If you haven’t encountered Pugmire earlier than, the sport makes use of a modified model of the 5e OGL that’s the foundation of the present version of Dungeons & Dragons. Instead of aligning courses, feats, and the prefer to the core guidelines, nonetheless, Pugmire chops up a bunch of 5e components and makes them a bit extra modular. This explicit product is a complement for each Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau, the 2 core rulebooks for the Realms of Pugmire line. This product is just like Pirates of Pugmire, in that it’s not a full ruleset by itself, and requires a kind of two core rulebooks to make use of. 

Squeaks within the Deep introduces Rats and Mice as participant choices, in addition to introducing new class choices particular to these species, with an emphasis on introducing psychic powers. In addition to Rats, Mice, and psychological talents, this complement additionally introduces The Underneath, the huge underground realms that run underneath established floor nations like Pugmire or Mau. 

Disclaimer

I used to be a Kickstarter backer for this product, and I’m working from the copy offered to me from the Kickstarter. I used to be not offered a assessment copy of this product. I’ve not used the fabric on this product, however I’ve run Pugmire, and performed each Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau previously.

Content Warning

Sometimes the presence of cute anthropomorphic animals causes individuals to imagine recreation content material goes to be mild and upbeat. While that is true of all the Pugmire books to date, Squeaks within the Deep, particularly, offers with plenty of doubtlessly tough topics. Not solely is it coping with the marginalizations of populations and species supremacy, there are additionally some actually disturbing situations of physique horror and graphic violence in some sections of this e book. This could also be doubly troublesome for some, since physique horror mixed with anthropomorphic animals could be doubtlessly troubling on a number of axes.

Squeaks within the Deep

Developer: Eddy Webb
Writers: Dixie Cochran, Alison Cybe, Joshua Alan Doetsch, Travis Legge, Jessica Marcrum, Eddy Webb, and Rob Wieland
Editor: Maria Cambone
Art: Pat Loboyko, Laura Galli, Luka Brico, Shen Fei, Andrea Payne, Jeff Laubenstein, Richard Thomas
Art Director: Meredith Gerber
Creative Director: Richard Thomas

Field Notes

This assessment relies on the PDF model of Squeaks within the Deep. The PDF is 160 pages lengthy. This features a credit web page, a three-page desk of contents, two pages of introductory fiction, a full-page OGL assertion, and two pages for the instance character sheet.

The e book is crammed with half or quarter-page paintings of various anthropomorphic animals, typically in cavernous environments. Sidebars and notes are sometimes offered as precise writing from characters within the setting, together with sidebars which have photographs of the character offering commentary on the foundations. 

I’ve liked the format, format, and artwork on all the Pugmire merchandise, and this continues in the identical traditions. It’s clear and fascinating, and whereas it doesn’t seem like the formatting typically present in D&D 5e third-party dietary supplements, it nonetheless has its personal understandable approach of presenting its materials. I feel the look goes an extended option to convey the concept this can be a very distinctive spin on the foundations from which they iterate.

The Manual

This complement has the next sections:

• Introduction
• Chapter One: Letter Between Friends
• Chapter Two: Rodent Characters
• Chapter Three: Psionics
• Chapter Four: Life within the Margins
• Chapter Five: Guide Advice
• Chapter Six: The Underneath
• Chapter Seven: Enemies
• Chapter Eight: A Confluence of Cults

This Corner of the Setting

Squeaks within the Deep is juggling a number of issues without delay, however all of these issues are tied collectively through the story of the rodent characters within the setting. Rats and Mice reside in each Pugmire and the Monarchies of Mau, and are sometimes handled poorly, dwelling on the margins of society. Not solely are they smaller than plenty of different uplifted animals, however there’s a basic assumption that the Cult of Labor Tor is prevalent among the many rodent inhabitants.

In addition to dwelling amongst Dogs and Cats, some rodents reside in The Underneath, a sequence of caverns and underground places which are expansive, and little identified to the Dogs and Cats of the setting. The Underneath is the house of misplaced laboratories, hidden lore, and peculiar, alien creatures. Despite this, some rodents reside The Underneath, and use the tunnels and passages to navigate between the settlements of different uplifted animals.

Much of the story of the rodents of the setting revolves round working with sympathetic Dogs and Cats to raised their locations in society, and discovering misplaced data and know-how in deep to be taught the truths of the world. While Dogs worship Man as misplaced deities, and Cats view Man as a species that was ascendent, however made Cats their equal, Rats and Mice are much less mystical of their views, being more likely to see people as a species that superior data however could have reached additional than they need to have of their experimentations.

The Cult of Labor Tor isn’t as sensible as a lot of the rodent inhabitants. They consider that people left behind a set variety of sacred scientific secrets and techniques that they should rediscover with a view to ascend. The Cult performs experiments as non secular service, and doesn’t see restraint or security within the observe of science as a advantage.

I like that every installment of the Realms of Pugmire books have offered a unique perspective. No one society is totally appropriate of their view of the world, and all of them have optimistic and adverse points to their worldview. In many circumstances, this worldview is centered on the inherent rightness of the society in query, which is, in flip, questioned by one other society within the setting. This implies that, on a broad scale, the setting is way much less about discovering out who is correct, slightly than discovering out what’s true.

If you wish to know the way profoundly this hit me, in my Pugmire recreation, I used to be proud of the theme of the Cult of Labor Tor inflicting issues between Dogs and Cats, and utilizing the Cult because the drive that was agitating rigidity between the societies. Now that I’ve learn this e book, I really feel responsible for not introducing a rodent perspective that wasn’t totally the Cult of Labor Tor, given how typically each cultures scale back all rodents to potential members of the cult. I respect something that causes that sort of retrospection.

Player Options

Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau launched a number of households of Dogs and Cats from which characters might draw their traits. Rodents are a bit extra constrained, with a selection between Rats and Mice, with particular upbringings accessible to them. Mice have Speedy, Wise, and Charming accessible to them, whereas Rats have Strong, Robust, and Smart accessible as selections. These selections present skill rating bonuses for the character. 

Because of the modularity of Pugmire, nearly each character selection permits a personality a brand new set of knacks that they’ll select to be taught as they degree up. For instance, because the character advances, they may take knacks (principally feats/class talents) primarily based on their calling, kind, or background. Because rodents typically reside amongst different uplifted animals, they achieve entry to backgrounds that seem in Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau as choices, in addition to the rodent-specific selections, deep dweller, area rodent, or refugee. The solely background choices they’re barred from are acolyte, disciple, or noble, since they aren’t prone to be a part of the ruling or non secular class of the societies the place they dwell.

The following callings (principally character courses) can be found to rodent characters:

• Analyst (cautious and exact data gathering psions)
• Psychic (psychics with flashier results like therapeutic, physique modifications, or vitality harm)
• Rascal (roguish characters centered on bodily pursuits)
• Ruffian (entrance line fighters)
• Strategist (type of a scientific bard or warlord)
• Trickster (roguish characters centered on technical skill)

An attention-grabbing facet of all of those callings is that along with gaining calling-specific knacks offered on this e book, every of them has a listing of different callings from Monarchies of Mau or Pugmire from which they’ll additionally draw knacks. I respect that whereas this lets them avoid wasting design house by referencing earlier materials, it additionally strains up with the “story” for rodents, as they choose up data from the societies that they reside inside.

While a number of the callings are extra devoted psychic characters, the knacks accessible to Mice and Rats permit nearly any of them to have their naturally occurring psychic powers woke up. As with the earlier Pugmire choices, because of this when a personality good points a degree, they’ve entry to issues that really feel like conventional class talents, however they may additionally take knacks primarily based on their upbringing or their background. Not solely does this permit for some customization, it additionally implies that characters can “multi-class” with out having multi-class guidelines, no less than to a restricted diploma.

Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau each have proprietary spellcaster archetypes, and spells which are barely totally different for every society primarily based on the spellcaster utilizing them, psionics are extra differentiated from the magic of Dogs and Cats. While they mechanically work the identical approach, with a personality spending quite a few their accessible slots equal to the extent of the facility to set off the facility, the magic of Dogs and Cats can not detect psionics as magic, and it will probably’t dispel or counter psionic talents.

This is an attention-grabbing distinction within the setting, provided that regardless that Dogs and Cats may even see their talents as magic, it’s truly the manipulation of artifacts to entry historic technological talents left behind by Man. Rodents perceive that their psychic talents are inborn and primarily based on science, and it’s the disconnect between internally generated psychic talents and externally generated know-how that makes the 2 varieties of energy incompatible.

Psychic talents all have a “tell,” partially to compensate for the concept Dogs and Cats shall be saying phrases, making gestures, presenting objects, dancing, and many others. to solid their spells. In this case, psionics may have a “tell” that appeals to considered one of a creature’s senses. A psychic’s eyes may glow, they may let off a low hum, or a selected scent could come off of them when they’re utilizing their powers. 

Psionics are divided into the next schools:

• Galvanism (vitality manipulation)
• Humorism (physique modification)
• Insight (divinations and sense modifications)
• Parapsychology (phantasm, communication, direct psychic harm, dimensional barrier manipulation)

Just like spells in Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau, there are “basic” psychic talents that don’t require slots to make use of, that are successfully cantrips, and powers that vary from 1st to fifth degree, requiring from one to 5 slots to be spent to manifest them.

Exploring the Underneath

There are a number of instruments offered for exploring the Underneath. There are a number of encounter areas that may be positioned into any location the PCs are exploring, in addition to passages with some fundamental traits that the Guide and slot in between bigger places so as to add particulars to long-term journey.

The encounter areas run the gamut from monster lairs for the brand new creatures launched on this e book, to a reasonably large Great Laboratory space that’s populated by members of the Cult of Labor Tor. There are additionally just a few pattern settlements included on this part, so if you would like a spot to permit your characters to relaxation and restock, you possibly can at all times have that subsequent randomly generated tunnel result in a pleasant city of eyeless Mice that suppose nothing exists within the universe besides their settlement.

The Great Laboratory, particularly, shines on this part, as it’s a full synthesis of creepy horror, bizarre science, and the sort of humor shot by way of the remainder of the Pugmire books. For instance, as a result of lots of the uplifted animals don’t have context for the societal components left behind by Man, you could have situations just like the Science Fair being probably the most sacred time of the 12 months for the Cult, and when shows are made throughout this time, the cult chants the holy chant of Dio’Rama. I particularly respect the intercom message the place it’s introduced that an indescribable creature has escaped, and the voice on the intercom proceeds to fail terribly at attempting to explain it.

This is, nonetheless, additionally the place the e book will get its most ugly. There are some splendidly sick experiments that backfire on the scientists, which can not work for everybody. However, probably the most disturbing situations on this part are these locations the place the members of the Cult aren’t those affected by the horrible backlash of their experiments.

I actually like how this part is structured, and I’d like to see extra “Underdark” type areas detailed on this method. I like the concept which you could choose an encounter zone A and B, after which determine what number of totally different hallways the PCs encounter, with their distinctive hazards, and you’ve got your self just a few days of exploration.

This part additionally introduces a further participant choice, one of many Mice of Allthere’is, the eyeless Mice from the settlement talked about above. This is housed on this part as a result of the Guide could not need this as a basic choice till the PCs have had an opportunity to search out Allthere’is on their very own.

Enemies

This part contains all kinds of adversaries, together with many who have lairs detailed within the earlier part. There is a spread of Rat and Mouse NPCs to make use of within the recreation, in addition to Technological gadgets ready to latch onto a creature’s nervous system, robotic dragons that freeze issues and gather samples of their “bellies,” multi-headed crystalline birds, swarms of biting doll heads, hungry caves, vegetation that develop by way of individuals, and naturally, phoophs. 

Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau have a piece on creating Legendary creatures, however not like D&D 5e Legendary creatures, this was primarily a perform of doubling or tripling the harm carried out by the creature, or the stamina factors that creature has. The dynamic battles part of the e book introduces the idea of including actions on the finish of the spherical, divided up into both environmental or adversarial. There aren’t particular examples of those, but it surely’s good to see the design house formally “open” for Pugmire video games. 

Adventure

One of the issues I actually respect about Realms of Pugmire adventures that I’ve seen is how the scenes are structured. There are normally a sequence of bullet factors summarizing how the PCs bought to this scene, what the purpose of the scene is, what the obstacles are, and what scene or scenes characters may go to relying on how this scene is resolved. It makes for a really approachable journey design.

One of the explanations that I point out that is that the instance journey places this construction to good use, as a result of it may be began in both Pugmire or the Monarchies of Mau, after which it converges into The Underneath relying on the clues that the characters choose up in each places.

The journey actually performs into the themes launched on this complement. Rodents are caught within the center between Cats and Dogs. The climax of the motion is in The Underneath. The antagonist is a rodent that was initially a part of the Cult of Labor Tor, and it includes extremist cults from each Pugmire and Mau that each consider within the supremacy of their species. The PCs have to search out out what the rogue rodent scientist is doing to agitate elevated presence from The Unseen (invisible demons that plague the setting), earlier than the native cults throw each nations into warfare in opposition to each other.

Yes!

This complement actually brings the Realms of Pugmire full circle. While rodents is probably not the political drive that Dogs and Cats are, they’re ever current within the setting, and the one actual glimpses we’ve had of them previously is of their perform as antagonists. If the best power of the Pugmire line is that it portrays a number of factors of view, then that is an exemplary product to show that power. In addition to having guidelines and components that stream properly into the narrative that has been established, the modular approach that The Underneath has been offered as an area to discover makes it extraordinarily versatile, in addition to simple to implement.

Narf!

I’d have appreciated just a few extra examples of utilizing Dynamic actions in a recreation, probably with just a few extra basic samples that is likely to be bolted on to totally different encounters. While you possibly can at all times look to D&D design for inspiration, the numbers between the 2 video games don’t work precisely the identical, and also you’ll need to do some adjusting on the fly when you take some established Legendary or Lair actions to transform them.

Recommended–If the product matches in your broad space of gaming pursuits, you’re prone to be proud of this buy.

As a lot as I like Pirates of Pugmire, and I don’t wish to disrespect all the nice lizards and birds on the market, this feels extra like the attitude piece that greatest highlights the tendencies that had been began in Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau. In addition to being a strong addition to the Pugmire line, the journey design and the modular exploration instruments to be used with the Underneath are value a search for anybody taking part in in comparable level-based fantasy exploration video games.