down of encounters, the adventure could be modified into a Call of Cthulhu-style scenario (or even a Tom Baker Dr. Who adventure, "The Witch in the Mirrors", with its science-fiction-y explanation of horror events!).

Hear Your Scream: This adventure takes place in the Last Parsec setting, and optionally uses the the Savage Worlds Science Fiction Companion. Savage World's Last Parsec Primer free download has additional background the gamemaster and players may wish to use. The gamemaster may also wish to play the free non-horror Last Parsec's Unexpected Colony download adventure beforehand. With the characters in space, their communication devices will go dead, and the players will have to communicate non-verbally. The last pages of the adventure have stats for entities encountee during the adventure, a synopsis of the Kobold crew, and pregenerated characters who may be used in other sf games. The adventure starts off with a distress signal, and the players find themselves having to make a decision: who stays on the ship, and who boards the disabled space craft? Tales then divides up its adventure into location-based encounters on the disabled space craft, and event-driven ones on the rescuing ship. The plot is a bit more straightforward than I'd like. Two alien crystaline intelligences have been squabbling about for eons, but, being crystals, couldn't do anything about their philosophical opponents. Milleniea ago, mobile aliens found these alien crystals, which then took over their bodies and resulted in planetary war and doom. Time passed, and the Kobold crew discovered these crystals, which took them over as well, resulting in their demise as the aliens, both as crew members and the mobile aliens, fought each other again. Thankfully, one of the crew, who can be revived in the medical bay, isn't quite telling the truth, and can be played by a wily gamemaster (or co-GM). A creative gamemaster can think of other ways for the different entities in this scenario to have their own interests, with the players caught in-between (or having motives of their own). If players are late to the game, the gamemaster can also try some flashback roleplaying of the crew of the Kobold, so that the players can look at them as more than "extras".

Hotel 96: This adventure takes place in the East Texas University world, or can be placed in any modern horror, mystery, or noir setting. Our heroes find their car (and, mysteriously, cell phones) breaking down in front of the ominous Hotel 96. As they enter the hotel, they find themselves within celebration -- of the last night of Prohibition. Alas, they are soon told, by the charred spirits of the hotel, that they must "end this". The hotel of the adventure reminds me quite a bit of that of The Shining, so you may want to watch that movie (with a bright light) for ideas and encounters with those of the hotel's past. As the characters investigate the rooms, they have various premonitions and encounters with various NPCs. Activities which result in disrupting the environment result in various "haunting" effects that happen to the characters. Myself, I would have liked the adventure to be more subtle, giving clues rather than direct instructions, and the NPC encounters fleshed out more into subplots. Pregenerated characters (Freshmen (Novices) with two advances) are included, and may be used in other East Texas University campaigns.

Dance of the Dead: This adventure "is a Soloman Kane adventure for veteran level characters or higher set in London and the wilds of Scotland." Soloman Kane himself is a pulp-era late 16th to early 17th century Puritan, and creation of Conan the Barbarian writer, Robert E. Howard. N'Longa, one of the characters of Soloman Kane, makes an appearance. The adventure itself can fit any generic fantasy city (with a book seller), and its beginning a particularly good model for designing a town adventure. The adventure also features a variety of ghosts from different eras and you can adjust the difficulty levels of the ghosts pretty easily, from wispy to fully material. The adventure is on the linear side, and assumes the characters will act heroically, rather than ally against the enemy, or even defeat him and take his place. Thematically, characters will need to have weapons that can affect ghosts, although the Friends and Foes section says the ghosts the characters fight are material, and do not have the Ethereal ability (can only be harmed with magic attacks) that Ghosts in the core book have.

PDF vs. Hardcopy: For adventures, I typically recommend PDFs over hardcopies. With a PDF, you can print out the adventure you're playing for the night, rather than bring the entire book with you. You can print pages on color, then cut them out as visual handouts (some of the Tales of Horror adventures also have handouts). You can cut out and give the players any pregenerated characters (although I would have preferred them to be on half-pages, rather than across a two-column format). You can take notes on the printouts. And, of course, the PDFs are less expensive.

Free Test Drive: I should note that Savage Worlds has a free Test Drive modern-day horror adventure, The Wild Hunt, originally given out on Free RPG Day 2011. The sixteen-page PDF has a short four-page adventure, pregenerated characters, figure flats, and six-page core rules including character generation. A review can be found on RPG.net : https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/15/15319.phtml

Conclusion: I would describe these Savage Tales of Horror as adventures, as much as horror. Characters can fight off most of the threats, though the foes are often flexible enough for a game master to adjust ad hoc. Some investigation and stealth is necessary. Some of the adventures are on the linear side. And, as said, the adventures are for different Savage Worlds, so they're best played by players who prefer or can only play one-off adventures.

Conan: Jeweled Thrones of the Earth consists of seven separate adventures, each a different part of Conan's world. To reflect how the Conan stories were written, the adventures encourage the reader to run the adventures back in forth in time, and, of course, like any roleplaying game, mix and match the adventures with other gamemaster ideas. Of course, the regular rules assume the adventurers have spent months carousing between adventures, so it's not difficult for the players to find themselves in one part of the world at one time, and another the next. Each adventure should take several gaming sessions.

Devils Under Green Stairs finds the players stumbling across the forgotten city-palace of Zukundu, where a trio of degenerate tribes have an uneasy peace that becomes bloody war. I would say that the adventure is intermediate in difficulty, with the gamemaster having to manage various intelligent (though vengeful) NPCs. The adventure is on the linear side, mostly assuming the adventurers follow a specific plotline in the adventure.

In the Pact of Xiabalba, the players set sail and are engulfed by a terrible storm from nowhere. They find themselves shipwrecked on a mysterious island, with the only survival leads inward as the party searches for water. There, they will hear the sounds of ever-distant war drums, meet soldiers with crests of a severed head, and a ship marooned in the middle of the forest. The adventure is linear, until a point when the players and game master can create their own epic struggle, leading to the climax of the story. The adventure has NPCs, including an experience sailor, haunted by events in his past, whom dramatic players may enjoy playing as PC's.

In Caves of the Dero, our heroes descend into supposedly abandoned mines to find more than reputed treasure. Tales of diabolic sorceries lead to a horrible creation. The adventure felt a little on the dungeoncrawly side, no surprise since Conan is an influence on generic fantasy adventures. This adventure serves as a good model of a "logical" dungeon lair.

The Ghost of Thunder River begins with a prologue where the players play Pict NPCs, who discover the horror behind the adventure. The next scene has the players as their own characters in an outpost woefully unable to cope with the rising attacks by the Picts. As the characters find out about captives taken by the Picts, they must decide between following the garrison commander's order to not help them, lead a rescue, or find the mysterious man now leading these different Pict tribes.

In The Thousand Eyes of Aumag-Bel, our heroes find themselves in a tavern after carousing, only to meet a group of armored men demanding, "Give us the amulet! Give it to us and Aumag-Bel shall let you live!" Aumag-Bel rules the city, and, assuming the PCs defeat the guards, soon find themselves on a chase through the market after losing their amulet to the thief-children, tracking them down to the Den of the Black Lotus. (If the PCs recover the amulet, a substitute sacrifice has been captured and the heroes must rescue her!) A downward tunnel from the den into the depths continues the twisted descent hinted at from the den.

"Will they die as slaves under the brutal summer sun, or break out and triumph, fleeing themselves from dreadful bondage?" The Red Pit starts our poor heroes as slaves in a mining pit, swinging into a revolt and escape. This pit escape is well-detailed and makes a fine epic battle, complete with mighty a'ghama beast. This adventure can be used in other game worlds, since it's not too Conan-specific.

In The Seethers in Darkness, the party has been hired by a scholar to find a lost city in the middle of a desert. A desert storm separates him from the party. Woeful to the heroes, the scholar is successful. This adventure is linear but doesn't feel like a railroad, as the players follow the scholar into the dark. This adventure is basically a series of planned encounters (almost a dungeoncrawl), but with quite a bit of Conan atmosphere. I highly recommend it over the Quickstart adventure.

The last chapter is Seeds of Glory. This chapter is advice for the gamemaster and players in creating -- or not creating -- a campaign for the gaming group. Different suggested outlines for campaigns are provided, as well as a suggestion that, since Conan's stories took place at different times during his life, so can adventure sessions. The chapter also mentions how Conan himself could appear, if desired, without overshadowing an adventure. Finally, the chapter ends with ten or so adventure seeds a gamemaster could develop.

I think the only concern I have about these adventures is, along with the core book adventure, that many of them involve the players pressing forward in dark passages, or encountering the climax of a ritual. Almost all of them have encounters with forbidden sorcery or lost civilizations. (Speaking of lost civilizations, maybe Modiphius could release a campaign where the party gradually learns about a lost civilization, instead of descending right into it.) Perhaps these adventures are better played a breaks between the more conventional generic fantasy adventures, much like the stories of Conan were in his life. Some adventures add fiddly little instructions a gamemaster is supposed to follow (eg. a series of die rolls to see how many enemies show up) that the gamemaster can ignore. I also recommend that the gamemaster run a few combats to familiarize himself with the enemies in the adventures and the game system. Most of them are human and intelligent, though pretty willing to put cause ahead of safety.

Finally, I usually recommend, for adventures, the PDF over book, including Conan: Jeweled Thrones of the Earth. You will only need one chapter at a game session, and can write in the margins for game notes. If you print out the PDF one-sided, you can cut out pictures and text as handouts to players. Some NPCs make fine player characters, and these can be made into handouts as well. Save yourself some money and lighten that load in your pack!

Before mentioning the core mechanics, I'd like to first say that if you're an old-school "GM is God" or "Benevolent Dictator" GM, then you'll want to know that the Mophidius 2d20 RPG system uses a currency mechanic of Momentum and Fortune for players and Doom for the GM to add cinematic effects to the game. This currency mechanic can be house-ruled away from the core "roll dice to make a skill check" mechanics. Myself, I'm fine with it, since I prefer to throw challenges at the players, and let the system worry about game balance.

Skill Checks: Otherwise, Conan uses the commonly seen skill check of making a die roll versus a target number. Characters have Attributes, Skill Expertise, and Skill Focus. Attributes are inherent abilities, and are Agility, Awareness, Brawn (Strength), Coordination, Intelligence, Personality (Charisma), and Willpower. Skills represent specialized training, and each skill is tied to a particular Attribute. When a character makes a skill test, they roll 2d20. Each result equal to or below the character's Attribute plus Skill Expertise is a success. However, if they also roll equal to or less than their Skill Focus, they receive two successes instead. Before making a roll, the game master assigns a difficulty level, typically D1, to determine how many successes needed. If two characters are in opposition to each other, they are considered to be in a Struggle. Both make a skill check against a Difficulty, with the character passing the Difficuty check and making the most successes being the winner. Interestingly, attacks, by default, are at a D1, but, if the defender chooses to give the gamemaster a Doom point, he may choose a Defend Reaction (such as Parry against a Melee attack, Acrobatics against a Ranged attack) and make it into a Struggle.

Cinematic Rules: While many roleplaying games rely entirely upon the game master to make the encounter entertaining, Conan has specific rules for cinematic play. Experienced game masters who enjoy the freedom to "wing it" during a game might not like these rules. New game masters and those who prefer more framework for introducing new elements can now rely upon the game system to be fair and him to not seem arbitrary as he makes an encounter more challenging. Returning to the skill check, a low roll means success, so, if any dice the player rolls is a 20, then the game master can add a Complication for each 20 -- even if the roll otherwise succeeded. For example, a player using his bow may hit his target, but may find himself now out of arrows. Momentum is a currency players can use to add advantageous cinematic effects. For each success greater than the Difficulty, a player gains a point of Momentum. They can spend it on various actions, or placed in a shared pool for later use during the round. Desired Effects indlude adding +1 damage, disarming an opponent, or adding an addtional d20 to a skill test. Since a character starts with 2d20, even the most skilled character will only have two success (three if they make their Skill Focus). Characters may roll additional dice by spending Momentum, generating Doom points for the gamemaster, spending Fortune, or working together as Teamwork. A player character begins with three points of Fortune, and is awarded them for reaching milestones and other in-game accomplishments. They may be spent on a Bonus Die with an automatic roll of a one (hence up to two successes if they have a Skill Focus of at least one), a Bonus Action, etc. A character cannot roll more than three additional dice, except through Teamwork. With Teamwork, additional characters can work together as a team. Each player describes how he is assisting the leader (and doesn't have to use the same skill as the character he is assisting) and rolls one d20. If the leader scores at least one success on his roll, then any successes generated by the assistants are added to the leader's total.

Action Scenes: Any conflict is presented as an Action scene. Action scenes are divided into rounds. The length of a round depends on the encounter. Rounds may last a few seconds in intense combat, or minutes for a village raid. Each round, a character can take a single Standard Action (eg. an attack), a single Minor Action (such as running across a room or another action that does not require a skill test), and any number of Free Actions (eg. dropping a weapon). Additionally, Reactions are special actions characters can take, turning a skill test into a Struggle. Reactions include a Defend (when the defender doesn't want the attacker to use the default difficulty of one), Protect (when a character attempts to defend an ally from an attack), and Retaliate (a melee attack when an enemy attempts to make a non-attack skill test). A character (including NPC) may perform several Reactions, but the first cost a point of Doom, second two points, etc. (The gamemaster gains Doom points to the gamemaster's Doom pool for their characters, while the gamemaster pays Doom points from his Doom pool for NPCs). Players, being the heroes, usually go first, but the gamemaster can spend Doom to allow an NPCs to immediately take their turns. Surprise is treated as a Struggle, and players can still spend Fortune or add Doom if they do not succeed. Rather than a grid, the location of each character is abstracted into zones, as defined by the gamemaster. The game uses five broad range categories (Reach, Close, Medium, Long and Extreme). (Reach is defined as within an arm's reach, while Close is the character's current zone.) Each zone has various zone effects (eg. moving out of an enemy's Reach requires a Withdraw Action as a Standard Action, or risks a Retailate Reaction from the enemy), including terrain tests, which may require a Standard Action as a skill test. Terrain tests are divided into Obstacles, Hindrances, Hazards, and Cover.

Attacks: Conan has three methods of attacking a target: Melee, Ranged, and Threaten. After choosing a target, the attacker chooses a weapon (Melee and Ranged), or a method of scaring the target (Threaten). If the target chooses a Defense Reaction (paying or gaining Doom points), there is a Struggle. Otherwise, it's an Average (D1) test. If the attacker succeeds, he rolls a number of six-sided Combat Dice for Combat Damage. 1-2 causes that much damage. A 5-6 causes one damage and triggers an effect, such as Piercing or Vicious. The defender rolls a number of six-sided Combat Dice, depending on armor, Courage, cover, morale, etc., as Soak. The difference is damage, taken against the defender's Stress. If a defender takes over five damage or has his Stress reduced to zero, the defender takes a point of Harm. In less abstract terms, a Physical Damage Type would cause Stress against the target's Vigor, and Harm against his Wounds, while a Mental Damage Type would cause Stress against the target's Resolve, and Harm against his Trauma. Wounds cause an increase in difficulty for Agility, Brawn, and Coordination tests by one, while Trauma increases the difficulty of Awareness, Intelligence, Personality, and Willpower tests by one. Characters suffering four points of Wounds or Trauma become incapaciated, only able to take actions by spending Fortune. Minor NPCs generally become incapaciated or flee after one or two points of Harm. Momentum (extra successes beyond the requirement to pass a difficulty check) generated in combat can be used to additional effects, such as Bonus Damage, Confidence (additional Morale Soak), Disarm, Penetration (ignore an amount of Soak equal to twice the Momentum spent), Re-roll Damage, Second Wind (recover Vigor or Resolve), Secondary Target (another target within Reach takes half damage), Swift Action (gain an additional Standard Action with a penalty), and Withdraw (leave the Reach of an enemy without triggering a Retailate Reaction).

The Conan RPG, then, has quite a bit of "crunch" and attempts to cover every cinematic action you could have in an RPG. I've only touched upon typical combat, and the game system uses Momentum and Doom to allow players and the gamemaster to add effects to combat. Additionally, the gamemaster will spend Doom to add more challenges to the players, such as spending more Doom to select a more lethal hazard in an adventure. At this point, it's probably best to download the free Quickstart and see if the game system works with your gaming group.

Character Generation: Returning back to the core book, Character Generation is more than selecting abilities and skills. Character background is heavily emphasized, and various skills are dependent on background. The first step in character generation is determining the character's Homeland (randomly or by choice), so a character with a Homeland of Nemedia speaks the Nemedian as his Language, and has the Talent of Cosmopolitan (able to speak with other characters with the Cosmopolitan Talent; several Homelands have the Cosmopolitan Talent). Generating Attributes starts with an optional modification then randomly selects which Attributes the player next modify. The player then selects or randomly rolls their Caste, which grants two caste talents (prior background knowledge), one skill (which may be further trained), a story, and Social Standing. The skill gained adds +1 Skill Experience and +1 Skill Focus to the designated skill. For example, a Warrior Caste has Sentry and Subject as Caste Talents, Parry as a Skill, a story, and Social Standing of 1. Social Standing may have an effect on Command, Society, and Persuade tests, allowing the gamemaster to adjust the Difficulty. Stories add additional background, are randomly rolled or selected, and grant a Trait. For example, a Warrior's story may be that of "Idle Hours Guarding Cold Wars", which has the Hedonous Trait (thanks to many hours of boredom). (By bringing a Trait into play as a Complication, a player may gain a Fortune point.) Next, a player rolls or selects his Archetype. Archetypes include Archer, Barbarian, Mercenary, Noble Warrior, Pirate, Priest, and Witch/Shaman. Archetypes grant a Career Skill, Career Talent, Mandatory Skills, Elective Skills, and Equipment. For example, a Shaman has a Career Skill of +2 Skill Expertise and +2 Skill Focus in the Persuade Skill, Career Talent of Force of Presence, Mandatory Skills of +1 Experience and +1 Focus to Alchemy, Counsel, Healing and Lore, and Elective Skills of two of Animal Handling, Sorcery, or Thievery. Equipment inlcude a toughened leather jacket (Armor 1: Torso/Arms), Healer's Kit, Alchemist's Kit, etc. Then the player selects or rolls for Nature, which comes with an Attribute Improvement (+1 to a single Attribute), Mandatory Skills (+1 Skill Expertise and +1 Skill Focus to three skills), Elective Skills (+1 Skill Expertise and +1 Skill Focus to two skills of a player's choice), and a new Talent, typically associated with one of the received skills. Skills consist of a Talent Tree, in which a Talent may be a prerequisite for another Talent, and Talents can have Ranks by being taken multiple times. While Skills are used for 2d20 rolls, Talents are special abilities. The Agile Acrobatic Talent, for example, allows you to re-roll a d20 when attempting an Acrobatic test. After Nature is Education, which, again, is picked or rolled, and provides mandatory and elective skills, as well as a talent. Then, the player rolls or selects a War Story, such as "Survived a Massacre", which improves specific skills, and lets the player create the background. Character creation continues with Finishing Touches, in which the player chooses various increases in his Attributes, Skills, and Talent, as well as a Language, Fortune Points, Personal Belongings, and a Weapon. Finally, with Final Calculations, the player determines his Vigor, Resolve, starting Gold, and Damage Bonuses. The character generation chapter also has a summary table to create or roll up a character, as well as alternate character creation limitations, for less heroic characters, or characters that are part of a group.

Sorcery and Alchemy: In Conan, the concept of a sorceror isn't the guy in the second row casting fireballs. Although novices (perhaps such as player characters!) may prefer to show off and reveal their true power, more experienced and prudent sorcerors (okay, NPCs!) will prefer to hold back, creating rumors and reputations of the power, as well as allying with and controlling men of power and those they control. That being said, some sorcerors may prefer to turn to Craft and Alchemy to create Petty Enchantments, such as lotus pollen and talismans. Sorcery itself is a Skill Tree, which also includes talents only related to sorcerous knowledge, such as "Protective Superstitions", which allows you to gain one bonus Momentum per rank when in a Struggle against a spell. Sorcery itself has the prequisite of the Patreon talent, and branches into Pact -> Barter Your Soul -> Life Eternal, and Enduring -> Enchanter -> Everlasting Sorcery. Characters acquire spells through the Patreon, Pact -- and Barter Your Soul -- talents. When casting a spell, the character takes a Minor Action to Focus (particularly since the Complications are more frequent when casting spells!). He may use various items, including those which improve his social abilities, such as Persuade and Command. A spell stat block includes Difficulty, Duration, and Cost to Learn / Cost (amount of permanent Resolve to learn the spell, and amount of Resolve it takes to cast). Sorcerors can enhance their spells with Momentum spends, and some spells have Alternative Effects, such as spell reversals. Counter magic allows a sorceror who can cast the same spell to block a rival's spell with a Struggle. Not too surprisingly, with the variety of spells and petty enchantments possible, additional sourcebooks and The Book of Skelos will be available.

Equipment and Upkeep: No more tracking of copper pieces, currency is abstracted. It's still called Gold, but day-to-day expenses are covered under Upkeep. You still can't go to the local We Have Everything In Stock store and just buy what you want. The gamemaster sets a difficulty, and you can use a Society skill test (or Persuade, or even Thievery!) to locate a seller, and can use Momentum to haggle down the price, and your Renown as the seller recognizes your reputation. You typically can only attempt to obtain one of these items per Upkeep. Between adventures, besides Upkeep, players can Carouse and engage in all sorts of activities: Meet a Patron, Trade, Gamble, Engage in Rumors, Recover, Cultivate Renown, and Receive Title. At the end of their Carousing, players roll on the Carousing Events table, which ranges from seeing some grave robbers stealing from the dead, to finding a strange possession. Most of the Carousing Events feel like adventure seeds, and I wouldn't mind seeing a future supplement, of more developed encounters.

Encounters: Speaking of which, the Conan core book includes a healthy monster manual of foes for the player characters. Creature Categories are divided into Minions, Toughened, Nemesis, Horrors, and Undead (some foes have more than one category). Toughened and Nemesis creatures are mechanically similar to player characters. Minions, being more numerous and less threatening than characters, have simplified fighting rules. Enemies often come in Mobs (Minions only) and Squads (Minions lead by a Toughened creature called a Leader). The game system has rules making fighting Mobs and Squads simplified but not too abstract (eg. attacks are similar to Teamwork). Skills are condensed down into Fields of Expertise: Movement, Combat, Fortitude, Knowledge, Social, and Senses. Senses, for example, covers Insight, Observation, and Thievery. After presenting the Special Abilities creatures have, the chapter has a brief discussion of an Encounter Structure, how to design a typical challenging encounter. Creatures are divided into Mortal Foes, Wild Beasts, Monstrous Foes, Otherwordly Horrors, and Characters of Renown. I particularly appreciated the Mortal Foes section, since it provides Bandits, Bodyguards, Cultists, Guards, Pirates, Thugs, and all sorts of staple humans. Wild Beasts include domesticated animals, like Dogs and Camels, as well as foes and vermin. The Characters of Renown section has entries for Conan; Amalric of Nemedia; Astreas, Chronicler of Nemedia; Belit, Queen of the Black Coast; Valeria of the Red Brotherhood; and Thoth-Amon of the Ring.

Adventure: Vultures of Shem. The adventure opens in the aftermath of a bloody ambush of an entire army, hardly the cliched beginnings of the tavern where the party is approached by an almost random stranger or asks around for rumors. Experienced gamemasters may want to brush up on their acting skills for the uneasy soldier encounter the PCs will have. Less experienced ones or gamemasters pressed for time can modify and excise this encounter (or try the Quickstart adventure). The adventure then settles down into a more conventional dungeoncrawl against not-quite-known monsters. What I did like is how the adventure starts off distinguishing itself away from the generic fantasy adventure, and presents enough unknown (whether it be NPCs that have their own self-interests, or monsters whose seem to have a purpose) to differentiate the world of Conan. The adventure is a tad railroady (about reasonable for a premade adventure), but not obviously so, leading to a climax, which, I think, does a good job of impressing players to the world of Conan. (Oh, and if you have a player who insists on being of noble blood, they should be in for a surprise.)

Conclusion: Overall, I think the 2D20 system is a very good fit with cinematic roleplaying and the Conan universe. I started with first generation roleplaying games which tried to fit the theme and genre of a game world into its game system, and like seeing roleplaying systems which pretty much do the reverse. 2D20 still isn't far from "roll dice to hit a target number" so you should be able to still modify the system like you've been doing for other roleplaying games. The Quickstart is free to download, and contains additional content as well as makes for a player handout. I also recommend the PDF to print out the character generation chapters for the players.

The game system itself does a very good job in covering cinematic combat (although sorcery is covered in the core book in its own chapter), the adventure, unfortunately, could just as be easily placed in any generic fantasy world.

Skill Checks: Conan uses the commonly seen skill check of making a die roll versus a target number. However, it then adds additional rules to add cinematic play. Characters have Attributes, Skill Expertise, and Skill Focus. Attributes are inherent abilities, and are Agility, Awareness, Brawn (Strength), Coordination, Intelligence, Personality (Charisma), and Willpower. Skills represent specialized training, and each skill is tied to a particular Attribute. When a character makes a skill test, they roll 2d20. Each result equal to or below the character's Attribute plus Skill Expertise is a success. However, if they also roll equal to or less than their Skill Focus, they receive two successes instead. Before making a roll, the game master assigns a difficulty level, typically D1, to determine how many successes needed. If two characters are in opposition to each other, including combat, they are considered to be in a Struggle. Both make a skill check against a Difficulty, with the character passing the Difficuty check and making the most successes being the winner.

Cinematic Rules: While many roleplaying games rely entirely upon the game master to make the encounter entertaining, Conan has specific rules for cinematic play. Experienced game masters who enjoy the freedom to "wing it" during a game might not like these rules. New game masters and those who prefer more framework for introducing new elements can now rely upon the game system to be fair and him to not seem arbitrary as he makes an encounter more challenging. Returning to the skill check, a low roll means success, so, if any dice the player rolls is a 20, then the game master can add a Complication for each 20 -- even if the roll otherwise succeeded. For example, a player using his bow may hit his target, but may find himself now out of arrows. Momentum is a currency players can use to add advantageous cinematic effects. For each success greater than the Difficulty, a player gains a point of Momentum. They can spend it on various actions, or placed in a shared pool for later use during the round. Desired Effects indlude adding +1 damage, disarming an opponent, or adding an addtional d20 to a skill test. Since a character starts with 2d20, even the most skilled character will only have two success (three if they make their Skill Focus). Characters may roll additional dice by spending Momentum, generating Doom points for the gamemaster, spending Fortune, or working together as Teamwork. A player character begins with three points of Fortune, and is awarded them for reaching milestones and other in-game accomplishments. They may be spent on a Bonus Die with an automatic roll of a one (hence up to two successes if they have a Skill Focus of at least one), a Bonus Action, etc. A character cannot roll more than three additional dice, except through Teamwork. With Teamwork, additional characters can work together as a team. Each player describes how he is assisting the leader (and doesn't have to use the same skill as the character he is assisting) and rolls one d20. If the leader scores at least one success on his roll, then any successes generated by the assistants are added to the leader's total.

Action Scenes: Any conflict is presented as an Action scene. Action scenes are divided into rounds. The length of a round depends on the encounter. Rounds may last a few seconds in intense combat, or minutes for a village raid. Each round, a character can take a single Standard Action (eg. an attack), a single Minor Action (such as running across a room or another action that does not require a skill test), and any number of Free Actions (eg. dropping a weapon). Additionally, Reactions are special actions characters can take, turning a skill test into a Struggle. Reactions include a Defend (when the defender doesn't want the attacker to use the default difficulty of one), Protect (when a character attempts to defend an ally from an attack), and Retaliate (a melee attack when an enemy attempts to make a non-attack skill test). A character (including NPC) may perform several Reactions, but the first cost a point of Doom, second two points, etc. (The gamemaster gains Doom points to the gamemaster's Doom pool for their characters, while the gamemaster pays Doom points from his Doom pool for NPCs). Players, being the heroes, usually go first, but the gamemaster can spend Doom to allow an NPCs to immediately take their turns. Surprise is treated as a Struggle, and players can still spend Fortune or add Doom if they do not succeed. Rather than a grid, the location of each character is abstracted into zones, as defined by the gamemaster. The game uses five broad range categories (Reach, Close, Medium, Long and Extreme). (Reach is defined as within an arm's reach, while Close is the character's current zone.) Each zone has various zone effects (eg. moving out of an enemy's Reach requires a Withdraw Action as a Standard Action, or risks a Retailate Reaction from the enemy), including terrain tests, which may require a Standard Action as a skill test. Terrain tests are divided into Obstacles, Hindrances, Hazards, and Cover.

Attacks: Conan has three methods of attacking a target: Melee, Ranged, and Threaten. After choosing a target, the attacker chooses a weapon (Melee and Ranged), or a method of scaring the target (Threaten). If the target chooses a Defense Reaction (paying or gaining Doom points), there is a Struggle. Otherwise, it's an Average (D1) test. If the attacker succeeds, he rolls a number of six-sided Combat Dice for Combat Damage. 1-2 causes that much damage. A 5-6 causes one damage and triggers an effect, such as Piercing or Vicious. The defender rolls a number of six-sided Combat Dice, depending on armor, Courage, cover, morale, etc., as Soak. The difference is damage, taken against the defender's Stress. If a defender takes over five damage or has his Stress reduced to zero, the defender takes a point of Harm. In less abstract terms, a Physical Damage Type would cause Stress against the target's Vigor, and Harm against his Wounds, while a Mental Damage Type would cause Stress against the target's Resolve, and Harm against his Trauma. Wounds cause an increase in difficulty for Agility, Brawn, and Coordination tests by one, while Trauma increases the difficulty of Awareness, Intelligence, Personality, and Willpower tests by one. Characters suffering four points of Wounds or Trauma become incapaciated, only able to take actions by spending Fortune. Minor NPCs generally become incapaciated or flee after one or two points of Harm. Momentum (extra successes beyond the requirement to pass a difficulty check) generated in combat can be used to additional effects, such as Bonus Damage, Confidence (additional Morale Soak), Disarm, Penetration (ignore an amount of Soak equal to twice the Momentum spent), Re-roll Damage, Second Wind (recover Vigor or Resolve), Secondary Target (another target within Reach takes half damage), Swift Action (gain an additional Standard Action with a penalty), and Withdraw (leave the Reach of an enemy without triggering a Retailate Reaction).

Adventure: The adventure develops over several encounters and teaches the game system. As a spoiler, the plot is that the heroes protect a village from an attack. But I would have also liked the adventure to better expose the players to Hyboria (perhaps through a scholar's writing on Hyboria that holds an important clue the players can use to for the adventure) and an encounter with an important persona in the Conan mythos.

Overall, though, anyone who wants a cinematic RPG should download this Quickstart and give it a try.

Lankhmar: Savage Tales of the Thieves Guild is one of the best city adventure supplements I've read, and can be used in any high-magic city. I think my only criticism of the adventures is that they don't expose the gamemaster or players to anything particularly unique to Lankhmar or Nehwon. Still, not only does the supplement have a good variety of tales, but the adventures should give a gamemaster an idea of how to use a player's guild to hook the party into a scenario, as well as what subterfuge various city factions can engage in -- with the player characters as pawns and peripherals. Several of the adventures include additional mechanics for various thief and city situations (eg. heists, demagoguery). The supplement itself is about one-hundred pages long, with fourteen scenarios. I liked three of them in particular.

The Crimson Barge: The supplement calls The Crimson Barge a "sandbox". Specifically, the Thieve's Guild has declared the luxury ship's maiden voyage fair game to guild and non-guild thieves, as an demonstration to its owner of how valuable the guild's "protection" would be. The adventure presents several very colorful characters -- including other thieves -- leaving the players to plot and plan their way to riches, mischief, or even hobnobbing with nobles and merchants. A rather unfortunate event occurs (hint: maybe the ship's owner should have sailed the ship on a test run), adding a bit of chaos to the players' plans. As a one-shot scenario, though, a game master may have the players play the colorful NPC's instead of their own characters. Also, this scenario is suitable for players as nobles and mercenaries who have been hired for the night. Depending on the demands of his players, a gamemaster may need a fair amount of preparation, or can improvise much of the adventure.

Hammon Heist: More than an adventure, this scenario contains useful rules, guidelines, and advice to a GM running a heist scenario, where the characters gather information to break into a stronghold, as well as the actual break-in -- and things that can go wrong! Additional rules add the "Heist Benny" to reflect how the characters may be prepared in ways the players overlooked (eg. spend a Heist Benny to have some meat to distract the guard gods!). The scenario itself has a magical McGuffin that's an amusing plot twist in its own right.

Scrolls of Eximir: Less of a Guild assignment than an adventure, Scrolls has the players encountering Eximir, a slightly batty old wizard who thinks he's already hired the party to retrieve a set of scrolls from his own temporality-displaced wizard's tower. The tower consists of several rather creative and dangerous encounters, implicitly encouraging the gamemaster to add his own strange ideas to the adventures. Amusingly, Eximir comes off as a bit scatty, yet is as powerful as Sheelba and Ningauble. He should make an amusing (if unwanted) patron!

The adventures are remarkably concise -- no encounter padding here -- but the limitation of space means many of the adventures are pretty linear. Players may need to spend bennies to succeed in a roll or the adventure halts. The gamemaster should expect to improvise to guide the players back to the adventure, or develop any alternate plans the players come up with.

Often, an adventure will have the players make a roll to see if they recall a rumor or other important streetwise information. One suggestion for these adventures is that, instead of this, the gamemaster prepares rumors or whatnot during one adventure that will be useful in another. The PDF format of the book allows a gamemaster to print out whatever pages have a rumors, cut out this information, glue them to index cards, and hand them out during the campaign.

Also, just for fun, if some players are running late, the gamemaster can roleplay out a prologue. Players act out the Guild higher-ups deciding among their guild members whom to select for a task. They eventually settle on the player characters (particularly those associated with the players who are late), citing notable qualities such as "expendable", "owes me money", and "stingy with donations to private funds".

Lankhmar: City of Thieves is a 98-page supplement for the Savage Rules game system, adding new rules for Lankhmar roleplaying, as well as an overview of the city Lankhmar and the world of Newhon. The supplement includes additional rules for general city adventuring. The source material can be changed to suit the GM's needs.

Introduction: The introductory chapter provides an overview of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series.

Characters: This chapter starts off with a description of the archetypes in the City of Lankhmar, most of which, of course, can be used in any large city (eg. bandit, explorer, guard, noble). The chapter then reviews character generation, with race, new hinderances, and new edges. Races are limited to humans, ghouls, and ratlings, with humans culturally divided into Lankhmar, Kleshite, Northerner, and Mingol. Most of the new hinderances and edges can also be used in generic fantasy roleplaying.

Gear: This chapter begins with short rules for selling "acquired" goods (hint: take Streetwise), then goes into detail of various adventurer's equipment, weapons, tavern costs, and vehicles. This section works quite well for city-based generic fantasy.

Setting Rules: These rule modifications reflect Lankhmar stories, but can also be used for more heroic and thief-based adventuring. Characters can be knocked unconscious, recover wounds faster, and even have bonuses for eschewing armor. Rules are provided for shadowing other characters. Also, an overview of Guilds is discussed.

Sorcery: Lankhmar's Black, White, and Elemental magic system is entirely different from the conventional generic fantasy magic of Savage Worlds. This chapter, then, provides a detailed, alternate magic ruleset to reflect the magic in Fritz Leiber's stories. Savage World players who want to use magic should be aware of these rules changes (including the absence of offensive magic).

Adventures: LCoT comes with two city adventures. While they show the callousness of Lankhmar towards human life, these adventures could have just as easily taken place in any large city. I didn't get an impression of how these adventures were uniquely Lankhmar.

Gazetteer and Nehwon: Both of these sections provide an overview of the city Lankhmar and the geography of Nehwon, with the Gazetteer being player knowledge, and Nehwon for the GM. Details will be needed to be fleshed out by the GM.

Heroes and Villains: Savage World stats for Fafard and the Gray Mouser, at various stages of their lives, are provided, as well as NPC stats for various city archetypes, and Newhon races. Fafard and Gray Mouser's patrons, Ningauble of the Seven Eyes, and Sheelba of the Eyeless face, are described. (No stats are provided as befits their alien and strange natures.)

Conclusion: Lankhmar: City of Thieves does a good job summarizing Lankhmar for Savage Worlds play, as well as providing rules and source material supplements for any large city. The source material are conventional high-level descriptons, which rules changes are specific. If the GM has a copy of this supplement, and, for whatever reason, doesn't wish to adhere to the Newhon world (eg. wishes to use a different magic system), the material can be easily adapted to their needs.