The Quintessential Curios is the first zine from the Watch Well Games creators coalition, an experiment started by K.J. Montgomery. The zine is an anthology of six adventures for tabletop roleplaying games. Writers for this issue include Joe Fox, John Hedge, Wazza, Kublai Kohen, CJ Weigel, and Zachary Elliott-Hatton.
The review copy, which Geek Native has been fortunate enough to see in advance, notes that the zine features 100% human-made content with a “bare-bone layout”. The final zine will be lovely and art-filled, we’re told.
TL;DR – it’s a good wee zine with something for you/GM and something for the player.
Spoiler risks, ahoy.
A Timely Theme
A loose theme of time and temporal mechanics connects the adventures. “The Megaliths of London” spans two time periods, 2,000 years apart. “The Black Bell” is a dungeon where players can shift between “Temporal Anchors”. “Battle for the Chronoscape” is set in a location where multiple timelines have collided. This theme is introduced in the first module, “A Regional Museum,” which can act as a hub. It contains a “Chance Cube” and “Sun Window” that can form an interdimensional portal, with destinations explicitly linking to the other adventures in the zine.
Drop-In Locations
The zine contains two modules designed as “drop-in” settings.
“DROP-IN LOCATION: #01 A Regional Museum” by Joe Fox is presented as a “cafeteria-style” adventure. It details a two-story museum and its exhibits, including a Triceratops skeleton and a statue of the town’s founder, Roland Winters. The module provides several “Hooks and Hazards,” such as a pharmaceutical company using the museum for experiments and a puzzle involving the Winters family legacy.
“The Black Bell” by CJ Weigel is a “short dungeon”. The setup involves players being hired to rescue a woman named Candice from a cult attempting to resurrect the sorcerer-king Blackmoore. The adventure operates on a two-hour time limit. Its main mechanic involves ringing a bell to shift between different “Temporal Anchors” of the temple, including the “Raid,” “Apocalypse,” and “End of Time”.
Scenarios and Systems
The zine presents three system-agnostic scenarios:
“To See Amongst the Stars” by John Hedge is a “science-fiction horror adventure”. Players are the crash-landed crew of the SS Odysseus. They are met by Al “Pa” Carsson, who is secretly an “eldritch abomination” probing their minds for their home worlds through a series of flashbacks.
“The Megaliths of London” by Wazza is an adventure played in two time periods. Players control a group of Roman soldiers in 66CE investigating a druid threat and a group of modern-day MI6 agents investigating the theft of megaliths. The two events are part of a 2,000-year-old ritual to change the timeline.
“Battle for the Chronoscape” by Zachary Elliott-Hatton is an “action-adventure”. Players are hired to find the Mechanomancer’s Codex in a town where time has broken down. The area exists in three colliding “ages”: The Golden Age, The Dark Age, and The Ruin. A key antagonist is a “rival adventuring party from another timeline”. The module also provides rules for “Mechanical Wonders” like the “Autocarriage”.
Time Knight Solo Adventure
“Time Knight,” by Wazza and Kublai Kohen, is a “choose-your-own-adventure”. It uses its own simple ruleset based on three abilities: PROFICIENCY, FORTUNE, and ENDURANCE. Combat is resolved by comparing a player’s PROFICIENCY roll against their opponent’s PROFICIENCY score. The story begins with the player at home being attacked by a “Time Stalker” and escaping through time portals, visiting locations like Victorian London during the time of Jack the Ripper and a prehistoric valley with dinosaurs.
Overall
We’ve smart and talented writers here. I enjoyed every page of this zine, with my main quibble being those times when the reader/GM is told what the players should do but not being given a steer when (inevitably) the players do something else.
I especially liked the solo adventure/game book, which (in my review copy) are linked up so when you have an instruction like “If you succeed, turn to 44. If you fail, turn to 107”, you can click on the section numbers and the PDF will teleport you to the correct section. I like that in The Quintessential Curios, there’s something for you – the person buying the zine -and something for your players.
The Watch Well Games site says the zine is due before the end of the year.
