Book 2 - The Wars

THE WARS
Robin D. Laws
BOOK TWO
THE WARS
Publishers: Simon Rogers and Cathriona Tobin
Designed, Written, and Produced by: Robin D. Laws
Cover Art: Melissa Gay
Illustrations, Schematics, and Battlefield Sketches: Melissa Gay
Graphic Design: Christian Knutsson
Copyediting: Colleen Riley, Cathriona Tobin
Indexing: Cathriona Tobin
Playtesters:
Jack Anderson, Julien Berton, Chris Cooke, Mike de Jong, Susan
Davis, John DelaCruz, Dimes, Jonathan Elcock, Robustiano Fernandez,
Davy Gerard, Lloyd Graney, Jurie Horneman, Blessing Huesmann, Joe
Huesmann, Chris Huth, Paul Jackson, Shel Kahn, Shai Laric, Ben Loula,
Michael Lovdahl, Côme Martin, Damon Matthews, Justin Mohareb,
Thomas Nowell, Erik Otterberg, Laura Picraux, Rachel Picraux, Florian
Poisignon, Jack Reidy, Tim Reiter, Christian "CJ" Jensen Romer, Liam
Scanlon, Robert J. Smith, Seth Taylor, Aser Tolentino, Megan Tolentino,
Tracey Trower, Scott Wachter, Paul Ward, Calliope Westbrooke, Charles
Wright, Kim Wright.
Copyright © 2018 Pelgrane Press Ltd.

The Yellow King RPG and GUMSHOE Quickshock are trademarks of Pelgrane Press Ltd.
Pelgrane Press is co-owned by Simon Rogers and Cathriona Tobin.
TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S
INTO THE WARS 4 French Hero 85

What the Squadron Does 4 Foreign War Hero 86
Navigating This Book 5 Black Marketeers 87
Pick Your Premise 6 Brothel Keeper 88
Who They Fight For 6 Villagers 88
CHARACTERS 6 Peasants 91
Nationality 7 Not Everything Has
When Women Fight 7 to Have Hitler In It 93
Orientation and Heritage 7 Scenarios 94
Kits 8 Shadow Squadron 94
General Kits 9 RUNNING THE WARS 94
Names 11 Report for Execution 96
Drives 11 Military Police 98
Connection 15 Hazard Scenes 98
That Damn Peculiar Thing 16 Chain of Command 99
Hey, Where’s Sequence Arc 101
the Relationships Step? 17 The Hook 103
New Abilities 17 The Development 103
RULES ADJUSTMENTS 24 The Alien Truth 103
Fighting 24 A FEAST FOR WOLVES 103
SHATTERED EUROPE 26 Possible Climaxes 104
Why Carcosa Fights 26 Scenes 105
The Loyalists 27 Origin Story 125
The Enemy 28 Shock cards 130
Warped Timeline 28 CARDS 130
Battlefronts 29 Injury cards 142
Behind the Lines 29 APPENDICES 163
The Fighting French 30 Character Creation 165
BATTLE WEARS Embracing the Premise 165
NO MASK 33 YOU’RE IN
Shell Shocks 33 THE WARS NOW 165
War Hazards 35 Weird War 166
Travel on Foot 38 French Infantry Ranks 167
The Machinery of War 38 Investigative Ability
Terrifying Terrain 58 Worksheet 168
FOES 64 Group Matrix 169
Commanding Officer 79 Relative Challenge Table 169
PEOPLE 79 War Hazard Table 170
Comrades 81 Shell Shocks Table 173
The General 85 INDEX 174
T h e Y E L L O W K I N G R P G : The Wars – Into the Wars
INTO THE WARS
In this, the second sequence •• The squad investigates reports

of The Yellow King Roleplaying that a brilliant but eccentric
Game, players portray a squadron Loyalist commander has gone
of soldiers fighting on the rogue. They find that he has
European battlefield of 1947. carved out a swathe of crucial
There they unravel supernatural territory not for your side, but as
mysteries arising from the his own domain, supported by
Carcosan phenomenon that enemy deserters who worship
generated this alternate reality. him as a living god. When they
This struggle reflects not one meet him, they find that his
specific war from our timeline, but face has gone pallid and mask-
all of them from 1914 on. like, and his discourse now
In a typical episode, the squad runs to feverish monologues
faces both a conventional military about Hastur and the Hyades.
problem and a weird mystery •• Desperate holdouts the
stemming from the increased group is dispatched to flush
influence of the Yellow King from their cavern turn out
over the world. The story never to be much less human,
requires them to sacrifice the first and considerably hungrier,
in order to deal with the second. than their orders indicate.
•• Dispatched on a deserter hunt,
the squad finds the targets
What the Squadron Does dead. But still running around
Weird mysteries of The Wars go the countryside shooting
something like this: anything that moves.
•• Soldiers billeted in a remote •• Sent to find out why a bridge
village disappear. The locals are can’t be bombed, the squad
too frightened to tell the truth. sees the glowing sigils on its
•• Assigned to hold an old church support pillars. Now they have
as a sniper tower in anticipation to figure out how to deactivate
of an enemy advance, the this otherworldly protection,
squad encounters a malign before enemy troops arrive
entity that intends to drive and cross it, pushing further
them to violent madness by than ever into French territory.
altering their perceptions. •• An enemy special forces
4
R O B I N D . L AW S
team penetrates the squad’s out your version of the Continental

base security at will. What War, from its contending alliances
power allowed them to to the role the King in Yellow
assassinate the commanding and his court play in driving the
officer and then seemingly conflict. It also covers the culture
dissolve into thin air? and organization of the French
•• A walker (a tank on mechanical army in this timeline.
legs) acquires a murderous “Battle Wears No Mask” covers
mind of its own and turns on its the mental and physical dangers
former masters. Can the squad of the battlefield, as well as the
figure out how to take it down? setting’s Carcosan-influenced
•• Behind enemy lines, the squad retro-tech war machinery, from
finds a dairy farm stocked with stalkers to dragonflies.
mutant cattle. A weird antennae “Enemies” features foe profiles
juts from its central barn. for both the mundane and eerie
What’s going on here, and how opponents the squad may wind
do the investigators stop it? up fighting.
•• The squad discovers that a “People” sketches out some
French brigadier general was supporting characters to pull into
also a powerful figure half a your scenarios as needed.
century ago. She looks the “Running the Game” ties these
same today as she did back elements together with advice
then. The characters suspect to assist you in GMing this
something sinister about her sequence.
personal agenda. The players The sample scenario, A Feast
recall her as a terrifying villain for Wolves, pits the squad against
their Belle Époque characters a village of cannibal peasants in
never managed to defeat. thrall to that legendary demon-
wolf, the Beast of Gévaudan.
“Appendices” include the
Navigating This Book character sheet, tables used in
“Characters” takes you through this sequence, and an introductory
character generation, including handout for players, “You’re in the
the connections, mundane or Wars Now.” Give this last item,
eerie, between this new group available as a PDF from the YKRPG
of PCs and the ones from Paris. resource page at pelgranepress.
(If you’re restricting play to The com, to the players before your first
Wars alone, you’ll skip that step, session of The Wars.
naturally.) The section ends with
a few adjustments to the rules as
provided in Paris.
“Shattered Europe” gives you
the elements you need to build
5
T h e Y E L L O W K I N G R P G : The Wars – Characters
CHARACTERS
Character generation proceeds up in some other trouble, they

as follows. can only continue to explore
the battlefield, encountering
supernatural mysteries all
Pick Your Premise the while. This option suits
Before starting your series, groups who chafe at the
choose a premise. Here are three mission structure otherwise
to start with; you might prefer to implied by a military setting.
devise your own. •• Military Police. The team
•• Shadow Squadron. The serves as a military police
squad forms the core of a unit. Most of their cases occur
unit specializing in reverse offscreen, revolving around
camouflage operations. finding and hauling away
It stages scenes meant drunk and disorderly soldiers.
to be picked up by enemy Scenarios feature their less-
reconnaissance, using props routine investigations, which
and stagecraft to make it lead them into confrontations
seem as if key positions are with Carcosan mystery.
occupied by forces that are in
fact nonexistent. As the only
unit that does this, they get Who They Fight For
dispatched all over the place. The players belong to a unit of
This gets them moving and the Loyalist infantry, one of the
encountering a wide variety two international alliances mired
of situations from which to in a conflict that grinds across the
springboard into weird mystery. map of Europe. Some refer to it
•• Report for Execution. Early in as the Continental War; others, as
the sequence, the characters the War of Reclamation.
are released from their military “Who’s trying to reclaim what?”,
duties to submit themselves your players might ask. On that
for execution. Instead they point, no two arguing soldiers
choose to seek freedom and quite agree. And thinking too hard
safety elsewhere. But as in on the matter hurts a poor grunt’s
a dream where you try to get head: Difficulty 3 Composure
somewhere but always wind
6
test to avoid Shocks, Minor sexes is assumed and goes

and Major: Dulled Thinking/ without comment.
Throbbing Migraine. 2. Treat the additional stresses
Loyalists call the enemy by a they face as women on the
variety of insulting nicknames, but battlefield in a way that allows
mostly simply as the Enemy. them to fight and overcome
The forces of Carcosa covertly misogyny and sexism.
manipulate both sides, in a Go with choice 1 unless
manner you choose; see p. the entire group expresses a
26. The players may or may preference for 2.
not discover the truth behind This preference does not override
the war in the course of their your X-card protocol, if you’re
investigations. using one. Whatever the initial
agreement, players can still raise
their cards to dial back or edit out
Nationality situations they find distressing.
This book assumes that the
players portray French soldiers.
If played in isolation, without Orientation and Heritage
an arc tying together all of the The setting imposes no
YKRPG sequences, you might restrictions on player characters
prefer to adapt this to another of any sexual orientation. As with
nationality the group finds more female characters, have the group
familiar. This is left as an exercise decide whether they prefer to
for custom-tailoring GMs. handle this in an idealized way, or
as a source of story conflict. Go
with conflict only if everyone finds
When Women Fight it acceptable. Making this choice
Players can choose to play implies that attitudes about
women. If any do, that means orientation in this 1947 remain
that your version of this alternate as far from ideal as in our 1947.
history has women serving in full Members of the French Foreign
combat positions. Legion may have transferred into
If none do, that means that your your squad—meaning that you
1947 battleground hews closer to can play people of any extraction,
our timeline and does not yet allow heritage, or national origin. You
women to serve in combat. might be French citizens or not.
When including female PCs, If none of the players choose to
ask the players if they want the play French citizens, clearly you’re
series to: a Foreign Legion unit seconded to
1. Address their participation in the European battlefield.
combat in an idealized way,
where equality between the
7
Kits Sergeant
As seen in Paris, characters are Interrogation
created by combining one item Intimidation
apiece from two sets of kits. Law
Military Logistics
Investigative Kits
As before, the first kit, the Private
Investigative kit, lays out each (Civilian Occupation: Writer)
character’s Investigative abilities. Humanities
Inspiration
Lieutenant Lowlife
Blueblood Occultism
Leadership
Military Science Distribute kits to players as
Political Science follows.
When continuing on from the
Terrain Private (Civilian Paris sequence:
Occupation: Medical Student) Start by selecting the player
Intuition you think would best handle the
Medicine role of leader. You’re looking for
Reassurance a player who moves the story
Science forward, contributes positively
to decision-making, and will still
Private collaborate well with the rest of
(Civilian Occupation: Merchant) the group when given a measure
Accounting of imagined power. Look for a
Assess Honesty player who can comfortably occupy
Military Logistics the spotlight without hogging it.
Negotiation Oddly, spotty attendance can be a
plus. This means that sometimes
Private the Lieutenant will be a hands-off
(Civilian Occupation: Peasant) GMC leader, and other times a PC.
Farming In the bizarre case in which
Hunting every single player would do
Salt of the Earth equally well in the role, give the
Lieutenant kit to the player who
Private (Civilian Occupation: portrayed the Architect. If no one
Photographer) played the Architect, choose a
Flattery player at random.
Intuition Now distribute the rest of the kits
Photography based on the types each player
Science took on in Paris, as seen in this
table. At the end, match up players
without kits to kits without players.
8
The Wars Character Paris Equivalent
Pick player best suited to

Lieutenant command role; if all equal, use
Architect
Medical Student Poet
Merchant Portrait Painter
Peasant Landscape Painter
Photographer Muse
Sergeant Sculptor
Writer Belle-Lettrist
When starting with The Wars: choices, they may notice that a
Lay the kits out on the table and couple of them pair naturally with
let the players negotiate who particular Investigative kits: the
gets what. Lieutenant with the Tactician,
Do you still have kits left over? and the Medical Student with
Invite the players to distribute the Shepherd. You may wish to
the abilities from the unused point out that the Shepherd is
kits between the group, using metaphorical, as in “shepherd
whatever method makes sense of people” rather than a literal
to them. sheep herder.
Players may modify kits, moving
around any number of points,
General Kits provided the total remains 54
Use General kits with a group points for Horror mode, 60 for
unfamiliar with GUMSHOE, or in a Occult Adventure.
one-shot game. Lay them out on a For groups who know GUMSHOE,
table and leave players to negotiate including those who have just
who gets what. played a Paris sequence,
In Occult Adventure mode, modify have them build from scratch.
each kit ahead of time, adding Remind players that Composure,
2 points apiece to Composure, Battlefield, and Fighting are
Battlefield, and Fighting. survival abilities; they likely want
As players paw through the to spend 6-8 points on each.
9
Bruiser First Aid 2

Artillery 6 Health 5
Athletics 6 Mechanics 2
Battlefield 6 Morale 2
Composure 6 Preparedness 0
Driving 3 Riding 0
Fighting 8 Scrounging 8
First Aid 0 Sense Trouble 2
Health 6 Sneaking 6
Mechanics 2 Traps and Bombs 0
Morale 4
Preparedness 2 Ghost
Riding 0 Artillery 0
Scrounging 0 Athletics 5
Sense Trouble 2 Battlefield 7
Sneaking 1 Composure 7
Traps and Bombs 0 Driving 1
Fighting
Conscience First Aid 0
Artillery 0 Health 5
Athletics 5 Mechanics 0
Battlefield 6 Morale 0
Composure 8 Preparedness 2
Driving 1 Riding 0
Fighting 6 Scrounging 0
First Aid 8 Sense Trouble 4
Health 5 Sneaking 8
Mechanics 2 Traps and Bombs 7
Morale 8
Preparedness 0
Riding 0 Grease Monkey
Scrounging 0 Artillery 2
Sense Trouble 2 Athletics 5
Sneaking 2 Battlefield 6
Traps and Bombs 1 Composure 6
Driving 5
Fox Fighting 6
Artillery 0 First Aid 0
Athletics 5 Health 5
Battlefield 7 Mechanics 6
Composure 7 Morale 0
Driving 1 Preparedness 3
Fighting 6 8 Riding 0
10
Scrounging 1 Tactician
Sense Trouble 3 Artillery 1
Sneaking 2 Athletics 6
Traps and Bombs 4 Battlefield 6
Composure 6
Mathematician Driving 2
Artillery 4 Fighting 6
Athletics 5 First Aid 1
Battlefield 7 Health 5
Composure 7 Mechanics 2
Driving 1 Morale 5
Fighting 5 Preparedness 2
First Aid 1 Riding 2
Health 5 Scrounging 0
Mechanics 2 Sense Trouble 6
Morale 0 Sneaking 3
Preparedness 6 Traps and Bombs 1
Riding 1
Scrounging 2
Sense Trouble 2 Names
Sneaking 1 Each player invents a name
Traps and Bombs 5 suitable to the character’s
nationality or heritage.
Raw Recruit
Artillery 1
Athletics 4 Drives
Battlefield 6 Invite the players to specify why
Composure 7 each of their characters will move
Driving 2 toward supernatural danger, even
Fighting 4 amid the perils of the battlefield.
First Aid 5 Use the common answers below
Health 5 to help hone player suggestions
Mechanics 2 and tag them with a brief term you
Morale 0 can remember when you need to
Preparedness 3 use them. Share them with players
Riding 3 who’d like a prompt or two.
Scrounging 4 Advancement: “If there’s a
Sense Trouble 6 ladder, I will climb it. If there’s a
Sneaking 2 rank, I will achieve it. By solving
Traps and Bombs 0 this mystery, I will increase my
chances for promotion.”
11
General Ability Master List Approval Seeker: “Before

the war everybody, my family
Ability Type especially, told me I was
worthless. Now I can have a new,
Artillery Physical better family—the army. I’ll do
anything to win their admiration.”
Athletics Physical Competitive: “Nobody shows
me up. If there’s a chance
Battlefield Physical somebody else is going to stick
their nose into trouble, I’ll be right
Composure Presence alongside them—to show ‘em
how it’s done.”
Driving Physical Comradeship: “In war you don’t
fight for your country. You fight for
Fighting Physical your buddies. If something weird
threatens the unit, I’m throwing
First Aid Focus myself on it, just as I would a
grenade.”
Health Physical Decoration Seeker: “I like my
accomplishments in tangible,
Mechanics Focus gleaming form, which no one
can take from me. They might
Morale Presence have to make up a new honor for
tackling this weird phenomenon,
Preparedness Presence but you bet they’re going to.” (In
a Report for Execution series,
Riding Physical the Decoration Seeker assumes
that his exploits will redeem
Scrounging Presence the group’s current condemned
status, paving the way to that
Sense Trouble Presence medal ceremony.)
Family Tradition: “My father
Sneaking Focus fought bravely for his country,
and his father, and his father, as
Traps and well. Now it is my turn to bear the
Focus
Bombs weight of sacrifice.”
Financial Ambition: “War
bristles with opportunity. I
enlisted without a sou to my
name and will come out as rich
as Croesus. I will figure out this
phenomenon, and then I will work
out how to make money from it
12
13
after peace breaks out.” warranting further investigation.”

A Funny Feeling: “Ever since Rationalism: “Science governs
we arrived in theater I’ve been all, even amid the chaos of war.
unable to shake the sense that Magic is only a phenomenon we
we were all brought together by don’t understand yet. I won’t
inexorable destiny. Like we’re all rest until I’ve found out why this
par t of some vast puzzle. And is happening, and fit it into the
right now that feeling’s telling great, ever-widening framework of
me a piece of that puzzle lies human knowledge.”
just over that ridge.” Shattered Ethos: “The madness
Honor: “I will do anything to of battle has destroyed my
preserve my personal honor. former certitudes. To truly find
None shall call me coward.” my place in the universe, I must
Monstrous Incident: “Monsters find the truths mere academic
are real. I saw one once, when I philosophers never grappled with.
was young. They’re what I really Including the truths behind that
want to kill—not my fellow man.” thing over there.”
Patriotism: “Soldiers of many Shell-shocked: “The trauma of
nations, allies and foes alike, war has upended my judgment.
watch what we do. This is a When the threat of death rears
problem ideally suited to the its skeletal head, I trudge dully
French mind. With cool intellect, toward it, just as my drill sergeant
mastery of procedure, and, if trained us to do. This is not an
necessary, ruthlessness, I shall impulse I would articulate or
make short work of it.” acknowledge. It drives me on a
Occult Fascination: “The weird level beyond conscious thought.”
and magical have always intrigued Waa-hoo! “When I see trouble, I
me. I’d much rather plumb arcane holler and run toward it, my face a
mysteries than suffer the daily rictus of insane glee. Not that I’d
miseries of war.” ever explain it this way. All I say
Passion for Order: “I despise a is, waa-hoo!”
mess. Chaos, I doubly disdain. An War Stories: “As a child I envied
unanswered question is like an old soldiers with their tales of
unmade bed—intolerable!” horror and bravery. Decades from
Problem Solver: “Soldiers solve now, I want to tell anecdotes that
problems. Something that looks put theirs to shame. And what
like it defies logic is a problem all is that weird manifestation over
right. And there ain’t a problem there, but the start of the hairiest
that can’t be solved.” war story of all?”
Procedure: “I see here on page
245 of the Manual of the Infantry
Squad Leader, 1936 edition, that
we must treat this as a matter
14
Connection match the events of 1895.

Use this step only when moving •• W keeps drawing sketches
from Paris to The Wars. of P, who he believes himself
Each player in turn describes a to have imagined.
connection between their Paris •• W owns an item once
character and their new character. precious to P.
The connection can be literal or •• W has or had a close relationship
metaphorical. with a GMC who featured in Paris
Paris characters were by default and had cause to speak of P.
in their early twenties in 1895, •• W and P share a Drive, quirk,
leaving open the possibility that at outlook, or other key trait.
least some of them are alive and •• W and P share an uncanny
in their seventies half a century physical resemblance.
later. If not, they could have met •• Under hypnosis, W experienced
the new characters in the past. some of the events of 1895 as
This allows players the chance if remembering them personally,
to describe the later lives of the from P’s perspective.
characters they just played—in •• W’s parent or grandparent
this timeline, anyhow. bore a grudge against P. The
Though the Paris characters black deed P did was passed
are probably American, and The down as a part of family lore.
Wars character likely aren’t, some •• W has constructed an elaborate
members of this new ensemble historical conspiracy theory in
might be their grandchildren. A which P prominently features.
player might specify that the past Depending on what happened
character married or had a child in the prior sequence, it
with a French person after the could well be true.
events described so far in the •• During a recent battle fought
game. The new characters might in an old graveyard, W fell
be fully French or maintain dual into P’s coffin, which had just
citizenship. been exhumed by a bomb.
Other possible connections •• W committed a crime
(where the new character is W against the now-elderly P.
and the previous one P): Could it be murder?
••W is a devoted fan of •• W met P while on leave, or before
P’s art or writing. coming to the front. P gave W a
•• W sees P in dreams or visions. warning, talisman, or other bit of
•• W has written about, or cryptic information. Afterwards
researched, the life of P. W discovered that P was dead
•• W has written what she and had been a ghost all along.
believes to be fiction about a (This is not inconsistent with
character whose personality, being the grandchild or other
appearance, and actions much younger relation of P.)
15
That Damn doom. Staggering to the edge

Peculiar Thing of the tent you found something
This works pretty much exactly at your feet—his severed head.
like the Deuced Peculiar Business •• That bullet the medic dug from
from Paris, p. 18. Ask each player your flesh came out remarkably
in turn to specify something intact. It had a weird sigil on
uncanny or inexplicable they it, and in engraved letters
experienced not long ago while you had to use a magnifying
deployed to the front. glass to see, your name.
Here are a few examples tuned to •• You saw a vulture dining
this setting. Share them with players on a pile of dead soldiers.
seeking an inspiration nudge. It was as big as a man.
•• You glimpsed an enemy soldier •• The precious photo of
creeping through the woods your sweetheart back
behind your lines. He wore home has started to weep
a peculiar, pallid mask. blood from its eyes.
•• A fog encircled you as you •• You came upon a circle
returned fire from a sniper’s of civilians performing a
nest. Suddenly you were in a strange ceremony in the
peaceful, green pasture, far woods. You ordered them
from any sign of battle. A local away and they slumped off
man came up to quizzically as if drugged. Or was it a
ask you if he could help. You play they were rehearsing?
looked down at yourself and •• You came upon a squadron
you were in civilian clothes, a of soldiers, all dead, each
camera around your neck. Then staring in frozen terror. None
the fog rolled up and you were had a scratch on him.
back in the fight once more. •• You emptied the entire contents
•• A Loyalist plane crashed of your sidearm into an enemy
near you. If you didn’t know soldier, but he kept on coming.
better, you’d swear you And he looked like he was
saw a flying creature pulling already dead. He would have
apart its tail section. got you, too, if he hadn’t
•• A raven-haired woman in old- stepped on that land mine.
timey clothes strolled through •• You heard a baby crying in No
a hail of bullets, unharmed. Man’s Land. But after risking
You could swear she was your neck to save it, you found
real, but no one else saw it. only a hideously misshapen cat.
•• Someone who meant a great It flashed you a hungry grin and
deal to you died in combat bounded away into the fog.
hundreds of miles away. You •• You just transferred to this
woke up in the middle of the new unit after the members
night, feeling a premonition of of your old one opened fire
16
on you. You kept calling out withhold from social climbers or

to them, but they remained impertinent bumpkins.
unresponsive, eyes glassy You can also gain information
and jaws gaping open. They from those of the serving class,
snapped out of it at the last and anyone else accustomed to
minute, then denied that showing deference to their social
anything had ever happened. superiors. This may require a
•• You’re sure there’s a worm certain sternness of tone, but
inside you. Your rations were more often happens without
contaminated, you’re sure of either party quite noticing what is
it. The docs say it’s all in your going on.
head. But it’s not in your head,
it’s in your leg, where you can Farming (Technical)
feel it squirming, and dreaming. Your knowledge of agriculture
star ts with the practical and
may extend to the theoretical.
Hey, Where’s the Possible uses while investigating
Relationships Step? mysteries include:
Group cohesion comes •• distinguishing between
baked into the premise in this normal and abnormal
sequence, so this step is not domestic animal behavior
needed this time. •• telling which dangerous
farm implement caused
those wounds
New Abilities •• identifying the source of crop
This section describes abilities damage, if natural, or aver
that appear for the first time in that crops have been damaged
The Wars. Some are versions of by no ordinary cause
previous abilities, renamed to •• predicting upcoming weather
catch the flavor of the times. •• recounting the superstitions,
wives’ tales, and folkways
Investigative Abilities of a rural community
Let’s start with the new Spend a Push to find a hidden
Investigative abilities. food cache, refreshing your
Scrounging pool.
Blueblood (Interpersonal)
As a born and bred member of Flattery (Interpersonal)
the ruling class, you know the Extract information from people
exquisite manners needed to gain by appealing to their vanity. This
cooperation from others of your approach works on anyone who
station. Instinctively trusting your desires recognition, whether they
discretion and honor, they share are usually denied it and crave it,
information with you they would
17
or are accustomed to receiving it •• tell whether other people have

and become agitated without a been in a wild area, and how
steady resupply of it. long ago they passed by
After briefly speaking with a Spend a Push to put hunters
person, you can intuit which traits at ease or gain assistance from
or features they are most proud of. them. Spend a Push to bag a
Spend a Push to gain non- game animal of your choice (must
informational favors from anyone be native to the area), refreshing
who would be pleased to gain your Scrounging pool.
your approval.
Interrogation (Interpersonal)
Humanities (Academic) Special training allows you
Humanity, or at least the good to elicit information from
side of it, is in short supply on prisoners in custody. Unlike the
the battlefield. This umbrella common soldier—and worse,
ability encompasses a wide range the demanding, temperamental
of fields that other GUMSHOE superior officer—you understand
settings separate out. Your that this is more about
education in the culture allows establishing a rapport than
you to pull from memory facts issuing threats. Sure, sometimes
concerning: you have to make it hard on some
•• anthropology and sociology poor wretch. But you need a
•• linguistics sense for when to do it, and how
•• political and social history much pressure to exert.
•• the arts
•• theology and philosophy Intimidation (Interpersonal)
Through a mix of physical
Hunting (Technical) presence and unyielding
As an experienced hunter, you personality, you squeeze
know not only how to find, kill, information out of people by
and prepare edible game, but instilling fear. You can also
also how to: frequently tell which people won’t
•• follow a track in the wilderness respond to threats, implicit or
•• find your way out of the otherwise.
woods when lost
•• understand the behavior Law (Academic)
of wild animals Before you mustered in, you
•• tell which creature a bone, hank studied the laws of your home
of fur, or feather came from nation. As part of your studies,
formal or casual, you also
acquainted yourself with the
basics of other European legal
systems, and those descended
18
from them. Once in uniform you •• identify, befriend, and get

expanded your knowledge to information from soldiers
the specialized world of military with criminal or vice-
law. You can rattle off the terms riddled backgrounds
of the Geneva Convention ••make yourself at home
and know when they have among civilian criminals
been violated. You can act as and win their trust
prosecutor or defense advocate •• find the nearest gambling
in a court martial procedure. You game or brothel
understand lawyers, including •• locate the local black marketeer
military ones, when you overhear •• tell who’s diverting military
them talking. You can glance at a goods for resale or engaged
labyrinthine legal document and in embezzlement
not only decode it but explain it •• sense which military police
in simple language to the rest of officers are honestly working
your squadron. to crack down on crime
within the military, and which
Leadership (Interpersonal) ones are on the take
Gain information from others
who are your inferiors in the Medicine (Technical)
military hierarchy, and from You use your medical training to
others, civilians included, figure out what’s going on. You can:
who crave or respect formal •• tell what diseases a sick person
assertions of authority. suffers from, or which ones led
Spend a Push to impel soldiers to the demise of a dead victim
lower than you, in your chain of •• study wounds and tell what
command, to execute an order weapons caused them and
not only diligently but to the under what likely circumstances
absolute tiptop of their ability. •• identify drugs, rhyming off
Spend a Push to gain calm and their uses and side effects
cooperation from civilians who •• discern from visible side
desire order or clear direction. effects which medications
Spend a Push to impress a person might be taking
a superior with your ability to •• identify healing herbs and
command your inferiors, gaining other natural treatments,
recognition or assistance. specifying which ones might
be effective and which are
Lowlife (Interpersonal) used only out of superstition
You may be in the army now, but
you brought your civilian affinity Military Logistics (Academic)
for the seedier side of life. Plenty You look at warfare from a
of your fellow soldiers did the practical angle, as an exercise in
same. With this ability you can: constant problem solving. You can:
19
T h e Y E L L O W K I N G R P G : The Wars –
20
•• tell whether a unit is well in an engagement are

supplied and, if not, what acting in accordance with
is causing the problem good practice, or are doing
•• guess at the combat something inexplicable
effectiveness of a unit by ••remember and verbalize
assessing the maintenance of the difference between
its equipment and weaponry strategy and tactics
•• understand the thinking
and behavior of non- Political Science (Academic)
commissioned officers You study the relationships
•• watch a unit on the battlefield between nations, and between
and tell how far they’ve competing branches and factions
strayed from their orders of government. You can:
•• suggest better tactics to •• impress visiting civilian
implement the objectives dignitaries, gaining their
behind an officer’s commands trust and the disclosures
•• immediately size up an officer that come with it
and determine whether •• tell whether a civilian leader
he is solid or an idiot is honest or dishonest,
•• disguise from the above competent or incompetent
officer that you’re making •• ease disputes between French
that assessment forces and their allies, or
between contending groups
Military Science (Academic) from two different allied forces
You learned about fighting at •• gauge the mood of civilians
a war college or other academic toward the military
institution. Now you apply the •• enter a village and tell who’s
latest theories to the mysteries really in charge (which may
you encounter. You can: or may not be the mayor or
•• comprehend the strategic other official who is supposed
implications of any engagement to be running things)
•• make solid assumptions •• predict the reactions of
about the internal political a village, town, or city to
pressures behind an officer’s a proposed action
seemingly ill-advised decision •• tell when a population’s
•• understand officer culture, behavior has gone
classing the behavior of an somehow awry
officer as typical or unusual
•• guess at the likely strategy Salt of the Earth (Interpersonal)
and order behind a given tactic As a farmer or other humble
you see deployed in the field laborer, you get along well with
•• tell whether enemy or peasants and other ordinary folk.
allied forces taking part
21
You can: Investigative Ability Master List

•• gain their trust, getting Investigative abilities used in
them to reveal information The Wars, including those carried
they wouldn’t share with over from Paris, are as follows:
a bourgeois or high-hat Accounting (Academic)
•• tell whether a manual task Assess Honesty (Interpersonal)
has been done well or poorly Blueblood (Interpersonal)
•• at a glance, tell whether a Chemistry (Technical)
peasant is hardworking or Farming (Technical)
lazy, clever or dimwitted, Hunting (Technical)
guileless or treacherous Inspiration (Interpersonal)
•• understand the limits of Interrogation (Interpersonal)
rural civilian cooperation Intimidation (Interpersonal)
Intuition (Interpersonal)
Terrain (Technical) Law (Academic)
You understand geography from Leadership (Interpersonal)
a warrior’s point of view. You can: Lowlife (Interpersonal)
•• read maps Medicine (Technical)
•• point out anomalies and Military Logistics (Academic)
mistakes on maps Military Science (Academic)
•• spot the best available Negotiation (Interpersonal)
sniper position Occultism (Academic)
•• distinguish readily defensible Photography (Technical)
positions from those the Political Science (Academic)
enemy will easily overrun Reassurance (Interpersonal)
•• find good places to hide— Salt of the Earth (Interpersonal)
which are also likely spots Science (Academic)
to be ambushed from Terrain (Technical)
•• tell when something bizarre
has affected the landscape New General Abilities
•• predict lighting conditions in More action-oriented than Paris,
a given location at various The Wars adds several genre-
times of day under various appropriate General abilities to
degrees of cloud cover the mix.
•• rattle off the current lunar
phase without resorting Artillery (Physical)
to an almanac Allows you to operate weaponry
•• orient yourself without systems too large to be carried by
a compass a person, including mortars and
high-caliber mounted guns.
22
Battlefield (Focus) says this is possible)

Since Agincourt the main way •• motivate GMC soldiers to
not to be killed in battle is to risk their lives, as they
remain outside the kill zone were trained to do
created by incoming fire. Use this
ability to remain alive in the midst Scrounging (Presence)
of a mass combat or while under Allows you to find needed items
bombardment. In Paris you mostly in or around a war zone, through
used Athletics to avoid injury a mixture of ingratiation, horse-
hazards; here you rely chiefly on trading, and perhaps the odd
Battlefield. moment of outright stealing.
Think of it as Preparedness
Driving (Physical) for needs you had no way of
Allows you to perform preparing for.
dangerous or difficult maneuvers In a restful moment or pause
while driving any mechanical in the action, you can refresh
vehicle on wheels, treads, or skis. a single other PC’s Battlefield
pool by producing a scrounged
Morale (Presence) item that brings cheer or solace.
Think of Morale as the outward- You must describe it and can’t
going counterpart to Composure. describe the same item more
When the terrors of war impel than once in a single scenario.
other soldiers to flee or curl up Items might include: baguettes,
into a ball, a Morale success sausages, champagne bottles,
returns them to their senses and books, cigars, shaving cream, or
keeps them fighting. shampoo. Choose a number of
As long as your character can Scrounging points to spend: the
be heard by another PC, you recipient refreshes Battlefield
can spend any number of points by the same amount. You can’t
from your Morale pool to refresh transfer points from Scrounging to
that PC’s Composure pool by your own Battlefield pool.
the same number of points. The Use Scrounging to refresh the
GM may ask you to describe or entire squad’s Battlefield and
act out the inspiring speech or Athletics pools by Hunkering
exclamation that fills the recipient Down; see p. 24.
with renewed resolve.
You can’t use Morale to refill Traps and Bombs (Focus)
your own Composure pool. Use this ability to set or disarm
In addition, you can make mines, explosive charges, and
Morale tests to: booby traps. The latter may be
•• allow other PCs to discard explosive or purely mechanical.
certain Shock cards
(when the text of the card
23
T h e Y E L L O W K I N G R P G : The Wars – Rules Adjustments
RULES ADJUSTMENTS
The Wars introduces a few other Hunkering Down

twists on the rules as seen in Once per scenario, the group can
Paris. stop to temporarily Hunker Down,
partially or fully refreshing their
Battlefield and/or Athletics pools.
Fighting When the players ask for an
The battle-hardened soldiers opportunity to Hunker Down, allow
of The Wars find it easier to kill it if the interlude fits the pacing
opponents than their art student and situation. As guidelines, you
counterparts from Paris. might require that the squad be:
On the other hand, their foes, •• traveling on foot
toughened by the rigors of battle, ••through dangerous territory
are harder to flee from. •• at least three hours of
Relative Difficulty Difficulty Difficulty

Toll
Challenge (Escape) (Other) (Kill)
Weak 2 3 3 0
Tough but
2 4 3 0
Outmatched
Evenly Matched 3 5 4 1
Superior 4 5 4 1
Vastly Superior 3 6 7 2
Overwhelming 5 7 7 2
Too Awful to
5 8 8 3
Contemplate
24
world time away from your can be used to refresh Battlefield

point of departure or Athletics.
•• one hour of world time away The GM then invites a player
from your destination who could use, and would
As GM, you can offer an like, some spotlight time, to
opportunity to Hunker Down commence a quick session
whenever the group needs it and of classic war time dialogue
it feels right given the current between the squad members.
situation. When you offer, remind The group might:
the players that they get to •• try to make sense of
Hunker Down once per scenario. this blasted war
Designate one character to make •• reminisce about the sunlit days
a Difficulty 3 Scrounging test. The before the first guns rumbled
character must have a rating of 1 •• guess what their loved ones
or greater in Scrounging. are doing on the home front
Difficulties increase in •• imagine what they’ll do
especially inhospitable, bombed- next time they get leave
out, or alien territory: +1 for a •• make plans for their civilian
denuded no man’s land, +2 for a futures after the war
twisted briar in Carcosa. When this interlude loses
On a success, the scrounger momentum, the GM calls for a
finds a spot of relative safety player who could use the spotlight
where the squad can rest and time to explain why the group has
regroup, momentarily relaxing to get a move on and leave this
their constant vigilance. This safe location. “We have a mission
might be: to accomplish/mystery to solve”
•• an abandoned farmhouse is a perfectly solid reason. When
•• a cave the narrated explanation suggests
•• a gully danger, describe the group getting
•• a burbling creek bed at the away from it. Giving the group a
bottom of a secluded ravine chance to refresh points and then
The GM invites the player to putting them in a situation that
describe the spot, suggesting immediately yanks them back will
adjustments should the narration strike your players as an unfair
contradict details essential to the waste of time.
current mystery.
Each player, including the
scrounger’s, refreshes a number
of points equal to the margin
on the test. A margin of 0 is
upgraded to a 1, so everyone
gets at least one point. Points
25
T h e Y E L L O W K I N G R P G : The Wars – Shattered Europe
SHATTERED EUROPE
This chapter presents unbreakable ritual oath. If the

background information on the King’s side loses, he abdicates
War of Reclamation, Continental in favor of his daughter.
War, Yellow War, or whatever its •• The King and perhaps others
combatants choose to call it. don’t want the war to stop or
either side to win. Instead they
prolong a static conflict which
Why Carcosa Fights generates enormous horror and
Either before you start or when misery. They use this negative
you finally have to decide one way psychic energy to power their
or the other during play, choose magic. The Carcosans might
one of the following driving need this energy for some or
explanations behind the war: all of the following reasons:
•• The King in Yellow battles •• to grant them their personal
against a rival member of his might and ability to warp reality
court for control of Europe, •• to maintain their immortality
as a stepping stone toward •• to parcel out to their vassals,
broader command of Earth. as a magical currency
•• The King and one or both of •• to keep the gates between
his daughters have staged this world and theirs open
the war as a game for their •• to sustain the depleted
cruel amusement. When one environment of Carcosa,
side obliterates the other, the which without it would wither
winner will claim from the loser and die
an amphora of indigo wine. In addition to the motivation
•• The King and his daughters behind the war, choose whether
fight the war as proxy for control the King battles Cassilda,
of Carcosa. They don’t want Camilla, or both. If in the Paris
to wreak havoc across their section the players found
own planet but see Europe themselves drawn more toward
as eminently expendable. If one of these figures than the
a contending daughter’s side other, that character puppets the
signs articles of surrender, she Loyalists from behind the scenes.
will relinquish her claim on her •• If that’s one of the sisters, the
father’s throne, sealed by an King controls the enemy. The
26
remaining sister could be on Main choices include England,

either side, or on the sidelines. Germany, Turkey, and Russia.
•• If it’s the King, the two sisters Loyalist countries of lesser
jointly control the enemy. import might also include Italy,
Alternatively, the war in Europe the Nordic bloc, Spain, Portugal,
might be fought by secondary Poland, and the various Balkan
figures battling for key positions states. An amalgamation or two
as the King’s vassals. The King will make this feel more like an
does not care to rule Earth, but alternate timeline: Spain and
will have it ruled for him. The Portugal might be one country
Loyalists fight on behalf of a called Iberia. Poland plus the
recurring adversary—either new Balkans could be called Boznovia,
to this sequence or returning Chambers’ go-to name for a
after being introduced in Paris. fictional European nation.
This could be a Carcosan noble To use Paris as the basis for
you create, the vampire countess your Loyalists, review what the
Addhema, a powerful human players did during that sequence.
bearer of the Yellow Sign, or Whenever Paris characters had a
some other figure the players positive or mixed interaction with
will respond to as a potent representatives of a nation other
frenemy. Then invent or choose than France, their countries now
a counterpart figure to serve as count among the Loyalists.
force behind the throne for the In my game, the group
enemy forces. worked with German diplomats
Choosing a big bad other than engaged in the effort to
the big three members of the suppress the play and its
Carcosan court opens up the effects. In one particular
possibility of the player characters scenario, they dealt with an
defeating that lesser threat here, Italian agent intent on using the
while keeping the King, Cassilda, Yellow King’s power to aid his
and Camilla as primary villains in country’s invasion of Ethiopia.
Aftermath and This Is Normal Now. When it came time to start The
Wars, my Loyalists were thus
France, Germany, Italy, and
The Loyalists Ethiopia. For added balance
Two alliances battle for control I decided that some former
of Europe. The French, and thus Austro-Hungarian powers were
the player characters, fight for the now part of a greater Germany.
Loyalist side. To make the war easier for
Choose fellow Loyalist nations players to envision, keep the
based either on events from Paris, alliances as geographically
or your plans for this series. contiguous as you can manage.
27
Be sure to leave about half of other side decided to take this as

the continent to comprise the an overt theme. Pejorative terms:
enemy alliance. “Exos” or “Cones,” the later a
Having sliced Europe in half, reference to the conical wizard
ask yourself what outward hats that none of them actually
ideologies might divide the two wear.
sides. Really they’re fighting
because competing supernatural
beings have manipulated them Warped Timeline
into it, but, as the action begins, Having chosen your opposing
not even the player characters sides, you can then work
know that. backward, incorporating a detail
What you’re looking for is the or two from “The Repairer of
justification for war ordinary people Reputations,” to create the
understand and regard as credible. alternate history that leads from
the 1895 we all know to this very
strange 1947.
The Enemy Incorporate the following details
The answer to this question from (or extrapolated from our
tells you how to characterize the alternate version of) “Repairer”:
enemy and what name to give it. •• In the late teens Germany
Are the Loyalists republican fought a war with the United
democracies? Then the enemy States America, which included
consists of authoritarian an attempted invasion of
monarchies. They are called the the eastern seaboard.
Royalists or Monarchists. Your •• The USA turned this invasion
squad refers to them by the back, aided by the valor of
derisive term “Crowns.” its mounted Hussars.
Or is it the Loyalists who •• It withdrew into its own borders,
backslid into old-fashioned becoming the United Empire
autocracy? They fight the of America, under its first
republican nations, insulting Emperor, Hildred Castaigne.
known as “Reps” or “Blics” •• America has remained
(pronounced bleeks). isolationist since then. Emperor
Want to get even weirder? The Castaigne I, now in late middle
enemy call themselves Exoterics, age, has declined to intervene
after their embrace of occult in the Continental War.
wisdom. They claim that their •• In the wake of the Germanic-
conquest of Europe will bring American War (and possibly
about a metaphysical as well as a also widespread reading of The
political sea change. In fact, both King in Yellow) Germany, Italy,
sides are driven by alien magic, Spain, and Belgium succumbed
but only the big bad behind the to anarchy. Russia swept
28
in to fill the vacuum, taking a richer harvest of suffering and

over these nations either: misery to power their magic.
•• Directly, through military Also, the existence of alternate-
occupation. reality war tech may change the
•• Indirectly, aiding putatively logic of battle. Walkers can scale
independent puppet steep slopes, making a mountain
governments who restored range that would otherwise
order and now answer to the impose an insurmountable barrier
Tsar’s ambassadors. into a feasible battlefront.
Squad members will likely care This conceit lets you to place the
more about immediate survival front lines in your Continental War
than the intricacies of politics in any arrangement that serves the
since the turn of the century. You scenarios you want to build.
may be able to keep the past On a broad scale, you’ll be:
a matter of vague hand-waving. 1. looking at the contiguous nations
That said, you might have players that make up the two warring
who need to know the deep alliances, drawing a preliminary
background details, or just enjoy line around their borders from
messing around with timelines. our world circa 1895
In that case, have fun connecting 2. pushing those lines to hem in
these dots into a credible closer to France, to show that
historical narrative—where the Loyalists are presently on
“credible” means, “suffered the defensive and have ceded
ongoing interference of wildly territory to the enemy
powerful alien sorcerers.” 3. finding the particular spot
where you want to set your first
scenario and pushing that line
Battlefronts to place the front nearby
The Carcosan royals behind the Alternately you can stop at step
war don’t necessarily follow the 2, and then pick a location for
tactical doctrines mortal generals your introductory scenario near
would adopt. the front.
Those on each side could
be fighting to win, using a
parageometrical logic beyond Behind the Lines
our ken. It’s hard to investigate
Or, depending on your choice mysteries in the middle of
from “Why Carcosa Fights” (p. No Man’s Land. Instead the
26), they might deliberately be assumption is that the scenarios
dragging out the conflict, because take place near the front lines,
it increases their sadistic in Loyalist-controlled territory.
pleasure in the game, or yields Of course that can shift as the
29
progress of the war ebbs and throughout the conflict, French

flows. One week’s case may take uniforms retain a color and
place in a recently captured or ceremonial sash that disappeared
recaptured area, while the next amid the grim practicalities of
happens after the Loyalists have warfare in our 20th century. This
been pushed back further into reflects the taste for ornament
French or allied territory. typical of the Carcosan court.
This doesn’t preclude the
occasional scene in which the Officer Class Culture
soldiers take part in an offensive The French army steeps itself
or find themselves under fire during in a culture of pride and honor.
an enemy push into their area. It has changed little since the
Combat can also embroil them reemergence of the generals
on a skirmish scale, as they into public life in the 1890s, a
encounter enemy units that have generation after the humiliation of
penetrated into their territory in the Franco-Prussian War. On the
pinprick advance raids. These whole the officer class values the
might be paratroopers, infiltrating following objectives, in order of
snipers, or stray walkers. priority:
Needless to say, the PCs remain ••Maintain the honor of
vulnerable to air power wherever the French military.
they go. •• Protect the political power
These encounters can remind of the French military.
the players that their characters •• Win the war.
are fighting a war, even if they •• Protect the supplies and
belong to a specialist unit with equipment of the forces
unusual freedom of movement they command.
across the theater. Treat these •• Protect the lives and property
as Antagonist Reactions triggered of influential French civilians.
not by particular events within the •• Protect the lives of bourgeois
scenario, but by the vagaries of French civilians.
warfare. •• Protect the lives of
their soldiers.
Any one officer might care more
The Fighting French about one item in the hierarchy
However warped the timeline, than another.
the institutional traditions of the The higher up the chain of
French army have remained in command you go, the more
place. This French army much fer vently the officers prize the
resembles the one that fought top items on the list over the
our WWI. The main differences lower ones.
are visual. As is broadly the case
30
31
Conversely, the further down skipping gradations within ranks.

you go, the more you find Those who find these distinctions
officers who care about winning evocative may wish to restore
battles and proclaim a grumbling the I left capitaine as-is because
disregard for rear echelon types it’s immediately understood and
with their heads up their asses. more fun to say. French terms are
Individual officers have their otherwise given in brackets.
personal goals, chief among Here are the ranks in the French
them being promotion. To win infantry, from lowest to highest.
promotion, they must be seen Enlisted ranks:
to further the above objectives, •• Private (Soldat de
by higher-ups who share them. deuxième classe, Soldat
Against those of like rank they de première classe)
frantically jockey not only for •• Corporal (Caporal, Caporal-chef)
prestige and recognition, but Non-commissioned officers:
more importantly for equipment, •• Sergeant (Sergent,
munitions, and soldiers. Sergent-chef)
Some high officers speak of •• Adjutant (Adjutant, Adjutant-
these priorities with erudite chef; performs the duties
self-awareness and irony. Others of a Lieutenant without the
bluster and take offense at any opportunities for advancement)
suggestion that they have their •• Chief Quartermaster
priorities mixed up. (Maréchal des logis-major)
To further lock into French Junior officers:
officer culture, watch Stanley •• Second Lieutenant
Kubrick’s 1957 film Paths of (Sous-lieutenant)
Glor y. Depict its higher-ups just •• Lieutenant
like every officer from that film •• Capitaine (commands
not played by Kirk Douglas—albeit a company)
with the additional possibility Senior Officers:
that they have been suborned by •• Commandant
Carcosa. •• Lieutenant-Colonel
•• Colonel (commands a regiment)
Rank Structure •• Generals
The Wars translates certain •• Brigadier General (Général de
French ranks into their English brigade; commands a brigade)
equivalents, so that Anglo players •• Division General (Général de
don’t have to do constantly do division; commands a division)
this in their heads. For most •• Corps General (Général de
of us “Private” is easier to corps d’armée; commands
remember and say than soldat a corps)
de deuxième classe. We also •• Army General (Général d’armée;
simplify the structure a little, runs the whole shebang)
32
BATTLE WEARS NO MASK
This section covers the mental

and physical hazards of war, and
the outlandish war machinery that
separates this 1947 from the one
on the History Channel.
Shell Shocks
Whether supernatural or
mundane, the horrors of war
may dole out Shock cards to
characters failing their Composure
tests.
Situation Difficulty Minor Major
You See a Weapon

Weird Weapon
Do Something Eerie 3 Disbelief
Trauma
or Impossible
You Think Too Hard
Throbbing
About the Causes of 3 Dulled Thinking
Migraine
the War
A Leader Falls 4 Bereft Rudderless
You are Targeted

for the First Time by
4 What th—? World Gone Mad
a Particular Weird
Weapon
You Meet a Creature Profaned
4 Haunted
Posing as a Dead PC Memories
33
T h e Y E L L O W K I N G R P G : The Wars – Battle Wears No Mask
You Promise to
Resounding
Protect a Civilian, 4 Hollow Promise
Failure
and Fail
You See a Comrade
or Innocent Civilian
4 Tenuous Reality Life’s Value Ebbs
Killed with a Weird
Weapon*
You See a Particular
Horrible Battlefield 4 Revulsion Nightmare Fuel
Sight for the First Time
You Show Fright,
Inviting the Mockery 4 Lily-Livered Yellow-Bellied
of Fellow Soldiers
You Use a Particular
Flirtation with Embracing
Weird Weapon for the 4
Carcosa Carcosa
First Time
Your Ship Is Taking
4 Sinking Feeling Panic
on Water
The Ghosts of the The Vengeful
4 Ghost Touch
Fallen Come for You Dead
You Consume Human Tastes Like
5 A Crossed Line
Flesh Chicken
You Let a Comrade
5 Callous Pit of Remorse
Needlessly Die
Your Submarine Has
5 Panic Rat in a Can
Sprung a Leak
Your Submarine is
Under Attack by a 5 Rat in a Can Tentacled Doom
Giant Squid
You Take Part in a
No Blood More
Mass Execution or 5** Atrocity
Cold
War Crime
* -1 Difficulty for each previous time you’ve seen someone killed with this particular weapon
**+3 if victims are innocent civilians
34
War Hazards
Battlefield tests cover hazards to
life and limb the PCs can actively
try to evade. Injuries they can’t
weave, duck, and dive their way
out of are resisted with Health.
Danger Difficulty Ability Minor Major
An Aircraft Crash Flaming

3 Battlefield Flying Leap
Lands on You Debris
Inside a Structure
Beside Pinned by
When Bombers 3 Battlefield
Yourself Debris
Take It Out
Your Lucky
Strafed 3 Battlefield Charm Caught Perforated
a Bullet
Three Inches
Aerial
4 Battlefield Caked in Ash to The Left and
Bombardment
You’d Be Dust
Muscle Rapid
Cholera 4 Health
Cramps Dehydration
Exposure to Earthly
4 Health Unwell Dysentery
Parasites
Respiratory
Hunger 4 Health Hunger
Failure
Hypothermia 4 Health Confusion Gangrene
Influenza 4 Health Sore Throat Influenza
Shredded “Am I Still in

Land Mine 4 Battlefield
Flesh One Piece?”
Bruised While
Machine Gun Fire 4 Battlefield Sprayed
Taking Cover
Marched Past
4 Health Winded Exhausted
Endurance
Hurled and
Mortar Fire 4 Battlefield Ringing Ears
Scorched
Poison Gas 4 Battlefield Light-Headed Lung Damage
35
Sharks Feed on Those Telltale

4 Battlefield Shark Bite
Drifting Sailors Fins
Dead on Your
Sleep Deprivation 4 Battlefield Bleary
Feet
Bruised While Through and
Small Arms Fire 4 Battlefield
Taking Cover Through
Small Arms Fire Discourager Discourager
4 Battlefield
(Discourager Round) Graze Hit
Small Arms Fire
4 Battlefield Quisling Graze Quisling Hit
(Quisling Round)
Small Arms Fire Suppurator Suppurator
4 Battlefield
(Suppurator Round) Graze Hit
Small Arms Fire White-Sky
4 Battlefield White-Sky Hit
(White-Sky Round) Graze
Sub-Sonic Sub-Sonic
Sub-Sonic Barrage 4 Health
Thrum Disruption
Rapid
Sunstroke 4 Health Light-Headed
Heartbeat
Tetanus 4 Health Tetanic Fever Lockjaw
Agony of
Thirst 4 Health Kidney Failure
Thirst
Necrotic
Trenchfoot 4 Health Gangrene
Tissue
Tumble Down a
Hillside (Exposed 4 Battlefield Scuffed Up Torn Ligament
to Enemy)
Tumble Down a
Hillside (No Enemy 4 Athletics Scuffed Up Torn Ligament
Present)
Artillery Fire 5 Battlefield Shell-Shocked Hit Bad
Giant Squid Attack

5 Battlefield Tentacle Lash Squid Bite
the Lifeboats
In a Forest as
Struck by
Artillery Explodes 5 Battlefield Splinter
Wood Debris
the Trees
36
Circulatory
Nerve Gas 5 Battlefield Blurred Vision
Damage
Shrapnel’s
On a Torpedoed
5 Battlefield Sharp, Into the Drink
Boat
Water’s Hard
Radiation Poisoning Internal
5 Health Convulsions
(Earthly) Bleeding
Bruised While
Rifle Fire 5 Battlefield Rifle Hit
Taking Cover
Stalker Fire: Flame
5 Battlefield Burned Roasted
Thrower
Slammed
Trapped on a Ship Into the
5 Battlefield Against the
as It Sinks Depths
Hull
Exposure to
6 Health Soul Decay Black Blood
Carcosan Parasites
Radiation Poisoning
6 Health Susceptible Black Tears
(Carcosan)
Stalker Fire: Worse Than It Thoroughly
6 Battlefield
Machine Gun Looks Perforated
Drenched in
Stink Grenade 8 Health Stink Grenade
Stink
Grenade special Battlefield Light Shrapnel Grenade
Stalker Fire Struck by Cannon

special Battlefield
(Cannon) Debris Fodder
Explanatory Notes Difficulty 3 Battlefield test. If they

Discourager Round: Exotic can’t quickly agree, Difficulty for
ammunition is described on p. all is 6.
57. Hunger: Tests begins after three
Grenade: When more than weeks without food, repeating
one character is at risk of harm once each day until food is found.
from a thrown grenade, players Suppurator Round: Exotic
choose one to take a Difficulty 5 ammunition is described on p.
Battlefield test; the rest take a 57.
37
Tetanus: Difficulty 4 Health to specifics, weight matters as much

avoid infection when bacteria has as distance in determining the
chance to enter an open wound. exertion required to travel on foot
The Injury card is only dealt to the through unwelcoming territory. In
player a week after the infection relatively even, which is to say
occurs (world time) and only if exposed, terrain, the group can
the character is actively involved cover about 6 km per hour lugging
in a scenario—either the one in their gear, which comes out to
which the infection occurred, or a 35 kg per character, give or take.
subsequent mystery set shortly Rocky, snowy, hilly, or heavily
afterwards. forested terrain can cut that time
Thirst: Tests begin after a week in half.
without water. On occasion, as a part of
Quisling Round: Exotic your plot, you might introduce
ammunition is described on p. time pressure, requiring the
57. group to march at a faster than
White-Sky Round: Exotic comfortable speed. This calls for
ammunition is described on p. the Marched Past Endurance test,
57. above.
Secondary Injury Cards

Travel on Foot Certain Injury cards gained from
In a typical scenario the squad fights or hazards can be traded,
travels from a base to a remote under conditions specified in
location, discovering a mystery their text entries, for less punitive
either along the way or at their secondary cards. These are:
destination. Further long-distance Impediment
travel on foot may occur during Patched Up
the investigation. Permanent Injury
Depict this like you’d see in Dazed
a war movie, as opposed to a Recovering
tactical board game. Which is to Shot Up Good
say, handwave it. Still Crispy
In a film you rarely hear Cough, Choke, Splutter
characters discuss exact
distances, unless they’re using
the word “klicks” for kilometers The Machinery of War
to show that they speak in hard- Carcosan influence has
bitten military lingo. You see the altered the development of
actors strain under the weight of military technology. This reality’s
their packs, but again they don’t implements of war both look and
put a number on it. behave differently than the guns,
When you really, really need tanks, and aircraft you’ll find in
38
the Osprey Publishing catalog. weapons, a term used in the text

This setting choice reinforces of certain Shock cards.
the game’s horror tone and theme
of reality-bending. The Jules Verne The Boîtenoire
vibe provides a point of entry for The item of technology most
players who aren’t military buffs important to the investigators
and are worried about being is not a gun or a mechanism
constantly well-actuallyed by of destruction, but their
players who are. It also provides communications device, the
a ward against conversational boîtenoire. In a reality where
sidetracking during sessions. radio and television have yet to
Players might know more about be discovered, this typewriter-
T-10s and bomber transport units like device provides wireless,
than you do, but they can’t trump two-way, near real-time contact
your expertise on stalkers and between soldiers and their distant
dragonflies. You might still have commanders.
to steer them back to the action The field model the squad lugs
at hand if they start to wax poetic around is 36 cm wide, 16 cm
over analogous weapons or other high, and 40 cm deep. It fits in a
martial trivia, but at least you’ll slightly larger carrying case. The
have a leg up on the tangent device and case are both covered
control front. in pebbled black leather. Cases
Visually, the armaments of the which have not been torn in spots
Continental War appear more to reveal the steel beneath have
ornate than those of our early not been in the field very long.
20th century. The Art Nouveau To send a message, the
style of the Belle Époque operator types on the Dvorak
maintains its hold on European keyboard, hitting the red send
decorative trends. Its love of button on the side of the unit
elaborate lines can be seen when finished.
in everything from rifle stocks A buzzer inside the unit sounds
to dashboards to the shape of when it receives an incoming
barbed wire. The style’s use of message. The operator then
organic shapes is reflected in places a sheet of paper in the
aircraft mimicking bats or insects, roller and hits the button. The
tanks with spidery legs, and unit prints out the message using
grenades that unfold like deadly keys striking a ribbon, as per a
tulips. normal typewriter.
Some military equipment defies Surprisingly rugged and
natural law as we know it and can designed to be easily repaired,
be explained only as the inbreak a boîtenoire can be knocked out
of a supernatural reality into our but is hard to kill. A Difficulty 4
world. These are known as weird Mechanics test generally coaxes
39
40
a busted boîtenoire back to life. but on thick legs of reinforced

Be careful, as a GM, in metal, powered by arcane
parceling out the number of hydraulics. Known as stalkers, or
times when the boîtenoire is sometimes walkers, they strike
taken out. Do it too often and the deep terror into the hearts of foot
horror movie cliché of cutting off soldiers.
communications becomes too A stalker consists of a heavily
glaring. In a war zone, a multitude fortified metal bulb, containing
of other reasons exist to explain the controls for the soldiers inside
why the heroes can’t count on the to fire one or more central guns,
cavalry to do their job for them. plus one to three machine guns.
Every army uses its own Gunners find targets by peering
boîtenoire equivalent: the resilient through periscopes protected by
English black box, the heavy but mask-shaped shields.
reliable Russian chernyash, the Sophisticated gyroscopes
alluring yet fragile chrome Italian operate four or five jointed legs.
parlacassa, the elegant Danish A miracle of locomotion, the
tallekasse, and the Turkish legs allow a stalker to move up
kirmizikutu, covered in red dyed or down almost any slope, no
sheepskin. matter how debris-choked. The
The slipcase/GM screen for the legs can fell trees, punch through
YKRPG core book set evokes a walls, and crush or impale
boîtenoire. unlucky soldiers. Characters
with visions of tripping a stalker
Stalkers by running a rope around it will
In this timeline, heavily armored be disappointed, and perhaps
land vehicles bash through horribly killed, when the legs
unfavorable terrain not on treads, easily snap through the rope.
Stalkers fall into three classes:
light, heavy, and ultra-heavy.
Main Additional
Model Type Nation
Armament Weaponry
1 machine
Thiers-20 Light France .37 cannon
gun
2 machine
Thiers-25 Heavy France .37 cannon
guns
3 machine
Thiers-35 Ultra-Heavy France .47 cannon
guns
Boudicca “Little 1 machine
Light England .37 cannon
Boo” gun
Elizabeth “The 1 machine
Heavy England .47 cannon
Lizzie” gun
41
Main Additional
Model Type Nation
Armament Weaponry
Victoria “The 1 machine
Ultra-Heavy England .75 cannon
Vickie” gun
Panzer II Light Germany .37 cannon flamethrower
2 machine
Panzer III Heavy Germany .47 cannon
guns
2 machine
Panzer IV Ultra-Heavy Germany .75 cannon
guns
1 machine
A-20 “Tsarina” Light Russia .37 cannon gun, aft
flamethrower
2 machine
A-32 “Tsar” Heavy Russia .47 cannon guns or 2
flamethrowers
2 machine
152 mm
A-46 “Tunguska” Ultra-Heavy Russia guns, aft
howitzer
flamethrower
2 machine
M-II “Istanbul” Light Turkey .37 cannon
guns
2 machine
M-III “Ankara” Heavy Turkey .47 cannon
guns
2 machine
M-IV “Izmir” Ultra-Heavy Turkey .47 cannon guns, aft
flamethrower
A step down from the stalker opponents before being brought

is the tripod, a less formidable, down by anti-stalker weaponry. All
more penetrable but cheaper Continental forces field tripods.
offensive vehicle. A bubble of No one bothers to coin the
steel and stained glass grants colorful nicknames for the various
rudimentary protection to a pair models of tripods.
of gunners operating containing
twin machine guns. As the name Aircraft
suggests, the bubble sits atop The aerial vehicle infantry
a trio of slender metallic legs. soldiers are most likely to
Tripod operators receive scant step into is the dragonfly. This
training and do not live long helicopter equivalent consists of
but can mow down dozens of a glassed-in cockpit divided into
42
43
two bubbles recalling the eyes Other aircraft of the Continental

of its eponymous insect. This War likewise exploits the
makes it not an ornithopter but alterations to the laws of
an entomothopter. A segmented aerodynamics caused by the
fuselage transports up to eight ambient presence of subatomic
soldiers, houses a bomb bay, or Carcosan wave-particles.
functions as a roving field hospital. Fixed-wing fighter planes are
The dragonfly’s four wings flap up known as vampires, as the
and down, granting it flight in either scollops on their wings remind
vertical or horizontal mode. Each one of bats. These single-seat
wing consists of a wrought iron craft accompany bombers on
frame into which dozens of stained raids or defend against incoming
glass panels are fitted. These aerial attacks. The pilot aims their
panels are made from levitation machine guns at enemy aircraft or
glass, a Carcosan technology. can strafe ground forces.
Most infantry soldiers think Most feared models include
of them as medical evacuation the Addhema (France), Varney
vehicles. Combat dragonflies (England), Nosferatu (Germany),
strafe the battlefield with mounted Vourdalak (Russia), and Laiotă
machine guns. Special grabbers (Turkey). Students of Ottoman
attached to the bottom of the history may note that the Turkish
fuselage retool the dragonfly to name departs from convention and
carry cargo. The dragonfly’s great is not that of a legendary vampire,
maneuverability comes at the but instead the leader whose
cost of fragility: dragonflies are forces slew Vlad the Impaler.
vulnerable to small arms fire and
crash all too frequently.
Model # Model # Model # Model # Model #

Type Feature
(France) (UK) (Ger) (Rus) (Tur)
Medical
Evacuation LB-M D1 WJE MOTH-3 YUSUc
equipment
Machine
Attack LB-F D2 WJA MOTH-1 YUSUa
gun
Cargo Grabber LB-C D3 WJF MOTH-2 YUSUb
44
RULES ADJUSTMENTS R O B I N D . L AW S
Specially equipped vampires for defense. When a spider

may include such technological crashes, all of its remaining
fillips as: bombs explode at once. This
•• the baller, which releases non- forces fighter pilots trying to bring
explosive flak from the plane’s them down to carefully calibrate
tail, shattering pursuing craft their attacks so that their targets
•• loft, a highly toxic gaseous plummet earthwards only over
substance that increases unpopulated areas. State-of-the-
the weight of surrounding air, art models include the Violon
allowing safer crash landings (France), Fiddleback (England),
•• ghost gas, which fills the Dornfinger (Germany), Karakurt
sky with illusionary figures (Russia), and Akrep (Turkey).
of the tormented damned Medium and heavy bombers
At the war’s outset all sides flew more closely resemble their
biplane fighters. Though mostly WWII counterparts, except of
superseded by more efficient course that the fuselage design
single-wing craft, the squad may evokes a praying mantis. For this
occasionally spot a few buzzing reason, they are also known as
overhead. Like other less-than- deathpriests. Six- or seven-person
cutting edge craft, biplanes may crews include a pilot, co-pilot,
be fobbed off on volunteer foreign gunner, bombardier, navigator,
auxiliary air forces, such as the flight engineer, and sometimes a
American Flying Bobcats, Canadian float ready to take over any role in
Auroras, or Australian Black the event of a casualty. Weird-tech
Buzzards. If the Brits fight with the defensive measures vary between
Loyalists, the latter two belong models but might include:
to the allied side. Black sheep of •• Reactive camouflage,
prominent Castaignite families changing the plane’s paint
make up the Flying Bobcats and job to vanish against a
could as easily fly for the enemy as blue, gray, or night sky.
with the Loyalists. •• Air torpedoes, used against
Light bombers fly with a pilot, enemy aircraft or ships.
co-pilot, and an engineer to •• Subsonic barrage, emitting
unjam, as needed, the spiraling a sound inaudible to the
mechanism that automatically human ear that stresses the
loads explosives in its bulbous metabolism of enemy fighter
aft-carriage. The round housing pilots and troops on the ground.
for the bomb mechanism makes Crews of bombers equipped
these craft resemble spiders, with the barrage device, and
after which they are named. their fighter escorts, must
The design omits room for a train to resist the effect
gunner, making the spider entirely through exposure. The training
dependent on fighter support process has a high failure
45
rate, rendering otherwise glass, move slowly through the

qualified fliers useless. As a air but would be able to carry a
result, only a few deathpriests tremendous bomb payload. Those
have been outfitted with these who know of these top-secret
devices, and are deployed projects wonder what kind of bomb
only on missions justifying would require such gigantic craft.
the high toll on personnel.
Spy planes, also known as Naval Nightmares
eyes, resemble fighter planes with A weird nautical mystery
the visual flourishes removed. may call for the squad’s
Most seat two, a pilot and an superiors to arrange for their
observer. The latter either spots temporary deployment on board a
troop movements and enemy naval vessel.
installations with the naked Both forces muster various
eye or operates an automated sizes of battleships along with
camera device. Most boast less glamorous vessels to
reactive camouflage. Some transport troops and supplies.
eschew cameras for a device Each side’s submarines wreak
called an oculum, which detects havoc on the other’s fleet,
concentrations of Carcosan sinking ships faster than the
energy. Oculum readings go only yards can build them. Despite the
to the very highest officials in imbalance in favor of offense and
the war effort—perhaps only to the resulting high ship destruction
behind-the-scenes nonhumans. rate, each side madly continues
Their use may point to events to build and sail new tonnage.
revealing the alien hand behind Fear of troopship destruction has
the war. slowed the enemy’s plans for
The squad may from time to mass-scale land invasion.
time hitch a ride on a transport
plane. Too boring to warrant a Ships
cool nickname or extravagant Ship classes the heroes might
visual design, they typically interact are listed here, from
demand a crew of two, have a (mostly) smallest to largest.
30-40 m wingspan, and can carry That said, here are the ships:
either 24 soldiers or 2 tons of Torpedo boats, 21 to 26 m
cargo. Some transport planes add long and crewed by twelve to
a gunner array, bringing the crew fourteen sailors, zip out to fire
size up to four. at larger vessels and then peel
Test facilities in France, away. Players may think of them
Germany, and England are all as PT boats, though that name is
working on glass dirigibles. These not in use in the Continental War.
enormous aircraft, held aloft by Torpedo boats rely on stealth,
enormous frames of levitation striking primarily at night.
46
A patrol boat might be anything of punching power against other

from a fishing trawler jury-rigged surface ships. They range from
with machine guns t0 a 30-40 m 85 to 95 m and are run by a crew
purpose-built craft whose crew of of 40-60.
20-30 hugs the shoreline, warding Destroyers sail fast, maneuver
off covert infiltration and watching well, and bristle with big guns.
for incoming enemy fleets. They provide armed protection
Minelayers do what the name to convoys of smaller, less
says, filling harbors and marine defensible vessels. Crew size
shipping routes with floating ranges from 50 to 70; typical
explosive devices. They can vary length, from 90 to 110 m.
widely in size, from repurposed Cruisers, sometimes called
frigates to smaller boats. pocket battleships, pack
(Submarines can lay mines, too.) considerable firepower into their
Typical minelayers come equipped 140 to 160 m frames. When a
with anti-ship cannons in case cruiser goes down, 75 to 110
they have to defend themselves. sailors must either escape to the
Let’s keep it simple and say that lifeboats or go down with it.
the first minelayer the squad has The titan of ship classes, the
cause to investigate is 75 m long battleship packs the most and
and is crewed by 40 or 50 sailors. biggest guns. Crew size ranges
What minelayers lay, from 90 to 125; overall length,
minesweepers sweep. Filled from 160 to 180 m.
with naval engineers capable of Aircraft carriers, in this timeline
disabling mines of all types, a called platforms, have yet to
minesweeper lacks defensive make it past the blueprint stage.
capability and may rely on Instead top naval engineers on
camouflage to disguise itself from both sides work on dreadnoughts,
surface and air. Between 45 and amphibious battleships designed
55 m long; crewed by 30-40. to walk on land on gigantic legs.
The smallest vessel classifiable Both alliances race to be the first
as a warship, the scrappy to get this hybrid of battleship and
corvette provides convoy stalker out of drydock to end the
protection. What it lacks in war with city-smashing power.
firepower it makes up for in ability The appearance of
to close to the enemy quickly. dreadnoughts stomping from the
Crew size ranges from 45 to 70; sea onto shore might occur in the
overall length, from 55 to 65 m. climactic sessions of your Wars
Frigates often lend support to sequence, signaling the upshift to
destroyers, protecting them from the conflict’s shattering final days.
submarines with depth charges In addition to the enormous
and weirder weapons. This artillery pieces and machine gun
specialization comes at the cost emplacements you might expect
47
48
49
50
51
52
from our reality, ships may be •• A device called Lord of Poitou

equipped with any of the following detects enemy radar pings
weird weapons: and follows them back to their
•• Spoofers fool enemy sonar source, wracking the sending
and radar arrays into detecting vessel with bio-electronic
nonexistent ships. interference. These alien
•• Hali clusters, a type of anti- frequencies damage electrical
submarine depth charge, attach circuitry and cause nosebleeds
themselves magnetically to the and vomiting in humans. The
hulls of underwater vessels, weapon’s name derives from
causing the crew to vividly the master of the Wild Hunt in
hallucinate their past misdeeds. French folklore. Variants used by
Difficulty 4 Composure tests other nations include the Herne
to avoid Shocks, Major (England), Wotan (Germany),
and Minor: Overwhelmed/ and Baba Yaga (Russia). The
Pervasive Distrust. generic term for this weapon is
•• A variation of the above, the wildhunter. Avoiding harm
the cackler, inflicts auditory from such an attack requires
hallucinations of hideous a Difficulty 4 Battlefield test to
laughter. Difficulty 4 avoid Injuries, Minor and Major:
Composure: Minor Shock: Woozy/Ructious Innards.
Unearthly Sounds; Major:
Melted Perceptions. Submersibles
•• To deal with enemy sailors left Naval engineers find little
in the water after a shipwreck, room for improvement on the
artillery crews aboard a vessel revolutionary submarine designs
might fire a special cannon of Sekhar Rao, aka Prince Dakkar,
shell called a Neptune. The nearly a hundred years ago. The
Neptune-A attracts giant squid; largest submarine class in the
the Neptune-S, sharks. Loyalist fleet requires a crew of 50
•• Minelayers may be equipped and is called the Nemo, after the
with seekers, marine mines inventor’s catchiest nom de guerre.
that sniff out the psychic Armed with a dozen torpedoes
trails left by human fear, and capable of firing from a
distress, and claustrophobia, kilometer away, the heavily
using them to locate manned armored Nemo survives a depth
vessels. Seekers sometimes charge hit one time out of two.
spontaneously reconstitute Like all submersibles with crews
themselves from debris after larger than eight, it can surround
exploding. Self-refurbished itself with a powerful electrical
seekers emit the screams field. Designed to fend off the
and wails of the sailors their giant squid that have come to
previous attacks drowned. infest the Mediterranean since the
53
two warring sides began sinking Today’s submarine engines run

each other’s vessels, the fields on blackstar diesel, a fuel infused
also prove useful during boarding with an energetic bonding solution
attempts when the sub has made possible by Carcosan
surfaced. Difficulty 4 Health test science. Each nation uses its own
to avoid Injuries, Minor and Major: unique formulation. Should the
Burned/Hurled and Scorched. investigators perform a chemical
Smaller subs require fewer analysis, they find that it contains
crewmen, are likelier to sink trace elements of human, horse,
when hit, and field shor ter- and leech blood, plus several
range torpedoes. substances undocumented in
Class Nation Crew size Torpedo range
Nemo France 50 1 km
Nautilus France 38 .75 km
Aronnax France 22 .5 km
Drake England 60 1.1 km
Morgan England 44 .75 km
Hawkins England 28 .5 km
Ivan Russia 66 .8 km
Rasputin Russia 55 .7 km
Saltychikha Russia 44 .5 km
Leviathan Germany 38 1.2 km
Meerwunder Germany 30 .8 km
Aal Germany 22 .7 km
54
journals of chemistry. Submarines

say that the blackstar in an The Nemo Effect
engine lets out a keening wail Captain Nemo’s existence
hours in advance of deadly danger in this timeline’s backstor y
to a vessel’s crew. Rumors of points to a retroactive
an improvement to an enemy’s alteration of histor y. If
blackstar formulation may see your Paris characters ever
the squad sent on a spying run have reason to research
without ever having to set foot in submarines, they find that
a submersible. engineers haven’t quite
The Continental War spurred worked out how to build a
the recent invention of the vessel as sophisticated as
minisub, an under water vehicle the Nautilus.
manned by a crew of three to In The Wars, however, a
seven sailors. Known colloquially look at the histor y books
as “Lethal Chambers,” after turns up Nemo’s exploits
the American booths in which and the mid-1900s invention
citizens commit suicide, they all of the modern submarine.
too often take their crews on a That means that in the
permanent voyage to the bottom ensuing reality of Aftermath,
of the sea. Nemo was also a real person.
The hammerhead, a class of But in This Is Normal Now,
minisub, essentially ser ves as a the history of submarines
manned, maneuverable torpedo. unfolded as it did in our world.
Their skippers pilot their heavily Should the investigators
reinforced nose-cones into learn of the parallel realities
the hulls of enemy ships and created by The King in
submarines. Half the time those Yellow, they may also look
on board sur vive to ram another into this discrepancy and
day. Hammerhead crews undergo wonder what to make of it.
special psychological training The Nemo Effect suggests
to prepare themselves for their that, although the Carcosan
near-cer tain casualty rate. invasion star ted in 1895 or
Loyalist commanders deny rumors shor tly prior to that, it was
that they select prisoners, asylum able to generate alternate
patients, and the terminally ill for realities in which events
this duty. Investigators meeting prior to that year diverge
a hammerhead crew probably from those known to the root
note a glassy expression and a timeline.
slow, measured speech pattern If our world is the original,
suggesting some sort of hypnosis. that is…
If required themselves to crew
55
a minisub, they may prefer less Machine guns reach the tech
fraught missions aboard such level of our WWII.
vessels as the: All handheld weapons bear
•• Claw, notable for the grabber heavy ornamentation. Inlaid
arm used in salvage missions. car ving on wooden gun butts
•• Poseidon, with special feature patriotic scenes or
antennae that can quell or por traits of historical generals.
cause oceanic storms. Napoleon appears most
•• Amphritite, with a retractable frequently on French weaponr y,
net for rescuing sunken with Charlemagne making the
sailors. Oxygen pumps occasional cameo. The image
through its hollow fibers; of Henr y V takes the same role
the saved can latch onto on English small arms. (Unless
its breathing attachments Britain and France are allies, in
and fill their lungs. which case they go for a shared
•• Vor tex, designed to sur vive hero, King Ar thur.) German
the shocks and shakes of munitions por traiture heavily
a journey through a reality features General Helmuth von
vent to the Carcosan Lake Moltke the Elder, chief of the
of Hali. (Well actually this general staff during the Franco-
mission is more dangerous Prussian conflict—unless France
than the hammerhead’s.) and Germany are allies, in which
case good old mythical Siegfried
Small Arms takes his place. Russian
Individual weaponr y of the armaments depict 18th centur y
Continental War lags behind general Mikhail Kutuzov.
our 1947 overall, with a few Sculpted images of Marianne,
weird tweaks. the national symbol of reason
Infantr y units carr y bolt-action and liber ty, perch atop French
rifles, like the Lee-Enfield of our rifle scopes. Boudicca per forms
world. Their telescopic sights the same duty on English rifles.
beat the resolution and accuracy Russian scopes sit framed
of our 1947 equivalents, while in miniature minarets. The
also ser ving as primitive long- equivalent ornament on German
range sur veillance microphones. guns looks like a blend of the
Automatic pistols exist but Iron Cross from our timeline and
out of a sense of traditionalism the Yellow Sign.
are disfavored as sidearms by These decorations make
the regular army, who instead equivalent weapons of the
tote the trusty revolver. Elite combatant nations dead easy
forces and militar y police can be to spot from a distance. A PC
identified by their propensity for wearing a Russian uniform
magazine-fed handguns. as par t of an imposture had
56
better equip himself with the Grenades

appropriately ornamented Most grenades thrown in the
corresponding firearms. Continental War mirror their WWII
Players foolishly raised in the counterpar ts. Decide whether
expectations of this reality may to por tray them as the por table
assume that soldiers nip off all super-explosives seen in action
of the gewgaws, flanges, and movies, or the less spectacular
gears from these ornate weapons. but still plenty deadly weapons
In fact, removing them makes of real-life physics.
the weapons somehow less The group may occasionally
effective—as if reality has been face, or gain access to, weirder
warped to please the aesthetic grenades:
sense of game-playing aliens. •• Stinkers clear people and
Most soldiers carr y only other earthly creatures from an
conventional ammunition. area with a horrifying smell of
Special forces or favored officers putrescence and excrescence.
may have rare supernatural Depending on the grenade,
rounds in their ammo belts. the area, as referenced on the
These include: accompanying Injury cards,
•• Discouragers, bullets that might have a radius of 100,
implant a psychic revulsion 200, or 350 m from the point of
against crossing enemy lines. impact. Carcosans, Warspawn,
•• Quislings, which implant a and individuals with no sense
compulsion to betray superiors. of smell pay them no heed.
Named after their inventor, •• Ragers release a gas containing
the Norwegian armaments a hormone ramping up the
alchemist Vidkun Quisling. fight or flight reflex of human
•• Suppurators, which inject subjects. When fighting a
the wound with parasites ragered opponent, decrease
that leak a distressing Fighting Difficulty by 2 and the
black ichor and interfere foe’s Tolls by 2. PCs struck by
with the immune system. a rager gain 2 Fighting when the
•• White-sky rounds, which Goal is Kill, but lose 2 for any
induce an inhibition against other Goal. On a victory, they
attacking Carcosans. pay Composure equal to their
Injury cards for these ammo respective Fighting margins.
types appear in “War Hazards.” ••Concussors emit a non-fatal,
Use them as such or substitute incapacitating electrical field.
them for the Injury cards normally Used by PCs, who must pay 1
dealt by a gun-toting foe. Athletics per fight, they grant
a -1 to Fighting Difficulties
for Goals other than Kill.
Warspawn are immune to
57
concussors. When used against spontaneous to players than a

PCs, substitute “When You chunk of text you’re obviously
Regain Consciousness…” reading straight from a book.
for the Injury card the foe You may decide that some
would normally deal. of these sights warrant the
•• Nightmares disperse low-level “You See a Par ticular Horrible
Carcosan radiation sheathed in Battlefield Sight for the First
fungal spores. When inhaled, Time” Composure test.
the spores cause humans to •• The blackened corpses of burnt
relive their worst traumatic pine trees tower in a jagged
experiences. When used by expanse before you. Their
PCs, they allow the group to charred bark still smokes, giving
overrun or escape from Weak off the reek of spent diesel fuel.
or Tough but Outmatched •• Scraps of olive-drab fabric
human foes on a single, simple float through the air like a
Athletics test against the foe’s rain of confetti. An awful
lowest Fighting Difficulty. Against realization dawns—these are
PCs, they require a Difficulty the uniforms of vaporized men.
4 Composure test to avoid •• Toppled gravestones complicate
Shocks, Minor and Major: your trudge through a crater-
Disbelief/Nightmare Fuel. filled cemetery. Old bones,
pulled from the earth by
exploding ordnance, crunch
Terrifying Terrain beneath your hobnail boots. You
The Wars scenarios often spot a blob of melted gold—a
feature interludes in which wedding ring, meant to rest
the squad travels between with its owner for eternity.
dangerous spots near the front •• Only the chimney remains of
line. When inspiration for yet a home otherwise reduced
another description of a place to a pile of brick. The clawed
ravaged by battle eludes you, hand of an elderly man
grab one of these free-floating juts from the heap. A crow
snippets of narration. comes to a landing nearby,
Should players decide to ready to peck at its meat.
have their characters engage •• Unearthly yellow-blue flame
with these situations, so much envelops an overturned troop
the better. Improvise a quick, transport truck. Its fire sings
disturbing vignette, or use them to you, urging you to embrace
as prelude to an Antagonist it, freeing yourselves of this
Reaction. world and all its miseries.
As always, words you •• Clouds of brown and green
paraphrase in your own voice, mix together overhead,
no matter how roughly, feel more forming a camouflage-colored
58
sky. A flat plain extends field into a shallow pond. A

before you like a hunger. petroleum rainbow pulses
•• A rifle juts from the chalky across its stagnant surface.
ground, jammed in muzzle first. •• The disembodied cannon of
A helmet sits on its butt, dog an otherwise absent tank
tags dangling from it. A pair pierces a stone wall. Brown-
of well-worn boots sits before red bloodstains coat the wall.
the rifle. Of its former owner, •• Grubby children kick a football
no other sign can be seen. across a rubble-strewn street.
•• A naked tree stands alone in a For a moment, your bleary
dismal field, a branch yearning eyes tell you that their ball is
up to the sky like a reaching a battered human head. You
arm. On its central trunk a blink, and the terrible apparition
gnarl twists into the image of is no more. All the same,
a tormented human face. something in their mirthless
•• Clumps of dirty snow cling laughter chills your soul.
to the brown stalks of dead •• Peasants pull a cart laden
weeds strangling an untilled with empty footwear down a
field. Plumes of smoke billow twisting laneway. Though it
across it. Somewhere in the might be a mistake to look
distance, artillery booms. too closely, a first glance
•• On the horizon, a country church warns that some of the shoes
stands between two pillars of still have feet in them.
black smoke. The twin fires •• A dozen shovels, stuck into
converge slowly toward it. upturned earth, stand like
•• Birdsong rings from a verdant sentinels over row after row
stand of trees, inexplicably of fresh-dug graves. Beside
spared by the bombardment them white wooden crosses
that has laid waste to the lie in a heap. You see no sign
everything around it. A shaft of of gravediggers, or of the
sunlight, breaking between dark graves’ intended occupants.
clouds, wreathes it in a halo •• A dune of stone rubble rises
of light. From a mighty branch alongside the walls of an
dangle a trio of hanged farmers. abandoned factory. A tin
•• An old stone pier, blasted can, caught by the wind,
in half by a bombing raid, clatters across the ground,
stretches out into a dark lake. as if fleeing your approach.
A parachute, carried by gentle •• White cobblestones cover the
waves, bumps up against surface of the town square.
it, like a giant jellyfish. Above hangs a pure blue sky.
•• Bodies of partially skeletonized A din of mustering vehicles
horses choke a creek. Its rises as a French infantry
dammed-up waters turn a unit redeploys. The soldiers
59
sing a merry song, cursing toppled fence posts punctuate

the enemy and promising its boundaries. A wooden
him swift and bloody death. bucket floats down the trench,
•• A bright red ridge heaves into bouncing against its edges.
view. The jagged line it forms •• Carbines bristle from a haystack
on the horizon is not a feature like pins from a pin cushion.
of the natural landscape, but Their owners have abandoned
a row of blazing walkers. them to chase a chicken
•• The sky turns pink as the across a stubbled field. They
sun drops prematurely call out to each other like kids
behind the mountains. shrieking across a schoolyard.
Swirls of snow thicken in They haven’t noticed the enemy
the air and pelt toward you. bomber groaning overhead.
Within minutes the ground •• A medieval stone tower has
becomes a blanket of white. toppled over on its side,
•• Fog rises from the damp fields, crushing shops and a tavern.
reaching toward you with The newer structures have
ghostly fingers. It surrounds been pulverized, but aside
you, breathing chill into from its new orientation, the
your bones. Soon you can tower remains oddly intact.
barely see your comrades. •• (if the squad has a vehicle)
•• Rain has turned the exposed Exposed stone juts from a
clay soil into a thick, sucking rollercoaster of a roadway. It
mud. A lamb, its wool used to be flat, but bombs
soaked flat, screams in have made it barely navigable.
dismay, its legs held fast. The only way to drive it
•• A dogfight breaks out in without getting stuck is to
the sky to the west. Two jam the accelerator to the
dragonflies buck and roll, floor and ride it like a wave.
machine guns blasting at •• Weeping mines gather on a
one another. One becomes a nearby ridgeline. They click
fireball. The other veers away, and clack and seem to be
in search of its next victim. communicating with one
•• Flotsam from a sunken another. You think one of
merchant ship bashes against them has started trilling a
a rocky shore. Amid the angry song, but surely there’s a
waves you see hairbrushes, logical explanation for that.
tubes of toothpaste, •• Someone has dragged a pair
and the naked forms of of heavy wooden benches from
plastic children’s dolls. a town square and left them in
•• A curving trench cuts across the middle of the road. Piles
a former pasture, filled with of rocks surround the road
storm water. Ragged, half- on either side, with weeds
60
poking out between them. blow up on impact as this part

•• Soldiers lie in a trench, baking of the craft usually does. But
in the sun. At first you think the stalks are catching fire,
they’re dead. Then you hear so maybe you’d better run.
them snoring. As you grow (See “Aircraft,” p. 42.)
closer still, you see that •• The sur viving brick-and-
none of them have facial stucco walls of a bombarded
features, just white masks town loom precariously
of undifferentiated flesh. over a town square heaped
•• Shattered planks of a destroyed with rubble. Held fast by
shed litter a muddy depression. debris, a red knitted scar f
•• Melting snow forms a series convulses in the wind.
of ponds in a shattered •• By the side of the road, dogs
field. A stiff wind comes up fight over a chicken carcass.
to send a rush of ripples A scarecrow, crucified on a
across their surfaces. pole, grins down at them.
•• A duckboard bridge creates Someone has left a tank
a narrow pathway across a sergeant’s helmet on its
marsh. Bullrushes, stirred grinning stuffed burlap head.
by a slight breeze, wave at •• A greasy black scorch mark
you like a parade platform covers the roadway, a crater
full of bored monarchs. at its center. The hips and
•• A godawful clattering legs of a Loyalist soldier lie
emanates from the poplars over the lip of the hole in the
flanking a country road. As road. It looks like he was
you grow closer, you see that disarming a mine or booby trap
someone has tied empty and paid the price for failure.
mess tins, hundreds of them, •• Behind an ear then wall, naked
to the trees’ branches. trees stretch to the sky like
•• Bombs have turned a railroad waking men. Traces of stink
into a twisted fence, broken grenade, enough to wrinkle the
in pieces and strewn across nose but not send you retching
an expanse of steaming and fleeing, linger in the air.
muck. A locomotive’s •• A skiff of snow dusts the
smokestack sticks out of the rooftops of a town and clings
ground like a sign post. to its church steeple. In the
•• A smoking black dome as street lies a tangle of executed
big as a truck lies amid the men. A sheet, held down with
dry stalks of an unharvested broken bricks, halfway covers
cornfield. It’s the auto-bomber them. TRAITORS, it says, in
mechanism of a spider, shorn a wild charcoal scrawl.
as it was shot down from the •• A cannon, likely dating from
rest of the aircraft. It didn’t the Franco-Prussian war, points
61
its nose from the second floor they lower their guns. They
of a barn. The barn’s roof look about, as if wondering
has been torn away, leaving what on ear th possessed
the antique ar tiller y piece them. Across the way, their
exposed to the elements. comrades remain stock-still.
•• Loyalist troops march down the •• Infantr ymen swarm across a
road, singing. One takes a swig barley field, stamping it flat.
from a wine bottle and tosses The tents heaped on trucks
it into a ditch. An enraged by a nearby road tell you that
sergeant shouts obscenities they’ve been ordered to set up
from the back of the column, camp here. A furious farmer
promising to exact vivid dashes from his barn, waving
punishment on the wrongdoer. a pitchfork. The soldiers laugh
His mates tr y to sober him up, and pull their sidearms.
but he looks too far gone. •• A bright yellow sunset settles
•• Buzzards drift nonchalantly in behind the remnants of a
overhead. Behind them, medieval for tress. There’s a
clouds briefly form a death’s problem, though: it’s three
head, then dispersing o’clock in the afternoon.
into white vapor. •• Something ripples across
•• Soldiers move like automatons the sur face of an abandoned
to form two lines in a farmer’s tavern. Drawing closer, you
field, facing each other. With see that snails—thousands
dazed expressions, one upon thousands of them—work
half of the Loyalist battalion their way up its walls. They
raises rifles to point at the exude the high, throat-closing
other. Before they fire, and smell of moldering corpses.
before you can cr y out,
62
63
T h e Y E L L O W K I N G R P G : The Wars – Foes
FOES
Supernatural creatures across radically different body

encountered in The Wars break morphologies.
into several types. The offspring of two Carcosans
Carcosans originate on is considered a Carcosan; the
Carcosa. They fight to assist one offspring of two unlike Warspawn
of the competing sides of the or a Carcosan and a Warspawn is
conflict, at the behest of the King treated as a Warspawn.
in Yellow or one of his daughters. These categories interact
Individual beings might have been with certain game effects. They
born on Carcosa or here, through might also become the subject
various methods of reproduction. of mad babblings by those
As a species they all originate in whose conceptions of natural
that alien world. history have been shattered by
Warspawn exist only in our encounters with these entities.
world. They result from the Earthly foes get flagged as
interaction of horrific battlefield Mundane.
conditions and the eerie A second new profile entry,
energies of Carcosa. They may the Encounter Style, indicates
gain substance from inanimate the role they play in scenarios. A
materials, or magically mutate Primary enemy takes a major role
from Earth organisms, living or in the episode’s central mystery.
dead. Many first manifested as They’re smart, autonomous, and
animated corpses of the war act toward a broader purpose in
dead, soldier and civilian alike. pursuit of some goal, perhaps
Some Warspawn can reproduce related to the progress of
by breeding. So a particular the war. A Secondary enemy
individual might look like a crops up as another symptom
disfigured version of a specific, of wartime chaos. It serves
recently slain comrade, or could the same story purpose as an
be the unrecognizable offspring of impersonal battlefield hazard
two others. and/or Antagonist Reaction.
The earthly notion of species In order to get from point A to
doesn’t apply to Carcoscan B, the unit has to deal with a
beings. They possess a genetic number of dangers, one or more
variability allowing them to mate of which might be one-off run-ins
64
with creatures unconnected to

the main storyline. Most exhibit
limited or animalistic intelligence,
pursuing modest or opportunistic
goals—like feeding or looting.
You might find fun ways to mix
this up by:
•• employing a relatively minor
threat like a redmedic
as the main monstrous
antagonist of an episode
•• introducing a Primary
baddie into the action as
if it’s just another arbitrary
foe first encountered on
the way to the front
Foe Relative Challenge Minor Major
Escape 4, Sliced and

Duchess of Death Skinned Alive
Other 6, Kill 6 Diced
Enemy
Escape 2,
Skirmishers, Knife Wound Bayonet Wound
Other 2, Kill 2
Hapless
Enemy
Skirmishers, Escape 2,
Barely a Scratch Bullet Wound
Outnumbered but Other 4, Kill 3
Determined
Enemy
Escape 3,
Skirmishers, Barely a Scratch Bullet Wound
Other 5, Kill 4
Equally Capable
Enemy Escape 4,
Gash Bullet Wound
Skirmishers, Elite Other 5, Kill 4
Hellish Reptile-
Extrusion N/A Reality Drift
Crab
Escape 2,
Gravegrinder, Adult Beak Jab Beak Stab
Other 2, Kill 2
Impaled and
Gravegrinder, Escape 3,
Jabbed Partially
Larva Other 5, Kill 4
Exsanguinated
65
Foe Relative Challenge Minor Major
Escape 4, Steel Beam

Hedgehog Nearly Stomped
Other 5, Kill 4 Stomp
Peasant Who Escape 4,
Seeing Double Skull Fracture
Seems Lovely… Other 7, Kill 7*
Escape 2, The Mourned
Phantasms Ghost Sighting
Other 4, Kill 3 Dead
Escape 2,
Redmedic Punched Parasitic Link
Other 4, Kill 3
Soul Butcher Faulty Distorted
N/A
(Large Scale) Perceptions Perceptions
Soul Butcher
Did Anyone Else You Saw It, So It
(Subtly N/A
See That? Must Be Real
Distressing)
Stalker, Light Escape 2, Superficial
Deep Burns
(Flamethrower) Other 6, Kill 8 Burns
Stalker, Heavy Escape 2, Superficial
Deep Burns
(Flamethrower) Other 7, Kill 9 Burns
Stalker,
Escape 2, Superficial
Ultra-Heavy Deep Burns
Other 9, Kill 10 Burns
(Flamethrower)
Stalker, Light Escape 2, Bruised While
Sprayed
(Other) Other 6, Kill 8 Taking Cover
Stalker, Heavy Escape 2, Bruised While
Sprayed
(Other) Other 7, Kill 9 Taking Cover
Stalker, Ultra- Escape 2, Bruised While
Sprayed
Heavy (Other) Other 9, Kill 10 Taking Cover
Escape 2, Microscopic
Swarm Cell Damage
Other 4, Kill 3 Wounds
Escape 3,
Warhorse Hoof Strike Warhorse Bite
Other 5, Kill 4
Escape 2, “Am I Still in One
Weeping Mine Blown Back
Other 4, Kill 3 Piece?”
Escape 2, Why Can’t I Just Probably I Should
Whatsisname
Other 4, Kill 3 Shoot Him? Shoot Him
* or simple Fighting test, Difficulty 3, if not attacking with complete surprise
66
Duchess of Death Enemy Skirmishers

Inspired by Cassilda and For small-scale engagements
Camilla, high-ranking women where the individual skills of
of the Carcosan court have combatants determine whether
abandoned their duties to roam the battlin’ heroes live or die, use
the earthly battlefield, slaying these foe profiles.
for sport. Some roam the war When the PCs take part in
zone in tattered noble raiment; a broader engagement whose
others adopt the uniforms of slain outcome they cannot by
officers. Wreathed in occult power, themselves sway, subject them
they fight unarmed, shrugging off to war hazards, which they resist
bullets and bending the blades of with Battlefield tests.
bayonets. Some death duchesses
carve out territory for themselves, Hapless
defending these fiefdoms aided by Numbers: Less than party
terrified villagers and shanghaied Difficulty: Weak (Escape 2,
deserters. They might aid one Other 2, Kill 2)
army or the other in exchange for Difficulty Adjustments: -1 if
weapons or supplies to keep their surprised; +1 if attacking with
duchies going. surprise
Each is vulnerable to bladed Toll: 0
weapons doused in a particular Tags: Mundane
herb or resin—a curb placed on Encounter Style: Secondary
them by the King in Yellow before Injuries, Minor and Major: Knife
he allowed them to come here. If Wound/Bayonet Wound
any of them threaten his scheme,
he can whisper the name of the Outnumbered but Determined
substance into the ears of a Numbers: Less than party
helpful dupe or henchman. Difficulty: Tough but Outmatched
Numbers: 1 (Escape 2, Other 4, Kill 3)
Difficulty: Vastly Superior Difficulty Adjustments: -1 if
(Escape 4, Other 6, Kill 6) surprised; +1 if attacking with
Difficulty Adjustments: +2 if surprise
your weapons have been treated Toll: 0
with the correct herbal oil Tags: Mundane
Toll: 2 Encounter Style: Secondary
Tags: Carcosan Injuries, Minor and Major:
Encounter Style: Primary Barely a Scratch/Bullet Wound
Injuries, Minor and Major:
Sliced and Diced/Skinned Alive
67
68
Equally Capable given off by living organisms.

Numbers: Same as party Extrusions do not require
Difficulty: Evenly Matched conventional nourishment; if they
(Escape 3, Other 5, Kill 4) feed at all, it is on the ambient
Difficulty Adjustments: -1 if energy of Carcosa. Though they
surprised; +1 if attacking with offer no physical threat, many
surprise observers find the sight of them
Toll: 1 psychologically destabilizing.
Tags: Mundane Add them to scenarios as
Encounter Style: Secondary harbingers of an imminent
Injuries, Minor and Major: reality break.
Barely a Scratch/Bullet Wound Seeing one or more of them
up close triggers a Difficulty 4
Elite Composure test to avoid Shocks,
Numbers: Party + 50% (round up) Major and Minor: Hellish Reptile-
Difficulty: Superior (Escape 4, Crab/Reality Drift.
Other 5, Kill 4)
Difficulty Adjustments: -1 if Gravegrinder
surprised; +1 if attacking with This Carcosan animal
surprise undergoes a two-stage life cycle,
Toll: 2/4 with a humanoid larval form that
Tags: Mundane matures into a winged adult.
Encounter Style: Secondary Looking like an unholy amalgam
Injuries, Minor and Major: of bat and vulture, the adult does
Gash/Bullet Wound not eat and lives only briefly.
About the size of an albatross, it
Extrusion glides across the sky searching
Where the boundaries between for human carrion. Males and
our reality and Carcosa thin, females bond for their short
strange beasts spontaneously existence, protecting one another
appear. These reality extrusions from predators and the attacks of
exhibit an indistinct, contradictory other adult gravegrinders. These
anatomy combining elements occur when multiple pairs spot a
of reptile, crab, and sea urchin. corpse at roughly the same time
Ranging in size from a hermit crab and squabble over it.
to an iguana, they cling readily to After any such fights are
any human foolish enough to pick resolved and the losers driven off,
them up and carry them around squawking in protest, the winning
as a pet or curiosity. Extrusions couple mates. The male thrusts
perceive their environment a barbed appendage into the
with senses other than sight, female’s egg sac, fertilizing the
including smell and the ability eggs, and promptly expires.
to read the minute energy fields
69
The female uses her beak to stages is perfectly edible. Contrary

puncture the body cavity of her to the expected joke, it tastes more
chosen corpse, into which she like pork than chicken.
deposits an egg. If any other Adult gravegrinders only attack
corpses lie nearby, as often humans when they stand between
happens on a battlefield, she it and a corpse.
continues along until she too
collapses and dies of exhaustion. Larva
The egg develops inside the Numbers: 1 or 3
corpse for 24 to 48 hours. As it Difficulty: Evenly Matched
grows it latches onto the corpse’s (Escape 3, Other 5, Kill 4)
skeleton. It then emerges as a (solitary); Superior (Escape 4,
grimacing humanoid armored by Other 5, Kill 4) (group)
a carapace of osseous material. Difficulty Adjustments: +1 if
One of its arms (left if it fed on characters just saw it emerge
a corpse with XX chromosomes; from a corpse
right in the case of an XY pair) Toll: 1
terminates in a jagged spearpoint Tags: Carcosan
of sharpened bone organized Encounter Style: Secondary
around a central tube. Injuries, Minor and Major:
The larval gravegrinder then Jabbed/Impaled and Partially
rampages about in search of Exsanguinated
blood. It prefers that of humans,
but any large mammal will suffice. Adult
It stabs its prey, exsanguinating Numbers: 1
them with the feeding tube. Difficulty: Weak (Escape 2,
After consuming around 20 Other 2, Kill 2)
liters of blood (approximately Difficulty Adjustments: None
four persons’ worth), the larval Toll: 0
gravegrinder climbs up a tree or Encounter Style: Secondary
cliff-face, spins a fleshy chrysalis Injuries, Minor and Major: Beak
around itself, and enters a Jab/Beak Stab
pupal state. Over a period of
32 to 40 days, the gravegrinder Hedgehog
metamorphoses, finally shucking Soldiers of the Continental
off the chrysalis to fly in search of War refer to barriers constructed
a mate. Larvae prefer to cluster from intersecting iron beams as
together, increasing the odds of hedgehogs. The typical example
finding a mate. consists of three beams, each around
According to the accounts of 2 m long and weighing a combined
desperate and otherwise starving 375 kg, bolted or welded together.
soldiers, the pseudo-mammalian (In our timeline they were
flesh of this creature in either of its known as Czech hedgehogs,
70
distinguishing them from a British other bodily fluids, sustaining

anti-submarine artillery piece. and strengthening themselves.
Thanks to iconic photography Powerful Carcosan nobles may be
of the Normandy invasion, the able to exert control over them,
mental image you’re probably using them as servitors.
entertaining is of their use on Aware of their vulnerability
beaches, as an obstacle to delay when they become inanimate
amphibious assault. However, again at dawn, the hedgehogs
both in the real world and this strive to return to their original
one, they are also used inland posts before the light comes.
as a barrier that stops tanks Those caught out freeze in
from advancing. In an urban fight place wherever they are, leading
a single hedgehog can block a observers to wonder just who
street, stopping enemy vehicles moved them in the night, and why
from proceeding. When hit by an no one heard the sound of the
explosion, the force simply rolls trucks needed for that task.
a hedgehog in inanimate mode Destroying an inanimate
over onto another side, where it hedgehog requires a Difficulty 5
continues to act as a barrier.) Traps and Bombs test. To get rid
On frontiers permeated with of an animate one, the squad
Carcosan energy, the hedgehogs must Kill it in combat.
have gained the power of Numbers: 1
locomotion. The squad may hear Difficulty: Superior (Escape 4,
a Breton GMC who has heard Other 5, Kill 4)
the rumors of their night time Difficulty Adjustments: None
perambulations equate them Toll: 1
with old legends of menhirs that Tags: Warspawn
on occasion walked down to the Encounter Style: Secondary
nearest river to drink. Injuries, Minor and Major:
Animate hedgehogs become Nearly Stomped/Steel Beam
receptacles for spirits of the Stomp
vengeful dead. They leave their
posts in darkness to attack and Peasant Who Seems Lovely
feast on human foes, making Until You Turn Your Back
no distinction between Loyalists This is for your classic little old
and the enemy. Seen up close lady or man who appears kindly
while moving, they display such and helpful until the time comes
biological features as scales, to get out the hammer.
tufts of hair, and even cruel, Use this foe profile only when the
unblinking eyes. Hedgehogs civilian intends to knock a character
attack by pummeling their unconscious for the purposes of
victims to a pulp. They then capture, and only against a soldier
drink their victims’ blood and who has been separated from the
71
rest of the squad. vengeful torment, they step into the

First present the player space occupied by their targets,
with the “When You Regain inflicting psychic injuries that kill as
Consciousness…” Injury card, surely as bullets.
offering the choice to take this In a struggle with phantasms, the
card in lieu of combat. Explain heroes use Composure in place of
that use of the Fighting rules gives Fighting. They might think they’re
some chance of winning flat-out, battling physically, when the action
but also risks worse Injury cards actually takes place in their minds.
in the case of loss. Also, remind On a Difficulty 4 Sense Trouble
the player that in an investigative success, a character watching
game waking up in an antagonist’s from afar as someone fends
clutches always provides the off phantasms sees only the
opportunity to gain information. victim’s flailing and grunting, as if
Numbers: 1 hallucinating the presence of an
Difficulty: (when suddenly enemy. On a failure, the character
attacking an unsuspecting PC) sees the phantasms, mistaking
Overwhelming (Escape 4, Other 7, them for ghosts.
Kill 7) Phantasms are independent
(other wise) achieve any combat entities themselves, but
Goal on a Difficulty 3 simple thoughtforms generated by ebon
Fighting test toads, malign intelligent animals
Adjust to Other Sequences: native to Carcosa. They feed
Drop Escape by 1, drop Toll to 0 from the emotional distress their
Toll: 0 manifestations cause. When
Tags: Mundane victims successfully dissipate a
Encounter Style: Either phantasm, the psychic backlash
Injuries, Minor and Major: strikes and wounds the toad.
Seeing Double/Skull Fracture A fatal backlash causes the
toad to explode, showering the
Phantasms surrounding area with ichor.
The noncorporeal devourers Though about the size of a horse,
known as phantasms impersonate the toad on its own offers no
the dead, hunting the grief- defense against an armed person
stricken victims who mourn them. and is easily dispatched. A
Scanning the minds of their ranged attack lets the shooter or
prey, they instantly learn how to grenadier avoid the ichor shower’s
project a multi-sensory image of splash zone.
the recently deceased. Initially Numbers: 1 per squad member,
appearing benevolent and forgiving, at least 1 of which resembles a
they draw their victims close, then mourned comrade
undergo an awful transformation. Difficulty: Weak (Escape 2,
Their faces contorting to masks of Other 4, Kill 3)
72
Difficulty Adjustments: +2 if psychic and caloric energy from a

someone knows about ebon toads distance of several miles or more.
Toll: 0 They make contact by offering
Tags: Carcosan to heal the wounds of the
Encounter Style: Secondary injured. Their treatment does
Shocks, Minor and Major: work, to an extent: the wounded
Ghost Sighting/The Mourned Dead character trades an Injury card
for the redmedic’s Major Injury
Redmedic card, “Parasitic Link.” When the
A supernatural illusion cloaks character has multiple Injury
a redmedic in the guise of an cards, the player chooses which
otherwise nondescript allied one to trade.
soldier bearing a medic’s insignia. Assuming that no one has seen
When a redmedic shows up, the through the illusion, the redmedic
players may choose one character appears to be administering
to make a Difficulty 5 Sense mundane medical treatment.
Trouble test. Depending on the severity of
Failure: The squad accepts the injury, the patch-up may seem
creature as a perfectly reliable, remarkably effective. No ordinary
normal medic. medic can fix a broken leg in
Success, margin of 1 or less: an instant, for example. In this
The redmedic provokes vague case the group may again select
suspicion, but no one in the group a player to undertake another
can see through the illusion. Sense Trouble test to see through
Success, margin of 1 or less: the illusion, this time at Difficulty 4.
The PC, and any other squad Observers immune to the
member close enough to receive illusion see the redmedic bend
a verbal warning, sees the over the subject, inserting its jaw
redmedic for what it is. tendrils into the injured area.
In its undisguised form, the Redmedics prefer to gain the
redmedic is a humanoid with a cooperation of their targets but
blood-red, pulsing, jellied head. can establish connections by
Multiple tendrils dangle from its force. Only when ravenously
jawline. It can withdraw these hungry will they risk attacking a
into its alien head or grow more member of a group.
as needed. A row of black dots Numbers: 1
across the face serve as its Difficulty: Tough but Outmatched
visual organs. When it needs to (Escape 2, Other 4, Kill 3)
see better, it grows more of them, Difficulty Adjustments: +1
which it can later reabsorb. if no one has encountered a
Redmedics feed parasitically on redmedic before
humans, establishing an initial Toll: 0
contact that allows them to absorb
73
Tags: Warspawn originate in victims’ minds. Those

Encounter Style: Secondary who resist see nothing at all. A
Injuries, Minor and Major: victim might be able to sketch
Punched/Parasitic Link what he’s seeing but no one can
photograph it.
Soul Butcher Illusion resistance works like
The soul butcher is an a mental hazard, but with Sense
insubstantial Carcosan spirit that Trouble substituting for Composure.
migrates to our world to bend A soul butcher generally tests a
soldiers’ minds until they commit prospective victim with a subtle
atrocities. Carcosan legends distortion before going for the full
contradict themselves on these conscience-shattering illusion.
entities’ origins and fundamental Failing the first exacts a -1 penalty
natures. Some say they’re ghosts on the second.
of sadistic and manipulative Subtly Distressing Illusion:
individuals whose great malice Difficulty 4 Sense Trouble to avoid
allows them a continued Shocks, Minor and Major: Did
existence after death. Others Anyone Else See That/You Saw It,
describe them as intelligent but So It Must Be Real.
utterly cruel emanations of the Large-Scale Perceptual
baleful black stars. Distortion: Difficulty 5 Sense
The soul butcher preys on front- Trouble to avoid Shocks, Minor
line soldiers and rear echelon and Major: Faulty Perceptions/
commanders alike. It impels Distorted Perceptions.
them to commit war crimes by Soul butchers can’t be fought
altering their perceptions. Those physically. To anchor themselves
quiescent prisoners of war look in our reality, they must forge a
like they’re escaping. Bedraggled link to an object associated with
civilians take on the appearance a grim or frightening local legend.
of enemy troops, or terrifying This might be the skull of a
monsters. Enemy forces hunkered reputed sorcerer, the rope a jilted
down in exhaustion look like bride used to hang herself, or the
they’re torturing helpless victims. tub in which a mad noblewoman
Soul butchers haunt groups of bathed in the blood of peasants.
soldiers, slowly chipping away To permanently banish a soul
at their sense of reality, pushing butcher back to Carcosa, an
them toward ever more terrible investigator must identify, find,
acts. The first few rounds of and destroy this anchor object.
illusions may merely lead their
targets to question their grip on Stalker
reality. These soften them up for In most cases, you’ll want to
the big illusions later. treat a stalker (p. 41) as a war
These perceptual distortions hazard—a source of incoming fire,
74
prompting PCs to run for cover. Adjust to Other Sequences:

In a few instances, it makes Escape = 2, increase Kill by 2
better sense to treat a stalker Difficulty Adjustments: As above
and its crew as a foe to be Toll: 4/5
overcome through Fighting: Tags: Mundane
•• when the stalker crew is Encounter Style: Secondary
specifically trying to hunt
down the PCs in particular Injury Cards for all Stalkers
•• when the PCs are trying to Stalker equipped with
block, get past, disable, or flamethrower: Superficial Burns/
destroy a particular stalker Deep Burns
Stalker without flamethrower:
Light Bruised While Taking Cover/Sprayed
Difficulty: Vastly Superior
(Escape 2, Other 6, Kill 8) Swarm
Difficulty Adjustments: +1 On the warped battlefields
for all PCs, if an investigator of the Continental War, even
scores a Difficulty 5 Mechanics the smallest of creatures can
success immediately prior to the transform into Warspawn. When
fight (represents sabotage); +1 countless vermin animals die
for characters who have driven together, they form a swarm,
a stalker during the current a rolling carpet of distorted,
scenario; +1 for characters with quasi-substantial fur, claws, and
Driving pools greater than 3 teeth. Or, when aerial creatures
Adjust to Other Sequences: form a swarm, a cloud of beaks,
Escape = 2, increase Kill by 2 talons, and feathers. Animals
Toll: 2 that can become swarms include
Tags: Mundane rats, snakes, weasels, dogs,
Encounter Style: Secondary centipedes, birds, and bats.
They mindlessly attack any fully
Heavy living beings they come across,
Difficulty: Overwhelming damaging bone and muscle on
(Escape 2, Other 7, Kill 9) the molecular level. Wounds
Adjust to Other Sequences: dished out by a swarm can’t
Escape = 2, increase Kill by 2 be seen with the naked eye,but
Difficulty Adjustments: As above show up when tissue samples are
Toll: 2 examined under a microscope.
Tags: Mundane Numbers: 1
Encounter Style: Secondary Difficulty: Tough but Outmatched
(Escape 2, Other 4, Kill 3)
Ultra-Heavy Difficulty Adjustments: +1 if
Difficulty: Too Awful to anyone dismissed the possibility
Contemplate (Escape 2, Other 9, of a few tiny creatures doing any
Kill 10)
75
real harm Encountered close up, they may

Toll: 0 weep or moan, as if mourning
Tags: Warspawn for the dead. Whether they weep
Encounter Style: Secondary for humanity, or for the exploded
Injuries, Minor and Major: land mines, is a question best
Microscopic Wounds/Cell Damage not considered. For reasons as
yet unfathomable, weeping mines
Warhorse sometimes gather in particular
From a distance, the warhorse spots, guarding them from human
looks like a stray mount lost in intrusion. Sudden movements set
the chaos of war. Closer up, it them off, causing them to lunge
can be identified as a reptilian at observers, who then discover
beast with an equine body shape. that despite their profound
Its predatory nature becomes alterations, they still explode.
apparent when it springs, Since their first appearance on
exposing its razor teeth. the battlefield, weeping mines
Numbers: 1 have undergone an evolution—
Difficulty: Evenly Matched one the squad may be the first
(Escape 3, Other 5, Kill 4) to discover or confirm. When a
Difficulty Adjustments: +1 if mine explodes, killing a sapient
you have encountered a warhorse being, the shrapnel, nourished on
before the blood of victims, transforms
Toll: 1 into a cloud of airborne seeds,
Tags: Carcosan enveloped by a sac recalling the
Encounter Style: Secondary body of a jellyfish. After drifting
Injuries, Minor and Major: Hoof for a while, the seeds land,
Strike/Warhorse Bite anchoring themselves into the
soil. As with ordinary plants,
Weeping Mine many seeds fail to germinate. For
In areas heavily touched by those that do, the sac grows up
Carcosan influence, land mines around the metallic bomb inside.
spontaneously alter themselves. When the bomb reaches full size,
They sprout foot-long metallic the weeping mine takes flight
legs, resembling those of a once more, borne by the jelly-like
stalker, in sets of four or five. The parachute, until it finds a final
mines creep away, roaming the place to plant itself, ready to kill
forests and villages of the war again and repeat the cycle.
zone. Sometimes they gather on Thus the squad can encounter
hillsides and howl sadly to one weeping mines either on the
another. Though the sound may ground, or as a gentle rain of
initially be mistaken for wolf cries, descending explosives borne on a
its hollow ring, once understood, summer breeze.
cannot easily be forgotten. Numbers: 3 × the group
76
77
Difficulty: Tough but Outmatched The whatsisname compulsively

(Escape 2, Other 4, Kill 3) steals from the packs of soldiers.
Difficulty Adjustments: +1 if When allowed to accompany
surprised (yes, that’s a plus, not a squad, everyone takes -2 to
a minus: they really don’t like Preparedness.
surprises) Although its understanding
Toll: 0 of Carcosa is limited to its
Tags: Warspawn experience in this world, a
Encounter Style: Secondary whatsisname may have useful or
Injuries, Minor and Major: Blown interesting information to convey,
Back/“Am I Still in One Piece?” if properly coaxed.
When attacked it fights to
Whatsisname Escape. If the group has an
This Warspawn slips in among important item it needs to solve
a unit of soldiers, using limited its current problem, it will try
mind control to make them to Escape with it. It fights with
confuse him for a member of their weapons it has stolen from other
unit. When first encountering a soldiers, most typically a sidearm.
whatsisname, characters make Characters who accept a
Difficulty 4 Sense Trouble tests. whatsisname as a real comrade
On a failure, the character recognize their memories of him
identifies the whatsisname as as false only when it has been
a comrade rejoining the unit, killed, at which point its real form
accepting the creature’s cover is horribly revealed. Difficulty 4
story, including the name it Composure test to avoid Shocks,
proffers. Detailed, vivid memories Minor and Major: No, It Can’t
of their past struggles together Be!/I Remember Him Like He Was
flood the victim’s mind. Real. (When appearing in another
On a success with a margin of sequence, substitute Unease and
2 or less, the character sees the Dread.)
whatsisname’s true form, of a Numbers: 1
pallid humanoid with a featureless Difficulty: Tough but Outmatched
face, but accepts its presence (Escape 2, Other 4, Kill 3)
as normal and acceptable. The Difficulty Adjustments: +2 vs.
character must make a Difficulty 4 characters who failed the Sense
Composure test to avoid a Shock: Trouble test; +1 vs characters with
“Why Can’t I Just Shoot Him?” the “Why Can’t I Just Shoot Him?”
With a greater success margin, Shock card
the character sees through Toll: 0
the illusion, understands that Tags: Warspawn
something terribly wrong is Encounter Style: Secondary
happening, and can act against it Injuries, Minor and Major:
with unimpeded choice. Cortisol Spike/Bullet Wound
78
PEOPLE
In The Wars, the squad having female combatants. Swap

probably moves to a new in male given names if you went
location at the beginning of each the other way on that.
scenario. There they deal with
a fresh military mission and
another supernatural threat. Commanding Officer
That means that very few GM The Lieutenant PC receives
characters will continue from one orders from one step up in the
episode to the next. Those that chain of command, in the form of
do take on a special importance the Capitaine. This Commanding
over the course of the series. Officer character, in a briefing
Mostly you’ll be creating one- with the Lieutenant, sends
off characters who appear once the group out into the military
and are never seen again—often danger of the week, acting on
because they horribly died before instructions from superiors. The
the episode concluded. Commanding Officer need not
(If for some reason you want to appear in person but may convey
turn this on its head, you could orders through the boîtenoire. The
conceivably station the squad giving of orders may take place in
in a barracks outside a city for a scenario’s antecedent action,
an ongoing urban series with a so that the new session opens
continuing cast of supporting with the team already in the
characters. That would make this field, acting on instructions they
sequence more like the others, received back at base.
but if you’re considering doing The Commanding Officer may
that you must have a good show up in person mostly when
reason for it.) the Lieutenant returns to base
Rather than lay out a network to seek fur ther guidance in a
of disparate, specific characters sticky situation.
the way Paris does, this chapter The first time this stock
gives you notes you can use to figure appears in your game, he
customize the characters you embodies all of the attitudes of
need, when you need them. the French officer class (p. 30)
Here we assume that you’ve in every regard:
opted to depict the world as Capitaine Noeul Villiers is
79
T h e Y E L L O W K I N G R P G : The Wars – People
in his early forties, tall, slim, battles a perpetual facial twitch

balding, and carries himself and seems always on the verge of
at an ease that belies his exploding into rage.
perfect posture. He speaks with Capitaine Martine Querry
disarming frankness, openly always offers the Lieutenant a
proclaiming his belief that nothing brandy, whatever the time of day,
whatsoever matters more the and hangs a bullet-riddled portrait
honor of the French military. of a woman over her desk.
With the confidence of a man Though nothing about her invites
who expects to be obeyed, he this intimacy, the Lieutenant has
keeps his demeanor cool and doubtless heard from others that
formal. He never questions an this is the Capitaine’s ex-wife.
order from above, no matter how Capitaine Jean Autant hides
cynical it may seem, and urges his deteriorating vision, caused
the Lieutenant to learn the same by a hereditar y degenerative
discipline of thought. condition. He doesn’t want to
Over the course of your series be declared medically unfit to
you might decide that one ser ve and has convinced himself
Capitaine has been replaced by he can per form his duties with
another. If the players regard their no decrease in safety to himself
CO as a touchstone of stability or those under his command. A
in their world, swapping him out character with Medicine can spot
increases their unease. Or you the symptoms.
might decide that the relationship A devout arch-Catholic,
between the CO and Lieutenant Capitaine Monique Presle is
characters perks up the action either losing her grip on reality
whenever it comes into play and or seeing the influence of
decide not to mess with that. Carcosa too acutely. God,
Later COs might bring different she believes, has sent Hell to
perspectives to the job, or scourge the Earth, in punishment
substitute one quirk for another for the sins of mankind. Also
while still always acting like womankind, but mostly mankind.
quintessential mid-level officers: Presle may car y on in her duties
Capitaine Denise Lepage as before, or subtly steer the
takes snuff, wears a monocle, sinful toward horrific punishment
and over-enunciates. on the battlefield.
Capitaine Bernard Simon wears Capitaine André Philippe
a hangdog expression, wants cares more about his dignity
to talk to the Lieutenant about and reputation than anything
literature, and hides a scarred else. He takes pride in his fine
hand by never taking off his black handwriting, which the Lieutenant
leather gloves. may catch him practicing when
Capitaine Germaine Viens entering his office. He looks
80
down his aquiline nose at any If anyone in the squad has a

proposed action that could blot cooked chicken leg in his back
his impeccable, yet also bland pocket, it’s him.
and event-free, ser vice record. Melisande Gauthier insists on
telling you her boring dream and
won’t stop playing with her lighter.
Comrades Cats come out of nowhere to rub
Fellow soldiers meet many up against Jeannine Trottier, who
gruesome fates in The Wars, so hates them and kicks them away.
you’ll need an ongoing supply Faustine Sciverit, a coffin
of them. Assign them the maker in civilian life, always
enlisted rank that fits your story. describes people as a small,
They’ll mostly be known by their medium, or large. She says she’ll
surnames; given names appear in give anyone who survives the war
case a character asks. a good discount on a casket.
Nicholas Tachel always talks Orson Quessy bears a perpetual
about the trouble he’ll get into the look of shocked horror. His eyes
next time he gets to go to town water when combat is imminent.
on leave and knits socks for his Napoléon Chenard, a seminary
nieces and nephews. student, urges everyone in the
Dominique Gilbert’s tongue and squad to get right with the Lord.
lips are stained black from the Albertine Labbé can’t stop grimly
licorice pastilles he constantly laughing. The worse the situation,
sucks. He grows restless when the more insistently she giggles.
there’s no one to shoot at him. Michel Batelier claims that he
Renée Devoe plays the was inducted by mistake, and
accordion and worries that his that it is his cousin, also named
girlfriend will cheat on him. Michel Batelier, who ought to be
Avril Hervé practices with her fighting in his place. He pesters
throwing knife and threatens to the Lieutenant about this at
bite people who piss her off. regular intervals.
Georges Carteau keeps a diary Giselle Covillon keeps losing
of his exploits and pesters other her pistol and has a terrible
squad members to help him sense of direction.
remember details of things that Benoît Proulx writes nightly
happened a few days ago. letters to his wife. Someone in
Sylvie Lespérance calls her rifle the squad heard that she died of
Père Noël and her pistol Saint tuberculosis three years ago.
Nick. The Lieutenant has been When the chips are down, Lea
unable to break her of her habit of Bonneville becomes annoyingly
wandering off on her own. upbeat and optimistic.
Erik Pirouet wants to know Yseult Neuilly, a philologist,
when it will be time to eat again. gets excited when the squad
81
enters a village. She runs around say about the terrible impact
asking townsfolk to pronounce of the war on French vineyards.
particular words and makes “How many decades it will take to
notes on any interesting regional rebuild—incalculable!”
variations she finds. The soldier known as Hubert
Seymour Drouin, a fisherman, Lippens took on this false identity
can’t understand why he isn’t in to get out of an embezzling charge
the navy, and won’t stop talking in Lyon before the war. Always on
about it. the lookout for a new way to enrich
Jacques Plourde likes digging himself, he may be caught stealing
holes and would sooner fight with from French civilians.
a shovel than a gun. Horse-faced Lucien
Denise Dunan appears perfectly Archambault speaks very quickly
sober when standing still. When and excitedly and isn’t sure what’s
she starts to move, her state of going on and needs constant
extreme drunkenness becomes reassurance and doesn’t know
all too staggeringly apparent. why this is happening to him why
No matter where she is, or how do things always happen to him
deprived the conditions, she don’t you think they should happen
always manages to stumble into a to someone else for a change?
cache of wine or vodka. Sickly Roger Perron has come
Jean Graetz loves to practice his down with a fever but doesn’t
shooting. Although a crack shot, he want the squad to worry about
may cause trouble for the squad by him even though his teeth are
firing his weapon at the exact wrong clacking violently together.
time. He’s also not so choosy Yvonne Lefèvre likes to play
about who might be standing on with matches. Since the war
the other side of his targets. shattered her mind, she has
Michel Cloërec wears strong taken to doing it unawares,
cologne and will offer to fatally and may be about to set a fire,
stab anyone who offers up a completely oblivious to the
wisecrack about it. Several danger, when an investigator
notches adorn the hilt of Michel’s comes to talk with her.
serrated hunting knife; he Claude Sivel says that the
declines to elaborate on exactly way he gets through each day
what they might represent. is to imagine that he is having
Snobbish Richard Douy can’t a terrible nightmare, and will at
restrain himself from complaining any moment awaken in his clean,
about the pitifully unevolved state warm Paris apartment. His wife
of the local peasantry, even when will have a pot of hot chocolate
they’re within earshot. ready for him, there will be
A sommelier in civilian life, brioche, and he will tell her about
Madeleine Fortuna has a lot to the strange nightmare war where
82
metal behemoths clank through need one,” he intones,

the forest and the aircraft look if asked to explain.
like buzzing insects. Gaëtan Casadesus just stole
Ever the optimist, weedy, near- a motorbike and will stop riding
sighted Ghislaine Paillais says it only when ordered to by his
that the war won’t last much superior. He resists any effort
longer. The enemy looks strong to return it. Should you need a
but is about to crack and come to spot of trouble, the local bruisers
the bargaining table. A year from who stole it from someone else
now, no one will even remember arrive to demand it back, plus
that it happened. compensation.
Nadine Gaillard covers her No matter how desperate the
fears of death with a booming situation, Colette Lacombe takes
laugh and bawdy sense of humor. the time to care for her lustrous
She tries to shrink down inside blond hair. At first glance this may
her broad-shouldered frame, seem like vanity but in Colette’s
color draining from her face and mind it is a sacred responsibility
her voice catching in her throat, to the memory of her mother, who
whenever the bullets fly. died giving birth to her and was
Hard-bitten Sami Griffe always famed throughout the region for
has a bent cigarette in his her golden tresses.
mouth, lit or unlit depending on Maurice Véry always thinks it’s
circumstances. According to him, too risky to move from the unit’s
the secret to survival is not caring if current position and invariably
you live or die. The squad may look finds a rationale to argue for
on in wonder when he emerges staying put.
unscathed from a fusillade or Willowy, Celtic-looking Mercédès
bombardment that cuts everyone d’Yd says she can tell fortunes
else around him to ribbons. with an ordinary deck of cards.
Edwige Misrach has a terrible- When she looks at the future of
tasting folk remedy on hand for other GMCs, she cold-reads them,
any malady her fellow soldiers supplying the positive predictions
might be suffering from. This they most want to hear. But
nursing school dropout has the if the squad members seek a
unfortunate habit of diagnosing divination, she can’t help but see
her comrades with alarming disaster, all of it emblazoned with
diseases they aren’t in fact a white mask or the Yellow Sign.
suffering from. Odette Gélin talks in a
Towering tall and bristling with quavering, barely audible voice
muscle, Bernard Rey says little that grows even more quiet when
but carries a noose, tightly tied you demand that she speak
and ready to go, in his pack. “You up. If shouted at, she trembles
never know when you’re going to uncontrollably.
83
Compulsive liar and teller of and eerily beautiful that onlookers

tall tales Marcel Nat regales of all orientations stare at him
his fellow soldiers with tales in disbelief. Born dirt poor and
of former glories, impossible desperate to impress, his looks
adventures, and fortunes won and are all he has going for him. He
lost. If asked to do anything, he attempts to affix himself to the
claims to be an expert in it, with Blueblood character in hopes of
a self-aggrandizing anecdote to advancing his social position after
explain why. the war.
If the morphine supplies are Sharp-chinned and hawk-nosed,
getting low, it might be due to Charles Frouhins grins like he
Margo Amiot’s secret addiction. knows something no one else
She was hooked on the stuff does. When in combat he attacks
in her days as a singer in with animalistic ferocity until
Montmartre. Without thinking the his enemy is not just dead but
question through, she thought a bloody, mutilated splatter. He
a soldier’s life would keep her is not only unable to explain his
far away from her substance rage, he even denies it exists or
of choice—when of course it’s anything crazy just happened.
waiting for her in every med kit. A pixie-ish gamine with
Irrepressible goofball Philippe a breathy voice, Marcelle
Hainia tries to alleviate his Maguenat attracts the protective
comrades’ terror with a constant attention of all the men in her
stream of wisecracks, pranks, unit. She finds this annoying and
and clowning. They don’t find him unjust but can’t see how to stop
as funny as he thinks he is. And them: her six older brothers were
every moment they spend paying all the same way. Marcelle tries
attention to him is one in which to stay out of trouble, so that no
they must be carelessly popping into one will get hurt looking after her
the crosshairs of enemy snipers. when they should be taking care
Frizzy-haired, hollow-cheeked of themselves.
Jane Lemontier used to be a Former pastry chef Boris Maffre
philosopher but now declares bears the nickname of “Custard,”
that the war means “the end which seems odd given his surly,
of all philosophy, the end of all insulting demeanor. He says that if
meaning.” Her fellow soldiers find he stabs two more enemy soldiers
her theorizing either disheartening he will officially have knifed more
or incomprehensible. At least they men in the war than he has in
can agree with her thesis that the civilian life. All of his victims were
greatest pleasure in life is the fellow kitchen workers.
first drag on a freshly lit cigarette. Dockworker and labor organizer
Blue-eyed, dark haired young Marcella Herrand calls war a
Georges Bever is so perfectly game of kings, in which the
84
common man acts merely as a down to “raise.” Long story.) The

playing piece. She plans to use group named him Isaac, at about
the skills picked up in war to which point we moved on to The
bring about anarchist revolution in Wars. The name of the army’s top
France afterwards. Herrand might general was soon revealed: Isaac
attempt to sound out the Salt of Phillipson.
the Earth character in search of Should you need or prefer a
converts to the cause. mundane general, pick one of these:
Corpulent and cranky, General
Henri-Georges Ricard growls
The General irascibly at anyone who wastes a
A character with some second of his time.
connection to a prominent ally General Jeanne Bussière
or adversary the characters fancies herself an erudite wit
encountered in the Paris and cares more about family
sequence serves as General— connections than military rank.
perhaps the general of the army. General Louis Bolduc smiles
In the same way that PCs in tightly when angered and never
this sequence echo those of forgets a slight.
Paris in various ways, the General A fussy, platitude-spewing
might be a descendant or dead Polonius in epaulettes, General
ringer for the original. Or in the Charlotte Aupry lectures inferiors
case of supernaturally long on the virtues of life, the most
lifespans, it might literally be important of which is patience.
the same character. If the group
met Addhema the vampire, she’s
back, and now she’s a general. French Hero
The General could be Cassilda or Generally speaking you’ll only
Camilla, though the King himself want to depict GMCs engaged in
might better cast as a shadowy extraordinary acts of valor if:
figure directing events in the •• They then meet their dooms
headquarters of the enemy. or are at least sidelined,
The General wants to win, leaving room for the player
marshaling Carcosan power. characters to take the reins
She might take a shine to the and drive the story.
squad, or at least consider them •• They later stand in the way
useful, if she realizes that they’ve of the player characters. For
become aware of the eerie war example, the hero insists that
behind the war. they aid his mission instead
In my game, Cassilda gave one of pursuing superstitions.
of the Paris art students, Ida The squad can’t attack a
Phillipson, a baby to raise. (Well, war hero on their own side,
sacrifice, but that was negotiated and so must overcome
85
them in a subtler manner. down her family’s vineyards. She

When you need a French describes the present conflict as
war hero, you might introduce a battle to preserve the gentle
someone who echoes a similarly pleasures of everyday life, a goal
stalwart GMC from Paris. As with for which she is furiously ready to
the player characters, this could slit the throats of any number of
be a descendant, a replica, or enemy soldiers.
the same person, in an ageless Lieutenant Raymond de Funés
condition the hero may or may not conceals the fact that he is the
be able to explain. son of the Duke of Septimania,
Or use one of these: but that won’t fool the character
Lieutenant Robert Desnos, with the Blueblood ability. He
a real estate agent and poet wishes to be treated like any
in his civilian life, undertakes other soldier, but few exhibit his
commando missions with hunger for acts of near-fatal glory.
unwavering determination. He Raymond is also an avid sexual
gazes at the squad with eyes adventurer, with an appetite
the color of oysters. Even though that encompasses all genders,
he wears the same uniform as and, if given the opportunity, the
any other officer of his rank, occasional alien humanoid.
he somehow presents the
impression of high style and
poise. His working-class accent Foreign War Hero
in no way impedes his greatest Use these characters when
weapon, his sonorous voice, you need a one-person killing
which fills subordinates with machine from a foreign force.
surety and resolve. In an offhand Depending on how you’ve divided
moment it might come up that up Shattered Europe, a character
Desnos never dreams. He is this fighting for a particular country
timeline’s version of the famed might serve as ally or enemy.
surrealist poet and hero of the Britain: Lieutenant Cyril
Resistance, who died in a Czech Baskeyfield, from Leeds, bears
concentration camp in 1945. If the scars of three separate
they played our Trail of Cthulhu injuries that ought to have killed
campaign Dreamhounds of Paris, him. He has been offered and
your players might get a kick refused countless opportunities
out of encountering him here, in a to return to the home front. A
world where Carcosan influence quiet man when not issuing
preempted the Surrealist movement. orders, his philosophy might be
Sergeant Arlette Dubois, summed up as, “Let’s just get on
daughter of Burgundy wine with it, shall we?”
makers, enlisted in the army Russia: Expert sniper Sergeant
after enemy saboteurs burned Alina Borodyuk grew up in an
86
orphanage in Kazakhstan and her own mother to protect herself.

joined the Russian army along She isn’t shy about saying that,
with several of her girlfriends, either, pointing a knife at her
where she excelled at long- nearby, elderly mother, Sylvette.
distance shooting. She no longer Old Madame Havard nods, as
forms attachments with fellow if this would be only right and
soldiers, having seen dozens of her proper.
comrades blown to smithereens. Despite her dirty business,
Germany: Despite his lofty rank a glow of youth and glamour
Lieutenant Colonel Otto Skorzeny surrounds the ageless Chantal
often designs commando raids Allaume. She specializes in
in which he takes point position. selling forbidden luxury goods
An Austrian from a middle-class to the French upper echelon. If
family, he lives an austere life, caught on the wrong side of the
sneering at those who crave investigators, she offers them a
comfort. A long, deep dueling scar spectacularly valuable item she
underlines his left cheek. Even happens to have in her purse—a
if they deal with him as a fellow single, fresh white truffle.
Loyalist, the characters may detect Samuel Plummer specializes
something feral and unwholesome in the movement of black market
about him—a sign of his medicines across borders and
murderous allegiance to Carcosa. battle lines. A hunched American
in late middle age with a furtive
expression etched permanently
Black Marketeers in his haunted features, he
War profiteers face the death has a habit of showing up near
penalty if caught but somehow massacre sites. The squad
manage to prosper between the may find him conducting an
cracks. The patrons protecting examination with unfamiliar
them might be corrupt officers, or instruments, or perhaps even
the nobility of Carcosa. helping himself to an abandoned
If encountered anywhere he organ or two. Though they might
can eat, the cadaverous Roger be tempted to immediately
Prepon munches continually on dispatch him, his preternatural
bread, cheese, and nuts. An ability to secure medical
urbane fellow unacquainted with supplies—coincidentally exactly
feelings of shame, he explains the rare drugs they need to save
that without crime, every soldier a precious life—may prompt them
would go hungry. to spare him. Should they earn
Gruff Isabelle Havard shakes what passes for trust from him,
her tangled mane of gray hair at they may learn that he once had
anyone who attempts to out- another name and another life. As
maneuver her. She would sell out famed and controversial surgeon
87
Sidney Pockman, he cracked the warm concern for the squad

secret of nympholic implantation, members that may conceal a lack
allowing him to reanimate the of interest in cooperation.
dead. For two decades he’s
been on the run from the dread
consequences of this discovery. Villagers
What better place to flee, and Villagers may be farmers who
continue his weird research, than live alongside other people and
the most dangerous war zone on go out to work their fields when
the planet? they need to till, weed, or harvest.
More likely, they provide services
to farmers: coopers, blacksmiths,
Brothel Keeper wheelwrights, cart makers, store
Officially frowned upon but proprietors, tavern keepers, and
unofficially deemed essential the like. Assign them whatever
to soldier morale, houses of jobs suit your story.
ill repute spring up wherever They will most often appear as
soldiers are stationed. Madams witnesses who supply tidbits of
have to know what’s going information. When a character
on behind their walls in order appears only to dole out clues,
to survive and maintain the a name and occupation may be
connections that keep them in all the players want. Don’t feel
business. They make wary but you always need to stop the
well-informed witnesses. action to introduce a character’s
Be aware of your group’s memorable quirk if there’s no real
comfort levels (and prepare reason to remember that person.
for the possible appearance Men found as civilians in a war
of X-Cards) before heavily zone are all too young or too old
foregrounding this staple element to fight, or have something else
of wars both real and fictional. obviously wrong with them that
Madam Fleurette rarely explains why they haven’t been
takes her hands from her hips slapped in uniform and shipped
and, until persuaded to assist, to the front. Able-bodied men
treats all questioners as are hiding from conscription and
annoying nuisances. won’t readily reveal themselves to
Aloof as an ancient Roman, soldiers.
Madame Marine keeps an Most people in any given
enigmatic smile on her face and village will be related to one
would rather allude to the truth another, with a few surnames in
than come out and say anything common between them. Sample
definitively. sets of family names: Deniaud,
Madame Hélène adopts a Lestan, Ger vais; Tremblay,
maternal persona, showing a Chrétien, Gagnon; Coté, Morin,
88
Pelletier; For tin, Lavoie, Leblanc; Gaston never leave each other’s
Caron, Ouellet, Fournier; company. They finish each other’s
Boucher, Dubé, Simard. sentences and may leave the
Armand warns the squad group wondering whether they’re
not to upset him, as another sly foxes or half-wits.
heart attack could kill him Lucian carefully shades himself
at any moment. You may from the sun and warns the
decide that he’s as healthy as soldiers to do the same.
anyone in France and is merely Marielle warns the soldiers
repeating the useful lie he told that she’s a terrible liar. “Again
the enlistment officers. Or he and again I have tried to break
could indeed drop dead during the habit, but alas, it has proven
the episode, ideally when the quite impossible.”
characters do something that Terrible scars remain where
causes upset. Marguerite’s ears once were. She
Jolly Babette surrounds says boys from a nearby village
herself with big, rowdy dogs. She did it, when she was twelve. The
emphasizes points she wishes to war is a gift from god and an
make with careless sweeps of her answer to her prayers, she says,
thick, gnarled walking stick. because as soon as it started a
Young Elodie won’t talk about bomb hit their house and killed
the deep scar that slashes every one of them.
down her forehead and into her Marie-Claude knits a black
left eyebrow. scarf with a skull emblem. She
Eva was blinded by shrapnel offers one of her finished versions
from an air strike but tries to keep to the squad, as a reminder of
her spirits up. death’s triumph over all.
Françoise offers the group Constantly working her rosary,
some of her famous boudin noir, Marthe can think of little else
a sausage made from groats and but the fate of her four sons, all
pig’s blood. “In better times there serving in the French infantry.
would be pork in it as well,” she Maurice asks the squad for
says, sadly. money, no matter how trivial the
Gérard escaped conscription by favor they seek from him.
becoming too fat to move. Other Max takes offense at something
villagers darkly grumble about innocuous one of the characters
his ability to keep the weight on says and threatens to slap him.
when everyone else is starving. Max is ninety-three years old and
An envious neighbor might try to can barely stand up.
convince a soldier that the war Micheline offers to take the
effort would be better off without soldiers to a sacred grotto where
Gérard around. one can gain the blessings of St.
Guy and his twin brother Martin of Tours. The Humanities
89
90
ability reveals that this 4th expect in a place populated by a

century bishop is considered the few interlocking families.
patron saint of soldiers. As with the villagers, above,
Paul falls asleep when the healthy men of fighting age
group is talking to him. He says won’t be found in the French
he hasn’t gotten a decent night’s countryside. And again, there’s
sleep since the war began. no shame in skipping over the
Richard wonders aloud what characters’ distinctive quirks until
reward might be paid for captured it becomes clear that they’ll be
enemy soldiers, if he happened taking a big part in a story.
to have any tied up in a nearby Old Louis moves very slowly
cavern. Purely hypothetically, one and seems to think that the
must understand. Franco-Prussian war is still on.
Robert claims to have killed enemy He’s afraid the squad will try to
commandos by sneaking into their conscript him, as if he doesn’t
camp while they were sleeping realize that he’s somewhere in
and pouring boiling lead into their his nineties.
ears. When pressed on the details, Young Bernard has one eye
he changes to another story that that wanders independently of the
has him stealthily slaying multiple other and sizes up the squad’s
enemies. He may be hoping for gear like he’s thinking of stealing
compensation, or delusional. some of it later.
Sacha tearfully tells the squad Suzy, willowy, fair, and harried,
how beautiful his village used to fears male soldiers but may open
be, before the war started. up to women.
Suzanne has accumulated Pierre says “believe me” at the
a hoard of buried gasoline end of any factual declaration,
canisters. If the soldiers seem making even the blandest
trustworthy, she’ll try to arrange a statement sound deceptive.
trade for nonperishable food. Jehanne wrinkles her nose
at the squad as if they stink,
regardless of whether they
Peasants actually do.
Farm folk tend to introduce Stooped and weary Claudine
themselves by first name only. falls asleep if the squad talks to
When more than one person with her for too long.
the same name lives in the area, René tries to get the soldiers
a prefatory nickname like “Old” to pay him a hundred francs
or “Young” or “Fat” still wins out for a treasure map. He has
over a surname. If the characters conveniently placed the X behind
insist on learning a family name, enemy lines.
they’ll find that three or four of Gilberte threatens to have her
them keep recurring—as you’d husband thrash the investigators
91
if they offend her sense of disputes whether the par ties

propriety. She’s sixty; he’s north want to hear from him or not. He
of seventy. has a long list of points to make
André, mute and illiterate, about the disrespect soldiers
communicates by drawing crude show to civilians.
figures in the sand with a stick. Jeanine had a bomb fall on
Annette offers to cook for her potato crop last season and
the squad if they supply the expects the squad to arrange
ingredients. Should they take payment of reparations for it.
her up on it, they find the results Claire wears dried herbs around
movingly delicious. her neck. She’s the village healer
Twelve-year-old Joëlle cheerfully and midwife, an unofficial post
hops around on an ill-made lending her a gruff authority.
crutch, having lost her foot to a “Belle” Claire is her pretty
land mine. “At least I still have daughter, who knows a more
one foot!” she chirps. exciting life awaits her if only
Dora works her rosary beads she can get away to a city. She
while assuring the squad that the asks the squad for tips on how
devil has taken up residence in this to achieve this in the middle of a
neck of the woods. She presses war zone.
homemade crucifixes made of
twine into the characters’ palms.
Despite the nickname, Young
Louis is sixty years old and milky-
eyed. He still has keen hearing,
which he likes to brag about.
Old Bernard carries a flute,
which he plays at the merest
hint of an invitation. He says that
the faeries will come back to the
woods when the war has ended.
“Red” has white hair now, and
says he fought in the German-
American war on the Yankee side.
He offers to teach the squad all
the best American swear words.
Drunk René’s stagger shows
that he comes by his nickname
honestly. He offers to share his
jug of wine, but the foamy spittle
on its mouth may give fastidious
squad members pause.
“Judge” André solves village
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Not Everything Has to Have Hitler In It

This setting allows play groups to interact with motifs and
themes of the war story by refracting them through the fun,
outlandish horrors of the weird horror genre. That keeps the
genuinely unspeakable horror of real-world warfare at a remove.
That distancing device weakens if you foreground the contrast
between the fictional Continental War and our World War II. Like
most genre efforts it breaks down when asked to support the
moral weight of historical genocide.
Moments that spur the players to ask, “Hey, isn’t this
world better than our history?” may derail your game into a
philosophical rabbit hole.
For this reason I recommend skipping the superficially
tempting choice to bring alternate-world versions of Hitler or
other key engineers of the Holocaust directly on stage.
This reality’s 1920s didn’t lay the groundwork for the rise of
fascism. The American-German war of the teens didn’t conclude
in the same harsh surrender terms as our WWI. Those people
who yearned to surrender themselves to cruel authority bowed
down to the King in Yellow or one of his daughters instead of
Hitler or Mussolini.
Still, you know your group better than I do. If you do decide to go
there, your alternate world version of a high-level Nazi might be:
•• an obscure nobody, still twisted by hatred and anti-Semitism
but unable to leverage those impulses into power
•• a devoted henchman of Carcosa
•• an embittered ghost who senses that their life
and death should have gone differently
•• an ordinary person, haunted by terrible dreams in
which they commit acts of unprecedented savagery
Those keen to explore the alternate-versions-of-historical-
monsters trope might consider the less loaded option of having
the squad meet up with the Stalin, Beria, or Molotov of the
Continental War. For western audiences, mention of their bloody
legacy doesn’t shut down all other narrative considerations.
(Although maybe it should.)
93
T h e Y E L L O W K I N G R P G : The Wars – Running The Wars
RUNNING THE WARS
This chapter provides GM they investigate, they find the

advice specific to The Wars. Mystery behind the apparently
These augment the general mundane disciplinary matter.
tips on running GUMSHOE from Hazards: Military threats to
Paris and “GM Masterclass” in the lives and limbs of squad
This Is Normal Now. members, many of them mundane
dangers of warfare.
The Alien Truth: Lays out the
Scenarios solution to the Mystery and the
A baseline Wars scenario decisions the squad must make
includes the following elements. after uncovering it.
The Mission: The military Scenes: The meat of the scenario,
objective the squad is assigned to which you write up in whatever
tackle, written as a brief premise. level of detail works for you.
(alternately, in a Repor t for Antagonist Reactions:
Execution game) The Haven: If Responses adversaries might make
the squad has been detached to actions taken by the squad.
from the command structure As always, the actual manifestation
to instead wander around not of your scenario might be a loose
repor ting for execution, they set of ideas in your head, a fully
typically encounter a situation written text like the one at the
that offers a reason to stop end of this book, or a midway
somewhere and do something. point on the continuum between
Generally, this involves an those two things.
apparent oppor tunity for
protection and rest.
The Mystery: Describes how Shadow Squadron
the eerie forces of Carcosa give This series premise takes its
the group a question they must inspiration from a WWII American
answer through investigation. army unit, the 23rd Headquar ters
In a Military Police series, Special Troops. For more on
Mission leads to Mystery: the the historical model, hunt down
squad gets an assignment to the beautifully produced book
solve a problem involving possible The Ghost Army of World War II,
offenses against discipline. As Rick Beyer and Elizabeth Sayles,
94
Princeton Architectural Press, 2015. send the 112th all over the
The unit per forms militar y theater of war, tackling a variety
deception operations designed of thematically related Missions.
to confuse the enemy with Because war often turns
tricks causing them to identify into an exercise in desperate
nonexistent troops and improvisation, the 112th
equipment as real. may from time to time find
Missions might include: themselves pressed into ser vice
•• Placing inflatable tanks, unrelated to their exper tise.
trucks, and/or ar tiller y They’re near a hole that needs
units in a given position. plugging and get unexpectedly
•• Concealing speakers to sent to plug it.
play recordings indicating Alternately, you could invent
the nearby presence another highly specialized
of a Loyalist unit. purpose for the unit that creates
•• Posing as members of genuine a demand for its ser vices across
Loyalist militar y units and the war.
entering towns, as if on leave, This is the premise I used for
where enemy spies operate. my own in-house game.
This makes it seem as if the
unit is in location A when it is Mission vs. Mystery
really far away, in location B. Conceive the Mission so that
•• Assisting actual units it either complicates or dovetails
with camouflage, so that with the Mystery, rather than
their positions appear conflicting with it.
unoccupied, leading enemy Examples of complications to
troops into ambush. the Mission:
•• Reconnoitering areas to •• That old church you’re sent to
assess their suitability for occupy turns out to be haunted.
a false troop deception. •• The town where you’ll find
•• Clearing positions of enemy the spies you want to fool
forces who would other wise has been stricken by a
see through a planned creeping Carcosan plague.
deception operation. •• Something has overwritten your
Here the squad’s Lieutenant acetate recordings of walker
commands the 112th Troupe movements with a recitation
de logistique d’opérations, from The King in Yellow.
self-nicknamed the Shadow When you dovetail Mission and
Squadron. To preser ve the Myster y, solving the Myster y
vagueness of the official name, enables you to then complete
the unit never refers to itself as the Mission:
that to outsiders. •• The enemy unit you’re sent to
This conceit allows you to drive off has been empowered
95
by a force beyond this world. specifies a faraway city within

By finding and destroying the Loyalist territory.
source of their weird abilities, Paraphrase the dialogue to
you cause them to flee. make it sound natural.
Avoid structures where the The players will likely have
group must choose between questions about this. Make the
succeeding at the Mission and players drag out the key details
solving the Mystery. When players from you as given here.
incorrectly assume that you’ve put Wait. What? The Amiens
the two in conflict, remind them Convention?
of the promise in the introductory This amended the Geneva
handout: the story will always Convention in several apparently
give them a way of doing both. innocuous ways. Unusually, these
Where needed, ask them how terms were agreed to between
their Drives motivate them to dive disputing parties in an ongoing
deeper into the Mystery. war. The Loyalists and the enemy
agreed to them two and a half
years ago.
Report for Execution But wait, that means we have
Perhaps after a few prefatory to report for execution?
scenarios in which the squad You hadn’t heard of this
per forms basic commando provision before, but if you go off
missions, encountering a mystery and check obscure sub-clauses
each time, the Commanding in the Amiens Convention text,
Officer calls the Lieutenant it allows both sides to recover
into his tent or office. With a equipment and even certain
regretful expression, the CO says territories by declaring that a
something like this: reciprocity condition has been met.
“An unfortunate bit of news, But we were asking about the
I’m afraid. You and several of execution part.
your soldiers have been selected Yes, yes, each side can gain
to report for execution. This concessions from the other by
of course is no reflection on sending certain numbers of
the quality of your ser vice to soldiers to Reciprocity Depots,
the French people, but simply where they are executed.
a regrettable necessity of the And how we to be executed
Amiens Convention. I see that exactly?
I have been granted discretion It involves a complicated
as to which Reciprocity Depot machine of some kind. Highly
you must report to, and I’m sure classified, you know. Quite
you’d all enjoy some extra time, painless, presumably.
so I’ll make it the furthest depot.” How were we chosen?
The CO glances at a map and It is a difficult process, hard
96
to describe. A modified lottery •• A way of gaining human

system. Be assured, it is no sacrifices. In this case the
reflection on you. The generals Carcosan nobles are either
are not allowed to send only our unaware of the way mid-
inadequate soldiers. It’s an honor, ranking officers slow-walk
really. Think of it as an honor. the execution process or
And we must report have only now discovered
immediately? it and will soon star t acting
Well, within a reasonable time. to take closer control.
People are known to dawdle. You •• A tradition of Carcosan war fare
can take a circuitous route. Just long predating the current
remember that your honor as an dynasty. It makes sense to
officer is at stake here. them as an intrinsic par t of
What if we flee? war and politics, and they
You will be treated like any accept it without question.
other deserters—hunted down This premise gives your squad
and shot. The military police take the freedom to wander around a
this with the utmost seriousness, war zone, in uniform, with some
as I am sure you understand. militar y authority, without having
Otherwise the entire system to constantly follow orders from
would break down. above. As they peregrinate
As you have already guessed, slowly toward the Reciprocity
Carcosa has added a macabre Depot, they encounter the
element to their game of war. various mysteries of the week
They negotiated the Amiens your episodes revolve around.
Convention and had their pet They might even discover that by
leaders sign it. If the squad banishing the forces of Carcosa
investigates the process, they from the world, they might undo
might discover that it is: the Amiens Convention and save
•• A sick joke between not only their own lives but those
competing Carcosan royals, of many other brave soldiers.
reveling in their ability to Along the way other Commanding
warp human society in any Officers might now and then
direction they choose. temporarily commandeer their
ser vices, pressing them into
emergency missions.
Share the above with the
players, telling them that the
premise assumes they’ll keep
encountering weird mysteries
along the way, without ever
actually repor ting for execution.
97
In the unlikely event that the including his clothing.

players still have their characters •• A glassy-eyed civilian takes a
determinedly head to the top command officer hostage.
Reciprocity Depot, they can either: Once apprehended, he
•• Discover that their paper work wakes up as if from a trance,
is not in proper order, requiring demanding to know who brought
them to travel to a different, him here, so far from his home.
now quite distant, depot. Again, this premise allows the
•• Unwind the final myster y of squad to move around from one
the execution chambers, situation to another in a way denied
ending the convention. This to the common infantryman.
might mark the triumphant When you need a Mission, you
end of your Wars sequence, can always consult the episode
or a shift to a new premise. guide for the TV series JAG, find
A Shadow Squadron series can a premise, and then warp it to fit
shift midway through to AWOL. both the Continental War and the
You might choose to do this if you supernatural. This method in no
want to keep running this setting way depends on any additional
but have run out of inspiration for knowledge of JAG, and there’s ten
deception-related missions. seasons of it, so you’ll never run
out. And if you do, there’s NCIS
and NCIS: Los Angeles, both long-
Military Police running and still on the air as of
In this version of your Wars this writing.
sequence, the players belong In between the episodes that
to a small unit investigating occur on screen the squad
crimes committed by soldiers. presumably spends most of its
These investigations lead to time on mundane and easily
supernatural Mysteries behind, solved cases of assault, murder,
around, or adjacent to the and most of all, desertion.
infractions against discipline.
•• A soldier kills another in an
insensate fury. When he’s Hazard Scenes
locked up, it happens again, Moments of attrition add a
to another soldier. What new scene type to the structure
force lies behind this? described in Paris: the Hazard
•• The squad tracks deserters to scene. A Hazard scene consists
a haunted town. The entities of one or more physical or
that drew them there now have mental obstacles the squad
more potential victims they must overcome in order to
didn’t even have to work for. move between scenes. Like
•• An officer disappears, leaving Antagonist Reactions, they wear
behind all of his effects, the group down without giving
98
them information-gathering the main mystery. If they conclude

opportunities. Unlike those that one of them is central to the
sequences, they don’t feature the case, improvise a way to connect
main threat acting against the their inquiries into it back into the
heroes, but simply reflect the cost primary mystery.
and danger of moving about in a Generally speaking the best
war zone. way to achieve this is by throwing
In Paris, the characters might more tests at them. Sticking to
talk to one witness, head over the same number of tests, but
to another neighborhood of the with higher Difficulties, doesn’t
city to talk to someone else, then deplete them as effectively.
circle back to the original witness Players notice that they’re facing
again. In The Wars, they may more tests but can’t tell that
learn to ask all of their questions you’ve jacked up the Difficulties.
in one place before moving on to The introduction of the Morale
the next, as each physical journey ability lets players recover much-
may expose them to enemy fire, needed Composure. Scrounging
and perhaps even a randomly likewise refills Battlefield pools.
ravening creature or two. Now and then you’ll want to
The Wars is the setting where loosen the pressure. Letting the
you really hammer the players’ players breathe for a bit gives them
General ability pools. Any the emotional oxygen they need
movement from one place to the to ramp back up into terror later.
next, or any pause to Hunker But by and large, this sequence is
Down, can introduce a brutal called The Wars, not The Picnics.
assault on Composure, Health,
Fighting, and/or Athletics.
In a war zone, Hazards both Chain of Command
physical or mental can come Gaming groups tend to work
out of nowhere, unrelated to by consensus, with everyone
the Mystery. That makes them throwing in ideas until a plan of
easier to throw in at any time, action emerges.
without bending your plot out of Military units don’t work that
shape. In early episodes, before way at all.
the characters (if not the players) To square this circle and ensure
realize that supernatural events a fun experience in which all get
underpin the entire conflict, lean their say, maintain a separation
on war’s well-known, non-eerie between the clear lines of authority
horrors. As the series progresses the characters observe and the
you can dial up the weirdness. back-and-forth between players.
When you do this look for ways The players hash out a plan of
to help players distinguish action. Then, in character, they
background manifestations from play out the process by which
99
100
the Lieutenant, consulting the hints of the Yellow King’s grand

Sergeant, decides what to do and design in the war. The relevance
issues orders accordingly. of their connections to the 1895
Intervene in communications characters becomes more evident.
between players only when The Game Revealed: Plot
a problem crops up. Many elements established in the
groups will fall into this pattern prior phase come to a head, as
instinctively without your having to the stakes increase, the war
enforce or signpost it. grows in intensity, and the group
Often a dynamic emerges where learns why Carcosa fights. In a
players enjoy making the odd quip climactic scenario the group gets
about a lack of respect for superiors, the chance to strike a major, if
without puncturing the conceit of not conclusive, blow against their
a squadron obeying the full French main antagonist. They might earn
formalities of military discipline. a key victory, ending the carnage
If the authority of the Lieutenant of the war, or fail, whetting their
or Sergeant roles go to a player’s appetite for final success.
head, recap the principles of the The action then shifts to
player/character split. Where Aftermath.
necessary act as mediator to The same setup works just
ensure that nobody spoils the as well when you’re playing The
fun by forcing characters to take Wars as its own, self-contained
actions the players hate. campaign. Recurring characters
showing up in “Glimmers of
Carcosa” will of course be
Sequence Arc appearing for the first time. As
Give your Wars game a sense of part of a bigger sequence, failure
sweep by designing scenarios to at the end can be as much or
fit the following pattern. more satisfying than success.
Baseline Madness: The That won’t be the case in a Wars-
squad investigates a number of only game, so you’ll likely want
standalone Mysteries. Through to design its conclusion to give
these they come to see that players a reasonable chance of
supernatural manifestations are final triumph.
real and, if their experiences
are anything to go by, pervasive The Big Objective
throughout the war zone. If the logic of horror adventure
Glimmers of Carcosa: As their tells us anything, it is this: a war
confrontations with weirdness fueled by supernatural forces will
continue, the squad learns about be won by supernatural means.
Carcosa and the Yellow Sign. As you begin your arc, select
They meet one or more running a possible end point for the war.
characters and glimpse their first Tentatively answer two questions:
101
1. How does the supernatural entity its harmless detonation before it

secretly directing the actions of falls on the Champs-Élysées.
the enemy plan to win? Backstage Kill: The squad
2. What could the squad do to identifies the big bad and gains
stop this? informatin giving them at least
Possible endgames include: a chance of defeating them in
Occupation of Paris: Treating physical combat. When the big
Paris as the ultimate prize in the bad is the King or one of his
war fits the prominence it takes daughters, you could set this up
in the Yellow King mythology and so an apparent kill only banishes
in the 1895 sequence. If the the enemy back to Carcosa. But
Loyalists repulse a final attack on it’s a monarchy, the primary villain
the city, the enemy’s aggression of subsequent sequences could
falters. It begins to pull back and, then become the newly ascended
after further defeats, sues for Queen in Yellow, or some other
peace. A triumphant final episode heir to the throne.
might end with the enemy defeat Banishing: Alternately the squad
at Paris, allowing you to sum up could be trying to send the big
the slow deflating weeks before bad back to Carcosa, after gaining
the admission of defeat in a quick information showing them how to
bit of explanatory narration. To conduct the necessary ritual.
gain the ability to repulse the As your plans make contact
invaders, perhaps the squad must with the players, you might decide
solve a Mystery that leaves them to switch to another option that
in possession of potent Carcosan better reflects the parts of the
magic. This might be: story they respond to most
•• the original physical enthusiastically. It might be one
manifestation of the Yellow Sign of the above, or an idea that
•• the text of The King in Yellow, comes to you through play. Just
in the original Carcosan make sure that you can square
•• a magical infant born from a the fictional facts you’ve given
mystical union of opposites them with this midstream change
•• the mask-like face of a of plans.
previous Yellow King, preserved My own Wars sequence ended
in mummified form with the squad in the midst of a
Big Bomb: The enemy seeks massive battle for Marseilles and
to destroy Paris by air. The concluded with their realization
squad must prevent them from that they’d been used to bring
dropping their newly completed Camilla and Cassilda together
supernatural super-bomb. for one sister’s assassination of
Design the scenario so that one the other. One massive explosion
possible ending has the group later, it was time for Aftermath.
sacrificing themselves to ensure
102
A FEAST FOR WOLVES
In this introductory scenario for The Cast

The Wars, the squad performs During these scenes the squad
an assignment near the village of encounters such residents of
Gévaudan in the shadows of the Gévaudan as:
Margeride Mountains. Madame Mareuil, a tough old
lady who acts as unofficial village
leader as well as its supplier of
The Hook cured meat.
The squad travels to the site Erik Mareuil, her protective
(The Trek). Near their destination, eldest adult son.
they witness a devastating Sylvain Mareuil, his younger
accident (Dragonflies Down) that brother, a grinning beanpole who
leaves many French soldiers has embraced the village’s new
dead. They complete their task ways with sadistic enthusiasm.
and when they return, they find Père Johanneau, the recently
the bodies missing (Missing arrived young priest who wants to
Bodies). help the squad but lives in terror
of his parishioners.
Paul Chastel, a burly, outwardly
The Development affable hunter, and descendant
This causes them to connect of the famed animal expert who
The Village of Gévaudan to its supposedly slew the beast in 1767.
past history, as the location of a Arielle Chavanal, a 16-year-old
rampage by a legendary man-eating girl who lives in a world of books
wolf. Or was it a lycanthrope? and might befriend a member of
They might investigate its Well- the squad.
Fed Peasants, find information Valérie Chavanal, her worried mother.
at The Church, or encounter
a hunter met along the way
(Chastel Again). The Alien Truth
Clues to the body disappearances Touched by the madness of the
appear in The Uniforms. Possible Yellow Sign, Gévaudan’s villagers
cooperation comes from The have turned to cannibalism. The
Reader and a Worried Mother. influence of Carcosa has reached
103
T h e Y E L L O W K I N G R P G : The Wars – A Feast for Wolves
into their collective beliefs to Possible Climaxes

alter reality, bringing into being Does the squad arrange for
an incarnation of the beast that the destruction of the village and
protects and aids them—provided hunt down the wolf creature, as
they continue to consume human imagined in Against Gévaudan?
flesh. The squad discovers this in Or do they Command the Beast,
scenes Madame Mareuil and The succumbing to the temptation to
Meat Locker. use it as a weapon?
SCENE ZONE DIAGRAM
A FEAST FOR WOLVES

INTRO / HAZARD
The Trek
HAZARD
Dragonﬂies Down
CORE
The Mission
CORE
Missing Bodies
CORE CORE CORE

Chastel Again The Village The Church
ALTERNATE CORE
The Uniforms Well-Fed
Peasants
CORE CORE
The Reader Madame Mareuil
CORE
The Meat Locker
CLIMAX CLIMAX
ALTERNATE
Command Against
Worried Mother the Beast Gévaudan
104
Scenes In Shadow Squadron, the same

applies, except that the anti-
aircraft battery isn’t real.
The Trek In Military Police, they have just
Scene Type: the mission packet.
Introduction/Hazard
Lead-Out: Dragonflies Down The New Guy
The PCs aren’t the only
soldiers making the trek. They’re
The scenario begins with the accompanied by four to five
squad already on the march, others. In Report for Execution
traveling along the shore of or Shadow Squadron, they’re
an ash-choked river. Describe fellow members of the mission
a formerly verdant region group. In Military Police, they’re
devastated by battle: reinforcements to a patrol group,
•• bare, flame-blackened trees with a rendezvous near the site.
•• carrion birds feasting on Among the additional soldiers
gobbets of flesh that might is fresh-faced Private Luc Pascal.
have been a deer or a lost cow The son of an impoverished Paris
•• shattered remnants of laborer, he attempts to befriend
downed aircraft the friendliest-seeming of the
Something crunches underfoot. PCs, seeking reassurance. His
Oh, look, it’s the top of father tells him he’ll be lucky to
someone’s skull! Choose the survive a month, but surely there
character with the lowest Sense are ways to protect yourself, no?
Trouble to be the one who Pascal might also hint that
actually steps on the skull. In the he has heard strange rumors
event of a tie, choose arbitrarily about odd phenomena seen on
or pick the player you think the battlefield. He could report
will give you the best reaction. a strange dream relating to the
Difficulty 3 Composure tests (4 PC’s Damned Peculiar Thing.
for the unfortunate stepper) to Your objective: to get the players
avoid Shocks, Minor and Major: to care about him, and possibly to
Revulsion/Nightmare Fuel. feel his fear.
The Lieutenant has a mission
packet, to be opened when the Land Mine
squad reaches a particular set of The group encounters a jumble of
coordinates. unexploded land mines. Difficulty 4
The group travels on foot. Battlefield to avoid Injuries, Minor
In a Report for Execution series, and Major: Shrapnel/“Am I Still in
each carries select components for One Piece?”
an anti-aircraft battery. The rest will Give the player who most
be airlifted to the site by dragonfly. engaged with Pascal the chance
105
to save him from harm, which Military Science: That likely

increases the difficulty of the means that one of the dead is the
Battlefield test by 2. lieutenant.
If no one does this, or the A sergeant keeps a watchful
squad member trying fails the eye on his men. The Sergeant
test, Pascal suffers shrapnel PC might approach him, or an
wounds. A Difficulty 4 First Aid enlisted character might speak to
success patches him up. one of the grunts.
Military Science reveals The sergeant’s name is
that these mines were planted Lemieux; he surveys them with
elsewhere but must have been a wary squint. Surnames on the
washed down the river. others’ uniforms include Villefort,
Terrain: That must have been Guimard, Borne, and Laubert.
years ago, before debris clogged By asking the soldiers questions
the river. Nothing would move the group can learn that:
down it that quickly today. •• They await the arrival of a new
lieutenant, plus reinforcements.
•• The previous lieutenant was
killed in a skirmish with
Dragonflies Down enemy paratroopers.
Scene Type: Hazard •• The enemy has been hitting the
Lead-In: The Trek area with bombers and strafing
Lead-Out: The Assignment attacks from dragonflies.
•• They must be softening up the
area for a big push inland.
A few uneventful hours of travel When the conversation wanes,
pass as the group moves inland the distinctive chopping of
to a less devastated area. Green dragonflies can be heard in the
returns to the trees. Bomb craters distance.
grow less frequent. Give the player with Military
The clearing around the Science the option of making
riverbed opens up as they near a Push. If made, the character
the coordinates where their can tell from the whirring of the
Lieutenant is to unseal the rotors that these are French craft
envelope containing their orders. coming in.
There they find a couple of Otherwise, squad members
squads of French infantry, wearily must make Difficulty 4
resting where the clearing meets Composure tests to avoid
the trees. instinctively hitting the dirt.
Sprawled under blankets, at a When the French markings on
discreet distance from the living, the dragonflies become visible,
lie the bodies of several soldiers. the waiting infantry squad enjoys
No officers are present. a humiliating laugh at their
106
expense. Minor Shock: Lily- Mission. In the meantime, the

Livered; Major: Yellow-Bellied. best they can do is make him
Give the player with Military comfortable.
Logistics the chance to make If left untreated, he dies.
a Push. If made, the character Difficulty 5 Composure to avoid
sees that the pilot of the second Shocks, Minor and Major:
dragonfly is too close to the first Callous/Pit of Remorse.
and can shout a warning to the Even when stabilized, he’s in
others. This gives a +2 bonus on no shape to be dragged up the
the upcoming Battlefield test. mountainside and back.
The two ‘thopters collide. A Terrain: The character spots the
fireball fills the sky, sending perfect hidden spot in a copse of
shrapnel flying across the trees to stash him.
landscape. The dragonflies
plow into the other squadron,
obliterating them.
Difficulty 4 Battlefield to avoid The Mission
Injuries, Minor and Major: A Hard Scene Type: Core
Leap/Flaming Debris. Lead-In: Dragonflies Down
Then they must cope with the Lead-Out: Missing Bodies
sight of the horrific accident.
Difficulty 4 Composure to avoid
Shocks, Minor and Major: Opening the mission envelope,
Witness to Carnage/Existence is the Lieutenant sees that the
a Meat-Grinder. orders take them up onto a
Military Logistics: The correct forested ridge, where they are
protocol now would be to collect to:
the body parts, sorting them •• (Shadow Squadron) Set up
as effectively as possible into a fake anti-aircraft batter y.
individual casualties, and then •• (Repor t for Execution) Set up
use the boîtenoire to contact a real anti-aircraft batter y.
base to send a mortuary detail •• (Militar y Police) Find and
out to collect them. retrieve a buried canister
The squad finds one survivor: containing classified
Private Pascal, with his left leg documents stolen and hidden
sheared off and his right in need by a deser ter. The orders do
of amputation below the knee. He not reveal who the deser ter
can be stabilized with a 2-point was.Interrogation: A pretty
First Aid spend, made by one or good guess would have it that
two players. the would-be spy has been
Military Logistics: They’ll have caught, gave up the location,
to try to get him back to base and has either already been
safely after completing their shot or will be, once militar y
107
intelligence has squeezed Shocks, Minor and Major: The

ever ything they can out of him. Shudders/Shaken.
Military Science: It is to be First Sign of Hunters
expected that the orders reveal As the squad continues to
as little of the story as possible. its destination atop the ridge,
Hunting reveals a recent rabbit
Hunkering snare, suggesting that there are
If players have significantly trappers actively working the
depleted their Battlefield points, woods here.
introduce the Hunkering Down
rules (p. 24) and let them The Assignment
choose whether to take this (Shadow Squadron) Erecting
moment to use them. the fake ar tiller y batter y well
enough to fool enemy aerial
The Body recon requires a Difficulty 5
On the way up the ridge, the Mechanics test, on which any
squad encounters a gruesome character (not just the one
sight: a dead enemy paratrooper making the main test) can
hangs from a tree. His body is contribute up to 1 point of
missing from the waist down. Scrounging. This represents
His jaw gapes open, his face the the location of vegetation
proverbial rictus of horror. elements that can assist the
Medicine: He sustained these camouflage effor t. If your group
injuries pre-mortem and bled out. likes to solve logistical problems
Farming: It looks like he was creatively, let them come up with
mauled by an animal. But what this on their own. Suggest it if
kind of animal would do that? they’re less interested in that
Science: The bite marks level of detail.
match those of a wolf—but (Repor t for Execution) A real
that’s impossible! If this was an batter y takes a Difficulty 4
animal, it was twice the size of Artillery test.
a gray wolf. And no such animal (Militar y Police) The canister
exists anywhere in the world. can be found with Terrain or
This would be even larger than Hunting.
the prehistoric dire wolf. (That
beastie had more power ful jaws Meet the Hunters
than extant wolves but was not During the hump back down
so much larger than its biggest the slope, Hunting points out the
sur viving relatives.) location of a hunter’s blind, and
The sight of the dead notes movement behind it. On
man occasions a Difficulty a Hunting spend, or a Difficulty
3 Composure test to avoid 4 Sneaking success, the squad
can circle around and come upon
108
the men behind it without alerting to the wolves question

them to their presence. registers as deceptive.
Or they can simply hail the •• Farming: They are better
hunters, who emerge from fed than most peasants
behind the blind if called with hereabouts. Look at
the sor t of friendly wave one Chastel’s gut!
uses when greeting armed •• Medicine: Chastel and
infantr y of one’s own nation. friends do not show the usual
The one the others clearly signs of malnutrition found
defer to introduces himself as in civilians near the front.
Paul Chastel. He’s a grizzled, •• Humanities: The place name
somewhat por tly peasant in his Gévaudan rings peculiar bells:
mid-50s. •• That used to be the name of
Another three men hunt a county hereabouts, but went
alongside him. out of use when counties were
Chastel does not require reorganized into the department
coaxing to answer questions from system in 1790. (This is now
the squad. He presents himself the department of Lozère.)
as a perfectly ordinary, forthright •• In the medieval period people
civilian. He supplies the following, in this region spoke Occitan, a
in response to relevant questions: language similar to Catalan.
•• He and his party live in the •• The religious wars that wreaked
nearby village of Gévaudan. incredible havoc in France in
•• Giant wolves? No, he has never the 16th century hit the region
heard of such a thing! But heavily, destroying its wealth.
many strange sights have been •• But speaking of wolves, this
seen since the war began. place is best remembered
•• With ash raining from the for the Beast of Gévaudan,
skies, and soldiers tramping a wild animal that killed
through the fields or running over a hundred people
off with your chickens, farming between 1764 and 1767.
is nigh impossible these days. •• It tore out the throats of
And it is barely possible at its victims, proceeding
the best of times. So he must to partially eat them.
supplement his table with •• It non-fatally mauled another
game—also in short supply. hundred or so people.
•• He has heard rumors of •• The king, Louis XIV, launched
enemy paratroopers but luckily several campaigns to
has not tangled with them. wipe it out. Their failure
He taps the butt of his rifle. embarrassed him politically.
“We might have a surprise •• Legend has it that a hunter
or two in store for them.” finally felled the beast with
•• Assess Honesty: His response a self-made silver bullet.
109
•• The name of this hunter? (core, Missing Bodies) Military

Jean Chastel. Logistics: But with the Mission
•• Historians have theorized that taken care of, their next priority
the beast was really one or must be to get Private Pascal
more large wolves, a pack of back to base.
dog-wolf hybrids, an imported
hyena, or a red mastiff.
•• Some accounts accuse Chastel
of owning the rampaging animal, Missing Bodies
or of killing a hyena he owned Scene Type: Core
and palming it off as the beast. Lead-In: The Mission
•• Historians also question Lead-Out: The Village
the silver bullet story,
probably a later addition.
•• (on a Push) The silver Strafing Hazard: As the squad
bullet story was absolutely, heads down the mountain, it
definitely, added later, and hears an enemy plane overhead.
can be safely disregarded. Difficulty 4 Sneaking tests (which
As usual when one ability can be piggybacked) allow them
provides many informational to hide in the trees. Without them
tidbits at once, give the player they are strafed by machine gun
time to ask questions that lead fire from a dragonfly. Difficulty 3
to answers, rather than spitting Battlefield to avoid Injuries, Minor
out the above bullet points in a and Major: Your Lucky Charm
single, non-interactive barrage. Caught a Bullet/Perforated.
For more on the beast, fire Without further incident the
up its Wikipedia page, or listen squad reaches the site of the
ahead of time to Episode 206 previous dragonfly crash, where
of the Ken and Robin Talk About they stashed Pascal.
Stuff podcast. They find both him and all of the
If asked about Jean Chastel, other bodies missing.
Paul is flattered to know that (core) Hunting: Though
someone remembers his someone has taken care to cover
ancestor. He believes the silver their tracks, a skilled eye can still
bullet story and feigns offense see that they were dragged to the
if anyone implies that the beast northeast. It wasn’t an animal
might have survived. Jean felled who did this. It was people.
it nearly two hundred years ago! Terrain: (if the squad watched
(Assess Honesty: He maybe Chastel and his buddies depart
believes some of what he’s after the meeting in the woods)
saying, but at the same time is Gévaudan, if that’s where they were
putting on an act.) going, also lies to the northeast.
110
livestock. However, it’s hard to

The Village imagine what fields people would
Scene Type: Core go to in this hilly, uncleared region.
Lead-In: Missing Bodies Hunting: People might be
Lead-Outs: Chastel Again, The subsisting on hunting alone, but
Church, Well-Fed Peasants that would be quite a feat.
Medicine: The folks seen
disappearing into their homes
Terrain leads the group into seem unusually well-nourished for
the woods, along a creek bed, peasants in wartime.
and to a village nestled in the Most of the homes are
foothills of one of the area’s unmarked. The largest of them,
verdant mountains. however, has a coat of arms
The village consists of a crudely painted on a piece of
collection of stone houses with wood above its front door. A
wooden shingles arranged around knight’s helmet surmounts a
an unpaved, curving road. banner featuring a red cross over
(core, The Church) Slightly apart a yellow field.
from the other buildings stands a Blueblood: This would be the
stone church in an old Gothic style. heraldic mark of the noble Chastel
(core, Well-Fed Peasants) On family. To think that a sign hung over
seeing the squad, the villagers a farmer’s hovel signals any true
move swiftly but calmly into their connection to that lineage is absurd!
homes, slamming doors and The aristocratic family of that name
shutters closed. hails from the north of France, not
Salt of the Earth: It would be the south. One can sport the last
odd if they reacted in any other name of Chastel without being
way to arriving soldiers. Like any descended from the Chastels.
village dwellers, they probably Humanities: (if the group
think that the PCs are there made the connection between
to raid their stores of food or the name Chastel and the Beast
drag away conscripts—or both. of Gévaudan) History recalls
You know who you can’t trust? no relation between the noble
Friendly, welcoming villagers. Chastels and the hunter Jean
They’re the ones with the Chastel, who allegedly brought
sharpened pitchforks hidden down the beast.
behind the nearest hay-mound. (core, Chastel Again) Leaving
Farming: Typically in a village aside the issue of whether Paul
like this, the farmers live close Chastel has the right to adorn his
together and then go out each day home with the Chastel crest, that
to tend their own separate fields. does certainly indicate that he
That would suggest that they grow lives there.
crops and do not much go in for
111
•• Philippe Galet, a stubble-faced

Well-Fed Peasants old man who waxes nostalgic
Scene Type: Core about the food he ate on his
Lead-Ins: The Village one trip to Marseilles in 1923.
Lead-Outs: Madame Mareuil, •• Marie-Thérèse Boucher,
The Reader, The Church who complains of terrible
headaches, which get worse
whenever planes fly overhead.
Knocking on the doors of You’ll likely need only one of these.
random peasants reinforces the (core, The Church) If
fact that peasants see no reason threatened or intimidated,
to welcome soldiers. random peasants try to steer
Choosing a door at random the squad’s suspicions toward
never leads directly to Madame Père Johanneau, the relatively
Mareuil, but rather to another new parish priest. They affirm
village resident. whatever suspicions the
At any door other than Chastel’s, investigators’ questions imply.
the people inside go quiet and So if a character asks if anyone
refuse to come to the door. They has any knowledge of the
pretend to be absent even when supernatural, they say that the
it’s perfectly clear to both parties young father sometimes adds odd
that the squad members saw them references into his sermons—for
just moments ago. example, mentioning the Lord’s
The investigators gain entry on a “mighty yellow sign.” If instead
cold approach in one of two ways: the players ask about possible
1. A Salt of the Earth or contact with the enemy, they say
Reassurance Push. they saw him out in the woods
2. Busting their way in. This laying down what might have
later triggers the Antagonist been a flag to aid the passage of
Reaction “Peasant Reprisals,” enemy paratroopers. Asked about
p. 127. Only if the squad wolves or lycanthropes, they say
does something exceptional he always goes missing around
to defuse local anger over this the full moon, and once was seen
incident can they avoid the stumbling back with his clothing
reprisal. Angry villagers act torn and bloodied.
against the squad whether or (core, The Reader) Has the
not it suits Madame Mareuil or squad already been to the church
the Chastels. but not yet met Arielle? The
Peasant names and personalities: peasants instead similarly direct
•• Agnès Fermier, a frail their suspicions to her.
octogenarian with (core, Madame Mareuil) On
trembling hands and a the other hand, if the squad
low opinion of soldiers. ingratiates itself to the peasants,
112
they steer them to Madame No fool, he can spot a false

Mareuil as the true person the profession of faith.
village looks to for direction. When the group does not
As seems fitting, they might also establish a bond of trust with him,
supply clues the team missed in he dissembles, trying to direct the
already completed scenes. squad away from Gévaudan as
quickly and decisively as possible.
In deceptive mode (which
The Church registers as such to Assess
Scene Type: Alternate Honesty), his answers to
Lead-Ins: The Village, Chastel questions go something like this:
Again, Well-Fed Peasants •• The people of Gévaudan are
Lead-Outs: The Meat Locker, good, honest folk, simple yet
The Uniforms true in their Christian faith.
•• If they seem hard, it is
because the war has
Since his tenure as parish been tough on them.
priest in Gévaudan began six •• Fortunately, their skill at hunting
months ago, the young priest has kept them acceptably
Laurent Johanneau has learned fed when other villages more
to live in terror of his flock. When reliant on agriculture alone
the squad meets him, he’s torn teeter on starvation’s brink.
between a desire to speak to •• Stolen bodies? Surely the
sympathetic outsiders, and his work of enemy paratroopers!
fear of attack by village residents. •• Enemy infiltrators spread rumors
Medicine: Unlike the villagers, of lycanthropy, taking advantage
his already gaunt frame bears the of old werewolf legends.
clear marks of wartime hunger. •• (At this point, he can fill in
Johanneau looks like he’s in his any part of the Gévaudan
late 30s but is actually a decade legend the squad didn’t put
younger than that. together for itself, portraying
He offers the squad a share of it as enemy psy-ops.)
his meager lentil soup. He offers •• The psy-ops force may be
to pray with those who seek abetted by local bandits,
solace and to hear confessions, if deserters, and criminals.
any wish to give them. •• Presumably they headquarter
Winning his full trust requires somewhere in the woods,
either a Reassurance or Inspiration perhaps in a mountain cave.
Push, or a Push by a character who •• Their disinformation
has either already been established campaign has taken a
as a devout Catholic, or whose terrible toll on superstitious,
player decides on the spot to play uneducated locals.
the PC that way. •• They also spread rumors of the
113
Yellow Sign, an occult symbol original loup garou.

of mind-bending power that first •• Johanneau reckons that the
appeared two generations ago werewolves spent several
and was suppressed in France. centuries hunting cautiously.
•• The impious foreigners have •• Now the war has brought
brought it back—or stories a cornucopia of carrion
about it, at least, which for them to feed on.
have nearly the same effect •• (core, The Uniforms) There’s
on vulnerable souls. a spot near the source of a
If the group has won his trust, nearby creek where they go
he tells an even crazier story: with shovels. This must be
•• The leading villagers of where they bury the indigestible
Gévaudan are werewolves! bones of their victims.
•• They can turn into ravening •• (core, The Meat Locker) The
beasts at will—no full moon squad won’t find evidence
required. They can do it against Madame Mareuil in
during the day, even! her home. But just outside
•• In wolf form, they kill stray the village she keeps a cool
soldiers, and also drag home room, built into the side
the dead to be devoured. of a hill. That’s where she
•• Johanneau has seen Madame makes the sausages the
Mareuil in her giant wolf villagers love so—and where
form, clear intelligence proof of her lycanthropic
burning in her eyes. activities will be found.
•• She spared his life—perhaps Johanneau refuses to leave the
because she knows he’s too village now that he has spilled
frightened to talk. If she ate the beans. His departure would
him, the diocese would send merely endanger the next priest to
another priest, “who might come along.
not be so cowardly as I.” Does the squad make an
(Johanneau saw the beast and effort to conceal their talk with
wrongly assumed it was Mareuil. the priest from the rest of the
This scenario includes a wolf- village? A Difficulty 5 Sneaking
monster and human cannibals, success avoids the Antagonist
but no actual lycanthropes.) Reaction “Dead Priest,” p. 128.
•• His predecessor, Père Martin, A physical inspection of the
completely disappeared church yields the following:
one day. He must have Humanities: Although on first
run afoul of the beasts. glance the church looks like it
•• Jean Chastel must have was built in the late medieval
only pretended to bag the period, minor details, such as the
Beast of Gévaudan, the tools used to cut and plane its
114
wooden beams, betray a much challenged him on this.

more recent origin. •• It is possible that he slew the
The church’s cornerstone bears priest, and is an enemy spy.
a date of 1095, which must be •• Disappearing bodies, you
fake. Examined closely, it shows say? Ver y strange. It probably
signs of later tampering, having means nothing—of course
been changed from an original it must mean nothing—but
date of 1895. Père Johanneau is strangely
Chiseled in next to the date is a obsessed with the old
curious symbol unknown in Christian werewolf legends of France.
iconography: a Yellow Sign. Could he be a Satanist,
Science: It appears to have stealing the remains of the
been carved at about the same honorable dead to per form
time the date was altered. occult rituals? No, surely not.
That would be outlandish,
and nothing outlandish ever
happens in Gévaudan.
Chastel Again Assess Honesty: He’s lying.
Scene Type: Core He does however honestly
Lead-Ins: The Village, The believe himself to be entitled to
Church, Well-Fed Peasants display the Chastel family crest,
Lead-Outs: The Uniforms, The if asked about that. Chastel can’t
Church, Madame Mareuil prove it, because he is not a
lettered man, but is sure that his
forefather, the man who shot the
Do they seek out Paul Chastel giant killer wolf, belonged to that
before gaining any more noble house.
information about possible Does the squad wait to know
strangeness in the village? He more before bracing him again?
has little more to offer them. Chastel tries to get them out of
Should they ask him about the village and into a convenient
sinister doings afoot, he spot to be murdered. He baits the
misdirects them to the priest. He trap with a partial truth.
gives the following answers: He says that Madame Mareuil
•• (core, The Church) Come has been turning fallen soldiers
to think of it, things have into sausages, keeping the village
been a little strange since alive. He and his hunters do their
the old priest disappeared best to bring in game, so that
and the new one arrived. people do not have to resort to
•• Johanneau claimed to have cannibalism. But sometimes it is
been sent by the diocese. But not possible.
of course as honest countr y (core, The Uniforms) The
folk no one in Gévaudan likely squad can find proof of Mareuil’s
115
activities by going to the spot Included are the freshly interred

where she buries the uniforms of uniforms of the dragonfly crash
the dead men, at the source of a victims. Among them are Private
nearby creek. Chastel supplies Pascal’s cap, jacket, and hobnail
directions which the characters boots, but not his trousers or
with Hunting or Terrain can undergarments.
follow. “I dare not go myself. Military Logistics: Buried in
Mareuil is a witch, and if you layers, the uniforms bear the
fail and lead her to me, she will insignia of several different
curse me, and all the Chastels French infantry units, and at least
for generations to come.” one enemy paratrooper squad.
Finding out about The Uniforms The cache includes items from
this way triggers a version of the soldier’s packs, ranging from
Antagonist Reaction “Peasant compasses to boot polish to
Reprisals,” p. 127, in which mess tins and a boîtenoire. No
Chastel and his hunters ambush weapons, though.
them at the site. Science: Patterns of both dry
Has that Reaction already and fresh dirt on the uniforms
occurred? He instead alerts suggests that some of the
Mareuil, who then uses her link to older ones have been buried,
the beast to summon him. In that unearthed, and reburied.
case, the triggered Antagonist If anyone asks why the villagers
Reaction is “The Beast,” p. 128. don’t just burn the uniforms:
(core, Madame Mareuil) A Military Science: It makes
character with Sneaking can use sense to bury items, like the
it as an Investigative ability to mess tins and boîtenoire, that
follow Chastel along his circuitous can’t easily be burned. But if
route unseen. you’re preserving the uniforms,
that’s probably because you
think they might come in handy.
As a means of ambushing
unsuspecting French or allied
The Uniforms troops, for example.
Scene Type: Alternate The investigation of this site
Lead-Ins: Chastel Again, The might be interrupted by one of the
Reader, The Church following Antagonist Reactions:
“Peasant Reprisals” (p. 127) or
“The Beast” (p. 128).
Once at the spot they’ve This scene doesn’t directly
received directions to in the Lead- lead out to any other but gives
In, Terrain allows one of the PCs leverage the squad might use
to find a carefully reburied cache when dealing with Mareuil or
of uniforms. Chastel. With this evidence, they
116
can gain information from either of military officer. (In our timeline,
them that would otherwise require the husband is off fighting in
a Push of another ability with WWI, but of course in this reality
Intimidation, no Push required. there was no first world war for
Mention of the uniforms also Radiguet to have written about.)
substitutes for a Reassurance The novel provoked a scandal
Push in The Reader. when it was published, a few
months before the author died of
typhoid at the age of 20.
A look at the frontispiece shows
The Reader that a dedication in the book
Scene Type: Core has been mostly erased. On a
Lead-Ins: Well-Fed Peasants, Humanities spend, a character can
Madame Mareuil (or drop in get Arielle to lend the book long
as needed when the squad is enough to make it out. It reads:
wandering around the village Dearest Ernest – Something
wondering what to do next) to stir you in the trenches, mon
Lead-Outs: The Uniforms, The cher! Rest assured, I am no
Meat Locker, Worried Mother Marthe, and will turn away all
handsome boys so long as you
promise to return!
The group finds 16-year Change the dedication if she’s
old Arielle Chavanal, curly red instead reading a book by a Paris
locks cascading from a moth- character, matching its content.
eaten beret, perched on a rock, From this, players may deduce
engrossed in a book. that the book formerly belonged
If it is credible that a character to a soldier.
from your Paris sequence, for (alternate, Worried Mother)
example the Belle-Lettrist, wrote She says that her mother gave
a book, she is reading that. it to her. Arielle pleads with the
Otherwise, she reads The Devil group not to talk to her about
in the Flesh, a 1923 novel by it, though, as she has no idea
Raymond Radiguet. Should the what it contains and would likely
squad ask about it, she blushes confiscate it if she did.
and looks furtively around. Beside the boulder she sits on
Humanities: It’s quite the racy is a sack containing mushrooms
book, one others in the village she foraged in the forest. If asked
would likely disapprove of if they about them, she mentions that she
knew what was in it. It concerns is a vegetarian, though the hunger
an affair between a married of war makes this more of a trial
woman and a 16-year-old boy, than she bargained for when she
which takes place under the nose first swore never to eat another
of her inattentive husband, a member of the animal kingdom.
117
Medicine: She does indeed look marry her. Thankfully, his

more malnourished than most of mother disapproves of
the villagers. her. [Arielle shudders at
Arielle knows that something is the mention of him.]
terribly amiss in the village she •• Everyone says the village
so fervently wishes to escape. At is very old but Arielle
the same time, her mother has suspects it sprang up only
instilled in her a not-unjustified a few generations ago.
distrust of soldiers.
A character with the Writer kit can
bond with her over a discussion
of art and literature. Use of Worried Mother
Humanities or Salt of the Earth Scene Type: Alternate
accomplishes the same thing. Lead-In: The Reader
In that case, in response to Lead-Outs: The Uniforms, The
specific questions, she can supply Meat Locker
the following answers:
•• Something bad happens
in secret here. Something Should they ignore Arielle’s
involving meat. entreaties and seek out her
•• (alternate, The Uniforms) mother, Valérie Chavanal reacts
The Chastels, and Mareuil’s with obvious alarm to any
sons, sometimes go out questions about the book, or
into the forest and later anything that touches on the
bury scavenged items at the activities of the village’s cannibal
head of a nearby creek. She population.
can give them directions. Worn by toil and traumatized by
•• (core, The Meat Locker) the encroaching battlefront, Valérie
Madame Mareuil does not looks stooped and weather-beaten
make her sausages in her beyond her years. She wants
home, but in a naturally cool only to get Arielle out of here, to
cave in the side of a hill somewhere safe. Sadly, she has no
not far from the village. idea how to do that.
•• Her family widened the cave She assumes that soldiers
and built a door into it. mean only trouble for a girl like
•• You have to accept Mareuil’s Arielle and tries to divert their
rule over the village to interest in her.
eat her cured meats. Medicine: Valérie is mildly
•• About of a third of the malnourished. (If the players ask
village, like Arielle and her for a comparison, she is not so
mother, decline to partake. evidently gaunt as her daughter or
•• Madame Mareuil’s nasty the priest.)
son, Sylvain, wants to If asked, she claims to be a
118
vegetarian, but admits that she When the squad learns of the
occasionally slips. (She doesn’t consequences of their negligence,
admit it directly but has now they must make Difficulty 4
and again resorted to Madame Composure tests to avoid Shocks,
Mareuil’s sausages.) Minor and Major: Hollow Promise/
Asked about the book she gave Resounding Failure.)
Arielle, Valérie admits that she is If promised this help, she
not much of a reader and doesn’t reveals more:
know what’s in it. A passing soldier, •• The people of Gévaudan
who said he had finished with it, do more than scavenge
gave it to her in exchange for some corpses—they eat them,
eggs, and she passed it along to after Madame Mareuil turns
her daughter. (Assess Honesty: them into charcuterie.
She’s hiding a guilty secret.) •• The eating of the dead dates
(core, Madame Mareuil) back to before the war, but
Intimidation: The people of the now there are many more
village sometimes scavenge opportunities to procure
from the corpses of the dead. human flesh. Before it was
Sylvain Mareuil, who has designs eaten as part of a strange
on Arielle, gave Valérie a book and shameful ritual. Now
he found on a dead soldier. She they consume it to survive.
passed it along without crediting •• It started half a century
him, as he is a malicious cretin ago, when the Chastels
she doesn’t want anywhere near arrived and recruited the
her daughter. Mareuil family to aid them.
(core) Should the squad put •• Together they built a village
her in the position of choosing where previously there
between her daughter’s safety had been people living
and her fear of Mareuil, she on scattered farms.
points them toward The Uniforms •• They designed the church to
(if they haven’t already found look old and carved a weird
them) or The Meat Locker. symbol into its cornerstone.
She might also do this if the •• Chastel’s grandfather had
squad makes the effort to read a strange book in the
devise a credible plan to get the city of Paris, which described
Chavanals out of the village and the symbol and its effects.
to a safer part of the country. •• That’s when they made
(Promising and then failing to contact with the beast.
deliver this help results in a terrible •• By eating human flesh, the
fate for the Chavanals, which you leaders of the cult gain a
reveal later. Choose the exact telepathic connection with it.
details of this demise based on •• It protects the village,
events of the scenario so far. and they protect it.
119
•• They do not insist that everyone realizes that if the war comes
join the cult, merely that any closer, Gévaudan will face
they avoid interfering with it. scrutiny it isn’t prepared for. The
Arielle, like about a third of the beast has foretold the coming of
occupants, has never partaken. possible helpers who will shield
•• Before the war, Valérie could the village from harm. When she
have said the same. But hunger, meets the squad, she wonders
it is a terrible master… if they might be the new recruits
she’s looking for.
As they talk to her, she tries
as subtly as possible to test
Madame Mareuil them for openness to this idea.
Scene Type: Core Mareuil asks about one or more
Lead-Ins: Worried Mother, Well- PCs’ Damn Peculiar Thing. What
Fed Peasants, Chastel Again she says exactly depends on
Lead-Outs: The Meat Locker, the character(s), but might go
The Reader, Command the something like this:
Beast •• “You look like the sort of
fellow who hears strange
voices calling his name.”
If the group seeks out Madame •• “This is a strange question
Mareuil at her home in the village, to ask, but have you ever
they interact with her as given in seen the sky turn white?”
this scene. •• “I sense a question hanging
They might head to The Meat over you. A question involving
Locker first. Unless they take a portrait from an old book.”
measures to ensure that she is (core, Command the Beast)
absent when they explore that She eases up immediately at any
location, they encounter her sign of resistance. But given an
there. A dialogue with her, in intrigued response she tries to
which she reveals information slowly maneuver the characters
given below, could also occur at to the point where one or more
the locker. of them willingly eat her human-
Mareuil, a sun-bronzed, white- infused salami slices.
haired woman, wears a blood-red Should the PCs resist at first but
kerchief. A bright yellow apron then try to rekindle the possibility
covers her plain peasant clothing. of a weird connection, you might
She looks at the squad as if decide that an Occultism spend,
appraising cattle, and squints one including a claim of past magical
of her eyes shut when annoyed or initiation, inspires her to relax her
surprised. guard again.
She doesn’t want trouble of any Do they completely refuse to
kind. But at the same time, she become her cat’s-paws? She
120
121
attempts to misdirect them. books she reads? Reading the

Depending on what they seem to wrong book can turn you insane,
be accusing her of, her denials or worse. You can tell from her
might include some (but not red hair she’s a witch. “She’s
all) of the following. All of these ensorcelled my poor naïve son
points read as deceitful to Sylvain. It’s all I can do to keep
Assess Honesty. She tells only him out of her clutches!”
one consistent story, picking the
one that suits the questions the
squad asks her.
•• It’s true, Chastel does The Meat Locker
scavenge from the dead. Scene Type: Core
•• Perhaps on occasion he drags Lead-Ins: The Reader, The
the bodies from where he finds Church, Madame Mareuil
them, for fear of discovery. Lead-Outs: Command the
Naturally he then burns the Beast, Against Gévaudan
corpses, to prevent the spread
of disease. It is regrettable,
but during war even peasants Madame Mareuil’s meat locker
must be permitted to survive. consists of a natural cavern in the
•• “The priest is a drunk. He read side of a hill about half an hour’s
a forbidden book which has walk from the village. From the
given him many delusions.” “I outside it looks like a mossy hill
am an honest farmer who does with a wooden door built into it.
not read pornographic plays Saucissons and other cured
published in Paris but it has sausages hang from a network
the color yellow as part of the of beams installed on the
title.” “If anyone here enacts ceiling. Characters taller than
strange rites in the forest the diminutive Madame Mareuil
at night, it would be him.” must duck down to avoid bumping
•• Enemy paratroopers have been into a salami or three. Inside the
carving an odd symbol on tree characters see a butcher’s table,
trunks in the forest. (if then bins of salt, and a cot.
asked about the symbol on the On the cot rests a Private Pascal,
church cornerstone) “Yes, it is delirious and barely clinging to
that symbol. How peculiar that I consciousness. In accordance with
have seen the church every day the family geas, agreed to by her
of my life, yet not noticed this.” delusional forebears when they
•• (core, The Reader) That hallucinated the beast into reality,
accursed Arielle Chavanal could she never kills people to turn them
be the cause of the disappeared into meat. But if they’re mortally
bodies, and worse. Who knows injured, she can certainly keep
what occult secrets lurk in those watch on them until they die, which
122
is what she’s doing with Pascal. the next subhead.

(The squad can learn these Otherwise, it continues with
details if she thinks they’re joining Mareuil assuring them that Pascal
her cult, or later from Pascal.) will become food for the village
A period print depicting the only if he dies.
Beast of Gévaudan attacking a Medicine: Unless taken back
peasant woman hangs on the to base for treatment, he is
back of the wooden door. definitely going to die. Left here,
This scene comes into play he’ll be gone in 48 hours, tops.
under several possible conditions: A Difficulty 4 First Aid test
1. Mareuil brings one or more extends his estimated time
PCs here, thinking they plan of death by one day, plus an
to join her cult; see the additional day for each point
“Joining the Cult” subhead, of margin. But the character
immediately below administering the aid will have
2. they come here without to do it covertly, or trigger the
ensuring that she’s elsewhere; wrath of the Mareuils. This too
jump to the “Unwelcome shifts the scene to “Unwelcome
Guests” subhead, p. 124 Guests.”
3. they come here knowing she’s Projecting seeming indifference
not in; jump to the “She’s Not to Pascal’s plight cements
In” subhead, p. 124 Mareuil’s trust in the squad.
She answers any questions they
Joining the Cult pose. Then she offers a volunteer
Use this version of events from the group the opportunity
if the group pretends they’re to take part in the rite that
interested in swearing allegiance connects them psychically to the
to Mareuil’s cannibal cult. beast. That moves the scenario
Play her as bullying Pascal, from the investigative phase
demanding that he hurry up and to its climactic problem-solving
die. PCs wondering about this sequences, as discussed in
behavior might ask questions, “Command the Beast,” p. 126.
leading her to explain the geas. Or the group might instead
To carry on like potential decide that the time has come
cannibals indifferent to Pascal’s to take out the Mareuils, in
torment requires a Difficulty 5 which case the rest of the scene
Composure test. Any character plays out pretty much as it
failing the test must immediately would in “Unwelcome Guests,”
act to protect him and/or lash out immediately below.
at the Mareuils.
If that happens, the scene
plays out basically as it would in
“Unwelcome Guests.” Jump to
123
Unwelcome Guests She’s Not In

Did a squad member come The door to the cavern has no
alone to knock on Madame lock and opens after a firm tug.
Mareuil’s door? (A player in my Inside the group immediately
game helpfully created a fun fail- sees a half-conscious Private
forward situation by doing just Pascal. Much of his time since
that.) She is present but her sons his capture has been spent in a
are not. Use the Peasant Who delirium. He believes the Mareuils
Seems Lovely Until You Turn Your to be literal werewolves. Pascal
Back foe profile from p. 71. can provide, from that confused
If the player takes the “When perspective, any remaining
You Regain Consciousness…” information the group needs.
card, the character wakes up An inspection of the butcher’s
trussed beside Pascal’s pallet. block, knives, and stray bits of
The remaining squad members meat, plus Farming or Medicine,
can stage a rescue, taking out shows that the main ingredient
Madame and her sons (if you can in the sausages is definitely not
credibly have them arrive in the an animal.
interim). This leads to Against Intuition gets a heady sense
Gévaudan, p. 127. Or the of wrongness from the hanging
captured squad member might saucissons. If a character
convincingly bid for Mareuil’s with the ability touches the
trust, taking you to Command the cured meat, a vision flashes to
Beast, p. 126. mind, of the world seen from
Are they arriving in a group? the viewpoint of a fast-loping
Mareuil and her sons are present, quadruped. The investigator sees
armed with high-powered rifles the region’s burned forests and
scavenged from dead soldiers. jagged hills flash by in a blur of
Numbers: 3 blues and yellows.
Difficulty: Tough but Outmatched •• Science: Wolves, like other
(Escape 2, Other 4, Kill 3) canines, lack the color receptor
Toll: 1/2 that allows them to see reds.
Tags: Human (You might drop this detail if
Encounter Style: Primary you’ve decided that the wolf is an
Injuries, Minor and Major: alien creature instead of an earthly
Grazed/Shot animal turned sapient Warspawn,
instead substituting an even
Assuming the squad disposes stranger sensory difference.)
of, or captures, the Mareuils, they The character experiencing the
can then explore the meat locker, vision must make an Intuition spend
gaining the clues described in the or a Difficulty 4 Composure test to
next section. avoid Shocks, Minor and Major:
124
Hungry Like the…/Lycanthropy.

Without instructions from
Madame Mareuil, this flash is
as close as the group can get to
establishing a psychic link to the
beast. But now it knows who they
are and might decide to come
after them—perhaps as they take
Pascal back to base.
Origin Story
At some point, the squad might ask Mareuil about the church
and how the village came to league itself with the beast.
She shares this information if she either absolutely trusts
them, or has good reason to think no harm will come of it. For
example, they might be tied to trees, waiting for the beast to
come and devour them.
The story goes like this: in 1895, the region’s misfits and
outlaws collectively dreamed of a royal patron, a protecting
king who dwelled beneath a pulsing white sky. Following his
commands, the dreamers converged on this uninhabited spot
and built a village together. They called it Gévaudan, a name
used during the prerevolutionary period to refer to the entire
area. After they consecrated their fake-medieval church with the
Yellow Sign, the beast strolled into the town. It whispered into
their minds, establishing the pact between village and beast,
which hereafter would be maintained through the consumption
of human flesh.
Mareuil’s grandparents became the first intercessors between
the people and the wolf. They figured out how to make the beast’s
flesh rite bearable, by turning human carrion into saucissons.
Chastel could also share this story, under conditions similar
to those above. He might admit that his grandparents adopted
the name Chastel to claim kinship with the original beast
legend. Until then they went by the family name Duret.
125
leading it into a trap, the

Command the Beast beast is already aware
Scene Type: Climax of this in full detail
Lead-In: Command the Beast This last item implies that
they can only trick it into its
own destruction by keeping the
Mareuil supervises a simple rite initiate completely outside of any
in which the initiate is invited to deliberations. And even then, it
meditate on two images: one, an is likely to correctly think its way
old print of the beast attacking a around obvious schemes to kill it.
victim, and two, the Yellow Sign. After the ceremony, Mareuil
The initiate then eats a slice from reveals that all the initiate need
one of her special saucissons. do in the future to reestablish
(Eating the sausage, under connection with the beast is to
any circumstances, knowing eat another morsel of human
that it contains human flesh, flesh—such as, but not restricted
necessitates a Difficulty 5 to, her charcuterie.
Composure test to avoid Shocks, Favors the beast might perform
Minor and Major: Tastes Like for them include:
Chicken/A Crossed Line.) •• the capture of a prominent
But on with the ceremony… enemy officer operating nearby
Immediately initiate feels a •• reconnaissance of an area
piercing mental contact with the behind enemy lines
beast, hearing its low, predatory •• killing another
voice in their head. The beast supernatural monster
asks what the initiate wants of What it can do remains limited
it. It does not at this early point by its form as a giant wolf. It can’t
volunteer any counter-demands. open doors, shoot guns, take
If pressed, it might indicate that photographs, or do anything that
it wants food and protection, with strikes you as obviously ridiculous.
details to be worked out later. Its first favor is free. After that,
Regardless of what is said in it demands at least one living
the telepathic conversation the human victim as payment for each
initiate senses the following about favor, due in advance. It refuses
the beast: obviously suicidal missions and
•• it is very intelligent, at least may increase the number of
as smart as the smartest victims required for particularly
member of the squad challenging assignments.
•• it won’t be easily led into a trap After it performs its first
•• during a link, it can favor for the group, and they
probe into the initiate’s subsequently learn of innocent
thoughts and memories people being killed by the beast,
•• if the group has discussed or they arrange for it to devour any
126
victims, innocent or otherwise, the question of the one third of

squad members make Difficulty 6 villagers who are not cannibals
Composure tests to avoid Shocks, but remain there out of fear of
Minor and Major: Aide to the Madame Mareuil and the beast.
Beast/Cultist of Gévaudan. Separating the guilty from the
Characters with either of these innocent is difficult, and may
Shock cards in hand needn’t require them to cold-bloodedly
make subsequent tests. execute the former. Difficulty 5
Let player choices take this Composure to avoid Shocks,
scenario to its conclusion. After Minor and Major: No Blood More
contacting the beast they will Cold/Atrocity.
either turn on it and the village An overly easy or placid
(see next header) or decide to resolution to the problem could
protect them in order to preserve be interrupted with a late-breaking
its value to the war effort. In threat to the sympathetic Arielle
that case, the beast becomes and/or the quasi-sympathetic
an ongoing plot element over Père Johanneau.
the course of the sequence,
occasionally showing up to stoke Denouement
moral dilemmas and push the If your series premise is Report
initiate(s) toward irrevocable for Execution, the squad might
mental breakdown. Until they kill learn that they’ve been designated
it, that is. to die as part of their Commanding
Officer’s debriefing. Assuming
they did well installing the artillery
battery, the CO expresses great
Against Gévaudan regret, ruefully commenting on the
Scene Type: Climax surpassing unfairness of war. Or
wait until you’ve run a few more
standard scenarios before lowering
React to player choices as they the hammer.
create and execute a plan to For other series frames, try
deal with the village of cannibals to end on a dramatic note in or
and its monstrous protector. around Gévaudan or involving
Deploy Antagonist Reactions as the beast.
needed or create other suitable
obstacles to keep the scenario’s Antagonist Reactions
final sequences challenging and The following occur when your
dangerous. scenario could use an energy
They might return to base or infusion, or in response to
use the boîtenoire to call in an triggers listed in scenes above.
air strike or artillery barrage Peasant Reprisals
against Gévaudan. That raises In this scene of retaliation,
127
the peasants of Gévaudan fire fleeing into the woods. Difficulty

on the squad from the cover of 4 Athletics successes allow
the surrounding wilderness. As squad members to catch up with
seasoned hunters, they know how him. (Must be individual tests; no
to fire a rifle, and they have plenty piggybacking.) He denies having
of carbines and ammo on hand killed the priest, even though his
from deceased soldiers. shirt is spotted with fresh blood.
Avoiding the volley of sniper fire On an Interrogation Push, he
calls for a Difficulty 5 Battlefield admits it, accusing Johanneau
test to avoid Injuries, Minor and of being a member of a werewolf
Major: Bruised While Taking cult. Assess Honesty shows that
Cover/Rifle Hit. he’s still lying about his reasons.
They head for the hills after Discovering that their
firing. Catching up with them investigation has led to
requires a Hunting spend or a Johanneau’s death requires
Difficulty 5 Sneaking test. Difficulty 4 Composure tests to
If the squad then initiates a avoid Shocks, Minor and Major:
fight, the peasants are Tough but Rueful/Self-Reproachful.
Outmatched: Difficulty (Escape 2,
Other 4, Kill 3); Toll (o). Endangered Chavanals
Injuries: (if squad shoots at If the squad gains the
them) Grazed/Shot cooperation of either Arielle
(if squad closes to fight hand-to- Chavanal or her mother but aren’t
hand) Stab Wound/Slashed Throat careful about doing it away from
prying eyes, either or both of
Dead Priest them could disappear.
If they’ve triggered this reaction, After a search, they find either
the squad, when you reach a or both Chavanals tied to a tree
point in your pacing that calls out in the forest. Cannibal villagers
for a dramatic moment, hears a have set them out as food for the
shot ring out from the church. beast. You might want to play this
When they get there, they find as a simple rescue, or have the
Père Johanneau dead in the creature actually show up to try to
confessional, a pistol dangling eat the sympathetic witnesses.
from his hand. Military Science
or Medicine suggests that The Beast
the angle of the single shot Use these game statistics when
to the head that killed him is it comes time to meet the beast
inconsistent with suicide. face to face.
On a Difficulty 6 Sense Trouble The scenario leaves open the
test, a character can spot a exact nature of the creature.
villager (Erik or Sylvain Mareuil, When you have to pin it down,
unless both are already dead)
128
choose one of the following •• a roughly wolf-shaped Carcosan

concepts, as determined by a) predator newly arrived on
your explanation for Carcosa’s Earth (in which case it counts
involvement in the war and b) as a supernatural creature)
what you think your players will Numbers: 1
think is coolest. Difficulty: Vastly Superior
In your story, the beast might be: (Escape 4, Other 6, Kill 6)
•• a mundane but especially large Difficulty Adjustments: +1 for
and ferocious wolf transformed characters who have telepathically
into intelligent Warspawn linked with it (it learned their
by stray Carcosan energy fighting styles)
•• the same, but created by the Toll: 2
King, one of his daughters, Injuries, Minor and Major: A
or another Carcosan worthy Mere Nip/Torn Throat
•• an out-of-place hyena,
transformed as above
129
T h e Y E L L O W K I N G R P G : The Wars – Cards
CARDS
Shock cards
DULLED THINKING THROBBING

Shock MIGRAINE
Shock
Non-lethal. -1 to Focus tests.
Discard on a Focus failure. Non-lethal. -1 to Focus tests.
On a Focus failure, spend
2 Health to discard.
DISBELIEF WEIRD WEAPON

Shock
TRAUMA
Shock
-1 to Focus tests.
Discard on any Focus success. -1 to Composure tests involving
unearthly weapons.
Discard when you disassemble
a captured weird weapon.
130
BEREFT RUDDERLESS
Shock Shock
Before spending Morale to refresh PCs can spend Morale only after
another PC’s Composure, you must rolling a die and getting an even result.
roll a die, getting an even result. Discard as recipient of a
Discard as recipient of a Leadership spend.
3-point Morale spend.
Use in: W, A Use in: W, A
WHAT TH—? WORLD GONE MAD

Shock Shock
-1 to your next Presence test. -1 to Presence tests.

Discard when a PC (yourself Discard when a PC (yourself
included) discards an Injury card included) discards an Injury card
taken in a fight in which your side taken in a fight in which your side
was targeted by a weird weapon. was targeted by a weird weapon.
HAUNTED PROFANED MEMORIES

Shock
Shock
When you mention or talk about
Tests take a penalty equal
your fallen comrade for the first
to the number of Shock
time in any scene, make a Difficulty
cards you have in hand.
4 Composure test. On a failure,
Discard on a successful test that aids
this becomes a Continuity card.
the group against supernatural horror.
131
HOLLOW PROMISE RESOUNDING FAILURE

Shock; Continuity Shock; Continuity
Your Morale pool drops to 0. Your Morale pool drops to 0.

You can’t refresh Morale in mid- Morale spends by other players do
not refresh your Composure. You
scenario or make Reassurance spends.
can’t make Reassurance spends.
Discard by successfully When you successfully protect
protecting a civilian. a civilian, roll a die. On an
even result, discard.
TENUOUS REALITY LIFE’S VALUE EBBS

Shock Shock
-1 to Focus tests. -2 to Composure tests. You may

When the discard condition of choose to take a +1 Fighting bonus
another Shock card occurs, you when using a weird weapon, but
may discard this card instead. that makes this a Continuity card.
REVULSION NIGHTMARE FUEL

Shock Shock
Lose 2 Morale. You can’t spend Morale points.

Discard after three hours After six hours sleep (world
of world time, or when you time) in a safe location, roll a
gain another Shock card. die. Discard on an even result.
Becomes a Continuity card if
still held at end of scenario.
Use in: W, A
Use in: W, A
132
LILY-LIVERED YELLOW-BELLIED
Shock Shock
Lose 2 Morale. Roll a die; lose that number

Discard on a salient Battlefield or of Morale points, or 2 Morale,
Fighting success, refreshing 2 Morale. whichever is higher.
Discard on a Fighting success
with a margin greater than 1.
FLIRTATION WITH EMBRACING CARCOSA

CARCOSA Shock
Shock
Composure tests take a
-1 to Composure tests. penalty equal to the number
Discard when a success saves of Shock cards you hold.
you from taking a Shock card.
SINKING FEELING PANIC

Shock Shock
Other PCs can’t spend Morale
Lose 1 Morale.
to refresh your Composure or
Discard by getting off the boat.
Scrounging to refresh your Battlefield.
When the danger has passed,
roll a die. Even: discard. Odd:
trade for “Rattled.”
133
THOSE TELLTALE FINS

Shock
-1 to Focus tests.
When you get to shore, roll a
die. Even: discard. Odd: discard
after two salient Focus failures.
GHOST TOUCH THE VENGEFUL DEAD

Shock Shock
Lose 1 Composure each time one or Lose 1 point from your lowest
more players breaks from the action pool each time one or more
to reference or discuss pop culture. players breaks from the action to
Discard as recipient of a reference or discuss pop culture.
Difficulty 4 Morale test. Discard after a ghost encounter
that does not leave you with
a Shock or Injury card.
Use in: W, A
TASTES LIKE CHICKEN

Shock
A CROSSED LINE
-2 to Composure tests.
At end of scenario, if your Composure Shock; Continuity
is higher than 3, discard. Otherwise,
trade for “A Crossed Line.”
134
CALLOUS PIT OF REMORSE

Shock Shock; Continuity
When you become the recipient of When presented with an opportunity

to save a wounded GMC Loyalist
a Morale spend, lose 1 Composure. soldier from death or further harm,
Discard by taking a risk to help you must make a Difficulty 6
a GMC Loyalist soldier. Composure test to avoid doing so.
When you do act and clearly
save the character’s life, roll a
die. Discard on an even result.
RAT IN A CAN
Shock
Lose 1 Composure and 1 Morale

every 15 minutes (game time).
When the danger has passed,
discard as recipient of a
1-point Scrounging spend.
Use in: W, A
TENTACLED DOOM
Shock; Continuity
-1 to Presence tests while in sight

of the ocean, -2 to Presence
tests while underwater.
Does not count as a Shock card
at the beginning of a scenario.
Becomes a Shock card if you see
the ocean or go underwater.
135
NO BLOOD ATROCITY
MORE COLD Shock; Continuity
Shock; Continuity
-2 to Composure tests. At beginning of any scenario,
During any scenario after the one spend 3 Composure and roll a
where you gained this card, discard die. On an even result, trade
by spending 6 Composure. for “No Blood More Cold.”
OVERWHELMED PERVASIVE DISTRUST

Shock Shock
Before any test, roll a die. Odd: lose Lose 3 Composure each time
1 point from the ability being tested. another investigator makes
Discard when you use an Investigative an Interpersonal Push.
ability to get a core clue. Discard by throwing a punch
at a GMC who seems to
be up to something.
BESIDE YOURSELF RATTLED

Shock Shock
-1 to tests. Your next test takes a -1

Discard on the next penalty. Then discard.
test you miss by 1.
136
SHELL-SHOCKED
Shock
-1 to Presence and Focus tests.

After your next failed Presence
or Focus test, you may discard as
recipient of Difficulty 4 Morale test.
Use in: W, A
HELLISH REALITY DRIFT

REPTILE-CRAB
Shock
Shock
When you score a success with
You and all PCs who have seen the a margin of 2, it instead becomes
creature up close take -1 to Focus
a failure with a margin of 2.
tests. Penalties from multiple “Hellish
On a failure with a margin
Reptile-Crab” cards do not stack.
of 2, trade for “Unease.”
On any failed Composure test, roll
a die. Even: all “Hellish Reptile-
Crab” cards in play are discarded.
GHOST SIGHTING THE MOURNED DEAD

Shock Shock
-1 to Presence tests. -1 to Fighting and Composure tests.

Discard by spending a Push.
137
DID ANYONE ELSE YOU SAW IT, SO IT

SEE THAT? MUST BE REAL
Shock Shock
-1 to Sense Trouble tests. -2 to Sense Trouble tests,

Discard as recipient of -1 to Composure tests.
Difficulty 4 Morale success. Discard by spending 2 Sense
Trouble and 1 Composure.
Use in: W, A
FAULTY PERCEPTIONS DISTORTED

Shock
PERCEPTIONS
Shock
-2 to Presence tests. You must
behave as if the thing you’re -2 to Presence tests. You must
seeing is absolutely, literally real. behave as if the thing you’re seeing
Discard by spending 2 Sense is absolutely, literally real.
Trouble and 2 Composure, or on Discard on the conclusive defeat of the
the conclusive defeat of the force force that has confused your senses.
that has confused your senses.
NO, IT CAN’T BE! I REMEMBER HIM

LIKE HE WAS REAL
Shock
Shock
+1 to Sense Trouble tests.
When you fail a Sense Trouble You continue to behave as if the dead,
test in the presence of one or more impersonated comrade is alive, in
innocent GMCs, make a Difficulty 4 your presence, and talking to you.
Composure test. Failure: you attack Other PCs take -1 to Composure.
and seriously wound a GMC chosen Discard when you pay a
by the GM, then discard this card. price for this behavior.
138
CORTISOL SPIKE
Shock
Discard at end of session.
WHY CAN’T I JUST PROBABLY I SHOULD

SHOOT HIM? SHOOT HIM
Shock
Shock
Whenever you meet a Loyalist
You recognize this false comrade as an soldier for the first time, make
alien being but can’t break its mental a Difficulty 4 Composure test.
Failure: -1 on all Focus and
hold on you in order to act against it. Presence tests until next interval.
Discard when a comrade attacks Discard when you get a margin
it, or when it departs. of 3 or more on that test.
Use in: W Use in: W
HUNGRY LIKE THE… LYCANTHROPY

Shock
Shock
-1 to Focus tests.
-1 on your next Focus test. You believe that you will turn into
Discard by killing and eating a werewolf at the next full moon
a game animal, raw. (three days from now unless the GM
has already established a different
date) and behave accordingly.
The morning after the next full
moon, roll a die. Even: discard. Odd:
trade for “Hungry Like the…”
139
AIDE TO THE BEAST CULTIST OF GÉVAUDAN

Shock; Continuity Shock; Continuity
You gain a new game statistic, You gain a new game statistic,
Beast, which starts at 1. Beast, which starts at 1.
Add 1 to Beast each time you learn of the Add 1 to Beast each time you
beast killing someone, and 2 each time learn of the beast killing someone,
you arrange for the beast to kill someone. and 2 each time you arrange for
Subtract 1 from Beast when it performs the beast to kill someone.
a significant service for the Loyalists. Subtract 1 from Beast when it performs
Take a penalty to Composure tests a significant service for the Loyalists.
equal to your Beast rating. While the beast is alive, take
Discard when the beast is destroyed. a penalty to Composure tests
equal to your Beast rating.
Use in: W Use in: W
THE SHUDDERS SHAKEN

Shock Shock
Roll a die; lose that number of
Composure points, noting the -1 to Composure tests.
number lost. If your Composure
is already 0, trade for “An
Image Seared in the Mind.”
Discard after a night’s sleep. When
you discard, roll a die. Even: regain
those lost Composure points.
RUEFUL SELF-REPROACHFUL
Shock Shock; Continuity
If the murderer is still at large You can’t refresh Composure

or unidentified at the end of a in mid-scenario.
session, lose 2 Composure. If the murderer is found to be
Trade for “Self-Reproachful” human, discard this card by
if you have 0 Composure in bringing the murderer to justice.
your pool at end of scenario. If the murderer is inhuman,
discard by killing the murderer.
140
WITNESS TO CARNAGE EXISTENCE IS A

Shock MEAT-GRINDER
Shock; Continuity
-1 to all tests.
Discard as recipient of a Push. Explain Tests take a penalty equal
why that Push would help with this. to the number of Shock
cards you have in hand.
Discard after participating in an event
that restores your faith in humanity.
UNEARTHLY SOUNDS MELTED

Shock PERCEPTIONSV
Shock
-1 to Focus tests.
When you correctly identify Roll a die when you receive this
the origin of the sounds, roll card. Odd: -1 to Focus tests.
a die. Even: discard. Even: -1 to Presence tests.
Discard as recipient of Difficulty
4 First Aid success.
141
Injury cards
PINNED BY DEBRIS
Injury
As immediate recipient of a Difficulty

5 Athletics test, trade for “Beside
Yourself.” Otherwise your Health
pool drops to 0 and -1 to Physical tests.
YOUR LUCKY CHARM PERFORATED

CAUGHT A BULLET Injury
Injury
-1 to Physical tests.
At end of interval, discard and make As recipient of Difficulty 5 First
Difficulty 4 Composure test. Failure: Aid success, roll a die. Odd: trade
take the Shock card “Cortisol Spike.” for “Patched Up.” Even: discard.
Success: refresh Composure.
CAKED IN ASH THREE INCHES

Injury TO THE LEFT AND
YOU’D BE DUST
Make a Difficulty 4 Composure Injury
test, or also gain “Shell-Shocked.”
If your Health pool is greater -1 to tests. Also gain “Shell-Shocked.”
than 3, discard at end of interval. After one or more intervals,
Otherwise, discard as recipient discard as recipient of Difficulty
of Difficulty 3 First Aid test.
142
CARDS R O B I N D . L AW S
FLYING LEAP FLAMING DEBRIS

Injury Injury
-1 on your next Physical test. -1 to Composure, Fighting,

Any time after taking that penalty, and Battlefield tests.
pay 1 Athletics to discard. Any time after failing a test of any
of those abilities, discard as recipient
of a Difficulty 5 First Aid test.
MUSCLE CRAMPS RAPID DEHYDRATION

Injury Injury
-1 to tests. Your Health drops to 0.

After any failure, you may roll Trade for “Dazed” as recipient of
a die, paying Health equal to Difficulty 4 First Aid success.
the result to discard. If the result If still held at end of scenario, you die.
exceeds your available Health,
trade for “Rapid Dehydration.”
HUNGER RESPIRATORY
Injury FAILURE
Injury
-1 to Physical and Focus tests.
Discard by eating a meal. -2 to Physical tests.
After eating a meal, make a
Difficulty 6 Health test. On a success,
trade for “Hunger.” On a failure,
trade for “Permanent Injury.”
143
UNWELL DYSENTERY
Injury Injury
Lose 1 Health. At the end of each Lose 2 Health and 1 point from
interval, roll a die. Odd: lose 1 Health. every other Physical pool.
Discard as recipient of Difficulty As recipient of a Difficulty 4
3 First Aid success. First Aid success, roll a die. Even:
discard. Odd: trade for “Unwell.”
CONFUSION GANGRENE
Injury Injury
-1 to Focus tests. Counts as 2 Injury cards.
Trade for “Gangrene” if not Trade for “Permanent Injury”
removed from exposing conditions as recipient of Difficulty
within 10 minutes (world time). 5 First Aid success.
SORE THROAT INFLUENZA

Injury Injury
Non-lethal. Lose 1 Health. -2 to Physical tests, -1 to other tests.
At end of each interval, roll a At end of any interval, you may
die. On a 1, trade for “Influenza.” pay 1 Health and roll a die. On a
On a 5 or higher, discard. 5 or 6, trade for “Sore Throat.”
If you ever get a result of 1 on
this roll, and still have this card
at end of scenario, you die.
144
CARDS R O B I N D . L AW S
SHREDDED FLESH “AM I STILL IN

Injury ONE PIECE?”
Injury
To spend points on any Athletics,
Fighting, or Battlefield test, you You can’t make Physical tests. -1
must also spend 1 Health point. to Focus tests. You can’t walk.
Discard as recipient of Difficulty Trade for “Shrapnel” as recipient
4 First Aid success. of a Difficulty 5 First Aid success.
SPRAYED
Injury
As recipient of Difficulty 7 First
Aid success, roll a die. Even:
trade for “Patched Up.” Odd:
trade for “Shot Up Good.”
If still held at end of scenario, you
succumb to your injuries and die.
WINDED EXHAUSTED
Injury Injury
Non-lethal. -1 to Physical tests. -2 to Physical tests.
Discard after an hour’s Discard when the squad Hunkers
rest (world time). Down, or trade for “Winded” as
recipient of a Difficulty 4 Scrounging
success. Scrounger must describe the
scrounged item that revives you.
Use in: W
145
RINGING EARS HURLED AND

Injury SCORCHED
Injury
-1 to Focus tests.
After one interval, make a Roll a die. Even: lose 2 Health
Difficulty 4 Health test to discard. and 1 Athletics. Odd: lose 1
If you fail, you can retry as needed Health and 2 Athletics.
at the end of any interval. Discard as recipient of a
Difficulty 4 First Aid success,
or after two intervals.
LIGHT-HEADED LUNG DAMAGE

Injury Injury
-1 to Physical and Focus tests. At end -2 to Physical tests, -1 to Focus tests.

of interval, make a Difficulty 5 Health At end of scenario, make a Difficulty 5
success to discard. You may attempt Health test. Success: discard. Failure:
again at each subsequent interval, with this becomes a Continuity card.
Difficulty dropping by 1 each time.
SHARK BITE BLEARY

Injury Injury
Roll a die: add the result to the margin -1 to tests.

of the test to avoid this hazard. Lose Discard by getting ten hours
that number of Health points. sleep (world time).
Trade for “Patched Up” as recipient
of Difficulty 5 First Aid success.
146
DEAD ON YOUR FEET BRUISED WHILE

Injury TAKING COVER
-2 to tests. Injury
At the end of each interval, make
a Difficulty 5 Health check. Discard by spending 1 point of
Failure: you lose consciousness, Health, Fighting, or Battlefield, or as
regaining it only after three hours recipient of 1-point First Aid spend.
or if forcefully awakened.
Trade for “Bleary” by getting
six hours sleep (world time).
THROUGH AND SUB-SONIC THRUM

THROUGH Injury
Injury
-1 to Composure and Battlefield tests.
-1 to next Physical test, after Discard on a salient Composure
which roll a die. Even: discard. or Battlefield failure, or after
Odd: trade for “Impediment.” one hour (world time).
SUB-SONIC
DISRUPTION
Injury
-2 to Composure and Battlefield tests.

After one hour of world time, discard
on a Difficulty 4 Health success. You
may retry the test once per interval.
147
RAPID HEARTBEAT
Injury
On a Difficulty 4 First Aid
success, roll a die. Even: trade
for “Light-Headed.” Odd:
trade for “Recovering.”
TETANIC FEVER LOCKJAW

Injury Injury
-1 to Physical tests. -2 to Physical tests.

At end of any interval, you may At end of any interval, you may
pay 2 Health and roll a die. Even: pay 3 Health and roll a die. On
discard. Odd: trade for “Lockjaw.” a result higher than 1, discard.
On a result of 1, you die.
AGONY OF THIRST KIDNEY FAILURE

Injury Injury
-1 to Physical tests. Counts as 2 Injury cards.

Discard by slowly drinking After taking the opportunity to slowly
a full serving of any non- drink any non-dehydrating beverage,
dehydrating beverage. roll a die. Odd: trade for “Permanent
Injury.” Even: trade for “Recovery.”
148
NECROTIC TISSUE LOCKJAW

Injury Injury
Lose 1 Health each time you -2 to Physical tests.

walk for more than half a mile. At end of any interval, you may
Discard on a Difficulty 3 First pay 3 Health and roll a die. On
Aid success and a 1-point a result higher than 1, discard.
Health spend. You may make On a result of 1, you die.
the test yourself or receive it.
SCUFFED UP TORN LIGAMENT

Injury Injury
Your next Physical test -2 to Physical tests.

takes a penalty of 1. Trade for “Impediment” when
Discard after that test. you fail a Physical test.
DISCOURAGER GRAZE DISCOURAGER HIT

Injury
Injury
-2 to Fighting, Battlefield,
-1 to Fighting, Battlefield, and Composure tests while
and Composure tests while behind enemy lines.
behind enemy lines. If behind allied lines, trade for
If behind allied lines, spend “Patched Up” as recipient of
1 Composure to discard. Difficulty 5 First Aid success.
go into cardiac arrest and die.
Use in: W Use in: W
149
QUISLING GRAZE QUISLING HIT

Injury Injury
-1 to Fighting, Battlefield, -2 to Fighting, Battlefield,

and Composure tests. and Composure tests.
Trade for “Patched Up” as recipient
Discard by using force against a of Difficulty 5 First Aid success,
superior. If superior expects the after using force against a superior
attack, roll a die after completing who has not assented to the attack.
it. Odd: do not discard. If still held at end of scenario, you
have a brain aneurysm and die.
SUPPURATOR GRAZE SUPPURATOR HIT

Injury Injury
You can’t discard Injury cards. You can’t discard Injury cards.
At end of each interval, any PC who
At end of each interval, any PC who
can see you loses 1 Composure.
can see you loses 1 Composure. Discard as recipient of Difficulty
Discard as recipient of Difficulty 4 First Aid success. At start
3 First Aid success. of following interval, you gain
“Suppurator Graze.”
If still held at end of scenario, you die.
WHITE-SKY GRAZE WHITE-SKY HIT

Injury Injury
-2 Fighting vs. Carcosans. -2 Fighting vs. Carcosans

-1 Fighting vs. Warspawn. and Warspawn.
Discard as recipient of Difficulty As recipient of Difficulty 6 First
7 First Aid success. Difficulty Aid success, discard (if you fought a
drops to 3 after fighting a Carcosan or Warspawn after taking
Carcosan or Warspawn. this Injury) or trade for “White-
Sky Graze” (if you didn’t).
150
HIT BAD
Injury
Spend 2 Health to trade for
“Shell-Shocked” and “Patched
Up.” Spend 4 Health to trade
for your choice of either.
TENTACLE LASH SQUID BITE

Injury Injury
Lose Health equal to your margin Roll a die: add the result to the margin
on the Battlefield test +1. of the test to avoid this bite. Lose
Discard after two intervals on shore. that number of Battlefield points.
Trade for “Cough, Choke, Splutter”
on a Difficulty 4 First Aid success,
received during the current interval. If
received later, trade for “Recovering.”
Use in: W, A
SPLINTER STRUCK BY
Injury WOOD DEBRIS
Injury
Non-lethal. -1 to Physical tests.
After a Physical failure, -2 to Physical tests.
spend 1 Health to discard. As recipient of a Difficulty 5
First Aid success, roll a die.
Even: trade for “Splinter.” Odd:
trade for “Patched Up.”
151
BLURRED VISION CIRCULATORY

Injury DAMAGE
Injury; Continuity
-1 to tests.
Discard as recipient of Difficulty 5 -1 to Physical tests.
First Aid success, conducted by a For the first three hours (world time)
character with access to the antidote. after getting this card, gain “Blurred
Vision” on any Physical failure.
SHRAPNEL’S SHARP, INTO THE DRINK

WATER’S HARD Injury
Injury
At end of scene, if you have less than
-1 to Focus tests. 3 Battlefield points, trade for “Cough,
Discard as recipient of Difficulty Choke, Sputter.” Otherwise, discard.
4 Scrounging success. Scrounger
must describe the found
item that restores you.
Use in: W Use in: W
CONVULSIONS INTERNAL BLEEDING

Injury Injury
-2 to Physical tests, -1 to other -2 to Physical tests.

tests. You can’t make Pushes. After one hour of world time, you
Discard by spending 3 Health must become recipient of a Difficulty
or as recipient of Difficulty 6 First Aid success. If so, trade for
5 First Aid success. “Convulsions.” If not, you die.
152
RIFLE HIT
Injury
Trade for the card “Patched
Up” as recipient of Difficulty
BURNED ROASTED
Injury Injury
-2 to tests (except Preparedness). -2 to tests.

Trade for “Badly Hurt” after As recipient of Difficulty 6 First
you fail a test and then receive a Aid success, trade for “Burned.”
Difficulty 5 First Aid success.
SLAMMED AGAINST INTO THE DEPTHS

THE HULL Injury
Injury Battlefield drops to 0.
Once on shore, as recipient of
Difficulty 4 Scrounging test, roll
Discard after two salient a die. 1-2: trade for “Slammed
Physical failures. Against the Hull.” 3-4: trade for
“Cough, Choke, Splutter.” 5-6:
refresh Battlefield and discard.
Use in: W
153
SOUL DECAY BLACK BLOOD

Injury Injury
Lose 1 Composure. At the Roll a die. Lose Health points equal to

end of each interval, roll a die. the result. If you are then at 0 Health,
Odd: lose 1 Composure. this becomes a Continuity card.
Discard on a success that aids you On a success that aids you against
against a supernatural entity. a supernatural entity, roll a die.
Even: discard at end of session.
SUSCEPTIBLE BLACK TEARS

Injury Injury
-1 to tests when in the presence All PCs take -1 to tests.

of Warspawn or Carcosans. Effects of multiple “Black
Discard as recipient of an Occultism Tears” cards do not stack.
Push or Difficulty 6 Morale success. Discard by contributing to the
defeat of a Warspawn or Carcosan.
Use in: W, A
WORSE THAN THOROUGHLY

IT LOOKS PERFORATED
Injury Injury
On the next Physical test you fail -2 to tests.

by 1, discard this card, and succeed As recipient of Difficulty 5 First
at the test with a margin of 0. Aid success, roll a die. Even: trade
for “Worse Than It Looks.” Odd:
trade for “Shot Up Good.”
154
STINK GRENADE DRENCHED IN STINK

Injury Injury
-3 to tests. -3 to tests within area of effect.

Discard by leaving the area of effect. -1 to tests otherwise.
Regain this Injury if you re-enter. Discard after a three-hour bath in
anti-stink solution (world time).
LIGHT SHRAPNEL GRENADE

Injury Injury
-1 to Physical tests. The margin of your failed Physical

Discard at next interval. tests increases by 1. When you
fail a Physical test, all Focus
tests take -1 penalty until end of
interval. Discard as recipient of
Difficulty 6 First Aid success.
STRUCK BY DEBRIS CANNON FODDER

Injury Injury
-1 to tests. Counts as 2 Injury cards. -4 to all tests.

Discard on a successful test. After 24 hours of world time,
155
IMPEDIMENT PATCHED UP
Injury Injury
-1 to Physical tests. -1 to tests.

After 24 hours of world time, Trade for “Recovering” on a
discard as recipient of a 1-point salient Physical success.
First Aid spend. After 48 hours
of world time, discard.
PERMANENT INJURY DAZED

Injury; Continuity Injury
-1 to all tests.
RECOVERING SHOT UP GOOD

Injury Injury
Trade for “Patched Up” when -1 to all tests. First Aid tests in which
you take another Injury card. you are the recipient take a -1 penalty.
Discard at end of session. Trade for “Patched Up” as recipient
156
STILL CRISPY COUGH, CHOKE,

Injury SPLUTTER
Injury
First Aid tests in which you are
the recipient take a -2 penalty. -1 to non-Focus tests.
Trade for “Recovering” after Discard at next interval.
24 hours of world time.
SLICED AND DICED SKINNED ALIVE

Injury Injury
-1 to Physical tests. You can’t perform Physical tests.

After failing a salient Physical -2 to Focus and Presence tests.
test, roll a die. If the foe who dealt After one day of world time and as
you this Injury (or “Skinned recipient of a Difficulty 6 First Aid
Alive”) is dead, discard on an even success, trade for “Sliced and Diced.”
result. If not, discard on a 6. If still held at end of scenario, you die.
KNIFE WOUND BAYONET WOUND

Injury Injury
Roll a die. Odd: -2 to your next -2 to Physical tests. -2 to First

test. Even: -1 to your next test. Aid tests performed on you.
Discard after next test. Trade for “Patched Up” as recipient
157
BARELY A SCRATCH BULLET WOUND

Injury Injury
-2 on your next test. If you succeed -2 to Physical tests. Counts

at the test, you may discard a as 2 Injury cards. Trade for
non-Continuity Shock card. “Patched Up” as recipient of
After your next test, discard Difficulty 6 First Aid success.
as recipient of Difficulty If still held at end of scenario, you
4 First Aid success. succumb to your injuries and die.
GASH DAZED
Injury Injury
Before your next test, roll a die and -1 to all tests.

discard this card. Odd: -2 on test. Discard at end of session.
JABBED IMPALED AND

PARTIALLY
Injury EXSANGUINATED
Discard by spending 2 Health, or Injury
as recipient of 1-point First Aid
spend from another player. -3 on next Physical test, -2 on
next test of any kind after that;
then you may spend 2 Health
to trade for “Recovering” or 4
Health to trade for “Dazed.”
158
BEAK JAB BEAK STAB

Injury Injury
Roll a die. Even: discard immediately. Roll a die: lose that number of points
Odd: lose Health equal to from Health, Athletics, and Fighting
your die roll. Discard after in a distribution of your choice.
an hour (world time). Discard after an hour (world time).
NEARLY STOMPED STEEL BEAM STOMP

Injury Injury
Lose 2 Athletics. -2 to tests. Counts as 2 Injury cards.

Discard after 10 minutes (world time). As recipient of Difficulty 6 First
Aid success, roll a die. Even: trade
for “Patched Up.” Odd: trade
for “Precarious Recovery.”
WHEN YOU REGAIN

CONSCIOUSNESS...
Injury
You are knocked out and will

wake up in the foe’s clutches.
Discard when you gain a core clue
while in custody, or when you escape.
159
SEEING DOUBLE SKULL FRACTURE

Injury Injury
You are knocked out and wake up in You are knocked out and wake up
the foe’s clutches. -1 to Presence tests. in the foe’s clutches. -2 to tests.
Discard on your first Presence test After you escape or are rescued,
following your escape or rescue. trade for “Patched Up” as recipient
of 2-point First Aid spend or
“Dazed” on a 4-point spend.
PUNCHED PARASITIC LINK

Injury Injury
Discard after your next test. -1 to any test you spend points on.
If that test is a Focus test, it Discard by killing the
takes a -2 penalty. Otherwise, redmedic who healed you.
the test takes a -1 penalty.
SUPERFICIAL BURNS DEEP BURNS

Injury Injury
-1 to Physical tests. -2 to Physical tests.

Discard by spending 2 First After any successful Physical
Aid on yourself, or having 1 test, spend 1 Health to trade
First Aid spent on you. for “Superficial Burns.”
160
MICROSCOPIC CELL DAMAGE

WOUNDS Injury
Injury
-1 to First Aid tests performed
-1 to First Aid tests performed on you by other characters.
on you by other characters. When a first First Aid test works
Discard when you are the would-be on you, roll a die. Even: trade
recipient of a failed First Aid test. for “Microscopic Wounds.”
HOOF STRIKE WARHORSE BITE

Injury Injury
Any time after the current interval, -1 to Physical tests.

you may spend 1 Health or have 2 At end of interval, roll a die.
First Aid spent on you to discard. Even result: discard. Odd result:
BLOWN BACK
Injury
Lose 1 Composure and 1 Health.

After any success with a
margin of 0 or 1, you may pay
1 Composure to discard.
After any success with a margin
of 2 or more, discard.
161
A MERE NIP TORN THROAT

Injury Injury
Your next test takes a penalty: -2 to Physical tests. Trade for “Patched
-2 for a Physical test, -1 for any Up” and “Shaken” as recipient of a
other test. Then discard. successful Difficulty 6 First Aid test.
WOOZY RUCTIOUS INNARDS

Injury Injury
Non-lethal. You can’t make Pushes. Nonlethal. You must remain

within proximity of a water
Discard when you leave the boat.
closet. You can’t make tests.
After six hours of world time, you
may make a Difficulty 4 Health
test at the beginning of any interval,
discarding this card on a success,
and losing 3 Health on a failure.
162
APPENDICES
APPENDICES
163
THE WARS
Character Sheet
Name
Player
Connection
Drive
INVESTIGATIVE ABILITIES
PUSHES (2):
GENERAL ABILITIES
Artillery (Physical) Mechanics (Focus)
Athletics (Physical) Morale (Presence)
Battlefield (Physical) Preparedness (Presence)
Composure (Presence) Riding (Physical)
Driving (Physical) Scrounging (Presence)
Fighting (Physical) Sense Trouble (Presence)
First Aid (Focus) Sneaking (Focus)
Health (Physical) Traps and Bombs (Focus)
Civilian Occupation That Damn Peculiar Thing
Consider spending 6-8 points on survival

abilities: Battlefield, Composure, and Fighting.
Pay Tolls from Athletics, Fighting, and Health.
APPENDICES
YOU’RE IN THE
WARS NOW
In The Wars you play a squad of Pah! How absurd. You must be
French soldiers enmeshed in the hungry. Are there uneaten rations
Continental War. Your missions still in your pack?
lead you to occult mysteries. Your GM will tell you which nations
Your investigations allow you to belong to the Loyalist alliance. You
confront and destroy the enemy will also learn which nations make
forces and alien beings marauding up the enemy side, and what they
their way across Europe. call themselves. If you already played
Your game begins several years into YKRPG’s Paris sequence, you may
the war, in 1947. The enemy presses spot some connections between the
hard on France and the other previous characters’ choices and the
nations of the Loyalist alliance. configuration of the current struggle.
Bone-weary and shell-shocked,
you don’t think much about Character Creation
the broader causes behind the As your GM guides you through
war. The great game between the steps of character creation,
nations matters little when you’re keep the following in mind:
shivering in a ditch, hoping the The General abilities Fighting and
things dropping from the sky are Composure remain key to survival.
allied paratroopers and not jelly- Here they are joined by Battlefield,
encased weeping mines. the ability you’ll be testing when
The indifference you feel toward evading the many impersonal
the greater scheme of the conflict hazards of war, from bombardments
goes beyond your focus on the to grenades to aircraft falling out
here-and-now of daily survival. of the sky right where you happen
In those rare moments when to be standing. Consider taking 6-8
you do try to contemplate the points in each.
events leading up to the war, Other new abilities, Morale and
your head begins to throb and Scrounging, allow (among other
thud. The harder you try to pierce things) one character to refresh
through the mental fog, the the Composure and Battlefield
duller your perceptions become. abilities, respectively, of other
If you didn’t know better, you’d players. Your characters will last
conclude that some vast, malign longer if a couple of players invest
intelligence plays humankind for points in these.
puppets, taking delight as great
nations destroy themselves in a Embracing the Premise
meaningless war, conducted for In a typical scenario, a superior
alien amusement. officer played by the GM assigns
165
APPENDICES
the squad a military mission, the Continental War range across

communicating orders to your Europe as if loosed from a Jules
Lieutenant. As you head off to Verne nightmare. Physics as we
fulfill that objective, you also know it? Let’s say that someone
discover a supernatural mystery. in the background, wearing a mask
Solving that mystery may be possibly, has been messing with the
necessary to complete the fundamental math of the universe.
mission. Or you might deem an Ornate art-nouveau decorations
investigation essential for other cover your rifles and sidearms.
reasons. Either way, the story never You might think the weapons
punishes you for dealing with occult would work better if all of these
events as you encounter them. flanges and filigrees were broken
Somehow, you will also always off. For some inexplicable reason
be able to complete your putative any such field modifications leave
mission—or at least, face no ill them worse than before.
consequences when forces outside Instead of treaded tanks, the
your control lead to its failure. terrifying armored vehicles of
You may be tempted, especially ground warfare are the stalkers,
if playing the Lieutenant, to take metal-clad, bulbous pillboxes
the role of the skeptical no- mounted on either four or five
nonsense soldier who brooks no articulated legs. Equipped with
interference with orders as they cannons, flamethrowers, and
are given, foolish superstitions be machine guns, their arrival spells
damned. Though this can be fun terror or jubilation, depending on
to play up to a point, your task whether they belong to the enemy
as player is to make sure your or are on your side and thundering
character moments don’t stop to your last-minute rescue.
the group from getting to the fun Overhead you hear the buzzing
part, the weird mystery you’re of a dragonfly. This helicopter
investigating. Sure, have fun equivalent consists of a glassed-
huffing and puffing and blustering, in cockpit divided into twin
but always grudgingly relent bubbles recalling the eyes of its
and allow the story to progress. eponymous insect. A segmented
Balance what your character body section houses up to eight
would do in the abstract against soldiers. Combat dragonflies
what you, the player, know has to strafe the ground with fore and
happen for everyone to follow the aft machine guns. The dragonfly’s
premise and enjoy the session. four wings flap up and down,
granting it flight in either vertical
Weird War or horizontal mode. Each wing
This is not a mid-century martial consists of a wrought iron frame
conflagration from history as into which dozens of stained glass
you know it. The strange ships, panels are fitted. These panels
aircraft, and armored vehicles of are made from levitation glass, a
Carcosan technology.
166
APPENDICES
Fixed-wing fighter planes are soldier is not a weapon but a

known as vampires, as the piece of communications gear,
scollops on their wings remind the boîtenoire. In a reality where
one of bats. Most feared models radio and television have yet to
include the Addhema (France), be discovered, this typewriter-
Varney (England), Nosferatu like device provides wireless,
(Germany), Vourdalak (Russia), two-way, near real-time contact
and Laiotă (Turkey). between soldiers and their distant
Naval ship classes match those commanders. To send a message,
of history as you know it—except the operator types on its Dvorak
for the rumored dreadnought, an keyboard, hitting the red send
aircraft carrier with legs said to button on the side of the unit
be able to scale mountain ranges. when finished. A buzzer inside the
Everyone hopes the French unit sounds when it receives an
version will get off the drawing incoming message. The operator
board before the enemy perfects then places a sheet of paper in
its own model. Ships carry a the roller and hits the button. The
variety of weird weapons, from the unit prints out the message using
cackler to the Hali cluster. keys striking a ribbon, as per a
The weird equipment that most normal typewriter.
defines your existence as a foot
French Infantry Ranks
Enlisted Ranks: •• Capitaine (commands

•• Private (Soldat de a company)
deuxième classe, Soldat Senior Officers:
de première classe) •• Commandant
•• Corporal (Caporal, Caporal-chef) •• Lieutenant-Colonel
Non-commissioned officers: •• Colonel (commands a regiment)
•• Sergeant (Sergent, Sergent-chef) •• Generals
•• Adjutant (Adjutant, Adjutant- •• Brigadier General (Général de
chef; performs the duties brigade; commands a brigade)
of a Lieutenant without the •• Division General (Général de
opportunities for advancement) division; commands a division)
•• Chief Quartermaster •• Corps General (Général de
(Maréchal des logis-major)
corps d’armée; commands
Junior officers:
a corps)
•• Second Lieutenant
•• Army General (Général d’armée;
(Sous-lieutenant)
runs the whole shebang)
•• Lieutenant
167
APPENDICES
Investigative Ability Worksheet
Player name
Character name
Accounting (A)
Assess Honesty (I)
Blueblood (I)
Chemistry (T)
Farming (T)
Humanities (A)
Hunting (T)
Inspiration (I)
Interrogation (I)
Intimidation (I)
Intuition (I)
Law (A)
Lowlife (I)
Medicine (T)
Military Logistics (A)
Military Science (A)
Negotiation (I)
Occultism (A)
Photography (T)
Political Science (A)
Reassurance (I)
Salt of the Earth (I)
Science (A)
Terrain (T)
168
APPENDICES
Group Matrix
Civilian That Damn
Player Character Drive Connection
Occupation Peculiar Thing
Relative Challenge Table

Relative Difficulty Difficulty Difficulty
Toll
Challenge (Escape) (Other) (Kill)
Weak 2 3 3 0
Tough but
2 4 3 0
Outmatched
Evenly Matched 3 5 4 1
Superior 4 5 4 1
Vastly Superior 3 6 7 2
Overwhelming 5 7 7 2
Too Awful to
5 8 8 3
Contemplate
169
APPENDICES
War Hazard Table
Inside a Structure
Beside Pinned by
When Bombers 3 Battlefield
Yourself Debris
Take It Out
Your Lucky
Strafed 3 Battlefield Charm Caught Perforated
a Bullet
Three Inches
Aerial
4 Battlefield Caked in Ash to The Left and
Bombardment
You’d Be Dust
An Aircraft Crash Flaming
3 Battlefield Flying Leap
Lands on You Debris
Muscle Rapid
Cholera 4 Health
Cramps Dehydration
Exposure to Earthly
4 Health Unwell Dysentery
Parasites
Respiratory
Hunger 4 Health Hunger
Failure
Hypothermia 4 Health Confusion Gangrene
Influenza 4 Health Sore Throat Influenza
Shredded “Am I Still in

Land Mine 4 Battlefield
Flesh One Piece?”
Bruised While
Machine Gun Fire 4 Battlefield Sprayed
Taking Cover
Marched Past
4 Health Winded Exhausted
Endurance
Hurled and
Mortar Fire 4 Battlefield Ringing Ears
Scorched
Poison Gas 4 Battlefield Light-Headed Lung Damage
170
APPENDICES
Sharks Feed on Those Telltale

4 Battlefield Shark Bite
Drifting Sailors Fins
Dead on Your
Sleep Deprivation 4 Battlefield Bleary
Feet
Bruised While Through and
Small Arms Fire 4 Battlefield
Taking Cover Through
Small Arms Fire Discourager Discourager
4 Battlefield
(Discourager Round) Graze Hit
Small Arms Fire
4 Battlefield Quisling Graze Quisling Hit
(Quisling Round)
Small Arms Fire Suppurator Suppurator
4 Battlefield
(Suppurator Round) Graze Hit
Small Arms Fire White-Sky
4 Battlefield White-Sky Hit
(White-Sky Round) Graze
Sub-Sonic Sub-Sonic
Sub-Sonic Barrage 4 Health
Thrum Disruption
Rapid
Sunstroke 4 Health Light-Headed
Heartbeat
Tetanus 4 Health Tetanic Fever Lockjaw
Agony of
Thirst 4 Health Kidney Failure
Thirst
Necrotic
Trenchfoot 4 Health Gangrene
Tissue
Tumble Down a
Hillside (Exposed 4 Battlefield Scuffed Up Torn Ligament
to Enemy)
Tumble Down a
Hillside (No Enemy 4 Athletics Scuffed Up Torn Ligament
Present)
Artillery Fire 5 Battlefield Shell-Shocked Hit Bad
Giant Squid Attack

5 Battlefield Tentacle Lash Squid Bite
the Lifeboats
In a Forest as
Struck by
Artillery Explodes 5 Battlefield Splinter
Wood Debris
the Trees
171
APPENDICES
Circulatory
Nerve Gas 5 Battlefield Blurred Vision
Damage
Shrapnel’s
On a Torpedoed
5 Battlefield Sharp, Into the Drink
Boat
Water’s Hard
Radiation Poisoning Internal
5 Health Convulsions
(Earthly) Bleeding
Bruised While
Rifle Fire 5 Battlefield Rifle Hit
Taking Cover
Stalker Fire: Flame
5 Battlefield Burned Roasted
Thrower
Slammed
Trapped on a Ship Into the
5 Battlefield Against the
as It Sinks Depths
Hull
Exposure to
6 Health Soul Decay Black Blood
Carcosan Parasites
Radiation Poisoning
6 Health Susceptible Black Tears
(Carcosan)
Stalker Fire: Worse Than It Thoroughly
6 Battlefield
Machine Gun Looks Perforated
Drenched in
Stink Grenade 8 Health Stink Grenade
Stink
Grenade special Battlefield Light Shrapnel Grenade
Stalker Fire Struck by Cannon

special Battlefield
(Cannon) Debris Fodder
172
APPENDICES
Shell Shocks Table

You See a Weapon Do Weird Weapon

3 Disbelief
Something Eerie or Impossible Trauma
You Think Too Hard About the Throbbing
3 Dulled Thinking
Causes of the War Migraine
A Leader Falls 4 Bereft Rudderless
You are Targeted for the First

World Gone
Time by a Particular Weird 4 What th—?
Mad
Weapon
You Meet a Creature Posing as a Profaned
4 Haunted
Dead PC Memories
You Promise to Protect a Resounding
4 Hollow Promise
Civilian, and Fail Failure
You See a Comrade or Innocent
Life’s Value
Civilian Killed with a Weird 4 Tenuous Reality
Ebbs
Weapon*
You See a Particular Horrible Nightmare
4 Revulsion
Battlefield Sight for the First Time Fuel
You Show Fright, Inviting the
4 Lily-Livered Yellow-Bellied
Mockery of Fellow Soldiers
You Use a Particular Weird Flirtation with Embracing
4
Weapon for the First Time Carcosa Carcosa
Your Ship Is Taking on Water 4 Sinking Feeling Panic
The Ghosts of the Fallen Come The Vengeful

4 Ghost Touch
for You Dead
Tastes Like A Crossed
You Consume Human Flesh 5
Chicken Line
You Let a Comrade Needlessly
5 Callous Pit of Remorse
Die
Your Submarine Has Sprung a
5 Panic Rat in a Can
Leak
Your Submarine is Under Attack Tentacled
5 Rat in a Can
by a Giant Squid Doom
You Take Part in a Mass No Blood More
5** Atrocity
Execution or War Crime Cold
* -1 Difficulty for each previous time you’ve seen someone killed with this particular weapon
**+3 Difficulty if victims are innocent civilians
173
Index
A air force) 45 Decoration Seeker 12

Carcosa Family Tradition 12
Addhema (French fighter
Amiens Convention 96–97 Financial Ambition 12
plane) 44
motivations 26–27 Honor 14
Advancement (Drive) 11
Carcosans (foe tag) 64 Monstrous Incident 14
A Funny Feeling (Drive) 14
Cassilda Occult Fascination 14
Aircraft 42–45
motivations 26–27 Passion for Order 14
Aircraft carriers. See Plat-
Chain of Command 99–101 Problem Solver 14
form (aircraft carrier)
Character generation 6–23 Procedure 14
Air torpedoes (defensive
Characters 6 Rationalism 14
tech) 45
build points 9 Shattered Ethos 14
Akrep (Turkish bomber) 45
converting from Paris 8–9 Shell-shocked 14
The Alien Truth (scenario
generating 6–23 Waa-hoo! 14
structure) 94
Claw (minisub) 56 War Stories 14
American Flying Bobcats
Commanding Officer 79–81 Driving (Physical) 23
(volunteer air force) 45
Communications device. Duchess of Death (foe) 67
Amiens Convention 96–97
See Boîtenoire E
Amphritite (minisub) 56
Competitive (Drive) 12
Antagonist Reactions (sce- Encounter style (foes)
Composure test table
nario structure) 94 64–65
33–34
Approval Seeker (Drive) 12 Enemy Skirmishers (foe)
Comrades 81–85
Arc (campaign structure) 67–68
Comradeship (Drive) 12
101 Extrusion (foe) 69
Concussor (grenade) 57
Artillery (Physical) 22 Eyes (spyplanes) 46
Connection (between Paris
Athletics
and The Wars characters) F
refreshing. See Hunkering
15
Down Family Tradition (Drive) 12
Conscience (General Kit) 10
Australian Black Buzzards Farming (Technical) 17
Continental War. See The
(volunteer air force) 45 Fiddleback (English bomber)
War
B Corvette (warship) 47 45
Cruiser (ship) 47 Fighter plane. See Aircraft
Baba Yaga (Russian ship Fighting 24–25
weapon) 53 D Relative challenge table 24
Baller (fighter plane option) Financial Ambition (Drive)
Deathpriests (medium and
45 12
heavy bombers) 45–46
Battlefield (Focus) 23 Firearms 56–57
Decoration Seeker (Drive)
Battlefield refresh. See Hun- ammunition 57
12
kering Down Flattery (Interpersonal) 17
Derisive terms 28
Battlefronts 29 Foe profiles
Destroyer (ship) 47
Battleship 47 Duchess of Death 67
Deuced Peculiar Business.
Biplane 45 Enemy Skirmishers 67–68
See That Damn Peculiar
Black Marketeers 87–88 Extrusion 69
Thing
Blackstar diesel 54–55 Gravegrinder 69–70
Dirigible 46
Blueblood (Interpersonal) Hedgehog 70–71
Discouragers (ammo) 57
17 Peasant Who Seems Lovely
Dornfinger (German bomber)
Boîtenoire 39–40 Until You Turn Your Back
45
Bomber. See Aircraft 71–72
Dragonfly (helicopter) 42–43
Brothel Keeper 88 Phantasms 72–73
Dreadnought (amphibious
Bruiser (General Kit) 10 Redmedic 73–74
battleship) 47
C Drives 11–14 Soul Butcher 74
Advancement 11 Stalker 74–75
Cackler (ship weapon) 53
A Funny Feeling 14 Swarm 75–76
Camilla
Approval Seeker 12 Weeping Mine 76–78
motivations 26–27
Competitive 12 Whatsisname 78
Canadian Auroras (volunteer
Comradeship 12 Foes 64–71. See also Foe
profiles Humanities (Academic) 18 Mental hazards. See Shell
encounter style 64–65 Hunger (hazard) 37 Shocks
master list 65–66 Hunkering Down 24–25 Military Logistics (Academic)
tags 64 Hunting (Technical) 18 19–20
Foreign auxiliary air forces I Military Police (series prem-
45 ise) 98
Foreign War Hero 86–87 Injury cards Military Science (Academic)
Fox (General Kit) 10 examples from the text 21
French Hero 85–86 142–162 Minelayer 47
Frigate 47 for all Stalkers 75 Minesweeper 47
secondary 38 Minisub 55–56
G Interrogation (Interpersonal) The Mission (scenario struc-
Gender (character) 7 18 ture) 94
General Abilities 9–12 Intimidation (Interpersonal) complications 95–96
hazard scenes 98 18 Monstrous Incident (Drive)
master list 12 Investigative Abilities 17–22 14
new General abilities master list 22 Morale (Presence) 23
22–23 Investigative ability master Mundane (foe tag) 64
General Kits 9–11 list 22 The Mystery (scenario struc-
Bruiser 10 Investigative Kits 8–9 ture) 94
Conscience 10 Lieutenant 8
Fox 10 Private (Merchant) 8 N
Ghost 10 Private (Peasant) 8 Navy. See Ships; See Sub-
Grease Monkey 10–11 Private (Photographer) 8 mersibles; See Minisub
Mathematician 11 Private (Writer) 8 Captain Nemo 53, 55
Raw Recruit 11 Sergeant 8 Nemo (submarine) 53–54
Tactician 11 Terrain Private (Medical Neptune (shell) 53
The General 85 Student) 8 Nightmare (grenade) 58
Ghost gas (fighter plane K Nosferatu (German fighter
option) 45 plane) 44
Ghost (General Kit) 10 Karakurt (Russian bomber)
45 O
Gravegrinder (foe) 69–70
Grease Monkey (General The King in Yellow Objectives (scenario)
Kit) 10 motivations 26–27 101–102
Grenade (hazard) 37 L Occult Adventure mode
Grenade 57–58 build points 9
Laiotă (Turkish fighter plane) Occult Fascination (Drive)
H 44 14
Hali cluster (anti-sub depth Law (Academic) 18 Oculum 46
charge) 53 Leadership (Interpersonal) Officer Class Culture 30–31
Hammerhead (minisub) 55 19
Lethal Chambers. See Mini- P
Handgun 56
The Haven (scenario struc- sub Paris
ture) 94 Lieutenant (Investigative connecting characters 15
Hazards 33–37 Kit) 8 converting characters 8–9
shell shocks 33–34 Loft (fighter plane option) Passion for Order (Drive) 14
travel on foot 38 45 Patrol boat 46
war hazards 35–38 Lord of Poitou (ship weapon) Peasants 91–92
Hazard Scenes 98–99 53 Peasant Who Seems Lovely
Hazards (scenario structure) Lowlife (Interpersonal) 19 Until You Turn Your Back
94 The Loyalists 27–28 (foe) 71–72
Hedgehog (foe) 70–71 Loyalist infantry 6–7 People 79–93
Herne (English ship weapon) M Black Marketeers 87–88
53 Brothel Keeper 88
Hitler, Adolf 93 Machine gun 56 Commanding Officer
Honor (Drive) 14 Mathematician (General Kit) 79–81
Horror mode 11 Comrades 81–85
build points 9 Medicine (Technical) 19 Foreign War Hero 86–87
French Hero 85–86 S Torpedo boat 46
The General 85 Traps and Bombs (Focus)
Salt of the Earth (Interper-
Peasants 91–92 23
sonal) 21–22
Villagers 88–91 Tripod (offensive vehicle) 42
Scenarios
Phantasms (foe) 72–73 V
big objective 101–102
Phyiscal hazards. See War
sequence arc 101 Vampires (fixed wing fighter
hazards
structure 94 planes) 44–45
Planes. See Aircraft
Scenes 94 Varney (English fighter plane)
Platform (aircraft carrier) 47
hazard 98–99 44
Political Science (Academic)
Scrounging (Presence) 23 Villagers 88–91
21
Secondary Injury Cards 38 Violon (English bomber) 45
Poseidon (minisub) 56
Seeker (marine mine) 53 Violon (French bomber) 45
Premise 6
Sekhar Rao. See Captain Vortex (minisub) 56
Military Police 98
Nemo Vourdalak (Russian fighter
Report for Execution
Sergeant (Investigative Kit) plane) 44
96–98
8
Shadow Squadron 94–96 W
Shadow Squadron (series
Prince Dakkar. See Captain
premise) 94–96 Waa-hoo! (Drive) 14
Nemo
Shattered Ethos (Drive) 14 Walkers. See Shell Shocks
Private/Merchant (Investiga-
Shell-shocked (Drive) 14 War hazards 35–37
tive Kit) 8
Shell Shocks 33–34 War of Reclamation. See The
Private/Peasant (Investiga-
Ships 46–53 War
tive Kit) 8
Shock cards Warped Timeline 28–29
Private/Photographer (Inves-
examples from the text Warspawn (foe tag) 64
tigative Kit) 8
130–141 War Stories (Drive) 14
Private/Writer (Investigative
Slang The War 26–63
Kit) 8
for the enemy 28 aircraft 42–46
Problem Solver (Drive) 14
minisub 55 battlefronts 29
Procedure (Drive) 14
Small Arms 56–58 behind the lines 29
Q ammunition 57 the Enemy 28
Quislings (ammo) 57 Soul Butcher (foe) 74 the Fighting French 30
Quisling, Vidkun 57 Spiders (light bomber) 45 machinery of war 38–42
Spoofer (ship weapon) 53 officer class culture 30–31
R Stalker 41–42 rank structure 32
Rager (grenade) 57 Stalker (foe) 74–75 ships 46–53
Rank structure 32 Stinker (grenade) 57 small arms 56–58
Rationalism (Drive) 14 Submersibles 53–56 submersibles 53–56
Raw Recruit (General Kit) minisubs 56–57 terrain 58–63
11 table 54 warped timeline 28
Reactive camouflage (defen- Subsonic barrage (defensive Weeping Mine (foe) 76–78
sive tech) 45 tech) 45 Whatsisname (foe) 78
Reciprocity Depot 96–98 Suppurators (ammo) 57 White-sky rounds (ammo)
Redmedic (foe) 73–74 Swarm (foe) 75–76 57
Refreshes. See Hunkering T Wildhunter (ship weapon)
Down 53
Relationships 17 Tactician (General Kit) 11 Wotan (German ship weap-
Relative challenge table 24 Tags (foes) 64–65 on) 53
“The Repairer of Reputa- Tank. See Stalker
Terrain 58–63 X
tions” (story) 28
Report for Execution (series Terrain Private/Medical Stu- X-card 7
premise) 96–98 dent (Investigative Kit) 8 Y
Revolver 56 Terrain (Technical) 22
Rifle 56 Tetanus (hazard) 38–39 Yellow War. See The War
Rules That Damn Peculiar Thing
adjustments 24–25 16–17
Running The Wars 94–102 Thirst (hazard) 38
Timeline (creating) 28–29
PELGY03
ACROSS A HAZY BATTLEFIELD,

CARCOSA’S GRIP TIGHTENS
It is 1947, and Europe remains mired in the devastation and

bloodshed of the Continental War.
You, a war-hardened squad of French soldiers, resist the
Enemy as it closes in on your homeland. Yet as you trudge
through the ash-strewn landscape, you realize that you are but
chess pieces in a grander, inhuman game.
Hefting your ornate rifle, packing your ever-present boîtenoire,
and sidestepping weeping mines, you investigate the eerie war
behind the war.
This volume contains:

•• Character generation and rules adjustments for this brain-
rattling new front in the struggle against the tattered king.
•• A military geopolitics guide explaining as much of this
alternate reality conflict as your brain dares encompass.
•• Rank with fear and cordite, a fresh wave of Injury and
Shock cards to challenge the soldiers of Weird War One.
•• Clanking and buzzing from a Jules Verne nightmare,
the bizarre death machinery of the Continental War,
from stalkers to dragonflies to dreadnoughts.
•• Weird war foes to overrun your positions and haunt your
dreams. Meet the cruel Duchess of Death, the hideous
gravegrinder, the insinuating redmedic, and more.
•• People to talk to, protect, or toss grenades at,
from civilians to comrades to officers.
•• A complete scenario, A Feast for Wolves. Try the sausages!

Book 2 - The Wars

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THE WARS

Copyright © 2018 Pelgrane Press Ltd.

INTO THE WARS 4 French Hero 85

INTO THE WARS

In this, the second sequence •• The squad investigates reports

team penetrates the squad’s out your version of the Continental

Character generation proceeds up in some other trouble, they

test to avoid Shocks, Minor sexes is assumed and goes

The Wars Character Paris Equivalent

Pick player best suited to

Medical Student Poet

Merchant Portrait Painter

Peasant Landscape Painter

Bruiser First Aid 2

General Ability Master List Approval Seeker: “Before

after peace breaks out.” warranting further investigation.”

Connection match the events of 1895.

That Damn doom. Staggering to the edge

on you. You kept calling out withhold from social climbers or

or are accustomed to receiving it •• tell whether other people have

from them. Once in uniform you •• identify, befriend, and get

•• tell whether a unit is well in an engagement are

You can: Investigative Ability Master List

Battlefield (Focus) says this is possible)

The Wars introduces a few other Hunkering Down

Relative Difficulty Difficulty Difficulty

world time away from your can be used to refresh Battlefield

This chapter presents unbreakable ritual oath. If the

remaining sister could be on Main choices include England,

Be sure to leave about half of other side decided to take this as

in to fill the vacuum, taking a richer harvest of suffering and

progress of the war ebbs and throughout the conflict, French

Conversely, the further down skipping gradations within ranks.

BATTLE WEARS NO MASK

This section covers the mental

Situation Difficulty Minor Major

You See a Weapon

A Leader Falls 4 Bereft Rudderless

You are Targeted

Situation Difficulty Minor Major

Danger Difficulty Ability Minor Major

An Aircraft Crash Flaming

Hypothermia 4 Health Confusion Gangrene

Influenza 4 Health Sore Throat Influenza

Shredded “Am I Still in

Poison Gas 4 Battlefield Light-Headed Lung Damage

Danger Difficulty Ability Minor Major

Sharks Feed on Those Telltale

Tetanus 4 Health Tetanic Fever Lockjaw

Artillery Fire 5 Battlefield Shell-Shocked Hit Bad

Giant Squid Attack

Danger Difficulty Ability Minor Major

Grenade special Battlefield Light Shrapnel Grenade

Stalker Fire Struck by Cannon

Explanatory Notes Difficulty 3 Battlefield test. If they

Tetanus: Difficulty 4 Health to specifics, weight matters as much

Secondary Injury Cards

the Osprey Publishing catalog. weapons, a term used in the text