Reviews from R'lyeh Post-Christmas Dozen 2017

Since 2001, Reviews from R’lyeh have contributed to a series of Christmas lists at Ogrecave.com—and at RPGaction before that, suggesting not necessarily the best board and roleplaying games of the preceding year, but the titles from the last twelve months that you might like to receive and give. Continuing the break with tradition—in that the following is just the one list and in that for reasons beyond its control, OgreCave.com is not running its own lists—Reviews from R’lyeh would once again like present its own list. Further, as is also traditional, Reviews from R’lyeh has not devolved into the need to cast about ‘Baleful Blandishments’ to all concerned or otherwise based upon the arbitrary organisation of days. So as Reviews from R’lyeh presents its annual (Post-)Christmas Dozen, I can only hope that the following list includes one of your favourites, or even better still, includes a game that you did not have and someone was happy to hide in gaudy paper and place under that dead tree for you. If not, then this is a list of what would have been good under that tree.

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Starfinder Roleplaying Game
(Paizo) $59.99/£49.99
The biggest roleplaying game of GenCon 50 and the biggest roleplaying game of the year almost did not make the list because for half of the year it has been out of print! Back in print, Starfinder is the sequel to highly popular fantasy roleplaying game, Pathfinder. It pushes the setting of Golarian—the campaign world for Pathfinder—thousands of years into the future and into space, but in the process, loses the world of Golarion and all memory of how it was lost… Now as citizens of the Pact Worlds, the player characters can delve into mysteries—ancient and modern, explore new worlds, fight ancient threats from deep space, and more. The setting combines technology and magic, mixes old Races with new, and more in setting that is much more than just Dungeons & Dragons style roleplaying in space.

Century Spice Road
(Plan B Games) $39.99/£34.99
Simple and elegant mechanics are at the heart of Century Spice Road, the first in the trilogy of the Spice Road themed board games from Plan B Games. Players take the role of merchants dealing in spices, trading them up and down in order to make the right sales which will them the most monies (or Victory Points). This is done by playing cards and each player only has a limited few. Further, a player can only do one action per turn—play a card, add a new card to his hand, purchase a Victory Point card, or refresh his hand of cards. Essentially, Century Spice Road is a very slow deck building game, but with limited choices and actions it plays quickly and easily—for two players as well as five and for both family gamers and hobby board gamers too.

Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne
(The Tékumel Foundation) $38.95/£28.95
If you are going to go Old School, then really go Old School with this reprint of the second roleplaying game to be published. The linguistic and cultural creation of Professor M.A.R. Barker, this is as arcane and as baroque a roleplaying game as you would ever want, but at the same time it introduces players and referees to the strange and fascinating world of Tékumel. This is a science fantasy world based not on traditional Western fantasy and history, but on that of Meso-America, India, South-East Asia, and Egypt. This gives the roleplaying game a very different feel and flavour, unlike any other setting you can possibly imagine. Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne is genuinely unique in comparison to other roleplaying games, as much a ground-breaking design in its day as Dungeons & Dragons was the year before. If you are ‘fresh off the boat’ and new to Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne, this is the perfect place to start.

The Forest Dragon: A Card Adventure Game
(The Forest Dragon) $18.99/£14.50
From one year to the next, there are more and more board games released such that it is almost impossible to keep up with the exceptional ones, let alone the merely good ones. So you probably missed The Forest Dragon, a simple fantasy card game designed and drawn by a nine year old boy named Rory (plus illustrations from his younger brother, Ben). It is a game of testing your luck as you explore the forest, searching for treasure, and hoping to avoid any of the monsters that make the forest their home—including the dreaded Forest Dragon! Will you pick up Sticks or Berries, Golden Coins or the Crystal Compass, a Bow or a Friend, or encounter monster like the Sinister Cloaked Gentleman or the Cursed Crocodile Knight. If you do, do you have something in your backpack to face them bravely or will they send you fleeing from the forest, dropping everything you picked up? The Forest Dragon is a thoroughly simple, but thoroughly charming game that can be used to tell the story of your forest adventures as you play.

Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game
(Pugsteady/Onyx Path Publishing) $49.99/£37.99
The first of the anthropomorphic games on this year’s list is Pugmire Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game, a Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying game set in a post-apocalypse fantasy world in which Man has long disappeared and the Dogs have inherited the Earth. This is fantasy with a canine cast in which the players take the roles of good Dogs, serving the Kingdom of Pugmire to make it and the world a better place, not just for all Dogs, but for Man returns, even if that means dealing with rogue members of the pack, the Cats of the Monarchies of Mau, and banditry of the Badgers and their brethren. This is a light implementation of Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition which when combined with an engaging setting and a positive outlook makes Pugmire suitable for audiences of all ages and a good introductory roleplaying game. 

The Two-Headed Serpent: An Epic Action-Packed and Globe-Spanning Campaign for Pulp Cthulhu
(Chaosium, Inc.) $44.95/£33.99
The Two-Headed Serpent takes the classic Call of Cthulhu campaign of globe-trotting Lovecraftian investigative horror and turns it all the way up into the 1930s for a campaign of globe-trotting, fist-swinging, hipflask swigging action and horror when men were real men, women were real women, fiends were real fiendish, and scientists were men (and women) of Science!. This is the first campaign for the long-awaited Pulp Cthulhu: Two-Fisted Action and Adventure Against the Mythos and it makes no bones about putting the investigators right into the action and doing so for a Mythos-busting organisation. It is a radical set-up which will see the players thrill as their heroes uncover conspiracies, get involved in organised crime, encounter the dark secrets of a benevolent preacher, find themselves dodging dinosaurs deep in the jungle, sneaking into volcano lairs, experimenting with ancient advanced technology, engaging in a MacGuffin hunt in the ‘City of Joy’, possibly undergoing a transformative experience, racing across an old, old continent to save the world, and of course, cheating certain death.

Veins of the Earth
(Lamentations of the Flame Princess) $64.99/£49.99
Take your fantasy campaign into the darkest of realms where the Sun has never shone, where light is a rarity, where food and water are resources to be fought over, and where civilisations do not think like any of those to be found on the surface. Since 1978 and D1-2, Descent Into the Depths of the Earth, there has always been an Underdark, an underworld of tunnels and caverns far below the ordinary dungeon, leading down, deeper and down… With Veins of the Earth, that world, whether an ‘Underdark’, a dream world, a dimension of the dark, the Referee is given everything he needs to create as alien and as strange a world as he and his players have never imagined. Races are reimagined, rules cover the dangers of both exploration and survival in the near perpetual dark, a bestiary of creatures scratches its way into the light, a hundred caves are described as well as a whole cave system, and more… The Veins of the Earth are dark indeed.

Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate
(Avalon Hill/Wizards of the Coast) $49.99/£44.99
So in Betrayal in the House on the Hill, you explored the halls, rooms, and cellars of a haunted house, never knowing what you might encounter and never knowing if one of your number might betray you, forcing you to confront both the horrors and the person who betrayed you! Now that concept comes to Baldur’s Gate, the city in the Dungeons & Dragons setting of the Forgotten Realms. You are stalwart adventurers in the city, a city upon which Bhaal, god of assassination, murder, and violence has unleashed monster after monster. It is up to you to search the buildings, alleys, and catacombs of the city to put a stop to this infestation, but beware, one of your number might stab you in the back! Exactly why and how varies from game to game, but Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate includes fifty different situations or ‘haunts’ so that it can be played again and again. Of course, since this Dungeons & Dragons, always remember to never split the party—unless of course you are the betrayer. In which case, split the party and kill them!

Alas Vegas: Flashbacks, Blackjack and Payback
(Magnum Opus Press/Spaaace) $39.99/£44.99
One part a set of game mechanics built around the recovery of memory and character through flashbacks, one part a campaign to discover who you are waking up in a shallow grave outside of Vegas, Alas Vegas is a storytelling game which requires four Game Masters, the rules of Blackjack, and a Tarot deck. It is also a campaign in four distinct acts and ruminations upon gambling, grifting, Tarot cards, cocktails, and more. Plus, it includes three other campaigns involving memory loss and repentant paladins, time travel, and time travel as well as game about murdering Bugsy Siegel. Alas Vegas is a surprisingly light book, but packs a lot into its pages—and a very memorable lot it is too.

Cthulhu City
(Pelgrane Press) $34.95/£26.95
There can be no doubt that the Mythos has gained a tentacle-hold in the town of Arkham, the heart of Lovecraft Country, but what if it fell to the worshippers of the Mythos, the cults and covens whose lineages go all the way back to the Colonial Era and beyond…? Some when in the future or perhaps somewhere in dreaming, the greater Arkham conurbation is the USA’s newest and darkest metropolis. As the cults manoeuvre their way to a great ceremony that none of them can agree on, the populations of Arkham, Dunwich, Kingsport, and dozen or so former towns cower under the alien influence upon their lives. Yet they have learned to look away, to give mundane meaning to the madness that lurks just a glance away. Can the investigators determine the true nature of Great Arkham? Dare they look beyond the façade of the desperate ordinariness? Will they be able to restore a Lovecraft Country fractured by the Mythos in this dark and refreshingly different spin on Lovecraftian investigative horror?

Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game
(River Horse Games) $34.99/£24.99
The other anthropomorphic roleplaying game on this list is based on My Little Pony—popular with girls and bronies alike. In Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game you do not play the characters from My Little Pony—Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Spike the Dragon, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and so on—but create your own and go on adventures just like they do. The book is bright and colourful, the rules easy to grasp, and the included adventure is fun. Even better, the rules are easy to teach and encourage acts of friendship, such that an experienced roleplayer can pick this up, read it through, understand the rules, and sit down to run it with those new to roleplaying or new to My Little Pony. Friendship is never more magic than with Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game.

Tales from the Loop – Roleplaying in the '80s That Never Was
(Modiphius Entertainment) $39.99/£34.99
To describe Tales from the Loop as the Stranger Things roleplaying game would be far from accurate, but it at least would acknowledge the television series’ influence. This roleplaying game of scientific investigative and emotional horror is set firmly in the 1980s with the players as young teenagers exploring the mysteries their surrounding landscapes dominated by a high energy research facility—The Loop—and its associated technology, which is inspired by the stunning artwork of Simon Stålenhag. The kids also have mundane lives, not nearly as fun, but just as difficult as their adventures and just as emotionally wrought, nicely counterbalancing the weirdness of those adventures. Both fantastic and mundane, Tales from the Loop is a genuinely engaging storytelling roleplaying game which will be all the more poignant if you were a teenager in the 1980s. 

—oOo—

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay First Edition - Shadows Over Bögenhafen The Enemy Within Part 1
(Cubicle Seven Entertainment) $9.99/£7.40
Fans of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay got some great news in 2017. First, Grim & Perilous published ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG, the bloodier, grimmer and grittier retroclone of the classic tabletop role-playing game. Second, Cubicle Seven Entertainment not only announced the forthcoming publication of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition and Warhammer Age of Sigmar Roleplaying Game, the publisher also began to bring back the first edition books in PDF. There is no better place to start than Shadows Over Bögenhafen, the first part of The Enemy Within campaign, one of the best fantasy campaigns ever written. An epic confrontation against a demonic conspiracy starts here. This is Warhammer adventuring at its finest—grim, gritty, blood-spattered, and covered in shit (what, you did not think that was mud, did you?) and if one old book released anew in PDF deserved to be on any list, it is Shadows Over Bögenhafen.

Fanzine Focus IX: Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery Volume 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 Dungeon Master 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. Another popular choice of system for fanzines, is Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, such as Crawl! and Crawling Under a Broken Moon. Some of these fanzines provide fantasy support for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but others explore other genres for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game.

Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery is one such fanzine. Published by Stormlord Publishing, it takes Dungeon Crawl Classics to the Wild West and the Weird West of the 1880s. The discovery of ‘Demon ore’ in the Dakota Territory in the 187os leads to the establishment of the town of Brimstone in South Dakota, conflict with Lakota and other Plains Indians, and a rush to work the mines soon built under the town and the Dark Territories surrounding it, to strike it rich! With it came graft and corruption and Demon Stone and Hellstones. Both can be fashioned into amazing artifacts, but what exactly these are, Black Powder, Black Magic Volume 1 does not state. That will come in a later issue.

Instead, what Black Powder, Black Magic Volume 1 does is introduce the setting in a broader sense and get the player characters to Brimstone as well as hint at darker things to come. So as well as providing a timeline and map of this magic-infused United States of America, it gives rules for firearms, including a new Mighty Deed for Fighters in the setting—Fanning, which enables multiple shoots to be fired from revolvers. There is some decent pieces of short fiction too, which in turn hint at the dark things to come, but the bulk of the issue is really devoted to character creation and a scenario.

Dungeon Crawl Classics does character creation and Class selection in a special way—the ‘Character Funnel’. In the latter, each player creates and plays not one character, but four, each of them Level Zero. None of them possess a Class—as in Fighter, Cleric, Magic-User, or Thief—but each has ambitions to, and in playing through a Character Funnel, perhaps one or more of them will survive the adventure to earn the ten experience points necessary to attain First Level. Instead of relying upon the abilities of their Class, each of these player characters is forced to rely upon their wits, and in the setting of Black Powder, Black Magic Volume 1, also their grit. 

Creating a Zero Level character for the Dark Territories setting follows the pattern as set for Dungeon Crawl Classics. All characters are Human, all are ‘Starting at the Bottom’, with a few Hit Points, dollars, and a Token of the Past as well as Motivations for Heading West. Tables are provided for both, plus Occupations and Common Names in Brimstone. The Occupation, just as in Dungeon Crawl Classics provides a weapon and some kind of trapping related to said Occupation. Unlike Dungeon Crawl Classics, what a character does not have is an Augury, which modifies how a character’s Luck will work.

Our sample ‘Starting at the Bottom’ character is Charity Eichelberger, who trained as an engineer by her father wants to be recognised as a professional, but it being a man’s world, she cannot find work or acceptance. The best place to find recognition she knows is in Brimstone on the frontier, there perhaps she will find the means to build the radical new engine she has designed, perhaps using the Demon Stone mined around the town. She has another reason, her fiancée, Hartwell Giltner, also went to Brimstone. She has not heard from him in several months, except to receive a land deed, a Dark Permit necessary to prospect for the Demon Stone.

Charity Eichelberger
Zero Level Human Draftsman
STR 11 (+0) AGL 11 (+0) STM 12 (+0)
PER 10 (+0) INT 16 (+2) LCK 14 (+1)
Hit Points: 4
Saving Throws
Fortitude +0 Reflex +0 Willpower +2
Alignment: Lawful
Token of the Past: Another person’s land grant
Motivation for Heading West: To impress a love interest
Possessions
Steel Triangle (1d2), Plans for a new engine, $30

The second half of Black Powder, Black Magic Volume 1 is dominated by the Character Funnel, ‘The Dark Cauldron’. This refers to the train that the characters will taking to journey from Rapid City, South Dakota to the frontier town of Brimstone as well as the journey itself. Along the way, there are plenty of events for the characters to involved, some cliches, such as a train robbery and protecting the train from an attack by the Sioux, others involving the weirdness of the setting. All are really quite well done and nicely detailed, with some decent NPCs and opportunities for roleplaying and heroic action. Rather than give a blanket ten point experience point award at the end of the scenario, the Dungeon Master is given points to hand out on a scene by scene basis. The characters, if they survive to the end, will definitely get enough Experience Points to attain First Level and perhaps if they really do well, enough to get a few more. Overall, ‘The Dark Cauldron’ is a fun adventure that should provide a solid session or so of gaming, as well as setting everything up for Black Powder, Black Magic Volume 2.

Physically, Black Powder, Black Magic Volume 1 is done on pale cream paper with a fittingly buff cover. It is lightly illustrated in black and white, but the illustrations are good and the map is clear. The issue is also well written and overall, everything feels right about this issue. Except of course, it leaves the reader, just as it will the Dungeon Master and his players, very much wanting more. There are four issues of Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery in total as well as the Brimstone Census and Fire Insurance Atlas of 1880, so there is yet more of this setting to explore.

As an introduction to a weird West of Demon ore and magic using the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, Black Powder, Black Magic Volume 1 gives everything a gaming group would want. This is a good read as well as a good introduction and if you pick up this issue of Black Powder, Black Magic: A ’Zine of Six-Guns and Sorcery, then you will want to pick up the rest too.

Fanzine Focus IX: The Twisting Stair #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 Dungeon Master 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.

Published by The Twisting Stair Partnership, but available via Black Blade Publishing, The Twisting Stair is different. Not only in terms of its format—it comes in A4 size rather than the digest size which is standard for most fanzines then and now—but also in terms of the retroclone it is written for. The Twisting Stair is written for use with OSRIC, the Old School Reference and Index Compilation roleplaying game which emulates the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. This is of course, the version of choice for retroclones which emulate Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, though the majority of retroclones do derive from Basic Dungeons & Dragons or just Dungeons & Dragons.

Published in the Summer of 2017, The Twisting Stair #2 follows the pattern set by The Twisting Stair #1, but increases the number of articles it contains from four to five, plus of course, the Dungeon Geomorphs. All of the articles are penned by Allan T. Grohe Jr. and Tony Rosten, either together or separately, and both have their own columns. Grohe has ‘From Kuroth‘s Quill’ and Rosten has ‘Down the Twisting Stair – An ongoing exercise in megadungeon design’, which much like the first issue, bookend this issue. Between them is the simple ‘Critters & Glitters’, a combined monsters and magic items column, ‘The Centerfold Mega-Dungeon Map’, and ‘Wandering Pairings’. All this comes in a second issue with an increased page count, from sixteen to twenty.

Once past the editorial—a short rumination upon the appearance of The Twisting Stair #1 at GaryCon IX—The Twisting Star #2 opens with ‘From Kuroth‘s Quill’. This is Allan T. Grohe Jr.’s design column and this time it concludes ‘Combined Hoards as Adventure Hooks: Treasure Maps in the Mega-Dungeon (Part 1 of 2)’, which was published in the previous, first issue. In ‘Treasure Maps: From Traditional to Enigmatic’ it continues the examination of the nature and form of the treasure map. It is quite a short piece, providing a few suggestions as to on what a treasure map might appear, perhaps on a sword hilt, across multiple items or places, appearing only in the light of the waning moon, and so on. It supports these ideas with a set of tables to expand the standard set given in the Dungeon Master’s Guide for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and continue those begun in The Twisting Stair #1. Together, this has been a decent series, although it could have benefited from an example or two, perhaps towards supporting the mega-dungeon that the fanzine builds itself around—at least in map form.

Both Grohe and Rosten contribute ‘Maps and Symbols: the Keys to the Mega-Dungeon’, a solid set of map symbols to use when designing dungeons. The set includes new symbols for magical gates, walls, and areas of effect as well as teleporters and redesigns some old classics for clarity and purpose. This is followed ‘Critters & Glitters’, which details exactly one spell and one monster. The former is the Naamah, a Greater Devil which works as a free agent to seduce, enslave, and corrupt the souls of mortals. It has the appearance of a beautiful woman bar her almost skeletal lower legs and taloned feet, crimson skin, and black and ice blue eyes. Although the Naamah can use them to deliver vicious attacks , she prefers to charm and bind her victims her, which has the awful side effect of adjusting their Alignment to Lawful Evil. The accompanying illustration is excellent and overall, the creature has a baroque, old fashioned feel that would work well enough in any Old School Renaissance, but also in Empire of the Petal Throne too.

The spell is The Multi-Faceted Portal-Penetrating Gaze, a Fourth Level Magic-User spell. It allows the caster to examine portals—gates, teleporters, colour pools, and so on—and peer view through to the other side. Depending upon the variation cast, the Magic-User can discern the destination, peer beyond the veil to scrye the area around the portal’s destination, and regard the portal to learn about its true nature. This is a good spell and it really would be a useful spell for anyone running a campaign based around gates and portals. It is also the perfect accompaniment to Lost Pages’ Kefitzah Haderech: Incunabulum of the Uncanny Gates and Portals.

At the centre of the issue is Level Two of The Twisting Stair’s ongoing mega-dungeon maps. Like the first, it has several blank spots where dungeon geomorphs—smaller maps that can be inserted and rotated to suit—can be placed. Now unfortunately, what The Twisting Stair #2 lacks is detailed geomorphs, which is a shame because they were the highlight of the first issue. What the second issue does include is ‘Wandering Pairings’, a random encounter table for Level Two. It lists new monsters to be encountered on this level as well as monsters from Level One that have spread down and adapted to Level Two. The notable feature of Level Two is the large waterway running through it and the table reflects this.

Tony Rosten’s column is ‘Down the Twisting Stair’, which it describes as ‘An ongoing exercise in in mega-dungeon design’. In The Twisting Star #1, the column presented three geomorphs, each a well designed encounter ready to be dropped into Level One of the mega-dungeon. This time, the column looks at ‘Mega-dungeon Accoutrements’. What the author is talking here is a dungeon’s regular features which make it distinctive and memorable. They can be environmental, mechanical, or speciality accoutrements, and certainly in examining the first, the author nicely references back to E. Gary Gygax’s own designs. An environmental accoutrement is a descriptive feature that has a broader effect upon a dungeon exploration; a mechanical accoutrement is one which consistently embellishes a common trapping found throughout most dungeons; and a speciality accoutrement combines elements of the two to present something more like a traditional encounter. Besides describing them, the author also presents an accoutrement quartet. ‘Locks and Keys’ are a mechanical accoutrement which detail how both appear and function in the author’s home dungeon; ‘The Lanterns of Celestial Lights’ are a speciality accoutrement, lanterns installed around a dungeon whose lens can be changed for various effects, such as showing events in the past or detecting evil; ‘Blighted Brambles’ is another speciality accoutrement, thorny bushes and thickets which are typically hard to hack through and which come in multiple colours and types; and ‘The Chronoporter’ is a third speciality accoutrement, a teleporting room which gives access to multiple Levels of the dungeon and locations there on, but only at set times and even on set dates. These are interesting and useful supporting examples which nicely showcase the ideas discussed in the article.

Physically, The Twisting Stair #2 is well presented, if very lightly illustrated. It does feel thin though, even with the increase in page. Part of that is down to the format—A4 rather than the A5 which is usual for most fanzines. It also feels somewhat light in terms of content. This is not to say that the content is neither interesting or useful, for as with the first issue, both ‘From Kuroth‘s Quill’ and ‘Down the Twisting Stair’ are excellent pieces, if perhaps tending towards the theory. Unlike The Twisting Stair #1, there are no stand out pieces which a Dungeon Master can just drop into a campaign in The Twisting Stair #2, which is a shame because the sample geomorphs, fully written up as encounters, of the first issue were excellent. Nevertheless, The Twisting Stair #2 is a good read if you looking for advice and taking the time to design your own mega-dungeon.

Fanzine Focus IX: The Stronghold Issue 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 Dungeon Master 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.

Published by Blue Moon Ink Press, The Stronghold though, is not a fanzine devoted to either of those retroclones, but rather to providing support for Dungeons & Dragons 3.x style campaigns along with edition-neutral material. Which means that it is still compatible with other retroclones with just a little effort upon the part of the Dungeon Master. Released in February, 2015, The Stronghold Issue No. 1 came with its regular features already set up and with tables aplenty. The second issue, The Stronghold Issue No. 2 followed in the June of 2015, adhering to the same design and features.

The ‘Found Items’ feature for the second issue is the first of a two-part series. ‘Facing the Music: Musical Magic for Everyone – Part 1: The Bards of the Guild of Zaj’ provides an alternative source of musical magic for groups short on anyone playing the Bard Class—or indeed finds them useful. These can be performed on the five magical items owned by the most renowned bards of the Guild of Zaj, although they are not all strictly musical instruments. Thus, the Flask of Emrot only grants the ability to sing like a bard and ‘inspire greatness’, but only for a limited amount of time and only after the would-be bard has drunk the flask’s contents. The flask needs fuel though and this takes the form of potions of Cure Moderate Wounds. Most are musical items though, such as Titop’s Drums, timpani drums which can be played to cast Remove Fear or Irresistible Dance once per day, whilst The Good Man’s Reed is actually the remains of an ebony horn which when placed in the mouth, enables the user to cast Shatter, Sound Burst, and Whispering Wind. Besides the descriptions of the particular items, each comes with a short history of the original owner and the device itself. Given the musical and bardic focus of this quintet, it is not wonder that there is a slight quirkiness to them. Each nicely expands the range of magical items available and would probably be the envy of any Bard.

‘Malevolent Matter’ introduces the Gholl—which sounds like something undead and something like a cross between a Ghoul and Troll. Well, sort of… With a Critical rating of ten, four arms, paralysis, regeneration, and a penchant to grab and rend, this is a challenging foe. It has a trick up its rugose folds though—it feigns the effect of being turned or controlled! Which is a clever trick to pull on your cleric (at least once). The Gholl also stinks! ‘Malevolent Matter’ is also what the next column should have been called too. ‘Missives from the Hold’ is also appropriate, the column examining as it does the adverse effects of tavern provender. In particular, the digestive aftereffects and how they detract from the consumer’s subsequent attempts at stealth. Plus, the food is terrible into the bargain and there is an Experience Point award for actually consuming it. Nevertheless, this is just a bit silly and begs the question as whether any Dungeon Master would add it to his game. This is followed by ‘Treasure Tables’, four sets of treasure built for the same price in gold pieces. Full of mostly mundane items, they show how interesting hoards can be created on a budget.

In effect, the second half of The Stronghold Issue No. 2 is one big article despite the fact that it consists of four separate parts. These are ‘NPCs Nasty and Nice’, ‘New Creature’, ‘From the Menagerie’, and ‘Local Locales’ and what they describe is an exotic pet shop in the city of Coldtreath, its all too calm owner, his six-legged cat, and some of the creatures he has for sale. The problem with this quartet is that it feels out of order, so that the description of the shop should come first, then its stock, and lastly its owner and his pet. Anyway, ‘NPCs Nasty and Nice’ details Theral “Papa” Quimby, an ex-soldier becalmed and kept distrustful of anyone with two legs by his pet, the ‘New Creature’, a Hugrarian Cat. This six-legged feline exudes serenity and is literally charming to the touch. It would probably make for a perfect familiar for the stay at home wizard. ‘From the Menagerie’ describes, but does not provide game stats for eighteen of the pets that Quimby has in stock—bar for one, the Ragehawk. A price list for other exotic creatures is also included and the description of ‘Local Locales: Papa Quimby’s Pet Emporium’ makes note of the wands he keeps for protection behind the counter. That suggests a high magic or high fantasy for Coldtreath and the pet shop at the very least. Overall, this is a decent package even if the write-up of the Theral “Papa” Quimby feels as if could be stronger and better written.

Physically, The Stronghold Issue No. 2 is nicely put together. The artwork is decent, the writing in general good, and the layout has is nicely done such that it gives the fanzine a consistent feel and style of its very own.

In the editorial of The Stronghold Issue No. 2, the author writes about having to deal with what is a difficult second issue. Now it would not be entirely fair to describe the issue as being difficult—it has issues, but not difficulties. The most obvious is the issue’s ‘Missives from the Hold’, a literal misfire memorable for its silliness rather than its usefulness. The lesser difficulty, the issue’s ‘NPCs Nasty and Nice’, is less of a problem as it is something that the Dungeon Master can adapt and use more readily. Not perfect, but nowhere near as bad as a difficult second issue might have been, The Stronghold Issue No. 2 picks up where The Stronghold Issue No. 1 left off by the good outweighing the not so good.

Fanzine Focus IX: Wormskin No. 4

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. Further, Wormskin No. 3, published in July, 2016, improved hugely upon the first and second issues such that it serves as a better introduction to Dolmenwood, giving some excellent answers to some very good questions before delving into what is the biggest secret of Dolmenwood.

Published in the autumn of 2016, Wormskin No. 4 is essentially the companion to Wormskin No. 3. It is not quite as useful, but it does complete the content of Wormskin No. 3. To that end, the last two-thirds of Wormskin No. 4 is devoted to the second part of ‘The Ruined Abbey of St. Clewed’, begun in the previous issue. The first part describes the ruins of the abbey that was originally built upon the site where Saint Clewed died fighting and defeating an evil black unicorn. Exploring the grounds is relatively safe for low Level characters, but the crypts, halls, and tombs of the remnants of the abbey’s underground are another matter. Getting into the crypts will be a challenge in itself, but once inside, the player characters will find an interesting environment. The religious theme and iconography are nicely carried applied throughout the crypts, although its obvious Christian influences may not sit easily with every Dungeon Master’s campaign. The crypts are as you would expect they are home to all manner of undead, but they are also home to secrets which the inhabitants do not want revealed. This gives an interesting tension to the ‘dungeon’ because many of will still interact with the player characters.

On the downside, the dungeon is essentially on a knife edge and it is quite possible for the player characters to upset the proverbial apple cart. Unfortunately, the description of the dungeon never addresses possible outcomes or effects of their intervention, which is a missed opportunity given the nature of the secrets it contains—secrets which lie at the heart of Dolmenwood and which when revealed have possible repercussions across the region. Nevertheless, the dungeon is well presented, its themes and iconography are nicely applied throughout, and the map is well done.

The issue though opens with ‘The Atacorn’s Retreat’, a description of the second eldest mule-thing born of a witch-mother and his father, the Nag-Lord. Known as ‘The Fiddler in the Dark’, Farthigny is a humanoid with a mule’s head, cow’s tail, and curved horn jutting from his chin. The latter is curved enough for him to fit strings to and play as a fiddle using his enchanted fiddle bow. He is known for the drunken revels he hosts at his cottage and the poor way in which he treats his Moss Dwarf servants. The description of this interesting NPC is accompanied by a fetching full-colour illustration, adventure hooks and rumours, and a complete guide to his cottage. This piece feels fully rounded out and worked into the setting of Dolmenwood. It is probably better suited as an encounter for mid-Level characters, especially Bards, and there is scope for the Dungeon Master to include Farthigny as a recurring NPC.

‘The Fickleness of Fairy Magic’ does not look at the trinkets and gee gaws that might slip out of the Elven realms to be found by mortals and seen as wondrous. Nor describe a single such one. Instead, the short one-page piece suggests what might cause them to cease functioning, such as the touch of sunlight or you stop looking at it. As the end of an article detailing the trinkets and gee gaws these effects would have been fine, but without such novelties and curios, the article is really only of passing interest.

The third of the smaller pieces in Wormskin No. 4 is another set of tables and lists. ‘Lesser Stones of Dolmenwood’ provides options for the minor monoliths that can be found throughout the region. After determining its broader location, the Game Master can, with a roll of a thirty-sided die or three, create the material a lesser stone is made of, its form and condition of its surface, setting, and unusual properties and features of note. These work as oddities and weird features as much as they can be spurs for adventure, adding further colour and flavour to the region.

After the blaze of colour and change in style with Wormskin No. 3, this is continued with Wormskin No. 4. It is applied with some restraint though, giving the issue a nicely assured feel. That said, Wormskin No. 4 is not as useful or as good an issue as Wormskin No. 3, primarily because ‘The Fickleness of Fairy Magic’ is all too slight, if not feeling incomplete, and because the second part of ‘The Ruined Abbey of St. Clewed’ does not explore possible outcomes of it coming into contact with the player characters. The ‘dungeon’ is well designed as a location though and will provide several good sessions of play and interaction with its NPCs. Simply, Wormskin No. 4 is not as good as Wormskin No. 3, but Wormskin No. 4 both serves as a complement to Wormskin No. 3 and fills in further details of the Dolmenwood setting.

Fanzine Focus IX: Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine, Volume Two

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. Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine is a fanzine of a different stripe.

Published by Inner Ham, Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine is draws from a source for its inspiration—the original version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons designed by Doctor John Eric Holmes and published in 1977. Specifically, it draws from Doctor Holmes’ description of the game as “fantastic, exciting, and imaginative” for both its title and its content. That content is simply a medley of monsters, magic, and more, with new spells, magical items, NPCs, and creatures created by some twenty-six or so contributors, each entry drawn from a particular illustration to be found in the pages of the Holmes’ edition of Basic Dungeons & Dragons. What this means is that the fanzine really does consist of things that you can add to your game without any particular theme or flavour. This has the downside that some of the content is perfectly acceptable in terms of Dungeons & Dragons, but somewhat bland in terms of its fantasy. Thankfully some of the content rises above this blandness to present interesting content which will definitely add to your game.

The more interesting entries in Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine, Volume Two, includes Elmer, the Minotaur Wizard distrusted by Humans and Minotaurs alike, who resides in his Horned Tower home surrounded by a dense maze where he researches strange magic and answers the queries of those who brave the maze. This is followed by a description of Anvil, Dwarf of the Iron Hills, an NPC to be encountered in a dungeon, hurt after a nasty fight with goblins. Heal him and hire him, and he will be a loyal hireling to an adventuring party. These are alongside a plethora of interesting magical items, whether it is The Lady’s Favour, which depending upon the colour and alignment of the wear, improves his Charisma, grants extra Hit Points, works as a Ring of Protection +1 or Ring of Invisibility, as an Elven Cloak or Elven Boots, or cast spells that protect from or detect good and evil. Chameleon Skin Chianti is a wine which alters the texture and pigmentation of the imbiber’s skin and clothing to enhance his ability to remain undetected. It is not without its side effect, as it has the potential to also shift the imbiber’s Alignment. The Dragon’s Breath Shield is of wrought iron, rough and burned, with a grate in its centre through which  a fire can be seen burning. This fire casts light as a torch, but can be expelled like dragon’s breath once a day. Some items are slightly kooky, like Bubbles of Death, from which the user can blow bubbles that upon contact with enemy, set them aflame.

The magic spells are equally as diverse as the magical items. For example, Blue Shift shifts the caster’s vision into ultraviolet and enables him to see both in the dark and the magical emanations for magical items and artefacts, though not know what kind of magic, whilst four spells created by the Wizard, Eldicar, are also described. They include Eldicar’s Aura of Advantageous Astonishment which when cast on armour will trigger a nimbus against hostile creatures which will knock them prone and force them to lose the Initiative in the next Round. Eldicar’s Excitable Ectoplasm drops a mass of acidic mucus on a target, which adheres to and slowly burns through organic material, hardening if the target struggles. Eldicar’s Acidic Ectoplasm is a less useful spell, creating a small glob of green and metaphysical goo which can be flicked or wiped off to burn or corrode for a few Rounds. Eldicar’s Amazing Agility and Endurance allows the caster to increase a target’s Dexterity and Constitution. Oddly there are no spells for the Cleric Class in the issue.

Although there are lots of monsters described in Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine, Volume Two, but fewer of them really stand out in comparison to the magic items and the spells. For example, the humanoid Mannequin are utterly neutral in terms of Alignment, design, and intent such that the Dungeon Master is left what to do with them. Better still is the Speckled Muck, a clear ball of slime dotted with detritus which has a penchant for paper, parchment, and clothing, which is followed by the Morrigan Sisters. These famed Harpies—‘The Maiden’, ‘The Mother’, and ‘The Crone’—are said be avatars or high-priestesses of the grim goddess, Morrigan, and who echo the Ladies of Sorrow. Aswith the magic items, there is a streak of whimsy to the issue with its monsters, this time being the Wild Things of children’s literature fame.

Physically, Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine, Volume Two is tidily presented. The illustrations are rough and ready, but this means that they feel in keeping with the style of Holmes’ edition of Basic Dungeons & Dragons.

With over seventy entries in this volume, there is a lot for the prospective Dungeon Master to pick and choose from. Doubtless there is something in the pages of Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine, Volume Two that will find its way into said Dungeon Master’s game. Nor does it matter if that game is not Holmes’ edition of Basic Dungeons & Dragons, as the mechanical elements in this fanzine are simple for the Dungeon Master to develop just a few steps to fit the mechanics of the game he is running. Overall, Fantastic Exciting Imaginative: The Holmes Art ’Zine, Volume Two is useful in bits and places, but the Dungeon Master has the choice of which places and which bits.

Fanzine Focus IX: The Undercroft No. 7

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 Dungeon Master 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. Leading the way in their support for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have been the fanzines The Undercroft and Vacant Ritual Assembly.

Published by the Melsonian Arts Council in November, 2015, The Undercroft, No. 7 follows on from the sixth issue with its medley of dangerous artefacts with a medley of dangerous creatures and monsters. They include a mythical beast obsessed with freedom, a worm beneath the world, endlessly creating spaces between, a war that created monsters which walk the land, a horrid and emotionally febrile thing that no mother wishes to give birth to, and a mad witch who lives in the swamp and who is part tree.

It opens with Edward Lockhart’s ‘The Omnicorn aka The Freedom Beast’, a well-proportioned steed of majestic stature and attitude. Found unchained and free in any wilderness, it is rumoured that there is just the one of these beasts, existing in a great many different places all at once. It is spikey, horned, and bristled in body and attitude, embodied freedom above all, unable to abide hierarchy and organisation. Legend says that the blood of this creature will free the imbiber of any compulsion, magical or mundane. If so, then it must be bargained for with the Omnicorn, who will test anyone who asks for it as to how highly they value freedom and turn violent any who do not value it sufficiently. This is a magical beast suitable for a quest or two rather than a simple random encounter, though no doubt that would be memorable too.

Luke Gearing—the author of the recently released Fever Swamp—follows this with the ‘Mezzo-Worm’, an abyssal creature whose maw chews through the rocks far below the surface, leaving behind a labyrinth of tunnels that are each a ‘wound-in-the-wall’. The tunnels are easy to get lost in and every good adventurer fears getting lost in them lest they encounter and are swallowed by a ‘Mezzo-Worm’ and consumed forever… That said, there are things to be found in the tunnels left by the creature, treasures, oddities, and artefacts—if you dare go looking. The  ‘Mezzo-Worm’ is something to add to an underworld campaign, especially if the Referee is wanting that something to be Cthonian-like.

With material already from the author of one of the Melsonian Arts Council’s scenarios, the issue follows it up with an entry from Ezra Calverie, the author of the other, Crypts of Indormancy. ‘Decoherence Wight’ is probably set in the same setting as that scenario with its suggested Elven Empire long lost and mourned by the Elves of today. One installation belonging to this empire was Her Majesty’s Western Shipyard and Submarine Pens, whose last commander detonated a great weapon when it was threatened by rebel forces. The shipyard fell, but was ruined and has been a forbidden zone for the last fourteen centuries. Yet the Pygmy folk of the surrounding jungle talk of dark, lurching figures seen in its grounds at dusk, each blackley putrefied and swarming with flies. These are the Decoherence Wights, marked with faintly glowing polyp that seems to have an entropic effect when touched by weapons and which can inflict both necrosis and Decoherence Fever. There is nothing wrong with the Decoherence Wight as a creature on its own, but really it lacks context. It does have an origin, but there is no reason for the adventurers to visit the buildings and hulks of the ancient shipyard, at least none given and that seems such a missed opportunity if the Referee is to have his player characters encounter these horrid creatures.

In ‘Orcoidism & Subhumanity’, Daniel Sell explores one possibility for the existence of the Orciod or Half-Orc. This is as some kind of throwback rather than as the traditional fantasy, an expectant mother giving birth to one of these grey and wiry, sharp-toothed and screeching runts rather than the hoped for pink, plump, and wailing baby. Of course, there is no known causes, but plenty of conjecture and the unwanted child is ill-mannered and quickly prone to violent rages that escalate and escalate as it ages to the point where it is a murderous threat to the community. Most communities urge the family of an Orcoid whelp to abandon it early lest it become a threat to all. There it may die, but some survive to breed tribes of Orcs that come to threaten the family, the community, and more. Other communities have been kinder though, having been known to raise and keep the child, as ugly as it is, keeping it calm and happy despite its inherent need for clannish brutality and the breaking of societal order.

Lastly in James Holloway’s ‘Old Sigvor’, the old witch in the woods has literally become the old witch in the woods. Now she wanders her woods, mad with pain and ready to inflict a similar pain and a paralysis upon those who enter her realm. This is very much a static kind of encounter, best suited perhaps for adding as a location-based encounter in a sandbox. Much like the earlier ‘Decoherence Wight’, it feels very much as if the location needs fleshing out to give reason to give the adventurers a reason to visit the witch’s woods.

Physically, The Undercroft, No. 7 is decently put together and the artwork is reasonable, yet as a product it feels underwhelming. In the editorial, Daniel Sell states that, “everything is fine” over and over, but it really is not quite. Too many of the monsters and creatures in this issue leave the reader wondering quite what to do with them and wanting context that is concrete. That lack of context also means that the issue suffers from a lack of variety—not in terms of actual monsters—but in terms of material. Of course, The Undercroft, No. 8, with its scenario does not offer that variety, but perhaps future issues will?

Fanzine Focus IX: Vacant Ritual Assembly #4

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. Leading the way in their support for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have been the fanzines The Undercroft and Vacant Ritual Assembly.

Published in the Autumn of 2015 by Red Moon Medicine, Vacant Ritual Assembly #4 follows on from the solidly done issue #1, issue #2, and issue #3. Devoted to both Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay and the campaign of the editor, Clint Krause, the issue can be divided roughly in two. The first half presents a narcotic themed mini-adventure and a narcotic themed mini-setting, whilst the second half describes a pair of mini-setting elements which can be used to create interesting backgrounds for both player characters and NPCs. All accompanied by the author’s personal updates and recommendations and a little bit more.

The issues opens with ‘The Abstract’, a description of an establishment of the same name and some of its regulars. The Abstract is a den of intellectual iniquitous discussion, home to a number of drug fiends, wastrels, and wayward scholars and occultists. Both pursuits—narcotic consumption and the discussion of nefarious topics such as the occult and the esoteric—are common occurrences here, making The Abstract a useful source of weird knowledge as well as narcotics. The article includes a number of NPCs, one of whom is clearly is clearly inspired by Aleister Crowley, some ‘intellectual’ topics of conversation, all enough to add the establishment to a city in a Referee’s campaign.

The Abstract is a potential source of information for the scenario which follows its description. ‘The Lotus Eater’, inspired by contributions to Rafael Chandler’s Narcosa, it is a short one-night affair in which the player characters are hired to rescue the black sheep of a rich family from a narcotic-induced coma. This involves actually entering into a world of the young man’s creation somewhere in the spirit realms. The characters will need to find a source of the same drug as the young man took—perhaps to be found at The Abstract?—and explore his freaky fantasy if they are to discover a way to bring both themselves and him back. This is short and dirty and good for the one night.

Contributor Anxious P offers up the first of the two setting and character articles.  ‘The Oolai Cloth-Skins and Dragon Blackhide Bastards’ describes an island culture where the Oolai People adhere to a pair of ritual practices known as Cloth-Skinning and Black-Hiding. Children born under a crescent moon are submitted for the rite of Cloth-Skinning in which Oolai weavers will wrap and sew the child in one of six mystic cloths. These have various effects, for example, Copper Bombazine, woven from twilled silk and worsted cotton and dyed copper, gains the wearer the ability to heal after laying hands on a stone and renders them partially immune to copper weaponry. Once cloth-skinned, the wearer remains encased for life. Only one child born of a crescent moon can undergo this ritual, so the fathers of all those born under the crescent moon must fight to the death to determine whose child is selected. The other orphaned children have another destiny—as congregants of the alligator-priests, the Bastard Dragons of Temple Blackhide. These orphans are permanently enshrouded in black, scaly hide which will grow with them. It becomes their armour, gives them immunity to infection and poison, and they train to grapple and roll just like an alligator. An unwavering hatred is instilled in the Black-Hide of their Cloth-Skinned Other,often driving them to murder. For outsiders, there are said to be shameless Oolai weavers who will perform the ritual for a certain fee…

‘Furious Gods’ describes the lands of three tribes in the ‘barbarian territories’—the Glacierhorde, the Silverhorn, and the Gnashmaws. Each is led by and worships a primal godbeast and each wages constant war against its rival tribes. The three godbeasts—Frostbite, the Ghost Ape of the Glacierhorde, Impalor, the Armoured Death of the Silverhorn, and Gnashmaw, the Hungry of the Gnashmaws—are huge fearsome beasts who grant favours to the faithful who undergo great trials.

What ‘Furious Gods’ and ‘The Oolai Cloth-Skins and Dragon Blackhide Bastards’ share is the capacity to provide backgrounds and Race-like abilities for both player characters and NPCs. Certainly in ‘Furious Gods’, the region of the ‘barbarian territories’ would be a ready source of barbarian-type Fighters and guidelines are given to that end. Use the content of these articles and the Referee can add Barbarians, Cloth-Skinned, and Black-Hides as both player characters and NPCs. Both articles contain material that can be easily be dropped into a campaign and add an element of the exotic. 

Rounding out Vacant Ritual Assembly #4 is ‘David McGrogan’s Opium Dream’, an interview with the author of Yoon-Suin - The Purple Land. It is a bit scrappy, having been conducted via e-mail, but it is a short and enjoyable read. It is also to the point, which cannot be said of McGrogan’s other interview, in Random Encounter #1. Physically, Vacant Ritual Assembly #4 is clean and simple in appearance, the writing clear and content easy to grasp, and the artwork perhaps, a little rough around the edges.

Vacant Ritual Assembly #4 contains a good mix of content, all of which can be added to a campaign with relative ease. The narcotic-themed content may not be to everyone’s taste, but then it does show their use in a negative light. Overall, a good selection of material for the Referee to pick and choose from.