Fever-Dreaming Marlinko: A City Adventure Supplement For Labyrinth Lord

Author: Chris Kutalik
Price: Unreleased

Format: PDF/Print

Page count: 69

System: Hydra Cooperative (Labyrinth Lord)
Year: 2015

NOTE: This review is based upon a pre-release PDF copy Chris sent me. It is without the maps, and I imagine is still subject to some change. 

With vibrancy, imagination and healthy dose of all things phantasmagorical, Chris Kutalik presents Fever-Dreaming Marlinko. Marlinko takes the idea of a traditional city-setting to pseudo-psychedlic realms, while maintaining the common sense and cognition of a living, breathing city.

Having reviewed Slumbering Ursine Dunes only recently, +Chris Kutalik's work has been fresh on my mind of late. And as I mentioned in the SUD review, I really do feel like he brings something pretty unique to the collective OSR feasting hall.

Like its predecessor, prior to reading a single word of Fever-Dreaming Marlinko I knew I needed it. The cover artwork had me wishing I was the one publishing a work with such a poignant cover. It reminds me of a pocket plane where myriad portions of the world's cultures have been vomited into one hazy, kaleidoscopic, psychotropic medley. The flamboyant purloiner bedecked in Shakespearean attire, with one hand grasping voraciously for whatever he can steal, while his fat conniving master 'welcomes' a newbie to Marlinko is perfect. The one-eyed, mutilated, hooded man who has just happened to squeeze his head into the picture reminds me of some sort of medieval photo-bomb: "Aha!" he exclaims, "Here I am! In your picture!" The moustachioed and mohawked gentleman is probably the city's high-priest of the Sun Lord who was just wanting a "nice picture for the Marlinko newsletter, before this goober got in my way."

 Okay...I'm getting a bit carried away here...

Beyond the cover, things continue to provoke one's imagination and shake off the cobwebs of lethargy. The city supplement begins with a tale of one seeking knowledge at the  "Serene Guild of Seers, Augurs, Runescasters and Wainwrights", a guild who, as the tale progresses, appear to be the real-deal albeit prone to rites of asterism, spectacle and a good dash of charlatanism. I found this tale easier to follow than the Slumbering Ursine Dunes equivalent, and like Kutalik's usual tales, this one had me snorting with amusement. It's the sort of thing I inflict on my players as tomfoolery and exaggeration make the best stories. 

Marlinko, a city of 7000 souls, is divided into four quarters or 'contradas', all with their own unique systems of beliefs, mythologies and symbolisms. One event certain to bring the otherwise disparate quarters together is "The Black Race" an annual chariot race of convicts. All four quarters are described within the supplement, and honestly, there is some really useful stuff here. Think of Gary's harlot table, or the more eccentric elements of the AD&D DMG and you're on the right track. It's kind of like a city version of Hommlet but if Gary had been chowing on magic mushies. This particular gem had me literally aghast, before succumbing to an elongated period of laughter...

...and let's be honest: as soon as I read the word "Bathhouses" I knew where this thing was headed.


Alongside the lewd and camp, are some interesting NPCs with varying agendas. Often the random encounters are meaningful, with real consequences should certain people or creatures become affronted or killed. This inclusion should make any party consider their actions, before destroying the 'random encounter' in a blaze of self-righteous murderhoboism - as my players are prone to doing. This is a city where you should probably behave - and indeed it plays out more like an "adventure" than a featureless respite from adventure. In other words, it's a continuation of whatever adventure the party is already engaged with. This is my preference with a town or setting of any description, it should be memorable and actions should mean something.

Important NPCs are described, usually accompanied by an illustration, while a hearty rumour table is provided.

There are two main adventure sites within this supplement: "Lady Szara's Town Manse" and "Catacombs of the Church of the Blood Jesus". Both provide a good source of adventure, and of course the Labyrinth Lord/DM can inject their own adventures within this setting too. Deities and religious organisations are described herein, as is "Crime and Punishment", reminiscent somewhat of the Judges Guild Ready Ref Sheets, though with less complexity involved. An assortment of hooks and further adventure ideas are presented, and finally like Slumbering Ursine Dunes, the Chaos Index is featured. The Chaos Index is basically a cumulative eco-ambience that is effected by party actions and events - used for generating "the ebb and the flow of the Weird".

There is a tidy guide to buying and selling within Marlinko, which includes animals, mundane items, hired help, special drinks, or eliciting the services of spell casters. Speaking of hiring people, there is an excellent mechanic - modified depending on how a party treats their hirelings. Parties who mistreat or abuse those they hire can expect a bad reputation or a shakedown by a "Wobby Giant"! This system, in my opinion, is much more logical than the redshirt mentality sometimes accompanying hirelings*. 

And what city supplement would be complete without a bit of carousing? Luckily Fever-Dreaming Marlinko provides options for all types of revelry, though there can be some very dire consequence when "Losing Your Shit" occurs. "Losing Your Shit" is a clever mechanic that may be used after a night of debauchery. A saving throw is required lest some deleterious event occur - and oh boy, will they occur. Party with caution!

Finally, included within the Fever-Dreaming Marlinko appendix is a Bestiary, a "Tiger Wresting Mini-game", two new classes, common names within Marlinko, and a pronunciation guide.

Final Thoughts
If a wealthy NPC owning an "all-weather tiger pit" appeals to you, and you generally like your games to be loud and chaotic, Fever-Dreaming Marlinko is a must-have. Compelling city supplements are rare like mind flayer's teeth. They're either mundane, or overly lurid in execution - filling the same genre-weary bucket that inevitably gets tossed overboard (I'm looking at you Pathfinder) - or they're just not pragmatic for actual use. 

Fever-Dreaming Marlinko is a very refined piece of Kutalik's, maintaining a level of sophistication and polish that the earlier works lacked. My usual caveat of "it was good, but sometimes hard to digest" need not apply here. Even the Labyrinth Lord/DM possessing no desire to run a game in Marlinko specifically, will unearth ample ideas portable to any town or city. I found it immediately useful. Frequently a published setting holds little interest for me. I typically feel I can do better. In this case however, a full blown Marlinko adventure is concretely appealing. This supplement is a commendable departure from the typical fantasy-city I find so mind-numbingly boring.

My pre-release copy does not have the final maps, though seeing +Luka Rejec's previews, I imagine we're in for a treat. It is preemptive and unsubstantiated to suggest Marlinko will receive the acclaim Vornheim did, though I will confidently say it should at least be a contender. Yes, I found Fever-Dreaming Marlinko to be that interesting. I'm dying for a hardcopy. 

For those of you frowning at your screen, distasteful for my apparent subjectivity I will say this: put simply I enjoyed it immensely, and would certainly recommend it. 


*By that I mean, a hireling should be more than a redshirt or a disposable no-one to be mistreated or abused by the PCs. Well I guess they can be, but like any action, there should be consequences.

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea - Rats in the Walls Adventure Review

Author: Jeffrey Talanian (North Wind Adventures)
Price: $4.29
Format: PDF
Page count: 14
System: Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (or any OSR/Old School FRP). 
Year: 2014

Jeffrey Talanian is a good dude, who has made a good game. Since I first found out about Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea I have been consistently impressed. It fits the mood and tone that I like to set as a Dungeon Master, and draws upon literary inspiration that I enjoy. And okay, I will admit it: it was only at the end of last year that I began to delve into the tales of Robert E. Howard and H.P Lovecraft, but although I'm a relative noob, I have taken to these tales like Cthulhu takes to the sea. Perhaps more importantly, all my interactions with Jeff have been very positive: he's a really nice guy, and it makes me happy to support him as an indie designer for that reason alone, not to mention he has produced a game I genuinely like. I made an overview video fairly recently detailing the contents of the box set and my thoughts on the game if you'd like to know more about it. You can find it here. If you have heard of Talanian's game, but are yet to check it out, I would encourage you to do so sooner rather than later, as I understand he has limited units of the box set still available (less than 200?). There is a planned hardback version to appear later this year or early next year too.

But I'm not really talking about the box set in this post, I'm talking about an early adventure that was written for the AS&SH system (and pretty compatible with any OSR or Old School system) called Rats in the Walls. It's not available in print form anymore, though it originally appeared in Knock spell Magazine #4, and is still available on PDF. My copy is the latter format (though I'm hoping to get my hands on a physical copy one of these days). I bought it a few months ago, and at the time skimmed it, being fairly happy with my purchase. My upcoming campaign will be using the AS&SH rules, so I thought it was high time to look over Rats in the Walls properly for a small jaunt within my 1st level campaign.

Rats in the Walls clearly takes inspiration from the eponymous Lovecraftian tale, and indeed the back cover of the adventure confirms as much. The adventure takes place: 'In the City-State of Khromarium, a dockside tavern called the Silvery Eel is plagued by rats of a most unusual breed. These abominable rodents have ruined the tavern keeper's business and his life. The man is desperate and he offers a substantial reward for the elimination of this horrific problem' (back cover blurb).
Unfortunately for the tavern keeper 'rats' are the least of his woes. Something much more sinister is afoot. I really like this adventure because it is short. Too often I read supplements or adventures which have a heck of a lot of detail, but actually running them becomes an mnemonic exercise, rather than something fun. Jeff assures the reader that once the adventure has been read through once, any experienced referee can run it 'on the fly' thereafter. I believe that to be true.

The adventure follows a rather traditional format, though like Jeff's other Hyperborean creations, this work is filled with Swords & Sorcery mojo - including a surly Hyperborean warlock, a statue of Kthulhu (a deity within the AS&SH world), an imprisoned daemon, and big mudafugin rats.

The maps offer a clear visual guideline for the referee, although I got a little lost on the bottom dungeon level (I couldn't locate the steps down). Otherwise the adventure is very clearly and cleanly written in Talanian's endearing prose, and edited under David Prata's ever scrupulous eye.

In sum, I highly recommend this one. As a mini adventure it can be inserted very easily into any existing campaign, and even makes a nice introductory module if one wishes to begin their exploits in the world of Hyperborea. I can imagine concluding this in a few hours (if that) of gaming, and I feel like it would make an excellent one-shot adventure.

8/10.

Hill Cantons Compendium II - Review

Hill Cantons Compendium II - Review

Author/s: Chris Kutalik & Mike Davison (Hydra Collective LLC)
Price: $0 - Pay what you want
Format: PDF
Page count: 21
System: OSR (0e/1e/insert retroclone here)
Year: 2015

Procrastination is a funny thing - you often end up places you would not expect to. Today was no exception, as I stumbled upon the Hill Cantons Compendium II. The PDF is free to download, and for anyone running a 0e-styled game (or AD&D or Labyrinth Lord or whatever) I recommend checking it out. Actually, you know what? Check it out even if you're not running any of those systems.

You may be asking why. Well, for starters it's free. If that isn't appealing enough, then how about the fact it includes a very brief setting overview, a bunch of new classes, and a whole swathe of random tables?

The Good.
Right off the bat I'm going to say it: I like this. When I began reading I thought okay, another home-brew setting where I don't understand the in-joke references, but between that thought and finishing my read-through, something clicked. I like how sparsely defined the setting is, and while I would never use it (because I have my own imagination, and thrive on designing my own settings), it had some interesting bits that I would certainly steal - like the idea that there is a rather 'normal', seemingly magic-less hub of civilisation, whereupon the further one ventures out things get weirder and weirder. It describes in loose terms the socio-political setup, and the idea of 'hostels' - multi-storied buildings of (usually) ascending swankiness. The world seems to be an amalgam of weird fiction, sci-fi and swords & sorcery, with some more traditional fantasy tropes, but due to the brevity of the work it's a little difficult to be certain.

Then it gets really fun. The Compendium adds some new classes like the Black Hobbit - chaotic and black-hearted halflings; Chaos Monk - think bad 80s kung-fu movie characters made into a class; Feral Dwarf - crude, cave-men dwarves; Half-Ogre - mank, stinky, disgusting beings; Mountebank - illusory trickster; Pantless Barbarian - the name really says it all; Robo-Dwarves, War Bear and White Wizard - magic-user/cleric/druid combo. My personal favourites were the Black Hobbits (the little bastards), the Pantless Barbarians (because LOL), White Wizard (I've long thought the cleric class should be ditched and replaced with a magic-user class who can cast cleric spells too), and the Mountebank (cos I love all things thief). I found myself knee-deep in half-ogre faeces, chuckling to myself at a few things written therein. It's quite tongue-in-cheek, and very self-conscious.

The tables too, make a great addition to this compendium, and I can see myself using them just for NPCs: "Bob looks at you with..." *rolls dice* "...sad eyes - 'my parents didn't love me', he finishes".

The compendium is funny, useful and even rather innovative (if I may use that word, despite the fact EVERYTHING under the sun has been done already).

The Bad.
When something is free, one shouldn't really complain. However, I'm still of the opinion if you're going to bother with something do it right. My only complaint, if it even is a complaint, is at times I felt a little excluded from the text, almost as if this was used in a campaign, but then wasn't properly or extensively explained to the intended audience. Then again, I've been doing this hobby long enough that I actually don't care. I'm an adult, I don't need to be spoon-fed by a gaming company, and I can sift through the ideas to find the gems; which in this case is very easy to do. I noticed a few proofreading errors here and there, though honestly no more (or less) than my Adventures in Highwold supplement. The description for Isle of Tolmin and the House of the Axe was completely omitted. Is that a big deal? No. I didn't pay for it. Too, given my own experiences with writing and self-publishing, once something is 'complete' and published, it's only then that you notice the mistakes, but by that time you really can't be assed to correct it.

Conclusion.
You still haven't downloaded it??!

But seriously.