#cubicle 7

[rpgcovers]

Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor Sourcebook ~ Cubicle 7 (2015)

[wh40kgallery]

Cybernetica Datasmith

by Sam Manley

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Adventures in Middle Earth - Riddermark by Ralph Horsley

[elohdee-elohdee]

Random Doctor Who RPG Facts about the Paternoster era

A possible Time Lord is still alive in Victorian England. Running the Diogenes Club is Dame Regina Smythe. The club itself is able to change size, miraculously gain rooms and have its interiors change on a whim, making it appear as a TARDIS. The game suggests they could be a Time Lord who's been chameleon arch'd, but I like the idea that it's an incarnation of the Doctor.

The Artful Dodger was a real person - specifically, they were Sam Swift the Quick (The Woman Who Lived). He isn't immortal but he ages at an incredibly slow pace (basically making him Jack Harkness). He looks after street urchins called "The Raggedy Children" while continuing to do crimes.

There is a giant Labyrinth underneath London. One suggested theory is that it's a dying TARDIS, due to its ability to traverse through history when travelling through it.

Madame Vastra and the Doctor both stopped a Krynoid Pod from hatching in London.

Ada Gillyflower (The Crimson Horror) has her own K-9. Their K-9 is an actual dog that's telepathic.

The political history of Who is further complicated by a wholly new Prime Minister for London - his name is Nathan Fairfield.

There is a female splinter of Scaroth. Her name is Scarlett Valentin and she is both an actress and opera singer hailing from Paris. The book states that she stole her skin from a prostitute in order to specifically appear young and healthy.

A splinter of Clara works for Torchwood - her name is Rhona Austen. It is suggested that she was only recruited as bait for the Doctor, but she is said to be a capable Torchwood member.

Jackson Lake's TARDIS (Tethered Aerial Release, Developed In Style) is available for aerial rides above London. It is now a business run by a brother-sister duo called Henry and Charlotte.

The Silence are a threat in London - specifically there is one called The Revenant Reverand, who uses his position hiding in a church to place suggestions into people's minds.

One of the main plotline hooks they offer is continuing the adventures of Victoria Waterfield, exploring what she did after leaving the TARDIS. It is not what I expected in this book.

Saving my favourite pint for last... there is a Dalek hiding in the criminal underworld called "The Napoleon of Crime". He was pulled out of the Time War following the events of The Evil of the Daleks and is trying to return to the TIme War. After acquiring Cyberman technology (The Next Doctor), he uses it to try and build a Time Corridor and get back into the Time War.

He has two lieutenants - the first is Mister Steele, a partially converted Cyberman who's fighting against his programming. Because of that programming, he is still planning to build a new Cyber-King and convert London, but fights against this so he can remain loyal to Napoleon. The second lieutenant is Miss Lovelace, a clockwork robot that is almost fully human that is entirely devised to be a rival to Steele, all for Napoleon's continued entertainment.

Napoleon also has an alien army thanks to his collected alien wares. On top of Cybershades, he now has Chessmen - pawns in his games that are controlled through Cyberman, Clockwork Robot and other alien technology. He has recruited The Revenant Reverand and Scarlett Valentin before, along with the Borad who is still alive!

Notably Napoleon commissioned the Borad to create a Dalek clone as a form of company - he eventually managed to create Josephine. She has a scrapped, bulky shell made from leftover pieces, being dubbed a "Steelclad". She was originally a woman named Lyssa Marden who the Borad "saved" from a fatal accident, although she does not realise what she's been turned into.

I love this character - he enjoys being a leader of the criminal underworld, especially being a nemesis for the Paternoster Gang (the book suggests Napoleon unconsciously sabotages his own plans because he would enjoy remaining in Victorian London).

Cubicle 7 beat Big Finish, this is way more fun.

[rpgsandbox]

The Laundry Roleplaying Game

The award-winning RPG of cosmic horror, tech-driven magic, and occult spycraft returns! Based on ‘The Laundry Files’ by Charles Stross.

Welcome to the Laundry! You’re one of the unlucky few standing between humanity and unspeakable - often unpronounceable - supernatural, alien, and interdimensional threats.

You’re a spy. Well, you are now, at least. Previously, you were someone who learned things humanity was not meant to know. Namely, that magic is real, it exists in the higher realms of mathematics, and it has some really messed up devotees. And if you know that much, then you’re not left with much of a choice — you work for the Laundry now. 

If you’re familiar with Charles Stross’ award-winning The Laundry Files series or the first edition of the award-winning Laundry RPG, you know all this already and can skip to looking at the books, the new award-winning game system, or just go ahead and pick a pledge level already. Just remember that everything here has won awards, ok? Lots of them.

If you are new to the Laundry, you are in for a treat – read on for the primer. You should also bear in mind the awards thing.

There are things out there, in the weirder reaches of space-time, where reality is an optional extra. Horrible things, sometimes with actual tentacles. Al-Hazred glimpsed them, John Dee summoned them, HP Lovecraft wrote about them, and Alan Turing mapped the paths from our universe to theirs. It turns out that mathematics really is magic, or at least that aspects of it describe, enable and power magic. And computing power supercharges it.

The right calculation can call up entities from other, older universes, or invoke their powers. Invisibility? Easy! Binding lesser demons to your will? Trivial! Opening up the way for the Great Old Ones to come through and eat our brains? Unfortunately, much too easy.

That’s where the Laundry comes in. It’s a branch of the British secret service tasked with preventing alien gods from wiping out all life on Earth, with a policy focus on the United Kingdom. You work for the Laundry. The hours are long, the pay is bad, and the bureaucracy is stifling, but unfortunately, you know too much to really have a choice in the matter.

There are some upsides – you get to play with all sorts of magically enhanced tech, from necronom-iPhones loaded with cutting-edge occult apps to basilisk guns that [REDACTED]. Plus, you’ve got a job for life, and possibly beyond (talk to Residual Human Resources to find out more).

You may even get to save the world. Just make sure you get a receipt.

Introducing the second edition of The Laundry Roleplaying Game — an exhilarating blend of covert action, investigation, and dark cosmic horror that thrusts you into the chaotic world of underfunded government employees battling to save the world from unspeakable threats.

Your daily grind includes myriad perilous tasks, from exorcising co-workers gone awry to thwarting ambitious computer students from triggering reality-bending catastrophes. Sneak into supercomputer servers, join SAS troops on dimension-hopping missions, halt outbreaks of blood-draining brain parasites, and prepare for the inevitable apocalypse of CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN.

The C7d6 System

This second edition of The Laundry Roleplaying Game employs the acclaimed C7d6 system, renowned for its versatility, speed, and flexibility.

To perform an action, roll a number of six-sided dice equal to your Attribute score plus any Training you have in the relevant field. So if you have Mind 3 and two levels of Training in the Occult Skill, you have a dice pool of 5d6. Roll the dice, and if any of them exceed the difficulty of the Task, congratulations — you’ve succeeded!

The difficulty may vary, but fear not! You have a plethora of Talents at your disposal, each designed to bolster your chances of success and turn the tides in your favour.

Small Scale to World Devouring

The game system is fast and accessible and ideal for when things get messy, the banishment rounds are flying, and creatures from another realm threaten to devour your office. The same rules apply whether you’re hacking into a computer, sneaking into an office block, or storming a building with a bunch of grizzled SAS troops.

Those rules work just as well when faced with mind-shattering horror and for higher-powered adventures when things start to get really strange in The Annihilation Score and beyond.

Who Do You Play?

Within the Laundry, there are countless departments filled with hundreds of overworked and underpaid employees — and you’re one of them. You might be an accountant, IT support, a driver, or something weirder, like a counterpossession exorcist, a computational demonologist, or one of the really odd people who dedicate their life to research and development. 

However, that’s just your day job. As part of your Active Duty, you’ll join other operatives and head out on a wide array of exciting (and deadly) missions.

What Do You Do?

There is no ‘typical’ when it comes to Laundry missions. You could be sent to the heart of London, Wolverhampton, or Milton Keynes. You may even be sent overseas, but you’ll have to be careful not to ruffle any feathers — the Black Chamber and the Thirteenth Directorate are quick to halt clandestine Laundry operations. While they might have the same job as you, they handle things very differently, and some refuse to believe that the Cold War is over. 

The world of the Laundry is under threat of incomprehensible cosmic horrors, and it’s up to you to save it.

Kickstarter campaign ends: Wed, May 1 2024 3:00 PM BST

Website: [Cubicle 7] [facebook] [twitter] [instagram]

[farsight-the-char]

"We are incredibly excited to reveal the cover for Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory Threat Assessment: Daemons & Heretics, illustrated by the incredible Helge C. Balzer. Coming very soon!"

Right in my Wallet.

[benpaddon]

Cubicle 7 is having a holiday sale that includes some deep discounts on the Doctor Who RPG.

Some choice items:

The Second Edition Core Rulebook is less than half price at $15.

The Starter Set is $24.

The GM screen is $18.

The Silurian Age Sourcebook is $10.50.

The Black Archive Sourcebook is $12.

The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook is $7.20!

First Edition Sourcebooks are backwards-compatible with Second Edition, so don't worry about which edition you're getting. If you've ever been curious, now's the time!

[vintagerpg]

Endings are hard! While Empire in Ruins (2022) is vastly and obviously superior to Empire in Flames (it is far more open, dynamic and thematically tied to the previous arcs of the campaign story). Yet it still leaves me a bit wanting, especially after how deliciously over-the-top Horned Rat was.

I think this is partially because the thrust of the adventure is fairly linear and a lot of it involves high-level summits with powerful political figures. These are handled well, and just about every scene in the chain has a lot of room for players to shine, but more than any other volume of the series, it depends almost entirely on the players. Similarly, the plot seems rather nebulous compared to the previous chapters. I think that is intentional — the player and their actions (and consequences) getting here are going to vary a LOT from table to table, so there needs to be room to account for all that variety. This final chapter is a vessel that feels empty in the reading because the play is going to fill it up. I can see that! But it is a bit of an underwhelming read. There are some organizational issues too (one key map is in the Companion, for starters, as is a lot of thought on non-canon endings that seems super important), and I generally feel like it lacks the support scaffolding the other volumes have (not much accounting for the various possible if/thens, likely because there are just too many of them). The Companion adds a lot of interesting context but the extra scenarios again feel either too much or too samey to effectively expand the campaign.

It is still a massive improvement over the original and, ultimately, a cohesive capper for one of the biggest and best campaigns out there.