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Saturday, June 16th is Free RPG Day ‘12 and with it comes a slew of new and interesting little releases. They can usually be divided between tasters for new games that will be released at Gen Con this forthcoming August and support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera. In general, the tasters for the new, “hot” games are highly anticipated and on the day itself, in high demand, but come the day, it would be remiss of us to ignore the less-in-demand titles. Many of these it should be made clear, are worth your time and effort to make it to your friendly, local gaming store to get hold of a copy. One such title is The Case of the Croquet Mallet: a role playing adventure, provided by Pamean Games for its RPG, Brass & Steel: A Game of Steampunk Adventure.

Technically, The Case of the Croquet Mallet: a role playing adventure is not a roleplaying adventure, though it does make use of roleplaying mechanics. Rather it is a LARP that requires two Game Masters and a total of twelve players. It takes place at Houghton Hall in Norfolk, the country house of the 4th Marquess of Cholmondeley, where his son, Lord Rocksavage, has decided to host a weekend get-together for members of the younger set. These include friends and colleagues, as well as acquaintances, which range from military men and socialites to suffragists and the exceedingly rich. In attendance at the soiree are also a number of historical figures, most notably the self-styled “Great Beast,” Aleister Crowley. Of course, this being a country house and this being a weekend, the get-together will not go as swimmingly as the hosts would want. Before the weekend is out, one of the guests will be dead and it would be an awful faux pas for a guest to leave early, even if he or she did do the dirty deed. Thankfully, one of the guests happens to be a Scotland Yard detective, who happened to be in the need of a bed after his motor car broke down…

In order to run the adventure, a large space will be required. Some staging notes are included to that end, necessary because it is unlikely that the players will have access to a stately pile. Also necessary will be some twenty-sided dice and at least one Tarot deck. One is required for the game’s mechanics and another will be needed as a prop by whomever is playing Aleister Crowley. If the Game Masters can provide this player with a copy of Crowley’s own Thoth tarot deck, this would add verisimilitude. Of course, not every player will be happy playing a game that uses Tarot cards, so an ordinary deck of playing cards will do instead. Everything else necessary to play The Case of the Croquet Mallet is included in the book, although the Game Masters will need to prepare the character sheets and various handouts as well as the setting.

Unlike other RPGs in this genre, the period setting for Brass & Steel: A Game of Steampunk Adventure is Edwardian rather than Victorian. Specifically 1905, although The Case of the Croquet Mallet: a role playing adventure does take place in the summer of 1906. It is a world of mechanical marvels, such airships that ply the skies to far off Cairo and Calcutta; fabulous chemical elixirs that heal great injuries; and just a little magic and the ability to dream lucidly, although none of these game elements have any direct bearing on The Case of the Croquet Mallet. That said, with Aleister Crowley in attendance at the weekend, there is nothing to stop the Game Masters bringing this element into the adventure. Politically, the United States remains a mostly coastal rather a continental nation due to a stronger Native American resistance drawn from magic and similarly, the Aztec and Incan Empires never fell to Spanish incursions. Great Britain is of course the preeminent power of the age, but is allied with France and the United States against a continental alliance of Germany, Austria, and Russia.

Mechanically, the rules for Brass & Steel: A Game of Steampunk Adventure appear to be relatively simple. Both attributes and skills are valued between one and ten, and to do anything, a character rolls under the total of a skill plus its associated attribute on a twenty-sided die. Degrees of success under the target matter as, for example, they determine how much damage an attack will do in combat. Every player begins a session with three Tarot or playing cards which can be spent to obtain re-rolls. The card suit determines the skill type that can be re-rolled. For example, a Cups or Hearts card can be expended to gain a re-roll on Social skills.

Physically, The Case of the Croquet Mallet is nicely put together and contains everything necessary to run the adventure as a LARP or large party game. While there are one or two anachronisms and the adventure could do with an edit, it is overall, well written. The characters are lightly sketched, but detailed enough to provide motivation with room aplenty for the players to improvise, and this is for the most part what will drive the adventure rather than any heavy handed plot.

If there is an issue with The Case of the Croquet Mallet it is that it only supports one of the game’s play style. According to the publisher’s website, Brass & Steel: A Game of Steampunk Adventure “is a hybrid paper and pencil RPG, which blends elements of tabletop and LARP play, and can be used exclusively for either style of gaming, as a given group chooses.” The problem is that The Case of the Croquet Mallet only supports the LARP style and it does not come with notes on how to run it as a tabletop adventure, which with twelve players plus Game Masters, it is too big for. Nevertheless, The Case of the Croquet Mallet: a role playing adventure is an entertaining affair, best run in Agatha Christie mode and with a fine drink in hand.