The Black Lady of Brodick Castle by Jennifer R. Povey and J Gray is a role playing game supplement published by R. Talsorian Games Inc. for use with Castle Falkenstein, in the New Europa setting.
The supplement is available as a 21-page PDF for free from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover and one the Contents and front matter.
Haunting at Brodick Castle! gives a brief overview that the grounds of the castle are being haunted by a lady in black.
Dramatis Personae gives the stats for the NPCs.
What Has Gone Before explains that the Isle of Arran, the location of Brodick Castle, has undergone changes, like the rest of Scotland, in the last century, including many of the Fae leaving. The castle has a history of hauntings and recently a lady in black has been seen wandering the grounds.
The adventure has three chapters – though the final one has accidentally got chapter 2’s title – starts with the characters hired in London to go and investigate a haunting by a friend of the lady of the castle; a sidebar covers some differences between the real-world Isle of Arran and that of New Europa. In Chapter 2, the characters will investigate the haunting to discover its true nature by speaking to various important NPCs. In the final chapter, they will face a confrontation which could go different ways, some better than others, though they will still get paid – if they survive.
Finally, there are six sample Dramatic Characters with images, stats, descriptive text and blank spaces.
The Black Lady of Brodick Castle in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, though short, these would have been useful. The Contents covers the major sections. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column format, excluding the sidebar, and the only error noticed was the mistitling of Chapter 3. There are a number of illustrations, all of which look to be public domain images, probably from the 19th century or early 20th, but they’ve been put together well. Presentation is decent.
This is a comparatively simple investigative adventure with a twist or two. With the right skills, the characters should be able to find out what is going on. It might be harder for them to settle the final confrontation in a way that benefits everyone; it can be done but it requires some swift talking and quickly stopping any violence. Interestingly, the adventure looks like it would be comparatively easy to convert to other systems that have a similar setting. The Black Lady of Brodick Castle is a decent little adventure and it can be downloaded for free by clicking here.
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