[Fanzine Focus XXVIII] Outlaws ‘N’ Owlbears

On the tail of the 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 be 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. However, whilst the fanzine format is typically used to support other roleplaying games, it has also been used as a vehicle for complete, if small roleplaying games of their own.

Outlaws ‘N’ Owlbears is a fantasy Wild West that never was. One in which locomotives powered by elementals bound to their steam engines crisscross the United States of America, sorcerers and wizards feud for possession of magical nexuses whose power they aim to harness. Creatures out of your wildest imagination stalk the prairies and the mountains, prospectors hunt for rare and exotic materials, and sometimes, the salesman actually sells snake oil that works! Elves are naturally magical, Dwarves slow, practical, and industrious, Humans tenacious even in the face of death, and Goblins, created as soldiers for a Dark Lord in a long-forgotten war, are small and sneaky! Published following a successful Kickstarter campaign as part of ZineQuest 3, the fantasy Wild West genre-crossover of Outlaws ‘N’ Owlbears has, of course, been done before, most notably with Owl Hoot Trail. However, what Outlaws ‘N’ Owlbears is a fairly light, Old School Renaissance style RPG that is easy to pick up and play and packs everything necessary to run a game in forty pages, including in introductory adventure.

A Player Character in Outlaws ‘N’ Owlbears has five attributes—Might, Agility, Wits, Guts, and Endurance. These are rated between one and five. He also has Grit, which is spent to push a Player Character onward, and use certain talents and cast magic. He has a Species—Elf, Dwarf, Human, or Goblin, which provides a Species trait, and a Talent, a special ability or skill. Example Talents include Brawler (unarmed and improvised attacks count as hand weapons), Cookie (meals are so revitalising that they double healing rates), or Silver Tongue (advantage with bribery, persuasion, deception, and similar tests). Prestige Talents are also available, but a Player Character needs to have at least other five other Talents before choosing a Prestige Talent. To create a character, a player assigns values to his character’s five attributes, selects both a Species and a Talent—which can be a spell, and either purchases some equipment or chooses a ready to play package. The process is quick and easy, taking mere minutes.

Earl Dawhinney

Might 2 Agility 3 Wits 4 Guts 3 Endurance 3

Grit 2

Hit Points: 6

Speed: 5

Talent: Sleight of Hand

Equipment: Belt, satchel, provisions (five days’ worth), clothes, Gunfighter Package (Sixgun, .38 calibre bullets (50), Bullet Loops, Range Wear, $7)

Mechanically, Outlaws ‘N’ Owlbears is simple. Whenever a player wants his character to undertake an action, he rolls a six-sided die. If the result is equal to, or less than, the appropriate attribute, the character succeeds. If a character has an advantage, whether due to a situation or a Talent, he rolls two six-sided dice and chooses the lowest. Similarly, if he is at a disadvantage, he rolls two six-sided dice and chooses the highest. Both double advantage and double disadvantage are possible, but the maximum number of dice a player will ever roll is three, and advantage and disadvantage cancel each other out. If a test is failed, a player can opt for ‘Double or Nothing’, and roll again. However, the consequences for failure are far worse.

A Player Character also has Grit. This is expended to cast spells, activate certain talents, such as Challenge (spend a point of Grit to call out an opponent) and Rage (doubles Might damage in melee, but leaves the character vulnerable), take extra actions or moves in combat, or make a reaction in combat after being attacked.

Combat is quick and dirty. Initiative is handled by a small deck of playing cards. It consists of ordinary playing cards selected by the players, and when their selected card is drawn, the player’s character acts. Might is used for melee attacks and Agility for ranged attacks. Hand weapons inflict a six-sided die’s worth of damage, plus the attacker’s Might, whilst guns inflict six-sided die’s worth of damage, plus two, three, or four depending on the weapon. The defender’s Endurance reduces any damage suffered, as does armour, such as a duellist’s coat or boilerplate. It is possible to dodge or parry in combat, but this requires a point of Grit to be expended. If a Player Character is not wearing armour or dodging or parrying, then combat in Outlaws ‘N’ Owlbears can be deadly as a couple of hits will likely kill a Player Character. Hit Points can fall below zero, in which case critical damage is suffered, and a Player Character might be wounded or even killed. Guns (and dynamite) also have a chance of chance of misfiring—a roll of a six, and the various guns and weapons have their own qualities, like Armour Penetration or Concealable.

Everyone in Outlaws ‘N’ Owlbears can use magic. Spells cost Grit to cast and require a Wits test, and the caster can often augment a spell by expending further Grit. Magic itself is divided into five schools—Blood (damage spells), Earth (drawn from both the solid and the molten rock), Light (hopes, dreams, and beliefs), Nature (to do with living things, evolution, and growth), and Void (between matter, stars, and the unknown). There are five spells per school, and typically, a wizard or sorcerer knows the spells from one school, as well as the Universal school. Elves can inherently learn the spells from two rather the one school.

The background to Outlaws ‘N’ Owlbears is lightly drawn across both of its genre, the fantasy and the Wild West. For the Wild West there are notes on the physical nature of the frontier and how to survive it, the services available—mail and telegrams, riding, money and banks, and other services. There is a decent equipment list, including a handful of firearms. For the fantasy, there are plenty of other additions. This includes magical tattoos, permanent spells which can be woven onto the skin, for example, ‘Channelled Fury’ increases damage in combat by one and ‘Blood and Thunder’ grants temporary extra Hit Points. Only a few sample tattoos are given and they are all combat-focused. Each tattoo has three charges and even when the three charges are expended, the tattoo remains, but fresh ink can be applied and the charges restored. Unlike other Wild West settings, snake oil actually works, most like ‘Doc’s Poppy Water’ or ‘Granpappy’s Stand-Up Solution’, provide some form of healing. Permanent magical items might also be found, such as a ‘Night Watchman’s Spyglass’ which turns night into day or a Scalebane Rifle’, which inflicts extra damage against any creature with scales!

In addition, Outlaws ‘N’ Owlbears does include two other species playable as Player Characters. These are optional and powerful, requiring a Player Character to pay off a debt in terms of Experience Points before he can begin advancing like Player Characters of other Species can. The Beastman can be any one of any number of anthropomorphic animals and has the trait of Adaptability, which means he can rest to lower an attribute by one and then increase another attribute by one. The Revenant is one of the undead, who cannot stay undead, but keeps returning. A Revenant has the traits of his former Species and is attuned to one school of magic and becomes more like the elemental source of that school each time he resurrects! There is some interesting roleplaying to be had with this version of the Revenant. In comparison to the Revenant, the Beastman as a Species is underwritten though.

For the Game Master, there is short, but reasonable advice on running Outlaws ‘N’ Owlbears, in particular, noting that care should be taken with the darker historical elements of the Wild West and potentially offensive clichés should be avoided when portraying indigenous characters. There are some campaign and adventure ideas too, and there is an introductory scenario, ‘Canyon Springs Adventure’ to get a game started. The Player Characters arrive in the frontier town of Canyon Springs on the way to somewhere else and find it short of water and its townsfolk desperate. Their train needs water, so the source of the problem needs to be sorted out before they can continue on. It is a decent starter adventure and should provide a good session’s worth of play. The Game Master also has a decent bestiary too, drawn from the Wild West and its folklore, such as the Chupacabra and the Sasquatch, along with the Owlbear.

Physically, Outlaws ‘N’ Owlbears is slightly scrappily laid out and liberally illustrated. The artwork is variable in quality, the monsters and the inanimate objects better done than the figure work. It does need another edit in places.

Outlaws ‘N’ Owlbears is not Dungeons & Dragons and the Wild West, although the Owlbear does make an appearance and it has Dwarves, Elves, and Goblins. Rather it is more inventive than that, showing in the selection of spells and decently done bestiary. Where it feels underwritten is in the development of the setting, which is very lightly drawn, little more than the American frontier has this weirdness to it, plus mechanically, the roleplaying game is very combat focused. Perhaps a companion volume will address this, as well as provide more adventures. With its combination of genres, supported with simple, quick mechanics, Outlaws ‘N’ Owlbears is familiar and gritty, a slightly scrappily, if nicely done fantastical take upon the Wild West.