RPG Review Roundup – March 2024

The past few months a good amount of RPG supplements have made it into my mailbox, and passed before my retinas. There are so many great systems, and books out there and deciding which to pick up and use is getting increasingly difficult with the massive amounts of content. With this article I’m focusing on a few recent favorites and some older titles that have slipped by me.

Traveller – Mysteries of the Ancients/Robot Handbook (Mongoose Publishing)

Traveller might be my favorite game that I am not actively running, and might be the ultimate bolt-on game (I can feel the GURPS faithful leering at me right now). As far as science fiction goes, this is a game that is basically as crunchy as one wants to make it. The basic rule-set which uses a straight-forward 2D6 system, offers plentiful options from the ability to create one’s own space-ship (see the core rulebook, and High Guard) to today’s subject ROBOTS (of course there is more to Traveller than these 2 things, but there is a load of systems including creating full on planetary systems, but for time and space contraints I’ll leave those off). So what we have here is 2022’s Mongoose Traveller 2E release the Robot Handbook.

The first third of the book gives an introduction to Robots from the perspective of Traveller, before going into the steps to build one’s own robot. This is a six step process outlined across roughly 70+ pages that includes choosing a chassis, locomotion, brain, skill package physical options, and finalization. The last 2/3’s of the book start by discussing using a robot as a Traveller PC, before delving into pre-created robots for use in your Traveller campaign. These are broken down into segments by robot type, for example Military Robots, Service Robots, Nanorobots, Drones, and so on. The book itself is not fully necessary to play Traveller, and some of the pre-created robots will overlap with the Central Supply Catalog, but for those who want added options, and crunch it is a delightful addition to Traveller.

And speaking of both delightful and Traveller, I just finished going through the Traveller campaign “Mysteries of the Ancients”. A few months back I had the opportunity to review Secrets of the Ancients a Mongoose 2E redux of early Traveller material, that I found quite interesting, and am excited to one day get to my table. Fortunately, for me, that day has not arrived yet, because Mongoose has seen fit to expand the campaign into 3 parts of which Secrets of the Ancients would be the middle part, and the upcoming “Wrath of the Ancients” will be the finale.

Mysteries of the Ancients as a campaign book in and of itself is a 3 part campaign. The Travellers receive a mysterious package from a friend that brings them into the bizarre world of “Ancient Hunters”, groups of people who delve into the collection of artifacts and histories of the “ancients”, who the people of the Third Imperium know even less about, but are basically theorized to be a powerful and no longer existent (or existent and disappeared) race. This package sends them on a vast journey to find their friend, but that mission is just a surface endeavor as they soon find themselves in very conspiracy that leads them into the world of the ancients themselves. There is a ton of amazing background detail that prefaces the actual campaign in this book, and all that detail got me personally excited to get this and Secrets of the Ancients to my table sooner than later. The campaign connects very easily to the Secrets…, campaign, and as I stated in my prior review because of the Spinward Marches locale of these 2 campaign books it makes it an easy jumping off points for new Traveller players because of the Spinward Marches 1-5 book (which includes the fantastic High and Dry starter module). I can’t help but HIGHLY RECOMMEND this one. I love huge undertakings like this, and this reads like an absolute thrill. I cannot wait to get my hands on Wrath of the Ancients when physical copies are available.

Call of Cthulhu – Arkham (Chaosium)

Call of Cthulhu though it is centered on the mythos creations of H.P. Lovecraft is actually quite well known for its globe-trotting campaigns. Epic campaigns like Shadows of Yog-Sothoth, Masks of Nyarlathotep, and Horror on the Orient Express will take the players out of Lovecraft’s well known New England locale (though to be fair to ol’ Howard he did set a number of stories outside of New England), and have them traverse the globe and sometimes beyond like a recent campaign did. To support some of these campaigns, and give both players and Keepers of Arcane Lore material to work with Chaosium over the decades have released sourcebooks for various locations in 7^th Edition alone they have done them for Harlem, Australia, and Berlin. Now in 2024, we are finally getting into one of Lovecraft’s best known locations Arkham, Massachusetts with this new edition of the Call of Cthulhu – Arkham sourcebook.

This book is broken down into a section detailing the history of Arkham, before going into a section on potential investigators. There is then miscellany on Arkham, including pulp considerations, before going into the guide to Arkham which breaks down the city into 9 distinct neighborhoods. Each neighborhood has its location mapped out down to a corresponding number with statistics giving background information on the location including characters who might occupy the location. Those characters also get their own stat block, that includes their history now and potential future history depending on how they are used in a potential campaign. Even more exciting is pulp stats for people (like myself) that prefer to play that way. The book also includes a prop newspaper for Arkham, and a poster size map. Also, of important consideration is that this version of the Arkham sourcebook dials back the time to 1922 from prior editions 1928 giving parties more time to explore the city in the 1920’s. I will cut to the chase, and say this book is an absolute detailed delight. Everything you ever wanted to know about Arkham in the 1920’s is here in this book. I absolutely hope Chaosium follows this up in similar fashion going forward. This is truly an amazing piece of work, and does great justice to the late Keith Herber to whom this book is dedicated and whose work this is built upon. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Delta Green – God’s Teeth/Black Sites

Delta Green is one of the most exciting horror RPG’s currently being published. The setting itself is decades old, but the recent work by Arc Dream is nothing, but stellar all the way through. Delta Green took life as a Call of Cthulhu setting designed by John Scott Tynes, Adam Scott Glancy, and Dennis Detweiler in 1992. It is a modern setting in comparison to Call of Cthulhu’s frequent 1920’s/1930’s setting. (To be fair CoC has more than occasionally dipped into the modern as well).

The setting for Delta Green involves a clandestine organization hidden within the government itself that started soon after the Innsmouth raid (See Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth). The members of this organization are usually outsiders working for other government branches, who get called upon to work on missions to combat the Cthulhu Mythos and other world-ending supernatural horrors.

Delta Green saw a Kick-started relaunch in 2016 to much acclaim, and fanfare. If you play or have played Call of Cthulhu the gaming system at Delta Green’s core will be insanely familiar to you. It is built on top what appears to be a variant of Chaosium’s BRP (Basic Role Playing)system, but more on the 1-6th edition variant than the current 7th. The core differences in the systems in comparison to the current CoC system is the use of a “Bond” mechanic which also also makes Delta Green more of a “lifepath” game.

Following up on last year’s exceptional Impossible Landscapes Arc Dream publishing have given us God’s Teeth. This campaign follows a group of novice agents who are tasked with investigating an orphanage that has a connection to a dark cult. This gets this group of unconnected individuals involved with the Delta Green program and into a conspiracy involving various mythos elements that will take decades of their collective lives to resolve. A few months ago I read and reviewed the Kult – Divinity Lost campaign “The Black Madonna” an updated version of the classic 1990’s campaign. At the time I would have said it was the most disturbing RPG campaign I had read. This now easily slots into that place.

I will say this right now, do not play this if you are easily disturbed especially by the abuse of young children. That being said if you are willing to deal with these issues head-on, what we have here is one of the most mature, disturbing, and yet compelling horror campaigns possibly ever written. God’s Teeth was written by Caleb Stokes, and has been an in-progress work for many years. If one were to read it now, it seems like a solid reflection of the last decade or so in world and especially American politics, most notably riffing on the concept of MAGA, and the Pizza-gate conspiracy. I have only played a handful of Delta Green modules so far, I have yet to fully delve into a full campaign, but one thing I have noticed is that Arc Dream, and the writers they employ are fully willing to engage in absolutely disturbing content. Like Kult – Divinity Lost, God’s Teeth is strictly for adults, but if it is something you are prepared for you will be treated to an all-time great RPG campaign.

Staying in the realm of Delta Green we have Black Sites. Black Sites is a compendium of 8 self-contained scenarios for Delta Green (one is called a Two-Minute Terror). Unlike the previously reviewed Night at the Opera collection these are not given any material or timeline to link them together to form a campaign, so they could be put together by a resourceful GM to become one, or in the case of God’s Teeth or Impossible Landscapes could be slotted in during the various years of play (be forewarned though since Delta Green is deadly game, you risk your PC’s dying mid-campaign by doing this).

I don’t want to go too in-depth here to avoid spoilers, so here is some minor information on each of the scenarios.

• PX Poker Night – This one takes place at a Nebraskan Air Force base, whose weekly poker night is disrupted by some weirdo visitors in USAF van that is being guarded. Strange events begin to occur, and of course, curiosity begins to peak… This is considered an introductory scenario, and it is really fun and really fantastic. If you have role players (instead of “roll” players) in your group they will probably get a kick out of the opportunities this scenario provides.
• Kali Ghati – This scenario sees a group of Delta Green agents dispatched to find a missing CIA Agent who was sent into the mounts of Afghanistan to research a potentially haunted village, Kali Ghati. This one is more straight-forward than most, but has an interesting atmosphere, and could potentially slot into an existing campaign more easily than a single-fire scenario.
• The Last Equation – This is actually the main reason I wanted this entire book. I had read the Handler’s Guide, and the brief bits about this equation made me want to immediately start writing my own module about this equation, then I found out one already existed, so I didn’t have to. This one involves a Columbia Student who solves an ancient math equation loses his mind, and murders a family leaving only some numbers as evidence to the reason for the crime. This will get a group of agents really investigating, and provide some more background into Delta Green. If you are a player or handler that loves background details you will love this one.
• Lover in the Ice – A perfect storm of winter conditions causes an epic freeze to occur in Lafontaine, Missouri. This causes a malfunction of a Delta Green, Green Box unleashing a disastrous situation upon the town, and getting the DG agents involved. This scenario could best be described as something out of an early Cronenberg film and splattered onto your tabletop. Like God’s Teeth this one is extremely disturbing, and I wouldn’t play this with an unsuspecting group.
• Sweetness – A bi-racial family in Tampa, Florida has their front door vandalized with bizarre graffiti. Because the effort could be branded a hate crime it ends up on news, which gets Delta Green alerted to the situation. This scenario is a short scenario that could easily be played in a session or two. It’s decent and its themes appear obvious on a surface level, but things aren’t always what they seem…
• Hourglass – This one takes the agents to Oregon to investigate a woman who disappeared while screaming and crying from a park bench, which was caught on tape. Their investigation will get them caught up in cult activity involving a local church, plus a bunch of local townsfolk who would rather not be involved. This one involves heavy investigatation, and a lot of work on the part of the handler.
• Ex Oblivione – This might be the highlight of the collection, especially if you are a full on Lovecraftian. A murder of an entire family in Yuma, AZ. Brings out a group of DG agents to solve it, due to its ritualistic nature, they are quick to connect the case to events dating back to Innsmouth, MA in 1928. As the agents investigate they realize they are being drawn into something extremely deep, and layered, and bigger than they are. This is a hugely investigative situation with a lot of background depth, and if it plays as well as it reads, this is one that will be shockingly memorable.

Like any anthology collection of modules Delta Green – Black Sites has its ups and down, however I’m happy to report that Black Sites has way more positives, and thus comes easy to RECOMMEND.

Mork Borg – Death in Space/Cy-Borg (Free League)

OK, so these books aren’t strictly “Mork Borg”, but at the same time I’m writing about them together, and they are kind of in the same publishing line so here we go. Mork Borg was conceived by Stockholm Cartel in 2020 and published by Free League. Since that time it has basically taken the RPG world by storm with it’s art-punk style, heavy metal atmosphere, and ease of play, not to mention a community that has build up on around it supporting it with loads of helpful additional content. Free League themselves have published additional books in the series starting a few years back with Cy-Borg a Rules-Lite Cyberpunk RPG, and Death in Space the Mork Borg’d (without the Borg) version of a Traveller-esque Space Opera). A few months ago they released Pirate Borg, which was just PHENOMENAL, so I felt the need to back and review those prior 2 to complete the “official” Mork Borg set.

Like the world of Mork Borg, the world of Cy-Borg is going through an apocalypic scenario. This game is set in the city of “Cy”, which is threatened by certain doom in the near future with various things threatening to finish off the populous. The rich have their toys, and don’t care (sound familiar?), but the people low to the ground are left to suffer the consequences ( sound familiar?). Like Mork Borg, Cy-Borg is a D20 system where everything is by default rolled against a Difficulty Rating of 12 unlike Mork Borg the player has 5 Stats instead of 4 Agility, Knowledge, Presence, Toughness, and Strength. Combat works the same as the earlier game with players rolling to defend against an enemy instead of the enemy rolling to attack. The game offers classless, and class options which offers pros and cons to each (for example taking a class offers a player options that aren’t available to the classless, but lowers some stats).

The book has art by Johan Nohr, similar to Mork Borg, but really captures the essence of this grim future. The book is absolutely straight-forward as is the game (though like with the other books some people might have a hard time discerning rules from art). Character creation is simple, and can be done on the fly in minutes, and there is a great short situation module in the back to introduce players to this world.

Death in Space aside from not having a “Borg’d” name I feel like is an outlier in this series. I’ll say this outright the book itself is a gorgeous piece of art like the rest of the books in the sequence, but it’s style is more cold and calculated than “Borgian” art-punk, but that works here. The setting for Death in Space is the Tenebris System. A corner of space that is dealing with the aftermath of the “Gem War” which has torn apart the system including many of its governing bodies. Like the other Borg games this is also a D20 rules lite system, in this game PC’s have 4 stats, Body, Saavy, Dexterity, and Tech. The player rolls a D20 adds a modifier usually against a DR 12 and if they pass all is good, if they fail they get a void point, which gets them advantage on a later roll, if they fail that they can get a cosmic mutation (these are surface level, but fun bits of weirdness that can happen to a PC).

Like the other games in the series character creation is utterly simple, and can be done at the table in a matter of minutes. You roll your stats, give your character an origin (class) you have 5 human and one android option available to you. Players will then add their background, and past allegiances, generate HP, modifiers, equipment and generate a base of operations. This game takes place in the Tenebris System, but speficially in “The Iron Ring” a small area full of space ships, stations, that is basically home to the mining community of the system, and is basically a rough zone, perfect to set a low-tech sci fi game in. The book concludes with a sandbox style module similar to Pirate Borg which will give PC’s a tour of the in-game universe, and also a ton of randomized tables. Both of these books are easy to HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

Alien – Building Better Worlds (Free League)

…And speaking of Free League gaming systems that started publishing in 2020 we have the latest edition to their EXCELLENT Alien RPG line Building Better Worlds. Since it started the Alien RPG has been releasing material in 2 forms cinematic scenarios with pre-generated characters are built around getting players to feel like they are in the Alien films themselves, and campaign material like the Colonial Marines Operation Manual which was structured like an (action) oriented campaign. So we have Building Better Worlds, this expands the world-view of the colonists like the ones that Newt belonged to (and were dead) at the beginning of Aliens.

A lot of this book offers content that is available ot players as well as “Game Mothers”. The first half of the book offers new gear, classes, and creature types (many of these taken from the Prometheus timeline). We then get a history of colonization efforts, corporations, planets, etc. I absolutely love this stuff. I feel like fans of the Alien universe that aren’t necessarily gamers would also get a kick out of this stuff, but I have been saying that since my first Alien RPG review.

The real driver of this book is the campaign itself, and the material that sets it up, now while the first half is set up for anyone to read this is strictly for the GM. The section is called the Lost Worlds and gives background detail on a lost frontier mission involving a series of colonies from a century ago. After the background details are out of the way, there are 6 missions that can be played in any order sort of like a sandbox (not really, but there is a lot of player agency here), followed by a 7^th that takes all the investigative work set forth by the players early on and it brings it together in a fantastic climatic finale. The different modules don’t just throw Xenomorphs at players, and utilize different segments of the Alien universe giving this a unique feel, but one that definitely still feels in-universe. So far I’ve only managed to play one-shots of the game, but really enjoyed reading this one, and would really like to see this at my table sometime in the future. HIGHLY RECOMMNEDED.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4E – Ubersreik Adventures II (Cubicle 7)

On my shelf I have the whole Enemy Within campaign plus the companion guides (which admittedly have side quests in them), but one thing I do not have are one shot adventures set in the Old World to run for my gaming group should I convince them to give WFRP 4E a try. It’s a pretty big sell convincing a group on a new system in general, but convincing them they should be playing a 5 book years long campaign would make it even harder. Also, sometimes you just want a module you can run it 1-2 sessions that is where books like this really come into play. Does your GM want a night off from your ongoing campaign? Surprise them with something out of a book like this (or the Delta Green – Black Sites book seen above). Anyway, I digress.

Ubersreik Adventures II, is the 2^nd book in the series of well… Ubersreik Adventures. The third book is coming out quite soon (it is currently spring 2024). These adventures are set in and around Ubersreik, which could be considered the default/starter city for WFRP 4E. The book has 5 solid adventures to recommend it by, I’ll go one by one on a high-level, and give my thoughts.

• Deadly Dispatch – This scenario sees the PC’s in a situation with a mistaken identity (similar, but not the same to the one at the beginning of Shadows Over Bogenhafen), that leads them into a Necromantical conspiracy involving the resurrection of a grail knight, that the PC’s will eventually have to fight. This has some light investigative elements, and some cool undead vs PC combat. It’s not deep, but it reads as a fun one shot.
• Double Trouble – This module sees the PC’s hired as investigators at a rich families estate. Lately there has been disappearances within the estate, and the person who hired them is worrying about his Mother’s erratic behavior. Of course, this is the work of a doppelganger, who is making his way through the clan in order to replace the family mother. This one is a great investigative module, and in the tradition of the best WFRP modules brings together the world of grim fantasy roleplay with that of Call of Cthulhu style investigation.
• Fishrook Returns – This one sees the players investigating rumors surrounding the return of a highwayman from a century past. This one is alright, and has decent investigative elements, but many long-time roleplayers will see the Scooby Doo ending in this one with someone faking the role of the undead Fishrook, even though the NPC’s truly believe he came back.
• The Blessing That Drew Blood – This one is a lot of fun, a musician who made a deal with Slaanesh has to kill 6 people a year as a sacrifice to recharge their supernatural instrument. These murders engage the PC’s as they are people are not quite on the good side of things, and thus create a pattern for them to follow to find a potential single murderer for the crimes. This one involves multiple locations, investigation, and some goofy moments involving demonic NPC’s that try to stop information from being revealed.
• Grey Mountain Gold – This one is interesting. It’s kind of a comedy of errors, with the PC’s are hired to go to a secret Dwarven stronghold to obtain treasure, the thing is the map they got gets stolen and then ransomed back to the guy who runs the adventure. The thing is the map is a fake, nonetheless, the house that operates the mine finds out about the potential raid gets involved and between the party, the ransomers, and the Dwarven house things get chaotic fast. Depending on your players this could be a load of fun or a huge disappointment.

Overall, this is a solid supplement for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4E, and while not perfect offers some decent play experiences for those GM’s looking to fill in some gaming nights at their table. RECOMMENDED.

-Scott MacDonald (Signing Off)