- no title specified

MOB Interview … Antipodean Game Reviews (inc Hunter Planet, Albedo, EPOCH, Sol)… Hunter Planet … Max Max GURPS Autoduel … Ralis Campaign Setting … Batmania … Skum of the Stars ... Laundry Files Down Under… Gulliver’s Trading Company … D&D 5e Gulliver’s Antipodes … The Last Remnants of Men RPGaDay … Moonlight Movie Review … and much more!

RPG Review is a quarterly online magazine which will be available in print version at some stage. Maybe a ten year anniversary? All material remains copyright to the authors except for the reprinting as noted in the first sentence. Contact the author for the relevant license that they wish to apply. Various trademarks and images have been used in this magazine of review and criticism. Use of trademarks etc are for fair use and review purposes and are not a challenge to trademarks or copyrights. This includes Dungeons & Dragons (Wizards of the Coast), Laundry Files (Cubicle Seven), Hunter Planet (HPAC), GURPS (Steve Jackson Games), Skum of the Stars (Owlman Press). Attack cassowary image from Uncyclopedia. “Moonlight” distributed by A24. “Bad Taste” by Wingnut Films. Cover map of “The Antipodes”, Herman Moll, 1729.

Cooperative News and Editorial

It’s been quite a few busy months for the RPG Review Cooperative, especially given that this is a double issue and, as expected, we have twice as much to report on.

We currently have eighteen known RPG groups run and organised by the Cooperative almost entirely within the state of Victoria, which means we still need to spread our wings a little bit and get some interstate and international people involved.

Our library has grown, thanks to a generous donation of 15 items from Andrei Nikulinsky we now have the core rules for Megatraveller, several Spacemaster modules, some Traveller: TNE material and a couple of additional pieces. Unsurprisingly, we’ve taken the opportunity to make use of these items and now are running a popular Megatraveller game, along with Elric! following the three copies of Elric! and Stormbringer that are available.

A Blade Runner 2049 movie night at IMAX was recently held which was pretty special and controversial film. The next issue of RPG Review will cover a great deal of the appropriate discussion. It may even include a movie review!

Also, with the upcoming release of a new RuneQuest, the Cooperative ran a playtest session for RPGaDay. The RPG Review Cooperative has a strong association with RuneQuest not the least hosting the archives and mailing list for the RuneQuest Rules group, which has been a series of successive lists since the 1980s!

Of course, the big event from the Cooperative’s point of view is that Papers & Paychecks has finally been completed with Tim Kask, the first employee of TSR, writing the foreword, which is the height of appropriateness. Special thanks to all our patient supporters, and the supplement Cow-Orkers in the Scary Devil Monastery is well in progress. Funds from these two publications, will go to expanding the Cooperative’s library and funding future activities.

It’s not all good news however. Two of the founding members of the RPG Review Cooperative, Inc., Lachlan Smith and Rick Barker have had to retire from from the Cooperative and from gaming in general.

Lachlan had been a gamer for many years and joined the Cooperative playing '7th Sea Freiburg' and 'Eclipse Phase Rimward and Return', two campaigns which is participated with major characters. Unfortunately even on joining Lachlan had already been diagnosed with a brain tumor which advanced rapidly this year and he passed away at the end of July.

Rick has experienced a rapid onset of a dementia-like condition. An older individual who was introduced to RPGs in his early sixties but with some prior training in theatrics he took up participation rapidly. He was an active participant in several games including 'Mimesis Outbreak of Heresy', 'Legend of the Five Rings/Bushido The Ainu Nezumi', 'RuneQuest Prax', 'MERP/Deciper LoTR/GURPS Middle Earth', 'GURPS Krononauts', '7th Sea Freiburg' and 'Eclipse Phase Rimward and Return'.

We deeply miss our fellow gamers and express our deepest sympathies to their family and friends.

In a sense it is a curious fact that it has taken almost ten years to release an issue of RPG Review that is explicitly orientated towards game design from Australia and New Zealand, given that it is published in Melbourne, is governed by an incorporated association in the same city, is lodged with the Australian National Archives, and has an overwhelming number of contributions from author’s based in these countries. There is also an impressive array of RPG systems and supplements that originate from Australian and New Zealand game designers, of which not even a majority are covered in this issue. The following is an attempt to list the games in question.

Also, I know there was a game called Oracle that was published by the Otago University RPS, because I saw it in a second-hand bookshop several years ago but though the price-tag was "a little steep". Plus a hat-tip to the New Zealand publishing company Red Brick, who were responsible for publishing Earthdawn 3rd edition (2009) and Fading Suns (2012), and of course to the numerous supplements written by Antipodean RPG authors, of which some of have graced the pages of RPG Review in the past. And I am absolutely sure I've missed a couple of people of course.

This issue of RPG Review tries to cover some of the old and new Antipodean games, broadly defined. There is a new article, RPG Review game blogs, where we cover in narrative form some of the games that our members have been getting up to. It is not comprehensive in either the number of game sessions referred to (because not all our GMs keep summaries) and by no means is it particularly detailed for those games in question that it does cover, as we just want to give people an overview. After all, now that the publication is operated by a Cooperative, it is a good idea to have some more Cooperative news included.

There is also couple of interviews, one with Michael O'Brien who has recently taken up a new role at Chaosium which is a showing a surprisingly Australian connection, and another with Andrew Gillespie, artist for Skum of the Stars. Yours truly has a few articles, including a review of a few of the aforementioned games, two articles on Hunter Planet (one being Hunter Planet in NZ), and co-authoring with Torquil Gault and upgrade of Ralis, a kinda-sorta fantasy Australia, for D&D 5th edition.

Nicholas Moll provides an interesting journey with Batmania, which RPGs because an option for some deep historical exploration, and some designer’s notes for the morality of Skum of the Stars. Karl Brown has a couple articles for his project, Gulliver's Trading Company, which covers the Antipodean regions and an attempt to convert the same to D&D 5th edition. Andrew Daborn as a contribution with the Laundry Files Down Under which explains how things function in the mad-house down here, along with some rather disturbing scenarios. Add to this is the designer's notes by Andy Malcolm for an upcoming RPG, The Last Remnants of Men, and of course, Andrew Moshos provides his regular movie column, this time with a review of Moonlight. Plus there is also our annual RPGaDay response, and this year it is massive, courtesy of some amazing detail by Ian Borchardt. Holy dingo balls, when asked a question this cobber can respond in depth.

Also Nicholas has provided a special offer for RPG Review readers – the core rules of Skum of the Stars for a mere $9.00. The link is the following URL:

http://www.rpgnow.com/browse.php?discount=9c520d7b7f

One thing this all does make me wonder is the relative dominance of the RPG industry by the Anglophone world. Yes, RPG games do have an international market. There are various RPG games in French, German, Spanish, Swedish, Polish, Korean, Japanese, etc, plus a plethora of translations. But in reality the market is overwhelmingly dominated by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Australia and New Zealand are bit-piece actors at best, even if we do punch above our weight at times. Yet, some of those non-Anglophone countries do have a very healthy RPG communities and, by all accounts, amazing conferences. How much longer will it be before we witness an Esperanto RPG? Or even better the Ten Baidu Deities RPG?

Papers & Paychecks

Email: info@rpgreview.net for pricing, shipping, and bulk orders. All proceeds will go to the Cooperative.

Gaming Blogs

Luxuary yatch Ptompkin pulled out of Scaladon's prime spaceport, last Imperial port on it's return journey to Drinax after a Grand Tour of the Tobia subsector.

On board were: Cmdr Piotr Mendelev, Baron of Nova Toya and former commander of the Drinax Star-Guard Marines. His wife, Dr Anya Villanova, Baroness of Nova Toya and mistress of the Potemkin. Jacob Ondracok, research scientist travelling to the sector renowned University of Drinax to pick up the lab ship and project he had been assigned.

They had also picked up Mr Grey, a courier travelling from Fist to Drinax who had offered substantial funds to Cmdr Mendelev for delivering him safely there.

Leaving the horrific majesty of Scaladon's toppling skyscrapers and the fanatical Prophets of Geynim behind the Potemkin headed for Exocet, their next stop. A wing of fighters escorting an Imperial patrol cruiser 'Drakes Drum', intercepted the Potemkin demanding an inspection of the ship for an enemy of the Imperium. After carefully hiding and shielding their passenger the crew complied and the Imperial agents found nothing.

A week in jump-space later the Potemkin stopped off at one of Exocet's gas giants before jumping immediately out again for Clarke, the colonial outpost not being felt noteworthy enough for examination by the crew.

While refuelling and restocking at Hiewad City, spaceport of Clarke the team split up. Jacob scanned the feeds of the planet's net trying to gather data on the system's archaeological sites that he could sell on at Drinax. Baroness Anya and her husband opted to explore the sites first hand spending a pleasant day knee deep in mud, ancient nicknacks and quaint scavengers. As the couple drove back to Hiewad City the peace of the day was ruined by what turned out to be two ships assaulting the site, levelling the buildings and killing many of the locals. Rushing back to the site Anya attempted to help the survivors while Piotr's swift analysis of the situation identified that a type-S Scout ship and a Far Trader had landed during the assault.

Local authorities arrived shortly after, securing the site as priests began spraying critically injured victims with carbon-foam to preserve the before their True Death. The Psychopomp death cult of Clarke holds that all those in imminent danger of dying must be frozen in carbon and placed in one of the pyramid like warehouses until a medical cure can be found for them. Unfortunately the scraps of high-tech equipment on the planet are mostly employed to freeze and maintain the supplicants, not invested in medicine...

At Hiewad City the provost of the starport, Keeper Malos, was deeply distressed by the murderous raid and appealed to the nobles for aid from Drinax.

When news that Drinaxian nobles were visiting the High Psychopomp, Boone, granted an audience and made an additional request. Prince Harrick of Drinax had been mortally wounded in the battle of Asim and placed in suspended animation at the time before being healed by the advanced science of Drinax's scholars. Boone invited Harrick to be the new High Psychopomp as he represents to fulfilment of the faith's promise, resurrection!

With these messages for Drinax the crew of the Potemkin finish refuelling and prepare to return home.

Their business on Clarke completed the crew of the Ptompkin left Hiewad City for Drinax. Almost immediately their plan went awry. The way was barred however by the arrival of an armoured yacht displaying the colours of Planet Scaladon "The Flaming Sword of Geynim" Only 30 minutes away from intercept with the Ptompkin the new yacht hailed her, demanding immediate surrender of Mr Grey - they had tapes of him in the shower...

Threatened with attack the Ptompkin pulled over and acquiesced to be bordered by the Imperial agents - only to pull the old grenade through the boarding tube and counter-boarding action trick!

Overcoming the agents and the remaining crew of the "The Flaming Sword of Geynim" Baron Piotr claimed the ship before broadcasting the event to Clarke. Finally the two yachts leaped gracefully into J-Space, destination Drinax!

Potemkin and Flaming Sword of Geynim docked in Drinax's Palace starport. The mysterious Mr Grey went his way and the scientists were invited to set up a psionic institute on Drinax through Drinax University and Mr Jaanson. They were gifted a lab ship and funds and envouraged to start by infiltrating an existing Institute. Pyotr's cousin, the King, invited the crew to the unveiling of a battered but space-worthy commerce-raider which he offered to the team if they would be his privateers.

“So, here’s what we’re going to do. You take the Harrier and you cut a bloody swathe across the stars. Attack shipping, raid starports, hit fuel depots. Take what prizes you can. Don’t kill anyone you don’t have to, though – we want to bleed the merchants until they go crying to the Imperium, not start a bloody war. Pirate’s part one of the plan. Part two is all those worlds out there. We make them our allies. Sell stolen goods there, defend ‘em from raiders, recruit crew, give them a taste of wealth, and bring them back under the banner of Drinax. When the time comes, we offer the Imperium a deal – the pirate attacks stop if they recognise the Kingdom of Drinax and give me my rightful due.”

He slams his meaty fist into the arm of the throne. “We do this right, and we’ll show there’s life in this old empire yet.” “Now, the terms. We keep this a secret from the Imperium for as long as possible – and that means you keep that letter of marque hidden until we sign a peace. The ship’s being loaned to you – you’re responsible for repairs and maintenance, but she’s coming home at the end. Ten percent of any money you make goes to me. Spend as much as you can spare on the colony worlds and curry favour with them. We’ll need them on our side if this isn’t going blow up in our faces."

Princess Rao, first in line to the throne was introduced and King Oleb was informed of the diplomatic incident in Clarke. Rao informed the crew in return that there had been another attack by pirates, this time in Torpol with a similar MO to the Clarke attack and suggested that they investigate that next. King Oleb was asked if his son would agreed to be the next High Psychopomp of Clarke and the crew were politely encouraged to as him themselves.

A Rousing Shanty by Dread Captain Doug Anthony and the Crew of the pirate ship 'All Stars'

What follows is a summary of my actions and a record of the events that occurred following your eventful meeting with King Oleb.

I took the liberty of registering the company you ordered be formed with Drinax Administration. "Muscovy Company" is merely a placeholder, feel free to amend that at your convenience my Lord.

Additionally I recruited crew for The Skopa, George Gamow and The Flaming Lamborghini. I have registered all personnel, ships and boats under the company and, unless previous owners are most persistent, they are firmly held assets, manifests and crew files attached (they're not really).

New Year celebrations. There was some discussion among your officers as to what to do next. A knife fight nearly broke out over a discussion involving displacement tons, but calmer heads prevailed (I couldn't remember the mass/volume of a dton!(13.5kL)). The plan was to follow news of a pirate assault in the Torpol system.

With the assistance of your academic colleagues we advertised both a 'New Year Break party bus' service for students of Drinax to the pleasure pits of Torpol and transport for a group of researches on a field mission to core Torpol's southern pole. Following this your adept officers managed to fill all remaining space on board our fleet with freight also designated for Torpol.

Following completion of contract on the freight payment for 122,000c was received.

On return to Drinax, estimated to be on 047:1117, we expect payment of at total of 400,000c for return tickets on the Torpol-Drinax run.

After arriving at Torpol's south polar starport your officers met with Provost Falx, starport administrator and a rather gregorious fellow. It is not my place to say but I believe you would have enjoyed his hat.

Falx was keen to resolve his pirate problem and provided the required access to identify what happened. 3 weeks prior a far trader and a larger salvage hauler assaulted an orbital refinery, blasting off and escaping with a cargo module. They went under the names of 'Argo1' and 'Argo2' but closer analysis by Jacob identified the salvage hauler as the ex-Imperial Navy ship 'Mercifuge' a ship associated with a renegade Imperial Admiral, now pirate lord, Darokyn. It appears a scout ship 'Misery's Company' jumped in a day before the attack, 'staked out' the target and made contact with the pirates when they arrived. It left soon after, but not before selling cargo stolen during the attack on Clarke. (Her grace has placed the 5000c gratuities on your expenses budget) Before she left the scout attacked an Asim far trader q-boat near jump limit and was badly damaged. The captain of the far trader intercepted comms from 'Misery's Company' of a vagyr in distress demanding a jump to the Borite system.

Jacob invested significant time in identifying sources of Harrier spare parts to help ease the burden of maintenance and repair costs.

During this period, Provost Shala, a sagacious terra-archetect, asked me for an introduction to your officers. She was interested in hiring personnel on a mission to recruit Dr Thorkan, a marine biologist from Thalassa who has research Shala believes essential to Torpols prosperity. Provost Shala recommended we approach Torkan with an extraordinary assertive approach.

"They got rid of their instruction manuals, the fools are defenceless!" - Lev Lafayette

The Drinax Harrier jumps alone to Borite to follow the trail of the 'Misery's Company' and make contact with Borite Continuum Authority. In their hold is a prototype neutrino sensor satellite array.

The Borite system - an ancient Sindalian space-station is found in a decaying orbit around the outermost of Borite's three gas giants.

A faint distress beacon draws the Skopa to the station. Cautiously the spacers approach, and board the station finding two hidden lifeforms. A chamax hunter leaps on Pytr who slays it with one blow of his sword before miraculously dodging a spray of blood/molecular acid!

The crew stumbled upon Krrsh, the Vargr Pirate who quickly spewed his guts. Krrsh swears to serve The Skopa loyally. The hound claims he was the captain of Misery’s Company, and part of the retinue of a human pirate called Ferrik Redthane.

His crew abandoned him at the station. They turned on him after he ordered an attack on a freighter that turned out to have more guns than expected. One of his crew was killed in the attack. He was also part of the raiding party that hit Clarke. Ferrik Redthane was formerly part of the pirate gang commanded by Admiral Darokyn, one of the pirate lords of Theev. Krrsh does not know what happened, but Ferrik and Darokyn quarrelled, and Ferrik now has a price on his head.

Krrsh reports that because of this Ferrik needs the protection of one of the other pirate gangs and that he launched the raids on Torpol and Clarke to show how dangerous and competent he is. Krrsh states that Ferrik dare not set foot on Theev, and that he's probably sent his trusted lieutenant Miria Silverhand to negotiate with the other gangs on his behalf. Krrsh states he knows the secret routes to Theev if they take him.

With this exposition dump the team continue their main goal, opening trade negotiations with Borite!

A week later the team have completed some routine, but greatly overdue, maintenance on Borite Mine 1's atmosphere pumps and have the beginnings of an agreement with Borite:

- provide protection for the Borite system from pirates, raiders and insurrectionists.

- provide protection for trade between Drinax and Borite systems from pirates, raiders and insurrectionists.

- provide free passage, shelter and protection for Sindalian ships and their crew.

As the harrier leave Borite sensors pick up two heavily armed corsairs leaving one of the gas giants.

The Skopa then returns to Torpol to refuel, noting only that the two corsairs seem to have followed a day later. Rather than risk a confrontation the crew take the jump to Drinax and home...

On the Isle of the Purple Towns, Merchant Prince Dobbas brought together Ellen, Jules, Tace and Bogret: swords for hire in these troubled times. He commissioned them to serve Fiorgan, merchant of Kariss, with a writ for the return of a golden statue used as collateral for a bad debt.

After an uneventful journey to Kariss our heroes spent some time investigating Fiorgan dressed as beggars and eating his stew. When approached Fiorgan gave up the statue with little resistance. Suspicious as always the heroes went to a statue expert to investigate it further who identifeid it as valuable but daemon possessed.

During a brief but unhelpful conversation with a local sheriff of the Church of Goldar the heroes were told to find the sorcerer who summoned this daemon and bring his head to the church. They concocted an intricate plan to confront Fiorgan and find out the identity of the sorcerer! Cunningly splitting their forces Tace and Bogret approached Fiorgan who revealed himself to be a sorcerer, summoning a daemon to smite the two heroes!

{An interlude; the daemon was defeated and the heroes were sent onto another mission, Tower of Yrkath Florn, a dangerous beginners scenario which appeared in the the first four editions of Stormbringer. Despite carnivorous flying apes and a demon, the heroes survived that as well, and found themselves in possession of not only a tower but also a Melnibonean Wheel, a massive gold coin worth a small fortune. Heather was concerned...}

"A pity about Bogret, that peasant had promise. If we ever find out where his family is, we'll give them his coin and tell them to hide it! Those Melnibonean lords will rob all their peasants. We'll bury the body outside the tower, and take his ringmail, axe, and coin for safekeeping."

"Now that the Tower is clear of immediate threats a more careful exploration can be undertaken. My first suggestion is that we act like cleaners. I am still sore from where that damned centipede bit me. I'm sure we missed something in that kitchen, for example. Let's sweep all the debris out, room by room. Put those damn clackers on a pile, downwind, and

"Don't go anywhere near that mirror, I have a bad feeling about it. Same with that wine cask, probably full of poison. The demon door is an interesting item. Can we remove it from the hinges? Seems weirdly cruel to leave it here. Even a demon doesn't deserve to be stuck in a door forever. And what about that brazier? Cute to have something that lights up like that, although it probably shouldn't go in our hovel. We might need to build that up or something, now that we have wealth."

"Yes, wealth. With Bogret dead we can carry an additional 300 pounds at least. Our nags were probably able to take another 150 pounds each, and if we walk them, another 300 pounds per horse."

"And now we have a Melnibonean Golden Wheel. Twenty pounds of solid gold, only four hundred and twenty eight in existence, one for each Emperor. I wonder which one we have? It's worth five hundred thousand large bronzes,

"We might be able to tempt a priest of Donblas out here to cleanse the door of it's demon" pipes in Ellen

"... and if we donate enough to the temple they might not burn the tower down with us in it too..." she adds after a thought.

"We need someone who knows about such things.”, Ellen responded. “What about our friendly antiques dealer who sent us on the mission to begin with? A sketch of the items and a description would give them a good idea of what we're dealing with."

And so our fair heroes tale continues. They have defeated the tower and found it's riches but not the frog figurines their patroness desired.

Our heroes bravely returned to Menii, leaving in the tower a totally not cursed giant gold coin. Valiantly, they handed over their antique gold and silver to Lady Rydychei to find a suitable buyer and swapped their other loot for mythic fistfuls of bronzes! Great was the bathing on that day! Everyone bathed, except Ellen who had remained at the tower and stank. New clothes and suits of armour were purchased or renovated for all! Mighty Allan the Shepherd was granted land and a dozen hens for protecting our heroes shack.

After the celebrations the GM tried to tempt the into another shopping trip, but they were having none of it and went straight to Bunnings.

They quested long and hard to find a bunch of labourers, half an ox cart of MDF, a carpenter and a mason to fix up their pad before trekking long days back to their hold-out.

On return our heroes mightily vanquished the remaining piles of Clakar droppings and venomous bug nests from the Sorcerer's Tower and secured it against further flying-ape infestations. As the renovations were being completed noble Ellen washed the dishes and found that they had a lovely set of 10 silver plates to go with the cutlery. As the beginnings of a home came together a messenger was spotted approaching the tower...

Usually you are only allowed to carry over one Search card between chapters; however, in this campaign I've allowed unlimited Search cards to be carried over in exchange for giving up Individual Achievements (these are achievements earned by, for example, rolling 3 cheese in an attack which gives extra cheese for the rest of the chapter).

Prologue: Daz Bellows tells his son Tip a bedtime story about how Prince Collin and his allies fought the witch Vanestra after she took over thier kingdom. The men turn themselves into mice to escape jail and their

Chapter One (Flight to Barksburg): The mice flee the jail and fight off rats and roaches on their way to Barksburg. The tactics of letting the crows kill some of the rats, as well as Tilda's mace of fury, are particular highlights of their escape.

Chapter Two (Lily's Tail): The mice find a trapped Lily (damn mousetraps!), who uses her bow to kill the enroaching roaches. The brave mice rescue Lily and conitinue on.

Chapter Three (The Grapes of Rats): The mice enter the castle determined to find out more information about Vanestra's evil schemes. Meeps is captured by Captian Vurst, however, a distraught Maginos frees his little friend. The mice succeed in getting the assistance of Miz Maggie, and she sweeps aside (literally!) some of the rats. The mice succeed in getting information about a Beast that Vanestra is building. Once again, Tilda's mace of fury destroys rats, roaches, and centipedes with abandon.

All six mice stood on the table in the Alchemists Chamber and surveyed the path before them. Rats and roaches appeared, as they are wont to do, and were swiftly dealt with by our heroic mice.

Deciding to split into 2 groups, Collin assembled a team to save King Arden, while Nez lead the rest through the pipes to investigate the rumours of Vanestra's latest sorcery.

Prince Collin lead Filch & Lily into the King's Chamber, but were outmatched by the spiders and rats. As Prince Collin drew his final breath, he squeaked "Three spiders were too much!"

Meanwhile, Nez lead the brave Maginus & Tilda into the tunnels and through the pipes, smashing rats & roaches with ease. Maginus' penchant for cheese in precarious locations (ie. mousetraps) nearly caused some drama, however,

Maginus insisted he was sacrificing his body for the party (as cheese crumbs fell from his lips).

Nez & co arrived in the Forge only to find half a dozen rats, half a dozen roaches, and Captain Vurst waiting in ambush. Maginos used his cheese stash to lather himself in cheese, which was quite effective, but alas the sheer quantity of enemies overwhelmed Nez's team and as Nez went to meet his maker he could only think "if only we had all 6 of us here to take down this rat & roach horde"

SUDDENLY..... *GASP*........Prince Collin woke up! He was still in the Alchemist's Chamber.......it had all been a

dream! "What a lovely, lovely cliche," he thought, as rats & roaches suddenly appeared in the Alchemist's Chamber....

It's 772 AD, and a personage of no less than the Roman Catholic Bishop Giselbert gathers the young player-characters together at the Cathedral of Tournai to send them to Frisia. There has been stories of the dead walking at the nearby Frisian village of Kolven (which translates to "The Flask",

- Rebecca, an astrologer (1st level Wizard) from Cordova who is allowed to travel because of his scholarship.

And this is the mighty Empire, and indeed what it will become (unless you break things)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Frankish_Empire_481_to_814-en.svg

The most important legal code is Salic Law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salic_law

A character's language skills, both spoken and written, are a function of their intelligence. All the languages in the region are West Germanic. That means all character can understand each other with a -2 modifier to INT at worst. The Ingvaeonic languages (Old Frisian, Old English, Saxon) are related to each other with a -1 modifier. The Istvaeones language (Frankish) will eventually become Old Dutch (yes, arguably Charlemagne is Dutch or Belgian)

Outside these groups there is the Irminones language (Elbe) and Old Norse which is related to the West Germanic with a -4 modifier. Vulgar Latin (also known as Sermo Vulgaris, or "common speech"). This is the most common language of the people of western Europe. Among the western Franks however is already being significantly transformed by Frankish words and will become Old French. Even know the Franks understand Latin with a -4 modifier to INT, and vice-versa (unless of course, the speaker has Frankish)

The primary religion in Roman Catholic Christianity, although the degree that this followed is imperfect at best. In the countryside, as the name implies, many are "pagans", associating themselves with local superstitions. Germanic aboriginal polytheistic paganism is in direct conflict with the Christianisation of the area, and is pushing in an eastwards direction into the Saxon lands. In addition there are many monuments to Roman and Celtic polytheism.

There are small populations of Jews in the region who do their very best to keep to themselves (and, indeed, they have to). They are barely tolerated at best and for any excuse the "Christ killers" will be targetted.

Gender roles are designed and enforced by religious edict. Those who don't follow them will be treated with suspicion, at best, and heresy at worst. Broadly speaking, the pagans are somewhat more tolerant of women taking public roles.

It brings me much pleasure to hear that the good Frankish king Charlemagne has provided assistance to you against Desiderius, now former king of the Lombards. What is the world coming to when a supposedly Christian king takes up arms against the realm of the Pontiff, and so soon after you were elected to that role? Still, what can be expected given that Desiderius appointed Phillip as an Antipope a few years ago. Nothing happened to that of course, and Phillip - after holding office for just one day - went back to his monastery at St. Vitus on the Esquiline. Curious though, that the invading Lombard Desiderius married off his daughter, Desiderata, two years ago to Charlemagne, but that marriage was annuled last year. I wonder what happened to her? Probably just as well, really, one can only imagine what the pillow-talk would have been like: "Darling, I've decided to declare war on your father and take his crown", which is of course what he did. The iron crown of the Lombards now rests on the head of King Charlemagne. I must say, I do like this new Papal coin that you've had struck in celebration. That's an idea that might catch on.

To more local matters with most of the King's army away in Lombardy I have been quite pressed here. There has been stories of the dead walking at the nearby Frisian village of Kolven (which translates to "The Flask", on account on the fine beers). I recruited a most unlikely group of youngsters to investigate the situation. I had sent out an acolyte, Eric, to gather together some individuals to aid in this endeavour and whilst he came back with a squire named Merd, he also returned with a ruffian, a Frisian burgher named Reiner, which I suppose makes some sense given where they were travelling to. But there was also a Jewish scholar named Rebekah. Yes, I know, a woman and a Christ-killer - who reads, no less. Those Jews have no shame.

Against my better judgement I let this group make their way to Kolven and the accounts I received back from Eric it seems that I may have been mistaken with their aptitude. They spoke to the villagers and indeed there was rumours of the walking dead. The fact that these stories were confirmed by the village wise-woman (who is wise and a woman), Marta, added some veracity. As it were, they took to the village graveyard and they did indeed enounter the walking dead. As a major piece of the yard, there were three old pagan barrows. The middle of the three included the bodies of two dead local villagers, requiescat in pace. There was also a second level, which where there was a ghostly reaver as well as walking corpses and skeletons. The youngsters vanquished these abomination and rescued Katya and her child. Also discovered was a carved onyx skull, which had been imbued with evil magicks and had become active as light had entered the barrow. Taking their knowledge of religion the skull was smashed thus breaking its necromantic effects.

Nevertheless, a most remarkable tale. Animated corpses, skeletons, and restless spirits - all due to the presence of an old pagan artifact. It sounds like to me that there is justification for some holy purging of these lands.

Once again it pleases me to hear that the good King Charlemagne and with his uncle Bernard has come to your aid to deal with those dastardly Lombards, although I understand they have had some problems in the Susa Valley due to Lombard fortifications. Still they have been driven back to Pavia now, although I understand they don't have much in the way of food there, a rathe foolish way to protect oneself in a siege. Crossing the Alps was quite a clever move by King Charlemagne I must say, although I have been told that uncle Bernard contributed a great deal at that point.

He was a real saint in that venture. I must confess Saint Bernard of Helvitica does have a ring to it.

You will recall last year I wrote to you concerning the experience of my young vassals in encountering the walking dead and ghosts in Kolven. Well, this year there has been another incident. I received note from a priest in Aachen that there had been walking dead there as well. I gathered the vassals together and explained the situation, and it turns out that it is the home of the Frisian burgher, Reiner - you know, the queer one. Armed with a letter of introduction I sent them forth to Argilos, a Greek scholar who has settled in that town. For good reason to, I hasten to add. The Romans under Hadrian had founded a spa and mineral water resort town there, Aquae Granni, building up the original Celtic village who curiously had a god dedicated to such things named Grannus. I rather suspect that's another opportunity for a sainthood; I quite like the idea of a saint of spas and mineral water.

Anyway, the did see Argilos who has good contacts with the merchants of the town and the various secular authorties. They are, as you could imagine, not very fond of the idea of this ancient Roman temple spewing forth walking skeletons and other corpses. Worse still, some locals who had gone missing were now returning as walking dead. Whatever was in that old temple had woken up and was unhappy about something. Turns out that the skeletons and corpses were being animated by a Roman pagan wraith. Although sorely pressed they managed to dispatch this creature with the radiant powers from Eric and Merd, but it as a close enounter nonetheless. Further, as they ventured throughout the rest of the old temple they encountered the bodies of some locals who had not succeeded at all at tomb raiding, and then a Roman ghost named Flavia from the old 6th Legion who said that they were bound by the Fates to remain there after failing to prevent the assassination of their centurion. It was from Flavia that it was revealed that the wraith was actually the assasin, and now that assasin was gone, there would be no more animated dead.

It is disconcerting that there has been two such incidents in as many years; it worries me too that Charlemagne is spending so much time in his campaign against the Lombards. Whilst I know this is necessary to protect The Holy See from these dastards, I must raise the matter that the Saxons have began raiding again and even have retaken the towns of Eresburg and Syburg and attacked the the episcopal centre of Büraburg, although that stood firm, praise be to God. Could these incidents of the restless dead be related? I hear stories the Saxons have evil wizards in their midst and

The characters begin on vacation on Ceres as company Pathfinder is reloading the ship "Eros' Load" with supplies to take back to mine, when they encountered an Octomorph, Nicolas Bourbaki, who had an alien artifact deceptive purchased from him by Exo Tech. The characters broke into Exo-Tech and recovered the artifact, leaving in Nikolai's ship, The Ten Tickles. Nikolai informs the party that the alien artifact has a consciousness trapped within, and that he works for an organisation dedicated to protecting transhumanity from existential risks - Firewall. The characters join and become Sentinels.

Making their way to the Jovian system, the Sentinels join a psychic research team to improve their knowledge of the artifact, which is revealed to be of an Iktomi alien. Included at the facility is an orphanage of psychic children. They attach themselves to Di Yi Nuhai resulting in Father Jorge Ubico, head of the research facility, imprisoning Di Yi Nuhai at the facility. The Sentienls smash their way out of the facilty and then through the starport to make their way to Europa. Whilst in Europa, the party investigates an alien takeover of a seabase, and then participates in the defense of Europa as Jovian attack.

The Sentinels then maketheir way to Saturn where they are assigned a task from Firewall to find out what has happened to an antimatter bomb; it turns out to be taken up by a religious cult operating a matrioshka system. From there they are assigned a visit to the Echo Systems, where the Iktomi aliens originally come from. Attacked by giant spiders, they make their way through to their nest and then into an Iktomi a mine system which suggests a battle from within. Beyond that they find the habitations, and buried deep within a pool, an Iktomi egg in stasis. Go to the other Iktomi world they find that the place was a prison, and is still guarded by powerful robots. Morphs are destroyed, before a successful mission recovers additional mind shells.

Firewall sends the Sentinels on a quest for a missing researcher who has fallen into a bad crowd of organised criminals. Turns out the criminals were under control of a perverse virus, which the Sentienls dealt with. Then they were subject to a powerful hallucinogenic drug which shared memories into a single reality. Working backwards from implausibilities, they managed to break out of that as well.

The normally inscrutable Professor Magnus Qiao-sen Ming could not contain his excitement when announcing to the Sentinels that the Iktomi egg was on the verge of hatching. Rushing their way to the secure premises on the Titan Autonomous University, a detailed security and biohazard check was undertaken before admission was granted, even given the Sentinels experience and association with the Iktomi.

Once inside however, special access was granted and the Sentinels were allowed to enter the hatching chamber if desired. Nuhai was of course interested in this, but the events that followed were certainly unexpected. The hatching occured as expected, with the applause among the scientists present with the arrival of an alien lifeform long thought

extinct. Foodstuffs cloned from the egg were provided, but the hatchling spider showed distintered in what was provided.

Following the suggestions of the pendant consciousness, Nuhai not only recommended the provision of meat for the hatchling, based on lifeforms found on Echo IV. Not only that, Nuhai shocked those present by removing her biohazard suit - the hatchling spider quickly clambered on her and started its singing sounds. It seemed that it associated Nuhai as a mother figure.

Hoping that the association was not permanent, Nuhai exited the chamber and joined the others in celebration at this new and wonderous life, and many congratulated her on the apparent insight in suggesting a "child food" rather than a "baby food".

Naturally enough the event was circulated through the solar news services, at least as fast as communications would allow. It was then even more surprising when Professor Magnus again contacted the party with even more extraordinary news - TAU had been contacted by The Factors, a known sapient alien species who sought an audience with the Sentinels at a specified location in the Uranus atmosphere.

Recently a brinker war had broken out on an L5 trojan of Uranus, between Malaysian sikhs and Canadian survivalists with the former group apparently hiring Ultimate mercenaries to assist. This however was occuring some distance from the co-ordinates, and with limited time the Sentinels had to engage in Ego-casting and sleeving into new morphs, appropriate to the environment - the Cloud Skate being a popular choice. As the Sentienls ego-casted to the Varuna aerostat (population one thousand) their thoughts surely turned to what the exotic Factors were really after.

The further one travels out from the main habitations of transhumanity the stranger people become. Uranus, the last planet that follows the Titius-Bode law is certainly testament to that suggestion. And who can blame them? A mere several years after the near extinction of transhumanity, many have sort refuge in otherwise inhospitable places

clinging together in small and deliberately isolated communities with the desire to survive being their primary importance. But several years of living in such a way, talking to the same people in the same room, leads to some very interesting ideas on how the universe works.

Still, such exotic environments does bring its own benefits; it has been said you haven't lived until you’ve skated the atmosphere of a gas giant, and the opportunity has presented for the Sentinels to do just that. Uranus is a planet of rare and strange individuals, living in aerostats usually large enough for small communities, making a living from skimming volatiles from the atmosphere. The Sentinels farcasted to Varuna, the only aerostat on the planet with a significant population (all of a thousand) and sleeved into Cloud Skate biomorphs, certainly the most common morph in the region.

Flying was not a skill that the Sentinels had previously much opportunity to undertake, but Uranus is large and there was plenty of opportunity to make mistakes. Taking a aerostate to the coordinates provided by the Factor communication the Sentinels took the wing and began their search for transhumanity's First Contact. It didn't take long, making its way out of the clouds the alien ship called the transhumans to its equivalent of an airlock.

The Factors, resembling ambulatory amoeba, made a number of veiled warnings and expressed concern over certain technological developments, particularly unrestrained artificial intelligence. As per prior encounters, they indicated they would have refused to deal with digital entities and broken off negotiations with anyone currently engaged in AGI

development. They also issued stern warnings against use of the Pandora gates, and this matter particularly concerned them with the Sentinel's discovery of Iktomi eggs and the recent hatching.

Discussing their experiences with the group, explained that the Iktomi had too suffered the equivalent of attempted TITAN extermination. They expressed the considered opinion that every unrestrained artificial intelligence would, through failures on input devices and processing speed, would eventually encounter contraditions and thus become

destructively insane. Vivian expressed the opinion that this could be solved through paraconsistent programming - something that was a fringe interest in the philosophy of logic. But in order to implement this, then the remaining TITAN machines would need to be infected - meaning a return to Earth.

Leaving the gnomic Factors the Sentinels returned to Varuna and made contact with Julius a Romanian-speaker Bouncer morph who was one the cult members who the Factors first came in contact with. A message was also

received from Professor Magnus Qiao-sen Ming on Titan; the autonomist gate Fissure was under attack from Ultimates on Xiphos. The Titanian Commonwealth had received a request for assistance and would be sending a retailatory force. Titanian Commonwealth Fleet intelligence indicated that they wanted to employ the Sentienels as mercenary soldiers to aid the Canadian survivalists in the Brinker War in Neptune, and this interested Firewall as well. Professor Ming emphasized strongly that whilst Firewall had a neutral stance towards the Ultimates, the recent and surprising military maneuvers required an assessment on whether they were a threat to transhumanity - as part of their ascetic did suggest that all those less than them ought to be destroyed.

The Sentinels, now employed as mercenary spieds by the Titanian Commonwealth and as agents of Firewall, farcasted from Varuna to the L5 Trojans and the spectacularly named 2008 LC18, with a diameter of a mere 100km with an irregular shape. The trojan was the largest in an area littered with small rocks, many high in valuable metals and minerals, and the celestial sky was almost foggy in the level of dust in this eerie deadzone of gravitional influence.

The entire trojan was effectively a battlefield between the Canadian Survivalists and the Malay Sikhs and their Ultimate mercenaries. The Sikh's, having captured a nearby automated mining outpost used by the survivalists, have had that output commandeered by the Ultimates who have set up a military HQ there. Prior to the involvement of the Ultimates the battles had consisted of waves of drone strikes against each other's respective (and well defended) bases, and targetting supply lines leading to significant shortages.

The Sentinels were sleeved into available morphs at The Beaver's Lodge, the main base of the Canadian faction on 2008 LC18. Herman took a modified Nova crab which had previously conducted mining operations, and Nihi a

Slitheroid. Both these morphs had battle scarring suggesting that their previous owners may be elsewhere. Adrien was sleeved into Swarmoid, a difficult body to acclimatise to, with Vivian remaining as an Infomorph. The Sentinels were introduced to William Campbell as the contact and guide who went through the process of outfitting and explaning the lay of the battlefield.

For the former, Hermann included a heavy combat armour layer on top of the standard vaccuum suit, itself on top of the standard vaccuum suit, and took six EMP grenades and two concussion grenades, along a rail gun assault rifle, repair spray and a first aid kit. Nihi's Slitheroid came with 360 degree vision, an access jacks, anti-glare, chameleon skin, enhanced vision, grip pads, hidden compartment, lidar, light combat armour on top of the standard vaccuum suit, mneomic augmention, radar, and a t-ray emitter. For weaponary, a sniper rail rifle, two swords (burning favours at the

fabber), two light pistols, six EMP grenades and two thermite grendes. Both were equipped with a medium radio transmitter, cutter, and electronic rope. Adrien's Swarmoid is a skulker variant with the advantage of being invisible to radar.

The lay of the land was relatively simple; the frontline - such as it is - starts some thirty kilometers from Beaver's Lodge, which large defensive emplacements for the Canadian Survivalists have been established. Beyond that is a region of some five kilometres were groups of transhumanist soldiers form a front-line to hinder any potential invasion. Beyond that is a ten kilometer band that consitutes the real front-line an a no-man's land - where swarms of driods and guided missles hammer out a battle against each other with the earth pitted and rent. On the other side, almost like a mirror, the Malaysian Sikhs and the Ultimates had their transhuman soldiers, and beyond that their heavy armour. From there it was another thirty kilometers to the former mining base and now the Ultimate HQ. The objective of the Sentinels? Get to the HQ and hopefully disabled it; kill the head, and kill the beast.

The first action wss taking a sled to the Canadian fortied positions some 20 kilometers from the base. These were essentially command-and-control centres, launching pads for drones, and entrenched heavy weapons. Several kilometers beyond that was scattered forces of tranhumanist squads, holding position, probing enemy lines and protecting their own. Beyond that was the true front-line - drones, swarms, and the occasional transhuman salient - among the constant bomardment as positions were revealed. The war continued "above" as well of course, as much as this potato-shaped rock had an above - with the Canadain and Malay forces sending small craft into each other's territory.

The first experience in no man's land was an encounter with a Canadian scout saucer, which emitted the appropriate call sign. Shortly afterwards, a converted mining robot came into view that did not. It was worrying that the enemy had penetrated this far, but seconds later the mining bot added to the fog of dust as it was silently destroyed. It provided the Sentinels a lesson in the environment; don't get seen. The next encounter were three enemy Swarms, difficult to see in the dusty environment, but sufficiently so that the party was able to throw EMP grendades to central locations,

destroying the micro-robots with ease. Finally, there was a stealth drone, which was taken out at a distance before it could transmit.

The party now were out into the transhumanist region of the Malays, and almost immediately they perceived a squad of Ultimate mercenaries. These conflict between the two groups resulted in mutual avoidance and disengagement, but the penetration behind enemy lines had began. Avoidance could not last forever however, and an hour later, the Sentinels foud themselves in a firefight against a squad of Malay. It was a brief and bloody exchange which resulted in hits on Hermann's Nova Crab, but two fatalities on the side of Malays, who beat a retreat. Word had clearly gotten around that the front-line had been breaches as the Sentinels ran into another squad of Ultimates, however these were avoided in entirety.

As the Sentinels made it to the entrenched locations of the Malay forces, much greater stealth and caution was employed. A near-encounter with a Fenis - a five-ego walking tank - that was armed to the hilt, was enough for the group to see that discretion was the better part of valour. Indeed, Hermann decided it would be much safer to return to the Canadian base, as passed on the Faraday cages containin the morphs for Vivian and Adrien. The Nova Crab morph had fulfilled its role as a meat-shield for the rest of the Sentinels until this point was reached, and the journey to

the Malay command-centre - a former mining building - was without incident. The presence of two-combat modified harvster 'bots however, left Ni Yi considering her next move.

Sent to the extrasolar Bascilica gate, the Sentinels had little to do with the terraforming occuring on Just In Case. They did however, learn a great deal about the management of the gate and the project. The Bascilia gate and Just In Case is a curiously multi-factional location; the hypercorps provide the mining and habitation facilities, the commonwealth manages governance, scientific work by the argonauts, security by the ultimates. All paid, in the first instance, but an unknown source by third party key escrow. The Go-Nin are, of course, present, but are skirting around the edges. The Planetary Consortium are conspicuously absent. Even Firewall has no idea who is in charge. The gate itself is managed by committee and carries out serious checks on all people visiting.

Assigned Ultimate duties as security on the gate, the Sentinels reviewed their situation. The Morningstar Constellation manages the administrative and corporate relations, the Ultimates the security, and gate operations by the Argonauts. If the Ultimates were to take out the gate the other two factions would have be neutralised in some manner. Several attempts by the Sentinels to socialise to determined that among the Agronauts on the same shift there was two biohazard testers (Meridoc and Peregin), one gate operator (Howard W. Campbell Jnr), an analyst (Sarah Briscoe, a bouncer with blue fur and tail) and one researcher (Dexter Ward). Attempts to befriends Sarah did not go well. Nor did the meeting with the Morningstar operatives, with Shirely Kwan, head of finance, giving a particularly cool reception.

Vivian was caught Howard W. Campbell Jnr trying to hack into the Argonaut subnet which was a reportable security incident. A particularly interesting incident was when Di Yi Nuhai/Savvi Sidana came to idea that they were under attack by a Factor. Nuhai attacked the "Factor" however video footage showed that it was in fact their doona that suffered the effects of the blade. This was perhaps not a significant as Aryan Kelaka revelations that he was part of Project Ozma, a Planetary Consortium X-risk organisation. Hermann expressed concerns that this person was now a triple agent (Firewall pretending to be Ultimate, Ozma pretending to be Firewall), but Aryan pointed out that Ozma really is investigation the same risks, it's just that the pay is better and they're better organised.

Eventually the Sentinels decided that interrupting the Ultimates attempt to take over the Gates was an appropriate action. The revealed to the Argonauts and Morningstar Constellation management of the Ultimates' plans and quickly disabled the other Ultimates on shift before they could send a message planetside, whilst at the same time declaring the station under quarantine. Arranging themselves to be all sent to Vulcan, they ensured that messages were sent to Portal and Luca to prepare for attempted take-overs by the Ultimates. From Vulcan of course they would be able receive new 'morphs and make contact with their old Firewall cell leader, Dr. Nicolas Bourbaki.

After completing the most epic betrayal of the Ultimates, the Sentinels thought that discretion was the better part of the valour and decided to get new morphs, after contacting Dr. Nicolas Bourbaki, their Octomorph Firewall contact from many years ago. Desiring his old model, Hermann Blank went back to a Fury morph. Whilst Adrien and Vivian also returned to their original morphs, Nuhai decied to take up a Martian Alpiner, whilst Aryan selected an Ayah, and adopted a new identity 'Arian Heresy', in recognition of their prior history. Hermann thought it valuable to pass on

Takin a shuttle from the Vulcan gate to the Mars elevator, the Sentinels had minimal time before another Firewall agent contacted them through the Thousand Heavens augmented reality game. An issue is raised that five scientists have died in various accidents recently and now another, David Williams, has gone missing and Firewall would like to know what is going on. A review of the Mesh indicated that David is a fairly private person, concentrating on virology research. A review of surveillance footage initially indicated he had entered his apartment but had not left. A visit to the apartment, and a reworking of the cleaner bot by Vivian, allowed for a comprehensive search, discovering a small number of an unauthorised copy of the the drug 'Happy Thoughs', various wigs and missing shoes. A second review of the surveillance footage showed David leaving.

Use of contacts revealed the drug most certainly came from the HLC district, an largely abandoned outer suburban ring in Olympus. Hermann used some old contacts to provide local knowledge and track down the likely supply from Ju Lin, who works as an indentured prostitute at The Thousand Candles, which is thematically based around mid-20th century Catholicism, with all the perversions appropriate for that time and style. Ju claimed that David (known to her as Victor) has purchased a large quantity of Happy Thoughts and had gone to Fuxingmen. After that Hermann spent some quality time in her company.

Returning to their apartment, the Sentinels began to research where in Fuxingmen David could be hiding. But Ju had also been doing some research and contacted Nuhai and send a revealing encyrpted and self-deleting message. Julia is dealing illegal drugs for the Shui Fong triad as a means of paying of her debt early with a delivery to the Doll House, which is next door to The Thousand Candles. Julia bought a large supply of Drive when the Shui Fong flooded the market and prices dropped. Betrayed by the Shui Fong and now even deeper in debt, Julia sold the location of what she believed to be the Shui Fong's drug factory to the competing Smoke Lions for a large amount of money, hoping that the factory would be destroyed and her Happy Thoughts inventory would rise in value again, but she the Smoke Lions to was not the factory. In response, the Smoke Lions then blackmailed her into kidnapping David Williams and delivering him to them from the Doll House. Receiving the message Nuhai began to make arrangements to ensure that Ju would have a place in the Buddhist nunnery.

Following Ju Lin's revelations, Nuhai made contacts with her monastry, Nui Xem (Viet: "Mountain View"), and requested a major favour. The superior, Zheng Huan, made some amendments, and all was agreed. Vivian took control of a automated garbage disposal unit, whilst Hermann stuffed the vehicle with smoke bombs, whilst on Nuhai's suggestion a giant stuffed lion was placed in the driver's seat. Meanwhile Nuhai visited the Thousand Candles

to seek an appointment with Ju Lin and with the aid of a small amount of explosives would blow out the barred window, allowing for escape. As the explosive went off, Adrien arrived with a getaway vehicle to assist in the

escape of Ju Lin to Nui Xem. All went according to plan - with the single exception that the vehicle alerted its owners that it had been compromised.

With Ju Lin ensconced, further information was revealed through questions and subsequent research. David the virologist was kidnapped and delivered by ComEx to Mike's Custom Morphs, which is revealed as a Shui Fong front, which seemed to a curious request by the Smoke Lions. The Sentinels decide that Mike's Custom Morph's is worthy of investigation.

Arriving there they find that much of the upper floor of the building has been hit by an explosive. Ignoring the "Police Site: Do Not Enter" tape, they make their way through the building and note that the extent of the

damage - and the fact that the fridge is operational again and accoring to its logs in recent use. They soon find the reason for this with the meeting of some surprisingly well-armed Smoke Lion triad members who, after some negotiation provide a tour of the facility, which includes meeting David in a healing vat. David informs the party he is working on investigating a bioweapon virus called "Chain Reaction" which literally causes biomorphs to explode. He is currently operating on Hyperdrive and simulspace to speed up his research. The four Smoke Lions believe that they are infected by the virus.

As David is completing his research there is a massive explosion upstairs, where a group of attackers are destroying the building. The Smoke Lions and Sentinels engage, with one of the Smoke Lions exploding when wounded, with hard shards of his skin flying about. The Lions and the Sentinels eventually defeat the attackers who are assessed as an Ultimate group. Returning to the lab, David completes his research, and indicates that the bioweapon development was led by one Zaizan Bosshard.

David produces enough of the antidote for the Smoke Lions to be relieved of infection, and arrange an evacuation. The Sentinels contact their Firewall contact, Proxy21. Muses of the Sentinels alert them that there have been two recent cases of exploding individuals in a manner that would suggest infection with Chain Reaction. Over the next several days there are additional explosions with a terrorist group named "A Plague of Locus" claiming responsibility, increasing public anger at anarchists who deny responsibility. The Martian OIA ensures that all the people injured by the explosions receive antidoes, thereby preventing further explosions.

Finally, the Sentinel's respective Muses note that the garbage truck crashing in Thousand Candles was reported, although described more as a vehicle malfunction than anything else. Nevertheless, video spimes may exist of the Hermann adding smoke explosives to the truck, and certainly of Nuhai entering the establishment. At the very least, Shui Fong and the garbage company will be conducting their own investigations.

Michael O’Brien Interview

Q: How did you initially get in RPGs, and what spurred the initial interest in Chaosium games?

A: I first started playing RPGs as a young teenager, at secondary school. Like many gamers back then, I started with the blue box D&D. RQ2 is the second RPG I ever played. One my friends got a hold of a copy of Chaosium's scenario Apple Lane <https://www.chaosium.com/apple-lane-pdf/>, long before we saw the RuneQuest rules. Working out RQ from first principles was pretty tough, particularly as we were teenagers still rooted in the DnD paradigm, but we were excited by the tantalising hints and glimpses of Greg Stafford's game world Glorantha. Some time later we got a hold of the RuneQuest rules; ; luckily for us, right when the golden age of RQ2 had just begun! In the intervening time I had made my own first-ever RPG purchase, TSR's Boot Hill, but found it, and D&D, very much lacking after our discovery of Chaosium's elegant and rational d100/BRP approach.

Q: What's your own background with official Chaosium publications? What about other Australian/NZ Chaosium authors? (e.g., Mark Morrison, Penelope Love, Richard Watts)? How closely have you worked with them?

A: I can proudly say I had my first manuscript cheerfully rejected by Chaosium some time in the early 1980s. I was first professionally published in 1992 (the RuneQuest supplement Sun County <https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/classic/rev_6784.phtml>), but that was under Chaosium's licensing arrangement with The Avalon Hill Game Company, so technically not by Chaosium. Although I have known Greg Stafford and

Sandy Petersen for over 30 years, and collaborated with them on various creative projects (mostly through the magazine Tales of the Reaching Moon <https://index.rpg.net/display-search.phtml?key=magazine&value=Tales+of+the+Reaching+Moon&type=pictures>, see question below), my first actual Chaosium credit wasn't until this year, 2017. This was Call of Cthulhu - The Coloring Book <https://www.chaosium.com/call-of-cthulhu-the-coloring-book/>, which I was very surprised and happy to see get nominated and win the 2017 Gold ENnie for Best RPG Related Product <http://www.ennie-awards.com/blog/2017-noms-and-winners/>.

Mark Morrison, Penelope Love and Richard Watts have been my friends since university. I did work closely with Mark Morrison at one point back in the 1990s, but that was in the Children's TV industry, not games. But we now do work closely with Mark's company Campaign Coins <http://campaigncoins.com/>, as they are producing wonderful Call of Cthulhu and Glorantha coins, pendants, runes and the like under license.

Recently, I've had some involvement in getting Mark's Reign of Terror <https://www.chaosium.com/reign-of-terror-pdf/> into release. This is a new Call of Cthulhu supplement set in the French Revolution, and Penelope was part of the writing team too, along with fellow Australians James Coquillat and Darren Watson. Mark sets a high bar for the quality of the Call of Cthulhu material he's written over the years, and he thinks this is the best scenario he's ever written.

(I can also add I am currently playing in a 24 person, multi-GM campaign masterminded by Mark, using Schwalb Entertainment's Shadow of the Demon Lord rules - described by Mark as "like 5e, only 666% more bad ass").

Q: You've also been involved on associated publications that you have been directly responsible for, such as 'Tales of the Reaching Moon' and 'RuneQuest DownUnder'. Could you elaborate on these?

A: Tales of the Reaching Moon <https://index.rpg.net/display-search.phtml?key=magazine&value=Tales+of+the+Reaching+Moon&type=pictures> was a Gloranthan fanzine, which published 20 issues between 1989-2002. I was

sent a copy of issue #1 by one of the editorial team at White Dwarf magazine. Back then, WD was a general gaming magazine, covering all sorts of RPGs, including RuneQuest. I'd had some RQ articles accepted for publication by WD, but this was right at the moment it was winding down its coverage of other games and turning into a miniatures catalogue it has been ever since. So my contact at WD suggested I should see if Tales was interested in my stuff. I wrote to the editor David Hall - as in *wrote*, and then put the letter in an envelope and posted it, because this was in the days before email - and that was a the start of a great creative collaboration and friendship with David and a whole crew of others interested in Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha. Another person who later joined the editorial team was Rick Meints, and we still work together now at Chaosium (he is the president of the company). Tales of the Reaching Moon certainly kept Gloranthan fandom alive in the late 1990s and early 2000s, after The Avalon Hill Game Company stopped publishing—Glorantha fans have a lot to thank David Hall for.

Regarding RuneQuest Con Down Under, there were actually two such conventions - one in 1996, and the other in 1998, both in Melbourne. I was part of the organizing team for both of them. They were a lot of fun, and pulled in attendees and guests from all over the country and internationally. We ran several large LARP/freeform events at these cons.

Q: In 2015 you became a co-owner of Moon Design Publications, and then shortly afterwards it was announced that that Moon Design become part owners of Chaosium and you became Vice-President of the company. What was the state of Chaosium at the time and its licensed range (RuneQuest, Stormbringer, Call of Cthulhu, ElfQuest etc)?

A: I formally joined Moon Design Publications one day and the following day Moon Design became part owners of Chaosium. It's not a secret that Chaosium was in very poor financial shape when Moon Design Publications came on board, and had two massively overdue and unfulfilled Kickstarters to deal with (Horror on the Orient Express <https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/448333182/horror-on-the-orient-express-a-chaosium-publicatio>, Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed <https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/448333182/call-of-cthulhu-7th-edition>), among myriad other problems. This article "Cthulhu Company Kickstarted Itself to Death - then this happened <http://geekandsundry.com/cthulhu-company-kickstarted-itself-to-death-then-this-happened/> over at Geek Sundry tells the sorry tale, and what we had to do to turn things around.

Financially we're not out of the woods yet, but we finally declared HotOE done and dusted recently - with a bonus 20th scenario <https://www.chaosium.com/blog/-horror-on-the-orient-express-kickstarter-ends-with-all-backers-receiving-free-bonus-20th-scenario/> by Mark Morrison going out free to all the backers as a way to say thanks for their patience and forbearance - and we have one last top tier backer item to go for CoC7. We've done a lot of work to reengage with our audience.

Q: There's also a small range of publications for Hero Wars that you've been involved in. How do you find Hero War/HeroQuest compared to RuneQuest? Will there be collaborative publications between Issaries and Chaosium?

A: HeroQuest <https://www.chaosium.com/heroquest/> is another rules set, more narrativist in its approach than RuneQuest. We intend to keep HeroQuest as another way to experience roleplaying in Glorantha. We also

have 13th Age in Glorantha <https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/416625372/13th-age-in-glorantha>,

which is a d20 level-based rules set and an expansion of the 13th Age RPG by Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet. Recently, I have been more involved in getting that somewhat protracted Kickstarter project finished than working on anything HQ-related. 13AG is going to be a beautiful looking book

<https://www.chaosium.com/blog/13th-age-in-glorantha-update-layout-samples-full-chapters-at-gencon/>

with a superb rules set, and I'm looking forward to seeing that released by the end of 2017.

BTW Issaries Inc doesn't exist any more - in 2013 all of its Gloranthan IP and related trademarks passed to Moon Design Publications.

Q: A new edition of RuneQuest is coming out soon after extensive developments and playtesting, including on FreeRPG Day. What the publication plans for that and upcoming games? And who else from Australia

The RuneQuest Quickstart <https://www.chaosium.com/runequest-roleplaying-in-glorantha-quickstart/>

was a popular item on Free RPG Day earlier this year, and we had GMs running it in games stores around the world. It is now available as a free download

<https://www.chaosium.com/content/FreePDFs/RuneQuest/CHA4027%20-%20RuneQuest%20Quickstart.pdf>

at Chaosium.com, and can also be purchased in print. The complete RuneQuest - Roleplaying in Glorantha

<https://www.chaosium.com/blog/designing-the-new-runequest-part-18/> rules are now done, and at Gen Con last month we released a special preview version (limited to 100 copies), without art or layout. That is happening now, and the new edition of RuneQuest will be out in the first quarter of next year. I am the key Australia/New Zealand person involved in the creation of the new rules, but I have roped in various antipodean friends and RPG colleagues for playtesting and feedback.

Q - Hi Adam, and welcome to RPG Review! How did you first get involved in the RPG hobby? What sort of games do you enjoy playing?

Hi, thanks for having me. I started playing AD&D when I was about 12. Some new friends I met when I started high school were into it and introduced me. I was into the HeroQuest and Space Crusade board games, so it was a natural progression for me I think. Then my mate Steve, who was dating a friend’s older sister at the time, started running a weekly game for us kids.

Our group moved on from D&D to Champions which I enjoyed because I am and always have been a big comic book reader, and back then superheroes in particular. So playing a game where you got to design your own superhero from the ground up and play as that character really appealed to me. I still have a lot of my old character designs in a folder somewhere.

As an older player, my gaming centred mostly on D&D, Vampire: The Masquerade, which I love, and Star Wars, which I also love. The first game Nic (writer of Skum of the Stars) ran that I played in was a Vampire game set in Gotham City, which was an insanely cool idea. Star Wars is the only game I ever GMed. When I moved to Sydney, I got a few people together that I knew (my mate Steve I mentioned earlier, my housemate, a guy I had played with in Albury who was in the army and was posted to Sydney) and gave GMing a crack. I have loved Star Wars since before I could even walk I think, so I thought it was a natural fit for my first game. I didn’t love the experience so it was also the last game I GMed.

These days I play mostly board games with the family. I haven’t played an RPG in many years. Moved town a few times, started a family. I can be pretty introverted, so finding new people to play with can be hard for me. It went on the backburner for a while and now I find myself well out of practice! But the kids, my wife Emma, and I love to play Cluedo. A new hobby we’ve stumbled on is making our own board games. I moved house recently and the kids were bored but the board games were packed up. So we sat down and designed and drew up our own game. It was called Rescue Mum & Dad From Vampire Dave. We just did another one which we haven’t named yet. I think we get more of a kick out of making them than we do playing them.

Q - I understand you are currently working on producing artwork for Nic Moll's Skum of The Stars RPG as well as having recently started a webcomic 'Help I'm a Projectionist' What got you into a career as an artist?

I stumbled into it to be honest. I have always loved to draw. I made my own comics when I was a kid. I loved to do character designs for all the characters I created for various RPGs I played. Sometimes I even drew the other player’s characters for them. I loved to draw. I was going to be a comic book artist when I grew up.

Then as life got in the way, with work and relationships, I drew less and less until I stopped altogether. It wasn’t a conscious decision, it just faded away. I mean, I would doodle and finger paint with the kids from time to time, but I had stopped taking the time to really sit and draw.

I was reorganising my comic collection one day and discovered a dusty folder standing between the wall and the shelf. It was some old pencil drawings that I had done maybe 17-18 years prior. Some stuff that I had drawn for a submission to art school. I posted a few of them on Facebook, and Nic who I hadn’t seen in person since about 2004 saw them and contacted me to ask if I had ever considered illustrating an RPG. I had once upon a time considered a career in art, but not for a long

time. I was nervous that I would be too rusty or something, but Emma was very supportive of the idea, and so I dived in head first and haven’t looked back since. It’s been a blast.

Nic is so great to work with. He lets my imagination run wild, but knows when to reel it in if I get off target. Doing Skum of the Stars has reawakened my love of drawing and Help! I’m a Projectionist has come out of that. It’s a weekly web-comic chronicling the many (exaggerated) mishaps that have happened to me or other projectionists since I started working with film. It occurred to me one day that film projection is pretty much just things going wrong all the time and what better than that for a comic strip? I’m also finding time to draw just for myself again which is nice.

I’m a pretty imaginative guy, which I put down to a life-long love affair with science fiction and fantasy films and literature, comic books and the most creative pastime of all, roleplaying. When Nic comes to me with an idea we usually bat it back and forth for a little bit until we’re both happy with the direction, then I just put on the page what I think looks cool. It really just boils down to that. If I think something would look cool, It goes in there. It doesn’t always work out and Nic has sent back art saying it’s not quite there, which is great because it’s usually the ones I have some doubt with myself after I think I’m done with it. Then I re-do it, and it’s always for the better.

Usually we talk about things to avoid. Like, don’t make it too Star Wars. Or too Dune. That being said, I think Star Wars and David Lynch’s adaptation of Dune are big influences on my work. But it’s one thing to be influenced and another entirely to just copy. I try to not just copy.

My favourite comic artists are also influences on my work, which I think is unavoidable since I’ve been reading and collecting since I was 5. Classic artists like Walt Simonson and Jack Kirby, and neo-classic artists like Jim Lee are big influences on my work. I would like to qualify here that I am NOWHERE in their league as an artist, just that I love their work and can see their influence in mine.

Nic and I intend to continue working on Skum of the Stars. After the core edition rulebook for Skum is released the plan is to work on supplementary material set in the same universe called Skum*Mag. So I’ll be working on that. Help! I’m a projectionist will continue for as long as I can mine my tragic past in the projection booth for ideas. There is a plan, not set in stone, for me to pursue self-publishing comic books. I have a couple few ideas that have been batting around my head since the turn of the century (wow, that long?!) that I really would like to see on paper in the nearish future.

Talking comics, Nic and I are playing with the idea of a Skum of the Stars comic that will be serialised in Skum*Mag, utilising the character templates from the Beginner’s Edition as characters. Our own Skum of the Stars comic book!

Q - Our focus this issue is on the gaming community in Australia and New Zealand. Are there any projects from this part of the world, that you are not involved in, that specifically interest you?

I feel like I’m letting the team down on this one! I haven’t played an RPG in about 10 years so I’m really out of the loop on that. My exposure to Aussie games has solely been through Owlman Press, and even then I haven’t played any. My hope is that working on Skum going forward and being in amongst it a bit will build my knowledge of the local games industry. It’s exciting for me as someone who has been away from it for so long to get back into the community and maybe find some great local games to try out!

Hunter Planet : The All-Australian Roleplaying Game (Second Edition, David Bruggeman, 1987)

Hunter Planet is a light-hearted and rules-light RPG about aliens that hunt humans and then discover that the humans are not nearly as weak as they thought. The second edition with executive pack, the most common version of this game, comes in a rather impressive package. Firstly the exterior cardstock cover, in bold red with gold embossed lettering, also doubles as a GMs screen which is mostly an abridged index for reasons that will become evident. Also included is the rulebook at 36 pages (including cover), which features a nice full-colour photographic style image of Earth, and Australia in particular, a scenario pack called "Sidnee", also at 36 pages with a similar cover, a 16 page booklet of "Exile & Arena: Hunter Planet Possibilities", and a pad of character sheets.

The text is mostly double-column, justified, with a serif font. The organisation of the the text, the layout, the writing, and the cartoon-artwork is pretty amateur, albeit with a good dose of humour. There is no table of contents, but there is a "comprehensive index", which deliberately includes entries for topics that are not present (and cannot be present on the page numbers). For example, page numbers have the same font-size as the rest of the text, and there are no chapters as such although the text is broken up into sections. The writing style is verbose, distracting, and sometimes amusing. Much of the game, such as it is, is background and narrative.

The backstory is that an interstellar hunting group from the Federation of Planets, Hunter Tours Limited, ran a sample on the intelligence of the people of Dirt (which is how Earth is translated). From a local zoo they picked up a chimpanzee, an alcoholic, a brain-fried drug taker, and "a native bushman who had never seen civilization", and the chimp received the highest score in the intelligence test. When the new planet was opened for hunting, unsurprisingly Earth fought back and quite successfully. There was a brief nuclear exchange with the usual sort of casualties, with the end result that hunting tours continued as part of a large corporate cover-up. Player-character alien hunters get beamed down to hunt, and then become the hunted by non-player character human resistance fighters, and the survivors are beamed up.

Character generation consists of a random, in-order, d10 roll for the characteristics of Strength, Dexterity, Charisma, Intelligence, Constitution, and General Knowledge. Luck is based on a d6 roll and is re-rolled each game session. Hit points likewise are rolled on a d10. After that, it's equipment: all hunters are provided with a communicator. They main also have two main weapons, one secondary weapon, three grenades, and a range of utility equipment which includes first aid kits, flak armour jackets, and so forth. Most of these are described not in game terms, but rather in a single sentence, and sometimes these some very incongruous (e.g., a machine gun is described as being provided with 3 clips of 30 bullets each, but fires at 50 bullets a second), whereas others fit the humour of the game (e.g., packets of dehydrated water). Hunters are also supplied with three pills (red, white, and blue) which can cure wounds, but also have comical side effects. A sample character, X Bear (Paddington Bear as a Hunter) is provided.

Most of the rules are really random effects of comic violence. There is a combat system however, sort of. The chance to hit is 50% plus whatever modifiers the GM (or CM in Hunter Planet lingo, usually Certified Maniac) considers appropriate. There's a detailed chart at the end for those who prefer such things, which can be ignored anyway. A successful hit rolls for location which damage being expressed in a number of d10s, with head and neck shots doing double damage and the groin triple damage. Armor will reduce damage to a single point per die. Weapons can malfunction on particularly poor die rolls. Players may appeal to Luck which is tested on a d10 roll against the rolled value. If a character survives a hunt they receive an additional 1d10 hit points; that the entire experience point system.

The Sidnee supplement is a document providing the history of the namesake, some encounter possibilities, and a map of the surrounds. As one may suspect it comes from a certain eastern city of Australia which was subject to a pacification programme from the Federation of Planets. It now contains an large radioactive inlet, mutants, towering cliffs, human habitations, and of course plenty of hunting opportunities. Over half the text is presented as either narrative, or narrative description. These short stories do provide a good feeling for the setting, and some comical characters and events, all of which could be introduced to a game session by a CM who has taken sufficient notes. For example, the Moonlight Hotel is place that is a typical Australian outback pub which is having a rough time dealing with mutants who are setting up their own pub. Another example is The Ship which sits in the middle of the Sidnee inlet, a great landing location and already heavily inhabited but mutants and an array of other characters. A sample monster is even offered, a sort of gliding possum which whilst normally placid, turns into a savage and cunning opponent if attacked.

The setting expansions, Exile and Arena, put a different twist on Hunter Planet. On the former, certain Hunters have been exiled for engaging in a crime of some sort (such a befriending a natives of Dirt, or shooting a fellow Hunter). As a punishment they are exiled to Trid, which is a medieval society with magic-users. Well, sort of magic-users, but enough to make life difficult for an Exile. In contrast Arena is a snuff game of Hunter vs Hunter, a place where condemned criminals compete with each other to find out who is worthy of survival. A simple concept as stated, but of course with numerous elaborations that one could take.

Overall, the rulesystem is perhaps a bit disappointing as it switches between entirely freeform, ad-hoc, and then unexpectedly detailed (hit location charts?), although this certainly isn't the focus of the game. A lightweight set of consistent rules of the same depth throughout would have been easily implementated and a lot more satisfying. A stronger Australian orientation would have helped as well, because there's certainly enough cultural quirks to provide sufficient humour in such a supplement. Finally, whilst an fairly entertaining read in the only right, the narrative stories that make up the bulk of the text should have really been reduced in favour of more detailed setting and game information.

Nevertheless, Hunter Planet is a bit of a classic in the history of RPG and of course very much so in the limited range of Australian RPGs. The quantity of material that comes with the Executive Pack is seriously worthwhile - at least several sessions worth of scenarios, the pad of character sheets and a set of rules (of sorts), and the physical production is pretty good too, even if layout and text organisation could do with improvements. It is, of course, a delightfully silly game in so many ways, and as long as the CM can keep the tension and pace going, a thoroughly fun game. That in itself should be an endorsement.

Style: 1 + .3 (layout) + .4 (art) + .7 (coolness) + .4 (readbility) + .7 (product) = 3.5

Substance: 1 + .3 (content) + .4 (text) + .9 (fun) + .3 (workmanship) + .2 (system) = 3.2

Terror Australis Review (1987, Penelope Love, Mark Morrison, Lynn Willis et al.)

Terror Australis is a supplement for Call of Cthulhu which, as the title indicates, provides Australian-based background and adventures. The physical product is a 136 page softback, consisting of 128 pages of text plus handouts in a thicker paper stock. A full colour double-page pull-out map is provided which unforgiveably chops off Tasmania just below the northern edge of the country's smallest state. The glue for the book's binding, it must be said, is not the greatest either; handle with care. The text is presented in a two-column justified serif font with a good use of white space. Each page is marked with section title and page number and whilst there is no index, the single-page table of contents is quite detailed, including the author for each section. The colour cover art is a desert outback setting with a typical theme of investigators about to suffer their fate from a cthuloid monstrosity exploding from their feet. Tne internal art is evocative and contextual. The writing style achieves that rare combination of being relatively easy in structure yet also scholarly in content, making it an absolute pleasure to read for its own sake.

There are essentially two major overall sections of the text. Firstly is the background information about Australia in the 1920s; facts about the country, language, indigenous Australia, the Dreamtime (Alcheringa), and creatures from the Dreamtime, both monsters and the prehistoric days of Australia's megafauna. In total this section takes about some fifty pages of the book. The second section, with around eighty pages, is three multi-session scenarios, 'Pride of Yirrimburra', 'Old Fellow That Bunyip', and 'City Beneath the Sands'. The latter scenario is the "missing scenario" from the original boxed set of 'Masks of Nyarlathotep', which was incorporated in latter editions of that supplement.

The section which provides background information about Australia is of very high quality. There is essential statistical information and lifeworld experiences of Australia in the 1920s, a short but necessary collection of Australian slang (an essential component of any Australian-based supplement), a curious but perhaps unnecessary section on a handful of Australian ghost stories, and an absolutely exceptional overview of Australian aboriginal societies and cultures, which includes artificats and tools, sample sites, and general statements on way of life, theology, etc. This is followed by an equally excellent selection of creatures from the Dreamtime (Bunyip, Marsupial Lion, Mimi, Yowie etc).

These latter sections show a great deal of scholarship, sensitivity to the diversity of myths, legends, and cultures, and yet whilst necessarily far from comprehensive, a sufficient amount of material to give a sense of the enormity of the project. It is, quite frankly, one the best introductions to Australian indigenous mythos that one is ever likely to find, although one must be alert to the fact that this product was published in 1987 and a great deal of scholarship has occurred since then, not only in matters of physical anthropological evidence, but even down to some of the prehistoric Dreamlamd animals. One thing in game terms that should be highlighted is that the version of Alcheringa is explicity derivative and designed for the game, rather than being a replication of beliefs. It is similar to, but not the same, as H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands, and is a place where non-indigenous visitors cannot enter unaided.

The three multi-session scenarios provide the bulk of the book and the author's betray a bit of a Melbourne-centric point of view with two of them set in Melbourne and regional Victoria and the other in an extremely remote corner of Western Australia. This said, the scenarios are all of very high quality and one hesitates to say that at least two of them ("Pride of Yirrimburra" and "City Beneath the Sands") are among the most memorable published under the label of Call of Cthulhu.

The first, "Pride of Yirrimburra" is written on paper as a simple vengeful ghost story. But there is enough investigation, gruesome scenes, colourful characters, horrific hidden secrets, potential conspiracies, 'dungeon' (well, mineshaft) crawls, endemic prejudice, and a canny and powerful protagonist, to build an extraordinary plot from what is on offer. It may be particular to Australians but the 'big reveal' in this scenario properly executed can generate powerful emotional responses from the *players*.

The second scenario "Old Fellow That Bunyip" is an investigation into riverside murders, strange lights, visits to asylums (including one where your reviewer currently inhabits), and then an extraordinary journey upriver following the path of the Yarra whilst negotiating an acceptable solution with the local indigenous people.

Finally, there is "City Beneath the Sands", which comes with a great legend, a difficult journey out to one of the most remote and desolate corners of the world, the discovery of a one of the more alien architectures (and that's for a CoC game!) and inhabitants, various Cthuloid enemies, dangerous cultists, science fiction weapons, mad sorcerers, innocent victims in thrall, and then, because the scenario demands it, a rather unfortunate encounter with a very powerful and ancient enemy. It is a seriously impressive above and below ground investigation that is both full of creeping horror, uncertainty, and action.

Terror Australis is truly one the great products to come from the Chaosium in the 1980s for Call of Cthulhu. To this day, is one of the best expositions of Australian culture, both European and indigenous, albeit firmly based in its 1920s setting. The organisation of the the text is good, the writing style superb, the artwork skilful, contextual and disconcerting. There is several sessions worth of play at least in this product and that from running through the scenarios as written with little deviation to the supplementary material provided. The greatest weakness found with the book is that some background material is not exactly up-to-date, one of the scenarios is now published elswehere, and it was not of the highest physical quality. All this aside however, it certainly standa as one of the great RPG products.

Style: 1 + .7 (layout) + .8 (art) + .9 (coolness) + 1.0 (readbility) + .4 (product) = 4.8

Substance: 1 + .8 (content) + .7 (text) + .8 (fun) + .9 (workmanship) + .8 (system) = 5.0

Lace & Steel an attractive physical product. It comes as four saddle-stapled booklets and a deck of cards in a fairly sturdy box and with a colurful slip cover which illustrates rather well pretty much what the game is about (as does the title); it's derived from 17th century western Europe (England emphasised), swashbuckling, and fancy clothes and high baroque aesthetics, but also with anthromorphic species. Notably the author was also responsible for the hard-science but furry, Albedo and comparisons are almost inevitable.

The cover and books are beautifully illustrated with black-and-white line-drawings by Donna Barr showing both creativity and technique and often contextually appropriate. The layout of the books is two-thirds single-column serif text and one-third side-bar which is nice on the eyes, although the latter often has too much white-space. There is a front-page index in three of the four books, but no table of contents. Page numbers are rather tiny but chapters are indicated on a per page basis (although with four booklets this is somewhat unnecessary). Tables are printed on the inside and outside rear covers. The writing style is friendly and clear, and mostly well-organised. The four books cover Characters (50 pages), Naked Steel (combat and magic, ), Mittlemarch (the game world), and Adventures.

The character book starts off with a short and obligatory "what is roleplaying?" section before diving into a preliminary of setting, style and system. It is explicitly described as being "reminiscent" of the 1640s, and is about "court intrigues and dazzling balls, secret messages and lovers met by moonlight", all with magic anmd fantasy added. The game system is based around d6s for task resolution and and a card-based combat system.

As for characters, the game provides five "races" available as PCs. Humans are a comparatively dull default and receive a three-sentence introduction. Apart from these "two-leggers", there are also half-horses ("centaurs"), satyrs, harpies, and pixies. In addition there are NPC races, fairies, merfolk, trolls, and ogres. Whilst obviously a good portion of this material is descriptive, there is some solid system inclusions as well. For example, Half-Horses have double Strength when engaging in tasks which use body weight, however have to make a Dexterity check when using bodily manipulation (such as climbing a ladder), among other modifications. As a a stylistic element, horses, satyrs, and harpies are noted - in their own way - as being somewhat more amourous than their humans find entirely comfortable.

Characteristics consist of Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Reason, Intuition, Drive, Charisma, and Magical Aptitude, all of which are as they say. All are rolled on 2d6+3 with up to three characteristics favoured, meaning take the best of two rolls, and an equal number slighted, meaning take the worse of the two. All characteristics are rolled on 2D6 + 3. If a character scores 14 or 15 their initial dice roll they may roll an extra D6-1 and add the result to its total Magical aptitude score. All characters start the game with experience points equal to Reason + Drive. For a cost of 5 of these experience points each, characters may purchase extra characteristics points on any of their characteristics, which includes Magical Aptitude with the boost if they reach 14.

In addition to this there's a collection of derived chaarcteristics called "Special Factors", which includes Fatigue, Hit Points, Wound Level, Maximum (card) Hand Rating, New (card) Draw Rating, and optional Sorcery and Repartee card ratings, Weight, Encumbrance. Unconsciousness is at zero hit points, death at 0 HP minus wound level (which is usually only 1-2). Healing is slow with a hard weekly check to gain but a single point back. A tarot deck is used to determine the personality and disposition of characters based on a single draw. This may result in changes to rolled characteristics.

Skill tests are based on a two-table look-up. Firstly assign a difficulty, which has a value. This value is subtracted from the character's characteristic, modified by their skill. The difference then provides a target number to rolled on 2d6 or less. Obviously this two-step procedure could have been simplified to a simple modifier to modified characteristic or a contested roll. In any case, there are skills, and the starting skills are based on social class which differ according to race and with additional skills purchased with experience points according to skill level. There is over 70 skills altogether, broken up into roughly equal groups of social skills, courtly skills, knowledge skills, military skills, movement and perception skills, craft skills, and magical skills. Most of these a described in but a couple of sentences. Experience is gained in a RuneQuest-like fashion; check skills used in an adventure, roll under a target of 10, adding the existing skill level to the roll. A success will add 1 experience point to the skill (which has an increasing cost per level). There are also rules for study and maintaining skills.

Lace & Steel is a game with alot of emphasis on interpersonal relations and these are given appropriate coverage in the game. All PCs and NPCs start with the aforementioned dispositions. These also have personal ties and antipathies towards ideals, other characters, organisations etc. These are treated like skills and act a modifier when the character has to act with the tie or antipathy in question. New ties and antipathies can be established through critical checks on the Charisma characteristic and may change through emotional events, favours, etc. Characters may also invest in their self-image to improve their confidence when carrying out tasks, or when successfully carrying out tasks where there is a tie or antipathy.

Melee combat is played out as a card game in Lace & Steel. The 52-card deck is divided into attack lines of upper, middle, and low. There are also dodge cards, intuition, and disengage cards. Characters have a varying number of cards in their hand based modified by wounds and fatigue. The difference in skill ratings also determines a varying number of initial cards. Initial initiative is based on a simple modified draw. The attacker declares the line of the attack and nominates an attack card (face down), the defender selects a defense card, and both are revealed with a comparison between line and value to determine damage. Damage is based on a adding and subtracting the numerical value of the attack and defensive cards, with an additional card added if there mismatched suit. There are options for drawing additional cards, ripping off cards from the opponent, applying a desperate defense, feints, ripostes, etc etc. Armour will defend against damage based on the line of attack and the type of attack (firearms, thrusting weapons, brawling weapons). Weapons are defined by their reach, heft (a comparative modifier to defense and initiative), modifications to armour, and minimum strength. When fighting against multiple opponents the attackers combine their hands together; this can become very confusing when multiple members of the group is also fighting multiple opponents.

Missile combat has a task difficulty based on range and always goes first in its initiative order unless the shooter is surprised. Missile weapons take one or more turns to reload. It's a fire and movement system insofar that after missile use, characters may move at rates depending on race and Dexterity. Damage is determined by a single card draw with the option of a second. The majority of missile weapons are smoothbore gunpowder; pistols, muskets, blunderbusses, and carbines, although there is some use of short composite bows, and swivels (hand cannons). Missile weapons are differentiated by range increments, reload time, and handiness rating which contributes to initiative. If missile weapons miss critically, mishaps such as jamming, broken flints, etc can cause the weapon to be temporarily or more permanently damaged.

The magic system is based on mana, derived from perception of objects. The more people who are aware of an object or place the more likely that magical events are associated with them. As per the characteristic generation, most characters do not have access to magical skills. These magical skills represent schools of magic. Every time a character gains a level of skill, they also learns one of the specific spells within that field. Each spell within the discipline can also be purchased separately with experience. The magical fields include Alchemy, Artificiery, Astrology, Demonology, Hedge magic, Illusions, Mental Disciplines, and Necromancy. These provide utility magics of some sort; production of potions and items, divination and summoning, etc. Each of these has the aforementioned experience point cost to learn, a difficulty rating, and where appropriate, a time and materials cost, Sorcery however is a contested combat skill. Like melee combat, contests of sorcery are simulated by a card game, with its own deck. However unlike melee or missile combat, sorcery is more of a slower and calculated affair where attacks and defenses (especially defensive shields) are built up over multiple rounds.

A dice-based combat system is also used for other circumstances, such as Mass Combat and Ship Combat, however the game switches back to the card-based system for Repartee Combats. Although only a page long it is well designed, with "high" attacks representing attacks on intellectual pursuits, the "middle" referring to circumstances and appearances, whereas the "low" is innuendo.

The gameworld of Mittlemarch is based on the civilised southern continent, with the wilds beyond that largely unknown. The major countries are the island nation of Duncruigh (kind of like England) whose royal line is half-horses, the far south and cold lands of Scarmis (Nordic countries), the passionate, devious, and proud nation of Nantierre (mais oui, les francais), the wild lands of Aurey (Ireland and Scotland), the new political organisation of the south, Forija (Russia), the proud and sometimes cruel northern nation of Alberinia (Italy and Spain), the small coastal republic of Welfland (Holland) who fights off foreign and internal attempts to re-establish the royal family, and the Tantric Empire (Germany), composed of a dozen principalities and duchies. People of all the lands are at least members of the gameworld's monotheistic faith; Christianity. This gameworld variant however has no saints, no heresies, and no inquisition. Added to this is a short bestiary of mainly the standard west and central European mythic creatures (e.g., basilisk, griffin, unicorn).

A technology section points out that, like 1640s western Europe, the world has emerged from medieval technology, but in this context has the additional effect of magic. The discovery of gunpowder has led to a revolution in warfare with infantry firepower replacing cavalry shock assaults, although the cavalry is still important for movement. Siege weapons and naval weapons are described, as well as some fairly intelligent description of non-human units. Following this summary of warfare, there are descriptions of less martial daily life, music, the class system and behaviour, courtly life, town life, rural life, and life at sea. There substantial discussion on money and wealth, weights and measures, and a collection of items for sale, starting with various types of armour, then firearms, bows, artillery, melee weapons, clothing and clothing style, transport and vehicles, and various costs relating to travel.

The adventures book consists of two scenarios, 'Pressed Men', primarily for male characters of low social status, and 'Masked Ball' for courtly characters. The former, as the name indicates, involves the characters being pressed into a seaman's life and a few sample incidents that can follow on from there. In comparison the latter has some social intrigue, repartee, and the addition of gambling. Neither are typical adventures in the sense tha there is a coherent implied narrative, rather the GM will need to take the setting and flesh them out intoa a real story. In addition to these there is a few stock incidents, such as a Fairy Market, Haunted Ruins etc, to add to the collection.

Lace and Steel is a beautifully well-presented game. The artwork is simply delicious, the choice of setting highly enjoyable and enticing. The emphasis on character interaction, style, and social conflict was especially a welcome breath of fresh air at the time. However the game is not without its flaws. There is a hefty degree of unwarranted randomness, detail, and clunky mechanics in the character generation. The task resolution system is also more difficult than it needs to be. The combat system is innovative and somewhat interesting, but could have also been simplified and at the same time expanded. Why have a dice resolution system and a card resolution system in the same game? Indeed, why have two separate sets of cards and card resolution systems? The game world is interesting enough in its own right, but does have the issue of, like so many RPGs, being basically western Europe without saying so. The inclusion of Christianity as the religion of choice was decidedly odd. Finally, the sample scenarios were a bit disappointing in the sense that they didn't have a scenario as such, but