The Corwyn Catacombs by Jake Bhattacharyya (@MagnifCreations)

In the spirit of full disclosure, I was provided a review copy of this supplement for a full and honest review.

This is a fantastic one shot with intrigue, adventure and a bloody brilliant blend of fantasy and eldritch sci-fi horror in the dark depths of the Corwyn Catacombs. Perfect for a quick, fun game, but the ideas and elements are full of seeds and insidious roots that make this perfect as a campaign starter.

A local boy going missing in the maligned catacombs is the catalyst for an epic adventure that uncovers a sole survivor of an extinct extra-terrestrial species…that does not come in peace.

From the Otherworldly cover by Izzy Collins, showing a “living remnant of the Chiran Empire surveys the new world they find themself in. A world ripe to bring under their sway. A world ripe for the Empire’s return. A world ripe for domination.” It is clear this is a very different adventure, which blends science fiction with the fantasy of D&D, bringing the insightful reflection along with it with style and aplomb.

Introduction

The introduction contains a great overview of the adventure, as well as breaking down the potential villains, The Bone Knife Pack goblins and the extinct alien Chiran and its ancient automaton. The Beginning the Adventure section covers a variety of ways to place this adventure, including the creator’s own setting (detailed in the appendix), before launching straight into the adventure with a great set up boxtext.

The Village of Corwyn

The village of Corwyn is laid out with the Blue Dragon Inn as its central location, containing the proprietor, a friendly dragonborn, and Jenna, the lost boy’s mother and questgiver, from who the party also discover they are not the first to take on this job with the Whitemark’s Hammer adventuring group having set off the day before. The rest of the village is detailed with a smithy, general store, aetherrail station and mayor’s office, all (save the aetherrail station which is for further adventures) contain at least one flavourful NPC with example boxtext where appropriate, as well as goods, services, and in the case of Mayor Tanner, a bounty for a goblin tribe who reside in the very cavern the party are heading too (which can be found as a handout in the appendix). Mayor Tanner also introduces a new people in the aurcish, which share many similarities with orcs, but their heritage is plant-based, receiving nourishment from the sun through their green skin! I absolutely love this idea and would love to see the aurcish and half-aurcish as playable races!

The Corwyn Catacombs

This section gets into the history and backstory to the catacombs, before getting right into the catacombs, with the Bone Knife Pack Goblin Den with all the information laid about the first area (with the rest of the den’s descriptions after the likely site of the first encounter), what the goblins know and their tactics laid out in separate helpful bullet points with boxtext in between. This is followed by information about negotiating with the goblins, who are treated with a great deal more respect than in most adventures, described as “nomadic…with hungry mouths to feed…trying to find a home…[with] no quarrel with the townsfolk” and are happy to live as “peaceful neighbours” in spite of the fact the townsfolk “consider them little more than animals.” It’s so wonderful to see other ‘races’ treated like actual people, which is brought even further home with there being a little goblin baby found in one of the areas of the goblin den.

The baby is an inspired inclusion, which may well raise some serious moral quandaries for the players. This could lead to some seriously inspired roleplay and even the party having an orphaned Baby Yoda to care for… or this could be a bit too much for some players, especially if they have just slaughtered the goblins, so I would thoroughly recommend the use of safety tools and at the very least knowing your group and make your best judgement about whether this could be too much for them. Personally, I think the inclusion is brilliant and continues the humanoid-ising of the goblins and could well bring home the actions of the party to the players, not to mention the abhorrent attitudes of the townsfolk.

This area also contains an amusing and flavourful goblin diary page, which is lovingly recreated as a handout in the appendix. All diary entries and diaries should be handouts, so this scores points with me.

The Chiran Falls

The catacombs become more ancient and alien as the party explore further with strange statues and depictions of strange figures on wall carvings. The adventure provides a place for the players to rest between the encounters, which is always helpful for the DM and helps them prompt the party, to not send them unprepared into danger. This area also contains a nice riddle door hiding some useful and fun items and scrolls that will be helpful going forward. Despite the rest, the strange environment (and healing supplies), a feeling of foreboding creeps in.

Moving forward a strange door, which a symbol of Arcus, god of knowledge and magic (a god of the original setting, but could be used as an ancient, all but forgotten reflection of Ioun) is revealed, blending with and grounding the more science fiction elements to come. The previous adventuring party, Whitemark’s Hammer, can be found in a horrific state, before what appear as statues come to life with an exquisitely eldritch description:

black tendrils flow from the corpses to the sculptures’ chests, drawing foul energy from the lifeless figures, until the sculptures develop a dark shadowy core, and they charge, hissing.

I can’t say enough good things about this evocative and ominous boxtext!

This is an impressively unsettling escalation from dealing with goblins, and the chiran servitors are no joke with a serious Touch of Death attack, which drains and reduces a character’s health by the damage taken and heals the servitor the equal amount. They don’t have enough health to be too overpowered and the handy healing items hopefully discovered in the previous area will almost certainly aid the party to weather the havoc these nasty constructs can wreak, but their disconcerting entrance and scary damage will definitely give players a nice scare. The last member of Whitemark’s Hammer’s dying words following the carnage is a beautifully sad moment that keeps the tension ratcheted, heavy with dreadful intrigue.

After the battle an emaciated and scared Hector is revealed, behind sliding doors activated by a strange metal orb, like one the party likely picked up from the goblin camp. Details on Hector and roleplaying him are laid out in the details as with the NPCs in Corwyn. Having found Hector the quest is complete, but the innocent comment, “I think it’s a key, I think it opens that big door down the corridor, maybe there’s another way out back there?”, the adventure’s insidious suggestion, “They can return him to Corwyn, but they may wish to open the large door, now that they possess both orbs” and the fact that you are just going to be ridiculously eager to unleash the chiran on them for the wonder and destruction are most likely going to make the adventure reach its real climax!

Behind the Door

Relish the joyous moment of truly surprising your players as you described the large floating crystal and fascinating figure held in a preserving field: The figure has four arms, each crossed over its chest, and five eyes, all of which are closed. It stands about twelve feet tall, and each finger on its hands has an additional segment… This alien being will be new to all at the table, though they have the chance to recall “chirans, a progenitor species that built a necromantic empire in ages past before being wiped out” last ruled by “The Pale King, one of the first liches, now revered in some circles as a god of evil secrets, lies, and necromancy.” This is something that you may wish to include or tease for further adventures. Unable to communicate with the characters, thinking them worthless and suffering mental deterioration from being preserved for so long, the Preserved Chiran attacks the party without mercy, wanting to kill them and raise them as it’s minions. The ancient being is a serious threat being a CR7 Deadly encounter for 4 or 5 level 4 characters with the ability to raise the fallen Whitemark’s Hammer as ghouls with Create Undead, has 3D8 on all their cantrips, covering all ranges and has some really nasty spells that fit this epic eldritch alien body horror fantasy sci-fi encounter, though they hold back its most potent abilities until it is significantly damaged, “seeing the party as little more than insects” and may not make best use of its spells due to its mental deterioration as described in its tactics.

Aftermath & Further Adventures

If the party manage to take down the chiran and don’t find themselves as undead slaves to its grandiose whims, they can return to Corwyn with Hector to return him to his mother and to receive their rewards. I would have like to have seen the depth put into the goblins reflected in the possibility of the party acting as ambassadors on the goblins’ behalf with the town or working with them to find a new home for them, which is my own further adventure seed for you. Also, the magical Arcus Stone would make an incredible gift to the hungry goblins due to its powers circumventing the need to eat and drink. The further adventures include a place where the party could learn more about the Chiran Empire and the possible location of more Arcus Stones, a town in need of help due to a giant spider problem, a city reporting sightings (in the original setting they haven’t been seen in decades, though this could be used for any kind of dragon-related antics), another town has trouble with a troll warren and there have been a spate of aetherrail robberies (or any other kind of transport more fitting your setting) and big rewards are on offer to anyone who can get to the bottom of them.

Appendix

The appendix opens with four magic items, one is a new addition to the Ioun Stones in the Arcus Stone of preservation, which asks many questions and serves as a fantastic opener for further adventures with the original Ioun/ Arcus stones already being in the DMG and just begging to be placed in their own forgotten chiran site. This is even more exciting with the new rules for this Arcus/ Ioun stone adding the unlocking of abilities when attuned to more than one and all other stones, in the Empowered and Mastered aspects. The second is a nice, named magical longsword with hints of the story of the dearly departed adventurer it once belonged to with the holy symbol on the pommel and its specific ability. The last two are items from the DMG but given a wonderful new flavour and presentation. I absolutely love this and would love to see more of this in adventures because there are so many awesome magic items out there that seem brand new with a fresh lick of paint and presentation better fitting the setting and story. Next up are the bill posted by the mayor of Corwyn for the goblin lair and the diary page from the goblin den. These look great and I love having quality handouts like this to share with players. The two unique creatures are terrifying and strange, the chiran servitor is a seriously nasty construct with two not-insignificant slam attacks and the seriously creepy and effective ranged Touch of Death, and the preserved chiran is CR 7 kinds of bad news with an arsenal of magical mayhem and cantrips that are no joke. It truly lives up to its eldritch necromantic lore and it is not hard to see them ruling a brutally cruel and controlled empire in ages gone by!

The original setting on the continent of Tyllia is included with tables of lore and information for, the species/ ‘races’, Geographical Origin and Where your Character Might Be From…, covering all the PHB races, and Deities’, Alignment, Domains and Symbols, supplying a lot of inspiration for the DM and players alike. I always love seeing other folx world’s and ideas, and the inclusion of this detail makes it so much easier for other DMs to run this adventure in this, their own or any other world. All adventures should come with helicopter lore and information like this. Finally, there is a simple and stylish map of the catacombs.

This is a seriously incredible and stylish adventure with some wonderful ideas and takes on things, which I will talk more about in a moment, but I just wanted to raise a small issue I had with a single piece of language in this module. The preserved chiran is described as “mad” in two instances:

If roleplaying the chiran, it has gone slightly mad, having been kept in stasis for centuries. The chiran is powerful, but is slightly mad and may not use its spells to its best advantage.

I understand that ‘mad’ has been used as shorthand for mental health problems, but it’s use is unhealthy and does not reflect the issue accurately. It is also not wonderful for someone who is neurodivergent to come across. For reference, I am neurodivergent with PTSD and have suffered with anxiety and depression all my life. I am only making a point of this as a teachable moment, and I am not dreadfully offended or in any way dissuaded from absolutely loving this adventure, which deserves at least five stars. But it came up and I wanted to address it. There has been a lot of talk about ‘madness’ and ‘madness tables’, along with the portrayal of mental health and things are beginning to change, especially with the increasing prevalence of sensitivity readers and creators being clear and open on the difference between mental health and ‘madness’, exemplified by E.R.F. Jordan’s introduction to her Madness of Xoriat supplement. Just because Wizards of the Coast have a Dungeon of the Mad Mage, it doesn’t mean that we and DMs Guild writers shouldn’t be held to higher standards – which they consistently prove themselves capable and worthy of.

With that out of the way, I can start to gush about all the things I absolutely adored about this adventure! There is A LOT I loved about this adventure, from the innovative and inspired approach to layout and presentation of information to the brilliant handling, evolution and aesthetics of magic items and the rich and intriguing setting.

The layout is subtly different but presents the relevant information to a place or situation right there, around that element, rather than pages away, making referencing it much easier.

The approach to the magic items is inspired! Not only are well-known items, barely recognisable due to their re-styling, which will keep players guessing. It’s hard to trust a black healing potion, when they are usually red, and a Bone-White Amulet looks a lot less healthy than the traditional Periapt of Health. The sword tells a story of the fallen adventurer that once wielded it and could inspire a DM to throw some lycanthropes at the party going forward to give the player some time to shine. The Arcus stone as a continuation and evolution of the Ioun stones, which is simply brilliant and has me looking at familiar magic items in a new way to see where I could take them. The Empowered and Mastered abilities themselves set up a whole campaign because the players are going to want to collect them all and they could be anywhere, so this works well with any adventures or campaigns as a sub-campaign. There are no better items, in my opinion than those that reflect the story they are found in or inspire and have stories of their own they wish to tell, and this adventure is full of them.

I need to see more of this world! I want to ride the aetherrail, find out what’s up with these hold ups, learn more of the gods and how and whether they relate to the chirans or other ancient races, and explore the Island of Scale and see Karan Taul — Glass Jewel of Scale! I’m fascinated by the chiran and the Mass Effect-esque ancient fantasy sci-fi horror tone they add. I get a real Promethean, but horrifically evil and necrotic from the chiran, as well as the servitors. There’s something wonderful about finding more advanced and scientific secrets lost to time in dungeons and the dark depths of a fantasy setting. It breathes a new life and uncertainty to a familiar setting, and personally, I love to see all manner of genres playing out and merging within the fantasy worlds of D&D. There’s the room and depth to explore all manner of story types and tropes in this game and this short, sweet adventure makes that clear.

I also desperately need to see the aurchish and half-aurchish as playable races! Take my money!

I adored the humanoid-ising/ humanising of the goblins and felt it really could have been taken further, but it was good to see goblins being treated like the humanoids they are, with the richer inner-lives and struggles than they normally portrayed as having.

This is a fantastic one shot with intrigue, adventure and a bloody brilliant blend of fantasy and eldritch sci-fi horror in the dark depths of the Corwyn Catacombs. Perfect for a quick, fun game, but the ideas and elements are full of seeds and insidious roots that make this perfect as a campaign starter.

*I would like to commend the author for listening to my criticism and responding to it right away, personally, and now with an update that makes the perfect choice (and the general advice to avoid being ableist and continuing mental health stigma) of using more specific wording. It is quite something to listen to criticism, apologise and implement change, so I wanted to make a. Point of updating my review accordingly.

Credits Writing, Layout, and Design: Jake Bhattacharyya Editing: R P Davis Cover Illustration: Izzy Collins ("Adventure Moose") Interior Illustrations: Izzy Collins Cartography: Jake Bhattacharyya Special Thanks: David Silver, Ashley Warren & The RPG Writer Workshop Follow us on Twitter: @MagnifCreations Join the Magnificent Creations Discord: http://magnificent.link/discord

Artificers of Eberron from William Lawler (@HighCloudPress)

"Artificers aren’t just craftsmen. They’re all driven by two big questions: Why and How? Why does lightning strike the tallest structures? How can dragons fly, despite their great size?"

This is a seriously awesome and diverse array of artificer specialisations relating to Eberron and the various role they play in society. The quality and utility of each specialisation are spectacular with each one feeling unique and special, fitting a specific use, player type and party.

Each specialty comes with their own flavour quote, description and a specific tool proficiency relating to their work.
The spells are thematic and useful with some really interesting and bizarre possibilities. The inclusion of other classes with those they have access to is a great touch.

The infusions go from sublime to ridiculous, but also sublime. Allowing for some inspired uses of mundane items infused with magic, and the ability to go full Looney Tunes!

Arcane Saboteur by Iam Pace: The living embodiment of a Control player from Magic: The Gathering and the absolute worst thing to come up against, but tapping the ‘No Fun Allowed’ sign and laughing as your enemies can’t do any of their cool stuff sounds brilliant. Warning: Make sure you a DM who isn’t going to punish you for your, ‘Artificer says no’ shenanigans.

Delver by Chris Hopper: The Swiss-army artificer ready for any occasion, trap or enemy. Literally able to pull almost anything out of their proverbial, and the most actually useful and good at their job subclass since the Life Cleric.

Grenadier by Iam Pace: The lovechild of the Alchemist and Artillerist that puts their alchemical knowledge to imbue their grenades with all manner cocktails, Molotov or otherwise.
Jetstep by E.R.F. Jorfan: These boots are made for walking, running, jumping, climbing, flying and all manner of other things, and one of these days these boots might just explode all over you!

Minimancer by Sven Truckenbrodt: Create an army of tiny, adorable micro machines that come in all manner of flavours of help, hindering, cuteness and death! These minibots have fantastic utility and offensive capabilities, as well as some seriously nifty upgrades.

Spell Scavenger by Chris Hopper: All about boosting the potency and effects of spells through enhancing, enchanting and overclocking their foci to gain phenomenal power, at the risk to themselves and others.

Strongarm by William Lawler: These mechanically enhanced artificers have prosthetic arms that hit hard, a vice grip and are the focus of their work (and spells), becoming more professionally finished and sleek as they progress. They can dish it out and they can definitely take it too!

Wordsmith by Ashton Duncan: The personification of the one player who actually takes proper notes and is rewarded for it. These magical bloggers can imbue their writing with magical effects, inscribe their belongings with magical runes and have some of the best pun-named features I’ve seen in a while!

The Artificer's Career lays out the artificer working in the community's role and responsibilities, using the level tiers as points at which promotions/ greater independence is earned. This works with downtime with its own D20 table of possible complications, which are varied, interesting and provide some brilliant adventure seeds.

Spells: Ten great spells for artificers (as well as some other casters, which is a wonderful inclusion) harnessing technological, scientific elements and high-lighting their affinity for synthetic life and constructs. Two that stood out for me include, Ghost in the Machine, which essentially grants sentience to a weapon, item or construct, and Mercurial Blade, a malleable weapon that solidifies in its wielder's grasp and reshapes according to their whim.

Infusions: Six inspired infusions that use ordinary materials to make wonders including an animated lasso rope, shrink-and-trinket-ify weapons to keep them hidden and a positively Acme levels of ridiculousness and hope infusion, turning a stone into a two-ton boulder...for reasons!

This is a seriously impressive and beautifully designed supplement, appearing as a rusted wrought tome bound with arcane sigils, full of exciting and flavourful options.

Credits

Project Leader: William Lawler Edited by: Kai Linder Art Direction by: Chris Hopper Cover: Male Artificer by Forrest Amel. With writing by: Ashton Duncan, Chris Hopper, E.R.F Jordan, Iam Pace, Sven Truckenbrodt, William Lawler

The Wayfinder Foundation’s Register of Extraordinary Individuals! By Sven Truckenbrodt (@SvenWrites)

This is a truly wonderful Sidekicks supplement, built around the brilliant framing device of The Wayfinder Foundation of Lord Boroman ir’Dayne, a so-called philanthropic and House impartial guild of particularly skilled individuals for hire.

From the comprehensive introduction explaining and expanding on the use of sidekicks with emphasis on keeping them “bad ass” and “interesting” by making them as dynamic and customisable as possible, while still be ready to rumble right out the box, the knowledge and love that has been poured into this supplement is obvious. There is a clear understanding and singular focus on making awesome sidekicks truly grounded in Eberron lore with engaging background information and rich, accessible lore detailing the unique professions, factions, locations and the pulp noir theme of the setting, breaking down these into three of their most emblematic archetypes. The writing is witty and insightful with so much useful information and genuinely funny elements, which had me giggling and grinning as I goggled at the gorgeous use of artwork.

The sidekicks themselves are diverse, fascinating characters. Each one coming with their own full statblock with awesome and amusingly described abilities, and specialisation options with progression to level 8, delightful portraits, fanciful personality and background presented as a casefile with more than enough intriguing character and history to make for great adventure seeds, amusing interactions and lively roleplay.

Credits

Design & Layout: Sven Truckenbrodt (@SvenWrites) Editing & Eberron Lore Consultant: Stuart Broz (@zorbtrauts) Character Art: Dana Braga (@danaxbraga) Other Interior Art: Courtney Hilbig, Daniel Comerci, Storn Cook, Jürgen Retzer, Christian Janke, visnezh, rawpixel.com, freepik, DMs Guild Creator Resources

Creaturecopia: Skremp by The Underground Oracle (@UOPublishing)

I thoroughly enjoy the Creaturecopia from the Pendleys. These creature features always come with an awesome new creature with a full unique statblock to add to your games, bags of lore, adventure seeds and the customary beautiful artwork, and this one has all those things and more!

Skremps are a hardy, rowdy cousin to the common house or garden Goblin, but with more of an emphasis on practical jokes, playing 'silly buggers' and general japery. While their goblinoid relatives often opt for shanking, stabbing and biting, Skremps are more likely to cause a kerfuffle, making more of a nuisance than a mortal threat.The lore is rich and contains many more insights about these impulsive and wild folk.

This chaotic and rebellious nature is actually born out in their statblock, with Skremp having advantage against being magically told what to do. It's always nice to see a stand out personally trait clearly reflected in a creature's statblock.

The five plot hooks feel truly grounded in the game world and are seriously varied and could be used for sidequests or encounters, but some of them have serious potential for building so much more. Particularly, coming across a browbeaten bunch under a hairy thumb and rumours of thefts in a bazaar.

Not only does this Creaturecopia have all the regular features, but it includes the racial traits for you to make your own Skremps and bring your own little green ball of chaos to the table! So this Creaturecopia is also a sneaky Remarkable Races too!

I absolutely love Maia's art, which truly captures their punk rebelliousness!

Credits

Written by Keith Pendley(@UO_Keith) and Jess Pendley (@JessPendley) Designed by Keith Pendley and Jess Pendley Art by Anderson Maia (https://www.artstation.com/anderson_maia) Editing by JessPendley

Awakened Familiar [BUNDLE] by The Underground Oracle (@UOPublishing)

This is one of my short and sweet bundle reviews

Times are tough and pretty damn scary, but this is a little bundle of joy, which sheds some adorable light in the darkness!

This three-supplement bundle contains three ridiculously cute wonders in two of UO’s Familiar Faces, in the Holderkin, a tiny beholder-like creature that is ridiculous and adorable and ridiculously adorable magical sniffer-dogs, and Noggle’s Beetles, which grow their own magical mushrooms on their backs, which is super handy.

The third supplement is one of UO’s awesome Remarkable Races, Awakened Familiar. This contains ‘racial’ traits to bring any familiar to life as an awakened Familiar playable race, as well as additional attributes for the Holderkin and Noggle’s Beete.

All three are wonderful supplements with fascinating lore and the trademark stunning UO art.

This truly is an awesome bundle at a price impossible to ignore!

NorCal Mythos Mission Decks Kickstarter: Khieron’s Keep Sample Pack Quick-Start Guide from

“Khieron’s Keep is a supplement designed to take a party through a gaming session without a GM. This sample pack is designed to be a one shot with 5 encounters before a boss fight, exploring the Ancient Keep.”

The Khieron's Keep Mission Deck Sample Pack has me ridiculously excited to see the full thing with the unlocked Undead Deck, and desperately wanting to see The Rise of Taven Shay and The Nameless Terrors of the Void! My need is mighty!

The care with which the narrative and flavour elements are crafted of the sample one shot, The Ancient Keep, blew me away! From the setup of a distraught father bursting into the tavern pleading for help to save his son, tracking him to a strange ruin, battling through the incredibly modular and infinitely repeatable dungeons filled with all manner of challenges and monsters extolling the glory of the depraved Gladiator who awaits you in the bowels of the dungeon, to the dark and sweet endings with acrimony or glory awaiting, it’s a thoroughly entertaining tale! However you fare the insidious seed, the calling of the dungeon’s depths, will be felt equally my character and player alike.

The system is incredibly simple to use, yet has such variety with separate Map, Encounter, Monster, Loot and Boss Decks, which come together with endless variety.

The Map Cards are varied and full of character, laid out with an alphanumerical grid for ease of reference, with one or more doors to approach or escape from, and three plotted points in different places on each map that correspond to the Encounter Cards.

The Encounter/ Conflict Cards have various sections relating to what unfolds, beginning with Room Entry, setting up the party’s approach to the coming room and any opportunities, dangers and/ or challenges are posed, before entering. The encounter itself comes next, which is written out with a description of the situation, calling for Monster Cards, their placement and behaviour, and Loot if applicable. Finally, the Aftermath section describes…the aftermath of the encounter, often with rich and unsettling flavour text relating to the adventure. The Encounter Cards may set a difficulty for the encounter, which the monsters are drawn to equal the difficulty using the experience points (XP) value of the party. Rules are in place to try to avoid the party getting overrun if the drawn monster/s exceed the set difficulty, with the lowest combat rating (CR) being the set monster to use when the XP for the encounter is maxed out and the encounter calls for more bodies. The table for quantifying the XP also includes the addition of Too Far as a category above Deadly, which is extremely helpful, as Deadly is a particularly nebulous and open-ended bracket.

The Monster/ Target Deck contains the creatures that stand in your way as you explore the dungeon. Each card has the details of the creature split between the two sides, with one having the name, quick reference elements such as Hit Points, Armour Class, Tactics, Attacks, Saves, etc, and intriguing digital art, while the other has the Ability Scores, Skills, Languages, Attributes, Actions, etc. The layout and artwork are striking, easy to reference and the inclusion of tactics make the GM-less play easier with greater direction. I’m excited to see more monsters, especially the new and unique creatures Nor Cal Mythos have been cooking up!

The Loot Deck contains the magic items and gear that can be acquired for completing certain encounters or vanquishing monsters. Those included in the sample deck are all existing D&D5e items, so I am intrigued to see which others we see and if we get some new toys to play with! These cards are drawn at random, so you never know what you will end up picking up, and there is also the option of pulling the loot first and facing the enemies in possession of the item, which could lead to some very interesting encounters…” all of a sudden you are fighting a goblin with a staff of fireball.” Some encounters or monsters may reward you with coin rather than items. A table is provided with amounts of coin to be rolled for the relevant XP, with particularly high rolls getting to snag a Loot Card.

Boss Cards are a brilliant innovation, a template which can be applied to any monster, so rather than having a set amount of bosses, absolutely anything could be waiting for you in the depths of the dungeon with any manner of boss profile. These cards are drawn when a pre-set goal has been achieved and have their own instructions and information. This will involve drawing one or more monster cards and applying the template, along with any bonuses and abilities that come with it. These improvements are tailored to the XP rating of the party with a table of specific improvements with the additional XP needed to raise the value of the encounter to Deadly. In the example Boss, Gladiator, these ranged from 100-2500 additional XP. Having this template nature of the Boss Card in this sample allowed for anything from an azer, through giant scorpion to a zombie getting beefed out into the Gladiatorial Boss.

Short and long rests are accounted for with rolls to determine whether something nasty from the Encounter Deck barges in while you are breaking out your packed lunch or catching a few Zs, using your fallen foes as pillows.

I played through The Ancient Keep one shot several times solo running a third level Dwarven Vengeance Paladin, Graenor Rubblefist, with various sidekicks each time. Each run felt different with the nature of the narrative, encounters and monsters, as well as the tale-telling nature of D&D, stories started to appear with a strangely undead-and-bandit-heavy run ending with a mighty zombie gladiator boss, while another was full of giant beasts and monstrosities, overseen by a truly terrifying azer gladiator. I confess I have yet to conquer The Ancient Keep, but I just keep playing again and again. It was tough tearing myself away to write this review to be honest.

This is a perfect way of playing D&D without someone having to DM. Personally, I love DMing and playing equally, as well as being more than happy to play solo games between sessions. This system works wonders for any time I want to play solo, or don’t have the brain to run a session. From solo to a whole adventuring party the Mission Decks have you covered. This is going to be a godsend for my partner and I, as we love to play our duet games, but there is something very intense about one-on-one play, and this is a great way for us to actually get to adventure side by side, without anyone needing to DM. This is also a fantastic option for when the DM can’t make it or you are down players, but you still want to roll dice and adventure.

With a sample of this quality, I can only fantasise about the full adventure, expanded decks and, desperately hope for the further adventures and extensions!

Support the Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/carbynejungle/mission-decks

Amarune's Almanac: Grasslands of the Realm from Steve Fidler (@vorpaldicepress)

I know this is on the product page, but I just need to reiterate how much I am absolutely in love with this series! The vision of Steve Fidler and the work of the whole team is incredible! This seriously puts the official releases on notice!

From the gorgeous cover, beautiful maps, spectacular layout and use of artwork to the introductions from the father of the Forgotten Realms himself, Ed Greenwood, the well-travelled Volo and Amarune herself there are generations of love and lore for this setting so clear on the pages, before you even get into the incredible content. These Almanacs are truly works of art adding soul and soil to the setting, enriching the experience for DMs and Players alike.

Continuing this breath-takingly beautiful and professional series, Steve Fidler’s team are back with another essential almanac for those wishing to breathe more life into their Faerun. This time Amarune is trekking the Grasslands of the Realms with a wandering Druid of the Plains whose connection to the flora and fauna find them walking their own furrow between the Land and Moon, and a roving Stormchaser Ranger who can literally ride the lightning! These rambling companions share the secret of drawing new magics from the very land itself. Amarune brings five notable locations to life with her accounts, as well as her downtime spent on expeditions to gather plants. Her exploration of Faerunian flora yields a cornucopia of weird and wonderful weeds with a great variety of useful properties, as well as run ins with 11 new creatures with a wide range of before unseen species and variations on known fauna including the enchanting and tricksy Pink Zebra. Finally, Amarune shares the bounty harvested from her travails, 10 magical marvels of fields and dales covering all rarities.

Credits Lead Designer & Producer: Steve Fidler Editor: Ryan Langr Writing and Design: Ashley May, BorntoDoStuff, Ed Greenwood, Israel Moreira, Jean-Luc Caron, Sean vas Terra, Steve Fidler, Trevor Armstrong Layout: Nathanaël Roux Forgotten Realms Sage: Bryan Holmes and Ed Greenwood Graphic Designer: Nathanaël Roux Cover Art: Bob Greyvenstein © Grim Press, used with permission. All rights reserved., composed by Steve Fidler Cartography: Map of Faerûn by Dusty Haynes @TableTopAdvantage.com, modified by Steve Fidler & Nathanaël Roux Introduction Art: Amarune Writing by Dante Ezio Cifaldi Interior Sketch Art: Shiah “Cinder” Irgangladen and Nathanaël Roux Other Interior Art: Some artwork © Grim Press, used with permission. All rights reserved. Bruno Balixa, ink splatter brushes (Brusheezy.com), Ales Krivec, b-design, Cole Thomas, Elena, Fyodor Vasilyev, Idea Studio, James Joong, LPJ Designs, pthub125896, Thomas Gainsborough and Peter Temesi.

Last March of the Tyrant Wyrm by Jean Lorber (@jlorber4) and Jeff C. Stevens (@Jcorvinstevens) The Last March of the Tyrant Wyrm is a truly beautiful and unique adventure with real heart and soul, as well as a hell of a lot of fun to be had, following the arduous journey to redemption for a once evil and abused dragon. "Last March of the Tyrant Wyrm’ is an 8- to 12-hour adventure for a party of four to five characters of 4th - 6th level. It’s an adventure about redemption, and for that, you need someone worth redeeming. In D&D, what better creature than a red dragon?"

"The dragon’s ultimate redemption is in the PCs hands. For the good of Faerun, bring him into the light. Bahamut is waiting…"

CW: Depression, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Mental Control/ Loss of Free Will, PTSD, Kidnapping, Slavery, Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake

Please be aware of the content warnings, but I would like you to know I believe to the best of my knowledge they are all relevant and natural to the plot and not handled in a problematic manner. For context, I have my own mental health problems, PTSD and have experienced Avoidant/ Restrictive Food intake, and I did not have any issues with this adventure, but I would advise you to assess and speak to your own table. I thoroughly recommend the use of safety tools when running this adventure. With the tools and clear communication with an understanding group this is potentially a truly moving, exciting and enriching experience!

Introduction

The introduction opens with a quote from Dr Seuss about the Grinch's heart growing in triplicate, which epitomises the story that unfolds over the course of this adventure. This section exemplifies the thorough, thoughtful and easy to work with nature of this adventure is (I want to say ergonomic), despite the more complex and adult themes and new mechanics. This includes detailed paragraphs on the story overview, the goal of redemption, three hooks plus a hook for working the adventure into Tyranny of Dragons (despite the adventure "literally crashes into [the party]"), scaling the challenges, and an awesome "If you forget everything else…" table with bullets for the adventures theme, goals, factions and secrets.

The backstory tells the fascinating and heart-breaking stories of Scoriaptrak, the dragon, Kefleek, the betrayed and betraying minion of the dragon and the rising Necromancer, Rhezicora and how these stories entwine or will cross.

A detailed run down of how to play the dragon and how to handle players who think they are invincible now they have a dragon is next - unfortunately, the dragon is clearly in no state to be much of a threat.

Major Design Elements

"Adventure design elements help to facilitate story development and role-playing (e.g. Redemption Dice, encounters triggered by character growth)" This section details the unique aspects of the game, including the Redemption Dice mechanic, which essentially breaks down to being bonus dice like Bardic Inspiration awarded to players for particularly virtuous actions and roleplay in front of the dragon that later influence him for the better and ultimately can be added to very important rolls Scoriaptrak will have to make in part three. Among other aspects, handling of the dragon's possible death and how to handle that situation.

This adventure comes in three parts:

In the first section the party witness the fall of a red dragon, before its kobold representative approaches, offering the dragon's hoard as payment for an escort to its lair, which is a few days away. On the way they must find means to keep the dragon hidden and discover the quandary at the dragon's heart.

This section introduces the dragon and kobold partnership and gets the party involved, up and personal with an extremely depressed, suicidal dragon secretly subdued by its kobold follower. The experience of being with a dragon is something that will be breath-taking and shocking for the players as they discover its mental anguish. Working together they will battle a swarm of stirges, discover more about their new employers, as they must first find a way to keep the dragon hidden on the long journey.

This brings up the first awesome set piece with clear different ways to approach it; an abandoned wizard's tower that a hobgoblin gang are attempting to ransack, which the party are there to...pilfer. An alliance benefits both parties as they are having trouble getting very far in the tower, but there's always the chance of brutal conflict with a large group of enemies. The tower shows the ingenuity of the wizard and writers with a clever, targeted trap and a thoughtful and extremely useful magical popup book!

In the second section the adventurers face a necromancer with wicked plans for the dragon and an undead horde to do her bidding. If this were not enough, they must discover and break a magical cage on the dragon's mind, before showing him the beauty and positivity of life by seeking it out...while pursued by a blue dragon.

This section is absolutely chock full of great content with 13 areas to traverse and explore using a point crawl map and system, with so many, many more possible encounters to play out. These are broken down into area encounters (those found in specific areas), triggered encounters (those that take place after a certain action and/ or event has taken place) and random encounters (to be used in between areas. Despite the huge amounts of possible encounters, each have a real point and purpose in relation to the story, whether it's a chance for the party to roleplay and display morals to inspire Scoriaptrak and earn Redemption Dice, relating to the dragon's past, providing the opportunity to discover clues and information about what's ahead, testing the party's ability to hide the dragon from foes, driving them ever forward and/ or confronting Kefleek and his magical control of the dragon. There is even advice and mechanics included for the players to create their own encounters in tandem with the DM for a truly collaborative experience driven by the players, which is inspired.

Along the way the party may face an undead spit-roasted boar and other bizarre elements of the Necromancer's minions, which they will need to do their best to avoid, see adorable lizardfolk hatchlings being put through their paces, a ruined castle with literal ghosts of the past and a chance to make some amends, as well as a new friend in need of their own redemption, the coming to light of a friend's betrayal, and many more strange sights and tangible teachable moments, including tense situations that call for cool heads and diplomacy, as well as enough combat to keep the martially-minded players engaged.

In the third section the heroes must traverse treacherous tar pits, from which the Necromancer has raised a tide of ancient bones, in order to reach the dragon's lair. A mighty battle will rage, met by a dragon cult wishing to see the mighty wyrm return to its former evil ways. Will the inspiration of the party be enough to save the dragon's soul, garnering the intervention of the Platinum Dragon himself? Still, this all might not be enough to face what awaits them when they finally reach the dragon's lair after their mighty march. Only true salvation will grant the party the boons they need to finally be victorious and finally rest (hopefully not eternally).

The Necromancer's camp is laid out in it's fascinating array of tarpits with various undead dredging up more bones to become their brethren, a kobold's workshop full of whizzbangs (with the emphasis on bang), the Necromancer's own sparse sanctum and the "mancave" of her exhausted paramour with a complicated and confusing idea of how they can make a fresh start...with fighting and kidnapping...

Each area of the camp also has its altered situation if the camp is on alert and waiting for the coming battle.

These morbid mucilage (yes, I looked up this word, but it's awesome and means sticky/ gluey. You’re welcome!) mires are also the scene of the final battle, which has a lot of moving parts with the party plus big S and lil K (and possibly Red Flag, the Barbarian and/ or any stray companions or friends the made on the way), the Necromancer, all her boneybois and explosive Wyzz, the Dragon Cult, and more...which could seem daunting, but in the same way every other part is broken down and made easy to understand and run, the authors have got you covered.

With the commendable approach of, "focusing on the real point: the characters trying to accomplish awesome, heroic acts", the battle is broken down into likely series of events, the Necromancer's tactics, the allies and resources available to the party and how they can be utilised to aid the party, before getting into triggered events.

There is even a Big Battle Cheat Sheet in the appendix, which might just be the best thing I've ever seen as an aid to the DM! It has tables for the enemies for regular or ambush, allies and resources, where they can be found or come from and how they can be used, bullet points for the beginning of the battle and mid-battle with checkboxes for Scoriptrak's saves to avoid relapsing to his past evil, the BIG encounters I'll mention shortly, again with checkboxes, and the all-important reminder Redemption Dice are very important in these checks! It's a seriously impressive, innovative and helpful resource.

The real battle was the friends you made along the way, or rather the battle for Scoriaptrak’s soul. This plays out in a truly monumental moment with two major deities await the convincing of the party and the dragon himself. This is a wonderful chance for roleplay and using those Redemption Dice, as well as being truly epic for the party to converse with two gods over the soul of a red dragon...It's hard to think of anything that's quite as epic. Peak, as I believe the youth say, Dungeons & Dragons. But that's not all!

The final leg of the adventure is to Scoriaptrak former abode to meet some old friends and enemies, possibly frenemies, get paid in full and... battle the blue dragon that's back to attempt to finish the red dragon off. Hopefully, the party will be armed with epic boons from the Platinum Dragon himself and up to this monumental challenge!

This epic adventure ends with many seeds and threads to continue the story, as well as ways to integrate it into the Tyranny of Dragons storyline.

The appendix contains 18 new creatures and unique statblocks, including dragon cultists, all the significant NPCs and a cool collection of new skeletal creatures, such as a skeleton gibbon and a skeleton giant armadillo (which there’s a chance you might find curled up with a bugbear sleeping in it!).

There are 10 quality new magic items on theme, as well as five Bahamut Boon items, which are super powered and will make the player's feel like superheroes when they race the finale with the blue dragon!

The appendix also contains all the handouts and glorious old skool artwork by a host of talented artists: Christopher Spence (@hominidart), Penflower Ink (@tomfummo), Daniel Walthall (@axebane), and CHGuise (@chguise) to be shared with the players when referenced. This also includes all the battle maps in DM with legends and blank player maps, the big battle cheat sheet and the beautiful uncropped cover art by Eric Jonasson. The Last March of the Tyrant Wyrm is a truly beautiful and unique adventure with real heart and soul, as well as a hell of a lot of fun to be had, following the arduous journey to redemption for a once evil and abused dragon. This adventure contains a lot of moving pieces and elements but has been crafted with the DM firmly in mind, with every effort made to make prep and referencing as easy as possible. From the extremely helpful convention of having the Synopsis, essential elements and information relevant to a section, situation, etc laid out in an easy to read and reference manner, numerous sidebars with tangible, sense-based information and insights, clear notation of the purpose of each encounter, section summaries, and the afore-mentioned Big Battle Cheat Sheet. On top of this, great advice and ideas are provided to give DMs a lot of options and material to work with, while keeping it ultimately up to the DM and players. Redemption Dice introduced in part two are a brilliant additional mechanic, acting like a hybrid of Inspiration (from the DM) and Bardic Inspiration, to reward moral and virtuous behaviour and roleplay in front of and/ or with the dragon with the intention of pushing him towards goodness. They also play an integral part in the defining moments as Scoriaptrak looks death in the face. This is also one of those adventures that is a pleasure to read! The writing and story are wonderful with each aspect feeling alive and vibrant. I found myself reading late at night and unable to stop, even after falling asleep because of the hour and nearly breaking my nose with my tablet. It’s also beautiful to look at with clear point crawl maps and gorgeous, old skool illustrations, tied to encounters and results, in separate appendices for ease of sharing with players, which is something all adventures should do otherwise only the DM sees the incredible art or they show the players glimpses as they desperately cover up spoilers.

The Last March of the Tyrant Worm is an epic caravan guard adventure in which the caravan is actually a red dragon, the precious cargo is the dragon's immortal soul. The goblins, gnolls and orcs you would be defending the caravan are both within and without, as well as being metaphorical, incorporeal and oh so very tangible in every which way. The dragon wishes to take its life, but so too does the Necromancer, for a very different purpose, and the elves and cult, united in wanting the dragon to live, have unreconcilable intentions for that life. While a caravan guard normally has little to think about, save defence, martial strategy and keeping their charge alive long enough to pay up, this adventure finds the players in need of more than their blades, bows and wands, as roleplay is at the heart and soul of this adventure (as well as essential in their defence). There are still many locations to explore and monsters to be slain, as this is a most rare adventure; indulging all three pillars is an accolade it can claim. It is obviously so much more than this describes, but I couldn't help but draw the comparison. This is the adventure I have thought about the most and has had such a profound effect on me. This truly is something special. I wish I had words to do it justice. I need more like this!

CREDITS Design: Jean Lorber (@jlorber4) Developmental Editor: Christopher Sniezak (@thelight101), Ken Carcas Editor: Ken Carcas Cover Art: Eric Jonasson Interior Art: Christopher Spence (@hominidart), Penflower Ink (@tomfummo), Daniel Walthall (@axebane), CHGuise (@chguise) Cartography: Jean Lorber Layout: Jeff C. Stevens (@Jcorvinstevens) Page Background: Nimgyu (color and saturation changed) With special thanks to Teos Abadia

Michtim: Fluffy Adventures by Georg Mir (@GeorgMir)

Michtim RPG

This is game whose design, layout and artwork are all the labour of love of Georg Mir (@GeorgMir), they still make clear Mitchim “would not have been possible without the help of countless passionate people”. These include Alexander Oslaj’s input on the Setting Idea, various Playtesters and those who offered Words of Wisdom and the M(o)use, Cornelius Funkenflug (what a sensational name!?), Mir’s djungarian dwarf hamster who’s “charming (even if ferocious) personality” was an inspiration “during the project”. “He’s a fluffy gangster (being locked up behind bars), and utterly adorable at everything he does.” Finally, Mir thanks You, “for putting your trust in [them] and [their] little world. Hope you enjoy making it your new home.”

Contents

This rulebook employs a beautifully brilliant, simple and aesthetic style utilising the colours of the rainbow and individual symbols to breakdown the various elements of the book to make navigation so much easier while flipping through searching for rules mid-game. For example, the introduction and lexicon are denoted by a quill and ink and the colour red, while Michtims have a Michtim face with the colour orange.

Introduction

“Michtim is a role-playing game that tells the story of fuzzy little heroes that live right next to human settlements.” These fuzzy little heroes are eponymous Michtims, which despite their adorable hamster-sequence look “are actually members of an intelligent species that is not closely related to rodents.” These are the characters you will build and have great adventures with protecting forests and getting into mischief.

How to Play

This clearly explains the basics of tabletop roleplaying, a GM/ referee and players playing characters, in a clear and accessible way, Conveying the concept in an impressively concise and understandable manner, regardless of age or experience. (This is something I could definitely learn from!)

Things You Need

This section goes on to list and explain the elements needed to play a game of Michtim. These being Friends, the players and GM needed to have an game, Six-Sided Die (D6), the dice mechanic only requiring a “handful” of D6, Poker Chips (Wound Tokens), any stackable set of seven (or more for the GM) items such as poker chips, coins or whatever works to keep track of wounds, 2 Types of Glass Beads, these are used to track the Mood and Karma of Michtims, with higher mood, greater chance of success and Karma being rewards for “acting in harmony with the three virtues Charity , Civilization and Conservation” (this is another element which can easily be replaced, as with the Wound chips or Tracked differently as necessary), pencils and paper – oh so that’s why they are called pen and paper RPGs! – and finally a character sheet, which is provided, along with additional content and resources, at www.michtim.com

All in all, a simple set of items and/ or substitutions, as well as many helpful resources website.

Lexicon

Common Vocabulary and Phrases

This section contains some of the additional words and phrases involved in the game, which the Michtims learn during their schooling in Fauchschule, containing four pages of new word and/ or the more specific meanings of words/ phrases in the game. All in alphabetical order with a brief explanation and phonetic pronunciation for the new and words foreign to English.

Here are a few examples:

Bande (BUN•day): A band of Michtims, going out on adventure

Bocicne (botch•ITCH•nay): A range of tasty bakery products that are highly priced in Michtim culture. There are both sweet and savoury bocicne.

Calling: A mystical archetype that a Michtim aspires to. As long as the Michtim cares to follow the Calling, it reaps the benefits. Michtims are known to switch Callings if it suits their whims. They are never locked into mindless jobs.

Michtim (mich•TIM): The name is pronounced similar to the way me•XI•co is pronounced in Spanish. It sounds a bit like hissing.

Symbolaya: The magical lore of meanings, words of power and archetypal resonances. Also refers to the art of written conversation.

Michtims

Mihitimus sapiens

“Michtims are a species unlike any other. Judging by looks alone, they would be most surely mistaken for hamsters, rats or mice. Michtims are different from rodents on many levels though: biologically and psychologically, and because of their complex social structures.”

Properties

The Michtim may look like rodents, but they are highly intelligent beings who have evolved the appearance of rodents to avoid capture. They are so elusive that no research has been done on them, so adept are they at hiding their resistance.

This section goes on to describe Michtim in detail including, their Fur Coat, Body Type (small, wiry or strong), Sharp Fangs, Intelligence, Lifespan, Diet, Magical Aptitude and speech. Along the way there is advice for new players creating new Michtim.

Culture

I will be touching on some of the main aspects on this section, the book itself contains more background information about Michtims and their culture.

Life Among Michtims

“Michtims build communities and have strong social mechanisms to organize themselves into groups. They even have dedicated learning facilities that are similar to human schools.”

Young Michtim attend Fauchschule “hissing school” for their formative teaching in all manner of important lessons detailed in this section.

Tree Capital Turnaya

The ever-expanding capital of Michtim culture with all manner of different shops, shrines and nests.

The Michtims live in a democratic monarchy with Hauses with varying virtues Michtims choose when they finish their apprenticeship.

Human Relations

Things are a little fraught between the Michtim and “longlegs” on account of the “furless ones” not caring for the environment, treatment of animals and destruction of the forests – You have to admit they have us there...

Basic Rules

The baseline mechanic involves rolling D6 equal to their “emotion rating” and seeing whether the score beats default difficulty. The example provided involves using Anger to attack, checking the score (3) and then rolling 3D6 to attempt to beat the difficulty.

This basic rule is nice and simple for anyone to get to grips with. The mean roll on a D6 is 3.5 so your chances are good with 3, but you can always risk it with 2. Also, having a default score to beat keeps things moving, with the only things everyone needs to know at this stage of playing are their emotion rating (we’ll get into that more later, but they are essentially your ability scores), the default difficulty and where their dice are!

Hitting Hard

Successes are referred to as “hits”, regardless of the check being combat relayed. Beating the default score is one hit, but to get more you can choose to set aside dice from their emotion rating. Each die set aside is another hit on a success. This example shows an emotion rating of 4 with 2 dice rolled and 2 in reserve. If the 2 rolled dice beat the default difficulty, that and the 2 set aside make 3 hits.

This takes the baseline and adds an exciting element of risk as you gamble on getting more hits for greater success, but there’s always the chance you could roll poorly and could have really needed those dice. Combined these easy to learn rules allow all to play as straightforward as they like, with the choice whether to get tactical being optional and adding more chance, calculations and risking it for a biscuit...or should that be a Bocicne?

Getting into the Mood

Everyone loves exploding, getting a critical or otherwise rolling the maximum on a die when the roleplay, and Michtim has its own use of crits. “Mood Markers” are tokens earned when 6s are rolled, which add a passive benefit to beating Emotion Rating for the Mood they were earned in. The Mood Markers also apply a possible negative to the Emotion Rating for Mood opposed to the Mood they were earned in called “Mood Distractions” (More on opposed Moods later). There are limits on how many Mood Marker a player can have and for how long they last.

Mood Markers also can be spent to buy dice at the beginning of an action. These are constrained to the Mood they were earned for.

All these rules are clearly laid with their own page containing clear descriptions and examples with illustrated dice. This clean and clear style makes learning the rules nice and easy, as the rules from the most basic, building on the previous understanding of the rules. The single page layout keeps things clear and focused, as well as making referencing more straightforward than scouring pages full of text.

Personality

The Core of the Hero

There are five Emotions at the heart of characters and their actions in Michtim, which are Joy, Love, Grief, Fear and Anger. Each Emotion has basic actions connected to it, and an opposing Emotion These are clearly laid out in a diagram and explained clearly, along with paragraphs on “Using Basic Actions”, “Roleplaying Emotions”, “Social Interaction” and “Distractions”. There’s also a sidebar on how new characters can choose to allocate their starting Emotions scores.

The five Emotions are depicted by bright symbols that clearly confer their meaning, along with descriptions of the Emotions with explanation of their colour and associated actions.

Combat

Advanced Belly Brawling

Combat is explained in the same clear manner as the previous rules with paragraphs on “Combat Time”, “Initiative Roll” and “Player Vs Player” with this glorious quote, “Michtims usually will not kill each other. If they do, they are hunted down and arrested. Just saying.”

The “Action Types” in Michtim, the “Move Action” allows a standard distance to be travelled or the “Evade” action to be taken, the “Regular Action” does what it says on the tin, being the standard action used to do most actions i.e. “Attack, Cure, Hide, Jolt and Weep” and the “Reflexive Action”, which is the instant free actions, such as short speech.

These are a tight set of actions that are easy to follow with their simplicity allowing for swift exciting turns during Combat Time.

Wound Tokens

Sadly, your cute critters are going to take some damage on their adventures. This is counted using Wound Tokens, which can be healed with Cure and certain Gear (we’ll get into Gear a bit later).

Wound Effects

There are four different type of Wound Effects, all sadly modelled by one unfortunate Michtim. These are “Blinding Wound”, “Cruel Wound” and “Slowing Wound”, all of which negatively affect certain actions, and “Worsening Wound”, which...gets worse and does more damage round after round.

Being Knocked Out / Defeated

Michtim have a set number of wounds and/ or level of wounds they can take before they are Knocked Out. Being Knocked Out does not mean death and very few of the foes in the game are actually looking to kill – this is adorable, plucky, furry friends going on grand adventures after all!

A great table of suggestions for what might happen when a lone Michtim or the entire Bande are taken out is provided and can be rolled on. My favourite entry is this beauty, “They see the error of their ways. They didn’t mean to harm you.”

Callings

Becoming a Hero

Callings are the trades or classes that Michtims choose, which have their own advantages and options. Unlike other TTRPGs, Michtims can be “attuned” to up to three Callings at once and with enough experience they can learn any number of them. The fluid nature of Michtim culture and their vacillating between jobs is represented by their being a number of ways to change the attuned Callings, most regularly in their dreams while asleep, but even in combat using a “Karma Point” (We’ll talk more about Karma Points later in Allegiance).

Each Calling is laid out over two pages with, subtitle that encapsulates their role, a short piece of prose about a Michtim who has chosen the Calling, a description of the Calling, its mechanical bonuses and possible Synergies (Callings that work well together), their unique ability, examples of apprentice names on the first page, and the second contain the Talents for the Calling (named for the Calling e.g. Paths for Adventurer), half page artwork and a short description of the mechanics. The second page can easily serve a quick reference guide for the Calling.

The callings available are:

Adventurers are a hearty jack of all trades, able to collect extra mood markers and try their luck to mitigate bad happenings, at the risk of making them worse.

Artists an integral part of Michtim Society, “their work, called Symbolaya, they codify everything that is remarkable about life”. They have the ability to leech and redistribute mood markers making them a great support.

Bards unsurprisingly have unmatched charisma and can play tunes that buff their fellows.

Cooks create various brews that bolster their fellow’s actions and can whip up healing tasty healing brews.

Courtiers “wield words with the grace of a master fencer”, allowing them to influence opponent’s Moods, hampering undesired actions.

Cyberthooths “are highly refined tech-soldiers” with a focus an edge provided by their implants, allowing them to perform actions reflexively.

Daredevils in many ways are the adrenaline junkies of the Michtim world, diving in to take the hit for their fellows and using pain to gain markers of their choice. Their Stunts (talents) have some of the most adorable names, such as “Bwah! You’re so mean!” for Grief.

Frostpaws can use their freezing touch reflexively to block opponents’ actions. This hands-on approach gives them the ability to limit their enemies’ and control the battlefield.

Sorcerers used their magical knowledge to perform from afar with a wide variety of offensive and defensive abilities.

Tacticians bring the bande together in their actions and can target multiple foes utilising technology and cunning.

Witches place Hexes on friends and foes with conditional triggers they set. They also get a familiar, which can be a teeny tiny version of a creature!

The range of classes is impressive and covers a great range of roles and play styles. Each bring something uniquely helpful to the table. I particularly enjoy how loose elements are for flavouring. Does the Tactician utilise a powered gauntlet or is it purely their honed acumen that gives them their abilities? The Cybertooths definitely have some kind of technology, but you’re free to have it as arcane, steampunk or sci-fi as you like. The Callings set out the archetype, but the player makes it their own.

Synergies

This section discusses Callings that work particularly well together, such Cybertooth and Frostpaw for maximum control of foes, and Cook and Mechanist combining to create an awesome animated servant. It’s great to see how the Callings work together to inform choices and get an idea of how you want to build and play your own Michtim.

Allegiance

This section covers the swearing allegiance to the big three factions (Hauses), as well as the Karma and Sin mechanics. These make the choice of Haus and their Virtues, such as Civilisation for Haus Grauling. The Virtues and Sins are described in more detail at the end of the section, but the mechanic and how the GM rewards and punishes Michtims is made clear. Essentially, acting against the Virtues of your house is punished by sin tokens that block the gaining of Karma for the relevant Emotion.

The three Hauses each include their Name and Subtitle (e.g. “Haus Barsik, Protect the wild!”) Heraldry and its significance (e.g. the interlocking cogs of Haus Grauling) Haus Holdings (e.g. the capital that shares its name with Haus Turnaya), their Virtue and what it means to them (e.g. Civilization for Haus Grauling) and two further headings relating to the lore, operation or personality of the Haus.

The thought and grounding each of the houses has in the Michtim culture is incredible and the mortality of the house is clear and easy to interpret

Virtues are broken down into three level Sins hierarchy for each Haus’ Virtue; minor sins (e.g. Refusing to help for Charity), harmful (e.g. Denying Intellect for Civilisation) and capital Sins (e.g. Ravaging Nature for Conservation).

Treasury

This is the equipment Michtim can gain access to. These are Cloaks, which act as armour, Tools are weapons and gear that grant bonuses on big hits, and Accessories, which have a one-use ability before the need to be recharged.

Damage is broken down between magical, physical and technology based.

These simple, but expansive trios of effects are more than enough for variety and customisation without there being a million different things to be aware continuing the accessible, quick and easy approach to the whole game design. Three is the magic number!

The Tools, Cloaks and Accessories are broken into common items (e.g. a sword in Tools), and Haus specific items (e.g. a Spidersilk Cloak for Haus Barsik). All laid out with name, action (For Tools), ability, type, numerical bonus and Restore (for Accessories).

Character Creation

The process of creating your own Michtim is “as easy as eating bocicne” because of the inspired four ranks, which allow the players and GM to choose the complexity they wish to be playing with. I mentioned this in the rules section, but the tiered nature of the rules allows for extremely easy to play basic rules and increase complexity with experience.

These ranks are Fauchschule Kid, Apprentice, Hero and Veteran, making up the choice of rules and progression of character with the Veteran getting an Ultimate (awesome abilities we’ll get to). Clear explanations are given for each element at each rank and a character is built up over the examples the ranks.

Experience

This chapter was edited for clarity in 2019.

The system for progression used Karma points, which are earned for upholding your Michtim’s Virtues, “accepting failures and roleplaying flaws”. This encourages roleplay and being in character as it is the only way to progress comparable to gaining Inspiration in D&D5e. Having these Karma be awarded by the players as well as the DM is a lovely mechanic, which encourages players to stay engaged and show their appreciation of their fellow’s roleplay and character.

Karma is spent to acquire new Callings, Talents and Ultimates. The point score is clear on the character sheet with the new Callings being more expensive with their Talents becoming increasingly cheaper, reflecting the mastering of the Calling. Because all Callings and Talents can be acquired eventually, but only three can be active at once, the progression ascends to a height of three mastered callings and then horizontal as new Callings are learned, though there is still a final way to become even more accomplished as when a Calling is mastered its Utility can still be used when it’s not attuned. This all reflects the mercurial and curious nature of Michtims, always looking to learn more.

Emotion Ratings don’t change through progression, though it is possible to move a D6 from one Emotion to another at the end of a Story if there is a character-based reason for it to change, such as moving one from anger to love, after developing a strong friendship in your adventures.

The character sheet available in the back of the book and on the Michtim website linked in this section is bright, clear and contains everything a player need including references for Emotions and Sins, space for Callings with the prices for new Callings and Talents, three slots for the three types of gear and space and prices for Ultimates. It’s seriously an elegantly laid out work of inspired design, understanding accessibility and simplicity, perfectly reflecting the game itself.

Ultimates

These are extra techniques that can be acquired and activated by spending Karma with the prices clear on the character sheet that work always available feats that cost Karma to use. Four are included with the comment, “They are nothing but a starting point to base your own creations on.” All four examples take an emotion to boost, add a related trigger and ability with the required Calling.

Ultimates boost a specific Emotion and have a secondary ability that requires a specific trigger and Calling to work (e.g. Shock Charge allows an Angry Tactician multiple targets if they on a conductive material).

These abilities are good fun and are another fantastic opportunity for the GM and players to collaborate, either by the player petitioning the GM for their idea for an Ultimate when the get the opportunity to buy it or for the GM to become more familiar with the players and create Ultimates inspired by their Michtim’s endeavours.

Game Design

This section talks very opening about the ideas of reskinning and hacking the game to fit a setting or theme you might want, as well as discussing alternative Callings. This is a refreshing thing to read and is inspiring for the prospective GM.

Episodes

This section takes you through the designing of an episodes and missions, Michtim encounters and adventures. Beginning with taking inspiration from your favourite media, through the scene (a framing situation), spicing things up (adding tension and suspense), location, including example plot hooks, connecting scenes and example keys (the archetypical scenes: combat, socialising, investigation and planning). Each part is described in an easily accessible and helpful manner, so you will be creating your own episodes and missions on no time.

Sparks Flight

This is an example Escort/ Rescue Mission which sees a band of Michtim travel to unfamiliar territory, face various perils and challenges as they a taken to a pet store, must as escape to save their companion, making it to a family home, tangling with the house cats and child to save the day, only for a new betrayal and story hook to come to life.

This fun and fascinating mission exemplifies the way Michtim uses scenes to build to episodes and the mission with its own take on describing the narrative and action. This eschews boxtext in favour of providing all the information and flavour to the GM to interpret and describe as they see fit, encouraging improvisation and originality. The mission also exhibits the range of checks, skills combat and roleplay to give a great overview of the game mechanics.

Cast and Crew

In this final section of the book we are introduced to the notable characters and NPCs of the Michtim world, from Queen Miyu and the guest star of Sparks Flight and heir, Cornelius Funkenflug, through the mighty Daredevil Cybertooth, Apollonia Stahldfaust and he mischievous brood to the parachute sombrero wielding Miguel De Bormen and the wicked, Isabella Frostherz. 11 NPCs in total (counting the brood as one), encompassing the breadth of Michtim society, all with description, artwork, callings, gear, statblock and adventure seeds give you more than enough to start creating your own episodes and missions!

Secrets

These are things only known to Michtim, including the Corrupted (particularly sinful Michtim become monstrous with some even managing to hide their true nature, though a hard road to salvation is possible [and a great story hook]), each Virtue has its own specific monstrosity with Charity having Callous Fiends, Civilisation’s Barbaric Beasts and Conservation-sinning resulting in Ravaging Ghouls, and the Veil, which keeps Michtims and Turnaya secret and safe from the long-legged world.

Index

A thorough and easily referenced index has everything you need to find what you want with speed. This navigation is also helped by the pdf actually having a great section and element breakdown, which really is essential for all large PDFs these days, but is often frustratingly overlooked.

Conclusion

This is nearly 120 pages of adorable awesomeness! A beautifully simple and elegant rules system with varying level of complexity for different groups with awesome ideas, mechanics and background lore.

The art style and artwork throughout are so wonderfully adorable and truly encapsulate the vibes of Michtims and the game.

Just a note on the art of the various Michtim classes on the Haus page – It’s freaking adorable! The chef is SO happy!

This is clearly a labour of love with joy and fun at its heart. I cannot recommend it more strongly for anyone and everyone who wants a fun, fast roleplaying game.

Madness of Xoriat by E. R. F. Jordan (@erfjordan)

Chilling introduction and overview of the daelkyr from Kalen Sybil Aberrologist, Underdark Explorer, who I desperately want Jordan to write a book about!

Thorough and thoughtful primer and tools for dealing with madness in a respectful way as the mental trauma it is, as well as the clear explanation that madness and mental illness are not the same thing, though both subjects should be dealt with mindfully.

Race: Daelkyr Creation

These poor horrors are experiments of the daelkyr, taking on a hybrid aberration form with five variants with abilities reflecting the aberration they are modelled on. These add some much-needed body horror and uniquely useful subracial abilities.

Class: Symbiont Warlock

A Patron within, with an emphasis on telepathy, weakening your enemies and bolstering your own resistance as the Symbiont becomes one with you...and you become its host, which comes with its own horror and perks. I can't help but think of the episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which there are symbiotic bugs that take over Starfleet command. I thoroughly recommend checking that episode and this class if you like to get weird and enjoy the horror of symbiosis with something eldritch and unknowable.

Xoriat

Each of the eight daelkyr are presented with a delightful description, hypotheses on their purpose, associated creatures, how their cults operate, details on their lurid lairs and lair actions, sensational regional effects, full statblocks and madness tables.

Avassh, the Twister of Roots

The Blight-Blooded is an immense fungal network and the avatar of plague and disease, which birthed shambling mounds and myconids.

Fyrlock, the Waiting Shadow

The Shade That Bites feeds is a foul collection of rags and scarf, whose tears and scraps became cloakers, which feeds on the fear of the unknown.

Kyrzin, the Prince of Slime

The Bile Lord is slimy ball of chaos living in a giant alien head and King of the oozes and gibbering mouthers.

Nuumas, the Harmonious

The Queen of the Colony is more friendly than the rear of the daelkyr, though you can still lose yourself in the group mentality of the colony, but who wouldn't want to hang around with flumphs all day?

Orlassk, the Master of Stone

The Stone Plague lives for change and ruin. Basilisk love them, but medusas are divided over their lineage and allegiance.

Thassalyr, the Towerwitch

The Keeper of Secrets is unsurprisingly the obsession of forbidden knowledge, with nothics drawn to their colossal libraries in their Tower Esoterica.

Valaara, the Crawling Queen

The Sovereign of Swarms is a paranoid hunger spread through their legions of insects and vermin.

Wuurzim, the Star Beneath

The Pale Star is a big, sad, apathetic wormyboi living in depths of magical darkness with the star spawns and the occasional aboleth.

The prose and flavour text are delightfully bleak and effective in conjuring the uncomfortable feeling that lays in eye or tentacle of an aberration. These vignettes are so intriguing and dark that I want to read more Jordan's writing on aberrations, and would love to read stories of the stygian depths and the things that plot and stir in the dark.

If you like to get weird and want new and bizarre options to challenge you're players no further! in this inspired supplement E. R. F. Jorden introduces us to the daelkyr, eight ancient, eldritch invaders from Xoriat who dwell in the darkness deep beneath Eberron (although they liven up the party wherever they are...except Wuurzim, who's a bit of a downer). Each of these warped wonders come with their a delightfully bleak and effective description of their background, machinations, madness and lair, as well as their own mighty statblock, lair actions and inspired regional effects. More than enough to inspire high level adventures or plant the warped seed for strange campaigns. Also, included are the horrors of the Daelkyr Creation, an awesome warped race with five subraces, reflecting and incorporating elements of the iconic aberrations, and a truly horrific and inspired new Warlock Patron, The Symbiont...the call is coming from inside the house!

E. R. F. Jordan was kind enough to permit a shirt interview about the inspiration behind Madness of Xoriat:

CoS: The daelkyr are fascinating and unknowable, yet you somehow make them at once eldritch and bizarre, and quantifiable and ready to be run in a game. What inspired the supplement and drew you to these godlike aberrations?

ERFJ: My main inspiration was reading Eberron: Rising from the Last War, looking at the two daelkyr they presented, and saying, "These are great! Where are the rest of them?" They seemed like such fun entries into the book that it'd be a shame not to expand into a few more. On top of that, I've always had an underlying love of cosmic horror a la the Cthulhu mythos, so when I saw the opportunity to take my own jab at the genre, I couldn't pass it up.

CoS: I understand that half of these daelkyr are mentioned in passing in Eberron: Rising from the Last War, but the other four are of your own devising, although you would never know because they all have such a genuine presence. It seems an incredibly brave and bold endeavour, so how do you go about creating something directly connected to canon specifics? Did you have a process or technique for keeping the names and portfolios of the daelkyr uniform, if that word could ever be applied to these aberrations?

ERFJ: The best tool at my disposal in that regard was the realization that each daelkyr has two aspects: a connection to one or more of the classic D&D aberrations, and one concept that they crank up to 11. For instance, Belashyrra is a combination of beholders, eye imagery, and paranoia--which is extremely appropriate for the xenophobic race of eye tyrants. When working through my own daelkyr creations, my process was to look at an aberration and ask myself what it was meant to represent--then exaggerating those concepts to high hell.

CoS: Being such unknowable, eldritch beings, how did approach creating statblocks and lairs for such strange creatures, especially with there being such scant information on them? I am particularly enamoured with the regional effects, which instantly sent my imagination reeling with the need to incorporate elements of this in my games this instant (even if my players aren't quite ready to face their source...yet)!

ERFJ: This question relates a lot to the last one in my mind. That exaggerated concept that each daelkyr represents--what happens when you push that on the world and the creatures around the daelkyr? Are there benefits for some creatures and drawbacks for others? Is it a physical change, or a mental one? When I started answering these questions, the rest just fell into place.

CoS: There's been a lot of talk recently about how mental health is handled in games and a call to move away from madness tables. Rather than shy away from madness, which you clearly define as, "the psychic influence of an eldritch creature slowly driving a creature to behave in ways unlike themselves", each daelkyr has their own madness table "[illustrating] the sort of stress and horror" characters endure from even spending too much time in the lair of the daelkyr. Madness is explained in detail with the comparison and explicit contrast to mental health with the fundamental differences coming from madness being the direct result of an "evil presence" and can be "reversed by magical means, or through long periods of rest", while mental health can "only be treated". You also supply a great deal of advice and tools for the table for dealing with the discussion and handling of both madness and mental health, going to great lengths to explain a character suffering a madness effect is a, "victim of an act of violence, and should be treated with appropriate sympathy." How important to you is it that madness be understood as distinct from mental health as a valid storytelling element? As someone who suffers from post traumatic stress disorder myself, I appreciate your efforts and invite you to reiterate how important it is to treat both in game and out of game effects on the mind with respect and sensitivity.

ERFJ: It was absolutely paramount to me that madness isn't construed as mental illness or neurodivergence in this book, to the point that I was prepared to scrap the whole thing if I couldn't find a satisfactory way to draw that line. Many mainstream examples of "madness", especially in the genre of cosmic horror, are parodies of mental illness. Presenting this kind of parody in a gaming environment as a flaw or character weakness is an instant turn-away for a lot of people who struggle with mental illness. It feels like a targeted insult!
In my opinion, the remedy to this issue is moving away from "madness is an affliction of the mind" and towards "madness is the result of a powerful creature manipulating you". Mental illness doesn't discriminate, and it doesn't have an agenda: it affects almost everyone in some way, shape, or form, and in many cases, it can only be treated, not cured. The best way to draw the line between madness and mental illness (aside from removing direct references to things like schizophrenia and psychosis) is to highlight these differences: madness does discriminate, and it is explicitly used to further an agenda.

CoS: Finally, I wanted to ask you about your favourite aberrations and whether you had plans to create more eldritch scions in the future? I think the time could be right for an entire supplement dedicated to a collective of flumphs, including mounts and battle flumphs, but do you have any upcoming projects or subjects you would love to cover in the future?

ERFJ: Flumphs are absolutely my favorite aberration, and they deserve more love. If this title does well, I might think about chasing that particular muse in the future--the world could use a little more good, even of the monstrous sort. Beyond the world of aberrations, I've got a taste for high CR stat blocks now, so I plan to set my sights on more legendary creatures.

The Lost Vaults: 800+ Magic Items from Fourth Edition by Kyle Wagner-Totty (@MrBakudan)

This is a super quick and dirty review with the intention to come back and give this tome of absolute wonders the time it most definitely deserves, but I just couldn’t not say something about all this awesomeness!

In the spirit of full disclosure, I was provided a review copy of this supplement for a full and honest review. Review is honest, the fullness will come later!

I Am. Absolutely. Blown. Away!

There are many, many compendiums of magical items out there, some are flavourful fancies and others are piles of weapons or armour, but this is a vault over 800 greatly varied magic items, bringing many, many many things from fourth edition into 5e and giving DMs so much more to put into player’s hands they may well have even known were conceivable, as well as bringing back delights for fourth edition veterans!

This includes a broad range of magical marvels, from a cornucopia of consumables, alchemical formulas and enchanted whetstones to a battalion of battle standards and reagents, only covered minimally, often not at all in the current core manuals. On top of this there’s an enchanted supermarket of items for every slot, type, preference and persuasion!

The work that has gone into this is freaking incredible! I cannot believe this is Wagner-Totty’s first project and I am ridiculously excited to see their future projects!

It’s seriously impressive endeavour with a great conceit of the vault and the occasional insights from the Scribe. It looks great and is set to bring about a lot of fun for DMs and players no matter their experience!

I absolutely take my hat off to Wagner-Totty and feel someway humble about mine isn't magical! I need a magical hat! I need a Circlet of Second Chances! Although Coif of Focus would really help me to be honest.

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/303604/The-Lost-Vaults-800-Magic-Items-from-Fourth-Edition?affiliate_id=1507682

Blood Hunter by Anthony Joyce (@Thrawn589)

This is my quick and dirty review with the intention to go more in depth in the future.

I’ve been captivated by the cover illustration by Gordon McAlpin (@gmcalpin) and colorist Rebecca McConnell (@purple_madness) of “a Blood Hunter waves a flaming sword at an unseen enemy while cradling the infant drow” since the first previews came out. It truly captures the essence of this adventure.

In Joyce’s words, this is an “adventure designed entirely around Matthew Mercer’s Blood Hunter class. This adventure is an experiment in one-on-one adventure design that focuses on maximizing the player’s immersion as they play their character. Every design choice I made in this adventure builds around the Blood Hunter class features.”

I’m absolutely captivated by this uniquely focused endeavour!

It combines the best parts of a choose your own with duet adventure, stripped down and sharpened into an awesomely effective and engaging experience!

This is your chance to feel like a Witcher, to be a Blood Hunter and experience a whirlwind few days in their complicated, exciting lives. Joyce has created a bold and uniquely focused adventure with serious heart, inventing a new adventure type, which is sure to catch on! This short, sweet adventure is filled with famous cameos, references, combat, roleplay all the good stuff that will delight and intrigue new and old players alike. I absolutely need to see more of this!

Whiskey’s Cavalcade of Curiosities by Aries Christensen (@Aries_AlyssaGD)

This is my very short and sweet review with the intention to expand and talk about some of my favourite items at a later date!

In the spirit of full disclosure, I was provided a review copy of this supplement for a full and honest review.

I am absolutely captivated by the cover collaboration of Christensen and Sgathan (@GSgathan) shower Whiskey’s lightning licks on the guitar!

Meet Whiskey, an effervescent genasi rock star with a cavalcade of over 100 curiosities ranging from the sublime (inherited from his Angelic father), brutally effective arms and armour (his barbarian sister’s spoils) to spectacular wonders (his mother’s booty from her pirating days). Whiskey and his Succubus girlfriend, Celrier, share their witty insights and arguments while you peruse their spellbinding goods. There’s something for everyone here with items of all kinds and rarities with incredibly awesome and ridiculously useful wondrous items, flavourful combinations of spells and abilities and so many brilliant and silly concepts you’ll be pleasantly surprised and shocked they aren’t already available!

So, step right up and grab a bargain or two!

Credits Design and Writing: Aries Christensen (@Aries_AlyssaGD) patreon.com/aries_2256 Cover Art: Aries Christensen and Sgathan (@GSgathan) patreon.com/sgathan Editing: Kayla Bayens (@JustThinkingKay) justkaywritesontheweb.wordpress.com

You can see my in depth review of Christensen first collection of Magic Items here: https://www.dmsguild.com/product_reviews_info.php?&reviews_id=356146&products_id=281498?affiliate_id=1507682

Wisdom Under Fire: An Australian Charity Adventure

Brittney Hay (@FNDungeonMom) has brought together a spectacular team who have embodied the heart and soul of the might wombat, and created something truly special. This is an incredibly fun, thoughtful, and awesome adventure. The scale of the actual content included is ridiculous! More than enough to keep you going for an age, an Australian critter bestiary and a stack of new magic items! Plus, you can drool over the splendiferous art and let it fill your soul with joy!

The absolutely gorgeous cover Sariel Snowings (@SarielSnowings) shows an adorable party of wombats ready to battle the blaze, so perfectly encapsulating the quality and adorableness within this adventure! Snowings is also responsible for the spectacular portraits on each of the pregenerated wombat characters, which actually are the characters from the cover!

“Fire is a powerful, frightening and all consuming creature.”

As awesome and fun as this adventure is, the forward addresses the devastating reality of the Australian bush fires:

“The Australian bush’s evolution is in part from a patchwork quilt of burning, either by accident or intentionally through “Firestick Farming” by The First People of this land. Species have adapted to evade, endure, or even benefit from small and low intensity fires. In recent years, 2019 -2020 especially, the dry time has been longer, the fires wider spread and the damage beyond belief. Our wildlife has been struck hard by habitat loss.”

The forward also acknowledges the wonderful collaborative effort this adventure is, as well as the generosity of the TTRPG community:

“The TTRPG community has proven its generosity again and again for those in need. This wonderful tome is an extension of that generosity. Creatives from all around the world have contributed their skill with words, images, narratives and layouts to celebrate, explore and support the wild and wonderful creatures of a land “Down Under”. All prof i ts from sale of this tome will be going to Wildlife Victoria, whose mission is to help and protect wildlife through their rescue, education, and advocacy activities.”

The transitions from the real-life devastation to the adventure is handled in a thoughtful manner:

“Perhaps it was a misbehaving joey or a malevolent fiend bent on revenge for a long-forgotten slight. Whatever the reason, the villagers must now come together, both wombat and surface dwellers, to save their way of life.”

This adventure sees the players take the form heroic wombats, whether creating their own wombat from the cute and mighty wombat race included in this adventure, the pregenerated wombats ready for action or by using their existing characters dreaming they could be as valiant as the courageous wombats and using the handy Wombat Player Race Reference Card. It’s wombats all the way down...under in an endeavour to save as many animals and surface dwellers as they can!

Part 1 – Bushfire

The adventure opens with the wombat heroes in the small burrow town of Underhearth called by “Elder Jedda and Wombat Council” to “gather as many willing villagers and surface dwellers that they can and lead them back to the burrow safely.” This is no small task and they will face all manner of difficulties that will test their mettle, as not all will come along easily and will need some convincing Underhearth is the safest place to be. Jedda implores the party “not resort to violence” when dealing with the villagers.

Part 2 – A Helpful Wombat is Worth Two in the Bush(fire)

The adventure proper begins in part two, as the wombats head off to herd as many folx back to the burrow as possible. This plays out as a five to eight varied encounters across five locations. These locations are the Burrow, Village, Farmland, Forest and Lake, each with their own unique circumstances, NPCs, monsters and motivations. The locations are brought to life in a sensational overview map by Saga Mackenzie (@pyxistyxGWJ), and great battlemaps by David Pruner (@ThemDave).

Each encounter follows the same clear structure of: Who (is involved e.g. a spined devil named Pizpot [yes, really!]), Goal (what is hoped to be achieved e.g. finding a way to convince a giant frog to spit out the immense amounts of water they have swallowed), Location (e.g. The Village), Motivation (e.g. stopping a pyro wizard attempt to fight fire with fire as it’s making things worse), and Challenge (what needs to be overcome and how e.g. herding goats with animal handling, threats and carrying them if need be to convince the farmer to come). The NPCs involved with a beautiful range of diverse and inclusive artwork, (e.g. Kaz the Kookaburra (they/them)), Tables where applicable (e.g. a unique and truly bizarre D10 Wild Magic Table), ways to increase the difficulty if desired (e.g. add 1d4 dust mephits, smoke mephits or magmins who have heard the commotion and are delighting in adding more chaos to the situation), and any amendments to existing statblocks where relevant (Krinel uses the druid stat block with these additions: Wild Shape (2/day). Krinel can wild shape into a giant wombat using a bonus action).

Advice regarding handling of the urgency is provided, with reference to the Complications provided in the appendix, as well as the number of encounters appropriate for your game.

In the Burrow there are bizarre ingredients to collect to aid a Druid create a new lake, dealing with a greedy Otyugh non-violently, wrangle a farmer’s flock, stomp out fire sprites, flip the script on the Voight-Kampff Test by aiding a stuck turtle and escape tunnels to excavate.

In the Village there’s an all too real wilfully ignorant magistrate spouting “all is well” rhetoric to convince of the danger to his people, a gnome to rescue from confused giant eagles doing their best, villagers harried by harpies to save, a flaming store to brave to acquire much needed healing supplies, looters to dissuade, a stampede of bush beasties to avert, an wholesome bugbear with a “twirled manicured moustache” whose family need to be extracted from their burning home, as well as priceless tomes to rescue from the blaze for lizardfolk Shaman.

On the Farmland there are crops to be rescued from a fiery tornado, a kenku in need of aid to get clip-clopping away, a den of thorny devils to deal with (which somehow gloriously involves singing some Kylie Minogue, an orc Pyro Wizard fighting fire with...fire, healing gum to be harvested dangerously close to an efreeti (who can possibly be held of by Wombat Riders!), a lost messenger to save from fire wolves (who cool is the name fire wolves?!), and poor platypuses made playthings and preyed upon by prickly imps who need to be put in their place!

At the Lake there are glitching glyphs and runes causing chaos with the possibility of unique wild magic (including a chance for a quick trip to Pandemonium! [I imagine it’s like Being John Malkovich, but with Scott Morrison saying ‘Scomo’ repeatedly]), a water wyrd to persuade to part with some of its pond, a peaceful bit of fishing...with swarms of poison snakes and crocodiles, a giant frog who has slurped up the lake and needs convincing to spit it out, an aarakocra in search of a helpful item who needs protecting along the way (comes with its own random encounter table), and a kookaburra who needs help guiding an ancient awakened gum tree to safety.

In the Forest there are firefighters who need the party to deal with an Ashen Fire Elemental, a devil attempting to corrupt animals with his Infernal deals, a fire elemental myrmidon attempting to fell an ancient tree, a lost patrol of wombat riders to save from wolves, missing joeys (baby kangaroos) to rescue from mean magma mephits, an ancestral crow being whose aid can be earned by the correct or most amusing answer to their riddles (a table of classics is provided), a cabal of arsonist cultists who must be stopped and hopefully brought to justice (with some real mean suggestions for items the twisted fire starters may possess), and a camp of bats in need of extraction from some super tacky slug excretion – it’s a sticky situation!

This is a seriously epic collection of encounters! There is such variety and flavour that my brief description just cannot convey. Each encounter is detailed with well thought out suggestions and escalations. They are all far more in depth and creative than a simple X number of Y creatures, and you’ll be hard pressed to choose those you don’t use (I want run them all!). There are also so many different ways to approach many of the situations, allowing all party members to shine with the broad range of checks and improvisation possible.

There’s something seriously inspirational about the quality and quantity of these encounters. The emphasis on roleplay and using skills over combat, even in rather unexpected situations, is commendable, as is the scope for improvisation. There’s just so much fun to be had and the replayability is astronomical, both from the sheer number of encounters available and the vastly different way players can approach them, successfully or otherwise.

I mentioned the NPCs briefly in the breakdown of the encounter format, but I wanted to take a moment to appreciate their detail and variety. It’s also so wonderful for me personally to see there are 10 non-binary NPCs in this adventure!

Part 3 – Troubled Waters

With all the villagers gathered, they board ships on the river heading downstream away from the fires, with one (or more) of the River Encounters as a final challenge.

In the advice for running this section it’s noted the adventure could be brought to an end at the close of part two, as “Escaping the wildfire is the main part of the adventure”. This would close out the adventure with a successful trip on the river and a happy ending for the villagers (or as happy an ending as you can have after being displaced by wildfires).

On the River a pod of merfolk need saving from a fire giant whose presence is boiling the river, fallen trees dam the river and must be shifted, a bale of gulf snapping turtles need to be convinced to help ferry folx on the river and protected while they do so (which could get complicated), and a pair of trolls whose bridge has burnt down need to be convinced to stop wailing and walloping in their despair at being displaced.

With the villagers rescued the adventure comes to a close, but a number of threads are included for further forays. The party could help with the rebuilding effort (possibly building a new bridge for the trolls), they could use what they have learned and further investigate the cause of the fires (fire cult anyone? Ooh or a dragon!) or there is always the option of hunting the fire-spreading monsters through the ravaged landscape to stop them targeting anywhere else.

Appendix A contains all the statblocks for the new creatures and NPCs with some astounding, adorable and resplendent artwork! (I’m completely enamoured by Gaiya, the Devil Dingo and the Quokka is killing me with cuteness!!!) This is a humongous amount of over 50 new statblocks, from bandicoot to wombat rider, including an incredible about of new Australian-inspired creatures with insightful information boxes for some. The effort put into creating so many new statblocks is seriously impressive!

Appendix B contains an impressive collection of 15 new magic items from Amulet of Keating to Wonderful Watering Can with a variety of great artwork. Some of my favourites include, Boots of the Politician (making the wearer a “tumbling fool” as well as many handy advantages), Pouch of Holding (a legendary pouch few marsupials are born with containing a large area and strength, while also allowing their young to breathe) and Red Bag of Tricks (this new bag contains a variety of Australian creatures).

Appendix C contains Flora of the Outback. This is a list of 15 plants, trees and other fauna with descriptions and information, so they can be utilised on your games to bring the world to life

Appendix D contains the Wombat Playable Race with background information and a new full playable race, allowing the adorable and stalwart nature of the wombat warriors to venture forth.

Appendix E is a D20 Table of Complications. This provides a list of random complications you can roll or choose to throw at your players if things need spicing up or you just fancy it. Complications range from various dangers and effects of the bush fires, through the dangers of Australian weather and creatures, all the way to a familiar bushranger in distinctive armour and helmet, a reference to the famous Ned Kelly.

Appendix F contains all the incredible folx who came together to create this wonderful adventure and do their part to raise money to help the results of the ongoing Australian bush fires, with a brief bio and their details.

I’m absolutely blown away! This is a breathtakingly beautiful adventure inside and out with some truly astonishing artwork reflecting the awesomeness of this inspiring collaborative project of so many wonderful creators coming together for such a good cause. Did I mention THERE ARE TINY WOMBATS AROUND THE PAGE NUMBERS?!

It beggars a belief how this adventure is so absolutely jam-packed with content around wonderful wombats coming together to save the day with a real emphasis on roleplaying, teamwork and being a hero by helping your Neighbours at Home and Away (sorry). There’s more than enough cathartic combat against various fiery fiendish foes to keep wombat warriors busy too. The love that went into this adventure is clear in the wonder and fun of the absolute tonne of epic encounters, memorable NPCs and a cavalcade of Australian critters.

There is just SO MUCH BLOODY BONZA STUFF HERE!

Brittney Hay (@FNDungeonMom) has brought together a spectacular team who have embodied the heart and soul of the might wombat, and created something truly special. This is an incredibly fun, thoughtful, and awesome adventure.

Credits Project Lead: Brittney Hay Cover and Pregen Character Artist: Sariel Snowings Map Artists: Saga Mackenzie, Dave Pruner Layout: Lydia Van Hoy, Jane Hermiston Forward Written By: Tallulah Cunningham Writers: Agustina von Fuchs, Ashton Duncan, Bridie Dutton, Brittney Hay, Christopher Harding, Joseph Bahm, Josh Zugai, Kayla Bayens, Keith M Rohlman, Lydia Van Hoy, Matthew Whitby, Ruby Kemp, Sadie Lowry, Sharene Gilchrist, Tallulah Cunningham, Tineke Bolleman, Valeria Moreno Artists: Dave Pruner, E. Theo Blaacke, H. “Ink” Kugler, Jo Scott, Lessie M Nieves-Paugh, Mars Skif f , Marta Selusi, Meaghan Arbital, Morgan Madeline, Sadie Lowry, Saga Mackenzie, Tallulah Cunningham, Tom Fummo, Ymia Editors: Ashton Duncan, Bridie Dutton, Brittney Hay, David Glass, Iam Pace, Jessica Peters, Josh Zugai, Kai Linder, Leon Barillaro, Lydia Van Hoy, Sadie Lowry Australian Advisors: Josh Zugai, Tallulah Cunningham

Glittergold’s Clockwork Combat Player Pack by Drew Dawes (@DrewDwarves) & Garl Glittergold (@GoldenHillsGoldonBoy69)

Following Dawes success with the spectacular Glittergold’s Clockwork Combat last year, Garl Glittergold, the Priceless Gem, has taken a little break from relaxing in his hot tub full of gold coins and sneaking Urdlen into Baervan Wildwanderer’s bed to come and help/ get the credit he deserves for raising so much money for Extra Life (@ExtraLife4Kids). Being a Greater Deity and the leader of the Lords of the Golden Hills, Glittergold has come up with the ingenious idea of creating a player pack to be handed out to players to aid in their Clockwork Combat Bot building, veneration of him and as a way of raising even more money for charity!

This Player Pack comes with the information needed to build the Clockwork Battle Bots and character sheet to record it on, with the ridiculous and amusing comments from Glittergold himself in his own super shiny handwriting. This includes the scrawling out of the sadly ineffective and unpopular Clockwork Frog Leg, although the NPC, Lil, is having none of it and the Bonus Part can be seen in all it’s...glory on her battle bot statblock.

Everything is not quite as it seems, as the Sparkling Wit (both the god and the humble Dawes) has made some silly little alterations that can be seen throughout, including the Kawaii-ing up of the battle bot on the cover and a number of the NPCs to make them seem silly and adorable, although one seems to be impaled on a chaff fork...

The new addition, aside from Glittergold’s musings, are Garl Glittergold’s Battle Blessing Boxes (in no way affiliated with Mario Cart. Plus, Glittergold had the idea first anyway!). These are new power ups that can be placed in accordance with a donation coming in (in a charity game) increasing the excitement and incentive to give generously, the DM adding boxes at initiative 20 or at the whim. Each of the six power ups contain a gift from one of the Gods of the Gnomish Pantheon. Nebbelen grants additional damage of a random type, Flandel Steelskin lends his strength to your battle bot, Baervan Wildwanderer provides a mushroom that increases speed, Baravar Cloakshadow helps hide your battle bot, Gaerdal Ironhand and Glittergold provide serious fortitude, and Glittergold lends his beloved battleaxe, Arumdina, which will always go to the most broken bot.

These gifts will certainly give the clockwork battle bot participants and onlookers an extra spark of life as the battle plays out, increasing the random and bizarre nature of the event, which is only fitting for its tricky namesake.

This is a great little addition to the original adventure that makes things easier in the building and battling departments, and adds a whole new feature to the arena, as well as being a cheeky bit of fun. All this and it’s all for a good cause? That’s awesome in my book!

Credits

Design: Drew Dawes & Garl Glittergold Author: Drew Dawes Editor: Garl Glittergold Cover Photo: Jeremy Bishop Character Art: Witch Planet Combat Bot Art: Sebastian Barfod Kawaii Expressions: gstudioimagen/ Freepik Layout: Anna Urbanek Assistant Layout: Garl Glittergold Playtesters: Lili, Merric, Gemma, Emett Bobbinoggin

My review of the fantastic full Garl Glittergold’s Clockwork Combat Adventure Module: https://www.dmsguild.com/product_reviews_info.php?&reviews_id=349619&products_id=284778?affiliate_id=1507682