1983: Dagon No. 1

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

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Dagon was the premiere fanzine dedicated to Call of Cthulhu of its day. Between 1983 and 1990, its editor would publish some twenty-seven issues, initially dedicated to Call of Cthulhu, but under the aegis of its editor, Carl Ford, expanding to encompass the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft and weird and horror fiction. As it did so, it would transform itself into a professional looking publication sporting glossy covers and featuring the artwork of work of Dave Carson, Martin McKenna, Jeffrey, Allen Koszowski, and others. In its day, without the easy access of the internet we have today, it would introduce readers to authors that included T.E.D. Klein, Thomas Ligotti, Ramsey Campbell, and Karl Edward Wagner, with special editions dedicate to each of them. Its issues are highly sort after and collectable, but its beginnings are distinctly humble.

Dagon No. 1 was published in November 1983. Amounting to a mere twelve pages, it contains just the single thing, that is, beyond the editorial and the dedication to H.P. Lovecraft. Discussions of H.P. Lovecraft’s eponymous ‘Call of Cthulhu’ and comic based on Lovecraft’s fiction were promised for future issues—and of course, future issues would greatly expand beyond that, but in the fanzine’s premiere issue, the only content consisted of ‘No room at Innsmouth’. Both it and the fanzine were intended to provide fans of Call of Cthulhu with an inexpensive option in between the expense of professional modules, which at the time were £8!

‘No room at Innsmouth’ is the first part of trilogy which would be completed in future issues with the scenarios ‘The Lighthouse’ and ‘The Devil Reef’. All three are set in 1934 and inspired by Lovecraft’s short story, ‘The Shadow over Innsmouth’. This would have made the scenario one of the earliest to be set in the Desperate Decade of the thirties and one of the earliest to have visited Innsmouth, notorious for its townsfolk being intertwined with the Deep Ones living out below Devil Reef and the raid on the town in 1928 by the F.B.I. Across New England, and certainly in Lovecraft Country, knowledge of this is a badly kept secret, and certainly one of the more recent details about the town that the Investigators will uncover as part of their initial enquiries. The motivation for them to do so, is the disappearance of two young women, Angela Tithany and Susan Dissderry, within the town. The police have made little progress, the parents are not talking, and the reputations of both women are being besmirched. Armed with either simple curiosity or the promise of a $200 reward if a good story can be got out of the disappearances, the Investigators set out to see what they can find.

The only location detailed in ‘No room at Innsmouth’ is Gilman House, the only squalid hotel in the town willing—and then barely—to accept outside guests. Once the Investigators discover that Angela Tithany and Susan Dissderry, were actually residents of Gilman House, the investigation proper can begin. This can be learned from either the staff and guests, both of whom will be similarly reluctant to talk to strangers, or from simply snooping around the mouldering rooms. Scattered throughout the hotel are indications of Innsmouth’s history and its connection to Devil Reef, including the dreadful fishmen-creatures found there, as well as the signs of ordinary everyday life. Clues and interactions will point towards Gilman House having its own secrets and their revelation will come in a confrontation with a victim of the Innsmouth curse, struggling with her loss of humanity and morality. From there, the trail leads in the direction of Devil Reef and to ‘The Lighthouse’.

‘No room at Innsmouth’ is short, just nine pages in length. It would provide a single session’s worth of play. Although pitched as the first part of a trilogy of scenarios—‘No room at Innsmouth’, ‘The Lighthouse’, and ‘The Devil Reef’—it is really the first act of a three-act scenario, as there is investigative conclusion to the scenario. Similarly, there is no real indication or clues as to the backstory to the scenario and the reason for the abduction of Angela Tithany and Susan in this first, essentially why the denizens of Devil Reef are acting in this manner given that only six years before, the US government launched a military raid on the town. For the Investigators to discover this, the Keeper would have to have access to ‘The Lighthouse’ and ‘The Devil Reef’ in Dagon No. 2 and Dagon No. 3 respectively, but both are hard to find and being highly sought after, expensive. 

‘No room at Innsmouth’ is also rough. It is badly written and poorly organised. It is not always quite clear what is going on. Certainly, actually getting the Investigators to the Gilman House and inside is a challenge itself, and initially, the Investigators have no reason to go to the hotel except that it is the only place in Innsmouth where they can stay. Only then and after some investigation do they discover the missing women are staying there. Perhaps if there were hints as to this, it would to drive the Investigators to move directly to the Gilman House? And yet… ‘No room at Innsmouth’ is far from a poor first attempt at a published scenario. The scenario is detailed and there is a feeling of sympathy for the various inhabitants of Gilman House even as they accept the terrible futility of their situation and the ever-present fear of the threat that lies just off the coast. The narrow focus of the means that it is suitable for fewer Investigators rather than more, and it would even work as a one-on-one scenario with a single Investigator and the Keeper.

Physically, Dagon No. 1 is the first issue of a fanzine and it shows. Yet it would be unfair to criticise this unduly, since Dagon No. 1 was published when personal publishing was still analogue and the possibilities of the personal computer and personal desktop publishing were yet to come. Future issues of Dagon, along with many other fanzines of its time would greatly benefit from this and make vast improvements in appearance and layout, let alone content. Nick Basi’s artwork is pretty decent though.

Dagon No. 1 is a promising, but not great start for what would go on to become a highly regarded and highly sort after fanzine. It is fascinating to see where it began, nevertheless.