Fanzine Focus VII: Wormskin No. 3

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry.

The Wormskin fanzine, published by Necrotic Gnome Productions is written for use with Labyrinth Lord and issue by issue, details an area known as Dolmenwood, a mythical wood, an ancient place of tall trees and thick soil, rich in fungi and festooned with moss and brambles and rife with dark whimsy. Wormskin No. 1 was published in December, 2015, and was followed by Wormskin No. 2 in March, 2016. Both issues introduced the setting with a set of articles rich in flavour and atmosphere, but lacking a certain focus in that the region itself, Dolmenwood, was not detailed. Fortunately, in March, 2017, Necrotic Gnome Productions released Welcome to Dolmenwood, a free introduction to the setting. What both Wormskin No. 1 and Wormskin No. 2 also suffered from was a similarity of content, both issues being dominated by articles, ‘Fungi of Dolmenwood’ and ‘Psychedelic Compounds’ respectively, that detailed the harvesting, effects, and prices of their subject matters, in a shared format. The result was two articles that felt very much the same despite the differences in subject matter. Fortunately, Wormskin No. 3, published in July, 2016, utterly lacks such an article, and so is much better issue for it.

The issue opens with ‘Of Men, Goats, and Fairies in Dolmenwood’ which presents a history of the region stretching back some two millennia. It takes us from its  origins as fairy region under the sway of the Cold Prince through centuries of incursion by mankind. First the Drune, human sorcerers, and Drune-wives or witches who treated with the Cold Prince and discovered and mapped the powerful ley lines that run throughout the forest as well as raising the many ley stones and circles from the earth itself. Then men of the One True God came, building Castle  Brackenwold and founding the Kingdom of Brackenwold which would one eventually be annexed by a neighbouring kingdom as the Duchy of Brackenwold. The Cold Prince’s interest in the mortal lands waned and he would be banished to his own realm, thus freeing his Goatmen servants to cavort and rule as they like—many still do to this day. In more recent times the Abbey of St. Clewd was sacked in a night by forces unknown, the Drune have retired deep into the forest facing persecution by the Church of the One True God, and dark forces have occupied the northern half of Dolmenwood.

The truth of the matter is that after the obfuscatory nature of Wormskin No. 1 and Wormskin No. 2, ‘Of Men, Goats, and Fairies in Dolmenwood’  is a revelation. It lays the groundwork for Dolmenwood as a setting and provides an explanation for various elements that appear in the first two issues. Fundamentally it provides so much of the context that was missing from those issues that it begs the question, “Why was this not the very first article to be published for the Dolmenwood setting?” ‘Of Men, Goats, and Fairies in Dolmenwood’ is followed by ‘Languages of Dolmenwood’, which quickly runs through the languages spoken and not spoken throughout the region from The Immortal Tongue of Fairy and High Elvish spoken by the fairy nobility to Liturgic, the language of the Church of One True God, and Woldish, the dialect of Common spoken throughout the region. Other languages include Caprice, the bestial tongue of the Goatmen and Drunic, the secret language known only by the Drune.

Together, ‘Of Men, Goats, and Fairies in Dolmenwood’  and ‘Languages of Dolmenwood’ also highlight some of the cultural differences and relationships between the inhabitants in the region. Between the Goatmen and mankind, between the Church of the One True God and the Drune, and so on. It is also possible to draw historical parallels here too—at least as reference points—between Christianity and pagan faiths, that add verisimilitude to the Dolmenwood setting. Depending of course, how far a Referee wants to draw such parallels.

Numerous Ley Lines run through Dolmenwood and the region is rife with standing stones, stone circles, and megaliths. In the southwest of the region is a feature that combines all three. Stones known as the Summerstones form a great circle called the ‘witching ring’, a circle so large that it encompasses Lake Longmere. ‘The Summerstones and the Witching Ring’ details the ring and the individual stones as well as what would happen should the ward they create ever be broken. This delves into the nature of one of Dolmenwood’s major secrets—other articles hint at more—as in, just what is the ‘witching ring’ protecting? In the process, it ties back into both the history of the forest and into the discussion of the region’s languages and begins to pull the setting together as more cohesive whole.

‘The Woods East of Lake Longmere’ continues the work begun in ‘Lankshorn and Surrounds’ and ‘The High Wold’ in Wormskin No. 2 in presenting a gazetteer of Dolmenwood. Those articles detailed, hex by hex, the region known as the High Wold which lies to the south and west of Lake Longmere. The article in Wormskin No. 3 focuses on the region, again hex by hex, to the east of the lake. In these seven hexes can be found a phantom isle on the lake that is home to a black elk-goddess; a summerstone that radiates smothering romance by day and carnal lust by night; a strange column of chalk carved with hundreds of names; and a shrine to Saint Vinicus, patron saint of mice and beggars. Also located here is a ruined abbey, once dedicated to Saint Clewed, but sacked mysteriously one night almost four centuries ago and the subject of its own article. Like the gazetteer in Wormskin No. 2, these locations are accompanied by an excerpt from the fuller map of Dolmenwood. This is placed on the back cover and blown up to provide plenty of detail, a nice touch being that the map excerpt—presented in full colour—is framed as if it was a church window and the map done in stained glass.

‘The Ruined Abbey of St. Clewed’ is the first part of a two-part series which will be completed in Wormskin No. 4. It describes the ruins—above ground level, the second part will describe the ruins below ground—of the abbey that was originally built upon the site where Saint Clewed died fighting and defeating an evil black unicorn. Supposedly there is a secret vault below the ruins which are also thought to be home to both brigands who kidnap and hold children to ransom and the ghosts of the monks who died when the abbey was sacked. Just six locations are given in the grounds of the ruined abbey, but they are described in some detail, more than enough to keep an adventuring party occupied until the Referee has access to the second part. The majority of the encounters in the grounds are of a relatively low level, suitable for player characters of between First Level and Third Level, but there are much more dangerous foes present too, so the Referee will need to be careful not to overwhelm the party.

Accompanying the article is a set of tables for creating Ghostly Monks. These wander the grounds of the abbey and each has his own personality as well as a wish—to have his body buried in the abbey or its gardens restored, in return for which a monk may impart a secret about the abbey. The Referee should have fun portraying these monks, who should be in turns infuriating and helpful. Rounding out Wormskin No. 3 is ‘Monsters of the Wood’, a bestiary describing four of the creatures that appear in the articles contained in the issue. They include the Gloam, a undead thing consisting of Corvidae corpses who collect gruesome items and like to entice the innocent into their service, whilst the Mogglewomp is a fairy creature that likes to occupy the houses of its victims, all of the house in each and every case.

Physically, Wormskin No. 3 is a step up in terms of quality and content over Wormskin No. 2. The fanzine is well written and engaging, the artwork is  a good mix of original and public domain images, and colour is used judiciously. The higher page count also provides space for a wider range of content.

There can be no doubt that Wormskin No. 3 is a huge improvement upon the first two issues of the fanzine and without the benefit of having read the subsequent issues, is the best issue to date. It lays the groundwork for what came before it and any subsequent content, and not just because the second part of ‘The Ruined Abbey of St. Clewed’ appears in the next issue. If there is a starting point for Wormskin as a fanzine, it is Wormskin No. 3—Wormskin No. 1 and Wormskin No. 2 are worth picking up, but only after Wormskin No. 3 gives them the groundwork they so badly needed.

Fanzine Focus VII: Burgs & Bailiffs: Warfare Too

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry.

Burgs & Bailiffs is not written with any particular Retroclone in mind. Published by Lost Pages, it is instead a generic fanzine for use with Dungeons & Dragons-style Roleplaying Games that explores aspects of the history that the medievalism of Dungeons & Dragons is based upon. It takes its tone from the strapline, “Life in the Middle Ages were some kind of extremely hardcore live RPG that went on 24 hours a day”, so is thoroughly rooted in the history that Dungeons & Dragons is based upon rather than the fantasy. The first issue, Burgs & Bailiffs: Hunger, Disease, & the Law, as its title suggests, dealt with various subjects, whilst the third, Burgs & Bailiffs: Trinity – The Poor Pilgrim’s Almanack, or, The Handbook of Pilgrimage and Relic Theft focused on the one to no little depth. Published in August, 2013, the second issue, Burgs & Bailiffs: Warfare Too, also focuses on the one issue, though not to the same depth. Indeed, given the depth to which it explores its subject matter, it is no surprise that Burgs & Bailiffs: Trinity took over three years to bring to fruition in December, 2016.

Burgs & Bailiffs: Warfare Too presents seven articles that cover various aspects of warefare in the Middle Ages. It opens with two articles by Lee Reynoldson. The first is ‘Warlord: a Moldvay Class’, a Human Warrior Class in line with Tom Moldvay’s 1981 revision of Basic Dungeons & Dragons. The Warlord adds +1 to group initiative, can rally retainers, employ tactics in co-operation with allies—shield wall, ferocious charge, or wall of spears, and eventually as a Great Leader, recruit a warband. Although not incapable as a warrior, the Warlord is not equal to the Fighter, and a footnote suggests allowing the Class to use arms and armour as a Fighter, but at a cost of increasing the Experience Points needed for each Level. In a party that hires lots or retainers or a campaign that involves a heavy dose of mass combat the Warlord is a useful addition, otherwise it may be just a little too specialised.

The second is ‘Warband: Abstract Skirmishing for Redwald’, which presents a set of rules for handling combat in the author’s Rædwald setting. Although this includes the fielding of Magic-Users in battles, these rules are for handling small scale engagements between warbands, ostensibly in Dark Ages, Saxon England-like period. The rules, which are written for use with the Retroclone of your choice, cover simple sieges too, though only really against hill forts, small walled towns, and the like. The rules are simple and workmanlike enough that the results of the articles that follow in Burgs & Bailiffs: Warfare Too could be used to flesh out the results and so make any such battles memorable.

Ghoul Ghast’s ‘Battlefield Encounters’ provides the first of many tables for handling all things battle-related. In this article, the tables provide encounters at various stages of the battle—during deployment and under missile fire, then at the initial clash and into the mêlée, and depending upon the battle’s outcome, during any pursuit or flight. The last table covers nightfall once the battle is over. Designed to include the fantastical as well as the mundane, the majority of the encounters are understandably combat related, but there are some roleplaying encounters too.

Mike Monaco explores battles and their outcomes for the player characters in two articles. The first, ‘In Battle’ gives suggestions as to what might happen to the player characters in a battle, one table providing options for player characters who refrain from entering combat, another for those who enter combat. It accompanied by a quick and dirty set of rules for handling and resolving battles with the Battle of Hastings given as an example. Overall, these are decent enough rules for handling battles quickly and easily.

In ‘After the Battle’, the second article, Mike Monaco looks at what could happen to a player character in the aftermath of a battle in which the player character was fighting in a defeated or routed unit, was captured, or was on the losing side. This is determined by rolling on the given table, the results ranging from being wounded in the rout and escaping to playing dead, but ending up dead because the enemy’s squires were tasked with ensuring that you are. Mostly, it suggests interesting, if terrible ways of a player character meeting his end. There are twenty results on the table, but it takes eight pages to detail them all because each entry is illustrated by a picture taken from the Maciejowski Bible. Sadly not colour, these images add a gruesome flavour to each character’s end, perfectly in-keeping with the grim nature of Burgs & Bailiffs.

Charles Taylor’s ‘The Cost of Castles’ is the longest and most detailed article in the issue. Primarily focusing on the one castle, the Chateau de Langeais, built in the very early Middle Ages, it details background to the castle being built as well as its structure and the materials, men and skills, and time needed for its construction. It expands to include the support necessary in terms of food and thus both farmland and peasants needed to support such a venture. Although not an exacting examination, the conclusion to the article—which includes a look at much larger, more expensive castles—is that building castles is a costly venture. Surprisingly though, they would actually be a cheaper option in the long run, as maintaining a force of knights was an ongoing expense.

The issue closes with a simple one-page article by B. Eisenhofer and Paolo Greco. ‘Goedendag & Franziska’ describes two weapons of the period. The first is a two-handed club with a spear’s head, which can be set to receive a charge and then used to batter the fallen rider. It is a cheap weapon wielded by peasants. The latter is a more familiar weapon, a short-hafted throwing axe that could impede or break the enemy’s shields. With stats suitable for any Retroclone, the only thing letting this article down is the lack of illustrations.

Physically, Burgs & Bailiffs: Warfare Too is neater and tidier than Burgs & Bailiffs: Hunger, Disease, & the Law. Nor does it employ too tiny a font for it to be read with ease. Barring the ‘After the Battle’ article, it is under-illustrated though, but is not quite as dry as the previous issue.

If there is an issue with Burgs & Bailiffs: Warfare Too, it is the familiarity of the subject matter. After all, how many articles and supplements have there been over the years that cover this subject matter for Dungeons & Dragons? Such a familiarity does not mean that the articles in the issue either bad or uninteresting, indeed both ‘In Battle’ and ‘After the Battle’ are entertaining. Nevertheless, Burgs & Bailiffs: Warfare Too is not quite as interesting as the articles in either Burgs & Bailiffs: Hunger, Disease, & the Law or Burgs & Bailiffs: Trinity – The Poor Pilgrim’s Almanack, or, The Handbook of Pilgrimage and Relic Theft.

—oOo—

Lost Pages will have a stand at UK Games Expo, which will take place between June 2nd and June 4th, 2017 at Birmingham NEC. This is the world’s fourth largest gaming convention and the biggest in the United Kingdom.

Fanzine Focus VII: From the Shroud Issue 1

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry.

From the Shroud is not written for any one of these three retroclones, but for another, Crypts & Things. Published by D101 Games, Crypts & Things is a Swords & Sorcery RPG inspired by Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories—amongst others—and From the Shroud #1 is written to provide support for this roleplaying game, though as with other Old School Renaissance content, it can easily be used with Retroclones. For example, the content in From the Shroud #1 is compatible—in tone as well as in terms of the mechanics—with the content from both Black Pudding #1 and Black Pudding #2. Indeed, From the Shroud #1 includes notes so that it can be adapted to other Retroclones.

From the Shroud #1 began life with the scenario ‘The Secret of Skull Hill’, which was intended to as Halloween support for the then recently published Crypts & Things Remastered. This is a short adventure designed for low to medium Level characters who are lured out to a strange hill—known as Skull Hill—which stands on the very edge of civilised lands, with promises of great treasure. Skull Hill is only the beginning of their adventures, for the player characters will quickly find themselves cast beyond the Shroud that surrounds the Continent of Terror that is their home world and into the last refuge of an alien cult dedicated to returning their God to life—and it is very, very close to succeeding!

‘The Secret of Skull Hill’ is actually quite a short adventure, offering up a session’s worth of play, perhaps two at most. It does feel as if there is an awful lot of set-up and background to get to the point where the players can get involved, so as a consequence there is not a great deal to the adventure, though it is strong on the Weird, especially the technology of the cult.

Beyond ‘The Secret of Skull Hill’, From the Shroud #1 offers a number of interesting articles. The first of these is ‘Achievements’, which offers up an alternative to the array of magical items and gewgaws that grant the player characters abilities and bonuses to be found in Dungeons & Dragons and a great many Retroclones, but not Crypts & Things. Instead it suggests that the Crypt Keeper reward the adventurers with small story awards based upon their achievements in an adventure. For example, in a scenario where the adventurers must make their way over snowy mountain pass and are hounded by wolves all the way up and all the way down, the adventurer who kills the most wolves might be awarded with the ‘Wolf Killer’ achievement, which grants him +1 to hit wolves in combat. As the player characters rise in Level, the benefits from these Achievements become broader rather specific and of course gain in power. This is a rather good way of rewarding the players and their characters and recognises both their successes and their story.

‘By Their Master’s Dark Command: The Role of the Apprentice in Crypts and Things’ is a means to flesh out the motivations, skills, and personalities of sorcerer’s apprentices and so add colour to these NPCs. This is whether they are encountered in the service of a sorcerer or a cult, or hired by an adventuring party, further tables providing options for expected form of payment, means of revenge if betrayed, how they are armed, and their fate should they become too powerful. So for example, Ned was sold into slavery to the Sorcerer as a child and is an idiot savant who remembers and can pull from his memory any spell or ritual he is taught. Unfortunately, he has an unhealthy obsession with dark magic. If he hired, he expects to be paid in gold, if not treasure and should he be betrayed, he will hire a gang of thugs to ambush the player characters. He has managed to fashion a sharp stick to defend himself with, but should he grow too powerful, his master plans to feed Ned special poisonous potions to turn him insane and then into a Thrall.

Ned, Sorcerer’s Apprentice
AC 9 [10], HD 1, HP 4
Sharp stick (1d4)

Should Ned live a long and unhealthy life, perhaps even becoming a sorcerer, there is the possibility that in death he may be mummified and buried in a tomb. The bodies of such mummified sorcerers are often reduced to a dust said to prolong life when ingested. This may be true, but ‘Sorcerer’s Dust’ as this substance is known, has any number of unspoken effects, the least of which is turning the imbiber’s hair green. ‘Sorcerer’s Dust’ is the first of several magical items and monsters related to sorcerers and their apprentices. The others include a ‘Magic Mirror’ into which an apprentice is bound as his master’s eyes in the Shroud; ‘Useful Ghosts’, the spirits of murdered apprentices bound into their master’s service even after death, and ‘Thralls’, muscular guards who were once apprentices, but have been transformed by the sorcerer through black magical rites. This all nicely adds detail to the sorry lives of such apprentices and serve to flesh out a sorcerer’s entourage.

The only contribution to From the Shroud #1 to come from someone other than its publisher, Newt Newport, is ‘’Exotic Liquid Relief’. Written by Neil ‘Captain Machine’ Shaw, it expands upon one of the means of healing in Crypts & Things—the imbibing of good alcohol! Seven such drinks are given, including ‘Red Raptor Vodka’, brewed by the Sorcerer Japlin Pred and favoured by the great warriors of the local tribes. It grants both healing and the benefit that the drinker inflicts extra damage with the first blow in the next fight he is involved in! The great many sacrifices made around the City of Earth means that the fruit used to brew ‘Blood Apple Cider’ is infused with a bloody red hue and grant it extra healing potency. Again, this adds to the verisimilitude of the world of Zarth and its hard-fighting, hard-drinking inhabitants.

Crypts & Things includes a table of Life Events which helps create a background for each player character. From the Shroud #1 offers a further set of similar tables that can be used in any Retroclone. They include tables of ‘Generic Life Events’, ‘Useful Items of the Kindly Ones’ (the Kindly Ones being former inhabitants of Zarth, now long gone), and ‘Things to Find in Great Pots’ (giant clay pots are found all over and under Zarth). The first obviously fleshes out a player character’s background, whilst the latter two add interesting items in their ways respectively. For example, the Cudgel of Giving always ensures that someone will give you their money when you threaten them, whilst pot might contain sour wine, gold pieces, a corpse, and worse. Stories of course can be built such items.

Lastly, ‘The Tea Party of Doom’ provides a Weird encounter deep in the woods where an insane Tea Master literally uses the Hold Person spell to hold tea parties at which the guests are forced to drink the concoctions he brews. In particular, he brews tea from the rainbow coloured secretions which ooze from the hindquarters of psychedelic toads! Once held in place, there is a ‘Toad Effects Table’ for the Crypt Keeper to roll to determine what happens to the player characters. This is a bit of dark whimsy that would just as easily work in the Dolmenwood setting as detailed in the Wormskin fanzine.

Physically, From the Shroud #1 is reasonably well laid out. The artwork is decent if used several times and the cartography, being by Glynn Seal of MonkeyBlood Design is of course excellent. It should go without saying that being a D101 Games product, that it does need another edit.

In general, From the Shroud #1 shines when exploring the little details that bring out the flavour of the Swords & Sorcery setting. Many of these little things will also work in the Retroclone of your choice. Otherwise, From the Shroud #1 is a serviceable entry in the wide array of fanzines available to the Old School Renaissance.

An Arkham Asset #1

The Arkham Gazette Issue 1 is the first issue of the magazine devoted to Lovecraft Country for Call of Cthulhu published by Sentinel Hill Press and the second to see print. Funded following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is, like the other issues devoted to specific aspects of Lovecraft Country, that moldering corner of New England home to old money, old prejudices, and ancient evils. Where the most recent issue, The Arkham Gazette Issue 3—numerically at the very least—explored witches and witchcraft, that most New England of phenomena, other issues have looked at particular locations in Lovecraft Country. The Arkham Gazette Issue o took us along The Aylesbury Pike and The Arkham Gazette Issue 2 will have us pay a visit to dread Innsmouth, but the latest edition to see print is The Arkham Gazette Issue 1 and that starts the magazine in its namesake—Arkham.

Originally released in 2013, but expanded for its 2016 publication, The Arkham Gazette Issue 1 is written for use with earlier versions of Call of Cthulhu rather than Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition—though like all Call of Cthulhu content, it is of course compatible. It opens with Bret Kramer’s ‘Deep Background: Locations in Greater Arkham’, which compiles various locations in the town which have appeared in various scenarios both before and after the publication of H.P. Lovecraft’s Arkham and maps them into the town. They date back as far as ‘Gate from the Past’ in The Asylum and Other Tales and as far forward as ‘Consumption’ and ‘Darkness Illuminated’ from Golden Goblin Press’ Island of Ignorance and the article describes each location in some detail, touching upon the influence of Mythos upon only where necessary. Essentially this article maps these ‘new’ locations into the greater framework established by H.P. Lovecraft’s Arkham and Lovecraft Country, putting them place for the location-based campaign.

The examination of Arkham’s deeper background continues with two articles, both by Bret Kramer. The first is ‘Deep Background: Arkham’s Markers: A History’, which presents the history of the granite posts erected to indicate the boundary between the town and its neighbours. There is not very much to this article, but it is interesting enough and some decent scenario hooks are provided so that the Keeper can bring them into his game and there is a nice newspaper article as a handout. The subject matter of the second is surprisingly mundane, which is surprising given the length of the article. As its title suggests, the subject matter of ‘Deep Background: Arkham’s Diners’ is the diners to be found on the streets of the town, their owners and staff, the dishes they serve, and their typical clientele. There is also a history of the diner and the typical food served during the 1920s. None of these diners are of any significance in terms of the Mythos, but they are places to meet friends and contacts and to make part of the investigators’ lives. Ultimately, this article adds colour aplenty to a campaign based in Arkham and Lovecraft Country and for all its prosaic detail, is rather delightful.

Bret Kramer also pens ‘The Biblio-file: Thaumaturgical Prodigies of the New England Canaan’. This presents an in-depth examination of the eponymous Mythos tome intimately associated with New England. Besides adjusting the date when this tome was published from the one given by August Derleth to that given by H.P. Lovecraft, this gives a thorough description of the book’s three editions, their content, and their history. Further details are provided about their author, Reverend Ward Philips, as well as one of the major sources he drew upon when authoring this tome. Rounding out the article is a list of the scenarios set in New England in which this book has appeared, each scenario providing both a means of obtaining a copy of the book as well as suggesting its content and a means in which it can be used. If the article is lacking, it is perhaps that a quote or two would have a been a nice addition, but that aside, this is one of those articles that provides much needed further background and detail about a particular element of Call of Cthulhu. Both this background and detail richly enhance the verisimilitude of both Call of Cthulhu and Lovecraft Country. This article feels like an like an extension of the content and format that first appeared the Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion for the tomes that appear in the campaign, Masks of Nyarlathotep and that is no bad thing. Indeed, if only all Mythos tomes were accorded this treatment.

While ‘Deep Background: Locations in Greater Arkham’ added old locations anew to Arkham, Bret Kramer’s ‘New Place: The Gladding School’ describes an institution entirely new to Arkham. The Gladding School is a school and hospital for those children who are deemed mentally unfit. Although well-intentioned, the school lacks funding and cares for its patients as best it can, and this being Arkham, there is no knowing what the children might have encountered… or be descended from… Several suggestions are given as to how the school can be used in a Lovecraft Country game, but this is perhaps the article with the most difficult to use content in the issue. 

The Arkham Gazette Issue 1 contains a number of scenario seeds. These start with Chris Huth’s ‘An Encounter: Altercation on West Armitage Street’ which describes a bruising encounter between a wealthy Arkham notable and an unknown man that ends with the death of the Arkhamite. Three quite detailed options are given to explore and explain who exactly committed the murder and why, one of which does limit it to the time-frame when it can be run. Otherwise, this is relatively easy for the Keeper to develop and drop into his campaign. This is followed by ‘Scenario Seed: The Case of the Missing Manhole Covers’ by L.T. Barker. The situation is simple—a thief or thieves are stealing the manhole covers from Arkham’s streets only to return them a few days later. Again, three options are given, though not as detailed and needing more effort to set up by the Keeper. The options are actually lighter in tone than ‘An Encounter: Altercation on West Armitage Street’, one even consisting of a student prank! Actually, this is the sort of scenario that would really only work in a location based campaign where it can probably be best used as light relief to the ghastly, sometimes ghoulish things going on elsewhere in the town. If there is a weakness to the seed, it is that there is no real hook to get the investigators involved and that is probably the first thing that the Keeper will need to add.

The remaining scenario seeds are built around items of one kind or another. The first is Aleolex’s ‘Documentary Evidence: Report of Delusions of an Invisible Monster, which builds plot seeds, mysteries, and horror around an article in The New England Journal of Medicine which describes a series of delusions in the Arkham area. They might be actual delusions or they might be encounters with a Star Vampire, this being up to the Keeper to decide, but either way, the prop article is very well done and provides a convincing verisimilitude to base his scenario upon. It also manages to be brilliantly boring, which is quite an achievement. The second is ‘New Items: Arkham Curios’, penned by Evan Van Elkins, Chris Huth, and Bret Kramer. This describes seven interesting objects that can spur the investigators to make enquiries. For example, ‘The Night Flyers’, bill posters popping up all over Arkham might be for a theatrical performance, a piece of Dadaist propaganda, a prank, or the influence of the Yellow Sign, whilst ‘The Witch Doll’ might be a genuinely creepy little toy doll or it might be something more sinister with a connection to New England’s dark past. These are interesting items in and of themselves and their inclusion can only serve to make Arkham and Lovecraft Country a place of dark, moldering secrets... 

The issue’s main scenario is Ben Wenham’s ‘The Bosworth House’. This is written to be played by just a few investigators of any experience and should work particularly well with just the two investigators, neither of whom needs anything in the way of combative or physical skills. The investigators are asked to look into why Margaret Hannigan, housebound and resting following her first pregnancy, murdered her doctor husband. This is a scenario heavy on investigation, interaction, and ultimately mood, as the investigators examine the case and ultimately, the house itself. The scenario is written with a particular artifice in mind, one designed to build its mood of strange horror, though how much this is due to the influence of the Mythos is up to the Keeper to decide. The murder might simply be due to Margaret Hannigan’s depression following her pregnancy, but it might be the influence of the house itself, much like the mansion in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’. Alternatively, the house might have fallen prey to the influence of Hastur and the King in Yellow. Either way, the horror and shock are nicely handled, kept to a small scale and allowed to scratch at the sanity of one of the investigators rather than rend. The issue here is that the players do need to buy into the scenario’s artifice as it proceeds, because it will quickly become apparent to both players that one investigator is being targeted and affected whereas the other is not. Otherwise, this is a pleasingly underplayed scenario of quiet horror that feels more like a short story than a roleplaying scenario.

Rounding out The Arkham Gazette Issue 1 is an ‘Annotated Scenario Bibliography: Arkham’. Assembled and commented upon by Bret Kramer and Dean Engelhardt, this details the some fifty or so scenarios that have been published for Call of Cthulhu and set in the town of Arkham. They range as far back as ‘Abduction in Arkham’ from the fanzine Dagon Issue 6 and ‘And the Dogs Shall Know You’ from Theatre of the Mind Enterprises’ The Arkham Evil and are as up to date as you can get with ‘Crimson Letters’ from the Keeper Rulebook for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition. Along the way, it takes in magazines as well as monographs, listing for each scenario its author, a summary, and its setting, locations, entities, and tomes, as well as any notes. Also included are two further lists, one of scenarios connected to the town and the other of scenarios set in Arkham, but not in the classic era of the Jazz Age. Much like the earlier ‘The Biblio-file: Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the New England Canaan’, this feels like an extension of the content and format that first appeared the Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion. This is a highly useful reference that in some ways is the most useful article in the issue of the magazine, especially if the Keeper is running a Lovecraft Country campaign.

Physically, the layout of The Arkham Issue 1 is consistent with the style of The Arkham Issue 0 and The Arkham Issue 3, echoing as it does the layout of Call of Cthulhu supplements from the 1990s. The artwork is excellent and the use of photographs never less than appropriate. The cartography is perhaps a little bland in places, but is fine elsewhere. The handouts though, are uniformly excellent. It does need a stronger edit in places though.

As with other issues, The Arkham Gazette Issue 1 is a thoroughly useful magazine to have if the Keeper is running a Lovecraft Country campaign, though articles like ‘The Biblio-file: Thaumaturgical Prodigies of the New England Canaan’ will find a more general usefulness and many of the other articles can be adapted to suit other relatively small town locations. It is of course of even more use if a Keeper is running a campaign in and around Arkham and whilst it could not be described as being indispensable for running such a campaign, The Arkham Gazette Issue 1 is a worthy companion to H.P. Lovecraft’s Arkham.

A Treasury Quest

As big as a licence as it is, since it was first published in 2009, Green Ronin Publishing’s A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying has only been intermittently supported. This is not to say that these supplements are poor, the A Song of Ice and Fire Chronicle Starter being particularly useful and the A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying: Night's Watch being an excellent sourcebook as well as the winner of the 2013 Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement. Now what A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying lacked was a campaign, but as of 2016, that all changed with the publication of Dragon’s Hoard – A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying Adventure.

Dragon’s Hoard – A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying Adventure is a five-part campaign that delves deep into the secrets and events of the fall of House Targaryen in the wake of Robert’s Rebellion. It presents the player characters’ house with a great quest and the chance to better itself in a great many ways, to express its allegiance to House Baratheon or House Targaryen (or hide it in the case of the latter), and to forge great secrets of its own, if not great alliances in readiness for the tumult that is to come. It built on the fact—as detailed in A Game of Thrones—that by the time Ned Stark is appointed the Hand of the King late in the reign of Robert Baratheon, the treasury of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros is all but empty. The question is, did King Robert squander the wealth of Aerys II Targaryen or did something else happen to the contents of the treasury immediately after the events of the War of the Usurper? In Dragon’s Hoard, it did, and confirming is only part of the campaign.

Dragon’s Hoard requires a little set-up before the campaign can begin play. Primarily this involves weaving some NPCs into the backstory of the player characters’ Home House, one of the feudal lineages of the Seven Kingdoms who owe fealty to one of the great houses and thus to the king. The Home House should consist of a wide range of character types, capable of handling both intrigue and combat, but ideally should include a Maester who can unravel some of the clues that can found during the course of the campaign. The Home House can be one of the players’ devising using the rules given in the A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying core book or perhaps one of the six given in A Song of Ice and Fire Chronicle Starter. Indeed, the Home House could forge the beginnings of its legend in the events of A Song of Ice and Fire Chronicle Starter and then undertake a greater chronicle in Dragon’s Hoard. Much of this backstory consists of events taking place during the player characters’ childhoods or younger years which are handled in a flashback in the opening pages of the campaign.

The campaign opens with the Home House welcoming guests, a party of recruits for the Night’s Watch headed for the Wall. One of their number, a young bastard by the name of Aeron Waters, is a reluctant recruit and offers his hosts a great boon for aid that the house rendered his father, who it turns out, was the Red Cofferer, treasurer and friend to Aerys II Targaryen. In return for his freedom, he tells of how his father spirited away the bulk of the Mad King’s treasury for a time when the Targaryen lineage could be restored and he gives clues as to how the player characters might be able to track further clues to the hoard’s location. Getting to both is anything but simple. There is of course the matter of freeing Aeron Waters from the Night’s Watch, but beyond that there is the matter of a minor house such as that of the player characters acting in a clandestine fashion, having to travel the length of Westeros and more, visit the lands of other houses, and more, and all that without alerting their liege lord and the king, let alone other houses. Notably though, one other house has learned of the existence of the Dragon’s Hoard and will do anything to get hold of Aeron Waters and his information. This includes attacking the Home House, which sets up the attacking house as the Home House’s new enemy number one. 

Over the course of the quest, the members of the Home House will attend a tourney, consult libraries, travel across the Narrow Sea to Braavos, engage in duels with both the sword and the tongue, treat with a courtesan, deal with pirates, delve into what is about as close as you can get to a dungeon a la Dungeons & Dragons in A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, and more. There is even the chance to encounter some of the signature figures from the fiction! By the end of the Dragon’s Hoard the Home House should at least be wealthy, have gained glory and improved its standing, defeated an enemy, possibly gained an ally or two, and declared their allegiance, one way or another to the Targaryens.

Achieving all of this is no mean feat. This is a challenging campaign with a lot of clues to uncover and keep track of—ideally the players should be taking notes as they go. In comparison to the average fantasy campaign, Dragon’s Hoard involves a lot of social interaction and makes extensive use of the roleplaying game’s Intrigue mechanics. What this illustrates is that A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying—just like the source novels—is much more about the social interaction and the intrigue than it is about combat, though that of course, has its place. In fact, the authors in Dragon’s Hoard do make the point that neither the players nor the Home House need to play by any code of conduct. They can be as self-serving as a Lannister or as honourable as a Stark.

The campaign is also challenging for the Game Master to run, again because of the number and complexity of the clues. The design of the campaign helps alleviate this, breaking down each chapter of the campaign into multiple scenes and then guiding the Game Master as to their running order and how that changes depending upon the actions of the players and their Home House. Along the way, the Game Master has a big cast to portray, from the highs of society to the lows.

Physically, Dragon’s Hoard is a sturdy hardback, liberally illustrated with full colour artwork and cartography. The book does need another edit and in places the writing feels rushed. If perhaps there is anything missing it is some handouts for the various clues, many of which are in written form. What it also significantly adds to the A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying canon is the city of Braavos, with enough background material being given that the Game Master could take his A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying game there again.

Dragon’s Hoard – A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying Adventure delivers just about everything you would want in A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying campaign. It provides the players and their characters with the opportunity to improve the standing of their Home House; with enemies and challenges to overcome or at least counter; and with the chance to meet some of the canonical figures from the fiction, to delve into some of the secrets of Westeros, and to build their own legends. After, Dragon’s Hoard – A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying Adventure the players and their characters might be just about ready to step onto a larger stage, but will have to wait until a possible sequel.

Rory's Mild Peril

It helps at nine years old, that if you want to design and publish your own board game, your father is the creative director for a British RPG and games publisher. This is not to say that the resulting game is published via said publisher, but rather that your father has some expertise and knowledge when it comes to designing a game and getting it published. And get the game published father and son did after a successful Kickstarter campaign. The game is The Forest Dragon: A Card Adventure Game. The designer is Rory and he is nine years old. The creative director is Jon Hodgson. The publisher is Cubicle Seven Entertainment and it did not have a hand in publishing The Forest Dragon.

Designed for two or more players aged six and up, The Forest Dragon is a simple, fantasy-themed push-your-luck style card game. It consists of sixty, full colour cards each illustrated by Rory and his younger brother, Ben. Seven of these cards give the rules. The others consist of resource cards—such as Sticks and Berries, treasure cards like Golden Coins and Crystal Compass, monster cards such Sinister Cloaked Gentleman and the Cursed Crocodile Knight, and adventuring item cards like Bow and a Friend. Both the resource and the treasure cards are worth Victory Points at game’s end, for example, Berries are worth a single Victory Point and a bottle of Ghost Milk is worth four. (The game does not explain what Ghost Milk is.) Monster cards typically end a player’s go, like the Wolf Pig, whilst others have an extra effect, for example, the Venom Spitting Snake also forces a player to discard three items. Adventuring item cards aid a player, for example, the Sword can be used to defeat one monster per turn, whilst Rations can be discarded instead of a treasure card.

At the start of a game, the cards are shuffled and laid out face down in rows of five. Only twenty such cards are needed for a two-player game, with a further row needed for each additional player. This forms the forest that is home to the Forest Dragon. Then on his turn each player explores the forest by drawing one card at time. If the card drawn is a treasure, resource, or adventuring item, the player puts them in his backpack. This is invariably sticks or berries—there are lots of sticks and berries in the forest. If the card drawn is a monster, the player has to what it says on the card. Typically, this is to end his turn, but he might also have to discard cards from his backpack. Should a player have an appropriate adventuring item in his backpack, he can use it to overcome the monster. For example, the Sword can be used to defeat a monster and carry on adventuring whereas other adventuring item cards have other effects, such as the Map which enables a player to examine two cards on the table and take one of them.

A player can continue exploring the forest and drawing cards for as long as he wants or until he decides to stop or draws a card that instructs him to stop. Then the next player begins exploring the forest and drawing cards, and so on and son. Play continues until all of the forest has been explored and all of the cards examined. At this point, each player totals up the Victory Points of the cards in his backpack and the player with the most is the winner.

This is all that there is to The Forest Dragon: A Card Adventure Game. It is simple to learn and play and a game will last no more than ten minutes at most. As much as it is a push-your-luck game, it is also very much a luck based game and this can lead to one player running away with Victory Points upon Victory Points—play can be a bit one-sided if this happens. Fortunately, The Forest Dragon is a quick game and once game is over, it is simply a matter of collecting the cards, shuffling them, and laying them out again.

Physically, The Forest Dragon: A Card Adventure Game is very nicely presented. The artwork is charming and the cardstock feels good in the hand. Even the tuckbox that the game comes in is easy to use.

Beyond the core game, The Forest Dragon: A Card Adventure Game has several expansions. The ‘Quest Givers’, ‘Fire Dragon Realm’, ‘Poo Cave’, ‘Ro-Bo Realm’ and ‘Dogs and Things’ expansions all come in The Forest Dragon Expansion Box, whilst ‘Faerie Mischief’ and ‘Star Gazer’ are separate expansions. Some of expansions these simply add extra cards to the core game, such as ‘Quest Givers’, but most add a single portal to the core game which once discovered allows the players to enter another realm, as often they like, and explore its environs. This realm is represented by separate deck of cards. So once the Fire Dragon Realm Portal card has been found, the players can enter and explore the Fire Dragon Realm. (This feels not unlike the expansions for the boardgame, Talisman.)

In terms of its rules, The Forest Dragon: A Card Adventure Game is not a sophisticated game design, but in terms of game play it is a surprisingly sophisticated design. When playing this game you can imagine yourself on an adventure to find monsters and treasure—or at least out collecting sticks and berries and discovering something more!—and so every time you play The Forest Dragon: A Card Adventure Game, there is a story to tell in the process of exploring the forest. For that, The Forest Dragon: A Card Adventure Game is a delightfully charming filler.

Fanzine Focus VI: Black Pudding #2

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry.

Although Black Pudding is nominally written for use with Labyrinth Lord, it is still compatible with other Retroclones. Published by Random Order Creations via Square Hex, Black Pudding #1 was released in 2016 to no little acclaim. The inaugural issue was praised for its consistently singular look and feel, cartoonish, slightly tongue in cheek, yet still fantastic and weird on a small scale. Drawn from the author’s ‘Doomslakers!’ house rules, its genre was firmly Swords & Sorcery and thus was accompanied by the genre’s sexism with its chainmail bikinis and mighty thewed barbarians. Whilst Black Pudding #2 retains the Swords & Sorcery genre and cartoonish style, it tones down the sexism, and so is a very much better issue for it.

Black Pudding #2 contains the same mix as the first issue of new character Classes, spells, magic items, monsters, NPCs, and adventures. Specifically, six new Classes, a spellbook and eight spells, multiple magic items, eight new monsters, eight NPCs ready to hire, and a wilderness encounter and a short dungeon. It also includes two character sheets designed to be used with the issue’s various Classes, one for spellcasters and one for non-spellcasters.

The issue opens with the first of the new Classes. This is the Keeper, an archer and hunter dedicated to protecting the forest and who can track like a Ranger, attacks better with a bow, and can not only cast Druid spells and element-related Magic-user spells, but also imbue them into arrows. It is followed by the Blind Guardian, a holy warrior who gives up his eyes to gain Blindsight, ‘see’ evil and malice at will with Righteous Vision, cast Read Magic and Read Languages daily with Eyeless Understanding, can deliver a Righteous Blow to deliver a killing blow to Chaotic or evil enemies, and even absorb blows or spells intended for an ally with his Shield of Light. In return, the Blind Guardian must be Lawful or Good, is only trained in the one Holy Weapon, and as a Defender, must avenge any innocent who suffers as result of his negligence or failure. The Blind Guardian is a powerful Class since he gains all of these abilities at First Level, but there is plenty of roleplaying to be found in the Class too, especially if the Dungeon Master ties the Class to a particular god and faith.

The Werewolf Hunter is fairly self-explanatory and quite specialised. He can work silver to silver-edged arrows and weapons, is resistant to a werewolf’s bite, can prepare wolfsbane, fight all wolves effectively, and track and detect werewolves and eventually other lycanthropes. The Werewolf Hunter is really too specialised for general play and needs a Gothic land infested by lycanthropes to come into its own. The Mouldwarp is equally as specialised, a ‘Race as Class’ Class that anthropomorphises the humble mole and turns it into a digging hunter with an innate feel for the underground world and anyone who tells lies and a saliva that is particularly toxic to the worms that the Mouldwarp loves to consume. Lastly, the Fey Savage is a second ‘Race as Class’ Class, but is much odder. The Fey Savage is the battle-loving offspring of a dainty fairy and a human barbarian who must choose between his fey and human heritage—Barbaric Rage or Fey Charms, hates goblins, can cast a single magic spell once per day, and whose innate Fey Savagery allows him to attack with a bonus on his first attack and potentially avoid ignore all damage in combat. The Fey Savage lies towards the tongue-in-cheek approach to Class design, so is compatible with some of the Classes given in Black Pudding #1.

The six new monsters in Black Pudding #2 include goblin angels, fungus-infected kissing undead, alchemically-infused hairballs, and more. The Angel Mama, the goblin angel, can transform dead goblins into Shadow Goblins who can turn incorporeal and in return they can turn her incorporeal while she demoralises others with her eye beams; while the Kisser is fungus-infected undead that kisses others to steal their Constitution and whose fungus can be turned into Potions of Unhealth that also steals the Constitution of the imbiber and then heals Hit Points as well as granting the potion maker Hit Points! The Scurramancer is a Harley Quinn-like demon with Illusionist spells, a staff that emits laughing gas, and who taunts for lots of Psychic damage. Overall, the monsters are not all that serious, but are just weird enough to suit the fanzine’s genre.

The spells in Black Pudding #2 are all contained in Elegrain’s Fearful Book of Death and are all related to death. For example, Death Augur lets the caster divine facts about the deaths—past, present, and future—in the immediate vicinity, whilst Death Denial gives the target a chance to survive death. Unless the player characters include a priest of death or a necromancer amongst their number, then this is really a set of spells and a dark, dark tome for an NPC.

The first of the two adventures is ‘Mace of the Ape King’, a jungle-set encounter for experienced characters of at least Fourth Level. It is a simple, though tough combat encounter, easy to drop into a campaign and replete with a fun variable weapon that any warrior would want to own. The second adventure, ‘Vault of the Whisperer’, is the highlight of Black Pudding#2 and its lengthiest piece at eight pages long. Again written for experienced adventurers, it is a thirteen location mini-dungeon that can be dropped into a wilderness sandbox—with perhaps its strange cult preying upon nearby villages—or into a larger dungeon. At the heart of the dungeon is a great demonic maw attempting to chew its way into this world that whispers seductively to all and sundry as caged and bell-helmeted cultists dedicate themselves to the maw in order to hear its whispers. A strong vein of the Weird runs throughout the dungeon, in the creatures of course, but particularly in the magic items that are hidden throughout the complex. Notable items include the Gauntlet of Goorph, a tentacled glove that increases the user’s Strength and gripping damage, but can decrease his Wisdom, and the Staff of the Slug, which can be slapped against a surface to aid climbing, used to slap and grab objects, and to control slug-like monsters. This is a really nice little dungeon that should provide a session or two’s worth of play.

Rounding out Black Pudding #2 is a feature continued from Black Pudding #1. This is ‘Meatshields of the Bleeding Ox’, a collection of NPCs ready for hire by the player characters. The majority of the eight involve the standard Classes—Fighters, Magic-users, Thieves, and more, though a few do include Classes introduced in this issue, such as Trey Mottle, a Second Level Fey Savage and Fay May, a Third Level Keeper. Each comes complete with a hiring cost, likes and dislikes—which affect attempts to haggle with them, a line of background, and more as well as the traditional attribute scores and Hit Points. Although perfect for hiring, these NPCs can also be used as replacement player characters or even rivals if the Dungeon Master wants to further develop them. This is a decent mix and the Dungeon Master should have fun roleplaying any one of them.

Physically, Black Pudding #2 is almost as professional a fanzine as you might want. Perhaps some of the entries are underwritten, but the writing is otherwise clear and simple, though it does contain strong language in places. The fanzine is profusely illustrated and the cartoonish artwork gives the fanzine a singular, consistent look, from the fun front cover to the back cover character sheet.

If there is an issue with Black Pudding #2 it is that its tone may not be compatible with the style of Dungeons & Dragons that a Dungeon Master is running. The tone of Black Pudding #2 is lighter, weirder, and in places just sillier than the baseline Dungeons & Dragons game, so the Dungeon Master should take this into account when using the content of the fanzine. This though, should not be held against the fanzine or its authors.

There is a tendency for the second issue of anything to be not quite as good as the first. This is not the case with Black Pudding #2. It is a balanced issue with a good mix of content, a solid Weird element, a delightful dungeon, and just enough sexism to uphold its Swords & Sorcery genre.

Fanzine Focus VI: Burgs & Bailiffs: Hunger, Disease, & the Law

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry.

Burgs & Bailiffs is not written with any particular Retroclone in mind. Published by Lost Pages, it is instead a generic fanzine for use with Dungeons & Dragons-style Roleplaying Games that explores aspects of the history that the medievalism of Dungeons & Dragons is based upon. It takes its tone from the strapline, “Life in the Middle Ages were some kind of extremely hardcore live RPG that went on 24 hours a day”, so is thoroughly rooted in the history that Dungeons & Dragons is based upon rather than the fantasy. Future releases in the series will deal with warfare and then pilgrimages—the latter an excellent and all but definitive treatment upon the subject for Dungeons & Dragons, but the first release dealt with the eponymous hunger, disease, and the law. One way in which the fanzines of today differ from the fanzines of the past is that they never truly go out of print. Thus the first issue, Burgs & Bailiffs: Hunger, Disease, & the Law, published in April, 2013, is still available in Print On Demand.

The subject matters for Burgs & Bailiffs: Hunger, Disease, & the Law are of course, obvious. To that end, the fanzine contains nine articles exploring various aspects of these subjects and more. The issue opens with ‘Medieval Tournaments: The Real Mêlées’, an examination of what really took place at tournaments rather than the idealised versions we have in our heads, so quite simply a whole lot fewer jousts and more bloodied, day long combats for practice and the taking of ransoms, though with a few rules to prevent deaths if not injuries. As well as looking at how and why they were run, the author suggests questions to ask when setting one up in-game and then gives rules for handling the mêlée and the likelihood of fighting random knights with varying skill levels. There are lots of roleplaying opportunities in this one article, which includes some character archetypes that the player characters might encounter on and off the field of mêlée.

A similar if shorter article by Shorty Monster, ‘Bowmen, Class, & War’ looks at the role of the bowmen in English society during the medieval period. It covers how and why they trained and then how they fought in battle—literally, very dirty indeed. There are fewer roleplaying opportunities suggested in this article, but for anyone wanting to play an archer in medieval England, this should be required reading.

Upon first glance, neither ‘Medieval Tournaments: The Real Mêlées’ nor  ‘Bowmen, Class, & War’  pertain to any of the three subjects given in the fanzine’s title. The link to both though, is the law. Certainly it was a English legal requirement that all men of suitable age practice archery in the event that their lords raise them as levies in any conflict—whether for or against the King. As to the mêlées, these were at first banned as being disruptive to the public order due to their popularity, since the ban failed, they were formalised and legalised to prevent disorder and then unnecessary death which would prevent the nobility from carrying their duties to the king. The obvious legally themed content comes from Mike Monaco in the form of two articles. The first is ‘Settling Disputes: Ordeals & Trials’ which looks at Medieval justice and how it was applied. This includes ordeals by various means, including by fire walking, water, and ingestion, trials by jury and by combat, as well as punishment. Lots of gaming potential here of course, whether the player characters are the accused, aiding the accused, or thwarting him. The second is ‘The Night Watch’, which deals with the enforcers of the curfews that affected every town and city who can arrest curfew breakers. Besides giving rules for creating members of the Night Watch, the article lists the exceptions who could legally move about at night, like doctors, midwifes, nightsoil collectors, and so on, as well as random encounters at night for urban and rural settings.

The articles about hunger are more a look who medieval society is fed and what it eats. First, Paolo Greco’s ‘Food Surplus: Cities & Armies’ looks at how important food is and how useful a surplus is in feeding greater areas and even armies. Controlling this supply is potentially ripe with gaming potential, whether dealing with selling it, stealing it, protecting it, and so on. The article also comes with several adventure ideas. This is a solid article that echoes the much earlier Designing a Quasi-Medieval Society for D&D (White Dwarf #29 and White Dwarf #30) and  ‘The Town Planner’ series (White Dwarf #30, White Dwarf #31, and White Dwarf #32), both by Paul Vernon—the author of the well regarded module, Starstone. This article is accompanied by ‘Medieval Cooking or: What is in that Meat Pie?’ by Steve Sigety and and ‘Recipes: Pottage’ by Steve Sigety and Paolo Greco, both articles that add flavour to the issue (though this being the medieval period, just not very much).

Lastly, Jeremy Whalen’s ‘Pestilence & Putrescence’ and then Mike Monaco’s ‘Leeches, Clysters, and a Hole in the Head: Old School Medicine for Grimmer Games’, address the subject of disease. Together, the two provide a look at Medieval medicine and medicinal theories—primarily miasmas and humours, and treatments—including of course, leeches. Trepanation is also recommended as a surprisingly effective treatment for swellings of the brain. In some ways, these two articles show just how ‘hardcore’ life in the Medieval period was and so live up to the fanzine’s strapline.

Physically, Burgs & Bailiffs: Hunger, Disease, & the Law is plainly presented. It is lightly illustrated and then with publically available art. The writing in places could have done with another edit and the font size is just that little too small for easy reading. The writing style is drier than in most other fanzines, but this is due to the dryness of the subject matter rather anything else.

The contents Burgs & Bailiffs: Hunger, Disease, & the Law will add history to any medieval campaign specifically run using Dungeons & Dragons, though the dryness of that history may not suit every Dungeon Master’s campaign. That said, its content will suit more historically-based settings like that of DOM Publishing’s Dark Albion: The Rose War or Green Ronin Publishing’s Medieval Player's Manual as well as the previously mentioned Starstone. A nice touch is that the fanzine does include a good bibliography for further reading, but the fanzine probably contains more than enough history for most Dungeon Masters. Much of the contents may be familiar with veteran gamers, but even if they are, Burgs & Bailiffs: Hunger, Disease, & the Law contains ideas aplenty as to how to bring its content and thus verisimilitude to a Dungeon Master’s campaign.

Fanzine Focus VI: Wormskin No. 2

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another DM and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry.

The Wormskin fanzine, published by Necrotic Gnome Productions is written for use with Labyrinth Lord and issue by issue, details an area known as Dolmenwood, a mythical wood, an ancient place of tall trees and thick soil, rich in fungi and festooned with moss and brambles and rife with dark whimsey. Published in December, 2015, Wormskin No. 1 introduced the setting with a set of articles rich in flavour and atmopshere, but lacking a certain focus in that the region itself, Dolmenwood, was not detailed. Wormskin No. 2 suffers from a similar problem, but fortunately, in March, 2016, Necrotic Gnome Productions released Welcome to Dolmenwood, a free  introduction to the setting. That said, Wormskin No. 2 loses none of the dark tone and whimsey of the first issue.

Wormskin No. 2 opens with ‘Common Tavern Fare’, a quick means of providing flavoursome provender at a hostelry, whether that is spit-roast pork shank with vinegared oak leaves or a giant puffball mushroom sandwich with parsnips and burdock. The contents are intended to be just that little bit different and thus make any tavern that serves such dishes memorable. This is followed by ‘Psychedelic Compounds’, which treats psychoactive powders, infusions, and fumes in exactly the same fashion as fungi was in ‘Fungi of Dolmenwood’ in Wormskin No. 1. A table lists some thirty compounds, their slang names, substances, procedures for use, and both primary and side-effects, whilst the article details they are manufactured and sold. For example, Angel Dust is ground Unicorn horn which is moistened with wine to make the user feel great, even godlike, though the eyes take on an unnatural hue. As good as this article is, it feels too much like a retread of the ‘Fungi of Dolmenwood’ article from Wormskin No. 1. If the article had appeared in a later issue of the fanzine, then the comparison would not be as unfavourable.

The remainder of Wormskin No. 2 focuses on a particular part of the Dolmenwood, The High Wold, which lies to the south and west of Lake Longmere and the River Hameth (a nice touch is that the map of the region is reprinted in colour on the back cover of the fanzine). In particular the articles focus on the village of Lankshorn and the strangeness of the surrounding environs, such as Lankston Pool, where the only sign of the former village of Lankston is the village’s church pool sticking up out of the bog; King Pusskin’s Road upon which it is suggested that tribute be made to cats lest ill fortune fall upon you—cat scratches appearing on hands and arms, coughing up furballs, and so on; and a band of barrowbogeys prey upon travellers from the King’s Mounds. Notable places and peoples in Lankshorn include The Hornstoat’s Rest Inn, rife with rumour and innuendo, whose owner, Margerie Stallowmade is said to consort with fairies; The Man of Gold Apothecary, a ready source of the fungi and psychedelic compounds—as described in both this issue of Wormskin and the first—to be sourced from Dolmenwood; whilst not far out is the manse of Lord Malbleat, one of the goatlords of the region, renowned for his love of poetry and human brides, but rumoured to be a sorcerer and a sadist.

Rounding out the description of the region is a bestiary of some of the monsters common to the region. They include Barrowbogeys or ‘plague fairies’ who carry jugs or pots as heads and curse others with plagues of boils and warts; Bog Zombies who jealously strangle their victims and drag them into the bog to rise as one of their number; and Woldish Goatman, who look down upon humans as an animal species whilst still breeding with them to produce Goatmen Thrall and sadistically flaying their skins to work into armour. It is said that to fall under the gaze of the Goatman is said to fall irrevocably under his charm. Accompanying each of these descriptions is a set of three tables, giving options for individual traits and potential lairs and encounters. These tables nicely extend the utility of the creatures whilst also providing the Dungeon Master with further ideas.

Wormskin No. 2 is as ably presented as Wormskin No. 1. The layout is tidy and the writing not only clear, but also engaging. The artwork, a mix of publically sourced and original pieces is well chosen and enhances the dream-like menace that permeates the Dolmenwood. Perhaps the only thing that might be said to be missing from the issue is a scenario—there can be no doubt that it would be interesting to see a scenario set in the Dolmenwood—but until then, Wormskin No. 2 includes rumours aplenty that the Dungeon Master can develop into encounters and sessions as the player characters adventure in the region. This is in addition to the encounters and lairs given for the issue’s five monsters.

Workskin No. 2 continues in the same vein and the same tone as Wormskin No. 1. It builds on the material given in that first issue even if to an extent—in the form of the article on psychedelics—it repeats itself. It develops the setting further by giving somewhere for the player characters to begin their exploration and adventures in Dolmenwood.