The inaugural Free RPG Day was held on Saturday June 23rd in the USA and Saturday 21st July in the UK. Its aim was to bring gamers and potential customers into their local games store by making available a number of free mini supplements kindly provided by the publishers. Each is intended to introduce and showcase a particular RPG or range of supplements, either already available or forthcoming. The purpose here is to review as many of the following as possible in a series of mini-reviews, taking into consideration how well each stands on its own, how good each serves as an introduction or prequel to another fuller product, how well it stands up as Free RPG Day product, and just how good it is in general.
I have access to the following items, for which I would like to thank Roj at Wayland's Forge:
- GamesMastery Module D0: Hollow's Last Hope
- DCC #51.5: The Sinister Secret of Whiterock
- Wicked Fantasy Module #0: Temple of Blood
- Tunnels & Trolls Quick-Start Rules
- Mutants & Masterminds Beginner's Guide: Quick-Start
- Castles & Crusades Fantasy Role Playing Game Quick Start Rules
- Dungeonbattle Brooklyn for Xcrawl
- Changeling: the Lost -- Free Rules and Adventure
- Little Boy Lost for In Dark Alleys
- Call of Cthulhu Quickstart Rules
- The Pig, the Witch and her Lover -- Free Adventure for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
- Flashpak for Cyberpunk 3.0*
- The Rifter #38*
- Return to the Tomb of the Five Corners*
- GURPS Lite Fourth Edition*
- Scion: the Hero*
* To be fair although I have a copy of The Rifter which was given away on the day, both time and personal prejudice will probably prevent me from giving a fair review. I declined a copy of the Flashpak for Cyberpunk 3.0 as I did not think that I could do a fair review of it following the extremely unfavourable review I had to give Cyberpunk 3.0 elsewhere. Similarly, Return to the Tomb of the Five Corners, GURPS Lite Fourth Edition, and Scion: the Hero have been covered elsewhere in detail, though all do a decent job of introducing their respective games.
The Pig, the Witch, and her Lover is Games Workshop’s or rather Black Industries’ offering for Free RPG 2007. It is a scenario for the second edition of the classic British RPG, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Requiring no more than the core rulebook, the scenario is designed for three to six players and a GM (not three to seven as given, though they do mean that one should be the GM), and comes with six pre-generated characters.
The six pre-generated characters consist of a young noblewoman, Rosalin Falkenheim, and her retinue. With her brothers away at war in the service of the Empire, Rosalin’s father has decided that she needs to learn something of the obligations and responsibilities that she might eventually inherit. Thus she has been instructed to travel to the village of Krote where a widow, Ilsa Mohr, has been accused of witchcraft, specifically of turning her lover into a pig! Accompanying Rosalin are an aging Baliff, and her long suffering Scribe/Servant, as well as a Hunter, a Rat catcher, and a Road Warden. All six are amongst the game’s signature characters, but having the latter three along as companions does feel somewhat forced.
The scenario’s plot concerned the fate of the aforementioned widow Ilsa. The local priest believes that something else is going on, but is unsure what exactly. Beyond the simple facts of the situation, the priest can tell the characters some of the local gossip -- that the village mayor will burn Ilsa if she us found guilty; that Ilsa’s chief accuser, Greta, is notoriously nosey and a gossip; and that the missing or ‘transformed’ man helped kill a giant Beastman in the woods on the edge of the village. The other villagers -- which the GM will have to create as needed -- can furnish the player characters with a lot more in the way of gossip. This will require a lot of Gossip Tests upon the part of the players, but the GM should take the time to create NPCs who can impart this information -- and hopefully have fun portraying them too.
Initially, The Pig, the Witch, and her Lover is heavily focused upon the investigation into Ilsa’s culpability, the characters interviewing numerous witnesses and acquiring as many clues. There is little in the way of physical evidence, but the main piece, the missing pig, the characters will quite literally have to hunt for. Tracking down the supposed ex-porker will hopefully provide them with the final piece in the puzzle and hopefully enough information to resolve the situation in Krote. Compared to the scenario’s early scenes, the finale at Ilsa’s trial is a little underwritten and feels rushed.
Physically, The Pig, the Witch, and her Lover is a 16-page booklet that follows the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay house style. Yet behind the full colour card cover the pages are a bit too gray and the paper a bit too thin. Another nitpick is that it could have done with a few more illustrations. The adventure takes up only ten pages, the rest given over to the pre-generated characters and three pages of advertisements. One last curious omission is that of the author’s identity.
What The Pig, the Witch, and her Lover really does is capture the essence of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Primarily this can be summed up as grim peril, but add to that you have the grim griminess of Krote and the small minded nature of its inhabitants. There is of course, an element of Chaos involved, but the focus is definitely upon the inhabitants of Krote and their all too human weaknesses. In this The Pig, the Witch, and her Lover makes for a good demonstration scenario, but it can easily be adapted to an existing campaign, perhaps the characters being hired by Rosalin’s father to work as her retinue and get her used to interacting with the hoi polloi?
Highs: A good investigative Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay scenario without a Chaos cultist in sight.
Lows: Underwritten towards the end, and the choice of characters is perhaps a little too forced.
Overall: A dark, nasty scenario that captures the flavour of the classic British fantasy RPG.
For Free RPG Day: Perhaps a bit dull looking for the day, but as a fantasy alternative to Dungeons & Dragons this is good. Yet, perhaps it might have been better had a set of Quick Start rules been provided as well.
