[Fanzine Focus XXVIII] Screams Amongst The Stars

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.

Screams Amongst The Stars: A Space Horror Role Playing Game is a minimalist roleplaying game built on the architecture of Into the Odd. It was published by Gallant Knight Games in 2020, following a successful Kickstarter campaign as part of the Old Skull Zine RPG Trilogy—the others being Running Out of Time and The Dead Are Coming: a zombie apocalypse survival rpg —for ZineQuest #2.

As the title suggests, Screams Amongst the Stars is a weird space horror set on the frontier of known space where Spacers are caught between the conflicting interests of organisations—governments and corporations—competing to explore, colonise, and exploit alien worlds. Mankind though, is not alone. The universe is full of strange environments, strange aliens, and even stranger phenomena. Bugs which corrode flesh, things which burst out of bellies, and then there are the weird aliens which simply watch, never revealing why… Ruins which defy purpose and explanation even as they whisper to you. Stars which pulse and flicker, causing time and space to fluctuate. Far out on the edge of space, can the rational mind of man withstand the inexplicable and incalculable? Inspired by films such as Alien, Event Horizon, Apollo 18, Pitchblack, and others, Screams Amongst the Stars provides a broadly drawn background and minimalist mecahnics in which to do Blue Collar Science Fiction horror and supports it with several strange aliens and then table after table of rumours, colonies, weird encounters, alien ruins, impending catastrophes, job events, and more.

In Screams Amongst the Stars, players take the roles of Spacers, mercenaries, company reps, grifters, space marines, scavengers, pilots, cleaners, bartenders, and more, who work in space, whether that is on a colony, a spaceship, or station. Each is defined by three attributes—Strength, Dexterity, and Willpower, his Hit Points, his Oxygen, and his Background. His Oxygen keeps him alive in space or on hostile worlds, whilst a Background can be anything from an Academy Student and Cantina Cook to Grifter and Movie Star. To create a Spacer, a player rolls two six-sided dice and adds three for each attribute, and can swap two, and rolls one six-sided die for both Hit Points and Oxygen. (Unlike in The Dead Are Coming, there is much less of an emphasis on Resources in Screams Amongst the Stars.) Cross-referencing the results for Hit Points and Resources determines the Spacer’s Background, which gives him one or two useful items. Name, physical details, and personality traits can be rolled on separate tables. The process is quick and easy and takes a few minutes.

Name: Angela Amato

Strength 11

Dexterity 08

Willpower 11

Hit Points 3

Background: Navigator

Oxygen: 3

Equipment: Star Maps, Starship Miniatures, Torch, Lucky Faux Rabbit's Foot, two Oxygen Cannisters, Holdout Pistol

Description: One-Eyed, Competitive

Mechanically, Screams Amongst the Stars uses Saves. These are rolls of a twenty-sided die against the appropriate attribute. Depending upon how well prepared a Spacer is, what equipment he has, or whether he an appropriate Background, his player will roll with Advantage, that is roll two twenty-sided dice and use the lowest result. Conversely, if the Spacer is ill-prepared, outmatched, or hindered, his player will roll with Disadvantage.

Combat in Screams Amongst the Stars is deadly. Initiative is handled narratively, the Game Master determining who acts depending upon the situation. Any attack always hits, so instead of rolling to hit, the player or Game Master just rolls damage. All weapons ‘explode’ and allow an extra die to be rolled and added to the total if the maximum number on a die is rolled. It is also possible to attack with an advantage or a disadvantage. The former increases the damage inflicted, whilst the later reduces it. Defence, either from cover or armour, even a space suit, worn by a Spacer will reduce the amount of damage done, but after that, it is first deducted from their Hit Points and their Strength. Once a Spacer suffers damage to his Strength, this is Critical Damage and his player must make saves against his Strength and if failed, he becomes Incapacitated. If a Spacer’s Strength is reduced to zero, he is dead, and similarly, if his Dexterity is reduced to zero, he is paralysed.

In between Strength and Hit Points, there is the Scars table. This is rolled on if a Spacer’s Hit Points is reduced to exactly zero without any Strength damage. The amount of damage suffered determines the result. For example, a two means that the Spacer falters and shakes his head, is forced to reroll his Hit Points, and can Save against one of his attributes, which if failed, will increase its value by one. This and other options are the only way to increase a Spacer’s attributes or Hit Points. The entries on the Scar table are all interesting and can lead to some fun roleplaying outcomes, but because attacks are more likely to inflict damage that will result in Critical Damage, the likelihood of these results coming into play is uncommon.

Screams Amongst the Stars is a horror roleplaying game and it includes rules for the effect of encountering the strange things of the universe. Seeing even the mildest of strangest things means losing a point of Willpower, all the way up to losing the result of a roll of a ten-sided die for encountering something earth-shattering. When Willpower and when that is reduced to zero, a Spacer suffers a Crisis Event. This can be anything from the Spacer holding it together and having Advantage for all saves for a short while, to suffering a heart attack and either dying or passing out. Willpower is regained by resting and spending time with a personal item.

Simple rules for other hazards, such as starvation, pressure, vacuum, radiation, and more, are all covered in Scream Amongst the Stars, as well as for running groups or units, called Detachments, if the game warrants larger combats. Detachments are treated as having the same attributes and stats as a Spacer, but on a much larger scale, and spaceships are treated like Detachments. The rules for spaceships are kept simple and as close to those for Spacers as possible, but it is possible to upgrade spaceships and in combat, each of the crew has particular tasks they can do. There are some notes on types of spaceships—military, scout, scientific, transport, and so on—all of which can be modelled by adding various upgrades.

Scream Amongst the Stars includes advice for both the player and the Game Master. For the player, this is ask questions and plan and work with others, build alliances, especially to avoid both risk and dice rolls, the latter because dice rolls because they have consequences. He should also play to survive and play hard—dirty if necessary—but enjoy his Spacer’s death. After all, Spacers are replaceable. For the Game Master, the world of Scream Amongst the Stars should be presented as dangerous and make that danger obvious to her players, present choices, show the consequences of those choices, and have her players roll Saves as a result of their making choices.

In terms of background, Scream Amongst the Stars presents only some basic details. There are four major governments—the United Americas, the People’s Union of Prosperity, the Confederation of Free Nations, and the Great Africa—all formed to survive the ecological and economic crisis at the end of the twenty-first century, whilst there are just the two corporations described. Several alien species are described, including the elusive Engineers and Watchers, and the more dangerous Devourers and Dopplegangers. These are actually all decently described, and are perhaps the highlight of Scream Amongst the Stars. All come with one set of stats, tables of rumours, related jobs, and rumours. Similarly, there are extensive tables for creating colonies, weird encounters, alien ruins, job ideas, impending catastrophes, and more. All of which are really bullet point prompts from which the Game master is expected to develop for her game. Now this does mean the Game Master is left very much on her to create the content and scenarios for her game, and that is much harder to do with Scream Amongst the Stars, than it is with The Dead Are Coming, primarily because the Blue Collar Science Fiction horror genre is more complex than the zombie uprising, post-apocalypse genre. It should not be an issue for the experienced Game Master, but for the Game Master with less experience and less knowledge of the genre, Scream Amongst the Stars presents is definitely more challenging. The prompts of course, would also work with other Blue Collar Science Fiction horror roleplaying games, such as Alien: The Roleplaying Game and the MOTHERSHIP Sci-Fi Horror Roleplaying Game.

Physically, Scream Amongst the Stars is well presented, but the heavy use of colour and the often clashing images do not always make it an easy book to read. As mechanically simple and straightforward as Scream Amongst the Stars is, it will require some set-up upon the part of the Game Master. Whilst the players put their Spacers together and design their spaceship, the Game Master will be needing to detail threats and environments and aliens, and as many prompts as there are in Scream Amongst the Stars, this takes no little effort. As good as the alien descriptions are and as useful as their associated tables of rumours and jobs are, some advice could have been included on creating alien threats to help the Game Master when not using these major species. That is really the major omission in this roleplaying game and their inclusion would have made Screams Amongst the Stars much more of a toolkit for the genre.

Screams Amongst the Stars combines simple rules with a familiar genre, that of Blue Collar Science Fiction horror. Its future universe is no less brutal or dangerous than similar presentations of the genre, but it is weirder and stranger, including its aliens which have an engaging elusiveness and enigmatic sense of the unknown to them. For the less experienced Game Master, Screams Amongst the Stars is underwritten though, especially in terms of background and advice, but for the experienced Game Master, there are lots of tools, ideas, and prompts to develop here and make the Blue Collar Science Fiction horror genre of Screams Amongst the Stars her own.