VISCERA!

By Bartlett, and Accomplices

A supplement compatible with
Britains Original Mass
Market RPG
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Art Credits
Cover: Artist Burgkamair, Hans (C16th)
Page 4: Artist de Beaumont, douard. From Le
diable amoureux (1871).
Page 5: Artist Abbey, Edwin Austin. From
Selections from the poetry of Robert Herrick
(1882).
Page 6: Artist Ehrhardt, Adolf. From
Deutsches Balladenbuch (1852).
Page 7: Artist Menzel, Adolph von. From Die
Werke Friedrichs des Groen, vol. 1 (1913).
Page 12: Artist de Rudder, Louis-Henri. From
Notre-Dame de Paris (1844).
Page 13*: Artist - von Gersdorf, Hans. From
Feldtbuch der Wundartzney, newlich getruckt und
gebessert (1530).
Page 14: Artist Dargent, Yan. From La
divine comdie (1870).
Page 18*: Artist de Ketham, Johannes. From
Fasciculus medicine (1495).
Page 23: Artist - Lalauze, Adolph. From The
history of the ingenious gentleman Don Quixote
of La Mancha, vol. 1 (1908).
Back Cover: Artist - Le Rouge, Nicholas (1496).

*Images from the collection of the Wellcome

Library, London. Used under Creative Commons
Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0.

Thanks to Daniel Sell and Kelvin Green for some

help in finishing the Critical Hit tables, and
to Graham Bottley of Arion Games for reviving
Advanced Fighting Fantasy. In case it isnt
obvious, no challenge to the rights of any of
the holders of Fighting Fantasy intellectual
property and licences is intended!

Typefaces
2

Titles: Moria (Russell Herschler)
Text: Casablanca Antique (Corel)

For Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, whose

fault this all is.

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 Table of Contents

Getting Gritty: Grim & Perilous Gaming ... 4
The Grizzled Adventurer .................. 6
Critical Hits ............................ 7
Lingering Wounds ........................ 12
Death & Dismemberment ................... 14
Hermits, Herbalists, & Healers .......... 16
Rituals & Remedies ...................... 19
By this scar, I rule! ................. 21

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 Getting Gritty:
Grim & Perilous Gaming
Consider Fighting Fantasy. Juvenile reading, yet
possessing a far more genuinely mature aesthetic
than many contemporary games. Titan, the world of
the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, is one in which
there are umpteen master wizards (mostly bad or
mad), in which YOU might fight animated statues,
ride on griffons, fight a topiaric monster etc. A
world of high magic. And YOU will have a minimum
SKILL of 7 and STAMINA of 12, making YOU far more
powerful than any normal man. But the design of the
books as a game produces the pathetic aesthetic;
there are plenty of death traps, and choices that
lead to the lines 'Your adventure ends here'. And
even if these are avoided, YOU are more likely than
not to die in a way that isn't dramatically
satisfying, whether through slow attrition or the
lack of a magic gee-gaw. And look closer at the
setting; are there a more pitiable bunch of monsters
than the inhabitants of Firetop Mountain or the
Citadel of Chaos? Much of the world is pitiable,
the ever-present prospect of failure renders YOU
pitiable. And that is before we consider the YOU
that is the Creature of Havoc.

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So I wrote, back in 2013, when I inadvertently
annoyed a bunch of people on RPGnet and elsewhere
with an essentially self-mocking blog post on the
Pathethic Aesthetic. The current edition of
Britains Original Mass Market RPG is built on a
body of work that is at once high-fantasy, with
high-power, competent PCs, but which nevertheless
retains a grittiness, a griminess (as I believe Jack
Shear put it), a pathetic aesthetic. However, much
of the production of this atmosphere lay in the pen
and ink of the artists and the fiat of the dead
Games Masters; Jackson, Livingstone, and their
surrogate scribes. This collection of articles and
house rules is an attempt to give this aesthetic
expression in the mechanics of the game. It is not
an attempt to replicate the mechanics of the
original grim and perilous RPG, though it might
well serve as a starting point for explorations and
adventure in those kinds of settings.

It is tempting to seek to add grittiness to your

game by altering the way in which lost STAMINA can
be recovered. A well-fed and properly rested Hero
will recover 8 STAMINA points each day (AFF2e p65).
Perhaps, you say, Provisions ought only allow a Hero
to avoid STAMINA loss to hunger, not to recover that
lost in combat. Perhaps sleep ought not allow a Hero
to regain so much STAMINA, making recovery a matter
of weeks rather than days. Perhaps you will restrict
access to healing, mundane and magical, to emphasise
that combat is dangerous.

Avoid this temptation.

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These changes add little to the grittiness of the
game, but do radically change the rhythm of
adventure. STAMINA becomes an attritional resource
that limits adventure, an abstract quantity that
must be carefully managed. Heroes will retreat from
adventure to camp, rest, and recuperate. AFF is not
the game to choose if you want to stress resource
management, and these kind of fixes, in
themselves, add no real colour, no (bloody) flesh to
the (broken) bones. STAMINA remains (as it should)
an abstract countdown towards defeat. Do not think
that counting bare numbers will, in itself, produce
this aesthetic; instead enhance the themes by
liberally smearing your game in colourful grime.

The Grizzled Adventurer

One of the tropes of fantasy fiction is the grizzled

old (anti-)hero. His body is a patchwork of scars,
his joints creak, and when hes tramping up into the
frozen heights of the Icefinger Mountains his
sciatica absolutely bloody kills. And hell let you
know; when hes not showing off his scars,
recounting just how and where he got each one, hes
grumbling about them. And yet, when it comes down to

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it and steel is in his hand, hes still the meanest
swordsman this side of the Pagan Plains.

Many fantasy RPGs struggle to reflect this trope,

with games such as D&D producing characters who
steadily accumulate personal power (or die trying).
Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play certainly manages to
produce characters with their share of war wounds,
and the influence can be clearly seen on the system
offered here. What Advanced Fighting Fantasy (AFF)
offers, by contrast, is a game in which the
characters are Heroes theyre called that right
there in the book and a significantly lighter
(and less baroque) adventure engine. In keeping with
this, the systems that is offered here for AFF are
not intended to add significant new complexities to
the rules, nor are they intended to cripple Heroes.

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 Critical HITS

This is a system that adds descriptive colour and
the possibility of a degree of permanency to the
existing Critical Hit and implied major wound system
of AFF.

In AFF, rolling a double six for a combat roll is a

Critical Hit, causing double STAMINA damage and
inflicting a point of SKILL damage due to muscle
and bone damage. The director is encouraged to
describe the result of the attack (p 58). Later,
this effect is expressly described as a major
wound; A Hero who has taken a major wound needs a
week-long continuous rest to restore one point of
SKILL (p 65). So a Critical Hit = a distinct wound,
rather than the kind of wear and tear from which
Heroes can recover from with a rest and a good meal.

And when it comes to wounds, who doesnt love a

Critical Hit table? In true Fighting Fantasy style,
this is a d66 table.

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 10

 HEAD
11 A gaping wound is opened up on the scalp,
cutting to the bone. Blood gushes forth, getting
the Heros eyes. He can wipe the blood away but
his head is left spinning by the blow. Any
lingering effects are likely to be as a result
of the concussion. Most hats and hairstyles are
ruined.
12 The blow catches the Hero across an eye (roll
1d6: 1-3 left, 4-6 right), sending a searing
pain into the her skull. The Hero will almost
certainly have a cool scar, and if she is
Unlucky she might find that her eyesight is
permanently impaired. Still, an eyepatch is a
fashionable accessory in Blacksand!
13 Thwack! The Heros sight is filled with an
explosion of stars as a heavy blow lands on the
back of his head. He is rendered momentarily
senseless, and the blurred vision, unsteady
balance, and nausea linger for days. Given the
behaviour of most Heroes, it will be difficult
to tell if there has been lasting damage to the
Heros personality and intellect.

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14 The clash of steel and the screams of the
dying are suddenly silenced in a burst of pain.
To the Hero, sounds will seem distant and
indistinct for some time, and the ringing will
persist for days. Her hearing will recover in a
while. I said, HER HEARING WILL RECOVER IN A
WHILE.
15 The Heros nose is spread across his face
like a burst tomato. He tastes iron as the blood
runs down the back of his throat, and his eyes
water in pain. For the rest of the fight he will
struggle to breathe, or to impress anyone with
his looks.
16 The Hero is caught on her jaw and he hears
the cracking of bone like thunder inside her
head. She will have to spit out the sharp,
bloody fragments of his teeth, and might want to
invest in soft Provisions.

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 ARMS
(21-26 right, 31-36 left)
21/31 A bolt of lightning courses down the
Heros arm, a shooting, sparking pain after
which the arm goes numb from shoulder to
fingertip. A blow across the shoulder has
damaged the nerves. By great concentration and
gritted teeth, the Hero can fight on, willing
this dead weight of a limb to respond. The pins
and needles will be excruciating.
22/32 The Hero involuntarily yelps in pain, with
an odd hint of laughter hidden in the anguish. A
blow has struck his elbow. Adrenaline can carry
the Hero through this fight, but there may be
broken bone and torn ligaments for him to deal
with later. How humerus.
23/33 The Hero is caught across the hand, which
immediately begins to throb. With each pump of
her heart her hand pulses in pain. Until the
fight is over, all the Hero can do is to hold
tight to her weapon as hot agony builds like a
quickening drumbeat.
24/34 A series of small, sharp cracks tap out a
painful code; the message being that the Hero
might struggle to play the piano. He knows in
that instant that his fingers have been broken,
the pain of bone grinding on bone reaches his
brain a moment later.

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25/35 A great gash is opened up on the Heros
forearm and the blood pouring from the
unstaunched wound makes her hand hot and slick.
The pain, the sliced muscle and the damaged
nerves dont help either.
26/36 As the Hero raises his arms, his enemys
blow slips past his defence, connecting
excruiciatingly with his unguarded, tender, and
very sensitive underarm. The Hero will aggravate
this wound at the slightest activity, prompting
a degree of caution and compensation that is
difficult to shake.

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 BODY

41 Struck in the neck, the Hero is left gasping

for breath, his head spinning and the darkness
creeping into the corners of his vision. He will
struggle to speak for some time, and if he is
Unlucky might find his singing voice is not what
it was.
42 A chest wound sucks and spurts along with the
Heros exertions. Her every breath is heavier
and wetter than the last, and involuntary coughs
spray bright red blood on her enemies and
companions. If the Hero is Unlucky she will have
to learn to manage with a chronic shortness of
breath.
43 The Hero feels the wet pop of gristle and the
sickening grind of rib against rib. Every
movement is agony. He moves awkwardly,
unconsciously protecting his side and hold his
body in such a way as to minimise the sensation
that his own bones are stabbing into him. Dont
make me laugh! Please!
44 Gut shot! The Hero brings up her dinner, and
retches and heaves for the remainder of the
fight. She struggles to stand upright. Hopefully
the wound is just to the muscle painful but
superficial but if she is Unlucky she is
bleeding internally and has suffered lasting
damage to her internal organs.
15

45 TWANG! In his head, it sounded and felt like
a bow string snapping, and theat crack appears
to have lit a fire at the base of the Heros
back. Whether it was from the blow itself, or
his attempt to twist out of the way, something
has gone very wrong. The Hero struggles to
transfer his full weight into blows without it
feeling like he is pouring oil onto the fire.
46 A blow to the sternum knocks the wind out of
the Hero, leaving her gasping and spluttering.
She hopes that the loud crack she heard was her
armour taking the blow, and that the crushing
pain in her chest just bad bruising.

LEGS
(51-56=Right 61-66=Left)
51/61 Not being able to sit down for at a week
isn't so bad. The Hero can deal with that. It's
all the jokes about "kicking arse" that are
going to be the real pain in the, er, never
mind.
52/62 SNAP! The Heros hamstring's has gone, and
he is unable to walk without considerable pain.
He does a weird dancing-hopping-running thing
for a few paces, and for the rest of the
encounter adopts an unconventional crouch-squat
fighting stance.
53/63 The Hero is struck on her knee, which
hyper-extends putting a terrible strain on the
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joint. She can feel it swelling, but adrenaline
keeps her upright and fighting. Is her kneecap
in one piece? Is it in the right place? She
hopes that she is Lucky, else shell be limping
a lot longer than a week. Stairs are going to be
a challenge and ladders will frighten her more
than a tribe of Orcs.
54/64 Oh well, there are still nine toes left.
Eight. Sev... oh dear. Are they just smashed, or
have they been severed? He wont be able to tell
until the end of the fight when he has time to
pour the blood from his boot. Without his little
piggies the Hero's balance is off and his gait
is shorter and slower. He moves more slowly and
cautiously until he gets used to his new
bearing. On the plus side, the Hero can now fit
his feet into those fashionable Shazar-style
shoes.
55/65 The Her is caught on the ankle leading her
to hop in pain. The bruising causes her ankle,
and much of her foot, to swell to almost twice
its normal size. If she is wearing any sort of
boot or shoe, it will have to be cut off to ease
her pain. I hope it wasn't expensive or, worse,
magical.
56/66 Eeeesh! Now that hurts. The fight stops as
all involved wince in sympathy. Well, if the
Hero is Unlucky I suppose the upside is theres

17

no need to set any of the treasure aside for any
future adventurer-lings.

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 LINGERING Wounds
At the end of combat, a Hero who has suffered a
wound must Test his Luck. If he is Lucky, the wound
heals fairly completely, and the 1 point of SKILL is
recovered after a week-long continuous rest as
described in the rulebook (AFF p65). If he is
Unlucky, the wound heals badly, and the 1 point loss
in SKILL can only be recovered by spending EP, using
magic which ought be the object of a quest or
subjecting himself to the ministrations of a healer,
herbalist, or hermit. Unfortunately, their attempts
at healing such serious wounds are an uncertain art,
and quite often do new damage while failing to heal
the old (see p14).

If SKILL is recovered by spending EP, this does not

represent the wound healing properly but the Hero
learning to manage with his injury. The details of
these wounds should be recorded on a Heros
character sheet. Thus, a Hero who has survived a
number of adventures she will be the victim of a
critical hit every 36 combat rounds, on average
will accumulate a network of scars and war wounds,
even if in raw SKILL terms she is far superior to
those annoyingly fighting fit, fresh from the farm,
unscarred Heroes. There are, of course, a whole
array of folk remedies and rituals designed to
ameliorate the effects of these lingering wounds
(see p18), and being in possession of an impressive
collection of war wounds is not without its benefits
(see p20).

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 20

 21

 DEATH & Dismemberment
When YOU are reduced to 0 STAMINA, the bad things
that were already happening begin to get a lot
worse. In AFF (p65) this amounts to a slow, drip by
drip, reduction in LUCK until the Hero is dead.
These rules offer gory consequences to a Heros
defeat.

When a Hero is reduced to 0 STAMINA or below their

player must roll on the 2d6 table opposite. If the
player is unhappy with the result, they may opt to
roll again. However, a Hero rolling twice on this
table must then roll a Test of Luck; if the Hero is
Lucky, the player may choose which of the effects to
apply, but if they are Unlucky the most extreme
result i.e. the result furthest from 7 takes
effect.

Directors should avoid applying a standard, across

the board SKILL penalty to those suffering such
dismemberment, but should feel free to apply
penalties to any future rolls made by the Hero, or
even forbid an action entirely, according to
circumstance and quality of prosthesis.

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 23

2 - The blow causes catastrophic damage to the
Heros internal organs. A blade disembowels the
Hero, a spear runs them through, a crushing blow
turns their liver (and much else) to pt, a great
beast may well tear them clean in two. They die
messily, screaming.
3 The Heros leg (roll d6; 1-3 left, 4-6 right) is
torn clean off. No, not clean; it is ripped messily
from the Heros body. The Hero will be dead in d6
rounds, which can only be prevented by magic or a
successful test of Healing by a character with at
least one point in the Special Skill. Anyone else
watches the blood pump through the fingers as the
light dims in the Heros eyes.
4 Whether as a result of a deliberate sweep of a
sword, or the weight of a Hill Giants step, the
Hero has lost a foot (roll d6; 1-3 left, 4-6 right).
It might still be attached, but if so, it will need
to be amputated. The Hero is dying as per the
standard death and dying rules (AFF p65), though
Luck points are lost each round, not each minute.
5 A gaping wound is rent in the Heros lower body,
and she is bleeding out, fast. The Hero is dying as
per the standard death and dying rules (AFF p65),
6 The Hero is dealt a stomach-turning blow to the
face which will leave him with permanent,
significant facial disfigurement. This will not be a
handsome scar, to add a roguishness to his
appearance, but will leave him with the kind of face
that frightens children and brings nightmares to
those who look upon it.
7 The Hero is fortunate, as far as things go;
through pain and trauma she passes out.
8 The Hero shrieks in pain as his eye is destroyed
(roll d6; 1-3 left, 4-6 right); plucked from the
socket, skewered on an arrow, or burst like a cherry
tomato. The agony keeps the Hero doing naught but
clutching his face in desperation.

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9 The Hero slumps to the floor, her fingers
desperately trying to hold back the lifeblood
spurting from a neck wound. The Hero is dying as per
the standard death and dying rules (AFF p65),
10 By his hands the Hero has made his fortune, but
after this battle one (roll d6; 1-3 left, 4-6 right)
will be just another memento. The Hero is dying as
per the standard death and dying rules (AFF p65),
though Luck points are lost each round, not each
minute.
11 - The Hero looks down at her bloody stump in
shock; the blow has separated her arm (roll d6; 1-3
left, 4-6 right) from her body. The Hero will be
dead in d6 rounds, which can only be prevented by
magic or a successful test of Healing by a character
with at least one point in the Special Skill.
12 - The Heros suffers a fatal wound to the head;
it is shattered or severed or cleft in twain as the
blow finishes the Hero is spectacular fashion. His
comrades might take comfort in the notion that the
Heros death was relatively painless he didnt
have time to scream, at least.

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 Hermits, Herbalists, &
Healers

From Pen-Ty-Kora with his Southern Mask Magic, to
the Holy Water used by the healer-priests of Daddu-
Yadu, Titan is a world in which there is an array of
magical healing. The only problem is that in order
to receive this magical healing YOU must brave the
fantastical dangers of the monster infested
wilderness.

Problem? Apologies. I meant to write, opportunity

for adventure.

The quest for a cure is a staple trope of

adventure fiction, and is a great adventure hook for
AFF. Whether the healing sought is magical or the
product of such skill and knowledge that it is
indistinguishable from magic does not matter; the
point is that the person, object, or knowledge that
will heal the character is an adventure away. As a
McGuffin, such healing does not need to be
codified according to the rules that bind the
Heroes, and this should allow the Directors to give
full rein to their imagination in setting out the
requirements of the quest, which could be anything
from a journey to the healers, a service for the
healers, a scavenger hunt for ingredients or relics,
a sacrifice that creates a dilemma for the Heroes,
or perhaps most interestingly, a test of character,
in which the Heroes must navigate moral, religious,
of philosophical decisions. Just because it is a

26

test of ideals doesnt mean that there isnt
opportunity for swordplay and other derring-do!

But what about when a Hero is willing to submit

herself to the mercies of a mundane healer a
barber surgeon she finds down the backstreets of
Blacksand, a herbalist from the Vale of Willow, or a
wild-eyed hermit in his fetish festooned cave in the
Moonstone Hills?

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Roll the dice!

These healers can be considered to have an effective

SKILL of 8 in most cases, and this should be varied
only by a point, or rarely two. On a successful test
of SKILL, the surgery, medicine, or invocation of
unpronounceable spirits has been a success and; with
another week of continuous rest the Hero will have
recovered her lost point of SKILL. On a failure, not
only will the Hero not recover the lost point of
SKILL which can now never be recovered except by
spending EP but the attempt at healing as actually
made things worse. As a result of psychological or
physical trauma, a toxic reaction to medicine, or
possession by the spirits, the Hero has developed a
disorder; roll a d6.

1 Palsy the Hero is plagued by an intermittent

weakness of the muscles in the affected body part.
2 Stutter under pressure, the Hero might well
stutter; for wizards, diplomats, and leaders, this
could have serious consequences.
3 Phobia whether of that which wounded her, of
something tangentially associated with the trauma,
or of an idiosyncratic fixation, continued
adventuring risks triggering the Heros crippling
fear at dangerous moments.
4 Tremors every now and again the Hero suffers
from the shakes, affecting their manual dexterity
and grace.
5 Frenzy the Hero is a keg of firepowder, and
risks exploding in violence, physical or verbal,
when under pressure.

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6 Addiction the Hero needs something which is
most often, but not necessarily a drug and this
need sometimes overwhelms everything else.

The details of these disorders should be worked out

between player and Director, to fit both the
circumstances and the character of the Hero. When do
they take effect, and what are the mechanical
consequences? In moments of stress the Hero should
roll a d6; on a 1 the disorder will impede the Hero.
The Director should apply appropriate penalties,
usually just -1 (at most -2) to appropriate rolls,
but should feel free to be inventive as not
everything can be expressed in modifications to a
dice roll.

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 30

 Rituals & Remedies

Okay, so YOU have accumulated a number of lingering
wounds (p10) and disorders (p14), and these are
impeding your adventures across Titan. Luckily,
while, barring a quest, you arent going to shake
these effects for good, there are a range of
rituals, remedies, lotions, and liniments that can
offer temporary relief.

For each lingering wound and disorder the Hero can

attempt to apply one remedy which takes the
equivalent of one combat round to cancel the
effects for an encounter (or other short period of
time). The range of remedies is vast remedies for
one wound will not necessarily work to ameliorate
the effects of another and would defy all attempts
at cataloguing. However, certain general principles
can be applied. Remedies have an effective SKILL
rating, which the Hero will test when applying the
remedy. If the test is a success, the Hero
temporarily cancels out the effect of the disorder,
or recovers the lost point of SKILL caused by, for
example, poorly healed muscle or bone.

A remedy that requires no special or rare

ingredient, or the application of occult knowledge,
has an effective SKILL of 5. These include regimen
of stretches and warm-up exercises, the application
of oils and pastes derived from common ingredients,
and simple superstitions, These remedies fail more
often than not, but it cant hurt to try, can it?

31

Remedies that require some degree of learning for
example a set of exercises taught by a skilled, and
expensive, healer or investment of gold (between
10-20gp per application) can be treated as having an
effective SKILL of 6. These work a lot more often
than mere folk remedies, but are still very
unreliable.

For truly reliable results, YOU want to use snake

oil. Giant Snake oil (eff. SKILL 7), the bile of a
Serpent Queen (eff. SKILL 10), or best of all, Snake
Demon ichor (eff. SKILL 14). Not all monster-based
remedies need be snake-related! Remedies derived
from monsters typically have an effective SKILL
equal to that the monster had when it was alive (and
in one piece). Quite what manner of remedies can be
extracted from which monster, and technique required
to do so, is a question for the Director to decide
in discussion with the players. 1d6 doses per
monster is not unfair.
Powdered Rhino-Man Horn (eff. SKILL 8)
Often used as a remedy for muscle weakness, as well as a
loss of psychological potency, powdered Rhino-Man horn
is also sold as a rare and expensive aphrodisiac. For
best effect, the grey-brown powder, which has a slightly
greasy quality, is snorted. Users usually keep a supply
in a miniature, ornate silver horn, which can be
unstoppered and snorted as needed.
Pellets of Giant Slug Slime (eff. SKILL 7)
The trusted friend of many aging adventurers plagued with
aching knees and hips, pellets of Giant Slug slime are
prepared as individual doses wrapped in greased paper.
Usually stored in a separate belt-pouch, so as to avoid
fouling the contents of a backpack, the pellets are
chewed and the silvery slime swallowed for best effect.
Often washed down with strong wine.
Candied Giant Sandworm Spice (eff. SKILL 10)

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A delicacy that can sometimes be found for sale in the
markets of Sahzaar, these sugar-coated nuggets of jelly
are a distasteful sweet preparation made from the tiny
secondary brain of the Giant Sandworm. If eaten without
being properly prepared, or in too great an amount, the
weirding properties of the sweets gives the user
uncontrolled, terribly confusing clairvoyance.
Dilute Brain Slayer Spinal Fluid (eff. SKILL 10)
Applied as eye-drops, Brain Slayer spinal fluid must be
prepared as a dilution, ideally in pure Lendleland grass
liquor. Alleviating nerve damage to a miraculous degree,
the psychic properties of the fluid means large doses and
prolonged use cause troubling side effects ranging from
literal phantom limbs to empathic sensations of the pain
felt by others.
Tree Man Pollen (eff. SKILL 8)
Often smoked, mixed with pipeweed or can be turned into a
solution and infused into moss found on a Tree Man, which
can then be tucked into a check for a slow release. As
well as reducing bleeding, thickening the blood until it
oozes like sap, Tree Man pollen appears to lift the pains
of badly healed bones, giving uses a feeling that their
bones are strong, but flexible.
Albumin of Razor Jaw Eggs (eff. SKILL 10)
Drunk, or rather gulped, these sulfurous smelling egg
whites are mixed with fiery chilies, which remarkably
work to make this remedy a little milder and more
palatable. Renowned as a cure for all manner of digestive
and circulatory problems, drinking the albumin of Razor
Jaw eggs also seems to temporarily enliven scar tissue.
Desiccated Pit Fiend Pituitary Gland (eff. SKILL 12)
There tough, bitter strips of preserved meat are chewed.
Less a cure, and more an incredibly potent stimulant,
adventurers chewing on strips of desiccated Pit Fiend
pituitary gland have been said to fight past death
itself. An exaggeration, perhaps, but excess use is said
to slowly transform the user into something less than
human; a predator driven by blood-lust.

33

 BY THIS SCAR, I RULE!
QUINT: That's not so bad. Look at this: ...St. Paddy's
Day in Knocko Nolans, in Boston, where some sunovabitch
winged me upside the head with a spittoon.
HOOPER: Look here. Steve Kaplan bit me during recess.
QUINT: Wire burn. Trying to stop a backstay from taking
my head off.
HOOPER: Moray Eel. Bit right through a wet suit.
QUINT: Face and head scars come from amateur amusements
in the bar room. This love line here that's from some
crazy Frenchie come after me with a knife. I caught him
with a good right hand right in the snot locker and laid
him amongst the sweetpeas.
HOOPER: Ever see one like this? Bull shark scraped me
while I was taking samples...
QUINT: Nothing! A pleasure scar. Look here Slammed with
a thresher's tail. Look just like somebody caressed me
with a nutmeg grater...
HOOPER: I'll drink to your leg.
QUINT: And I'll drink to yours.
- from Jaws, screenplay by Peter Benchley and Carl
Gottlieb

Quint and Hooper are adventurers, professional

monster hunters (not so Sherriff Brody, who finds
himself on a boat that is too small by mere
circumstance), and when adventurers arent swapping
tall tales of the size of the beast they once killed
they play games of one-upmanship about that time the
beast very nearly killed them. An impressive scar
and a story to match is a powerful thing, especially
in world in which monsters are real and plentiful.
Here we offer a system in which Heroes can turn to
their advantage the puckered skin that maps the claw
marks of a Snatta-Cat, the dead, white tracery that
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reminds them of the crack of a Garks cat-o-nine-
tails, and the arthritic hips that echo with every
step the blow from an Ogres club.
Advanced Fighting Fantasy can benefit from a
Reaction Roll. Luckily, Out of the Pit provided us
with a terminology to abstract in a gameable form
the kind of reactions that a Hero might encounter, a
scale that reads:
Hostile---Unfriendly---Neutral---Friendly

Monsters have one (or a range) of these as part of

their basic stat block, and we should make use of
this, by treating these as modifiers to a Reaction
Roll.
Note that an
Roll Reaction unmodified roll on
this table produces a
2-3 Hostile just under 10% chance
that a monster will be
5-6 Unfriendly Hostile or
Friendly, a roughly
7-10 Neutral

11-12 Friendly

Monsters that are, by disposition Hostile have a -4

modifier to this roll, those which are Unfriendly a
-2, those Neutral no modifier, and Friendly a +4
modifier. The Director should feel free to apply a
further modifier of +/- 1 or 2 based on the
disposition of the Heroes.
The Reaction Roll can be co-opted to serve as a
universal social mechanic. While Hostile means
that the CLAWBEAST tries to rip YOU limb from limb,
the same result when dealing with the local
innkeeper is likely less (immediately) bloody. He
might spit in your watered down beer, turn a blind
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eye to the thief pilfering from your room, or have
his bouncers throw you into the street.
But what about the scars?! On Titan, scars are a
form of social currency if they can be displayed
and narrated. In appropriate circumstances, a Hero
should be allowed to add +1 per Lingering Wound (to
a maximum of +3) to the Reaction Roll. Appropriate
circumstances is for the Director to determine;
Orcs might be sufficiently intimidated by a bare-
chested display of scar tissue, the Blacksand pirate
captain might demand a tall tale to accompany each
wound, while a noblewoman of Kish might need those
oh so rugged scars to be dressed in stories of
swashbuckling heroism. The player needs to decide
how she will deploy these resources for some
boasting about ugliness and violence is repulsive
scars are not in themselves a social skill!
This can be especially useful when dealing with
Hirelings, and for Heroes with the ambition to lead
mercenary companies; armed men (and Dwarves, less so
Elves) are inspired to know that their leader has
tasted the blood and steel of battle. Heroes who are
to literally carve out a kingdom by the sword need
to win the loyalty of those who will fight and die
to put a crown upon her head.

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 37

 Hotstep to the the Danse Macabre

Within this booklet you will find optional rules
that will add grim, grit, and peril to your
adventures using Britains Original Mass Market
RPG. Enjoy:

A range of advice that will help make YOUR life

grittier, grimmer and that bit more perilous.

A selection of critical wounds, dismemberments,

and disorders.

The dubious talents of healers, herbalists, and

hermits.

A regimen of rituals and remedies to ease the

pains of a life adventurous.

And a body upon which legends have been written

in a tracery of scars.

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 May Your STAMINA Never Fail!
But If It Does, Test Your LUCK!

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