[Fanzine Focus XXXII] Carcass Crawler Issue #2

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. Then there is also Old School Essentials.

Carcass Crawler is ‘The Official Fanzine Old-School Essentials zine’. Published by Necrotic Gnome, Old School Essentials is the retroclone based upon the version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons designed by Tom Moldvay and published in 1981, and Carcass Crawler provides content and options for it. It is pleasingly ‘old school’ in its sensibilities, being a medley of things in its content rather than just the one thing or the one roleplaying game as has been the trend in gaming fanzines, especially with ZineQuest. Carcass Crawler #1 focused on Classes and Races alongside its other support for Old School Essentials, whereas although Carcass Crawler Issue #2 does provide new Races and Classes, it instead focuses on general support for the Player Character and playing Old School Essentials.

The two new classes in Carcass Crawler Issue #2 follow standard Old School Essentials rules in that it allows for ‘Race as Class’ as well as supporting the separation of Race and Class as per Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy. ‘Phase Elf & Wood Elf’ are the two in question and interestingly, the latter is inspired by both Moldvay’s Basic Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, whilst the former is inspired by Original Dungeons & Dragons. The Elf of Original Dungeons & Dragons could switch between the Fighter and Magic-User Classes and do so in between adventures. As a Demihuman Class for Old School Essentials, the Phase Elf can also switch between the two Classes, but can only do so from one day to the next. As well as switching Classes, the Player Character can also switch personalities, whilst still retaining the same body and memories. Where the Phase Elf does not so much mix and match the abilities of the Fighter and Magic-User Classes as alternate between the two, the Wood Elf eschews both. Instead, the Wood Elf is more naturalistic, good at foraging and hunting and hiding in the woods. The Wood Elf is good with missile weapons, but can only wear leather armour. Instead of arcane magic, the Wood Elf can pray for and cast divine magic. If using Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy, this can be Druidic magic, but Clerical if not.

The Phase Elf and the Wood Elf are also presented as Races in their own right. As a Race, the Phase Elf has two Classes and these need not be the Fighter and Magic-User Classes. The Wood Elf is more straightforward.

‘Town Services’ covers all of the services an adventurer might need and find in a town. Inns, money changers, and traders and provisioners are all detailed, along with optional rules for haggling and noting that jewelers and moneychangers will hire guards. One of the features of early Dungeons & Dragons is the need for the Player Characters to hire retainers. ‘Town Services’ covers options for this, including townsfolk as porters and torch-bearers as well as actual adventurers. Wages are suggested, as is an optional rule for Treasure-Share-XP. Both articles provide simple, workable means of handling these rules aspects. Ease is the aim of ‘Quick Equipment’, which sets out to provide a quick method of a player equipping his character. This begins with standard basic equipment before making rolls—or choosing—for Class-specific items such as armour, weapons, and extra bits of equipment. Most Classes use the standard Weapons table, but Classes like Acrobat, Bard, Cleric, Druid, and Knight have their own. ‘Item-Based Encumbrance’ offers a new and third option for handling encumbrance in Old School Essentials. This is done on an item-by-item basis, so weapons and armour, bulkier adventuring equipment, and magical items count as a single items. Others, such as torches and rations, can be bundled together to make up single items. After a Player Character is equipped, his player counts up the number of items he is carrying and that determines his movement rate. It is a simple enough system and quick and easy to use. This quartet of articles are not the most interesting content in the fanzine, reflecting the utilitarian side of playing Dungeons & Dragons-style games, but it makes them no less useful.

‘Snake Cult Monsters’ and ‘The Tomb of Aum-Pharath’ are a pair of articles that involve a snake cult. The first lists eight monsters themed around a snake-worshipping cult. They include snakes bred by the cult, like the Alabaster Serpent, placed in suspended animation in treasure chests and urns as traps, and whose bite inflict Dexterity debilitating spasms. Hydral Statues are five-headed stone or bronze constructs that are typically used to guard gates in tombs and temples, whilst the Zombie Snake-Guard are snake-cultists who were ritually sacrificed to serve as tomb and shrine guards. As well as being undead, their bite is poisonous. The eight are nicely thematic and the Player Characters get to face them in ‘The Tomb of Aum-Pharath’. This details a tomb complex consisting of twelve locations detailed over a two-page spread. The Game Master will need to provide the stats, but these are based on the previous ‘Snake Cult Monsters’ article and so easy to create. She will also need to create a hook or two to get the Player Characters to the tomb complex’s doors, or drop it into a sandbox, but otherwise, the location is ready to play. If the Game Master has them, a snake-themed magical item would be a good addition too.

‘Black Powder Weapons’ in Carcass Crawler Issue #2 gave rules for early firearms such as matchlocks, wheellocks, and flintlocks in Old School Essentials. ‘Energy Weapons’ details energy blades such as daggers, staves, and swords, and pistols, carbines, and rifles for energy guns. The energy types consist of ion, plasma, and laser weapons, and besides describing them and detailing their use, suggests Class restrictions, depending whether they are martial, semi-martial, or non-martial Classes—with Clerics a special case, and how to handle their use as unknown technology is in Gamma World or S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. The Energy Weapon Technician is added as a Specialist if energy weapons are common the campaign world.

Finally, ‘Adjudicating Traps’ is a discursive piece, examining the role of traps in the game and how to make them interesting for both the players and the Game Master. It suggests the benefits and negatives of rolling dice as a means to find and disarm traps and of taking a more narrative approach, with the players describing the actions of their characters. The options for making traps fun include placing clues and telegraphing the presence of traps, having traps fail to activate, and including non-lethal traps. Although short, this is a thoughtful piece that neatly ends by pointing out that the traps are part of play and the players should learn to enjoy the tragic, comedic, or gruesome ways in which traps might kill their characters.

Physically, Carcass Crawler Issue #2 is well written and well presented. The artwork is excellent.

Carcass Crawler Issue #2 is not as fun or as exciting as Carcass Crawler Issue #1. This is due to the fact that four of its articles deal with the mundane aspects of Dungeons & Dragons-style play—services, retainers, equipment, and encumbrance—and they are simply unexciting. However, that does not mean that they are not useful or well thought out, as they are. The other articles in the issue are also well done and perhaps more exciting, though not necessarily too much. Overall, Carcass Crawler Issue #2 is an enjoyably old school-style issue of a fanzine for Old School Essentials, but one that is more serviceable than surprising.